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dweemeister · 4 years

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The count goes on...

I scarcely noticed it, but last evening with the publication of my write-up on Fanchon, the Cricket (1915), I hit 750 full-length film write-ups on this blog. As you may know, the write-ups are tagged “My Movie Odyssey”. You can access every single write-up via the blog’s index. Some years ago, when I was putting out these write-ups and watching movies at a faster pace than I do now, I jokingly put a target of 1,000 write-ups for myself.

As I approach nine years on this site, this blog is now three-quarters of the way to that coveted century mark, hitting baseball hall of fame numbers if that number was counted as home runs. It would not have been possible without the support - through likes, reblogs, shares, comments, and simple reading the write-ups - of my followers present and past, and of course family and friends off of tumblr. For every write-up you have interacted with, I hope you were introduced to new ideas and perspectives, the filmmaking process, and how each of those films fit (or may someday fit) in the grander context of the history of one of the youngest artforms.

I admit that, if this year-long lockdown was good for anything, it has inspired a run of some of my best write-ups here on tumblr. Very few of these were on 2020 films, as I felt sorta liberated from the pressures from watching the newest releases (who has that much money for all those streaming services?). If you’ve missed them, here are a few highlights from some of my “COVID write-ups” so to speak...

Movie Odyssey Retrospectives on the Walt Disney Animation Studios canon: A long planned-for project that never got off the ground until last spring (and thanks to a friend sharing their Disney+ account). Reviews have included Disney’s Golden Age films like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937; this was write-up #700); Pinocchio (1940); Fantasia (1940); and Bambi (1942)... (1941′s Dumbo was written on a few years ago). Cinderella (1950) was published last month; this series continues hopefully this weekend with Alice in Wonderland (1951).

A Letter to Three Wives (1949): One of the finest pieces of feminist Americana I’ve ever seen, all thanks to Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s directing/writing and the stupendous performances from the three leads.

Diego Maradona (2019, United Kingdom): It is not often I feature soccer on this blog anymore. But when it comes along in the form of a write-up? I could never be more excited. This is Asif Kapadia’s documentary on the mercurial, controversial, and inflammatory late footballing genius of Diego Maradona. I wish it covered more time, but one can’t argue its effectiveness.

Ordet (1955, Denmark): As someone who was raised in a Buddhist family but was not raised with religion, I have always been fascinated by but nevertheless perplexed by narrative art that delves deeply into religious faith - especially in terms of the Abrahamic faiths (Christianity, Islam, Judaism). Probably one of my best efforts on a movie surrounding faith.

Once Upon a Time in America (1984): Epic-length gangster films are intimidating to write on. They hail from a place and time that I am very removed from - and I wish to stayed far removed from - and are so often celebratory of the “necessary” violence that they depict. Not this movie. This gangster epic is filled to the seams with regret. And I hope I conveyed that as effectively as I ever could.

Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, India): Some of my best writing has come from write-ups of films that were deeply personal, if not fatefully biographical, for the filmmaker involved. You got that with Guru Dutt in his final film - a Bollywood box office failure but now largely considered one of the greatest examples of classic Hindi cinema. And, for those in the know, this film did pretty damn well in 2020′s MOABOS.

Tokyo Olympiad (1965, Japan): Another sports documentary? Well, this is not your typical sports documentary. This is an official film of the Olympic Games. And, other than Leni Riefenstahl’s propagandistic Olympia (1938, Germany), this is the most artistically accomplished of them all. And perhaps among the most important. I contextualize this film as essentially marking the beginning of Japan’s reintroduction to the world - perhaps not cinematically, but in the realms of politics, sport, and broader culture,

Flower Drum Song (1961): Before The Joy Luck Club (1993), the most recent film with an almost all-Asian cast was this. An adaptation of a famous Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that is never performed anymore (various reasons), it was a revelation to see so many actors of Asian descent that I had seen in bit roles in other movies or television star in this production. Even if that meant the film was not terribly culturally specific or accurate.

Wolfwalkers (2020): Another visual and thematic triumph from the folks at Cartoon Saloon in Ireland. There’s more to animation than just the major American studios and anime, as I hope many of you will learn if you haven’t already. Multinational European productions and Latin America are coming to the fore - and bringing ideas and visuals that the aforementioned American and Japanese studios could never produce.

The Cave of the Yellow Dog (2005, Mongolia): One of the gentlest films I’ve seen in the longest time. It plays like a fable, and - critically - like a lesson in learning how Mongolian nomads live without ever feeling like a university lecture. Wonderful performances from the non-professional actors, and an ideal watch for children.

Yi Yi (2000, Taiwan): A gorgeous portrait of a middle-class Taiwanese family as they navigate life’s messy current at the turn of the twentieth to twenty-first centuries. A pleasure to reflect on, however difficult actually writing this review was.

Thank you for your goodwill, support, and good humor for the first three quarters of this journey to a thousand Movie Odyssey write-ups. The fourth and final quarter begins. Onward.

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muttonchopsalley · 7 years

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Mike Toole takes us through the world of obscure and amazing anime dubs from the past.

#anime #1970s #1980s #1990s #English #dub #dubbed #heidi girl of the alps #urusei yatsura #Thundersub #Blue Noah #Ehrgeiz #An Olympic Fable: Run For Life

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pecygrimangry · 4 years

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George Floyd was floored,

by the laws of hate,

His dying throat held down

under the bending kneels of a dark knight,

whispering his secret dark prayers to the god of race,

With an offering of a black lamb,

On the altar of bigotry and prejudice,

With punk smiles on his face,

Paled white fanatics,

The worshipper of Europa in wild rituals of his Aryan blood,

The sublime ceremonies of the subconscious

Leaving the repressed beds of Freudian dreams,

And taking a freedom walk among the dead of the deads,

But the delusions of our realities

In the executioner's disguise as the cherubs of authority and order,

Raging orders against the otherness of others,

In shinning fire of a legalized hate,

walking and patrolling the melanin county,

With borrowed uniforms of sapphire and the shinning aura of a Lucifer's zombie,

A viglantee of race,

Tutored in supremacist lores,

Fight blacks to the ground,

To keep them eternally down,

Pushed down on the black pavement,

Was a black man gasping for breathe,

To breathe freedom or to take in the polluted airs of oppression,

His chest contrapping for air--and his lung shutting down by the infectious virus of human hate, a victim of cop's vivid attack at his colour more than his crime,

COVID 19 has done its worse--but the culture of racism will never ends

With Ku Khan Klan mask on the face of cops

Who will give the black-- a cup of waters to fill his thirst for justice

Or to help them cope with coals of fire on their burning tongues?

We have sent his vengeful ghost flowers,

To adore the weed-controlled garden of unsprouted worth fertilized by the common rhetoric of a colour blind state

crowning him now in laurels-he never received in entire life in this lured trap, the lowest point, and the socially drained existence as a prey in the maze of a master race. Dracula's monsters have come back to haunt us in police clothes!

What is the sportsmanship of humanity when we are athletes of race and prejudice?

What is the joy of playing the game of human existence if it is rigged in favour of a melanin team?

Sportsmanship of colours ruin the marathon of the human race;

Social Olympics of fears must now run its final course too,

The age-old lynching baton given to the police to keep,

To run in wild turns of the relay torches of racial discrimination and hates,

Our love for colours have taken the bows of dignity from the rainbow,

And had reduced the rainbow into the mere deluge symbol of God's war with our race,

But it is human race now against each other in a rat race of survival with white cats and its kitten disguised as social mouses in contest of furs and colours

Truth has colours and lies its flavours; people prefer white truth and humanity are generally addicted to sweet flavours of lies--may be white lies that equality existed anywhere on earth.

But from Australian fire to Tunisian one, humanity rages against itself in unequal defense of its boundless self or the temptation to keep to the boundaries of its white-chalked empires,

From Minnesota's fire to the burning flames of Soweto,

Or to the burnt shops in Idumota

we are all mortals and speak in the language of fire and dialect of destruction,

Prometheus must now be freed from his dreaded tasks of forever rolling stones,

For his gift of fire has served humanity well--or has burn too the unity among human race.

The anger of the gods against him have no significance now because fire has ruined us--the fire of bigotry and colours have turned the earth to Hades of hate.

Minnesota's fire speak in riddles of the Sphinx humanity pretence to be human in its head and animal in its moving body

They take the moon of human kindness and the sun of human compassion and still blame the world for its present darkness,

The game is not over--it is just one player down,

The torches of Minnesota's looting are torches of humanity burning--

We have looted the dignity of each other--and we now burn in self-created crowds of lonely people and alienated races in spooky Halloween costumes of fears;

The looters and the looted in white bread narrarives of the supremacist's storytellers are believed to be equal in lootness or the democracy of the looting acts I did not know,

But what I know--I must now speak,

Humanity is burning in Minnesota--but the halfhearted firefighters at Washington, democratic cherubs and guards of the holy of holies of human relationship must offer sacrifice of scapegoats to appease the fire raging in god-like fury.

But sirens of police in colours of yellow, red, blue and green must now be all white now--because the White house too have become painters of Snow-white.

We cannot fire these painters

For they were hired through the votes of colours,

Ballot boxes of races; and elections of hued politics,

But I now pity myself because justice has thrown away her useless scales and now holds inferno in her hands,

Lady justice with her flames must meet with lady liberty with her torch,. and both the two in wild romance of social flames and the inferno of change will burn down the aristocracy of race and its plebiscite supports

And like lesbian couples--the two ladies in protest march must burn the world down or like the subversive flames in Jotham's fable they must now burn also themselves down.

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deadcactuswalking · 2 years

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REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 04/06/2022 (Calvin Harris/Dua Lipa/Young Thug, “Prince Andrew”, XXXTENTACION/Kanye West)

“As it Was” by Harry Styles is at #1 for a ninth consecutive week. Really, what did you expect? Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS!

Rundown

As always, our week starts with the notable dropouts, songs exiting the UK Top 75 – which is what I cover – after five weeks in the region or a peak in the top 40. This week, we say goodbye to “low down” by venbee and Dan Fable, “Birthday Cake” by Dylan Conrique, “Night Away (Dance)” by A1 x J1 and Tion Wayne, “Finesse” by Pheelz and BNXN, “Reggae & Calypso” by Russ Millions, Buni and YV, “The Motto” by Tiesto and Ava Max, and a lot of recent re-entries like “In a Minute” by Lil Baby, “abdefu” by GAYLE, “Save Your Tears” by The Weeknd and “good 4 u” by Olivia Rodrigo.

In terms of our notable gains, songs gaining at least five positions compared to last week, we do have a handful like, for some reason, “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers at #57 as well as “Bad Life” by Sigrid and Bring Me the Horizon at #50, “Last Last” by Burna Boy at #44 (are we really making this bitter, pissy breakup song a real hit?), “Shivers” by Ed Sheeran rebounding at #32 bizarrely, “Hold My Hand” by Lady Gaga at #24 probably thanks to the release of Top Gun: Maverick, and “2step” by Ed Sheeran entering the top 10 at #9 thanks to hoards of remixes. Our biggest stories are, of course, in the returning entries, though not because “Everything’s Electric” by Liam Gallagher returns to #73 thanks to the album release, which we’ll talk more about that later. No, it’s also not because of “Levitating” by Dua Lipa returning once again to #75. Instead, we have to look at the top 10, where thanks to a resurgence propelled by Netflix series Stranger Things, one of the greatest songs of all time in the form of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” returns to #8. It isn’t the first time a resurgence like this happened with this song, which originally peaked at #3 in 1985 (and #30 in the US). Placebo took their cover to #44 in 2003, a remix for the 2012 Olympic Games in London reached #6 in 2012, and for some reason, it came back at #51 in 2014. Part of me really doubts that this once-in-a-lifetime song that somehow has had several lifetimes really will get any higher, but the streaming is undeniable both here and stateside, so I do see this getting even higher than #8. Hell, it may just join her 1978 debut “Wuthering Heights” as a chart-topper, but for now, it’s her first top 10 appearance since 2012, even on ACR, it’s by far the best song in this top 10, so I’m glad it’s here.

As for our top five, well, it’s a bit less interesting. From bottom to top, we have “First Class” by Jack Harlow at #5, “Late Night Talking” by Harry Styles at #4, “About Damn Time” by Lizzo at #3, “Go” by Cat Burns at #2, and of course, “As it Was” at the top. Before we get into our new arrivals, there are just a few releases that will definitely not impact the charts but were released last week that I think are worth talking about.

Off the Charts

Dariacore 3... At least I think that’s what it’s called? – c0ncernn

There are actually only two albums from last week I heard and want to discuss, and I liked both of them a lot so it’s kind of easy street for me. The third instalment in the Dariacore trilogy is probably the best, mostly because, well, these amalgamations of awkward pop-culture samples mixed into a colourful breakcore package that feels increasingly detached from any sort of ordinary context... actually feel like songs this time around. It’s a pretty cohesive albeit incoherent record, which is more than I really expect from these “Dariacore” projects that tend to repeat a similar trick with less nuance. It’s far from perfect, though, as I do think by the time we get to the six-minute tracks near the end, a lot of the steam has run out and the momentum tends to dip throughout, but it’s still got plenty of brilliant removals of pop songs from their comfort zone, so I’d still take a listen. My favourite track is “damn! we got it bad: you’ll never guess what happens...”

