#or maybe it was economic commentary. maybe he was just saying no one can afford the nice pots and pans before theyre 30

[unnonexistence]

perhaps by the time I'm middle-aged people will stop mistaking me for a teenager

[dayscapism]

Thoughts on Tomorrow (mostly on episode 2)

TW: Mentions of depression, bullying & suicide

So I watched a couple of episodes of Tomorrow and I don't think I'll be continuing with the drama. Episodes 1 & 2 left me a bit conflicted, and the next two episodes didn't give hope for the series as a whole.

There's some good, but also some very bad: I really like that both Rowoon's character and the female lead Goo Ryeon are always quick and firm when defending people that belittle and invalidate the suicidal people, reassuring me of the intention of the show. But the cases shown so far are all too quickly and neatly resolved, despite being solved through the wrong methods; even the abusers get what they're due (sort of), getting some of the same sufferings and publicly discredited.

I couldn't stand episode 2. I was just screaming at the screen. In this episode, the suicide attempt is solved with harsh words, then the grim reaper Goo Ryeon lets the person fall off a building to save her at the last second, and then somehow it seems like the suicidal person will now magically be happy. More than unrealistic, the whole thing felt dishonest.

Rowoon's character is right when he says how can Goo Ryeon talk to someone suicidal in the manner that she does. She dares them to jump off, by saying stuff like: "Jump, then. No one will care, because who cares about people like you," and then "Did you even try to overcome your trauma? You should have tried harder" or "It's all because you're weak and a coward", etc. And once she's saved her, Goo Ryeon is all: "oh it's the bullies that are evil? Not you. Just be happy from now on, okay? Don't let anyone treat you badly again." Like??? Yeah, that was never in question here!! Our trauma brain isn't usually rational.

I suppose that's the point of Rowoon's character here. He's the empath of the team. (Rowoon as an actor is always so sympathetic and emotional.) And maybe, maybe this approach could work in a specific case, and I'm not a mental health professional, but it's obvious the way Goo Ryeon routinely handles the cases it's not a good approach to helping suicidal people. Sure, she gets results, but at what cost? More trauma?

This poor girl from episode 2 is now traumatized by a close encounter with a callous pink-haired grim reaper (something which she probably won't be able to explain in therapy if she went). She really needed therapy for the years-long trauma and PTSD (probably anxiety too). She needed her workplace to be more humane. She needed for her boss to be reprimanded if not fired for his unprofessionalism, and maybe for HR to intervene when she said she couldn't do the job due to mental health and she should have been excused. No job, no profit is worth anyone's mental wellbeing. Maybe they could have made some commentary on how non-empathetic the company workplaces and capitalism are, and how negatively it can affect people's underlying mental health issues. And that would have been a less exciting and supernatural story I imagine.

These characters have gone through a supernatural event after the grim reapers save them, and sure that would probably change anyone's life view, but saving people from a suicide attempt is NOT usually the end of the journey; they won't be automatically happy and their problems solved.

For this suicide risk management team of grim reapers to make a true difference, they would need to do stuff like therapy accessibility, make sure they have a support system, make sure they have affordable housing & enough economic stability to push themselves out of their mental health struggles (for which maybe they would need to strike them with some supernatural luck so they get a well-paying job)... but can you imagine how complicated this would be when all of these are the systemic problems we face in the real world?

With the alarming suicide rate in South Korea (and globally), it's commendable that more dramas seem to be attempting to incorporate it into their stories. But oh the paradox of writing stories about mental health: either you do it faithfully, with care, and it becomes a terribly structured story and probably boring too, or you do it for entertainment and just give some terrible potentially problematic representation. Because in real life, mental health is complex and intersectional with many other issues like economic stability, race, gender, class, ethnicity, etc, etc. Saving someone like the guy (homeless I think he was) in episode 1 and then just leave him be will probably solve nothing for them.

Yet I'm not sure if this show is going in a direction like The Good Place did, where, in the end, the system and the structures that have been in place for centuries are what's at fault, not the individual. Here they understood that people grow when you give them support and love, while sometimes being powerless against systems (and mind you, The Good Place is also a hilarious show).

Of course the subject matter is different, so it might be unfair to compare the two. I do hope Tomorrow will feature stories in future episodes about victims whose recovery is not as straightforward, bullies who are not so easily taken down, and maybe even cases that actually... fail and end up in tragedy, because it would make the message stronger and more honest.

Maybe that's the entire point of Rowoon's character, maybe at the end it will be a hopeful and beautifully written show about a sensitive topic, and I did try watching 2 more episodes but I couldn't see it happening.

Also, I understand suicide it's still taboo in a lot of places and a charged topic (it seems even for grim reapers) but everyone calls them weak or sinners. I guess grim reapers are as prejudiced and human as humans, and that's why the suicide risk management team is such a small team. Speaking of, this whole "will dissolve the team if you don't show results" warning plot point does nothing for the tension. For what reason do they need this extra layer of a challenge when they're already struggling to keep afloat and save people? It's just distracting and slows down the already slow pacing of this drama.

I honestly had to fast-forward a lot of parts in episode 2. Maybe that's praise for how much it made me feel for the victim, but it's also a bit of a miss when they're also going for a workplace comedy. Ultimately, I think they tried not to be too heavy, too problematic, too much... but I actually think they should have gone all-in with it. Right now it feels like a supernatural comedy with tonal problems, surface-tackling of complex subjects in a melodramatic manner when I feel it should be the opposite: a serious show with complex cases, messy outcomes & realistic portrayals of long-term prognosis of mental health and suicide, while the main characters try to lighten up and cope with such a job on their daily life with comedy, and while also having personal mysteries to resolve. 

I am happy for everyone that is liking this show, I wanted to like it too (I'm having a media slump for me right now where nothing lands) and maybe it will bring some needed attention to the topic of suicide prevention, but I'm honestly not sure what to say, as I probably won't finish it.

Like Tim from the YT channel, Hello Future Me says: writing mental health topics well (especially depression and suicide), it's COMPLICATED. There is no perfect method, and you might have to compromise on some storytelling aspects. Balancing good storytelling when writing about mental health it's very, very hard to do. To be fair, I think the Eastern/Asian storytelling structure is better for this, and also a serialized format like a tv series, a video game, or comic, as opposed to single-installment stuff like a 2 hr movie or standalone book.

If you want a show with a fantasy, afterlife premise with amazing discussions on morals & capitalism watch The Good Place. If you want afterlife & death discussions + buddy comedy watch Goblin: the Lonely and Great God (I mean it's not perfect in the main romantic pair but the all the subjects are treated with sensitivity). Or if you want some ghosts + comedy along with a bunch of good tragedy watch Hotel del Luna.

[ayameyumesaki]

Another interesting fact I found when I read TB's 2nd volume.

Sumeragi's family house is in Sagano, Kyoto. Sagano is always been paired with Arashiyama. Yes, that Arashiyama, where you can find these scenery.

(Picture taken from Japan Rail Pass website)

According to Japan Guide, Arashiyama actually refers to the mountains on the southern bank of Togetsukyo Bridge, where the northern part refers to Sagano, but they actually called the whole district as Arashiyama due to its popularity. That's why the anime isn't entirely wrong when it wrote Arashiyama as where Sumeragi's family house is, because Sagano and Arashiyama are one part.

And please notice that the house is huge. As expected from a well-known, reserved onmyoji family. And it's written as 本宅 (hontaku), means main residence. That should be enough to explain how Subaru and Hokuto can afford their own private MANSION.

Talking about Hokuto and Subaru,

Please ignore cute polkadot pajama Subaru stretching like a cute cat because that's for the commentary

The mansion Subaru and Hokuto lived was in Kabuki-cho, Shinjuku, Tokyo. Their mansion was placed in a popular area in Shinjuku itself, close to Shinjuku Station. A very strategic place to reside in, especially with the nature of Subaru's work that keeps him busy and rely on trains.

And while people who live outside Japan probably think mansions aren't that expensive, this is Japan, and the story took place during Economic Bubble period. Real Estates are expensive at the time, and even now, one can barely afford a mansion in the middle of Tokyo. The most common housing in Japan is apartments, especially studio apartments, but Sumeragi Clan literally prepared two separated mansions for their heirs.

Let's just say Subaru has his own income and probably paid the necessary with his own money. How about Hokuto? She was still in high school, and seeing her expenses on clothing, it's either she worked as fashion designer in secret OR Sumeragi family is super rich.

Fun Fact: Seishiro's clinic is also in Kabuki-cho. But we know how high he was paid for being an assassin (while keeping his hobby, stalking, on track).

And talking about this place...

I wonder why Obaa-chan allowed her grandchildren to move into this town. Unless....

EDIT: Thanks @sixth-vip for reminding me that I haven’t mentioned it! Japan’s Mansion isn’t your normal house building, but it’s similar to condominium or expensive apartment (like ones you find in New York) in western style,. Meanwhile, apartments are smaller in size (maybe around hostel size). And you see, Subaru’s room is huge--because mansions are bigger in size and usually used by families. I forgot to mention that mansions in Japan and outside Japan have different context. Both are expensive anyway.

[unrestedjade]

More baseless Ferengi headcanons no one asked for: LATINUM EDITION~~~

- Almost every home is a rental, as almost all usable land is corporate-owned. Might as well daydream about owning a moon, it's no less realistic than owning the house you grew up in. (No I'm not frustrated with my $1500 rent at all, no I'm not miserable watching 40-year-old trailer homes selling for $250k to a property management firm that's going to rent it out. Surely a place like Ferenginar wouldn't be equally ridiculous, hahahahahahahahHAHAHAHA. Ahem.) - Latinum as religious fetish. We see Quark offering slips of latinum while he prays to the Blessed Exchequer before bed. He even has a little shrine. What's unclear is whether you're meant to reuse the same slips each day or if you have to actually "give up" the latinum over the longer term for the offering to count. You can break a piggy bank, but it's probably bad to break an image of the Exchequer, unless he's very chillaxed compared to the majority of gods. - Assuming really giving up the latinum is better, is destroying it extra good? Or are you sinning by removing it from the Continuum? Are there Ferengi extremist sects that sink latinum into bogs or launch it into a star?

- What do they think and feel about latinum with regards to the Exchequer? What does a god need with it? Is it meant to be his lifeblood, figuratively? Or literally, via transubstantiation? (Catholic Ferengi. Cathipitolists.)

- How was latinum treated in the days before they knew to process it with gold so it could be handled safely? It's very pretty and ethereal-looking in its raw form, and also very, very toxic. Depending on the symptoms of latinum poisoning, I wonder if it had anything to do with it gaining religious significance? Ancient Ferengi priests seeing visions and going a little funny in the head from handling raw latinum for years and years?

- The way Quark and Brunt talk about taxes in S7 suggests there's not a lot of taxation in Ferengi society (officially, anyway. idk what else you'd call their ubiquitous bribes/tips than unofficial taxation). In any case, since one of the major purposes of taxation in modern economies is to control inflation by removing money (governments create/destroy money; they don't really keep a little checkbook register of surplus/deficit the way a household does) offering latinum to the Exchequer as an act of worship could be a good way to take money out of circulation for a while. - Latinum vs fiat money? Latinum is canonically used as coinage by multiple species. (It would seem like Ferengi are putting themselves at a bit of a disadvantage by also attaching a spiritual importance to it, but who knows, and this is a tangent on a tangent.) Is all their money backed by latinum? It can't be, right? Just conceptually, their stock markets and banks can't possibly be tying every value in every account to a real, physical measure of latinum, that's horribly inefficient. Can "latinum" also mean any legitimate liquid asset? Or does the Exchequer insist on the real thing? Much to ponder. - Brunt implies in Family Business that Ferenginar has houseless people and beggars. There's no point in begging if no one ever gives you anything, so some people must give charity to beggars. What's that look like, is it something kind-hearted Ferengi do in spite of the RoA explicitly stating that charity is only acceptable when you come out richer than you started? What's their rationalization in that case? Are they left feeling shameful about it? (Obviously the people stuck begging feel shitty, by design. Ironically, they might feel less shitty than we would, since the Exchequer doesn't appear to care how you get money, only that you get it.) - If you're moved to give money/material aid to a needy person, you'd probably do it quietly. Here in the good ol' US of A a common view is that "hand-outs" hurt the needy person in the long run because you're removing their impetus to stop being lazy sponges. And that's from people who follow a religion that commands them to care for the needy! So it's gotta be even harsher under a religion that's completely mask-off in its worship of individual prosperity. - (You just know Keldar was one of those people tossing a few slips of latinum for someone sleeping under a shop awning each morning. His business sense sucked but Ishka made him sound like a warm person. Folks gotta eat.) - Reincarnation... Alright, so if you were a dude and you die broke it's implied you can't reincarnate/are damned to the Vault of Eternal Destitution. Cool and fair, nothing to unpack there. What about women? They're half the population but seem to have been overlooked on this point in this here 10k-year-old religion. Which is telling in itself, of course, but you'd think someone would have addressed this? Who reincarnates female? Is the accepted understanding that females reincarnate female and are totally removed from the requirement to bid on their life? But that still doesn't solve the problem, because even if reincarnation were assigned-sex-segregated (god what a shitty idea, compels me tho) you're still losing X number of men to the Vault each generation. - I want to see what Ferengi religious debates look like. Pel is shown to be a serious scholar of the RoA as they've dug into not only the text itself but all the commentaries and refutations and deep-dives others have published about it. That's gotta fuel some spicy convo around the tongo table once everyone's a few drinks in. - Are there multiple sects? People arguing whether this or that rule is meant to be taken literally vs as metaphor? Everyone can't be in lockstep on this stuff. Quark seems to have been raised within the currently-hegemonic sect, but surely there's others.

- There don't appear to be any clergy or equivalent persons, so I wonder if there's different sects how they organize themselves? Do they host different subs on Ferengi Reddit? (Ferengi Reddit...shudder) - Ferengi atheists slacking at work or living as drifters because there's no point saving money for a next life that's not real. Life must drive them to drink. That's when you go out into space to live with the sane people and never call home.

- Is the rest of the population chill with atheists, or is that a no-go? I guess it would depend on how loud the person is and whether they follow the Rules or not.

