#minister marcel

[motherfucker-unlimited]

Elephant Seal / Baikal Seal

[indireneedoftherapy]

I now have just recently discovered about this hond book called Frollo meets his match, and the fact that it's official makes it even better, I mean—

LOOK AT HIM.

So the book is about Frollo just being appointed as the new Minister of Justice and being a killjoy, he later gets tricked by Marcel (the current leader of the gypsies) believing that he'll lead him to the court of miracles but NOPE, Frollo gets arrested TWICE, the second arrest was literally by one of his men and he gets humiliated in most part of the book.

Also,

Young Clopin!

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

Tragically, an IDF helicopter attacked a building in Gaza that had Israeli soldiers inside. At least one of them was killed. I've heard people claiming that there's no such thing as mistakes or collateral damage, that if Palestinian civilians get killed, it's because Israel wanted that, but this is a reminder that mistakes DO happen, and that every army, no matter how good, will get some people killed that it never intended to. This soldier's family asked for his details not to be published. May his memory be a blessing.

Israel is going to open a border crossing into Gaza, which had been closed since the Oct 7 massacre and Hamas attacks on the border crossings, in order to make the entrance of humanitarian aid into Gaza even more efficient.

A man shot at a Jewish synagogue in the US last night, on the first eve of Hanukkah, while shouting "Free Palestine." If it's anti-Zionism, not antisemitism, why do these incidents keep happening?

We're hearing here in Israel more and more reports on canceled Hanukkah festivities and candle lighting due to different claims, but the bottom line remains heartbreaking no matter which excuse is used. The biggest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust led to further punishment of Jews.

Here's extra Hanukkah candles for all Jews out there, please know that here in Israel, we are always with you!

In NYC, a shop that's a part of an Israeli company decided to have a special sale to raise money for the Israeli rape victims of Hamas. Two of the shop's employees resigned. Reportedly, they're women. The Jewish community replaced them with volunteers.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sent a letter to media organizations, including the New York Times, warning them about their coverage of the Israel-Hamas war, since their reporters were "clearly embedded with Hamas."

For anyone who still doesn't understand why most Jews have been upset since Oct 7:

Following the discussion in congress about antisemitism, where the presidents of Harvard, MIT and UPenn couldn't bring themselves to denounce a call to genocide the Jews as harassment, Rabbi David Wolpe, a member of Harvard's committee to combat antisemitism, resigned, saying it became evident to him he couldn't help create the change he was hoping for.

I mentioned Gal Eizenkott in my daily update post yesterday, the 25 years old son of Israeli minister Gadi Eizenkott, the IDF's former chief of staff. Gadi is a part of Israel's war cabinet, the small team making the most essential decisions on the fighting. The IDF's spokesman, Daniel Hagari, mentioned yesterday that Gal didn't have to serve in this war, he volunteered to.

This is not that important in the larger scheme of things, but since I've shared vids of IDF soldiers helping Palestinians in Gaza, why not also one of IDF soldiers helping animals in Gaza? Especially since I love donkeys. They are SO sweet. Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza found, during a break, a donkey that was abandoned in a field, with its legs tied together by a rope. The soldiers set it free:

This is 68 years old Dror Kaplun.

He was believed to be kidnapped by Hamas. Last night, Israeli archeologists working on the scene of the Hamas massacre managed to find frgaments of his bones next to the fence of his kibbutz. He was the son of Holocaust survivors. His wife Marcel was also murdered. May their memories be a blessing.

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[bulletin-sejourne-attal]

20241104 Gabriel Attal

Bonjour à tous! As the National Assembly grapples with the 2025 budget, a familiar face is stepping back into the spotlight, albeit from a different angle. Gabriel Attal, former Minister of National Education and even more briefly Prime Minister, is preparing to launch his new association, "Faire Face," aimed at tackling school bullying.

Fighting on Familiar Terrain

This new venture puts Attal back on familiar ground. As Minister of National Education, he was vocal about combatting school bullying but faced criticism for a lack of concrete action. This time, Attal seems determined to turn rhetoric into reality, assembling a diverse coalition of stakeholders, including platforms like Snapchat and TikTok, alongside traditional players like e-Enfance and the Fondation Le Refuge. Notably, Attal has secured the participation of renowned child psychiatrist Marcel Rufo, lending further weight to his initiative. Remaining Attal's 'reserved domain', the current Minister of National Education, Anne Genetet, also hosts a series of roundtables on school bullying. Anne Genetet was upon her appointment, perceived as a figure Attal installed in continuing his educational reform. Genetet is going to attend Attal's launch and extend an invitation to her event in return.

Navigating the Political Landscape

The timing of Attal's launch, coinciding with the national week against school bullying, is no accident. It strategically positions him as a champion of a crucial issue that transcends partisan divides. This move is particularly savvy as France navigates a complex political landscape, with the "central bloc" struggling to find common ground and facing pressure from both the far right and the left.

Attal's initiative could be perceived as a way to carve out a space for himself as a unifying figure, appealing to a broad swathe of the electorate. By focusing on a non-partisan issue like school bullying, Attal avoids the political baggage that comes with tackling more contentious topics.

Beyond Bullying: A Platform for 2027?

Some observers see Attal's foray into fighting school bullying as more than a passion project. It could be a strategic move to raise his profile and position himself for a potential presidential run in 2027. His focus on a cause close to the hearts of many French citizens, combined with his efforts to build a broad coalition, could be seen as laying the groundwork for a future campaign.

The takeaway: Attal is back in the game, and he's playing for keeps. Whether his focus on school bullying is a genuine effort to tackle a pressing issue or a calculated political manoeuvre, one thing is clear: Attal is a force to be reckoned with, and his actions are sure to have a lasting impact on the French political landscape.

[vonlipvig]

Hello, it's me again anonymous here back with an AU idea for Suzerain characters. Now here think about this. What if we make Anton Rayne and Petr Vectern as queerplatonic couple? They both are not straight but not gay either. This could send Lileas Graf and the defence minister and General Valken into cardiac arrest. Meanwhile the PFJP are confused along with USP, while the NFP are furious and independents release a statement "No, comment." Could you imagine the only woman reporter of Sordish Broadcast Corporation attempting to capitalize on this and interviewing Monica Rayne and asking her if she know about the love affair between the his husband and it's best friend? and monica just stared at them and then burst out laughing. And she told oh she know the closeness of his husband and it's best friend. Ever since the university years. Meanwhile Livia Suno, Walter Tusk and Marcel Koronti and Lucian Galade attempt to use this as a blackmail against President Rayne. Thoughts on this AU i made?

why is that when people are happy it's always lileas and the military boys wanting to ruin it for everyone. they need to loosen up fr. not the nfp tho they need to explode.

but back to the point, well personally i see both anton and petr as straight (DURING PRIDE MONTH!? SORRY djfhjs), but they ARE best friends, and sometimes that's gayer than being gay, y'know what i mean? like the loves of anton's life are monica AND petr, that's just how it goes (it's like that one song, "it's me and you, and you and me, just us, AND YOUR FRIEND PETR", but not maliciously ofc lmao. three tickets to challengers yadda yadda).

do people sometimes think they're a little bit gay? yeah of course, didn't you guys see estela toras during vina's wedding going "they're exactly how i imagined them"? confusing people about the nature of your relationship, THAT'S best friend goals, that's when you know you're soulmates.

oh, and lucian is so fucking jealous. he looks at himself in the mirror every night, grabbing the sink until it hurts, and mumbles "i'm mr. rayne's right hand arm...man. i'm mr. rayne's everything. his confidant. his best friend. his silly rabbit." and then he stabs a knife through a photo of petr he keeps pinned to the wall.

[mariacallous]

Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu responded on Thursday to Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's accusations that Romania was trying to "annex" Moldova, saying Russia is "desperately" trying to change Moldova's EU path.

On Thursday, the Romanian government issued a statement claiming Russia’s "aggressive" propaganda distorts historical facts and ignores present realities and must be countered by all available means to ensure Moldova's EU integration.

