#Conversation Pieces

[z428]

Früher Nachmittag, späte Pause. Gelegentlich fallen Termine in merkwürdige Zeitfenster, und dann merkt man, wie sehr sich ein bestimmter Tagestakt eingeschliffen hat, wie sehr die Konzentration an gewohnten Bruchpunkten abfällt und schließlich verschwindet . Stolpert aus dem Fahrstuhl in den Hof und über das Pflaster, sorgsam, nicht die Schatten zu verlassen, außerhalb derer sich die Stadt hell und heiß anfühlen muss. Braucht eine Weile, bis sich Ziel und Richtung wieder finden. Auszeit im Blick dutzender Tauben, die neue Lücken für sich gefunden haben. Gespräche unkonstruktiven Verlaufs, auch mit sich selbst. Nichts Neues im Betonviertel.

#outerworld #early office hours #late lunch break #where we do what we do #conversation pieces

[artncolor]

Foreigners Everywhere - Indian old couple

Here's the oil painting of 'Foreigners Everywhere - Indian old couple' with their experience abroad.

She would say, “I don’t want to go home; I watch all my favorite shows here without interruption, and my son takes me on long drives on the weekends!” The man would reply, “I feel like punya (good karma) is a visit to heaven on earth; I don’t have any responsibilities here!” Both did agree, though, that caring children are a true blessing for elderly parents. I have portrayed here an Indian…

[isjasz]

[Day 223]

The sunset :D

[betaminshitto]

i have a lot of pent up uno frustration

[noonstate]

i need well meaning cis people to stop attemping to steelman trans healthcare conversations because it basically always ends with them just lying about easily checkable things "no minors are getting irreversible treatments" wrong not true "no minors are having surgery" also false, like instead just say the truth: currently some minors (few, but some) are able to access hrt that will have some irreversible changes on their body, some (even fewer) minors are able to access surgery.

the counter to transphobes screaming "these kids are being irreversibly changed" isn't "no children are accessing this care" it's "puberty is also an irreversible change" and "i think under 18s and even under 16s should be able to make medical decisions actually"

"no minors are accessing this care" means that transphobes can easily point to the examples of minors who are accessing that care, which just make us look like liars. sometimes teenagers and children need to make medical choices on their own. i think a 14 y/o should be able to get an abortion. i think trans kids and teens should be able to have the approriate care, which for some will just be like, picking a new name or haircut, and for some, sure, could be surgery.

[sualne]

he's fiiiiine.

[panrao]

Spoilers, it's dysphoria

[ford-owner]

[athanmis]

ITS ETHO DAY YIPPEE!!!! etho day!!!!! (redstone break)

[wellship]

He just can't stand by and watch...

Bonus:

[edwinstolk]

The Way the Water Flows -  ‘Conversation Pieces’ @ Supergau Festival

This article is published in German @ Supermag - magazine from the Supergau Festival.

In June, I wrote a postcard to all Lungau mayors to exchange views on the future of their municipality. Mayor Manfred Sampl of Sankt Michael im Lungau responded right away enthusiastically. The newspaper ‘meinbezirk’ reports about his attempt to make it harder to sell out to foreign investors and stop the flight of young people from this rural region. We agreed to meet at the town hall.

While most young people leave to study in the city, I wonder how this migration can be reversed. After all, the elements for a good learning environment are present in Sankt Michael im Lungau! Clean air, space & quiet for studying and new sports facilities are under construction. Theresa Santner lives in this market town and took us on a tour. Just imagine if studying in the countryside wins out over the city, perhaps nightlife could also be revived?

Back in my childhood we went a few times on holiday in Austria. As children we played in the summertime with the stones at a waterfall. Depending on the position, size and shape of these stones, the flow of the water changed. The water itself was of course unstoppable. In Lungau I looked at how we arrange the environment and how this affects our movements...

Christina Zitz works for Akzente (an organisation dedicated to youngsters), she gave me the Ultimo magazine, a special on "Youth between crises". In it, you can find an essential article on public space as democratic space. Within this environment, we present ourselves to others. Here we actually show who we are. The article mentions also that young people do not have so much to say about this shared environment.

Social geographer Andreas Koch concludes his article with "Public spaces are not neutral in terms of their possible uses. They offer - like stages - a contingent, but not completely arbitrary framework. On the one hand, this means that they must be open to design, to change. On the other hand, this means that it is not the space itself, but the actors assigning meaning to it, who have to ensure creative conflict management - and this among equals."

