#how do i apply to be an amazonian

[vancityreynolds]

bring me to justice, lynda

[hello-nichya-here]

not a shipping ask but more a country-based,

i applied for exchange and decided to stay in Europe (for now, purposefully vague for privacy) and there was an option to go to Brazil which some people choose.

i remember you saying in one separate ask that Brazil is truly a country that you must prepare for properly before going there and i am curious about that? if you have already replied please just link me xoxo

Here's the things you absolutely gotta know before moving to Brazil:

1 - Unless you're a literal refugee of war or of a country that is absolutely economically destroyed or you are OBSCENELY rich, you don't actually want to do that. Go live literally anywhere else.

Here's the things you absolutely gotta know before you visit Brazil.

1 - The heat WILL get very close to killing you, or at the very least make you wish you were dead. Yes, even during winter. People end up in the hospital because of it all the time. Unless a brazilian specifically told you "Bring warm clothes when going to this place at this time of the year" assume you'll forget what cold weather even is, and even then you should still bring summer clothes just in case.

2 - Trying to get a tan is suicide. Focus on protecting yourself from the sun, especially at the beach. Again, people end up at the hospital for that stuff all time - severe burns, fever, and anything that touches your skin WILL hurt like a bitch.

3 - Mosquitos. Mosquitos everywhere. Lots of them transmiting diseases that will make all your bones hurt and your guts bleed. Depending on what part of the country you're visiting you might even have to get a ton of vaccines before being allowed there.

4 - If you see literally any animal species you're not familiar with, avoid it. Depending on the region of the country, stay the fuck away from any spider, even a tiny one that looks harmless. If you're going into a forest region, especially the amazon, assume everything there can and will kill you.

5 - If you visit the amazon or the pantanal, do not go on your own. You're not Indiana Jones. You WILL get lost and die. Avoid any and all shady tourist guides, even if you can't really explain why you think they're shady, unless you want to get kidnapped. Do NOT get into any river without double-checking with someone familiar with the region if that particular one is free of any fish that can kill you AND isn't guaranteed to sweep you away until you drown.

6 - Do not walk around wearing anything expensive or talking/texting/doing anything on your phone, and if you have a bag, purse or backpack, keep it very close to you at all times. If someone is trying to rob you, shut up and give them all they're asking for. This tip is extra important if you're going to Rio de Janeiro.

7 - If you want to go to a non-pacified favela: Don't.

8 - If you want to voice your opinion about Brazil's politics to a brazilian you just met: Don't.

9 - If you want to go out at night by yourself: DON'T.

10 - If you go to Rio, trying asking a brazilian stuff like "How much does a taxi from the airport to the hotel usually cost?" or keep an eye on the GPS if you're taking an uber to make sure the driver isn't deliberately taking a longer path. Cariocas are infamous for finding ways of taking a bit of extra money from gringos that don't know any better.

11 - EVERYTHING IS EXPENSIVE AS FUCK. Yes, even if your country's money is worth a million times more than Brazil's money.

12 - If you're going to a beach, specially in the northeast of the country, and there's no one else around, do NOT go in the water unless you want to be eaten by a shark.

13 - If you're not basically a proffesional at surfing and want to go practice in the beaches that have the biggest waves: Don't. If you want to try your luck on amazonian waters: DON'T.

14 - If you're going to São Paulo, prepare to be stuck in traffic for a long, long, long, LONG time.

15 - If you want/need to go to the cops for literally any reason, especially in places like Rio, talk to a brazilian first (friend, host, lady at the hotel check in) and tell them what the problem is. A lot of the police forces here can be useless at best and VERY hostile towards any living at worst, so going to a local first so they can either go to the police station with you or solve your problem without getting the cops involved at all is often the safest choice.

16 - If you've ever been to Argentina before, say you like Brazil more even if it's a lie.

17 - If you went to São Paulo after going to Rio, say to everyone there that you like São Paulo more. If you went to Rio after having already been to São Paulo, say to everyone there you like Rio more.

18 - Brazilians WILL try to trick you into saying obscene stuff while trying to teach you a few words in portuguese. Double-check everything you were taught before saying it to a stranger.

[ohmotherwhereartthou-if]

ROs reactions to a MC who is a gentle giant? MC is pretty big in stature and is buff as well but they're the most gentle soul! Think of them as a hugger, cuddler and very emotionally dependable!

Cassandra: She would love it, she is super attracted to masculine traits (even if your a woman) such as being big and strong; even if MC is big but gentle she would love them even more. Being an emotional support for her would also be appreciated if they can calm her down when she gets angry or rash then she will be annoyed in the moment but be super grateful beyond words when she calms down, loving you being so dependable.

Valeria: Your her big teddy bear. She will be smitten you and find your gentle nature despite being huge utterly adorable. She will like to watch how carefully you hold fragile things and/or how your muscles move to pick up heavy ones. I will probably want piggyback rides or for you to carry her every now and then because she loves the feeling. Would love above all else love to cuddle and feel small in your arms.

Tomas: This depends if your a man or a woman.

If your a man: He is soooo jealous of your physique. He would probably work out more to try and buff up a bit as to not look as weak when standing next to you (and fails). He struggles in a same sex relationship a bit more than the others as he has grown up with a very strict worldview that a male MC can shatter by loving him lol. He still will catch himself thinking who is "the woman in the relationship" and try his hardest to not be that. Still, he gets a little butt hurt when MC is stronger or bigger than him; but he loves it when your gentle despite being huge. Makes him feel fuzzy inside.

If your a woman: The same still applies as if you were a man but with the caveat that he sounds less salty when he complains about how unfair it is that your bigger than he is. The way he sees it, it's not his fault God gave him a super cute Amazonian woman (or whatever the equivalent to that in omwat is), that's just what his plan for him is. Who is he to complain? And besides, (and this is 100% him coping) there is nothing wrong with having a big woman, on the contrary! It makes him a big man for falling in love with a big woman.

Pick him up and he will be salty but oddly into it.

-

Ludovica: You are perfect. She will love every inch of you with every fibre of her being. Your strength makes her feel safe but it's your gentleness steals her heart everytime she sees it. If your MC ever expresses insecurity or a dislike in their big stature she will shush them instantly. "You are perfect, my love. Every inch of you, your strength, your stature; it's perfect and those attributes make you, you. And it is your gentle nature despite it all, that makes me fall in love you again and again. Every day."

Aurelio:

If your a man: He will find it amusing that most people think your his bodyguard, and he entertains the idea. "Oh yes, my ruthless and hulking defender. Couldn't even smack a butterfly, if he wanted too." He loves you still for it, does get annoyed that he needs to look up to you all the time and WILL stand on a chair or box to at least get to eye level with you when you guys are in disagreement on something.

If your a woman: This man is down soo bad. Stares at you in astonishment every day, probably drools a bit every now and then when you guys are at home. Needs to go straight to horny jail, do not collect 100 passing go (random thought, but he would 1000% decimate hoes (hoes being MC and maybe Elio, since they are like his only actual friends lol) in monopoly).

Elio: Loves it because it's super convenient to him.

"Your strength is a convenience to me when I need to open jars and your height serves as a nice shade when it's hot."

[puppygirlkat]

Im relearning deck construction from the ground up by watching amazonian on youtube

She doesnt even do specific guides on deck construction i just look at how she builds a deck and im like so thats what im doing wrong

Ive learned basic things like 2 drops are insanely important and you need protection spells for your commander. It didnt register to me how many protection spells you need until i saw her running like 4 or 5 or so. Ive also been out of the game long enough that i forgot how a mana curve is supposed to look

I applied these ideas and whaddya know, i play solitaire for 15 minutes with my gitrog deck until i just concede because i want to watch a movie

Im winning much more consistently, im running 38 lands depending on my deck construction (i was already doing this but still) my decks can play much more aggressively and deal with more shit

Who wouldve thought the key to historic brawl was having lots of good 2-3 drops and being sparing with 4 drops and very sparing with 5+ drops

[lovelylittlelosers]

sage!

sage ⇢ what ‘medium’ of art (poetry, music, fiction, paintings, statues etc.) is the most touching to you? why do you think that is?

I am going to use this ask to talk about Ancient Greek pottery more! Specifically 2 red figure kraters.

In red figure, the potter would throw the clay into the vase shape, cure it, and then glaze it / paint it with black and sometimes white to create the image. The red you see is actually that of the clay so everything was done in inverse which is just so cool to me.

