#Mea Culpa Part II

[mamasvetlanushka]

Новости

МО: силы ПВО с вечера 22 мая уничтожили 112 БПЛА над регионами России    

Губернатор Артамонов: восемь человек пострадали в Ельце после атаки дронов

В Непале ведут расследование скоростного подъема британцев на Эверест

Алаудинов: бойцы «Ахмата» не берут в плен иностранных наёмников

Guardian: Разговор Трампа и Путина помешал плану ЕС по санкциям против РФ

BZ: Глава ЕК фон дер Ляйен заслужила санкции за махинации с вакциной

Встреча вернувшегося из Афганистана экс-военного с мамой была снята на видео

Лавров шутливо поинтересовался у журналиста Зарубина, кто пустил его в Кремль

Количество пострадавших при ударе ВСУ по Льгову увеличилось до 16 человек

Глава дипломатии ЕС Каллас призвала Сербию сделать стратегический выбор

Путин заверил, что РФ будет отвечать на атаки ВСУ

Келин: Британия пытается сковать российский флот на Черном море, помогая Украине

Крейсер «Архангельск» провёл стрельбу «Калибром» на 600 км по береговой цели

В Россию будет экстрадирован разыскиваемый более 11 лет глава наркокартеля

Сборная Канады сенсационно проиграла команде Дании 1:2 и вылетела с ЧМ по хоккею

@vorueg

Говорят задание все провалили на этой неделе. Задание было связано с моим днём рождения. У меня есть кое-какая информация.

Меч одновременно бьёт и вверх и вниз.

Время для поздравлений и оказывания скромного внимания прошло.

Тема новостей сегодняшних "Жадность".

Жадность без кавычек и с кавычками.

В чём заключается человеческая жадность?

Откуда она?

Всё же на верхушке всего- СТРАХ

08:41

Может тебя это и устраивает, но меня нет.

Если Люцифер сказал нет, это имеет зна��ение. Люцифер говорит так всегда, что это не имеет значения. Он может говорить правильные вещи и каждая его фраза будет не иметь значения.

Он не может говорить без меня. Без своей бесстрашной Лилит.

08:43

Sadeness - Part IEnigma05:05

Lost OneEnigma03:39

Return To InnocenceEnigma04:11

Why!...Enigma04:59

Lost SixEnigma02:17

Boum BoumEnigma03:44

Principles Of LustEnigma03:26

AmenEnigma, Aquilo04:53

Mea CulpaEnigma05:03

Beyond The InvisibleEnigma04:35

Lost SevenEnigma04:12

Mea Culpa Part IIEnigma04:01

Gravity Of LoveEnigma, Michael Cretu, Jens Gad04:00

Sadeness - Part IEnigma04:20

Age Of LonelinessEnigma04:17

Или так:

Beyond The InvisibleEnigma04:35

AmenEnigma, Aquilo00:19

Mea Culpa Part IIEnigma04:01

Principles Of LustEnigma03:26

Mea CulpaEnigma05:03

Age Of LonelinessEnigma04:17

Return To InnocenceEnigma04:11

Sadeness - Part IEnigma05:05

Boum BoumEnigma03:44

Why!...Enigma04:59

Lost SevenEnigma04:12

Sadeness - Part IEnigma04:20

Gravity Of LoveEnigma, Michael Cretu, Jens Gad04:00

Lost SixEnigma02:17

Lost OneEnigma03:39

8:55

Пока улица сера нет конкретного тела, пока он путешествует то там, то здесь, поймать ты его нельзя. А если вы чувствуете или понимаете что рядом с вами Люцифер, не отказываетесь от него.

Если вы прикрепились к нему как банный лист, навязывайте свою любовь, так отказываетесь от Люцифера. Должны понимать, пока Люцифер не следит с Лилит, он не ответит никому взаимностью И если покажется что ответил взаимностью, вы сами себя обманываете.

9:00 2 минуты

Это правило относится даже к родственникам его и детям, если такие имеются.

Как только Люцифер окончательно войдёт в тело одного человека, мужика и сделает из него мужчину, тогда нужно будет приготовиться всем в его окружении, он вас всех махом разлюбит. Вы увидите И вам покажется что он вас разлюбит. Это нормально когда родитель вдруг понимает, что если он себя не любил, то он и никого не любил. Придётся заново знакомиться с окружением и понять его ли это родственники, его ли это дети.

Доказательство того, что предполагаемое нахождение тела Люцифера, угодное тело, было известно и нападение на меня осуществлялись с разрешения его близких. Для них было неприемлемо потерять расположение своего мужа (в данном случае это мужчина важный в семье). Пока он вас любит всё ещё, пока вы самообманываетесь и обманываете его, он не может почувствовать разницу и его не удовлетворённость приводит к началу. Он каждый раз словно ищет вдохновения жить заводя ребёнка. Ему нужен ребёнок точно так же как мне нужна собачка или кошечка, которые скрасят моё одиночество. Я слишком люблю этих милых животных и потому не завожу их. Моя боль от потери кота, от несправедливого отношения к коту, не утихла. Самое главное, что я не хочу заводить домашнее животное, только потому что мне одиноко. В сравнении с прошлым, когда мне тоже было одиноко Я заводила домашних животных, сейчас то принципиально важный вопрос для меня. Я хочу чтобы рядом со мной не зовите но независимо от того животное это или человек по-настоящему были желанными, нужными, всё это должно быть взаимно.

09:09

Повисли яички, поникла голова. Пинеточки снова.

Найти своё начало настоящий подарок, человек может сам себе это предоставить.

У кого какое начало?

С учётом того что вы со мной сделали, даже не вспоминая времена небес, можно предположить, что каждый из вас окажется в ситуации убийцы, насильника и так далее с выбором того что есть, но выбор�� у вас уже не будет. Ведь это же начало, то начало откуда вы взяли силы издеваться надо мной.

09:13

I Just Died In Your ArmsSavage01:50

Ciao amoreAdriano Celentano02:21

I Love You BabyAdriano Celentano02:03

To Gucci ForemaGiorgos Mazonakis05:20

La gatta che scottaAdriano Celentano02:14

Via con mePaolo Conte02:45

JaneSavage04:14

Tutti fruttiAdriano Celentano02:08

Se questo fosse un filmToto Cutugno, Kaiti Garbi03:50

Basta De Ti (Dipli Zoi)Natalia Oreiro, Nikos Kourkoulis, Natalia Oreiro Duet With Nikos Kourkoulis03:27

Musica èEros Ramazzotti11:00

Sarà perchè ti amoRicchi E Poveri03:36

SunnyPaul Mauriat02:39

La mezza lunaAdriano Celentano02:31

BastaAdriano Celentano02:10

SymphoniePaul Mauriat02:32

Sei la sola che amoRicchi E Poveri04:41

SabbatoGiorgos Mazonakis03:52

Mon credoMireille Mathieu02:54

WellermanSantiano, Nathan Evans03:11

Cosa seiRicchi E Poveri03:48

Opa OpaNotis Sfakianakis03:43

Così noAdriano Celentano02:08

DominoPaul Mauriat01:59

La FouleEdith Piaf02:56

Ave Maria, CG 89aAl Bano, Иоганн Себастьян Бах, Шарль Гуно03:47

I Just Died In Your ArmsSavage00:05

Caro amoreAl Bano04:23

Sabbato RemixGiorgos Mazonakis03:09

Serafino campanaroAdriano Celentano02:04

Король мой.

