#william brandt || memories

[etxrnaleclipse]

William Brandt

Fandom: Mission Impossible

Occupation: IMF Agent / Secretary

[lasenbyphoenix]

Shipper tag game

Tagged by @sunriseverse thank you!💜

What ship were you completely obsessed with when you were a teenager, but now you don’t care about anymore?

I didn't know the concept of shipping was a thing until I was 29 and stumbled onto fandom on tumblr, (didn't know about fandom either until then), so I'm trying to think of any couples I would have considered cute in anything I watched/read growing up... and I really dont know?? Joshua Jackson was a fave actor from back then and I can't even remember if I had an opinion on the Dawson/Joey vs Pacey/Joey debate on Dawson's Creek. I was always more interested in the story than the ships! (Can you tell I'm on the aroace side of life? Lol)

Which ship would you consider your first one?

Captain America is what lead me to finding fandom in the first place so Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes is the first that comes to mind. But before that I was very into Dr Who, so I'd probably consider The Doctor/Rose Tyler the first fictional couple I had any emotional investment in.

Your first fanfic was about which couple?

My first shippy fanfic (written before I knew what "fanfic" was) was James Bond/William Brandt Skyfall/Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol crossover.

You know the scene in Skyfall when Silva has Bond tied to a chair and starts toying with his chest and teases him about this not being in his training and Bond replies "What makes you think this is my first time?"? And then in Ghost Protocol when Jeremy Renner's character pulls himself out of the vent at the last second and gripes "Next time I get to seduce the rich guy."? I joked to my best friend that "Now we know what James Bond's first time was." And that's how that idea was born.

I started writing it as a joke for my friend but never finished it, and if I find the notebook it was written into I might just revisit it because I still quite like the idea!

Do you remember the first couple you saw fanart of?

Not for certain, but possibly either Dean/Cas or Rose/Ten.

Have you ever gotten into ship discourse?

Like ship wars or 'problematic' kind of discourse? If I did it would have been in my Captain America days (Stucky vs Stony and Peggy vs Sharon being heated topics of memory), and even then I don't remember specific incidents - as a newbie to fandom I tended to lurk and watch instead of engaging. Now I'm very much Ship And Let Ship (and only bitch in private to your mates, not in public!)

Did you use to have any NOTP or have one currently?

There have been plenty of ships I've come across that weren't my thing, Stony for example, but I'm not going to invest enough energy into recalling any others. I'm not here to spread hate on something other people like.

Who were the couple in the last fanfic you read?

On tumblr? Li Lianhua/Di Feisheng (Mysterious Lotus Casebook)

On Ao3? Ming Lou/Ming Cheng (The Disguiser)

Currently, do you have any OTPs?

So many. Zhang Rishan/Ba Ye, Hei Xiazi/Xiao Hua, Steve/Bucky, Steve/Peggy, Data/Geordi, Stiles/Derek, Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang, Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan, and likely more that havent come to mind yet

Is there any couple that, to this day, you are extremely mad about not getting together?

Haha no. I think I've always just accepted canon couples as "the thing that happened in the story", and now when I have my own ship preferences, then I accept that it's *my* headcanon and not necessarily anyone else's (especially not the writer's headcanon).

When Captain America Civil War came out I realised I'd gotten WAY over invested in what was or wasn't included in the movie (although I knew realistically they weren't going to make Stucky canon ) that I took a big step back afterwards and very much made a mental separation between "this is the story those writers want to tell" and "this is the story I like to imagine".

Is there any ship you used to dislike but now you think they are kind of interesting?

Dean/Cas maybe? It wasn't so much that I disliked them but that I didn't read them as a romantic relationship for most of the time I've known the ship existed (I'd always read Cas as ace). It's only been since the show ended that I think my idea of what makes a ship had widened to more than just "stereotypically romantic" which recalibrated how I saw them.

Do you have any ship that, in the past, would’ve been considered normal but now you would be cancelled over?

Incestuous (Thor/Loki, et al,)? Teacher/Student(I blame ABBA)? Torturer/Torture subject (Hydra Trash Party)?

What is your favorite crack ship?

I will certainly have come across crack ships that appealed to me, but honestly if the writer/artist sells it well enough then I stop thinking of them as crack ships and instead think of them as rare pairs.

What is the couple you read the most fanfics about?

Currently? HeiHua. Overall? Stucky.

What do most of your ships usually have in common?

Someone to be vulnerable around, someone who understands you better than anyone else, "you're not alone anymore"

What do you absolutely hate in a ship?

If I don't like a ship it's probably more to do with a singular character I don't like than the couple itself.

Tagging @gaiahenshin @fangdoubing @epicwalrus @tazzy-ace and anyone else who wants to!

[scenaaario]

wip game

RULES: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have WIPs (i'm gonna do however many i want lmao)

i was tagged by my darlings @perotovar and @refined-by-fire and i'm actually gonna participate in a wip post!!!! i'm the worst with titles so these are literally all untitled and just, the characters involved lmao

dark!steve/javi/possible reader - narcos/justified crossover au

raider!joel/reader - hades/persephone au

marcus pike/reader summer camp au

marcus pike/reader practical magic au

marcus pike/reader - anthology of cases

(marcus pike might actually be the love of my life)

dave/carol york - relationship study? i'm not sure how to describe this

frankie/morales reader - what's your number au

frankie morales/benny miller - first time oneshot

all of the tf boys - triple frontier/tron: legacy crossover au

steve rogers/female oc oneshot of some kind idk it came out of the dusty depths of my drive

steve rogers/bucky barnes - shades of their relationship oneshot

steve rogers/bucky barnes - before we go au

ethan hunt (mission: impossible) - ethan's missing months

ethan hunt/william brandt - aftermath of mi: 5

ethan hunt/william brandt - shades of their relationship (like the stucky fic)

csi was my first fandom and i have some random snippets of different nick/greg fics

arthur morgan/mary linton - blackwater portrait memory

arthur morgan/reader (or oc) - untitled

i know a bunch of people have been tagged already but i'll throw some people out there: @swiftispunk @ezrasbirdie @haylzcyon @bageldaddy @softlyspector @undercoverpena

[atlanticcanada]

'The biggest rivalry': Bedard, Canada set for world junior semifinal against U.S.

Brandt Clarke was a month short of his sixth birthday.

The moment, however, remains etched in his memory.

John Tavares scored a dramatic hat trick for Canada against the United States in a wild 7-4 victory on New Year's Eve at the 2009 world junior hockey championship in Ottawa.

Clarke and his family were in the building -- hanging off every shot, save and hit from the stands.

"The electricity in the building," he said of what still resonates some 14 years later. "The red jerseys all the way to the top ... 20,000 people, winning the game against the Americans.

"It's unmatchable."

With another mouth-watering instalment of the bitter rivalry set for Wednesday thanks to Connor Bedard's overtime heroics for Canada in the quarterfinals, Clarke is confident his teammate and the country's best player -- just like Tavares that frigid night in the nation's capital -- will rise to the occasion.

"I don't expect him to take any steps back," the Los Angeles Kings defenceman said following Tuesday's brief practice. "All I've seen so far is him take steps forward. Even when it's hard to imagine him still being able to take steps forward, he's done it.

"I don't think that'll change."

Bedard has not only changed a couple lines in record books at the men's under-20 tournament.

He's torn it to shreds.

The presumptive first pick at the 2023 NHL draft set five national or tournament marks early in Monday's triumph against Slovakia before a breathtaking solo effort in OT nearly blew the roof off a frothing Scotiabank Centre.

