#teri s wood

[cccovers]

Rhudiprrt, Prince of Fur #11 (February 2004) cover by Teri S. Wood.

[world-cinema-research]

Young Frankenstein Blog Essay

By: Jillian Arnold

“It’s alive!”

Young Frankenstein is a classic Gene Wilder film that has become a cult classic for Halloween and has taken on different forms, such as on stage as a musical. This film is a parody of the original book by Mary Shelly, Frankenstein. The plot follows the story of Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, who has taken on lecturing at a college, but was once a brain surgeon. He quit his former job because of the constant comparison and acknowledgment of his grandfather, Dr. Victor Frankenstein, the original man who experimented on dead beings and attempted to bring them back to life. He even went as far as trying to mispronounce his name as Fron-kon-shteen instead of Frankenstein. He is drawn back to his grandfather’s old castle and laboratory in Transylvania where he meets his aide Igor and assistant Igna, who then help him conduct his grandfather’s old experiments. As the weary town then hears of his arrival and experiments, the group has to escape the town and an investigator as Frankenstien’s fiancee flies in and gets wrapped up in the experiment. 

Here is a link to the trailer. The trailer gives away some of the plot so audiences can understand a little about the movie, but not too much to where it gives away major plot points. 

This film was released on December 15th, 1974 by 20th Century Studios. It was directed by Mel Brooks and was co-written . The film starred Gene Wilder as Dr. Frederick Frankenstein, Marty Feldman as Igor, Teri Garr as Igna, and Peter Boyle as The Monster. The movie earned $86,274,406 worldwide, even with its $2,800,000 budget. The film had 11 wins and 8 nominations, with Gene Wilder and Mel Brooks being nominated for Best Writing at the 1975 Oscars awards. 

Photo of the cast behind the scenes on the set of the movie, in Frankenstein’s laboratory. This is what the cast and set looked like without the infamous black-and-white coloring throughout the film.

Although this movie is infamous for its humor and its original take on the original story of Frankenstein, it does have its controversy. At one point of the movie, Dr. Frederick Frankenstein’s fiancee, Elizabeth, gets kidnapped by The Monster and taken to the woods, where he then forces himself on her in a cave.  Although she does get on board with it and reciprocates to The Monster, she was unwilling to put herself in that situation and it seems as though it turns into forced sexual conduct. This scene is supposed to be funny, but the vibe of it was rapey and uncomfortable. Later in the movie, Elizabeth ends up falling in love with The Monster after the sexual encounter and her later actions and passion for the monster makes her a sex-crazed maniac that strips any dignity left from her character. This is also offensive to women who have been put into these situations and is offensive to women. It makes a nonconsensual sexual encounter a joke and makes the victim a joke to how they are after the experience while also taking away from the seriousness of the situation. 

A photo from the movie of Elizabeth and The Monster after the nonconsensual sexual encounter. 

What made this film so unique to others being released at the time was the use of black-and-white coloring for the film. This aesthetic for the film is unique to the time because the norm for films was to have it in color, as the first colored film had been released decades earlier so the norm was colored. This particular change is what makes the movie eye-catching to audiences and made it so memorable. There was much pushback for this move to the director, but his choice allowed the movie to have a real 1930’s classic monster movie feel. 

This is an interview from 2014 on the Jimmy Kimmel show, interviewing Mel Brooks. As it was the 40th anniversary of the movie,  Mel Brooks talked about why he chose to have the movie in black-and-white and reasons there was pushback.

1974 was a big year for tabloids and stars. That year, there was the infamous Rumble in the Jungle boxing match. The Rumble in the Jungle was a boxing match between George Foreman vs. Muhammad Ali. This match was huge because Muhammad Ali reclaimed the heavyweight title and it allowed him to become America's icon. There was also the resignation of the presidency by Richard Nixon. On August 8, 1974, President Nixon resigned from being President of the United States of America. This was because of the backlash he faced from the public over the Watergate scandal. This was crazy because he was the only President at the time to resign from office. 

By the end of the movie, you feel like you’ve watched a classic 1930’s monster movie that made you laugh to the point your stomach hurt. This movie became huge and boosted Mel Brooks’s as well as Gene Wilder’s careers. It was so big that the movie even got adapted into a Broadway musical that opened on November 7th, 2007. I had lots of fun watching this movie and now I understand why it’s such a classic that many people have watched. 

“It’s Pronounced Fronkensteen!”

[pzfr]

2. Who was your first muse?

14. Who is an author that inspires you?

🔍👀?

♡ Munday Meme ♡

2. Who was your first muse?

At this point I can barely remember where I really began. Lot of throwaway ideas, but generally to the tune of action-adventure weirdo with a comedic flair. Not a lot of lore, just... open-ended vehicles to go do whatever was most entertaining at the time. I used to loathe fluff and the mundane in the past (now I see everything can be done well, in equal measure).

14. Who is an author that inspires you?

Kurt Busiek on Astro City for sure, the speculative science-fiction meets slice of life he pulled off there still resonates with me. I could also say Juni Ba, Grant Morrison, Teri S. Wood, Alan Moore, the ZA/UM crew, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and plenty of others.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 6.1

Beer Birthdays

Thomas Carling (1797)

Otto Flood Emmerling (1889)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Morgan Freeman; actor (1937)

Mikhail Glinka; composer (1804)

Cleavon Little; actor (1939)

Alanis Morissette; pop singer (1974)

Teri Polo; actor (1969)

Famous Birthdays

Rene Auberjonois; actor (1940)

Pat Boone; pop singer (1934)

Powers Boothe; actor (1948)

Diana Canova; actor (1953)

Sadi Nicolas Leonard Carnot; physicist (1796)

Brian Cox; actor (1946)

Ronnie Dunn; country singer (1953)

Andy Griffith; actor (1926)

Lisa Hartman; actor (1956)

Reverend Ike; evangelist minister (1935)

Heidi Klum; model (1973)

William S. Knowles; chemist (1917)

Alexi Lalas; soccer player (1970)

Jacques Marquette; French missionary, Canadian explorer (1637)

John Masefield; English writer (1878)

Colleen McCullough; Australian writer (1937)

Bob Monkhouse; comedian, writer (1928)

Marilyn Monroe; actor (1926)

Frank Morgan; actor (1890)

Jonathan Pryce; actor (1947)

John Randolph; actor (1915)

Nelson Riddle; bandleader (1921)

Graham Russell; pop singer (1950)

Amy Schumer; comedian (1981)

Francis Edgar Stanley; inventor, manufacturer (1849)

Kip Thorne; physicist (1940)

Ron Wood; rock guitarist (1947)

Edward Woodward; actor (1930)

Brigham Young; religious cult leader (1801)

[joe-england]

Remember those pages I posted for Jeffrey H. Wood's SnowBuni project?  As you may recall, I said a thousand and two years ago that I would start selling the book online when it was done.  Well, the time is now!   You can order it here in standard comic or manga size, whichever you prefer.  Oh, but let me know if you have any trouble with the order, alright?  Especially with the shipping costs.  PayPal has been dodgy lately.

