#2007 troika

[vintagerpg]

While I have a special affection for Jason Eckhardt’s work, it would be unfair to look at Necronomicon Press and not give some love to their other prolific house artist, Robert H. Knox. As luck would have it, he did all the art on the Clark Ashton Smith chapbooks — some of my all time Necropress faves.

Again, these feel important for their time. When I was getting into weird fiction in the early '90s, I had easy access to most of the important authors. The exception? Clark Ashton Smith. His dedicated collections were all out of print and scarce and a serious effort at definitive collection of his work didn’t get underway until the five-volume set from Nightshade, begun in 2007. Until then, it was the occasional anthologized story, or Necropress chapbooks.

Most of these represent efforts by series editor Steve Behrends to issue corrected texts of stories that better reflect CAS’ intentions. Xeethra (1988) is a melancholy Zothique story that weird tales deemed too poetic. Mother of Toads (1993), an Averoigne story, was too erotic. The Vaults of Yoh-Vombis (1993) is a tale of Mars that was heavily revised for print, which CAS was unhappy about. Another Martian tale, The Dweller in the Gulf (1993) was so tampered with that CAS stopped writing fiction for a time. The Hashish-Eater (1989) is a lengthy, cosmic poem, unbothered by editors during its author’s lifetime.

Knox’s covers are fantastic, but holy wow those interior illustrations for The Hashish-Eater are something else. Dripping, psychedelic vistas fit for Troika. I’ve loved flipping through this one for over three decades.

[junkyard-gifs]

Hi! I have a question about the US Tour 5/Troika: why does it have that name? Is there anything special about it?

Well, there was! ... up until 2021.

So. US tours 1, 2, 3, and 4 were all equity tours. I'm not quite sure about what the technicalities of this mean in US terms but what it translates to in my head is 'union' vs 'non-union'. And in immediate practical terms, these tours were all direct off-shoots of the Broadway production.

Tour 5 on the other hand - although it launched in the direct wake of the close of the Broadway production and thus inherited a lot of its cultural capital - was an independent (and non-equity) production owned by the Troika company. There were quite a few differences in the show, from costuming and colour design (bright pinks!) to the rigorous nature of the touring schedule (several towns per week, often); and, since the Troika tour went on for over a decade, it developed some of its own staging traditions (eg, the business between Tugger and Bomba in the curtain call, and Cori and Tanto pretty much never existing).

This production in turn influenced a lot of US regional productions for the first decade and a half of this century: basically, up until the US revival, it WAS the touchstone for what this show looked like and felt like. Eg, Wichita 2007 and La Mirada 2015 are very palpably based on the Troika production (and in some cases, if memory serves, hired costumes etc from them).

So, long story short, US tour 5 / Troika was a unique and historically important production and I, among others, tended to use the term 'Troika' to refer to it (and to tag it on this blog)!

... unfortunately, the sixth US tour - that is, the Broadway revival tour starting in 2019 - began as equity but, after COVID, became non-equity and is now run by... uh. Troika.

This is unfortunate both because Troika has a really shady history when it comes to things like actually looking after its touring companies and not screwing everybody over but also, more importantly, because I have to replace all my tags since there is now more than one troika tour.

Really. Won't somebody think of the bloggers?

[saltineofswing]

ANOTHER EARTH, FILE 001 – BATMAN

Circa 1992 – ‘Now, It’s Just BATMAN’.

Coinciding with the adoption of Dick Grayson and the emergence of Robin, this is where the Batman image really gets locked in. I think Robin plays an important part in dragging Bruce out of a place of loathing (self and others), and that provokes change. With new heroes (and villains) coming out of the woodwork for the first time in 30 or 40 years, the public is starting to re-acclimate to a culture of costumed aggression; in Gotham, especially, this is roughly when the Long Halloween happens. The crime families are getting pressured from Batman on one side, an increasingly violent and corrupt GCPD on another side… and the sudden dramatic influx of weird, hyper-violent, mentally-unstable gimmick villains is causing problems for them in a whole new way. In 2003, a worldwide crisis brings together the Justice League for the first time – and Batman is luckily dressed for the occasion.

After a couple of years of dismantling Gotham’s criminal underworld, Bruce has contacts who know how to actually design clothing, and he’s learning what works and what doesn’t as tools in his caped crusade against crime. Drastically changing the design of his costume serves two purposes: one, it shakes up his appearance now that the shock value of his original suit has worn off, and two, it makes him more approachable to other heroes and civilians – especially children. It is lighter, more mobile, and prioritizes agility over armor; now that he has a couple years of experience occupying a pocket in his utility belt, he’s much better at not getting shot. This outfit is inspired by Tim Sale’s Long Halloween suit, the Troika suit, and other early/mid-80s Batman suits.

Back To Title

Circa 1990

Circa 1996-2003

Circa 2003-2007

Circa 2008+

BONUS! A couple alt-palettes! One of these was heavily inspired by the David Williams designs for the Darren Aronofsky movie that wasn't.

