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ltwilliammowett · 4 years ago

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Admiral Sir Sidney Smith

Well, Sidney Smith was one of the most colourful personalities of his time. He was arrogant, wilful, pompous, energetic, extravagant, capable, brave, theatrical and boastful. A flamboyant genius who could not stop talking about himself, and who claimed that he was perhaps the best English-Frenchman that ever lived , he was nonetheless always happy to dispense praise on others, generally after they had been inspired to great deeds by his over-brimming self-confidence, diligence and determination. He had a reputation for being kind-tempered, kind-hearted, and generally agreeable, but in warfare took more risks with the lives of his men than his contemporary, Lord Cochrane.

Admiral Sir Sidney Smith,by Louis-Marie Autissier 1823

If you listened to original voices from the time. Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Troubridge declared that Smith made him sick, while Admiral Lord Exmouth called him gay and thoughtless. And even Nelson is reported to have said he was the gayest man in the Navy who behaved like one. Well he was of a slight build, penetrating dark eyes, a high-arched nose, striking and sharp looks and dark curly hair. Smith, like his father who had been a rake, was a lady s man, with very good manners and a razor-sharp mind, proficient in several languages and artistic talents. All in all, Sir Sidney Smith, whose real name was William Sidney Smith, was an interesting man.

He was born on 21 June 1764 in Park Lane, London, joined the Royal Navy in 1777 and soon distinguished himself in combat. He first distinguished himself in the American Revolutionary War, as a result of which he was promoted to lieutenant in 1780. This was despite the fact that he was not yet 19 years old. He served on HMS Alcide 74- guns, under Captain Charles Thompson, on which he was present at the Battle of Chesapeake on 5 September 1781, at St Kitts on 25 and 26 January 1782 and at the Saintes on 12 April. These successes led to his promotion to Master and Commander as early as 1782, and only one year later on 7 May to Post Captain. At that time he was only 18 years old. During this time he had built up a reputation as one of the most successful prize bringers, having managed to capture several prizes with his Sloop Fury, 16-guns and earning a sum of around 30,000 pounds. (By today's standards, that would be about 5 million pounds.) After that, his luck ran out, because he was discharged from the service and was then on half- pay, because of peace.

Now unemployed, he moved to Bath to study French, but when he heard in 1787 that there might be a war with Morocco, he secretly went there to study the coast and the language. In short, he tried his hand at being a spy. But when he returned home to present his findings to the admiralty, he was not able to do so. Because there was no more talk of a possible war and he was once again empty-handed. After his efforts to take up an ambassadorial role in China had been unsuccessful, Smith took six months' leave in Sweden in 1789. The following January, he reappeared in London with an embassy from King Gustav III of Sweden and a request to be allowed to serve in the monarch's fleet. The government did not approve of this unofficial emissary and so he returned to Sweden claiming to be in possession of dispatches for the King to serve as a volunteer in the war with the Russians. Assigned as commander of the light squadron, his fleet of a hundred galleys and gunboats dislodged the Russians from the islands protecting Vyborg Bay, where they had blockaded the Swedish fleet in June, thus leading to their relief.

Battle of Vyborg Bay June 25, 1790 , by Ivan Aivazovsky 1846

Although he did not act officially, he was knighted by the King of Sweden in 1790 for his actions, which caused great amusement in England. Yet he returned home briefly, only to try his luck at the Prussian court for the next two years. Initially tolerated and advised against the Russians at court, his political views became more and more disapproved of and in 1892 he tried to enter Turkish service. When he heard in 1793 that there was going to be a war between England and France, he tried to come back home and although he was still under half-pay, he was given a new commission. Although he did not act officially, he was knighted by the King of Sweden in 1790 for his actions, which caused great amusement in England. Yet he returned home briefly, only to try his luck at the Prussian court for the next two years. Initially tolerated and advised against the Russians at court, his political views became more and more disapproved of and in 1892 he tried to enter Turkish service.

When he heard in 1793 that there would be a war between England and France, he tried to return home. He obtained a felucca and, dressed in Arab robes and turban, sailed to Toulon to offer his services to Admiral Lord Hood, who was trying to support the French royalist forces. It was on this occasion that Sydney Smith and Horatio Nelson first met. The young revolutionary Colonel of Artillery Napoleon Bonaparte was rapidly decimating the royalist forces. Admiral Hood asked Sidney Smith, who was serving as a volunteer, to destroy as many royalist ships in the harbour as possible to protect them from the revolutionaries. He succeeded in destroying about half the fleet, despite the lack of supporting forces. In July 1795, again officially in the service of the Royal Navy, his squadron captured and fortified a small island off the coast of Normandy, which served as a forward base for the British blockade of Le Havre for the next seven years. On 19 April 1796, he used his ship's boats to take out a French ship anchored in Le Havre.

Sir Sidney Smith Transferred from thence to the Tower of the Temple on the 3rd July 1796

As he sailed out of the harbour, the wind suddenly died and Captain Sidney Smith and his crew were captured. He himself was taken to Temple Prison in Paris. Despite all offers from the British government to buy him out or exchange him for a French captain, the French refused. Sidney's reputation had preceded him and he was known to be a keen spy. He stayed in prison for two years until he managed to free himself with forged release papers. On his return to London, Smith was received by Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, for a private audience with the King, and as a sign of goodwill, His Majesty sent the esteemed Captain Bergeret back to France in exchange. He was sent to the Mediterranean in 1799 and charged with reinforcing the defences in the Levant for protection against Napoleon, who was moving his army east and north from Egypt. When Napoleon laid siege to Acre in the same year, Sidney Smith used his guns to support the defenders and his fleet to supply them, and did so as an independent commander . This arrogance with which he performed earned him a sharp rebuke from both Admiral the Earl of St Vincent and Rear Admiral Lord Nelson, who as the next flag officer was particularly outraged that Smith had taken the right to hoist a broad pennant as commodore when he should have been under his command. The situation was only resolved when the broad pennant was brought down and Smith submitted to Nelson .

Napoleon eventually abandoned the siege and said of Sidney Smith, "This man made me miss my destiny." Smith's success in halting the French advance was rewarded a pension of 1,000 guineas, along with many other awards, including a coveted Chelengk and a sable coat from the Turkish Sultan. For their part, the French were so annoyed with him that Buonaparte apparently tried to have him assassinated. From 1799- 1806 he had small operations in the Mediterranean and in 1800 even tried to conclude an agreement with French General Jean-Baptiste Kléber to evacuate French troops on British ships. However, Admiral Lord Keith did not agree, so there were disputes in Keiro until the agreement was reached in 1802. Sidney had been back in London since 1801. Where he was elected to the British House of Commons as MP for Rochester in 1802. He held this mandate until 1806.

Commodore Smith at Acre

Unlike most senior naval officers in home waters, Smith did not attend Vice Admiral Lord Nelson's funeral in London on 9 January 1806. Instead, after a brief stay in Bath, he arrived in Plymouth on 14 January to sail with a small squadron to the Mediterranean to join Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood. Were he land forces commanded in southern Italy trying to defeat a superior French force. Despite a great victory, he was replaced by a British Army officer, largely because he once again could not control his famous arrogance. On the one hand, he had exceeded his command, even though he had been rear- admiral since 1805, and on the other, he had antagonised the French generals by sending them newspaper cuttings about his great successes.

In October 1807, he cruised off the mouth of the Tagus and in November escorted Prince Regent John of Portugal, who had been expelled by the French, and the royal family to Rio de Janeiro in the Portuguese colony of Brazil. There, the Prince Regent decorated him as a Grand Knight of the Order of the Tower and the Sword. In February 1808, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the British fleet off South America and, contrary to his orders, subsequently planned an attack on the neighbouring Spanish colonies together with the Portuguese. Before these plans could be implemented, he was ordered back home in July 1809.

Sir William Sidney Smith, by William Say 1802

On 31 July 1810, he was promoted to Vice Admiral of the Blue. Between 1812 and 1814 he operated in the Mediterranean as Admiral Pellew's second-in-command, during which time he was decorated in Sicily by King Ferdinand as a Grand Knight of the Cross of the Order of St Ferdinand and of Merit. After Napoléon Bonaparte was defeated in 1814 and exiled on Elba, he returned to England. On 2 January 1815, in recognition of his services, he was struck Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath by King George III, and thus at last received a British knighthood.

On 15 June 1815, he attended the Duchess of Richmond's ball in Brussels. Three days later, hearing gunfire, he rode out and met the Duke of Wellington, who had just defeated the returning Napoléon Bonaparte at the Battle of Waterloo. Smith then accepted the surrenders of the French garrisons at Arras and Amiens and ensured the Allies entry into Paris without a fight, as well as King Louis XVIII's safe return there.

After the war, he lived mainly in Paris with his wife. He took part in the Congress of Vienna and campaigned for the abolition of slavery and debt bondage, and in particular for the raising of funds to free Christian slaves from the Barbary pirates. He was promoted to the rank of Admiral of the Red on 19 July 1821, and Lieutenant-General of the Royal Marines on 28 June 1830, but did not hold a naval command of his own after 1814. His wife died in 1826 and on 20 July 1838 he was raised by Queen Victoria to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath. Smith died on 26 May 1840 at his residence of No. 9 Rue d Auguesseau in Paris, he was 75 years old.

#naval history #persons of the navy #admiral sidney smith #it is a very long post #i had to put it under the read further line #age of sail

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radramblog · 3 years ago

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Australian State Flags rated

Vexillology is a subject that, like many others, I have a passing interest in. Very passing. Look I occasionally browse r/vexillologycirclejerk, the One Good Subreddit, because they have some very fresh and funky memes.

One thing I do know about vexillology and flags in general is that nobody ever actually looks at state/provincial flags, and that as a result there’s a bunch of weird ones hanging about. I’m sure this is even more true of Australia, seeing as we have many less people to care about our many fewer state flags.

So for today, I’ve decided to shine a light on some state flags and see if they’re any good. Spoilers: they probably aren’t great? (Edit: they’re also largely very very similar, oops!)

New South Wales- in keeping with the name, New South Wales apparently has decided its flag should be fairly Welsh as well. Except not, because the image on that one is a cool dragon instead of this random lion, and the red cross is actually an English thing. This is extremely lame! The placement of the O R B is also pretty awkward and uneven, leaving a whole bunch of blank space that’s just. Blue. It’s centred if you just look at the right half, but it looks weird next to the Union Jack.

I don’t like the Union Jack. Get used to seeing the Union Jack a lot. 1/5.

Queensland- Okay, so, we took the NSW one, took the lion and the cross off it, and put a nice little crown on because, you know, Queen. While this is somewhat less ugly than the lion, it is also less cool, because fuck the royalty. Add in the cyan not contrasting well with the darker blue (imo) and you have a recipe for another not good flag. 1/5.

South Australia- Well now we’re getting somewhere. Take the previous two, get rid of the shit designs in the circles and replace them with an extremely good bird. Look at that plumage, that dramatic posing! What a good. That, and orange (its supposed to be gold I think, but come on) is a good colour to go next to navy. Unfortunately, it’s still sitting next to the fucking Union Jack, so it’s not going to be that good. Fuck colonialism, 3/5.

Tasmania- Wait ok so this is just a lion again, but if the lion was drawn by the same person that did the welsh dragon. It’s a lot less busy without some nonce cross in there (save Jack in the corner), which is great, but Bri’ish lion flag designs never look good to me. You want your iconography to be simple but striking, in my opinion, but whenever they put a lion on there it has to have too many details to communicate “lion” that it just looks super mid. 2/5.

Victoria- of the many, many places on this Earth named after Queen Victoria, this state sure is one of them. We’ve dropped the circle motif for this one, which is nice, but the crown is still fucking there. This is literally just, we took the country flag, and replaced that cool star with a lame crown. Somehow this is Dan Andrews’ fault. 2/5

Western Australia- I’m obviously biased, but it’s a very good little swan we have there. Black swans are iconic of Perth, there’s many, many of them on the Swan River (funnily enough), and they’re common enough that it’s not hard to spot one of them doing something gnarly and immediately ruin all majesty they ever had for you. In my case, it was when one of them looked like it was preening, or at least sleeping with its head tucked in its wing, for a few minutes before dropping a deuce and buggering off.

But I digress. It’s also on a gold background, representative of the intense sunlight that we live with in WA. It would be great if just the right half of this flag was the whole of it, but unfortunately, lmao Union Jack. 3/5.

Australian Capital Territory- What you thought we were done? Come on now. There’s like, 2 internal territories and 3 external ones still to go.

With the states behind us, we get to say goodbye to Jack as well. He shall not be missed. Uuuunfortunately, while we do get the classic Southern Cross, we also get this ridiculously busy design on the right. These swans are so mad, and why are they standing like that? Why is one of them white? Why is there a fucking castle here, we don’t have those? The mind boggles. 2/5.

Northern Territory- Oh, that’s much better. The southern cross ditches the bluey background for the much more accurate pitch black of space, which contrasts great against the ruddy brown of the desert the Territory largely is. The flower is simple, but elegant, and uses the same colours as the left third which I appreciate. This is just a good, solid flag. 4/5.

Christmas Island- For as much as Australia gets associated with the “green and gold”, I’m surprised it took this long for that colouration to actually show up on the livery. I’m not a huge fan of, just, the map of the place on the flag for the place, and Green/Gold and Blue/White aren’t a great colour combo. But there is a very good bird here. 3/5.

Cocos Islands- Yo that’s the crescent from the Malaysian flag, huh? Yeah so apparently the history of this place is kinda fucked (Australian history, bad? Nooooooo….), but the residents are largely Malay descendants, so fair enough. As far as the flag goes, it’s an interesting mix of iconography that is largely fine apart from the absolutely terrible looking palm tree on the left there. That’s some 2002 clip-art shit right there. I actually like the right 2/3rds of this, so just… remove the left third. Actually I think most of these flags would be significantly improved by the removal of the left bit. 3/5.

Norfolk Island- It’s just a tree, dude. 4/5.