^^This is a krater from the archaic period in Athens and I mean LOOK at it! It’s so detailed and just jaw droppingly gorgeous. This krater would have been used to dilute wine and depicts a battle between the Greeks and the Amazonian warriors (perhaps the scene written by Herodotus!) Amazomachy (the word for these Greco-Amazon battles) was a pretty damn popular scene type to depict in the 5th century BCE in Athens but is most frequently found as mural or large scale paintings in homes or public buildings.

^^This Apulian (not in Greece!) krater is dated to 116 AD and is even MORE detailed. It depicts two women approaching a funeral monument holding offerings or votives. You can really see the passage of time here from the archaic Attic piece to this piece of the same shape from the Italian peninsula 500 years later, but the influence and technique of its predecessors is still being applied! Can you tell I love kraters?

I think what strikes me most about ancient pottery isn’t just the beauty of it. It’s also the acknowledgment of people before us and their skill and their diversity. Historians and academics can often try and summarize or lump together art and peoples if they’re just similar enough without properly acknowledging the personhood of those who created and used these items and how they interacted with each other through time.

For me ancient pottery is just such a big reminder about humanity, craft, and the ever changing nature of personal and cultural values - it won’t be like this forever and it hasn’t been like this for long!

Thank you for the ask I hope this wasn’t too nerdy lol!! 🏺❤️✨

[yuseonghqs]

🌊 GREETINGS FROM YUSEONG BAY !

JUST LANDED: SAMPAIO, JULIO. / / FROM: BRAZIL. / / AGE: 21.

–––– ( FOLLOW ? ) / / ( READ MORE ? ) / / ( MAILBOX ? )

Student Julio Sampaio EESC2202 Ecosystems 1 April 2024

Discussion Board: Week 1 Icebreaker

Hello! My name is Julio Sampaio and I am a biology major in my third year with Osaka University. This fall I will be twenty-two. I’m from São Paulo, one of Brasil’s largest cities as there is always something to do. However, I moved to Japan when I was fifteen with my mother and have been a permanent resident since. I visit my home country during vacation when the season allows me to. I also work full time waitering at Ippodo, a family-owned yakiniku restaurant of 83 years in downtown Osaka. I highly recommend our basashi and kuroge wagyu. If I’m not working or going to school, I enjoy spending time by myself to reset whether it’d be catching up on my Letterboxd watchlist or learning to cook on my own. Skillshare is a website that allows you to learn various skills like graphic design and illustration, so I enjoy utilizing my time for that as well. I also love discovering new musical artists (lately I’ve been really into Afro-Cuban jazz and alternative music), watching/playing football/capoeira/volleyball, indulging in stimulation video games, and honestly, sleeping the day away because I’ve become exhausted working and going to school full time.

I decided to enroll in this course to further understand the world around us, in addition to figuring out how to manage our natural resources and protect human health. Biosciences, not just the ecosystem, is something I’ve been passionate about since I was a child. My country is trying to sustain the Amazonian forest for its wildlife and those indigenous to the land. It’s no surprise that the forests are responsible for 10% of the world’s biodiversity. In addition, I am very grateful for having the opportunity to study bioscience/the ecosystem abroad with our select department traveling to Jeju, so this course being in a remote setting works best for me. In any case, thank you for having me and I look forward to working with you all throughout the semester!

—

Student Julio Sampaio EESC2202 Ecosystems 11 April 2024

Discussion Board: Week 2 — Biodiversity

From my findings, there isn’t a set percentage of loss biodiversity on the island of Jeju. Particularly speaking to Yuseong Bay, the numbers fluctuate a great deal, yet there is no set estimate regarding endangered flora/fauna/species as acquired from local researchers. I‘m inclined to believe this is because Jeju is not a forest, but a rapidly modernizing island as a result of South Korea’s export-led industrialist and capitalist country. Quickly developing islands with capitalist-backed corporations (Hanhwa Group) don’t contribute to the Earth’s biodiversity. Rather, said corporations can contribute to the decline of biodiverse prosperity. In our textbook, Yoshinaga states that rainforests consists of the Earth’s surface at 7% (Yoshinaga, 102-103) and “[they] contain more than half the species in the entire world biota” (Yoshinaga, 103). Much of this week’s readings and lectures, in my own observations, cannot be applied to Jeju’s “lack” or “waning” biodiversity due to the island’s inability to provide to the environment outside of its habitants (residents). Yuseong’s economy is dependent on their fishing industries/businesses and has been a source of agricultural and piscary income, or currency, to its residents, “…the bay is a self-sufficient ecosystem that profits ecologically, however, was not biodiverse enough for it to see deduction unlike the Amazon basin to South America.” (Kim, 105). Consequently, capitalist industrialism is rooted in defeating the natural world, but some will argue that in order for corporations and their establishments to be successful, firms such as Hanhwa will be largely responsible in protecting Yuseong’s ecosystem.

Islands are not resistant to the decline of biodiversity. A study was conducted that rising sea levels (ie: coastal cities and island countries such as Japan, Indonesia, etc are expected to take a hit concerning rising sea levels) took apart land and a significant amount of bird species were endangered, “…about 10,000 years ago, [the rising sea levels] cut off small land masses that had previously been connected to South America, New Guinea, and the main islands of Indonesia.“ (Yoshinaga, 104). Thus, given the option to agree or disagree with this week’s discussion post question, I have chosen not to agree. I do not think Jeju island will suffer the same repercussions with lacking biodiversity on the same scale of South American forests and basins, but it doesn’t make Yuseong Bay/Jeju not susceptible to industrialized harm against the environment. Of course, residents will see somewhat harmful changes in their ecosphere, but not to the point of devastation—at least not until the next several centuries (estimated).

[wentao8]

How to get rid of dark circles? Let me teach you step by step! It's really simple!

Many people stay up late playing games and have to deal with big dark circles, which don't look good. It makes you look tired and dull, and your eyes lose their sparkle. The whole person looks ugly!

Today, I will teach you how to improve dark circles in just three steps:

Choose a good eye cream.

Squeeze a pea-sized amount and apply it around your eyes. Close your eyes and use a massager to gently massage in a circular motion (do not rub too hard).

Eat more eye-protecting foods, such as blueberries and carrots, and get enough sleep.

The choice of eye cream is really important, using the right one can save you a lot of effort! I have used many, and now I feel that the one with the best effect is this one:

VIIcode T2 O2.5 Eye Cream

It contains the mysterious energy of the Amazon, which is fermented through a stone mill and combined with the essence of active oxygen plants to provide professional and comprehensive customized care for the skin around the eyes.

The unique Amazonian plant active oxygen component can significantly improve the elasticity and firmness of the skin. Its unique formula can penetrate deep into the skin, improve the oxygen absorption ability of the skin around the eyes, and make the skin more firm and elastic.

The light texture of the T2 Oxygen Eye Cream is easy to absorb, and it will not leave a greasy feeling on the surface of the skin. It can also moisturize and protect the skin, preventing dryness and roughness, making your skin around the eyes look renewed, delicate and soft, and radiantly bright!

I have been using it for a while, and I clearly feel that my eyes are brighter and the skin around them is more delicate and moisturized. The dark circles are not as noticeable anymore. Make sure to choose this eye cream when you want to get rid of dark circles!

[lily-orchard]

Ascentia confuses me. She's a towering warrior woman, but she's not like "amazonian" instead she's femme af. And she has such "step on me energy" yet apparently she's a bottom.

Honestly, you mind if I hijack this ask to just grouse about something?

One major problem we often have with female characters is that we incessantly pidgeonhole them based on surface-level elements. The fact that "Amazon" which carries with it an entire aesthetic, gets applied to any woman taller than 5'9'' is something I consider to be a problem.

I used to get a version of this with Phyaun, where people were confused why she didn't have a more GNC or Butch hairstyle given how muscular she is. The reason she doesn't is because she isn't GNC or Butch. And the hairstyles they wanted her to have didn't fit the "unhinged barbarian" vibe that Phyaun has going for her, and were more of a "disciplined soldier" vibe which Phyaun is not.

Recently people did the same thing regarding TSR!Rey, who basically is Phyaun without "lesbian flag as clothes" design.

The presence of muscles doesn't automatically make someone less feminine, people just associate it with that and then the expectations pile in. For a hot minute a few years ago, there was a small group of people who just wanted Phyaun to be Zarya, despite the fact that they already had Zarya.

I've alluded to this before. When it comes to female characters, everything is extremes. If a character is described as having any muscle at all, people interpret "brick shithouse." If a character is tall, they go "amazon." If a character is even slightly above average weight, they're "thick." And then on the flipside you have people who have no idea what "215lbs" actually looks like on a person and will look at a character who weighs that and call them "Hollywood Fat."