[pwlanier]

Ufimtsev Viktor Ivanovich (1899-1964) Sketch of the poster "Power of power plants". 1932.

Paper, gouache

Without a signature.

Publications: monograph "Victor Ufimtsev. We called ourselves innovators..." Moscow:, Pinakoteka, 2007, p. 89.

Painter. He studied at the Omsk Commercial School (1910-1919). Since 1917 he has been studying at painting and drawing courses at the Institute of Practical Knowledge. Together with like-minded people (N.A. Mamontov, Shabul-Tabulevich) founded the futuristic group "Chervonnaya Troika" (1921-1922). Since 1920 he worked as an artist at the Red Army Club and lecturer at the Red Army Art Studio; participated in trips on the agitation steamer "III International". In 1923 he made a trip to Moscow, where he met V.V. Mayakovsky, V.E. Meyerhold, A.N. Tolstoy. In 1923-1925 he lived in Turkestan (Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara); became close to A.N. Volkov, A.V. Nikolaev (Usto-Mumin), L.L. Bure, A.V. Isupov. He worked in the Samarkand Commission for the Protection of Art and Antiquities, chief artist of the Omsk Gorteatre (1926-1933), an artist of the theater named after Hamza (1933-1936). He took an active part in the creation of the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan; since 1933 he has been a member of the organizing committee, since 1940 - Chairman of the Board of the Union of Artists of Uzbekistan. In 1944 he was awarded the title of People's Artist of the Uzbek SSR. He was engaged in the organization of exhibitions, creative teams with a visit to the construction sites of the five-year plan. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, he made trips to Afghanistan, Tunisia, India; the result was a series of gouash "Afghan Diary", "Tunisia", "On the Roads of India". Creativity is represented in many museum collections, including the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Omsk Regional Museum of Fine Arts named after M.A. Vrubel, the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Uzbekistan in Tashkent, the State Museum of Arts of the Republic of Karakalpakstan named after I. C. Savitsky in Nukus.

Litfund

[mortimers-cross]

Reblog if you saw Angie Smith as Grizabella.

[ultrajaphunter]

Russian Tu-22M3 Backfire-C bombers strike Mariupol

Aviation Defense News April 2022 aerospace air force industry

POSTED ON TUESDAY, 19 APRIL 2022 10:38

According to Ukrinform, for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, 

the Russian armed forces have attacked the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol using long-range Tupolev Tu-22M3 bombers, 

Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk said on April 15.

According to Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman Oleksandr Motuzianyk, Russian invaders continue to concentrate their efforts on the offensive in eastern Ukraine, establishing control over the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and creating the so-called land corridor with the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea.

The Tupolev Tu-22M (NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. 

According to some sources, the bomber was believed to be designated Tu-26 at one time. 

During the Cold War, the Tu-22M was operated by the Soviet Air Forces (VVS) in a missile carrier strategic bombing role, and by the Soviet Naval Aviation (Aviatsiya Voyenno-Morskogo Flota, AVMF) 

in a long-range maritime anti-shipping role. 

Significant numbers remain in service with the Russian Air Force, and as of 2014 more than 100 Tu-22Ms were in use.

An initial attempt at modernizing the Tu-22M, Adaptation-45.03M, based around modernizing the aircraft's radar, began in 1990 

but was abandoned before reaching production. In 2007, work began on a new radar for the Tu-22M, the NV-45, which was first flown on a Tu-22M in 2008, 

with four more repaired Tu-22Ms refitted with NV-45 radars in 2014–2015.

A contract for a full mid-life upgrade, the Tu-22M3M was signed in September 2014. 

The aircraft is to receive a further modified NV-45M radar, together with new navigation equipment and a modified flight control system. 

A new self-defense electronic radar suite is fitted, replacing the tail gun of the existing Tu-22M3. 

Much of the new avionics are shared with the upgraded Tu-160M2. 

Armament is planned to be enhanced by adding the new Kh-32 missile, a heavily modified version of the current Kh-22, the subsonic Kh-SD, the hypersonic Kh-MT, or the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missiles. 

Deliveries of the Tu-22M3M were expected to begin in 2021.

A separate, simpler, upgrade program (SVP-24-22) is being carried out by the company Gefest & T, based on avionics developed for the Sukhoi Su-24 attack aircraft, including a new computer, a new navigation system and digital processing for the aircraft's radar. 

The upgrade is claimed to greatly increase navigation accuracy and bomb delivery. 

An SVP-24-22-equipped Tu-22M underwent trials in 2009, and the program had been ordered into production, with deliveries from 2012.

Tupolev Tu-22M3 Backfire-C

The later Tu-22M3 (NATO: Backfire-C), which first flew in 1977, was introduced into operation in 1983 and officially entered service in 1989. 

It had new NK-25 engines with substantially more power, wedge-shaped intake ramps similar to the MiG-25, 

wings with greater maximum sweep and a recontoured nose housing a new Almaz PNA (Planeta Nositel, izdeliye 030A) navigation/attack (NATO ‘Down Beat’) radar and NK-45 nav/attack system, 

which provides much-improved low-altitude flight. 

