#tokarev review

[murdersquazh]

NEW WEBTOON RECO!!! AntiSTALKER by VokiVormok

🌟AntiSTALKER 

🍂VokiVormok

🍀Ongoing with 66 chapters (updates every Thursday on Webtoon LINE)

🌷Romance, Supernatural

Hey guys! I just caught up with AntiSTALKER after dropping it a few years back because it only had like 5 chapters when I found it, and though I absolutely LOVED the art, I just couldn’t be made to wait :’))). Anyway, AntiSTALKER follows the story of Disciplinary Committee President Kira Volkov in Red Moon High as she goes through high school with an apparent stalker. As she goes about the DC’s responsibilities with Yulai Tokarev (Werewolf, DC’s Vice President) and Marina Zotov (Human, DC’s Secretary), Student Council President August Sokolov comes back to school after a while abroad. I’d like to leave you guys the fun in discovering the rest of the story yourselves so imma just close this intro with a quote from the comic’s synopsis on Webtoon:

She is a hunter, he is a target. He is her stalker, she is his target.

So what do we love about this? 

1) KIRA VOLKOV, DUH

I don’t know about yall but Kira is like an actual A N G E L. sure, a rabid angel BUT STILL AN ANGEL. She’s the strong female lead with juuuuust enough angst and cuteness in her soul. August saved her on his phone as “Angry Cinnabon Bun” which, I believe, is the most accurate description for her. 

2) THE ART

I remember scrolling past this on Discovery...and now, after reading it on Canvas, I’m here asking myself w h y. The art is sooo clean and the art style really fits the characters. I mean, I’m not sure I’d love this as much as I do rn if the characters were drawn differently. The mood, the colors, the lineart, just ugh e v e r y t h i n g.

3) Male leads (August and Yulai)

I don’t think I have any special comments about these two particularly except for the fact that they’re both absolutely adorable and so in love with Kira. I mean imagine having two cute guys who both give off “touch her and I’ll kill you” vibes and “I’m sorry don’t kill me (Kira)” vibes. Totally looking forward to their trio dynamic in season 2.

4) Supporting Characters

BRO I LOVE MARINA. Her role in the story didn’t even faze me a bit. I just LOVE HER. Also, I ADORE ANTON AND EUGENE. They don’t appear too much however when they do, their scenes are absolutely hilarious.

5) The story

For me, this story is like having high school romance cliches in all the right places with twists and turns here and there. It’s a fun and engaging story that’s a bit on the lighter side but it does have themes such as equality and class. 

Overall, this story is such a good read and yall reallyyyyy have to check it out. Author VokiVormok is also on Instagram as @vokivormok so go follow her there as well. I hope you all give this comic all the love and support it deserves. 

Happy reading and I hope yall have a good day everyday💖

[popcorncinemashow]

Tokarev (2014)

Genre: Action, Thriller

Directed by Paco Cabezas

Nicolas Cage

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

No firearms expert has been able to fully explain or reproduce the “freak accident” that Gerald Stanley claims caused his gun to fire unexpectedly into the head of Colten Boushie.

The result is what David Tanovich, co-editor of Canadian Bar Review, said was a case of a “magical gun.”

Stanley’s acquittal hinged on a claim of hangfire, an extremely rare scenario in which a cartridge discharges several seconds after it is struck by the firing pin.

Even then, Boushie should still have survived if not for a second extremely specific malfunction that could not be replicated by experts testing Stanley’s gun.

Boushie was killed with a Tokarev TT33, a semi-automatic pistol originally manufactured for the Soviet Red Army.

After a confrontation with an SUV filled with trespassers on his Saskatchewan farm, Stanley testified that he retrieved the Tokarev from a shed, loaded it with three cartridges and then stepped outside to fire into the air. He said he pulled the trigger three or four times.

The defence’s case is that while two bullets were shot into the sky, the third bullet did not immediately fire.

Instead, after Stanley had approached a stationary SUV containing Boushie, Stanley testified that the round suddenly discharged, striking Boushie in the head. The shot killed him instantly.

“Boom, the thing just went off,” Stanley told the court.

Hangfire is the reason why the mandatory Canadian Firearms Safety Course instructs shooters to always wait 60 seconds after encountering a misfired round.

Even among habitual shooters, though, hangfires are a phenomenon that will typically only occur once or twice in a lifetime, if at all. Additionally, the typical hangfire only lasts a split second.

Eric Hung, founder of the U.S. firearms blog Pew Pew Tactical, told the National Post that he was recently attending an advanced National Rifle Association course when the instructor asked attendees whether they had ever experienced a hangfire.

“Only two out of the dozen or so present raised their hands. And these are people that shoot a lot,” he said.

Wayne Bush, a veteran U.S. firearms instructor in southern Pennsylvania, similarly told the Post that throughout a long police and military career that has included shooting tens of thousands of rounds (and being present around the firing of tens of thousands more), he has never experienced a hangfire.

On CanLii.org, a searchable database of thousands of Canadian legal decisions, there is only one mention of the term “hangfire.” Contained in a 1989 negligence case against the Remington Arms Company, it involved a .22 cartridge that exploded roughly 10 seconds after being fired.

When Stanley’s lawyer was calling up witnesses to prove the existence of long-delayed hangfires, the defence team relied heavily on the testimony of a random citizen who approached them with a hunting story.

Wayne Popowich called up Stanley’s legal team after reading about the trial in the media, and was soon placed on the stand to describe an event from 40 years ago in which he fired an unmaintained rifle and had it behave exactly the same as the Tokarev in Stanley’s testimony.

