#those samplers are nearly impossible to find

[go-go-devil]

Today marks the anniversary of the Sega Saturn port of Hylics!

[alexandriaisburning]

+000: Mega Man Zero, the series that took me nearly two decades to learn

Addendums, Archives and Appendecies is extra, off topic writing in addition to the regular CANON FIRE entries. This entry is intended as a sampler for future entries that will be added upon reaching the third Patreon Goal. 

You can find the footnotes for this entry, as well as support the project, on Patreon. 

Set 100 years after the end of the Mega Man X series, the Zero games plunge the titular character into an apocalyptic world far removed from his understanding(1). And to reflect this, each encounter has turned into a deathtrap, with even basic knowledge of the world and game systems denied from you. 

This punishing, obtuse style has drawn facetious comparisons to Fromsoft’s recent titles, but in learning to play Mega Man Zero, I found the experience more similar to learning fighting games, Ninja Gaiden Black(2) or uh, Sonic Lost World (3). Like those titles, Mega Man Zero offers you next to nothing in terms of guidance, fails to explain basics nearly essential to playing the game, and has to be learned by seeking outside resources and imitating others techniques. Inti Creates made a game that’s almost impossible to enjoy blind, which I can only recommend with a mountain of caveats and an encyclopedia worth of tech. 

All of this went over my head as a teen, where I played them day and date with the physical releases via leaked ROMs(4), with save states to sand off any rough patches. It was only years later when I attempted a “proper” playthrough of the games as part of the DS collection that I learned how harsh the series could be. Later releases of the games attempted to mitigate this friction, often overcompensating and removing some of the original appeal in the process. (5) 

So finally, after growing frustrated with the less than ideal handling of the games in the Legacy Collection, I went back to my roots and straight up emulated them. This time armed with not only save states, but rewind, better controls, and a stream of new tech learned from videos, guides and speedruns. (6)

One of the most critical, and increasingly obtuse, mechanics to understand is the combo system.  Most games use hitstun to communicate your ability to do combos, putting enemies into a state of inaction where you can follow up with another attack for guaranteed damage. 

Because the Zero series is part of the larger  Mega Man series it inherits certain aspects and behaviors from it. Only certain enemies visibly flinch when taking damage, though most of them can be attacked and comboed indefinitely, due to their lack of invincibility frames, or I-frames(7). Bosses, like in the Classic and X series, go into a long period of invincibility when hit. Generally speaking, this is why charge attacks and boss weaknesses are so valuable--if a single shot that does 1 damage triggers the same amount of I-frames as an attack that does 4 times as much, it's going to be more effective and efficient to use that weapon. Later games in each series also introduce a flinch animation, which interrupts boss attacks and more clearly communicates the extent of the damage. 

In the Zero series these rules are still in place, but what it doesn't tell you is that bosses can also be damaged during their I-frames. Only certain attacks can do this, and they need to be followed by the appropriate attack in order to continue the combo. For example, in Zero 2 you can begin with an EX Move (8), follow with Zero's 3-hit saber combo, then end with a charged chain rod spin to cause massive damage. Learning and applying these combos can let you defeat some bosses in under 10 seconds, less than it takes for them to give their intro speech. A far cry from the long, tense back and forths you'd get if you otherwise waited for their I-frames to end each time. 

The caveat is that unlike other combo systems, the bosses will often still be able to attack during the entire combo. Thanks to that, poor positioning can often get you hit during an attack, and deploying combos at inopportune times will see you be interrupted instead. Bosses will also continue to visibly be in I-frames the entire time, and only keen eyes and ears will notice health bars and sound effects indicating the damage. 

If that wasn't enough, the combo system changes with every entry. The first game acts more like an extension of the exploits found in later X series games, with the Boomerang Shield and Chain Rod combos acting like the Saber-dash-cancel that prevented bosses from triggering I-frames. Zero 2 establishes an early form of the hit priority system, with 3 and 4 following up on it to develop a full combo system. 

Not a single one of these mechanics, or the hit priority values essential to building combos, are ever surfaced within the game. The community has essentially compiled all these resources through years of experimentation, stripping the game down and explaining the theory behind the tech in the same way they used to develop combos or learn frame data (9) for fighting games. 

The same applies for the supporting mechanics: Cyber Elves(10), the rank system, Chips, crafting and etc. can all make the game much easier to get through, and give you some choice in how hard you want to make a particular playthrough, but none of it is explicated, and the details often change between games in ways that aren’t explained. Abilities that you used to rely on are frequently earned in a totally new way in the next entry, leaving you to scour an FAQ to see how to earn it again. 