Bedard has registered the most goals (16) and points (34) all-time by a Canadian at the tournament. He's also set the national record for points (21) and assists (13) at a single event, and has the most points ever by a player under age 18 from any country.

But for all the accolades, the 17-year-old North Vancouver, B.C., native has made a habit of quickly turning the page.

His headline-grabbing performance in the quarterfinals was no different.

"That's really incredible for him to be able shut out or ignore all the media and how much attention he's getting," Canadian goaltender Thomas Milic said. "He's a team-first guy. A quote I like is, 'A rising tide lifts all boats.' Us having team success is contributing to him and everyone else."

"He doesn't sit there and dwell on the biggest goal of the tournament," Canadian head coach Dennis Williams added of Bedard, who didn't speak to reporters Tuesday. "You wouldn't have known that after the game -- his focus was already on to the next challenge."

That comes Wednesday in the latest clash of the sport's North American powers.

"Every kid's dream," said U.S. forward and Winnipeg Jets prospect Rutger McGroarty. "Playing in a barn like this against your rival, it'll be a fun one.

"It just gets us juiced up to see that atmosphere, see how crazy it's going to be."

Whether it's the Olympics, world juniors, world championships or any other level, extra motivation isn't necessary when the countries hit the ice.

"Don't think we need to go in as coaches and get the room going," Williams said. "If anything, we've got to calm them down."

Tavares, Sidney Crosby, Joe Sakic, Haley Wickenheiser, Marie-Philip Poulin and many others have risen to the occasion in similar moments.

This Canadian iteration is hoping for the same.

"All of us dreamed of this as kids," said winger Brennan Othmann. "This is the game, this is the moment."

"The biggest rivalry," added forward and Ottawa Senators prospect Zach Ostapchuk. "And for us, personally, it's, big. It'll be really exciting."

For all the points Bedard has put up, the Americans are also dangerous, especially the top line of Logan Cooley, Jimmy Snuggerud and Cutter Gauthier, who sit second, third and fifth in tournament scoring.

"Skilled guys," said Canadian centre Logan Stankoven, who plays alongside Bedard and is No. 4 in the points race. "They strike fast and quick."

Taking the body will be a big part of Canada's mindset against the Americans, including trying to make life difficult for their undersized defence corps.

"They don't like the physical play," Clarke said.

For all the drama Monday, one area where the Canadians will look to improve is faceoffs after a success rate of just 45 per cent.

"We're chasing the game too much there," Williams said. "We were going to position before possession."

Canada lost to the U.S. in the final of the 2021 tournament in the COVID-19 bubble in Edmonton in the countries' last meeting at the world juniors.

"Super special," Milic said. "These are games I loved watching growing up. We're pretty fortunate to be able to be in this position to play in one and really have a big battle for our country."

Canada got to this point thanks to another spectacular performance from Bedard, who dropped to one knee for his own version of the "heartbreaker" celebration made famous by U.S. great Patrick Kane after scoring the winner against the Slovaks.

"That was pretty cool," Clarke said. "Especially in a big setting like that. The whole building's going crazy, the whole building's chanting 'M-V-P' for him.

"That's what he's been doing all tournament -- just breaking hearts."

Bedard and Canada will look to do the same against the Americans.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 3, 2023.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/uDa4pFx

[saltyfilmmajor]

Chapters: 11/? Fandom: Mission: Impossible (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Benji Dunn/Ethan Hunt Characters: Benji Dunn, Ethan Hunt, Luther Stickell, William Brandt, Musgrave - Character, Jane Carter (Mission: Impossible) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Magic, set in the 60's, Cold War, Mentions of homophobia, past mentions of Ethan/Jack, Ethan Has Magic Powers on this, Magical Benthan AU set in the 60's, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, mentions of catholicism, Past Character Death, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Mentions of Racism, Repressed Memories, Human Experimentation, Government Conspiracy, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Memory Loss Summary: 

Ethan's familiar was assigned to him by the CIA. Benjamin Dunn, a graduate of Oxford, young, timid and incredibly well mannered. But not is all as it seems when they both begin working together. Conspiracy during the Cold War is a dangerous thing, especially in statecraft.What lies beneath the facade of Benji's powers? And what has the powers that be planned?

[hettiesworld]

Jeremy Renner songs

I had NO inspiration whatsoever until I came across @optimistic-dinosaur-nacho​’s post about matching songs to an actor’s characters (as well as themselves) and I might as well do this for Jeremy.

There will be none of his songs, as I already did that challenge before. I don’t know if some songs will be repeated or not, but just to let you know if I actually do it or not. I will also say if they are explicit or not. So enjoy!

Jeremy Renner

Thank You - Dido

thank u, next - Ariana Grande (Explicit)

7 Days - Craig David

Trouble - P!nk

Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

I Want It That Way - Backstreet Boys

Hold the Line - Toto

Clint Barton

Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand

Ice Ice Baby - Vanilla Ice

Clocks - Coldplay

A-Punk - Vampire Weekend

Song 2 - Blur

Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys

Say So - Doja Cat (Explicit)

We Don’t Need Another Hero - Tina Turner

Jerry Pierce

FRIENDS - Marshmello & Anne-Marie (Explicit)

Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm Mmmm - Crash Test Dummies

On Top of the World - Imagine Dragons

7 rings - Ariana Grande (Explicit)

William Brandt

4 Minutes - Madonna and Justin Timberlake

How Long - Charlie Puth

Writing’s on the Wall - Sam Smith

Skyfall - Adele

Live and Let Die - Wings

Jem Coughlin

Rehab - Amy Winehouse

Play Date - Melanie Martinez (Explicit)

Darkside - Alan Walker

death bed - Powfu

Brian Gamble

Do You Love Me - The Contours

Mad World - Gary Jules

Gold Digger - Kanye West ft. Jamie Foxx (Explicit)

Respect - Aretha Franklin

Sergeant William James

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Numb - Linkin Park

Memories - Maroon 5

Sergeant Doyle

Seven Nation Army - The White Stripes

Hold Me While You Wait - Lewis Capaldi 

London Bridge - Fergie (Explicit)

Faded - Alan Walker

Aaron Cross

Don’t Kill My Vibe - Sigrid

Demons - Imagine Dragons

bury a friend - Billie Elilsh

Hansel

Thunder - Imagine Dragons

Natural - Imagine Dragons

Candy - Doja Cat (Explicit)

Carmine Polito

I’m Coming Out - Diana Ross

Truth Hurts - Lizzo

Summer of ‘69 - Bryan Adams

Ian Donnelly

Rewrite the Stars - Zendaya and Zac Efron

Easy Lover - Phil Collins and Phillip Bailey

The Spectre - Alan Walker

Cory Lambert

Rhinestone Cowboy - Glen Campbell

King of Wishful Thinking - Go West

Go Your Own Way - Fleetwood Mac

Swifty (Arctic Dogs)

You Win Again - Bee Gees

Never Gonna Give You Up - Rick Astley

Dance Monkey - Tones and I

Dags (Senior Trip)

Juice - Lizzo

With Every Heartbeat - Robyn

Promises - Calvin Harris ft. Sam Smith

Lessons in Love - Level 42

------------------------------

@optimistic-dinosaur-nacho​ @dreamlesswonder86​ @archerybitch68​ @yavanna80​ @ilovebrandt​ @jeremyrennerfanxxxx123​ @sarabeth72​ @carissime72​

[x-whyareyoureadingthis-x]

7, 13, 15, 22

7. do you prefer poems or love letters?