However, a clear point in Stanley’s favour is that he was using ammunition that was particularly prone to hangfires. The Tokarev was loaded with 64-year-old cartridges originally manufactured in communist Czechoslovakia — and stored in an uninsulated shed subject to the extremes of the Saskatchewan climate.

“Hangfires are most common among old military surplus ammunition such as that used in this case,” Tom Givens, co-founder of Tennessee’s Rangemaster Firearms Training Services, told the Post.

Nevertheless, even with a hangfire, one more unlikely event needed to occur to ensure Stanley’s version of events.

Before approaching the vehicle containing Boushie, Stanley testified that the slide on the Tokarev was pushed back, indicating that the gun was out of ammunition.

Under normal conditions, the slide of a Tokarev will indeed snap back into a locked position once the gun is out of ammunition.

However, the slide cannot snap open if the last round fired was malfunctioning, as Stanley’s testimony claims.

The slide needs the recoil of a fired round to snap into a locked position. Thus, even if he was out of ammunition, the only way the slide of the Tokarev could have been in a locked position would be if Stanley had done it manually.

Here’s the important part: Doing that should have safely cleared the gun’s chamber of the misfired round.

A properly functioning Tokarev would have ejected the malfunctioning round when Stanley racked back the slide. Then, when the round suddenly discharged, it would have done so relatively harmlessly on the ground, instead of into Boushie’s head.

So, for Stanley’s account to be credible, his gun loaded with malfunctioning ammunition also had to be malfunctioning itself.

The Tokarev would have needed to have a faulty extractor that failed to expel the cartridge, allowing the round to sit unnoticed in the gun’s chamber.

Notably, this would have needed to happen just once, as tests conducted after the shooting found the pistol to be in perfect working order.

“I simply don’t know what caused that firearm to discharge,” testified John Ervin, an RCMP Chief Firearms Officer called by the defence.

Greg Williams, an RCMP firearm specialist called by the Crown, was similarly baffled, offering at one point that the strange series of events described were caused by an “obstruction” in the barrel, even though no obstruction was later found.

While there is no physical evidence for Stanley’s ammunition experiencing a hangfire, the casing from the bullet that killed Boushie was found to have an unusual bulge when found by RCMP investigators.

At trial, Ervin offered the explanation that the round could have discharged “out-of-battery,” a firearms term for when a cartridge detonates in the wrong place within a gun.

When a cartridge goes off “out-of-battery,” it’s simply exploding, rather than undergoing a controlled discharge within a chamber.

An “out-of-battery” firing would be consistent with Stanley’s testimony, but even then, it’s still not a given that the cartridge would have been able to propel a bullet down the gun barrel with enough velocity to kill Boushie.

If a cartridge is floating freely in a gun’s chamber and isn’t braced against anything, it could just as easily expel its explosive force out the rear of the gun, leaving a bullet harmless rattling around inside.

Ron Flowers, with the Pennsylvania-based Citizens Defense Training, told the Post that when bullets discharge in irregular circumstances they often become far less lethal.

“I’ve ejected (live) rounds out of a gun and let them fall to the ground and they’ve hit a rock and gone ‘bang’,” he said. “It scared the snot out of me, but it didn’t do anything.”

David Dyson, a firearms consultant based in the U.K., raised similar questions. “If a round was somehow in the chamber when the slide was ‘back’, then there would be no support … if that is correct, then it would be (fired) with much reduced energy,” he told the Post.

- Tristin Hopper, “Gerald Stanley’s 'magical gun’: The extremely unlikely defence that secured his acquittal,” National Post. February 14, 2018.

[mikodrawnnarratives]

I posted 18 times in 2021

7 posts created (39%)

11 posts reblogged (61%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 1.6 posts.

I added 26 tags in 2021

#vokivormok - 4 posts

#antistalker - 4 posts

#kira volkov - 3 posts

#miraculous ladybug - 3 posts

#my art - 2 posts

#yulai tokarev - 2 posts

#mlb - 2 posts

#marinette dupan cheng - 2 posts

#toh - 2 posts

#digital art - 2 posts

Longest Tag: 62 characters

#how many times do i need to tell you to check out antistalker?

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I am going to draw Antistalker Draw Your Squads until Season Two, for every Antistalker fan reading this. I’m starved for content and I’m sure others will agree. Antistalker is a Webtoon made by Vokivormok and if you haven’t read it I highly recommend it!

I didn’t make the Draw Your Squad base.

18 notes • Posted 2021-07-15 00:30:01 GMT

#4

What I think AntiSTALKERs title page could look like. This isn’t how I normally draw my characters and I don’t think I will draw like this again. But I love Vokivormok’s style regardless and I don’t know how they complete these episodes in good quality weekly.

Antistalker is a Webtoon made by the creator Vokivormok on Instagram. Their characters, story, and art are all amazing and are definitely worth checking out. It doesn’t get a lot of attention compared to other webtoons but it should.

23 notes • Posted 2021-03-29 22:35:38 GMT

#3

I have no idea what @heuffopla is planning for their Limelight AU but when I first saw the AU I drew out some events that might go down. I thought it would be interesting if Marinette showed up during the Akuma battle.

If you haven’t seen the Limelight AU, I recommend checking it out!

136 notes • Posted 2021-07-10 02:53:00 GMT

#2

This is my addition to @edendaphne ‘s DTIYS! Its my first time participating in a DTIYS and it was fun drawing this. I love Discordant Sonata and I recommend it to anyone that hasn’t read it and is apart of the Miraculous fandom.

212 notes • Posted 2021-05-06 02:34:52 GMT

#1

Would a snow ball fight be different in the demon realm? Yes. Would Hunter be able to easily dodge one of Amity’s snow balls? Debatable. But in reality, its all an excuse for me to draw Winter fluff.

