#Bartlett Alley

[demospectator]

“B 7. Store Window in Chinatown, S.F., Cal.” c. 1885. Photograph by Isaiah West Taber (from the Cooper Chow collection at the Chinese Historical Society of America). The “B” designation referred to Taber Photo’s “Boudoir Photos” sold in the 5 x 8 size 

The characters 祥隆 (canto:  “Cheung Lung”), literally “auspicious prosperity” appear in the center pane of the storefront window.  A second sign is visible inside the store, inscribed with the characters “榮生,” which, when read from right to left would be “生榮” (canto: “Saang Wing”).  In the lower left-hand corner of the photo, the vertical signage  for a business located in the basement appears below the lower left corner of the window display area.  The name 有記  (canto: “Yow Gay”) appears, followed by what appear to the characters 包料木工枱瞪 (canto: “bau liu muk gung toy duhng;” lit. “packing woodworking table”), indicating the business of a woodworker or carpenter.  The ghostly figure of a vendor can be seen in the entryway at right, presumably overseeing the small sidewalk display to the left of the store entrance.  His relationship to the operators of the interior store space is not apparent.  The left-center portion of I.W. Taber’s photo of a “Store Window in Chinatown” shows the prominent 押 character on the signage for a pawnshop.  Typical for that era, the two-part signage of the bat hanging upside down and holding a coin is suspended from underneath the overhang of the first story’s balcony.

Pawnshops of Old Chinatown

 When the Chinese pioneers began to settle in America, the appearance of pawnshops and pawnbrokers in cities and Chinatowns throughout the Pacific Coast and the western United States, became inevitable.  Pawnshops, offering loans to borrowers and secured by personal property collateral, had traced their history more than three millennia to ancient China.  

For lower income groups, pawnshops have, in the words of professor Heiko Schrader, “a high outreach, are very often financially viable and have several advantages, compared to other institutions of the micro financial sector. Clients cannot fall into long-term indebtedness, due to the fact that they have to deposit a pawn of at least the same value.  And for the pawnshop this pawn reduces the risk to provide a loan to poor people, and monitoring is not necessary.”

“Street in Chinatown, San Francisco. Completely Burned. No. 2168,” published c. 1906.  Photographer unknown for the Photo. Co. of America, Chicago.  The street is the pre-1906 pawnshop row along the north side of Washington Street at the southern entrance to Ross Alley.  The pawnshop signage for the On Wing (安榮) store at 828 Washington appears in the center of the photo.

The photographic record of old San Francisco Chinatown’s streetscape provides numerous scenes of the southern Chinese pawn shop sign – the 押 character or symbol (canto: “aap”), literally a “mortgage” or pledge.   Additional signage showing a bat holding a coin 蝠鼠吊金錢 (lit. “bat mouse hanging money;” canto: “fūk syú diu gām chin”), signifying fortune and the benefits denoted by the coin, can be discerned.

“The Sign of the Pawn Shop” c. 1896-1906. Photograph by Arnold Genthe (from the Genthe photograph collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division).  A print of a similar image appears in Old Chinatown : a book of pictures by Arnold Genthe with text by Will Irwin (New York : M. Kennerley, 1913, p. 195).  The signage for the pawnbroker, Hang Lee & Co. (亨利押; canto: “Hung Lei aap;” pinyin:  “Heng Li”) or “Pervasive Profit” pawnshop was located at 830 Washington Street near the entrance to Ross Alley, can be seen suspended in the foreground  of the image.  The Hang Lee pawnshop was located at 830 Washington Street, on the northwest corner of Washington Street and Stouts (or Ross) Alley – strategically situated within easy walking distance of gambling establishments and bordellos.

Historian Jack Tchen wrote in reference to Arnold Genthe’s photo “The Sign of the Pawnshop” for the Hang Lee & Co. as follows:  

“Amid the gambling rooms where savings were quickly lost, pawnshops thrived. Pawnshops had very high counters upon which the item to be pawned would be place for inspection by an unseen shop worker, hidden behind the counter for security purposes.  Often a man visiting his favorite prostitute or singsong girl would stop by the shop and pick up a present.  [Arnold] Genthe developed his collection of jades by frequenting these stores. “

The residents of old Chinatown preferred to hold liquid assets in the form of gold or gems because of the relative ease with which they could arrange loans from pawnshops when they needed cash urgently.  The neighborhood’s pawnbrokers located their shops in strategic proximity to houses of gambling and/or prostitution, with particular concentrations of shops on Washington and Jackson Streets.

“Dupont St. Wood Carriers of Chinatown Sf Cal.” c. 1890.  Photograph by A.J. McDonald (from the Marilyn Blaisdell collection).  The wood carriers might have been based on Dupont Street, but the signage in the upper left-hand corner of the frame advertise the location of the Hang Lee & Co. pawnshop or “Pervasive Profit” pawnshop (亨利押; canto: “hung lei aap”), at 830 Washington Street, at the northwest corner of Washington Street and Stouts (or Ross) Alley. Also, the barely discernible signage for the On Wing (安榮) pawnshop slightly down the eastern incline of the street at 828 Washington can be seen in the upper center of the photo.

"Hung Ai[sic] Art Co. doorway, August 24, 1901.”  Photograph by D. H. Wulzen (from the D.H. Wulzen Glass Plate Negative Collection (Sfp 40), San Francisco History Center, San Francisco Public Library).

In contrast to the misfortune which befell his contemporaries, the glass negatives of photographer D.H. Wulzen survived the quake and fire of 1906.  As a result, the San Francisco Public Library provides higher quality images of Wulzen’s work online, such as his 1901 photo of the Hung Hai Art Co. at 832 Washington Street.  Its name (恒泰) and address appear clearly in the center of the photo, as well as a prominent 押 (canto:  “hung tai aap”) character emblazoned on an oversized coin topped by the usual inverted bat icon which holds the coin.

Additional confirmation of the address location on Washington Street may be found by the partially-obscured signage of its adjacent pawnshop, the Hang Lee & Co. (亨利押; canto: “hung lei aap”).  The Hang Lee shop was located below street-level at 830 on the northwest corner of Washington Street and Stouts (or Ross) Alley.

The below-street grade location of the Hang Lee & Co. pawnshop at 830 Washington Street on the northwest corner of the intersection of Washington Street and Ross Alley, c. 1900.  Photograph by Henry H. Dobbin (from the Marilyn Blaisdell collection).  

Detail of the locations of Chinese pawnbrokers’ shops on the north side of Washington Street as depicted on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ special committee map of July 1885 (from the Cooper Chow collection at the Chinese Historical Society of America). The address numbers of 828 (at the northeast corner of the inverse “T”-intersection and 830 (which was located below street level were omitted by the 1885 survey.  

“136. Pawnbroker’s Shop, Chinatown, San Francisco, Cal.” no date. Photographer unknown, stereograph published by The Thomas Mfg. Co., Dayton, Ohio (from the private collection of Wong Yuen-ming).

A single print (from a private collection) of the north side of Washington Street at the entrance to Ross Alley, flanked on the left by the Hung Hai Art Co. at no. 832, Hang Lee & Co. at no. 830, and, to the right of the entrance, the On Wing shop at 828 Washington Street.  The trio of businesses represented a strategic and convenient cluster of pawnshops which San Francisco’s 1885 “vice map” recorded as occupying the north-side frontage of Washington extending west from Dupont Street and across Stouts (a.k.a. Ross) Alley.

The Horn Hong Company’s business calendar-directory of 1892 shows the pawnshops located in the 800-block of Washington Street, flanking the southern entrance to Ross Alley’s gambling establishments..

The 1885 map and the various business directories for Chinatown of the 1890’s show the pawnbrokers (including the Hung Hai company’s predecessor, Fong Chong Fook Kee & Co, which had occupied the 832 Washington premises during the 1880s and early ‘90s), had strategically situated themselves adjacent to, and within easy walking distance of, the gambling establishments and bordellos on Ross Alley.

Three Children outside of the Hung Hai Art Co. pawnshop at 832 Washington Street and Ross Alley.  The signage for the pawnbroker, Hang Lee & Co. (亨利押; canto: “Hung Lei aap;” pinyin:  “Heng Li”) or “Pervasive Profit” pawnshop at 830 Washington Street is visible above the head of the boy in the right half of the frame.  Photograph by Arnold Genthe, c. 1896 – 1906 (from the collection of the Library of Congress).

“Ross Alley Chinatown 1904.”  Photograph by Henry H. Dobbin (from the collection of the California State Library).  At right, the sign for the 巨興  (canto: “Geuih Hing”) or “Great Prosperity” pawnshop can be seen. 

“The Morning Market” c. 1896-1906. Photograph by Arnold Genthe (from the Genthe photograph collection, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division).  

In the center of Arnold Genthe’s “Morning Market” photo of a Jackson Street block dominated by grocery stores, the glass windows of the Kung Wo pawnshop (公和押; pinyin:  “Gunghe;” canto: “Gung Wo aap;” lit. “Honorable Peace Mortgage”) can be seen in the center of the photo at 639 Jackson Street, between the grocers Tuck Wo (德和) at 635 Jackson and Yee Chong (裕昌) at 639 Jackson.  

The Chinese preferred to buy assets like gold or gems because of the relative ease with which they could arrange loans from pawnshops when they needed cash urgently.  To respond to the cash demands by the dominant population of single male workers for the recreational services provided by sex workers and gambling operations, pawnshops proliferated in old Chinatown.

Detail from San Francisco’s 1885 vice map of the location of the predecessor pawnbrokerage to the Kung Wo pawnshop (公和押; pinyin: “Gunghe;” canto: “Gung Wo aap;” lit. “Honorable Peace Mortgage”) which would occupy 639 Jackson Street at the time of Arnold Genthe’s photo of the block, “The Morning Market.”  The pawnshop was located at the top of the T-intersection of Jackson Street and the southern end of Bartlett Alley.  The alley contained the highest concentration of Chinese houses of prostitution as depicted by the “C.P.” coding in the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ special committee map of July 1885 (from the Cooper Chow collection at the Chinese Historical Society of America).

According historian Jack Tchen notes, “[Chinatown’s] pawnbrokers were primarily located on Jackson and Washington Streets, near the concentration of gambling rooms,” and the city’s 1885 “vice map” shows such location, as well as near houses of prostitution.

“Ross Alley, Chinatown” 1886.  Oil painting by Edwin Deakin. The painting depicts a Chinese New Year’s celebration at the southern end of Ross Alley as viewed from Washington Street and the pawnshops flanking the entrance to the alleyway.  

Having operated for more than three decades, Chinatown’s pawnshops were all destroyed during the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.  However, the pawnbrokers reestablished their shops in the rebuilt neighborhood and often on familiar streets.  

This post-1906 photo shows the T.G. Kong Co. pawnshop at the renumbered street address of 852 Washington Street, on the same northwest corner of Washington Street and Ross Alley.  

The reminiscences of longtime Chinatown resident, Lyle Jan, about the new Chinatown’s pawnshops provide insights into how business was conducted during the era between the world wars:

“There were several pawn shops in Chinatown. I remember one in particular. It was located on the corner of Waverly Place next to Washington Street. I remember this particular pawnshop because my mother often visited this shop whenever we were short of cash.

“The pawn broker, or as he was also called, the moneylender, would provide money with interest, on personal property deposited with him as security. The pawnbroker kept the personal property until the borrower paid off his loan. Chinese gold jewelry is a personal property that can be easily pawned. The moneylender knew that if the borrower did not redeem the item, the gold jewelry would be fairly easy to sell to customers who seek a bargain on gold jewelry. The unredeemed gold jewelry is also attractive to goldsmiths who can melt the gold and make new jewelry from it.

“As a bit of added interest, during the 1930s and even up to the 40s, the street windows of pawn shops in Chinatown were boarded up so that passerbys on the street could not see the person inside the shop making a transaction. Inside the shop, the borrower faced an approximate 6 foot high counter with a wrought iron framework on the top. There was an opening in the framework much like the one for a teller in a bank. The borrower would hand the item he wanted to pawn with a raised arm and give it to the moneylender seated behind the opening of the wrought iron framework. The moneylender appraises the item to be pledged as security for the loan, then quotes the loan amount plus interest available to the borrower. If the borrower agrees to the loan terms, the money and a receipt is handed down to the borrower by the money lender. At no time was there a direct face to face contact between the moneylender and the borrower. . . .

“Customer at pawnbroker's shop remains hidden, slips camera through window for the Chinese consider it a disgrace to pawn anything”, 1944.  Photograph by James Wong Howe on assignment for LOOK magazine (from the collection of the Bancroft Library).

