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rockislandadultreads · 2 years ago

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Happy Independence Day!

Brothers at Arms by Larrie D. Ferreiro

In this groundbreaking, revisionist history, Larrie Ferreiro shows that at the time the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord the colonists had little chance, if any, of militarily defeating the British. The nascent American nation had no navy, little in the way of artillery, and a militia bereft even of gunpowder. In his detailed accounts Ferreiro shows that without the extensive military and financial support of the French and Spanish, the American cause would never have succeeded. France and Spain provided close to the equivalent of $30 billion and 90 percent of all guns used by the Americans, and they sent soldiers and sailors by the thousands to fight and die alongside the Americans, as well as around the world.

Ferreiro adds to the historical records the names of French and Spanish diplomats, merchants, soldiers, and sailors whose contribution is at last given recognition. Instead of viewing the American Revolution in isolation, Brothers at Arms reveals the birth of the American nation as the centerpiece of an international coalition fighting against a common enemy.

The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed

In the mid-1700s the English captain of a trading ship that made runs between England and the Virginia colony fathered a child by an enslaved woman living near Williamsburg. The woman, whose name is unknown and who is believed to have been born in Africa, was owned by the Eppeses, a prominent Virginia family. The captain, whose surname was Hemings, and the woman had a daughter. They named her Elizabeth.

Annette Gordon-Reed, author of the highly acclaimed historiography Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, unearths startling new information about the Hemingses, Jefferson, and his white family. Although the book presents the most detailed and richly drawn portrait ever written of Sarah Hemings, better known by her nickname Sally, who bore seven children by Jefferson over the course of their thirty-eight-year liaison, The Hemingses of Monticello tells more than the story of her life with Jefferson and their children. The Hemingses as a whole take their rightful place in the narrative of the family’s extraordinary engagement with one of history’s most important figures.

As The Hemingses of Monticello makes vividly clear, Monticello can no longer be known only as the home of a remarkable American leader, the author of the Declaration of Independence; nor can the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president have been expunged from history until very recently, be left out of the telling of America’s story. With its empathetic and insightful consideration of human beings acting in almost unimaginably difficult and complicated family circumstances, The Hemingses of Monticello is history as great literature. It is a remarkable achievement.

The Second Founding by Eric Foner

The Declaration of Independence announced equality as an American ideal, but it took the Civil War and the subsequent adoption of three constitutional amendments to establish that ideal as American law. The Reconstruction amendments abolished slavery, guaranteed all persons due process and equal protection of the law, and equipped black men with the right to vote. They established the principle of birthright citizenship and guaranteed the privileges and immunities of all citizens. The federal government, not the states, was charged with enforcement, reversing the priority of the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights. In grafting the principle of equality onto the Constitution, these revolutionary changes marked the second founding of the United States.

Eric Foner’s compact, insightful history traces the arc of these pivotal amendments from their dramatic origins in pre–Civil War mass meetings of African-American “colored citizens” and in Republican party politics to their virtual nullification in the late nineteenth century. A series of momentous decisions by the Supreme Court narrowed the rights guaranteed in the amendments, while the states actively undermined them. The Jim Crow system was the result. Again today there are serious political challenges to birthright citizenship, voting rights, due process, and equal protection of the law. Like all great works of history, this one informs our understanding of the present as well as the past: knowledge and vigilance are always necessary to secure our basic rights.

1776 by David McCullough

In this masterful book, David McCullough tells the intensely human story of those who marched with General George Washington in the year of the Declaration of Independence—when the whole American cause was riding on their success, without which all hope for independence would have been dashed and the noble ideals of the Declaration would have amounted to little more than words on paper.

Based on extensive research in both American and British archives, 1776 is a powerful drama written with extraordinary narrative vitality. It is the story of Americans in the ranks, men of every shape, size, and color, farmers, schoolteachers, shoemakers, no-accounts, and mere boys turned soldiers. And it is the story of the King’s men, the British commander, William Howe, and his highly disciplined redcoats who looked on their rebel foes with contempt and fought with a valor too little known.

Written as a companion work to his celebrated biography of John Adams, David McCullough’s 1776 is another landmark in the literature of American history.

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techniche · 2 years ago

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Back in the lead-up to the First Gulf War (1990-1991), for example, another member of the Bush dynasty, President George H. W. Bush, invoked the “new world order”, in his address to Congress on September 11, 1990: Out of these troubled times, our fifth objective — a new world order — can emerge: a new era — freer from the threat of terror, stronger in the pursuit of justice, and more secure in the quest for peace. An era in which the nations of the world – East and West, North and South – can prosper and live in harmony. A hundred generations have searched for this elusive path to peace, while a thousand wars raged across the span of human endeavor. And today that new world is struggling to be born, a world quite different from the one we’ve known. A world where the rule of law supplants the rule of the jungle. A world in which nations recognize the shared responsibility for freedom and justice. A world where the strong respect the rights of the weak (emphasis added).

Witness U.S. Pres. George H.W. Bush addressing Congress after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait

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The term “new world order” as a name applying to a new socialist world government can be traced back at least as far as 1845, to the book The Holy Family by Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Amusingly enough, it was attributed to someone on President George H.W. Bush’s staff back in 1990, when Bush turned a lot of heads by endorsing the creation of the “New World Order” and affirming the UN’s key role in it. - How Biden’s Latest “New World Order” Remark Affects You (By Larry Greenly in thenewamerican.com, March 2022)

#first gulf war #gulf war #george h.w. bush #politics #new world order #liberal world order #multipolar world order #united nations #president george h.w bush #peace #literature

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policemanofprincesspark · 1 month ago

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I remember how last year another psychopath told zot3 that a larrie blocked her and she couldn’t see the posts anymore, and zot3 like the psychotic stalker he is, told the anon to check the blog from safari (obviously without logging in) ☠️

I’m convinced that’s what he does, BUT it’s clear that he follows all the blogs that blocked him, using his thousands of fake blogs. Because he always knows what everyone is posting. I’ve lost count of the people who blocked that maniac but he still stalks them.

Everyone does. He/she acts like we were all just born and are new to the internet.

#ask #zot3 flopped

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bllsbailey · 6 months ago

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Plane Crash Leaves 7 Dead, Including 3 Members Of Gospel Group The Nelons

ENTERTAINMENT: OCT 16 GMA Dove Awards NASHVILLE, TN – OCTOBER 16: The Nelons arrives on the red carpet at the 49th Annual Dove Awards on October 16, 2018 at Allen Arena in Nashville, TN.

Seven people, including three members of the family gospel group The Nelons, died in a plane crash in Wyoming on Friday afternoon.

The Gaither Management Group said in a statement on Saturday that Kelly Nelon Clark, her husband Jason Clark, and their daughter Amber Nelon Kistler were on their way to the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska when the accident happened.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board, the collision happened close to the northeastern town of Recluse, Wyoming.

Autumn Nelon Streetman, another member of the group and Kelly and Jason’s other daughter, released a statement following the tragedy.

“Prayers that have been extended already to me, my husband, Jamie, and our soon-to-be-born baby boy, as well as Jason’s parents, Dan and Linda Clark,” she thanked in a brief statement that she released. “We appreciate your continued prayers, love, and support as we navigate the coming days.”

The group’s last Instagram post was on Friday after they documented a pit stop in Nebraska.

“Gaither Homecoming Alaskan cruise. We are on our way,” Jason Clark said before panning the camera to show the rest of the group.

Melodi Hodges, pilot Larry Haynie and his wife Melissa, pilot Nathan Kistler, Amber’s husband, and an assistant were also killed in the crash.

It wasn’t immediately evident what caused the collision. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is looking into the incident.

An NTSB spokesperson stated that preliminary data suggests that a Pilatus PC-12/47E, a turboprop aircraft with a single engine, “impacted terrain following a reported autopilot issue during flight.”

The spokesperson stated that not much information is currently available and that the investigation is still in its early stages. A team from the agency was headed to the crash site.

The spokesperson also said that the team will start inspecting the aircraft as soon as they have access to the plane, which is located in a remote area.

The Nelons have recorded more than 35 albums and amassed over 20 Top 5 Southern Gospel radio singles for songs including “Thanks,” “Come Morning,” “We Shall Wear a Robe and Crown,” and “O for a Thousand Tongues.”

In 2016, they were inducted into the Gospel Music Hall of Fame.

Throughout their career, they received a Grammy nomination for best Southern gospel album in 1991 and 35 nominations for the GMA Dove Awards. They most recently won a Dove Award for country/bluegrass/roots recorded song of the year in 2021 for “If God Pulled Back the Curtain.”

Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts

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jcmarchi · 9 months ago

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Researchers produce grafts that replicate the human ear - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/researchers-produce-grafts-that-replicate-the-human-ear-technology-org/

Researchers produce grafts that replicate the human ear - Technology Org

Using state-of-the-art tissue engineering techniques and a 3D printer, researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell Engineering have assembled a replica of an adult human ear that looks and feels natural.

Pictured is the intricate, left-ear plastic scaffold (anterior view at left, posterior view at right) that was created on a 3D printer, based on data from a person’s ear. Image credit: Spector Lab/Provided

The study, published in Acta Biomaterialia, promises grafts with well-defined anatomy and the correct biomechanical properties for people born with congenital malformations or who lose an ear later in life.

“Ear reconstruction requires multiple surgeries and an incredible amount of artistry and finesse,” said senior author Dr. Jason Spector ’91, chief of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and a professor of surgery (plastic surgery) at Weill Cornell Medicine. “This new technology may eventually provide an option that feels real for thousands needing surgery to correct outer-ear deformities.”

Spector worked on this project with long-time collaborator Larry Bonassar, the Daljit S. and Elaine Sarkaria Professor in Biomedical Engineering in the Meinig School of Biomedical Engineering, at Cornell Engineering.

Many surgeons build a replacement ear using cartilage removed from a child’s ribs, an operation that can be painful and scarring. And though the resulting graft can be crafted to resemble the recipient’s other ear, it generally does not have the same flexibility.