- You know who they're definitely not chill with: socialists. Do they have Satanic Panics about this or that media turning the youth into commies? If you're an outspoken socialist, are you looking at exile? Arrest? An unexpected date with an Eliminator? - Conspicuous consumption seems to be a thing, and it's interesting in light of the whole "needing a good high score for a good reincarnation" idea. It still boils down to showing off how much you can afford to waste, but the stakes are undoubtedly higher for the faithful. - If something happens and you're at risk if losing everything, is it safer to just off yourself while you still have money? What if you're going to lose more than you'd ever be able to make back? (In economics this is called a perverse incentive lulz)

- The Great Monetary Collapse must have suuuuucked. It's the Great Depression x100, and also your god is mad at you, maybe??? And your next life is totally screwed now, too. Fuckin' dire, man. When Quark mentioned it in the show, it was with this flippant air like he was waiting to see how Miles and Julian reacted. He might have elaborated more if they hadn't reacted...the way he probably assumed they would. (Partially a self-fulfilling prophecy given the way he primed them to treat it as a joke, but I digress.) - Suicide rates are measurably higher in societies that elevate achievement and work ethic (see the Protestant vs Catholic divide on this, it's interesting and very depressing as a lapsed protestant in a protestant-dominated country). Just saying. - On this same bummer track: hedonic depression could be very commonplace among Ferengi. Every minute not spent working is spent on distraction because life is just such an exhausting grind, and a lot of factors determining whether you're a good/successful person are out of your control. Booze, porn, and gambling are all very distracting, and thus very popular. If a lot of this just sounds like regular degular capitalism: yes. It's actually proving difficult to push the fictional society further out because we're already living beyond satire. Maybe that's why I like these awful little guys so much. (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

[gg-astrology]

hiii!! i'm that hannah montana but seokjin agenda anon, tell hi to your friend!! the lvl of my satisfaction is impossible to describe, thank you for your service. and yes, you've fulfilled my request!! i really appreciate your efforts, it was on point!! can i request more bangtan things?? only if it's alright with you :| can you do the same ranking for them from ' i'm rich 3$, wine and dine me' to 'i have a rolled blanket as my pillow' *cough* jk *cough*. from that to a simpler lifestyle? thk!

Hey there!! 💕❤️💕 Welcome back!!! 💕❤️💕💕❤️💕 slkskjnsdkjns she saw this and im really glad u like it!! 💕❤️💕💕❤️💕 

U can! 💕❤️💕Me and my friend really like your questions because it’s very thoughtful and fun!! 💕❤️💕 

EDIT: My friend said they interpreted this question differently into ‘how complex vs simple’ their lifestyle is and!!!!!!!!!! maybe we’ll edit and add it in anon if u send in another ask I’ll ask my friend if they want to answer?? I’m sorry!!!!! My 2nd house sun immediately: Wealth  

Please send us more questions, but maybe not this one bc it’s about their personal lifestyle/how they live (+ not their personalities or what they’ve shown us) and it may be treading on 1. making assumptions about their personal life in which we’re in no authoritative position to commentate on  

2. we can obviously talk about how we view them and write commentaries on how we feel/what we think, but there’s also a line where we have to acknowledge people might see us as credible information/authority in our own rights when it’s out in public/shared to an audience 

3. what they’ve shown us clear boundaries between public figures and their audience might be wiser 

4. acknowledging our position of power + influence to the community rather than ignoring the fact that our words have sway will help us in the long-run by making conscious, thoughtful choices on what we could give/bring to the fan/outside community as well. 

I hope this makes sense?? 💕❤️💕 I hope it’s ok if I mulled it over last night and thought I might not – it might not be the best idea to talk about it/put it out there?? 

Please don’t feel bad at all!! 💕❤️💕I really love your questions and I actually wrote as I tried to figure out how to do this (literally just disclaimers before I realized oh maybe there’s no way to do this properly and I shouldn’t??) – I don’t want you to get out of this ask empty-handed, so if it makes it any better – I’ll publish my working through below the read more and you might see what I was working out as I try to answer your question?? 💕❤️💕 

Long commentary on BTS privilege, social inequality + wealth disparities in the real world (disclaimer for this ask?)  +  Working Outs and Why It Didn’t Work ⬇️

Note: From here on below is me writing my thoughts down as I tried to answer the ask, I hope that – even though I couldn’t answer your question – this is a good answer in other regards either way? Hopefully? 

Just a disclaimer note on BTS and this topic as well: In my head I’m immediately going into commentary about social inequality, wealth disparity and how poverty + classism exists in real life. 

Just a quick tangent, but real people suffer from this issue. Our society have consequences when it comes to wealth inequality + the ability to afford basic human amenities (healthcare, living/housing, food, education, transportation, disabilities etc.) 

Even when they’re relatable, BTS are billionaires who knows their position is privileged. Lets - make that clear for a second.  

They still do their best in variety shows where they have to compete/entertain the audience. What I’m trying to say is. I’d rather not ignore/make note that there’s a difference between being privileged, being aware of these issues and still preferring simpler lifestyles for themselves. Than being ignorant and completely insensitive/unaffected from the matter. They’re still privileged, let’s make that clear. And thus, as relatable as they are to the public/audience, they benefit from the social/economical/political power they have given by those around them (their audience, accessibility medias and production).  

In the context that is related (i.e. army joking that BTS fights over ramen) – BTS have never once shown that they’re unaware of their wealth + privilege, even it was a joke – the thing that is missing is the context –  they’re usually seen competing in BTS run/gayo, but it’s produced to let them showcase their dynamic and chemistry  - the prize (commodities/money) was never actually the main focus. 

A highly competitive game with members who know each other well - is actually what these shows are about. 

BTS doesn’t glorify their own wealth, nor have they acted as if they are poor in order to gain relatability or sympathy from the audience/masses (looking at armis 💜 who does this. delete armi 💜) 

It’s a part of why they have fans and why people like them. They’re able to sell products + contribute to relief/charity organizations and advocate campaigns.  Whilst they are in position of privilege compared to others - they’ve never not acknowledged that they could afford to do so for reasonable personal requests (i.e. safety on flights and in airports, security in their home, equipments to perform/produce with, reaching out to audiences that usually never has the opportunity to connect with them despite liking them for a long time, etc.)

I think it’s just important to note - for those who are armys and those who are looking at it from the outside - that this is what we see and why we’re talking about this. 

I just want us to acknowledge that they’re privileged and their lifestyle choices are personal, I think that’s what I’m doing here. 

So, commentary on social inequality of the world we all live in + BTS privilege in all this/disparities. check.

This is going to be disgustingly generalized to an incredible amount because we don’t have houses – to be completely honest, within the context of the question having houses is exactly what we need for these types of answers. 

From a technical stand-point, not having houses when we’re talking about specific contexts within a person’s life (basically why we have so many houses - for different contexts) – will make this reading terribly vague and misleading as well. 

Actually, should we do this at all.. because simply saying oh Taurus/Libra placements would want materialistic things to show x, y, z is incredibly misgiving and is like a blanket statement. Without houses in question, there’s no specification on what it is used for or what kind, or what type of actions/manifestations these signs are going to have in order to express themselves.  

Planets in signs can only do so much to talk about the energy that is being produced – placing them in houses and context, gives them manifestation that doesn’t simply exist in a vacuum by itself.

All placements in a chart make up a cohesive picture of what it is used for, when and where. With only the how/why (placements) — the best I can probably do to answer the question is just explain how it could possibly manifest and why/what reasoning it may have to express itself that way.

While that is something I could? probably talk about. It… just doesn’t answer the question in a way that’s satisfying. This question is really good… and there’s a way to get there and give it the answer it wants. But.. with what we have, it’s a disservice to answer half-right and do a poor job overall, than to actually give the full answer.

Hnnnfghfnhgn there’s also.. some disclaimers on personal life for idols/public figures and how this might.. be almost assuming or intruding on that territory? From a glance it isn’t like it’s not something they’ve not shown us publicly or told us about. But they also didn’t advertise it, and what they do with their personal life/lifestyle– is that something we (as fan) are in anyway, shape or form, capable or have any voice to talk about as if we know what they’re doing? Does that? make sense? 

Like, intruding as in - do we have any authority to tell them to get a pillow or stop drinking wine or something like that. Speculate, on what restaurant they go to/how $$$ it is, or does things that are privileged, things that aren’t going to han river to bike, etc. Can we really pick and choose certain choices they choose to do with their lifestyle, while being completely separated from reality of their other?

Idk.. this is getting complicated.. but maybe sticking to things they are proud of and does talk about openly/happily in their public and professional persona might be better… considering that they should have? a modicum of personal life back to themselves? we could at least do that and choose to respect them right… thats? hm. what’s right.

Fine wine and dine, lavish restaurants and other personal choices on their expenses and love for/lifestyle… maybe.. its for the best if we leave it to their own authority and discretion, over their own private/personal life and what they choose to share with people they know/care for/love. 

I think the end all of it might just be: can I imagine them coming to say to us “army, you know how I am right? I’m like this in my personal lifestyle/choice” – and of what they could say, I don’t think that’s something they may be willing to share without their explicit consent, nor can I imagine it right now if it’s about messy habits or a flaw they may have. So hm. 

The question addresses simpler lifestyle too – we don’t have authority to commentate on JK’s pillow choices, but being exposed like that suddenly might not be something he’s entirely comfortable with or would advertise to others as well? Not to mention, they all seem to not advertise anything that is outrageously privileged that would smack anyone in the face – they’re pretty sensitive to keeping things personal, private, under-wraps. Even when they choose to eat at a well-known restaurant, it’s not in bad-taste or done frivolously. In a way, they all tend to keep a simpler lifestyle about them to not let their wealth + privilege get in the way of their work + connecting to us, focusing solely on what their skills are + performance and music. 

Simply going by that.. is it wise to talk about something we might just choose to show decency/a modicum of respect for the idol’s privacy maybe.. uhhdfjgnn i!!!!!!!!! there’s thoughts and feelings and im just trying to let it out so it makes sense and then i can navigate between it and see what i can do/the right way to talk about it (if it exists)!!

God.. I guess there’s.. no way I can possibly do this?? Considering if I think about it from all sides – I can’t approach it technically, without houses. I literally can’t answer this question, it isn’t about choice because answering this question is directly asking about the houses. So I literally can’t answer correctly. I also can’t – or well, I don’t think the moral issue is ok here when I think further on it. Consequences are inevitable with all posts/production, but optimizing it so that it affects people positively and minimize damage to others is always something to check through. This may not be a good idea, just to do. So maybe not. 

Hhndndhnndf ok,,, gotta,,, write something for the introduction so it makes sense.

Note: I did go through this, edit and write some additional paragraphs to make it make sense. But I hope this? gives you insight or some thoughts to my working process and what I consider/go through when I make these posts as well? Thank u for ur time, I hope it isn’t too disappointing ;;  let me know what u think/how u feel anon I’m sorry I couldn’t do this question but please let me know if you’re ok or not!!!! 💕❤️💕💕❤️💕

[drumpfwatch]

State of the Union 2019 Commentary

It’s been a week and some change. Let’s talk State of the Union.

First off, I’d like to make a comment on the overall speech theme. Trump spoke of unity and everyone coming together, but that very morning he went to yell at how obstructionist and obnoxious the Democrats were being for not giving him his baby bottle wall. This man, who speaks of himself as the best deal maker in the world, and bragged he’d be able to get everyone to get together and make friends, sort out their differences, when he has done nothing but make demand after demand and concede no ground.

A compromise, Mr. Trump, is two people coming together and agreeing on something they’re both willing to do while conceding parts of what they want. It’s called a surrender if someone gives you everything they want while getting nothing. Dummkopf.

So with that, let’s begin at the beginning. I warn you right now I don’t want to go over every single point he made, but I’ll cover as many of them as I can and comment as needed. There are other commentaries out there, some as soon as the day after, and those are more than cool to have hanging around. I’m sure between all of those you can come up with a total summary of what he said, based on every single word. With that, let’s begin.

As per his theme, he started the speech by calling for unity and cooperation. All well and good for anyone else. We should avoid revenge politics - which is fucking rich coming from him, but whatever. Specifically, he calls congress to concern themselves “with the agenda of the American people” but…

Well, we’ll get to that.

He thanks some WW2 vets and then talks about how he’s interested in “America First.” People have on more than one occasion pointed out that given his actions, he seems to mean “America Only” when he says that, and that should be a premise that is upsetting to everyone but I have no doubt there is a large portion of the population of the American population who are more than happy to ignore the rest of the world. They already do, after all.

He then introduces Buzz Aldrin, saying that we’ll be going to space on American rockets again. And he’s actually, sadly, right there. Back in 2011, the Space Shuttle program was retired, and we’ve been relying on the Russian Soyuz capsule to get us into the space ever since. The successor to the Space Shuttle Program, the Space Launch System, has been slow coming for numerous reasons. It is, however, finally going to be ready to go in 2019 and will perform its first mission in 2020 - sending a craft to Mars. They wanted a rocket that could get a crew to Mars eventually, and the Senate…

Well, let’s just say congress stuck it’s fingers into the Space Launch System so much that it has been derisively called the Senate Launch System, and a lot of astronauts and NASA Engineers are concerned that it is basically a horrible, efficient money sink. Still, as an avid space fanatic, I’m glad we’re making efforts, at least. Though I’d point out that those efforts have been in motion long before he ever got there to direct them. This is, after all, the man that believed we could go to Mars before his first term was out.

He next goes on to talk about the economy, claiming that our middle class is bigger and more prosperous than ever before. This is untrue. While it seems to be complicated, the general consensus is that while the Middle Class has been stable in size, they tend to have less and less, especially in comparison to the upper class. That is where the real problem is, as well. The absolutely ridiculous wealth disparity. Though I get the feeling that removing taxes from private jets is totally gonna help with that. She says, sarcasm frothing in her mouth in a mixture of rage and bitterness.

He then claimed responsibility for the parts of the economic boom that have been happening. First of all, the economy is...not exactly booming. But there are good things happening in it. It’s sort of a whirlygig of insanity, if I’m honest. Now, you’ll hear me say this again a few other times, but I am not all that educated when it comes to economics. Economics is a chaos system and I much prefer stable ones with easy to predict results. Is a thing right or wrong, is this method an effective way of accomplishing the intended goal. Things like that.

That said, I do know a few things, and one of them is that a lot of people who do know a thing or two about economics point out that this economic boom began in 2016, which means it's entirely possible that this is a result of Obama’s policies were responsible, we don’t really know. Maybe Trump did have something to do with it, but it’s often not accurate to blame the problems or successes of an economy on a single thing. So this claim gets a big ol’ stamp of “UNVERIFIABLE” from me.

I can say that wages are not rising, or at least as much as he thinks. The Federal Minimum Wage was not changed since 2009, and lost about 9.6% of its purchasing power because of inflation. While some states have made major strides towards livable minimum wages have been made in places like New York and California, I’d be willing to bet dollars to donuts that if you removed the massive amount of wealth that people like Jeff Bezos make, you’d find that they are stagnant, or even lowering.

There’s a thought for a math rant sometime.

