#the pleasure of love in iran

[neil-gaiman]

Hello Neil. I hope you're doing all fine.

I'm from Iran. Iran always had such a glorious history. you have lots of fans in Iran and It would be such a great pleasure for all of us if you make a flashback in S3 where Aziraphale and Crowley are in ancient times of Iran. We have lots of stories you may find them interesting. For instance Cyrus the Great who was the king of the Achaemenid Empire, for the very first time, earned another empire without any war and violence.

It would be amazing if you have this in your mind too. Thank you so much.

With love by all of your Iranian fans.

PS/ Even if there is a reference to Iran's history, if there is a political problem, to show it fully, it is satisfactory for us. Thank you for your great mind

Iranian history is a wonderful thing. I'm glad that Crowley and Aziraphale have their supporters there, and if there's ever another chance to revisit their time in the past it would be great to see what they did in ancient Iran.

[loneberry]

"Attar is one of the greatest poets of the Persian language. Nonetheless, his popularity - both in Iran itself and in the West (Goethe, for example, touched on him only briefly in his West-Eastern Divan) - does not match that of Ferdowsi (d. 1020), Omar Khayyam (d. c.1132), Rumi, Saadi (d. 1292) or Hafiz (d. 1389); occasionally he is even omitted from the line of seven Persian poet-princes in favour of Jami (d. 1492). One pos­sible reason for this is that the composition of his poetry is too artful, too complex to be effective in the town squares and teahouses, while at the same time, many of his stories and figures may seem too coarse, too folk-like and too sarcastic to be at the forefront of the high spir­itual literature cultivated at courts in former times and in middle-class households today. Attar’s poetry, on the other hand, is far less stilted than that of most Persian poets but, rather, unadorned, clear and imme­diate. The pain it expresses is not spiritually filtered as in Rumi, far less metaphysically elevated than in Saadi, and not sublimated into pleasure as in Omar Khayyam - where Hafiz turns the earthly into the mystical, Attar strips mysticism down to its leaden, earthly foundation in order to scream his longing to the heavens." --Navid Kermani, The Terror of God: Attar, Job and the Metaphysical Revolt

.

I asked my professor which masnavi (Persian epic poem) he thinks is the greatest ever written. He replied, Rumi's Masnavi (the only masnavi Rumi wrote). Shock. How can there be a masnavi greater than Attar's Conference of the Birds? (There are 4 authentic Attar masnavis; sadly, as far as I know, Conference of the Birds is the only one that has been translated into English.) Reading through Rumi's masnavi I think I am still team Attar. It's Attar's coarseness I love--he is a poet of mad saints and freaks. In Rumi's Masnavi, the absence of a frame story and the pious/didactic tone is somewhat of a barrier for me. The pieces don't quite hang together, whereas Attar's Conference of the Birds is intricately structured--there are stories within stories within stories, each bird with its idiosyncratic psychology--a narrative arc that mirrors the journey of the soul across the seven valleys. But maybe there is a difference between reading a sufi text for its poetry rather than religious instruction, I don't know.

[girlactionfigure]

I’m sending love to all the Jews in the world. You’ve done nothing wrong. All the negative painful feelings you have shouldn’t be there. This is all on Hamas and Iran and Qatar. Even with the release of kidnapped children it’s hard to find joy. There is just grimness. The children shouldn’t have been there. There shouldn’t be remaining hostages. There shouldn’t be 1400 dead. But this is the world as it is. We face a wicked enemy. Even this partial hostage release is designed to mess you up emotionally and mentally. It’s psychological warfare. It’s to help Hamas have a breathing space. It’s to help the propaganda war against Israel. None of this feels like victory. They are using our love and decency against us. I would rather our love is used against us than to be the loveless people they are - a wicked enemy who commit crimes against humanity and celebrate those crimes as if they are the best part of who they are. Remind yourself this is a long, hard grim road. There is little if any pleasure foreseeable on the horizon. But we have not choice but to keep going and put one foot in front of the other. One day, things will get lighter if we just keep moving forward. We will rebuild ourselves as individuals and collectively. We will defeat our enemies. We will win. One day you will sit down and look around you at a dinner or gathering of people, of your family and friends, and you will realise life is ok and that it isn’t how it feels right now. Stay in the game for that moment. We’ll meet each other there.

@leekern13

[unhonestlymirror]

Vatņiki of the day:

Me, a Ukrainian-Belaruthian, knowing that my Belaruthian mom was tortured, blackmailed and exiled from her home without being able to see her parents for decades thanks to russians, looking at people drawing Belarus as russia's sister who loves russia:

Have you ever bothered scrolling through the news of Belarus? It's like: "killed", "raped", "murdered", "raped", "died in prison", "died in prison", "thrown in prison", "raped". And it's all thanks to russia. If russia didn't exist, Belaruthians wouldn't have to suffer so much.

We don't call russia "Big Brother". Stop fucking masturbating on Stalin's rhetoric.

Interestingly, no one ever EVER draws Iran being in love with russia and calling russia its "big brother". Why? Because of the Iranian regime, who kills and rapes innocent people, who don't actually want to be perceived as its regime supporters? Then why the fuck don't you perceive Belarus the same way, if you are so fucking tolerant and progressive? Is it because we are "white"?

"I love Ukraine^^" write hetalia artists and then draw my country being russia's sister. Ukrainians are being killed by russian missiles and shaheds every day, but you couldn't bother less about real people.

And, of course, russian artists once again proving how cruel, bloodthirsty and heartless creatures they are. Nothing new. The same bloodthirsty creatures create the illusion of grandeur. "Lithuanians, including Jews, being killed, raped, displaced, sent to Siberia by russians for centuries? Who gives a fuck hahaha, look, I love spreading harmful and offensive shit about real people, especially when I'm russian."

There are so many interesting topics to choose from for a drawing of my countries. And yet you keep choosing the most offensive, the most stupid, the most mainstream ideas ever. This community is a fucking joke, насмешка з велічы чалавецтва.

Yk, hetalia fandom is not really different from the russian occupiers. Uneducated (although some of you even have diplomas, which is twice weird), corrupted, soulless idiots, you have neither knowledge, nor talent, your only advantage is that there are many of you, and you cultivate idiocy in each other. Many of you actually behave like sadistic maniacs, you get pleasure from inflicting pain on other people, who lost their homes, families, and friends because of russia. And the saddest part is that no one is doing anything to stop this. No one cares. No one is even saying, "Hey, maybe your drawing is not actually a right thing to post". People just keep whining about "oh but we don't bring politics there" - it's because it's not your house being shelled by missiles. It's because it's not your friends and families being raped and tortured. Believe me, if you had to live under conditions Ukrainians are currently living, you'll be screaming the loudest, like a fucking pig who's about being cut into sausages. Жалюгідні нікчеми.

[tilbageidanmark]

The 1,289 movies I saw in 2024...

This is my fourth 'End of Year' recap. In January 2021, during the Covid lock-down, I began logging the many films that I watch every day, just to keep track. In the beginning I jotted a line or two about each, only to create a record. But then I started adding longer notes and more elaborate impressions, and before I knew it, I've got a 'Film Project' on my hands.

The obsessive project mushroomed. In the course of these four years, I watched and reviewed a total of 4,126 movies; 885 in 2021, 954 in 2022, 998 in 2023, and a ridiculous number of 1,289 movies this last year.

And it seems that I'm just getting started.

As I wrote before, I owe an apology to nobody for my indulgence. I derive great pleasure from discovering daily the best movies ever made, and I enjoy even more the process of thinking about them and coming up with my own specific takes, if I can. As an un-accomplished 'Creator', composing short reviews fills me with just the right amount of self-fulfillment. The fact that I am blessed with the physical and financial ability to enjoy this type of existence right now, at the end of my own life and while civilization collapses all around us, is not lost on me either.

The project, like the many others I created before it, is purely personal, and is a strict 'labor of love'. Watching a movie today is an individual experience [Except of one visit, I haven't been to a theater in many years], and maintaining this blog (which hardly anybody visits), is done as a form of mental masturbation; I do it every day because I like it a lot, and because it doesn't hurt anybody. I described my background before, so there's no need to repeat it here.

So here are some generalities, with a dozen 'Best-Of' samples below.

I've made a concerted effort to watch more films helmed by women directors - 215 in all (but only 16% of the total). Next year I will increase that number.

I like good documentaries, and of the 1,289 movies, 170 were documentaries. However, most of them were not that great. Surprisingly, only 99 were repeat films that I had watched before – it felt as if the number would be higher. I also started watching many more short films (5 to 40 minutes), and I plan focusing even more on short films in the coming year.

As I'm moving away from Hollywood-type blockbuster fair, I saw 737 “Foreign” films (read: Not American) which were 57% of the total. Next year I will be sure to increase that ratio too.

Here is the break-down by country:

From the UK (108)

From France (106)

From Canada (44)

From Japan (40)

From Denmark (25)

From "Czechoslovakia" (24)

From Germany (21)

From Sweden (20)

From Italy & "Russia" (18 each)

From Israel & Poland (17 each)

From Brazil (16)

From Australia, Iran & Ireland (13 each)

From Iceland, Korea & Spain (12 each)

From Hungary (11)

From Turkey (10)

The rest were films from China, Romania, The Netherlands, Argentina, India, Yugoslavia, Belgium, Finland, Latvia, Mexico, Chile, Croatia, Norway, Austria, Cuba, Egypt, Greece, Morocco, Palestine, Scotland, Switzerland, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Nigeria, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Haiti, Lebanon, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Afghanistan, Armenia, Colombia, Cyprus, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Jordan, Paraguay, Portugal, Senegal, Sudan, Taiwan, Thailand, Tunisia and Wales. [But unlike 2023, no films in Babylonian this year...]

Many of these 1,293 movies were terrible. But only 23 of them I simply couldn't finish. They included: Otto Preminger's 'Exodus', Troma Studio's 'Poultrygeist', Polanski's 1970 'A day at the beach', The Japanese 'Patisserie Coin de rue', Bob Fosse 'All that Jazz', M. Night Shyamalan 'The happening', Gene Hackman's 'Heartbreakers', Elaine May 'A new leaf', Etc. Many of the others were boring, tedious, stupid. YMMV.

Next year I will also start keeping track of the genres, which I haven't done up to now. I may try new things, but there are some popular genres I generally stir away from: Superheros, horror, franchise, fantasy. There were six A.I.-generated films that I saw this year. I predict that in 2025 we will have the first 'good' A.I. features.

