#the possibilities of this separate culture of prisoners are fascinating to me

[confused-stars]

thinking about how Fontainians bury their dead, but in the Fortress of Meropide you probably get incinerated and your ashes are flushed out into the ocean (most practical disposal method)

I wonder if they have specific funeral rites that developed among the inmates over centuries. even just a few phrases that are said when there's nothing else to give

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: a fresh look at quite possibly the 80s’ most hated band, A Flock of Seagulls! Spoiler: their music is good, people in the 90s and 00s were just mean. If you want to find out more about how having the absolute best hair in the business ended up backfiring on these poor sods, look no further than my latest video. Or the transcript of it, which follows below the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! Today, I’m going to be diving into a discussion of quite possibly the most derided and lambasted music group of the 1980s: A Flock of Seagulls. With a strange name, a perhaps painfully stylish aesthetic, and equally trendy and of-the-moment music, that was, for a time, inescapable in popular culture, their legacy forms a perfect target for the ridicule all popular things must face in due time. But even moreso than that, I think A Flock of Seagulls have become not only a punchline in and of themselves, but also a summation of everything that was dreadful and excessive about the early 1980s, with its “Second British Invasion” of synthesiser-driven New Wave. I can think of no better example of this kind of abuse than a famous line from the 1999 comedy film, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. The film is largely a love letter to the 1960s and its Mod aesthetics, and the protagonist, a super-spy unfrozen from this era in time, dismisses the history and culture of the 1970s and 80s as nothing more than “a gas shortage, and A Flock of Seagulls.” But at the time of this writing, we’re about as far away from Austin Powers as the film was from the release of this album, the band’s 1982 debut LP, so I think it’s been long enough that we can start to re-evaluate A Flock of Seagulls’ rightful place in music history.

While this self-titled album was the group’s first long-player, their first release was the 1981 single “It’s Not Me Talking.” Notably, this track was actually produced by the legendary Bill Nelson, who also released it on their behalf via his personal label, Cocteau Records. Ever since discovering this for myself, I’ve found the connection between Nelson and A Flock of Seagulls fascinating, and also satisfying. Despite the gulf between their respective reputations, I do think their work has a lot in common, at the end of the day: swirling washes of synth disrupted by screaming guitars, not to mention that shared interest in Midcentury rock and roll aesthetics.

Music: “It’s Not Me Talking”

These two acts would, of course, go their separate ways shortly after, and they ended up in completely opposite camps, with Nelson becoming a cult favourite with little crossover success, and A Flock of Seagulls going on to create what is, undoubtedly, one of the most iconic songs of the entire decade.

Music: “I Ran”

What does one even say about a song like “I Ran”? Over the years, it’s certainly gotten somewhat overplayed, but I can’t really hold that against it. It’s just a damn good song. Both ethereally menacing as well as catchy and rather accessible, “I Ran” takes the atmosphere suggested by “It’s Not Me Talking” and kicks it into another gear, with a harder-hitting hook and the introduction of that highly distinctive and of-the-moment echoing guitar effect. Some will hear it as little more than evidence that the song is hopelessly dated, but I’ve never thought of it as anything other than satisfying to listen to. If you ask me, I figure all art that exists is essentially “a product of its time”--nobody ever said Michelangelo Buonarroti’s David was a lousy sculpture, just because you can easily tell it was made during the Italian Renaissance. At any rate, I’d encourage everyone reading to go back and listen to it again, trying to maintain a little neutrality. I’d recommend the album cut of it, which is significantly longer than the single version, and features a rich intro that sets the scene before that famous guitar ever makes an appearance, which I think really adds to the experience. By some reckonings, A Flock of Seagulls are sometimes considered a “one-hit wonder,” but while they certainly are remembered chiefly for “I Ran,” this album’s other singles were moderately successful as well.

Music: “Space Age Love Song”

“Space Age Love Song” is perhaps the band’s second best-remembered single, and takes their sound in a markedly different direction than that of “I Ran.” “I Ran” won popular acclaim by finding a new home for the guitar, in the midst of a sea of synth, and pushed A Flock of Seagulls into a similar space as acts like the Cars and Duran Duran, who had enough mainstream rock sensibilities to sneak a lot of synthesiser usage onto American rock radio...much as one might sneak spinach into tomato sauce when feeding picky children. But I think “Space Age Love Song” is much more palatable to listeners of pop, synth- or otherwise. It’s softer in texture, and really almost dreamy, capturing the hazy, buoyant feeling of limerence as well as any pop song ever has. I’m tempted to compare it to another synth-driven classic, whose influence towers over this period in electronic music: the great Giorgio Moroder’s “I Feel Love.” Much like “I Feel Love,” “Space Age Love Song” combines simple, almost banal love lyrics with an evocative electronic soundscape, painting a picture of an enchanting, high-tech future where human feelings like love have remained comfortably recognizable across centuries or millennia. A similar theme of futuristic love pervades the album’s second single, “Modern Love Is Automatic.”

Music: “Modern Love Is Automatic”

While “Space Age Love Song” uses simplistic lyricism to portray the relatable universality of falling in love, “Modern Love Is Automatic” gives us the album’s most complex narrative. In a world where “young love’s forbidden,” we meet a pair of star-crossed lovers prevented from being together by some sort of dystopian authority. The male member of this union, introduced as the “cosmic man,” is apparently imprisoned for the crime of loving, but the text suggests that he may escape from this prison--or, perhaps, even be freed from it. The title, repeated quite frequently throughout the track, is perhaps the mantra of this anti-love society, a piece of propaganda being drilled into us as thoroughly as it is into these subjects: Modern love is automatic, with no need for messy, unpredictable human input.

It’s also worth noting that the song is consciously set in “old Japan,” deliberately locating it in the “exotic” East. While East Asia was strongly associated with refined, perhaps futuristic culture, I can’t help but think there’s a more pejorative sentiment operating here, rooted in stereotypes of Asian cultures unduly policing sexual freedom, and other forms of personal expression and self-determination. Ultimately, despite its futuristic trappings, “Modern Love Is Automatic” isn’t really a song about technology at all, but rather authoritarianism. “Telecommunication,” on the other hand, engages more directly with that theme.

Music: “Telecommunication”

“Telecommunication” was also released prior to the self-titled album proper, and was also produced by Bill Nelson. While structurally similar to “Modern Love Is Automatic,” with an oft-repeated title, brief verses, and a generally repetitive musical structure full of meandering guitar, its text quite plainly discusses the titular field of technology, in a seemingly non-judgmental fashion--though it could be argued that the fairly upbeat music suggests a positive outlook on things like radio and TV. The one hitch in all of it is the very end of the last verse, which sets the song in the “nuclear age”--a nod, perhaps, to the darker applications of 20th Century technology. “Telecommunication” is perhaps indebted less to figures like Moroder, and moreso to Kraftwerk, who first solidified the rich tradition of stoic synth thumpers about everyday machines like cars, trains, and, of course, nuclear energy. I’m also tempted to compare it to an earlier work of Bill Nelson’s group Be-Bop Deluxe, “Electrical Language,” another bubbly number that playfully bats this concept back and forth.

The theme of “quotidian technology” is also present on the cover of this album, which features an interior shot of a living room, centered around a television set. The TV displays a figure playing guitar--perhaps one of those heroic rock pioneers of the Midcentury like Buddy Holly, whom Nelson was so keen to imitate. But what’s most immediately striking about this cover is its beautiful colour palette, full of deep, saturated jewel tones, treated softly with an “airbrush” style effect. Despite being a somewhat mundane scene, the image also features fanciful, imaginative touches: the floor of this room is actually a miniature beach landscape, with the “floor” beneath the TV actually being the surface of the ocean, and the TV appears to be surrounded by a colourful, glowing group of birds. Given the beachy surroundings, we could perhaps interpret them as the titular seagulls. It’s tempting to think of this scene as a representation of how technology can sweep us away, out of our everyday existence and into something richer and more exciting.

But perhaps it’s not so simple--note also the open window in the top left, whose curtain appears to be agitated by some sort of motion in the air. Perhaps these birds are not the products of television fantasy, but rather have flown in from the window, and hence hail from the “real world?” Given how tracks like “Space Age Love Song” and “Modern Love Is Automatic” tackle the theme of the mundane meeting the fantastical, I think this complex and arresting image is a great fit for the album.

While their self-titled debut spawned multiple recognizable hits, A Flock of Seagulls never came anywhere close to recapturing its success. For the most part, they struggled to remain relevant as time wore on, largely abandoning the sonic footprint of their first album, and chasing after new trends in music technology such as digital synthesisers. They would eventually break up during the mid-1980s, and though they’ve reunited in order to perform live several times, the book is probably closed on A Flock of Seagulls. Personally, I can’t help but wonder what might have been if they had stuck to their musical roots a bit more. You get a bit of that on their third LP, 1984’s The Story of a Young Heart, which thankfully brings back that iconic echoing guitar, and does so without sounding too much like a simple retread of “I Ran.” Out of all their other work, it’s the album I would most recommend to admirers of this debut LP.

Music: “Remember David”

My favourite track on A Flock of Seagulls’ debut LP is “Messages”--not to be confused with the track of the same name by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark! Moreso than anything else on the album, “Messages” has this aggressive, insistent, driving quality, and feels less like yacht rock, and more like punk rock. Despite not being released as a single, I think it’s a very strong track that’s quite easy to get into. That’s everything for today--thanks for listening!

Music: “Messages”

[shemakesmusic-uk]

Texan-born, Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter and TikTok personality Allison Ponthier makes a splash with 'Cowboy' – it's the enthralling first taste of her upcoming EP. Finding a path away from her conservative upbringing, queer singer-songwriter Allison Ponthier is another artist making country music her own. Taking references from Kacey Musgraves and Orville Peck, Ponthier's take on the genre is high camp and features a kaleidoscopic visual world too. Growing a huge following on TikTok, 'Cowboy' marks the start of a whole new chapter for Ponthier with her debut release with Interscope and Polydor. The track itself references her move from the bible belt to New York City and her journey accepting her sexuality. Warm and inviting 'Cowboy' is cinematic pop with some real heart-on-sleeve confessional songwriting. Complete with a masterful music video that runs like a mini-movie complete with impressive special effects, on reflection, cinematic is an understatement. The video itself is a striking and exciting introduction to this new artist, “I probably watch movies more than I listen to music,” Ponthier says of the video. The clip, directed by Jordan Bahat (Christine and the Queens) adds a whole new cosmic energy to the track and aims to amplify the lyrics' detailed storytelling. As she unveils more of her forthcoming debut EP, Ponthier explains what we can expect from her; “a lot of my songs are about being uncomfortable in your own skin but getting to know yourself better, figuring out who you really are.” [via the Line Of Best Fit]

Miley Cyrus has shared the full video for 'Angels Like You'. The pop rebel returned in 2020 with her excellent album Plastic Hearts, a series of superb empowerment anthems. Album highlight 'Angels Like You' has received the video treatment, shot at the Superbowl in front of an audience of fully vaccinated healthcare workers. Miley has also provided a note for the video describing her feelings of gratitude to these workers. [via Clash]

LA punk four-piece The Paranoyds have dropped a new video for track 'Egg Salad', taken from their album Carnage Bargain which is out now on Suicide Squeeze. The video's director Nicole Stunwyck comments "The video presents the glitzy & glamorous world of a teenage girl who, after accidentally catching a beauty pageant on TV, dreams of her rise to stardom & subsequent downfall... It’s not a commentary on anything but an experimental depiction of my own personal fascination for young tragic starlets alà Valley of The Dolls."

Noga Erez and collaborative partner ROUSSO have shared a fifth compelling new single from forthcoming album KIDS which is set for release on March 26 via City Slang. 'Story' is a snappy, addictive song about how couples relationships are always a relationship between two people’s past and present. "Everyone brings their past experiences to the relationship even if things are great" Erez comments. "Sometimes past situations come in and take over." As with the album's previous singles 'Story' is brought to life with a captivating video, starring Erez and ROUSSO, who also provides vocals on the track. "ROUSSO is my partner in music as well as my partner in life" she explains. "This is the first time we tell a story about our relationship in a song and video. It’s a song about a couple fighting and how, in that situation, sometimes what you hear the other person say is not what they actually said. The making of this video was a 10-day couples therapy session for us. As we rehearsed the pretend fighting and martial arts moves we knew that, at times, one of us would get punched just a little too hard. It was so intense and interesting to live in this world, where our relationship comes alive in the most physical way."

After announcing Detritus with lead outing 'Stories' last month, Sarah Neufeld has unveiled the album's second single 'With Love and Blindness'. Neufeld says of the song and Jason Last-directed video, "The video for 'With Love and Blindness' came together through a long-time collaboration between myself and videographer Jason Last. I knew that Jason and I would work together again on some visual aspect for my third solo release, and it so happened that before I even began recording the album, we were presented with the opportunity to do a mini residence on Corsica with Providenza; an amazing collective with a farm, cultural laboratory, festival and residency program." She continues, "I was doing a short solo tour in Europe in the summer of 2019 in order to re-work some of the pieces from the dance collaboration to begin to find a shape for the album that was to be recorded in the Fall. In the middle of that tour, Jason and I travelled to Corsica for several days (graced once again with a suitcase containing Esteban Cortazar’s unique and beautiful creations). Besides performing in Providenza’s outdoor amphitheater, we were immersed in nature, literally staying in a treehouse perched on the side of a mountain, overlooking the dramatic coastline." Neufeld adds, "I found that the pulse of the landscape resonated with the essence of the music, especially "With Love and Blindness"; a sense of rawness, of sensuality, of a strange gravity intensified by the hypnotic summer heat and the general otherworldliness of the place." [via the Line Of Best Fit]

Molly Burman was brought up around music. At every family event, every party, the soundtrack would resonate with her, providing an education in itself. Both parents were gigging musicians, and she always wanted to follow in their footsteps, to use performance as a means of self-expression. Lockdown brought the time and space to bring these ideas into focus, and she's working to unveil a series of one off singles. Her debut single proper 'Fool Me With Flattery' is out now, a blissfully melodic piece of indie pop with some whip-smart lyricism. There's a tongue in cheek element to her sound that is fantastically endearing, matched by the subtle lo-fi elements of her bedroom pop confection. She comments: "I wrote the song after a long day of feeling overlooked and ignored by some of the guys in my life. I was fed up, angry and used the stereotype of a mansplaining misogynist to let it all out. This song is for anyone who feels belittled and like they’re being made to shrink themselves; be as big as you possibly can, and don’t let anyone fool you with flattery." The video is a hilarious showcase for Molly's offbeat sense of humour. [via Clash]

