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argyraspide · 3 years

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Retreat from the Rotten Paradigm of Revolting Repetition

(This treatise was written in a moment of existential and socio-political frustration. I imagine its context will become more clear if/as I keep posting thoughts like these).

My desperate thoughts revolve around two assumptions. First, the world and its capacity to support human life (or life in general, for that matter) is rapidly and unprecedentedly changing for the worse. More conservative philosophies would push back here, calmly pointing out that climate has fluctuated frequently and dramatically throughout Earth’s history, which is true. On the other hand, I feel that the immense influence of the Anthropocene is objectively unlike anything else in the past- that we are collectively, systematically, and swiftly destroying too many of the ecological subsystems which all work together to maintain a healthy, livable, biodiverse, and balanced global ecosystem. Other revolutionary and activist efforts for the cause of ecological restoration have apparently hitherto failed to enact change from the top down. But another movement has been taking place, one which rejects the widespread socio-cultural paradigm in favor of one of their own creation. This route largely ignores the power structures so bent on ecological annihilation for capital and political gain, and instead cuts straight to the core problem- the collective addiction to comfort, convenience, and consumption. While, admittedly, only a handful of intrepid and radical souls seem to be adopting such an alternative way of life, they are least demonstrating its efficacy in social, ecological, political, and even cultural reform.

The second primary assumption upon which my thoughts depend is in regard to the Academy. The framework of educational (indoctrinational?) institutions appears to retain its age-old identity as an ivory tower, even after “progressive” cultural influence (although it also seems to insist it is actually made of humble clay and mortar). A great feeling of dread enters my heart when, in the midst of this mass ecological and socio-political rape and violence, and potentially the relatively imminent destruction of the human species, I am instructed to translate antique Latin letters discussing dinner condiments. In other words, my assumption is that the Academy, or at least the surely-important field of Classical Studies (of which I have hitherto been a part), is doing absolutely nothing in the face of humanity’s greatest crisis.

For many, this is acceptable. They probably feel that our ecological issues are for more qualified others to tackle- engineers, biologists, meteorologists, computer scientists, and so on. This is not so from my concerned perspective. Our current predicament is not something to be associated with a mere few sects of science and society, but rather all of it. The food we eat and how it is grown, transported, and sold. Our transportation habits. The vile corporations to whom our money continuously flows like ritual offerings to the temple, who have effectively dominated our economy and government, who have spread enough propaganda to fully inculcate a sickness, an addiction to consumption into every citizen. The petty political divide fabricated by those at the top to keep us, the people, fighting each other instead of (easily!) toppling their power structures, their lofty thrones built upon the poor, the marginalized, nuclear stockpiles, weapon caches, and the bodies of brave soldiers too indoctrinated in lies to question their mandated violence. The screens, the cameras, the microphones, the Big Brother we have all accepted as a given, installed in our homes, eternally fixed in our grasp, forever beaming distracting bullshit and corporate propaganda into our exposed psyches, promising spiritual and material fulfilment with one hand and robbing us blind of both with the other.

What I propose is not new. Rather, what I propose is a model of society which existed long before ours, long before the Greeks codified rational philosophy and the Egyptians constructed the pyramids. What I propose is a rejection of the current civilization of comfort, convenience, and consumption, and the adoption of egalitarian, collective, self-sustaining social models wherever like-minded and open-hearted people can coordinate, locate, construct, and create one. To this end, I intend to found a commune with those kindred spirits whom I have befriended in my life, either immediately following my doctoral graduation (another four long and burdensome years of half-heartedly playing the game), or sooner, after dropping out. As a community, people can establish a constitution, but I also strongly encourage an active cultivation of a sort of collective spirit, a unified resolve/will to be handed down from generation to generation, so that the overly-rigid words of the constitution, stale with old age, do not become irrelevant or too ambiguous for future generations, with the result that they turn on one another and split according to alternative interpretations (sound familiar?). A sense of we’re-all-human-and-we’re-all-in-this-together is what is so fundamental to a peaceful, stable, fruitful social existence. And this is precisely what the country, no, the world lacks right now. We all have different ideas of who we are and where we ought to go. We are too divided, individualistic, egotistical. We do not love our neighbors. We are suffering from extreme and chronic anxiety and depression as a result of this spiritual deficit, and what I propose is, in my mind, the only pragmatic solution.

More posts to come, I’m sure. In the meantime, stay strong, go with the flow, and keep it real.

#revolution #anarchy #capitalism #paradigmshift #climate collapse #academia #philosophy #spiritual #anti capitalist #simplify #we live in a society

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terramythos · 4 years

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TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 3 of 26

Title: Acceptance (The Southern Reach #3) (2014) - REREAD

Author: Jeff VanderMeer

Genre/Tags: Horror, Science Fiction, Ecological Horror, Cosmic Horror, Weird, First-Person, Second-Person, Third-Person, Unreliable Narrator, Female Protagonists, LGBT Protagonist

Rating: 10/10

Date Began: 1/11/2021

Date Finished: 1/20/2021

Area X, a self-aware wilderness along the coast, has existed for decades behind a mysterious border. The landscape itself annihilates humans and repurposes them for its own ends. Hundreds of people have died attempting to uncover its secrets. But no one has yet discovered its origins or true purpose.

Now, Area X has spread past its former borders, perhaps to the entire world. Acceptance follows several key figures through the history of Area X, and their attempts to fight against an impossible threat.

You feel numb and you feel broken, but there’s a strange relief mixed in with the regret: to come such a long way, to come to a halt here, without knowing how it will turn out, and yet... to rest. To come to rest. Finally. All your plans back at the Southern Reach, the agonizing and constant fear of failure or worse, the price of that... all of it leaking out into the sand beside you in gritty red pearls.

Full review, major spoilers, and content warning(s) under the cut.

Content warnings for the book: Extreme body horror, altered states of mind, and psychological manipulation, including hypnosis. Several characters lose their sanity, and you see it happen in real time from their perspective. Intentional self-harm/mutilation as a plot point. Some violence and gore. There are brief references to animal abuse and terminal cancer. Not many happy endings in this one.

This review contains major series spoilers. It’s also super long, as the book covers a lot of material.

Acceptance is the most narratively ambitious book in the Southern Reach trilogy. While Annihilation and Authority feature a single protagonist/perspective, this one has four rotating POVs and one guest narrator partway through the book. It also covers a broader timeline than previous entries, from the origins of Area X 30-ish years ago to the ongoing present-day apocalypse. Acceptance is one of the few books I've read that utilizes first-, second-, AND third-person narration in a single volume, adopting whichever one makes the most sense for the character and their situation

While this sounds complicated, it's basically just a way to tell four different stories at the same time. VanderMeer also uses each storyline to address the major questions of the series. How did Area X come to be? What happened to the biologist? What was the former director of the Southern Reach trying to accomplish? And perhaps most pressing-- what is the fate of the world now that Area X has spread? Not everything is resolved, but it's definitely a conclusion.

The stories have some unifying connections, containing similar themes and callbacks/references to each other. However, for the purposes of this review I will be looking at each story and protagonist individually.

First up is Saul Evans the lighthouse keeper. He's been mentioned before, but never in much detail. Going in, we know a few things-- (1) he knew the director/Cynthia when she was a child and (2) something happened to him that turned him into the Crawler, the eldritch creature which writes the sermon on the walls of the tower in Area X. In Acceptance, we learn he's a former preacher who had a crisis of faith and left his old life, taking up the role of lighthouse keeper on the forgotten coast. It's implied this is partially due to him realizing he's gay and fleeing the resulting homophobic fallout. His past vocation explains the elevated, sermonic language of the words in the tower.

From the onset Saul is an intensely likeable character. He's trying to build a happier and more genuine life for himself. This part probably takes place during the 70s or 80s, but he's cautiously optimistic about his new life with a local fisherman named Charlie. He also forms an unlikely friendship with Gloria (aka Cynthia), a local kid who loves exploring the coast. However, he is tormented by the "Séance and Science Brigade", a shady organization that investigates/worships(?) paranormal phenomena. They sabotage the lighthouse beacon, which we learned in Authority is a marvelous piece of technology with a mysterious history. Shortly after, Saul accidentally absorbs a fragment of the beacon into himself, and shit goes downhill real fast.

While the catalyst of Area X may seem a little weird, the reader can piece together that part of the beacon has extraterrestrial origins, and Saul unintentionally activates part of it. The gradual shift from a normal life to something deeply unsettling has its appeal. I especially like seeing his logs/journal entries and how they devolve as proto-Area X overtakes his mind. The disturbing bar scene near the end is great as well. We know going in that this story has a bad ending (from a human perspective), but learning specifics about Saul as a person gives this more impact. Saul's is a sad tale of a man who wants to make a better life for himself and gets screwed over by bad luck.

Cynthia/Gloria/the former director is the next perspective character. In Annihilation she serves as the antagonist, but in Authority we learn it isn't that simple. She had ulterior motives, handpicking the biologist for the expedition in order to use her as a weapon against Area X. And, of course, we learn she was the little girl in that old picture of Saul, which means she probably grew up there before the border came down.

This part opens with Cynthia/Gloria's death as "the psychologist" in Annihilation, but told from her perspective. From there, the pacing is a little slow, in similar style to Authority. We learn how Cynthia lived her daily life, how she infiltrated the Southern Reach, and her interpersonal relationships with Grace, Whitby, and Lowry. However, her storyline ramps up when detailing Area X and the lead up to twelfth expedition. Lots of old scenes/dynamics from Annihilation hit different with the new context. Especially interesting is the interview between Cynthia and the biologist; turns out there was a lot more context that the biologist obscured in her story. On some level we already knew she was an unreliable narrator, but it's fun to have it pop up again in a different book entirely.

I admire how VanderMeer makes someone who comes off as a throwaway villain into the one of the most complex, important characters in the series. This part is also really cool as it's written in second-person perspective, and the story justification for this (Area X examining her memories) is neat. While I like Cynthia's characterization in this part, the additional bits in Saul's story and his interactions with Gloria add helpful context and emotional impact. The end of the book being her letter to Saul is so damn sad.

The third main storyline follows Control and Ghost Bird in the "current" timeline-- exploring Area X in the immediate fallout of Authority. I love this part for several reasons. The contrast between the two leads and how they perceive themselves, Area X, and the current situation is great. Control is very much losing control, feeling "the brightness" taking over (a callback to Annihilation). Meanwhile, Ghost Bird is in her element, seeing and experiencing things the regular human characters do not. There's the sense that she's truly something "new" in terms of both humanity and Area X.

We also learn a ton of stuff about Area X that is hinted in earlier volumes but confirmed in Acceptance. (MAJOR SPOILERS) The first is that Area X isn't on Earth at all; something briefly hinted at in Annihilation, when the biologist doesn't recognize the stars in the sky. Instead it mimics Earth, or something representative of it. The second big thing is that time works differently here. The uncanny state of decay noted in earlier books isn't actually a direct result of Area X. It's just the passage of time, because way more time passes in Area X compared to the "real" world.

The guest narrator/story is told within the Control/Ghost Bird storyline. The two meet up with Grace, who has managed to survive the Area X attack on the Southern Reach. She took shelter on the mysterious northern island and discovered an old journal written by... the biologist from Annihilation, which details what happened to her over the last THIRTY YEARS (yeah, the time thing) until she finally decided to give into Area X.

This section is sobering and sad; basically a glimpse at how the biologist's isolation slowly made her go mad. She finds an owl (hello cover) that she believes is her husband post Area X conversion and the two live together for decades. When it dies, the biologist loses the will to keep fighting Area X. It's ambiguous if the owl really is her husband, or if she's just projecting, but her heartbreak at the end is probably the strongest emotion she shows in the series. But what is interesting about this part is it confirms a cool detail. Injury and pain can halt the progression of "the brightness" within someone. Which is how the biologist managed to survive 30 years, how Grace survived what turns out to be 3 years, and so on. Even more interesting, when someone DOES finally succumb after warding off the brightness this way, they turn into something more strange and alien. Hence the moaning creature, and Saul/the Crawler. It's also probably why some creatures have incongruencies, like the dolphins with human eyes.

The biologist? She transformed into a giant, oceanic eldritch abomination COVERED in eyes. Just primo aesthetic. We get to see her from both Ghost Bird and Control's perspectives. Ghost Bird feels solidarity and a sort of euphoria meeting her alternate self. Control... basically breaks in the face of something like that, full cosmic horror style. Again, the contrast here is really appealing to me.

Both of their story arcs end in a way that is narratively satisfying, though the ending is open. The future seems hopeful in a bittersweet way, but presumably Area X has destroyed humanity as we know it. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on your perspective and is a central thesis of the series.

So, I said I'd discuss how this series approaches aliens. While there's an appeal to anthropomorphic alien species one can talk to and communicate with, I think an "unknowable" perspective is more realistic. After all, who's to say alien life formed under similar conditions or has any resemblance to our own? The extraterrestrial element in The Southern Reach is very much this type. But it's a fine line to walk in fiction, because handwaving the weird alien stuff as impossible to comprehend (and thus conveniently ducking any responsibility for explaining it) is lazy writing when done wrong.

The thing I find interesting about this series is the human characters understand lots of the what of the alien elements, but not the why. For example, Area X transforms humans into various plants and animals. We know it instills a sense of "brightness" in humans exposed for too long, which encourages assimilation into itself. Humans infected in this way, even if horrified or resistant, have thoughts of this being inevitable, even a good thing. The biologist takes samples in Annihilation and finds several plants and animals have human cells. Control logically knows what Area X does to people, but he is ultimately helpless to resist the process when he experiences it firsthand.

As for the why of it all... we don't really know! There's multiple ideas presented throughout the story. Ghost Bird probably gets closest to the "truth"; that Area X is part of a machine organism from a dead alien civilization, and that it has a bizarre effect on Earth's biology based on its now defunct programming. Other worlds would have their own Area Xes based on this idea, as it's implied the Earth version is just one piece of many. But it's worth noting that Ghost Bird is a creation of Area X and sees things differently than the other characters. Unreliable narration is ironically consistent through the series. So it's hard to say if this is true or not; perhaps it's silly to think any explanation would be understandable to a human mind. Obsession with finding the answer is a recurring theme that drives characters insane. I think this is an interesting compromise when discussing the unknowable; to have some facts and theories but not necessarily a concrete answer.