One way to produce a more natural replacement ear is to enlist the aid of chondrocytes, the cells that build cartilage. In earlier studies, Spector and his colleagues used animal-derived chondrocytes to seed a collagen scaffold, a key cartilage component. Though these grafts developed successfully at first, over time, the well-defined topography of the ear—its familiar ridges, curves, and whorls—was lost.

“Because the cells tug on the woven matrix of proteins as they labor, the ear contracted and shrank by half,” Spector said.

To address this problem in this study, Spector and his team used sterilized animal-derived cartilage treated to remove anything that could trigger immune rejection. This was loaded into intricate, ear-shaped plastic scaffolds that were created on a 3D printer, based on data from a person’s ear. The small pieces of cartilage act as internal reinforcements to induce new tissue formation within the scaffold. Much like rebar, it strengthens the graft and prevents contraction.

Over the next three to six months, the structure developed into cartilage-containing tissue that closely replicated the ear’s anatomical features, including the helical rim, the “anti-helix” rim inside the rim, and the central, conchal bowl.

“That’s something that we had not achieved before,” Spector said.

Spector and Bonassar conducted biomechanical studies to test the feel of the ear. This confirmed that the replicas had flexibility and elasticity similar to human ear cartilage. However, the engineered material was not as strong as natural cartilage and could tear.

To remedy this issue, Spector plans to add chondrocytes to the mix, ideally ones derived from a small piece of cartilage removed from the recipient’s other ear. Those cells would lay down the elastic proteins that make ear cartilage so robust, producing a graft that would be biomechanically much more similar to the native ear, he said.

Source: Cornell University

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

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donveinot · 1 year ago

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thewestern · 1 year ago

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Chapter 6

Born a beer baroness, Hildegard Wolff had never laid eyes on a brewery so small. She made one last survey of the place, and ducked out the front door, held open by her bodyguard, who was really more of a valet, even if he wore the familiar earpiece and aviator sunglasses of a federal agent.

Obediently, Mayor Mockingbird fell in behind. Their respective stages awaited on the curb in a designated no-parking zone. Loading Only: Eight to Five. His was a black sport utility vehicle, American-made; hers a full-sized luxury saloon of bespoke, mother-of-pearl exterior, imported from the United Kingdom. Her anglophilic selection of limousine constituted another in a lifelong series of subtle acts of rebellion against her deceased grandfather, Wilhelm I, who would have been sorely offended by the suggestion of riding in anything other than a German Autocar.

Impatiently, Billy waited in the cabin. Thus was his act of protest. Although he himself was personally more familiar with the Craft Brewing Scene, such as it were, in a professional capacity, such as it was, he did not think much of the New Frontier Brewing Company. Of Mayor Mockingbird, he thought even less. His mother’s interest in either entity confounded him. They couldn’t see him through the extralegally tinted windows, but he could see out to them as they briefly embraced, he whispering a bitter something in her ear, she throwing her head back in hackling laughter, so uproarious as to transcend insincerity.

After parting Larry’s company, Hildy’s security guard-slash-chauffer led her to the car and opened the rear suicide door. For his part, he preferred the title of protective field operative, the one used in the marketing materials for the Perlmutter Firm, the global comprehensive risk mitigation agency which deployed him. The mayor was meanwhile being led to his transpo by the deputy sheriff. They shut the car doors in unison and sized one other up briskly, before exchanging respectful nods in solemn acknowledgment of one another’s service.

I don’t understand, of what use is he to us?

Hildy could hardly sit down before Billy started in.

Not Us, dear. Me.

As far as You’re concerned, whatever this childish aversion is to politics, well, you’ll have to grow out of it eventually. It’s my responsibility to work with these people, no matter how distasteful that may seem to you. And, it’s not any of your business, but I foresee the future governor’s usefulness bearing fruit in all manner of ways. Let that be a lesson in itself. We live in a democracy, Billy. We live in a democracy, Billy. By all means, let yourself be heard. Just, please, do it somewhere else.

Hildy hadn’t cast a vote for Mayor Mockinbird. The Wolffenhaus family residence wasn’t actually within the city proper. That’s not to say that she’d a voted for him if she could’ve because absolutely she wouldn’t. Some lines could not be crossed. She had however made max contributions to his campaigns for election and reelection, in both her name and Billy’s, totaling several thousand dollars over multiple cycles. Putting party loyalty aside, Opa wouldn’t have disapproved of this one bit; of course, you have to work with these people. (Vote with your conscience; contribute to your self interest.) Now that Mockingbird declared his candidacy for state office, she had agreed to chair his super political action committee — More Values PAC — and committed to an orders-of-magnitude more gratuitous schedule of donation, summing somewheres in the middle-six figures.

Put firmly in his place, Billy cursed himself for once again allowing his emotions to interfere with his business objectives. He simply had to be more strategic when interfacing with Mother. Rather than attempt a high-risk recovery maneuver, he resolved to wait until she had cooled down before broaching the more mission-critical subject at hand. Besides, he knew how mother was loath to discuss the family or any other business in the car. Predisposed to motion sickness, she preferred to ride in total silence in this, what was finely tuned — by the same acoustic engineers that designed recording studios, opera houses and black site interrogation suites — to be the quietest car on the market. Above his cluttered thoughts, labored panting on the part of her most beloved companions — a pair of asthmatic terriers — was all Billy could hear.

Driving from downtown to the family residence, which was tucked away in the foothills, Hildy always insisted on taking a more scenic route. One that bypassed the main interstate and its polluted sightlines, pockmarked on either side by mobile home parks and billboards advertising personal injury attorneys. Her preferred route of passage ran right along Collegiate Avenue, first abutting the botanic gardens — for which Hildy was a distinguished member on the board of directors. Then intersecting a boutique shopping and restaurant district — where Billy could often be seen socially. Straight through the heart of the campus of Collegiate’s namesake college — a private institution to which Billy’s great-grandfather, Hildy’s Opa, Wilhelm I, was a massive benefactor (his name was on so many buildings, they considered naming the whole place after him). A large stone wall shielded from view an historic neighborhood — where Hildy kept her primary residence. There were three roadside churches — Episcopalian, non-denominational and Roman Catholic, in that order … she found them each to be regrettable eyesores. Likewise, three country clubs — two of which the Wolff’s maintained lifetime memberships that they hardly if ever used. Lastly, the country day school both Billy and Hildy had attended — although, the former had not been allowed to complete his studies there, a fact that sent off a sharp spiral of pain down his and her spines with every single passing. The detour nearly doubled the time to destination, but to Hildy, lounging in the privacy suite, the subtle scent of genuine walnut wafting off the hand-carved veneers, reclining on the handstitched leather seats … she could have just as well teleported. Nevermind how that thrice-varnished wood paneling and artisanally-tanned hide upholstery were currently being coated in drool.

Leading into the Wolffenhaus, a long driveway extended out a quarter-mile — intimidating the first time you drove in, tedious every time after. In one of the only home improvements he ever made, Wilhelm I had German oaks harvested from the Black Forest, shipped — first via steamliner, then by rail — and replanted in a canopy formation lining the vehicular foyer. Back there in that Black Forest there were some trees that lived to three, five, seven hundred years old even. But here in this rocky topsoil they wouldn’t last a fraction of that if they were lucky. As for these invasive specimens, they were approaching the end of their short lifespans, relatively speaking. But you couldn’t tell it by looking at them. Strong and beautiful as ever, they appeared to be from the bottom up. Leaves had completed their turn and were beginning to shed now. The sweep of the passing car dusted them off the smooth black pavement, kind of like the car commercials for the Fall Sales Event. Zero percent APR.

Motion sensing their arrival, a front gate cranked itself open beneath an archway, itself inscribed in corrugated iron with a family motto of sorts — Der Hunger Des Wolfes Gehört Uns. Although its erection had pre-dated outbreak of the Second World War by some years, the feature nonetheless bore a troubling resemblance to an infamous aphorism as it appeared above the entranceways to Dachau, Auschwitz and other concentration camps across Nazi-occupied Europe. Then with the landing of the Second British Invasion of the early eighties, the words’ English translation — The Hunger of the Wolf is Ours — became a source of some public ridicule for a separate reason entirely.

As a global comprehensive risk mitigation professional, Ariel was highly trained to treat his clients only insofar as they were assets with which to be safeguarded. That this client of German heritage had a decorative homage to the Holocaust was immaterial to that objective. In any event, even as an Israeli Jew, the Nazis didn’t figure prominently onto his personal axes of evil. This despite a childhood of hearing his grandfather’s stories of surviving Buchenwald, and his own father’s stories of pursuing fugitive war criminals across South America, which he only partway believed. That was then. Now, he was a man, and not for nothing but he’d met many native Germans socially who he quite liked, mostly in the progressive house and trance music scenes that he frequented in his life outside of work. Besides, his generation of Israeli Jews had a new enemy entirely. Those surface-to-surface missiles — Cavness Bauman-made — weren’t shooting down the Luftwaffe, now were they? One grudge at a time.

Buzzing the unoccupied guardpost, Ariel accelerated slowly onto the crushed gravel that surfaced the circular motor court. Parking between the dry fountain where the stone wolves no longer spit, and the overgrown facade, he killed the engine, exited the drivers’ side door, walked efficiently — never run, unless lives are at stake — around the hood to the rear passenger side. He manually opened the door (it was press-button automatic, but the client preferred the human touch). Executed all with a tactical fluidity. As contractually stipulated, it was a breach of Perlmutter Firm protocol for protective field operatives to serve in this capacity — as butlers with guns. However, since this was a legacy account, Ariel was instructed by his handlers to make an exception.

With all the subtlety of a B-Fifty Two Stratofortress, a strategic bomber capable of carrying a payload of up to seventy thousand pounds, Hildy buzzed Ariel’s post as he stood there at attention. Carefully, she had chosen his picture and physical measurements from a catalogue the agency prepared specifically for her, constituting another breach of protocol. Per firm guidelines, operatives were to be assigned to assets on a basis of aptitude and field readiness. Furthermore, hitherto assignments were to be maintained strictly on a need-to-know basis. Alas, here was a VIP whose special requests would have to be accommodated, no matter how peculiar. So much of global comprehensive risk mitigation had become client relations. It hadn’t always been that way.

