#oh also the subtitles are nice. if there was none i would fail this course instantly

[crescentmp3]

hi! hi hello

[frevandrest]

Everything Wrong with Saint-Just's Introductory Scene in La Révolution française (1989)

As promised, here is an analysis of Saint-Just’s first scene from La Révolution française (1989). You can watch the scene (with English subtitles) here. It sadly misses the dramatic entrance part, but everything else is there. SPOILER: This analysis will not, in fact, cover everything wrong because there’s so much trash you can’t adequately address it in only 1000 words. 

In the scene, we see a young man with that hair rushing down the steps of the Convention (in what will be his signature dramatic! style). He pushes people way without even looking at them. There is someone at the rostrum, and many people wait to address the Convention. Saint-Just doesn’t give a fuck. “I demand to speak.” Some deputies murmur a weak protest, but they are shit out of luck because it’s time to introduce a new character, and we need to know what a jerk he is. So of course he’s granted the word. 

At first, nobody pays attention, but “just like you, I would die for this Republic”, seems to work. He delivers the speech (which contains maybe two lines from the actual one), and by the end, Marat claps, the Convention claps, Danton and Girondins are suspicious; Robespierre is in love. Camille, oh Camille, does he know he’s just been replaced? Saint-Just pouts slightly (my interpretation) but doesn’t show much emotion. Next scene: Louis receives news that he’s being put on trial. Good job, new boy. 

As first scenes go, this is a good introduction to Saint-Just as depicted in the film. But it’s also very wrong for SJ as a historical personality (what we know of him). Which sucks, because it’s not like it’s impossible to make an unsympathetic yet historically accurate SJ, if one wants to go that route. See, Saint-Just in La Révolution française is a prop; he’s not a character with his own complexities, goals or motivations. He is just there to be pretty and evil, and to take Robespierre away from Camille.

So, why is this introduction wrong? 

Let us remember that this was Saint-Just’s very first speech at the Convention. He got elected days after his 25th birthday; he was the youngest out there. Also, even with Robespierre’s support (that some claim he already enjoyed), he was an unknown; a peasant provincial from Picardie barely out of his adolescence. He wanted to prove himself and demonstrate that he was a worthy representative. Being rude and pushing people away is not really a good way to achieve that. 

Here’s the thing about Saint-Just: despite all stereotypes of the contrary, he respected authority. However, he only respected authority that he felt deserved to be respected. In 1792, “monarchy” was not it. But National Convention? Revolutionary government? Of course he respected it. He fought so much to get there, and he respected the place he was given. 

Throwing his weight around, pushing people away, demanding to speak when someone else is at the rostrum, disobeying order... It was really not Saint-Just. He hated commotion and fights that happened so often at the Jacobin club. Even on 9 Thermidor, when Tallien interrupted him and shit hit the fan, he continued to attempt to deliver the speech. They pushed him, and he kept trying to speak, without, I don’t know, punching someone in the face (La Révolution française Saint-Just totally would, which is, admittedly, one of the many, many many reasons why it sucks that they shortened and condensed Thermidor). 

The film uses “blame Saint-Just for Robespierre’s turn to darkness” approach. SJ is there to encourage Robespierre into cruelty and cold violence, and, if Robespierre starts to doubt even for a moment, to reassure him that yes, this is how things should be done, you are right Max, let’s kill them all, but particularly Camille; I can’t stand that guy for having you first  ridiculing my poetry (wait... SJ’s poetry wasn’t in the film. Why does he hate Camille, again?) Who knows. The only explanation the film provides is that Camille is Good and Saint-Just is Evil, so of course he’d want to get rid of him. 

Now, let us see about the speech itself.

The Speech

The speech Saint-Just delivers in the film contains maybe a few lines from the actual speech (notably: “this man should reign, or die”). I don’t have a problem with them not replicating the speech word for word because it followed on what other deputies talked about (which we didn’t hear)*, and because nobody has time for Antoine’s ramblings about antiquity. (And it would take around 10 minutes to act, which would probably provide us with more glorious shots of Robespierre falling in love being impressed, but it would take too much of the running time. I get that.)

So, in theory, I am fine with shortening the speech and paraphrasing, as long as the meaning and content is there. Which... it did on a surface level while also missing the point substantially.  

*Not showing SJ addressing what others said before him was understandable (condensing runtime), but it’s another thing that made it seem like he didn’t listen nor paid attention what others were doing. Also, it’s a missed opportunity to characterize him as a jerk full of himself, since his real speech basically opened with: “all that the previous guy said is bullshit, and here’s why”. 

Speech in the film: I would die for the Republic and I would fight the enemies of the Republic. We all know the name of the enemy, and I, like none here, am ready to fight against this enemy. Louis is a symbol of traitors among us. We should not hesitate; the king is an usurper. 

In short, speech in the film is, kind of, less about Louis and more about what SJ will be important later: his own sense of revolutionary righteousness and for weeding out “traitors” from the Convention. 

Another issue with the speech is that it wasn’t just about the speech - it was part of Saint-Just’s introductory scene, so we had to learn about his character through the speech. In the film, SJ is rude, cruel and cares only about... well, we are not sure, because there are no motivations whatsoever, but he is there to push Max when something bad needs to be done. I feel that his rudeness during the introductory scene and the way the speech was delivered fulfil this purpose nicely. However, I am not sure that we actually understand what Saint-Just’s speech was about, except vague “we must kill the king” vibe. 

The Aftermath

The scene following Saint-Just’s speech is that of Louis, a doting father, reading a book to his son. Men come and rudely tell him to send the child away. He is to be put on trial. The implication? Saint-Just’s speech won the crowd over and they decided to kill Louis, or at least put him on trial. 

In reality, while Saint-Just’s speech was highly noticed (his real-life dramatic entrance into Convention), the deputies did NOT listen to him. The whole point of the speech was that Louis should not be put on trial - trials are for the citizens, which he is not. Louis’ crime is not treason - the monarchy is a crime in itself. Saint-Just argued against the trial. Yes, his speech was highly influential but presenting it in this way puts way too much weight on this newcomer’s words and implies he was the key factor behind the trial.  

Other Observations

- There is a long debate among historians whether Robespierre was present for Saint-Just’s first speech on 13 November 1792. (I think the conclusion is “probably not”.) But I don’t mind this change, if nothing else, for those glorious shots of Robespierre’s heart eyes and Camille’s “wtf did this guy come from and why is Max looking at him like that?”

- Marat. It is true that he generally praised Saint-Just as an orator, but he disagreed with this speech (Marat was for trial). 

- The reason why this post is dedicated to SJ’s first scene is because I was asked/challenged to write about it. It doesn’t mean that his other scenes were any better (I’d say they were worse). In fact, the entire SJ’s character was a Thermidorized mess. 

- That being said, I don’t hate this SJ. I cannot; LRF was my introduction to the whole Frev thing and will always have a special place. Christopher Thompson was ok, particularly in some aspects of SJ. However, the whole thing was a mess and it should be criticized. 

- Hair. I promised to dedicate one full paragraph to SJ’s hair, but I... can’t. I simply cannot. I am sorry. I tried, but the words failed me. 

- This was more fun that it should have been and there are so many things I didn’t get to say (the entire performance and what this scene means for SJ as a character in the film, a more detailed analysis of the speech and comparison with the real one, etc.) But it did show that I can still vomit write 1000+ words about anything that I have any interest in, which is... good to know, I guess? (Let’s just say that I won’t be winning any SJ contest prizes for laconicism). 

[agustdef]

Bubble

Pairing: Jin x Black!Reader

Genre: Fluff

Word Count: 2.6k

Warning: None.

Rating: PG

The moment light entered the room YN let out a groan of annoyance. Her eyes were closed, but it managed to pierce the protection of her eyelids with its bright rays. It was so bright that she felt like her eyes were open and she’d stared into the sun for seconds longer than she needed to, but no that wasn’t the case at all.

When YN finally opened her eyes, she was met with the curtains that should have protected her from the sun being held open by Jin. For a moment she thought it was him doing it maliciously, but once her eyes adjusted she realized that he was facing towards the window and he couldn’t possibly have seen how it affected her. 

Didn’t mean that it was okay though.

“If you do not close those curtains I will roll out of this bed and stick my foot up your behind,” she muttered, all while using the blanket to shield her eyes some.

That startled Jin who turned to look at her with wide eyes for several seconds before pulling it together and closing the curtains. Once he’d done that her eyes finally felt like they could relax, though it didn’t stop the glare she fixed him with. Not even the sheepish smile and him coming over to kiss her good morning could stop that.

“I’m sorry. You were facing the other way when I walked over and with it being so early I thought you’d be in a deeper sleep,” he said as he sat beside her on the bed.

At the mention of time YN reached over and tapped the screen of her phone to see that it was around seven in the morning. It caused a groan to tear from her lips and then whines about how she didn’t need to be up for another half an hour followed.

“You don’t even need to be up until nine, why are you awake so early?” she asked.

Jin shrugged, his eyes focused on playing with his fingers.

“We both passed out the moment we got in, which was at eight, so I was bound to wake up earlier. I tried to sleep again, but then Jungkook called about something and we talked for a bit. Now I’m just awake.”

That made YN sigh as she carefully moved to a sitting position. He wasn’t wrong by any means. They’d gotten food on the way from the airport to the hotel, which was demolished before the vans even stopped. Then they’d barely changed and prepped for bed before they’d passed out for the night. And even as she longed to go back to sleep she had to admit that she was the most refreshed she’d been in months, so she couldn’t imagine how Jin felt.

“I guess we could at least have breakfast in bed for once. We haven’t done that at all in the last few weeks of hotel hopping,” she offered.

