#mazik

[aztimeg0esby]

Mazik is my Majin fan character for Dragonball.

(10/1/22)

My partner got me into Dragonball and funnily enough that is what made me fall in love with them.

Dragonball rizz is real.

[kphb2024]

CECI & CELA

[musicmags]

[kazz-brekker]

my most pressing question that has yet to be answered in the wake of reading the pomegranate gate

[jewishpopculture]

On this day in 1993, Eazy-E protégés Blood of Abraham, a Jewish hip hop group, released their debut album ‘Future Profits’.

The album gained publicity from ads centered on large text proclaiming “Jesus was a Black Jew”.

Blood of Abraham was sighed to Ruthless Records, a record label founded by N.W.A. member Eric “Eazy-E” Wright. The group composed of members Benjamin “MC Benyad” Mor and David “MC Mazik” Saevitz.

They gained a minor following that eventually led them to wider exposure through a television appearance on ‘The Arsenio Hall Show’ in 1994.

A key characteristic of the group was their unapologetic Jewish identity. Their best-known track, "N*ggaz and Jewz (Some Say K*kes)", was a call for Black and Jewish unity. The song featured a verse from Eazy-E, as well as the first recorded appearance of will.i.am, known at the time as Will 1X.

Will’s association with the group likely lead to him chanting the Hebrew phrases “mozel tov” and “l’chaim” throughout the Black Eyed Peas song “I Gotta Feeling”, the highest selling digital single in the United States. It also likely explains why Mor directed the video for the song.

Although Blood of Abraham has been on hiatus since 2000, the members have continued working in entertainment. Notably, Mor directed music videos for Beyoncé and Coldplay (“Hymn for the Weekend”), will.i.am (“Scream & Shout” with Britney Spears & “That Power” with Justin Bieber), Katy Perry (“Part of Me”), Tinashe (“All Hands On Deck”), Black Eyed Peas (“I Gotta Feeling”), Nas (“Just a Moment” with Quan), and the official song of the 2014 FIFA World Cup— “We Are One (Ole Ola)” by Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez, and Claudia Leitte.

[baubeautyandthegeek]

Refusals And Destinies

A/N: Written for @whumpcember​ Alt 5. Chloe tries to refuse her destiny and fails.

“I won’t help you.” Chloe walks away even as Mazikeen yanks her back, almost slamming Chloe into the nearest wall, a snarl breaking across her face even as she keeps Chloe pinned there, her anger flaring enough that it takes all the self-restraint she has not to start screaming at Chloe or beating her up. “You stupid little human. Don’t you get it? If Charlotte dies… we’re all doomed.” Chloe pushes her off then, her grip suddenly weak and she stumbles. She’s still glaring at Chloe as Chloe pulls her jacket on, a deep sigh escaping her even as she watches. She needs Chloe to help, she’s the one person who can get Charlotte to co-operate. “Fine. Come on then.” Later, much later, Chloe finds her on her knees, clutching a bleeding arm and trying not to show how badly she’s hurt. They had saved Charlotte, barely, but Mazikeen was hurt, badly hurt. Now she needed help to heal. Charlotte, healing herself, reaches to touch Mazikeen’s cheek, hating the scream of pain even as she pulls free, Mazikeen’s healing hurts and Charlotte’s eyes close even as Chloe finally wraps Mazikeen in her arms. “We did it Maze, it’s over.”

[roesolo]

Who are Maziks and what do they do before bedtime?

Who are Maziks and what do they do before bedtime? @KarBenPub

Bedtime for Maziks, by Yael Levy/Illustrated by Nabila Adani, (Apr. 2022, Kar-Ben Publishing), $17.99, ISBN: 9781728424279 Ages 4-8 This adorably rhyming story is part How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, part Where the Wild Things Are. Mazik is a Yiddish word for a mischief-maker – I know a few of those! – and sometimes, a parent may lovingly refer to their little tornadoes as maziks. Bedtime for…

[princesssarisa]

Opera on Youtube 4

L'Elisir d'Amore (The Elixir of Love)

Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, 1967 (Carlo Bergonzi, Renata Scotto; conducted by Gianandrea Gavazzeni; no subtitles)