“The reason for the boarded street windows and the high counter between the moneylender and borrower was an effort to provide privacy for the borrower during the loan transaction. It was considered a loss of face for anyone to go to a pawnshop to borrow money. This privacy bit was rather comical, in that probably more than half of the Chinatown residents have had to walk into the portals of a pawn shop for cash to tie them over temporarily, especially during the Depression Years in America. I wouldn't be surprised that when a borrower walked out the doors of a pawnshop after receiving a loan, his best friend or relative might be just walking in to pawn his or her personal property.

“There was another purpose for the high counter besides privacy. In case there was an attempted robbery, the height of the high counter would act as a physical obstacle to the robber.”

-- from China 2227 Long, Long Ago: Memoirs of Old San Francisco by Lyle Jan (Infinity Publishing.com, 2005)

The Yick Lung Co. pawnshop operated at 852 Washington Street on the same northwest corner of Washington Street and Ross Alley as had its pre-1906 predecessor pawnbrokers.  The proprietor’s name was Alexander Dea.  Photographer unknown.

The sign of the Foo Wah Cheung hangs over the premises of 852 Washington Street at Ross Alley on June 8, 2022.  Photograph by Doug Chan

“Toymaker Off Ross Alley”  Oil painting by Mian Situ.  This historically-inspired painting by Situ depicts a street artist working under the faded signage of a pawnshop in front of a building façade (blending elements from the Hung Hai Art Co.’s Washington Street store frontage and the Ross Alley streetscape) from pre-1906 Chinatown. Although purporting to depict old Chinatown, the artist’s juxtaposing children with a deteriorating pawnbroker’s sign foreshadows the decline of a business sector which had served the old bachelor society and the concurrent rise of fully-formed families in the community.  

With the dramatic growth of the Chinese population and families in Chinatown, the neighborhood’s once-ubiquitous pawnshops no longer play as prominent a role in the micro-economy of the once-segregated community.  The pawnbrokers have faded from view, their functions assumed in large part by institutional lenders and the jewelry stores.  They remain, however, an integral part of the colorful and historical past of San Francisco Chinatown’s.

“Arrest in Chinatown, San Francisco, Cal.” (c) October 25, 1897 by Thomas A. Edison, Inc., from the collection of the Library of Congress. “This film shows the arrest and conveyance of a Chinese man in Chinatown, watched by a crowd of onlookers. The precise date of this film and the arrest charge are uncertain. It is possible that the arrest was connected with the smuggling of illegal immigrants from China. By mutual agreement between China and the United States, a small quota of merchants and students was allowed to immigrate yearly, but few legal immigrants actually were of these professions, and illegal immigration continued. One of the San Francisco residences for new arrivals was located at 830/832 Washington Street, the general location from which the arrest[ed] party ascends at the start of the film. . ..”  The signs of the pawnshops can be seen in the background.

[wondereads]

WLW Book Recommendations

Happy Pride!

Recommendations are under the cut due to the size of this post. The books listed below are:

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon

Crier’s War by Nina Varela

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett

Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide

Seven Devils by L. R. Lam and Elizabeth May

Malice by Heather Walter

The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (high fantasy)

Yes, this book is a monster, but it is well worth your time. Told from multiple perspectives spanning a huge fantasy world, an ancient evil is waking up, and humans must be prepared. This book does a great job of blending many different cultures into one narrative, and the way it deals with organized religion is better than any other book I've ever read. While this is a fantasy over a romance, the sapphic relationship in this book is top tier. It develops slowly and naturally; it's not big and sweeping like a lot of romance in fantasy, but the smaller things really come through.

Crier's War by Nina Varela (high fantasy)

In a fantasy world, humans are ruled over by automae, artificial beings that were initially created by humans but have now taken over as the 'superior' beings. Ayla's family was killed by the king, and she vows to take revenge by killing his own family, his only daughter, Lady Crier. I find the history of the automae very interesting in this book, and Crier's story in particular has a lot of good reveals. While this is an intense high fantasy, there is a bit of humor in it. Told from both Ayla and Crier's perspectives, I find it incredibly funny that a human girl is scheming how to assassinate a princess while said princess is experiencing her first crush on said human girl.

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri (high fantasy)

This book is set in a world inspired by ancient India, and tells the story of a maidservant and princess. The maidservant has a dark past that involves illegal magic and old societies, and the princess has been imprisoned by her cruel and despotic brother. This book is very much on the slower side, but some people prefer that. Similar to Priory, this book is told from multiple points of view, not just the two main characters. The unrest in the kingdom is slow and creeping but happens steadily and realistically. Also, concerning the romance, I actually quite like that the two main characters, Priya and Malini, don't exactly have a very healthy relationship.

The Winter Duke by Claire Eliza Bartlett (high fantasy)

One of my favorite books, The Winter Duke is about Ekata, one of the many children of the duchy of Kylma Above. All she wants to do is leave this place and her family to pursue her dreams of scholarship, but when her family falls into a permanent sleep the day before her departure, she must step up to rule. As someone who loves political fantasy, this book is right up my alley, and yours too as long as that's something you like. I really like that this book explicitly states that Ekata has zero interest in men romantically and is only interested in women. Her romance with Inkhar definitely brings out the YA aspects of this book. Ekata is forced to grow up so quickly, it's nice to see her have a crush and get flustered over it like any teenage girl.

Ace of Spades by Faridah Abike-Iyimide (mystery thriller)

At a predominately white private school, the only two Black students are targeted by an anonymous texter, Aces. Though they have nothing in common, they team up in order to uncover Aces and protect their secrets. Plot wise, this is by far my favorite thriller I've ever read. It's tense, it'll keep you on the edge of your seat, and it discusses institutionalized racism, especially in academia, masterfully. One of the main characters, Chiamaka, has a great sideplot of coming to terms with her sexuality. However, when it comes between her safety and her romance, I love that she keeps a level head on her shoulders and always chooses the former. (There is also MLM rep in this book with the other POV character.)

Seven Devils by L. R. Lam and Elizabeth May (space opera sci-fi)

An intergalactic empire spreads across the universe, and it's up to a ragtag group of rebels to stop it. Eris was once heir to the entire empire, but she gave that up to be part of the Resistance, and one mission may be the deciding factor in the universe's continued freedom. While Eris is technically the main character, this is fundamentally an ensemble cast with multiple perspectives. This book has quite a bit of LGBTQ+ representation, including a sapphic relationship between two of the POV characters. While not a huge focus of the book, their relationship is sweet and touching.

Malice by Heather Walter (high fantasy)

Malice is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty following Alyce, the Dark Grace, who is reviled but used by all in the kingdom of Briar. Alyce dreams of escaping Briar until she starts to master her powers and meets the Princess Aurora. I will admit that I prefer the plot to the romance in this book for the most part, but the ending really gets me sometimes. Alyce's powers and her people's history are so interesting, and Aurora is a great, understanding, and kind love interest.

Stay tuned for more pride recommendations all throughout this month!

[coquelicoq]

🦊

- for one, i think this fox suits you +

despite (or because) your absolutely wonderful mind that i get to witness through your posts (dico adventures etc), even or especially your nerdy interests are both so fascinating as well as you having so many talents that you are indeed quite intimidating.

in a very nice way. <3

you are the person that - when i ever get caught in a showdown on a street - i will pull by the sleeve of their leather jacket out of the shadow of an alley and next to me. and the other party will sense that they came wholly unprepared. they don't even know the etymology of half the words they are using! how can they compare to you?! not that this fight wasn't going to get physical. but if she radiates that amount of cruciverb competancy and when the taste of artfully crafted excel sheets is palpable in the wind, whose to say that she couldn't also square off in hand to hand combat.

🦊 for fairly intimidating

wow as usual your game is off the charts babe. i never thought that etymological knowledge could be weaponized but i am on board and ready to whip the abridged dictionary out of my back pocket anytime you need a fun language fact to fire off at an adversary (a word which shares a root with the latin word versus, incidentally). whenever someone wants to duel me i tell them to come back with a spreadsheet. an enemy casts Invective and i take seven of the letters and counter with Veni Vidi Vici. if somebody gives me grief i just hit em with my 1415-page bartlett's roget's thesaurus and then while they're seeing stars i read out all the synonyms for "serve one right" in category 420.5. i turn cross words into crosswords. i put the pun into spunk. i put the word into sword. i put the wit into switchblade. who needs projectiles when you have ejective consonants? who needs explosives when you have oral plosives? who needs roundhouse kicks when you have rounded vowels, is what i always say. "don't do the crime if you can't do the rhyme" is another thing i'm always saying. when they ask if i've been sentenced before i say yeah i know all about sentences. watch it pal i'm out on parole (the french word for "word"). don't mess with me, bucko. i'll raid your phoneme inventory. i'll portmanteau your knuckle tats. i've got a pun and i am not afraid to use it.

[galacticrambler]

Ruthless Sky is a great debut sci-fi novel

I love when I find a new science fiction novel that is a great read, and I lucked out again with Ruthless Sky by DK Broadwell. The novel is set in the year 1989 of an alternate history where the space shuttle Challenger had a successful mission. NASA continued to push the USA space program ahead at full speed without the real life 32-month halt following the explosion of the shuttle.

NASA is launching the space shuttle Intrepid; however, complications after the launch, leaves the astronauts staring death in the eye. After a partially failed rescue mission from a combined USA and Soviet Union effort, the book follows our two main characters, Catherine Riley and Hayes Bartlett, as they grow close while choosing to fight and live rather than wallow in the misery of their situation.

The book also briefly explores the political side of the space shuttle program in the waning days of the Cold War. I actually could’ve gone with more of this aspect, as I feel that was an interesting angle that was only touched on.

This is Broadwell’s first novel, and this is right up his alley. His knowledge as a former NASA flight surgeon in the space shuttle program bleeds through every page. Broadwell does a great job explaining technical, space shuttle-specific details in a way that makes them accessible to the layman.

I don’t know what Broadwell has planned for a future novel, but I would love a continuation of this alternate history.

[gregador]

Cambridge Springs, PA

[awardseason]

2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards — Winners

Outstanding Performances in a Motion Picture

Cast “Belfast” “CODA” — WINNER “Don’t Look Up” “House of Gucci” “King Richard”

Male Actor in a Leading Role Javier Bardem, “Being the Ricardos” Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog” Andrew Garfield, “Tick Tick Boom” Will Smith, “King Richard” — WINNER Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

Female Actor in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” — WINNER Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter” Lady Gaga, “House of Gucci” Jennifer Hudson, “Respect” Nicole Kidman, “Being the Ricardos”

Male Actor in a Supporting Role Ben Affleck, “The Tender Bar” Bradley Cooper, “Licorice Pizza” Troy Kotsur, “CODA” — WINNER Jared Leto, “House of Gucci” Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”

Female Actor in a Supporting Role Catriona Balfe, “Belfast” Cate Blanchett, “Nightmare Alley” Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” — WINNER Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog” Ruth Negga, “Passing”

Stunt Ensemble “Black Widow” “Dune” “The Matrix Resurrections” “No Time To Die” — WINNER “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”

Outstanding Performances in Television

Ensemble in a Drama Series “The Handmaid’s Tale” “The Morning Show” “Squid Game” “Succession” — WINNER “Yellowstone”

Male Actor in a Drama Series Brian Cox, “Succession” Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show” Kieran Culkin, “Succession” Lee Jung-jae, “Squid Game” — WINNER Jeremy Strong, “Succession”

Female Actor in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show” Jung Ho-yeon, “Squid Game” — WINNER Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale” Sarah Snook, “Succession” Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”

Ensemble in a Comedy Series “The Great” “Hacks” “The Kominski Method” “Only Murders in the Building” “Ted Lasso” — WINNER

Male Actor in a Comedy Series Michael Douglas, “The Kominski Method” Brett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso” Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building” Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building” Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso” — WINNER

Female Actor in a Comedy Series Elle Fanning, “The Great Sandra Oh, “The Chair” Jean Smart, “Hacks” — WINNER Juno Temple, “Ted Lasso” Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”

Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Murray Bartlett, “The White Lotus” Oscar Isaac, “Scenes from a Marriage” Michael Keaton, “Dopesick” — WINNER Ewan McGregor, “Halston” Evan Peters, “Mare of Easttown”

Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus” Cynthia Erivo, “Genius: Aretha” Margaret Qualley, “Maid” Jean Smart, “Mare of Easttown” Kate Winslet, “Mare of Easttown” — WINNER

Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series “Cobra Kai” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” “Loki” “Mare of Easttown” “Squid Game” — WINNER

Lifetime Achievement Award Helen Mirren

[weclassybouquetfun]

The BAFTA released their longlist of films that will potentially end up on the final ballot. I find the releasing of longlists unnecessary timewasting. Just give us the final ballot because as Brandy sang; "Almost doesn't count." One body that released the pin is SAG-AFTRA who announced their nominees for this year's SAG Awards. The only shocker on this list is that Kristen Stewart who is most awarded female actor this season didn't garner a nomination. Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role Caitriona Balfe (Belfast) Cate Blanchett (Nightmare Alley) Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog) Ruth Negga (Passing)

*Actor/director Rebecca Hall

was drawn to adapt the novel "Passing" because of the parallels of the story with her life as Hall suspected her mother,, opera singer Maria Ewing, was biracial with African American heritage, something her mother danced around and would always say she didn't know definitively.

