#but then they made the EU tour and came to us themselves??? i was not prepared i was so not prepared

[smimon]

fr i'm having fomo rn because people keep saying hä is giving great hugs

(sending a lot of hugs to u, they are not as good as hä ones but well idek if you are in need for one, even virtual one)

💛

What do you mean fomo, guy is very much alive and one day you might get a chance for a hug from him too? 😅 but also I guess I felt something similar for the whole summer tour so yeah, fair ✌️😔

Thank you for the hugs 💛💛💛 sending some right back at ya 🫂🫂🫂

[elsewhereuniversity]

Kitty's Cat

It was unusual to carry a stuffed animal around with you at college, but, then again, Elsewhere University itself was unusual. She earned the nickname “Kitty” during her first dorm floor meeting the Sunday before classes started, after she carried her old, ratty, stuffed cat with her throughout the entirety of the campus tour that seemed to go on for far longer than the small campus should need. 

It was lucky she had earned her nickname so early, her RA told her.

“It’s best to never answer to your real name while you attend this school,” her RA said cryptically. “And, no matter how much people tease you for carrying around that animal,” here the RA gestured to her kitty, “never put it down. You never know what might pick it up.”

So Kitty took her stuffed cat to class with her every day. And when she began making friends, she took her cat to their library study sessions and their after class picnics on the grass. They always left some grapes out for the crows: a safe way of saying thank you. Kitty slept with her cat, of course, and, when she showered, she made sure to put it on the chair in the stall next to her folded towel. 

Kitty heard the whispers from her friends, about the not-people in the swimming pool and the library trips that turned into searches that lasted years before the student came out, no older than they had been when they were lost. She also heard tales of the forest, and she knew she was supposed to keep her pockets full of salt and leave out coffee creamers for Them, but she couldn’t help it if she forgot sometimes. It was hard enough trying to pass her classes when her Biology teacher seemed to change every day and her American History professor seemed to have too much of a knowing glint in their eye when they went over the Civil War. 

Her friends that weren’t directly in her major dropped off throughout the years, murmuring to themselves about how weird it was that she was never Taken, never even Touched, even though she never followed the rules, and she was an English major with an emphasis on Poetry to boot. Kitty never dated; she could never find someone who didn’t find her stuffed cat a little off-putting, or at least that’s the excuse an otherworldly attractive senior with strangely slitted eyes and a few too many teeth gave her after they had been talking for a few weeks her junior year. She sat in nearly empty poetry classes as everyone always seemed to be absent for some reason or another. If her professors found it odd that she was often the only one in her classes, they never commented on it. Kitty was just happy she got the one-on-one assistance with her poetry. 

Kitty may have wanted adventure when she was a freshman, learning Elsewhere’s tricks with the same awe she felt when she watched Peter Pan for the first time, or read Percy Jackson. Over the years, however, as her poetry friends began to be Taken one by one and only occasionally Returned, she began to feel grateful for what she had. She couldn’t afford to lose another friend to Them, so she stopped trying to make new ones. Kitty kept her head down and went to class and studied in her room that used to have a roommate and never once put her stuffed cat down.

She watched from her cat’s side as her four and a half years (she missed the deadline to register for a class one year because she needed permission from a department head who had disappeared for a week along with their entire building) slid by, and, suddenly, it was time for her to graduate. 

Kitty walked around the campus one last time the day before graduation, saying goodbye to the buildings she had called home. She rounded the corner of the English building, intending to go up the steps and sit on one of the older-than-time benches in the foyer, when she ran smack into someone.

“Oh! I am so sorry,” Kitty exclaimed from her new position on the ground. She looked up into the eyes of-

“It’s fine,” Jenny, Kitty’s freshman year RA, replied, her eyes darting around wildly, now noticeably more haunted than they had been four years ago. 

“What are you-” doing here, Kitty had been about to say, since she knew Jenny was supposed to have graduated almost two years ago, but Jenny cut her off.

“What day is it?”

“Uhh… Thursday?” Kitty began to stand up slowly, automatically reaching for her stuffed cat and cradling it with her left arm. 

“No, no,” Jenny shook her head wildly, “I mean, what’s the date? What year is it?”

“Oh, oh,” Kitty suddenly understood, and she told her the current date and year. 

“Good,” Jenny said, nodding decisively, “then I bargained well. I’m back before anything happens. And, look, I’ve run into you! Just the person I’m looking for!” Jenny’s wild look faded as she zeroed in on Kitty, seeming to realize who she was for the first time since their exchange began. 

“Jenny, what do you mean?” Kitty asked. “Were you… Taken?” Kitty didn’t have a lot of experience with people who had been Taken. The people in her poetry classes that had been Taken came back… different. They always seemed to shy away from her, even if they had once been close friends.

“Yes, Taken, that’s a good word for it,” Jenny bobbed her head up and down a few more times than strictly necessary, and grabbed Kitty’s arm. She spoke with some difficulty, as if she was in pain from touching Kitty, and dragged the student up the stairs behind her. “Come with me and, whatever you do, don’t drop that stuffed cat.” 

Jenny led Kitty through a series of hallways in the English building Kitty was sure she had never been down before. She could feel a low thrum of unease as they traveled deeper, seeping in from her left side, where she cradled her cat against her body. The passageways transitioned from the comforting, friendly plaster of the normal school hallway into brick and mortar that slowly grew more and more crumbling, until finally it felt almost like Kitty was walking on dirt. By that point, it was too dark to see, and all Kitty could do was allow Jenny’s arm to guide her deeper into the darkness. She had no choice; there was no way Kitty would be able to get herself out. 

They stopped so abruptly that Kitty ran into Jenny’s back. She drew in a breath to ask one of the many questions teeming in her mind, but Jenny’s hand got there faster, covering her mouth so she was unable to make a sound. 

“Shhhh!” Jenny quieted Kitty. “Let me do the talking.” Jenny removed her hand from Kitty’s mouth and released her arm from her grip. 

Suddenly, Kitty could see. No, not just see. Kitty could See. With her newfound Sight, Kitty took in the dirt walls around them, glowing softly with small string lights, Their lights. There was a cluster of Them across the room, earthen in their forms, tall and willowy but somehow also robust and strong. They were a collection of contrasting silhouettes; all at once fluid and moving with a core of iron–er, steel. For the first time since coming to EU, Kitty felt afraid. She was so scared, she could almost feel her stuffed cat trembling against her side.

“Where are we?” she whispered, staring wide-eyed at the ceiling, which was closer to their heads than she would like, with tree roots hanging down every several feet. 

“We’re Under,” Jenny replied grimly, turning to face the Beings in the corner.

Read Part 2 Here!

x

[arcticdementor]

Well, it’s about to happen all over again. I’ve been wondering how soon a certain marriage of convenience in contemporary cultural politics would come messily apart, and now we’ve seen one of the typical warning signs of that impending breach. Those of my readers who are concerned about environmental issues—actually concerned, that is, and not simply using the environment as a convenient opportunity for class-conscious virtue signaling—may want to brace themselves for a shock.

The sign I have in mind is a recent flurry of articles in the leftward end of the mainstream media decrying the dangers of ecofascism. Ecofascism? That’s the term used for, and also generally by, that tiny subset of our society’s fascist fringe which likes to combine environmental concerns with the racial bigotries and authoritarian political daydreams more standard on that end of modern extremism. If you’ve never heard of it before, there’s good reason for that, but a significant section of the mainstream media seems to have taken quite an interest in making sure that you hear about it now.

…

The first thing I’d like to point out to my readers here is that, as already noted, ecofascism is a fringe of a fringe. In terms of numbers and cultural influence, it ranks well below the Flat Earth Society or the people who believe in all sincerity that Elvis Presley is a god. It’s one of those minute and self-marginalizing sub-sub-subcultures that a certain number of people find or make in order to act out their antinomian fantasies in comfortable obscurity, and enjoy the modest joys of being the biggest paramecium in a very, very small pond. It’s fair to say, in fact, that the chance that ecofascism will become a significant political or cultural force in your lifetime, dear reader, is right up there with the chance that the United Church of Bacon will become a major world religion.

So why is this submicroscopic fringe ideology suddenly on the receiving end of so many faux-worried essays in important liberal newspapers and magazines, and in the corresponding end of social media and the public blogosphere?  The reason, I’d argue, has to do with something else that’s been finally receiving its own share of media attention.

…

That is to say, counting up all its direct and indirect energy costs, this one conference had a carbon footprint rivaling the annual output of some Third World countries—and you guessed it, the point of the conference was to talk about the menace of anthropogenic climate change.

…

At this point, in fact, one of the current heartthrobs of climate change activism, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, refuses to fly anywhere because of commercial air travel’s gargantuan carbon footprint. Sensibly enough, she travels through Europe by train, and her rich friends have lent her a sailboat to take her across the Atlantic for her upcoming North American tour. This would be bad enough if Thunberg was an ordinary citizen trying to raise awareness of anthropogenic climate change, but she’s not—she’s the darling of the Davos set, a child of privilege who’s managed to parlay the normal adolescent craving for attention into a sizable cultural presence.  Every time she takes the train, she adds to the number of people who look at the attendees at the Sicily conference mentioned above and say, “So what about your carbon footprint?”

That, in turn, is fatal to climate change activism as currently constituted. For years now, since that brief period when I was a very minor star in the peak oil movement, I’ve noted a curious dynamic in the climate change-centered end of environmentalism. Almost always, the people I met at peak oil events who were concerned about peak oil and the fate of industrial society more generally, rather than climate change or such other mediacentric causes as the plight of large cute animals, were ready and willing to make extensive changes in their own lives, in addition to whatever political activism they might engage in. Almost always, the people I met who were exclusively concerned with anthropogenic climate change were not.

…

To some extent this is common or garden variety hypocrisy, heavily larded with the odd conviction—on loan from the less honest end of liberal Christianity—that if you feel really bad about your sins, God will ignore the fact that you keep on committing them. Still, there’s more to it than that. Some of what else is going on came to the surface a few years ago in Washington State when a group of environmental activists launched an initiative that would have slapped a fee on carbon. As such things go, it was a well-designed initiative, and one of the best things about it was that it was revenue-neutral:  that is, the money taken in by the carbon fee flowed right back out through direct payments to citizens, so that rising energy prices due to the carbon fee wouldn’t clobber the economy or hurt the poor.

That, in turn, made it unacceptable to the Democratic Party in Washington State, and they refused to back the initiative, dooming it to defeat. Shortly thereafter they floated their own carbon fee initiative, which was anything but revenue neutral.  Rather, it was set up to funnel all the money from the carbon fee into a slush fund managed by a board the public wouldn’t get to elect, which would hand out the funds to support an assortment of social justice causes that were also helpfully sheltered from public oversight. Unsurprisingly, the second initiative also lost heavily—few Washington State voters were willing to trust their breathtakingly corrupt political establishment with yet another massive source of graft at public expense.

…

If you haven’t heard of these followup studies, dear reader, there’s good reason for that. They argued unconvincingly that everything would be just fine if only the nations of the world handed over control of the global economy to an unelected cadre of experts, under whom the institutions of democratic governance would be turned into powerless debating societies while the decisions that mattered would be made by corporate-bureaucratic committees conveniently sheltered from public oversight. (If this seems familiar to those of my readers who endure EU rule just now, there’s a reason for that:  the state of affairs just described has been the wet dream of Europe’s privileged classes and their tame intellectuals for quite a few decades now.)  That’s the usually unmentioned reason why The Limits to Growth fielded the savage resistance it did:  a good many people in 1972 recognized it as a stalking horse for a political agenda.

…

In the same way, the mere fact that certain people are trying to use climate change as a stalking horse for unrelated political agendas doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to dump trillions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, or that doing so won’t cause epic disruptions to an already unstable global climate. Mind you, anthropogenic climate change isn’t the end of the world, not by a long shot; the Earth has been through sudden temperature shifts many times before in its long history, some of them due to large-scale releases of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere—that’s one of the things really massive volcanic episodes can do, for example.

Attempts to dress up climate change in the borrowed finery of the Book of Revelations—sinners in the hands of an angry Gaia!—have more to do with our culture’s apocalyptic obsessions, and with the desires of ambitious people to scare others into signing on to their agenda, than with the realities of anthropogenic climate change. That said, we can expect a good solid helping of coastal flooding, weather-related disasters, crop failures, and other entertainments, which will take an increasingly severe economic toll as the years go on, and help drive the declines in population and economic output mentioned a few paragraphs back. Yes, this is one of the things The Limits to Growth was talking about when it predicted the long slow arc of decline ahead of us.

The problem faced by the people who have been pushing climate change activism is that their political enemies have found a very effective way to counter them:  they can point out that the people who babble by the hour about the apocalyptic future we face due to anthropogenic climate change don’t take their own claims seriously enough to walk their talk. Thus the attendees at the environmental conference on Sicily mentioned earlier can no longer count on having their planet and eating it too—or, more to the point, they can’t count on doing so while still convincing anyone that they ought to be taken seriously. This is hard on certain delicate egos, and it also makes it hard to keep pursuing the agenda mentioned above while continuing to lead absurdly extravagant lifestyles propped up by stunning levels of energy and resource waste.

There’s a simple solution to that difficulty, though:  the celebrities, their pet intellectuals, and the interests behind them can drop environmentalism like a hot rock.

That’s what happened, after all, in the early 1980s. Environmentalism up until that point had a huge cultural presence, supported by government-funded advertising campaigns—some of my readers, certainly, are old enough to recall Woodsy Owl and his iconic slogan, “Give a hoot, don’t pollute!”—and also supported by a galaxy of celebrities who mouthed pious sentiments about nature. Then, bam!  Ronald Reagan was in, Woodsy Owl was out, John-Boy Walton and John Denver gave way to Gordon “Greed is Good” Gekko and “material girl” Madonna, and the Sierra Club and the Friends of the Earth had corporate executives on their boards of directors, and did everything they could think of to deep-six the effective organizing tactics that got the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, and a galaxy of other environmental reforms enacted into law.

…

I think we’re about to see the same thing happen to climate change activism, and one of the symptoms of the approaching swerve is the sudden flurry of mass media publicity being given right now to the tiny fringe phenomenon of ecofascism. Over the months ahead, I expect to see many more stories along the same lines all over the leftward end of the media and its associated blogosphere, insisting in increasingly shrill terms that anyone who pays too much attention to the environment—and in particular, anyone who expects celebrity climate change activists to modify their lifestyles to match their loudly proclaimed ideals—is probably an ecofascist. In fact, I would be very surprised if we don’t see a series of earnest articles in the media claiming that believing in ecological limits is racist; such claims are already being made in the blogosphere, and their adoption by the mainstream left is, I suspect, merely a matter of time.

