#c: Asia

[jeannepompadour]

Statue of Buddha from Nepal, 11th century

[evilsment]

Saw this painting from the 1600s by Gu Jianlong 顧見龍 and it reminded me of the red hanfus seen in many C-dramas.

[junkyard-gifs]

The Rum Tum Tugger cares for one (1) cuddle.

... so long as it's given on his own terms and he gets to be kind of annoying about it.

Cian Hughes covering Mistoffelees and Jack Danson as Tugger; Asia tour, 11 Jan 2023. Plus bonus Matt Krzan and Brad Little as Munkustrap and Deuteronomy respectively.

From an insta story by vlady.slaava.

[s0r3muzzi3wh0r3]

art by amrita sher-gil

different art so y'all don't get drowned out by my chughtai glazing LMFOAOAOAO

[piosplayhouse]

The test prep curriculum I have to teach tomorrow is just straight us propaganda with a passage that's like "many experts are lamenting American cultural colonization in foreign countries, BUT it causes a lot of economic development and makes the countries modernized so :)". Would love to shake the article writer and ask them to say with their whole chest WHY countries in south america and southeast asia are economically suffering and how us culture specifically having a stronghold there is connected and significant .. would love to know...

[mila-carat]

I was watching this Chinese variety show just to see Ricky and Zhang Hao but then I saw one of the hosts was Zhang Zhenyuan and now I want to cry… 😭💔

[unproduciblesmackdown]

another appearance by asia kate dillon as LOS via the 7th moon girl's lab short, "coding" =']

[runwayrunway]

No. 41 - Air Astra

One of the reasons I take requests, other than 'it's fun' and 'so many airlines to choose from', is that sometimes people request teeny airlines that I've never heard of in my life (despite knowing about a lot, and I mean a lot, of airlines, both present and defunct). The most prominent example of this is, of course, Amakusa Airlines, but today's subject is another airline I hadn't heard of before - Bangladesh's newest airline, Air Astra.

I love this logo. It's sleek, aerodynamic, and looks like it could be the logo for a company in a science-fiction movie. The integration of the star in the letter A and the bright gold colour are both really nice choices. The kerning is a little bit strange, admittedly, but the nice connected letters more than make up for it.

Air Astra is one of only four passenger airlines with its air operator's certificate issued by Bangladesh. Its hub is at Shahjalal International Airport, and it flies to five destinations with two more on the way. It's privately owned, the first privately owned airline in the country to be founded since 2013, and it's a baby, having only started flights in 2022! Because of this pictures from certain angles are a bit hard to find, but I've done my best.

image: Md Shaifuzzaman Ayon

Their fleet is currently made up of three ATR 72-600s, with seven more on order at some point in the future. I've also heard rumours about them looking into Embraer regional jets and potential freight operations, but those are a bit vague and my inability to read Bengali is a limitation on my research. As it stands now, though, something I've never expressed out loud on this blog, I don't think, is that I'm a huge fan of regional turboprops. Operators in the US seem to be downright afraid of them and will use regional jets for even the tiniest of puddle-hops (maybe they think travelers are intimidated by them?) but they're a lot more efficient for low-altitude flights and cut down on things like fuel usage and noise. The larger ones, like the ATR 72, don't really feel that different from a jet when you're sitting in the cabin.

An Air Astra cabin interior, featuring bright yellow antimacassars with their logo and tagline. Not the absolute roomiest and a bit annoying for taller individuals but I've seen far worse.

And because the ATR 72 is such a big plane, it takes up a fair amount of space on the tarmac! Honestly, it's probably pretty hard to miss an Air Astra plane, especially in the light. Because wow is that a bright shade of yellow. I actually really like the specific hue they chose. One thing that makes me qualified to run this blog despite having no qualifications is the fact that I am apparently significantly better than average at telling apart colour on minuscule scales, so I do have to point out that this yellow isn't the most common shade. For example, it immediately stood out to me as being both darker and more orange than what, say, Spirit Airlines uses. And I think that's a pretty good choice. It's a lot more vibrant than other colours of a similar saturation. I love it.

I always like when airlines put enough colour on the underside that you can clearly tell what airline the plane flies for from the ground. This is especially true for smaller planes that don't really have space for a logo on the belly. Air Astra goes for the same general shape both IndiGo and Azul have on their ATRs - again, my theory is that it's to contour around the ventral fairing, which is very pronounced on the type. I really like when airlines work with the shape of their plane rather than slapping the same livery on each model without considering the differences between them. The ATR is a curvy plane, and having a curvy livery on it really works. I also like the arc of yellow on the underside of the engine cowlings.

The shade of yellow they chose is incredible because it stays very consistent regardless of lighting somehow. That said, I do have some criticisms. The grey they chose really doesn't stand out enough from the white to make the trim or the first half of the wordmark legible, which is a real shame. They've also done something that many turboprop operators fall into - making the wordmark very tiny and below the windows. They're clearly not shy about showing off their identity, so it's a shame that it's hampered by this!