The aerodynamic changes increased its top speed to Mach 2.05 and its range by one-third compared to the Tu-22M2. 

It has a revised tail turret with a single cannon,

 and provision for an internal rotary launcher for the Raduga Kh-15 missile,

 similar to the American AGM-69 SRAM. 

It was nicknamed Troika ('Trio' or third) in Russian service. 268 were built until 1993.

As built, the Tu-22M included the provision for a retractable probe in the upper part of the nose for aerial refueling. 

The probe was reportedly removed as a result of the SALT negotiations because with refueling it was considered an intercontinental-range strategic bomber. 

The probe can be reinstated if needed.

Tu-22M3s used to attack targets in Syria underwent modernization, during which the SVP-24-22 specialized computing subsystems were installed on them, significantly increasing the accuracy of the bombing.

No additional details are available so far concerning the Tu-22M3s used to bomb Mariupol and other targets in Ukraine.

[sevenkittensinatrenchcoat]

Bootleg/Pro-shot Collection

I have the Nagoya bootleg! I actually have a bit of a project going with my collection, because if I like something, I obsessively catalog it.

Basically I have an enormous spreadsheet of things that vary between productions and I’m keeping track of which productions do what.

It looks like this:

Yeah. I’m not normal.

The spreadsheet is for replica productions only, as non-replicas differ in so many ways that I can’t keep track. So far, I’ve got:

Broadway Revival (Watched)

Buenos Aires 1993 (Watched)

The 1998 VHS (Watched)

German Tent Tour 2011 (Watched)

Hamburg 1999 Bootleg (Partially Watched)

Nagoya 2000 Bootleg (Just started on this one)

Madrid 2004 Pro-shot (Haven’t gotten far with this one yet)

Mexico Tour 1991 (Haven’t properly watched yet)

Moscow 2005 (Haven’t properly watched yet)

Paris 1990 Pro-shot (Partially Watched)

UK Tour 2013 (Watched)

2005 Troika Tour in Chicago (Watched)

I also have a bootleg from 2007 in Boston from the same tour, but from what I’ve watched of it, it’s not as good.

Vienna 1989/1990 Pro-shot (Partially Watched)

Zurich 1992 Bootleg (Partially Watched)

So, there’s the VHS plus 13 other versions.

I just thought I’d invite everyone into what’s been going on inside my brain for the past few months.

[sybright]

A Comprehensive List of Cats Bootlegs on Youtube

Hey y’all, so yesterday someone was saying how they wish they had been informed of Cats Moscow being up on youtube. After seeing this, it occurred to me that many people might not know of several boots that are on youtube, so I thought I’d make this list with links to each show to help some people out. Please note that this is not EVERY boot on youtube, just the ones I’ve come across, so there might be more that I missed. Fyi, this list does not include high school productions or amateur productions. Also please note that I myself did not upload any of these lol, I just found them, many of them have been online for several years.

Cats Vienna 1989/1990

Cats Paris 1990

Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 1 | Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 2 |

Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 2/1? (these are the missing bits from part 2, ending bit of Growltiger/Gus, start of Skimble) | Cats Zurich 1991/1992 Part 3 

Zurich IS a complete boot, it’s just cut up weirdly because it seems the vhs was glitching at some points while be recorded. There’s moments where the video lags and jumps around (end of pekes and pollicles and start of Jellicle ball jumps a lot, but everything is there), nothing major is missing other than the Growltiger fight scene. Also, EPIC PLATORICOPAT MOMENTS DURING BUSTOPHER JONES, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Cats Buenos Aires 1993

Cats Budapest 2001 Act 1 | Cats Budapest 2001 Act 2 (Warning: strobe lights are used quite a lot during some of Grizabella’s entrances).

I should also mention that Budapest is a non-replica, so the costuming and characters are pretty different. Special guests appear in Act 2, I think they are original cast members from when the show first opened in Hungary. However, the special guests are not in costume when they come on stage, which might be bothersome to people but I just thought it was funny.

Cats Madrid 2004 Part 1 | Cats Madrid 2004 Part 2 (Warning: THIS IS NOT THE COMPLETE MADRID BOOT! The channel didn’t upload all of it, part 2 stops about halfway through Skimbleshanks.)

Cats Moscow 2005 Act 1 | Cats Moscow 2005 Act 2 (I know this was the one people already discussed, but just in case people didn’t see the original post, I wanted to put it here).

Cats Moscow 2005 (This is a separate recording with zooms, the previous recording, the one above this one, is filmed showing the full stage with some minor zooms to showcase the main action).

Cats Boston 2007 Act 1 | Cats Boston 2007 Act 2 (This is the US Tour 5, Troika production).

Cats UK Tour 2013 Act 1 | Cats UK Tour 2013 Act 2

Cats Broadway Mega Edit | This is a fanmade bootleg of the original Broadway production of Cats done by @rumplteazer​​! Made using available footage, audio, and pictures of the original Broadway run. An actual Broadway bootleg doesn’t seem to exist as far as anyone knows (except for that professional taping the NYPL is holding hostage), so this is the next best thing if you want to see the original Broadway production of Cats!