I don’t think i got a preference really... but no matter what it is, i’d keep it in my little box of good memories. And if it’s a poem, i’d learn it by heart

13. favorite perfume/cologne?

For myself? I don’t really know my way around perfumes and all, but since i was in school, I’ve been wearing one by Jill Sander called “Sport”. It smells a little like citrus fruits, like spring, and is just overall rather a “fresh” smell

15. what’s your ideal first date?

hm... i don’t really know. Definitely NOT something like movie and pizza afterwards. I mean, it’s nice and fun as some date, but on the first date i want to get to know the other person. It should definitely be something where we get the chance to talk. Maybe a walk through a botanic garden or a visit to the aquarium or zoo? This way there’s also always something to talk about if we wouldn’t know what to say, plus it gives the opertunity to learn about what the other thinks about certain plants or animals, and what they like best.

22. fictional crushes?

omg. so fucking many. Since i’m a little more into anime again let’s start there. Armin Arlert, Todoroki Shouto, L, Levi Ackermann, Sugawara Koushi... then moving on Peter Bishop, Mordred, Aragorn (who would have guessed), William Brandt, Hawkeye, John Blake / Robin, .... so many more that i can’t think of right now...

[miss-mollys-ballet-blog]

Opps sorry my apologies, I meant which principals/soloists have you seen live?

Okay!  I’m going to break it down by company because it’s easier haha.  This is based mainly on memory so I might have missed some; I apologize!

Bolshoi: 

Svetlana Zakharova (Title role in Giselle)

David Hallberg (Albrecht in Giselle)

Maria Allash (Myrtha in Giselle)

Denis Savin (Hans in Giselle)

Royal Ballet:

Marianela Nunez (Kitri in Don Quixote)

Carlos Acosta (Basilio in Don Quixote)

American Ballet Theatre:

Gillian Murphy: Juliet in Romeo and Juliet; title role in Giselle

James Whiteside: Romeo in Romeo and Juliet

Devon Teuscher: Odette/Odile in Swan Lake; Lilac Fairy in Sleeping Beauty

Marcelo Gomes: Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake

Isabella Boylston: Odette/Odile in Swan Lake

Alban Lehndorf: Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake

Aran Bell: Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake

Sarah Lane: Aurora in Sleeping Beauty; Princess Praline in Whipped Cream

Stella Abrera: Princess Tea Flower in Whipped Cream)

Daniil Simkin: The Boy in Whipped Cream; Harlequin in Harlequinnade

Skylar Brandt: Columbine in Harlequinnade; title role in Giselle

Catherine Hurlin: Myrtha in Giselle

Katherine Williams: Myrtha in Giselle

Hee Seo: Pierrette in Harlequinnade

Joo Won Ahn: Albrecht in Giselle

David Hallberg: Prince Coffee in Whipped Cream

Mariinsky:

Oksana Skorik: title role in Raymonda

Timur Askerov: Jean de Brienne in Raymonda, Solor in La Bayadere, and Andres in Paquita

Ekaterina Kondaurova: title role in Raymonda, Nikiya in La Bayadere, and Medora in Le Corsaire

Danila Korsuntsev: Jean de Brienne in Raymonda

Andrey Ermakov: Conrad in Le Corsaire

Viktoria Tereshkina: Nikiya in La Bayadere, title role in Paquita

Kimin Kim: Solor in La Bayadere, Ali in Le Corsaire

Anastasia Matvienko: Gamzatti in La Bayadere

Nadezhda Batoeva: Henriette in Raymonda, Gamzatti in La Bayadere, Gulnare in Le Corsaire, title role of Paquita

Anastasia Kolegova: Tsar Maiden in The Little Humpbacked Horse

Maxim Zyuzin: Ivan the Fool in The Little Humpbacked Horse

Maria Khoreva: Medora in Le Corsaire; title role in Paquita

Konstantin Zverev: Conrad in Le Corsaire, Andres in Paquita, Abderakhman in Raymonda, The Tsar in The Little Humpbacked Horse

Xander Parish: Andres in Paquita

Maria Shirinkina: Cristina in Paquita

May Nagahisa: Manu in La Bayadere, Gulnare in Le Corsaire

Victor Caixeta: Lankendem in Le Corsaire

Renata Shakirova: Carducha in Paquita

Maria Bulanova: Carducha in Paquita; Odalisque in Le Corsaire

David Zaleev: Lankendem in Le Corsaire

Misc. solo roles: Ekaterina Chebykina, Nadezhda Gonchar, Evgeny Konovalov, Ernest Latypov, Yuri Smekalov, Islom Baimuradov, Kristina Shapran, Anastasia Lukina, Daria Ionova, Anastasia Nuikina, Sofia Skoblikova-Ivanova, and more

[justyouraveragefangirl1967]

Hey! Could you match me up please? With a guy from SPN, Jurassic Park/World, X-Men, MCU and Mission Impossible? I'm a girl and I like men. I'm a very responsible and disciplined person who doesn't like chaos. I'm trying to be always calm and patient so you'd rarely see me expressing strong emotions. I value my privacy, freedom and alone time very much. Analyzing everything is my forte but sometimes that's v stressing. A bit clumsy. I'm short and a bit chubby and hate my looks. Kind and friendly.

X-Men:

Colossus!

Colossus may be the best match, whilst a little unlikely, but eventually, you two get along. he is, despite his hulking size, he is actually a kinda shy and very modest man, at the very least in his younger years. He strives to do what's right and take care of others the best he can, he is strict on language to the best of his abilities but will let some things slide, he thinks your adorable and makes sure to keep you away from danger and his work in general, more than happy to provide a safe and calm household, he occasionally brings up problems for you to help analyse and perhaps give your own opinion on, especially if he's unsure himself and feels the need to get another opinion, he understands and let you have freedom and privacy, the two of you very quickly find a system that works for the both of you, Of course, he makes sure to keep you in good health and make you go for walks, even if that simply translates to him getting you to ride on his shoulders while he walks and talks, often trying to make you laugh during these times. 

Mission Impossible:

William Brandt!

William likes things to go to plan, something that really annoys him when working with Hunt, but he finds the more relaxed and peaceful atmosphere around you and your home a relief, enjoying the ability to put his work behind him for as long as he can whilst at home. William while technical not meant talk about his work he does talk about the bare minimum, maybe a few aspects of the job about specific missions that may have gone well or bad. The two of you don’t have too many fights, both more often than not able to pick up each others mood and work around the information they’ve attained. He likes to talk to a bit about how he initially became an analyst and what training was required and he occasionally enjoys teaching you things to pay attention to and look out for. He makes sure to never bring his work home despite his workaholic tendencies something which you get a little concerned over sometimes but he’s gotten much better.

Jurassic Park/World:

Alan Grant!

Alan Grant, someone who is used to being patient, and working for an extended amount of time he works well when thrown into a tricky situation and his curiosity can lead him into them but he is generally good when it comes to voluntarily stay out of trouble, he likes a bit of stability and admires others who can achieve that as well as being disciplined. Alan weak point has and always will be dinosaurs though. He kind of thinks your clumsiness is adorable but is always there to catch you if need be. He makes a point never to drag you on his occasional adventures, but does drag you out to look at bones and talks excitedly about them whenever he can. He’s not always the greatest when it comes to communication and is more than happy to be left alone to his own devices, sometimes though he wants to simply be close and doesn't know how to express it properly so he comes up and hugs you from behind, often making sure you can still do whatever it is you were doing before. You are his translator sometimes which most people are thankful for, especially if his being particular wordy. 

 Supernatural:

Castiel!