And with that 'all or nothing' perception comes very rigid expectations. People were surprised when I said Bonnie was butch because she wears a gown and has long hair and is rather thin. But those aren't the only things that relate to one's experience with femininity. Bonnie has a great deal of disinterest in traditional femininity in general, and most of her antics have a very Jackass style "Boys will be Boys" vibe. And that's something that carries on when she gets older.

It's the same thing with TSR!Rey where she has this unhinged barbarian vibe to her and has such a carefree attitude everywhere else that her wife has to remind her to shower. Rey has little interest in traditional femininity largely because the environment she grew up in was completely divorced from it, and it just seems like too much work for her to care about it.

It makes more sense for her hair to be long, because getting it cut would require her to care about it at all. Tying it back for when she's out killing bad guys is the bare minimum she would need to do with it, and so that's what she does. Rey's kind of a slob, and I like that vibe with her.

Aliana was originally going to be pretty androgynous, and only became more femme in design because people responded so positively to the very idea that she was, which is something I've never encountered before. But people liked it, and for some reason appreciated it, so I leaned in that direction.

And this is why Ascentia can be a skilled and powerful warrior and be 6'5'' and not carry the tropes one would usually expect. Because height is not something people can control, and a person's job does not dictate who they are.

To a lesser extent, Valithria gets this as well. Because she's a trauma-survivor and a ruthless autocrat, people tend to assume she's this intimidating, angry person. But in reality she's simply terse, but soft-spoken. She has her emotions, but she prefers to process them privately because she is incapable of processing them in ways that don't put others off. She's had to work around what is essentially an inflicted disability, and she fully dictates what she's comfortable with. But she's not mean. She's never been mean. But because she has resting bitch face, people assume she has the temperament of Christie Golden's Sylvanas. But she doesn't.

I think this is something we could stand to think about, even if you don't think it's a problem. We could all stand to think about how we tend to let a character's appearance build a one-dimensional version of that character in our mind based on rigid adherence to tropes. We could all stand to think about what our first impressions say about us as much as they say about a character's design.

I dunno, food for thought. Thanks for listening to me ramble incoherently.

[mischiefandspirits]

Batdad

Okay, but there's that whole idea of Bruce being annoyed that the rest of the League (or most of them?) aren't as cautious or prepared as he thinks they should be, right? Like, the metas rely too much on their powers and Green Arrow is... him.

Right, but a concept I've never seen is Bruce applying that logic to the sidekicks.

Like, imagine Bruce in the early days of the League. He's got Dick following him around like a duckling while in Gotham and puts up with his fellow Leaguers when out of town.

Then said Leaguers start getting sidekicks of their own and Bruce is horrified.

Dad mode kicks in.

Do the kids have trackers? Emergency beacons!? At least tell me you guys are always on comms in case you get separated!

What do you mean Kid Flash just got his powers? I don't care if you've worked with him on his powers, did you teach him how to fight? No, of course you didn't. You don't even know how to fight, Barry.

OLIVER QUEEN! Please tell me you didn't adopt Roy JUST because he was an archer! YOU CAN'T TAKE KIDS IN WITH THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF TURNING THEM INTO A HERO! No, Robin decided to become a vigilante on his own with no input from me! I never intended for him to be in a cape! He never would have been in one if I had my way.

I understand she's an amazonian, but she's still a teenager!

Do you have backup systems in place if Garth starts to become dehydrated? You can't just assume there will be water nearby!

And then Bruce kidnaps all the sidekicks and gives them all Bat-level training.

[romeulusroy]

Congrats on the newest milestone!! Could I possible request a Peaky Blinders ship. I'm awkwardly tall to the point my nickname in high school was Amazonian. Mostly introverted until someone I love is wronged then all hell breaks loose. An INFJ Virgo. The type of person burdened with glorious purpose but no idea what to do with it. I live and breath books though the desire often strikes and I write little stories about people and things I love.

I find peace in the darkness under the stars. Have a constant fear of disappointing those I love and end up closing myself off. I'm quiet but once I trust you I could talk passionately for hours on end about myths and books and life.

I despise my ears, they stick out too much from always tucking my hair behind them. I love my freckles, I'm covered head to toe with them. My eyes like to change colors from hazel to green to blue and it trips people up all the time.

People find me intimidating between my height and my 'resting serial killer bitch' face but I swear thats how I look all the time. Only those that know me can tell a difference in my facial expressions. I used to have a lot of friends but I got tired of the bullshit need to fit in all the time. It annoyed me that whole fascination with spending hundreds of dollars on name brand garbage just to look like everyone else.

I always seem to fall for the same kind of guys, the misunderstood. The ones that are angry but protective. The ones that you could sit next to for hours without saying a word and yet somehow just know that the silence is alright. I stopped having high expectations in men after one too many heart breaks. If he's loyal and loves me how I am then that's enough.

What trope are you? Boss and Secretary 💕

All you wanted was a job. They were looking for a secretary, someone who would see all and say nothing. Everyone else was intimidated l, either by rumors or seeing those boys in action. They were crazy, impulsive, violent. You weren't afraid though. This job wouldn't just pay your rent, it had hours that were perfect for your outside interest as well. You didn't care what anyone else had to say, all those warnings. You couldn't stand it. So, you shut them up the best way you knew how: applying for the job. There was no one else who wanted the position, so Tommy hired you right then and there. You'd start the next day. You never minded what you did, or who you did it for. As far as you were concerned, the Shelbys were fine employees. You always got your pay on time. What more could you ask?

John was a flirt and Finn rarely kept his eyes to himself, but you never minded. The boys were respectful, as much as they could be, always saying goodbye when they knew yous be gone by the time they got back. You know, now that you're part of it, you're protected no matter what. Tommy mostly keeps to himself, shunned away in his office, but he's grateful for what you do. And what you don't do. All the things you see and hear, all the things that could take them down if the wrong person knew, he knows you'd never say a thing. He tries to get to know you, in his own Tommy-like way. Where you talk passionately about books and your stories with Arthur and your weekend plans with Isaiah, you're a lot less open when it comes to your boss. You like him enough, he's just not easy to get to know. It's what you were expecting.

Then, one day, Tommy asks if you can come in on a Saturday morning. You do it, knowing you have no other plans. For hours the two of you work together, getting everything organized, making sure everything is by the book. It's quiet, but it's comfortable. You spend time in his office. He catches you looking at the photographs, the ones of his family, younger than you've ever seen them, and his son. You apologize profusely, knowing this was no place to be, but he shrugged it off, chuckling at the photo of Charlie. The photo he was sobbing. Nothing Thomas did or said could make him smile. The little boy decided that day he would not smile. It wasn't funny then, but he could laugh at that now. You're not sure why you say it, but you tell Tonmy about the story you've just finished. The themes of joy and sadness were so real, you felt like you could feel each characters emotions as if they were your own. It's the first time you feel comfortable enough to share, and though he doesn't say it, he's grateful you do. After that, you and Tommy grow closer and closer. His brothers grow a little less flirty, understanding what's happened: their brother has fallen for you in a way he never has with anyone else. He's in love.

~ I hope you like it my love!!! :D Xoxoxo💜💖💜💖💜💖💜

[iamakiller]

FaceTime with Nicole

It’s Self-Care Sunday.  The one day a month Nicole gets to herself.

Henry spent the night at her mom’s yesterday, so Nicole was able to sleep in until the blissful hour of ten. No demands for breakfast.  No cartoons on full blast in the living room.  And absolutely no terrifying drives to the emergency room with an eight year old boy bleeding and crying all over the cream interior of the car.

No, none of that.  Today is all about Nicole.

Face mask on and tub of low-fat non-dairy ice cream beside her on the couch, she has just queued up the first episode of the new season of The Crown on Netflix when her phone goes off.

Of course it’s Charlie.

Fuck.

She answers it without thinking, forgetting that it’s a FaceTime call, so the first thing Charlie says is a rather shocked, “Jesus, Nicole!  What the hell have you done to your face?” and then he starts laughing.

She would scowl at him, but the mask has already started to dry, and she doesn’t want to have to deal with cleaning up shards of it off the couch. “It’s Amazonian Clay,” she tells him shortly.  “Great for anti-aging.  I’ll send you the link, if you want.  You should try it.”

Twenty seconds in to their conversation, and she’s already fired the first shot.  Must be a new record.  But it’s better to start off that way, isn’t it?  Assert dominance before her ex starts running rings around her.  Talking down to her.  Like he always does.