Anyway, he then praises the 5 million people who got off of food stamps. First of all, the number is 3.5 million. Second of all, it’s a bit more complicated than that. To summarize, while the decrease in unemployment is helping, there’s another little niggling thing. There was a provision in the law that basically said you could turn off some of the safety nets if employment rates rose, and a lot of states decided not to pay for those benefits. I won’t argue whether or not that was a right or wrong decision, but I will say you don’t get to wave around the number of people who are off a program as a victory when the reason they’re off it isn’t because they don’t need it, but because they were kicked off it.

We’re the hottest economy in the world, he says! And he’s wrong. I mentioned before that we’re in a weird sort of “Good Things, Bad Things” phase, but I don’t think I need to tell anyone that the stock market has been all over the place, falling and rising considerably at random. Meanwhile, S&P has downgraded America’s credit score. I think we’ve got a problem, and I know we’re not the hottest economy.

He then goes onto say that the unemployment rate for people of color is the lowest it’s ever been. And shockingly, he’s right on this one. Sort of. The Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the rate of unemployment for hispanic people and black people actually went down, and was at one point the lowest it’s ever been. Asian unemployment has sorta been all over the place. What makes it strange, however, is that each of these groups had a random and sudden spike since November/December of last year, while for whites it’s been pretty stagnant. Last hired, first fired, I guess.

He also talks about the same with disabled people and that is blatantly untrue. While it seems the number of people who qualify for disability also is going up, they’re not getting employed any faster.

I should also mention that even if we could point to one specific thing as responsible for these changes, I doubt it would be the fault of the man who himself wouldn’t house or hire black people.

He also celebrated getting rid of the estate tax. Which yes, he did. That is not necessarily a good thing. He acts like it applies to small businesses and farmers, but it doesn’t. One person said on the matter “If you don’t feel comfortable calling what you own an estate, then you probably aren’t affected by the estate tax.” You and your guilded crotch spawn and protected up to 10 million dollars. Only after that is your wealthy taxed on death, and only to prevent the the existence of a permanent landed gentry. The only people benefiting from the end of the estate tax are literal millionaires, who can afford to give some of that dosh to the community.

He then talks about Obamacare, and how he get rid of the Individual Mandate. He claims this was the most unpopular part of the law, and he’s right, but analysts point out that it’s more complicated then Thing Bad So Get Rid Of. Without the Individual Mandate to get people motivated to apply for coverage, a lot of people simply won’t get insured. Further, the whole point was that forcing the younger people to pay for insurance when they’re less likely to need it helped to add money to the pool that could be used to help cover the people with pre-existing conditions or complications. That said, it’s also a good thing not having people pay for coverage they can’t afford, so...it’s complicated.

Trump then bragged about cutting the most regulations of any President ever, and I won’t deny that he has. I will, however, point out that this is a horrible thing that should concern and frighten all of you. While some of those regulations may seem arbitrary, literally every one of them was written in the blood of some innocent person who died so a corporation could make an extra buck. We’ve already seen an increase in food poisoning and infections and the increase in food recalls since 2013 has been kind of horrifying. Trump has been eagerly cutting regulations to “Pre-1960s” levels. You know, before we had seatbelts. It’s very harmful to cut those regulations, and it needs to stop.

He then says that America has corporations coming back in record numbers. On this, he is also not wrong. The Jobs report was very good, and we should all be happy about that. That said, whether or not he is the one to thank for that is a bit more complicated, as usual. It turns out that some of these gears were set into motion when Obama was in office. Some of them are just the effects of a slow recovery process since the 2009 Recession. That said, they did take a sharp rise in 2017. So yay for him, I guess.

Except, again, if deregulation is how you’re doing this, then you’re doing it wrong. We should not be sacrificing the blood of American people so that a few already stupid wealthy people can get even more stupid wealthy. The reward is not worth the cost.

He then goes on about how we’re the number one producer of oil in the world. This claim is untrue. There has, however, been a boom in oil and natural gas production due to things like the invention of fracking and loosening of regulations that goes all the way back to the Bush Era. The rate is increasing such that by sometime into the 2020s, we will be the greatest producer of oil and natural gas, at least privately. Considering those materials are murdering our planet this is also not good news, but since Global Warming is, of course, a conspiracy cooked up by the Chinese to steal American Jobs, that doesn’t matter. We are also not a net exporter of energy, by the way, but are on are way to becoming one.

Then things get...weird. Everyone starts chanting “U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!” in this really low and creepy tone that I was frankly a bit creeped out by. It was like these people thought they were at a football game and not a session of Congress. Then again, this is my first time really sitting down and paying attention to the State of the Union, so this may be normal. I just didn’t like it.

What should, however, terrify everyone is his next babbling remark. He spends five minutes or so going on a rant about how “If there is going to be peace in legislation, there cannot be war and investigation.” Which, frankly, reminded me of a mafia frontman. “Lovely country you got here, shame if somethin’ were to happen to it. You noisy folks stink’ yah nose into my bosses business makes it real hard for him to keep wild guys like Big Jim ova deya under control. I can’t promise you won’t upset him wid all this.”

Sorry, trumby. You don’t get to talk about the need to stop our adversaries when you may well have been put in office by one.

Ughk, I hate using that word. Adversaries. It makes it sound like we have a boat load of enemies, when in reality we have like, 3 or 4, and otherwise a series of complex political relationships. Like we can’t work together with those people for a better future if we all just calmed the fuck down.

Like they’re not people.

Whatever. There are more important things to worry about.

Like how he goes on to mock the democrats for not approving his nominations. Even though a whole boatload of them are sketchy as fuck, should have never even been approved at all, or were just never filled by Trump in the first place.

Also can I just say that it’s fucking rich hearing aa man like Trump complain about not getting a nominee approved after what his party pulled with the Supreme Court? We call that hypocrisy.

He then goes on to talk about making life easier for prisoners and punishing people who abuse our veterans. Now, I could point out that prison reform was actually Barack Obama’s whole big thing and he passed a lot of laws in that regard, and Trump has not, and Former President Obama also passed VA reform in 2014 that allowed for people who mistreated veterans to be harshly punished. That said, Trump has been making further strides on those initiatives, and in fact his most approved and liked legislation is the First Step Act. These are the sorts of policies that really can make life better for people, and it’s nice to see everyone getting behind them. Ofcoursewecouldfurtherthesegreatstridesbyclosingdownforprofitprisons, andotherthingsthatimcertaindontappealtoarepublicanmindset, but that’s for another day. What I’m saying here is that as much as I don’t like it, I have to admit Trump has done a good. I don’t care who past them, how they developed, they were good things that happened. Yay! Good job Trump, you get a big shiny gold star.

We then move on to the Racist section of the speech. He starts by talking about the Migrant Caravan and I am shocked at how wrong and full of hatred this man is. He claims these refugees are an “onslaught” of illegal aliens when they’re all coming to America to seek asylum. You know, something that’s completely and totally legal. But no, this is an INVADING FORCE of ILLEGAL ALIENS that need to be stopped with 3,750 more Soldiers with GUNS. They managed to make it all the way to the American border with only one small kerfuffle with the Mexican border police, before arriving at the American border not to see Lady Liberty’s open arms welcoming the hopeless and downtrodden, the weary and poor, but instead heavily armed and barricaded troops who would then go on to use tear gas on them. Is that the America we want to show to the world?

Now, to his credit, Trump admits that Immigrants enrich our society - which is entirely true. Yes, there’s a bit of stress on lower-wage jobs when they first arrive, but that’s minimal in comparison to the benefits. Not that saying that to someone who got laid off and replaced with a migrant is no consolation, I fully understand, but there are ways to help these problems. Also, side note, if he believes immigrants are so awesome and enriching to our society, then he would be more than happy to have them enter the country. But the immigration system here is a convoluted mess of insanity that takes forever to get anything done and then occasionally does nothing, and Trump has just been making it worse. Just a thought.

Now I wrote an entire post about the wall, so I won’t go into it too much here. But the wall is an expensive, stupid, and ineffective idea. Drugs aren’t coming through skirmishers who are dodging around the border, they’re coming through ports of entry. The San Diego wall he was talking about isn’t nearly as effective as he pretends, and it didn’t really start working until the entry port in that area was spruced up. Smuggler still break through it all the time, as well, to the point where an area of it is called “Smuggler’s Gulch.” It also has trapped migrants into paying more to cross to the bad guys, taking riskier and more lethal routes, and actually trapping “illegal” migrants in who may want to leave. Most of the time, men would come up, do some work for cash, then go home once they felt they had enough, but now they’re coming, staying, and bringing their families.

Trump also points out that there were people in that room who voted for the wall, but I reckon the immense amount of insanity that came from that previous attempt are why a lot of people don’t want to do it again. Trump says that “No issue better illustrates the divide between America's working class and America's political class” but in truth, 60% of Americans are strongly opposed to the wall. The wall is a lost, stupid cause, and Trump needs to give it up before he hurts himself with his flailing about it.

OH, and just as one last cherry on the cake, it won’t stop sex trafficking either. Most traffickers bring there people in through on legal Visas, which they are then forced to overstay as those visas are held from them. In fact, over 80 anti-trafficking organizations got together to say that Trump's comments on the matter were actually harmful to efforts to stop this stuff.

He then goes on to tell the story of the Maddison family. I honestly don’t remember what it specifically was, because they are just a prop to garner sympathy for his position, and I’d actually be fine with that if the idiot didn’t use it to spread a lie. This family lost ones they love to MS13 members. That’s horrible and tragic and very sad, and I feel for them and wish it hadn’t happened. But acting like this is how every “illegal immigrant” operates is just a flat out lie. While the actual numbers are hard to tell, we know enough to say that if you strip away the illegal crime of coming here when not allowed, “illegal” immigrants commit 16% less crimes then the native-born population. Most of them are just people who want to escape an insane life and live the American Dream. But, see, they’re hispanic, so they can’t. You have to be white to be an American.

So with all of that said, let’s jump ahead to a cute moment where he talks about women taking 53% of the open jobs. Again, not his fault but go off I guess.

He then goes on to celebrate the women in Congress, of which there are more than ever before. Hurrah! I appreciate that little wink and nod, and in fact Donny, you get a gold star for this one too because this one is your fault.

By proxy.

Pretty much every one of those women ran for office because they hated you, your policies, and your stupid ugly face. They’re not there because they like you, they’re there because they want to stop you. So I think I’mma just take that shiny gold star away.

Next, he bounces back to talking about the economy, because Trump can’t focus on a single thing. Again, I won’t say much on this because economics is not my speciality, but people who DO know a thing or two about economics are pretty much in agreement that tariffs are a tool, and not a very good one. The analogy I like to use goes something like this. Imagine tariffs as a double edged knife you’re going to use to stab someone you don’t like. You’re already dealing with a weapon that’s not the safest, but guess what? This one also doesn't have a hilt, or a guard, or a pommel or anything. It’s literally just a long, serrated sheet of iron with a point on one end. So whenever you hit the other guy, you’re cutting yourself too. You can’t not.

Tariffs need to be used with the precision of a scalpel, and only if they’re determined to be the right tool for the job. And that’s without accounting for the unintended consequences like how rich people can probably find a way to avoid tariffs so they hurt the poorer people more, or you know, starting a trade war because the other people can just pass tariffs on you too?! And if any of you think this gigantic flatulating, tiny-handed orange with a racist stick coming out of its ass is capable of “precision” then I have a bridge I’d very much like to sell you.

He also goes on to talk about NAFTA again, and I’m gonna have to plead ignorance on this one. I don’t know if NAFTA is or is not a good deal, or if UMCA is a better one. I don’t know enough about economics and I don’t know enough about the laws themselves. I’m at least grateful the idiot didn’t cancel NAFTA before enstating UMCA, and those people who are smarter than me I keep talking about say that Mexico and Canada may not be in a mood to negotiate a new trade deal. So who knows. I’m not going to say much else on the matter.

So then we move on to infrastructure brieful. Trump talks about how it’s crumbling and needs repair, and he’s not wrong. The infrastructure report card for the US is, frankly, abysmal. But this begins a trend on a couple of topics.

He goes on to eagerly talk about how we need to improve health care, and lower drug prices! That we’re going to get rid of HIV in 10 years! That Childhood Cancer is going to be eradicated! Everyone gets paid family leave! All this wonderful pie-in-the-sky stuff that is super cool to hear him talk about, and I’d be totally behind him….

If he were actually doing anything on these matters. Trump talks a big game on these things, but hasn’t made any moves. Whenever he starts to, his business buddies step in and explain why they’re going to lose money and he stops.

So! He then moves on to talk about the legislation in New York that protects women’s rights to get an abortion anytime and how horrible it is that they’re murdering babies.

I think the response the white-clade congress women gave was the best.

I think the look on Angela Ocasio-Cortez’s face is the best, but the look on Angelia Ocasio-Cortez’s face and I think that’s Kathleen Rice giving the stink eye.

I don’t want to get into a debate about abortion, because that really is the best way to get everyone everywhere ever to hate you. I will say this, however. The law more or less only applies to pregnancies that would kill the mother or if the baby is already dead, and it wouldn’t matter if it didn’t.

Do you honestly think a person is going to go throw eight months of the most harrowing and obnoxious process the human body is capable of performing and then just suddenly decide “You know what? I don’t want this baby anymore.” If you’re that far along you either wanted the baby and were willing to suffer for it, or you never wanted the baby and were prevented from getting an abortion when it would’ve been kinder. The law isn’t about murdering babies, it's about letting women have control over themselves and their bodies. Acting like it’s some horrible evil that happened just makes you look dumb.

We then go onto nonsense about military bravado. Trump yammered about how he forced our allies to pay their fair share in NATO - which is honestly a kettle of fish I want to talk about in its own post, but suffice it to say it’s interesting everything he stresses and hates NATO for makes matters easier for Putin.

The real thing I want to talk about is the nuclear treaty he eventually meanders into like a toddler into a wall. Look, I’m not going to pretend that I understand the intricate diplomatics of nuclear negotiations, but even I know that YOU DO NOT ARBITRARILY CANCEL A TREATY THAT PREVENTS NUKES FROM BEING BUILT. You want an arms race?! This is how you get an arms race!

So what if Russia is “flaunting it” and ignoring it? I do not give one single solitary flying fuck. You negotiate a treaty that makes them suffer consequences - or better yet, stop not making them suffer the consequences they’re supposed to when they pull that shit - and you do it while the other treaty is still active. The last thing we need right now is a nuclear war and I don’t want to fucking hear that you’re taking Russia out of a treaty that at least somewhat contained them.

This man is going to get us all killed, I swear to Athena.

He then starts saying that “oh, the world would be in Nuclear war with South Korea if it weren’t for him, and he’s just wrong. I mean I know the nature of reality is such that there’s no real way to measure the tiny micro changes in the fabric of events that could lead to a given result, but I can say for damn sure that North Korea became more aggressive after Trump took office, and that their nuclear problem is largely for deterrent purposes because they are afraid of. Not that anyone should have nuclear weapons. Point is, this claim is bullshit, and I don’t need to source anything because it’s fantastical.

