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ionizedyeast · 5 years ago

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Title: 0180304 - Workplace Relationship Part 1/2 “Statement of Nelson Briar, Head of Folklore and Legend Research of the Magnus Institute, and his relationship and events surrounding Michael Shelley prior to becoming the Distortion. Statement given --.”

“That’s enough, let’s get right to it, Jon. You know, I’m the reason Elias had to start being more lax about employee relationships within the Institute. It’s not like we had been keeping anything secret, though. Gertrude knew before anyone else and then Diane did. And as far as I know, we were close to being the primary reason for gossip. But you’re not here to listen to me talk about the watercooler chatter of the Magnus Institute. You want to know what happened with me and Michael before well. . . Before I lost him.

I came here from the States back in late 2006. I had just started a Master’s program and had been working in the Usher Foundation back in DC since I was an undergrad. My area of study was well received by the Foundation and thankfully the Institute was more than willing to have me as a grad student in residence. I would have the chance to utilize any of their resources for my studies. Well, not any. It’s funny, knowing what I know now about the Institute, I’ve got to say there were loads of red flags about me coming out here. Probably starting with the fact the Lukas family funded my transfer and were going to cover my education. But I didn’t know anything about the Lukases back then. We have our own cryptic families back in Washington and as far as we were concerned, the Institute had a keen grasp on whatever the Lukases were doing, and weren’t our problem.

You had just started around that time too, hadn’t you, Jon? Wasn’t I your immediate superior for a while? I forget, I still can’t quite figure out the hierarchy here. You’re Head Archivist. I’m Head of Folklore -- are we equals in the Institute or are were on completely different levels. Ah, nevermind, we can talk about that outside of the recording. Reminiscing can wait.

I was, I think I was the third in residence student-employee the Institute had taken in. My predecessors had long since finished their studies and moved on elsewhere. South Africa and Russia, if I recall. I never had the chance to meet them, but as far as what Elias had told me in during my orientation, that’s what I had gathered about them. Wonder what they’re up to. . . But I digress. I was the third, but I was the first that was actively using the archive statements as fodder for my research. See, my focus area was in covering unifying themes throughout world cultures through the means of folklore. Obviously we’ve got the standards -- creation myths, the afterlife, explanations of nature, harvest -- the usual. But my studies were taking me elsewhere. To concepts that overlapped and had uncanny similarities, even when the cultures were worlds away. Some could be explained as just the natural need for humans to find comfort in what they didn’t understand. Death and the dark were most common. I could always figure out ways to connect these points, even if the cultures were wildly different. What was the geography like? The weather during this time period. How were their relations with nearby enemy and ally communities? I could usually pinpoint what needed to be explained and tied together. But some things I never could quite get a grasp on.

You see, Jon, in my decade plus at the Institute, I’ve probably dug too deep for just a simple scholar. I don’t study to know things for a sense of omniscience. I study to satisfy my own curiosity. While it’s always a thrill to share my academic findings with anyone who will listen, it’s always been primarily a personal gain. So I suppose that was one reason why Elias ended up granting me permission to study the archives. With limitations of course. Gertrude wasn’t the most thrilled about it. But I was not prying through with the intentions of exposing the secrets I uncovered to the world. No, it was for myself. And somewhere down the line, well, I wouldn’t call myself an expert by any means. But I did find myself very familiar with some common trends. Of course this wouldn’t all come in to play until some time after Michael, er, vanished.

Michael and I met sometime in early 2007. I had been here for a few months and I was bouncing between working as a shelver in the library and a research assistant -- we briefly were colleagues at this time, though back then we never really spoke to one another. What a shame. Imagine how close we’d be now if we had.

It wasn’t exactly what I would call a remarkable meeting. Gertrude had sent him to the library to have access to our private records for some sort of report but we didn’t have anyone to accompany him at the time so we just talked. I called him enormous or something to that extent -- I’m a small guy, Jon. I’m easily astounded at tall people -- he found my reaction funny. Somehow or another he mentioned the kind of research he was conducting for Gertrude and it was actually something I had quite a bit of experience in. I’d just had an article get published about the topic, so I talked his ear off for a bit before Diane came to take him to the back. Michael came back to the library at the end of the day and asked I’d like to get a coffee with him sometime. Didn’t realize it was a date until the third time we’d gone out for coffee and he started buying. It was casual dating, you know what I mean? The kind where you spend the first few dates just getting to know one another. Talking about what you had in common. What hobbies you had. Your friends. Family. Rather commonplace stuff just to test the waters. And while we had a few disagreements in interests, we kept coming back to the things we did have in common. You’ll have to forgive me, but when it comes to other people’s perceptions of me, I am very dense. Beyond the surface level of ‘this person likes me’, ‘this person tolerates me’ and ‘this person dislikes me’ I have an incredibly difficult time reading people. Even when Michael was holding my hand on our forth date, I still kept telling myself, “Oh Nel, he’s one of those people that uses physical contact to show he’s engaged in conversation.” And frankly it wasn’t until I started sleeping with him -- oh, christ, too much? Sorry, not really the right sort of content to be sharing. But you see my point. I didn’t realize Michael and I had been legitimately dating for nearly eight months. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I’d realized sooner, he wouldn’t have -- you know what, nevermind. There’s no use dwelling on it. Michael is dead. He gave himself up to stop the Spiral’s ritual and that’s all that matters. He did us a service but well, it put me into a bind. Kind of literally. I’ll fast forward through our relationship -- we were all but short of living together. My apartment was too small. Would you believe it was Lukas housing? And he was living too far for me to comfortably be able to commute after my longer days. He was something of a rock for me on my rough days where I’d be at the Institute well into the night. I didn’t like being there late. Always felt like someone was watching me. Heh, well, it wasn’t paranoia. And present me is glad to reassure past Nelson that no, he was not being an anxious mess. He really was being watched. Some nights Michael would stay with me until I finished what I had been working on. Other nights he’d make a point of coming back later in the evening to check on me only to have to wake me up and send me home. Sometimes I wonder if he had ever actually gone home those days. He’d become wrapped up in his own studies under Gertrude. It wasn’t my business so I never asked unless he chose to share.

That’s a lie, and you know it, don’t you? I was a snoop. I would hear Michael mentioning things some nights when I stayed at his place. Whatever it was Gertrude was having him do, it was eating at him. He talked about always being afraid he was taking the wrong door when he was going places. He’d started taking photographs of the doors he used most often. Told me to make sure it was so he wouldn’t get lost. He didn’t want to go somewhere he couldn’t leave. I suggested he put something on the doors he used most so he wouldn’t get confused. But it didn’t seem to reassure him. Some nights he didn’t sleep at all. He’d either just lay in bed with me until the sun came up. Some mornings I’d wake up to find him facing a wall, hand outstretched as if he were taking a doorknob. He would always be so relieved when I called out to him. He’d always settle into bed next to me and he wouldn’t speak. He would just hang tight on to me and just remain still and silent. Now, trust me, Michael was not mentally ill. I mean, your standard depression and anxiety like nearly everyone our age, but he wasn’t unmedicated, nor was he struggling with anything else. Or maybe he was and he just didn’t know. But I genuinely believe -- no, I know -- that how he was acting was not a sign of mental illness. Something had him. I can only say now that I know something had him, because I know what happened now. He only started acting himself again in the days before he and Gertrude left. He was excited. Talked about how thrilled he was to be needed for something so important. He loved his work and he was very dedicated to aiding Gertrude in her work as well. And he was himself again for a short while. We’d been together I think a little over two years at this point. Longest I’ve ever been with a man. Most men get turned off by me being trans so early in the relationship, but Michael didn’t mind. He just liked me and I have to say, hiccups in his health aside, I think we were very happy together. He was so optimistic that week before -- said that he thought that it was time that we moved in together properly. He said he’d seen some places for rent a bit closer to the Institute that on our combined income would be a walk in the park. He wanted to know if my parents were ever going to be visiting London again because he felt he was ready to meet them. After two years together of us being content in our stations, suddenly he was ready to make more of these commitments with me and honestly. . .I couldn’t have been happier. I was half expecting him to mention marriage at some point, but it still seemed a bit soon for that. But I wouldn’t have said no. We were happy. And when he woke me up before leaving for his flight, kissed me and told me he loved me -- I was sure I had such a bright future to look forward to. I was absolutely in love with Michael Shelley, and. . .

You know how the Spiral is the concept of the fear of lies and deception? You know how it alters your perception of reality? You know how it twists and writhes and fills you with doubt and frustration? With how it makes you question anything and everything in your life? Imagine all of that culminating at once. Imagine suddenly being stricken by the anger and betrayal of whether or not this man you absolutely adored was lying to you. Betrayal of ones feelings I think might be the absolute worst thing you could ever experience.