Making the film and appearing on PBS' "Finding Your Roots" provided Hall with many answers. Her mother told her that by making the film Rebecca gave Ewing and her late father (who also passed for white) "liberation". It's a great thing because Hall's mother passed away yesterday. Dan Stevens (Downton Abbey, I'm Your Man) honoured her. Stevens first break came by way of Ewing's husband, theatre director Peter Hall. Stevens was also classmates with Rebecca and her costar in a play and in film.

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role Ben Affleck (The Tender Bar) Bradley Cooper (Licorice Pizza) Troy Kotsur (CODA) Jared Leto (House of Gucci) Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog) Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) Lady Gaga (House of Gucci) Jennifer Hudson (Respect) Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos) Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!) Will Smith (King Richard) Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Belfast CODA Don’t Look Up House of Gucci King Richard

TELEVISION

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus) Oscar Isaac (Scenes from a Marriage) Michael Keaton (Dopesick) Ewan McGregor (Halston) Evan Peters (Mare of Easttown) Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Jennifer Coolidge (The White Lotus) Cynthia Erivo (Genius: Aretha) Margaret Qualley (Maid) Jean Smart (Mare of Easttown) Kate Winslet (Mare of Easttown) Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series Michael Douglas (The Kominsky Method) Steve Martin (Only Murders in the Building) Martin Short (Only Murders in the Building) Brett Goldstein (Ted Lasso) Jason Sudeikis (Ted Lasso)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series Elle Fanning (The Great) Sandra Oh (The Chair) Jean Smart (Hacks) Juno Temple (Ted Lasso) Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series The Great Hacks The Kominsky Method Only Murders in the Building Ted Lasso Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series Brian Cox (Succession) Billy Crudup (The Morning Show) Kieran Culkin (Succession) Lee Jung-jae (Squid Game) Jeremy Strong (Succession)

*This category needs Supporting because I can't believe Matthew MacFadyen got locked out.

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston (The Morning Show) Jung Ho-yeon (Squid Game) Elisabeth Moss (The Handmaid’s Tale) Sarah Snook (Succession) Reese Witherspoon (The Morning Show) Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series The Handmaid’s Tale The Morning Show Squid Game Succession Yellowstone Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series Cobra Kai The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Loki Mare of Easttown Squid Game Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture Black Widow Dune The Matrix: Resurrections No Time to Die Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

[filmspun]

Oscars: Full List of Nominations - 2022

'The Power of the Dog' leads nominees for the 94th annual Academy Awards with 12 noms. Other top-nominated films were 'Belfast,' 'Dune,' 'King Richard' and 'West Side Story.'

BEST PICTURE Belfast (Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas, Producers) CODA (Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger, Producers) Don’t Look Up (Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, Producers) Drive My Car (Teruhisa Yamamoto, Producer) Dune (Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve and Cale Boyter, Producers) King Richard (Tim White, Trevor White and Will Smith, Producers) Licorice Pizza (Sara Murphy, Adam Somner and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers) Nightmare Alley (Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Bradley Cooper, Producers) The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Roger Frappier, Producers) West Side Story (Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers)

BEST DIRECTOR Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza) Kenneth Branagh (Belfast) Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car) Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)

BEST ACTRESS Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye) Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter) Penélope Cruz (Parallel Mothers) Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos) Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

BEST ACTOR Javier Bardem (Being the Ricardos) Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog) Andrew Garfield (Tick, Tick … Boom!) Will Smith (King Richard) Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of Macbeth)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter) Ariana DeBose (West Side Story) Judi Dench (Belfast) Kirsten Dunst (The Power of the Dog) Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Ciarán Hinds (Belfast) Troy Kotsur (CODA) Jesse Plemons (The Power of the Dog) J.K. Simmons (Being the Ricardos) Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)

BEST COSTUME DESIGN Cruella (Jenny Beavan) Cyrano (Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran) Dune (Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan) Nightmare Alley (Luis Sequeira) West Side Story (Paul Tazewell)

BEST SOUND Belfast (Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri) Dune (Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett) No Time to Die (Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor) The Power of the Dog (Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb) West Side Story (Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Don’t Look Up (Nicholas Britell) Dune (Hans Zimmer) Encanto (Germaine Franco) Parallel Mothers (Alberto Iglesias) The Power of the Dog (Jonny Greenwood)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY CODA (Screenplay by Siân Heder) Drive My Car (Screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe) Dune (Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth) The Lost Daughter (Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal) The Power of the Dog (Written by Jane Campion)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Belfast (Written by Kenneth Branagh) Don’t Look Up (Screenplay by Adam McKay; Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota) King Richard (Written by Zach Baylin) Licorice Pizza (Written by Paul Thomas Anderson) The Worst Person in the World (Written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier)

[andstolenstares]

wlw books released & upcoming in 2020

I was thinking of sorting them by genre, but there wasn’t that much for some. Anyways, something to read or look forward to whenever this lockdown is over.  Enjoy :))               

                                      Released:

 Upright Women Wanted - Sarah Galiey 

When Were Magic - Sarah Galiey

The Midnight Lie - Marie Rutkoski

The Empress of Salt and Fortune - Nghi Vo

 The Unspoken Name - A.K Larkwood 

We Used To Be Friends - Amy Spalding

The Seep - Chana Porter 

A Phoenix First Must Burn - Patrice Caldwell

Jamis Bachman, Ghost Hunter - Jen Jensen

The Love Hypothesis - Laura Stevens

 Nottingham: The True Story of Robyn Hood - Anna Burke 

Witches of Ash and Ruin - E. Latimer 

The Winter Duke - Claire Eliza Bartlett

Belle Révolte - Linsey Miller 

Look - Zan Romanoff

Under the Rainbow - Celia Laskey 

Lady Hotspur - Tessa Grattion

Ink in the Blood - Kim Smejkal

 Blood Countess -  Lana Popovic

We Were Promised Spotlights -  Lindsay Sproul

Music from Another World - Robin Talley

The Animals at Lockwood Manor - Jane Healey 

Brooklyn Summer - Maggie Cummings 

No Parking - Valentine Wheeler 

                                          Upcoming:  

 The Falling In Love Montage - Ciara Smyth

Girl, Serpent, Thron -  Melissa Bashardoust

Cinderella Is Dead - Kalynn Bayron 

The Mermaid, The Witch, and The Sea - Maggie Tokuda- Hall

The Henna War - Adiba Jaigirdar

Something to Talk About - Meryl Wisner 

I Kissed Alice - Anna Birch 

The Secret of You and Me - Melissa Lenhardt 

Queen of Coins and Whispers - Helen Corcoran

The Storyteller -  Jea Hawkins

Burn Our Bodies Down - Rory Power

The Scapegracers - Hannah Abigail Clarke

Ghost Wood Song - Erica Waters 

The Space Between Worlds - Micaiah Johnson

All My Mother’s Lovers - llana Masad 

Late to the Party - Kelly Quindlen 

You Should See Me in a Crown -  Leah Johnson 

They Never Learn - Layne Fargo 

Waiting For You - Elle Spencer 

Beyond the Ruby Veil - Mara Fitzgerald 

Super Adjacent - Crystal Cestari 

The Circus Rose - Betsy Cornwell 

The Lady Upstairs - Hailey Sutton 

The Ballad of Ami Miles - Kristy Dallas Alley 

 The Dark Tide - Alicia Jasinska

Dangerous Remedy- Kat Dunn

The Art of Saving the World Book - Corinne Duyvis

A Curse of Roses - Diana Pinguicha

Afterlove - Tanya Byrne

Kiss Me Every Day - Dena Blake

The Summer of Impossibilities - Rachael Allen 

Ruinsong - Julia Ember 

I Think I Love You - Auriane Desombre

The Road Home - Erin Zak 

Islands of Mercy - Rose Tremain

Lobizona (Wolves of No World) Romina Garber

I’m sure there’s a lot more so feel free to leave some recs of your own below! :)

[bookaddict24-7]

New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (December 1st, 2020)

___

Note: Since so many release dates have been changed for various Young Adult novels, keep in mind that there might be some titles missing in this post.

Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know! ___

New Standalones/First in a Series:

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley

Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma

The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett

What She Found in the Woods by Josephine Angelini

A Curse of Roses by Diana Pinguisha

The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley

The Bitterwine Oath by Hannah West

Admission by Julie Buxbaum

New Year’s Kiss by Lee Matthews

It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne 

Finding My Voice by Marie G. Lee & Marie Myung-Ok Lee

The Beast of Bellevue by Grace Chen

Lies the Guardians Tell by Herman Steuernagel

The Dubious Gift of Dragon Blood by J. Marshall Freeman

Fall Into Me by Mila Gray

New Sequels: 

A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes #4) by Sabaa Tahir

The Frozen Prince (The Beast Charmer #2) by Maxym M. Martineau

King of the Rising (Islands of Blood and Storm #2) by Kacen Callender

Day One (Day Zero Duology #2) by Kelly deVos

___

Happy reading!

[demospectator]

“Bartlett Alley, Chinese Quarters, S.F.  3751” c. 1870.  Stereograph by Carleton Watkins (from the New York Public Library Digital Collection).

A Troubled Way:  Old Chinatown’s Bartlett Alley

Certain streets and alleys of America’s major Chinatowns occupy a long and troubled place in the history, and minds, of Chinese America.  The mere mention of the names can trigger expressions of shame when recounting the sordid and sanguinary misdeeds of the ghetto economy and its underworld.  

Nineteenth century newspapers regularly reported about the murder and mayhem committed in the small streets of the community by criminals and organized criminal interests over control of gambling, prostitution, opium dens and labor racketeering.  The stories would infect Americans’ attitudes and opinions about Chinese Americans for decades, and the stereotypes that emerged from Chinatown’s criminal history continue to burden the community with adverse publicity even in this century.

Having come of age when the legitimacy of the Chinese America a half-century after the Exclusion Act, the writings of Thomas Chinn of the Chinese Historical Society of America and his colleagues barely concealed their sense of embarrassment at Chinatown’s criminal history --  choosing instead to focus on the “contributions” of the Chinese to the building of the American West and the political economy of the US.  However, the work of the late Kevin Mullen, a criminal justice historian and retired deputy chief of the San Francisco Police Department, tells a different story that tong violence arising from contests for control of the rackets – as measured by Chinese homicide rates -- continued well after the 1906 earthquake until 1920.

The serious study about the role of organized crime and operations as integral to the segregated, ghetto economy of Chinatowns remains to be written.  However, that is a story for another day, as the focus of this comment is Bartlett Alley or 白話轉街 (canto:  “bak wah chuen gaai”), now known as Beckett Street in modern day San Francisco Chinatown.  

“Chinatown [Bartlett] Alley”  c.1870s, as viewed north from Jackson Street. This wider angle photograph shows Chinese men are seen on west or left side of the street, and Caucasian men occupying the northeastern corner of the intersection.  (Photo by Carleton Watkins from the collection of the Bancroft Library).

“Highly colored accounts of the Chinese highbinders are to be found in nearly every library,” wrote Thomas Chinn.  “Most have been dramatized beyond their just desserts.”  

This item from the Daily Alta California (Volume 27, Number 9151), from April 23, 1875, represented an example of the type of police blotter reportage generated by the mayhem, homicide and prostitution in Bartlett Alley:

A HEATHEN MISSIONARY

“Last night word was taken to the Police Office that a murder had been committed in Chinatown.  Officer McCaffrey was sent to look it up. When he reached that festering quarter, Bartlett Alley, he found a chattering multitude of the denizens surrounding a dirty den, and on the inside a war of discordant sounds seemed to indicate that murder most foul was still being done. The officer put his boot through the door and got into the midst of the yelping set. There be found that some model moralist of the heathen swarm had undertaken in his virtuous Indignation to break up the den that is conducted by Joss-forsaken females.  This apostle of virtue was received with open arms to a bloody treatment having had his head remodelled after the most approved and barbarous fashion by the aroused inmates, who used their earthenware utensils with great precision as projectiles.  This was about all the damage, and the wounded, steered by the officer, went downward to the prison where Dr. Stivers treated him kindly.”

  “Bartlett Alley, Chinese Quarter, San Francisco” c. 1870.  Photograph by Carleton Watkins from the Marilyn Blaisdell Collection.  The view north on Bartlett Alley from its southerly Jackson St. end. Chinese men can be viewed at right, and Caucasian men on the opposite northeastern corner.  