[kyuala]

monsta x in são paulo (19.07.19)

hey y'all this post is to tell my experience during my concert and hi touch event of the we are here world tour last friday night 🤩 so buckle up bc its a LONG ONE but i divided it into categories so u dont have to read everything if u dont want to!

the concert in general: ok so the concert was ABSOLUTELY AMAZING. there were about 7 songs i didn’t really listen to a lot or liked before the concert but even those were amazing and had me jumping and screaming and going crazy. they’re all SO much more beautiful irl which is like !!!!!!!!! HOW. and they’re so so SO talented all the choreos were incredible and their voices!!! sound even better irl. hyungwon asked minhyuk to sing a little bit of play it cool acapella for us and his voice 😭😭😭 so sweet it’s like honey. they brought hero back to life which was. an experience to see live tbh. i got to the venue line at 9:30am (10.5 hours before the concert) and i was about maybe 15? rows away from the stage (bc i had to go pee real quick as soon as they let us inside) but im like 158cm (5'2) tall so even tho i was standing on this little protection thingy to be taller i still couldn’t see them that well :( i dont think i saw any choreos in full bc of that but it was still amazing to see them do it irl. they all introduced themselves in portuguese during the first ment it was super 🤩 adorable! most of them only said “oi, eu sou ___” (“hi, i am ___”) but some of them had longer phrases prepared (maybe kh, jh and ck? i believe) which was so awesome to see!! during the second ment, hw talked about how some of their songs were composed by their own members and he did that to introduce “our maknae’s song” (aka mohae) and my soul left my body. after jealousy there was the first vcr which was like a youtuber au vcr and it was so!!!!! cute hyungwon, minhyuk and wonho giving us styling, skincare and exercising tips respectively, jooheon making a burrito he named "honey-to", kihyun and kyun teaching us how to make coffee and how to speak english resp and of course nunu's famous asmr mukbang 🥰🥰🥰 it was honestly superrrrr cute and funny i remember hyungwon trying to spell a word in english and just going "..........ne" after the first two letters and then kyun snickering skejdkksdk and jooheon making fun of ck for something and ck laughing the fakest laugh i ever seen in my life lmao and i also remember ki telling us to be careful about a lot of things but most of all our hearts bc he's gonna steal them 😷🤒🤕 but yes i loved it it was v cute and v funny and i loved how they were all interacting with each other even tho it was separate videos. after the unit stages, hyungwon revealed that joo had actually changed up his routine for a more samba-like beat specially for brazil 🥺 he confirmed that and we went INSANE and started showing them our own beat (a classic carioca funk "tchu tcha tcha tchu tchu tcha" that we fo with our mouths/words) and at first they were all like ??????? but then they LOVED IT and joined in on the fun. mh and kh were dancing to it the most and it was so funny. hyungwon or minhyuk then asked jooheon if he could incorporate our beat into his beatboxing and he said it was possible and then we were all just going TCHU TCHA TCHA TCHU TCHU TCHA while he was beatboxing along and he said it was difficult skdjkekddk around five or six different times they told us to take steps back and step a little bit away from each other so we wouldn't hurt ourselves or feel ill (hyungwon did it the most, he actually spotted a girl nearly fainting in the front rows and brought staff's attention to her and he only stopped talking about it/got more relaxed when they did something about it). during this same ment they talked about sn's and wh's different choice of clothing for their unit stage and said it was more daring and sexy and shownu said that kihyun actually chose those clothes for them lmao and ki said he chose them bc he knew us brazilian mbbs would love it and we were like wow. They Know we're whores love that. then someone was like "u chose that?? ur kinda conservative tho????" and ki said he's been "open-minded since birth" KDJSKFKDK rip conservative brothers but the way the lady translated it accidentally kinda made it sound that he was like. open for romantic/sexual advances and we were all like 👀👀👀 OKAY. oh also sometime during the concert one of them slipped and nearly fell doing something stupid (i think wonho or changkyun) skndkskdk the second vcr was the seven deadly sins themed and wow. the PRODUCTION. the absolute ARTISTRY of it all. wheres their oscar. it was honestly super cool but minhyuk was the only member that hadn't appeared yet and the only sin left was lust so we were all like 👁️😏 but then it said AGONY. ????????? it was kinda confusing but amazing nonetheless kyun wanted to shoot hyungwon but then he didnt bc the underlying message was that they all committed sins and blamed themselves but managed to find forgiveness by being together aw <3 a random moment that i dont remember when it happened was when kyun was speaking portuguese to us and he was trying to say "vocês querem curtir?" (which is something like "do you want to have fun?") but he messed it up a bit and accidentally said "vocês querem cu...?" which means "do you want asshole?" and we were all like BOY DKEJDKEJDIDKFKS i dont think he knows what it actually means but he corrected himself real quick and moved on to the next song 💀 for the second to last ment they tried to convince us the concert was ending (lmao) and there was only one song left, so we were all shouting "não" ("no") and they were like "we cant go??????" and we were like "no!!!!!" and they were like :/ oh well guess we gotta stay kdnskdjs they had the brazilian flag up there for some time but they also somehow got an lgbt pride flag there too for the pics??? before the ending ment kihyun said that they all have strengths, as i recall kyun's was writing cool songs/lyrics, shownu's was being fun, i think minhyuk's was having a voice like honey? and i dont recall the rest but when he got to hyungwon he just said "being very tall" and we were all like LMAO SAY SOMETHING ELSE ABOUT HIM!!!! and then he said an actual compliment lol for the actual last ment they each said goodbye to us, i specifically remember wonho telling us that the energy we had and him performing on stage for us reminded him of why he was a singer and why he had to be on stage 🥺🥺🥺 and shownu agreed 🥺 kyun(?) said even though he's going back to korea he's gonna feel incomplete bc he's leaving brazil, ki said he liked us so much he could have another 6 concerts here bc our energy would be enough to keep him going and then said something really greasy that i dont remember but obviously loved at the moment. and then they said they're coming back next year 🤩 and they told us to take care of ourselves and wait for them and come back next year (in a bigger venue, they said!) and they all had their pinky fingers up and were saying "promete" ("promise", but as in the imperative verb) to us 😭😭😭

the songs: i was going to put my videos in this post but there’s a video limit so i’m gonna post them separately later but the first song was shoot out and unfortunately i didn’t get to film any of it because i was in SHOCK that they were REAL PEOPLE and RIGHT THERE u know dkjskdkd then was hero and it was INSANE to see it live??? seeing them do the “i can be your hero i can be your man” move IN REAL LIFE????? not to be a kihyun stan but i had kihyun tunnel vision during the entirety of the song lmfao then it was trespass and the energy was INSANE everybody was going absolutely crazy to it esp during the chorus and jooheon’s “excuse my charisma"s!!! after the ment they performed party time and we had this fan project and the people in my area had yellow cellophane on their phone lights and the people in the back had green ones (brazilian colors) and we had them on during the entirety of party time bc they mention brazil in the song and it was just so 🥰🥰🥰 such a vibe! one of the only songs i actually danced to lol party time was next and also a ~vibe~ we all danced a lot to it and after it was over, during the ment, hw asked mh to sing a little of it for us and he was sooo happy to see us sing along and sing the entire chorus even after he had stopped! it was super cute to see him smile so proudly like that. and then it was the loml, my fave mx song, a booty call anthem that somehow moves my heart, miss mohae and as soon as i heard the first few beats i SCREAMED and i was the only one doing that before everybody else realized the song had already started but i didnt even have time to be embarrassed bc i was literally tearing up. honestly hearing it live was one of the best moments of my life bc i have this huge emotional attachment to the song and it was just all super special, i was screaming the lyrics at the top of my lungs and dancing and jumping and yelling. seeing kyun’s rap live was amazing and you could actually SEE how proud he was seeing so many people sing a song HE composed you know? he let us rap most of his part bc he was just in awe and wanted to see us sing it back to him. and hyungwon tried to rap jooheon’s part but he got it all messed up halfway through it was SO CUTE and jooheon had an arm around him and was BEAMING WITH LOVE the entire time 😍😍😍 everyone was fonding HARD at him. and the crowd was SO loud during the "don’t kill my vibe, i be on your way, i be, i be on your way” part it was actually deafening. i only recorded one of the choruses bc i wanted to enjoy the rest of the song but here it is! the next song was one of the other lomls, miss jealousy!!! it was absolutely STUNNING!! and yes the crowd went crazy when wonho mentioned shownu and yes that hyungwon+changkyun part IS as overwhelming to experience irl as it looks. after the youtuber vcr came the unit stages and oh. my. god  mh, hw and kh came out first and it was just. so sexy and elegant. and the vocals? 10/10 LOVED that men in suit shit. then was jooheon's and changkyun's stage and HOLY. FUCKIN. SHIT. absolutely my favorite performance of the night it was EVERYTHING to me. the energy was super fuckin cool and we were all jumping around and screaming while they rapped in sexy robes over a cool ass beat it was awesome. in the middle of the performance joo tried to flip a water bottle (???) and he actually failed lol but we were so hype we didnt even notice/care we just hyped him TF up. he later apologized for it during the next ment and the real time translator lady said "desculpa" ("sorry") and changkyun said "yeah, desgupa" immediately after 🥺 then jooheon had a drum solo which ??????? i had zero fucking idea about i was just kinda standing there in shock while he absolutely murdered that drum set right in front of our eyes. AND THEN ck came back and started to rap along to his drumming and i know im saying this a lot but it was SEXY okay i have no other words they were both in muscle tees just out there being their sexiest selves UGH. and AS IF THAT WASN'T ENOUGH then came wonho and shownu's stage and uhhhhhhh wow. SEXY AS WELL but also kinda angsty? idk but i loved it they absolutely killed it with the dance and they were wearing see through shirts and the crowd went insane. after that there were the songs i didn't listen to a lot or liked before the concert but they were all still amazing to me!! honestly, i do love u, white sugar and no reason were all SUPER cute!! AND THEN. miss myself came on and oh my god. it was a spiritual experience to see it live. absolutely amazing and breathtaking even though it's so simple. like it's just so elegant and moving. i had to close my eyes a couple times to feel the moment and it was an amazing sensation. also!! a few girls gave us free banners to lift after kihyun's high note and they said 주변을 돌아봐 내겐 다 너니까 꿈이 아냐 (shownu's line, "turn and look around, because you're everything to me this isn't a dream") and it was SO emotional to see a sea of these red banners showing them our love!! 

it was amazing AND THEN. dramarama oh my god it was so freakinggggg cool! to see the performance live, jooheon milly rocking right in front of my eyes... amazing. everyone went insane during rapline's first part. one of my fave performances for sure!! next song after the ment was oh my and IT WAS AMAZING!! the choreo was just stunning and the energy!! everyone was just jumping around and screaming the lyrics, esp kihyun's line before the last chorus!! and im absolutely obsessed with the choreo, honestly. then special and fallin' were SO COOL, just like the other upbeat songs, the energy was amazing, everyone was jumping around and screaming the lyrics. fallin' was especially hype as hell and minhyuk did this funny low voice dkjskdkd then it was alligator and listen. i hated it when it came out but when they performed it i had never loved a song so much in my life. it was CLEAR it was one of the performances they were working the hardest on and their talents were really shining through 😔 i had ki and shownu tunnel vision unfortunately i missed kyun's iconic hip thrusts sksjdks but theres always next year i guess! so they had just convinced us it was their last song but after a few mins hyungwon came back out and we met H.One hehe i didnt think i would like it bc i thought it would be mostly edm and i dont really like edm but it was just some really good remixes?? he played taki taki and mi gente and everybody went fuckin insane like i remember my knee hurting super bad during this part and he was just. chilling on the stage sjejdjsk BUT THEN CAME THE TRUE GO CRAZY AAHHHH GO STUPID MOMENT OF THE CONCERT: RODEO. boy was it a fuckin ride. truly the time to fuckin wild out at an mx concert. i think it was during this song that minhyuk (?) put a brazilian flag around jooheon's shoulders so we were even more hype!! last song was by my side and it was super calm and bittersweet and like a "goodbye, ily" song :( we had these paper hearts someone gave us and we kept them up for them during the entire song, it was so lovely

the hi touch: ok so the concert ended and we waited around 50 mins for the ht event to start and we were all in a single line that went behind a curtain and THEY WERE ALREADY BEHIND THE CURTAIN SO THERE WAS NO WAY TO PREPARE FOR IT KDJDJDJD they were all standing behind a table and on the other side of the table was some of their staff on a single line to keep people from taking pictures of them and we had to go through the line of staff and the table to see them/touch their hands. it was SUPER rushed i dont think i spent 3 seconds there. my brain absolutely froze bc it was my first time at a hi touch (or first time meeting a celebrity, ever) and it was like 7 people i love and admire all at once so i couldn't manage to say more than "hi" to them and just look at them in shock and i was going faster as they (staff) told me to go faster (stupid) but they were also telling us to use only one hand and not touch their hand with both of ours but fuck that lol so in general they are all real people which is insane??? but also they ARE all SO much more beautiful in real life. like they literally glow. my friends told me they would seem taller and skinnier than i thought but i honestly didnt have the time or the brains to think about that or notice any of that. hyungwon IS tall as fuck though

kihyun: just my luck, my first bias was the first one of the line. as i walked behind the curtain there was a taller girl in front of me in line so i couldn't see much so i had like no time to process anything ksjskdks as soon as i saw it was him i went "oh my god, hi" (yes in english bc i know he understands basic english and doesn't speak portuguese lol) and he was SO sweet like it was literally half a second but his face softened and he said "hiiii" back and gave me the sweetest smile :( hes an angel on earth and i can prove it ok. hi touch aside, he's VERY confident onstage and also VERY greasy lmao he was shooting greasy stuff at us left and right and we ATE IT ALL UP. but he's also incredibly sweet and funny but like we been knew. every time he said something greasy he would expectantly wait for the lady to finish translating so he could see our reaction and afterwards he ALWAYS had that smile where he gets those dimples below his eyes :( he's one of the most talkative members!

shownu: mistre hyunwoo was second in the line and i was still in shock from seeing the loml so all i said was "hi" and he honestly seemed confused that i, a brazilian, was trying to speak english to him, a korean DJJSKDKD but he said hi very quick and had this small smile. he's taller than he seems?? i think? at least onstage and he's also very bashful no matter what he's saying lol unless it's serious stuff like him agreeing with wonho during the ending ment

wonho: ok so i dont remember the order exactly after the first two bc i started to like. have brain death but i THINK it was wonho but i saw him VERY quickly. idk if it's bc i saw him right after shownu or if he was bending forward or what but he's actually shorter than i thought he was. he had the HUGEST smile on his face and was super excited to say hi back to my dumbstruck face lol he's also?? surprisingly commanding?? like he's not imposing or anything bc he's super gentle but he told us to be quiet while he was speaking (.......lol) bc we were screaming and when he started to speak again this group of girls continued screaming and he looked at them DIRECTLY, FROM THE STAGE, IN THE MIDDLE OF THE MENT, POINTED AT THEM and deadass went "i have already told you to be quiet twice" and everyone was like??? in shock bc we didn't know if he was serious so we were just like 😳😳😮😮 it was very bizarre honestly a surreal moment to see wonho talk like that to any monbebe ever (for the record im not saying he was rude or anything, it was just very surprising to see that happen). i clearly remember these 3 older ladies referring to him as "primo" ("cousin") for some reason during the entire concert and idk why but that's so funny to me? it's kinda stuck in my mind now im gonna start calling him primo. he ripped his shirt off a total of two (2) different times, maybe three, one of them unprompted and unrequested, during a slow song. love that for him

hyungwon: oh boy. here we go. when my friends told me he was the most different one irl and that he was incredibly prettier i was like ok and then i saw him on the stage and was like yeah alright he's a little different but nothing too exceptional but holy. crap. he was never my type but when i saw him face to face i think my mind literally blacked out. like my body was still functioning but my mind just completely shut down when i saw him smiling at me and saying hi. like that didn't happen with kihyun, one of my ULTIMATE BIASES, but it happened when i saw HIM, that's how beautiful he is. im not using any of these words lightly, but he's beautiful, pretty, stunning, overwhelmingly handsome, an angel. he's just indescribable. his hair is so long and pretty and his face is just so soft and beautiful and he has the prettiest looking lips. has heavy vampire boyfriend vibes also. one of the quietest members, i barely have any pics of him bc he was rarely ever on the big screen bc he didnt say much. tall as hell too

minhyuk: listen i am SO SAD about this i was so overwhelmed by hyungwon's face my mind completely blanked when i got to minnie and i have no idea what i did, i don't even know if i said anything or if i just stared at him dumbfounded sjejjdjsd i have no recollection of his face at ALL like my mind was not able to process anything after hyungwon BUT i know he is pretty as hell (wbk) and he's also even sexier on stage!! like his presence and his moves are just very sensual and he is one of the most talkative ones too! we already know that but he is SUPER funny he never missed an opportunity to do something completely bizarre i just love that funky lil cowboy HE HAD A COWBOY HAT OVER HIS CAP DURING RODEO AND HE ALSO WORE THE FUNNIEST BRAZILIAN FLAG SUNGLASSES DURING HIS ENDING MENT HERE HE IS

jooheon: yall. he is SO. so so so SOOOO much prettier irl like he doesn't LOOK any different like hyungwon does but he's just even more beautiful up close and he also looks taller than i pictured? his whole face was just lit up seeing us and he was super excited to be saying hi to me it was so sweet :( like i am actually even more in love with him now after experiencing that i even dreamed about him that night lmao and oh god I cant even describe how cute his eyesmile + dimple combo is irl 😔😔😔 he talked a lot too and he literally speaks in POUT whenever he said something most of the time it sounded like he was whining it was so cute jdjdjfjd but when he's performing he's a BEAST his stage presence is un-fucking-paralleled he definitely has the strongest one in the group. his mere being there just commands you to pay attention to him in awe it's just very inexplicable. he's just super cute and nice and an angel 

changkyun: oh god I didn't wanna write about my experience with him during the hi touch jsjsjdjs but im gonna try to keep this as neutral as possible. so after i got to jooheon he was the last in line (which was my ideal situation, my two biases - ki and him - in opposite ends so even if i did freeze when i saw one id have time to get over it before the other one) and when i got to him he didn't look at my face, he was looking at the beginning of the line (???) for some reason, so even though i grabbed his hand and said hi i dont remember if he even said it back and i didn't get to look him in the eyes like all the others, which made me really angry as soon as i walked out and then really upset bc i spent 110 reais to see them and one of my two faves didn't look at me when i was right in front of him, but u know it is what it is. i dont think he did it on purpose or that he's an asshole or anything like that, it's just something that happened and upset me. but aside from that, the thing that stuck with me the most out of the entire concert: HE IS INCREDIBLY!!! SEXIER IN REAL LIFE like all my friends who saw mx say hyungwon is the most different but for me it was kyun. he's SO MUCH MORE HANDSOME than in the internet, pictures really do not do him justice. and he has this really hot careless, cool guy attitude in general, like when they/we were hyping him up bc of mohae he was like 🤙🏼 he stared at the floor a lot while the others were talking and like. he knows he's hot thats VERY clear lmao. he's surprisingly talkative. he's very effortless with his moves when he's dancing and that's not saying he doesn't put in effort he just makes it seem so. easy and nicely flowing idk. he was wearing a cap during the hi touch and holy fucking hell he has the nicest profile ive ever seen. thats all

sidenote: PLEASE be careful when camping days before a concert or even hours. a LOT of the people who had spent too much time in line to be closer to the stage had to leave the concert halfway through bc they were literally about to pass out after having spent so much time with poor sleep and unhealthy eating/drinking. enjoy your concert but also take care of yourselves!!