Punk provocateurs Pussy Riot have unveiled their latest song 'Panic Attack', as well as a music video that features a hologram of singer Nadya Tolokonnikova. This is the final release from Pussy Riot’s new Panic Attack EP, a collection of three linked songs that, for now, can only be streamed as separate singles. The title track features punk guitars underneath a tinkling music box melody, as Tolokonnikova turns anxiety into a sports cheer. “Gimme an A,” she says, “Gimme a T/ Gimme a T/ Gimme an A/ Gimme a C/ Gimme a K/ Okay? Okay.” While upbeat and seemingly cheerful, the synth-punk song comes out of the trauma she experienced in a Russian prison camp. As she explained in a statement, “After serving 2 years in a labor camp, I’m still struggling with mental health issues. Trauma, fear and insecurity never fully go away, causing depression episodes and deep anxiety. ‘PANIC ATTACK’ was born as the result of me staring at the wall for 24 hours in the middle of the pandemic, feeling 100% helpless. I was trying to write something uplifting to encourage people to get through the tough times. But I was just failing and failing. Magically, at the second I allowed myself to be honest and write about despair I was experiencing, I wrote the track in like a half an hour. Depression is a plague of the 21st century, and it tells me that there’s something broken in the way we treat each other. The video ‘PANIC ATTACK’ reflects on objectification of human beings, loneliness, disconnection from the environment that causes us to feel small and powerless. And it’s us who caused it with our own hands – that’s why in the end of the video I’m fighting with my own clone.” The music video for 'Panic Attack' was directed by  Asad J. Malik. He used 106 cameras to capture all angles of Tolokonnikova, then converted that information into a photoreal hologram. Afterwards, Tokyo-based creative technologist Ruben Fro built out landscapes reminiscent of video games through which the virtual Tolokonnikova could frolic. But as the visuals progress, those idyllic settings give way to a hellscape, and the singer faces off against a clone of herself. [via Consequence of Sound]

The wait is finally over. BLACKPINK’s Rosé shines like the star she is with her official solo debut. On Friday, she released two solo songs on her debut single album titled R, 'On the Ground' and 'Gone.' With its deep lyrics, angelic bridge, and Rosé’s high note at the end, 'On the Ground' is an exemplary song for her solo debut. Add the fact that Rosé is credited as a writer for the song, and one can really tell how much time she spent perfecting it for release. The accompanying music video, meanwhile, expands the story of life and growth. Rosé starts off looking lost and trying to find herself amidst all the wildness of life; she eventually encounters past and present versions of herself while searching for answers and purpose. By the end, she finds herself and her path forward, and one can’t help but smile as she sings an explosive outro. [via Teen Vogue]

On Ellise's latest alt-pop concoction the rising pop star gets gothic as 'Feeling Something Bad...' transforms a crush into an obsession. An expert at catastrophising everyday experiences, the LA-based artist has arrived fully formed with not only a consistent and cohesive sound but a striking visual identity too. That's even more clear when you press play on the accompanying video for her latest infectiously catchy track. With the clip directed by Joakim Carlsson we get to see Ellise in her absolute element as she brings "Feeling Something Bad..." to life in a macabre world of its own. “I just love dramatising little everyday feelings in life, so this is my big dramatic ‘I have a crush on you’ song,” Ellise explains – it's a song she wrote about a boy she barely knew. [via the Line Of Best Fit]

With President Biden determined to get the majority of American adults vaccinated by summer, bands are earnestly beginning to look forward to the return of live music. Purity Ring are the latest to announce 2021 tour dates, which they’ve shared alongside the video for their track 'sinew'. The song comes from WOMB, the synth-pop duo’s first album in five years that was released just before the pandemic struck. Directed by Toby Stretch, the clip brings back the abstract graphics and costumes that featured in the 'stardew' music video, continuing the enigmatic story of the domed bicyclist and their sun-headed sidecar companion. [via Consequence of Sound]

Australian Pop Princess, Peach PRC releases the official music video for her debut single 'Josh'. Peach PRC comments on the official 'Josh' visuals, “The music video was inspired by growing up watching the same five infomercials, morning news channels and old movies on my little pink box tv when I was a kid and couldn’t sleep on a school night. The idea was to have “josh” feel just as harassed the more he tries to call. Every creative step along the way was entirely my vision, from writing the music video script, to the lyrics and everything in between. I’m so happy and hope all the girls, gays and theys who dated “josh” will sing along.”

[dweemeister]

2020 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (final round)

(Yet again, tumblr has not fixed bullet indentations. So this post doesn’t look as clean on your dashboards.)

TAGGING (among others): @addaellis, @cokwong, @emilylime5, @halfwaythruthedark, @idontknowmuchaboutmovies, @introspectivemeltdown, @maximiliani, @memetoilet, @monkeysmadeofcheese, @myluckyerror, @plus-low-overthrow, @shootingstarvenator, @themusicmoviesportsguy, @theybecomestories, @umgeschrieben, @underblackwings, @voicetalentbrendan​, @thewolfofelectricavenue, and @yellanimal.

I would also like to tag some followers/previous participants as well who I also would welcome to participate in this final round: @birdsongvelvet​, @bitch-genius​, @dog-of-ulthar​, @loveless422​, @lvl9gay​, @mehetibel​, @phendranaedge​, @poncho-honcho​, @sayaf​, @shadesofhappy​, @thethirdman8​, @uncoolforelimb​, and @wehadfacesthen​. Regardless of whether you were tagged or not, all of my followers can participate if they wish.

Happy Holidays to all! After a fascinating preliminary round, now begins the final round to 2020's Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (MOABOS). This is the eighth time it has been contested and the seventh year it has been open to involvement from family, friends, and tumblr followers. I begin every new year not knowing whether I will be able to share with all of you these songs and the movies they come from around November/December. So on the day that MOABOS becomes viable (usually around mid-year), it's a long stretch of anticipation to this point.

For those who have never participated in this before, my classic movie blog traditionally ends the year by honoring some of the best achievements from movies that I saw for the first time this calendar year (the "Movie Odyssey"; rewatches do not count) with an Oscar-like ceremony. I choose all the nominees and winners from each category, save one: Best Original Song. It is the only category I can think of that does not require you to watch several movies in their entirety. I know some of you wonder why I bother with this quixotic social experiment. But I have always considered it a sort of cinematic-musical thank-you for your moral support in various ways - in the hopes of introducing to all of you films and music you may not have otherwise encountered or sought. A small slice of the 2020 Movie Odyssey, so to speak.

This final will be contested by sixteen songs. As I've mentioned before, for the first time ever, there are no MOABOS entries originating from this year that made the competition - a MOABOS first. I have seen one 2020 film since the prelim (Wolfwalkers... at a drive-in mind you), but this entire final is one of yesteryear. Even without any 1930s songs, this year's final is probably the oldest on average. There are some very recognizable songs that made it straight to the final, bypassing the preliminary; those songs are contained within. Among them, a city anthem and a song that should be a city's anthem. Elsewhere, this is the first final to ever feature two classic Bollywood songs - but no classic Bollywood song has ever cracked the top ten. Elvis has three songs in this final, a MOABOS joint record along with Prince and the Bee Gees (both in 2016). But also appearing in multiple entries are Frank Sinatra and Liza Minnelli, Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday. With five non-English-language songs in the final, this year’s final ties 2017 with the largest contingent of finalists not in the English language.

INSTRUCTIONS Please rank (#1-16) your choices in order. The top ten songs will receive nominations. The tabulation method used in the preliminary round is being used for the final only as the second tiebreaker (the tabulation method that will be used principally for the final - aka "single transferable vote" - is described in the “read more” at the bottom). There is no minimum or maximum amount of songs you can rank, but because of the nature of single transferable vote, it is highly recommended to rank as many songs as possible, rather than only one or two. Those who rank fewer songs run a greater risk of their ballots being discarded in the later rounds of tabulation. Again, this is all described in the “read more”.

Please consider to the best of your ability: how musically interesting the song is (incl. and not limited to musical phrasing and orchestration); its lyrics; context within the film (contextual blurbs provided for every entry for those who haven't seen the films); choreography/dance direction (if applicable); and the song's cultural impact/life outside the film (if applicable, and, in my opinion, least important factor). Imperfections in audio and video quality may not be used against any song. I encourage you to send in comments and reactions with your rankings - it makes the process more enjoyable for you and myself!

The deadline for submission is Thursday, December 31 at 8 PM Pacific Time. That is 6 PM Hawaii/Aleutian Time / 10 PM Central / 11 PM Eastern. That deadline is also Friday, January 1 at 2 AM GMT / 3 AM CET / 4 AM EET. This deadline has been pushed back two consecutive times due to a sizable non-response rate - but I very much do not want to do so again.

I have compiled most of this final round's songs into this YouTube playlist. Please note that neither of Kaagaz Ke Phool’s two songs are contained in the playlist. You will need to access them using their respective links.

Enjoy the music! Feel free to listen as many times as you need, and I hope you discover music and movies you may have never otherwise heard of that you find fascinating. The following is formatted... ("Song title", composer and lyricist, film title):

2020 MOVIE ODYSSEY AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL SONG – FINAL ROUND

“Angela”, music and lyrics by José Feliciano and Janna Merlyn Feliciano, Aaron Loves Angela (1975)

Performed by José Feliciano

(English-language version) / (Spanish single version)

Played over the opening credits to this teenage drama that is partly a blaxploitation film, partly an interracial coming-of-age romance. The movie wasn't a hit, but the Spanish-language version of this song was received well in Latin America.

“Blue Shadows on the Trail”, music and lyrics by Eliot Daniel and Johnny Lange, Melody Time (1948)

Performed by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers

This is the introductory song to the final segment of Melody Time. That segment is dedicated to the legend of Pecos Bill, and this atmospheric song leads into the telling of that story.

“Can’t Help Falling in Love”, music and lyrics by Hugo Peretti, Luigi Creatore, and George David Weiss, Blue Hawaii (1961)

Performed by Elvis Presley

(film version) / (single version)

Chadwick "Chad" Gates (Elvis) has just returned to his home state of Hawai'i after a stint in the Army. Not wanting to work on his father's pineapple plantation (seriously), he rekindles his relationship with his girlfriend, Maile (Joan Blackman). This song is sung as an accompaniment to a music box he gives to Maile's grandmother (Flora Kaai Hayes, a former Hawaiian Territorial Representative to the U.S. House). This song is among Elvis' best-known and most widely-covered.

“Dekhi Zamaane Ki Yaari / Bichhde Sabhi Baari Baari”, music by S.D. Burman, lyrics by Kaifi Azmi, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, India)

Performed by Mohammad Rafi (dubbing Guru Dutt)

Lyrics in Hindi - roughly, "I Have Seen How Deeply Friendship Lies / I Have Seen People Abandon Me One by One"

Part 1 (3:44-8:27) / Part 2 (2:16:29-2:20:42)

Make sure to turn on the video’s English captions

In this romantic tragedy, Suresh Sinha (Dutt) is a washed-up director looking back on his life. In the first part, the song leads into the rest of the film - which is almost entirely a flashback. In brief, Suresh is unhappily married to a woman whose in-laws look down on him because, to them, working in films is contemptible to their social class. Suresh meets a woman, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman), on accident and she is soon cast as the lead for his next film. They fall in love, but it is never consummated for various reasons. Eventually, his career crashes after a box office bomb and her career is ascendant. Leading into the second part of the song, Suresh is penniless and working as an extra at the movie studio. Shanti recognizes him, wants to help, but he refuses to revive his career on the back of her success. Kaagaz Ke Phool has elements of autobiography, and Suresh's fate has parallels with what happened to Dutt after this film was released.

“(Do You Know What It Means to Miss) New Orleans”, music by Louis Alter, lyrics by Edgar De Lange, New Orleans (1947)

Initially performed by Billie Holiday and Louis Armstrong and his band; reprised by various

(initial film performance) / (Louis Armstrong single version)

Endie (Holiday in her only appearance in a feature film) is a maid to the affluent Smith family, whose matriarch looks down on jazz as a disreputable genre of music. In secret, Endie frequents a gambling and jazz establishment in the historic Storyville district of New Orleans and performs here with Louis Armstrong (playing himself) and others when she gets the chance. The matriarch's daughter (Dorothy Patrick), an classical operatic soprano, is transfixed by this new music she has never heard before.

“ Exsultate Justi”, music and lyrics by John Williams, Empire of the Sun (1987)

Performed by orchestra and chorus under the direction of Williams

Lyrics in Latin

In this historical epic, affluent British school boy Jamie Graham (a young Christian Bale) is living with his parents in Shanghai when the Japanese invade. Jamie is separated from his parents and placed in an internment camp. Soon before the end of WWII, the prisoners are moved elsewhere, but Jamie hides and stays put. This song plays as Jamie bikes around the empty camp and continues to play as he encounters liberating U.S. troops. Jamie is dirty and malnourished when found; one can argue that this song is used ironically. It plays once more over the end credits. "Exsultate Justi" is a variation on a theme John Williams develops over the course of the film and harkens back to Jamie's past, attending Anglican services with parents.

“Farewell to Storyville",  music by Louis Alter, lyrics by Edgar De Lange, New Orleans (1947)

Performed by Louis Armstrong and his band, Billie Holiday, and company

In New Orleans, the Storyville district was a den of drinking, gambling, jazz, and prostitution. The district was the home to a heavily black populace. The U.S. military, about to establish a Naval base nearby, forces the city to close the district for good. This song is a swinging dirge to a center of jazz - a musical genre looked down upon by many of the city's upper-class whites due to its ties (real and imagined) to crime.

“Happy Endings", music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, New York, New York (1977)

Performed by Liza Minnelli and company (that's Jack Haley - who played the Tin Man and was, at the time, Minnelli's father-in-law - roughly seven minutes in)

(use in film) / (soundtrack version)

It is highly recommended one sees how this song is used in the film. Bear with me: this song is part of a movie within a movie. Within that movie within a movie, there is another movie. "Happy Endings" is the title end song to a film called Happy Endings within New York, New York. Singer Francine Evans (Liza Minnelli) has made it big as a recording artist and caps off her hit film, Happy Endings, with this song. We see Francine's ex, played by Robert De Niro, in the audience as the film ends. "Happy Endings" is a homage/deconstruction to midcentury Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) musicals. It serves the film as "The Broadway Melody" does to Singin' in the Rain (1952) or the 17-minute ballet does to conclude An American in Paris (1951).

“Here They Come (From All Over the World)", music and lyrics by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, The T.A.M.I. Show (1964)

Performed by Jan and Dean

The link above provides the entire film. You only need to watch from 0:00-4:11. If you like music from this era or want to hear more, this film is highly, highly recommended.