I had eagerly counted down the days of Michael’s return. It was all I could hope for. I had found a few places I wanted to look at with him. I’d even called my parents back in Massachusetts to tell them the good news. And when Gertrude came back alone? She pulled me aside and told me at the very least she owed me some sort of answer. I had thought Michael maybe had just gone straight home and gone to bed. He probably had some sort of jetlag and needed to rest. But all she told me was that Michael would not be coming back. And she wouldn’t say anything more.

I found out what happened on my own. Though I think Elias may have had something to do with it. Who am I kidding, I know he had something, maybe everything to do with it. My access to the archives was cut off after Michael left. I wasn’t allowed in unless Gertrude saw it absolutely necessary and I was under strict supervision. In the past she’d noticed that I’d swipe the occasional statement for a few days before returning it and she wasn’t...too fond of that. Or me in general. I think her general dislike of me is half the reason, if not all the reason I never joined the archives team, despite being a perfect fit for the position. No, it wasn’t just Elias. Michael I think left me hints too. I had gone to his apartment after a week thinking maybe he might have actually needed some space before we moved in together and that’s why Gertrude was being cryptic because she didn’t know herself. But when I got there, the apartment had been untouched since I’d left for work the morning of Michael’s departure. Everything was in its place. I spoke to his landlord, mentioned that he had disappeared and that the place needed to be cleaned out. But as it were, before he left he’d put my name on the lease somehow. It had seemed he might have actually prepared for this. I mean, I know now that he had. But back then I was so angry. But I couldn’t just express it. I felt like nothing made sense. I felt like he had abandoned me, but in such a way where he wanted me to be taken care of in his absence. I didn’t understand any of it. Rent had been paid up for the next few months and I was able to use this time to take care of my own affairs. I moved in to Michael’s apartment. I kept his name on the least just in case. I decided I’d rather have a longer nightly commute home than live in that lonely apartment of mine. I’d like some sort of company even if it was in the form of Michael’s belongings. The unfortunate side was that the apartment now had twice as much stuff and I had to do some cleaning. It was while I was cleaning, I found some of Michael’s hints. Statements that I had never laid my eyes on. Photocopies of ones that were likely still in the archive. In truth, Michael had been lying to me. More than he let on. But now I realize it had been a lie to protect me. He could only do so much for me while he was around though, ‘cause before you knew it, I was absorbing as much information as I possibly could about what he’d left behind for me to read. It was astounding. What he’d left for me perfectly summed up so many of the connections in the study I’d been finishing for my grad studies. Who would have guessed that my own boyfriends disappearance would have led to me completing my degree! I say this happily, but it’s breaking my heart to do so. I really loved Michael, you know. I couldn’t really bear the idea of being without him. Maybe that’s what pushed me to start breaking into the archives late at night. Maybe that’s how and why Elias started watching me. I don’t know if it was because he disapproved of what I was doing, or if he was just curious. I, uh, I don’t know if you’ve caught on. But Elias doesn’t watch all of us. Just those he thinks have some sort of weight. It probably had to do with how much I buried myself in what Michael left behind for me. After I obtained my degree all I could do was start researching. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have signed the proper employment contract. 20/20 as they say. I was obsessed, Jon. The moment I found out Sannikov Land wasn’t real, I lost myself. I tore apart the myths and legends I’d been studying my entire life to find some sort of hint or connections between what Michael left for me and the truth of it all. You’ll um, have to forgive me a bit if the rest sounds a little disjointed. Between Michael’s disappearance and Gertrude’s death, my grasp on reality started to. Slip? None of my memories connect smoothly. There’s patches. Blanks in time. I can only take a guess that these were from periods where I was lost in my own mania.

I wouldn’t say the Spiral had me yet. But it was definitely effecting my daily life. Like Michael, I started to see the doors. I started to find myself caught in lies and deception and doing whatever I could to find answers. I was living to deceive as long as it benefited me and my search. And like it had always been. They were selfish pursuits. It was knowledge I had to know for myself. It was knowledge I needed to obtain because I needed to find out what happened to Michael. Elias never intervened. He never tried to stop me. I have a couple memories of him pulling me aside and supplying me with some information that might help steer me on the right path. Or maybe the wrong one. I don’t know. Like I said. Those years were hazy. But he always seemed so pleased by my progress. He knew then. He had to know. This is Elias we’re talking about. He had to have known where I was headed. Jackass... I don’t have much clarify until shortly after Gertrude died. I had been in the halls. I was staring at something on the wall -- probably a door. I passed Elias. He didn’t look right. He looked like he was staring through me. Said something about how someone should lock the archives. Gertrude had passed away and he needed to make sure the room was locked up until someone new was hired. He handed me a key and sent me on my way. I think he was telling me to take what I needed if it would help me in my search for Michael. Whatever it is I had found, that was when I think I had finally succumbed to the Spiral’s influence over me.

You know the funny part about this. . .We didn’t hear that Gertrude passed away for another three days. I suppose that’s the funny thing about being touched by the Spiral. You just accept the falsehoods, even when you know they’re falsehoods. And in the end? It benefited me. Just as I always wanted.

Since I’m being honest here. Being in that labyrinth was the first time in years I actually didn’t feel like I was losing my mind. I wasn’t scared. In fact it felt like taking a walk in the park. I held a large armful of folders of statements in my arms. And all I did was walk. I passed countless doors and passages and turned through winding corners and corridors and nothing about it filled me with any dread or unease. It felt like I belonged there. I say this knowing full well that my comfort likely had something to do with being in the domain of what had been driving me those past few years. I don’t think the Distortion liked my reaction, though. At one point, I found a dead end. There was only one door, and when I opened it, I was back in my office. I didn’t imagine it, of course. That wouldn’t be the first time I ventured there. I usually went in of my own volition. I don’t know if the Distortion found me to be a nuisance or not. But whenever I saw a new door, I simply would knock first and announce I was coming in. And whenever I went in, it was just the same. An odd comfort like I belonged there. I felt like a visitor in someone’s home. It was like when I first started to spend the night at Michael’s. It was as if the halls were no harm to me, even though it was not my dwelling. I was allowed to be there. Perhaps I was even being invited. But if the Spiral disliked my presence, it never did so in such a way that caused me any fear or harm.

It was my third time within the Spiral that I started calling out.

I had done enough research by now and learned enough to know what the Spiral was. What it could do. Where it was leading me. And to know all about Michael’s connection to it. And I started to call his name, hoping I might hear him respond. I didn’t want to believe he was dead yet. I wanted to believe he was somewhere within these halls and he needed to be found. Even at the cost of myself, I wasn’t going to leave him. And then, it hit me. The more I called for him, the more welcoming the halls became. The more I began to find that I wasn’t just comfortable. I was welcome. I was able to spend more and more time in the Spiral each time. I knew quite well that I was likely losing more and more of myself with each trip. I would talk to no one, or perhaps someone, whenever I was there. I would have conversations with whatever was residing in the halls. Like I was spending my time with a friend. Like I was talking to Michael. Maybe it was something I did to keep myself grounded the deeper I ventured. When I came out, I often could not sleep. I wouldn’t show up to work for days at a time, either due to the passage of time itself in the Spiral, or just because I couldn’t find the strength. My visits only began to slow when I started to notice the door in Michael’s apartment. It had stopped appearing anywhere else. Just Michael’s place. There had been something etched into the door. The method I had given Michael about how to be sure the doors he used in his regular life were the right ones. There had been a slight carving around the doorknob. I had etched it into the door of Michael’s apartment back when he first started to show signs of concern. It was his door. But he was not here to open it. It sat across from our bed, like it was waiting for me. It wanted me to open it. But this time, I was not invited to come inside. So I did something else. I just opened it. I opened the door and I left it open wide. And I said that whatever was in there that wanted to see me so badly could come out. This was a new behavior. And I welcomed it, just as it had welcomed me. That was when I met the Distortion.

It didn’t look like Michael when I first met with it. It looked like a young woman, maybe late teens. Dark skin and hair but her shoulders were unnaturally hunched up and her hands. They were so long and spindly. She was dressed in gym wear, a loose, cut up t-shirt and yoga pants. And she sat on the bed in front of me. I left the door open. Day in, day out. I had left an invitation for the Spiral to come in to my residence and it took a week or so before it took form and visited me. I had managed to be sleeping that night, but something stirred in me and caused me to wake up. And I found it sitting cross legged on the bed. Just staring at me. I don’t think the Spiral had decided to use Michael’s form yet when it came to mingling with people yet. Maybe I was the reason it started to, but I wasn’t sure. Still not.