Beside, the Wolff account was a legacy account, but it wasn’t like a big account. Not by a long shot. No, by today’s standards for executive security — corporate budgets for which had been ballooning in direct correlation with executive compensation — a one-operative detail was almost unheard of. For a fact, the Wolff account ran a net loss. That notwithstanding incidents of late payment, which had been increasing of late. Nonetheless, in light of the family’s chequered history, in which this particular firm played a somewhat regrettable role, their service was kept active, basically at cost.

Albeit somewhat sluggishly, the dogs obediently fell in behind on single file — in fact, every place she went, they pursued … including and especially the restroom. Hildy had expressed concern to Ariel how the modest drop from car door to ground might exacerbate the arthritis in their stubby-wubby little legs, so he helped them each down one at a time, taking care to avoid getting slobber on what was his only suit. Even for a man of his practical strength, their lumpy, cylindrical shapes — like tubes of premade dough — were somewhat awkward handling. He had ordered a small foldout ramp from an online pet store, billed to the client expense account, but it had yet to arrive.

Billy remained in the car, tapping away at his phone. He sat on the opposite side of the extended cabin from mother, specifically so that she couldn’t see his screen — even if that meant he had to sit betwixt the canine mucus kings. Often she would ask, what it was he was even doing with his toy, which is what she called his mobile phone — Hildy felt superior for not bothering to even own one. Emails, he would respond curtly. And often that was true. His inbox had hundreds upon thousands of unread messages; he would sometimes show women the tally in an odd attempt to impress them. This phone had so many other applications though. He could be checking his bank balance (he had shown women that, too), online shopping for whatever struck his fancy at the present moment (he coveted hats, as in baseball caps, and collected them compulsively … he also had a considerably more expensive weakness for watches [timepieces, he called them] … you might say he was a man in perpetual need of accessory), or otherwise surfing the internet … other times he would surreptitiously watch internet porn, doing mother the courtesy of making sure the speaker was muted. It wasn’t a sex thing; it was an impulse control thing. And that his mom was in the car, that had nothing to do with it. Whatever, it’s not like he was driving. Just come off it, won’t you.

Again, he was not watching porn on his phone, at present. Actually, he had a high score going on Brick Blaster, which quite cynically combined the most addictive elements of two vintage arcade games into a digital speedball for dicking around. A Solitaire for the Singularity, of a sort.

Ariel waited beside the door he held open. Once before he had forgotten Billy was back there and had driven the car around to the moto paddock with him inside. He still hadn’t lived that down. Standing there for another ten minutes, he resisted the urge to check his own phone for an important message he was expecting. Ariel had big plans, you see. He wasn’t going to be a protective field operative forever. He was a man with really special skill, to just barely misquote his new favorite film. Skills that he would not let go to waste. Finally, Billy momentarily emerged from his trance, having fallen only woefully short of his high score. Immediately commencing a new game, he made his way out of the vehicle without even looking up, still managing to make Ariel feel plenty looked down upon.

Zayin ba’ayin (זַיִן בַעָיִן), Ariel cursed under his breath as he passed, using the Hebrew slang for dick in the eye, or fuck you in the eye. As in, that was like six weeks ago I forget you in the car, asshole … fuck you in your eye. He waited for the large manor doors to close behind him before he spitted on the ground in his general direction, muttering out loud this time, Ben Zona (בן זונה), which was a more common insult meaning son of a whore, or son of a prostitute. Although in certain contexts of contemporary slang, it meant awesome, or excellent. Ariel had been so far away from home so long he wasn’t always current with exactly how they told folks to fuck off anymore.

#novls of tumblr

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sheetmusiclibrarypdf · 2 years ago

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Nights in White Satin - The Moody Blues (Easy Piano Solo sheet music)

https://dai.ly/x8fghht

The Moody Blues

Band from Birmingham (England), founded in 1964. With Denny Laine in their ranks and songs like “Go Now”, “Let Me Go”, “He Can Win” or “And My Baby's Gone”, The Moody Blues began their career at Decca performing great R&B music; but the authentic R&B, not the modern party soul, thousands of light years from the soul of Motown or Stax, I don't know why the hell they call it R&B, confusing the staff since it has nothing to do, except their black roots, with the exciting R&B of the 50s and 60s. Well, it doesn't matter... At the end of the 60s, with the departure of Laine from the group and the entry of Justin Hayward, the Moody Blues abandoned these early sounds to embrace psychedelia, prog-rock and orchestral sounds, achieving immortality thanks to the song "Nights In White Satin” and magnificent albums like “Days Of Future Passed” , “On The Treshold Of a Dream” or “In The Search Of The Lost Chord”.

The band, managed by Tony Secunda (who also took over the career of the Move ), originally consisted of singer/guitarist Denny Laine (born October 29, 1944 in Jersey), keyboardist/vocalist Mike Pinder (born December 12, 1942, in Birmingham), vocalist, flute and harmonica player Ray Thomas (born December 29, 1942, in Stourport on Severn), bassist Clint Warwick (born June 25, 1940, in Birmingham) and drummer Graeme Edge (born March 30, 1941, in Rochester). Before joining the quintet, its members had already played in different bands, Thomas and Pinder having shared a group in projects such as El Riot & The Rebels or The Krew Cats, a band that came, like the Beatles, to play in Hamburg . For his part, Denny Laine had been the leader of Denny & The Diplomats, and Graeme Edge was part of Gerry Levene & The Avengers. Converted into the Moody Blues, they recorded the single "Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind)" at Decca in 1964, a rhythmic song written by the Laine/Pinder couple that passed unnoticed through the stores of albums, quite the opposite of the following, "Go Now", a song written by Larry Banks and Milton Bennett, previously recorded by Bessie Banks, which took them to number 1 in the United Kingdom and 10 in the United States in 1964.

A year later other singles appeared: “I Don't Want To Go On Without You” (number 33), a song written by Jerry Wexler and producer Bert Berns; “From The Bottom Of My Heart (I Love You)” (number 22), composed by Laine and Pinder, as was “Everyday” (number 44). All of these tracks are found on their debut LP, "The Magnificent Moodies" (1965) , lavishly expanded on subsequent reissues with sensational songs found only at the time in single format. Although the sales of their latest singles had not been trivial after achieving a number 1 with "Go Now", the group was somewhat disappointed with the commercial response, especially the great songs "Boulevard De La Madelaine" and "Life's Not Life”. This fact caused the group to vary its formation in a very important way. Clint Warwick left the Moody Blues, now represented by Brian Epstein, replaced by another member of El Riot & The Rebels, bassist and vocalist John Lodge (born July 20, 1945 in Birmingham), and key band member thus far, Denny Laine, who was replaced by singer/guitarist Justin Hayward (born 14 October 1946 in Swindon). Laine rose to fame in the 1970s with Paul McCartney as part of the Wings.

The new Moody Blues released "Days Of Future Passed" (1967) , a great conceptual album produced by Tony Clarke and orchestrated by Pete Knight with the participation of the London Festival Orchestra. It offered psychedelic and progressive sounds exemplified in the Hayward-penned single "Nights In White Satin" (number 19 in 1967). The LP was more successful in the United States than in his own country, reaching number 3 on Billboard and 27 in England. They had previously released the singles "Fly Me High", composed by Hayward, and "Love And Beauty", written by Mike Pinder. "In The Search Of The Lost Chord" (1968), with mellotron sounds (Pinder being a master of the instrument), extended the psychedelic, lyrical and conceptual sound of this new stage and continued to increase his international audience, both in his performances in direct as in the sale of his vinyls, which in the United Kingdom took him to number 5. Among the tracks on “In The Search Of The Lost Chord” are the singles “Voices In The Sky” (number 27) and “Ride My See-Saw” (number 42).

“On The Threshold Of a Dream” (1969) reached number 1 in Great Britain thanks to songs like “Lovely To See You” or the single “Never Comes The Day”; while "To Our Children's Children" (1969), released on his own Threshold Records label, peaked at number 2. If the end of the decade had been great for the Moody Blues, the beginning of the 70s was the same or even better, since both "Question Of Balance" (1970), with the single "Question" (number 2), and the phenomenal "Every Good Boy Deserves Favour" (1971) reached the top in the UK and number 2 in the US. The desire to fly solo on the part of its different members meant that, at the peak of their career, the group ceased their activities for a long time after publishing the LP "Seventh Sojourn" (1972), a very appreciable album with songs like “For My Lady”, “New Horizons”, “Lost In A Lost World”, “Isn't Life Strange” or “I'm Just a Singer (In a Rock'n'Roll Band)” that raised them to number 5 in the UK and to number 1 in the US.