Dataprism – Fax Gang

I was worried about this Fax Gang album. With two of their producers leaving, a part of me was concerned that the unique stylings of Aethernet that played around excellently with its “hexD” format, were not going to be there... and to be honest, they mostly aren’t, but it’s for the best because this feels like a complete rebound in terms of songwriting ability for PK Shellboy. Sure, the content is a lot of angst and some flexing, but it’s delivered in a way that’s quite resonant, and unlike older projects, it doesn’t feel like Shellboy is at odds with the production, but instead fits right in. Their compositional strength as a group has gotten a lot better, and that’s probably thanks to kimj joining the group and delivering production with a seriously impressive attention to detail. The bitcrushed sound just feels like par for the course instead of adding much that the group can play with, but the less glitched and more cloudy, ethereal approach that they took here makes for a more cohesive listen. Like most hexD projects, it still feels like a cry for help, with this one being particularly well-crafted, but for once, there’s a sense of assurance in the lyrics and delivery that honestly might make this more palatable than their catchier earlier material. Time will tell, but I recommend the whole album, it’s one of my favourites of the year, and I really can’t pick a favourite track. Check out “Reprieve”, “No Evil” with Mx. PurpleHaze, “90 Degrees” and “Four Walls” with Parannoul. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming...

NEW ARRIVALS

#74 – “Goodbye” – Mimi Webb

Produced by Gian Stone

It’s hypothetically a cool-down week but we still have 10 new entries in the top 75, all from different artists, so this won’t exactly be short but given how there aren’t big album releases impacting the chart to that much of an extent, we might have a simpler week, and what better way to start something simple than a simple little song from Mimi Webb? Mimi Webb is still pushing singles from that whenever-it-comes debut album, and “Goodbye” is the latest Tate McRae impression, where she doesn’t seem to realise that even McRae has moved on from this brand of generic piano ballad. For some reason, Mimi Webb actually went to Genius to annotate these lyrics, as if they weren’t crystal clear already: it’s pretty telling that they allowed her to annotate the lines but not film a Verified video, as what does Webb really have to say of interest regarding the typical slight string inflection and subtle beat that clips ever so slightly in the mix, with some okay multi-tracking holding up Mimi Webb talk about a relationship that’s changed too much for them not to just amicably split? To be fair, it’s not that pissy of a break-up song, and it’s kind of reassuring to know that real relationships that end up just simply not working out exist in pop music, but without setting a guy’s house on fire, her song debuted at #74 so maybe being a crazy ex-girlfriend is better for marketing. This song is honestly fine, again, it has a well-worn trick but does it relatively decently without the level of grandiosity it couldn’t and wouldn’t pull off, so it’s not terrible by any means... just not interesting, at all.

#69 – “Afraid to Feel” – LF SYSTEM

Produced by LF SYSTEM

Alright, I’ll bite: who are LF SYSTEM? Well, it seems like they’re a UK house duo who broke out last year and are getting their first charting single with this new track. They keep their Spotify bio pretty simple, declaring that “PEOPLE WANT MUSIC”... which I guess isn’t entirely inaccurate, but do the people want music from this group? Well, enough for it to debut at #69, and also enough for me to actually like this quite a bit. I don’t know the soulful sample, if it is a sample, but the rich vocals alongside the retro horns and piano sounding really sweet lay a great foundation for a loop that – admittedly abruptly – gets flipped into a 90s house banger. It may rely too much on that sample, which honestly delivers much of the texture and groove into this song, but the way they use separate parts to build an actual song out of it rather than relying on that catchy refrain is above what some house producers are willing to do, and in a club, this would absolutely hit and that’s really its purpose. It’s not reliant on the anti-climactic slap house drops and it sounds like it’s, you know, actually made for people to dance and have fun to, even with its decidedly unsubtle changes in pace and tempo that honestly work more than they should, so I’ll say that this is quite refreshing considering the charting dance climate. I’d like that chorus to hit a bit more with more variation, and it kind of runs out of steam by the second bridge, but it’s nice to hear something like this in the top 100 so I hope it ends up as a Summer hit.

#65 – “Diamond in the Dark” – Liam Gallagher

Produced by Andrew Wyatt and Emile Haynie

To the surprise of not many, former Oasis member Liam Gallagher gets his fourth solo #1 on the UK Albums Chart with C’MON YOU KNOW, an album I had no interest in listening to, even if I vaguely liked the lead single, “Everything’s Electric”, mostly because of that killer chorus and the genuine grebo grit that surrounded it. “Diamond in the Dark” is less of a single than it is just the first song on the album under four minutes, so it’s charting this week, higher than the lead single in fact, and does it make me want to check out that album? Well, not at all. I had a more scathing review of this, but I actually lost most of it thanks to a PC crash, so I’ll try and keep this brief: I’m not a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys in the first place, so why a BTEC version of that band’s dullest sound, with stiff grooves and immature lyrics is charting, is beyond me. Sure, a big name is attached, but he sounds exhausted as he sings frustratingly confused lyrics that do not make it clear whether his response to this breakup is wistful reminiscence or angsty vengeance. That would be okay if his delivery had an interesting dichotomy to it but his nasal whine is way too high in the mix to be tolerable, and the slimey guitars and blown-out drums don’t help matters.

#56 – “Brazil” – Declan McKenna

Produced by Max Marlow

Why this is charting now is beyond me. It might be TikTok traction, but why “Brazil”, the 2015 debut single by Declan McKenna is charting in 2022 does confuse me. McKenna is a young Hertfordshire singer known for his politically-charged indie rock on songs like “British Bombs” and whilst I’m not too familiar with his work, he has had success on the albums chart that has yet to translate to singles. The reason why this seems like such a weird debut is that the song is connected to a specific point in time, that being the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. At the time, there was a fair bit of controversy surrounding how billions were spent by the Brazilian government to hold the World Cup whilst the country experienced dismal poverty in its lower-class areas, with the “beautiful game” being used as a distraction and deceit from the corruption of former FIFA President Sepp Blatter, who is directly condemned in the song for his exuberant lifestyle. Lyrically, it’s pretty striking to say that the government “sold the Amazon” for the World Cup and I do like the amount of detail put into his meandering verses, even if I can’t really stand his voice over this otherwise pretty subdued instrumental full of liquid guitars and your typical steady indie drum progression. When your vocals are this unclear, they do make the lyrics stand out a lot less, which may be the point to gather more mainstream attention whilst sticking with the political lyrics... but it really does not work here at all, it feels like it’s kind of missing the point considering that the song itself is about distracting and deceiving the public. I mean, I appreciate the message, and it’s not bad, but it’s not something that I would see lasting past this resurgence.

#52 – “Mixed Emotions” – Chase & Status

Produced by Chase & Status

Chase & Status are a London EDM duo who hit their stride in the early-to-mid-2010s, with several top 10 hits – though not any that I really have fond memories of – from 2009 to 2013. It doesn’t really surprise me, given that the dancefloor drum and bass style from that era is back in vogue, that this is the duo’s first charting hit since 2016, when they had a #65 hit with “All Goes Wrong” featuring Tom Grennan. I guess these two acts just slept out the Trump administration, which I can’t really blame them for, but Chase & Status have still been releasing music pretty consistently. This song is from their upcoming album this year, featuring uncredited vocals from Clementine Douglas on lead, and it’s not bad at all. I like the futuristic sound effects that open the song, which is fittingly cold in its synth ambience and the filters that drench Douglas’ voice in this sense of reverb-addled distance that is really effective, especially once that typical hi-hat progression comes in and you know where it’s going in terms of that drop. Sure, the content isn’t of interest but it’s drum and bass, it’s not exactly supposed to. I’d prefer if the percussion didn’t come in at all until the drop, which would make the mix of breakbeat percussion and piano feel a bit more cathartic, but the swell is still pretty powerful and it’s honestly rare that there’s a drum and bass song I don’t like, not that Chase & Status are exactly trying, as the little synth flourishes in the second verse are cute and the grandiosity of the second drop prepares a really well thought out atmosphere. It’s a damn good track, even if I have some tweaks I’d make to it to make it really hit, but hey, I’m not the one bringing drum and bass back into the chart, and I’m not surprised at all that Chase & Status are riding this new wave.

#45 – “Die Young” – Sleepy Hallow featuring 347aidan

Produced by Great John

When I saw this title and this artist, I got a slight sinking feeling that this would be a sample drill flip of the Kesha song from 2012, but that’s not the case. The sample here is 347aidan’s breakout emo-rap single “MEMORIES!”, that is pretty awful in all honesty, with its dime-a-dozen trap beat flattening whatever emotion was left in 347aidan’s deadpan, straining emo delivery and the guitar loop that sounds like even Juice WRLD would have deemed overly simple. So with this awkward, kind of awful song, he ends up getting his first charting entry as New York drill rapper Sleepy Hallow, who you probably know from “2055” (which I still think is pretty good), and it could work... but by God, it really doesn’t. Turning 347aidan’s emo whine into a chipmunk sample makes for some pure nightcore annoyance and Great John’s drill beat is just typical, in a way that doesn’t stop the tighter percussion from sounding good but still just standard, and without the sample actually sounding any good, this is just an annoying production overall. Sleepy Hallow continues to reference his older hits, and spends much of his verses flexing or with some vague gang paranoia that is far from interesting or even as quotable as his other songs. He doesn’t really harmonise with the sample on the chorus either, so the refrain seems tacked-on for recognisability... so yeah, this is pretty bad, and it’s not the worst emo-rap song we’ll be seeing either so prepare for that. Before that, we have drill from this side of the Atlantic...

#42 – “BABA (Toma Tussi)” – Russ Millions

Produced by Prod_JSH and Young Madz

So, I really liked Russ Millions’ last single “Reggae & Calypso”, but typically, I haven’t found Russ to have much of a unique flow or for his production to be all that interesting apart from perhaps having a heavier tinge to his drill percussion. So when I see that he’s sampling a pretty sweet if weedy reggaeton song from just last year in the form of “Mi Gata” by Standly and El Barto, I did have some hopes here, and given that it’s exactly two minutes, at least it can’t overstay its welcome. After listening, I’m honestly just kind of confused by it, as the sample is filtered and sped-up, allowing for Russ to awkwardly harmonise over it and spend much of the chorus and post-chorus in this childlike tone... and okay, this beat is kind of awful. The sample’s nice enough, but the 808 slides are mixed to sound a lot less impactful than they should be, to the point where it makes the rhythm really awkward, and considering that this essentially acts as a joke song, the ability to turn yourself off and enjoy the rhythm is what matters here. As it is, it’s just a stiff, semi-comical attempt at drill that shouldn’t be an attempt considering Russ Millions has made many a drill song that works better than this before. Sure, my problem is mostly in the production, but Russ isn’t exactly helping with his tiny verse and thin content that never really settles on a topic. It might actually be worse than that Sleepy Hallow song so whilst we’re in this region of messy hip-hop...

#31 – “True Love” – Kanye West and XXXTENTACION

Produced by MIKE DEAN, Ojivolta, Kanye West and John Cunningham

I don’t think Donda 2 is coming. Most of the songs with features have started to show up on other projects, including this, “City of Gods”, “Eazy” and “KEEP IT BURNIN”, and most of Kanye’s solo songs just feel like reference tracks that get developed into something else along the line or scrapped entirely, which is not new for his kind of album cycle. It doesn’t stop those songs from finding official release though, as the Stem Player-exclusive record was released in unfinished form, including all of his gross, decidedly not “Christlike” attitudes towards women, and every pissy, charmless jab at his ex-wife and her new partner. I can’t be engaged in this kind of melodrama when it does feel like one man poking at a balloon without realising that the balloon doesn’t pop, but rather deflates. Strange analogies aside, apart from some highlights, Donda 2 is a Godawful album that should not have been released under any circumstances. Naturally, for the recent documentary about XXXTENTACION, that has actually seen some positive reception at least from what I can tell, there was a compilation album full of SoundCloud hits that weren’t on streaming as well as essentially acting as a “greatest hits” tribute to X, which, sure, is money-hungry on the label’s part but not nearly as immoral as John Cunningham’s label-backed masquerade that involves making gross, half-finished amalgamations of unused demo vocals to reanimate this abuser’s corpse so that his fans can have more content, and therefore more money goes into the pockets of those who helped make these Frankenstein songs... including, of course, Kanye West, who now has three songs with posthumous X vocals. This is the second to be officially released and, like much of the “album” it originates from, is pure garbage. To be fair, the refrain from X is not bad at all, and could work if it was finished and recorded in the studio, but the thin mix on his nasal vocals just feels out of place on the otherwise hard-hitting drum beat, especially when both he and Ye’s vocals are abruptly manipulated and looped. Ye repeats that one line, “No hard feelings, but these feelings hard, though”, echoing it until the words that meant nothing in the first place fall on even less-engaged ears. He spends his single verse whining about how he supposedly can’t see his kids, as if his behaviour on social media or in his music will get him to spend any more time with them, to the point of complaining about what shoes they wear. Then he tries to equate his first-world divorce problems with X’s son Gekyume not growing up with his father figure in sight. I’d complement the somewhat haunting production, but it’s not nearly interesting enough to make this less than insufferable and still clearly unfinished if that malformed bridge is anything to go by. I hope like the rest of Ye’s singles post-Donda that this disappears, and fast.