I wish I had signed up to Letterboxd at the start. It would have made sorting the list so much easier. But I've been dropping out of all social media (reddit and tumblr are the only ones still standing), and I don't plan on starting on a new platform.

I only felt the urge to "rate" 40% of the movies I saw (527), and of the ones that I did rate, there were 18 which I designated “Best”, and 78 to which I gave the 10/10 score. 'Best' for me usually meant that it offered a 'very' strong emotional reaction.

40 years ago I studied film at Copenhagen University, but it's only during these last few years that I've become pretty knowledgeable about the overall history of the cinema. It is therefore my favorite experience today to come across a movie I never even heard of, maybe from a different time and place, which knocks me completely over.

And so, here are a few of the less obvious gems which I enjoyed the most this year. Many more on the blog. Check them all out if you want.

The films of Icelandic Hlynur Pálmason (all but 'Winter brothers'). My favorite was 'White, white day', a masterful feat of slow film making, with unusual choices in its subtle direction. A policeman grieves for his wife who died in a car accident. The man renovates a house, takes care of his cute granddaughter, and then, (like ‘The Descendants’), he discovers that before she died, his beloved wife had an affair with some guy. A stunning story of heartbreak, resignation and acceptance. The Trailer.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan 8 films (I still haven't seen his 'Casaba' and 'Clouds of May'). My favorite of his: 'About Dry Grasses' which plays for over 3 hours in the desolate, snow-covered mountains of Eastern Anatolia. Like Mads Mikkelsen in 'The Hunt’, a teacher in a small village is being falsely accused of improper behavior toward a 14-year-old girl. But the slow and meandering story embraces other themes as well, of longing, of truth seeking, of weariness, complacency and contempt. With a delusional, self centered man and the two females he misunderstands and maligns. It includes one shocking 'break the 4th wall’ moment (at 2:05:00) which illustrates that nothing we think and believe in is true. The trailer.

'A brand new life' (2009), a heart-breaking Korean story, based on the director’s personal life. A sweet 9-year-old girl is abandoned by her father, who one day and without any warning drops her off at a Catholic orphanage in the countryside and leaves. Life is suddenly too painful for her. With the cutest little girl, who has to deal with life’s harshest lessons. A relatable debut feature, it uses the simplest and purest film language. It's similar to other tragic stories about innocence lost; Carla Simón’s ‘Summer 1993’, the French film 'Ponette’, and the Irish 'The Quiet Girl’ from last year, all with the same kind spirit and sad understatements. The trailer.

'The Last Repair Shop', winner of last year's Oscar for Best Documentary Short. A quiet story about a shop that maintains and repairs the 80,000 musical instruments used by students of the Los Angeles school district. It’s about mending broken things so they can be whole again, performed by people who were also broken, but are now whole. Similar to and even better than the 2017 Oscar nominee 'Joe’s Violin'.

'Ága', my first Bulgarian film, but it plays somewhere in Yakutsk, south of the Russian arctic circle. An isolated old Inuit couple lives alone in a yurt on the tundra. Slow and spiritual, their lives unfold in the most unobtrusive way, it feels like a documentary. But the simplicity is deceiving, this is film-making of the highest grade, and once Mahler 5th is introduced on a small transistor radio, it’s transcendental. The emptiness touched me deeply. (I should watch it again!). The trailer.

'Symphony No. 42' by Hungarian animator Réka Bucsi. It consists of 47 short & whimsical vignettes, without any rhyme or rhythm; A farmer fills a cow with milk until it overflows, a zoo elephant draws a “Help me” sign on a canvas, a UFO sucks all the fish from the ocean, wolves party hard to 'La Bamba’, an angry man throws a pie at a penguin, two cowboys holding blue balloons watch a tumbleweed rolls by, a big naked woman cuddle with a seal, etc. etc. Bucsi made it before Don Hertzfeldt’s 'World of tomorrow’ and even before 'Echo', my favorite Rúnar Rúnarsson’s. 10 perfect minutes of surrealist chaos.

'Shirkers', a 2018 documentary. Sandi Tan was an avant-garde teenage punker when she set out to make Singapore’s first New Wave road movie in 1992, together with 2 female friends and a middle aged mentor. But when the shooting was over, this 'mentor’ collected the 72 canisters of completed film as well as all supportive materials, and disappeared. For 20 years, Sandi and friends could not figure out what had happened, and eventually gave up on their groundbreaking work. This documentary pieces together the mystery, telling about the process of making the original movie, the consequences of losing - and finding it again - after all this time. Absolutely tremendous. The trailer.

'Dwelling in the Fuchun Mountains' is young Chinese prodigy Gu Xiaogang's debut feature. A slow epic saga (2.5 long hours) of a large family struggling during four seasons through life’s ups and down in this provincial city. It’s a metaphor for a classic scroll painting from the 14 century, and it is apparently only the first chapter in an upcoming trilogy. A stupendous, slow-moving masterpiece told in a magnificent style, and half a dozen transcendental set pieces. The trailer.

The short jazzy documentaries of Dutch Bert Haanstra, especially 'Glass' (1958), the first Oscar win for The Netherlands, and 'Zoo', which was made 3 years later.

'Apollo 11', a documentary by Todd Douglas Miller. An exhilarating re-telling of the moon landing from 2019. Perfectly crisp and emotionally laid out, without any bullshit narration, talking heads interviews or irritating recreations. Just jaw-dropping photography which puts you in the middle of the action. The trailer.

I’ve always loved Buñuel’s last 3 films, maybe because they were so easy to watch. The fire and brimstone of his youth were distilled into accessible, vivid tableaux. Re-watching his 'The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie', (or “Six friends and the impossible dinner”) was just delightful: You nearly feel sorry for these poor 1-procenters, who can’t find a decent place to eat in. Their illogical dreams dredge out their childhood traumas, and there’s no explanations to anything that happens. It was the New 4K trailer which drew me back.

The magical work of Australian stop-motion animator Adam Elliot. Especially, 'Mary and Max'. A weirdly adult 'Wallace and Gromit', a dark and tragic clay figure story, voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. Two damaged and unfortunate souls connect by becoming pen pals; A lonely Australian 8-year-old girl with an ugly birthmark on her forehead, and an obese Jewish New Yorker with Asperger’s. It encompasses 20 years of outlandish long-distance emotions which ends with the acknowledgment of friendship. The trailer.

'Pirosmani' (1969), my first Georgian masterpiece which was not made by Sergei Parajanov. It’s an awe-inspiring biography of Nikolai Pirosmanashvíli. He was a self-taught, naïve Georgian painter who lived during Vincent van Gogh’s time, and like him, died destitute and unappreciated by his piers, only to find prominence decades after his death. (Japanese Trailer here.) It’s an absorbing and visually-stunning film, composed of rural tableaux and primitive folk setting, a mixture of Henri Rousseau, Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Bruegel and Jodorowsky. A sad, slow and formal composition, full of sublime pathos and simplicity.

'For the hungry boy' (2018), my all-time favorite Paul Thomas Anderson work, even more than his “Phantom Thread”, out of which these discarded shots were collected. Vicki Krieps is a major crush. The score is Jonny Greenwood’s “House of Woodcock” from the movie. I've seen it at least 15 times since October.

'Nostalgia for the light' (2010), my first film by Chilean Patricio Guzmán. His life-long work had been occupied with the Chilean coup d'état and the collective scars suffered by the people of Chile to this day. This beautiful documentary starts with examining the gigantic telescopic installations at the Atacama desert, used by astronomers to discover the origins of the cosmos. He then segues into the story the 60,000 'disappeared’, who were imprisoned in large concentration camps in the same area, and then murdered without a trace. A group of wives and sisters have been roving for decades now the same barren area, searching for bone fragments of their loved one. So both archaeologists and astronomers are looking for clues about the past. The trailer.

A woman interviewed in one continued shot: A small 1993 French masterpiece 'Emilie Muller'. A young woman arrives for her first ever audition where she’s asked to show the contents of her handbag. As soon as I finished watching it, I had to watch it again, and then a third time.

“Wow! So, are there any last words you would like to say, about this whole thing?” Not really.

Here is a Google spreadsheet with the output of all 4 years.

Please become one of the few regular people who visit this blog. I post 20-30 new film reviews every Monday morning, Copenhagen time. Bookmark and interact.

Arigato gozaimasu.

[sagemonsters]

every once in a while I get the urge to combine monster romance with my love for historical fiction. This rarely works out BUT I am nothing if not persistent.

Anyway, my mlm weretiger x human novelette set in Achaemenid-era Iran is almost fully outlined. Drafting to commence once my midterms are over and I can spend more time writing for pleasure.

[matan4il]

Just sending some love your way again, and thanks so much for the book and music recs!! I've been loving working my way through them 💖💖

Hi darling! I'm so glad you're enjoying those! :D Any bit of joy counts, always, but especially now. I hope you're doing well, and I am sending you so much love right back! xoxox

So glad to hear that you are safe, and that the attack was mostly intercepted. Thank you for all the work you do in giving us news from the Israeli perspective- I'm working on my Hebrew, but it's slow, and I always worry that automated translations miss nuance and context.

Thank you so much! I think a lot of us, knowing that Iran has employed its generals to help its terrorist proxies, and that those generals have been eliminated by Israel repeatedly over the years, we didn't expect an attack of this magnitude from Iran, and that even we were surprised at how well our defences held against it. I'll try to post a bit more about this later. Thank YOU so much for the kind words, and awwww, you're learning Hebrew! :D I have to say, I'm so in love with this language, I'm very happy for anyone who does. I hope you're enjoying it! ^u^ And it's my pleasure to be able to add a few translations. I def do try to bring across the nuance and context that automated traslations can't recognize even exists. Be well, and I'm sending you lots of hugs! xoxox

@missviolethunter asked:

Thank you for posting updates even in the aftermath of the attack. Your blog and a few other Jesiwh blogs are the only places with unbiased information here. I hope you and your family are safe. The terrorist supporters make a lot of noise on tumblr, but they're just a bunch of idiots. My country had issues with terrorism for many years, and I know how it feels to fear for your family members who are in the military. I know it's not much, but I'm sending you hugs. 😘

I really do my best to get everything from fact checked journalistic sources, although obviously it's not perfect (because neither are they, some are expressly biased, while others simply get duped once in a while, same as everyone else. They are run by humans, after all). I'm really glad if I can help in any way, even the smallest!

