#painting low-contrast was interesting and a lot more enjoyable than expected

[pearl-kite]

Round here we talk just like lions

But we sacrifice like lambs

[knjoodles]

sallang; taehyung | 01

pairing: singlefather!taehyung x reader

genre: fluff

recommended song: come on get higher by matt nathanson

word count: 2K

warnings/author’s note: this first chapter is slightly suggestive. nothing that i’d consider smut-worthy, but a warning never hurts! i’m also starting this as a mini-series, with short chapters and an overall short story. glad to be back!

summary: handsome, intelligent, fashionably late: taehyung seems to be a total package, and you’re all for it. that is, until his rain-checks and delayed appearances become so frequent that you feel left in the dark. what could he possibly be hiding?

sallang - a word describing the manner of the wind blowing lightly.

lowercase intended

this is a major waste of my time is what you thought as you rhythmically tapped your fingers against the clothed wooden table of a local restaurant, your knee bouncing impatiently against the floor, your free hand holding your head, glancing around in pure boredom. with how much time you’d spent staring at the wall beside you, you’d probably noted every color its paint compiled. it was your first date with a man from tinder who you realized was way out of your league — and you began to fear that he realized it way before you did.

snaking your phone from your back pocket, leg still bouncing, a deep sigh escaping your lips, you opened his profile once again. “kim taehyung, twenty-five, huh?” you filed through his tab once again, mumbling as you read. “likes reading, going to the beach… do you like being late, too?” you hissed, “because, from the looks of it, its like you get off on—”

“excuse me?”  

your thoughts of innermost annoyance suddenly subsided at the sound of a deep, masculine voice from above you. your head darted upwards to find none other than kim taehyung standing in black slacks with a complementary white shirt to match, his chest rising and falling, almost like he’d run to your date. “are you (y/n)? i’m taehyung… from tinder?” his eyebrow pricked up as he finished his sentence, an embarrassed smile cracking across his face. you stared at him for a moment, taking in the man standing before you. (y/n)? upset at kim taehyung? never. seeing him in person, you’d almost completely forgotten you were irritated.  

“yeah, that’s me. have a seat,” you smiled awkwardly, chuckling softly. you watched as taehyung hooked his casual blazer, previously wrung lazily around his arm, onto his chair. he sat down quietly, moving his seat closer to the table, adjusting his glasses and jet black hair. a moment of silence fell between the two of you, taehyung picking up his menu to appear preoccupied in the dinner menu. you smiled to yourself, catching glimpses of his eyes blinking rapidly as he excitedly scanned the text, a habit that’d already made itself known. you began to notice how he’d glance up at you every so often, chewing his lip, flustered, almost as though he wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words to do it.

“i’m sorry for being so late,” he admit, sighing. “i had something to take care of earlier, and it took a lot longer than i’d hoped,” he set his menu down, toying with its edge with his finger. “i...” he paused, “i apologize. i know it must’ve been inconvenient for you.” you took this moment to eye taehyung's hands, slender and dainty, his fingers long and adequate.  

you laughed at his slightly frantic tone. “it’s fine, don’t worry about it. you’re here now, right? let’s focus on that. you wanna tell me a little more about yourself, ot should i go first?” you assured, smiling comfortingly. “your bio only tells me so much.”

“uh, okay!” he nodded, resting his hands on the table. “well, i’m taehyung, i recently received my bachelor’s and i’m aiming for a phd in english, i don’t care for coffee all that much, i love pretty much all animals you can find, and… i’m 5’11".” he introduced himself with detail as he adjusted the cuffs of his shirt, pulling them up to only reach past his elbows. “how about you?”

“oh, my turn?” you questioned, earning a giggle from the man facing you. “i guess it’s only fair. i’m (y/n), i’m pursuing law as of now, we can lay low on coffee if you’d like — i don’t really mind. i like going on simple dates, i love music recommendations, i love musicians, and i’m significantly shorter without these heels on.” you finished, content that either taehyung had a really bad sense of humor or that your finishing line made a better impression than you’d thought it ever could. 

“does this fulfill your requirement of a simple date?” taehyung inquired playfully, lightly patting the table.

“it does,” you replied, tone flirtatious. you noticed taehyung eyebrow raise and jaw tighten at your response as he cracked a smirk, entertained at the shift in energy. that look jumbled your insides, but there was no time for that. you expelled those thoughts from your mind as you cleared your throat, silently scolding yourself. your moment was interrupted by a waitress, the same one who’d pitifully watched you poke at the complimentary sourdough bread slices with an empty seat in front of you. offering to kindly take your menus and your orders, the two of you obliged. as she scurried away from your table, a notepad with messy handwriting scribbled across it dangling from her waist apron, you turned back to taehyung, whose eyes were glued to you, one of his hands caught in his hair as he ran a hand through it. “hey,” he muttered, his voice deep, his eyebrow habitually twitching upwards once more. was he trying to make you unravel in the middle of your date?

“oh my god,” you laughed, trying to shake off how flustered you were. “you can’t just do that and expect me to be okay!” you joked.

