#revenant pico

[dracomeir]

Anyway, I had enough of paranoia preventing me from posting stuff. I haven't said shit about any AU of mine for a hot minute, so today I'll say something about King's Guard. I won't be writing this story for awhile (like a year or more in the future since I write slow), and this is prologue stuff anyway so it isn't that much of a spoiler. If you're like me, you'll probably forget this by then anyway. Still going to put it under the read more though. :3

Warning: Major character death, but also not.

For better context, Pico and Boyfriend had no idea about the other's true identity as an assassin and prince respectively. They happened to bump into each other in the market when dressed as commoners, and increasingly frequent encounters made them slowly fall for each other.

When the night the crown prince was going to be named arrived, Pico used the masquerade as an opportunity to sneak in. A few other assassins from the Ravenlight Order, the group he works for, joins him to ensure the prince with the Voice of Authority wouldn't escape. All the ginger was told about his target was that he had blue hair, and that he would be wearing a raven mask. He was also told to proceed with caution since there were rumours about the danger of the prince's Voice. It alone could cause the heaven's light to smite him, and he didn't want to get into a fight if the rumours were true. He could only do so much as an ordinary human after all.

As the target was walking to the throne to accept his role as crown prince, Pico emerged from the crowd to strike. He ended up slashing the man's mask in half, and saw his lover beneath it. With no time to think, he betrays the Ravenlight Order to protect him. An unknown third party overwhelms him as a curse of silence was placed upon Boyfriend. The ginger was stabbed in the back, and his vision faded as the prince was taken away. He thought it was over when a female voice echoed in the darkness.

"I can give you the means to live until you avenge your king. All I need is your soul."

[ask-paradox-and-friends]

NEW BATTLE CAUSE IM BORED AND ITS LIKE 3 AM WHERE I AM

PICO NEWGROUNDS (my au not @minusgangtime version) vs TOJI FUSHIGORO

Don't underestimate the mercenary.

Toji Zen’in aka Toji Fushiguro info:

Height: 6 foot 1

Weight: 196lbs

Weapons: Bare Hands, Split Soul Katana(ignores defense its the soul directly), Spear of Heaven(disables curse techniques), Chain of a Thousand Miles(extends indefinitely if you dont let anyone see one of the ends.), Playful Cloud(boosts the users physical strength), Fly Heads

Strengths: Was the father of Megumi Fushiguro and one of the most powerful characters of Jujutsu Kaisen despite his total lack of Cursed Energy, Superhuman strength (To make up for his lack of Cursed Energy Toji worked body to superhuman levels, Can harm and outright kill Cursed Spirits with ease, Cut through the Rainbow Dragon which was Geto’s most durable Cursed Spirit with ease, Could match and harm the likes of Satoru Gojo, Can swing his Chain of a Thousand Miles hard enough to cut through and shatter stone), Superhuman durability (Survived multiple full power attacks from a younger Satoru Gojo, Was unphased by being smashed through a building), Massively hypersonic speeds (Can move far faster than the eye can see, Easily kept up with and at some points blitzed a younger Satoru Gojo), Is a master of stealth (Only Satoru Gojo has ever been able to feel his presence when he was behind him), When summoned as a Revenant after death he was able to break free of his Summoners control near instantly, As a Revenant he effortlessly killed the Special Grade Curse Dagon when other highly skilled Jujutsu Sorcerers struggled to even harm him, His Heavenly Restriction allows him to resist Domain Expanions.

Weaknesses: Is extremely arrogant which can be used against him as it led to his death when he challenged Satoru Gojo, Whilst he has made up for it with his physique Toji’s lack of Cursed Energy prevents him from defending himself against Cursed Techniques.

Pico Newgrounds info

Height:5' 5"

Weight:178lbs

Weapons:Bare Hands (human fleshy one and metal one), Mac10s [that what the wiki calls them], uzis Rifles, pistols, knives and his Völundr [he gets his thanks to him doing two. One with a Valkyrie one with his partners.] Which is just a large duffle bag that allows him to pull out any firearm he cam think of as long as it isn't damaged and as a bonus the guns are enhanced with demon and angel powers.

Strengths:as a Einherjar Pico was chosen to fight for the humans against the gods in ragnarok Goll considered him 'The Mightiest Solider' is apparently being saved for Odin The All-Father [the 2nd strongest god in Ror] superhuman strength(could easily tear through robots aliens and even bears overpowered the Uberkids 20 at a time and the uberkids are constantly stated to be genetically altered to be the peak of human potential. Hus metal hand is stronger then his flesh one and he could easily break jaws and bone with them can throw knives hard enough they go at least 25mph making him twice as strong as the world's best athletes) Superhuman durability (can walk through getting shot being impaled by BOB and could endure a corrupted BF clawing him open also lost a hand to Darnell's bombs and lost his eye to Nene and somehow powered through enough to Break both their legs and get away to warn GF and BF in time.) Hypersonic speeds (can react to bullets snipers Nene's own knives and Cassandra's attacks all while not hitting explosives or even getting shot at by others somehow dodges explosions putting reaction speeds at maybe MAYBE Mach 5) Skilled in combat (this version of Pico was raised by the Tankman crew and seeing they're all military specialists he learned a lot. Can spin guns around and fire without hitting anyone he didn't mean to or missing putting down at least 40 people and all of them were soldiers. Like his Canon self his specialies are anti-terrorism and hostage situations.) His robot eye works like the Metal Gear SOLID EYE (night vision Thermal vision and has a short range radar.) High intelligence (while IQ tests are BS his is stated to be 127 he's also got an encyclopedia level knowledge on his interests [reptiles his partner dogs weapons techno music and anime] good at telling if someone is lieing to him tricked BF and GF into making a deal with him which says if he dies they can bring him back and if gf or bf dies the other can bring them back ex. Bf dies and pico dies GF brings them back and vice versa but he also gets tiny bits of Angel and Demon powers) while he got corrupted by the pibby glitch the fnf corruption and the Monday dusk monolith infections each gave him a power boost. [Glitch made him faster and stronger the corruption gave his flesh hand retractable claws and a minor healing factor and the monolith made his metal hand the ability to merge with other metal things [monolith infected flesh clings and fuses to metal] Pico can take anything off that arm too but he likes mixing and matching weapons but if mad enough he can go fully corrupt which fuses himself with GF BF and his weapons making him a much bigger threat to everything near him.) His deal helps him out by giving him a minor time and gravity ability (can move things with his mind and can send himself to a past part of the day restarting the day with new information. He also is sprouting wings horns and a tail along with a halo tattoo. Metal hand also now can shoot lasers red,blue,and purple [red burns physical defense. Blue goes through magic defense. Purple obliterates both])

Weaknesses:his mental issues are undiagnosed (the wiki says he's obsessive might suffer from insomnia along with PTSD and schizophrenia) Very paranoid. Whether his deal or his mental issues he's very reckless and dosent seem to care about his own safety and will do things that put his life at risk. His Völundr isn't indestructible and since it's BF and GF if it breaks both partners die with it but Pico will have their souls in his body and thanks to said Völundr if he dies so do BF and GF.

[fafou-le-voyageur]

Mercredi 24 Janvier :

Je me réveille vers 7h15 mais traîne une bonne demie heure de plus. Je descends avec mes affaires pour le petit déjeuner, miel, confiture, beurre de cacahouète, mon bolo levedo que je fais griller et me prépare du café.

Je prends mon temps, la TV allumée sur une comédie américaine. Ma voisine de la chambre d'à côté, Joana, me rejoint dans la cuisine.

On lance une machine de linge ensemble et on se dit qu'on mettra le tout à sécher en fin de cycle. D'ici là on ira faire un tour en ville.

On y part ensuite, un moment ensemble puis je pars de mon côté. Je m'arrête boire un café et une pâtisserie dans une padaria sur le boulevard pavé et prends un pain aux céréales tout rose pour mon sandwiche.

Je fais un détour par le musée de Horta, car il pleut maintenant. Il est sur tout un étage et contient une partie sur la religion, une autre sur le centenaire de la traversée de l'atlantique en avion.

Il y a aussi toute une partie sur le développement du télégraphe dont les lignes passaient par les Açores comme un point névralgique entre les Amériques et le reste du monde.