"Russian authorities are desperately trying to divert Moldova from its European path through disinformation," Ciolacu said, urging Moldovan leaders to stand firm and not be "intimidated" by such tactics.

The statement followed Zakharova's remarks on Wednesday, where she levelled several accusations against Chisinau and Bucharest, claiming that Romania is trying to "annexe" Moldova.

Historically, the territory of present-day Moldova was part of Romania during the inter-war period. Today, the two nations have close ties, and Moldova's official language is Romanian - points often used by Moscow to claim that Bucharest has ambitions to "annexe" Moldova.

"Romania stands shoulder to shoulder with Moldova in pursuing the European dream," the Romanian prime minister added.

On Wednesday, during a press briefing, Zakharova gave a lengthy statement on the "situation in Moldova", reiterating her usual criticism of Moldova’s pro-European leadership as the country prepares for the presidential election due on 20 October, the News.ro agency reports.

Comme on Ciolacu’s visit to Chisinau on 4 October, she said “The Romanian prime minister encouraged Moldovan leaders to ensure their citizens 'clearly understand that Moldova’s future is in the EU'.”

“But why the hesitation? He should have just said: not in the EU, but in Romania. That’s what they want," she added.

She also quoted Ciolacu as saying Russia would "lead Moldova into isolation and poverty," sarcastically adding, "We see how prosperous the European Union is."

Moldova’s desire to join the EU reflects its choice for stability, prosperity, and a community of shared values and principles—things Russia continues “to violate by attacking its neighbours through conventional and hybrid means, in blatant disregard for international law,” Ciolacu replied.

Zakharova also announced that the Romanian consulate in Rostov-on-Don had been notified of its closure as of 14 October, a decision Moscow took at the end of last year.

In response, Elena Lasconi, leader of the USR party and presidential candidate, called for Romania to close the Russian Consulate General in Constanta.

"Russian drones are falling on Romanian soil, Russia is closing our consulates without cause. Romania must react. The Romanian government must defend the country’s interests and citizens by making firm decisions against actors who attack our territory and undermine our diplomatic efforts," said Lasconi.

[thoughtlessarse]

On June 30, France is electing a new legislature. President Emmanuel Macron called for snap elections after the European elections on June 9, in which his party was trounced by the far-right opposition of Marine Le Pen. What is his plan? Macron is taking a very risky gamble, and a number of his political allies have expressed surprise and concern. He hopes that by dissolving the National Assembly and opening up a situation where the Far Right might actually come to power, the electorate will be gripped by fear and rally around his party. Winning a new majority, after his defeat in the European elections, would give him renewed legitimacy. Macron was counting on his opponents being divided. But the traditional Right has imploded, with one part announcing an alliance with Le Pen’s National Rally (RN), while the other part might completely disappear. The left-wing opposition had been divided, and Macron thought it would be incapable of uniting in just three weeks. Yet within just a few hours, the various left-wing parties reached an agreement — a superficial one, but enough to complicate the situation for Macron. The government has been in a weakened state for some time. The idea of dissolving the National Assembly had been raised several times, but Macron was waiting for the right moment. We’ll see if this gamble works for him, but at the moment everything is pointing in the opposite direction. RN is projecting confidence that it will be able to install the next prime minister. Is that realistic? And what would RN do in office? No one can say with any certainty what will happen on June 30 and then on July 7, when the run-off elections take place. It does seem certain that the RN will win a number of districts. In all likelihood it will have the largest parliamentary group. But the question is how big its victory will be. To elect the prime minister, RN needs a relative majority. But Jordan Bardella, the RN candidate, has said the party will form a government only if it wins an absolute majority. Obviously, we can’t trust such statements, and RN may nonetheless try to form a government anyway. The RN has been quickly abandoning all its “populist” economic promises. It no longer calls for the repeal of last year’s pension reforms, and it dropped the proposal to eliminate VAT taxes on basic necessities. The party’s economic policies have become more pro-business, in line with those of neoliberal governments of the traditional Right.

continue reading

[canmom]

Animation Night 157: Hungary

Jó estét mindenkinek! Eljött az Animációs Éjszaka ideje.

Good evening everyone! It’s time for Animation Night.

Hungary!

Tonight I’m going to continue the grand tradition of ‘copying Aniobsessive-senpai’s homework’, and take us to visit the ‘Hungarian school of animation’, aka magyar rajzfilmiskola. They were a bunch of experimental weirdos from the period when Hungary was ruled Much like the Zagreb School from across the border in Croatia (AN 136), who were a biiiig influence, they launched away from the midcentury UPA style and experiments like Yellow Submarine to make something unique.

The best known Hungarian animated film is Son of the White Mare (1981) directed by Marcell Jankovics. Lemme quote Aniobsessive:

[White Mare] is hard to compare to other animated features. Marcell Jankovics and his team used Hungarian folk art and folk tales as the basis for a huge, mind-expanding, psychedelic adventure movie. It tells an accessible story in an art-house style — 90 minutes of searing colors and spellbinding patterns, with each character in a state of constant transformation.

This film was wildly influential, reaching people like Genndy Tarkovsky to form a big part of the DNA of Samurai Jack. But White Mare didn’t spring out of nowhere.

The 20th century for Hungary was, to put it mildly, a rough time. Here’s a really really brief version. In World War I, Hungary was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which lost the war hard and basically collapsed. In the resulting power vacuum the country was separated from Austria and went through a brief communist revolution which fell to a monarchist counterrevolution; the monarchists surrendered to the Entente in 1920 and gave up most of the country’s land. In the new peace, the new monarchy set about their agenda of ‘doing antisemitism’, which predictably got a great deal worse in the 30s following the great depression and the rise of Hitler nearby.

So in WWII, Hungary sided with the Axis. They joined Hitler in invading the USSR, and got pretty much crushed. The Hungarians started negotiations to break from the Axis and surrender, but Hitler noticed and quickly ordered his soldiers to occupy, appointing a Nazi governor; at this point the Holocaust in Hungary kicked up a gear and the Nazi-backed Hungarian government deported hundreds of thousands of Jewish people to the death camps. To brush over a messy story, within a year the Soviets counter-invaded and destroyed the fascist government, establishing Hungary as in the Soviet sphere of influence in the aftermath of the war. The Hungarian communist party, which had existed despite its ban during the war, joined forces with communists from Moscow... uneasily.

After briefly playing with elections, the Soviets reorganised Hungary as a single-party Leninist state. The new government set about the whole show-trials-and-purges-and-statues-of-the-leader routine, attacking his rivals as spies in the pocket of the Americans, or maybe Big Trotsky. A lot of messy intra-party politics took place while the country struggled economically, attempting to copy Stalin in dismantling the peasants and building heavy industry. In the 50s, a certain prime minister Imre Nagy won popularity by relaxing some of the state control and closing labour camps and so forth, but this put him at odds with Moscow, and he was attacked as a right-deviationist and driven out of politics. But not for long...

(Did you think that was an end to the antisemitism btw? Lmao no of course not. In 1953 the government tried to frame three random Jews for the abduction of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish industrialist who saved thousands of people during the Holocaust, who in reality died in a Soviet prison. That whole affair abruptly stopped when Stalin died.)

In 1956 it all came to a head with the ‘Hungarian Revolution’, started by students, which like all such uprisings was messy but broadly was pro-Nagy and anti-Soviet. Nagy, who had only recently been returned from political exile in the wake of the ‘Khruschev Thaw’, took control of the party with his allies. He went so far as to announce that Hungary might even withdraw from the Warsaw Pact. ‘Excuse me?’ said Khruschev, and sent in the Red Army tanks to remove Nagy and his supporters, killing about 20,000 people in the process. This is one of the two incidents that led to the coinage of the word ‘tankie’, originally meaning someone who defended Khruschev’s intervention.

The next guy, János Kádár, started out by attacking the participants in the 1956 uprising, but changed his tune and declared an amnesty in the 60s, establishing a relatively relaxed set of policies nicknamed ‘Goulash Communism’ which encouraged foreign trade and consumerism. As such, it’s this period where Hungary started making a bunch of animated films.

