#i learned a lot!

[beezter]

I like to imagine that, when she was feeling less angry, Eurydice played Orpheus' music and remembered the good times

I deleted my art side blog a while ago, so I'll be slowly reposting some of my older stuff here

[airenfolio]

I did these two pieces for a dnd group this past week!

[kithj]

i finally finished Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe and whew what a book. probably one of my favorite non-fiction books i've ever read, and the audiobook was excellent.

this book really gives a lot of context and nuance around the case, and i really really enjoyed the "deep dive" into Dolours Price and Brendan Hughes. especially with Dolours Price, because we really get to follow her from the start, first as peaceful student protestor, then her radicalization, and ultimately her disillusionment and trauma following the hunger strikes. both with the Price sisters and Hughes we really get to see the kind of... long-term effects, mentally and physically, of so much trauma and violence. but i never felt that Keefe was unfairly harsh nor did he try to demonize armed resistance; in my opinion, he did seem to have an understanding about why people like Hughes and Price did what they did. he does criticize the loyalists and the British army as well, and even comments on the asymmetry in accountability after the good friday agreement, but overall the book is definitely way more focused on the provisional IRA-- it's definitely not a full look at the troubles, but i think it's a good starting point. it's definitely written for American audiences.

which brings me to my criticisms. about half-way through i started looking up the work of Ed Moloney, who is referenced a lot throughout the book & collaborated with Keefe, sharing resources and interviews, etc. Moloney does not like this book. he alleges that Keefe purposefully omitted primary sources that he himself gave him, that confirmed the presence of informers in Divis Flats as well as confirmed the use of the so-called "mysterious radio." Moloney does consider that this could have been something publishers made him do-- after all, the "good vs evil" / "perfect victim" narrative (which Keefe even acknowledges in the book!) is far more digestible than the messy reality of the time. it's really a shame, because i felt that Keefe had otherwise presented it consistently and with great skill and honesty up until the very end. there's really no need to omit information-- the murder of Jean McConville is unjustifiable, regardless. Moloney then goes on to call into question Keefe's history as a policy advisor within the US Office of the Secretary of Defense-- which was not disclosed with Moloney while they were working together, and seems to be purposefully obfuscated in Keefe's author/journalist profile. which leads Moloney to believe the omission was intentional and Keefe's own personal decision.

there's also the matter of the way Keefe presents this book. he calls it "narrative non-fiction" rather than history or true crime. i think he does this solely so he can get around the fact that this book has NO numbered footnotes. the way the sources are compiled for this book is criminal, and it makes a lot of the information appear as if it's all coming directly from Keefe. the reality is that a lot of this information is already very well-known and has been thoroughly investigated & covered by Irish journalists like Moloney, and it's their work that Keefe is presenting to his American audience. i didn't realize this until i looked up Moloney's articles, because i was listening to the audiobook (which also doesn't even include any kind of sourcing at the end, it's only in the print copies.)

ultimately, i did really enjoy this book. i do think it's incredibly well-researched and does a great job exploring the aftermath of colonial violence and trauma and how even decades and generations later it is still carried on in the people's memory. also some excellent commentary from those involved in the Boston Tapes; there's a particular line towards the end from Anthony McIntyre that i keep thinking about:

How will the truth of what really happened during the Troubles ever come out, he asked, if the authorities file murder charges against anyone who has the nerve to talk about it? ‘I would describe the PSNI stance as one of prosecuting truth, rather than procuring truth,’ he said in an interview.

all that to say if you read this i would take Keefe's final conclusions with a grain of salt. also definitely read Moloney's article alongside this book. i don't necessarily believe one over the other, since the argument could be made that Moloney is just trying to protect those involved. but i do think it's important to question Keefe's choices in how he presented this information. we're never going to know the truth-- just like Keefe calls into question the memories and testimonies of those involved, we should also question him, and why he's telling us this story, and why he's telling it in this way.

[effses]

Would you catch a precious little snowflake on your snout, knowing it would melt?

(Date: Nov 2021)

[feathersnek]

Feather's Tales of the Rays Nostalgia Journey

We finished arc 1 of full voice! To celebrate, I made a highlight video of our journey! (Major Spoiler warning. We do talk about the other arcs)

Rays means a lot to me, and I love the characters and story with all my heart. We've been doing live sub/TL streams starting from arc 1 to experience full voice and take a look at the story again from the beginning!

I'm an amateur with the language, so I was very nervous and still am, but it's been a blast going through the story again with friends. The script changes and voicing made arc 1 so much stronger too!

Soon we'll be starting Mirrage Prison! I'll have subs for the first few videos, with many thanks to the Tales of Rays English Project team for letting me use their subtitles! But after that I'm on my own.

Feel free to come hang out! My schedule is right over here: https://www.twitch.tv/feathersnek/schedule

If you're unfamiliar with the story, but are interested in checking it out, there are a lot of translations out there, including my summaries of Arc 4 on my own Discord!

[morningsaidthemoon]

might continue work on this one,, ✨✨

[buzzrds]

here's my wonderful isopod child, handcrafted in leather

[octarineblues]

supporting communities & people impacted by the Southport attack and the far-right riots in the UK

here is a list of community fundraisers I found, starting with those aiming to support the Southport community after the appalling attack at a children dance party, to the fundraisers helping those affected by the subsequent racist and Islamophobic far-right/nazi riots

Edited on 5 August to include Middlesbrough fundraisers. Edited on 6 August to correct the link on the Books for Spellow Lane fundraiser, to adjust the name change for the Belfast fundraiser, and to adjust the wording in the second last paragraph.