This is the opening credits song to a concert film recorded over two days in Santa Monica, California on October 28 and 29, 1964. The Teenage Awards Music International (T.A.M.I. - yes, I know it's an awkward name) Show included many of the most popular musical stars of that time - almost all of them name-dropped in this song. Jan and Dean, a surf music duo, served as hosts (and performed during) the show. You folks are lucky that this is the only original song from this film!

“Is There Still Anything That Love Can Do?", music and lyrics by Yôjirô Noda, Weathering with You (2019, Japan)

Performed by RADWIMPS

Lyrics in Japanese (translation)

Weathering with You is a romantic fantasy anime about a high school boy who runs away from his rural home to Tokyo, where he meets a girl who can manipulate the weather. It has been inexplicably raining for weeks without interruption in Tokyo, so they form a business to help clear the inclement weather for special events. The melody of this song is heard throughout the film's score. It does not appear with lyrics until late in the film. The song is played under the boy's seemingly impossible attempt to save her from an unwilling human sacrifice.

There is so much plot in this damn film (it's all Makoto Shinkai's fault) - I can't explain the context of the song or this movie in a reasonable amount of space.

“Moonlight Swim”, music by Ben Weisman, lyrics by Sylvia Dee, Blue Hawaii (1961)

Performed by Elvis Presley

In a musical packed end-to-end with songs, Chadwick "Chad" Gates (Elvis) has taken a job with a tour guide agency. On his first day, he drives his first clients - a school teacher (who not so secretly is attracted to Chad) and four teenagers (one of whom becomes smitten) - to their destination.

“Personality”, music by Jimmy Van Heusen, lyrics by Johnny Burke, Road to Utopia (1946)

Performed by Dorothy Lamour

(in-film performance) / (live radio performance)

In the fourth film of the Road to... comedy series, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's characters have just overpowered two Alaskan thugs with a history of murderous violence. As they enter a saloon dressed up as those two thugs, all of the patrons - in a town that only knows the thugs by reputation - shut up in terror. They are treated to a performance by Sal (Lamour), who is trying to find a map of a gold mine that the real outlaws supposedly have. A visual narrator (Robert Benchley) interrupts the scene before the song briefly.

“Please Don’t Stop Loving Me”, music and lyrics by Joy Byers, Frankie and Johnny (1966)

Performed by Elvis Presley

(in-film performance) / (single version)

Johnny (Elvis) and girlfriend Frankie (Donna Douglas) work on a Mississippi River riverboat as performers. Johnny is addicted to gambling and believes that another woman is spurring on his recent run of good luck. During a fit of jealousy-as-acting, Frankie accidentally shoots Johnny during a bit of musical theater (someone switched out the blanks for real bullets). This song occurs after Johnny has recovered from the accident.

“Theme from New York, New York”, music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, New York, New York (1977)

Performed by Liza Minnelli

(in-film performance) / (Frank Sinatra single)

For most of the film, saxophone player Jimmy Doyle (Robert De Niro) is trying to compose a song but cannot figure out the lyrics (this plays out as a subplot). His eventual girlfriend/later ex, Francine Evans (Minnelli) provides said lyrics. Some time well after they have broken up, he finds her singing this song - which he previously brought to the top of the jazz charts - in the nightclub where they first met. This film flopped (musical movies were out of fashion by the mid-'70s, and a musical didn't seem "on brand" for director Martin Scorsese). But the Frank Sinatra single popularized this song, and it has been used in many venues of popular culture.

“Waqt Ne Kiya Kya Haseen Sitam”, music and lyrics by S.D. Burman, Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, India)

Performed by Geeta Dutt (dubbing Waheeda Rehman)

Lyrics in Hindi - roughly, "Time Has Inflicted Such Sweet Cruelty On Us"

Song begins at 1:03:31 and ends at 1:07:51

Make sure to turn on the video’s English captions

In this romantic tragedy told in flashback, Suresh Sinha (Guru Dutt) is a director looking back on his life. Suresh is unhappily married to a woman whose in-laws look down on him because, to them, working in films is contemptible to their social class. Suresh meets a woman, Shanti (Waheeda Rehman), on accident and she is soon cast as the lead for his next film. They fall in love, but it is never consummated for various reasons. This song is the most explicit statement of that love in this film. How much of the scene's set-up is observable by the characters is up to the viewer's interpretation.

“You Make Me Feel So Young”, music by Josef Myrow, lyrics by Mack Gordon, Three Little Girls in Blue (1946)

Performed by Del Porter (dubbing Charles Smith) and Carol Stewart (dubbing Vera-Ellen)

(use in film) / (Frank Sinatra cover)

In this rarely-seen musical (*insert plea to Disney to restore the massive 20th Century Fox catalogue they now own and are almost certainly neglecting*), three chicken farmer sisters decide to travel to Atlantic City in hopes of marrying a rich husband when they learn their aunt's inheritance is not nearly as much as they want. There, youngest sister Myra (Vera-Ellen) - despite the sisters' original intentions of marrying men of wealth - becomes involved with a waiter named Mike (Charles Smith). They go on a date, and they sing this song. A somewhat overly-literal fantastical dancing sequence ensues, complete with Vera-Ellen's dancing skills. This song was popularized by Frank Sinatra years later and has long enjoyed status as a big band/jazz standard.

Contact me however you wish if you have questions or comments regarding MOABOS' processes or something specific about a song or a few. Please let me know as soon as possible if you are having difficulty accessing one of the songs (especially if it is region-locked) or if there is an error in the playlist.

Once more, I thank you all for your support for the Movie Odyssey, the blog, and for me personally - no matter how long I’ve known you or in what capacity. There are no hard feelings if you cannot get to this, although I will be checking in as the deadlines get close. Please wear a mask. Practice social distancing. We'll see each other again on the other side of this pandemic.

TABULATION The winner is determined by a process distinct from the preliminary round. For the final, the winner is chosen by the process known as single transferable vote (the Academy Awards uses this method to choose a Best Picture winner, visually represented here - you should really watch this video if the below doesn’t make sense… which it probably won’t):

All #1 picks from all voters are tabulated. A song needs more than half of all aggregate votes to win (50% of all votes plus one… i.e. if there are thirty respondents, sixteen #1 votes are needed to win on the first count).

If there is no winner after the first count (as is most likely), the song(s) with the fewest #1 votes or points is/are eliminated. Placement will be determined by the tiebreakers described below. Then, we look at the ballots of those who voted for the most recently-eliminated song(s). Their votes then go to the highest-remaining and non-eliminated song on their ballot.

The process described in step #2 repeats until one song has secured 50% plus one of all votes. We keep eliminating nominees and transfer votes to the highest-ranked, non-eliminated song on each ballot. NOTE: It is possible after several rounds of counting that respondents who did not entirely fill in their ballots will have wasted their votes at the end of the process. For example, if a person voted the second-to-last place song as their #1, ranked no other songs, and the count has exceeded two rounds, their ballot is discarded (lowering the vote threshold needed to win), and they have no say in which song ultimately is the winner.

A song wins when it reaches more than fifty percent of all #1 and re-distributed votes.

Tiebreakers: 1) first song to receive 50% plus one of all #1 and transferred votes; 2) total points earned (this was the first tiebreaker in the preliminary round); 3) total #1 votes; 4) average placement on my ballot and my sister’s ballot; 5) tie declared

Previous years’ results for reference: 2013 final 2014 final (input from family and friends began this year) 2015 final 2016 prelim / final 2017 prelim / final 2018 prelim / final 2019 prelim / final

[weaselbeaselpants]

That Krispy Cat: A Warning, part 3

The last of the images cause I don’t want this bitch on my computer anymore. 

Knowing tumblr I kept the images hidden JUUUUST in case no one reads the fine print and can’t tell I’m being critical of this and gets me in trouble.

VVV ((Just in case you thought the JewishGriffon piece assured everyone that Crispy couldn’t POSSIBLY hate people of color, some of her earliest Nazi art had her character Klaus beating up Amigo Bear. She also made Amigo into a liberal strawman. )) VVV

((Dialogue to one of her TROLLARIOUS pictures that featured Amigo:

Amigo Bear: *muttering* "Your leader was a !@#$% little #@%^!@$^*!, you fascist feather duster..." General Klaus: "Fräulein, Ich vant you to cover your ears und shut your eyes as tight as you can." Crispy: "How come, General?" General Klaus: "Klaus ist about to say und do very bad sings zhat he does not vant his little Edelweiß to see or hear." Crispy: "Alrighty!" General Klaus: "WHO SAID ZHAT ABOUT DER FÜHRER? WER DIE FICK GESAGT? WHO'S ZUH SCHLEIMIG LITTLE COMMUNIST-SCHEISS SCHWANZLUTSCHER DOWN ZHERE, WHO JUST SIGNED HIS OWN DEATH VARRANT? NIEMAND?! GOTTVERDAMMT STALIN SAID IT! HERVORRAGEND! VHICH VUN OF YOU VANTS TO BE ZUH FIRST TO FIND OUT ZUH HARD VAY VHY MEIN FEINDE CALLED MIR DER BUTCHER BIRD?" ))

^^^ ((BUTOPHERARTISGOODSOYOUCAN’TCOMPLAIN

also the disc. for this pic before it was deleted had a ‘joke’ about cooking Jews in ovens. Oh and yes, that IS Hitler she’s giving that ugly ass cupcake too.))

^^^ (( - Thanks dA I never would have known I had a notifications unless eclipse blah -

This is one of her rants about how #Triggered she is that Starlight be compared to the Nazis when she runs a communist cult. Because A) that’s the real problem here and B) I too get upset when people say my OC is based on Jeffrey Dahmer when he’s so CLEARLY based on Ed Gein, Bwwwaaaah D> D> D> !)) ^^^

VVV ((Ugly art of her friend’s awful OCs.)) ^^^

VVV ((Crispy showing off why no one wants to be a patriot in our country.)) VVV

((FYI, Crisp, that attitude will make the Hamilton fans stronger so just keep that SJW-flinging coming you little SJW.

WHAT?! Social Justice is a broad term and as Crispy’s plainly demonstrated, you can circle it around and make a majority-class sound like the real underprivledged if you have enough fancy frou frou know-how and furries. Also, if a Social Justice Warrior constitutes someone who takes their cause soooo seriously that they’re annoying/petting/cruel/stupid about it....idk I think Crispy qualified.))

^^^ ((Crispy and her friend muse about what other races occupy the world of MLP in her headcanon. This, more than any other dA disc. and picture shows you her brand of “Segregationist-Nationalism is OKAY” thinking, cuz the art of these different races isn’t super offensive or cruel and neither are the characters. BUT if you scratch under the surface you’ll find that Crispy really likes these different people staying in their place and not in “someone else’s” country.

THEN, this same kind of thinking is used to convince you any mix of cultures is just cultural appropriation, again acting like she and her Nazi-stans are the only ones standing up to actual bigotry.)) VVV

^^^ ((Crispy makes the world a worse place by bringing up actual decent points; like how Americans dress Thanksgiving up as progressive and for the natives when we all know that’s not true...all to better her worldview.

fyi, GET OUT whenever you see a selfproclaimed Nazi fawn over Native Americans, because: Nazi Germany had a deep fascination with American Indians and used their struggles about their land being taken away from them to justify their eugenic genocide.)) ^^^

^^^ (( Crispy laughing it up on Furaffinity how she couldn’t be banned from her Furaffinity and then mysteriously never using her site there wowie.)) ^^^

^^^ (( Crispy complaining about SOPA cause her freedom of speech and blahblahblah.

Freedom of Speech is important. Unfortunately what people like Crispy don’t understand or care for is there’s no freedom of consequence. )) vvv

VVV ((LOL Joseph Mengele was such a stinkah let’s tell blithe jokes about him. At least WE AREN’T LIKE HIM!!!)) VVVV

VVV ((Early onset eugenic BS from her Spyro stuff that would be easy to miss if you didn’t know what this woman was talking about)) VVV

((Crispy admitting she thinks gays are pointless cuz they don’t reproduce but apparently loves them anyway. Also big shock Crispy’s seen Hetalia.)) VVV

VVV ((Crispy probably wanting Weeaboos to attack her cuz aren’t Japan’s animations so laaaaaaazy?!!?!? GUUdd think’ I’m a naziaboo! Germany’s never made any shitty animation evah. You know what, I lied. She doesn’t deserve Hetalia. She just doesn’t.)) VVVV

VVV ((Crispy dragging Brazil down with her as the apparent “Best South American Country”. Yikes.)) VVV

VVV ((More “it’s trolling ergo it’s not harmful” shit. Bulgarians probably do deserve their own Care Bears, but they certainly don’t want yours Crispy.)) VVV

VVV ((Disc. for her Richard Spencer bear art)) VVV

------

I know, I know...this isn’t what you wanted to read today, guys. I know it’s offensive and I’m sorry if it made you ill. I also know I’m putting my own blog under fire by showing these images here but I think that should say something about dA’s bad policies that this art gets a filter slapped on it and nothing more when the artist is blatantly pro-fascist.

Crispy resonates with me so much - and no it’s not cause I DARED to be “triggered”.

It’s because, for one, she was talented. I MEAN I HAVE EYES! That’s some nicely drawn digital stuff I’m not gonna deny. She had some cool rewrites and sequel ideas that, had it come from someone else I would have eaten up and faved to hell and back onceupona2012. But I didn’t, where a ton of MLP and furry fans did because they undervalued their own talents and would say “well it’s pretty who cares about the message?” 

Unlike so many commercial+published artists, it’s REALLY hard to separate the art from the artist here because the artist is so connected and a part of her art and storytelling. If you fav her art, even if you didn’t like her, that was telling Crispy she’d won. It’s so defeating to have other artists say their gonna ignore their gut for the sake of prettypretty-Don-Bluth style art. And yes, that stigma DOES affect my view on 2D purists btw.

Crispy was so holier than thou’, and that attitude also was appealing to dA folks, not to mention her knowledge of art history by the time she dropped off the radar. Crispy was the kind of person who’d make long, detailed, justified rants against the design and color choices in Hazbin Hotel and then a bunch of antis would eat her redesigns up only to learn the awful truth later and embarrass themselves cuz they were so taken up by the craft they didn’t know they were reblogging a fucking Nazi.

Not to underplay Viv’s wrongdoings of course, but I’m sorry; the two aren’t comparable on the problematic artist meter. THAT’S HOW BAD CRISPY WAS.