Because yeah this is a post about cartoons actually!

In the 60s, Hungarian animators - funded by the state - were following in the footsteps of the Zagreb School, with its unique approach to timing and design philosophy. But eager ot put their own spin on it, they started introducing bright colours and textures to the UPA style, in films like Duel (1960) and Ball with White Dots (1961).

In 1968, Sándor Reisenbüchler, a colleage of Jankovics at Pannonia Film Studio with a wildly improvisational method, released his first short film The Kidnapping of the Sun and Moon, created with the assistance of his wife. The film is an absolute riot of shapes and colours, all relating a story of a many-headed dragon which devours all the stars until a hero comes to slay it. For Reisenbüchler it’s an anti-war metaphor. Despite being controversial back home, the government eagerly started spreading it abroad in Russia and US alike as a symbol of cool shit being made in Hungary.

Reisenbüchler would go on to make many more films, such as The Year of 1812 (Az 1812-es év) in 1972, but he’d still hold a special place in his heart for Kidnapping.

The British film Yellow Submarine dropped in 1968, and sent major waves into both Hungary and Yugoslavia. For Hungarian artists like Jankovics, it was the inspiration they needed to find a third pole of animation, distinct from both the Disney tradition and the UPA style. He appreciated the space it offered for inconsistency - character designs would no longer need to be identical in every shot, the messiness could be part of the style.

In 1973, Jankovics directed the first feature-length Hungarian animated film, titled Johnny Corncob (János Vitéz). Based on an 1845 epic poem, it tells the story of the worldwide adventures of a young soldier separated from his over, completed over a period of 22 months at Pannonia. The film was a huge undertaking, and its style is unlike pretty much anything before or since, with something of a Western flavour, and uniquely Hungarian outfits...

The next year, Jankovics released a much smaller project, the two-minute long Sisyphus. Jankovics was determined to constantly reinvent his style, lest his films get lost in the shadow of the ones before.

In contrast to the bright colours and textures, Sisyphus, completed in just six weeks, keeps things about as simple as possible: pure black and white silhouettes with a brush texture. Most of the 1800 drawings were by Jankovics himself, and much of the rest by Edit Szalay, who would soon become a key part of White Mare. Into the myth of Sisyphus, Jankovics channeled his own struggles with the nigh impossible task of creating the country’s first animated film. And this film proved wildly popular, running around the world from Yugoslavia to Iran. It threatened to overshadow everything else Jankovics did, and so he changed his style up completely for White Mare.

As the 70s went on, the films just got more experimental. Honeymation (Mézes-táncos) in 1975, directed Ferenc Varsáyani, decided to do a stop motion film entirely with gingerbread people. It was photographed by Gábor Csupó, who would later leave Hungary to America and co-create the Rugrats series. Eventually he would reunite with Varasáyani who would come to work on Rugrats too...

The 70s also saw the wildly popular TV series Rabbit with Checkered Ears, dir. Zsolt Richly and written by Veronika Marék. The two became friends while writing for a childrens’ magazine, and that magazine style would adapt perfectly to depict the clumsy, floppy rabbit. In a big cabin in the yard of Pannonia, Zsolt Richly oversaw the creation of the series for years. You can read more about the story here.

And of course this whole thing was a massive success in both Hungary and pretty much everywhere else, launching both into animation. The floppy plush main character reminds me a little of Marumi from Paranoia Agent, but this one isn’t so sinister. It’s just a very cute bunny in an appealing style. All the episodes are entirely wordless, relying on the expressive movement and music to convey the story. This person seems to have uploaded the full series on Youtube, albeit not really organised into a playlist, so check it out ^^

As then we enter the 80s, Jankovics got the studio working on their biggest project, Son of the White Mare, bringing all these threads together into one massive project, the magnum opus of the Hungarian school at large. So that’s what we’re going to watch tonight! A whirlwind tour of Hungarian animation’s important short films, and Son of the White Mare. (I would show Johnny Corncob as well, but it’s late and it’s proving slow to download, so another week.)

Eventually of course the Soviet Union fell, and Hungary’s Leninist state apparently transitioned to a regular capitalist one relatively gently. Pannonia continued to function, making films up to around 2011 with the final film of Jankovics, The Tragedy of Man, but ultimately closed its doors in 2015. Jankovics himself passed away in 2021. I would love to investigate some of this later Hungarian animation, but I’ll have to save that for another day...

And so! Animation Night 157 will go live in just a minute at twitch.tv/canmom, and I plan to begin showing films on the hour (22:00 UK time)! I’d love to see you there!! Let’s check out a corner of animation history that is far too unknown, and watch a film that’s said (by someone somewhere) to be one of the best animated films of all time...

[psalm22-6]

Comoedia, 5 February 1934 (note the picture of Harry Baur by the masthead!) So I learned that the 1934 Les Mis film premiered two nights before a far-right anti-government riot! And you can feel that there was a crisis about to happen in this account of the movie's premiere:

A rough start to the night: there’s the taxi driver’s strike and there’s the parliamentary crisis. The latest information passed from mouth to mouth and most journalists arrived late, bearing the most recent news. “So Emile Fabre is jumping ship?” [Fabre was the director of the Comédie-Française and was apparently being pressured to leave.] “It’s a scandal!” “It’s disgraceful!” “What folly!” “And who is replacing him?” “George Thomé.” [Thomé was a musician as well as the former director the Sûreté.] “Seriously?! They’re going to be cuffing the Comedie-Francaise.” Emile Fabre makes his entrance, followed by his charming daughter. He is just as soon surrounded and interrogated. “I don’t understand! I don’t understand!” “No one understands.” “There is too much to understand.” Our editor-in-chief, who has not always been fond of Emile Fabre, is spotted by his side; he shakes his hand cordially and I note that Pierre Lazareff [editor-in-chief of Paris-Soir] notes this effusive sympathy. A political star enters!...M. [François] Piétri [briefly the Minister of Finance]…thoughtfully and hurriedly, he passes by on swift feet which recently exercised a wise retreat that was, if I dare say, a step ahead of wisdom. He joins Mme. Piétri….It’s impossible to get him to open up!... Caught up in the commotion of the crowd, I hear this brief dialog between a political columnist and a deputy: “And how are your ‘misérables’ doing?” “They are waiting for their Monseigneur Myriel!” The huge Marignan theater is too cramped for this crowd of guests. Luckily Jean-José Frappa and his second in command, Mme. Audibert, thought of everything, took care of everything… And everyone is able to get to the coat check and find his place easily. Because the taxi strike and political events delayed hundreds of people, who then arrived all at once and with haste, this was not an easy task. Who was there? Tout-Paris...I randomly noted with my pencil: Messueirs Paul Abram, Achard, De Adler, Berneuil, Archimbaud, André Aron, Arnaud, Louis Aubert, Aubin, Kujay, Kertée, Azaïs, Bacré, Barthe, Baschet, Baudelocque, Harry-Baur, Bavelier, Robert de Beauplan, Antonin Bédier, Pierre Benoit, Mme Spinelly, Charles Delac and Marcel Vandal, Léon Benoit-Deutsch, André Lang, René Lehmann, Bellanger, Mag Bernard, Tristan Bernard, Jean-Jacques Bernard, Louis Bernard, Dr. Etiënne Bernard (all the Bernards!)...Bernheim, Bernier, Guilaume Besnard, Bétove, Bizet, Blumsteien, Mme Rocher, Boesflug, Pierre de la Boissière, Bollaert, Bouan, Boucher, Robert Bos, Pierre Bost, Paul Brach, Henry Roussell, Charles Burguet, Pierre Brisson, Simone Cerdan, Henry Clerc, Albert Clemenceau, Pière Colombier, Germaine Dulac,Henri Diamant-Berger, Julien Duvivier,Jean Epstein, Fernand Gregh, Mary Glory, René Heribel, Tania Fédor, Alice Field, Jacqueline Francell, Mary Marquet, Florelle, Marguerite Moreno, Françoise Rosay, Becq de Fouquière, Jean Servais, Vidalin, Maria Vaisamaki, Orane Demazis, Rachel Deviry, Rosine Deréan, Jacques Deval, Christiane Delyne, Renée Devillers, Jean Chataigner, Germaine Dermoz, Léon Voltera, Robert Trébor, our director, Jean Laffray, Lucie Derain, Paul Gordeaux, Jean Narguet, Parlay, Suzet Maïs, Antoine Rasimi, Renée de Saint-Cyr, Jean Toulout, Mady Berry, Yolande Laffont, Jean Max, Parysis, Charles Gallo, Léo Poldès, Jean Fayard, Edmonde Guy, Mario Roustan, Paul Strauss, Cavillon, Emile Vuillermoz, Josselyne Gaël, Charles Vanel, S. E. Si Kaddour ben Gabhrit, the duke and duchess of Mortemart, Madame Henry Paté, Marcel Prévost, Louise Weiss, Alfred Savoir, Henri Duvernois, Paul Gémon, magistrate Maurice Garçon, magistrate Campinchi, Sylvette Fillâcier, Jean Heuzé, Pierre, Heuzé, Mona Goya, Simon-Cerf, W.E. Hœndeler, Georges Midlarsky, Michel, Nadine Picard….and others I must be forgetting…pardon me!....Silence!....