The prominent photographer, Carleton Watkins, apparently took a second photo at what appears to have been at mid-day on Bartlett alley from his vantage point looking north on Bartlett from the south side of Jackson Street.  Watkins photo, which included the images of white men -- loitering on the northeast corner of the intersection of Bartlett Alley and Jackson – also serves as evidence that Bartlett Alley’s gaming and other entertainment businesses also catered to whites.  A report in the Daily Alta California (Volume 81, Number 113), on October 21, 1889, reported on the seasonal aspect of white patronage and criminality in the alley as follows:

Nine Chinatown Vagrants.

For a long time past a lot of worthless young fellows have been hanging around Chinatown. They play poker and dominoes with the coolies, “roll drunks,” and steal for a living.  In fact there is not a living creature lower than a Chinatown vagrant.  Some of their time they spend on the Barbary Coast. During the summer many are tramps in the country, but now that winter is coming on their numbers in the Chinese quarter are daily increasing. Early yesterday morning Sergeant Harry Hook and posse raided a Chinese poker game in Bartlett alley, near Pacific street, and arrested ten players— nine white vagrants and a Chinaman.  Three Chinese escaped.

“Bartlett Alley, Chinese Quarter, S.F. 3752” c. 1870. Watkins’ New Series stereograph by Carleton Watkins from the collection of the California Society of Pioneers and the Bancroft Library.

In Watkins’ stereograph no. 3752, the group of white men standing outside the saloon at 642 Jackson Street on the northeast corner had grown to perhaps eight onlookers.  In the meantime, the number of curious Chinese men at the opposite northwestern corner had grown to at least five, and they are gathered in front of the storefront at 644 Jackson Street.  

By 1870, white attitudes toward, and segregation of, the Chinese were hardening with the worst years to come.  One Chinese man, walking up and west on Jackson Street is entering the frame from the extreme right, but he would have been unlikely to pause and look at the photographer until after crossing to the presumably safer opposite corner.

Although Watkins’ photo perhaps subconsciously captured the degrees of separation between Chinese and white men of the early 1870’s on the street, the separation did not extend to the entire building at 642 Jackson Street on the northeastern corner.  The view of the second floor balcony shows a very common design of Chinese lantern.  

A close-up of the restaurant signage on the second balcony of the building seen in the photo “Bartlett Alley, Chinese Quarter, San Francisco” c. 1870  by Carleton Watkins (from the Marilyn Blaisdell Collection).

A closer inspection of the building in Watkins’ photo reveals a large sign appears over the large circular window in the center of the façade at the balcony level.  The Chinese characters appear to read from right to left as a restaurant name (in the modern left-right order:  會芳樓 canto: ”Wui Fong Lauh”).  According to its listing in the 1878 Wells Fargo Chinese business directory, the full name of the eating establishment as listed was 會芳號茶居牛奶館則 (canto: “Wui Fong houh cha geui ngau nai gwun”).

The listing for “Wauy Fong Restaurant from the 1878 Wells Fargo Bank Chinese business directory. The Chinese characters, 會芳號, indicate that the restaurant served Wauy Fong-branded tea and milk beverages. 

Unfortunately, the business directories of the time provide negligible insights about the other occupants of of 642 Jackson Street (on the northeast corner of Bartlett Alley and Jackson Street as seen in Watkins’ stereograph).  

The OpenSFhistory.org website speculates that the above stereograph depicts “Grant Avenue near Sacramento” c. 1870.  A closer viewing, however, indicates that the center of each frame shows the same corner building captured in Watkins’ photos from directly across the street.  This photo appears to have been taken from a point west of Bartlett Alley’s T intersection with Jackson Street and looking east down Jackson Street’s modest incline.  The architectural features of the building are substantially the same shown in Watkins’ photos with the ground floor saloon and upstairs Chinese restaurant (with its distinctive circular window) were located. The figure of a white man standing in the shade of the awning and back away from the curbside lamp post could be the same hat and suit-clad individual shown leaning against the lamp post in the Watkins photos.

The 1871 Langley directory shows a “Delos Woodruff, special policeman” living at 642 Jackson Street. As an early adopter of early photograph technology for law enforcement purposes, Woodruff remains an interesting figure in the history of old Chinatown and a sort of pioneer of the police surveillance state.  

Although Woodruff may have served as an officer for the San Francisco Police Department (”SFPD”), the directory’s listing him as a “special policeman” indicates that he worked in the early 1870’s as a city-authorized “rent-a-cop.”  As historians of the SFPD will attest, the “patrol specials” have augmented the SFPD’s ranks of full-duty sworn officers since the city’s beginnings when the city charter provided merchants with the option of paying for private security services within designated areas.  Woodruff’s apparently aggressive pursuit of criminal suspects in Chinatown gained him notoriety to such an extent that his resignation as a special in 1874 was reported in the Daily Alta California (of December 7, 1874) under the headline “Resignation of Local Officer Woodruff.”  "His specialty,” the paper noted, “was looking after Chinese thieves, in which he was most successful, and indeed he was looked upon as the head and front of the Chinese specials whenever any important duty was to be performed in that branch of the police service.“

Even after his resignation, the Bishop directory of 1875 (pg. 1074) listed Woodruff as a “special policeman” still residing in Chinatown at the International Hotel which was located at 824-826 Kearny Street. However, he didn’t reside there for long, as subsequent directories omit any reference to Woodruff.

Woodruff left behind for future historians a leather-bound album containing identification photographs of Chinese men and women (some identified by name) in San Francisco from 1872 onwards.  The album, which includes some inscriptions in pencil indicating names, crimes, and sentences, has reposed in the collection of the California Historical Society (“CHS”) since 1949.

The building at 642 Jackson Street on the northeast corner with Bartlett Alley, c. 1870.  Photographer unknown. Is the ever-present white guard on the corner patrol special officer Delos Woodruff?  

Ekalan Hou wrote about Woodruff for a photographic exhibition by CHS in 2022 as follows:  

“Delos Woodruff (1834-1893), a police officer whose specialty according to the San Francisco Alta was catching Chinese thieves, kept a “mug-book” of those who he apprehended. Each leaf in his album is lined with three photographs, inscribed with the criminal’s name (if known) and the sentence they’d received— sometimes in years and sometimes with a single word: “dead.” Woodruff activated what US critic Allan Sekula calls photography’s “repressive” logic:  the camera was literally used to capture and arrest Chinese subjects. But some Chinese people eluded Woodruff; for instance, Ah Ping appears three times in the album in various guises and never with a prison sentence indicated. His portraits are also pasted on the endsheets with a nickname vexedly penned—“The Cat”—a euphemism for his stealth in evading Woodruff’s surveillance.”

As a veteran of the Chinatown beat, Woodruff is often credited as the originator of the term “highbinder” in reference to the “hatchet men/boys,” “boo how doy” (Toisanese pronunciation), or 斧頭仔 (canto: “fu1 tau3 jai2”) who served as the soldiers or enforcers for the criminal tongs of Chinatown.  As Richard H. Dillon wrote in his book, Hatchet Men, Woodruff was testifying in court when he declared:  “A lot of highbinders came to the place—” whereupon the judge interrupted him with a gesture of his hand. “What do you mean by ‘highbinders?” Woodruff replied, “[w]hy a lot of Chinese hoodlums… .That’s what I call them.” (Dillon 21)

Thus, it would have hardly been surprising that Woodruff may have served as a convenient keeper of the peace for the white-owned grocery and saloon’s patrons while he lived at the northeast corner of Bartlett Alley and Jackson Street. The scant evidence does suggest that the three archival photos of the southern end of Bartlett Alley captured then-officer or patrol special Woodruff standing guard on his beat near the building’s corner entrance and lamp post.

*   *   *

The Bishop directory of 1875 also shows a “Toy Hung Lou” boarding house and a barber, “Sen Kee,” occupying space at 642 Jackson St.  By 1883, the Langley directory listed a “Sun Wah & Co., restaurant” at 642 Jackson which would be consistent with the Chinese ornamentation of the second floor.  However, the name does not match the signage in Watkins’ photo of a dozen years earlier. The 1885 city map itself confirms that the ground floor business premises at 642 Jackson remained under white occupancy over the dozen years since Watkins had taken his photos.

Similarly, a directory search only discloses thus far a “Lun Hing, tailor” listing in the 1875 Bishop directory as occupying the premises at 644 Jackson.  Unfortunately, the name of the purported Chinese barber shop that the 1885 surveyors mapped at 644 Jackson Street remains unknown.

Bartlett Alley, view toward the south and the T intersection with Jackson Street, c. 1880. Photographer unknown

Prostitution represented the major use of the buildings on Bartlett Alley.  Criminal elements often fought over the women who worked in the bordellos, as this article from the Daily Alta California (Volume 36, Number 12327), from January 14, 1884:

ATTEMPTED KIDNAPING

Bartlett Alley, view toward the north and Pacific Street, c. 1880. Photographer unknown (from the collection of the California Historical Society).

Bartlett Alley had already acquired its notorious reputation for criminal activities by the time a Special Committee of the Board of Supervisors began to investigate the “evils of Chinatown” in the spring of 1885.  It shared the same name as then-serving Mayor of San Francisco, Washington Bartlett, and the city map makers also designated the alley as Lozier Street.

Some of the conditions observed on Bartlett Alley by the committee’s investigators in the spring of 1885 were reported in the Daily Alta California (Volume 38, Number 12754), on March 15, 1885, as follows:

INDESCRIBABLE HORRORS

Discovered by the Supervisors' Committee In Chinatown Yesterday.

When the committee’s “vice map” of July 1885 was published, no fewer than 20 “Chinese Prostitution” establishments were identified as operating on the small street and at least two gambling establishments. 

Detail of Bartlett Alley from the Fifth Edition of the Chinatown Map with a special supplement to the San Francisco Daily Report, July 1885 (from the Cooper Chow collection of the Chinese Historical Society of America)

The 1885 map also appeared to have confirmed what Carleton Watkins’ photograph of the view north on Bartlett Alley from its intersection with Jackson Street disclosed – the operation of a white-owned, ground floor business establishment at the northeast corner of the intersection, which the 1885 committee identified as a “White Grocery and Saloon.” 

“Tea Houses” c. 1885.  Photographer unknown (from the collection of The Bancroft Library).  The photo (for which the Bancroft provides scant information) centers on the northeast corner of the intersection of Bartlett Alley and Jackson Street.  The circular window of the  會芳樓 (canto: ”Wui Fong Lauh”) restaurant appears set back from the balcony on the second floor façade.

In spite of the City of San Francisco’s attempt to clean up Chinatown as a public health nuisance in 1885, the police continued to focus on the bordellos in Bartlett Alley as a source for quick and easy arrests, particularly in response to incidents when whites were caught in the crossfire of tong gunfights.  A story from the Daily Alta California (Volume 80, Number 88), on March 29, 1895, typified the racial profiling by the police even as the prostitution operations were tolerated:

LAWLESS CHINESE.

A Lively Time for the Police on Duty In Chinatown.

The warring highbinders are still going about heavily armed, and there is a general quietness in Chinatown which the police think is only a calm which may precede a fierce outbreak.  Several suspicious-looking mongols were arrested yesterday, and those found with firearms or knives were locked up for carrying concealed weapons. The officers on duty in the Chinese quarter are trying to carry out the rigid instructions given by Chief Crowley on Wednesday.  The denizens of the brothels in the dark alleys have become so bold in their operations, as was shown last Sunday morning by the robbery and assault on a white man, that those who do not strictly obey the law are promptly arrested. One of these dens on Bartlett alley, where the wickets and doors were not closed, was raided by the police last night.  Eight greasy-coated men and four Chinese women were arrested as visitors.

It is a peculiar fact that the Chinese hope for the recovery of Daniel Kelleher, who was seriously wounded by one of the bullets fired by assassins at Sue Yum last Monday. Yum is slowly dying in the Receiving Hospital, while Kelleher’s condition is slightly improved.  The highbinders desire Kelleher's recovery for the reason that they fear trouble from white residents in the event of his death.  Detectives Cox and Glennon have, not yet been able to ascertain the identity of the highbinders who engaged in Monday’s shooting affray, but the two who were arrested for carrying concealed weapons are still held in custody to await further developments.

 The northeastern corner of the intersection of Bartlett Alley and Jackson Street, c. 1898.  Photographer unknown.  By 1898 (the approximate year of the above photograph), the corner premises at 642 Jackson Street appears no longer occupied by a white-operated business. The balcony appears substantially similar to the décor first seen in Watkins’ photo of a quarter-century earlier.

Although the Bartlett Alley photographs of Watkins show groups of white and Chinese men standing apart from each, newspaper accounts indicate that the criminals of races were not averse to working with each other for profitable capers.  A story from the San Francisco Call, (Volume 77, Number 42) of January 11, 1895, reported about a white and Chinese burglary team as follows:

STRANGE COMBINATION.