443 notes • Posted 2021-10-04 22:49:23 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[euromaidanpress]

Medvedchuk tapes, Gaza return, Belarus plane hijacking, Eurovision: Ukraine's week in review

Medvedchuk tapes, Gaza return, Belarus plane hijacking, Eurovision: Ukraine’s week in review

Journalists published new records regarding Medvedchuk Ukrainian investigative journalists have published conversations that purportedly were held by oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk and testify the latters’ criminal role in betraying Ukraine’s interests. Records, dating back to 2015-2016, prove that Medvedchuk was negotiating with Russian officials, including the head of “Transneft,” Nikolay Tokarev.…

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Shield Hero 20 - 22 | Sarazanmai 7 - 9 | BSD 32 - 34 | Fruits Basket 8 - 9 | Demon Slayer 8 - 10 | OPM 20 - 21

Shield Hero 20

Motoyasu getting dragged by Filo was funny…not enough to get a proper laugh though. Just a smirk or two.

Stop narrating and just get on with it, Naofumi and friends…!

“I was saying we should fight together all along.” (from Itsuki) – Were you, now…? (skeptical)

Ass-pull! I call “ass-pull” at the power to swallow the phoenix flame! Seriously, when did the dragon get the opportunity to teach Naofumi how to do that???

How did Naofumi not die after losing so much blood…?

What does the Q even stand for in the queen’s name…?

Sarazanmai 7

The seagulls…so fluffy…

For some reason, I expect a fakeout, but then it never arrives…these boys are really connecting…

I found some kappa croquette thingy online, but it referred to a “Shiki City” which probably isn’t in Asakusa…

The shirt…Kazuki’s shirt says “frog” but I get the feeling it also means “return”.

Shirohasu water. It’s Irohasu in Japan.

Was the lyric to Kawausoiya (the otter song) “gonna take ‘em”…?

Nice ET reference, Sara.

Balls…not just sport entendre, but…y’know. The sort of humour I don’t like as much.

Ooh…Keppi is shaping up to be the bad guy. But what plans does he have? Am I speculating too much and is he being framed? Hard to know until next time…

BSD 32

When Kyouka is eating the sundae, she looks like the Tofu Kyouka from Mayoi…hmm.

Can I confess something? Before I saw the illustrations for s2, I thought Louisa’s hair was much darker than what it is in the anime…hmmm, indeed.

I don’t think we were ever told (in the manga or the anime) what Louisa’s wish was…

This bit with Fyodor…I don’t think it was in the manga.

Subarashi-sou is a pun on “it seems wonderful”. That wasn’t in the manga, but it’s a great pun (because it’s right up my alley).

Fitz laughing at the neighbour’s TV wasn’t in the manga either, but that’s just the anime director’s humour peeking through.

“Blalack Daniel’s”, LOL.

Ohh…a quick Google reveals TJ Eckleberg is from the Great Gatsby. In there, he’s an eye doctor, but here, he’s an engineer.

George B Wilson is also from the Great Gatsby…Here be spoilers, but…George dies in his original work too.

Manhasset is a place in New York…I assume it’s connected to the Great Gatsby as well…

Oh yeah! Random Poe moment. That’s in the manga, so Igarashi (or whoever’s responsible for the terrible humour) doesn’t have to fake that bit.

Cue “Objection!” by Fitz, lemme guess. Even if I know the outcome and how it was done, I’d like to have my memory refreshed (by stabbing in the dark…and making an Ace Attorney joke in the process).

I already know, without googling, that Tom Buchanan is part of Great Gatsby as well…

Bank of Amerigo…LOL.

Fruits Basket 8

“If you show up for the banquet now…”

“The banquet sounds just like the folk tale!” Honestly, subbers, proofread…

Haa-kun and Haa-san. No distinguishing between them (aside from honorifics), even though they’re two completely different people.

Hatori’s squinty face was…hilarious, to put it simply.

Oh…I forgot the dance seems to be something the animal of the year does. So if Yuki was 3 years ago, it makes sense Momiji is doing it this year.

Best seat in the house for a sunrise, huh?

Kimetsu no Yaiba 8

I’ve seen Muzan being described as “Demon Michael Jackson” and now I can’t get that out of my head when I see him…sorry.

Tsukihiko, huh? It translates to “moon’s radiance” or something like that. That name is appropriate for a bad guy, isn’t it?

This is the first time I’ve really listened to the OST (aside from the OP and ED), so it’s…really something.

Ooh, I didn’t realise until now, but Ufotable even imitated the paper Jump is printed on with the next-ep previews…

OPM 2 8 (OPM 20)

Er…I haven’t mentioned it for the past few episodes, but Suiryu is hotttttttt. (No? I said that? Okay, next step.) That’s basically the only reason why I’m watching anymore…I can’t seem to find anyone who thinks positively of this tournament arc enough to do reviews of it that I can read, which has made my own opinion of this beloved series go down the drain…Also, if you weren’t aware, my taste lies not in Suiryu’s huge bulk, but rather in the fact he’s got long hair.

Didn’t Suiryu get pierced in the abs??? Where’s the blood coming from his injuries??? Update: He does have injuries there, they’re just not bloody…that’s all.

The main criticism for OPM 2 is the fact that it keeps cutting between different events, so it’s hard to follow. Well, I’ve had worse (see Concrete Revolutio) so that’s why I’m still here.

People say that clothing changes you – say if you put on a new outfit, you feel like a new person. (Of course, that’s all glamorising and praising consumption, but that’s beside the point here.) I think that’s what’s up with Max and Snek.