[thelibraryghost]

Medieval Arthurian Literature: A Resource List

Alliterative Morte Arthure Adler, Gillian. "'Ȝit þat traytour alls tite teris lete he fall': Arthur, Mordred, and Tragedy in the Alliterative Morte Arthure." Arthuriana, Vol. 25, No. 3 (Fall 2015), pp. 3-21. Benson, Larry D. ed. King Arthur's Death: The Middle English Stanzaic Morte Arthur and the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1994. Crofts, Thomas H. "Perverse and Contrary Deeds: The Giant of Mont Saint Michel and the Alliterative Morte Arthure." In The Erotic in the Literature of Medieval Britain, edited by Amanda Hopkins and Cory James Rushton. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2007, pp. 116-131. Jefferson, Judith A. and Putter, Ad. "Alliterative Patterning in the Morte Arthure." Studies in Philology, Vol. 102, No. 4 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 415-433. Schray, Kateryna A. Rudnytzky. "The Plot in Miniature: Arthur's Battle on Mont St. Michel in the Alliterative Morte Arthure." Studies in Philology, Vol. 101, No. 1 (Winter, 2004), pp. 1-19.

Chrétien de Troyes Hinton, Thomas. "The Aesthetics of Communication: Sterility and Fertility in the Conte del Graal Cycle." In Arthurian Literature XXVI, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2009, pp. 97-108. Holmes, Jr., Urban T. "A New Interpretation of Chrétien's Conte del Graal." Studies in Philology, Vol. 44, No. 3 (Jul., 1947), pp. 453-476. Kelly, Douglas. "Gauvain and Fin' Amors in the Poems of Chrétien de Troyes." Studies in Philology, Vol. 67, No. 4 (Oct., 1970), pp. 453-460. Newby, Rebecca. "Illusory Ends in Chretien de Troyes' Erec et Enide." In Arthurian Literature XXXIV, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2018, pp. 1-21. Oliver, Lisi. "Spilled Wine and Lost Sovereignty in Chrétien's Perceval." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, Vol. 97, No. 1 (1996), pp. 91-102. Poppe, Erich. "Chrétien's British Yvain in England and Wales." In Arthurian Literature XXXIII, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2016, pp. 29-69. Spensley, Ronald M. "Gauvain's Castle of Marvels Adventure in the Conte del Graal." Medium Ævum, Vol. 42, No. 1 (1973), pp. 32-37. Woods, William S. "The Plot Structure in Four Romances of Chrestien de Troyes." Studies in Philology, Vol. 50, No. 1 (Jan., 1953), pp. 1-15.

Geoffrey of Monmouth Echard, Siân. "'Whyche thyng semeth not to agree with other histories...': Rome in Geoffrey of Monmouth and His Early Readers." In Arthurian Literature XXVI, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2009, pp. 109-130. Flood, Victoria. "Arthur's Return from Avalon: Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Development of the Legend." Arthuriana, Vol. 25, No. 2 (Summer 2015), pp. 84-110. Henley, Georgia. "From 'The Matter of Britain' to 'The Matter of Rome': Latin Literary Culture and the Reception of Geoffrey of Monmouth in Wales." In Arthurian Literature XXXIII, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2016, pp. 1-28. Padel, O. J. "The Matter of Britain." In Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature. University of Wales Press, 2013, pp. 56-71. Tolstoy, Nikolai. "Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Merlin Legend." In Arthurian Literature XXV, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2008, pp. 1-42. Lancelot Compilation Besamuca, Bart. "The Medieval Dutch Arthurian Material." In The Arthur of the Germans: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval German and Dutch Literature, edited by W. H. Jackson and S. A. Ranawake. Cardiff: 2000, pp. 187-228. Besamuca, Bart. "The Prevalence of Verse in Medieval Dutch and English Arthurian Fiction." Arthuriana, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer 2005), pp. 3-12. Johnson, David F. "Questing in the Middle Dutch Lancelot Compilation." In The Grail, the Quest, and the World of Arthur, edited by Norris J. Lacy. Rochester, NY: 2008, pp. 92-108. Hogenbirk, Marjolein. "A Comical Villain: Arthur's Seneschal in a Section of the Middle Dutch Lancelot Compilation." In Arthurian Literature XIX: Comedy in Arthurian Literature, edited by Keith Busby and Roger Dalrymple. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2003, pp. 165-176. Lacy, Norris J. "The Uses of Middle Dutch Arthuriana." Arthuriana, Vol. 15, No. 2 (Summer 2005), pp. 3-12.

Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur Clifton, Nicole. "Sir Gawain's Death and Prophecy in Malory's Morte Darthur." In Arthurian Literature XXXIV, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2018, pp. 52-68. Coleman, Dwayne C. "Murder, Manslaughter and Reputation: Killing in Malory's Le Morte Darthur." In Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Legal, Literary and Historical Contexts, edited by Larissa Tracy. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2018, pp. 206-226. Hoffman, Donald L. "Malory and the English Comic Tradition." In Arthurian Literature XIX: Comedy in Arthurian Literature, edited by Keith Busby and Roger Dalrymple. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2003, pp.177-188. Moss, Rachel E. "'And much more I am soryat for my good knyghts': Fainting, Homosociality, and Elite Male Culture in Middle English Romance." Historical Reflections, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Spring 2016), pp. 101-113. Radulescu, Raluca L. "Malory's Lancelot and the Key to Salvation." In Arthurian Literature XXV, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2008, pp. 93-118. Rushton, Cory J. "The Ladies' Man: Gawain as Lover in Middle English Literature." In The Erotic in the Literature of Medieval Britain, edited by Amanda Hopkins and Cory James Rushton. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2007, pp. 27-37. Rushton, Cory James. "The Tomb of the Kings: Imperial Space in Arthur's Camelot." In Arthurian Literature XXXVI: Sacred Space and Place in Arthurian Romance, edited by Sarah Bowden et al. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2021, pp. 175-192. Sklar, Elizabeth S. "'Laughyng and Smylyng': Comic Modalities in Malory's Tale of Sir Launcelot du Lake." In Arthurian Literature XIX: Comedy in Arthurian Literature, edited by Keith Busby and Roger Dalrymple. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2003, pp.189-198.

