#the censorship pomegranate

[canisalbus]

✦ Stealing from the trees of Eden ✦

[itstokkii]

Tomato Red

in which turkey pays uzbekistan a visit. summer 2023

"It's getting hot, can't we go in for a break or something?" Sadik wiped some sweat off his forehead. He had hoped they'd spend some quality time in Nargiza's living room, watching some Turkish dramas in her living room under the merciful air conditioning.

Instead, he was out in her gardens helping her pick crops in the merciless 40 degree weather in Uzbekistan.

"Sadik, we've just started. All you have to do is fill the bucket halfway with tomatoes and cucumbers while I check on the rest of the plants and pick the basil leaves. Besides, you wanted to see me cook, right? The other foods are ready, and this is the final step," She didn't spare a glance at him, instead tending to her rose bushes. How cruel...!

He had to admit, having a whole house instead of an apartment definitely had its perks. Her house, like so many others he saw while driving to her address, had a gigantic gate, and was walled up on all 4 sides. When she let him in, he was greeted by the sight of wires holding up vines of sweet, ripe grapes. There were 2 plots of land on each side of the entranceway to her house, with pomegranate trees on one plot, and apricot trees on the other. Among her crops, she had tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplants, and bell peppers.

So she definitely saved on grocery bills, huh?

As the tomatoes and cucumbers piled up on his basket, he took a few glances at her. She was watering some plants that were beginning to shrivel a little.

It was kind of weird to see her in an informal setting. He always got used to seeing her in pantsuits. Now, she was in a matching dress and trouser set, a scarf tying her long hair back. She looked a little...cute? Domestic? He couldn't describe the feeling.

Feeling her eyes on him, he whipped his head back and picked the last crop.

‎‧₊˚✧[🇹🇷🇺🇿]✧˚₊‧

Glad to be in the kitchen, Sadik sought refuge as he watched Nargiza thinly chop the tomatoes and cucumbers he picked. He noticed a bowl of onions soaked in water next to him.

"What's that for?"

"We don't want the onion's flavor to be too strong in the salad."

He chuckled a bit at that.

After everything was chopped, she strained the onions, added them into the mix, and seasoned it with salt before plating the finished salad.

"You sit down in the living room. I'll bring the food." She affectionately?? shooed him as she focused on the plov and somsa she showed Sadik how to prepare throughout the day, plating those as well and carefully bringing them to the table.

In the meantime, he was flipping through channels and trying to make out what the news reporter was saying about the approval of a new set of apartment buildings to be constructed in Tashkent.

‎‧₊˚✧[🇹🇷🇺🇿]✧˚₊‧

"I cannot believe she just told him all that!" She gasped in shock as they both watched the climax of the Turkish drama they were watching. "You can't trust bad boys like him!"

"He literally kissed her once, that doesn't make him the bad boy archetype?" He looked at her, chuckling at her idea of what a "bad boy" was.

"Wait, they kissed? When did that happen?" She sipped on her black tea.

Oh right. Censorship. "Way back in episode 7. They were like, throwing themselves on top of each other. The broadcasters probably cut that scene out here."

"And for good reason! We can't be influencing the youth negatively like that–"

He gently grabbed her wrist and brought it to his lips.

"I–! Wha–!" Nargiza let out a string of stammers, her face becoming redder than the embroidered pomegranate cushion next to her.

She buried her face into it as he laughed. "You're as red as the tomatoes! But it's ok, 'cause red is my favorite color~"

"SADIK!" Her voice was muffled through the cushion.

He could stay here for a while. He didn't mind the Uzbek summer heat anymore.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Notes: tagging @billowingangel since i know you wanted to see their dynamic! i hope you enjoy!

also, i suck at description, but the house and gardens are based off of close and distant relatives' homes back in uzbekistan! uzbek homes truly are something else...

[lilacartsmadsion]

Lore of the Future

(Tinkerer Cookie’s POV)

After a while of research I was able to find clues from Custard Cookie III’s initial search for the other Five.

It was hard for me to accept that a Cookie such as him, who wishes for nothing but to be reunited with his family again, to be controlled by bitterness…

I know now that he must’ve given up on searching for them long ago…he now only waits desperately hoping his family will come back to him.

These are the pieces of information I could find…

Order of the Five: Strawberry Cookie.

Leader of an Unknown Strawberry Village somewhere in the old forests of the Pomegranate Village, Successor to Hollyberry Cookie and Second Member of the Order of the Five.

At some point she founded a village near Pomegranate Village and resides there, keeping outsiders out. She does not like company anymore…

Her only known family was the Order of the Five. Most notably, Gingerbrave and Wizard Cookie. Custard Cookie III told me, that the Three were friends prior to their adventures across Earthbread and had only met Chili Pepper and Custard Cookie III later on…she knows Gingerbrave and Wizard more than anyone.

She was around during the time the Order was named the Order of the Four, and unlike Custard Cookie III her role in the Order wasn’t kept vague…Strawberry Cookie was known for trading medicine, censorship throughout media and peacekeeping situations, often times paired up with Custard Cookie III.