I am so sorry that your country also had to deal with terrorism. I will never understand how people can think that terrorism, the intentional targeting of innocent people, is EVER justified. It's not about whether a specific cause is just or not. It's about whether we value human life or not. Anyone who can justify terrorism, is saying they're comfortable with being the arbiter of who gets to live and who doesn't, and that is so wrong on so many levels... I am sending you lots of hugs, and I hope you, your people, us and everyone else who has suffered or is suffering from terrorism, never have to fear for their life or that of their loved ones ever again.

It's actually so much, I appreciate the hugs, the message, the kindness, and I am sending you lots of hugs right back! xoxox

[losthistoryblog]

Dastangoi: The Art of Storytelling

Dastangoi is an Urdu storytelling art. Derived from Persia. Dastangoi is performed by one person who's referred to as a Dastango, the word for storyteller. Stories are referred to as Dastans. Dastan means, tale or story and the suffix -goi makes it a verb. Hence, Dastangoi translates to "to tell a story"

Dastangoi had it's origins in pre-Islamic Arabia and moved onto Iran and then the North Indian cities of Delhi and Lucknow in the 18th century.

It was very popular in Lucknow, across all classes of people and in public and private. It was done in the streets, in homes and even opium dens. Many people saw Dastans as a key part of the the experience in an opium den

Some people, who were particularly rich would hire Dastangos to entertain their clients and friends. These stories would come under themes such as, war, pleasure, beauty, love and deception.

Dastangoi enjoyed a revitalisation in India in 2005, which seemed to have stemmed from Mahmood Farooqui

[aftaabmagazine]

In that Breath - Spiritual Lyrics as Gateway to the Divine from Kabul’s Kharabat 

در آن نفس

In that Breath 

Two captivating renditions of a composition by the revered استاد محمد هاشم چشتی Ustad Mohammad Hashim Chishti (1944-94) featuring lyrics by the master poet of the ages, سعدی Saadi, vividly showcase the distinct and intriguing musical traditions of کابل Kabul and هرات Herat. 

These performances, by two celebrated vocalists, استاد مهوش Ustad Mahwash and استاد جلیل احمد دل‌آهنگ Ustad Jalil Del Ahang, present a rare and precious chance to delve into the unified artistic expression born from the rich cultural heritage of Kabul’s خرابات Kharabat musician quarter.

The Poem by Saadi  سعدی

In that breath when I pass, may I be yearning for you 

بدان امید دهم جان که خاک کوی تو باشم

I give up my life with the hope of becoming the dust of your alley

حدیث روضه نگویم گل بهشت نبویم

I will not speak of the gardens of paradise nor smell the flowers of heaven

جمال حور نجویم دوان بسوی تو باشم

I will not desire the beauty of the houris but steer towards you

Translated from the Farsi by فرهاد آزاد Farhad Azad with edits by پروین پژواک Parween Pazhwak

استاد مهوش Ustad Mahwash's Version Liner Notes

This song In that Breath was composed by Ustad Mohammad Hashim Chishti (1944-94). 

This recording by Ustad Mahwash was released in 2007 by the Accords-Croises label based in فرانسه France. She was the first woman to have been conferred the honorary title of "Ustad" in 1977 in Kabul by the Ministry of Culture. 

Spiritual Lyrics as Gateway to the Divine from Kabul’s Kharabat 

By Farhad Azad 

The lyrics embody صوفی Sufi ideals, expressing fervent longing for the beloved, rejecting worldly pleasures in favor of divine love, seeking annihilation of the self in union with the Divine, and using the beloved as a symbol for the ultimate reality. 

In Kharabat, where the songs held deep spiritual significance, استادان masters or ustads would often require their students to perform an ablution وضو (wuzu), before singing. This ritual purification emphasized the sacred nature of the poetry and music, ensuring the singers approached their performance with reverence and spiritual readiness.

Reflecting on her musical journey in the CD’s liner notes, Ustad Mahwash says “I am a follower of the sufi path and our Master Mohammad Chishti who encouraged devotion through the practice of 'mystical audition' or سماع Sama. I sing everything that relates to love.” 

Ustad Del Ahang's Version Liner Notes

This استاد جلیل احمد دل‌آهنگ Ustad Jalil Ahmad Del Ahang’s (1961-2018) rendition of در آن نفس (In that Breath) is a moving example of the Kharabati school of music, honed under the tutelage of استاد سرآهنگ Ustad Sarahang (1924-83) and later استاد موسی قاسمی Ustad Musa Qasemi (1936-95). 

From Kabul to Herat: The Journey of Kharabat’s Spiritual Music

By Farhad Azad 

The music of کابل Kabul’s خرابات Kharabat district, a cultural gem, embarked on a poignant journey to هرات Herat as early as the 1930s. This migration was not merely a physical movement of aspiring artists to Kabul to study under the masters, but a profound cultural exchange that shaped the musical landscape of Herat, carrying with it the emotions and aspirations of a community.

This استاد جلیل احمد دل‌آهنگ Ustad Jalil Ahmad Del Ahang’s (1961-2018) rendition of در آن نفس (In that Breath) is a profoundly moving example of the Kharabati school of music, a testament to the emotional depth and beauty that can be achieved through music. His soulful interpretation, filled with longing and devotion, resonates with the spiritual essence of the Chishti Sufi order, inviting the listener on a journey of self-discovery and transcendence. 

Exiled in ایران Iran in 1998, Ustad Jalil Ahmad Del Ahang captured the haunting performance, accompanied by استاد رحیم خوشنواز Ustad Rahim Khushnawaz (1943-2010) on robab, عظیم حسن‌پور Azim Hassanpour on tabla, and غلام سخی رسولی Ghulam Sakhi Rasouli on dutar. 

The reverend musician and composer استاد محمد هاشم چشتی Ustad Mohammad Hashim Chishti (1944-94) traced his lineage to the چشتی Chishti Sufi order a spiritual tradition established in the 900s AD by ابو اسحاق شامی Abu Ishaq Shami in the town of چشت Chisht, located in present-day Herat province افغانستان Afghanistan. The Chishti Sufi order, with its emphasis on music as a spiritual practice, played a pivotal role in developing and preserving the Kharabati school of music, infusing it with spiritual depth and significance. 

The Chishti practice, renowned for its profound emphasis on سماع Sama, a devotional practice of evoking the divine presence through music and poetry, is not just a performance, but a transformative spiritual journey. This unique aspect of the Chishti practice adds a layer of depth and richness to the music, elevating it beyond mere entertainment to a profound spiritual experience that resonates with the soul.

The unique lineage of this صوفی Sufi musical tradition is a testament to the enduring power of cultural exchange and the fluidity of art and culture. Born in the heart of Herat, the Chishti Sufi order’s musical essence found its way to Kabul through the descendants of Ustad Hashim Chishti. 

His descendants, invited from هند مرکزی central India by امیر شیرعلی خان Amir Sher Ali Khan, the ruler of کابلستان Kabulistan in the 1870s, played a crucial role in carrying forward the musical tradition, demonstrating the enduring power of cultural exchange and the fluidity of art and culture, and the importance of preserving such cultural practices.

The poet لیلا صراحت روشنی Layla Sarhat Rushani (1958-2004) aptly observed that artistic works with “simplicity in the expression” are akin to  “a stream of pure, clear water, and clear waters often make their depths appear shallower than they actually are.” 

While seemingly lovely and simple on the surface, these two renditions of Ustad Hashim’s composition carry a profound depth—a millennia-long journey of verse and melody passed down through generations, traversing vast distances before returning to their ancestral home. The music, a testament to the interconnectedness of human expression, transcends geographical boundaries and historical epochs, resonating with listeners across time and space.

[dailyanarchistposts]

Chapter Nine. God: The Commercial

There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies. —Walter Lippmann[183]

Arthur Blessitt sits with his large dark wooden cross, a wheel attached to the base, on a couch in the studios of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) in Tinicum, California. He and the host, Paul Crouch Jr., watch as Paul’s younger brother Matt finishes an interview in the studio in Hollywood. The two men wait for the cue signaling they are on the air.

Blessitt, who has just completed a book called Give Me a J, is a frequent guest on the network’s most popular nightly two-hour variety show, Praise the Lord. He played a role in the conversion of George W. Bush after meeting him in 1984 in Midland, Texas. The owners and founders of Trinity Broadcasting, Paul Crouch Sr. and Jan Crouch, have carried out fund-raising appeals so Blessitt, who has a citation in the Guinness Book of World Records for “World’s Longest Walk,” can carry his cross along roadsides in foreign countries. The show this evening, filled with the usual uplifting Christian music and interviews with Christian celebrities, such as the former NBA basketball star A. C. Green, is about to turn to the supernatural portion of the program, the moment when the power of Jesus to perform miracles is, the hosts say, made visible and real.

“There is more excitement and joy in living with Jesus for one hour than all the carnal pleasures in a lifetime,” Blessitt says into the camera when they begin.

“Amen,” Paul Crouch Jr. adds.

The conversation centers on Blessitt’s campaign, which began on Christmas day 1969, to traverse the globe carrying the wooden cross on his shoulder. Blessitt, with a mop of gray hair, explains that he has walked “over 37,000 miles, almost one and a half times around the world, through 305 nations, island groups and territories” and taken “over 64 million steps.

“When you calculate the weight of each step with the weight of the cross,” he says, he has carried “over 8 billion pounds, and I don’t have one callus, one bunion, and I’m 65 years old and I never felt better in my life.”

The taped applause track prompts the small studio crowd to clap.

“The obvious question is: Why?” asks Crouch, leaning toward his guest.

“Because Jesus spoke to me, I love Him,” Blessitt answers. “And in 1969 one night I was praying and Jesus said, ‘Take the cross off the building on Sunset Boulevard’—where I had a Jesus night club on Sunset Strip—‘put the cross on your shoulder, and carry it on the roadsides of the world and identify My message where the people are.’ And by the grace of God, I’ve walked through 50 countries at war. I’ve been in jail 24 times. I’ve been through Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Sudan, Somalia, everyplace, lifting up the cross, preaching Jesus. There are no walls. There are no barriers. The world is open. Jesus said, ‘Go,’ and you go to live or die, but you go to do His will.”

“You took the great commission literally,” Crouch says, referring to the belief that Christians must leave their homes to convert nonbelievers.