In the glow of the half-light from the screen….there are applause! Not since les Croix de bois has a movie been so highly anticipated and now it is time for the verdict….Raymond Bernard can be sure that the audience is rooting for him. Our eyes are full with light and pretty colors. This Paris night is practically magical…and departing from that magic, we are plunged into the great river of les Misérables, into the furious waters of this social storm. Luckily André Lang and Raymond Bernard have made the trip for us. What contrast!  From the spectacle of an elegant and distinguished gathering, we move to the misfortunes of Jean Valjean.

The audience picks up on everything that could be an allusion to the present times. But of all these allusions, one stands out. It’s the lament of two gossips, at the moment when the barricades are rising. “What sad times!” “We’ve barely made it through the cholera…and here is the Republic!” Thunderous applause and mad laughter. When, on the barricades, the Republic calls on us to act, the spectators think of other promised actions which haven’t happened and they forget to applaud. But the whole audience is prodigiously virtuous; whenever a good deed is shown on the screen, when some sentence about the heart graces the white canvas, it is punctuated by applause. After the first film, stop!... Time to eat! There’s a mad dash to the punchbowl. In the haste of this day of crisis and running late, many in the audience did not have time for dinner….the buffet, in the blink of an eye, is emptied and the dry drinks make vindictive and impassioned discussions flow. High and low, here and there, everyone was speaking of the Parliment's chances and the intermission bell sounds in an atmosphere charged with electricity. The two other parts of the film, cut by another intermission, each end with a double ovation for Harry Baur, both in the lobby and in the theater. The little Gaby Triquet is passed from person to person towards a chocolate eclair, which she leaves a trace of on the cheeks of Harry Baur. And then as usual everyone rushes to the coat check.  Then we go to the fifth floor of the Marignan building. There, in an unoccupied apartment, dinner waits for us. There are more than a thousand of us around little eight-person tables. Ten thousand meters of film, that will make you hungry! Three orchestras pour out waltzes, tangos, and other tunes, while the masters of the hotel fill up our cups. And that continued to six thirty in the morning, in an atmosphere of charming cordiality as each person attested to the pleasure of seeing French cinema accomplish such a feat. Bernard Natan and Raymond Bernard were too surrounded for me to speak to them. Besides, what could I say to them that they haven’t already heard ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times that evening, which was the apotheosis of cinema and of Les Misérables. -Jean-Pierre Liausu

[head-post]

Last day of the Paris Olympics: closing ceremony, no Romanian PM, flag bearers

After weeks of intense competition, international athletes are set to say “au revoir” at the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Games on Sunday, 11 August.

Romania’s Prime Minister will not be in attendance

Marcel Ciolacu will not attend the final ceremony. He was not pleased with the way the women’s gymnastics individual event ended. After the competition, Romanian gymnast Ana Barbosu and spectators thought she was winning the bronze medal. She and her coaches even raised their country’s flag and started celebrating. Meanwhile, US gymnast Jordan Chilis’ coaches appealed to the judges, which was successful. This raised Chilis’ score by 0.1 points, which was enough to knock Barbosa out of third place.

Closing Ceremony

In contrast to the rather ambitious, controversial and caused a lot of misunderstandings and nuances of the opening ceremony, the closing ceremony will follow a more traditional path. First, the head of the host nation’s state enters along with the president of the International Olympic Committee. Then the national anthem of the host country is played or sung as the host country’s flag is raised. Other traditional elements include a parade of flags, a parade of athletes and the handing over of the Olympic flag to the representative of the host city four years later.

The closing ceremony takes place at the Stade de France stadium, north of Paris, where the rugby and track and field events took place. The ceremony will include several traditional elements, among them final medal presentations, a parade of athletes and the handover of the Olympic flag to Los Angeles for the 2028 Games. The stadium has hosted several events during the Games, including record-breaking track races and a historic first leg for the US women’s rugby team.

The artistic director of the event is Thomas Jolly, the man responsible for the unique opening ceremony, however many details are secret, but Jolly has indeed offered something of a sneak preview, stating the ceremony will be a visual, very choreographed, very acrobatic show with an operatic dimension. In addition, viewers can expect to see over 100 acrobats and aerial performers, and the closing ceremony should also feature big-name musicians.

Since the United States, in the face of Los Angelas, will take on the role of the next host for the 2028 Olympics, Tom Cruise, who is currently in Europe on a film shoot, is set to play the lead role in the closing ceremony. He is due to perform an impressive sequence of stunts to mark the passage of the Games from Paris to Los Angeles, which will feature the passing of the Olympic flag from one city to the other. The cast list will see Californian A-list performers Billie Eilish and the Red Hot Chili Peppers performing from Los Angeles.

US Team flag bearers

Swimmer Katie Ledecky and rower Nick Mead will be the flag bearers during the closing ceremony. Ledecky is the most decorated female Olympian of all time, winning her 14th medal after running the 800m freestyle on August 3. She won the gold medal in the event, securing her ninth gold overall. Mead won the gold medal along with teammates Liam Corrigan, Michael Grady and Justin Best in the men’s rowing event. It was the first time since 1960 the US team won the tournament, CBS News reported.

Last day of the Olympic Games: Results

The United States, one gold behind China in the battle at the top of the medals table, can add another when they face Italy in the women’s volleyball final.

The US women’s basketball team is chasing a historic eighth consecutive gold against French rivals fuelled by the “love” of their fans. US women have won basketball gold at the last seven Olympic Games, starting with Atlanta in 1996.

Weightlifting concludes with the battle to become the strongest woman at the Games in the over-81kg category, led by China’s world record holder Li Wenwen.

Old rivals Serbia and Croatia meet for gold in men’s water polo in what could be a feisty affair.

Four golds have yet to be decided in track cycling, while the title could be taken in the modern pentathlon.

In the men’s handball final, Germany are in their first gold medal match in 20 years, where they will meet Denmark, who are in their third consecutive final.

The Danes were champions in Rio 2016 but finished runners-up to France in Tokyo three years ago.

Read more HERE

[erebusvincent]

Intense.

[motherfucker-unlimited]

My nephews drunk on Christmas spirit

[nigrit]

Anon [Louis de Champcenetz?], The War of the Districts, or the Flight of Marat, Heroi-comical poem in three cantos (Paris: n.p., July? 1790)

Part 4 (of 5)

Last Canto:

“When the sun that lights our way,

Near SAINT-MANDÉ

Had flooded all of PARIS,

With its quicksilver light:

Five to six large battalions

Followed by two squadrons,

Silently advanced

Into OBSERVANCE.