Justin Hayward and John Lodge released the album "Blue Jays" (1975). Hayward and Lodge made their solo debut years later with, respectively, "Songwriter" (1977) and "Natural Avenue" (1977). Pinder had started his solo career with "The Promise" (1976), as had Thomas with "From Mighty Oaks" (1976) and Edge with his Graeme Edge Band and the album "Kick Off Your Muddy Boots" (1975). At the end of the 70s, the Moody Blues got together again to record "Octave" (1978), an album that returned them to number 1 on the British charts. A year earlier they had prepared their comeback by releasing the live album “Caught Live + 5” (1977), an album that included performances by the group in the 1960s. After "Octave", Mike Pinder, a very important piece in the band's classic sound, was replaced by Patrick Moraz. In the decades that followed, The Moody Blues recorded studio works such as "Long Distance Voyager" (1981) and "The Present" (1983), both produced by Pip Williams, "The Other Side Of Life" (1986), "Sur La Mer” (1988) and “Keys Of The Kingdom” (1991), all produced by Tony Visconti, or “Strange Times” (1999), without Moraz and with keyboards by Danilo Madonia, and “December” (2003) , without the participation of Ray Thomas. The latter died on January 4, 2018 after suffering from prostate cancer. He was 76 years old. about:blank In 2010, the live show "Live At The Royal Albert Hall" (2010) was released. In 2016 his song "Life's Not Life" was included in "Let's Go Down And Blow Our Minds: The British Psychedelic Sounds Of 1967", a 3-CD box set released by Cherry Red Records with psychedelic sounds. In 2017, “Question” was played on the double vinyl “Hi-Fidelity (A Taste Of Stereo Sound)”. In 2018 the live "Days Of Future Passed Live" (2018) appeared, with the single "Say It With Love"; and “Tuesday Afternoon” was included in the “Mai 68 Revolution” compilation, a 4-CD box set published by Universal with music that played during the period of the May 68 revolution. The same year his song “Lose Your Money (But Don't Lose Your Mind)” was included in “Fab Gear (The British Beat Explosion And Its Aftershocks 1963-1967” (2018), a 6-CD box set released by RPM with 185 songs by bands from the British Invasion of the 60s. In 2018 Universal released a 5-CD box set, titled “Mod” (2018), in which the song “And My Baby's Gone” plays. Sony, also in 2018, included their classic “Nights In White Satin” in “Chilled 60s” (2018), a triple CD with 60 songs by different artists from the 60s. It opens with Fleetwood Mac's “Albatross ” and closes with Santana 's “Soul Sacrifice” . That year they were inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame, presented by Ann Wilson of the group Heart . In 2019, Decca included their 1967 single, “Love And Beauty”, in “The Psychedelic Scene” (2019), an open double vinyl with the song “Vacuum Cleaner” by Tintern Abbey. Graeme Edge passed away, due to cancer, on November 11, 2021 in Sarasola, Florida (United States). He was 80 years old. Read the full article

#sheetmusicdownload #sheetmusicscoredownloadpartiturapartitionspartitinoten楽譜망할음악ноты

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disillusioned41 · 4 years ago

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A first-of-its-kind analysis of newly disclosed Internal Revenue Service data shows that the richest 25 billionaires in the United States paid a true federal tax rate of just 3.4% between 2014 and 2018—even as they added a staggering $401 billion to their collective wealth.

"Many will ask about the ethics of publishing such private data. We are doing so—quite selectively and carefully—because we believe it serves the public interest in fundamental ways, allowing readers to see patterns that were until now hidden." —Richard Tofel & Stephen Engelberg, ProPublica

Published Tuesday by the investigative nonprofit ProPublica—which obtained a sprawling cache of IRS data on thousands of the nation's wealthiest people dating back 15 years—the analysis takes aim at "the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most."

"Our analysis of tax data for the 25 richest Americans quantifies just how unfair the system has become. By the end of 2018, the 25 were worth $1.1 trillion," ProPublica notes. "For comparison, it would take 14.3 million ordinary American wage earners put together to equal that same amount of wealth. The personal federal tax bill for the top 25 in 2018: $1.9 billion. The bill for the wage earners: $143 billion."

"Many Americans live paycheck to paycheck, amassing little wealth and paying the federal government a percentage of their income that rises if they earn more," the outlet adds. "In recent years, the median American household earned about $70,000 annually and paid 14% in federal taxes."

The new analysis juxtaposes the recent wealth gains of U.S. billionaires—as estimated by Forbes—with the information in the newly obtained IRS data to derive the "true tax rate" paid by the mega-rich.

The results show that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos—the world's richest man—and Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett paid a true tax rate of 0.98% and 0.10%, respectively, between 2014 and 2018. In 2007, ProPublica notes, Bezos paid nothing in federal taxes even as his wealth grew by $3.8 billion.

Economist Gabriel Zucman, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, said the ProPublica reporting is "full of incredible findings."

"Looks like the biggest tax story of the year, if not the decade," Zucman added.

ProPublica makes clear that, far from being the beneficiaries of a sprawling, illegal tax dodging scheme, "it turns out billionaires don't have to evade taxes exotically and illicitly—they can avoid them routinely and legally," a point that spotlights the systemic inequities of the U.S. tax system.

As the outlet explains:

Most Americans have to work to live. When they do, they get paid—and they get taxed. The federal government considers almost every dollar workers earn to be "income," and employers take taxes directly out of their paychecks.

The Bezoses of the world have no need to be paid a salary. Bezos' Amazon wages have long been set at the middle-class level of around $80,000 a year.

For years, there's been something of a competition among elite founder-CEOs to go even lower. Steve Jobs took $1 in salary when he returned to Apple in the 1990s. Facebook’s Zuckerberg, Oracle's Larry Ellison, and Google's Larry Page have all done the same.

Yet this is not the self-effacing gesture it appears to be: Wages are taxed at a high rate. The top 25 wealthiest Americans reported $158 million in wages in 2018, according to the IRS data. That's a mere 1.1% of what they listed on their tax forms as their total reported income. The rest mostly came from dividends and the sale of stock, bonds, or other investments, which are taxed at lower rates than wages.

To illustrate the consequences of a system that doesn't tax unrealized capital gains, ProPublica cites the example of Bezos' $127 billion explosion in wealth between 2006 and 2018. The Amazon CEO "reported a total of $6.5 billion in income" during that period and paid $1.4 billion in personal federal taxes—a 1.1% true tax rate.

"America's billionaires avail themselves of tax-avoidance strategies beyond the reach of ordinary people," ProPublica notes. "Their wealth derives from the skyrocketing value of their assets, like stock and property. Those gains are not defined by U.S. laws as taxable income unless and until the billionaires sell."

Richard Tofel, ProPublica's founding general manager and outgoing president, said Tuesday that he considers the tax analysis "the most important story we have ever published."

"In the coming months, we plan to use this material to explore how the nation's wealthiest people—roughly the .001%—exploit the structure of our tax code to avoid the tax burdens borne by ordinary citizens," Tofel and ProPublica editor-in-chief Stephen Engelberg wrote in a separate article Tuesday. "Many will ask about the ethics of publishing such private data. We are doing so—quite selectively and carefully—because we believe it serves the public interest in fundamental ways, allowing readers to see patterns that were until now hidden."

#Common Dreams #us politics #economy #taxes #income inequality #propublica #Billionaires

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officialleehadan · 4 years ago

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To Distant Stars

Today’s story was brought to you by Larry! We don’t talk much, darling , but I’m always delighted to hear from you!

Prompt: The first time Blaec and Evelene left Earth

The ship trembled around them, almost imperceptible under the roar of the engines, but still there as the ship lifted away from the ground. It was new and polished and enchanted against every possible harm.

But Evelene, wrapped in the arms of her dragon, felt a curl of fear. It wasn’t a frequent feeling in her life. There was little she was afraid of, on the whole. Almost nothing could harm her, none of her loved ones were mortal, and the few mortals she was fond of were all reliably in the company of deities who would make sure they were cared for.

So fear, while not new, was unusual.

“Are you ready to leave Earth?”

Blaec’s eyes were on the window. It was strange for him, too. Not that he was afraid. Evelene could feel him in the back of her mind as always, and his anxiety was based on something other than danger.

Dragons, after all, hated to fly under anything but their own power. Evelene sometimes flew on human craft, but Blaec would rather sleep on a glacier than trust someone else to do his flying for him. All the same, even his wings weren’t enough to carry them to Luna Base for the very first time.

“Do you remember the first moon landing?” Evelene asked rather than answer his question. She remembered that day. Staring at the little television and the brave, mad humans who strapped themselves to a bomb and trusted it to carry them away from the little rock they called home. She and Blaec had watched with fascination and bated breath as the little ship touched down, and the men aboard stepped onto the moon for the first time. “back in 1969?”

“We watched it from our suite at the Regency,” Blaec said. Evelene could feel his smile against her hair. “I was impressed they made it. More impressed that they made it back.”

“Fortunately, things have gotten more sophisticated since then,” Evelene told him. The ship they were in was a fine one, designed for comfort during travel. It might be the first time they had left the planet, but humans had been doing it for several centuries and they were good at it by now. There were bases on or near every planet in their solar system, and more being established around their nearest astral neighbors. “Are you sure this is the right decision? We never talked about leaving Earth.”

It was a big step, this single flight to the moon. Soon there would be other steps moving forward, to distant planets, and then to distant stars. Someday, maybe, even to a distant galaxy or beyond.

“Hoshi will protect it,” Blaec said. Together, they watched as the Earth drifted away below them. Their home for thousands of years. The place she was born, and he broke shell. “I’m not even the first dragon to leave Earth. Azu lived on Luna Base for the better part of a decade before joining on the early mission to establish Centauri Base at the next nearest star to Earth. He was still there. Blaec heard from him once a year or so. “Al’Mudhib is waiting for us at Luna Base. Something about the observatory and one of those big mining ships they built for traveling the Kuiper Belt.”

The ships were impressive feats of engineering. Evelene had seen pictures of them often enough. Huge, hollow orbs designed to carry the materials needed to carry humanity to the stars. Between magic and ingenuity, the stars were, for the first time, in reach.

Evelene looked forward to seeing each one. After all, it wasn’t like they were short of time, and humans did incredible things given enough time and enough resources. She remembered looking up at the stars with her mother as her father told her and her sisters the name of every one of them.

Perhaps she would have stories even her godly family didn’t know when she returned. Her cousins were a wide-spread bunch, and they all had adventures to share. She held her own, of course, but this might very well win her the first bottle of Great-Aunt Hestia’s yearly garum production. It was the small things that motivated her.

“Are you asking me on an adventure, First Dragon?” Evelene said, intrigued and charmed. Blaec loved to spoil her, but he was inherently overprotective and didn’t like to take chances with her safety. He must be very confident indeed. Then again, between his magic, hers, and the company of one of the Djinn Kings, there weren’t very many chances for terrible consequence. “How scandalous of you. People might mistake us and think we are married.”

“I can think of no one I would rather adventure with, First Mermaid,” he replied and kissed the top of her head. Evelene turned in his arms and stole a proper kiss from her dragon. He rumbled happily at her and they traded little kisses as the Earth turned into a glowing blue marble behind their ship. “Well, my Great Treasure? Shall we explore the stars?”

+++

HGE - The Others

Tales of before the Human Galactic Empire became what it would one day be.

Sea and Sky

Triton’s Daughter (Subscriber Only!)