Next up is Venezuela, and his whole...spat against socialism. First of all, socialism is not responsible for the collapse of Venezuela because it wasn’t socialist. Those close to Maduro call his state a narco mafia government under the guise of socialism. It’s complicated - like everything else here is - but it can basically be summarized that instead of gathering material in the government and using it to support the people, it gave all that to big companies and then just kept taking and taking. Because that’s what unregulated big companies do. There was no market.

That said, even if Venezuela had been socialist in the truest sense, that doesn’t mean that socialist policies couldn’t work or shouldn’t be used. When applied properly (with a mix of capitalism, in my opinion), you can create a prosperous country that takes care of everyone by skimming off the top of those who have much and giving to those who have little. We’ve seen it work in different circumstances before, and even an entire country that made it work up until Stalin decided to take it over and twist its efficacy into bullshit.

He then talks a bit about Israel and Palestine, which is another basket of snakes I refuse to open other then to say that treating it as casually as he does is stupid. Israel and weird creepy end times Christians are the only people who actually don’t want a two-state solution. Sooo yeah.

Next, he speaks on how he’s done with the war against ISIS and that the troops are coming home, but fails to give a time frame and talks about not fighting an endless war - something I’d be more willing to believe if he wasn’t spewing money into the military like a sick man on laxatives does into the toilet. But whatever, I’m all for both of those things, so if he does them I’ll compliment him accordingly and apologize for not believing him.

The last thing I really want to talk about is how he brags about getting out of the Iran Nuclear Deal. That was actually working just fine and had finally squeezed Iran into cooperating and now they don’t have to while still giving them breathing room for their civilian population. But that is a complicated matter, that, again, is more difficult to ascertain than “Thing Good” or “Thing Bad.”

From there, the rest of the speech is just chest beating and bravado. Emotional appeals about how great America is and how free we are and blah blaah blaaah. I actually don’t have a problem with this - the swelling call to action at the end of the speech is a very effective tool and it’s not like I haven’t used emotional manipulation myself, even in this very article. But the point is that it’s not factual - it’s not meant to be criticized as a series of claims or even critiqued at all. It’s bravado, pure and simple. Trump is good at it, and he did a good job with it here.

Before I conclude though, I just want to quickly comment on one thing. Him derailing antisemitism is hilarious. You’re like 4 years too late on that bro.

Anyway, conclusions.

Most of the problems with this speech can be summed up with “It’s not that simple, idiot.” The world is a complicated place and Trump tried to simplify it. His ignorance to fully explain the complexities - or, as the case may be, even bother to understand them - has led him to misinform people live on TV. I’m not going to spend time talking about whether it was deliberate or not, I have long since given up and trying to determine where Trump’s evil ends and his stupid begins.  

I will say that I give him one or two points for doing the things right, but given how much else was disgusting and, frankly, hateful, it’s very much “even a broken clock is right twice a day” type thing. Trump’s state of the Union was a cavalcade of lies and misjudgements, interspaced with bravado and unnecessary calls to his god. This is a secular nation, people. I should not hear about God no less than 4 times in the most important speech the country makes.

Hopefully he’ll be out of office soon.

[monochromenight]

Spontaneous translation of a Swedish commentary of Yuzuru's SP and FS at the 2014 World Championships. Thought it was a pretty good and entertaining commentary so... Here ya go:

Short program commentary:

Roger: Brian Orser, standing there. Past champion. He's currently coaching Yuzuru Hanyu. Japan's Olympic reigning champion. At Worlds: bronze in 2012, 4th last year. He's been 2nd at Four Continents two times, he's been Junior World champion one time. And now he's meant to become the World champion as well. In his home country. In Tokyo. He's from Sendai, north of Fukushima, which is north of Tokyo. Moved to Toronto in Canada to train for Brian Orser. Please calm down a bit so that he can concentrate (*referring to the audience shouting). Yuzuru. Music by Gary Moore, Parisienne Walkways.

(01:20) Lotta: No!

R: And the Olympic champion falls, with the quadruple attempt.

L: He tilted a lot in the air.

(02:17) R: Triple Axel. Very good.

L: Yes, difficult entry on one foot. Height, distance. And in the second half of the program. As is the combination. There we go.

R: Triple Lutz-triple toe loop. The points are raining in. (03:40) Well, he sways a bit with his head because he knows that he fell on the quadruple, and that is of course a lot of lost points.  -3 from all judges, as it should be. The nine who are doing the judging. But when I look at the triple Axel, Lotta, it is the best triple Axel I've seen throughout the whole World Championships. And he does get +3 from the judges for it.

L: He does a difficult entry for it too, which I hope we'll see later, when he turns on one foot and then jumps.

R: He does for example get 12.35 for the triple Axel. Then you should know that the triple Lutz-triple toe loop, as the combination jump, got 12.41. So it's almost as many points for the triple Axel, which is a single jump, in comparison to the triple-triple jump. Then you'll understand how skillful that triple Axel is. Now he needs to order two extra suitcases to be able to get all these things home, right (*referring to all the gifts on the ice). Good thing he doesn't have a long way home. Brian Orser, satisfied coach. You know, Brian Orser has really gotten a group of talented skaters. Both girls and guys. In his stable.

L: Yes, he really has. He also had Yuna Kim, when she took Olympic gold in Vancouver, and after that she's taken off to other places. But he's got a lot of good training opportunities where he is in Canada. And he cooperates with Tracy Wilson, who's the ice dancer. Now let's look at the landing, first and foremost. See, it turns a bit, the blade, which means that he's short [on the landing] and it is under-rotated. But the Axel, it is- and there he turned on one foot before he made the take off. So, aside from the quadruple that wasn't completely okay, everything else is fantastic.

R: And 101.45, as you heard, was the world record he set at the Olympics on the 13th of February this year, in the short program. He will of course not reach that today. But a champion like this can afford to make mistakes, I would say, because he's got such good spins and step sequences, and good tempo and great skating skills, so he can still get onto the podium with the free skate.

L: That's what's crucial, the quality of it all. They can- they're not machines. They can of course make mistakes too.

R: Yes, and what pressure he's been under since he became Olympic champion, of course. A number 2 appears. 91.24. He beats Werner by about two points. But is almost seven points behind Machida, who's in the lead.

Free skate commentary:

R: Here he is. The reigning Olympic champion, Yuzuru Hanyu. From Sendai, north of Fukushima, north of Tokyo. Lives in Toronto, Canada. Trains for Brian Orser. Brian, who was Olympic silver medalist, both in '84 and '88. Yuzuru moved there in 2012. What an improvement it's been. At World Championships he's been 3rd in 2012 and 4th last year. He's lying in third place. And it is a fight between him and Machida, it feels like. Soundtrack by Nino Rota, Romeo and Juliet. He was very angry after the short program, even though he was in third place, and said that he would take revenge in the finale. And let's see if that happens. Because this guy has got immense potential.

L: He opens with a Salchow, four rotations. And four rotations on the toe loop as well, and it was that jump he fell on in the short and that's why he's in third place now.

R: Now there's suspense in the World Championship finale.

(03:12) L: Triple Axle-triple toe loop, second half of the program.

R: Yeah, right there he gained 15 points, on that combination.

L: Triple Axel-double toe loop.

R: And triple loop.

(04:07) L: Lutz.

R: That was fiercely done.

L: A three-jump combination.

R: And triple Lutz. And you can see how he's getting closer to Machida in the lead. The last thirty seconds now. Hang in there. Will he take double - Olympic title and World title, within a period of three weeks?

L: Don’t be careless now on the last spin, hang in there. Wow!

R: Yes, he's completely drained. But if he can take Olympic gold and World Championship gold within three weeks it would be historical! OR... I don't know, we'll see. It has happened before. But the guy is born in '94! And look! It looks like he's 75 (*obviously not talking about his appearance but the fact that he was limping). But he held on throughout the whole performance. And look at the bleachers! I think the whole thing is about to fall apart. Thousands of audience members are running down to heave out flowers, plush toys and other goodies, at the same time as Yuzuru Hanyu is standing there, in the middle of the ice, and just taking it in.

L: Wow... wow wow wow. Don't forget that Machida-.

R: Machida.

L: He's seven points ahead in the short program.

R: Yes, that can be very crucial, I agree completely.

L: When it comes to the free skate there's no doubt about who'll win that one, but the question is if it's enough.

R: Alexei Yagudin in 2002, won World and Olympic gold. So it has happened. But... teenager. Yes, his birthday isn't until December, Hanyu. [Turning] 20, that is. And he does this, within a period of three weeks.

L: Look how beautiful it is, quadruple Salchow. And then a toe loop on top of that, afterwards. And they are two different quadruple jumps so he doesn't have to do any of them in combination. Two, three and four.

R: And the flower girls are still collecting the presents on the ice.

L: And the Biellmann position is not that common among the men. Even his spins are brilliant. Triple Axel and a toe loop. Double. He also did a triple Axel-triple toe loop.

R: Junior World champion in 2010. Olympic champion, for seniors, in 2014. The question is if he will take his first gold at Worlds as well.

L: Yes, he gave it everything he had. He didn't have much more to give.

R: Machida in the lead at 282.26. That's what we take into consideration now when we will soon see the numbers for Hanyu. He's taking it incredibly well. This guy has got his economical future secured already with an Olympic gold in the bagage and maybe a World Championship gold. As a nineteen year old. He's going to be able to skate for a lot more years. Wait a moment, we need the numbers first (*when Yuzuru's gesturing for the audience to be quiet). 282.26, Machida's in the lead with. 282.59! He's in first place! And there's a difference of (*counting) .33 houndredths in the total score. Talk about luck!

L: So he takes in seven points on Machida, who skates so fantastically well, he too.

R: Yeah, it is... -Cuts- R: It's 50.96, it has to be nine points.

L: No no, sorry, nine. Nine.

R: Nine points plus for Fernández in the picture here. That can be the thing that concludes it. -Cuts- R: Here you have a guy who's in pain everywhere (*Yuzuru is limping again), after taking the Olympic gold medal three weeks ago in Sochi, and now the World Championships title, in his home country, in Tokyo. Hanyu, Japan. (Roger closes up by thanking and saying goodbye and so on.)

Small translator’s note: I don’t know why the male commentator (Roger) keeps saying “within a period of three weeks” when talking about Yuzu taking gold at both the Olympics and Worlds but ... that’s what he’s saying. Even though it was more than a month apart. *Shrugs*

[kuriquinn]

Telanadas [1/19]

Cover Page & Disclaimer

“This is ridiculous!” Naruto complains, his shout almost lost in the howling wind. “I’ve never heard of any village out this way, let alone a temple—it’s not even on a proper map!”

Sasuke affords his travelling companion a scant glance, although he is of a similar mind.

The path before them is daunting, so windswept and snowy that it is almost impossible to see two feet in front of their faces. Even Sasuke, whose eyes are far better than anyone else’s, has difficulty discerning where white ground ends and sky begins.

“We should stop to rest,” Kakashi calls out at the leader of their procession. “This whole pursuit will be a waste if we lose any important bits to frostbite!”

Up ahead, the short, hooded figure spearheading their frigid ascent pauses and turns around. Thick strands of rosy hair whip around her face, a stark contrast to their bleak surroundings, and almost as jarring as her green eyes. Sasuke never would have expected to see eyes the colour of feladara in a Child of the Stone.

He watches her face as she weighs the mage’s words, biting her bottom lip in contemplation. Coupled with her small stature, the gesture would fool a stranger into thinking her frail, but he has learned not to take her soft features at face value. In the weeks since meeting her, he has seen her wrestle darkspawn and kill an ogre with nothing but an axe and her fist. The sight reminds him of the stories his people tell of the great elven general Tsunade, who wielded the enchanted blade of Katsuyu during the Battle of Forlorn Falls.

Not that he will ever tell a dwarf that.

Sakura is more of a strategic thinker than her character would suggest—economic but also as opportunistic as a wolf. Though her first instinct is to help the less-fortunate, she is not above taking jobs for monetary gain. And yet, somehow those mercenary chores always yield some bounty vital to their overall objectives.

It is an odd talent of hers, and Sasuke is not sure if it makes him more unnerved by her or more curious. This uncertainty bothers him.

Sakura observes them all now, the slight narrowing of her eyes a tell Sasuke identifies as calculation. She is gauging their current fitness and comparing that to what she knows of their abilities. Whenever Sasuke feels those eyes, he has the disconcerting presentment she sees him like a playing card to sacrifice in a game of Wicked Grace. 

“No, let’s keep going,” she decides after a beat. There is enough reluctance in her voice to suggest she would like to be out of the gale just as much as he, but she remains otherwise resolved. “There’s still an hour left of daylight, such as it is. I want to get over that bluff before the snow changes the landscape too much.”

Naruto does not bother disguising his moan of dismay, but Sasuke smirks.

The woman is not soft. I will give her that.

As he continues the trek up the frozen, slippery incline of the northernmost Sanrō Mountain, he wonders if that is because she also has a death wish.

The life of a Grey Warden is blighted, Sasuke has heard. The whole Order must be cursed, considering their duty to defend the entire continent from the menace of the darkspawn. Raised among the Dalish, Sasuke was taught to distrust all but his own kind, yet the Keeper and the storytellers in his clan spoke of the Wardens with great respect. It is a fellowship where all are equal, no matter their origins, and whose members follow a worthy calling.

Based on the dangers they face every day he cannot argue that even the hardiest of his own people would have baulked at such a challenge. No elf would have accepted this quest in the first place.

Sasuke still wonders why he agreed to come along. There are four other members of their company who—idiosyncrasies aside—would have been more suited to the expedition. It is no secret he hates the cold almost as much as he hates humans or magic. And yet, here he is, struggling through knee-high snowdrifts in a mountain pass, side by side with two humans—one of them a mage—seeking the ashes of a long dead shemlen madwoman, in a party led by a dwarf with the most offensive coloured hair and puzzling good cheer he has ever encountered. If his father still lived—

Sasuke shakes his head.

There is no point in imagining how his father would or would not have reacted. He has been dead for years, along with the rest of the Uchiha clan.

Except for myself and a certain individual that is.

Sasuke clenches his fist and orders himself to focus on other things.

His life’s pursuit will not help him much in this icy hell, except as an incentive not to die. At least that offers more motivation than that which the Elders charged him with as a child. But then, Sasuke is already considered a traitor to his kind, his pursuit of revenge having pulled him far from the beliefs and traditions of the Elvhen. Living the life of an assassin and keeping company with a bunch of ruffians is far from the life he imagined for himself. As for this particular group…

Under normal circumstances, Sasuke would never lower himself to follow another, let alone someone like Sakura. Dwarven blood aside, she thinks too much with her heart, believing the best of people and forgiving them even their worst crimes.