Castiel can be a bit oblivious sometimes, he doesn't always pick up on hints easily, He does learn albeit slowly. He learns how to interact with you and others, how to react when certain emotions are shown and he learns to understand you and work well with you/ He does spend a fair amount of time with the Winchesters he is always happy to spend some time with you when you want, happy to talk about angels, his family, maybe memories he has with them, maybe some of the lighter hunts that Sam, Dean and Cas have been on, stuff that wouldn't worry you too much. but he’s learnt not to hold back too much, you can handle it. He has no desire to bring the hunting mess to your doorstep but he occasionally turns up injured or simply covered in blood, he makes sure to leave a spare change of clothes just in case his gets ruined and he can’t for some reason repair it, ts also an excuse to come over and see you. He does like it when the two of you go out on dates where he can also learn more about humanity, and he loves it when you find a topic that you like and get this little spark in your eye as you speech gets faster as you want to share as much as you can about it. 

Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU): 

Steve Rogers

A little bit like Colossus, Steve is a little bit old fashioned, and a gentleman, doesn’t mean he’ll think any less of you. While he is often in combat of some sort and does like to keep busy, he does enjoy quieter times, which he can spend with you. He takes every precaution to make sure you are safe and his job keeps him busy and away more often than not, leaving you with plenty alone time, he does try and stay in some form of contact during those times but can’t always do it. He has had a few situations where you've caught him whilst he was doing some sort of paperwork, investigation or research where you’ve pointed something out which he hadn't considered before, this being extremely useful so he starts asking what you think on occasions, taking down notes. WHen it comes to dates he likes doing a couple of classic ideas than doing one that directly correlates with your interest, loving the smile on your face as he see’ s you enjoying yourself, and sometimes being surprised but what you could teach him as well about modern-day behaviours laws, acceptable stuff to say and do ect... 

[fableway-blog]

Eye-Opening Quotes That Will Make You Notice What You Always Ignored

Seem to be going through life without taking the time to smell the roses? Here are some eye-opening words to help you notice things which you have always ignored.

Sometimes you never realize the value of a moment until it becomes a memory. Dr. Seuss

A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why ships are built. A fortune cookie

Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not: nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not: the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. Calvin Coolidge

Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in a long-shot. Charlie Chaplin

A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd. Max Lucado

It is the mark of an educated mind, to entertain a thought without accepting it. Aristotle

Another flaw in the human character is that everyone wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance. Kurt Vonnegut

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him. Mark Twain

In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on. Robert Frost

Silence is holy. It draws people together because only those who are comfortable with each other can sit without speaking. Anonymous

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. George Bernard Shaw

What do they call the person who graduated last in his class in med school? Doctor.

All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. T. E. Lawrence

Nothing of me is original. I am the combined efforts of everyone I’ve every known. Chuck Palahniuk

There is only one way to avoid criticism: Do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing” Elbert Hubbard

Don’t tell me the sky’s the limit when there are footprints on the moon. Paul Brandt

If you remember me, then I don’t care if everyone else forgets. Haruki Murakami

When another person makes you suffer, it is because he suffers deeply within himself, and his suffering is spilling over. He does not need punishment; he needs help. That’s the message he is sending. Thích Nhất Hạnh

Warning: everything saved will be lost. Wii notification

There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man. Patrick Rothfuss

Imagining the Future is a kind of nostalgia. You spend your whole life stuck in the labyrinth, thinking about how you’ll escape it one day, and how awesome it will be, and imagining that future keeps you going, but you never do it. You just use the future to escape the present. John Green

Live a good life. If there are gods and they are just, then they will not care how devout you have been, but will welcome you based on the virtues you have lived by. If there are gods, but unjust, then you should not want to worship them. If there are no gods, then you will be gone, but will have lived a noble life that will live on in the memories of your loved ones. Marcus Aurelius

Treat the Earth Well. It was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. Kenyan Proverb

I used to think the worst thing in life was to end up all alone, it’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone. Robin Williams

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Saint Bernard of Clairvaux

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. Edmund Burke

A person is a person no matter how small. Dr. Seuss

There are 1,000 lessons in defeat. But only one in victory. Confucious

In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Teddy Roosevelt

It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. Charles Darwin

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Eleanore Roosevelt

Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying. Arthur C. Clarke

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the universe. Albert Einstein

Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it. André Gide

Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. George Carlin

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” Mr. Rogers

Stay strong. Depression lies. Wil Wheaton

I have noticed that people who claim everything is predestined, and we can do nothing to change it, look both ways before crossing the road. Stephen Hawking

You are the universe experiencing itself. Alan Watts

For more dramatic content, check out www.fableway.com.

[xhxhxhx]

I removed some books today.

I think of myself as a minimalist, but that doesn’t happen to be true. I have acquired more books than I will ever read. They still sit, stacked and unreachable, in piles by the walls, two dozen books tall and sometimes two books deep.

I don’t think I know where they all came from. I think more came from online than from any physical store. I bought them from Abebooks, the sales search platform that Amazon owns now. Abebooks tell you the names of the sellers, but they seem unconnected to any real place.

From Better World Books. From Thrift Books and Bookbarn. From Silver Arch Books, Motor City Books, Free State Books, Sierra Nevada Books, Yankee Clipper Books, and the Atlanta Book Company. From Green Earth Books and Housing Works Books. From Goldstone Books and Powell’s Books and Kennys Bookshop and Art Galleries. From Satellite Books and the Orchard Bookshop. From Blue Cloud Books and Hippo Books and Wonder Book.

They’re from all over, from places you’ve never been, places you’ll never be. They’re names on a box. But then there are the books from more intimate places, intimately connected

From library’s old bookstore, which sold paperbacks for fifty cents, hardcovers for a dollar. From the basement of the old independent bookstore down on Front Street, where they sold remaindered and overstocked books marked down with red-orange tape. From the thrift store across the street, which charged too much.

From the Chapters at the mall in your hometown, or the Chapters and Indigo in the places you’ve been to, from the shelves of marked-down items where you looked for bargains, for the books you knew you should read, and all the books you never would. Places where you could drink sweet cream and coffee and pretend to read.

From the Borders in Syracuse, where you idled while the family went to the fair, where they always said they were going to build the largest mall in America, but never did. There was another Borders in South Florida, where they were stripping fixtures from the walls because the books had not sold, and so the Borders had to be. They still have bookstores. I’m not sure what they sell now. Postcards, I think.

The books still in my room had postcards from people I will never know, dedications to people I will never see, business cards from people who have moved on to other work. But their spines are unbroken, their pages unmarked. I guess I wanted them that way. I bought them like that.

I sometimes worried they would break through the floor. I would wake up to the collapse of everything I have ever owned as I plummeted a few short feet to my death. I guess it would probably take longer than that. I would have to wait for them to crush me. That mass of books would fall on me, blotting out the light. Crushed beneath nearly everything I have ever owned.

That’s what happened to the clerk Toshiko Sasaki in John Hershey’s Hiroshima, who was seated at her desk on August 6, 1945, in front of a couple of bookcases from the factor library:

Everything fell, and Miss Sasaki lost consciousness. The ceiling dropped suddenly and the wooden floor above collapsed in splinters and the people up there came down and the roof above them gave way; but principally and first of all, the bookcases right behind her swooped forward and the contents threw her down, with her left leg horribly twisted and breaking underneath her. There, in the tin factory, in the first moment of the atomic age, a human being was crushed by books.

Miss Sasaki made out alright, although not so well as to not ask the question “If your God is so good and kind, how can he let people suffer like this?” But then, I have more books than she did.

