#western in Vietnam I mean :'))

[nerdingz-obsessed]

I'm playing Star Wars: Survivor for the first time and chaps being one of the first customizables unlocked on the very obvious frontier planet is superior.

Star Wars Universe The Space Western forever my love ✨😩

[taylor-1107]

LONG NÓN LÁ | TÂM GIAO | OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO

[clamorybus]

ok do i understand why a lot of toddler and kid shows give characters parents and family in the military/police; "real kids in real life are in military/police families so we're just trying to be realistic", whatever

but said show runners never seem to think about the implications beyond that, or think about how kids outside of those contexts, who don't have those warm fuzzy (or even neutral) feelings, would see it

[specialmouse]

when i talk about japanese exceptionalism/fetishism being racist i dont mean that it solely affects, or even MOSTLY affects, japanese people. japan is the america of asia. japanese people on the mainland are fine. but what japanese exceptionalism and fetishism of japanese culture does is, well, exactly what it seems like im saying--it places japan (a deeply racist imperialist society) as the pinnacle of asian civilization. and what does that do? it places all other asian civilizations on a hierarchy, usually determined by skin color, and how close to "japanese" the asian person/asian ethnicity is. there's a reason why westerners are gooning over south korea right now and it's because they see a lot of similarities between south korean culture and japanese culture (which is funny because uh, colonialism guys. come on)---but hate china and the dprk, and see all of southeast asia as dirty and backwards.

when the archetypal japanese woman (pale, hairless, thin, yamato, submissive, etc.) is fetishized, it is usually not the japanese woman who faces the brunt of fetishistic violence (unless she is of the diaspora in which case... lol)--it is the vietnamese woman, the thai woman, the indonesian woman, etc., because they are more vulnerable to exploitation a) because they are more likely to be brown and *andre 3000 voice* across cultures darker skinned people suffer the most, b) southeast asian countries are still majorly suffering from the after effects of western colonialism and asymmetric warfare that leaves their country far worse off economically (particularly vietnam, laos, and cambodia) and, c) westerners, despite recognizing her as an asian woman, do not see her as a Japanese woman, and therefore treat her worse because they see her as uncivilized. there's a reason why, when pedophiles want an asian child, they go to thailand, not japan---because the sex tourism industry isn't something they can get rid of. japanese women are considered the ultimate trophy to be shown off as a sign of the man's virility and masculinity, and southeast asian women are seen as consolation prizes to the men who can't get the "real thing". do you know how many mixed asians i know whose dads scooped their moms up from a military base in the philippines or okinawa? and the mom has only gone to see her family maybe five times in 20 years? she's not the porcelain doll the man wanted, but she still has to try and "japanize" herself to be seen as even worthy of respect, which she still doesn't get because no matter what she does she will not be japanese. that's what japanese exceptionalism does.

[apas-95]

How did people's movements in China and Vietnam result in stable and prosperous nations despite almost every western democracy inevitably failing (and by fail I mean "be completely captured by bourgeoisie interests")?

bourgeois republics aren't 'captured by bourgeois interests', they're bourgeois class dictatorships, founded to further bourgeois interests - there was no time when these states didn't serve bourgeois interests, they are bourgeois states. they were created by the bourgeoisie in their revolutions against the feudal system and the aristocracy. the socialist states in china and vietnam were created by the proletariat in their revolutions against the capitalist system and the bourgeoisie.

[papenathys]

1 & 5 for the book ask thing

1 - Fave Books

Gun to my head, I had to narrow it down to five books and felt like drinking bleach throughout. In no particular order, they are as follows:

Providence Girls by Morgan Dante ( @ghostpoetics on tumblr): A historical cosmic horror novel set in 1940s New England which retells two Lovecraftian horror tales in the form of a tragic sapphic love story. Fucking broke me. Exists at the very specific juncture of my mind between the lesbian eroticism and healing from trauma of The Handmaiden, and the body horror and monster romance of The Shape of Water.

Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer: I'll be honest the movie was whatever for me but this book was what kids these days call a serve...a banger even. Don't know how the author described the surreal morphing sentient, geographic, sort of sci-fi sort of psychological– sort of straight up eldritch horror?? but it terrified the shit out of me, because everything was so beautiful, so unsettling and so distorted, that by the end I wanted to be consumed alive by the fungi and the lighthouse moss too. Also the biologist is to me what Camille Preaker and Abigail Hobbs are to vaguely sad white girls on tumblr.

Walking Practice by Dolki Min: An allegory for queer peoples' alienation in South Korea, wrapped up in a gruesome, dark and funny little story about a crash-landed alien that kills people via dating app stalking. Not only was this book fucking fantastic visually in terms of typesetting and illustrations, but also the translation was genuinely great. And while the narration was very funny, there were also many passages that were gut-punchingly tragic and raw, and captured how it feels to be trans, queer and disabled in a homophobic, conservative society.

Blue Hunger by Viola Di Grado: Gorgeous litfic novella about a young Italian teacher grieving the loss of her brother, who moves to Shanghai and has a toxic, obsessive, dreamlike affair with a Chinese lesbian, one of her new students. This one is not for everybody because the romance is extremely imbalanced, unhealthy and nasty but also I don't care because the writing was so hauntingly beautiful. Think cityscapes, urban loneliness, lesbian sex in dirty alleys and grief striking you at the oddest, sweatiest, most surreal hour of night.