Blast and Burn

The Oldest of Friends (Free on Patreon!)

Forward to Treasure (Free on Patreon!)

Sky Battle

Particular Particulars (Free on Patreon!)

+++

MASTERLIST

+++

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cantquitu · 3 years ago

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Hi! I'm a relatively new fan, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around whatever Larry was or wasn't. At this point, I'm inclined to believe it was never real; but there are times when things were dubious. And no, it's not the thousands of cute larry slowed down gifsets of them glancing at each other or the 10-hour best larry moments compilation videos or tender touches, mirroring, undeniable larry proof videos scattered all over youtube or whatever bullshit - none of that.

But. The RBB/SBB thing though.

Do you think RBB/SBB was all just larrybaiting? Do you think they, both Harry and Louis, still actively larrybait? It's good for their pockets obviously, considering there's still an abundant number of larries even in 2021... But them (or their team?) knowingly giving larries 'crumbs' to add to their 'proof' doesn't sit right with me at all. Maybe they're NOT larrybaiting and larries really just run with anything. But that still doesn't explain RBB/SBB, so... thoughts?

Sorry if this is a tired subject. You're free to delete this ask if you want, just tell me in the tags if you did! Thanks for for your time, stay safe! :)

Hi! I'm glad that you're questioning Larrie and coming to understand that it was never real.

RBB/SBB had nothing to do with Harry or Louis. They belonged to 1D's tour sound man, a gay man in his '40s who adopted RBB as a queer mascot and had fun with the 1D fans. Larries believed that the teddybears belonged to Harry and Louis and that they were using these bears to send them secret signals about their closet and their relationship, because Larries are delusional conspiracy theorists.

RBB/SBB were not larrybaiting. They were used to share references to queer culture and history, but most Larries are only interested in queer history and culture in so far as they can use it to support their erotic/persecution fantasies about Louis and Harry.

Like most grown adults, I doubt this guy understood how delusional a proportion of 1D's fandom was, or what they truly believed about the bears. Shortly after 1D ended, when Freddie Tomlinson was born, fans messaged the social media account to say that the bears were being used by fans to justify harassment of Louis' baby son, and that was the end of the bears.

No, Harry and Louis do not larrybait. Larries are an insignifcant proportion of Harry's fanbase and he has no reason to do so even if he were inclined (which he never has been since "Larry" stopped being a fun jokey thing that he and Louis shared with the fandom, back in 2012). Unfortunately Larries are a significant proportion of Louis' fandom, but despite the risk of diminishing his fanbase (and therefore his revenue). Louis has made it very clear what he thinks of them.

And yes, Larries really do just run with anything.

#larrie bullshit #rainbow bears #rbb and sbb

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poptod · 4 years ago

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hello! can i request something romantic with either ahk or snafu or really any rami character where y/n has round dark brown doe eyes? like so dark brown they look black if you’re not looking at them in sunlight? and he’s just flirting with them and he says something nice about their eyes? i have round dark brown eyes and i’m kinda insecure about them cuz they’re so common, and it’s been one shit-show if a week for me and i really just need to feel good about myself

notes: damn, i can totally do that for you. hope your weekend is much better than your week :) thank u for requesting and i hope you enjoy it !

WC: 2k

Life never worked naturally to your advantage. You were born average looking – nothing special on either side of the spectrum, with average hands and common dark brown eyes. You grew up poor and worked your ass off to get into a good college on a scholarship, eventually getting kicked out for something you didn't even do. You auditioned to be part of an orchestra, but there were too many violinists already, and you just 'didn't fit the profile'. You tried to be an artist, but no one liked your creations. You tried to pick up another instrument, but you couldn't afford a good one, and the last time you tried to buy a cheap guitar, the neck broke on the third use.

Because of these many happenstances (and the many more, less mentionable ones), you considered yourself unlucky. It was a fact of life for you as much as the sun's existence in other peoples lives, or that the superbowl was too long. Or guacamole wasn't good. Fortunately, the years of nothing ever coming naturally had made you into a fantastic worker, and by some rare stroke of luck, you found you were rather good at physical labor jobs. You weren't strong by any standards – in fact rather weak – but your attention to detail made you the janitor of a prestigious museum you visited twice as a child.

It wasn't a fantastic job, and the poor pay led to having five roommates, but you enjoyed yourself. You tried to do that in every aspect of life; finding the joy in menial tasks, or solace in duty. After all, you got to see wonderful recreations of history in the still wax figures, and learn heaps of knowledge from the many information panels you came across when making your way through the museum. The only truly unfortunate part of your job was the time – right after closing, but you had to finish quickly, as you weren't allowed inside at night. A stupid rule, but the night guard and Dr. McPhee were insistent on it.

They thought you didn't know about the exhibits.

They were, obviously, wrong. You knew, and you adored the magic behind it all. While you hadn't actually ever seen any of the exhibits come to life, you watched the news on an evening where the exhibits broke out, and with your knowledge of the Tablet curse, you pieced the mystery together.

You hadn't meant to take this long. McPhee was already pissed at you for 'accidentally' skipping over the men's restroom yesterday, and taking too long at your job would land you on thin ice, something you couldn't afford. With a hurried pace you finished sweeping the floors in the last room, storing the broom away and moving on to mopping. Checking your watch once more, you noted the time, mentally checking if you would be able to finish before closing hours.

Mopping the Egyptian room usually takes five to ten minutes, and closing is in two, you thought, despair settling in your stomach. What would you do if you 'found out' about the tablet? What would McPhee do if he found out you knew? He wouldn't fire you, would he?

You truly didn't know. He was a bit of a loose cannon when it came to those things.

As fast as you tried to move, the hours of night came faster than you could mop, and the tablet began to glow behind you. Bewildered you turned, watching with your mouth slightly parted as the glow grew to the radiance of the sun. You knew the tablet brought the magic, but you didn't know about the glow – now that you were witnessing it yourself, the only thing you could feel in your pounding heart was fear. A fear that only grew worse when the Pharaoh's sarcophagus began to rattle.

You'd thought about the wax figures coming to life. You thought about the dinosaur. You, however, did not think about the 4,000 year old mummy.

Needless to say, you bolted. Leaving behind your supplies, you ran as fast as you could, wind pounding past your ears as the sound of a lion's roar came from the neighboring hall. You grit your teeth and made for the main entrance, but by the time you got there many of the exhibits had adjoined in the main room. Pressing yourself against the locked door, you watched with wide eyes as the Teddy Roosevelt statue began to talk to Attila, and in that moment you realized that perhaps magic was not always good. Not when you were spiralling into a panic at least.

It took a couple hours of you staring into space before anyone actually noticed you. To your surprise, it wasn't the night guard, or even McPhee – it was a Pharaoh, skin and everything intact. His crown remained polished upon his head, a stark difference from the crowns on exhibit, whose colors and carvings had faded long ago.

"Hello," he said with a pleasant, polite smile as he knelt, matching the height of your seated position on the floor. "Are you a new exhibit?"

You looked down at your clothes. Janitor clothes.

"No," you said, and instantly his demeanor changed.

"Oh dear," he said, and though you agreed with that statement, you certainly did not agree with him grabbing your wrist and dragging you into the crowd.

"I don't really want to be doing this," you said in a shaky voice, but he did not answer.

As he dragged you through the crowd you kept your eyes closed, wary of overstimulation of both ears and eyes. He eventually stopped at the top of the stairs, where you opened your eyes to find the night guard, Larry.

"What are you still doing here?" Larry asked almost frantically, looking between the dancers below and you.

"In my defense I didn't want to be here, I knew about the magic and I don't – I didn't ever want to actually see it," you half-lied.

"How the hell did you know?!"

"You don't do a very good job of covering it up, Larry," you said flatly, your voice still cracking from nerves.

You didn't have very many friends. Your roommates didn't talk to you much, and the life you had outside of work consisted mostly of quiet, indoor hobbies you could do just about anywhere. So, once the whole of the situation was sorted out (with input from McPhee), you took your drawing pads and notebooks to the museum with you, working for the first few hours and drawing into the hours of night while watching history come to life.

Despite your original discomfort of being in the presence of a 100% authentic, come-to-life mummy, you became rather good friends with him. Not fantastic, and he didn't know very much about you, but he was kind and handsome. You hated to admit it, but he held your avid interest. Another one of those unlucky things in your life – of course you had to fall in love with an immortal, reanimated mummy who only came to life at night.

"Why don't you ever come dance with us?" Ahkmenrah (his name, apparently) said as he sat down beside you on the loft, the only barrier between you and a fifteen-foot fall being a stone rail.

"I'm afraid I'm not all that good of a dancer," you said, not bothering to look up from your sketchbook. You couldn't ever bear to look at him that long anyway.

"Neither am I," he laughed. "That's the point."

Instinctively you looked up at him, holding eye contact with his grey eyes for only a second before you looked away, a blush already making its way to your cheeks. He had the opposite of your life – lucky beyond belief. The favorite of his parents, completely immortal, completely beautiful, almost too wealthy, and many, many friends, including yourself.

What got you the most however was his eyes. Cold eyes were already praised in modern society – people loved grey, they loved blue and green. But in Ahkmenrah's society, the one that existed thousands of years ago, blue eyes hardly existed. The mutation for the new color was one in a billion back then, making him one of the (probably) three people on the planet with blue eyes. And now that lucky mutation stood before you in its purest, oldest form, and you couldn't bear to look at them for any longer than a solitary moment.

For some reason, it hurt you. Maybe because you were boring. Dull. Brown in a brown society. Sure, they looked beautiful in sunlight – you knew that. They turned into swirling gold and the taste of chocolate, but Ahk couldn't see them in the sunlight. That made you dull.

Now, Ahkmenrah was not a man to point things out about people. If they were being a dickhead, yes, but most of the time he noted things and dismissed them. But you'd been doing this for so long that he grew weary of the dance.

"Why don't you ever look at me?" He asked, a question that had your eyes widening and your back straightening, alarm bells ringing all over your brain.

"I look at you plenty," you said while avoiding his gaze like a 15th century doctor avoids respecting women.