Charlie’s lips briefly press into a thin line, but he doesn’t reply.  The silence stretches … and stretches … and stretches.  Nicole begins to feel stupid and uncomfortable.  Beside her, the ice cream is already beginning to melt.

She cracks first, as always.  “What do you want?” she demands.  “You know Henry’s at my mom’s, right?”

“Yes, I know,” he replies.  She can’t see him rolling his eyes, but she can definitely hear it in the tone of his voice.  “That’s why I’m calling now. I wanted to talk to you without the possibility of him listening in.”

“O-kay,” she says, very slowly.  Now that she thinks about it, he looks rather more serious than usual.  Almost nervous.  And Charlie rarely looks anything but smug, self-satisfied and supremely confident. “You have ten minutes before I need to wash this mask off.  I’m listening.”

Charlie takes a breath ... and then hesitates, as though he doesn’t know where to begin.  Which once again, is completely unlike him.  In the absence of him speaking, Nicole’s mind starts running riot with the possibilities of what he’s about to say.  Maybe he’s going to jail for murder!  Maybe he has cancer!  Maybe he’s relocating to Europe and she’ll never have to see him again …

“It’s about Britt,” he begins, and then stops again, chewing on the inside of his lip in that annoying way he does sometimes.

Nicole frowns.  A puff of dust falls off the face mask, and drops onto the front of her nice white bathrobe, staining it pink.  That name again.  It’s been over a year, and that woman is still around, and Nicole can’t understand why.  Henry talks about her quite often, and has a photo of her, Charlie and himself on his nightstand. Nicole glanced at the photo just once, when Henry had been waving it in her face.  She remembers thinking that Britt didn’t look anything like her.  She didn’t look anything like those floozies Nicole used to convince herself Charlie was just flirting with, either …  “Oh?” she says, in the most disinterested tone anyone in the world has ever used.  “What about her?”

Charlie runs his hand through his hair twice, even though it looks annoyingly perfect as always.  “She’s been offered a transfer at work. We’ll be relocating next month -”

Oh, thank god, Nicole thinks, relief rushing to her head so quickly she almost feels drunk with it. Please let it be far away.  Like Europe.  Or Africa.  Or the moon.  

“- to LA.”

There’s a faint buzzing in her ears.  Her jaw tightens involuntarily.  A couple more chunks fall off the mask, and flutter down onto her robe. “I’m sorry,” she says, softly.  Dangerously.  “I must be hearing things.  I thought you just said you’re moving to LA.”

The bastard actually gulps, but he sounds extremely patronizing when he responds, “I did.  I wanted to let you know as early as possible. I thought it was only fair to keep you in the loop, as it were.”

Fair? Fair?  There is a tirade of words beginning to creep up her throat like a tsunami of bile.  But all she does is nod slowly, and all she says is, “I understand.”

She watches his shoulders slump slightly, and a smile begin to appear. “Okay, good-”

“I just think it’s funny how you’re deciding to do it now.”  The words tumble out of her mouth.  She hadn’t even known she was going to say them.  Hadn’t even thought them.  And now there they are, hanging in the air between them like a bad smell.

The smile fades, and Charlie’s brow creases as he begins to frown. “Excuse me, what?”  He’s keeping his voice quiet and calm.  The hand that isn’t holding the phone is raised, palm facing her, as though he is trying to deal with some rabid animal.

Well, two can play at that game.  Where she blurted out her last sentence, now she speaks slowly, enunciating every word quite clearly.  “It’s really interesting how you promised you were going to move out here two years ago, and then you changed your mind at the last minute.  But now that she wants to-”

The fingers on the raised hand are now flexing slightly.  “We’ve talked about this so many times. You know I’ve been trying to think of a way to make this happen -”

“BULLSHIT!” she yells.  In the quiet of the house, it echoes slightly, so it sounds like there are several Nicoles all calling him on his crap.

That stops him right in his tracks.  Half the goddamn mask has just cracked off, but it was worth it to see the bastard shit himself like that for once. But he’s still not rising to her bait, like she wants him to.  Like she knows he wants to.  He clears his throat.  “Nicole … sweetheart … let’s be reasonable …”

Nicole grits her teeth.  Fucking fucker.  “Don’t you dare ‘sweetheart’ me, Charlie Barber!  Don’t you fucking dare tell me to be reasonable.  I’m just pointing out a fact here.  You wouldn’t do it for Henry.  You wouldn’t move to LA for your own son.  But you’ll do it for her-”

“No. NO -”  Finally, he’s starting to lose his cool.  Finally.

She rolls her eyes.  “Sure, Charlie.”

His mouth opens and closes several times like a fish before he speaks again.  “Listen, Nicole.  Listen.  We’re doing it because I want to be closer to Henry.”

She snorts.  “It’s always about what you want, isn’t it?”

He’s pointing at her now, finger stabbing to emphasize every word he says. “That’s not true-”

This time, she lets out a mirthless HA!  “I get it, Charlie.  Now it’s convenient for you, you’re going to do it.  Well maybe it’s not convenient for us.  Maybe we don’t want you here.  Have you even thought about that?”

His big, stupid mouth snaps shut.  His face has gone even paler than usual.  He’s staring at her like she’s just slapped him.  “What?”

“You can’t just do whatever you want, Charlie.  That’s not how it works.”

He opens his mouth to respond, but she has already hung up on him.

She slams the phone down on the couch, and marches up the stairs to the bathroom to wash the mask off.  It hasn’t been anywhere near ten minutes yet, but she needs to do something; needs to distract herself from the way her hands have begun to shake, and her eyes have started to sting. Even from upstairs, she can hear the phone ringing and ringing, but she ignores it as she dabs her face dry with a towel, then applies toner, moisturizer, eye cream, and a lip mask, all without looking at her reflection in the bathroom mirror.

By the time she’s finished, the phone has stopped ringing.  Nicole straightens her robe and leaves the bathroom, but instead of taking a left and heading back downstairs, she turns right into Henry’s room.  She steps over and around the minefield of Lego that Henry promised he was going to clean up before her mom picked him up last night, sits down on the edge of his unmade bed, and after a few moments turns her gaze towards the photo she’s looked at only once before.

It was taken outside the Museum of Natural History last winter vacation, judging by their attire.  Henry is standing in the middle, clutching his latest haul of dinosaur merchandise, and pulling a funny face at the camera. Both Charlie and the woman have a hand on Henry’s shoulder, and an arm around each other.  Her head is resting against Charlie’s chest, and he is looking down at her and Henry with a small, soft smile.

They look like a family, Nicole thinks, feeling slightly sick.

And just like that, Self-Care Sunday is over.

[seashellsoldier]

“A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear” by Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling

This is undoubtedly the most entertaining book I’ve read in years. Not that libertarianism isn’t hilarious on its own ridiculous footing, but every attempt at some microcosmic utopia fails miserably. Free Town probably earns second prize in crackpot ideas though, just behind Jonestown. “Get yer gov’ment out of my taxes!” “Get yer gov’ment out of my Medicare!” “Get yer gov’ment out of my unemployment insurance . . . those COVID relief checks . . . my potable water . . . the electrical grid . . . fire departments and hospitals and community centers . . . school systems and healthcare and libraries . . . game wardens . . . and bridges . . . and roads . . . and dams . . . and get yer g’damned gov’ment out of my guns, Guns, GUNS!!!!” (To libertarians, it seems, everything can be resolved with guns.)

“The creation of America’s first Free Town was so ambitious in scope that it seemed doomed from the start, and indeed, almost every such population-level social experiment in history has failed spectacularly. Most efforts at planned communities involve artificially populating an uninhabited place, like a stretch of desert or an island—as in 1972, when a Nevada millionaire and his libertarian friends declared independent ownership of an island off the coast of New Zealand (a claim that was promptly quashed by the New Zealand military).

The building of utopias is limited by the rarity of visionaries with deep pockets. Building a new community from scratch requires millions or billions of dollars to create an infrastructure and overcome the challenges preventing people from living there in the first place. Henry Ford, whose assembly line kick-started the automobile revolution, learned this the hard way when his planned Amazonian utopia, Fordlandia, succumbed in the 1930s to the threats of rainforest blight, cultural clashes, and an unhelpful Brazilian government.

The four libertarians who came to New Hampshire had thinner wallets than Ford and other would-be utopians, but they had a new angle they believed would help them move the Free Town Project out of the realm of marijuana-hazed reveries and into reality.