BAILLY knowing the moment

When the troops would be assembling,

Is chatting with his wife,

Who fancies herself a fine lady,

While pouring out the tea,

With a fair degree of glee.

‘MARAT’, she says, ‘will be captured,

How my heart is enraptured!

He sought out of his own vanity

To tarnish your immortality;

But the die is cast.’

‘Oh! my loyal spouse!’

He says to her so tenderly

Promptly back to Mr Mayor;

‘Your speech is quite delightful,

I want to have a child with you.

I find you quite an eyeful,

How I long for you anew.'

‘Moderate your friendship’,

His chaste half says to he;

‘I'm not some flirting girouette,

Just wait until la FAYETTE

Has the rascal under lock and key;’

BAILLY says, ‘I want it desperately.’

NECKER who shines with virtue,

Between his daughter & his wife,

Tasted at that moment

The best day of his life.

‘We will let the joker rot

In the corner of some cell.

He attacks my writings,

He covers me with spleen;

Me! whose noble role

Shines so brightlyeverywhere:

Me! Minister Supreme,

Getting vexed by MARAT.’

STAËL (1) the proud ambassadress,

Felt a noble wrath,

Which made her jaundice blush,

‘My father, console yourself;

I wish to make a satire [1]

Against all the insolent wretches

Which your great talents censor

And dare to slander you.

My dear NARBONNE LARA (2)

Shall help me with this work.

GUIBERT (3) could have done it,

His pen is quite light,

But he no longer knows how to please me;

And in my daring pamphlets

I shall crush CHAMPCENETZ (4),[2]

This caustic character

Whose teasing I detest.’

Her mother, reacting to her zeal,

Addresses both, ‘My children,

For that is what you are;

And when I look at you;

My heart is like my eyes;

I confuse you with each other.

Reflect well upon our glory;

And use the écritoire; [3]

Because it is by this weapon,

That this great Minister is here.

The patriotic horde

Of the MERCIERS & GUDINS, (5)

Avenge us every morning,

From the famished horde

Who crawl under DESMOULINS (a):

Their pension is not enough;

But to defeat the MARATS,

We have the proud escort

Of the SUARDS & GARATS (6).

And if we need more ducats

For this miserly cohort;

Pay them, it’s no big deal,

Since we are not short.

But let’s consider something else,

Without any mystery.

MARAT is almost in the clink;

So let’s restore ourselves with a dose

Of this frothy cocoa drink.”

However in the meantime.

The Cordeliers District,

Had armed its warriors.

With very many carts,

And those carriages one hails,

The passages are blocked,

And the guns are loaded.

But lest anyone break through

The passage du Commerce,

Two cannons are placed there

With two or three platoons.

By the door, no carriage arch,

To MARAT’S humble dwelling,

Are placed thirty grenadiers,

With fifty riflemen.

Supported fromthe riverside,

The SAINT SEVERIN District

Has prepared its terrain. [4]

When arriving from behind,

The SAINT MARCEL District,

Came to unfurl its banner

In the Place SAINT MICHEL.

NAUDET the great Captain,

Fearing a flanking move

Protected Luxembourg.

D’ANTON, this other TURENNE, [5]

Followed by some warriors,

Visited all the neighbourhoods;

Putting himself out of breath;

Encouraging the soldiery

To defend MARAT well.

Such glory & such fame

Are not acquired without pain!

Father GOD, Cordelier,

Would show no mercy.

But hidden in his attic

Monsieur FABRE D’EGLANTINE

Seeing the civil war

Quivered from head to toe;

More than if he saw the faces

Of the Bailiffs & recorders

Coming to sing his morning prayers.[6]

WASHINGTON’S monkey,

Surrounded by a battalion

And all these subalterns,

Went off prancing,

And nearly grazed in passing

The lampposts & the ropes,

Where he let a treacherous mob

String up poor FOULON. [7]

He sees that canons have been placed

On every avenue;

And that the end of every street

Armed like a bastion,

Contains a large battalion:

This troubles his genius,

And his soul is less bold

BARNAVE is quite astonished;

He was determined

To act like he’d done at Versailles;

But to risk battle and die!

D'AIGUILLON, gasping for air

From his fishwife attire

Flees at the double,

Escorted by the rabble. [8]

Brave like RODOMONT,[9]

Suddenly without any warning,

Henri SALM & Jacques AUMONT (7)

Go off to explore;

Everywhere are large platoons:

So Henri says to Jacques;

‘My dear friend, let’s decamp;

Let's not start the attack;

Don’t you see those big canons?’

‘Well said, let’s retreat’;

Jacques immediately replies;

‘Soldiers! Half turn to the right.

The obedient troops

In such pressing danger,

Turn round to find LA FAYETTE;

Whose stunned expression,

Dismayed the proud AUMONT,

And his brave companion.

Bold like NICOMEDES (b)

VILLETTE (8), finding himself there, [10]

Suggests a remedy for the ill.

‘This is really no big deal;

Trickery is as useful in war,

As in love, thank God!

We must outflank the enemy,

And attack it from behind.

On more than one occasion

FREDERIC (c) did the same.

But the assembled Troops

Keep watch and fall silent:

When at this moment,

The mistress of MARAT,

A sturdy chambermaid

And formerconventgatekeeper(9) [11]

Whose eye sparkles bright,

Addresses this prayer,

To the most unfortunate Lover,

Who is causing all her grief.

‘Do you want to be murdered?

Or even in a prison cell,

Without your JAVOTTE, starving [12]

On a shabby straw mat,

Do you want to be confined?

Take my headscarf, my petticoat,

And my cotton kerchief;

I will wear your breeches,

And followed by your JAVOTTE,

Whom they will mistake for a boy,

We will go far from the city

And find another home.

Do you wish to see Paris burn

For a few worthless lines?’

MARAT did not wish to know

But the clever maid

Crying and sobbing,

Knew how to soften up her beau.

‘I'm not worth that much blood,’

Says MARAT, in sensitive mood;

‘Let’s leave the city calm;

And swop our clothes at once;

We can do anything with love.”

This noble disguise

Was done in a trice.

Descending from their attic, [13]

They pass through the Soldiers

Without any hesitation,

And make their way outside.

Arm in arm, the couple

Lengthened their stride;[14]

When on a street corner

They find brother GRUE (10),

A subaltern, but strongwilled  [15]

Who recognizes them at once…

He did not cry out in wonder,

But whispers in their ear:

‘You’re doing well,

Go now, have no fear,

Once you're in the clear

I’ll do what needs to be done.’

MARAT responds at once,

‘It’s to spare the blood

Of a District I revere,

That I’m wearing a white petticoat,

Farewell, my reverend frère.

The subaltern Cordelier,

Fearing some grapeshot

Might start the fight;

Cried out across the neighbourhood

In a loud, booming voice:

‘MARAT has chosen his story,

He fled a long time ago.’

They did not want to believe it;

D’ANTON, wanting all the glory

Sends a detachment,

To thoroughly search

His whole apartment,

And assure their escape.

He knew everything in a flash. [16]

Once peace was resolved.

Brother GRUE was dispatched

Towards the great General,

Who welcomed his Ambassador

In a most friendly manner,

And gave him a warm hug.

Immediately, from both sides

The retreat was rung;

And the delighted Bourgeois,

All cried out, PEACE IS DONE.

But dark CRUELTY,

Indignant & furious

At such a treaty,

Quickly takes flight;

And in her fearsome rage

Hastens to the Châtelet

To ponder some misdeed.

STUPIDITY, now more tranquil

Lingered within the Hotel de Ville.

Thus ended, without a melée,

But not without a dumb display,

The adventure of Marat. [17]

Notes to the Last Canto:

(1) Baroness DE STAËL is not unworthy of her father & her mother, she has as much intelligence as beauty; everyone knows that.

