#Irish Danceing in Sydney

[siobhantuite]

Exploring the Rich Tapestry of Irish Dance in Sydney

Discover the vibrant culture of Irish dance in Sydney. Dive into its rich heritage and passionate community. Dancers in Sydney have embraced contemporary trends and innovations, blending tradition with innovation. Experience the rhythm today!

[aidalivecommentary]

15 and over Girls Choreography Four Hands are on stage now

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Ian McDonald's "Hopeland"

Tonight (May 30) at 6:30PM, I’m at the NOTTINGHAM Waterstones with my novel Red Team Blues, hosted by Christian Reilly (MMT Podcast).

Tomorrow (May 31) at 6:30PM, I’m at the MANCHESTER Waterstones, hosted by Ian Forrester.

Then it’s London, Edinburgh, and Berlin!

Have you ever read a novel that was so good you almost felt angry at it? I mean, maybe that’s just me, but there is one author who consistently triggers my literary pleasure centers so hard that I get spillover into all my other senses, and that’s Ian McDonald, who has a new novel out: Hopeland:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780765375551/hopeland

Seriously what the fuck is this amazing, uncategorizable, unsummarizable, weird, sprawling, hairball of a novel? How the hell do you research — much less write — a novel this ambitious and wide-ranging? Why did I find myself weeping uncontrollably on a train yesterday as I finished it, literally squeezing my chest over my heart as it broke and sang at the same moment?

Hopeland is a climate novel, and it’s not McDonald’s first. Hearts, Hands and Voices (published in the US as The Broken Land) is a climate novel (that also happens to be about the Irish Troubles). So is his stunning debut, Desolation Road, which I picked up at a mall bookstore in 1988 and lost my mind over:

https://memex.craphound.com/2009/07/02/ian-mcdonalds-brilliant-mars-book-desolation-road-finally-back-in-print/

But those were climate novels written in the early stages of the discussion of the gravity of the anthropocene, and so climate change was more setting than anything else. In Hopeland, the climate is more of a character — not a protagonist, but also not a minor character.

The true stars of Hopeland are members of two ancient, secret societies. There’s Raisa Hopeland, who belongs to a globe-spanning, mystical “family,” that’s one part mutual aid, one part dance music subculture, and one part sorcerer (some Hopelanders are electromancers, making strange, powerful magic with Tesla coils).

We meet Raisa as she is racing across London in a bid to win a rare, open electromancer title. She is on the brink of losing, but then a passerby pitches in to help: Amon Brightborne, part of another mystical family whose stately, odd manor in the English countryside can only be reached by people who can work the “gateway,” which makes the road disappear and reappear. Amon is a composer and DJ who specializes in making music for very small groups of people — preferably just one person — that is so perfect for them that they are transformed by hearing it.

Amon’s intervention in Raisa’s bid for electromancy unites these two formerly disjoint families, entwining their destinies just as the world is forever changing, thanks to the decidedly un-magical buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gasses in our atmosphere. They have a romance, a breakup, a child. They are scattered to opposite ends of the Earth — Iceland and a tiny Polynesian island.

Their lives are electrified. Literally. On her passage to Iceland, Raisa confronts a ship-destroying megastorm, speaks its true name, and sends it away before it can sink the container ship — captained by a Hopelander who gives her free passage — that she is sailing on. In Iceland, she falls in with more Hopelanders, tapping a thermal vent to create a greenhouse cannabis farm, which begets a luxury salad greens business, then an electricity plant that attracts cryptocurrency weirdos like shit draws flies.

Amon, meanwhile, is sinking into drunken ruin on his island paradise, where he becomes a kind of mascot for the locals, who respect his musical prowess. The island is sinking, both figuratively and literally, as its offshore king, hiding in a luxury mansion in Sydney, drains its aquifers for the luxury bottled water market and loots its treasuries to fund his own high lifestyle.

McDonald takes a long time getting to this point. This is a 500 page novel, and the build to this setup takes nearly 300 of them. Every word of that setup is gold. McDonald’s prose often veers into poetry, or at least poesie, and he has this knack for seemingly superfluous vignettes and detours that present as self-indulgences but then snap into place later as critical pieces of a superbly turned narrative. How the fuck does he do it?

How does he do it? How does he deliver a sense of such vastness, a world peopled by vastly different polities and populations, distinctly different without ever being exoticized, each clearly the hero of their own story, whether they live on a tiny island or captain an American battleship?