Instead of building from scratch, they would harness the power and infrastructure of an existing town—just as a rabies parasite can co-opt the brain of a much larger organism and force it to work against its own interests, the libertarians planned to apply just a bit of pressure in such a way that an entire town could be steered toward liberty” (p. 48).

New Hampshire really is a microcosm of Caucasian America’s problems, fueled by Ayn Rand’s Galt’s Gulch rose-filtered parable, and the Free Town Project a fringe of that, with Free Town having a fringe of their fringe, and a fringe of that fringe’s fringe on downward into those who wet-dream of 1790s’ live-off-the-land pioneering colonialism.  

“For Grafton’s Free Towners, Rand’s vision of a market-driven society was what kept them privatizing and deregulating everything they could. For seven long years, they joined thrift-minded allies in issuing vociferous challenges to every rule and tax dollar is sight; one by one, expenditures were flayed from the municipal budget, bits of services peeled away like so much flesh”</i> (p. 125). The results are predictably ruinous. Infrastructure fell apart; crime went up; disputes, blame, and tribalism poured from social media feeds into the streets; and all the while, the bears foraged throughout. <i>“What seemed clear was this: in a town that refused to allow the government to protect it from bears, vigilantism seemed the only option. Just as libertarians wanted, it was every man, woman, and bear for themselves” (p. 234).

BBQ BEER FREEDOM

From Ruby Ridge to the Capital Hill insurrection, ignorant flag-waving yokels have screamed for their moronic “freedom” from the chains of civic responsibility, the duties of citizenship, and simple Christian moral accountability. “Freedom. Freedom! To the obedience-averse libertarians, the clarion call was—ironically—irresistible, a liberation-tinted tractor beam that drew them deep into Grafton’s wilds.

Those who moved to Grafton under the banner of the Free Town Project between 2004 and 2009 were free radicals, unbounded to existing living situations, because they had either too much money or not enough” (p. 78). It’s better to watch your neighbor’s house burn down than fund a local fire department.

Now of course if governments big and small managed their budgets better, libertarian-bashing would be an easier argument, Charles Koch, Roger Stone, Jeff Bezos, Donald Trump and their ilk be damned. It’s almost impossible to count how many hundreds of billions—maybe even trillions—of dollars get wasted every year, from healthcare to the military, grift and graft, bridges to nowhere, etc., food and electricity and potable water, subsidies for monolithic industries year after year and decade after decade, and tax breaks/shelters/loopholes for the filthy rich and their corporations, while our physical and human infrastructure continues to suffer and degrade year after year and decade after decade. Our plutocratic priorities are backwards (unless you’re a plutocrat), and finding an unbiased assessment of waste in the US, for me, is challenging. Ugh, I digress.

This really is a funny book; I laughed out loud often at the author’s wit and sarcasm. Hongoltz-Hetling’s literary voice harkens back to the glory days of A Prairie Home Companion, and this cast of characters fits perfectly into the good-natured buffoonery of such backwoods stage-play. These aren’t your Nazi-saluting gym rats cosplaying Call of Duty soldiers with their American flag capes and InfoWars codpieces. These are “rugged men” (and some women) who languish (not unlike Ted Kaczynski) in the woodland fortresses of their own Fantasyland, armed to the hilt and proud of it, and they have apparently been infecting the entire state with their wingnuttery. If New Hampshire tries to “secede from the Union”, I say let ‘em. “From my cold, dead hand!”

(shrug) “OK.”

The bears, of course, have a serious role too, and Hongoltz-Hetling gives them pleasant prominence.   Patrick Blanchfield reviewed this book for The New Republic as well, highlighting the problems of New Hampshire overall (https://newrepublic.com/article/159662/libertarian-walks-into-bear-book-review-free-town-project): “The bear problem, in other words, is much bigger than individual libertarian cranks refusing to secure their garbage. It is a problem born of years of neglect and mismanagement by legislators, and, arguably, indifference from New Hampshire taxpayers in general, who have proved reluctant to step up and allocate resources to Fish and Game, even as the agency’s traditional source of funding—income from hunting licenses—has dwindled. Exceptions like Doughnut Lady aside, no one wants bears in </i>their<i> backyard, but apparently no one wants to invest sustainably in institutions doing the unglamorous work to keep them out either. Whether such indifference and complacency gets laundered into rhetoric of fiscal prudence, half-baked environmentalism, or individual responsibility, the end result is the same: The bears abide—and multiply.”

Another imploding social experiment, but it will surely not be the last. “I have no doubt that Grafton will make the news again, in some wild, unpredictable way. The soil there may be rocky, but it’s fertile ground for dreams, and humans will always be drawn to places where they can slip off the radar of communal oversight and nurture their own private worlds” (p. 316). This nation as a whole needs serious course-correction, and such Petri dishes like the Free Town Project show symptoms of a sick society desperately grasping for alternatives. The fabric is frayed, fraying further, possibly deteriorating for certain circles, and I wonder if it can ever be sewn into the beautiful tapestry it could possibly be.

[evilelitest2]

Sorry, I should've been more clear. I was asking in context of the earlier question you answered about pre colonial Africa. Many of the factors you mentioned are obscuring the history in Africa also affect the pre Columbian Americas, like the bias toward monument building societies who had standing armies and writing, but like you said, the extent of the genocide against indigenous Americans is bigger than in Africa, so that's the kind of comparison I was thinking of.

Oh ok, so like an overview of the continental historiography, yeah I can do that.  

one interesting comparison between the two continents is that in both, certain specific civilizations get a lot of love and attention while most get neglected.  The Aztecs, Inca, and Maya, as well as specific North American tribes (Apache, Iroquois/Haudenosaunee, Sioux) get a TON of attention and focus, while others are totally neglected and ignored.  Just like how in Africa, certain parts of African history get a lot of love (Egypt, the Zulu, Ethiopia) but the rest are neglected.  

So like with Africa, you have a few of the same factors that makes pre-Columbian American history get neglected.  

1) Racism, like with Africa you have the problem of non white history, where the major historical institutions just do not put as much money and energy into the subject as those with white people.  There is so much more written about Native history post 1492 than prior.  However, its actually less neglected than SubSaharan African history is, because white people actually came to live in the America and got interested in the history (eventually).  So you will find a lot more books in English on the history and culture of various Amazonian people groups than those of the Congo.  This probably also has to do with the fact that in many South American countries, Natives or mixed race descendants, still make up a large part of the populations of these nations and play an active part in the historical/political community.  And since these nations are new and generally speaking more powerful than the new African states (wow that is a generalization I am going to respect as all the Nigerains and South Africans get pissed at me) there is a more established histographical tradition 

2) Lack of written sources, or in the case of the Inca, we still haven’t figured out the written sources translation.  Its actually a lot worse than Africa, because while there were Native civilizations that got written languages, a lot less than Africa, and Africa has the advantage of having accounts from Arabic traders in the middle ages.   Once you take into account the centuries of destruction, and we are actually left worse than Africa on that account

3) A multitude of languages.  This isn’t as bad as in Africa though, because most of these are filtered through Spanish, Portuguese or English, so if you speak one of those, it opens up a ton of options for you.  So while the language barrier is still a problem, if you are willing to learn English suddenly there are a tone of new options 

4) Neglect because you didn’t build the big thing.  The Americas gets this less than Africa because some of the “tribal” cultures became huge like...fetish items for various settler civilizations, and while there are a LOT of problems with that (see below) it does mean that groups like the Sioux will get more historical attention.  This tends to only apply to some people groups over others though.  

Then there are some unique challenging facing Native American history vs Africa  

5) Massive genocide on an almost unimaginable scale.  Don’t get me wrong, the colonization of Africa was abominable and was full to the brim of various genocides.  However the vast majority of the African civilizations who were subjected to colonization are...still around.  Subjected to cultural erasure and murder but they still exist.  Meanwhile with the Native Americans, entire regions are just...gone forever.  And this isn’t just because the Europeans were a lot more genocidal focused in the Americas than in Africa (thought that is a factor). A big factor is the “Great Dying” which was the series of plagues unleashed by the arrival of the europeons, which possibly killed up to 90% of the new world, up to 110 million people, sometimes even before Europeans even encountered them.  Then Europeans massacred like 90% of people on top of that.  SInce most of what we rely upon here is oral history...yeah that really hurts.   