Dans le couloir il y a des vieux pianos, des accessoires optiques de navigation, des scaphandres.

Et une salle d'un artiste Açorien, Euclides Silveira da Rosa, de Faial qui a construit des maquettes à l'aide de la matière récupérée au cœur des branches de figuier. Il se compose de pièces commencées en 1936 et exécutées sur 10 ans, des bateaux, des paysages, des maisons, toutes avec un détail impressionnant.

Je rejoins ensuite Joana et lui propose qu'on loue une voiture ensemble au lieu de prendre un bus puis un taxi, le tout nous revenant bien moins cher à chacun.

On déjeune tranquille et le temps commence à s'améliorer tandis que notre lessive sèche à son aise dans le sèche linge.

Après un coup pour rien au terminal des bateaux (les bureaux des loueurs n'étaient pas ouvert), mais une vue dégagée pendant quelques minutes sur la Montanha Pico, on se rend dans une agence sur le boulevard.

On loue Simone n°3, une panda de quelques 80 000 km. Durant l'attente de la préparation de la voiture, la jeune fille de l'accueil nous montre la Webcam de la Caldeira, et nous conseille d'y aller en premier car c'est dégagé.

On suit son conseil et on file vers 14h30 à la Caldeira faisant quelques arrêts à différents Miradouros.

La route est sale dans la forêt, il a du faire orage dans la nuit. La vue sur la Caldeira est magnifique et le brouillard pas loin. On reste un peu là haut, profitant du grand air.

On prend ensuite une route bien défoncée en direction de Cedros, sur la côte nord. De là on se met à suivre la route côtière sans trop voir les fajas ou les plages car il y a des averses qui nous coupent la vue.

On s'avance vers la Ponta dos Capelinhos, cette partie d'île qui s'est ajoutée lors de l'éruption de 1957 à 1958, avec près de 8 mois sans discontinuer.

Le musée est déjà fermé, on y retournera demain. On prend tout de même des photos depuis le phare.

On reprend ensuite la route sur la côte sud cette fois s'arrêtant à de jolis points de vue. On finit notre boucle d'aujourd'hui sur la colline où j'étais hier soir et on a droit à un petit bout de soleil couchant derrière les nuages.

On s'arrête ensuite au Peter's Café Sport, et malgré l'heure, 18h30, on se prend une magnifique soupe de poisson, avec des vrais morceaux et des patates, bien épicée. Le tout pour seulement 3,5 euros.

La déco intérieure va avec son historique de bar de la marina (déjà 105 ans d'existence), avec des fanions signés, des autocollants, des annonces pour rechercher des équipages.

On se promet d'y retourner demain avant de rendre la voiture et prendre le bateau pour Pico.

On passe faire une course puis on rentre à la guesthouse. On récupère le linge sec et on lance une nouvelle fournée dans synthétiques.

Ensuite je bouquine en buvant du thé et je m'occupe du Blog. Je finis vers 22h et vais aller me coucher tôt, je suis bien fatigué ce soir.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

I started following you long ago for the lotr works and your work about renaissance Venice that are all greats and already complimented you so sorry If I pop up totaly random again, but I'm amazed by your Marsilio Ficino posts, because I've been into 15th century Lureantian Florence for ages and although at some point I started to read everything else, now I'm returned to my old habits and is so so nice to see anyone interested on Ficino and his boyband the Neoplatonic Academy!

On an exclusive pairing term I'm interested in all thes possible relationships between anyone who lived in 15th century Florence, having been an arts management/culture economics major I'm more into painters/artists/sort off, in particular Sandro Botticelli and his relationship with the Medicis, with Poliziano, Leonardo, but I'm also a Lorenzo/Poliziano/Pico truther, etc. I have to say that with time my appreciation for the Medicis decresed and now I'm more interested in other rich families, patron dynasties and drama annexes including the Pazzi ofc, and with them anything else that went wrong with the 1478 conspiracy.

And Giovanni Cavalcanti/Marsilio Ficino, so many memories from uni years! (I'm Italian so this is our standard study program eheh). I just remember how MF was down so bad for his platonic bro :')

I wanted to write to you a better paragraphs but my brain at the moment is all "yay Pazzi ooooh murder wooo so much philosophy, now I'm going to read a 1919 essay on Jstor about a sodomy process occurred in 1501 of an obscure venetian totally random poet".

Have a nice week and good Ficinanti lectures! <3 (and with all your amazing, wondersful, show stopping lotr fic!) ;D

Ficino and his Boyband is a) a great band name in and of itself and b) accurate because he was forever haranguing them to play music with him since we all know beautiful music, alongside staring at hot men, is a prime way to help get closer to God and the Truth etc.

He even has Luigi Pulci for his Dastardly Band Rival

Lorenzo: can I like both of you?

Ficino: absolutely not. you have to choose. and it should be me.

Lorenzo: mmmmm no.

but yeah! I love when people pop up who are also into all things Ficinian! My brief past life in academia was all social history of early modern Europe - and while I did meddle with things like translation and state and social identity in colonial New Spain (what is now Mexico) and political/state identity in reformation England, my real love was always the Italian city states. Each and every one of them a fun and exciting hot mess. (And particularly queerness and the state in 15th and 16th c...there might be a thematic trend here)

I had an ex describe Florence from 1430-1510 as "a bunch of toddlers piled on a tricycle going downhill at top speed with no breaks" and I think that's accurate.

-

in particular Sandro Botticelli and his relationship with the Medicis, with Poliziano, Leonardo

I just have this image of Botticelli in the background yelling commentary at people who are like "that's nice Sandro". For some reason that's how my brain imagines both him and Poliziano.

Foreground: Ficino & Lorenzo arguing about church taxes or something, or Ficino & Pico arguing about Platonic Concepts of Love or whatever

Background: Poliziano and Botticelli sharing a pack of cigarettes making scathing soto vocce commentary on what is happening.

In the wings: Giovanni trying to convince his boyfriend not to do anything too stupid, or at the very least Don't Write It Down & Have It Printed, while Luigi Pulci is like "this is Marsilio we're talking about here. He loves writing things down and having them printed then becoming very annoyed when the Church arrives to knock-knock-knock on his parish door."

-

So I'm working on a Ficino book and I have this mental image in my head of him and Giovanni on a rooftop. It's like 2am. They're trying to get Ficino's father Who Is Now A Demon/Revenant For Reasons into a bag. They look over and see Leonardo da Vinci on the roof with them in a strange contraption.

They all stare at each other.

Giovanni: hey Leo.

Leonardo: hey Giovanni. Nice night for it Marsilio.

Marsilio: . . ...

Leonardo: is that...is that your father with glowing red eyes?

Marsilio: my father is dead, Leo. You know this.

Leonardo:

Leonardo: ok.

Leonardo:

Leonardo: have you told him that? he doesn't look dead.

Marsilio: go away, Leo.

Giovanni: are those.

Giovanni:

Giovanni: are those wings? like....are those wooden wings? are you....are you going to try and fly?

Leonardo: um. yes?

Giovanni:

Giovanni: ok.

Leonardo: this is a uh...this is a moment where we all pretend we didn't see each other isn't it? This is one of those moments, right?

Marsilio: yes. yes it is. Bye Leonardo.

On the street 9 year old Machiavelli escorting his drunk dad home from the tavern: NICE UNDEAD FATHER YOU HAVE THERE FICINO.

Marsilio: oh my god shut the fuck up

Anyway - please enjoy this scene that has been rotting in my head for a fortnight now.

-

I'm also a Lorenzo/Poliziano/Pico truther

always and forever I am with you as a Lorenzo/Poliziano/Pico truther. You don't bury two men in the same grave* unless there are Reasons!

(*you do, in fact, sometimes do that. But I'm ignoring this)

I remember when I was doing grad work at uni Pico and Poliziano were The Hot Thing to gossip about in the staff room. Like I had profs, after a bottle or two of wine, being like "well, Piero poisoned them because of politics, sure, but also mostly because they were probably shacked up with his father at some point and he felt weird about it"

As always, there is the Formal Historian Opinion and the I've Had Two Bottles of Wine and/or My Writer's Hat Is On Opinion. Two, sometimes radically different, things.

