#art style crisis my beloved /s

[witchbugs]

artblock doodle owo

[showyoumyfavoriteobsession]

Underdiscovered Polygon Streams

I started compiling this list a while ago, accidentally published the draft, panicked, and deleted it instead of saving again SO here's attempt number 2! Probably not new to most folks, but some fun non-series streams that I have found while plumbing the depths of my hyperfixation. Feel free to add your own!

Best Video Game Music of 2017 Funstravaganza! Clayton and Simone play Audiosurf to the Polygon staff’s (Brian, Susana, Allegra, Pat, and Russ) favorite video game music as an end-of year celebration. I love this idea and wish they did it more years! CW for LOTS of flashing lights.

Simone and Ashley’s Overwatch Dream Date Spectacular Simone and Ashley were giving away merch and screaming. A lot. Simone is an aro queen and has no idea what constitutes a date.

It’s Jaws Time in SUBNAUTICA w/ Jenna and Clayton Jenna’s first stream! She and Clayton explore the ocean in search of big scary fish. Generally chill, a few deep-sea jumpscares. (They talked about this one on a Valheim stream recently!)

Fort Friends! Pat, Jenna, Simone, and Clayton play Fortnite like... some kind of squad that is bad at games. Some kind of... terrible squad.

Polygon’s Friday Afternoon Smash Party A rotating group of Samit, Jenna, Clayton, Russ, Brian, Simone, Allegra, and Pat playin’ Smash Bros. Closes with Yoshi Betting, which is strangely investing.

NO MORE HEROES Turns 10, with Pat and Brian One of Brian’s first streams, playing a Wii game with big nostalgia for Pat. A chill good time.

Pat and Allegra Play Spellspire - Fantasy Typing RPG Pretty much what it says on the tin. Allegra is a very good with words and Pat is there also /s The developers put in a patch in response to this stream which is delightful.

Mount Your Friends 3D - Polygon Will Reach The Peak Russ, Clayton, Brian, Jenna, and Pat cycle through playing this very silly physics-based game.

Yakuza 6 - Pat and Allegra are Doing Crimes, But Only the Cool Kinds of Crimes They play minigames and take silly selfies. Also check out this video, which they reference in the stream, where they play a silly mission with the Yakuza localization team.

Ashley and Pat Play YOSHI’S WOOLLY WORLD Part of a short-lived series called Me You and Wii U. We learn some cursed facts about beloved Nintendo characters and take a good nostalgia trip.

Pat Plays Tokyo 42 A rare solo stream; if you, like me, just enjoy listening to Pat’s voice, you’ll like this. The game has a really cool art style too.

~*~Pat and Simone Stream Corner~*~

(I think these are more well-known but just in case you're like me and always digging for more Pat and Simone content)

MONSTER HUNTER: WORLD - Pat and Simone Vs. Big Lizards Simone has a banana crisis

Pat and Simone Play MR. SHIFTY cool game

Pat and Simone Play Human: Fall Flat Pat relates childhood trauma

CUPHEAD with Simone and Pat really satisfying co-op play

PAT AND SIMONE EXTREME BIKERZ SIMULATOR Simone talks about communists and learns about soda syrup

Polygon Plays Red Dead Redeption 2 Again Patrick “horse crimes” Gill. Very good cameos from Jenna and Clayton.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Online: Cowboy Babies (part 1) (part 2) The first half-hour is them making each other in character creation

BURNOUT PARADISE REMASTERED - Pat and Simone Go To Car World Good Game Ogre lore

~*~Thanks for visiting the Pat and Simone Stream Corner~*~

[zerochanges]

2020 Favorite Video Games

I don’t know if I am an outlier or if this is the same for everyone else but I really did not play a lot of games this year. 2020 was a very harsh year for all of us, especially for me for some personal reasons. So to get to the chase, I am just gonna say it left me not doing much in what little free time I did have, and I didn’t play much either. Usually I try to keep my lists for ‘favorite of the year’ to only titles released that year but since I played so little this year, screw it. I am gonna include any game I played this year regardless of release date.

Collection of SaGa

By far a flawed rerelease. It’s bare bones: there are no advance features you would usually expect out of these kinds of emulated rereleases like save states, fast forward, or rewind, and there was no real effort made to touch up almost 30 year old localizations that had to meet Nintendo of America’s then harsh standards. This really is just 3 roms slapped into a nice looking interface with an option to increase the game speed (which by the way you better use, the characters walk very slow in these old games). 

I am bit harsh here, but only because I thought the Romancing SaGa remasters and the upcoming SaGa Frontier remaster all looked like they got a great budget and a lot of love while this is just another Collection of Mana situation (moreso specifically talking about Seiken Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana part of that collection). I would have loved to see Square Enix do a bit more for these older games. Or at least include the remakes. Seiken Densetsu 1 had two great remakes, both unused in Collection of Mana, and all three of these original SaGa titles have remakes that have never seen the light of day outside of Japan. How great would it have been to get the Wonderswan remake of SaGa 1, as well as the Nintendo DS remakes of Saga 2 and SaGa 3? 

But my gripes aside, these games are still fun as they ever were. Replaying SaGa 1 specifically during the holiday season really helped calm me down and made me feel at ease. It’s easy to forget but even in their Gameboy roots there are a lot of funky and weird experimental choices being made in these games. They aren’t your run-of-the-mil dragon quest (or considering the gameboy, maybe pokemon would be more apt) clones. 

Raging Loop

Perhaps my favorite game of the year, Raging Loop is one of the best visual novels I have ever played hands down. The level of creativity and splitting story paths that went into it is simply mind blowing. The basic premise is both a wonderful throwback to the old days of Chunsoft sound novels while still modern and somewhat reminiscent of both Higurashi and Danganronpa. Essentially you play as Haruaki, a poor slub that got lost in the mountains with no clue where to go until you stumble upon an old rural village with a strange history and even stranger superstitions. Before you know it there has been a murder and the Feast is now afoot.

The less said about Raging Loop the better, although I do want to say a lot about it one day if I ever can write a proper review of it. This is a gripping game that will take hold of you once you get into it though and never let go. I actually 100%-ed this and I very rarely do that. I got every ending, every bonus hidden ending, played the entire game twice to hear all the hidden details it purposely hides on your first play through, played all the bonus epilogue chapters, unlocked all the hidden voice actor interviews, collected all the art work, etc, etc. I was just obsessed with this game, it’s that damn good! And the main character is maybe the best troll in all of video games, god bless Haruaki. 

Root Double

From Takumi Nakazawa, long time contributor to Kotaro Uchikoshi’s work comes a game any fan of Zero Escape or Uchikoshi in general will probably enjoy. Root Double, like its name suggests is a visual novel with two different routes, hence Root Double. The first route stars Watase Kasasagi, the leader of an elite rescue team in the midst of their greatest crisis yet that could lead to nuclear devastation as they try to evacuate a nuclear research facility that has gone awry. 

The other route stars Natsuhiko Tenkawa, an everyday high schooler whose peaceful life is thrown into turmoil when he stumbles upon a terrorist plot to destroy the nuclear facility in the city and his attempts to stop them. Together the two separate plots weave into one and creates a really crazy ride. Part Chernobyl, part science fiction, any fan of the genre will easily enjoy it. And hey it’s kind of relevant to include on this list too since it just got a Switch port this year (I played it on steam though).  

Snack World

I was shocked upon starting Snack World as it is instantly incredibly charming, witty, and downright hilarious at times yet I heard almost zero people talk about it. EVER. This game is Dragon Quest levels of quirky though, and the localization is incredible. The game has such an oddball sense of humor that works really well with its presentation right down to the anime opening video that sings about the most bizarre things. Instead of the usual pump up song about the cool adventure ahead we get stuff like wanting to go out to a restaurant and eat pork chops. 

The self aware/fourth wall breaking humor is just enough to be really funny, but doesn't overstay its welcome and always makes it work right in the context of the dialogue. And finally, just everything; with the menus, the name of side quests and missions, and the character dialogue -- are all just so witty and full of quirky humor. This is one hell of a charming and funny game and addictive to boot.

Trials of Mana

Trials of Mana has gone from one of those legendary unlocalized games, to one of the first major breakthroughs in fan translation, to finally getting an official English release complete with a fully 3D remake. In a lot of ways from a western perspective this game has had an incredible journey. As for this remake itself, I really found myself having tons of fun with it. I loved the graphics, and the voice acting while a bit on the cheaper side almost kind of adds to the charm since both the graphics and acting really give it an old PS2 vibe. I know that is probably just more me being weird but yeah, I had to say it. 

I really hope Square Enix sticks to this style of remake more often, instead of just doing Final Fantasy VII Remakes that break the bank and involve extensive tweaking to both plot and game play. I’ll take smaller budget projects that play more like the original game any day personally. I wouldn’t mind if they also deliver a brand new Mana game all together in this engine either. 

Utawarerumono Trilogy

This year saw the release of the first entry in the series, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen--and thus finally after three years since the sequels Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth came out in 2017 the trilogy is now complete in English. I ended up binging through Prelude to the Fallen very fast shortly after it came out and immediately jumped on to the sequels. Perhaps the best part of 2020 was that I finally played all three of these fantastic games, and did so back-to-back-to-back. Playing the first Utawarerumono was an experience I will never forget, it was like visiting old friends again that I haven’t seen in ages, by and large thanks to the fact that I saw the anime adaption of the game when I was much younger, nearly a decade ago. Back then I would have never of dreamed that I would get to play the actual game and get the real experience. 

And it only got better from here, as all three games are such wonderful experiences from start to finish. The stories are all so deep, and by the time you get to the third entry, Mask of Truth, it’s crazy to see how they all connected over so many years and weaved together into a plot much bigger than they ever were. What carries it beyond all that though has to be the fun and addicting strategy role playing game aspect, which while a bit on the easy side, is still so much fun and helps make the game feel better paced since you get to play the conquests your characters go on and not just read about all the battles they fight. Beyond that the games are packed full of awesome characters, and I know I’ll never forget the amazing leads in all of them. Hakuowlo, Haku, and Oshtor will all go down as some of the greats to me. 

Ys: Memories of Celceta

Ys: Memories of Celceta is a full 3D remake of Ys IV, a rather infamous game in Falcom’s Ys series. Not to get bogged down too much into the history of Falcom but by this point they were facing a lot of hardship and had to outsource this entry to other developers, and thus passed it on to two particular developers they had a business relationship with, creating two unique versions of Ys IV. Tonkin House who had worked on Super Famicom port of Ys III with Falcom ended up creating their own YS IV entry, Mask of the Sun for the very same system, where Hudson soft who had produced the much beloved Ys Books I & II remakes for the Turbografix (PC Engine) CD add-on created their own Ys IV entry Dawn of Ys for that console. Both games followed guidelines and ideas outlined from Falcom themselves but both radically diverged from each other and turned into completely different games. 

Falcom finally putting an end to this debate on which version of Ys IV you should play have gone and created their own definitive Ys IV in 2012 for the Playstation Vita. I played the 2020 remastered version of this remake on my PS4. I even bought this on the Vita when it first came out but I am horrible and only horde games, never play them. So it was a lot of fun to finally play this. 

Memories of Celceta is probably one of the best starting points for anyone looking to get into Ys, especially if you only want to stay with the 3D titles as out of all the 3D entries this explains the most about the world and series protagonist Adol Christian. Beyond that it’s just another fantastic entry in a wonderful series that has a few good twists hidden behind it, especially for long time fans of the series. 

Random Video Game Console Stuff

Xbox Has Blue Dragon: I actually got an Xbox One this year for free from my brother. Because of that I started to play Blue Dragon again and there’s a lot I would love to say about this game. I don’t know if I am fully committed to replaying it all the way through however but I find myself putting in a couple hours every few days and enjoying myself again. Does anyone else remember Blue Dragon? I feel like it really missed its audience and had it come out nowadays and probably for the Switch it would have really resonated with the Dragon Quest fandom a lot more instead of being thrown out to die on Xbox and constantly compared to Final Fantasy VII and the like which it had nothing at all similar with. 

The Turbografx 16 Mini: This was probably one of the best mini consoles that have come out and I feel like thanks to the whole 2020 pandemic thing it was largely forgotten about. That’s a shame, it has a wonderful variety of great games, especially if you count the Japanese ones (god I wish I could play the Japanese version of Snatcher included), and a wonderful interface with fantastic music. One of these days I would really like to be able to play around with the console more seriously than I have already. 