I mean, cyberpunk — the tradition McDonald most obviously belongs to — was always about a post-American future, but no one ever managed it the way McDonald did. He delivered a superb, complex, Indian future in 2004’s River of Gods:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/06/12/ian-mcdonalds-brilliant-new-novel-river-of-gods-bollywoodpunk/

And then did the same in Brazil with 2007’s Brasyl:

https://memex.craphound.com/2007/04/30/ian-mcdonalds-brasyl-mind-altering-cyberpunk-carioca/

And Turkey in 2011’s Dervish House, a novel of mystical nanofuturism set in an Istanbul that is so vividly drawn that you feel like you can reach through the page and touch it:

https://memex.craphound.com/2010/07/12/ian-mcdonalds-dervish-house-superb-novel-of-the-mystical-nano-future-of-istanbul/

Those were ambitious books, but Hopeland puts them to shame. It draws on so many threads — music and art, climate justice, mysticism, electrical engineering, economics, gender politics — and has such a huge cast of finely drawn characters. By all rights, it should collapse under its own weight. I mean, seriously — who can write multi-page passages describing imaginary music and make it riveting?

McDonald is just so damned good at writing love-letters to places that turn them into characters in their own right. The first third of Hopeland treats London that way, bringing it to gritty life in the manner of Michael de Larrabeiti’s classic Borribles trilogy:

https://memex.craphound.com/2014/01/16/the-borribles-are-back/

Or, for that matter, China Miéville’s debut novel King Rat, itself out in a fancy new Tor Essentials edition with an introduction by Tim Maughan, who absolutely bullseyes the appeal of Miéville’s novel of underground music, mystical societies and urbanism:

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250862501/kingrat

(It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that Miéville is a giant Borribles fan:)

https://www.tor.com/2014/03/13/the-borribles-excerpt-introduction-china-mieville/

I have loved Ian McDonald’s work since I picked up Desolation Road in that mall bookstore when I was 17. One of the absolute highlights of my writing career was writing an introduction for the 2014 reissue of Out On Blue Six, a book that mashes up David Byrne’s solo projects, Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Dick’s Do Androids Dream in a madcap dystopian comedy:

https://memex.craphound.com/2014/01/20/out-on-blue-six-ian-mcdonalds-brilliant-novel-is-back/

I’ve read everything I could find about how he manages these giant, weird, intricately constructed novels, like this fascinating 2010 interview about his research process:

https://web.archive.org/web/20100726181934/http://www.cclapcenter.com/2010/07/an_interview_with_ian_mcdonald.html

But despite it all, I find myself continuously baffled by how manages it, but each book just stabs me. For one thing, he’s such a good remix artist. His three-volume, essential retelling of Heinlein’s The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress starts with Luna: New Moon (2015):

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/09/22/ian-mcdonalds-luna-new-moon-the-moon-is-a-much-much-harsher-mistress/

Which substantially out-Heinleins Heinlein, adding thickness and rigor to the tropes Heinlein tossed in as throwaways. Then, he topped himself with the sequel, Luna: Wolf Moon (2017):

https://memex.craphound.com/2017/03/28/ian-mcdonald-returns-to-the-harshest-mistress-in-luna-wolf-moon/

Before bringing it all in for a screaming landing that tied up the hundreds of threads he pulled on in the course of the previous two volumes with the conclusion, Luna: Moon Rising (2019):

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/05/16/luna-moon-rising-in-which-ian-mcdonald-brings-the-trilogy-to-an-astounding-intricate-exciting-and-satisfying-climax/

In each volume, McDonald proved — over and over — that he understood precisely what Heinlein was trying to do, then outdid him, and, in so doing, shredded Heinlein’s solipsitic, simplistic, seductive argument about a libertarian utopia.

Perhaps this is McDonald’s greatest gift: his ability to rework others’ ideas, tropes and tales, without ever trying to hide his influences, and then vastly outdoing them. That’s certainly what was going on with his wild-ass, deiselpunk YA trilogy, which started with 2011’s Planesrunner:

https://memex.craphound.com/2011/12/06/planesrunner-ian-mcdonalds-ya-debut-is-full-of-action-packed-multidimensional-cool-airships-electropunk-and-quantum-physics/

One important McDonaldism: being deadly serious about his whimsy. The books are all very whimsical, but never frivolous. To get a sense of what I mean here, consider his 1992 graphic novel Kling Klang Klatch, a deadly serious comic book about the Klu Klux Klan, told entirely through adorable teddybears in a noir cityscape, whose dialog is heavily salted with Tom Waits lyrics:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/01/24/ian-mcdonalds-kling-klang-klatch/

No, really. And it’s fantastic.

