#summer fashion hacks | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mariacallous · 2 months ago

Text

A short note here on what I’m covering and why. The political changes we’re seeing across the world are underpinned by technological ones that are now accelerating. For more than a decade, I’ve been trying to investigate and expose these forces. Since 2016 that’s included following a thread that led from Brexit to Trump via a shady data company called Cambridge Analytica and the revelation of a profound threat exploit at the heart of our democracies. But what’s happening now in the US is a paradigm shift: this is Broligarchy, a concept I coined last summer when I warned that what we were seeing was the proposed merger of Silicon Valley with state power. That has now happened. Writing about this from the UK, it’s clear we have a choice: we help lead the fight back against it. Or it comes for us next. Please share this with family and friends if you feel it’s of value. Thank you, as ever, Carole

Let me say this more clearly: what is happening right now, in America, in real time, is a coup.

This is an information war and this is what a coup now looks like.

Musk didn’t need a tank, guns, soldiers. He had a small crack cyber unit that he sent into the Treasury department last weekend. He now has unknown quantities of the entire US nation’s most sensitive data and potential backdoors into the system going forward. Treasury officials denied that he had access but it then turned out that he did. If it ended there, it would be catastrophic. But that unit - whose personnel include a 19-year-old called “Big Balls” - is now raiding and scorching the federal government, department by department, scraping its digital assets, stealing its data, taking control of the code and blowing up its administrative apparatus as it goes.

This is what an unlawful attack on democracy in the digital age looks like. It didn’t take armed men, just Musk’s taskforce of boy-men who may be dweebs and nerds but all the better to plunder the country’s digital resources. This was an organised, systematic, jailbreak on one of the United States’ most precious and sensitive resources: the private data of its citizens.

In 2019, I appeared in a Netflix documentary, The Great Hack. That’s a good place to start to understand what is going on now, but it wasn’t the great hack. It was among the first wave of major tech exploits of global elections. It was an exemplar of what was possible: the theft and weaponization of 87 million people’s personal data. But this now is the Great Hack. This week is when the operating system of the US was wrenched open and is now controlled by a private citizen under the protection of the President.

If you think I’ve completely lost it, please be advised that I’m far from alone in saying this. The small pools of light in the darkness of this week has been stumbling across individual commentators saying this for the last week. Just because these words are not on the front page in banner headlines of any newspaper doesn’t mean this isn’t not happening. It is.

In fact, there has been relentless, assiduous, detailed reporting in all outlets across America. There are journalists who aren’t eating or sleeping and doing amazing work tracking what’s happening. There is fact after fact after fact about Musk’s illegal pillaging of the federal government. But news organisation leaders are either falling for the distraction story - the most obviously insane one this week being rebuilding Gaza as a luxury resort, a story that dominated headlines and political oxygen for days. Or…what? Being unable to actually believe that this is what an authoritarian takeover looks like? Being unsure of whether you put the headline about the illegal coup d’etat next to a spring season fashion report? Above or below the round-up of best rice cookers? The fact is the front pages look like it’s business as normal when it’s anything but.

This was Ruth Ben-Ghiat on Tuesday. She’s a historian of fascism and authoritarianism at New York University and she said this even before some of this week’s most extreme events had taken place. (A transcript of the rest of her words here.)

“It’s very unusual. In my study of authoritarian states, it's only really after a coup that you see such a speed, such obsessive haste to purge bureaucracy so quickly. Or when somebody is defending themselves, like Erdogan after the coup attempt against him, massive purge immediately. So that's unusual. I don't have another reference point for a private individual coming in, infiltrating, trying to turn government to the benefit of his businesses and locking out and federal employees. It is a coup. I'm a historian of coups, and I would also use that word. So we're in a real emergency situation for our democracy.”

A day later, this was Tim Snyder, Yale, a Yale professor and another great historian of authoritarianism, here: “Of course it’s a coup.”

History was made this week and while reporters are doing incredible work, to understand it our guides are historians, those who’ve lived in authoritarian states and Silicon Valley watchers. They are saying it. What I’ve learned from investigating and reporting on Silicon Valley’s system-level hack of our democracy for eight long years and seeing up close the breathtaking impunity and entitlement of the men who control these companies is that they break laws and they get away with it. And then lie about it afterwards. That’s the model here.

Everything that I’ve ever warned about is happening now. This is it. It’s just happening faster than anyone could have imagined.

It’s not that what’s happening is simply unlawful. This is what David Super, an administrative law professor at Georgetown Law School told the Washington Post.

“So many of these things are so wildly illegal that I think they’re playing a quantity game and assuming the system can’t react to all this illegality at once.”

And he’s right. The system can’t and isn’t. Legal challenges are being made and even upheld but there’s no guarantee or even sign that Musk is going to honour them. That’s one of the most chilling points my friend, Mark Bergman, made to me over the weekend.

Last week, I included a voice note from my friend, tech investor turned tech campaigner, Roger McNamee, so you could hear direct from an expert about the latest developments in AI. This week I’ve asked Mark to do the honours.

He’s a lawyer, Washington political insider, and since last summer, he’s been participating in ‘War Game’ exercises with Defense Department officials, three-star generals, former Cabinet Secretaries and governors. In five exercises involving 175 people, they situation-tested possible scenarios of a Trump win. But they didn’t see this. It’s even worse than they feared.

“Those challenges have been in respect of shutting down agencies, firing federal employees and engaging in the most egregious hack of government. It all at the hand hands of DOGE, Musk and his band of tech engineers. DC right now is shell-shocked. It is a government town, USA, ID, the FBI, the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, CIA, no federal agency will be spared the revenge and retribution tours in full swing, and huge numbers have been put on administrative leave, reassigned or fired, and the private sector is as much at risk, particularly NGOs and civil society organizations. The more high-profile violate the law, which is why the courts have been quick to enjoin actions. “So yes, we've experienced a coup, not the old fashioned kind, no tanks or mobs, but an undemocratic and hostile takeover of government. It is cruel, it is petty. It can be brutal. It is at once chaotic and surgical. We said the institutions held in 2020 but behind institutions or people, and the extent to which all manner of power structures have preemptively obeyed is hugely worrying. There are legions ready to carry out the Trump agenda. The question is, will the rule of law hold?”

Last Tuesday, Musk tried to lay off the entire CIA. That’s the government body with the slogan ‘We are the nation’s first line of defense’. Every single employee has been offered an unlawful ‘buyout’ - what we call redundancy in the UK - or what 200 former employees - spies - have said is blatant attempt to rebuild it as a political enforcement unit. Over the weekend, the Washington Post reports that new appointees are being presented with “loyalty tests”.

Musk’s troops - because that’s what they are, mercenaries - are acting in criminal, unlawful, unconstitutional ways. Organisations are acting quickly, taking lawsuits, and for now the courts are holding. But the key essential question is whether their rulings can be enforced with a political weaponized Department of Justice and FBI. What Mark Bergman told me (and is in the extended note below) is that they’ve known since the summer that there would be almost no way of pushing back against Trump. This politicisation of all branches of law enforcement creates a vacuum at the heart of the state. As he says in that note, the ramifications of this are little understood outside the people inside Washington who study this for a living.

And at least some of what DOGE is doing can never be undone. Musk, a private citizen, now has vast clouds of citizens’ data, their personal information and it seems likely, classified material. When data is out there, it’s out there. That genie can never be put back into the bottle.

Itt’s what it’s possible to do with that data, that the real nightmare begins. What machine learning algorithms and highly personalised targeting can do. It’s a digital coup. An information coup. And we have to understand what that means. Our fleshy bodies still inhabit earthly spaces but we are all, also, digital beings too. We live in a hybrid reality. And for more than a decade we have been targets of hybrid warfare, waged by hostile nation states whose methodology has been aped and used against us by political parties in a series of disrupted elections marked by illegal behaviour and a lack of any enforcement. But this now takes it to the next level.

