#rivers of steel

[newtownpentacle]

Artsy Fartsy at Carrie Furnace

Monday – photo by Mitch Waxman Finally, after getting soaked for a couple of hours at Pittsburgh’s Carrie Furnace, it stopped raining just after dusk. The other good news was that somebody is staging a play there, with lights and sound and the whole professional theatrical deal. The production had their stage lights on for the rehearsal, so I took advantage of some of the cast light they…

[arc-hus]

Goulding Summerhouse, Enniskerry, Ireland - Ronald Tallon

[katakaluptastrophy]

One thing that has me gnawing on the metaphorical drywall is that Abigail Pent apparently never learned just how awful Jod is.

There she is, in the River, murdered by one of god's fingers and gestures, having been invited to the First so that she could kill her husband and eat his soul and...she's triggering Harrow by exclaiming that "The King Over the River is good!" when she learns some people survived.

Having worked out that there is something fundamentally, practically, metaphysically wrong with the River she...just assumes poor old god doesn't know and could do with some Cliff Notes.

And then there's the battle with the Sleeper. She's hiding from a mad, gun-wielding ghost, her husband shot in the stomach on the other side of the room, and her carefully planned exorcism in pieces, and Ortus begins to recite the Noniad. And realising the impossible thing he wants her to do, Abigail - who pages earlier expressed her doubts about god's omnipotence, prays: “Oh, God... God, please help me” (which makes her the only character who isn't a literal priest or member of a religious order who we see praying).

When she describes her childhood bedroom to Harrow, everything she mentions sounds like something of significance to her: her grandfather's bones, her desk, the bed where her brother sometimes slept, and "a pretty chroma of the Prince Undying, but a little cockeyed." (think mass produced 1950s Sacred Heart picture and you're probably not far off...)

Despite having formative memories of having weird devotional art in her bedroom, Abigail is miles away from that other enjoyed of Jod pictures in their living space, Silas Octakiseron. She's open about her heterodox views, and clearly has the knowledge to back them up (including, it should be noted, at least one degree taken on the Eighth). And she clearly has form with going off on a heterodox tangent, as Magnus seems to have a well-rehearsed pattern for bringing her back to an acceptable line. And while she's happy to acknowledge that her views aren't orthodox, she's not being pointlessly controversial: she doesn't mind being a heretic, but she's rather upset by the idea that Marta might think her a mad one.

Marta, meanwhile, is one of several characters who show us that Abigail's intensity isn't just the result of living in a theocracy: “No. The Second House doesn’t overthink the River...If we did we’d just have to fill in forms.” Meanwhile, Ianthe is clearly thinking about dogma with an eye less to worship than replication.

And maybe it's because I know a lot of people who are devout but heterodox, and in relationships only tenuously accepted in their tradition (or only in their specific bit of the tradition)...but I just have a lot of feelings about Abigail here. Someone who's willing to be frank and informed about the complexities inherent in her belief system, but who seems to be committed to her faith. She seems so willing to think the best of Jod, to pray to him even when she's intellectually aware it may not be quite that straightforward and...he doesn't give a shit. He isn't god. He's a stupid little man who looks down on the humanities and I wish Abigail Pent got the chance to say something devastating to him.

[orofeaiel]

View from the High Steel Bridge | Mason County, WA

[idlenight]

Need to be a fly on the wall of the conversation between Chen and Ortega where Chen has to explain to a Julia that believes her best friend to be a fake regene copy that Chen knew about the regene thing already and that no that's really River. He's really a villain. There was never a copy and I've known for years.

(and no i have no idea how he broke out with two broken legs don't look at me julia.)

[lorespill]

nothing quite like two old men fighting over the custody of a sad boy

[stoplight-crasher]

City of Steel is a crazy episode because it gives you Optimus Prime body mutilation in the same episode as 40 year foreshadowing

[downtherabbitholewithlucy]

If I had a dollar for every time somebody commented on Wes' 🍆...

[iristial]

So we got a happy Shouma with no trauma-laced flashbacks hitting us in the face with a steel hammer for once but at what cost.

[newtownpentacle]

Soggy socks at Carrie Furnace

Friday – photo by Mitch Waxman Bands of thunderstorm were blowing through, and it was occasionally raining furiously, at the Carrie Furnace. You do the best you can with the circumstance when you’re behind a camera, so I did. I intended on using every minute I was there productively, so a solid three hours of focus occurred. A humble narrator has attended enough of these sorts of photographer…

[arc-hus]

Pouaka Waikura House, Queenstown, New Zealand - Patterson Associates

[loliwrites]

2025 WATCHLIST: FEBRUARY

✨Send me your movie recs to watch in the upcoming month ✨

• A Real Pain (2024) dir. Jesse Eisenberg ⇢ that scene in the restaurant of david explaining his equal love and disdain for benji is too real + a healthy dose of benji having jewish guilt on the train (4.5 out of 5) • Mississippi Masala (1991) dir. Mira Nair ⇢ young denzel washington isn't even the hottest person in this movie. sarita choudhury is. a pretty standard intercultural rom com (3 out of 5) • The Thin Red Line (1998) dir. Terrence Malick ⇢ exactly what you'd expect a terrence malick ww2 movie to be (4 out of 5) • Bend It Like Beckham (2002) dir. Gurinder Chadha ⇢ we'll turn these mosquito bites into juicy, juicy mangoes. no notes (4 out of 5) • The Wedding Date (2005) dir. Clare Kilner ⇢ a masterpiece. dermot mulroney can do no wrong... especially flaunting around in the little, white boxer briefs (4 out of 5) • Threesome (1994) dir. Andrew Fleming ⇢ a real fucking fever dream of a movie + stephen baldwin playing exactly who you think he is (1.5 out of 5) • A Different Man (2024) dir. Aaron Schimberg ⇢ weird but once you accept the weird and lean into it, really good (3.5 out of 5) • Red River (1948) dir. Howard Hawks ⇢ slow. ambling. much like john wayne himself + a lot of wide shots of cows running around (3 out of 5) • Steel Magnolias (1989) dir. Herbert Ross ⇢ i wanted to like this more than i did. but shirley maclaine is me in about 20 years (3 out of 5)

[weshallc]

I’m calling out your name as I’m walking along the river. I’m looking for the place where my soul dwells forever.

Cattle & Cane: Come Home

[idlenight]

this was a long time coming .

Oh the comedy and irony of Marshal Steel being on the breakroom fridge! Karma really does come for everyone.

Julia is honestly living her best life after years of Chen's dissaproving looks. Argent will never let Steel live this down (and also happy that this 100% makes people forget that she also kissed Sidestep). Herald probably regrets ever taking the hero drug rn.

And Chen? well he's just going to have to find more subtle places to kiss his villain boyfriend - the papparazi is truly everywhere.

meanwhile, at the Sidestep base:

(you're lucky River likes you so much Nehal or your ass would be fired)

close up of the article under the cut:

[fernweh-arcane]

No edits

4/28/2023

[cuprikorn]