"No, you don't," he said softly. "Not even now. I wish you would – you've got such beautiful eyes."

Your sketching stopped at his words. At your silence he placed his hand on your jaw, tilting so you looked at him. Instead of meeting his gaze you looked to the floor.

"They're very common," you got out weakly, still unable to make eye contact, but he kept you where you were, in the easy sight of him. "They only look good in the sun."

He shifted closer, keeping his hand on your jaw in hopes of you changing your mind and meeting his eye.

"Even in darkness they're beautiful, voids as empty and long as night," he hummed, drawing closer yet till you could feel the heat off his body on your still fingers. "I've noted them quite a lot. Eyes are a beautiful thing, aren't they?"

"Yours are," you mumbled, barely catching the meaning and insinuation of your words before they came out.

"As are yours. Remember when we snuck into McPhee's office? The lamplight bounced off of them and they practically glittered like the embers and smoke of a fire," he said with a small smile. "And the bright lights in the hallways –"

Florescent, you thought.

"– and the candle lights that Nick brought, those flicker with that same spark within you. Do you understand what I'm trying to say?"

You couldn't move, stuck in place and stuck in your own head.

"The golden fireplace, Christmas lights – and the light of the moon, a dim, faraway light that can only be admired from a distance... like you," he murmured.

Sometimes you forgot his people were poets and admirers of nature.

"You have blue eyes," you whispered through the knot in your throat. He listened carefully. "And... I can see reflections in them. They're soft, like velvet. Despite everything, they.. you seem... happy. You always seem happy, and your eyes give it away."

"Have you ever kissed anyone?" He asked quietly, and in that moment you realized his nose was almost touching yours.

"No," you answered honestly. Another unlucky aspect of you.

"Neither have I," he said before he leaned in, pressing his lips against yours in a tender embrace you weren't at all expecting.

From both the view of the first kiss and of a Pharaoh's kiss, you weren't prepared, but the plush of his pink lips against yours sent sparks of delight into your heart. He moved slow, taking his time to map out your aspects just as you began to trail your hands over his open palm, memorizing the creases. You were reluctant to part, but he ran his hand through your hair and your brain short-circuited into placitude.

"You have the softest lips," he murmured, hand coming to cup your cheek once more.

You never applied aquaphor or did anything to make your lips soft.

Maybe it was luck.

Didn't really matter to you, because he kissed you again, and your eyes fluttered shut as everything in the world but him faded away.

#ahkmenrah x reader #Ahkmenrah #Night at the Museum #rami malek #rami malek character

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rockislandadultreads · 4 years ago

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Diverse Stories & Funny Laughs: a reading list

Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall

Wanted: One (fake) boyfriend Practically perfect in every way Luc O'Donnell is tangentially--and reluctantly--famous. His rock star parents split when he was young, and the father he's never met spent the next twenty years cruising in and out of rehab. Now that his dad's making a comeback, Luc's back in the public eye, and one compromising photo is enough to ruin everything. To clean up his image, Luc has to find a nice, normal relationship...and Oliver Blackwood is as nice and normal as they come. He's a barrister, an ethical vegetarian, and he's never inspired a moment of scandal in his life. In other words: perfect boyfriend material. Unfortunately apart from being gay, single, and really, really in need of a date for a big event, Luc and Oliver have nothing in common. So they strike a deal to be publicity-friendly (fake) boyfriends until the dust has settled. Then they can go their separate ways and pretend it never happened. But the thing about fake-dating is that it can feel a lot like real-dating. And that's when you get used to someone. Start falling for them. Don't ever want to let them go.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with seven directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamorous family’s mansion. The next items? • Enjoy a drunken night out. • Ride a motorcycle. • Go camping. • Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex. • Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage. • And... do something bad. But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job. Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit. But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…

Kaddish.com by Nathan Englander

Larry is an atheist in a family of orthodox Memphis Jews. When his father dies, it is his responsibility as the surviving son to recite the Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead, every day for eleven months. To the horror and dismay of his mother and sisters, Larry refuses--thus imperiling the fate of his father's soul. To appease them, and in penance for failing to mourn his father correctly, he hatches an ingenious if cynical plan, hiring a stranger through a website called kaddish.com to recite the daily prayer and shepherd his father's soul safely to rest. This is Nathan Englander's freshest and funniest work to date--a satire that touches, lightly and with unforgettable humor, on the conflict between religious and secular worlds, and the hypocrisies that run through both. A novel about atonement; about spiritual redemption; and about the soul-sickening temptations of the internet, which, like God, is everywhere.

Everywhere You Don't Belong by Gabriel Bump

In this alternately witty and heartbreaking debut novel, Gabriel Bump gives us an unforgettable protagonist, Claude McKay Love. Claude isn’t dangerous or brilliant—he’s an average kid coping with abandonment, violence, riots, failed love, and societal pressures as he steers his way past the signposts of youth: childhood friendships, basketball tryouts, first love, first heartbreak, picking a college, moving away from home. Claude just wants a place where he can fit. As a young black man born on the South Side of Chicago, he is raised by his civil rights–era grandmother, who tries to shape him into a principled actor for change; yet when riots consume his neighborhood, he hesitates to take sides, unwilling to let race define his life. He decides to escape Chicago for another place, to go to college, to find a new identity, to leave the pressure cooker of his hometown behind. But as he discovers, he cannot; there is no safe haven for a young black man in this time and place called America. Percolating with fierceness and originality, attuned to the ironies inherent in our twenty-first-century landscape, Everywhere You Don’t Belong marks the arrival of a brilliant young talent.

A Star Is Bored by Byron Lane

A hilariously heartfelt novel about living life at full force, and discovering family when you least expect it, influenced in part by the author’s time as Carrie Fisher’s beloved assistant. Charlie Besson is about to have an insane job interview. His car is idling, like his life, outside the Hollywood mansion of Kathi Kannon. THE Kathi Kannon, star of stage and screen and People magazine’s worst dressed list. She needs an assistant. He needs a hero. Kathi is an icon, bestselling author, and an award winning actress, most known for her role as Priestess Talara in the iconic blockbuster sci-fi film. She’s also known for another role: crazy Hollywood royalty. Admittedly so. Famously so. Fabulously so. Charlie gets the job, and embarks on an odyssey filled with late night shopping sprees, last minute trips to see the aurora borealis, and an initiation to that most sacred of Hollywood tribes: the personal assistant. But Kathi becomes much more than a boss, and as their friendship grows, Charlie must make a choice. Will he always be on the sidelines of life, assisting the great forces that be, or can he step into his own leading role? Laugh-out-loud funny, and searingly poignant, Byron Lane's A Star is Bored is a novel that, like the star at its center, is enchanting and joyous, heartbreaking and hopeful.

You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria

Leading Ladies do not end up on tabloid covers. After a messy public breakup, soap opera darling Jasmine Lin Rodriguez finds her face splashed across the tabloids. When she returns to her hometown of New York City to film the starring role in a bilingual romantic comedy for the number one streaming service in the country, Jasmine figures her new “Leading Lady Plan” should be easy enough to follow—until a casting shake-up pairs her with telenovela hunk Ashton Suárez. Leading Ladies don’t need a man to be happy. After his last telenovela character was killed off, Ashton is worried his career is dead as well. Joining this new cast as a last-minute addition will give him the chance to show off his acting chops to American audiences and ping the radar of Hollywood casting agents. To make it work, he’ll need to generate smoking-hot on-screen chemistry with Jasmine. Easier said than done, especially when a disastrous first impression smothers the embers of whatever sexual heat they might have had. Leading Ladies do not rebound with their new costars. With their careers on the line, Jasmine and Ashton agree to rehearse in private. But rehearsal leads to kissing, and kissing leads to a behind-the-scenes romance worthy of a soap opera. While their on-screen performance improves, the media spotlight on Jasmine soon threatens to destroy her new image and expose Ashton’s most closely guarded secret.

#romance #fiction #diverse stories #diverse authors #reading recommendations #book recs #booklr #booklist #reading list #to read #tbr #library #public library #recommended reading #currently reading

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sanoiro · 4 years ago

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Lucifer 5x04 - The Mega Meta

This episode, the one all the cast and writers praised turned out to be the most challenging for the audience. Several hated it mainly for interrupting the flow of S5P1 whilst introducing a ‘weak’ story for Lucifer’s ring. Others loved it for all the meta, the concealed trivia and details that exist in that episode.

In my opinion 5x04 took it’s time to warm up to my heart and therefore today it’s time to write a meta on it. I’ll try to cover all the bases and if I miss something I apologise!

This meta will analyse, lines, settings, songs hopefully with the order they appear in the episode, as well as hints that it gives us for P2, the end of the series and many more things.

The credits open to Lucifer whistling as per Netflix’s subtitles ‘Chattanooga Choo Choo’

A song of about a man waiting for his train as he gets a shoe shine. The lyrics reveal at the end that a girl is waiting him at his destination and that he intents to marry her and settle... A good foreshadowing about Lucifer no? Especially after the S3 game night fiasco...

There's gonna be a certain party at the station Satin and lace, I used to call funny face She's gonna cry until I tell her that I'll never roam

By the way what’s this obsession over daggers and them killing people? Didn’t we have enough with the Flaming Sword in S2?

Trixie: Has it ever killed anyone?

Let’s keep it that way kid... Although I doubt it.

Now take a moment to realise that Lucifer was in Hell for thousands of years. He hasn’t had sex since his relationship with Eve and for his last night on Earth he prefers to play a game of Monopoly with Trixie and only when she turns him down Lucifer suggests getting a drink at LUX always in her company. That’s progress...

It also busts all claims of Lucifer being a sex obsessed maniac.

The year is 1946...

WW2 is over and we find Lucifer in a new setting, a familiar one where through the episode we see that he has not just visited again but he is frequent visitor around that time. Just a few years later after all he was seen through Kinley’s photos in Nazi Germany. Now we know it was because apparently he owns a castle there, in the Austrian Alps... Not exactly in mint condition after the war though...