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen: Scathingly powerful political-historical satire novel, about a Viet Cong spy in the South Vietnamese army who escapes to USA during the 1970s fall of Saigon, and once there, finds himself repulsed and fascinated by the heinous facade and global crimes perpetuated by the Western intellectual, political and military complex that he both loathes and lusts after. Easily the best book I read this year, banger from beginning to end, reminded me why I love historical fiction. It TEARS apart American imperialism, the politics of colonial/orientalist academia, propaganda film, and anti-communist fear mongering in the 70s, during the Vietnam war. Delicious and horrifying usage of the unreliable narrator. Extremely relevant, timely read today. If there's one book you take from this list, it should be this one.

5 - Book I would recommend to anyone

We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds. It's a YA novel about a teen Black girl who moves to rural Georgia with her parents to look after her terminally ill, estranged maternal grandmother, but ends up having a whirlwind summer as the dark, violent and tragic secrets of her family's past–and that of her mother's childhood hometown–comes to light. This is possibly one of the best young adult books I ever read, it felt like a cross between a coming-of-age film, and a classic historical transgenerational family saga. It was at once a love letter to finding queer and Black joy and community in a conservative Southern town, but also harrowing grief about historic racism and police brutality and how trauma informs identity, as does love. I mean this in the most respectful way possible: in parts this reminded me of Toni Morrison's Beloved, that's how fucking good it was.

[gatheringbones]

[“The traditional politics of the Vietnamese villager was that of accommodation. “The essence of small people is that of grass,” wrote Confucius. “And when a wind passes over the grass, it cannot choose but bend.” In the days of the old empire the people of the villages did their best to avoid participation in the power struggles of their leaders. They preferred to hold themselves impassive, secret, while the warlord armies passed by, and to commit themselves only when the struggle had already been decided in the heavens. As long as the new rulers guaranteed them a minimum of security, the villagers would accept their authority. To resist was to invite destruction, for the conflict, having no rules, could not be settled except by unconditional surrender. Even the high mandarins did not resist implacable force. If unable to “bend” and serve the new sovereign, they would accept the will of Heaven and commit suicide on the battlefield.

Brought up in the traditional manner, the villagers of the 1960’s had learned that their very lives depended upon their “self-control,” or, in Western terms, their ability to repress those feelings which might bring them into conflict with others. As children they played no contact sports. (When the Westerners brought football to Vietnam, they did not perhaps realize the difficulties the game might provoke.) As adults they took pains to avoid even the smallest argument with their neighbors. Between father and son, superior and inferior, the relationship was even more delicate. When mistreated by his landlord, the tenant, for instance, would tend not to blame the landlord for fear that the conflict might finally break all of the bonds between them. Indeed, his emotion for the landlord might not surface in the conscious mind as anger: he would feel “shame” or “disappointment” that his own behavior or his own fate had brought him to such a low status in the eyes of the landlord.

One former Front soldier gave an excellent illustration of this attitude:

Q. Tell me a little about your background. A. I was the eighth of ten children and we were very poor. We had no land of our own. I tended ducks for other people. We were moved around a great deal. Once I tried to save money and buy a flock of ducks to raise for myself, but I failed. I never married. Once I fell in love with a village girl, but I was so ashamed of my status that I did not dare declare my love to her.

Q. Were you angry at society because of this?

A. I thought if we were poor it was our own fault. I told myself that probably my poverty was the result of some terrible acts of my ancestors. I was sad but not angry.

Such acquiescence before authority had its place within a stable, family-based community, where custom and community pressure insured a measure of economic and social justice. But within a disordered and unequal society, it hardened the status quo and denied not only the poor peasants but all Vietnamese not actually in power a voice in their country’s future.

The villagers often resented their government officials, but they made no complaints, for they saw them as instruments of the distant, implacable power of heaven or Fate which they had no means to influence. In the same way, the students of the Saigon university — the sons and daughters of the Diemist officials — made no protest against the Diem regime until the Buddhists led them to it. Like the poorest and most ignorant of the peasants, they simply assumed that they had no power to change the course of events.

Curiously enough, among all the political groups in Vietnam, the Communists alone recognized this political passivity as a psychological problem amenable to a psychological solution. One PRP directive made a very precise formulation of it:

Daily the masses are oppressed and exploited by the imperialists and feudalists and therefore are disposed to hate them and their crimes. But their hatred is not focused; it is diffuse. The masses think their lot is determined by fate. They do not see that they have been deprived of their rights. They do not understand the purpose and method of the Revolution. They do not have confidence in us. They swallow [sic] their hatred and resentment or resign themselves to enduring oppression and terror, or, if they do struggle, they do so in a weak and sporadic manner. For all these reasons agit-prop work is necessary to stir up the masses, to make them hate the enemy to a high degree, to make them understand their rights and the purpose and method of the Revolution, and to develop confidence in our capability.

