#the level of hater just continues to rise within me | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

sexydreamgirl · 2 years ago

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I need to say something to you all that may come harshly, but I say it out of love.

A lot of you would be living your dream lives already or have even succeeded at the I AM state months ago if you had just logged off of Tumblr and abandoned all other loa resources.

I really really hate, loathe and despise the obsession with “the void”. Nobody hates it more than me. I’m its number one hater.

You guys have over complicated something that wasn’t complicated in the first place.

These are Neville's instructions about how to do it:

You say silently but feelingly, "I AM." Do not condition this awareness but continue declaring quietly, "I AM — I AM." Simply feel that you are faceless and formless and continue doing so until you feel yourself floating.

Mind you, people haven’t even experienced the floating feeling or any other symptoms and still succeeded. You guys take mental note of what worked for another anon and hope that this will finally be it and that’s the problem You read success story after success story and send follow up questions about how long it took them to “get in”, which affirmations they used, what position they laid in, which exact meditation they listened to, what the temperature of the room was and whatever other irrelevant matters. You go from blog to blog in search of validation, wondering if you did it right by laying facedown rather than in a starfish position, if the affirmation you used is okay and if swallowing was the reason why you failed. That’s why you’ve continued to struggle, you keep entertaining the idea that you’re doing it wrong because you’re not doing it exactly like someone else and that has been the downfall for a lot of you. What should have been the takeaway? Different things work for different people, but what if I reminded told you that you are… God? As in, THE GOD, who gets to decide (assume) and so shall be? The God who can assume that snapping their fingers will instantly turn them into pure consciousness. Yet here you all are, folding like H&M sweaters accepting this (“failure”) to be your state of consciousness and hoping that this new exact procedure will finally help you succeed when all it has ever taken was to… assume otherwise.

The reason you’ve failed is because you’re conscious of that. How many times should I remind you all that consciousness is the only reality? That all it takes to finally see and experience the change is for you to shift your state of consciousness?

In order to rise to the level that you are not now expressing, you must completely drop the consciousness with which you are now identified. Until your present consciousness is dropped you will not be able to rise to another level.

Here is a list of all of the new additions that have been introduced/overcomplicated it:

Having to relax

Clearing your mind

Laying down

Staying still

Not swallowing (...?!?!)

Doing it before going to bed/at night

Using any kinds of waves (alpha/epsilon/theta)/subliminals

Affirming anything aside from I AM [I am pure consciousness/faceless and formless/the void/nothing]

Doing 3 day-3 week challenges……

inducing sleep paralysis

void concept………………

Affirm mindlessly throughout the day that it’s easy to do

I know people who’ve succeeded despite moving, while in class, while standing up in the shower yet day in and day out I continue to see people beg for the specifics. If any of these procedures worked for you and you manifested your dream life, congratulations! but none of these deviations are necessary. All they do is cultivate new assumptions within you guys that in order to become pure consciousness you need to clear your mind, stay completely still, take deep breaths, lay in x position, count to x, affirm «…» countlessly, etc.

I would also like to add, there is no need for void oriented blogs or extensive informational posts regarding this subject. You guys are only making it worse on yourselves. Blogs that are committed to answer void questions and reblog void success stories do more harm than good because they further condone the fascination with it and harvest more assumptions about how to do it.

Not only that, you guys obsess over methods and challenges wayyyyyyyy too much and your attention is specifically consumed by them when your focus should be targeted towards having it in the 4D. When you are fixated by the need for it to be present in the 3D as soon as possible, you are missing the point of the law of assumption.

It is not about wanting nor getting, it is about embodying and accepting that it is already yours now. Claim it in imagination and it’ll inevitably crystallize within your tangible reality. As within, so without.

There is no shame in wanting to try it out, there is shame in the pedestalization of it. The I AM state is not the answer to all of your problems. I understand the need for instant results, I know people who were dealing with difficult circumstances and wanted an immediate remedy so the I AM state became the goal when it shouldn’t be the goal, it’s only the means to get you to the goal, but obsessing over whether you’re doing it correctly isn’t going to help you, it’ll only impose stress and frustration upon you and will further push you in a hole of desperation and the cycle will perpetuate.

It only worsens when people literally put their lives on hold. You could have manifested your dream life within a week by entertaining a completely new state of consciousness (though gentle reminder that time shouldn’t be a point of focus in general either but I digress), but your attention is entirely consumed by the I AM state and you’re participating in three day challenges “waiting” until your mind is completely marinated in affirmations about how quick and easy it is… why? Stop waiting for your desires, they are yours NOW.

The reason why methods and challenges work in the first place is because you have given them permission to be the conditions that will be required in order to bring your desire in the 3D. If you assumed clapping three times would add $500,000 to your bank account that’s precisely what would happen and all that is asked of you is to shift your state of consciousness. Methods and challenges do not grant your desires, they are only training wheels that’ll aid you to live in the end and feel the wish fulfilled, which is meant to be the goal.

To see that you guys go to me and other blogs BEGGING us to manifest that you wake up in the void tells me that you guys truly don’t see yourselves as the architects of your reality.

Please adjust your self concept and stop surrendering to other people, it’s absolutely shameful. You are GOD, please start acting (and thinking) as such. Stop seeing yourself as a failure and start seeing yourself as the person who’s in control of every facet of their reality. because you are. The 3D is malleable at your command. That is what the law states. Please STAND UP.

You want to succeed at the I AM state? Okay, apply the basis of the law. How would you feel if you knew that becoming pure consciousness was as easy as breathing? That all it took was for you to relax and dwell on I AM? How easy it is for you to do whenever you feel like it? Sustain that state and you will not fail.

I genuinely pity and condemn the damage the fixation on the I AM state has caused in the community as a whole as well as on you guys individually. This is helping no one and I am tired of seeing the chokehold it has put a lot of you in. if you feel called out by this post then I strongly encourage you to reconsider what you plan to do from this point on. Leave « the void » alone, learn about the law and apply. Please, please, please give « the void » a rest. Not for my sake, but for yours. The pen (your imagination) is always in your hand and it's simply waiting to be used. You are all infinitely greater than you think you are. Stop putting your lives on hold and neglecting the inalienable power within you over the I AM state.

You have my love and you have my support. I wish each and every one of you nothing less than all of your desires materialized. I am here for you to help you however I can when it comes to clarification regarding the law of assumption, but I'm never going to partake in this fascination with the I AM state and further exacerbate it.

That is all.

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dailyexo · 4 years ago

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[INTERVIEW] Lay - 200819 Rolling Stone India: “How Lay Zhang Claimed The Throne of M-pop”

"The singer-songwriter and producer offers an in-depth look into his latest record ‘Lit,’ his evolution as an artist and finding the balance between East and West

When I last spoke to Lay Zhang in 2018, he was embarking on an ambitious but daunting journey to bring Mandarin pop aka M-pop to the world. “I hope they think, ‘This artist isn’t bad,’” he had said with some trepidation in his voice. “I hope that they find my music special and maybe… they’ll want to learn more about me and Chinese music.” The singer-songwriter and producer aspired to create a true hybrid of traditional and modern music, a sound that defines our generation’s ability to package the past for the future.

Zhang, more commonly known by his stage name LAY, first debuted in 2012 as a member of world-famous K-pop group, EXO. Although he remains a member of the group, he’s spent the last couple of years in China to focus on a solo career and spotlight his own country’s burgeoning pop scene. It’s a process he kicked off with his second studio album Namanana in 2018, but he was still some time away from realizing his dream of pushing Chinese pop to a global stage.

It’s been nearly two years since our conversation for Rolling Stone India’s November 2018 cover feature, and any signs of trepidation are a thing of the past for LAY. We could chalk it up to him being two years older and wiser, but I’d like to think it’s because he kept his promise to bring M-pop to the world. If Namanana was just a dip in the pool of fusion experimentation, his latest studio album Lit is the deep dive.

“It is the evolution of M-pop for me,” LAY explains. “I wanted to take it to another level. When you hear the Chinese instruments, you know it is a different sound and vibe. The style is more pop, R&B, and hip-hop influenced with the Chinese instruments thoughtfully mixed in.” Comprising a total of 12 songs (all written and co-produced by LAY) Lit was released as two EPs instead of one LP; the first dropped in June while the second made its appearance in July. Nearly every track presents a fresh blend of traditional Chinese instruments like the hulusi, guzheng, flutes and gong with modern genres like trap, R&B, soul, hip-hop, future bass, dubstep and more. It’s a complex, refined and intricate record, utilizing production techniques that clearly outline LAY’s growth as an artist over the past two years. In retrospect, Namanana comes across a slightly more naive record–innocent and optimistic with a hope that international audiences would embrace both M-pop and LAY. Lit however seeks to take a different path and carves out the future LAY envisions with cool confidence and fearless production.

The tracks seesaw smoothly from Mandarin to English and back, with LAY showcasing both his vocal and rap skills. It’s an extremely powerful and expansive album, hair-raising at some moments due to the sheer surprises the artist packs in (at one point I hear what sounds like the tabla on “Call My Name” and it catches me totally off-guard.) Some of the collaborators on the record include big names like hip-hop hitmaker Murda Beatz, Grammy Award-winning producer Scott Storch, composer and producer Mitchell Owens and Grammy-nominated songwriter Mike Daley to name a few. For the title track “Lit,” LAY recruited China-native Anti-General who created a vicious and chilling trap/dubstep beat to complement lyrics that decimate LAY’s haters, gossip-mongers and the media, challenging them to come forward and take him down if they dare. The track sees the singer-songwriter rightfully crown himself a ‘king’ and leader in the music industry.

If that wasn’t enough, the music video for “Lit” is without a doubt one of the best released in 2020. With hundreds of extras, dancers, impeccable CGI and a compelling storyline, it’s more movie than music video, portraying LAY as a warrior king who refuses to be defeated. As executive producer, music director and co-choreographer on the project, LAY pays homage to China’s rich history and culture with tons of historical references and traditional symbolism. I tell him I particularly loved the symbolism of a white lotus emerging untouched and pure from the black ink–representing LAY’s rise in the industry–and he shares that the magnificent dragon that appears at the end was his personal favorite. “It was super important that we added it in,” he says. “It represents my wishes, aspirations and my relentless desire to always pursue perfection in the works that I create. I want my dancing, visuals, and music to be the very best it possibly can be.”

Lit is also thematically more complex and layered than any of LAY’s previous works, exploring concepts that revolve around confidence, love, fame, the media, success and more. “The album continues to explore chasing your dream,” the singer explains. “This time it’s about more personal things in my life. Like hometown, family and self-doubt.” A phonetic play on the word for lotus (莲 / lian) in Mandarin, ‘lit’ is a clever pun used to describe LAY’s similarity to a lotus and his prowess as a musician. He named the album after the lotus because of the symbolism of it growing and blossoming from dirt or mud. The lotus also continues the theme of duality with Lit’s two-part release, and, according to LAY’s team, “represents a new birth plus a new sound in the midst of all his past achievements.”