Despite all of these struggles, I still managed to come away with an appreciation of the series, almost two decades after they originally released, and multiple attempts along the way. The ability to save state took away the harsh penalties that frustrated me, and allowed me to experiment and learn its systems and boss patterns. Eventually, I started to return to the Zero Legacy Collection to practice certain stages and bosses, and at some point I’ll probably do a “proper” run through the series. 

I’m not someone who’ll tell you to push through the suffering to get to the reward. If I don’t vibe with at least some aspect of a game immediately, it’s hard for me to care enough to keep learning it. 

Against all odds, I found myself doing exactly that here, and being rewarded the deeper I dug. Maybe it was the powerful aesthetics, or the promise of a greater understanding of one of my favorite game worlds that pushed me through. It took a mountain of effort, the guidance of many, and a new approach–on my terms–but after so many years  I’ve finally made my peace with the saga of Mega Man Zero.

[shireness-says]

Ok, but consider this:

Modern AU Captain Book who went on three dates and remain amicable exes

Because every time I see those gifs from season 2 when they’re on the Jolly, or from 3b when they’re holding down the pawnshop together, I’m reminded that there was definitely chemistry. Also, @welllpthisishappening is and enabler.

Killian’s sister-in-law, Elsa, sets them up on a blind date. Elsa knows Belle from book club.

Killian is less than enthusiastic, but Elsa is stubborn and impossible to say no to. So he goes.

And the date is... fine. They actually get along really well, the conversation is nice.

Belle isn’t, like, smitten, but it’s hard to find a man who’s willing to get into debates about Austen, and the kiss goodnight was nice enough, so she’s willing to see how this plays out.

Killian just doesn’t have any reason to back out and does not relish the idea of telling Elsa it didn’t work for no good reason

Anyways. There’s a second date. And a third.

And like... there’s stereotypical expectations of what happens on/after a third date. Which is where the problem comes in.

Because both of them realize that they really do like each other, but like... that’s it. It is very platonic. There is absolutely no desire on either side to see the other one naked. There is less than zero sexual tension. 

So Belle takes the plunge and is like look, I like you, but this isn’t going to work. Friends instead? Cool, see you for coffee next week. 

And they actually do stay friends! Like, they’re both interesting people who enjoy each other’s company. Movie nights and long talks about books over tea ensue.

But, as Killian’s friend, Belle really wants to see him meet someone. Like he doesn’t already have one woman in his life pulling this setup nonsense.

Some of these dates are better than others.

Neither he nor Ariel want to be there, especially when their waiter catches her eye, but she’s nice. It’s not unpleasant.

He actually enjoys his date with Tink, but she’s not nearly as impressed and there’s no second date. Killian honestly isn’t that disappointed.

At one point, Belle tries to set him up with Anna, and Killian has to draw a line.

“Absolutely not. That’s my sister-in-law.”

Actually, the best date might be the fiasco with Mulan.

Who shows up and immediately says “Look, I’m only here because I like Belle. Like, in a really different way than you do.”

“Fair enough. You still want to split an appetizer sampler, though? I’ve got my eye on the potato skins and spinach artichoke dip.”

Not bad, all things considered.

But! One day, this beautiful blonde walks into his bar.

Her name’s Emma. She’s the new deputy. 

Killian is Smitten. 

He’s not subtle about it either. Like, he’s going to meet Belle for lunch one day and runs into Emma on the way and by the time Belle catches up with him he’s blushing and stammering and it’s just so endearingly obvious. 

But he’s not making a move. What if Emma doesn’t feel the same way? He couldn’t possibly bear it. 

So, Belle obviously starts trying to set Killian up with Emma. Without telling him that Emma is the lady she’s setting him up with. 

So Killian is resisting this latest set-up all the way, because why would he want a set-up when he’s already pining for Emma?

(As Laura pointed out: he just really wants to make out with Emma, ok)

But he eventually caves because Belle is Very Persistent and there reaches a point where objecting is useless. 

But then he shows up at the restaurant and... it’s Emma!

He’s delighted. She’s actually happy too - it’s really cute when he gets flustered, after all. 

Date commences. Multiple dates. The aforementioned making out. 

Belle is very smug that she actually got the two of them to pull it together and get together. 