“do what?” he chuckled in return. “the deep voice? i can’t control that; it just happens sometimes,” he smiled at his lap, looking back up at you soon after. “you said you were interested in musicians?”

“i mean, it’s not a necessity, but yeah, i find musicians especially interesting.” you explained, reaching for your glass of cold water, ice half melted.  

“i don’t want to brag, but when i was in high school, i was in a band.” he grinned as your jaw dropped. your mind raced with thoughts of how flawless he was, from how well he dressed to how every secret of his made him ten times more attractive. “it was just seven of us, seven of my friends. some would rap, some would sing. i was a singer, and i was really invested in the group. after we all graduated, the group kind of fell out, but we’re all still friends. cool, huh? i would play a little bit of everything, from piano to guitar. more piano, though.” he added, tilting his glass of water towards you, his attractive grin infectious.  

“that’s crazy,” you gasped, leaning forward in your chair. “ever thought of getting the band back together? you’ve got the looks!”

“the looks?” he repeated, laughing excitedly. “you’re giving me too much credit here, (y/n),”

“i don’t think you’re giving yourself enough,” you replied, raising your eyebrows, challenging his humble temperament.  

the two of you dined contentedly, taehyung's charismatic personality and contagious smile catching you every time. the conversation, surprisingly, were never boring, they flowed into one another the way good friends converse after not seeing each other for a long time. his mannerisms and aura struck you as welcoming and comforting, as if he was a bright, warm light you wanted to step into. he was safety embodied, he was a simple, gentle man, with kindness and love pouring out of his soul. to your multiple objections, taehyung covered the bill, still feeling guilty over arriving late. a part of you inexplicably pitied him; you felt as though you should’ve at least pitched in half. it may have just been your morals being challenged, but you almost felt obligated to pay him back.  

dusting off his trousers, taehyung arose from his chair, your date coming to a close. a wave of childish frustration fell over you: you didn’t want it to end, not yet! to your surprise, he glided to your side of the table, chivalrously offering his hand to help you up. you smiled and took his hand graciously, his endless good-natured acts perplexing you. who was this guy? other than being late, was there really a flaw?

as you arose from your seat, you decided the answer to the latter question was no. this was absolutely the best date you’d ever been on: he wasn’t obnoxious, he wasn’t boisterous, he didn’t ask you for anything afterwards… you’d been with your fair share of unforgettably horrible men. taehyung was different, though: it wasn’t that he was just more decent than the men you’d previously gone out with, it was his aura, his persona, it was something above physicality that made you fall for him more than you thought you should.  

“thank you for the lunch,” you smiled graciously as he accompanied you out of the restaurant, opening the door for you as well. “this was really enjoyable! i hope we can do this again soon.”

“me too! thank you for being so nice to me despite me being late.” he returned your kind grin before grasping for his buzzing phone in his pocket, pulling it out to check an apparent text. “i, uh…” he swallowed, now visibly anxious. “would you like me to walk you to your car?” his tone completely different from his physical state.  

“i’m just over there!” you motioned to your car, stammering, confused by his sudden shift in energy. “if you have something important to get to, you go ahead!” he relaxed slightly, thanking you kindly and pulling you into a warm embrace. it felt shocking, but not in a bad way — his very intimidatingly handsome appearance contrasted with how gentle he had been with you. should you have liked him this much on the first date alone?

“i’ll see you soon! i can text you my number on tinder later. thank you again!” he jogged backwards, still making eye contact before he finished his statement, where he then turned completely and began dashing towards his car. you found him charming and funny and it made you smile.  

spinning on your heel to walk towards your car, you spun the chain of your car keys on your finger, the thought of taehyung still with you. he’d been perfect: good-hearted, humble, witty… you could go on. you sat quietly in the front seat of your car, thumbing the leather of your steering wheel. part of this felt very suspicious — how could someone be this perfect? how could someone be this enjoyable, this wonderful, this considerate? you didn’t want to feel this way about him as he felt wholly genuine, but you couldn’t ignore the feeling of possibly being lied to. was he messing with you? he absolutely could be. what would you know?

you'd thought yourself into a corner. suddenly, you felt very bad, sitting alone in your car in a silent parking lot. you closed your eyes tightly and sighed loudly, trying to expel as much upset as you could from your body. you’d just had an amazing date! you shouldn’t be feeling this bad afterwards. taking a moment to collect yourself once more, you started your car, dusting yourself off before driving yourself home, the scent of taehyung’s faint cologne lingering in your mind.

i missed u guys :}. enjoy this piece from me!

[potteresque-ire]

This post is Part 4 of the five-part meta series on the Zhang Zhehan (張哲瀚) Incident, based on what has transpired up to 2021/08/22.