[chaletnz]

Istanbul: Fatih/Constantinople

My plan for my last day in Istanbul was a walking tour but I just couldn't drag myself out of this comfortable bed! I had breakfast, packed my bag for the day and walked up a very steep hill to catch my first bus of the day to "Panorama 1453" where the ancient walls of Fatih are located. Immediately outside the main station I bought one of these bread roll things that everyone was selling for just .75 lira. I ate half as I walked around to look at the walls but it was dry as a bone so I left it on a napkin on a bench for a stray dog to eat! I took a connecting tram into the city centre which got very crowded very quickly and I had to shove my way past people to get off at the Grand Bazaar. When I first walked inside (through a metal detector mind you) I was surprised and maybe even slightly shocked at how clean and tidy it was. There were tiled floors and a janitor, and friendly shopkeepers that weren't actually trying to haggle. The shops themselves were actual shops not just stalls so it was almost like a mall instead of the flea market-esque place that I'd pictured. I wandered around randomly and surely passed several of the shops multiple times. I picked up a small pot to brew the Turkish coffee in and I was also lured into another store to taste some Turkish delight and ended up buying a few pieces to eat while I was looking around but all of the shops seemed to have the same stuff. I was already feeling tired from the crowds so I stopped at a small cafe for a Turkish coffee break. The waiter was so relaxed and chilled out even though he also seemed really nervous like it was his first day and he didn't know what to do. The barista would jump in and come to his rescue when people spoke English and he didnt understand, or asked for directions to places he didn't know - and the coffee was superb too! Next I visited Beyazit square which was colourful with its red Turkish flags hanging everywhere, some emblazoned with "Saadet" which had me presume that there must be an election coming up. I browsed the markets with more cheap fake clothing amongst other trinkets and watched a crazy dog barking and chasing a street sweeper. Finally I visited the Hagia Sophia mosque and the blue mosque - the famous touristy landmarks of Istanbul that were of course bustling with people. Lines to go inside the mosques were very long so I just admired from the outside. I decided to walk downhill a bit further to see what looked like a Palace on the map but I ended up not really finding anything except no way to get back! Being outside the EU now my phone had no data and no wifi connection so I relied on a subway map to direct me to the nearest subway station that was about a 20 minute walk through the Russian/Ukrainian corner of the city. After walking what felt like forever I boarded the Taksim line back to the Taksim Square where I'd been yesterday. I headed straight for the Hafiz Mustafa shop again to buy a lot of the pomegranate Turkish delight that I just loved! I found myself also in desperate need of a toilet so I decided I'd have afternoon tea here too and sat on the rooftop terrace for a Turkish tea and pomegranate pistachio kadayif. I used their wifi to get myself directions and headed back down the main road for a quick tavum döner. I sat upstairs to eat amongst an absolute bomb site of trays and leftovers and watched in amusement as the Turkish people all came in and were shocked at the mess, rudely demanded the staff clean it up for them and sit down complaining - only to leave the exact same mess behind when they had finished! There was even a woman smoking through the partially open window! I thought to myself they've got no right to be shocked at this mess they arrive to when it's the exact same one that they themselves leave behind. After my döner I caught the bus back to the hotel and accidentally got off way too early at a set of shops that looked very familiar but were not in fact the set of shops I needed to get off at... but I simply waited a few minutes and caught the next bus along! I watched the sunset from my private terrace and then went out later in search of baklava that I could bring back to Frankfurt for my colleagues but came up empty handed. There were some very friendly guys that coaxed me into their restaurant and after all my walking I felt a bit peckish again so I went for a lamb durum wrap just to try something different. It wasn't amazing but the family working on this restaurant were all very chatty and made me feel welcome so that made up for it!

[multipleservicelisting]

Britain’s ‘major crisis’ is good and bad news for travelers

(CNN) — When the UK Prime Minister addressed the nation on December 20, the news was bad enough: Christmas was canceled.

Boris Johnson plunged the country into harsh new restrictions, blaming a new variant of the disease that had been spreading in London and the southeast of England since September.

But suddenly, things got even worse.

Country after country closed their borders to flights from the UK, in a bid to keep the new variant confined to “plague island,” as the New York Times dubbed it.

With ferry routes across the Channel blocked, lorries carrying goods to the continent backed up for miles along the motorways. Eventually, a local airport in Kent was turned into a parking lot for 4,000 lorries. Nothing could get into the UK, either. It was, said the wags, a taster of what a no-deal Brexit would be like.

That no-deal was averted — the government signed an agreement with the EU on December 24. But the crisis is not yet over.

UK travelers are still banned from much of the world — including EU countries — because of the homegrown variant.

And although the UK was the first country in the world to start a vaccine rollout, its good news was marred by the report on January 13 that the death tally from Covid-19 had passed 100,000. Two days later, the government announced that it was axing their last remaining “travel corridors.”

The UK, as its queen once said, appears to have had an “annus horribilis”. But how will that affect it as a travel destination?

Inbound travel is a lucrative business for the UK — pre-Covid, Visit Britain forecast that 2020 would see 32.3 million visitors pumping £24.7 billion ($33.6 billion) into the economy.

In the end, 2020 saw a 76% decline in visitors and an 80% drop.

The tourist board is forecasting 16.9 million visits and £9 billion ($12.2 billion) spending for 2021: a mere 41% and 32% of the 2019 figures respectively. But that is, of course, if people come. After all, who’d want to vacation on “plague island”?

Americans on the way… but not the way back

Many Americans come wanting to trace their heritage in places like Scotland. (Jura is pictured).

Shutterstock

Americans do, says Melissa DaSilva, US president of Trafalgar Tours, which specializes in group travel in Europe, the UK and Ireland.

“Americans are very interested in the culture and history. A lot of people either have English or Scottish heritage and want to return to learn about that, and it’s a great place for first-time travelers to dip their toe in because of the shared language,” she says.

“We Americans very much feel a connection to England and London in particular.”

However, she warns that Trafalgar will likely be cutting amount of time its tours spend in the UK, due to Brexit border complications.

“A lot of our multi-country trips including England used to fly round-trip to London, and now we’re looking to see if from a traveler’s perspective that will be the most convenient.”

Trafalgar trips that include the UK have, in the past, seen travelers fly from the US to London, travel round the UK, take a ferry to France, then wind around Europe, before crossing back to London to fly home.

But with queues forecast at the ports, they’re recalculating whether it’d be better to do an open-jaw route, flying into the UK and back from Europe.

“We normally start or end in London, and that first or last day is taking the ferry across the Channel. But we’ve seen the news, the lorries backed up — if we don’t need to do that, we won’t.

“Do they really need to do a second border crossing to get back in to fly out, or is it better to leave [for the US] from Paris? We may not return to the UK for the flight back, if there’s no experience [for the tourists] on the other side.”

DaSilva said that potential Brexit complications were on the radar of travelers’ concerns last year, but, with a no-deal averted and the pandemic taking center stage, it’s no longer an issue for her guests. In fact, three of the top five most searched trips on their website involve Great Britain.

“Early on in the pandemic, people were searching for places that had more open green spaces, like New Zealand and Ireland,” she says. “But as news of the vaccine came out and people became more confident about trips for this year, England popped back up to the top.”

And there’s one big bonus for those traveling to the UK this year — the tanking pound.

Sterling crashed in June 2016 when the referendum result was announced, and has yet to claw its way back to pre-Brexit levels against the euro and the dollar. In March 2020, at the start of another round of negotiations, it fell to a 30-year low against the dollar.

Since then, it has regained value slightly, but still remains low.

The drop not only means that visitors will get more bang for their buck in the UK, but that standard annual price increases won’t register as much for those coming from abroad.

For 2021, Trafalgar is adding a “wellbeing director” to every trip, to ensure that venues and guests are complying with Covid-19 protocols. But while this means an uptick in prices for most trips, because of the exchange rate, “guests going to the UK are not going to be seeing any significant increase in price,” says DaSilva.

“It’s not much, but on a $2,000-$4,000 trip, 5% can make a huge difference — and it’ll be more expensive in Europe,” she says.

Those Brexit woes

The UK left the EU at the end of the transition period on December 31 2020.

KENZO TRIBOUILLARD/AFP/Getty Images

Your pound stretching further sounds like excellent news, but what are the other repercussions from Brexit that travelers to the UK will be facing?

For Tom Jenkins, CEO of the ETOA, a trade association arranging travel to Europe, changes to border policy and trade, plus the fallout from the pandemic, means that vacations might end up looking a little different. In his eyes, there are three main issues: reputation, the recovery of the service economy after Brexit and the pandemic, and issues at the border with Europe.

Americans may still love the UK, but Jenkins says that not all nationalities are so keen these days. “The UK made a great play that it was an international and welcoming destination over the 2012 Olympics, but that message was withdrawn with Brexit. The posturing of the government — especially the threat to put gunboats in the Channel — didn’t play well with a lot of origin markets,” he says.

And the service economy — crucial to London’s tourism sector — may look a little different post-Covid and post-Brexit.

“People go to London to experience the London that Londoners enjoy. [When the UK comes out of lockdown] that may not be there in the same way it was two years ago,” he says. “There may be differences with the import of goods and transmission of services that means London isn’t as prosperous as it was.”

Like DaSilva, he’s also worried about the border. Tourism is mostly out of bounds at the moment, but tales of lorries being held up at the border and fish rotting as it waits to cross the Channel aren’t making those in the travel industry too hopeful.

“It looks like there may be difficulties,” he says. “We don’t know how complicated yet, but any non-EU resident going from the UK to the EU is going to be treated as a third-country citizen.

“Their passport will be thoroughly checked, they’ll be asked the purpose and length of their journey, how they’ll sustain themselves on their trip, and how they propose to leave. Then they’ll have their passport stamped.

“That’s a problem for UK residents going to Europe, but if American, Chinese or Japanese people are coming to the UK and then going onwards to the continent [on a plane full of Brits], they’ll be caught up in the same mess.

“Suddenly, using the UK as gateway to Europe becomes enormously less attractive. Travelers will have to think about whether it’s sensible to come to the UK as part of a European destination. They may wish to look at the UK as a single destination, but that isn’t nearly as attractive as the UK being part of a European vacation.”

The French government did not respond to a request asking whether border staff will give British passport holders a full grilling. Eurostar, which runs trains from London to Paris, confirmed that passport checks will be done before departure, but could not say whether extra questions have been introduced since Brexit.

And yet, Jenkins isn’t despairing; in fact, he says there’s “lots of business on the books” — including trips that were rescheduled from 2020. “We don’t know what the [post-Covid] market will look like, but I think August onwards will see volumes of people moving,” he says.

“The UK won’t be ignored, but it’s unlikely to recover as strongly as Europe.

“There will be problems with staffing if business comes back. There will be problems with people leaving the UK and going into Europe. There may be problems with both supply and the service economy.

“I don’t think it’ll become an international pariah because of Covid. But it might become one because of the complications associated with Brexit.”

Eating habits will ‘have to change’

Tourists love London, but hotels may struggle to find staff post-Brexit.

Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images

Globy Ouseph, general manager at the five-star InterContinental London The O2, agrees that there will be changes to his business. His behemoth 450-room hotel boasts the UK’s largest conference facilities, and he says that instead of planning events and ordering food a week in advance, they’re moving to three weeks ahead because of the border issues.

“Normally a week is enough but I think we’ll struggle come April if we don’t order two or three weeks ahead — our suppliers have already warned us to be careful if we’re doing events for over 1,000 people. Our chefs are working on new menus that will complement [dynamic food shortages] and we are separating ingredients by country — seeing which the UK can trade with easily,” he says. But he warns that “eating habits will have to change with Brexit — we used to get most food from Europe, but now it’ll be from all over the world. The same goes for shopping habits.”

About 20% of the Intercontinental’s staff left the UK before Brexit, says Ouseph; but while in normal times that would be a crisis, he thinks that Covid-induced job losses will mean hotels can fill these positions for now — at least, the customer-facing ones. Instead, it’s the less visible, but crucial roles, where they’ll struggle.

“Even before Brexit we were short of housekeeping and kitchen staff — we were always chasing the best talent — and Brexit will make it only more difficult,” he says.

“I think we’ll be OK up until next August because so many people have lost their jobs in London, but long-term it’ll be a big challenge.”

For his customer-facing staff, he plans to use a revolving pool of university graduates eager to train in London — he’s long staffed his hotel with new recruits so has fewer concerns on that front.

But he warns that, “as a hotel owner, I’d be worried about the net year, but as a GM I’m looking forward to it. It’s exciting times — nobody is completely prepared for what’s going to hit, and there’s a sense of optimism everywhere.

“Logistics will be challenging but staff are more energized, and I think people will appreciate it more.”

In fact, despite the challenges, people are booking — his reservations for the new financial year, starting April, are only 20% down on the 2019-20 year for weekdays, and just 10% down on weekends — which he attributes to the rescheduling of so many shows at the O2 (London’s biggest indoor venue).

A once-in-a-lifetime visit

Once the domestic tourists flee abroad, visitors can have places like Cornwall to themselves.

Hugh Hastings/Getty Images Europe/Getty Images

Not everyone thinks Brexit will make a big difference to the inbound UK travel industry.

“If we’d spoken a year ago, the topic of debate would have been Brexit and its impact on European markets,” says Paul Maine, CEO of Tour Partner Group, which runs inbound travel to the UK and Ireland, plus the Nordics and Baltics.

“The view was that the UK was becoming a little more insular, travel would be harder, and there was concern about questions on arrival. But in the last nine months, it has been massively overtaken by concerns around coronavirus.”

And, he says, although Europe picked up swiftly on the UK variant before Christmas, the country’s first-in-the-world rollout of the vaccine might just be its saving grace.