Prose Merlin Conlee, John. ed. Prose Merlin. Kalamazoo, MI: Medieval Institute Publications, 1998. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Ashe, Laura. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and the Limits of Chivalry." In The Exploitations of Medieval Romance, edited by Laura Ashe et al. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2010, pp. 159-172. Ashton, Gail. "The Perverse Dynamics of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Arthuriana, Vol. 15, No. 3 (Fall 2005), pp. 51-74. Boyd, David L. "Sodomy , Misogyny, and Displacement: Occluding Queer Desire in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Arthuriana, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Summer 1998), pp. 77-113. Brewer, Derek. "Romance Traditions and Christian Values in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." In Christianity and Romance in Medieval England, edited by Rosalind Field et al. Rochester, NY: 2010, pp. 150-158. Cartlidge, Neil. "Who Is the Traitor at the Beginning of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight?" In Arthurian Literature XXXIV, edited by Elizabeth Archibald and David F. Johnson. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2018, pp. 22-51. Clark, Cecily. "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Its Artistry and Its Audience." Medium Ævum, Vol. 40, No. 1 (1971), pp. 10-20. Cox, Catherine S. "Genesis and Gender in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." The Chaucer Review, Vol. 35, No. 4 (2001), pp. 378-390. Dinshaw, Carolyn. "A Kiss Is Just a Kiss: Heterosexuality and Its Consolations in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Diacritics, Vol. 24, No. 2/3 (Summer - Autumn, 1994), pp. 204-226. Field, P. J. C. "A Rereading of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Studies in Philology, Vol. 68, No. 3 (Jul., 1971), pp. 255-269. Flood, Victoria. "'Fantoum and FayryȜe': Visions of the End of Arthurian Britain." In Arthurian Literature XXXVI: Sacred Space and Place in Arthurian Romance, edited by Sarah Bowden et al. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2021, pp. 149-174. Hardman, Philippa. "Gawain's Practice of Piety in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Medium Ævum, Vol. 68, No. 2 (1999), pp. 247-267. Henry, Avril. "Temptation and Hunt in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Medium Ævum, Vol. 45, No. 2 (1976), pp. 187-200. Puhvel, Martin. "Pride and Fall in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, Vol. 97, No. 1 (1996), pp. 57-70. Sweeney, Michelle. "Questioning Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: Teaching the Text Through Its Medieval English Christian Context." In Christianity and Romance in Medieval England, edited by Rosalind Field et al. Rochester, NY: 2010, pp. 161-175. Wadiak, Walter. "Gawain's 'Nirt' and the Sign of Chivalry." In Savage Economy: The Returns of Middle English Romance. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2017, pp. 88-118. Whiteford, Peter. "Rereading Gawain's Five Wits." Medium Ævum, Vol. 73, No. 2 (2004), pp. 225-234.

Vulgate Cycle Jefferson, Lisa. "The Keys to the Enchantments of Dolorous Guard." Medium Ævum, Vol. 58, No. 1 (1989), pp. 59-79. Maloney, Kara Larson. "Evadeam, The Dwarf Knight from the Lancelot-Grail Cycle (ca. 1220-30)." In Medieval Disability Sourcebook: Western Europe, edited by Cameron Hunt McNabb. Punctum Books, 2020, pp. 365-378. Wood, Lucas. "'Chevaliers ocirre': Manslaughter, Morality and Meaning in the Queste del Saint Graal." In Medieval and Early Modern Murder: Legal, Literary and Historical Contexts, edited by Larissa Tracy. Rochester, NY: Boydell & Brewer, 2018, pp. 179-205. Welsh sources Padel, O. J. "The Earliest Texts." In Arthur in Medieval Welsh Literature. University of Wales Press, 2013, pp. 3-10.

[mrazfellandco]

answer 17, tag 17

thank you for the tag @randomcreativitybursts !!

rules: Answer 17 questions and tag 17 people you want to get to know better.

nickname: i have so many, ese, lise, lu, eli, curly, belle, lion

zodiac: leo

height: i think around 5′2 or 5′3???? 

hogwarts house: hufflepuff

last thing i googled: surnames starting with v

song stuck in my head: i am currently listening to forever by todrick hall if that counts??

following: 876 (way too many)

followers: 1282 on this blog

amount i sleep: usually around 7 hours but recently more like 10 

lucky numbers: 13 babey

dream job: i have actually zero idea what i want to do at all. i would love to publish a book some day though

currently wearing: a nasa jumper and leggings

favourite songs: lie to me by mikolas josef, sofia by alvaro soler, young volcanoes by fall out boy, would you be so kind by dodie, boys like you by dodie, to name a few 

favourite instrument: piano

random fact about me: i once performed on a west end stage (this is my go to random fact in literally any situation)

favourite authors: uhhh i honestly don’t know but i’ve loved teri terry’s books for the longest time so probably her

favourite animal noises: big cats purring is super cute 

aesthetic: sunsets, walks through the woods, pale colours, flowers, dancing around your room... idk how you’re supposed to answer this one

i tag: @coppercogsworth @tpnks @lakis-s @danny-the-coolest (if you want to of course)

[queenofangrymoths]

Book Log of 2019

I kept a record of how many books I read in 2019. I liked most of them so I would recommend you give any of them or read.

So on with the list! If it has an X next to it then it means I didn’t finish reading it. 

#1: Warcross by Marie Lu.

#2: Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi.

#3: Kingdom of the Blazing Phoenix by Julie C. Dao.

#4: Bruja Born by Zoraida Córdova.

#5: A Thousand Beginnings and Endings by Roshani Chokshi, Alyssa Wong, Lori M. Lee, Sona Charaipotra, Aliette De Bodard, E. C. Myres, Aisha Saeed, Preeti Chhibber, Renée Ahdieh, Rahul Kanakia, Melissa De La Cruz, Elsie Chapman, Shveta Thakrar, Cindy Pon, and Julie Kagawa.

#6: The 57 Bus by Daska Slater

#7: The Dark Descent Of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kristen White.

#8: Three Dark Crowns by Kendare Blake

9#: Broken Things by Lauren Oliver.

10# The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater

11# A Study In Charlotte by Arthur Doyle

12# Simon Vs The Homo sapiens agenda by Becky Albertalli

13# The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater

14# Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater

15# The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

16# Carry On by Rainbow Rowel

17# Teen Trailblazers, 30 fearless girls who changed the world before they were 20 by Jennifer Calvert

18# Evermore by Sara Holland

19# The White Stag by Kara Barbieri

20# One Dark Throne by Kendra’s Blake

21# Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

22# A Blade So Black by L.L. McKinney

23# King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo X

24# Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

25# The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson

26# Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie

27# Mythology by Edith Hamilton

28# Percy Jackson Greek Gods by Rick Riordan 

29# Two Can Keep A Secret by Karen M McManus

30# The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

31# Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

32# Superman: Dawnbreaker by Matt De La Peña

33# The Phantom of The Opera by Gaston Leroux

34# Roseblood by A.G Howard X

35# Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J Maas

36# Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

37# Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown

38# Through The Woods by Emily Caroll

39# The Wicked Deep by Shes Ernshaw

40# Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

41# Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan

42# Where She Fell by Kaitlin Ward

43# Modern Herstory: Stories Of Women and non binary people rewriting history by Blair Imani

44# White Rabbits by Caleb Roehrig

45# To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee Adapted by Fred Fordham

46# Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan

47# Ever The Hunted by Erin Summeril

48# Four Dead Queens by Astrid Scholte

49# Lost Souls, Be At Peace by Maggie Thrash

50# Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash

51# The Giver by Lois Lowry adapted by P.Craig Russell

52# My Plain Jane by Cynthia Hand. Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

53# What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera X

54# An Assassin’s Guide to Love & Treason by Virginia Boecker

55# The Count Of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas adapted by Nokman Poon and Crystal S. Chan