1) The 2nd Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) & the Yasukuni Shrine 2) Post-War Sino-Japanese Relations; “Every Chinese should visit the Yasukuni Shrine” 3) The Summer of 2021: The Brewing Storms for One 4) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part A 5) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part B

4) My Thoughts on Zhang’s Incident, Part A

Now, I’m finally going to dive into Zhang Zhehan’s incident. They’re, of course, my personal opinions, based on what’s known until 2021/08/22, and I’m talking about them not as a turtle, not as a Gg or Dd fan, not as a fan at all—but as … me. A Hong Konger, half-way American, and representative of neither.

I should start with a confession.

While, in the parts before, I wrote as if there were signs enough that I could see this coming, that I could see Zhang being handed the severe punishment that he had… I actually didn’t. I thought it would stop at People’s Daily critique of Zhang’s apology letter posted on August 13th, and Zhang would lose his endorsements, be forced to lay low for a while. I didn’t expect the all-out invisibility campaign the would happen, including the removal of his already-aired, groups projects such as Word of Honour (WoH 山河令).

Do I feel Zhang made a mistake? Absolutely. I agree with his self-assessment in his apology letter that he had been ignorant and careless. I’d add this as well: he had likely suffered from a certain degree of arrogance. When previously asked by his fans to remove from his Weibo a photo he took of a car painted in a manner reminiscent of WWII Japanese War Planes (and with a Rising Sun flag), that should’ve been a reminder, a warning enough for him to refrain from posting similar materials online. Being politically insensitive as a public figure in China is dangerous, and often costly. And one has to be really, really, insensitive politically, and very, very out of the news cycle, to be unaware of the tension in Sino-Japanese relations in the past decade, with the Yasukuni Shrine being at the epicentre of that tension.

A photo posted on Weibo by Zhang, later deleted at fans’ request and re-surfaced online during this incident (Left). The Nakajima Ki-84 fighter jet, used by the Imperial Japanese Army 1943-45 (Right). (Source)

But ignorance, carelessness and even arrogance are not crimes. These are corrigible traits; late 20’s may be not-so-young for an idol, but Zhang was young when he visited the shrine and took the photos in 2018. He’s still young now, having just reached 30, with lots of years to grow. 

From a practical standpoint, I also fail to see Zhang’s behaviour as causing more actual harm to anyone than as the Global Times Network (GTN) piece.

Zhang’s photos had never been widely circulated before the incident. The location at which they had been taken was also not obvious to those who haven’t investigated, or haven’t visited the Yasukuni Shrine. In contrast, the large quantity of photos in the GTN piece, their portrayal of the shrine’s right wing visitors, can arguably be said to be more visually offensive, if visual offensiveness is sufficient to be hurtful, if The Reporter of the GTN piece had, indeed, had his heart sunk just by the sight of the sakuras on the shrine grounds planted by the descendants and friends of those enshrined (reminder: overwhelmingly not war criminals), as he had described in the article. 

To put it in Chinese state media lingo, the GTN piece could arguably be said to have done more to 冒犯國人情感 (“offend the feelings of the country’s people”) (from People’s Daily critique piece against Zhang) and 輕佻地傷害中國人民的情感 (“flippantly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people) (from 中纪委 Central Commission for Discipline Inspection’s critique piece) than Zhang’s photos.

A thing to mention, perhaps: the phrase “hurting the feelings of Chinese people” (and its close cousins) has somewhat of a ... celebrity status among Chinese politics watchers, with ample articles and statistics dedicated to it for the sheer number of times it has appeared in China’s foreign policy materials, as well as the multi-purposeness of its application. Another example of “hurting the feelings of Chinese people”: an English Mercedes-Benz ad, posted on Instagram (a blocked site in China), featuring a quote by Dalai Lama. The phrase has become a bit of a joke in anti-CCP communities, not because the feelings of Chinese people aren’t legitimate or important, but because a regime that doesn’t allow voting, that suppresses the freedoms of speech and press, is hardly an expert on the feelings of its people.

An entertaining infographic about China’s “hurt national feelings” (high-res version). Japan has consistently ranked 1st in the number of times it has hurt China’s national feelings (upper right corner).  

And, speaking of “flippant”, I find flippant perfectly described the tone of the GTN piece, which I, as a reader of Chinese descent, was perhaps even more embarrassed by than the fact that The Reporter visited the shrine. The Reporter admitted he already had a “fight-picking heart”, had chosen to act confrontationally; the article he’d write later reflected that, was filled to the brim with bravado. However, as I mentioned before, he never did what would’ve mattered if he had elected to fight, made the cause of his troublemaking clear—he had said nothing about the war criminals, or the revisionist material in the museum. Statements of protests needn’t be physical or violent; they simply had to be communicated, and to the right audience—which doesn’t include his translator, or the staff at the Yasukuni Shrine. 

The American tourist could’ve been a potential target; wouldn’t it be interesting to find out what they knew about this piece of history, how much they knew about the controversies surrounding the shrine? But The Reporter only told them Americans were not welcomed—a statement automatically doubtful by the presence of … an American next to him. If The Reporter’s account were true, then, to the staff, the tourist who interacted with him, The Reporter behaved just like … a passive-aggressive, very rude Chinese tourist. He had scored zero victory for his cause—if he did have a cause—during his visit.