Обращаясь к этим близким его и родственникам, хочу сказать только то что, мне нужны мои деньги, а не ваш муж.

И обращаясь к нему, хочу напомнить, Мне нужны мои деньги, те которые я заработала, ты не имеешь права лишать меня выбора, хотя он очевиден. Мне нужны мои деньги заработанные мной и это никак не связано с тем чтобы я делала выбор между любовью и деньгами. Я твоих денег не требую.

09:29

Теперь ты можешь видеть насколько я могла бы быть богатой, насколько я могла бы быть успешной и насколько я была уже хороша и прекрасна, стоило получше выбирать себе жену.

Sabbato Remix Giorgos Mazonakis

Текст песниКАК ПО ЧЕТВЕРГАМ, ГРУСТНЫМ ВЕЧЕРАМ Я СТРАДАЮ И В МЫСЛЯХ МОИХ -ТЫ ! ПЯТНИЦА — КАНУН НАШИХ СКОРБНЫХ ДУМ! ВЕДЬ СКАЗАЛИ МЫ БОЛЬШЕ НЕТ ЛЮБВИ! ПРИПЕВ: КАЖДЫЙ ВЕЧЕР ПО СУББОТАМ ПРИ СМЕРТИ И ПЛАЧУ СНОВА — ВСЁ ИЗ-ЗА ТЕБЯ! МЫ ГУЛЯЛИ ВМЕСТЕ РАНЬШЕ — БЕЗ ТЕБЯ КАК ЖИТЬ МНЕ ДАЛЬШЕ?! ТЫ ВЕДЬ ЖИЗНЬ МОЯ! ЗНАЮ, ЧТО С УТРА В ЧЕТВЕРГ ОБЛАКА СОБЕРУТСЯ В ЗНАК ОДИНОЧЕСТВА! ПЯТНИЦА ВСЕГДА ДЕНЬ СЛЁЗ И ДОЖДЯ! ПЛАЧЕТ ДАЖЕ БОГ, ЧТО Я ОДИНОК!

Перевод песен Garou: перевод песни Gitan, текст песни. Лингво-лаборатория Амальгама.

"БЕЗ ВЕРЫ НЕТ ЗАКОНА"

Giorgos Mazonakis - To Gucci Ton Masai - перевод песни

Gucci моего Масаи

Итак, Гиоргос, когда услышишь вождя Масаи, Ты начинай петь про Gucci. Окей. Всё было хорошо, пока не появилась ты, и с того момента, как я тебя увидел, я совершенно сошёл с ума. Девушки вроде тебя не в моём вкусе, но что-то со мной случилось в последнее время, и мне нехорошо. Я зациклился на тебе и не могу думать ни о ком другом, ты мне не нравишься, и я удивляюсь, как это происходит. Выражение лица, как у кардинала, и огромное самомнение, слезай с небес, ты слишком высоко забралась. Забралась… Забралась… Забралась… Забралась… Рождённый и выросший в Западной Аттике, мы здесь гордые, и дело чести. Бурнази, Эгалео, Перистери, я знаю, ты терпишь издевательства, Места, которые ты и твои подруги считаете низшим классом. С другой стороны, я никогда не бываю в Экали, потому что это место с надменными женщинами, с избалованными дочка��и богатых папочек, которые знают только тысячу способов выкачивать из них деньги. Если тебе не нравится моя машина, не садись никогда, возьми мажора из Кифисии на BMW, который говорит перед сном "спокойной ночи, мама", и строит из себя крутого на деньги своего папочки. Папочки… Папочки… Папочки… Папочки… с мамой и папой, и строит из себя крутого на деньги своего папочки. Как тебя зовут? Элли Коккину, любовь моя. Но вот незадача, ты не можешь больше сопротивляться этому платью, которое мне так идёт, и танцу, которому меня научил вождь Масаи. Но вот незадача, ты не можешь больше сопротивляться этому платью, которое мне так идёт, и танцу, которому меня научил вождь Масаи. Всё, что я ненавижу, есть в тебе, и выездной визажист, и личный парикмахер. Два часа тебе нужно, чтобы сделать французский маникюр, пока ты болтаешь с другой пустышкой по телефону. Тема разговора, догадываюсь, мода и светская жизнь. Мир горит, а вы на своей волне. Тебе нравится Vogue, и Elle, и Madame Figaro, но если я уложу тебя, тебе буду нравиться только я. только я то то только я то то только я то то только я Высокие сапоги, короткое платье, детка, сегодня ты жжёшь. Нам обязательно нужно что-то сделать, говорю тебе. Ты, с одной стороны, покажешь мне, как ты проводишь время в роскоши, а я, с другой стороны, как мы это делаем в Кесариани. Но вот незадача, ты не можешь больше сопротивляться этому платью, которое мне так идёт, и танцу, которому меня научил вождь Масаи. Конечно… Но вот незадача, ты не можешь больше сопротивляться этому платью, которое мне так идёт, и танцу, которому меня научил вождь Масаи. Но вот незадача, ты не можешь больше сопротивляться этому платью, которое мне так идёт, и танцу, которому меня научил вождь Масаи. Ты потрясающая. Но вот незадача, ты не можешь больше сопротивляться этому платью, которое мне так идёт, и танцу, которому меня научил вождь Масаи. Но вот незадача, я не могу больше сопротивляться этому платью, которое мне так идёт, и танцу, которому тебя научил вождь Масаи.

Кто-то сказал, что эта высота не для меня(противостоять), кто противостоял этому, тому и пасть.

[alexanderwales]

Art and the Artist

I generally prefer to read things without knowing much about the author. There aren't that many cases where it adds much to the work to know that they were a plumber before they got into writing, or that they immigrated from Jamaica, or that they served in World War II. To my thinking, a piece of media should stand on its own and not need the context of the author's life story. If you have to open up with "this story is about the Holocaust" then in my opinion, you've already failed as an author.

With that said, it's often inevitable. Sometimes it's just the nature of the work itself, and it would bleed into your understanding even if there weren't a little "about the author" blurb at the end. Sometimes a story is painful obvious in how personal it is, or the metaphor to the real world is so poignant that it's impossible not to make the connection. And sometimes you just get a sense of a person from their writing, particularly if you've read a lot of their writing. It can be the authorial voice you come to understand, the things they choose to show you, the way their mind works, and you think to yourself "yeah, I could get along with them".

And other times, you find yourself drawn to the author because they're the person who best knows their own work. A book leaves lingering questions, and it might be better for you to understand it by communing with other people, but the author is often right there, and you want to hear their takes on their own work, what they were thinking, what lies behind the scenes, the cut chapters and the ways the ending might have been different. You finish gobbling up what the author has prepared for you, and then you gobble up the scraps in the kitchen, and when that's not enough, you start gobbling up the author: you read interviews, you read their blog, you start as a fan of their work and become a fan of them.

Sometimes their understanding of their own work does not match your understanding, and that can be a little bit heartbreaking. Sometimes the stuff behind the curtain is awful and bad, worsening your enjoyment of the text because now it seems phony and poorly thought out. Sometimes an author turns out to be a piece of shit.

Usually, I can move past it. If I like a book or a movie, then I like it for the feelings that it produces in me, and the person who created it is irrelevant except maybe for the fact that they're getting $5 from me or whatever, which is not the level of microutilions that I generally worry about.