“We had a bit of a challenge across Europe last year because of Brexit and because of how we were perceived to be managing Covid-19 from a government standpoint. But now in the last month or so we’ve got kudos back [with the vaccine].

“The UK continues to be an attractive destination — and the falling pound will drive demand.”

That the UK is allowing EU citizens to enter with ID cards, rather than passports, until October 2021, is a real fillip for the travel industry, he says. And as for the other issues, he doesn’t believe that the border issues have been as bad as predicted, and says that in one sense, the pandemic travel bans are actually helping future travel: “One of the benefits of a slower start to the year is that we’ve got time to iron out some of those challenges.”

Maine — who hasn’t run tours since October — says that he thinks the vaccine “will get us out of it — it’s a matter of when, not if.” And he predicts that “when” could be as early as Easter.

And for those who do make it to the UK, he reckons there will be major benefits.

“If you want to see the UK, there isn’t a better year than this. Domestic tourists don’t go to the same destinations international tourists do, and in the second half of the year I think UK tourists will start to travel internationally.

“There’ll be less pressure, and you’ll be able to see the country in a way that didn’t exist before. It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.”

Like Maine, Tom Jenkins thinks it all hinges on the vaccine response.

“Rolling out the vaccine is the acid test of being a coherent holiday destination, and the UK looks like it’s doing a reasonably good job in comparison to everyone else.”

It seems the future rests in Mr. Johnson’s hands.

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[leoninapelliolovesconchitawurst]

ENGLISH TRANSLATION (Scott Rand)

LT1 Startalk Interview at the Bristol Hotel 25/01/20

with Petra Stumpf

https://www.lt1.at/sendungen/stars_society/ich-bin-ein-sehr-sexueller-mensch/

https://youtu.be/FAw2HtQQhx0

That was back then, Tom Neuwirth alias Conchita Wurst, a diva who won the Eurovision Song Contest for Austria in 2014.

And this is nowadays. Wurst, fetish look and electro pop. With his third album Tom has freed himself. We meet the Upper Austrian in his adoptive home Vienna at the hotel bar in the Bristol next to the Opera. What hasn't changed is that the star is punctual to the minute.

Petra Stumpf: Welcome to LT1 startalk, my guest today - how do I address you Conchita, Tom or Wurst, which do you prefer?

Tom: It's up to you, I use to say at the end of the day it's always Wurst (it's all the same to me). With a certain look I feel more like a woman, whatever that means and in certain looks I am more masculine, whatever that means and at the end of the day I don't care. One cannot generalise, of course for many people their identity is important and how they see themselves. I realize more and more that gender should be completely irrelevant in a society.

P: I was very curious in which look you would turn up today, blond, bald, long hair, short hair, at the moment everything is possible when it comes to you. Does it depend on your current mood or is it calculative if you turn up as a male or female?

T: There are concerts and events where I know I want to wear an evening gown and release my inner Mariah Carey, on other days I have no concept at all and put up what I fancy at the moment. Some things need a certain preparation, when I want to bleach my hair, I can't decide it on the spot and two hours later I'm blond and the story about the bald head was, that I wanted to express - I did't want to express anything with the bald head per se - but I had joined the Opera Ball to advertise the EU elections and when I shaved my head, I hadn't even known yet that I would go to the Opera Ball. In retrospect it had been destiny and was supposed to happen exactly like that and to answer the question, I seldom reflect, sometimes I fancy something but if something else comes up that is more in line, then I change my mind.

P: Your impact on me is that you feel very liberated since this transformation, is that true?

T: I started to reconsider rules I don't even know who made them and to discard them and find out what makes me happy instead of saying: I have to be the president's wife, that's what people expect and what sells, I'm also in the priviliged situation to say, I don't care, I do what I want and feel but during the process I develop and reconsider so many things and I don't know if everyone thinks it's funny, but I always say it's essential to learn how to read and write. It's important for communication, but how needs spelling?

P: Seriously?

T: If I understand what you want to tell me, for example if you write an essay in German full of blooming imagination and there are twists in the story and it's interesting to read, and then you have 5 spelling errors and fail to pass the exam.

P: I agree about that, but it repels me if someone writes to me on Whatsapp and there are 1000 spelling errors. That's awful.

T: It doesn't matter to me, as long as I understand what you mean.

P: Since you say it is Wurst to you, you recorded your new album as Wurst, finest electro pop, it is autobiographic and was a kind of therapy for you, is that true?

T: Yes, the lyrics and music were written by Eva Klampfer, Lylit, an Upper Austrian and it was produced by Albin Janoska, who is the electro guru in this country. In this triad we made this great album. Eva spent many hours with me and learned a lot about me and I often repeat it, I'm not sure if she wanted to know all of it. But when one doesn't write the lyrics oneself, one can only achieve an authentic piece of music when I'm candid and all of these titles are of course metaphors of all the things I experienced and I know what each song is about and considered if I should explain it or write it into the booklet but then I thought, it's nobody's business and I want to keep it to myself and don't want to impose to the audience what to interpret into those songs. I love to make music videos, I can't write songs, but I hear music and see pictures and I can convert that, that's my essential part and I love to do it but with it I already open a world that indicates a certain direction and emotions, but it's too much fun to miss out on it.

P: I have to show the booklet and for example this picture, videos and booklet are very revealing, very erotic with fetish outfits, did it take you a lot of effort, because your parents and your granny see it too.

T: I'm a very sensual person and I'm not shy with my family, they know me so well, they have known me when I still wet my pants. I don't have to pretend what I am and sometimes I think it will not be her favourite topic for my granny in her crochet round but I am what I am and that's the result of their upbringing. My parents have no reason for complaining about my liberalness or that I live my life in the public, I am the person I am because they raised me that way.

P: Did your parents teach you the facts of life or was it your grandmother, sometimes the grandparents do that.

T: Funny that you address this topic. No, it was my aunt, she's awesome and during Christmas one discusses everything. My aunt is responsible or was a good deal involved in my fashion aesthetics. Listen, my aunt took me to the first musical I have ever seen, Rocky Horror Picture Show, imagine I was about - when is one admitted into such a show, I think 12, and I remember my aunt asked me: "Do you know what a virgin is?" and I replied: "My Mum was born in August, so she's a Virgo." and then there was a talk with my mother if she was allowed to explain it to me and she did and then I came into this show as a 12 year old gay boy and was amazed. What, one can do this, this is allowed? And everyone thinks it's awesome, she revealed a whole new world to me and I still remember what she wore, a transparent Woolford body that only covered the breasts in the shape of a lava lamp and Yoko Ono flares with slits at the sides that where overlapping, so when she walked her bare legs were displayed. My aunt is a fashion icon and that's where my liberty comes from, I think nobody was surprised.

P: You don't often come to Upper Austria, where your family is, but on 12th March you will come to the Posthof in Linz because you are on tour with the new songs. This home game in Linz is something special for you?

T: I'm totally looking forward to it. Linz is always special for me. I have a tour, there will be some concerts in Germany, I'll be in Poland and will also be in Austria and Linz is magic, I can't describe it, it's also the audience that likes to experience music and there are people who are not my fans per se, but who are interested in new music. That's so cool, I'm not always that open-minded, I think rock is not my cup of tea, but okay I'm going to listen to it. People in Linz are totally relaxed and I'm looking forward. And it will be different with my live band and it will be awesome.

P: You are a fantastic live performer, I've often seen you and take my hat off to you. Back then in Linz, international fans had come completely dressed in Conchita outfit. How do they deal with the transformation, do they go along with it and come now with short hair?

T: It's exciting you mention this, I love my fans and they are crazy in an affectionate way and travel from everywhere around the world and then sit there and listen to this concert for the 14th time and are still enthusiastic and have fun to ponder, ah there he didn't know the lyrics, he has forgotten them again and that's so cool, because it's simply the truth. Without those fans who come regularly, I wouldn't exist and without them I wouldn't be able to shine in certain situations, because sometimes you come to an event and notice, ah maybe they don't find me that awesome but there are always people present I can rely on and who say I don't care what happens behind my back, I'm here because of you and I celebrate you so much and then it spreads. It's exciting how such a relationship we have after all develops, particularly because of the different look and music and there are many who sighingly say, I want to hear the ballads and I understand that, I also love the ballads, but there's a time for everything.

P:  Variety is that extra something.

T: Absolutely. It's a challenge for me and a whole different vocal field, suddenly it's about voice colours and textures and not how long can I scream this note, and I can hold it for a long time.

P: Will you play none of your ballads on this tour?

T: Not at the moment. I have the occasional concerts with an orchestra, the next ones will be in Sydney and I'm thrilled to go back to Australia after many years, the current situation there is everything else but delightful but I'm very content not to let this orchestra programme die either, because it's so much fun. Also From Vienna With Love I recorded with the symphonic orchestra is a gift for me and then retrieve it a year later and say: I still can do it! That's cool, you know.

P: We are in Vienna today and not in Upper Austria, as you hardly come to us anymore.

T: Don't emphasize it that much, it's like that at the moment, I will come back.

P: On 12th March at the latest he'll be there at the concert. But we are now at the hotel Bristol in Vienna and you also have a special connection to this place.

T: I have a deep attachment to this hotel, one of my all-time favourite photos was taken by Mrs Ziegelböck, who also comes from Upper Austria. There was a fashion photo shoot for Rondo and we are often here and everytime I give interviews we get support from the staff and they provide us with these awesome suites and catering and we are pleased to see each other, there's appreciation and it's such a traditional building, rich in history and I was allowed to work abroad, but when I come back home, I love Austria, I love Vienna so much, in my opinion it's the coolest city in the world.

P: It was ranked the most livably city too. And the most unfriendly one.

T: If you allow to be insulted, I'm above that.

P: I continue with the word rap.

Question: Do you prefer to be man or woman?

T: We already discussed, I don't care.

Question: I can imagine having children one day.

T: That's tough. I've considered how I would raise a child, what values I would convey and what it would mean. But I'm not ready to have children, because I'm so egocentric and have some interhuman deficits. You wanted a short reply. I have no idea.

Question: I like to sleep...

T: For a long period of time and you want something provocative. I sleep in the nude.

Question: What are you not able to do?

T: I'm bad at waiting and I sometimes get bitchy. My friends who work with me know me well enough to know that when I start giving curt replies.

Question: Your favourite place?

T: My apartment, my nest. After a period of travelling a lot, one's own bed is priceless.

Question: I learned most things from...

T: All people I meet. I recognise afterwards when one sits together during the holidays, I have it from you that I always run around half naked.

Question: The inscription on my tombstone should read.

T: I hope I won't have a tombstone. I'll be cremated.

P: But there has also to be a place for the urn. Maybe in someone's cupboard at home.

T: If I want to annoy them I'll write into my will: You have to place me beside your television. I want it to be stagy, get cremated and scatter the ash around.

P: Then one cannot visit you anymore.

T: You don't have to. That's overrated, everyone shall carry me inside their hearts.

P: No grave of honour in Vienna?

T: The dress from the Eurovision inside a showcase is sufficient.

P: Thank you, it was very funny.

T: What a great interview.

[vileart]

Cow Dramaturgy: Jessica Barker-Wren and Lucy Wray @ Edfringe 2017

Making Room presents:

COW

WORLD PREMIERE

A rural tragicomedy about a girl, a cow, and learning to ask for help 

Written and performed by Jessica Barker-Wren | Directed by Lucy Wray

Underbelly, 3 – 27 Aug 2017 (not 16), 12.10 (13.10)

Set in writer and performer Jessica Barker-Wren’s home county of Devon, COW explores the wide range of experiences and issues that make up rural life, from chickens to the EU, from climate change to personal loss.  What was the inspiration for this performance? JBW: There’s a good dose of me in this one, I sort of sicked it up over a week! Having grown up in the countryside, living in a city, it can sometimes feel like you’re heart’s wrenched out of you,

missing green spaces and quiet, snatching days back home.  Without wanting to go into too much detail, there was a bit of turbulence in my upbringing, and I’ve found when going back to home turf, the most familiar, comforting thing, is often a landscape the shape of the valley or hills, the rock and soil, as opposed to a mantel piece. So that’s comforting but not necessarily cosy. LW: I was keen to work with Jess again and basically asked her to write a play we could take to the fringe. It’s been really inspiring to see people like Michaela Coel and Phoebe Waller-Bridge having success writing decent, complex roles for themselves. Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas?  JBW: Goodness, yes of course. I think they’ve taken that to its logical extreme in the USA. In terms of theatre specifically, even if we’re talking about casting-- representing everyone on stage, just for starters, is a powerful act.  And then the content: sitting with an idea for an hour or two allows for that idea to be heard more calmly. Theatre gives you time to mull something over. Better than a kneejerk 140 characters, right?

LW: Engaging with people and stories is such a powerful way of disseminating and discussing topics that affect us all. Theatre is both an incredibly private and very public space, which brings a really exciting, unique energy.  I worked with Director Zoe Svendsen on World Factory at the Young Vic and on tour, which was a meticulously researched look at global capitalism through the lens of the clothing industry, and it set a new benchmark for me in how much a piece of theatre can interact with an audience and start a dialogue with them.  Whenever we perform it, people who may have only met that night stay for ages after the show talking and examining their own behaviour and the systems and invisible structures we live within. Having said that, most theatre is (by its nature) tiny in terms of reach, so I also love television, film and radio as spaces for public discussion. How did you become interested in making performance? JBW: as a kid in the South West I was lucky to have wonderful touring companies and a lively rural arts scene (long may it continue). Adults (actors) that seemed collusive, naughty, made me laugh and made me really want to do what they were doing.  My Godmother was an opera singer and photos my mum took of her backstage in massive dresses were compelling from a very young age. It took a while for me to figure out how to go about making performance of my own, and that making it was most fun, rather than waiting for it to come to me.  There was a leap I think where I realised that I didn’t need permission to start making something, to start packaging myself as someone who does that, there are lots of us about after all! LW: I didn’t go to the theatre growing up but I loved acting and performing, and playing team sports – theatre is a community and is a bit like training as a team, culminating in high stakes live appearances.  Jess and I met at the Oxford School of Drama, where we both really enjoyed applied movement, clowning and devising. That influenced the way we went on to make movement-based political work together after drama school. I came to directing through making my own work and see the role as highly collaborative. Is there any particular approach to the making of the show? LW: We’re very comfortable working on our feet, messing around with text, comedy, music. For COW, Jess wrote the script and we spent a couple of productive R&D weeks at The Bike Shed in Exeter getting it up and testing out what worked and what didn’t.   Our process, especially with something this personal, always involves a lot of talking. We like pushing the boundaries, being as honest as we can in all the gory, all the glory. Does the show fit with your usual productions? LW: Yes, as a director and dramaturg I’ve worked on a lot of new writing, often with writers who are also performing. The play is full of music, the performer never leaves the stage and all the effort is visible, which tends to happen in a lot of my productions. What do you hope that the audience will experience? LW: Oh you know, the usual tragicomic spectrum: live, laugh, love. Cry. Call their mums. What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience? LW: Individual audience members have such a personal response to subjects like grief as it always depends where you are at in your own life.  When I see theatre I like to be taken care of and respected but also entertained and taken on an emotional journey so I hope that my own work reflects that. I dislike being inadvertently trapped or deceived as an audience member so I watch out for devices that can do that. Directed by Lucy Wray (They Built It. No One Came and Goodstock), and accompanied by folk songs on guitar by Jessica, the play follows Bethan, still grappling with the loss of her mother, as she returns from her life in London to help her father on the family farm.  But now it’s Bethan that needs help, and Devon isn’t the same place it was when she left it. As she waits with a cow called Friendly for someone to lend her a tractor, her story unfolds. Bethan has come down to Yeoford with a cow. There wasn’t another option. This is a casual rural situation – she’s a farmer’s daughter looking to acquire a tractor.    Devon is flooded (the entire West Country is awash) and she has been trying to take charge. The farm is in disarray: there are pigs for one thing. Pigs? In cream country? And her need for a tractor is actually quite urgent…   Jessica said, “COW is about returning home to discover the people and support networks you take for granted have changed or disappeared entirely. It’s relevant to anyone struggling with grief, how it changes over time. Fundamentally, COW is about dealing with change – in some ways I reckon that’s what the grieving process is: whether that’s grieving for a way of life of community, a landscape, a loved one, a nation or identity. We’re on the cusp of big changes as a nation, some of those changes will be felt particularly keenly by rural communities. I grew up in Devon and I think rural characters are underrepresented in theatre.” Jessica and Lucy have collaborated on work for West Yorkshire Playhouse, Lyric Hammersmith, Theatre Royal Stratford East, Hackney Empire, Bush, and Marine Theatre Lyme Regis. They were shortlisted for the Underbelly IdeasTap Award 2015 for avant-garde theatrical concert HENGE.