Back to Hopeland. It’s a climate novel, because what else could you write in this time of polycrisis? The book is vast enough to convey the scale of the crisis. The storms that ravage the world are both personified and realized, a terror to compare to any literary monster or Cthuhoid entity. But it’s called Hopeland for a reason, because it’s a book about hope, not nihilism, a book about confronting the crisis, a book about solidarity and love, about overcoming difference, about challenging the way things “just are.”

That’s why I was crying and holding my heart yesterday on the train. The hope. What a ride.

One of the reasons I was in such a hurry to read this novel now is that I’m appearing on a panel with McDonald this coming Saturday, June 3, at Edinburgh’s Cymera festival, along with Nina Allen, author of the new novel Conquest:

https://www.cymerafestival.co.uk/cymera23-events/2023/4/4/connection-interrupted-with-nina-allan-cory-doctorow-and-ian-mcdonald

I’m so looking forward to it. I’ve written a couple dozen books since I read my first McDonald novel as a teenager, and while I still have no idea how McDonald does it, there’s something of his work in every one of my books.

Catch me on tour with Red Team Blues in Nottingham, Manchester, London, and Berlin!

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/05/30/electromancy/#the-grace

[Image ID: The cover for the Tor Books edition of 'Hopeland.']

[modern-day-classic]

15 questions, 15 Friends

tagged by @hart-kinsella, @damelucyjo & @sophiedevreaux 💖💖

Are you named after anyone? Not specifically but there's a Sarah and Jane in every generation of my dad's fam so I got to be both

When was the last you cried? Erm last night watching Somebody Feed Phil.... I cry over everything it's rare if I go a day without tears

Do you have kids? I have a tonne of neices and nephews, that's enough for now

What sports do you play/have you played? Oh I've played netball, soccer, touch footy, oztag, hockey, AFL, crossfit and then dancing (jazz, tap & irish dancing mainly) .... I am out indefinitely injured tho which is touch

Do you use sarcasm? haha yes

What is the first thing you notice about people? EYES!!! and then arms

What is your eye color? Green

Scary movies or happy endings? Both?

Any talents? I don’t really know...

Where were you born? Sydney

What are your hobbies? Watching tv shows and movies, reading, listening to music, theatre (going to and performing).... I miss my sports, I usually gym, pilates and play netball and oztag but I'm 18 weeks post knee reconstruction to that's been replaced with crazy intensive rehab

Do you have any pets? Not anymore, I sadly lost my cat just over a week ago

How tall are you? I'm 5'11 or 180cm

Favorite subject in the school? Drama.... but also science

Dream job? My dream job is sitting poolside in an exclusive resort drinking cocktails all day

tagging (feel free to skip it): @movrings @reelega @damelucyjo @5chatzi @boobiebaguettebouquet and anyone who see's this and wants to do it

[filmnoirfoundation]

NOIR CITY Returns to Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre Today!

Full schedule, tickets and Passports (All-Access Passes) available at NoirCity.com. Eddie Muller in person!

Saturday Matinée • January 20

DOUBLE FEATURE

UNION STATION

1:30 PM

Cops William Holden and Barry Fitzgerald race to foil a kidnapping plot in Chicago's Union Station. The film packs a double-feature's worth of thrills into its brief running time, including some brutality decades ahead of its time. Ace crime scenarist Sydney Boehm keeps the plot humming like a runaway train and director (and renowned cinematographer) Rudolph Maté makes the ride more vivid through use of actual locations. Costarring Nancy (Sunset Blvd.) Olson and a terrifying Lyle Bettger.

UNITED STATES (1950) Dir. Rudolph Maté. 80 min.

CAIRO STATION/ BAB EL HADID

3:30 PM

A newspaper hawker (played by the director himself) at the eponymous train depot develops a frightening obsession with a sexy lemonade vendor. That's the premise for a suspenseful drama which cunningly uses the bustling station to depict clashing strata of Egyptian society. Chahine's combination of gritty authenticity and psychosexual Expressionism created a landmark of Egyptian cinema—despite public boycotts over its unflinching perversity and politics. Costar Hind Rustum was nicknamed "The Arab Marilyn Monroe." In Arabic with English subtitles

EGYPT (1958) Dir. Youssef Chahine. 77 min.