Metropolitan Opera, 1981 (Luciano Pavarotti, Judith Blegen; conducted by Nicola Rescigno; Spanish subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Metropolitan Opera, 1991 (Luciano Pavarotti, Kathleen Battle; conducted by James Levine; English subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Vienna State Opera, 2005 (Rolando Villazón, Anna Netrebko; conducted by Alfred Eschwé; English subtitles)

Theatro da Paz, Brazil, 2013 (Atalla Ayan, Carmen Monarcha; conducted by Emiliano Patarra; Brazilian Portuguese subtitles)

Teatro Manoel, Malta, 2015 (Cliff Zammit Stevens, Shoushik Barsoumian; conducted by Philip Walsh; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 2017 (Dmitry Korchak, Olga Peretyatko; conducted by Marco Armiliato; no subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Ópera de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 2017 (Ramón Vargas, Olivia Gorra; conducted by Guido Maria Guida; Spanish subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 2018 (Benjamin Bernheim, Andrea Carroll; conducted by Frédéric Chaslin; no subtitles)

San Francisco Opera, 2023 (Pene Pati, Slávka Zámečníková; conducted by Ramón Tebar; English subtitles)

Hänsel & Gretel

Vittorio Cottafavi studio film, 1957 (Fiorenza Cossotto, Jan Poleri; conducted by Nino Sanzogno; sung in Italian with Italian subtitles)

August Everding studio film, 1981 (Brigitte Fassbaender, Edita Gruberova; conducted by Georg Solti; English subtitles)

Leipzig Opera, 1981 (Annelott Damm, Steffi Ullmann; conducted by Horst Gurgel; no subtitles)

Julliard Opera Center, 1997 (Jennifer Marquette, Sari Gruber; conducted by Randall Behr; English subtitles)

Opera Australia, 1992 (Suzanne Johnston, Christine Douglas; conducted by Johannes Fritzsch; sung in English)

Vienna State Opera, 2015 (Daniel Sindram, Ileana Tonca; conducted by Christian Thielmann; English subtitles)

Pacific Northwest Opera, 2015 (Sylvia Szadovszki, Ksenia Popova; conducted by Clinton Smith; sung in English with English subtitles)

Scottish Opera, 2020 (Kitty Whately, Rhian Lois; conducted by David Parry; sung in English with English subtitles)

Eklund Opera Program, 2020 (Christine Lee, Anna Whiteway; conducted by Nicholas Carthy; sung in English with English subtitles)

Amarillo Opera, 2021 (Sarah Beckham-Turner, Patricia Westley; conducted by Carolyn Watson; English subtitles)

Turandot

Mario Lanfranchi studio film, 1958 (Lucilla Udovick, Franco Corelli; conducted by Fernando Previtali; English subtitles)

Vienna State Opera, 1983 (Eva Marton, José Carreras; conducted by Lorin Maazel; no subtitles)

Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, 1986 (Gwyneth Jones, Franco Bonisolli; conducted by Jacques Delacote; English subtitles)

Forbidden City, Beijing, 1998 (Giovanna Casolla, Sergej Larin; conducted by Zubin Mehta; no subtitles)

Teatro alla Scala; 2001 (Alessandra Marc, Nicola Martinucci; conducted by Georges Prêtre; French subtitles)

Gran Teatre del Liceu, 2009 (Anna Shafajinskaia, Fabio Armiliato; conducted by Giuliano Carella; English subtitles)

Chorégies d'Orange 2012 (Lise Lindstrom, Roberto Alagna; conducted by Michel Plasson; French subtitles)

Wichita Grand Opera, 2015 (Zvetelina Vassileva, Ricardo Tamura; conducted by Martin Mazik; no subtitles)

Teatro de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 2017 (Gabriela Georgieva, Carlos Galván; conducted by Enrique Patrón de Rueda; Spanish subtitles)

Opera Hong Kong, 2018 (Oksana Dyka, Alfred Kim; conducted by Paolo Olmi; English subtitles)

Eugene Onegin

Prince Regent Theatre, Munich, 1965 (Hermann Prey, Ingeborg Bremert; conducted by Joseph Keilberth; sung in German; no subtitles)

Paris Opera, 1982 (Benjamin Luxon, Galina Vishnevskaya; conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich; French subtitles)

Kirov Opera, 1984 (Sergei Leiferkus, Tatiana Novikova; conducted by Yuri Temirkanov; English subtitles)

Chicago Lyric Opera, 1985 (Wolfgang Brendel, Mirella Freni; conducted by Bruno Bartoletti; Spanish subtitles)