A White Man and a Chinaman Arrested for Burglary.

  Looking south on Bartlett Alley at the Quong Lee cigar company building at 32 Bartlett Alley, c. 1902-1905. Photographer unknown from the collection of the Bancroft Library.

 Although the Quong Lee Co. does not appear at 32 Bartlett Alley in the Langley business directories around the turn of the century, the cigar manufacturer had a listing for the “China 315” phone number in the Chinatown Exchange telephone directories during 1902 through 1905.    The city’s 1885 map recorded the location at no. 32 Bartlett Alley of a “Chinese woodyard.”  The presence in the photo of a wood-laden, horse-drawn wagon in front of building implies that the property may have continued to be used as a woodyard for at least a couple of decades.

 The Quong Lee Co. building photographed from a southerly angle with the address sign of the Sing Kee Co. at 28 Bartlett Alley. Photographer unknown (from the collection of the Bancroft Library).  All three window enframements on the upper floor of no. 32 and 30 Bartlett Alley appear boarded up, and a female head can be seen looking out from an open wire cage window.  

Although the city’s 1885 map only identified one numerical address on the east side of Bartlett Alley (i.e., the wood yard at no. 32), the southerly adjacent location (at no. 30 and 28) were identified as a “Chinese Prostitution” locations.

  During the rest of the 1880’s and 1890’s, news of the murder and mayhem occurring in and around Bartlett Alley’s prostitution and gambling houses – too numerous to summarize here -- occupied space in the city’s papers almost daily.  However, the alley also served as the scene of some of the many rescues of slave girls by the Presbyterian Mission and others as this article in the San Francisco Call (Volume 81, Number 132) from April 11, 1897.

WANTED TO BE RESCUED.

[the article continues]

On the way they called for the assistance of Police Officers Meredith and Duke of the Chinatown squad.  The house and the women were easily found and they accompanied Miss Culbertson and the officers to the Ladies’ Mission at 920 Sacramento street. The other inmates of the Chinese resort, fearing that they, too, were wanted, made their escape by" scampering over the roofs of the adjoining buildings.

As was true for many historians of his time, Thomas Chinn of the Chinese Historical Society of America adhered to the conventional account that “[t]he highbinders’ period of greatest power was in the 1880’s up to shortly after the San Francisco 1906 disaster.  Gradually, the Chinese community itself began to realize its own responsibilities.  Backed by the police and courts, the Chinese worked to again establish peace and order.”

Old Bartlett Alley was destroyed in the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906.  However, newspaper accounts suggest that criminal enterprises reestablished themselves on Chinatown’s rebuilt Bartlett (soon to be renamed Beckett) Alley after 1906 -- as did a police presence.

The northeast corner of Bartlett (soon to be renamed, Beckett) Alley at Jackson Street in San Francisco Chinatown, post-1906.  Photographer unknown for the “Quake News” (from a private collection).  The photo is noteworthy for at least the fact that the white-owned and operated saloon (recorded on the same corner by the city’s “vice” map of July 1885) had reestablished itself on its pre-disaster location.  Historian and retired deputy police chief Kevin Mullen wrote about this photo in his book, Chinatown Squad, as follows:  “Even this far into the 20th century, Chinatown was not the exclusive Chinese enclave it has become today.  A white saloon could thrive in the middle of what is now a completely Chinese area. The individuals of note in this picture [left to right?] are #4 George Duffield who achieved fame of a sort at the 1876 legislative hearings into Chinatown, #5 William Quinn, who would later serve as chief of police, and #7 Daniel O'Brien who had the [Chinatown] squad in the teens, and, when chief, appointed the legendary Jack Manion to head the Squad.

A token reputedly issued by a house of prostitution located at 47-49 Bartlett Alley, c. 1908

“22 Bartlett Alley” 1905. Painting by Charles Albert Rogers (from the collection of the Bancroft Library).

The brothels and cribs in Bartlett Alley finally came to end on Valentine’s Day and February 15, 1917, when San Francisco compelled their closure (along with houses of prostitution on Cooper Lane, Wentworth, the 600 block of Jackson Street, and the 700 block of Commercial Street), as part of the city’s eradication of the core of the Barbary Coast red-light district.  

In spite of the clean-up campaign, the business of love for sale would simply relocate elsewhere in the city.  Twenty years later, the Atherton Report found that more than 130 houses of prostitution were operating illegally in San Francisco. For the new Beckett Street of post-1906 Chinatown, however, a colorful part of its history as Bartlett Alley had finally ended.  

Beckett Alley during a weekday in a Chinatown hard-hit by two years of pandemic.  Photo by Doug Chan.  After the 1906 quake and fire, the new building on the northeast corner of the intersection (at right) was re-numbered to 670 Jackson Street.  The northwest and northeast corners are occupied respectively by the legendarywell-known establishments of Red’s Place and the New Lun Ting Cafe (Pork Chop House) on the corner where a saloon had operated in the decades before and after the 1906 quake and fire.

In the modern era, a saloon has continued to serve as a landmark to the entrance to the alleyway, now named Beckett.  Red’s Place opened its doors sometime during the mid-20th century on the northwest corner of the T-intersection which had long served as small businesses.  The origin of its name remains unclear, although Redfen’s bar had established itself on the northeast corner just after the 1906 quake.  In the waning days of the Chinatown Squad, Red’s served police officers in much the same way as Redfen’s had in the early 20th century.   

According to historian and retired deputy chief Kevin Mullen, “[f]or many years Red's Place served as an unofficial message center for the Chinatown Squad. If a resident of the district wanted to contact an officer and couldn't find one on the street, he would leave a message at Red's and an officer would get in touch with him; a primitive but effective means of communication in the small, tight-knit community. “ Mullen explained the use of Red’s as a message-drop for an early form of what would be called “community policing” as follows:

“Chinese residents of the neighborhood at the time were not inclined to call Central Dispatch on the telephone. So, according to retired Homicide Inspector Jack Cleary, who worked on the Chinatown Squad in the late 1950s, to obtain the services of an officer, they would go to Washington Street and Grant Avenue in the knowledge that a member of the Squad would soon come by. The Squad members made it a point to pass by the corner regularly on their normal patrols. If a Chinese did not have time to wait for an officer on the corner, he could leave a message at Red's Bar at the corner of Jackson Street and Beckett Alley (which served the Squad as an informal message center) and a Squad member would visit him wherever he was. To Twenty-first Century high tech sensibilities the Chinatown practice seems like a primitive vestige of small-town America of an earlier time. That is exactly what it was. The few square blocks of Chinatown was, in fact, a small town within the larger city. And the Chinatown Squad was a multi-service social agency connecting all aspects of the Chinese community to the outside world. Chinatown is now very much a part of the larger world of San Francisco, socially, economically and politically.  If you think about it, however, the way the old Squad worked was not a great deal different from the way its successor, the Gang Task Force, operates in Chinatown to this day.” 

[updated:  2024-5-31]

[jessread-s]

Young Adult Releases of December, 2020!

New Standalones:

The Cousins by Karen M. McManus

Becoming Human by Amy Michelle Carpenter

A Curse of Roses by Diana Pinguicha

The Love Curse of Melody McIntyre by Robin Talley 

Link by Link: An Anthology of Haunted Holidays by Elle Beaumont

The Bitterwine Oath by Hannah West

A Universe of Wishes by Dhonielle Clayton (Editor)

The Good Girls by Claire Eliza Bartlett

Escaping Eleven by Jerri Chisholm

What She Found in the Woods by Josephine Angelini

New Year’s Kiss by Lee Matthews

Coming Up for Air by Nicole Tyndell

Admission by Julie Buxbaum

This is How We Fly by Anna Meriano

The Valley and the Flood by Rebecca Mahoney

The Beast of Bellvue by Grace Chen

The Ballad of Ami Miles by Kristy Dallas Alley

Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy by Melissa de la Cruz

The Dubious Gift of Dragon Blood by J. Marshall Freeman

Finding My Voice by Marie G. Lee

Just Our Luck by Julia Walton

Fall into Me by Mila Gray

It Only Happens in the Movies by Holly Bourne

New Series:

Heiress Apparently (Daughters of the Dynasty, #1) by Diana Ma

The Notorious Virtues (The Notorious Virtues, #1) by Alwyn Hamilton

Lies The Guardians Tell (Lies The Guardians Tell, #1) by Herman Steurnagel

New Books within a Series:

A Sky Beyond the Storm (An Ember in the Ashes, #4) by Sabaa Tahir

Defending the Galaxy (Sentinels of the Galaxy, #3) by Maria V. Snyder

The Frozen Prince (The Beast Charmer, #2) by Maxym M. Martineau

Day One (Day Zero Duology, #2) by Kelly deVos

Oculata (A Forgery of Magic, #2) by Maya Motayne

For Better or Cursed (The Babysitters Coven, #2) by Kate Williams

Black Canary: Breaking Silence (DC Icons, #5) by Alexandra Monir

Warmaidens (Gravemaidens, #2) by Kelly Coon

✰ Which book are you most excited for? ✰

[fictionfromafar]

Unmissable International Crime Fiction Novels from April 2021 onwards

1 April

The Untamable by Guillermo Arriaga

MacLehose Press

A gripping coming of age thriller of vengeance and destiny set between Mexico City's murderous 1960s underworld and the bleak tundras of Canada's most remote province. By the BAFTA-winning screenwriter of Amores Perros.

Yukon, Canada's far north. A young man tracks a wolf through the wilderness. In Mexico City, Juan Guillermo has pledged vengeance.

1 April

Bullet Train by Kotaro Isaka, translated by Sam Marissa

Harvill Secker

Five killers find themselves on a bullet train from Tokyo competing for a suitcase full of money. Who will make it to the last station? A bestseller in Japan, Bullet Train is an original and propulsive thriller which fizzes with an incredible energy as its complex net of double-crosses and twists unwinds to the last station.

15 April

Silenced by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates

Corylus Books

After a turbulent few years, Guðgeir Fransson is back with the Reykjavík police force and is called on to look into the suspicious suicide of a young woman in a cell at the Hólmsheiði prison. On the surface, it looks like a straightforward investigation. As he digs into the dead woman’s past, he unearths links to a man’s disappearance more than twenty years ago.

My review of The Fox:

15 April

We Trade Our Night for Someone Else’s Day by Ivana Bodrožić, translated by Ellen Elias-Bursac

Penguin Random House

Nora is a journalist assigned to do a puff piece on the perpetrator of a crime of passion–a Croatian high school teacher who fell in love with one of her students, a Serb, and is now in prison for having murdered her husband. But Nora herself is the daughter of a man who was murdered years earlier under mysterious circumstances. And she wants, if not to avenge her father, at least to bring to justice whoever committed the crime.

15 April

How To Betray Your Country by James Wolff

Bitter Lemon Press

Following on from the acclaimed debut novel Beside the Syrian Sea, this is the second title in a planned trilogy about loyalty and betrayal in the modern world. An authentic thriller about the thin line between following your conscience and following orders. James Wolff is the pseudonym of a young English novelist who “has been working for the British government for the last ten years”.

22 April

Trap for Cinderella by Sebastien Japrisot

Gallic Books

A beach house at a French resort is gutted by fire. Trapped inside are two women - one rich and the other poor. Only one of them survives, burnt beyond recognition and in a state of total amnesia. Who is she, the heiress or her penniless friend? A killer, or an intended victim?

29 April

Geiger by Gustaf Skordeman

Zaffre

The landline rings as Agneta is waving off her grandchildren. Just one word comes out of the receiver: 'Geiger'. For decades, Agneta has always known that this moment would come, but she is shaken. She knows what it means. Retrieving her weapon from its hiding place, she attaches the silencer and creeps up behind her husband before pressing the barrel to his temple.

29 April

Facets of Death by Michael Stanley

Orenda Books

Detective Kubu, renowned international detective, has faced off with death more times than he can count... But what was the case that established him as a force to be reckoned with? In Facets of Death, a prequel to the acclaimed Detective Kubu series, the fresh-faced cop gets ensnared in an international web of danger—can he get out before disaster strikes?

29 April

The Girl Who Died by Ragnar Jonasson

Michael Joseph

Una knows she is struggling to deal with her father's sudden, tragic suicide. She spends her nights drinking alone in Reykjavik, stricken with thoughts that she might one day follow in his footsteps.

So when she sees an advert seeking a teacher for two girls in the tiny village of Skálar - population of ten - on the storm-battered north coast of the island, she sees it as a chance to escape.