She left after Gingerbrave had taken the Soul Jam, and Custard Cookie III believed it was due to fear…her Soul Jam was embedded inside her Lollipop staff, but it was smashed when Gingerbrave tried to pry out the Soul Jam.

Originally there was actually a scuttle during the whole event, when Gingerbrave took all the Soul Jam, Strawberry joined in at one point of the fight, but was knocked back after Gingerbrave had thrown a basic plant magic spell to hold her back, this spell caused Chili Pepper Cookie to lose her footing and including her Soul Jam, which inquired Wizard to step in, but after he lost his Soul Jam, Strawberry Cookie quivered in fear and surrendered.

Strawberry Cookie’s Light was the Light of Love, derived from the Light of Passion. It is believed this was because Strawberry Cookie was a caring person, and was most notably the shyest out of the Five…

Strawberry Cookie used her Soul Jam as a protective mechanism, being adept at plant magic and using it as a shield much like her predecessor, however, she also used it in pacification as she has been known by another title as ‘Tamer of Beasts’ which unlike Dragons, Strawberry Cookie could tame wild animals…

There is also a theory that Strawberry Cookie may have made the Strawberry Village prior to her losing her Soul Jam and since Soul Jam was capable of building entire nations she was able to use it on a small-scale, which was a village.

Strawberry Cookie is described as one of the most paranoid now…often not seeing Custard Cookie III. Ever since Gingerbrave she has gone silent…even refusing to leave her village…none have seen her in years.

Perhaps the event on which the Soul Jam was stolen may have affected her too severely…

[stolenbythegods]

@kallistcs sent a meme: 🔥🔥give it to me. Greek myth, RP or fandom!

Aight, time to get controversial! And I get two flames to work with, goody! 😈

🔥 First is fandom bc oh boy do I see so much drama. And so I will yell possibly my biggest controversial (and possibly unpopular) opinion that may actually cause trouble but eh. And that is; WHAT PEOPLE WRITE IN FICTION DOES NOT REFLECT UPON THE AUTHOR. STOP HARASSING PEOPLE FOR SHIT THAT ISN'T REAL.

It makes me so mad. The seemingly growing amount of people who insist you're a bad person for engaging in x subject in fiction is actually distressing and I hate it. Idc what you write, even if it squicks me out, I will never assume you endorse it irl unless there's cold, hard proof. The support for censorship (which is not a precision tool btw, but a blunt object that bludgeons whatever it hits) is choking creativity and killing media literacy. By all means curate your timeline, but ffs, do not assume a person's morality based on them writing something that makes you uncomfortable. And for the love of god please stop using words like romanticising/normalising/fetishising to justify harassment. Unless the person is straight up saying it's okay ooc and engaging in stuff irl, don't just assume. It needs to stop.

🔥 And then for greek myth, it kinda feeds into the above one which is; I think people need to embrace the bad sides of the gods more when it comes to shitty things they've done. Feels like the moral panic stuff makes everyone scramble to make their characters likable and so they retcon myths. The biggest example I can give is how people treat the Hades and Persphone myth (something I've ranted about many times before) by removing the kidnapping/rape aspect and the trickery in making her eat the pomegranate seeds. But it happens with so many other figures, where they didn't do x bad thing or it's actually for y reason that makes it less bad/more justifiable.

Let the gods be messy, let them do bad things, let them be morally dark-grey. They are complex beings who do bad stuff sometimes, and their morals cannot be expected to line up with human ones, especially modern day ones.. Idk, I'm just not a fan of the uwu-ification that happens a lot of the time. Your muses can do horrible things, they're not real, it doesn't make you a bad person, and ultimately fiction is for exploring all kinds things, including the fucked up stuff.

[sayaka-mga2024mi4017]

Writing the Intro

Our lecturer had told us to write the introduction just to get a basic idea on how to start the essay along with the flow of the essay as well;

The 1960s were a period of change within the Soviet state, especially within the film industry as well. The death of Joseph Stalin loosened the iron grip of censorship within the creative industries. This brought about a period of change within film, as filmmakers were not tightly bound to the theme of ‘Socialist Realism’, as they were given more freedom to develop their characters along with their narrations to their liking while not criticizing Communism. This newfound freedom allowed filmmakers to embrace the culture of the Soviet states. Although foreign films were on the rise, media from the Soviet states were not received well, especially from the US market, due to the fear of Communist influence. However, despite the Communist reputation, certain films had been well received internationally.

Sergei Parajanov was a filmmaker of Armenian descent who had faced many trials of being subjected to persecution by Soviet authorities as he had abandoned all guidelines of Socialist Realism by 1964 with the creation of his film Shadow of Forgotten Ancestors. His most widely acclaimed work, The Color of Pomegranates, delves into Armenian culture and the artistic mind of the poet Sayat Nova through the avant-garde nature of his cinematic style. Often dubbed a visual experience, the film incorporates the use of symbolism and peculiar use of cinematography, which comply with its avant-garde nature.