Even though everybody knows about it already, I might as well link the playlist for the 2016 Broadway Revival too, since I’m already this far lol. Hopefully this list was helpful to someone. Feel free to add more if y’all know of any others, I’ll probably update this if I find more boots on youtube.

Edit: Cats Zurich, Madrid, and the Broadway fan edit have been added! There’s also a list of places to watch Cats here, which was based off of this post here, they include Cats St. Louis, as well as the 1998 film and the 2019 movie. I didn’t know people had already made lists when I originally put this together, so I’m trying to give credit where credit is due. 

[bombateazer]

From August 1st to August 31st we are going to be appreciating different productions of Cats!. I’ve put two on each day since I want to include as many productions as possible, this includes replica and non-replica productions. You don’t have to do both of them, you can do just one or do both (it is up to you). You can do fanart, Gifs, edits et, anything you want to do to appreciate these wonderful productions. Please spread the word!.

-

August 1st - Original London production (1981 - 2002) / Budapest (1983 - present)

August 2nd - Brazil (2010) / broadway 2016 revival (2016 - 2017)

August 3rd - Mexico tour (2018 - 2019) / Mexico (2013 - 2014)

August 4th - Cats video cast (1998) / Zurich (1991 - 1993)

August 5th - Shiki cats Japan (1983 - present) / uk tour (1989 - 1990)

August 6th - Antwerp (1996) / London palladium (2014 - 2015)

August 7th - Madrid (2003 - 2005) / Tecklenburg (2015)

August 8th - German tent tour (2010 - 2013) / Oasis of the seas (2014 - present)

August 9th - Prague (2004 - 2005) / Sydney (1985 - 1987)

August 10th - Buenos Aires (1993) / Asia tour (2017 - 2018)

August 11th - Hamburg (1986 - 2001) / Oslo (1985 - 1987)

August 12th - Australasia (2007 - 2010) / China (2012 - 2014)

August 13th - Moscow (2005 - 2006) / Dutch tour (2006 - 2007)

August 14th - Operà populaire (2017) / Amsterdam (1987 - 1993)

August 15th - UK tour (2003 -2009) / Vienna revival (2019 - present)

August 16th - World tour (2001 - 2005) / Stuttgart (2001 - 2002)

August 17th - Mexico tour (1991 - 1992) / Australian Circus Tent Tour (1999 - 2001)

August 18th - Asia Tour (2014 - 2015) / South Korea (2011 - 2012)

August 19th - Toronto (1985 - 1989) / Copenhagen (2002 - 2003)

August 20th - Australia tour (1989 - 1990) / Warsaw (2004 - 2010)

August 21st - Paris (1989 - 1990) / Italian tour (2009)

August 22nd - Vienna (1983 - 1990) / South Africa (2009 - 2010)

August 23rd - South Korea (2008 - 2009) / Düsseldorf (2004 - 2005)

August 24th - German tour (2005 - 2006) / US tour 2 (1985 - 1986)

August 25th - Original broadway production (1982 - 2000) / Berlin (2002 - 2004)

August 26th - US tour 1 (1983 - 1987) / Uk tour (1993 - 1995)

August 27th - Euro tour (1994 - 1996) / US tour 6 (2019 - present)

August 28th - US tour 5 Troika (2001 - 2012) / UK/European tour (2013 - 2014)

August 29th - Paris revival (2015 - 2016) / US tour 4 (1987 - 1999)

August 30th - US tour 3 (1986 - 1988) / Australia tour (1993 - 1996)

August 31st - Australia / New Zealand Tour (2015-2016) / uk/international tour (2016 - present)

-

Here’s some prompts/questions to answer if anyone needs them

1.Favourite thing about this production?

2.Favourite actor(s)?

3.Favourite costumes/makeup?

4.Favourite song performed in that particular production?

-

Please use the #catsproductionsappreciationmonth so I can see any posts you’ve made and share them!

[chunkecheeks]

Hi, regarding the stream on Friday, which Troika boot are we watching?

I haven’t decided yet, I have all 3 but we’re definitely not watching the 2007 one bc that’s my least favorite out of the three so I’m gonna compare the 2005 and 2006 ones and see which i think is a better representation

[mystarmyangel]

[TRANS-200321 Interview ] [90-ers are coming] Lim YoonA “In the past 13 years.. I have been working hard to portray a new side of me”

This is a new generation where dramas and movies are received well publicly. Just like the buzzword ‘The 90-ers are coming’, they are creating huge influence socially and culturally, this is the 90-ers. Sports Chosun marks its 30th anniversary since the launch on 21 March 1990, and we took this chance to speak with friends of the same age. Just like the phrase ’90-ers are coming’ we invited the 3 main characters of the new troika: Shin Sekyung, Go Ara, Lim YoonA.