Anyway - I'm here for Poliziano/Lorenzo/Pico. At the very least it was Ploziano/Lorenzo then later Poliziano/Pico and maybe there was one really messy Carnival week when it was Pico/Lorenzo. Also maybe Pico/Marsilio but they never, ever talked about it ever again. Marsilio would have felt so ashamed and guilty and Pico would be like "it's kind of like fucking an older brother/uncle and I don't want to think about it" and Giovanni is like "Excuse Me I am your Soul Husband, Marsilio" and Marsilio is like "you have four daughters with your mistress - we have Complications in our relationship ok?"

god everyone was a WRECK

-

I just remember how MF was down so bad for his platonic bro :')

They were married! In their souls! I don't subscribe to it being a one-sided thing. I know some historians and writers have argued that it was one-sided with Ficino being desperate for Giovanni who didn't return the same level of feelings. But I don't really subscribe to that for various reasons.

Now, how their relationship manifested between them, in terms of physical and non-physical love, who knows.

Ficino entered the priesthood in his forties and I believe it was a natural progression for him in terms of his own philosophical journey. It was also a bit of a God Found Me moment. Like a real calling, versus "third son and I need an occupation" which was the case for obviously 95% of the clergy. We know Ficino took his role as priest very seriously and undertook all his duties with diligence and dedication. He kept accounts, did all the smaller administrative tasks that a lot of priests would shove off onto the shoulders of someone else. Nothing was too small or humble for Ficino's attention.

Given that aspect of who he was, and his seriousness with which he undertook his own philosophical teachings and practices, I presume he took all of his vows earnestly and seriously, not least the vow of celibacy. Or he would have tried very, very hard.

Obviously, celibacy in the Catholic Church has a long, complicated history and even in Ficino's lifetime there were still some mutterings about it. Though he was absolutely not one of the people going "hm, maybe priests should be able to have a wife or something."

Ficino's relationship with sex and physical desire was clearly complicated. Made worse, likely, by the fact that the object(s) of his desire were fellow men and we all know what that means in the year of our lord 1470-something.

That said, physical desire was very much intertwined with God, Beauty and Truth in his ladder of love/salvation. It's something he struggled to reconcile - the fact that he firmly believed perception and engagement with Beauty by the Mind, Soul and Spirit of a person is how we are to become closer to God and a person comes to find and know true Beauty through desire. It's one of the foundations over which he and Pico quarreled as it relates to the Platonic understanding of the ladder of love.

Pico felt Ficino's insistence that physical desire be part of salvation was too risky and would lead to sodomy/sinful things while Ficino couldn't perceive a world in which Beauty was understood or discovered through means that were entirely non-corporeal.

It's all a little pear shaped.

The mind tries to reach God through beauty, which is determined by desire.

For a man who was so very cerebral and spiritual - who bled into the mystic and ecstatic traditions of Catholic spirituality - he was at the same time incredibly earthy and corporeal. I suspect his being quite aware of his own body and its urges is what drove a lot of this push/pull that we see in his writing.

There are plenty of letters where he writes Giovanni in a manner that suggests they have certainly partaken of physical displays of love with one another. There's that one where he writes about how he and Giovanni don't need tongues and hands to show love to one another implying, of course, that they have done such things.

He wrote to Bernardo Bembo that Bernardo must have the eyes of a lynx for he perceived that Giovanni and Marsilio were soul-married (or whatever) long before they themselves were aware of it. Which makes me laugh because of what a perfect fucking fanfic set-up that is. Like what? Next you're telling me, Marsilio, that you and Giovanni were travelling once and Oh No There Was Only Bed**.

Bernardo: GET A ROOM.

Marsilio: ?????

Giovanni: ?????

Bernardo: I swear to God and the good mother Mary you two are gagging for each other and need to just fuck about it or something.

Poliziano, in the background: I've been saying that for yeeeaaaars.

(**never mind that everyone shared beds back then so it would have been very normal and they just would have been like "why would there be more than one bed?? you can fit so many people in one bed and we all have minimal furniture. It's 1473.")

-

now I'm going to read a 1919 essay on Jstor about a sodomy process occurred in 1501 of an obscure venetian totally random poet

oh my god, Venetian sodomy stories break my heart because Venice went so hard on punishment in a way Florence just...didn't.

This is what happens when you put a city on a lagoon! It makes everyone paranoid that if they offend God he will sink them under the waves.

Granted, it was quite something in the 17th century when the Ten ordered a review of the Venetian merchant fleet, have heard that there was Much Sodomy & Other Vile Things Occurring and found that yeah, everyone has been fucking each other on boats for centuries now.

And the Ten were like: :O whaaaat and God didn't strike us down??????

Pokemon meme: The Ten Hurt Themselves in Their Confusion.

-

I remember reading one account of a man (I want to say he was a cittadini merchant) who began an affair with his rower. It was a long term thing, the rower even married a (probably illegitimate) niece or something of the merchant. They were very much clearly Lifers.

Anyway - got found out and the two were rounded up and the cittadini guy told his rower, 'Look, just say I forced you. Say it was unwilling on your part and I was making you do it' etc. because he figured as a member of the cittadini class he had a better chance of getting off the hook than his lover who was as a no one.

His lover was reluctant to do that but agreed to the rouse - however, the Ten were on a serious crackdown that year and hauled him in for torture anyway. Despite his being a "victim" and therefore, traditionally, not seen as being as much to "blame" for the sinful acts etc.

During the torture, the rower ended up confirming that no, it was not forced. Yes, he was very much into it. The big kicker was that one of them ended up admitting that they switched "roles" so both topped and both bottomed, which was obviously a big deal in terms of perception of masculinity and culpability in these cases.

Sadly, they both ended up on the pyre and were burned to death between the pillars of the Lion of San Marco and Poseidon in the palazzo di San Marco.

(nb: the details are sketched out loosely here, it's been a while since I read that case so I could be misremembering exactly how things played out)

-

Every time I see pics of tourists between those pillars I'm like, "Do you know how many men were burned to death for sodomy right where you're standing? And how many members of government were hanged for treason (or "treason") and their bodies left so their colleagues got to walk by them on their way into work? I bet there's a ghost in your picture."

It's a bit of a mood killer for tourists, apparently.

annnnyway. Venice and sodomy laws! Heartbreaking!

-

Despite that, the city did have a thriving sodomy scene which is hilarious. Though, as the famous saying went, It takes only seven days for the sun to set on a Venetian law and they must recreate it.

Love that bit in Sanudo's diary where he's like: The Ten, in their wisdom, issued another promulgation reminding everyone that sodomy is illegal and it was read aloud in the Rialto and everyone in the market laughed.

--

ok, my turn to apologize for making this WAY too long. I just - I have the worms they are in my brain and they are going !!!!!!!! about all things relating to Ficino and also 15th and 16th century Venice.

<3 <3 <3 <3

[insinirate]

dark/funny plot bunny for the animal au!- While they started dating, BF started to lose his first or second velvet shedding and Pico (unaware that this is normal for stags and since BF was an early bloomer no one had that class on puberty yet) thinks its due to Chronic wasting disease that slowly kill deer and such and makes them look like skinny revenants in the process or some predator tried to skin him so SUPER PROTECTIVE MODE ACTIVATED!

hes stupid but his hearts in the right place

[porlockstompf]

Reading de Nacht Reading 2018

                                  my favourite books of the year

my overall favourite book of the year:

wiliam h gass "the william h gass reader" (2018)

post-cyberpunkstompf:

01 cixin liu "ball lightning" (2018)

02 kim stanley robinson "red moon" (2018) 03 dave hutchinson "europe at dawn" (2018)      + dave hutchinson "shelter (the aftermath 01)" (2018) 04 paul kincaid "ian m banks (modern masters of science fiction)" (2017) 05 hannu rajaniemi "summerland" (2018)

06 m john harrison "you should come with me now: stories of ghosts" (2017) 07 wade rousch (ed) "twelve tomorrows (2018) 08 christopher moore "noir" (2018) 09 jonathan strahan (ed) "infinity's end" (2018)     + jonathan strahan (ed) "the best sf & f of the year, vol XII" (2018) 10 neil clarke (ed) "the final frontier" (2018)      + neil clarke (ed) "the best sf of the year vol III" (2018)