The solution of the Viet Minh, like that of the NLF, was the systematic encouragement of hatred. In 1946, just after the French broke off negotiations with the Democratic Republic in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh began to make a series of speeches that now seem quite uncharacteristic of him. Usually the coolest and least emotional of revolutionaries, he denounced the French not only as colonial oppressors but as perpetrators of the most lurid crimes against women and children. On the battlefields as in the most remote of the villages, his cadres conducted a massive propaganda campaign to call forth the emotion of hatred. Reciting lists of the French crimes (no doubt both real and imaginary), they would produce evidence in the form of artillery shells or corpses and call upon the villagers to describe their sufferings in the hands of the “colonialists” and “feudalists.”8 Hatred was the beginning of the revolution, for hatred meant a clean break in all the circuits of dependency that had bound the Vietnamese to the Westerners, the landlords, and the old notables.

Quite correctly the Party directive equated “hatred of the enemy” with the masses’ “understanding of their own rights,” for shame is anger turned against self. In calling upon the villagers to blame the “feudalists” and the “American imperialists and their lackeys” for their sufferings, the NLF was making a new map of the world on which the villagers might reroute their lives. The enemy was no longer inside, but outside in the world of objective phenomena; the world moved not according to blind, transcendent forces, but according to the will of the people.

In the idea that they might change their lives the villagers possessed a source of power more efficient than a hundred machine guns, for to blame Fate for all injustice was to fire into the air and render any weapon useless. As Ho Chi Minh said to the last of the French emissaries, “I have no army, I have no finances, I have no education system. I have only my hatred, and I will not disarm my hatred until I can trust you.” Hatred was the key to the vast, secret torrents of energy that lay buried within the Vietnamese people, to a power that to those who possessed it seemed limitless and indestructible. As the interview with one prisoner went:

Q. What about the fact that the GVN has planes, armor and artillery and the Front does not? What difference does that make?

A. It is only a matter of course. The French also had planes and armored cars, but they were defeated. The ARVN has had planes and armored cars for ten years and what have they accomplished?… In this war the decisive factor is the people. Weapons are dead things. By themselves they cannot function. It is the people who use the weapons and make them effective.”]

frances fitzgerald, from fire in the lake: the vietnamese and the americans in vietnam, 1972

[alwaysbewoke]

NINE HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS COMPARE ZIONIST POLICIES TO THOSE OF THE NAZIS

“Sometime after [1956] I heard a news item about Israelis herding Palestinians into settlement camps. I just could not believe this. Weren’t the Israelis also Jews? Hadn’t we – they – just survived the greatest pogrom of our history? Weren’t [concentration] camps – often euphemistically called ‘settlement camps’ by the Nazis – the main feature of this pogrom? How could Jews in any measure do unto others what had been done to them? How could these Israeli Jews oppress and imprison other people? In my romantic imagination, the Jews in Israel were socialists and people who knew right from wrong. This was clearly incorrect. I felt let down, as if I was being robbed of a part of what I had thought was my heritage. …

I have to say to the Israeli government, which claims to speak in the name of all Jews, that it is not speaking in my name. I will not remain silent in the face of the attempted annihilation of the Palestinians; the sale of arms to repressive regimes around the world; the attempt to stifle criticism of Israel in the media worldwide; or the twisting of the knife labelled ‘guilt’ in order to gain economic concessions from Western countries. Of course, Israel’s geo-political position has a greater bearing on this, at the moment. I will not allow the confounding of the terms ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘anti-Zionist’ to go unchallenged.”

Dr. Marika Sherwood, ‘How I became an anti-Israel Jew’, Middle East Monitor, 7/3/18. Marika Sherwood is a survivor of the Budapest ghetto.

-----

“Israel, in order to survive, has to renounce the wish for domination and then it will be a much better place for Jews also. The immediate analogy which a lot of people are making in Israel is Germany. Not only the Germany of Hitler and the Nazis but even the former German Empire wanted to dominate Europe. What happened in Japan after the attack on China is that they wanted to dominate a huge area of Asia. When Germany and Japan renounced the wish for domination, they became much nicer societies for the Japanese and Germans themselves. In addition to all the Arab considerations, I would like to see Israel, by renouncing the desire for domination, including domination of the Palestinians, become a much nicer place for Israelis to live.”

Dr. Israel Shahak, Middle East Policy Journal, Summer 1989, no.29. Israel Shahak was a survivor of the Warsaw ghetto and Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

-----

“I am pained by the parallels I observe between my experiences in Germany prior to 1939 and those suffered by Palestinians today. I cannot help but hear echoes of the Nazi mythos of ‘blood and soil’ in the rhetoric of settler fundamentalism which claims a sacred right to all the lands of biblical Judea and Samaria. The various forms of collective punishment visited upon the Palestinian people – coerced ghettoization behind a ‘security wall’; the bulldozing of homes and destruction of fields; the bombing of schools, mosques, and government buildings; an economic blockade that deprives people of the water, food, medicine, education and the basic necessities for dignified survival – force me to recall the deprivations and humiliations that I experienced in my youth. This century-long process of oppression means unimaginable suffering for Palestinians.” 

Dr. Hajo Meyer, ‘An Ethical Tradition Betrayed’, Huffington Post, 27/1/10. Hajo Meyer was a survivor of Auschwitz.

-----

“As a Jewish youngster growing up in Budapest, an infant survivor of the Nazi genocide, I was for years haunted by a question resounding in my brain with such force that sometimes my head would spin: ‘How was it possible? How could the world have let such horrors happen?’