Well that’s all of them. Ultimately, most of these were bad, and none of them were actually, like, great. That’s kind of just state flags for you, though. I’m no expert vexillologist, but there are only a couple flags that have truly caught my eye, and none of these fit that bill.

We have a lot of stinkers, and tragically, nothing nearly stands out like some other countries get their state flags to do. As a final note to leave this on, and to prove my point, I’m going to present the flag of the Isle of Man.

Fucking Brits actually have a good one. Can we get this instead of the Union Jack, please? Thanks.

#ramble #australia #vexillology #state flag #the indigenous one isnt on here because honestly it should just be in all of them in place of the UJ

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wafflesandkruge · 4 years ago

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I always see maps like the grishaverse as “the country this is about still hasn’t figured out all the continents and doesn’t know as much as they think they do about the world” Shu Han doesn’t make any sense because it’s named after the ancient Shu province which is now Sichuan province, so you’d think it would be based off China but the kuwei and Ehri are the only ones with East Asian names (afaik) but that means Ehri is German or Japanese which doesn’t make sense if Shu Han is fantasy China1/2

so that would mean fantasy Japan has taken over fantasy China? the way I see this it means Ravka and the Shu Han have been in isolation for so long so the information is dated and inaccurate also if Leigh’s gonna make fantasy Japan in charge of fantasy China she should talk about that more and have characters dealing with it/overcoming it? I’m not reading gv that much any more bc so much of the international politics she writes are based on real stuff and badly handled except for maybe Kerch 2/5

capitalism but that makes sense cause Kerch is based on the Netherlands but it reminded me a lot of the avi books about Victorian New York also she puts more effort into western/European worldbuilding and I read soc b4 the trilogy n I thought “king Nikolai” and Ravka was based on like 20th century post war dictators bc I was learning abt that in school with like power vacuum split country militarization+drafting teenagers (which goes against his trilogy morals btw) and I thought he was like 3/5

Descended from the original Nikolai lantsov till I read the trilogy and remembered that scene w sturmhond and kaz so I was like oh and I think Leigh wrote him badly cause he reminded me of the dead emperor of Renee ahdieh’s books the flame in the mist set in feudal Japan so much that when u read his perspective I thought he was gonna b a main character like Nikolai anyway about names it makes sense for tolya and Tamar to have Russian names because they’re also Ravkan but the Russian name is 4/5

is Tamara not Tamar and Tolya literally means from the east which is a really bad name to give one of your only two loosely East Asian coded major charachters especially when the shu han is such a worldbuilding mess and all the Shu people are written really stereotypically 5/5

Okay first of all, a disclaimer. I’m first-gen Chinese-American and not super well-versed in Asian history pre-1900s so pls feel free to correct me if I said something wrong.

Leigh definitely didn’t put that much into the worldbuilding of the non-western inspired countries (check out @zemenipearls zemeni extended universe!). Personally, I don’t think the royal family of Shu Han is supposed to be the equivalent of Japan bc see 500 years of colonial beef. (Search up the current controversy about Japan’s rising sun flag not being banned at the olympics bc Yikes) Like the equivalent of fantasy japan conquering the rest of fantasy east asia is kinda uh,,,,🤢

I was actually talking to @farahmeanthappiness about Shu Han’s “lore,” and we had a few interesting ideas? Like we headcanoned Shu Han as being like comprised of smaller, warring nations that were eventually unified under Queen Taban. (so like imagine if the Mongols had actually conquered Asia). So Shu Han is still comprised of different countries/kingdoms/states with their own borders, but they’re all ruled by the Taban family if that makes sense. The countries don’t necessarily like each other, but they’re not warring anymore. And if Queen Taban’s unification of Shu Han happened in whatever’s the equivalent of the 1100s/1200s, then we don’t have to deal with japanese imperialism which was/is a whole mess.

(Also, why does Shu Han have no rivers or islands like wtf. I’m just gonna say that the maps in the book are from Ravka and they’re just guesstimating bc Shu Han looks horrible geographically. China was a cradle of civilization because of the Yellow River, how can there not be any rivers ugh)

Leigh’s Shu characters in tgt were definitely problematic, because all we had was like Botkin- a martial arts instructor- and Tolya and Tamar (which I guess are kinda problematic from their name’s etymology, but I’ll take your word for it) The whole reputation of them being scientifically obsessed to the point of human experimentation with the Khergud (is that their name idk) and the whole jurda parem thing is also not a great look ugh. She did say she was gonna explore Shu Han more in KoS2, so I have maybe,,,some hope? Also more Ehri and Mayu, which will be nice.

#ask me moreeeee about shu han #last chance before leigh canonizes things with kos2 #tgt #the grisha trilogy #kos #king of scars #kos writing #shu han #ehri #tolya #tamar #kuwei #grishaverse #leigh bardugo #my writing #ask

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luz1abhumbbotongfrancisco · 4 years ago

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The pictures above are documented in chronological order (aside from the title photo). I. A documentation in photograph of 5 paintings by the Filipino painter Botong Francisco with proper labeling and citation(s) according to the Harvard citation format and 2) a formal description of each of the 5 selected paintings. To describe, emphasize the beauty of the work(s).

1. Bayanihan

(Pinoy Art Hub, 2018)

Bayanihan by Carlos “Botong” Francisco exemplifies one of the famous cultures in the Philippines which is Bayanihan that has a root word of “Bayani” which simply means “Hero”. With this, this painting shows a hero to one another. During early times, people would carry houses to change places to relocate a neighbor because of a natural calamity or simply to move places. According to Pinoy Art Hub (2018), this is done by gathering enough people from the same neighborhood to carry a Bahay Kubo or a nipa hut.

Aside from this, they place bamboo poles lengthwise in order to carry the house and whoever helped during the process is called to be heroes to the society. This painting conveyed vivid colors to portray the colorful life and culture that the Philippines has. Emphasizing the size of Bahay Kubo lets the viewers know how hard it is for the people to carry. To show that there is Bayanihan, the painting shows numerous people that helped and to shows a neighborhood helping one another.

________________________________________________________________

2. Katipunan

(Deroca, 2015)

Katipunan by Carlos “Botong” Francisco exemplifies a historic revolutionary in the Philippines. As seen in the painting, it is Andres Bonifacio and his KKK members going into the revolution with the KKK flag. There are also women in the upper left corner that shows them treating their husbands from the revolution. Andres Bonifacio was holding an itak or a small sword and a gun on the other hand. While the other man was holding their choice of weapon.

There is a fire above the painting that shows the fiery revolution against the Spaniards. This painting shows an asymmetrical balance because Andres Bonifacio was only one emphasized and the other men were as almost the size of Andres Bonifacio to show who were the main people during the revolution. Aside from this, when you look at the painting the color of the KKK flag can be easily be spotted because of the darkness of the color red. This shows also a value of variety with its overlapping of objects and sizing.

________________________________________________________________

3. The Martyrdom of Rizal

(Fabros, 2014)

The Martyrdom of Rizal Mural, completed in 1960, is one of Carlos “Botong” V. Francisco's most well-known works. He was proclaimed the Philippine National Artist for Visual Arts in 1973. Francisco is best known for his monumental murals portraying historical events in the Philippines. The mural portrays the execution of Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal on December 30, 1896, at Bagong Bayan (now Rizal Park). Fort Santiago commissioned the mural as part of the Rizal Shrine. Rizal's death was a momentous date in our nation as it culminated nationalism and some kind of social change or redemption in our societies as a community.

Jose Rizal's final moments before his execution are depicted in the painting in five (5) significant images: (1) The Trial of Rizal (2) Rizal's Last Farewell (also depicted in Rody Herrera's oil on canvas painting "Huling Paalam," which was awarded First Place in the Jose Rizal Centennial Painting Competition in 1961). (3) Rizal composed the farewell poem Mi Ultimo Adios (My Last Farewell) Rizal's Last Walk and Rizal's Execution in Bagumbayan are two of his most famous works.

________________________________________________________________

4. Magpupukot

(Pinoyartshub, 2018)

"Magpupukot,” which basically means to "Pulling in the Net," is one of Botong's most well-known works. The scene depicted in the painting shows a group of fishermen practically casting and dragging their nets in while sailing inside a small wooden kayak boat, obviously taking the opportunity to haul in the day's catch. As a result, it was thought to be inspired by his hometown of Angono, Rizal, where a fishing village was located near their home. Botong's favorite subjects to paint were the lives of the fisheries sector. The Filipino people's deeply held values and rituals have become a medium for him, allowing him to use his unique style to create new imagery.

This fascination with history piqued his interest in learning more about the Filipino past, which provided him with useful information. Warm tones are used in the drawing, giving it a pleasing saturation. His visual enactments honor his culture's creative origins, and his photographs are inspired by the Filipino people's zealous commitment and vibrant colors. _______________________________________________________________

5. The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines

(TravelswithCherie, 2018)

The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines is a set of four oil paintings on canvas commissioned for the main entrance hall of the Philippine General Hospital in Manila by Philippine National Artist Carlos V. Francisco in 1953. (Barns, 2016). The artworks were in "serious decay" at the turn of the century due to heat, humidity, dirt, dust, smoke, insect stains, grime, termites, and an oxidized synthetic resin used in an earlier restoration due to their location. These canvases have been restored three times, the most recent in 2006, with funding provided by the US Department of State's Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation. The paintings were loaned to the National Museum of the Philippines by PGH and the University of the Philippines in 2010, so they could be exhibited in a stable manner and properly preserved.

Predicated on our analysis, the first painting portrays a pre-colonial Philippines babaylan (female shaman) leading a healing ceremony with her hands raised. The villagers are assembled all around the sick man, led by their chief, and a fire is lit for the pig's sacrificial offering (lower right corner in foreground). The arrival of the Spaniards in the Philippines is depicted in the second painting, which features two monks. They are the painting's key figures. The third painting depicts a scene from the American Period in which two men hide under a plant to avoid being inoculated, while a group of men in the foreground gather dead rodents after fumigation. The fourth painting depicts the defining features of modern medicine, such as surgery, radiation, laboratory research, medical equipment, and hospitals. Botong uses common elements like flora and clouds to link the four tables. _______________________________________________________________ Source(s): Barns, J., (2016). Carlos V. Francisco's The Progress of Medicine in the Philippines: Renegotiating decisions and collaborations in conservation. Taylor & Francis. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10344233.2016.1206297?journalCode=ybac20 [Accessed April 29, 2021].

Deroca, F. (2015). Individual Activity #3. [online] Medium. Available at: https://medium.com/@franzderoca/bonifacio-mural-by-carlos-v-francisco-8d6abe07c510 [Accessed 19 Apr. 2021].

Fabros, D., (2014). Martyrdom of Rizal Mural - Philippine Folklife Museum Foundation: San Francisco, Ca. Philippine Folklife Museum Foundation | San Francisco, Ca. Available at: https://philippinefolklifemuseum.org/exhibit-rizal-martyrdom-botong-francisco/ [Accessed April 29, 2021].

Pinoy Art Hub. (2018). BAYANIHAN by Carlos “Botong” Francisco. [online] Available at: https://httppinoyartshub.wordpress.com/2018/01/07/bayanihan-by-carlos-botong-francisco/ [Accessed 19 Apr. 2021].

Pinoy Art Hub, (2018). Magpupukot by Carlos V. Francisco. Available at: https://httppinoyartshub.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/magpupukot-by-carlos-v-francisco/ [Accessed April 29, 2021].

TravelswithCherie, (2018). The Art of Carlos Botong Francisco - Progress of Medicine in the Philippines. Available at: https://www.travelswithcharie.com/2018/07/the-art-of-carlos-botong-francisco.html [Accessed April 29, 2021].

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the--highlanders · 3 years ago

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5. “I’m not saying I told you so...”

on ao3.

She really was getting unfit, after so long away from the Wheel. One would think she would be as fit as ever, what with all the running they did – running to things, running away from things, running just for the sake of it. But, she supposed, running everywhere was hardly the sort of comprehensive exercise program the Wheel’s inhabitants had been required to undertake. For mental and physical fitness, the program’s overly-enthusiastic hologram instructor had declared every day. She couldn’t exactly say she missed it, most of the time. Her slip into laziness had not taken so long as she had expected. Goodness, this morning she had slept in by five minutes. But at times like this, she wished she had been disciplined enough to keep it up.

“You know,” she huffed out, “I never like saying I told you so.”

“Well, then, don’t,” the Doctor snapped back. If she was feeling a little breathless, then he was flagging almost entirely, arms windmilling in an effort to keep up with her brisk jog. The air might have been made of molasses, from how laboured and exaggerated his movements were becoming. “There’s no need, believe me.”

“And I’m not saying I told you so,” Zoe carried on. “But I did point out to you which switch activated the system’s antibodies.”

“Yes, yes, I remember.”

“And I did show you the wires leading into it.”

“I believe you did.”

“And I did try to express my doubts about what exactly you were rewiring. Particularly given that you were trying to take down the shield generator, which in systems like these naturally activates the internal defence mechanisms -”

“How you have the energy to run and lecture me at the same time,” the Doctor interrupted, “I have no idea.”

Zoe shrugged, regretting it a moment later when she felt the pain of the lactic acid surging through her muscles. Keep an even rhythm, she reminded herself. She could almost hear it in that stupid instructor’s voice, crackly over the broadcast from Earth. Let momentum take over. “Lecturing takes my mind off running,” she said.

The Doctor had clearly never been taught the lesson about momentum, because he gave in to something that was almost a full-body shudder. Still, she supposed, it wasn’t as if he had been maintaining anything even remotely like an even rhythm to begin with. “You know,” he said, “I always thought -” Gulping down a deep breath, he pushed himself on in silence for a few strides. “The best thing about my old teacher Borusa -” Another breathless pause. “Was that he didn’t run. I stood a chance of getting away from him.”

“I wouldn’t be worrying about me,” Zoe pointed out mildly. “Worry about the things behind us.”

She got little more than a whimper out of him at that.