If I have a criticism for this book, it's the role of the "Séance and Science Brigade", especially in Saul's storyline. While they're set up earlier in the series, we only really see them in this book. Our limited perspective via Saul leaves a lot of ambiguity as to their purpose, function, and goals. There's an implication that Control's family influenced the organization's decision to sabotage the beacon and create Area X. But I consider the subplot with Control's mom/grandfather to be one of the weaker ones in the series, and this book didn't help. The S&SB comes off as campy and ineffectual, which is perhaps intentional? But since they're narratively the fanatics who caused Area X to happen, I really wish they felt more sinister and impactful. There's some attempt to make them scary, but it's not very convincing when compared to Area X. Kind of like a Saturday morning cartoon villain vs the unknowable cosmic horror of the universe. This is a nitpick, though.

While rereading the series, I discovered there's a planned fourth book which may or may not star a minor character from Saul's story. I'm interested to see what else there is to explore about Area X and the Southern Reach. As it stands, I still really like this series. Between the horror and general weirdness, it's not for everyone, but it sure does appeal to me. I think this is one of those series that you'll either adore or hate. Obviously I recommend it.

#taylor reads #2021 reading challenge #10/10 #long review lmao

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theleftgazette · 4 years

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Erin O’Toole contra Indigenous Peoples

Although Conservative Party leader Erin O’Toole had come under fire a month ago for suggesting that residential schools were initially “just about education,” his entire leadership of the party thus far has been thoroughly steeped in racism against indigenous peoples. O’Toole has made it explicitly known that he is more concerned with representing the interests of mega-corporations which profit off of the destruction of our environment—that is, who profit off of the destruction of colonized territories—than he is with representing indigenous interests in the slightest. Whereas a vast proportion of federal politicians at least have the courtesy to pretend like they care about indigenous issues whilst acting to make these issues worse, O’Toole has abandoned pretense entirely.

In a report from 350.org titled Human Rights Abuses by Fossil Fuel Companies, they highlight a review from 2006 which indicated that the fossil fuel industry accounted for two-thirds of corporate human rights abuses, and the extraction industry accounted for “the most allegations of the worst abuses, up to and including complicity in crimes against humanity.”

Some of their human rights violations include extrajudicial killings, and—what has become a Canadian pastime through our cooperation with the fossil fuel industry—the encroachment upon the rights of indigenous peoples. Particularly within the developing world, political corruption is just a normal part of how the fossil fuel industry operates. Within Nigeria, for instance, Shell and Eni were revealed to have bribed the president and politicians with hundreds of millions of dollars—money which we can be sure O’Toole would love to have the chance to accept himself.

As far as we are aware, however, fossil fuel companies aren’t offering O’Toole hundreds of millions of dollars, but his approval of the human rights violations which are part-and-parcel of their industry has no such price tag. He, like an over-exaggerated villain from a comic book, appears just to be corrupt for the sake of being corrupt.

How exactly is he corrupt? Well, within an article he wrote for the National Post, he not-so-cautiously paints a picture wherein indigenous peoples are criminals who are a threat to the prosperity of Canada, and this threat comes in the form of protesting the activities of the fossil fuel industry. Using a popular propaganda technique known as priming—which refers to, crudely speaking, the act of using misinformation to shape the way that an audience views information prior to receiving that information—he opens his article as follows:

Investment is leaving our country at a record pace. Billions of dollars of projects have been cancelled — most recently Teck Frontier, a project that would have created 7,000 construction jobs and 2,500 operational jobs in hard-hit Alberta. Every decision to pull investment from Canada is a threat to our social programs. Teck Frontier alone would have provided $70 billion to governments, money that is desperately needed to maintain and strengthen our health system as our population ages.

The question on the lips of Canadians today is: how did we get here? The answer to that is clear.

Not only is the appeal to emotion so incredibly present here, through a “think about the elderly!” claim which is directly associated with a fossil fuel mega-corporation, but he also makes an appeal to popularity, i.e. “The question on the lips of Canadians today is: how did we get here?” Perhaps this rhetoric would be more effective if he hadn’t already stated previously the intent to “ends fossil fuel subsidies, a form of corporate welfare.” Oops. It’s very difficult to argue that the fossil fuel industry is so strongly connected with the general welfare of Canadians when you admit that the billions of dollars in subsidies to the fossil fuel industry is, in fact, corporate welfare.

O’Toole continues by providing the “clear” answer to the question he raised:

We face this threat to our country’s future because of a Liberal government that has cancelled pipelines, banned tankers and passed legislation that makes it nearly impossible to build major projects. The illegal blockaders have taken their cues from more than four years of the Trudeau government’s attacks on our resource sector and those who work in it.

Yes, he portrays the blockades—which are largely done by indigenous peoples, and those acting in solidarity with indigenous peoples—as just illegal. Emphasizing the issue of legality here is a way to shut down serious discussion about it; it is a common tool for delegitimizing an issue. To further stress his authoritarian intent, he asserts that

An O’Toole government will pass a Freedom of Movement Act that will make it a criminal offence to block a railway, airport, port, or major road, or to block the entrance to a business or household in a way that prevents people from lawfully entering or leaving.

So, O’Toole’s chosen method to address indigenous issues relating to the fossil fuel industry is to use vague and authoritarian legislation in order to make it illegal for indigenous people to protest in the first place? (I’m sure this legislation wouldn’t be abused to shut down any number of other legitimate and peaceful protests…).

But O’Toole assures us that Canada already has a pretty progressive relationship with indigenous peoples:

In the days ahead, the Liberals may try to argue that adopting the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP) is the correct way forward, but nothing could be further from the case. Canada has, entrenched in our Constitution, a world-leading recognition of Indigenous rights.

Okay. Let’s take a look at what indigenous rights are entrenched in our Constitution, and compare that with UNDRIP. Specifically pertaining to the rights of indigenous peoples, Section 25 of Charter of Rights and Freedoms asserts that

The guarantee in this Charter of certain rights and freedoms shall not be construed so as to abrogate or derogate from any aboriginal, treaty or other rights or freedoms that pertain to the aboriginal peoples of Canada including: (1) any rights or freedoms that have been recognized by the Royal Proclamation of October 7, 1763; and (2) any rights or freedoms that now exist by way of land claims agreements or may be so acquired.

Despite the emphasis on treaty rights, Canada has a long history of neglecting treaties entirely. For example, Treaty 6—which covers the territory I currently reside upon—meant an even split of resources and the distribution of food and medicine to the tribes which had theirs depleted. Not only was Treaty 6 signed under conditions of distress, alongside vastly different interpretations by indigenous peoples and settlers regarding what the treaty meant, but it also has a history of being violated. The Papaschase Cree were at the forefront of Treaty 6 violations during the 19th century; large portions of Edmonton, Alberta was once a reserve occupied by the Papaschase Cree until they were later coerced to surrender the land to settlers who didn’t want them in the city.

Beyond this, according to one hundred scientists who issued a proposal for a moratorium on the expansion of the tar sands in Alberta, the tar sands have hitherto constituted a great violation of indigenous rights:

Rapid expansion of the oil sands in Canada violates or puts at risk nation-to-nation agreements with Aboriginal peoples. In Alberta, oil sands mining is contributing to the degradation and erosion of treaty and constitutionally protected rights by disrupting ecological landscapes critical to the survival of Aboriginal culture, activities, livelihoods, and lifeways.

So, what exactly does O’Toole mean when he asserts that Canada already has a “world-leading recognition of indigenous rights”? Clearly he must think he lives in an alternate reality of some sort.

What about UNDRIP, then, does O’Toole see as so threatening? Perhaps it is Article 26, which declares that “Indigenous peoples have the right to the lands, territories and resources which they have traditionally owned, occupied or otherwise used or acquired.” Emphasis here on which they have traditionally owned. O’Toole most likely sees UNDRIP as threatening precisely because it calls into question lands which have been seized under treaty violations—lands which, if returned to indigenous peoples, would pose a threat to the all-consuming expansion of the fossil fuel industry.

I must remind you again that O’Toole, to our knowledge, hasn’t accepted hundreds of millions of dollars from fossil fuel mega-corporations. His unwavering support for them, and his consequential disregard for indigenous peoples, is free.

To read more articles like this, visit our website at theleftgazette.com

#Canada #Canadian Politics #Politics #Erin O'Toole #Indigenous #BIPOC #Fossil Fuels #Climate Change #Environment #Socialism #Socialist #Communism #Communist #Progressive

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hedwigstalons · 4 years

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High Expectations - Ch8

First attempt at the chonky one - have a young Virgil. He only appears over the phone in this chapter but I’ve already drawn Jeff and Gordon so I’ve attempted Virgil this time.

Thanks to @willow-salix for her edits and pointers along the way.

Earlier parts: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven

AO3 chapter link

Chapter Eight

Gordon couldn’t even remember what the catalyst for the tongue-lashing had been this time, there were so many lately and they all seemed to blur together in the end. It felt like continuous needling; every time they talked it was just another chance for Jeff to nag at him to choose a suitable career route, just as long as it fitted his view of what he considered suitable and that definitely didn't include professional athlete. The latest lecture had come with an ultimatum; he could either get a job, start a Tracy Industries internship or join a college programme in the spring intake. If he didn’t then his allowance would be cut off.

It didn’t feel like much of a choice. All he really wanted to do was swim but for that he needed money. Any bridges between himself and potential sponsors had been burned when he didn’t take up their offers straight after the Olympics; opportunities were few and far between and without some sort of financial backing Gordon knew he wouldn’t have the means to survive for long. Without his allowance to bankroll his continued training he may as well hang up his towel permanently.

He definitely couldn't stand the thought of starting an internship where he'd be forever under the watchful eye of his father, living in the same house was bad enough at the moment. He knew he didn't have the same business acumen as his father or the book smarts of his older brothers; he'd never be able to hold his own within the business and he could already imagine the whispers that would follow him around the office, judging him as just another rich son living off his family name who didn't deserve the job. He knew himself better than that. Being locked up in an office for upwards of 10 hours a day with no chance to work off his excess of physical energy with exercise, he'd explode. Something would snap, probably his sanity.

As for continuing down the education route Virgil had been a good sounding board about further studies but college still didn’t feel like the right place for him. If worst came to the worst he would find a course somewhere, maybe studying ecology or marine biology wouldn't be so bad. The idea of moving out and setting up in his own little apartment like Virgil and John had and having the freedom to live outside of his father’s shadow was certainly appealing. He knew though that when it came to school he would always be compared to his siblings, his father always managed to shoehorn in a remark about just how well his brothers were doing. Although conversation was perhaps a generous description of the one-sided lectures that seemed to occur whenever Gordon and Jeff were in the same room together for any length of time. No, school would be a last resort rather than his first choice.

Yet again it was his father’s way or the highway.

The grip on his temper wavered as he left the study and by the time he reached the sanctuary of his bedroom his frustration had risen up enough for the door to be closed behind him with a slam. It didn’t make him feel any better. Once again he had tried to talk to his Dad, to explore the option of maybe taking even just one year out to focus on his sport; plenty of people took a gap year after all. Once again it had turned into another lecture about finding something useful to do with his life. It had taken all his iron willed control, learned the hard way from years of harsh words and tough love from his coaches, not to bite back.

Before he had even registered what he was doing the application pack for WASP was out of its hiding place at the back of a drawer and in his hand. He smoothed out the worst of the creases and stared at the words; World Aquanaut Security Patrol. He hadn’t given it much thought since his visit to Denver but now the idea was filling his brain with a buzzing reminiscent of the insect in the emblem. The forms signified an opportunity to live an independent life away from the control of his father and out of the shadows of his brothers.

Scanning over the questions on the forms he spotted one major problem; you couldn’t join the submarine service as a minor and he wouldn’t turn 18 until February, however, you could attend junior ranks selection aged 17 as long as you had parental permission. Permission he was unwilling to seek. He had no reason to suppose that his father would refuse, after all the military was an accepted path for a Tracy, but his judgement was clouded by anger and resentment. One trait he shared with his father was independence, if he could complete something without relying on others he would. He had resolved to choose his own way and he was not willing to ask his father for anything, not even a signature.

Gordon took a steadying breath, scrawled ‘J. Tracy’ onto the bottom line, and stuffed the forms into an envelope.

There was no going back now, he'd done it, he'd made a decision for himself, and it felt amazing. This could be the start of the rest of his life. A life away from the father that would never, or perhaps could never understand him. Endless possibilities stretched away before him and Gordon found himself glowing inside, fuelled by his secret and the opportunities it offered.

xoxoxox

Within a few days he had a response in his hand. The pack in the mailbox was reassuringly thick but he still opened it with some trepidation, his breath held; if it was outside the realm of swimming he always found himself braced for disappointment. He needn't have worried though, his aptitude test results and high school certificates had been more than sufficient to get him over the first hurdle. His initial application had been accepted and the pack contained details of a selection course he was expected to attend.

Despite the initial anger behind his application having burned out Gordon was not one to back down on a challenge. He held the proof right there in his hands, he was wanted; someone had seen his potential and it felt great. He could just imagine the look on his father’s face when he announced that he no longer needed his help and was heading off to pilot submarines instead. Of course he wouldn’t dare go so far as to actually tell his father exactly where he could stick that TI internship but it was fun to imagine.

The next stage in the journey though wouldn’t be so fun. The selection course was happening in the far north of the state and took place over several days. It wasn’t something he could just pop out to while Jeff was at work. He wasn’t beyond a bit of deception by omission but he had never been comfortable with outright lying, honesty was yet another Tracy trait that was etched into his DNA. Unfortunately he could see no other way to gain a cover story. The fact that he had to drag the brother into it who had been nothing but supportive recently made it all the more painful.

He picked up the phone and prepared to put the next phase of his plan into action.

“Hey Virg.”

“Hey yourself. Now what are you after?”

“I resent that. I don’t only call you when I want something. Can’t one brother call another for a friendly chat.”

“They can, but you’ve got that look you always get before you ask a favour.”

“I do not have a look.”

“You so do. Now spit it out, I’ve got class soon.”