 It was a naïve question, that of a child. I know better now: such is reality. Whether in Vietnam or Rwanda or Syria, humanity stands by either complicitly or unconsciously or helplessly, as it always does. In Gaza today we find ways of justifying the bombing of hospitals, the annihilation of families at dinner, the killing of pre-adolescents playing soccer on a beach. …

There is no understanding Gaza out of context – Hamas rockets or unjustifiable terrorist attacks on civilians – and that context is the longest ongoing ethnic cleansing operation in the recent and present centuries, the ongoing attempt to destroy Palestinian nationhood.

The Palestinians use tunnels? So did my heroes, the poorly armed fighters of the Warsaw Ghetto. Unlike Israel, Palestinians lack Apache helicopters, guided drones, jet fighters with bombs, laser-guided artillery. Out of impotent defiance, they fire inept rockets, causing terror for innocent Israelis but rarely physical harm. With such a gross imbalance of power, there is no equivalence of culpability. …

And what shall we do, we ordinary people? I pray we can listen to our hearts. My heart tells me that ‘never again’ is not a tribal slogan, that the murder of my grandparents in Auschwitz does not justify the ongoing dispossession of Palestinians, that justice, truth, peace are not tribal prerogatives. That Israel’s ‘right to defend itself,’ unarguable in principle, does not validate mass killing.

Dr. Gabor Mate, ‘Beautiful Dream of Israel has become a Nightmare’, Toronto Star, 22/7/14. Gabor Mate is a survivor of the Budapest ghetto.

[absolutebl]

Hello! In the latest EP of I Feel You Linger in the Air, Yai addresses Jom as Por Jom. Jom seems surprised but I have no understanding of what Por means so it's significance is lost on me. Perhaps you can help shed some light? Also, how was Yai addressing Jom before?

Por/phor honorific in Thai - I Feel You Linger in the Air

I'm glad you asked it so I don't have to.

I have not encountered it before in BL.

Any of the the Thai language spies still out there wanna weigh in?

I did some poking around - but I could be way off base. Still this what I discovered:

Por is a paternal honorific, luang por is used for respected monks.

So I am assuming this use is relatively old fashioned (the reason we don't hear it often in our normal BL) and either one step more intimate or, more likely, one step more respectful than no honorific. Possibly scholarly?

I'm thinking all this has to do with Jom's demonstration of education. Yai has figured out that one of the reasons Jom doesn't belong and cannot fit in with the servants is that he is more educated than a peasant, which adds up to him being originally from a high status and wealthy family, especially speaking English and having travelled (he has a non-Chang Mai accent).

There is very little Thai middle class at the beginning of the 1920s since trade is being dominated/dictated by the West, or Chinese merchant operations, and Siam is a monarchy. So for a nationalize Thai citizen it's either military, landed gentry with trade operations (like Yai), military, or... none of the above. This changes, especially in the south, throughout this decade (as it did in other parts of the world). So there is a rising bourgeoisie going on in the background but it's not that obvious in Chang Mai at this time.

What this means to Yai is that Jom's family either got wiped out or politically entirely disenfranchised possibly as part of the 1912 attempted coups (or even WWI)? This would be mystifying for Yai because Jom doesn't act like he comes from a military family at all. So his background and status is very confusing for Yai, but Yai does know one thing...

Jom is NOT lower class by the standards of Yai's temporal worldview and existence.

For a young man to be educated and yet entirely alone is very dangerous and suspicious. Also, let's be clear, Jom doesn't look or act like a laborer. He red flags "cultured" all over the place.

Yai is paternalistic and caring towards Jom out the gate because Yai has a big ol'crush but also because he recognizes "his own" is trying to survive while isolated and scared. Yai wants to rescue Jom.

Some Historical Context for I Feel You Linger In The Air

I love history and so here's some quick info that any Thai watcher would likely know, but you might not... ready?

Remember:

Burma (Myanmar) to the west is occupied by the British.

The French hold Vietnam to the east.

Everyone is bickering over what would become Cambodia & Laos.

China occasionally gets involved from the North (also, lots of immigrants from China at this time accounting for a large percentage of the merchant/middle class)

Eventually, Japan would invade during WWII.

In part, The Kingdom of Siam was kept a "neutral" party because none of the surrounding colonial powers wanted to risk offending any of the other players in the area.

Siam re-negotiated sovereignty in 1920 (from USA) and 1925 (France & Britain). But during the time of this show (mid to late 1920s) it was back to it's customary type-rope balancing act of extreme diplomacy with the allied western colonial powers that surrounded it. Recognizing that Thailand was never colonized, it's boarders were constantly nibbled at and it was "ambassador-occupied" off and on by Westerners whose military backing and exploitive business concerns simply outmatched the monarchy, especially in the technology department (as well as by reputation on the global stage at the time).

In other words, the farang in this show (James & Robert) are bound to be both the baddies and the power players of the narrative.

The king of Siam at the time (Vajiravudh AKA Rama VI) was initially somewhat popular but also regarded as overly extravagant since Siam was hit by a major postwar recession in 1919. It should be noted that King Vajiravudh had no son because he was most likely gay (which at the time did not much concern Siamese popular opinion, EXCEPT THAT it undermined the stability of the monarchy).