13 May

Seat 7a by Sebastian Fitzek, translated by Jamie Bulloch

Head of Zeus

Psychiatrist Mats Krüger knows that his irrational fear of flying is just that – irrational. He knows that flying is nineteen times safer than driving. He also knows that if something does happen on a plane, the worst place to be is seat 7A. That's why on his first plane journey in 20 years – to be with his only daughter as she gives birth – he's booked seat 7A, so no one else can sit there. If no one is sat there, surely nothing will go wrong.

My review of Passenger 23 :

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/643950323513311232/passenger-23-by-sebastian-fitzek-passenger-23-by

13 May

The Assistant by Kjell Ola Dahl, translated by Don Bartlett

Orenda Books

Oslo, 1938. When a woman turns up at the office of police-turned-private investigator Ludvig Paaske, has accepted a routine case to find evidence of a cheating husband but soon enough his assistant Jack Rivers has been accused of murder. Rivers is no angel, and Paaske must dig deep to find out what’s going on. The secrets he uncovers go all the way back to 1920s Norway when smugglers, pimps and racketeers ruled the Oslo underworld.

20 May

Summertime, All the Cats Are Bored by Philippe Georget, Translated by Steven Rendall

Europa Editions

It’s the middle of a long hot summer on the French Mediterranean shore and the town is full of tourists. Sebag and Molina, two tired cops who are being slowly devoured by dull routine and family worries, deal with the day’s misdemeanors and petty complaints at the Perpignan police headquarters without a trace of enthusiasm. Out of the blue a young Dutch woman is brutally murdered on a beach at Argelès, and another disappears without a trace in the alleys of the city. A serial killer obsessed with Dutch women?

20 May

Oxygen by Sacha Naspini, Translated by Clarissa Botsford

Europa Editions

Laura disappeared into thin air in 1999, at eight years old. She was found in a metal container, fourteen years later.

Luca is having dinner with his father dinner when they are interrupted by a visit from the carabinieri, who take his father away. Luca can only watch the scene unfold, helpless. The charges brought against esteemed anthropologist Carlo Maria Balestri are extremely grave: multiple counts of abduction, torture, murder, and concealing his victims’ bodies.

27 May

The Waiter by Ajay Chowdhury

Harvill Secker

Disgraced detective Kamil Rahman moves from Kolkata to London to start afresh as a waiter in an Indian restaurant. But the day he caters a birthday party for his boss's friend on Millionaire's Row, his simple new life becomes rather complicated. The event is a success, the food is delicious, but later that evening the host, Rakesh, is found dead in his swimming pool.

27 May

The Fortune Men by Nadifa Mohamed

Viking

Mahmood Mattan is a fixture in Cardiff's Tiger Bay, 1952, which bustles with Somali and West Indian sailors, Maltese businessmen and Jewish families. He is a father, chancer, some-time petty thief. He is many things, in fact, but he is not a murderer.

So when a shopkeeper is brutally killed and all eyes fall on him, Mahmood isn't too worried. It is true that he has been getting into trouble more often since his Welsh wife Laura left him. But Mahmood is secure in his innocence in a country where, he thinks, justice is served.

10 June

In the Shadow of the Fire by Herve Le Corre, translated by Tina Kover

Europa Editions

The Paris Commune’s “bloody week” sees the climax of the savagery of the clashes between the Communards and the French Armed Forces loyal to Versailles. Amid the shrapnel and the chaos, while the entire west side of Paris is a field of ruins, a photographer fascinated by the suffering of young women takes “suggestive” photos to sell to a particular clientele. Young women begin disappearing, and when Caroline, a seamstress who volunteers at a first aid station, is counted among the missing, her fiancé Nicolas, a member of the Commune’s National Guard, and Communal security officer Antoine, sets off independently in search of her.

10 June

The All Human Wisdom by Pierre Lemaitre

MacLehose Press

In 1927, the great and the good of Paris gather at the funeral of the wealthy banker, Marcel Péricourt. His daughter, Madeleine, is poised to take over his financial empire (although, unfortunately, she knows next to nothing about banking). More unfortunately still, when Madeleine's seven-year-old son, Paul, tumbles from a second floor window of the Péricourt mansion on the day of his grandfather's funeral, and suffers life-changing injuries, his fall sets off a chain of events that will reduce Madeleine to destitution and ruin in a matter of months.

15 June

The Transparency Of Time, Leonardo Padura, translated by Anna Kushner,

Bitter Lemon Press

Mario Conde is facing down his sixtieth birthday. What does he have to show for his decades on the planet? A failing body, a slower mind, and a decrepit country, in which both the ideals and failures of the Cuban Revolution are being swept away in favor of a new and newly cosmopolitan worship of money. Rescue comes in the form of a new case: an old Marxist turned flamboyant practitioner of Santería appears on the scene to engage Conde to track down a stolen statue of the Virgen de Regla—a black Madonna. This sets Conde on a quest that spans twenty-first century Havana as well as the distant past to uncover the true provenance of the statue.

My review of Havana Fever:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/631759758177746944/havana-fever-written-by-leonardo-padura

24 June

The Wrong Goodbye by Toshihiko Yahagi, translated by Alfred Birnbaum

MacLehose Press

In a nod to Raymond Chandler, The Wrong Goodbye pits homicide detective Eiji Futamura against a shady Chinese business empire and U.S. military intelligence in the docklands of recession hit Japan. After the frozen corpse of immigrant barman Tran Binh Long washes up in midsummer near Yokosuka U.S. Navy Base, Futamura meets a strange customer from Tran’s bar. Vietnam vet pilot Billy Lou Bonney talks Futamura into hauling three suitcases of “goods” to Yokota US Air Base late at night and flies off leaving a dead woman behind. My review:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/641412317374988288/the-wrong-goodbye

24 June

Sleepless by Romy Haussmann, translated by Jamie Bulloch

Quercus

It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven - free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss - kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can't seem to be able to refuse.

29 June

Black Ice by Carin Gerhardsen

Scarlet

January in Gotland. The days are short, the air is cold, and all the roads are covered in snow. On a deserted, icy backroad, these wintery conditions will soon bring together a group of strangers with a force devastating enough to change their lives forever when, in the midst of a brief period, a deadly accident and two separate crimes leave victims in their wake.

1st July

The Darkness Knows by Arnaldur Indridason

Harvill Secker

A woman approaches Konrad with new information and progress can finally be made. But as Konrad starts to look back at the case and secrets of the past, he is forced to come face to face with his own dark side. In What the Darkness Knows, the master of Icelandic crime writing reunites readers with Konrad, the unforgettable retired detective from The Shadow District.

1 July

Resilience by Bogdan Hrib, translated by Marina Sofia

Corylus Books

Stelian Munteanu has had enough of being an international man of mystery: all he wants to do is make the long-distance relationship with his wife Sofia work. But when the notorious Romanian businessman Pavel Coman asks him to investigate the death of his daughter in the north of England, he reluctantly gets involved once more in what proves to be a tangled web of shady business dealings and political conspiracies. Moving rapidly between London, Newcastle, Bucharest and Iasi, this novel shows just how easy it is to fall prey to fake news and social media manipulation.

8 July

The Therapist by Helene Flood, translated by Alison McCulloch

MacLehose Press

A voicemail from her husband tells Sara he's arrived at the holiday cabin. Then a call from his friend confirms he never did. She tries to carry on as normal, teasing out her clients' deepest fears, but as the hours stretch out, her own begin to surface. And when the police finally take an interest, they want to know why Sara deleted that voicemail.

13 July

Elena Knows by Claudia Piñeiro translated by Frances Riddle

Charco Press

After Rita is found dead in a church she used to attend, the official investigation into the incident is quickly closed. Her sickly mother is the only person still determined to find the culprit. Chronicling a difficult journey across the suburbs of the city, an old debt and a revealing conversation, Elena Knows unravels the secrets of its characters and the hidden facets of authoritarianism and hypocrisy in our society.

My review of Betty Boo:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/633225446612484096/

15 July

The Basel Killings

Hansjörg Schneider

Bitter Lemon Press

It the end of October, the city of Basel is grey and wet. It could be December. It is just after midnight when Police Inspector Peter Hunkeler, on his way home and slightly worse for wear, spots old man Hardy sitting on a bench under a street light. He wants to smoke a cigarette with him, but the usually very loquacious Hardy is silent—his throat a gaping wound. Turns out he was first strangled, then his left earlobe slit, his diamond stud stolen. The media and the police come quickly to the same conclusion: Hardy’s murder was the work of a gang of Albanian drug smugglers. But for Hunkeler that seems too obvious.

20 July

The Double Mother by Michel Bussi, translated by Sam Taylor

W&N

Already shown as a serial on Channel4’s Walter Presents (as The Other Mother), four-year-old Malone Moulin is haunted by nightmares of being handed over to a complete stranger and begins claiming his mother is not his real mother. His teachers at school say that it is all in his imagination as his mother has a birth certificate, photos of him as a child and even the pediatrician confirms Malone is her son. The school psychologist, Vasily, believes otherwise as the child vividly describes an exchange between two women.

22 July

Girls Who Lie Eva Bjorg AEgisdottir

Orenda

When single mother Maríanna disappears from her home, leaving an apologetic note on the kitchen table, everyone assumes that she’s taken her own life … until her body is found on the Grábrók lava fields seven months later, clearly the victim of murder. Her neglected fifteen-year-old daughter Hekla has been placed in foster care, but is her perfect new life hiding something sinister?

My Review of A Creak On The Stairs:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/631717704661942273/

22nd July

The Doll Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Hodder & Stoughton

It was meant to be a quiet family fishing trip, a chance for mother and daughter to talk. But it changes the course of their lives forever. They catch nothing except a broken doll that gets tangled in the net. After years in the ocean, the doll a terrifying sight and the mother's first instinct is to throw it back, but she relents when her daughter pleads to keep it. This simple act of kindness proves fatal. That evening, the mother posts a picture of the doll on social media. By the morning, she is dead and the doll has disappeared.

5 August

The Soul Breaker by Sebastian Fitzek, translated by Jamie Bulloch

Head Of Zeus

He doesn't kill them, or mutilate them. But he leaves them completely dead inside, paralysed and catatonic. His only trace a note left in their hands. There are three known victims when suddenly the abductions stop. The Soul Breaker has tired of his game, it seems. Meanwhile, a man has been found in the snow outside an exclusive psychiatric clinic. He has no recollection of who he is, or why he is there. Unable to match him to any of the police's missing people, the nurses call him Casper.

12 August

Cold Sun by Anita Sivakumaran

Dialogue Books

Bangalore. Three high-profile women murdered, their bodies draped in identical red saris. When the killer targets the British Foreign Minister's ex-wife, Scotland Yard sends the troubled, brilliant DI Vijay Patel to lend his expertise to the Indian police investigation. Stranger in a strange land, ex-professional cricketer Patel must battle local resentment and his own ignorance of his ancestral country, while trying to save his failing relationship back home.

August date TBC

Skin Deep by Antonia Lassa, translated by Jacky Collins

Corylus Books

The corpse of an elderly millionaire is discovered brutally scarred with acid burns. Her young lover is the chief suspect but the authorities admit they are baffled. It will take the intervention of private detective Albert Larten to explore all the complexities of desire, and ultimately reveal the truth.

19 August

Come Hell Or High Water by Christian Unge

MacLehose Press

The first in a new Swedish crime series featuring Tekla Berg – a fearless doctor with a remarkable photographic memory

With 85% per cent burns to his body and a 115% risk of dying, it’s a miracle the patient is still alive. That he made it this far is thanks to Tekla Berg, an emergency physician whose unorthodox methods and photographic memory are often the difference between life and death.

30 September

Night Hunters by Oliver Bottini

MacLehose Press

The fourth in the Black Forest Investigations - by the four-time winner of the German Crime Fiction Award. Over the course of several days one hot summer, a female student from Freiburg disappears, a father is murdered in a brutal attack, a teenage boy drowns in the Rhine in suspicious circumstances. It soon becomes evident to Chief Inspector Louise Boni and her colleagues at Freiburg's criminal police that the three cases are connected - and that others are now in terrible danger. Including Boni herself.

07 October

Lemon by Kwon Yeo-Sun

House Of Zeus

Focusing on the unsolved murder of teenage girl, this literary crime novel offers insights into gender, class and privilege in Seoul, and marks the English-language debut for award-winning Korean author, Kwon Yeo-sun.

In the summer of 2002, my big sister Hae-on was murdered. She was beautiful, intelligent, and only nineteen years old. Two boys were questioned, but the case was never solved. Her killer still walks free.

12 October

Bread: The Bastards of Pizzofalcone

by Maurizio de Giovanni

Europa Editions

Sometimes it takes facing a formidable adversary to truly know one’s worth. The Bastards of Pizzofalcone may have found just that: when the brutal murder of a baker rattles the city, they are ready to investigate. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do to prove themselves to their community. But this time the police are divided: for the special anti-mob branch, the local mafia is doubtlessly responsible for the crime, but the Bastards are not so sure and think there may be another reason for the murder of the renowned artisan, whose traditionally baked bread attracted customers from far and wide. A rivalry between the policeman and the magistrate is formed, one that, in the end, will extend to more than just their work lives.