It facilitates a concentration of wealth and power - because data is power - of a kind the world has never seen before.

Facebook’s actual corporate motto until 2014 taken from words Mark Zuckerberg spoke was “Move fast and break things”. That phrase has passed into commonplace: we know it, we quote it, we also fail to understand what that means. It means: act illegally and get away with it.

And that is the history of Silicon Valley. Its development and cancerous growth is marked by series of larcenous acts each more grotesque than the last. And Musk’s career is an exemplar of that, a career that has involved rampant criminality, gross invasions of privacy, stock market manipulation. And lies. The Securities and Exchange Commission is currently suing Musk for failing to disclose his ownership stock before he bought Twitter. The biggest mistake right now is to believe anything he says.

Every time, these companies have broken the law, they have simply gotten away with it. I know I’m repeating this, but it’s central to understanding both the mindset and what’s happening on the ground. And no-one exemplifies that more than Musk. The worst that has happened to him is a fine. A slap on the wrist. An insignificant line on a balance sheet. The “cost of doing business”.

On Friday, Robert Reich, the former United States Secretary of Labor, who’s been an essential voice this week, told the readers of his Substack to act now and call their representatives.

“Friends, we are in a national emergency. This is a coup d’etat. Elon Musk was never authorized by Congress to do anything that he’s doing, he was never even confirmed by Congress, his so-called Department of Government Efficiency was never authorized by Congress. Your representatives, your senators and Congressmen have never given him authority to do what he is doing, to take over government departments, to take over entire government agencies, to take over government payments system itself to determine for himself what is an appropriate payment. To arrogate to himself the authority to have your social security number, your private information? Please. Listen, call Congress now.”

It’s a coup

I found myself completely poleaxed on Wednesday. I read this piece on the New York Times website first thing in the morning, a thorough and alarming analysis of headlined “Trump Brazenly Defies Laws in Escalating Executive Power Grab”. It quoted Peter M. Shane, who is a legal scholar in residence at New York University, “programmatic sabotage and rampant lawlessness.” It was displayed prominently on the front page of the New York Times but it was also just one piece among many, a small weak signal amid the overpowering noise.

There’s another word for an “Executive Power Grab”, it’s a coup. And newspapers need to actually write that in big black letters on their front pages and tell their tired, busy, overwhelmed, distracted, scared readers what is happening. That none of this is “business as usual.”

Over on the Guardian’s UK website on Wednesday, there was not a single mention on the front page of what was happening. Trump’s Gaza spectacular diversion strategy drowned out its quotient of American news. We just weren’t seeing what’s happening in the seat of government of our closest ally. As a private citizen mounted a takeover of the cornerstone superpower of the international rules-based order, our crucial NATO ally, our biggest single trading partner, the UK government didn’t even apparently notice.

The downstream potential international consequences of what is happening in America are profound and terrifying. That our government and much of the media is asleep at the wheel is a reason to be more not less terrified. Musk has made his intentions towards our democracy and national security quite clear. What he hasn’t yet had is the backing of the US state. That is shortly going to change. One of the first major stand-offs will be UK and EU tech regulation. I hope I’m wrong but it seems pretty obvious that’s what Musk’s Starmer-aimed tweets are all about. There seems no world in which the EU and the UK aren’t headed for the mother of all trade wars.

And that’s before we even consider the national security ramifications. The prime minister should be convening Cobra now. The Five Eyes - the intelligence sharing network of the US, UK, New Zealand, Australia and Canada - is already likely breached. Trump is going to do individual deals with all major trading partners that’s going to involve preposterous but real threats, including likely dangling the US’s membership of NATO over our heads all while Russia watches, waits and knows that we’ve done almost nothing to prepare. Plans to increase our defence spending have been made but not yet implemented. Our intelligence agencies do understand the precipice we’re on but there’s no indication the government is paying any attention to them. The risks are profound. The international order as we know it is collapsing in real time.

It’s a coup

We all know that the the first thing that happens when a dictator seizes power is that he (it’s always a he) takes control of the radio station. Musk did that months ago. It wasn’t that Elon Musk buying Twitter pre-ordained what is now happening but it made it possible. And it was the moment, minutes after Trump was shot and he went full-in on his campaign that signalled the first shot fired in his digital takeover.

It’s both a mass propaganda machine and also the equivalent of an information drone with a deadly payload. It’s a weapon that’s already been turned on journalists and news organisations this week. There’s much more to come.

On Friday, Musk started following Wikileaks on Twitter. Hours later, twisted, weaponized leaks from USAID began.

This is going to get so much worse. Musk and MAGA will see this as the opening of the Stasi archive. It’s not. It’s rocketfuel for a witchhunt. It’s hybrid warfare against the enemies of the state. It’s going to be ugly and cruel and its targets are going to need help and support. Hands across the water to my friends at OCCRP, the Overseas Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, an investigative journalism organisation that uncovers transnational crime, that’s been in Musk’s sights this weekend, one of hundreds of media organisations around the world whose funding has been slashed overnight.

It’s a coup

By now you may feel scared and helpless. It’s how I felt this week. I had the same sick feeling I had watching UK political coverage before the pandemic. The government was just going to ignore the wave of deaths rippling from China to Italy and pretend it wasn’t happening? Really? That’s the plan?

This is another pandemic. Or a Chernobyl. It’s a bomb at the heart of the international order whose toxic fallout is going to inevitably drift our way.

My internal alarm bell, a sense of urgency and anxiety goes even further back. To early 2017, when I uncovered information about Cambridge Analytica’s illegal hack of data from Facebook while the company’s VP, Steve Bannon, was then on the National Security Council. That concept of highly personalised data in the control of a ruthless and political operator was what tripped my emergency wires. That is a reality now.

The point is that the shock and awe is meant to make us feel helpless. So I’m telling a bit of my own personal story here. Because part of what temporarily paralyzed me last week was that this is all happening while my own small corner of the mainstream media is collapsing in on itself too. The event that I’ve spent the last eight years warning about has come to pass and in a month, 100+ of my colleagues at the Guardian will be out of the door and my employment will be terminated. I will no longer have the platform of the news organisation where I’ve done my entire body of work to date and was able to communicate to a global audience.

But then, it’s all connected. We are living through an information crisis. It’s what underpins everything. In some ways, this happening now is not surprising at all. Moreover, many of the people who I see as essential voices during this crisis (including those above) are doing that effectively and independently from Substack as I will try to continue to do.

And, the key thing that the last eight years has given me is information. The lawsuit I fought for four years as a result of doing this work very almost floored me. But it didn’t. And I’ve learned essential skills during those years. It was part of what powered me to fight for the rights of Guardian journalists during our strike this December.

The next fightback against Musk and the Broligarchy has to draw from the long, long fight for workers rights which in turn influenced the fight for civil rights that must now power us on as we face the great unknown. What comes next has to be a fight for our data rights, our human rights.

This was former Guardian journalist Gary Younge on our picket line and I’ve thought about these words a lot. You have to fight even if you won’t necessarily win. Power is almost never given up freely.

If you value any of this and want me to be able to continue, I’d be really grateful if you signed up, free, or even better, paid subscription. And I’d also urge you to sign up also for the Citizen Dispatch, that’s the newsletter from the non-profit I founded that campaigns around these issues. There is much more it can and needs to do.