11 gardner dozois (ed) "the year's best sf: thirty-fifth annual collection" (2018) 12 steve toutonghi "side life" (2018) 13 mike ashley (ed) "lost mars: the golden age of the red planet" (2018) 14 mary robinette kowal "the calculating stars: a lady astronaut novel" (2018) 15 mingwei song & theodore huters (eds)  "the reincarnated giant:      an anthology of twenty-first century chinese science fiction" (2018)

16 john zakour & lawrence ganem "the peach-blonde bomber" (2018) 17 becky chambers "record of a spaceborn few" (2018) 18 yoon ha lee "revenant gun" (2018) 19 derek künsken "the quantum magician" (2018) 20 gregory benford "rewrite" [arc] (2019)

21 richard k morgan "thin air" (2018) 22 charles stross "the labyrinth index" (2018) 23 john varley "irontown blues" (2018) 24 peter watts "the freeze-frame revolution" (2018) 25 karl schroeder "the million" (2018)

26 drew williams "the stars now unclaimed" (2018) 27 peter f hamilton "the salvation" (2018) 28 neal asher "the soldier" (2018) 29 nick mamatas "the people's republic of everything" (2018) 30 s j morden "one way" (2018)

31 gareth l powell "embers of war" (2018) 32 alex white "a big ship at the end of the universe" (2018)      + alex white "a bad deal for the whole galaxy" (2018) 33 s k dunstall "stars unchartered" (2018) 34 catherynne m valente "space opera" (2018) 35 alastair reynolds "elysium fire" (2018)

36 charles stross "dark state" (2018) 37 n k jemisin (ed) "the best american sf & f 2018" (2018) 38 jack mcdevitt "the long sunset" (2018)   + jack mcdevitt "a voice in the night" (2018) 39 elizabeth moon "into the fire" (2018) 40 r.e. stearns "barbary station" (2017) /      steven erikson "willfull child III: the search for spark" (2018)

polarstompf:

01 david hewson "the savage shore" (2018)

     ex aequo      andrea camilleri "the pyramid of mud" (2018)      + andrea camilleri "death at sea: montalbano's early cases" (2018)

02 mirko zilahy "de schaduw" (2017)   + mirko zilahy "de mythe van de dood" (2018) 03 mick herron "london rules" (2018)   + mick heron "the drop" (2018) 04 volker kutscher "babylon berlin" (2017)   + volker kutscher "the silent death" (2017)   + volker kutscher "goldstein" (2018) 05 chris petit "pale horse riding" (2017)

06 edgar cantero "this body's not big enough for both of us" (2018) 07 ian rankin "in a house of lies" (2018) 08 philip kerr "greeks bearing gifts" (2018) 09 jack grimwood "nightfall berlin" (2018) 10 dolan cummings "the existential leap: a crime story" (2017)

11 ann van loock "de expo '58 moorden" (2018) 12 massimo carlotto "master of knots" (2004) 13 joseph knox "sirens" (2018)     + joseph knox "the smiling man" (2018) 14 geir tangen "het meesterwerk" (2017) 15 kate atkinson "transcription" (2018)

16 patrick conrad "diep in december" (2018) 17 jorge zepeda patterson "zwarte trui" (2018) 18 wolfgang burger "heidelberg requiem" (2016) 19 charles cumming "a divided spy" (2016)      + charles cumming "the man between" (2018) 20 frank goldammer "the air raid killer" (2018)      + frank goldammer "a thousand devils" (2018)

21 andreas norman "stille oorlog" (2018) 22 jesper stein "de onrust" (2018)      + jesper stein "papa" (2018) 23 luca d'andrea "in de greep van de waanzin" (2018) 24 jo nesbø  "macbeth" (2018) 25 hans dooremalen "descartes in amsterdam: filosofische detective" (2018) /      chris pavone "the expats" (2012)

klassikstompf:

01 wiliam h gass "the william h gass reader" (2018)

02 louis armand "breakfast at midnight" (2012)      + louis armand "the combinations" (2016)      + louis armand "canicule" (2013)      + louis armand "cairo" (2014) 03 andrew crumey "the great chain of unbeing" (2018) 04 viv albertine "throw away unopened" (2018) 05 daniela cascella "singed" (2017)

06 ted geltner "blood, bone, & marrow: a biography of harry crews" (2017) 07 steve erickson "zeroville" (2007) 08 olga tokarczuk "drive your plow over the bones of the dead" (2018) 09 julián ríos "the house of ulysses" [] (2010)      + julián ríos "poundemonium" [1997] 10 daniel mendelsohn "an odyssey: a father, a son, and an epic" (2017)

11 giorgio van straten "in search of lost books: the forgotten stories of eight mythical volumes" (2017) 12 pascal mercier "night train to lisbon" (2004) 13 tony white "the fountain in the forest" (2018) 14 alejandro zambra "not to read" (2018) 15 gabriel josipovici "the cemetery in barnes" (2018)

16 lucy ives "impossible views of the world" (2017) 17 matthew herbert "the music: a novel through sound" (2018) 18 ann quin "the unmapped country: stories & fragments" (2018) 19 stephen fry "mythos" (2017) & "heroes" (2018) 20 johan swinnen "happening: de aanslag op de Inno" (2017)

21 ermanno cavazzoni "the nocturnal library" (2018) 22 richard powers "the overstory" (2018) 23 alain robbe-grillet "project for a revolution in ny" (1972) 24 melchior vischer "second through brain" (2015) 25 bob van laerhoven "return to hiroshima" (2018)      + bob van laerhoven "dossier feuerhand" (2017)      + bob van laerhoven "dangerous obsessions" (2015)      + bob van laerhoven "heart fever" (2018)

gedächtnisstompf:

01 jacques derrida "geschlecht III: sexe, race, nation, humanité" (2018)      + jacques derrida "le goût du secret: entretiens 1993-1995" (2018)

02 tom cohen, claire colebrook & j hillis miller      "theory & the disappearing future:  on deman, on benjamin" (2011) 03 hannah arendt "het waagstuk van de politiek:      over politieke leugens en burgerlijke ongehoorzaamheid" (2018)      + dirk de schutter "hannah arendt: politiek denker" (2015) 04 serge andré "les perversions #1: le fétichisme" (2013)      + serge andré "les perversions #1: le sadisme" (2013)      + serge andré "les perversions #1: le masochisme" (2013) 05 ger groot "4 ongemakkelijke filosofen: nietzsche, cioran, bataille, derrida"            (2003)

06 mark fisher "k-punk: the collected & unpublished writings (2014-2016)" (2018) 07 molier, ellian, rijpkema (eds) "de strijd om de democratie:      essays over democratische zelfverdediging" (2018) 08 florentijn van rootselaar "filosofisch veldwerk:      grote filosofen van nu over leven in barre tijden" (2018) 09 lieven de cauter "van de grote woorden & kleine dingen" (2018) 10 nemanja mitrovic      "the (im)possibility of literature as the possibility of ethics" (2017)

11 sue prideaux "i am dynamite! a life of friedrich nietzsche" (2018) 12 paul farley & michael symmons roberts "deaths of the poets" (2018) 13 erik bledsoe (ed) "perspectives on harry crews" (2001) 14 kailash c baral & r radhakrishan (eds)      "theory after derrida: essays in critical praxis"(2018) 15 agnes czajka & bora isyar (eds)      "europe after derrida: crisis & potentiality" (2016)

poesisstompf:

01 john cooper clarke "the luckiest guy alive" (2018)

02 kate tempest "running upon the wires" (2018) 03 robin robertson "the long take" (2018) 04 david austin "dread poetry & freedom:      linton kwesi johnson & the unfinished revolution" (2018) 05 tommy pico "junk" (2018)

platterstompf:

01 power, devereux, & dillane (eds)       "heart & soul: critical essays on joy division" (2018)

02 michael glasmeier & ursula block (eds) "broken music: artists' recordworks"         (2nd edition 2018) 03 mark e smith "messing up the paintwork: the wit & wisdom of mark e smith"         (2018) 04 willy dirickx (ed) "de brassers" (2018) 05 tommy mackay "40 odd years of the fall" (2018)

06 john h baker "the art of nick cave: new critical essays" (2013) 07 will oldham "songs of love & horror: collected lyrics of will oldham" (2018)      + alan licht (ed) "will oldham on bonnie 'prine' billy" (2012) 08 michael goddard & benjamin halligan      "mark e smith & the fall: art, music, & politics" (2013) 09 daniel kane "do you have a band? poetry & punk rock in nyc" (2017) 10 bendle "permanent transience" (2015)