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon Never Existed: So Nintendo localized the first ever Fire Emblem game on Nintendo Switch which is awesome to see them touching Famicom games again--I haven’t seen Nintendo of America rerelease old Famicom titles since Mysterious Murasame Castle on the 3DS, but their trailer hilariously made it seem like this is the first time ever they released Fire Emblem when in fact they had already localized the remake Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS nearly 10 or 11 years ago. I and many other fans I talked to all found this really hilarious, probably solely because of how much they kept repeating the fact that this is the first time you will ever be able to experience Marth’s story.

All that aside though I have to say the collector edition for this newly localized Famicom game is probably the most gorgeous retro reproduction I have seen in a long time, and I really spent many many hours just staring at the all clear glass mock cartridge. I have found myself really obsessing over retro reproductions during 2020, and obtained quite a few this year. I really hope this trend continues to go on in 2021 as recreating classic console packaging and cartridges is a lot of fun. 

[uniformbravo]

having a full on existential crisis over an episode of anime i watched tonight

it all started with big time rush

in 2009 a sitcom called big time rush aired for the first time on nickelodeon; it was about a group of four teenaged boys from minnesota who move to hollywood under a famous producer to become his next big boy band sensation. a simple premise, launched into unprecedented success, resulting in four seasons of musical shenanigans, three full music albums, and three big concert tours, including international shows. the band, both fictional and real life, featured four attractive young men by the names of kendall, james, carlos, and logan. they quickly gained a fan base of mostly teenage girls, which resulted in online spaces created for the purpose of sharing their passion, and as is common in such online communities, this certainly involved fanfiction- lots of it.

enter me, a teen in high school who loved to write fanfiction. my big time journey began the day my younger sister decided to put on the show big time rush in the living room, where i sat at the family computer typing away. the noise caught my attention, and i got sucked into the episode. there was a boy wearing a dress on the screen. i became interested.

i watched more of the show. i typed its name into the search bar on the website fanfiction dot net. i had a friend at school who shared my interest in fanfiction, particularly of the slash variety. i introduced her to this new show i had been watching. she shared a fanfic she had enjoyed immensely with me. we dragged each other into the world of big time rush fanfiction reading and writing.

it took over my life; i lived and breathed big time rush. i began posting my own stories to fanfiction dot net. i received positive feedback; i met people. i made friends- two people in particular who became very close friends. we communicated through ffn’s private messaging system, then through email. we talked every day, we wrote stories for and with each other, we exchanged phone numbers. it was one of these friends who introduced me to the website called tumblr, where fellow fans of our beloved big time rush gathered and talked about it- a community.

it was a slow start- this website was new and unfamiliar to me- but eventually i got the hang of things and settled into my niche. i had fun, gained followers, met even more people. tumblr was a place not only for sharing one singular interest, but for accumulating all of your various interests and celebrating them in one place. it was through this aspect that i first learned of the up and coming band known as one direction.

they had released their first smash hit single and everyone was talking about it. i was wary, far too loyal to my beloved big time rush- but eventually i started to feel left out and in an effort to feel included, i decided to take the plunge and see what this “1d” was all about. it was intimidating, though- there was so much information, and no apparent beginner’s guide to tell me where to start. this drove me to making a post calling for a “one direction buddy” to take this role, to introduce me to all the most important aspects of this band. and my call was answered.

enter my wonderful friend cam, a follower of mine at the time. they were into both big time rush and one direction and were eager to provide me with all the information needed to get into 1d. while ultimately this venture didn’t amount to anything, as i lost interest in becoming a fan, my friendship with cam persisted and we grew very close. even as time went on and big time rush faded into the background to be replaced with newer, fresher interests, and our paths as fellow fandom members split, we kept in contact and remained friends. years and years of fandoms, years and years of friendship.

in the midst of the tenth year, cam developed a new interest, in a sport called ice hockey. as is tradition, they shared their passion with me, showing me their favorite team, highlighting their favorite members. we watched a game together. personally, i’ve never been one for sports, but i am quite into anime, which consists of many genres, including the “sports” genre. one in particular that i’ve enjoyed immensely in the past is the volleyball anime, haikyuu!!. this anime devotes a lot of time to explaining and depicting the sport in a way that makes it easy for any viewer to understand the rules and inner workings of volleyball. it’s exciting. it’s the first time i’ve ever even adjacently been invested in a sport. one could even call it a gateway into the world of sports.

all this to say, when i watched that game of ice hockey with cam, the same parts of my brain that loved haikyuu!! lit up and in a classic display of my specific brand of interest, i found myself yearning for the epic highs and lows of ice hockey, but in an animated format. an animated format originating in japan. a japanese animation. an anime. my curiosity burned a hole in my brain that resulted in a combination of the google search bar and the words, “hockey anime”.

to my disappointment, i found nothing- at least, not to the degree i was hoping. there is an upcoming anime, slated to air in the fall 2021 anime season, about a group of girls who form an ice hockey team together- as it is an original project rather than an adaptation, it remains to be seen whether the anime will fall into the category of “sports anime,” or if indeed it will lean much more closely to the “moe” genre. the latter is not what i had in mind during that particular search.

adding the anime called “pride of orange” to my “plan to watch” list on myanimelist dot com, i moved onto the next result: an article about an early 2010’s anime i had never heard of before. while not about the sport i was looking for, it featured a character whose signature weapon was a field hockey stick. it wasn’t even the right sport. it was a weak, insignificant link, but all was not lost.

i happen to have an affinity for watching anime i happen upon completely by random and know little to nothing about; i found the movie “anthem of the heart” purely coincidentally, when i searched the name “jun” as part of some research for one of my original characters and discovered that it was the main character of said movie, which i then watched and ended up enjoying quite a lot. another time, when i was at best buy one day i happened upon a dvd on their dedicated anime shelf for a movie called “hana and alice”, which i had never heard of before. i liked the box art, so i took a picture of it to remember the title and watched it on my own later that week; it became one of my favorite movies.

with these and other similar experiences in mind, i saved the anime in my “plan to watch” list, and, later that same week, began my watch of “sket dance.”

it’s a school comedy anime, one of my favorite genres, so it’s no surprise that after overcoming the initial skepticism i carry into every new show i watch it quickly became my new fixation. not an obsession, but something i was pleasantly surprised to find consistently enjoyable. the characters are fun, the humor is tight and fresh, and the stories are unexpectedly touching at the right moments. everything i like to see.

which brings us to tonight. the culmination of this ten plus year string of events and occurrences. getting into big time rush. joining tumblr. meeting cam. watching anime. searching for hockey anime.

i put down my apple(TM) pencil. i set my ipad aside. i downsized the ebook window i’d been referencing. i stretched; i was hungry and tired. i’d been rereading passages of various animorphs books all day. i needed a break. i needed to sit back with some food and an episode of my latest comfort watch, sket dance. it’d be nice to set the dramatic, tragic world of animorphs aside for something lighthearted and fun in its place.

well.

i sat down with my bowl of strawberries and played the episode. it finished. i watched another. this one broke the formula a bit, played with the art style. i was into it. the preview for the next episode was mysteriously blank, and short, stating only the title. it was intriguing. i’m down for the show to get a bit more serious for an episode, i thought. i’m down for some potential backstory for one of the main three. i’m ready.

i was not ready.

bruh.

b r u h .

next two episodes proceeded to take me out back and beat me to within an inch of my life, slowly at first and then all at once. barely made it out alive. questioning everything. how can a show, so silly and goofy, do that, to me. how could i let my guard down like that. how could i be so tricked, and deceived, and blindsided like this. i don’t know who to trust. i don’t know if i can trust again. whiplash so damaging, permanent. i thought i wanted answers. i thought i wanted to know backstory. i didn’t want this. i never wanted this. emptiness

how did it come to this, these twelve years of my life. had i known back then, would i have posted that fanfiction? would i have joined tumblr? would i have sook out a “one direction buddy”? a hollow husk of a person, i am left with only my thoughts to ponder this small history of mine. the things i could have done differently. the things others could have done differently. all these butterfly effect moments, adding up to what? culminating in what? it’s 2:26 am and i’m writing an essay on how shook i am over that episode instead of going to sleep. but i can’t just say nothing, you know? i need to put something out there, reach deep enough within myself to find the thing that’s still there, broken and huddled and tiny as it is. i need to feel some semblance of the self again. the me from before i watched this episode. the innocent version of myself, blissful in ignorance. it’s too late now.

that episode…………..was fucked up. that was seriously fucked up. im not okay bro they really just came in left field and slapped that in my face expecting me to get up and walk away just fine afterwards like No that isn’t how this Works y’all need to bundle some therapy sessions with ur episodes pullin that shit come ON

exhaustion is taking over the shock, i am simply tired now. i will fall asleep and when i wake up sket dance will be a happy fun show again with NO fucked up backstories ever Or Else. i’m fucking serious right now i’m gonna count to 3 and that shit better be retconned when i turn around,

screams

thank you

[dailymilesmorales]

The life of a teenaged superhero is never easy, but it’s about to get a lot harder for the young vigilantes of the Marvel Universe. March’s Outlawed one-shot introduces a new status quo that has the government cracking down on superheroes under the age of 21, and these events will have repercussions across the publisher’s entire line. Written by Eve L. Ewing with art by Kim Jacinto, colorist Espen Grundetjern, and letterer Clayton Cowles, Outlawed sees the country rocked by a tragedy involving the Champions that compels politicians to take drastic actions. The set-up is reminiscent of 2006’s Civil War, which similarly began with a tragedy surrounding a young superhero team leading to federal restrictions on superheroes.

“Civil War was meant to be (among other things) about curtailing personal liberties in the name of safety,” says Outlawed editor Alanna Smith. “Outlawed is tapping into different social anxieties. There’s been a lot of debate lately about the role of the youth in our society—whether they should partake in activism, how much their voices should be valued, whether they’re old and learned enough to have a say in their future, and what responsibility the older generations have to keep them safe. When you boil it down, Outlawed is about the conflict that arises when widespread decisions that affect an entire generation are made by people outside that generation, while ignoring the input of people who will have to live with those decisions. In this case, there are real, heartfelt concerns on both sides of the conflict that make it that much more complicated for our heroes to overcome. It’s not a problem they can punch.”

“To me, this story isn’t just about young people being in conflict with the government, but much bigger questions about what we ask of young people, how they’re expected to be independent sometimes and subservient other times,” says Ewing. “Every era of history brings new challenges, and young people today are coming of age in the era of mass shootings, the era of the climate crisis—things that in some ways are unprecedented in history. Yet we often don’t recognize their wisdom and their insights. It’s like we get above a certain age and lose all empathy. I just wanted to explore that tension, and them being superheroes really ups the stakes because they’re literally out there saving lives every day, but aren’t seen as full people or full citizens. And, at the same time, maybe the law is a good idea? Maybe it really is for everyone’s protection? It’s intentionally kind of morally ambiguous.”

“Eve is really skilled at getting into the psyche of our younger characters without pulling punches,” says Smith. “Her run on Ironheart had a really dark undercurrent of coping with loss and self-doubt that elevated it beyond what I think people expected. Outlawed needed someone who could write about kids dealing with a world that’s turned against them and make it feel visceral and real and urgent. She brought that intensity, and she’s also incredible at capturing the charm and personality that has made these characters so beloved in recent years.”

“I feel really grateful that the editorial team saw how much I enjoy writing adolescent characters and decided to give me this opportunity,” says Ewing. “I used to teach middle school, and as a teenager myself I was really angsty and dramatic but also, I think, had a lot of genuine emotional and intellectual perspectives, as all young people do. So I’ve tried to bring those experiences to bear in the way I wrote Ironheart, and the way I wrote Spider-Man and the Unstoppable Wasp when they paid a visit to the Ironheart world, and with Marvel Team-Up I got to really explore questions about what it means to be an adolescent because in that story, not only was I writing Ms. Marvel, but Kamala and Peter Parker actually switched bodies. So Peter had to remember what it was like to be a teenager. In a sense, I’ve kind of been in his shoes, putting myself in the head of a 15- or 16-year-old and trying to make sense of what it’s like in there, with real respect and care. So I’m excited to keep flexing that muscle.”