TICKETS FOR SATURDAY MATINÉE DOUBLE FEATURE

Saturday Evening • January 20

DOUBLE FEATURE

ODD MAN OUT

7:00 PM

This intense manhunt thriller won the inaugural "Best Film" prize from the British Academy of Film Awards, and it remains one of the most highly regarded movies ever made in the United Kingdom. James Mason plays fugitive Irish Nationalist Johnny McQueen, roped into a heist that goes fatally wrong. Can Johnny navigate his way safely through a nocturnal nightmare of danger and deceit? Robert Krasker's cinematography is as good as his legendary work with Reed on The Third Man. An all-time classic!

UNITED KINGDON (1947) Dir. Carol Reed. 116 min.

VICTIMS OF SIN / VICTIMAS DEL PECADO

9:30 PM

NEW 4K RESTORATION  A film that virtually leaps off the screen. The music, the characters, the confrontations, the emotions—all boil over the top in this uniquely Mexican version of noir dubbed rumberas. Sexy Ninón Sevilla dances up a storm in a club featuring some of Latin America's top performers—Pérez Prado, Rita Montaner and Pedro Vargas—all while dodging a vicious pimp, defying her boss, and rescuing an abandoned baby from the trash. As André Breton is reputed to have said, "In Europe we talk about surrealism, in Mexico they live it every day." In Spanish with English subtitles

MEXICO (1951) Dir. Emilio Fernández. 90 min.

TICKETS FOR saturday evening DOUBLE FEATURE

[penthepoet]

"What are these Shin Megami Tensei: The Goetic characters?"

I'm gonna start rambling about my OCs here more, which means I need to make a summary about what these characters are like.

Good thing I made one sentence summaries for a bunch of the currently important NPCs that I can ramble about here!

The campaign takes place in an original setting called Kuroiyakyo - particularly, at a famous international college called Kuroiyakyo Academy for the Immaculately Gifted.

Hopefully this post helps describe a lot of the characters I'll be bringing up in rambling about SMT: The Goetic in the future.

Warning, this post is long.

Azalea: The girl who's death causes all of this. Twin sister of Amelia. Left tapes around the setting that point to a grand plan she orchestrated...

Pixie: Fun-loving party girl who holds grudges. Dating Severin. She seems to hold a grudge against Azalea.

Winston Emmett: Azalea's boyfriend. A brash but well-meaning boy with enormous mommy issues. Seems to struggle with a darker strain of thought inside himself. Obsessed with werewolves.

Amelia: Azalea's twin. A shy girl who dwells in the library. Constantly seen as a metaphorical shadow.

Soul: A mysterious fried rice cook with a lot of connections. After comforting one of the PCs, he's become a witty, indispensable friend - yet is he hiding more than he lets on?

Gaspard: A flamboyant man suspected of killing Azalea. He also appears to have connections to supernatural forces.

Seabrook: A trans girl who just wants to be a hero. She's begun to keep a journal on the goings on at the school.

Weird: The party's mentor, a werewolf-cat-witch who leads an secret society known as the Wine-Darkened, which the players become a part of.

Jurika: A girl caught up in something beyond her control. After the death of one of the PCs, she's become vengeful, and caught up in her anger.

Leah: Azalea's rival-paramour (?) A very bitter, thrill-seeking woman of horrific charm. Though her words are often hurtful, she pushes those around her to do their best.

Severin: Pixie's boyfriend. A sad boy who sees himself as a mistake. Sarneta: A trans man biker with a love of sacred geometry.

Infobroker: The setting's information-gatherer, a former mafia man that lives in the walls. Older brother of Freak. Will give you information on any rumors for the right price.

Freak: A cheerful Irish goober who's dating one of the party members. Brother of Infobroker. Formerly hosted an Occult Club that was dispatched by the Student Council.

Ellis: A headstrong girl who resents her mother Verene and wants to move away. Though she's forced to pursue Dance, her real passion is law.

Obsidian: A quiet boy with a lot of secrets. Ellis' brother.

Sydney: An Aussie girl searching for her missing older sister. Has been keeping a journal that she's been passing back and forth with Seabrook.

Victor Blackwood: The father figure of one of the PCs. An American still-life painter who keeps memories of the past close.

Himari: A rambling, adorkable fisherwoman who serves as a grounding force for one of the PCs.

Verene: A stern, terrifying woman who knows magic. Despite this, she appears to have her own "benevolent" goals at hand…

Victim/[unknown]/"Verse": A OSDD system/plural priest known as the Victim in Triplicate, formed from the trauma of being forced to serve a cult. Despite this, they all forge onward.