Still.

There’s something about her that drew him in. Perhaps it is that she possesses a forthrightness he has not seen since childhood.

“Your gear’s quality,” she told him at once following their first meeting: a roadside ambush he had led. He had accepted a contract on behalf of the House of Crows to kill her and her party. Instead, she and Naruto handed him his first defeat since his last encounter with his brother, then convinced him to travel with them instead of returning to the Crows. “Well-made, and expensive. Much more serviceable than I’d expect for an elf.”

Though her comments were clearly motivated by curiosity instead of malice, his pride was still smarting at his defeat.

“And what exactly would you expect from an elf?” he asked stiffly.

“Well…nothing as practical as this. I thought you’d be all…you know, woodsy. With the flowers and the wind and maybe singing a jaunty tune. But your stuff’s about as mean as anything a duster could come up with. Just shinier. Suna-made, I’d say, except I thought elves hated the Empire?”

A clumsy interrogation tactic, which he deflected with ease. “Perhaps Iwa’s archives are not the most accurate authority on the elves.”

But she merely laughed off his dig at her home.

“Hey, let’s not start up the stereotypical dwarven-elven rivalry, okay? Iwa’s archives are hardly an authority on Iwa. I just want to know more about you, Sasuke-kun.”

“Hn.”

He should have been insulted by the familiarity of her address, but as he could not detect even a hint of true derision, he merely settled on puzzled irritation.

Sakura is nothing like the legends say a Grey Warden should be though that could be down to the fact she apparently has not been one that long. This is according to the other Warden, Naruto, who has only been one six months longer.

As fate would have it, the bastard is also heir to the humans’ throne in Konoha.

And that is bastard in the literal sense, too, it would seem.

“You’re the first elf I’ve ever known,” the bewhiskered man told him shortly after Sakura spared Sasuke’s life and recruited him. “I hope you understand how big a deal that it.”

Sasuke had stared blankly. “Why?”

“Because your actions will influence my opinion of your race forever,” Naruto replied with a grin. “So, if you turn out to be a giant wuss, I’ll think all the elves are like that.”

“And if I shove my arm into your chest and remove your still-beating heart?”

“I’ll know you don’t have a problem with getting your hand dirty?”

“Felasil,” Sasuke muttered, trying to put distance between the two of them.

Naruto was not put off by the threat of bodily harm at all. Worse, somehow Sasuke now finds himself constantly trailed after by the human and treated to a running commentary on every fool thought which enters his head. It has been a constant annoyance, though not without some reward. Sasuke has learned much more about his current travelling companions, the dwarf woman especially, than he would have had he lowered himself to asking.

As per to halfwit’s ceaseless complaining and lamenting, and the occasional input from Kakashi, a mage who was also at the ill-fated offensive at Kannabi Bridge, Naruto and Sakura are the sole survivors of the entire contingent of Konoha’s Grey Wardens.

During an encounter with the growing darkspawn horde, Konoha’s war leader and the king’s right-hand man, Danzō Shimura, quit the field mid-battle. Besides allowing the darkspawn to overrun the Grey Wardens, he facilitated the death of Konoha’s king, Minato—Naruto’s father. Now the traitor rules the country while the surviving Wardens are deemed criminals and the target of bounty-hunters everywhere.

Not that this has made them easy quarry to apprehend. Even if Sakura and Naruto lacked basic fighting abilities, they carry with them treaties that ensure safe passage based on the Warden name. While Sakura focusses her efforts on drumming up support to battle the Blight, Naruto seeks to clear the names of the Wardens. Sasuke is not sure he can fathom the threat of a giant horde of darkspawn beyond what he knows from legends. Yet he does understand Naruto’s wish to seek vindication for the deaths of one he considered family.

It does not make the younger man more palatable.

He is a constant source of tasteless jokes and immaturity, which on anyone else might speak of innocence but which Sasuke ascribes to dimwittedness. Some hand guides his fate, though, because he is still alive. Wardens do not initiate those without an ability to survive, and Sasuke is not about to suggest Naruto is unskilled. The swordsman is fast enough in combat that it sometimes seems like he can copy himself.

And as a leader, Sakura is not entirely a loss either. She has maintained a determination and optimism about her task, even climbing this godsforsaken mountain despite disliking the cold more than Sasuke. Dwarves come from deep underground where it is always warm. Elves wander wherever they will, from stifling deserts to—when necessary—the cold, winter steppes beyond the Land of Iron.

All of this on the off-chance of support for her quest.

Pursuit of lost causes must be a dwarven trait, Sasuke decides, not for the first time.

There is a bellowing roar in the distance, and an odd gusting sound that just cuts above the keening wind.

“Dragonkin,” Sasuke says after a moment of straining his ears; he has encountered enough drakes in his life to recognise that type of cry. But this sounds a lot bigger. “Best to be careful—very careful.”

“No, I figured we’d shout at it and get it to notice us,” Naruto shoots back.

“Perhaps ring a gong?” Sakura suggests in jest.

“There are rumours of a high dragon in these mountains,” Kakashi tells them. “At least that is what the historical scrolls say.”

The Warden stomps a little harder at the snow.

“Bah! As if we don’t have enough to worry about with a giant, Blight infected dragon commanding hordes of darkspawn underground. Now we have to deal with one that can swoop down and knock us off a mountain?”

“Yeah,” Naruto agrees. “Swooping is bad.”

Sasuke shoots the other man a look of disgust. Is it possible for him to sound like a bigger fool?

“Oh well, at least if it tries to set us on fire, we’ll die warm!”

Apparently so.

“Would anyone miss him if we threw him into a crevice?” Sasuke wonders.

“Only the people of Konoha who hope to be rescued from beneath the heel of a megalomaniac dictator,” Kakashi replies.

“You humans…” Sasuke rolls his eyes. “If he were anyone else with a less impressive pedigree, he’d be shovelling manure in the streets. But because his father happened to be what you call royal, he is considered important. It boggles the mind that your kind has spread so far across what was once Elvhenan when your leaders are as thick as druffalo hide.”

The wind must divert his words because neither Kakashi nor Naruto react to the slight. Sakura, however, sniggers in a way that is both conspiratorial and amused. As the only other non-human there, she appreciates the truth in his words. For that reason alone, he supposes he can tolerate her other quirks.

Even the ones that make his stomach jump at the oddest moments.

Translations:

Feladara – elfroot

Shemlen – quick children; human

Elvhen – our people; what the elves call themselves

Felasil – fool, idiot, literally “slow mind”

Elvhenan – the place of out people; the place where freedom dwells our hearts; the entire continent which belonged to the elves before the humans destroyed their empire and enslaved most

Comments and concrit are much appreciated, and very motivating! For information about supporting my original, non-fandom related works, you’re welcome to check out my ko-fi tip jar, or my patreon page. 

栗

Next Chapter

[redrikki]

I'd like to hear a commentary for Nothing To Write Home About, please!

I started writing this after a half-joking conversation with @flaminganakin about how a pen pal would revolutionize Anakin’s life. So far there are three chapters. I have a terrible history with WIPs, but I hope to complete this one. Just don’t ask me where it’s going. You can read it here. DVD commentary on the first chapter below the cut.

There was a message from an unknown sender waiting on Anakin’s com channel when he finally stumbled into his bunk after three straight days of fighting on Muunilinst. According to the time stamp, it had been there for awhile, but he must have missed it under the constant barrage of orders and battle updates of the last few days. Anakin could barely keep his eyes open, but his heart raced at the sight of the blinking notification. Padmé. It must be from Padmé. Who else would be writing him from an unlisted com frequency?

The man’s life is shit and he just wants to hear from his wife alright?

It wasn’t from Padmé. Anakin, it read, you hardly know me, but your mother would have wanted us to look after each other. I know the Jedi are involved in the fighting. Are you alright? Please, don’t be a stranger. Cliegg Lars.

Cliegg Lars? Cliegg Lars?! How did he even have Anakin’s com frequency? Anakin certainly didn’t remember giving it to him. But then, he didn’t remember much about that last trip to Tatooine. Just the rattle of his mother’s dying breath, the weight of her body, and the stench of burning flesh as he cut down Tusken after Tusken. The rest of it was lost in a haze of rage and grief and sand.

For a moment, Anakin wanted to ignore it, delete it, smash the comlink on the floor. He didn’t need this reminder of his failure as a Jedi and a son, not when he’d just spent the last three days failing over and over again to protect his men. No, Anakin didn’t need this, but maybe Lars did. His mom always said that the biggest problem in the galaxy was that no one helped each other. She would want him to look after her widower.

Both Anakin and Cliegg enter into this relationship believing it’s what the other person needs. My goal is to have it be of benefit to both of them. Cliegg feels helpless and unnecessary within his family, but Anakin helps him to feel useful again. For Anakin, Cliegg is a source of alternate views and paternal support without all the baggage and agendas he gets from Obi-Wan and Palpatine. 

Yawning hugely and struggling to focus his eyes, Anakin sent out a quick reply and feel asleep with his boots on.

Poor boy is so sleepy, Can’t you just picture this? He’s lying on his back and snoring with his mouth open.

****

Cliegg woke alone to the smell of caf and frying eggs. Lying with his eyes closed, he imagined Shmi must have gotten up before him and started making breakfast. But when he reached across, her side of the bed was cold. A few of her dark hairs still clung to her pillow, but it had lost the shape of her head. His wife slept in sand now and Cliegg would sleep alone until he joined her. He let his grief wash over him, then pushed it aside and started his day.

Haha, ow. I think Cliegg genuinely loved Shmi. I’d like to believe that they fell in love and then he saved up to buy her freedom rather than something more sketchy, like him buying her and then offering her freedom if he married her. This story runs with the more romantic rather than creepy version. 

In the kitchen, Beru puttered around the stove while Owen methodically shoveled forkfuls of egg into his mouth. He grunted a greeting as Cliegg floated to the table on his power chair. Since Cliegg’s injury, Owen had taken over more and more of the farm work. He needed to eat fast if he had any hope of staying on top of it.

Shmi’s death and Cliegg’s maiming hit the family hard, not just emotionally, but economically. They lost two valuable workers. I imagine it caused Owen to speed up his plans to marry Beru, just so they could have someone to replace Semi’s missing labor. 

“Good morning,” Beru said as she set a plate and steaming mug of caf down in front of him. Cliegg took a sip of the caf before digging in. The eggs weren’t quite like Shmi’s, but the caf had just the right about of blue milk mixed in. Beru joined them with her own breakfast a moment later. “There’s a message for you on the comm channel,” she said as she settled down on the bench next to Owen.

“Really? Who from?”

“Anakin,” Owen grumbled between mouthfuls. “Days late and a few hundred credits short as always.”

Canon gives us zero clues as to how Owen and Beru viewed Anakin. Like, Owen feels Luke being like him is unfortunate, but that’s about it. I decided Owen would vaguely resent him because a) drama, and b) it kind of made sense. Owen clearly loved Shmi, but Anakin was her kid and he knew he could never compete with that. 

Beru frowned at her husband, but Cliegg just sighed. After years of Shmi’s stories about her sweet, talented boy, the strange young man who had walked off into the desert and came back with her corpse had been something of a disappointment. He’d fixed every broken thing on the farm, but had barely spoken to any of them. What Cliegg chalked up to grief and shock, Owen put down to Jedi pride and standoffishness, and no amount of tutting on Beru’s part would change that. Cliegg had hoped that maybe getting to know Anakin would. It had been a disappointment that when Cliegg reached out and the boy never reached back.

“What does it say?” Beru asked, leaning forward to get a glimpse as Cliegg pulled the message up on a data pad. He read it over, then read it again, and a third time just to make sure. Weren’t the Jedi supposed to have educated the boy? Shmi had been a slave her whole life and she wrote better than this.

Anakin’s writing is usually much better when he isn’t literally falling asleep. In fact, he tends to write very formally. He was teased mercilessly about his manner of speaking when he first arrived at the Temple and is, as a result, hyper aware of how he uses language. That’s why he often comes off as stiff or awkward when nervous, upset, or around authority figures. See, and you thought it was just George’s bad writing.

“Well?” Owen put his fork down and joined his wife in trying to sneak a peek. He had a man’s shape and bore a man’s burden, but, by the suns, he looked just like a boy at that moment.

I went with ‘by the suns’ because Cliegg needed something to swear by and there’s literally only one mention of god in existing canon. I figure what people swear by varies from planet to planet. No one on Tatooine seems to know about or have use for the Force, so that was out. The suns would have to do.

Cleigg chuckled and read Anakin’s message aloud, word for word as he’d written it. “Sorry. Tired. Three days fighting Muunilinst. Lost rt arm Geonosis. Hop u r well. Anakin.”

Autocorrect kept trying to fight me on Anakin’s message. 

Owen and Beru blinked at him as they tried to process Anakin’s incoherent jumble of a message. Owen took a long gulp of his caf to help and shook his head.

Beru’s fork clattered on the table as it slipped from her fingers. “He lost his arm?!” Beru exclaimed. She pulled the data pad from Cleigg’s hand to read it over herself. “He lost his arm and they sent him fight?” She slapped it down on the table with a bit more force than necessary.

The Star Wars universe has some pretty miraculous medical technology, but it’s pretty unevenly distributed. As a Jedi living on a core world. Anakin had access to high-tech prosthetics where a poor farmer living in the middle of no where like Cliegg almost certainly didn’t. It greatly effected their health outcomes. 

What? Cleigg pulled the pad around read the message again. Lost rt arm Geonosis. The fighting there had happened just after Anakin and his woman had left, a little over a standard month ago. Even with all the medicine a Hutt could afford, there was no way he’d be well enough to tie his own boots, let alone fight in a war. Yet, from the sound of it, that’s just what he was doing. The Jedi had promised Shmi that they would take care her son and provide him with an education. Based on Anakin’s message, they’d done neither. Well, someone needed to look after this boy and it might as well be his family. Cleigg Lars set aside his breakfast and began to write.

Man, I misspelled Cliegg’s name a bunch of times in this. Whoops. Well, I’ll go back and correct that on the original. My bad. 

Cliegg is right about the Jedi having failed Anakin, just not in the way he understands. By the end of this, I hope to have Anakin realize that fact too and do something about it. We’ll see how it goes and how I get there. 