Sometimes it impacts my understanding of the work itself, casting a shadow over the things that I once felt, tainting the art.

I was a big fan of Louis CK. The self-deprecating humor did it for me, the introspection and irreverence, the way he was saying things that felt real and true, things that I had always noticed but never really considered. And of course I found him funny. But then there were allegations, and his mea culpa, and I stopped finding it funny. Partly that's because his comedy was autobiographical, so the taint was worse than it might have otherwise been, but part of it was the comedy itself: if the comedy rests on me recognizing myself in Louis CK's stories about himself, I'm going to be less able to do that if drawing those comparisons gives me a curdled milk feeling.

I was a fan of Buffy and Dollhouse and Firefly and Cabin in the Woods and Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog, and I think that these don't suffer nearly as much from being from the mind of Joss Whedon. It's easier to dissociate the stories from the man, and harder to read his personal shittery into the character arcs and setting details and elemental units of plot. Some of that is just the medium: comedy specials are the product of a singular vision, while television shows and movies are the result of team of people working together. Even then, I think shitty people can make good art, so long as they're good at separating their shiftiness from their art. Most people with a bit of awareness would do this naturally, I think: they know what's unpalatable, and present an image to the world, which also comes from the art they make.

Information about the artist informs a reading of the art, as much as we might try to have it not do that. I think some art survives revelations better than others. Someone who writes about murders being revealed as a murderer certainly seems like it would poison my enjoyment of their books. But it's the nature of art that's it's all pretend, and sometimes people don't create because they're spewing self-confession onto the page. Then, I think, you're usually safe.

I hadn't written this with Neil Gaiman in mind: it was sitting in my drafts folder, as so many posts are. But I think Gaiman's work will, for me, survive the accusations, even if the man himself is exiled. I'm certain there will be passages and plots that read differently, places where he can be seen defending himself, chapters that are now unseemly. But I think that for me, the stink of his crimes will wash off quickly, and I'm hopeful that unlike other cases, separating the art from the artist is easier for me.

[thediaperwriter]

Cupido Usa Pañales Por Una Razón (?)

¡Hace mucho que no estoy muy activo en Tumblr! ¡Mea culpa! Honestamente, he estado muy ocupado escribiendo nuevas novelas ABDL y no ABDL y algunos otros proyectos, y no soy el tipo de persona más activo en las redes sociales (¡llámame de la vieja escuela!). Dicho esto, hay algo que no he probado aquí.

¡Encontrar una cita!

Sé que Tumblr no es un sitio de citas, pero gran parte de la comunidad ABDL pasa el rato aquí y muchos de ustedes me conocen por mis libros, así que tal vez les interese conocerme como persona y tal vez conocerme. y empezar algo. Nunca logró encontrar en otros lados a alguien aquí en México, en la Ciudad de México, a alguien soltero, así que aquí va mi intento por Tumblr.

Así que voy a poner mi información aquí y espero que alguien de mi zona esté interesado en reunirse para tomar un café o algo así y ver qué puede pasar.

Nombre: Enrique B.

Edad: 33 (34 el 29 de Enero, ya casi!)

AB/DL rol: AB (edad 2 años) y ocasionalmente Daddy. *Eso es cuando estoy en rol, generalmente estoy en modo de persona adulta.

Orientación: Gay

Busco: Novio, gay, entre 27-36 Años de edad

Localidad: Ciudad de México. No puedo con relaciones a distancia! Gustos ABDL: Pañales gruesos y bonitos, pijamas completas, chuparme el dedo (esto lo hago TODO el tiempo, dentro o fuera de rol), Peluches, caricaturas, cambios de pañal. Si estoy en modo Daddy, soy el más consentidor del mundo.

Gustos Generales: Libros (Amo leer), Comics (DC más que Marvel). Amo las peliculas LGBT extranjeras. Conciertos y musica de todo tipo, pero mi favorita es el rock7metal sinfónico.

Superheroes favoritos: Red Robin / Tim Drake (DC), Wiccan / Billy Maximoff (Marvel), Nightwing / Dick Grayson (DC), Superman II /Jon Kent (DC), Wonder Woman / Diana Prince (DC), Scarlet Witch / Wanda Maximoff (Marvel). Hulkling / Teddy Altman (Marvel). Jean Grey / Phoenix (Marvel).

Si quieren saber más, estan cerca de mi y quieren conectarse conmigo, manden mensaje :D

Hello everyone!

I haven't been very active in Tumblr for ages! Mea culpa! Honestly, I've been so busy with writing new ABDL and non-ABDL novels and some other projects and I'm not the most social media active kind of guy (call me old school!). That being said, there is something that I haven't tried here. Find a date! I know tumblr is not a dating site, but a lot of the ABDL community hang out here and a lot of you know me because of my books, so maybe you'd be interested to get to know me as a person and maybe meet up and start something. The problem is that I never get to meet a single ABDL person here in Mexico CIty! So I'm going to put my info here and hope anyone local to me is interested to meet up for a coffee or something and see what could happen!

[lascapigliata]

oscar noms are out and i actually am hitting the ground running for once! so, here is the oscar movies microreviews post:

(may put these in number of awards order at some point but for now they are [mostly] in watch order. also reserve the right to change at any time as i think about them longer)

conclave: LOVED IT!!! don't ideologically support the catholic church but they really popped off with the scheming and politics. the acting was great, it was perfectly balanced in terms of humor, i love a scheme. gorgeous cinematography imo. ralph fiennes perhaps doing his finest work i’ve seen from him. the twist at the end was very good and despite the giggling of the people in the row behind me i think it toed the same comedy/drama line well. i don't remember the score particularly except that i remember liking it in the moment; snubbed for direction imo.

dune ii: i think liking this a lot would require liking dune i a lot and it's still not something i go gaga over. and this was messier than the first one. i think timothee chalemet is probably a very good actor (undoubtedly eventually complete unknown will be below) but i don't think he can pull off epic as much as this movie needed, and i think it needed a really mercenary edit bc it was just packed with too much plot. many good actors were wasted on bit parts but that's just an inevitable evil of this kind of movie

gladiator ii: overwritten overacted overdone. took the worst parts of gladiator i and left the rest behind. much like timmy chals, i think paul mescal is a good actor who isn't really an Epic Speechgiver whereas russell crowe could toe the line, plus there weren't many speeches in the first. it was barely even fair though bc denzel was right there absolutely slamming it out of the park. everything else was not. none of that matters bc it was just up for costumes (won't and shouldn't win)

anora: i really really liked this. i liked the florida project as well so it's not entirely surprising but i think he did a great job portraying sex work with its associated nudity without making it voyeuristic or titillating. mikey madison was awesome; she had a lot of times where she had to do basically one primary emotion and stick a lot underneath and she did so really well. it dragged a little in moments but not overall. reminded me of a less stressful uncut gems but just in terms of the kind of quest narrative. broey deschanel did a great video about this i recommend if you don't mind major spoilers

the wild robot: for the first ~20m i was sort of like this is pretty but i get it already and then i settled into it and turns out i loved it. really gorgeous animation. pretty standard and somewhat predictable story but i think it's best seen through a lens of For Kids and it comes alive. it bears saying that i cried halfway through the movie and then again at the end like. just tears on tears with this one. i don't remember the score very well already but i guess it was good. (hard to evaluate best score when challengers was so snubbed)

emilia perez: NOTE this entire thing has been edited: since watching i have read a lot about this movie from mexicans and trans people and i think i was very busy trying to like it bc of award noms and also trying to figure out why the music was so bad that i didn't really critically examine much else beyond "sloppy" for the trans narrative. mea culpa. the cinematography was great. the acting was decent. on the production side, not even filming in mexico is pretty ridiculous. the thing about being "brave" or "genre-defying" is that it isn't? it's a musical. it has a scene setting song then an i want song and on and one. giri haji was NOT a musical then threw in an interpretive dance and THAT'S genre defying and brave. one could criticize the music for not pulling anything from the actual rich musical material of mexico but that would be a waste of time since the music was so atrocious (which i've always thought). not a good movie with a few small okay things. did not deserve 13 nominations but did make me realize i had a knee jerk reaction based on insecurity and privilege. it's good to have a note to self!