It asked me a question. It’s voice unnerved me and it smiled at me as it spoke and there was something so wholly unsettling about that smile. Like my head was aching from just looking at it. And it asked what was so important that I was always coming in its doors. It told me it was quite bothered by my coming in and making no means of trying to escape, or find its center. It didn’t like that I was searching for someone rather than something. I told it that I was looking for my boyfriend. He was inside there somewhere and I was going to bring him out. I’m not sure if it liked that response but it left after that. Not for good, because a few nights later the same thing happened. But this time, it sat in the form of a man. He was about forty or so, olive skin, light hair with a stern, crooked nose and a scruffy beard. It asked if this was the person I had been looking for. And I said no. And it was gone again. This went on every few nights for, god, close to a year. Each time I would give it another bit about how Michael looked. I tried to show it a photograph before but when it looked at my phone, the screen just went fuzzy and I had to restarted it in order for it to work right again.

Until one night it got it right. It spoke in the same voice, although there was a different, almost feedback like twang to the way it spoke to me. And when I awoke, the Spiral had gotten it right. I saw my Michael sitting on the bed in front of me and the sight of him was enough to get me to throw off my covers and kneel in front of him, hands upon his face. I must have been crying or maybe it was looking straight at the Spiral, but I couldn’t get a clear look at him. I told it that it was right and this was the person I was looking for. And I needed him back.

And you know what it said?

‘No, I don’t think so.’

I don’t think I had ever been so scared to see Michael’s smile. It just smiled at me and it ran the tip of one of those long, spindly fingers under my chin and I hadn’t even registered that it had made me bleed. And it just said ‘No, I think I shall keep this one a little more. See how far you’re willing to go to get him back.’

And it went into the door again. This time it smiled the whole way. And when the door closed. I was immediately on my feet to run at it to chase it down. But the door was gone.

I took something equivalent to a sabbatical a few weeks later, Jon -- it was around the time you started as archivist. Tim had been working beneath me before my sabbatical and I think that’s part of what drove him to join your team. I was going to be gone for a few months and I wouldn’t have the chance to give him any work to do. Elias was more than happy to give me the time off, but he did something to me. I think as assurance I wouldn’t go running away forever. I think I had started to become a threat to him in some way. Not sure how. Still not. Part of me is somewhat convinced that Elias was planning on using me to get the Spiral to touch you, but I don’t things went exactly as he expected. Especially considering the Spiral had plans of its own.

I was on leave for about three months. I took a few weeks to fly back to the States to visit my parents and check in with the Foundation. I checked in with the archive staff there to see if I could scour some of their resources for what I had been experiencing. But we were never as well equipped with statements as the Magnus Institute. I found a lot of my efforts there weren’t really worth my time. Although I did learn a little about a few groups in North America that had their eye -- Jon, keep an eye out on the Codley family of New York. They’re a cult family, but I wasn’t able to pinpoint of what exactly. If I find out more, I’ll let you know. I only met one person back at the Usher Foundation that knew anything that might help me. In fact, it was their own archivist, man by the name of Warren Chase. I’m actually still in touch with him, if you ever want to meet him. He seems to be following your accounts pretty intensely. Said that he’s been having duplicates of your statements and recordings sent to him. We know who’s to blame for that, obviously. Truth be told, he’d asked me to come back to the Foundation. He wanted me to join his team, but I had to decline. Work here is far too time consuming. But, you see, Warren hadn’t been touched by the Spiral, but he’d been touched by the Stranger. Stranger apparently is very tied in with the Foundation. Something to do with the number of secret organization and secret government activities happening back in the States that there are people within our own organizations that are not what they seem to be. Now, Warren seemed to be far more optimistic about my situation than I was. Told me that if one can keep their head when dealing with these entities, you can retrieve someone lost to them. I mean...you were able to bring back Daisy. I’ve had no such luck.

Jon, I know Michael’s gone now. The Spiral swaps its forms whenever it so chooses and I know it discarded Michael’s form when I. . .When I took too long. I’ve met it as it is now. Helen is the name of the woman it appears as. It’s told me that I knows me, but it has no attachment for me now like it had when it was Michael. It knows Michael had loved me.

But it was the time that the Distortion was Michael that was what ultimately brought me to where I am. I’m just one foray or so away from becoming its next avatar at this point and I mean it when I say that I am absolutely fine with that. I spent the time of my leave looking for those doors. Looking for how to get into the Spiral from other entrance ways and other methods to get myself lost in those halls again. This time from a new vantage point, from a new perspective. I was going to find Michael and I was going to bring him home! And I like to think that I nearly succeeded. It might sound absurd to you but, I think I had become something like friends with the Spiral by the time I had figured some things out. It probably started when I had encountered it behind a bar during my last few days in the States before returning to London. It was preying on this young woman who was trying to tell her friends about this store she’d kept passing each day on her home from work, and each time she would try to take someone there it was always an old butcher’s shop, long since closed down. I had noticed the Spiral lurking around and when I found myself in the men’s room looking at what appeared to be a door to the outside, I stepped out of the room and found the actual entrance to the back of the bar. The Spiral had been waiting for me, wearing Michael’s face as it had grown fond of doing. And I told it that I had figured one thing out. I knew that just because it looked like Michael, it was not Michael. And I think that curried my favor with it a bit. It liked that I was playing its game and calling its bluff. And it became just that with me and the Distortion. A game between the two of us. The Spiral in its own way was entertained by my dedication. And somewhere down the line, I think we became, well, I like to think we had become friends. Or as close to friends as you can be wit the entity of Deceit.” And Nelson stops, and he stands up and smiles at Jon. “I think this is where you say ‘Statement ends’ isn’t it?” The recording does not stop, but Jon looks up at the researcher who has now raised to his feet and offered a smirk to the archivist. “You’d be surprised how many of us can be touched by our host without losing our wits. Maybe I’ll indulge you with the rest sometime. Take care, Jon.”

#tma #the magnus archives #OC fanfition #evan talks his ocs #nelsoncore

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nyfacurrent · 6 years ago

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Business of Art | The Artist’s Survival Guide to Tax Season

Already filed your taxes? We salute you! If not, we’re sharing a few tips.

April 15, 2019 is fast approaching, which means it’s time to get organized, reflect on your finances from 2018, and work on your 2019 financial goals. Many readers may have already checked the tax task off their To Do list for the year. If you have, we hope you’ll use these pointers to be even more efficient next year.

If you haven’t, we’re sharing a few essentials for navigating the tax process for creative entrepreneurs, including freelancers and small business owners, with significant inspiration from Elaine Grogan Luttrull, CPA/PFS. Through the auspices of Minerva Financial Arts, which she founded in 2009, Grogan Luttrull seeks to “build financial literacy in creative individuals and organizations.” While this article draws on the expertise of Grogan Luttrull and others, please note that it is meant as a guide, not as personalized financial advice.

Before launching into practicalities, here is some additional inspiration from “actress-turned-accountant” Katherine Pomerantz, whose comprehensive tax guide in The Creative Independent is a must-read. Pomerantz’s words, below, place taxes into a broader context:

Us fringe workers must always consider where our money is headed, because it’s up to us to provide our own healthcare, plan for retirement, and save towards personal goals. The more money we have left after taxes, the more we can grow our lifelong savings, and the sooner we start, the better off we’ll be. Tax planning thus becomes the first part of a holistic and healthy financial plan for our entire lives.

A Note on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA)

Major tax reform was passed in December of 2017. How might that sweeping change affect you personally? We’re highlighting three of the major changes here:

Standard deduction amounts increased significantly to $12,000 for singles and separate filers, $18,000 for heads of households, and $24,000 for joint filers. For many, this change takes away the incentive to itemize but still underscores the need to track your expenses: you will need to have the information to compare and choose whether taking the standard deduction or itemizing deductions will be more advantageous.

The I.R.S. changed its withholding tables, so, heads up! This may result in a smaller refund for some taxpayers, or even cause some taxpayers to owe the I.R.S. money. This does not mean that taxpayers have paid more overall; for many, a smaller amount was withheld from each paycheck than in previous years.

There is a new 20% deduction for self-employed filers, which will cause some freelancers to breathe a sigh of relief. Learn more about changes for self-employed earners here.

Now that we’ve covered changes in the tax landscape, we can move on to a few general guidelines that will help you orient yourself, pre-April 15.

Decide Whether You Mean Business

For the purposes of completing your taxes in the most advantageous way possible, it’s important to differentiate your artistic practice as a “hobby” or as a “business.” Several experts encourage artists who earn income from their practice to consider themselves a business, so that they qualify for key business-related tax deductions. The I.R.S. provides several guidelines for what constitutes a “business.” Grogan Luttrull sums it up, though, saying: “One guideline is to aim to make money in three out of five years, but really, it's more important to treat the practice professionally by keeping books and records, dedicating time and energy to it regularly, and seeking to improve.”