Shield Hero 21

“…the Shield Hero is worshipped.”

Really? Boob jiggle, at a time like this??? (Context: Malty is getting th slave crest painted on her.)

Wait, was there ever a Shield Church???

Okay, that felt like a real seasonal ending. What the heck is going to happen in the last few episodes, I wonder…?

Sarazanmai 8

Chikai knows the real meaning of YOLO…heh. I’m only kidding…

To be honest, I think I like Toi best out of the main trio. I tend to like the boys in blue…and no, I don’t mean the otter police.

Kazuki’s service provider is “Kappa Phone”, LOL.

When Reo held up the gun, I was yelling, “Enta! Get it for him!” (i.e. take the bullet) I didn’t expect him to actually do it…

…and here I thought tragic yuri was common enough and we don’t have enough Tragic Yaoi Dudes…

Notably, Toi was registered on Enta’s phone as “Kuji”, while Kazuki is registered as “Kazuki” (katakana) on Toi’s.

Shots fired…!

Update: I didn’t notice this, but the evil dude with kamome written behind him (I think it’s in this episode, but it might have been in the last one instead) must be based on a seagull…because that’s what kamome means.

Bungou Stray Dogs 33 (BSD S3 Ep 8)

I think it was around here I stopped reading the scans, because the series was picked up legally anyway…but I can see the death flags for a certain Port Mafia man…one who stands at the top.

As expected…butt shot. Igarashi (or whoever’s responsible for that shot) likes butts, so between this and Sarazanmai…*imagines image of kappa!Kazuki holding a shirikodama* There’s absolutely no buts about it (LOL), there’s no shortage of butts this season.

“To think that the rabbit being hunted would show its face…” – I think it’s hard for you to say that, Akutagawa, when you yourself have no face in that frame…

Why are both Akutagawa and Fyodor Naruto running today???

“So you’re doing this for that woman.”

What is “Mukurotoride”? I don’t seem to remember…maybe I never learnt what it was. Update: Apparently a tower in Dead Apple is called Mukurotoride.

Conspiracy time! This book sounds like Kunikida’s Ability…so imagine if it were under Dazai’s nose the entire time…

Fruits Basket 9

I love how the synopsis for this episode goes, “Kyo fights Yuki, Yuki fights a cold…”

Hatsuharu’s wearing such an ostentatious fluffy jacket…LOL, I love it.

Holy cow (LOL), I forgot how old Hatsuharu is…so that means he’s 15-ish, right?

Come to think of it…I see Fruits Basket characters in Ro Te O, which I started writing at about this time in 2013. The Azrael of that time was a hybrid of Hatsuharu, Ritsu and Ayame, Tetsuya is basically Yuki and Ryou is Kyou…hmm.

Apparently, Shigure had in the 2001 anime a song that went like, “High school girls, high school girls, cute high school girls for me.” So that’s where it was??? (Context: I haven’t seen Fruits Basket 2001, but read the entire manga.)

Kimetsu no Yaiba 9

Recap time, recap time…so the lady’s in the back room and Tanjiro conveniently forgets the man is in the basement…? Wuh?

Moya was complaining about how repetitive this show can get when it comes to the script (i.e. it repeats itself because it doesn’t trust its audience, but I think that’s because this is originally serialised on TV week by week that people may forget if they’re not bingeing, taking notes or following the manga). I’ll talk more about that in my KnY collab post, I guess…

When Yushiro said “watch your back”…he really meant it, huh?

Temari are the balls, but kemari is when you kick the balls.

“…the eyeballs on his hands are creepy.” – LOL.

Shield Hero 22

The ep title just says “Hero Council”…not specifically that there are 4 of them.

My stream’s been buffering more than usual, so I went “like mother, like daughter” before Naofumi did…

It would’ve ben massively funny to hear Melty call Malty either “Trash” or “B****”…especially the last one, because that’s always a fun way to end a sentence (especially for a girl as young as her). Update: She does, but the way she does it isn’t as funny as I thought it would be (and she doesn’t end her sentence with her sister’s new name).

Wait, I thought they got rid of her slave pact??? I thought it was only for the duration of her trial that she needed it for.

L’Arc and that lady seem like they’re foreshadowing for later…hmm. Update: The next-episode synopsis says “yes”. So does that new visual.

Sarazanmai 9

I can’t believe this show’s almost over…That means I gotta get a move on with RobiHachi, but to be honest? Non-anime things are probably going to kep me busy until…a few days from now. So I’ll get RobiHachi watched then.

Characetrs are dying en masse in this episode, aren’t they??? I saw a spoiler that (well, SPOILER) Chikai’s gonna die, but I don’t know about Enta or Keppi…Update: To be honest, I thought Chikai was going to become the next monster – a gun monster, perhaps. Maybe now that I’ve finished the episode, he’ll become a real zombie. (Hey, see what I did there with the bolding…? How’s that for hiding spoilers, eh???)

Oh yeah…I forgot Enta’s sister was Kazuki’s teacher…

There was a sign behind Masa that said”Hinode Asakusa” – “hi no de” meaning roughly “under the sun” or “leaving the sun”.

Tokarev…? The gun? Gun monster, maybe? Is this a critique of the American gun…(exaggerated voice) Nah, can’t be…this is Japanese.

Lionel…Lionel…for some reason, that name in relation to soccer seems familiar...I just can’t put my finger on who it reminds me of, though. Update: Is it, perhaps, Messi…? Yes, I think that’s the guy I was thinking of…!

Aw…I’m not crying, you are…But these words were running through my head before Toi chucked the bag of money away and yelled, “F***!”: “Everything I do, I do it for you.” Isn’t that cute…?