“When we first started talking about this story I was really excited about it from a character perspective, because I love the Champions, I love what Mark Waid and Jim Zub and Grek Pak and Jeremy Whitley and Saladin Ahmed have done with these characters individually and as a team,” says Ewing. “And I was also really excited about it from a sociological perspective, because I think the story presents some big questions about young people and politics and society and citizenship and government control and surveillance and what we think of as safety. All of that. But I did not anticipate that the powers that be would want to make this into a more far-reaching story that will really ripple across the MU. So I’m very humbled by that and definitely working up my nerves to just try to tell a good story that’s worthy of all that.”

This exclusive first look at Outlawed #1 highlights the complicated ethical dynamics at the core of this story, showing the perspectives of both adult and teen heroes. Jacinto’s dramatic body language and Grundetjern’s bold color palette charges these talking heads with emotion and urgency, and the final page of this excerpt highlights how well they capture heroes in action. “Kim’s style has evolved in really dynamic and exciting ways in the past few years,” says Smith. “I wanted someone who could draw intense, visceral action and also someone who would make our younger characters look like total badasses, and Kim delivered on all fronts. He’s got flair, and this is a book that needed flair. We’ve also got Espen Grundetjern killing it on colors, and longtime Champions mainstay Clayton Cowles on lettering, so you’re going to want to feast your eyes on these pages!”

Jacinto’s artwork has gone through some significant shifts over the years, and he has a talent for adjusting his style to match the tone of his projects. “I’m trying a different approach on this book,” says Jacinto. “My taste typically leans towards a dark and gritty style so I changed it a bit and I’m experimenting on this book. Since most of the characters are young superheroes, I wanted to give the characters more energy and dynamic poses. This book made me explore new ideas and go out my comfort zone and that excites me the most. Eve is very easy and fun to work with and straightforward. She will tell you if something is off and that makes it easy.”

“We’re bringing the next generation of heroes to the forefront in a major way and swinging for the fences in terms of story, stakes and scale,” says Smith. “Outlawed introduces an ongoing status quo that will be reflected in books across the line—almost every active character who’s under 21 (and even a few who are older) will be affected by the decisions made in Outlawed, and they won’t all agree on whether the new world order is good or bad. But there are real, serious consequences now for those who go against the ruling passed down in Outlawed, and it’ll interfere with their lives in a way they’ve never experienced, leading to some really interesting stories.”

[tabloidtoc]

Life & Style, October 12

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Why Kim Kardashian really quit 

Page 1: Gigi Hadid and Zayn Malik announced the arrival of their first child together by posting pics of the newborn clutching her daddy’s hand on Instagram 

Page 2: Contents 

Page 4: The Top 10 Armani Prive Looks -- Nikki Reed, Renee Zellweger, Elle Fanning, Dakota Fanning, Cate Blanchett 

Page 5: Caitriona Balfe, Nicole Kidman, Alessandra Ambrosio, Zendaya, Laura Dern 

Page 6: Lori Loughlin was sentenced to two months is prison for her role in the college admissions cheating scandal but she will still be living large behind bars serving her time at a federal institution in Victorville in California that offers music lessons and arts and crafts as well as Pilates and yoga and spinning classes

Page 8: Christina and Ant Anstead’s shocking separation has taken a turn for the worse as Ant signed up to shoot a new show in his native U.K. -- the couple share a child and while Ant has promised to see their son it won’t be easy with all the traveling restrictions due to the pandemic, Jessica Simpson showed off her 100-pound weight loss while promoting the Jessica Simpson collection on Instagram, Vanessa Bryant is fighting back after her mother Sofia Laine gave a beyond hurtful interview to Univision claiming that the widow threw her out of a three-bedroom home in Irvine that the late Kobe Bryant gave to her 

Page 10: The Week in Photos -- To celebrated National Teddy Bear Day Jennifer Garner recreated a childhood photo with her beloved stuffed animal TBear 

Page 12: Miley Cyrus performs on The Tonight Show, Nick Cannon with the Giraffe on the Masked Singer premiere, celeb panelists Constance Zimmer and Ross Mathews and Jerry Ferrara snapped a selfie on the set of Match Game 

Page 14: Kristen Taekman in a New York Jets bikini in Malibu, Jonathan and Drew Scott at Disneyland with their older brother JD, Gilles Marini with his dog Mila 

Page 16: Stars Behaving Badly -- Candace Cameron Bure and husband Valeri Bure grabbing her breast, Jessie James Decker read her cookbook wearing nothing but a hat and heels, Zoey Deutch flashed her middle finger at the camera 

Page 18: Say What?! Wendy Williams on entertaining herself while trapped inside during the COVID-19 crisis in NYC, Sharon Stone on remaining a sex icon as a sexagenarian, Millie Bobby Brown on the hairdos of her Stranger Things and Enola Holmes characters, Jason Sudeikis on waiting weeks to share his first kiss with Olivia Wilde, Demi Lovato on mastering her culinary skills now that she’s moved into a house with a nice kitchen 

Page 20: Demi Lovato and Max Ehrich wedding on hold 

Page 21: Nicole Scherzinger and Thom Evans have been dating for less than a year but she has already brought up tying the knot with the former rugby player, Halle Berry’s hot new romance with singer Van Hunt, Romance Report Card -- Megan Fox, Hilary Duff, Kristin Cavallari 

Page 22: Cover Story -- Kim Kardashian breaks her silence -- tension with her family as well as with husband Kanye West spurs Kim’s reality TV exit 

Page 26: Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky hanging by a thread -- as their 10th anniversary approaches Chris and Elsa are at odds 

Page 28: 2020′s most shocking sex scandals (so far) -- Emily Ratajkowski makes assault allegations, Cheer’s Jerry Harris arrested, Denise Richards and Brandi Glanville hook up?

Page 29: Jada Pinkett Smith admits to romancing another man, Chris Evans’ NSFW post 

Page 30: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s new reality show -- Harry and Meghan prepare to give an unprecedented look at their lives 

Page 32: Who Lives Here? Teresa Giudice 

Page 34: Entertainment 

Page 35: Star Review -- Cheryl Burke, As Seen On-Screen -- Sofia Vergara work a black corset top on America’s Got Talent which is Agent Provocateur’s Emilia Corset for $845

Page 37: Beauty Crush -- Julia Garner 

Page 38: Beauty Beat -- treat your tresses -- Olivia Culpo 

Page 40: Diva or Down-to-Earth? Yolanda Hadid has a green thumb -- down-to-earth, Justin Theroux cleans up after his dog -- down-to-earth 

Page 41: John Legend and Chrissy Teigen and their kids shop of groceries -- down-to-earth, Naomi Watts commands a glam squad -- diva 

Page 42: Social Stars Posts of the Week -- Cindy Crawford and daughter Kaia Gerber, Kevin Hart and wife Eniko, Henry Cavill and his dog Kal 

Page 43: Anderson Cooper and son Wyatt, Jennifer Aniston, Luann de Lesseps, Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman 

Page 44: Horoscope -- Libra Bella Hadid turned 24 on October 9, They’re Not Together But They Should Be -- Virgo Cole Sprouse and Cancer Selena Gomez 

Page 46: Made Ya Look! Olivia Culpo 

Page 48: What I’m Into -- Lindsay Arnold 

[momestuck]

Let’s read Hiveswap Friendsim - volume 10!

We’re over the halfway mark. Nineteen friends. This time, Of Faraway Lands and Nearby Pals.

Our trolls are going to be...

These two.

Incidentally, I haven’t commented, but every troll select screen has a different drawing when you mouseover the troll. Usually they’re just the same troll with a light shining on them, looking more enthusiastic, but you gotta see Tegiri’s one...

In addition to the Jojo-like art style, that’s the katakana character ゴ ‘go’ repeated. For some reason, katakana is commonly used over hiragana for sound effects in manga, such as laughter. So yeah. We’ve finally found the mall katana guy mentioned waaaaay back in Polypa’s route!

Oddly, while ‘Tegiri’ would be valid romaji (although not, I checked, on lists of Japanese names I could find... I wouldn’t want to guess at a pseudo-’translation’, there’s a few possibilities), ‘Kalbur’ is decidedly not, and would be turned into something like ‘karuburu’ if it was transliterated into Japanese. That might be significant...

But that’s as far as my rudimentary Japanese knowledge can take me. We’ll come back to Tegiri shortly. First of all, it’s...

...beloved The Magic Roundabout character, Zebedee!

I really hope that’s not a coincidence.

Zebede

Zebede is the third and final troll by Magdalena Clarke, author of Vikare and Elwurd. Well, I enjoyed Elwurd, so that’s a good sign... hopefully...

This begins with getting a chittr notification. God, push notifications, am I right?

The name suggests we’re going to deal with the bees that made Sollux’s ‘mind honey’, granting goldbloods fantastic powers. (The game seems to have decisively chosen ‘gold’ rather than ‘yellow’, so I will defer to this.)

Who is this new friend? It seems to be someone who knows Cirava...

Their speech quirk seems to be using z in place of s, but not always.

Zebede invites us to download a video chat app...

Surprisingly, this does not result in our phone getting inducted into a botnet. Apparently the app we downloaded is called ‘grype’.

It’s weird to have so many Skype jokes given that Skype has pretty much given way to other messaging apps, at least in my experience...

He’s really excited to hear about how we know Cirava, and we tell him. He lets on rather unsubtly that he’s lonely and would appreciate a visit. Apparently he lives a long way out, for the sake of the bees.

We get our first choice...

Honestly no idea which one is the instant death option here. Probably asking if it’s really fine, but the ways we die are so random in this game, who knows?

Let’s go with asking where he lives.

We mention we went out to visit Skylla in the countryside, which leads him to... more self-deprecation. Wow, this guy sure is insecure.

And he decides like... we’re not really interested in visiting him. ‘A wall has been raised’, as the game puts it.

Dude, no wonder you don’t have friends.

OK, well, that was a short branch. Let’s try asking about his living situation and his lusus, whether it’s really fine.

Ah yes, play on his feelings of resentment. Get him to complain and wheedle in that way. That’s our narrator.

This guy’s face is so... pointy... I don’t have much commentary to add.

This leads us to a non-choice of saying we’ll go visit him immediately. This seems like a really healthy, non-manipulative friendship we’ve got going on here.

Apparently Zebede’s got some of whatever concentrated loneliness and fetishisation of friendship our narrator is suffering.

The narrator goes through a few friends to try and figure out who to get a lift from... and after rejecting Tagora, Amisia, Zebruh (oh god no), taxis and public transport, they decide the only option is to do crimes. Hey, I can get behind it.

By crimes they mean, finding an unlocked car and nicking it. Unlike Konyyl, they can’t punch locks off.

Apparently we know how to turn on the auto-pilot in a troll car. Not sure when we figured that one out!

Fittingly, Zebede’s hive is full of bees.

Inside, too, it’s a nice rustic bee farm.

We get a text message from... Cirava, it turns out. I wonder what they want...

We have the choice of ignoring it or letting it go to voicemail. Wow, we’re getting a lot of phone calls in this episode! Let’s try chatting with Cirava, maybe we can invite them over and all chill here...

It’s nice to see Cirava again. The protagonist’s weird obsession with collecting more friends instead of spending time with the ones they’ve made is highlighted...

What’s up with that?

The matter of Cirava’s clothes comes up.

Oh right so that’s what happened to Cirava’s clothes... I honestly forgot.

Anyway, Cirava’s a little worried when we say we’re hanging out with Zebede, who they know by chittr handle if not by name. They are worried that we’re tight, and we say we’re working on it.

Called out!

Anyway, Cirava warns us about getting too close to Zebede, and links... his fanfiction. OK, sure. It turns out to be... RPF. Of Cirava.

Oh dear, we’re gonna get into the RPF discourse in this episode, huh? That is something I generally want to stay a long way away from.

Anyway, Zebede comes back while we’re reading one of his fics.

That sure is an expression.

Anyway, when we explain that Cirava linked this, Zebede decides we’re not prioritising him after all, and clearly Cirava is more important than him.

I’m really not sure we want to be this guy’s friend.

He breaks down crying at the perceived slight of mentioning that we have other friends.

The protagonist starts feeling like a dick. There’s a poke at the blurry line between inner monologue and spoken dialogue on the protagonist’s part...

But anyway, that’s that for Zebede’s route.