For a moment Jin pursed his lips, but then a smile stretched onto them and he turned to place several kisses to YN's face despite her attempts at pushing him away. 

“Room service!” he shouted as he moved to a desk in the room where the hotel phone sat.

There was zero need for him to ask her what she wanted because it was almost always the same and since the boys were on a tour stop in the US there was no need to make changes. 

“Hi. I’d like to order room service.” There was a brief pause to listen before he continued. “Two seasonal fresh fruits, bacon, pancakes, and scrambled eggs, french toast, bacon and a poached egg, and extra bacon. Oh, also two orange juice, two waters, and a cup of green tea sugar on the side.”

Again, there was silence and then Jin was saying thank you and hanging up the phone. When he returned to the bed he had a wide smile on his face, one that told her that he was up to no good, but she wasn’t quick enough to do anything to stop him or avoid what was to come. Jin jumped onto the bed and then pulled her into a tight hold, he even threw his leg over to keep her in place.

YN squirmed but let him keep her in his death grip for the most part. She was fine with being held by him, it made her unbelievably happy to be able to wake up with him since she’d spent months not doing it. It was definitely what made the first three weeks she’d been on tour with them worth it. That and getting to do more action shots and have more freedom with her photography.

They stayed like that for a while, just cuddled up together until Jin finally tilted her head so that he was looking at her. The smile on his lips was gone, but it was still very clear in his eyes.

“Good morning, baby,” he said before leaning down to kiss her.

She returned the kiss and then the greeting. “Good morning, love.”

After that they stared at each other like weirdos, which was accurate because they both knew how much their overflowing love for each other made them a little dorky.

But then the sound of YN’s stomach rumbling broke the silence. They both laughed and pulled apart some, though they didn’t stop touching each other.

Jin’s hand moved down to her protruded stomach and gently rubbed it. The bump had grown very little in the time that Jin had been home during the break of tour, but the moment they got back out there it seemed to make up for all the time. She was becoming more self-conscious about it because some of her clothes became useless faster than she’d thought they would, but she rolled with the punches. Pregnancy wasn’t something that had a consistent way of happening.

“Ah, my bad. Good morning to you too, little one. I promise your mama will feed you real soon. She’s even going to give you extra bacon,” Jin said to her stomach.

Bacon, something YN loved, had become a craving of their unborn child over the latter months of her pregnancy. While she could devour a lot, the kid increased that craving and she needed so much to be sated. However, since it wasn’t good for either of them and could give her heartburn from hell they scaled it back as much as possible. Giving her other things she enjoyed to fight off the craving. 

“Yup. And daddy is going to give me his bacon too,” YN added on.

There was intense head shaking and Jin pouting at that, but they knew that it was true. Or mostly true, because hopefully the fruit would be enough to have her complacent with her regular serving and the extra he’d gotten for her.

“Why do you always have to try to eat mine? I don’t get bacon that often and you’re stealing what little I do have? What kind of shake down is this?” Jin asked, theatrics very much in play.

He would have kept going if a knock on their door hadn’t interrupted him. He went to answer it, but fake glared at her as he did.

Upon his reentry into the hotel room with a cart of food the displeasure was gone though and he had a piece of bacon hanging from his mouth. YN sat up and was going to go the fake offended and eating without her route, but then the smell hit her and all she could do was grabby hands. 

Of course, Jin denied her though, his head inclining which indicated he wanted her out of the bedroom and into the small living room that they had. She groaned and made a fuss but got out of bed nonetheless. 

“I thought we were doing this in bed,” she whined.

Jin rolled his eyes. “We both know how you feel about eating in bed. And this definitely doesn’t fit in the things you deem an exception.”

He wasn’t wrong, but she refused to say that and just pouted as he ushered her to a seat on the couch that had the coffee table in front of it. He placed all the food down on it, putting his stuff in front of where he’d sit next to her. And though YN took that as a queue to dive in her hand was smacked immediately and then Jin disappeared back into their room. 

She could have gone for it again when he was out of sight, but her hunger waned for a moment for her to realize why he’d stopped her.

“I could have just taken them after you know,” she called out.

“And risk throwing up your breakfast because of them? No,” he shouted back.

Again, he was right. Though she’s cycled through many prenatal vitamins all of them had something that didn’t work with her stomach. She’d had to try taking them various ways to not throw up or feel like trash after. And it turned out taking her current one before eating was the perfect set up. It didn’t matter how much time before, it just had to be before. They still agreed waiting five minutes was best though. 

So, when Jin returned she already had her glass of water in hand when he gave up the pills. She downed them and drank the full glass, even opening her mouth to show him that they were gone because she felt away about having to wait to eat when it all smelled so good. 

There was an attempt to make up for it by Jin waiting to eat with her and simply fiddling with the TV to get something on for them to watch. He turned to Hulu when regular stations failed them and before YN could even say anything Bob’s Burgers and English subtitles were engaged. Though his English had gotten exceptionally good it was often easier for him to follow and the same was for YN. She was deemed fluent in Korean, but sometimes things didn’t process.

The choice of one her favorite shows earned him a kiss to the cheek and less pouting. Though the true highlight of it all was watching the way his cheeks burned from the random affection. YN couldn’t help cooing about how cute he was, which was met with a stuttered response of five minutes passing. And though making him blush some more was tempting food took precedence. 

They ate in silence for the most part with squabbles over food theft and laughter over something happening on screen occurring every so often. It was a nice continuation of their morning, but once all the food was finished they knew that it was time they got their lives together.

“Can I just stay in bed all day? Is that an option?” Jin asked as he rubbed his own stomach, complaints of being too full had come minutes before.

“You have a concert tonight, love.”

That both perked him up and made him groan in disapproval. Of course, he wanted to go out and perform for his fans, but clearly the idea of moving wasn’t high on his list. 

But they couldn’t waste any more time if they didn’t want to feel rushed. 

YN carefully stood from the couch, her hand rubbing along her own full feeling stomach.

“Well, I need to shower because you decided we needed to be close all night and I smell not great. And since I know you’re going to make sure I don’t slip you have to get up,” she said.

There was more groaning and some flailing limbs as he threw a small tantrum before he was up and following her to the bathroom. Once there he didn’t just watch her from outside the shower like a stalker, as he sometimes did, but joined her and held her steady when she wobbled. 

And since shower sex was no longer something they did because there was fear on both sides of something going wrong they got clean rather quickly. After that they moved to get dressed and even that took on a fast pace seeing as neither of them needed to particularly dress up. Jin would be doing prep for the concert and resting until then so he tossed on sweatpants and a slightly oversized shirt. YN went a similar route, tossing on some joggers that almost looked like normal pants and a large shirt that she had. She also made sure to snatch one of Jin’s hoodies to bring with her when the temperature dropped.

Both of them ended up next to each other in the bathroom going through skin care and brushing their teeth. But since her skin dryness hadn’t stopped, just started terrorizing solely her face, YN spent longer layering products for moisture. 

As she did each one she reminded herself that at least the weird light patches hadn’t started there, though they still plagued the rest of her skin, particularly her stomach. She couldn’t help but cringe at the thought of stomach being one base shade of brown, with dark and light stretch marks and freckle like light patches everywhere. It was as annoying as when summer came and she was forced to deal with being three different shades of brown on her arms alone.

With everything done they both ended up in the living room ensuring they had everything they needed. YN triple checked her camera bag and then did the same with the things that held her essentials. There were chargers, two fully charged power banks, some snacks, two water bottles, and some medicine just in case she or anyone else felt ill for whatever reason. There were also some compression socks in there just in case her feet started to swell, something that was both an occupational hazard and a pregnancy side effect.

By the time she finished there were knocks at the door from Yoongi and one of her fellow photographers. She slid on her bags and went to the door and slipped her shoes on. Once standing Jin was there with her frowning. It tugged at her heart, but she knew that they couldn’t stay there.

Reaching out she grasped his hands. “I don’t want to leave our bubble either, but we have to. Just remember you have a great show to put on and I’ll be there to capture all of your handsomeness.”

She knew that compliments didn’t really work on him despite his worldwide handsome talk all the time, but she thought it would be comforting. When it didn’t garner much of a reaction she sighed but maintained a soft smile.

“Tomorrow you get a break and the only work I’ll be doing is editing photos. We can stay in all day or go out to do something. But we’ll get to be back in our bubble for a little while, I promise,” she said.

Again, she didn’t get much of a change from him, but a few seconds ticked by and a smile formed. He leaned down to press a kiss to her lips and then kneeled to press one to her stomach.

“Be good for mama while she’s working or you’re grounded,” he said to her stomach.

That caused a cackle like laugh to rip from her lips and she barely collected herself before he got up and opened the door. 

After an elevator ride to the lobby, they said their byes one more time and then went where they were needed. When they saw each other again it was while YN pointed a camera his way mid body roll. 

[a-random-french-girl]

Some people asked me what was my favorite version of Frozen, if I preferred the French version because I’m French or the English version because it’s the original version

I always answer: well, it’s not really the same movie

And they’re like ???

Let me explain!

The two versions are really different from one another due to the fact that we have to translate what is said and then try to sync it with the characters’ lips

And in France we loooove butchering movies and their plots

The thing is, you have two types of translation: translating the movie perfectly but losing the musicality of it (that would be for example the French Canadian version) and “translating” the movie and have something that sounds great

They didn’t do it for Frozen though, I’m actually sad for the québécois because Elsa’s singer is the French voice actress, which doesn’t make any sense, when Anna and Elsa sing together, they don’t even have the same “accent”! (We can’t really talk about an accent here, it’s just that they prononce the same word differently, we tend to merge certain syllables in French like instead of saying “je te l’ai dit” we say instead “j’te l’ai dit”, French Canadians don’t really do that) so it’s sooo weird!