She’s obviously one of the groomsmen (groomswomen?) at the eventual wedding. Mulan is her date. Everyone lives happily ever after. 

Especially Killian and Emma. Finally, a set-up that actually worked!

[ismael37olson]

You're Cellophane!

Not too long ago, I created a Music Man glossary, since that show is so chock-full of period slang and euphemisms. Now, working on Anything Goes, I find the same thing is true. It's part of what make both shows so good -- they create a very real, full world in which these characters exist. And contrary to what a lot of directors and actors think, it is not important for the audience to get every reference; but it is important that the actors get them, so that they can live fully and honestly in this world. That sense of reality is the real value of period references. On the other hand.. In the original Anything Goes, several the lyrics were full of references to people and things that were popular in 1934, many of which we haven't even heard of today. So a lot of the original lyric for "You're the Top" and "Anything Goes" would just be baffling to audiences; and instead of listening to the song, they'd be feeling left behind and confused. Those lyrics had to be revised for the revivals. All that said, for actors and directors working on Anything Goes, and for all musical theatre fangirls and fanboys (of which I am one) who just love the show, here is my Anything Goes glossary. Take a look particularly at the juxtaposition of these pop culture references against each other, in their context. Porter is doing some really subtle, sophisticated social commentary in many of these lyrics. From the original 1934 script: "Manhattan" -- a cocktail made with whiskey, sweet vermouth, and bitters. While rye is the traditional whiskey of choice, other commonly used whiskeys include Canadian whisky, bourbon, blended whiskey, and Tennessee whiskey, invented in in the early 1870s at the Manhattan Club. "Grosvenor House" -- one of the largest private homes in London, torn down during World War I, and replaced with the luxury Grosvenor House Hotel

"Tommy gun" -- the Thompson submachine gun, invented by John T. Thompson in 1918, and became infamous during the Prohibition era. "rote shot" -- a section of the newspaper with society photographs, called the "rotogravure," after the printing process "Evelyn" -- a then common British man's name pronounced EVE-lin. "Snake Eyes Johnson" and Moonface Martin" -- jokes on 1930s gangster nicknames, like Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Bugsy Siegel, Machine Gun Kelly, Lucky Luciano... "dicks"  -- law enforcement; a slang term for detectives, originally coined in Canada and brought south by rumrunners during Prohibition. The comic strip character Dick Tracy was named for this term. "a wireless" -- a telegram "Mater" -- British for Mother, from the Latin, an intentionally old-fashioned term "Eight Bells Strike" -- the striking of eight bells on a ship says a four-hour watch shift is over (it's not connected to a specific time on the clock) "my sea legs..." -- a person's ability to keep their balance and not feel seasick when on board a moving ship. "Nicholas Murray Butler" -- a famous American philosopher, diplomat, and educator; president of Columbia University, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. "Damn white of him" -- originally used under British colonialism, an expression of appreciation for honorable or gracious behavior, under the assumption that white people were inherently more virtuous. "The Social Register" -- according to Wikipedia, "The social elite was a small closed group. The leadership was well known to the readers of society pages, but in larger cities it was impossible to remember everyone, or to keep track of the new debutantes, the marriages, and the obituaries. The solution was the Social Register, which listed the names and addresses of the families who mingled in the same private clubs, attended the right teas and cotillions, worshipped together at prestige churches, funded the proper charities, lived in exclusive neighborhoods, and sent their daughters to finishing schools and their sons away to prep schools" "Beefeater" -- actually a ceremonial guard at the Tower of London, but here just referring to a British person, possibly also implying that Evelyn is stiff...? "Coliseum" -- the famous amphitheater in Rome, built in 70-80 AD "Louvre Museum" -- the world's largest museum, in Paris, holding some of our great works of art, including the "Mona Lisa." "Symphony by Strauss" -- German composer Richard Strauss was still actively writing operas and concert works when Anything Goes opened.