By the way the castle that corresponds to that 22 bedroom description Lucifer gives is Schloss Ernegg Castle which belongs to the same family since the 17th century and it’s in great condition. Actually it operates as a hotel!

The Hurry plays as we see Ellis strolling the WB New York area of the lot. Great old ones were shot there.. Like The Big Sleep (1946) staring Bogart and Bacall which was shot in 1944, reshot some parts in 1945 but was released after all the ‘proper’ war time movies were released first.

A bit like this episode The Big Sleep carries ‘process of a criminal investigation, not its results’. Also around that time we have The Killers coming out, The Killers is important to mention as aside from being based on a story by Hemingway who was in Cuba in 1946 not in New York as Lucifer claims, it was directed by Robert :. Siodmak made most of the Hollywood’s noir classics and was always faithful to the doomed attraction which would always resolve to a nihilistic conclusion... (Thank you wiki! :P)

The connection to Lucifer, between the lines and the off hand comments like Hemingway is that noir films were based on the German Expressionism in cinema, and one of the most prominent figure for the US was that one German director Robert Siodmak.

The purpose of the above information is in order to tell you that a black & whte effect and a crime story is not what makes a noir episode. The writers were faithful to the core of noir. Entrapment, flashbacks, narration. The tropes of murder, jealousy, backstabbing and crime is also there, easy to replicate after all for sure. A dead man walking and ‘selective’ amnesia is also convenient...

Triumph and tragedy can be found and lost in the maze of the cities and in questionable establishments... Like in bars...

Moving on!

The credits open and we listen to The Hurry Up played by The Heath And His Orchestra. Dear Heath was British not an American. A subtle nod to Ellis probably as the leading man. But here is the thing Heath was the performer not the composer of that piece. The composer was Kenny Graham (Again British) and probably that piece was written after 1958 but anyways it’s an inconsistency we (-I-) can certainly live with!

Lucifer and Lilith last meeting was at around 1770 (Marie Antoinette was born in 1755) now whether in Austria or France who knows.... I would assume that Lucifer stayed in Austria until WW2 as aside from the wars and other issues it had a great cultural field for him to explore such as literature, music and lacked the brashness of the new-founded then US (1776).

Tiny issue here... Moctezuma (The 2nd) who Lilith claims to have met died in 1520, a bit after Cortés arrived in what we know today as Mexico so we can assume that Lilith travelled between the New World and Europe until Lucifer found her in New York in 1946.

Lilith in a relationship with Tommy Stomponato who owned the club, she probably influenced him enough to name it ‘The Garden’ as se admits to Gertie later in the episode, she really loved that Garden hence why she took a small part of it with her.

Now the name Tommy Stomponato is directly influenced by Johnny Stomponato part and bodyguard of the Cohen Mafia boss Mickey Cohen. Now funny thing he was stabbed by Lana Turner’s (Hollywood star) daughter Cheryl Crane... That remind us a bit of Gertie as she yes both were stabbed by a woman but both were not prosecuted. The first as Lilith didn’t want Gertie to lose the limited time she had with her husband and Cheryl because she claimed self-defense.

The first time we see Lesley Ann as Lilith she sings ‘I want to be evil’ originally performed at the debut of Eartha Kitt and first released in 1953. It is considered brilliant for it’s feminism and ‘video clip’ starring Kitt...

youtube

It’s a song that carries Lilith’s agony which even Eve carried. The need for freedom, the need to break the chains of what they should be and what we see that even Maze carries throughout the series. It’s a song that reaffirms that betrayal towards God, Adam and Lucifer in Maze’s case is not an act of evilness but the need of these women to re-sculpture themselves without aid or instructions. In Kitt’s case it was social conformity. Also Johnnie Ray was the ‘guy who cries’ aside from his hit song in 1951 ‘Cry’ him crying after his wedding was received with mixed feelings I believe from the press and his fans.

Now we see that crime for Lucifer was fun and again he wanted to Laugh with Hemingway who again in 1946 was not in New York but had just starting to write his novel ‘Garden of Eden (published posthumously in 1986) and it explored the reversal of gender roles a bit like this Lucifer episode does.

So Lucifer accepts the case of finding the ring but needs help. Jack Monroe is the one that can help him and the name is inspired probably by Iowa’s born Jack Monroe Marvel character who lived in New York, fought the Nazi (See Jack talking about the Battle of the Bulge), sidekick to Captain America - in a way - and ended up shot and killed. The character had many cliche detective phrases. But that’s mostly a likely speculation :P

Now as Jack goes to talk to the ‘rat’ Lucifer comments on Gertie serving him a drink ‘Just what the doctor ordered’ an obvious connection to Harris playing Dr Linda.

A nice prop is the machine gun over the bar an alleged gift from Al Capone who had been arrested 17 years earlier and died in 1947.

Thanks for listening, XOXO A. Capone

Now Lucky Larry who ends up dead is wearing an eyepatch probably a nod to another great director of noir films and of german expressionism in cinematography Fritz Lang.

At that point we have the talk between Lucifer and Jack concerning the laters problem with his wife. The story as everyone has noticed is a parallel with the issue that Lucifer and Chloe never begun on an equal ground. Someone had manipulated them and in both cases both parties suffered. Both men were manipulated by someone over them in hierarchy and both stood on a dilemma on how to proceed. It took Lucifer over 60 years to realise how difficult it was to leave and even then in 2x14 he returned.

As Jack and Lucifer get to Willy’s mansion all the paintings depict him as a great warrior in all possible eras. As Napoleon, Fritz of Austro-Hungarian Empire, Henry the 8th, Ivan, and that armour I believe it was from Carlomagne?

Also Hannibal crossing the Alps?

The little sausages are self-explenatory for the character and perhaps the lilies in his house a connection to the episode and the P1′s plot.

Lucifer checking the armour’s genital protector? Priceless :P As was Willy’s connection to Dan.

Now something that always make me wonder is why Lilith calls God Adam’s father as if she never considered him her own. At the same time she gives us a big hint there. She never walked away she was ‘sent’ away.

Gertie reveals there that her husband was wounded at the Guadalcanal campaign which ended in 1943 meaning that Bill was unresponsive for about three years at that point. The good news is that Bill seems to have been inspired by Bill Lentsch. Lentsch wrote a memoir called My Story and then adapted under the Title Hope For Wounded Warriors.

As a wounded warrior, Bill Lentsch knows the frustrating feelings of apparent helplessness and hopelessness. A sea-going Marine on the cruiser USS Vincennes at the beginning of World War II, he was a "hot shell catcher". The story of Bill's survival when the Vincennes sank is a story of miracles. In contrast, the story of his post-war rehabilitation and readjustment to civilian life, including a bad marriage {Sanoiro: At this point we have a differentiation but you never know}, contains more than its share of dark pages and the consequences of poor choices. Contemplating the option of murder, then suicide, was a vivid reality. Thankfully, the story of his later years brings hope and inspiration as Bill shares his personal journey of discovery.

Meanwhile the investigation continues. In the apartment we see pigeon cages a rather popular hobby back then in New York and not just for the messages they transported. Also do notice the WB water tower in the back. Iconic!

Lucifer finds a cuban cigar. Romeo y Juliet. The meta here obvious bit nonetheless important to our main love story.

With Stomponato dead we have a chance to delve a bit to Egyptian mythology.

First the missing heart. The main organ that according to ancient Egyptians held the answer of how well you had done while you lived and what you deserved after death. It was measured and a conclusion sent you to afterlife or to damnation.

Second the Anubis mask. He was the God of Death who oversaw the heart weighting process. The colour black symbolised the Nile’s sand and thus regeneration as the river was a symbol of life. Anubis was adopted by Isis

Third the Eye of Horus. The Eye of Horus was used as a sign of prosperity and protection, derived from the myth of Isis and Osiris. This symbol has an astonishing connection between neuroanatomical structure and function.

That’s the basics but you can go further from there if you want to just remember that Egyptian deities hold an Ankh the symbol and work of life.

In 504 we learn that death is final, there is no eternal life. It cannot be given as a commodity, the ring cannot help so I would focus more on the stone itself and if Lilith’s immortality is used then it will not be used as it is in my opinion but more about that later on.

The shop sacred eye and the high priest take us back to two episodes of S1. First in 1x07 - Wingman where the high priest parallels the auctioner who was ready to sell everything of ‘supernatural’ worth knowing they were mostly garbage to make money. Second 1x12 - #TeamLucifer the satanic high priest who had said ‘-the Devil ain't gonna buy me an Aston Martin’. In 504 the High Priest wanted a Pontiac.

Lucifer comment on Tutankhamun loving the pre-sacrificed bloody heart might have to do with the Egyptian mythology that If a heart during the scaling was judged to be not pure, Ammit (female demon/god) would devour it, and the person undergoing judgment would not allowed to continue their afterlife journey.

One of the best lines delivered in this episode is also foreshadowing P2 in my opinion and why not some bts but not clear or definite ones.

In the modern age, we are taught to fear death. But the ancients understood that death... is power. - High Priest (Lucifer 5x04)

It is why I always say that death is not the last frontier in our series and as such it should be taken neither as the final chapter to an individual’s story nor as irreversible (with the right collaterals always) somehow. Although you cannot cheat death forever, this is the beauty of our story. Death is valued just as much as life.

As such as we are in the High Priest ‘office’ it is not accidental we see the Tree of Life (See my Tree of Life Meta *Here*). The designs are Celtic around the mirroring tree of Life in what we can assume is in Life and Death is as vibrant and ‘alive’ in both sides.

1) triskelion: meaning the three legs, is an ancient pre-celtic symbol that can be traced to the bronze era. It symbolises the holy trinity in Christianism but also the inner and outer world of spirits. As you can tell it holds a variety of meanings and even if it is just there, picked in random from the WB prop house we should note that it also symbolises the trinity of life, death and rebirth as well as the trinity of the transition of womanhood. The Triple Goddess: maiden, mother and the (older?) wise woman.

For this meta we will take the trinity of life, death and rebirth as well as elevate it to the transition of our lead characters. Chloe as a young woman, a mother and now a ‘wise’ older and more mature woman. Lucifer as the young rebel, a struggling with maturity and responsibility man and what he may become by the end of S5 without shedding any of his prior roles and identities. Only this time his identities no longer ‘stain’ him.