I had faced a few predicaments when it came to writing the essay as I had an estimated word count of 250 words for the introduction itself. As I had relayed this concern to the lecturer she had advised me to instead rethink the essay format and create bullet points so that I do not spill into unnecessary detail or information.

I was also again told to keep it short and concise which was proven to be quite a difficulty for myself.

HOWEVER, I did as I was told and also created a thesis statement and created a thorough skeletal body that would specify the necessary details that I have to write down.

Intro;

Thesis statement: Sergei Parajanov’s work “The Colour of Pomegranates” is a testament of its own that challenges the realm of Socialist Realism within the Soviet film industry by delving further into the Armenian culture through symbolism, cinematography, and the Avant Garde nature of the film.

Contextualization of the background of Sergei Parajanov Situation of the 60s period How the film challenged the industry 

Symbolism and imagery; The open book relates to his sentiments of being a writer

Religious imagery- alludes to Sayat Nova’s religious background, along with armenian relationship with christianity -2 bread, 3 fish - thorns Imagery of pomegranate- symbolizes fertility, The 3 pomegranates and the juice spilling under it- takes shape of the kingdom of armenia, referencing to the time period Sayat Nova was in 

Cinematography: Lighting: purely natural light only Most notable editing technique: Kuleshov technique in the beginning

Colour: natural, there is very little saturation of colours as everything is exhibited in its natural state. Almost desaturated in certain shots however quality of film should be considered along with the time period it was made.  Sound design; incorporates natural sound however initially it used traditional armenian folk song Avant Garde nature:

Mise en Scene- akin to a theatric play as there were little to no camera movement as all shots were taken in one steady angle ( similar to a play)

The setting to which it was filmed was in historical sites, the costumes used were traditional outfits to the armenian culture

Narrative; non-narrative, as there is little to no clarification about the scene as little dialogue is held as well. Overall this contributes to the abstract nature of the film

Conclusion:  a revolutionary film that focuses on itself being a visual experience for the audience and creates a new precedent within a structuralized nationalistic soviet film industry

[illustratorintheprocess]

Winter Break Week 1

Over the Winter Break I don't really want to worry about posting here too much so I'll sum up every week into just one post.

The better part of the first week I spent sick. It wasn't covid but a dripping mess nonetheless. Having missed my usual shift on the weekend before I made up for it by pulling overtime this week. Luckily leading up to Christmas retail has a lot of overtime hours to give out.

It snowed. That was pretty cool because it happened so suddenly and actually stuck to the ground (for a few days).

I took weird reference pictures of my hands and arms to work with for the 2nd NIGHTMARE image. It's going to involve so many hands in different positions, it's a real dreadful one to work on.

On the topic of references, research and inspirations for the Minor Project, I've been loving the YouTube Channel Art Deco. It takes a closer look at famous pieces or lesser known works from famous artists and puts a modern spin on it that makes it very entertaining to watch.

Here is the link to the channel:

In one of the videos they were talking about the hidden meaning of fruit in paintings and it got me thinking. Wanting to make the Nightmare images as bizzar as I can while keeping the Normal images lighthearted and fun, including fruit in the visuals might just work out for both.

I found an interesting article called "Sex, Sensuality and Sin: Fruit Symbolism in Art" on fruitpunchmag.wordpress.com

A lot of the hidden meaning of fruit stems from the story of the Original Sin in the Bible:

- Apple = temptation & sin / = beauty & prosperity

- Pomegranate = temptation & fall from grace / = fertility

- Fig = loss of innocence / = knowledge & vagina

- Fig Leave = censorship / = modesty & virtue

- Grapes & Wine = excess & drunkenness / = a celebration

- Peach = desirable & erotic / = virtue & honour

It seems to fit perfectly that all of the above has a positive as well as a negative meaning so that I could use the same fruit in each, a nightmare and a normal image, to signify a connection between the two. And then just like the fruit has a positive and a negative association connected to it, so does the topic of the naked human body.

This 2nd NAKED NIGHTMARE image features the fig leaf. Representing modesty and virtue the leaf has been snatched from the woman and is being dangled in front of her teasingly while strange hands are grabbing and pulling at her clearly against her will. This nightmare depicts the fear of strangers seeing you naked as well as being objectified and taken advantage off by them. This might be a fear primarily women live with on a day to day but no doubt men experience it too.