If this somehow was just a faze and she’s come to her senses or doesn’t really think this shite she preaches...I don’t care. She said some vile shit and fuck no I’m not forgiving her. It’s like KenDraw or Shadman. You’ve changed your life around and realized you’ve done/drawn nasty shit that’s done real harm? Cool....I’m still not talking or ever promoting you, ya dingbat. You ain’t no Roman Polanski or Doug Tennaple. You’re a singular internet artist and any support of the project has to go to you - and you suck!

ThisCrispyKat was a wakeup call that showed me these people not only still exist but will be allowed to get away with it. I was very touchy bout this kind of thing back in the day. Fuck, I STILL AM TOUCHY. The rabbit holes I found thanks to Crispy opened up to reveal communities where people think my hair color’s going extinct. People would detail how much they wanted to rape me - a natural blonde - and kill my friends and family for not looking like me. That they want to jerk off in my naturally curly hair and see me in glowy German princess gowns preparing them dinner.

Crispy and other Nazistans would look at me; a blond-haired blue eyed Polish/German American woman and think I need to be “fixed” because I DARE to repeat propaganda that the Nazis were bad. They’d call me a traitor for thinking that celebrating the Nazi party ISN’T German pride.

HOW DARE YOU TELL ME THAT’S GERMAN PRIDE! I’LL SHOW YOU GERMAN PRIDE YOU EGOSTROKING-LIMPDICKED ATTENTION WHORES.

People like Crispy make it 1000x harder to actually show interest in German things. Because I AM interested in German shit btw.

Like for real: it’s a country I’d love to visit one day (at least the black forest, which is where my mom’s fam comes from). I love German art and German fairytales slap. I really do want to explore my heritage through art and stuff.

But guess what? Much as Crispy would argue to the contrary I DO know my WWII history and beyond and FUCK YOU if you honestly think jerking it to cuddly Nazi-furs is empowering or just “showing your interest in history”. Take your own advice and read a god-damn book.

TL;DR: I DO NOT have to be proud of Nazis to enjoy German culture and if you think otherwise, FUCK YOU. It’s a slap in the face to everyone even if you are ‘just trolling’ and it in no way values actual German’s feeling on the matter. It’s annoying how people undervalue real people just for the sake of fan art.

The Nazis were evil. They were racist, eugenic-genocidal idiots who killed over six million Jewish people, Romani, Slavs, Jehovahs Witnesses, disabled people, Poles, homosexuals and prisoners of war. They would have killed my dad’s side of the family if they were in Poland at the time. They made bullshit tanks that killed the people making them and didn’t work on the battlefield. Their leader was a fat, farting one-testicaled bastard who preferred animals to people.

They ruined everything for everyone and then took the easy way out, leaving the Germans that were left in the hands of the also-genocidal Soviets and Americans. Germany is still paying their war debts and now, 70-80 years later everyone else wants to laugh off this dark period of history with memes and forget what they did, and as such, are forgetting the victims of the genocide.

I have 0 tolerance for Nazi things for the sake of HUMANITY, let alone the individual groups they target. I don’t have to have German ancestry or know a single Jewish person to tell you any of this. It’s fucking history.

Eat shit.

[firstpuffin]

Defeating an overwhelming antagonist…again..:

A problem with any ongoing story is the need for escalation. Every conflict need to be greater than the previous and while there are a number of different ways to do this (I’m partial to an emotional element as opposed to greater risk), the easiest is simply to up-the-ante.

  The Star Wars prequels went from a single planet to the entire galaxy; superheroes frequently go from the villain of the week to saving everything; romance such as Kimi ni Todoke (which I’ve written about previously) starts with the lead trying to talk make connections and ends on trying to keep their friends, partner and life goal.

  Every genre will have different requirements. Heck, if pornography has ongoing stories then they’d have the same problem, although don’t count on me figuring out how to deal with it. More participants? Dunno.

 I personally love a good action story and it can be dumb like Dragon Ball, goofy like Gintama or serious like Bleach, and I deliberately named manga as examples as that’s the area I’ve chosen to write about today. Why manga? Well in my experience the scale of escalation tends to be somewhat more extreme and far simpler.

  I think I’d like to also write about escalation in other genres such as romance, slice-of-life and sure, comedy, and how they might, and often do, intermingle. But for now I’m gonna talk about the action genre’s Overwhelming Antagonist.

  Again.

  Sorry.

 I’m going to provide three examples this time, all manga that I loved (at one time at least) and while I’ve only just finished one of them, another has recently had a confirmation for its finale being animated. Going from bad to good: Bleach, Naruto, and Gintama.

 So we’re starting with Bleach. Hmm, what do you need to know to understand this? Well after writing this out once already I figured all you actually need to know is why the antagonist sucks.

  The antagonist in question is- uhh, f*ck it. His name is “Yhwach”, but screw figuring out the pronunciation for that, I’m calling him Deus (even though this will influence the SEO of this article, but whatever). Deus is quite possibly the worst example I can think of for a bad antagonist. His unique superpower, The Almighty, is to know everything that will happen, that can happen, and to freakin’ overwrite any future he doesn’t like!

  Like seriously! I can only think of one power that is harder to overcome and that’s the one that’s been floating around online about controlling probability. It’s the epitome of bullshit, and the overwriting-futures-he-doesn’t-like bit only comes out after he should have lost, and that’s what bothers me the most.

  If he had lost right there, it would have been a very satisfying end brought about from the hero’s, Ichigo Kurosaki’s, efforts, working alongside allies and previous antagonists and with some actual tactics; satisfying despite the nonsense of literally everything else in the arc until that point (contradicting established lore and generally making no goddamn sense-). Instead he whips out this Diabolus ex Machina (the villainous Deus ex Machina) so that something the writer included earlier (but hadn’t really established) could finish him off instead.

  This is all quite terrible, but what makes it so egregious is that Bleach had two, two, separate and very much ideal chances to end, but kept going. But basically Deus simply chose not to die, rewriting reality to do so, but couldn’t overwrite his actual loss? Care to explain that to us, upcoming anime?

 SECOND! Naruto.

  Naruto is also pretty interesting to me because I didn’t enjoy it at all for like, 50 episodes (and still watched it? why?) but it eventually became my favourite manga (for a time anyway). Me and my friends were worried about how well it was possible for a 15 year-long story to end, especially after that Bleach debacle, and we sort of didn’t want it to end just to avoid the inevitable tragedy.

  But it was good!

  I know that many people don’t like it, and for some of it I can understand why. The big bad was Madara Uchiha- scratch that (the author did), the antagonist is the up-until-now unknown Kaguya. Yeah, she hadn’t really been established, or even mentioned, up until she appeared and yeah, that was a problem. I think the reason why I gave it a pass was that her appearance was also connected to the origin of the culture of that world and was really quite fascinating, so I let it slide.

  Oh, and I liked her design. That goes a long way.

  Anyway, after a long and drawn out fight against the established (multiple times as-it-were) villain Madara, Kaguya is reincarnated through what can be summarised as the end result of Madara’s hubris and becomes the threat. She is an odd antagonist for an action manga, and not just because she’s a woman.

  Kaguya isn’t strong in the same way as all the other characters, punching and shooting lighting and such, but instead she’s powerful like a deity. She drags the heroes through dimensions and such while still getting her bearings, and I’m pretty sure she is defeated while still half asleep.

  Kaguya’s sudden appearance is the bad, so what’s the good?

  The heroes, our titular Naruto Uzumaki and his best bud the brutal murderer Sasuke Uchiha were, through some situation, gifted a power that they were using to try and seal Madara away like an evil genie, but this sealing power works just as well for Kaguya (if I remember correctly then that’s why she needed to be reincarnated in the first place).

  It all works on established lore and isn’t a stretch in any way.

 And finally, Gintama.

I really would not have expected this from a manga filled with so many scatological jokes that any metaphor would just bring unwanted images to mind, and whose very title is a dick joke.

  The antagonist here is Utsuro, an honest-to-god immortal. Over a thousand years old, heals from anything, dead inside (according to him “utsuro” means hollow), all Utsuro wants to do is destroy everything. I know, what a 2D character, right?

  Actually no. Being immortal, Utsuro has gone through the whole loneliness thing that stories about immortals tend to include, only he’s also had to deal with persecution on top of that. He may heal but he still feels it when his village burns him alive, or stabs him, or locks him away in a prison where he starves until the lock rusts away… the author doesn’t give him the typical “oh woe is me” flashback, but gives us plenty of reason to empathise with him.

  So fighting an immortal, and without the superpowers of the previous two entries, how does our hero Gintoki Sakata defeat him? That requires a bit of a history lesson; history in the manga.

  How many of you know of the Life-stream from Final Fantasy 7? That seems like a solid analogy. It is mentioned a number of times that the planets (plural as Gintama is a sci-fi) have some energy called Altana and while its uses aren’t really explored, we do know that one effect of it is that some people are born of it (also not really explained; planet sex? virgin birth?) and that these people are immortal as long as they have access to this energy, and that right there is the crutch of things.

 One of our leads is an alien whose mother was one of these immortals who left her planet and slowly died because the Altana of another planet won’t help. Utsuro is actually almost killed off of Earth and retreats back- oh, but if he’s only vulnerable away from the Altana then how else can he be beaten?

  In the end it comes down to a couple of factors, both of which are established previously; the time he almost dies, it’s because someone rams a foreign Altana crystal into his chest and our heroes go into battle equipped with these. Secondly, using characters and lore set up and forgotten a long, long time ago, the flow of this Altana is regulated by a small group who, with great difficultly, are able to staunch the energy during the fight.

  With small amounts of the harmful Altana being absorbed into his body through super-healing and no access to his literal life-force, Utsuro is able to be defeated and this is why Gintama is king. Gintama literally used what seemed like throwaway, not at all serious storylines and thoroughly established lore to exploit a weakness in this immortal.

 Compare this with Deus from earlier who has no such weakness and the only thing that can apparently defeat him not only hasn’t been set up, but should have been foreseen and avoided because that’s his power! That’s literally what he does! But Utsuro has this flaw and time was taken to establish a way to take advantage of it.

[necer0s]

So I just reread all of Mother of Learning in preparation for the big finale, and boy do I have a lot of Thoughts.  So I put them all in one post so as not to spam everyone.  

The summer festival planar alignment being an excuse for a huge political/social/academic party makes a lot of sense when you consider that this particular planar alignment is essentially the anniversary of the Ikosian Empire.

Can I just say that the Splinter Wars and everything that goes into them is an absolutely masterful piece of worldbuilding craft? Those combined events set the stage technologically, socially, and politically, at scales large and small.

I really enjoy the Northern Frontier chapters. Whenever I think about an epilogue, I always imagine that eventually Zach and Zorian will move north to settle some patch of land with their incredible skills. I feel that Zach wouldn’t be happy without the adventure, and Zorian would enjoy the relative isolation.

I also really like the mind magic in this series. It has a great set of abilities and limitations. Watching Zorian master those abilities and push those limitations is what makes his progress in the field so enjoyable.

Aranean culture is also fascinating. It’s kind of interesting that we explore a number of different web cultures before we really start exploring the different human cultures.

The foreshadowing in this story really is quite remarkable. Nochka and Raynie, two totally separate people with nothing in common other than being shifters, are both introduced to us in the very first chapter, however passingly. Eventually, Zorian is given completely different reasons to get to know both of them. And by the end, getting their respective stories is not only crucial to understanding the invaders’ plans, but essential to stopping them entirely.

The more I reread, the more I wish I’d read the conversation with the angel a few more times. I still don’t really understand why the angels chose Zach of all people to be at the center of the time loop. If it’s a matter of character, surely his Tragic Backstory should have made him look like a potential danger? With his history, there was always a danger that Zach would decide not to care about Cyoria or something.

You know, during this period where Zach is waiting for Zorian to show up... I wonder what’s going on in his mind? I mean, apparently Zach knows all this time that only one of the two of them can survive. But by the time they meet up again, he seems... antagonistic, maybe, but he’s also determined to get Zorian out of the loop pretty soon after talking to him. Is he hoping that they’ll find a way for both of them to live? Or has he already given up on life at that point?

Seeing the “original” version of the invasion is making me think about how Z&Z will defeat the real invasion. I suspect they might have warded most of the artillery magic targets, for a start... and of course, Zorian’s city-wide mind magic will be devastating.

I really do like Xvim. He’s just such a strong character. And yet we know so little about him! I really hope he doesn’t die at the end of the story.

I have to say, I much prefer when Zorian starts becoming exceptional, rather than merely competent. The basics are fun and all, but it’s undeniably more fun to watch him master more advanced skills like mind magic and dimensionalism.

Zach is such a wonderfully fascinating character. That was true even without the contract reveal, and with that information... he seems so carefree and happy most of the time, but he has such delightful hidden depths. The depression and rage were always sort of there, but it’s only with this new insight that I can see just how good a liar Zach can be. It’s not something you’d expect from him.

Random theory: is the Ghost Serpent a former god? He says that a past Branded One made him “fall”, and if anyone could cause the gods to lose their power and be thus diminished, it would be someone who had been through the full time loop.

I will never stop loving the reveal of how the time loop really works. It’s such a masterful culmination of foreshadowing and worldbuilding. “Time travel is impossible”, “blueprint conjuration”, “Black Room-style time acceleration”... the list goes on. Dozens of little hints and facts and observations all add up to this one revelation.

Zach’s determination to get both of them out of the loop is so bittersweet with the contract revelation. What is he thinking in this moment? Is he resolved to die if it gives them a better chance to save Cyoria? Is he quietly (desperately) hoping that if he saves Zorian, Zorian will somehow save him? It’s honestly heartbreaking.

You know, I’ve thought this before, but I really want Kirielle to end up learning from Silverlake in the epilogue.

Oh yeah, the Sovereign Gate belonged to House Noveda in the past... I wonder if the same is true of the Dagger? Even if it’s only the Gate, it does sort of imply that Zach is a distant descendant of the original Ikosian kings. Which might account for why he was chosen for the time loop...

I know that the story is supposed to be divided to into three Acts, but seeing Act 2 end at chapter 54 when the maybe-final chapter is going to be 101 really makes me think that it’s really a four-act story (partly thanks to later chapters being either longer or more plot-dense than early chapters). Maybe Act 3 should end when Silverlake leaves the time loop? There’s a certain symmetry in having each act end with the revelation that someone has left the loop.

So the gate has sufficient power for a thousand iterations even under the suboptimal conditions of this early activation. That’s... over eighty years. Easily a lifetime. At full power... would you expect to see two lifetimes? Five? Ten? That’s incredible power. And yet, for as relatively little time as they’ve had, Zach and Zorian have sure come a long way. By the end of the time loop, even counting Black Box time, Zach has had just about 40 years, and Zorian has had about... 15? Even with all the advantages of the time loop, it speaks to their talent that they both leave the loop as powerful as they do. For them to be as close behind Quatach-Ichl as they are, when he has almost a thousand years on them... it’s impressive.