[oliveratlanta]

101 things to love about Atlanta

A love letter to a city of many nicknames—just don’t call it Hotlanta

Unlike other American metropolises, it’s sometimes hard to determine exactly what Atlanta is, especially for outsiders or so many newcomers. Is it a business-friendly, big-hearted, mild-weather region that’s six times more populated than it was 50 years ago? Yes, Atlanta is that. A cradle for some of the most influential music—particularly hip-hop and rap—of the past three decades? Yep, that too. A burgeoning foodie wonderland? A southeastern mecca for the production of television and Hollywood blockbusters? A pastiche of gloriously unique, provincial villages masquerading as official neighborhoods? A cultural frontrunner and cautionary tale? Global magnet of opportunity? Still kind of a mess—but lovably so?

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and that’s right, y’all.

So maybe that’s what’s special about Atlanta: It’s not yet finished, and never one-note. Rather, it’s a Brunswick stew of varying allures. It’s amorphous, restless, unwed to the past, intoxicated by its own prospects. Very little is sacred here but change, and instigators are more than welcome. Atlanta doesn’t know what it is yet, or exactly where it’s going, but it’s having a damn good time getting there. Let’s celebrate what’s great here, right now.

1. Inclusivity. The economic and cultural heart of the Deep South isn’t just accustomed to being diverse, it’s proud of it. See virtually any public gathering place intown for proof that humanity can peacefully coexist—and that Atlanta still has better things to do than hate.

2. Sky-high architecture. From the emerald towers of Sandy Springs’s King and Queen to the Georgia Pacific Tower’s illuminated stairsteps, the skyline is among America’s most underappreciated, especially at night. It’s not contiguous yet, with large gaps between poky clusters from most angles, but it’s distinctive and bold. And oh how it glows.

3. Easy-breezy climes. Sure, summer’s hotter’n’ Hades. But there’s Christmas shopping in flip-flops (sometimes), T-shirt weekends in January (occasionally), and bloomy early February (without fail).

4. After Hours at Waffle House: The 20-minute wait at 3:17 a.m. is plenty of time for random singing with other scatterbrained, post-bar strangers in line.

5. The prevalence of nature. Cicadas. And barn owls. Talking. At night. Among the giant urban oaks, in July.

6. Festival-a-palooza. Neighborhoods across the city have unbridled, borderline incomprehensible enthusiasm for getting together. Random gatherings invented on Facebook (looking at you, Lanta Gras) have ballooned into huge annual traditions with street closures and parades.

7. Bezos who? Amazon didn’t choose Atlanta, and Atlanta cared for five minutes.

8. It’s almost never hard to find a seat on public transit.

9. Kid-friendly. Little children growing up in Atlanta tend to think it’s amazing. That’s an impression bolstered by innumerable playgrounds and ubiquitous King of Pops, those delectable, homegrown frozen staples.

10. Random celebrity encounters. Like that time when André 3000 was shopping alone at the DeKalb Farmers Market, sans entourage, near the seafood section, all cool in his army jacket despite the July swelter and crush of onlookers, not too busy or highfalutin to shake everybody’s hand.

11. Yes, $100,000-something condos are prevalent—still—in desirable places across Atlanta. Many aren’t shoeboxes, either. And some count incredible views, particularly of central Midtown or downtown’s oldest streets.

12. Tech hub. Because Georgia Tech is a factory of coveted IT brainpower that’s more essential to the city’s business climate each year.

13. Westside escape. With its bridges, creekside vistas, and smooth, snaking pavement, the Proctor Creek Greenway trail is already otherworldly, in the best, most bucolic way. And it’s just a fraction of what it stands to be in coming years.

14. Long live the Clermont. A few years ago, neighbors were preparing to fight to save a local strip club from its new owners. It was a false alarm—the new owners view the Clermont as an asset. But that’s Atlanta.

15. Where it’s greater. With its transit connectivity, celebrated food scene, walkability, and perennial ranking as Georgia’s best place to live, Decatur gets it.

16. World’s busiest hub. With flights seemingly every minute from early morning until the wee night-time hours, the Atlanta airport is a stressful but handy launchpad of convenience, with a ridiculous wealth of nonstop flights to basically everywhere (hello, Dubai and Johannesburg). We’ll forgive a MARTA train derailment, that famous power outage, and perpetual TSA clogs.

17. Expats welcome. Because almost nobody on your street is actually from Atlanta, and that’s so normal it usually doesn’t even register. A common greeting for new neighbors: “So, where ya from?”

18. Can’t-miss Cascade. Especially in autumn, SW ATL’s Cascade Springs Nature Preserve offers ITP serenity to the fullest. Meander through 120 acres of trails, climb Civil War-era ruins, hop across a waterfall’s rocks. It’ll make even the most overstressed office dweller feel something akin to childhood awe.

19. Walkability. It’s getting vastly… better, in many places, from densifying EAV to the growing shopping avenues of central Buckhead. It’s happening, albeit slowly.

20. But... Atlanta’s still a major city where driving conveniences are largely possible, and lugging groceries on trains and such isn’t always an everyday hassle. Rush hours, however, are always plural, and Saturday traffic is, unfortunately, no joke anymore.

21. Trees of green. Friends flying in for the first time might say, “All I saw were trees—and then we landed.” A high compliment.

Curbed Atlanta

Atlanta’s canopy with the Buckhead business district at left, and Midtown/downtown at right.

22. Playspace. The restored, climbable treasure that is Noguchi Playscapes, the famed landscape architect’s work in Piedmont Park, was the only U.S. playground he completed in his lifetime.

23. Bungalows. The quintessential intown homes. Built to last, forever in vogue, and usually affixed with that most Atlanta of residential features: the generous porch.

24. Bearings Bike Shop. The community-focused nonprofit is teaching kids the value of hard work, the joy of exercise, and the viability of traversing a car-crazed city on two wheels.

25. Late-night stalwart. MJQ is a longstanding and culturally important club that welcomes anybody and everybody down into the rollicking, subterranean bowels of a former blues club. Chicago House in one room, a Whitney Houston singalong in the next.

26. Adios, Bravos. The pro baseball team left town for the monied ’burbs—and might very well have done Atlanta a favor (unless you operated front-yard parking lots). Nearby Georgia Avenue’s rebirth could show how large-scale adaptive reuse, married with new construction, can be a smartly executed replacement for storefront vacancies and so much stadium asphalt. Changes of this magnitude don’t come without gentrification fears, of course. But rows of beautiful, vacant old buildings—which could’ve doubled as a post-apocalyptic Main Street before, but are under renovation now—were doing Atlanta no favors.

27. The mother of all porch parties. Three cheers for the grassroots explosion of Oakhurst Porchfest. Founded in 2015, the autumn musical extravaganza counts 200-plus acts now, performing wherever volunteers offer their porches as stages. It’s community unification through music at its finest.

28. High Museum. The Southeast’s preeminent showcase for contemporary and classical art, housed in buildings designed by Renzo Piano and Richard Meier, is free for locals on the second Sunday of each month. How’s that for accessibility?

29. Viewrific, Part I. The approach from Douglasville on Interstate 20, over that hill, in fading evening light, the Land of Oz.

30. One of television’s best shows needed no other name than our city’s.

31. Georgia Aquarium’s bucket-list essential. For about the price of a car tire, you can swim with whale sharks downtown. And if you’re lucky, they’ll inadvertently bump you, with all the gentle power of a city bus in slow motion.

32. Curated graffiti. Running along the northern borders of Cabbagetown and Reynoldstown, Wylie Street is an ever-changing urban museum of eye-popping street murals, with a dash of biting social commentary.

33. Atlanta is where misfit street characters become local legends. Here’s looking at you, Baton Bob. And where art thou, Bicycle Shorts Man?

34. The Dungeon house in Lakewood Heights. Birthplace of OutKast, it was recently purchased by Big Boi. Hootie Hoo!

35. The Atlanta Beltline. Despite affordability challenges directly caused by the now-famous Beltline, the popular segments are socially magical, unifying things—Atlanta’s boardwalk, the Little Peachtree—and it’s barely reached adolescence at this point. Maybe one day, instead of sprawl and traffic, a mention of Atlanta anywhere in the world will conjure images of this mythical green loop. All dreamed up by a local college kid.

36. Sylvan Hills. The historic nabe between downtown and the airport is the prettiest neighborhood that half of Atlanta’s never heard of.

37. Scooter culture. Having spawned across the city in a year, the vehicles can be annoying, unsightly, and even dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists. But the two-wheel zeitgeist beats all those lawbreaking riders driving alone in 4,000-pound street cloggers, right?

38. Raising the bar. Rooftop restaurants and bars have multiplied tenfold (roughly) in recent years, highlighted by Ponce City Market’s vintage amusement park in the sky and Hotel Clermont’s unpretentious new hang. About time.

39. Our iconic downtown library is by Marcel Breuer, someone cooler than Carnegie.

40. Path Force. The Beltline’s roving, specialized, applaudable police squad is consistently effective. Despite millions of visitors to the trails, the number of annual crime incidents can sometimes be counted on one hand.

41. John Portman. The late architect’s simple idea born in downtown Atlanta—the inner high-rise atrium, designed to cheaply cool low-income buildings—revolutionized hotel design around the world.

42. A growing legacy of rather badass sports statues. There’s Hank Aaron swinging through his record homer, shredded Evander Holyfield (currently MIA), sculptural Olympics remnants, Dominique Wilkins in mid-dunk, and that incredible Falcons sculpture.

43. Viewrific, Part II. The downtown skyline from that stoplight, facing west, where Freedom Parkway meets Boulevard. It’s the famed Jackson Street Bridge vantage point, immortalized in The Walking Dead Season 1 poster, panned out.

44. Park potential. Bellwood Quarry’s green space initiative could finally bring that side of town the Piedmont Park it deserves.

45. Commercial survivors. Poncey-Highland throwback DVD rental spot Videodrome and dive-bar stalwart Righteous Room are here to stay forever! Probably.

46. Road trips galore. From Atlanta, there’s a wealth of geographically and culturally diverse long-weekend options in all directions. Asheville, Savannah, the Gulf Coast, Charleston, Blue Ridge, Jekyll Island, Nashville, Charlotte, and the list goes on. Leave at lunch on Friday and reach them all by happy hour.

47. Church Bar on Edgewood. Before it was a tourist destination, the beloved Edgewood Avenue watering hole was just an unholy alliance of irreverent art, ping-pong, sangria, and a male former church deacon named Sister Louisa.

48. Atlanta United. In just its third year now, the club has scored a Major League Soccer championship and global headlines that declare this city, for once, an exemplar of fandom.

49. They don’t make ’em like Whittier Mill Village anymore. The semi-secret old cotton mill community includes 1800s homes, beautiful ruins, and Buckhead schools.

50. We took Snowpocalypse jokes—and are still taking them—in stride. Two inches of daytime snow paralyzed a major city, but hey, we made the front page of the New York Times! And inspired the creation of an SNL Weekend Update character called Buford Calloway, a “survivor.”

51. Lemony pepper wings. Order dry, with a little tub of hot sauce on the side. Graze the wing across blue cheese, and then dunk in the sauce. Bite big. And behold caloric Eden.

52. Bank of America Plaza. The world’s largest cigarette just happens to be the Southeast’s tallest building—and the ATL’s Eiffel Tower. (Sorry, Big Chicken.)

53. Purposeful art. With poignant murals, impressive permanent pieces, and a civil rights installation series where historical events actually happened, the Beltline’s Westside Trail artwork is stepping up the game. Ditto for the Eastside’s series, and William Massey’s awe-inspiring pieces made of garbage found on streets.

54. Viewrific, Part III. Sure, the ginormous chiseled Confederates are awkward at best, and embarrassing at worst. But evenings and sunrises atop Stone Mountain are religious experiences (literally, every Easter, with church services). Up there, find unparalleled vistas of so much rippling green, cast pink, with the glint of skyscrapers in the middle distance.

55. Adair Park. Blight and disinvestment didn’t diminish the beautiful old bones of this historic place.

56. The Atlanta Tech Village in Buckhead is the real deal. A tech hub that’s spawned big local companies—and a lot of cushy salaries.

57. Car-free lifestyles no longer seem crazy. Alternate transportation commuters are becoming more prevalent by the year—and proving that living without a car (gasp!) is possible in Atlanta. (See: the saddlebags and backpacks accessorizing business attire along the Freedom Park PATH Trail during weekday rush hours.)

58. No shortage of swingin’ highrise pools. It’s like a subculture unto itself, from late April to September.

59. We have the Southeast’s largest burial ground, and it’s beautiful. More than 100,000 people have been laid to eternal rest across Westview Cemetery’s 600 acres, which is centered around a gorgeously ornate mausoleum and chapel.

60. Lest we forget Oakland Cemetery. Atlanta’s oldest public green space is a historical, durable, accessible intown treasure that really knows how to party. For proof, see the long-running, multistage Tunes From the Tombs festival.

61. The National Center for Civil and Human Rights is > the NASCAR Museum that Atlanta “lost” to Charlotte.

62. Pittsburgh Yards. This southside Beltline redevelopment is centered on the creation of jobs in underserved places—instead of $3,000 apartments and $13.50 bespoke kale bowls—and it could be a game changer.

63. Buckhead’s tallest building, the Sovereign tower, still stands out, architecturally. And it could soon have a big blue modernist sibling.

64. Venturing OTP won’t actually kill you. Resurrected and richly historic downtowns are in abundance in the Atlanta suburbs. Like, everywhere. Find a half-dozen worthwhile day-trip destinations in Gwinnett alone.

65. The Atlanta splash pad, a social oasis and absolute godsend. And even better: More splash pads are in the works, from Vine City (definitely) to Chosewood Park (probably) and Kirkwood (maybe). About damn time, say toddlers across Atlanta.

66. Queer culture is thriving. That’s epitomized by Atlanta Pride, which is more massive than ever after almost 50 years (and now family-friendly, for better or worse).

67. English Avenue’s Mattie Freeland Park. Founded and controlled by neighbors, the tiny green space is a shining example of small but vital civic strides in historically troubled places.

68. The Chattahoochee River. A revived and unspoiled (if underused) resource for every season.

69. Insert here: A non-cheesy, non-obvious, pithy ode to the Varsity, that legendary fast-food drive-in—still the world’s largest after 90 years. Don’t mention “What’ll ya have?” Ah, never mind.

70. Music Midtown. For all its faults (overcrowding, lawn damage, neighbor inconvenience, lineups geared toward teens), the reborn multistage extravaganza is a dynamic and diverse musical showcase every September. Walk barefoot across lush Bermuda and dance like only 75,000 people are watching.

71. Ted Turner’s legacy. The media maverick and early Atlanta believer has been called an inspiration by people as disparate as Ted Koppel and Killer Mike.

72. The reinvigorated cyclorama. Once bedraggled, the restored cyclorama—one of America’s largest historical artifacts—is now in good hands, presented in a state-of-the-art showcase at the Atlanta History Center. That’s where it’ll be until infants of today are septuagenarians. At least.

