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nitrateglow · 5 years ago

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Favorite film discoveries of 2019

Every year, my new-to-me favorites list always shocks me in some way. This year, the sheer amount of movies made in the 2010s on display is INSANE by my standards. Of course, most of the modern movies here are throwbacks or tributes to older styles of cinema, so maybe it’s not that shocking in the long run.

Another running trend this year: movies that are old but not as dated as we would wish. Many of the older films here deal with xenophobia and political strife in ways that still feel shockingly prescient today-- the more things change...

ONCE UPON A TIME... IN HOLLYWOOD (DIR. QUENTIN TARANTINO, 2019)

I never thought the day would come where my favorite movie of the year would actually be made after the 1970s, let alone by Quentin Tarantino. Then again, this movie is all about the end of Old Hollywood as well as a big love letter to the 1960s, so maybe it’s not that shocking a state of affairs. I adored this movie, the level of detail, the laidback yet elegaic vibe, the comedy and the relationships between all the characters. It was one of those movies where I loved even the scenes where nothing seems to be happening at all-- I mean, who knew Brad Pitt feeding his dog and watching TV could be entertaining?? But it is and I can't wait to see this one again!

INTENTIONS OF MURDER (DIR. SHOHEI IMAMURA, 1964)

Intentions of Murder has an insane premise, one that runs the risk of being tasteless: a housewife in a miserable, exploitative marriage is raped by a sickly burglar during a home invasion. Even worse, she can’t shake him, as he’s suddenly infatuated and wants her to run away with him to the city. And weirder still: her current existence is so miserable that she’s TEMPTED. While abuse and rape are grim subjects for any story, Intentions is actually about a woman coming into her own and finally standing strong against all these men trying to use her. It’s a weird blend of drama and dark comedy, a truly savage satire on patriarchy and class-snobbery.

JOKER (DIR. TODD PHILLIPS, 2019)

I went into this movie expecting to think it was overhyped and when I first left the theater, I was all ready to say “it’s good but not THAT good.” But it ended up haunting me for weeks afterward, and I found myself thinking about how everything just tied up so well together, from the grotty urban hellscape which serves as the setting to Phoenix’s brilliant performance. It reminded me a lot of A Clockwork Orange in how intimate it lets you get to this violent man while never pretending he is someone to be glamorized or imitated.

SIMON (DIR. MARSHALL BRICKMAN, 1980)

How do I even describe Simon? Alan Arkin is brainwashed by a group of overpaid intellectuals into believing he is descended from an alien toaster. Then he gets a messiah complex and starts gathering disciples as he rails against television, condiment packets, and muzak. It’s a little uneven at times, sure, but the satire is really inspired. The whole thing is like a combination of Mel Brooks, Stanley Kubrick, and Woody Allen’s styles, and it is quite hilarious for those who thrive on cult oddities.

PEEPING TOM (DIR. MICHAEL POWELL, 1960)

Though it came out the same year as Hitchcock’s Psycho and has been nearly as influential for horror cinema, Peeping Tom remains underseen by everyone save for film theorists. And what a shame that is, because this movie is more frightening than Psycho. Sure, that may be because Psycho is so predominant in popular culture and just so influential that it no longer has the same shock value, but there’s something about Peeping Tom that gets under my skin, something sad, even disgusting. I felt dirty after watching it-- and this is 2019!

MIDNIGHT MARY (DIR. WILLIAM WELLMAN, 1933)

Loretta Young got one of her juiciest roles in this pre-code crime drama. Her Mary Martin is more than just a good girl forced into criminal circles-- she’s a complicated creature, compassionate and desperate and lonely and bitter and sensual all at once. This movie is a fast-paced, beautifully filmed ride, cloaked in that Depression-era cynicism that makes pre-code Hollywood of such interest to movie geeks the world over.

WILD BOYS OF THE ROAD (DIR. WILLIAM WELLMAN, 1933)

Wild Boys of the Road is a quintessential Depression-era movie, relentless in its bleakness and rage. That the main characters are all starving kids only looking for work makes their struggles all the harder to watch. William Wellman is quickly becoming one of my favorite directors: his gritty style and compact storytelling are just perfect for a ripped-from-the-headlines drama such as this. And the “happy” ending has one little moment that just knocks any smile you have right off your mug. Absolutely see this.

THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING, THE RUSSIANS ARE COMING (DIR. NORMAN JEWISON, 1966)

Sometimes, when you watch a movie only because a favorite actor is in it, you get subjected to pure trash like Free and Easy (oh, the things I do for Buster Keaton). Other times, you get cute gems like The Russians are Coming, The Russians are Coming, which, as you probably guessed, I mainly sought out for Alan Arkin. But the whole movie is hilarious, the best kind of farce comedy, populated by enjoyable characters and a sweet-tempered humanism that grounds the wackiness. While a little overlong, this movie is quite underrated-- and sadly, its satire of American xenophobia and Cold War panic is not as dated as we would like to believe.

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (DIR. ALAN J. PAKULA, 1976)

Who knew a political thriller where most people know the twist could be so intense and riveting? It’s about as nonsensical as feeling suspense when you watch a movie about the Titanic and hope the boat won’t sink-- but damn, it’s magical. All the President’s Men is real white-knuckle stuff, with Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman projecting both youthful excitement and deep panic as they proceed with their investigation. It scarcely seems to have aged at all.

WHISPER OF THE HEART (DIR. YOSHIFUMI KONDOU, 1995)

There’s a scene near the end of Whisper of the Heart where the protagonist Shizuku shows the finished first draft of her fantasy novel to her first reader, the grandpa of one of her schoolmates. She weeps because it isn’t the perfect image she had in her head, despite how hard she worked on it, but the old man tells her that it takes polishing and discipline to make the work come to its full potential. Few movies about artists are so honest about how hard it can be, how unsupportive others can be in their demand that everyone be “practical.” As a writer who struggles to create and constantly doubts herself, this movie spoke strongly to me. I recommend it to any creative person.

THE PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE (DIR. BRIAN DE PALMA, 1976)

I’d been wanting to see this movie since my high school phan days. Holy crap, is it WEIRDER than I could have ever imagined, a true camp masterpiece. I’m shocked it was never tuned into a stage show actually, but then again, we would miss those trippy camera angles and we wouldn’t have Paul Williams as one of the greatest villains of all time.

DUEL (DIR. STEVEN SPIELBERG, 1971)

When people talk about the best movies made in the “Hitchcock without Hitchcock directing” tradition, why is Duel so seldom mentioned? The scene in the cafe, packed with paranoid tension and tense camerawork, alone should qualify it. Duel is most known as the movie which put the young Steven Spielberg on the map. It’s quite different from his later work, grittier and less whimsical for sure. Even the ending seems almost nihilistic, depending on how you view it. But damn, if it isn’t fine filmmaking.

CAROL (DIR. TODD HAYNES, 2015)

This gorgeous throwback to Douglas Sirk melodramas is also one of the best romantic movies I’ve seen in a while. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara have the sweetest, tenderest chemistry-- it was like seeing Lauren Bacall and Audrey Hepburn as love interests in a film. Unlike Sirk, there is little in the way of ripe melodrama here-- everything is underplayed, aching, mature. And I can say this is an adaptation that is better than the source book: it just feels so much warmer.

12 ANGRY MEN (DIR. SIDNEY LUMET, 1957

All I can say is that this was every bit equal to the hype. Common movie wisdom says people sitting and talking in a room is going to be boring on film, but movies like 12 Angry Men prove this is not so when you’ve got an excellently tense atmosphere, an inspired script, and a stable of fine actors to work with. Like The Russians are Coming, the Russians are Coming, this movie has not significantly aged-- much to society’s discredit.

A STAR IS BORN (DIR. GEORGE CUKOR, 1954)

Another movie I went into not expecting to love as much as I did. When movies from the 20s or 30s tended to get remakes in the 1950s, I always find them too garish and big, victims of glossy Cinemascope and overlong runtimes. Compared to the lean 1937 classic original, I expected sheer indulgence from this three-hour remake. Instead, I got my heart torn out all over again-- the longer runtime is used well, fleshing out the characters to a greater degree. Judy Garland and James Mason both give what might be the best efforts of their respective careers, and the satire of the celebrity machine remains as relevant and scathing as ever.

BLANCANIEVES (DIR. PABLO BERGER, 2012)

Oh, it feels like this movie was made for me specifically. It’s shot in gorgeous, expressionistic black-and-white. It’s set in the 1920s. It’s a clever adaptation of a classic fairy tale. It’s as funny and charming as it is bittersweet and macabre. Instead of more superhero movies, can we get more neo-silent movies like this? PLEASE?

THE FAVOURITE (DIR. YORGOS LANTHIMOS, 2018)

I’ve heard The Favourite described as a “bitchy lesbian Shakespeare play,” but this description, while a little true in terms of general tone, does not get to the heart of what makes this film brilliant. More than love or sex, this movie is about power-- particularly the corrupting influence of power. And it corrupts not only morals but love itself. Innocents become Machiavellian schemers. Lovers become sadomasochistic enemies. Good intentions turn to poison. This certainly isn’t a happy movie, but it is moving and, strangely enough, also hilarious. I was reminded of the chilly, satirical world of Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon more than once-- and for me, that is not a bad movie to be reminded of.

ON THE WATERFRONT (DIR. ELIA KAZAN, 1954)

Another classic that’s been on my list forever that I was delighted to find worthy of its reputation. It’s a classic tale of redemption and social justice, perfectly acted and shot. While I still prefer A Streetcar Named Desire as far as Kazan is concerned, this might be a better movie in the objective sense. Actually, more than even Brando, Karl Malden is the acting highlight for me-- he plays a priest torn between staying silent or truly speaking for the Gospel by demanding justice for the poor parish he serves. Just brilliant work.

KLUTE (DIR. ALAN J. PAKULA, 1971)

A perfect thriller, just about, and a great example of the “NYC is hell on earth” subgenre of the 1960s and 1970s. Jane Fonda is a revelation: she feels so real, not at all like a starlet trying to seem normal if you know what I mean.

KISS KISS BANG BANG (DIR. SHANE BLACK, 2005)

As far as subversive noir goes, this is the most entertaining. I would put it up there with The Big Lebowski as far as goofy takes on Raymond Chandler are concerned-- I don’t even really know what to make of it, but I laughed my ass off anytime I wasn’t going “WHAT???”

What were your favorite film discoveries in 2019?

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guerilla935 · 5 years ago

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My Favorite Games That Made Me Care About How I Looked

I’m very self conscious about the way I look in video games. Not only is it normally very easy to change an outfit or get a haircut in a video game it also says something about how I’d like to be perceived, especially in an online game. There are a lot of games that allow their players to express themselves in a lot of really fun and unique ways and I think that it’s really special when you get to celebrate a style that you would never get to portray in real life. These games that I am about to talk about are all games where I was able to look at my character and feel some ounce of pride at something that I had created. Some full disclosure for these images, I pulled them from official gaming outlets and developer blogs but none of these that you are seeing are my original characters. If anyone would like to request to see any of my characters from these games (or any other games!) I would be happy to go and grab screenshots of those characters.

Grand Theft Auto Online

This is a pretty easy choice for most people. I chose specifically GTA Online over any GTA game or Red Dead game because I think the really special part about this is its setting. Your image is not only your character and your outfit in GTA Online but also your car, your house, and your business. There are a lot of different places to choose to call home and there are a lot of things to get “invested” into. For example, my good friend mojo5 runs a night club and wears suits and spends a lot of time gambling at the casino. That’s a character that would be different than mine who dresses and acts like a street racer. It gives your character a kind of personality and back story that is hard to achieve in other games. I have always kind of considered Grand Theft Auto Online to be a modern MMO of sorts, a playground. And as much as it is a huge lobby where you wait to start activities, it is also a sprawling city-space where you can essential live, make money, create this fun fictional life for yourself. And as far as fashion goes, the outfits, the cars, and the real estate help you shape that fantasy. Basically, I can tell you that I spent way more time customizing my character than I spent in actual activities in Grand Theft Auto Online.

Saint’s Row Series

I love Saint’s Row. It is very similar to the last entry in this article but has this unique and goofy style that makes a lot of things okay that I would never do to my GTA character. In Saint’s Row I can have a neon blue Mohawk wielding a 10 foot melee weapon that is designed to look like something extremely unmentionable while driving a night rider space car that is also a tank and it’s totally fine because in the next cut scene you are about to fight Roddy Piper in Keith Davids nightmares. The games are incredibly wild and I love how I can let loose with a lot of different styles, and in the same way that I feel like I am creating my gritty street racer in GTA, I can make my goofy crime lord super hero secret agent in Saint’s Row. I think specifically in Saint’s Row 2 I took it a little more seriously because the tone of the game is a little more serious than the other entries however I have a specially place in my heart for how wacky each game allows me to be.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

You knew we couldn’t just not talk about Animal Crossing: New Horizons. With the current situation, the Animal Crossing community is insanely huge. I cannot avoid the heap of Animal Crossing videos and screenshots all over social media. On my island of Sandover Village, I am patiently awaiting the Able Sisters to set up shop so that I am able to put in codes from everyone else’s custom designs that I’m seeing on twitter. That is because I have on my phone a stockpile of sweatshirts, sweaters, robes, and hats that I am actually really excited to show off in game. I tried to create some of my own but I am not one of the gifted seamstress’s that there seems to exist on the internet. I am not very far into Animal Crossing but by looking at other peoples games I know that I have only scratched the surface of my options in the game. I have to commend Nintendo on the amount of individualization that the design pro feature gives to its players. I have never seen a game give players the option to design their own clothing and it makes the social experience of the game feel so fresh.

Dark Souls III

One of the most badass games that I have ever played as far as character design is concerned is Dark Souls III. When I put on a new set of armor I sit in awe of how it looks because I can see each tiny tear in the cape, every dent in the helmet, and the wear and weight of the armor. I was dragged through this game by some friends (because I could never in a thousand years have the patience to beat it by myself) and I followed them to every cursed swamp and death crypt because I wanted to see every weapon and every armor set. You look absolutely ghoulish in every armor set and I love it to death. This game allows so much in the way of customization and I think it helps that almost every gear set is good enough to get you through the entire game and that allows you to play with a lot of different looks and game play styles. This game is tough, really really tough, but you look really good even when you die.

Splatoon 2

Splatoon 2 is a really special online shooter. I think in the month that I played this game religiously the thing that kept me playing was coming back to the stores to see what kind of clothes were in stock and what kind of items I could steal off the players in the lobby. I think that the developers of Splatoon 2 knew that the players were in it for the threads because every reward for playing the game was most likely a piece of clothing. The clothing options kind of vary from academy prep to Patagonia camp wear to skater outfits. And it comes together in this very hipster overall aesthetic that blends really naturally. The game features a mechanic that I really like wear you can walk up to anyone in the online lobby and look at what their wearing and order it. By the time I logged on the next day I had (a noticeably weaker version of) the exact same item but it really makes you feel like anything you see, you have access too which is really cool. And the ordering of the items kept me coming back to play every day.

Final Fantasy XIV Online

I’ve heard it said many times that the real end game content of Final Fantasy XIV Online was the glamor and housing systems, and for most people they aren’t wrong. I will never stop being surprised at the outfits that players can put together in this game. I have seen millions of players in my 750 hours in Eorzea and I have not seen two characters look the same. The customization options are really limitless and I truly believe that. I played a healer mage and in my time at max level I had outfits that made me look like a cowboy, a thief, a fox spirit, a grim reaper, and even one that made me appear like a real healer mage. The clothing options throw a Final Fantasy twist on every kind of style that they set to replicate. So even though all the outfits can be wacky they never feel out of place in the world. If you want a game that you can make almost 50% just about customizing your character and taking it out to the town to show it off or in big raids to flaunt your style then this might be your game.

Pokemon Sword And Shield

Pokemon is still trying to get it right but Sword and Shield is Game Freaks best attempt at trainer customization. The clothing options in the game are very European, well, they have always been that way but they are ESPECIALLY European in this one. Probably the greatest customization offered is the hair which in the world of anime characters is the most important one. I loved designing my character in this game but it was just so brief because shopping in this game is so boring as most clothes in the actual stores are very samey which makes the act of shopping pretty boring most of the time. I would roll up to a new town really excited to see what kind of stuff they had in the shop but it was just new colors for the same weird duffel bag that your character had already. Note that the game is mostly about the Pokemon so they really didn’t have to put any trainer customization in the game to make it a good game but they did a half decent job putting this much customization in the game and I feel like it’s going to keep getting steadily better the more times they implement this feature into their games. Big plus, you can design your trading card in the game and it is the most adorable thing and feels like a huge payoff to have a cool card if you’ve put a lot of effort into your trainer.