He "died suddenly" in 1925 (age 44) with the monarchy weakened and succession handed off to his younger brother.

In 1932 a small circle of the rising bourgeoisie (all of whom had studied in Europe, mostly Paris), supported by some military, seized power from the monarchy in a practically nonviolent Siamese Revolution installing a constitutional monarchy.

Siam would then go through: dictatorship, WWII, Japanese invasion, Allied occupation, democratic elections, military junta, the Indochina wars, communist insurgency, more democracy and popularization movements, multiple coups, more junta, more monarchy, eventually leading us to the somewhat chaotic insanity of Thai politics we have today. (Which is, frankly, a mix of monarchy, junta, democracy, egocentric popularism, and bribery.)

(source)

[mesetacadre]

not a marxist (yet) so can i ask if it's generally agreed upon that capitalism is the primary contradiction why theres a subset of ppl saying it's actually settler colonialism or it's actually this other thing?

You're getting a little bit confused over these terms. The primary contradiction of capitalism is class, because the antagonism between the exploiter class (the capitalist class, the group of people who own the means of production) and the exploited class (the working class, the group of people who sell their labor power in exchange for a portion of the value they create, a salary) creates a struggle between them that will, eventually, cause the collapse of capitalism, and if the working class is prepared, replaced with socialism. If you see people saying that capitalism creates its own demise, this is what they mean.

There are other contradictions within capitalism, more or less inherent, more or less specific. For example, the conflict between different sectors of the capitalist class that manifest through means like parlamentarism or interimperialist wars can create a deepened crisis that could lead to an overthrow by the working class, or it could not.

Settler colonialism, on the other hand, is a particularly oppressive form that imperialist capitalism (the current a highest stage of capitalism, as described by Lenin) can take in the imperial periphery, such as in Palestine or the Sahrawi Republic (Western Sahara). Within these states or territories that suffer settler colonialism, the primary contradiction does become the settler-indigenous* relation. It becomes the more pressing matter, the main and precedent form of oppression, and the specific contradictions it spawns will contribute to its collapse. Such has been the case in most of the world already, take South Africa, Zimbabwe and Algeria as examples. It is also important to note that a vanguard party, like the PFLP, could successfully take advantage of the collapse of Israeli colonialism and inmediately organize a socialist revolution, given it possesses enough strength and organizes a sufficient portion of the Palestinian working class, but it isn't a given. Not understanding this is the mistake more immediatist forms of communism make, such as some trotskyists saying "the palestinian working class should rise up against the palestinian bourgeoisie".

Settler colonialism is distinct from "normal" manifestations of imperialism in this fact, in the precedence the class struggle takes. Other places, such as in Burkina Faso, Cuba, or Vietnam, are places in the imperial core in which their socialist revolutions did not have to ally with non-communist elements to kick out the imperialist capitalist class and then maybe do their own revolution, because the absence of the more "aggressive" settler colonialism allowed them to get rid of imperialist subjugation and capitalism in one fell swoop. In most places in Africa, however, the more explicit forms of European colonialism (and not settler-colonialism) did eventually fall to popular uprisings or under their own weight, but were replaced by their own national bourgeoisie who still sold off their country to imperialists anyway.

Capitalism or settler colonialism are not contradictions by themselves, the contradictions are the mechanisms and elements that these systems create which have the potential to make them extremely weak or outright collapse.

[terrence-silver]

Started rewatching Karate Kid III, but got distracted and started watching an old western with Lon Chaney(Jr.), thought of the original Phantom of the Opera🖤, promptly went down the rabbit hole of filmography for Chaney Sr., and I realized so, SO many movies from 1910-1920 are just lost?? It broke my heart a bit, even though they were most likely very short silent films.

But! I learned that the wealthy would sometimes buy the film reel (if not the only film reel of a film.. ever) and add it to their own ✨️private collection✨️. Anyways, can you imagine how romantic of a date that would be with Terry? Watching some old, old movies, that have probably been exclusive to his family alone for years. Getting to indulge in champagne and sweets, cuddled up to 6 foot 5 man, as some poor sap has to crank the ole projector. Maybe manipulating beloved to feel exclusive in his life, or.. maybe he's sincere in trying to make beloved feel special🤭

---

I always felt a date with Terry Silver in any era would have this...slightly surreal quality.

Because, yeah, consider it; he owns so many antiques. So many rare weapons. So many vintage wines. So many cars. So many things you can only ever acquire if you're in possession of an exuberant amount of money and some questionable connections, like in the case of his old Rembrandt that was thought lost for ages or the fact that he lived in a mansion resembling a Mayan Temple (that is thought to be haunted according to urban legend), that it is a bit like entering a world of it's own entirely, or hey, to keep with the topic of this ask, even the movies this man watches, they aren't movies anyone else watches or can watch. Why? Because they're forgotten films only a sinfully rich collector like himself could get their hands on from all sorts of unlikely sources, meaning that you're literally seeing something...you've never seen before. And he might even highlight that, entirely proud of himself.