The chestnut gaze appraising Gordon from the call screen was holding back the twinkle of a laugh. It was true that Gordon was a fairly open book to him and he couldn’t resist teasing just a little bit. He had a knack for reading the moods of his brothers, even those that were an enigma to others in the family. Call it creative intuition. Also, any chats were reserved for the evenings when each of them had finished with class and training so a morning call in itself was a good indication that Gordon had a pressing question.

“Fine, can I come up and stay with you again for a few days?”

“Sure, you know you’re always welcome here. Feeling the need to escape the old man again?”

Gordon nodded. He hated lying to Virgil but he needed an excuse to leave town. He rechecked the dates on the sheaf of papers, his selection course details, carefully kept out of the field of vision of the camera and made arrangements for a trip to Denver.

That evening Gordon approached the study and knocked on the door with more confidence than he felt inside. He heard the shuffling of files being closed and by the time he was granted permission to enter the desk was empty and Jeff’s screen was blank.

Jeff couldn’t deny that he was annoyed at the intrusion, it felt like his conversations with Gordon were going round in a never ending loop and he could ill afford the time to deal with yet another futile argument. However, it was unusual for Gordon to actively seek him out so he cleared his desk and bade him enter.

“Yes, Gordon? What is it?” He turned steely eyes on his son, expecting to be presented with a request for new equipment or notification of another competition.

“I’d like to go back to Denver for a few days please. Would you mind booking the flights?”

“Denver?” the request was not one he had anticipated. “Is Virgil ok with you visiting?”

Gordon nodded. “Here are the dates, I’ve already checked and Virg is happy for me to stay. As long as you're ok with it, that is.” He withdrew a piece of paper from his pocket with the flight details on and placed it on the desk.

Jeff picked it up and studied the slip of paper in silence. Part of him wanted to insist on something in return but for once there was nothing unreasonable in Gordon’s request and he was having to learn that his fourth son needed handling differently to the others. Despite the small age gap between them Gordon was most definitely not John who viewed the word through the eyes of a scientist and would happily counterbalance an action with an appropriate reaction. If anything having Gordon out of the way for a few days would do him and favour and allow him to move his project forward. It wouldn’t be long before the school term started again signalling Alan's return from summer camp and Jeff’s obligations tied him firmly to LA. He mentally rearranged his diary, oblivious to the growing impatience of the teen in front of him.

“So, can I go?” Gordon couldn’t contain himself any longer.

“Sure, if Virgil is sure it won’t disrupt his studies.”

“It won’t, I did check and he’s honestly fine with me being there,” Gordon played his trump card “University of Denver has an open day scheduled for then.” It wasn’t a lie, Gordon reflected, there really was an open day he just had no intention of going to it.

“Fine, leave it with me. I’ll book the flights for you.”

He dismissed Gordon and took a moment to pause. If nothing else the burgeoning friendship between his second and fourth sons was to be encouraged. Virgil was a steady and calming influence and Gordon always seemed less abrasive after talking to the quiet engineer. He had been finding Gordon an increasing trial on his patience, his attempts to steer him towards a suitable future seemed to be falling on deaf ears. His suggestions were usually met with stony silence but on occasion tempers could flare on both sides of the table. The latest incident had resulted in him threatening to remove Gordon’s allowance; he wasn’t proud of his actions but he was prepared to follow through if necessary. He hoped this trip marked a turning point for them. A sign that Gordon was finally taking responsibility and giving his future options some serious thought.

xoxoxox

Gordon got out of the car at the airport drop off point and waited politely for the driver to hand him his kit bag from the trunk. For once his father’s predictability in sending him in one of the company vehicles made his plan that little bit easier to pull off. He thanked the driver then watched the car pull away before turning and entering the terminal building.

Rather than heading to the counters to check in he headed to the airline information desk.

“How can I help you, sir?"

Gordon swallowed slightly then flashed a confident smile. If there were no available seats this would be the point where his plan fell apart.

“I’d like to change the destination on my ticket please.”

“Certainly; as long as the new flight has availability. You will also be liable for any difference in ticket price and an administration fee. Now, what are the details of the journey?”

Gordon handed across the details of the flights he wanted and waited nervously while the ticket agent called up the information. Ten minutes and fifty dollars later and the tickets for Denver had been replaced with new ones for Marineville.

Grabbing a juice from a nearby cafe he settled down to wait for his call for boarding. He knew he ought to call Virgil but every time he pulled out his phone a wave of guilt washed over him. He took another sip of juice to settle his stomach. Eventually though he couldn’t put it off any longer, the flight for Denver would be departing soon and he knew time was running out if he was to make this convincing. He didn’t want to lie to Virgil but neither could he let him in on the plan, his brother's morals would gnaw away at him and likely have him spilling everything to their father. Much better not to be reliant on others to keep his secrets. He found a quiet corner and made sure he kept the video screen off before spinning a tale that he was grounded and no longer able to make the trip.

To his immense relief Virgil bought the story without too many questions. He had to firmly turn down his brother’s offer to intercede, typical Virgil trying to be defender of the wounded. Gordon made his brother give a firm promise not to get involved before closing the call.

As far as Virgil was concerned he was still in LA while his father believed he was in Denver, Gordon was therefore free for a few days. As the final call for boarding rang out across the tannoy system he headed for the gate and the flight that would take him up the coast towards the chance at a new future.

#thunderbirds #thunderbirds fanfiction #my art #high expectations #Gordon Tracy #Jeff Tracy #Virgil Tracy

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cardandpixel · 4 years

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RocketBook Flip - a rare review and it’s not a game!

Before I go any further, I feel I must point out that I don’t have any financial connection to RocketBook whatsoever – this isn’t a piece that was requested or courted by RocketBook or affiliates and I’m not receiving any reward or sponsorship either in product or direct payment for this article. I just like the damn thing and love it when an innovative piece of tech (in this case quite low key) just works. Hi I’m Paul, and I have a bit of a problem with notebooks – A4 lined, sketch, reporters, Black & Reds (ohhhh the sheer number of B&Rs), goofy ones, serious work ones, battered ones, pristine ‘for best only’ ones – and they all fill at an alarming rate. I make notes on everything. Working as a sound engineer and designer, there’s always mix notes, soundscape plots, ideas, VO notes and scripts, SFX ideas etc etc. At home it’s a very different story – it’s much worse. Game notes; blog notes; hurriedly scribbled quiz questions spurred by watching another episode of Mental Floss’ 500 facts about cheese; RPG notes and story ideas; my own script writing; world building; sketches; other creative ideas; song/music notes and ideas; and that’s before we get to to-do lists; and the dreaded ‘things I must remember’. So my journal life is many, varied and plenty. The usual issue is… ‘what frakking journal did I put that amazing idea in????’, and that’s way before we get to the utter horror that is possibly losing a whole journal or forgetting to bring one home from work. I’m 53, I forget more than I recall, and journals help bring some semblance of order to a massively chaotic and fertile brain. What I’ve needed for a long time is some way of organising all this info or centralising it in some way. Sure I’ve looked at apps – I used Things, Evernote, Notes, and One Note for years, and they are really, really good, but they relied on either having a charged device exactly when I need it (yeah – me too) or net access, which for a new-ish theatre, is surprisingly a bit of an issue at work. And the most important part – I actually enjoy the physical act of handwriting long-hand. I still write actual physical letters to people, it’s adorable and a bit creepy in this age, but I call it charming and leave it at that. Handwriting, for me, allows me time to think and process in a way that typing just doesn’t. Handwriting is slower, I rarely cross anything out, and so I always have the whole of the thought. So what I’ve ideally wanted for years, was a reliable way of organising all my notes and storing them electronically so I have access even without the actual journal, with OCR so they’re editable, and still being a tactile handwritten experience. I’m naturally a sceptic (I actually subscribe to Fortean Times – yeah – I card carry!) and so online ads and particularly FaceAche ads are a field day for critical thinking triggers. I don’t think I’ve ever received from Wish, exactly what I ordered from Wish. And so when an ad from RocketBook constantly kept popping up on my timeline a few weeks ago, I was naturally “it’ll never work” But their website looked legit enough – they had a dedicated UK shop, it was relatively steep to buy in but not so wild that if it didn’t work I wouldn’t be crying too much about the money wasted, and at the end of the day it was a 10th the price of a ReMarkable 2 which is actually what I thought would solve my problem. I’m furloughed at the mo and though I could argue the case for £300+ notebook (test me, I could), I just couldn’t justify it now. And RocketBook had a good summer intro offer. I ordered on the Wednesday, and the impressively glitzy and graphic-design-playbook poly package was dropped on my doorstep just 2 days later by my cheery postie who yelled up the drive “Package for ya, looks very exciting!!!!” I like that our postal service is still invested in the hopes and dreams of their customers. It was exciting. All the instructions for getting started with my new Teal RocketBook A4 Flip were right there before you even open it. The main body houses the pad and a cleaning cloth, and a clever little side pocket houses the supplied Pilot Frixion pen.

RocketBooks come in several models, all configured slightly differently. I have the Flip which is a top spiral-bound softback pad with 21 double sided ‘pages’ giving 42 pages in total. The Flip has lined paper one side, and dot paper on the reverse (great for D&D maps, impromptu tables, mixer channel plots etc)

DELIVERY & FIRST IMPRESSIONS The pads are nicely made, with sturdy covers (available in some really nice colours too) and a solid, thick plastic ring binding. Initially, The RocketBook does feel a bit odd. Its ‘pages’ are actually a synthetic polyester blend and feel quite shiny to the touch. The sort of surface you just instantly feel is not going to be great for ink! Each page is edge-to-edge lined or dotted with a heavy black border. At the bottom is a prominent QR code used for scanning and some very feint icons. These 7 icons are the key to the ease of use of the RocketBook series. But more later.

THE APP

The pads work with a companion app, that is absolutely free and available for Apple & Android. In fact, RB even do downloadable printable pages so you can try the whole system absolutely free before you buy – I didn’t, I just bought one, y’know. The app allows you to set up your destination locations, your preferences and does the actual scanning. Just one quick note, I have the app on both my phone and iPad and had to set-up the app the same for both, there appears to be no way of swapping preference settings between devices, though I can see why this may be intentional.

Currently, the RocketBook allows you to choose from the following locations to send files to: GoogleDrive, box, EverNote, DropBox, slack, OneNote, iCloud, OneDrive as well as simply to an email (or multiple) addresses and iMessage. Impressively, these are not fixed either, so you could choose your 7 destinations to be 7 email addresses of team members. These 7 locations are the icons at the bottom of each page. To select a destination for your file, you just make a mark in that icon box (tick, circle, something unsavoury) and that page will be sent to whichever you select. This makes the system very flexible indeed as not every page is necessarily sent to every destination. You always decide every time you fill a page. Change your mind on a second revision? No problem, add or change icons at any time and re-upload.

There’s a really handy table on the inside front cover for you to note what icon sends what where. This is also wipeable, so can be changed anytime.

I have mine set by default to:

Rocket > main email address (either as PDF, JPG, OCR embedded or as separate txt file)

Diamond > GoogleDrive (you can specify exactly what folder too)

Apple > iMessage

Bell > OneNote

That actually still leaves me 3 spare: shamrock; star; and horseshoe.

The app took me maybe 20mins to set-up, that included decision time for destinations and setting up a few target folders. It also included a few ‘test firings’. I didn’t get everything right first time and a few things didn’t send, but crucially, a tiny bit of digging revealed very simple troubleshooting (including the aforementioned issue with no sync’ing of phone and iPad), and all in I was finding the files in all the right destinations within about 30 mins. The website, FAQs and community are immensely helpful with any other issues as well. I had a tiny issue with OneNote seeming to take ages to sync, but I think that’s an issue with my OneNote settings, everything else was almost instantaneous. You can also handily set the app to auto-send as soon as it scans, or allow for manual review.

CLEAN UP ON AISLE ROCKETPAD The main reason I wanted to look at the RocketBook was the issue of reusability. My journal shenanigans are by no means the biggest ecological disaster on the planet, but if we are to believe Tesco (who probably issue as many receipts at our local Tesco Express in a day as journals I’ve ever used), every little helps. If I could find an ecologically better solution, I should at least take a look. The RocketPads work by partnering with Pilot pens called Frixion. The really clever bit is RB’s paper technology and how it works with the Frixion ink. At present, the pads only work with the Frixion pens – except the RB Colour which works with Crayola’s dry-erase crayons. When you write on the ‘paper’ with a Frixion pen, it remains wet for a few seconds and then dries pretty quickly. There’s no smudging whatsoever in transit, which is pretty cool. From then on, it may as well be permanent, until you have transmitted your page and decide you don’t want the text anymore. To wipe the page clean, you can dampen the supplied cloth and just wipe the surface clean, it’s weird but it works! But then damp cloth in your bag? So I use kitchen roll to dampen, then wipe dry with theirs. Others even have an adorably kitsch spray bottle in their kit. RB reckon if you are not going to use the pad for a few months, to clean the pages as the ink can get trickier to shift after a long time, but for day-to-day use, I’ve tried writing and wiping well over 20x and the page hasn’t become discoloured or tarnished at all. The only pad different in the range is the Wave which cleans by microwaving! Do NOT do this with any of the others, bad things will happen. The ink doesn’t take scrubbing or any time to come up, I clean my pages in about 10-15s. The page can feel a little tacky when it’s damp, but leave a minute or so and the page will be back to normal. RB do say that odd things can happen if the book is left near a heatsource or in a hot car, vis-à-vis, the ink can completely disappear horrifyingly enough. They say that putting the pen or the pad in the freezer for a little while will actually restore the ink, but I’ve not tried it yet so can’t confirm or deny how that goes. Handy for spies in hot countries though, so there’s another target market. If you are always going to send your pages to the same places, then don’t erase the marked icons, and the page is ready for new notes straight away, otherwise, scrub them too.

I CAN’T READ YOUR WRITING – ARE YOU A DOCTOR? Initially, the RB pads send their files as scans of the pages in high contrast monochrome (colour is available) when you snap the page in the app (which auto-frames for you and takes maybe 10s to capture). The formats are either as images or PDF. If that had been it, I would have been quite happy, but the RB pads have another trick up their sleeve. Firstly, they have a function called ‘Smart Titles’ which allows you to name your files directly from the page by writing a filename between double hashtags ie ## this is my scrawl 24/8/20 ## and the file will pop up in your destinations with the filename “this is my scrawl 24/08/20” – this is insanely handy – there’s no protocol except your own and the hashtags, and it makes your files super easy to search. You can even send groups of pages as a single PDF. But the notebooks go even further. They actually offer full searchable OCR which the app can be set to send embedded in the PDF or image, or more usefully, as a companion separate .txt file. Now, my handwriting isn’t the neatest, but it’s not bad so I was prepared for some editing to be necessary, but impressively again, the OCR was about 90-95% accurate. In a page of text it missed maybe 3 or 4 words and even those not badly. This is all considering their full OCR is still only in beta! It gets confused with diagrams on the page, but that’s to be expected.