Lim YoonA who debuted in 2007 through SNSD’s single album ‘Into The New World’ has also started her acting career through ‘9 Ends 2 Outs’ at the same time, clearly showing her charms as an all-round entertainer right from the start. YoonA debuted as a member of Korea’s top idol group SNSD and has gained immerse popularity domestically and aboard. Other than actively promoting as a singer, YoonA has also actively met viewers through ‘You Are My Destiny (2008)’, ‘Cinderella Man (2009)’, ‘Love Rain (2012)’, ‘Prime Minister & I (2013)’, ‘The K2 (2016)’, ‘The King In Love (2017)’.

‘The True All-round Entertainer’ Lim YoonA debuted on the big screen in 2017 through the movie ‘Confidential Assignment’, establishing herself as an actress through dramas and movies. Last year, YoonA starred in the movie ‘EXIT’ which receives an excellent result of 9.4m moviegoers, dominating the movie screen last summer. YoonA also won the popularity award at ‘The 40th Blue Dragon Film Awards’ and the best new actress award at ‘The 20th Women In Film Festival’ etc. She is also in the center among all the 90-ers, earning attention for her future works.

Q: Recently, ’90-ers are coming’ has become a buzzword and is gaining attention and spreading through the society. The entertainment industry is no exception, there are even sayings that ‘1990-born actresses performances are especially outstanding’. How do you feel being part of it? A: First of all, I am thankful for the compliment. The 1990-born are all stepping into 30s. Not only towards work and career, there are also many changes to our personal growth. The energy that we exuded are also different from the past. I think that these positive energies come from all the areas we are active in. The 90-ers are dazzling in their own aspect of performances in the society. I am happy and grateful to receive this interview.    

Q: Speaking of ‘1990-born’, it seems everyone feel that it is a generation that is between middle-aged and the youths. Do you face any difficulties in real life? A: Just like how we have many sunbaes when we first debut, right now our hoobaes are getting more and more too. It is especially when we attend music events, there are more hoobaes than sunbaes. But on the contrary, when I am shooting dramas and movies, the people I mostly work with are my sunbaes and I am usually the maknae there.

Since I have only filmed 2 movies thus far, I received a lot of help from the sunbaes and they take care of me well. So rather than saying there are difficulties, I received more help from them. And it is precisely because I received a lot of help, I also thought about my past experiences when I see my hoobaes, I hope that I can help and take care of them with my own experience.

Q: From Eun San in ‘The King In Love’ to ‘EXIT’ you acted as the main leads, everyone think that you have gotten more mature in the selection of role. What are the reasons that make you chose those roles? I am curious if the criteria of choosing roles and the aspects of your life have changed? A: I used to be very conscious of outside view. From few years ago, I started to get rid of this mindset and focus more on my personal growth. When choosing project, I will think of what I can learn from acting in this project and playing this role, disregarding the outcome. I will consider if I will be able to portray a new side of me, I decide on project and role based on these criteria. Although I indeed am more attracted towards characters that are active and determined, but I do not wish to be limit myself to only these genres or characters. I tend to choose projects and roles of what I feel and am attracted to. So regardless of the outcome, at least I will be satisfied with the results.  

Q: It has been 13 years since you debut as a member of SNSD, in this period you have also done a variety of activities, can you comment on this duration as an actress? A: In actual fact, I auditioned numerous times before landing a role in my debut drama ‘9 Ends 2 Outs’. I debut as an actress first and one month later I debut as a member of SNSD. After which I acted in ‘You Are My Destiny’ as my first leading role. Thereafter even though I do not have a lot of acting projects, my acting activity has never stop. Promoting as a member of SNSD and as an actress, I was able to show a variety of things parallelly. It seems like I have spent the past 13 years displaying different sides of me to everyone.

Particularly from the movie ‘Confidential Assignment’, I felt that the standards of what I want to show have changed. After ‘Confidential Assignment’, I have also displayed new sides of me through ‘Hyori’s Homestay 2’ and ‘EXIT’ which I have also received love from everyone. This became an opportunity for me to broaden my views.

To be honest, I have less experience in acting as compared to my singing career, so I want to accumulate more experience in acting.

Rather than giving a commentary on the past, I would like to say that those are the days where I have worked really hard running to where I am today. So right now rather than saying I want to change my past’s image, it is more like ‘the same me who has went through different kind of experiences think it’s the time now to show different sides of myself to the viewers’.

Q: Please tell us what it means to live as a celebrity in Korea? A: Of course, there are times when it is hard to live as a celebrity and it is true that there are many responsibilities that come along too. However, I personally think that I have also gained special power from the love I received from everyone. The reality is, I wish for more freedom and more ordinary life too, however I do know that I can’t have everything I want.

Not only celebrities, but all occupations and everyone will face some difficulties and have their pros and cons. If I think it this way, then I wouldn’t have thoughts like ‘it is celebrity this title that gives me these difficulties’, so long as you change your perspective, celebrity this title also brought many strengths.

Most importantly, I have received a lot of love as SNSD’s YoonA and actress Lim YoonA, even up till now I am still receiving so many cheers and love. So, I am always grateful for that and want to show an even better side of me.