I love it when Zach and Zorian start bantering. It’s a lot of fun, of course, but it’s also just... so good for them. It’s the kind of thing that just seems really healthy for both of them after how long they’ve been effectively isolated.

Have I mentioned recently that I love Xvim? He’s so totally down with Zorian being a powerful mind mage.

The reveal that Quatach-Ichl is wearing the Crown is such a delightfully sadistic moment. Like, you knew that gathering the Key was never going to be easy, but they went ahead and put the single greatest possible obstacle right at the start.

The Dragon Cult being worried that QI might try to betray them if he knew they were trying to control the primordial seems a lot like foreshadowing... as does Alanic saying that knowing the simulacrum spell is half of what you need to be a lich.

Daimen and Zorian meeting each other for the first time in so long is another one of those moments that makes me wish we could get Zach’s viewpoint on all this. Partly because I’d love a neutral perspective on their interactions, and partly because... what must he be feeling, as someone who lost all his family so long ago?

The wraith bombs are such a wonderfully horrible development. Not only are they about the most disturbing weapon imaginable, they make horrifically perfect sense in this setting. The perfect fantasy nuke.

The fact that the invasion is actually cancelled after the Ibasan Gate is stolen seems like a fairly significant point to me. (Especially since it happens before Silverlake joined the team, meaning she may not know about it.) If one of the first moves in the counter-assault is to shut down the Gate somehow (a sensible option anyway, as it would cut access to Iasku Mansion), there’s an increased chance of Quatach-Ichl deciding to retreat.

...I wonder if Zorian could dominate a couple soulseizer chrysanthemums and use them to fight Quatach-Ichl? They do seem like kind of the perfect option for something like that... I’m just imagining Zorian luring him into a seemingly undefended Noveda garden and then suddenly half a dozen tiny flowers pop out of the ground and try to eat his soul.

With the knowledge that Jornak is Red Robe, it strikes me as important to wonder who exactly it was that screwed him out of his inheritance.

Zorian is such an annoying little brother. I can’t blame him— it’s obviously self-defense against his asshole older brothers— but it is definitely funny.

Boy, every time Zach talks about his future instantly becomes sad when you consider the contract, huh?

Silverlake’s study of the primordials and their prisons is really worrying now that she’s working for the other side. Does she even need the shifter children to release Panaxeth?

You know, Silverlake suggests tracking Quatach-Ichl’s movements to try and find his phylactery, and Alanic agrees, but I don’t remember them ever actually doing that? That’s going to become extremely important by the end of the story. If they could just place the ring’s tracking marker on him, then send him back to his phylactery...

I really do love that dealing with both Quatach-Ichl and Silverlake has serious consequences. Powerful and ancient mages shouldn’t be completely at the mercy of anyone with a time loop, and these two certainly aren’t.

...so the Sovereign Gate can be used as a replacement for the shifter children, right? But the question is— is that true in the outside world as well, or only while it’s “attached” to him to create the time loop? The answer to that question will have a big effect on the final battle. (Could the angels possibly re-attune the Gate to a different primordial? Can the Guardian of the Threshold push Panaxeth back?)

You know, even having seen most of what’s coming, I can’t keep from imagining foreshadowing in everything that happens in this early part after leaving the loop. Like, is Bryn a spy for Jornak? That kind of thing.

Zorian says he has “that one trump card that no one but him knows about”. Boy, what a tantalizing line. Is he talking about bypassing mind blank? Being a lich? A secret spell formula weapon? We just don’t know.

Okay, here’s a thought: how does the contract kill Zach? Is there any way he could survive, like by becoming a lich? Or would it just... erase his soul?

I love that one of the necessary characteristics for the angels choosing Zach is him being dumb enough to agree to a mysterious contract presented by beings in a dream.  He’s Stupid Good by design.

You know, most of the angels’ concerns and precautions make sense to me.  Zach needs to be good, he needs to be willing (however dubiously), he needs to keep Panaxeth from escaping... but why is it such a big deal to them that no one knows about the time loop?  The Sovereign Gate can realistically only be activated by them, and if I understand its function correctly, once Zach went in, no one else was going to be able to use it for another 400 years.  

...oh shit, Zorian is going to put the grey Hunter in a box and send it at someone. Silverlake, probably— he knows for a fact that she can’t defeat it, after all.

It’s sort of ironic that Zorian is the one who will probably end up using the most monsters in the final battle, given how heavily the invaders rely on the monsters.

Ah, okay. The Sovereign Gate can’t serve as an alternate key to Panaxeth’s prison. That’s made explicitly clear. So no shifter children... no Panaxeth. (Except now that I’m thinking about it... what about Silverlake and Jornak themselves? They have a pact with Panaxeth and he literally created their bodies... that’s the kind of thing that could easily work.

[shadowsong26x]

Random SW meta because Why Not

So, I’ve been thinking some about Thrawn lately (because a) I do that off and on, and b) commentary about Alliances has been on my dash again lately). And I’ve been thinking about where he works really well for me, and where he doesn’t quite hit the mark; and where a lot of the commentary from people who are not super fond of the character is coming from (i.e., the fact that he is The Smartest In The Room and the need to demonstrate that has a tendency to push back on other characters he interacts with in a bad way/sometimes makes them look less clever/competent than they actually are; I’ve particularly seen this in some of the discussions about Alliances, and it’s not entirely wrong.)

The rest is now going behind a cut because apparently I am incapable of shutting up XD

Anyway. Quick note before we get started. While Thrawn isn’t actually my favorite/a top-tier character for me, I do like him quite a bit, and most of the works he’s in. (I also like Timothy Zahn’s writing style, for the most part, though I know it isn’t for everyone.) Outbound Flight, for example, remains one of my favorite Legends novels. Also, I do like Alliances. Not as much as the first canon Thrawn novel or the stuff in Legends, but more than a few people I’ve seen comment on it. That being said, I don’t like the way Zahn writes Vader, for one thing, and I can understand where people who don’t like the way he writes Anakin and Padme are coming from, though I don’t 100% agree. I also, overall, like Thrawn in the novels a lot better than I liked him in Rebels, particularly S4.

And I think a lot of it comes down to this:

Thrawn is, essentially, a Sherlock Holmes expy*.

And, more than Moriarty or his other nemeses/notable antagonists, and probably at least as much as being Clever and solving mysteries, a lot of what defines Sherlock Holmes, and what makes stories about him good and compelling, is his relationship with Watson**.

So, with that in mind…

In each of the novels except Alliances, Thrawn has a pretty solid Watson at his side. In the original Thrawn trilogy, of course, he has Pellaeon. In Outbound Flight, he has Car’das. In Thrawn, he has Eli. And it’s interesting, because while all three of these men fill that Watson role, and have a sort of give-and-take with Thrawn that’s really fun to read about, it plays out differently with each of them, based on the relative positions they hold, and their personalities.

Eli tends to come across more or less as Done with Thrawn’s bullshit like 99% of the time, as much as he respects Thrawn’s brilliance – but, then again, while Thrawn does outrank him, they come up together/start their careers in the Imperial military together, and have parallel learning curves.

Car’das is a combination of wary and fascinated, because he’s stranded in Chiss territory and Thrawn’s prisoner, so a lot of his dynamic with Thrawn is negotiations to make the best of the situation for himself and his friends. Meanwhile, Thrawn has next to no experience with the main (from a narrative perspective) part of the galaxy, and Car’das in particular is his window into that world and has a way of thinking that intrigues him. The two of them also have a lot to learn from each other, in terms of culture, history, language, etc.

Bearing in mind that I haven’t reread his books in a while – Pellaeon, interestingly enough, despite being pretty established in his career, is in some ways even more conscious of the rank and status in play than Car’das, at least at the start. Because he is directly under Thrawn’s authority, being the captain/commander of his flagship. To the best of my recollection, he starts off serving mostly as a sounding board for Thrawn, but over time starts to bounce back, and the two of them hit their stride I think probably somewhere in the second book? And there’s a lot of cool things about their dynamic, even posthumously (on Thrawn’s end) in the Hand of Thrawn duology ten years later, where the possibility of Thrawn being back and undoing everything Pellaeon is currently trying to accomplish is something he has to thread his way through very carefully.

Pellaeon also fits the audience-surrogate/narrator part of being Watson (which becomes kind of the focus in some adaptations of the source material, to the point where a badly-handled Watson loses most of his own characteristics/cleverness) better than most of the others. And, true, all of the Watsons fill the role in this respect, since Zahn didn’t write Thrawn’s point of view at all in Legends, but Pellaeon hits those particular notes the best, IMO. I remember reading the annotated Heir to the Empire and Zahn commenting that he needed a human viewpoint character because Thrawn is, well, alien, and that’s in some cases a better way to get alien worldviews/psychology across than trying to write it directly***.

Interestingly enough, Thrawn kind of serves as an origin story for all three book!Watsons, too? Which is probably part of what makes them so compelling, that while this relationship is a hugely impactful/defining one for them, it’s not the sum total of their character or story. For example, as much as I like Thrawn and Pellaeon’s dynamic with each other, I’m almost more attached to Pellaeon once he comes into his own and builds on what he had and then lost with Thrawn. (Full disclosure – while I generally prefer the broad-strokes post-ROTJ worldbuilding in Legends to the same in canon****, I’m not super fond of a lot of the specific Legends plot points from that era; Pellaeon’s arc is one of the exceptions.) And Car’das had his own journey, building a smuggling empire and doing some light espionage on the side as the Empire rose around him. Eli, of course, we have yet to see what he’s done with himself after separating from Thrawn, but I expect he’ll have a cool story of his own, too.

…anyway, the point of all that is, giving Thrawn someone to bounce off of in the right ways, with whom he can hit that Holmes-and-Watson dynamic in one way or another, makes him work a lot better, at least for me personally, than Thrawn more or less on his own, and that works pretty well in the Legends novels and the first canon Thrawn novel.

Which brings me to Alliances and Rebels.

Alliances is kind of an interesting case to me, because there’s sort of the start to that kind of push-and-pull Thrawn gets with his Watsons when he’s interacting with Anakin, which is probably why those sections worked the best for me (despite some issues with Anakin’s POV, although I didn’t find them as jarring as other readers have). But, of course, it’s never actually going to develop properly into that kind of relationship, primarily because Anakin has already imprinted on other people/is already spoken for, so to speak, and so he and Thrawn are never going to mesh. Which does make for an interesting AU/story of what might have happened if Thrawn, or the Chiss in general, had been the ones to find Anakin/recognize his potential and take him in, as opposed to Qui-Gon and Palpatine. Buuuuuuuut that’s a separate conversation, and an AU I don’t need/will not be writing, lol.

And Vader, of course, is never ever going to fill that niche for Thrawn; which probably contributes to why that half of the novel fell a little flat for me, along with really not liking the way Zahn wrote Vader.

And then there’s Rebels.

S4 Thrawn doesn’t work as well for me overall, because there’s no one in his orbit that even approaches that dynamic. Pryce might try, but he doesn’t seem to think much of her/like and respect her in the way he does with his various Watsons. His relationship with Rukh has its own appeal, but it’s not the same thing. I mean, don’t get me wrong, S4!Thrawn is still clever and competent and badass and all of that and I do enjoy his bits, but he doesn’t draw me in/I’m not invested in him in the same way.

S3, on the other hand…

Much like the flashback half of Alliances, there’s the foundations of this kind of dynamic between Thrawn and Kallus. To the point where, if the timeline had been fudged just a little bit; if Kallus hadn’t already defected when Pryce requested the Seventh Fleet (and Eli was already gone), I actually think they probably would have headed in that direction. I think the specific interplay would’ve fallen somewhere between how Pellaeon deals with Thrawn and how Eli does, in part because of jurisdiction/whatever (which, I mean, I’m making up but Kallus is ISB, not Navy/regular military; so while he is under Thrawn’s authority, it’s not really in the same way as Pellaeon is, being the captain/commander of Thrawn’s flagship).

Which is not in any way to say that I would’ve preferred it if canon had gone in that direction, because I wouldn’t – in all honesty, Kallus’s canon arc hits, like, all of my narrative buttons, and I’m not sure it could’ve been more up my alley if it had been specifically tailor-made to appeal to me, personally. But having that potential Holmes-and-Watson dynamic underpinning Thrawn and Kallus’s interactions throughout S3 definitely adds something to Thrawn (at least for me), and probably to Kallus as well.

Long story short, Thrawn is a character who works best when he’s matched by the right deuteragonist/foil, and the places where he doesn’t work as well, at least for me, personally, support that.

(Also, I’m looking forward to Treason to see what’s become of Eli and hopefully get some more Chiss worldbuilding! Because the snippets we got in Alliances are pretty cool and one of the things I really liked about that novel. Also Pellaeon is officially a canon character as of the Rebels series finale so I’m hoping we get to see more of him, too! Either in Treason or elsewhere.)

*I don’t take credit for this reading/interpretation, btw! I think it was first pointed out to me by my roommate, though I may be misremembering. Either way, it seems accurate/makes a whole lot of sense to me, so I’m sticking with it!

**This holds true whether the relationship is romantic or platonic. This is in no way about shipping Thrawn with any of his Watsons (though, for the record, I do ship him with Pellaeon).

***This is another thing I like about the Thrawn books in general, and some of the worldbuilding Alliances gave us – Star Wars doesn’t do a whole lot with that side of things (i.e., with making aliens and the way they think/approach problems really feel alien, barring species like the Geonosians which are a little too removed, and make it hard to hit that sci-fi/fantasy sweet spot of being just the right combination of Similar But Otherworldly, if that makes sense? …tangentially related, I really should revisit that idea of an atevi Jedi at some point…but I digress). Anyway, I think it’s nice when this kind of thing is put into the universe. And since the Chiss Ascendancy and the Empire/Republic don’t have a lot of contact, it can be handled a lot better/more credibly with them, given the way the galaxy is built. So I appreciate that Zahn does that.

****I.e., the way the New Republic is set up; how the remainder of the Galactic Civil War played out over the next few years; a few other things; to the point where anything I write in that timeframe will absolutely be a blended canon, even beyond what I already do as a matter of course, integrating characters/specific locations and situations I like from the canon!ST with something like the broader Legends backdrop I prefer – with allowances, of course, for how AU I’ve gotten on the way to ROTJ. I mean, to be fair, once we get past roughly the Hand of Thrawn duology, I start getting a bit cranky at the worldbuilding again, but that’s when the plot points I dislike start taking over. But for those fifteen/twenty years, for that foundation, I prefer the Legends setup to the canon one. …and any more on the subject will be a long digression on my feelings about the ST in general which are out of place for this essay. Short version: I really like almost all of the new characters, but I’m not super invested in the story that’s being told with them.