Soul Calibur VI

So I haven’t actually played Soul Calibur VI, I bought the game and went immediately into character creation and started making my own roster of fighters that I ended up using maybe once or twice and moving on from. The character creator in this fighting game is really special. So the idea is that you choose a character that already exists and you keep their move set and fighting style but change how they look and immediately the things that came out of the community were hilarious. Some are kind of terrifying but they come shockingly close to being somewhat recognizable. For me it almost comes down to that being someone who is unfamiliar with the cast of Soul Calibur VI I cannot tell the difference between actual characters from the game and characters frakensteined together in the character creator. As on of the most fun character creators I’ve ever used I think it’s at least worth googling what other people have created.

God of War (2018)

The newest God of War introduced something that we never got in the older games and that was the ability to change out what Kratos was wearing. While it was important in the game to maximize his stats, it also made you look cooler and cooler as the game went on. I wouldn’t say that you have a lot of options of things to wear in this game but I always felt bummed when I picked up something with relatively low stats that looked amazing. Later on the armor sets become more like trophies for completing hard tasks. The design of each piece of armor is really intricate and amazing to look at and while you can’t just pick whatever you want, I really wish that you could.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls

In the Reaper of Souls expansion pack a new vendor was added to Diablo III that changed the way that I looted in the game. The vendor was called the mystic and she would make a piece of gear look like any other piece of gear of the same type. This meant that I could look amazing all the time without sacrificing strength. The way that the database of appearances you could pick from expands over time gave so many options that I couldn’t decide at some points. The coolest armor in the game was now accessible at any time. And the armor in Diablo III looks tight, sometimes I would argue that unless you pick some unique stuff it doesn’t make that big of a difference because of the isometric point of view in the game but it is really fun to have an added layer of customization in Diablo.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

So this is actually a section dedicated to Nexus Mod Manager because Skyrim in itself doesn’t actually have a whole lot of variations in the ways you can dress. But with the powers of modding you can now do absolutely anything and there are a whole group of 3D modelers out there getting you immersive and lore friendly items that make you look a whole lot cooler. The wonderful world of modding can turn kind of creepy very fast, a lot of very suggestive mods are out there and a lot of very inappropriate things so you know, a fair warning. It’s incredible when you can make it work and keep it from getting to the level of ultimate Skyrim. You can change and add clothes and weapons, add hair styles, and even add entire races into the game. Sometimes though I really believe that I like browsing mods a lot more than I like actually playing with them but I found that it is really satisfying to download a mod like Immersive Armors and see just how much it changes how diverse the selection of armors that not only you but everyone in the game now wears can be.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

So I believe that some other previous Zelda titles had the ability to change Links outfit but never to this extent. What I think is the coolest part about the clothing system in this game is that you wear certain clothes to survive certain climates but you can also forget all that and make a yummy meal instead that lets you be warm wearing the desert clothes in the snow. The amount of armors that you can amass in this game starts off kind of underwhelming but becomes really fun and interesting and serves all sorts of fun fan service for fans of the series. This game doesn’t have the versatility and variety of some of the other games in the series but any game that lets you cross dress to sneak into a city of warrior women is credited for its costume design in my book.

League of Legends

I have spent a shameful amount of money on skins. I hate League of Legends and I hate most of the business practices of Riot Games but their skins just look good. I can appreciate when someone I don’t like makes something good and they consistently pump out awesome looking skins that are frankly worth the money if you play the game regularly. Back when I played this game daily I put up way too much money, even I think about 18$ just on a skin that changed colors when you typed a specific command. Anyways that’s really all I have, there aren’t a lot of games where I like the skins, especially the fact that they are mostly behind pay walls but League gets a pass I suppose.

Destiny Series

I used to be really into playing a specific game mode in Destiny named Iron Banner. I played a lot of it in Destiny and a good portion of them in Destiny 2. When you played enough Iron Banner in a year you were able to collect an armor set to commemorate the achievement. Almost all the cool armor in Destiny has purpose to it. Not only do you get to decide how you look but it also is you showing off the fact that you completed a raid, were really good at sparrow racing, or kicked major ass in the crucible. Each armor was recognizable and everyone knew what it meant. I think that is what makes the customization in Destiny so rewarding, its that it is in itself an actual reward for completing hard tasks that not everyone will be able to complete.

Code Vein

Out of all the anime games I’ve played I think what stands out to me the most is that their character creators have all been really bad. This is where Code Vein really shined. Code Vein has this dystopian vampire aesthetic that is really unique and allows for a lot of ways to make cool characters that fit into the look of the game. I don’t think that what they’ve done here is completely new but they have this style that is exciting to play with. Making a revenant is fun and builds this anticipation for the rest of the game. I also respect the games decision to allow you to make modifications to your character after the game has started which is not something that most games would allow. Code Vein has these cape’s that you can wear to gain abilities and those are cool to add onto your outfit but I don’t think that it outshines what the character creator has done here. It’s a niche thing I guess but if you have always wanted to make your own anime vampire then this is it.

A Persona

I really like making characters for a reason. I think a lot of the escapism of video games hinges on me placing myself into the character on the screen. That’s why I love what you can do in games like Animal Crossing that is all about creating exactly what you want and Final Fantasy XIV Online where you get to exist and share in a world as a persona of sorts. Being able to customize a character in a video game does not make that game good or bad, but I think that when you are given the option the developer is given an opportunity to make it a very special experience and allow you to be unique within a community of people online. And the internet has made that sharing of characters really special, allowing everyone to see how unique of an experience you can have with a game by beating it with “your character”.

Special Shout Outs For Stylish Games And Characters

SSX series being dripping in 90s style

Also NBA Street Vol. 2 for the same reason

Persona 5 for being the most stylish game ever

Halo because space marines rock extra style points

Katana Zero for being badass and 80s neon will always be in style

Specifically Graffiti Mario in Super Mario Sunshine he had flair

Samurai Legend Musashi for having a stylish game case but being a horrible game

Devil May Cry just for existing

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smileybokuto · 5 years ago

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| Spooky Story |

a/n: This is a story I wrote in creative writing when I was a senior in high school! I thought you guys would enjoy it. I just want to preface this I was also taking Criminal Psychology at college while taking this class. It only has original characters in it.

Warning: Graphic, tw:blood, tw:torture, tw: killing, tw: stalking, dystopian society

wc: 2.9K

Ethereal

11.01-31.20XX

01.

The world in utter turmoil, violently crying against the classroom window. This room however, remained still not worried about the rain banging against the window. The bot at the front of the classroom unaware that all of the other students, who were engrossed by its lesson about old earth’s flora. Everything is as it normally is here in the Ethereal.

Then it happened.

The bot stops writing and the room goes quiet. Then the lights go out and the room is engulfed by darkness. Everyone sits still, so still you could hear a pin drop, no one dared make a sound. Until we heard a blood curdling scream. People started to panic, saying ‘we were going to die’.

Chaos set in quickly.

November 01, 20XX:

The world went dark.

This was the end but also the beginning.

-Fox

19.

Our society is stuck in hopeless depravity ever since the power went out.

“Fox,” Fleance yells, “Come on the others are waiting on us.” Fleance is my best friend, he found me when the world went dark. He dragged me out of the high school. When we got outside we saw a group of kids for our school terrified for their lives. I remember telling them it’s going to be okay and to follow us. They are Jett and Jace the twins, Wyatt and Keegan the lovers, Warren the go with the flow kind of guy, Abel and Hunter the inseparable best friends, and the girls Fora, Peyton and Thea. We all have our positions that helps us survive.

“Fox!” Fleance snaps in my face.

“Yes, what’s up?” I ask.

“Come on the others are waiting for us,” He rolls his eyes.

“Oh sorry,” I laugh.

“Such an airhead,”He shakes his head. We walk back into the camp to see that the fire pit is burning and Jace the hunter was back with an Gerenuk corpse.

“Dinner’s here,” Abel screams, “It’s about damn time too.”

“Sorry man, I got my foot stuck on a tree branch and fell,” Jace laughs. This is how it is everyday here for our small family.

26.

“Wyatt and Keegan it’s game time, stop making out,” I whine.

“Sorry Alpha,” Keegan teases, “We’re making you uncomfortable aren’t we.”

“I told you not to call me that. I’m the leader not an Alpha.” I chuckle. “Anyways we need Wyatt our raid organizer to organize a raid; and stop doing your mental tricks on me.”

“Fine. Also it’s not a mental trick. I am simply a Mentalist. By the way the Scientist, Herbalist, the brains and the genius want to see you.” Keegan says.

“Can’t you just call people by there names,” I groan and walk off. I walk over to the ‘Scientist’ more commonly known as Peyton who specializes in Science back in school.

“Oh, Fox just who I was looking for, I made a new drug. I call it, ‘drink this or you’ll die.’ Not very original but it works, it makes you puke up any poison from poisonous berries.” Peyton squeals.

“Sounds good Peyton glad to hear,”I say patting her on the back. “Oh if you need anything tell Wyatt and Fleance so they can do the raids.” She nods and I walk over to Fora our Herbalist, she’s basically our doctor.

“Hey, Fora, I heard you were looking for me.”

“Yes, the boy who wandered in…he died. However before he passed he kept saying watch out for Cain. He said it over and over until he died.” She says with a look of concern.

“This is the third one this month right?” she nods yes. “Okay then we’re going to keep this between us and don’t worry this Cain person hasn’t made any attempt to hurt us.” She nods, “Ok, I have to go see Jace and Hunter. One more death and we’ll move again.”

“Ok, I trust you. The boys are at the lake trying to test as the boys say ‘alkalinity’ of the drinking water. Which is just a fancy way of checking to see if the water has any neutralizing components to acid.” She rolls her eyes with a bright smile. I chuckled and walked down to the lake to see the boys in the lake.

“Fox!” Hunter says walking out of the Lake to greet me.

“Why hello there ‘Genius’,” I smile and he gave me a puzzled look, “don’t worry about it. So what did you guys need to talk to me about?”

“Oh, so the water is neutralizing itself…hey you okay, you look a little down,” He says looking directly into my eyes.

“I’m fine, I just have a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah you are our leader seems like a hard job. If you ever need anyone to talk to I’m all ears.”

I smile, “Hey, I’m the therapist that’s my job.” He laughs when I finish, “Anyways I have to go find Fleance.”

-Fox

01.01-31.20XX

08.

“I’m Cain, and I love the way your heart beats can I see it?” A sinister laugh resonated around the tent. I sit up screaming and Hunter runs in.

“Hey,hey, hey. It’s okay. What’s wrong?”He says in a soothing voice while hugging and rubbing my back.

“I…I…I just had a bad dream I’m fine,” I stutter.

“You’re not fine, you are far from fine.” He looks into my mind. “What’s the problem? I’m a genius so I can solve it.” I laugh and it calms my nerves.

“Thanks,” I hug him a little tighter, “ Sometimes I feel so ordinary and I don’t understand why everyone picked me to be their leader.”

“I’m a man of science but listen to me when I say you’re everything but ordinary, far from typical. The way you dress, the way you think it so unpredictable. I look into your eyes and I believe in miracles.” Hunter finishes.

“I didn’t know you felt that way. Is that why you voted for me?” I ask

“That and you inspire us to keep living. I remember the day you found Abel and I. You told us ‘everything you want is on the other side of fear.’ This made me join your group, but it isn’t what made Abel join, he joined because he told you he didn’t know what to do. You responded with ‘I just wanna go on more adventures.Be around good energy.Connect with people. Learn new things. And grow.’ You know exactly what to say and when to say it to put people at easy.”

“Wow your edenic memory serves you well.” I chuckle. “Hey, if I tell you something will you keep it a secret even from Abel?”

“Yeah,” he stared into my eyes waiting for me to speak.

“I think someone is hunting us. I think it’s someone named Cain. I keep hearing a voice saying they like my heart and they want to see it. It’s a malicious voice. I think that Cain is one of the psychopaths trying to kill people like us. I think he wants to destroy the Ethereals peace. We are the last surviving peaceful group.”

“ Maybe, I’ll create a way to protect this base. That’s why you’ve moved us so much. Makes sense.” He shakes his head. “Don’t worry I’ll figure out a way to make this place safe.” With that he left my tent.

12.

“Fox!” Hunter runs over with the biggest smile. It was like an adult getting socks for christmas. “Guess what,” he whispers.

“What?” I ask curious about why he was so excited.

“I figured it out. We can use the new drug, we’ll have to do a raid for it but, we can do it. We have to get Fillory.” He says

“You mean the drug that glows when touched by skin or anything that human made?” I ask.

“Exactly, we will be able to see whenever someone enters here. We’ll be able to leave.”

“That’s brilliant,” I hug him.

“Are you two a thing now?” Fleance asks pointing between us.

“No,” I say lightly patting his arms.

“Good, cause I’m the only one you can have.” Fleance says faking betrayal.

“ Oh you’ll always be my best friend. No matter what.”

“Of course I will, there was no way I would let you leave me.” He laughs. He’s such a chuckle head.

-Fox

20.

“Fox, we’re ready for the raid. Get everyone ready. I saw two Psychopaths, one being Sam, and the other name I could not read.” Wyatt tells me. Damn two psychos, they have their names branded on there backs to let us know they are coming. This is a tactic they use to instill fear in us but I won’t let that happen.

“Ok we can deal with it, we need to get the chemical and get out without any of them seeing us. Is that understood?” I tell him sternly.

“Yes, I’ll get Fleance, Jace and Hunter,” I nod to him and he walks off. I wonder who the other Psychopath is. What kind of ink do they have? Why do they have tattoos of there names on there backs.

“Hey, ready?” Fleance asks and I nod in response.

“Okay, we are heading in from the west ward. It is the quickest route to the pharmaceuticals. To leave we’ll take the front entrance since it’s the closest to our base. Everyone got it?” We all nod. “Let’s head out Fleance and Jace be on the lookout, Hunter there's a code to the vault we’ll need you to break. Fox, I need you to use your bow to defend the back and i’ll defend the front while to boys defend the sides.”

“Let’s move out,” I say as we all take our positions. We get into the hospital without a single altercation. We quickly made it to the vault with all the drugs and Hunter takes about three minutes to figure out the code. But he cracks it, then I hear a squeak. “Guys,” I whisper to silence them. I put my index finger to my mouth, and they all look confused. Then another I hear another squeak. I felt chills run down my spine. Then I saw the ink, it was a thick and violent print. The tattoo almost took up his entire back and it read ‘CAIN’. I turned around and Hunter grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the back where we came from.

“That’s him,” I say recalling his shoulder length blonde hair and his grey stormy eyes. His smile also held something sinister.

“I’ll find you,” Cain screams after us, but he doesn’t pursue us. He simply stands at the exit and watches us as we run away.

“We’ve got it. We got Fillory.” Hunter skips.

-Fox

04.01-31.20XX

01.

It all started on a cold day, specifically June 11 2018, the day I turned ten. My ‘mother’ told me I was a monster after I cut off an infant's head. This to me was exciting, it gave a sense of thrill. The reason that I cut off the infant's head is due to the fact that it would not stop crying. This lead my mom to think I was a psychopath, telling me I was not her son, that I was adopted and probably from a family of killers. I thought she was joking until she pulled out the adoption papers. I looked at it and it read:

‘Adoption of Cain Lillian by Samantha Lillian and Charles Lillian. The biological son of Lily Ford and James Ford brother to Abel Ford still in custody of biological parents.’ I was outraged and in that time of outraged I searched for them. All of them, I wanted to know why was I not good enough for them. When I finally found them they were at a park sitting having a nice picnic. However sadly I was detained before I could gut them…I mean talk to them. They strapped me down to a table and stabbed me with a small needle over and over again until they were done carving my name into my back so that everyone would know I was a psychopath or so they put it. They then put me in a cell with a food bot. No human interaction and I felt my anger bubbling and bubbling until it happened.

On that fateful day when the power went out. I was free the bot was down and the cells let up and I could exact my revenge.

-Cain

12.

November 01 20XX, I killed them. To be more specific I skinned them alive. I started with my father, James Ford. I tied them both to chairs across from each other they sat there struggling but I drugged them before hand. I sat in between them sharpening my knife, smiling and laughing at them.