So, how do we actually befriend this guy? Trick seems to be to pretend we care about literally nothing other than him, I guess. So let’s go back and ignore Cirava’s grype call.

Instead of answering the call, we work on our chittr profile. God, that’s hard enough irl, let alone when you’re on an alien planet...

So, we assure Zebede that we weren’t about to take a call in the middle of a hang sesh, and he starts showing us some pirate films. Then, switches to space pirate films. Poor guy’s really thrown for a loop by our indecisiveness.

The narrator is sympathetic, but unhelpful. Honestly narrator, just pick something. Fake some enthusiasm. If you really want to be friends with this kid...

We suggest watching the last thing he watched on grubtube. Which... seems like a shitty suggestion to me, since like, if it’s the last thing you watched...

But to Zebede, that seems to be something much worse.

You promise you absolutely won’t judge him. We may regret this.

Mostly, it turns out to be videos of Cirava. Yeah, we get it, he’s got a crush.

He shows us some music videos of a group called hatched2dance. I’m guessing this is a KPop (or perhaps JPop) parody, especially given the whole RPF angle...

Honestly like I probably couldn’t stand this guy in real life but I have some sympathies for his whole awkward gay teenager reading fic thing.

Anyway, seeing themselves reflected in Zebede prompts some reflection in the narrator.

The narrator has kind of a freakout on realising how offputting they’ve been - that they’ve been ‘a big phony’.

We’re saved from an existential crisis by someone showing up to reclaim their scuttlebuggy.

The narrator decides they should probably go out and face the music before this troll carves their way into the hive. This wins over Zebede even harder.

We learn that Zebede’s psychic power is... controlling bees. Using the bees, they drive off the troll outside.

And so we chill with Zebede, and the protagonist takes notes on ‘not being such a desperate piece of shit’.

We’ll see if this whole change of heart actually lasts.

The Alternian text in the picture says ‘ALTERNIA K-POP ALL-STARS’ in the Hiveswap version of the alphabet. Just in case you had any doubt what videos he’s into.

Tegiri

And now... time for things to get anime. This is the debut of David Turnbull.

The protagonist notices the edges of sunrise, and concludes they need to make a friend before daybreak. At that moment, someone accosts them.

Tegiri also gets chiptunes, in common with our other anime troll. I think it’s a remix of one of the tracks elsewhere in Homestuck. But it could easily fit in with a genuine 8-bit game.

Reassuringly, Tegiri concludes that since we’re an alien not a troll, he doesn’t have to cull us.

His typing quirk is that he replaces the letter ‘L’ with slashes.

And his character trait is, sure enough...

HUGE WEEB. Though, glass houses, stones, etc....

Naturally, the initial instant death choice is...

Unusually, we get three choices.

I can assert with 100% confidence that if I click anything other than ‘subs’, I will be executed by katana. So let’s try... both are good.

He casts us out for our indecisiveness.

The Alternian text here reads ‘PATHETIC.’ The drawing here recalls a particular anime meme... after some digging I was able to identify it as a screencap of Asuka from eva:

Think this is probably from End of Evangelion? But I can’t really recall.

...god I’m not helping my case for not being as much a weeb as Tegiri here, am I?

OK, let’s try subs now.

...lol, I’m wrong. He prefers dubs. What kind of weeb is this guy?

However, even though we’re wrong on the Most Important Question, we get to come back to his hive.

We can see body pillows around his recuperacoon, an improbable number of katanas, a bunch of figurines... the text above his bed says OPPAI, which is, well... Japanese for boobs. Yeah.

If you look closely at the anime figurines, I’m sure you can identify a few.

But except for Luffy in top right, I’m not sure about the rest. Someone who knows more about anime, feel free to fill me in. Bottom right might be a machine lifeform from NieR Automata, but that seems too recent, and wouldn’t 2B be a more in-character one for him to have?

Anyway...

I like how this casually assumes that the reader knows what an otaku is, but then again who reads Homestuck without knowing that I guess.

The narration says Tegiri has sorted his merch by blood colour, which is like... contradicted by the illustration which clearly has a bronzeblood troll at the top, but who cares I guess.

This guy is just too quotable lol.

Anyway, we get to meet a lusus again. This time, the lusus is actually drawn, not just a filtered stock photo!

It’s also mildly terrifying :D

It’s called Tadashi Inu, which means... well it kind of doesn’t mean anything (‘however dog’???), but if it was Tadashii Inu, it would mean Correct Dog.

Anyway, naturally what does an anime club do but watch anime?

He’s presently in the middle of watching ‘Philosopher’s Half-Iron’, which I’m guessing is a joke about Fullmetal Alchemist? Instead, he proposes Schoolfed Heroism (BNHA maybe?) and Kismet:Stuck Morning (no guesses for this one... I’m a fake weeb).

It’s also interesting that we’re watching on DVDs. If they wanted to go full weeb, they could put in fansub jokes here... but then this guy prefers dubs to subs, so maybe he likes to buy official releases.

Naturally, we run into translation issues.

He wanted the first edition and ‘paid extra for it’. So rather than enjoy the rest of the episode, we set off to have a word with the importer...

I have to ask... how does the troll economy work? There’s hints at a capitalist economy, money is mentioned and we had the guy running the club just now, but none of the trolls seem to have jobs. They seem to just get issued money according to their blood colour?

Speaking of which, we get some comments on troll retail...

So yeah, we’re gonna find another weeb I guess.

If that’s the billboard in the background, it's too small and blurry to work out what it says, unfortunately.

He seems pretty opposed to any ‘rebel sentiments’. Which of course he discusses with the weebiest metaphors. Alternia balances on...

He goes on about katanas for a while, like he’s going down a checklist of orientalist tropes. Naturally it’s a prelude to a challenge to ‘dance’.

We say swords are cool and this gets a little rant about bushido. You know, that self-serving horseshit some guy in the late 1800s fabricated as nationalist mythology...

We arrive at the anime store.

More text to transcribe, oh joy. At the top of the store it says the name of the shop, mentioned in dialogue, ‘SUPER TOPATO IMPORTS’. Above the door behind the counter it says ‘EMPLOYEES ONLY’.  On the bookshelf full of manga it says something too squished to easily read.

Anyway, we’re having a look around, but Tegiri starts kicking up a stink.

It’s basically the navy seal copypasta, slightly modified to be more trollish.

Meanwhile we’ve accidentally knocked some anime and manga out of someone’s hand.

Still not getting these references, unfortunately.

The troll with a pink sign is apparently against troll law - ‘depiction of nonstandard hemological attributes’.

This is all going over my head at this point. The references, I mean. Obviously the text - that Tegiri is an entitled douchebag - is clear enough.

Oh, this one I get - Ace Attorney, of course.

Anyway, this is where we get a choice. Do we stop Tegiri straight up murdering someone for peddling the wrong kind of anime?

Obviously we will try. Even though this seems like a great way to end up dead ourselves.

We speak up for the shopkeeper, and manage to convince Tegiri not to straight-up kill him. This leads to... a story, of a previous time he showed mercy, in contradiction to the law.

Of course, we know who this baby - who should have been culled for lacking a lusus, by troll law - would have been. God, I’d sure rather be hanging out with Polypa than this guy.

The narrator, of course, has one thing on their mind...

We suggest that the law, and what is right, are maybe not the same thing...?

The hard decisions such as ‘do I murder this baby?’

The narrator decides they know something about bad ways to manage loneliness...

The narrator manages to divert his rant by asking about his eyes. Which are... any guesses? Contact lenses. For cosplay.

Before we can make the error of accusing him of breaking the law by cosplaying a nonexistent blood caste, who should show up but...

Oh thank god. Save us, Polypa.

Of course he says 何 nani instead of ‘what’. And as for 後輩 kōhai, that’s basically the counterpart to senpai, the junior partner in an informal hierarchy within an organisation, dictating the use of certain honorifics. If my reading of the wiki article is right, he’s using it quite incorrectly.

Polypa lets on that we’re moirails. This causes Tegiri to be a little taken aback. The narration has some fun.

Tegiri claims - despite his huge stack of body pillows and figurines - that he has no time for quadrants.

‘Were it not for the laws of this land’ is most commonly associated with a meme from a Ghanaian film, not anime, but the sentiment surely fits.

Polypa tries to talk some sense into him.

So we end up doing an anime sleepover...

The dog is saying ワンワン (wanwan), which is standard Japanese onomatopoeia for a dog barking.

The text in this screen says... ‘Ore wa kaizoku-ou ni naru otoko da!’, which is a One Piece reference, meaning ‘I'm the man who will be the pirate king!’.

So, Tegiri may be insufferable, but at least with Polypa around we can keep him more or less under control.

There’s a few more options to explore. What if we’d picked dubs, not subs, near the start? He praises our choice, but otherwise, the story proceeds in the same way. I think that’s actually the first time we’ve had branches merge.

Now, what if we let him kill the shopkeeper?

Shockingly, he’s not as much a swordsman as he makes out. And the shopkeeper, it turns out, is psychic, and zaps him before legging it.

I was under the impression that psychic abilities were rare in goldbloods, but what do I know?

We ask like... was that really necessary?

Well, he’s certainly a tool, he got that part right. (Sorry.)

We go to report the shopkeeper’s terrible crimes to the drone, but unfortunately... it seems that the protagonist has a rap sheet themselves!

They can’t pin it on us! We’re innocent!

God, the ‘everything happened’ approach to continuity is still fucking with me. Did we make friends with Remele? Did we not? Earlier, the narration mentioned making ‘between 1 and 19′ friends. What if someone didn’t obsessively explore and replay every branch? They’d be so confused!

But despite his ineptitude with a sword, our attempted escape over an overpass leaves us...

Dead.

I’m sure this shot is also an allusion to an anime meme, but I can’t say which one, so yeah.

That’s Zebede and Tegiri. Not the best friends we’ve made, but I enjoyed the chance to be a huggggeee neeeerrrd in this post. (>implying that I could be anything other than a huge nerd on my homestuck liveread blog)

[nagatsukinura119]

Analysis on Touko’s obsession to be Mio and her relationship with Yuu [Yagate Kimi ni Naru]

…

….

…..

An extremely lengthy post. Spoilers alert. You have been warned.

Well, for starters, YagaKimi is a one-of-a-kind manga, for me at least. Because this is the first time I read a manga that focuses in romance, but the main character is an aromantic, meaning someone who doesn’t experience any romantic feelings. Many yuri manga/manhwa I read so far are very “physical”, or at least very quick to become “physical” and let’s just say, overdramatic, or just too happy and easy-going. Even if there were some milder drama, the drama is too common like, the struggles of being in a homosexual relationship such as being afraid of being judged by family and friends, . And there’s also another common drama like a very uptight family or love triangles that prevent some relationships to bloom. I get that these problems are real but they’re becoming bland due to being overused. 

Let’s also talk about the art first. YagaKimi has one of the best art styles I’ve ever seen in yuri manga. While I also like Citrus’ art style, YagaKimi’s art style has a sense of innocence and more diversity in terms of the setting. In the manga, we get to see different types of settings, ranging from the school, Yuu and Touko’s houses, the camp, the aquarium, and the fateful train road railway. By being exposed to the world of the manga, we can feel more connected to the story, which I think Citrus kind of lacks. And when it comes to the character designs, I can’t help but adore the way they are drawn. While most characters’ face shapes and hairstyles/colors are more or less the same, there are still subtle differences like some have plump cheeks and some may have narrower face shapes. There’s just something in Nakatani Nio-sensei’s style that makes me say “Awww…” and melt.

(Touko always makes my heart melt when she blushes and smiles. AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH Y U SO DAMN ADORABLE!!!)

So the story mainly revolves around the main character, Koito Yuu, a freshman and a second-year student, Nanami Touko, who is a student council member. At first Touko claims that she also doesn’t feel anything when she gets confessed to. Because of this Yuu finally feels like someone is related to her. But after confessing her aromantic tendencies to Touko, Touko suddenly confesses to Yuu.

This is why I love about YagaKimi. It covers so many real things such as aromantic topics, self-loathing, and identity crisis. Not to mention the level of melancholy in the this manga is what I’ve been looking for (angst is my cup of tea!). Touko and Yuu’s relationship’s complication and trying to figure out what’s in both of their heads and predicting the ending of this manga is what makes me so invested in this series.