I removed some books today. I still have more I want to remove. I just don’t have the boxes for them. I took the boxes I did have in the back of my car to a mass-market thrift store, where they will end up on the shelves by the leather jackets. 

Perhaps they will end on some other shelf, like a postcard from somewhere unknown, in someone else’s memory. But I don’t think they will. I don’t think they’ll sell. There aren’t enough people here who spend money pretending to read.

I don’t know what will happen to them. I suppose they will pulp them. Or perhaps they will end in a landfill, crushed beneath their own weight, suffocating beneath the earth we have made for them until life reclaims them.

I wrote out a partial list of the books I threw out. I don’t know what it says about me. There’s a double significance here: These are books I bought, for some amount of money, but these are also books I am throwing away, because I asked the question the woman told me to ask, which was whether they sparked joy, and I answered no.

Those books in the photo are the books that have not yet been thrown away. Here, below the fold, are the books that have:

Judith Fitzgerald’s Sarah McLachlan: Building a Mystery

Mordecai Richler’s Oh Canada! Oh Quebec!

Jonathan Coe’s The Rotter’s Club

Misha Glenny’s McMafia

Joinville and Villehardouin’s Chronicles of the Crusades

Michael Ignatieff’s The Lesser Evil

Russell Dalton’s Citizen Politics in Western Democracies: Public Opinion and Political Parties in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and France

Richard Finn’s Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan

Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi

Fox Butterfield’s China: Alive in the Bitter Sea

Anthony Sampson’s The Changing Anatomy of Britain

Masanori Hashimoto’s The Japanese Labor Market in a Comparative Perspective with the United States

Donald Keene’s Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era: Poetry, Drama, Criticism

Andrei Shleifer’s Without a Map: Political Tactics and Economic Reform in Russia

Peter Newman’s The Secret Mulroney Tapes

Nicholas Negroponte’s Being Digital

Lesley Downer’s The Brothers: The Hidden World of Japan’s Richest Family

Harold Vogel’s Entertainment Industry Economics

Stephen Goldsmith and William D. Eggers’s Governing by Network: The New Shape of the Public Sector

Donald Harman Akenson, Saint Saul: A Skeleton Key to the Historical Jesus

Philip Ziegler’s King Edward VIII

David Wessel’s In FED We Trust

Robert Dallek’s Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961--1973

David Halberstam’s The Reckoning

David Bell’s The First Total War: Napoleon’s Europe and the Birth of Warfare as We Know It

Kevin Phillips’s The Cousins’ Wars

Yirmiyahu Yovel, Spinoza and Other Heretics: The Adventures of Immanence

Michael Oren’s Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Lawrence McDonald’s A Colossal Failure of Common Sense: The Inside Story of the Collapse of Lehman Brothers

Richard Posner’s The Crisis of Capitalist Democracy

William Chester Jordan’s Europe in the High Middle Ages

William Cohan’s House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street

Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Linda Lear’s Beatrix Potter: A Life in Nature

Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals

Allan Brandt’s The Cigarette Century: The Rise, Fall, and Deadly Persistence of the Product That Defined America

Garry Wills’s Head and Heart: American Christianities

Sarah Bradford’s Elizabeth: A Biography of Britain’s Queen

Andrew Gordon’s The Evolution of Labor Relations in Japan: Heavy Industry, 1853--1955

John Ardagh’s France in the New Century: Portrait of a Changing Society

Bob Woodward’s The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House

John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium: The Early Centuries

Taylor Branch’s Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963--65

Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker

Tim Blanning’s The Pursuit of Glory: Europe, 1648--1815

Robert Fagles’s translation of Virgil’s The Aeneid

Karl Popper’s The Poverty of Historicism

P. D. Smith’s Doomsday Men: The Real Dr. Strangelove and the Dream of the Superweapon

Richard Rhodes’s Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race

Margaret Thatcher’s Downing Street Years

Alistair Horne’s Harold Macmillan, 1957--1986

Taylor Branch’s The Clinton Tapes: Wrestling History with the President

Ian Kershaw’s Hitler, 1936--1945: Nemesis

David Grossman’s To the End of the Land

Sean Wilentz’s The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln

Philipp Blom’s The Vertigo Years: Europe, 1900--1914

Jacob M. Schlesinger’s Shadow Shoguns: The Rise and Fall of Japan’s Postwar Political Machine

Peter Jenkins’s Mrs. Thatcher’s Revolution: The Ending of the Socialist Era

Martin Lawrence’s Iron Man: The Defiant Reign of Jean Chrétien

Marin Lawrence’s Chrétien: The Will to Win

Alastair Campbell’s The Blair Years

Tony Blair’s A Journey

David Kennedy’s Don’t Shoot: One Man, a Street Fellowship, and the End of Violence in Inner-City America

Joshua Ferris’s Then We Came to the End

Kate McCafferty’s Testimony of an Irish Slave Girl

Martin Wolf’s Why Globalization Works

Charles Fishman’s The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works -- and How It’s Transforming the American Economy

William Easterly’s The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good

Karel van Wolferen’s The Enigma of Japanese Power: People and Politics in a Stateless Nation

Jeffrey Sachs’s The End of Poverty: How We Can Make It Happen in Our Lifetime

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 24 June 2019

Quick Bits:

Action Comics #1012 keeps a number of plates spinning with the Invisible Mafia, Leviathan, and tying in events in Superman, while bringing back a character who we’ve not seen for some time in the DCU. Some great layouts and art from Szymon Kudranski and Brad Anderson.

| Published by DC Comics

Age of X-Man: X-Tremists #5 is the explosive conclusion to this mini from Leah Williams, Georges Jeanty, Roberto Poggi, Jim Charalampidis, and Clayton Cowles. We get Jubilee’s perspective on the end, as they all collectively remember what came before, what was taken from them, and the nightmare that they’ve been placed in and forced to participate. Damn good stuff.

| Published by Marvel

Amazing Spider-Man #24 is a lot of Peter avoiding dealing with things in a rational adult manner and some weird stuff with Mysterio and the new villain who has been haunting the series for a while. My guess is that it’s Ned Leeds, but his true identity is still hidden for the moment. Pretty good for a buffer issue.

| Published by Marvel

Angel #2 is another entertaining issue from Bryan Edward Hill, Gleb Melnikov, Gabriel Cassata, and Ed Dukeshire. There’s another nice split as we see a bit of Angel’s past as he reforges a slayer as his “axe” and then a dive into the current evil plaguing the kids in social media. Wonderful reveal of Lilith’s “true form” as well, great design by Melnikov.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Ascender #3 is harrowing and breathtaking. While Andy and Mila try to run in the present, we get more information on what happened with them and Effie in the time between Descender and now. Gorgeous, stunning artwork from Dustin Nguyen.

| Published by Image

Bad Luck Chuck #4 concludes what has been a fun, but weird, series from Lela Gwenn, Matthew Dow Smith, Kelly Fitzpatrick, and Frank Cvetkovic. And it ends with a pretty epic battle between cops and nuns.

| Published by Dark Horse

Black Panther #13 begins the next arc of “Two Thousand Suns” and T’Challa’s attempts to contact anyone back on Earth. Daniel Acuña returns to provide the art and it is beautiful. The effects as T’Challa attempts to calculate a communication path to Earth with the various planets and such are amazing.

| Published by Marvel

Detective Comics #1006 begins a new arc guest-starring the Spectre, with art from Kyle Hotz and David Baron. The Corrigan/Spectre joining sure works different than it used to. Interesting mystery with the Spectre cult and great art.