Lucy Wray is a director of new writing whose work has been seen recently at the Young Vic, Greenwich Theatre, New Diorama, Vault Festival and Edinburgh Fringe. Her latest production, RUN (The Bunker), is nominated for Best Production at the Off West End Awards. She directed They Built It. No One Came by Callum Cameron at Pleasance in 2016 and Goodstock by Olivia Hirst in 2015, both of which toured the UK following successful runs at Pleasance Edinburgh Fringe. She works with Director Zoe Svendsen on projects including World Factory as Associate Director/game co-writer. She contributes to developing new scripts at the National Theatre and for Mammoth Screen.   Jessica Barker-Wren is an actor and musician originally from Devon, where COW is set. She has devised work with Theatre Alibi, Camilla Whitehill, and Matthew Floyd Jones, and sings and writes songs for her bands Cylleni and Beach Violence. from the vileblog http://ift.tt/2r7szB0

[roman-catholic-mass-readings]

6th May >> Mass Readings (EU NZ Aust Can SA)

for

Saturday of the Third Week of Eastertide

or

Blessed François de Laval, Bishop (Canada)

Saturday of the Third Week of Eastertide

(Liturgical Colour: White)

First Reading

Acts of the Apostles 9:31-42

The churches throughout Judaea, Galilee and Samaria were now left in peace, building themselves up, living in the fear of the Lord, and filled with the consolation of the Holy Spirit.

  Peter visited one place after another and eventually came to the saints living down in Lydda. There he found a man called Aeneas, a paralytic who had been bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ cures you: get up and fold up your sleeping mat.’ Aeneas got up immediately; everybody who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him, and they were all converted to the Lord.

  At Jaffa there was a woman disciple called Tabitha, or Dorcas in Greek, who never tired of doing good or giving in charity. But the time came when she got ill and died, and they washed her and laid her out in a room upstairs. Lydda is not far from Jaffa, so when the disciples heard that Peter was there, they sent two men with an urgent message for him, ‘Come and visit us as soon as possible.’

  Peter went back with them straightaway, and on his arrival they took him to the upstairs room, where all the widows stood round him in tears, showing him tunics and other clothes Dorcas had made when she was with them. Peter sent them all out of the room and knelt down and prayed. Then he turned to the dead woman and said, ‘Tabitha, stand up.’ She opened her eyes, looked at Peter and sat up. Peter helped her to her feet, then he called in the saints and widows and showed them she was alive. The whole of Jaffa heard about it and many believed in the Lord.

The Word of the Lord.

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 115(116):12-17

R/ How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?

or

R/ Alleluia!

How can I repay the Lord  for his goodness to me?The cup of salvation I will raise; I will call on the Lord’s name.

R/ How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?

or

R/ Alleluia!

My vows to the Lord I will fulfil before all his people.O precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his faithful.

R/ How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?

or

R/ Alleluia!

Your servant, Lord, your servant am I; you have loosened my bonds.A thanksgiving sacrifice I make; I will call on the Lord’s name.

R/ How can I repay the Lord for his goodness to me?

or

R/ Alleluia!

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

We know that Christ is truly risen from the dead:have mercy on us, triumphant King.

Alleluia!

Or

cf. John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

Gospel

John 6:60-69

After hearing his doctrine many of the followers of Jesus said, ‘This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?’ Jesus was aware that his followers were complaining about it and said, ‘Does this upset you? What if you should see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before?

‘It is the spirit that gives life,the flesh has nothing to offer.The words I have spoken to you are spiritand they are life.

‘But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the outset those who did not believe, and who it was that would betray him. He went on, ‘This is why I told you that no one could come to me unless the Father allows him.’ After this, many of his disciples left him and stopped going with him.

  Then Jesus said to the Twelve, ‘What about you, do you want to go away too?’ Simon Peter answered, ‘Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God.’

The Gospel of the Lord.

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

---------------

Blessed François de Laval, Bishop (Canada)

(Liturgical Colour: White)

First Reading

Acts of the Apostles 13:46-49

Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly. ‘We had to proclaim the word of God to you first, but since you have rejected it, since you do not think yourselves worthy of eternal life, we must turn to the pagans. For this is what the Lord commanded us to do when he said:

I have made you a light for the nations,so that my salvation may reach the ends of the earth.’

It made the pagans very happy to hear this and they thanked the Lord for his message; all who were destined for eternal life became believers. Thus the word of the Lord spread through the whole countryside.

The Word of the Lord.

R/ Thanks be to God.

Responsorial Psalm

Psalm 88(89):2-5,21-22,25,27

R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.

I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord; through all ages my mouth will proclaim your truth.Of this I am sure, that your love lasts for ever, that your truth is firmly established as the heavens.

R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.

‘I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant:I will establish your dynasty for ever and set up your throne through all ages.

R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.

‘I have found David my servant and with my holy oil anointed him.My hand shall always be with him and my arm shall make him strong.

R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.

‘My truth and my love shall be with him; by my name his might shall be exalted.He will say to me: “You are my father, my God, the rock who saves me.”’

R/ I will sing for ever of your love, O Lord.

Gospel Acclamation

Alleluia, alleluia!

We know that Christ is truly risen from the dead:

have mercy on us, triumphant King.

Alleluia!

or

cf. John 6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;

you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Matthew 9:35-37

The harvest is rich but the labourers are few

Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness.

  And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, ‘The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to his harvest.’

The Gospel of the Lord.

R/ Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

[newbuginnings-blog]

London, April 13-15, 2017. from top left: iraqi anti-deportation rally in westminster, big ben, the front room where i am sleeping, trafalgar square, walking along the canals in camden, and a shot of the marshes across the canal in clapton. ~ i arrived in london on thursday the thirteenth. before coming "officially" into the country i had to go through border control. the line for non-uk/eu passports strung back and forth for ages, the loud voices of eager american families blended with the melody of languages like chinese and hindi. behind me stood a tall middle aged man with a leather jacket and a british accent. he was in line waiting with his wife who i soon found out was from new jersey. i don't remember how the conversation started but for about thirty minutes we chatted in line about independence, school, gentrification, and music (the man used to be in a band that toured across europe in his day). when it came time to meet the border officers we wanted to exchange numbers and they invited me to visit whenever i wanted (they live in pasadena). the man at border control was patient enough but grilled me on the basis that i was a minor and if anything happened to me before i got to my friends on the other side of the airport, he would be responsible. my new friends waited on the other side of the border. "we will vouch for her!" shouted the man. they scribbled down their address and numbers and told me to give them a call, asking if i was sure i would be ok before bouncing. after presenting an official form signed by my mother and telling the border officer i would "find someone in uniform" if i ever lost my phone and wallet, i got through, national once again. ~ tamara and charlie live in walthamstow, an area in the north east of london that has the longest market in england (longest, not biggest charlie would emphasize). around the corner from the house is a turkish market and a chicken shop which they utilize frequently and fondly. when i first arrived, after a long ride in the tube back to walthamstow they immediately grabbed some beers at the turkish market and took me back to the house to meet their housemates. they are all extremely kind and funny lefties who i feel have treated me with lots of respect. i am used to having older friends at this point, but sometimes when the age gap is so large i can feel it effecting the way people address me. i don't feel that at all in this house, people are very genuine and sincere. the first night, charlie, tamara, their friend sohail and i went to a small iraqi anti-deportation rally. recently, iraqis have been being deported from england for the first time in a decade. the british government is also deporting and detaining many other refugees and migrants coming primarily from north africa and "the middle east." london has a huge presence of recent immigrants and refugees from turkey, syria, iran, iraq, afghanistan and pakistan. they organize themselves regularly to stop deportation. a complaint is that when white folks hold pro-refugee actions they are completely white, but those same folks don't show up to support at rallies organized by immigrant peoples. after the rally they took me to a weatherspoon, what they call "spoons" which is a pub chain (this particular location where they would apparently congregate after every demo that ended in parliament square). we talked about veganism and the way that racism is understood differently in europe/the uk/the usa. afterwards we headed back to a pub in walthamstow and met with the housemates again. i thought germans drank a lot of beer, but the real winner is the brits! i have no stomach for so much ale, because i get full after my first or second pint... maya told me that it is ok, after a while of being around the house everyone grows a second stomach just for beer. every one of the house mates has an interesting background--tamara is from nicaragua, chery is irish, ruairidh grew up in newcastle australia, charlie from st. louis, fran from italy but who grew up in china. i am having fun uncovering more about their stories and listening to them talk about their lives. i am fascinated that they have all ended up here together, through politics have met and started a household in london. when we got back to the house we all sat around eating ruairidh's homemade stew and playing instruments late into the night. ~ friday was the day of my gig at vinyl deptford. beforehand, we got free indian food at a stand on ucl campus, which apparently serves free food to hundreds of people, mostly students, per week (making food not bombs a bit secondary at protests). we walked along the canals marveling at all the different houseboats. we came along one that was a quaint book shop! we ran into cal coincidentally along the canal below the camden market (which tamara and charlie were devestated to see so commercialized and gentrified--they are tearing out a large portion of what used to be market to build a casino). the show in deptford was lovely. the venue is the small basement of the record shop, which was full of people (even if it was small, it felt full and warm). tamara and charlie were being so loving and supportive, and in between the sets leading to mine we would sit outside and chat with an eccentric nineteen year old named indigo who lives in manchester but came to see cal (and apparently never stops moving). i forgot to bring tapes to sell, but when it was my turn to go on it didn't matter much. the lighting made it so that i felt as though i was singing just to the people in the front row, which included indigo, cal, tamara and charlie. i am glad i impressed cal because they are experienced in show seeing and playing and are also the type of person who is deeply cool. they know what they like and they are very sincere about it. the other musicians were so great and roxy from furore was particularly kind to me after my set. a man who filmed the entire thing insisted that he wanted a tape next time i came through london (but refused to buy one online). some other person named mel gave me the contact info of a friend who has an international music collective she thought i would fit well into. indigo told me they want to get better at guitar after seeing me play. charlie and tamara were the most supportive of all, and the spirits were high as a large group of us drifted away from the venue. cal and their friends headed to a pub while tamara charlie and i went all the way back home to check on ruairidh who had just broken up with his girlfriend. their friend nina was over, who is really interesting. a few of us did md and we stayed up forever talking listening to great music. ~ saturday morning i woke up and finished reading assata's autobiography which is excellent: enraging and inspiring (nina named her cat assata apparently). i spent the entire morning talking with fran and nina and chery. even though nina had gotten sick the night before, laughter was abundant. cal came over after tamara and charlie woke up and we all got a full english at a breakfast joint in the walthamstow market. even though london is known for poor weather, it has been sunny and warm every day so far. yesterday was gorgeous, and after our mid-afternoon breakfast we walked past the reservoir and through the marshes. it is a magical walk because you go from a bustling london neighborhood into a park full of nature, absent the sound of cars. we sat along the canal for a while in clapton talking. it is so great that tamara and charlie and cal get along. but we all were laughing and having a great time exchanging the commonalities and differences of our experiences. after cal left to catch their bus back to leeds, we decided to go to a comedy show. best choice ever. the comedy at the bill murray was a free show, but it was packed with people and fucking hilarious. it left me asking myself why i don't go out to laugh more often? then i realized it is probably because a lot of this stuff isn't all ages, which is stupid. i haven't been carded in a bar since i have gotten here. that night we all met again at the pub in walthamstow, and after a while people came to the conclusion i should tattoo them all. after buying chicken and getting back to the house though, i started feeling sick and tired and took a nap and when i came back out everyone was gone except for ruairidh tamara and charlie. i am kind of glad because i was not in the headspace to give four people permanent body art. ~ easter sunday! fran is cooking an italian lasagna and a special dessert and appetizer. tamaras dad is coming to hide eggs and eat lunch with us. i am excited to chill the entire day and eat lots of food. london has been a wonderful time full of laughter and new friends so far.

[myeclecticcollectorblazeus]