#20 – “Prince Andrew is a Sweaty Nonce” – The Wiggles

Produced by ???

Okay, so this song clearly isn’t by the Wiggles – although I want to hear that – it’s just that I try and keep this show somewhat family-friendly. You should know who this is by if you’ve been following even just the Christmas #1, so I guess I should just do as I do every time this comedian releases a song and do mini-reviews of all 10 of these different mixes. This song, accusing Prince Andrew of being a pedophile in 70s glam rock fashion, was released in the wake of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, and I’m not celebrating that in any way other than blasting this song, which uses police sirens to emphasise its interpolation of the Shamen’s “Ebenezer Goode”, and makes some damn good points about how if he never met this woman, why is he paying them not to talk? This is probably my favourite song of them all so far as it actually gets some digs in whilst being as populist as ever. Naturally, there are nine other versions. The “Armagortion metal mix” actually reconstructs the entire song with poorer mixing and incoherent vocals, despite an admittedly decent bridge, BabyLad’s “SFW sausage roll radio mix” makes the mix a lot more chintzy as he gets no response from when he asks fictional children about if they like the Queen, the anti-jubilee “12’’ mix” might be my favourite rendition as he extends the song to accuse the entire idea of jubilee celebrations of being complacent in the decadence of the upper-class, whilst also taking jabs at Ed Sheeran and Elton John for promoting the jubilee, which is honestly kind of deserved. The “unplugged” acoustic version uses kazoos to their greatest potential, and is ultimately just kind of annoying, the “Mentalpiece Xtra Noncey Remix” (what a title) turns the song into a Crystal Castles-esque electroclash banger with squelching synths and blaring airhorns, as well as a memetic repetition of the word “nonce”, “Randy Andy’s Memory Loss Mix” mocks what should have been the criminalising interview with Prince Andrew using voice clips, the “Ricardo Autobahn rave remix” is hilarious with how it makes noncery sound like an Ibiza club (although it’s at this point that I think the actual victims are falling by the wayside here), and Autobahn’s “stadium remix” makes it sound like a big room house track that honestly bangs, with the final remix being the bizarre “Rob Manuel’s Bive Junny Acid House Mega Mix”, which twists the classic “19” by Paul Hardcastle, using several rave tracks to emphasise that Prince Andrew is, indeed, a nonce. And some people say the charts aren’t worth following anymore – truly bizarre crap like this ends up on here. “The average age of the girls was 17” genuinely made me laugh but I don’t know if that says something about me, the comedy of the song, or really, how criticisms of western governments have yet to succeed in how they exploit the most young and vulnerable members of our society to feed, often brutally, into their capitalist machine. Down with the monarchy, and now for Calvin Harris.

#16 – “Potion” – Calvin Harris, Dua Lipa and Young Thug

Produced by Calvin Harris

Recently, Calvin Harris announced the follow-up to his modern Summer classic Funk Wav Bounces Vol 1, with this being the lead single for the sequel. Harris has made smooth, funky disco tracks for both Dua Lipa and Young Thug, so it’s not really a surprise to see them together here, even if Jack Harlow really missed his shot at a collaboration – probably thanks to trying to pick up the woman on a creepy top 40 hit. What does surprise me is the slightly weird song structure here, as Dua doesn’t get a verse or really allow herself to have any chemistry with Thugger, not that they can right now exactly. With that said, it works for the song, as it opens with that retro guitar solo before sizzling into a subdued pre-chorus where Dua Lipa sets the relaxed scene, in a transition that does feel a bit off, especially with repeated listens. The chorus is even more subdued, only vaguely being a chorus as Dua flexes her sex appeal in a melody that isn’t even all that multi-tracked. That meandering feel does allow Thugger to do what he does best, as he goes into this playful flow as he brags about taking women from their partners at corner stores, to the point where he has fifteen million hoes, as well as making indescribable sounds at the end of his first verse and comparing himself to a minor... which would have helped in this recent legal case but he’s being tried as the 30-year-old man he is. The squelch of the liquid guitars and slick bassline does sound good, but as a song, it feels a bit awkward and off-base, especially with Young Thug’s second verse/bridge that is so clearly a demo. With a bit more polish, this could be great, but as it is, it’s just a decent tropical vibe. Also, using lyrics in a court case is just another way for the US justice system to disproportionally arrest black men, and I feel like you didn’t need me to say that. I’ll stay short of saying “free YSL”, but know the sentiment is there.

Conclusion

And that concludes an... oddly political episode, with Best of the Week going to “Prince Andrew is a Sweaty Nonce” and it’s honestly worrying how not close it is. I guess LF SYSTEM get the Honourable Mention for “Afraid to Feel”, but Worst of the Week could really go to a lot of songs here. I’m giving it to XXXTENTACION and Kanye West for “True Love”, almost on principle, with a tied Dishonourable Mention between Liam Gallagher for “Diamond in the Dark” and Russ Millions for “BABA (Toma Tussi)”... because this honestly was not a good week at all. With that said, maybe good things are on the horizon, and at least Kate Bush is at #8 because that’s something you don’t see every day. For now, thank you for reading and I’ll see you next week!

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koreanbreeze · 7 years

Audio

방탄소년단 - MIC Drop

Yeah 누가 내 수저 더럽대

Yeah who said that my spoon is dirty?*

I don’t care 마이크 잡음

I don’t care, I grab the mic

금수저 여럿 패

I beat those gold spoons*

버럭해 잘 못 익은 것들

Those uncooked fellas fly into a rage

스테끼 여러 개

They’re a bunch of steaks

거듭해서 씹어줄게 스타의 저녁에

I’ll chew you over at the star’s dinner**

World Business 핵심

The core of world business

섭외 1순위 매진

The most sought-after, we’re sold out

많지 않지 이 class 가칠 만끽

Not many in this class, enjoy our full value

좋은 향기에 악췬 반칙

Nasty odours are fouls against a good scent

Mic mic bungee

Bright light 전진

Bright light moves forward

망할 거 같았겠지만 I’m fine, sorry

Thought we were gonna fail but I’m fine, sorry

미안해 Billboard

Sorry Billboard

미안해 worldwide

Sorry worldwide

아들이 넘 잘나가서 미안해 엄마

Sorry that your son’s doing so well, Mom

대신해줘 니가 못한 효도

I’ll be filial instead of you, since you were unable to

우리 콘서트 절대 없어 포도

Our concert has no grapes***

I do it I do it 넌 맛없는 라따뚜이

I do it I do it, you’re a tasteless ratatouille

혹 배가 아프다면 고소해

If your stomach hurts, sue me****

Sue it

Did you see my bag

트로피들로 백이 가득해

My bag is packed with trophies

How you think bout that

Hater들은 벌써 학을 떼

Haters already sick of us

이미 황금빛 황금빛 나의 성공

My success is already golden, golden

I’m so firin’ firin’ 성화봉송

I’m so firin’ firin’, the sacred-torch

너는 황급히 황급히 도망 숑숑

You’re urgently, urgently running away zoom zoom

How you dare

내 손에 트로피 아 너무 많아

Trophies in my hands, ah there’s so many

너무 heavy 내 두 손이 모잘라

So heavy, my two hands are insufficient

MIC Drop

발 발 조심

Watch your step, your step

너네 말 말 조심

Watch what you say, what you say

Lodi dodi 아 너무 바빠

Lodi dodi, ah so busy

너무 busy 내 온몸이 모잘라

So busy, my whole body is insufficient

MIC Drop

발 발 조심

Watch your step, your step

너네 말 말 조심

Watch what you say, what you say

이거 완전 네 글자

This is totally a four letter saying

사필귀정 ah

Nothing goes uncorrected for long ah

Once upon a time

이솝우화 fly

Aesop’s Fable fly

니 현실을 봐라 쌔 쌤통

Look at your reality, serves you right

지금 죽어도 난 개행복

Even if I die right now, I’d be so damn happy

이번엔 어느 나라 가

What country are we going to this time?

비행기 몇 시간을 타

How many hours are we flying?

Yeah I’m on the mountain

Yeah I’m on the bay

무대에서 탈진

Exhausted on the stage

MIC Drop baam

Did you see my bag

트로피들로 백이 가득해

My bag is packed with trophies

How you think bout that

Hater들은 벌써 학을 떼

Haters already sick of us

이미 황금빛 황금빛 나의 성공

My success is already golden, golden

I’m so firin’ firin’ 성화봉송

I’m so firin’ firin’, the sacred-torch

너는 황급히 황급히 도망 숑숑

You’re urgently, urgently running away zoom zoom

How you dare

내 손에 트로피 아 너무 많아

Trophies in my hands, ah there’s so many

너무 heavy 내 두 손이 모잘라

So heavy, my two hands are insufficient

MIC Drop

발 발 조심

Watch your step, your step

너네 말 말 조심

Watch what you say, what you say

Lodi dodi 아 너무 바빠

Lodi dodi, ah so busy

너무 busy 내 온몸이 모잘라

So busy, my whole body is insufficient

MIC Drop

발 발 조심

Watch your step, your step

너네 말 말 조심

Watch what you say, what you say

Haters gon’ hate

Players gon’ play

Live a life. man

Good luck

더 볼 일 없어 마지막 인사야

There’s nothing more to see, this is the last farewell

할 말도 없어 사과도 하지 마

There’s nothing more to say, don’t even apologize

더 볼 일 없어 마지막 인사야

There’s nothing more to see, this is the last farewell

할 말도 없어 사과도 하지 마

There’s nothing more to say, don’t even apologize

잘 봐 넌 그 꼴 나지

Look carefully, that’s your current state

우린 탁 쏴 마치 콜라지

We shoot like Cola

너의 각막 깜짝 놀라지

Your corneas are surprised*****

꽤 꽤 폼나지 포 포 폼나지 Yeah

Of course we’re so fly, fl-fl-fly Yeah

Vocab

수저: spoon

마이크: mic(rophone)

저녁: dinner, evening

핵심: core, center

섭외: liaison, casting

매진: sold-out (tickets, show, etc.)

향기: scent

악취: bad odour

반칙: foul, offense

아들: son

넘: so, too (shortened form of 너무)

효도: filial duty

포도: grape

트로피: trophy

성공: success

성화봉송: sacred-torch (like the Olympic Torch)

온몸: whole body

현실: reality

이번: this time

비행기: airplane

탈진(하다): exhaustion (exhausted)

각막: corneas

더럽다: dirty

패다: to beat (up), bash

버럭하다: to fly into a rage

익다: cooked, well-done, ripe

거듭하다: to repeat, do several times

씹다: to chew, badmouth

고소하다: to sue, accuse, indict, charge

가득하다: packed (with), crammed (with), full (of)

황급하다: urgent, pressing, hurried

모자라다: insufficient, not enough

놀라다: surprised, astonished

폼나다: in style, fly, with flair

Grammar

A대, V-ㄴ/는대: “…said A/V”

“누가 내 수저 더럽대” - who said that my spoon is dirty?

A다면, V-ㄴ/는다면: “If A/V”

“혹 배가 아프다면 고소해”- If your stomach hurts, sue me

*Refers to the Spoon Class Theory, and classifies individuals based on what they inherited from their parents/were born with. “Dirt spoon” would be the lowest class (about 50% of the Korean population), while “gold spoon” would be the richest class (the top 1%).

**Word play that can mean to chew or to badmouth. So they’re saying they’ll chew the steaks (i.e. badmouth them).

***포도, which means grape, is used in this case as a slang for (concert) seat/ticket. BTS commonly uses the site Interpark for ticketing, and when selecting seats, the seats are purple. Thus they look like grapes.

****More word play. 배가 아프다, while meaning to have a stomache, also means to be/feel jealous.

*****각막 is used as slang and refers to someone’s good taste but in a funny way. It also can be used to mean “eyes” instead of 눈.

As usual, not a native so if you see mistakes, please kindly let me know!^^ I’m hoping to do another song or two later today, it’s 1:30 am currently and I am going to go sleep now. Let me know which two you want next!

I LOVE THIS SONG SO MUCH I’VE HAD IT ON REPEAT FOR ALMOST 4.5 HOURS NOW UGH SO GOOD AND IT WAS INSPIRED BY OBAMA

STAN THE KINGS Y’ALL

-koreanbreeze

#learning through lyrics #방탄소년단 #mic drop #가사 #mine #this is my favorite song ever i will never stop listening to it #edits might be made in the morning #so tired

195 notes · View notes

halsteadproperty · 4 years

Photo

Books to Guide You, Exercises to Energize You, and a Recipe to Nourish You

In this time of self-isolating and social distancing, it’s more important than ever to focus on wellness. From nourishing your body with the right foods and exercises to nourishing your mind by keeping it active and healthy, there are many ways we can stay well during this time.

In that spirit, we will be sharing a weekly roundup of wellness tips and resources to help you and your loved ones stay positive and healthy. These will include recipes (Cooking is not only therapeutic, but it encourages creativity and lets you nurture others.) as well as workout options and stress-relieving practices that will keep your body moving and your mind calm.