Jyoji: A teacher who seems to know a lot more than he lets on. Yes, he's exactly who you think he is, SMT-speaking.

Jimenez: A lazy professor who gets his students into trouble. Yes, he's also exactly who you think he is, SMT-speaking.

Arata: A mysterious, smooth-talking man in a suit who seeks a certain painting in the college archives.

Meli Evans: A bright girl who goes to another college in the area. Dating Ellis.

Daisuke "Touji" Arataka: Uncle to one of the PCs. Was involved with the Wine-Darkened secret society that Weird helped run, and was deeply in love with Weird before the Student Council erased his memories. Died before the campaign began, but he haunts the narrative, to an extent.

Reynard Winthrope: Father to Azalea and Amelia Winthrope. Part of the Wine-Darkened. A taciturn, gentle man deeply wounded by all the loss he's had to face.

Ishin Koizumi: A highly strict but benevolent professor who wants the best for his wife and his students.

Anzu: Former member of the Student Council, now deceased. Served as a Disciplinary Officer.

Heart: Azalea's protege on the Student Council. A frightened trans boy who finds a lot, lot more horrifying sides to himself once he's sworn into the Council.

Sonia: The main Disciplinary Officer. A car-obsessed adrenaline junkie and borderline sadist who enjoys hurting other students and gambling with them.

Tomita: The second-in-command of the Student Council. A deeply smug and ingloriously petty boy with bone-deep body dysphoria and an even deeper resentment towards the world.

Tsumiya August Mitsuhide: The Student Council President. A horrific overseer who takes great, great pains to veil himself in mysticism and secrecy. He is hated, respected, feared, loved, worshipped and revered in equal regard, his shadow looming over the lives of all in the school.

[onebluebookworm]

December 2023 Book Club Picks

Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm: Harley Quinn - the Joker's right hand henchwoman, hopelessly in love with her dear sweet puddin'. But what lead her down this dark path? And is there any hope to possibly reach her?

As the Crow Flies by Melanie Gillman: Welcome to Camp Three Peaks, a rustic, Christian summer retreat for teenage girls. A week of hiking, adventure, and communing with the God of its 19th-century founders… a God that doesn’t traditionally number people like 13-year-old Charlie Lamonte among His (Her? Their? Its?) flock. The only black camper in the group, and queer besides, she struggles to reconcile the innocent intent of the trip with the blinkered obliviousness of those determined to keep the Three Peaks tradition going. As the journey wears on and the rhetoric wears thin, Charlie can’t help but poke holes in the pious disregard this storied sanctuary has for outsiders like herself—and her fellow camper, Sydney.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte: Gilbert Markham is intrigued by Helen Graham, the beautiful, mysterious new tenant who's recently rented Wildfell Hall with her young son. Although Gilbert is more than happy to befriend her, Helen's reclusive behavior sparks local gossip, and she seems intent on keeping Gilbert at arm's length. Finally, as Gilbert's feelings for Helen become more than friendship, she allows him to read her diary that explains exactly why she behaves the way she does, as the details of the disastrous marriage she left behind unfurl.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds: Will's older brother Shawn has been murdered. And Will knows the rules - no snitching. No crying. And revenge at any cost. So now, with a gun shoved in his waistband, he boards his building's elevator to do just that. But then the elevator stops and on comes Buck, the one who gave Shawn the gun in the first place...and who Will knows for a fact is dead too. As the elevator continues to descend and more passengers hitch a ride with Will, the cycle of violence unfolds before him. Each ghost has a piece that changes the story Will thought he knew, a story that might continue forever if Will gets off that elevator.

Get Well Soon: History Worst Plagues and the Heroes Who Fought Them by Jennifer Wright: In 1518, a woman in the small village of Strasbourg began dancing and didn't stop. Six days later, her corpse was carried away after she died of exhaustion. In a month, 400 more people would be infected with the so-called Dancing Plague. A national effort to clean the River Thames is ignited when a cholera outbreak is linked to the "Great Stink" in London. An eccentric English gentleman creates the No Nose Club, a social club for stigmatized syphilitics when there was no known cure. An Irish cook causes two lethal breakouts of typhoid, forever earning the moniker Typhoid Mary. Since the dawn of humanity, we've been fascinated and terrified by disease. In this hilarious and historical book, Jennifer Wright not only explores the circumstances that lead to the outbreaks, but the brave people who fought against them, found cures, or simply eased the suffering of its victims.