Text Generated by OCR: ## Blog post och test Aug 2020 ## This is a little demonstration of the OCR capabilities of the Rocket Book pads and app. I've told the lovely people that the hit rate is about 90-95% so please dant let me down here flip pad. Hopefully the file name will also prove another point further up in the section and not make me look like some charlatan or snake-oil salesman.Hope you enjoyed this demonstrahen, now go away and leave me to write the next great novella.Bye!

HOW MUCH? On average, I pay anywhere from £4-8 for a decent A4 notebook/journal, so at £30-37 (dependent on model), the RocketBook pads are not a whim purchase. That said, I get through a lot of journals in a year, and given that I would expect to easily get 2-3 years out of a RocketBook pad, then I’ve saved money. Will it replace all my notebooks? No. You need to be thinking of carrying this round as a kit: pad, Frixion pen (at least 2), and cloth. RB do a series of portfolio sleeves for the pads but it does push the price up a bit still, but for a rep, engineer or salesperson, this still makes sense. They’re less bulky than a normal A4 pad too. What I would say is Tesco and Sainsbury’s currently stock Frixion pens and at much better prices than buying them from RB directly, I just paid £3 for 3 pens on offer at Tesco compared to £10 from RB. You get one pen with the pad, but you’re going to want more soon, so stock up next time you’re shopping for truffle oil crisps. If you use whiteboards a lot, RB also have you covered. Instead of the pad, £16 will get you a 4 pack of ‘beacons’ – little self-adhesive triangles that effectively do the same thing as the QR code in the pad. You don’t have the icon options obviously, but if you’re looking to distribute quick meeting or group notes, this would be a boon. CONCLUSION Considering this was a fairly speculative purchase on my part, my early experiences with the RocketBook Flip have been really impressive. The flexibility, the ability to store every page in a different location if you really wanted to make it fantastic for organising my notes, which can save me hours of finding the right ^^$&^$&$ notebook in the first place, then scouring that for the one paragraph I was looking for etc etc. The searchable text facility, in-app history for re-sending etc and last but no way least, functional handwriting OCR, makes the RocketBook not only novel, but actually useable! Would I buy another? As a second notebook – yes. I look forward to seeing what the actual longevity of the product is once I come off furlough and start cramming my day bag with all my junk and a notepad again, but yes, I’d probably just have one at home, and one for work, but make the last 5 mins of each day, scanning and sending work notes so I have them with me wherever. Impressively, the RocketBook Flip just works and it works well. ‘Er Across The Table has already sold several folk at her work on the idea and she doesn’t even have one herself yet! I love it. It’s taking a little adjusting to, but it’s all good. The most important thing though is the writing experience, and I have to say, the combination of the Frixion pen/ink and the polymer technology of the Flip, again, just works. It’s smooth, doesn’t skip or smudge for me (I know some right to left users and left handers have reported some issues) and feels great to write on. If anything I have to slow down a bit as the contact is so smooth that your writing can get a bit ahead of you! RocketBook have produced a cracker of a product. It might not seem like much, but if practical working journals are your thing (ie not create and keep things) then I can highly recommend the RocketBook series.

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gyromitra-esculenta · 5 years

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It’s got a name now~~! ‘Jack the Stag, and Other Works Penned by the Esteemed Songstress Sombra’. It’s an inside joke, probably.

Otherwise: a bad Witcher AU but not because of the TV series (rest is somewhere here either under totally not witcher au or murder-deer tag). Part 2. Unedited, at the moment, but getting close to that since I hit 5k.

Warnings: Violence, giant bugs, idiots, weasels, and flying pigs.

"That's why you love me," Jack sing-songs, unsheathing his own sword, twirling it around once in his hand with an added flourish - grinning like a madman with half his face soaked in blood.

"I tolerate you, that's different!"

"And that's why I love you too!"

As always, a discussion best saved for a time they're not having it over two giant insects that had managed to separate one from the other just now, and preferably to be undertaken at some nebulous future moment when Gabriel feels like being philosophical and questioning.

And shitfaced drunk.

"Take the..." Before he can finish, the male centipede hisses and lurches at Jack, probably seeing him as the immediate threat - and Jack dances out of the way, visibly leading it away from the female. "...yeah."

"I'll get the first kill," Jack taunts him.

"As if."

It's on, and regardless of the circumstances Gabriel smiles, moving into the female's field of view, noting how there is a kink where the chitin segments curl around the wound his sword had inflicted, and along with the smell of the carrion wafts acrid aroma of the burn.

With the centipedes, and the majority of other giant insectoids, there were only four strategies viable: wolf pits where it impaled itself under its own weight, severing the nervous cord behind its head, doing enough damage from below, or magic. The fifth method, though...

They were certainly one disposable angry peasant mob short for it to work.

Gabriel keeps from the female's range - circling it as it turns after him, considering his approach, and in the end deciding to utilize the same maneuver as previously, fingers forming the sign again.

Mid-jump, he slips a dagger into his left hand, and wedges it behind a plate without delay to gain support as he lands - a bit too far from the centipede's head. Not a problem as he's still a little out of the reach of its maw but he needs to move further on its back.

He jams the sword sideways under the next plate and shifts, sliding forward - alternates with the dagger until the centipede looks about ready to roll over to get him off its back. The short blade breaks under the pressure the segments he has it forced between put on it.

But Gabriel's already bracing with the sword raised and pushes it down below the edge of the looser plate the female has over its head with all his strength, more feeling than hearing things snapping and crunching under the steel.

Then, he twists the blade from side to side.

The centipede crumples to the ground with the grace of a flying pig that just got disenchanted even though the impetus carries it few meters along its path.

It starts spasming the length of its body erratically as its scant nervous systems tries to make sense of the damage done.

Gabriel repeats the twist and cut again, to be sure, and rips the sword back - now jumping off the centipede and putting some distance between himself and its death throes - to the litany of 'fucks' screamed from the side with the varying volume, the most more muffled than not.

Which is fair because Jack, smeared from head to toe in brownish green blood and some dirty yellow remains of the other insect insides, is just about crawling from under the other centipede successfully. Also, frantically ripping his slowly blackening in places shirt off.

"Do you need any help?"

"Fuck you! There's bug guts all over me!" Jack tosses the smoldering now fabric to the ground. "That was my favorite shirt!"

Gabriel only rolls his eyes withholding any scathing remark and walks to him with a small detour to retrieve the pack on the way.

"Sit, and get at least some of it off," he throws Jack a cloth. "And give me a minute, I need to clean your cheek."

"Needn't bother, little cub."

"It's still open. You're not healing properly, so don't 'little cub' me, you horned dolt, am I clear?"

Jack at first opens his mouth but then there's only an angry snort coming from him, and he dutifully starts to wipe with the provided cloth, letting Gabriel sit in front of him and rummage in the pack for the supplies he needs.

"Okay, but the horned dolt was actually good."

It's Gabriel's turn to snort, and then laugh, as he tries to glare at Jack.

"You are a horned dolt, after all. Get down." He points to the ground. As soon as Jack complies, Gabriel rubs his face with the antiseptic - ignoring the hissing. The wound is still open and bleeding.

"See. It's healing."

"Not as it's supposed to. There should be stitches."

"If I see you with the needle, I'm kicking you in the face!"

"You were thrashing all around then." Gabriel finishes cleaning the cut. "Did you get burned anywhere?"

"I should be asking how's your arm."

"It's fine, don't try to change the subject, turn around," Gabriel orders Jack in spite of the comically annoyed face he pulls as he complies to show the extensive swath of blistered skin below his shoulder. "That's it. You're wearing armor until this thing gets sorted out."

"It's constraining."

Gabriel dabs the wound with more force than necessary, maliciously enjoying the resulting yelp.

"It's keeping you from getting your dumb ass hurt," he punctuates each word with another swab, noting how the destroyed layer of the skin does not peel off. The last time Jack got splashed with a corrosive fluid, the dead skin had been already flaking off by itself in the span of minutes, and the scar tissue had faded after a week or two. "Shut up," Gabriel adds preemptively and shifts to lean his forehead against Jack's shoulder. "I don't... You're in more pain than you should be because something's not right and you're not telling me."

"So you do care," Jack responds with a note of triumph in his voice and Gabriel sighs deeply as he curbs the overwhelming urge to punch him out of sheer frustration.

"Yes. Yes, I do care, you dumb fucking moron, so what's wrong with you?"

"Nothing's wrong, little cub. I just need to recuperate, and that takes time."

"What time exactly?"

"I don't know, a few months, maybe a year." Jack shrugs.

"You're not weaseling out of proper armor now."

"I'm not 'weaseling' out of anything, they're damn chirpy murderous anklebiters and I resent the comparison."

"Of course you object to that one, out of everything," Gabriel laughs, patting Jack's other shoulder lightly.

"You know what's in those little heads non-stop? Murder!"

"You made your point."

"It's like they wake up and ask: 'hey, what's for breakfast?', and the answer is always 'bloody murder'."

"I think I get it."

"And then, 'hey, let's do something fun', and other weasels are 'what?', and the answer is 'bloody murder', and they all cheer!"

"Yeah. I see absolutely no similarities, at all. None whatsoever." Gabriel chuckles to himself, still staying with his forehead pressed against the warm shoulder as Jack leans back a bit. "You're still not getting out of properly gearing up."

"Well, fuck."

"We should get to the grove before the morning breaks because you need to wash all this off, you stink worse than the goat now."

Jack sniffs loudly, his whole frame moving with the action.

"I think I've lost my sense of smell. Weird."

"No, that's the antiseptic."

"Really? It can do that?" Jack huffs the air with a renewed interest.

"Because your whole cheek is covered in it. Get used to it until we get you sorted out." Gabriel shifts back with reluctance and climbs to his feet. "C'mon. We should get going."

"Whatever you say, little cub."

"Bug guts. All over you. You hate..." Gabriel loses the line reasoning when Jack, with the cloth thrown over his shoulder and the sword in hand, passes him - stalking towards the corpse of the female centipede. "We can leave that for after we..." And Jack takes a swinging kick that connects with the underside of the insectoid, sending its whole frame wobbling. "Bugs. You hate bugs."

Jack takes to looking attentively at the centipede while pacing down the length of its body, ultimately squatting in a chosen specific spot. He slits the belly and waits as the insides start to spill through the cut, between them fall slightly misshapen spheres, milky, partially translucent.

"They're fertilized, and they usually keep only one adult pair around." Jack brushes his fingertips over the surface of the eggs He pauses only to pick some out and puts them all on the soiled cloth, ready to bundle them up.

"Feeling gracious?" Gabriel muses over the unpacked supplies he's gathering.

"Maybe. Because there will be a gap they won't be able to fill, and that could kill the whole population."

"I didn't think you'd see a problem with this."

"They're controlling the numbers, or at least they were, until those slipped the leash. I find them icky and disagreeable but there's a need for them."

"Ecology at its finest and most murderous." Gabriel shakes his head.

"Oi!" Jack turns and sticks his tongue out at him.

It's easy to forget things Jack is - or isn't, for that matter - but then he slips. He always slips. He is vain and pernicious, but no more than the nature itself is; demanding and unreasonable, yet caring when no-one expects it.

A strange thought it is, this question that nowadays rears its ugly head more than ever, and Gabriel can't help wondering how much of what Jack is, is Gabriel's own doing? Wouldn't he be better off away from here, never having taken pity on a child in the woods?

But then, he is selfish. Even daring to imagine the constant of Jack's presence being gone is something he dreads - and now it's a possibility it may happen not because he's bound to grow bored and leave, but because whatever's wrong with him will kill him.

"What, the bugbear's got your tongue?" Jack looks at him quizzically, the bundled in the cloth eggs held in hand, the sword sheathed already. "I'll toss a coin for your thoughts."

"Nothing." Gabriel shakes his head and shoulders the pack. "Let's get going, you look dreadful."

"I look great, always. Majestic, even."

"Yeah, not right now," Gabriel turns, trying not to dwell on his now foul mood as he marches, Jack fast on his heels keeping quiet - and this again is unsettling because the banter, the jabs and the barbs, leaves an absence of distraction.

And without the distraction, his thoughts run in circles of worry and anger, and something else he cannot put the name to - or the other way around, he knows what it is and still refuses to name it.

"Just fucking say something," he grinds out without looking back.

"So you could be more vexed with me?" The tone is level, and maybe curious.

"Don't..."

"I don't need to be in your head to see it. You're really angry with me, then," Jack continues with a note of dejection in his voice, "if you think I'd seek your thoughts on my own."

"That's not what... I trust you not to." The strangest of it all is, he truly does, but it's something easy to fall back on when angry.

"You're still accusing me of it," Jack points out.

"Because you're fucking lying to me, so maybe you're lying about this too."

"I had never lied to you, why would I start doing it now?"

"Omission is a lie." Gabriel refuses to look at Jack who know keeps to his side, and with no answer incoming he only grows angrier.

"Then you should ask," Jack responds with a click of his tongue as he overtakes him. Gives him a hard lingering look paired with a crooked half-smile, too, before he turns and skips forward. "You wanted to hurry, cub."

"This is not over."

"Of course it is, cub, because you never ask, do you?" The remark itself is full of reproach and disappointment.

#sometimes I write #r76 #reaper76 #totallynotwitcher!AU #murder-deer

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seven-oomen · 4 years

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Okay, I’ve managed to scrape back up some of the thoughts that were drifting in and out yesterday. I was trying to think of stuff I remembered from high school (what hasn’t been lost to an ADD haze at this point anyway) that might be interesting/cute to see crop up in the prequel. For example; we know Peter played basketball, but did he or anyone else participate in any other extracurriculars or sports? Student council? Debate team? Academic team? French club? Band/orchestra/choir? Cross country/Track? Ecology club? Gay/Straight Alliance? Martial arts? Science club? Softball? Pagan Student Union (I think that might have been a college thing, but whatever)? Art club? Cheer/gymnastics? Other things I’m forgetting right now?