“Why are you doing this to us?” She cried.

��Mother dearest are you so vain you don’t even remember your son,” I chuckled.

“C-Cain,” she recalled. “How did you find out about us? I thought you were happy with your new family.”

“Well if you’re conscious enough to make coherent sentences, it’s time to start.” I laughed.

“Start whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!” She screamed as I cut a chunk of her thigh off.

“I love hearing you scream!” I shouted enthusiastically jumping for joy like a little kid high off candy. “Can I take out your kidney? Or your tongue? I promise I’ll show it to you.”

“My K-”

“Too long, Tongue it is,” I say grabbing her tongue and slicing it out. I wiggled it in front of her face. “I told you i’d show you.”

“You monster, kill me! Leave her alone! Kill me!” My ‘father’ cried.

“Oh are we going to have a hero here. Fine, I guess I have no choice. I’ll take your heart out,” as I finished my thought I lunged at his chest and carved out his heart making sure that I didn’t cut any vital organs so it continued to beat.

“ If you're going to kill me just do it.” He groaned with pain shining in his eyes. I loved it.

“On the contrary I will kill you but I want to skin you first.” I laughed starting to carve away at his skin until all you could see was muscle. “Now you look beautiful don’t you think?” I kicked his foot. “Did you die on me, Awe that sucks oh well. On to the next one.” I turned around and did the same thing to my mother.

-Cain

15.

After a couple days I found there first hideout. My targets and the last of my family. I however was bored so I wanted blood and lucky for me there was kid passing by. I captured him and tortured him but he didn’t satisfy me the way my parents did. So I told him to head into the camp and tell them Cain is coming. I did that three times and I will keep doing it until the day comes.

Then one day they went to get Fillory. I’m sure they didn’t know this but Fillory was a drug created to react to the psychopathic gene in people so that the government could find us easier. Now they have spread it across the whole entire perimeter of their base but it’s okay. They’ll have to come out soon enough.

-Cain

06-11-20XX

11.

“Teams?” Hunter asks tilting his head slightly.

“Abel and I, You and Fleance.” I laughed, “Wyatt and Jett, Jace and Keegan, Fora and Thea, Peyton and Warren.”

“Ok, who’s going first?” Warren sighs not wanting to play hide and seek in the woods.

“Hunter and Fleance,” I declare.

“Ok, we're counting to thirty, go and hide,” He says as he covers his eyes. Abel and I run deeply into the forest. We run until we find a cave and duck into it. We muffle our laughter with our hands, when we finally stopped laughing it was silent, it was so silent it reminded me of that day. The day the world went dark but now I feel safe because I found them. I found all of them.

Then I heard something.

A snap I think, it is probably an animal…but where is the scurrying noise.

“Fox,” Abel whispers, I turn my head to see Cain holding a knife to Abels throat. He sees the panic on my face and smiled, “It’s ok.”

Then I saw Cain smile and I knew, “Say goodbye,” he laughs. As soon as I start to say goodbye, my vision instantly turns red and the smell of sulfur engulfed my senses as Cain drops Abels lifeless body in front of me.

“Why,” I sob, “Why did you kill him, you monster!” I threw a rock at him and he dodged it with ease.

“I’m the monster! Ha, he had everything. He lived in my bed, he was loved by my parents, he was loved by all of you, and I wanted it all for myself.” He sneers, clearly outraged.

“What are you talking about? Abel had no siblings,” I cry, I couldn’t stop.

“None that he knew of. They gave me up and now, I killed the son they wanted.” Cain looks down at his brother and smiles. I sat there sobbing cradling Abel’s head in my lap as Cain says

“Goodbye brother.”

#spooktober #halloween #smileybokuto #tw:blood #tw: torture #tw: death #tw: psychological torture #tw: jealousy #tw: killing #tw: human experimentation #original work #original fiction

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alexsmitposts · 5 years ago

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Lies and Censorship, a Second Pandemic On April 6, 2020, the University of Manchester published a paper titled COVID-19 Disinformation: Two Short Reports on the Russian Dimension. That paper focused on highly funded disinformation programs, some funded by the EU and/or UK governments seemingly tasked with censoring or crushing media that strayed from the official “party line.” “The EU’s main task force for fighting Russian disinformation is in danger of becoming a source for disinformation itself, and so of skewing policy decisions in the EU and the UK, as well as distorting public discourse throughout Europe. Based on EU-sponsored counter-disinformation analysis in relation to COVID-19, our report explains what is happening and why. It does not dispute the need to track disinformation campaigns. However, it argues that this work has to be done carefully, and differently. Earlier experiences point to a more reliable approach, the consequences of not adopting which are highly counterproductive.” The report then cites how five stories were “cherry picked” from the Russian media and distorted though altering content and taking statements out of context. Thus, the highly funded “truth tellers” of “EU vs Disinfo” haven proven themselves to be a bastion of fake news. Behind them is an organization known as the East Stratcom Task Force, made up largely of Cold War leftovers, which is now directing efforts to silence free reporting on not just COVID-19 but the efforts by the ICC (International Criminal Court at The Hague) and varying UN groups to call the US, Israel, Britain and others to count for supporting terrorists in Syria and Iraq and in the false flag gas attacks that tie directly to the White Helmets. Let us remember that it was James Le Mesurier of MI-6 fame who founded the White Helmets. In April 2018 Russia brought 40 White Helmet “volunteers” to The Hague to testify about their role in faking gas attacks in Syria. The ICC allowed 15 chosen randomly to testify. Their testimony proved, beyond question, testimony confirmed by independent eyewitnesses, that Western intelligence agencies control not only the White Helmets but ISIS and al-Qaeda (banned in Russia) as well and closely coordinate their efforts with corporate media outlets as part of a massive program of disinformation and censorship. If the White Helmets, with 100% government funding, can be an NGO (non-governmental organization) what do we call ISIS or al Qaeda? (banned in Russia) The current issue is killing stories that tie NATO funded biological research facilities that study SARS COV related bat viruses to the 2020 Pandemic. As the US has repeatedly claimed and then denied that COVID 19 comes from a biolab, stories from covertly funded organizations cited for disinformation may well indicate something to hide. However, the “ground zero” for disinformation and censorship will, perhaps, always be the Syrian gas attacks and the coverup of the subsequent OPCW credibility issue. Other outlets claiming to be free or alternative press, such as The Intercept, fabulously funded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, join the effort as well. From a 2018 Intercept story by Jeff Mackey literally strewn with nonsense: “OVER THE OBJECTIONS of chemical weapons inspectors, who are still at work in Syria trying to determine if gas was used to kill dozens of civilians in the former rebel stronghold of Douma on April 7, Russia flew 17 Syrians from the war zone to The Hague, Netherlands, on Thursday, where they all testified that they had seen no sign of a chemical attack. The Syrians were chosen because they had been seen in video that was recorded by an opposition activist in the immediate aftermath of the attack. The activist’s footage showed what looked like frantic efforts in the town’s hospital to treat survivors for possible exposure to a chemical agent, by dousing them with water and helping them to breathe. Even though no one claimed that the hospital had been attacked with chemical weapons, Russia has made undermining the credibility of that video the centerpiece of its effort to prove that no chemicals were used in the Syrian government’s final bombardment of the town, which passed out of rebel hands the following day. The group it brought to the Netherlands included several medical workers seen in the footage and one patient, 11-year-old Hassan Diab, who has been described by Russian officials as the star witness in support of its case that the entire incident was a hoax, staged by volunteer rescue workers to provoke Western military intervention against Russia’s ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.” The Intercept failed, however, to report that OPCW whistleblowers debunked their version of the story which, as easily noted, includes a strange lie regarding a hospital attack that seems to only exist in the Mackay narrative. Yes, it was claimed a hospital was attacked, as the witnesses outlined, but it was attacked by heavily armed White Helmet “volunteers.” The testimony stated that fake rescue workers forced both hospital workers and civilian “victims” to act out a false flag terror attack on camera. There was also testimony that preparations went on for days in advance of the alleged Syrian gas attack, setting up props including smoke machines and bringing in media from carefully selected disinformation platforms. What the Intercept fails is this; without their disinformation story, there would be no report whatsoever of the ICC hearings as they had been totally censored from all US and European media by the all-powerful East Stratcom Task Force with the exception of the poorly contrived Intercept piece which inadvertently backfired and supports Russia’s assertions. The reason we choose The Intercept is that this has long been cited as a liberal platform highly critical of Trump policies, one positioned as a leader of alternative media, until, it seems, it is needed to launder disinformation on behalf of the Deep State. It will probably be called The Pandemic of 2020. Worse still, pandemics may be numbered like wars though, thus far, our count as stopped at 2, though it seems that one will smolder on for a century. History is to be our teacher but how can we learn if reality, fake history, fake news and disinformation, define how posterity will view our times? A massive effort by the EU is being made to silence any media source that doesn’t stick with the narratives released by Five Eyes intelligence agencies as part of their “cover and deception” efforts. Simply put, the wars which began on 9/11, perhaps even those which had the US bombing Serbia as well, were totally fabricated. Those of us who work in the defense and intelligence arena know quite well that millions from the US and, in particular, Germany, were spent organizing Islamic militias in Bosnia, whose coordinated efforts with Croatian separatists, also NATO trained and supplied, were ethnically cleansing the former Yugoslavia of Christians likely to be aligned, religiously at least, with Moscow. I had the opportunity to go over the NATO effort there a few years ago with the commander of the UN peacekeeping forces, General Sir Michael Rose and General Sir Jeremy Mackenzie, then Deputy chief of NATO, while on an outing of sorts. What can be said of those discussions is that efforts had far less to do with peacekeeping and far more with exploiting a power vacuum in Russia. The end result of NATO efforts has left the region overrun with Kosovan and Albanian criminal elements and has seeded al Qaeda into the heart of Europe, a story still being suppressed. To that we now add the MEK, the CIA controlled terrorist group now camping out in Albania. From Counterpunch: “MEK is a terrorist cult that resides in Albania, and which struggles to overthrow the government of a country that has done nothing wrong against Albania. As a result, the majority of the Albanians have no sympathy for this organization whose job is to wage war and terrorism against a foreign country. What MEK does is criminal and punishable according to the Albanian Penal Code and the Constitution of Albania. MEK was brought to Albania by deception. Albanian politicians like Pandeli Majko, Fatmir Mediu, Sali Berisha etc., asked the Americans to host them in Albania without asking the Albanian people first. This is like as if German politicians were to take into Germany the ISIS army and command, and host them in their country without asking their citizens first. The first members of MEK came to Albania in 2013. However, the bulk of them were brought in 2016, when the then US Secretary of State John Kerry announced their massive landing in Tirana. The coming of MEK created big fears in the country where many media, security analysts, journalists and the public opinion condemned the deception through which MEK was brought. From 2016 to 2018 the media in Albania has written and produced many debates against the MEK and ISIS fighters. Even the office responsible for fighting extremism classified them as an extremist organization in January 2018. The weird nature of MEK which operates as a messianic jihadi cult, whose members are mujahedeens, live isolated from the world, refuse civilian life and make continuous calls for jihad against Iran, and create fear among the peace-loving Albanians in the same way ISIS does for many people in the world. For this reason, in the past years many journalists and activists have criticized the government of Prime Minister Edi Rama by blaming it for turning Albania into a safe haven for terrorists.” The MEK issue is a hot one in that this CIA funded organization, once listed by the US as terrorist until they hired Trump insider Rudy Giuliani to represent them, is responsible for wide mischief both in Europe and across the Middle East. Their ties to Giuliani have inserted them into Ukrainian politics and efforts to organize terror attacks against Russian citizens in Crimea, as well as their continuing terror attacks inside Iran. Articles outlining this relationship have been removed from the website of the University of Maryland and even from The Intercept itself, all leaving behind “404 Page Not Found” traces only. This is the real job of the East Stratcom Task Force and its partnership with Google and Facebook, to make sure that any evidence of an unapproved reality is either delisted or scrubbed from servers. Conclusion In 1990, the Western media ran reports that Iraqi troops operating in Kuwait had murdered babies in incubators. From the Christian Science Monitor, September 6, 2002, nearly a year after 9/11, written while the US was in a frenzy of mass murder and carpet bombing across the Middle East in response to the 9/11 attacks that are still surrounded by so much censorship and controversy: “More than 10 years later, I can still recall my brother Sean’s face. It was bright red. Furious. Not one given to fits of temper, Sean was in an uproar. He was a father, and he had just heard that Iraqi soldiers had taken scores of babies out of incubators in Kuwait City and left them to die. The Iraqis had shipped the incubators back to Baghdad. A pacifist by nature, my brother was not in a peaceful mood that day. ‘We’ve got to go and get Saddam Hussein. Now,’ he said passionately. I completely understood his feelings. Although I had no family of my own then, who could countenance such brutality? The news of the slaughter had come at a key moment in the deliberations about whether the US would invade Iraq. Those who watched the non-stop debates on TV saw that many of those who had previously wavered on the issue had been turned into warriors by this shocking incident. Too bad it never happened. The babies in the incubator story is a classic example of how easy it is for the public and legislators to be mislead during moments of high tension. It’s also a vivid example of how the media can be manipulated if we do not keep our guards up. The invented story eventually broke apart and was exposed. (I first saw it reported in December of 1992 on CBC-TV’s Fifth Estate Canada’s “60 Minutes” in a program called “Selling the War.” The show later won an international Emmy.) But it’s been 10 years since it happened, and we again find ourselves facing dramatic decisions about war. It is instructive to look back at what happened, in order that we do not find ourselves deceived again, by either side in the issue.” Funny thing, you see, it’s always about selling a war, be it staging gas attacks or, as in Syria of May 2020, censoring reports of US troops burning Syria’s wheat harvest in order to engineer a famine. (Why else would someone burn crops?) How many examples could we come up with? Maidan Square and the sniper teams trained at NATO facilities in Poland? The issue here is war, a war on truth, a war fought though attacks on media, through control of media but mostly through disinformation. What is also clear is that efforts to portray, in this case, criticism of recognized terror organizations as “disinformation” is, in fact, material support of terrorism on behalf of governments whose public policy is opposition to those same groups.

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binaural-histolog · 7 years ago

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Interview with Wiseguy at Mindquake 2018

binaural-histolog: So how did all this get started?

WiseGuy: That's a big question.

BH: Okay, let me back up. So it used to be a very small scene. Brian David Phillips was doing things on Yahoo, and there was hypnovideo, the Maestro, etc. And then at some point it got too big to track. What happened?

WG: Well, the first thing I went to was probably 2007-2008, which was Hypnoticon. There was another conference, Hypnocon, that has been going on for like 15 years or so, but it's always been exclusive to the gay men's community so the rest of us didn't know about it.

At that time, I was a fiction writer. I posted on mcstories.com. And when I got there, it was a big surprise how many people read my stories, because if something is really popular, you'll get two, maybe three emails if you're lucky. There's no reddit or like button. There's no feedback. Simon keeps everything minimal and pure. He'll publish anything with very few exceptions, and he'll do no editing on it. It's his... what's the word? It's his aesthetic. And then suddenly you get all these people coming up and they know you and they like your stuff.

So Hypnoticon was a big success, and Mephki and Buddy [DrSlashBlight] got the idea of putting a convention together. Buddy was the face, and Mephki was the brains, the organizer. Buddy had this tremendous skill of being able to stand in the middle of the room and say "Guys, this is what we're going to do and it's going to be great and you're going to love it." And Mephki pulled everyone together and made it all happen. That was NEEHU, 2009. Mephki and Buddy had the New England Hypnosis Group, and there was a recreational hypnosis group next door, and they knew Lady Ru'etha, and she said come to this thing, and that was NEEHU 1. It was a single day. I sat in a couple of panels, talking about erotic hypnosis.

It was literally an unconference and a play party at night, in a not so great part of town. I was surprised that we didn't get in trouble with the police, and we realized later that the illegal police biker bar was next door, so the police weren't going to interfere with any disturbances around that area.

So NEEHU got bigger and bigger, and these groups all started to meet up, and so the people that were already into this found out about it. There were some things independent of NEEHU. Lee Allure and MrDream had their own thing that they run, DeepMindDarkwood. It's a camp, they keep it limited down to 45 people and that's it. But there were more people that wanted to join. Kansas City and Texas had a bunch of stuff happen. Black Rock City. And now there's five things happening yearly, and meetup groups throughout the country.

