#the one by mark forsyth

[sandsniffer]

e.

If you see this you’re legally obligated to reblog and tag with the book you’re currently reading

[markrosewater]

I decided to do a bit of data analysis on the list in today's article. According to it, Magic has had 229 different designers in its lifetime, of which 130 have only done so during one of the stages. On the other end of the scale, only 10 have worked as a designer for four or more stages (Doug Beyer, Erik Lauer, Ken Nagle, Mark Gottlieb and Mike Turian for four each, Aaron Forsythe and Bill Rose for five each, Richard Garfield for six, and you for all seven).

FYI.

Thanks for collect the data.

[adobe-outdesign]

Have you reviewed the Bruce, and particularly my favorite variety of the Bruce (the ULTRA ultra UC version)?

(I don't have any Pokemon review requests in my inbox right now but I do have a few Neopet requests, so I'll go ahead and do one of those.)

I might as well talk about the history of the Bruce first, because while I don't normally bother going over past iterations for these reviews everyone should know that the first incarnation of the Bruce was a 150 x 150 photograph of esteemed British entertainer Bruce Forsyth sloppily recolored and slapped onto a circle. I literally could not make this up if I tried.

While the Bruce isn't the only Neopet that started off as a human, it A) was the only one to start with a realistic photograph instead of a caricature, and B) is also the only one to retain some aspects of its human design: namely the signature bow(tie) and the name (plus penguins already look like they're wearing suits in a way).

Visually, today's modern Bruce is pretty cute. It's mostly just a standard penguin, but they've got very appealing faces and a sort of plush chubbiness to them that not a lot of Neopets sport. While pets wearing clothes by default isn't always my favorite thing, the bow does work well with everything else and still makes sense in-universe for anthro Bruces (side note: the irony of an anthro Bruce is not lost on me).

The body is broken up with distinct markings that are based off of emperor penguins—though ironically, they're based on emperor chicks, to the point where the Baby Bruce is just a slightly smaller version of the regular Bruce. The Bruce does extend the face markings down into an underbelly however, which looks very natural and helps to break up the torso.

Visually, nothing really changed about the Bruce with customization other than it standing up and gaining a fist. I think I like the converted version a bit more, as while the original pose was cute it was also harder to see aspects of the design (like the tail). The flipper anatomy and general lineart/details have also been greatly approved. Also, the bow became removable, which is a bonus.

Favorite Colours:

Island: A surprisingly nice take on the colour, the island Bruce has an usually dark brown palette, which pops nicely with the white markings and compliments the flowers and greenery nicely. The markings are well-placed with good thought as to how they interact with the body shape and the green eyes are pretty and draw the color through the design well. The floral accents can also be removed, which provides a pretty nice base colour as well.

Wraith: The wraith Bruce is quite a bit different than most takes on the colour. Wraith pets are usually flat with intricate body shapes—think like a tattoo. However, the wraith Bruce opts for a more solid body shape that uses subtle gradients and very carefully placed highlights to give it a sense of depth. The face and beak look really good here, and the way the white highlights on the edge of the body fade off into nothing is really cool. My only minor quibble is that I wish there was one thin line indicating the underbelly markings, as the torso looks a bit too solid here.

Toy: The toy Bruce is slightly redundant because the plushie Bruce is already a thing, but between the two, I do like the toy design a bit more. The flocked and fluffy look is super cute and works great for the pet, and I like the contrast between the hard flippers and beak and the rest of the body. The penguin-like monotone body color is offset by the red bow, which has a nice subtle plaid pattern to it. My only nitpick is that I would've just dropped the single head feather entirely, as it looks out of place and doesn't really make logical sense. Still, good stuff all around.

[bitter69uk]

“Born Susan Ballion in 1957, she was the product of post-war suburban life which, like many, she grew up to resent entirely … She was 14 when hospitalised with ulcerative colitis and it was while watching Top of the Pops on a children’s ward in 1972 that she saw David Bowie’s performance of “Starman” – a magical, rupturing event for many of her generation, and one that had a profound influence on her … Susan Ballion was one of the first to understand the radical possibilities offered by Bowie’s cut-up aesthetic, clearly and slowly began remaking herself as Siouxsie Sioux. Sioux’s image would become a violent but not haphazard mix of Charlotte Rampling in The Night Porter, the incarnation of David Bowie she had seen from her hospital bed, and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, and would draw upon the sharp lines of Kabuki masks and the leather and steel of S&M gear … Siouxsie’s “monstrous” look combined with her innovative musical vision had a profound impact on those around her …”

/ Excerpts from the catalogue to The Horror Show exhibit (2022/23) by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard /

Light a black candle (or at least don a black T-shirt), grab the hair crimpers and can of Aqua Net - today marks a sacred occasion! Haughtily composed high priestess of punk, spooky voodoo doll frontwoman of the Banshees (and The Creatures), perennial eyeliner role model, perfecter of the death glare and Chislehurst’s finest, Siouxsie Sioux (née Susan Janet Ballion, 27 May 1957) turns 67! For generations of punks, goths, queers, malcontents and misfits, Siouxsie represents MOTHER! What a life-changing performer: it was seeing a black-and-white photo of Siouxsie in a magazine when I was in my early teens that planted the idea of moving to London. (I’m still unsure whether to be grateful to her or not!).