151 notes · View notes

czteryd · 7 months ago

Text

My guide to Internet warfare and taking back control

By which I mean minimizing screen time and wasting your life on making Zuckerber rich. Scrolling Instagram doesn't seem to be dangerous, but there is probably nothing less hurtful than wasting time of milliards of people on things they don't care about. Using willpower to work on this is a lie — you will need real weapons, technologies and strategy.

^this is the lost future you are fighting for. Technology can be good.

Remember, that wars are rarely won in a week, I am in trenches since last summer when i ditched my phone, when i say "It takes time" i mean 5–10 months. It is still hard, but the improvement is amazing.

This is a list of things I have been doing for more than a year that improved my life. Ranked with ease (EAS) + effectiveness (EFF) from 1 to 10.

It is still not perfect, but this is a warzone and you will adapt and not be allowed to surrender, soldier!

Remove the smartphone – 5 eas + 15 eff

Sorry. This is a military grade weapon that milliards of dollars are put into to make you waste your time as easily as you can. You can move forward with your phone, but nothing is as effective in taking control back during your commutes, breaks, walks and free time etc. and it is a very important part of learning to deal with stress without mindless scrolling and games. There is no real phone hacks to help you. We and the enemy know that timers don't work. If you can enable all enemy weapons with one switch it is not enough.

You will need a dumbphone or a custom rom to use this technique and stay in society.

It is not as hard as it sounds, actually you don't need it that much. Check out #dumbphone or r/dumbphones for inspiration and support. Me and many of my friends who done it as well don't look back.

Buuut i can't – 9 eas + 5 eff

Yes you can. But if you insist, still, buy a dumbphone or find one in the drawers and put your sim card there; carry them both. Now you can use the Internet only when you have wifi, but you can use offline maps, listen to downloaded music and watch downloaded movies, read pdfs etc. Check your email, bank, messages, memes at work or at home. You will regain control over walks, commutes and socialising. But if you still have any social apps, at home or during breaks, you are still cooked. It is still a very good first step to moving away from phone dependence.

Smartphone substitutes

Email, socials, work, school – all will now be done on a pc or a laptop. This is good. It allows you to distance yourself from stress, tiring family members, school, work and problems of others and engage with them only when you want to. It allows you to take a break. It is not your duty, to engage all the time and the ability to do so at your own pace is the biggest advantage you can get on the battlefield. If something important is going on — someone will call you, don't worry. Just inform others that WhatsApp is not a place to discuss emergencies.

Fun, music, reading – you will need to get a dumbphone that supports some music, pdf viewing, photos and maybe light web browsing, they do exist. Or just buy an mp3 player, some books and a notepad. An e-reader and a camera for the high tech soldiers. Y2K is back in fashion anyway, and you will be much cooler and people will start conversations. Having everything in one place was convenient, but, if it means having time–wasting hazards in your pocket, it is not worth it.

Libraries are here to support you on your journey.

Block the feed — 10 eas + 4 eff

Hopefully you got rid of your phone, the biggest danger now is your web browser.

Use LeechBlock to block or regulate access to the biggest dangers – youtube, instagram, fb, reddit. On the weak side it is no better than the timer in your phone, supportive, but not really effective and fills you with guilt. Guilt is bad.

On the strong side you will block all access, allow very rare and short usage, put as many defenses as you can, put blockades on your blockades. Your brain is very effective at overcoming barriers, but they need to be put in place.

It is the first step, but it is not enough to win the war. Real psychological effects will show only after months of usage and well adjusted settings that acknowledge how your brain works and as you adapt your barriers will need to adapt as well. On the flip-side it requires no real conscious work or wasting your willpower if your filters are good.

You will sometimes need to bend the rules, to fix something or watch a lecture or a tutorial or just for some well deserved Forgotten Vines Compilation. Remember to put them back in place later and spot the times where you never did — and do it then.

Warning: nerd shit! (3-6) eas + (7-10) eff

If your friends sent you a funny video — don't unlock the site to watch it. Use external software like MPV or VLC to watch this video using only the link, without getting rid of your defense line. This is easiest on a linux machine.

You also have the nuke – block websites on your router and gate settings. You will need the support of the rest of the war room members in your house to use it and it will cut access to actually useful things. But this is a war for your life and every sacrifice is worth it.

Block the biggest hazards — 6 eas + 9 eff

Sorry, but you will need to use some nerd tactics.

Shorts, reels, tik toks, explore, for you pages. They need to be blocked immediately and for good. No access, no overrides, no fiddling in options. LeechBlock browser addon will allow you to block specific pages with harder barriers. Do it and never change them.

They are the biggest danger and you know it. Your brain will not be mad if it won't get dopamine this way, it knows you would never find the perfect 1 minute video that would make you happy. The urge to scroll some shorts will go away real fast.

This will allow you to fight only the easier fights — against the normal infinite feeds.

UblockOrigin

Is a double edged sword. Removing ads makes your life on the internet easy and fun. It is only a good thing to a certain extent – our fight is to make some parts of the internet as hard and painful to use – but it will help you keep your sanity.

Use it to block the feed! Click on Ublock icon and use the little pipette to add a rule that blocks the infinite feed on webpages of your choice.

Select the area and click the blue button to create a rule on the main page. Now you will not be distracted with algorithmic content, but you are free to not block groups important for you or your work or still see notifications, messages and other functions.

Cons: sometimes your rules will break with time, you will need to make many of them. Removing ads from youtube is dangerous as the reward is easier to obtain, thus making the boobytrap more effective.

Don't use apps and don't use the browser. 10 eas + 6 eff

Minimize a chance of getting distracted while doing something else.

For messages, school and work remove the browser from the equation. Use desktop clients for messaging, microsoft office, Teams, email etc. They have exactly what you need and are often more convenient to use. No chance of opening Instagram in excel.

For social media and online entertainment use the browser, don't use the apps! You are going into the warzone, you will need the armor – Leechblock and other addons are here to help you. Time wasting apps are engineered to remove your personal defense – never use them.

No Screentime before coffee – 1 eas + 10 eff

This one is behavioral and requires actual brain work, but give yourself some time and it will give you great effects.

Do not check memes, messages, mail etc. before waking up. Easier said than done.

Going to school or work will be easier, waking up will be easier, you will start to eat and have more energy during the day.

It will require you to plan your day in advance, check the calendar and your plan for the day the night before. I never learned it as a child and it is very hard to work on it, but the effects on my psyche are immense.

If you got rid of your phone, you are halfway there. If you can remove your laptop from proximity of your bed — do it. If you have an ability to put your pc in a seperate room — it would be perfect, but not many are able to, including me.

Separate your working, from sleeping, from entertainment spaces, we worked on it during COVID soldier, don't forget your training.

Remove the noise — 1 eas + 4 eff

somewhat. You probably don't actually need podcasts and music to work, walk or sleep and regaining your ability to focus there is also important. Maybe substitute them with white/pink/brown noise at least sometimes, especially for brain heavy tasks this is very helpful to get work done in a reasonable amount of time. Blanket app is a good desktop noise generator that won't require the browser.

But I will not blame you if you won't, this is the least problematic part and humans have always met to do menial tasks while hearing others talk and many conditions are easier to live with some background noise.

Pick your allies

Internet is a meadow and a minefield. Place for art and support and knowledge filled with weapons designed to use you as an revenue generator. Watch content only from curated, quality places and people you follow. Never look at the algorithmic feed. Tumblr is a prime example of a site that can be your ally, but don't trust it – block the For You page.

don't lose your steam

Do not engage emotionally with things beyond your control. This was the twitter's weapon of choice. If you do not have the money or time to support a cause, you know about it and you know all your mutuals already support it – don't let the algorithm put it down your throat against your will.