BH: Do you think there's a reason why everything started to come together in 2008?

Yes and no. All the elements were there, it could have happened earlier or later. But all the right things had to happen in the right order. NEEHU really needed Mephki and Buddy to kick it off, and there needed to be enough meetups and enough groups to keep it going. And there was a lot of learning in the community.

BH: What has the community learned?

WG: Oh, so much. In the beginning, informed consent was not a thing. If you were at a conference, it was assumed that you were consenting. You'd walk up to someone in the hallway, say "wanna see something cool?" and if they said yeah, you'd drop them. That's just... you can't do that now. It's not acceptable.

Safety and ethics was not a thing. There was a talk in NEEHU that was literally "Why do we need ethics?" And that's changed so much now. Safety and ethics are the first thing you learn, and every conference has a code of conduct.

BH: What do you think the community still has to learn?

WG: We still have to learn how to handle our shit properly.

We know how to handle the people who are clueless. We know how to handle the people who are obviously bad. We still have to figure out how to handle the people who are predators, the truly manipulative people. They'll pick their targets carefully, and it'll be someone who is new, and it happens alone in a room. There's no way to know what happened. It's one person's word against another. And it may not even be deception, they may believe their version of events completely. Belief is different from reality. These people will have friends, they have defenders, they'll say all the right things. So it's hard. There may not be a good answer.

BH: I remember reading a book on abuse called Why Does He Do That, and realizing I'd met abusers and seen them operate, and still hadn't put it all together. It is hard. On the other hand, I was encouraged by Divney's discussion about always believing the accuser by default.

WG: It's more complex than a single answer, though. I don't have a problem with BEHIVE's policy in their application, but my concern is that it doesn't scale well to larger events where the stakes are a lot higher than being banned from a local munch.

Mephki: This isn't a legal argument though. There's no standard beyond a reasonable doubt. It's a private party you can't go to, not going to jail or having your children taken away from you.

WG: Agreed, but it's still damage. It's something we haven't figured out yet.

[Much discussion ensues, in which everyone in the room weighs in. Everyone has cogent and nuanced arguments that I could not write notes on fast enough.]

BH: What's really impressed you lately? What's improved in the community that you didn't predict?

WG: Oh! Standards have evolved so much. There are so many bright young voices. Our representation has improved so much. There used to be a joke when you got out of a conference, you'd say "Remember me? I was the bearded white guy." Because that was everyone. Now you have non-binary people, femme representing people, bottom types. There are so many more points of view and inclusion in the community.

BH: One thing I've noticed is that there is an assumption that erotic hypnosis corresponds to kink and BDSM generally.

AmHypnotic, chiming in: Yes, and they're not the same thing. There's this tendency that the bigger and more intense something looks, the more impressive it is. But that's not what makes it work.

BH: I mention it because I really like the gentle femdom movement I've seen lately, where gently pulling on someone's hair is recognized and seen as dominant, and there's no pain or fear. It's not about turning everything up to 11.

WG: There's a lot of good things, but stuff like that is coming from the kink community in general. The EH community is barely 10 years old, and what we have been doing is copying what other conferences are doing, like scholarships for female presenters. And the internet and local groups getting together has been huge. There's so much better vetting of presenters and sharing of information now.

There's still a problem with sharing information. The TNG group had a presenter that had been vetted and it was a horror show. And then once it came out, there were presentations she'd given before that made it clear she had done this before, and so it's a question of getting all those people together. So there's a missing stair problem there.

Mephki: There is a discord server called the Watchtower which is all the conference and group leaders together, and there is a vetting service. There's work being done. There's hypnation. It is getting better. You have to be careful about ban lists, but they are private party events.

BH: What do you think the recreational and EH community can teach the clinical hypnosis community?

WG: [Laughter] There's no comparison. The EH community is leaps and bounds ahead of the professionals. There's no need for them to do it for money, so they have more freedom to experiment, and so it's all about the creativity. But there are professionals still reading off of scripts written in the 1950s.

[Much discussion ensues]

BH: I know there are talented individuals. Melissa Tiers, for example.

WG: No, there are absolutely some great people out there. Melissa Tiers is a rockstar. She's very good, no bullshit, always happy to show new things she's learned. Kaz Riley is another good example. But the field as a whole is still behind and playing it safe. There can be ten different tracks at a conference and not one presentation you want to go to.

Hypnomedia: Hypnothoughts Live is really good. They have a good mix of clinical and stage hypnotists.

WG: I've heard that, but I'm afraid that if I go, I'll get outed.

BH: So final question. Erotic hypnosis would seem to have a natural overlap with using hypnosis for sexual disorders. And yet, there's almost nothing about using hypnosis to treat sexual disorders. And there's sex research on BDSM and kink, but there's very little research into erotic hypnosis. Why do you think that is?

WG: I couldn't tell you. I know there's a Dr Will Horton who puts together a five day course on Erotic Hypnosis. The first three days are clinical, focusing on erectile dysfunction, anorgasmia, and things like that. The final two days, he hands out copies of Mind Play and talks about erotic hypnosis. The mixture of clinical treatment and erotic material in the same course is not something that anyone can do, but Dr Horton has a Psy D, so he can get away with doing it.

BH: But it does seem like so many techniques are essentially erotic hypnosis with the serial numbers filed off. Tantric Massage, Sensate Focus, and so on.

WG: There are many hypnosis things that do not show up in the field. But I don't know.

#mindquake #wiseguy #interview #binauralhistolog

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pcttrailsidereader · 6 years ago

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How an App Made Hiking Easier (perhaps too easy)

An excerpt from Taylor Gee’s article in The Guardian examining the unintended consequences of Guthook Guides’ maps that have made outdoor adventures far less wild. I must admit being old school myself and even feel sometimes that all of the information on Halfmile’s maps makes me feel a bit lazy. Guthook Guides’ seems, at times, to remove the mystery from the trail. What’s your reaction to Gee’s critique?

In March 2012, the Pacific Crest Trail changed for good when Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild, about her 1995 thru-hike of the trail, hit shelves and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. [Between the book and the movie] from 2013 to 2018, PCT applications nearly quadrupled.

But Wild wasn’t the only thing that transformed the trail that March. The same month, a thru-hiker named Ryan Linn quietly released an iPhone application called Guthook Guides. It took the entire set of tools needed for thru-hiking – a map, compass, guidebook and water reports – and consolidated them into a single virtual location. It functioned offline and crowdsourced updated information about trail conditions and campsites when online. Such an app might have been inevitable, but for ultralight-obsessed thru-hikers, it was a revolution.

Linn’s timing couldn’t have been more perfect. In the last three years, the app has been downloaded 337,000 times, and in 2018, a survey of 500 PCT hikers found that 85% used the app. What started in 2010 as a passion project is now a company that employs five people full-time and has mapped more than two dozen long trails around the world.

But as the the app’s empire continues to grow, many thru-hikers worry about its unintended consequences. They see themselves and fellow hikers depending on their phones to decide where to sleep and eat and to discover exactly how far, down to the tenth of a mile, they are from those places. They fear that American thru-hiking, once the ultimate test of self-reliance, is no longer as wild as it once was.

While attending Vassar College in 2002, Linn joined an outdoors club. The upperclassmen decided that the new recruits needed intimidating nicknames. One day, Linn and two other club members were driving past a hunting and fishing store and pulled over to wander the aisles for inspiration. Linn became “Guthook”, and it stuck through college and afterward, when he hiked the AT in 2007 and the PCT in 2010.

It was while hiking the PCT that Linn met Paul Bodnar, a guidebook author who was collecting GPS data on trail with the intent of updating a PCT guide he had published in 2009. In the era of “there should be an app for that”, it didn’t take long for the two to start talking about what a smartphone-based guide would look like. “We figured it would be something for us to do on the side, in between seasonal work,” says Linn, who since college had been doing various trail-crew and outdoor-education jobs.

After they finished their hike, Linn spent the next year and a half using the GPS data Bodnar had collected to create the first version of Guthook Guides, learning to code as he went. Visually, the app looks similar to the paper topographical maps hikers have used for decades. Virtual icons along the trail designate campsites, water sources, intersecting roads, and trail-town information. But unlike paper maps, Guthook Guides is GPS-enabled, and users can click on an icon to learn more or add a comment. The ability to leave comments, in particular, made Guthook Guides more than a guidebook. Hikers could tell other users whether a water source had gone dry, the quality of a campsite, and the friendliness of local businesses.

After the 2012 release, the app made just enough money for Linn to pay a friend to collect data while hiking the AT in 2013. (The app is free to download, but users must purchase guides for each trail.) The AT guide was released the next year. In 2015, Guthook Guides became available on Android phones. By then, Linn and Bodnar, the app’s co-creators, understood that Guthook Guides was no longer a side project. They went all in.

A sense of surviving in the wilderness is a major reason why a 2,000-mile hike is more than just a feat of athleticism. Taking a wrong turn, getting lost, navigating back – all that misadventure and the intellectual challenge of sorting it out makes for better stories than does walking in a straight line dictated by an app. Yet thru-hiking the PCT last year, I had to stop myself from checking the Guthook app as often as every hour. At one point, my hiking partner even instituted a no-Guthook rule, with the hope that we’d reclaim some sense of agency over our endeavor. Our self-imposed app ban didn’t last, because pretending we didn’t have this all-knowing resource in our pockets felt somehow inauthentic. Especially when most everyone else on trail was embracing it as reality.

It’s hard to overstate the impact that Guthook has had on the experience of thru-hiking. I talked to nearly a dozen hikers and trail managers who all seemed simultaneously concerned that the app enables hikers to lose self-reliance and awareness of their surroundings but couldn’t deny its supreme usefulness.

[PCT hiker Eric] Lee compares the impact of Guthook Guides to what Google Maps has done for driving. “We no longer have to think about landmarks and turns and street names. We just type our address into the phone and press go,” he says, noting that it undoubtedly makes thru-hiking an easier, more stress-free experience. But because of the app, he sees more hikers today who are not as viscerally connected to the trail. “They’re walking from waypoint to waypoint. It’s just a set of numbers.”

This effect has led to some pushback against the app. “I’ve encouraged people to not use it,” says Lucas Weaver, a 29-year-old fiber-optic technician who used Guthook Guides while hiking the Continental Divide Trail last year. “I’m not saying don’t get it, I’m saying don’t let it dictate, don’t rely on it.” Weaver is glad he hadn’t yet downloaded the app when he hiked the AT in 2015. “Being out there without any guide or technology makes it more adventurous,” he says.

The app’s popularity has coincided with the use of phones creeping into trails more generally. Now hikers have Instagram accounts to update with selfies, blogs to write, and loved ones to keep in touch with.

Sometimes use of the app enters into the absurd. “We came across many hikers who would use the app to the point they would lose common sense,” says Jen Nicholson, a 29-year-old physical therapist who also thru-hiked the Continental Divide Trail last year. She recalls hikers who insisted on walking five feet off to the side of the trail because their GPS told them that’s where the path was.

Then there are the stories of hikers relying on trail apps who lose or break their phones or even just run out of battery. For those who forgo paper backup maps to save weight (I was guilty of this myself), a dead phone makes getting lost more frightening than thrilling. Rachel Brown, membership-services manager for the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, recalls encountering this multiple times when hiking the trail in 2015. A friend of hers lost her phone, spent hours searching for it, didn’t find it, and had no backup maps. “She ended up camping out at a really confusing trail junction for three days until somebody else came,” Brown says. Another time, Brown hiked with a man who dropped his phone into a creek. “He ended up sticking like glue to my partner and me,” she recalls. “It was a little frustrating for us, because it kind of felt like we were babysitting. He was always there.”

Perhaps most telling is Guthook’s own experience. Last summer on a backpacking trip, Linn found he had drifted off of a poorly marked trail. “I stopped, and I was about to grab my phone,” says Linn. “Now I have to really consciously tell myself, ‘No, no, no. You just noticed you’re off the trail, go and find it.’” Linn is thoughtful about how his app has affected life on trails. “There are downsides to every new technology in the wilderness,” he admits. “Probably people are using Guthook a little more than I would have wanted.”

For all the good and the bad attributable to Guthook Guides, the consensus is things are just different now. In 2003, Eric Lee accidentally turned off the PCT and hours later ran into another hiker who told him he was going the wrong way. Lee didn’t believe him. “We brought out paper maps and discussed it for 15 minutes” before the other hiker convinced Lee of the truth. Back then that was part of the experience, and maybe even charm, of the trail. “Today that would never happen,” says Lee. “But I’m OK with that.”

#smart phones #Guthook Guides #Wild

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tom5ive · 6 years ago

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The 2018 Moments

Hey, let’s break the silence in this blog with a review of 2018, shall we? Hereby I’ll try to list some significant moments/things/ones that I consider influential in 2018. Something that in the future --maybe when I’m waiting for my flight-- would randomly pop up and “Hey, I remember that!”. That does not mean that these things are only temporary moments; it’s the opposite. They might have lingering effects that may influence me for the upcoming years…

Here goes!

Friends

I started off 2018 in Budapest with my friends as part of a week-long winter trip. Of course we had a lot of fun, but we also had some up-and-down moments. We started off our trip visiting the concentration camp in Auschwitz. It felt dark, sad and depressing...but it was such a valuable lesson of history. We often slept on the train or bus while navigating to different cities: comfortable beds were not our everyday thing during the trip. Also, Eastern Europe was dazzling cold. As it was our first ever European trip, we were quite ambitious to visit 6 cities merely in the span of 7 days...so indeed, our energy was drained. As you can guess: with that condition, conflict arose, everyone got more sensitive (including me). But don’t get me wrong, Eastern Europe is so beautiful!

All in all, those moments were the ones that tightened our bond. We learn to understand each other’s character and we didn’t stop hanging out ever since. We even went for another trip to Italy in the summer and I think it was one of those so-called moments of lifetime. Although we won’t meet that often again, I hope we’ll retain our bond even after we graduate 😊

Geoscripting

Geoscripting is a course title. Probably the best course I’ve ever taken during my master study. This traced back further into late-2017 though, when I decided to take the Python class. You know, programming has always been a daunting subject ever since I was in my bachelor study. I know it is important, but no matter how hard I tried, I always gave up. I really want to be able to code.

Among the recommended courses that I can take during the first period of my study was Python. I hesitated at first, because sometimes you would want to take the ‘safe’ path, especially when it is among the first class you take abroad; not to mention its relatively low passing rate (less than 60%). But then, screw the safe path! I took it anyway and I think it was one of the best decisions in my life.

Early 2018 was the time when I took the continuation course: Geoscripting, where you also code, but specifically in the wonderful geo-domain. I felt scripting has opened up a novel path in my life, a broad lane that I’d like to pursue. I know for sure, that my future, my career, would follow that path 😊 The future of geo-information is in scripting. Desktop GIS would get outdated pretty soon.

Spatial modelling and statistics

With the best course comes the toughest course. I think it was in this period that I felt the lowest, frustrated and fed up. I just could not comprehend the material. The sentences in the reader felt too long and complicated to understand. At some point I just skipped a class and went to the park just to calm my nerve.

But again, I am glad that I took this class. The professor, Gerard, was the best professor I’ve ever had. I know he is an expert, but it is amazing how he can just put himself among the students. His patience and the way he explained was super clear. I think it was him that kept me going; without such motivation I wouldn’t be able to pass the course.

Such figure is the kind of person I would like to be. I want to be an expert in my field, and when I do, I’d like to be able to put myself on other’s feet. Explain something as simple as possible, stay humble and hungry. I think that’s one way to show the significance of my expertise as well 😊

Reunion

My family came to visit me in Europe. It was 1997 when we left Paris, and after 21 years, the three of us came back. Gare du Nord was the place that we reunited. It was so memorable. My parents stayed for about 3 weeks in Europe, but we dedicated 10 days merely in Paris. And I still felt it was not enough..or maybe just the right amount. Every corner of the marvelous city has special story for us: that my parents can tell the name of each stop of RER B because it’s their everyday commute, that we used to eat at Flunch often because it was cheap and delicious (and still is!), that my mom and I used to wait at that Monthuchet bus stop when it’s time for my dad to come home, and a lot more. Countless.

I still shed my tear everytime I remember this. It is not an exaggeration that Paris holds such a special value for us, both happy and sad. And I feel really blessed that the three of us were able to walk down the Avenue des Champs-Élysées last year.