What is our role in shaping this space? Can we collaborate to change something (temporarily) and see how this affects our 'movements'? As with the stones and the flow of the water, the active imagination and shaping of our living environment?

It strikes me that young people do get asked for their opinions, for instance with a youth parliament or a summer school, I just cannot find the outcomes anywhere documented.

In "Between wilderness and leisure park", a pamphlet by Werner Bätzing, is explained how after 1989 neoliberalism affects the movement of persons in the mountain region. Shrinkage regions emerge and 'feral' in several ways. Foreign investors see holiday regions as a revenue model. Where there are hotels built, young people from the region cannot live. Metropolitan areas, on the other hand, are becoming increasingly similar and losing their identity.

In Lungau, you are never alone, Magdalena Egger wrote to me. The air is clean and the nights are wonderfully cool in the summer. Life here is connected to nature wrote Anna Aigner. “Club life is supported in Lungau, many friends, acquaintances in the association who help and support each other, also professionally.”

In the studies "Heidi no longer lives here" a project by StadtLandBerg and "Land without a daughter" by Isabel Stumfol, is mentioned that these close-knit communities can also have a downside. There is high social control, which does not suit everyone. Somewhere else, I read that staying means adapting, following traditions and rituals - 'the course of the river'.

With Christina Zitz of Akzente I talked about the relatively high number of people who commit suicide. We agreed that this is a difficult topic surrounded by taboo. How do you find the right help when things get tough? In a newspaper article was written that when someone commits suicide, others follow their example. "In the regions, people don't accept help so quickly. People are almost ashamed if they have mental problems or are depressed." In another article is the emergency number 147 mentioned where you can seek for help.

The mayor of Zederhaus, Thomas Kößler, told me about the rich association life in his nature park municipality. Christina Zitz emphasised that research shows (A3_Fact Sheet_Jugendreport 2020/2021) the need for informal spaces for youngsters, outside the association structure. After all, when your parents are on Facebook, you also prefer to choose another platform to keep in touch with friends.

With Nataliya Oberhummer I spoke about the special work of the Lungauer Women network. This is an independent platform for women's interests. The studies mentioned earlier both write that the rural exodus is feminine. We talked about the patriarchal division of roles between men and women, the importance of opportunity equality and the lack of suitable jobs for highly skilled women. We also discussed the fact that in Lungau are currently 14 male mayors and only 1 female mayor -- Waltraud Grall, whom I met later that week.

When I follow the news in Lungau, I see an article about heavy rainfall and flooding in June. Climate change affects us all. The summer was hot across Europe. In the Netherlands, rivers (which originate in the Alps) reached their lowest water levels. The climate is changing across national borders – the rivers connect us.

In Mauterndorf, young people mentioned the long travel time between their native region and student cities like Linz or Graz. Whereas you drive to Salzburg in an hour and a half by car, from Tamsweg it takes six hours and fifty minutes by train. The planned Tauernbahn was never built. The narrow-gauge railway stops at Club 760 “Verein der Freunde der Murtalbahn in Mauterndorf.” Iris Burtscher writes provocatively in Salzburger Nachrichten "Führt uns die Murtalbahn nach Salzburg?" I talked about this topic with the mayor of Mauterndorf Herbert Eßl.

The good news is that recently a night bus for young people "Nightline Lungau" is presented. Between our appointments, out on the street, we had an energetic encounter with Ursula Mayr from Hotel Post. We showed her the first idea sketches and agreed to keep in touch.

Baker Werner Löcker in Zederhaus passionately told us about working and living in Lungau, it's hard to live on just a few cows he ensured us. Before we left the bakery, he also confides a saying to us: "We pray the Lord give us our daily bread and protect us from black and red!" Then we step outside with bread and delicious cookies.

Dutch architect Floris van Alkemade wrote: "The most powerful engine for change is evoking a desire for change. Imagination is essential here. Not the world determines who we are, but vice versa, with our stories we shape the world." This text inspires me.

The Supergau Festival is an opportunity for me to share these stories by moving 'the stones' (metaphorically), so that it enables us to imagine what happens when we change ‘the way the water flows’. If the one way exodus of young people towards universities concerns you, or the lack of public transportation, or equal rights for women, or informal spaces where youngsters can meet, let this text be an open invitation to get in touch and work together on these aims.