Bungou Stray Dogs 34

“…one by one?” Junban means “sequentially”, so I don’t see why you have to use the phrase “one by one”. Or “one at a time” would also work.

Hardbank…to contrast Softbank (a phone company in Japan).

Face-stealing aliens strike again…(re: Atsushi)

Oh flip. This reminds me of my Kunikida fic…yeah, I bet you don’t remember it.

Hey, this dude! Apparently he’s from one of Kunikida’s stories. I really am approaching the end of what I know of canon…*gulp* Update: Oops, we already passed that part…

I wonder if the real Fyodor could play cello…? Or is this just a thing to make him ominous and villanous…?

The cross on the wall behind Kunikida…makes this show more like Eva than Kekkai Sensen…exquisite. Absolutely exquisite, isn’t it?

Another cool cross, behind Tanizaki!

What’s a tatamigatana? Also, I didn’t know other people could be synchronised using Doppo Poet and Ranpo’s deduction…

Does Kouyou mean (by “the one I most despise”)…Chuuya? Or herself? It’s definitely not Ace.

Kimetsu no Yaiba 10

Headpats for Yushiro as well! Headpats for everyone!

There’s a lot of Tanjiro being terrified in this episode…

Wait…Kizuki? I thought they were the 12 Moons? (Well, “tsuki” means “moon”, but then what’s the “ki”?) Update: The “ki” means “demon”, so the Kizuki are the 12 Demon Moons.

Being alone with the body…that’s always a scary thought in murder mysteries…for the people who dissect them to determine the cause of death, that is.

Considering the name of the episode is “Together Forever”…nup, I don’t see Nezuko and Tanjiro separating anytime soon…

The Kasugai crow is what happens when you can’t turn off your Google Assistant…or GPS…or Siri.

If Tanjiro knows the name of his crow, how do the crows get their names? Do their trainers (is that the right term for a crow breeder in this case…?) give them names?

OPM S2 Ep 9 (Ep 21)

LOL, that one shot of the ants…JC Staff really don’t care about this series, do they…?

I kinda forgot about Genos after a bit more than a week…sorry, I was watching other anime in between. (More than usual, at least. I started playing Chibi Tamago – a forum game for AniList where you collect badges for watching anime - that’s why.)

Did he (Pri-Pri Prisoner)…store his phone in his butt…?

[idolisnotdead]

Seiko Oomori - kitixxxgaia - Review

If you’ve read this blog before, you probably have a pretty good idea of my completely unbiased admiration for Seiko Oomori and everything she does. “Unbiased”.

So let’s just get to it. Less than a year, by about two weeks maybe to be precise, Seiko Oomori follows up her critically acclaimed major sophomore album (fourth overall) TOKYO BLACK HOLE with something even bigger, even more political, even more honest, and even more ambitious. I’m going to start off by changing my previous opinion. TOKYO BLACK HOLE is like an 8.5 now. Stay with me, here now and buckle up; we’re going for a ride, my friends.

The same week the United States got unleashed with the marvel of Drake’s More Life – a notably emotional return to form that also doesn’t shy away too far from the newer territory Toronto’s first celebratory hero has been invading – Japan was hit with something similarly parallel. Seiko Oomori gave us her fifth album kitixxxgaia on March 15th. Just like Drizzy, Seiko has given us an equally emotional experience, that still covers her recent sounds while almost giving us a slight return to her punk roots save for the general lack of an obvious acoustic guitar in most of the mixes (though it’s worth noting that it’s still there, just buried in the mix; I’ll get to why such a jam-packed mix actually works in a minute).

It’s amazing to see that the west and the east were both delivered promising projects by two of their biggest masters of music and emotion. It’s amazing to see just how far some shitty kid from Koenji has come in just five years since her official debut PINK in 2012. It’s amazing to think that that’s six albums if you count PINK, seven if you count the mostly self-covering Pink Tokarev album of 2015, which was otherwise an off-year for everyone’s favorite singer to imitate.

The only word I can describe how kitixxxgaia sounds with is “big”. And several other adjectives. Maybe “gigantic”. Maybe “colossal”. It’s a fucking huge album, pardon my French. This is potentially Seiko’s first Ringo Sheena-level album (let’s just forget that SUNNY happened for a minute). There’s a lot of religious imagery and a heavy aesthetic. I’d highly suggest on your first listen, you watch the music videos for every song that has one. So start with the “Dogma Magma” video, then the “Hikokuminteki Hero” video, listen to “IDOL SONG” normally, then when “Gutto Kuru Summer” comes along, watch that video too. And so on.

kitixxxgaia is heavy in its use of a very specific aesthetic, which takes influence from Christianity (and a hint of Mexican-style Christianity at that), weddings, quite a bit of Dadaism, and it’s all absolutely drenched in shades of pink and lighter blues. It’s the kind of album that’s best to be experienced both by listening and watching, as I said before. There are heaps of promotional images that came along with the album and the original “holy trinity” singles that lead up to its release, and I’d suggest maybe even just looking through those around Twitter and wherever else you can find them (maybe I’ll compile what I can find and make a post later this week) while you listen to the songs that aren’t accompanied by music videos. It’s the kind of multi-media work that could induce a sensory-overload in someone with synesthesia, like myself.

Now before I even get into the music of it, I want to point out the name of the album itself. Just the name kitixxxgaia (say it in English how you want, I generally say “Kitty Gaia”), much like her lyrics, takes some wordplay. In Japanese, the word “kichigai” - short for “[anta no] ki ga chigaimasu”, though nobody would ever say it that formally - is essentially the closest the Japanese language can get to the level of offense that words like (cover your children’s eyes) “fuck” or “cunt”. It doesn’t mean the same thing, but it’s that sort of level of offense, though deeper seeing as Japan is culturally much more introverted than we are over here.