[goronska]

My OCs - Merah

I was asked about some of my OCs again, so I decided to write a bit on some of them and summarize their arcs. I did one already on Dark Mizuu's current arc with James [here]. This one is illustrated with picrew and AI generated art.

Today, let's talk about Merah. [late 20s/early 30s, she/her, gynosexual, human, Vermillian] Merah was supposed to be a princess and then a queen of Vermillion, being the only child of a royal pair - Merahtua (mum) and Garura (dad) [they're a whole different story]. Spoiled at first, and some remnants of it can still be seen in her behavior, she wanted to experience something different than the palace life in modern times, so she listened to her Wanderlust and set afoot.

She is quite tall, slim and very confident in her femininity, which in Vermillion is defined as being strong, bordering ruthless, bold and unapologetic. She has pale complexion, white hair, sometimes adorned with flower-shaped pins, red eyes. Her make up further plays on her favorite white-red constrasts.

On her travel, she meets Sydney (not her real name) Rudkowski, a sloppy, disillusioned barista, short redhead who also travelled a lot. It's not my OC, so I won't go much into her. But Merah is somehow impressed with this one-eyed butch (the other eye is constantly covered in bandages, Merah doesn't see what happened for months) and slowly falls in love. Merah, being just dubbed "Red" by Sydney, feels some connection discovering the other woman broke most ties with her rich step-family and fends on her own. Sydney on the other hand, discovering most things were done for Merah by servants / slaves, makes it a point of honor to teach her basic life-skills i.e. cooking. Highlight of their first spark happened when Merah learned the name, look, smell and taste of 100 spices, to show her dedication.

After living in a small apartment together for a while, Merah is forced to leave and go to Asia. The two meet back again in the currect arc, in Ireland, where Sydney now runs a mysterious small town pub "The Silver Arrow". Red, while gone, not only learned to belly-dance for her, bake divine cookies and cakes, but also travels the Southern Asia mountains to find rubies of amazing pure rating. And best blacksmiths and crafters to make proposal… knuckles, as she recognizes the strength in Sydney she so adores.

The two reunite, get engaged and now run the pub together among local Irish patrons who quickly take a liking to this new community member. The women learn from each other a lot, Merah starts calling Syd her "Marigold", and finally reaches the point of introducing her fiance to her parents (meeting Sydney's brother Kyle and her mom, Life, is a very pleasant experience aftell all). The formal visit to Vermillion is nevertheless a big flop in which Sydney learns way too much about Merah childhood and faces a local goddess, Ubisi. In the end, Sydney saves her love by using a strange portal back home, dragging her back to the pub in Irish Athalacca, with seemingly lasting headdamage and some memory loss of their history together. Also Sydney is deemed a spy, traitor of the nation and a terrorist at large.

Faced with rapid changes on the political arena back home, Merah cannot choose between the love to her motherland and to Marigold, and is forced to marry her in a very small, private ceremony, before she leaves for the palace again for some time. The plan is to get back as soon as possible, on the basis that her new wife got sick (LIE!) and was left without anyone to care for her, but soon a better (?) plan emerges. Because her stepping down from the throne is not taken seriously by neither her parents nor the Council, she plots with some friends to formally adopt a young collage girl to be her next of kin and have the right to the crown.

The only problem is this well-behaved young lady, Jennifer, is not exactly what they all signed up for.

Now Merah Rudkowski, with partial memory loss, rapidly taking the role of a wife and a mother, tries to cope back at what she deems her home now, The Silver Arrow inn and pub. She is quickly reminded that her friends in Vermillion might be in grave danger, her dad passes away, and that one time where Ubisi the Red Goddess healed her biggest love's eye but Traced her on the cheek instead, um, that might have not been just because Ubisi took a liking to her Marigold…

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"At the end of 1809, a group of prisoners escaped from Robben Island probably using a whale boat to reach the mainland. The escapees included both Stuurman brothers and their two companions. After splitting up to help avoid detection, Bootsman Stuurman was recaptured. However, David Stuurman, Michiel and Wildschut, managed to rejoin the Xhosa. A long stand-off ensued, during which time Governor Cuyler tried to entice Stuurman to surrender but to no avail. Stuurman lived among the Xhosa throughout the fourth and fifth frontier wars and was not recaptured until near the end of 1819 after being at large for a decade.