MOSCOW—Amid a growing uproar in newly locked-down Russia, news broke on Tuesday that a doctor President Vladimir Putin met with just a week ago during a highly publicized visit to a coronavirus treatment facility has now tested positive for the infection himself. Widely disseminated photos of the visit showed Putin donning an orange hazmat suit, but he had also talked to Dr. Denis Protsenko extensively without protection and photographs show them together with very little "social distancing."Putin's spokesman says the Russian president is tested frequently for coronavirus infection and is just fine. But the news is bound to shake a country already racked by uncertainty, fear, and not a little anger.“You should find abandoned cells used to punish prisoners, cold ones with no food in them, lock them up there,” Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov declared as the Russian Federation went into a nationwide lockdown over the weekend. He was telling his security force commanders how to treat those who disobeyed the curfew and quarantine orders. “Throw them in a big hole, bury them, let them die in it."Most Russian officials are not as blunt and brutal as Kadyrov, a Putin protégé and the point man for some of the more ruthless actions carried out in support of the president. But the coronavirus crisis has brought to the fore the grim authoritarian instincts of several leaders in what was once the Soviet Bloc. As their people try to find masks and rubber gloves to protect themselves, dictators are raising their iron fists, not least, to protect their regimes. Others are still trying to pretend there's no problem at the moment. The crackdowns will come later.One of the most stunning moves was taken in Hungary, a member of the European Union, where the parliament passed a bill giving Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—one of Putin’s closest EU soulmates—virtually unlimited powers to rule by decree; suspending parliament; canceling elections; threatening up to five years in prison for those who spread “fake new” and rumors (read, criticism of the regime); and up to eight years in prison for those who break the quarantine. All this for as long as Orbán wants. “And there it is,” tweeted historian and columnist Anne Applebaum, “The European Union's first dictatorship. None of these powers is needed to fight the virus. But they will help distract and deter opposition, especially when it becomes clear that the government has no better plan.”Here in the Russian capital the picture is more mixed, because Putin himself has sent messages to the public almost as confusing and contradictory as those of President Donald J. Trump in the United States.For weeks and months, as thousands began dying from the disease in China—then Italy, France, Spain, around the world and now with a vengeance in the United States—many epidemiologists warned COVID-19 will kill millions if drastic measures are not taken to stop it. But Russia delayed the actions needed to prevent the worst outbreak scenarios.Putin Worries Coronavirus Could Screw Up His Constitutional ‘Coronation’It was obvious, as we reported, that President Vladimir Putin and his supporters did not want anything to interfere with a planned April 22 referendum to ratify his continued rule for at least another 16 years. It was also apparent that Russia did not want to let anything interfere with its May 9 Victory Day celebrations marking 75 years since the defeat of the Nazis. So the official number of infections in this country that borders the Chinese and European epicenters of the spreading plague remained implausibly low.Last week, the numbers caught up with the Kremlin, as cases became too numerous to deny, and Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said flatly the infection rate was much higher than the government was admitting. The number of officially diagnosed Muscovites now exceeds 1,000, with at least nine people killed by the virus. On Tuesday last week, Russia’s Channel One announced: “Our president is on the front lines of the main war on the planet, the war with coronavirus.” Over the last two decades, Russians have seen Putin as a self-styled man of action mobilizing resources to make Russia stronger, richer, greater. TV channels showed the commander-in-chief in the cockpit of a fighter jet wearing a pilot’s uniform. His shirtless shots became iconic. He even appeared to guide migrant birds as he flew an ultra-light aircraft. And now the country watched Putin in a bright yellow hazmat suit touring Moscow’s new coronavirus hospital, although it appears he did not actually meet any coronavirus patients. Putin was giving the public its cue, once again, to follow the leader. And he did meet with the hospital’s chief physician, Dr. Denis Protsenko, whose positive test for coronavirus was just announced this Tuesday.Protsenko, 44, sounded straightforward when he spoke to the BBC last week. He said he was convinced that Russia should be ready for the “Italian scenario,” and that he personally was prepared to put diapers on and work 12 hours a day in intensive care units, like Chinese doctors did at the peak of the epidemic. “I personally would put Moscow on quarantine,” he declared, adding with tact worthy of Trump advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, “The question is about the price for closing down.”But in Putin’s address to the nation the next day, he did not use the word “quarantine” at all. To the relief of many, he announced that nobody would have to go to work until April 5, but they would be paid, and nobody would have to go to the polls to vote for constitutional changes on April 22. The referendum would be postponed.“If Putin made Russians go to polling stations next month, that would threaten thousands of lives; he is careful choosing his words now, he tries to secure his reputation,” Ilya Yashin, a Moscow municipal deputy, told The Daily Beast.After coronavirus cases tripled in many Russian regions on Thursday, Putin ordered most public places closed, including city parks.“If Russia’s epidemics develop like the Italian scenario, which is quite possible, there will be no way for him to secure his reputation—the entire responsibility will be on the government,” said Yashin. If that happens, one can expect even Putin himself to show the iron fist. But for the moment in the nation’s capital that has not yet hammered down. And many Russians, a famously fatalistic people, appear unimpressed with the twin threats of tyranny and pandemic.On Sunday, most of the Russian capital’s downtown was still open, and public transport as well. Bars were closed, but young people continued to hang out in hidden corners. Skateboarders focused on their kickflips, as if no epidemic mattered. A group of hipsters outside a still-open bookstore listened to a girl read aloud, her face pink in the light of sunset. The poem was one of Joseph Brodsky’s: “They loved to sit together on a hillside...” Then on Sunday night, Russia slammed its doors a little harder, in a pattern now familiar to countries around the world: governments first try to persuade, and when that fails, as it usually does, they try to enforce the quarantines and distancing. A few hours before midnight Sunday night, authorities finally announced a complete lockdown for the capital and its 11 million residents. Police cars with loudspeakers began to order pedestrians to hurry back home: everyone in the city now had to stay in their apartments, leaving only for the closest grocery or drug store, or to walk a dog no more than 100 meters from home—the kinds of restrictions imposed in much of Western Europe for weeks now, and in Italy for more than a month. Moscow was joining the club of almost three billion self-isolating people around the globe. Moscow Mayor Sobyanin declared that the epidemic was entering “a new phase.”Yet, as of Monday, authorities reported every fifth Muscovite violated the new regime. Even pro-Kremlin Russian experts said the measures came too late—with all the terrifying examples in the West to prove the point. “It was great we closed down Russia’s border with China in January, but Moscow should have given people a week off from work earlier this month, and authorities should have banned all travel by trains and airplanes from Moscow to other regions,” pro-Kremlin political analyst Sergei Markov told The Daily Beast on Monday morning. “That would have protected more than 55 regions, which are now also infected.”  By Monday afternoon, 71 out of 85 Russian regions had reported coronavirus cases—the epidemic is spreading around the world’s largest country like windblown fire through dry grass, affecting its poorest and most vulnerable people even in remote corners of the federation.An infected resident who apparently contracted the disease on a trip to Cuba brought it to the remote town of Apatity, about 1,000 miles north of Moscow, in the Murmansk region. By the weekend, according to television reports, dozens of people in Apatity and nearby Kurskiy were checking into hospitals with coronavirus symptoms, so authorities had to shut down both towns for self-isolation on Monday.The sale of alcohol, wine as well as vodka, has jumped by at least 20 percent compared to March 2019. As for protection from the virus, there was none available. As happened in so many other countries, every pharmacy in town was out of masks and hand sanitizer. Yet many Russians found a kind of perverse courage by comparing what seemed the hypothetical threat of the virus with all too substantive difficulties and dangers of everyday life.A video clip of a song steeped in slavic fatalism mocked the pandemic. Russia is used to nightmares, it proclaimed: “First, our blood is full of alcohol, the whole of life is folded into a black hole; Authorities hypnotize us and sell us out, but we have no infected fellas in our favelas.” Why be worried about COVID-19 if you risk being eaten by a bear or getting killed by a policeman, the authors say. “We lost all our ability to be afraid,” the song concluded: “We don’t give a shit.” The polls reflect that sort of attitude. According to social research by Romir Holding, 54 percent of Russians do not believe in the danger of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, even now, the only man Russians listen to, commander of the coronavirus war Vladimir Putin, still has not given clear instructions about the deadly outbreak, or how to avoid getting infected. Nobody clearly predicted the scale of the epidemic’s storm coming to Russia, nobody talked about the exponential growth of the outbreak in the United States and Europe except to crow as if Russia somehow were exempt.In announcing the week off, Putin did ask Russians not to rely on  traditional “avos,” the typical carelessness and fatalism traditional in the nation’s approach to the dark promise of the future, but the message seems to have been taken with, well, fatalism and carelessness.Moscow is still in the early stages of the inevitable nightmare, when confusion and defiance mingle with fear. So hairdressers are still working, and without masks. Women are going to them without taking the slightest precautions. This, even as thousands of people who suspect they’ve been infected are calling a coronavirus hotline.Russia Claimed It Created a Coronavirus Cure, but It’s an American Malaria DrugEarlier this week Yulia Galyamina, a Moscow politician and scientist lost her sense of smell, developed a fever, and felt weak. Those are all signs of infection. But as in other countries, she found it impossible to get a test unless she could prove she was at death’s door. She called a doctor and the agency supervising tests, but they said they could do nothing for her. “A district [government] doctor said since I was not terribly sick, I could not get tested,” Galyamina told The Daily Beast. “Private labs ask you not to show up if you have had symptoms in the past week.” On Saturday, authorities admitted that 166,000 Russians are on a coronavirus watch list—not confirmed with infection, but suspected of having the contagion or of being at risk. That’s a worrisome number. It suggests the observable cases are vastly higher than those confirmed, and again raises the question of why no clear determination had been made about many of them weeks ago.“Moscow Mayor Sobyanin had guts to tell Putin right into his face on Tuesday that the real situation is much worse than the official reports say,” Vladimir Ryzhkov, professor at the Higher School of Economics, told The Daily Beast. Earlier this month, Putin said that the situation with coronavirus was “under control.” Authorities told Russians not to spread fake news about the pandemic threat. When there were still just a few cases of COVID-19 in Russia, Anastasia Kirilenko, The Insider’s investigative reporter, heard tragic news from Novosibirsk: her 34-year-old cousin died of pneumonia. The Russian health system is in miserable shape in the regions, dozens of district clinics closed in rural remote towns all across the country in the past few years.“Regional paramedics diagnosed my cousin, a young and healthy man, with acute respiratory viral infection but did not do an x-ray to check why he had a high temperature during the last month of his life,” Kirilenko told The Daily Beast. “Now we wonder if my cousin had coronavirus just like thousands of other Russians who are said to have only pneumonia.”  Christopher Dickey also contributed to this article.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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[noiseartists]

Amusement Parks On Fire: The indie minstrels of Nottingham

Amusement Parks is Noise Pop / Shoegaze band from Nottingham, UK. We are humbled by their kindness to agree spend some time with Noise Artists for an interview, and slightly star-struck.

The band present themselves very well on Facebook:

Amusement Parks On Fire first came to prominence in 2004 with the release of the eponymous debut album, conceived and consummated by the then-adolescent founder Michael Feerick and phonically actualised on a shoestring. Issued on Geoff Barrow (of Portishead)’s Invada label, it was described by the then-relevant New Musical Express as "hedonistic teenage genius" and saw itself projected onto the planetary meta-retina. A live line-up was essentially preformed and extensively performed with the likes of Dinosaur Jr, The Flaming Lips, M83 and dEUS among innumerable other acts of the era. The unit then retreated to Sigur Rós’ private swimming-pool sanctuary Sundlaugin in Mosfellsbær, Iceland to complete the venturesome sophomore release 'Out Of The Angeles', during which time they experimented with sleep, sustenance and sunlight deprivation at the insistence of V2 Records. After several years of international incidence the band crash-landed in Los Angeles in 2009 to make 'Road Eyes' with producers Michael Patterson (Beck, Nine Inch Nails) and Nicolas Jodoin (Arcade Fire, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club). Again inspired by the locale, the collection was intended as 'a skewed Californian contemporary-classical' with Alternative Press characterising it as "sun-drenched, challenging and gratifying… a near-perfect album". After an 88 month moratorium the band returned in November 2017 with a new single 'Our Goal To Realise' and coinciding UK live performances, followed swiftly in April of this year with the concept EP 'All The New Ends' and a concert tour of mainland Europe. In December, the collective play 3 special UK shows at which they promise to perform material from the next album 'An Archaea' for the first time, alongside deep cuts from their extensive back catalogue.

The current line up is:

Michael Feerick, guitar, vocals

Peter Dale, Drums

Gavin Poole, bass

Rafe Dunn, Guitar

Joe Hardy, keyboards/guitar

Their impressive musical work to date is:

Venosa/Eighty Eight, EP, 2005

Blackout, EP, 2005

Amusement Parks on Fire, LP, 2005

In Flight, EP, 2006

Out of the Angeles, LP, 2006

A Star Is Born, EP, 2007

Young Fight, EP, 2009

Road Eyes, LP, 2010

Our Goal To Realise, EP, 2017

All The New Ends, EP, 2018

This interview is the perfect new year gift to discover or revisit their music while learning more on the band. We hope you enjoy.

What is your music about?

Not to be a spoilsport but I don’t really like attempting to characterize it in any meaningful sense as it only really serves to diminish it and spoil the fun. I guess what I love about music is it’s such an expressive medium, a way of communicating things that can’t be described, so analyzing it on paper is kind of irrelevant and boring. But yeah, it’s mainly about struggling to accept a prescribed reality and being sad about that.

What are your goals as an artist artistically/commerically?

I guess artistically the goal is probably to give the thing you’re working on a reason to exist, to justify adding it to the already overwhelming amount of man-made information in the universe. It’s not always easy to justify that to yourself. I made fun of my issues with that on our song ‘Our Goal To Realise’. The only real commercial goal we have is to break-even on tour. Anything beyond that would be ridiculous to conceive of.

Who would you want as a dream producer, and why?

Hmmm maybe Jim O’Rourke. Way back in like 2004 someone working with us suggested him as a producer but I wasn’t too familiar with his stuff. In the intervening years I’ve become his biggest fan. He’s either made or produced some of the best music I’ve ever heard and yet he seems like a humble, humorous dude, which is to his credit. Maybe the stars will align one day but I’m not holding the phone. Well, I am but only ‘cos I’ve got literally all of his recordings on it. Also, Ken Thomas. We talked to him loads and loads about making a record but couldn’t figure out how to fund it at the time. I’m still really gutted, he’s a lovely chap and seems to really understand us too.

What are you trying to avoid as a band?

Any relevance or commercial success WHATSOEVER. Not really. Well… I’d refer back to a couple of questions ago. I guess we want to avoid making the stuff mundane, stopping before you’ve made something that goes a little further than it could have. We’re trying to avoid leaving the EU too but not having much luck there. Trying to avoid it being too expensive for us to tour in Europe next year.

Explain your songwriting process.

If I could, I would. Actually, I probably wouldn’t. Either way, it’s more of an anti-process. My theory is, if I make no discernible effort at all, the stuff I do do, or do remember, is gonna be legit. That goes some way to explaining why there has been such a gap before this next album. We could have recorded one in 2010 but I don’t see any point in writing for the sake of it or rushing to release a record. It’s got to happen when it wants to happen. Plus, who could be bothered to do anything?

In 2018 there is no new or old music to a 17 year old with internet access. Discuss.

I think I know what you’re getting at. I don’t know if I have any opinion on the way people consume music anymore though. I’ve never thought of music as new or old really. Unless it’s very cynically of a particular time and therefor dates terribly. You can listen to stuff from the 50’s on some good headphones and it sounds like it’s happening in that very moment. That’s the magic of recording I guess. Moreover, I don’t really believe time exists. The concepts of new and old are manufactured notions of no consequence. So, I’m non-plussed.

Why do you make the music you make?

I don’t know why anyone does anything at all. I suppose it’s an exercise in making something intangible in your mind into something subjectively real so yourself and others can appreciate it. Plus, it’s fun.

Describe your palette of sound.

I mean, at the risk of sounding vague again, it’s infinite, isn’t it? If you can imagine it, you can figure out how to make it. If you limit yourself in that respect there’s no point. I spend far less time thinking about guitar tones than i do about structure, melodic arrangement and the like. That’s where the real beauty and intrigue is for me. We are obviously jonesing on guitars most of the time but that’s only because that’s what we have lying around and it’s such a handy songwriting tool.

Which of your albums are you the most proud of? Why?

It’s trite but it would be like choosing which of your kids you’re most proud of. They all came around at different times in your life, under different circumstances. They all drive you irreparably insane and bankrupt you. You love all of them and they are all part of you. I’m just as proud of the JCDX album. I guess I was a kind of sonic sperm-donor on that one, just to rinse this analogy completely.

As a touring band, what do you find the hardest? The best?

These days, just getting everyone in the same place at the same time. The logistics are the only concern. Once we’re in the van, it’s always great. I feel really grateful that venues and promoters are still willing to have us. We went away for quite a while so we’re kind of a risk in some places I imagine. It seems even more special now to show up somewhere far away from home and there are people there to see you, after like FIFTEEN years. Fuck.

You write a good amount of songs in different time signatures, like 7/8, do you set out to write that way or does it come naturally ?

It’s never for the sake of it. It has to occur naturally with the vocal melody and everything. 7 feels pretty natural too. I’ve wondered why we find 4 the easiest to deal with. I imagine there’s a scientific reason for that, human language patterns and stuff. But it seems kind of arbitrary to me!

You’re from Nottingham, has the environment affected your sound?

Absolutely yeah. Maybe not the sound so much as the approach and the attitude towards what we’re doing. There’s a really great, independent scene in Nottingham that isn’t beholden to any one genre. A really healthy amount of bands and artists supporting each other and helping each other out. I’m always blown away when bands from other towns talk of competition with other local bands. That is so alien to me. Plus, it’s right in the middle of the country so you can usually drive home from any show if you have to, which helps a lot.

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[saetorimedia]

The from Osaka reigning “Metalcore” band Crossfaith announced they were embarking on an 14 dates EU Tour in June. They had their first show of this tour in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on June 12th. Of course this means we couldn’t pass up the chance to see them live, as we’ve seen them before and we absolutely love their music. Their show took place in De Melkweg on Leidseplein Amsterdam. It wasn’t a headlining show however with them playing support for American bands Asking Alexandria and Bullet For My Valentine along with Nu-metal band Ded.

This venue is easy to reach if you’re coming from Amsterdam Central Station, take tram 1, 2 or 5 and get out at Leidseplein, from here it’s just a short walk and there are a whole bunch of restaurants and bars around so it’s perfectly located for a fun night. We arrived a little bit earlier because we had an interview with Crossfaith and we noticed there weren’t a lot of people around yet, maybe around 20 people. When we came out again though the numbers had increased, it didn’t take very long for us to be let in then and everyone was really excited. I noticed that the balcony was closed and was a little bummed because it’s the best place to view from if you’re not really into moshpits anymore. We found a good place though and later on we found out that the balcony was used by camera people and band members.

Ded We stood around for about 15 minutes before out of nowhere the first band started playing. I didn’t know this band much but they were good, even though there weren’t many people watching them play, Ded is from America as well and they play Nu-metal music. It was loud and aggressive and I really enjoyed their music. However it was hard to see them because they didn’t have too much lighting going on which was kind of a bummer. It might have had something to do with all the other band’s equipment behind them. They played seven sounds of which the last one was my favorite and we enjoyed gently bobbing around to them and watching guys go wild in the miniature mosh pit.