Petr Weigl film, 1988 (Michal Docolomanský dubbed by Bernd Weikl, Magda Vásáryová dubbed by Teresa Kubiak; conducted by Georg Solti; English subtitles)

Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, 1998 (Vladimir Glushchak, Orla Boylan; conducted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky; English subtitles) – Act I, Act II, Act III

Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia, 2011 (Artur Rucinski, Kristine Opolais; conducted by Omer Meir Wellber; no subtitles) – Part I, Part II

Teatro Comunale di Bologna, 2014 (Artur Rucinski, Amanda Echalaz; conducted by Aziz Shokhakimov; English subtitles)

Mariinsky Theatre, 2015 (Andrei Bondarenko, Yekaterina Goncharova; conducted by Valery Gergiev; French subtitles)

Livermore Valley Opera, 2019 (Morgan Smith, Antonina Chehovska; conducted by Alex Katsman; English subtitles)

[froshele]

everyone loves little ash for being an absolute baby mazik and uriel for its big stupid puppy eyed round vacant hasidic face, and some people even choose to remember that there are characters other than the good omens yaoi such as reyzl who is the only depiction of a vaguely hasidic girl i have ever read who feels like she could be a real person, but flipping through #when the angels left the old country it's extremely obvious that absolutely everyone is sleeping on the Absolute Vibes of Mrs Shulman.

":) im going to eat everyone starting with you" iconic. the fury inside little old jewish ladies finally getting the representation they deserve through a caliginous clot in the shape of a gremlin with huggy wuggy teeth who is too dead to give any fucks anymore but not too dead to want to use this to cause problems yet

[kphb2024]

VINYLE

[aroaessidhe]

2023 reads / storygraph

The Pomegranate Gate

start of a trilogy set in a high fantasy version of Spain 1942, where Jewish people are being forced to either convert to Christianity or leave

follows a young woman who, when her family are being driven out of the country, stumbles through a pomegranate grove on the full moon and finds herself in another world with two Maziks (mythical magical people) living in a ruined castle

and a young man who saw Toba disappear, who’s left in the company of two old women, trying to figure out what happened to her, and why he dreams of the Mazik and their world

multiple worlds, dreamrealms, politics, learning magic, m/m

[jamart1]

Seul l'art sauvera le monde...

[roguelibrarian]

Book club with Rogue, part 2

The book: The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan

CW: the plot involves antisemitic persecution and violence, so I'm gonna be touching on that a bit in this post

I literally just finished this one last night and damn. damn. Okay. So, brief plot overview:

Our main characters are Toba Peres and Naftaly Cresques, two Jewish young adults living in the fictional city of Rimon. Toba was raised by her grandparents since her mother died giving birth to her and she's Weird. Naftaly is also Weird, and when his father dies shit gets even Weirder because Naftaly is entrusted with a book that's been in his family for generations but that they're never supposed to open. When the Jews are expelled from Rimon, Toba falls behind a group that's heading for the border and gets attacked by a man who believes she might be smuggling valuables with her. She escapes but gets lost in the woods and stumbles through a magical gate into another world. Toba's grandmother Elena realizes she's missing and doubles back to find her. She meets up with Naftaly and the nameless old woman he's traveling with and the three of them stick together for safety and begin their search for Toba. On the other side of the gate, Toba meets Barsilay, who doesn't particularly like her (don't worry, they become friends later), but offers her shelter with his uncle so she won't get killed for being a human who crossed the gate. Toba learns she's stuck there for a month because the gate only opens on the night of the full moon. While there, Toba learns that there's a reason for all her Weirdness: she's not actually completely human. Turns out her father was a Mazik (one of the magical beings who live on the other side of the gate) and she has supernatural abilities that her grandmother suppressed with an amulet that she told Toba never to take off.

I'm ending the plot overview there because I don't wanna give the whole thing away and also because so much happens in this book. It's nearly 600 pages long. There's a lot of plot. If I summarized it all, we'd be here all night.