The album’s success more than speaks for itself– when the pre-order for Lit went live on China’s QQ Music streaming platform, nine certification records were instantly broken as it surpassed 1.5 million pre-orders within seven minutes and 19 seconds. This immediately pushed the EP to Number One on QQ Music’s daily and weekly album sales charts. Lit has also made LAY the best-selling artist in China in 2020, with a whopping 2.5 million records sold. It’s a testament to his drive and determination as an artist, the attention to detail and refusal to back down. The record’s international success was no less, hitting top 10 positions on iTunes charts across 32 countries, bagging 21 Number One spots and firmly cementing LAY’s position as the global megastar that he is.

Some things however, never change; brand deals, TV shows, multiple singles, EPs and collaborations keep his schedule completely booked and– just like back in 2018– it’s extremely tough to pin him down for a conversation. He’s currently in the middle of filming a reality show and has several other projects in the pipeline, but still makes the time to catch up and answer a few questions for Rolling Stone India. In this exclusive interview, LAY details his most successful record yet, the journey of finding the balance between East and West, dealing with the dark side of media attention and why the relationship between an artist and their fans needs to be a two-way street.

Congratulations on the release and tremendous success of Lit! It is an absolutely phenomenal record and I was thrilled to see you explore so many new streams of production. Can you tell me a little bit about the process of making this album and do you feel you met your own expectations for it?

For this album I wanted to mix in Chinese traditional instruments and tell Chinese stories. It is the evolution of M-pop for me. I wanted to take it to another level. When you hear the Chinese instruments you know it is a different sound and vibe. It is hard to say if I met my own expectations. As an artist you never ever feel your work is perfect. You can always find spots where you can improve. But I think what I was able to do with my team in the time we had was great.

You dove deeper into the fusion of tradition and modernity on this album than Namanana—there was a larger variety of Chinese instruments used as well as bilingual wordplay with language in the lyrics. In what ways do you feel you’ve evolved as a producer and songwriter since that album to Lit?

I am still trying to find the right style and combination to share my music and Chinese culture with the world. Lit was an example of my growth. I had this desire to include traditional stories and instruments from Chinese culture. Trying to find the balance with the Western music was challenging. I had to think and spend a lot of time arranging the chords around and fitting everything together. Also with this album I am talking about things in a more personal level and taking time to explain with more of an artistic style. I feel like I am growing up on this journey.

Lit is the first part of a series of EPs which will make a whole LP—why did you want to release it in this format and when did you begin working on the record?

I split it into two parts to give time to people to listen to it. I feel like if I released 12 songs at once, people may not give enough time to listen to each track. But when there are just six tracks each time, then it gives people time to listen more carefully. I started this project maybe early 2019.

The title track “Lit” is about your battle with the media, hateful netizens and malicious comments/rumors. Does it get easier over time to deal with this obsessive analysis of your life or does it never really ebb away?

It will always bother you, but over time you learn to deal with it. You focus on it less and less and back on what you love doing. When I make my music or learn dance or do anything I love, I kind of forget about it. Just focus on your goals and dreams and everything else becomes background noise.

The music for “Lit” is, in my opinion, the best of 2020 so far. Can you tell me a little about your role as the executive producer and music director on this project? How did the concept come about?

I was very involved in the project. I oversaw a lot of things that happened and discussed with almost everyone on the team on how to achieve my vision. When I was making the song I was thinking about how do we share Chinese culture. I thought filming in an ancient palace would catch people’s attention. It took off from there when discussing with the director. We started adding more and more elements of Chinese culture. We were trying to tell the story of Xiang Yu, a warlord who rebelled against the mighty Qin Dynasty but wasn’t able to conquer China. I’m Xiang Yu, but I’m trying to change my fate and succeed in my goal.

You incorporated Chinese Peking Opera in the music video version of the track and visual elements of Peking Opera in the album art for “Jade”–What was the motivation behind that decision and is there a particular story that the opera section references?

I wanted to bring people back in time to ancient China. I reference the traditional Chinese story of Xiang Yu and his love, Concubine Yu, so then I added in select passages from the Peking Opera Farewell My Concubine which tells their tragic story.

You displayed your incredible skills in dancing in this music video and you recently talked about how dancing was a way for you to show the audience who you are. Did you feel a sense of relief that the audience can see you or understand you a bit better after the release of “Lit”? Can the audience ever truly understand an artist?

It feels good to know people can see me and understand me more. I don’t think people can ever understand an artist completely. But they can relate to many things. I think that is a challenge for an artist to see how they can use their music to connect with people. It is a worthy challenge.

How do you hope that the artist you are today crafts the Lay Zhang of tomorrow?

I always believe in working hard and improving. I hope that the Lay Zhang of tomorrow continues to keep looking for ways to improve his art. I hope he never gives up his dreams.

Last time we spoke, we talked about Asian traditions represented in global mainstream pop culture. Now as you’ve grown as a megastar, you are one of the leading names in pop filling that space, bringing your heritage to the stage. Why is it important for our generation to see ourselves and our histories represented on these platforms by artists?

It is important for people to remember where they come from. They should know their own history and how their culture came to be. Also, it lets other people know another culture and have a deeper understanding. It can stop miscommunication and it helps people be closer to each other.

Why do fans need to see themselves in an artist? Does it work the same on the other side, do you as an artist see yourself in your fans?

I want fans to be able to relate with an artist. It is important for a fan to see themselves in artist and an artist to see themselves in a fan. When you can see each other you are able to understand each other better. You can connect with each other and really feel things.

I absolutely love the ‘Re-Reaction’ videos you have been doing for years and it means a lot to your fans that you take the time to do it. Why did you want to do this series and what does it mean to you to be able to connect with your fans like this and see them react to your work?

I am curious to know what fans and people think of my work. I want to know where I can improve. I want to keep growing as an artist. But also I want to let my fans know that I am reading their comments and I see everything they say.

Other than releasing more music, what are the rest of your plans for 2020? Do you have any film projects that you’re looking at taking up or are you planning on doing something completely different?

I am busy filming a TV drama and a few reality TV shows for the rest of 2020. A very busy schedule.”

Photo links: 1, 2, 3, 4

Credit: Rolling Stone India.

#EXO #EXO M #Lay #200819 #exo im #exo m im #lay im #p:news #t:news #fs:rolling stone india #comeback:Obsession

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fyexo · 4 years ago

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200819 How Lay Zhang Claimed The Throne of M-pop

“’Lit’ continues to explore chasing your dream. This time it’s about more personal things in my life. Like hometown, family and self-doubt.” Photo: Courtesy of Zhang Yixing Studio

“I don’t think people can ever understand an artist completely. But they can relate to many things. I think that is a challenge for an artist to see how they can use their music to connect with people. It is a worthy challenge.” Photo: Courtesy of Zhang Yixing Studio

Lit is the first part of a series of EPs which will make a whole LP—why did you want to release it in this format and when did you begin working on the record?

How do you hope that the artist you are today crafts the Lay Zhang of tomorrow?

I always believe in working hard and improving. I hope that the Lay Zhang of tomorrow continues to keep looking for ways to improve his art. I hope he never gives up his dreams.

“I want to keep growing as an artist. But also I want to let my fans know that I am reading their comments and I see everything they say.” Photo: Courtesy of Zhang Yixing Studio

Why do fans need to see themselves in an artist? Does it work the same on the other side, do you as an artist see yourself in your fans?

I am busy filming a TV drama and a few reality TV shows for the rest of 2020. A very busy schedule.

Riddhi Chakraborty @ Rolling Stone India

#exo #lay #t: interview #album: lit

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tisthenightofthewitch · 6 years ago

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How Ghost became the face of the new generation of heavy metal

Pressure. Controversy. An army of haters. It seems like nothing can throw Ghost off-course. How Ghost's mastermind Tobias Forge took on the world… and won

Paris, tell me… did that make your asses wobble?” It sure as hell isn’t “Scream for me, Hammersmith!” but somehow, inexplicably, this flirty, moustached, makeup-splattered dandy wiggling about in a tux and leather gloves has 9,000 people in the palm of his hand like he’s Bruce Dickinson in ’86. Hammer is at hallmark gig venue Le Zenith in France’s capital city, witnessing Ghost deliver their latest sermon.

The City Of Love might be frozen solid on this chilly February evening, but the unstoppable Swedes are heating things up in style – fire, steam cannons, confetti, a dazzling light show and enough costume changes to make Lady Gaga dizzy are just some of the ingredients reaffirming their status as one of metal’s premier attractions in 2019.

It all makes a two-hour set fly by in no time, guided masterfully by that aforementioned, ’tache-donning Daddy. Cardinal Copia, Ghost’s Master Of Ceremonies, raised a few confused eyebrows when he was unveiled this time last year, breaking an eight-year streak of Papa Emerituses who’d fronted Ghost since its inception. But he’s since become the beating heart of a band that have continued to evolve, grow and adapt beyond all expectations.

He’s also a world away from the blue-eyed, slick-black-haired, quiet and thoughtful man we spent time with two hours earlier, dressed in jeans and a hoodie, decidedly sans-moustache and doing much less wiggling.

When Hammer last spoke to Tobias Forge, he’d recently (some may say forcefully) been outed as Ghost’s resident mastermind – its very own Wizard Of Oz, working behind the scenes and behind the mask to help orchestrate one of the most unlikely success stories of recent times.

We are creating a dynasty.

Soon after our last conversation, Ghost dropped their latest album, Prequelle – an instant classic stacked with playful menace and 80s-tinged pop-rock bangers – and have pretty much been on the road ever since.

“Hey, if you wanna rock, you gotta rock,” shrugs Tobias of his relentless schedule. “It takes a lot of effort, a lot of cogwheels spinning and turning, to make all this work.” He’s not kidding.

A weary roadie will later inform us that it takes almost four hours to pack up Ghost’s monstrous set each night – a towering, multi-platformed, chapel-esque set-up that recalls the kind of backdrops Maiden have made home for decades. “But, once you’ve got that whole machine rolling, you don’t wanna stop,” Tobias adds. “At some point, we will have to wind down a bit, but we’re not there yet.

If you wanna be comparative, look at all the big bands; even though they made it in a different time, statistically it takes five records, about 10 years, to go from nothing to something to something great.”

And that, right there, sums up Tobias Forge. The reason Ghost have been such a triumph isn’t because of great songs, a good live show and a savvy gimmick – metal history is littered with bands that never made it despite boasting all those things.

The difference is that Tobias is the man with the plan. He may not be the tortured artiste or swaggering hellraiser that rock’n’roll loves to stick on a pedestal, but he’s a leader: a brand ambassador with a calculating mind and a shrewd business acumen who knows exactly what needs to be done to immortalise Ghost’s legacy.

He’s playing the game, and he’s winning. And if you look hard enough, the seeds for it all were being sown right at the very start.