[maychorian]

Weekly Voltron Fic Recs #46

Yeah, it’s been more than a week. Hush now and enjoy the super ridiculously long list of recs. I made this for you.

Rules: You can find past weekly rec lists here, and non-list recs in my general fic rec tag. Also follow @maychorianrecs for individually tagged posts, the easier to search and reblog. This is stuff I like, and I have a huge bias toward Lance, hurt/comfort, and general fluff, in that order. Gen unless otherwise noted. Please comment on the fics if you read and enjoy them!

A Long Time Ago (We Used To Be Friends) by Mikiri Words: 32,580 Author’s Summary: Originally Keith was supposed to have been Shiro’s copilot for the Kerberos Mission. They bonded over the thought of being on a mission together. But that all fell down the drain when something was found wrong with his blood. The fall out of the mission failure changed Keith forever. My Comments: Really interesting idea for an AU, and the story did such a good job of building up the team of Matt, Sam, Keith, and Shiro that it hurt like the dickens to have that all torn away in the end.

Lay To Waste by Demenior, wrecked_anon Words: 41,303 Author’s Summary: What was meant to be a simple mission— make contact with the Rebellion and form an alliance— goes horribly awry. Now the team is split up, the Galra are invading, and Shiro’s past may prove to be their greatest adversary yet. OR When you have skeletons in your closet, you hope they stay dead. My Comments: I’ve read and recced stories in this series before, so I knew before I read it that it was going to be amazing, but also have moments of pretty awful horror that I would have to steel myself for. And that’s completely true. The worldbuilding is fantastic, and this author always does such a great job of making Voltron feel like SCIFI, rather than a space fantasy, which is cool. The aliens are so ALIEN, and the new cultures and characters you meet are all so fascinating and so well-conceptualized. It’s just great, great stuff, but yeah, brace yourself from some horrific scenes.

of beasts and men by nowweareunstoppable Words: 14,430 (½) Author’s Summary: (werewolves & ghouls & witches, oh my!) It hurt, but it hurt like a lightning strike must; so powerful that the pain of it is overshadowed by the sheer momentum of the act. She was an explosion, but instead of coming apart, she was converging again into something more than the previous sum of her parts. Pidge came back with the taste of copper on her tongue and panic pulsing inside of her. My Comments: Absolutely fabulous urban fantasy AU with Pidge stumbling in far over her head and werewolf Shiro sacrificing just about everything to save her. Action-packed, edge-of-the-seat thrill ride. I want the rest really bad.

Hazy by haleyislametbh Words: 2,102 Author’s Summary: Some days, Lance’s ADHD doesn’t seem to bother him much. Today is not one of those days. My Comments: This feels really in-character, though it’s not my particular headcanon. Great stuff.

Try Everything by oldmythologies Words: 1,510 Author’s Summary: In which Lance believes that anything is a lullaby if you sing it soft enough <3 My Comments: Shance hinted at the end but reads platonic to me. Really sweet modern AU in which Lance doesn’t know his roommate Shiro very well, but still tries to gently sing him awake when he has a nightmare.

See The Light by itbepansam Words: 1,591 Author’s Summary: The team escapes from a dangerous mission and after one of the team members gets hurt, they decide to all form a huge cuddle pile My Comments: Cuddle piles are always good.

Build on Shaky Ground by Engineer104 Words: 3,337 Author’s Summary: Sometimes Lance dangles the carrot of friendship in front of Pidge’s face; sometimes Pidge refuses to take a bite For Pidge Ship Week, Day 1: Trust Comments: Tagged as possible romantic Plance but can be read platonic. I like fics that treat platonic relationships with all the depth and complexities of romantic relationships. A lot. Nothing is really resolved at the end of this one, but you can see the threads of friendship starting to be woven between them, and that’s beautiful.

Dirt and Dried Blood by hufflepirate Words: 14,637 Author’s Summary: Coran doesn’t know exactly what happened out there. He just knows the other paladins brought the princess back bloody and half-dead. Allura remembers being left behind, but she doesn’t remember making it home. Sometimes getting back on your feet requires a little more than a healing pod, but they both know he’s going to be there for her every step of the way. My Comments: Absolutely fabulous fic centered on characters who don’t get nearly enough attention. Great hurt/comfort scenes, great emotions, great characterization and backstory. A pleasure to read from start to finish.

Triumph or Death by ashitanoyuki for Wisttic Words: 3,562 Author’s Summary: Haxus did not die when he fell from the generator room catwalk. His survival presents an opportunity to gather useful information for the Galra Empire. My Comments: Great outsider perspective on the crew, and it even had me rooting for Haxus, at least his survival. Fun read.

Prison Toys by PastelClark Words: 3,452 Author’s Summary: When the mission crew of Shirogane, Holt, Holt, and McClain doesn’t come back from Kerberos, the world decides their ship crashed. Pidge decides it’s all bullshit.She’s not the only one. (In which Pidge lives inside her own head, Lance’s older sister was the fourth Kerberos crew member, everyone has something to lose, and no one is handling this well.) My Comments: Heartbreaking, but fascinating look at how Lance and Pidge’s dynamic changes when he’s dealing with loss, too. They both want to get to space so, so badly, yet they seem to work at cross purposes much of the time.

Starting to Unwind by HapaxLegomenon Words: 1,331 Author’s Summary: “We decided,” Lance says, “that you need a day off.” Shiro immediately stiffens. “We don’t have time –” “Yes we do,” Pidge says firmly. “We already cleared it with the Princess and Coran – who said it was a great idea, by the way – so no training, no leader-ing, no worrying, just relax and let us take care of you for once, okay?” Or; Shiro works too hard, and the other paladins encourage him to take a break. My Comments: Aw, everyone taking care of Shiro is so sweet.

Existing by prettyshiroic (AnalystProductions) Words: 6,929 Author’s Summary: It’s not just pain that sweeps into his life uninvited and without ceremony. At first it is. But something else came with it too. Well. Many things. But they’re a mild annoyance. Keith doesn’t like to complain and grumble, so their presence is written off as ghostly. Haunting him from time to time, and that’s as far as he lets the interaction go. Then there’s this. This thing. It made conversations difficult and hard to follow, made words uncomfortable in his mouth. It stripped him of basic comprehension skills at the best of times, sentences on a page clearly there but entirely lost to him. At the worst of times, it strips him of much more than that. Existence at the expense of everything else. My Comments: It doesn’t seem fair, with all of Keith’s canon difficulties, for him to also have to deal with chronic pain. But well, life isn’t fair, is it? That’s part of the point of this fic. The other part is Keith learning to accept support, and the others all being happy to provide it. Achy fic (literally and figuratively) with a great conclusion.

Nesting by isabeau25 Words: 5,635 Author’s Summary: Keith takes a chance on building a permanent nest. The rest of the team approves. My Comments: Part of a very well-realized and adorable wingfic AU. Keith’s nervousness about making something permanent after wandering for his whole life is so palpable and understandable, and everyone’s support is just lovely. A comforting fic, it makes me feel cozy and warm.

Cat in the Sun by isabeau25 Words: 3,048 Author’s Summary: Shiro was just out for a jog. He hadn’t planned on buying a restaurant. My Comments: I didn’t know I needed a platonic coffee shop AU! This was relaxing to read, and the descriptions are idyllic and charming. If I were Shiro, I’d want to buy this run-down property, too. This is the first of a series, and I’m definitely looking forward to more.

Young Blood by Emerald_Ashes Words: 2,268 (1/?) Author’s Summary: Shiro is still missing. A mission in hopes to rescue him go terribly wrong and the team is led into a trap. While they manage to escape, not everyone makes it out unscathed. My Comments: Deaged Keith in Galra form! Lance is a wonderful caretaker already. I’m really looking forward to reading this one as it develops.

Words Fail by EagleInFlight Words: 23,057 (6/?) Author’s Summary: A mind-melding exercise goes wrong, and the five Paladins are now trapped in Lance’s mind. To escape, they must delve through Lance’s memories. Lance learns that in order to save his friends, he has to stop running. But to stop running means to face the worst of himself. My Comments: I really loved the way this fic dealt with Lance’s memories and how the other paladins reacted to them. They all go on a separate little journey with Lance, and it feels very in-character, very emotional and heartwrenching. I’m glad Shiro was there at the time he was, in particular. I’m looking forward to the conclusion a lot.

Reload by Uniasus Words: 9,837 Author’s Summary: Shiro always knew he drew attention as a Galra prisoner, from the soldiers, the other slaves, Zarkon and Haggar. But he never knew the result of it. Now that Black’s refusing to fly with him, Shiro’s determined to figure out what exactly the Galra did. My Comments: Really interesting and well-written Post-Season Three fic that DOESN’T go with the clone hypothesis. I enjoyed all the twists and turns in this one very much. Really great concepts and characterization all around.

Let’s Find The Good We Knew Before by kyanve for Mikiri Words: 6,290 Author’s Summary: By dumb coincidence, Katie ends up witness to Keith’s exit from the Garrison before she’s prepared her identity as Pidge, and decides to get involved. My Comments: Great slight canon divergence fic with Keith and Pidge forming the salty younger sibling team they were always meant to be, just a little quicker than canon. A lot of pain, a lot of heartache there, but they are definitely good for each other.

There’s not such a thing as too many Shiros by RukiaG Words: 1,081 Author’s Summary: Shiro has a clone. That’s something everyone knows and has accepted by now. However, it turns out the Galra made several clones of him, so what will Team Voltron do with all those clones? Adopt them, of course. My Comments: Some adorable crack in which everyone makes plans to adopt a Shiro clone and give them silly names.

Normal by Zurela Words: 6,506 Author’s Summary: Lance and Keith survived isolation on a mysterious planet, but that doesn’t mean everything is automatically okay. Unable to hear and confronted with traumatic memories, Lance and the team do their best to get things back to normal. My Comments: Great follow-up to a previously recced fic. This is some very well done aftermath and recovery. Lance has received a permanent injury, and that’s treated with proper weight, but there’s a lot of hope in there too. And the team is wonderfully supportive. Klance, but everyone gets a lovely moment. I especially loved Allura and Coran. They said some very important stuff. It made me think as well as filling my heart with fuzzy warmth.

Numbers by oldmythologies Words: 1,222 Author’s Summary: Shiro would hate it. He would hate knowing that Keith heard him scream sometimes, that Keith knew that he wasn’t completely okay. He’d feel weak, and he’d hide behind his speeches and his optimism and would be ever more careful about where and when he let himself fall asleep. The cry reaches him from behind the door. It sounds like a child, and god, that child is so afraid. This time, Keith doesn’t hesitate to open the door. My Comments: Sweet and simple fic with Keith comforting Shiro after a nightmare.

The Silly Song by StormySeaWitch Words: 1,605 Author’s Summary: Inspired by Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) It’s amazing what kinds of odd Earth things you can find in space malls. My Comments: Very cute fic with Team Voltron just having fun together for once. It made me grin like a little kid.

The Phoenix by 00AwkwardPenguin00 Words: 5,543 Author’s Summary: In which Ulaz is furious (and about to be sick), Shiro and Keith are suspicious, Thace is appointed Chief Babysitter (and is a boss at it), and Lance is hungry. AKA the first oneshot of a triple AU that literally nobody asked for. My Comments: This AU is hitting a LOT of my buttons. In a world where some people can shapeshift into animals, all five Voltron kids have been locked up in Haggar’s lab and forced to undergo horrible things. Most of them are deaged to some extent, and they are incredibly frightened and protective of each other. Enter Thace and Ulaz as FBI agents who clean out the lab and take the kids under their protection. I’m really REALLY looking forward to more of this series.

Not a Feather Out of Place by isabeau25 Words: 1,271 Author’s Summary: Shiro needs some help preening his wings, but it’s often times easier said then done. My Comments: Very cute wingfic with Keith and Lance working together to soothe Shiro and provide necessary grooming without setting off his PTSD. They’re so lovely. And it’s the first of a series, so you should probably subscribe now.

Small Comforts by EdgarAllenPoet for KatherineKatie Words: 5,652 Author’s Summary: “You needed rest. I was providing comfort.” My Comments: Wonderful Dads of Marmora fic with the theme of Kolivan grooming Keith in various scenarios. The first two are very fluffy, but the last one is not. It made my heart ache in a good way. A good, good way.

Warmth by bookwormgir1LH Words: 2,226 Author’s Summary: Stranded on an alien planet after a crash, Pidge and Hunk struggle to survive. Cuddle number 6: For warmth My Comments: Sweet and good. Huddling for warmth is always a winner.

The Void Stares Back by aleria Words: 8,210 Author’s Summary: The darkness in front of her was so real, she wanted to reach out and touch it. My Comments: Creepy and atmospheric exploration of a Lovecraftian horror scenario. Pidge just wants to understand, but sometimes you don’t get answers.

Light it Up by BossToaster (ChaoticReactions) Words: 13,398 Author’s Summary: After the events of Spark to Ignite, Shiro picks up the pieces. My Comments: Fluffy and wonderful aftermath and recovery fic, perfect follow-up to a fic I previously recced. You should read it all, but basically Shiro was locked in the dark for several days and ended up smashing up his prosthetic arm in his (completely justified) panic, so now he has major adjustments to do while Hunk and Pidge figure out a replacement. Plus he’s scared of the dark and feels embarrassed about it. So yeah anyway this fic is perfect and there’s lots of cuddling, I love it. You probably will, too.

Previously Recced Fics That Updated:

Bromances in Space (27976 words) Coran's Guide to the Care and Keeping of Earthling Humans (35293 words) The Ones Who Were Left Behind (52377 words) Defying the Odds (28643 words) As Color Fades Away (149703 words) The Machinations of Perception (55318 words)  - now complete Ten Days (64896 words) Taking One For The Team (30581 words) Little Crystals (4511 words) Gate Keeper (95943 words)

[readingraebow]

Crazy Rich Asians Section Five

Part Three: Chapters 8-20

1. What do Astrid and Charlie confess to each other? What does Charlie insist they do about it? Charlie confesses that he hasn’t lived with his wife in two years. She was invited to the wedding but they live separate lives now. And Astrid confesses about Michael. She tells Charlie about the affair and how she thinks Michael fathered a child with this woman. And Charlie asks why she doesn’t know for sure. She says she can’t really check into it without raising suspicion. So Charlie insists that they go to Hong Kong right now. He says they can use his jet and she can stay with him so no one will know she’s there. And he knows the best private investigators since his brother’s kidnapping. He says they can easily find out if Michael has another child. And when Astrid protests because of the wedding festivities, Charlie points out that they’re both currently hiding from the party and no one will even notice if they’re there or not.