Channel Your Inner Organizational Nerd

When it comes to tracking your finances, says Grogan Luttrull, it’s essential to embrace your inner archivist. Ideally, you’re staying organized throughout the year. If this was not the case for your 2018 expenses, start getting organized now. It'll save you time later on!

For each financial transaction you conduct for your practice, be sure to save four pieces of information. If your financial records are not complete, this is the information you will attempt to track down, assuming you have receipts of those transactions.

The date

The amount

The counterparty: who did you pay, or who paid you?

The business purpose, which must be commonly accepted as being necessary for your industry. Find deductions that are common to artistic businesses here.

You can stay organized with a simple spreadsheet. In addition to keeping physical copies, Pomerantz recommends taking a picture or screenshot of the receipts and uploading these to a cloud-based storage tool. The filename of each receipt should include the type of business expense, date, and amount.

Gather Your Tax Allies

Feeling exasperated or confused? Luckily, taxes are pretty universal, which means there are artists in your community who are experiencing the same frustrations. Taxes are part of your personal finances, but that doesn’t mean you need to go it alone. To defeat the urge to procrastinate, you can find a “tax buddy” and check in with each other to hold each other accountable on progress. (As an aside, the accountability buddy system also works quite well for finishing your applications for residencies, fellowships, and other opportunities.)

Many local governments and organizations also offer free tax assistance and free platforms for filing (in addition to the I.R.S.’s free filing option for those with qualifying incomes). See the list below for helpful links. Finally, if you choose to hire an accountant, Grogan Luttrull recommends researching fees and finding someone who understands the nuances of an arts business. Reach out to your artist network for their recommendations, or, if you’ve narrowed in on a candidate, ask that CPA for a reference from another creative client. If you think you may work with an accountant next year, starting the search in the summer of 2019 will make it easier to schedule an introductory meeting or phone call to make sure the client-accountant relationship will be a good fit.

To sum up: Go forth and file with confidence, artists!

Key Resources

I.R.S. Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center

I.R.S Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) and Tax Counseling for the Elderly (TCE)

The Actors Fund Volunteer Income Tax Assistance Program (VITA) Program - Los Angeles

U.S. Small Business Administration: Filing & Paying Taxes

Freelancers Union: Money & Taxes Articles, including The Freelancers Union 2019 Tax Guide

I.R.S. Directory of Federal Tax Return Preparers with Credentials and Select Qualifications

American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) – State Referral Sites

Kansas City Volunteer Lawyers & Accountants for the Arts

St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts

Texas Accountants & Lawyers for the Arts

Tax Assistance at the New York Public Library

- Mirielle Clifford, Program Officer, Online Resources

This article draws inspiration from #ArtistHotline, an initiative dedicated to creating an ongoing online conversation around the professional side of artistic practice. Our goal is to help artists discover the resources needed, online and off, to develop sustainable careers.

Have an arts career question? You can contact NYFA staff directly via the NYFA Source Hotline at (800) 232-2789, from Monday - Friday, 3:00 - 5:00 PM EST or email [email protected].

This initiative is supported by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation.

Image: Ginny Casey (Fellow in Painting ’18); Dulce Pinzón (Fellow in Photography ’06)

#business of art #artisthotline #professional development #artist professional development #nyfasource #nyfa source #emily hall tremaine foundation #mirielle clifford #instagram #taxes #tax season #taxes for artists

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bicanthropus · 2 years ago

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wednesday addams

╔═.✾. ═ LOG *** : wednesday addams | woman, she/her/it | 20 years old.

Just spotted WEDNESDAY around town. Our records show that they remember [ few things ] from their source : wednesday / addams family (canon). They were first spotted in november 2022 and our best guess is that their last memory would be walking away from nevermore after saving it. Archivists watching them state that they still have the seeker and teller of the truth, darkened dreams of maroon, indifference towards most others vibe about them.

━ from Armes E. Sallow’s personal archives. ═.✾. ═╝

↳・゜jenna ortega

❃゜・。. ・°゜

[you can hear the clacking of heels against pavement, the slight huffing of someone running]

armes: Miss Addams! Miss Addams if you would please.

[the running stops, though the huffing remains for a moment before she catches her breath]

armes: Thank you, I’ve been hoping to track you down for an interview.

For what reason?

armes: I’m the town archivist. I like collecting interviews from everyone who joins our community.

[silence on the tape.]

armes: For the record, can you state your name and where you’re from.

Wednesday Addams. From my mother’s womb.

armes: Serious answers please.

That is a serious answer. Would you like to know how I came to be there?

armes: no! No thank you. What is the last memory you have of before you were here.

Why does that matter?

armes: We have a history of memory loss in this town, and I like to ensure all of our new residents feel comfortable in their own memories.

I’m fine.

armes: Right. Our record shows you’ve been here for a month. Are you feeling settled? Have you found a job?

Jobs are for people who wish to give into the capitalistic hellscape that our society has become and which will inevitably destroy us all.

[silence on the tape for a moment. then a huff likely from armes]

armes: Should I even ask what the strangest thing you saw before this town was?

Strange is a concept made up by people who think they rule our world and society, but in fact only contains people they don’t like as “others”

armes: Okay, you know what? Thank you for your time Miss Addams.

❃゜・。. ・°゜

notes collected by tal brennan

Someone else that I’m familiar with from my past. The Addams family show and movies were always so important to me. This Wednesday seems to be based off the 90s movies as well as a tv show that came out more recently known as Wednesday. She is part of the kooky Addams family, who live outside of the normal and embrace that within themselves.

Wednesday is a bit on the quieter side, but that makes her all the more devious. She’s an expert in torture, and by the time she was 13 she already had a kill count thanks to an incident at a summer camp. She is a doting daughter, with much love (in her own way) to both her parents as well as her Uncle Fester and brothers. However, it seems she’s trying to find herself and figure out just how she fits into the Addams Family. Even for an Addams she seems a bit distant from neurotypical society, but that doesn’t seem to bother her either. She’s cruel, harsh, and too the point, and she doesn’t seem to care how other people think of her.

danger: 11/10 likeliness to investigate: 10/10

#✿ wednesday addams ✿#sallow hills (intro)

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rogue-recipe-archivist · 3 years ago

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New Beginnings

Hi potential recipe fiends!

I’m Sarah Laine, your resident rogue recipe archivist. I intend to utilize my background in marketing, museum studies, studio art, and the culinary arts to launch an expedition in to the wild world of recipe books. I’ll be sourcing almost everything from the Internet Archive, so here I will post links and photo’s of the recipes in question alongside photographic evidence of my successes and failures. I’ll be hosting a podcast sharing my findings and interesting anecdotes from history, in the future I hope to bring on expert guests to discuss the topics. I am driven to pursue this by an insatiable appetite for novel desserts and a passionate belief that there is some forgotten information in these books just waiting to be exhumed. Recipes are really just a set of instructions at their core, and on the page meaningless until resurrected by performing the ritual as written. A few of the topics I plan to explore first are; recipes as written by industrial food companies such as Kraft Foods many many Jello Recipe books, the fictional people who hoc these products such as Betty Crocker and Aunt Jemima. We’ll explore recipes from times of rationing such as during the second world war, and other historical recipes from black and indigenous authors. We’ll investigate the presence of history, how historical tragedies linger in our fields and on our plates.

It won’t be all sunshine and rainbows but with any luck it will be delicious.

See you soon with the first episode!

Sarah

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the-roanoke-society · 7 years ago

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agents, sound off.

i’ve been meaning to make an official cast list for us now that our family’s growing.

if anything on this needs to be updated, changed, removed, etc., just let me know. it’s important to me that everyone who wants to be included is included, because i want everyone to have their own tag for me to put things in. because heaven knows i live eighty percent of my life for aesthetic.

meet our cast:

agent seraphim (just a witch who loves jesus and bourbon)

agent succubus (a walking weapon with dangerous curves included)

agent houdini (not entirely convinced she’s not actually a changeling)

agent lycan (tracker in residence and diplomat to creatures of the night)

the scribe (eternal, intellectual and will blind you with knowledge)

agent sprite (weaponry specialist and secretly robin hood)

agent seance (spook specialist and liaison between worlds)

former/agent specter (we are everyone who has come before us)

agent ondine (marine biologist with a supernatural specialty)

agent arizona (search and extraction extraordinaire with an extra bit of lilt)

agent raziel (the walls have ears and they tell her everything)

agent cherub (token healer and actual guardian)

agent rougarou (you could say she’s got friends on the other side)

agent annabelle (expert in body language and silence)

agent sentinel (he says he’s got miles to go before he sleeps)

agent zed (our best defense does their offense with a scope)

agent elfin (tall, dark and definitely not entirely human)

agent nova (starry sky diplomat and space ambassador)

agent jersey devil/jd (heart’s pretty golden for a devil-named man)

agent phoenix (from ashes to a super nova)

agent judas (boy, you carry that cross like a weapon)

agent pru (full of metal, yet full of grace)

agent hood (our court diplomat with blessed beast in tow)

agent chimera (you need broken pieces to make a mosaic)

agent nightcrawler (more than meets the eye and most medical scanners)

agent iuniore (bigger than her body gives her credit for)

agent gramr (resident dragon-slayer)

agent cerberus (four-legged and bigger-brained)

agent archivist (sees and knows everything you don’t)

agent bard (give us a new definition for death metal, darling)

agent thorn (fair-faced fair folk ambassador)

agent exorcist (you wanted absolution and got a revolution)

agent nephilim (walks like a graveyard but look at that halo shine)

technical officer signal (technomancer extraordinaire and token codebreaker)

agent bracken (not the lorax but he still speaks for the trees)

agent jötunn (after a century do all sunrises start to look the same?)

the gremlin (his hands speak the same language as iron and steel)

agent snallygaster (gun-heavy hips to match a heavier heart)

agent zână (a being of light who can cradle darkness like a child)

did i forget anyone?