(Later I added a pair of big watchful eyes looking down on the woman. Whether you interpret them as belonging to the harassing party or maybe our society playing some sort of role in this nightmare, they add another lvl of creepy to the whole shabang)

[romanceyourdemons]

like many of tarkovsky’s films, andrei rublev (1966) takes its subject matter as a loosely held frame on which to hang its extensive pontificating, a grave sin in any film with pontificating less brilliant and a frame less touching than this one. in a frame centering around 15th century icon painter andrei rublev, a naturally brilliant artist whose relationship with his art is complicated both by himself and the political forces around him, the film’s philosophizing swirls around religion, national identity, and the duty of an artist. it depicts harsh government censorship and the government violently commissioning artists to make art they do not believe in—not coincidentally echoing the film’s own history, commissioned by the soviet government as part of a series of films about significant cultural figures, the same as the color of pomegranates (1969), and, the same as the color of pomegranates (1969), censored and re-edited by the government as backlash for the film straying too far from the educational and moralistic plan laid out for the filmmaker. however, andrei rublev concludes that the duty of the artist is to make art, not for The People of some imagined unified national body, but for art’s own sake. it is not too far a leap to conclude that that is not only tarkovsky’s ultimate argument in andrei rublev (1966), but a guiding principal in his own career, of which this film forms a key part

[alatismeni-theitsa]

I had a question I wanted to ask about writing Greek gods in modern Greece (I saw your post). I had actually started writing a story featuring the Greek Gods during the Greek War of Independence, at the end of the Ottoman Empire, but when I started researching it, I had serious doubts. I’m not Greek myself so I thought it would be grossly inappropriate for me to write about the tragedies I was learning about (specifically, the genocide) in a kind of adventure story. Especially since (1/2)

(2/2) from what I could tell, a lot of the victimization was due to Greeks being majority Christian at the time. I would love to write Greek gods involved in Greek history but it feels wrong for me to, I guess, capitalize on a huge tragedy that affected so many lives, even if I had respectful intentions. May I ask your thoughts? I’d appreciate your opinion, thank you for your time!

---------------------------------------------------------------

Personally, I don’t mind. A writer can write about anything they want. The modern history of Greece is full of wars, famines and death so it’s not even possible writing about modern Greece without mentioning them. For me it would be more offensive to write about modern Greece without taking into account all the trauma (and the generational trauma) of the Greek people rather than writing about it. 90% of books Greeks write are about one or many wars in the modern Greek history. We, as a people, are concentrating too much on those things in our books and I don’t think we should stop a foreigner from writing something similar. If anything, we love books like that.  

I am a little confused, I don’t understand if you want to write about the war of 1821 or about the Greek genocide which happened almost 100 years later. But I will kinda cover both cases.

Christianity always played a big role because religion was one of the things that separeted Greeks and Turks and preserved our national identity. If you were a Muslim Greek, you were essentially a Turk in the eyes of other Greeks. But if I remember correctly, being Greek still made you a second class citizen in Turkey in the 20th century. To be honest, it was bad even back in the 19th century. When Greece was under Ottoman rule the Turks took our boys from our families to train them as janissaries and they also took Greeks as slaves. An example of slavery was Turks taking my great-great-great-grandpa and his family from their town in order to use them in constraction. 

What I mean to say is that yes, religion was important but probably ethnicity was too. The gods could be involved just by being Greek or having relationships with other Greek people - who maybe happened to be Christian.

The execution always matters, of course. I am sure that you want to be respectful and that you will use every source in your disposal to make it accurate. Always follow the facts - for example, don’t write that Turks won a certain operation when they lost it. Understand the themes and the meanings behind the wars or exterminations and don’t change them because those themes are important to us. 

If you write about the heroes of 1821 or important known Greek figures of the 20th century, stay in character and don’t change the historical accounts (or their gender or sexuality). This way you will be respectful. Moreover, don’t change the characters and status of the Greek Gods themselves. I mean, don’t treat Zeus like he was never the respected Father of gods and humans. 

If you describe the destruction realistically, you will be fine. By realistically I mean: how some Greeks didn’t believe war was coming or didn’t want to be liberated (yes we had those, too), how other Greeks feared for their lives, what scars the work camps and other atrocities of war were left in their soul, how it all stayed in their nightmares etc. Write it as you would write any war and trauma. 

Maybe it will help reading Greek books that discuss those times? I could find you some translated to English if no results show up. For the war of 1821, the history works by Makrigiannis (Μακρυγιάννης) is a good source. For the Greek genocide there is a plethora of famous Greek works like Dido Sotiriou’s “Farewell Anatolia” (in English).

There is a Greek artist on Tumblr, @slaymate that draws Hades and Persephone in modern Greece (and other periods, such as Venetocracy Crete) and you may want to take a look at her blog for inspiration. This is one of my fave pieces of her (Hades feeding Persephone Turkish delight instead of a pomegranate):

To sum it up, writing about other cultures and history you don’t know very well can be tough. It gets better with research, though. I know that lots of Greeks want to see the Gods in different Greek periods. We cannot want that but at the same time block people who want to write it. 1) That’s censorship 2) That will actually gatekeep people from writing what we want to see. If your book becomes famous then it will make more people search modern Greek history, something that is a win. 

Come back more than one times and watch the answers and comments on this post in case other Greeks have more things to say - taking more opinions is always good. I asked one more Greek for this and they had the same opinion as me.