(2) Comte Louis DE NARBONNE had left Mademoiselle CONTAT for Madame de STAËL, but, like ANTHONY, he kept returning to CLEOPATRA & the Actress prevailed over the Ambassadress.[18]

(3) Comte DE GUIBERT had been dumped by Madame de STAËL; such a loss consoled him for all his disgrace. [19]

(4) The Marquis de CHAMPCENETZ is the Ambassadress’s nemesis because of this famous epigram which has been falsely attributed to him, & which he has the candour to disavow: [20]

ARMANDE holds in her mind everything she’s read,

ARMANDE has acquired a scorn for charms;

She fears the mocker whom she constantly inspires,

She avoids the lover who does not seek her.

Since she lacks the art of concealing her face,

And she is eager to display her intellect;

One must challenge her to cease being wise,

And to understand what she says. [21]

(5) Bribed writers.

(6) Ditto. [22]

(7) The Prince of SALM & the DUC D'AUMONT sign their names democratically, just as they are written in the poem, which is quite ridiculous.[23] The poor devils are taking revenge for the contempt they have always inspired in honest people & have mingled effortlessly with the rabble.

(8) All Paris knows about VILLETTE, a retroactive citizen. VOLTAIRE died inconsolable for having praised him. [24]

(9) Indeed, MARAT's mistress was a novice in a convent from where she was taken by our hero. [25]

(10) Brother GRUE, the heavyweight of the adventure, is a jolly good fellow who does not lack common sense, & to whom the Cordeliers district owes a statue; but the multitude is ungrateful.[26]

(a) Antagonist of Mr. Necker

(b) The King of Bithynia

(c) The late King of Prussia.

[1] ‘Satyre’ usually refers to the part human, part goat creature, known for revelry and bad behaviour. Possibly a pun, referring to both ‘satire’ and Mme de Stael’s ‘ugliness’, whose masculine looks were frequently commented on by contemporaries.

[2] Champcenetz often inserted himself in the third person into his own compositions.

[3] “Monsieur de Saint-Ecritoire” was Necker’s nickname for his beloved daughter, Herold (1958), p.66. Ecritoire was a portable, hinged desk set.

[4] Actually, it was the militant Saint-Antoine district that Danton threatened to summons into action as backup. Saint-Severin provided a contingent of National Guards for Lafayette’s expedition. See Babut, pp.284-85.

[5] Henri de la Tour d’Auvergne, vicomte de Turenne was a Marshal General of France from the 17th century, renowned for retaking Paris from the Prince de Condé during the civil wars of the Fronde.

[6] Fabre d’Eglantine had been a target for earlier lampoons by Rivarol & Champcenetz in their Le Petit Almanach de nos grands hommes pour l’année 1788 (1788) and Petit Dictionnaire des grands hommes de la Révolution (Aug 1790). Fabre d’Eglantine, who lived four doors away from Marat on 12 rue de l’Ancienne-Comedie, was Danton’s right-hand man and vice-president of the Cordeliers district assembly at this time. While Paré was president (Danton having served from October to December), the district was still effectively under Danton’s control, and Danton was re-elected president on 31 March.

[7] Joseph Foullon de Doué, who replaced Jacques Necker as Controller-General of finances, was deeply unpopular with the Parisians. He was lynched “à la lanterne” on 22 July 1789, and his head stuck on a pike with his mouth stuffed with straw, following a widespread rumour that he had said, “let them eat hay!”.

[8] Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc d’Aiguillon had been the wealthiest man in France after the king before sacrificing his title to all his feudal properties on 4 August 1789 and losing over 100,000 livres in rents. Despite having planned to launch the initiative during the debate on renunciation of noble privileges, the considerably less wealthy vicomte de Noailles beat him to the punch in a bid for popularity! Nevertheless, d’Aiguillon’s gesture had a massive impact, and his gesture became the signal for similar sacrifices, escalating events much further along than anticipated. As a result, disgusted royalists, especially from the Actes des apôtres and Gautier’s Journal general de la Cour et de la Ville, depicted him dressed as a poissarde (fisherwoman) leading a battalion of tough dames from Les Halles during the October Days march. Barnave was depicted in similar fashion. In fact, transvestism was frequently deployed in royalist lampoons, as we shall see in the later description of Marat’s escape.

[9] Rodomonte was a major character, renowned for his bravery and arrogance, in Ludovico Ariosto’s 16th-century romantic, epic poems, Orlando innamorato & Orlando furioso.

[10] While the marquis de Villette was the commandant of the Cordeliers district battalion, he opposed Danton’s wish to defend Marat, and had suggested arresting him themselves. Because of the Cordeliers’ own arreté from 19 January insisting on district autonomy, he explained to Lafyette’s commander, Gonsault de Plainville, that he must remain neutral but later thanked him for ridding the district of a “mauvais sujet”. The other battalion commander present was Carle from the Henri IV district. See Babut, p.285

[11] See later note for likely explanation of the convent reference. At this time Marat had a young assistant, Victoire Nayait, who liaised with local printers. This might also explain the erroneous reference to chambermaid.

[12] Javotte is a fictional archetype who often appears as a maidservant, or, sometimes, a prostitute.

[13] Marat had been staying nearby with Boucher de Saint Saveur as a precautionary measure since 14 January. His rooms were in the hotel Fautrière, 39 rue de l’Ancienne-Comédie, which also housed the permanent barracks (30 men) for the Cordeliers district militia. See Mémoire de Madame Boucher Saint-Sauveur contre Marat (late 1790).

[14] According to Marat’s own account of his escape in the Ami du Peuple #170 (23 July 1790), which was also published some six months later, he donned a disguise and left in the arms of a young lady (“marchant à pas comptés”). This detail that might suggest that the poem was published after this account.

[15] The word ‘Coupechou’, a variant of ‘Coupe-choux’, literally means ‘Cabbage cutter’. It was often used in conjunction with ‘frère’ to mean a novice monk (usually put in charge of the vegetables), and, by extension, a person of no importance, Dictionnaire de la langue française (1873), in Dictionnaires d’autrefois (online). In the slang of Père Duchene, ‘grue’ means a fool, or someone easily tricked, Michel Biard, Parlez-vous sans-culotte? (2009), pp.179-80.

[16] When the National Guard were finally allowed to enter Marat’s rooms, they confiscated all his papers, both presses and his type, effectively ending the newspaper and bankrupting him. Many of the papers, including valuable information on Marat’s subscribers, remain in the Archives Nationales (Pierrefitte). The most important of these were rescued by friends, most notably his detailed evidence against Necker, which he published from London in a follow-up to his original pamphlet, as Nouvelle dénoncation contre Necker (April?). Danton’s relationship with Marat would later be lampooned in a scurrilous libelle that described them having homosexual relations, Bordel patriotique etc. (1791).

[17] It is worth nothing here that as a result of Marat’s escapades, his resulting notoriety led to a considerable increase in his revolutionary profile with other journalists and politicians now paying much closer attention to his writing, especially when he began publishing fiercely hostile pamphlets from London. It also led to his inclusion in David’s sketch for his unfinished paining, Serment du Jeu de Paume (1790/91), where Marat can be seen top-right in the public gallery, wearing a broad-rimmed hat, writing with his back to the viewer. The other inclusion, not there at the time, was the deputy Bertrand Barère, editor of the Point du Jour.

[18] In fact, she appears to have had her first two children by the comte de Narbonne-Lara, born in 1790 (Auguste) and 1792 (Albert), see Herold, p.95.

[19] Guibert was a handsome salon gallant and habitué of the salons run by Madame Necker, Mme de Stael’s mother.

[20] Quite why Madame de Stael merits four uncomplimentary notes remains unclear. If Rivarol and/or the marquis de Champcenetz are the anonymous authors, it is worth noting that they also prefaced their anonymous Petit Dictionnaire des grands hommes de la Révolution (Aug 1790) with a biting (and salacious) dedication to “her excellency Madame la Baronne de Stael”, which mocked, amongst other things, the weight of her “prodige” [genius]. Champcenetz also had a fondness for using the six/seven syllable lines found in this poem.