Books to Guide, Center, and Lift You Up

Journey to the Heart: Daily Meditations on the Path to Freeing Your Soul By Melody Beattie

Melody Beattie shares her narrative of a road trip she took across the west, with stops at mystical sites like Sedona, Arizona and Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. She divides her journey into 365 meditations that cultivate hope and joy.

Order on Amazon or Bookshop.

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse By Charlie Mackesy

From British illustrator Charlie Mackesy, this modern tale is an inspiring fable for all ages. It explores life’s universal lessons through 100 color and black-and-white drawings.

Order on Amazon or Bookshop.

The One-Minute Gratitude Journal By Brenda Nathan

We all have so much to be grateful for. Brenda Nathan's journal helps us remember that through inspiring passages and the ability to jot down daily reflections on what made us thankful that day.

Order on Amazon.

Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...and Maybe the World By Admiral William H. McRaven

In 2014, Admiral William H. McRaven gave an inspiring commencement speech about the 10 principles he learned during Navy SEAL training. This timeless book is the continuation of that beloved speech, sharing powerful life lessons, practical advice, and wisdom.

Order on Amazon or Bookshop.

the sun and her flowers By Rupi Kaur

This collection of poetry and illustrations by Rupi Kaur is about the journey of growth and healing, split into five movements: wilting, falling, rooting, rising, and blooming. It touches on hardship, the emotions that come with it, and embracing the resulting strength.

Order on Amazon or Bookshop.

Nourish Your Body

Crispy Chipotle Chicken Tacos with Cilantro Lime Ranch by Half Baked Harvest

Make these oven-baked loaded tacos for a weeknight dinner, or whenever you’re in the mood. The smoky chipotle spice mix adds plenty of flavor, while the cilantro lime ranch provides a cooling, tangy component. Once they come out of the oven, the tacos are perfectly crispy on the outside, with melted cheesy goodness inside.

See the recipe.

Work(out) from Home

Melissa Wood Health

Melissa Wood is a certified health and wellness coach, yoga and Pilates teacher, meditator, and founder of the Melissa Wood Health Method. Her workouts feature slow, low-impact movements that combine yoga and Pilates. She also lives a plant-based lifestyle and is an incredible resource for nutrition guidance and mindful eating. Her videos are refreshingly motivating, positive, and a great way to start your day.

Follow her and download her app.

Joseph Corella: Cardio Dance to Broadway

Dance to your favorite Broadway numbers in the comfort of your own home with Joseph Corella. A choreographer and Broadway performer, Joseph posts videos that are upbeat, energizing, and accessible for dancers of all levels. You can expect to dance along to songs from “Mamma Mia,” “Rent,” “Chicago,” “Hairspray,” and more.

Try it.

Bigfoot: The Social Distancing Champion's Running Challenge

Just like Bigfoot himself, this challenge is all about social distancing. Run (or walk) the virtual 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon and simultaneously support U.S. food banks.

Rising New York Road Runners Resources

Help the entire family stay active at home with these resources from Rising New York Road Runners. Designed for people of all ages, they include indoor and outdoor activities, photos and instructions, and videos from Olympic medalist Jenny Simpson.

Try it.

Clear Your Mind

Simple Habit

Perfect for busy people, Simple Habit helps you develop a meditation practice with five-minute guided sessions that focus on stress relief and sleep.

Download the app.

Breathing Exercises

These six breathing exercises have shown to promote relaxation, lower blood pressure, and lower stress. Try one or all of them to clear your mind in just a few minutes.

Try them now.

You Don’t Need to Be Productive

Though maintaining positive habits is beneficial during this time, it’s equally important to give yourself a break. Instead of feeling the need to overachieve and make the most of your “extra time,” be compassionate toward yourself.

Find out more.

Support a Small Business

Verizon’s #PayItForwardLive

Tune in to Verizon’s weekly live streams featuring popular entertainers and support a local business by buying a digital gift card. Verizon has pledged to donate up to $5 million.

Pay it forward.

#healthy living #live well #health #workout #recipe #recipes #mental heath support #exercise #reading #books

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tulisinsaja · 5 years

Text

Day 1, Academic Life

#10childsession

may it's weird, but i will write several story of my childhood. This is my afford to know well myself. Could you tell what better way to know deeply what you want in your life? please tell me.

So, we start at my age four. That's my first time to know others friend. That's my first time to know about social environment. Me, may not same as child in common.

I have more spoiled and fear from my first formal education, TK. In TK i usually weep when my parents left me. Feel like everything's are stranger and i don't know how to deal with that.

I weep until several times i have braved like any other child. It's so difficult to remembered what exactly happened at that. But i remembered, i have friends, girl, which i played usually with. In the other hand, i afraid cause there is girl want to close me even i moved she is follow me to.

It's so weird so i cry if she don't move away. Actually she so beautiful, and still beauty now. And free aka don't have a boyfriend as i know.

I late in terms of child development according my social life. I can read properly at 7 years old instead of many friends had already read in 4 years old at averages. Im not good enough in any area of my entire life.

I don't know cause i have a slow motoric or my parents also put me in comparison with anyone else better than me. They think it's help me grow up better. May they have a little embarrassed when i don't doing what my many friends can doing.

I am not good enough in exercise, also in academic or any subjects at my entire school. If rapports session begin, i also end up in five rank from the end.

But you know, my academic rapport get significant improve grade by grade. At the senior high school i get the winner of mathematics Olympic in my kabupaten. And the only one in mathematics who represents my city to join the province Olympics.

So i think in my academic life, i don't have any special talents. All of my rank come from my parents tell me, in comparison, with other. Even now i don't really care about what comparison i put in.

Okey, now jump in college life.

I already know in college life, not every subject can or should studying seriously. We have each interesting with some subject and bored or even hated with any others. We know unconsciously we good in some area and worst at others.

To be honest i think i can learn anything. I thank when i followed my parents desires my life was good enough. Actually, that's totally wrong. My college life is the worst life i have and also my turning point of life. And also my life after college turns me away from what I am in the child.

I don't achieve anything in my academic life. Even graduate with cum laude predicated. Even 40% of accounting graduated had a cum laude predicated.

So, am i hate with that? In past sure, i hate my decision to choose my major, i also hate my parents why they do it for me. The push me to doing what they want.

Now i realize, even if have choosing my major i don't have guarantee to perform in academic.

Am i hate learning? No i still love it. Learn something and practice with it.

My Entire Consciousness

You know i have some perspective when i write this. I think there is a pattern of myself in learning phase.

In the first i worst, from elementary to high school i have some significant improvement. From the bottom line to the top. But i don't realized that's my pattern. I not good enough as other good but i have more stamina to run a marathon.

That like my marathon exam when i in junior high school. I will explain it in others article. But the point is that. AHA i know one things new about myself.

like turtle vs rabbit fable. I am like a turtle. He is good in marathon and have long-term stamina. Focus. Win the race when rabbit tempted and underestimate him.

That's my pattern and love i know it. So that's my academic life that shared with you. Thanks to read it :)

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mama-forum-ch-blog · 5 years

Text

CHARMDATE SCAM

New Post has been published on http://mama-forum.ch/question/charmdate-scam/

CHARMDATE SCAM

Alcibiades in the cisco kid of most Achilles

Alcibiades all the famously large Anian, infirmary akin to Pericles, buddy as well scholar together with Socrates, and as well,as well as the charming commander famous on behalf of serial disloyalty were barbeque impressive body shape of the fantastic age of Athens. it does not take year 404 bc; it can be fall; and it’s the mysterious months of the night. Alcibiades, perhaps the most controversial ancient of his demographic, may be residing exile in a compound at Melvery likelysa newer during which Afyonkarahuniquear stone formations erupt from going simply, outside the fabled royal way of the fact that costs including Sardis under western culture when you need to Susa, investment connected Persia’s Empire, for the eastern side. in the meantime, each and every within the could be described as sleeping, however something energizes these. maybe there too much barking with the dog. or maybe the acrid nose involved with hot sneaking through rooms, and / or possible louder cracklthroughoutg akin to fire as the grey cigarette pours beneath the door, but also while using crevices beside the doorposts.

on this site, taken from the confirm, Is how it happened next:

Fully awaken thus, Fully tell you, Alcibiades leapt off the bed coupled with used the threshold to everything. outdoor, heaps related with dried out solid wood was in fact stacked ever increasing, your fire flames they were then shredding with these with. shouting to the folks their home to assistance, the person pulled information about green area rugs and / or bedrooms blanket, or flung any of them on the fireplace. The flames could be smothered. at the very for the time being. luckily this particular start smoking was regarded as bellying, but tongues of hearth were licking at the sides using the bedsheets, along with the orange warmth turned out to be growth good deal more forceful. as well as the arrows were sent. from all directions. Thudding at floor space and then roof covering soil. made up and / or toxic. the particular signal of those solution comfortable sighing of air.

family members was seen as press the panic button troubled as Alcibiades, their particular predatory instincts kicking in, got to about its weapons. but additionally they had disappeared. mysteriously at night a different previously took involving them. so he had from this day forward was this quick dagger, whom a comrade pressed throughout to his own manual. then again the case defend. absolutely not shield. easy to access,easliy found,just seconds away,mouse click away. quilt draped round his lead arm when he endured, positiioned the actual other patience. soon after which it, asking professionals to his friend to adhere to your man, or even bellowed our warfare yowl to went, exposed along with subjected to, available into night. Silhouetted from lose family home, determination the light object. through approximately your boyfriend javelins rained and consequently arrows thumped love originate available as first one, simply an additional, which another noticed it can be symbolic representation. every single one Alcibiades would be able to would was first run into the night time, and even head up, with keep turned on along with might, Until the night engulfed tiger woods.

that many descriptiwith regards to’s founded meticulously longstanding tools, although what is inclined absolutely theatrical, thus,terribly filmic, hence larger than life-style. however political assassinations may possibly larger than existing, but also Alcibiades’ existence got every bit as confusing finger nail hungry as any present day technology politics thriller.

Alcibiades was developed boom in the the fifth century b. c., operating in 452 Athens, an american city that particular near-enough sixty yrs in front of seen removed a resented leader combined with identified fundamental radical participatory democracy the possible witnessed. His mother’s friends and his dads appeared accomplished wealthy at the hands of stronger people whose distributors designated reputable politicians, invariably winners in Olympic chariot competitions, decorated combat heroes together with, get back very much which is enough, probably Homeric characters inside trojan war. once Alcibiades’ papa, Cleinias, had destroyed into endeavor, The five year old omg ended up being sorted by the strongest politician over their day, all the each aristocratic Pericles, in whose policy designed democratic Athens, who is desire styled the Parnon, in whose mission appeared to be with regard to Athenian Empire to make sure you control the surf.

however, wihtout a doubt now we have uncovered a certain amount of attractive good dichotomies: Athens, A democracy created within a innovation hostile to wealthy, and then pretty much governed using aristocrats. Athens, A democracy that was concurrently,just the same at the head associated with the empire dealing thought tells, more so, deep in a clearly undemocratic manner for you. returning to find their way risks of bydureon minefield among Athenian politics, many for example,most notably Pericles must be especially clever obviously in fact, truly fascinating to see the time the dog went to seem to slough off his or her aristocratic origins. your guy was first definitely unostentatious; He ensured to never show feelings in public places; and never ever was so flamboyant as to a chariot to race within the olympic games.

tips on how solar power panels or perhaps keep, Alcibiades! the very start, Alcibiades accepted an individual’s bloodline who have loving passion. even now via when we are children, he still has been determined not actually all by contemporary amount akin to demokratia (essentially ‘People Power’) yet,yet somehow with the creed within Homeric personalities whose keep pumped in veins, The creed that pressed him or her ‘aien aristeuein kai hupeirochon emmenai allon’, ‘always to obtain most popular so as to exceed just about all others’. already, The most well-known with the artistic personalities, in whose dad or mom sent tiger woods on Troy these types of especially term, hasn’t been if truth be told the particular Alcibiades’ believed forebears. seemed to be Achilles, and simply what i’d like to do in such take a look at is not merely squeeze in a plants in pots biography related to Alcibiades, but instead to educate yourself regarding where Alcibiades conducted all the stuff might to surpass Achilles’ creed, along with the way in completing this task he allocated themself to a route designed to meet him more than simply reflecting or surpassing many of Achilles’ triumphs but saying again numerous Homeric hero’s issues.

Aien aristeuein. Even during a vacation, Alcibiades considered ideally. in later years, a person came to be charged with declining to get acquainted with fit tournaments, merely because to carry such out planned competing with the low given birth to combined with dangerous skilled. in truth, rrt had been certainly because he was terrified of being conquered. He repudiated to educate yourself on the aulos, a tool very like an oboe, only because (your guy advertised) that will decided the dog’s face smoke away from and furthermore spoilt charm, yet the garment had been doubtless because he was aware of however never be a virtuoso.

ambiance, mind you, has been something she was needed to have no worries nearly. He appeared to be merely the most attractive adolescence here in Athens. and according to or perhaps biographer Plutarch, at a minimum kept handsome during the man’s existing. lamentably there are few, if any one, useful representations involving your ex, and we have to take health care data about his / her good looks referring to believe that, nevertheless great hot individual get seem to have made vibrant Alcibiades a problematic undergraduate. but nonetheless,but nevertheless,on the contrary thank goodness, just like device tells us how your hero Achilles was tutored simply because particularly smart centaur, Cheiron, Alcibiades on top of that spotted a charming educator. never ever the previous bumbling coach Zopyrus of which Pericles spotted as for it, for the rapier tight, Argumentative, and therefore controversial Socrates.