12 October

The Corpse Flower by Anne Mette Hancock

Crooked Lane Books

It's early September in Copenhagen, the rain has been coming down for weeks, and 36-year-old journalist Heloise Kaldan is in the middle of a nightmare. One of her sources has been caught lying, and she could lose her job over it. And then she receives the first in a series of cryptic and ominous letters from an alleged killer.

28 October

Inertia by Camilla Grebe

Zaffre

Inertia is an eerie psychological thriller from the award-winning Swedish bestselling author Camilla Grebe. When 18-year old Samuel finds himself at the centre of a drug deal gone wrong, he is forced to go underground to escape the police and an infamous drug lord.

October date TBC

The Commandments by Oskar Gudmundsson

Corylus Books

On a cold winter morning in 1995, Anton, a 19-year-old boy, met a priest outside Glerárkirkja in Akureyri. After that, he was never seen again. Two decades later a priest is found murdered in the church in Grenivík. When the police investigate the case, they finds that a deacon has also been executed inside Akureyri.

28 October

Cold as Hell by Lilja Sigurdardottir

Orenda Books

Icelandic sisters Áróra and Ísafold live in different countries and aren‘t on speaking terms, but when their mother loses contact with Ísafold, Áróra reluctantly returns to Iceland to find her sister. But she soon realizes that her sister isn’t avoiding her … she has disappeared, without trace.

As she confonts Ísafold’s abusive, drug-dealing boyfriend Björn, and begins to probe her sister’s reclusive neighbours – who have their own reasons for staying out of sight – leads Áróra into an ever darker web of intrigue and manipulation.

28 October

The Rabbit Factor by Antti Toumainen

Orenda Books

What makes life perfect? Insurance mathematician Henri Koskinen knows the answer because he calculates everything down to the very last decimal.

And then, for the first time, Henri is faced with the incalculable. After suddenly losing his job, Henri inherits an adventure park from his brother – its peculiar employees and troubling financial problems included. The worst of the financial issues appear to originate from big loans taken from criminal quarters … and some dangerous men are very keen to get their money back.

2 November

Bricklayers

Selva Almada

Charco Press

Oscar Tamai and Elvio Miranda, the patriarchs of two families of brickmakers, have for years nursed a mutual hatred, but their teenage sons, Pájaro and Ángelito, somehow fell in love. Brickmakers begins as Pájaro and Marciano, Ángelito’s older brother, lie dying in the mud at the base of a Ferris wheel. Inhabiting a dreamlike state between life and death, they recall the events that forced them to pay the price of their fathers’ petty feud.

My review of Dead Girls:

https://fictionfromafar.tumblr.com/post/642554449326489600/dead-girls-charco-press

4 November

The Night Will Be Long

Santiago Gamboa

Europa Editions

When a horribly violent confrontation occurs outside of Cauca, Colombia, only a young boy is around to witness it. But no sooner does the violence happen than it disappears, vanished without a trace. Nobody claims to have seen anything. Nobody claims to have heard anything. That is, until an anonymous accusation catalyzes a dangerous investigation into the deep underbelly of the Christian churches present today in Latin America. The Night Will Be Long is a dark, twisting thriller filled with moments of humor and pain--a story that will stick with readers long after they turn the last page.

11 November

The Shadows of Men by Abir Mukherjee

Harvill Secker

When a Hindu theologian is found murdered in his home, the city is on the brink of all-out religious war. Can officers of the Imperial Police Force, Captain Sam Wyndham and Sergeant Surendranath Banerjee track down those responsible in time to stop a bloodbath? Set at a time of heightened political tension, beginning in atmospheric Calcutta and taking the detectives all the way to bustling Bombay, the latest instalment in this 'unmissable' (The Times) series presents Wyndham and Banerjee with an unprecedented challenge.

[tessatechaitea]

Black Canary: New Wings #3

I'm suddenly hungry for cheesecake.

A friend of mine on Twitter has been retweeting #PitMad tweets and I'm losing my mind. If you don't know what Pitch Wars is, it's a thing that takes place on Twitter. Specific days are set aside for up and coming writers to Tweet out short synopsis of their novel idea in the hopes that an agent will love their unique vision and turn them into the next...well, I don't know anybody that ever became a famous writer thanks to Pitch Wars. I'm sure it's happened because there's no way agents could pass up some of these terrific pitches! Especially the ones that begin with two pop culture media hits, implying a wacky mash-up of the two ideas! "PULP FICTION X 101 DALMATIANS! Can Jules convince Vinnie that dog's have personality before he decimates the local Dalmatian population? 'What do I look like, motherfucker? Dead motherfucking dog motherfucking storage?!'" How come the agents are knocking down my door after that pitch?! It seems the majority of pitches my friend has retweeted have been of the "Teenager discovers magic secret about their family!" variety. "Bartlett doesn't find themselves fitting in at school so they go online to discover a magic tumble blog where everybody's wishes come true. But when porn is banned from the site, are the granted wishes even worth bothering with?!" Here's my other young adult novel pitch: "Randall, a syphilitic werewolf, doesn't believe in science. But when an asteroid heading toward Earth threatens to destroy everything, he teams up with eleven year old science fair winner, Bethany Hateswolves, and a box of raccoons to save humanity." I know that was a joke pitch but I kind of want to write it now. I probably shouldn't be tweeting joke pitches with the #PitMad hashtag because how will prospective agents be able to tell the real ones from my totally awesome ones? I wonder what this Black Canary pitch might have looked like? "Black Canary ditches Ollie to fight side-by-side with Vietnamese radio jock Gan Nguyen against white supremacists infiltrating the U.S. government. If that's too on the nose, maybe make the white supremacists werewolves!"

This is some absolutely beautiful and insightful writing. I can't wait to read the letters of butthurt 90s readers!

These panels finally got me to Google Sarah Byam and it turns out she wrote some stories for Elfquest and, at the moment I read that, I thought, "Oh! I felt like the name was familiar." Even though before that moment, I hadn't really thought that the name was that familiar! I think my brain is gaslighting me. She also wrote something called Billi 99 (the tag line for the 4 issue series: "It's 1999... Do You Know Where Your Civil Rights Are?") which I'm almost certainly going to have to dig up, even if Tim Sale was the artist on it. I don't have anything bad to say about Tim Sale! It's just his style (which he has in abundance and which is a good thing to have!) isn't up my back alley. Last issue, I said the guy running the crack house was the Senator's son. That was my mistake. It looks like he's just some renegade dealer whose going to fuck up the Senator's plan to destroy minorities with crack cocaine. Somehow. I'm not sure how. You'd realize I'm too dumb to understand the plot if you'd remember that thing I said earlier about not comprehending what I was reading last issue. I blame all the acid I took in my twenties even though I don't mean that. I can't be mad at you, acid trips in my twenties. You were the best! Also, I think the guy I've been calling Senator Garrenger is actually Senator Garrenger's son. Now it makes sense why he looks like a child in a man's suit! That was probably a clue as were the narration and dialogue use to explain the plot which I'm fairly certain I read but who knows? Maybe I was having a flashback. Black Canary explains the plot to the Seattle Chief of Police which helps my brain go, "Oh! Okay! I'm following this now!" Maybe my complaint that it's hard to follow comic books when there's a full month between each chapter has been wrong this entire time. Because I've just read two issues of a comic book in two days and I'm still confused by the third issue! Has it been my stupid brain all this time? Fucking idiot. You're making me look like a jerk, brain! If only you were as smart as I tell people you are! I want to make clear: my inability to follow the plot is not a fault with the writing. It's totally me and whatever distractions and inherent biases kept me from comprehending the story. Maybe I shouldn't be reading political twitter posts between every page of the comic book. Hell, sometimes I even put the book down for an hour or so while I play a little bit of the super cheap computer role playing game, The Quest, that I bought on GOG. It's so terrible in so many ways but not in any way that makes playing it not enjoyable. Do you understand what I mean?! A lot of superhero books purport to be about how you don't have to have super powers to be a hero. They inspire us and we inspire them. But few have ever done it as well as this scene from Black Canary:

How much has been written about super heroes as gatekeepers? Maybe all the Green Lanterns where Hal Jordan is all, "Fuck you, Guy Gardner! You're my shitty back-up!"

All these reviews on this series aren't my usual style. I feel like I'm edging into actual reviewer territory.

With that ass, she can keep my gate any time!

Ah, I feel much better now! Welcome back to the front, acid-brain-damaged me! I would have only scanned her ass so y'all could get a nice, close-up view of it but then I thought I'd be doing this panel a disservice. Notice how Black Canary's entire body is drawn, exploding outside of the panel lines? It's like this panel is declaring, "Black Canary is more than just her ass! I know! That's quite a claim to make but look! She is also a head and feet, you sexist pigs!" Man, I'm really getting political! Here's another take about the panel above that proves I'm an actual reviewer and not just a dumb online jerk who doesn't mind people thinking he jerks off to comic book pictures: Black Canary's ass looks like it was drawn by Chris Ware. Black Canary hunts down the drug dealer, Drake, whom I thought was the Senator's son while also thinking the Senator's son was the Senator! He almost kills both Black Canary and Gan but his gun runs out of ammunition due to shooting rats in the sewers. That was a scene from earlier that I didn't think was important and now I know why it was important! To show that Drake is a fool who doesn't do the smart gun owner thing: always reload! While Drake is being taken to the police chief by Black Canary, he gets shot in the head by the white supremacist assassin. He escapes but Black Canary and Gan find clues that link the drug operation to a Neo-Nazi camp outside of Seattle. They go to investigate in hopes of finding a link to the Senator. But before Black Canary can find one, she and Gan are caught by the racists! And no Green Arrow in sight (or on site!) to save the day! Black Canary: New Wings #3 Rating: A. For a comic book that I could barely get excited about reading because the covers are so uninspiring, it's really surprised me! Hopefully there will be some letters from a bunch of "I'm not a racist but" racists soon!

Not the exact letter I was looking for but good enough! "Too much talk about things that matter!"

[shmosnet2]

Top 10 Mysterious Monsters Around The World

Top 10 Mysterious Monsters Around The World

From the far off snowy mountains of Tibet to the grey and gloomy lochs of Scotland, many different cultures from around the world have reported seeing strange creatures that science just can’t explain. Although evidence is typically scarce and mostly based on hearsay, many hold on to the hope that some of the following mysterious creatures really do exist. 10. The Ropen Papua New Guinea, renowned for its unexplored forests and undiscovered species of both flora and fauna, is home to this mysterious monster. Stories arose from the Umboi Island of a featherless, giant flying creature with a long tail that ends in a flange and a diamond shaped head. Known to the locals as Indava, the Ropen is believed to be a nocturnal Pterosaur, very similar to a Pterodactyl, that glows against the night sky when it flies. The Ropen has become the flying hobby horse of creationists who seek to find living dinosaurs as proof that the earth is far younger than evolutionary scientists would have you believe. Five expeditions between 1994 and 2004 were conducted by said creationists, resulting in only three sightings – but even those were distant, brief views of what has been dubbed the “ropen light”. According to recent investigators over 90% of the sightings on Umboi Island are of this featureless, bright white light. Jonathan Whitcomb went on to write the book ‘Searching for Ropens’ which suggests that most sightings were of one giant creature which sleeps in the island interior during the day and at night it feeds by the reef. The locals interviewed reported that the bright glow of the Ropen lasts for anywhere up to five or six seconds. Even with all this knowledge, no real hard evidence has ever been found. The locals continue to tell stories of the glowing bird and maybe one day scientists will be seeing the same light. 9. The Bunyip

The Bunyip, or kianpraty, is a large mythical creature from Aboriginal mythology which is said to lurk in swamps, billabongs, creeks, riverbeds and waterholes. The word bunyip is usually translated by Aboriginal Australians today as “devil” or “evil spirit”. Aboriginal stories tell of a creature about 11 paces long and 4 paces in breadth. Most people who witness the monster claim to have been in such dread that they were unable to take note of its characteristics, but those that did told of a dog-like face, a crocodile like head, dark fur, a horse-like tail, flippers and walrus-like tusks or horns. Such a creature has never been recorded by European colonists but there has been multiple sightings of mysterious evidence to support such claims. The first sighting of such evidence was by Hamilton Hume and James Meehan in 1818 when they found some large bones of what looked like a hippopotamus or manatee at Lake Bathurst in New South Wales. After this, reports of more fossils came in of “some quadruped much larger than an ox or buffalo” and in 1847 a display at the Australian Museum, Sydney claimed to exhibit a Bunyip skull. Although no real sightings have been documented, the natives still tell stories of the beast screams which can be heard at night. 8. The Dover Demon