Kichigai could loosely be translated to “you’re fucking crazy, man; you’re out of your goddamn mind.” Not in like a “woah dude that’s a fucking siiiick tattoo of a wolf” kind of way, though. It’s an insult, not a term of endearment. Adding the “a” to the end, Seiko turns it into “kichigaia” (キチガイア). After a day or two, she officially changed the name to romaji, now calling it “kitixxxgaia”, censoring it (possibly for management, cultural, and radio airplay reasons, but we don’t know specifically) by making it English and with three x’s in the middle. This name, to me, holds two simultaneous meanings, again, much like her signature style of lyricism.

The “kiti” could be interpreted as “kitschy”, a word referring to style in poor taste, much like our girl Seiko’s aesthetic. The word “gaia” is the personification of our planet Earth in ancient Greek texts. So it’s a “Kitschy World”.

“kitixxxgaia” in its original meaning, “Crazy Fucking World”.

Now to the music: Seiko has never let us down with a strong opener, and this might be the most in-your-face, unexpected opener, titled “Dogma Magma”. “Come on up to the emotional stage!” she blurts out before a gong bangs in your face; the remainder of the measure in silence before another hits with a choir on top, just underneath a piano playing downward arpeggios, and below that, some intricate string work, each instrument holding its breath. After the four bar intro, we crescendo up to the main song. Enter a not-quite shibuya-kei type beat – syncopated and staccato-like drums underneath a jittery, major piano progression. Behind it all is Seiko’s voice distorted, seemingly having a conversation with God.

As the filter cuts off, Seiko enters with some of her most provoking, forward lyrics ever written: (rough translation by yours truly): "Once upon a time there was something other than [just] male and female. Once upon a time there was something other than [just] white, black, and yellow [people]. Once upon a time there was something other than [just] yes and no. These things had always always existed, but it was then instead decided that they didn’t [exist].” she sings, touching on the recently hot topics of gender, race, and consent.

She continues “When I opened my eyes I was Japanese. I’m a goddess but I’m too uncomfortable in this inconvenient body to go outside without makeup on.”, a clear reference to body positivity clashing with self-esteem issues, and likely even cultural pressure in Japanese society. “Dogma Magma” has cuts into a more punk style chorus, reminiscent of “Magic Mirror”. “What will you do during the revolution? Just one heart? Fuck you, fuck [you] all, because this is war!” There she is. That’s the Seiko we know and love.

Track three is of note because it sort of takes me back to when she used to advertise herself as an idol during the Zettai Shoujo era for extra shock value. A clever parody on idol music and culture, “IDOL SONG” could almost pass off as a generic denpa song à la Band Ja Naimon!.

“JI・MO・TO no Kao Kawaii Tomodachi” (roughly “JI・MO・TO’s Cute-Faced Friend”) is certainly one of her most out-there songs, with a catchy, sugary hook, an almost rap verse not too different from what she did with “Zettai Kanojo”. It’s light, it’s bouncy, and it’s really good. This whole album is really good. Good. Good. Good. Good. It’s good music (Cruel Winter, when? I need answers, Kanye!).

Speaking of rapping, two songs later, Seiko gives us the ultimate collab for this generation of J-pop. Much like Ringo Sheena and Utada Hikaru’s “Nijikan Dake no Vacation” (roughly “A Vacation For Just The Two Of Us”), “Chikyuu Saigo no Futari” (roughly: “The Last Two People on Earth”) opens up eerily, with a huge texture and an oozing sub bass that launches into this groovy, dark, rhythmic masterpiece. Seiko begins “Dora-chan, warmest welcome to the 21st century, where mass production has made humans more like robots. Justice is brought by violence, the death penalty is given immediately unless you’re cute.” Seiko is soon interrupted: “I’m being forced to be stupid, these frames in front of me are out of my league. Fuck you, guidance! In my head, I’m punk.” Is that voice DAOKO? You bet your ass it is, and she is spitting that truth all over this track.

God there’s so much more to cover for this album but I really don’t want to ruin too much of it by blabbing on. Up next, continuing with the album’s religious themes “Pink Methuselah” brings a familiar sound with a twist – once it kicks in, it’s very clearly Kenta Sakurai (ex. Izukoneko, current Maison Book Girl, TOKYO BLACK HOLE’s “SHINPIN” producer) behind the producer’s chair on this one, but unlike “SHINPIN” from Seiko’s previous album, it’s not just another Sakurai song. It’s very clear how much Seiko added on top of what he did, and it’s like the perfect blend of both of their signature styles.

The album also features a menacing, full-piano self-cover of °C-ute’s “Mugen Climax”, a song that Seiko wrote for the extremely popular Hello! Project group. Now, she’ll never avoid Ringo Sheena comparisons – after all, Oomori’s debut album Mahou Ga…’s artwork pays direct tribute to Sheena’s legendary 2000 album Shouso Strip’s artwork - but what hearing this self-cover (which makes °C-ute’s version almost unlistenable) makes me want is a self-cover album from Seiko once she garners enough writing credits, much like Ringo Sheena’s Utaite Myouri.

The thing here about kitixxxgaia is that the album finishes off differently depending on the version you have. There are three versions: Dogma, Karma, and Gaia. Every version comes with a second “disc” that’s a DVD/Blu Ray; Dogma comes with a live Blu Ray of ZEPP Tokyo stop of the Tokyo Black Hole Tour, Gaia comes with live audio of that same show as well as a DVD of all of the album’s music videos, and Karma comes with a live DVD of a few different shows from last year. Each version also has a key difference  to the main album – the final track is different.