2. What happened in Paris 1995, when Charlie took Astrid shopping? So they went to a couture shop and the salespeople were super rude and didn’t believe they could really afford to buy anything. So Charlie called his bank to have them call the shop and confirm the purchase. And apparently the bank called the designer who called and chewed out his salespeople. Then Charlie told Astrid to buy at least 10 or 20 pieces basically just to prove that they had money. And the rest of the trip was spent much the same way. Charlie bought Astrid all kinds of designer items and introduced her to her love of shopping. She was raised by rich people who acted like they weren’t rich and were stingy with their money. But Charlie is a rich person who spent money like a rich person and enjoyed having nice things. And Astrid found she liked that way of life better.

3. What does Nick announce to his mother in chapter 11? How does she react? Nick tells his mother that he’s taking Rachel away for a few days and he plans to propose to her while they’re gone. And Eleanor basically freaks out and plays almost every card she has: she tells him Rachel isn’t good enough, she’ll never be accepted, Ah Ma will disinherit him, Rachel is from Mainland China. But Nick doesn’t accept any of this. He tells his mom that he loves Rachel and he intends to marry her and doesn’t need anyone’s approval to do so and then storms out. And then Eleanor heads off to Tyersall Park to play the last card she has left.

4. What does Rachael learn from Eleanor after she and Nick arrived at his grandmother’s house in Malaysia? Her mother has always told her that her father died in an industrial accident when she was two months old and that’s why her mother moved to America. But Eleanor reveals that her father is very much alive and in prison. It turns out he was the CAUSE of the industrial accident which killed 74 people and he’s been rotting away in prison ever since. Eleanor visited him and he had the audacity to ask for a huge dowry for her. Eleanor also shows them an article about a missing child (Rachel), who was kidnapped by her mother Kerry. And Rachel, of course knew nothing about this and promptly collapses.

5. What does Astrid learn about Michael’s affair when she confronts him at his mistress’s house? He confesses that he faked the whole affair. The woman is his cousin and the boy is her son. He says that he thought that creating an affair would be easier because it would give Astrid a reason to divorce him and it would save face for her family. He tells her that their marriage hasn’t worked since day one and while dating was fun, they never should’ve married. He says he’s never been accepted into her family and he’ll never measure up financially. And he’s just tired of living in her world. So he wants a divorce because he wants out, not because there’s someone else.

6. What sacrifices does Eleanor confess she has made for her son? She says that she knew Su Yi never approved of her so she moved out of Tyersall Park so there wouldn’t be two competing Mrs. Youngs. Then she positioned Nick to be the favorite grandson. She left him to be raised by his grandmother and always left his grandmother come first in his life so that he would be closer to her. She wanted Nick to be the heir to Su Yi’s fortune and to Tyersall Park but now it’s all been for naught. Eleanor says that Su Yi never forgives and Nick angered her greatly.

7. What does Rachel’s mom tell her about her past life in China? She explains that she ran off with a guy who was six years older than her because she'd lived a more ~sheltered life. Well, the guy was from a rich family and he turned out to be an alcoholic and horribly abusive. At first, they lived with his grandparents and all they wanted was a grandchild. When Kerry failed to give them one, they made her life hell. So Kerry and her husband moved into their own apartment but that's when he started getting abusive. Kerry ended up meeting a guy who was a year younger who lived in the apartment directly below them. He saved her on many nights when her husband was beating her. She started having an affair with him and got pregnant with Rachel. So he's truly Rachel's father. But she broke off the affair when they almost got caught and then, when her mother-in-law discovered Kerry was pregnant (assuming it was her son's child), Kerry and her husband moved back in with her in-laws. Well, the grandparents hired a fortune teller who said Kerry would have a boy. But then Rachel was born and since there was a one child law at that time, Kerry had failed her in-laws. However, if a child was born with a defect, a family could have another. So the in laws were planning to pour acid in one of Rachel's eyes to make it look like she was born blind in one eye. That's when Kerry took the baby and walked out. She called Rachel's father who helped her make it back to the village where her parents lived and then she escaped to America. She doesn't know what became of Rachel's father-- the man she truly loved and who never even knew he was Rachel's father --or really anyone she left behind. Though she does know that her parents died young. But she saved Rachel and she escaped and she knew she couldn't look back, only forward.

8. Did you like this book? Do you think you will continue with the series? I liked this book a lot! It was a really fun, interesting read. This entire world is absolutely fascinating. I love how, deep down, really rich people are the same no matter where you go but it's the culture and the customs that are different. And that was really fascinating. So I enjoyed this book a lot and I've already asked for the next two for Christmas so I'll definitely be continuing with this series!

  Section Five Reading Journal

Wow okay. So that last section was waaaaay different than the movie. So Nick and Rachel aren’t engaged??? There was no reconciling with Eleanor. Rachel’s father is possibly still alive. And Michael faked his entire affair. Are all but the last thing from a different book? Did the movie take parts of the second book??? I am so confused.

I also definitely need to rewatch the movie because there when times when I was like “wait was this in the movie and I just don’t remember???” So I’ll definitely be rewatching that and doing a comparison. But yeah. The beginning of this book was pretty much the same but this last section was waaaay different.

Also when I was like ten pages from the end and Kerry was still telling Rachel about her life in China and Nick hadn’t proposed I was like “okay there isn’t enough book left here for everything that I remember happening at the end of the movie.” So yeah. That was different. ALSO ASTRID AND CHARLIE. There wasn’t enough Charlie in the movie and I’m upset. Because wow was there a lot of Charlie at the end of this book. I need more of their relationship. So I hope there is a second movie because there are definitely things it needs to cover, haha.

So. That was another great read!!! And I can’t wait to read next months! (Though no idea how long it will take me to post the questionnaires for that since I’m currently posting this from my hotel room. We don’t have internet yet and I also don’t even know where the book is, hahaha. So hopefully I won’t get too far behind!)

[dailyaudiobible]

02/08/2017 DAB Transcript

Exodus 28:1-43 ~ Matthew 25:31-26:13 ~ Psalm 31:9-18 ~ Proverbs 8:12-13

Today is February 8th.  Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible.  I'm Brian and it's great to be here with you for another step forward, another time together around the global campfire as we move through the Bible this year in its entirety.  And this week we’re reading from The Voice Translation and picking up where we left off yesterday where God is giving out instructions for what a tabernacle would look like, this central place, this central and portable hub for God to dwell in that will be in the center of their culture and civilization even as they are being formed in the desert.  Exodus chapter 28, verses 1 through 43.  

Commentary

In the book of Matthew it’s fascinating, because Jesus is finishing up this discussion he was having on the end times.  All this happens in Jerusalem and it is inspired by the disciples just marveling at the amazing temple.  So these guys are from Galilee far to the north, but Jerusalem is the holy city. It is like the most beautiful place they can get to, and so going there is just an amazing sensory overload and they are talking about it and Jesus  tells them everything is going to be on the ground.  No stone will be left unturned.  It is all going to be thrown down.  That is what spurs this conversation and this teaching that he begins.  So he is kind of finishing up that today by saying in the end where there is judgment people will be separated to the right and to the left, sheep and the goats and it is the sheep who will enter into the kingdom because they were vigilant, like we were talking about yesterday.  They were awake and aware and were willing and able to give their hearts to the least of these and care for them.  Jesus is saying “when that happens it is done directly to me. It is doing it to me.”  The goats don’t do that and it doesn’t work out.

So immediately after this conversation, which wraps up most of Jesus’ teaching, I mean, it is only a couple of days before Passover, so Jesus is about to be arrested, his freedom is about to be taken and he will be separated from his friends in very short order, so this is kind of wrapping up. As this is all going on, this woman comes and anoints his head with very valuable ointment.  The disciples’ reaction immediately is “what a waste! She could have sold that ointment for lots of money.  She could have given it to the poor.”  That is an appropriate reaction after the teaching that they just heard about the least of these.  They don’t want to be the goats, so they are reacting to this.  Jesus’ response is “it's good that you are concerned about the poor.  They’ll always be here with you, but I will not be.”  So it's not about running around handing out $5 bills to poor people that you can find with signs on the sides of the road always.  If that is what the Holy Spirit says to do, that is what the Holy Spirit says to do.  But it is not about running around trying to accumulate a number of good works to prove that you cared about the less fortunate, although that is important.  It is that what you do in thought, word and deed is something that you are consciously aware that you are doing for and even to Jesus and that we are in this world acting like Jesus.  

Isn’t the goal of being a believer to be Christ-like?  That means to be like Christ, to be like Jesus, to go into this world and be Jesus to them, which opens up the doors wide to possibility.  Jesus said “for when I was hungry you fed me.  When I was thirsty you gave me something to drink.”  These are tangible things, but there is more than just physical hunger.  There is more than just physical thirst.  Look around you.  Do a 360-degree spin and you will find the hungry and the thirsty.  We are all hungering and thirsting for something.  

Jesus said “when I was a stranger you welcomed me into your life, into your home. When I was naked you gave me clothes to wear.  When I was sick you tended to my needs.  When I was in prison you comforted me.”  These are all tangible, physical, real things, but they also speak to the spiritual deficit that is in this world that we are here to be like Jesus in.  We’re here to eradicate these things from the earth because they do not belong here.  They were never supposed to be here.  This was never supposed to be our reality.  It is so normal to us, after all of these millennia, that we don’t know it any other way.  So we see that we’re like the children of Israel coming out of slavery.  They don’t know anything else.  It is all they know.  Being a slave is completely normal to them, even if they don’t like it.  It is completely normal to them.  But when they’re called out into the wilderness by the mighty hand of God, they are grumbling about what was normal because now moving into freedom is uncomfortable.  It has to be contended for.  It has to be fought for.  

We find ourselves in the same situation.  We are here, the salt of the earth, the light of the world.  We have a huge job to reclaim this place as the hands and feet of Jesus in this world.  So yes, when we find hunger and thirst, when we find the stranger without a friend, when we find the naked, when we find the sick, when we find the imprisoned and oppressed, we have to be like Jesus and we have to do it like we are doing it for and to Jesus.  All of a sudden we see we are continually being remade.  We are continually being pulled toward freedom just like the children of Israel out in the wilderness.  We have a massive role to play and a lot is at stake.  There is so much more going on.  All of a sudden we find our place in a larger story, one that is cosmic and epic and vital.  

Jesus cements this stuff into place as he uses this woman who is anointing his head as an example, because he is like, “I'm telling you, the good news of the kingdom will go all over the world and wherever it does, this story is going to be told.  People will remember her because this is exactly the posture of heart I'm talking about.”  Once again the Bible throws up a mirror, full length, in front of us, and there is nowhere else to look but into our own eyes.  Is this true of us?  Have we seen the larger story?  Have we seen how important it is that we are here because there are hungry and thirsty and naked and sick and imprisoned people everywhere, but some of them only we can get to?  For some we may be the only kind hand of Jesus ever extended toward them in any way.

Prayer

Jesus, when we have a chance to see a bigger picture and that it is important that we are vigilant and aware and awake and walking with you intimately, intertwined in an inseparable relationship, we get an overwhelming sense of the larger story, that we’re a part of something bigger and it matters. Yet it is so much easier to ignore these things.  It is so much easier to lose ourselves in distractions.  But your word, oh your word, it will not allow that.  It is constantly before us, holding up the mirror, asking us ‘is this who you are?  Are you who you were made to be?  Is this the way you want your life to go?’  We’re always given the advance road ahead and we get to choose.  So we invite you to change the posture of our heart so that our heart beats like your heart, so that we are like you in this world, so that when we look around at those near and far, those who have been against us and those who have been for us, those who are near and those who are far away from us, that we look at them all like you do, as other creatures created in the image of God who each have a vital role to play in reclaiming the earth and bringing your kingdom.  When we sit out of our role of making the connection, that touch, being your hands and feet, then we not only hurt them, we hurt ourselves.  So come Holy Spirit, give us the posture of the kingdom, the eyes and the ears and the awareness of the kingdom.  Send your Holy Spirit upon us that we might walk through this day fully aware of our role in this story today.  Come Jesus, we pray in your name.  Amen.

Announcements

Www.DailyAudioBible.com is the website.  It's home base.  It’s where you find out what’s going on around here.  This is the last day, so today only my publisher has my latest book – Reframe, From the God We’ve Made to God With Us on sale in its e-book form for $2.99.  So wherever you get your e-books, whether you're like an iBooks user for Apple or you use a Kindle or you use a computer for that matter, you can get Reframe for $2.99 and read through that.  I think that it will help you.  I think it will help you.  So check that out.  If you're like I don’t really like book books, well, you can get it in book form or audio form or however you like to ingest your reading material, but the e-book is on sale like at www.Amazon.com or iTunes or www.ChristianBook.com or wherever you get your e-books for $2.99 today only. This is the last day of it.  So check that out.  

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible, you can do that www.DailyAudioBible.com as well.  Thank you humbly for your partnership.  If you’re using the Daily Audio Bible App, you can press the More button in the lower right-hand corner.  And, if you prefer, the mailing address is P.O. Box 1996, Spring Hill, TN 37174.

And, as always, if you have a prayer request or comment, (877) 942-4253 is the number to dial.  

And that’s it for today.  I'm Brian. I love you and I’ll be waiting for you here tomorrow.  

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports

I received a full day's pay for one hour's work.  A lot of people were angry.  They said the boss was a jerk, but I'm thankful for his mercy, his generosity, his grace.  There is nothing I’ve done to deserve such a fate.  The earth is the Lord's and the wholeness thereof.  I am that I am when I'm giving out love.  I rain on the righteous.  I rain on the thief.  Both have their problems and both get relief.  It's not about them or the things that they do.  My grace is sufficient for them and for you.  I am the potter and you are the clay.  Complain all you want.  It will still be my way.  Nothing you’ve done is deserving of love.  When I look, what I see is my Son from up above.  His blood is your garment.  It's his blood I see.  He gave up his right to bring you to me.  So sit back, relax secure in my grace.  If you know my Son, then you’re in the right place.  Complaining and grumbling are what humans do.  Some folks are happy but those folks are few.  The prize goes to those who endure till the end.  But all are my children and I love them all, amen. Thank you, dear Lord.  I could never repay.  I worked for one hour and got paid for the whole day.  Thank you, my Father.  BlindTony1016@gmail.com.  I would like to give a shout-out to Gigi, my little sister there with the seizures. Wow, your prayer really touched me. I see what Jesus was talking about, about the faith of a child.  And I really, really loved what you said about I believe, help my unbelief.  I felt you.  I definitely felt you.  Keep the faith.  Keep the faith.  And I would like to give a shout-out once again to the Hardins.