“Yes, yes,” Blessitt says.

“To go into all the world. And you are just about to do that,” Crouch adds. “You have a few little island nations—”

“—well, they are not nations,” Blessitt says. “I have been to every nation, but there are a few remote islands, like the Chatham Islands and Zanzibar and some of these places. To have been in every inhabited place—”

“—Wow—”

“—and Jesus has given the strength to do that and it is just amazing,” Blessitt says. “I look at the pictures on my wall. I look at everything and it is a living miracle of what God has done.”

Blessitt and his wife, Denise Irja, have just adopted a baby and recently moved to work out of the Heritage Christian Center in Denver, Colorado. He is on Praise the Lord to give tips on how to witness and “reach a hurting world,” but first Crouch promises dramatic video footage from a TBN documentary called Arthur Blessitt: A Pilgrim.

The men sit back and watch the clip.

NARRATOR:(Over pictures of a younger Blessitt) In 1979, Arthur journeyed into one of the most politically unstable areas of the world, Central America. The trip was sponsored by the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

PAUL CROUCH SR.:(Over dark, ominous music) We saw the phones ring and the money pledged to buy what we lovingly dubbed the Holy Roller, the little four-wheel drive vehicle that had been given by the partners to assist Arthur in his travel and his journey down through Central America.

(Paul and Jan Crouch, who is wearing a flowing dress that looks like a square-dancing outfit, climb out of the cab of a jeep that is pulling a small caravan and hand the keys to Blessitt.)

PAUL CROUCH SR.: This absolutely unreal drama unfolded, and we were to learn later the most frightening and dangerous experiences of Arthur Blessitt’s entire life.

(Jan Crouch, her champagne-colored wig cascading down her shoulders, sits on a bed under muted lighting.)

JAN CROUCH:(Speaking in a breathless whisper) I really wasn’t thinking about Arthur Blessitt…. when all of a sudden I looked up and the entire ceiling in the bedroom where we were sleeping had lit up. And I saw like it was a movie screen what was going on, what was happening in Nicaragua.

ARTHUR BLESSITT: I heard a banging on the side of the trailer. I opened the trailer caravan door, and gunmen burst into our trailer.

JAN CROUCH: When I opened my eyes to look at it, I saw Arthur and he was just looking at me, and I had never really seen that look before. There was no fear. It was just like, “Pray, Jan, pray.”

ARTHUR BLESSITT: They took me near the side of the van, the four-wheel drive vehicle, and they stood me there and they lined up, seven gunmen and two on a truck with machine guns. They said they were going to kill me. When they raised the guns up and took aim, I realized at that moment, “They are going to literally shoot me now.”

JAN CROUCH: And I stopped and I said, “Honey, Arthur Blessitt is in trouble and we have got to pray.”

PAUL CROUCH SR.: All of a sudden, Jan descended on me and half frightened me to death…. She seized my arm and said, “Honey, Arthur’s in trouble, and we’ve got to pray for him.”

NARRATOR: Blessitt explains that he decided he would not die without a Bible in his hand.

ARTHUR BLESSITT: In a momentary decision, as I heard the guy say, “Uno, dos,” I turned instantly with my prayer: “Jesus, help me hit the keyhole.” And I turned and stuck the key into the door, right in the hole first time, right in the door, and they were saying, “Don’t move” in Spanish. I thought, “It doesn’t matter if I get shot in the front or the back.” I opened the door, picked up a box that had Bibles in it. I set the box down and started tearing off the top of the box, and it had these cords on it. It was very difficult to get the box open. I could see the gunmen’s feet around me. They were pulling on my shoulder trying to get me to stand up. Finally, I got a whole load and put the Bibles in my arm and thought I would give them all a Bible. I was really anticipating getting one for myself, but I thought I would give them all a Bible before they shot me.

PAUL CROUCH SR.: We fell to our knees, right there in the bedroom in that little cottage in Phoenix, and began to cry out to God and pray and receive, knowing nothing about what Arthur was experiencing at that moment.

JAN CROUCH: We jumped down by the bed very quickly…. We held hands across the bed and prayed for our friend Arthur. And all of a sudden I said, “Father, I ask you to send 12 big angels to fight for him right now.”

ARTHUR BLESSITT: And when I stood up, there wasn’t one gunman standing there. And I looked and there were six on the ground about 15 feet away and one with his feet sticking out the door of the trailer who had been knocked inside. I didn’t know what had happened. I heard nothing. I saw nothing.

NARRATOR: Blessitt says he went over to the ones on the ground and offered them a Bible and some water, but they were terrified and ran for the truck and sped away. When he walked in the trailer, his friend Don said he thought he had been killed.

DON: I have just been saved a couple of years, and I grew up in bars. I know meat against meat. I heard blows and then the gunmen fell by the door, and one fell into the door. Didn’t you hit them?

ARTHUR BLESSITT: I said no, I didn’t do anything. The people in the village came running up and said they saw God here. They said they saw a bright flash of light and God was here. And all I could do was stand in the midst of that whole situation and say, “Somebody must have been praying for me.”

“Oh, man,” Paul Crouch Jr. says as the camera switches back to the studio amid heavy applause.

“It is very moving to look at that,” Blessitt tells his host.

“What are you feeling?” Crouch asks softly.

“I feel the love that Paul and Jan had,” he says. “I don’t understand all about prayer, but God had them pray.”

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“And there was a literal miracle that took place,” Blessitt says. “I feel the presence of God.”

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“The only thing I can say is, I have lived now for 36 years of walking around the world in the presence of God,” Blessitt says.

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“I carried the cross,” Blessitt says. “I know His presence.”

“Amen,” Crouch says.

“And really, that is how I live,” Blessitt says. “I know Jesus is with me. I know that I know that I know that I know.”

“How do you know?” Crouch asks in a whisper.

“I know because His word says so,” Blessitt says as the applause track is again turned up, prompting the audience to clap. “Jesus said, ‘I will be with you always.’ I believe what He said.”

“Tell them,” Crouch encourages.

“And I believe another scripture: ‘Where two or three are gathered in my name there am I in the midst of them.’”

“Amen,” Crouch says, as an electric piano plays soft music in the background.

“And Paul, I have been so many times in places where there is not one believer around me,” Blessitt says. “I have been with soldiers. I have been with terrorist groups. And I will just say to them, ‘Would you say the name “Jesus”?’ And when they say the name ‘Jesus,’ the presence of Christ comes into that atmosphere. And really, that is how I share Christ; that is how I witness.”

The scene, with its high drama and emotion, its story of a miracle and the divine intervention mediated by Paul and Jan Crouch, is typical fare for Trinity Broadcasting. As Blessitt launches into a short pitch on the importance of knowing and accepting Jesus into your heart, Crouch reminds viewers that they can call prayer counselors at the toll-free number shown on the bottom of the screen. It is a short step from a prayer counselor to making a “love gift” and becoming a partner in Trinity Broadcasting. Above all else, this is a business, a huge one, and those who know how to run it well, the Paul and Jan Crouches, the Pat Robertsons and Benny Hinns, have grown wealthy and built massive media and personal empires on the gospel of prosperity.

The Crouches, who began their television evangelism with the disgraced Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, wear gaudy costumes and sit during their popular nightly program in front of stained-glass windows that overlook faux Louis XVI sets awash in gold rococo and red velvet, glittering chandeliers and a gold-painted piano. The emblem of the station, which Paul Crouch wears on the pocket of his blue double-breasted blazer, is a crest with a British lion and unicorn on each side and a white dove of peace in the middle. The couple, who collect nearly $1 million a year in salary from the network, also have use of 30 ministry-owned homes, including two sprawling multimillion-dollar oceanfront mansions in the resort town of Newport Beach, California, a mountain retreat near Lake Arrowhead and a ranch in Texas. They travel in a $7.2 million, 19-seat Canadair Turbojet, drive luxury cars, and charge everything from dinners to antiques on company credit cards, according to former employees. They run their empire with 400 employees, out of walnut-paneled offices with plush velvet furniture. The offices occupy half of the top floor of the network’s headquarters in Costa Mesa.[184]

Jan, who is caked in makeup and appears to have undergone extensive plastic surgery—including, allegedly, breast implants—wears garish outfits and huge, flowing wigs. Her tear-filled stories of miracles—such as how her pet chicken was brought back to life when she was a child—or her accounts of prayer requests from listeners, are used to extract money from viewers.[185] She and her husband speak as if they have a direct connection with God, an implication reinforced by constant stories of their personal involvement in divine miracles, such as the event involving Blessitt.

Their message, however, also has a dark side. Those who do not support their ministry, the Crouches often say, will see God turn against them. Viewers who have struggled with deep despair, and who believe that the world of miracles and magic is the only thing holding them back from the abyss, often find the threat potent and frightening. Better, many feel, to send in money and not take a chance.

“If you have been healed or saved or blessed through TBN and have not contributed to [the] station, you are robbing God and will lose your reward in heaven,” Paul Crouch said in a Praise the Lord broadcast on November 7, 1997.[186] Couch said: “God, we proclaim death to anything or anyone that will lift a hand against this network and this ministry that belongs to You, God. It is Your work, it is Your idea, it is Your property, it is Your airwaves, it is Your world, and we proclaim death to anything that would stand in the way of God’s great voice of proclamation to the whole world. In the name of Jesus, and all the people said, ‘Amen!’”[187]

Trinity Broadcasting Network is the world’s largest televangelist organization, with programming beamed from some two dozen satellites and thousands of cable and terrestrial channels in some 75 countries. It owns interests in stations in El Salvador, Spain and Kenya and has contracts with numerous other cable and satellite companies and station owners. Its programming is carried on more than 6,000 stations in the United States and abroad as well as the Internet.[188] The network is the platform for some of the movement’s most reactionary and bizarre preachers, including many from other countries. The success of the network lies in its array of programming and the variety of different “faith” messages it is willing to incorporate. It provides religious entertainment, children’s programming, gospel music concerts from Nashville, live coverage of Christian events, lifestyle shows, health and beauty tips, financial counseling and prosperity tips, news and current events, Christian documentaries and feature films, teaching programs, worship services at megachurches and spirited revivals. The messages range from the theologically conservative—embodied in the Southern Baptist preachers Charles Stanley and Adrian Rogers—to Catholic Ministries’ Father Michael Manning, to those who preach the gospel of prosperity, such as Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar and John Avanzini. The network broadcasts Dr. D. James Kennedy, who is at the forefront of the movement to create a theocratic America, and it gives a voice to some of the outer fringes of the movement, such as the Christian exorcist Bob Larson and the popular healer Benny Hinn, who says that Adam was a superhero who could fly to the moon and claims that one day the dead will be raised by watching TBN from inside their coffins.[189] In a Praise the Lord broadcast on October 19, 1999, Hinn told viewers that he will one day be able to raise the dead through his television broadcasts, that soon those who have lost loved ones will refuse to bury them but

place him in front of that TV set for 24 hours. I see rows of caskets lining up in front of this TV set, and I see them bringing them closer to the TV set, and as people are coming closer I see loved ones picking up the hands of the dead and letting them touch the screen, and people are getting raised as their hands are touching that screen.[190]

Hinn, who says he is a prophet who speaks with God daily, also tells followers that he has been transported to heaven and regularly receives visions and revelations. He has predicted that one day Jesus would appear at one of his crusades. He claims to be able to heal the sick and told Larry King he had healed himself by watching a previously recorded broadcast of one of his sermons.[191] He also, like the Crouches, angrily lashes out at his critics, once saying: “Sometimes I wish God would give me a Holy Ghost machine gun. I’d blow your head off!”[192] This sentiment was echoed by the elder Crouch, who has attacked critics as “heresy hunters” and lambastes them as enemies of God who will soon feel God’s wrath.