[scotianostra]

One of Scotland's' most iconic films, Local Hero was released on February 18th 1983.

In the days before mobile phones we used to use things called phone boxes when we were not at home, and the phone box in Local Hero has become as iconic as the film itself.

There aren’t many films that have a 100% Tomatometer , on the movie website Rotten Tomatoes, backed up by an impressive 87% audience score, it should be all you need to know when choosing a movie to watch, expecially if you haven’t seen it before. IMDb also rate it highly with 7.4 out of 10.

Bill Forsyth’s oil-refinery comedy isn’t billed as a weepy. It is, however, a love poem to Scotland, and that’s what brings the lump to my throat.

Quirky, wry, gentle are words most often used for this comedy on the movie database site, IMDb, the starting point for many of my posts about those Scots in the acting profession in my posts. They brief story line on the site does not hint at the emotional turbulence you might soon be experiencing. So maybe it’s just me being a big sissy. Wouldn’t be the first time I lost the plot. All it says is "An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected." The film is so much more than this and it stands the test of time much better than other Forsyth films like Comfort & Joy and Gregory's Girl, well in my opinion anyway!

Crackpot Texan oil magnate Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster) gets the idea that a small Scottish fishing village would be a marvellous acquisition for his so-rich-it-makes-you-sick company, Knox Oil and Gas, so he sends an executive gopher named MacIntyre (because that sounds Scottish, yeah – played by Peter Riegert) to close the deal and get the pipeline pencilled in.

“Mac” is met by some local “dork” called Oldsen (a young Peter Capaldi), who attempts to steer him through a tartan microculture that includes a lawyer-cum-publican/hotelier (Denis Lawson) who tapdances while standing on a chair shouting “Stella” – the name of his ever-randy wife; there is a super-hard marine biologist played by Jenny Seagrove who, after delivering a short lecture on the North Atlantic drift, ends up helping Oldsen to find that pistol in his pocket; and then there is a scene in which a very whisky-sodden Mac calls Texas from a red phone box on the harbourside, a phone box that has featured in so many peoples snaps when visiting Pennan in Banffshire.

Other bits of business in the film involve a salty Russian seafarer and overflying warplanes. You can see how it got the comedy tag, and I haven’t even mentioned the thing with the rabbit. And you can see how Mac ends up smitten.

This is all top material from a very talented writer/director, with photography and music from Glasgow born Mark Knopfler matches the acting and direction perfectly. But on first viewing I found myself asking halfway through, “What is this film actually about?” After not very much thought, I came to the conclusion that it was not a How Things Never Go According to Plan story, but a love poem to Scotland and the Scots. A bit slushy, but never mind. It’s only a film.

The scene when Mac phones to describe the Northern Lights, to me is very special, but the scene that prompted the lump in my throat at the end of the movie is when, having failed in his mission to secure the Knox refinery deal and mutilate one of Planet Earth’s most beautiful locations, Mac returns to his frigid steel-and-glass Houston apartment. He stands at his kitchen counter wondering what to do next, the hushed march of oil capitalism buzzing gently outside. He pulls from his coat pocket a handful of pebbles and shells, smelling one of them poignantly remembering as he spreads them on the work surface.

As Knopflers music gently plays he goes to his balcony and looks out to the city......the scene fades to black, then reopens 4,500 miles away, where, on the harbour side of a small Scottish fishing village, we see the phone box, perhaps ringing and the credits begin as the horns of Going Home blast out.

Others in the film include Rikki Fulton, Alex Norton, Kenny Ireland, John Gordon Sinclair and of course Burt Lancaster.