Seventeen year old William Bartlett claimed that while driving on April 21, 1977 he saw a large-eyed creature “with tendril-like fingers” and glowing eyes on top of a broken stone wall on Farm Street in Dover, Massachusetts. This was the start of the Dover Demon. Though it was only sighted by a few people in a short period of time, it is considered one of the most mysterious creatures of modern times. The second sighting came just 2 hours after the first when John Baxter swore that he saw the same creature while walking home from his girlfriend’s house. The 15-year-old boy saw it with its arms wrapped around the trunk of a tree, and his description of the thing matched Bartlett’s exactly. The final sighting was reported the next day by 15-year-old Abby Brabham who said it appeared briefly in the car’s headlights while she and her friend were driving. Again, the description was consistent with that of Bartlett. Each claimed they saw a four foot tall, hairless creature with rough-textured skin, long spindly peach-coloured limbs and large glowing orange eyes upon a large watermelon-shaped head which was nearly as big as its body. Though investigations into this unusual case turned up no hard evidence for the reality of the creature, there was also no evidence of a hoax nor a motive for perpetrating one. So was the Dover Demon just a story these kids made up, or is it still out there waiting for the right moment to strike? 7. Mongolian Death Worm

painting: Pieter Dirkx In August 2009, two New Zealanders carrying a video camera and a sack of explosives set off to a remote southern corner of Mongolia’s Gobi desert in search of a creature that few believe exist. The Mongolian Death Worm is known locally as the Allghoi Khorkhoi, or the “intestine worm,” because it is believed to resemble the internal tract of a cow. The Kiwi duo intend to lure the monster to the surface with tremors set off by detonating their explosives. Once emerged, they planned to capture it on film. Unfortunately the men came up empty handed like many expeditions before them. The worm is subject of a number of claims by Mongolian locals and according to legend it is described as bright red with a wide body that is 2 to 5 feet (0.6 to 1.5 m) long. It lurks beneath the sand of the desert, pouncing on unsuspecting victims with such abilities as spewing acid (which on contact will corrode anything it touches) and being able to kill at a distance with electric discharge. The Mongolians also believe that touching any part of the worm will cause instant death or tremendous pain. It has been told that the worm frequently preyed on camels and laid eggs in its intestines, eventually acquiring the trait of its red-like skin. They say that the worm lives underground, hibernating most of the year except for when it becomes active in June and July. It is reported that this animal is mostly seen on the surface when it rains and the ground is wet. All in all just another reason to stay out of the desert. 6. The Spring-Heeled Jack

During the 19th Century, inhabitants of London became victim to this curious beast. In October 1837 the first sighting of The Spring-Heeled Jack was reported, appearing out of the shadows of night and attacking his victims with dreadful scratches before bounding away with superhuman ability. The first sighting was reported by Mary Stevens when she was walking to work after visiting her parents. A strange figure leapt at her from a dark alley. After immobilising her with a tight grip of his arms, he began to kiss her face while ripping her clothes and touching her flesh with his claws which were, according to her deposition, “cold and clammy as those of a corpse”. In panic, the girl screamed, making the attacker quickly flee from the scene. The commotion brought several residents who immediately launched a search for the aggressor, who could not be found. Polly Adams, a pub worker, was another of three women accosted by Spring-Heeled Jack in September of that year. He allegedly tore her blouse off and scratched at her stomach with iron-like fingernails or claws. Several witnesses claimed to have seen Jack escape the scene of the crime by jumping over a 9 ft (2.7 m) high wall while babbling with a high-pitched, ringing laughter. Through numerous accounts they were able to get a description of the monster which included a man-like hideous face, sharp iron-like claws and glowing eyes all beneath a black cloak. Spring-Heeled Jack is one of the most baffling tales to come out of Victorian England. 5. Giant Anaconda https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo0z3Dyd1J0 The vast, teeming Amazon rain forest can kill you in all sorts of ways, from encounters with ravenous piranhas to suspicious native tribes. But the most lethal terror reported to be lurking in these parts is the giant anaconda; a lightning-quick snake more than 30 ft. (9 m) long which is capable of capsizing and crushing wooden boats floating down the Amazon. Reports of giant anacondas date back as far as the European colonization of South America when sightings of snakes upwards of 50 metres (164 feet) began to circulate amongst colonists. The topic has been a subject of debate among cryptozoologists and zoologists ever since. Scientists believe that such a monstrous version of the anaconda, which in real life rarely grows beyond an already scary 17 ft. (about 5 m), no longer exists. In 2009, the discovery of Titanoboa fossils found in South America revealed that snakes in the past did in fact reach sizes of over 40ft. The Wildlife Conservation Society has, since the early 20th century, offered a large cash reward (currently $50,000) for live delivery of any snake of 9 metres (29.5 ft) or more in length, but the prize has never been claimed – despite numerous sightings of giant anacondas. Regular size snakes are enough to set anyone’s nerves on edge, but something this big is the stuff of nightmares. 4. The El Chupacabra

This impish monster – whose name means “goat sucker” in Spanish – allegedly looks like a giant rodent with palsy. A kind of half-reptile, half-kangaroo mutant. It first drew the world’s attention in 1995 when residents of the Puerto Rican town of Canovanas claimed that chupacabras were behind a spate of attacks that killed more than 150 of their livestock, each drained of its blood. Similar killings were report in Moca a few months later. Sightings have since been reported as far north as Maine and as far south as Chile. They have even been spotted outside the Americas in countries like Russia and The Philippines. The most common description of the chupacabra is that of a reptile-like creature said to have leathery or scaly greenish-grey skin and sharp spines or quills running down its back. It is said to be approximately 3 to 4 feet (1 to 1.2 m) high, and stands and hops in a fashion similar to that of a kangaroo. Some reports have even stated chupacabras were winged like gargoyles and blinked glowing-red eyes in the dark, heightening the sense of supernatural menace surrounding the creatures. 3. The Yeti

illustration: Philippe Semeria This beast is said to be found deep in the Himalayan regions of Nepal and Tibet. The Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, was first reported in 1832 by James Prinsep, one of colonial India’s most venerable scholars. He kept an account of his trip through Nepal where he reportedly saw a tall, hairy, bipedal creature that fled upon being detected. Since then many mountaineers, including Everest conquerors Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, reported footprints far larger than human feet dotting snowy trails. A 1954 expedition commissioned by the British Daily Mail retrieved dark brown hairs from a supposed yeti scalp kept in a secluded Buddhist monastery. It is believed that the Yeti was a part of the pre-Buddhist beliefs of several Himalayan people; the Lepcha people are said to have worshipped a “Glacier Being” as a God of the Hunt. A photographer and member of the Royal Geographical Society, N.A Tombazi wrote that he saw a creature at about 15,000 ft for about a minute, “Unquestionably, the figure in outline was exactly like a human being, walking upright and stopping occasionally to pull at some dwarf rhododendron bushes. It showed up dark against the snow, and as far as I could make out, wore no clothes.” Two hours later Tombazi and his companions descended and reported seeing the creature’s large footprints in the snow. One of the most renowned mysterious monsters, the yeti seems to be a docile creature with no reported attacks. One can only hope it stays this way. 2. Bigfoot

Bigfoot (also known as Sasquatch) is the name given to a cryptid ape or hominid-like creature that is said to inhabit forests in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. Indigenous folklore of the Pacific Northwest told of cannibalistic hairy men and giants who roamed the great forests and mountains of the region, abducting children in the dead of night and sabotaging the salmon-catching nets of local fishermen. In 1951, Eric Shipton photographed what he described as a Bigfoot’s footprint – named so because of its size (24 inches long and 8 inches wide). This generated considerable attention and led to the story of the creature entering popular consciousness. The craze went into overdrive in 1967 when two Californians screened a short documentary of footage that allegedly filmed the Yeti’s cousin and, in 2001, the first still picture was captured using an automatically triggered camera attached to a tree. Many tried to pass the images off as “a bear with a severe case of mange”. In 2008, two men claimed they had uncovered the body of a Sasquatch. Most of major US news networks sought images of the beast’s corpse – only to find that its head was hollow and its feet were made of rubber. Still, a cult following of researchers have dedicated their life to proving that this monster does exist. 1. The Loch Ness Monster Reports of a large, long-necked serpent loping around the waterways of the Scottish highlands date back as far as the 7th century, but modern interest in the monster was sparked by a sighting on 22 July 1933. George Spicer and his wife claimed to have saw “a most extraordinary form of animal” cross the road in front of their car. They described the creature as having a large body about 1.2 metres high and 7.6 metres long. It also had a long narrow neck slightly thicker than an elephant’s trunk and as long as the 3-4 m width of the road. It lurched across the road towards the loch, leaving only a trail of broken undergrowth in its wake. In August 1933, a motorcyclist named Arthur Grant claimed to have nearly hit the creature on the north-eastern shore. Grant claimed that he saw a small head attached to a long neck and that the creature saw him and crossed the road back into the loch. He dismounted and followed it but only saw ripples. Sightings of the monster increased following the building of a road along the loch in early 1933, bringing both workmen and tourists to the formerly isolated area. In the past century, dozens of scientists have conducted sonar scans and plunged inside submersibles into the lake’s depths, sometimes picking up tantalizing, albeit inconclusive, readings of some mysterious, unusually sized object. However, a 2003 study commissioned by the BBC employed satellite tracking and took sonar readings from around 600 different locations in the lake and yielded nothing. Despite all this, the legend of ‘Nessie’ lives on.

https://ift.tt/2ObWAuq . Foreign Articles November 23, 2019 at 06:43PM

[awardseason]

2022 Screen Actors Guild Awards — Nominees

Outstanding Performances in a Motion Picture

Cast “Belfast” “CODA” “Don’t Look Up” “House of Gucci” “King Richard”

Male Actor in a Leading Role Javier Bardem, “Being the Ricardos” Benedict Cumberbatch, “The Power of the Dog” Andrew Garfield, “Tick Tick Boom” Will Smith, “King Richard” Denzel Washington, “The Tragedy of Macbeth”

Female Actor in a Leading Role Jessica Chastain, “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” Olivia Colman, “The Lost Daughter” Lady Gaga, “House of Gucci” Jennifer Hudson, “Respect” Nicole Kidman, “Being the Ricardos”

Male Actor in a Supporting Role Ben Affleck, “The Tender Bar” Bradley Cooper, “Licorice Pizza” Troy Kotsur, “CODA” Jared Leto, “House of Gucci” Kodi Smit-McPhee, “The Power of the Dog”

Female Actor in a Supporting Role Catriona Balfe, “Belfast” Cate Blanchett, “Nightmare Alley” Ariana DeBose, “West Side Story” Kirsten Dunst, “The Power of the Dog” Ruth Negga, “Passing”

Stunt Ensemble “Black Widow” “Dune” “The Matrix Resurrections” “No Time To Die” “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”

Outstanding Performances in Television

Ensemble in a Drama Series “The Handmaid’s Tale” “The Morning Show” “Squid Game” “Succession” “Yellowstone”

Male Actor in a Drama Series Brian Cox, “Succession” Billy Crudup, “The Morning Show” Kieran Culkin, “Succession” Lee Jung-jae, “Squid Game” Jeremy Strong, “Succession”

Female Actor in a Drama Series Jennifer Aniston, “The Morning Show” Jung Ho-yeon, “Squid Game” Elisabeth Moss, “The Handmaid’s Tale” Sarah Snook, “Succession” Reese Witherspoon, “The Morning Show”

Ensemble in a Comedy Series “The Great” “Hacks” “The Kominski Method” “Only Murders in the Building” “Ted Lasso”

Male Actor in a Comedy Series Michael Douglas, “The Kominski Method” Brett Goldstein, “Ted Lasso” Steve Martin, “Only Murders in the Building” Martin Short, “Only Murders in the Building” Jason Sudeikis, “Ted Lasso”

Female Actor in a Comedy Series Elle Fanning, “The Great Sandra Oh, “The Chair” Jean Smart, “Hacks” Juno Temple, “Ted Lasso” Hannah Waddingham, “Ted Lasso”

Male Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Murray Bartlett, “The White Lotus” Oscar Isaac, “Scenes from a Marriage” Michael Keaton, “Dopesick” Ewan McGregor, “Halston” Evan Peters, “Mare of Easttown”

Female Actor in a Television Movie or Limited Series Jennifer Coolidge, “The White Lotus” Cynthia Erivo, “Genius: Aretha” Margaret Qualley, “Maid” Jean Smart, “Mare of Easttown” Kate Winslet, “Mare of Easttown”

Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series “Cobra Kai” “The Falcon and the Winter Soldier” “Loki” “Mare of Easttown” “Squid Game”