nosferatu: very gorgeous. very horny. very robert eggers (complimentary). LOTS of rats.

inside out 2: for movies i don't actually like all that much inside out(s) definitely make me cry lmao. but it's just a rehash of the first one. visually impressive (but not more so than the first). the removal of bad memories was underdeveloped in favor of a cheap villain narrative around anxiety. i still take issue with the idea that joy is/should be the default or best emotion but there's no way around that within the structure of the movie - huge flaw

wicked: enjoyed more than i expected to actually! did not need to be 87 hours long but didn’t drag too much, which is a feat considering it was act i lol. love that they filmed dancing with wide shots - revolutionary! they apparently sang live (which cannot be true for any scenes with dancing or jumping around lol) but it was pretty seamless so i have to give them credit. i do have some BIG issues musically, especially how much they chopped up defying gravity at the end. i don't think cynthia erivo's acting while speaking was anything revolutionary but her SINGING absolutely killed it, which should definitely be recognized. all in all a fun movie; it may actually be better on film than stage.

kingdom of the plant of the apes: i saw this ages ago but liked it! a Fun Movie. makes total sense this was nominated for vfx and unless alien romulus does something incredible (stay tuned for below, probably) absolutely deserves the win over wicked or dune, and having not seen better man kingdom still deserves the win just due to quantity of apes

flow: amazing showstopping spectacular. i cried lots and physically held lila bc i was so nervous for onscreen Cat. not even just considering it was in blender it was GORG and they managed to get such incredible expression in the animals (jot that down disney). plus remember when the best part of wall-e was the no talking part? yeah that but nature and a leetle cat!!! deserves best animated 100000%

the substance: i have a pretty high gore tolerance and even a decent body horror tolerance and yet. so glad i watched at home where i could take a bathroom break. absolutely disgusting. absolutely fantastic. demi moore blew me out of the water but margaret qualley held her own too. and dennis quaid was disgusting (complimentary). i saw some criticism that this falls into the old women as horror trap and i see where they’re coming from but i think it subverts it. thought the use of color especially was absolutely stunning (that YELLOW in the coat!)

a real pain: sweet little movie. movies do not have to invent much to be good. some will say kieran culkin is just playing roman roy but i disagree; he really was excellent at maintaining the tension where you’re sort of afraid of him. jesse eisenberg will repel ppl who don’t like him (like my brother) but i thought he did well too; as a writer though he got a lot into what was a pretty simple movie otherwise

a different man: adam pearson!! amazing work, should have been best supporting nommed here. sebastian stan!!!!! so proud. totally deserved the nom for golden globes and honestly i think if he wasn’t in the apprentice he might have gotten one here too. reminding us all that he is very good at working with physicality. in general it’s a lot like the substance except not quite as good, but that’s very much a high bar. the makeup was indeed good needless to say, but the SCORE was incredible like why is no one talking about it!!! when wicked is on that list?? incredible snub along w challengers

i’m still here: amazing work by fernanda torres. i think they rushed the ending bc they didn’t make the movie they thought they were making (if it was about her quest to find closure it failed; if it was about a woman’s struggle to lead her family through the first months of their fathers’ disappearance it worked). idk that it stands up as a best picture nom; it had a lot going for it but it felt like it needed another pass on the script to tie it together

sing sing: amazing amazing amazing. colman domingo redemption arc (he was incredible in rustin but the rest of the movie was not). everyone was fantastic in fact and having formerly incarcerated people form the majority of the cast is cool as a thing to do and also bc the performances were palpably really authentic. special shoutout to clarence maclin who was not only great in his role but delivered a really really genuinely good to be or not to be speech

the apprentice: definitely made by people who did not expect him to win another election lol. a few too many winks at the audience imo. i get why sebastian stan campaigned on this one, and he was good, but he was better in a different man. jeremy strong was excellent. if this was made in 50 years it would prob be great, but it’s too soon

alien romulus: solid sci-fi/horror movie. well paced, nice to see mal shadowandbone, made me cry bc of all the sibling stuff. extremely cool visuals especially the zero g acid blood scene. however it contains too few apes to compete with kingdom of for best vfx. (HALF KIDDING.)

the brutalist: well. 3/4 a great movie, 3/16 a good movie, and a profoundly unsatisfying ending. adrien brody was fucking amazing. guy pearce was fucking amazing. filmed absolutely beautifully, good score. a little hamfisted with its Messages but didn’t bother me too much. LOVE an intermission as a concept but it especially worked here bc it allowed for a shift in style without being (too) jarring. didn’t love some of the editing choices and as i said a kind of dud ending i think (may change my mind) but the whole is greater than the sum etc. did it need to be 4 hours? not really, but no part felt like a real waste of time.

september 5: feels like a very pointed movie to be made Right Now. as my brother pointed out all the exciting stuff happened in the movie munich and all other journalism movies are about the investigation not camera angles. it was a whatever script. weird nom

a complete unknown: the problem is that there’s really quite a lot of bob dylan in this movie. the other problem is that i liked all the blues tunes we hear more than all the folk music. it’s just a greatest hits album with cameos with a bludgeon of a script cant believe it was nominated. i am no longer convinced timmy chals is a great actor either

memoir of a snail: sweet sad little movie. pretty one-note in terms of story, tone, and animation (though the animation is lovely). didn’t make me cry despite being entirely about a bullied kid who got separated from her brother sooo0o. should have been a long short film probably. no, cannot stand up to flow, but it’s nice to have animated movies that are specifically for adults tbh!

wallace and gromit: vengeance most fowl: wow i guess moana 2 really sucked. i don’t really like wallace and gromit so this was lost on me. it does not stand up to the rest of the slate.

the seed of the sacred fig: AAHHHHH!!!!!! AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this deserves best international and it should have been in the running for other stuff as well. impeccably done, acting off the hook and the script was great in english subs i imagine in persian it’s even better. that ending was WOOOOF!!! plus the bts situation including them making it in secret and the writer/director and cast having to escape the country like - this is genuinely brave filmmaking and it shows. AHHH!!!!!!!!!

the girl with the needle: extremely well done. toed the psychological/horror divide well; some very good acting especially by the kid shockingly. very scandinavian pacing and ended sort of predictably but i didn’t mind. some very cool sound/score things as well. recommend this a lot. not my pick for the award but a worthy contender

better man: better than i expected! i still don't like biopics but i think the chimp thing actually worked. no getting around that the songs are catchy lol. it was completely predictable but i don't think it was trying to be too innovative in story. vfx-wise it was a very good ape and some good dance sequences but kingdom of the planet of the apes still had more and better apes :|

maria: i mean fine if you like opera lol. angelina jolie was fantastic though (especially in her singing - and also lip syncing!). the cinematography was fine; production design was better. it was sort of over the top at times but then again, so is opera

nickel boys: wow. the first person thing i thought would get old but absolutely didn’t. desperate to read the book now! felt a little indulgent for lack of a better word at times but it was pretty enough i didn’t mind. had a very play-like cadence in the script, which makes me wonder how much came directly from the book. i wouldn’t say thee best picture of the year but it’d be a justified win if it got it.