Thank you, God.

Cousin

Yup, my cousin, he came! He is also starting his study in Wageningen last year. It’s great to have a family while we’re living abroad like this. It also means more adventure. In fact, we went to Morocco last year. Hopefully more adventures would come!

Thesis

I started working on my thesis after the summer break last year. Looking back and seeing my progress now, I feel that a lot of things can be improved, particularly my time management. When I’ve been working with them for several straight days, I find it difficult to concentrate. Also, I got tired quite quickly. Usually at 9-10 I already went to the bed...although I have this weird habit of sleeping exactly 6 hours, so I always wake up around 4 in the morning. But I didn’t went straight working again, so I thought I should be able to use my time more effectively.

However, I am really happy with my supervisor. I feel like this is my first time doing ‘real’ research with a supervisor. We meet regularly and we always have a lively discussion. We think and we solve problem together. That’s amazing. Sorry to say, but it is unlike my previous experience when I worked with my bachelor thesis: I had to work super independently, with no one to discuss with (because my topic was quite weird anyway). At that time, I think I only met my supervisor about 2-3 times..for the whole thesis! It’s crazy if I think about it now.

I’m also glad about my thesis topic choice. I worked a lot with coding, with R… Combining spatial analysis with data science, which is the direction I’d like to follow for my career. Frustration popped up at times, but it’s part of the process!

#story of my life

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fibula-rasa · 7 years ago

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September 2018 in Review

You should all be proud of me this month, as I actually watched MORE than one movie made in this decade. There was little rhyme or reason to the films I watched this month. I was pretty scattered honestly and my viewing habits show it. I keep a full diary on letterboxd and IMDB.

A major highlight of September was TCM’s month-long series hosted by the African American Film Critics Association (AAFCA) The Black Experience on Film. I only caught a few of the films but went out of my way to watch the introductory conversations. TCM’s Trailblazing Women series with Illeana Douglas was a favorite feature of mine and I’d love to see even more hosted series for marginalized groups in film history. It might be too much to suggest Disability on Film… But I’ve been considering doing a blogging series on that myself!

The reviews below the jump are essentially transcriptions of the notes I took right after watching the films. They’re presented in the order in which I watched them.

Brigsby Bear (2017)

23 January 2017 | 97 min. | Color

When Brigsby Bear came out there were a number of people, in real life and online, who gushed about it non-stop. I was pretty wary to see it. In the past, often when people around my age pick out a new darling film or TV series, I’ve been burned. Sometimes it’s something cynically violent in a way that’s disturbing to overlook. Sometimes it’s something with too much ironic detachment for my taste. Or it’s something straight-up ableist, sexist, or bigoted. (How are we still traumatizing all “Strong Female Characters” in the 2010s. Come on.)

BUT, Brigsby Bear was really good!? I honestly wasn’t expecting such a heartfelt and humanist film. A modern comedy movie that has faith in the good of all people? Amazing. I hope that the success of this film can be the beginning of a new chapter of millennial comedy so we can wholly move on from calling cynical intellectualized bigotry humor.

I got emotional as the friendship between Spencer and James developed. Maybe because I’m a clinically strange person myself. I don’t always have the energy in social situations to keep my neurotypical mask on and when I show my actually autistic self to people it doesn’t usually go all that well. That’s why it’s a special, joyful moment to find acceptance. Brigsby captures this so well. That feeling where people suddenly like you for your weirdness, rather than getting aggressive over it, is like a psychological hug. Kyle Mooney’s portrayal of James in those moments of acceptance is very true to life.

It’s refreshing to have the tension of a comedy film built around a feeling that misunderstandings might make everything fall to pieces. And then the tension releases because everyone is trying so hard to be their best self and things get sorted. I’m used to this dynamic in quite a few old romantic comedy films, but it’s a strategy not employed all that often today. If this is where millennial art is headed I’m ready to take out the trash marketed to us in the last decade.

At first I was worried that this was going to be another early 1980s throwback nostalgia piece without the spirit of media it was referencing (yes, I’m already fatigued by this). That thought was dispelled quickly.

The casting is great. The use of Mark Hamill is particularly ingenious.

Where to watch: it’s currently on demand through Starz.

Perfect Blue (1997)

28 February 1998 | 81min. | Color

Perfect Blue is a must-see for giallo fans, I think. It was very cool to see a Japanese filmmaker create a giallo-inspired psycho-detective thriller and specifically to see Satoshi Kon’s take given his skill in weaving tales about identity.

Perfect Blue is a harsh criticism of Idol culture (and, more broadly, fan culture).

This film requires a huge content warning for sexual violence and assault. If I hadn’t been watching Perfect Blue in a theater, I absolutely would have had to pause the film and take breaks a few times. Which is why, if you haven’t seen any other Kon films, it might be best to start elsewhere–even though Perfect Blue was his first feature. My first exposure to Kon was a few years back with Millennium Actress (2001) and then Paprika (2006). Both are great for newcomers to Kon. Paprika is usually the easy to find. Tokyo Godfathers (2003) is also worth watching, but pretty far afield from Perfect Blue.

Now I’m not suggesting that Perfect Blue isn’t good. It’s great. It’s simply that it’s such an intense and potentially triggering film that it might put some people off Kon’s other work. That may well have happened to me if this had been the first Kon film I saw rather than my last of his filmography.

As with Kon’s other films, the animation is fantastic and imaginative. I don’t want to give too much away about the story, so feel free to ask if you need more specific content warnings.

Where to watch: This one’s not so easy to get your hands on. Your local library or video store might be the best place to look. But, GKids does have some theatrical screenings upcoming.

New Orleans (1947)

18 April 1947 | 90min. | B&W

I watched this film on TCM as part of the aforementioned Black Experience on Film series with AAFCA.

As it was a month-long series in September, I probably should have mentioned it sooner, but the whole series was fantastic. The critics offered useful context for all of the films. Given that the films elicit mixed responses and have complicated roles in cultural and social history, it was very cool to see people debate and disagree on the films. It was valuable to witness even the disagreements that weren’t all that complicated and more about personal taste than politics. With New Orleans for example, one of the hosts liked the film and the other disliked it, though both held an appreciation for it. More civil disagreement about films, please and thanks.

I liked New Orleans and am disappointed that I hadn’t even heard about it before. Although, I do agree with critic/host Jamaal Finkley that it’s a disappointment that New Orleans doesn’t provide any insight into the personal trials of the Black characters.

It’s always a treat to see Arturo de Cordova, but that goes double when it’s an American film where his role isn’t informed by Latin/Mexican stereotypes. This is actually one the more refreshing aspects of the film. The Black characters lack interiority and their struggles are left out of the film, but Louis Armstrong’s and Billie Holiday’s characters are average people and don’t hew to stereotypes. It’s not exactly a victory for representation, but it’s still an improvement.

That said, the music is great and I wish there were more of it. It’s well established in the film that New Orleans’ problems largely come from badly-behaved white people, which I appreciate. (Is that too real?) Arturo de Cordova is great as the romantic lead of the film. I only wish Dorothy Patrick had the charisma to seem like a better match for him.

New Orleans is definitely worth checking out if the progress of Black representation in film is of interest to you or if you have a special interest in jazz or New Orleans.

Where to watch: It looks like Kino’s DVD release might be out of print, so libraries & video stores might be your best bet. OR, you can wait until TCM plays it again.

The Boy (2016)

22 January 2016 | 97min. | Color

Sooooo depending on how long you’ve been following the blog, you may or may not know that I love horror movies and ghost stories and whenever those things meet. When I first saw the trailers for The Boy ahead of its theatrical release, it did pique my interest. However, that’s mostly because they made me laugh. I am not someone who’s creeped out by dolls though. If you are, I suspect this film actually might be scary to you.

The Boy has a solid premise. At first it reminded me of the story “Baby Doll” by Larry LeClair from the radio show Nightfall. (”Baby Doll” is a better story, FYI, and creepier.) Unfortunately, the execution of The Boy’s story was disappointing. The film drags when it shouldn’t and the flow of the lead character warming to the doll felt stilted. The Boy’s big reveal ended up feeling a bit cheap as a consequence.

That said, I had fun watching it. I got some good laughs from Brahms’ ghostly antics and the middle part of the film is chock full of them.

The house from the film is so beautiful. I can’t believe it’s in Vancouver. Or that it’s a location for Little Women (1994)? I somehow didn’t recognize it.

Whether The Boy is worth a watch is debatable. If you like Haunted Doll stories, the execution and ending might be unsatisfying for you. Maybe if you like the odd modern horror film that can’t embrace its own camp, The Boy would be perfect for you?

Where to watch: It’s currently streaming on Netflix.

Street Scene (1931)

5 September 1931 | 80min. | B&W

This movie was a good old kick in the pants.

Street Scene an adaptation of a Pulitzer-Prize-winning stage play by Elmer Rice. It depicts the problems of New York City tenement residents and their relationships with one another. Though this is a pre-code film, I still imagine there would have been notable changes for censors. That said, the film is still very… mature. Additionally, I’ve seen suggestions that the film we know today is a re-edit of the film for post-code re-release. Hoo boy, what that source material must have been then.

One challenge a lot of filmmakers have when adapting stage plays to film is avoiding static staging–as if someone simply recorded the play. Street Scene doesn’t fear this and I think it works out. Almost all of the film takes place on the stoop of the tenement. The building facade is a truly impressive setup for filming. The camera work livens up the visuals with tracking shots and unexpected angles not commonly seen in early-sound films. (Unsurprisingly, Gregg Toland worked on the film!)

The acting is fantastic and, as someone who has spent the lion’s share of her life in cultural melting pots, the atmosphere the actors create is very authentic. Frankly, after living in Brooklyn for five years (four years ago), some neighborhoods still feel like this–only the voices are Puerto Rican and West Indian instead of European. It’s fascinating to see those veins of permanence in a city that’s changed as much as New York has.

The story primarily focuses on one family. The matriarch (Estelle Taylor) is bored with her unhappy marriage and takes up with the man who collects payment for milk delivery. The eldest child, Rose (Silvia Sydney), is pursued by seemingly every young, eligible man on the block and her not-so-young and not-so-eligible boss. The only one Rose shares feelings for is her downstairs neighbor, an unemployed student, Sam (William Collier, Jr.), who also happens to be Jewish. There is plenty of external resistance to their relationship for anti-semitic and/or financial reasons. Rose’s misgivings are a little more complicated. She feels trapped by the neighborhood and is wary to tie herself down to her current status at so young an age, regardless of how she feels about Sam. In the end, Rose’s mother’s fate cements her own. You can’t help but feel for both of them.

In case you haven’t already gathered this, the film calls for a content warning for anti-semitism and the use of anti-semitic slurs. [Note for clarification: the film is not anti-semitic, a few of the characters are.]

Street Scene takes social issues head on and is a pre-code through and through. It’s absolutely a top recommendation if you like pre-codes. It’s also worth watching if you’re into New York City history or have an interest in film adaptations of stage plays.

Where to watch: This one is pretty easy to see, but I haven’t sussed out the distribution rights or home video releases.

I also watched the film Sanatorium pod Klepsydrą / The Hourglass Sanatorium (1973). That left me with too many feelings to put in an amalgam post. Once I sort through how personal I want to get in discussing the film publicly, you can be sure it’ll get its own post up here.

Last Month’s Review

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levi-inthesun · 7 years ago

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Dream a Little Dream of Me

Summary: following a freak accident after your 27th birthday, you stopped aging. In 1942 you joined the war effort as a nurse on the front lines. In 1943 you met and fell in love with one Sargent James Barnes. In 1945, you learned of his death. Now, in 2018, you meet a man who looks just like your long lost lover.

A/N: I just watched Age of Adaline for the umpteenth time and decided to use a similar idea for my main character. Sorry if this isn’t very good.

Memories are noted by ~~

It was always the cold, rainy days that took you back, acting as a time machine. As you walked to the cafe a few blocks from your apartment, images flashed behind your eyes.

~~It had been so cold. The winter in Italy had been unforgiving and cruel to everyone, especially the injured soldiers. The rain had been pounding on the tent around you acting as a soundtrack, balanced out by the sounds of bombs and gunfire in the distance. Somehow, it soothed you. You had gotten into a steady flow, humming a tune that somehow fit the music of war and rain.

“Hello, I am your nurse tonight, Amelia,” you started as you introduced yourself to a soldier who had just entered the infirmary. “Can you tell me your name, Sargent?” you asked, a gentle smile tugging on your lips.

“James Barnes, ma’am,” a flirty grin spreading over his tired features.

“Very well. If you would sit down here so I can examine your injuries that would be helpful. Where are they located?”

“My chest and back,” he responded, grunting slightly as he sat down on the cot.

“If you would remove your shirt that would be very helpful,” you said as you put on a pair of gloves.

“For you doll, anytime,” he sighed as he carefully unbuttoned his shirt, then pulled off his under t-shirt.

You rolled your eyes but didn’t respond. You were used to getting comments like this from the soldiers. Once his shirt was removed however, you gasped lightly to see the deep cut running along his back.

“This will certainly need stitches,” you informed him as you quickly gathered everything you would need. You quickly cleaned him up and sat on the edge of the cot, facing his back.

“Now, this is going to sting, but only for a few moments. I am giving you an anesthetic to numb the area.”

James nodded and hissed as you injected the numbing liquid into his back, and watched him relax as it immediately began to do it’s job.

“This is going to take a little while, the cut is long,” you began suturing the wound carefully, methodically moving the needle in and out of his skin, knotting, and continuing.

“Doll,” James began, “Tell me something about yourself that no one knows.”

“Hmm, and why should you be privy to that sort of knowledge, Sargent?” you asked, knotting another stitch.

“It’s not that I am more deserving of that type of information, I am just in need of a distraction and the things no one knows about a person tend to be the most interesting.”

You thought for a moment, still focusing on the sutures as you tried to remember some memory you could tell him that would give away the dark secret you held within you that certainly, no one knew about.

“Well, when I was 13 my very best friend and I ran off into the wooded area by our houses and decided we would live there as wild-women for the rest of our lives. We were quite convinced of it.” You tied off another knot and started another, “partway through the day, we decided we should start a fire. We had prepared before hand and had any supplies we thought we would need. We piled up the driest sticks we could find and I pulled out the matches and lit the fire. Only, we had failed to make a clearing in the dirt, you know, move anything flammable away from the fire. There were dried, dead leaves everywhere, and you can guess what happened next.” James turned to you slightly, eyes wide, “You started a forest fire?” he asked, amused.

“Indeed we did,” you said, voice still as even and calm as it always was. “We only realized it too late so we gathered our things and ran back to my house, hid the bag of supplies, and then left the house again to pretend we had only been on a walk. We walked past the woods where we could smell the smoke and slightly see flames, so we ran to tell any adult we could find,” you chuckled slightly at the memory. “To this day, no one knows it had been us. I’m convinced that if we had waited any longer to tell anyone we would have burned the entire neighborhood down.”

You finished the last stitch and carefully placed a dressing over it to protect it.

“And you aren’t lying?” James asked, to which you shook your head no and held up your right hand.

“Scouts honor, I actually burned down half of the woods by my house and almost the entire neighborhood,” a mischevious grin spread over your face as the man took in your words.

“Well doll,” he started, shaking his head, “that is probably the most fantastic thing I ever heard.”

There was a glint of something in his eyes, and it was that that kept drawing you to him.~~

You made it to the cafe and ordered your drink before finding an empty booth next to a window.

The horrors of war would always follow the good memories. The friends you made and lost. Too many lost. The sound of gunfire drawing closer to camp. Sometimes you’d dream what would have happened had you been able to live a normal life. You would have gotten married, had babies, grow old with someone you loved… but those dreams only lead to more heartache.

You shook your head, trying to rid yourself of all the thoughts circling around your head and observed the other patrons, taking a sip of your coffee, but your thoughts dragged you back to James’ blue eyes staring deeply into your own as you traded stories that night while everyone else was asleep. He told you about his best friend Steve, the tiny, chronically sick man who lied so many times to enlist. How many times he had had to make sure Steve wasn’t killed- apparently he was apt at picking fights, but not winning them with his small stature.

After the coffee shop, you made your way to the bookstore you worked at, greeted by the little bell that rung out as the door opened and closed behind you.

“Goodmorning Ruth,” you called out cheerfully as you passed the owner to put your things away.

“Morning Mia,” she called after you.