But back to the main point, I will admit it guys, at first, I didn’t like Frozen *gaps* WAIT COME BACK, LET ME EXPLAIN

Okay, I didn’t like Frozen because the plot didn’t make any sense! And then 6 years later, Frozen 2 came out and I was like “hey, let’s watch the first movie again but in English this time” and gooood, it was better (plus, I didn’t speak English back in 2013! So that’s why I watched it in French back then!)

Most characters in the French version are so angry and bitter that I’m like “guys, just chill” and they’re so paradoxical at the same time!

I wanna share with you an extract of my favorite song, for the first time in forever reprise

Look at this:

I’m such a fool I can’t be free —> ni libérée, ni délivrée (neither free nor...free, French is so stupid, I love it. It’s a reference to let it go which is translated in French by “libérée, délivrée” just imagine the English translation, freeee, freeeee I’ll never lie again! (Yes Elsa said that in French...))

No escape from the storm inside of me —> dites moi comment ne pas désespérer (tell me how to not lose hope, okay, that’s not what she said but hey, at least it’s the right emotion)

I can’t control the curse —> Ce don est si intense (this gift is so intense (big mistake here, come on people, have you seen the movie? Gift??? ELSA HATES IT)

Anna please you’ll only make it worse —> toutes ces belles promesses n’ont pas de sens (all these fine promises make no sense, sounds a bit accusatory. Like “Anna you say these things but I call bullshit”)

There’s so much fear —> ce sera pire (it will be worse, okay, you missed a crucial feeling there. She is scared. She is panicking)

You’re not safe here —> tu vas souffrir (you’re going to suffer, okay, you missed something there too. They actually already failed it a bit earlier in the song too, in English, she clearly says “I’m the danger here, you should stay away” I’m French she is like “you’re in danger! For some reason! Don’t mind me I’m here! OH LOOK! ICE! TOLD YOU YOU WERE IN DANGER” ah and also, you’re going to suffer? It’s a weird thing to say, it sounds like a threat, or even worse, like a promise. Dark Elsa is the main character in French)

But that’s not only it! Now I’m going to talk about let it go, oh wait my bad, free free

Some lyrics are...uh, wrong. Or even worse, I don’t even know what they mean

“The wind is howling like this swirling storm inside” Le vent qui hurle en moi ne pense plus à demain (the wind howling inside me doesn’t think about tomorrow anymore...err, really poetic, but...what? Indeed Elsa, I’m sure it doesn’t...)

“Don’t let them in, don’t let them see, be the good girl you always have to be” cache tes pouvoirs, n’en parle pas, fais attention, le secret survivra (hide your powers, don’t talk about them, be careful, the secret will survive. Okay nice but in the English version, she is sarcastic, she is angry, she is slightly blaming her parents. Where is it in French?)

“Conceal don’t feel, don’t let them know, well now they know” Pas d’états d’âme, pas de tourments, de sentiments (no qualms, no torment, no feelings. Okay, YOU FAILED THIS TIME, there’s no evolution in Elsa’s behavior! After that, she says she is free, sounds a bit random! And when she removes her gloves, in the French version you’re like “ah? She changed her mind? Err cool I guess. I was so confused back then. Elsa pretty much says “I’m sad, I have to stop feeling, I’M FREEEEE”)

But even worse, they changed the characters: for example, Anna

Not sweet Anna T_T I mean, in the English version, she is sooo forgiving (a bit too much some might say)

But I don’t know guys, in French she sounds a bit selfish and accusatory, it’s gonna be hard to explain but bear with me

In for the first time in forever reprise, or le renouveau in French (the resurgence, but it also means the return of Spring , French can be really poetic sometimes)

She says things like “you have no right to run away from me like this” instead of “you don’t have to keep your distance anymore”, a weird thing to say with a gentle voice. But also, that’s not what she said??? Then Anna says “ because for the first time in forever, I finally understand”, it wouldn’t have worked in French after this sentence, so instead she says “because I want to celebrate this resurgence, that will change your fate” err okay, whatever you want Anna. And fate? Well technically the translation is destiny. It gives the impression that Elsa was doomed like a main character in a Shakespearean tragedy. You’re so a drama queen Anna. Didn’t you hear her sing at the top of her lungs at the top of that mountain? She is free, she is happy, well, temporarily but she is! ...It’s a miracle it didn’t set off an avalanche. It’s your fate that wouldn’t have been good.

And like, for some reason, she loves saying what she wants “I want to celebrate this resurgence” “I’d like a snowman”, what about your sister?

“We will free ourselves from this burden” instead of “we will head down this mountain together” wtf does it mean Anna? Is this burden Elsa’s powers? Or the secret? You’re confusing girl

“You plunged the entire country into an eternal winter” instead of “You kind of set off an eternal winter everywhere” she is sooo awkward about it in English because she doesn’t want to scare her off or hurt her feelings. In French? Pffft, subtlety? That’s for the weak. You did this Elsa, congratulations. No beating about the bush.

I’m not saying the translators did a bad job, their job is super hard and they actually nailed it on lots of things but yeah, when I talk about French Elsa, I feel like I’m talking about someone else. It gets even worse when you read French fanfictions. So which version is the best? None! (English, definitively English), that’s why I was able to watch this movie 6 times (yes, now it’s 6) in so many languages, it’s really fun to see how translators decided to translate certain things, and decided what was important for the plot, or not

Anyway, I felt like sharing this piece of information with you guys! Btw, my post is partly based on a French video made by LinksTheSun, about Disney songs. It has English subtitles so you should check it out, it’s actually really fun

https://youtu.be/2jo5u0TBpJM

Oh and of course, I have to share with you the French version of For The First Time In Forever Reprise, which is too great to miss out: https://youtu.be/z7mEF7gRGik

Wow you made it till the end! Thank you!

Here’s a stupid meme for your trouble:

[megareviews]

Spring 2019 First Impressions

The Spring list is late as usual (is it usual if it’s only the second instance?), but at least I’m closer to the beginning than last year. I’ve reached 50% completion on the doing this for an entire year consistently, so nice.

Aikatsu Friends!: Kagayaki no Jewel (Aikatsu Friends!: Jewel of Radiance): Aikatsu is relatively low on my priority list of magical girl megaseries.

Bakugan Battle Planet: This show actually premiered last semester, but in English, and this season is when the Japanese dub started. Either way it’s somewhere deep in the Bakugan series, which is based off of what are probably my least played children’s toys.

BAKUMATSU Crisis: Second season of an otome game adaption that looked okay when I started it, but I still haven’t watched past the first episode.

Bokutachi wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (Bokuben / We Never Learn): The main show that I know the source material of, and it is just about meeting my expectations. An average guy who has to study rigorously to maintain his average grades is put in charge of tutoring the two smartest people in his school. This might not make sense until it’s explained that he has to tutor them in their worst subjects, because those subjects are the ones they want to major in for college. It’s a nice theme of working hard for what you enjoy situated in a rom-com with some haremy aspects and an unusually high density of goofy faces, so watch it if you like those aspects.

Bungou Stray Dogs 3: I still need to see what they did with HP Lovecraft in season 2

Carole & Tuesday: What happens when a runaway rich girl and a poor orphan girl meet up on Mars? They form a band of course. A tale of two lonely souls finding each other and become a little less lonely in a big world, making music together. It looks great and it sounds amazing, so this is definitely a priority watch.

Chou Kadou Girl 1/6 (Amazing Stranger): Imagine Buzz Lightyear from the original Toy Story except in a 20 -something guy’s house and then failing the don’t move when humans are around rule almost immediately. That’s what this show is.

Cinderella Girls Gekijou CLIMAX SEASON (Cinderella Girls Theater CLIMAX SEASON): For somebody who doesn’t watch idol shows, the theater shorts are pretty fun, though I’m not nearly caught up in this one to say how this season is going.

Diamond no Ace Act II: Oh boy there’s so much baseball this season and a lot of it is sequels.

Fairy Gone: There’s a lot of things going on in this show but I think I can simplify it to military use of fairies to give soldiers super powers. The protagonist has been taking jobs as a mercenary to find her sister who was split from her after their village was burnt down. Then at an auction that she works as a guard, things start going wrong and the thief who appears is none other than that sister. The first episode ends with the end of a three way fight between security and the girls, so I’m not sure where the show’s going at all. Maybe if the show didn’t flash back to the protagonist’s village burning down three times, there would be a little more time to give direction.

Fruits Basket (2019): I never know how to deal with reboots for shows that I can remember, but haven’t seen the original. I know there’s people who turn into animals and a “do the carpets match the drapes” joke, and that’s about it from the 2001 anime.

Gunjou no Magmel (Magmel of the Blue Sea): After a new continent appears in the world, explorers flock to it, not always as prepared as they should be for venturing into the unknown. The main character works at a company to rescue explorers from mishaps along with a few others. The worldbuilding is interesting and the main character’s black lightning is pretty cool looking, but his attitude and decision making abilities kinda put me off for now. That and the comprehensibility of the subtitles I was watching fell off a cliff halfway through the episode.

Hachigatsu no Cinderella Nine (Cinderella Nine in August): So far it looks like a pretty standard club building show based around women’s baseball. It looks nice and we have 4 club members as of the first episode, so they should make it to at least full team of nine pretty quickly. It looks nice outside of an odd montage near the end of the episode when the club plays a game with some local kids, and the character designs are a bit more memorable than the usual baseball cast. I appreciate the fact that they’re playing hardball, but I’m not the type of person to watch anything sports ever.