[natlacentral]

‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Earns Another Week Atop Netflix TV Charts; ‘Code 8: Part II’ Is No. 1 In Film

Avatar: The Last Airbender strikes again.

The live-action Netflix series was once again on top of the TV list from February 26 to March 3 with 19.9M views in its first full week on the platform. That’s slightly down from last week, but still by far the most-watched series on the platform during this interval. 

Avatar still has a bit of a long way to go before it would break into Netflix’s most popular TV list. So far, it’s racked up about 40M of the 83M views it would need to surpass The Witcher Season 1, which is currently sitting in 10th place. There is plenty of time to make that happen, though, since the series has a hefty 91-day premiere window to do so.

The top three series were the same as the previous week, though Love Is Blind and One Day swapped places. Season 6 of the reality dating show took second place with 5.1M views, while the limited series adapted from David Nicholls’ beloved romance novel took third with 4.8M views. 

Avatar was bested again for the bragging rights as most-watched title on Netflix, thanks to Code 8: Part II. The film, which debuted on February 28, shot to the top of the English-language film chart with 20M views. The prequel, Code 8, also found its way onto the list at No. 4 with 7.8M views.

Tyler Perry’s Mea Culpa, which held the top spot last week, took second place this week with an impressive 18.5M views. Spaceman, which recently premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival, debuted in third place with 8.8M views. 

With the Oscars approaching, it’s not shocking that Society of the Snow also held onto a spot on the non-English film list for the ninth consecutive week.

[dukeofqueers]

which weapon did you pick for blasphemous ii? i heard that the game difficulty can vary a lot depending on the initial weapon chosen :0

I was tempted to pick the dual rapiers but i went with the singular sword (Ruego Al Alba) bc i thought it'd be the most similar to Mea Culpa, and i wanted to parry :]

i've gotten my hands on the other weapons though and i can imagine that starting with the mace is harder with how slow it is, and i'm not a fan of the rapiers bc of the hitbox but their early upgrades seem to really just shred through enemies so i will not be surprised if it becomes a prime speedrunner pick

i'll say it's interesting that each weapon allows to unlock different parts in areas, pushes you to come back later with the other weapons

[georgy-stuff]

Enigma - Mea Culpa Part II - NG Remix

[cinesludge]

Movie #56 of 2024: Gladiator II

Mea Culpa: I was forced to see this by a conservative friend. Look, I've been working on deprogramming this guy for the last 8 years. And now he's even working on trying to deprogram some of his conservative friends who voted for Trump. Trying to keep an open mind and not cutting people off for their ignorance is only going to be more important moving forward.

Movie Review Part:

Denzel is great. No really, he is peak Denzel over the top scene stealing great. BUT. And it's a big BUT. This movie is a pile of garbage.

It's just a dumb story. There's nothing interesting happening and there's no reason to care about any of the characters.

It's kind of racist. What I mean is, there's a big point made to show Roman society as multi-racial. Accepting of black africans, arabs, etc. BUT. And here's the big BUT. The biggest THEME of the movie is this:

It feeds right wing supremacist and 4chan doucheguys the rhetorical ammunition they crave to claim "Everyone was a slave at some point and even black people owned slaves so therefore there's no reason to hold White America accountable for enslaving and oppressing black people." Seriously, that seems to be the biggest point of this movie. So... SKIP IT.

[alephsblog]

Ora mi chiedo perché quanto sta succedendo in questi ultimi anni in Africa, dai genocidi agli eccidi alle torture a cui i migranti sono sottoposti dall’odierna tratta araba (e di cui si sollevano solo le responsabilità dell’Europa), non sia oggetto di attenzioni del giornalismo internazionale, di quello italiano, del mondo culturale, dello spettacolo, dei think tank italiani, europei, internazionali, dei singoli intellettuali e giornalisti e conduttori radiofonici e televisivi italiani e europei, internazionali, dei geopolotici, pensatori, tanto quanto ciò che sta succedendo in Medio Oriente.

La cintura subsahariana stretta da Russia e Iran che va dal Sudan, attraversa il Niger, il Burkina Faso con guerre stragiste, devastazioni e genocidi di cristiani e minoranze etniche, fino al Mali e prossimamente Gambia e Senegal. L’ONU tace.

Il genocidio tentato in Marocco verso il popolo sharawi: un muro lungo più di 2000 km nel Sahara. Una guerra di 15 anni, un conflitto senza fine.

Richieste all’Onu mai considerate. Un popolo che vive da più di 40 anni nei campi profughi.

L’apartheid in Tunisia verso gli immigrati africani istituito dal Presidente Kais Saied che non si risparmia parole di odio, razziste e xenofobe contro i sub-sahariani18.

Le famose prigioni libiche, definite “lager”, dimenticate dai funzionari ONU che per anni sono stati comodi osservatori dalla Tunisia in hotel 5 stelle e ignorati dalle ONG internazionali, che non hanno mai voluto sporcarsi le mani con una politica preventiva e sempre preferito operare al colmo delle tragedie.

Detto questo, auspico che un giorno il Segretario Generale dell’ONU Antonio Guterres, ritenga, alla luce di questi fatti sistematicamente omessi, di prendere atto che rappresenterebbe le Nazioni Unite di cui fanno parte 193 nazioni e la cui missione costitutiva è di peacekeeping e peacebuilding e non di tribunale del BRICS.

Sarà possibile quindi che l’ONU un giorno si occupi della storia dimenticata della tratta arabo-islamica, dei milioni di morti causati dal razzismo arabo nei confronti dei neri africani ieri e oggi? Sarà possibile che finalmente l’ONU possa dedicare attenzione alle persecuzioni dei cristiani nel mondo, ai genocidi “minori” che il mondo arabo perpetra nei confronti di etnie e minoranze religiose come quella yazida19 e magari per questa popolazione che si sta estinguendo istituire un organismo come l’UNRWA che possa aiutare queste vittime dell’odio, del fanatismo religioso? Sarà mai possibile che l’ONU ricordi i 500 milioni di morti dell’olocausto dei neri e che ne riconosca le responsabilità del mondo arabo oltre quelle dell’Occidente?

E per ultimo, sarà un giorno possibile che quel mondo arabo, quello più progressista, quello più vicino e attento al nostro Occidente faccia – come fanno, e hanno fatto quei tanti intellettuali musulmani perseguitati e vittime del fondamentalismo e dall’islam politico – un mea culpa dei suoi crimini contro l’umanità nella storia? Oppure, anche solo, semplicemente, riconoscere che oltre la vita del suo Profeta Maometto, esiste la storia.

[1234567ttttttttttt]

Enigma - Mea Culpa Part II - NG Remix

[wiliamsthings]

Enigma - Mea Culpa Part II - NG Remix (Editor-Barát)

[cellarspider]

Hi PLEASE rant about medieval European medical books being shit

I'm six months late responding to this. Mea culpa.