11 david grubbs "now that the audience is assembled" (2018) 12 nick soulsby "swans: sacrifice & transcendence (the oral history)" (2018)      + michael gira "the egg: stories" (2018) 13 robert young & irmin schmidt "all gates open: the story of can" (2018) 14 mike goldschmith "discord: the story of noise" (2012) 15 bruce russell      "gilded splinters: essays & aphorisms towards an aesthetic of noise" (2018)

16 philippe robert "agitation frite" (2018)²      + philippe robert "action friite" (2018)      + philippe robert "action frIIIte" (2018) 17 guillaume belhomme, philippe robert, ea "le son du grisli:      varèse, tzara, mochizuki & cave" (2018) 18 david stubbs "future days: krautrock & the building of modern germany"                (2018)       + david stubbs "mars by 1980: the story of electronic music" (2018) 19 blixa bargeld "europa: una letania" [2009] (2018) 20 chris bohn (ed) "the wire" 

21 richard hirst (ed)      "we were strangers: stories inspired by unknown pleasures" (2018) 22 françois girodineau "nick cave & the bad seeds: tender prey" (2018) 23 mick middles "the fall" (2009) 24 jim dooley "red set: a history of gang of four" (2018) 25 mats gustafsson      "discaholics! record collector confessions vol I (2nd ed)" (2018) /      + rob van scheers "drie akkoorden & de waarheid: muzikale levenslessen"              (2014)

stagestompf:

01 ian rankin & rona munro "rebus: long shadows" (2018)

humorstompf:

01 robin ince       "i'm a joke & so are you: a comedian's take on what makes us human"       (2018) 02 simon munnery "how to live" (2018) 03 lucien randall "disgusting bliss: the brass eye of chris morris" (2011)

bilderstompf:

01 michael glasmeier & ursula block (eds)      "broken music: artists' recordworks" (2nd edition 2018)

02 thomas bernhard & ferry radax "thomas bernhard: 3 days" (2016) 03 ed van der elsken "love on the left bank" (2002) 04 philippe monsel "francis bacon" (1994)

05 paul duncan & jürgen müller (eds)   "film noir plus taschen's top 50 pick of noir classics from 1940-1960" (2017) 06 cuauhtémoc medina "manifesta 9: the deep of the modern" (2012) 07 julian schnabel: permanently becoming & the architecture of seeing" (2012) 08 reinhard kleist "nick cave & the bad seeds: an art book" (2018)

wissenschaftstompf & other distractions:

01 brian cox & robin ince      "how to build a universe: an infinite monkey cage adventure" (2017)

02 patrick moore & chris north       "the sky at night: answers to questions from across the univers" (2012) 03 chip carter "obsessed with star trek" (2011) 04 leon hunt "danger:diabolik" (2018)

cyclostompf:

01 jean cléder "petite éloge de la course cycliste" (2018)

02 max leonard "higher calling: cycling's obsession with mountains" (2018) 03 colin o'brien      "giro d'italia: the story of the world's most beautiful bike race" (2018) 04 velominati      "wielergoden: de meest heldhaftige renners ooit 38 heroïsche verhalen”           (2018) 05 william fotheringham "sunday in hell" (2018)

06 jonas heyerick (ed) "bahamontes" (magazine) o.a. extra editie de giro (2018) 07 jorge zepeda patterson "zwarte trui" (2018) 08 dirk jan roeleven "de nieuwe fiets: villar san constanzo - a'dam" (2018) 09 frederik baeckelandt "gino bartali (les héros 03)" (2018) 10 chris sidwells "the call of the road: the history of cycle road racing" (2018)

10 john dowie "the freewheeling john dowie:                  a comedian, a bike, & a tent, what could possibly go right?" (2018) 12 edward pickering "the ronde:       inside the tour of flanders, the world's toughest bike race" (2018) 13 charles pope "a golden age of cycling" (2018) 14 roger gilles "women on the move:       the forgotten era of women's bicycle racing" (2018) 15 peter cossins "the first tour de france:       60 cyclists & 19 days of daring on the road to paris" (2017)

16 paul maunder "the wind at my back: my cycling life" (2018)       + paul maunder "rainbows in the mud" (2017) 17 giacomo pellizzari "het geheim van de eenzame fietser" [2015] (2017) 18 dries de zaeytijd & fons leroy "25 jaar kweekvijver van koerstalent" (2018) 19 peter sagan "my world" (2018) 20 bradley wiggins "icons: my inspiration, my motivation, my obsession" (2018)

most pleasing purchases:

01 jayne county "man enough to be a woman" (1996)

02 berns, moyaert, & van tongeren (eds)      "de god van denkers en dichters: opstellen voor samuel ijsseling" (1997)

03 anselm kiefer       "l'art survivra à ses ruines: anselm kiefer au collège de france" (2011) 04 ludger lütkehaus       "'ruhe. grösse, sonnenlicht': friedrich nietzsche in sils-maria" (2014) 05 paul raabe "spaziergange durch nietzsches sils-marie" (1994)

… tsundoku !

may your home be safe from tigers, leroy, x HNY!

find me on LT:

TBR... PILING UP ...

postcyberpunkstompf:

adam roberts "adam (the aftermath 02)" (2018) eric brown "the martian simulacra: a sherlock holmes mystery" (2018) gary gibson "scienceville & other worlds" (2018) greg egan "phoresis" (2018) ian mcdonald "time was" (2018) ian whates & tom hunter (eds) "2001: an odyssey in words: celebrating the centenary of arthur c clarke's birth" james lovegrove "firefly: big damn hero" (2018) james patrick kelly "the promise of space & other stories" (2018)

jeff noon "a man of shadows" (2017) + jeff noon "the body library" (2018) kevin j anderson "selected stories: science fiction vol I" (2018) rich larson "tomorrow factory: collected fiction" (2018) seb doubinsky "missing signal" (2018) stephen baxter "redemption" (2018) + stephen baxter "xelee: vengeance" (2018) steve erikson "rejoice" (2018) tom schweterlitsch "the gone world" (2018) & maybe, just maybe: jay key "how to pick up women with a drunk space ninja" (2018) + jay key "how to win a pit fight with a drunk space ninja" (2018)

polarstompf:

dario correnti "heimwee naar bloed" (2018) giancarlo de cataldo "suburra" (2017) matthew pearl "the dante chamber" (2018) victor del árbol "a million drops" (2018) zygmunt miloszewski "priceless" [2013] (2018)

[minusgangtime]

hey pico, the lore may be complicated and confusing but aahh... have you heard of the series' thingy known as "revenant~?" - Tech anon

"Hmm... I think I've heard of some series like that."

[readincolour]