Speaking of Peter and basketball- Did the gang ever go to his games? Did he have supportive sports boyfriends; did they make cute signs or run to hug him if Beacon Hills won? (Did we ever find out Peter’s jersey number? I legit can’t remember.) Did he bother to get a letterman jacket? If so, did he give it to either of the boys? (Or did he just get two? I forget how/when you got patches, I wasn’t much for that sort of thing. I think maybe I got one for softball at some point?) I love him with the leather jacket, I just thought it was a cute image. Did they get class rings (and exchange them)?

Also, yearbooks. Who all actually had their picture in the yearbook? Did Peter shake his hair over his eyes to block the weird reflective thing (and would that work)? Did they pop up in any group shots or candid pics? I had a mental image of a shot from some sort of home game, maybe for football, or girl’s basketball, or something, of the group of them clustered on the bleachers; Peter between Chris and Noah, with an arm thrown around each’s shoulders, his smiling face pressed into one of them’s hair (I can’t decide which) partially to prevent any reflection, partially just because; Chris holding the hand Peter has wrapped around him with one hand and with the other stretched across to rest on Noah’s knee, smiling in the genuine yet vaguely stilted way of someone who’s not used to being this happy yet; Noah with one arm wrapped around Peter’s waist, his other hand resting on the one Chris has on his knee, staring at the camera with an amused grin that’s flirting right on the edge of a smirk; Claudia cuddled up to Noah’s side, both hands wrapped around the top his nearest arm, head leaning against his shoulder, grin clear and bright and open; Melissa next to her, arms enveloping Claudia in a loose hug, camera catching her mid-laugh. (God, I really wish I had something approaching passable art skills at times like these.) Maybe the kids find a copy of that yearbook in the school library, and make framed copies of the picture for Melissa and their dads for a gift.

Do you have any plans to cover Prom? Or any school dance (Homecoming, maybe?), really, Prom is just the big one. Because part of me with never be over the ridiculousness of that scene with Peter and Allison at Macy’s (as cute as it is). Random middle-aged dude walks up to teenage girl and starts offering her unsolicited fashion advice (as part of an intimidation tactic against her boyfriend, no less), and she not only is not worried or weirded out in the slightest, but she actively takes his advice and buys the dress he suggests. (I legit laughed so hard I snorted when I realized it was the same dress.) (Momentary segue: Do you think she ever described the encounter to Chris? Peter just gets a random angry text one day from an unknown number that just says “Stay the hell away from my daughter!” and he just knows, so he sends back “Don’t blame me, her selections were utterly abysmal. Didn’t your wife run a boutique or something? You’d think she’d have taught her better." Chris never does answer back.) But anyway, yes, school dances with that group could be entertaining. Sneaking off (for various reasons), special song dedications, spiking the punch with assorted substances, inappropriate dancing under the cover of semi-darkness. Lots of potential shenanigans.

Also can’t wait to find out more about how everybody met. One of the things I love about long-running series is being able to go back and compare where characters began their relationships versus where they end up. We’ve seen how Chris met the boys, but not Claudia or Melissa. (Did he already know Melissa? Was she still a hunter at that point?) We know how Noah and Claudia met, but not how Peter and Noah met, or Peter and Claudia, or how any of them met Melissa. Plus all the potential bonus drama because of the supernatural issues involved. When did Claudia and Peter realize what Elias was really like? (Did Claudia ever give either of the other boys a "shovel talk”?) How did Melissa’s relationship with Rafael develop? How did the rest of the gang get along with the assorted Hales (or did they know them at all)? And re: the preview for it you posted - what kind of car does Peter have, and can you comfortably fit three growing boys in the back seat? (I do occasionally remember to ask the important questions, lol.) Is the Jeep still Claudia’s here? What kinds of vehicles, if any, do the others have? (Can you tell I’m excited about the prequel?)

Bonus thought from last night -

Me: *trying desperately to fall asleep so the day can just be over*

My brain: So what about a vaguely, very loosely Breakfast Club inspired Chris/Noah/Peter fic? Like, Chris could be Emilio Estevez’s character, and Noah could be Judd Nelson’s, because Andrew’s damage is more internally focused (I can’t live up to my father’s expectations because I’m not good enough), where as Bender’s is more externally focused (I’m pissed that my dad treats me this way because he’s an asshole, but also secretly worry I actually deserve it). Peter could be Claire; popular, charming, probably more intelligent than they let on, emotionally distant and neglected. Claudia’s probably the best fit for Allison, although you could maybe make Melissa work. Finstock is totally Brian. Could we shove Harris back in time to make him Dean Vernon? It’s fic, you can totally do that sort of thing, right? I mean, you’re already planning to completely redo the relationships, so who cares, right? Who would be Carl, though?

Me: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, BRAIN, NOT NOW!!! PLEASE JUST SHUT UP AND GO TO SLEEP ALREADY, I’M BEGGING YOU!! NOW IS NOT THE TIME! WE CAN THINK ABOUT THIS TOMORROW!

My brain: …okay but seriously; Peter in a peach colored v-neck and overly snug khakis, Chris in that wrestling top, Noah in the trenchcoat and plaid… Do you think Peter could do that lipstick trick with a chapstick?…

Me: AAAAUUUUGGHH!!!

(Thankfully, sleep was at least eventually had.)

I’m glad you’re feeling better today, and hope that work was busy enough to pass the time quickly without being overwhelming, and blissfully free of excessive stupid people. As someone else stuck in the world of heat, storms, and humidity, you have my sympathy. Sending hugs and cooling vibes!

Alright so I finally got some time to sit down (or lie down technically) for this and go through it. I’m excited!

we know Peter played basketball, but did he or anyone else participate in any other extracurriculars or sports? Student council? Debate team? Academic team? French club? Band/orchestra/choir? Cross country/Track? Ecology club? Gay/Straight Alliance? Martial arts? Science club? Softball? Pagan Student Union (I think that might have been a college thing, but whatever)? Art club? Cheer/gymnastics? Other things I’m forgetting right now?

I think Chris was a cheerleader at some point. He wanted to join gymnastics like in his old school, but BH didn’t have a separate gymnastics team, so he joined the cheerleaders instead. His dancing skills are abysmal, but he makes up for it with gymnastic skills, strength, and agility.

Peter’s on the student council I like to think he would do well as the secretary but I also feel like he’d definitely try to run for president.

Noah’s on the Martial Arts team (couldn’t resist) and I like to think he’d participate in the ROTC, as he served in the military in canon. (Obviously due to having children at 17, he never enlisted in this Au.) But the prepping definitely happened.

Chris would also join the swim team, which is a nod to Jackson joining later in Once Upon a Time.

And oh yeah, they went to every game. Chris as a cheerleader and Noah was up in the stands with signs for every single game. Claudia and Melissa often came with. Whenever BH won, Chris would run out and ‘cheer’ the star player, which was almost always Peter, and lift him up on his shoulders.

I don’t think there’s a canon answer for Peter’s Jersey Number. I’ve seen some places sell a shirt with 01 on it, but I kinda wanna say it’s 15. Due to his birthday being May 15 in this au. (Chris’s is July 22nd, Noah’s is September 14th.)

I feel like Peter got a class ring, maybe Noah, but Chris didn’t bother. It would just be one more thing his father could potentially take from him and he wouldn’t need something like that to remember the other two by. He already has the Triskelion necklace. As for the letterman jacket, I think Peter definitely got one, as did Noah. Chris once again skipped it, probably because he still felt like they might move at a moment's notice and he didn’t want to bother with all of these things.

Omg, my heart...

yes to all of this. Seriously <3

Do you have any plans to cover Prom? Or any school dance (Homecoming, maybe?),

I do. In both stories. The canon school dance in Once Upon a Time. And the prequel will feature either a homecoming dance or prom. The potential for drama there is too good to pass up on.

Also, Peter giving fashion advice to the girls is way too funny because of course, he would. And to some of the guys as well. Seriously McCall... that’s what you’re going with?? Wear a fucking tux for Mel, jfc...

I feel really bad, but I actually never saw the Breakfast club, though it sounds like a really dope movie. And those visuals are very nice visuals ^^

I’m also writing all of these questions down for the prequel. XD This is awesome writing fuel <3

No but seriously, I don’t say this often enough, but you are awesome and I adore you <3

Thanks for sticking with me and this au for so long already, I love talking to you.

#ben says stuff #once upon a time comments #life unfolds in chapters comments #submission

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opinionsandfeelings · 5 years

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The Wandering Earth Review

My rating: 4.5/5

Best quote: Let’s light Jupiter up.

Man, what a fantastic film.

Here’s the setup: our sun is expanding and within a hundred years it’s going to swallow the whole solar system. Earth’s global community somehow puts its differences behind them and comes up with a comprehensive plan move, MOVE, the earth from its current orbit to another system. This comes in the form of giant rockets propelling earth from orbit and everyone living in underground cities to compensate the ecological effects of said move. Ambitious AF this movie is.

So we’re introduced to our main characters, the handsome Liu Qi and his sidekick kid sister Han Duoduo. Mm, Liu Qi’s actor, Qu Chuxiao, is beautiful and I hope he’s in many more films. I digress.

Liu Qi is apparently a genius, he seems more like a moody teenage protagonist than anything at the beginning but calls himself a ‘genius’ enough you get the idea it’s probably mentioned for a reason. Kid sister on the other hand is basically there for cute support, I don’t consider that a bad thing since it helps humanize the cast.

Mr. Genius and his sidekick live with their grandpa in underground Beijing since their dad is an important astronaut on the global space station (in this universe there’s a United Global Government but countries still, I think, have some sort of autonomy? Film didn’t get much into that but everyone’s got a state flag on their uniforms). Genius decides to steal his grandpa’s vehicle pass and since kid sister wants to see the earth’s surface she comes with.

Genius is not the best at driving grandpa’s rig but he manages and they head out, kid sister’s amazed by all the ice and snow aaaand then they’re arrested for stealing a rig. They meet Tim in jail, a white chinese native. There’s a reason for this person, he literally does nothing useful but you’ll see why he’s there as they go along.

Grandpa’s called, he comes and gets the kids but in a convenient twist there’s a massive earthquake that breaks open their jail cell. Out of pity/human duty Liu Qi frees Tim and they hustle out of there and back to there rig where grandpa hauls ass back toward home.

At this time time we learn a bit about Liu Qi’s dad who is up in the space station observing all this and also learning that, as they’re passing Jupiter, there’s a very real chance Jupiter’s gravitational pull will drag earth in and bam, we’re all dead. Hey guess what, it’s happening!

Back on earth Team Get-Home-Now is accosted by the military because, for some reason, the grandpa is the best driver they could think of and they need him to deliver a ‘lighter cord’ which is what will relight Beijing’s rocket. When the earthquake happened it knocked out basically majority of the earth’s rockets and that isn’t helping the Jupiter situation. The Military, and all it’s counterparts around the world, are all trying to get these fuses to said rockets ASAP. “Why aren’t they stored right next to each thruster?” is a question I would say you’re not going to get an answer to so, don’t worry about it.

Team Military and Team Get-Home don’t particularly enjoy each other’s company but do their best to get the lighter cord to the nearest rocket. This involves driving rigs through an icy canyon of Shanghai which is definitely not a good idea. They barely make it through but grandpa dies in the process. Liu Qi and Han Duoduo are understandably upset. In grandpa’s final flashback we learn money is evil and he adopted Han Duoduo who was orphaned around the time Shanghai was swallowed by massive tsunamis (see consequences of stopping earth’s orbit).

Up at the space station everyone’s been forced into hibernation to save energy but Liu Qi’s dad thinks something’s wrong and breaks out of his hibernation chamber. The rest of his part basically deals with him battling an out of control space station AI and showing how friendly China and Russia are. Honestly, it works and I wish more propaganda was handled in this fashion. More on that later.

Back on earth Liu Qi and Duoduo (and Tim, yes Tim’s still there) head off on their own because um, Team Military basically helped kill grandpa. They end up tracking down a rig that sent out a distress call and it turns out it was another military team taking their own lighter cord to another rocket. Their rig crashed during the earthquake and only one person survived, the resident genius thankfully. Team Get-Home hop on board and decide to swing back to the military team.

Whoo boy, Team Military had a moment once Team Get-Home left. They’re fighting amongst themselves about the lighter cord and one of them, the girl of course, shoots the lighter cord dead because, in her words, ‘no more deaths’. Aka, she’s certain this cord is doing more damage than not. Everyone’s at their wit’s end about what to do.

Then Liu Qi shows up with a rig, they hash it out and mash into one super team. I’ll call them the Team Danger. Team Danger has to get the last lighter cord to the nearest rocket and now, but, word gets out that the rocket has had a meltdown and the entire city beneath it is gone, as is the rocket. It looks like a volcano. Team Danger doesn’t give up hope yet tho, they just change their destination to the Philippines because there’s a rocket base there that still needs a lighter cord. Cool!

They head there and fuel up at a supply station near Sulewasi (the base in the Philippines) and learn a few things: One, most rockets have already been turned back on (great!) but two, earth is definitely about to crash into Jupiter so hug your loved ones and say goodnight, no one apparently has hope anymore. In this moment there’s a lovely scene with Liu Qi, pissed off, looking up to the sky and seeing Jupiter’s looming presence. He hones in on the planet’s famous ‘eye’, a massive eternal storm, and has his genius moment: if we shoot into Jupiter’s atmosphere we can cause an explosion that will propel us away from Jupiter! I’m not a scientist but the idea sounds alright. I mean, it’s the end of the freaking world, let’s try any and all options.

Team Danger hashes out the logistics: they’ll still head to Sulewasi and use that rocket as their weapon, turn off the rocket to do some manual overrides, shove the lighter cord in and see what happens.

They get to Sulewasi and while everyone else is sad it’s the end of the world Team Danger is rushing in put their plan into motion. Han Duoduo gets on the global broadcast asking for help but nobody is listening, Liu Qi and Tim drive into the rocket’s reactor to deliver the lighter cord, Team Military is using all their manpower to pull the reactor’s ‘pin’ (but failing), and the rest are busy downloading new override commands. Liu Qi can’t get the reactor to open and take the cord, the override commands aren’t working, everything is at a halt. Another earthquake happens causing even more panic.