Hangyaku-sei Million Arthur 2 (Operation Han-Gyaku-Sei Million Arthur): All I know about this show is that there’s a bunch of characters named Arthur and that it’s a sequel.

Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu (Hitori Bocchi's ○○ Lifestyle): When one of the most socially anxious kids in elementary school gets separated by her only friend when they go to different middle schools, her friend gives her a quest: to become friends with everybody in her new class. She’s got a real go-getter attitude, but from feeling physical pain from trying to talk to a stranger to fainting when somebody actually responds to her, she’s got a rough path ahead of her. It’s a really fun show that gets you rooting for the main character in her attempts of communicating with others in a normal manner.

Isekai Quartet: Four of the biggest isekai series in one short mash-up is a recipe for confusion. Especially since they’re all put together in a school setting where no fighting is allowed, even if there are holy gods and undead abominations in the same class. Anything can happen with all these people taken from their original normal lives, tossed into various fantasy worlds, and then slam dunked back into a relatively normal setting.

Jimoto ga Japan (I’m From Japan): I cannot find a trace of the anime anywhere online and I am glad of this having read the manga. It is just a really dumb comedy about Japanese prefectures that I struggled to read a few chapters of before giving up.

Joushikausei: A silent anime, as in there’s no spoken words, about a few high school girls. It’s an interesting concept, but I found it a bit uncomfortable to watch, mostly due to the whimpering and other nonverbal noises the girls were making.

Kedama no Gonjirou (Gonjiro the Yarn Ball): A children’s show that hasn’t been licensed and no group is fansubbing it, how unusual… It actually looks interesting though so I might search for the raws to check it out.

Kenja no Mago (The Magi’s Grandson): A child raised by a powerful wizard in the country reaches an age where he can move out to the city and attend a magical high school. Unfortunately for him, his parental figures only taught him combat and magic, so he doesn’t really know how to sustain himself in the reals world. It is a decent concept but there’s a 50/50 chance of any scene looking nice or looking awful, and the scene transitions all look like they were made in Powerpoint.

Kimetsu no Yaiba (Demon Slaying Blade): A happy family of coal sellers is destroyed in a night when a demon strikes. The eldest son was out due to a combination of work and a blizzard, and when he returns he finds all but one of his family members completely cold and covered in blood. This last member is rushed down the mountainside for medical aid, only to turn into a demon on the way down. A meeting with a demon slayer turns tricky as he tries to protect his demonized sister who’s fighting between killing instincts and her love of her brother. The opening promises some beautiful animations and the overall show isn’t slacking either, so overall it’s a very promising show.

KING OF PRISM -Shiny Seven Stars-: It’s the TV version of a boy band movie tetralogy which is also a sequel I think?

Kiratto Pri☆chan Season 2: A sequel to a idol anime that I reviewed last year. I think this is one of the first times a sequel has shown up that I also reviewed the first season of, though unfortunately it was for  a show that I didn’t watch fully.

Kono Oto Tomare! (Stop this Sound!): One more club building show for this season, this one about a Japanese instrument called a koto. After all the upperclassmen of the club graduated in the previous year, only the main character is left in the club, and needs more members before the club gets closed, the usual. The first new member is a seemingly delinquent 1st year who is surprisingly diligent. There wasn’t too much interesting or unique other than the topic of the club, so music fans might find this more watchable than I.

Kono Yo no Hate de Koi wo Utau Shoujo YU-NO (YU-NO: A Girl Who Chants Love at the Bound of this World): The first episode for this kind of front-loaded introducing characters and pulled out its premise of parallel dimensions and a device to navigate them towards the end, which means I’d probably have to watch another episode to figure out how I feel about it. It’s nice to not have a giant exposition dump take up the first episode of a show, especially since it will have two cours to tell a story, but I didn’t feel any particular gravitation towards the characters by this point, so I won’t be prioritizing any follow-up on it.

Mayonaka no Occult Koumuin (Midnight Occult Civil Servants): With a job at a place called the Nocturnal Community Relations Division, the first thought of the type of people dealt with is most likely not going to be fairies. Our main character is taken from a world of the ordinary to being able to see and talk to the supernatural creatures that live locally, called Anothers. His co-workers are equipped with magically enchanted police tape and other trinkets to help solve issues that occasionally arise between Anothers. I like the modern fantasy setting, and the fairly low level fights with the supernatural so far, so there’s promise in where the show goes.

Midara na Ao-chan wa Benkyou ga Dekinai (Ao Can’t Study): While the name Ao is usually blue, or sometimes even moth, in this case, it stands for Adult Only, the 18+ rating in Japan. This is due to her father’s profession, an erotic writer, and surprisingly, the main character hates her father for naming her that and spends her entire life studying to get into a college far enough away from him. This is thwarted by a guy confessing to her and filling her mind with romance and lewder thoughts, with the help of her father. I hate this as a concept and don’t watch this.

Mix: A semi-sequel baseball anime. I say semi, because from what I’ve gathered it is recommended but not necessary to watch the original first.

Nande Koko ni Sensei ga!? (Why is my Teacher Here!?): It’s about a male student and his teacher, ending up in awkward situations together, like being trapped together in a men’s bathroom stall. A show of pure fanservice through and through, so there’s not much else to say.

Namu Amida Butsu!: Rendai Utena: What started out as an action about cleansing impurities from the world gives us a quick bait ‘n switch to a slice of life about gods bumbling about in the human world attempting to be competent humans. I found it irritating to watch, and it was very clearly based off of a gacha game, which do not have a good track record of making good shows.

Nobunaga-sensei no Osanazuma (Nobunaga’s Young Bride): A modern age middle school teacher way down the ancestral tree of Oda Nobunaga meets the bride of the man himself, who traveled to the present from the day of the original Nobunaga’s death. She’s no older than when she left her original time, which leaves her at 14 years old, with no knowledge of modern day Japan so she’s stuck with the main character’s family and decides to be the new Nobunaga’s bride anyways, which… is weird.

One Punch Man 2: A big sequel of the season, and one where people have been waiting with wary anticipation due to the change in animation studio and director. It definitely looks a lot stiffer than the first season, for action and non-fight scenes, but the story is a bit more interesting in my opinion, as the show starts working on fleshing out other heroes and why they fight.

RobiHachi: the first episode of this really is a springboard for setting up what the plot and cast will be, just about starting right at the very end.  We’ve got an ultra gullible man in debt, a genius teen with no sense of purpose, a robot rabbit helper, and their spaceship that blares its own theme song when it transforms into a mech. They set off to find a legendary planet that grants happiness after a couple of hijinks on their starting planet. It’s a very busy show, both visually and plot wise, but still an enjoyable experience if you can keep up.

Sarazanmai: 50% connecting with other people through oversharing with them, 50% kappas stealing souls from other people’s butts. It’s hard to describe the show but I’m having a good time, and the art is gorgeous, and special care is taken with little details in the show. I’d say watch the first episode definitely, and then decide whether or not to follow up on the rest of the show.

Senryuu Shoujo (Senryuu Girl): The focus of the show is on the Japanese poetry type of Senryuu, mostly because the main character can only communicate with others through writing these poems. Thankfully, she’s got some good friends and is in her school’s Literature Club, so she has plenty of practice and is around people who appreciate her work.

Sewayaki Kitsune no Senko-san (Meddlesome Fox Senko): The fox gods of the world have a duty to protect humans, and are becoming more proactive in seeking out humans with negative emotions before those emotions go out of control. In comes the male lead of the show, an overworked businessman who has basically just been going through the motions of life by this point. One of the fox gods appears in his house, doing the cooking, cleaning, and other tasks to help relieve the main guy’s stress. It’s comfy and there’s some funny moments, but I feel like the show would be better off as a more episodic show featuring various humans rather than just the one that it looks like the show will focus on. I’m also worried about the romance genre tag that the show has.

Shingeki no Kyojin 3 Part 2 (Attack on Titan 3 Part 2): I’m still on episode 5 of the original series, with no particular motivation to make it any further. More people die in bloody explosions probably.

Shoumetsu Toshi (Lost City): As the title of the show would imply there is a city that has been lost to humanity, as in, it just disappeared one day. The main female character is the only one who survived the city disappearing, and is targeted by a mysterious group due to that, and she tries to return to where the lost city used to be due to a message by her father who went missing with the city. In addition there was a monk with super powers who was standing on a motorcycle’s handlebars facing off against the main girl who could summon her Lost bodyguard with a bunch of guns but that was kinda just thrown in at the end.

Strike Witches 501 Butai Hasshin Shimasu! (Strike Witches 501st Join Fighter Wing Takes Off!): Oh god it’s been so long since I’ve consumed Strike Witches content. This is a slice of life spin off of the original series, so the context is recommended, but not necessary. The animation is also very much on the rough side for a ten minute long short. 

Yatogame-chan Kansatsu Nikki (Yatogame’s Observation Diary): After briefly being disappointed in the lack of heavy Nagoya dialects encountered in Nagoya, the main character runs into a classmate who happens to have one. In addition, all of her favorite foods and animals are popular or famous in Nagoya, so he sticks around with her for meeting his ideals of what a Nagoyan should be. They then travel the city as part of the photography club to see all the sights of the city.

Youkai Watch!: Despite what it looks like from the title, this is pretty deep in a line of sequels of Youkai Watch.

[ngame989]

what are your top 5 Starco episodes?

Oh boy, my first ask since the Rebrandening™! So there’s no way in hell I can, in good conscience, rank a top 5 since there are different contexts and topics covered and reasons to like each, but I can definitely put together 5 total eps with a bit of explanation for each. So without further adieu:

Booth Buddies

Because of course this one must be on the list, albeit for different reasons than you might think. Of course I’m glad we got to see a Starco kiss (especially now that we saw our shadow and got 6 more months of hiatus!) but what makes this episode for me is the entire talk beforehand and the weight of the past two seasons behind it. 