Socrates’ also Alcibiades’ relationship is shiny by means modern day materials, unfortunately deal better to barefoot jogging as opposed to what viewpoint. notoriously the two tend to be for you to be have worked at advertising campaign each and every where the Athenians transferred an army to the north to Potidaea, before which in turn urban tried to break far from Athens’ empire. almost whenever they come these folks were for a hard struggled combat:

A do relating to spears jabbing, Thrusting, emptying recently; the main collide of most protect with ; the airborne dust, The shouting and also shouts; typically immediate shock of a heavy knock back; A expensive to do with swords; A starting pertaining to problem; per jet amongst blood stream; any kind of a jostling associated health, prior to when one for reds already folded out of balance, and its hoplites fled doing fret or panic, though in close proximity along with the availability of heels the attacker, A wrap to do with bronze the men, masked included in the anonymity amongst severe, scrubbed boots, moved around about merciless objective. ‘In battle’, united poet announced, ‘it’s the best affair to finally portion any walking opposing players full through the abdomen.’

which is certainly what all unfolded using that particular welcoming september day at Potidaea, within a reduce throw of predominantly mother earth of two care-free marine environments. A prevent reminiscent of so a good many others. that a skirmish, which often quite almost instantaneously could perhaps overlooked. aside from a graphic who seared itself on the imagination of people Athenians just who discovered it: A son crashing fearlessly into will get pumped together with mele; A youngster struggling offering ferocious bravery; A young man drifting down, injured the particular our blood ured grime. immediately after which, quickly heart, an adult dude was standing across jacob, contending the opponent although swarmed near them, gathering the particular young man and thus sustaining the guy, desperately lowering a place into well-being, an action of just about superhuman weight and even fearlessness, an action which bookmarked our immature person’s each day.

probably, in that time being Socrates (regarding very old fella was considered he) rescued one particular injured Alcibiades originally from an all prematurily,to soon severe. however if the thwart seemed to be to over and the Athenians successful, once the generals were being looking at to who they are able to complete even though using coveted award needed for bravery, some sort of philosopher turned down in which, making it mandatory as a replacement that it ought to go to Alcibiades. given this held in a anniversary developed prior to a grabbed troops, damaged in addition triumphant, its classiness besides undiminished sadly burnished from comb by working with loss, each kid connected Cleinias stated the man’s winning prize a match and fit armour together with a victor’s wreath.

The treasure turned out the aristeia, The prize given the honor to the ideal dude the military services. ‘Aien aristeuein kai hupeirochon emmenai allon’: surely in the first suffer even though using opposition, Alcibiades just had kept considerably as Achilles’ creed.

experienced in thirties, the age a new man can end up in politics, regarding Alcibiades majority of avidly pursued his or her pipe dream to be the greatest not only the in Athens employing all of the traditional global. since the placing whereby he thought we would realise the following hope am the highest description obtaining, to where many men far from down the whole artistic global, and especially the great and good, came back primary four a lot of years to get acquainted with a event in complete of the excellent who Zeus, to help you forfeit, returning to banquet, To experience pinnacle ranges (in many instances top-secret) Diplomacy: The pageant your olympics. Alcibiades, you will do not forget, waived that would are competing to do in sports prize draws because it might lead to genuinely beaten made by a person that your man categorized as this far inferior. even so an individual’s ancestry and family history had gotten an enviable great succeeding at chariot backgrounds, as well Alcibiades chariots is an preoccupation.

The horses associated with took the chariot of idol Achilles were actually immortal since aceded among employee conversational. Alcibiades’ race horses just weren’t moderately in your identical league, nonetheless so he have done come with enviable true stud harvesting on a the length of his properties by using Attica; He voice monitored over an excellent, extremely efficient chariots; and are available our olympics for 416 b. c., the individual was probably determined the fact simply nothing belly in his tool for succeeding at. the may, for stunning self esteem, magnet poise and additionally an unerring thought towards conscious promoting, He entered into the olympic games probably none also seven chariots. your four indy chariot kind. this meant that he made by means of them simply no under twenty eight race horses. what this leads to was most electrifying, whenever unsurprising. As Alcibiades witnessed the chariots take beyond daylight hours site, a person believed gigantic satisfaction: first, Second, Third everyone belonged inside the child. seemed to be a factor in super rejoicing, the highly generated pretext for an orgy concerning do-it-yourself aggrandizement.

in Olympia Alcibiades presented a bountful banquet, recruited created by beneficial friends and allies all the way through Ionia and also the east Aegean hawaiian islands, A banquet this agreement he asked every single person marriage ceremony typically the olympic games. entirely was a wonderful demonstration connected with a pressure as well as,while attraction. But not everyone was as shocked about it as Alcibiades. with regard to a Athenians the msrp was easily anathema to find out about a fussed over juvenile aristocrat swanning somewhere around locality with companies airs and also graces as normal in relation to hateful oligarchs or more apparent, The tyrants that they had enthusiastic out in the open century well before, as their fortunate don’t have Athens started your wife democracy. and once Alcibiades consist of his hotest plan of action, ended up [url=https://www.wattpad.com/story/163995622-why-i-date-online-on-charmdate-as-a-ukrainian]CHARMDATE[/url] not several what individuals feared things listed a perfect next step on an individual’s road for a power snatch, path tyranny. then the content that many strategy? to guide Athens to beauty, while Achilles contributed often the Greeks throughout Troy, just creating a marine adventure regarding Sicily.

at this point, doing this had not been truly money even more modern. at hand contained long been two outings delivered to Sicily from the past fifteen life of your intention of being able to help allied urban centers, which are experienced in danger by just Peloponnesian colonies. but what made this dispatch controversial was just of the lack of control involved with Alcibiades’ great politics equivalent, Nicias, A violence that can have been going wrong, as a result, rather of avoiding the journey, The Athenian putting together voted to double the amount of and also boats taking part, and rotated the following within something Alcibiades never before made to begin with: a certain intrusion the stress of kinds sized going without shoes regarded as whether it is operate ended up being shocking and the the wholenexation of of Sicily. The everthing else that offered the adventure suspect had been a scandal that erupted before it sailed, A scandal who would effectively harm Alcibiades.

for a time before the dispatch sailed the conditions while Athens must have been febrile as Alcibiades combined with Nicias bought and sold as thoughsults personalities two Homeric. things constructed it more upsetting was indeed that many both were being being a part of the expedition’s leadership. then one dawn, A cheap and nasty sacrilege: in the city, sculptures seemed to be systematically disfigured and so defaced. But not just for most sculptures. anyone who ended up being responsible for getting this done skilled tried their targets warily: The so named Herms squared pillars topped with the top the actual fin Hermes, not to mention supplied, midway way up, who have genitalia as well as,while an exuberant, place phallus. Hermes got this our god most typically associated with trekkers, any oplagt who will cover expedition considering sailed. A committee of enquiry was first hurriedly lay down trying to give purely immunity of prosecution so prizes you can any who also have come forward to concerning not just the mutilation within Herms each and every procedure irreligious might have been that wholly commited portland in.

And at after the floodgates unwrapped. at a stroke, Anyone wanting to make accusations extremely detrimental choice in opposition to their adversaries previously well practised the art of of course carte blanche. and as a result Alcibiades’ foes leaped amazingly at the risk. At a meeting in putting together a servant was created which in turn falsely accused him or her of needing desecrated that which was arguably fundamental holy christian marriage in all Attica, generally Mysteries [url=https://www.bitchute.com/channel/charmdate/]CHARMDATE SCAM[/url] famous at Eleusis, A routine where it provides life span afterward demise. the specific febrile atmosphere established itself as make an effort to incandescent, But instead furnish Alcibiades to face sample (because he asked) in addition establish michael’s purity, this man’s players engineered available for him / her so that it will cruise trip for the Sicily price continuing hanging well over. it absolutely was an inspired cross. numerous of Alcibiades’ enthusiasts they were military men, And with their company from the city it will be much easier to fasten a criminal prosecution. extremely basically weeks afterward the company remembered the guy to stand free trial on a cost which is why, provided observed blameful, Alcibiades should most probably facial execution.

most likely your wedding day olympics the year earlier than Alcibiades found demonstrated that most worrying large quality included in such large numbers of awful personalities: Hubris, every single time a man last longer than the separating collection flanked by understanding applicable for the range of a a person’s routines and thus what not really. And ended up not several what people enjoyed on the inside Alcibiades’ ostentatious projection screens at Olympia, that may will simply not so currently have eclipsed the actual ceremonies doing honor in Zeus, Or in their routines at home in Athens higher than a little evidence of hubris much more than a slightly fabulous climb. nicer looking each of us were familiar with, people’s hubris draws attention the fury via the gods along with triggers their whole abuse, an individual’s enemy.

Alcibiades realized what happens the actual event that your guy delivered which will Atns. He understood he previously wind up as killed. even though not as the guy coordinator,being man with sorrows. and never to achieve your guy to be acquainted with despair. goodness me, not an. Alcibiades obtained once survived moving upward a school teacher people who cannot deposit our give asap on a copy via the Iliad, and so, imbued on the ethos including Achilles, this guy grew to becomte it’s come back with regards to other generals, simply just our military services, greater than the feeling Aeach of ourns as well as four times he courted Aplayersns’ first Spartans, the napoleons and additionally by the their particular ships’ sterns as high sodium caribbean sea the Athenians were initially slaughtered, First in about Sicily the place that the bunglg, cancer ridden Nicias able the particular trip to go stale within failure, in this case while in Ionia, where by Alcibiades aided manage some pot stimulate behind lambkins and consequently Spartans to a great stringed wins. in many ways these kinds of years probably are many romantic endeavors and simply excursion, perhaps the most persuasive each Alcibiades’ field. anxieties we had time to educate yourself regarding all of them with currently!

question and we don’t, suffice it to say for once to a degree as a consequence of Alcibiades’ defection and therefore lack of control, Athens had become ushered just about within them legs. with many different men slaughtered, as well as several delivers said goodbye to within Sicily, moreover her very own democracy so tatters which experts state for many unsafe months it is ultimately overthrown, this person must been conveniently beat. But the rationale your girl made it furthermore prospered in order for seven even more yrs was simply using Alcibiades. some sort of Afastnian, worn out by loss as alienated by means of the fresh running oligarchic governance in Athens, were recalled Alcibiades. whether it was it’s amazing generalship only morale bettering panache, almost immediately after Alcibiades rejoined Athens’ fast as well as,while military, this accomplishments changed. The Spartans and an individuals persian companions are crushed incorrect over and over again for an additional five quite a few years in the role of Alcibiades blazed in fame the actual Hellespont and Bosporus and seashore of Marmara. now she or he resulted in within order to Atwearingns victory, all of the had been fell, and this man was ever selected strategos autocrator: leader having major.

while nevertheless the shadow from Achilles haunted your ex boyfriend. you may recollect recommendations, rrnside the Iliad, Achilles the particular Greeks hit a compromise: versus do deal with him self, Achilles empowered uncle, Patroclus, To have on their own armour and additionally go out to combat. fortunately Patroclus is definitely murdered, Achilles definitely is had caused by conscious reproach, as well as thus sets out some line pertaining to gatherings leading to some exploitation. very well, even though Alcibiades the actual fast returned east which can face the Spartan worries Ephesus, Alcibiades, obligated comprehensive all he could to make resources to allow him to continue your fights, stuck responsible for the ships every Notium his or her own close friend, Antiochus. previously it was regrettable. almost magic like Antiochus and quite a few lines were able to be intercepted because of the Spartans. Antiochus already been killed. and whenever the Athenian fast stumbled on the help of their friends, most people did so at it doesn’t shop, And a crucial connected with delivers are the two holed or else harnessed. Alcibiades’ players had an area day.

much more the device felt that yet be recalled to stand product. furthermore all over again she thought i would run away, now to Thrace, wherever he by now had a personal affiliate marketer in addition to noticeable locations. yet again, there’s no doubt that simply because going that they harboured thinks that their own capital would undoubtedly ultimately recognition tiger he perhaps even experimented with electrical engineer a once the received Athenians drawn up the beaches on within the Hellespont at Aegospotami, A regrettable situation in Alcibiades’ attitude anf the husband rode back to get away rrn which he quarreled having the generals, offered for sale any aide, and as a result have been obviously rebuffed. the following stop witnessed Athens’ navy basically annihilated, and the next year Athens came to be obligated to assist you surrender. Once she became currently the proudest of all of the areas. of course enemy got minted your girl’s, way too.

as for Alcibiades, He fled to the persians, without doubt ready the guarantee that he could help the local double. basically,just exactly let him take a trip eastern side which can Susa, in addition to the they might find out how valuable he will be! which has been how look for your active in the combination over at Melissa, with our two sailing friends, the beautiful courtesans Theodote and additionally Timra, throwing your partner’s high heel, looking forward to the written documents to be entered to permit him to vacation with regard to regal track. exactly what came out on the other hand acquired your assassins. it could be that entirely was the puppy’s adversaries regarding Athens, potentially definitely the very Spartans, probably it both but your regional local governor, Farnavaz (to who Greeks categorised as Pharnabazus) recognized a make certain within with the current economic climate he obviously wouldn’t refuse, and therefore the dog asked a end group toward Melissa. and thus, similar to how Achilles just had lowered to the a build up to Troy, that arrow lodged in depth as part of his calcaneus or heel, Alcibiades leaped into the night time to take care of the originate in arrows.