As my personal recommendation, Dogma is the ideal version. Karma and Gaia finish off with new songs, but Dogma closes out with an acoustic re-recording of the Zettai Shoujo single “Kimi to Eiga” (literally: “Movie With You”). Since the closest thing we get to ‘acoustic’ on kitixxxgaia is “Mugen Climax” and “Orion Za”, this is a necessity to the album’s closure and really puts into perspective just how far Seiko has come since her humble beginnings.

The Karma song is called “Ramen no Hanashi” (literally “Ramen Conversation”) and the Gaia song is called “M”. “M” is another piano song, cutting in at just over 6 minutes. “Ramen no Hanashi” also does a similar job to “Kimi to Eiga”, being a full-acoustic track, and it’s a bonus that it’s a new song as well, so if you’re looking for a fully new experience or you’re not familiar with the Zettai Shoujo classic, maybe the Karma version is more for you. Either way, it’s a really nice way to end the album with some retrospect.

IDOL iS NOT DEAD gives kitixxxgaia a perfect 10/10. 11/10. Screw it. Whatever. It’s so goddamn good, just stop reading and go listen oh my god

[ramrodd]

How would the Vietnam War have played out if JFK had stayed alive and served 2 terms?

COMMENTARY: 

Well, first of all, the officers around my dad thought JFK was a total cowboy. The Berlin Crises beginning in June 1961 scared my dad more than anything else that happened at that time of his career and established the attitude at CONARC towards Camelot that persisted relative to McNamara and his Whiz Kid until he retired in May 1968. 

At Vienna in 1961, JFK got his ass handed to him by Khrushev. Kennedy was used to being the toughest guy in the room, with all his PT-109 swagger and mobbed-up campaign connections, but Khruschev had been the Commisar of Stalingrad and, well, sharing a mistress with a crime boss isn’t entirely the same as leaving a loaded Tokarev on the desk of an unsuccessful general. 

As the crises in Berlin developed, my dad told me much later that he was concerned of being assigned a command in Germany and he hadn’t led troops since the Phillipines. Dad was in the middle of a course at the Industrial College in preparation for his K-MAG tour and, consequently, at loose ends as these things go.  But it blew over and he went to Korea, had a  wonderful tour, and came back and spent the rest of his career dealing with the “nut-heads” at Department of the Army trying to head off implementing McNamara’s reforms. The Army is still untangling crap based on the Harvard Business model McNamara imposed on the military.

At the time that JFK was elected, the Army’s V-MAG mission in the Republic of Vietnam was the same as the K-MAG mission in the Republic of Korea; to give the young republics the space and time to become functioning nation-states.

In 1962, as a matter of fact, my dad was with K-MAG. That summer, VC began tossing grenades into Saigon movie theaters and the Army evacuated the Army families living in-country the same way they were living in Korea, Japan and Germany. A friend of mine whose dad had rotated to V-MAG the year the before appeared again in our midst with a really cool Ducati motorcycle he brought back from RVN.

But RVN wasn’t really on anybody’s radar, particularly, until that moment and nobody really knew what was happening. I didn’t find out until the Ken Burns’s Vietnam of the power struggle between in Hanoi that sidelined Ho Chi Mihn in favor of Le Juan’s ambitions for violating RVN’s sovereignty and re-uniting the region by force. I’m sure JFK had better intelligence than I did, but it’s clear no one really knew what to do.

The thing is, until the Diem brothers were assassinated, we were already doing exactly what we needed to do. A question elsewhere on Quora asks for speculation on the effect of putting Creighton Abrams in place sooner than 1968. Based on his shift BACK to the hearts-and-minds, clear-and-hold, Counter-Insurgency nation-building emphasis abandoned by Westmoreland in favor of search-and-destroy tactics in order to give RVN the space and time it needed to be stood up like ROK, things might have turned out differently if JFK had sustained constancy of purpose.

But the assassination of the Diem brothers foreclosed the possibility of victory for anyone. And the assassination of JFK foreclosed the possibility of knowing what he might have done.

By 1965, the American strategy was to conduct a battle of attrition by proxy against the Soviet economy. The policy of body count was a deliberate provocation to force the Kremlin to constantly match the battlefield sacrifice of their partners in the march of history towards global domination by godless communism with the material assistance the Soviets couldn’t afford to make. Their ideology demanded it and the Pentagon planners exploited it.

The assassination of the Diem brothers made winning the battle of Vietnam impossible, but Dialectical Materialism assured our success in the larger Cold War. Vietnam is the reason why the Soviet Union no longer exists.

In this regards, Westmoreland was the perfect man for the job. The problem he had was that everybody at MAC-V lost sight of the fact that they couldn’t win the Vietnam battle and, while Tet was a military succces, LBJ et al had sold America on the wrong outcome.

The good news, of course, was that Nixon understood what was at stake and conducted the end game in such a way that our strategic aims were waccomplished. Of course, this doesn’t fit the Oliver Stone version of Vietnam, but if you contrast ROK with DPRK from space at night, that’s what we were trying to do in Vietnam before Hanoi’s aggression challenged that outcome. And if you review the images of the Berlin Wall coming down in 1989, that’s what we ended up accomplishing in Vietnam.

If JFK had served two terms, it’s possible we could have achieved an outcome similar to Iraq after the Petraeius “Surge” (based on the same COIN-national building principles employed by V-MAG and Abrams after Tet) and the “Purple finger” vote that Richard Armitage engineered, which is to say, RVN may have come to a place where they could conclude a status of forces treaty of a mature republic. The Oliver Stone version of Vietnam notwithstanding, I don’t think he would have pulled out in spite of shooting himself in the foot with the Diem brothers.