In an April 2, 1991, “Praise-a-Thon,” Crouch let loose on his critics:

To hell with you! Get out of my life! Get out of the way! I say, get out of God’s way! Quit blocking God’s bridges or God’s going to shoot you—if I don’t. I don’t even want to even talk to you or hear you! I don’t want to see your ugly face.[193]

The Crouches have repeatedly been embroiled in scandals in their three decades on television, including battles with the Federal Communications Commission over the legality of some of their station licenses.[194] Lonnie Ford, Paul Crouch’s chauffeur, said he had a homosexual relationship in 1996 with Crouch, something Crouch has vehemently denied. But Ford was, the network admitted, paid $425,000 and given housing in settlement when he threatened to go public with the charges shortly after the affair allegedly took place. The story was first reported six years later by the Los Angeles Times.[195] Disgruntled former employees complain about the lavish lifestyles of the Crouches, paid for by contributors who are often of modest means.

None of this seems to dampen the enthusiasm—or lessen the coffers—of the network. The promise of miracles, coupled with the fear of falling out of the favor of God (and the Crouches), compels loyal “partners” to mail in monthly “love offerings.” The network, expanding in areas such as the Middle East, dubs its programs in 11 different languages. It is watched by viewers in more than 5 million households in the United States each week and millions more overseas. And televangelists such as Pat Robertson, despite having networks that once dwarfed TBN, now buy time on the TBN network to reach a wider audience. The network generates more than $170 million a year in revenue, according to tax filings reported by the Los Angeles Times. Viewers’ contributions make up two-thirds of the income, and the rest comes from fees imposed on those who want to buy airtime.[196]

Crouch encourages viewers to send in checks for $1,000, even if they cannot afford it. Write the check anyway, he tells them, as a “step of faith,” and the Lord will repay them many times over. “Do you think God would have any trouble getting $1,000 extra to you somehow?” he asked during one Praise-a-Thon.[197]

The constant appeals for money, the fantastic stories about angels and healings and miracles, and the opulence of the Crouches’ lifestyles are defended by many viewers who cling to the network. The Crouches’ wealth is merely proof, many say, of God’s blessing and a sign that such blessings will one day flow to them as well, as long as they mail in their prayer offerings and love gifts and have faith.

The triviality of American popular culture, its emptiness and gossip, accelerates this destruction of critical thought. It expands the void, the mindlessness that makes the magic, mythology and irrationality of the Christian Right palatable. Television, the movement’s primary medium, allows viewers to preoccupy themselves with context-free information. The homogenized empty chatter on the airwaves, the banal amusement and clichés, the bizarre doublespeak endlessly repeated on cable news channels and the huge spectacles in sports stadiums have replaced America’s political, social and moral life, indeed replaced community itself. Television lends itself perfectly to this world of signs and wonders, to the narcissism of national and religious self-exaltation. Television discourages real communication. Its rapid frames and movement, its constant use of emotional images, its sudden shifts from one theme to an unrelated theme, banish logic and reason with dizzying perplexity. It, too, makes us feel good. It, too, promises to protect and serve us. It, too, promises to lift us up and thrill us. The televangelists have built their movement on these commercial precepts. The totalitarian creed of the Religious Right has found in television the perfect medium. Its leaders know how television can be used to seduce and encourage us to walk away from the dwindling, less exciting collectives that protect and nurture us. They have mastered television’s imperceptible, slowly induced hypnosis. And they understand the enticement of credo quia absurdum—I believe because it is absurd.

Arlene Jacques, wearing dark-framed rectangular glasses and with her hair pulled back, is wearing a bright red sequined shirt, flashy red sequin earrings and fire-engine red fingernail polish. She is browsing with her 35-year-old daughter Brandy in the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh gift shop on the ground floor of the Costa Mesa TBN headquarters, situated next to the San Diego Freeway. The headquarters is a gaudy, white wedding cake of a building with a dramatic front lobby that holds two spiral staircases winding upward, their railings ornate, gold-painted iron-work. Set in colored marble at the foot of the staircases, directly in front of the double glass doors, is the imperial-looking emblem of the network. Above the shoppers, the staircases converge on a huge white statue of the archangel Michael slaying the dragon, a 13-inch replica of which is on sale in the gift shop. The walls have gold-tinted mirrors and huge windows that allow visitors to look at the fountains, reflecting pools, sculptures, neoclassical colonnades, manicured lawns and white lights that outline the building and the shrubs. It’s Christmastime: elaborate light displays outline reindeer and hug the palm trees. On the top of the building, lights spell out “Happy Birthday Jesus.”

Jacques, from Visalia, California, looks at the displays of books by various members of the Crouch family, the clothing with the TBN emblem, and trinkets such as the Mary and Baby Jesus Decorator Plate or the Coming King Medallion. This is her first visit to TBN, although she has been a “partner” of the network for many years and has long made regular monthly contributions. She busily snaps pictures, including shots of herself in front of a gold grand piano on the second floor, with her daughter Brandy, who is a nurse. They visited the virtual reality theater earlier in the day and walked through the re-creation of the Via Dolorosa, the route through Jerusalem by which Jesus carried the cross to his crucifixion. In the 50-seat theater she has seen one of the End Time movies, which portray the apocalyptic end of the world, the death of nonbelievers and saving of the righteous, and she has felt the seats tremble during projected quakes and storms. She is about to head to the Heavenly Bistro for something to drink. The network has a similar complex near Dallas and a Christian entertainment center outside of Nashville. But there are few visitors today and the headquarters is nearly empty.

Jacques turned to the network 30 years ago at a time when she was “in a lot of pain.” She was living in a tiny, run-down apartment with her two small daughters, Brandy and Raquel, and had been recently divorced.

“I had never been a working parent,” she says. “I was scared to death to go out into the working world. I was not real churched at the time. They were speaking to me, Paul and Jan and the people at TBN, about my spiritual side. I knew Jesus, but I did not have a personal relationship with Jesus. God could know you personally, they told me, and I could know Him personally.”

She met with a neighbor to pray and talk about changing her life. She watched the broadcasts, the promises of salvation, the stories about how finding God changes lives, melts away problems and leads to financial and emotional security. The broadcasts gave her comfort.

“I got down on my knees by myself by the couch,” she remembers. “I got a great big Bible, a 90-pound Bible that my husband got overseas, it was a big white one with gold print, and I put my hands on it and said, ‘God, please touch me, my life and children.’ Then I cried for three hours. I saw a slide show in front of my eyes. It seemed like every single wrong thing I had ever done flashed before my eyes and I was truly sorry.”

She visited various churches, but nothing gave her the glow of the TBN broadcasts. She began to pray daily, sometimes for long stretches. And she began to watch, slowly drawn into the culture and the message preached by Paul and Jan Crouch.

“I was taking a load of clothes down to the washing machine in the basement of the apartment building,” she says. “We were poor, living on welfare and food stamps, and when I came back upstairs I felt that I wanted to kneel by the bed and pray. I lifted up my hands and started to talk in a loud language I had never heard before. I thought, ‘It’s happening. My mind is thinking one thing and something different is coming out of my mouth. I am speaking in prayer language.’”

She found a job driving a school bus, but her emotional life remained in turmoil and the family often had a hard time paying bills. She struggled with depression. There were nights she could not sleep. She felt as if she was hanging on by her fingertips and there were few people listening or willing to help.

“I don’t know if you have ever been in a place in your life where it takes effort to walk from one room to the next,” she says. “It takes so much effort. I was in those places several times. But just by hearing the worship on TBN, by listening to different people speak the word of God, it gave me strength. The network is on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The pastor of your church and all your wonderful friends do not want you to call them up at four a.m. in tears when you feel such total despair. But you can call TBN. You can call TBN and there are people who actually speak to you. You can speak to a real, live person. They ask who you are and what you want to pray about. You can do this 24 hours a day.

“There is power in prayer,” she says. “Not only do you feel different; you feel more peaceful. In time you see answers to those prayers. Nothing happened instantly, but you know you can actually live another day, and you get to a place where you can keep on living.”

When she called the toll-free “prayer line,” the number of which is always visible at the bottom of the TV screen, she was asked by a “prayer warrior” on the other end for her name and address. The information was put into a direct-mail database, one of the network’s most successful fund-raising tools. Her calls to prayer partners, she says, gave her strength. But they also led her, a young, single mother on welfare, to take some of her meager income and mail it to the network.

“I was living on welfare, collecting food stamps,” she says, “and I would tape fifteen cents to one of their little cards and mail it back.”

Her life had always been turbulent. She started working very young, in her father’s restaurant. There was little time for school. She says she came from a “dysfunctional family” in which there was “no value of people, no value for life, for relationships and how to talk and relate to people.

“I didn’t know kids didn’t work,” she says. “My parents were divorced early on, and I lived with my dad and my stepmother since I was about 10. I did not know some kids got to eat dinner with their family, do their homework and go to bed.”