#reblogging for additions #the roanoke society #society notes #canon notes #meet our cast #foundations #cast notes

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publiccollectors · 8 years ago

Photo

Congratulations to Molly Davy on the successful completion of her Public Collectors Joong Boo Residency! All of my photos are somewhat out of focus, so I picked the one (with chopsticks in motion) that looks the most celebratory.

I first met Molly about four years ago at Chicago 'Zine Fest. She is a longtime supporter of Public Collectors and I've been following her blog (Womanhouse) for years. Molly started posting in 2009 so there are thousands of things to look at, including a wealth of feminist art history, and bits of poetry and film, mixed with other interesting odds and ends and moments from her personal journey. The breadth of Molly's interest in art history is what sets Womanhouse apart from so many other blogs on Tumblr. Her enthusiastic curiosity is always evident, and the way she shares her interests and discoveries reminds me of the best moments in college when friends would hip each other to the newest cool thing they learned about in an old book or periodical from the library.

Molly Davy lives in New York but is originally from Minnesota. She flew to Chicago and spent the day here before traveling on to Minneapolis to visit family. This morning Molly came directly from the airport to my house, which gave us some time to talk before lunch. She has been acquiring publications I've made for some time, but a home/studio visit was a good opportunity to give her some new things that she didn't have yet. Most residents usually wind up taking home some complimentary publications. After checking out some of my artist ephemera archives and printed collections, we headed over to Joong Boo.

We arrived at Joong Boo and found a classic Joong Boo situation: a chaotic parking lot with multiple people attempting to get in, pull out, jam their car into a place it probably should not go, and drivers exhibiting widely varying levels of patience. Ultimately a Joong Boo parking lot attendant guided us to safety and we parked way in the back.

Inside, things were about the same at the snack stand. Every table was filled with people eating or waiting for their food. There is a special kind of snack stand rhythm, however, and I have found that no matter how dire things appear, a place to sit will eventually open up by the time your food is finished, so long as you are alone or a party of two. Today was a perfect example of why Joong Boo Residencies are for one resident at a time.

As expected, we did eventually get a table and after a longer than usual wait, our food arrived. Molly had the Tofu soup. I had the Seafood Noodle soup. There are some things at Joong Boo that are more inspired than others and unfortunately my dish was not particularly special. The broth was great and the noodles were fine, but I'm pretty sure they just dumped some frozen mixed seafood into the broth, boiled it, and called it a meal. Not terrible, but not something I'd order again. This is what happens when you try to take a break from dishes with a red chili paste base.

Our conversation was largely about things we each are working on now, and what's coming up next. Molly is wrapping up her Masters degree at NYU where she's been developing strategies for writing about climate change and the Anthropocene in their Media, Culture, and Communication program. Her undergraduate work was in Art History, and she's been working on and off as an archivist in a number of situations—in particular with individual artists like Glenn Ligon and Annie Shaver-Crandell. We also shared our mutual fondness for fellow friend, Minneapolis resident, and a Joong Boo Residency alumnus: Andy Sturdevant.

After a leisurely lunch (those huge bowls of soup take forever to eat), we walked around the rest of the market a bit and Molly grabbed some sweet snacks for later. I also pointed out one of my favorite things: a package of assorted candied nuts and dried beans that that claims, "Each piece of workmanship of experts is ready to put sincerity." Molly told me that this should be the residency motto, and I think she's right. If you aren't ready to put sincerity, this residency isn't for you.

This wraps up Public Collectors Joong Boo Residencies for March. The next residency opening is in May and you can either eat at Joong Boo or Staropolska (if you prefer Polish food). No Chicago Residents, unless you're willing to play dirty and offer me a bribe. Application details here.

#Public Collectors Joong Boo Residency #Joong Boo Residency #Molly Davy #Womanhouse #Public Collectors #Avondale #Korean food

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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Headlines

California fire that killed 3 threatens thousands of homes (AP) A Northern California wildfire threatened thousands of homes Thursday after winds whipped it into a monster that incinerated houses in a small mountain community and killed at least three people. Several other people have been critically burned and hundreds, if not thousands, of homes and other buildings are believed to have been damaged or destroyed by the North Complex fire northeast of San Francisco, authorities said. Some 20,000 people were under evacuation orders or warnings in Plumas, Yuba and Butte counties.

500,000 people in Oregon forced to flee wildfires (AP) Authorities in Oregon now say more than 500,000 people statewide have been forced to evacuate because of wildfires. The latest figures from Thursday evening come from the Oregon Office of Emergency Management. That’s over 10% of the state’s 4.2 million population. More than 1,400 square miles (3,625 square kilometers) have burned this week in the state. Authorities say the wildfire activity was particularly acute Thursday afternoon in northwestern Oregon as hot, windy conditions continued.

Think 2020’s disasters are wild? Experts see worse in future (AP) A record amount of California is burning, spurred by a nearly 20-year mega-drought. To the north, parts of Oregon that don’t usually catch fire are in flames. Meanwhile, the Atlantic’s 16th and 17th named tropical storms are swirling, a record number for this time of year. Powerful Typhoon Haishen lashed Japan and the Korean Peninsula this week. Last month it hit 130 degrees in Death Valley, the hottest Earth has been in nearly a century. Phoenix keeps setting triple-digit heat records, while Colorado went through a weather whiplash of 90-degree heat to snow this week. Siberia, famous for its icy climate, hit 100 degrees earlier this year, accompanied by wildfires. Before that Australia and the Amazon were in flames. Amid all that, Iowa’s derecho—bizarre straight-line winds that got as powerful as a major hurricane, causing billions of dollars in damages—barely went noticed. Freak natural disasters—most with what scientists say likely have a climate change connection—seem to be everywhere in the crazy year 2020. But experts say we’ll probably look back and say those were the good old days, when disasters weren’t so wild. “It’s going to get A LOT worse,” Georgia Tech climate scientist Kim Cobb said Wednesday. “I say that with emphasis because it does challenge the imagination. And that’s the scary thing to know as a climate scientist in 2020.” That’s because what’s happening now is just the type of crazy climate scientists anticipated 10 or 20 years ago.

Pleasures of food and sex ‘simply divine’, says Pope Francis (AFP) The pleasures of a well-cooked meal or loving sexual intercourse are “divine” and have unjustly fallen victim to “overzealousness” on the part of the Church in the past, Pope Francis says in a book of interviews published Wednesday. “Pleasure arrives directly from God, it is neither Catholic, nor Christian, nor anything else, it is simply divine,” Francis told Italian writer and gourmet Carlo Petrini. Francis said that there was no place for an “overzealous morality” that denies pleasure, something he admitted existed in the Church in the past but insisted is “a wrong interpretation of the Christian message”. “The pleasure of eating is there to keep you healthy by eating, just like sexual pleasure is there to make love more beautiful and guarantee the perpetuation of the species,” the pope said. Opposing views “have caused enormous harm, which can still be felt strongly today in some cases,” he added.

Speak softly and scatter fewer virus particles (Reuters) More quiet zones in high-risk indoor spaces, such as hospitals and restaurants, could help to cut coronavirus contagion risks, researchers have said, after a study showed that lowering speaking volume can reduce the spread of the disease. A reduction of 6 decibels in average speech levels can have the same effect as doubling a room’s ventilation, scientists said on Wednesday, in an advance copy of a paper detailing their study.