Southport:

Southport Strong Together Appeal - organised by the community foundation for Merseyside, for those affected by the Southport knife attack

United for Southport families - the funds will be distributed among the nine families of the children who were at the party

Swifties for Southport - a fundraiser for the Alder Hey Children's charity, which supports the victims and the affected families, as well as first responders and clinicians. Extra funds will also support the wider Southport community

Fundraiser for the Southport Mosque - a fundraiser to aid rebuilding or possibly re-locating the Southport Mosque after the damages it suffered during the riots

Rebuilding Windsor Mini Mart - fundraiser to rebuild the locally-owned grocery store that was targeted during the attacks, broken into, and looted

Liverpool:

Fundraiser for the Spellow Hub - the Spellow Hub was broken into, looted and set on fire at night during the riots. The Spellow Hub is a newly created one-of-a-kind (in the UK) institution, which consists of a library as well as a community centre with a mission to help people get education and pathways to work

Books for Spellow Lane - another fundraiser for the library in the Spellow Hub, to replace the books and rebuild the library there edit: included the correct link

Hartlepool:

Fundraiser for the Nasir Mosque - the Nasir Mosque was attacked following Southport riots; this fundraiser is organised by Hartlepool citizens to help the mosque deal with the damages as well as to show appreciation for the role of the mosque in the community. edit: the funds will be also distributed to the local community!

Rebuilding the Farm Shop - the shop was targeted during the riots, and when the owner and his son tried to protect it, they were also violently attacked. The fundraiser is to help fix the damages to the store.

Sunderland:

help rebuild Citizens Advice Sunderland offices after arson - two of the Citizens Advice Sunderland offices were set on fire during the riots, and one of them is completely destroyed.

Hull:

Hull Help for Refugees - a local fundraiser to support the Hull Help for Refugees charity, the donated money will be re-distributed to community members affected by the riots

Fundraiser for Hull Help for Refugees and Welcome House in Hull - collected money will be donated to the two charities

Belfast:

help fix racially motivated damages - originally the fundraiser for the Sahara Shisha Cafe which was targeted by the far right in Belfast during the riots, now a fundraiser for all affected businesses in the area. edited to reflect the change of the name of the fundraiser to avoid any confusion

Middlesbrough:

Supporting residents after the riots - Middlesbrough has suffered so much during the riots, lots of businesses as well as just regular family homes were vandalised, had their windows smashed or even were broken into. This fundraiser wants to distribute the funds between affected people to help them fix the damages, and to generally support the local community. the newest fundraiser, imo potentially the most urgent one

Fundraiser for a Care worker's car which was set on fire - a car belonging to an employee of a care agency was set on fire during the riots while he was on shift at a care home.

If you want to donate locally but there is no fundraiser to support where you live, consider donating to your local charities oriented towards Muslim or PoC communities, or towards anti-racist and refugee organizations! And go support your local Muslim/Arab/Black/Asian/Refugee owned businesses!

If you have any information about other local fundraisers, feel free to add to the post or don't hesitate to let me know and I will add them here! We have seen so much hate in the past few days, we have to stay strong and keep supporting each other!

Stay safe everyone 💛

[catshinji]

hmm.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

HOT, SINGLE, UNSTUDIED SPONGES. 3000 NAUTICAL MILES AWAY. Come sail the distance and read Tiger Tiger!

[gambeque]

somethin 4 the Alterna Zine 🦖🦖

[lara-cairncross]

yesterday’s scribbles pt 1

[parisoonic]

pals drinking together (hand practice that got out of control)

[nikoisme]

bones in the ocean

[mearchy]

The best fics are the ones that recognize that although Luke Skywalker may APPEAR on the outside to be a normal friendly twink who happens to have cool powers, especially when contrasted with such ship partners as Boba or Din or even Han, he is arguably the scariest person alive in the galaxy around the prequel era. AND, crucially, he is also a fundamentally weird guy. This man was homeschooled on a rural farm his entire life and then apprenticed to a swamp gremlin who showed him how to tap into the cosmic power of the universe. He blew up the death star age 19, killing approx 2 million-ish Imperials. He is a vortex of Force power that can communicate with the ghosts of dead Jedi. He’s staring into the distance and mumbling to himself and doing Yoda aphorisms and casually pulling out the “yeah I could crush that guy into a paste with my mind (:” and nobody around him knows what to do with that. I think he is a character who has very little frame of reference for how a Jedi or a person in general is supposed to act and there is some thing about him that is by necessity really fucking weird and a little scary but he’s so nice that it can throw you off the scent a little bit. Thanks for coming to my TED talk

[scalierpepper]

"Pyrrha crossed over to the truck, to Nona, and leant heavily into the interior; Nona could see that she was sweating, in exactly the same way she had sweated after the bottle of bleach. She mumbled 'You knew this was happening. You knew this was happening months ago,' and when Nona put her hand on Pyrrha's, it was like Pyrrha hadn't even noticed her."