“You can find all the details in my record collection,” he says with a knowing smirk – and he’s not wrong. Before Cardinal Copia, there were Papa Emeritus I, II and III – a line of frontmen that not only enabled Ghost to set up a deep-running narrative, but change up the formula and the image for every album cycle. Sound familiar? It should – it’s what rock’n’roll superstars have been doing for decades.

"I’ve always been a big fan of Kiss,” he continues. “Most Kiss fans can tell the era [of the band] by the photo, what they’re wearing. You can say, ‘That is ’75, that is ’76, it’s in the spring, it’s in the fall, it’s Rock And Roll Over, it’s Destroyer.’ So I figured that in order for this band to age, we need to create dynasties.

"And that way, there’ll also be nostalgia. Because I come from a heavy metal background, I know how important nostalgia is, and the attention span nowadays is so short, so you need to create it quickly. You need people to be able to say, ‘I was there when this part happened.’ That’s why it was always Papa Emeritus I, right from the start.”

It’s a meticulous level of forward-thinking that has come up trumps, but amazingly, you’d have been hard-pushed to find anyone who’d have backed Tobias to carve such a path 10 years ago.

Before 2010, it was with respected Swedish death metallers Repugnant that the Linköping native had had his most ‘success’, his love of rock’s theatrical side flirted with via a splash of corpsepaint and a drop of fake blood here and there.

A spate of EPs and splits and one well-received album, 2006’s Epitome Of Darkness, ensured a small part in heavy metal folklore was guaranteed, but it was what happened next that changed everything.

Channelling his love of catchy NWOBHM mainstays like Angel Witch and Demon, Tobias wrote what would become Stand By Him – an irrepressible schlock-rock anthem a world away from the guttural noise of Epitome…

He called up former Repugnant bandmate Gustaf Lindström to help record it, and more songs quickly followed in the same, earwormy vein – “I’ve always liked the NWOBHM bands that had melody and pop sensibility,” he says today.

But there was still something missing. The songs Tobias was now writing were following a formula that had been laid down since the 70s. It needed something different. Something fun. Something… metal.

Deciding that this new project should carry an image that’d bring it a world away from its influences – a band that, in Tobias’s words, should “sound like Angel Witch but look like Death SS,” he began doodling some ideas. One scribble stuck – the image of a Pope-like character, plastered in ghoulish corpsepaint. Papa Emeritus was born.

I was 29 years old. I wasn't going to get another chance at this.

“And as soon as it was confirmed that he’s gonna be a Pope… well, when a Pope dies, you have a new one!” adds Tobias with a laugh. Soon after Papa I came the idea for the Nameless Ghouls – masked, anonymous backing musicians that’d add to the band’s hokey mystique.

By 2009, the project had an image, some songs and a name: Ghost. But it’d be a little while before things started to move forwards, and Tobias’s grand plan would take shape.

Between 2008 and 2009, there were maybe 20 people who knew about Ghost,” says Tobias, who ended up fronting the band through default after unsuccessfully offering the gig to a variety of names from around the metal scene.

“The guys in In Solitude, the guys in Tribulation, the guys in Watain… they were the only people who knew about it! But I knew at that point that it was gonna have the ability to turn heads, because it made everyone [excited].

"Repugnant were popular, but nothing I had ever done had had such an immediate impact on people. They were all like, ‘Ghost! I wanna hear more!’ I knew that there was gonna be some sort of buzz.”

A “buzz” is an understatement. When Ghost’s first songs were finally made public – on MySpace, no less – things began to move very, very quickly. Metal messageboards were set ablaze with excitement and offers came flooding in.

“I was quickly in touch with Will from Rise Above,” notes Tobias now, and he would eventually accept a deal with Lee Dorrian’s much-respected label. An album, Opus Eponymous, was recorded, and the metal underground waited with baited breath for its new favourite band to deliver on the hype. And yet, even at this stage, Tobias wasn’t totally certain just how far things would go.

“Originally, I thought that Ghost was gonna become more like a theatre/installation sort of band, like Sunn O))),” he reveals. “We would play Roadburn, arthouse concerts, five dates at the London Scala, that sort of thing.”

So a kind of ‘event’ band. You’d show up to play special shows and residencies.

“Exactly,” he confirms. “I never thought we would be the band that would play metal festivals, play in daylight, play with other bands.”

But then more offers started steaming in. Suddenly Ghost – with not so much as a gig to their name – were being asked to go on tours, play festivals and do interviews. For Tobias, there was a straight decision to be made: keep this project as a ‘cult attraction’, stay within the underground and become everyone’s favourite ‘Oh, you wouldn’t have heard of them’ reference point, or take a leap into the unknown and reach for greatness.

For a man that had spent years keeping a lid on his grand ambitions, now was the time to sink or swim. And, really, there was only ever going to be one option.

“I wasn’t gonna get another chance,” he states flatly. “I was already 29 years old at the time, so it was like, ‘This is the train and it’s leaving now.’ You can choose to stay, and sit there and fucking wonder all your life, or you can get on.”

Tobias got on the train, and it hasn’t stopped rolling. Opus Eponymous was released on October 18, 2010, and within three years intimate club shows became packed-out academy shows in front of 5,000 people, and soon after that the band could be seen supporting everyone from Metallica to Foo Fighters to Iron Maiden.

They won a Grammy for Cirice (and have been nominated for two more); they’ve been championed by everyone from James Hetfield to Phil Anselmo; their merch has become obscenely big business, t-shirts selling out in no time at gigs (including the show Hammer attends tonight) and the Ghost IP being plastered across everything from baubles to butt plugs to custom plague masks.

Tobias has manoeuvred that quick sketch of a spooky lad in a Pope hat into a machine Gene Simmons would be proud of, all underpinned by a storyline that has fans salivating as they wait for the next chapter to be revealed.

And if there was any doubt that this is still very much Tobias’s baby, you need only look at the casualty list littered with names that have crossed him. There are the disgruntled ex-bandmates who attempted to bring a lawsuit against Tobias in 2017 after claiming they were denied their rightful share of the Ghost pot.

The lawsuit was thrown out in October last year, his former colleagues ordered to pay Tobias’s legal costs (around $145,000, if you’re counting). There was also the Sister Imperator incident, where the elderly Ghost matriarch and star of their ongoing vignette series had to be swiftly recast after a mysterious falling out.

“All of a sudden, you’ve an actress who decides to start making fucking trouble and makes herself unemployable,” Tobias says. “Well, then you have to do what they do in any soap opera… a car accident.” That’s not allegorical, by the way.

Tobias literally had a new vignette made revealing that the Sister was in a car wreck and needed reconstructive surgery. The new actress was brought in so smoothly that many Ghost fans assumed it was the same person with a different haircut. How’s that for efficient?

“That’s how you solve things,” the frontman shrugs. “But that was not planned at first, because we’d been working with the same actress for three years, and then all of a sudden, things fell apart. But, you have to roll with the punch, you have to bite your finger, and come up with another plan… car accident. Boom.”

That Tobias won’t be moved on what actually happened between he and the original actress is understandable – after all, this is a man that spent years holding his cards close to his chest.

That this all managed to play out under the noses of one of modern metal’s most fanatical fanbases, however, is pretty damn impressive. Basically: don’t cross the boss.

While Tobias’s masterplan may seem iron-clad, he will at least admit that there is room for fine-tweaking along the way. He recently revealed that Cardinal Copia’s character could stick around for another five years and multiple albums – a first for Ghost, who have thus far changed up their protagonist for every record.

“That’s just because of the potential of him being a ‘Pope’ or a Papa Emeritus IV,” he explains, before adding: “If he becomes a Papa Emeritus.”

So there could be multiple endings planned for Cardi C?

“Absolutely. All of this is an organic movement, and that is one of the biggest paradoxes for me, as a control freak. To be part of this living world, I can’t control everything. I can control a lot, and I can influence a lot, but I can’t control it [all]. And coming to terms with those things and accepting that is a big struggle for me.”

He’ll also admit that being the mastermind behind a machine as big and ever-evolving as Ghost has had a serious impact on his personal life. Being a part of a successful band is one thing, but having that success rest almost entirely on your shoulders is something altogether different.

“It’s very hard to do this without any casualties,” he muses. “It takes a toll on your surroundings, your crew, your parents, your children… I have two kids, 10 years old. They were toddlers when this whole thing started. My family’s had to endure a lot for this to happen.”

He’s also had to face up to the reality that being in a big rock band means you’re going to attract the attention of

a fair few haters – and Ghost have an army of them. Check out Hammer’s Facebook page to see the dizzying levels of vitriol that a post about Ghost will attract. Recurring issues seem to be accusations of selling out, anger at Tobias’s treatment of his former bandmates and, most commonly, whether Ghost belong in our world at all (and to be fair, you’d be hard-pushed to describe Prequelle as a true heavy metal record by any standards).

“I’ve noticed it,” says Tobias. “I noticed it in the beginning. I think that it’s the same old discussion. ‘Is Ghost a metal band?’ ‘Are we a clone of Mercyful Fate?’ It’s the same old thing. But now these people are saying the new record is not as good because it’s not as much of a clone of Mercyful Fate! OK…”

Why do you think Ghost wind people up so much?

“Because we are ever-present, all the time. We are being shoved into people’s faces, and we’re rubbing it in. They wouldn’t talk about us had we not been successful. Does it worry me? Not really. If they’re talking shit about me, that’s one thing, especially if it’s someone that I know. That can hurt me deeply. When you’re at the beginning of your career, especially nowadays, you spend a lot of time surveying what’s going on, because you need to feed off anything that’s happening to the band. So I noticed there was a lot of ‘controversy’, a lot of mixed opinions. It’s surprising they don’t understand that the more they talk about us, the more traffic there is about our band. More than we would have had had they not spoken!”

Once again, it’s there: the unnerving feeling that Tobias is metal’s modern-day puppet master, pulling the strings above a performance that we all continue to play our parts in. Whether it’s the media, his fans, his critics or the few who have attempted to foil him, everything only ever seems to play into his hands, and the Ghost train rolls on.

“A few months ago, based on metadata alone, a website made a list

of the biggest bands in metal,” Tobias reveals as a PR informs us our time together is up. “We were number four! Right up there. And that’s thanks to these people that keep on fucking hating. So I have nothing but great feelings for them.”

He makes to leave before adding: “That’s how all these bands made their careers. You think Lars would shy away every time people would talk shit about Metallica? Fuck. That.”

Hated, adored but never ignored. This summer, Ghost will play in front of stadium crowds with Metallica once again – something Tobias calls a “PR exercise” – before more global dates and, eventually, a new album that’ll reveal the next chapter of his grand plan. You can imagine that people will have plenty to say about it. And you can imagine that Tobias Forge is going to relish every second.