2) Knotted symbol - Eternal knot: We see them in many cultures and religions in Buddhism they represent birth, death and rebirth. In the inside we see Solmon’s Knot a symbol of immortality and eternity but some also parallel it to Lover’s Knot (See True Lover’s Knot), an ancient symbol of commitment and love. From this keep the eternal part of the symbolism which is often depicted in jewish cemeteries.

3) Celtic Cross: They are said to be based on some cases to the Egyptian Ankh (See Coptic Crosses), some also allege the design in the combination of the Christian cross and the pagan sun disk.

4) The Celtic Tree of Life: For this I take what is written in this site

The tree represents rebirth. Trees were said to guard the land and acted as a doorway into the spirit world.

The Tree of Life connects the lower and upper worlds as its roots grow far down while its branches reach high. The tree trunk connects both of these worlds to the Earth’s plane. It was with this connection of worlds, that it was said that people are able communicate with the gods in the heavens using the Tree of Life.

Tree of Life knots symbolize the branches and roots of a tree which are woven together with no end to show how the cycle of life is continuous.

Through the second part of the episode I was always looking at Lucifer’s tie. I might be wrong but it reminded me a lot of gears, with a heart and clocks on it. Essentially the clock is ticking... in more ways that one as well as for Lilith but give me some more lines before I return to this meta point.

As Lucifer asks how humans believe her ring makes her immortal she ends her story with the line:

“I survive, and... somebody writes it on a stone tablet. You know how these things start.”

For me that was always a direct reference to the Favourite Son deal we had with the book in episode 2x17. As Lucifer said in 2x18 when Chloe asked whether his Dad said that Amenadiel was His favourite, Lucifer replies:

In so many Sumerian words.

Later on in S3 (3x14) Lucifer tells to Cain that Amenadiel is the favourite when he asks him as:

But the quick version: a book said it, so it must be true.

To be honest this re-occurring mentioning makes me hold to my belief that something was translated wrong there...

As the 5x04 sceheme to get the ring back is underway Lilith looks at Jack & Shirley’s interaction which is interesting not because it’s when Lilith starts to perhaps thinking of retiring her immortality but because a very special question comes to mind.

Michael knew the ring’s story. He claimed that he was the one who manipulated Lucifer into having his vacation, but his vacation just ‘happened’ to be at the same time Chloe was on Earth?

Here is a speculative meta.

Lilith asks Lucifer if he ever connected with anyone emotionally to which he replies:

Absolutely not. It would take a literal miracle for me to want something like that, and I'm fairly certain my father's not handing those out anymore.

It makes you wonder whether Michael was around listening, planning carefully his next moves. That that’s how he knew the ring’s story, or how he may have plotted Chloe’s miraculous birth by manipulating God.

At this point everything is possible but we should never forget that God at that point is still powerful and omniscience so Michael might be only alf of the explanation why Chloe is on Earth as a key for Michael to take down his brother and materialise his other plans. The other half is only known by God but will he be willing to share in P2 or even in S6 if he appears there?

Lesley-Ann as Lilith starts to sing ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ a song written over the songwritter’s (Ira Gershwin) wedding anniversary, a true love song on many levels written in 1926 and featured in the Brodway Musical ‘Hey, Kay!’.

The musical’s plot is about an engaged womaniser falls in love with Kay and the song after lots of thought was placed to reveal to the audience of Kay’s realising that she is in love with the male lead, womaniser Jimmy.

We will never perhaps know if by imminence to Lilith’s first song lyrics, Lilith to a point was in love with Lucifer and held on to hope until she surrendered everything for a normal life not wanting to wait for the impossible. Of course that’s just one interpretation not a hard conviction of mine.

An analysis of the song writes:

When first composing this piece, the Gershwin brothers tried to capture the feeling of safety (and love) that everybody longs to have. The addition of the doll (a doll was added as the listener of the song in the rehearsals and stayed in the show) only enhanced the childlike, vulnerable side of the song that was being hinted at in lyrics such as, “I’m a little lamb who’s lost in the woods.”

Although many artists sing this like a love song, its first performance, directed at a doll, gave the piece an aura of safety not usually present in romantic songs.

Perhaps that safety should be also attributed here. Lilith still has her safety still holding on to her immortality knowing though that she will surrender it. Lucifer is unaware he one day will surrender his willingly because he fell in love.

In the end they both carry the vulnerability of needing someone to understand and love them. No matter how cynical we find both Lilith and Lucifer with his brutal Caligula orgy comments, they both crave about someone. Both have lost hope to their Shepard aka God/Dad.

Perhaps I’m wrong on my first impression with Lilith and her affection towards Lucifer. Perhaps they both are the prodigal children, lost in the woods wishing for someone to finally take care of them but no longer hoping for one, until Lilith takes the leap. Lucifer will need almost 80 more years and Chloe Decker to let someone take care of him.

Perhaps that’s why they do a duet on the lyrics:

Someone who'll watch over me

I'm a little lamb who's lost in the wood I know I could, always be good To one who'll watch over me

And the case is back to move the episode forward and enter the present Lucifer Trixie interlude and ‘Forget it Trix. It’s Chinatown!’

That line was the most obvious one as it comes from the more recent noir movie with Bogart and Chinatown (1974). In the movie aside from the mystery plot Evelyn - the mother eventually dies, the twist is that of an abuse which led to her daughter/sister’s birth and although that does not fit our serie’s plot the death of the main lady might. All a speculation so do not be dishearten remember all the above and this is not an S&S it’s a meta :P

After all Lucifer’s line goes back to the complex dealings in Chinatown and how understanding something fully is not always feasible.

Interesting is also how Lucifer shots, albeit the foot not the leg, of willy to prove Willy is not immortal. Like Chloe did to him in 1x04 and to Michael in 5x02. Jewelry is not going to save anyone. Big words but you know me. I believe in other provisions or actions even if they include the ring.

We all die, Lily. And that's okay. Truth is... I'd rather die today trying to save the man I love... than live forever without him.

The past, the present and perhaps the future?

The case is resolved and Jack follows Shirley to Des Moines (Capital of Iowa). That’s an inner joke as Joe Henderson is from Iowa and graduated from the University of Iowa.

Before Jack follows her remember that Shirley had asked more from him when he told her to be careful. A bit like Chloe in the evidence room in 5x08. If some have watched unconditional love then you might remember the scene where Kathy Bates tells to her husband played by Dan Aykroyd that him telling her ‘I love you was never a condition but at that point it now was. Similar to what we saw Chloe asking from Lucifer. A foreshadowing perhaps that eventually Lucifer will follow Chloe.

Now two things. Lucifer in episode 504 prepares their game night. He is now comfortable and even enjoying their game nights, he find himself right where he wants to be without being fearful of being dull. He is a shoe and that’s fine.

When Trixie asks Lucifer whether Jack and Shirley had a happy ending he tells her probably not as they moved to Des Moines meaning it was a boring move between New York and Iowa in general. Iowa and Des Moines have been used several times in jokes by the way due to Henderson.

Now back to Lucifer, at that point he does not see that sometimes sacrifices that lead to ‘boring’ lives are the best outcome and happiness is not equal to excitement but he is a slowly maturing Devil...

That part can help us to analyse the end of the story from 1946.

Lucifer says: Once you do this, there's no going back.

This implies that whether you surrender your immortality or gain it -for the second I’m quite doubtful it can be done on the same terms - it is forever. No going back.

Lilith’s next words reveal a broken woman who gets her Hail Mary and hopes for the best. As a parent she offered her children the best place to never realise they are lacking but Lucifer by bringing Maze to earth undid that as Maze slowly reaches her potential, learning there is a different way. God’s words echo since 3x26.

So was Lucifer a kindergarten guardian for Lilith? In a way yes but Lucifer in 5x04 understood Lilith’s logic. In their distorted image of how you can break an individual, the Lilims seemed safe from Lucifer’s and Lilith’s fates. Cast out, punished, unloved, lonely and in an unspoken despair to connect but too afraid to try again until Lilith tried again. The end of 504 showed she didn’t succeed o find what she was looking for. We have no way of knowing if we will see her again in P2 but it’s probable.

Lilith kisses Lucifer goodbye, making me once again wonder if a part of her did had feelings for him and wishes him back to enjoy the rest of his life as if somehow she knew, although she couldn’t.

The story ends here and perhaps the clock starts ticking for Lucifer through Michael. Perhaps the planning started with Penelope and John that were meant to be born, get married but not have children and then Chloe came along. But that’s just a theory...

And before the screen fades to dark, Lilith walks away with Lucifer standing in the middle of the street and we listen to ‘This Is Ours’ by Peter Sivo’s Band (1946-1961).

This is Ours lyrics are the words of a man which mystify me. For me it is a song that gives us a couple together after a very long time that reconnects. It was a meant to be couple but the past had to happen. He had to get married, for both of them to live apart their own lives until one day they get back together and now they can be together. There is no sadness, there is relief, contentment.

Several say that How I Met Your Mother had an awful ending. If you have not watched it and want to please stop here but know that I believe that the ending was just right.

In How I Met Your Mother, the lead (father) marries the mother of his children but it is revealed that she eventually dies and some years later he starts telling them a story that lasts ten years as all aspects of it in his belief is about how he met their mother. His daughter interrupts him saying that no it’s about how he met the woman he wants to be together now. They all know that the Mother was loved and was the One but in this life there is more, there are second chances because life happens and it’s not a bad thing and the time in between is as joyful as the future despite of the tragedies in between.

So a part of me wonders if Deckerstar will go a bit through that to a point.

Forget the past, for this is ours...

The thing is that a bittersweet ending gives as a possibility and then we are left wondering past that.

Trixie: I bet Jack and Shirley talked the whole bus ride and fixed everything. Lucifer: Yes. Yes, perhaps they did.

After all they did move to Des Moines... After that we can only guess.

#lucifer meta #lucifer season 5 #lucifer s5p1 #lucifer speculation

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