[eddie-redmayne-italian-blog]

Inside The Day of the Jackal, Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch’s ambitious new hitman series

GQ speaks to the cast and crew behind Sky’s reimagination of the classic Frederick Forsyth assassin novel

By Jack King26 July 2024

1973’s The Day of the Jackal is one of those classic thrillers that dads pass down as a rite of passage. Failing that, you might’ve caught it on ITV 2 on a lazy Sunday afternoon. Edward Fox plays the titular Jackal, a killer for hire who is commissioned by the French militant far-right to assassinate president Charles de Gaulle in 1963. The film’s first act savours his scrupulous attention to detail: buying a bespoke rifle that can be broken down into innocent parts, and fake documents from a forger, for example, who he murders with his bare hands after an ill-judged extortion attempt. He’s a shapeshifting lone wolf — well, jackal — we learn little about, aside from how good he is at killing people.

Such a rich character whose mark is felt on no end of hitman movies (see David Fincher’s 2023 genre homage The Killer) is ripe for reinterpretation. Not that it went especially well last time: the last, loose attempt to contemporise The Day of the Jackal came in 1997, starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere, and the critics called it a dud. But 27 years later, Sky & Peacock have armed up for their own present-day reimagination of the source material, thrusting the Jackal into our fraught world of political division and ever-present global danger. The script was written by Top Boy writer Ronan Bennett, and the series executive produced by Downton Abbey's Gareth Neame and Nigel Marchant, alongside its stars Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.

“We both loved the book, and we saw the film when we were kids — I’ve seen the film many times through my life, and always really respected it,” Neame, alongside Marchant, tells GQ. While they were at first cautious to tackle source material that carries with it such esteem, to expand the story across episodic TV seemed too good an opportunity to turn down. “It’s such an iconic, gripping story, that to revisit that in a contemporary context, with all the benefits of a multi-episodic show … we thought that would be really interesting to take this much-respected IP and develop it this way.”

Marchant concurs. “I think that [this] kind of title is in so many peoples’ consciousness … And then yeah, what’s the benefit of telling this with a bigger canvas?”

Marcell Piti/SKY/Carnival

The most obvious difference about this version is that it takes place in the modern world. “If we’d stayed in the past, why do it? You can’t better the film,” Neame says. But in classic The Day of the Jackal style, Redmayne’s hitman still rocks up to more European cities than a gap year interrailer.

And so we begin the series with the Jackal in Munich. Not that we immediately recognise him: he is decked out in wrinkly prosthetics, fake hair, and wears contacts and fake teeth, disguised as an elderly German janitor. This is his way past security and into the campaign headquarters of a divisive far-right demagogue, for the purposes of a mission that we daren’t spoil further. Once he has done what he needed to do — ruthlessly dispatching half the staff with a silenced pistol en route — he makes a daring escape by absailing from the roof, just as the police arrive. So, to illustrate the vibe: think Mission Impossible meets Daniel Craig’s Bond, if he went really rogue.

It’s not a one-to-one adaptation, but fans of the original text and film needn’t worry — there’s a distinct air of reverence for them both throughout, and this version broadly covers the same plot beats, though the story is expanded for TV. As for the Jackal himself, Redmayne’s performance both evokes Fox’s classic turn and feels of his own making. “[Fox’s] performance will always be in my mind, because I loved it so much as a kid,” Redmayne tells GQ. “But at the same time, I wanted the audience to be able to oscillate between this sociopathic coldness, and a human being who wants a life, and happiness.” He points to Natalie Humphries’ costume design as an explicit example of homage. “She spoke specifically about the kind of dandy, slight peacock-y quality of the [original] movie, and how we wanted to keep those elements,” Redmayne says.

“If you know the original [film], you get these Easter eggs through the show — even some of the lines are exact matches, and scenes were shot literally shot-for-shot from the original,” Marchant says. “So there are treats along the way if you know it, which felt important to us [with] our love of the original as well.”

Some time after that first job, the familiar story begins, after a mysterious would-be client on the dark web offers the Jackal retirement-grade money for the biggest hit of his career. (Given the contemporary setting, the target obviously isn’t Charles de Gaulle, but that’s as much as we’re allowed to reveal.) And throughout the series, in another noticable departure from the source material, we delve into the Jackal’s backstory and the whys and wherefores of his chosen career path. (Again, I’d love to say more, but there’s a red laser dot hovering over my chest and I value my life.) Redmayne was initially cautious about digging too far into the Jackal’s background — traditionally, the whole point is that you know nothing about him — but was won over by the script.

“Edward Fox’s performance is so brilliant because it’s two and a half hours of [an] extraordinarily charismatic enigma,” Redmayne says. “So my challenge, as a fan of that, was to go, Wait, I only want to take this on if I feel like there is a way that unpacking [the backstory] doesn’t feel glib.”