Q: As a 1990-born young actress, what is the biggest worry you have lately? A: Firstly, the thing I thought of the most is definitely my next project. I am thinking what different side of me I can show and will prepare myself to present a better side of me. Also, it’s the things I have been learning and trying new things in my everyday life. As I look back on my life, the Lim YoonA as a celebrity seem to be consistently busy, but the Lim YoonA as an ordinary person did not seem to have done much, so I am taking some time to search for myself and to try new things. While on a break, I cook comfortably at home, go travelling and exercising. Not long ago, I took up HSKK (Chinese Proficiency Conversation Test) and passed it. The time that I used to do all these, I feel like it has become a time for me to recharge myself.

Q: Lastly, can you reveal thoughts on your future activities and the plans you have for the next 10 years as a 90-er. A: I am good at doing things that are in front of me, and not the kind that will plan big ahead, so it is difficult to explicitly talk of my future plans. I am curious too! I think that going forward I will still be giving my best in the situation I am in and showing my best side too. Everyone do take care of your health and cheer up!

Source: Naver Cr Chinese Trans by Limyoonabar (木白 & 黃黃) Eng Trans: mystarmyangel (1) (2)

[antoine-roquentin]

In 2016, a dramaturge, a career politician, and a retired sociologist met at the Paris-Moskau Restaurant in Berlin to hatch a plan to disrupt the German left. The dramaturge was the fifty-something Bernd Stegemann, a large man in wire-framed glasses with the slumped mien of an eternal graduate student. He worked a five-minute cab ride away at the Berliner Ensemble, a theater company founded by Bertolt Brecht in the same year as socialist East Germany.

The politician was Sahra Wagenknecht, one of the country’s most poised and merciless critics of the status quo. Born in East Germany to an Iranian father and a German mother, Wagenknecht was the parliamentary chairperson of die Linke (the Left) party. Since its 2007 founding, die Linke’s mixture of ex–Social Democrats and former East German communists had polled around 10 percent nationally. Despite her party’s mediocre electoral performance, Wagenknecht had remained one of the most popular politicians in national polls and a fixture on primetime talk shows.

The sociologist, a partisan of earth-tone sweaters with a paintbrush mustache, was Wolfgang Streeck. One of Germany’s best-known intellectuals, Streeck achieved celebrity status in the leftward reaches of the Anglosphere after Verso published his 2014 book, Buying Time. To the readership of the London Review of Books and their broader penumbra, Streeck had become a trusted guide through the thickets of European politics in the age of the troika and the bailout.

Soon a fourth comrade emerged from the wings: Oskar Lafontaine, Wagenknecht’s husband and arguably the most seasoned left strategist in German politics. Lafontaine had served as finance minister under 1990s third-way–style Social Democratic chancellor Gerhard Schröder and was himself chair of the party before resigning in dramatic fashion. He helped found die Linke, for which he remains a member of parliament.

The quartet were drawn together by a shared distaste for how the center and the left were reacting to new threats from the right. In particular, they were angry with the political establishment’s embrace of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “welcoming” immigration policy. Most EU member states had clashed with Merkel over national refugee quotas, but within Germany the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) was the only party to capitalize on criticism of the chancellor’s immigration policy. Wagenknecht and her allies believed that, to reverse the AfD’s electoral success, anti-Merkel and anti-migration politics could not be ceded to the far right. The rules of politics were changing, and “the center” would not hold.

[junkyard-gifs]

Bomba and her girls. 😌

US tour 5, probably 2007.

Eva Kosmowski is Rumpelteazer, and I think Bethany Moore is Bombalurina and Julie Nelson is Cassandra.

[phroyd]

We lost a Great Journalist today, and there are very few, if any, working today, who could fill her shoes!  We will miss you Cokie, and we wish there were more who could live up to your bar! - Phroyd.

Cokie Roberts, who drew on her upbringing in a powerful political family to fashion a career as a leading Washington journalist for NPR and ABC News, bringing a tough, knowledgeable voice to the rough-and-tumble political arena at a time when few women had national profiles in the news business, died on Tuesday in Washington. She was 75.

ABC News, in a posting on its website Tuesday morning, said the cause was breast cancer.

Ms. Roberts was known to millions for both her reporting and her commentaries, moving easily among radio, television and print to explain the impact of world events and the intricacies of policy debates. And in books like “Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation” (2008) and “Capital Dames: The Civil War and the Women of Washington, 1848-1868” (2015) she highlighted the often overlooked role of women in history, especially political history.

“Cokie Roberts was a trailblazer,” Nancy Pelosi, the speaker of the House, said on Twitter, “who transformed the role of women in the newsroom & our history books as she told the stories of the unsung women who built our nation.”

Ms. Roberts, who joined NPR in the late 1970s and ABC News in 1988, carved out a career that served as an example to later generations of women in journalism.

“I’m proud as hell — proud as hell — to work at a news organization that has ‘Founding Mothers’ whom we all look up to,” Danielle Kurtzleben, an NPR reporter, said on Twitter. “God bless Cokie Roberts.”