| Published by DC Comics

Ghost Tree #3 takes a few nice moments of quiet introspection and reflection from Brandt and Arami, as well as exploring more of Brandt’s grandparents life, before ramping up the tension with the demon. Beautiful artwork from Simon Gane, Ian Herring, and Becka Kinzie.

| Published by IDW

Justice League Dark #12 has huge ramifications as “Lords of Order” rages on. Stunning artwork from Alvaro Martínez Bueno, Raul Fernandez, and Brad Anderson. Also Tynion gives us a fascinating rumination on magic between Batman and Wonder Woman.

| Published by DC Comics

Killer Groove #2 continues this excellent crime drama. The little pieces of interaction and tiny character stories throughout this issue are wonderful. Ollie Masters’ approach to the narrative reminds me a lot of Robert Altman. 

| Published by AfterShock

Road of Bones #2 leans hard into the brutal survival aspect of travelling across Russia in winter, without much idea or sense of where you’re going. Wonderful art from Alex Cormack.

| Published by IDW

The Silencer #18 concludes this series with a kind of stock-taking story from Dan Abnett, V. Ken Marion, Sandu Florea, Mike Spicer, and Tom Napolitano. There’s some bits about the reconciliation between Blake and Honor, but a large portion of this is Honor trying to find out information on what’s happening with Leviathan. 

| Published by DC Comics

Stranger Things: Six #2 continues to flesh out the time before the first season at Hawkins Labs as we continue to follow Francine through her past and experiences there. There’s a wonderful feeling of dread with the glimpses of the Upside Down.

| Published by Dark Horse

Thor #14 builds on events in War of the Realms #6 with a story that is concurrent with what happens in that book diving into the younger Thor’s perspective. Great art from Scott Hepburn and Matthew Wilson.

| Published by Marvel

Transformers/Ghostbusters #1 is a great debut from Erik Burnham, Dan Schoening, Luis Antonio Delgado, and Tom B. Long beautifully integrating the two properties here. Cybertron as destroyed by Gozer is just wonderful, and there’s a nice bit of humour that fits well with Burnham and Schoening’s other Ghostbusters work.

| Published by IDW

War of the Realms #6 is the conclusion to this event with Jason Aaron, Russell Dauterman, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Sabino giving us a “storm of Thors”. It’s fairly epic as Thor and Malekith meet in the final confrontation, capping off one of the longest narrative arcs in Marvel that began back in Thor: God of Thunder #1 years ago. There’s more to come, but this is a very satisfying end.

| Published by Marvel

The Weatherman #1 is a welcome return for the second volume of this series from Jody LeHeup, Nathan Fox, Moreno Dinisio, and Steve Wands. The story shifts as the team search for the clue to unlocking Bright’s memories on the one place we thought previously was all dead...Earth. Great stuff.

| Published by Image

Wolverine: Exit Wounds #1 is another of Marvel’s 80th Anniversary one-shots, this one presenting three stories from some of the luminary creators that have worked on Wolverine before. The standout for me is the Wolverine/Venom story from Sam Kieth and Ronda Pattison. It’s a simple Vs. story, but the artwork is gorgeous. Larry Hama, Scot Eaton, Sean Parsons, and Matt Milla & Chris Claremont, Salvador Larroca, and Val Staples provide the other two stories giving a glimpse into other stages in Logan’s past. Joe Sabino provides letters for all three stories and it’s nice to see how he adapts for the tone and style of each tale.

| Published by Marvel

Wonder Woman #73 is a fill-in from Steve Orlando, Aaron Lopresti, Matt Ryan, Romulo Fajardo Jr., and Pat Brosseau giving us a story of Diana’s past in an alternate reality. It’s a decent tale on its own, giving a hint at something important for the ongoing story.

| Published by DC Comics

Other Highlights: Avengers #20, Battlestar Galactica: Twilight Command #5, The Beauty #27, Bone Parish #10, Books of Magic #9, Canto #1, Conan the Barbarian #7, The Crow/Hack/Slash #1, Dark Red #4, Deadly Class #39, Diabolical Summer, Dial H for Hero #4, Dick Tracy Forever #3, Doctor Strange #15, Eve Stranger #2, Fantastic Four #11, Fight Club 3 #6, The Flash #73, Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #8, GLOW #3, The Goon #3, Head Lopper #12, High Level #5, Invader Zim #44, Isola #8, Kick-Ass #15, KISS: The End #3, Magnificent Ms. Marvel #4, Major X #5, Marilyn Manor #1, Martian Manhunter #6, Marvel Comics Presents #6, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers #40, Mr. & Mrs. X #12, Punk Mambo #3, Punks Not Dead: London Calling #5, Redneck #21, Rick & Morty #51, Runaways #22, Spawn #298, Spider-Man Annual #1, Star Wars: Age of Rebellion - Darth Vader #1, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge #3, Steel Cage #1, Stone Star #4, Summit #15, Superior Spider-Man #8, Teen Titans: Raven, Thanos #3, Thief of Thieves #43, War of the Realms: New Agents of Atlas #4, War of the Realms: The Punisher #3, War of the Realms: Uncanny X-Men #3, X-Men: Grand Design - X-Tinction #2

Recommended Collections: Breakneck, Coda - Volume 2, Fearscape - Volume 1, Hardcore - Volume 1, HP Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness - Volume 1, Interceptor - Volume 1, Joe Golem: Occult Detective - Volume 3: The Drowning City, Man of Steel, Old Lady Harley, Outcast - Book 3, Relay - Volume 1, Shock - Volume 2, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra - Volume 5: Worst Among Equals, Starjammers, Tony Stark: Iron Man - Volume 2: Stark Realities, Usagi Yojimbo - Volume 33: The Hidden, Wasted Space - Volume 1, West Coast Avengers - Volume 2: City of Evils

d. emerson eddy enjoys frozen cheesecake bites.

[blackkudos]

Ira Aldridge

Ira Frederick Aldridge (July 24, 1807 – August 7, 1867) was an American and later British stage actor and playwright who made his career after 1824 largely on the London stage and in Europe, especially in Shakespearean roles. Born in New York City, Aldridge is the only actor of African-American descent among the 33 actors of the English stage honored with bronze plaques at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon. He was especially popular in Prussia and Russia, where he received top honors from heads of state.

He was married twice, once to an Englishwoman, once to a Swedish woman, and had a family in England. Two of his daughters became professional opera singers.

Early life and career

Aldridge was born in New York City to Reverend Daniel and Luranah Aldridge on July 24, 1807. At age 13, Aldridge went to the African Free School in New York City, established by the New York Manumission Society for the children of free black people and slaves. They were given a classical education, with the study of English grammar, writing, mathematics, geography, and astronomy. His classmates at the African free school included Charles L. Reason, George T. Downing, and Henry Highland Garnet. His early exposure to theater included viewing plays from the high balcony of the Park Theatre, New York's leading theater of the time, and seeing productions of Shakespeare's plays at the African Grove Theatre.

Aldridge's first professional acting experience was in the early 1820s with the African Company, a group founded and managed by William Henry Brown and James Hewlett. In 1821, the group built the African Grove Theatre, the first resident African-American theatre in the United States.

Aldridge made his acting debut as Rolla, a Peruvian character in Richard Brinsley Sheridan's Pizarro. He may have also played the male lead in Romeo and Juliet, as reported later in an 1860 memoir by his schoolfellow, Dr. James McCune Smith.