6) Deliberate cultural erasure.  This was also evident in Africa but was never really as successful, the various colonial regimes in the Americas really made an effort to wipe out native culture, and while entirely successful, which adds to the problem of oral history

7) However, due to the US being the most powerful nation in the world, it does mean that a lot of historical societies who are into local history get into Native American history, so despite all of those disadvantages, Pre Columbia Americna history is actually a lot easier to access than most African history, because there is a ton of interest.  I’ve studied at three universities in the US and all of them offered some sort of Native history course, and none of them offered a pre colonial African, and some of these research schools have been around for centuries.  Now there is the problem of cultural fetishism, where white people start to take on a Utopian vision of pre Columbian society which just gets in the way of real history, but there is genuine interest so it is a LOT easier to get into Native History, doubly so if you can read Spanish.  

[segersgia]

Looking Back Part 6: Drukhari

Xenos got scraps when it came to releases, but if you’d ask me which race got it the worst this edition, then it would be the Dark Eldar. 

Yes, Tyranids didn’t get anything this edition, and other races like the T’au and the Harlequins got like one new miniature, but at least the stuff they did get looked good.

The Dark Eldar have been a faction that I like aesthetically, yet I am constantly baffled at some of the design choices Games Workshop makes when making a new iteration of their models. For Example the Archon and the Succubus. Their 5th edition models looked absolutely gorgeous, with the Archon being an absolute badass helm and posture and the Succubus looking like an absolute Amazonian warrior. When they got redesigned in seventh, the Succubs gained a dynamic pose, but lost its buffness. The Archon became something even worse, instead of a helmet, he got a bare head that looks like a mixture between hugo weaving and Darth Maul, but without the charisma of both. It looks absolutely terrible. 

Incubi:

Incubi are some of the most powerful Dark Eldar warriors that you could ever encounter on the battlefield. However, they aren’t part of the Drukhari military, for they do’t show any allegiance towards anyone save their shrine and their Dark Father. Instead, they sell their services as mercenaries towards anyone willing enough to pay for them. They mostly serve as bodyguards to Archons. 

To become an Incubus is a very perilous and difficult task. The training that an Aeldari needs to do is very straining on their bodies and those that do not succeed are sacrificially executed at a Khainite Shrine. The trick to mastering Incubi training is to bassically be a prodigy that learns their teachings at a unnatural pace. One of the final parts of their training involves killing an Aspect Warrior and turning their Soulstone in a Psychic torture device. 

Unlike most Drukhari, who want to backstab each other at every ripe opportunity, the Incubi show restraint and once paid for, will hold their end of the bargain up like a life-oath. This is why they are so sought after in Drukhari society, since you can trust your life upon an Incubus.

Incubi wield Klaives, which are Power Swords capable of cleaving through Space Marine armour. Their armour is also equal to that of Space Marine armour; the Incubus warsuit grants the same amount of protection without inhibiting the wearers dexterity.

While the overall design of the Incubi is good, and the amount of little details, such as trophies, is very nice, I don’t particularly like this iteration, because the posing is bland. It is fine, but not something I particularly find very interesting. My main problem with these models is the size of their heads, which are way too big. The Banshees didn’t have this problem and the older models didn’t either. I also wished the horns were way shorter, instead withholding the longer horns for Klaivexes.

I do once again like the little shrine object they have. It does however look like a striking scorpion (which might hint at their origins.)

6/10

Klaivex:

A Klaivex is the Incubi equivalent of the Archon. They are the leaders of their group and their skill with the Klaive is unparallelled. An Incubi becomes a Klaivex through a trial that proves their absolute mastery of the blade, often through some horrid ritual. Of course, failing this trial will result in the aspiring Klaivex to be killed.

They carry Demiklaives, which they weild in two hands and can be connected together to create a massive Klaive. 

Once again they have an unhelmeted version that indicates the Klaivex being part of the Ynnari. If the masks of the incubi are similar to that of aspect warriors, than it would make sense that the ynnari didn’t wear them. 

Almost everything about the Incubi can be applied to the Klaivex; a cool looking model with nice details made unflattering due to the size of the head and their posing. I really don’t like the pose on this.one, and I wish he had a way more stationary or restraint pose. The Bare head looks bad, because no Drukhari looks good when they have the same hairstyle as Abbadon. 

5/10

Drazhar: 

Drazhar is the champion of the Incubi Order. He is the executioner of the Incubi and his services are sought out by anyone willing to pay the fine. He, like the rest of the Incubi, wears the Incubus warsuit, and it is rumoured that he wears the original template of the gear. He goes into battle carrying Demiklaives and uses them like a whirlwind. He is taller than his brethren and way faster in both speed and in combat.

Much rumours surround Drazhar. It is said that he was once Ahra, the Phoenix Lord of the Striking Scorpions, and that within the suit is nothing but dust. This would become confirmed during the Psychic Awakening.

During Phoenix Rising, Drazhar was hired by Asdrubael Vect to kill Yvraine. He failed to do that, but he was able to kill Jain Zar in the process. However, Jain Zar got ressurected by Ynnead and Drazhar went back to try to kill her again. Instead, he got killed. Yet this wasn’t the end for Drazhar. A Klaivex found his armour and put it on, and as you would expect, the Klaivex got posessed by the spirit of Drazhar. Thus Drazhar was reborn again.

The model looks good. Yet I absolutely am dissapointed at how it looks. 

Why? 

Because I’ve seen what could’ve been. Look at this artwork of him in the early days. 

He looks like a Tyranid Lictor and it looks absolutely awsome. I would’ve loved it if he still had those weapons and posing. He would’ve looked way more menacing and unique.

Instead, He is just a larger and more detailed Klaivex on a scenic base. He looks so boring and generic because of it.

I was so dissapointed with this. Give him the Lictor Look and he would look so much better. 

3/10

——–

I was really dissapointed with the Drukhari releases. It didn’t help that they got hyped to a ridiculous degree. They teased us so badly that everyone was expecting more, and Games Workshop didn’t deliver.

I am cautiously excited though for what 9th edition might bring us. We have been teased a new and Improved Lelith Hesperax Model. One that also gives her some pants finally.

 I’m hoping that it will look as good if not better than her previous iteration. I am a staunch believer that Lelith’s current model is one of the best looking sculpts that Games Workshop has done. 

It will be a while before I’m posting again. I will be working at a summer camp, teaching children the basics of digital art and digital painting. So wish me luck on that. 

Next up: Primaris vehicles and Walkers.

previous posts: Primaris Mainline Infantry, Death Guard Infantry, Craftworld Aeldari, Primaris Vanguard Infantry, Chaos Space Marine Infantry/terrain

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

The thing I love about Otto, he is the guy who...Peter Parker is supposed to be the everyman, and in a lot of ways he is, but he is always dating the most beautiful women in the world...supermodels, Gwen Stacy...And Otto was the guy, I am not a big fan of the late-90s as an era of Spider-Man. There was a character called Stunner who came along and was this big Amazonian woman with super-strength, who was Otto's partner and love-interest and the big reveal was that she was a virtual reality simulation and the real person was an overweight woman in a virtual reality machine. But when Otto finds out he says, I didn't love you for what you looked like, I loved you for your mind...I can’t remember if she [Aunt May]  saw Betty [Brant] as a bit of a Jezebel because she was older

We er...we really need to unpack this. I already did a post where I cited the above as part of why Christos Gage should never have been allowed to write Spider-Man.

But lets dive deeper into the idiocy of this. 

First of all if nothing else the above quote and panels really do prove beyond doubt that Marvel knew what they were doing when they paired Slott and Gage...well sorta. Gage and Slott’s approaches to Spider-Man fundamentally come from the same place of fundamental misunderstanding and regressive beliefs thus they were perfect to work together. It’s just that Gage is a comparatively more competent writer than Slott and therefore Slott should’ve been HIS understudy and fill-in guy not the other way around.

So let’s dive into the less awful bits first. Like Slott Gage doesn’t know his continuity and is too lazy to even google it.

Let’s put aside how Stan Lee himself  stated Betty Brant is younger  than Peter NOT older, the age difference would’ve been insignificant enough (Peter was a senior in high school when he was dating Betty, that’s stated in the issues) so what is this ‘Jezebel’ crap? The fact his mind would go to that rather than just Aunt May thinking MJ would be a better match is at best eyebrow raising.

Moving on, the crux of his assessment of Otto and Stunner’s relationship is way off the mark. Ignoring the fact that Stunner and the reveals made about her occurred in 1994-1995 (so literally not the LATE 1990s at all), he’s totally distorted the story as it unfolded. As such let me show you some of the relevant pages.

Gage’s assessment of Otto and Stunner’s relationship hinges upon two interconnected ideas.

a) Otto was unaware that her stunning appearance was a facade and

b) That he didn’t care upon finding out

As you can see that is a distortion of what the actual stories conveyed.