If it were up to me, I would have two ideas. The first and simpler one is to significantly darken the shade of grey used, which I think would take away a little from the gold-and-silver situation happening and also from the starry look of the shade they've chosen. My ideal solution would be painting the part of the plane which is left white in their chosen silver, and the parts that are currently silver in white. An alternative, perhaps even better, could be a black or deep grey replacement for the white so the grey could stand out - shine like a star. They could even add little specks for constellations. The star theme for an airplane is fantastic and I think they should lean into it!

You know what else would be fantastic? A shooting star theme. Just think about it. The logo already sort of puts me in mind of that, as does the elegant sweep of silver trim. I doubt it but I sincerely hope someone from Air Astra is reading this and taking notes.

I also think something could be done with the momentum that you get from the place the star intersects the letter A - a further sectioning of the fuselage along that line, maybe? I don't want to get carried away redesigning the Air Astra livery (even though livery redesigns are a thing I've considered doing, if I can get my hands on a graphics tablet) so for the moment I'll leave it at this final criticism: the centering of the logo on the tail is a little weird. I'm not sure how it could be improved without making it smaller, which would also be bad, but I also think the degree to which the star is wider than the A really makes it feel pushed back, which isn't my favorite. It's similar to the kerning on the wordmark where it doesn't ruin it or anything but I do notice it. (That said, the wordmark looks a lot better on the actual plane.)

image: Air Astra

I'm quite optimistic about Air Astra so far! At least, their livery. How they do as a company is obviously not something I have the knowledge or credentials to judge, though apparently they've been outperforming projections and have been reviewed positively for having service that meets expectations while their customer support exceeds them. They've only existed for under a year, and generally periods of expansion are what test airlines the most, so the fact that they've been handling themselves well so far is a good sign.

That said, I'm very happy with their livery. There's a lot about it that I think could be improved, because the start they have could easily be twisted into something A-worthy, but they have a great, memorable, clean logo, a great palette, and clearly a competent design team. Everything here is nice and well-executed, and I hope in the future they can elevate their livery to the same level as their logo, but what they've got already is a fantastic start. I hope things keep going well for them, because these planes would inject some much-needed vibrance to any airstrip.

Grade: C+

I did debate elevating that to a B-, but I settled on C+ because in the past that's where I've put other liveries that I think have a lot of room to grow. When I review a livery I'm not only rating it relative to other liveries but also relative to its own potential, which opportunities they've taken and which they've overlooked. Air Astra is good, but they could be great, and they're brand-new so they have plenty of time to get there.

Thank you to anon for the request! I really had a blast looking into this airline. It's incredible how it seems the larger an airline is the more determined it becomes to be boring, while smaller carriers without the massive design budgets are putting them to shame. One Air Astra plane would draw more attention than a dozen of Lufthansa's if they somehow ended up on the same tarmac, and clearly they stick with people enough that someone requested them. I think that's a massive victory.

[fyeahdprian]

C-Clown talk about coming to Australia

Uploaded: Mar 2, 2014

So... we all know C-Clown's Rome was born in Australia, but do you think he can convince the other members to come visit us too?

More on our website: http://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/

[nametakensff]

I'm so upset. I woke up with my sinuses all scratchy and have been trying to ignore it again thinking surely I can't have another fucking virus only a month after that evil one but my sister just called me from work and said she's been feeling the same way

I'm so fucking sick of this. It's the fifth time I've gotten ill this year. Never in my life have I gotten ill so consistently, especially not with the illnesses being so intense, even when I had a terrible lifestyle and didn't look after myself. I genuinely think c*vid fucked me up last summer and my immune system hasn't been the same since 😣

[the-cat-at-the-theatre-door]

Will Richardson

[jeannepompadour]

Prithvi Bir Bikram, King of Nepal with his wife Queen Divyeshwari, c. 1886-1900s

[zorbarsglogaboungcurture]

Ceramic tiles sold by Fyrouzi

[junkyard-gifs]

Vogue model Seoyoon Um is living the dream....

2022 Asia tour, February 2023 (X X). Check this tag for more gifs and photos from this shoot!

Billy Mahoney as Mungojerrie, Jack Danson as Tugger, Matt Krzan as Munkustrap—and Xavier Pellin doing his usual Mistoffelees thing where he prefers to flirt with the audience rather than anyone onstage with him.

2022 Asia tour, February 2023 (X X X). Check this tag for more gifs and photos from this Vogue photoshoot!

Oh, and outtake with Jerrie failing at smoulder and making the model giggle:

[s0r3muzzi3wh0r3]

works of ichigo tsuruta

[thefourthhexgirl]

Changshan

A long robe that is a form of paofu. In the Qing dynasty many Manchu elements were added to the changshan like adding a pianjin collar, by slimming the garment down, and by using buttons and loops at the neck and sides.