She barely made it through high school and eloped a couple years later with a man in the Navy. They went to Los Angeles and got married. He was sent to Vietnam. When he came back from the war, the marriage was tempestuous. They split and reconciled numerous times until they finally gave up.

“I remember as a little girl living in that apartment,” says Brandy. “My mom was a total Jesus freak. She used to bring homeless people in from the park and feed them and pray over them. She loved everybody with the love of God.”

Arlene baptized homeless people who visited in a small inflatable children’s pool. The pool was where she also baptized her daughters. She taught her daughters that, as Paul and Jan Crouch said, faith alone would be enough to let them survive. Jesus, if you had enough faith, would take care of you.

“For us, for my sister and I, to this day we know that God is so real,” Brandy adds. “We know God brought us through and protected us. One time me and my sister and mom got on our knees and prayed for our rent money. We left. We went to do the laundry at the laundromat. When we got back, there was a check in the middle of the floor, not like it was pushed under the door, but right in the middle of the floor. It was for our rent, and it was signed by Jesus Christ, and Wells Fargo cashed it.”

But the gospel of prosperity has a more insidious effect than the personal enrichment of leaders such as Paul and Jan Crouch at the expense of gullible, desperate and often impoverished followers. When it is faith alone that will determine your well-being, when faith alone cures illness, overcomes emotional distress and ensures financial and physical security, there is no need for outside, secular institutions, for social-service and regulatory agencies, to exist. There is no need for fiscal or social responsibility. Although many of the followers of the movement rely, or have relied in the past, on government agencies to survive, the belief system they embrace is hostile to all secular intervention. To put trust in secular institutions is to lack faith, to give up on God’s magic and miracles. The message being preached is one that dovetails with the message of neoconservatives who want to gut and destroy federal programs, free themselves from government regulations and taxes and break the back of all organizations, such as labor unions, that seek to impede maximum profit.

The popular Christian textbook America’s Providential History cites Genesis, which calls for mankind to “have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Genesis 1:26–27) as evidence that the Bible calls for “Bible-believing Christians” to take dominion of America and the world: “When God brings Noah through the flood to a new earth, He reestablishes the Dominion Mandate but now delegates to man the responsibility for governing other men.”[198] The authors write that God has called the United States to become a Christian nation and “make disciples of all nations.”[199]

The book fuses the Christian message with the celebration of unrestricted capitalism. It denounces income tax as “idolatry” and property tax as “theft,” and in a chapter titled “Christian Economics,” calls for the abolishment of inheritance taxes.[200] This indoctrination is designed to form a cadre of young believers who will follow biblical rather than secular law. They are told that when the two laws clash, they as believers must defy secular authorities. And they are taught to judge others not by what they do but by their fidelity to Christian doctrine.

“Even if Christians manage to outnumber others on an issue and we sway our Congressman by sheer numbers, we end up in the dangerous promotion of democracy,” the book reads. “We really do not want representatives who are swayed by majorities, but rather by correct principles.”[201]

The book also teaches students that a Christian’s primary responsibility is to create material wealth. God will oversee the increase and protection of natural resources. America’s Providential History belittles secular environmentalists, who see natural resources as fragile and limited, and says of those who hold these concerns that they “lack faith in God’s providence and consequently, men will find fewer natural resources…. The Christian knows that the potential in God is unlimited and that there is no shortage of resources in God’s earth.” The book blithely dismisses the threat of global warming and overpopulation, saying, “Christians know that God has made the earth sufficiently large with plenty of resources to accommodate all the people.”[202]

Nietzsche wrote that man needs lies. And the Jan and Paul Crouches of the world are perfect emissaries of the belief system needed to dismantle the power of the federal government and unlease the fetters on corporations. Moral life is reduced in their ideology to personal, individual piety. All well-being lies in the hands of God—or, more specifically, the hands of those who pose as ambassadors for God. The power of the supreme collective, of the corporation, is increasingly unchecked when a society accepts that fate is determined by a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. In this world individual rights—once safeguarded through the competing collectives of diverse social, religious or ethnic groups, trade unions, government regulatory agencies, advocacy groups, independent media and judiciaries, and schools and universities that do not distort the world through an ideological lens—are neutered.

This new world of signs and wonders, of national and religious self-exaltation and elaborate spectacle, makes people feel good. It offers the promise of God’s protection and service. This new world promises to lift them up and thrill them, all the while calling on them to do away with the dwindling collectives that in fact heretofore have protected them. When individuals are finally emasculated and alone, bereft of the help of competing collectives, they cannot defend their rights or question the abuses of their overlords. When there is no other place to turn for help other than the world of miracles and magic, mediated by those who grow rich off those who suffer, when fealty to an ideology becomes a litmus test for individual worth, tyranny follows.

[mosterriblewoman]

my 2023 favs

i will focus on books because i don't really listen to music much, when i do lately it's a lot of Mina or some ambient/jazz to study. i also happen to forget about the movies i watch lol. The first book i want to mention is "Le italiane si confessano" by Gabriella Parca, a collection of letters that italian women would -almost always- anonymously send to newspapers in the 50s/60s in hope they'd offer them a solution to their sufferings. It's nothing extraordinary per se (considering it's just an assemblage), but i think it's the rawness with which these letters are presented that impressed me. The author is absent, but her intention is loud. She leaves the readers alone with their own personal and inevitable final considerations. You cannot read this and still think Italy is a sane country. I also loved "Maybe Esther" by Katja Petrowskaja, which i read both in german and italian. Katja was born on my same day and -as stupid as that may sound- i felt connected to her through her writing style straight away. I took that as a sign i would love the book (and i did). She took me with her in her search for her family history. it's an intense work that i couldn't stop reading. i've found in her my same pride in knowing i come from a long secuence of admirable people and just like her i continuously keep track of who and where i come from, without rest. My last mention is "The enlightenment of the greengage tree" by Shokoofeh Azar. I loved the touch of magic realism that immediately made me think of an iranian One hundred years of solitude (intent which the book itself confirms between the lines). I could just connect the dots with my hispanic american literature's knowledge and it was so fascinating. Azar introduced me to persian folklore and gave me a better understanding of Iran's history through the desperation of a family that keeps living after its physical death. She succeeded in letting pages and pages of layered and oblique realities (that i usually cannot stand) be light and pleasurable.

i hope you will enjoy these as much as i did, if you ever read. thank you @mstepenwolf for the tag 🖤 mutuals feel free to join

[nevermorered]

It was the sands on the shores of Elafonisi Beach in Crete during the evenings. The waters at Las Coloradas, Mexico at midday. The Nasir-ol-molk Mosque in Iran with the rays of the sun beaming through the glass windows. It was the Hawa Mahal in India in the early morning.

It was pink.

Perhaps it wasn’t a manly color, but that didn’t matter to Colin. It was his favorite color. Maybe it took him too long to realize why, and perhaps then it should be yellow. But it wasn’t. It was pink. Because pink was beauty and calmness and kindness. It was love.

It was Penelope.

On the shores of Greece and Mexico, walking the mosque in Iran and looking up at the façade of the Palace in Jaipur, he was reminded of Penelope.

Penelope at her prom, wearing a lovely rose gown and smiling at him so sweetly when he put the corsage on her wrist. Her cheeks after being in the sun too long during that summer they spent at the lake behind Aubrey Hall before she left for university. The lipstick she was wearing after she got her journalist degree, and they threw her a party at the pub. The quick swipe of her tongue when he held her gaze too long.

Yes, she was yellow like the sun, all warmth and brilliance. But Penelope was at her most beautiful, her most radiant, when she was pink.

Like now, here in this bed. Her body was cast in shadows from the amber light filtering through the partially closed bathroom door, highlighting the dips and hollows of her curves. Her pale skin painted in a collage of pink. Her nipples a dark, dusky rouge, like her kiss swollen lips. A rosy blush spilling down her cheeks and neck, blooming out along her chest. Beard burn rubbing splotches of coral down her stomach and her thighs, raspberry bruises on her hipbones the size of his thumbs.

With a soft exhale from her perfect mouth, Colin spread her trembling thighs apart, finding more of her pink here. Flushed and swollen and glistening with desire.

Her taste reminded him of the ocean in Greece, the hot salt tang of her making his mouth water. He watched her as her body arched and bowed, undulating like a gorgeous wave about to break over the pink sands in Crete. The sounds she made were better than any music he’d ever heard, and he was certain that no more perfect praise had ever been sung in the halls of that Iranian mosque.

Exploring Penelope was far more pleasurable than any adventure he’d ever been on. As he crawled back up her pink flushed body, he was quite certain he never wanted to go anywhere that involved leaving her behind.

She kissed her ecstasy off his tongue, her hand wrapping around the flushed purple of his erection, the petal pink of her nails lightly dragging along his skin and making him shake. She took mercy on him when he begged, his pretty pink goddess guiding him inside of her and showing him what pure pleasure was.

Perhaps liking pink made him less of a man, and maybe the tears spilling down his cheeks as the waves of his own bliss crashed along her pink shores did as well. Penelope loved him anyway, and she cooed her soft words of comfort in his ear as she held him to her body in the aftermath of his little death.

He fell asleep like that, at ease and more content than he’d ever been in his entire life, his flushed cheek against her breasts. His dreams were calm and happy, filled with beauty and kindness.

His dreams were pink. His dreams were love.

His dream was Penelope.

[ghelgheli]

[Samad] Behrangi was the educator par excellence. For eleven years he taught in the village schools of [Iranian] Azerbaijan and intermittently at a teachers' training school in Tabriz. His face-to-face encounters with rural poverty and broad exposure to Azeri folk culture helped shape both the content and medium of his message as a writer. Behrangi's corpus of fiction—short stories often referred to as children's stories in the West, but really timeless folktales meant for child and adult alike—is deeply rooted in his village teaching experiences and his love for Azeri folk culture. Behrangi left no doubt that he wrote these tales to instruct and to incite: "The time of limiting children's literature to passive propaganda and rigid, fruitless institutions has ended. We must lead our children away from building hopes on false and empty visions towards. creating hopes based on a correct understanding and interpretation of the harsh realities of society and on how to struggle to eliminate those harsh realities." Pleasure was not the sole or even the most important reason to read his tales: "Reading stories is not only for pleasure. I don't desire that aware children read my stories only for pleasure." [...] To evade the censor Behrangi used the folktale form. Behrangi's fiction consists entirely of folktales, either translated from the Azeri Turkish or created anew. That he should have chosen this style is not at all surprising, given his fascination with Azeri folk literature and positive experiences in teaching folktales in the village schools. However, the opportunities to evade the censor through allegories and metaphors surely were not lost on Behrangi. Precisely for this reason, the folktale—euphemistically called "children's literature"—with its own long and rich history in Persian literature became one of the most important genres in post-June 1963[, when widespread demonstrations in response to the arrest of Ruhollah Khomeini were met with lethal government crackdown.]