If you have more questions or if you want to specify something, I am here. You can also send me DMs for individual small problems with the book. I look forward to learning more about your story, sounds promising! 

Greeks, what’s your opinion on this? 

[classicnovaproductions]

Tumblr just flagged a photo post of mine of photography I did nearly 10 years ago. It's of a woman eating pomegranates.

It JUST got flagged. I requested an appeal

Beginning to think this censorship is entirely random.

Tumblr you wankers

[spirit-shroud]

Tinsel: b c e f Cassandra: p q s v

hi nines!! love u!!

For Tinsel - 

Beverage : What do they most like to drink, and why?Tinsel’s two most common drinks are pumpkin spice coffee and pomegranate juice! Coffee just because he’s like, an autumn weeb in general (and he has Sleepy Bitch Disease, as i do), and pomegranate because he’s #not a vampire bat but kinda wants to look it so people don’t like, bother him, yknow?

Co-Habitate : Do they live with anyone? What’s “need to know” before moving in? He lives with his parents because he’s like, a baby, a small 15 year old, but when/if he gets older and like... inevitably fucks off and moves in with maple and gang as crime solving buddies im pretty sure his entire ‘need to know’ list is like: 1. chores need to assigned ahead of time, publicly, on a very noticeable list, so he doesn’t miss them / they aren’t left up to interpretation and people arent left frustrated2. he cannot cook anything that’s not in a box and he is too terrified to learn3. he needs two days’ warning before anyone comes over so he has time to free himself from living in squalorpretty simple stuff i think?Escape : What do they do to destress? How successful is it?his idea of “de-stressing” is arguing with people over the internet which would work and be a fun time except he. takes things personally. very personally. and would probably be thinking about anything mean he said or got said to him for like, months. it’s. a whole-ass thing. also the more stressed out he is, the more stupid, impulsive decisions he makes! and the more he wants to isolate! it’s whack! please get a stress ball or like, go outside, tinsel!! this isn’t healthy!!!we aren’t going to talk about the fact tinsel is literally just my self insert/fursona

Fluff : What hits their soft spot? Does anything them into emotional goo?(do you think the op noticed there’s a missing word in this question? lol)

not much, really? like he has a half-soft spot for his friends, but he never really gets emotional? like he gets defensive when complimented, doesn’t really squeal for long over kittens, feels guilty receiving gifts, doesn’t have any concepts of empathy or grief. like. i think the closest thing he has to a soft spot is the fact he’ll think forever if someone is generally nice to him or invites him out someplace or just says they’ve been thinking of him. he’ll feel the desperate need to top their kindness until it makes an infinite loop. 

how about i just make this a two for one deal where you get both clair and cassie? but like. im. making up 100% of stuff about cassie as i go and if im too far off path from what you think then yell at me about it in the devcord kjdfhgkdjfg

Pistol : Is this character skilled with a weapon? What’s their opinion of violence? Clair: Clair’s main weapons include a kris dagger and a heavy tome, since he’s like, a (clairic) cleric. he’s uncomfortably good with any knife or scalpel, though, just from his history of medical Nonsense and picking up a few things here and there. he doesn’t particularly like violence, though he has a tendency to snap and not stop hurting people people until everyone around him is in some way gone/incapacitated/dead should things come to that. he’s not the most aware person when he gets upset :V 

Cassandra: Cassie has a singular pistol that got sent to her P.O. box as fanmail and she’s kept it ever since. It’s not really effective against, y’know, hordes of zombies at all, but it sure does shred living people if need be. she’s another one who doesn’t like real violence, citing it as disturbing and difficult to watch, but definitely wouldn’t turn down some good ol staged graphic stuff. Movies/video games/witing are fine. It’s just when it’s happening in front of her without the stage lighting is she hurt by it. 

Question : How often do they feel doubt? What topics are they defensive about? Clair: Clair is like, made of doubt. 100% of his existence is just him doubting his own experiences and what really happened to him to land him where he is. he gets pretty defensive over topics like friends/family, being super deeply afraid of people getting attached to him. whenever people prove to like him too much, he goes out of his way to betray them and fuck off somewhere where he doesn’t have to see them anymore. 

he’ll also totally overexplain and correct anything pertaining to zombie lore or psychology. but remember, he’s not an actual zombie. allegedly. clair is allegedly not a zombie. 

Cassandra: Cassie doesn’t really doubt much. like, she hit that ‘self aware that everything sucks and there’s not much she can actually do about it as an individual’ stage, and rather than having a breakdown over it, elected to just have fun with it, tormenting the citizens of Isolon with her nonsense and trying her best to make sure people are at least somewhat aware like she is. i feel like if there was anything she’d take super personally, it’d be anything pertaining to the fact Jules Is A Bad Guy (she has like. 9 powerpoints on this, probably. she makes a new one with new evidence every No Censorship Saturday and streams its creation). she’d throw hands with a jules supporter. fuck em up, babe!!