We’ll start with Touko first. At first glimpse, Touko appears to be your typical Student Council President-type; beautiful, kind, smart and hardworking. But it turns out this is a façade that she decided to take after her older sister, Nanami Mio, died seven years prior to the series. Throughout the series, we are told by Touko herself that when she was a kid, she was very shy, had no many friends and always hid behind someone, and to put simply; normal. Meanwhile, she saw her sister as the perfect role model, both at home and school. After Mio died, she was told by people to live for Mio’s sake and be like her. For the 9-year old Touko, who was clearly still in shock over the loss of her beloved sister, these words clearly changed her and from here she decided to stop being a nobody and then she thrived to BE Mio. 

(A flashback of Mio that greatly resembles the current Touko)

In reality, Touko is still a timid person who would shake when she gets nervous enough. However, in order to not disappoint people who have high expectations from her, and to not destroy the image that she has built over the years, she keeps putting on the mask of the ‘perfect’ Touko. While most people may think that she wants to be Mio in order to be a somebody, I think there’s a more story behind it. In a dream that Touko saw, she remembers the day when Mio was about to get killed in a traffic accident. In that dream, we get to see that while the sisters were chilling in the family living room, their mother asked Touko to buy a drink (or sauce). Acting like a regular child, Touko didn’t want to go so she and Mio decided to play rock-paper-scissors game. Mio lost which resulted her to go instead. Later Touko woke from her nap because of a constant bell ring, impending the news that Mio got into an accident. This implies that Mio died because of Touko. And I believe that Touko knows this. Out of guilt, she decides to replace Mio who was beloved and admired by everyone. At the same time, she can get rid of her own identity. Touko claims that she hates herself and I think her self-loathing began when she realized that Mio died because of her selfishness. So that covers Touko’s obsession to be someone else besides herself.

Why Touko falls in love with Yuu was a very big question mark to me. Why Yuu, and why now? In Touko’s mind, she wants to be special to everyone because that’s when people praise her. But when people start to confess to her by saying something like, “I love that about you” which translates to her, “If you stop being like this, I won’t love you anymore”. Automatically she feels that if she stops wearing the ‘perfect’ mask, anyone who confesses to her would be disappointed with the real her who is a nobody. We covered from the first chapter that Yuu just can’t feel excited over romantic confessions. It’s not that she’s willingly disinterested, she just can’t and doesn’t know how. Because of this, she can’t find anyone special romantically. To Touko, this makes Yuu seem the nicest person because Yuu wouldn’t judge or discriminate her if she doesn’t have to wear the mask of perfection because she knows that Yuu won’t love her. One may think that Touko only sees Yuu as someone who she can vent out her feelings to, but not because of love. I can’t blame anyone for thinking this way because there is one time when she does treat Yuu like a friend with benefits (without the sex, of course). This happens in chapter 28 when Touko feels extremely stressed that she wasn’t acting like Mio perfectly and her own best friend tries to talk her out of it. She turns to Yuu and tries to kiss her for comfort. Not really a cool move there. But I think that Touko really does genuinely love Yuu. We can see it a lot of times throughout the story where we get to see how much she would do for Yuu, such as asking for a cheesecake recipe from Yuu’s sister Rei, after knowing that she loves cheesecakes, and in the same chapter we can see Touko fangirling when Rei shares a picture of Yuu sleeping (Rei is the best Touko supporter lol).

Now, onto the more complicated part of Touko and Yuu’s relationship. While Touko has made it clear that she loves Yuu to the point she just casually says “I love you” to her. This is pretty hypocritical from her side because she doesn’t want anyone to love her because the word itself acts like shackles to her. And she is doing the same thing to Yuu. In chapter 10, she tells Yuu to stay by her side, don’t fall in love with anyone else and don’t come to hate her. To put it simply, she wants Yuu to only stay with her, but don’t fall in love with her because she can’t stand with the idea that someone that she loves is in love with something that she hates: herself.

For Yuu’s part, as we progress through the story, we get to see her feelings towards Touko develop and change. At first she believes that she is only being nice to Touko simply because she’s too sympathetic to everyone, and not because she finds her special. But as the story progresses, we get to see Yuu’s way of thinking start to shake a bit. After Touko leaves her house, Yuu states she does want to fall in love with her. Right after this, she tries to tell herself that she doesn’t need to fall in love with Touko because it’s not she was lonely. But in chapter 10, her monologues have more conviction that she wants to love Touko. 

But before she can even say these things to Touko, Touko tells her that she would rather die than being told that she can be just herself and she can stop from being Mio. This forces Yuu to say this:

But from these panels we can see how it hurts Yuu to say this. Because at this point, she can’t love Touko NOT because of her inability to feel romantic attractions, but more to she can’t afford to love Touko. This clearly is very painful to Yuu since she has always wanted to experience the excitement of being in love. As this scene goes on, Touko makes her promise to stay by her side without falling in love with her. Yuu knows that if she rejects, Touko would be separated from her, so she agrees to do whatever Touko tells her to do. Then in chapter 22, Yuu tries again to convince her to stop being someone else, only to face Touko’s stubbornness again. What’s interesting is that near the end of this chapter Yuu intercepts her own monologue for the first time.

Many of her monologues act more like self-assuring sentences, sentences that she tries to convince herself to believe. This can especially be seen in chapter 31 by the end of the play, Yuu’s monologue where she says Touko would be fine without her, thinking that Touko has accepted to just embrace herself, she keeps on repeating that it is a good thing. When she reads Sayaka’s line “I was special to you” and then shaking her head, to me is like her telling herself to let Touko go if Touko does learn to be herself which would mean that she feels she is no longer needed by Touko. Another example would be chapter 16, where she keeps convincing herself that the way she finds Touko’s unconditional love is nothing special and that the fast heartbeat she hears is Touko’s, and not hers. It is like implying that she denies herself that she loves Touko. 

It seems that she is afraid to even admit to herself of her own feelings because she’s afraid that she would succumb to her feelings eventually. However, by the end of chapter 22, Yuu finally finds something she really desires; to change Touko. For someone like Yuu, who has always been the type of person who’d just get along with the flow, this is a life-changing thing to do. Here, we can see how Touko has changed her and she doesn’t hate it whenever they kiss or when Touko gets close to her.

While at this point Yuu and Sayaka share the aspect to not admit how they really feel to Touko because they’re afraid of how their relationship with her would change, I like the fact that unlike Sayaka, who is afraid to tell Touko that her obsession is a bad thing, Yuu wants to change Touko to stop hating herself and embrace the fact that people accept her for the way she is, and things that they do are for her, and not Mio. And we agree to this because what Touko does is self-destructive since she would be lost once she finishes what Mio couldn’t do when she was alive; the school play. Touko herself knows this as she questions herself in front of Mio’s grave.

What to predict:

At this point I can’t think of how the story is going to progress. After the play finishes, Touko tells Yuu this:

Now, I’m not so sure what this line actually means. It could mean that now that the play is over, she doesn’t have to replace Mio anymore, but her relationship with Yuu can still go on. The reason why I think this is what the line means is because of how Yuu takes the line positively as she now thinks that Touko can go on without her. And there’s also the fact that Yuu is holding the crutches that Touko used in the play. In a way, she herself has been acting like crutches for Touko. And the fact that she’s holding onto them as Touko walks away is like an allegory that Touko no longer needs her crutches aka Yuu. So perhaps there’s an incoming angst for upcoming chapters as Yuu tries to deal with being no longer needed by Touko.

 While the play’s ending implies that Touko may have embraced the idea to accept her true self and stop becoming someone else, and while I think this could be an interesting turning arc for the series and development for the story, I don’t think Touko is ready to embrace herself like the character in the play. She’s just too stubborn for that and I think she still needs more push to stop her obsession. It is something that she’s done for years and it’s not going to just disappear in a snap. Also, I don’t think Touko’s going to stop relying on Yuu yet. She makes it perfectly clear that now that she knows how it feels to be in love, she’s not going to turn back. Also, when Yuu refused to kiss Touko, she looked extremely broken, like her only emotional line was snapped, and the only thing that was ‘real’ to her was rejecting her.

(Just look at how BROKEN and EMPTY she looked like after being rejected by Yuu)

[theseadagiodays]

April 13, 2020

Interstices

Definition: an intervening time or space

Synonym: Aperture - an opening or gap

Gap - a space or pause between two things

Pause - a suspension of movement or activity

Space - a continuous area or expanse which is free and available

Whether our rhythms have slowed or accelerated in this moment, we all currently sit at an interstices.  A place in time between what came before and what comes next.  An uncomfortable spot for most of us, because humans habitually seek certainty.  But this time is also an opening, an opportunity where we can be free to explore new ways of being.  A time to suspend old habits, and invite shifts in perspective.  In some schools of Buddishm, they have a term for such in-between times.  “Bardo is an intermediate, transitional, or liminal state between death andrebirth.  A state of great potential for liberation, since transcendental insight may arise with the direct experience of reality” Wikipedia

But most of us resist making space in our schedules because it gives too much room to look at the bold truth of our lives.  Like the clear expanse of a mirror, this time is revealing much that we need to remember, but also much that we don’t want to see.  The decreased GHG’s from limited transport have clarified our skies and caused animals to rapidly return where humans had previously dominated.  The gardens we’d neglected are being tenderly tilled.  And the friends we’d forgotten for decades are reaching out to reminisce.  But the work that does not feed our souls, or the incessant self-deprecating thoughts, or the spouse who irritates us (speaking generally of course), or the wallpaper we regret having bought, all glare us in the face daily and force us to reflect on our real priorities and desires.  However, all at once, this can be too much for us to take in.

I remember a Vancouver talk, on my birthday in 1998, where the Tibetan monk, Chogyam Trungpa said it amazed him “how much North Americans busied their lives so as not to know themselves”.    If this is true, it strikes me that in order to assuage our fears about looking at the skeletons in our own empty closets, perhaps we can try to look at space entirely differently.

In music, space or silence can be incredibly potent.  Violinist, Isaac Stern describes music itself as “that little bit between each note—the silences which give the music form.”  One of my favorite composers, Arvo Part is a master of silence.  The pauses in many of his halting melodies require the listener to become an active participant - to fill the space with their own interpretations,  just as we can do during this time.   His Psalom for strings is a mesmerizing example of such writing.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-Ssbik_dmY

Visual artists have also created substantive beauty from negative space. The images below play with absence and presence, illustrating that our perception can entirely shape what we choose to see.  Similarly, if we can stretch our understanding of what is currently missing from our lives to recognize the space this allows for other things to present themselves, it may fortify our patience and acceptance with the way things are.

But if none of this brings solace during challenging times, and we still need to cling to hope, we can remember that, invariably, after rest always comes activity.  Bamboo is a prime example of this, as noted in this proverb about the slow but mighty grower, “the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps, the third year it leaps.”

So, if we emerge from COVID anything like North America emerged from the 1918 flu epidemic, maybe we can finally look forward to an era where flapper dresses come back.  I know that I’d personally find the next Roaring Twenties a welcomed resurgence.  

April 14, 2020

Finding Stillness in Uncertainty

For hours last Tuesday, in a persistent drizzle and strong wind, I wandered my neighborhood aimlessly with a broken umbrella, mourning the shut restaurants, scared faces, and unhugged friends I hadn’t seen in weeks.

But today, the air is still and warm, and the scent of pregnant magnolias saturate my senses while I bathe in birdsong.  

Photo by my friend Cheryl’s 12-year-old son, Noah

Such is the mercurial nature of life in this pandemic.  Still, as best I can, I try to walk my talk.  Be the master of my own attitude.  Contribute where I can.  Live mindfully and gratefully.  But some days this is much harder than others.  However lately, Vancouver’s unseasonable summer weather has made this infinitely easier.  As someone who suffers from seasonal effective disorder, and who’s had a love/hate affair with my rainy though lush city, it makes me realize how important it is to find conditions condusive for optimal living. With the improved weather and a large park right behind my home, I am enticed to greet each morning with a slow, present-minded walk.  A moving meditation.  