56# The Fellowship Of The Ring by J.R.R Tolkien

57# What is someone I know is gay? By Eric Marcus X

58# Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig

59# The Two Towers by J.R.R Tolkien

60# The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien X

61# The Return of The King by J.R.R Tolkien

62# Lafayette by Nathan Hale

63# Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

64# We should all be feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

65# The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

66# Frankenstein by Mary Shelly

67# Norton Volume Of English Literature

68# Beowulf by Unknown

69# The General Prologue by Chaucer

70# 20/20 by Linda Brewer

71# Always in Spanish by Agosim

72# The First Day by Edward P. Jones

73# Bullet in the Brain by Tobias Wolff

74# Writing Fiction by Burroway

75# Murderers by Leonard Michaels

76# Greatness Strikes Where It Pleases by Lars Gustaffson

77# Cathedral by Raymond Carver

78# A Conversation with My Father by Grace Paley

79# Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov

80# The Lives of the Dead by Tim O’Brien

81# Head, Heart by Lydia Davis

82# Richard Cody by Edwin Arlington Robinson

83# “Out- Out-“ by Robert Frost

84# The Ruined Maid by Thomas Hardy

85# I wandered lonely as a cloud by William Wordsworth

86# Poem by Frank O’Hara

87# On being brought from Africa to America by Phillis Wheatley

88# On her loving two equally by Aphra Behn

89# Because you asked about the line between Prose and Poetry by Howard Nemerov

90# Ars Poetica by Archibald MacLeish

91# Ars Poetica? By Czeslaw Milosz

92# Ars Poetica #100: I believe by Elizabeth Alexander

93# Poetry by Marianne Moode

94# “Poetry makes nothing happen”? By Julia Alvarez

95# Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins

96# In Memory Of W.B. Yates by W. H. Auden

97# The kind of man I am at the DMV by Stacey Waite

98# The Changeling by Judith Oritez Carer

99# Going to war by Richard Lovelace

100# To the Ladies by Mary, Lady Chudleigh

101# Exchanging Hats by Elizabeth Bishop

102# History Of Ireland Volume 1 by Lecky X

103# A Modern History of Ireland by E. Norman X

104# The Tempest by William Shakespeare

105# Gender by Lisa Wade & Myra Marx Ferree

106# Trifles by Susan Glaspell

107# The Shroud by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

108# King of the Bingo Game by Ralph Ellison

109# Sonny’s Blues by James Baldwin

110# Fences by August Wilson

111# Where are you going, where have you been? By Joyce Carol Oates

112# Daddy by Sylvia Plath

113# What is our life? By Walter Raleigh

114# May I compare thee to a midsummer day? By William Shakespeare

115# The love song of J. Alfred Prufruock by T. S. Eliot

116# À unr passante by Charles Baudelaire

117# In a station of the metro by Ezra Pound

118# The Fog by Carl Sandburg

119# The Yellow Fog by T.S. Eliot

120# On first looking into Chapman’s Homer by John Keats

121# the Road Not Taken by Robert Frisr

122# Paradise Lost  Book 1 & 10 by John Milton X

123# The Victory Lap by George Saunders

124# The Tempest by William Shakespeare

125# The Vanity Of Human Wishes by Samuel Johnson

126# Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell

127# When to Her Lute Corinna Sings by Thomas Campion

128# Sir Patrick Spens by Anonymous

129# Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

130# A Prayer, Living and Dying by Augustus Montague Toplady

131# Homage to the Empress of the Blues by Robert Hayden

132# The Times They Are A-Changin’ *

133# Listening to Bob Dylan, 2005!by Linda Pastan

134# Hip Hop by Mos Deff

135# Elvis in the Inner City by Jose B. Gonzalez

136# Acquainted with the Night by Robert Frost*

137# Terza Roma by Richard Wilbur

138# Stanza from The Eve of St. Agnes by John Keats

139# Stanza from His Coy Mistress by Andrew Marvell

140# Stanza from Sound and Sense by Alexander’s Pope

141# Stanza from The Word Plum by Helen Chasin

142# Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night by Dylan Thomas

143# Myth by Natasha Trethewey

144# Sestina by Elizabeth Bishop

145# Sestina: Like by A.E. Stallings

146# l)a by E.E Cummings

147# Buffalo Bill by E.E Cummings

148# Easter Wings by George Herbert

149# Women by May Swenson

150# Upon the breeze she spread her golden hair by Franceso Petrarch

151# My lady’s presence makes the roses red by Henry Constance

152# My mistress’s eyes are nothing like the sun by William Shakespeare

153# Not marble, nor the gilded monuments by William Shakespeare

154# Let me no to the marriage of true minds by William Shakespeare

155# When I consider how my light is spent by John Milton

156# Nuns Fret Not by William Wordsworth

157# The world is too much with us by William Wordsworth

158# Do I love thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

159# In an Artist’s Studio by Christina Rossetti

160# What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why by Edna St. Vincent Millay

161# Women have loved before as I love now by Edna St. Vincent Millay

162# I, being born a woman and distressed by Edna St. Vincent Millay

163# I will put Chaos in fourteen lines by Edna St. Vincent Millay

164# First Fight. Then Fiddle by Gwendolyn Brooks

165# In the Park by Gwen Harwood

166# Something Like a Sonnet for Phillis Miracle Wheatley by June Jordan

167# Sonnet by Billy Collins

168# Dim Lights by Harryette Mullen

169# Redefininy Realmess by Janet Mock

170# Lusus Naturae by Margaret Atwood

171# The House Of Asterion by Jorge Luis Borges

172# Death Fuge by Michael Hamburger

173# Clifford’s Place by Jamel Bickerly

174# We are seven by William Wordsworth

175# Lines written in early spring by William Wordsworth

176# Expostulation and Reply by William Wordsworth

177# The Tables Turned by William Wordsworth

178# Lines by William Wordsworth

179# Recitatif by Toni Morrison

180# Volar by Judith Ortiz Cofer

181# The Management Of Grief by Bharati Mukherjee

182# Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

183# Jesus Saves by David Sedaris

184# Disabled by Wilfred Owen

185# My Father’s Garden by David Wagoner

186# Practicing by Marie Howe

187# O my pa-pa by Bob Hicok

189# Mr. T- by Terrance Hayes

190# Late Aubade by James Richardson

191# Carp Poem by Terrance Hayes

192# Pilgrimage by Natasha Trethewey

193# Tu Do Street by Yuaef Lomunyakaa

194# Diving into the Wreck by Adrienne Rich

195# Elena by Pat Mora

196# Gentle Communion by Pat Mora

197# Mothers & Daughters by Pat Mora

198# La Migra by Pat Mora

199# Ode to Adobe by Pat Mora

200# Barbie Doll by Marge Piercy

201# The Silken Tent by Robert Frost

202# Metaphors by Sylvia Plath

203# The Vine by James Thomsen

204# Questions by May Swenson

205# A Just Man by Attila József

206# the norton anthology of world literature

207# Pan’s Labyrinth by Gullernio de Toro and Cornelia Funke Xw

208# The prince and the dressmaker by Jen Wang

209# Rejected Princesses: Tales of History's Boldest Heroines, Hellions, and Heretics by Jason Porath

210# The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

[tabloidtoc]

OK, December 30

Cover: Princess Beatrice’s wedding canceled 

Page 1: Contents 

Page 2: Contents 

Page 4: Jessica Simpson answers everything in her upcoming memoir 

Page 6: Taylor Swift has no regrets

Page 7: Pete Davidson acting arrogant and cocky and his success with the ladies has turned him into a jerk, Leonardo DiCaprio’s mom is pushing him to propose to Camila Morrone before it’s too late