If the defence was his fight-picking heart, no one asked Zhang if he had harboured a fight-picking heart when he had visited, taken the pictures.

That’s double-standard. That’s hypocrisy.

Personally, I would’ve left out the Yasukuni Shrine from my Tokyo itinerary — as much because of the two thousand war criminals there, and the 2 million+ not-war-criminals there who deserve respect and peace. If I’m not a descendant of those enshrined there; if I’m not worshipping; if I lack deference for the shrine and the Shinto religion it represents, then, I have no business to be at the Yasukuni Shrine. 

There are beautiful sakuras all over Tokyo.

Sakuras along Tokyo’s Meguro River (Source)

Okay. Back to Zhang. I personally believe he made mistakes. Do I feel, then, that Zhang’s punishment was appropriate, or was it too much?

As someone whose family was mostly spared from the pain and suffering caused by the acts of the Imperial Japanese Army during the 1930s and 40s, I don’t think the answers to these questions are up to me to decide. It’s inappropriate for me to decide.

But I’ll follow my answer with this question: whoever are deciding now, are they the people who should be deciding, whose lives have been truly impacted by the war? Those screaming on social media that Zhang is a traitor, a 漢奸 hanjian—a term originated from the KMT and Sino-Japanese War era to refer to persons who have illicit relationships with the enemy of, specifically, the Han Chinese ethnicity—those wanting to destroy not just Zhang’s career, but Zhang himself … do they really believe visiting, taking photos at the Yasukuni Shrine are acts enough to warrant those accusations, bearing in mind that treason is, perhaps, the most unforgivable crime in China?

Is Chairman Mao, a Han Chinese, a hanjian when he thanked the Japanese prime minister? Why not? What he said could’ve been out of pragmatism, but did he hurt the feelings of the Chinese whose family had died from Japanese military brutality during the war, of the comfort women who, at the time of the meeting, were still living in significant numbers? Why, when a post quoting Mao’s words in defence of Zhang surfaced several days ago, the vast majority of online reactions was “here goes another brain-disabled fan”, until one netizen whispered it had actually been spoken by a Great Figure, without naming, without daring to name the actual speaker of the quote?

Why have those quotes been buried in the graves of the Chinese internet?

And the netizens who went on to “dig up”, spread unsubstantiated rumours about Zhang’s being 精日 (short for 精神上的日本人 “Spiritually Japanese”), being a secret right-wing Japanese, even—were they patriots or were they cyberbullys? Were they out to defend their country, or were they out there torturing someone they didn’t like for their own enjoyment? For their own potential gains?

They called Zhang a 行走的五十萬 “Walking 500,000” — the number referring to the sum of money (500,000 RMB, ~ 77,000 USD) the Chinese government rewards someone who reports, offers tip-offs on a foreign spy. If Zhang’s family happens to be Japanese too, they said, the reward could be 500,000 * n !!

An Anti-Spy Law (反間諜法) advertisement. 12339 is the phone number and website for reporting / making tip-offs on foreign spies. (Source)

One would say, of course, that these netizens were only joking.

But are jokes jokes if they can ruin someone for good? Same goes with every one who attempted to connect whoever, whatever they didn’t like with Zhang, @ ing the state agencies on the Weibo posts to call the latter’s attention to connections, wishing for the government and the platforms to remove these whoevers, whatevers along with Zhang. 

These whoevers, whatevers have included: Zhang’s former work associates; CP supertopics; Danmei and Dangai; Dangai dramas before WoH; actors involved in Dangai dramas before WoH; supertopics of these actors; the fans of these actors; fandom in general …

(To the Anon who asked: this is how the rumour that all CP supertopics may be removed came about. So far, there are no evidences that the invisibility campaign related to Zhang is heading in that direction.)

These “soft reporting” attempts—soft, in the sense that they were reporting to the state agencies, but not using the state’s formal system—conjures a scene like this in my mind: a class of small children, all with little to no power on their own, pointing their stubby fingers to whoever they don’t like in front of who they perceive as absolute authority. “But (S)HE did this!! “ screams a child who tries to borrow the teacher’s “knife” to take down their enemies, not understanding what it’ll mean to themselves if the teacher does yield to their demand, does punish their “enemies” based on their words alone: that the child can themselves will be punished when another child points their stubby fingers at them.

Perhaps, here’s the resemblance of the scene: when absolute authority exists, critical thinking tends to go wayside, even if the capability to critically think exists—because what’s the point of thinking? The opinion of the authority is the only thing that matters in the end. Mob mentality and actions take over: mobs of not only netizens, but mobs of companies, mobs of platforms.  

And so, when it rained for Zhang, it poured.