-"Now,"- He begins, slapping his hands together in contentment followed by a smile as a silent assistant handling the delicate material with gloved hands inside of his home theatre cranks that projector and the reel lights up the hall, flickering. -"I'll bet you've never seen anything like this."-

And you've indeed never seen any of the lost French documentaries of Georges Méliès between 1895-96, Japanese movies thought to have disappeared during WWII, any of the flicks on the BFI 75 Most Wanted list, Andy Worhol's first ever film, Theda Bara's Cleopatra, the complete works of Valeska Suratt, flicks Terry swears were discovered in a salt mine somewhere, the first ever 'talkies', prints thought destroyed in the 1965 MGM vault fire, London After Midnight, The First Men in The Moon from 1919 or goodness gracious, even some exceptionally rare erotica scraped up from the bottom of some forgotten archive somewhere because nobody else has seen any of them either in over a century. You're sipping a wine older than you are, you've just got the exclusive tour of his collection of centuries old weapons and now you're watching a movie human eyes haven't seen in over a hundred years. It is an intense experience. In fact, it's an experience that resembles a dream that is pretty difficult to explain even to your own self, which is not to say the experience would be bad, it would simply be...downright phantasmagorical. It might immediately hit you that Terry Silver is quite literally like no man you've ever met before, because no man you've ever met before has done any of this.

Or hey, since you've mentioned it, a movie exclusive to his family alone?

Why the heck not!

What if he's in possession of some short film reels or photographic clips he took in Vietnam? Hey, not all that unbelievable. Maybe you see some of familiar faces immortalized, like a young Kreese, some scrawny, curly haired kid mingling around or hey, who's that guy with the ponytail!? Goodness, is that a young Terry? If we want to go full-on creepy, he might just hum and confirm, saying yes, because who else could it possibly be? What if he owns some rather unsavory military movies he recorded; images of the dead kept like trophies. Interrogations. Torture. These things can go as far as imagination allows, or a brighter note, what if, say, his mother was an actress --- not a famous one, but someone who pumped out like one or two smaller projects in, for example, the 30's Silent era Hollywood before she got married and had him and those copies stayed in his family ever since because his father was staunch and very meticulous on who owns moving pictures containing his wife. Bought all the copies off of George Cukor for a smaller fortune back in the days, at the height of the Great Depression, no less.

-"Who is that?"- You may ask, cuddled up to him, struck with an odd familiarity following the woman on the screen. You shiver for reasons you cannot quite explain other than the fact that watching something so old can naturally give someone the occasionally eerie sensation. She vaguely reminds you of someone. -"My mother."- He could answer.

Whatever the case, whatever the scenario one deems most likely of these, or any others totally unrelated one might come up with, one thing is perfectly clear and that's that said movie evening isn't something that is easily forgotten, if ever.

[fromtenthousandfeet]

I did some math

A quick post because I have dinner reservations and a trip to pack for.

We've talked a lot recently about Jungkook's popularity vs. Jimin's. I keep insisting JM is more popular, but nobody seems to believe me. Since I like data so much, I did a deep dive into the Spotify charts for September 25, 2024. Specifically, I tallied up the total number of streams WHO, SEVEN, and SNTY are getting from Vietnam and Thailand. Can we all agree that those streaming numbers are always a little fishy?

First, as of 9/25, WHO was charting in 47 countries. SEVEN was charting in 20, and SNTY was charting in 12.

On the Global Spotify Chart, WHO was #3, SEVEN was #34, and SNTY was #75.

First, I calculated the percentage of streams coming from Thailand and Vietnam for each song.

15% of WHO's streams were coming from Thailand and Vietnam.

29% of SEVEN's streams were coming from the two countries.

32% of SNTY's streams were coming from there.

Jungkook is getting double the percentage of streams from Thailand and Vietnam than Jimin is, even though his song is newer.

Next, I subtracted the number of streams from TH/VN from each of the three songs to see how it would impact the charts.

WHO dropped from #3 to #7 on the Global Spotify chart.

SEVEN dropped from #34 to #61 without TH/VN/

SNTY went from #75 to #87.

If the goal was for Jungkook to have huge inroads in the US, it's not working. Both SEVEN and SNTY were each charting in just one country in South America. They weren't charting in any western European countries, either. His songs are charting in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, and Asia.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with being popular in those places. And it's impressive he still has two songs charting considering how old they are. I think SEVEN will still be charting 20 years from now, whether I like it or not.

These numbers don't really mean anything other than to demonstrate that JK's support is not coming from North and South America or Western Europe, which is problematic when you consider how much money the company has spent to make him popular in these markets.

[leroibobo]

last post reignighted old memories, here’s some more navajo country/place neologisms that i know (exclusively asia this time, would do all continents but then the post would be too long; also, again, i'm not too knowledgeable here, please correct me if you know navajo at all):

some of the neologisms have patterns. not everything that fits into a category follows the pattern, but it's good to get them out of the way. also, "bikéyah" can mean land, homeland, country, and continent. in most names the implication is "country", but i'll use "land" for clarity.

the color blue in navajo culture is associated with the south, so the name for south asians, naakaii dootłʼizhí, literally means "blue traveller". i'm not entirely sure what the "traveller" in the name refers to, but if i had to guess, it's shorthand to indicate that south asians would have to travel to get to the navajo country, as there may not have been an easy translation/neologism for “south asian”. naakaii is also used to refer to spaniards and by extension mexicans, and naakaii łizhinii (black travelers) to black people in the americas.