The day had been relatively slow, rainy days were like that. The rain would bring in nostalgic feeling readers who would find a comfortable spot to sit and read through some book that had piqued their interest. Neither Ruth or you minded these people. They helped add to the warmth the small shop already held.

You were re-doing the display that showed out to the street when someone caught your eye. He was tall, broad, longish hair, full beard, very handsome. He felt familiar somehow. You did your best to focus on the task at hand but found yourself looking at him again and again, only to catch him looking back at you, too.

“Mia!” Ruth called out from the register, “Remember that large order you put together yesterday?” she asked as you approached her.

“Yes, I left it in the back since it was quite hefty,” you responded.

“This gentleman is here to pick it up, would you show him to it and help him take it to his car?” she asked, eyes flitting between you and the man.

You narrowed your eyes at Ruth, only momentarily so that only she would notice it. “I would be happy to,” you responded cheerfully and led the man to the back room where his order was currently being kept.

“I take it you are Steven then?” you asked as you showed him the piles of boxes containing all the books he had ordered.

“That I am,” he said, “and you are, Mia?” he asked, looking at your nametag.

“Yes, not that Ruth yelling out to me made it even more obvious,” you shrugged. “May I ask why you have bought so many books? Don’t get me wrong, if I didn’t watch my budget I would be buying this amount every week,” you said chuckling.

“I haven’t read much lately,” he replied, picking up all three boxes at once as if it were nothing. “It felt like it was about time to get back into it.”

You opened the door for him and smiled, “You picked out some amazing books. I was delighted to find someone out there was going to enjoy so many of my favorite books.”

“I have gotten a lot of recommendations over the last few years. A good friend of mine just… moved back into town and we ended up challenging each other to a read off, and well, here we are,” his eyes sparkled as he spoke of books and his friend and again you had the odd sensation that you knew him. But, you reached his car and helped him by opening the door so that he could put the boxes in.

“Enjoy your books, Steven,” you called to him as he got in his car.

He waved at you and pulled out into traffic.

When you went back in, you gave Ruth the stink eye.

“What, Mia? Can’t an old woman like myself wish love for a younger one? He is handsome and loves books. You only just need to make sure he is kind and you are good to go!”

You simply rolled your eyes, “Yeah, okay Ruth.”

The rest of the week went by slowly. Between shifts at the bookstore, hanging out with your cat, and going out a couple times with your best friend Sarah to get coffee, you didn’t really do much. So when Friday finally rolled around you were pretty content to just read in your apartment while Donna, your cat, curled up around your feet.

The dream was quickly shattered with a phone call.

“Mia, before you say no, I just need you to think about me for a moment,” Sarah began as soon as you answered the phone. “There is a new bar that just opened up in Brooklyn and it is owned by that dreamy man I’ve gone on a few dates with and we have to go. Please? I will owe you so much for this!” she begged.

You took in a deep breath and did your best to not shut down at the thought of not staying in. “Okay fine. What’s the dress code?” you asked, giving up.

“Eee!” she squealed in your ear, “I will be over in 20 minutes and we can get ready together!” she said quickly before you could change your mind.

“Bring pizza!” you added before she could hang up, and said goodbyes after she promised she would bring pizza.

40 minutes later, Sarah walked into your apartment, pizza in hand, along with a bag of clothes.

“Ah, you beautiful thing you!” you said to the pizza as you opened up the box and took a bite before letting her drag you off to your room.

“Okay there is no way in hell I am ever wearing this,” you stared at your reflection a moment longer before turning to your friend who was currently perched on your bed.

“Babe, you look smoking hot! You could kill people with how hot you look!” Sarah complimented.

“Good enough reason for me not to wear it then!” you shot back.

“Ugh, I know you grew up in the 40’s and all, but you’d think you would have learned to better dress with the times,” she said shaking her head.

“Well, I guess I haven’t,” you said as you unzipped and slipped out of the revealing dress.

“This one,” You said, holding up a deep green, off the shoulder dress flared out slightly from the waist and would hit a few inches above your knee.

“This is more me,” you got into the dress and took in your appearance. It was much shorter than you would have liked, hitting you mid-thigh, but it reminded you of a dress you wore once in the 50’s.

“Okay, yeah you’re right,” Sarah said dejectedly, “that one is way more you.”

Sarah ended up wearing the black mini dress you had refused earlier, and soon you were both out the door.

The bar absolutely blew you away and you walked in mouth hanging open. It was designed after the bars from the 40s and they absolutely nailed it.

“Why- why didn’t you tell me?” you asked Sarah quietly as you looked over the nostalgia-inducing space around you.

“Because then I wouldn’t have gotten to see you with that particular look in your eyes that you have now,” she replied softly. You gave her hand a tight squeeze before walking off to let the good memories take over and Sarah went off to get drinks and find Luke.

“Hey, it’s Mia, right?” a familiar voice asked.

You turned around to see Steven from earlier that week. He was wearing a dark blue button-up with a loose tie, suspenders and dress pants.

“Yeah, it’s good to see you, Steven,” you said as you took his extended hand.

“Call me Steve. Are you here alone?” he asked, curiosity in his voice.

“No, my best friend brought me here, I was completely surprised to find the theme so, familiar,” you said before you could think about what was coming out of your mouth. “Uh, I mean I studied history, and took a great interest in architecture and decor throughout the decades and this is, spot on.” You breathed a silent sigh of relief when he accepted your explanation.

“I would have to agree with you,” he responded warmly. “Very authentic.”

Sarah was now by your side, handing you a beer.

You thanked her and took a drink from the bottle, “Oh, Steve, this is Sarah, Sarah this is Steve, the guy who had to have ordered a hundred books the other day?”

Sarah nodded, “Damn, you didn’t mention he was good looking too,” she said under her breath so only you could hear her. “Good to meet you!” she said, shaking his hand. In which he responded likewise.

Soon she was dragging you off to meet some friends and her most recent beau, Luke. You were pleased that besides being charming, he was kind. You could see it in his eyes how much he cared for Sarah.

You had only been there an hour and you were already beginning to feel drained. You were able to find an unoccupied table in the corner and sat down as a band took the stage. Like the environment around them, they were dressed in 40’s like fashion and began to play the tunes you knew so well.

You had gotten so lost in the familiar tune, you hadn’t noticed that Steve had approached you.

He cleared his throat, “Mia?”

Startled from your trance, you turned to him quickly, “I am so sorry, I hope you haven’t been there for long.” “Not at all,” he said, “mind if we join you?”

Unaware there was a second person, you turned to look at the other man.

You thought your heart stopped.

“James?”

The words came out quietly but he had heard, and a confused look spread over his face while Steve watched the exchange with curiosity.

“I am so sorry, you just look like someone I knew a long time ago,” you said shaking your head, “clearly I’ve had too much to drink,” you chuckled, trying desperately to save the interaction.

“It’s okay,” the man said as he stretched out his hand, “I’m Bucky.”

“Mia,” you said quickly, voice still hushed, shaking his hand.

“So, Buck, Mia is the woman from the bookstore,” Steven said hoping to relieve some of the tension.

“Oh, that Mia,” he said, a smile spreading over his handsome features.

“How is your reading challenge going, by the way?” you asked.

The two men looked at each other sheepishly, “We haven’t even started yet,” Bucky replied. “Haven’t had the time,” he shrugged.

“It happens, I was just curious.”

“What books should we start with?” Steve asked.

“Oh my, there are so many good options,” you thought for a moment going over what you remembered from the large order. “Definitely anything by Jane Austen, but you have to remember that she is the queen of satire as you read her books,” you told them.

The conversation moved from books to movies to anything imaginable. Soon, it felt as if you had been friends your entire, very long life.

“I have to say,” you started, taking a sip from your beer, “you both look so familiar to me it’s… absurd.”

The men eyed each other cautiously, but you didn’t notice.

“Sorry, that is probably so weird, the feeling just won't leave.” You shook your head, slightly embarrassed.

“It does feel like we knew each other a long, long time ago,” Bucky said quietly, voice distant.

You and Steve both nodded.

If only the three of you had realized then the truthfulness of Bucky’s words.

Bucky paced the hallways of the compound all that night and the next trying to figure out why Mia was so familiar to him. He could feel it from the moment he laid his eyes on her, and it only grew once they shook hands and talked through the evening.

Everyone had had enough of Bucky’s pacing and sent Steve to “for the love of God, make it stop,”.

“Buck, man, what’s gotten into you? Still thinking about Mia?” Steve asked as he approached his agitated friend.

“I don’t know why or how, but she was important. I can just feel it.”

In the meantime, you were absolutely certain you were going insane.

“He died,” you whispered into the darkness of your room. You remember the day you found out as if it were yesterday. ~James had been sent out on a mission with the ‘Howling Commandos’ and the man called Captain America- who you quickly realized was your new friend Steve. (You felt stupid for not realizing that one sooner). ~~You were relaxing, having just gotten off a shift when you overheard some of the superiors going over the list of men lost from the mission.

“Sargent James Barnes,” was the only name that caught your attention.

Tears began streaming down your cheeks as you ran to your bunk where you spent the rest of the day, sobbing quietly into your very flat pillow.~~

The coincidence, however, of the man who looked like James being good friends with Steve Rogers- who had been James’ friend back in the day, could not be overlooked. Steve was alive today thanks to the super soldier serum given to him during the war. What if Bucky really was James?

Your dreams were full of James, but, like everytime you dreamed of your love lost long ago, he was always just out of reach.

Tell me what you think!

#Bucky Barnes #Bucky x oc #bucky barnes fanfiction

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rhodes-terminal · 7 years ago

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Prompt writing Group? 20,Apr,2018 - 04,May, 2018. Prompt: IT’S NOT MY FAULT. Final word count: 2270. Written By: Keenon Rhodes.

It’s not my fault I am trespassing, the hotel receptionist didn’t interact with me, No ‘How can I help you today?’, not a ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’, not even a simple ‘welcome!’, just a half second uninterested glance. It’s thanks to her negligence that I can do something I have always wanted to do; see the inside of this place.

This building is much older than I thought it was, I knew it was old but seeing a year really puts it into perspective. In the lobby there is a painting of the hotel from the perspective of the streets in 1913 when it first opened. In the painting there is only one street, a lot more trees and one other building; the train station that is still open today.

Let me think, my grandmother died in 91’ she was 83 at the time meaning she was born in… 1908? So she would have been five! Wow my grandmother is older than this place, or was. I sound like a little kid thinking like that it’s kinda nice. I remember she told me she had stayed in this hotel on her wedding night on the tenth floor, said looking out the window was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen.

Unfortunately I need a card key to gain access to the elevator, that’s okay I’ll just walk along green marble floor for a while, it’s unexpectedly empowering. Maybe it’s seeing a reflection of various shades of mossy greens looks quite handsome I think I will sit in one of the lobby chairs, admire the reflections of others.

The upholstery of the chair look like it had a lot of care put into it, very intricate and the closer I look at it the more detail I notice, like a hand made tapristy, truly a work of beauty. I really don’t belong here, I must stick out like a sore thumb everyone I have seen walk by are wearing some very fashionable fine looking clothing. I am just here in jeans and a t-shirt Is it normal for someone to walk in from the street, sit down and watch people as they walk by?

The sight of a family in the reflection compels me to break my eyes away from the emerald floor, they embodied aristocracy like whoever designed this hotel also designed this family. One of the kids has a card and activate the elevator, I decided to wait for the elevator with them. All of us are completely silent watching the red digital numbers count down.

I remember when I was about fourteen mom and dad took my sister and I to Ottawa and the whole time we were so loud, constantly making jokes and telling stories it’s like we never ran out of things to talk about. We even got a noise complaint from another guest in the motel we were staying in, but that was on our last night so we just ended up being louder. It was a lot of fun.

The elevator door slides open making almost no noise, it’s spacious enough to fit a couch which half of the family floop onto as soon as they get in. Without looking up from his phone the father presses on the button marked seven I step in and press the button marked ten. Just like that I am on my way? No one is going to see if I have a card of my own?

The sharp ping from the elevator hitting floor ten breaks my thought, I was so wrapped up in my own head I didn’t even realize the family stepped off the elevator. Did one of them try to ask me something? I must be mistaken. The door of the elevator begins to close, I stick my hand out activating the motion sensor, the door jumps to a stop like a startled rabbit before slowly retreating. I step onto floor ten...I think all the doors are locked.

Why did I never get a pet rabbit? I remember at one point in my life I had that thought or at least the idea of having a pet rabbit. Now that I think about it, was it that I wanted a rabbit as a friend? How young was I when I had this thought? For some reason I remember my hand was full of marshmallow. RIGHT when I was four my parents had taken me camping for the first time. I burnt my hand trying to grab a hot marshmallow off the fire, I must have thought about wanting a rabbit as a friend right before the pain hit me, I wonder if I still have the scar.

It’s there, it’s very faint, I have to stretch my fingers very wide and hold it at a specific angle so the light hits it just right, but it’s there. I use to look at it so much even show it off when I was in my teens, it use to be so much more predominant I guess time really does heal all wounds. I lower my hand and notice something directly in front of me, on the ceiling; a security camera pointed right at me.

How long have I been standing here staring at my palm like a weirdo? Has hotel security been watching me this whole time? I let my arm fall back to my side and walk away from the mechanical gaze but now I can’t shake the feeling that I am being watched very closely. I turn the corner and find another camera, this one is not looking directly at me like it’s pretending not to notice me.

I have walked past the first camera I spotted at least nine times now, they must know I am here. Any minute now I am going to be thrown out, possibly even charged. I need to find some way out soon, but all the doors need a key card, so does the elevator. I have to get out, I need to- hang on, this door is different.

First thing, this door is about two centimeters into the wall unlike the other doors which stick out about half a centimeter. The door itself looks older, that it’s tattered, the paint is thin in some places, particularly beside the doorknob which is what makes the door stand out the most. The other doors have handles with a slot on top to insert your key card, this door has the most simple grey, slightly beaten knob you could think of, with a slot on the front for an average everyday key, the best part? Someone either forgot or simply did not lock it.

Whatever the reason the door was left unlocked is ultimately beyond me, what does matter is how irresponsible it is, I mean look at me. I was trying to get away from security and now I am in this cramped hallway. Wouldn't it be interesting if the reason was for convenience? Well it’s not my problem.

It looks nothing like the rest of the hotel, it’s like I walked into a completely different building. This hall is almost as narrow as the door I walked through. The walls, a basic drywall, painted with a plain eggshell colour. The floor, large evenly squared tiles, same shade as the walls. Every surface is so dirty is like looking at rotten eggs.

In my last year of high school my friends and I had planned on egging the teachers cars, except for Mr.Gardner he was cool. We had let twenty cartons of eggs sit out in the sun for a week! Then Adrien went a bragged about the plan to whoever would listen and of course Peggy Watts found out and went crying to the teachers about our plan. I wonder whatever became of them, not just my friends but Mr.Gardner and Peggy too.

I just realized, I was so wrapped up in my thoughts I was not paying attention to where I was going, lost track of where I am. I remember every few feet the hallway broke left or right into more hallways, I guess I chose whatever way looked more interesting. Eventually the walls became a maze of pipes and wires, except this wall in front of me now it’s littered with graffiti and the hallway does not break left or right, hold on there is a door frame around this wall but no door.

It’s a service elevator, I didn’t notice it at first but on the left wall on the other side of the door frame there is a number pad. Beside it is a big button with an arrow pointing to the ceiling, below that is a hole, with a pin sticking out of the center of it, I bet it originally had a big button, with an arrow pointing the opposite direction as the one above it.

I press the top button, I hear a faint click but nothing happens, I try holding it, nothing. Maybe it’s broken? I press on the pin in the hole, I hear a similar click but still nothing. Well I have cornered myself, it’s only a matter of time before someone finds me, whether it's security or maintenance makes no difference, this is the end on my journey. Might as well have a peek behind the curtain that is the hotel employees.

My first job was customer service at a chain restaurant, it was terrible and the only reason I took it was because I wanted my own car. It was in my last year of university and was tired of taking the bus, my parents were willing to pay for a lot of things while I went to university, but a car? That was a luxury in there mind. I was at that job for less than a year then I got my first accounting job and never looked back.

If there is one thing I miss about that job it would have to be the collective bitterness all the other employees had towards most of the customers in general especially the regulars, you would at least expect one of them to have been awesome to deal with, no everyone is headache in one way or another. Looks like these hotel employees agree with me.