ALL RIGHTS OWNED BY METAL HAMMER

#The Band Ghost #Ghost Band #Cardinal Copia #Nameless Ghouls #Tobias Forge

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huntersden · 6 years ago

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Unfinished Business

The quiteness of the home was deafening, if one listened. The sounds of servents moving about, getting whatever it was ready, missing. The sound of small children playing, with either their toys or each other, missing. In fact, any sounds that one would normally find within a home during Winter Veil were absent. The only sounds were that of claws on bare flooring, the wood groaning as a heavy weight passed over. The individual that sat in one of the richly crafted chairs in the room thought back to how this night started....

"I'll be back before morning kitten." Nastrian replied to Ayrai as he finished tightening the straps for his armor. "Just a small errand to run in Silvermoon." Finishing with his armor, he picked up his bow, giving it the once over as he headed towards the door. "And no, you don't need to come with me." he added as he stopped and looked at her, her mouth closing as he answered her question. "Besides, makes getting your gift a bit difficult with you with me." He smiled as he came back to her, his free hand resting on her shoulder. "Just relax love. Before we know it, we're gonna want just a day to ourselves to do nothing." His eyes dropping to her growing stomach. Planting a quick kiss on her cheek he added "I'll probably stop in at the Estate on the way back, just to let them know we're still in one piece and are enjoying our relaxation." Ayrai stood there, looking up at him, giving him that look. The look of I'll believe it when I see it. She finally shooed him out, threatening him with sleeping out on the balcony if he came home saying he needed to go because someone asked him to do a mission.

The trip to Silvermoon was quick and uneventful, not that many of the Alliance would have made it this close to the Sin'dorei captial, but one couldn't be too careless these days. Upon his arrival in the city, he set about finishing up the few tasks that needed to be done in order to conclude his business this day. By mid-afternoon, all was in ready. Gathering his tools, and supplies, Nastrian set out upon the task.

The home was located in the wealthier section of Silvermoon, a small wall enclosing it and three guards patrolling it's perimeter. Getting past the guards was easy, as they were there to scare away any kind of robber, not someone determined to get in. The animal guards were just as easy. The mystic ward that they had placed around the house was a bit trickier, but he had the time and more importantly, the gold, to by-pass that aspect too. The few servants would be dealt with easily, some sleep potion and they would sleep away the next day, none the wiser as to what took place.

The slight moan and tussle as someone slowly came back to consciousness brought him back to the here and now. Turning his head, he gazed over to where he had left them. Bound, on the floor in front of the living rooms fireplace. Nastrian watched as the man tested the bonds that held him as he gazed about, his eyes quickly finding his mate, also bound, and their two children. The man's eyes continued scanning the room, trying to discover if they were alone or not. "Don't bother." Nastrian finally said, rising from the chair and stepping towards the bound group. "You won't be getting out of those bonds on your own." Nastrian stopped and knelt down, letting the man finally get a good look at him. The man's eyes showed his shock and confussion. "What's the meaning of this? Let us go and I won't.." "Shut up." Nastrian snapped, his voice like a whip. "You aren't in any position to make any demands. Oh.. " Nastrian turned his head slightly to gaze at the other man. "Your new "limbs" as they were, won't be of any help either. Right now, both are just hunks of useless metal." Both men now stared at him, the growing hatered in their eyes plain to see. That was when the threats really begin. The promises to hunt him down and kill him, to hunt those that he cared for. To destroy him. "Are you both done now?" Nastrian asked after a short time. "You both seem to think that you'll get out of this alive. That you'll get to chance to carry through on anything you just promised. Let me make this clear, there will not be a living soul left in this room when I leave. You two had your chance, and you pissed it away. You spit in the faces of those that gave you place, a home. You only cared about yourselves, and what our order could do for you. You acted like you two pathetic excuses of flesh were the sole reason the order was made and existed, for your amusement. When things didn't go your way, you acted like spoiled brats, throwing a tantrum. That everyone had to follow your word, because you thought you were somehow imporant." Nastrian spat out the last word like a curse. "I'm here to correct a mistake that was made. For the betterment of the Order." It was then that both men started struggling harder, trying to break the bonds that held them. Their curses and threats following Nastrian as he stood and walked towards the two sleeping children. Both men fell silent as Nastrian knelt by the small forms. "Please, leave them alone. Neither have anything to do with this, they're inn..." "They have everything to do with this." Nastrian stated coldly. "They matter.." he looked from the child to the men. ".. because you care." With a slow, praticed ease, Nastrian slide his knife from it's sheath, and never taking his eyes from either man, slide the blade into the chest of first one, then the other, child. Nastrian watched as the act sunk into the brains of each man, how their muscles strained to brake free. To attack, to kill him. Wiping the blade clean on the clothes on one child before returning it to his belt, Nastrian stood and watched for a moment more as the two struggled. Returning to the chair, he sat once again, waiting for the two to tire. It didn't take as long as he expected for the two to finally cease their struggles. Both men heaving as they worked to catch their breaths. "Now, I believe it's time to put this piece of history to rest. I'm sure one of your servants will find you all within the next day or so, or maybe they won't.. either way, neither of you will have to worry." Standing, he walked over to the two, pulling a small needle out. Nastrian looked at the needle and then the two. "Better then either of you deserve, but alas, one must make do. A little prick, and you'll just drift off, never to wake again." Moving swiftly, Nastrian stuck each man in the neck, a small prick and it was done. Turning his back, he begin moving towards the chair when he stopped and turned back around. "Oh dear, I think I grabbed the wrong one." He watched as, on each man, where the needle had struck, the flesh slowly began to be consumed. "Looks like I lied, your deaths are going to be very painful, and very slow in coming. Guess I better get comfortable," Nastrian stated as he sat. "I could be here awhile."

Viari Estates

Later that night, a bag was dropped off, addressed to Fey. Within were two metal limbs, an arm and leg. Both looked familiar. Attached to the arm was a simple note. "Shadethorne is no more."

He slowly opened the door to their home, watching to see which of the three cubs would be the first to try and make a break for the lower level. It was Ayrai's voice that reached him first. "It's safe wolfie. The cubs are sleeping." She was just reaching the door as he entered, her arms wrapping around him, welcoming him home. "Everything go ok?" "Everything was fine kitten. Got what I need and came home." Nastrian answered as he returned the embrace.

Soft mention to @bloody-loyalties and @arrows-and-glitter

#Nastrian's thinking

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chicagoindiecritics · 5 years ago

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New from Every Movie Has a Lesson by Don Shanahan: COLUMN: The 10 Best Movies of 2019

Before talking about this year-end best list from one of the most back-loaded ones in recent memory, reflection is needed and a deep breath for the next decade to come. I am forever proud of what I do. I wouldn’t chase all the press opportunities and commit the time into it if I didn’t. In 2019, a great deal of change came to me and this website of mine this past year. I am forever proud of what I do.

The critics group I helped found and co-direct, the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle, rebranded into Chicago Indie Critics. We celebrate our fourth annual awards this week and our industry reach and reputation grows every year. Best of all, it’s a pleasure to count my peers there as friends in the press row trenches. It’s nice to share smiles and handshakes at every screening I can.

Speaking of professional standings, I answered a call for writers and began contributing for another website this year. Since June, I’ve been providing film reviews for 25YL, short for 25 Years Later. Founded by Andrew Grevas, what started as a Twin Peaks tribute site has turned into “all your obsession in one place” to cover a wide range of entertainment. I became their first Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic and have greatly enjoyed the new audience, increased exposure, and a chance to be a part of a bigger thing.

Here on Every Movie Has a Lesson, this was the first year the site has featured monetized ads. I’m no longer doing all this for free, so thank you for dealing with the visual noise to help pay the bills. Also, my site has been open to guest writers looking to get published. I was honored to help an astounding 44 writers get their work seen in 2019, including 21 Washington State University architecture graduate students with their movie-centered essays. This school teacher couldn’t resist helping folks and I’ve enjoyed their content and contributions.

Alright, let’s get to the scoreboard. In all, I published “only” 94 film reviews in 2019, which is plenty, but down from 110 last year and my high mark of 126 in 2017. I saw a dozen and a half more, but full-time school teachers, husbands, and dads like me only have so much free time to put 1000 words down every time. Work-life balance, so to speak, is always a challenge, one that I aim to do better in the life direction. No matter, I think I’ve got 2019 figured out. Here are my picks for the ten best films of the year accompanied by, as always and true to my site’s namesake niche, their best life lesson:

THE 10 BEST MOVIES OF 2019 AND THEIR LESSONS

1. 1917

Full Review

I’m going to sound like an Olympic figure skating judge, but no film received higher technical marks on my scorecard in 2019 than Sam Mendes’ harrowing war thriller. At the same time the filmmaking prowess captivated me, I was overwhelmingly swept up by the human elements as well creating a complete experience. Most people haven’t seen it yet and I cannot wait until you do.

BEST LESSON: WAR MUST BE ENDURED— All of those World War I combatants from over a century ago, including a family member of the Mendes lineage named in tribute during the end credits, may not be distinctly special or flush with a mythic history of certain destiny. Yet, what they endured was shattering and strengthening at the same time. The draw to see summoned bravery and weatherd tragedy in conflict will always be hugely magnetic. Rising with ambitious scale and a colossal level of enthrallment, 1917 will join cinema’s greatest exemplars of such captivation.

2. Little Women

Full Review

Greta Gerwig took Louisa May Alcott’s seminal novel, something that could have easily been stiff and stale, and brought new spirit to it. Yet, in doing so, she didn’t force anything. She didn’t shove showy modernity into faces, just for the sake of doing so. Her Little Women is a mainstream PG rarity. The spirit she, the cast, and the artists brought was genuine, sumptuous, and vivacious. What a marvelous achievement!

BEST LESSON: THE STRENGTH OF FAMILIAL LOVE — To borrow this time from the Greeks and a dollop of The Bible instead of the Fab Four, the level of “storge” love in this saga is exquisite. When family is in need, the annoyances and competitiveness of these sisters go away and bonds are renewed. As they say in the dialogue, “life is too short to be angry at sisters.” Once again, thanks to Gerwig’s tonal choices, you see it, plain as day, in the way the cast in character interacts. The emotional wreckage that results is incredibly genuine.

3. Marriage Story

Full Review

Neck and neck with Little Women comes the Netflix drama with the courage to bare truths from the maddening and draining process that is divorce. Thanks to dynamite and Oscar-worthy lead performances from Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, heartstrings are plucked, tightened, and unraveled by Noah Baumbach’s deeply personal tale of resiliency.

BEST LESSON: WHAT WOULD YOU DO? — It is impossible to watch this movie and not have it be a barometer check towards your own relationship status and integrity. Regardless how much yearning desire floats every now and then in Marriage Story, this trauma recovery. Normally in movies like this, we see the indiscretion itself, then the collapse, ink hitting paper, and maybe a gavel banging for a suspenseful decision. Few films go in between and beyond those decision points to show the fractured orbits and restarts of continuing life with heart and honesty. There is blame to be shared, but you feel for both leads and wonder about yourself externally. That is a substantially powerful effect of this film.