[21] These lines first appeared in a pamphlet erroneously attributed to Rivarol, Réponse à la réponse de M. de Champcenetz; Au sujet de l'Ouvrage de Madame la B. de S***. sur Rousseau (1789), p.7. It is most likely by Champcenetz, who also wrote the original Réponse aux Lettres sur le caractère et les ouvrages de J.J. Rousseau. Bagatelle que vingt libraires ont refusé de faire imprimer (1789). He had also used the alter ego ‘Armande’ to describe Mme de Stael in the anonymous Petit traité de l’amour des femmes pour les sots (1788). The reference to the mother-worshiping Armande comes from Molière’s play, Les Femmes Savantes. The satire is piquant since Mme de Stael was presented by her adoring family as a child prodigy under the tutelage of her doting mother, described by William Beckford as a “précieuse-ridicule”. Moreover, and it is hard to see how the author knew this unless a salon regular, or informed by one, Mme de Stael had privately acted in Les Femmes Savantes. See Helen Borowitz, ‘The unconfessed Précieuse etc.’, in 19th Century French Studies (1982), p.39.

[22] These names suggest someone with intimate knowledge of Necker’s propaganda ‘factory’. Marat had also accused Mercier, Suard and Gudin of being on Necker’s payroll (check). Paul-Philippe Gudin de la Brenellerie, Beaumarchais’s friend and publisher, would later publish a Supplément au Contrat Social (1792, Maradan), which came with an appendix on the need to breed to keep breeding to secure a steady increase in the population! Garat’s Journal de Paris was openly subsidized by Necker. Amongst the more patriotic writers, Cerutti, later editor of La Feuille Villageoise, was also the only one writer to openly defend him in his Lettre sur Necker (1790).

[23] Probably a reference to Charles Albert Henry (b.1761), ninth son of Philip Joseph, Prince of Salm-Kyrburg.

[24] Charles (the former marquis) de Villette was a noted homosexual frequently attacked in scurrilous pamphlets during this time, including, Vie privée et public du ci-derrière marquis de Villette, citoyen rétroactif (1791) and Les Enfants de Sodome à l’Assemblée Nationale etc. (1790, ‘Chez le Marquis de Villette’). ‘Rétroactif’ here appears to be both a pun on being an ‘active’ citizen (referring to the law passed in Oct 1789, discriminating between active and passive citizens for the purpose of voting and standing for office, and a possible synonym for homosexuality (viz its synonym, ‘posterior’).

[25] This reference to an imaginary, ex-novice lover probably alludes to a recent article in Marat’s paper, describing how his services were regularly sought by readers seeking redress. In this particular issue (Ami du peuple #88, from 5 Jan 1790), he gave the singular example (“aussi piquante par sa singularité qu’elle est intéressante par sa nature”) of a nun called “sister Catherine” (Anne Barbier) who had escaped from Pantémon Abbey after suffering countless abuses due to her patriotic views. She had come to see Marat in the company of her landlady (Mme Lavoire), she had sought his help in securing her liberty and reclaiming her possessions.

[26] While I can find no trace of a ‘brother Grue’ in any of the surviving accounts, the most likely candidate would appear to be the powerfully built butcher, Louis Legendre, co-founder of the Cordeliers Club in April 1790 with Danton. In this context, ‘Lourdis’ probably derives from the figurative use of ‘lourd’ to suggest heavyweight, possibly by association with the other meaning of ‘grue’ as ‘crane’ (both bird and a lifting mechanism for heavy loads). Legendre hid Marat several times in his cellar on the rue de Beaune; see speech to the Jacobins on 24 Jan 1794, in Aulard, op.cit.

Alternatively, a letter from 9 May 1790 describes the arrest of Louis Gruet, a fusilier in the Cordeliers battalion. See Alexandre Tuetey, Répertoire général des sources manuscrites de l’histoire de Paris pendant la Révolution française, Tome 2 (1890), p.420 (3982).

Finally, ‘Grue’ might be a nickname for François Heron (viz ‘crane’), who later acquired notoriety as the main police agent for the Committee of General Security. While I can find no record of his playing any role in these events, he also hid Marat in his home, on 275 rue St Honoré, during 1790, and probably knew him from their time working for the king’s youngest brother, the comte d’Artois.

[hankwritten]

Angels and Ministers of Grace Defend Us

Day 1: SAVE (Napoleon Complex)

“Your earpiece.”

“I’m fine Spook. Nothing ever happens at these things.”

“Your earpiece, Conagher.”

Dell sighs, but holds out his hand for the microphone Marcel has been trying to nudge onto him. It’s a small relief. There are still a million other things Marcel has to do before the conference starts in full, not to mention Dell’s speech itself, and he has no time to quibble over such basic safety protocol.

“I don’t even see how it’d help in an emergency,” Dell continues, “what am I going to do? Start yellin’ oh no, someone help! Gettin’ assassinated over here!”

“Hopefully you would provide us with a bit more useful information than that: your current location, number of attackers, etc.”

“Number of attackers? Partner, this bunch a’ eggheads are about as docile as a herd of a’ electric sheep,” Dell says. “They ain’t coming at me in any great numbers. The way these fellers vent their frustration is by writing snide academic papers that claim I wouldn’t know a true isotopic configuration if it was making love to my mother.”

“Sounds scathing. Best not to offend them then. And keep your wits about you while you’re up there.”

“You always say that, and nothing’s gunna happen to me, just like it always never happens.” He smiles. “Honestly, with how little goes on, I don’t know why we even keep you around.”

Marcel stiffens. “If that is how you truly feel, then you may take it up with our employers.”

The corner of Dell’s mouth twitches downward. “I was just teasing you Spook, you know I like having you here with me.”

You wouldn’t if you knew the extent of what I’ve done for you, Marcel thinks, unbidden.

“Sometimes I don’t get you.” Dell sighs and shakes his head. “You don’t have to keep such distance with me, you know.”

Instead of replying, Marcel checks his watch. “Almost time. Go now. And remember what I said.”

“Yeah yeah,” Dell waves, smiling fondly as the opening speaker finishes introducing him. “I’ll keep my eyes peeled.”

Marcel waits. One breath. Then two. Just to make sure Dell is truly out of earshot; he then takes off at a dead sprint.

The common perception of a bodyguard is that of an intimidation factor: a large man, usually bald, always in a suit, who stands behind their charge and glares at anyone that gets too close. But that often isn’t realistic. The more visible a bodyguard is, the easier it is to plan for him; to dodge quickly, to know where his blind spot is. And indeed, there are many famous tales of celebrity escorts absolutely failing to take down a single overzealous fan who comes barreling out of the mob. The Hollywood-version of a sunglass’d stranger is useful as a deterrent, but nothing more.

It is much better to be the one with the plan than the one who needs to improvise.

Marcel’s footsteps do not clang as he takes them two at a time up the catwalk, as though he were a stagehand who’d toed them his whole life. The information fed into his earpiece during their conversation let him know that he is still where he should be, that everything is going as it should. The assassin is still fumbling with his gear when Marcel crashes into him with a knife in his throat and a hand around his mouth.

The struggle is brief. So much safer to eliminate threats before they happen. So much easier than the alternative, which would no doubt involve rushing onto stage and knocking Dell out of the way of an incoming bullet. Now, he simply has to pull himself upwards on the rail, straightening out his shaking legs. There is quite a bit of blood on him, yes, but none of it has dripped on the heads below. The conference goes on with none of the attendees the wiser, and Marcel takes a moment just to take it all in. Dell is on stage, in front of a projection with graphs and strings of numbers Marcel cannot even begin to fathom, but the audience is writing in their little pocketbooks and nodding along. Dell is so…perfect up there. In his element. A true genius at work. The best of both worlds then, that he got to stay and continue his speech. Safe, yet going about business.

Marcel glances down at his hands, wet with blood. They’ve left shiny collections where he’s been gripping the rail, distracted as he’d stared down breathless at the man he is meant to be protecting.

God forbid you ever find out how many times I’ve ended a life like this, Marcel thinks. Then you would understand why I keep my distance. We’re in different worlds really. You have the chance at a somewhat normal life but I…I am too far gone.