The chance to explore the Jackal’s past, Neame says, was always the point. “We knew right from the beginning that we wouldn’t make a 10 part television series where the main character is only ever a ghost,” he says. “So that’s where the whole idea of the private life, the personal life — the fact that he’s trying to juggle this extraordinary professional world with a normal lifestyle [came from].” Later on in the series, Neame notes, another character tells him what should’ve probably been blindingly obvious: in this line of work, a healthy worThe Day of the Jackal isn’t just about the titular contract killer, of course. Much of the story unfolds as a thrilling cat and mouse, as hot on the Jackal’s heels is the Sherlock to his murderous Moriarty, French detective Claude Lebel, played in 1973 by Michel Lonsdale. In this new adaptation, the character is reimagined as a wily MI6 agent, Lashana Lynch’s Bianca, whose counter-terrorism training and firearms expertise make her the Jackal’s ideal foil. (Despite the connection you might make to one of Lynch’s more recent roles, this grounded, bureaucratic vision of His Majesty’s secret service bears little resemblance to Bond.)k/life balance just isn’t sustainable.

“When you have a character that is in either a powerful position, or works for a powerful organisation, there is this danger that happens whereby women get boxed into one of two things: either the strong one, or the damsel in some way. Both of them are actually unfair,” Lynch says. “The Bianca that I read in the first three episodes was someone who had a strength that was born from vulnerability, had confusion [around] her own identity and her meaning to her work … There was so much within her world, and within her being, that felt like a real person.”

Bianca is seen as an irritating disruptor by the people she works for; early in the first episode, her boss scribbles a mid-meeting note calling her a pain in the arse. But her unrelenting drive and commitment soon gets results. “She pushes people’s boundaries. She is annoying. She does not stop. And her boundary pushing gets very dangerous,” Lynch continues. “But [she is] also really well intentioned. She has a good heart, she just doesn’t know how to use it. Which is exciting to play, and exciting to watch.”

Ultimately, the Jackal and Bianca have more in common than they might initially realise. “The entire premise of these two protagonists that are deeply flawed human beings, and yet also compelling human beings who are kind of mirroring each other, and yet on a one way path to collision, I found that interesting,” Redmayne says.

“You’re on side with both of these people, despite the horrendous choices they’re making.”

The Day of the Jackal will premiere on Sky and streaming service NOW in the UK (and Peacock in the US) on 7 November.

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/the-day-of-the-jackal-preview

[glitterblossom]

Note: We’re Arab, not Native American, so listen to their opinions on this before ours.

I wanted to have hope that Outlaws of Thunder Junction would be handled well, or even just not awfully. But the evidence is starting to rack up, folks, and it aint pretty:

At MagicCon, Blake Rasmussen (mtg’s Senior Communications Manager) said that, “everyone’s a newcomer to Thunder Junction.”

Also at that MagicCon panel, Aaron Forsythe (VP of Magic Design) called it an “unspoiled land.”

Mark Rosewater (mtg Head Designer) says that, “prior to omen paths [sic], it was uninhabited.”

Could this just be three white guys saying White Guy Things? Sure. Especially since they’ve all shown themselves in the past to be kinda uninformed on the particulars of their product’s storyline. But it’s not a great look.

The narrative that lands are uninhabited and ripe for plunder is inextricable from the American colonial genocide of indigenous nations (which has never stopped). This is especially the case in a setting based on the American West, rife with the trappings of the imperialist genre of American Westerns, and fraught with the colonialist propaganda of “frontier fantasy.” For this world, they’ve even created an ethnic group explicitly based on the Diné nation, per the official MTG Twitter account. Yet they still chose to center the set’s story around the genocidal selling point of “exploring uninhabited lands to find untold treasure and fortune.”

Yes, they’ve said they used cultural consultants. And, sure, that’s gone well-ish (though not without great flaws) for NEO and LCI. But whatever influence those consultants were allowed to have on OTJ, it was clearly not enough. Because holy shit, even the (otherwise amazing) side story, No Tells, says, “Thunder Junction’s a new plane, one that’s still beginning.” (Do NOT go hating on the author; I doubt he had control over that level of worldbuilding.)

All of this has shattered my hope in the set being respectful, or even not actively harmful. You can say, “wait and see,” and we will, but we’ve seen a lot already—and gang, it has not looked good.