Now, thoughts:

this book is so, so unapologetically, beautifully, proudly Jewish

like, I'm honestly having trouble putting into words just how Jewish this book is and how much it means to me, but I'm sure other Jews will get what I'm saying

like at the very beginning of the book there's a list of characters and just seeing so many extremely Jewish names in one book was like...relief

see also, in the first few pages of the book, when Toba is reflecting on how even when she was a small child her grandmother would play the 'where would you go if you had to flee?' game with her

Toba is extremely autistic coded and you may quote me on that

seriously, there's this one quote that's just very Autism Vibes: "It was one of the peculiar things about Toba, and there were several: Toba could walk, but she could not run; she could talk, but she could not shout; and she could write faster-with either hand-than she could speak."

see also: "She was too quiet, too peculiar" and "Food often tasted poorly to her, and she ate little as a consequence."

Like yes, all of this does end up being related to her magic and the suppression thereof, but it's also very Autism Vibes and even after the suppression of her magic stops there's a lot of Autism Vibes still.

she's also very asexual coded imo

Naftaly is also very autistic coded

someone needs to cut Naftaly a break like yesterday

like let's see (SPOILERS), his father dies, his entire community gets kicked out of the country, he almost gets eaten by wolves, he gets drugged and sealed in a coffin, almost gets thrown into the sea, gets kidnapped and tortured, and that's just the highlights of bad shit that happens to him (END SPOILERS)

they're only around for like a page and a half but heck yes Jewish pirates I am always here for Jewish pirates

I absolutely called the plot twist about (SPOILERS AGAIN) the Big Bad being Toba's father (END SPOILERS) which does not mean it was a bad twist, it was in fact a very good one and I'm always here for this specific type of twist

my one big complaint about this book is that after over 400 pages without a hint of romance, I got ambushed by some unnecessary romantic nonsense. luckily none of it took up too much focus in the story because more important stuff was happening.

this book was just so damn good, okay? I was hooked by page 4, that's how good it is, and in almost 600 pages it never got boring. it never felt like it was too long. that's skill, right there.

also I'm weak for good, complex fantasy worldbuilding and boy was there a lot of that.

anyway, it was good. go read it. highly recommend for people who like long, dense fantasy novels, and portal fantasy in particular (though I will say I normally don't even like portal fantasy but I loved this one)

[glompcat]

book asks - 3 and 12 please!

3 - What were your top five books of the year?

(order is not reflective of preference) The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan While fleeing the Inquisition, a teen girl named Toba slips into the world of the Maziks. There she not only learns about the court politics of their world, she discovers things about herself that had been hidden her whole life, purposefully hidden by her grandmother. Meanwhile her grandmother refuses to escape to safety without her, and teams up with a inept tailor named Naftali to track her granddaughter down so that all of them (including an old woman traveling with Naftali) can find passage to somewhere safe to live. This was the first in a series and I am SO EXCITED to see where it goes when the next book comes out this summer. He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan Second and final book in the The Radiant Emperor Duology. I would need to reread both books in the duology to tell you if I liked it more than the the first one (She Who Became the Sun) or simply Really Love the way it follows up on the first one and continues, and finishes, the story. This is of course a fantastical imagining of the Red Turban Rebellions against the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. The story essentially kinda sorta follows the Hongwu Emperor, from humble beginnings 'till he takes the throne (the second book starting with him as a general of an army and ends with him on the throne). In this story the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang is instead our main character Zhu Chongba, a peasant set on proving his worth to the world. Only Zhu has a secret - the name and fortune he carries belonged to his dead brother. A brother whose identity he stole, because he didn't want to be a girl anymore. Oh, also, the Mandate of Heaven is real, as are ghosts. (Pls know if you want to read it, if it would be a dealbreaker for you, that while there is no question at all that Zhu is trans, Zhu uses she/her pronouns throughout the books in the sections from Zhu's POV) A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon I love the Roots of Chaos series, I really do. I especially love the choice to have the second book be set 500 years before the first one. There is so much to love in this fantasy epic, but as said I was mostly impressed with the choice to take us so far into the past of the first book in the series. I love being able to get lost in a book and its worldbuilding, but there is something particularly special about a world where the worldbuilding flavor turns into a full on novel, so when I read this one I can have the thrill of knowing how people will be remembered/the impact the actions will have on the future/what is and is not forgotten around their actions, and when I reread Priory of the Orange Tree the references to the figures of the past leap off the page all the more now that I know them and their lives. I truly can not wait to see what stories set in this world Shannon chooses to tell next. The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi So many second books in series on this list. Whoops. I've recently run into the recurring issue where I'll enjoy the first book in a series just fine, but not love it, and then love the second book. This happened with SO MANY series I read in 2023, enough that I really wanted to highlight my favorite of the books where I experienced this. The Battle Drum, which followed The Final Strife, was full of rich worldbuilding which vastly expanded upon the setting (literally). I am still thinking about the characters, and am excited to reunite with them this summer when the third book in the trilogy is released.