I have also been grateful for the opportunity to lead weekly guided meditations for my husband’s work team.  His colleagues are front-line workers of a different sort.  They run our local transit system which is still critically needed by those who must continue to work in public settings, or who do not have the privilege of their own vehicle.  But with covid-fear and enforced social distancing measures, Translink is losing $3 million a day in ridership fees.  So, they are under enormous stress to adjust their service plans, make difficult decisions about lay-offs, and continue to try and plan for a very uncertain future.   However, it heartens me to know that people who find themselves even more work-burdened during this crisis still recognize the need to slow down, even for brief moments, in order to be more productive later. So, I thought I’d share a recording of one of these sessions, which people can follow at home.  It is less than 15 minutes long, just short enough to carve out of any day but still possible to dramatically alter your nervous system.

https://youtu.be/x2fjRvBB6x0

And finally, this poem by Martha Postelwaite speaks to the gifts stillness can bring.

Do not try to save the whole world or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing in the dense forest of your life and wait there patiently, until the song that is your life falls into your own cupped hands and you recognize and greet it. Only then will you know how to give yourself to this world so worth of rescue.                       -   Martha Postlewaite

April 15, 2020

Timely Artists’ Responses

I am normally a minimal social media user.  However, ironically, my Facebook and Instagram feeds have been my saving grace during this period.  This is probably helped by the fact that, over the years, rather than racing to accumulate friends, I have mostly only followed those people in my life who I trust to direct me to moments of grace and beauty.   Consequently, many of the links in this blog have come from my own community of thoughtful, kindness-oriented, arts-minded friends and family to whom I’m hugely grateful.

Some of my friends are the actual creators of these daily doses of inspiration.  Like my Toronto-based buddy, Lorne Bridgman (https://lornebridgman.com), whose in-demand work has graced the covers of En Route (Air Canada’s in-flight magazine), Monocle, and Travel & Leisure.  (A coup for us, since way back in 1997, we were probably the only people who ever landed him as a wedding photographer). Fittingly, his stirring nighttime images of abandoned playgrounds during the pandemic tell a very powerful story.

I have been keeping my own mental ledger of these “never before corona” scenes (like our yellow-taped playgrounds) which I observe every day.  The most striking of these I captured with my iphone just yesterday.  These four beachcombers appear to be metred-out models of social distancing with their perfectly proportioned pose.

Artists the world round are similarly documenting this time through a variety of expressive mediums.  Below, are a few of the most creative that I’ve discovered so far.

The New York Times delivers again, with 17 Artists Capture a Surreal NY from their Windows

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/04/16/nyregion/coronavirus-nyc-illustrators-window.html?action=click&module=Editors%20Picks&pgtype=Homepage

Katherine Lam, Queens, NY

Or this Beijing-based British map artist, who instead of his elaborate filligried-illustrations of sprawling urban areas, now maps what’s between his four walls.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/gareth-fuller-maps-coronavirus-quarantine/index.html

Globally, graphic designers have also used their talents to advocate, provoke, or amuse: https://www.dezeen.com/2020/03/18/coronavirus-covid-19-graphic-design-illustration/?fbclid=IwAR3bUYBwSkCtlj_yhlDkvUtGOFBDBJGMYXiDl3do74Gqm4JdHbkxTET48H8

Oliver Jeffers, beloved Irish children’s author and illustrator

And for 80’s kids like me, this new release, No Time to Love Like Now, from an old fave, REM’s Michael Stype, sends a sparsely-layered musical message from his home studio that feels highly appropriate for the times:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=MYgpEcXf2S4&feature=emb_logo

Finally, as I’ve stretched my social-media muscles, I confess that I’ve even ventured to Twitter and Tik Tok at times.  Most of us over-30 have probably been oblivious to the phenomena of social-media influencers, like the 15-year-old "reigning queen of TikTok", Charli D’Amelio, whose whether-you-like-it-or-not, down-to-earth appeal and smooth moves have charmed 48 million followers! But, as vacuous as many of her make-up tutorials have been, she is now using her reach for good with her originally choreographed Distance Dance which, for everyone who posts their own #distancedance video, will trigger Proctor & Gamble to donate to one of a variety of non-profits feeding those most vulnerable and hit hard by the virus.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS6913bBVek

April 16, 2020

Home Cooking

I truly believe that we all have an “inner artist” if we just find ways to tap it.  But it saddens me to hear how quickly many people say they have “no talent”.  Creativity is not magic.  It’s what humans have harnessed since time immorial to survive, adapt, and thrive.  Creativity also increases exponentially when there are constraints on our resources. The elegance of a haiku is a pure example of this.  Limited to just 5, 7, & 5 syllables per line, this simple container lends itself to essential and beautiful nuggets of expression accessible to all.  Here’s a timely one from the #quarantinehaikus project that I mentioned earlier:

I’m in quarantine But all my ideas are not. This month, they happen.

Similarly, another creative pursuit that has most given humans a window into their own creativity is the culinary arts.  Sure, for some their adventures as gourmands consist of little more than ramen, canned tuna, a boiled egg and Dijon mustard for a pantry version of Julia Child’s Salad Nicoise.  But quarantined living is certainly inspiring more imagination in the kitchen than usual. Though this expression may be overused, “necessity is the mother of invention” has perhaps never been more universally true.  However, if you’re trying to limit your grocery trips to once per week, and your mind happens to draw a blank when you open your cupboard, here are dozens of recipes that you can try with what you might likely already have on hand:

https://cooking.nytimes.com/topics/self-quarantine-recipes

My own constant culinary muse is my great friend, Belkis, whose Instagram page, Epicurious Travelista (below) is a visual and delectable treat.  Most of her images include recipes.  And while they might look elaborate, and sometimes indeed they are (this is a woman unafraid of churning her own butter, or making her own tortillas from scratch), her resourceful Honduran roots influence many exquisite meals that she makes from only a few simple ingredients.  So, for those wanting to spread their chef’s wings a bit wider, you can check out her page here:

https://www.instagram.com/epicurious_travelista/

April 15, 2020

Zoom Masters

Of course, Zoom has been the victor and the enemy in this digitally-dependent time, both allowing multi-generational families to share seders, while at the same time stealing private details from citizens.  But one can not deny that the extent to which people have exploited this format for good has been inspiring.  I’m biased towards the musical collaborations that the format has spawned.  But don’t be fooled.  This technology, designed for one-speaker-at-a-time, does not render performances like the one below, easily.  Each frame has to be recorded separately (with consistent click tracks, to keep everyone in time), and then carefully edited together in post-production. These are highly stylized efforts. And this one takes it to another level with its choreographic complexity.  So, while I wish everyone to have a weekend where they can Get Down, Stay Down, here’s a treat to enjoy:

https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/8/21213608/coronavirus-zoom-music-video-thao-and-the-get-down-stay-down?fbclid=IwAR3PIGg8lcGMLgQrJGISDcjrRbcy3eQG2XI-sqbc-BOGs5f8s5PNRPf54H4

[chicagoindiecritics]

New from Robert Daniels on 812 Film Reviews: AFI Fest [Reviews]: The Cave, Alan Pakula: Going for Truth, and Desert One

It wasn’t my intention, but at AFI Fest: with films examining Black love, injustice, and outer space—I discovered three documentaries about grief, each occurring in the space of three separate decades. These films demonstrate AFI Fest’s recommitment to critical documentary filmmaking, and they show us at our best, even when we’re usually at our worst.

Nosocomephobia: the fear of hospitals, isn’t uncommon. A dread seeps into the psyche: What could go wrong? But I doubt if many have visited the doctor’s office with fear of a bomb dropping over their heads—knowing they’d have to seek shelter in a series of claustrophobically constructed caves. Not to belittle such anxiety, but they do in Syria. The Last Men in Aleppo filmmaker Feras Fayyad returns with a harrowing story of a team of doctors who represent Syria’s last line of medical defense in The Cave.

While much of Eastern Ghouta has evacuated, amongst the destruction Dr. Amani Ballour and her colleagues hold firm. Because of such, they’re constantly inundated with shredded bodies—victims of the bombing campaign in the country. With limited supplies, they’re often left without answers. Instead, they must adapt and perform at their best. When they lack anesthesia, they use classical music to calm patients during invasive operations. When they dine, the doctors eat popcorn and try to imagine it’s cake instead.

As a woman, Dr. Ballour is constantly questioned by her male patients and even her father through his voicemails: pleading with her to return home and to her garden. She courageously leads this team, holding them together amongst a torn apart terrain of medical emergencies. In the face of war, the religious power structure has been upended: women aren’t stuck to tend the house. The team must also contend with their own PTSD and frayed nerves. Whenever a war plane buzzes overhead, they naturally duck. Sometimes they have a gallow’s humor about the perilous affair, but they’re scared. And yet everyday they return to work, even when they’re unsure if they’re making a difference.

Their powerlessness stems from taking shelter in the subterranean web of caves whenever a war plane flies dangerously close. It’s their only defense. And when Russians turn to chemical warfare, the doctors have even less answers. In a tidy 95 minutes, Fayyad demonstrates why he’s one of the most important documentarians of his generation, recording a tragedy that the world would rather look away from. The Cave like the region, shouldn’t be ignored.

Grief never truly stops, not for those left behind. Harrison Ford can barely form words, squinting away tears when speaking about his friend Alan Pakula. The famed producer and director who shaped works like To Kill a Mockingbird, Sophie’s Choice, Klute, The Parallax View, and All the President’s Men—died suddenly in 1998 when a metal pipe on the Long Island Expressway broke loose and pierced through his windshield. The freakish accident left a cavernous creative hole for loved ones and admirers like Matthew Miele. As a tribute, Miele creates a loving eulogy for the famed director in his poignant documentary Alan Pakula: Going for Truth.

Initially, Going for Truth diagrams the life and personality of Pakula. In a scene like the 1970’s, made up of celebrity auteurs like Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Brian DePalma—whose names mean as much on the marquee as their actors—the Sophie’s Choice filmmaker didn’t seek the limelight. Many wouldn’t recognize Pakula if they were sitting beside him. And yet, he directed and produced immaculately fashioned pictures. He also crafted incredible barrier-breaking roles for women, taking a keen interest in developing fully realized female characters. Scores of former friends and associates share memories pertaining to the director, like Jane Fonda, Alec Baldwin, Jane Alexander, Jeff Bridges, Dustin Hoffman, and the aforementioned Ford. Fonda in particular credited Pakula with her incredible performance in Klute.

Each eclectic figure demonstrates the enormous impact the beloved director had on them personally and creatively. Furthermore, interviews with his relatives also shape the emotional tenor: describing how Pakula diverted from sports and more “manly” pursuits condoned by his father, to a life in art. His widow Hannah Boorstin and stepchildren also recount personal remembrances of him too.

And while Going for the Truth certainly serves as a tribute to the legendary director, when employing archival interviews, the documentary becomes a masterclass. With the central takeaway being: filmmakers don’t make movies as Pakula did anymore. They often over-cut when editing, lacking the patience for the inherent drama and emotion of the scene to evolve. The internal psychology of characters rarely flourish in today’s pictures, but they did in his. Part of such is due to Pakula’s unique style, his personal passion for psychology: his hunt for the cinematic. In a discourse taking apart what constitutes cinema, Alan Pakula: Going for Truth is a necessary balm, a touching memorialization of a visionary talent.

On Nov 4, 1979, the Muslim Student Followers of the Imam’s Line stormed the US Embassy in Tehran taking fifty-two hostages. Throughout America’s history, there exists arcs of unbridled confidence and a crisis of conscious: the difference between the idealized visions of World War II and the tragedy of Vietnam. The Iran-hostage crisis marks the latter, and led to one of the most audacious rescue attempts in United States history. The legendary director of Harlan County, USA and Miss Sharon Jones!, Barbara Kopple returns with the incredible and emotionally devastating Desert One—a portrait of heroism even when there’s no clear victory.

Kopple’s newest film sees her return to the politically charged narratives of her past. Moreover, one shouldn’t confuse Ben Affleck’s Argo (2012)—detailing the successful rescue of the Canadian embassy employees—Kopple follows the American ordeal. Desert One features interviews with both the retired Delta Force tasked with saving the hostages, and the former student revolutionaries who stormed the embassy protesting against the brutal dictatorship of the Shah of Iran. She charts the 444 days of the crisis, which witnessed the collapse of Jimmy Carter’s presidency and the creation of a team of special forces soldiers formed for the aforementioned incredible plan.