73. Almost every Atlantan has some tale about the cast or production of The Hunger Games, The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Baby Driver, etc. And hundreds of us have rented our homes for movie and TV shoots. Cha-ching.

74. Atlanta Streets Alive. The occasional street-closure sensation (with attendance routinely north of 120,000) illustrates a dream scenario, in terms of biking/pedestrian infrastructure and how cities of the future could yield to people over automobiles.

75. Inspiring architecture—seriously. In a few too-rare cases, large-scale design is getting quite interesting. Find several forthcoming examples on Howell Mill Road alone. And approach the Jenga-d facade of Midtown’s new lilli tower from any angle at twilight.

76. The Beltline’s Northside Trail. It’s a tucked-away, leafy, unsung jewel—with a rail bridge underpass that could stand as a top Beltline highlight forever.

77. Relaxed ganja laws in the City of Atlanta. Anyone caught with a bag of pot in the city can face—worst case—a $75 fine now. But even that’s left to the officer’s discretion. And judging by the pungent wafts from innumerable cars and so many porches, the memo on that was widely read among intowners.

78. The Goat Farm! Westside ruins turned artist hive. Now don’t let redevelopment gut its inimitable soul!

79. Where the expressions “Y’all!” and “Yo!” coexist harmoniously—and sometimes come from the same mouth.

80. Inman Park Festival. A late-April tradition for almost half a century, this fest is Atlanta’s greatest neighborhood showcase. It’s proof that even prestigious places need not take themselves too seriously.

81. These directions make sense in Atlanta-ese: “Head up the Connector, around the Grady Curve, beyond the Brookwood Split, past Spaghetti Junction, barely OTP, and then…”

82. Record shops keep it spinning. From the hippest gritty neighborhoods to the far-flung ’burbs, ATL vinyl is alive and well.

83. The original Lantern Parade. A luminous Atlanta Beltline tradition—now 70,000 strong—unlike any other.

84. Moonlight drives. The city’s nonsensical roadway design actually makes for more interesting (if impractical) drives, once you know where the hell you’re going. For a test run, take Ponce from the Majestic Diner to Decatur, late at night, windows down.

85. Because the Atlanta Hawks stayed put, right in the city’s heart. And now they’re trending like the team of the future.

86. Ansley Park. With its dizzying array of residential masterworks and unique country-club-under-skyscrapers vibe, this is aspirational living done right. Leafy and hilly at every turn, the neighborhood’s bounty of walkable green space options is almost unfair.

87. Those wondrous, weird accumulations of snow. About six times per decade, there’s a legit, if short-lived, snowfall. Added bonus: The city’s streets and parks are perfectly angled for sledding, for those rare Atlantans who actually own sleds or don’t mind embarrassing themselves on greased cookie sheets.

88. Midtown’s unyielding boom. Crane-watching (and counting) has become a pastime in Midtown. It’s the epicenter of intown’s metamorphosis, where soul-sucking surface parking lots go to die.

Curbed Atlanta

Midtown in summertime, as seen over Piedmont Park.

89. The “Atlanta’s Population Now” sign on Peachtree Road. Long a source of pride and bewilderment for this once modestly sized Southern town, the electronic metro population counter in front of the Darlington Apartments is climbing ever closer to 7 million. Fun fact: It was installed by a young billboard mogul named Ted Turner in the 1960s, when the metro’s population was about 1.1 million.

90. The potential of South Downtown. For far too long, Atlanta’s oldest, most captivatingly vintage streets have been forsaken by most investors, residents, visitors, and anyone else not headed to Magic City, a Falcons game, or the Gold Dome. Whether the trifecta of ambitious plans for the Gulch, Underground Atlanta, and Newport’s extensive portfolio can spring the district to greatness remains to be seen.

91. Castleberry Hill. Atlanta’s epicenter of authentic loft living and bohemian art galleries is also cool enough for a 2 Chainz restaurant.

92. The food. It ain’t all pulled pork, buttermilk chicken, and Frosty Oranges ’round here anymore. From Buford Highway’s international fare to Decatur’s award-winning menus and classic eateries like Busy Bee Cafe, you could live in Atlanta a decade and not sample all its eclectic deliciousness. “This year cemented the Capital City of the South’s status as a culinary force,” wrote Zagat in 2017, declaring the ATL the nation’s ninth “most exciting” food city.

93. Pre-dogwood hoopla. A sunny March weekend in Piedmont Park is like a city festival organized by the citizenry, with plenty of flying frisbees and open-container good vibes.

94. Palm trees. So what if they’re not native to Atlanta? Neither are you (probably). Some varieties really thrive here, punctuating front yards and restaurant landscapes in these subtropical climes.

95. The Fabulous Fox. It’s the site of Prince’s final concert and, when the wrecking ball loomed, legendary 1970s preservation efforts led by bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd. The glittering Fox Theatre is an Atlanta showplace like no other.

96. Viewrific, Finale. Southbound on Peachtree Road, just past Jesus Junction, that downhill vantage point captures something like a scene from the movie Metropolis, only framed by towering pines.

97. Pollen preparedness. A real downside of Atlanta’s otherwise glorious, floral springs are the swirling particles so thick they turn black cars yellow. Or streets into yellow-tinged rivers when it rains. Luckily, ATLiens aren’t fazed, popping non-drowsy Claritin, minding pollen counts on the news, or—in some cases—strapping on SARS-style masks.

98. Local beer. Suddenly, it’s everywhere! A hundred varieties not named SweetWater.

99. That being said… a frosty glass, a SweetWater 420 on draft, a Saturday afternoon in May, counting passersby from a lively patio bar, and somebody, somewhere, just started strumming an acoustic guitar.

100. We’re not “Marthasville,” thank God. (One of this settlement’s original names.)

101. Still welcoming after all these damn carpetbaggers.

source https://atlanta.curbed.com/2019/5/29/18629884/reasons-to-love-atlanta

[rodan-flyingmonster-blog]

Characters Want: Even in Kaiju Eiga

When I was teaching intro fiction during my MFA, one of the things I’d tell students was that envisioning a story was as simple as determining specifics for the following: someone wants something in a time and place.

From there, the author’s imagination can run wild. Who is the person? What are they after? Is it immediate or long-term? Concrete or emotional? Do they live in Russia during the collapse of the Soviet Union, or in your apartment building two doors down in 2016? You know they’re going to go after what they want, or at least fail to do so in some interesting, deeply imagined way, and so they find themselves at the center of their own story. We’ll get to open the window on an emotionally charged moment in their lives, and close it when the moment is done.

When people think of kaiju movies, they do not envision characters this way. Perhaps it’s because they play a visual second fiddle to their 80-meter (fify, if you’re a purist) co-stars. Perhaps it’s because for many of the genre’s high points, they’ve been pleasantly rendered archetypes. That’s okay. What I’m about to lay out is that the characters should still want. More specifically, and something understood by prominent Golden Age Godzilla screenwriters Takeshi Kimura and Shinichi Sekizawa, and more recently Hideaki Anno, their wants should dovetail with the monster action onscreen. That is, their desires and personalities should give them a reason to be involved with Godzilla and all of his monstrous cohorts. Never should it feel as if they’re simply there, trapped in the wrong place at the wrong time.*

I feel like every time I wind up discussing Godzilla 2014 on Toho Kingdom, I get closer and closer to creating a full-on Plinkett-style review of why despite all the right visual and design choices, it winds up being an emotionally hollow experience. Basically, it comes down to realizing that the reason Godzilla movies register isn’t simply because they feature a giant, fire-breathing invincible saurian, but because the people affected by his presence afford for interesting stories and commentary. It’s about realizing that, in fact, all the surface-level elements can be right, even beautifully executed, as is the case in that film, and the movie can still ring hollow because the characters it involves are simply ciphers who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. I thought surely this was an issue shared by any number of the less stellar Japanese entries--characters whose involvement feels incidental, and therefore has trouble saying anything emotionally or intellectually--but let’s actually do a quick breakdown. In how many movies do the characters have a personal reason to be involved in the action, and in how many are they simply around because they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time?

A full breakdown of all the motivations among focal characters in Godzilla movies:

Godzilla (1954): A love triangle places three young people at the center of a decision that will shake Japan and the Earth when Godzilla arrives. Meanwhile, Professor Yamane’s justified interest in Godzilla as both a zoological find and a goldmine of research in combatting radiation poisoning puts him at odds with both his family and the government.

Godzilla Raids Again: We get a relative sense of what side-character Kobayashi wants, which gets some pathos out of a decision he makes in the climax, but by and large this is a story of characters in the wrong place at the wrong time. Does anyone love this movie?

King Kong vs. Godzilla: Mr. Tako’s desire for a kaiju-sized spectacle puts him and his hapless employees at the center of a brawl between Godzilla and Kong. An inventor and his loved ones get thrown into the mix due to the usefulness of his invention and proximity to the above-mentioned characters.

Mothra vs. Godzilla: In the second-best movie in the franchise (no arguments), our first among many teams of spunky reporters and scientists’ humanitarian interests put them at odds with both the slimy fat-cats laying claim to Mothra’s egg and the transgressions of human governments as they appeal to Infant Island’s better side. (Of note: The movie rightfully gets flack for their presence in the climax, in which they’re tasked with saving a bunch of kids after the monster action kicks off because they’re simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their real roles end about twenty minutes before the movie does.)

Ghidorah the Three-Headed Monster: A reporter-policeman sibling pair get roped into some kaiju action due to their mutual interest in a princess convinced she’s a Venusian. King Ghidorah arrives for a guest appearance in Roman Holiday With Giant Monsters.

Invasion of Astro-Monster/Monster Zero: Nick Adams plays an astronaut who wants to put it in an evil space lady. His partner is a no-nonsense older brother who doesn’t approve of his younger sister’s marriage to a hapless inventor whose rape alarm might be the only device possible of stopping an alien plot to use giant monsters against the governments of Earth. You almost forget Godzilla and Rodan show up.

Godzilla vs. The Sea Monster: A group of twenty-somethings get shanghaied by their friend when he tries to steal a boat to search for his brother. It turns out the boat was already stolen by the bank robber on board. While searching for said brother and overcoming personal shortcomings, they run afoul of a band of terrorists and have to set Godzilla loose on them. A native islander interested in saving her people also gets involved.

Son of Godzilla: A team of scientists, a never-take-no-for-an-answer reporter, and an island woman they encounter have to overcome differences to protect each other and their important weather experiments when both they and the Godzilla family come up against Kumonga and other giant insects. They all have personal and ideological reasons to be on, and stay on, the island through the end.

Destroy All Monsters: A team of super-science heroes wind up combatting an alien plot to turn Earth’s monsters against it because they’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. None of them have any personality.

All Monsters Attack: A latchkey kid dreams about befriending Minilla in a universe in which Godzilla and co. are fictional, maybe?

Godzilla vs. Hedorah: A young boy maintains unshakeable belief in Godzilla as a fantastic hero who can combat a fantastic representation of the rampant pollution of industrializing Japan. His father is a scientist who’s maybe a bit too interested in studying and finding a solution to Hedorah. His uncle and the uncle’s girlfriend are hippies who host an end-of-the-world party at Mt. Fuji, because that’s the kind of people they are.

Godzilla vs. Gigan: A struggling mangaka winds up at the center of the plot of alien cockroaches because his girlfriend is insistent he find work (so good). The rest of the crew are spunky civilians who task themselves with investigating the situation for various personal reasons. Godzilla and Anguirus show up because something funny’s going on; better check it out.

Godzilla vs. Megalon: Okay, so two dudes own a robot that gets stolen and is a central point of the film’s plot (“plot”?), but by and large this is a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Maybe Jet Jaguar’s the real main character.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974): A group of spunky reporters and scientists’ investigations into various mysteries on puts them close to both a villainous plot and some light commentary on the plight of the Okinawan people.

Terror of Mechagodzilla: An Interpol agent’s investigation and infatuation with the daughter of someone he’s assigned to investigate plays a key role in stopping a crisis, as do the personal decisions of the daughter.

Return of Godzilla: A reporter and survivor of a Godzilla attack wind up deciding to become part of government action against a newly awoken Godzilla. To be honest, this is kind of a borderline case, as their involvement is pretty incidental, stemming from an early encounter with Godzilla, and they’re really pretty lightly defined outside of that, though everyone still has a personal reason to not just go home.

Godzilla vs. Biollante: Our main characters include a scientist who wants to use a combination of Godzilla DNA and rose cells to bring his dead daughter back to life. A younger scientist comes to grips with the ethics of genetic research, and an aging military character decides to pin his pride on stopping Godzilla as a younger generation seems poised to rise to the top. We get introduced to Miki Saegusa, a psychic without much to do here, but who will eventually become one of the earliest figures sympathetic to this continuity’s Godzilla.

Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah: I’m sure I’ll write an essay-length post on this at some point, but a cast of characters with various personal and philosophical stakes in Godzilla come together for a sweeping series of complicated statements about Japan’s meteoric economic rise.

Godzilla vs. Mothra: A family drama about divorced parents takes center stage in a universe in which their only chance to make amends with one another involves interaction with Mothra and her twin fairies.

Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1993): A robotic engineer’s desire to prove himself within special anti-Godzilla projects and a scientist’s personal connection to a newly hatched Godzilla keep them at the center of the action. Saegusa becomes a full-on champion for Godzilla in this movie.

Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla: In this movie, which is 105 hours long, a rogue ex-military character seeks revenge against Godzilla for his friend’s death, and most of the action revolves around him and his choices.

Godzilla vs. Destroyah: Focal characters include the niece and nephew of Emiko Yamane from the original film, who become involved in the Godzilla plot due to reporting and producing an independent study on the monster, respectively. All characters disappear into command centers halfway through the movie, which is too bad, but the setup is all nicely motivated.

Godzilla (1998): Everyone is a horrible cartoon, but between our venerable stable of Reporters and Scientists with interpersonal drama, as well as some French secret agents, everyone has a reason to stick around in New York.

Godzilla 2000: A father-daughter team run an independent Godzilla prediction network because it’s their hobby and belief it’s the best way to handle the monster. The antagonist is a hawkish head of a government crisis organization and former colleague of the main character until their differing opinions on Godzilla put them at odds. A reporter’s desire for more Godzilla coverage keeps her close to the GPN. Everyone is there because they want to be.

Godzilla vs. Megaguirus: Military revenge plot + slacker scientist driven to prove himself keeps everyone around for personal reasons.

GMK: A reporter for a bad cable cryptozoological show’s desire for higher quality content finds her pursuing myths surrounding a newly resurrected Godzilla. Her father is a patriotic military officer who considers it his duty to go up against the supernatural threat.

Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla: A military character responsible for the deaths of her colleagues during a confrontation against Godzilla finds restored purpose in the opportunity pilot the latest superweapon against him. Mechagodzilla itself is designed a lonely single father, whose daughter finds reason in the the project and proximity to the main character to come to grips with the death of her mother. It’s all much sillier than it sounds, but oh well.

Tokyo S.O.S.: A guy … likes machines? And gets to pilot Mechagodzilla and come to terms with its spiritual desires? He convinces the government to listen to Mothra because his uncle happens to be the main character from her original movie? This is pretty messy; the characters sort of have a reason to be there, but their involvement with the plot doesn’t seem to speak to any personal arcs or bigger ideas. Their roles feel pretty coincidental as a result.

Final Wars: A team of super-science heroes wind up combatting an alien plot to turn Earth’s monsters against it because monster-hunting is their full-time job. None of them have any personality.

Godzilla (2014): Joe Brody gets closer and closer to a clandestine giant-monster-tracking organization because of his desire to reveal a cover-up surrounding his wife’s death. Dr. Serizawa has dedicated his life to said organization because he believes its research can help stop atrocities like his father witnessed at Hiroshima. Instead of following those characters, we follow Ford Brody, who has no personal connection to goings on and whose sole motivation is an Odyssean desire to get home despite constantly being waylaid by giant-monster-related combat and destruction. A character who is continuously in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Shin Godzilla: A team of politicians find themselves at the center of plans to stop Godzilla due to various personal motivations: careerism, a sense of outsiderness, patriotism, pragmatism and personal confidence, etc. There are side characters who aren’t committed to their jobs and simply find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, but that’s because it’s realistic and offers contrast to the characters we do follow, for whom the experience is a watershed moment.

That’s around six or seven movies in the series wherein the focal characters don’t have very clear reasons to want to be involved in the plot, and instead simply have to react to Godzilla’s presence in a way that doesn’t speak to personal motivations or ideas. Some of those are quickie camp sequels; two are spectacle-heavy team action movies that don’t pretend to be character pieces. Godzilla 2014 is unique in presenting itself as a character-centric film, one with plenty of time and budget put into it, but that follows someone who would be a side character in any other Godzilla film.

Even in spectacle-heavy movies, we don’t want these types of characters to be our focal point into the world. We sense the hand of the author selecting them. These aren’t their personal stories. They’re the stories of someone who wants an audience to see Godzilla, and could only half-imagine a person-shaped vehicle for facilitating it. Even a kaiju eiga should feel richly imagined. We want to believe its characters, however lightly drawn, can exist off-screen, and that the reason they’re there stems from their own wants and needs.

*I’ll say that it’s not that someone trapped by circumstances couldn’t provide an interesting focal character. But in absence of a reason to stay involved, we need to understand how personal arcs are going to be informed by their proximity to the action. It is important we understand, again, why this is a relevant moment to open and shut a window into their life, rather than just “that time I survived Godzilla, and let me tell you, there were some pretty close calls!”

[drjacquescoulardeau]

MICHAEL TANNER IS BOUND TO FAIL ANY PhD PRESENTATION (See his article below)

 There is not one argument in that crafty patchwork that is absolutely convincing. The present expenses for welfare, social security, etc., if they are one trillion are nothing but 14% of the global (federal, state, local) US public expenses (US$6.97 trillion). We are far from the catastrophic situation alluded to. I say alluded because the author did not give us the figures I was obliged to look for here, figures without which we cannot judge, assess, deem, evaluate, hence think.

 It does not take into account the two psychological dimension of such a reform. On one side the total demobilization of some into farniente and the simple task of “staying alive” as Schwarzenegger would say in the Terminator Quadrilogy. And on the other hand the trauma that would be for many humans who are somewhere Homo Sapiens and this species of ours is unable to survive if it does not work, meaning if it does not create some added value by its own daily activity.

 The apocalypse of a no-job society is a myth and is not supported by serious figures. We do not know how many jobs are going to be lost, and not only the manual and least paid ones by the way, but we are speaking a lot of all the middle class jobs, administrative and bureaucratic in any economic activity. But the author does not consider humans as Homo Sapiens, see what I have just said, and he does not wonder what kind of jobs are going to be created in the meantime: all jobs based on human contact and exchange. We DO NOT KNOW WHAT JOBS WILL BE CREATED. That’s the real question.

 Before paying millions who would not work to compensate their not working, why don’t we start thinking of what jobs will exist in twenty years, and jobs requiring contact, hence preparation, disponibility, flexibility, adaptability, etc. These jobs will not be based on 40 hours of actual presence in a workplace every week, but rather 20 hours in the job itself and a variable amount of hours to prepare, travel, commute, self-educate, confront and discuss, etc. Do you know in France a high school teacher never teaches more than 18 hours a week (compulsory hours + eventually voluntary overtime) and can teach a minimum of 12 hours a week, which for any decent teacher represent an easy 40 hours of real work.

 The Silicon Valley is too close to Los Angeles and they seem there to believe fictional movies like Terminator, The Matrix, and so many others along that line are the new version of the revealed divine truth of some Bible or Quran.

 What’s more Michael Tanner demonstrates a level of arrogance when he speaks of the poor and the middle class just as if the poor will always be poor, so let’s get rid of the problem by giving them some money. What about getting these poor people out of their poverty and first of all by training them into jobs that will make them non-poor, but train them for what jobs? Good question, Dr. Watson, what jobs will be available in twenty years? Ask the question first and then look for answers.

 The singularity is one of these phantasmagoric ideas that will never be true because machines will never be more intelligent than men because men will always be those who will make the machines and hence will be more intelligent than the machines they create. Man will always be one step ahead of the machines they create. What about enabling all men to improve their intellectual level rather than throwing the baby with the water of the bath, not to mention the bathtub, the same way as they throw all jobs with the prediction that machines are going to be more intelligent, which is true, than men, which is false.

 Such ideas are the simple totally superficial and unworked ideas necessary to be heard by the most idiotic people among those who govern us. It is true the US, on the DC East Coast does not demonstrate today a very high level of intellectual achievement, proving that the IQ of a person has little to do with the intellectual performance of such a person in front of a complex task like the Paris Accord or North Korea, not to mention the Muslim travel ban.

 Dr. Jacques COULARDEAU

 https://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/allowance-all-americans-crazy-it-sounds?utm_content=buffer2d7ff&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

COMMENTARY

 Is an Allowance for All Americans as Crazy as It Sounds?

By Michael D. Tanner

 This article appeared in The Hill (Online) on June 2, 2017.

 Looking for the next big political idea? How about this: Let’s scrap our entire social welfare system, including all of our anti-poverty programs, unemployment insurance, Medicare and even Social Security. In its place, just send every American a no-strings-attached check for enough money to ensure that no one falls below the poverty line.

Controversial? Absolutely. Politically explosive? Almost certainly. Crazy? Maybe not. In fact, a growing and diverse group of people from across the political spectrum have been debating just such an approach to revamping the safety net. The latest is Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who told graduating Harvard students last week that we should blow up the existing New Deal-based social contract and replace it with a universal basic income (UBI).

In calling for a universal basic income, Zuckerberg joins a growing number of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs who back a UBI.

 The current welfare state is a clear failure. A universal basic income may or may not provide a better alternative, but it’s almost certain we will hear a great deal about in the next few years.

 To be sure, there is a fair degree of self-interest in the tech community’s call for a universal basic income. There has been growing concern in some arenas that advances in automation and artificial intelligence could lead to widespread job loss, especially for low-skilled workers. The fear is that politicians may respond by limiting technology or imposing other burdens on the industry.

Already, San Francisco is debating a ban on robotic delivery vehicles. A UBI is seen as a way to ameliorate the pain of a changing work environment without retreating into luddism.

But there may be other reasons to consider replacing the existing welfare state with a universal basic income. The most obvious one is that current welfare programs have so clearly failed to help people escape poverty. The federal government currently funds more than 100 separate anti-poverty programs, at an annual cost of nearly $700 billion per year.

State and local governments spend another $300 billion per year on anti-poverty programs. Yet, despite this roughly $1 trillion investment, poverty rates (even using more accurate alternative measures) have not significantly improved since the 1970s, and economic mobility among the poor remains stagnant.

A universal basic income would have several advantages over the current welfare system. It would obviously be simpler and far more transparent than the hodgepodge of existing anti-poverty programs. With different, often contradictory, eligibility levels, work requirements and other restrictions, our current welfare system is a nightmare of unaccountability that fails to effectively help people transition out of these programs and escape poverty.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, a UBI would provide far better incentives when it comes to work, marriage and savings. Because current welfare benefits are phased out as income increases, they, in effect, create high marginal tax rates that can discourage work or marriage. In contrast, a universal basic income would not penalize someone who left welfare for work.

For those who believe in getting government out of people’s lives, a UBI would also be far less paternalistic, expecting the poor to budget and manage their money like everyone else. It all adds up to a strong case, yet there are also serious trade-offs.

For example, a recent study from scholars at the American Enterprise Institute suggests that the only way to afford a universal basic income would be to replace not just anti-poverty programs and unemployment insurance, but also middle-class entitlements, such as Social Security and Medicare. The poor would be big winners under such a shift, but politically powerful seniors would lose out. That seems like a political nonstarter.

A negative income tax, which limited the basic income to lower-income people, would be more affordable, but would also import all the complexity, fraud and abuse of the current U.S. tax code. For example, how would a negative income tax handle someone who had little income but substantial assets? It would also recreate many of the same incentive problems we see in the current welfare systems, imposing high effective marginal tax rates, which discourage work.

Moreover, as with other government programs, there would be constant pressure to expand benefits. Once we’ve established the idea that people are “entitled” to an income, it becomes much harder to say “no” in the future. How long would it be before we heard that no one can live on whatever benefit the UBI provides at the moment?

Finally, we should be careful of the illusion of bipartisan agreement on the issue, even among its advocates. Free-market advocates see the UBI as a replacement for the existing welfare state. Many on the left call for a UBI as an additional benefit on top of existing programs, funded through new taxes on carbon, natural resources, businesses, or “the rich.” Bridging those differences will likely be much harder than advocates on both sides may believe.

Still, advocates of free markets and welfare reform should not dismiss the idea out of hand. The current welfare state is a clear failure. A universal basic income may or may not provide a better alternative, but it’s almost certain we will hear a great deal about in the next few years.

Michael Tanner is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a free-market oriented think tank.

[hollywoodjuliorivas]

The Silence of the Hacks Paul Krugman FEB. 17, 2017 Continue reading the main storyShare This Page Share Tweet Email More Save 639 Photo Senator Rand Paul, center, at a press conference on Wednesday to discuss Affordable Care Act replacement legislation. Credit Al Drago/The New York Times The story so far: A foreign dictator intervened on behalf of a U.S. presidential candidate — and that candidate won. Close associates of the new president were in contact with the dictator’s espionage officials during the campaign, and his national security adviser was forced out over improper calls to that country’s ambassador — but not until the press reported it; the president learned about his actions weeks earlier, but took no action. Meanwhile, the president seems oddly solicitous of the dictator’s interests, and rumors swirl about his personal financial connections to the country in question. Is there anything to those rumors? Nobody knows, in part because the president refuses to release his tax returns. Maybe there’s nothing wrong here, and it’s all perfectly innocent. But if it’s not innocent, it’s very bad indeed. So what do Republicans in Congress, who have the power to investigate the situation, believe should be done? Nothing. Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, says that Michael Flynn’s conversations with the Russian ambassador were “entirely appropriate.” Devin Nunes, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, angrily dismissed calls for a select committee to investigate contacts during the campaign: “There is absolutely not going to be one.” Jason Chaffetz, the chairman of the House oversight committee — who hounded Hillary Clinton endlessly over Benghazi — declared that the “situation has taken care of itself.” Just the other day Republicans were hot in pursuit of potential scandal, and posed as ultrapatriots. Now they’re indifferent to actual subversion and the real possibility that we are being governed by people who take their cues from Moscow. Why? Well, Senator Rand Paul explained it all: “We’ll never even get started with doing the things we need to do, like repealing Obamacare, if we’re spending our whole time having Republicans investigate Republicans.” Does anyone doubt that he was speaking for his whole party? Sign Up for the Opinion Today Newsletter Every weekday, get thought-provoking commentary from Op-Ed columnists, the Times editorial board and contributing writers from around the world. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. SEE SAMPLE MANAGE EMAIL PREFERENCES PRIVACY POLICY The point is that you can’t understand the mess we’re in without appreciating not just the potential corruption of the president, but the unmistakable corruption of his party — a party so intent on cutting taxes for the wealthy, deregulating banks and polluters and dismantling social programs that accepting foreign subversion is, apparently, a small price to pay. Put it this way: I’ve been seeing comparisons between the emerging information on the Trump-Putin connection and the Watergate affair, which brought down a previous president. But while the potential scandal here is far worse than Watergate — Richard Nixon was sinister and scary, but nobody imagined that he might be taking instructions from a foreign power — it’s very hard to imagine today’s Republicans standing up for the Constitution the way their predecessors did. It’s not simply that these days there are more moral midgets in Congress, although that, too. Watergate took place before Republicans began their long march to the political right, so Congress was far less polarized than it is now. There was widespread agreement between the parties on basic economic ideas, and a fair amount of ideological crossover; this meant that Republicans didn’t worry so much that holding a lawless president accountable would derail their hard-line agenda. The polarization of the electorate also undermines Congress’s role as a check on the president: Most Republicans are in safe districts, where their main fear is of primary challengers to their right. And the Republican base has suddenly become remarkably pro-Russian. Funny how that works. So how does this crisis end? It’s not a constitutional crisis — yet. But Donald Trump is facing a clear crisis of legitimacy. His popular-vote-losing win was already suspect given the F.B.I.’s last-minute intervention on his behalf. Now we know that even as the F.B.I. was creating the false appearance of scandal around his opponent, it was sitting on evidence suggesting alarmingly close relations between Mr. Trump’s campaign and Russia. And nothing he has done since the inauguration allays fears that he is in effect a Putin puppet. ADVERTISEMENT Continue reading the main story How can a leader under such a cloud send American soldiers to die? How can he be granted the right to shape the Supreme Court for a generation? Again, a thorough, nonpartisan, unrestricted investigation could conceivably clear the air. But Republicans in Congress, who have the power to make such an investigation happen, are dead set against it. The thing is, this nightmare could be ended by a handful of Republican legislators willing to make common cause with Democrats to demand the truth. And maybe there are enough people of conscience left in the G.O.P. But there probably aren’t. And that’s a problem that’s even scarier than the Trump-Putin axis. Read my blog, The Conscience of a Liberal, and follow me on Twitter, @PaulKrugman. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter. A version of this op-ed appears in print on February 17, 2017, on Page A27 of the New York edition with the headline: The Silence of the Hacks. Today's Paper|Subscribe Continue reading the main story