Confronted with the persistent discrimination which black actors had to endure in the United States, Aldridge emigrated to Liverpool, England, in 1824 with actor James Wallack. During this time the Industrial Revolution had begun, bringing about radical economic change that helped expand the development of theatres. The British Parliament had already outlawed the slave trade and was moving toward abolishing slavery in the British colonies, which increased the prospect of black actors being able to perform.

Having limited onstage experience and lacking name recognition, Aldridge concocted a story of his African lineage, claiming to have descended from the Fulani princely line. By 1831 he had taken the name of Keene, a homonym for the then popular British actor, Edmund Kean. Aldridge observed a common theatrical practice of assuming an identical or similar nomenclature to that of a celebrity in order to garner attention. In addition to being called F.W. Keene Aldridge, he would later be called African Roscius, after the famous Roman actor of the first century BCE.

On October 10, 1825, Aldridge made his European debut at London's Royal Coburg Theatre, the first African-American actor to establish himself professionally in a foreign country. He played the lead role of Oroonoko in The Revolt of Surinam, or A Slave's Revenge; this play was an adaptation of Thomas Southerne's Oroonoko (itself adapted from Aphra Behn's original work).

According to the scholar Shane White, English people had heard of the African Theatre because of British actor and comedian Charles Mathews, so Aldridge associated himself with that. Bernth Lindfors says:

[W]hen Aldridge starts appearing on the stage at the Royalty Theatre, he's just called a gentleman of color. But when he moves over to the Royal Coburg, he's advertised in the first playbill as the American Tragedian from the African Theater New York City. The second playbill refers to him as 'The African Tragedian'. So everybody goes to the theater expecting to laugh because this is the man they think Mathews saw in New York City.

An innovation Aldridge introduced early in his career was a direct address to the audience on the closing night of his engagement at a given theatre. Especially in the years leading up to the emancipation of all slaves in the British colonies in 1832, he would speak of the injustice of slavery and the passionate desire for freedom of those held in bondage.

Critique

During Aldridge's seven-week engagement at the Royal Coburg, the young actor starred in five plays. He earned admiration from his audiences while most critics emphasized Aldridge's lack of stage training and experience. According to modern critics Errol Hill and James Vernon Hatch, early reviews were mixed. For The Times he was "baker-kneed and narrow-chested with lips so shaped that it is utterly impossible for him to pronounce English"; the Globe found his conception of Oroonoko to be very judicious and his enunciation distinct and sonorous; and The Drama described him as "tall and tolerably well proportioned with a weak voice that gabbles apace."

Aldridge performed scenes from Othello that impressed reviewers. One critic wrote, "In Othello (Aldridge) delivers the most difficult passages with a degree of correctness that surprises the beholder." He gradually progressed to larger roles; by 1825, he had top billing at London's Coburg Theatre as Oronoko in A Slave's Revenge, soon to be followed by the role of Gambia in The Slave, and the title role of Shakespeare's Othello. He also played major roles in plays such as The Castle Spectre and The Padlock. In search of new and suitable material, Aldridge also appeared occasionally as white European characters, for which he would be appropriately made up with greasepaint and wig. Examples of these are Captain Dirk Hatteraick and Bertram in Rev. R. C. Maturin's Bertram, the title role in Shakespeare's Richard III, and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice.

Touring and later years

In 1831 Aldridge successfully played in Dublin; at several locations in southern Ireland, where he created a sensation in the small towns; as well as in Bath and Edinburgh, Scotland. The actor Edmund Kean praised his Othello; some took him to task for taking liberties with the text, while others attacked his race. Since he was an American black actor from the African Theatre, The Times called him the "African Roscius", after the famed actor of ancient Rome. Aldridge used this to his benefit and expanded African references in his biography that appeared in playbills. In June 1844 he made appearances on stage in Exmouth (Devon, England).

Aldridge first toured to continental Europe in 1852, with successes in Germany, where he was presented to the Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and performed for Frederick William IV of Prussia; he also performed in Budapest. An 1858 tour took him to Serbia and to Imperial Russia, where he became acquainted with Count Fyodor Tolstoy, Mikhail Shchepkin and the Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko, who did his portrait in pastel.

Now of an appropriate age, about this time, he played the title role of King Lear (in England) for the first time. He purchased some property in England, toured Russia again (1862), and applied for British citizenship (1863).

Marriage and family

Soon after going to England, in 1824 Aldridge married Margaret Gill, an English woman. They were married for 40 years until her death in 1864.

Aldridge's first son, Ira Daniel, was born in May 1847. The identity of his mother is unknown, but it could not have been Margaret Aldridge, who was 49 years old and had been in ill health for years. She raised Ira Daniel as her own; they shared a loving relationship until her death. He emigrated to Australia in February 1867.

A year after Margaret's death, on April 20, 1865, Aldridge married his mistress, the self-styled Swedish countess Amanda von Brandt (1834-1915). They had four children: Irene Luranah, Ira Frederick and Amanda Aldridge, who all went on to musical careers, the two girls as opera singers. Their daughter Rachael Frederica was born shortly after Aldridge's death and died in infancy. Brandt died in 1915 and is buried at Highgate Woods, London.

Aldridge spent most of his final years with his family in Russia and continental Europe, interspersed with occasional visits to England. He planned to return to the post-Civil-War United States, but he died in August 1867 while visiting Łódź, Poland.

His remains were buried in the city's Evangelical Cemetery; 23 years passed before a proper tombstone was erected. His grave is tended by the Society of Polish Artists of Film and Theatre.

A half-length portrait of 1826 by James Northcote shows Aldridge dressed for the role of Othello, but in a relatively undramatic portrait pose, is on display at the Manchester Art Gallery (in the Manchester section). Aldridge performed in the city many times. A blue plaque unveiled in 2007 commemorates Aldridge at 5 Hamlet Road in Upper Norwood, London. The plaque describes him as the 'African Roscius'.

Ira Aldridge Troupe

Aldridge enjoyed enormous fame as a tragic actor during his lifetime, but after his death, he was soon forgotten [in Europe]. The news of Ira Aldridge's death in Poland and the record of his achievement as an actor reached the American black community slowly. In African-American circles, Aldridge was a legendary figure. Many black actors viewed him as an inspirational model, so when his death was revealed, several amateur groups sought to honor his memory by adopting his name for their companies.

Many troupes were being founded in various places around America. In the late nineteenth century Aldridge-titled troupes were established in Washington, DC, in Philadelphia, and in New Haven, their respective productions at the time being an adaptation of Kotzebue's Die Spanier in Peru by Sheridan as Pizarro in 1883, School by Thomas William Robertson in 1885, and George Melville Baker's Comrades in 1889.

The most prominent troupe named for him was the Ira Aldridge Troupe in Philadelphia, founded in 1863, some 35 years after Aldridge left the US for good. The Ira Aldridge Troupe was a minstrelsy group that caricatured Irish white men. The Ira Aldridge Troupe is unique in annals of minstrelsy; it was named for a Black actor who had left his homeland some 35 years before and achieved fame in Europe. Unlike most, later, Black minstrel companies, the Aldridge Troupe apparently did not do plantation material, although they were billed as a 'contraband troupe'—that is, fugitive slaves. Perhaps because of their substantially Black audience, the troupe felt no need to "put on the mask." Although much of the material the group performed was standard fare, several of the company's acts were downright subversive.