===

The Zhang Zhehan Incident Meta Series:

PART 1  PART 2 PART 3 PART 4 <- YOU ARE HERE PART 5

[jojiship]

Studio Ghibli Films: Thoughts & Ranking

I have been binging Studio Ghibli (and other anime films) since May. I saw a lot of people in Youtube rank them and I decided to do it as well. While I don’t have a camera to record myself, I decided to post my ranking of its films. First of all, I want to say that this is quite a subjective ranking and it’s personal. These are my opinions and of course, everyone can have opinions of their own. Second of all, I think all of these films have their good sides, but there are ones that I enjoyed and there are ones I didn’t enjoy. Either way, I recommend people to watch all of these films. You won’t regret watching most of them.

This post ranks the films from 10th to 6th. Obviously, there will be spoilers ahead, so you’ve been warned.

10. The Tale of Princess Kaguya (2013)  – I had heard the name Kaguya before (I watch Kaguya-Sama: Love is War and I read its manga). I knew the name came from this old Japanese tale, but I never was curious enough to look it up. To my luck, I didn’t have to search it up because Studio Ghibli had made an adaption of this tale. Now, I enjoyed this film a lot. From the beginning to the end, it held my attention which is something the other twelve films couldn’t do. I loved how fast Kaguya grew up and I liked how everyone called her Lil’ Bamboo. Her relationship with Sutemaru was captivating to see in the beginning. One of the things I enjoyed the most in this film was that it showed old Japan and its traditions. Seeing the outfits, the paintings, the music and the instrument Kaguya played etc. I love when Kaguya tells the five noblemen to obtain the five treasures they were comparing her to. It also showed that they didn’t see her as a person, but rather a valuable and beautiful object. When the Emperor came and tried to take her, my whole body was screaming. He was disgusting and I was so relieved that he ended up leaving. The ending was beautiful, but sad. I had hoped that Kaguya would get her happy ending in Earth, I was such an idiot to think so. The ending ripped my heart, especially knowing that she forgot all about her memories on Earth. The animation was also amazing and I truly enjoyed how different compared to other Studio Ghibli films. Takahata was such an incredible director and he should be praised more. 

9. The Wind Rises (2013) – No wonder this film was Oscar nominated. What a film it was. It was such an incredible film with such a good story, message, characters and soundtrack. It’s another film that features planes, but I definitely enjoyed it more than Porco Rosso. I relate to Jiro because just like him, I can’t see without my glasses. It broke my heart that he couldn’t become a pilot because of his eyesight, but at least, he became an engineer. The dreams with Caproni always put me in awe because you could see the passion Jiro had for planes and their craft. Seeing a character be so focused, passionate and determined took my whole attention away. Usually, I find scenes of modeling vehicles boring, but I enjoyed every scene of Jiro doing so. The romance was beautiful to watch. The way they reunited again, the scene with the flying paper plane was so authentic and just wonderful. It hurt when I found out that Naoko had lung hemorrhage. Knowing that she did, I knew she was going to pass away. Their relationship seemed so realistic and believable to me. There was no doubt that Jiro and Naoko loved each other. The scene where the wind blows and Jiro is distracted by it, made my whole body ache because I knew that Naoko had passed away. The end scene where Jiro shows regret on building planes for war in a dream with Caproni was heart wrenching. It’s true that his craft was used to kill people and that the pilots all died in the war. It was devastating whilst being beautiful at the same time. While Caproni reminds him that he fulfilled his dream, Jiro’s words are still true. I died inside when Naoko showed up and told her husband to live his life to the fullest which I hope Jiro did.

8. Only Yesterday (1991) - I initially thought that I wouldn’t like Only Yesterday. No one really liked it and from some rankings I’ve seen in different social media platforms, it always ranked quite low. Many people complained about the pineapple scene, but personally, that was one of my favourite scenes of the whole film. Taeko tried her best to enjoy that pineapple and say that it was the king of fruits. It upset her when she realized that it didn’t taste as well as she thought. She was trying to convince herself and her family. The scenes where periods were discussed were amazing. Usually, they are never mentioned in films, but I liked that it was a plot point of the film. I love how one of Taeko’s friends said that her mom told her that it was nothing to be ashamed about. Like yes, tell your daughters that periods are normal! (Tell boys too). Also, I related in that scene where Takeo didn’t understand fractions. While I did get them quite fast, I was quite bad in math during my high school years. That kind of talk leaves scars in children, people! Although, I hated how her family spoke of her when she got a bad grade. The scene when the boy who crushed on Taeko asks her if she likes cloudy, rainy or sunny day made me smile so much. I felt so giddy during that scene and by the end of it, I was acting like Takeo did. People always praise Miyazaki (for good reason), but always tend to forget Takahata and his incredible films. Only Yesterday was a beautiful story of a woman in her twenties who was still figuring out herself. I loved how the present connected with the past and I love the contrast on how Taeko saw the world. I loved the ending when she returned to the countryside alongside young Taeko and her classmates. It was a relatable film about a woman trying to figure out herself whilst thinking about her past.