4. Luce

Full Review

Until the awards season parade of November and December releases arrived, this was my #1 in the clubhouse coming out of the fall. Even though this is a wildly fictious morality play stretched into the settings of cinema, this movie gave me, the school teacher, a jaw-dropping heart attack. Between Luce and Waves, you need to keep an eye on Kelvin Harrison, Jr., a certain star for this new decade.

BEST LESSON: VENDETTAS ARE PROBLEMATIC — Simmering behind classroom smiles, what the mounting drama of Luce becomes is a straight-up vendetta, one between teacher and student. The bloodless lines of bitterness fortify to hurt people and force chosen sides. This is a saint versus a monster, with little middle, and a guessing game of which one is really which. It’s a battle the actors sell without flaw.

5. Parasite

Full Review

I was better late than never to this party for the most talked about niche film of the year. Leave it to a foreign director in the form of Korean Bong Joon-ho to blow our American minds with the sharpest social commentary of a film this year. Parasite’s bottle film suspense comes from the smartest and most cunning premise and screenplay of the year. Subtitle-haters, get over your hangup and see this movie.

BEST LESSON: THE DEFINITION OF “PARASITE”— When you dig into this title (as it digs into you), three variations of meaning present themselves:

an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment.

a person who receives support, advantage, or the like, from another or others without giving any useful or proper return, as one who lives on the hospitality of others.

(in ancient Greece) a person who received free meals in return for amusing or impudent conversation, flattering remarks, etc.

You read those definitions and wonder, gosh, which one of the three will this buzzed-about Korean film seize or probe. Big or small, any one of them could take a toll. The staggering thing is, with many flourishes, Parasite, is all damn three of them, in twisted and overwhelming fashion.

6. The Peanut Butter Falcon

Full Review

The Peanut Butter Falcon was one of a few “Little Engines That Could For Me” this year. I couldn’t be more pleased that this labor of love and offbeat road movie, starring Zach Gottshagen and Shia LeBeouf, has been able to find a sizable audience. There’s always one movie a year that becomes my top casual recommendation when people ask me for something that haven’t heard of that is simply a good time. This is the one for 2019. This is independent filmmaking done right.

BEST LESSON: HAVE A GOOD STORY TO TELL WHEN YOU DIE — The Peanut Butter Falcon doesn’t just tell a good story. It tells a great one worthy of attention, praise, and undying appreciation. The purifying freedom that churns throughout this movie could cultivate even the most barren heart. This little lovable film is the kind of experience that makes one rethink how their own story is going. That is a mighty, motivating accomplishment for something that couldn’t stand out more from the usual summer blockbuster fare.

7. The Farewell

Full Review

Plenty of critics like myself (though I try so often to say it other ways) will use the expression “through the wringer” often when it comes to weathering difficult or excitable experiences at the movies. Well, no movie executed that as many ways this past year than Lulu Wang’s family dramedy. It’s got the comedic peaks and the dramatic ones that both crush with frank honesty and genuine love. The premise of this movie is the curveball of curveballs.

BEST LESSON: COULD YOU DO THIS WITHIN YOUR OWN FAMILY? — The crux of The Farewell makes for several of those soul-searching quiz questions every viewer must ask themselves in a film plot as specific as this one. Should, or even could, you carry on like this? To do so would be illegal in the U.S. Can you justify your position? How long could you live with or act out what everyone calls a “good lie?” Is there even such a thing? In this culture, it is characterized as the family carrying the emotional burden for the dying. Sure, but if you’re helping them, who’s healing your internal injuries of the heart living with that weight? How you answer these will inform your connection to this film straightaway.

8. Joker

Full Review

I found what has stood to be become the most polarizing movie of the year to be one of the year’s best. Go ahead and judge me. Called a masterpiece by some and trash by others, I fall definitely on the high end with this maniacal comic book tangent. Joaquin Phoenix was too good to ignore. On every level, I admire the sheer cajones of this blockbuster to pulverize us with kitchen sinks filled with cajones and questions.

BEST LESSON: THE DEFINITION OF “GALL” — According to Dictionary.com, the four possible meanings of the noun span impudence, severity, bitterness of spirit, and rancor. To saunter a little cruder, which is fitting for the movie in play, the Urban Dictionary defines the word as audacity, balls, or something risky. Hot damn, Joker is each one of those descriptors from both sources and then some.

9. Jojo Rabbit

Full Review

Yes, it is categorically crazy to reach a point of embracing a movie about Nazis, but leave it to Taika Waititi to pull it off. He imbues enough heart into this satire to present a transformation of wrongs into rights that is entertaining and affecting in its own way. The filmmaker said he was making a movie of hope and love that could echo into our own present times. He did that with infinite panache without sacrificing hard reality.

BEST LESSON: WHEN ACTUALITY HITS — Using the word “reality” in this comical setting is leaping too far. Stick with actuality instead and just look at the objects and actions. Knives hurt people. Grenades explode. Soldiers die. War destroys. Germans are fallible. Jews are regular people too. When the wrongs and horrors of war arrive, the movie shifts. Jojo Rabbit swells and elevates beyond farce with this actuality.

10. Knives Out

Full Review

This will sound poster-quote cliche like that “wringer” sentiment over in The Farewell at #7, but Knives Out was flat-out the most entertaining film of the year for me. To name-drop a film lower down the list, the second most entertaining and surprising one was The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot at #13. Back ti Knives Out, my review says it all deeper and better than cliches, but Rian Johnson absolutely nailed subverting the murder mystery blueprint to create pitfalls of depravity and delight. Everyone involved is clearly having a blast and we do too.

BEST LESSON: HOW TO SUBVERT AN ENTIRE GENRE — The trope-filled mechanics of most murder mysteries create an antagonist while Knives Out has you pining for the killer instead. In flipping the rooting interests from the pursuing authorities to the identified perpetrator, the dexterous filmmaker shifted goals and bolstered energy to a different gear. Where the typical pulse rate of this kind of story opens and ends with a bang between a tedious, saggy middle, Knives Out is all about that rich center. What an equally delectable and sinful treat it is!

SPECIAL MENTION: Apollo 11

Full Review

I don’t see as many documentaries as I should, and I don’t find it completely fair ranking them alongside feature narratives that have completely different purposes, crafts, and objectives. That said, the argument can be had that Apollo 11 was the best thing to touch a silver screen this year, no matter the discipline and genre. Edited like a bullet from thousands of hours of content and tuned to IMAX perfection, this chronicle of the first lunar landing mission was incredible in every facet. I’ll be the school teacher that sees every science student in the country needs to see this documentary.

THE NEXT 10:

11. Clara

12. Booksmart

13. The Man Who Killed Hitler and then The Bigfoot

14. Us

15. Uncut Gems

16. The Two Popes

17. Waves

18. Ford v Ferrari

19. Ad Astra

20. Wild Rose

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morningusa · 5 years ago

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Impeachment is shaping up as unpredictably explosive, but not in the way imagined.There are lots of things that we do know about the present impeachment of Donald Trump — and we know that there are even more areas that remain unknown.Quietly, the approval ratings of Trump have been rising to pre-impeachment levels and are nearing a RealClearPolitics average of 45. Support for impeaching Trump and/or removing him is not increasing as the House Democrats expected. It is essentially static, or slowly eroding, depending on how polls phrase such questions.Apparently, an exhausted public did not see “Ukrainian” impeachment as a one-off national crisis akin to the Nixon inquiry and the Clinton impeachment and trial that merited national attention. The impeachment vote instead is being confirmed in the public mind as part of a now boring three-year impeachment psychodrama (from impeachment 1.0, the Logan Act, the emoluments clause, the 25th Amendment, and Michael Avenatti/Stormy Daniels comedies to Robert Mueller’s “dream team” and “all-stars”). The progressive logic of the current jump-the-shark monotony is to become even more monotonous, the way that a driller leans ever harder on his dull and chipping bit as his bore becomes static.The Democrats believed that all of these efforts would be like small cuts, each one perhaps minor but all combining to bleed Trump out. But now we know, given polling data and the strong Trump economy, that the long odyssey to impeachment has had almost no effect on Trump’s popularity, other than losing him 3–4 points for a few weeks as periodic media “bombshells” went off.The reality may be the very opposite of what Democrats planned. The more the Left tries to abort the Trump presidency before the election, the more it bleeds from each of its own inflicted nicks. As an example, Rachel Maddow’s reputation has not been enhanced by her neurotic assertions that Trump’s tax returns would soon appear, or that the Steele dossier was steadily gaining credibility, or that yet another tell-tale Russian colluder had emerged from under another American bed.The past three years of Trump mania did not induce a recession, despite last summer’s sudden hysteria that “recession” was on the horizon. It is hard to envision a looming recession when real wages of workers continue to rise, unemployment is at historic lows, U.S. energy production is at record highs, inflation is low, interest rates are manageable, and growth is moderate but steady. We collectively have an appointment with the staggering national debt and stock-market exuberance, but probably not until after 2020. And the Left has completely nullified that issue by proposing trillions of dollars in new spending.For now, the Democrats in extremis have redefined impeachment for the first time in American history as a Sword of Damocles, now permanently hanging by a horse’s hair over Trump’s head. Impeachment is being reinvented as way of presidential life that will supposedly impale Trump one day or at least constrain him, as occasional additional writs are added on, as the polls, media, and Democratic fancy dictate. Nancy Pelosi has rewritten the U.S. Constitution after reading a few op-eds by Trump-hating academics. Most Americans accept that if the Republican Congress had tried the same with Barack Obama (at a time when just wearing an Obama mask got a rodeo clown fired for life from a state fair), we would have had a revolution.Most presidents need 50 percent approval ratings in the lead-up to a reelection bid to win another four years. But Trump, who won the election without 50 percent approval, may not. He is polling now not far from where Obama was while on his trajectory to reelection in 2012, and his approval is about what it was at the time of his own election victory in 2016.The Left remains scared that the polls, which seemed accurate in the midterm elections when Trump was not on the ballot, may not be accurate in 2020. The flawed analytics on election eve 2016 remain a terrifying specter. Democrats fear that few who voted for Trump in 2020 will defect and that some who did not vote for Trump will approve of the economy and change their minds this November. All irony is lost on the Left that their four-year-long climate of MAGA intolerance and contempt for the deplorables, irredeemables, clingers, crazies, the so-called toothless, and Joe Biden’s dregs may well have polluted their own polls.It is not just anger at the Left or a wish to avoid confrontations that camouflages Trump support. The existential hatred of Donald Trump is such that average Americans may not wish to accurately express their support even anonymously to pollsters either by phone or on computers. There are recent widespread (and increasingly legitimate) fears of electronic data mining and the compilation of information that might later be used against respondents (what was once considered quite paranoid is no longer so, given revelations about the ethos of Silicon Valley). Plenty of Americans don’t think it's wise to honestly answer, whether in a phone conversation or by text, an anonymous pollster asking about opinions on Trump.In addition, the odium among the Left is so pernicious and so ubiquitous that the surveyors themselves may pollute the very taking of polls. Pollsters know that massaging polls creates momentum for media stories about Trump’s “unpopularity” and the “erosion” in his support. Thus in theory a few true believers could warp, within limits, their own data, in service to a noble cause. When the Hill/Harris and the USA/Suffolk polls have a two-point gap between Trump’s approval and disapproval, while Politico has him down 15 points, something seems to the public haywire somewhere.No one knows the effect that the Horowitz report, following the Mueller-investigation dud, is having on the credibility of the mainstream media — so far, the great force multiplier of the abort-Trump Left. It may be that we are nearing the point at which “bombshells” and “walls are closing in” are little more than soap bubbles. Certainly, the public was lied to about the “Steele dossier” and the “Schiff memo,” to the point that the media may soon be not a catalyst but a retardant of the Left, a smelly albatross around its collective neck. The Durham investigations are not yet in, and the fate of Brennan, Clapper, Comey, and McCabe may make Horowitz’s damning report seem tame. What would happen if paid TV analysts got indicted after predicting that everyone who was innocent would go to jail?We are living in bizarre times -- the rhetoric of Trump hatred is nearing its logical end, and scant further popular animus can be expressed beyond smashing his face, shooting him, burning him up, or blowing up the White House, and no further political venom voiced than urging progressives to surround Trump officials and harass them at restaurants and stores.Many who voted for Trump were quite aware that Trump’s rhetoric often bothered them. They now weigh that discomfort against his achievements and the shrill Democratic alternative — and find the latter far scarier. Few on the left ever contemplate the effect on the general public of the 24/7, 360-degree pure hatred of Trump on network and cable news, public TV and radio, and late-night TV talk shows, as well as print media. The silent disdain many people have for the progressive media nexus is especially potent when the haters so often fit a stereotypical profile in the public mind: counterfeit elite as defined by education, zip codes, careers, or supposed cultural influence; smug in their parrot-like group-speak and accustomed to deference.This paradox was brought home to me not long ago when I asked an unlikely Trump minority supporter why in the world he would vote against his family’s and community’s political heritage. He answered at once, with simply, “I hate the people who hate him.”Translated, I think that means we often are missing a cultural element to Trump Agonistes, exacerbated by the latest toxic impeachment episode.Again, millions of Americans actually leave Trump per se out of their voting equations. They do not give him full credit for a remarkable economy and an unorthodox foreign policy that is addressing China, Iran, and the Middle East in a way many once advocated but few seriously believed would ever be enacted.Instead, voters are exhausted by his haters and their crazy agendas. They grow enraged over how the Mueller and Horowitz investigatory reports have disproved all the daily media, celebrity, and political assertions. And they are upset about the larger culture of the anti-Trump Left, from the fundamentals of open borders and identity politics to the trivia of transgendered athletes, Colin Kaepernickism, and the open-border, Green New Deal socialism. An auto worker who votes as a true-blue union Democrat but likes Trump’s trade policies, a no-nonsense farmer who worries about farm exports but likes deregulation, and a teacher who votes a liberal slate but has no way to control his classroom may not seem like Trump voters, but some such voters are terrified by the cultural trajectory of what the Trump-hating Left has in store for them all.For a majority, refined and arrogant progressive mendaciousness voiced in condescending nasal tones has become far more repugnant than all-American hype in a Queens accent.* * *National Review Institute (NRI) is the nonprofit 501(c)(3) journalistic think tank that supports the NR mission and 14 NRI fellows (including this author!), allowing them to do what they do best: Advance principled and practical conservative journalism. NRI is currently in the midst of its End-of-Year Fund Appeal and seeks to raise over $200,000 to support the work of the NRI fellows. Please consider giving a generous end-of-year tax-deductible contribution to NRI. Your gift, along with all those from the NR Nation, will provide the essential fuel for our mission to defend those consequential principles for which National Review has fought since 1955, and for which, with your support, it will carry the fight far into the future. Thank you for your consideration.

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attredd · 5 years ago

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bharatiyamedia-blog · 5 years ago

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Darkish Phoenix — Michael Fassbender on how he traced again Magneto's enmity to his traumatic past- Leisure Information, Firstpost

http://tinyurl.com/y63vu7vt Just lately, Thor author Zack Stentz revealed that when Marvel was present process a disaster of underwhelming antagonists a decade in the past, the studio requested him to “give them a villain as good as Magneto”. Enter: Loki in The Avengers, one of the vital appreciated baddies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Clearly, the enduring X-Males villain Magneto was the benchmark for tremendous villains throughout the board. The character, created by Stan Lee and designed by Jack Kirby, was first launched within the comedian The X-Males #1 again in 1963. Sir Ian McKellen infused new life into the character when he took to his cape and helmet in Bryan Singer’s 2001 movie X-Males. Pitted towards Patrick Stewart’s Professor X, McKellen performed Magneto like a menacing villain decided to eradicate the human race. Nevertheless, in some scenes when he interacted with Charles Xavier, McKellen’s Magneto revealed a weak facet that hinted at a previous that pressured him up towards a wall. Michael Fassbender as Magneto. Picture from Twitter When Michael Fassbender took on the function in Matthew Vaughn’s origin movie X-Males: First Class, he signed up for a double whammy. He not solely needed to step into the footwear of an antagonist made common by a seasoned actor, but in addition needed to additionally penetrate the layers of mystique that Magneto was buried beneath. He needed to decode the unhealthy man and in addition pose his means in its place route in direction of precisely what his friend-turned-nemesis Professor X had got down to obtain — the survival of the mutantkind. “I relied closely on the supply materials given to me. By way of Eric’s (Magneto) previous, one bought to know why he did what he did, and why he needed to get rid of the people. What occurred to him justifies his means to an finish, that separate him from his longtime good friend and rival Charles Xavier. There’s a wealthy and traumatic historical past to his childhood, which explains the place his resentment in direction of the human race comes from,” says Michael Fassbender, in an interview to Firspost in the course of the X-Males: Darkish Phoenix promotional tour in Seoul, South Korea. “Ian McKellen is without doubt one of the biggest actors we had. I had the honour of assembly him in the course of the capturing of Days of Future Previous,” says Fassbener, whereas including that he was utterly conscious that he couldn’t strategy Magneto the identical approach McKellen did. Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender Fassbender’s Magneto was not launched as a conqueror who needed to determine the supremacy of the “homio superiors”. He was projected as a sufferer of disfranchisement, owing to the Nazi rise to energy in his childhood and subsequently, owing to the racial discrimination towards mutants in his maturity. Having misplaced his household to a violent mob of mutant-haters, Magneto advanced into an avenging, relentless chief, hell bent on enslaving mankind. “In First Class, Charles helped Erik turn into Magneto. In Days of Future Previous, he was a terrorist and a prisoner. In Apocalypse, he was extra of a household man. And in Dark Phoenix, he has fashioned Genosha, a retreat inhabited by mutants away from the interference of human management.” Whereas his ideology has remained the identical, Magneto has taken to a extra passive function, and returns to his ferocious self solely publish a set off. The ‘set off level’, Fassbender believes, has been completely different within the 4 movies he has performed Magneto. McKellen’s Magneto acted as a continuing drive towards mankind regardless of how a lot blood was at stake, however after he helps reverse the chain of occasions that led to mutant persecution in X-Males: Days of Future Previous, he makes approach for a extra humane Magneto. Actually, Genosha symbolises the way of thinking Magneto is in after the occasions of Apocalypse. His solely purpose is to take care of sovereignty as he abstains from hurting folks extra. “I’ve damage and killed folks all my life. However after some extent, it did not do any good to me. So I ended,” Fassbener’s Magneto tells Sophie Turner’s Jean Gray in X-Males: Darkish Phoenix. Michael Fassbender in a nonetheless from X-Males: Darkish Phoenix However because the movie progresses, Magneto encounters yet one more ‘set off level’ that forces him to renew his path of destruction. “In Darkish Phoenix, Magneto turns into a cult chief in Genosha. However when he will get the information of an outdated good friend’s loss of life, his outdated testomony of revenge takes over. In his thoughts, he does probably not have an possibility however to avenge his good friend’s loss of life,” says Fassbender, explaining that like in each instalment up to now, what propels Magneto to combat one in all his personal is the loss of life of one in all his personal. “He is actually a personality of contradictions inside himself. However on this movie, all of them (X-Males) are scuffling with their very own conflicts, Jean specifically,” including that he was mildly jealous of Sophie’s character, because it was not solely him inflicting all the difficulty within the remaining instalment of the X-Males franchise. Essentially the most fascinating a part of his character, in addition to representing the “people who find themselves on the outskirts of society”, is the connection he shares with Charles Xavier. X-Males: Darkish Phoenix, in reality, exposes a extra controlling facet of Xavier throughout his confrontation with Jean, Mystique and Beast. “Charles’ vainness and ego is one thing that James (McAvoy) type of launched in First Class. It wasn’t of nice consequence again then but it surely’s cool that he did it again then. As a result of the seeds of Darkish Phoenix have been actually planted then earlier than it got here into full bloom on this episode. In Darkish Phoenix, Charles turns into extra of a politician-type determine.” Michael Fassbender as Magneto and James McAvoy as Charles Xavier in a nonetheless from X-Males: First Class The diplomacy, with shades of vainness, is a latent high quality of Charles that Magneto at all times recognised and warned him towards. In Darkish Phoenix, Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique accuses Charles of harbouring a egocentric streak and placing his fellow mutants to hazard in alternate of saving people. In that second, one realises that that is one thing Magneto has been accusing Charles of because the two characters first interacted onscreen. “However that is the cool factor with Charles and Erik. They by no means go, ‘I advised you so!’. In a approach, they signify two completely different colleges of thought, say the ‘us’ and the ‘them’, however they usually bridge the hole between the each. They set an instance by coming to one another’s rescue every time the opposite is in a deep disaster. Even in Darkish Phoenix, they’ve form of a fatigued second at first however the movie ends on a really emotional be aware. They sit again for one final recreation of chess, which type of completes the circle that started in First Class.“ James McAvoy as Charles Xavier and Michael Fassbender as Magneto in a nonetheless from X-Males: First Class Darkish Phoenix adjustments the X-Males panorama by depicting Magneto in a extra passive, non-interfering mode and Charles as a egocentric, protective-yet-controlling chief. As the ultimate scene leaves the 2 participating in a recreation of chess, Fassbender claims it’s a poetic finish to the connection of perpetual sportsmanship they share with one another. “The connection between Magneto and Charles is much like that of Martin Luther King Jr and Malcolm X. That is actually the strategy we took in First Class. It was an important ‘in’ for me.” As he hangs on his helmet and bids adieu to a personality that he has repainted in gray shades, Fassbender confesses that he’s secretly glad that he doesn’t need to ‘fly’ anymore. “The wire work is type of uncomfortable now, particularly within the good ol’ non-public elements. As I get older, it’s turning into more and more tough to get used to the wire work. Do not get me incorrect. I really like motion however I am now at a stage that I would favor it to have interaction in it on the bottom,” quips Fassbender. Here’s a Magneto on the mercy of metallic wires. However that’s simply how Fassbender performs Magneto at his finest — as a person filled with contradiction. All photos from Twitter. Up to date Date: Jun 02, 2019 09:44:31 IST Your information to the most recent election information, evaluation, commentary, reside updates and schedule for Lok Sabha Elections 2019 on firstpost.com/elections. Comply with us on Twitter and Instagram or like our Facebook web page for updates from all 543 constituencies for the upcoming common elections. !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s) {if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function() {n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)} ; if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0'; n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,document,'script', 'https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '259288058299626'); fbq('track', 'PageView'); (function(d, s, id) { var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "http://connect.facebook.net/en_GB/all.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.9&appId=1117108234997285"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); }(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