Page 8: Diane Kruger is good friends with Norman Reedus’ ex Helena Christensen, Henry Cavill blames Ben Affleck’s lame Batman for him losing his role as Superman, Nicole Kidman invited her estranged kids Connor and Isabella Cruise for Christmas but the Scientologists  turned her down 

Page 9: Kylie Jenner turns down every invitation she gets from her sisters because they bore her, Celine Dion is devastated that her new album plummeted from the No. 1 spot to out of the top 100 in its second week of release 

Page 10: Red Hot on the Red Carpet -- ravishing red -- Ella Mai Weisskamp, Nathalie Emmanuel, Morgan Stewart 

Page 11: Naomi Scott, Cobie Smulders, Nicky Hilton Rothschild 

Page 12: Who Wore It Better? Kate Mara vs. Nicole Richie, Dascha Polanco vs. Meghan Trainor, Alessandra Ambrosio vs. Kyle Richards 

Page 14: News in Photos -- Bombshell costars Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie and Charlize Theron at a special training in Hollywood

Page 15: Jennie Garth, Danai Gurira and America Ferrera announce the nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Matthew McConaughey and Hugh Grant take a selfie, Teri Hatcher 

Page 16: Kate Hudson, Jerry Seinfeld and Amy Schumer, Kelly Rowland 

Page 17: Justin Bieber leaving a dance studio in LA, Vanna White with Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Sara Foster with daughters Valentina and Josephine 

Page 18: Pregnant Ashley Graham, Rachel Bilson, Kristin Chenoweth and Hoda Kotb

Page 19: Neil Patrick Harris and husband David Burtka, Jeremy Piven, Reese Witherspoon walks her dog Pepper 

Page 20: Ryan Reynolds chats about Free Guy in Brazil, Carrie Underwood at the Kennedy Center Honors, Lady Gaga shows off her long fingernails in LA 

Page 21: Chris Hemsworth, Katy Perry at the KIIS FM’s Jingle Ball, Jason Biggs and wife Jenny Mollen 

Page 22: Kelly Ripa and daughter Lola Consuelos, pregnant Christina Milian 

Page 23: Jesse Metcalfe and fiancee Cara Santana in Miami 

Page 24: Inside My Home -- Demi Moore’s home in Beverly Hills 

Page 26: Jonathan Scott and Zooey Deschanel talking marriage 

Page 27: While Eva Longoria builds her career as a director husband Jose Baston is happy to care for their son Santiago, The Weeknd pining for Bella Hadid, Sandra Bullock and Bryan Randall sleep in different beds but it’s not a sign that trouble is brewing 

Page 28: Matthew Perry has been quietly seeing talent manager and producer Molly Hurwitz, Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom put their wedding on hold because they found a new destination, Love Bites -- Brody Jenner and Allison Mason on, Cassie and Alex Fine welcomed a daughter, William Shatner and wife Elizabeth split 

Page 30: Cover Story -- Princess Beatrice humiliated and heartbroken and makes the painful decision to call off her upcoming wedding amid the scandal involving her father Prince Andrew 

Page 34: Julianne Hough stronger than ever 

Page 40: Interview -- Ricky Gervais is back to host the Golden Globes for a fifth and final time 

Page 42: Karlie Kloss’ fit tips 

Page 54: Entertainment 

Page 58: Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green’s red carpet return 

Page 60: Hollywood Heat Meter -- Jordyn Woods passed a lie detector test stating she never slept with Khloe Kardashian’s ex Tristan Thompson, Anne Hathaway and Adam Shulman welcomed baby no. 2, Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi leaving the show, Meryl Streep broke her own record when she got her 34th Golden Globe nomination, Chris Harrison can be hired to marry fans, Most Googled Actors of 2019 -- Jussie Smollett, Kevin Hart, Joaquin Phoenix, Keanu Reeves, Lori Loughlin 

Page 61: Sound Bites -- Ryan Reynolds, Blake Shelton, Beyonce, Camila Cabello, Elizabeth Hurley 

Page 62: Horoscope -- Capricorn Ricky Martin 

Page 64: By the Numbers -- Zendaya 

[lotharb-blog]

It was my first time in DC.

The bus trip from Corning took over nine hours, passing through hill and dale, woods and large swaths of green fields, over rivers, through towns and cities, arriving, after nine hours, at Union Station. It was seven thirty PM.

#gallery-0-37 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-37 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-37 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-37 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Arena

Power

U-Save

Union Station is an impressive building with high segmented arches – echoing feet and constant movement giving the impression of a bee hive.

I spilled out onto the street with my backpack and suitcase, hailing a cab to take me to the HighRoad Hostel in Adams Morgan.

#gallery-0-38 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-38 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-38 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-38 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Union Station

Union Station Bus Terminal

The HighRoad Hostel is ideally located, on 18th street, in the middle of all the restaurants, pubs and esoteric shops in Adams Morgan. What a great place to stay! Friendly and helpful staff, clean, with breakfast included. I shared the room with five other travellers, bunk beds all around.

#gallery-0-39 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-39 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-39 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-39 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

DC Metro Station

National Baptist Memorial Church

“O”

Dupont Circle is the closest Metro station from where, after a short walk past the pretties brick row-houses, you catch a red-line train into town.

I specifically went to Washington DC to meet up with Tim Tate. Tim is the co-founder and co-director of the Washington Glass School. We have been Facebook friends for ages and it was a treat to actually meet face to face!

#gallery-0-40 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-40 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-40 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-40 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Washington Glass School

Tim Tate

Tim just returned from Venice. He showed me images of the mind-blowing opening ceremony at Glasstress, a collaboration between artists from all disciples and glass maestros crating art in glass. This is a spectacular official collateral event of the Biennale di Venezia, extending the borders of creative glass within contemporary art. Blow Your Sculpture is similar in vane but not nearly on the scale and prestige Glasstress offers.

The Washington Glass School is a comprehensive facility. They have kilns, a cold shop, cutting and modelling tables. One can also rent private studio spaces. The only thing missing is a furnace. They offer classes and workshops as well as accepting commissions. Tim, in his open and friendly way, gave me a tour of the school and tips on how to make some of the interesting panels for community based projects.

I love this fuzzy feeling of sharing knowledge, homeliness and extended family within the international glass fraternity!

After lunch with Tim and Teri (the WGS Creative Coordinator) I left to be the tourist, head filled to the brim with new ideas and possibilities.

Did you know that Washington DC and Pretoria are Sister Cities…?

I headed to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Tim gave me this tip and it was totally mind blowing. The depth of works represented there was phenomenal. The building itself is amazing with inlaid marble floors, vaulted ceilings and a magnificently covered courtyard.

  #gallery-0-41 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-41 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-41 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-41 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Sculpture of American Girl by Window

The Smithsonian American Art Museum

Covered courtyard at SAAM

As I got to the last exhibits at the top and turned left, my heart skipped a beat. Nam June Paik’s, one of my all-time favourite artists, whose work, Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, was set up in its fullest glory. All 336 television sets radiating moving imagery at full blast!