Their setlist 1. Disassociate 2. Remember the enemy 3. Rope 4. I exist 5. FMFY 6. Hate me 7. Anti Everything.

Crossfaith After them and a small build down of their set Crossfaith came up, of course, we were blown away completely. Unlike Ded who just came up and started playing, Crossfaith has an intro, loud electronic music, followed by each member walking onto stage and showing themselves to the fans. Ken, the vocalist, is last and he came in waving a huge Crossfaith flag. The crowd had grown since but everyone was sticking around in the back. After launching into their first song Ken worked hard to get the crowd to come to the stage and participate in their songs, it took him a couple of tries but they came and the crowd went wild in the moshpit and their signature wall of death.

Because they weren’t doing their full set I felt like some of the essence of Crossfaith was missing, They didn’t drink and they didn’t really have their moment to shine but I did think it was absolutely amazing and enjoyed the five songs they played immensely and was kind of bummed when they had to spot already.

Launching into one of my favorite songs Xeno, the party was on right away, everyone was bouncing and moshing around, I enjoyed watching the crowd and the band interact. When they started Monolith, they started a circle pit and a wall of death.

(for those who don’t know what they are: Moshpit; Jumping around, punching, kicking, shoving and generally being violent to LIVE music, usually heavy metal, punk rock, hardcore or anything fast and hard.   

Circlepit; Usually the moshpit turns into a swirl of people running in the same directions, often at times there is moshing included.

Wall of Death; The crowd then divides in half…each half made up of aggressive fans ready to tear each other apart. When the considerably heavier or heaviest part of the song kicks in, the two halves of the crowd rush one another.)

When the band kicked into Omen, an electronic beat version at first, everyone went absolutely wild, moshing, jumping and screaming. I had to refrain myself from running into the pit and joining them. But then they ended and we wanted to scream for more, and we tried but it was Asking Alexandria’s turn.

Their setlist 1. XENO 2. Monolith 3. Freedom 4. Countdown to hell 5. Omen (The Prodigy cover)

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Asking Alexandria It took a bit for Crossfaith to breakdown their set but when they did Asking Alexandria came up, to be fair, I didn’t think they had the power that Crossfaith did but let’s just say I’m biased. They were good however and there were so many people losing themselves in their music and I had more fun watching the fans than I had watching the band.

Though that didn’t take away of their music obviously, it was good and they played 9 songs. De Melkweg was packed by now too.

Their setlist 1. Into the Fire 2. Run Free 3. Under Denver 4. The Death of Me 5. When the Lights Come On 6. Eve 7. Someone, Somewhere 8. Where Did It Go? 9. Alone in a Room

Bullet For My Valentine I forgot to film a bit of BFMV because I was getting tired of standing around, they had an amazing stage presence and their stage decoration was great too. A huge wall of speakers with integrated lights on which their drummer was positioned and a huge BFMV banner behind him.

I had great fun bobbing around to them but it didn’t grab me as much as Crossfaith did. The fans were absolutely wild, with moshpits and insane dancing throughout the venue. I would like to say that They were definitely the most well-known band and a lot of people were there just for them. We moved a bit to the back and got to watch the fans and their interaction from afar and I’d like to say that I would definitely go see them again.

Conclusion Grade: 7 in total Crossfaith: 10 out of 10

I absolutely loved Crossfaith’s set because I’m their fan. However for me Ded and Asking Alexandria didn’t do much even though I did enjoy their set. I’ll be honest and say that I was bummed it was only 5 songs for Crossfaith but then again, there isn’t a right amount of songs for me when it comes to them. I’m not dishing the other bands at all because they absolutely kicked ass and the fans really did show that with crazy headbanging and singing along and it makes me happy to watch them. It was a good night, we had fun and I made my friend a Crossfaith fan too so that was amazing to me!

After the interview with @CrossfaithJapan, we went to their joined show with Ded, Asking Alexandria and Bullet For My Valentine. Read our review here! #crossfaith #concert #japan The from Osaka reigning "Metalcore" band Crossfaith announced they were embarking on an 14 dates EU Tour in June.

[newsnigeria]

Check out New Post published on Ọmọ Oòduà

New Post has been published on http://ooduarere.com/news-from-nigeria/world-news/foreign-minister-s-lavrovs/

Foreign Minister S.Lavrov’s interview with Channel 4, Moscow, June 29, 2018

http://www.mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/-/asset_publisher/cKNonkJE02Bw/content/id/3285972

  Question: Foreign Minister, the summit is happening in Helsinki. Russian President V.Putin and US President D.Trump together. Is this the post-West world order that you have talked of in the past? Has it now arrived?

S.Lavrov: Well, I think that we are in the post-West world order, but this order is being shaped and it will take a long time. It is a historical epoch, if you want. Certainly, after five or so centuries of domination of the collective West, as it were, it is not very easy to adjust to new realities that there are other powerhouses economically, financially and politically, China, India, Brazil. African countries are going to be very much on the rise, as soon as they resolve at least some of the conflicts, which are there on the continent. Well, Russia certainly would like to be an independent world player. Independent in the sense that we do not want to violate and international law and norms, but the decisions, which we would be taking on the basis of international law, would not be influenced by pressure, money, sanctions, threats or anything else.

Question: Russia is shaping this world order that is clear.

S.Lavrov: It is not Russia is shaping this world order, its history. It’s the development itself. You cannot really hope to contain this new powerful, economically and financially, countries. You cannot really ignore their role in world trade and world economy. Attempts are being made to slow down this process by new tariffs, new sanctions for good or bad reasons in violation of the WTO principles and so on. But I think it is a logical reaction: trying to slow down something, which is objective and does not depend on any single administration in any country.

Question: But Europe has something to fear from that world order that you have just mapped out there.

S.Lavrov: What was that?

Question: Well the world order that you have mapped out involved all sorts of countries. You did not mention whether the EU fits into that. Do they need to worry about that new world order?

S.Lavrov: Well, the EU is of course part of the collective West with the addition of new members from Eastern Europe. But the European Union is certainly a very important pillar of any world order. As for the Russian Federation, it is our biggest trade partner in spite of the fact that after the unfortunate developments and the wrongly understood interpretation of what the coup d’état is. The volume of trade since 2014 between Russia and the European Union went down 50%, but it is still more than $250bn and it is our number one trading partner, as a collective, as a Union. But the European Union certainly is now fighting to make sure that it is not lost in this new world order that is being shaped. It is not easy, because the reliance on the United States is something, which quite a number of the EU members want to keep. There are some other EU members, who believe that they should be a bit more self-sufficient in military matters for example. The initiative of President F.Macron and Germany to consider some kind of European defence capabilities being beefed up is a manifestation of this case.

I am watching the EU summit, which is going on right now, and the discussion on migration brought an interesting thought to my head, namely it is about the relations between NATO and EU. NATO bombed Libya, turned Libya into a black hole through which waves of migrants, illegal migrants, rushed to Europe. Now EU is cleaning the broken china for NATO.

Question: You talk about NATO’s involvement in Libya, but then there is Russia’s involvement in Syria and that has also created millions of refugees.

S.Lavrov: Yes, but I would challenge you that the Russian involvement in Syria on the basis of legitimate request from the legitimate government, recognized by all as the representative of Syria in the United Nations, took place in September 2015, four years and a half into the Arab spring embracing Syria. The bulk of the refugees already was outside Syria by the time that we came to the rescue of the legitimate government.

Question: Well you talk of the legitimate government that is also the government responsible for killing of hundreds of thousands of its own citizens, making millions homeless. “A gas killing animal”, as President D.Trump, your ally, puts it. Do you rest easy being allied with that kind of government?

S.Lavrov: Well, I would not go into the names, which President D.Trump used to describe some of the world leaders. It is not something done in concrete, it might change. What I want to say is: it is a war. It is the war, which was started by mistakes made on the part of everyone, including the Syrian government. I believe these disturbances could have been handled politically at an earlier stage. But we have now on our hands what is the result of outside forces having tried to use the situation in order to reshape the map of the Middle East and Northern Africa by trying to get into Syria without any invitation and trying to promote their own agenda there. So, the efforts, which we are now undertaking together with Turkey and Iran, and both of them are present on the ground, Turkey without invitation, Iran with the invitation from the government, but we managed pragmatically to create what we call Astana Process, Astana Format. The Syrian government, given the fact that Russia, Iran cooperate with Turkey on the basis of decisions, which lead to de-escalation, accepted Astana Process as such. It is part of the process together with the armed opposition, they regularly meet, and try to create conditions for the resolution of UN Security Council 2254 to be implemented.

Question: Let me ask again about Syrian President B.Assad. A lot of people would like to know what is there to like about President B.Assad?

S.Lavrov: We do not like anybody. The diplomacy and politics are not about liking or disliking, it is for human beings as individuals to use this terminology. President Assad is protecting the sovereignty of his country. He is protecting his country and in a broader sense the region from terrorism, which was really about a couple of weeks from taking over Damascus in September 2015.

We did not want the repetition of tragedies, which happened during last couple of decades through the “adventures”. Maybe even more than a couple of decades. It started closer to the end last century in Afghanistan, when the US decided to support militarily, financially and otherwise mujahedeen, who were fighting the Soviet troops. I would not dwell upon why the Soviet troops were there. By the way USSR was also invited legally by the government, which was recognized legitimate. The US decided to use the mujahedeen to fight the Soviet troops, hoping that after the job is done, they could handle those mujahedeen. That is how Al Qaeda appeared and the US lost total control of this beast, whom they had created basically. Then there was an adventure in Iraq on the very false pretence. Now everybody knows this, even Tony Blair admitted that this was a mistake. But the fact of the matter is just like Al Qaeda was born in Afghanistan, ISIL/Daesh was born after the intervention in Iraq. After Libya was invaded in gross violation of the Security Council Resolution, and Syria is now, there is another beast that was born – Jabhat al Nusra, which changes names, but is another terrorist organization. Whatever the civilized West is trying to bring to the Middle East and North Africa turns out to be in favour of terrorists.

Question: That is a very impressive whistle-stop tour of history, but I want to ask about the present though and about President Assad. You said that it is not about liking President Assad. Does that mean that Russia would be prepared to see him go? Do the job, finish the war and then he goes?

S.Lavrov: It is the position, which is not Russian position, it is the position of the Security Council, endorsed by each and every country on Earth, that the future of Syria must be decided by the Syrian people themselves. That there must be a new constitution.  On the basis of the new constitution there must be elections. Elections should be free, fair, monitored by the UN and all Syrian citizens, wherever they are, should be eligible to vote.

Question: So, it is irrelevant to you whether he stays or goes, that is for the Syrian people?

S.Lavrov: Yes, that is for them to decide. I believe that this view, which was rejected for quite some time after the Syrian crisis began, is now shared by more and more countries.

Question: When Russia withdraws from Syria? President V.Putin first raised the prospect in March 2016, he said that Russia had largely achieved her objectives there. Again, December 2017. By the end of this year can we expect Russia to be out of Syria?

S.Lavrov: No. I do not think that this is something, which we can intelligently discuss. We do not like artificial deadlines, but we have been consistently reducing our military presence in Syria. The last reduction took place a few of days ago. More than 1,000 troops have come back to Russia, some aircraft and other equipment as well. It depends on what is the actual situation on the ground. Yes, we managed together with our colleagues, with Syrian Army, with the help of opposition, which I would call “patriotic opposition” not to allow plans to create a caliphate by ISIL happen. But some remnants of ISIL are very much there. Jabhat al Nusra is still there. They are now preventing the deal on the southern Syrian de-escalation area to be implemented fully. So there are some leftovers. Besides, we do have, not actually full-fledged bases, but two places where our naval ships and our aircraft are located in Syria and they might be usefully kept for quite some time.

Question: Clearly, Syria will be on the agenda at the summit. Just want to talk about some other things that might be. For example, you have mentioned sanctions. Do you think that sanctions will be lifted, given that the EU has just talked about extending them? Do you think you can get President D.Trump to commit to that?

S.Lavrov: Actually, I have mentioned sanctions only in the context of the deterioration of relations. We are not pleading to remove them. It is not our business, it is for those, who introduced sanction, to decide whether they want to continue or whether common sense would prevail.

Question: Well, your President has very recently said that he would like them lifted.

S.Lavrov: Yes, absolutely. We would not mind them lifted, but we would not mind also using the spirit to build up our own capacity in key sectors of economy, security and other areas on which an independent state depends. In the recent years, we have learned a lot, including the fact that in these issues you cannot rely on the West. You cannot rely on Western technologies, because they can be abruptly stopped at any moment. You cannot rely on the items, which are essential for the day-to-day living of the population, coming from the West, because this could also be stopped. So we are certainly drawing lessons. But we certainly would not be against sanctions being lifted and we would reciprocate, because we do have some countermeasures in place.

Question: What are you prepared to give in this Summit? For example, if D.Trump says he wants NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden back in the US, is that something that you would consider? Is this something that you can put on the table?

S.Lavrov: I have never discussed Edward Snowden with this Administration.  President V.Putin addressed the issue some years ago. When he was asked the question, he said this is for Edward Snowden do decide. We respect his rights, as an individual. That is why we were not in the position to expel him against his will, because he found himself in Russia even without the US passport, which was discontinued as he was flying from Hong Kong.

Question: So that is not going to be up for discussion?

S.Lavrov: I do not know why people would start asking this particular question in relation to the Summit. Edward Snowden is the master of his own destiny.

Question: Given that the US intelligence believes that the presidential elections were meddled with, can Russian President V.Putin give D.Trump any assurances that the upcoming mid-term elections in a few months’ time would not be meddled with by Russia?

S.Lavrov: We would prefer some facts. We cannot intelligently discuss something, which is based on “highly likely”.

Question: Well, it is more than highly likely, is not it?

S.Lavrov: No. The investigation in the US has been going on for how long? A year and a half now?

Question: Well, Robert Mueller indicted the Internet Research Agency, the Russian “troll factory”.

S.Lavrov: Indictment is something, which requires a trial and I understand that they have submitted their own case and they have challenged quite a number of things, which were used for the indictment. So let’s not jump the gun. I love Lewis Carrol, but I do not think that the logic of the queen, who said “sentence first, verdict later”, is going to prevail. So far, you take the presidential election in the US, take Brexit, take the Salisbury case, take the tragedy with the Malaysian Boeing MH17 flight, it is all based on “investigation continues, but you are guilty already”. It cannot work this way.

Question: But is Russia frightened of the truth? Because it just seems whenever the authority whether it is the UN or the chemical weapons watch dog OPCW, whenever they try to get to the facts, Russia objects.

S.Lavrov: No, I believe that the public and respected journalists like you have been misinformed. The OPCW must operate on the basis of the Chemical Weapons Convention, which says bluntly that there is only one procedure when you want to establish facts. First, experts of the OPCW must themselves without delegating this authority to anyone go to the place of the alleged incident. They must themselves with their own hands and with their own equipment take samples. They must continue holding the substances in their hands until they have reached a certified laboratory. In the recent cases, especially in the infamous case of Khan Shaykhun April last year, when the Syrian government was accused of using aerial bombs to deliver chemical weapons to Khan Shaykhun, the OPCW never visited the place, they never took samples themselves. When we asked where did they get samples they said: “the Brits and the French gave it to us”. We asked why do not you go there?

Question: Have you lost faith in the OPCW?

S.Lavrov: Wait a second, that is important information. Let’s not speak slogans, let’s speak facts. So they did not go there. But they said that “we got the samples”. We asked “where from?”. They said “well the British and the French got it for us”. “Why do not you go?”, we asked. “Why it is not very safe.” We told them if the Brits and the French made it there or rather they know people who can get there safely, why do not you ask Paris and London to ensure safety for your own inspectors to get there. We told the same to the French and to the British, they said: “no, it is something, which we cannot share with you, how we got hold of this”. So, no procedures, regarding the taking of the samples, and the chain of custody, meaning that the inspectors themselves cannot delegate to anyone the delivery of samples to laboratory. These procedures, embodied and enshrined in the Convention, were violated. The Report on this Khan Shaykhun case, submitted by this Joint Investigating Mechanism last fall was full of “highly likely”, “by all probability”, “we have good reasons to believe” and so on and so forth. We invited the authors of the Report to the Security Council, trying to get some credible information from them. Impossible, they were stonewalled, they refused to talk. We said: “guys, if you want to work on the basis of violation of the Convention’s procedures, this cannot continue”. We did not extend their mandate, but we suggested a new mechanism, insisting that this new mechanism must not violate the procedures embodied in the Convention.