I just want to note that the first book I thought to put here was the one I just finished, a book I began and finished in 2024. Whoops. There are also some books I have not finished (but started in 2023) I think could take this top five spot if I actually finished them (call out to myself). Also there is a whole hell of a lot to be said about the fact that I want to put the book I just finished here. I call myself out with recency bias. The fresher characters and/or a world are in my mind, the more excited I am about them. Mistakes Were Made by Meryl Wilsner Best romance novel I read in 2023, no contest. Everything about it was an utter delight. I laughed so hard while reading this book that other people who were at Riis on that day came up to me to ask what I was reading. Absolutely unhinged book. The plot? It's parents weekend at MC's college. She doesn't have a relationship with her parents, so instead of participating in any of the parent focused events, she decides to go to a bar on the other side of the city to have a hot one night stand. It's super hot, they have sex in the older woman's car. The next day one of her besties asks her to join her for brunch with her mom. You'll never guess who the mom is. For reasons of sheer plot chaos, she and the mom decide to hide the hot sex in the car situation from the daughter, a situation that snowballs dramatically because plot. Amazing book, had SO MUCH FUN with every moment of it.

12 - Any books that disappointed you?

SO MANY

oh wow

I read SO MANY duds this year.

From critically acclaimed stories that were just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too short for me (particularly for me to listen to as an audiobook while hiking, it was soooooooooo short omg there was nothing to latch onto or fall in love with, and was over like right as my hike started!) to series I inexplicably read all of even though I wasn't feeling any of it because each book picked up right at the end and promised to deliver in the next book (and then I'd again have to wait until the end of the following book for things to get good and then finally read a fucking short story collection set in the world to get the worldbuilding I was missing all series long), to a book so bad I can't stop thinking about how much I hated it and how godawful the worldbuilding and character logic was because HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE AND WHY DIDN'T ANYONE FUCKING POINT OUT ANY OF THE ISSUES? I KNOW TOR HAS EDITORS! I uh............... I am not sure if I want to name any of these duds? Mainly because while none of them worked at all FOR ME, I am sure there are people who love them and I really don't want to shit on anyone's fav.

[another-fucking-bookworm]

Book: The Pomegranate Gate

Author: Ariel Kaplan

Genre: fantasy

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ /5

The first adventure in the Mirror Realm Cycle, a Spanish Inquisition-era fantasy trilogy inspired by Jewish folklore, with echoes of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden.

Toba Peres can speak, but not shout; sleep, but not dream. She can write with both hands at once, in different languages, but she keeps her talents hidden at her grandparents’ behest. 

Naftaly Cresques sees things that aren’t real, and dreams things that are. Always the family disappointment, Naftaly would still risk his life to honor his father’s last wishes. 

After the Queen demands every Jew convert or face banishment, Toba and Naftaly are among thousands of Jews who flee their homes. Defying royal orders to abandon all possessions, Toba keeps an amulet she must never take off; Naftaly smuggles a centuries-old book he’s forbidden to read. But the Inquisition is hunting these particular treasures–and they’re not hunting alone.

Toba stumbles through a pomegranate grove into the mirror realm of the Mazik: mythical, terrible immortals with an Inquisition of their own, equally cruel and even more powerful. With the Mazik kingdoms in political turmoil, this Inquisition readies its bid to control both realms.

In each world, Toba and Naftaly must evade both Inquisitions long enough to unravel the connection between their family heirlooms and the realm of the Mazik. Their fates are tied to this strange place, and it’s up to them to save it. 

The world is really cool! I just had a hard time getting a grip on the plot.

Everything was really fleshed out, and it really felt like a full world. And the characters are well thought out.

The historical tie ins are really good, and definitely serves their purpose of making this seem like an old folk tale, which add a fun little spin on the book.

I however lost the plot a bit after about a third. I think this book would be better served reading a little bit at a time and then taking time in between to digest and understand what happened.

The mazik are really cool, and the way the two main character ties in to that I really enjoy!