In any other situation, Zoe would have been utterly absorbed in the fascination of a colony ship whose life support system had its own antibodies. People had suggested, in her time, the idea of a ship which was just as alive as its precious cargo – but interstellar travel on such a grand scale had been a far-off dream, then. And given how loud certain voices had been, voices that wanted humanity to remain on Earth indefinitely… Well, she had resigned herself to the fact that she would never see anything like it in her lifetime. She had counted herself lucky to be of a generation where such things were being thought of at all, if only in an academic context. But being inside one, seeing it face to face, was breathtaking. And not just because of the running.

So it was a shame, really, that the ship had decided that they were foreign particles to be cleansed.

“How do we know,” she said, “that the antibodies won’t follow us out of the ship’s internal systems?”

“Because -” The Doctor hung his head, his chest heaving. “They’re programmed not to interfere with the ship’s biosphere.

She raised her eyebrows. That, at least, she could do without breaking her momentum. “Even after all your rewiring?”

“We do have to have a little hope, you know, Zoe.”

The Doctor really should know better, she thought, than to tempt fate like that. It was almost too perfect, an antibody drifting into view a little way down the corridor before he had even closed his mouth. “Doctor,” she said, her voice low like she could stop the thing from hearing her. Silly, really. They didn’t even have ears. “Doctor, wait.”

He kept jogging on, and she had to grab at his sleeve to slow him to a halt. When at last he flailed into stillness, looking up, his eyes widened. “Oh, my word,” he said softly. “That makes things rather more difficult, doesn’t it?”

The thing hung there, suspended impossibly in the middle of the corridor like some strange jellyfish. It wasn’t really air that filled the ship’s internal systems, the Doctor had said, but a sort of gaseous slurry, thick and conductive enough for the antibodies to keep themselves suspended through electric force. Which also happened to be the thing that made them deadly, the fact that they electrified the air around them. Like a kind of sanitiser. The bulbous top on this one glowed a pale, sickly green, and Zoe could feel the hairs on her arms and the back of her neck start to stand on end as it drifted almost casually closer. She doubted it would even be kind enough to kill them instantly. The internal defence system was designed for microorganisms and non-living foreign particles. Risks to the insides of the ship and contaminants in the air supply, not a pair of humans – well, a human and whatever the Doctor was. They might be left lying there to be shocked repeatedly, over and over until their bodies were too damaged to go on any longer.

“What are we going to do?” she hissed. “That’s our way out.”

“That’s our shortest way out,” the Doctor corrected her. “Not our only way out.” She pulled a face at him, one eye still on the antibody. “Ah – I don’t suppose we can go back the way we came.”

They wheeled around in unison, standing down the length of corridor they had left behind. It was dark for most of its length, lit only by thin, glowing strips of blue that ran through the walls, marking out where the cables ran behind their casing. Their dim light caught on dust clouds that had been kicked up into the air by their footfall, shaping them into an almost opaque wall. The antibodies had no need of floors – less need for maintenance that way. They must have been the first people to disturb all those dust particles in a hundred or so years. And now they might be turned into that dust themselves, she thought with a shudder.

But she could still see the pale light of another antibody, moving slowly but surely towards them.

“That’s no good,” she exclaimed, forgetting all thoughts of not letting the antibodies hear her. “Where are we meant to go now?” Wheeling back around, she found the Doctor already chest-deep in the walls, tossing out cables as he burrowed further inside. He mumbled something inaudible, his words lost amongst the humming bundles of wires, and she leant in closer. “What?”

“I said -” Squirming backwards, he contorted himself around to pop his head out of the cavity. “There should be some way through here, if we’re lucky. But I’ll have to get the other casing board off, which could take – oh, well, longer than I’d like to admit.”

If it was anything like his attempts to get the casing off the wires he had been fiddling around with earlier, Zoe thought, then she was not particularly keen on knowing how long it would take, either. “There must be another way through,” she said, more to herself than to the Doctor’s wildly waving feet. “It wouldn’t make sense to have a string of tunnels that never connected with each other.” Screwing her eyes closed, she tried to think back to the plans she had seen, all those years ago. Even for someone with her memory, it was difficult to remember back so far, with antibodies still bearing down on them from both directions. “The technicians would have needed some way of easily laying these wires.”

Glancing behind them, she scanned the walls for any sign of a door, but to no avail. It would probably look nothing like a door, she thought bitterly. And the longer they waited, the less corridor they had left to search. The antibody behind them was moving surprisingly quickly for something that could only wiggle its spindly tentacles, and the one in front of them – she whisked around again, squinting through the orange fog.

Orange.

Not exactly the usual colour of the wires. Perhaps one of the panels had failed. But it didn’t look like a panel, the component right next to them. It looked rather more like -

Squeezing around the Doctor, she lunged towards the orange panel, seizing upon a handle half-buried in the surface. Sure enough, the door swung open to reveal a deserted corridor beyond.

Hopefully deserted, anyway.

She tapped the Doctor on the thigh, and he squirmed his way out again, emerging somehow more disgruntled and dishevelled than he had been before. “Over here,” she said, jerking her head towards the door. “This way might be easier.”

#second doctor #fanfic archive #my writing #fictober 2021

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sailing-elitsha · 4 years ago

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Carrebeean, Here we are!!!

As I said before: 5783 nautical miles we sailed towards this little paradise where we are still on quarantine anchorage. Waiting on the PCR result is always making me a bit nervous, especially this time. If we are tested negative, we have the chance here in Grenada to get the AstraZeneca vaccines and we will travel much freer than we do now.

But no boredom: a little leak in the hand wash basin, try to clean the mud off ELITSHA, friends and family to speak to, small other repairs, taking the lead in UBUNTU again since we have full and unlimited internet on board, planning and booking Zora’s and Su’s tickets towards us, baking bread again and of course swimming and snorkelling.

But let me talk first a little bit about Suriname and our short sail to Grenada. Suriname was for a long time a Dutch colony. Since 1975, this country is the smallest independent state in South America. The previous president unfortunately abused his power and all the resources the beautiful country has, for example gold, aluminium, oil, bananas got exported unwisely and the profit went into the presidents and his friend’s pockets. That is what Surinamers were telling us. In the meantime, there is a new president, but there is Corona as well. The ECO tourism, Suriname was good and well known for, stands still and the country is in a bad state and shape. At the banks of the Suriname river, entering Suriname, you see big and then I mean really big villas. According to the locals they belong to friends of the former president and to drug lords. A very familiar story to us South Africans. The Netherlands is still involved and helps where they can, but a few days after we left Suriname they closed the country: total lockdown. Just above 500 000 people live in Suriname and most of them in and close to Paramaribo. People are currently getting infected and dying in huge numbers from Corona: not enough hospital beds, not enough vaccinations, not enough oxygen……… not enough doctors and nurses. Their rainy season is terrible this year due to the ELNino effect and its really tuff for the poor population. After a good week in the Marina and a road trip through the rural part of the country to a big dam where people are searching for gold, visiting banana plantations, visiting Paramaribo with a lot of rain we said goodbye to the populated part of Suriname together with Elitsha and we sailed into the Commewijne river. This was so romantic and special. The jaguars, caiman and anacondas were too scared of us, hahahahha. We did not see them, but we heard and enjoyed the voices of the jungle, saw and heard millions of birds, parrots and all kind of other noises. It was magical. Three days we were totally one with nature, did not see any human being, together with Elitsha.

Coming back from Commewijne river was coming back to happy reggae life. Looking for a spot ashore to get our dingy on board for the trip to Grenada, a fisher of New Amsterdam waved us to come next to his fisher boat. Loud reggae music and a very friendly crew invited us for coffee, tea and biscuits……….and dagga and rum………..Unfortunately, we had to say thank you no (dagga and rum out of question, of course). The threat of getting infected just before we go back to sea again for a couple of days made us kindly refusing the offer. Even though we chatted a while with them and they helped us to get the dingy motor on board. And that’s how Surinamers are, chatty, always happy to assist and help, curious and interested about who you are. As I mentioned before people told us in advanced, that coming to South or Central America or the Caribbean with a South African flag would ask for problems. That was one of the reasons why we registered Elitsha in Germany. But we always say that we are from Cape Town, we don’t hide that and up to now we had no bad experiences. People are impressed that we come from that far to visit their small country and want to know if we like it. They loved the fact that we speak Dutch, because Dutch is still the first language in Suriname. Anyway, after chatting to the fishermen, we tied everything nicely, slept a short night and left New Amsterdam and Suriname at 6 am on the 25th of May.

Aware of the thread of Venezuelan pirates (Surinamers and NOON site (cruiser website) informed us about it), we sailed at a safe distance from the coast. Even though we choose to pass trough the Galleon’s passage between Trinidad and Tobago, but we choose to pass it close to the Tobago side, away of the Venezuelan coast. On our way we saw a fair number of oil platforms, huge ones, with huge flames, we could see from far. This was also a bit spooky. We had 35 to 40 knots of wind and a good speed to leave the oil area and the Galleon’s passage behind us. I think, pirates do not like rain. We had tons of rain and no pirates though……..although: Dick told me later, that 40 miles out of both coasts, the Grenadian and the Tobagonian, a fast open boat with 3 men in it sped past us. We think they were checking us out, how rich we are. The stretch between Tobago and Grenada apparently is also declared as an unsafe area. That is what we heard later when we arrived in Grenada. Our neigor, Steve, always has a gun with him. Happily, with enough wind and a strong currant we passed Tobago at 4:30 in the morning and arrived safely in Grenada at 17:00 on the 28th of May.

Close to the harbour at the quarantine anchorage we spoke to our South African friends of the Aventura, a young couple with 2 dogs and his parents on their way to emigrate to Panama. We saw them in every harbour we visited up to now. They left Suriname a few days earlier then we did. They craved for blue water and thought jaguar, caiman and anaconda would perhaps love their dogs too much. In any way, nice to see them again. They explained the Grenadian procedures to us and on Saturday we went ashore to register with the health department. We inhaled the positive and relaxed Grenadian vibe immediately: steel drum music from the taverns, people on the streets, Corona is almost dealt with.

And in the meantime, 1 week in St George, we are declared negative and are allowed to explore the island. Paul, a registered tour guide grabbed his chance. Slandering around the harbour he almost forced us to have a tour with him. The cruise ships are missed by restaurants, tour guides…not by us. Paul told us, that they on “good” days had 6000 tourists from cruise ships ashore. Dick and I were quite happy to escape these “good“ days. Pity for Paul, that’s why we went with him on a long trip through St. George at noon and let him earn some ECDs. Hot and up and down, I was exhausted at the end. We didn’t walk much for the last 2 months at least..

Grenada is the spice island: nutmeg, gloves, cinnamon, and other spices grow here. They have a golden waterfall and many more attractions. We will explore them all and share with you. For now, we experienced the spicy side of the island by drinking shandies with nutmeg, eating ice cream with nutmeg and gloves and some other weird things you would think its really ugg, but in reality it’s absolutely amazing.

We are registered for Astra Zeneca vaccination and yes, we are in a marina with a nice club house and WIFI and not on anchorage or at a mooring buoy. For the first time in almost 3 months, I am able to go and stay where I want on my own. For somebody like me, who likes her independence, its heaven. Opposite of our little paradise, there is another marina, posh and expensive and not really our style. Elitsha, would feel a bit lonely between all the posh-million dollar-yachts. I don’t know, if I mentioned before, that a lot of other cruisers, have fancy and well-equipped boats with freezers, bread baking automates, washing machine, water cooker……. you name it. Our only luxury is a fridge, a BBQ and a good stove with oven, cosy and exactly what we need no more and no less. Anyway, Elitsha got a good clean-up. Sticky, a local guy, Dick and I made her looking pretty again. The water of the Suriname river was dirty through mud and chemicals, they use for the gold extraction industry, we learned. And this was very difficult to get off the hull-0987654Qasdfuiop[.

My home office is in the marina’s clubhouse, with more than brilliant views! Unfortunately, UBUNTU for Africa’s operations manager, who took over financials and admin of the NGO from me, resigned a few days ago. That’s why I am back on the job and working every day for an hour or 3. Alene Edson Smith, local social worker, who was already involved in the family program and took over my job at Kronendal Primary, is doing the hands-on jobs, where you have to be involved personally onsite, like team meetings, meetings with principals etc. For now, we won’t have stretches which will take more than 3 days and we have internet and WIFI. No problem to work though. I love my work as much as I love cruising. To combine both is absolutely great.

For the rest the NGO is in good hands, with our after-care team, Barbara Heye, who is mentor to a single mother with 3 kids. And as I mentioned before Alene Edson Smith, well known in the valley through her involvement through her own NGO, Serenity, took over the reins at Kronendal Primary from me and is mentor to 5 families in our NGO. We share the lead of UBUNTU for Africa. What I can do, I will do, where personal presence is needed, Alene will be hands on. She will lead the sound and music studio, which will release their first CD soon. Lelo managed to get 2 new volunteers into this project, for marimba and music production. Ricardo will remain taking the lead on Silikamva side and Alene will have a firm look and hand on the project.

After care is just running. Andiswa and her team also get support from Alene. But this team of 5 is just doing what they can do best: love our children and supervise, support, teach them and make sure that they are safe.

Questions for the kids:

1. How many kilometres did we sail from Cape Town to Grenada?

2. Which language do the people speak in Suriname?

3. What kind of currency do we used in Suriname and which one in Grenada?

4. Please explain, what the modern pirates of the Caribbean are up to.

5. What is the name of the small entrance to the Caribbean between Trinidad and Tobago?

Sponsor sail:

For the ones who want to take part in our sponsor sail: We have sailed 1812 nautical miles. You can donate a cent, a Rand, a Euro or whatever per nautical mile. We are sailing for these amazing schools: every nautical mile and each Rand counts. To UBUNTU for Africa,German NGO.

The money will go to the UBUNTU for Africa projects: after care at Hout Bay Primary School and the music project at Silikamva High School. This organisation I started 12 years ago (www.ubuntuforafrica.com) Of course, you will receive a tax certificate.