[fefuckability]

The Shadows of Valentia (+ Cipher DLC characters) bracket qualifier! Starts Thursday, May 2nd at 3pm EST

Here's how it's going to work:

There are going to be eight qualifying polls (five for the men, three for the women)

Pick your most bangable favorite from each poll

Polls will run for one week (I'd prefer 3 days but alas Tumblr doesn't offer the option yet)

The top 32 male characters and the top 16 female characters will qualify for the men's and women's bracket

Polls:

Qualifier 1 (Alm, Gray, Tobin, Massena, Clive, Lima IV, Grieth)

Qualifier 2 (Luthier, Python, Zeke, Desaix, Forsyth, Mycen, Blake)

Qualifier 3 (Boey, Saber, Slayde, Valbar, Leon, Kamui, Conrad)

Qualifier 4 (Wolff, Atlas, Jesse, Deen, Halcyon, Nomah, Rudolf)

Qualifier 5 (Berkut, Gazelle, Jedah, Fernand, Randal, Lukas, Duma)

Qualifier 6 (Faye, Silque, Clair, Mathilda, Irma, Tatiana)

Qualifier 7 (Liprica, Celica, Mae, Palla, Catria, Nuibaba)

Qualifier 8 (Sonya, Rinea, Mila, Yuzu, Shade)

I am also adding a Google Form to submit characters for an enby bracket so Limstella, Kyza, Mark, and Bramimond don't get left out. These can be characters from any game as long as there is canon basis for them being nonbinary.

Extra notes under the cut

Characters who are excluded from voting:

Anyone who obviously both looks and acts like a literal child. Some characters are borderline so discretion may be used

Palette swaps or characters who are mostly the same portrait with only slight variation to hair, outfit, etc. (I consider Hestia and Marla to fall under this category)

Anyone who lacks either a portrait or a unique name

Characters who do not have a unique human form (e.g. Grima is technically part of this game, but only appears in dragon form)

Special Notes:

There are some characters who, for spoiler purposes, technically have two different names and/or portraits. For simplicity sake I just picked one portrait/name to use for them.

I know the cipher characters are technically original to Cipher, but they're functionally SoV units in this game. And I don't really know where else I'd put them.

I am not using the unofficial datamined ages. I just think it's going to lead to way too much splitting hairs.

[dairogo]

Tagged myself from @andthatisnotfake because I like this one!

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2024: THE ELEMENTS OF ELOQUENCE by Mark Forsyth.

I haven't dual-wielded fiction and nonfiction simultaneously, recently, and I want to take some Writerly Vibes into revisions, so! Here's one book of the three I recently acquired by this guy, because it looks like Fun With English, and I'm always here for that.

[rannadylin]

Getting to know you meme

Both @dragonologist-phd and @serenbach86 tagged me for this, and fortuitously we have a snow day today so I'm gonna sit down and actually do it! :-D

Three ships: Fenris/Hawke, Daeran/Knight Commander, and for one that doesn't involve an OC, Faramir/Eowyn!

Last song: Ummmmm I don't listen to playlists, like, hardly ever so I can't say what the last thing I intentionally listened to was. But for some reason I woke up with "Rock Around the Block" earworming? I don't know where in the world that came from. My childhood, evidently.

Currently reading: The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth (because I saw it recommended in a Tumblr post not too long ago! I think I reblogged that post but can I find it now? not with Tumblr's search function I cannot) Delightfully witty, and useful for writers too! Also I just really like rhetorical devices because they come up in Latin 3/4 as we get into actual Latin literature and I think they're cool.

Last film: So, after how many years? I finally got around to watching parts 2 and 3 of the Hobbit movies over my Christmas break. :-D I liked them more than I thought I would! I had been disappointed with how much the 1st one changed from the books and kind of lost interest at the time they were coming out so I never saw the 2nd and 3rd in theaters. It turns out in my old age I am becoming more tolerant toward movie adaptations and liked them better now than I probably would have if I did see them at the time of release.

Currently craving: Hmmmm this is definitely soup weather. I should probably make a soup. It is also a snow day so I should not go out looking for soup ingredients at the moment, though.

I'll tag @sayonaramidnight @queen-scribbles @adraveins @risualto @sweetearthandnorthernsky @captainofthefallen @storyknitter if you want to do this!

[markrosewater]

Hi Mark, it's my birthday this week! I'm wondering if you have any trivia about Fifth Dawn or the Sunburst mechanic. It was one of the last sets I played before drifting away from Magic for many years, but I still have fond memories of trying to make a five-color Sunburst deck work back then. Thanks!

Sunburst was the brainchild of Aaron Forsythe. He was on the Fifth Dawn team as a reporter to be able to write about the experience. He was so good, we hired him into R&D. He also designed scry in the same team.

Happy Birthday!