COVID hardships (CJR) Yesterday, NPR, along with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, published a bleak poll on the economic health of the nation since the pandemic began. Nearly half of respondents said their household has experienced “serious financial problems” linked to COVID-19, including with rent, mortgage, utility, and car payments, affording medical care and food, paying off debt, and maintaining savings. America’s four biggest cities—New York, LA, Chicago, and Houston—have been especially hard hit; more than half of their residents reported losing a job and/or income, and more than half those cities’ households with kids reported serious childcare issues. People of color are doing worse than their white peers: in Houston, for example, over 80 percent of Black households attested to serious financial difficulty. Harvard’s Robert J. Blendon, who worked on the poll and expected the results to be bad, said they were “much, much, much worse than I would’ve predicted.”

Covid Is Turning Us Into Hipsteaders (Bloomberg) While Covid has decimated large swathes of the global economy, it has sparked others, like video conferencing and home appliances. Do-it-yourself pursuits, such as bread making, gardening and crafts, have also boomed and appear primed to last after the pandemic becomes a dark, distant memory. Just as victory gardeners supplemented rations and boosted morale during the World Wars, the DIYers of coronavirus are facing quarantines and shortages with a mix of survivalist bravado and self-expression. Many are skipping the usual retailers, and instead turning to recycled goods, small businesses or individuals for their needs. People who were already DIY hobbyists are expanding their skills. Tynika-Ann Carter, a 24-year-old former model in Western Cape, South Africa, turned to farming and gardening years ago in a quest to replace materialism with something more wholesome. Since the virus, she’s added making baskets, weaving and crocheting. “Covid has given me more time to dive in and give myself fully to the things I love,” she said. Like hipsters, these people are setting new trends and flaunting the look on Instagram. But they’re also doing a lot of the hard, survival-focused work that defines homesteading. Some have dubbed them the hipsteaders.

Letters reveal public distaste for booze in JFK White House (AP) It was a tempest in a teapot—or, more accurately, a whiskey tumbler. Researchers at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum have found a cache of letters from Americans objecting to JFK’s embrace of cocktails at White House events. Eisenhower was no teetotaler, but historians say he presided over a largely cocktail-free White House. Enter Kennedy, who had already raised some eyebrows as the first Roman Catholic to be elected president. JFK Library archivists say the letters of protest began arriving after newspapers reported on Kennedy’s first official event: a January 1961 reception honoring the new president’s appointees. “For the first time, there was a bar in the State Dining Room, with waiters to stir up martinis or pour vodka, Scotch, bourbon, or champagne,” The Washington Post reported. What followed was a sort of low-key Liquorgate. Letters—some typed, others handwritten—expressed shock and worry that the U.S. would lose its dignity and standing in the world. “Dear Mr. President, I think many feel humiliation and disgrace over our nation today when we learn of our White House turned into shameful drunken all-night carousal and dancing,” reads one from Edith Fritz, of Idaho. “Dignity previously engendered—gone. May God have pity upon your poor soul.” The Kennedy administration played down the public’s reaction to the change, noting it received far more letters about civil rights unrest and the Cuban missile crisis. Presidents have held wide-ranging attitudes toward alcohol. George Washington, the nation’s first, is said to have enjoyed whiskey; President Donald Trump, its 45th, doesn’t drink at all, though he has had wine served at state dinners and other functions.

Dozens of Austrians puzzled after receiving U.S. stimulus checks, banks say (Washington Post) Hundreds of people have cashed U.S. stimulus checks at Austrian banks in recent months. Some of them appeared puzzled by the unexpected payments or were ineligible for the payouts, according to bank officials and Austrian media reports. One of the Austrians who claimed to have received such an erroneous check, pensioner Manfred Barnreiter, 73, told Austria’s public broadcaster ORF that he at first believed his check to be part of a sophisticated fraud scheme. “We quietly went to the bank … where we were told they’ll see if it’s real,” Barnreiter told ORF. “Three days later, we had the money in our bank account.” He and his wife received $1,200 each, although neither is a U.S. resident or holds U.S. citizenship—key eligibility requirements. Barnreiter briefly worked in the United States in the 1960s and still receives a small pension from that period of employment, he said. Similar instances have been reported in other countries. The payouts probably still account for a very small fraction of the first $2 trillion U.S. stimulus package.

Fire Destroys Most of Europe’s Largest Refugee Camp, on Greek Island of Lesbos (NYT) Europe’s largest refugee camp, on the Greek island of Lesbos, has long been a desperate makeshift home for thousands of refugees and migrants who have risked everything to flee war and economic hardship for a better life. They lived in cramped tents with limited access to toilets, showers and health care. For years, rights groups warned that these squalid conditions would sooner or later prompt a humanitarian disaster. On Tuesday night, that disaster came. A fast-moving fire destroyed much of the camp, leaving most of its 12,000 residents homeless. By Wednesday, a process of soul-searching had begun among many Europeans, for whom the Moria camp, and the neglect of its residents, has long been synonymous with the continent’s increasingly unsympathetic approach to refugees. No deaths were initially reported. But vast stretches of the camp and an adjacent spillover site were destroyed in the fire, leaving only a medical facility and small clusters of tents untouched.

India has record spike of 95K new virus cases (AP) India reported another record spike of 95,735 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours as the virus spreads beyond its major cities. According to the Health Ministry, the number of people known to be infected in India reached 4,465,863 on Thursday. It has the second-highest caseload in the world behind the United States, where more than 6.3 million people are known to be infected.

U.S. has canceled more than 1,000 visas for Chinese nationals deemed security risks (Reuters) The United States has revoked visas for more than 1,000 Chinese nationals under a May 29 presidential proclamation to suspend entry from China of students and researchers deemed security risks, a State Department spokeswoman said on Wednesday. The acting head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf, said earlier that Washington was blocking visas “for certain Chinese graduate students and researchers with ties to China’s military fusion strategy to prevent them from stealing and otherwise appropriating sensitive research.” China said in June it resolutely opposed any U.S. move to restrict Chinese students from studying in the United States and urged Washington to do more to enhance mutual exchanges and understanding.

For Filipino migrant workers, coronavirus dashes their ticket to a better life (Washington Post) When the novel coronavirus upended lives and livelihoods around the world, it hit the poor especially hard. But the pandemic’s effects also proved damaging for those vying for a foothold in the middle class, knocking them back down the economic ladder. The repercussions are felt in places like the Philippines, the source of a vast migrant labor force that keeps industries ticking, from health care in the West to construction and domestic help in the Middle East. A steady income put many of these workers on their way to a better life, despite difficult conditions, allowing them to send money home, or save for a deposit on a house, car or their children’s education. More than 2 million Filipinos were employed as overseas workers in any given year over the decade preceding the pandemic; their remittances accounted for about 10 percent of the Philippines’ output. But as the coronavirus savaged the world economy, many lost jobs abroad or were unable to take up positions because of travel restrictions. About 170,000 overseas workers have returned to the Philippines since February, official data show. Returnees are recalibrating their lives, coming to terms with diminished earning power and prospects for their families.

U.S. to Reduce Troop Levels in Iraq to 3,000 (NYT) The United States is cutting troop levels in Iraq nearly in half, to 3,000 forces, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East said on Wednesday, in a long-expected move that will help fulfill President Trump’s goal of reducing the Pentagon’s overseas deployments. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the commander of the military’s Central Command, said improvements in the Iraqi military’s campaign against the Islamic State enabled the Pentagon to make the additional troop cuts. (Foreign Policy) Stars and Stripes interviewed a number of veterans on the idea of withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan after nearly two decades of operations. The reactions were mixed, but the consensus is that they’re not sure what was accomplished. “That the soldier in question, alive or dead, did their job—they won the battle on the ground, as they were trained to do—there is comfort in that,” Army Staff Sgt. Séamus Fennessy said. “But simultaneously, there is a sense of bitterness against the politicians and bureaucrats for big-picture incompetence.”

Huge fire breaks out at Beirut port a month after explosion (AP) A huge fire broke out Thursday at the Port of Beirut, the site of last month’s catastrophic explosion that killed nearly 200 people and devastated parts of the capital. The new fire nearly 40 days after the blast triggered widespread panic among traumatized residents of the area. The Lebanese army said the fire started at a warehouse where oil and tires are placed in the duty free zone. A column of thick black smoke billowed from the port at midday Thursday, with orange flames leaping from the ground. Smoke covered the capital and firefighters and ambulances rushed to the scene. Army helicopters were taking part in efforts to extinguish the fire. Panicked residents—still struggling to get over last month’s catastrophic explosion—cracked open windows and called and texted each other to warn them of the new danger. Local TV stations said companies that have offices near the port asked their employees to leave the area.