From the Smithsonian website:

“Today, the Internet and twenty-four-hour broadcasting tend to homogenize the customs and accents of what was once a more diverse nation. Paik was the first to use the phrase “electronic superhighway,” and this installation proposes that electronic media provide us with what we used to leave home to discover.”

On day two I walked around the White House to maybe get a glimpse of the US president… (not really), and noticed the flags being half-mast. Stopping and asking some friendly police officers (and there were many about) why the flags were half-mast, they told me it was the National Peace Officers Memorial Day, honouring fallen police men and women.

Interesting…

Taking another tip from Tim I went to the Renwick Gallery, which is situated just around the corner from the White House. It’s part of the Smithsonian American Art Museums and houses American crafts and decorative arts with some amazing glass works by artists such as Tim Tate, Karen LaMont, Norwood Viviano, Judith Schaechter and more.

#gallery-0-42 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-42 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-42 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-42 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Norwood Viviano, Mining Industries: Downtown Boston

Judith Schaechter

I see that there will be an upcoming show by Ginny Ruffner titled Reforestation of the Imagination opening end June 2019…

What strikes me is the support by institutions such at the Smithsonian maintaining and showing important works of art but also the support of private funding and endowments to make these purchases possible. There is a foresight which promotes growth and understanding for future generations by this generous support which is somewhat lacking at home. I find that works housed within these institutions give the artists whom they represent a foothold to build, not just their own carriers, but also their mediums and modes of expression in a much broader sense and ultimately an industry of talented young creatives.

If the broader public isn’t stimulated on the diversity of ideas, craftsmanship and materials then they can’t develop a full picture of what is possible. Without this generous monetary support and genuine 21st century focused cultural foresight, South Africa and the continent will loose the development of its diverse hand-skilled knowledge and artistic heterogeneity to generic reproductions or assimilated tastes.

…in my opinion.

All the Smithsonian Museums don’t charge entrance. This makes for long days of walking and wondering through enormous spaces absorbing beautiful and diverse voices of art, science and history. It’s just impossible to see al the museums and their contents within a few days, let alone actually savouring the contents of the ones you do make the time to see.

My main focus was to look at art. Then there is no place as the Hirschhorn, National Museum of Modern Art. This strikingly round ring building floating above stilts houses some magnificent treasures. Once inside one walks three stories in a circuit, rising, via escalator, a level on each lap with new and profound exhibits.

Walking the Hirschhorn circuit through modern and contemporary art history I saw Claes Oldenburg’s Bathtub and a three channel video environment called Safe Conduct by Ed Atkins. I also contemplated my first Ron Mueck sculpture, Big Manand loved the visual combination of Brancusi’s Torso of a Young Man with Felix Gonzalez-Torres’ Untitled (for Jeff) open hand in the background.

#gallery-0-43 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-43 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-43 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-43 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Ed Atkins, Safe Conduct

Ed Atkins, Safe Conduct

Ed Atkins, Safe Conduct

Brancusi & Felix Gonzalez-Torres

Claes Oldenburg, Bath Tub

Ron Mueck, Big Man

After these long days it was always a pleasant reprieve to return to the HighRoad Hostel in Adams Morgan, buying a cold beer on the way up the hill and engage in stressless conversation with fellow travellers from all over the world. I had a couple of good laughs… 😉

My last day was spent in the National Museum of African Art. This too is a Smithsonian institution which is housed next to the Smithsonian Castle on the National Mall. At first glance this smallish building gives the impression of housing a quaint display or two, referencing some “typical African” styles with a few examples of metal smithing in their show Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths.

I couldn’t have been more wrong!

#gallery-0-44 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-44 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-44 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-44 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Mask

Smithsonian African Art Museum

Mask

Once entering the “little house” and checking my backpack into a locker I descended a central staircase… with several subterranean levels unfolding beneath me.

On the first terrace large marble plaques inscribed with the words:

“The Smithsonian Institution gratefully acknowledges the support of these donors who provided funds matching congressional appropriations for the construction of this building, which was dedicated September 28, 1987.”

Reading through all the names (twice) – and there are over 160 names of foundations, corporations, countries and more – only the United Republic of Cameroon represents any true continental African affiliation. This was quite disappointing.

Looking down, over the balcony of this first terrace, was a projection of Willian Kentridge’s Felix in Exile. I remember seeing it for the first time as a student, maybe during the time we assisted Kentridge and Doris Bloom with the Fire/Gate project for the first Johannesburg Biennale in 1995.

Down I went… and each level revealed enormous curated caverns, well lit, displayed and detailed in historic as well as recent works. Imagine my surprise discovering Willie Bester’s Apartheid Laboratory! (Gift of Gilbert B. and Lila Silverman & Jerome L. and Ellen Stern, 2017-15-1)

Farther down I went… past the masks and sculptures, colourful textiles and gold jewellery, down to the bottom where the show was I wanted to see – Striking Iron.

Entering the gallery past a photo portal of a fiery sun my tired feet were forgotten for a moment. This last cavern housed a brilliantly informative display of metal work, specifically African blacksmithing, its history, tools and processes, with many examples – swords, bells, anvils, sculptures, etc.

A few video nooks showed how things are still done till this day, with hand bellows breathing heat into coke fires and anvils changing their roles to hammers… inventively inspirational.

#gallery-0-45 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-45 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-45 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-45 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Anvil

Anvil & Hammer

This being my last day in DC, and all, feet hurting and head filled with new images I couldn’t just leave.

The National Air and Space Museum was around the corner, well, just down the road…

With energy levels almost on critical I stumbled into the NASM. This enormous space (pardon the pun…) was crowded to the brim with moms and dads, kids of all ages and general space nerds such as myself.

My mission objective was to go to the shop and grab some memorabilia. Feet were flattened by miles of walking and gravity started taking it’s toll…

Lunar Lander

It was like being a kid again. Rockets to the left, the Lunar Lander to the front, Russian and American space suits… the list goes on. Unfortunately (but fortunately for my feet) the museum was in the middle of rearranging and curating new exhibitions. I managed to peek over a barrier to see a Junkers 52 which my dad used to fly in during the war time.

Exhausted, I walked to the nearest Metro station, jumped on the train, got out at Dupont Circle, walked the last mile up to the Hostel, grabbed a beer, packed my bags and left early the next morning heading for New York.

All photos were taken with my iPhone 7 using Darkr and 8mm app.

A few days in Washington DC - Glass, Art, Science and much much more. It was my first time in DC. The bus trip from Corning took over nine hours, passing through hill and dale, woods and large swaths of green fields, over rivers, through towns and cities, arriving, after nine hours, at Union Station.

[cccovers]

Rhudiprrt, the Prince of Fur #2 (May 1990) cover by Teri S. Wood.