The "Westoxification" of Iran: Depictions and Reactions of Behrangi, Al-e Ahmad, and Shariati, Brad Hanson 1983 [JSTOR]

[cinemacentury]

MOVIES 2024

Master list of all the movies/miniseries I watched in 2024.

New film Rewatch Theatrical Viewing

JANUARY

Monday, January 1 1. METROPOLITAN (Whit Stillman, 1990) 2. 2084: VIDEO CLIP FOR THE TRADE UNIONS’ REFLECTION AND PLEASURE (Chris Marker, 1984) (short) 3. THERE WILL COME SOFT RAINS (Nazim Tulakhodzhayev, 1984) (short) 4. TERRORIZERS (Edward Yang, 1986)

Tuesday, January 2 5. BLOOD SIMPLE. (Joel Coen, 1984) 6. CHARADE (Jon Minnis, 1984) (short) 7. FEELINGS (Todd Solondz, 1984) (short) 8. BEVERLY HILLS COP (Martin Brest, 1984) 9. LITTLE NEMO: ADVENTURES IN SLUMBERLAND PILOT 2 (Yoshifumi Kondo, Andrew Gaskill, 1984) (short) 10. IN THE BLUE SEA, IN THE WHITE FOAM… (Robert Sahakyants, 1984) (short) 11. THE WIND (Edward Yang, 2006) (short) 12. IN OUR TIME (Tao Te-chen, Edward Yang, Ko I-cheng, Chang Yi, 1982)

Wednesday, January 3 13. FALLEN ANGELS (Wong Kar-wai, 1995) 14. THE WINTER OF 1905 (Yu Wai Cheng, 1982) 15. MAHJONG (Edward Yang, 1996)

Thursday, January 4 16. ANTONIO GAUDI (Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1984) 17. A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Edward Yang, 1991) 18. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS (Vincente Minnelli, 1944)

Friday, January 5 19. DESERT HEARTS (Donna Deitch, 1985) 20. MANDABI (Ousmane Sembène, 1968) 21. SONGS FOR EARTH & FOLK (Cauleen Smith, 2013) (short)

Saturday, January 6 22. THE HEROIC TRIO (Johnnie To, 1993) 23. EXECUTIONERS: THE HEROIC TRIO 2 (Johnnie To, 1993)

Sunday, January 7 24. A CONFUCIAN CONFUSION (Edward Yang, 1994)

Monday, January 8 25. POLICE STORY (Jackie Chan, 1985)

Tuesday, January 9 26. POLICE STORY 2 (Jackie Chan, 1988)

Wednesday, January 10 27. AS TEARS GO BY (Wong Kar-Wai, 1988) 28. ROUNDHAY GARDEN SCENE (Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince, 1988) (short) (rewatch)

Thursday, January 11 29. EXOTICA (Atom Egoyan, 1994)

Friday, January 12 30. SWIPED (Joseph Kahn, 2017) (short)

Saturday, January 13 31. ODD/EVEN (Ya-Ting “Itchy” Yang, 2022) (short) 32. CENTER STAGE (Stanley Kwan, 1992)

Sunday, January 14 33. THE BARE-FOOTED KID (Johnnie To, 1993)

Monday, January 15 34. THE BOOK OF CLARENCE (Jeymes Samuel, 2024)

Tuesday, January 16 35. POLICE STORY 3: SUPERCOP (Stanley Tong, 1992) 36. FOLLOWING (Christopher Nolan, 1998)

Wednesday, January 17 37. THE SEVENTH CURSE (Lam Ngai Kai, 1986)

Thursday, January 18 38. BEHIND THE YELLOW LINE (Taylor Wong, 1984)

Friday, January 19 39. CARGO (Julio Luna, 2015) (short)

Saturday, January 20 40. IRMA VEP (Oliver Assayas, 1996) 41. ROUGE (Stanley Kwan, 1991) 42. HERO (Zhang Yimou, 2002)

Sunday, January 21 43. GOLIATH (Don Bitters, 2022) (short) 44. SIGMUND (Bruno Bozzetto, 1984) (short)

Monday, January 22 45. SHANGHAI BLUES (Tsui Hark, 1984) 46. GODS FROM SPACE (Annalize Pasztor, 2018) (short) 47. ONE FROM THE HEART: REPRISE (Francis Ford Coppola, 1981; recut 2024) 48. INFERNAL AFFAIRS (Andrew Lau Wai-Keung, Alan Mak, 2002)

Tuesday, January 23 49. GREEN SNAKE (Tsui Hark, 1993) 50. FLAMIN’ HOT (Eva Longoria, 2023) 51. THE DARK KNIGHT (Christopher Nolan, 2008) (rewatch)

Wednesday, January 24 52. THE EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER (Lau Kar-leung, 1984)

Thursday, January 25 53. 2084 (Taz Goldstein, 2015) (short) 54. FLOREANA (Louis Morton, 2018) (short)

Friday, January 26  55. THE CREATOR (Gareth Edwards, 2023)

Saturday, January 27  56. BOAT PEOPLE (Ann Hui, 1982)

Sunday, January 28 57. OPPENHEIMER (Christopher Nolan, 2023) (rewatch) 58. THROW DOWN (Johnnie To, 2004)

Monday, January 29 59. ALL THE CROWS IN THE WORLD (Tang Yi, 2021) (short) 60. TWO WORLDS (Andy Lefton, 2015) (short)

Tuesday, January 30 61. HAPPY GHOST III (Johnnie To, 1986)

Wednesday, January 31 62. A DROWNFUL BRILLIANCE OF WINGS (Sofia Bohdanowicz, 2016) (short) 63. A HISTORY OF THE WORLD ACCORDING TO GETTY IMAGES (Richard Misek, 2022) (short) 64. THE LONG GOOD FRIDAY (John Mackenzie, 1980)

FEBRUARY

Thursday, February 1  65. THE TENDER GAME (John Hubley, 1958) (short) 66. I LOVE YOU SO MUCH (Leah Shore, 2014) (short) 67. THE PLEASURE OF LOVE IN IRAN (Agnes Varda, 1976) (short)

Friday, February 2  68. YOUR NAME. (Makato Shinkai, 2016)

Saturday, February 3  69. ARGYLLE (Matthew Vaughn, 2024)

Sunday, February 4  70. 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE (Michael Winterbottom, 2002) (rewatch) Monday, February 5 71. IN BETWEEN LOVES (Allan Fung Yi-Ching, 1989) Tuesday, February 6 72. MATEWAN (John Sayles, 1987) Wednesday, February 7 73. LOCAL HERO (Bill Forsyth, 1983)

Thursday, February 8 74. NOMADS (John McTiernan, 1986) Friday, February 9 75. WARSHA (Danie Bdier, 2022) (short) Saturday, February 10 76. NAI NAI & WAI PO (Sean Wang, 2023) (short) 77. THE ICEMAN COMETH (Clarence Yiu-leung Fok, 1989) Sunday, February 11 78. NIGHT AND FOG (Alain Resnais, 1956) (short) Monday, February 12 79. MRS. MINIVER (William Wyler, 1942) 80. DUNE (Denis Villeneuve, 2021) (rewatch) Tuesday, February 13 81. MOLOKA'I BOUND (Alika Maikau, 2019) (short) 82. FOREVER SLEEP (Zac Stracner, 2022) (short) Wednesday, February 14 83. THE EAGLE SHOOTING HEROES (Jeffrey Lau, 1993) 84. DON'T LOOK NOW (Nicolas Roeg, 1973) Thursday, February 15 85. PREDATOR (John McTiernan, 1987) Friday, February 16 86. PAPER MARRIAGE (Alfred Cheung, 1988) Saturday, February 17 87. HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (Alain Resnais, 1959)

Sunday, February 18 88. THE MISFITS (John Huston, 1961) 89. A WOMAN UNDER THE INFLUENCE (John Cassavetes, 1974) Sunday, February 19 90. ALL'S WELL, ENDS WELL (Clifton Ko, 1992) Monday, February 20 91. THE WAGES OF FEAR (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1953)  92. BEAU TRAVAIL (Claire Denis, 1999) Wednesday, February 22 93. FACE SWAP (David Gidali, Einat Tubi, 2019) 94. HOW TO PICK GIRLS UP! (Wong Jing, 1988) Friday, February 23 95. OPUS II (Walter Ruttmann, 1921)  Saturday, February 24 96. SEVEN SAMURAI (Akira Kurosawa, 1954) Sunday, February 25 97. WOMEN OF THE NIGHT (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1948)

Monday, February 26 98. THE MASK (Conner O'Malley, 2023) (short)

Tuesday, February 27 99. THE THIRD MAN (Carol Reed, 1949) (rewatch)

Wednesday, February 28 100. ALIEN (Ridley Scott, 1979) (rewatch) 101. BLADE RUNNER (FINAL CUT) (Ridley Scott, 1982/2007) (rewatch) Thursday, February 29 102. DUNE: PART TWO (Denis Villeneuve, 2024) 103. THE SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE (Victor Erice, 1973)

MARCH

Friday, March 1 104. ONIBABA (Kaneto Shindō, 1964)  105. AUDITION (Takashi Miike, 1999) Saturday, March 2 106. AVALON (Barry Levinson, 1990)

Sunday, March 3 107. UGETSU (Kenji Mizoguchi, 1953) 108. A PAGE OF MADNESS (Teinosuke Kinugasa, 1926) 109. THRONE OF BLOOD (Akira Kurosawa, 1957) 

Wednesday, March 6 110. ROSE (aka BLUE VALENTINE) (Samson Chiu, 1992) 111. KLUTE (Alan J. Pakula, 1971) 112. LONE STAR (John Sayles, 1996) Thursday, March 7 113. THE GHOST OF YOTSUYA (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1959)  114. RING (Hideo Nakata, 1998) 115. BLIND WOMAN’S CURSE (Teruo Ishii, 1970)

Friday, March 8 116. DARK WATER (Hideo Nakata, 2002)