Do not follow war hashtags, do not look at pages when you can see hate and violence against your will. Educate yourself, do as much as you can, follow people who inspire you and do real work, but allow yourself to move on if it is beyond your abilities or strength. Your local anarchist group will do more good in a month, than you reading political posts for years. If you honestly care – join them and focus on real work. If you can't contribute, just learn about it and move on. There will be more opportunities in the future and then we will need all your strength. This is the sad part of winning the war. Some sacrifices have to be made.

^you soon

Wish you luck soldiers. This is a fight worth fighting.

share your weapons of choice if you can and tell me about your experiences.

#dumb phone #studyblr #thoughts of a biomedical bitch #thoughts #text #sustainability #adhd #lifestyle #enshittification #internet #frutiger aero

63 notes · View notes

lesb0 · 7 months ago

Text

I'm always trying to stay on the cutting edge of every permutation of our constantly evolving visual culture but the elusiveness of every new form makes it difficult for me, even as one of the youngest possible millennials. in fashion, my freshman students are all wearing 2000s or "y2k" fashion: baggy grungy or baby phat hiphop, with an elevated touch of modesty, good color theory, and a stark awareness of bodily proportion. in memes, legendary 00s icon, lisa frank. its embarrassing to follow influencers with over 10 mil, now, as if it breaks the parasocial connection.

someone asked yesterday if tiktok is now the premier vehicle of visual culture. I open tiktok. on one side, a zoomed in interview with the mother of a shooting victim. but the other side is a compilation of slime videos, a woman cutting soap, life hacks, and chinese "smart" product placements. you can hear and see both. this bizarre genre, I can only recognize as content. on social media, content is technically anything you can doomscroll, the action of spending over 2 hours on a social media feed, a for you page, a timeline, a dashboard to tumblr addicts.

I'm watching cable TV with a girl I'm seeing. the ads are remarkably only geared towards boomers and older gen x. but, so is the 'content', bad action movies made for cable and reruns of 80s/90s TV shows, but the exact same show marathoned in hours long successions.

to be an effective art historian, I have to take things from this ever-shifting visual culture and translate it into the equally fickle and amorphous art world... so what does 'content' look like for museum shows? my first 100+ object loan show was in part by a colleague, a younger curator at BAMPFA. a massive exhibition of all female nonbinary artists, from the 60s PoMo feminists to the self obsessed identity displayers of today. I absolutely LOVED it. I had no problem enthusiastically flitting from object to object, frontwards and in reverse twice, to spend special time with all my favorites. a fave professor stopped me. I hadn't even recognized him in the excitement. he looked bewildered, but laughed about how giddy I was. he didn't write any criticism on the show. my boss at the time, our museum director, told me she thought it was "such a big mess". my favorite lesbian professor clutched onto her wife with an anxious look. my lesbian artist friend had panic attack and put his headphones on in a dark corner. on the other hand, the younger undergrad girls from berkeley looked elated and delighted, flitting around and oohing and aahing at my same pace. I learned one of them was an engineering student named erin who needed a feminist pickup from the disouragement in her male dominated field.

so how has the 'content' show, or the art world reception to them, changed in the past 4 years? well for one, it seems like major flagship institutions are dropping the mononym altogether. as the french impressionists take over the east coast, none of shows feature one painter as a sole focus, but curators use juxtapositions to keep people interested. in MoMAs, monoynym shows are reserved for major retrospectives or figuratively and literally, monolith artists like simone leigh. the older art historians are hesitant to adapt to these changes. one of my favorite shows this summer, over 300 very different collection pieces packed onto the floor and across the hall, wasn't enjoyed by any of the critics I know. My dates all hated it. except one, a hot ADHD butch who had a tiktok doomscrolling addiction.

what does this mean for the future of how shows are displayed.... how do museums let go of the traditional princely standard: 3.5 inch hangings with a 25 degree downwards tilt? is it better or worse to compromise museums into messy 17th century curiosity cabinets?

47 notes · View notes

thatscarletflycatcher · 2 years ago

Text

Notes on the first couple days back to school:

Felt very old (both complimentary and derogatory) in the first undergrad class, but managed to exchange names with another student.

Poor summer children didn't know the professor, so it was painful to see the light go out of their eyes as they realized what the course is going to be like

One of them had a powered off, open laptop in front of her, the whole lecture. She took no notes, but she didn't close the laptop either. Sir, this is my emotional support laptop.

I may get to write a report on The Industrial Revolution through Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South, so there's that to look forward to (professor suggested Hard Times for that. "or any Dickens". I did not make a smartass comment about Little Dorrit. Believe it or not, I do want to pass this course).

I had forgotten how much I liked looking at people on the bus! Their sense of fashion, the variety of faces and features and hair you get to see. A woman wearing red lipstick and big golden earrings in true 1980s style. A man wearing a camel colored coat and some fine, fine black loafers. And so on and so forth.

Grad seminar had more people around my age, and almost everyone was friendly. And they gave us granola bars! Truly the childhood experience of it all sometimes.

re-hacking the bus system was a lot more fun than I expected it. It's almost like the "you never forget how to bike" thing. Also, missed doing all the roundabout way through Old City and seeing the bay.

At least 2 more starbucks have sprung downtown. We hates it, we hates it, precious, with the force of a thousand suns.

35 notes · View notes

divineprank · 2 months ago

Text

I was really hot so I started brushing my hair to gather it up and tie it up into a bun in order to get it up off my neck. In doing so, I learned something about myself that I am now going project onto my muse because it's my sleepover and I get to choose the activity. You see... My hair is so long and so thick that I straight up busted my brush off in my hair. No tangles, no snags... I just have so much hair that as I was running the brush through the length of my hair, the brush just totally gave.

This has absolutely happened to Ganondorf. This has absolutely happened to Ganondorf on more than one occasion. This happening to Ganondorf has absolutely been the root cause of the cutting of his hair on one or two occasions...Or three or four occasions.

Usually, Ganondorf prefers to keep his hair long to honor the cultural value that the Gerudo place upon it. As the king of the Gerudo, he takes his heritage very seriously and he takes pride in growing out his hair, showing off these important, historical Gerudo symbols and traditions.

That being said, his practice and recognition of hair length isn't something he always maintains. Frankly, he refuses to. Long hair is very beautiful and very meaningful but trying to survive out in the scorching desert sun--especially during the hottest months of the desert's summer--with such long and thick strands weighing on him and trapping even more heat becomes very unbearable and potentially dangerous.

And also, while he's aware of the... let's say... fashion and beauty benefits that comes with growing his hair long, the King of Thieves is still not afraid to hack it all off.

Out of spite.

When his brush snaps in half.

Because his hair was too thick.

Grumble grumble grumble....

#out of time. :: [out of character]#The winds that blew across Hyrule brought something other... :: [HEADCANONS]#I have never had a haircut in my entire life i can speak on this lmao

5 notes · View notes

brooklynislandgirl · 1 year ago

Text

borrowed with grace from new friend Vee over @reyestr

FIRST MEETINGS MEME

A meme for first meetings and introduction threads, aka a ‘What you will notice about my muse first’ cheat sheet.

Repost, don’t reblog. Bold what applies. Fill in details.

(Please do not remove the credit + blank meme link)

blank meme: x

GENERAL APPEARANCE

Sex: Masculine. Feminine. Non-Binary. Notes: Beth was born a cis-gender female and most of the time she's comfortable in that shape/body.