Anyone with a basic grasp of history knows that the code named Desert One mission ended disastrously. Soldiers flew into Iran during the dead of night, armed with eight helicopters and two refueling planes. They were land on a remote dirt road, board trucks, drive to where they believed the hostage were being held, and then fly out using the helicopters. The plan held multiple moving part, with very little hard intel to back up some of the assertions. At one point, the soldiers are reduced to watching Dateline for solid intelligence. Many believe the mission was a stunt, an politically ailing Carter taking a major risk with American lives in a feigned attempt of being re-elected. Kopple doesn’t parse through that theory with the depth required for the subject. Though, who could blame her? She only had twenty minutes to interview Carter.

Nevertheless, her documentary is actually eulogy to the soldiers. On the fatal night of 24 April 1980, the assembled Delta Force team were given a “Go.” Though they had doubts of the mission success, they still wanted to try. Within a span of few deadly hours, they lost three of their eight helicopters. Needing to abort, in their confusion, a helicopter crashed with a pane, resulting in the deaths of several soldiers. Worst yet, to evade capture they had to leave the bodies of their fellow American soldiers behind. In one poignant clip, days later, children are playing on the blades of one of the fallen choppers. The scene recalls Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down, a film about another debacle.

Even so, Kopple’s Desert One isn’t about failure. It demonstrates the valor in trying. Because unlike America, the soldiers that night didn’t experience a metaphorical defeat. They witnessed real grief; the event still drawing tears and anguish from them to this day. And Kopple, in the midst of their mourning, finds the greatest of intimacy in those who’ve lost the most. Desert One is a fitting memorial of courage, even in the face of insurmountable odds.

from 812filmReviews https://ift.tt/2rzx5uk via IFTTT

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2QV1BcA via IFTTT

[bhtum1595world]

Glynn Griffiths my wonderful friend, a friend as close as a brother, my touchstone                     in all matters of life, has died. Glynn was 67 and leaves behind his                beloved daughter Georgia and Annie his soulmate.

Glynn at my book launch in the Hoop and Grapes pub just off Fleet Street, London, May 2016

  Glynn had just started out on the next stage of his eventful life. He had his sculpture studio in Cheltenham where he made so many of his impossible dreams involving mother-earth and man-made come to life.

Glynn Griffiths Art Exhibition at the Parabola Art Gallery, Cheltenham, England. Work by the artist Glynn Griffiths ( seen in blue shirt, long hair ).

Glynn Griffiths Art Exhibition at the Parabola Art Gallery, Cheltenham, England. Work by the artist Glynn Griffiths ( seen in blue shirt, long hair ).

He recently bought a campervan before buying ‘Haddie’ his beautiful house boat moored at Hebden Bridge. For the first time in many years he had his entire ‘Art Book’ collection out of packing cases and on shelves waiting to be read….in short Glynn was chilled out and happy.

Glynn Griffiths with his daughter Georgia at his Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths with his daughter Georgia at his Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

I knew Glynn for nearly 30 years since he came to this country from his native South Africa with his wife Annie back in the mid 1980’s. He came from Jagersfontein a small town in the Free State and trained as a photographer on the Cape Times. Although his yearning was for the Veldt of South Africa, he was a British subject, and proud of his family roots in South Wales.

  Glynn in the Canary Wharf Indy offices in the 1990’s

  Glynn was an established photographer of some note in SA and upon arriving in London he had little trouble getting photographic assignments from the British press based then in Fleet Street. He started ‘shifting’ for the London Evening Standard while living with Annie in a campervan parked up on the South Bank in the centre of London. Before long a photo editor recognised Glynn’s ‘artistic photographic’ talents and suggested that his style of photography would be more suited to the newly launched ‘Independent’ newspaper.

Glynn was taken aboard the fledgling ‘Indy’ first as a freelance and then onto the staff. He covered the usual gamut of assignments for a daily national newspaper: portraits, hard news, overseas stories and soft features.

Following the Kings Cross fire tragedy where over 30 people died Glynn made one his most definitive images of Kwasi Afari Minta, who was severely burnt but survived. The picture won Glynn a first prize in the prestigious World Press Photo Awards.

Kwasi Afari Minta

In 1988, he covered the Clapham rail crash close to his then home in south London where 35 passengers died. His powerful picture was the first to cover the entire front page of the paper, Glynn had well and truly arrived and made his mark. He became known for his quiet observational intelligent photography and was trusted to make ‘something’ from nothing. In October 1989, he was sent to cover the San Francisco earthquake where over 60 died and thousands were injured. During just a matter of hours on the ground he produced a fine coverage resulting in a front-page news picture and a back-page photo spread.

Glynn covered the transitional elections in Namibia and South Africa. He spent time on Mount Athos communing with the monks and making a fine set of quiet contemplative images there but perhaps Glynn’s most recognised and almost certainly his most favoured photograph was of Nelson Mandela at his final election rally in Cape Town during the first all-race South African elections in April 1994.

Nelson Mandela photographed by Glynn and published by Gerry Brakus in The New Statesmen in 2013

  Glynn was one of the sweetest most charming of men in the tough world of news photography. He made friends with most that he met…I have never heard a bad word against the man, few can be as well liked in our business.

Glynn Griffiths on the left, with on the back row, David Sandison, myself Brian Harris, Mykel Nicolaou, and Guy Simpson and Lauries Lewis in front…photographed by my son Jacob S. Harris at the Kalamzoo Club in London.

Photograph of Glynn with his Independent Newspaper photographer friends at one of our London based memory lane evenings. L-R: Back row unknown, Nick Turpin, John Voos, Glynn Griffiths,member of the band,Craig Easton in glasses. Front row: Laurie Lewis, Brian Harris, David Sandison, Kay Richardson, Guy Simpson and Tom Pilston…photographic selfie made by precariously balancing my very expensive Leica M9 on a wine bottle.

A charming quiet evening in an Italian eatery in Camden, London with Laurie Lewis on left, Glynn Griffiths, Guy Simpson and John Voos…I’m behind the camera

Glynn and John Voos catching up at yet another photographers night out in London

Independent Newspaper Foreign Desk 30th Anniversary Party at The Frontline Club, Paddington, London. 6 October 2016

A collection of photographs showing Glynn top left at the 30th Indy Foreign desk bash at the Frontline Club, with David Sandison at my book launch, at a gallery gig in east London where Glynn showed off his major piece made from nails and scorched wood and meetin’ and greetin’ at yet another opening…

After leaving the Indy in the late 1990’s to once again pursue a freelance career Glynn took up freelance picture editing and left London with his family to live in Cheltenham.

Glynn Griffiths Art Exhibition at the Parabola Art Gallery, Cheltenham, England. Work by the artist Glynn Griffiths

Specimen 1101, Beech, polypropylene rod, pyrographic markings at the Parabola Art Gallery, Cheltenham, England. Work by the artist Glynn Griffiths 

Glynn Griffiths Art Exhibition at the Parabola Art Gallery, Cheltenham, England. 

Glynn became frustrated with the limitations as to what he could achieve visually just by using a camera…photography per se began to bore him, photography was merely the means to an end and the end became the motive for Glynn’s next endeavour.

In his early 60’s Glynn went back to school…to Wimbledon College of Arts where he studied for an MA in Sculpture. His work involving ‘mother nature and handmade product’ was challenging to the uninitiated. His references were the deserts of his homeland in South Africa, he was excited about dry bones, a feather, a scrap of wood or iron weathered by the elements which he used in assembly’s contrasting with Perspex, cable ties, nails and hardware bought from his local store.

He sold several pieces, one piece made to order for a client in America and more through various galleries in London and Cheltenham. In the mid 2000’s he was awarded the Clifford Chance prize and exhibited in their Canary Wharf offices receiving much praise for the scope of his work.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

Glynn Griffiths with his daughter Georgia at his Exhibition-Growth, ‘Gravity & Balance’ at The Horse Box Gallery, 50 Grosvenor Hill, London.

  In the mid 2000’s when both Glynn and myself were going through our own personal crisis we both talked our problems through with long conversations as he commuted by motorway from Cheltenham to London…I called them our M4 chats. We started a photo-exchange where once a week we would make a photograph, print it and write something on the print about our thoughts for that day. We kept this going for over two years and I have over 100 original Glynn Griffiths photographs and drawings all signed and annotated…some of my most precious possessions.

      I asked Glynn to help me photo edit my auto-biographical book in 2014-5. We spent several days in the cold of my garage going through hundreds of proof prints before getting my selection down from and unmanageable 2000 images to an almost manageable 3-400 photographs.

Glynn editing down the thousands of images to a manageable 400 plus for my book…we finally got it down to less than 200.

Some months later myself Glynn and designer Professor Phil Cleaver spent many 18 hour days and nights moving images and words around on screen and in hard copy before finishing my project at the printers. Not a bad word was said, not an argument, just complete calm…without Glynn I would still be shuffling my work about completely lost in the confusion of editing.

Glynn and ‘pooch’ editing Brian Harris’s book ’…and then the Prime Minister hit me…’ with Professor Phil Cleaver of et-al Design

Glynn at Geoff Neal Printers in Feltham, west London checking the print quality

  Glynn had many who loved him: fellow photographers, editors, photo editors, his family and friends in South Africa, his drinking pals in Cheltenham, Glynn was not a drinker – preferring a half pint of beer or a glass of red wine with some good conversation and fine home cooking

Glynn Griffiths enjoying our wonderful Lasagne and several bottles of Montepulciano at our home in Thaxted…watched by his new best friend, Thelma

Glynn mellowing in our home with Thelma…the other cat

  …Glynn was the arch polymath, he was a photographer, an artist, a sculptor, a cartoonist, a photo editor

  Some of Glynn’s wonderfully dry wit showing through in his cartoons

  …he could mend things and make things… only a month ago producing a fantastic sculptural piece consisting of a hill of bicycles that occupied a roundabout in Cheltenham to celebrate a Round Britain Cycle Race.

Glynn was just so many things…he was in fact a renaissance man through and through, with his ‘hippy’ clothes and ponytail, his grey beard and funny hat.

 Striking a pose as W.G. Grace

Only a couple of weeks back he came down from Hebden Bridge in his motorhome to help me celebrate my 65th birthday in Southend-on-Sea with my partner Nikki and my son Jacob. We enjoyed the ‘best fish and chips in the world’ and walked the ‘prom’…we enjoyed the penny arcades and Glynn was happy.

Glynn with Nikki, myself and my son Jacob in Southend-on-Sea for my 65th birthday…on the prom prom prom…and in the penny arcades…September 2017

He followed us home to Thaxted and we spent the night putting some red wine away and the world to rights…in the morning I cooked breakfast, bacon, toast, eggs and baked beans. Glynn asked me why I stored my tins of baked beans upside down in the store cupboard. I replied that if the tins were upside down in store, when you opened them the beans were at the lid end and they all came out in one hit rather than having the hunt the last of the beans out with a spoon. He thought that was one of the most wonderful of ideas and in his last text to me a few days later he thanked Nikki and I for our hospitality but most of all he thanked us for showing him how to store his baked beans, he said it’s always wonderful to learn something new at 67!!

On the morning of the 16th of September I helped Glynn pack up his campervan with a case of Adnams Claret and a couple of large A2 size photographic prints from me to him as a present for all his hard work on my book. He said he was finally going to get around to reading it now he had the space and time. He drove out of the car park in Thaxted en route to the Tate Britain in London where he could park up for the weekend for free…and that was the last time I saw him.

  My dear friend Glynn, I will miss you so much but I am privileged to have known you…you lovely gentle guy. RIP.

      My friend Glynn Glynn Griffiths my wonderful friend, a friend as close as a brother, my touchstone                     in all matters of life, has died.

[mondofunnybooks]

The thing is, come 2006, funnybooks just weren't very Funny.

Not intentionally, anyway.

Of those of us who once read Dave Sim's opinion piece in Hero Illustrated that suggested all ongoing superhero comics are best read as some kind of Rodney Dangerfield routine, then comics were doing their outright best to be utterly hilarious.

Infinite Crisis attempted to fix the Continuity as if the history of Fights N Tights were some kind of sacred text that required updating in case serious questions were asked on how Batman could possibly be fighting crime if his book debuted during World War 2 because that would put him in his 70s! Superboy-Prime also debuted in that series, apparently meant as an Evil Mary Sue by DC Editors rather miffed at this invention called 'The Internet', which would allow readers to voice their thoughts on comics they'd paid for. We regard Superboy-Prime as our spirit animal.