‘I hate dealing with people’ is either carved or written at least three times on each wall, on one wall someone used permanent marker to write ‘I want to escape this hell hole’ and judging by the shape of the ‘E’ the same person wrote ‘the old management was better’ on the wall across from it. Below that someone wrote in blue pen ‘Fuck off Eric! the old management sucked’ whoever wrote that also wrote ‘dickbutt’ on the far wall, opposite the door frame. A drawing of a cartoon character I have seen circling around the internet, standing boldly on the word that names it. One person simply carved a variety of profanitys all over the place along with a carving of four numbers.

2270 I punch that into the number pad, press the big button, hear a click, the revving of an electric motor, the sensation of being hoisted upwards, concrete wall slowly covers the opening I walked into. Really? It was that easy? At no point upper management saw the elevator code exposed for the whole world to see? Who would have thought such negligence was aloud.

Because there is no door on the elevator because of that I have the pleasure of watching a moving mural of hastily written profanities I really do enjoy seeing as much of it as I can. Suddenly the elevator comes to a halt. But there is no hallway in front of me just concrete and graffiti. I try the code and button again but nothing, before the idea of being trapped enters my mind I hear a rattling behind me.

As I turn around I remember the door frame was also on the other side of the elevator. I find a small room there is a pile of copper pipes leaning against the far wall, a plethora of 2x4’s cut to random lengths, a few broken and abandoned tools and cans of paint with the lid haphazardly placed on top. One can in particular calls out to me, it’s dried soft yellow colour drips down the side of it almost compels me to remember.

I can’t or that is I don’t want to remember it’s...it’s just too much. Turning my attention to the source of the rattling I suppress the memory once again. I walk up the four steps leading to a steel door which leads to the roof of this hotel. I step outside, greeted by a heavy warm wind and pock-faced man, who looks to be about my age smoking a cigarette.

I give him a simple nod and walk further away from the door, he greets it with a long pull from his cigarette and a suspicious scowl, I can feel his glare burning into my back as I admire the sight of my city from this perspective. It’s one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen I wish I could have seen stuff like this everyday.

As I draw closer to the edge I can hear the pock-faced man shouting something, it doesn’t matter what he has to say it’s already too late. I close my eyes and continue walking and let one comfort envelope me; the truth that it’s not my fault.

@lazy-author @writersroses @willowandsnow @fightingforwriting @melodielgrace @jaimistoryteller @imawriterhelp @fictionpot @panticwritten

Sorry if I missed tagging anyone, I hope you enjoy my story and I look forward to reading everyone else. I had a lot of fun writing this. For anyone who is a little lost.

#shortstoryshare

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charitywaterblog · 7 years ago

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Meet our 2018 Summer Interns!

This summer, charity: water has 13 excited and dedicated interns working to support our staff in incredible ways. They help us run the office, work with our supporters, and so much more. Needless to say, they’re a crucial part of the charity: water team. Meet our phenomenal summer interns!

Jordan Goldberg

School: The University of Texas at Austin Team: People and Culture Hometown: Houston, Texas

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I wanted to be immersed in an environment where I knew everyone was passionate about what they were doing and actually wanted to come to work every day. The first time I interviewed with charity: water, I could tell that it was filled with young, creative, and inspiring individuals and that I would be lucky to learn from them. charity: water’s mission keeps me aware of the water crisis and makes me hopeful that there is a solution to this problem. I know that the individuals at charity: water will be a huge part of the solution.

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? I love the strong culture at charity: water. Everyone genuinely wants to meet you and learn more about you. charity: water promotes respect, openness, and fun while also keeping you motivated to work hard. I see that everyday in the office.

Fun Fact: I love to travel. I just spent 2 weeks in India, visiting cities like Bangalore, Agra, Udaipur, and Jaipur. I hope to visit Switzerland or Iceland next!

Adrian Voysey

School: University of Miami Team: Key Relationships Hometown: Weehawken, NJ

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? When I started researching charity: water it became apparent that it operated with a significantly different business model than the typical non-profit. I couldn't get it out of my mind and watched just about every single Youtube video on charity: water I could find. I was inspired not only by the work charity: water was doing but how they were doing it, and I knew I wanted to be a part of it.

What does a typical day in the office look like for you? I'm consistently updating donor data and organizing donor lists by whatever criteria our UK managing director wants to search for, but I can also be found doing anything from shipping gifts to researching the philanthropic culture in Germany.

Fun Fact: When I'm not at the office, I love shooting and editing videos.

Keelin Moran

School: The College of New Jersey Team: Brand Partnerships Hometown: Montvale, New Jersey

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I first learned about charity: water after a life-changing mission trip to Nicaragua where I witnessed the water crisis firsthand. I was in awe of the organization's 100% model and its different approach to charity, so I decided to get involved and donate my 21st birthday to clean water. Since then, it has been a dream of mine to work at charity: water, and I am thrilled to be interning with the Brand Partnerships team this summer!

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? The best part of interning at charity: water is being surrounded by people that truly embody the mission and values of the organization. There is a palpable energy that you feel when you walk into the office, and you know that the work you are doing everyday is changing the lives of people around the world.

Fun Fact: Outside of work, I love anything related to interior design! I am a certified paint color specialist and am always looking for my next DIY home project.

Jenny Poon

School: Yale School of Management Team: Finance Hometown: New York City

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? To put it simply, I wanted to intern at charity: water because of its mission. I was drawn to not only charity: water’s amazing work around world to bring clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations but also to its 100% model and its commitment to transparency. I thought that this was a great opportunity for me to learn more about the nonprofit sector.

What does a typical day in the office look like for you? I am working on two projects for the Finance team. This involves data crunching and research. I am also in meetings with different people to learn more about how charity: water functions and about resources I can use to solve questions I am given this summer.

Fun Fact: I won the Top Chef competition at my school with my team, and I made over 200 oolong tea-infused madeleine cookies.

Jed Starr

School: Tufts University Team: Key Relationships Hometown: New York, NY

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I learned about charity: water through a program at my university, and I was taken by the idea of spending the summer working for the public good. I have also always been interested in our relationship with water as a species -- it's something we can't live without, of course, but also a resource that we consistently abuse. Working to solve the water crisis satisfies this interest very well.

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? The donors! They're the people who allow us bring clean water to so many communities around the globe, and their stories never cease to amaze me. The passion, creativity, and diversity of our supporters is incredible.

Fun Fact: I'm a certified SCUBA diver and an avid rock climber!

John Willis

School: Missouri State University Team: Water Programs Hometown: St. Louis, Missouri

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I wanted to intern at charity: water because I’m sold on its mission and vision for both the nonprofit sector and the world at large. I’m amazed and inspired by the combination of creativity, hope, passion, and innovation that exists in charity: water’s everyday operations, and I wanted to be a part of a team that championed all of those values for an amazing cause.

What does a typical day in the office look like for you? I have a little bit of background in computer science, so I spend some of my time writing code that can help our team organize data in useful and efficient ways. I also spend time doing research on various aspects of our programs, projects, and partners in the field, and I help review photos from completed projects for charity: water’s website.

Fun Fact: I can do the splits, though I require adequate time for stretching if a demonstration is required.

Paris Welker-Widell

School: The King's College, NYC Team: Finance Hometown: Vero Beach, Florida

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? Since watching Scott Harrison's TED Talk in high school, I have had a passion for the water crisis and was excited to contribute to an organization that is dedicated to transparency and accurate reporting through the 100% model.

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? My favorite part about interning at charity: water is the people. I love the office environment and the fact that you can see how passionate every employee at charity: water is about taking steps to solve the water crisis. Even though the work I do on the finance team is tedious, the fact that it's benefiting a charity I believe in is what makes this internship enjoyable.

Fun Fact: I've hiked almost 90 miles of the Appalachian Trail.

Lindsay Hoyle

School: Wake Forest University Team: Key Relationships Hometown: Durham, NC

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? Once I heard the story behind the founding of charity: water, I knew I wanted to be a part of the amazing work charity: water does everyday. I loved charity: water's concept of reinventing charity. I have a passion for helping others and charity: water is an amazing place to learn from and work with others with the same passion.

What does a typical day in the office look like for you? No one day is the same at charity: water. I do various tasks such as donor outreach and prospecting, creating impact reports, sending gifts to donors, collecting and organizing data, writing thank you notes, and hopping in on phone calls with our amazing Water Project Sponsors.

Fun Fact: I have never had a cup of coffee!

Lauren Berman

School: Duke University Team: Key Relationships Hometown: Armonk, NY

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I remember learning about charity: water in middle school and being amazed by the organization’s immense impact. After seeing the job posting and doing some research, that same sense of wonder came back. Watching videos and exploring the website showed me just how important and good charity: water is. I wanted to do my part in moving the mission forward.

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? I love learning about charity: water and sharing that information with people. Whenever anyone asks me about charity: water, I tell them all about the water crisis, water projects, transparency, and the 100% model. Most people are very impressed by charity: water, and I’m proud to be a part of such a great organization.

Fun Fact: I went to sleepaway camp for nine years.

Zsuzsa Williford

School: The King's College, NYC Team: Key Relationships Hometown: Raleigh, NC

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I heard about charity: water a couple of years ago through friends who interned here. I was so impressed by the 100% model and the way they portray the people they've helped in such a beautiful, hopeful way. I've been interested in nonprofits that aid in economic development, fundraising, and donor relations. The Key Relationships internship was a perfect fit for the fundraising & donor relationship experience I was looking to gain!

What does a typical day in the office look like for you? I always head to grab a cup of coffee first to get the caffeine flowing. I check in with my manager and with my basecamp to-do lists for tasks for the day. My projects range from donor research, making updates in our donor database, helping organize and curate event invite lists, writing birthday cards to our donors, and really whatever my boss needs help with! I've gotten to help assist with some really awesome events outside the office as well with the rest of the KR team.

Fun Fact: Outside of work and school, I love going to concerts at any of the amazing venues in NYC-- I’ve been to over 50 in the past couple years. (starting to lose count!)

Jake Weronski

School: The King's College, NYC Team: Supporter Experience Hometown: Buffalo, NY

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I've been a huge supporter of clean water charities since I was twelve. I have a friend who interned at charity: water a few years ago and she loved the experience, so I knew I had to intern here. I immediately fell in love with the amazing work each team devotes themselves to each day.

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? The people that work in this office are some of the most passionate, warm-hearted individuals I've ever met. They truly care about connecting with all the interns, about doing their job well, and they know how to have fun in between! I have so much respect for every person that works here, and I feel like I've already learned so much by being here. I also love hearing people's stories, so talking on the phone with our supporters about their passion for charity: water is something I'll never get tired of.

Fun Fact: I really really love dogs! (Okay, who doesn't?) My family and I are puppy raisers for Guiding Eyes for the Blind. This means that we take a puppy in at around eight weeks old, train them for a little over a year, and then they are able to become fully-trained guide dogs. It's a process that takes a lot of patience and care, but is so rewarding in the end! We also have dogs of our own, so in total, I've lived with 11 dogs in my lifetime!

Rachel Garofoli

School: Santa Clara University Team: Water Projects Hometown: Darien, CT

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? I wanted to intern at charity: water because I believe that every person on earth deserves the basic opportunities to progress in their lives, and access to clean water is the master key that opens doors to many. It brings a base of good health and time which allows for opportunities such as education, work, and family. In my mind, what charity: water does is extremely important to humanity and that's why I wanted to be involved.

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? I have really loved my time at charity: water so far. However, my favorite part about interning at charity: water is that I feel like it is an environment that brings everyone that touches it joy. My coworkers are enthusiastic to work on projects, visitors seem happy, donors are ecstatic, and the people who receive our water projects are super elated. A lot of good vibes around here!

Fun Fact: I am a DJ on my university's radio station. My name over the air is DJ Dori$ and I love to play all types of music (except for country and screamo).

Kitty Park

School: New York University Team: Key Relationships Hometown: Wayne, NJ

Why did you want to intern at charity: water? Like most people, I was initially drawn to charity: water because of the mission. I was also intrigued by the 100% model and wanted to learn more about how the organization operates in such a unique way.

What is your favorite part of interning at charity: water? It’s hard to say, but I think my favorite part about interning here is that the organization puts a lot of time and effort towards cultivating a great work culture and it shows. Everyone I’ve met so far is genuinely hardworking, passionate, and happy to be doing what they do.

Fun Fact: I have a very impressive high score on 2048.

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Want to be a part of the next class of interns at charity: water? You’re in luck, fall internships just went live! Apply here today.

#charitywater #interns

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sunshinekarliekloss · 8 years ago

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Karlie Kloss, Coding's Supermodel: The Forbes Cover Story

Karlie Kloss is sitting in a glass-walled SoHo office holding court with five teenage girls. Over video chat with several more, they are brainstorming how to support scholars of Kode with Klossy once class is out. The teenagers are all graduates of Kode with Klossy summer camps, an initiative by Kloss’ education nonprofit that aims to teach girls the basics of computer programming.

In her off-duty uniform of a Planned Parenthood T-shirt, black jeans and Gucci loafers, the 6'2" supermodel listens intently. One young woman wearing a white Kode with Klossy top suggests a custom app for students to communicate through. Kloss nods and encourages more ideas. Perhaps Kode with Klossy could upload lesson videos for scholars to look back on, or start a newsletter with events and internships. Another girl in glasses says she posts tricky coding problems on Snapchat and scholars from her camp offer solutions.

As the meeting concludes, Kloss hugs the girls before rallying them to put their hands in for a cheer. “Klossy Posse!” they shout in unison.

A 36-time Vogue cover girl is an unlikely candidate to launch a charity that has taught more than 500 young women how to code. But the 25-year-old has leveraged her giant social audience–some 12.6 million followers across platforms–to grow a burgeoning nonprofit that aims to balance the scales of software engineering’s gender disparity.

“I didn’t go into this with the plan to build an education nonprofit,” says Kloss, a member of the 30 Under 30 Class of 2018, over vegan cupcakes and cookies in her Manhattan office. “I really went into all this out of my own curiosity of wanting to learn what the heck coding was, because it was building massive enterprise value for people in a short period of time.”

Her first taste came in 2014, when she signed up for a two-week boot camp at adult-education company the Flatiron School in Manhattan to learn the basics of computer programming. “I didn’t actually know who she was,” says Avi Flombaum, cofounder of the Flatiron School, who taught Kloss’ class. “She was the best student in that group and I was surprised by how enthusiastic she was.”

Kloss covered the basics of Ruby on Rails, a popular web development framework. But she quickly noticed that her classes weren’t gender equal, an imbalance that mirrored the tech workforce. “I was curious, why are there not more women in this space?” recalls Kloss. An idea for how to help took form: “I realized, here I am with this platform and reach to young women across the country and around the world,” Kloss explains. “If I could just help a handful of girls that would be really meaningful.”

In 2015, Kloss spent more than $20,000 to personally underwrite 21 scholarships for teenage girls to the Flatiron School’s two week pre-college coding class–the very class she had taken the year prior (Flatiron School matched the donation).

But she was itching to do more. Last summer, Kloss took the initiative in-house, launching her own two-week summer camp for teenage girls aged 13 to 18 in New York, Los Angeles and her hometown of St. Louis. Kloss helped pick candidates, design the curriculum and select teachers; its graduates have gone on to win hackathons and land places at Ivy League universities. In June, the program expanded to 12 cities across the U.S., with plans to grow further.

Adults are also included: Last July Kloss launched a year-long online scholarship with the Flatiron School that selected one woman every month to enroll in its full stack web development course. And whhile other nonprofits with similar missions, such as Girls Who Code and Black Girls Code, are far more established, Kloss’ reach brings her objective to millions.

To date, funding for Kode with Klossy programs has come from Kloss herself and the brands she poses for. According to a familiar source, Kloss has personally contributed into seven figures to Kode With Klossy since 2015. She has also redirected a slice of her modeling contracts with companies such as Adidas, Swarovski and Express to fund and support Kode with Klossy. Ford’s STEAM Experience—an initiative focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics disciplines as well as the arts, part of the car maker’s philanthropic arm—lent additional support to this summer’s camps.

Such initiatives are sorely needed. Half a million more jobs related to computers are expected to be added by 2024. Though 74% of high school girls are interested in STEM, women only earned 18% of all undergraduate computer science degrees in 2015. That impacts employment, especially among minorities: Women made up just over a quarter of the tech workforce last year, though African-American women comprised a mere 3% and Latina women counted for only 2%.