[brookstonalmanac]

Birthdays 6.1

Beer Birthdays

Thomas Carling (1797)

Otto Flood Emmerling (1889)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Morgan Freeman; actor (1937)

Mikhail Glinka; composer (1804)

Cleavon Little; actor (1939)

Alanis Morissette; pop singer (1974)

Teri Polo; actor (1969)

Famous Birthdays

Rene Auberjonois; actor (1940)

Pat Boone; pop singer (1934)

Powers Boothe; actor (1948)

Diana Canova; actor (1953)

Sadi Nicolas Leonard Carnot; physicist (1796)

Brian Cox; actor (1946)

Ronnie Dunn; country singer (1953)

Andy Griffith; actor (1926)

Lisa Hartman; actor (1956)

Reverend Ike; evangelist minister (1935)

Heidi Klum; model (1973)

William S. Knowles; chemist (1917)

Alexi Lalas; soccer player (1970)

Jacques Marquette; French missionary, Canadian explorer (1637)

John Masefield; English writer (1878)

Colleen McCullough; Australian writer (1937)

Bob Monkhouse; comedian, writer (1928)

Marilyn Monroe; actor (1926)

Frank Morgan; actor (1890)

Jonathan Pryce; actor (1947)

John Randolph; actor (1915)

Nelson Riddle; bandleader (1921)

Graham Russell; pop singer (1950)

Amy Schumer; comedian (1981)

Francis Edgar Stanley; inventor, manufacturer (1849)

Kip Thorne; physicist (1940)

Ron Wood; rock guitarist (1947)

Edward Woodward; actor (1930)

Brigham Young; religious cult leader (1801)

[galadrieljones]

OC as a Child:  Sene Lavellan

tagged by @a-shakespearean-in-paris and @twilightoath ^_^ Above art is my own. Here’s the post!

Who named them/Significance of their name:

Sene’s full first name is Isene, which means like fire. Her mother Rasha chose the name, because it had been a very cold spring in Ansburg that year (9:22 Dragon). She wanted to bring some warmth into the season.

Isene is pronounced EE-seh-nay. Her nickname, Sene, was given to her by her father Revasan when she was a young child. He always said that a three-syllable name was too many syllables to be shouting across the farm every single day. Sene is pronounced, very simply, as Sen (rhymes with hen).

Sene’s Uncle Ellas, Great Aunt Fisara, and cousin Terys all call her Ise (EE-say), which means simply fire.

Home they grew up in:

Sene grew up on a large, farming compound of about 400 acres on the Minanter River, outside of Ansburg in the Free Marches. The farm grows mostly grain (wheat and corn) and grapes, and is also home to a large distillery and several large wine cellars. The Lavellans, a large clan comprised of Sene’s immediate and extended family (the “blood” Lavellans”) and then many smaller clans absorbed over the years, all lived in large fortified tents until about the time that Sene joined the Inquisition. At that point, however, they expanded the compound quite a bit and built houses. The Lavellan clan runs a large operation as farmers, distillers/vintners, and liquor distributors. They are quite well-off.

Relationship with parents:

Sene always had a kind of a tense relationship with her parents. Her father Revasan was massively sheltering when she was a child and a teenager, judgmental, crass, and what Sene would probably describe as an “angry asshole with a stick up his ass.” Sene’s mother Rasha is a passive person and sheltered as well, though she has many deep emotional scars due to a great deal of traumatic loss in her history. During Sene’s more rebellious antics, she would remain uninvolved, leaving most of the discipline to Revasan, as conflict typically upset her. This caused Sene to resent her mother a little bit, and to view her as weak for many years.

Three Words to describe them as a child:

Fast, spitfire, insecure.

Childhood friend(s):

Sene hung out with her cousin Terys a lot, as they’re about the same age, but Terys was always charming and he had a lot of friends that weren’t Sene, so she often ended up alone. She was the only girl in her generation, which was small to begin with, so she’d run off into the city and try to make friends with city elves and humans whenever she felt lonely. She spent a lot of time with a human blacksmith named Samuel Hart in the city. He was chronically ill, and so he did not often leave his smithy, where he also lived. He had good books, and good stories, and he taught her interesting ways of fletching that he’d learned as a younger, healthier man while traveling the continent.

Favorite Toy:

Sene liked collecting things–pretty stationary, paper flowers, jewels, pretty rocks, dried leaves, feathers, arrowheads, anything she could get her hands on. As a child, she had many wooden dolls and animal figurines and zoo menageries, all made for her by her father.

Childhood Trauma?:

Sene has not experienced a great deal of immediate trauma in her life. Most of her negative experiences growing up were secondhand, ie: absorbed from others. Her mother experienced a lot of trauma when Sene was young–loss of an infant child, and then loss of her entire home clan to the Fifth Blight. Seeing this, the effect it had on both her parents, how it put their marriage through many trials, this affected Sene deeply, probably in ways she could not fully articulate even as an adult. Sene has very few fears, but the one thing she seems to fear more than anything is losing the people that she loves in some way.

Hobbies:

Reading, fletching, some light smithing, drawing, working on the farm. As a kid, Sene liked to keep busy. Like her dad, she has always had a fast brain, and if she doesn’t give it something to do, she’ll go nuts.

Childhood fear(s):

As a child, Sene often feared that something awful would happen to her parents. No matter how much they butted heads, it still scared her. Her father, who used to dive ruins from about the time she was 7-12 years old, would leave the house for several protracted trips a year. It would make her mother very nervous and sleepless, and Sene always feared he would not return. Sene also feared that her parents would divorce, or separate, or fall out of love. At one point, in the years after the Blight when her mother’s family died, she was convinced they had.

Quirks/Fun Facts:

Sene could be incredibly mean as a child when somebody tried to tell her what to do or get in her private business. She has made more than one ha’hren cry with her insensitivity. After she achieved her vallaslin at the very young age of eleven, she would set net traps in the woods to catch competing hunters trying to infringe on her territory and cuss them out as she stole their kill (which she viewed as rightfully hers). She would camp out at a nearby statue of the Dread Wolf and offer him berries and other snacks and sometimes tell him stories about her boring life. She had a bad potty mouth even as a kid--thanks to her father, of course.

tags for @thevikingwoman @ladylike-foxes @sasshole-for-rent @buttsonthebeach @littleblue-eyedbird @destinyapocalypse @wrenbee @solverne @hansaera @bearly-tolerable @ladydracarysao3 @ma-sulevin @kaoruyogi @whosafraidofthebigbaddreadwolf @tel-abelas-mofo (only if you’d like!!) also ANY followers who’d like to do this it’s very fun and I’m tagging you all. <3

[dumerill]

Indietober / Inktober

6. Cassandra from Wondering Star

Wondering Star was created by Teri S. Woods

[livinginlandmarketing]

Remember when COVID-19 vaccines were as elusive as your car keys on Monday morning and harder to snag than Rolling Stones tickets?

The jabs started rolling out to more people in February and, after a slow start, California has clocked an impressive pace.

On Feb. 16, according to state data, just 6.3 million doses had been administered, mostly to health workers, the elderly and those at high risk of complications. Three months later, 36.5 million jabs have entered arms — an increase of 30 million in just three months.

Phaedra Ledbetter, left, holds her daughter, Athena, 12, as she receives her vaccine from Ying-Ying Goh, Pasadena’s director of public health and health officer on May 14. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

To date, a solid majority of Californians 12 and older — 62.5% — have had at least one shot, according to data from the California Department of Public Health. That’s better than the nation as a whole, where 61.6% have been jabbed, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.