Beirut’s traumatized survivors (Washington Post) Social workers and other specialists working with survivors say many are showing signs of extreme stress, including flashbacks, nightmares and difficulties falling asleep. Half of the respondents in a recent UNICEF survey in Beirut said that the behavior of children in their household had changed or that the children were experiencing symptoms consistent with trauma and stress. One-third said adults in their household were also exhibiting signs of distress. Beirutis are still astonished by the destruction wrought across much of the capital by the explosion at a warehouse storing ammonium nitrate. Nearly 200 people were killed and thousands wounded. Hundreds of thousands were displaced. In the weeks since, residents have experienced post-traumatic stress, which is common in the aftermath of unexpected disasters such as earthquakes, said Elie Chedid, a psychiatrist treating victims of the blast. Some are experiencing survivor’s guilt, and many children are struggling to understand what happened. “It is the first time that they’ve seen blood and destroyed buildings and roads and cars, so for them it’s something very apocalyptic,” he said. Aid workers have responded by gathering children for community activities, creating safe spaces for them to play in public parks and offering basic psychological care. Some children, as well as adults, will require additional assistance as the city continues to rebuild.

#headlines #news

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travelworldnetwork · 6 years ago

Link

By Mike MacEacheran

17 January 2019

Amid the neon-lit diners and coffee shops of New York’s Upper East Side sits a townhouse that’s a world away from the fast-paced drama of Manhattan. In sight of Central Park, but not as far north as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it is just one of many such houses on a street full of elite mansions and enviable residences. No sightseeing map would direct you to East 70th Street, and it’s routinely bypassed by cab drivers, commuters and pedestrians, all of whom have somewhere else more important to be.

But beyond the townhouse’s wrought iron doors, under a keystone archway, a world of tightly guarded secrets awaits. For this intriguing six-storey mansion, 109-years-old and a fusion of Jacobean Renaissance and Tudor architecture, is a social club for a clandestine group of travellers who have seen more of the world – and universe – than anyone would think possible.

View image of A townhouse in New York houses the headquarters of The Explorer’s Club (Credit: Credit: Mike MacEacheran)

You may also be interested in: • The travel guides that charted our world • The origin of life on Earth? • A trip most people wouldn’t dare to do

The deepest oceans. The farthest rivers. The highest peaks. Even the moon and outer space itself. All of it has been mapped by the club’s globetrotting members. And on any given day, many can be found in the back room, taking tea while plotting their next extraordinary adventure. Talk is not of the weather, but of moon landings and blow dart encounters.

The people who’ve marched through these doors created pages of history

This is the little-known Explorer’s Club, the headquarters of one of the world’s most awe-inspiring field science institutions. Its illustrious list of current, historical and honourary members includes Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who first summited Mt Everest; aviator Charles Lindbergh, who made the first solo transatlantic airplane flight in 1927; Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl who sailed his hand-built balsawood raft, the Kon-Tiki, from Peru to Polynesia; famed pilot Amelia Earhart who disappeared in the Pacific; Apollo astronauts, including Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong, the first men on the Moon; record-breaking deep-sea diver Sylvia Earle; British paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey, who discovered 15 new species of animal; Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos; Titanic film director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron; and primatologist Dame Jane Goodall, considered the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees. The list is mind-boggling. Small wonder the club’s in-joke involves an astronaut, aquanaut and speleologist walking into a bar.

“There are millions of stories associated with this place, and sometimes I need to catch myself from name-dropping,” said two-time club president Richard Wiese, who himself is an explorer with more than 200 episodes of the Emmy Award-winning TV travel series Born to Explore with Richard Wiese on his resume. “The people who’ve marched through these doors created pages of history. They’re immortalised figures.”

View image of The Explorer’s Club’s list of members includes Neil Armstrong, Edmund Hillary and Theodore Roosevelt (Credit: Credit: Mike MacEacheran)

Now the club’s 44th president, Wiese was drawn into this Indiana Jones world by his father, Richard Wiese Sr, who was the first man to solo the Pacific Ocean in a plane. He remembers standing on his front lawn in Connecticut looking at cumulus and contrail clouds wishing he could be just as adventurous. By age 12, he had travelled to Africa and climbed Mt Kilimanjaro.

“I recall the first time I came to the club in the mid-1980s,” Wiese told me, while we sat at a table once owned by former member and US president Theodore Roosevelt in the club’s boardroom. “It was to see a lecture about black bears in northern New Jersey, and straightaway I knew I had found my people.”

Like the other mountain-climbing, polar-exploring, zeitgeist-defining club presidents before him, Wiese maintains the society’s purpose is for knowledge enhancement alone, not self-fulfilment. Its 3,500 members – spread across 32 global chapters, including the New York headquarters – are bound by a bond to push the boundaries of science and education. And these days, membership is predominantly taken up by oceanographers, lepidopterologists, primatologists and conservationists. Not wannabe Shackletons.

A case in point: this past summer, a group of club palaeontologists were in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert hunting for fossilised dinosaur remains using drone scanners. “They found dozens, if not hundreds,” Wiese told me, almost as if he couldn’t quite believe it himself. “Exploration for us is now less a cult of personality and more a cult of data. And because of that we’re getting better at finding the truth.”

View image of The Explorer’s Club consists of 3,500 members spread across 32 global chapters, including the New York headquarters (Credit: Credit: Mike MacEacheran)

It was 1904 when The Explorer’s Club was founded by historian, journalist and explorer Henry Collins Walsh and like-minded Arctic explorers. At the time, the race to the North Pole had brought the group together with a broader purpose to explore by air, land, sea and space. This saw the first meetings held at its original headquarters in the Studio Building at 23 West 67th Street. But as the club grew in stature, so too did its need to expand to house trophies, books and priceless artefacts.

Enter American writer and broadcaster Lowell Thomas of ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ fame years later. An enthusiastic member in the 1960s, he was instrumental in the club acquiring its current headquarters, once a private family home owned by an heir to the Singer Sewing Machine.

“This place used to be about pushing dragons off the map,” said the club’s archivist and curator of research collections Lacey Flint, leading me on a fascinating tour of the townhouse. “We still push those dragons, but the club has become so much more. What really excites members is that we know more about the volcanoes on Jupiter than we do about the very bottom of our oceans.”

View image of Richard Wiese: “There are millions of stories associated with this place” (Credit: Credit: Mike MacEacheran)

History is alive in the building’s upper galleries like few other places in New York. It isn’t just the taxidermy polar bear guarding the staircase. Or the sledge used by Robert Peary and Matthew Henson on an expedition to the North Pole in 1909 (now placed above a door in the Clark Room). It’s in the indigenous totems found by Michael Rockefeller on a trip to collect primitive art from New Guinea (while several artefacts were airmailed to the US, Rockefeller never returned and rumours persist he was eaten by cannibals). It’s in the series of framed club flags, once folded into spacesuit pockets and carried on every Apollo mission into space. And it’s in the artefacts on the desk of the club’s archivist that still need to be catalogued.

It’s a place that boggles the senses

Moreover, it’s a place that boggles the senses. On the day of my visit, Flint’s desk was taken over by a prized 17th-Century Persian helmet and a pair of Spanish colonial spurs. She oversees some 1,000 objects in the club’s collection, as well as a library brimming with 14,000 volumes, photographs, slides and reports. One recent acquisition is a century-old Akeley Pancake Camera, dating to 1919 and first built for rugged expeditions.

The townhouse is an intriguing architectural marvel in itself. There are wooden beams taken from HMS Daedalus (an 1826 frigate warship). A ceiling bought from a 15th-Century Italian monastery, plus original stained-glass windows inlaid with Tudor roses from Windsor Castle in England. It’s so out-of-this-world, in fact, it feels as if it could have been designed by Jonathan Swift’s fantastical traveller, Lemuel Gulliver.

View image of The Explorer’s Club’s New York headquarters houses around 1,000 artefacts collected by its members (Credit: Credit: Mike MacEacheran)

One floor up, past the Hall of Fame and the Sir Edmund Hillary Map Room, is the extraordinarily detailed Gallery. A drop-in visitor can see trophies of cheetah and lion from Smithsonian expeditions; a yeti scalp and prayer wheels from Tibet; a first edition of Napoleon’s description of Egypt; an Alaskan mammoth tusk, moose heads and stuffed penguins; a pelt from a man-eating Nepali tigress; and the remarkable ivory of a four-tusked elephant, a rare genetic anomaly from Congo. The horde of artefacts is so exact – so remarkable – that, at first, it feels like a film set suspended in time.

They were rock stars of their age

“The risks these explorers took were crazy,” said Flint, pointing to an oil painting of Danish explorer Peter Freuchen that hung above the fireplace. Freuchen, she told me, wore a coat from a polar bear he killed, and once escaped an ice cave using frozen excrement as an improvised dagger. “These were people who would amputate their own foot. They were rock stars of their age and their stories are just as radical. Some unearthed burial grounds of ancient kings, while others travelled to the Arctic with a full tea service or crossed a desert with a camel carrying a full-size writing desk. Unbelievable, isn’t it?”