Stuurman was returned to Robben Island at the end of December 1819. Following another escape in August 1820, Stuurman was recaptured and sentenced to be transported for life to New South Wales. After being forced to watch as some of his surviving fellow escapees (some died during the attempt) were flogged, branded or hanged, Stuurman was returned temporarily to Robben Island until room could be found on a convict transport to convey him to the Australian penal colonies. Under the Dutch, it had been possible for Cape Colony officials to banish miscreants. But under the English, the option of transporting convicts to the Australian penal colonies became a possibility. As early as 1815, Governor Somerset at the Cape requested permission from London to have people transported from the Colony to New South Wales. In response, the Admiralty instructed convict transports to stop at the Cape.7Cape Colony courts found transportation a particularly attractive option in dealing with its various non-European populations. Sending Khoisan, slaves and others across the ocean with little hope of ever returning home provided a much more exemplary punishment than simply shipping them to Robben Island, in sight of Table Bay. Even a sentence to seven years’ transportation to the Australian penal colonies effectively became a life sentence. The few Australian Aboriginal convicts who survived incarceration were repatriated when their sentence expired, but Khoisan were simply left to their own devices.

Overcrowding and illness on convict transports meant that it could be a long wait between sentencing and the sentence of transportation actually being carried into effect. Stuurman remained at the Cape following his 2 September 1820 trial through to February 1823 when the Brampton arrived at Table Bay. The transport had sufficient room to take on board convicts from the Cape.

Another of the fourteen convicts loaded onto the Brampton with Stuurman was also described as a ‘Hottentot’, Jantje Piet, convicted for murder. Piet was to have been executed on 29 April 1820, but the Governor of Port Elizabeth, Sir Rufane Donkin, ‘did not think it decorous’ to carry the sentence into effect because this was the day on which the accession to the throne of King George IV was proclaimed at the Cape of Good Hope. Instead, Donkin granted the man a respite and wrote to Earl Bathurst, Secretary for War and the Colonies, for consent to have Piet’s sentence commuted to transportation to New South Wales.

On 28 July 1822, the Brampton sailed from London under the command of Master Sam Moore, a violent and abusive man, and with Surgeon Superintendent Morgan Price on board. Its cargo was to comprise Irish men under sentences ranging from seven years to life, as well as several free settlers. Most were from the labouring classes, with occupations ranging from errand boy, shearer and ploughman to brogue maker, music dancing master and linen weaver. Some were known to be rebels. Many had already spent a considerable time in gaol prior to departing from the Cove of Cork on 8 November 1822. The convicts were guarded by a detachment of the Third Regiment (Buffs) during the voyage."

- Kristyn Harman, Aboriginal Convicts: Australian, Khoisan and Māori Exiles. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2012. p. 156-157.

[daily-coloring]

Todd Terry - Keep On Jumping (Theodor Jasper bootleg)**free download** - SoundCloud

Listen to Todd Terry - Keep On Jumping (Theodor Jasper bootleg)**free download** by Theodor Jasper on #SoundCloud

[siobhantuite]

Unveiling The Enigmatic World Of Irish Dancing: Siobhan Tuite’s Journey

Experience the vibrant world of Irish dancing in Sydney! Discover classes, events, and the rich cultural tapestry. Immerse yourself in the rhythm and tradition. Unleash your passion for Irish dance in Sydney today!

[aidalivecommentary]

Open Age Girls Eight Hand Ceili Championships is underway

[celtic-cd-releases]

http://moyabrennan.com/

https://www.facebook.com/MoyaBrennanOfficial

https://moyabrennan.bandcamp.com/album/voices-and-harps-iv

https://open.spotify.com/album/1aKOORLU7Oc1KRx9IZ049x

[whatodoo-australia]

A Taste of Ireland - The Irish Music & Dance Sensation - Sydney, Australia | 3 May, 2024.

Find out more / Get Tickets here.

[qnewsau]

Andrew Scott wisely dips after penis question on red carpet

New Post has been published on https://qnews.com.au/andrew-scott-wisely-dips-after-penis-question-on-red-carpet/

Andrew Scott wisely dips after penis question on red carpet

A reporter for the BBC has been roasted online for a cringeworthy moment with out actor Andrew Scott on the red carpet of the BAFTA Awards.

The winners of the UK’s top movie awards were announced this morning (AEST). Gay fantasy romance drama All Of Us Strangers scored six nominations, though the film sadly didn’t win any.

Irish actor Andrew Scott is the lead of the film and was outrageously snubbed for a BAFTA for his work. (Castmates Paul Mescal and Claire Foy were nominated.)