Civil War was a Very Serious Effort to marry the themes of military abusing power in an attempt to detain terrorist suspects by having Iron Man throw people who wouldn't reveal their secret identity to the world into another dimension. This would be followed a couple of years later with an analogy for Guantanamo Bay and the new distrust for Muslims brought about by the events of the 9-11 strikes. (mainly featuring green aliens from space pretending to be Jarvis The Butler. And possibly Ant-Man. We forget. )

Oh, Elektra turned out to be a Skrull as well, so that was good, but sadly Marvel wouldn't go as far as to say that literally every appearance of Elektra that wasn't written by Frank Miller was actually Skullektra.

Meanwhile, Marvel punished retailers the world over for a plot point being revealed on a comic news website by not sending their main purchaser preview copies anymore. Because what every comic retailer dreads is being denied the opportunity to order more Marvel stock.

So, yes, an absolute plethora of material worth parodying and humbugging to go mad over, panic trumping a desire to be sick and crazy over the whole madhouse.

It's just that weren't many voices left to actually do the lampooning. MAD Magazine had long been defanged by it's sale to Warner Brothers decades previously, all the good writers on our beloved Twisted Toyfare Theatre had been snapped up to work on Robot Chicken, Amazing Heroes had been cancelled, Gary Groth had been less of a editorial voice on The Comics Journal for a while by that point and Harvey Kurtzman had passed away a long time ago.

I mean, there was Wizard, but they'd been shown to back off whenever advertisers had issues with their soft touch so weren't really worth mentioning in the first place unless you considered mocking comics from the 70's for not conforming to the norms of a 90's audience the very cutting edge of comedy commentary.

So imagine this writer's surprise to see a magazine advertised in possibly Comic Book Artist (Now Comic Book Creator, a magazine published by Two Morrows Press and readers are advised to get as many back issues of it as possibly. Learn how the late, lamented, iconic and possibly best comic shop in London, otherwise known as Comic Showcase, was probably responsible for League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen being published!) called 'Comic Book Nerd'.

Comic Book Nerd appeared not to be mucking around. Preview art offered educated attacks on modern comics anatomy, the hilarity of the notion of the superstar comics artist, the soulless pandering of publishers to flippers desperate to try and find an investment in recently published titles, the pomposity and pretension of the highbrow small press comics scene...

We'd not seen such an articulate and educated assault on the hand that feeds it since the last time Evan Dorkin published an issue of Dork! and obviously we were instantly in love. As with anything worth reading, we ordered extra copies in assuming that the readership were more than capable of the self awareness needed to laugh at itself and would take the book in the humour intended.

Suffice to say, we may have overestimated our audience. It's worth noting we have enemies who have never forgiven us for finding the issue of Legion Of Super-Heroes where small aliens in beanie hats kill Sun Boy by barbecuing him on a spit and then eating him to death one of the funniest comics ever published. We live in fear of having our flight ring revoked by Arm Fall-Off Boy* at any minute.

Having been blown away by Pete's ability to change style based on the assignment rather than forcing every brief to fit into one over practised, over swiped and under referenced aesthetic like 95% of comic artists, we looked on further into his works and discovered the gorgeous 'Morbid', published by Dark Horse but good luck finding the damn things, a love-letter to both horror movies and EC Comics in a knowing but funny writing style married with fumetti plus lots of very silly special effects. Very much recommended to fans of things like 'The Goon', 'MST3K' or anyone who thinks Vampira was way cooler than Wonder Woman could ever be.

Here at MONDO FunnyBooks we don't really do hero worship and fear at the sight of celebrities anymore. Especially in comics because we've seen most of them throwing up in a pub toilet but even we were slightly frightened when sending a friend request to the Powerful Pete Von Sholly. We stuttered the timid words 'Hello Sir your comic was dead good can we be friends please?' and somehow we ended up learning about his most recent project: LOVECRAFT ILLUSTRATED which is currently on Kickstarter with only a few days to go. We'll turn over the description to him. (Text taken from his Kickstarter page.)

'In 2014 Ramsey Campbell introduced me to Pete Crowther of PS Publishing and I proposed a DREAM-QUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH book with my illustrations sprinkled throughout- He liked it, we did it and then he suggested we do ALL Lovecraft that way in a series of books under his PulpS imprint. I have collected all the art form those along with many sketches and single pieces that are Lovecraft-centric into Pete Von Sholly’s Lovecraft Illustrated. Here is some background about me and HPL.  

Context is everything, so in order to say something about me and Lovecraft I need to lay some out: One fateful late 60's afternoon I was sitting in study hall (tenth grade, age 16 or so and supremely bored) looking through the Modern Library omnibus volume entitled "Great Tales of Terror and the Supernatural". The final two stories in the book (as if they saved the best for last) were by somebody called H.P. Lovecraft; they were “The Rats in the Walls” and “The Dunwich Horror”.

The name Lovecraft was vaguely familiar.There were glancing mentions in Famous Monsters and paperbacks with his name on them in those pages but there were no Lovecraft movies yet so I had no idea what to expect. I read “The Rats in the Walls” first. it was a fairly short story but I experienced a delightful jolt unlike anything that I could get from all that I was familiar with.

There were horrors aplenty; hordes of ravenous rats, hideous nightmares, ancient underground grottoes leading off into infinite subterranean darkness and pocked with giant pits full of sawed and chewed bones of humans and things not altogther human and finally a man who went mad and tumbled down the evolutionary scale to embrace his ancestral cannibalistic form of nourishment... but, and maybe best of all, many hints of things just beyond the reach of the light- including something called "Nyarlathotep"... Hints which were even more exciting and pleasing than the overt horrors.

“The Dunwich Horror” was next and it was all over when I finished that one. I had been introduced to the Necronomicon, Arkham with its Miskatonic Library, Yog-Sothoth and so many key Lovecraftian entities and conceptions which were new to me. And it excited my imagination- and made me want to draw what I was imagining.'

For those interested, The Kickstarter is the link. See Ya in the Funnypages, Mondo Maniacs!:

*We have lied about many things in our lives but we could not make up Arm Fall-Off Boy on our best day ever.  Look him up if you don't believe us!

https://www.kickstarter.com/…/pete-von-shollys-…/description

[tabloidtoc]

Closer, September 14

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Carol Burnett’s family heartbreak -- another tragedy at 87

Page 1: Contents 

Page 2: The Big Picture -- Sally Field as The Flying Nun 

Page 4: The Beatles and Elvis Presley -- new details of their historic meeting 

Page 6: Hellos & Goodbyes, Ellen Pompeo on Grey’s Anatomy 

Page 8: Picture Perfect -- Rod Stewart and his wife Penny Lancaster took a romantic gondola ride through the Venice canals 

Page 10: Heidi Klum and her dog Anton, Drew Barrymore and her rooster, Michael Strahan and his dog Enzo, PLEASE ADOPT, DON’T SHOP! 

Page 12: Eva Longoria and her son Santiago in the pool 

Page 13: Alec Baldwin in a wig and daughter Carmen, Mario Lopez and son Santino, Gabrielle Union and daughter Kaavia in the pool 

Page 22: Little House on the Prairie -- secrets from the set -- the actors who grew up on this beloved family drama share their favorite memories and never-before-told stories 

Page 24: Princess Diana’s secret love -- her former butler recalls how she finally met her soulmate Dr. Hasnat Khan and why it ended 

Page 26: Fats Domino -- remembering a rock ‘n’ roll pioneer -- his children recall a family man who never forgot where he came from 

Page 31: Spot the Difference -- Kelly Clarkson on America’s Got Talent 

Page 33: Horoscopes -- Virgo Hugh Grant turned 60 on September 9 

Page 34: Entertainment -- Drew Scott on Brother vs. Brother, In the Spotlight -- Lucy Lawless 

Page 36: Movies

Page 37: DVDs, Books, Music -- Seth Avett on The Avett Brothers new album The Third Gleam 

Page 38: Television 

Page 44: 5 ways to exercise at home 

Page 46: Eva LaRue -- love and loss and finding happiness -- the star on overcoming tough times and staying positive 

Page 50: Cover Story -- Carol Burnett -- inside her family heartbreak -- a new crisis has driven the star to demand custody of her grandson 

Page 54: Penny Marshall’s personal treasures for sale -- the star left behind a quirky collection of art and objects and more 

Page 56: Style -- trend alert: geometric bags -- Sienna Miller 

Page 58: My Life in 10 Pictures -- Sean Connery 

Page 60: Flashback -- guitar girls, Star Trek, cycling shorts 

[julietstrope12-blog]

Understand That Lifestyle Is Not A Straight.

Five Reasons gel Prevails In USA.

Hey there, and welcome to the formal internet site for Thought Bubble - a yearly celebration that celebrates sequential craft in each its own kinds, and happens every November at sites across Leeds and also beyond! Education non-profit remains energetic in addressing demands from Dallas children: tightening option gap; decreasing summer months knowing loss; as well as marketing social-emotional knowing. We developed an uncomplicated, online gateway for educators to discover courses or even field trips that support their scholastic targets. Some kind of government intervention could be actually needed in examples like this to take cognisance from the decrease in undesirable traffic in significant areas, towns, etc

5 Strong Proofs Why gel Misbehaves For Your Career Progression.

I was actually a business person in my project, despite the fact that I was actually worked with by somebody else! Instructor Vikram Patel In numerous communities, individuals really feel that mental illness may be coped with by tightening your waistband as well as being actually tough. Strong African literature exists in several fields which must come to be an essential aspect of curricula.

Clothing is actually less costly in comparison to it was actually a handful of century ago in terms of clothing's relationship to wages. Picture Comic books Retail store Event// Live Events// 1300. They could perform very suggestive things with images that would fade away ... they can add impacts and emoji's to communicate exactly how they were actually feeling ... This was a better substitute to call and messages as well as this developed a whole brand new acquired industry that showed up of apple iphone as well as Android. After-school systems, summer months plans, family members reading time, pre-school, as well as weekend day trips amount to 6,000 hrs from knowing that these trainees don't get by Sixth grade. Several types from entrepreneurship do not bring about riches, as well as however they are actually no much less entrepreneurial. The thing concerning water however, is that this does not have the drama from other human emergency situations like the expatriate crisis, the Ebola all-natural or even wide-ranging disasters. Past these core courses, pupils are actually demanded to have pair of training courses at the 300 or even 400 level cross-listed or offered in the United States Researches Plan. Our survey consequently examines violations to the liberties of association, look and assemblage, as well as independence of idea, conscience, faith or view, to show how non-religious folks are protected against coming from, or even maltreated for, revealing their atheist concepts or even humanist values. Mircea Eliade Distinguished Service Teacher from Background of Faiths in the Godhood Institution, Social Notion, and South Asian Languages and also Worlds, as well as in the College. It can interfere with whatever around the business economics of the web if there is actually a way for companies to go straight to those consumers. Crucial aboriginal African education as well as expertise.

The Main reason why Everyone Affection gel.

Style has played an energetic part fit our understanding of comics, be this as a condition to define the tool on its own, or the stories that they tell. If you beloved this informative article and you desire to obtain more details about just click for source generously check out our site. DaVerse: DaVerse is a communicated term plan that assists senior high school and also middle school trainees locate their voice as well as show themselves artistically. Notion Blister is a not-for-profit company that looks for to ensure proficiency as well as creative skill-sets through the medium of consecutive art. As a business owner, John built a greatly prosperous mobile telecoms company, which, over the course of around Two Decade, he increased to become some of the best prosperous organisations in Britain. In uncultivated society, something of the gathered knowledge is handed down by spoken word. . Prof Juan Méndez The debate traditionally has actually depended primarily on the derogatory nature of the practice of abuse. That is actually why I feel that addressing kerbside air pollution by doing this is actually something that needs to be engaged in. That corrects, the world's 2 preferred witties podcasts citation required are partnering to deliver you an online extravaganza with amusement, tears, rage, pain, delight as well as some very unique guests! Much of the G20's 34 commitments to Africa released given that 2009 could, having said that, just have actually been discarded in the rubbish loads of the a variety of G20 capitals practically just before the ink had actually dried out on these worthless pieces of paper. In reality, the main reason that Obama would go down in the record from past history as the first African United States to utilize the White Home was actually, over everything, regarding him fulfilling the individual ambitions that his overdue father had actually cannot understand. The Project seeks this goal by engaging students with courses as well as training programs as well as by working together with a stable of associated academic units.