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jacobsvoice · 6 years ago

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Writer and Historian

Awaiting the imminent publication of my twelfth – and surely final – book, I ponder my fifty-year journey into print. Its seed was planted when, as an Oberlin College freshman, I was granted access to the library stacks (a privilege otherwise deferred to sophomore year) to write my term paper on a subject of my choosing. Fascinated with journalist Bruce Catton’s prize-winning trilogy about the Army of the Potomac, I wandered through the silent halls, and up flights of stairs, until I reached the shelves of Civil War books.

There I discovered the memoir of General George McClellan, whose indecision as general-in-chief of the Union army had prompted his removal by President Lincoln. Finding a desk by a window overlooking the 19th century stone building that housed the graduate school of theology, I opened the book to discover the signature of Jacob D. Cox, who had graduated from Oberlin before becoming a Union Army general under McClellan’s command. Turning the pages, I was captivated by extensive marginal comments – evidently by Cox – that were sharply critical of McClellan’s timid leadership. I suddenly realized that history was not carved in stone, but rather a continuing debate over the meaning and consequences of the past.

Although American history classes were my favorites, I was prompted by a constitutional law course to follow the path of a trio of friends whose confident destination was law school. There I went; there I was miserable; and from there, after a semester of suffering, I transferred to the graduate program to pursue a doctorate in history – and, by remaining in school, to avoid the military draft. Achieving both goals, I discovered along the way that research and writing were destined to become my life companions – as they did once my doctoral dissertation became the source of my first articles and book.

In retrospect, I realized that the book that followed, a critical history of the modern legal profession, was a measure of revenge for my law school miseries. And, by a stroke of good fortune, The New York Times Book Review editor assigned it to Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz, whose glowing review elevated it to front page stature. After a round of law school speaking appearances, and two subsequent books with legal themes – Justice Without Law and Rabbis and Lawyers - I finally made my escape.

By then I had a new passion: the State of Israel. It happened inadvertently, after a chance encounter with a former colleague who had just returned from a two-week seminar there, sponsored by the American Jewish Committee (ironically, long a resolute opponent of Jewish statehood) for disaffected Jewish academics. I was a perfect candidate. Yehuda Rosenman, its passionate proponent and dynamic leader, was a pre-war Polish refugee who believed that academics who actually visited Israel might be persuaded to mitigate their reflexive criticism of the Jewish State.

That experience, in December 1973, proved transformative. Within a year, I had been selected as a Fulbright professor at Tel Aviv University. Living in Jerusalem I commuted weekly, dutifully teaching American history while avidly learning about Jewish history, Zionism and the State of Israel from my students. An Israeli colleague who attended my classes (and remains my closest Israeli friend), and a student who had excitedly broadcast the return of Jews to the Old City of Jerusalem and the Western Wall during the Six-Day War, were the best teachers I ever had.

From then on, Israel – especially Jerusalem, where I lived for a second year a decade later - became the enduring Jewish, intellectual and passionate presence in my life. I was liberated from the barricade of assimilation that had surrounded me from my birth (to the patriotic American children of Eastern European immigrants) and enclosed me during the first forty years of my life. Living by the Jewish calendar; exploring the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem, especially the Orthodox enclave of Mea Shearim; losing myself in the winding streets of the Old City, I invariably returned to the Western Wall and its adjacent enclosure, my preferred retreat during spells of bad weather. There, as spectator to Jews in prayer, I watched and listened, their echoing voices reminding me of the Cantor whose melodious singing had penetrated the wall that separated our apartments during my boyhood years in Forest Hills.

The turning point in my life that did not turn came when, for family reasons, I felt obligated to decline the offer of a teaching position at the Hebrew University. Instead I spent the next twenty-five years at Wellesley College, combating the rising wave of anti-Semitism and loathing for Israel that was corrupting the academic world, even in the normally polite enclave of a women’s college. I introduced a seminar on the history of Israel and spent painful hours reassuring beleaguered Jewish students who were terrified by the anti-Semitic hatred spewed by the chairman of the Africana Studies department and the capitulation of College administrators to his rants about “the Jewish onslaught.”

Along the way, I learned about the sordid history of Jewish quotas at Wellesley; the refusal of the Religion department to grant tenure to a Jew until he sued the College (before departing to eventually become an acclaimed scholar at Harvard); and administrative hostility to the appointment of a Jewish chaplain who might preside over weddings that would scar the Chapel floor with shattered wine glasses. If I had not become an Israeli, at least I could combat academic Jew-haters. Nothing in my forty-five years of academic life provided more satisfaction than encouraging Jewish students to understand that their anti-Semitic tormenters and appeasers, not they, were the source of Wellesley’s Jewish problem.

Gleefully retiring, with the freedom to become the writer that I had long yearned to be, I gingerly entered the new world of on-line news and commentary. For someone who had already written – literally, by hand – the drafts of scores of articles and eight books, I floundered in the new electronic world. I depended on family members and friends to guide me through the labyrinth until I had achieved a minimal level of competence that reduced the urge to scream at my computer for not heeding my commands.

A copy of my final book, Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel 1896-2016, will soon join its row of predecessors on top of my 19th century oak roll-top desk. But my previous (and still occasional) electronic nemesis has afforded the satisfaction of prompt on-line publication of my articles. By now they number in the hundreds, filling binders with paper copies that are my proof that I became the writer that I had fantasized about during my teen-age years. Back then I could not imagine a more rewarding career than covering the Brooklyn Dodgers. They are long gone from Brooklyn as are my teen-age years that coincided with the Cold War, McCarthyism, and the struggle for survival of a fledgling Jewish state. But I remain grateful for the opportunity to convert memories into ideas fit to print.

The Jewish Advocate (December 21, 2018)

Jerold S. Auerbach, Professor Emeritus of History at Wellesley College, is the author of Print to Fit: The New York Times, Zionism and Israel, to be published in January by Academic Studies Press.

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clearlyeclectichologram-blog · 6 years ago

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Starting an essay with a definition How to Write a Definition Essay

Most people might think that a feminist is just a man hater with short spiky hair that goes through the streets protesting every insignificant instance of possible sexism or misconduct. Starting an essay with a definition. However, a more accepted version of feminism is simply any person, man or woman, who believes that women have the right to be equal with men. If this were better understood amongst the general population, more women would undoubtedly embrace this controversial term. The word intelligence brings visions of Albert Einstein or other smart men or women of science. However, I would more readily argue that intelligence should be measured in different areas and ways. It is not only important to be the smartest kid in class. It’s also important to have common sense as well as street smarts and social skills together with book intelligence. All of these key areas affect everyone’s life. Therefore, I would argue that schools and universities should not only be developing their students’ minds intellectually, but they should be building it within all of these other important spheres…. II is the most difficult math course, it is likely because, as Justin Rising mentions, that is the last math class that most people take (some don't even go that far, stopping at "College Algebra"). Personally, I find determining that [math]\int_1^\infty \mathrm ^ \, \mathrm x[/math] converges to be easier than proving the Riemann–Lebesgue lemma (i.e. I find more formal analysis to be more difficult than Calculus II), but that's just me. Of course this is bound to be motivated by personal opinion, which will inevitably vary from person to person, but here are my thoughts. I’m about to finish a 400-level course in mathematical statistics, which is essentially calculus-based statistics. The “calculus-based” part mostly comes from continuous probability distributions, where integration is inevitable. You do see derivatives when you’re finding moment-generating functions, for example, but after four semesters of calculus, derivatives can be done almost mindlessly. With that being said, I have found this course to be extremely easy —and I stress that I am by no means a math genius.... View more ...

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jasminaparade · 7 years ago

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IT'S A BLESSING AND A CURSE BEING A(N) (ASIAN) SECOND-GENERATION IMMIGRANT

Scrolling through Instagram this morning, I came across a beautiful photo of a European town. I double-tapped on the image and then scanned over the caption. “XYZ location is such a beautiful town to visit although it was swarming with (Asian) tourists.” It made me undo my double tap.

All of a sudden, I was full of rage. Just the one word – Asian. In brackets. I wanted to angrily type a response to the Instagrammer – why do you feel the need to distinctively highlight the tourists as “Asian”? Would you have said the exact same thing if the location was swarming with British or American tourists or white people in general? I have no idea of the Instagrammer’s thought process when they were typing this caption and I know it was no direct insult to me personally. Yet, I still felt angry and hurt; similar feelings I’ve felt in the past. And it made me reflect on several of my past experiences, how these encounters have made me feel over time and how I’ve come to deal with it as I get older.

Do we still live in a world where we continue to define or emphasise stereotypes in the media? Unfortunately, yes. History has shaped social conceptions and misconceptions of race. The rituals and traditions of cultures and sub-cultures are more globally exposed thus positive and negative stereotypes have become more prominent and pervasive. Society exacerbates these stereotypes in the media, in films and in the news. I don’t believe that all representations are intentional, whether accurate or inaccurate, complimentary or belittling. H&M recently received public backlash for an advert showing a black child in a green hoodie bearing the slogan “Coolest monkey in the jungle”. The retailer publicly apologized and withdrew the images. The beauty and the ugliness of language and imagery allows opportunity for semantics and insinuations where one can tread a fine line between a careless insult and deliberate racial abuse.

I am Asian. There’s no doubt about it. I have a Chinese name, my family hand out red packets during celebratory occasions, we burn paper money at our ancestors’ graves and boy, do we know how to eat! But I’m also Australian. An identity and culture which I more strongly identify with than with my Asian heritage. I live for days spent at the beach in my ‘cozzie’, playing beer pong with my mates and eating Vegemite on toast. I’ll devour smashed avo at brunch and I’m a down right snob about my flat white.