[thistleandthorn-rpg]

Name: Forsythe Pendleton “Jughead” Jones III Designation: Switch but Jughead will say he’s a Dom Age: 26 Birthdate: November 26th 1996 Faceclaim: Cole Sprouse Orientation: Pansexual Kinks: He’s fairly open-minded but refuses to touch anything in the anti-kinks Anti-Kinks: Scat, watersports, age play

Key Points: 

Intelligence

Untrusting

Problem with authority, or at least those that demand respect without earning it

Doesn’t let anyone get too close

BIO 

Forsythe Jones, or Jughead as he’ll introduce himself was born into the Jones family to, more or less, a single father. Yes, he had a mother, he knew his mother, but Jughead stopped considering the women who gave birth to him or his sister as anything more than an egg donor by the time he reached doubled digits. At this point, as far as Jug is concerned, the only family he has is his father and his sister.

Growing up, even with an absent mother that only seemed to wander in when she wanted something, Jughead remained decently level-headed, all things concerned. Most likely thanks to the fact he’d escape into books or his writing and his sister, because even though they were only minutes apart they still seemed to settle into their roles with her as the big sister protector and him as the baby of the family and at the end of the day he could trust her to take care of him if he needed her. Which might also explain why there is nobody Jughead trusts more. They might not always see eye-to-eye, but Jug won’t hesitate to protect her regardless of the consequences and he knows that she would do the same for him.

Jughead has mixed feelings about his label as a Switch and is very much determined to keep it to himself as he can. He’ll never admit it out loud but he knows it’s fitting for him and a part of him is aware he could fit into both a Dominant or submissive role if he wanted to. He’s blunt, confident, forward, and determined and he’s aware those are very much traits that scream submissive. At the same time, he also likes to be praised and he takes pride in making people proud of him– especially his father and his sister, and that could definitely lean him in the direction of a submissive.

Unfortunately, after watching his mother come and go and essentially use his father, and Jughead has seen submissives get taken advantage over, he refuses to acknowledge that side of himself. As far as he’s concerned it doesn’t exist and he’ll never submit to anyone, and if he had his way nobody would be aware of his true mark.

He spent some time traveling, wanting to see the world, and even focus on his writing as he dabbled here and there when he found someone that caught his attention, but he’s found himself missing JB and their father and decided that since their birthday was coming up he would surprise her by joining her at Stonewall Prep. There’s also the fact Jug is also aware that as much as he ignores his real mark, the day he turns thirty it won’t matter if he’s been acting as a Dominant or not, he’ll still legally be a Switch and end up at the auction.

BIO QUESTIONS:

What are your feelings about the mark you have received?  - My mark is what it is.  It allows me to decide what I want to do and when I want to do it.

How do your feelings on the system compare to your parents’ feelings on it? - The system exists and we all have to deal with it. I feel there’s potential for it to do good but that also means it has potential to become an absolute shit show.

Where do you see yourself after you graduate?   - That’s a great question. I’d hope I would still be writing, maybe even working on a book or having one published.  I’d also hope not to be too far from JB and the old man, but I’m not able to see the future so I guess we’ll find out.

How do you feel about authority? - I mean it exists and has some benefits. If you’re asking me if I respect authority then that’s something completely different. I respect those that earn it and deserve it and right now the only people who qualify for that are my sister and my father.  I don’t care if you’re a Dominant, Switch, submissive or even a slave.  You want my respect? Earn it and don’t be an asshole for no reason. If you bite me, I do bite back.

[bitter69uk]

“Born Susan Ballion in 1957, she was the product of post-war suburban life which, like many, she grew up to resent entirely … She was 14 when hospitalised with ulcerative colitis and it was while watching Top of the Pops on a children’s ward in 1972 that she saw David Bowie’s performance of “Starman” – a magical, rupturing event for many of her generation, and one that had a profound influence on her … Susan Ballion was one of the first to understand the radical possibilities offered by Bowie’s cut-up aesthetic, clearly and slowly began remaking herself as Siouxsie Sioux. Sioux’s image would become a violent but not haphazard mix of Charlotte Rampling in The Night Porter, the incarnation of David Bowie she had seen from her hospital bed, and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, and would draw upon the sharp lines of Kabuki masks and the leather and steel of S&M gear … Siouxsie’s “monstrous” look combined with her innovative musical vision had a profound impact on those around her …” 

/ Excerpts from the catalogue to The Horror Show! exhibit (2022/23) by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard / 

Light a black candle (or at least don a black T-shirt), grab the hair crimpers and can of Aqua Net - today marks a sacred occasion! Haughtily composed high priestess of punk, spooky voodoo doll frontwoman of the Banshees (and The Creatures), perennial eyeliner role model, perfector of the death glare and Chislehurst’s finest, Siouxsie Sioux (née Susan Janet Ballion, 27 May 1957) turns 66! For generations of punks, goths, queers and misfits, Siouxsie is the real Queen of England! What a life-changing performer: it was seeing a black-and-white photo of Siouxsie in a magazine when I was in my early teens that planted the idea of moving to London. (I’m still unsure whether to be grateful to her or not!). I last saw her perform at the Meltdown festival in June 2013 – so ten years ago next month! Isn’t it gratifying to see Siouxsie’s recent reemergence as a mature artist, still fiercely glamorous and charismatic? For the record, my favourite Siouxsie and The Banshees song will always be “Arabian Knights.” Pictured: portrait of Siouxsie by Pierre et Gilles for the front cover of The Creatures’ 1999 album Anima Animus.