Question: Do you still have faith in the OPCW?

S.Lavrov: Until recently we did. But the organization was grossly manipulated a couple of days ago, when the Brits and others convened the special sessions of the state parties to the Convention. They passed a decision by vote, which basically violates the Convention in all its provisions, giving the Technical Secretariat the right to establish guilt. I think that this is a step, which was not thought through very thoroughly, because it is very dangerous.

Question: Well, it is dangerous potentially for Russia, because now the chemical weapons watchdog can apportion blame to the likes of Russia. Are you fearful of the truth?

S.Lavrov: No, I am fearful of the future of the OPCW and the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Question: Will you withdraw from the OPCW?

S.Lavrov: Well, if people prefer to violate the Convention, if they say that this is the “will of the majority”. When they convened this conference, all kinds of tricks were used, including mobilizing small countries, who do not have any representation in the Hague, paying for their travel expenses, paying for their hotel bills. We know all this and they know all this. So, when the Convention is grossly violated, I do not think that you can really avoid raising concern. We will try to repair the situation, because this decision will go to the regular conference of the state parties. But if this is not repaired, I believe that the days of the OPCW will be counted, at least it would not remain as a universal organization.

Question: The OPCW has also investigated the case of the Skripals. I wanted to ask you, do you think that using a nerve agent to poison a former spy and his child, a policeman on the streets of a cathedral city in Britain is an act of a rational state?

S.Lavrov: Rational state? Not at all. It is an act of crime. We from the very beginning suggested that we investigate this together, because it is our citizen. At least the daughter is our citizen. The father, I think, has a dual citizenship, he is a Russian citizen and a British subject. From the very beginning we suggested a joint investigation. We asked so many questions, including the questions related to the Chemical Weapons Convention’s procedures. In response, we were told that the British side does not want to listen, because we have to tell them only one thing. “Did V.Putin order this or did V.Putin lose control over the people who did?”. That’s all that the Brits wanted to discuss. The inconsistences in the situation with the Skripals are very troubling. We never managed to get consular access to our citizen in violation of all international conventions on diplomatic and consular relations. We never got any credible explanation why the cousin of Yulia Skripal has not been given visa, she wants to visit the UK and see her cousin. And many other things related to the act itself.

Question: But why would Britain give consular access to the country suspected of being behind this attack?

S.Lavrov: You know that the investigation continues. The Scotland Yard said that it would take a few more months. UK Foreign Secretary B.Johnson recently mentioned that the place is being disinfected four months after the incident. The policeman became miraculously fine. The Skripals became miraculously fine. People now talk about levelling the house, where they lived, levelling the house of the policeman. It all looks like a consistent physical extermination of the evidence, like the benches of the park were removed immediately and, of course, the video images, when the policemen or special forces in special attire go to take a look at this bench, while people without any protection are moving around. It looks very weird.

S.Lavrov: Mr. Lavrov are accusing the British state of a cover-up of this whole incident?

S.Lavrov: I do not exclude this, as long as they do not give us information. You know that about 10 Russian citizens have died in London during the past years. All 10 cases have been investigated in the secret format. We do not understand why. One of the wise guys said: “who is to benefit?” Certainly, the UK benefited politically from what is going. Come to think of it, it is an interesting situation, thereby the country, which is leaving the European Union, is determining the EU policy on Russia. When they were running through all capitals of the European Union, saying “you must expel the Russian diplomats, you must expel them”. So they did. Most of them, some did not. Then we privately asked those, who decided to join Britain in this action whether any proof was given in addition to what was said publicly. They said no. But they said that “we were promised that later, as investigation proceeds, we would be given more facts”. Do you think it is ok?

Question: But you ask who benefits and there are many in the West, who say that the chaos whether it is Brexit, whether it is the Skripals, whether it is D.Trump in the White House…

S.Lavrov: You forgot Catalonia and you forgot the forthcoming elections in Sweden, as the Prime Minister said. Macedonia, Montenegro…

Question: Ok, we will include that later. But answer me this: does the chaos benefit Russia, as some in the West say?

S.Lavrov: You have to be within the historical and chronological framework. You mean the chaos benefits Russia couple of weeks before the presidential elections and months before the World Cup. What do you think?

Question: I am asking you. Does chaos benefit Russia?

S.Lavrov: I want to clarify the issue. Does chaos benefit Russia couple of days before the presidential elections and couple of days before the World Cup? Is it the question?

Question: Well you talked about the new world order that you are hoping that Russia will help shape. Much easier to shape that world order if the EU is in chaos, you are holding the ring in the Middle East, if you are calling the shots in Syria. Russia potentially benefits.

S.Lavrov: No, this is absolutely wrong. It is misreading what I have said. I did not say that Russia wants to shape the new order. I said that Russia must be one of the players on the equal basis, discussing how the objective reality of multipolarity, being developed in front of our eyes, could be managed the way, which would be acceptable to all. That is what I have said. The interests of those, who determine the Russophobic policy in the West, are absolutely diametrically different. Their interest is to punish Russia, to downgrade Russia.

Question: Why, do you think?

S.Lavrov: Because it is very painful to lose half millennium of domination in the world affairs. In a nutshell this is the answer. This is not the criticism, this is a statement of fact. I understand when people used to call the shots in India, Africa, Asia, elsewhere and now they understand that this time has passed.

Question: Is Brexit good for Britain? Is it good for Russia?

S.Lavrov: This is for the UK subjects to discuss.

Question: Good for Russia, though?

S.Lavrov: I do not understand why we should be thinking in this way. It is something that the Brits decided. It is something, which they still discuss with the EU: the divorce, the problems inside the country. We also know, of course we follow the news, that the Parliament has one position, some public activists want rethinking.

Question: Does it look like chaos to you in Theresa May’s Britain?

S.Lavrov: Look, it is something, which happened by developments inside the UK. We only want clarity. What will be the basis on which we continue to work with the European Union. What will be the basis on which we might someday restore the relations with the UK, when they take some reasonable course and not overly ideologised, “highly likely” attitude. I believe that this must be must be very much understood by those in the West, especially by the liberals, who keep saying that the “rule of law must prevail”. In my view, rule of law means that unless proven guilty you cannot sentence people. That is what is happening with Skripal, MH17, with the OPCW being an instrument of those, who would like to make this “highly likely” the order of the day in Syria.

Question: Just returning to the Summit for a couple of final questions. Does it help Russia in her dealings with D.Trump that so many people think that you have compromising materials,  so-called “kompromat”, on him?

S.Lavrov: Look, I hear this for the first time that we have the compromising material on D.Trump. That’s what the Special Counsel R.Mueller is trying to dig. Actually, I stopped reading the news from this investigation. You know that when R. Tillerson was Secretary of State, he once stated publicly that they have an “undeniable proof”. Then, during our contact, I said: “Rex, can you give this undeniable proof to us? Because we want to understand what is going on. Maybe this is something that we can explain”. He said: “well, we cannot give it to you, we cannot compromise our sources and besides, your special services, your security people know everything – ask them”. Is it the way to handle serious things? It is a matter, which is used to ruin the Russian-American relations. To answer the way, in which he did, I believe that it is not mature. It is very childish, I think. I think that the people, who are trying to dig something to prove that we have decided the future of the greatest country on Earth through some Internet agency, are ridiculous. I understand that the Democrats in the US are really quite nervous. I understand that the UK is nervous. There were leaks in the Times, saying that the Cabinet members are nervous that D.Trump and V.Putin might get along.

Question: So you do read the papers?

S.Lavrov: I read the extracts, which my people give me. I love reading papers with a cup of coffee, but do not always have time.

Question: Finally, on that point of kompromat. The ex-FBI Director J.Comey has said and I quote “it is possible that the current President of the United States was with prostitutes, peeing on each other in Moscow in 2013”. Do you think that this is possible?

S.Lavrov: Well, he said that this is possible, ask him.

Question: Do you think that this is possible? It has happened in Moscow allegedly.

S.Lavrov: I do not know what people can invent again. I think that I have read this story a couple of years ago, when all this started. Again, if people base the real policies vis-à-vis a country, state-to-state policies on the basis of “it is “possible”, on the basis of “highly likely”, this is shameful. I believe that what is being done in the context of the Russiagate in the US, as President V.Putin has repeatedly said, is the manifestation of deep domestic controversy, because the losers do not have the guts to accept that they have lost the elections.

Question: Foreign Minister, thank you very much.

S.Lavrov: Thank you.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Was Hak Ja Han Illegitimate?

                  Hak Ja Han when she was a student in the late 1950s.

Soon-Ae Hong (True Mother’s physical mother – the original Dae Mo Nim)
 December 21, 1973 at the Headquarters of the UC, Tokyo, Japan

“My mother was an earnest Christian. When I was born, I was named “Soon-Ae” (“obedient love”) by the minister of her church. My mother guided me to become a Christian and trained me for three years under the guidance of Rev. Yong-Do Lee. After that period I moved to another church. I could not feel satisfied with the same old church, so I had been looking for a new church on a higher level. Next, I met Mrs. Sung-So Kim [Song-Do Kim?] (“Grandmother Kim”) and became her disciple. For fifteen years I was taught by this old woman…”

                            Seung-woon Han, the father of Hak Ja Han. 

Seung-woon Han was never married to Hak Ja Han’s mother in her lifetime. She got pregnant one month after meeting Mr Han.

Sam Park, in his 2014 video, said: Hak Ja Han “was the illegitimate product of an affair between her single mother and a married man, with whom she attended the same sex cult prior to her joining the Unification Church.”

According to Today’s World magazine, Mr Han had several children with his own wife. One of his sons is in a photo shown below.

Soon-ae Hong died on November 3rd, 1989. She was only ever married – by Moon – to the already married Mr Han in 1995. That was six years after her own death.

Soon-ae Hong continues her 1973 testimony:

“Physical Father of Mother Mother was born in a village named Sinli of Anju District in what is now called North Korea at 4:30 a.m. on January 6 (by lunar calendar), 1943, when I was 30 years old. Her physical father had been a disciple of Rev. Yong-Do Lee when he received a revelation which said, “Marry a daughter of a man named Yoo-il Hong. Her baby, if it is a boy, will become the king of the universe. If it is a girl, she will become the queen of the universe.” I met him at the end of February, and became pregnant at the end of March. In my family lineage, there are seven generations which performed meritorious deeds. Three generations of the seven had only one daughter respectively. I had a younger brother. But he was studying in Japan, and it was not certain whether he would ever come back to his house. So, my parents wanted Mr. [Seung-woon] Han (Mother’s father) to be adopted into my family. But, as he was very independent-minded, he rejected the offer and left me. It was when I was seven months pregnant. He did not come back to me even after the baby was born because my parents did not want to give up the baby to him.” http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/HakJaHanMoon/HakJaHan-731221.htm

Today’s World magazine, April 2005 pages 14-16 “Mr Seung-woon Han (born in 1909 in Anju county) was a teacher. He was in charge of the Education Department of the New Christian Church of Rev Yong-do Lee, which was in Anju. Soon-Ae Hong and her mother, Won-mo Cho, attended this church. "While Mr Seung-woon Han and Soon-ae Hong were earnestly devoting themselves to the New Christian Church…” Worried about the danger posed by the communists, Mr Han went to Seoul, South Korea in April or May 1946. He worked as a teacher. Mr Han had at least two sons, Wee-il and Wee-yong. They are half brothers to Hak Ja Han.”

Hak Ja Han’s half brother, Wee-il Han, together with his wife, at a UC function in 2008.

Yong-do Lee founded the New Christian Church. What kind of church was it? (The church Moon went to in Seoul in his late teens and early twenties was also based on the teachings of Yong-do Lee.) Rev Yong-Do Lee was a famous Korean mystic and a revivalist preacher who made evangelical tours throughout Korea. In the last year of his life he was charged with heresy. According to one mainstream Christian source, Rev. Young Bok Chun, Lee’s congregation engaged in ritual nudity during public worship.

Yong-do Lee said: “Lo, seek and search for the Lord’s love, through deep thought and desire day and night. In this way, enter the inner room of love. That is the holy place of love. There, discern the true identity of the Lord. There, make songs about love, in the place which is splendid and bright, like Solomon’s brocades.” Here is Rev. Young Bok Chun's testimony: “I often went to these meetings when I was young. The pastor was an enthusiastic and eloquent preacher and advocated a peculiar interpretation of the Bible. During the meetings he used to roll up a newspaper and go around saying, ‘Satan, get out! Satan, get out!’ while the congregation was praying in a state of ecstatic shaking. This movement advocated the so-called ‘restoration of the original state’ before the fall of Adam and Eve. The congregation was dancing around and crying for the return of Eden. And when the pastor cried, ‘Adam and Eve were naked before the fall! Take off your clothes!’ the men turned to the women and stripped off their clothes, and they danced around naked.” Yong-do Lee started a new style of revival meeting that was mystical – and indigenous to the Korean people… From this mystic union, Yong-do Lee developed the idea of an “exchange of life” or “blood blending with the Lord,” which was possible through “the bloody connection with Christ.” This idea gave rise to fringe movements, especially in the 1930’s and after the Korean War of 1950-1953.

Yong-do Lee was branded a heretic by the mainstream churches, and banned from preaching in them.

David A. Carlson from the Unification Theological Seminary wrote:

Relatively little is known about her father. … Hak Ja Han’s mother met and joined the Unification Church. Because of her mother’s active involvement with the Unification Church, Hak Ja Han was raised by her grandmother and her uncle. She first met Sun Myung Moon in Seoul in 1956. She was thirteen years of age. http://www.tparents.org/library/unification/talks/carlson/HJ-HAN-1.htm

Hak Ja Han (East Garden, May 3rd, 1977) “At that time I was living in the northeastern part of South Korea known as Chunchon, and Father had his headquarters in the Church at Chungpa dong, in Seoul, so there was quite a distance between us. I continued to attend church and go to school; I finished middle school and then went on to high school. In 1960, one month prior to the day of the blessing, which was March 16 by the lunar calendar, a formal notification came to me, saying, "You shall hereby prepare for a heavenly engagement and forthcoming wedding.” When this instruction came from Father I felt totally selfless. I felt, “Who am I to decide whether this is good or bad? So far my life has been governed directly by God. Whatever the will of God, whatever His purpose or dispensation, I shall be His servant. I shall obey in everything.” That was my feeling. Father knew me well. Particularly in those days, at the age of 18, in that early springtime I just did not want to analyze the situation. I wanted to totally give myself for the heavenly will. At that time I had a reputation of being rather on the quiet side. I enjoyed tranquillity and quietness, reading and music. I was known also as a rather intellectual young lady. I was not too emotional, not excitable. In a way I seemed slightly chilly and cold toward strangers who met me. My basic character was not outgoing. I always withheld myself and isolated myself from the outside world. I enjoyed my own world and was almost scornful of the world of men.”

This is a section of the Moon family tree from an official UC website. Soon-ae Hong was only ever married to Mr Han six years after her own death. Mr Han was married to someone else, and his wife and other children are not shown on this family tree.

More about Hak Ja Han’s mother: she was in a sex cult.

Did Soon-ae Hong really try to kill her daughter, Hak Ja Han?

Soon-ae Hong (the mother of Hak Ja Han) spent two years in Chuncheon Prison after Ansu beating an 18-year old boy to death.

Hak Ja Han, The Only Begotten Daughter

“Naked dancers” joined the Unification Church in 1955 – Gil Ja Sa Eu (one of the first 3 blessed couples in 1960) explains…