Ubuntu for Africa-Kinder-, Jugend und Familienhilfe in Südafrika

Volksbank Boenen e G

IBAN: DE91 4106 2215 0054 5799 01

For South Africans and others, who want to donate directly to South Africa (also with tax certificate): please donate to Kronendal Primary School (www.kronendalprimary.com). I worked for 10 years at Kronendal Primary as a school counsellor. This school struggles financially due to the consequences of the Covid Pandemic and deserves our support.

KRONENDAL PRIMARY SCHOOL trading as CUIM (“the account holder”) holds the following account with

First National Bank, a division of FirstRand Bank Limited (“FNB”): Account Type BUSINESS ACCOUNT

Account Number 53452884035

Branch Code 204009

Branch Name HOUT BAY 345

Swift Code FIRNZAJJ

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chibivesicle · 4 years ago

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What is your opinion of lack of awareness of imperialism in fandoms and use of the rising sun for historical accuracy in fandom context?

Hello,

Thanks for the question. Sorry for the slow reply, work has been busy (which is pretty much the story of my blog during COVID). This is a pretty tough question to answer. I have to admit that I do not interact with the GK fandom that much. Sure, I write meta, but any one who has read my meta by this point would understand that I approach the meta from an anti-imperialist viewpoint and have spent a lot of time pointing out that the manga stirs up things that might be uncomfortable for Japanese readers.

Now, I am not a Japanese reader, but I feel that I have the ‘advantage’ of being a North American where I have specifically learned about the treatment of Native peoples by a colonizing state as well as US foreign policy and the idea of manifest destiny. I don’t think reading a book like “Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee” is standard reading for a 14 year old, but I read it when I was 14. Spoiler - it is incredibly depressing and it highlights the attempts by the US government to pretty much use every tool in their power to drive Native peoples close to cultural extinction. Therefore, I feel that my own personal development as a young person was driven by parents who thought about these things. Currently, I see first hand the impact of 400 plus years of colonial shit on Native people due to my unique location where I have taught or mentored Dine and Pueblo students. Again, spoiler; governmental policies and racism have fucked them over.

Okay, but what does this have to do with Japanese colonialism and imperialist symbols in the present?

My short answer to members of the fandom making artwork/cosplay content/etc would be to NOT use the rising sun flag with the sunburst stripes.

In particular it is the use of this flag which is from Wikipedia.

Above is what was the military flag of the Imperial Army and Navy. It means that as Japan began to pursue military conquest in East Asia and the Pacific to be just like all those European countries as well as the United States during this time period. Therefore, all of the countries that were occupied and oppressed by Japan during this time period see this flag in particular to be a symbol of the oppression and horrible acts that were enacted on their people and countries in the name of the Imperial government and military. Therefore, it is not surprising that everyone who was under this flag against their own will would see it to be symbol of aggression, pain, and extreme nationalism. Anyone who pays attention to national politics in Japan, would know that this flag is used by conservative nationalists and they pretty much embrace this flag and what it refers to. To make things more complicated, the Japanese Self-Defense Force and Navy still use these versions of the flag.

As you can see the Navy pretty much flies an almost identical flag with a slightly different shade of red depending on how good your monitor is and the ground forces tried a little more to mix it up. But really, the JSDF has flags which are pretty much the same as their older Imperial flags.

One may argue, ‘Well since the JSDF has pretty much the same flags why does anyone care if my artwork/cosplay is historically accurate?’

It has to do with context and the symbols and things associated with this symbol. As an American, I was surprised a how hard it is to spot a Japanese flag in Japan; I’ve been to Japan twice for work and two times for holiday. Besides a few government buildings, and the obligatory flag on school grounds, you really don’t see the flag. The most Japanese flag action I have seen between all four of those trips was the ferry dock from Miyajima back to the mainland.

Compare that to the States where people are [almost] obsessed with flying the flag. I lived in Canada for 5 years and I can tell you that Canadian flags aren’t as ubiquitous as American flags. But if you head up to someplace like Cape Breton, all of a sudden you will see fishing boats flying what at first glance looks like a French flag but is actually the Acadian flag. Or you will spot a Metis flag in the Prairies etc etc. Thus, Canada does not have a monolithic identity that all connect with the flag in the same way (yes, I totally skipped the entire province of Quebec because that is very complicated).

What I’m getting at is that flags have an enormous power for people and what they represent. And each person will approach the flag based on their own background and cultural context. One of the things that has come out of the Black Lives Matter movement is the removal of Confederate flags in the States as well as the removal of it as an element of southern state flags. An excellent example is that of the Mississippi state flag, which currently did not exist as of June 2020. [Update after 3 November 2020] - It seems on election day Mississippi voted to adopt a new flag. Since this flag is less offensive I’ve decided to plop it in here. Though the ‘In God We Trust’ bit seems a bit - ahem - odd.

Someone clearly did not watch the TED talk about flags and how to design a good flag. NO TEXT ON FLAGS! Anyhoo . . .

If someone were to cosplay/reenact a Confederate solider, sure that person would be historically accurate having a Confederate flag, but it would be seen as in poor taste for a large portion the public. Seeing that it took until 2020 to change the Mississippi flag (126 years, the flag was adopted post-reconstruction in 1894), I’d say we have about another 50 years before Japan may consider updating their military flags. A subset of Americans will see having a Confederate flag is the symbol of a rebel, but others will see it as the oppression of their ancestors, endemic racism and lack of respect for the federal government and states’ rights; thus all of these things make it a polarizing and political act to fly or wear Confederate flag things.

Getting back to Golden Kamuy, I would like to really highlight that throughout the manga, the flag has rarely appeared. The Imperial flag is most prominent in chapter 165, flag bearer. However, nothing about Yuusaku’s role as the flag bearer is shown to glorify the flag. Instead, it sets up this idea of Yuusaku becoming a ‘pure idol’ in the name of a military cause. Which a major point of the manga is to question this devotion to the state and the military and how one should sacrifice for the nation. In the case of Yuusaku, it is to imply that he’s sacrificing his own life for the nation.

I think that Noda purposely has kept the flag use to a minimum, we do see it occasionally on navy vessels but it is barely noticeable and this is a historical manga.

The scene where Tsurumi plants the flag on 203 meter hill is the standard flag, not the military flag. I’m curious if Noda did this on purpose or if the idea was that the smaller flag was all Tsurumi had on himself?

The whole point of Golden Kamuy is to get the readers to think about all of these uncomfortable ideas and historical events that challenge long standing cultural beliefs. This includes the idea of modern Japan being a single ethnic group (Ainu and Ryukyuans would question that since they have Japanese citizenship), and the idea that all countries tell themselves that their military was doing the ‘right’ thing. Modern nation states are built by creating their own mythology and unifying their people.

Most of the cast of GK are Japanese soldiers but we rarely see them as rank and file members of the military and as such have not been associated with either of the Imperialist military flags. The overall theme of GK is that military conflict hurts the army you are fighting, it hurts those who fight directly in it and it hurts civilians and innocents. There is a central theme of conflict and how various cultural and ethnic groups act in ways that they think suit them best; the Japanese are seeking to become a regional power, Wilk, Kiroranke and Sofia were fighting Russian power and later Wilk and Kiro were fighting for a state for all the indigenous peoples to protect their identity. Therefore, getting back to my answer - if I were compelled to cosplay as Yuusaku, I would not use an Imperial style army flag as a prop. Would I be historically accurate if I had that flag? Yes. Would I be taking the context of that flag in our current context? Totally not, I would be tone-deaf to the current feelings surrounding that object and I’d be going against the known fact that flags carry an enormous power and weight.

#golden kamuy #golden kamuy meta #meiji era imperialism #Hanazawa Yuusaku

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greekowl87 · 4 years ago

Text

Fic: False Flags - Ghost Ship 7/?

This fic still lives, albeit, just at a slower pace. For those that need to catch up…The First Fic: (False Flags Redux) | Ghost Ship: (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) or if AO3 is your thing, you’ve got your choices. Sorry for any grammar or issues of that nature. No beta, I suck at editing my own work on computers (especially when it’s longer) and Grammarly only does so much. I still hope you enjoy it. Thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Tagging: @today-in-fic, @improlificinsarcasm, @baronessblixen, and @suitablyaggrieved

A/N: I haven’t given up on this fic but life keeps me busy and inspiration has been little. Thanks for any support with this fic. Sorry; no beta and trying to self edit longer works it not the easiest for me.

Buckley sat by the window of the hotel room carelessly spinning an unloaded Colt 1911 on the small table the motel staff had placed in the double room. Across the room, Alex Krychek groaned in annoyance and turned up the volume on the television with his one good arm. Buckley snorted and continued to spin the pistol. “Will you stop that!” Krychek shouted angrily. “You’re driving me fucking crazy.”

“Am I?” He laughed. “Good, Alexi.”

“Alex. Stop calling me that! I don’t know what the old man sees in you. Enlisting your help a second time? You screwed up and got caught last time. What makes you think you can do better?”

“And I got shot by Mulder too but the tip came from an anonymous informant. Not my screw-ups, you dick. Besides, shouldn’t you be doing something useful? Like getting us dinner or something?”

Krycek shuddered. “And I lost a goddamn arm thanks to Mulder and I’m not complaining. God, don’t you ever shut up? I’m not your servant so stop bothering me. I’m not supposed to let you out of myself or else god forbid you to go rogue.”

“Why worry?”

“I’ve seen your work,” Krycek huffed. He thought about the file folder and the gruesome pictures he had seen. It reminded him of Jack the Ripper, especially when Mulder and Scully had caught him during his last crime spree. “You’re fucking insane.”

“I used to be a gangster from the 1920s.” He replied. His voice took on a Chicago accent briefly. ‘That’s where I learned all that.”

“You really are insane. Bipolar. Order a pizza or something if you’re so damn hungry. The phone book is right there.”

Buckley chuckled and continued to stare on the window, spinning the pistol.

****************

Mulder and Scully slept through the night but that didn’t do anything to calm each other’s nerves. The ocean pounding the sandbars only matched Scully’s racing heart. Mulder sipped his coffee and leaned against the counter. “Scully, you’re pacing,” he quipped from the couch.

“I feel like a prisoner here,” she answered. She looked around at the ocean-inspired theme and shook her head. “It feels irreverent like Arcadia did.” She crossed her arms and looked at Mulder. “Don’t you feel the same? We can’t leave.”

“I don’t remember anyone saying that. Skinner didn’t say that. We’re free to come and go as we please. It isn’t like Skinner has placed us in protective custody and he’s standing in the corner watching our every move. We have our weapons. We’re trained federal agents. We’re okay.”

She shook her head in frustration. “I have the worst feeling growing in the back of my mind. He’s closer than they think he is.” She scratched the back of her neck and Mulder got from the couch to catch her hand. “What?”

“It’s not the chip,” he answered quickly. “This isn’t like Ruskin Dam. This isn’t the Syndicate coming after us. This is just old fashioned…” He sighed, unable to find the word. His fingers caressed the back of her neck gently. “It’s just our past coming back to haunt us. Quite literally. In the physical form of a sociopath.”

“You should have killed the bastard when you had the chance,” she replied. Scully relaxed into his touch and closed her eyes. “Might have saved us this headache.”

“You are the better shot between the two of us. Sorry. Couldn’t kill Model, couldn’t kill Buckley even at close range. But you, my kick-ass G-woman can shot a Sig Sauer P-226 with the precision of a surgeon and still take out and heal with the same ability. Maybe I should just give you my own weapon.”

Scully smiled ruefully and leaned into the shoulder she had shot years before. Mulder laughed and held her close. She took a deep breath and looked up to him and said, “I imagined our time down here filled with doing the tourist traps, relaxing with you on the beach, and just having fun.”

“We still can. The Bodie Lighthouse isn’t that far. Neither is Roanoke Island. Let’s go there. Check out the history. Maybe we can solve the case of the missing colony.”

“They’re national parks.”

“And we’re federal agents. We’ll be fine.” He gave her a weak smile. “Let’s do the lighthouse today. We can spend tomorrow on Manteo and have some dinner or something.”

“Mulder…”

“It’s better than seeing you pace back and forth. It’ll be fun.”

“Fine,” she conceded. “Anything is better than just being stressed.”

“I know you hate flying but are you afraid of heights?”

She shook her head. “I don’t think so. Why?”

“Have you ever been up in a lighthouse?”

“Surprisingly, no.”

“Really? Coming from the woman who loves the seas.” Mulder grinned. “You’re going to love it.”

*********************

The FBI partners gathered their weapons and badges to hide them discreetly among their clothes. They grabbed Scully’s purse, locked their beach house, and went down to Mulder’s car. He hated seeing Scully like this and knew that this trip would be just the thing. They made the drive down NC-12 to Cape Hatteras National Park chatting silently with one another. When they arrived at the fork for Cape Hatteras National Park, he took the right back down the highway. After a short distance, he turned left down a small paved road where Bodie Island Lighthouse was. Mulder pulled their car in the small gravel parking lot and smiled at Scully. “Well?”

She leaned forward to look out of the windshield. The black and white striped lighthouse stood off in the distance with the white lightkeeper’s house nearby. “It’s quaint,” she smiled. “Very tucked away. I’d imagine you might be used to up in New England.”

“I’ve seen a few.

“It has a history as well.”

“I bet it does.”

They climbed out of the car and Mulder was surprised when Scully openly took his hand and led him towards the Lightkeeper’s House, which served as the gift shop and the National Park Service’s Office. As if she had been there before, she knew right where everything was. Mulder became interested in some of the lighthouse knick-knacks as she purchased two tickets to climb the lighthouse. “Got those tickets to the stairway to heaven, Scully?”

“Hahaha,” she smiled. Much to this delight, she took his arm as they ventured back outside to a bench near the lighthouse to wait for the next tour. She guided him to sit with her on the bench overlooking the lighthouse. “I should really purchase a camera for this trip.”

“We can always buy a postcard.”