Sing : Do they like music? Do they listen often/sing/hum/play songs in their head?Clair: Clair doesn’t really seek out music, per se? but he’s never bothered by it if it’s playing. he’ll bop along and if it’s something he’s heard before it’s definitely been quietly sung before. if you ask him to sing in front of other people you will definitely die, though. figuratively and literally. 

he’d never tell anyone without some extreme emotional compromise, but he used to play piano and was learning the harp before he died.

Cassandra: Cassie ran out of lofi/royalty free/meme songs for the CasCast(tm) on like, day 931, and decided she’d try her hand at making some of her own!! she has. limited success. but she’s trying and that’s what counts. She’s probably responsible for there being a refurbished karaoke machine in Tim’s bar because like, the world ended, who the fuck cares. she’s a music fan and old memes and is trying to bring back rickrolling in 2069. (this may be an excuse to add canonical rickrolling in SO. maybe.) 

Vice : What bad habits do they have? Is there something they would be ashamed of? Clair: i think clair’s most notable bad habit is that his idea of like... coping with anything is just. putting it off. he don’t have time for feelings. hes an apathetic lil bitch. but in that same vein he doesn’t really feel like.. shame, per se? because like. he hasn’t really done anything hes just mad all the time lol 

Cassandra: she kinda falls under the same vein as clair i think as far as her worst possible thing being Not Coping With The Apocalypse. i mean, she'd have a few annoying habits, like needing to talk through literally everything she does off or on the air, she probably hoards used mugs at her desk, leaves towels in weird places, has never once folded nor put away laundry, but nothing like. evil? just the dumb stuff. as far as shame goes, i can’t think of anything off the top of my head tbh

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

[nayumis]

ISTD: Watching films and selecting a film of focus The Colour of Pomegranates (1969) and Limbo (2020)

I chose to select between The Colour of Pomegranates and Limbo as they were both films that I could identify with the brief of Spaces in Between.

The Colour of Pomegranates

The Colour of Pomegranates has a distant watching experience to viewers who do not understand what is going on. Therefore there is a space in between the screen and the viewer of understanding and interpretation.

Furthermore there is also a space between when the film was released and the modern-day viewer. The film was released in 1969 Armenia whilst it was still a part of the Soviet Union. When this film was released, the laws and censorships of topics such as sexuality were very different to how they are perceived today. Therefore there is a space or gap between contextual or cultural understanding and ideologies.

Limbo

I found the space in between in its plot and its presentation. The plot explores refugees are in this in-between period of awaiting refugee claims, and are trying to find their purpose. Therefore the film focuses on the between period of things happening.

The film is presented in a slow cinema picturesque style (using still, quiet and long shots) that creates an effect that makes seconds watching the film feel longer to audiences to emphasise how long their waiting period is, and how slow their days progress doing nothing.

Takeaway

My takeaway was that partially the beauty of both of these films lie in how the audiences engages with the spaces in the film. Whether these spaces are of interpretation and age shift, or experiencing the space in how slow or quiet it is.

[couldnthelpbutwonder]

The Colour of Pomegranates (1968)

How to even begin with this beautiful piece of cinema history? Not only do the various legends around the production and censorship of the movie cast a mysterious light on it, it is alos the topic itself, the life of Sayat-Nova (maybe?) portrayed by Sergei Paradschanow.  The picture have an timeless appeal for the retro and movie-loving kind, and it is on this same website around 12 years ago that I started reblogging and adding stills and GIFs of this same movie to my blog without even knowinging what the movie was about. The bleeding pomegranates, the boy on the curch roof with the book pages turning... iconic images of the early to mid-2010s web era!

To somehow summarise the plot: It shows the life of a poet, from childhood to death, without an actual plot but more in symbolic pictures and allegories. The structure comes across as unlinear, as several characters (often played by the same actors) return time and time again.

Intersting are the occasional poems shown during the movie, however: “As poetic as the film’s intertitles are, none of them contain the writing of Sayat-Nova. When it became clear to Goskino that the film wasn’t the biopic it had expected, Parajanov was forced to further distance The Color of Pomegranates from the work and real-life details of the ashugh. Renowned Armenian author Hrant Matevosyan was commissioned to write the on-screen text.” (from: https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/5639-10-things-i-learned-the-color-of-pomegranates)

From early childhood of the poet,suffering seems to be a central theme. The young boy looks at the ancient pictures drawn into the books drying on the roof. Seeing the drawings of the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ is where he identifies his suffering and assumes a similar pose with his arms strecthed out.

Later, we see him as ayoung man with his lover (both played by the same actress, Sofiko Chiaureli, that will play a number of other roles in the movie) and after that as a monk. This is where most of the symbolism in the plot happens, although I have to confess that I didn’t really know what was going on. 

The movie ends with the poet as an old man, dying, with the Angel of Death/Resurrection (again actress  Sofiko Chiaureli) by his side.