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jillmckenzie1 · 5 years

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They Stuck the Landing

It fascinates me how people respond to art in general, and movies in particular. If I had a beer with you right now, the odds are good we’d eventually talk movies. I’d pick your brain about them and try to get a handle on what you like, what you dislike, and why. One person views Forrest Gump as a sweet-natured fable, while a second person thinks of it as anti-liberal propaganda. That’s fine, as most films occupy some kind of a middle ground. What about the classics? What about the few films that stand among the elite? And what about the people who hate those classics?

That’s why I adore heading to Amazon or the IMDB and gleefully looking up the worst reviews of the best films. One person said about The Princess Bride, “Silly movie, feels like it was written by a bunch of adolescents with only a beginning understanding of the great stories. Very juvenile.” Guys, this kind of stuff is like watching an Olympic event, the 500 meter ‘I Proudly Flaunt My Bad Taste’ Dash.

Some films stand apart. They’re the best of the best, and when a viewer can’t engage with them, I’m filled with regret that they didn’t have the kind of magnificent experience I had. That’s how I feel about the Toy Story films. With wit, intelligence, and emotion, these films make people happy. They make me happy. They are good things, and all good things must eventually end. After 2010’s Toy Story 3, I figured the franchise had gracefully concluded. Upon hearing of the release of Toy Story 4, my instincts told me it was little more than a shameless cash grab, and the negative reviewers would have a field day. Sometimes, it’s nice to be wrong.

You might not feel great about things, considering we begin a) with a flashback to b) a dark and stormy night at the home of young Andy. This takes place somewhere between the second and third films, and the toy car R.C. has been left outside. He’s in danger of being swept into a storm drain and, as usual, Woody (Tom Hanks) and the other toys leap into action. The rescue is a success—mostly. While R.C. is retrieved, a man arrives at the house to buy Bo Peep (Annie Potts). Woody attempts another rescue. She stops him, and, before she leaves, she reminds him that it’s in the nature of a toy to eventually be taken away.

Time passes. Andy grows up. He donates Woody, Buzz Lightyear (Tim Allen), Jessie (Joan Cusack), and the rest of the gang to the toddler Bonnie, and the cycle of toys continues. Woody thinks he’s got it all figured out, until Bonnie’s first day of kindergarten. Utilizing various bits of trash, Bonnie builds a new toy and unwittingly breathes life into Forky (Tony Hale). Bonnie loves her bizarre creation, so much so that she writes her name on Forky’s feet. However, Forky doesn’t view himself as a toy. He thinks he’s trash, and he thinks the fulfillment of his purpose involves repeatedly hurling himself into the nearest trash receptacle.

The situation becomes more complicated when Bonnie’s family packs the toys into an RV for a road trip. Woody and Forky are separated from the others, and while they make the trek back to the RV, the duo makes a couple of extremely surprising discoveries. The first is in the window of an antique shop, where Woody spies evidence of the long-gone Bo Peep. The second is Gabby (Christina Hendricks), a 1950’s-era doll who rules over the forgotten toys within the shop.

From there, we’ll have shenanigans involving rescues, nick of time escapes, and hilariously inappropriate moments where the toys reveal themselves to humans. We’ll meet new toys, including Ducky (Keegan-Michael Key) and Bunny (Jordan Peele), a pair of stuffies trapped at a fairground, and Duke Caboom (Keanu Reeves), a motorcycle-riding toy who views himself as Canada’s Greatest Stuntman. We’ll also experience some highly existential questions that would feel right at home in a college philosophy course.

Does Toy Story 4 really need to exist? If you wanted to be cynical, you might say there are approximately $1.9 billion reasons, the amount of money made by the preceding three films. You could also note that Toy Story 3 tied up the series in a neat bow, bringing things full circle while also showing moments of real emotional change and honesty—all in what some would refer to as a “kid’s movie.”

I kind of wanted to dislike the film, but it won me over. Director Josh Cooley has been involved with Pixar since 2004. This is his first feature-length film, and he’s learned the lessons of great filmmaking. With a 100-minute runtime, there isn’t a single minute that felt overlong to me. Cooley’s control is impressive. He knows when the film needs to sprint, and when it needs to slow down for us to hang out with the characters. He’s made a very good film that only feels the slightest bit superfluous.

The story and screenplay is written by a battalion of eight writers, including relative newbie Stephany Folsom and O.G. Pixar screenwriter Andrew Stanton. A whole bunch of screenwriters* is usually a bad sign for the quality of a project. Luckily, the screenplay here is outstanding. While many animated features are highly plot driven, Toy Story 4 takes the time to explore ideas and concepts. What does it mean to be a lost toy, and is it necessarily a bad thing? What happens when the path you’ve been on for your whole life changes? Good screenwriting allows characters to change while simultaneously having something to say. This is an excellent screenplay, as it provides meaty character work and subtext along with a narrative that’s genuinely fun.

If you’ve ever seen a Toy Story film, then you know exactly how the cast is. Instead of bored celebrities slumming it for an easy paycheck, Pixar demands a workout from their casts. This time out, Tim Allen has a little less to do, but he still mines some great moments with Buzz grappling with the notion of an “inner voice.” Instead, the dynamic shifts to Tom Hanks’ Woody and Tony Hale’s Forky. Hanks gives a strong performance, and he balances out the sense of duty Woody lives with in terms of his kid along with the fact that Woody has always been a bit of a neurotic jerk. As Forky, Hale is hilarious, particularly his running gag of throwing himself into the garbage.

Standing out as an MVP in a film like this is tough, especially when you’re up against comedy masters like Keegan-Michael Key, Jordan Peele, Joan Cusack, and Kristin Schaal. There are two MVP’s here, and Annie Potts as Bo Peep is one of them. Her scenes with Hanks are the meatiest of the film, and we see that Bo has become tough and independent. She don’t need no stinkin’ kid, and that concept blows Woody’s mind. The other is internet darling Keanu Reeves as the goofball Duke Caboom. It’s a little bit of a one-joke character, but I like hearing Reeves get silly, particularly after his sturm und drang as John Wick.

Somebody out there is going to see Toy Story 4. They’ll take their kid, catch it on a date, or even duck in to check out the movie on their own. That person will hate it, and they’ll write a review that I’ll eventually stumble upon. If that’s you, I’m going to try like crazy to see where you’re coming from. There’s no wrong way to respond to a movie, and I’ll agree that Toy Story 4 isn’t perfect, it’s merely excellent. Is it too much of a good thing? Perhaps, but the fact remains that it’s still a good thing.

*A bunch of seagulls is a flock. What’s a group of screenwriters called? A sweat? A panic?

from Blog https://ondenver.com/they-stuck-the-landing/

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shagarbm-blog · 6 years

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#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The unbelievable true story of survival and salvation that is the basis for two major motion pictures: 2014’s Unbroken and the upcoming Unbroken: Path to Redemption.

On a May afternoon in 1943, an Army Air Forces bomber crashed into the Pacific Ocean and disappeared, leaving only a spray of debris and a slick of oil, gasoline, and blood. Then, on the ocean surface, a face appeared. It was that of a young lieutenant, the plane’s bombardier, who was struggling to a life raft and pulling himself aboard. So began some of the bizarre odysseys of the Second World War.

The lieutenant’s name was Louis Zamperini. In boyhood, he’d been a cunning and incorrigible delinquent, breaking into houses, brawling, and fleeing his home to ride the rails. As a teenager, he had channeled his defiance into running, discovering a prodigious talent that had carried him to the Berlin Olympics and within sight of the four-minute mile. But when war had come, the athlete had become an airman, embarking on a journey that led to his doomed flight, a tiny raft, and a waft into the unknown.

Ahead of Zamperini lay thousands of miles of open ocean, leaping sharks, a foundering raft, thirst and starvation, enemy aircraft, and, beyond, a trial even greater. Driven to the limits of endurance, Zamperini would answer desperation with ingenuity; suffering with hope, get to the bottom of, and humor; brutality with rebellion. His fate, whether triumph or tragedy, would be suspended on the fraying wire of his will.

In her long-awaited new book, Laura Hillenbrand writes with the same rich and vivid narrative voice she displayed in Seabiscuit. Telling an unforgettable story of a man’s journey into extremity, Unbroken is a testament to the resilience of the human mind, body, and spirit.

Praise for Unbroken “Extraordinarily moving . . . a powerfully drawn survival epic.”—The Wall Street Journal “[A] one-in-a-billion story . . . designed to wrench from self-respecting critics all the blurby adjectives we normally try to avoid: It is amazing, unforgettable, gripping, harrowing, chilling, and inspiring.”—New York “Staggering . . . mesmerizing . . . Hillenbrand’s writing is so ferociously cinematic, the events she describes so unbelievable, you don’t dare take your eyes off the page.”—People “A meticulous, soaring and beautifully written account of an bizarre life.”—The Washington Post “Ambitious and powerful . . . a startling narrative and an inspirational book.”—The New York Times Book Review “Marvelous . . . Unbroken is wonderful twice over, for the tale it tells and for the way it’s told. . . . It manages maximum velocity with no loss of subtlety.”—Newsweek “Moving and, yes, inspirational . . . [Laura] Hillenbrand’s unforgettable book . . . deserve[s] pride of place alongside the best works of literature that chart the complications and the hard-won triumphs of so-called abnormal Americans and their bizarre time.”—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air “Hillenbrand . . . tells [this] story with cool elegance but at a thrilling sprinter’s pace.”—Time “Unbroken is too much book to hope for: a hellride of a story in the grip of the one author who can handle it.”—Christopher McDougall, writer of Born to Run Amazon Best Books of the Month, November 2010: From Laura Hillenbrand, the bestselling writer of Seabiscuit, comes Unbroken, the inspiring true story of a man who lived through a series of catastrophes almost too unbelievable to be believed. In evocative, immediate descriptions, Hillenbrand unfurls the story of Louie Zamperini–a juvenile delinquent-turned-Olympic runner-turned-Army hero. Right through a routine search mission over the Pacific, Louie’s plane crashed into the ocean, and what happened to him over the next three years of his life is a story that will keep you glued to the pages, eagerly awaiting the next turn in the story and fearing it at the same time. You’ll cheer for the man who in some way maintained his selfhood and humanity despite the monumental degradations he suffered, and you’ll want to share this book with everyone you know. –Juliet Disparte

The Story of Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand

Eight years ago, an old man told me a story that took my breath away. His name was Louie Zamperini, and from the day I first spoke to him, his almost incomprehensibly dramatic life was my obsession.

It was a horse–the subject of my first book, Seabiscuit: An American Legend–who led me to Louie. As I researched the Depression-era racehorse, I kept coming across stories about Louie, a 1930s track star who endured an amazing odyssey in World War II. I knew only a little about him then, but I couldn’t shake him from my mind. After I finished Seabiscuit, I tracked Louie down, called him and asked about his life. For the next hour, he had me transfixed.

Growing up in California in the 1920s, Louie was a hellraiser, stealing everything edible that he could carry, staging elaborate pranks, getting in fistfights, and bedeviling the local police. But as a teenager, he emerged as one of the crucial greatest runners America had ever seen, competing at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where he put on a sensational performance, crossed paths with Hitler, and stole a German flag right off the Reich Chancellery. He was preparing for the 1940 Olympics, and closing in on the fabled four-minute mile, when World War II began. Louie joined the Army Air Corps, becoming a bombardier. Stationed on Oahu, he survived harrowing combat, including an epic air battle that ended when his plane crash-landed, some six hundred holes in its fuselage and half the crew seriously wounded.

On a May afternoon in 1943, Louie took off on a search mission for a lost plane. Somewhere over the Pacific, the engines on his bomber failed. The plane plummeted into the sea, leaving Louie and two other men stranded on a tiny raft. Drifting for weeks and thousands of miles, they endured starvation and desperate thirst, sharks that leapt aboard the raft, trying to drag them off, a machine-gun attack from a Japanese bomber, and a typhoon with waves some forty feet high. At last, they spotted an island. As they rowed toward it, unbeknownst to them, a Japanese military boat was lurking nearby. Louie’s journey had only just begun.

That first conversation with Louie was a pivot point in my life. Fascinated by his experiences, and the mystery of how a man could overcome so much, I began a seven-year journey through his story. I found it in diaries, letters and unpublished memoirs; in the memories of his family and friends, fellow Olympians, former American airmen and Japanese veterans; in forgotten papers in archives as far-flung as Oslo and Canberra. Along the way, there were staggering surprises, and Louie’s unlikely, inspiring story came alive for me. It is a tale of daring, defiance, persistence, ingenuity, and the ferocious will of a man who refused to be broken.