Race: Polynesian/Caucasian {Hawai'ian and Irish, respectively, or as she'd say it, hapa-haole}

Complexion: Beth's natural skin tone is a tawny/dusky shade that might be compared to sand or toast. Most public photos taken of her tend to lighten her skin as much as possible per the Admiral's request. When she spends her time out-doors she tans easily and resembles more her Island kin than the Irish side of the family. Beth tends to wear minimal make up, and when she's doing a dramatic look she usually sticks to eye make up and bold lipsticks, highlighting what she considers her best features. Upon closer inspection one might notice a small constellation of tiny freckles that hover around the right side of her mouth and chin, and another sweep of fainter freckles across the bridge of her nose. Her skin tone leans towards the autumn spectrum, and it is incredibly fine, soft.

Height: Beth is just barely five feet tall.

Body Type: Endomorph. Mesomorph. Ectomorph. Other / More Details: Beth is actually somewhat underweight for her size, ranging between 90-96 lbs. Most of her curves tend to remain in her hips and backside, and her chest is narrow, sporting a very modest b-cup.

Body Build: Small. Medium. Athletic. Muscular. Soft. Curvy. Voluptuous. Other / More Details: Beth has been called small, delicate, bird-boned. From behind or at a minor distance, she has been mistaken for a young teen or larger child. It is hard for her to put on or maintain muscle tone.

Body Hair: None. Shaves/Waxes. Trims/Grooms. Untamed. Color: The colour on her arms and legs matches that of her hair, a dark to medium dark brown. Notes: Beth's body hair tends to be incredibly fine, almost non-existent, and thus she doesn't feel the need to wax or shave very often.

Head Hair: None. Buzzed. Short. Medium. Long. Very Long. Asymmetrical Cut. Color: Naturally Beth has dark brown almost black hair with natural red highlights. Occasionally she might do a subtle colour, either deep auburn or honey-brown. Style: Beth tends to style her hair to within an inch of its life, keeping it sleek and straight so that the Admiral has nothing to complain about. Naturally it tends to be incredibly wavy/curly {3b hair}, with a tendency to become a touch frizzy in moist/damp air. Most of the time Beth keeps her hair long and loose. For work it's in a ponytail or bun, and when her mental health is at its absolutely lowest, she hacks it pretty much down to a bob.

Eye color: Beth has green/brown central heterochromia,which is what most people call hazel. Her noticible colour is green, with an almost honey brow mixed in. It is a far softer colour than her brother's.They tend to shift colour via lighting or dilation of the pupil. Details: Wide, upturned eyes tend to give her a Disney-Princess look. Her lashes are naturally long and thick.

Scars: Beth's left leg has a large shark-bite scar from the bottom of her knee to the top of her ankle. Within the borders of the scar the muscle is visibly atrophied and has the texture of something close to a burn scar. The tendons are shortened, making her left leg a fraction shorter than her right.

FASHION

Fashion Style: Vintage. Traditional. Casual. Artsy. Vibrant. Geeky/Nerdy. Tomboy. Sporty. Trendy. Preppy. Girly. Bohemian. Elegant. Formal. Grunge. Punk. Rocker. Gothic. Other:

Color Palette: Beth tends to wear seasonal colours {lighter pastels in the spring and summer, darker secondary colours in the fall and winter}.

Typical Clothing: Beth tends to wear as little clothing as she can manage without making a scene. During warm weather she tends toward camisole tops or bikinis. She tends to wear ankle/floor length skirts. For work, she wears scrubs. Beth does. not. wear. pants. unless she's out jogging, doing yoga, or wearing a wet-suit. And while she has a walk-in closet full of designer and custom gowns and other clothing, the kinds of which would make Paris Fashion Week drool in their dreams, she tends to prefer vintage clothing.

Piercings: Beth's ears are pierced in multiple places which differ from ear to ear. She has a sub-dermal piercing at her hip.

Tattoos: Beth has a tattoo of a honu {sea turtle} on the back of her left hip, whose shell contains the Hawai'ian archipelago and a hibiscus flower. Other tattoos vary verse to verse.

Other Information: Beth tends to hate shoes and will wear 'slippahs' whenever she can get away with it. At home she tends to be barefoot, or during cold snaps, she might tolerate socks. She likes to wear rings, bracelets, earrings when not at work. She keeps her nails manicured.

EXPRESSION

General Facial Expression: Beth's features tend to be open, friendly, and at worst, neutral.

Default Body Language: As stated above, she tends to have open, inviting body language that changes only when/if she has disengaged with someone, or it's the Admiral. Around the Admiral her body language is closed, defensive, on the verge of flight/fight.

General Movements: Beth's incredibly graceful from a lifetime of surfing, swimming, dance. She tends to flow through the room, slow and cautious. The longer she has been awake, or the longer she's been on her feet, it becomes apparent that she does have a faint limp, due to shortened tendons and ligaments, atrophied muscle in her shark-scarred leg.

NOTABLE FOR RP

Presence: Beth's entire presence rests on the fact that she is warm and gracious, curious until she's given reason not to. Everyone is treated like a friend. As such, she tends to be a soothing comfort, and someone a person can open up to easily.

Appearance: Beth is always perfectly dressed for every situation, impeccably garbed in public, perfect but often subtle make up. This does not carry through to being at home where she feels comfortable.

Scent: She makes her own essential oils/lotions and people tend to describe her as tropical; lightly floral, a touch of sea salt, coconut, macadamia, something very faintly herbal. Too soon after work, she tends to carry the smell of hospital antiseptics {and/or blood}.

Voice Description: Her voice tends to surprise people. Being so short and slight, most people expect her to have a high/thin/child-like voice. She speaks so softly that she rarely speaks above an audible whisper, and her tones tend to be a little husky/smokey, warm, layered. When she does have to raise her voice, it is the kind that doesn't brook arguments and carries the tone of command of a queen or a soldier, though she is neither.

Accent: yes / no More information: Beth has always had problems with certain digraphs {th in particular} and is most comfortable speaking her native pidgin with a slight speech impediment. She can, however, speak perfectly serviceable "Haole" {American English}. She also understands a host of other languages, and takes a small measure of pride in being able to pick local idioms/slang easily, despite her audio processing disorder.

Speech Mannerisms: Beth tends to be a touchy person; conveying meaning or clarity with minor touching of other people's hands, knees, shoulders when speaking closely. She also tends to gesticulating while she's talking. When she speaks "Haole" it is far slower, measured, careful than when speaking pidgin, with slight pauses occasionally as she struggles with a phrase or sounding out words in her head. When conversing with someone, she tends to watch the person's mouth and eye area to pick up contextual clues and mouth-shapes to help bolster her understanding.

Anything else to add? Beth tends to sometimes come across as the most real person in the room, is magnetic despite her best efforts. However, if she doesn't want to engage with someone, she tends to slowly slip away from their thoughts/memories, until she is absolutely forgotten. Perhaps the eeriest noticible trait is that she never fully blinks. Her eyes tend to only half close, three quarters at best. {It almost feels like she's missing a nictitating membrane}. The second most noticible trait is that she has small, sharp teeth, almost preternaturally so, and slightly crooked. {{Certain kinds of hunters and others like her recognise these as 'primal markings' and might speak to her slightly less than human dna}} {{Beth's main face claim is Kristin Kreuk, and her secondary face claim is Smiley Arianne}}

#She's Talking to Angels {Bethisms}#Character Study/Self Explanation

6 notes · View notes

oddbuthappy · 1 year ago

Text

Spring/summer 2024 fashion favorites

As we head into the swing of spring (and summer), let’s dive into what we can love to see as the weather gets warmer!

1.MINIMALIST BASE MAXIMALIST JEWELRY RUFFLES

This is a classic banger. You can go wrong with a little juxtaposition to balance out the look. Starting with a basic foundation of great structured clothing, ideally with a solid color, juxtaposed by some maximalist jewelry as a way to explore and express yourself with fashion. How chic!