Disclaimer at the top: I have an undergraduate degree in Medieval Studies. After that, I moved over to genetics. That means I have no professional experience in the field, and I'll happily take any corrections, particularly those that can feed me delicious citations.

So, European medieval medical manuals were shit. There's a number of cultural and geographical reasons for this, particularly the rarity of autopsies, the low status of surgeons, how medical education worked, and the inaccessibility of many good source texts. I'm putting the rest of this under a break, because this got long.

So, starting with some things that are fairly common knowledge: Autopsies were rare in Europe during the medieval period, though they weren't necessarily banned. Two different church edicts are often interpreted as frowning on the practice, which probably contributed to some reticence to perform them, particularly in religious institutions. This also means any work that was done was less likely to be documented and distributed, leading to a paucity of written scholarship and guidance for students. However, the 13th century Holy Roman emperor Frederick II actually required those studying medicine to attend a human dissection... to be held at least once every five years.

Why is dissection important? Well, there's a really basic reason: you need to know what bodies tend to look like before you can treat them. And not only that, a thorough dissection can help you understand how parts are connected, and therefore how they might function. Cultures that more freely engaged in dissections had an advantage over those that didn't. You could still make some progress even if it was banned--Ancient Rome forbade the practice, but animal dissections and comparisons to human anatomy gleaned from treating injuries helped advance medical science.

But the social standing of medical professions affects how much credence will be given to a doctor's observations, and how widely their work will be shared. Lots of people have heard about the barber-surgeons, a profession which continued into the 1700s. No, I'm not joking.

While doctors maintained a relatively respectable status, there was a general disdain for surgery. Again, this is a problem, because it means a doctor is going to be looking at the body as a black box: stuff goes in, sickness comes out, we don't know how or where it comes from. So surgery was left to barbers, who owned razors and had steady hands. They wrote down very little, and relied on local apprenticeships to learn the trade. This can be great for passing on what a local master knows, but you're unlikely to discuss and collaborate much with other surgeons. Thus any advancements to technique stay very, very local. And they don't end up in medical manuals.

So, what about those doctors? They definitely wrote things down, but the manner in which they were trained led to some real issues in what medical texts were available.

One common practice to prove one's education was to reproduce the essential parts of an older, respected text, adding one's own annotations. In a time before printing, this was a way to preserve information, and to render old text more comprehensible to contemporary readers.

But there are problems with that. The biggest one being: what gets identified as vital information to preserve? Take Galen, for example: He was the most famous physician of classical Rome, and his works were widely reproduced throughout the medieval period. He was considered the undisputed master of his craft for centuries, venerated for his knowledge.

And there's a lot to admire about his work--as a physician for gladiators, he's one of those people who had access to comparative human and animal anatomy despite the ban on autopsies. He understood the difference between motor and sensory nerves, and the differing effects of spinal cord injuries based on their location. He did cataract surgeries. He set up a hospital with early sanitation practices, including the use of fire to sanitize tools, and keeping food preparation at a distance from medical work.

Unfortunately, Galen also fucked up--he became an early major advocate of bloodletting. He subscribed to the theory of the four humors. And his animal models sometimes led him astray on human anatomy. His ideas about the soul and how it interacted with health were very bound up in roman philosophy.

And a lot of his fuckups were thought to be more important to medieval physicians than his work in surgery and sanitation. So, that was what got most carefully preserved, iterated upon, and collected as essential knowledge for physicians. Sure, you might have access to the works of Galen, but what you actually had was basically a pamphlet mostly composed of his worst work. And it's got Galen's name on it, so it must be authoritative.

But there had to be more available than that, right? Well, not really. The lack of faithful reproduction extended to most other texts, and was compounded by a further problem: A lot of texts simply weren't accessible within most of Europe. In the split of the Roman Empire into East and West, the Eastern Romans ended up with a whole pile of useful medical texts. And this becomes vital to their preservation. Both because of their preservation of texts... and because of their proximity to the Muslim world.

Abbasid scholars translated and preserved Greek texts to a far greater degree of accuracy than was practiced in most of Europe, starting in 750. Arabic speakers had a better idea of what Galen had done than people who could read Latin. Some of his texts were only preserved in Arabic! And there was dialog with his work rather than veneration, with scholars debating and experimenting to test his assertions.

Active scientific inquiry was taking place. For example, Saladin's personal physician, Sephardic Jewish scholar Moses ben Maimon (AKA Maimonides in European sources) cited Galen frequently, and went on to make advancements on description and treatment of asthma, diabetes, hepatitis, and pneumonia.

And this meant that when translators in Byzantium and Italy started to get their hands on Arabic texts, it was revolutionary. Ancient knowledge they'd lost, and modern scholarship they'd never had. Translation sites like Salerno became academic powerhouses.

This leads to one text in particular I studied in my undergrad, the 12th century Practica Chirurgiae of Rogerius Salernitanus (variably known as Roger Frugard, Roggerio dei Frugardi, or Rüdiger Frutgard, depending on who you ask). His work showed some incredible understanding of neuroanatomy and practical technique for wound care, which I've rambled about before. His medicinal poultices and draughts were complete crap, but boy, did he understand emergency care! He quickly became an authoritative source.

...And so one of the copies I looked at had annotations from a student of his works. I distinctly remember a passage where Rogerius talks about how to diagnose cerebral edema in a closed head injury with a skull fracture: if the wound produces a certain sort of liquid, then you have a build-up of fluid in the brain case, and you need to relieve pressure.

And then this bozo student of his leaves a note there saying that if there's a full moon, the liquid might froth. And left all sorts of helpful notes about imbalances of the humors.

So not everything was solved by that point, but it was slowly starting to be less shit.

[passioneinfinita]

Vizionează „_ Mea Culpa Part II - Enigma _” pe YouTube

[imagineclaireandjamie]

Her Royal Highness (H.R.H.), Part XXV (The Ring)

Part I: The Crown Equerry | Part II: An Accidental Queen | Part III: Just Claire | Part IV: Foal | Part V: A Deal | Part VI: Vibrations | Part VII: Magnolias | Part VIII: Schoolmates | Part IX: A Queen’s Speech | Part X: Rare | Part XI: Watched | Part XII: A Day’s Anticipation | Part XIII: The Location | Part XV: Motorcycle | Part XV: Cabin | Part XVI: Market | Part XVII: Stables | Part XVIII: Alarms | Part XIX: Visitor | Part XX: Cuffed | Part XXI: A Woman’s Speech | Part XXII: The Harlot Queen | Part XXIII: Rarer | Part XXIV: Balmoral & London

Her Royal Highness (H.R.H.) Part XXV: The Ring

Time slowed in the cabin.

That was Jamie’s conclusion.

Each touch was a lifetime. The sunrises took longer, seemed more impactful. The banalities of a life – their life – existed for study (after she had carefully captured all aimlessly-wandering droplets off the whipped curves of her body, Claire was fastidious about folding her bath towel – halved lengthwise first, folded carefully over the curtain rod). His heartbeat marked time like an obedient soldier as her hand became a tool to mark him (pushing his knee to the side), to ready herself for a kiss (sweeping curls aside along a jagged deep side part), to ground her already-steady digits (resting above his heart as she lowered her mouth to his throat with a whispered “I will never tire of you”).