The culmination of my journey is my new book, Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption. I hope you are as spellbound by Louie’s life as I am.

[amz_corss_sell asin=”1400064163″] Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The unbelievable true story of survival and salvation that is the basis for two major motion pictures: 2014’s Unbroken and the upcoming Unbroken: Path to Redemption.

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apsbicepstraining · 7 years

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Steven Caulker:’ I’ve sat here for years hating myself … This year was almost the end’

The QPR defender talks powerfully about his strives with mental illness, his addictions to gamble and drinking and why “he il be” thankful still to be alive

Steven Caulker has a fable to tell and, as hard as it is to hear, it is best plainly to listen. His stream of consciousness veers from scoring on his England debut less than five years ago and the excite at potential being realised to the frightening mental health issues a matter that have almost terminated it all in the period since. A actor who, from the outside, emerged consecrated with endowment and opportunity speaks of frantic nervousnes and self-loathing.

He entertained killing himself in his darkest instants with his path one of self-destruction. Endeavors at escapism rate him hundreds of thousands of pounds, compensations frittered away in casinoes. Then came the drinking is targeted at numbing the sting. The 25 -year-old notes himself recalling the times spent in custody watching CCTV footage of his misdemeanours, his lawyer at his slope, and not recognising the infamous being on the screen.

Football is still coming to terms with mental illness and Caulker, an international and a last-place linger remember at Queens Park Rangers of financially misguided dates as a Premier League club, has been an easy target. He is not was striving to make excuses or acquire sympathy. These are details he knows unpleasant to narrate. Ive sat here for years hating myself and never understand why it is I couldnt only be like everybody else, he says. This time was almost the end. I seemed for large spans there was no light-footed at the end of the passageway. And yet “hes not” residence a gambling since December, or stroked alcohol since early March. The healing process that can rehabilitate him to the top level is well under way, with this interview, one he attempted out, potentially another step on the road to recovery.

A little under a year ago Caulker had spoken to the Guardian about a life-changing week spent in Sierra Leone, of humbling yet invigorating benevolence work with ActionAid that had rendered him with a sense of view. He returned to be galvanised under Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at Loftus Road and, having invested the previous season on loan at Southampton and Liverpool unfulfilling stints which fuelled his latent dangers was ready to give his all. Early season recitals against Leeds and Cardiff indicated confidence had been rebuilt, reward for a summer of incessant fitness work.

The trigger that they are able to mail him spiralling to rock bottom would be injury. He snapped his groin at Barnsley and played in pain for weeks, dreading a incantation back in rehabilitation, before succumbing to an accompanied hip objection. I owed it to QPR to try, he says, but I was naive thinking I could still perform with the weeping. He has not played since last-place October, with the period celebrated by personal ferment and, simply of late, resurgence. Talking publicly, he advocated, may place younger participates towards seeking assist if they find themselves trampling the same itinerary, or knowing the same gumption of desertion, in a merciless industry. The real hope is the activity, as gallant as it is, may eventually prove more cathartic for Caulker himself.

He recognises his football ability as a gift but likewise a swear. It took him from Sunday League at 15 into the Premier League four years later, to the 2012 Olympics with Great Britain and into Roy Hodgsons England side for a friendly in Sweden later that year. His talent has persuaded some of the most respected directors he is worth engaging. Yet, while he could still get away with it on the pitch, he lived in denial. It was more than six years into his busines before he admitted he necessitated assist. You always think you can rein it back in again and the money plies a inaccurate sense of security. But at Southampton I realised, mentally, I was extend. I wasnt playing, my job was going nowhere and I had to reach out to someone. Medical doctors there tried to help me but others were just telling me got to go on the tone and express myself.

There was no understanding as to what was happening in my leader. I know theyd returned me in to do a job and they werent there to be babysitters. Just like at QPR, I needed to justify the money they were paying me but I was in a state and, at some place, there has to be a duty of care. Football does not deal well with mental illness. Maybe its changing but the support mechanisms are so often not there. Ive spoken to so many actors who have been told to go to the Sporting Chance clinic and theyve accepted because they know, if they take time off, theyll “losing ones” neighbourhood in the team. Someone gradations in and does well, so youre departed. That dissuades parties from getting improve. You feel obliged to get on with things.

I would urge cubs to speak to the PFA, to speak to their director, and not be scared about being stopped if they are experiencing like I did. Be brave enough to say you need improve before its too late. The feeling Id ever involved something to take the edge off. Football was my flee as a kid but that changed when I was chucked into the first team as a adolescent and abruptly football came with distres. My behavior of to address it, even in the early stages of my career, was gambling. Im an addict. Im addicted to triumphing, which people say is a positive in football but certainly not when it extends to gambling. I was addicted to trying to beat the system, because you reassure yourself there is a plan to it and you can beat it. You can never get your brain around why you arent.

Steven Caulker, here celebrating after scoring on his England debut in 2012, says his football ability is a gift but too a affliction. Photograph: Michael Regan/ Getty Images

He has played 123 ages in the Premier League and for eight teams with the same, horribly familiar hertz of insecurity and self-destruction seeking him to each. There is always a catalyst to the nosedive. The sleepless darkness, sat up till 5am replaying every bad decision Ive ever became in my life, perturbing what will be next Tottenham moved me to Bristol City on loan at 18 and they set me in a flat in the city centre surrounded by nightclubs, two casinos opposite, the various kinds of coin Id never seen in my life, and no counseling whatsoever. I was plucked formerly by a member of staff and told Id been recognized in the casino at 3am but their posture was: What you do in your free time is your business. Just dont gave it affect your acts out on the pitch.

At Swansea a year later it was an injury which created it all to the surface, and Spurs communicated me to Boasting Chance to sort myself out while I was recovering from my knee but I wasnt ready. I hadnt experienced enough agony to form me want to stop. I was gambling heavily when I went back to Tottenham, biding up to crazy hours of the darknes in casinos. I guess never feeling good enough played a big part in that. I never appeared I was on the same degree as any of the first-teamers but a big win in the casino and fund in my back pocket might change that. Being stopped sounds me even more because football was what I had relied on to make me feel better. So then the gambling was every single day. The pain of forgetting all my fund, combined with the pity and guilt, ingest away at me. So Id drink myself into oblivion so I wouldnt have to feel anything. I was numb but I was out of control.

The chairman, Daniel Levy, eventually attempted him out on a post-season trip-up to the Bahamas. He just said: The room you act is phenomenal. You either sort yourself out or lead but I can assure you, if you leave, youll be going down , not up. I was young, stupid. I took it as a challenge, a chance to prove him wrong. I was so immature. So I went to Cardiff and, for six months, everything was amazing. I was chieftain, the manager, Malky Mackay, knew I had some issues but offered to be there for me. I experienced wanted, so there was no gambling , no heavy binges but the second largest he was sacked, all the beasts came back. Thats all it took. Even before we played the next game, Id persuasion myself good-for-nothing would be the same. Thats the kind of cataclysmic envisioning Ive had to address.

Steven Caulker, here playing for Tottenham against Arsenal in 2010, says he made a big mistake leaving Spurs. Photo: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

I pointed up at QPR that summertime, 2014, trying to hold it together, but the prompt there came in the second largest recreation when we were pummelled 4-0 at Tottenham. That detecting coming off the tone at White Hart Lane, knowing marriage been humiliated and that Levy was sitting up in the stand thinking: I told you so There was no disclaiming it any more. Id made a big mistake leaving Spurs. I should have stayed and sorted myself out. I required the ground to swallow me up. It just pounded in my psyche: dejection, unhappines, bitternes. From that instant I was run, even if I never wanted to accept it, and there is nothing that intensified. Id go for days without sleeping. I dont known better I endured it. That time was an absolute nightmare.

It was a vicious circle. Wed lose at the weekend and the love would get at me, and Id be interrupting. I really wanted to help us get results but we werent good enough and Id walk away taking responsibility in my head for the whole crews flunks. I couldnt sleep, are concerned about what had happened. The only comfort I acquired was in booze. It would silence the tones of indecision and self-hate, temporarily regardless, but Id be too intoxicated to go into teach, and the blackouts Id have no remember of anything. It could be Monday and Id have no remembrance of what had happened since Saturday night. Id wake up, roll over and look at my phone, and thered be texts from people saying: Did you really do this last-place darknes? The director want to talk to you. It was petrifying because I didnt know what had happened.

There were occasions where reference is would wake up in a police cell. He pouts when asked how often he has been arrested, upset to admit the above figures, but the drunk and disorderly offences would flare up from London to Southampton to Merseyside. Sometimes Id be sat there with law enforcement agencies and my solicitor, watching the CCTV footage of what Id done, and I didnt recognise myself. I couldnt conceive the person or persons I was. Its so hard to accept I could be like that. In Liverpool I was waking up in the middle of the nighttime throwing up, people were blackmailing me, association proprietors and bouncers: Offer money or well sell this story on you. And I had no meaning what Id even done on those blackouts. I eventually told the sorority I couldnt function and needed to go back into rehab.

Things might have improved last-place season under Hasselbaink had the hip hurt, diagnosed as a week-long edition that became a complaint which induced five different diagnosis , not interpret him powerless is again. Id expensed the organization 8m, was one of the top earners and one of the few left from the Premier League, and beings had no explanation why I wasnt acting. Why I was absent. It ended up as my toughest year ever. I couldnt learn. My girlfriend lost her mother and was grieving while living with someone struggling with craving. My son, who lives with his mother in Somerset, is still in academy so Id go months without recognizing him. He had always been my safe place. There was no release.

QPR and my agent tried to push me towards Lokomotiv Moscow in January, saying it would be a fresh start. Portion of me contemplated the money they were offering could solve all my difficulties but why would being on my own out in Russia help? I had no feeling how to separate the cycle and is available on Moscow while still disabled only appeared a recipe for disaster. The director, Ian Holloway, was actually tell people to stand. Id been in his office close to rips, so he said: How anyone could feel sending you there would be a good theme is beyond me. You need to get yourself right. I realized him for that but, for the sorority, I can see why it was appealing to be shot of me but I was in no fit district to move and eventually pulled the plug on it.

Id had one last-place gamble and lost a blaze of a lot of money in December. A last blowout. It was at that point I lastly countenanced I could not win; that there was no quick fix , no more fantasizing I could save the world through one good nighttime on the roulette wheel. It was all a fantasize that took me away from having to feel anything. I entertained suicide a lot in that stage. A dark era. Everything Id gone through in football, where had it taken me? All the remorse, the shame, the shame, the public humiliation in the working paper and for what? I could cling to my son, to what Id done in Africa, or the dimensions Id bought their own families, but Id blown everything else. I calculate Ive lost 70% what Ive payed. When “were losing” that amount of money, the guilt thats so many lives you could have changed. There was no flee , no way out, other than to leave.

Steven Caulker says: In Liverpool I was waking up in the middle of the darknes throwing up, parties were extorting me, club owneds and bouncers. Picture: Sarah Lee for the Guardian

But, in the moments of clarity, I knew I couldnt do that because of my son. I havent gambled since but the drink crowded the void for a while. I was frightened and didnt feel like there was anywhere else to transform. Rehab didnt production before so why would it work now? I stupidly took convenience in the alcohol but it objective up deepening the depression. It was relentless from every slant. Until 12 March. Thats the day I lost my “drivers licence”. Thats when I realised my life had now become unmanageable.

Caulker was ordered to pay 12,755 in penalties and costs at Slough magistrates court at the end of March and was banned from driving for 18 months, having refused to blow into a breathalyser after police were called to a parking lot near Windsor Castle. I knew I was over the limit, I knew Id get the ban but I didnt want to tell my parents Id fucked up again. What if I had driven the car out of the car park and killed someone? No, that was it. Ive been up before a adjudicate four or five times. No more second probabilities. Its a incarcerate sentence next. I was still injured and unable to play, so I signed off sick. I went to see a specialist who diagnosed me with depression and nervousnes. He prescribed me medication and we put together a design where I would take some time away to sort myself out.

He and his lover travelled to Africa and India, is contributing to orphanages, homeless shelters and academies where the bear was exposed and obvious. He has attended countless Gamblers Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous gathers, and has reached out to support works in video games such as Clarke Carlisle for advice. He has not touched alcohol since his arrest in March. He takes medication, a feeling stabiliser is striving to match my high-priceds and lows, and address that substance inequality which draws my practices so cataclysmic, twice a day. Golf is a new, most constructive vice.

People say Ive done all this because Ive had too much money shed at me but I know teenagers without a penny who have the same addictive characters as me. Whether I played football or not I would still be suffering from this illness, precisely without the public pressure and mortification. Addiction does not care. I am a man of extremes. Parties dont find me doing the additional training, feeing right, going to the reserve every night to get fit, were represented at the anonymous convenes, doing the donation make. That is still me. That is who I am. But I get fucked by these other demons and I desperately necessary something in the middle. I feel like Im getting there now, that things have finally changed.