New Books Coming Your Way, September 12, 2017

 The Twelve-Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson 560 p.; Fiction Cotton County, Georgia, 1930: in a house full of secrets, two babies-one light-skinned, the other dark-are born to Elma Jesup, a white sharecropper’s daughter. Accused of her rape, field hand Genus Jackson is lynched and dragged behind a truck down the Twelve-Mile Straight, the road to the nearby town. In the aftermath, the farm’s inhabitants are forced to contend with their complicity in a series of events that left a man dead and a family irrevocably fractured. Despite the prying eyes and curious whispers of the townspeople, Elma begins to raise her babies as best as she can, under the roof of her mercurial father, Juke, and with the help of Nan, the young black housekeeper who is as close to Elma as a sister. But soon it becomes clear that the ties that bind all of them together are more intricate than any could have ever imagined. As startling revelations mount, a web of lies begins to collapse around the family, destabilizing their precarious world and forcing all to reckon with the painful truth.  Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke 320 p.; Mystery When it comes to law and order, East Texas plays by its own rules--a fact that Darren Mathews, a black Texas Ranger, knows all too well. Deeply ambivalent about growing up black in the lone star state, he was the first in his family to get as far away from Texas as he could. Until duty called him home. When his allegiance to his roots puts his job in jeopardy, he travels up Highway 59 to the small town of Lark, where two murders--a black lawyer from Chicago and a local white woman--have stirred up a hornet's nest of resentment. Darren must solve the crimes--and save himself in the process--before Lark's long-simmering racial fault lines erupt. A rural noir suffused with the unique music, color, and nuance of East Texas, Bluebird, Bluebird is an exhilarating, timely novel about the collision of race and justice in America. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng 352 p.; Fiction In Shaker Heights, a placid, progressive suburb of Cleveland, everything is meticulously planned—from the layout of the winding roads, to the colors of the houses, to the successful lives its residents will go on to lead. And no one embodies this spirit more than Elena Richardson, whose guiding principal is playing by the rules. Enter Mia Warren- an enigmatic artist and single mother- who arrives in this idyllic bubble with her teenaged daughter Pearl, and rents a house from the Richardsons. Soon Mia and Pearl become more than tenants: all four Richardson children are drawn to the alluring mother-daughter pair. But Mia carries with her a mysterious past, and a disregard for the rules that threatens to upend this carefully ordered community. When the Richardsons’ friends attempt to adopt a Chinese-American baby, a custody battle erupts that dramatically divides the town and puts Mia and Mrs. Richardson on opposing sides. Suspicious of Mia and her motives, Mrs. Richardson becomes determined to uncover the secrets in Mia’s past. But her obsession will come at unexpected and devastating costs to her own family—and Mia’s.  A Beautiful Ghetto by Devin Allen 128 p.; Photography On April 18, 2015, the city of Baltimore erupted in mass protests in response to the brutal murder of Freddie Gray by police. Devin Allen was there, and his iconic photos of the Baltimore uprising became a viral sensation. In these stunning photographs, Allen documents the uprising as he strives to capture the life of his city and the people who live there. Each photo reveals the personality, beauty, and spirit of Baltimore and its people, as his camera complicates popular ideas about the "ghetto." Allen's camera finds hope and beauty doing battle against a system that sows desperation and fear, and above all, resistance, to the unrelenting pressures of racism and poverty in a twenty-first-century American city. Electric Arches by Eve L. Ewing 120 p.; Literary collection Electric Arches is an imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose. Blending stark realism with the surreal and fantastic, Eve L. Ewing’s narrative takes us from the streets of 1990s Chicago to an unspecified future, deftly navigating the boundaries of space, time, and reality. Ewing imagines familiar figures in magical circumstances—blues legend Koko Taylor is a tall-tale hero; LeBron James travels through time and encounters his teenage self. She identifies everyday objects—hair moisturizer, a spiral notebook—as precious icons. Her visual art is spare, playful, and poignant—a cereal box decoder ring that allows the wearer to understand what Black girls are saying; a teacher’s angry, subversive message scrawled on the chalkboard. Electric Arches invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity, and the joy and pain of growing up.  To Funk and Die in L.A. by Nelson George 224 p.; Mystery To Funk and Die in LA, the fourth book in the D Hunter crime-fiction series, brings the ex-bodyguard to the City of Angels on a very dark mission when his grandfather, businessman Daniel "Big Danny" Hunter, is shot dead in a drive-by. Why would someone execute a grocery store owner? D soon finds there was more to Big Danny's life than selling loaves of bread. The old man, it turns out, was deeply involved with Dr. Funk, a legendary musical innovator who has become a mysterious recluse. Most of the novel takes place in the LA neighborhoods of Crenshaw, Koreatown, and Pico-Union--areas where black, Asian, and Latino cultures intersect away from the glamour of Hollywood--and echoes of the 1992 riots play a significant role in D's investigation. In the tradition of Raymond Chandler and Walter Mosley, D Hunter rides through the mean streets of Los Angeles seeking truth and not always finding justice.  The Lazarus Effect by H.J. Golakai 358 p.; Mystery Voinjama Johnson is a woman on the brink of a dark, downward spiral. Suffering from misfortunes past and present, all Vee has is her work as an investigative journalist to hang on to. Now her career, like her sanity, is under fire. A revenant haunts Vee’s steps – during her blackouts, the ghost of a strange teenage girl in a red woollen hat keeps reaching out to her. Desperate for answers, she and her new assistant Chlöe Bishop plunge into the disappearance of seventeen-year-old Jacqueline Paulsen. As Vee and Chlöe enter the maze of a case full of dead ends, the life of their intrepid missing girl reveals a family at odds – a dead half-brother, an ambitious father running from his past and the two women he has loved and ruined, a clutch of siblings with lies in their midst. How could a young girl leave home to play tennis one bright Saturday and never be seen again, and what do the dysfunctional circle of people she knew have to hide? Every thread Vee pulls in Jacqueline’s tight weave of intrigue brings her closer to redemption and an unravelling more dangerous than she bargained for. In compelling and witty prose, The Lazarus Effect is an evocative tale of the underbelly and otherworld of love, murder and madness in a Cape Town that visitors seldom see. Sky Country by Christine Kitano 104 p.; Poetry Christine Kitano's second poetry collection elicits a sense of hunger—an intense longing for home and an ache for human connection. Channeling both real and imagined immigration experiences of her own family—her grandmothers, who fled Korea and Japan; and her father, a Japanese American who was incarcerated during WWII—Kitano's ambitious poetry speaks for those who have been historically silenced and displaced. September 08, 2017 at 11:00AM from ReadInColour.com http://ift.tt/2fa6dYw

[liasfinalportfolio]

Miguel Angel Gutierrez Interview

I Interviewed Miguel Angel Gutierrez, a camp and club director for the Opus Dei. As a member of the girls’ side of the club (which is fun until they move you to the teens' side. Then it’s just dreadful. Miguel Angel though manages to make it amazingly fun)

LN= Lia Nuñez (me)

MA= Miguel Angel Gutierres 

LN- Hi

MA- Hello!

LN- I was told to interview someone interesting, and the first interview person who came to mind, was you.

MA- Ok

LN- So, I wanted to ask you how did you go from being a doctor to being a camp director. How did you get to such a different path? 

MA- Yeah, it was very different. Look that has a very simple explanation, you know I'm a medical doctor, but I'm also a numerary of the Opus Dei. 

LN- Yes

MA- The two things go perfectly together. When you work on your profession and are part of The Work (how Opus Dei members call the Opus Dei) it fits perfectly together. The revenant asked me -the prelate in Rome- to come here and start the work with the young people, in Santo Domingo. So I said, well let’s do this! 

And so we came here, and being here, I was still working a little, I was going to start medicine and such but I saw that I wanted to start a foundation, of children with values, and I found parents who wanted to do the same - that is, children and values and it was a very good fit no? Because those parents had been trying to start something but they didn’t know what it was, and I knew what it was, but I didn’t have people to start it with. 

LN- Ahahaha

MA- Then based on the scheme of youth clubs that promotes the work. We made a club that later became a foundation to promote values not only to young people now but to families.

Then I realised I was devoting many hours to my profession, and not enough to my foundation and it wasn’t working. So I said well if there is no one who is fully dedicated to the foundation is not going to work. So I said well, I'm going to be the one who is going to dedicate himself to the foundation.

So I talked to them, for you know the economic issue and all that, and the possibility came out that yes. At first, it cost a lot, but from the first moment, thanks to so many families, everything has been going well. So, of course, that’s when the spark of creating something that is fun, but at the same time demanding, as is the club Los Picos, was born. Of course, it’s something that has been happening because of the people who have been helping the club, and I’ve always made sure to have the general vision in mind. But it has grown a lot. For example, when we didn’t have a house for the club, I imagined a house like the one we’re in now; with rooms to try different things, but that took from 2003 up till 2012. 

LN- Wow

MA- and then from 2012 to 2018 and we’re still not done. And since I now have a general idea, more people are passing by and helping, me too, of course, because we are a team Of parents and people who are involved. 

LN- And how has the move been like? From Venezuela to the Dominican Republic? The different people?

MA- Well this country, well this city, I’m also starting to take the club to Santiago.

LN- Oh? 

MA- But I’m first making a group of parents. The two cities are very different no?

LN- Yes.

MA- But each one has its own thing. Santo Domingo is very similar to where I was born, in that it’s a very hot city and that the people are very friendly.

LN- Hahaha

MA- And very, well they trust you really easily, you sit next to them and they tell you their life story. Well in that sense we’re very similar, so it didn’t take long for me to adapt. Really, I’ve also found countless of good people. Countless people with the capacity to give a lot, to sacrifice a lot so that all the good projects can come forward. And that’s something that’s wonderful to live through, the way you find people who get excited for your projects and ideas and with that eagerness to do something good. You’ll see that people don’t always think of power, fame and money.