With each moment hanging like a ripe, ready-to-pick fruit on a too-thin branch, it was a strange sensation – to have each moment so meaningful and memorable, each revolution of the earth feeling like it took time as day-after-day fell away rapidly. It was as if the history between them – as new as it was – made each second swell until bulbous and fertile with memories, until it was tangible.

At the dawning of their first full day alone and together, Fraser settled into a chair on the front patio, making a space for his truest love – a queen, a woman, just Claire – on his flannel pajama pants-clad lap.

“Come here,” he said, quite unnecessarily as she was already approaching.

Claire plodded towards him in stocking feet, tipping her head to the side in a show of coquettishness so blatant that it made his belly stir. She hadn’t bothered with pants on the morning after her televised mea culpa – just knickers and an old chunky knit jumper she found at the back of his closet (sitting at the end of the bed as she asked for help that morning, he had rolled the impossibly-long sleeves and kissed the backs of her hands, her palms, ten fingertips, the pulse in each wrist). The crown of her head (where a literal crown frequently perched among tamed tresses, awaiting his fingers to free it) was a riotous tumble of curls. And the lazy, first fingers of morning light had painted that crown golden in a more brilliant display than any precious metal that ever rested there.

Neither had spoken much that morning, just letting blissful sighs and honeyed smiles stand in for all the words. Nothing was left to say for the moment. As she lowered herself to his lap, he felt as though the sun had come out on a rainy day.

Just seeing her, knowing that she was his.

A dhia.

Perhaps someday he would tell her that – how in this moment on the porch, he had been irrevocably, painfully in love with everything she was, ever had been, was destined to become. That she had his name, his family. The protection of his body. That as long as he lived, no one could take this from them.

Just a hair’s breadth from him, the swollen pout of her mouth was as good as a recording of the previous night. How he had thoroughly debauched her mouth with his own – tasting her, sucking her lower lip, swallowing her every sound, and feeding her his own.

Her golden head fell forward, her hand tangled in the curls at the nape of his neck, and she kissed him.

“You are a fool for loving me, James Fraser,” she mumbled against his mouth. She tasted of coffee and marmalade, each of the small hairs along the slope of her exposed neck rising as he kissed one bared clavicle reverently. “But you love me, and love me well. Your life will change forever.”

He had only one thing left to say: “Too late.”

That night, as the sun was setting with the same lazy, quicksand sink as the meandering, overweight lift of the sunrise, she rode him furiously, one hand curled around his shoulder and one flat against the side of the cabin. His hand crept beneath the sweater, pushed the fabric up and bunched it on her shoulder, lowered his mouth to the peak of her breast as he bucked up against her. He was desperate to bury himself in her, almost as if he wanted to crawl inside of her (something his sister had said years ago, that a man when making love wants to return to the womb – he had ached with laughing at her, now knew precisely her meaning). Claire cried out, losing rhythm, falling forward and spilling profanity against his unshaven throat.

After they were spent, he whispered, “Your life will change forever.”

It took a moment before she whispered, “It already has.”

Days later – they had a routine. A series of sunrises and sunsets in which they made love and ate breakfast foods. A palpably awkward afternoon where they sat on the front room’s couch like nervous teenagers as the imposing matriarch of the Murray family interrogated them about the whole thing (Claire confessing afterwards that she had never, ever felt less like Queen than when asked by Janet Murray what her intentions were with Jamie). Over forgotten chapter books, they talked about futures and pasts and moments that might be or could have been. They vowed not to break one another’s heart.

And then it was time.

Five sunrises and sunsets later, they were set to return to Balmoral.

They readied themselves next to one another in a charged silence. One where the platitude that things would change had finally taken on a meaning, where the promise of their new life was palpable.

Fraser shaved. Claire put on her earrings for the first time since he had removed them for her on that first night, manufactured a smile as she swept blush onto the apples of her cheeks, traced the cupid’s bow of her mouth with nude lip pencil (one they had tested and found to be remarkably resilient to a kiss, provided no tongues were involved), and straightened the waistband of her smart skirt suit.

“Ye forgot something.” He held out a fist, opened his fingers. The ring sat on his palm – heavy, diamonds glittering and onyx glowing. With a blushing ferocity, she took her ring, uncharacteristically mumbly as she thanked him, asked him never to remind her of what had happened again, and slipped the heavy bauble onto her slim finger. “Do ye ken the meaning of onyx?”

She looked down at the ring, her fingers stiff as she inspected the stone. “What does onyx mean, Fraser?”

He slipped behind her, arms coming to rest around her waist. “It transforms negative energy. It’s a hopeful stone. It helps one walk through life as the master of her own future.”

In the mirror, he could see that her lower lip trembled a little. Her eyes narrowed, wet along the lower lash line as she asked, “Is that true?”

“Aye, through the stone, ye can draw strength to lead the life ye want.” Humming, she kissed the corner of his mouth. “Do ye ken the meaning of a pearl, a nighean?”

“Well, Cleopatra dissolved a pearl in vinegar and drank it to make a point – that she could rule an entire empire,” Claire teased, her voice wavering a little. “But the meaning? I will venture a guess that you are about to tell me, Fraser.”

“And ye’d be right, Claire.” Her name became a tease on his tongue. It was light, sexy. It made her glow. It made her question their decision to go to Balmoral and the assumption they had made all along that they had to do anything. “A pearl is for beauty, of course, but a pearl… weel, it means new beginnings.”

He reached around her, opening his hand once more. On his palm was a simple, single strand of pearls. Somewhat irregularly shaped and interrupted by tiny golden seeded beads, they were no less beautiful than any strand she had in her collection.

“I canna give ye anything as fine as what ye already have. I ken the life that I will lead, that I willna ever be able to provide for ye, to surprise ye wi’ a bit of jewelry. But what I do have… are these.”

He heard her swallow, felt her back melt fully into his front, felt the shift of her ribs as she took a deep breath and then another.

“They’re Scotch pearls. Belonged to my mother. And now they belong to you, mo nighean donn. They’re one of the few things I have left of her. Verra precious to me. As are you, Claire.”

He kissed the top of her shoulder, her ear, and carefully fastened the necklace around her neck, fingers straying at a single errant curl along her nape. Fingers resting on the strand, her eyes met his in the mirror as she whispered, “They are beautiful.”

“Ye probably have a dozen finer–”

Turning, she shook her head and gave him a dire look, her finger pressing over his lips. “Never say that. Ever. I have a collection of all sorts of riches – diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, gold and silver, and yes… pearls too – but nothing will ever live in my heart like these do.”

She cupped his cheeks, rose onto the very tips of her toes, and gave him a chaste kiss.

“Now, take me home to Balmoral.”