7. Howl’s Moving Castle (2004) - I know some of you are going to be mad that this film is number seven. I’ve seen this film be talked about so much in many social media platforms and many people rank it as number one. While I loved this film and its characters, I have to say that I’ve enjoyed the other films after this more. Howl’s Moving Castle is a beautiful tale that gives you a lot of lessons about war, love, compassion and age. It’s quite enjoyable from the beginning. Sophie is such an amazing and interesting female protagonist. I love that she was an old lady for a big time of the film and her compassion truly was the best part of her. The way she took care of the woman who cursed her was something that I didn’t expect. If I had been her, I would have thrown the Witch of The Waste away. Howl was an amazing character as well. Every little quirk and trait of him was captivating and allured you to him. No wonder Sophie fell for him and no wonder so many people here thirst for him. Calcifer, Markl, Suliman and the Witch of the Waste were enjoyable as well. I quite loved the soft world building of Howl’s Moving Castle and the way the castle was built. The ending was a bit rushed and it felt out of place. I definitely would have preferred a better ending and the ending is a reason why this film is in this rank. However, the last scene with Markl playing with the dog, the witch chilling on a chair and Howl and Sophie kissing is chef’s kiss.

6. Kiki’s Delivery Services (1989) – The third Studio Ghibli I’ve ever watched. Before I watched every film of the studio, Kiki’s Delivery Services was my favourite. While it’s still an amazing film that I enjoy and probably rewatch many times, it’s not even in my top five anymore. Either way, the film is still amazing. While Kiki is only thirteen, a lot of young adults who are living by themselves can relate to her story. Seeing Kiki struggle with her new job, new life and being a witch, was something that needs to be shown more often in media. I loved the scenes where she delivered the goods whether it was the stuffed cat or the dish that old lady made. I loved watching those scenes as a kid and I still love watching them as a twenty year old. When Kiki can’t understand what Jiji is saying, my whole stomach fell because I knew what was happening. I remembered that scene all too well and watching Kiki realize it as well made me want to hug her. Her friendship with Tombo was cute to watch too. He was so excited to get to know her, but for the longest time, she was so cold with him. To be honest, I didn’t understand why she was so cold when his friends came, but now, I know she was intimidated. I guess I never felt anything like that before and that was why I didn’t understand her in that moment. The ending was one of the best I’ve seen. Kiki regained her power, confidence and ended up saving Tombo from falling. She found herself again and stopped having her witch’s block. This is something that not many people struggle and don’t overcome in their lives, so, watching Kiki do it is some sort of help for many people.

[tshepiso-reads-books]

Re-Review | Heir of Fire

Started: August 9th, 2020

Finished: August 20th, 2020

Heir of Fire wasn’t a pleasant reading experience. While it wasn’t awful, the hints of a good story and character development were overwhelmed by frustrating characters and glacial plotting. I enjoyed Crown of Midnight because it was a drastic improvement from its predecessor. Unfortunately, Heir of Fire didn’t demonstrate any meaningful growth in Sarah J. Maas’ writing.

Summary

The book takes place a few weeks after the ending of Crown of Midnight. Celaena Sardothien is in Wendlyn with no plans to assassinate its royal family despite her orders from the King. She’s eventually approached by the fae warrior Rowan Whitethorn on behalf of Queen Mab. Mab, in a desire to assess Celaena’s magic, trades knowledge of the wyrd keys in exchange for Celaena training with Rowan to unlock her fae gifts.

In Rifthold Chaol finds himself embroiled in the plots of the Terrasen rebellion. Chaol begins assisting Aedion Ashryver, Celaena’s cousin, in unravelling the plots of the King. Meanwhile Dorian finds himself in an unadvised tryst with a lowly healer.

In the White Fang Mountains, the centuries-old Ironteeth witch Manon Blackbeak and her coven The Thirteen are placed in the trial of a lifetime. The King has offered the witches wyverns and the chance to take back their lands in exchange for the promise to fight in his army. Manon is placed in a ruthless competition to see which witch will become their leader in this new war.

Plot & POV

The most frustrating thing about this book was that Maas didn’t advance the plot in any meaningful way. None of the characters do much to move the plot in interesting directions. Maas’ books are extremely character-centric and that’s a problem because her character arcs weren’t interwoven with the plot. Because of that, this whole book felt like waiting for things to happen and the lack of direction from the majority of the cast made the story feel listless and meandering. I also hated that most of the plot development hinged on happenstance. Characters learn information without earning that knowledge and stumble upon the solutions to their problems way too easily. Manon’s perspective was the only one that didn’t suffer from hollow plotting or dragged outpacing. This is because Manon was given a goal and throughout the story worked to achieve it. In contrast, Chaol, Celaena and Dorian were given paper-thin narratives buried under chapters upon chapters of filler.

One thing that contributed to the bloated pacing of the story was filler POVs. Rowan, Sorscha and Aedion’s perspectives could’ve been cut from the novel and nothing would have been lost. The copious points of view also made the climax difficult to read. Because this book had three separate climaxes that were interwoven with each other switching chapters felt like emotional whiplash. This prolonged feeling of tension was also draining to read and made the ending of the book drag.