Members’ adventures are just as inspiring today. Archaeologist Joan Breton Connelly – aka ‘Indiana Joan’ – continues to dig for clues at a Cypriot temple built by Cleopatra that she discovered, while deep-sea explorer Jennifer Arnold’s passion is diving for megalodon teeth.

View image of While The Explorer’s Club has an illustrious history, president Richard Wiese says its members are focussed on the future (Credit: Credit: Mike MacEacheran)

To visit the club – possible for around $25 during the society’s weekly public lectures – is to experience an expense of spirit most people can only dream of. While the world of the explorer is changing, the club’s president believes it is a golden era for members – particularly in the fields of palaeontology, anthropology and space exploration.

There is still plenty of magic left in the world – and it’s our job to find it

With evolution comes opportunity and time for reflection, Wiese told me, and over the next few months, the club will undertake one of its most ambitious projects to date: to bring together the largest ever gathering of moon walkers and Apollo astronauts to celebrate 50 years since the Moon landing in July 1969.

“Our challenge is to stay relevant,” Wiese said, looking out the window. “In science, if an organism doesn’t evolve it’ll go extinct. Yes, we have an illustrious history, but our members are focussed on the future – on climate change and on animal and human preservation. So the more we can promote and popularise science to people that have curiosity about the world the better. There is still plenty of magic left in the world – and it’s our job to find it.”

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BBC Travel – Adventure Experience

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vblkrbcu-blog · 6 years ago

Text

HISTORIAN - Cloaking of Identity

Historian

noun

noun: historian; plural noun: historians

an expert in or student of history, especially that of a particular period, geographical region, or social phenomenon."a military historian"

synonyms: chronicler, annalist, archivist, recorder, biographer, historiographer, palaeographer, antiquarian, chronologist

We visited BMAG museum and that's where my idea generating started. We each had to pick an object and I decided to go with the Egyptian Death Mask. In ancient Egypt, masks were primarily used for two purposes: as death masks and as ritual masks.

Ancient Egyptians believed that it is very important to preserve a body of the dead because the soul has to have a place where to dwell after the death. Preservation of the dead body was done by mummification - a process that involved removing of the internal organs and placing it in canopic jars, wrapping body in linen and embalming. It was also considered very important for the soul to be able to recognize the body so it can return to it.

The most famous one is the mask of the Tutankhamun. He is probably the most well-known Egyptian pharaoh. His mummy shows that he died at approximately 18 years old. He had the smallest royal tomb in the Valley of the Kings. He was burried in three coffins, which fitted one inside the other.The middle one was found to be second-hand. It had a different style and its face did not look similar to oned on the other two coffins. Two of his coffins were wooden and the third innermost coffin was made from thick sheets of gold. A coffin like that would today be worth well over £1m. In the process of mummification all internal organs except from the heart were removed. They left the heart in place, believing it to be the center of a person's being and intelligence and would be required in the afterlife. If it was accidently removed they would sew it back it. Tutankhamun, however, has no heart.There were two daggers discovered inside the mummy bandages, one gold and one iron - which was at the time very rare and precious metal.

I used the Egyptian Death Mask from the museum as my starting point. A mask is an object normally worn on the face, typically for protection, disguise, performance, or entertainment. I made a list of word associations and I somehow connected death mask with Death Eaters from Harry Potter since they were wearing masks in the movies.

I was doing reaserch about the Death Eaters and I came across an article stating that their costumes in a movie were inspired by KKK, which I found interesting. I tried to connect the two and after digging deeper I actually found similarities between not only Death Eaters and Ku Klux Klan, but also Hitler and Donald Trump. Trump wasn't the one killing 'the mudbloods' in the movie, but they did all have the same ideology and were killing/suppressing people who were different.

I'm a huge Harry Potter fan so I made this assignment quite fun for myself, but now that I look back on it I should really spend more time on actually making the book instead of reaserch. Even though it was very interesting I dug way too deep and ended up watching hour long youtube documentaries about KKK, looking up HP/Nazi memes, etc.)

DEATH EATERS

Death Eaters were Voldemorts most trusted followers, his inner circle. You had to really earn your place if you wanted to join. He had some requirements for people/wizards who wanted to be a part of his army: blood status, loyalty, talent, value.

'DARK MARK' → their symbol (a skull with a snake for its tongue / a skull biting snakes tail). The incantation for the dark mark is 'MORSMORDRE', which translates to 'to bite death'. Maybe in this case it's not the skull that represents death, but rather the snake. Voldemorts goal is immortality, they seek to destroy death → they eat death → they are Death Eaters.

Dark mark represents the Death Eaters. Voldemort would have seen a snake emerging from the mouth of a statue in the Chamber of Secrets at Hogwards, which was confirmation that he was the true heir of Salazar Slytherin. Basilisk itself represents death (a giant, fanged snake trying to kill you). It resides inside the statue of Salazar Slytherin and enters and exits through the mouth.

SYMBOLISM

THE OUROBOROS (snake eating its own tail) was a symbol of immortality, which was the very thing Voldemort was after.

Ouroboros represents coming full circle. It is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent eating its own tail (usually a snake or a dragon). The name originates within Greek language. 'ouro' meaning tail and 'boros' meaning wating, thus 'he who eats the tail'.

The tail (the end that the skull bites) is not just a physical end of a snake, but also a metaphorical end of life.

I realised both dark mark and swastika symbols used to represent something positive and the meaning was changed later on. The ouroborus symbolised the cyclic nature of the universe: creation out of destruction, life out of death. The snake eats its own tail to sustain its life in an eternal cycle of renewal. Before Hitler 'stole it' swastika was used by many cultures to represent life, sun, power, strenght and goodluck.

Groups whose central belief is that theirs is the one true race and that all others are inferior. While the KKK are known for their negative (to say the least) views on people of colour, especially African Americans, the Death Eaters have a similar opinion on Muggles, or non-magic folk. The terror that the the Death Eaters inflicted upon the magical community during Voldemort’s heyday can be seen as a microcosm of the KKK’s chokehold on the southern US. Both believed in ethnic cleansing and the inherent power of being a pure-blooded wizard/white, and used murder, riots and general evil to achieve their ends.

Many parallels can also be drawn with Nazism and WWII Germany; the goal of eliminating Muggle-borns and half-bloods from the wizarding community was ultimate, but the execution of this goal was undertaken gradually, somewhat like the Holocaust and the rampant antisemitism under Nazi Germany. It’s also not very difficult to compare Voldemort to Adolf Hitler.

The one difference between the Nazis and the KKK that I feel really draws more of a similarity to the Death Eaters is the use of masks. To me, this brands the KKK and the Death Eaters as more secretive and private in that as much as they may be fervent supporters of their cause, there is a clear line drawn between their private lives and public activities. A Nazi is a Nazi and the swastika was a symbol worn with pride, whereas the use of masks by Death Eaters and the KKK evokes a sort of cowardice, an aversion to the world being able to put a face to the acts they commit.

Sure, you might know the names of every Death Eater or member of the KKK there ever was (or currently is), but what difference would it make if you walked past one in the street if you didn’t know their face? This distinction is vital.

I started thinking about how I could show all of that in pictures. Some of the pictures I took from the internet and some of them I drew myself with the help of Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator and Procreate.

For example I found similar pictures of KKK and Death Eaters wearing robes with pointy hats and made a silhouette drawing of both of them to make the resemblance more noticable.

DESIGH & PHYSICAL BOOK

https://vimeo.com/311950521 (in case the gif isn’t working)

When I started thinking about how the actual book is going to look like I knew I wanted to make it look quite simple and dark. I like the contrast of black and white and I thought it suited the theme.

I made the page layouts in Adobe InDesign. This is where i hit an obstacle. I realised that every picture had a different shade of black (or should I say dark grey?) and it didn't match the background. I didn't have enough time to colour correct everything so i decided I'm gonna cut out individual pictures and glue them on 160gsm black paper along with the text. I cut down the paper to an A5 format, glued everything in and went to Kall Kwik print store where they did the spiral binding for me. I wanted it to be spiral bound so it's easier to flip through the pages and also the paper is quite thick so I thought it was the best option.

If I could change one thing I would definitely took a bit more time and fix the colours on pictures so I could stick with my original plan of just printing out a finished pdf and avoid the cutting and gluing part. It would also definitely make it look a lot more neat and professional.

When we all finished our artist books we had to curate our own exhibition.

We had a lot of books to display and not many stands so we had to be smart about using the space. We decided to divide books in different categories. We tried out a few different options and decided on fiction, non-fiction and somewhere in-between.

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