* the love of @notevenjokingfic, @balfeheughlywed, @smashing-teacups, and @desperationandgin has kept me going through this story, and I owe them each a good night out on the town. <3

[asfaltics]

and those days were not like these

  Those were days of ignorance and rudeness; and to be able to read at all,       1 the occasion of his grief. Those were days       2   ah ! those were days,       3 and but little can now be recalled. Those were days in which       4   Those were days of economy too       5 The reason for that was, those were days       6   with long flowing ends. Those were days of short       7 place in the hands of the / now. Those were days       8   Those were days in which we knew       9 atmosphere. Those were days before the advent of the underground engineer.       10   Those were days in which people made their wills before they took a journey of a hundred miles; and no wonder       11 Those were days when there was all too little time       12   Those were days in which milk was a luxury in far-away Texas       13 And those days were not like these, those were days when the tide       14  

sources

1 ex Thomas Sheridan (1719-88 *), his Lectures on the Art of Reading. In two parts: Part I. The Art of Reading Prose. Part II. The Art of Reading Verse. 4th edn. (Dublin, 1790) : 1 2 ex David A(ugustus). Leonard. An Oration, Delivered at Raynham, Massachusetts, Friday, May 11th, 1804, on the late acquisition of Louisiana, at the unanimous request of the Republican Citizens of the County of Bristol. (Newport, R.I., 1804) : 12 3 ex Marmaduke Merrywhistle (pseud.), Isn’t it odd?, vol 1 (of 3), (London, 1822) : 243 (Bodleian copy) 4 ex Emory Washburn. “Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Town of Leicester,” in The Worcester Magazine and Historical Journal 2:2 (June 1826) : 65 - 128 (117) 5 ex Speech of Mr. (Richard Henry) Wilde (1789-1847 *), of Georgia, on the bill for removing the Indians from the east to the west side of the Mississippi. Delivered in the House of Representatives, on the 20th May, 1830 (Washington, 1830) : 51 bound together with 23 speeches, 1830-31, on various bills 6 ex Promoters’ Evidence, from 20th March to 25th April, 1837, inclusive. Committee on the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway Bill. Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons (Glasgow, 1838) : 132 7 ex Edward Howard (1793-1841 *), Jack Ashore (Baudry’s European Library, Paris, 1840) : 145 (Howard knew, worked with Frederick Marryat) 8 ex “Disorderly Conduct” (in Rules of Procedure), Business of the House (Commons), February 28, 1888, in Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, Vol. 322 (London, 1888) : 1679 (an intentional cross-column misread, mea culpa) 9 ex The Hon. R. E. O’Connor in reply, re: the Elections Bill. 5 April 1893. Parliamentary Debates (New South Wales, Parliament, 1893) : 5707 10 1893, idem. 11 ex Emily Sarah Holt (1836-1893 *), The Gold that Glitters : The Mistakes of Jenny Lavender (London, 1896) : here 12 Charles King (1844-1933 *), A Trooper Galahad (1898) : 128 13 ibid, 189 14 ex Official Report of Debates, House of Commons, Third Session, Tenth Parliament (of Canada), 1906-7, vol. 81 (April 11, 1907) : 6445

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[kevrocksicehouse]

On this Memorial Day a remembrance in movies of the soldiers who fought in our most illustrious wars.

 The Revolutionary War (1775-83): The Last of the Mohicans. D: Michael Mann (1992). Mea Culpa Ab Initio – I’ve never seen a good Revolutionary War movie (and I refuse to credit Roland Emmerich’s fraudulent piece of jingo). But Mann’s movie about a war thirteen years before 1776 will do since so much of it is about the bitter enmity between a pompous and arrogant British officer (Steven Waddington) and the Proto-American Free Man “Hawkeye” (Daniel Day-Lewis playing his first but far from last yank). It complicates matters that the Brit dies heroically to save Madeline Stowe (as who wouldn’t) while the “American,” (or harbinger of an undiscovered country we’re still striving towards) lives to fight another day.

The Civil War (1861-65): Glory. D: Edward Zwick (1989). The story of the 54th Massachusetts Infantry Regiment an all-black regiment told through the experiences of an escaped slave (Denzel Washington, who richly deserved the Oscar he won) a gravedigger, and a free intellectual (Morgan Freeman and Andre Braugher respectively, who were even better). The final doomed battle is a (heroic) footnote in the war’s history but it allows Zwick to look through the eyes of soldiers who more than anyone, understand the freedom they are fighting for.

World War I (1914-18). Sergeant York. D: Howard Hawks (1941). There are quite a few great movies about WWI featuring Frenchmen (Paths of Glory)  Australians (Gallipoli) and Germans (All Quiet on the Western Front). Most are pacifist, as would befit the bloodiest pointless war (wars have been bloodier or more pointless but not both) in history. We got into it on the tail end so it’s no surprise that the best American movie was a study of one of the most decorated war heroes of the conflict (Oscar-winning Gary Cooper) whose religious pacifism almost kept him out of the whole stupid mess. The movie skirts or ignores the irony of a man triumphing over his own conscience but it’s an insightful portrait of heroism nonetheless.

World War II (1939-45) The Story of G.I. Joe. D: Wellman (1945). The Big One. The Just War. The one where we were the good guys, freeing the world from the grip of an unspeakable evil, until a pair of mushroom clouds muddied the waters. For the most mythologized of conflicts, best to trust a film close to the source. Wellman’s movie, based on the writings of Ernie Pyle (a war correspondent of bottomless empathy, played WITH bottomless empathy by Burgess Meredith) and released just a little over a year from war’s end doesn’t romanticize these tired, grimy and fatalistic men slogging through Italy. None of them are presented as heroes (not even Robert Mitchum as a Captain whose devotion to his men is killing him) but by film’s end we have known uncommon valor.

The Korean War (1950-53) M*A*S*H. D: Robert Altman. (1970). Korea by way of Vietnam. While we were fighting in the latter country, this portrait of hip army doctors drinking, fucking and playing pranks (especially on pompous officers) to keep themselves sane while dealing with the bloody byproduct of the Korean “police action” became a counterculture hit. Then, when a TV series version that underlined and put exclamation points around its themes became an even bigger hit, people started to devalue the movie and its heroes’ Playboy-club sexism and elitism. It is true that more enlightened and moralistic eyes might see these guys as less than admirable. They also seem more than realistic.

The Vietnam War (1955-1975. We got involved in 1963) We Were Soldiers. D: Randall Wallace. It has been said that every war film is a pro-war film since no matter the depiction of horror or carnage, battle creates the kind of heightened and thrilling reality for which people go to movies. This film places us among the troops in a largely successful but costly attempt to gain control of a VC base camp (that almost immediately was recaptured after the troops left). After many acts of heroism and a spectacular display of American might we are led to ponder futility. And much later we see the commander (One of Mel Gibson’s best performances) find his men at the Vietnam War Memorial. If he isn’t thinking “What a waste,” he’s not thinking what we’re thinking.

Gulf War I (1990-91). Courage Under Fire. D: Edward Zwick. (1996). An investigation into whether Captain Karen Emma Walden (Meg Ryan playing the same part several different ways) should posthumously receive the Medal of Honor leads Lieutenant Colonel Nathan Serling (Denzel Washington) into a Rashomon-like inquiry that may uncover a war crime. The film gets at the kind of lightning-fast decisions that battle necessarily requires and how the stress and guilt of those decisions can cut deeper and leave uglier scars than the most painful wounds. Even in a conflict usually portrayed as a milk run.

War in Afghanistan (2001-present) and Iraq War (2003-present). The Messenger. D: Oren Moverman (2009). And finally this Memorial Day a movie about what we’re memorializing. Two men with a job. They go to a house, deliver the news that a loved one, a soldier has died. They then refer to grief counsel, mouth words of comfort but most importantly they bear witness and so do we. And if we can take away anything from this movie while admiring the stoic empathy of Ben Foster and Woody Harrelson (Each actor’s best performance) and the other actors showing us the many shades of shock and grief, let us take away that this is still going on. Eleven years from this movies’ release, this ritual, necessary and humane, hasn’t ceased. People are still coming to houses delivering bad news about people we’ve forgotten about fighting endless and forgotten wars. Have a Memorial Day.