"Bendel bonnet" -- a ladies' hat from Henri Bendel, the upscale women's specialty store still today based in New York City, selling handbags, jewelry, luxury fashion accessories, home fragrances and gifts "Shakespeare Sonnet" -- Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets, fourteen-line poems Mickey Mouse -- you have to remember that for these characters living in 1934, Steamboat Willie premiered only six years ago, and Mickey was still only in black and white... "Vincent Youmans" -- Broadway composer of many musicals, including No, No, Nanette, Hit the Deck, and several Hollywood films "Mahatma Gandhi" -- still in the middle of his historic fight for independence for colonial India from Great Britain at this moment "Napoleon Brandy" -- an "extra old" blend of brandy in which the youngest brandy is stored for at least six years "The National Gallery": Famous art gallery in Washington, D.C. "Garbo's salary" - according to an article on Slate.com, "After the success of Flesh and the Devil (1927), Greta Garbo demanded that MGM raise her salary from $600 per week to $5,000 per week. Louis B. Mayer hemmed and hawed, so Garbo sailed to Sweden. Eventually Mayer gave in and Garbo sailed back. $5,000 per week comes to $260,000 per year, or the equivalent in today's dollars of $4.6 million per year." "cellophane" -- according to Wikipedia, "Whitman's candy company initiated use of cellophane for candy wrapping in the United States in 1912 for their Whitman's Sampler. They remained the largest user of imported cellophane from France until nearly 1924, when DuPont built the first cellophane manufacturing plant in the US. Cellophane saw limited sales in the US at first since while it was waterproof, it was not moisture proof—it held water but was permeable to water vapor. This meant that it was unsuited to packaging products that required moisture proofing. DuPont hired chemist William Hale Charch, who spent three years developing a nitrocellulose lacquer that, when applied to Cellophane, made it moisture proof. Following the introduction of moisture-proof Cellophane in 1927, the material's sales tripled between 1928 and 1930." Our story is set in 1934. "Derby winner" -- the 1934 running of the Kentucky Derby was its 60th! "You're a Brewster body" -- the frame for a Bentley or Rolls Royce luxury car "A Ritz hot toddy" -- a specialty drink of the Ritz Hotel bar in Paris "the sleepy Zuder Zee" -- The Zuiderzee was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands. The characters in Anything Goes know this because in 1928, sailing events for the Amsterdam Summer Olympics were held on the Zuiderzee. "Bishop Manning" -- Episcopal Bishop of St. John the Divine Cathedral in Manhattan. "A Nathan panning" -- a bad review from New York drama critic George Jean Nathan "broccoli" -- something of a novelty in 1934, having been farmed commercially in the US only since the 1920s, and the first advertising campaign on its behalf didn't occur until 1929. So in 1934, broccoli was the culinary cutting edge "a night at Coney" -- Coney Island "Irene Bordoni" -- French actress who starred on Broadway in Cole Porter's 1928 musical Paris, introducing the song "Let's Do It" (which had replaced "Let's Misbehave") "a fol-de-rol" -- a useless ornament or accessory, nonsense

"Arrow collar" -- the famous "Sanforized" collar on Arrow Shirts. The Arrow Collar Man became an advertising symbol in the 1920s for rugged masculinity. "Coolidge dollar" -- the very sound, very strong American dollar, under President Calvin Coolidge, before the Depression "Fred Astaire" -- Broadway and film star of musical comedies "(Eugene) O'Neill" -- Pulitzer Prize winning American playwright of powerful dramas, including Anna Christie (1920), The Emperor Jones (1920), The Hairy Ape (1922), Desire Under the Elms (1924), Strange Interlude (1928), Mourning Becomes Electra (1931), and others "Whistler's Mama" -- the famous painting actually called Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1, best known as Whistler's Mother, painted by the American painter James McNeill Whistler in 1871 "Camembert" -- A mellow, soft cheese with a creamy center first marketed in Normandy, France. "Inferno's Dante" -- Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) author of The Divine Comedy, the third part of which deals with Inferno (Hell). "the great Durante" -- comedian/actor Jimmy Durante. His first film was in 1930, but he had made 19 films by 1934 "de trop" -- a mispronunciation of the French phrase de trop, meaning too much, not wanted, unwelcome "A Waldorf Salad" -- a salad of apples, walnuts, raisins, celery, and mayonnaise, originated at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan. "Berlin ballad" -- A romantic song by American songwriter Irvin Berlin, who by 1934 had already written standards like "Alexander's Ragtime Band," "What'll I Do?", "Blue Skies," and "Puttin' on the Ritz." A few years later, in 1938, Berlin would write "God Bless America." "an Old Dutch master" -- a Dutch master painter like Rembrandt, but ALSO a brand of cigars "Mrs. Astor" (changed to "Lady Astor" in 1962) -- Mrs. John Jacob Astor, leading New York socialite. "Pepsodent" -- toothpaste introduced in the USA in 1915 by the Pepsodent Company of Chicago. The original formula for the paste contained pepsin, a digestive agent designed to break down and digest food deposits on the teeth, hence the brand and company name. From 1930 to late 1933 a massive animated neon advertising sign for the toothpaste, featuring a young girl on a swing, hung on West 47th Street in Times Square in New York City.