He allows himself a minute of fading adrenaline and deep, bitter shame.

Later, Marcel is there with fresh gloves as he helps Dell down off the stage.

“How’d I do?” Dell asks, though he knows very well how he did.

“The brain trust seems entertained.”

Dell smiles at him, and oh if that doesn’t just make Marcel’s heart flutter. As though they are equally comfortable in their old song and dance, gently ribbing each other while they begin the walk back to Dell’s hotel room. Well, that’s not too far from the truth. Trying to maintain a conversation with Dell while there is still the buzz of death at the back of his mind is almost normal at this point. The routine certainly isn’t like his early days as an agent, when time could be sorted into either ‘mission’ or ‘time off’—now that division is too blurry to let his vigilance lax. Corporate assassins do not wait for one to come back from one’s smoke break, after all.

Yet, even knowing that, times like these are probably the closest he will ever get to contentment: simply walking, chatting with a friend.

“I don’t know,” Dell says. “When I brought up my evidence on single-state teleportation, I thought the crowd was going to start throwing things.”

“A simple scatter plot got them so riled?”

“Oh so you were paying attention when I put those slides together,” he smirks.

“Of course,” Marcel says. “I pay attention to everything you do. It’s my job, mon ami.”

“Well, it puts you one up on those folks. I swear, if they’d just listen this whole project could revolutionize transportation as we know it. But, I got a feeling they’re just gunna want my head on a pike, ask the TF to strip my position or something like that.”

“Tch,” Marcel says, suddenly feeling an impetuous anger. “What do they know anyway? The smartest man alive has just deigned to speak to them in their dingy little conference hall; they should be begging you to come back.”

Instead of replying, Dell abruptly looks down at his shoes, a deep smile crawling at the edges of his face.

Is he serious? Marcel wonders. Such a small compliment has him acting so pleased? It’s not like he doesn’t know what a genius he is.

“You’re sweet,” Dell says eventually.

And there, Marcel’s heart rate spikes right up again, almost as wicked as when he was fighting for his life. Damn him for ever taking this job, for ever letting these unprofessional, inconvenient feelings fester. Ones he can’t act on. They would require honesty he knows he’d never be able to muster, not when he fears that if Dell looks past the surface of his affable bodyguard, he’d recognize the true monster within.

A shadow follows him. One he can’t shake, even during these moments of pretend.

That shadow steps into the literal when an assassin dressed as a janitor levels a pistol at Dell’s chest.

Marcel does not think. Simply because he prefers to eliminate preemptively rather than reactively does not mean he can’t, and his body gains a life of his own. They had just been rounding the corner of the stairwell, side by side—it is just enough time to step in front of the shot.

The world goes a blazing bright, a cosmic white hole in his stomach. The second spent not-thinking-only-reacting buys Dell a moment of his own; he reaches for his belt radio, draws, and is suddenly firing a round into the janitor’s head.

Marcel collapses at the same time as the assassin.

“Shit,” Dell hisses, rushing down after him, trying to keep him upright.

If Marcel weren’t going into literal shock, that scene might have done something just about equivalent. “A gun?” he mumbles as Dell rips open his button-up to get a better look at the wound. “I didn’t clear you for that.”

“I’ve been working for the TF my whole adult life, Spook,” Dell says, a deadly focus as he begins applying pressure. “I was dealing with all ‘a this long before I had you, you know.”

“Still, I did not realize…”

God this hurts, Marcel thinks. Been far too long since I’ve been shot. I’m out of practice.

“I simply…never wanted you to see me like this,” he continues babbling for some ungodly reason. Blood loss, perhaps.

“I never wanted to see you like this either, goddamn bleeding out in my arms-”

Dell’s irritation is mounting as he tries to stem the blood flow. He glances around, but they’re alone in the stairwell, no help in sight.

“I meant,” Marcel says. “I did not want you to. To see me as a killer. To know the…the ugly side of what I do.”

That gives Dell pause. He looks down, thoughts connecting on his face, and Marcel would feel shame if he had the ability to feel much of anything right now. To know what a fool he must look, confessing his feelings minutes before his untimely death.

But after a moment, Dell says, “I ain’t blind to what you do, Spook. And I ain’t scared of it; fact I appreciate the hell out of it. ‘Preciate you. Which is why I need you to stay with me, you hear?”

“I am not going anywhere,” Marcel says, lazily waving a hand.

“Not funny.”

“Well, I assume you appreciate me for dedication and preparation, and not my humor.”

Dell’s eyes widen. “Preparation…that’s it.” His palm reaches up and clumsily slaps his earpiece, the one he had complained about only an hour before. “This is Conagher, emergency on the first floor, west stairwell. One assailant dead, but we need immediate medical assistance. Do you copy?”

Marcel marvels, distantly, glad one of us remembered. Though I do hope Mundy is actually monitoring the radio lines and not just napping in the surveillance van.

But, after two seconds of wretched silence, a crackling confirmation comes through over the wire. Dell’s shoulders sag with relief.

“Hear that?” he asks. “Help’s coming. Now you got no excuse to go slipping away on me.”

“Understood, Monsieur Conagher. Since apparently you ‘need me here’— your words.”

“I do. But it ain’t,” he says, “because you took a bullet for me.”

“No?”

“No. I just need you. That’s all.”

And, as Dell holds Marcel’s face in blood-covered hands while they wait for paramedics to arrive, he relaxes and thinks, of all the times I’ve been shot, this one is almost pleasant.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazil Racial Equality Advisor fired after Insulting São Paulo Soccer Team Supporters

The Civil Servant made a post during the Brazilian Cup final

The Ministry of Racial Equality announced this Tuesday afternoon (26) the dismissal of civil servant Marcelle Decothé, who offended São Paulo supporters and São Paulo residents during the Brazilian Cup final.

The head of minister Anielle Franco's special advising team made posts on social media attacking the São Paulo supporters, the Flamengo board, and the Federal Police at Morumbi stadium.

Decothé, who had a monthly salary of R$17,100, was accompanying the minister, who was at the departure site to launch an action against racism. Both traveled on a FAB plane with the justification that it was an official event.

A Flamengo supporter herself, Anielle's advisor criticized São Paulo fans in posts using neutral language. She wrote "white supporters, who don’t sing, descended from naughty Europeans"

Continue reading.

[vonlipvig]

Oh shit, did you pick up Anti-Corruption police or Sordish state police jules? Because if you pick ACP, well i bid farewell, because you're gonna be impeached because of your shady dealing with Marcel Koronti. I dunno how the SSP gonna react tho about thay. Anyway I'm glad Deivid Wisci is an honest and straight to loyal man about his wife. Which is good for him. And yeah Ciara and Nia being couple is truth, i despise people who say it was a lie. How many times and evidences you needed to see them both as truth as a light? Do you want Ciara and Nia fully gone challenger style kissing scene act?! That would send you guys into cardiac arrest if you want. Or maybe i could draw it with my hands?! Dare me, and I'll make it. You know jules. If i ever make an reddit account and post this kind of things there. The people might be shocked while others is gonna be into cardiac arrest for how bold my words are.

nope, we're going with the ultimate combo of emergency act + full police privileges + SSP so i can go "KARL, KILL!" at any minor or major inconvenience (bye hawker, bye ilana). and don't worry, it's all under control cause we're going to WAR so there's no time to get impeached, especially not when i WIN (god if this doesn't work i'm going to CRY).

DEIVID my beloved i knew i could count on him to be a loving and caring man, he's really got wife guy written all over him. truly best boy (well okay, with serge too ofc).

LET'S GO NIARA TRUTHISM you could never convince me that they're not in love. all those glances and smiles and calling each other by their first names? and of course ciara is gonna be all "yeah, we're just friends" to you during that scene, she's not gonna tell your despotic, sexist ass that actually yeah she's in lesbians with your other minister.

but i do think they should just have a scene where they just make out in the middle of a cabinet meeting. i think i deserve that. live lileas reaction, indeed.