Warm regards, Edwin Stolk

More information about Conversation Pieces:

https://www.edwinstolk.nl/conversation_pieces.html

Contact: info[at]edwinstolk.nl Photographs made by Hristina Tasheva

[morganbritton132]

Follow up to this post (specifically the tags):

One day Corroded Coffin is having band practice in Gareth’s garage when a nice burgundy BMW pulls up and parks in front of his house.

Everybody’s playing abruptly stops in a cacophony of discordant noise when Steve Harrington gets out of the car and walks up the driveway. He winced at them like, “Wow, you sound terrible. Is your mom here?”

Before Gareth can answer, Steve turns on his feet and continues to the kitchen through the garage entrance, “Hey, can you hel-“

The door closes behind Steve, pitching them into silence. Gareth can feel every eye in the room turn to him, and Eddie looks horrified when he asks the inevitable, “Is he really fucking your mom?”

And then, chaos.

[youbutstupid]

Spencer Reid in a blazer save me

Save me Spencer Reid in a blazer

[cwispihae]

You're so easy to dream with 💫✨

[otaku553]

Ok so I have been stewing this crossover au in my brain nonstop for the past few days and. I am nothing if not committed to the bit, so. Volume cover redraws :)

Here are the originals:

If you want to read more about my one piece spy x family crossover, keep reading!

So the idea is simple! Crossover reincarnation au where ASL is reborn in Spy x Family. They’re each born separately and none of them are born with the same names as their previous lives, and with no way of finding each other, they each find their own thing to do in the world.

Sabo, too used to the dangers of being a spy, eventually finds a cause to devote himself to again, in preventing war from engulfing the country he was reborn in. Ace, drawn to fire as he was in his previous life, used arson as a means to rob rich people for sustenance and survival, and is eventually scouted and hired by Garden as a fire specialist and assassin. And Luffy, though born in perhaps the poorest condition, grows up happily and takes whatever part time jobs he wants to do.

The thing about Sabo is that, as much as he seems like a young man of good repute and high standing within society, everyone in WISE knows that he is a massive nuisance. Nobody knew in the beginning how a child less than half the age of most of their veteran agents could have the same skills and knowledge in their profession. Sabo was— and still is— hyper competent, and by the time WISE figured out just how much of a menace to society he was, it was too late.

Ace forgot for the first few years of his new life that he wasn’t made of fire, and consequently, received multiple accidental burns. This did not deter him, however, from growing up to be a very skilled arsonist, well-practiced in every which way to start a dumpster fire or house fire. As a teenage he would use this often to draw attention as he robbed rich people blind. When he was caught, he was given an ultimatum by Garden: join them and receive payment for starting fires and causing problems under contract, or face the government and authorities for his crimes. Begrudgingly, he joined Garden, but eventually comes to appreciate that he can make substantial money in his element.

Luffy is Luffy. No telepathy or experimentation, no fancy schools, no gimmicks or secret identities. But he has still lived an extremely colorful life in this world, full of fascinating and kind individuals who have helped him grow up healthy and relatively happy. He goes where he is free, and he takes whatever part time jobs he wants in order to make the minimum he needs to survive.

Ace and Sabo find each other first, in their late teens, and neither of them realize that the other remembers their previous life, but both refuse to separate. (Sabo thinks Ace doesn’t remember, because Ace didn’t recognize him. Ace never saw Sabo grow up past 10, however, so he doesn’t recognize older Sabo immediately. By the time he does realize who exactly Sabo is, Sabo has backtracked and pretends to know Ace from a dream, or from somewhere else.)

Sabo’s attachment to Ace, predictably, causes problems between Sabo and WISE, but by then, Sabo is indispensable to the organization, and they make an exception for Sabo to be able to remain with Ace, so long as Ace never finds out what Sabo’s actual job is. Ace, on the other hand, hides his job because he doesn’t want his brother, who he has just found and who does not know Ace well enough yet, to know that he makes a living from killing people.

And they find Luffy sometime afterwards, prior to the beginning of the Spy x Family canon. Luffy figures out, not long after moving in with his brothers, both of his brothers’ secret occupations and the fact that both of them remember their past memories. He thinks it is common knowledge, however, and so he never brings it up.

[artilite]

"Do you know something?"