2.RUFFLES

It’s so light and feminine, perfectly emblematic of the lovely spring and summer weather ahead. Oftentimes perfectly structured to add just the right amount of dimension to an otherwise simple outfit. Ruffles are the perfect tactile and fun design you just might want to add to your closet for the season.

3.DRESSING TO THE NINES

Transcending the spring/summer restrictions, overdressing should be adopted across all seasons. Enough of the sweats and errand uniform, the goal now is to look a little too good. Of course it’s important to dress for your environment. I cannot in good conscience suggest that you go hiking in a high heel sandal and floor length skirt, but elevating your look just for everyday life is the ultimate life hack. You can still be overdressed without sacrificing comfort, so focus on looking good and feeling great.

More about this on my blog! What else are you loving for summer?

#odd but happy #fashion #styling #summer fashion trends #fashion look book #jewelry #accessories #cute bags #challengers

5 notes · View notes

typingtess · 9 months ago

Text

NCIS: Los Angeles Season 14 Rewatch: “Sleeping Dogs”

The basics: When several Drona subjects are attacked, NCIS is on the case.

Written by: Andrew Bartels wrote or co-wrote "Allegiance", "Zero Days", "The Grey Man", "Humbug", "Fighting Shadows", "Driving Miss Diaz", "Angels & Daemons", "Where There’s Smoke…", "Glasnost", "Old Tricks" "Battle Scars", "Fool Me Twice", "Warrior of Peace", "Reentry", "The Prince", "Smokescreen", "The One That Got Away"/"No More Secrets" two-parter, "Yellow Jacket", "Missing Time", "If the Fates Allow", "Red Rover, Red Rover", "Divided We Fall", "Genesis" and "Survival of the Fittest".

Directed by: Gonzalo Amat is directing his first NCIS: Los Angeles episode.

Guest stars of note: Ava McCoy as Jordyn Rountree returns from “Perception” in season 13, Ashley Sharpe Chestnut as FBI Special Agent Summer Morehurst returns from "Let it Burn", both Kavi Ramachandran Ladnier as Agent Shyla Dahr and Duncan Campbell as Agent Castor return from “Shame”, Milissa Sears as Leah Novak returns from “Genesis” in season 13, David DeSantos as Anthony Beltran.

Our heroes: Keep droning on about Drona.

What important things did we learn about: Callen: In a roundabout way, asks Sam to be his best man. Sam: In a roundabout way, says yes t being Callen’s best man. Kensi: Absent. Deeks: See Kensi. Fatima: Hacks into the Drona files with Shyla. Rountree: Willing to be shot at to protect Sam and Fatima. Kilbride: Leaving after work to see his son.

What not so important things did we learn about: Callen: Worshipped by Castor. Sam: Thinks Castor getting knocked out twice in three months is a bad look. Kensi: See Deeks. Deeks: Absent. Fatima: Likes Rountree with Summer. Rountree: Runs after school buses, bad guys and through sand castles. Kilbride: Hired Shyla because Shyla remembers everything.

Where in the world is Henrietta Lange? Seemingly in a small town on the border of Turkey and Syria warning Drona subjects that they are in danger.

Who's down with OTP: Kensi and Deeks are off doing family things. Rountree and Summer seems to be doing well.

Who's down with BrOTP: Callen popped the question – will Sam be his best man? Callen has a side buddy in Castor.

Fashion review: Callen wears a green, blue and yellow plaid shirt. A long-sleeve black tee for Sam. Fatima wears a tan leather field coat over a black turtleneck. A pale purple fleece sweatshirt for Rountree. Kilbride has on a dark brown three-piece suit with a white dress shirt and a brown and gold tie.

Music: Not today!

Any notable cut scene: Not today!

Quote: Shyla: “Oh, uh, your ride to the airport just pulled up outside.” Kilbride: “I thought I told you to cancel that flight.” Shyla: “Did you? Oh, I-I don't remember.” Kilbride: “You remember everything. That's why I hired you.” Shyla: “Do you still want me to cancel it? Bear in mind, it is nonrefundable and I know how much you hate wasting money. Not to mention missing an opportunity to see your son after all these years...” Kilbride: “All right, all right, I'm leaving. Remind me to fire you when I get back.”

Anything else: A gentleman is out walking his dog in a small park area surrounded by businesses. The dog, Rebel, starts barking and jumps into a bush. Returning to his owner, Rebel gifts the man a dead squirrel, which was not on the man’s breakfast meal plan. The man’s phone rings – it is an older, flip phone. A text message reads “DHRISHTADYUMNA”. The man breaks the phone in half and tosses his phone, causing Rebel to play fetch. While the dog is away, a person wearing a ski mask shoots the dog owner in the back of the dead. Rebel returns to his fallen owner and sits right next to him because dogs are the best.

At a table by a coffee shop, Fatima, Rountree, Jordyn and FBI Agent Summer Morehurst are chatting. Fatima is teasing Rountree for yelling “Federal Agents” as they were trailing a suspect. The suspect ran (because he’s obviously watched the show). “Tree” caught the guy after a 10-minute chase. Jordyn is all in for the Rountree mocking. Rountree always liked to show off how fast he was. He’d forget to give Jordyn her school lunch on purpose and then run alongside the school bus to give it to her like Keanu Reeves. And she hated his lunches – avocados and bean sprouts. She was 14 and didn’t want to eat that stuff back then. Summer says she’s not interested in eating it now. Rountree says it all worked out for the best. Jordyn aced her MCATs and is on her way to medical school. Summer starts mocking “Treefontaine” when she gets a call – FBI wants to see her. Jordyn is off to class as well.

Shyla is giving a not paying attention Admiral Kilbride notice about a meeting with his British and Australian counterparts. Still not paying attention. She would be willing to go. Still not paying attention. Kensi and Deeks are out because Rosa’s aunt had a stroke. Still not paying attention. Office minutiae like the security system doing a reboot and Agent Castor’s performance review aren’t capturing the Admiral’s attention either. Shyla mentions a radioactive group of pubescent turtles foiling and armed robbery at the Santa Monica Pier and nothing. Shyla sees a suitcase and realizes that he’s flying up to San Francisco to see his son. She will arrange transport to the airport at 7PM but he wants to leave at 7:30PM – he’s not much of an airport guy. With spring break, Shyla recommends the earlier departure time but the Admiral promises her he’ll be fine. Eventually he relents but warns Shyla that if he is stuck with a “posse of frat boys you will never hear the end of it.” She thinks that would be a great story. As Shyla leaves, the Admiral wants a BOLO on the turtles and their giant rat leader – can’t have mutant vigilantes running around.

Sam walks in to the bullpen, greeting Callen. On Sam’s desk is a printout of a man in a tuxedo. Callen explains it is the tuxedo Anna, sorry, he and Anna, want Sam to wear to the wedding. Sam thinks he can dress himself. Callen brings up Anna’s, his and Anna’s color palate for the wedding. The tux is just for Sam. “Is this your way of asking me to be your best man?” Callen thought Sam being the best man was a given. Sam’s not so sure. Callen has been spending quality time with Castor – they had some drinks and dinner after Castor was knocked out by Miraslava. Sam notes that Castor worships Callen, even dresses like him. Castor arrives, dressed similarly to Callen. Callen breaks down and asks if Sam would be his best man. Of course, Sam replies but he hates the tux. Callen agrees.

Shyla walks down the stairs. Callen asks if they have a case. She replies “you tell me” as she brings them up to Ops. Once in Ops, she launches all the security protocols that lock the door, shut the shutters and turn down the lights. She was sent two encrypted files through a DOD top secret/special compartmented information channel, JWICS. The first file is the driver’s license for the man the park – John Jenkins. He’s the CEO for a software company. The second file is the ID card of an FBI Analyst, Patrick Hertel. Both men were found dead that morning. Hertel was killed in his backyard, Jenkins in the park. There were numbers with the file – eight, 11 and 22. Maybe August 11, 2022.