I’m a second-generation immigrant. My parents are Chinese, as are my grandparents who fled Mao’s reign in the 1950s for the warm shores of Fiji. My parents were born and raised in Fiji but immigrated to Australia in the mid-1980s. My parents’ families speak different dialects. English is their third language and they speak, read and write it fluently. When my parents met, they communicated in English as this was their common language. My brothers and I were born and raised in Australia. English is our first language.

I’m often asked whether I speak any Chinese. Unfortunately it’s only a handful of Cantonese words that hardly appease my maternal grandmother. A while ago, I asked my mother why she didn’t send my brothers and I to Chinese school when we were kids. She simply replied, “They wouldn’t take you. Unless you had a basic speaking level, they wouldn’t accept you at the school”. My parents’ reasoning was that if we were to live in Australia, assimilation would be easier if we could speak the official language of their adopted country.

At primary school and high school, I didn’t have any Asian friends. We lived in an area predominantly occupied by Anglo-Saxons. My childhood included piano lessons, playing netball and participating in Little Athletics under the Aussie sun. I’ve never dated Asian boys. Not because I was actively avoiding them but because I genuinely didn’t know any. My Oriental social circle was certainly lacking until my corporate career when Asian colleagues would comment “Jasmine, you can hardly call yourself Asian!”

I’ve referred to myself as a banana; yellow on the outside, white on the inside. Perhaps a mild form of self-deprecation, this analogy speaks truth for myself and perhaps my second-generation Asian immigrant peers. I oscillate between exhaustion and bemusement at strangers’ fascination of my distinct lack of Chinese language skills despite my appearance. I’ve learned to choose my battles and to pointedly ignore snide remarks.

Negative stereotypes are the ones that always seem to stick in our minds and once there, it’s difficult to remove or alter. Asians make cheap products. Asians are dirty polluters. Asians take photos of their food. Asians travel in large groups and flood large tourist cities. Asians are bad drivers. Asians make peace signs in all their photos. Asian parents are strict and make their kids study all the time. Asians slurp their food.

Admittedly, there are times when I cringe at the sight of a fellow Asian fuelling a negative stereotype. Is this hypocritical? Of course it is. Can one be racist of their own race? I would argue yes, particularly if one actively fights the stereotypes attached to their race because they themselves don’t want to be associated with such characteristics. Dealing with ignorant people who attach stereotypes to you and who have the temerity to mock you based on how you look is demoralising and tiresome.

Boys pulled their eyes sideways and wagged their heads at me in the playground. Friends have defended me from racial slurs at band camp. I’ve had my Australian citizenship and visa eligibility questioned at a scroungy pub in Bristol. I get tired of hagglers in foreign cities crying “Ni Hao!”. I’ve been handed a Japanese landing card on board a Jetstar flight and a Korean tourist information brochure was stuffed into my hand upon arrival in Zagreb. Recently, I was yelled at in the streets of Amsterdam, “Fuck off China bitch! Leave here and die!”. I do think the man was drunk (let’s give him the benefit of the doubt) but drunkenness is never an acceptable reason nor an excuse for racism. If anything, when a person is sozzled, their true feelings and opinions are voiced.

I’d be one of the first to raise my hand and admit to a lack of general knowledge of my Asian peers, the health of its economy or of our history spanning thousands of years and countless traditions and customs. What you may or may not know is that the invention of gunpowder is attributed to the Chinese. Asians gave us dumplings, fried rice and sushi. Chinese tourists currently contribute approximately AUD $9 billion to Australia’s national economy, with this figure set to increase to around AUD $13 billion by 2020. There are now 637 Asian billionaires, outnumbering fellow billionaires in the United States and Europe. Asia produced Jack Ma and Alibaba and China’s potential as the world’s next major superpower has been long debated.

Yes, it now sounds that I’m leaping to the defence of my Eastern counterparts but how can one not take a stand after years of bearing the brunt of stereotypes irrevocably tied to me based on how I look? Just because I have slanty eyes and take pictures of my food doesn’t mean that I automatically like eating chicken feet and drinking bubble tea (I don’t like chicken feet or bubble tea).

There have been times where I have tried to downplay my “Asian-ness” and other moments when I have staunchly defended it. Accepting my background and figuring out who I am, my identity and how I fit in has been and continues to be a steep learning curve. Despite there being arguable gaps in my Chinese-icity and my past encounters with racist behaviour, I consider myself blessed to feel an affinity to two cultures. I celebrate Chinese New Year and Australia Day. I’ll happily feast on char siu bao, siu mei and wonton one day and carve up a steak with a schooner the next. I’ll always be exasperated when assumptions are made about me based on certain Asian stereotypes but I also roll my eyes when native English speakers in adulthood (still) don’t know the difference between ‘your’ and ‘you’re’ as well as ‘their’ and ‘they’re’. And don’t even get me started on the use of the apostrophe.

Nowadays, almost everything is on social media. Every move, every photo, every word is scrutinised. If you’re going to share your opinion, that’s fine. You’re well within your rights. I just ask that you take a pinch of compassion, a few spoons of empathy, a cup of respect and a dose of common sense (this ingredient may be a bit harder to source) before stirring with some objectivity and clicking ‘Share’. If you choose not to follow this method, no doubt people will tell you anyhow whether they like your recipe or not.

The one thing I am most grateful for in life is my education. I can never thank my parents enough for granting me the privilege of an education in a first-world economy. But it wasn’t just the opportunity to learn how to read and to write. They also gifted me with the courage to embrace my Chinese ethnicity and the strength to fly the nest and take on the world. They never tried to deny or squash out the Asian-ness and have led by example. There will always be haters in the world but you need to pick yourself up and forge ahead. Don’t feel malevolent towards those who consciously or unconsciously speak or act in a prejudiced manner. Don’t wish them ill-fortune but wish for them to learn empathy and compassion.

This world is not perfect and neither am I. I am grateful to have been born in an era whereby societal norms, attitudes, views and expectations have rapidly progressed in the realms of gender equality, feminism and the legalization of gay marriage. I’m thankful to live in a time in which multiculturalism, diversity and globalization is on the rise. There are more cross-cultural relationships, flexible working arrangements are not unheard of, and fathers can be stay-at-home dads. Racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice will always exist. The exposure to biased news, propaganda or the influence of another’s views and beliefs can incite fear and ignorance. But if modern day society has proven anything, it has demonstrated that governments and institutions can affect change. People can affect change. Views and attitudes can shift but there also needs to be a willingness to be open-minded and accepting of difference.

When I eventually visit my homeland, I endeavour to take an open mind with me. I hope to fully embrace my origins and immerse myself in Chinese culture, without forsaking my ties to Australian culture. I feel sad knowing that many Chinese traditions and customs will die with my generation. It’s likely that my children will be half-Chinese and they will know even less than me. But should they be subject to even half the intolerance and ill-will that I have endured, I hope that they will be imbued with the strength, courage and tenacity to deal with the stereotypes and labels attached to being a (half-Asian) third-generation immigrant.

#Asian #Immigrant #second-generation #personal story

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movietvtechgeeks · 7 years ago

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/kamala-harris-voice-need-washington-now/

Kamala Harris is the voice we need in Washington now

When you are a powerful woman, people take notice. Yes, you will garner the attention from those in awe of what you, but you will also get attention from those who question your motives. Especially when what you do is seen as a threat to them. Add to the fact that not only are you a powerful woman that gets things done but also a woman of color, in particular, a black woman, the haters increase 10 fold. That’s why Kamala Harris is such a badass. As she continues her climb up the political ladder, while she gets the praise from those thankful for her hard work, one group of people continually come for her and try to discredit what she’s about – white men. It comes as no surprise really when you think about it. White men have been ruining ... ahem... running this country for centuries. History has even shown us how they respond when their power, wealth, and positions are “put in jeopardy" by those who don't look like them. Hello, Jim Crow South and segregation. Harris is a force to be reckoned with because she doesn’t back down nor does she care what they think. Essentially, she has taken all the characteristics that make black women the butt of every joke and the aspects of who we are that black men say are the reasons they don't deal with us and has used them to create an impactful political career that only continues to rise and shine. Harris encompasses what a politician should be. As Americans, we are in desperate need of fair, honest and quality representation from those whom we vote into office to make decisions that are beneficial for all. From her fight against the GOP’s heartless health care repeal to her unapologetic questioning of members of Trump’s administration about Russia, I see in Harris the greatness that I believe just might lead her to the presidency. Oh, how I would love for Harris to run for the highest office in the land in 2020. To have the first woman president be a woman of color is literally buttercream icing on the cake. The hostility Harris receives from white men in politics is undeniable. For instance, the way she was treated by Republican male Senators, like John McCain and Richard Burr, during the Senate hearing on Russia is a testament to the American political climate. Not only did they refuse to answer her questions, they also interrupted her without remorse. That's because in the United States, it is party first for Republicans and everything else, including the people who suffer from their self-centeredness, second. If there were even the slightest chance that Russia had something to do with the outcome of the 2016 election, why would anyone not want to find the truth? Because it will disrupt the thing these elitists have going, and now that we know for a fact they did, they are fighting the FBI's investigation. And that is the issue I have with the way things are done in D.C. It is the number one reason we need Harris and others like her to keep pushing these good ol' boys who most certainly have a something to hide. Harris is a breath of fresh air not because she is black. Anyone who openly fights against the clear and present corruption that is taking place within this current administration gets props. No, she is a breath of fresh air because I see in her the way politicians should be. The way that she cares for her constituents and asks the hard questions of her fellow collogues is how government officials should behave. Think about it, the men who are mad at Harris’ relentlessness have shown their true colors. They don’t care about what happens to us common folk. They think that their big money, big names, and connections are what matter. I cannot tell you how much my heart breaks to think of the people who are suffering or will suffer because of the self-serving Republicans and man-child Trump who continually do things that profit their personal bottom lines. I cannot tell you how often I wonder about my future and the future of those I love because of the decisions that are being made at the executive and legislative levels. But in the midst of the despair I often feel, it gives me hope to know that someone like Harris is fighting for us. I believe she is fighting for us. Our political system has long been broken. When seasoned politicians get upset, accusatory and downright belligerent to the members amongst their ranks who want answers to some of the most pressing questions that the American public has, we have to realize what we are dealing with here. And that is a group of privileged, mostly white, men who have no interests in helping anyone but themselves and the people like them. To attack a black woman who is just trying to genuinely do her job has become common practice in Washington, but I am certain that Harris is up for the challenge. Can we ever have just, unbiased, and transparent leadership in our capital city? Can that kind of political service ever be a reality; be the norm? Unfortunately, I don’t think so. But what I do know is that people like Harris are a nuisance to the corrupted men whose idea of making “American great again” involves the promotion of white supremacy and the total disregard for human life. In the face of uncertainty, exploitation, and greed, we have a politician in place who will proudly buck up against the system and declare, “Not on my watch.” Go, Kamala Harris!

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#Black Lives Matter #Donald Trump #Featured #Kamala Harris #Racism

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