bangladesh - Haʼaʼaahjí Naakaii Dootłʼizhí Bikéyah (eastern land of the south asians)

pakistan - Eʼeʼaahjí Naakaii Dootłʼizhí Bikéyah (western land of the south asians)

sri lanka - Naakaii Dootłʼizhí Bikéyah Dah Naaʼeełígíí (land of the south asians if you go up (?))

east asians are binááʼádaałtsʼózí, literally "their eyes are narrow".

japan - Binááʼádaałtsʼózí dineʼé bikéyah (land of the east asians)

korea - Binááʼádaałtsʼózí Dineʼé Bikéyah Yázhí (small land of the east asians; add náhookǫsjí (northern) or shádiʼááhjí (southern) at the front to get north/south korea respectively)

thailand - Binááʼádaałtsʼózí Chʼídadeeldlóóhí Bikéyah (east asians' land of the elephants. elephant is literally "its nose is a roper/lassoer"; animal name construction like that is common for pretty much all languages, english has prairie dog where navajo has dlǫ̀ǫ̀ for example)

add dootłʼizhí (blue) to that to get southeast asians. (not sure why thailand's not here, maybe it was coined earlier?)

cambodia - Shádiʼááhjí Binááʼádaałtsʼózí Dootłʼizhí Bikéyah (southern land of the southeast asians)

vietnam - Tábąąh Binááʼádaałtsʼózí Dootłʼizhí Bikéyah (beach/sandy land of the southeast asians, probably referring to its place on the map)

chinese people are tsiiʼyishbizhí diné, literally "the people with braided hair", a reference to queues. this was coined by code talkers.

china - Tsiiʼyishbizhí Dineʼé Bikéyah (land of chinese)

hong kong - Shádiʼááhjí Tsiiʼyishbizhí Bikin Haalʼá (southern city of the chinese whos' houses [are ordered differently from each other?])

taiwan - Tsiiʼyishbizhí Dineʼé Bikéyah (small land of chinese)

navajo doesn't have an "r" sound so i'm guessing "ásáí" (arab) is a loan fit to navajo best as possible.

jordan - Náálíníbąąh Ásáí Dineʼé Bikéyah (land of the arabs along the white(?) [something])

saudi arabia - Ásáí Dineʼé Bikéyah Ntsaaígíí (big land of the arabs)

yemen - Shádiʼááhjí Ásáí bikéyah (southern land of the arabs)

not everyone who lives in a place may have the ascribed characteristics in a name, whether it's being arab or having narrow eyes, so this is your reminder that these names are meant to be fairly basic, and etymology isn't always perfectly reflective of everything a concept encompasses in any language (like how i'm using "navajo", which is an exonym, and not diné). besides, it's not like the borders created by european colonists were any more sensitive.

everything else i know, other than the ones i wrote on the previous post:

bhutan - Iiʼniʼ Tłʼiishtsoh Bikéyah (land of the thunder dragon)

indonesia - Kéyah Dah Ndaaʼeełí Łání (the many islands (literally floating lands))

iran - Tsiikʼi Déíbaalí Bikéyah (land of those who have flowing hair? if i got the translation right, i have no idea what this is referring to. i know that long hair is an important part in navajo culture but something tells me that's not the case/there's more to it than that here)

iraq and/or syria - Honoojítah Tooh Dineʼé Bikéyah (land of the people of the [something] river[s?]; probably a reference to the tigris and euphrates rivers)

lebanon - Gadtsoh Dineʼé Bikéyah (land of the people of great/big cedars)

mongolia - Chʼah diʼilii bikéyah (land of those who wear furry hats)

oman - Bidiltłish Shizhahí Bikéyah (land of those who's sword is [something], probably a reference to the flag)

tajikistan - Dziłtah Hóteelnii Bikéyah (land among the broad mountains)

uzbekistan - Naakʼaʼatʼą́ąhnii Bikéyah (land of cloth. maybe a reference to the silk road?)

[apas-95]

troops from many corners of the globe have been involved in afghanistan, iraq, vietnam etc but ppl dont call these world wars which is the only reason i singled out the imperial core, western europe in this case being under threat bc realistically thats why as far as i can tell ppl from the imperial core consider wwi and wwii to be “world wars” but not other global conflicts. like u just made fun of me for assuming by world war u meant one where the imperial core is under threat and then continued to talk about it as meaning just that? or am i misunderstanding lol. anyway sorry for sending on anon im just embarasaed by my uninformed opinions >//<

Don't worry, I'm not making fun of you. I apologise if my tone led you to believe otherwise.

The fact that many imperialist nations together invaded various poor countries does not make them 'world wars', just the same as the seven-nation alliance of european empires that invaded and looted China during the century of humiliation did not constitute a 'world war' - because these nations were all united in plunder, and, really, barely carrying out 'war' as much as simple banditry.

The world wars of the previous century were notable for being conflicts between empires - including, yes, the USA. The conflict between these empires does not necessarily need to manifest as a ground invasion of their territories, especially in this, the age of nuclear deterrence - and would much more likely appear as proxy conflicts in their imperial holdings, such as already occurs between French and Russian forces in Africa.