Callen isn’t interested in figuring out what eight, 11 and 22 mean. JWICS files are sent by known people. Who sent the file? Shyla doesn’t know, it came from a SCIF on the border of Turkey and Syria, the town of Al-Rai. It was Hetty’s last known location, who else would send cryptic clues. Shyla seems excited –“are you talking about who I think you’re talking about?” Callen confirms – Hetty.

In the Admiral’s office, Callen makes the case that to Kilbride that the JWICS file came from Hetty. The Admiral wants to know why she would send the names for two men and some random numbers. It isn’t an urgent message, it is a top secret butt dial according to the Admiral. He’s checked – the SCIF was closed months ago. Callen thinks Hetty could have routed the JWICS through the SCIF but if she did that, why didn’t she identify herself the Admiral asks. Maybe Hetty thinks JWICS is compromised according to Callen. More being a pain in the ass according to Kilbride. Callen wants to investigate the victims to see if there is anything there. Since Hetty bailed Kilbride out with the Simon Williams case, Callen can investigate as long as he stays in his lane – stay away from the official investigations.

Fatima and Rountree show up at Hertel’s home, which is covered with police tape. They start to work on a story to get involved with the case when they see Summer working the case. She comes to see Rountree and Fatima, who think there is a connection between Hertel’s killing and an NCIS investigation into John Jenkins. Summer starts asking questions and Rountree drops “national security”. Since Rountree and Fatima can’t share their info on Jenkins, which is none other than Callen and Sam are investigating what Hetty sent, Summer can’t working with them. When they can share, so can she. Hertel is FBI – they’re working for one of their own.

At the park area, Callen learns from LAPD that all the cameras were down due to routine maintenance when Jenkins was walking his dog. Callen also shares that Summer is working the Hertel case. Sam thinks it was a robbery – no wallet, no keys, no phone and the killer took away the shell casings. LAPD found half the phone in Rebel’s mouth. Callen gives Shyla a call. She has not found a link between Jenkins and Hertel yet.

Looking into Jenkins, his start up tech company has one employee – Jenkins. They haven’t created a product in the last five years. Jenkins and his company have been doing very well, despite offering no products. He’s likely laundering money. Asked about family, Shyla tells Callen and Sam that Jenkins was adopted and his adopted parents are long dead. Turning back to the crime scene, if the dog found one half of the phone, Sam would like to see if he could find the other half.

Back at the FBI crime scene, Rountree sees an older couple arrive and go right under the police tape. Fatima is on the phone. Rountree calls for Summer, who is a bit embarrassed. She asks about the older couple – they are Hertel’s adopted parents. An arriving Fatima, who was on the phone hears adopted and notes that Jenkins was also adopted. Summer isn’t impressed until Fatima tells her both men were shot in the back of the head to make it look like a robbery. Summer never told them how Hertel was killed. NCIS is now part of the FBI crime scene.

Callen and Sam talk about Callen setting a date but Anna is giving him time to find Hetty. Sam hopes this is the case that gets them to Hetty. Callen doesn’t believe that. If Hetty wanted to be found, Hetty would be found. She would tell them where to find her. Callen wants to get married and it is unfair to make Anna wait so long. Sam is looking forward to his best man speech – he has a lot of wisdom to share. Callen thinks he’s heard most of Sam’s wisdom but the wisdom is for Anna, who needs to know what she’s really getting herself into. Callen is having second thoughts about Castor. The dog finds the other part of the phone.

As the Admiral arrives in Ops, Shyla has an update about eight, 11 and 22. Both Jenkins and Hertel went through the LA foster care system. They are both single, in their 40’s and both had government jobs. Hertel is with the FBI, Jenkins is an NSA Analyst. He’s not in most common databases for the NSA. Shyla learned about his NSA role through some friends in Washington. Shyla is about to call this in to Callen and Sam but the Admiral wants her to way. He needs her to pull some files instead.

Hertel was watering his plants when his killer walked up behind him and fired one shot into his head. There was no cartridges left behind, just like the Jenkins crime scene. Summer apologizes for stonewalling NCIS. Fatima says they would have likely done the same if the roles were reversed. Summer doesn’t understand the connection between the two killings.

Fatima gets a call from Shyla, who asks if Hertel has a birthmark on his back. A little reluctantly, Fatima asks Summer to pull up Hertel’s shirt. There is a rather large birthmark on his back. The Admiral, with Shyla, wants her to call Callen. When Callen answers, he starts a sit-rep for Shyla but the Admiral stops things. Eight, 11 and 22 are people, not numbers. Hertel and Jenkins were eight and 22 from the Drona Project, “your alma mater Agent Callen.” Callen has a flashback to his time with Drona.

The Hertel-Jenkins cases are now joint FBI-NCIS investigations. Shyla is told by Kilbride to share everything they have on the case except Hetty’s involvement. Since Hetty’s involvement was speculation anyway, Shyla wasn’t going to share it. With subjects eight and 22 accounted for, who is subject 11? That is Leah Novak, who Callen contacted in the prior year. Callen is trying to find Novak now.

Callen calls Leah who doesn’t want to talk to him. She is walking through a really sketchy looking indoor parking lot. There is a team of masked men following her. Sam tries to get Leah to listen to him but the masked men open fire. Shyla, who was monitoring the phone call is able to trace Leah’s location to a Mid-City parking garage.

In the garage, Callen and Sam find an empty shopping bag with wrapped up money inside. Callen sees a badly wounded Leah, who says “14” before losing consciousness.

Returning to Ops, Fatima and Rountree are told by Shyla that Leah is in surgery. With someone targeting Drona subject, Callen could be in danger. Rountree disagrees – Hetty would have warned Callen in her JWICS communications if he was in trouble. The Admiral arrives, warning Rountree not to read too much into anything Hetty does. There is another Drona subject who may be danger – number 14. The Admiral wants Shyla to cancel is flight to San Francisco to see his son. As he leaves, Shyla tells Rountree and Fatima to go to the gadget area to study Jenkins’s phone. When she knows who number 14 is, she’ll update them.

There was brass left behind at the Leah’s shooting which means she likely hit at least two of her assailants. Callen found a go-bag in Leah’s car with water, MREs and a satellite phone. She knew she was in danger. Sam thinks the same of Jenkins – that’s likely why he tossed his phone. Callen thinks Pembrook is behind the killings – Callen found him and is now cleaning up what’s left behind of Drona.

While Rountree is sweet talking Summer, Fatima is working on Jenkins’s phone. Once in, Rountree is off his phone and working with Fatima. The “DHRISHTADYUMNA” text message is the name of a Hindu warrior who killed his teacher Drona. There are contacts in the phone – Hertel and Leah Novak are there. So is an Anthony Beltran, a former Army Ranger turned history professor. Fatima sends his address to Callen and Sam.

As Callen and Sam pull up outside of Beltran’s home, Beltran is putting a duffle bag into his trunk. When Callen and Sam try to speak to Beltran, Beltran runs. Callen makes things worse by yelling “federal agents” while Sam gets in his car to cut Beltran off. Beltran starts shooting at Callen, who promises they are not there to hurt Beltran. “Leah sent us.” Beltran is talked into putting his gun down. Callen introduces himself as Special Agent Grisha Callen, subject 17. He assures Beltran he’s safe.