“I’m talking about us.” She rolled her eyes in amusement. “Why do you have to be difficult?”

“Because I love it when you say, ‘You’re crazy, Mulder.’ Besides, who needs a camera when you have a photographic memory?” He tapped his temple. “All our recent memory making…”

She laughed and it lifted Mulder’s spirit. Despite having a reincarnated ex-husband murderer who happened to be a serial killer in this life hunting down them while they were on their first vacation as a couple, he was so happy to hear her laughter. She smiled and rested her head against the bicep. She closed her eyes sleepily. “What do you say to us taking a nap in the hammock we have on the deck when we get home?”

“Despite the threat of…”

“Ssshhh. But yes.”

“As long as we pick up dinner along the way. Are you in the mood for seafood?”

“What about some Carolina BBQ?”

“I like you in a vacation mood. Why can’t you be more open to greasy foods when we’re in the field?”

“Vacation. There’s a difference,” she laughed.

Mulder watched a park ranger walk past them, calling, “All those for tickets for the 12:00 lighthouse tour line up behind me.”

“That’s us,” Scully whispered.

“Do you have to be first at everything?”

“I have to remind you who is the boss in this relationship. Tell me, Walking History Textbook, what is special about this lighthouse?”

“I remember,” he whispered, kissing the top of her head, “trying to blow it up with the retreating troops but I got orders to report to Norfolk instead.”

She chuckled. “Fucking past lives but then again, I have those to thank for my better sex life.”

“Is that a compliment?”

“Shut up.” Her eyes opened and she tugged on his arm. “Let’s go.”

“This salt air is doing wonders for your spirit,” he remarked.

“Maybe it’s the company more.”

Mulder smiled and kissed her forehead lovingly. She walked together to the front of the lighthouse where others were lining up in front of a park ranger. The woman park ranger smiled and waved people closer. “Gather around everyone! First, a few rules before we go up. The stairs in this lighthouse aren’t like the ones at Cape Hatteras. Only one person at a time can be on them, going up or going down in either direction. You can have multiple people on the landings,” the park ranger explained. “Now that we have that out of the way, can anyone tell me about the lighthouse?”

The tour group was met with silence as the park ranger started to talk about a mini-history lesson about Congress approving the lighthouse and it’s history from the Civil War to the present. As the park ranger concluded her mini-speech, she stepped back and motioned for everyone to begin their journey upwards. Mulder and Scully were in the middle of the group and took a moment to take in the moment around them: other tourists, the lovely March weather, and Scully in sunglasses smiling and laughing with her arm wrapped through his. It was so nice to see you here relaxed and happy.

“Are you happy?” Mulder whispered to her.

“Yes,” she answered.

That was all he needed at that moment. He really should have bought a disposable camera to capture this moment. As they climbed the lighthouse in a single file line, he was entranced by the magic of the moment. They paused periodically on each landing, overlooking various aspects of the horizon. The salt marshes and sounds of the Ocean on the other end. The Atlantic on the other side. Scully laughing. Eventually, they reached the top, the wind whipped Scully’s hair.

She gripped the railings of Bodie Lighthouse and leaned over to look at the people below. Mulder’s hand rested lightly on her back and he whispered, “What a view huh?”

“Hey, mister!”

A young kid’s voice caught both of them off guard and as they turned they saw a young boy with a brand new Polaroid camera. He smiled, speaking loudly over the wind. “I’ll take two pictures of you for five bucks.”

“Try three,” Mulder haggled, getting into the spirit.

“Two dollars includes on the spot printing. Memories last forever.”

“You sound like a Hallmark commercial.”

“Mom lets me watch a lot of tv.” The young kid considered his possible client. “What do you say? Five dollars for three pictures?”

“I have to consult with my boss. What do you say, Scully? Three for five?”

She nodded and smiled. The kid smiled and raised his camera. He took a series of three shots. One of them both overlooking the railing out to the Atlantic sea, the second of them together smiling for the camera, and an unscripted kiss that briefly turned passionate, all of which was captured on the kid’s camera. Scully broke away, her cheeks flushed as she smiled. Mulder dug through his jean’s pockets until he produced a crumpled five-dollar bill. He exchanged it as Scully still took the still-developing photos.

Scully waved the photos in the sea air in a vain attempt to get them to develop quicker. She briefly flashed back to when she found that picture of them in the library archives in Newport News months ago from 1863. But there was something else that bloomed up inside of her; pride, love, tenderness, and devotion. Finally, something to memorialize and immortalize this moment now. She eyed the top image of them kissing with affection. Mulder was saying something before he returned to her.

“How did they turn out?”

“The kid has an eye for photography?” She answered.

They both gripped the photos to keep them from flying away in the sea breeze. “The Gunmen can make copies of these,” he whispered into her ear. “We can put one down into the basement and make Skinner jealous.”

“Or we can keep the copies for ourselves,” she answered. She rested her head against his chest; the breeze was in one ear with echoes of eternity from the Atlantic and his heartbeat was steady with promises of the future. “We need to buy a camera.”

“I can agree with that.” They watched the pictures develop on top of the lighthouse as they stood close to each other and as another momentarily in the winds of their entwined existence became immortalized once again on film. Scully felt relaxed and, for once, at peace. “Let me put those pictures in my purse,” she whispered softly.

Mulder gladly obliged and she carefully tucked away their pictures. They stood together, admiring the 360 panorama view that Bodie Lighthouse gave. After a while, they descended the staircase back down to the ground. Scully took his hand in public, unafraid who was watching and dragged Mulder to the gift shop. As he enjoyed the moment of this rare display of public affection, Mulder had a nagging feeling in the back of his mind that disappeared when Scully’s lips met his.

********************

Buckley sat in the farthest car from the lighthouse, looking through his binoculars. Krycek sat next to him and asked, “Is it them?”

“Yep,” the other man replied. “Just like I told you.”

********************

Mulder looked at the Polaroids that had been taken at the lighthouse that day. He could only imagine the film on the disposable camera and how wonderful the shots were going to be. He and Scully were laughing, posing together as a couple framed by the lighthouse and the Atlantic Ocean. The little kids who had charged them five dollars for the pictures were ruthless but he finally had some proof of their happiness in this life. He contemplated calling upon the Gunmen to use their technological magic to digitize the photos but that would be for another day. He had been relatively low profile with his relationship with Scully over the past three months and he did not want to push it unless she was okay with it.

“Hey, Scully,” he called, “when do you think we should tell your mom?”

“About what, Mulder?”

“Us,” he replied.

From the kitchen island, Scully was curled up on the couch with a blanket watching ‘Dharma and Greg’ and not really paying attention to him. She rested her arm on the back of the couch and twisted to look at him. “What aspect of us?”

“Well,” Mulder began, setting the photos down, “the change in our relationship for starters.”

“Or the IVF?”

“I wasn’t going to go there.”

“But you were thinking about it.”

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” he admitted. He set the pictures aside and joined her on the couch. “I’ve just been thinking lately.”

“Well, I feel like there’s been a lot of that going around,” she said. Mulder unfurled her legs and rested her feet in his lap. “What are you doing?”

“I don’t know,” he answered honestly. “I’m not really thinking.”

“Or maybe you’re just too busy thinking. Are you thinking about the IVF?”

“I would want to try again if you are willing too.”

“I still want to think about it,” she replied.

He lightly massaged her feet and she hummed in approval. “I can’t believe how sore my feet are from climbing all those stairs.”

“It’s not like you aren’t used to all work. You’re the FBI equivalent of Wonder Women running in high heels.”

“I appreciate the compliant, Mulder, but if you remember, I decided to wear flip-flops that have no support.”

“Well, where else could you get weather nice enough to wear flip flops in March?”

She giggled as he got a particular ticklish area. “Only in Nags Head.” She nodded to the show that was on. “So, I caught this the first time when I was in San Diego. Have you ever heard of it?”

“What is it?”

“The show’s called ‘Dharma and Greg.’”

“I believe I have,” he said. “Some flower child marries a lawyer and chaos ensues when they decide to marry on the first date. So which one am I? Dharma or Greg?”

“Dharma,” she answered. “But opposites attract and make us better for it. Wouldn’t you agree, Mulder?”

He chuckled. “I might be inclined to. Do you want to keep it on this or find some nature documentary?”

“I like that and this version of Domestic Scully.”

“Did you lock the doors downstairs?”

“Yes,” he answered, “and I triple checked all the locks and windows. The only window that will be open is the one to our bedroom on the third floor.”

“And our weapons?”

“In the bedroom on the nightstands.”

She relaxed and nodded in approval. She withdrew her feet and switched her sitting position. She lounged against Mulder, wrapping his arms securely around her, and they enjoyed the rest of the comedy sitcom. He smiled into her arm and pressed a kiss, solidifying this moment in his memory. Even though there was a psycho that might be trying to kill them, he was the happiest he had been in a long time.

***********************

Mulder and. Scully had retired after television for a few more hours of watching prime time sitcoms. Scully disappeared into their bedroom and he did a quick lap around the beach house to check all their locks. By the time he got back up to their third-floor bedroom, he could hear the water running in the master bathroom.

“Mulder,” Scully called through the partially closed door. “Did you get everything you needed done?”

He could hear the partially slurred speech. “Is that wine I smell?” He dare not open the door. While this vacation had stress from fear of a psycho, it was bringing out sides of Scully he had only dreamed of and seen in one other lifetime. “Scully?”

“Hmm.” She giggled. “Maybe. Come join me, Mulder.”

“Where did you get the wine?”

He was already taking off his shirt and Scully’s laughter was causing his blood to boil in anticipation. “I snuck it in our last shopping trip,” she replied. She was giggling again. “Mulder, come on. There are still bubbles.”

Bubbles. “Aw, Scully.”

He pushed the door open slightly and saw her hair clipped back and a coffee mug in her hand. Most of her were covered by the bubbles from the jacuzzi so all that he saw was the one bare leg perched near the faucet. “Scully…” he crooned.

“What? Go grab yourself a coffee mug and bring the bottle with you!” She was smiling. Even though they decided to take their relationship to a new level, this still seemed so uncharacteristic of her. “Come on, Mulder. We’re on vacation.”

“I know we are,” he answered. He chose his next words carefully. “Weren’t you the one earlier who was concerned about our safety?”

“I’m not letting them get to me. Us. I was thinking about what you said earlier.”

“About telling your mom?”

“No. I want to try again when we get back to D.C.”

Mulder smiled and his concerns momentarily forgotten. “I’ll be right back.”

He went to the fridge, grabbed the open bottle, and a coffee mug from the fridge. She was smiling coyly at him. He topped off her coffee mug and shucked his jeans. In one fluid movement, he slid behind her and coiled his arms around her. “It’s a good thing you’re so small,” he teased. He kissed his favorite spot behind her ear. “Or else this w Scully lounged back into him. “I’ve been dreaming,” she whispered to him softly. She sipped the wine-filled coffee mug. “Don’t worry, it’s not any new past lives or anything.”

“I’m glad?”

She heard the question in his voice. “I am just thinking about this life and the last. Us. What could have been.”

Scully was always amazed how well they just worked together, either spiritually, or as she had discovered lately, physically as well. She sipped her wine. “Now or then,” he asked.

“Then. I still have a hard time believing it was real, Mulder.”

Together, they entwined their hands and caressed her flattened abdomen. He nuzzled her neck and closed his eyes. They both could remember those memories for the early 1860s, the joy of their unborn child, laying together, and dreaming about the future. “It was,” he replied. “And I don’t know how this whole past life thing works but we’ve been given a second chance.”

“By remembering?”

She turned her head in question and Mulder found her lips. “We’ll have that again.”

“Your faith is grounding.”

“Did you enjoy the lighthouse today?” He asked, changing the subject. “I was thinking why not tour all of them? We can drive back down to Cape Hatteras and climb the lighthouse there. Or drive an hour or so up to Corolla and climb the Currituck Lighthouse. And there are the ferries...Ocracoke, Knotts Island…”

“One day at a time, Mulder,” she laughed. “Today was Bodie Lighthouse. Tomorrow is Manteo. Tonight is this.”

“So,” he paused, setting aside both of the wine mugs. “Do you want to try to experiment and push the bounds of this fancy bathtub?”

“I bet you’re more effective than those water jets,” she challenged.

Mulder smiled and kissed her deeply. “I’ll get you to relax on this vacation.”

Scully just deepened the kiss and pulled him closer.

************************

Further up the barrier islands in Duck, North Carolina, Franklin Buckley, and Alex Krycek were at a small pizzeria nestled in a small outcrop of shops. Over shared slices and bad beer, they talked. “I still don’t get it,” Krycek started. “Why is this so fucking important to you? Mulder is no one.”

“Your boss is interested in them,” Buckley shrugged. “As a result, I am too.”

“I read your file you know.”

“Hell, I was in the papers.”

“And this somehow makes you the best choice?” Krycek sneered. “I still don’t understand that smoking bastard’s logic. I know you were in the papers. There is a fucking manhunt on for you.”

“And yet they can’t touch me.” Buckley waved the soggy pizza in the air. “We’re having pizza.”

“Why did the old man pick you?”

“Alexi…”

“Alex.”

“Alex.” Buckley grinned. “Have you ever wanted revenge so badly that you would do anything? Take back what is rightfully yours?”

Krychek grew quiet. “I have.”

“Then this is no different. It’s all a matter of waiting. I made the smoker an offer he couldn’t refuse. Are you going to finish that pizza?”

“No.” Krycek was distracted. He pushed the plate towards Buckley with his right arm. “Go ahead.”

“Must suck having one arm but I’ll tell you, this pizza is better than anything they served in the joint.”

“What’s your plan?”

“You’ll see. In the meantime, it is all the matter of waiting and seeing.”

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“Wait and see.”