In a statement, former President Barack Obama and the former first lady Michelle Obama called Ms. Roberts “a role model to young women at a time when the profession was still dominated by men; a constant over 40 years of a shifting media landscape and changing world, informing voters about the issues of our time and mentoring young journalists every step of the way.”

And President Trump, speaking to reporters on Air Force One en route to California from New Mexico, said of Ms. Roberts: “I never met her. She never treated me nicely. But I would like to wish her family well. She was a professional and I respect professionals. I respect you guys a lot, you people a lot. She was a real professional. Never treated me well, but I certainly respect her as a professional.”

If Ms. Roberts brought keen insight to her work, that was in part because she was a child of politicians, one who first walked the halls of Congress as a girl. Her father was Hale Boggs, a longtime Democratic representative from Louisiana who in the early 1970s was House majority leader. After he died in a plane crash in 1972, his wife and Ms. Roberts’s mother, Lindy Boggs, was elected to fill his seat. She served until 1991 and later became United States ambassador to the Vatican.

Ms. Roberts’s background gave her a deep respect for the government institutions she covered, and she didn’t hold herself or her journalism colleagues blameless for the problems of government. “We are quick to criticize and slow to praise,” she said in a commencement address at Boston College in 1994.

“But,” she told the crowd, “it’s also your fault.” Constituents, she said, needed to allow members of Congress to make the tough votes and “let that person live to fight another day.”

In an oral history recorded for the House of Representatives in 2007 and 2008, she expanded on the impact her childhood experiences had in shaping her views about America.

“Because I spent time in the Capitol and particularly in the House of Representatives, I became deeply committed to the American system,” she said. “And as close up and as personally as I saw it and saw all of the flaws, I understood all of the glories of it.”

“Here we are, so different from each other,” she added, “with no common history or religion or ethnicity or even language these days, and what brings us together is the Constitution and the institutions that it created. And the first among those is Congress. The very word means coming together. And the fact that messily and humorously and all of that, it happens — it doesn’t happen all the time, and it doesn’t always happen well, but it happens — is a miracle.”

Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Boggs was born on Dec. 27, 1943, in New Orleans. She said that her brother, Tommy, invented her nickname because he couldn’t say “Corinne.”

She, her brother and her sister, Barbara, were immersed in political life, accompanying their father on campaign trips, attending ceremonial functions and listening to the dinner-table discussions that ensued when other political leaders visited the home.

“Our parents did not have the children go away when the grown-ups came,” Ms. Roberts said. “In retrospect, I’ve sometimes wondered, ‘What did those people think to have all these children around all the time?’ But we were around, and it was great for us.”

Although her father had considerable influence on her, so did her mother, who was active in furthering her father’s career, along with other women she came to know, like Lady Bird Johnson.

“I was very well aware of the influence of these women,” she said, adding, “I very much grew up with a sense, from them, that women could do anything, and that they could sort of do a whole lot of things at the same time.”

It was a theme she teased out in her 1998 book, “We Are Our Mothers’ Daughters.”

“For years my mother kept telling me that it’s nothing new to have women as soldiers, as diplomats, as politicians, as revolutionaries, as explorers, as founders of large institutions, as leaders in business; that the women of my generation did not invent the wheel,” she wrote. “In the past women might not have had the titles, she painstakingly and patiently explained, but they did the jobs that fit those descriptions.”

Ms. Roberts attended Catholic schools in New Orleans and Bethesda, Md., and graduated from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1964 with a degree in political science. In 1966 she married Steven V. Roberts, who was a correspondent then for The New York Times. Journalism was a largely male world at the time, something driven home to her when she went job hunting.

“In 1966 I left an on-air anchor television job in Washington, D.C., to get married,” she told The Times in 1994. “My husband was at The New York Times. For eight months I job-hunted at various New York magazines and television stations, and wherever I went I was asked how many words I could type.”

She eventually became a radio correspondent for CBS before joining NPR in 1978. (Sources give both 1977 and 1978 as her start year at NPR.) With her fellow newswomen Nina Totenberg and Linda Wertheimer, she began to change the journalistic landscape.

“As a troika they have succeeded in revolutionizing political reporting,” The Times wrote in that 1994 article. “Twenty years ago Washington journalism was pretty much a male game, like football and foreign policy. But along came demure Linda, delicately crashing onto the presidential campaign press bus; then entered bulldozer Nina, with major scoops on Douglas Ginsburg and Anita Hill; and in came tart-tongued Cokie with her savvy Congressional reporting. A new kind of female punditry was born.”

Ms. Roberts wrote a syndicated political column with her husband for many years. They lived in Europe for a time in the 1970s, and over the years she covered international stories, but Washington was her main turf. She covered Congress at a time when her mother was an increasingly important member of it, though that proved to be not as big a benefit to her professionally as it might have seemed, Ms Roberts said.

“She would never tell me anything,” she said in the oral history. “She was disgustingly discreet.”

Ms. Boggs died in 2013.