On the red carpet, Andrew stopped for a chat with a BBC reporter, who asked the out actor questions about fellow Irish star Barry Keoghan’s nude scene in Saltburn instead of Andrew’s own film.

“Do you know Barry well?” the reporter asked him, with Andrew replying that he does.

“Your reaction when you first saw the naked dance scene at the end of Saltburn?” he then asks, as the actor sighs.

“I won’t spoil it for anybody … it was great, it was great,” Scott replied.

The reporter then asks, “There was a lot of talk about prosthetics, so how well do you know him?”

Andrew then dismisses the question and turns to walk away from the interview.

“Too much? Too much?” the reporter called after him.

The cringeworthy exchange went viral online and didn’t go down well.

This is frankly disgusting. Andrew Scott is there to support his multiple nominated film and THIS is what you ask? Then when he looks visibly uncomfortable the guy carried on. Truly horrid. #BAFTAs pic.twitter.com/42VEoBXRQi

— Alex Gilston 🔜 GFF 2024 (@PresenterAlex) February 18, 2024

Only a matter of weeks since Andrew Scott spoke out about this too 😬🤦 pic.twitter.com/Rx5Yvwz026 https://t.co/LYxL0H7wTS

— Josh Barton (@bartonreviews) February 18, 2024

I think I’ve just cringed into another dimension. Andrew Scott must have the patience of a saint to not tell this bloke to fuck off because that is an absolute shocker of a question to ask pic.twitter.com/gyyq2xMvfV

— Patrick J. Hurst (@InsertMontage) February 18, 2024

who the f*ck have they dragged off the street to interview andrew scott and why is he my mate’s drunk dad at a party https://t.co/SH7JIljPUy

— Callum Scott Howells (@callumshowells) February 18, 2024

As a palate cleanser, watch Mardi Gras headliner Sophie Ellis-Bextor perform her Saltburn bop Murder on the Dancefloor at the BAFTAs instead.

All of Us Strangers is still screening in select cinemas around the country. If you haven’t seen it yet, do yourself a favour. You can also catch it in Sydney at the Mardi Gras Film Festival next week.

Emerald Fennell’s very good Saltburn is also streaming in Australia now on Prime Video.

Read lots more on queer films:

Sophie Ellis-Bextor weighs in on Saltburn full-frontal scene

Watch the trailer for Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal’s beautiful All Of Us Strangers

Gripping queer thriller leads Mardi Gras Film Festival 2024 lineup

For the latest LGBTIQA+ Sister Girl and Brother Boy news, entertainment, community stories in Australia, visit qnews.com.au. Check out our latest magazines or find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.

[tvrundownusa]

tvrundown USA 2023.11.21

Tuesday, November 21st:

(exclusive): Obituary (hulu, Irish dark comedy, stateside premiere, all 6 eps), Mike Birbiglia: "The Old Man and the Pool" (netflix, stand-up)

(movies, etc.): "Urkel Saves Santa" (VOD, animated special, ~85mins), "Leo" (netflix, animated musical comedy, ~105mins), "The Choice Is Yours" (Para+, rapper Andres 'Dres' Vargas-Titus), "Bye Bye Barry" (amazon, NFL's Barry Sanders documentary, ~90mins)

(streaming weekly): Tokyo Revengers (hulu), A Murder at the End of the World (hulu), The Boulet Brothers' Dragula (Shudder|AMC+)

(also new): Nick Cannon Presents: "Future Superstars" (VH1, showcase docuseries premiere)

(hour 1): NCIS: Sydney (CBS), The Voice (NBC, 2hrs), Dancing With the Stars (ABC|dsn+, 2hrs), Inside the NFL (theCW), Name That Tune (FOX, repeat)

(hour 2): The Oval (BET), Raid the Cage (CBS, special night), The Voice (NBC, contd), Dancing With the Stars (ABC|dsn+, contd), Whose Line Is It Anyway? (theCW), Wipeout (TBS), Hard Knocks: In Season (HBO, season 3 "Miami Dolphins" opener, new timeslot)

(hour 3): FBI True (CBS), Found (NBC), Press Your Luck (ABC), Fargo (FX, season 5 opener, new night, 2hrs++), Frontline (PBS, "20 Days in Mariupol", ~95mins), Dark Side of Comedy (Vice, "Tracy Morgan"), REAL Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO, monthly talk special)

(hour 4 - latenight): Fargo (FX, contd +85mins), Frontline (PBS, contd)