Magic & Worldbuilding

The magic of Maas’ world continued to be confusing. Even though both Celaena and Dorian learn more about their magic throughout the novel I still found the way Maas described it to be too abstract. It was easy to grasp that Fae magic is linked to someone’s emotional state, but I wish Maas had delved more deeply and specifically into its limitations and applicability. The climax felt airy-fairy because it felt like Celaena was using magic that hadn’t been explained thoroughly to the audience to defeat the big bad.  

Maas’ world-building also left a lot to be desired. I would have loved to see more of the Irish mythology Maas pulled from for her fae lore integrated into her worldbuilding. Mab and Maeve were characters pulled from the Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge and I would have appreciated more time spent exploring the fae lore and culture. While we did learn about the Fae their history and culture felt surface level.

Maas also relied heavily on info dumps to relay backstory and world information. These info dumps dragged the novel to a screeching halt and the density of the information was difficult to parse. I genuinely didn’t retain most, if not all, of the information that was dolled out because it was so unpleasantly presented. I wish Maas integrated the history and lore of her world more seamlessly throughout the novel.

Characters & Relationships

While I can’t discuss every character in this book in depth there are four I had things to say about. Rowan was easily my least favourite character in this book, and possibly ever. He’s a brooding asshole and the dismissal of his vitriolic abuse towards Celaena was abhorrent. While he eventually grows to treat Celaena like a person deserving of respect and their overall dynamic after that was enjoyable to read, his “redemption” was too little too late. What frustrates me most about Rowan’s arc is that Maas excuses his shitty behaviour because of his trauma. Because he’s never forced by the narrative to grow, change or even apologize his entire character just puts a bad taste in my mouth

Dorian and Sorscha were almost as infuriating as Rowan. Their bland romance was more shallow than a kiddy pool. Maas can write engaging chemistry between characters so the complete lack of that with Dorian and Sorscha was glaring. She barely gave these two compelling reasons to want each other or any sort of arc or tension. Their romance was paint by numbers and empty. It existed exclusively for a shocking twist and pathos and Maas completely failed to make me care about these two.

Chaol was easily my favourite character in this book. While he wasn’t given a lot to do he was the most interesting character emotionally. What baffles me about him is how Maas frames him as a fearful, indecisive coward. Throughout the story, several characters admonish Chaol for not picking a side or not doing enough to prove his loyalty to Celaena. This was so confusing because Chaol was risking his life to help a rebellion he had no obligation to support. I think Chaol was an interesting character and Maas could have done more to frame his conflict of interest in a dynamic way but the moral simplicity and two-sidedness of the story made an interesting character ultimately two dimensional.

Manon was also a solid character. I was impressed by Maas’ ability to evoke a genuine ruthlessness in her given how poorly she did so with Celaena earlier in the series. The Ironteeth witches chew up scenery so their chapters were fun to read. While Manon’s story was simple I think it benefitted from that because her character and relationships were given more room to breathe. I am, and always will be, a sucker for dragon companions so I loved Abraxos and Manon’s journey with him was a delight.  

Stars

🌟🌟

Heir of Fire wasn’t a fun read. The bloated storytelling does not bode well for future installments in this series. I hope that Queen of Shadows is better than this one, but I honestly have very low expectations.

[greenvsgraystewardship]

Blog Post 2 - Mill Creek Farms Community Garden

Alexia Lugowski

On April 28th, I had the absolute pleasure of volunteering at the Mill Creek Farm in West Philadelphia at 49th and Brown streets. Mill Creek Farm has an interesting history, as it actually started out of University City High School in 2005 from a youth-driven project. The land used to be home to a sewer about a hundred years ago, but contractors unknowingly built houses upon the land. When the foundations of the houses became unsafe, the buildings were torn down and the nonprofit was granted with 1.5 acres of land. Mill Creek Farm prides itself on urban food growth and development and agricultural education. Mill Creek Farm was founded by people of color, for people of color and seeks to enrich the community around it by granting access to low-price, fresh, chemical-free produce.

    While at Mill Creek Farm, my main focus was long, narrow bed that would eventually be used to grow produce. While the course concepts didn’t overlap too much with my activities, Jade and I had involved discussions about different urban farming technology. Alkebu-Lan, the supervisor went into great depth about how the Industrial Revolution reinvented former agricultural practices as we know it. He also delved into the idea that all around the world, there are vast green spaces meant for growing produce to put onto grocery store shelves. This fact worked in tandem with the film we watched in class about farmers in the Midwest. While working on this bed, I again came into contact with compost, as I did in Jade and I’s first volunteer experience. As stated in a prior post, compost is of the utmost importance when growing crops/produce.  Compost is nutrient-rich, which helps plants to grow faster, as it acts as a type of soil conditioner by releasing humus. It can also act as both fertilizer and as a pesticide. We also talked about the need for air when composting, as its an aerobic exercise. Mostly, we learned techniques for preparing a soil bed to perfection. We also learned about two different types of weeds that grow there, mugwort and crabgrass which is very common. Mill Creek Farm also uses a drip irrigation system, which relates to different technologies that farmers use to reduce manual labor. Lastly, Alkebu-Lan mentioned that their shed roof was a green one, which helps to reduce urban heat island island effect as green does not absorb sunlight like black tar roofs (common in Philadelphia) do. We learned about other measures taken to reduce urban heat island effect, such as laying down colored bricks and gravel or painting blacktop white to make it absorb the sun less.