At a loss Han Duoduo calls the space station and reaches the only person on board not in hibernation—Liu Qi’s dad. She tells him the plan, he tells the United World Government and they’re like “yeah no, we already thought of this plan and it’s not gonna work”. He’s like *sigh* “it’s the end of the world, we have to try something” and government still won’t budge, but it does say they’ll broadcast Duoduo’s message. So, a tearful Duoduo pleads out to the world for help and wouldn’t you know it, helps finally arrives from all walks of life. See? She is the humanity piece of Team Danger.

Team Military receives help and can pull the pin, Liu Qi manages to unstick the reactor, Tim pulls him out just in time before he’s crushed, and the rest of Team Danger manages to load the override system. Everything’s shoved into motion, the rocket blasts out at Jupiter aaaand….

Is a couple thousand kilometers short of it’s target. So basically they just wasted all that time and effort to shoot at Jupiter and nothing’s happening. Up in the space station Liu Qi’s dad realizes there’s over a hundred thousand tons of fuel on board, detaches the fuel holding part from the rest of the station and dives head in to the storm. He and Liu Qi have a heartfelt conversation and he sacrifices himself for the greater good of humanity.

Surprisingly, this works. The beam from both the rockets and the space station exploding are enough to react with Jupiter’s atmosphere and cause a massive, I mean MASSIVE, explosion that propels a shockwave back toward earth. Everyone scrambles to hide underground, Liu Qi and his sister (and Tim) don’t quite make it but survive when the blast hits thanks to some handy tools.

Cut to three years later where things are just about the same as the beginning of the movie except Liu Qi is now a real driver, not just a moody kid, his sister is his driving partner, and one of the guys from the Military team is their new third wheel BFF. Tim and everyone else is seen living out their lives both in the underground city and above ground and it looks like we’re going to survive after all. The Wandering Earth plan is repeated and you have hope that maybe, just maybe, after a hundred generations the earth will settle at its new location.

First thought though: pretty sure we’ll run out of fuel before that happens, just from what we see of the rocket at Beijing it’s like they’re mining the majority of the earth around them just to keep it running. If there are thousands of these rockets and they all need that much earth to be powered, my assumption is we’d scrape the earth all the way down to it’s core before actually making it to our destination. Despite that, maybe along the way we’d come up with better ideas along the way?

Second thought: this film is produced, directed, and financed from China/Chinese backed companies. There’s nothing wrong with this, but I just find it interesting since it does it’s own propaganda in very different ways from what you would find in a US-backed project. While it’s very Chinese-centric it still portrays the whole world as working together and in doing so still manages to push a lot of diversity into its background plots. I highly appreciate that.

Beyond that, there’s never a point in the film where a single person carries the entire plot. The story only works with teamwork as its core value, everyone has to pitch in or else the world’s fucked. The only time it comes close to doing so is when Liu Qi’s dad flies into the beam to Jupiter. He only manages to do this however by killing the station’s AI and can only do this with help from his Russian friend on board who died in the process of figuring out what was going on with the hibernation. No one is a single hero, everyone is. That’s propaganda in itself but it’s also true: one single person is not enough to do everything.

Then there’s Tim. Why is Tim in this movie? At first I assumed he was the token white guy to appeal to an abroad audience but you begin to see through the film he serves two purposes: one, yes, to appeal to the abroad audience, but also to further that Teamwork-is-Everything point. He’s totally useless on his own but he never once abandons the team. Furthermore, he does add diversity to the team.

Overall I greatly enjoyed the film. I thought it was very unique and had many actually plausible ideas and concepts in terms of the whole Wandering Earth project. Again, I’m not a scientist but some of the ideas seemed at least reasonable. What did make me sad however is I’m very, very sure none of this would ever happen. No, not the part about the sun expanding and such, that part’s true and it will happen in several million years (very slowly, don’t worry). The sun’s expansion parallels with a lot of issues that surround climate change to explain why earth had to move. What’s unrealistic however, in my opinion, is the fact that the entire world decided to work together to actually pull this project off.

Maybe I’m cynical but you can’t convince me at this point that the human race didn’t just spend over a thousand years grouping themselves off and hating anyone that wasn’t part of their own group , only to suddenly change their minds when faced with the threat of total extinction. Do I wish that would be the case and everyone would set aside their manufactured differences? Hell yes, my hope would be to be proven wrong and see everyone suddenly working together for the race to save our own planet.

But…I mean, we can’t even slow climate change. We’ve known about climate change for over a hundred years and have done, essentially, nothing to curb it. Instead we’ve decided to be in denial and focus more on becoming nationalistic entities that would like to point out our differences more than point out the million more things in common.

So, I very badly wish The Wandering Earth universe existed in our own, maybe not the Wandering part, but the part where people would get along enough for a common cause to do what’s necessary to survive, not just for ourselves but for our planet and the other billions of organisms that live here.

To conclude, again, I loved this film. It made me cry several times and was so worth seeing. It has a lot of fantastical ideas and executes them on screen very well. Would recommend to anyone who likes sci-fi stuff, apocalyptic stuff, or just action/adventure in general.

Also, Qu Chuxiao is pretty handsome. He (and his dad, who’s actor is Wu Jing) are solid hunks. That’s just me though :)

#the wandering earth #film #review #commentary #thisismyblogandI'llbloghowIwant #qu chuxiao #spoilers

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mswyrr · 6 years

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DSC 2x05 [SPOILERS]

This one was a real mixed bag for me. I really enjoyed watching it! And I thought that certain parts of it were really well done. It had a unified plot in the way that 2x03 “Point of Light” didn’t, but it did have the same over-stuffed feeling that episode gave me.

1) Resurrections are tricky, particularly in Sci Fi (vs. say Fantasy where it’s often easier to pull that off via magic or whatever) and I was happy about Hugh’s return but also I wondered if they could pull it off well. And they did! The technobabble around what happened to him made sense because it had character heart: Stamets’ behavior in the face of loss that brought about this situation, in his messed up/inbetween state in S1, felt emotionally authentic and the way Hugh navigated his impossible/terrible half-life felt true to him too. Like, discovering and using the bark felt very ic for him as a scientist and doctor.

It works because it fits within the science/ecology themes of Stamets’ overall arc. During wartime he did what so many scientists have done, which is let his research be weaponized. But it was also an earnest reaching for the sublime too - and out of that comes both destruction and creation. And the necessity of respecting nature - which doesn’t mean rejecting scientific inquiry, it means also recognizing the importance of limits to our ability to instrumentalize nature and bend it to our will.

IMO Stamets’ is going to be the one who advocates for shutting down the whole spore drive thing and burying the tech ultimately. NOT in a denial of science and the beauty of exploration, but out of respect for the balance of nature and the worth of natural phenomenon separate from how we can make them into tools to enact our will.

2) I liked the Spore!May/Tilly stuff. My monsterfucker senses were tingling at their comments about the kind of union they experience together and how they’re both into it... but, otoh, last episode the emphasis was on Tilly’s feelings about human!May and her regrets there. So it was weird to totally switch tracks and have no echos of that: here it was like spore!May didn’t carry that baggage of memory and regret? I’m not sure. I feel like they must have more planned for this storyline, to wrap it up. Particularly since IMO it’s going to connect to the final closing of the spore drive/burying of the tech in Stamets’ plot. I liked what we got, but I am also on a “wait and see” footing re: whether the components of Tilly’s story will come together well and fit with the overall themes.

It’s definitely about reaching out and risking connection/having faith even against the evidence: Tilly choosing to have faith in Spore!May, Spore!May choosing to trust Tilly and let Hugh live. So... components are strong. But I want the two different things May represents (human and spore) to be handled more.

3) I’m fascinated by what they’re doing with Philippa. Like... I thought they’d skipped over her development but now I see that they want us, the audience, to be with Michael in her uncertainty about what Philippa’s deal is. What does she intend? What’s her bigger plan?

Sometimes faith and trust can heal past damage (like with spore!May) as much as it can be healed. But sometimes you’re the frog trusting a scorpion. How do you decide?

All the super obvious Biblical imagery - the apple, the “snake” stuff - was really... on the nose, but in a fun way? Philippa is Satan tempting our St. Michael?

I mean, last season we had the good and bad angels (Gabriel and Michael) warring over the soul of the Discovery (and then Michael warring with Philippa for the soul of the Federation), so... /spreads hands/ IMO the end of S1 will prove to have only been the first battle in a war over the soul of the Federation potentially; depending on how they take Section 31.

And I speculate that Philippa is going to offer some kind of very real temptation to Michael at some point. (And not just in the sexy scenarios playing themselves out in my brain lol). IDK how that is going to go, but it’s being set up and it’s looking VERY interesting.

I’m happy for them to keep Philippa’s game under wraps if we can have this shared tension/uncertainty with Michael as this plot plays out.

4) It was so nice to have Ash back... I feel like he’s going to get used as a cat’s paw/honeypot by Philippa and/or Section 31 though. He very much feels like a smaller piece in a much, much bigger game with the way he was reintroduced as a connection to Section 31 and the power conflict between Philippa and Leland going on there. (By which I mean Philippa is basically running that show, for better or worse; bald-y does not have half her talent for maneuvering) I don’t think the “tra la la all the misfits together!” thing is exactly as advertised. Poor guy. He is Looking Good tho damn... His hair is just luscious. And the beard even works for me now? A++ work, stylists! Thank you svm :)

I thought the interactions with Michael were well handled - they still care about each other but a lot of stuff has gone down and they need to get to know each other all over again. And this time maybe take things slow? Since the first time they did things really fast.

5) I liked the opening voice over but the one at the end felt like too much? Too on the nose? And not exactly what I got out of the episode.... like, it seemed to be about the open question of faith/trust in *other people* not in some kind of a supreme being guiding your path. So there was this strange disjuncture between what I felt like the episode was getting at and where the voice over took it.

Also sometimes the religious references here just felt sort of thrown at the wall to see what would stick? Though I DO love Philippa as the snake tempting Michael. But it seemed a little fuzzy to me at times.

#star trek discovery #dsc spoilers #dsc meta #my meta

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olivefairies · 6 years

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dear readers: it’s okay to be selfish.

i apologize in advance for this very long piece of work. it’s currently 1:57 am. i tend to stay up and think about things that are bothering me. this time i felt the need to share. i’m sorry if some of you don’t like this sort of thing, i promise i won’t do it very much. i suppose this is also a way for my followers to get to know me more personally.

i just wanted to say, for anyone that needs to be told this: do not let someone else’s opinion matter so much to you that you question who you are. it’s important to decide who you are by yourself. that is YOUR journey, and other people do not get to decide what makes you unique or plan out your path for you.

in my case, i let my father’s opinions about things i enjoy completely change my mind and make me rethink everything i thought i wanted. my dad has been present for only about 50% of my life, maybe even less. he and my mom got divorced when i was 10 because he cheated on her so many times they both lost count. while he was busy being deployed and cheating, my mom was caring for me and my brother all by herself... and yet, my dad’s opinion still mattered enough to me that i would change myself to meet his expectations. why? i really don’t know, and i’m still working through it.

when i was in 6th grade, i decided i wanted to play the trombone for band because i thought it was really cool. when i told my dad, he laughed at me and said he couldn’t imagine me playing a brass instrument, let alone a trombone. especially because i was so petite. i kicked that idea out of my head and ended up playing the oboe for 7 years.

when i graduated high school, i thought i wanted to be a zoologist and work in a zoo. i’ve always loved animals and i was passionate about caring for them and educating the public. i told my dad, and his response was, “what happens if, one day, people wake up and decide that they don’t want to go to zoos anymore? what are you gonna do then?”

it was such an outrageous question, but his opinion mattered so much to me that i ended up changing my mind. i decided to study art, since that was my natural talent, but that’s never been what i wanted to do as a career.

i also thought i wanted to be a game warden, but yet again, my dad convinced me that i’m too small and feminine for anyone to take me seriously as a law enforcement officer.

now i’m in college, in my 3rd year. i have changed my major a total of 4 times. from art education, to studio art, to art history, and now (finally) biology. during my transition, i was so depressed that i almost completely dropped out. i was failing all my classes and ended up on academic probation. one semester, i showed up to the first day of classes and never showed up to any of them again. i would make the effort to drive all the way to school every single day and not even go to class. i was making friends with the wrong people, trying drugs, letting them influence me, and pretending like i was someone else. i was putting on personas and masks every day to cope. i felt crazy, useless, sub-par, and so, so lost.

i changed my major to bio because i decided that i really do love animals, plants, and nature in general and that’s what i wanted to focus on for the rest of my life. at the time i still hadn’t decided on a career, but i knew i needed to follow that path. i also added a minor in environmental science because i’ve always been passionate about conservation and ecology, so i figured that major/minor combination was a good idea.

very recently, i quite literally had an epiphany. it felt like it hit me like a bus. i’ve never been so sure about anything before: i want to be a park ranger. duh. that’s the perfect job for me. all i want to do is be in nature, protecting this beautiful earth that God has blessed me with. i feel that it’s my duty and my calling to care for these creatures and my planet. i want to go to work every day in my uniform and hiking boots and be amongst the trees. i finally have motivation and a sense of purpose.

i have a feeling my dad still doesn’t believe that i’ve finally settled on a career, which is fine. he’ll understand in time.

the night i decided to be a park ranger, a switch was flipped inside of me. i am no longer unsure of myself in any way. i know exactly what i like and what i don’t. i know what i believe and what i don’t. i know what i want and what i’m willing to spend my attention on. they say you don’t know who you are in you’re twenties, but i definitely, without a doubt, know exactly who i am. i no longer let people tell me what to think or feel. i don’t let anyone take advantage of me like i used to. i don’t let people influence me anymore. i am who i am and i know who that woman is now. i am finally a good kind of selfish.

so... now that i know all these things, i am finally starting to understand what my dad does to me. i hate, hate, when he tells me what he thinks i should do. i hate when he treats me like a child. i hate when he tries to let his opinion overshadow my own. i hate that his little comments probably meant nothing to him but meant the world to me. i hate that he influenced me so much that i lost myself.

i am a strong, hard-working, passionate, intelligent, beautiful young woman. i promise to myself that i will never let someone bring me down again, even if it’s someone important to me. i will do nothing but grow stronger from here on out. i know my worth and i know what i’m capable of, as well as my limits. i will continue treating people with grace and strength and i will always do what is just and good.

please remember that sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom in order to realize your worth. your journey will not always be easy, especially if you are not on the right path. when you finally find your way, it will feel like doors are constantly being opened for you. things will fall into place like you could never imagine. it won’t always feel so abrupt, like my experience. sometimes this takes decades, sometimes it just takes a few years, but i promise, you will find your purpose and you will KNOW your worth.

lesson of the day: it’s okay to be selfish. the good kind of selfish.