[scotianostra]

One of Scotland’s’ most iconic films, Local Hero was released on February 18th 1983.

In the days before mobile phones we used to use things called phone boxes when we were not at home, and the phone box  in Local Hero has become as iconic as the film itself.

There aren’t many films that have a 100%  Tomatometer , on the movie website Rotten Tomatoes, backed up by an impressive 87% audience score, it should be all you need to know when choosing a movie to watch, expecially if you haven’t seen it before. IMDb also rate it highly with 7.4 out of 10.

Bill Forsyth’s oil-refinery comedy isn’t billed as a weepy. It is, however, a love poem to Scotland, and that’s what brings the lump to my throat.

Quirky, wry, gentle are words most often used for this comedy on the movie database site, IMDb, the starting point for many of my posts about those Scots in the acting profession in my posts. They brief story line on the site does not hint at the emotional turbulence you might soon be experiencing. So maybe it’s just me being a big sissy. Wouldn’t be the first time I lost the plot. All it says is “An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don’t go as expected.” The film is so much more than this and it stands the test of time much better than other Forsyth films like Comfort & Joy and Gregory’s Girl, well in my opinion anyway!

Crackpot Texan oil magnate Felix Happer (Burt Lancaster) gets the idea that a small Scottish fishing village would be a marvellous acquisition for his so-rich-it-makes-you-sick company, Knox Oil and Gas, so he sends an executive gopher named MacIntyre (because that sounds Scottish, yeah – played by Peter Riegert) to close the deal and get the pipeline pencilled in.

“Mac” is met by some local “dork” called Oldsen (a young Peter Capaldi), who attempts to steer him through a tartan microculture that includes a lawyer-cum-publican/hotelier (Denis Lawson) who tapdances while standing on a chair shouting “Stella” – the name of his ever-randy wife; there is a super-hard marine biologist played by Jenny Seagrove who, after delivering a short lecture on the North Atlantic drift, ends up helping Oldsen to find that pistol in his pocket; and then there is a scene in which a very whisky-sodden Mac calls Texas from a red phone box on the harbourside, a phone box that has featured in so many peoples snaps when visiting Pennan in Banffshire.

Other bits of business in the film involve a salty Russian seafarer and overflying warplanes. You can see how it got the comedy tag, and I haven’t even mentioned the thing with the rabbit. And you can see how Mac ends up smitten.

This is all top material from a very talented writer/director, with photography and music from Glasgow born Mark Knopfler matches the acting and direction perfectly. But on first viewing I found myself asking halfway through, “What is this film actually about?” After not very much thought, I came to the conclusion that it was not a How Things Never Go According to Plan story, but a love poem to Scotland and the Scots. A bit slushy, but never mind. It’s only a film.

The scene when Mac phones to describe the Northern Lights, to me is very special, but the scene that prompted the lump in my throat at the end of the movie is when, having failed in his mission to secure the Knox refinery deal and mutilate one of Planet Earth’s most beautiful locations, Mac returns to his frigid steel-and-glass Houston apartment. He stands at his kitchen counter wondering what to do next, the hushed march of oil capitalism buzzing gently outside. He pulls from his coat pocket a handful of pebbles and shells, smelling one of them poignantly remembering as he spreads them on the work surface.

As Knopflers music gently plays he goes to his balcony and looks out to the city……the scene fades to black, then reopens 4,500 miles away, where, on the harbour side of a small Scottish fishing village, we see the phone box, perhaps ringing and the credits begin as the horns of Going Home blast out. Others in the film include Rikki Fulton, Alex Norton, Kenny Ireland, John Gordon Sinclair and of course Burt Lancaster.

[cogentranting]

My 2023 Reads

See below for the full list of the books I read and a 1-2 sentence review of each.

Fiction, non-fiction, poetry

Italicized- reread

Cloud Cuckoo Land (Anthony Doerr) - It's like a combination of All the Light We Cannot See, Cloud Atlas and The Book Thief, except not quite as good as any of those. Good, just not as good.