****************

Back in Nags Head, Scully stood on the deck with her arms around her. She watched the waves hit the shore as high tide came ashore. Mulder had run out earlier to pick up some dinner for them but, while he was gone, Skinner had called her cell phone with an update on the situation. While Buckley still had yet to be confirmed spotted, there had been an anonymous tip that Krycek was in league with Buckley. While the SACs of the branch offices were not as quick, Skinner was the one to make the connection. He hung up without giving Scully any orders to immediately return or what to do next. He promised to call her the next day if there had been any developments.

But this newest update from Skinner had left her uneasy. Their boss had danced around the possibility of recalling his two agents back from their vacation but had not stated anything directly. She watched the waves, memorized, and let her thoughts drift. This vacation of theirs was already turning south with each new update about Buckley. She was beginning to feel paranoid, like a haunting ghost on the edge of her vision. She sighed and looked up at the sky. The sun was setting behind her. Although she couldn’t see the sun at this point, it was already painting the sky in a brilliant canvas of colors and hues of reds, pinks, purples, and oranges. She tried to let herself get lost in the beauty of the moment but her anxiety grew worse.

She watched the last of the sun fade into darkness and went back into the beach house. Scully glanced at the green digital clock on the microwave and frowned when she read 7:13. Mulder should have been back by now. She tapped her knuckles lightly against each other to ward against the growing anxiety. She heard the main door unlock and his musical voice call, “Scully, I’m back! You’ll never guess what I picked up!”

She tried to refrain from clutching her pounding heart but failed. “Took you long enough!”

“I’m sorry, but you know how I get sometimes. Something catches my eyes and poof.”

She could hear him climbing the stairs, trying to juggle plastics takeout bags. He appeared, dropped the armload of food and a nondescript black plastic bag on the counter. He sneaked up behind her, kissed her, and whispered, “Miss me that much?”

She nodded, twisting her head to meet his kiss. “Always.”

He hummed and flexed around her. “You’re tense.”

“I spoke to Skinner earlier.” She tried to relax as she spoke. He hummed. “And I...let’s just discuss it tomorrow okay? We’ll lock the doors, keep our weapons nearby, and play it safe. Is that okay?”

“Whatever you say,” he whispered. “So, for dinner, I got us a surprise.”

“Dare I ask?”

He broke away but not before stealing another kiss. “We’re on the coast. You know the seafood is fresh. I literally just got it so you know it is good.”

“Get to point. Why were you late?”

“Well,” he shrugged, “I went up the strip a couple of miles and found this really cute place.”

“You just used the word cute.” She frowned teasingly, his lighter mood getting the best of her. “Did you find us china patterns?”

“That is a future date at the Alexandria farm market. I got us the best seafood.” He began to unpack the bags. “For starters, Agent Scully baked oysters.”

“An aphrodisiac, Mulder?”

He held up a finger to silence her. “Next, a course of shared soup, that is she-crab soup.” She laughed and hid her face. “Next, honestly I couldn’t decide between landlubbers and the sea, so a buffalo chicken wrap I think will heat up well tomorrow and a lovely scallop dinner…”

“I love scallops.”

“I know,” he laughed. “I got us a combo. Scallops and local shrimp with a salad and a baked potato. But, to answer your burning question, the reason why I took so long…” From his back pocket. She could hear the crinkling of a paper gift bag and he held out the mysterious wrapped package in the palm of his hand. “I saw this and immediately thought of you.”

“Mulder.”

With the food momentarily forgotten, she pulled off the paper and revealed a small velvet box. “You see, I can’t see you in another necklace than a cross or bracelets or rings but earrings...for sure.” She popped open the box and drew in a sharp breath. “Do you like them?”

“Mulder, these are beautiful.” She examined two fine little stud earrings with a sand dollars designed in the silver overlay. “Silver?”

“No, white gold.” He shrugged. “It was in this little kitschy shop run by a local artist who makes jewelry. I just thought.”

“I love them.” She awarded him with a kiss. “Thank you. In fact, I’ll put them on now just to show you.”

“You don’t have to. Besides, I know you well enough you will murder me first if I don’t feed you.”

“I am not that bad.” She closed the box and replied, “Thank you.”

“For what? Dinner or the earrings?”

“Everything.”

He pulled the plates and bowls down from the cabinet. Scully busied herself with fetching silverware and napkins, inwardly defeating the idea to tell Mulder about Skinner’s call until after dinner. He glanced out the window to the deck. “What about eating outside tonight?”

“Let’s eat at the breakfast island and then go outside. It was getting chilly while I was out there a while ago.”

He nodded and went to the radio in the living room. Mulder fiddled with the dial and settled on a classic rock station playing the Eagles. She set out dinner and he joined her. They silently sat next together over dinner. “So,” he asked, unsure of the silence, “what do you want to do tomorrow?”

She paused on the shrimp she was working on. “Skinner called while you were out,” she began. “Giving us an update. We got two SACs and field offices chasing this, along with Skinner, but no one has yet to confirm seeing Buckley aside from the fact they’ve flooded the airwaves with his picture. But there was an anonymous source that Krycek is involved.”

Mulder was quiet, cutting half of the baked potato. “Well, we both know the Smoker is involved. Morely’s were found on the site of his breakout.”

“I know,” she whispered. “He said he’ll update us again tomorrow and Skinner hasn’t ordered us back to Washington. Yet.”

“I sense a but coming, Scully.”

“But since we came down here, I can’t help but feel off or like we’re being watched or followed during all this.” She picked up her fork and dipped a scallop into the melted butter. “When we were at the lighthouse the other day…”

“You felt like we were being watched?”

She nodded, averting her gaze. “I know it doesn’t sound like me.”

“I trust your instincts, Scully.” He looked down at his own food. “And I got the same feeling too.”

“Our money would be gone.”

“But we would be safer.”

“As is our vacation.”

“Not necessarily.”

“I am not spending the rest of the two weeks we took off months in advance in an FBI safe house.”

“What would happen if we were closer for them to keep an eye on us? Skinner is in Norfolk right with the two SACs. Virginia Beach isn’t that far. I remember when we were there a few months ago hearing about Sandbridge. It was advertised to be like the Outer Banks without leaving Virginia. We could take the hit on the money and have the FBI pay for it.”

“Or get them to refund it and then pay for it. We’ve earned it at least.”

“I can’t agree more.” He sighed. “How do you want to play this, Scully.?”

“I want our vacation.”

“But?”

“I just can’t shake the feeling something is going to happen.”

Mulder rubbed his chin, forgetting he had melted butter all over his hands. She frowned and took a napkin, gently wiping it away. “Thanks. But back to your feelings,” he said. “I agree and have the same feeling.” He watched her reaction as she kept her face neutral like a poker player. “But I think we should consider our safety first.”

She nodded.

“What are you thinking,” he asked softly.

“That we can never catch a break. Let’s go outside after dinner and sit for a bit in the hammock. We can pack tomorrow after we call Skinner.” She sighed. “You know, I really was looking forward to having a real vacation with you.”

He nodded. “We can still have it,” he said.

“Can we? As I said, it feels like we can never catch a break.”

With the mood suddenly sourer, they both finished their meals and discarded the dishes. Scully hand-washed all the dishes they had been using, including the few sitting in the dishwasher. Mulder gathered a sweatshirt for her, two glasses, and the small bottle of aged rum he had purchased from them. She eyed the small liquor bottle. “I’m sorry, Mulder to be the downer of the party.”

He shook his head and walked over to her. He trapped her between the counter and his arms. She sighed, wrapped her arms around his neck, and rested her head against his chest. He smiled at her open display of affection. “You’re never the downer at a party.”

“I never told you about my first and last high school party.”

“Well, how about we part-tay outside to that hammock for one night and you can tell me. I’ll bring the booze.”

Scully chuckled. “What would my father say?”

“Hang and quarter him on the yardarm?”

“Aye,” she teased. She kissed him. “Help, I’ve been charmed by a pirate from New England who thought I was a mermaid.”

“That is terrible,” he whispered. They both smiled. “But more of an angel than a mermaid.”

“Let’s go outside. High tide was just coming in when I was out there earlier.”

Scully pulled on the sweatshirt he had brought her and the two glasses and the liquor bottle. Mulder followed behind her, turning out most of the lights as he did. She sat on the hammock like a big lounge chair and made room for him. She rocked it gently as Mulder eased himself next to her. “Let me do the swinging,” he told her. “My legs are longer.”

“Shut up, Mulder.”

Scully poured them both a drink and held up his. She chinked the glasses together. “To our vacation being ruined.”

“Well, if it weren’t for the x-files, we wouldn’t be here and I don’t regret a second of it with you.”

“Fox Mulder the sentimental,” she whispered lovingly. Mulder wrapped his arm tightly around her and she chuckled. “I love you.”

He smiled and whispered, “Not a single second.” His long legs began to rock them. “We’re going to be okay.”

She nodded absently. She rested against his arm and listened to the ocean. “We’ll go back to Virginia tomorrow.”

“I’ll tell Skinner to make plans to keep us in Virginia Beach.”

“And get us a beach house. I’m not staying in a motel.”

“Won’t argue with that.”

She sighed. “Fucking Buckley.”

“Fucking Buckley,” he agreed.

“So, it’s settled?”

“Yes. I’ll make the call. Right now, let’s just enjoy the beach.”

He nodded and rocked the hammock with his long legs as she closed her eyes and enjoyed the moment with Mulder.

#false flags redux #xfiles #xf fic #txf fic #txf #msr #msr fic #case fic #fox mulder #scully #mulder and scully on vacation

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vavuska · 4 years ago

Text

Montanelli and the perpetual denying of Italian war crime

Part 1 - Introduction - LINK

Part 2 - Italian and Colonial Law, Institutions of Marriage in the Erithrean Traditional Constumary Law - LINK

8 - A Great Journalist? Posters say "No"!

The reasons of the valdalism seem to be always the same: the constant tribute to the memory of an awful journalist, who was also a (ex) fascist, anticommonist, racist and colonialist.

Indro Montanelli only merit was surviving a terrorist attack from Red Brigades as a result of his being a right-wing journalist with a fascist past never fully denied. Unfortunately when they shot in the legs, they turn him into a freedom martyr, who Montanelli was not.

Here there are some examples of what I'm talking about:

1. “We will never be rulers if we do not have the exact awareness of our fatal superiority. He does not fraternize with niggers. You can't, you shouldn't. At least until a civilization has been given to them. […] This war is for us like a nice long holiday given to us by the Gran Babbo (Mussolini) as a reward for thirteen years of school. And, said among us, it was time. None of us hope that the war will end, we have only one desire: to continue!" (Indro Montanelli, article published on Fascist Civilization, 1936)

“Non si sarà mai dei dominatori, se non avremo la coscienza esatta di una nostra fatale superiorità. Coi negri non si fraternizza. Non si può, non si deve. Almeno finché non si sia data loro una civiltà. […] Questa guerra è per noi come una bella lunga vacanza dataci dal Gran Babbo (Mussolini) in premio di tredici anni di scuola. E, detto fra noi, era ora. Nessuno di noi si augura che la guerra finisca, abbiamo un solo desiderio: continuare!”

(Indro Montanelli, articolo pubblicato su Civiltà Fascista, 1936)

2. On the use, removed for decades, of lethal chemical weapons during the Ethiopian war, Montanelli stubbornly stood on a denial line. In the end, after the Dini government in 1995-96, definitively clarified the modalities and dimensions of the use of aggressive chemicals, he had to apologize.

3. "Captain, it's a senseless sentence," he wrote to Priebke - German war criminal, Gestapo agent and captain of the SS during the Second World War, responsable of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, a reprisal for an Italian partisan attack on German troops. 335 men were executed, 10 italian civilians for each German soldier who had been killed in the attack - in 1996, "As an old soldier, and even of an Army very different from yours, I know very well that you could not do anything other than what you did [...] Best wishes, Mr. Captain ".

4. Montanelli wrote to the US ambassador Clare Booth Luce in 1954, informing her of the formation of a paramilitary anti-communist organization and asking her to guarantee the help of the American army in terms of arms, fleet and aviation: “If at the next election a Popular Front however constituted popular reached the majority, what Scelba [ Mario Scelba (5 September 1901 – 29 October 1991) was an Italian politician who served as the 33rd Prime Minister of Italy from February 1954 to July 1955] would do? It would deliver power, and it would be the end ... Any man of government, even non-Christian Democrats today, would surrender for the total impossibility of carrying out a coup d'etat ... The police and the army are polluted with communism. The carabinieri without the King, have lost every bite. And across the country there is no force capable of supporting the action of a resolute man. We must create this force. You can't go wrong looking at the history of our country, which is that of an abuse imposed by a minority of one hundred thousand sticks. Majorities in Italy have never counted: they have always been in tow with this handful of men who did everything with violence, the unification of Italy, its wars and its revolutions. This minority still exists and is not a communist [...] Faced with this reality, I find myself in this dilemma: to defend Democracy until accepting, for it, the death of Italy; or defend Italy to accept, or even hasten, the death of Democracy? My choice is made. "

“Se alle prossime elezioni un Fronte Popolare comunque costituito raggiungesse la maggioranza. Scelba cosa farebbe? Consegnerebbe il potere, e sarebbe la fine… Qualunque uomo di governo, oggi, anche non democristiano, si arrenderebbe per totale impossibilità di compiere un colpo di Stato… La polizia e l’esercito sono inquinati di comunismo. I carabinieri senza il Re, hanno perso di ogni mordente. E in tutto il paese non c’è una forza capace di appoggiare l’azione di un uomo risoluto. Noi dobbiamo creare questa forza. Non si può sbagliare guardando la storia del nostro paese, che è quella di un sopruso imposto da una minoranza di centomila bastonatori. Le maggioranze in Italia non hanno mai contato: sono sempre state al rimorchio di questo pugno di uomini che ha fatto tutto con la violenza, l’unità d’Italia, le sue guerre e le sue rivoluzioni. Questa minoranza esiste ancora e non è comunista […] Di fronte a questa realtà, mi trovo in questo dilemma: difendere la Democrazia fino ad accettare, per essa, la morte dell’Italia; o difendere l’Italia fino ad accettare, o anche affrettare, la morte della Democrazia? La mia scelta è fatta”.