Hello, from beautiful Cincinnati, OH, this is Daniel Johnson, Jr., and I'm calling today.  I just listened to…today is Sunday, the first Sunday in February and I can’t remember the exact date, but it's Superbowl Sunday, so I should know what this is, but anyhow, I just listened to today's podcast and listening to the prayers and the prayer requests and a few calling in with encouragement, I just have to tell you it's so cool hearing all of this.  It just feels like it I'm getting a big hug from all of you just hearing this. And you’re not talking to me directly. But just hearing that we’re doing this and that we have this community going on, every time that I hear your voices it feels like a hug coming from you.  At the end of today's podcast there was Melisa from Alabama and it always feels like you’re…I mean, again, I think that is one of the things that cemented it for me was it feels like I'm getting a big hug from you, Melisa, from everybody that calls in and I just want to give a hug back.  So I'm going to sing a little bit.  [singing] I love you with the love of the Lord.  I love you with the love of the Lord.  I see in you the glory of our King and I love you with the love of the Lord.  [singing ends]  From beautiful Cincinnati, OH, it's Daniel Johnson, Jr.  God bless you and make it a great day.  

Hi Dabbers.  This is Mary calling from Melbourne, FL and I was listening to the community prayers today and I wanted to mention a few of them here.  Christy in Kentucky, I wanted you to know that we’re praying for your mom, Cynthia.  I know that she has liver issues and I know that it is really difficult for you at this time, but we’re praying for the doctors, that they will give good wisdom to you and that they will make good decisions regarding your mom.  And Bonnie from Virginia, when I heard you call in, I about jumped out of my chair.  It was so nice to hear from you.  And I understand that you’re not going to be talking about Vivek, but we’ll wait until you call again.  But you did mention that you’re having a job assessment tomorrow, February 6th, so we know that God works out of time and we know that he is with you so we are going to be praying that God will be with you, that everything that needs to be done will be done in Jesus’ name.  Don’t be nervous about it.  I have a scripture for you and it says that, Philippians 4:7, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  So just trust the Lord and know that he will be with you.  I also wanted to pray for Christy from Ohio.  You said your dad had surgery on the 3rd of February, so it has already happened.  I just pray that he will be well.  I know that is a very difficult surgery.  I’ve had two knee replacements.  But he should take time because it does take time to heal.  And also you had said something about your company, your newspaper is being bought out by a larger company and you’re a little afraid that you might lose your job.  You just need to trust in the Lord.  Again, that same scripture, Philippians 4:7, that he is going to guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.  So have faith in him and trust him to do all things well.  And I wanted to speak a little bit to Keith.  Keith, you called in and you said you were stuck in your faith, that you needed peace and forgiveness for things you’ve done.  I want you to know that the Lord is going to forgive you.  All you have to do is turn around.  He's right there.  And please read 1 John 1:9.  If we confess our sins…

Hi, my name is Susan from New Jersey.  I called a couple times before with anxiety, undiagnosed depression, insomnia, just kind of really didn’t seek any medical help for it, just seeking the Lord continually, always praying.  Anyway, today I was listening, February 5th, to Brian's commentary at the end and his prayer really touched me, so I just wanted to say thank you Brian for all your words today and what we do and what we say really does have an impact on what happens in our everyday life.  If we just stop and listen for the voice of the Lord instead of reacting immediately, give ourselves a chance to just take a deep breath and listen to what God has to say before we add any of our own input.  A lot of times for me it ends up with reacting __________ and just because of my own brain making too much noise.  So that was really, really helpful for me today. God bless you all.  Thanks for being there, DAB family.  Bye-bye.  

Hello Daily Audio Bible family.  This is Linda in Alberta calling.  I first called in August 2015 and some of you may recall I was so deeply distressed about my daughter with her dual diagnosis of mental health and addiction.  So many people, Not Ashamed, Laura in Southern California, Joe the Police Officer, Barb, Humbled in Texas, Linda in Southern California, Pastor Gene, Burning Bush, all of you prayed for my daughter and many, many others have also. I would like to let you know that she is 92 days in recovery now and she is working on a plan for her life.  She is rebuilding it really.  She is in a program with some woman who have the same past traumatic experience that she had.  She has been very fortunate to have weekly regular counseling.  To me this has just been more than I would have ever imagined.  Not to say that God isn’t big, because he is, but I just couldn’t imagine we could be having this in our life again with her and seeing her be so healthy because really it's a mother's nightmare seeing her child struggle so much.  One reason that I'm calling today is well, I wanted to give an update, but also when my daughter was in her addiction, she made some choices that now have put our family in great danger.  My daughter is really, really full of fear and anxiety right now.  I would like to ask that you would just pray for her safety and our safety and that she would continue well in her recovery and that her relationship with God which has been restored, that her roots would grow deep, deep down into him in her relationship with him.  Also that the evil one would be kept away from our family.  And I sure appreciate it.  I pray for each one of you as I hear you call in.  Thank you.  Linda.

Good morning.  Michaela from Gloucester UK.  I'm just calling to say hi really.  It's been a while for me, but I just wanted to tell you about where I’ve been because every now and then I find myself in a deep hole I’ve dug and I can’t see my way out of it.  It's only through God reaching down and pulling me out of it that I ever get out of it to begin with.  So back in the summer I had a good opportunity to serve God in a way I hadn’t really served God before and when I first got it, it was all excitement and I was really __________ about doing it, __________ would be great fun.  And then I took my eyes off God and then you're looking at the waves and how tall and how high they are and how scary it actually is and oh no, I can’t actually do this.  Because of my own strength I can’t do it, but with God's I can do everything and I kind of forgot that.  So I entered this downward spiral of sinking deeper and deeper and I'm digging myself deeper and deeper trying to get out of it by myself without God's help.  So I do this.  This is kind of a cycle at the moment when this happens.  Thankfully God has brought me back out again and I thank God so much for the people he has placed in my life, people from my church family here and my family family who are there to talk to me and drag me out of it.  And you guys as well, because at those times when I stop listening is when I really need to listen.  But when I do start listening again, you guys are such an encouragement and I thank you so much for that.  I thank God that even though I'm going my own way he still blesses me and does things so I can still him even when I'm in that dark pit.  So I just pray that he would shine with brightness in all of our lives.  

[programsbos]

The story of our master Joseph with Zulekha, the wife of Aziz Egypt

The story of our master Joseph with Zulekha, the wife of Aziz Egypt

      When we read the writings of the creators and authors today we find them always immersed in talking about love and we assume that they embody the most wonderful and noble meanings of love, but when we recall the stories of love that were in the days of the prophets and messengers, we find that we do not know anything about love and fulfillment, in their days he provided love without charge, It is not possible for the best-selling books in this regard to reach what they have reached with some of these tricks. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});  The story of Mrs. Zulekha’s love for the Prophet of God, Joseph, peace be upon him, was a dramatic story full of details and exciting events, which embodies the highest meanings of love. There is no love like this lady’s love for our master Youssef, as she was one of the most beautiful girls in Egypt, and the wife of Aziz Egypt, but she loved our master Joseph in a way that could not Her description was Zulekha. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); After Yusuf's brothers threw him in the well to get rid of him, an Arab merchant named Malik found him and sold him in the slave market to Aziz Misr Boutefar, and raised him in his palace between his wife and him, and considered him his son, and Joseph grew up between Aziz and his wife for eleven years, then he became a young man with a beautiful face His words are sweet, flowery, strong, brave and fearless in God a blameless blame, and he was the author of great knowledge and culture. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); I loved Zulekha at that time, and there was not a day that passed, and Zlekha's passion for Joseph increased until he wanted about himself, thinking that he would obey her in disobeying God Almighty. Almighty, but Joseph refused to commit sin and fled out, but they found Boutefar at the door. Zulekha told her husband that he had tried to do the sin with her, so he told her that the Faisal in this case was Joseph's shirt. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Then, Zulekha became angry, and she strove to justify her work by holding a party for the women of Egypt, who spoke, then asked Joseph to come out on them. So, with the women, they cut off their hands with fascination from Gamal Youssef. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Zulekha ordered that Joseph be taken to prison until he complied with her wishes, but he maintained his position, and he spent ten years in prison, but Zulekha began to suffer from the pain of separation a lot and her love increased and her attachment to him until she spent her days crying longing for him, which weakened her vision and made her grow quickly and lose her beauty. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Because of her longing for him, Zulekha asked the jailer to go and beat Joseph in order to hear a voice. The jailer said to Joseph, “The queen has instructed me to beat you to hear your voice, but I will strike the ground while yelling, (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); They kept doing this for several days, but she knew about it, and after that she said to the jailer, "I want you to really beat Joseph," so he told her: "I am doing this, and I replied to him that you did not. If I did, I would feel the sound on his skin before he shouted." (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The jailer returned to Joseph and told him what happened between him and the queen. The Prophet of God, Joseph, said: Do what was commanded to him, and the prisoner took the sound and hit Joseph, and at the moment the sound occurred on the body of Joseph, Zulekha felt it before Joseph screamed at the time. My heart. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); When the Prophet Joseph interpreted the vision of the king of Egypt Akhenaten, “Amenhotep IV,” and his innocence emerged by Zulikha’s confession, as well as the confession of Egyptian women that Joseph was chaste and pious, King Akhenaten released him and appointed him dear to Egypt after the death of Zotikha’s husband Botivar, who was ill and affected by his wife’s betrayal and regret. Yusef’s prison will be for that period. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); After Joseph assumed the king and became Zulekha from all other people, her head was blind, her eyes blind and her back curved in love in Joseph. On all of the days Zulekha sat in front of her house and next to her running to tell her that Joseph had approached, and that her love for him flames did not go out, and indeed, after that, the procession of Joseph stopped and Zulkha stopped him She appealed to Joseph and saw her in this condition, so he said to her, Where is your youth and beauty, she said that all this has gone for you, and he answered her how if you see another man of time more than me beautiful and generous and he is the master of the messengers and her ring. Zulekha, that God repented of it with the blessing of the Prophet Muhammad, may God’s prayers and peace be upon him and his family.

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A Ceramic Installation Of Epic Proportions, Commemorating Victims And Survivors Of Auschwitz

A Ceramic Installation Of Epic Proportions, Commemorating Victims And Survivors Of Auschwitz

Creative People

Jo Hoban

Artist Dan Elborne works and studies at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, and his primary workspace is the university ceramics studio. He also manages the wood/metal workshop so occasionally does project work from that space too. Photo – James Green.

He started the ‘Deathgate’ project in June of 2015. He spent six months in a development cycle before starting intensive production, it has been Dan’s longest work from ‘start to finish’.. Photo – James Green.

‘My current work is heavily reliant on time and labour. I think these two things are very broadly and universally appreciated commodities,’ tells Dan. Photo – James Green.

‘I’m interested in my work being accessible. While most people won’t care about the conceptual considerations of my work, I’d still like them to potentially see some value in either ‘time spent’ or ‘physical labour expelled’. One way or another I’d just like the work to speak on some level to as many people as possible.’ Photo – James Green.

Dan is inspired by visual artists, performers, musicians, designers, photographers/filmmakers and more mostly because of their working abilities and ethic. Photos – James Green.

Influence also comes from a wide range of sources like historic periods, locations and societal movements – these things are often circumstantial to particular projects. Photo – James Green.

Individually crafted ceramic ‘stones’. Photo – James Green.

It’s safe to say that Dan Elborne is a man of his word. November 21st, 2018 marked 1,242 days (three-and-a-half years) after the Toowoomba-based ceramic artist started his epic Deathgate project. This same timeframe saw atrocities carried out against victims of the Auschwitz concentration camps during World War II. A total of 1,242 days encompass the time from the first mass gassing of prisoners, to the liberation of the camps.

For his Deathgate project, Dan committed to laboriously making 1.3 million ceramic ‘stones’ – one stone to commemorate each detainee of the Auschwitz camps.  Now, Dan is showing this work for the first time installed at a newly renovated heritage venue, The Goods Shed, in Toowoomba, where the artist lives and works.

To research his project, Dan visited the preserved Auschwitz II (Birkenau) camp site in 2016, during a residency in France. With an interest in exploring ideas of time and labour, and representing traumatic human experience, the visit helped to crystallise intriguing concept behind this work.

For the exhibition, the 1.3 million ‘stones’ imitate the actual stones that cover the railway leading through the gates of Auschwitz II (Birkenau) camp. Two separate lengths of ‘stones’ are on display, with one containing 1.1 million pieces for each person killed there, and the other containing 200,000 for each person that survived. It’s a 1:1 ratio to provide a direct visual reference to the 1.3 million statistics.

‘The process involved pinching small, individual pieces of clay, which left fingerprints on each one: evidence of individualised attention and human interaction,’ says Dan. ‘I just do whatever is necessary to get the piece done. At times this project has been mentally and physically difficult… but I started it, so putting it really simply, I had to finish it.’

Dan became interested in ceramics’ societal, cultural and historical connotations while studying visual arts: ‘Ceramics’ association to fragility and preciousness, its roots in basic necessity and survival, and its permanence providing a ‘historical record’ are all things that fascinate me’ the artist says. ‘My practice broadly focuses on the way these things give the material a special ability to speak of lived human experience.”

While the subject matter is historically laden, the epic scale (both in size and timeframe) and tactility of the project is uniquely beautiful, and presents a potent visual reminder of the misguided nature of political power in recent global history. Sadly, all too relevant today!

‘Deathgate’ by Dan Elborne. Until June 8th The Goods Shed Victoria Street, Toowoomba

Dan Elborne is currently studying a Doctorate of Philosophy in the University of Southern Queensland’s Visual Arts department, where he also works as an Associate Technical Officer. Keep up to date with his creative journey @danelborne.

[originalgardenconnoisseur-blog]

Psychology Courses

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The type of experience needed depends about the area of psychology you're interested in. Function as an assistant psychiatrist or in areas these kinds dobry psycholog warszawa of as nursing, social work, mental health work, services for individuals with afflictions, mentoring young offenders and work in prisons, probation or even social services is vital. We am undergoing a write-up graduate programme in Mindset, being my first encounter with the course, I actually find this site not necessarily only fascinating but educative, informative along with a breeding floor for up coming leczenie depresji warszawa psychologists. Individuals who dolove working together with others may be attracted in order to clinical psychology, child psychology, geropsychology, or counseling mindset. http://www.psychoterapia-romaniuk.com

[fancycollectordreamerstuff-blog]

Free Downloads And Reviews

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