Otto was always  aware Stunner’s appearance was a facade because he invented the technology that made it possible in the first place!

Otto also began dating her BEFORE she became Stunner. This does indeed support the idea that for him outer beauty is not that relevant. 

For myself I find this idea debatable for a few reasons. Not only in the above images does he directly refer to Stunner as beautiful and the love of such a beautiful woman makes him happy but in the classic Spec #75 Bill Mantlo implies Otto took a fancy to Felicia due to her being attractive.

I grant you it’s far from impossible to interpret that Otto in fact was referring to Stunner’s personality as beautiful and took a shining to Felicia for reasons beyond her looks. In fact I find that interpretation interesting. But both examples hurt the narrative of Otto being a man who doesn’t care about outer beauty, even before you get to the fact that in Superior he was oggling and actively trying to fucking rape Mary Jane! What exactly about her  ‘inner beauty’ led to him doing this?

Then of course you have his relationship with Aunt May which has been treated as genuinely romantic when it’s very unlikely to be that.

The truth is Doc Ock has been inconsistently written over the decades so pinning down that he’s a man who doesn’t care about a woman’s outer beauty in regards to his feelings for them is extremely iffy.

His dynamic with Stunner and Gage’s assessment is even iffier as the pages detailing his ‘courting’ of her prior to her becoming empowered can definitely be interpreted as him actively manipulating her for his own ends. He needed a test subject for his technology, a technology he was hoping could essentially ensure he’d live beyond the demise of his mortal body and mind (which obviously happened in Superior). Angela was that test subject, he either came across or scouted her out with the explicit intention of having her use his machine. 

Because we only get brief flashes of their relationship it’s unclear if he was 100% decieving and manipulating her (as he was to Anna Maria and Mary Jane) or if he was sincere in his affections, at least on some level. Maybe he even started out manipulating her but grew to genuinely care for her before or after her transformation into Stunner.

My point is it’s not this grand moral victory for Otto that he cared for Angela even though she was overweight.

Which brings me to the most damning thing about Gage’s comments.

According to him Otto is better than Peter because Otto didn’t date supermodels or sexy cat burglars.

Much like all his work with Otto before and during his Superior run, Gage practically wanks off the character.

You see Otto is ‘different. He’s not like ‘those other guys’, or more specifically ‘that Peter Parker guy’. HE doesn’t date supermodels or sexy cat burglars. 

He just keeps the sexy cat burglars as his ‘guests’ that he won’t let leave his lair, will date by deception and attempt to rape the supermodels and will probably manipulate vulnerable overweight women for his own selfish scientific pursuits and date them sincerely once they’ve transformed into wrestling divas.

Of course in reality, romantic and sexual attraction is something none of us can help and we are going to feel about whoever however we’re going to feel, and the harsh truth is a lot (but not all) of the time outer appearences do matter, or at least they do when it comes to initial attractions. Often in healthy relationships they matter less as time goes by, but are rarely totally irrelevant. Nobody, of any sex, gender or sexuality, is shallow for on some level taking looks into account for how they feel about a romantic or sexual partner, at least on some level.

In Peter’s case Gage’s assessment (which synchs up with Slott’s) of him as shallow is so asinine because he clearly doesn’t just care about looks. In fact semi-famously in the classic Romita stories his initial attraction for Mary Jane fades after he (incorrectly, and unfairly) starts to view her as shallow and little more than her looks.

No doubt about it that chicks’s as pretty as a pumpkin seed...and just about as shallow.

ASM #45*

Peter late of course dumps  Black Cat in part because she doesn’t love him for who he is, and only cares about him as Spider-Man. He wants someone who will share a life with him, whom he can connect with. If he was only interested in her because she was sexy why would he do that?

And of course this is to say nothing of the absolute denigration Gage’s comments pay to both MJ and her relationship with Peter.

I’ve felt this way for awhile now but to be blunt, if a writer ever just sums up MJ as a ‘supermodel’ I’m going to presume they either don’t understand her character and/or hold some messed up opinions. Putting aside how MJ hasn’t a model (super or otherwise) for most of her history it’s just messed up that everything else about her is dismissed in favour of pushing that profession and treating it as a summation of who she is as a character.** 

Because whenever creators or characters sum up MJ as a supermodel what they really mean is ‘she’s just a shallow, pretty face’.  Which is so facepalm worthy ironic because the crux of Mary Jane’s entire character since The Death of Gwen Stacy in 1973  has been that people THINK she is just a shallow pretty face but she in fact absolutely isn’t!

And aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall the stuff that is relevant to why she isn’t is literally the reason Spider-Man fell in love with her in the first place. All the guilt, regret, insecurities, bravery, sense of responsibility and inner strength that subverted what we thought we knew about her, that’s the shit that her and Spider-Man’s romance is built upon. 

How the fuck does anyone miss that! It’s not even like you need to read deeply to see it, just read a Wikipedia entry!

It isn’t the crux of Felicia’s character, but the same applies to her. What jackass in this day and age (or indeed since the 1980s) honestly thinks Black Cat is nothing but sex appeal? There is an entire goddam Black Cat ongoing series demonstrating she is more than that! Gage is a goddam relic at this point!

On the flipside of course is poor Anna Maria.

Once upon a time Anna Maria was the best character in Spider-Man. Back in the dark days of 2013 and 2014 when Superior was going strong, MJ was out of the picture and the best Spider-Man books on the stand were about a kid replacing a dead AU Peter Parker and Peter Parker’s clone, Anna Maria was a stand out.

A new character with a personality, likable, a new love interest for ‘Spider-Man’ that on paper made a certain amount of sense even though the circumstances were disgusting. And on top of that she provided a dash of representation that was handled in an appropriate way.

As time went by she gradually devolved as a character and went way off the rails to the point where now she’s being a misogynistic asshole to other women by judging them for their looks. It’s so fucked up because she herself has been judged for her looks, just in a very different way whilst the likes of those ‘shallow’ women she cites have never said a bad word to her or to my knowledge anyone else on the basis of how they were born. 

Good job Gage, this is probably the last time we’re going to see Anna Maria and you’ve fully transitioned me from a guy who kind of wanted her to stick around in some capacity as a regular supporting player for Peter into a guy who would be delighted for her to forgotten and never appear again. 

Fuck Gage.

Fuck Superior

Fuck the entire asinine, mishandled, clusterfuck of an era that outstayed it’s welcome circa December 2012!

*In fairness he does bring up he might just be thinking ill of MJ because he’s upset about other things. See, THAT is a more even handed and on point depiction of Peter Parker being flawed. But Stan Lee being a better writer than Gage or Slott shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone.

**Not to mention ‘supermodel’ shouldn’t even be used as shorthand for ‘shallow person’ in the first place. Are supermodels not people too? Are they incapable of being intelligent or having worth outside of their looks? I mean FFS we live in a world where this (starting at 3:37) really happened:

[itsblosseybitch]

Well Dunne by Fred Schruers (from Rolling Stone magazine, November 7th, 1985)

The star of ‘After Hours’ knows how to produce a lot of laughs

The day Warner Bros. previewed After Hours at its Burbank, California, studio for a randomly selected public - “People who may have been coming out of Wendy’s on La Cinega” is how Griffin Dunne puts it - leading man Dunne and his co-producer, Amy Robinson, joined a line of cars stop-and-going through the gates to the studio. As he tells about it now, a month later, he mimes the part of a power-buzzed security man clutching a walkie-talkie: “Get these people out of there...Can’t let the audience see you, sir...We’re at Building C, walking the producer and the star over now...” 

They hid Griffin in the projection booth till the lights went down. Then he sneaked in and listened. Very happily. “They laughed. Went crazy. You couldn’t hear the dialogue.”

A lot of his best lines got lost in the hubbub then, no? Dunne lets his swivel chair rock down from a perilous two-legged tilt and gives the serious, almost beady-eyed take meant to remind you what an alarmingly hostile world we live in: “Let that be the most serious of my problems.”

In fact, Dunne has hardly any problems just now that stand much chance of knocking him from the embrace of the bitch goddess Success. Costing roughly $4 million and described by director Martin Scorsese as “an experimental, psychological farce,” After Hours took only one September weekend to show it would clamber out of cult status and be recognized as something the studio could platform into a nice little hit. 