What does this movie represent? A culture? What defines a culture: story-telling, documentary, politics, poetics? Paradschanow clearly had an intention to crystallize what Armenian culture “is” and how it survived, especially in the context of Armenia being one of the constituent republics of the Soviet Union. Through choosing the life of a famous national poet as an inspiration and using ancient-looking sights and costumes, the movie takes us on an imagined trip back in time: “This is how our ancestors lived”. 

This imagined ancestrality is obviously something made to feel proud about, to connect with something lost through wars, genocide, and colonialism (Soviet Union). As it opens door to creativity, it is however also an opportunity for ideologies to arise.

The actual poet, Sayat-Nova, very much an advocate of a “Pancaucasian thought” (that’s how I called it now), wrote his poems in Georgian, Armenian and Azerbaijani and propagated the union of these three cultures. This brings up the question of how much of a Nationalist propaganda this movie actually is, disguised as a beautiful art movie. The movie clearly is a search of origins, with the inclusion of the use of historic and religious and a legitimization of an independent Armenian state (which makes the censorship by the Soviet Union understandable). As all colonial/post-colonial art manifesting an imagined lost culture, or an own original culture, the line is indeed very thin between  emancipation or the creation of a strict authoritarian nationalism. However, they both don’t exclude each other, which there are numerous real historical states in which this happened.

[filmesinesqueciveis]

"The Legend of the Suram Fortress (1985) | Sergei Parajanov" no YouTube

The Legend of the Suram Fortress is a 1985 drama film directed by Georgian SSR-born Soviet-Armenian director Sergei Parajanov and Georgian actor Dodo Abashidze. Sergei Parajanov's first film after 15 years of censorship in the Soviet Union, it is a film stylistically linked with his earlier The Color of Pomegranates (1968): The film consists of a series of tableaux; once again minimal dialogue is used; the film abounds in surreal, almost oneiric power.

[kmclaude]

Where do you get inspiration for your comics? I always wanted to try doing a mini comic but I have precisely zero ideas.

I like pretty people banging :B

Nah, hmm, well... First Holy Cummunion was a last minute idea before NOCAZ and I can’t honestly remember what triggered it but I know parts were inspired by this childhood book about Catholicism I had that must’ve been from like the 50s or 60s with illustrations (it was directed at kids but also was like barely written in a children’s language register.) Cuntfirmation followed because I liked the pun and now  I have a whole sacramental set written up so uhh...puns is where I get ideas, that’s for sure.

MIDORI-CHAN is 100% inspired by Suehiro Maruo’s work and the film made from his comic Shojo Tsubaki which is on youtube. So like a doujin, essentially.

I dunno if Teufelskreis counts as a minicomic but that’s set to be a three part smut comic series because I like futanari and demons and body horror and necrophilia and mindfucking (which I guess spoils what #2 and #3 will be).

And last year’s minicomics -- presbyteros, Tag Your Gore/Pomegranates, 11/08/2016, and And Gender My Enemy -- were all just my experiments with 8-page 1 sheet comics, the ones where you take 1 sheet of paper and just fold it on itself to make 8 pages. Presbyteros was just priest kink, Tag Your Gore/Pomegranates was an anti-censorship screed, 11/08/2016 was immediate thoughts after the american election, and And Gender My Enemy was about trans shit. So I guess those got inspired by just...general punk DIY zines because I wanted to fit in at NOCAZ and also just stuff I liked or believed in or experienced.

So I guess my answer is just make whatever you feel like making and as for ideas...that shit is hard. It honestly is, like, this is why you don’t see me applying to anthologies -- because I suck at coming up with things (and usually when I do it’s smut). But like when I do have ideas its usually just me running with things I like -- puns, certain types of smut, media that really hit home for me, things that are weighing on me, my absolute loathing for being told what to do and how to behave and what I can and cannot say, etc.

You, you’re wildly informed and intelligent on so many topics, I honestly thing you’d rock one of them informative type zines, y’know? Just like giving people a learning experience on a topic. Zines especially have that weird place between comic, artbook, and literature that’s really fun and experimental (and honeslty I need to get intothem more) and I think you should just GO! FOR! IT!

You could definitely rock an anti-censorship zine ;)

[whileiamdying]

Now playing exclusively in our Virtual Cinema: https://www.filmlinc.org/stream Armenian-Georgian filmmaker and artist Sergei Parajanov’s radical, visually dynamic Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and The Color of Pomegranates, distinguished by cultural folklore and myth, are only the best known works of this peerless Soviet-era filmmaker, a student of Moscow’s prestigious VGIK film school. Internationally respected, he nevertheless became increasingly controversial in the Soviet Union, dealing with censorship and imprisonment. This program brings together three remarkable short works, meditations on the nature of art and artists that boast his singular, colorful, collage-like style and which have been newly restored: Kiev Frescoes (1966), consisting of the remaining footage of a confiscated project about post–WWII Kiev; Hakob Hovnatanyan (1967), a tribute to the art of nineteenth-century Armenian painter; and Arabesques on the Pirosmani Theme (1986), bringing to life the playful work of Georgian outsider artist Niko Pirosmani. Restorations by Fixafilm (Warsaw) and NCCA (National Cinema Centre of Armenia), produced within the Hamo Bek-Nazarov Project. Restoration supervised by Lukasz Ceranka and produced by Daniel Bird. Financial support from Kino Klassika Foundation (London). An NYFF57 selection. More info: http://filmlinc.org Subscribe: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=filmlincdotcom Like on Facebook: http://facebook.com/filmlinc Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/filmlinc Follow on Instagram: http://instagram.com/filmlinc

[4rhealth]

Will FDA Censor the Cranberry?