LN- hahaha

MA- but also in creating a good family, that their children do well, and also helping other children and other families have access to those things.

LN- Have there been times when your medical skills have helped at camp or at the club?

MA- (without hesitation) Always.

LN- hahahaha

MA- Well starting with one thing for example, specifically for the camp it was very funny that one of the reasons people let the kids go was because there was a doctor, so that part was covered.

You know the camp, the first camp? We did it for six kids.

LN- Man! 

MA- Yes, we started and did it the same way as we do now. It was in camping tents, it wasn’t the camp you see today (nowadays we sleep in little cabins/huts.) and it was shorter, just a week but besides that, it was the same. The cleanliness revisions, the games, everything. And that was where it started, and suddenly there were games unique to the camp, and everything has been forming from those moments onwards. 

And the club has been a little more varied because the club was a nomadic club. It was at people's houses, first. Then we managed to make a newspaper. That's how we started - in the study hall after the study hall finished, we made a newspaper with interesting articles, interesting things. 

As a doctor what has helped me a little on a professional level is the power to guarantee that all the club activities promote good health. And also that capacity that has the (study of) medicine: of being able to study things and prevent things. The medicine helps with that too.

LN- what do you think -this one’s an obvious one- what do you think that your work contributes to society? 

MA- it's not obvious. Because it's subtle work in the sense that I think a lot of people imagine that they want to do something great, that helps a lot of people, for example: you think of foundations like SOS Children's Villages or the organizations that pick up 100 kids from the streets and you say ‘hey, Los Picos are very small compared to that’ right? But Los Picos, they are sowing in each boy that arrives, that restlessness to be a better person, a better student, better brother, better son, right? And therefore a better citizen. It is also about sowing in them the capacity to be leaders wherever they go. And so this helps them, along with the solidarity activities, retreats, and even the spiritual direction activities that are also on Los Picos, to grow, and also to go on as formators.

Multipliers of those things that it is at the end what the club wants, that where there is a boy who was part of the club Los Picos, or is part of the club, that people around him grow. So it's a job that as the club develops - we already have a headquarters, for example - there's already a place to go. 

But what I’m saying is that it’s something big. We had an idea but had no place to make it happen. We rented a small house that worked for many years, but it didn't adapt to the conditions. Everything was one thing on top of the other. But then someone donated this house and step by step, we started adding furniture, modifications, etc. Our house is still a wreck, at least the upper part (he says, motioning towards the second floor that’s full of boxes).

What does Los Picos contribute to society? Well, our objective or our vision is to develop values in families and young men so that they can be a real contribution towards society with honest values and above all that they contribute to the Dominican society with their work or wherever they go, to serve and make society grow.

LN- Do you believe that the camp can bring the young men/children to grow closer to Jesus and the gospel? 

MA- Yes, because the camp has both human and Christian values and, effectively, what the children end up feeling is that they get closer to God. But I have to tell you that this is always achieved thanks to the fact that the children's families contribute to this because we can create these concerns in the children. Let me tell you, there is a boy who went to last year's camp and his mom and dad had not baptized him. The camp was all games and fun. We had the usual things; mass, lectures with the rev, and this boy after living all that decided he wanted to get baptized although his parents weren’t sure yet.

There began a process of formation, he was baptized, made the first communion and now he wants to receive the sacrament of Confirmation. He’s a boy in high school.

It’s there where you realise that the camp contributes to bringing people closer to God and that the young men that are in that line so much in that sense.

LN- Is there a special moment; sad, funny, that really caught your attention?

MA- (with a pondering voice) Well from the camp itself, various but hmm sad…  

LN- Or memorable, yes memorable.

MA- Yes, memorable. Hmm let’s see, there’s just so many. I really love the moments that the boys think they’re in -well, the camp has a different theme every year- so I really love when they get so into the situation they think they’re in it. I look at them from outside and I am filled with emotion. It’s a really memorable moment because they really think they’re watching Batman fight Superman, or that they’re looking for a treasure with the pirates of the Caribbean in a deserted island and it’s the same estate they go to every year. Memorable moments are when I see a boy lead his team and doesn’t give up even though they are losing but he keeps the spirit up. That’s really memorable and beautiful for me. Or where they give up making pranks and all of that because they’d rather respect the rules. It’s a very special camp. Of course, there are pranks but not harsh pranks. It’s something that I really like: the atmosphere of friendship that there’s in there, and you notice that they hang out together and are friends outside of the camp and the club. And you see it all flourish in front of you. 

I just remembered a memorable moment, a very intense moment, and sad. Well, maybe not sad. It was when a raft flipped over (he’s talking here about rafting. An activity that happens every year at camp) and I was stuck inside. I pushed everyone to the surface from under it and I thought I was going to drown. 

LN- Oh God

MA- Hahahaha (he laughs at my horrified voice) suddenly, out of nowhere, two hands appear and lift me out and I thought ‘well, life continues’. It was a very intense moment. Hahaha. That has been the most dangerous moment in all of the years at camp, that year it had rained a lot.

LN- At the river?

MA- Yes at the river. We dared to do the rafting and everything was going fine until we made a mistake. Someone had gotten nervous, and he told us to go down (on the raft. Down is one of the rafting commands) but we had to keep rowing and by the time the guide told us not to go down it was too late and the raft went where the current was taking us instead of the place where we were supposed to go. 

LN- Wow

MA- It was around ten seconds, but the longest ten seconds of my life. I remember all I did was take the children out. I found them and then I pushed them from underneath the raft. They all got out quickly but I wasn’t able to get out because I was trapped with the raft above me. But suddenly I saw the raft disappeared and two arms -I can never forget that- two arms come and pick me up, which isn’t easy with this weight. 

Another moment like that? Well, it’s the moments like that year in a treasure hunt, that we managed to make smoke bombs and the whole camp was surrounded by smoke, and suddenly out the depth of smoke came out the Power Rangers. It was amazing, things like that are very beautiful.

LN- What motivates you to keep doing this job?

MA- Well, what motivates me is the fact that there are always young people disposed to grow in the human and Christian aspects. The fact that there are always families who care about supporting their children's education, and so do I. Those are the more elevated motives and then there are some other more simple motives. The first one is that I love being around the kids. Actually, they all say I’m like one kid more.

LN- Hahahaha!

MA- Another reason that I like a lot is that I have the capacity to create various creative things that youngsters enjoy: games, activities, fun ways to teach things, and I feel like that’s something I can exploit here, with pleasure and affection and it excites me to do so. 

That’s why Camp Los Picos is the best for the kids: we try to make every day unforgettable because I want them to remember that in their childhood while doing the right thing and being well behaved they had the most amazing time of their lives. 

LN- Of course

MA- Yes, with support and help it all comes out well.

LN- What are the biggest difficulties you’ve gone through?

MA- Well the biggest difficulty is convincing the people that this is good and worth making the sacrifices they make, mainly timewise, for their children. You know parents have logistic problems: dropping the children off, picking them up, whether they want their kids in art class or English and of course that they include a club with all the important things. 

Convincing the parents that the developing of values is as important as an art class or English or football is hard. 

That is my vision though, the big challenge Los Picos has is to help as many people as are interested and to help them be formed in values. When you enter Los Picos you don’t enter a club of temporary activities but a family, and effectively they are activities with the whole family. There are courses for parents for example, and they aren’t optional, if you are going to do this then that entails some compromises and we’re trying to find a way for families to understand and not feel overwhelmed and instead of that they tell themselves ‘this is important even if it sometimes consumes time’. And it does consume a lot of time, there are three parent lectures a year and the strong activities, like Christmas and all that and recitals from the music school and just things that weigh down on the family. But there’s a lot of people that have responded -although we wish there were more, that more people would benefit from this formation we’re dedicated to.

One of our biggest challenges is making it reach more people without making it massive. We want it to have the same atmosphere and that when the families come here, they come because they are really want to belong to Los Picos. That’s why we count so much on the families that recommend each other. 