As a producer, then, the thirty-year-old Dunne is at speed. The grudging credit the industry gave him for co-producing Chilly Scenes of Winter, at age twenty-three, and added to with 1982′s Baby, It’s You (OP NOTE: This is an error. Should be 1983), must now give way to admiration. As an actor, he’s got many people besides the studio guards referring to him as an arriving star. He’s onscreen in virtually every frame in After Hours, and his highly expressive face, which seems to be hastily if handsomely thrown together, accented with dark eyebrows and riveting brown eyes, is undeniably crucial to our comic appreciation of the very odd goings-on during the protagonist’s interminable night among the sexually flawed denizens of artsy SoHo. Whether recoiling from the kinky come-ons of Rosanna Arquette’s Marcy and Linda Fiorentino’s Kiki, feeling mousetrapped by Teri Garr’s Julie, marked for slaughter by Catherine O’Hara’s Gail or imprisoned by Verna Bloom’s June, he’s a catalog of nearly nuanced lab-rat reflexes. 

The key to Dunne’s performance is clearly reaction, as Amy Robinson points out: “It was imperative in this movie that the character be very likable. Otherwise, why would you want to spend this hour and a half going through such trials and tribulations?”

Adam Brooks, who directed him in this year’s unkindly received Almost You, judges Griffin to be just the right everyman for this opening up in Scorsese’s work. “He’s alone, like other Scorsese heroes, but not obsessed. He’s more like us - a child of computers and television. Lonely, but not driven.”

“A lot of people say Griffin looks like Dudley Moore, but I think he’s a lot more like Jack Benny - his comedy works when he’s surrounded by a lot of crazy people, crazy events. He’s charming, endearing. What’s great about After Hours is that the charm gets defeated at every point and ends up being a kind of vanity - so you’ve got this nicely mounting hysteria.”

The Joseph Minion script for After Hours - dispatched to Griffin after being handed to Amy Robinson by Minion’s film-school professor, director Dusan Makavejec - caught the actor’s fancy on page 2. He could sink right into the role of Paul Hackett, a lonely and bored word processor who meets an enticing girl at a coffee shop. “I understood the speech patterns, the other characters and the tension. And the situation of a horrible date. Of being with somebody, trapped in a situation. I’m looking around the room, going ‘How do I get out of here? And how the hell did I get in here?’ Which is a pretty funny basis for a movie.”

“My only criterion for directing Griffin,” says Scorsese, “was ‘I don’t believe you. For all you know, you’re pleading for your life. If I don’t believe you, I’m not gonna print this take, and we’ll just continue till I believe you.’ He had to get in touch with something in here, he had to plead for his life. And that was - fun.”

Thomas Griffin Dunne was born June 8th, 1955, in New York City, the first of three children of Dominick and Ellen (known as Lenny). His father was a Connecticut-bred, Williams-educated stage manager en route to producer status; his mother was an actress and model raised in Nogales, Arizona, by her Mexican mother and her cattle-rancher father, Thomas Griffin. Dominick worked on everything from Howdy Doody to Playhouse 90, and when colleague Martin Manulis moved to Los Angeles in 1956, Dominick took his work and family went as well. 

They settled in then quaint Beverly Hills (”Not the Iranian gun boutiques they’ve got now,” grumbles Griffin), where Griffin hung out with other showbiz whelps, like Carrie Fisher, until heading east to a prestigious old prep school. One unfortunately whimsical day, under the influence of a notorious Moby Grape album cover, he extended his middle finger toward the camera in the football-team photo. By chance, two years later, the headmaster glanced at the photo; the punishment was five swats. 

(OP NOTE: I actually contacted Fay School about this photo, and they claimed they didn’t have it. In hindsight, I should have tried a different approach because, to quote Mandy-Rice Davies, “Well they would, wouldn’t they?”)

Next stop was a less stodgy boys school in Colorado, where he won a plum role in The Zoo Story as a sophomore and became “Joe Theater” on campus. By senior year, he was preparing for his greatest performance, as Iago in Othello. The evening before the big day, Griffin and a friend were in a dorm room contentedly smoking dope when the door swung open. They smothered the joint just in time to look up at the school’s “one badass” faculty member, who asked, “What’s that smell?” “There was the longest pause,” recalls Griffin. “Finally, I said ‘What smell?’ “ The smoke, he says, “just poured right out - mocked me.”

Griffin, sent packing, hitchhiked home quite certain that his proper trade was acting. He got a bit part in Medical Story as an intern hooking up an I.V. line amid much medical palaver, but they changed the diagnosis on him at the last minute. Frantically trying to memorize the new bit during a five-minute break, he burned his lip trying to light a cigarette and went before the camera lisping, sweating, shaking, and bereft of words. Actress Linda Purl took pity and wrote his lines on her forearm, where the I.V. was to go. “It was such a classy move,” he says.

Still, deciding he’d better learn the trade from scratch, Griffin migrated to New York and joined the legion of struggling actors. He was catastrophically nervous at auditions: when he went before the stern Uta Hagen to apply for her acting class, he “went up” - completely forgot the text he’d prepared from The Catcher In The Rye. So he improvised, giving the story that morning’s trip downtown as Holden Caulfield might tell it. She was alternately rapt and chuckling, and signed him on. But he was soon shown to be the dunce of a class full of working actors. Finally, one day after he set a prop door up backward for a solo exercise, then frenziedly tried to shove it the wrong way through the jamb, she took him aside and told him he was simply not ready for her class. But he begged her one more chance, and the next day he skipped forward several exercises to do an imaginary phone call. He wowed Hagen and the class and went on from there.

As he built off-Broadway credits, Dunne lived in various shabby apartments and worked odd jobs, notably, selling candy and popcorn at Radio City Music Hall, where he was stung by the indifference of the Amazonian Rockettes: “They certainly had no time for a guy in a polyester zip-up baby-blue jacket with a cadet hat and shoes two sizes too big that had belonged to an usher who died of old age.”

He met Amy Robinson, who had gone from Scorsese’s Mean Streets to searching for work, at a party. With a third actor, Mark Metcalf, they became upstart movie producers by optioning Ann Beattie’s Chilly Scenes of Winter. Joan Micklin Silver came in as screenwriter and director, and they got studio financing to make a cult prestige item. It marked the beginning of a time of happy overwork for Griffin. He came back from shooting a TV film called The Wall in Poland (opposite Rosanna Arquette) to do the play Coming Attractions, which he then left to do John Landis’ film An American Werewolf in London.

He had come back to work full-time on producing Baby, It’s You when horrible news came: his sister, Dominique, a promising young actress, was strangled to death at the age of twenty-two by her boyfriend, a chef at Ma Maison. 

“It brought all of us who were left together for every moment for a year between what happened and the verdict,” says Dominick Dunne. “It’s never for a moment not a part of you. The point is, you have to go on, you have to cope, to live your life. He threw himself into his work.”

Baby, It’s You was completed that year and dedicated to his sister. Then, even as he helped with script revisions to After Hours, Griffin was before the cameras in Adam Brooks’ Almost You. It’s about a couple suffering from the young man’s restlessness, and though Dunne and Brooke Adams agreed to do it while they were very much a couple, by the time it got financing, they were just friends. “I guess you could say they had a lot to work with,” says Brooks. “but that never interfered with the production.”

Griffin’s been seeing New York actress Ellen Barkin lately; she was on his arm for the New York premiere of the film and afterward was a proud but not proprietary presence as he accepted congratulations well into the night from a buzzing crowd of friends at a downtown restaurant. He was due to head cross-country for promotional chores, but he’s got further plans for his unusually hyphenated career. He and Amy Robinson have optioned the hit play The Foreigner, written by the late Larry Shue. And after the rigors of making After Hours on a nocturnal schedule, Griffin is very happy to have the phone plugged back in and the shades up. 

(OP NOTE: As I mentioned in the transcript for the American Film article, The Foreigner never materialized as a feature film, though Robin Williams was attached at one point. That’s all the information I have about that at the moment.)

“I noticed that Griffin is the kind of guy who gets around a lot, parties a lot,” says Scorsese, “and I knew the hardest part of his job was sustaining the anxiety for eight weeks of shooting.” The director pauses for a grin that demands to be called devilish. “So I told him, ‘No sex for eight weeks. We’ve got careers on the line here. I don’t want you up at night talking, wasting your time and your precious bodily fluids.’

“Really, the idea was to contain him and keep him in this night world for eight weeks, ‘cause his performance depended on anxiety, and if he was satisfied, he would never be able to get that.”

Dunne, reminded later of the challenge, tips back his chair and grins to himself. “Aw, that was easy to live up to,” he says, then waits a beat to settle into the deadpan expression that is such a comic weapon for him. “Did you ever try to get a date a six-thirty in the morning?”