~ camilla

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mooncicadas · 3 years

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Once There Were Wolves

Although I didn’t end up reading as much in the first two ish months as I did last year, I still managed to squeeze in a clumsy handful as and when I could and when I wasn’t bogged down by and drowning in work hah. Initially this was going to be a round up of the 19-20 or so books I’ve finished so far but it turns out I am someone who simply cannot shut up. So I’ll do it post by post hehe.

1. Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

[image from the New York Times]

Overview

This was a bookclub pick for December or January I think, that reminds me sooooooo much of Drive Your Plough Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk, in that it can be read as literary eco-fiction with a questionably unnecessary murder mystery thrown in. It revolves around Inti: a woman with mirror touch synesthesia, traumatised mute twin sister Aggie and Inti’s endeavour to rewild the woods of Scotland by reintroducing wolves there.

Likes

I loved learning about the rewilding of Scotland. I'm sure I'll go look up information about the Yellowstone National Parks' efforts as well-the real life efforts which inspired this story.

And as a person into ecology myself, the dilemmas Inti grapples with, her worries if she's humanizing the wolves too much, her having to take the local communities into consideration, how hands on or hands off they have to be while monitoring the wolves, the way they try to refer to them only as numbers.... it all rang true. The danger of anthropocentrism is something that’s been on my mind ever since Fisheye lens.

I loved that after giving birth and being covered in blood, the wolves find her and inscrutably instead of killing her they huddle around her and the baby for warmth. I enjoyed all the themes about what rewilding really is and if you lose or find yourself along the way. This book also heavily dealt with domestic/ marital abuse and the scars that can leave on the person. It draws what I thought at first were confusing parallels with the wolves and the men under the patriarchy it condemns but it makes sense I guess idk.

There are only so many main players in this story so I wasn't exactly too too surprised when it turned out it was Aggie, but it still kinda got me. While it was all poetic that the murderer went off to the woods to die by herself, this ending seemed sort of fanciful compared to the grounded nature of the rest of the book. Or maybe it built up to that fancifulness. I don't know. This book's biggest crime is that despite having a banger of an opening line it's just kind of boring and drags and drags and drags. However there are some gems in the writing itself.

Here are some quotes I liked.

"The words fall so casually from my mouth that I am startled. Is that the way of all love? That it should carry the risk of death?"

Something something about love is violence and how loving is like courting a flame.

“There’s all kinds of stories about the last wolf of Scotland. Every district has its own claim, and all of them violent. But probably the last wolf was hiding out somewhere, and died alone. My guess, anyway.”

The poor last wolf. I'd love to hear folk stories of the last wolf of Scotland.

But his eyes are open and glassy and his tongue is lolling out, and the sight is so upsetting that I feel a shift come upon me. This feeling is why we don’t give them names. Why we don’t get too near to them. Because they are so fragile.

“I’m studying the cognitive maps wolves make of their territories. They pass these geographic and temporal maps down through generations, and know their land so intimately that they go nowhere unless it’s deliberate. Wolves don’t wander. They move with purpose, and they teach their pups how to do the same. They can share the mental images with each other.”

this is so cool!!!!!!! everytime this came up in animorphs too i was just !!!

And finally, the question to which I could not fathom the answer, the question I would spend sleepless nights asking. “Why?” But he didn’t answer me, would never answer because maybe he didn’t know why, maybe that was the true horror of it, that there would never be an explanation to make sense of this. He stopped crying and I saw him detach into that cold inner world of his, and I knew this for his coping method, one he had imparted to his wife. I wished I could kill him more than once.

Ain't that the truth.

And looks at me. I am halved and doubled at once.

My stomach dropped. What a lovely way to describe this feeling.

Yikes

In regard to Inti and Aggie’s relationship it felt a little icky to me how it felt like Inti was implying that Aggie was less of a person after her trauma. Like an insect living with its head cut off. And it didn’t feel like Inti’s mirror touch synesthesia affected this in any way because she always saw her from a resentful caretaker’s perspective and not...with any more empathy that her condition implies. Even the wolves were written with more sympathy than Aggie. There are some problematic messages that come up when you look at the ending of both Aggie and Duncan’s character arcs... Like as if its as simple as choosing to become either your mother or father after growing up in a household witnessing domestic abuse.

The book feels cheap in that it withholds this info of her abuse from us for the suspense of it. It didn't feel like it was making that bold of a statement on domestic abuse by having it be the "plot twist" of oh yeah this is why Aggie is so broken now do you feel bad.

Tbh I felt like there was no levity at all in this book. Not saying i need marvel cinematic universe type quips every second but it all felt so damn bleak. like even adding a little bit of light stuff to offset the darkness might have made the dark parts more effective.

And speaking of the dark parts...oh boy. The violence and trauma in this were so gratuitous and for what. What do you mean to accomplish with Aggie’s character arc. That she becomes a murderer because of her trauma and runs off into the woods.

Where is the part where we see Inti interacting with the rest of her team and how her views on the wolves is a little more fanciful than theirs despite her phd because of her mirror touch synesthesia. What about her professional relationship with them. I’d rather we saw more of that than the random pregnancy subplot and how much detail they went into the domestic violence.

I cannot believe this woman procrastinated so much she gave birth.

The reasons the community had to be resistant of the rewilding are very true and valid, and the reasons the rewilding is important anyway is also well explained. But it felt frustrating how little effort Inti was willing to put into making that connection with the community as an outsider.

I did understand Duncan’s reasoning for not intervening in Stuart and Lainey’s situation. He knew that intervening in a half hearted fashion could lead to even more abuse at home and stricter monitoring.... sighs deeply.

All in all dry, wordy and with confusing and misguided themes.

#once there were wolves #charlotte mcconaghy #booklr #bookstagram #book review #2022 books #spoiler review

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years

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EOD Drinks With Erica and Kim Crawford, Founder and Winemaker of Lovebloc‪k‬

In this episode of “EOD Drinks,” the VinePair team is joined by Kim Crawford, creator of the eponymous Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc, and his wife, Erica Crawford. Hailing from New Zealand, the Kiwi duo is credited by many for popularizing the jubilant and zesty New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc in the United States. While the humble couple cites the popularity of “Lord of the Rings” (which drew international attention to New Zealand in the early 2000s) as a catalyst for their success, their story is much more complex. They traveled to the U.S. on a “shoestring” budget and took a chance in a foreign market that was completely unaccustomed to their product — one that has exploded ever since, much like the “explosive” flavor Kim claims is unique to his first wine.

While the Crawfords have since sold the Kim Crawford brand, the couple has begun producing wine under a new name: Loveblock. According to the Crawfords, this wine is far subtler and more “mature,” while still being distinctive and refined. The Crawfords are also pioneers in biodiversity and organic winemaking; their commitment to ecological production ensures both the quality of their wine and the protection of Marlborough, New Zealand, where their love affair with winemaking first began.

Listen Online

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Or check out the conversation here

Adam: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, this is “End Of Day Drinks,” where we sit down with the movers and shakers in the beverage industry. So pour yourself a glass and listen along with us. Let’s start the show.

On this week’s episode of “End of Day Drinks,” we’re talking with Kim and Erica Crawford, the winemaking couple behind that super-well-known famous Sauvignon Blanc: Kim Crawford. The couple sold Kim Crawford years ago. So we’ll also talk with them about their new project, Loveblock. During the conversation, we’ll hit on what has caused New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to become such a phenomenon, how Kim Crawford, the wine, became the ambassador for all New Zealand Savvy B, and the difference between that project and their new one, Loveblock. So sit down, pour yourself a glass of wine and listen on in. It’s a great conversation.

Katie: Hello and welcome to VinePair’s “End of Day Drinks” podcast. I’m Katie Brown, VinePair’s associate editor, and I’m very excited to welcome Kim and Erica Crawford, the husband and wife duo behind Loveblock Winery in New Zealand. Welcome.

Erica: Hi. Good morning.

Kim: Morning.

K: I’m also joined today by my colleagues on VinePair’s editorial team, Cat Wolinski, senior editor.

Cat: Hi, everyone!

K: Joanna Sciarrino, executive editor.

Joanna: Hi, Kim and Erica!

K: And Keith Beavers, our tastings director.

Keith: Hey, everybody.

K: We’re so excited for you guys to be here. We have a lot of questions for you guys. But, first of all, it is VinePair’s Partnerships Month, and we’re recording this in February. So we’re really excited to ask you guys as a husband-and-wife duo, what it’s like to work together at Loveblock.

E: We’ve been working together since — gosh — 1996. So, yeah, of course it’s challenging because we’ve each got very strong opinions, and they don’t always align. So there’s definitely vigorous debate.

K: And who usually wins those?

E: Depending.

K: That’s so funny.

KC: It’s good, in a way, for marriage because we tend to argue more about work than we do about personal relationships. So it’s been good from that perspective as well.

E: Yeah, you get your frustrations out discussing wine styles or how to put a vine instead of being irritated by someone leaving the toothpaste open.

K: So you don’t sweat the small stuff. That’s good to know.

E: We try not to.

C: “You twisted that vine the wrong way! You did it again!”

K: So, when you started the Kim Crawford brand, did you guys have any idea that it would blow up in the United States market the way it did?

E: No idea. It was really made for the U.K. Wasn’t it, Kim?

KC: It was made for the U.K. entrée, I admit. David Gleave, who used to own Liberty Wines in the U.K., was looking for some entry-level products from New Zealand. So that’s how it started.

E: We made 4,000 cases. And it was all meant to go to the U.K., and then he lost his job with the importing company. So we ended up going to a local distributor here, cap in hand, asking them to please, please take this brand. But we really went to the U.S. in 1997. So really at the beginning of the New Zealand wave — it was so amazing — during that time we sold as much Merlot as we sold Sauvignon. We sold more unoaked Chardonnay than we sold Sauvignon, we sold things like Riesling— all sorts of things. It was a completely different market; people didn’t know where New Zealand was. They thought we were part of Australia. So it was very pioneering — every restaurant was just an amazing triumph. It was really exciting.

KB: If you don’t mind me asking a question about that, were you in the United States selling it? You said you were going to the U.K.

E: Initially to the U.K., then that guy lost his job. Then two or three years later, we knocked on the door of Hogue Cellars, and they took us on in importation.

KB: I’m just curious, was there a moment that you were like, “OK, this is working”? As you were saying, there was a completely different drinking preference back at that point. Was Sauvignon Blanc part of that? I mean, at some point, Sauvignon Blanc became that. Did you kind of see that transition?

KC: I think it all happened when we got 90 points in Spectator. The first time we got 90 points in Spectator, we just flew.

E: Three reasons, I think. That was only 2002. I think we were the third company into the US. And, you know, we didn’t have money. We just did it on a shoestring. There’s also that sweet thing that you don’t know what you don’t know. We just forged ahead. I think two things: that incredibly zesty, jubilant Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand really appealed to the U.S. palate, but I think the real thing is that took New Zealand as a category over was “Lord of the Rings.” Suddenly, everybody was aware of New Zealand. I think the brand definitely had its own charm before “Lord of the Rings,” so “Lord of the Rings” happened. We had good distribution. We had good penetration and distribution, and then the brand just flew. Did we ever think it was going to get as big as this? Not really.

K: Right. Do you guys feel kind of responsible in a way, for creating that concept of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, in popularizing it?

E: I feel very proud that we did. Kim?

KC: Now it’s a category, and not many people have done it in their lifetimes. Maybe two or three people have created a category in the U.S., and it’s quite nice to be one of those.

KB: Yeah, definitely a big category.

E: We don’t really lurk on that because life is so busy. With the kids, and the vineyards, and getting ready for the next thing, we moved on pretty swiftly. Didn’t we, mate?

C: So I have a question for you both about the not Sauvignon Blanc style, but the way that you’ve made it in the past versus now at Loveblock. I’ve had Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc recently, and I like it. I know you don’t own that winery anymore. I’ve also had the Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc recently, and it was one of VinePair’s top 50 wines of the year in 2020. I’m having it again right now, and certainly they are distinct. For those who are fans of Kim Crawford and the brand and don’t realize that you’ve sold it and started something new and totally different, how would you describe the difference between the Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc and the Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc?

K: I always compare them to stages in life. So to me, the Kim Crawford’s a teenage boy, he’s there, he’s throwing out his hormones to the world, and he’s saying: “Here I am, come and get me.” Loveblock’s a more mature woman saying, “I know what I’ve got, and I know how to use it.”

C: I like that.

KC: For descriptors of the two wines: I mean, Kim Crawford was designed to be in your face and explosive in the glass, whereas hopefully there will be a little bit more maturity and a little bit more age in Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc.

E: Obviously, the bulk of the category is in that jubilant, big, aromatic style. When we started Loveblock, I sort of came over that. A few things obviously influence what we do at Loveblock, apart from our own preference and what we want to drink. But it’s also the organic and sustainable vineyard management that gives you a different expression. It’s because all the wine is made as if it’s organic, even if it’s not, so you can’t do all the tricks that you usually do to get those big flavors. I think the wine is probably a bit more honest because it’s not tinkered in the vineyards and in the winery, because in the winery there’s a lot of manipulation.

KC: Not anymore.

E: No, but generally to make the classic style.

C: Interesting. What are some of those tricks you’re referring to?

KC: The big problem people have got now is they’ve got so much to put through their plants in a two-week period. Marlborough comes off in two weeks in terms of ripeness. So the big companies have already put out the harvest dates, even though they’re two months away from harvest.

The growers have already got their harvest dates, which is not what we like to do. We pick on flavor rather than recipe time.