By this point, it had been a season and a half of their relationship being complicated, with the emotional distance between them at an all-time high and communication about their issues at an all-time low. This was especially poignant for me as someone who didn’t even watch the show until after season 2 had already finished - I experienced the sum total of carefree Starco in a few days, and my entire tenure as a fan of the show had been when things were awkward between them.

Enter Booth Buddies, an episode dedicated to letting it all out in the classic emotionally honest fashion that just screams “Starco”. I had unfortunately been partially spoiled by the leaks beforehand. I knew what was coming, and (despite being a totally sappy romantic) am not one to get all emotional, yet the talk about what was different between them - augmented by the appropriately titled, equally soul-rending track “What’s Different” by my aural lord and savior Brian H. Kim - had me in tears. Admittedly, the fact that all the emotional weight behind it comes from hardships and mistakes the characters made beforehand, this episode almost feels like cheating because it doesn’t really pack that emotional Starco punch as an isolated 11 minute segment, but that absolutely doesn’t knock it off my list.

Speaking of cheating, let’s nip that one in the bud right now. I’ll let someone both quicker and wiser than me tackle this topic. My only real addition to this is that, in all honesty, I don’t even think Marco ever thought “boy oh boy I gotta smooch Star.” Considering at every point in the episode prior to it, both of them were under the impression that they needed BEST FRIEND photos to get out, it speaks volumes that they finally are ready to take a photo about what being best friends means to them, and they both end up leaning into a kiss. Unplanned and regretted, yes (which is what makes this not really “cheating”), but a mutual expression of how they both truly view their relationship nonetheless.

…none of this is to say that I still don’t celebrate the fact that it finally happened.

Don’t worry, the others won’t be this long.

Divide/Conquer

This one is another obvious choice.It’s really impossible to extricate these episodes from one another, so I won’t. Short of them actually getting together, the season 3 finale had everything one could hope for following Booth Buddies. Marco finally opening himself up to a close emotional relationship with Star after trying to avoid it for his heart’s sake for so long, Star’s own feelings (both romantic and more generally emotional) for Marco returning stronger than ever, the extreme care they both show for each others’ well-being and safety.

Need I say more?

Camping Trip

Here is probably the first surprising entry on my list. Remember when Star and Marco had good times together, being best buds, without any serious plot or emotional weights dragging them down? Just hold on to that thought for a moment. Nice, isn’t it? As much as I genuinely enjoy the complexities and trials of their love story, I can’t help but miss simpler times (and hope that we’ll have carefree Starco return at least somewhere in Season 4). Granted, this episode certainly does include a lot of hints that something deeper is brewing on Star’s side of things, but for the most part the actual 11 minute segment is the poster child for the two of them happy to share fun times with each other.

Kiss already.

Deep Dive (feat. Night Life)

Another classic, which is one of the peaks of their working relationship as a team against the forces of the world. Even with the emotional hurdles, Marco never stops being the person Star entrusts with anything from mundane tasks to her very life. And Marco rises to the challenge, pouring his heart and soul into not only helping Star, but doing it in a way that brings him fulfillment in life. Night Life’s ending clearly indicates that Marco isn’t giving up fun times with Hekapoo against his wishes, but rather because Star is a genuine priority to him, and he himself gains emotional fulfillment knowing that he can help her. Deep Dive, of course, executes on this idea accordingly, alongside stellar music and visuals. Plus Marco and Star fretting over each other will never not be amazing.

It appears my subtitles are broken for this episode, so in place of significant lines of dialogue, have a bug hug.

Storm the Castle

And to top off the five, here’s the first taste of serious strife between Star and Marco, alongside how important they are to one another. It’s the little details here that I love - even after their fight, Star is ready to make up with him when she finds out he’s captured. It would be so expected for Marco’s kidnapping to change Star’s heart and just sweep their fight under the rug, but their relationship was already healthy and honest enough that they didn’t need an evil monster to force them to (be ready to, at least) make up. All the depth and complexity of Starco without any of the unrequited feelings angst that characterized later forms of its depth and complexity is a fantastic combination that feeds my soul without also trying to backstab my heart.

Blood Moon Ball

“Wow, Ngame, I just learned you exist and the first thing you do is fail at counting to 5?” First off, rude, and secondly, the whole point of this was to elaborate reasons why I love Starco episodes, so the physical constraints I’m working with are less relevant than the feelings - a Starco Special™ in its own right!

This episode, for me, is the strongest isolated 11 minute Starco segment, which earns it the spot on the list. The talk on the balcony at the end is still one of the greatest moments showcasing their emotional connection, and of course the dance itself (and especially the music, once again by Brian H. Kim) are spectacular. The only thing stopping this segment from topping the charts for me is my own heart. As great as it is, at this point in time my trash heart can’t watch it without thinking how wonderful it would be to see something like it after they figure out their feelings for one another, and that tinge of sadness that it hasn’t happened yet leaves an ever-so-slight bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps it’s unfair to this episode to knock it for my own issues, but I can’t help how I feel (and it made the list anyway).

I hope this was an interesting and satisfactory answer, and not painfully boring to sit through. Thanks for the ask! 

P.S. I’m going to download clean copies of the episodes with subtitles soon and streamline my screenshotting process so I can actually live up to my dear friend Seddm in the production value of my posts, have no fears.

[rigelmejo]

also out of curiosity my brain went like “well on ao3 there’s a TON of French Merlin fanfics, i wonder if the show was aired in french dub?” I just looked it up and OH YES IT WAS (it seems to all be on dailymotion dubbed)

I’m about to look up if Person of Interest is the same, because that’s another one with a TON of french fanfics on ao3 (in particular some Amazing epic long ones for Root/Shaw including aus which I all have saved because they look interesting as hell and I’ll get to them next time I get into the show).

also why yes thank you for asking i absolutely do NOT have time to study multiple languages someone Stop me before i fall in a pit and end up succeeding at nothing. 

study plans below the cut:

Chinese - number 1 priority, no sidetracking until I feel reading is where I want it to be! (So yes ultimately I might sidetrack listening and speaking/writing).

Plan is still: READ. Focusing on improving reading level and speed, so vocabulary increasing by reading mainly. Currently reading and finishing: The Little Prince, Hanshe, Guardian. Once Guardian is finished I think I could consider the possibility of making chinese a lower priority for a while. 

Japanese - number 2 priority, can be sidetracked as long as I’m engaging with it a little here and there. I abandoned it for like 2+ years, I’m in a weird spot where I’m relearning some that’s easy, and freshly learning others, and my reading skills are artificially a bit inflated due to hanzi recognition. I really don’t want to give my full primary focus on it for a Significant amount of time until my chinese reading skill feels solid and like it won’t deteriorate significantly. I am working on it in the sense of maybe boosting it up closer to my chinese or french - or at least some level of ‘I can comprehend the gist main idea reliably’ which I got to in chinese around month 10 and french earlier, but never really got to in japanese. 

Plan: going through Nukemarine decks at my leisure, playing games in japanese/watching japanese plays and lets plays as desired. I think it might get higher priority temporarily while I’m into some video game, but overall just reading daily in chinese is easy to maintain the habit of. Ideally I would like to finish reading Tae Kim’s Grammar Guide but I abandoned it so idk if I will go back for now tbh! Also I’m reading through Japanese in 30 Hours and writing proper japanese in it so that is a bit of grammar I’m just going through. (I’d also like to use a FEW other japanese resources I have like the book Japanese Sentence Patterns, the japanese audio lessons, my ‘read japanese’ books, but... chinese really takes too much time for me to commit much into japanese). Eventually MUCH later I would like to work on my japanese reading skills, would would be cool (I’m succeeding in chinese so idk why i won’t eventually be able to in japanese). But that’s for wayyy down the road. 

---

*What I do like about my current study plan is it’s very SEPARATED. Because the activities I do are very different, I don’t feel like I’m “doubling up” and having to do the same activity twice/study the same thing idk if that makes sense?

Like for Chinese - I focus on reading (new words from reading), and optional shows/audio study material/audiobooks where I tend to look nothing up. Usually just intensive reading, extensive reading, then some kind of chiller listening. For japanese - flashcard app memrise, video games/watching something and looking things up, optional grammar guide reading. 

So I intensively read japanese video subtitles when I can (or at least look stuff up often), but I don’t ever do it with chinese videos (only with novels). Idk but like... the fact each activity is separate helps keep me focused? Like I don’t play chinese video games so I don’t think “oh I should play some japanese now to balance it out.” I don’t read japanese novels so i don’t feel i need to “go read japanese since i read X chinese chapters.” While some stuff I do overlaps (I might try to read comics in both as desired, or watch shows with no subs in both as desired) there’s enough Fully Different Main Study activities I do that they feel like they’re in nicely separate spheres for now. Which helps me stick do doing them regularly instead of abandoning one.

Like - right now I’m doing some chinese daily (usually reading, sometimes reading/watching or reading/listening), and some japanese every few days (usually flashcards, sometimes watching/listening). 