LE LETTURE CONSIGLIATE:

Sulle lettere di Montanelli a Clare Boothe Luce:

- M. Del Pero, Anticomunismo d’assalto, in «Italia Contemporanea», Istituto Nazionale per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione Nazionale, n. 212 (1998), pp. 633 – 646

- M. Del Pero, M. G. Rossi, Una Gladio in borghese. Intervista a Indro Montanelli, in «Italia Contemporanea», Istituto Nazionale per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione Nazionale, n. 212 (1998), pp. 647 – 652

Su Clare Boothe Luce:

- S. J. Morris, Rage for fame: the ascent of Clare Boothe Luce, Random House, New York, 1997

- W. Sheed, Clare Boothe Luce, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1982

- M. Del Pero, American pressures and their containment in Italy during the ambassadorship of Clare Boothe Luce, 1953-1956, in: «Diplomatic History», vol. 28 n. 3 (giugno 2004)

5."In Italy, a pickaxe blow to the closed houses was enough to bring down the entire building, based on three fundamental props: the Catholic Faith, the Fatherland and the Family. Because it was in the so-called brothels that these three institutions found their safest guarantee, "wrote Addio Wanda, published in 1958 in opposition to the Merlin Law, the law that closed brothels and criminalized forced induction to prostitution. Montanelli was against the Merlin Law because “(...) The day in which they are allowed to live their life without fear of ending up in those menageries, Italy is destined to become one of the many countries of Protestant morality and customs, where the condition of virgin it does not exist, just as there is no whore, all women being united in an intermediate limbo; and where the family no longer exists, your duties having been absorbed by the society (...) Madam, do not delude yourself, either as an Ambassador or as a convert: between Cardinal Ruffini and the abstinent chaste vegetarian standard bearers of Initiative, the true Catholic is the cardinal, who does not do the Robinson Crusoé of Virtue. Like military chaplains, who are authentic priests because they live among authentic men (...) Tits and flag, Madam. They are the summary of the history of Italy, its inseparable pillars, its engine, the key to understanding it. To abolish one is to destroy the other. " N.B: Althought Montanelli portrays in a very negative way the end of the traditional view of women as “virgins” or “whores” - I Think he would be glad to know that in Italy this way to see women in society never really ended - and also called feminists and abolitionists “churchy” - even if he ws the one who actually defended brothels and forced prostitution to protect the Church and the traditional families -, he wrote unitentionally some good point of feminism goals!

“È bastato in Italia un colpo di piccone alle case chiuse per far crollare l’intero edificio, basato su tre fondamentali puntelli: la Fede cattolica, la Patria e la Famiglia. Perché era nei cosiddetti postriboli che queste tre istituzioni trovavano la loro più sicura garanzia (...) Il giorno in cui ad esse si conceda di vivere la loro vita senza timore di finire in quei serragli, l' Italia è destinata a diventare uno dei tanti Paesi di moralità e di costume protestanti, dove la condizione di vergine non esiste, come non esiste quella di puttana, tutte le donne essendo accomunate in un limbo intermedio; e dove non esiste più la famiglia, le sue mansioni essendo state assorbite dalla società (...) Signora, non si faccia illusioni, né come Ambasciatrice, né come convertita: fra il cardinal Ruffini e i casti astinenti vegetariani alfieri di Iniziativa , il cattolico vero è il cardinale, che non fa il Robinson Crusoé della Virtù. Come i cappellani militari, che sono dei preti autentici perché vivono in mezzo agli uomini autentici (...) Tette e bandiera, Signora. Sono il riassunto della Storia d'Italia, i suoi inseparabili pilastri, il suo motore, la chiave per comprenderla. Abolire l'uno significa distruggere l'altro."

6. "Ah! Sicily! - he states in February 1960 in an interview with the prestigious French magazine Le Figaro Letteraire - You have Algeria, we have Sicily. But you are not obliged to tell the Algerians that they are French. We, an aggravating circumstance, are obliged to grant the Sicilians the quality of Italians".

“Ah! La Sicilia! Voi avete l’Algeria, noi abbiamo la Sicilia. Ma voi non siete obbligati a dire agli algerini che sono francesi. Noi, circostanza aggravante, siamo obbligati ad accordare ai siciliani la qualità di italiani”.

7. Oxford riot, September 1962. Segregationists protest against the enrollment of James Meredith, the first black man to do so, at the University of Mississippi. The clashes make 2 dead and 300 injured. This is the comment of Indro Montanelli, in the Corriere della Sera of October 3, 1962: “(...) Little by little America is realizing that with this problem it must live together because it cannot solve it. Or rather, it can solve it only in the legal context of equality of civil rights. Biologically, no. Because it will be unfair, it will be repugnant, it will be rationally inexplicable and unacceptable; but it is a fact that mingling with blacks has given catastrophic results wherever it has been practiced. I know I say a heresy, for the times that are running, but I prefer heresy to hypocrisy.”

(...) Piano piano l'America sta rendendosi conto che con questo problema essa deve convivere perché non lo può risolvere. O meglio, lo può risolvere solo nell'ambito giuridico della parità dei diritti civili. Biologicamente, no. Perché sarà ingiusto, sarà ripugnante, sarà razionalmente inesplicabile e inaccettabile; ma è un fatto che il meticciato coi neri ha dato risultati catastrofici dovunque lo si è praticato. So di dire un'eresia, per i tempi che corrono, ma preferisco l'eresia all'ipocrisia.

8. Backed by Giorgio Bocca, he called the journalist de l'Unità Tina Merlin, who denounced the human faults in the Vajont Disaster [ On 9 October 1963, during initial filling, a landslide caused a megatsunami in the lake in which 50 million cubic metres of water overtopped the dam in a wave of 250 metres (820 ft), leading to the complete destruction of several villages and towns, and 1,917 deaths. Although the dam itself remained almost intact and two-thirds of the water was retained behind it, the landslide was much larger than expected and the impact brought massive flooding and destruction to the Piave Valley below. This event occurred after the company and the Italian government concealed reports and dismissed evidence that Monte Toc, on the southern side of the basin, was geologically unstable. They had disregarded numerous warnings, signs of danger, and negative appraisals, and the eventual attempts to safely control the landslide by lowering the lake's level came when the landslide was almost imminent.] "jackal". He will make amends twice, in 1997 and 1998, from La Stanza di Montanelli in Corriere della Sera, confessing two serious faults: to have arrived on the spot without knowing anything about the dam and to have taken a totally ideological position in favor of the responsible company, Sade, only because it is contrary to the nationalization of electricity.

9. In a cable of January 12, 1978, declassified by US Government and published by WikiLeaks, called "Montanelli sees the blood ahead", US diplomats report in Washington in 1978 what they define the "tactics" of the journalist: blackmailing the DCs [Demo-Christian Party] ready to make concessions to the communists and sink Berlinguer to return the PCI [Italian Communist Party] to the hard line. Going back to the hard line, the next step would be a civil conflict, in which the PCI would be destroyed. Perhaps - says the journalist - Italy would have a Pinochet-like democracy. That would be a hellish prospect, but better than a government with the PCI.

10. In the Giornale of 24 October 1980 Montanelli wrote - inventing a source - that he had known, eleven years earlier, that is, immediately after the massacre in Piazza Fontana, that Pinelli, police informer, had confided to Commissioner Calabresi that the anarchists were preparing "something big". Then, when Calabresi, who obviously had recorded everything, made him feel the tape, Pinelli, not resisting the idea that his companions qualified him as informer, would have thrown himself out the window. Needless to say, they were all lies. Called to answer his statements in court Montanelli had to repeatedly apologize, admit that he was wrong, that he was misunderstood, that he did not express himself well, that he invented relevant details from a healthy point of view. In front of the judges he had to take everything back, so much so that the attorney general said "And since I was a boy I always gave him a kind of myth, today this myth has collapsed". "When he wrote unpredictably, on his admission, to be interrogated as witnesses in a public trial ... therefore with the inevitable consequence of being misguided. On the other hand, he threw the thesis back into circulation and he loved the responsibility of the anarchists in the massacre" .

#indro montanelli #Italian journalism #italian history #italian politics #history #Italy #italian #montanelli #Vavuskapakage

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maryanntorreson · 4 years ago

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The 12 Days Of Cookiemas: Holiday Pastries From Around The World

There’s something about the holidays that make cookies an inevitability. As the temperatures dip down, baking cookies is an excuse to turn on the oven and fill the kitchen with both warmth and the smells of vanilla and cinnamon. Cookies are a great way to feed gatherings of people, without the need for cutting or slicing. And as the evenings get darker and we start to stay inside more, they’re a welcome escape. Traditional Christmas cookies are nostalgia wrapped in sugar.

Another great thing about cookies is how varied they can be. It’s tempting to always stick with the same pastries your parents made, but that limits your possibilities. To help you diversify, we looked at some of the most popular cookies in other countries. Presenting the 12 Days of Cookiemas, with recipes for traditional Christmas cookies from around the world.

1. German Pfeffernusse

Pfeffernusse are very popular throughout Germany and the Netherlands during the holiday season. The name literally means “pepper nuts,” which sounds far less appealing than they actually are. They’re similar to gingerbread, but thicker, softer and covered with a firm sugar icing. The snowball appearance gives them an extra wintery look. You can buy them in many stores in the United States, but nothing beats the homemade kind.

2. Argentinian Alfajores

Alfajores are kind of like Oreos, but also they’re nothing like Oreos. These pastries are two soft cookies held together by dulce de leche, and the combination is delicious. The origins of this cookie apparently go back to Spain over 1,000 years ago, when a slightly more rudimentary form of the pastry was made. The recipe traveled to South America during the colonial era, and they were really perfected in Argentina.

3. Polish Kołaczki

Photo by Kurman Communications, Inc. via Flickr. License.

Perhaps the greatest feature of kołaczki is that they’re very versatile. The exterior is constant — a cream cheese dough with a nice flakiness — but the inside can be whatever you’d like. Whether filled with almond spread, strawberry or even Nutella, kołaczki are a delicious cookie. Poland, the Czech Republic and other countries all claim to have invented this pastry, but its exact origin is lost to history. You don’t need to know where they’re from to eat them, though.

4. British Stained Glass Cookies

Don’t worry, there’s no actual glass in stained glass cookies. It’s essentially a sugar cookie with holes cut into it, where you add crushed candy that’s heated to turns into a “pane.” So it’s literally a candy window. These cookies are great to eat, but they’re also used for another purpose: decoration. You can put a hole near the top and put string through them. Some people hang them on their Christmas trees or in their windows. Of course, you can also just eat them, because some people might think it’s weird to have stale cookies hanging around your house.

5. Eastern European Rugelach

Rugelach, traditionally a Jewish pastry, is not explicitly associated with any holiday. Yet it seems that as December rolls around, these cookies start to appear. They often makes an appearance at holiday parties, regardless of the host’s religious affiliation. They’re kind of like mini croissants, with dough wrapped around jam, cinnamon, chocolate and nuts. The filling is variable, but the enjoyment is not.

6. Austrian Vanillekipferl

Vanillekipferl are almond-flavored pastry crescents. Their origin is a bit muddled, but they’re popular in Austria, Hungary, Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland. It’s believed that the cookie’s crescent shape is based on the Turkish crescent moon that you can see on Turkey’s flag. They were made like this to celebrate the Hungarian defeat of the Turkish in one of several battles in the Ottoman-Hungarian Wars. This is clearly not the most holiday-friendly story, but hey, they’re cookies. Vanillekipferl are eaten year-round in Austria, but they’re considered a holiday treat in most other countries.

7. German Zimtsterne

Yes, we chose two cookies from Germany, but these are worth it. After all, Germany is famous for traditional Christmases, so it only makes sense they would have the plentiful traditional Christmas cookies. Often called cinnamon stars, these cookies are made from almonds and cinnamon. In the old days of Germany, cinnamon was a rare spice, and so these cookies were considered a specialty item. They became associated with Christmas because it was the time of year when people splurged on the finer things. They’re always shaped like six-pointed stars, so let them light up your dark night.

8. Italian Anginetti

Italy has no shortage of small cookies for the holiday season, but anginetti are a particular favorite. They’re pretty typical drop cookies with a slight lemony taste, but there’s something irresistible about the glaze with the sprinkles. The sprinkles also give them a very festive look that make them a colorful part of any cookie plate. They’re also a lot less heavy than your average cookie, so you can eat more without feeling guilty.

9. Finnish Joulutorttu

This is a treat of many names. Joulutorttu literally translates to “Christmas tart,” but they’re more commonly known in English as prune tarts. Don’t let that name scare you away. Prunes are not always bad, and these cookies prove it. They cookies are also called pinwheels, thanks to their whimsical appearance that is formed by folding the dough in a certain way. They’re particularly enjoyable when paired with a cup of coffee.

10. Scottish Shortbread

Shortbread seems are a pretty lackluster cookie when judged on looks alone, but it’s hard to beat the buttery, crumbly flavor. These cookies are great whether you make them yourself or buy them in a tartan tin. Shortbread also has history: they’ve been around since medieval times in Scotland. Their popularity is sometimes credited to Mary, Queen of Scots, who apparently enjoyed them during her reign in the 16th century. This story, while fun, is probably false. These traditional Christmas cookies predate Queen Mary’s reign.

11. Mexican Biscochitos

Are those wedding bells I hear? Why no, it’s just biscochitos. These are usually called “Mexican wedding cookies” outside Mexico, and they are indeed heavily associated with matrimony. That doesn’t mean you can’t have them whenever, though, and they are a nice treat in cold weather. These tend to be very simple to make. Biscochitos are flour, nuts and a few other ingredients are baked together and then rolled in powdered sugar.

12. French Madeleines

The French consider madeleines to be a small cake, but we’ll call them Christmas cookies for simplicity’s sake. These spongy pastries are not for the novice cook, as the recipe is a little complex. Fortunately, you can also buy them at any French bakery. Madeleines can be made in a few different flavors, like chocolate and lavender, but lemon ones are the most common. Madeleines are some of the prettiest cookies in existence, so they’ll work very well for your Instagram. They’re best paired with a cup of tea and a novel (maybe even French novelist Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time, where madeleines play a central role).