“We spend a lot of time focusing on ‘it’s not good enough,’ but the fact that we are where we are right now — we wouldn’t have expected this a year ago,” said Richard Carpiano, a public health scientist and medical sociologist at UC Riverside.

“We should celebrate that. The more people you can vaccinate, and the faster you can do it, the better.”

Andrew Noymer, an epidemiologist and demographer at UCI Irvine, agrees.

“If you would have told me in December that on June 1 we’d be where we are right now, I would have said, ‘Yowsa. Yeah, that’s praiseworthy,’” Noymer said.

But the vaccination pace is slowing. Southern California’s inland counties lag behind their coastal cousins in vaccine uptake. While clearly making progress toward “herd immunity” — where the virus essentially fizzles out for lack of new hosts, which experts expect if and when 70% to 90% of everyone is vaccinated — reaching millions of people who can’t or won’t be jabbed yet is proving a heavy lift.

“Right now, we still get a passing grade, but it’s like the barometer is falling,” Noymer said. “That means a storm is coming, but not that it’s raining right now.”

The push now to vaccinate younger people in wealthy nations is harshly criticized by poorer ones that don’t have enough vaccine to protect their health care workers and elderly.

“The ongoing vaccine crisis is a scandalous inequity that is perpetuating the pandemic. More than 75% of all vaccines have been administered in just 10 countries,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, at the opening of its international meeting on Monday, May 24.

“There is no diplomatic way to say it: a small group of countries that make and buy the majority of the world’s vaccines control the fate of the rest of the world. The number of doses administered globally so far would have been enough to cover all health workers and older people, if they had been distributed equitably. We could have been in a much better situation.”

Solid progress at home

According to state and county data, among those eligible for shots in California:

In Los Angeles County, 9.5 million have received at least one shot, for a 62.5% rate.

In Orange County, 3.1 million doses have been administered, close on L.A.’s heels at 60%.

In Riverside, 1.9 million shots have entered arms for a rate of 48%.

In San Bernardino, 1.5 million have gotten jabs, just shy of half at 49.8%.

The percentages are for people 16 and older, except for Riverside, which includes those 12 and up.

But when viewed through the lens of total population that has had at least one shot — not solely those currently eligible — it’s clear that the holy grail of herd immunity is a long way off.

Even in one of the most vaccinated states in one of the world’s most vaccinated nations, there’s much work to do before the virus fizzles for lack of new hosts — which means it can keep changing, perhaps into more dangerous versions that might endanger the vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.

Looking at total population, rather than just eligible population:

About 53% of California’s total population has been vaxxed. In L.A. and O.C., it’s about 52%; in Riverside, it’s about 41%; in San Bernardino, it’s about 38%.

Inland Empire averages are dragged down because they have a higher proportion of young people who are not yet eligible for vaccines, according to census data. Hesitancy may play a role as well.

Nationwide, 164.4 million people have received at least one shot, which is 49.5% of the total population, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control. Of Americans over age 12, 58.6% are vaccinated; and of those over 18, 61.6% are vaccinated.

Is herd immunity achievable? Is it even important if those at greatest risk are vaccinated?

“It is important,” Carpiano said. “COVID isn’t going away. It’s still bad. But if we had 70, 80, 85% vaccinated, we’d have more localized popups, not nationwide and statewide lockdowns. We could control it with contact tracing and quarantining. We could treat it like we would a measles outbreak. In that case, every additional person vaccinated is going to be important.”

Dr. Clayton Chau, county health officer and director of the OC Health Care Agency, said that we’ve only known about COVID 19 for some 18 months. We still don’t know its long-term effects on the body, on the brain and, in particular, on young people.

“If the majority of the population accepts the vaccines, which are currently effective and safe by all indication, then COVID-19 will behave like our seasonal flu,” Chau said. “However, one needs to put things in perspective. The CDC estimates that an average of 36,000 people died of the seasonal flu each year. Over half a million of U.S. residents have died from COVID-19 so far.”

The issue, Noymer said, is that there are essentially two groups of people: those eager for the vaccine, and those who aren’t. The population is split pretty much right down the middle.

The first few months of the rollout went gangbusters because eager people rushed for shots, but now that the eagers are vaccinated, the pace slows because it’s the not-so-eagers who are left.

This graph of daily COVID shots administered in Orange County illustrates the slowdown. On some days in April, more than 40,000 shots were given. The highest day so far in May was less than 27,000, with some days as low as 10,000.

In Israel, 63% of the total population has been vaccinated — more than 80% of those eligible — and its epidemic curve has slid so much it’s beautiful, Noymer said. “COVID has vanished there, for all intents and purposes. So that’s where we want to get to, and I’m worried we’re stalling out.”

Easy access is vital to ensuring that as many people get jabbed as possible, Carpiano said. Not everyone can take time off from work or has a computer to make an appointment or a car to get there.

World dilemma

Experts stress that until everyone is safe, no one is safe — and have railed against “vaccine apartheid” as rich countries gobble up vaccine doses and use them for people at lower risk, while those at higher risk abroad are left in the lurch.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the World Health Organization, in 2020 (Salvatore Di Nolfi/Keystone via AP, file)

In many African nations — Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia, Sudan, Niger, Mali and Ethiopia, among others — less than 1% of the total population has been vaccinated, according to the Our World In Data project.

In Egypt, 1.5%. Lybia, 1.6%. Iran, 2.4%.

In India, where a virus variant has ravaged the health care system and is spreading to other nations, only 11% of people have been vaccinated. In Mexico, the rate is 14%. In Brazil, it’s 18%.

“Almost 18 months into the defining health crisis of our age, the world remains in a very dangerous situation,” said the WHO’s Ghebreyesus. “As of today, more cases have been reported so far this year than in the whole of 2020. On current trends, the number of deaths will overtake last year’s total within the next three weeks.”

Globally, there has been a drop in the number of cases and deaths reported, but “we remain in a fragile situation,” he said. “No country should assume it is out of the woods, no matter its vaccination rate. So far, no variants have emerged that significantly undermine the efficacy of vaccines, diagnostics or therapeutics. But there is no guarantee that will remain the case. … We must be very clear: the pandemic is not over, and it will not be over until and unless transmission is controlled in every last country.”

The WHO leader said he understands that every government has a duty to protect its own people and vaccinate its entire population. In time, there will be enough supply to do that. But right now, there is not, and he called for a “massive push” to vaccinate at least 10% of every country by September, and a “drive to December” to vaccinate at least 30% by year’s end.

“This is crucial to stop severe disease and death, keep our health workers safe and reopen our societies and economies,” he said. “Countries that vaccinate children and other low-risk groups now do so at the expense of health workers and high-risk groups in other countries. That’s the reality.”

Related Articles

Memorial Day travel by Southern Californians will increase 64%, most going by car

Here’s why Riverside, San Bernardino counties don’t expect to reach yellow tier before state reopens

San Bernardino County coronavirus numbers stay low, despite small fluctuations

How homebound Riverside County residents can get coronavirus vaccine

Riverside County closing most fixed-site coronavirus vaccine clinics

-on May 25, 2021 at 11:31AM by Teri Sforza