Years ago I studied French, Japanese, Russian at the same time (it was a fucking mess lol). And I had an AWFUL time trying to make progress in any. What I ended up having to do was pick one to prioritize a month, and basically just ‘maintain skill level’ in the others. One problem was my french wasn’t self-sustaining yet (now it is, so I can drop it for months and just come back to it which helps a lot). So I still actively had to do a lot of french work constantly. The other big issues though? Well one was my study plans sucked - specifically in japanese. I really made no fucking progress in japanese for like 2 years mainly due to poor planning of goals/resources to meet those goals. Looking at my study plan now, I have a much better idea of both what I need to do to improve X, and I’m also willing to engage IN japanese content which just in general has always seemed to help when I did it. The other issue looking back - I would try to study ALL aspects of ALL languages at once. I think this was a big way I failed, and also tend to fail even if I’m just studying one language at a time. 

I am not a person who can consistently do 4 goals at once for listening/speaking/reading/writing. At the most I can usually juggle 2 at once. I have long term goals for each, but based on my chinese and french experience, I do much better when I focus on one area for a while and improve it THEN move to a different area-goal for a while. With french I improved reading, THEN basic writing, THEN listening and pronunciation. I did not learn them to the same level at the same time. With chinese, I studied grammar then vocab, reading alongside pronunciation, writing on its own, etc. Usually with chinese I’ve been focusing on 1-2 goals at a time (some months its reading/speaking, some its writing/reading which is this month, some its listening/reading or listening/speaking). I do not tend to have success when I am to improve ALL 4 main skills at once. But years ago, that was exactly what I’d try to do with Russian and Japanese - improve all 4 main skills in BOTH at once. So 2 grammar resources, 2 listening resources, 2 big vocab lists (i was still learning basic words in both). Of course I kept abandoning one language I could not handle doing 2 of each thing! French was the easiest to NOT abandon because I was advanced enough in reading I’d usually just pick one weaker skill to improve at a time (first I picked grammar, then pronunciation, then I picked listening and never did as much work as I wanted to with that area...). 

So yeah: future me, if you happen to find yourself studying multiple languages at once (or even just one). Pick 1ish goals to work on per language per time span. Don’t try to do all 4 skills at once. 

---

French - realistically I have no time for it! None! No mejo! However.... I always end up doing whatever I end up wanting to. And what have I wanted to do lately? Well 1. FINISH reading Le Francais Par Le Method Nature. I read like HALF of that book, and its so much a nice foundation tool but when I studied french I just fucking jumped around a million things then just read novels and. I would love to actually have a solid foundational base I went through and finished - and could help build an active vocab with (since its actually made for study and speaking, versus whatever the fuck I chose to read which was ALL just whatever random genre I was into and was NOT applicable to general conversation). Also I’d like to read it out loud for both the practice and if I’m motivated maybe to make an EXISTING audio for the text since the text is SO old there no longer exists any accessible audio for it. I’d also like to finish reading Carmilla, but that’s more just “im in a read french novel” mood and like that’s more something I might just end up doing. Would be nice to do it AFTER finally finishing that fucking foundational book first though ;-; 

[sohmariku]

Live Spectacle Naruto 2017

(A not completely spoiler free review...)

So, yesterday I made quite a last minute decision to watch this performance after all, which of course meant I had to hope I could still get a ticket on the day itself. Although it turned out the be a lottery, because too many people showed up, I got lucky and secured myself a seat (on the 3rd row, far right corner). The seat itself wasn’t all that bad, it was just that... from the angle I was watching none of the projections actually lined up with the actors. Actually, I think only the people in the center block of the theater (and maybe those far in the back) really got to enjoy all the spectacle of the projections... and from my angle the moveable “screens” were also pretty pointless (for some scenes they should really just have used screens that covered te whole stage and not just the middle section, but on the other hand it was also fun tho have a peek at the “backstage”)...  But anyway, that’s pretty much the only complaints I have about this show! Really, it was awesome and definitly worth the money of the ticket. If you love Naruto (and musicals) and you have a chance to watch it, I reccomend you do! 

Good, onto a little more in depth review!

First of all the costumes! I absolutely love the costumes. They stuck enough to the design to make them recognizable, but changed little bits to... make them look practical and used and... I absolutely just love the costume work for this show!

Then storywise... The first half of the show pretty much covers the meeting of Naruto, Sakura, Sai and Yamato (pretending to be Sasori) with Orochimaru and Kabuto, and then the chase after Sasuke through the “dungeons” and we’re ending with a bit of a fight and the group going back having failed to bring Sasuke back... The second act mostly focuses on Sasuke and his final showdown with Itachi. (There’s more, but the largest chunck goes to this part of the story and thus I pretty much forgot the specifics about the rest) As much as I love this bit of the story, it did feel a little drawn out, but... I guess it actually was like that in the manga too... Anyway, it was done really well and I nearly cried!  Since they try to cover quite a bit of the story arc, some bits are slightly skipped over, but they try to explain as well as they can what happened during those times, I guess... My head pretty much filled in missing bits, so... I’m not sure how understandble this show would be for people who haven’t really read or watched Naruto, but... I guess most people in the theater are fans of the show, so...  Anyway, this performance wasn’t the strongest storywise (in my opinion), because there’s no real start or end. You start in the middle of the story and end without a real conclusion, so... but all the spectacle pretty much made up for it.

Let’s talk songs! Holy shit, I love the songs!! Some are better than others, but in particular I enjoyed the duet between Sasuke and Itachi, the “theme song” that’s sung with al the cast members (repeated multiple times, but with slightly different lyrics). And then there’s of course the Ending song. Just when I thought it was over and I wouldn’t get anyore, the whole cast showed up on stage to perform basically an ending song! IT was awesome and I really need (most of) these songs in MP3!!  As far as vocal abilities go, some performaned really well (Orochimaru, Sasuke, Itachi) and some a little less sometimes (Sai), but overall everyone was really decent! (All those I didn’t name just didn’t leave any lasting memories as far as vocal abilities go...)

And I guess that covers everything?  The stage decoration was nice, and the sound system didn’t somehow fuck up this time! Previous two performances I watched in the AiiA theater (Toumyu & Hakumyu) the sound system sometimes couldn’t handle the loudness of the singing voices... So, I was really happy everything sounded neat this time... especially since I was sitting right in front of the sound boxes ^o^ (Oh, and although they did have subtitles glasses for this show, I decided not to get them, because I don’t actually need them and the subtitles only distract me, so I can’t give any insight on the quality of the translation.)

Yes, yes, I loved the show and would love too see it again. But seeing how the Tokyo run is almost over and I’ll be going home soon, I’ll just wait for a Blu-Ray release... I might just buy it if my bank account agrees by that time. (And I might just add it to my subtitle project list by that time too...) 

[darkcloud-kcalifornia]

Right, don’t have energy to spare after work so let’s do this before work as I’ve got closing shift today.  It’s time for more Nanoha.  No screenshots this time as I’m gonna be watching this on the TV as my couch is far more comfy than my chair.  But enough of needless details, it’s time for me to talk needlessly about details in Nanoha StrikerS episode 18, “Wings, Once Again”.

* Oh hey, new opening. Would be nice if they bothered to subtitle this, but Amazon is kinda lazy about things like that.

* The press is on the prowl! And the TSAB is being rather tight-lipped about the whole thing.  That might actually be for the best.  The last thing they want getting out is that a mad scientist kicked their collective butts and is willing to do work for hire.

* Oh gee, would you look at that, Regius was funding the Doc and there was a sudden yet inevitable betrayal. This is my shocked face.

* Regius’ assistant Auris is nowhere to be seen, because unlike Regius she has more work to do than just sit in an office and scream at people.

* Teana is relieved by Signum so she can visit the injured (mainly Subaru) in the hospital, and Nanoha-mama is trying to drown the pain and worry in work.  Oh sure, she won’t say that’s what she’s doing, but it’s what she’s doing.

* Ooh, Nanoha just found Vivio’s burned and torn bunny. Yeah, she ain’t reacting well to that.

* Over in the hospital Shari is tearfully apologizing to Fate for failing to stop the army of robots, fembots, and summoner girl with the big bugs.  I don’t think anybody expected her to personally stand up to that much.

* Looks like the worst injuries were sustained by Zafira, Rein (GRRRRRR!!!!), and Vice.  None of them are in critical condition at this point, but Vice and Zafira at least aren’t going to be getting up anytime soon.  And we still haven’t seen Subaru’s condition after having the flesh torn from her arm and all that.  Really, if she wasn’t a cyborg they might have had to give her a replacement anyway.

* Well Subaru’s acting like things aren’t a big deal and she’s moving her arm, but there’s a definite mechanical sound as she does so, and the nerve cables were injured so she can’t move it around particularly well.  I wonder where she’d get replacement parts for that kind of thing anyway?  It sort of brings back the speculation from last time of “regular replacements or nanomachines”.

* Apparently it must be Nanomachines, because Subaru is expected to recover in a few days.

* Caro and Erio decide to the other two must want soup, i.e. give the two a little alone time. Normally I’d be making winky faces over that but I’m pretty sure this is going to be a more serious conversation.

* Tea doesn’t try to spare Subaru’s feelings when she blames herself for bad decisions made during the fight.  It was a mistake to rush ahead and get into more than she could handle, even if she did make one heck of a showing for herself.  Nothing like tough love.  But she also reassures Subaru that they’re going to act as a team to get them back for this and rescue Ginga and Vivio while nailing Jail to the wall.  If he’s lucky, that will be metaphorical.  If he’s unlucky, Nanoha will want to discuss her feelings on the matter.

* While Hayate grills Auris about what Regius has been up to, Fate and Nanoha are asking Nakajima about his family, what with the whole “actually cyborgs” thing.

* Hmm… some interesting stuff here.  The cyborg project was actually several ones that dated back to before the founding of the TSAB, and multiple worlds were trying to figure it out.  There was only a real breakthrough about 25 years ago. Chrono also mentions that this isn’t the only thing mechanical and biotechnology has been used for, as apparently the TSAB makes use of artificial bones and organs.  Goodness knows we could use that kind of tech.  Heck, my dad is going in for spinal injections Monday because he’s missing a disc and they can’t actually replace it, just try and bring the swelling down.