The Ira Aldridge Troupe appearing during the American Civil War made it "unique in the annals of minstrelsy." The Clipper (New York City) thought it was important enough to review; and it performed before a mixed audience, at a time when often white and black audiences were separated. Third, it was a black troupe presenting a program designed to appeal to their black audience. The Ira Aldridge Troupe performances eschewed the southern genre of old "darkies" longing for the plantation. The exclusion of southern nostalgia may have been in deference to a majority-black audience. The New York Clipper reported them as "A more incorrigible set of cusses we never saw; they beat our Bowery gods all to pieces."

The troupe also created performances and songs that referred to the continuing Civil War. A ballad, "When the Cruel War is Over", became well known; it was performed by three members of the troupe—Miss S. Burton, Miss R. Clark, and Mr. C. Nixon. The song sold over a million copies of sheet music and was one of the most popular sentimental songs of the Civil War. The song describes a soldier's farewell to his lady, the wounds he receives in battle, and his dying request for a last caress. The song, highly popular with white minstrel groups, was an example of the change in white minstrelsy that had been occurring at this time.)

Another popular production was a farce called The Irishman and the Stranger, with a Mr. Brown playing a character called Pat O'Callahan and a Mr. Jones playing the Stranger. This farce displayed black actors in white face speaking in a "nigger accent". The Clipper reporter referred to the performance as a "truly laughable affair, the 'Irish nagur' mixing up a rich Irish brogue promiscuously with the sweet nigger accent". Perhaps the Aldridge Troupe's audience got its biggest satisfaction, however, from the role reversal inherent in the piece: since the beginning of minstrelsy, minstrels of Irish heritage, such as Dan Bryant and Richard Hooley, had been caricaturing Black men—now it was the turn of Black men to caricature the Irish.

The history of minstrelsy also shows the cross-cultural influences, with Whites adopting elements of Black culture. The Ira Aldridge Troupe tried to pirate that piracy, and, in collaboration with its audience, turn minstrelsy to its own ends.

Aldridge family

Ira Daniel Aldridge, 1847–?. Teacher. Migrated to Australia in 1867.

Irene Luranah Pauline Aldridge, 1860–1932. Opera singer.

Ira Frederick Olaff Aldridge, 1862–?. Musician and composer.

Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge (Amanda Ira Aldridge), 1866–1956. Opera singer, teacher and composer under name of Montague Ring.

Rachael Margaret Frederika Aldridge, 1867, died in infancy.

Legacy and honors

Aldridge received awards for his art from European heads of state and governments: the Prussian Gold Medal for Arts and Sciences from King Frederick William III, the Golden Cross of Leopold from the Czar of Russia, and the Maltese Cross from Bern, Switzerland.

Aldridge is the only African American to have a bronze plaque among the 33 actors honored at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre at Stratford-upon-Avon.

Aldridge's legacy inspired the dramatic writing of African-American playwright Henry Francis Downing, who in the early 20th century became "probably the first person of African descent to have a play of his or her own written and published in Britain."

In 2002, scholar Molefi Kete Asante listed Ira Aldridge in his 100 Greatest African Americans.

His life was the subject of a play, Red Velvet, by Lolita Chakrabarti and starring Adrian Lester, produced at the Tricycle Theatre in London in 2012.

Howard University Department of Theatre Arts, a historically black university in Washington, DC, has a theatre named after Ira Aldridge.

Aldridge's Othello has been highly influential in starting a series of respected performances by African Americans in Othello in the 1800s and early 1900s which includes: John A. Arneaux, John Hewlett, and Paul Robeson.

The Black Doctor (1847)

The Black Doctor, originally written in French by Auguste Anicet-Bourgeois, was adapted by Aldridge for the English stage. The Black Doctor is a romantic play about Fabian, a bi-racial physician, and his patient Pauline, the daughter of a French aristocrat. The couple falls in love and marries in secret. Although the play depicts racial and family conflict, and ends with Fabian's death, Aldridge portrays his title character with dignity. Some plot points mirror Aldridge's own life, as he married a white Englishwoman.

Wikipedia

[saltyfilmmajor]

Chapters: 10/? Fandom: Mission: Impossible (Movies) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Benji Dunn/Ethan Hunt Characters: Benji Dunn, Ethan Hunt, Luther Stickell, William Brandt, Musgrave - Character Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Magic, set in the 60's, Cold War, Mentions of homophobia, past mentions of Ethan/Jack, Ethan Has Magic Powers on this, Magical Benthan AU set in the 60's, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, mentions of catholicism, Past Character Death, Alternate Universe - Magical Realism, Mentions of Racism, Repressed Memories, Human Experimentation, Government Conspiracy Summary:

Ethan's familiar was assigned to him by the CIA. Benjamin Dunn, a graduate of Oxford, young, timid and incredibly well mannered.

But not is all as it seems when they both begin working together. Conspiracy during the Cold War is a dangerous thing, especially in statecraft. What lies beneath the facade of Benji's powers? And what has the powers that be planned?

[quotesmosis]

quotes about life and family

“It is a wise father that knows his own child.” --William Shakespeare

“Family is not an important thing. It’s everything.” --Michael J. Fox

“A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” --George Bernard Shaw

“If you’re lucky, family members are friends, and friends are family members.” --Maxime Lagacé

“Make sure they know you love them.” --Maxime Lagacé

“The family is one of nature’s masterpieces.” --George Santayana

“Show me a family of readers, and I will show you the people who move the world.” --Napoleon Bonaparte

“One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters.” --George Herbert

“The strength of a nation derives from the integrity of the home.” --Confucius

“Each day of our lives we make deposits in the memory banks of our children.” --Charles R. Swindoll

“In family life, love is the oil that eases friction, the cement that binds closer together, and the music that brings harmony.” --Friedrich Nietzsche

“The only rock I know that stays steady, the only institution I know that works, is the family.” --Lee Iacocca

“Families are the compass that guides us. They are the inspiration to reach great heights, and our comfort when we occasionally falter.” --Brad Henry

“It is not flesh and blood but the heart which makes us fathers and sons.” --Johann Schiller

“When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching – they are your family.” --Jim Butcher

“The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.” --Theodore Hesburgh

“Family means no one gets left behind or forgotten.” --David Ogden Stiers

“Children are a poor man’s riches.” --English Proverb

“Children have more need of models than critics.” --Joseph Joubert

“Other things may change us, but we start and end with the family.” --Anthony Brandt

“In family relationships, love is really spelled T.I.M.E.” --Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance.” --George Bernard Shaw

“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.” --Walt Whitman

[hettiesworld]

Project: Reincarnation, 4: William Brandt

Warnings for strong language.

“Can you tell me who you met next?” Clint asked (y/n) as they were sat in his room.

“He was a secret agent… You should know who I met next. Apparently, you have brilliant memory of this…”

“Well, of course I do… except the order you met… me… in.”

(y/n) sighed and began her next story to him….

---------------------------

The IMF were on a mission in London and Brandt was on his way to the garage that Hunt told him to meet him. (y/n) was following him on her motorcycle. She was trying to kill Brandt… brainwashed by the Syndicate. 

She rides next to the driver’s seat and shot a tranquilizer dart at the driver, making the car swivel into the river Thames under the bridge.

“I’m sorry Will.”

But it didn’t go according to plan.

“Shit!” 

He was there. In the garage. All dried up.

So she had to kill him again. With success.

She backed him up into a corner and kissed his neck as she whispered in his ear, “I’m sorry.”

(y/n) backed away and let the White Widow do her thing.

BANG.

-----------------------

“Oh my God… the White Widow killed me?”

“Yeah.”

“Then… you killed yourself, right?”

She nodded.

“How?”

“Suicide… again. Some drugs that can kill you…”

Clint nodded. He was now in love with her.