FDA’s treatment of fruit illustrates what scientific censorship looks like. Action Alert! 

The FDA is currently considering a petition from Ocean Spray, the juice company, to allow a qualified health claim that cranberries can reduce the risk of recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs) in healthy women. Denying free speech about the benefits of food and supplements bolsters Big Pharma’s monopoly over medicine—natural products cannot compete on an unlevel playing field.

Ocean Spray’s petition points to several randomized clinical trials (RCTs)—what the FDA considers the “gold standard” of scientific evidence—that support their claim that cranberry products can help with UTIs. Recall that the FTC—most likely at the behest of the FDA—tried to stop POM Wonderful from making claims about its pomegranate juice unless it had two RCTs to back them up. Ocean Spray’s petition indicates three RCTs that support their claim.

A qualified health claim is a claim that communicates a relationship between a substance and a disease or health condition. These claims must be accompanied by a disclaimer or qualifying language to accurately covey to the consumer the level of scientific evidence supporting the claim. By definition, qualified health claims do not need to meet the same scientific standard as traditional health claims, which require “significant scientific agreement” that the claim is truthful and not misleading. The bar for a qualified health claim is lower to reflect that the science is not as conclusive as full-scale drug trials (which themselves are often far from conclusive). A notable example is the qualified health claim for folate supplements and their role in preventing neural tube defects in infants, as well as omega-3 fatty acids reducing the risk of heart disease.

With not one, not two, but three RCTs behind their claim, one would think that Ocean Spray would have no trouble meeting the evidentiary bar for a qualified health claim.

Yet we’ve seen how this scenario can play out. The FDA previously blocked walnut and cherry growers from telling consumers about the health benefits of those foods, because only FDA-approved drugs can claim to “prevent, treat, cure, or mitigate a disease.” Diamond Foods, a walnut company, listed some of the health benefits of walnuts on their site, backed up by scientific studies—yet the FDA ignored the science and sent them a warning letter charging that this information turned walnuts into unapproved drugs. The FDA also swooped in on cherry growers even though no health claims were being made—cherry companies dared to link to some of the scientifically-supported health benefits of these foods from their websites. For example, when cherry companies linked to peer-reviewed research that showed tart cherries may help with gout, arthritis, and inflammation, the FDA sent warning letters threatening regulatory action if they did not remove the link from their websites. Telling the truth about the benefits of tart cherries and walnuts, in the FDA’s twisted thinking, turned those foods into misbranded, and therefore illegal, drugs subject to raids, seizures, and criminal prosecution. Some companies were even forced to sign consent decrees, violation of which came with stiff financial penalties–$1,000 per violation per day, in addition to paying the cost of FDA inspections, including gas mileage and nearly $100 an hour for each FDA employee involved.

Qualified health claims were established by the landmark decision of Pearson v. Shalala, of which ANH was a co-plaintiff. Qualified health claims are critical in communicating important health benefits of natural foods and dietary supplements otherwise forbidden by the FDA. Unfortunately, the FDA has consistently limited the information available to consumers about the real health benefits of food and supplements and routinely rejects qualified health claims: what qualified health claims do exist have been won largely through legal challenges to the FDA on the part of ANH-USA and allies in the natural health community. In fact, qualified health claims for folate/neural tube defects, B-vitamins/vascular disease, omega-3’s/heart disease, vitamin C/gastric cancer, vitamin E/bladder cancer, and selenium/prostate, colon, bladder, and thyroid cancer, were all the result of court victories over the FDA of which ANH-USA was a plaintiff.

Even if there is some disagreement about the evidence supporting Ocean Spray’s claim, the very nature of a qualified health claim is that it is “qualified” to communicate to consumers that the product is not a drug, but that there is strong evidence that it can help with a particular condition. Denying consumers this knowledge serves no one but the drug industry. We must not let the FDA once again prevent free speech about the benefits of natural foods.

Denying legal qualified health claims is yet another way that the federal government protects Big Pharma’s monopoly over medicine and elbows out cheap, safe, and effective natural medicines. If consumers aren’t allowed to learn of the benefits of healthy foods and supplements, these products cannot compete with pharmaceutical drugs—which is just the way the FDA wants it. We can’t let them get away with it.

Action Alert! Write to the FDA and tell them to grant Ocean Spray’s petition for a qualified health claim on cranberry juice. Please send your message immediately.

from The Alliance for Natural Health https://ift.tt/2IwebHU via Aloe for Health