Nobody ever attempted an invasion of the US in the previous two world wars because it was impractical, and now similarly it is impractical to attempt an invasion of any given nuclear state - but the point of the inter-imperialist conflict is the acquisition of competitor's imperial territories, not necessarily the cannibalisation of the competitor itself.

Given modern military technologies and the conception of greyzone warfare, indirect fires against the imperial core could be carried out - so, cruise missile strikes, etc - but as has been demonstrated in the Ukraine, actual red lines tend to lean more towards a 'sustainable' type of war (whose existence is entirely uncertain at this point).

To summarise: firstly, world war generally refers to conflict between imperialist states, and between imperialist spheres of influence; secondly, world war does not necessarily mean invasion of the imperial core; and thirdly, you are my friend and I love you, do not be embarrassed.

[ninelivesastrology]

Let the Malefics be malefic!

Sometimes, new age spirituality concepts and language sneak their way into astrology and muddles it down. New age spirituality has only been a thing since the 70s while astrology has been around for thousands of years. It's weird to think of New Age spirituality popping up during the 70s because timeline wise, it looks like an escape from the Vietnam War. Currently, new age spirituality is a pipeline to the alt-right and QAnon concepts. Not joking.

We have to let the Malefics be malefic without justifying their significations with bastardized western concepts of karma or suffering for something greater. Bad things happen because they can and there doesn't have to be any reason behind it. I double down on this because every time I get on the internet, I see something horrific and I never ask myself, "Why?" with intent to answer, "Because it was meant to happen."

The real ones know that planets that aren't malefic can be even worse than a malefic.

Astrology can be the most versatile and down to earth tool of symbolism, self-reflection and divination if we allow it to be. It's not an escape. It's not a canvas one can project what they want to and think everyone who doesn't is fearmongering. People have made everything about certain planets personalized, now nobody wants to hear truth or watch the planets be applied to real scenarios.

Planets mean things. Let them mean things. Don't speak over people's experiences especially if they're able to accurately delineate.

Knowledge is power.

[crab-milk]

What is lion dancing? You've mentioned it before, but I don't think I've seen it before

I'm particularly new to the world of lion dancing myself, but I hope this could also help! Lion dancing is a Asian tradition that blends puppetry, martial arts, and dancing that has been around 206 BC. Although it originated from China, countries like Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and South-East Asian countries have their own respective forms of lion dancing. There's actually quite a few types out there, but they can be identified by their martial art forms, lion heads, or nationalities. I'm probably going to info dump now so I'll cut it here for others to read if they'd like.

Before we get into that, I have to clear some common misconceptions. Lions are NOT dragons. Dragons are puppets that generally have 6 or 9 people holding it up on poles and are long (龙 lóng - do you get the joke lol). Foo dogs are technically lions, but the terminology was derived from white people who mistook lions as chow chow dogs.

To clear further confusion, the reason they're called lions is because allegedly, when China started trading with the western world, lions and their pelts were only reserved for the wealthy. Poor people spread word about what lions looked like, and it somehow turned out that way. There's a lot of mythology surrounding why people do lion dances, but the shorter version is that the lion scares off demons and ill-intentioned spirits from villages. It's now a tradition at openings of businesses, weddings, funerals, and festivities.

Most people are generally used to seeing southern Chinese or Cantonese lions. Traditionally, all of these lions are male and have different variations, again based on nationality or style of martial arts that it's derived from. There are northern lions, which have a male and female (red and green bows respectively), as well as Japanese and Korean lions, which are mostly comprised of wooden masks and long fur.

I'll mostly focus on southern Chinese lions, but they're all pretty neat! I mostly practice Fut-San lion dancing, which is a pretty common form. They notably have a ":3" face and the style of martial arts (wushu) is considered a very common standard for southern Chinese lions. Recent variations of these lion heads also have pom-poms as they are derived from Beijing opera costumes. Each lion also has a pointed horn on the top. They can also have fluffy or wiry fur for its eyelids and mouth, but there exists variations with bristles instead, which may signify that the lion is based on a historical military figure (kind of similar to how Beijing opera singers do specific makeup for specific characters).

These are generally more common in other countries. South-east Asian versions of the lions are extremely decorated, intricate, and distinct.

Hok-San lions are also pretty common. They are distinguished by having a "snake" horn which means the horn curls into a circle at the end and a ":)" face.

Despite their differences, all southern lions have a mirror in the front to ward off evil spirits, some horn with a bow attached, and a beard. Traditionally, the mirror is there to scare off spirits who look into it. The horn is generally added after the lion is almost finished being made, and the bow on the horn is added ceremoniously to bless the lion and honor the gods. It is highly recommended people don't touch them, save for the practical reasons of dirtying the mirror or tearing off the delicate horn, but also to avoid getting bad luck from ill-intentioned spirits.

That aside, I'd like to finally to talk about what to do when you see lions! If you have red pockets of money, the lion eats them up (and the performer in the head puts everything in their sweaty shirt). Sometimes, lions go and play with the audience, so feel more than welcome to pet them or play fight with them! Each performer has their own distinct personality that they play in the lion and as a result, have a lot to share with the audience!

I could go on and on, but I'm afraid this is really long for no reason. I hope this info dump helped!