The post The 12 Days Of Cookiemas: Holiday Pastries From Around The World appeared first on Babbel.

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aion-rsa · 4 years ago

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Best War Movies to Watch: A Complete Streaming Guide

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Sadly, the human race has pretty much never not been at war. We remain an ever violent, combative crew. Hopefully one day that’ll change and we’ll enter an era of unprecedented peace. Until then though, we have the movies!

War might be hell, but war flicks can be pretty great at times! Armed combat and all the other various theaters and forms of battle makes for high-octane drama and gripping backdrops. And that’s pretty much exactly what we are looking for out of our drama films.

What follows is a (mostly) comprehensive list of all the war movies available with a streaming subscription on the major streaming services. If you’re interested in paying per movie, options like Amazon, Google Play and YouTube should help broaden the field. Otherwise, scroll below because the films here are all free with a log-in subscription to Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, or HBO Max.

‘71

Available on: Hulu (US), Amazon Prime Video (UK)

An underrated British thriller from the last decade, ’71 turns “the Troubles” in Ireland into a pseudo-horror movie. At a mere 99 minutes, this is lean, economical filmmaking with a barebones premise about a British solider (Jack O’Connell) who gets separated from his unit during a Belfast riot in 1971—the height of British-Irish tension. His plight to survive the night is riveting filmmaking and a grim look back to still fresh nightmares.

The African Queen

Available on: Amazon Prime Video (purchase only in UK)

An unlikely war movie at first glance, The African Queen is very much the story of two middle-aged people caught up in the chaos of the First World War. It’s also a crackling adventure yarn about autumn romance between a drunken river boat captain (Humphrey Bogart) and a Christian missionary (Katharine Hepburn) who’s brother was just killed by Germans in colonial Africa. Both set out to get down the river, and away from the Germans’ reach, in this charming John Huston classic with still stunning location photography.

The Alamo

Available on: Hulu

As an ironically little remembered version of the Alamo siege from director John Lee Hancock, The Alamo (2004) is still the best film version of these events. With a refreshing eye for historical authenticity instead of Texan mythmaking, the movie unpacks the lives of David Crockett (Billy Bob Thornton), James Bowie (Jason Patric), and William Travis (Patrick Wilson) with a warts and all approach. It also relays the events of the battle in its actual context at night, and in grim chaos, and gives needed attention to the overlooked contributions of the Tejanos to Texan independence.

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But most significantly, it has a bittersweet soul as expressed in Carter Burwell’s score, which is at its most beautiful when Crockett climbs a parapet to serenade both sides of the battlefield with his fiddle.

A Bridge Too Far

Available on: Netflix (US Only)

The last of its kind, A Bridge Too Far is one of those old-fashioned all-star war epics about World War II that came into vogue between the 1950s and ‘70s. But this nearly all-British production is not about one of the Allies’ greatest triumphs, but rather one of their most disappointing defeats: the failure of Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands.

Director Richard Attenborough and screenwriter William Goldman try to squeeze it all in, which will honestly be exhausting to some viewers. For others, seeing a historically accurate (if too lighthearted) rendering of this battle with the likes of Sean Connery, Michael Caine, Gene Hackman, Anthony Hopkins, Ryan O’Neal, Robert Redford, and more will be enough.

Casablanca

Available on: HBO Max

Another Bogie movie where the war is adjacent to the central conflict, Casablanca is the best wartime melodrama ever produced. Some even consider it the greatest American movie for that matter. Actually made during the Second World War, there is a great rush of patriotic idealism and anxious uncertainty about its vision of a seedy Moroccan city that is ostensibly under free French rule, but is not-so-secretly being occupied by the Nazis. There everyone goes to Rick’s, a café run by a disillusioned American (Bogart) who sticks his neck out for nobody.

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But Rick must soon pick up the fight again after an old flame named Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) walks into his gin joint, bringing with her a French husband, a freedom fighter who has the Nazis breathing down his neck. All three are going to make some tough choices, as will complicit French police officer Louis (a marvelous Claud Rains) as the forces of World War II finally start pulling.

Cold Mountain

Available on: HBO Max

An attempt at an old fashioned sweeping wartime epic, Cold Mountain still brings modern historical insight to the oft-mythologized Civil War. The film is about several people from North Carolina’s Appalachian region. Like many Confederate soldiers, particularly from NC, Inman (Jude Law) has no slaves and no real reason to fight for the Southern cause. So after hellish battle, he deserts and attempts to make a sprawling trek back home.

Elsewhere, however, his sweetheart Ada (Nicole Kidman) must make hard decisions of her own with the leering eye of the Home Guard peeking over her shoulder, especially as word of Inman’s desertion reaches the mountains. An odyssey of the Civil War from the vantage of the impoverished it rolled over, Cold Mountain is a refreshing melodrama.

Da 5 Bloods

Available on: Netflix

Spike Lee’s latest joint is also one that opened up wounds from the Vietnam War that never really healed. Set more in the 2010s than 1960s, Da 5 Bloods follows four Black veterans who’ve ostensibly returned to Vietnam to find the remains of their fallen brother (Chadwick Boseman in one of his final roles). But they’re also here to reclaim gold that was stolen back in ’69.

Something of a heist movie, Lee mixes genres yet never loses sight about the anguish of those who fought in a war, and the legacy it leaves even decades and generations later.

The Dirty Dozen

Available on: HBO Max

Even if you haven’t seen Robert Aldrich’s epic 1967 adventure, the term “dirty dozen” and the basic premise of the movie have found their way into popular culture over the decades and influenced recent movies like Suicide Squad.

A grizzled (as if there’s any other kind) Lee Marvin leads a team of prisoners–including Ernest Borgnine, Charles Bronson, Jim Brown, John Cassavetes, George Kennedy, Telly Savalas, Donald Sutherland and more–on a suicide mission during World War II, with full pardons as their reward if they survive. The results are explosive and, at the time of release, controversially violent. They also make for one of the great war movies of the era.

Enemy at the Gates

Available on: Netflix, Amazon (US Only)

Sniper versus sniper; eagle versus eagle. That is the basic appeal of Enemy at the Gates, the rare Hollywood World War II drama where America is not even present. Rather this is a film about the war of attrition between the German and Russian forces at the Battle of Stalingrad, the nightmarish conflict which began turning the tide against the Third Reich. The movie features an all-star cast, including Jude Law, Ed Harris, Rachel Weisz, and Bob Hoskins, but it’s the chilly environs of hell on earth which make this worthwhile.

Five Came Back

Available on: Netflix

A film told in three parts, Five Came Back tracks the singular, and now fairly astonishing, choices made by five A-list Hollywood directors: John Ford, Frank Capra, George Stevens, John Huston, and William Wyler. They all chose to leave Hollywood either at the peak of their careers, or at the beginning of it, to make films about the Second World War. Each ultimately served as an officer, and several were in the actual thick of combat to capture war footage (and propaganda) for the first time in history. It was a patriotic and revealing choice then and now, and it’s examined with insight by the likes of Mark Harris and Steven Spielberg here.

Flags of Our Fathers

Available on: HBO Max

Not as good as director Clint Eastwood’s companion film told from the Japanese perspective, Letters from Iwo Jima, Flags of Our Fathers is nonetheless a worthwhile film. A rather skeptical look at the lives of American marines who were turned into an inaccurate legend by the U.S. military when they were photographed raising the American flag above the sands of Iwo Jima, the picture tracks the home lives of soldiers who did their job only too well and were then asked to return home as glorified heroes… and then live an ordinary American life.

The Four Feathers

Available on: HBO Max

One of the great British adventure films of the pre-war era, The Four Feathers is director Zoltan Korda’s sweeping reimagining of the A.E.W. Mason novel. Set during Britain’s colonial wars in Egypt and Sudan during 1882, the film tracks an English officer who only took a commission in the military to honor his family’s ancient war record. However, when the call of war comes, he fears he would not do his duty in battle and resigns his service… so his three friends and even a fiancée give him four white feathers: white for cowardice.

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To redeem himself, he travels to Sudan and helps the British cause while posing as a local. Filmed on actual African locations and in glorious Technicolor at a time when American movies were afraid to leave California, The Four Feathers is a classic (and politically incorrect) throwback.

Gallipoli

Available on: Amazon

Australian filmmaker Peter Weir has directed just 13 films, but probably 10 of them are classics, and this 1981 drama is one of them. A 25-year-old Mel Gibson stars as one of several young men who enlist in the Australian Army during the First World War. They eventually find themselves on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, site of a costly and lengthy battle that ended in defeat, but marked a turning point for Australia’s perception of itself and its place in the world and a seemingly disinterested British Empire. It’s a harrowing tale about the loss of innocence, national character, and the price of war for both.

Glory

Available on: Netflix (US Only)

Arguably the greatest film ever made about the American Civil War, Edward Zwick’s Glory continues to shine like one gallant rush. Based on the lives of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry regiment, the film tracks the hard fight for respect—and freedom—endured by the first African American regiment in U.S. history.

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With a still crackling ensemble that includes Morgan Freeman, Matthew Broderick, Andre Braugher, and Denzel Washington in his first Oscar winning role, the movie both mythologizes and humanizes the 54th’s struggle as the American struggle. It also soars with James Horner’s most transcendent and ethereal musical score.

The Great Dictator

Available on: HBO Max

The rare comedy on this list, The Great Dictator was a film of political courage by writer-director-producer-and-star Charlie Chaplin. Filmed in 1940 when much of the world was already at war, but the United States was not, this Hollywood film made a farce out of the hatred and fascism of the Third Reich, with Adolf Hitler being especially skewered.

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In the film, Chaplin plays both a fictional barber and Hitler-like dictator who switch places in a Prince and the Pauper styled mix-up. Chaplin thus makes a still hilarious deconstruction of Hitler’s madness and insecurities at a time when most Hollywood studios chose to pretend there wasn’t a war going on. The film also concludes in one of the greatest anti-war speeches in cinema history.

Hacksaw Ridge

Available on: HBO Max, Amazon Prime Video UK

The rare film that is told in merely two acts, director Mel Gibson’s World War II drama is fairly underrated. The film follows the remarkable true story of Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), an unlikely U.S. Army corporal since he was also a conscientious objector who refused to hold a gun. Nearly court-martialed for his defiance of orders, as a medic Doss insisted he could serve his country well by saving lives on the battlefield. He got his chance at the Battle of Okinawa when he pulled 75 lives out of the carnage, which is captured in grisly detail by Gibson. Likely the bloodiest WWII movie since Saving Private Ryan, Hacksaw Ridge is also one of the best.

Hamburger Hill

Available on: Amazon Prime Video (US Only)

This 1987 film set during the Vietnam War recounts one specific mission: a 1969 assault by the U.S. Army’s 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry, 101st Airborne Division, known as the “Screaming Eagles,” on a well-fortified North Vietnamese position near the Laotian border. Dylan McDermott, Don Cheadle, Courtney B. Vance, and Steven Weber all make early career appearances in the film as young soldiers thrust into a situation where victory almost seems more like defeat—as good a metaphor for the Vietnam conflict as any.

Hostiles

Available on: Netflix

Director Scott Cooper did the rare thing with Hostiles: He looked back at American history with nuance and sincere contemplation. This film is ostensibly about a U.S. Cavalry officer on his final mission, which is to escort a family of Native Americans across the last remnants of American frontier. But when that officer (Christian Bale) knows he’s escorting the dying Cheyenne war chief (Wes Studi) who led the doomed side of American Indians in previous conflicts—and alongside a woman (Rosamund Pike) who just lost her family to Indian attacks—the ghosts of America’s sins and recriminations walk with them.

The Hurt Locker

Available on: Hulu, Netflix UK

The film which won Kathryn Bigelow the Oscar for Best Director, The Hurt Locker is the first great movie about the War on Terror in the 21st century. Boiling down the madness of war to being like “a drug” for some soldiers, the film essays the high-stake tension—and adrenaline—of being an officer in the Army’s bomb squad who is responsible for disarming IEDs, bomb vests, and other hidden weapons of death.

It’s terrifying… and exhilarating as personified by Jeremy Renner’s addicted Staff Sgt. William James. Also with a career-making performance by Anthony Mackie and a pseudo-journalistic script by Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker gets under your skin.

Platoon

Available on: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video (US Only)

There were plenty of Vietnam War movies before Oliver Stone’s Platoon, but what shook audiences in 1986 is that this was the first time one was made by a Vietnam veteran. Not that Stone didn’t take liberties: He makes his soldier’s eye view of the generation-defining conflict a fever dream of America’s darkest moments in the shit.

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But his lament for the soldier also brought a renewed sense of sorrow and regret to how veterans were treated in the aftermath. With a heartbreaking supporting performance by Willem Dafoe, whose demise in the film has become iconic, there’s a reason for many this remains the only Vietnam War movie of consequence.

Red Tails

Available on: HBO Max

Here is executive producer George Lucas and director Anthony Hemingway’s well-meaning but so-so aerial war epic about the Tuskegee Airmen. The real-life Black pilots, mechanics, bombardiers, and more made up a segregated flank of African American airmen (as well as flyers from Haiti, Trinidad, and other Caribbean nations) in World War II. This film attempts to honor them with a cast that includes Terrence Howard, David Oyelowo, Nate Parker, and Cuba Gooding Jr.

War Machine

Available on: Netflix

David Michod (Animal Kingdom) wrote and directed this Netflix satire set during the ongoing war in Afghanistan, eight years after the 9/11 attacks. Brad Pitt stars as four-star general Glen McMahon (loosely based on real-life general Stanley McChrystal), whose bleak assessment of the situation on the ground puts him at odds with President Obama and others. Like other less-than-reverent films before it, War Machine is interested in the sheer insanity of war: doing the same thing over and over again while hoping for a different outcome.

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