We’re trying to grow in members because there are not many of us, we want them to be as many as possible. However whether we have three or thirty, it’s the same dedication, the same care, the same formation and we’re not going to let down the families we have just because they’re few. It’s our duty and we have a lot of people collaborating so that it may work.

LN- If you could say something to your past self from back when you began all of this, what would you tell yourself?

MA- Love sport and don’t spend so much time working on the desk hahahahahaha. Love sport, that’s what I would tell myself. The second thing I’d tell myself is that difficult moments are short and pass quickly, so don’t worry. I’d tell myself you’re going to have a good house hahaha, and the club will be super fun, it’ll even have a pool hahaha. Then I’d tell myself: you’re going to meet a lot of amazing, wonderful boys, who you’re going to like a lot and they will like you a lot too. 

Those would be the four things I’d tell myself, all the things I’ve been learning throughout the years. Back when I was younger I used to question whether this was going to work or not. Because starting something from zero makes you quite uneasy, you can’t imagine how it feels, you need to build a building but you don’t have a cent, you need to make a football club but you don’t have a single member, a camp and you don’t have a place to do it. It scares you, but thank God there were several of us in the project, it wasn't just me. It might seem like Miguel Angel, the hero, but there’s a lot of people working on this but a few of them aren’t as visible. I call the attention by my way of speaking and of being, but there are others here that might have don’t way more than me. I was at the operational part but in the background (especially moneywise) I've received a lot of help which in the end is what makes all of this possible.

The fact that Buena Vista lent up terrain for the camp, has been an absolute success and has helped us grow a lot.

LN- if you could give advice to anyone based on what you’ve learned through this trip throughout the years, what would you say?  

MA- In these years, I would tell them to live each day intensely, and to believe in dreams in the first place. If God plants a dream in your heart, it’s because you can make it possible. I’d tell them to look at all the people who follow their dreams and never give up and it comes out, ok, one is capable of lots of things they aren’t aware of, and you go learn about it as you grow.

My other advice would be to find people who give good advice, to be well educated and to get formed in whatever they’re working on. For example, I took a small class on management since it got a bit difficult after a while. It only lasted a year and it helped me become the manager of a small foundation. I’d also tell them that God is making your life; I mean, I’m not the only person who studied medicine and ended up doing something else and maybe the door of going back to medicine isn’t closed yet, maybe in three years I’ll be a doctor again, well because I already am one hahaha.

If God changes your plans, be always happy with what he gives you, because it’s the best way. And like you asked me earlier, all the knowledge university gave me, not only knowledge but also life experience, have been very useful to what I’m doing now, everything is worth living, live every day intensely, believe in dreams and seize the opportunities life gives you.   

LN- Another question. There’s a rumour Josue (my brother that goes to the club Los Picos) tells me: that you appear in a tv program. My father and I tried to look for it but we couldn’t find it so I have to ask, is it real or just a rumour? 

Miguel Àngel then takes out his phone and finds an episode on youtube (I’ve lost the link of that particular episode but here’s another one with him on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJyWFHA-Bn4 ) 

MA- Hahahaha, yes it’s true, I have a TV program, I’ll send you a link, it’s related to medicine, because well a doctor never stops being a doctor. The mothers of the kids (from the club) call me when there are any problems in the family or other people living in their house, and as a doctor, you're always trying to keep your knowledge up to date; which is what I do through this program. That way I’m constantly with other doctors and different personalities of the world of medicine. It’s something I like a lot and we’re currently on the third season! It’s a really nice experience, it’s very fun, the rumour is true hahaha, but you won’t find it as Miguel Gutierrez but rather as Viva Mejor. 

LA- Oooh I see, we didn’t have much information and we looked your name up.

MA- Yes, well you can watch it at Carivision and in AB 47 Saturdays and Wednesdays. What other questions do you have?

LA- One last question. Have you ever taken anything physical from the camp or the club, something that you still keep?

MA- The truth is that no, well actually I have, the first sketch of the camp as it was going to be like a little village, and actually there’s still part of the sketch that hasn’t been built yet and extra things that weren't planned but we have now, like the swimming pool which wasn’t planned, and the little huts we have weren’t planned either. In the end, my sketch changed. Because my idea was for us to have the main square where the oratory and the gazebo were, and for it to have a plaza in the middle and for it to have some paths that led to the huts, which were meant to be way further away, one here, another there, so it could be like a real village.

With a clubhouse that would be the house of the directors and then back a structure with zipline and a rope to pass-through, a suspended bridge, things like that, It’s been far better than what I imagined.

The Club has also been a thousand times better than what I imagined, and it’s only been possible with the support of the people around us, friends, and family. 

Well Lia, thank you very much. What are you going to do with this?  A report?

LN- Well I’ll have to transcribe it and translate it, and then I’ll send it to my teacher. 

MA- Well you did a good job because you prepared everything beforehand, you had the questions prepared and were very sure while asking.

Yes, you did do a good job!

LN- Thank you!

[dracomeir]

Revenant Pico was given another chance at life by Girlfriend after failing to protect Boyfriend. When in dire situations, or more intimidation is needed, he reveals his undead form to gain access to powers granted by his patron. His goal is to find out what happened to his lover, and to avenge him for what happened in the past.

[fafou-le-voyageur]

Dimanche 21 Janvier :

Lever vers 8h30. Je vais à l'espace petit déjeuner où il y a déjà Lilian et Stephan. Il vient juste d'allumer l'appareil à pancakes et a fait une grande carafe.

Un peu plus tard les portugais arrivent. On déjeune tous ensemble et les pancakes sont délicieux.

Je traîne un peu et le temps est pas des plus beaux. Je finis par me décider et vais visiter le musée du vin. Il est gratuit le dimanche. Je sus le seul visiteur.

J'ai une liasse de feuilles plastifiées avec les traductions des panneaux en portugais. C'est très intéressant et il y a deux vieux pressoirs immenses (les seuls restants sur l'île), une collection de dragons (l'arbre endémique).

Il y a aussi une passerelle en bois qui mène à un kiosque au dessus des parcelles de vignes en murets de pierre volcanique, inscrits au Patrimoine Mondial de l'Unesco.

Réf site unesco : "Le site situé sur l’île volcanique de Pico, consiste en un remarquable réseau de longs murs de pierre largement espacés, courant parallèlement à la côte et remontant vers l’intérieur de l’île. Ces murs ont été érigés pour protéger du vent et de l’eau de mer des milliers de petits enclos (currais) rectangulaires, accolés les uns aux autres. La présence de cette viniculture remonte au XVe siècle".

Dans la partie exposition je me pose pour déjeuner. Avant de repartir le jeune homme de l'entrée me donne plein de conseils et d'adresses pour aller faire des dégustations.

Je passe ensuite récupérer une voiture de location, Simone n°2, une C3 essence, à peine 15 000 km.

Je pars sur la côte sur, à travers le paysage viticole inscrit au patrimoine, en direction de Candelária. Je m'arrête ça et là pour prendre quelques photos et vois aussi un beau moulin.

Je fais la route jusqu'à Silveira et grimpe vers le montagne. Je me retrouve très vite dans le brouillard. Je finis la boucle en passant de l'autre côté et en revenant par la côte nord.

Je m'arrête acheter une bouteille de blanc de Pico dans un supermarché et retrouve l'équipe vers 19h. Susana est à fond dans la cuisine elle nous prépare un repas chinois en trois plats.

On s'est donné rdv vers 20h pour l'apéro. Du coup j'en profite pour bouquiner. Je suis un des derniers à monter, même Ruben le voisin américain est venu.

Il y a aussi Luke, un anglais arrivé aujourd'hui. Sophie la copine de Stephan est là aussi. On parle tous par petits groupes tout en dégustant les blancs et la salade de champignons chinois de Susana.

Vient ensuite des pâtes chinoises avec une sauce sucrée salée au tahin (elle l'a fait elle même en torréfiant puis mixant le sésame). Puis les œufs tomate, plat de tradition chinoise, avec du riz.

Ensuite le reste de la soirée se fait dans l'allégresse avec de la musique de tous les pays, inspirée par chacun des hôtes.

On a même droit à la petite histoire derrière le nom de la guesthouse "Loving Strangers" et on écoute la chanson originale de l'autrice.

Les derniers tiennent jusqu'à minuit car pour Stephan il faut être à l'heure pour les pancakes demain matin.