Ms. Roberts continued to provide segments for NPR even after joining ABC. The difference between the two, she said, was partly a matter of airtime.

“My average piece from the Hill for NPR would be four and a half minutes,” she said, “and my average piece for ABC would be a minute 15.”

At NPR, one of her regular segments was “Ask Cokie,” in which she used her vast knowledge of Washington, politics and history to answer listeners’ question on matters major, minor and obscure. One asked whether nuclear weapons could be launched by executive order only, absent Congressional authorization. One wanted to know where the phrase “lame duck session” came from.

In a recent installment pegged to the 100th anniversary of the House vote to approve the 19th Amendment, Steve Inskeep, the host, found himself interrupted by Ms. Roberts when he used the phrase “granting women the right to vote” to introduce the segment.

“No, no, no, no, no granting — no granting,” Ms. Roberts said in her characteristically emphatic style. “We had the right to vote as American citizens. We didn’t have to be granted it by some bunch of guys.”

She is survived by her husband; her two children, Lee and Rebecca Roberts; and six grandchildren.

Ms. Roberts received numerous honors, including sharing in several Emmy Awards. In 2008, the Library of Congress named her as a recipient of one of its “Living Legends” awards.

Ms. Roberts long had a front-row seat to history. In a 2017 interview with Kentucky Educational Television, she recalled a moment when she had to remind herself not to become jaded by that proximity. It was March 2013, and she was waiting in a cold rain for the Vatican smoke signal that would soon announce the selection of Pope Francis.

“Hundreds of thousands of people are pouring into St. Peter’s Square with the rain deluging them,” she said. “And my first reaction was: ‘Who are these people? What are they doing? That is crazy.’ And then I thought, ‘You jerk,’ to myself. ‘You are really not getting it. This is a moment in history that will be maybe the only time in all of these people’s lives that they have this front seat to history, and you’re so privileged you get it all the time.’”

But, she also reflected, big-stage moments give journalists only one part of the larger picture of their times.

“The individual interview with someone who is a mom in a shopping mall,” she said, “can tell you more about what’s going on in the world and how people feel about it than any of those grand things.”

Peter Baker contributed reporting from aboard Air Force One.

Correction: Sept. 17, 2019

An earlier version of a digital summary with this obituary misstated the sequence of Ms. Roberts's career. As the obituary correctly states, she was at NPR before she was at ABC, not after.

Phroyd

[political-fluffle]

“Troika Laundromat scandal has hit Austria's Raiffeisen Bank which saw shares drop 15% on the news - Raiffeisen allegedly received $634 million from Ukio and Danske’s Estonian unit In 2007 Raiffeisen loaned $310 million Canadian to develop Trump Toronto https://t.co/dVYCXVJBFM”

(this is how the Russians have been channeling dirty funds to Trump, by proxy banking)

While the media reported on funding for Trump Toronto business partner Alex Shnaider from VEB - the bulk of funding came from Raiffeisen (RZB) on unusual favorable terms, with the loan extended multiple times and eventually defaulted on by Trump's partner

Shortly before Raiffeisen funded development of Trump Toronto it was involved in RosUkrEnergo deal on behalf of undisclosed beneficiaries - who turned out to be Dmitry Firtash and Ivan Fursin - RosUkrEnergo had been called a front for Semion Mogilevich

(oh look, more Russian mob!)

Last year Raiffeisen was fined 2.7 million euro over lack of money laundering controls, the largest money laundering fine ever in Austria

In 2008 Dmitry Firtash wired $25 million deposit from Raiffeisen for Drake Hotel (aka Bulgari Tower) deal involving Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and former Fred Trump associates Brad Zackson and Arthur Cohen (the deal failed and didn't close)

(Bulgari LOL, because blood diamonds are not enough)

Chart showing Manafort, Gates, Firtash and others involved in the Drake Hotel deal (and overlap of funders and links with Trump Soho deal)

[ainawgsd]

The Vyatka, also known by Viatka, is an endangered horse breed found in the Kirov Oblast (formerly Vyatka region), Perm Krai, and the Udmurt Republic in Russia. The Vyatkas, a part of the North Russian group of ponies, were influenced by the terrain and climate of their native land. However, their conformation was also affected by Estonian horses imported by the Novgorod colonists during the 1300s. Moreover, the Estonian horses imported for working in the mines of the Ural Mountains played a role in the development of the breed.

The average height at the withers of Vyatka mares 13.3 hands, and the average weight 880 pounds. The coat color is typically chestnut, bay or roan, or occasionally Black.

Aside from agility, resilience, and working ability, the Vyatka horses were valued as the best equine for pulling troikas. During peak popularity, the horses were exported to many countries including Poland.

In the early twentieth century, the mechanization of agriculture, industry, and transportation caused a sharp reduction in their numbers. Furthermore, the mating of purebred mares with trotters and heavy draft horses pushed the breed close to extinction. Subsequent efforts of re-establishing the breed proved successful as the population reached 2000 in 1980. However, it declined to 560 in 2003, and it was recognized as an endangered breed by the FAO in 2007.

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