Saturday, March 9 117. PERFUMED NIGHTMARE (Kidlat Tahimik, 1977) 118. HOODLUM (Bill Duke, 1997) 119. PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (Céline Sciamma, 2019)

Monday, March 11 120. BLIND BEAST (Yasuzō Masumura, 1969) 121. KURONEKO (Kaneto Shindō, 1968) 122. SOUTHLAND TALES (Richard Kelly, 2006)

Tuesday, March 12 123. WE OWN THE NIGHT (James Gray, 2007)

Wednesday, March 13 124. YOUR TURN: JURY SERVICE IN NEW YORK STATE (Harold Gold, 2016) (short) 125. JURY SERVICE AND FAIRNESS: UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGE OF IMPLICIT BIAS (Jennifer Dworkin, 2021) (short) 126. MOTHRA (Ishirō Honda, 1961) 127. JIGOKU (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1960) 128. HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN (Teruo Ishii, 1969)

Thursday, March 14 129. CHINESE BOX (Wayne Wang, 1997) 130. MOON WARRIORS (Sammo Hung, 1992)

Friday, March 15 131. BETWEEN THE LINES (Joan Micklin Silver, 1977)

Saturday, March 16 132. LAST ACTION HERO (John McTiernan, 1993)

Sunday, March 17 133. EL FANTASMA DEL CONVENTO (aka THE PHANTOM OF THE MONASTERY) (Fernando de Fuentes, 1934) 134. CARNIVAL OF SOULS (Herk Harvey, 1962)

Monday, March 18 135. REBELS OF THE NEON GOD (Tsai Ming-liang, 1992) 136. DAYS OF BEING WILD (Wong Kar-wai, 1990)

Tuesday, March 19 137. LOVE LIES BLEEDING (Rose Glass, 2024)

Wednesday, March 20 138. THE FLOWERS OF ST. FRANCIS (Roberto Rossellini, 1950) 139. WALPURGIS NIGHT (Gustaf Edgren, 1935)

Thursday, March 21 140. IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (Wong Kar-wai, 2000)

Friday, March 22 141. 2046 (Wong Kar-wai, 2004)

Saturday, March 23 142. SHERLOCK: THE SIGN OF THREE (Colm McCarthy, 2014)

Sunday, March 24 143. HISTORY OF THE OCCULT (Cristian Ponce, 2020)

Monday, March 25 144. HOLY WEAPON (Wong Jing, 1993) 145. WEST INDIES: THE FUGITIVE SLAVES OF LIBERTY (Med Hondo, 1979)

Tuesday, March 26 146. THE LAIR OF THE WHITE WORM (Ken Russell, 1988)

Wednesday, March 27 147. DOUBLES CAUSE TROUBLES (Wong Jing, 1989)

Friday, March 29 148. LE SAMOURAÏ (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1967)

Saturday, March 30 149. HEARTBEAT 100 (Kent Cheng Jak-Si, Lo Kin, 1987) 150. DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE (John McTiernan, 1995)

Sunday, March 31 151. IT’S A DRINK! IT’S A BOMB (David Chung, 1985)

APRIL

Monday, April 1 152. THE ROMANCING STAR (Wong Jing, 1987)

Wednesday, April 3 153. FULL MOON IN NEW YORK (Stanley Kwan, 1989)

Friday, April 5 154. SHE AND HER CAT (Makoto Shinkai, 1999) (short) 155. SCOOP (Philip Martin, 2024)

Saturday, April 6 156. DUNE: PART TWO (Denis Villenueve, 2024) (rewatch)

Thursday, April 11 157. BOYS ARE EASY (Wong Jing, 1993)

Sunday, April 14 158. THE DRAGON FROM RUSSIA (Clarence Yiu-leung Fok, 1990)

Monday, April 15 159. CIVIL WAR (Alex Garland, 2024)

Wednesday, April 17 160. O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA (Ezra Edelman, 2016) 161. WANDERERS (Erik Wernquist, 2014) (short)

Friday, April 19 162. COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (Peter Chan, 1996)

Monday, April 22 163. DUVIDHA (Mani Kaul, 1973)

Tuesday, April 23 164. LUCA GUADAGNINO'S CHALLENGERS (Luca Guadagnino, 2024)

Sunday, April 28 165. NIGHT TIDE (Curtis Harrington, 1961)

Monday, April 29 166. CINEMANIA (Stephen Kijak, Angela Christlieb, 2002)

Tuesday, April 30 167. MY NEXT GUEST WITH DAVID LETTERMAN AND JOHN MULANEY (Michael Steed, 2024)

MAY

Wednesday, May 1 168. A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger, 1946)

Thursday, May 2 169. LOVE SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (Stanley Fung, 1988)

Friday, May 3 170. PERFECT BLUE (Satoshi Kon, 1997)

Saturday, May 4 171. I SAW THE TV GLOW (Jane Schoenbrun, 2024) 172. THE FALL GUY (David Leitch, 2024)

Saturday, May 11 173. FAREWELL, CHINA (Clara Law, 1990) 174. MILLENNIUM ACTRESS (Satoshi Kon, 2001)

Sunday, May 12 175. KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (Wes Ball, 2024)

Monday, May 13 176. TIME OF THE HEATHEN (Peter Kass, 1961) 177. ROCK ALL NIGHT (Roger Corman, 1957)

Wednesday, May 15 178. CHUNGKING EXPRESS (Wong Kar-wai, 1994)

Thursday, May 16 179. ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTERS (Roger Corman, 1957)

Saturday, May 18 180. THE MAD MONK (Johnnie To, 1993) 181. DIVA (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981) 182. DRESSED TO KILL (Brian De Palma, 1980)

Sunday, May 19 183. THE KING OF COMEDY (Martin Scorsese, 1982) 184. FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH (Amy Heckerling, 1982) (rewatch) Monday, May 20 185. THE DISAPPEARANCE OF WILLIE BINGHAM (Matthew Richards, 2015) (short)

[annachum]

Okay

Some HCs about MCU! Alfheim :

. Like in the Norse Myths and Marvel Comics, Alfheim is a colorful and magical realm filled with predominantly Light fae of all shapes, sizes and kinds

. The Sea Elves boasted amazing seafare trade, love music and the sea Elven Realms have predominantly aquatic fae and merfolk. The Sea Elven Realms have Nordic, Pre Medieval Mediterranean and Medieval/Renaissance Mediterranean influences

. The Elves on the Vale predominantly live in a valley like fantasy realm with lush greenery and the fae that live there predominantly have valley, woodland and aurora related powers. The Vale Elven Realms have Nordic, Celtic, Iberian and Byzantine influences.

. The Spice Elves are a fierce bunch living amongst the desert groves of Alfheim. The Spice fae predominantly have spice, sand and fire related powers. The Spice Elven Realms have Olden North African, Arabic and Ottoman influences.

. The Elves on the North Pole are a generally merry bunch ( usually ) and LOVE Christmas and anything related to it. The Yuletide Elven Realms have Nordic and Slavic influences.

. The Ice Elves basically scream fantasy artic tribal vibes, boasting of their remarkable cold survival skills, and the Ice fae there predominantly have snow and ice related powers. The Ice Elven Realm have Nordic, Eskimo, Sami and Slavic influences

. The Pleasure Elves are generally an unpredictable bunch. They generally love fireworks, party planning all that, and festive masks are a huge thing amongst pleasure elves. The pleasure fae predominantly psychic, psionic, and festive related powers ( like firework Manipulation, for starters ). The Pleasure Fae Realms have Nordic, Medieval/Renaissance Era Mediterranean and Iberian influences

. The Air Elves are generally a breezy, innovative bunch. They predominantly on floating houses in the clouds of Alfheim ( think Pegasus City in My Little Pony EXCEPT AIR FAE ), and boasting of remarkable invention fleets. The Air fae predominantly have Air and wind related powers. The Air Elven Realms have Nordic, Pictish and Celtic influences

. The Cat Elves are also a generally fierce bunch. They predominantly live amongst the mountains which are short cut gateways to Nornheim, and they are famous for their big cat cavalry. The Cat fae predominantly have animal and mountain related powers. The Cat Elven Realms have Himalayan, Balkan and Iranic influences

. The Moon Elves are a generally mystic bunch. Oracle and mystical related matters are big for them, and the moon fae predominantly have lunar and starry related powers. The Moon Elven realm have Nordic, Slavic and Celtic influences.

. The Light Fae in general are big on loyalty. They do not forgive a betrayal THAT easily

. The Light Fae have different skin colors - there are human skin colors and red, blue, green etc skin colors. Some of the Light Fae even have 3 eyes, and they either have wings or no wings, yet they all can fly, wield bright magic, have hyper hearing which they can control, and also have wicked cool powers on their arsenal

. Also baking is a popular hobby in Alfheim and offering baked treats is a form of hospitality in Alfheim

. Light Fae sometimes leave behind trails of faerie dust. Oh and music, theatre and dance popular in Alfheim.

. And Ljolsafgard is the capital of Alfheim, where the Alfheim Royal Palace is, and similarly with Panther City in Wakanda, Ljosalfgard lived residents from the 9 Duchies of Alfheim

. In my MCU fics, Sigyn is the daughter of a Duke and Duchess of the Vale Elves, and she got wicked cool Aurora Manipulation powers, and is an Aesir - Light Elf 🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩

. I HC that Grace/Anneli ( Heimdall's wife and later widow in MCU ) is also an Aesir Light Elf and she came from the Spice Elven Realms, and she got wicked cool spice and sand Manipulation powers 🤩🤩🤩🤩🥺🥺🥺🥺

[abarroteraflores]

My birthday is next weekend and the genocide israel is conducting in Palestine along with the assaults on Lebanon and Iran are enough fill me with sadness disillusion and rage.

That has festered for so long.

And also. Yesterday I had the incredible privilege to be present while one of my bestest friends gave birth. It was the most beautiful experience of my life.

And today I made a silly video for my niece on TikTok. And my cousin messaged me to tell me that I made my niece’s night with that goofy antic.

And I grew closer to my youngest cousin this year as I stayed at her home while I received medical treatment.

And I’ve had the immense pleasure of deepening my friendships everywhere, being able to help out and emotionally support in more proactive ways than years past.

And I’ve spent a lot of time with my mom and my sister in person too.

I could go on and perhaps I will. But I’m also just feeling so so so grateful and in love with life because my life of full of people I care about and who care about me.