* Oh, and apparently problems with rejecting the organs still pop up, so they haven’t solved that one yet. At least the sane scientists haven’t. The mad ones however figured out how to do so.  They actually change the cyborgs genes to accept the mechanical parts as a part of the body.  That seems ludicrously complicated and prone to failure, plus was something that had to do before the test subjects were even born.

* Nakajima’s wife was a TSAB investigator who was handling the early crop of combat cyborgs that were rampaging all crazy, and Ginga and Subaru are two of them that they decided to adopt because they weren’t having much luck the natural way.  That and the two kinda looked like they could belong to them anyway.  They tried to raise them as normally as possible with the TSAB doing the occasional bit of maintenance on their bodies, until Mrs. Nakajima died on a secret mission and dad decided the girls were old enough to know the truth.

* After that Nakajima has been pursuing cases involving combat cyborgs on his own, and thinks Hayate is a bit sneaky for dropping a line about how her current project might end up involving them so he’d play ball.  Not that she was wrong, mind you.  They’ve got more of the things than they can handle right now.

* Hayate confronts Auris about the fact that Regius had approved of combat cyborgs and artificial mages being used by the TSAB in the past, only to get shut down because of costs and ethics.  As it’s apparent that Regius doesn’t care about ethics in the slightest Hayate wants confirmation that he was having the research continued in secret.

* Auris’ defense is Regius’ seniority and counterfactual whataboutism.  I swear this show was prescient.  Anyway, when that doesn’t work to deter Hayate Auris resorts to “get a warrant or piss off”.

* Ooh, turns out there’s to be an immediate inquiry into Regius and his other pet project is being shut down.  Couldn’t have happened to a more deserving man… in this particular fictional universe.

* Holy crap, the picture of Zest that the security cameras captured managed to scare Regius into an actual heart attack!  Somebody knows they’re in trouble.

* Speaking of Zest, he’s possibly not as much of a threat as Regius thinks as he’s out in the woods vomiting blood.  Agito is acting as his nurse and freaking out, though he says the attack has passed for the moment.

* Uno calls him up while Agito leaves to make medicine, and also comments on the fact that he looks like hell.  Zest isn’t concerned about that.  He states that he isn’t of much use nor is he going to get in their way.  Uno lets slip to the viewers that Zest is an artificial mage, which might be the reason for the guy having the hate he does for Regius and Jail.  Zest makes another interesting claim, that he’s already died before and this is just a temporary reprieve before going back into his grave.  Does this mean the Doc was experimenting on corpses as well?  ‘Cause if so that’s make Zest a lich, which is kinda awesome.  Though it could just be that he considers his old self dead after a near death followed by capture and experimentation.

* It seems that the beating Cinque and Ginga took were enough to require the both of them to require extensive repairs.  Nove wants to kill Subaru and Tea for that, but Quattro reminds her that they need Subaru alive.

* And now we’ve learned why Lutecia is working for the Doc.  Apparently he’s got her mom in a tube, and she can only be brought back with Relic XI. Supposedly.  Lutecia actually doesn’t recognize the woman in the tube, she’s just been told that’s her mom.

* Sweet!  Hayate decided that for the time being Riot Force 6 would benefit from having a more mobile base that’s big enough for the members live in, so they’re taking the Arthra out of storage and putting her to use one last time.

* That night Fate has to comfort Nanoha over the kidnapping of Vivio.  Nanoha might have put on a brave face in front of the kids and TSAB staff, but she is not taking this well at all.  Fate reassures her that Vivio is fine right now.  The Doc wouldn’t actually do anything to hurt her.

* So of course the episode ends with Vivio on an operating table screaming for her mama as Jail prepares to inject her with a Relic, saying she is going to be his masterpiece.

 Well that’s the end of that. This episode appears to have mostly been about recovering from the previous couple, as well as informing everybody on how things came to be like this.  Not the best episode if you don’t like exposition, but there was some interesting new info there.  And it does a very good job of showing just how scummy both Jail and Regius are.  After all, they’ve been working together. Gotta love the implication that Regius had Subaru’s mother killed for getting too close, and also showing that Jail is not only willing to experiment on terrified children, but that he’ll do so with a smile on his face.

[mrsmythe101-blog]

As I Pass, Do I Give You The Ass Or The Crotch? (The Fire Wheel 2017 Volume 4)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. life is. trying to take my mind off what has been going on so let's see if this helps.

 1. Fences (2016)- So based on the stage play, this is a really good adaption. Set in the 50's, Denzel "king kong aint got nothing on me" Washington and Viola Davis play a married couple seemingly having a decent life but lord knows there is cracks in the vase if you know what I mean. Denzel's son has aspirations to play sports but Paw Paw ain't hearing that noise. Not cause he is worried about failure or something but because he is a failed athlete himself. And he has demons to boot. All the while his faithful wife sticks by his side until a little twist towards the end but that shit on the shelf. Really great acting but at times feels a little heavy handed. Not a big deal in the long run. Get it, Fences is a metaphor. A-

 2. The Fate Of The Furious (2017)- Oh man these flicks are like cockroaches. Cars are flying. And just like flying cockroaches, you know it's time to get the hell out of dodge. No pun intended. So I have been only keeping up half assedly so I have no idea what is what. I realize that some of the movies are not in exact order. Like one character dies like 5 movies back but is back for the last few. Actually 2 characters are like that. Speaking of which, the replacement (token white boy) they trot out has the personality of a malfunctioned dildo. So in this one, Vin "Baby Groot" Diesel has gone bad. Or is it a trick/plan? The effects are so off the wall and storyline is bat shit crazy you figure at this point, they are just fucking with the audience to give up that money. When Ludacris can stop a missile with his bare hands, now you know you done  jumped the shark and the goddamn ocean. Can't wait till the next one when the inevitably get to space. You know that shit is coming. Probably be looking for Spock or some shit. He can drive one hell of a stick shift. Pun intended.  B-

 3. The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)- Hollywood will never get tired of telling tales of the crimes of WW2/ Nazi's. This one has a couple in Poland who took in Jews and their animals when the Nazi's attacked the country. I thought this might get tedious cause it seems I have seen all kinds of Nazi movies the last few year's but this was really fascinating. Sad and you take in perspective really how fucked up times were back then. Shit times are fucked up now, what am I talking about.  B+

 4.The Belko Experiment (2017)- What a experiment of a movie. So set in Colombia (big red flag right there) where this corporate high rise employees all kinds of people mainly Americans. So everyone is friendly for the most part, you do get that occasion of the office pervert (played by the head doctor from Scrubs). So all of a sudden some voice comes on the intercom saying that some people are going to die unless you kill this many people. No one believes it, thinking it's a joke. BUT check this. These idiots who are so desperate for work I guess, has agreed before they start said job that it would be ok for this mysterious company to implant chips inside their head. So these voices have the power to set off these chips and people's heads start blowing up like a goddamn sequel to Scanners. So after about 20 people catch a fade like that, the voices are like we need 40 people dead or we killing more of you all at random. So a few dude's join up like a posse and decide yeah we about to kill folks so we don't die. And basically it just escalates from there. The question of morality and to do right or wrong. Or does human nature for the need to survive make you do things that just a few hours prior you would think is totally out of the question. Very interesting think piece. Also they can't get out cause they get barricaded in. I would just try to flush myself down a toilet. Improvising.  C+

 5.Critters 2 (1988)- I wanna thank Nicole and her man for pulling me into this one. I don't remember seeing Part 1. I'm sure I have but fuck it let's do Part 2. So these furry little bastards with teeth like piranha land back on earth looking for flesh meat. The subtitle is 'The Main Course', get it? Wow this is 80's cheesy to the ninth degree. The effects, dialogue, acting, hell I bet even the catering, all cheesy. This is a the ultimate make fun of it flick while you watch. Nothing wrong with turning your brain off and laying in the sea of stupidity.  C-

 6. Arrival (2016)- At first had no interests in this when it was first released. But this was a free screening so hey free is my favorite word. Amy Adams is this professor who get's recruited by the government when it seems that the world is under siege by aliens who have come to earth. Now they are not attacking or anything, just like 12 ships in random cities around the world just chilling in one place hovering in the sky. So people all over are paranoid wondering what's going on? Are they friendly, or have other motives? They make contact with them and then the movie becomes about some ancient language. You have to pay attention to this flick, leave the room 5 minutes come back, what the hell is going on? Critters 2 you can leave the room for a hour and come back and be like oh they still eating people huh? Here nah none of that. Also on a side note Amy is dealing with the sudden death of her daughter and have nightmares about it. They pop a twist on you which you can see coming if you are paying attention but wasn't bad. A very interesting question they bring up, a moral dilemma on how you would handle a situation if you knew the outcome beforehand. Lot's of movies this month have moral obligations, except Critters 2. The only dilemma is when is the good time to take a shit.  B+

 7.Free Fire (2017)- Set in Boston 1978, a bunch of hoods all meet up in a warehouse to do a big deal on some firearms. One thing leads to another, a rare coincidence, tempers flare, words are thrown about. Before you know it someone get's shot. Then everyone is shooting at each other. Very claustrophobic where it is all set in this warehouse in Boston (actually shot in England). Some funny one liners, not a movie with a lot to say. A nice tight hour and a half which is perfect for this. Anything longer would of been overkill, pun intended. One thing that got me was there was one black dude. Set in Boston. 1978. And not one racial sample of jargon came out of no one's mouth. There we go Hollywood making strides! Just don't go to a Red Sox game now. Hey who threw those peanuts!?   C+

 8. The Circle (2017)- So I had not heard of the book before seeing this but reading some reviews, people think the book sucks. Hey it is all subjective so let's check the movie instead. A young lady get's a job at some high profile tech company only to find out things are not what it seems. A very interesting cast Emma Watson (she is everywhere!), Bill Paxton (ah man, sad),  Patton Oswalt (what is he doing here?), the black dude from the force awakens (hey that guy is getting work, cool!), Beck (seriously, what is he doing here??), and Thomas Hanks (the bad dude). This movie doesn't know if it wants to be satire, a weird comedy, or deadly serious which would be just sad. I have to see it again but I left out like what the hell was that? They all can't be winners, unless of course you are involved with Critters 2. If so then you won in life my friend.  D+

  That is it for the month of April. So far for the year, we are up to 40. Even threw the bullshit of life I try to at least have one thing I can look forward to doing. Hopefully you will be around for next month. Take care.