Compared to my first two volunteer hours, this experience was much more physically demanding. I arrived at 2pm when the sun seemed to be in full swing. I introduced myself to the supervisor, Alkebu-Lan. I wrote my name down on the sign in sheet, then put on gloves and started working. Alkebu-Lan directed me to a long, narrow, strip of soil filled with weeds. I was instructed to rid the bed of weeds. When weeding, it is important to pull the entire root out so that it can not grow back. After weeding the bed in its entirety, I was directed to aerate the bed. To do this, I got a long, square shovel and dug it under the soil from the sides and pulled up. Alkebu-Lan stressed that we were not turning over the soil, just aerating it. Aerating the bed allieves soil compaction while also letting the roots grow deeper. After aerating the bed, I was instructed to “edge it.” I got a square shovel with a long handle and went to the edge of the bed, and on each side, kicked the shovel about five inches deep into the dirt. To keep a uniform, straight line, I made sure to overlap the shovel with the place I previously edged. After this activity, I was instructed to put compost onto the bed. Before doing this, though, I had to fill a wheelbarrow with compost to tip onto the bed. After shoveling the compost into the wheelbarrow, Jade and I put the compost onto the bed in about 10 separate piles, with each of them having about two feet in between them. After going back and forth about four times to finish adding compost, we were ready to mix the compost with the soil that was previously there. We were given a rake with two functioning sides. One had four sharp prongs, and the other had an ovular edge to it. To mix the compost and the soil, I took the ovular edge, put it into the soil bed, and pulled towards me so that the bed was level. I did this across the entire bed. After this, I was instructed to use the pronged side of the rake to create a linear mound in the middle of the bed. I did this by putting the rake at the spot I previously edged, then pulled towards me. After this, Alkebu-Lan told me to create a divet in the center of the mound I just created. I did this by putting my rake into the composted soil and pulling towards me twice. As I finished creating the mounds, we were able to level the beds. Again, I took the ovular end of the rake and pulled it towards me to even out any physical inconsistencies within the bed. When that was finished, I took the pronged side of the rake and gently pat the sides of the bed to leave small indentations. Lastly, Jade and I got a bail of hay, put it into the wheelbarrow, and went along the entirety of the bed, sprinkling hay. Hay prevents weed growth. We made sure that the hay covered the bed entirely. After sprinkling hay onto the bed, we pat it down with a rectangular shovel to compact it. That was the last activity I completed for the day and by the end of the four hour time period, I was exhausted. I don’t know how Alkebu-Lan does it day in and day out.

Honestly, I expected Mill Creek Farm to be bustling with people. It was actually quite the opposite. Alkebu-Lan actually was looking for ideas to increase community engagement with the garden, as people in the surrounding area did not seem too interested in it. I also did not expect this experience to be as physically taxing as it was. I did much more physical labor here than I did at the Temple Community Garden. Of course, this could have been because it was not a high-traffic event. I also expected Mill Creek Farm to only have a singular community garden, but it the community garden, several beehives, vertical growing towers, a rain garden, and a water catchment system. The buildings on the land are also very environmentally friendly, as the roof of the small shed they have onsite is a green one, which decreases rainwater runoff, increases oxygen in the atmosphere, and reducing the urban heat island effect. Despite my prior expectations, this experience actually managed to exceed them because I had a very enjoyable time and learned a great deal about how to properly prepare a soil bed to promote growth. I also expected to see a lot more bugs and insects, but the two main animals I saw were bees and worms (they were absolutely massive).

One of the particular activities that I found to challenging was pulling the weeds. The soil bed was riddled with them and it seemed to go on for eternity. When pulling out weeds, it’s important to make sure that you pull out the entire root system (in this case, they were mainly rhizomal) so that the weeds do not start to grow again. Digging through the dirt to find the source of the root was challenging because most of the root systems seemed to be strongly anchored within the soil. One activity that I found interesting was patting down the hay to compact it. In my first experience at the Temple Community Garden, I put down hay, but did not compact it. The extra step of compacting it ensures that the hay does not move with any wind gusts. Taking that preventative measure has many benefits and does not take long to do.

In contrast to my first Community Garden experience, I see my role in this project as very important. For the four hour time period, there were only about four people there maximum, with only three of us working (Alkebu-Lan, Jade, and I). Because this garden exists on such a small scale and because there weren’t many other volunteers present, I viewed my role as important than I would have if there were more people. Furthermore, Alkebu-Lan was performing the exact same tasks as Jade and I, which eliminated any superiority complexes and made me feel comfortable. Alkebu-Lan was very thankful and honestly, so was I. He taught me a great deal. I will definitely be visiting Mill Creek Farm once again to volunteer on my own terms.