In the boat shed, Beltran is in interrogation while Callen and Sam in the main room. The duffle bag in Beltran’s truck had MREs, cash, burner phones. He also got the same text message sent to Jenkins before Jenkins was killed. Callen wonders who sent the text message and Hetty earns a message. Callen isn’t pleased – this is Hetty training an agent, people are being murdered.

Shyla pops up on the screen. There was one vehicle seen on security/traffic cams at the Jenkins/Hertel/Leah shootings. Backtracking with Kaleidoscope, Shyla traced the vehicle to a building downtown. Rountree and Fatima are going to the building and Sam will meet them. Callen wonders why he’s not going but Sam wants answers from Beltran. Callen is the best person to get the answers.

Callen starts to question Beltran, who won’t sit on the wrong side of the table right away, wanting to stand instead. Beltran eventually sits. As an alibi, Beltran says he was home when Jenkins and Hertel were killed. Callen asks about the text message. Beltran was preparing a lesson – he teaches ancient history – and missed the message when it was sent. Once he saw it, however, he called Leah. Leah told him about Jenkins and Hertel. Beltran put his phone in his garbage disposal, packed his things and was going to hit the road when Callen and Sam drove up.

Beltran thought Callen and Sam were working for “him” – Howard Pembrook. Beltran shows Callen scars on his arm from Pembrook’s abuse. Jenkins, Hertel, Leah and Beltran started working together a year ago, after Callen told Leah about Pembrook. They wanted to take him down with lawsuits. There was talk about bringing Callen in but the men in the group were angry Callen lied to Leah. Beltran believes Pembrook found out about them and now he’s having them killed. Beltran wants to see Leah – they are “very close.”

With Summer’s FBI team 30-minutes out, Sam, Rountree and Fatima in tactical gear go into the downtown building. The vehicle has not returned to the location. This is their best chance to scope out the building. Sam breaks down the door. It is a warehouse with huge computer servers, a desk, file cabinets. While Fatima and Shyla try to get into the server, Rountree finds a photo of Callen on the wall from when he was in Pembrook’s garden.

Callen shows Beltran the photo and explains he was trying to confront Pembrook about the past. Pembrook was fine. Beltran is interested in what was in the building where Sam, Fatima and Rountree are. He’s also furious at Callen for going to see Pembrook. Everything bad that’s happened started when Callen met Pembrook. If this was true, Callen asks, why didn’t Pembrook go after him? Beltran talks about the lawsuit being a bigger threat. Castor appears – the doctor says Beltran can see Leah now. In Leah’s room, she’s on a ventilator. Beltran is holding Leah’s hand, saying Pembrook must pay.

As Fatima and Shyla get access to the server, the previously opened files pop up. There were files for black-ops missions in Crimea, Somalia and Brazil. Pembrook is still in the game. An audio file has Leah and Jenkins using their Drona numbers as they work on a mission. They aren’t being targeted by Pembrook, they work for Pembrook. Sam can’t contact Shyla to warn Callen – signal jammers knocked out the cell service. Gunmen rush near Sam, Fatima and Rountree. Gunfire is exchanged. Fatima and Rountree are pinned down.

Sam is able to get Fatima and Rountree to a safer location – people are still shooting. If they can hold out, the FBI could rescue them but Sam is more worried the FBI is walking into an ambush. More gunfire is exchanged. Sam takes out at least one of the shooter.

In Leah’s room, Callen gets a call from Shyla about the lost comms with Sam and company. The Summer-led FBI team suddenly is unreachable too. Callen is going to the building, Castor will take Beltran back to boat shed. Beltran wants to stay with Leah. He’s not worried about his safety, he just wants to be with her. Callen realizes there were only three Drona subject numbers – eight, 11 and 22. Hertel, Leah and Jenkins. Beltran wasn’t on the list – he was never warned.

Rountree is willing to create a diversion by running – but not in a show-offy way. Fatima thinks he’ll get killed. Sam assures them nobody is getting killed today. He has a plan.

Callen has his weapon out and orders Beltran away from Leah. Leah said 14 to Callen before losing consciousness – Beltran was 14. Callen knocks on the door to get Castor in as back-up. Beltran is impressed that Callen figured it all out but is more impressed with his own handy work when a Drona gunman, not Castor, walks into the hospital room.

Using some flashbangs, Sam, Fatima and Rountree move the people shooting them out of their secure locations. Once they were seen, team NCIS shoot them. Summer and the FBI arrive. Sam finds the signal jammer and shuts it off, he’s quick to contact Callen.

Explaining that once again, Agent Castor is out cold, Beltran takes Callen’s gun. Beltran doesn’t kill people who don’t deserve it – he didn’t have Castor killed, won’t kill Callen. Callen notes that Beltran was going to kill Leah, who was in a coma in a hospital bed. Beltran wasn’t going to kill her – she’s no longer a threat. He just needed eyes on her to make sure. Beltran says he and Callen are on the same side – they want to kill Pembrook. Beltran’s partner has a sedative prepared for Callen – not going to kill Callen, just a long nap like Castor. Callen hits the partner. Beltran runs and after Callen gets the sedative in the leg, he runs after Beltran. As Callen runs after Beltran, he has some Pembrook flashbacks before the sedative takes hold. Callen is out cold and Beltran is gone.

Shyla updates Kilbride. Callen and Castor are fine – it really was just a sedative. Beltran and his partner are gone but the FBI are hunting them down. Shyla also has Kilbride’s ride to the airport waiting outside of the office. She doesn’t remember his order to cancel the flight. Kilbride is not amused – he hired her because she never forgets anything. She offers to cancel the flight but is non-refundable. The Admiral hates wasting money, according to Shyla. “Remind me to fire you when I get back.” And the Admiral is off.

In the Armory, Fatima and Rountree are packing up their things. Fatima asks about a story Summer started at breakfast. Seems Rountree and Summer were having a lovely walk on the beach when the wind kicked up. Summer’s hat went flying and Rountree went flying after it. As he was catching up, he destroyed a kid’s sandcastle. He got the hat back and then spent an hour helping the kid rebuild the castle. Fatima thinks Rountree really likes Summer. He admits he does but realizes he’s late for dinner with Summer. He races away.

Callen is at the back balcony in the boat shed when Sam arrives. Callen said had Beltran and he let Beltran get away. And maybe he did it because he wants Beltran to kill Pembrook. But if Beltran kills anyone else, well, Callen knows that’s his fault. Sam thinks they need to find Beltran and Pembrook. Callen wants to know how Hetty knew the Drona subjects were being targeted. “Add it to the list,” Sam replies. Callen is going for a drink with Castor. Sam notes that it is the second time Castor got knocked out and lost his gun – maybe Castor shouldn’t be trusted with the wedding ring. Callen tells Best Man Sam to knock it off.

What head canon can be formed from here: So done with the Drona/Callen’s childhood storyline. The program has a handful of episode left and this one and one down the road eat up valuable time with this tedious storyline. And the episode down the road – where I will be screeching about retconning Pembrook – could have been used for more of Rountree’s history beside his sister, more of Fatima’s history period, more of Sam with Raymond, Kensi’s mom’s with Rosa. There were other “personal history” episodes besides this nonsense.

As for the episode itself, it was really well done, if a bit talky, for a set-up episode for what comes in episode 19. It was all about Pembrook without Pembrook physically in the episode (flashbacks don’t count). It is still up in the air if Beltran, Leah, Jenkins and Hertel are villains or victims. Beltran is a mess – no issue with killing Leah, Jenkins and Hertel but knockout syringes for Callen and poor Agent Castor. The Drona drama is such a mess.

Episode number: Episode number 16 in season 14. This is the 318th episode overall.

#NCIS: Los Angeles Rewatch #NCIS: Los Angeles #NCIS Los Angeles #NCIS: LA #ncis la

5 notes · View notes