"the steppes of Russia" -- a region of grasslands joining Europe and Asia -- Around 1930 the Soviet Union wanted to attract foreign tourists to bring in currency and improve its external image. On Stalin's and the Party's initiative a national tourist agency was founded. Intourist was responsible for attracting, accommodating and escorting all foreign guests.Western advertising styles were applied to appeal to the target audience. Intourist posters pictured a tourist paradise, not a country of laborers and peasants. Trains were no icons of progress but a comfortable way of transport. Intourist women were not working hard in a factory but were either fashionable or exotic. "Pants on a Roxy usher" -- the famous Roxy Theatre in Manhattan ("the Cathedral of motion pictures") had a squad of ushers who were trained like an army platoon and wore very tight pants. "G.O.P." -- Grand Old Party, i.e. Republicans. "Tower of Babel" -- Biblical tower in the land of Shinar, the building of which ceased when a confusion of languages took place. "Whitney stable" -- the socially prominent Whitney family bred famous horses "Mrs. Baer's son, Max" (also referred to as "Maxie Bauer") -- Max Baer, World Heavyweight Champion in the 1930s (his son, Max Baer Jr. played Jethro on The Beverly Hillbillies) "Rudy Vallee" --  1920s/1930s crooner, who often sang through a megaphone and later starred in the original production of How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying. "Phenolax" -- a  pink flavored wafer laxative, first introduced in 1908

"Drumstick Lipstick" -- brand of makeup manufactured by Charbert, a French cosmetics firm. "brig" -- military prison "in irons" -- shackled "The Dean boys" -- baseball players and brothers Dizzy and Daffy, members of the famed "Gashouse Gang," the 1934 St. Louis Cardinal baseball team, which won 95 games, the National League pennant, and the 1934 World Series -- just months before Anything Goes opened! "Max Gordon" -- Broadway producer from the 1920s through the 1950, famous for extravagant productions "Jitneys" -- independent taxi cabs or small buses. The joke here is that the middle-class folks who can still afford to take a cab, here in the middle of the Depression, would be shocked to find out that some of the richest Americans (in this case, the Vanderbilt and Whitney families) had lost nearly everything. "Vanderbilts and Whitneys" -- two prominent rich families in New York "Sam Goldwyn" -- movie studio head "Lady Mendl" -- an American actress, interior decorator, author of the influential 1913 book The House in Good Taste, and a prominent figure in New York, Paris, and London society. Her morning exercises were famous, including yoga, standing on her head, and walking on her hands. "Missus R." and "Franklin" -- Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt

"broadcast a bed from Simmons" -- Eleanor Roosevelt did weekly radio broadcasts sponsored by Simmons mattresses "Mrs. Ned McLean" -- a socialite who was the last private owner of the Hope Diamond "Anna Sten" -- Ukrainian movie star "Swannee River" -- a reference to Stephen Foster's famous song "Old Folks at Home" and to the Gerhwin song "Swanee "goose's liver" -- pate "Russian Ballet" -- reference to the 1934–1935 world tour by the Dandré-Levitoff Russian Ballet "the Oxford movement" -- a 19th-century movement of High Church members of the Church of England which eventually developed into Anglo-Catholicism, arguing for the reinstatement of some older Christian traditions of faith and their inclusion into Anglican liturgy and theology. Presumably, Mrs. Wentworth is confusing the Oxford Movement with The Oxford Group was a Christian organization founded in 1931 by the American Christian missionary Frank Buchman. [For the references in "Anything Goes," see my earlier post on that song.] [For the references in "Blow Gabriel, Blow" see my earlier post about that song.] "Sing Sing" and "Joliet" -- famous maximum security prisons [For an explanation of the intro to "Be Like the Bluebird," see my earlier post about that.] Additional Things from the 1962 version: "The Globe American" -- a generic fictitious name for a newspaper "Hymsie Brown, the fighter" -- a fictitious nicknamed boxer "you know the New Deal" -- reference to government red tape, bureaucracy "Toscanini" -- Italian conductor Arturo Toscanini. The New York Philharmonic under Toscanini, in 1931, became the first orchestra to offer regular live coast-to-coast radio broadcasts of its concerts, gaining Toscanini unprecedented fame and a remarkable salary of $110,000 per year. "Milton Berle" -- already a successful stand-up comedian in the 1930s, patterning himself after one of Vaudeville's top comics, Ted Healy (the inspiration for Billy Flynn in Chicago). A year before Anything Goes opened, Berle starred in the short musical film Poppin' the Cork, a topical musical comedy about the repealing of Prohibition. "tomato ketchup" -- During the 1930s Heinz increased their sales force and advertising, to battle the drop in sales due to the Depression. Heinz salesmen were expected to be at least 6ft tall, impeccably dressed and particularly eloquent at promoting Heinz products. Their equipment ­ which included chrome vacuum flasks, pickle forks and olive spears ­ weighed about 30lbs. "Chippendale" -- various styles of furniture fashionable in the late 18th century and named after the English cabinetmaker Thomas Chippendale