The Stolen Heir (Holly Black) - Highly recommend if YA fantasy romance is your thing

On the Incarnation (Athanasius of Alexander) - one of the foundational works of early Christian theology

Klara and the Sun (Kazuo Ishiguro) - Beautiful, and lovely, and thoughtful and bittersweet

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Pearl and Sir Orfeo (Tolkien translation) - technically this is poetry but its also narrative so I grouped it with fiction. Green Knight is very fun. Pearl is quite boring.

The Case Against the Sexual Revolution (Louise Perry) - I highly recommend this, just be cautious because it has some very frank discussions of some very hard topics so there's a whole bunch of language and trigger warnings attached to this recommendation

Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking a Pauline Theme (Stephen Westerholm) - I'm going to be honest-- I don't remember what I thought of this book. It was for school and I also did a bunch of research on the topic and I don't remember what part of that research this constituted.

A Quest for Godliness: The Puritan Vision of the Christian Life (J.I. Packer) - I read a few chapters of this for a research project last year and liked it enough to buy myself a copy and read the whole thing for fun

The Warden and the Wolf King (Andrew Peterson) - Book 3 of this series (this is 4) remains my favorite but this one is really good and is a beautiful culmination of the themes

The Elements of Eloquence (Mark Forsyth) - About as good as a book that is just explaining various rhetorical figures can be.

The Theology of the Book of Revelation (Richard Bauckham) -THIS book right here I want to read again. This book made me fall in love with Revelation.

King of Scars (Leigh Bardugo) -It's the reason why I'm very upset over the cancellation of the Shadow and Bone tv series (because I won't get to see more of my boy Nikolai) but it's fine

The Secular Creed: Engaging Five Contemporary Claims (Rebecca McLaughlin) - A very useful book, very accessible

Rule of Wolves (Leigh Bardugo) - But seriously I love Nikolai and I mostly really enjoyed this duology.

The Waste Land and Other Early Poems (T.S. Eliot) - So many words saying so many things and maybe I'll know what they mean if I read this another 30 or 40 times.

Notes From Underground (Fyodor Dostoevsky) - Very different from other Dostoevsky but fascinating in its own way

The Scarlet Pimpernel (Emmuska Orczy) - It's a romp

Calvinism: A Southern Baptist Dialogue - genuinely very very helpful to me and just randomly was emailed to me as a pdf by some site that I ended up on the email list for

The Great Hunt (Robert Jordan) - I do not have faith in this series being good over time but at book 2 they're fun

Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) -It really is that good.

Original Sin: A Cultural History (Alan Jacobs) - a really interesting exploration of the idea

Out of the Silent Planet (C.S. Lewis) - The Space Trilogy is great because it just has such a different feel from most of the other sci fi I've read

Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I Was and Who God Has Always Been (Jackie Hill Perry) - Perry has such a lovely poetic way of telling her story

Booked: Literature in the Soul of Me (Karen Swallow Prior) - This book is really lovely and peaceful and reflective

A Wizard of Earthsea (Ursula K. Le Guin) -honestly was not very impressed by this. It was fine.

Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) - If you're really into the Russian classics, I would recommend this, but there's like 6 others I would recommend first.

Firefly: Big Damn Hero (James Lovegrove, Nancy Holder) -If you want the book equivalent of a solid but not stand-out filler episode of Firefly

The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (Ken Liu) -I ranked all of the short stories in this on my blog if you search for it. Some are great. Some are not.

All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr) - It's really really good. A book you just want to sit with.

The Chalice of the Gods (Rick Riordan) - Kinda the same vibe as the Firefly one. It's good to see Percy again, it's a fun time, it's not taking any big swings or doing anything particularly new. But I did really enjoy the thematic linking of which gods were chosen to be a part of the story.

Dracula (Bram Stoker) - It's Tumblr, I don't need to review this here.

Biblical Critical Theory: How The Bible's Unfolding Story Makes Sense of Modern Life and Culture (Christopher Watkin) - This book is really big but it has so much good stuff in it. Well worth the read.

An Experiment in Criticism (C.S. Lewis) - There was quite I while through this one where I was not really jiving with it, but then at the end he pulls it together and I really like where he ends up, as evidenced by quoting half of it on posts here.

Poems (C.S. Lewis) - I'm not good enough at reading poetry to review it. There's a few in here that I quite liked though.

For teaching-

1. The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)- it's still great. After reading it who knows how many times, it's just so good.

2. The Crucible (Arthur Miller)- The character work in here is fantastic, and I really do like it a lot, but if Miller understood grace a bit better? the ending could be phenomenal.

3. Long Way Gone (Ishmael Beah)- It's not my favorite but it is really powerful and worth reading and the kids were really invested in it