“There are so many young women who really could change the world with this kind of opportunity, girls who self-select out because they don’t see others in the industry that look like them,” says Kloss.

The daughter of an emergency room physician, Kloss’ favorite subjects as a child were math and science. Had she not been discovered at a charity fashion show in a mall, aged 13, she might have become a doctor or a teacher, she says. Instead, she booked her first advertisement in 2007; that same year she landed her first major runway show, walking for Calvin Klein.

Her career quickly took off, but it went into overdrive with the advent of Instagram. Thanks to social media, says Kloss, “I could be seen as well as heard.” As her followers swelled, her fees increased. She premiered on Forbes’ highest-paid models list in 2014 banking $4 million pretax; this year, her contract earnings soared to $9 million in the 12 months prior to June 2017.

“When social media arrived, models came back into the spotlight because now everyone could see what was behind the velvet rope,” says Maja Chiesi, SVP at IMG Models, the agency that represent Kloss. “The next evolution is brands wanting the full, 360-degree sense of who these women are… They want women with a voice.”

Enter Kloss, who has long presented herself as more than just a pretty face. In 2012, she started a charitable cookie line called Klossies with Manhattan dessert spot Momofuku Milk Bar; the treats donated to meals for children with each purchase. After taking the odd night class at New York University, in 2015 she enrolled (mentor and supermodel-turned-philanthropist Christy Turlington wrote her recommendation letter). With her busy schedule, she has opted for approximately one class a semester, so far notching credits in creative writing and feminism.

She is eager to expand her platform through a YouTube channel, launched in 2015, that documents her travels and baking forays. Next up: A talk show, Movie Night with Karlie, airing on the Disney-owned Freeform in December.

All of it serves to raise awareness for Kode with Klossy. As she focuses on the nonprofit, she has pared down her modeling contracts to the most lucrative partnerships. Today, says Kloss, she works with “partners that really are excited to work with me because of not just what I look like, but because of what I stand for.” It makes sense that her bookings have shifted from conventional beauty and fashion to tech; she can be seen in recent advertisements for electronics giant Samsung and website builder Wix.

For now, the aim is to grow quickly and cost-effectively. “I’ve been thinking about Kode with Klossy like a startup,” says Kloss. The nonprofit’s team is lean, with Kloss, her manager and business partner Penni Thow, five full-time employees and consultants plus help from three members of her management.

And, Kloss says, she is just getting started. “I plan on building a big business at some point, too.”

Startups, you’re on notice.

#Karlie kloss #Forbes #30 under 30 #article #kode with klossy #coding #2017 #november 2017

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remembermemorablememories · 7 years ago

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Thursday, June 28, 2018

post #171

main points:

- volunteer painting/hang out with mentor + team

- lunch

- barely getting stuff set up to try iOS bug and then going to a meeting with secondary mentor

- intern archery event

- playing pool at the office/hanging around

- uber eats and watching the office at home

- fortnite

today i:

- woke up at 8:15am. snoozed until 8:30am again. forced myself out of bed a little earlier than i usually do, like around 8:45am instead of 9am. i needed to get to the office a little earlier to grab breakfast and then take the shuttle to the far 999 building.

- i grabbed take out breakfast, sat at my desk reading through some emails really quick. then went downstairs and caught a shuttle to 999. once i got there i wasn’t really sure where to go. cause i didn’t see anyone. but a woman named candice luckily helped me contact the volunteer organizer cause i couldn’t on my phone (i have no corp emails or messaging). and i left my laptop on my desk so...

it turns out the volunteer organizer was just at the front of the building and i had already walked past her.

hopped on the shuttle for about 15 minutes and that took us to the elementary school we were volunteering at. i saw a vine this morning in bed to mine by bazzi (the meme song “u so fukin precious wen u smile”) and i listened to the whole song for once. it’s atually pretty catchy. i played it on repeat on the shuttle ride lmao

- got to the elementary school. registered and then got volunteer shirts. then we split up into groups to figure out who was doing what. i was in the group of people who were painting in the circles for the thing where you slap the ball around the pole. they wanted to color it with ROYGBV and there were 3 circles. we split up into pairs and i worked with my mentor

it was a lot of fun getting to know him more and hanging out with the team. i felt like i haven’t had an opportunity to get to know him since i started. some of our conversation topics from the time span of being there/commuting back: i learned that he was from the same part of china where my parents are from. and we talked about self driving cars, west coast vs east coast, post graduation travels, netflix, i told him about npr planet money cause it’s a cool podcast, and other random stuff

we worked on the 3 circles, it was basically filling in a pie chart. we put some tape down on the ground and then painted based on that

we were at the elementary school from 10:30am-1:45pm ish. they provided lunch (sandwich, banana, granola bar, water)

then we drove back to the office. we just missed the shuttle but fortunately he had driven his car to the school anyway, so we just hopped into the car to head back

- got back to my desk around 2:15pm ish. checked some emails and started my builds for the day. i had a meeting at 3 with my secondary mentor LOL rip

after 20 minutes everything was set up and i stepped through the debugger (again) in Xcode on the same code path (again) to see if i could understand it better. i did this like twice and then had to go to my meeting

- chatted with my secondary mentor. it was chill, we met in 900 at the coffee bar. i grabbed a yogurt thing, which still blows my mind that it’s free

we talked about our work stuff and just hanging out. we were there from around 3:10-3:50pm

- went back to my desk, then tried to focus on work again but everyone began to head out to happy hour. i would’ve gone but there was an intern archery event. xueyan came by around 4:05pm and we left to meet with the other interns

we ubered to an archery place about 15 minutes away. there were about 9 of us even though 15 of us were on the reservation. rip. got to the venue and learned how to shoot a bow and arrow. then we practiced against a wall. it was pretty cool, we wore the gear and everything and learned the proper techniques and stuff. i was a pretty bad shot though lmao

we had some friendly competitions at the end and we got rekt in all 3 by kylie (who’s previously only done a bit of archery in girl scout camp)

- ubered back to the office and got back around 6:45pm. i decided to hang around and play pool. i just kind of messed around and chilled for a bit. explored the office with some of its rooms, some more of the gaming setup that i never looked at cause i always go straight to the gamecube, and then i headed back home around 7:30pm

- ordered poke from uber eats and ot it around 8pm. then i watched the office S5E11 “moroccan christmas” and S5E12 “the duel”. it was when andy finds out that angela was cheating on him with dwight. i forgot how it played out but i got sucked into the story quite a bit

- switched to bootcamp and updated fortnite. i showered and watched some david dobrik vlogs to pass the time since the update took a while. played a few games on the new mode (12 teams of 8, where it ends not on the storm, but on the number of players still left standing at the end)

now i’m ready to sleep (it’s 12:21am)

good night folks

today was a fun day, i feel like it was a good emotional and mental break. but i was unable to get anything done at all LOL

i hope i can solve the bug tomorrow finally. we’ll seeeeee

#post #june #2018 #memorable

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arakannewsagency · 6 years ago

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Dead People From Kyauk Tan village in Rathedaung Township Tanken To Be Hidden By Myanmar Military Soldiers

Myanmar soldiers killed six detained civilians and wounded eight others early Thursday inside a school in a village in western Myanmar’s violence-wracked Rakhine state, as villagers tried to grab their guns in a coordinated attack, the government military said.

Government forces have been holding 275 civilians in Rathedaung township’s Kyauk Tan village since Tuesday to interrogate them about possible links to an alleged Arakan Army (AA) training camp.

Bridger General Zaw Min Tun, a military spokesman, said villagers attacked police and security forces who were conducting the investigations to determine if those held had ties to the AA, an ethnic Rakhine armed group that is battling Myanmar forces for greater autonomy in the state.

“Around 2 a.m. this morning, the villagers cheered and attacked police and military forces conducting the interrogations,” he said.

“They attempted to take guns from the security forces, so the security forces acted according to Section 131 of the Penal Code,“ he said. “They first verbally warned the crowd to disperse, then fired warning shots in the air. When they didn’t disperse and kept moving forward, the security forces fired shots as the last resort.”

At the time, Zaw Min Tun told RFA’s Myanmar Service that he did not have detailed information on the deaths and injuries from the incident, but an announcement by the military indicated that six villagers died, eight were wounded, and four were missing.

Following the shootings, the military surrounded the area with more than 300 troops, the announcement said.

Unconfirmed news reports said that as many as 10 villagers had been killed because some of those injured had died.

Responding to Zaw Min Tun’s comments, AA spokesman Khine Thukha dismissed the brigadier general’s version of events.

“His comments are senseless,” he said. “The security forces have kept the villagers in detention since April 30. Their detention site was heavily guarded by the security forces, so how could they be cheering and attacking them?”

“We think this is a plot made up by the Myanmar military to cover up their atrocities against the villagers,” he said.

A woman from Kyauk Tan village, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation, told RFA that she heard about 20 shots coming from the school.

“I heard the shooting at the school around 2 a.m.,” she said. “It was around 20 shots. No one dared to go out to look. The soldiers had completely surrounded the village.”

When residents later went to the school, soldiers prevented them from removing the bodies of the dead and taking the injured for treatment, she said.

“After a while, they gave the list of dead villagers to the village head and asked him to inform the families,” the woman said.

An impossible scenario

The eight injured civilians were taken to Sittwe General Hospital in Rakhine’s capital Sittwe in the afternoon, but the bodies of the deceased remained inside the school until evening, when soldiers told villagers they could collect them, villagers said.

The Myanmar military announced Wednesday that its troops had captured a temporary AA training camp in the mountains on April 28 and had started interrogating Kyauk Tan village residents two days later.

The soldiers detained the villagers in the local schoolhouse when they received information that AA forces were retreating from the captured training camp and taking shelter in Kyauk Tan village.

The announcement said army officials checked the family registration records of the 477 families living in the village, and decided to detain and question 275 males between 15 and 50 years old.

AA spokesman Khine Thukha denied that the Myanmar Army had seized the training camp and that AA soldiers had taken refuge in Kyauk Tan village.

The Arakan National Party (ANP), the state’s predominant political party representing the interests of Buddhist Rakhines, sent a written appeal on Thursday to President Win Myint, State Counselor Aung San Suu Kyi, military commander-in-chief Min Aung Hlaing, and the Myanmar Human Rights Commission, to take action against the shooters and to end attacks by government soldiers in Rakhine state.

“We sent this letter to inform, complain, and appeal to the government to take action to protect the lives of civilians by preventing further tragedies involving them, especially children, the elderly, and women,” said Tun Aung Kyaw, general secretary of the ANP.

The letter also alleged that Myanmar forces questioning the detained boys and men had concocted the story about a coordinated attack by villagers as a pretext for shooting some of them, he said.

“We have some of our party members in this village,” Tun Aung Kyaw said. “According to their account, the accusation that villagers tried to take the guns is impossible because they have been heavily guarded while being detained and denied food and water. Our allegation in the letter is based on the villagers’ claim that it was not possible for them to attack the security forces.”

Offering a different, unconfirmed account of what led to the shooting, Rakhine state lawmaker U Than Naing of Rathedaung township said the shootings occurred when a mentally ill detainee started yelling.

When reached by RFA later, Zaw Min Tun repeated his earlier statement that soldiers had fired on the villagers as a last resort and denied that the detainees were being deprived of food and water.

“With regard to accusations that the detainees were denied food and water, I have confirmed with officials from the police force and security forces on the ground that they are wrong,” he said. “Because they [the detainees] are only suspects, we have provided food and water accordingly.”

Injured people from Kyauk Tan village in Rathedaung township are carried on stretchers as they arrive in Sittwe, capital of western Myanmar’s Rakhine state, May 2, 2019.Credit: AFP

Preventing ‘unwanted confusion’U Than Naing, Kyauk Tan village elders, members of civil society organizations, and staff from the International Committee of the Red Cross went to the schoolhouse earlier to collect the bodies of the dead villagers, but were turned away, he said.

“We had just arrived at the entrance of the village,” he said. “We were not allowed to remove the bodies of the deceased villagers.”

Zaw Min Tun told RFA that Myanmar forces had stopped them for security reasons, but said they would be allowed to enter the village once the interrogations ended.

“They are trying to maintain stability to avoid confusion while they are issuing warnings and trying to disperse the crowd,” he said of the security personnel. “When they finish the announcements and interrogations, they will allow the aid groups to come in.”

“The military troops usually have a paramedic with them,” he added. “[The] paramedic from the unit is treating those who were injured. The aid groups have not been allowed to visit the scene for now to prevent unwanted confusion.”

The shooting incident comes on the heels of the deaths in custody of three other detainees who were taken away for questioning by Myanmar soldiers along with two dozen others from Letka village in Mrauk-U township, center of much of the fighting that has raged since January between the government army and the AA. The men were suspected of supporting the Arakan fighters.

Their deaths have raised suspicions of torture, bereaved relatives and local lawmakers told RFA a week ago.

The Myanmar Army is not the only one rounding up villagers, however.

The AA abducted more than 50 ethnic Chin villagers from Paletwa township in western Myanmar’s Chin state during a February clash with government soldiers that spilled over from the armed conflict in adjacent Rakhine state.

The AA has said that it took the civilians to a safe place after an attack by Myanmar forces prompted them to hide in a forest.

Fighting between the Myanmar Army and the AA has displaced nearly 33,000 civilians in central and northern Rakhine state and northern Chin state since hostilities escalated in November 2018, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). Others have been injured or killed.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, said the latest detentions and shootings of civilians in the Rakhine conflict are nothing new.

“The Tatmadaw [Myanmar military] is well known for targeting civilians when it conducts war against insurgents, and this looks like a continuation of that horrific rights-violating practice.”

“Human Rights Watch and other organizations have repeatedly documented Myanmar troops using torture and even committing extrajudicial executions while interrogating persons they suspect to be members of insurgent groups, so there is every reason to suspect these incidents fall into the same pattern of behavior,” he said.

Letka villagers transferred

In a related development, Myanmar forces transferred the detained Letka villagers to Mrauk-U where they are being held in a police station in Sittwe, but did not clear them of any charges, their relatives and a military spokesman said Thursday.

“The police haven’t called us to go and see the detainees,’ said Khine Hla Sein, wife of one of the men being held. “We can only go and see them after they call us.”

“All villagers, including my husband, have no connection to the AA,” she added.

The detainees’ family members, who are staying at a monastery in Mrauk-U’s Pyipinyin village, said they are afraid to return home because two military units are now deployed there.

It is not clear, however, if all 24 have been handed over to Mrauk-U police.

“We knew they would be transferred to police today, but we don’t know the details,” said Brigadier General Win Zaw Oo, spokesman for the military’s Western Regional Command, which is responsible for Rakhine state. “We don’t know if all 24 people will be transferred or not.”

It is also unclear which offenses the villagers will being charged with.

“Twenty-four detained people are at No. 1 Police Station in Sittwe now, but we still don’t know what they will be charged with,” said Agga Wuntha, head monk of the monastery where the families are staying.

Rakhine state police chief Kyi Lin told RFA that the villagers have been transferred, but would not go into details.

“It is correct they have been transferred,” he said. “If you want to know the details, please come to see me, because I won’t give them over the phone. I will explain to you about it if you ask me in person because I am concerned about [you] getting the wrong information.”

RFA was unable to reach Brigadier General Zaw Min Tun for comment, and Police Colonel Lin Htut from the Rakhine State Police Force said he did not know about the matter.

Yu Lwin Aung from the Myanmar Human Rights Commission said it is a human rights violation for the military to arrest villagers and shoot them.

“Even if the military arrests and questions AA members who are pretending to be villagers, it is a violation of human rights if those people are shot,” he said. “It is also a violation of human rights to shoot prisoners of war.”

“But it is difficult to blame the military for shooting those people without knowing the actual situation on the ground,” he said.

Maung Maung Lay, a member of the group Human Rights Defenders and Promoters, agreed.

“From a human rights point of view, their human rights have been violated,” he said. “All related parties and organizations that are detaining these villagers, and the government, are responsible for this situation. This is a terrible human rights violation.”

Reported by Khin Khin Ei and Wai Mar Tun for RFA’s Myanmar Service Translated by Ye Kaung Myint Maung and Khet Mar. Written in E

Myanmar Army Kills Six Detained Rakhine Villagers And Offers ‘Impossible’ Explanation Dead People From Kyauk Tan village in Rathedaung Township Tanken To Be Hidden By Myanmar Military Soldiers…

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