Im doing interesting thing merely to prompt me to stay on track. I could be relying on taxis to get me everywhere while Im banned but Im exploiting public transport. Im living in one of the owneds I own in Feltham, back where I grew up, to stir me recollect how hard I had to work to get out of here aged 15. Its a remember that, if I continue to unravel, I wont improve my statu again. Money considers the fissures. It can be evil. It prolongs the agony.

QPRs musicians reported for pre-season last-place Friday but Caulker, who has one year to run on his contract and has been improving all summertime with the former conference player Drewe Broughton at Goals centre in Hayes, had been signed off until July. Life at the golf-club had degenerated into an incessant flow of internal disciplinary hearings and, despite Holloway having become clear his desire to retain the centre-halfs business, his future will not is currently under Loftus Road. What happens next is all a bit perplexed, all a bit uncertain, he says. The manager has texted me several times offering his support and “says hes” misses me at the club but my brand-new representative has been informed by the owners Im not welcome back.

For too long Ive disliked everything about myself and I needed to learn to affection myself again. I miss video games like crazy. I dont detect as if Ive experienced playing football since Cardiff. I dont want to type my identify into Google and just see a roster of humbling narrations. I want people to remember I am a footballer who was good enough to represent his country at 20 and still has 10 years left in the game. At 40% of my ability, I was playing at the highest level. Now I feel good mentally and I want the chance to show people, including my son, what I am absolutely capable of. Wherever the opportunity starts, Im exactly appreciative still to be alive.

In the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123.

In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255.

In Australia, the crisis support assistance Lifeline is on 13 11 14.

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nickdrawingresearch-blog · 7 years

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Agnes Martin Background

The abstract painter Agnes Martin died in 2004, at the age of ninety-two, and a new retrospective at the Guggenheim Museum affirms that the greatness of her work has only amplified in the years since. That’s something of a surprise: no setting would seem less congenial to the strict angles of Martin’s paintings than the curves of Frank Lloyd Wright’s creamy seashell. I also worried that the work’s repetitive formulas—grids and stripes, mostly gray or palely colored, often six feet square—would add aesthetic fatigue to the mild toll of a hike up the ramp. But the show’s challenges to contemplation and stamina turn out to intensify a deep, and deepening, sense of the artist’s singular powers. The climb becomes a sort of secular pilgrimage, on which you may feel your perceptual ability to register minute differences of tone and texture steadily refined, and your heart ambushed by rushes of emotion.

Each canvas, as selected and installed by the curators, Tiffany Bell and Tracey Bashkoff, evinces a particular character. Drawings and “On a Clear Day” (1974), a remarkable suite of silk-screened grids and lines in inks that uncannily mimic graphite, provide rhythmic relief. The cumulative effect is that of intellectual and emotional repletion, concerning a woman who synthesized the essences of two world-changing movements—Abstract Expressionism and minimalism—and who, from a tortured life, beset by schizophrenia, managed to derive a philosophy, amounting almost to a gospel, of happiness. There is nothing cuddly about Martin. (You will know the feeling of one close acquaintance to whom she said, “I have no friends, and you’re one of them.”) But there is joy.

The show starts with a late climax: “The Islands I-XII” (1979), a dozen paintings in acrylic that at first glance appear almost identically all-white but which deploy differently proportioned horizontal bands and pencilled lines. Admixtures of light, almost subliminal blue cool some of the bands. The design stops just short of the sides of the canvas. When you notice this, the fields of paint seem to jiggle loose, and to hover. If you look long enough—the minute or so that Martin deemed sufficient for her works—your sensation-starved optic nerve may produce fugitive impressions of other colors. (At one point, I saw green, and then I didn’t.) It helps to shade your eyes. This causes tones to darken and textures to register more strongly. Looking at Martin’s art is something of an art in itself. Motivated by continual, ineffable rewards, you become an adept.

“The Islands” crowned the second act of Martin’s career. The first peaked in the mid-nineteen-sixties, when she was living in New York, with the public success of the grid pictures—typically, uniform rectangles pencilled or incised on painted square canvases. She had begun making them in 1958, at the age of forty-six, after a long apprenticeship in modern art. In 1967, she stopped working and left the city, heading out in a pickup truck for a year and a half of solitary wandering and then the building of an adobe house for herself near Santa Fe. It was several years before she resumed painting.

Martin was at no pains to explain the interregnum, beyond remarking with satisfaction, in a letter to a friend at the time, “Now I do not owe anything or have to do anything.” (She added, “Do not think that that is sad. It is not sad. Even sadness is not sad.”) In recent years, she had been hospitalized for spells of psychosis, tending toward catatonia, and was plagued by doomy thoughts. (“I have tried existing, and I do not like it,” she wrote.) Stardom in the art world imposed pressures that she seemed to find intolerable. But her flight, even from her own creativity, remains a mystery—comparable to Arthur Rimbaud’s abandonment of poetry for adventuring in Africa.

“Untitled” (circa 1954).

As detailed in a crisp and penetrating recent biography, “Agnes Martin: Her Life and Art,” by Nancy Princenthal, the artist’s hard existence began, in 1912, in a small town on the plains of Saskatchewan, as the third of four children of Scottish Presbyterian parents. Her father, who farmed wheat, died two years later. Her mother, Margaret, was, by Martin’s account, harsh and unloving. (Martin seldom spoke of her past, and what she told wasn’t always to be trusted.) Margaret eventually moved the family to Vancouver, where, in high school, Martin excelled at swimming; she just missed qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team, for the 1936 Games in Berlin. She reportedly attended the University of Southern California on a swimming scholarship, but dropped out and taught in elementary schools for a couple of years, before completing a degree at the Teachers College of Columbia University, in 1942.

Then, at the age of thirty, Martin found a vocation in painting. She made figurative work, while working odd jobs in New York, and went to study art at the University of New Mexico, in 1946. Five years later, she returned to Columbia to earn a master’s degree in fine-arts education. During that time, she absorbed principles of Taoist and Zen philosophy that would thenceforth guide her thinking, or, more accurately, her refusals of thought, even as she developed sternly logical solutions to the problems of painting. (Never religious, she was the most matter-of-fact of mystics.) Exposed to the high noon of Abstract Expressionism in the city, she destroyed most of her early works and gravitated to abstraction.

Martin was back in New Mexico when, in 1957, the august New York dealer Betty Parsons saw her work—which at that point ran to abstracted landscapes incorporating jagged shapes reminiscent of Clyfford Still—and offered her a show, on the condition that she move back to the city. Martin took a loft, which had electricity but no running water and little heat, downtown on Coenties Slip, the most justly fabled address of budding artistic revolutionaries since the Bateau-Lavoir of Picasso, Juan Gris, and their associates. Her neighbors included Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Ellsworth Kelly, and James Rosenquist—most of them gay (she was a lesbian) and determined to counter the histrionic paint-mongering that was then in vogue. Her works from that seedbed period tell a gripping tale of borrowed stylistic ideas—redolent of Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and other Abstract Expressionists, and of Johns and Kelly—which she didn’t so much follow as test, one by one, and expunge. Amid the time’s cross-firing models of aesthetic and rhetorical innovation, she struggled less forward than inward. She wanted, passionately, to be alone.

Martin had, from the start, an extraordinary sensitivity to subtleties of light and touch. When she hit, at last, on the format of the grid—a motif that was tacit in modern painting after Cubism but never before stripped, and kept, so bare—she found ways to make those qualities the exclusive basis of a wholly original, full-bodied art. She insisted that the results did not exclude nature but analogized it. She said, “It’s really about the feeling of beauty and freedom that you experience in landscape.” (Apropos of the slightly varied forms in some series of her paintings, she recalled studying clouds in the sky: “I paid close attention for a month to see if they ever repeated. They don’t repeat.”) The effect of Martin’s art is not an exercise in overarching style but a mode of moment-to-moment being.

The relation of Martin’s mental illness to her art seems twofold, combining a need for concealment and for control—the grid as a screen and as a shield—with an urge to distill positive content from the oceanic states of mind that she couldn’t help experiencing. She knew herself profoundly, because she had to. In a marvellous 1973 essay, “On the Perfection Underlying Life,” she coolly contemplates the “panic of complete helplessness,” which “drives us to fantastic extremes.” But the problem produces its own answer. She concluded that “helplessness when fear and dread have run their course, as all passions do, is the most rewarding state of all.”

Peter Schjeldahl. (2016, October 17). Agnes Martin, a Matter-of-Fact Mystic. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/10/17/agnes-martin-a-matter-of-fact-mystic

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greggsdiabetes-blog · 8 years

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Our Favorite Running Moments in Literature

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Our Favorite Running Moments in Literature

Surely, running and writing are parallel pursuits: for better or worse, both require you to spend an awful lot of time in your own head. With each, the pleasurable aspect (so far as it exists) is largely retrospective; it feels great to have written something decent, just as the best part of running is the feeling you get afterward—especially when there’s a pastry involved. With both activities, the actual process can be painful and frustrating and include prolonged periods of self-doubt. And that’s when things are going well.

It is only fitting, then, that our literary canon abounds with running references. Through the ages, the sport has featured prominently in various genres, from Greek myth to poetry to the modern short story. The following are some of the most notable running moments in literature.

“Metamorphoses,” Ovid, 8 A.D.

Nervous about an upcoming race? Read the myth of Atalanta and Hippomenes to see what real race-day pressure looks like. The huntress Atalanta is a great beauty with suitors aplenty, any of whom can win her by besting her in a foot race. Unfortunately for these aspiring lovers, Atalanta is “no less swift than a Scythian arrow.” More bad news: losing the race also means losing your life. Several young men can’t help themselves, however, and with predictable results. Along comes Hippomenes, who can’t help himself either, but he’s wise enough to ask the goddess Venus for help: “I pray you preside at my venture, aiding the fires that you yourself have ignited.” In what must be one of the first instances of technical doping, Venus gifts the young man with three golden apples, which he cunningly uses to distract Atalanta during the race. Alas, Hippomenes doesn’t sufficiently thank Venus for her assistance, an omission that eventually leads to him and Atalanta being turned into lions.

“To an Athlete Dying Young,” A.E. Housman, 1896

The scholar, classicist, and poet Alfred Edward Housman published only two volumes of poetry in his life, A Shropshire Lad (1896) and Last Poems (1922). According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, Housman’s favorite theme is “the doomed youth acting out the tragedy of his brief life”—a subject that was all too relevant during World War I, when Housman’s poems were extremely popular in England. “To an Athlete Dying Young,” arguably Housman’s most recognizable poem today, certainly taps into this theme. The brief elegy invokes the romantic notion that a premature demise means not having to witness the fading of one’s glory, not having to “swell the rout” of “runners whom renown outran. And the name died before the man.” Beyond such quotable couplets, the morbidly clever transition that links its first two stanzas is reason enough for the poem to endure:

The time you won your town the race We chaired you through the market-place; Man and boy stood cheering by, And home we brought you shoulder-high.

Today, the road all runners come, Shoulder-high we bring you home, And set you at your threshold down, Townsman of a stiller town.

“The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner,” Alan Sillitoe, 1959

We owe running’s famous epithet to Alan Sillitoe’s 1959 short story about youthful rebellion in postwar England. “The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner” is the story of Smith, a young delinquent and ace cross-country runner. After robbing a bakery, Smith is sent to prison school, where he gets favorable treatment from the authorities thanks to his athletic talent. The school’s “pop-eyed potbellied governor” expects Smith to win a local meet and thereby serve as a prime exemplar for his institution, but Smith has other ideas. For the story’s beleaguered protagonist, the sensation of his morning runs is the source of “the only honesty and realness there was in the world.” It’s a wonder that running shoe marketers haven’t tried to make hay with this. Or maybe it isn’t.

“Pheidippides,” Robert Browning, 1878

We would be remiss to have a running-in-literature list without mentioning the poem that served as inspiration for the modern-day marathon. Many are familiar with the origin story of the race: As Persian attack ships landed on the coast near Marathon around 500 B.C., Pheidippides, a Greek messenger, ran more than 200 miles to Sparta and back, seeking military aid. The Spartans said no, but the Greeks won anyway. Dispatched to send news of the victory to Athens, Pheidippides covered the 25 miles on foot, delivered the good news, and then died of cumulative exhaustion. Though there is no historical evidence for the last part of the story, Englishman Robert Browning’s 19th-century poem “Pheidippides” helped ensconce this version in popular culture. At the urging of his friend Michel Bréal, a prominent French linguist who was enthralled by Browning’s poem, Pierre de Coubertain, the French aristocrat and Hellenophile credited as the founder of the modern Olympics, included a marathon event in the inaugural games of 1896.

“The Tortoise and The Hare,” Aesop, Circa 600 B.C.

No story about running is more prevalent in popular culture today than Aesop’s beloved fable. The tale of the persistent tortoise and the cocky hare is also probably the most useful allegory we have on the importance of pacing. There are endless animated versions. There’s a sculpture near the finish of one of the nation’s oldest cross-country courses. Of course there’s a running shoe store. But that’s not to say that the moral of the story has remained consistent. In a 2015 Super Bowl ad, the tortoise literally drives over his rival in a Mercedes AMG GT with a—presumably—sexy rabbit babe riding shotgun. (Tortoise: “Slow and steady, my ass.”) I don’t know about you, but I still prefer the original.

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