[first15tv-blog]

World of Guns: Gun Disassembly is your GO-TO game if you love guns and all the technical aspects of guns. This game allows you to disassemble the guns, shoot them in a range, and understand the deeper mechanics of each gun.

While the game is pretty straightforward, there are a TON of unlocking to do. So if you’re looking for a game that will allow you to try many different types of guns… you’re out of luck. You gotta unlock those yo!!!

This is more like a gun-wiki than anything else.

Roll GREED.

Watch the first 15 minutes of game play and review of World of Guns: Gun Disassembly here:

About World of Guns: Gun Disassembly

The program is as true and accurate as possible to the actual workings of its real-life counterpart. World of Guns:Gun Disassembly comes with seven different modes:

Field Strip

Operate

Disassembly

Assembly

Game

Super Game

Hardcore

In Disassembly and Assembly Mode, the X-Ray View looks directly through the gun to show you where all of the parts are located. In Operate Mode you can fire, slide moving parts, and reload the gun when the magazine is empty. Slow Motion View allows you to see the gun’s operation in even more detail. The Game Mode of this application is a mind-teasing puzzle. Here, you are given the challenge to rearrange and reassemble the gun in the fastest time. These times are then recorded locally and globally in our highscore tables, where you can compete with other users. Parts are usually assembled and disassembled in a logical order, but sometimes the order is determined by specific safety or mechanical limitations.

Available models:

Pistols

Glock 19

CZ75

Colt 1911

SIG P228

Beretta 92FS

Desert Eagle .44

S&W Sigma

Springfield XDM

Browning Hi-Power

Makarov (PM)

Jericho 941

Welrod MKII

Walther PP

Smith & Wesson M&P .40

Ruger SR9

GSh-18

HK USP

FN Five-seveN

Walther P99

APS (Stechkin Automatic Pistol)

Beretta PX4

CZ 52

SIG SP2022

SMG/Assault Pistols

MP5

Tec-9

Uzi

HK UMP 45

Kel-Tec PLR-16

FN P90

Mac-10

Scorpion vz. 61

B&T MP9

Kriss Vector .45 ACP

Sterling MK4

M3 Grease Gun

Launchers

RPG 7

M32

M79

Revolvers

Colt Python

S&W Model 53

Colt SAA

Ruger New Vaquero

Chiappa Rhino 200DS

Ruger Super Redhawk

Ruger Old Army

S&W Schofield

Webley MKVI

Colt Walker 1847

Nagant M1895

Webley Fosbery

Historical

Colt Hammer

Mauser C96

Borchard C93

Maxim

Harpers Ferry

Lewis Gun

Winchester 1873

Mauser 1914

Browning Automatic Rifle

Dreyse M1907

WWII

Tokarev Pistol

Luger P08

MP40

Sten MK II

M1 Garand

Thompson Gun

Mauser 98K

PPSH

Boys Anti-Tank Rifle

SKS Rifle

Mosin-Nagant

DP 27 machinegun

Walther P38

Lee Enfiled No.1 Mk III

STG/MP44

MG 34

Liberator FP-45

PTRD-41

Nambu Type 14

PTRS-41

MAS-36

Springfield M1903

PPD-40

Assault rifles

AK47

SIG SG552 commando

LR 300ML

HK G36E

FN FAL

FAMAS-F1

M-16

TAR-21

M4 Carbine

AK-74N

AKS-74U

AS Val

HK G3

FN SCAR-L

ArmaLite AR-18

Rifles

SIG SG550S

SVD

HK SL9SD

Barrett M107

M14

M200 CheyTac

Steyr Scout

VSS Vintorez

Remington 700

SVT-40

Type 99 Arisaka

Machine gun

M60

M134D ‘Minigun’

Browning M1919

Browning M2

RPK

MG3

DShK 38

Compact Guns

Ruger LCP

Derringer

COP 357

AMT Backup

Ruger LCR

Shotguns

Remington 870

Mossberg 500

Benelli M4

Browning A-5

SPAS-12

Winchester Model 21

Winchester 1897

Daewoo USAS-12

Artillery

ZiS divisional field gun

8,8 cm Flak 37

Sport

Ruger Mark II

Ruger 22 Charger

Marlin 336 Rifle

Ruger No.1

Beretta CX4 Storm

Browning Buck Mark

Calico M100

Bonus models Bike

Captain America

Ducati 916

Cars

Custom Hot Rod

Lotus Seven

AC Cobra

DeLorean

Military

Infantry fighting vehicle BMP-3

HMMWV A2

F4U Corsair

Skeletons

Human

Lion

Horilla

Horse

Allosaurus

Wolf

World of Guns: Gun Disassembly Media

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Get the game [HERE]

Tech Specs

OS: XP and higher

Memory: 1024 MB RAM

DirectX: Version 9.0c

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 200 MB available space

RECOMMENDED:

OS: XP and higher

Memory: 1024 MB RAM

Network: Broadband Internet connection

Storage: 200 MB available space

FIRST 15 MINUTES GAME PLAY – World of Guns: Gun Disassembly – The Virtual Gun Wiki! World of Guns: Gun Disassembly is your GO-TO game if you love guns and all the technical aspects of guns.

[strongpossibility]

Screen Relish reviews Nicolas Cage revenger Rage AKA Tokarev

[popcorncinemashow]

Tokarev (2014)

Genre: Action, Thriller

Stars Nicolas Cage

Directed by Paco Cabezas

UK Rating 15

Discs: 1

Released By Platform Entertainment

Blu-ray Released: 22 September 2014