E: I think that in the winery you’re restricted and constrained by what you do. For instance: sulfur. The sulfur in the wine is always at about 60 percent of what it would normally be. Because organic winemaking directs that you’ve got to be below 100 parts per million, and usually — and this comes back to style — when the grapes are picked, we put some sulfur and acid right on top of the grapes to protect from the phenolic. So we can’t do that. We don’t do that. We only do a post-fermentation addition of sulfur. That initial protection obviously protects the big foul flavors and things, so the flavor of the wine, and the precursors. And we don’t do that. So that’s why on the nose, you automatically see that it’s a little bit more quiet.

KB: Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s why it’s so unique. It’s that quiet nature.

E: We’ve done our screaming and shouting, anyway. I also think that it’s due to drinking trends, and people maturing in their palates as well. What we’ve seen in 20 years— how long have we been in the U.S.? 23 or so? You know, you go back to the same people. I remember going to Seattle to a restaurant, one of those beautiful old restaurants, and the guy said, “Ah, not another bloody Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc!” So, palates also mature and then new ones come in. So I think it’s the maturation of: A) our vineyard management, B) our skills as winemakers, and C) how the palates are maturing or changing. Just my view.

J: Erica, you mentioned sustainability before. Why is sustainability important to you and to Lovelock?

E: I think that New Zealand across the board has a reasonably strong, sustainable program that has various planks and pillars. But we do loads more. I think it’s very much a personal value and principles that I live by For me, it started really in my mid-30s, when life just happens around you and dramas happen and the world collapses, and you lose concentration, you smack into the back of the garage wall, don’t you? So I’m one of those moments. And they told me that I presented like a 55-year-old corporate businessman. And of course, I wasn’t either. So I started cleaning up my life, you know? Yeah. The first thing that went was Diet Coke. Then I started learning food labels and cutting things out. We live pretty simply; we try to make everything from scratch. Kimmy here likes the two-minute noodles, so he indulges in that.

J: I can’t blame him.

KB: They’re delicious.

E: Yeah. Then I looked at skin care, what I put on my skin, and then we looked at how we clean the house. It was just a logical step. The next step was quite logical to take that into that realm of organics and deep sustainability.

KB: So this is key — along with that, was the idea of Loveblock initially like, “We are going to do this and it’s going to be organic, and this is what it’s going to be.” Did you do this organic thing in Marlborough at a time when there wasn’t a lot of organics? How friendly to organic was the region when you started the idea?

E: When it came to me, not really. There were a few producers. I think Seresin was very active in Marlborough at the time. But for me, I guess it’s a personal journey that just started with my immediate environment. We always knew we were going to do wine again, and it is really just a one-in-a-million-year opportunity to truly live your values.

KB: Absolutely. It’s huge. Making that big change in your life and then eventually using that kind of discipline and putting it into winemaking is huge.

E: We both had to learn a lot. Vineyard management is quite different and it’s a lot more risky in some respects. Kim’s winemaking had to change completely, didn’t it?

KC: Right.

K: In what way?

KC: Well, if we were to change and take some acid out of the wine or use metallurgic fermentation rather than just adding some chemicals to do the job for me, so I suppose, it’s more natural, the way we’re making the wines. We’ve got a lot of barrels and alternative vessels now in Sauvignon Blanc, which is quite good for the blend. It’s all done with natural fermentations, so we’re slowly moving into a more natural playground with it. We don’t add sulfur, as Erica said, in the vineyard anymore. But we do add green tea, which is an antioxidant, which seems to do the same job, but doesn’t have the lingering effects of sulfur. We actually have one wine now which has no sulfur added at all— it’s going quite nicely as well.

K: Would you say that that style of winemaking is more time consuming? More time consuming and more labor intensive in general?

KC: Yeah, and you can’t make a mistake, I suppose, with conventional winemaking. You’re usually fine. With the organics, we haven’t got the same toolbox available. So quite often, especially in New Zealand, organic winemaking is such a small part of the business, and no one’s bothered to register the product, so we can’t use anything. You’ve got to be very careful and not make a mistake. Otherwise, you’ve got nothing to fix your mistake.

E: Similarly, our vineyard management changed quite a lot as well. You don’t only look at the vineyards. We practice topsoil regeneration — it’s that whole regenerative farming that we do. Soil is at the heart of everything. For the certified vineyards, we don’t use herbicides or chemicals. But even in the non-organic vineyards we practice that regenerative farming. So we use cover crops, and we try to look after the soil, and compost, particularly. We look at things like waste recycling, so we make a lot of compost. We use animals in the vineyards. Not only sheep, but also cattle, and chickens. Of course, we really focus on biodiversity. Kim mentioned the natural ferments and what we’ve noticed sitting around the organic vineyards, they tend to go off on their own ferments quite readily now.

KB: That’s really awesome.

E: Biodiversity is quite important because Marlborough, if you look at it, it was somewhere where people planted flowers, and onions, and sheep stations, and cattle. Now it’s pretty much wine. It’s like Napa — it’s pretty much one clone. Biodiversity is so important just as protection. If a virus tears loose in that one clone, it will be disastrous for Marlborough. So we really focus on biodiversity as well. I’m really into permaculture, so I believe that people who work on the farm should be freed from the farm.

KB: Right.

E: The whole farm is a certified unit: the grazing paddocks and the cattle, the excess vegetables, the excess meat, and stuff like that. It’s wonderful to be part of that, actually.

C: Wow, I have so many questions after that. Erica, tell me about the animals. You said you have cattle, sheep, chickens. In what way are you using these on the farm, and how are they contributing to that biodiversity?

E: The property is quite hilly, and we can’t plant on most of the property, so we used the cattle initially just to keep the grass low and to prevent fires from happening. Then I looked at them one day and I said to Kim, “I think we can actually sell organic grass-fed beef.” So they are now all certified, so that’s what we could start doing now. But they also act as lawnmowers, just after vintage, before we prune to just get rid of the first lot of weeds and then the sheep come in and do the same thing. And of course, they poop here. It’s not the same thing going on in the same vineyard all the time.

C: They’re contributing their own love to the Loveblock.

E: Yeah, they do, and the chickens scratch and run around and are generally a little bit irritating.

C: But nobody messes with the soil or the vines in a way that is unwanted.

E: Of course, the biggest challenge is the under-vine management. When you grow vine and you irrigate, the weeds are also going to grow. As far as organic wine goes, that’s the biggest issue to deal with. We invest quite heavily in getting the right equipment to get rid of that stuff so that the vine has the opportunity to grow in a relatively less competitive environment.

KB: So it sounds like you guys either adhere to or follow the biodynamic practices, not Demeter certification — there’s a certification if you want to be biodynamic, you can get certified organic. Do you guys practice these agricultural practices? Or are you adhering to a specific kind of regime that is kind of taught by the biodynamic community? Or you’re just reading it, going, “Hey, this is awesome, we want to use it to make great wine. That’s pretty much it?”

E: I think with biodynamics, that’s sort of a higher form of organics, and that’s a holistic system, and we do things by the sun and the moon. For instance, we look at when we pick the grapes on a fruit day, a fruit or a flower day. You can do all sorts of things by the cycle to the moon, of course. We haven’t got that sort of capability in the winery yet. But some people look at the ascending moon and the descending moon and do things. So we try to do things by the biodynamic calendar, but we’re not fully there yet. It’s a long journey.

KC: I think you have to be certified to be certified.

KB: Right, right, right.

KC: So we don’t believe in a lot of the practices although we care. And we add a lot of the practices but some things are just step too far. But we’re not really ready for it.

E: Because it’s a philosophy and it’s such a big learning path. And that’s why, yeah, we’re learning. We do the cow poop packed things so it’s pretty agricultural.

KB: That’s great. I just love that you guys, you’re basically saying this is what the Earth wants. This is what we’re going to do. We’re not adhering to this or that. We’re not certified. We would be certified to get certified. So we’re just making good practices for the land to make great wine. That’s awesome.

E: Yeah, some of the vineyards are certified organic and we are expanding that handprint more and more, but it’s not always possible, especially with the under-vining of our vineyards.

KC: And also, so one of the vineyards is planted on a hill and it’s surrounded by a pasture. So we’ve got one bug that comes out at the end of November, and it just destroys the vine until we can nape the vineyard completely, which would be hellishly expensive. We have to spray, unfortunately.

E: That’s on some of the vineyards. Only some.

K: Makes total sense.

E: We have 110 hectares planted. What’s that in acres? 250ish? So some kind of vineyard land you know?

K: Yeah. So to switch gears a little bit here, I’ve been curious. So obviously, Americans, we know and love New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc — partially because of you guys. But I was wondering what other varieties should we be looking out for from New Zealand? What else is exciting you guys that’s coming out from New Zealand vineyards like your own and others?

E: OK, so, I mean, we put our stake in the ground with Pinot Gris, and I’m very pleased to announce that we’re finally seeing a lift in sales in Pinot Gris, and it’s in the little independent restaurants and now wine shops that are doing that. Because it’s not the Pinot Grigio style, it’s made quite differently, we picked at a different time.

KC: It’s made more in an Oregon style than a Pinot Grigio style.

KB: That’s what I was asking, because I think Oregon is really killing it with Pinot Gris. It seems like Pinot Gris is kind of in the air right now. It’s perfect timing. I think we’re riding on the back of them.

KC: Yeah, they’ve done a good job with price points, they’re sitting at around $18 to $20, which is where everybody needs to be to make a dollar. Because we don’t go anywhere near as high, so Pinot Gris will crop at maybe three or four times an acre, whereas in Italy it’ll crop at 15 to 20. We can’t get down to Pinot Grigio price.

E: And then, of course, the other thing that I think New Zealand is getting known for is Pinot Noir, of course.

KB: Yes. How is Central Otago doing on the world market? I mean, I am in love with the wines. I think they’re really great. And you guys make a great Otago. Just wondering, how are you guys faring with that? I mean, it’s a specifically beautiful style of Pinot Noir and it’s so different and unique than all the other styles available on the planet. So I’m just curious how that’s going.

E: I think people don’t expect it from New Zealand, but it has been growing and there’s a lot more planted down there, isn’t it?

KC: Yeah, it’s one of the regions where we’ve got problems in New Zealand. There are apples, cherries, and kiwi fruit competing against grapes in terms of land use. So essentially that is the big cherry-producing area. The land is actually becoming reasonably scarce down there and your returns on cherries — as long as you don’t get rain — say $100,000 an acre gross return. Whereas grapes, you might be down to 10 to 15. But the cherries are far more expensive to set up than the grapes are. But there is, stylistically, quite a bit of difference. Depending on the subregions in Central Otago, it tends to get mountainous. But harvest will be six weeks earlier than some people because of wherever it is.

KB: Oh, that’s interesting. That’s exciting, that’s an exciting thing right there. Subregions in New Zealand. And I think that’s something that we should talk more about in the American market because of how unique and diverse the land in New Zealand is. It’s crazy.

E: Yeah. I mean, it’s basically if you look at California, the top is quite different to the bottom, isn’t it? And New Zealand is like that because it sits straight down the latitudes.

KC: We’re nearly the length of California and we’re only again, 80 miles wide at the widest. So we’re very long and skinny.

E: And full of mountains.

KC: So we don’t get hugely like, say, in the East Coast, there’s plenty of snow and stuff but we very seldom get snow. We get a little bit on the vineyard in Central but never in Marlborough. And we live in Aukland now. I mean, if we get a frost, it’s a hell of a surprise.

KB: Wow. Yeah, definitely. In the Northeast, it’s snowing here a lot this year.

E: Oh, I’ll tell you what. I would give my hind leg to be there.

KB: Oh yeah, we would do the same for Aukland, I promise you that.

E: Yes. Beautiful, beautiful day here. Not a cloud in the sky.

KB: Well, we have all clouds. We have all the clouds!

C: Well, speaking of coasts and clouds, I thought it was kind of funny when we started this conversation, Erica and Kim, you both said good morning, but we are at the end of the day here on the East Coast in New York. So a final question that I have for you is, we’re wrapping up the day, I’m drinking the Sauvignon Blanc right now. What should I pair this with for a late-afternoon before dinner snack?

KB: Nice, Cat.

E: Oh, anything, really. Oysters are always the favorite for me with Sauvignon. And I think goat cheese, of course, is a well known pair for it. Strong flavors, really. It carries strong flavors very well.

KC: Or maybe sashimi,.

E: Sashimi, sushi.

C: OK, I could do sushi. How about like Triscuit crackers with dill on it? That’s what I have in my cabinet right now.

E: You know how women always eat, or people always eat salad, and it misses the wine, doesn’t it? Because it leaves you with a really bitter effect.

C: Yeah, forget salad!

E: Yeah salad is wicked. But I think Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand really stands up to that. So for me, it’s the only wine you can really have with a salad.

C: Salad with goat cheese, that I can see.

KB: Yeah, a goat cheese salad with Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc? I’m going to log off and do that right now.

C: Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you for the suggestion.

KB: Well, Kim and Erica, thank you so much for joining us and making me super hungry. So nice talking to you guys about New Zealand Wine and Loveblock and everything that’s next for New Zealand. So we’ve loved having you on, and hopefully we can get a drink in person some time.

E: Thank you so much. Yeah, we do hope to get there sometime in the future. God knows when.

KC: It won’t be this year.

K: That’s for sure.

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of “EOD Drinks.” If you’ve enjoyed this program, please leave us a rating or a review wherever you get your podcasts. It really helps other people discover the show. And tell your friends. We want as many people as possible listening to this amazing program.

And now for the credits. “End of Day Drinks” is recorded live in New York City at VinePair’s headquarters. And it is produced, edited, and engineered by VinePair tastings director, yes, he wears a lot of hats, Keith Beavers. I also want to give a special thanks to VinePair’s co-founder, Josh Malin, to the executive editor Joanna Sciarrino, to our senior editor, Cat Wolinski, senior staff writer Tim McKirdy, and our associate editor Katie Brown. And a special shout-out to Danielle Grinberg, VinePair’s art director who designed the sick logo for this program. The music for “End of Day Drinks” was produced, written, and recorded by Darby Cici. I’m VinePair co-founder Adam Teeter, and we’ll see you next week. Thanks a lot.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article EOD Drinks With Erica and Kim Crawford, Founder and Winemaker of Lovebloc‪k‬ appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/eod-drinks-kim-erica-crawford-lovebloc%e2%80%aak%e2%80%ac/

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