[gcs2017-blog]

Journal Entry #7: Pilsen

First off, this trip had me super excited. This time around for our last trip, we went to Pilsen! I took a trip to Pilsen a while ago in my journey to find a dollar store. This time around we were looking for more than just dollar store deals.

First off, we hopped onto the 29 Bus going along state street then the 21-bus going along Cermak to even get to Pilsen. We set our map to the most important place to go in Pilsen: Xurro! (2214 S. Wolcott Ave) Also, known as the Churro Factory, we stumbled upon a second location in Pilsen near the pink line. I was hungry ant at 9 in the morning, I was thinking that maybe a churro would be better than actual food. The location we went to was a small shop with 3 little tables We were greeted by an older Hispanic woman. Having had churros before I already knew what I was in for. But I tried my churro filled with cream cheese this time around and it was heavenly. And the price! It was only $1.50! For the same sized churro, I remember paying 5 dollars and it didn’t even taste good. I also got some horchata to drink. Horchata is a sweetened drink made with rice. A Venezuelan friend of mine had me try it a few years back. It’s probably the only thing I could drink every day and never tire of it. And the one they had at Xurro was just as good. Yummy!

With our sweets devoured we headed back out to the streets of Pilsen. There was a church that we passed on our way to Xurro. As we walked to the church, we passed by street cart selling some sort of deliciously smelling food. Several people were near making purchases. The weather was nice but still chilly but the food seller probably had bills to pay and the people were willing to come outside to get food. The way the cart was positioned on the street, it was hard to find a way to approach the cart to peek at what he was selling without seeming interested in buying some of the food. So we decided to keep on our way to the church. We visited St. Paul Catholic Church( 2127 W 22nd Pl). Founded in 1876 to serve 40 German families, St. Paul now serves a large Hispanic population even having service in both English and Spanish. In fact, when we first approached the massive structure that was the church we tried to go inside through the front doors but they were locked on the sign on the door was completely in Spanish. Thankfully 6 years in Spanish hadn’t failed me and I understood it to mean that we needed to enter and exit from the doors along 22nd street. We walked in and it looked as if a dance class or some sort of exercise class had just ended. There were women chatting away in Spanish, wiping away sweat from their foreheads as their daughters ran around chasing one another. The inside of the church on the lower level has mostly stone walls. They were beautiful to me since that is not something I have seen before. After finding the stairs to the first floor, if I thought that the stone walls in the basement, the church itself took my breath away. 

It was so beautiful and so peaceful and although I am a Muslim I could just feel the work that went into the church in the name of God. The sanctity and piety in the space was evident so much so it rendered us quiet. We whispered as we walked through taking pictures. The one thing that stood out amongst the beauty was that all the statues were covered in purple cloth. 

 Upon further research, it seems that this is in observance of Lent. It is a way for Christians to long for Easter Sunday. It is to alert Christians of the special time that they are in and to focus on the words being said during Mass. At the time, I figured it was for a special reason. In lobby, we were graced by more stained glass windows. All the signs for parish activities in the lobby and the information packets were also in both Spanish and English. It was a church that suited the community.

As we continued along, we saw a lot of lavanderias and panaderias and carnerias, different shops in Spanish. We saw more of those than we did commercial shops. There were also plenty of taquerias that looked oh so tempting.

We also saw a lot of murals. Each unique none the same but the same goal was there: To celebrate the Hispanic culture of Pilsen. 

A lot of the murals contained ancient references that remined me of when I studied about Aztec and Mayan culture. There were murals with Frida Kahlo, a famous female Mexican painter, there was one that had several different languages displayed and a quote. 

There was one at the Damen train stop that celebrated different aspects of Pilsen and people in the community. 

We saw ones that celebrated Mexican woman and Mexican men. The women were in traditional dresses and the men were dressed in the clothes of rancheros. 

There was reference to birds in a few of the murals.

 I vaguely remember birds having a significance in the Aztec Mayan culture. There were many murals with the Virgin of Guadalupe or other religious symbols.

 One of the murals has Jesus depicted. All the murals represented the culture of the Mexican community, colorful displays of their history, their heroes, their faith, and their people. It was beautiful. And the murals are everywhere. On the sides of buildings and on stairs and in alleys and on schools. There were mosaics all along the façade of the Jose Clemente Orozco Community Academy.

They were very beautiful and since they were mosaics, it must have taken a long time to make them. In a way, the mosaics and the murals remind me of the churches in that they are so detailed and so intricately drawn or made and so beautiful because just like God and creating a special house for Him is important to those decorating a church, the celebration of Mexican culture is important to Pilsen and that is why it is so beautifully covered in murals and mosaics to celebrate what is so important to them: the aspects that make up their diverse and unique culture.

We decided to head over to the National Museum of Mexican art and as we walked past the school we saw something written on a board in the garden next to the school. It said, “Pilsen is not for sale”. I immediately thought of gentrification, how the city comes in and by us neighborhood after neighborhood building them into more places for the affluent to live and play because the previous tenants can no longer afford to live there. And I just felt that this simple writing embodied the ideas of the people of Pilsen, that they were here and they would stay.

We finally arrived at the Museum. Entry was free and there were 3 exhibits available for us to see. We all know that art is a way of expressing who someone or something is and that is what I saw at the museum. I saw art that include corn and insects like the grasshopper and scorpions. A colorful quilt depicting children and the sun and Aztec symbolism. Statues from ancient times, pottery painted with intricate designs, statues celebrating Día de Los Muertos. There were paintings that had horses, different people doing everyday things and political art with the sign to the gallery saying “Galeria sin Fronteras” or Gallery without borders. The political art was the best for me. 

There was a 3D one that was cool. When you walked in, you saw a skeleton dressed up like he had been out in the fields. Then as you stood in front of it, you can see a slightly different version of the Sun Maid Raisins box. 

The woman was a skeleton smiling and the subtitle said “Unnaturally grown with insecticides, miticides, herbicides, fungicides. Then as you walk toward the left of it you see the same picture as on the right only It’s the picture of the actual man before he was a skeleton. And in front of this whole display or rather below it was an altar of some sorts with the hat and the lunch box and water canteen and gloves of the man that worked the fields. It really brought it into perspective what it was like for these men. I wonder if maybe that is why I never really like raisins growing up. Now I never want to see this box again.

There was plenty of other art but the ones I like the most was the Mona Lupe by Cesar Augusto Martinez. It was the picture of the Mona Lisa but she was dressed like the Virgin of Guadalupe. And then there was one that was in neon lights and I could not get a good picture of it but it said, “Make Tacos Not War”. Very clever in my opinion.

We continued along, finding another church decorated all along its bottom with murals.

 But as we walked to the pink line station on toward the family dollar, we saw student housing. It was called “La Casa” and it was very new and modern. And we kept asking what school was nearby for there to be an actual student housing complex. But it seemed that maybe it was called that to accommodate any student that needed a place to live that was cheap and relatively close to school. Besides Illinois Tech, UIC is also nearby. But it still seemed so odd. And it again had me thinking about gentrification.

We went into the Pink Line Station at 18th street to see the murals all along the walls and the stairs. I would love it if every neighborhood did that to brighten up the train stations. It would be lovely. The color added so much more to the usually dull station.

We walked out of the station and along the street. We passed a panaderia called El Acambaro which sold authentic Mexican bread.

 We passed Zarai, which was closed but the sign said “Ropa Tipica” which from the looks of it meant traditional clothing. The dresses were all in the styles of traditional wear not like the modern dresses of today. 

We passed signs on stores that said “Sanctuary for our people. You are safe here. You Belong”. 

Then there was a place that looked like it helped people with immigration and deportation. There was also a sign that I saw in Logan Square that said “No, In the name of humanity we refuse to accept a fascist America”.

There were of course plenty of taquerias that we passed that tempted us with their cheap prices and savory smells but ultimately, we headed back to the Damen Pink Line Station, which was right next to this cute café called “L’Cafecito Jumping Bean.”

For being our last field trip, I must say that Pilsen did not disappoint at all. It was beautiful and vibrant and another neighborhood that I would love to visit again. Not just for the food or the fun but because it just was a great place to see and experience a new culture a new world not too far from me. This whole class has made me want to explore the city more and more. I want to see all that Chicago has to offer.                                            

Resources:

http://aleteia.org/2016/03/19/why-do-we-cover-crucifixes-and-statues-during-lent/

http://stpaulchgo.org/?page_id=298

Map: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Lower+West+Side,+Chicago,+IL/@41.8474056,-87.696635,13z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x880e2dadbba0bd13:0x600790c3e14d6ce2!8m2!3d41.848922!4d-87.6695189

All photos taken by me

 K.N.