"Fourth Dimension" -- according to Project Muse, "During the first three decades of the twentieth century, the fourth dimension was a concern common to artists in nearly every major modern movement: Analytical and Synthetic Cubists, Italian Futurists, Russian Futurists, Suprematists, and Constructivists, American modernists in the Stieglitz and Arensberg circles, Dadaists, and members of De Stijl. Kandinsky’s own awareness of the idea, and the growing interest in Germany in the space-time world of Einstein. Although by the end of the 1920s the temporal fourth dimension of Einsteinian Relativity Theory had largely displaced the popular fourth dimension of space in the public mind, one further movement was to explore a fourth spatial dimension: French Surrealism." "George Bernard Shaw" -- British playwright (Pygmalion, Major Barbara, Man and Superman, Saint Joan, etc.) "verse" -- Today, we call the first section of a song the intro, which sets up the topic, before we get to the first verse and main melody (though many songs today don't have one). Then we get the first verse, which introduces the main melody, and then in most pop songs, we get the chorus. Sometimes there's a contrasting section called the bridge. But in Porter's time, the first section was the verse, and what we call the verse and chorus were together called the refrain. "Tinpantithesis" -- an invented joke word, meaning the Tin Pan Alley (common) antithesis (opposite) of good music Gullery -- Billy's joke on Mrs. Harcourt "un peu d'amour" -- French for a little love "DAR, PTA, and WPA" -- The Daughters of the Revolution, the Parents-Teachers Association, and the Works Progress Administrtion -- three things that do not belong together, but Mooney doesn't know that... Every day, I find new richness in Anything Goes, new craft, new surprises. It's such diving this deep into a show I've always loved but never thought about that much... Hope you enjoy learning about all this stuff as much as I do! The adventure continues! Long Live the Musical! Scott from The Bad Boy of Musical Theatre http://newlinetheatre.blogspot.com/2018/02/youre-cellophane.html

[markwatkinsconsumerguide]

Consumer Guide / No.46 / writer & translator (and inaugural Translator in Residence at the British Library) Jen Calleja with Mark Watkins.

MW: Where’s home?

JC: I live in Brixton, London with my partner and our cat Ludo. I’ve lived in London for nearly ten years in total (including university), but I’m originally from Shoreham-By-Sea in West Sussex, which is where my parents still live.

MW: Tell me about your work...

JC: Well, I’m a jack of all trades really, and I’ve worked hard to be able to do that; to do a bit of everything I love and feel passionate about. I’m a writer of fiction and poetry; a literary translator from German; the inaugural translator in residence at the British Library; a columnist on translated literature; and a co-coordinator, spokesperson and workshop leader for an independent campaign tackling sexual harassment in the night time economy.

My first collection of poetry, Serious Justice, came out last year and I’m currently finishing writing my first novel. I’ve also published a number of short stories over the years and had a few writing commissions for musical and artistic projects. I’ve been a literary translator for about five years. I lived in Munich for eighteen months before starting my degree in writing and literature, and got my German to a good enough level to translate just through reading German novels and poetry. I’ve translated ten books from German so far, and I’m starting work on number 11 shortly. I’ve supplemented these jobs by editing and translating for magazines, residencies and connected jobs.

The column at The Quietus came about from wanting to be able to promote translated literature on a general literary platform; there are a few amazing translated literature focused journals and websites, but I wanted to help bring those conversations and books into the mainstream. So I pitched it to The Quietus and they enthusiastically accepted. I seek out a different language and different ‘question’ about the process, ethics or significance of a translation for each column, and I’ve always got my eyes peeled for the next one. I currently have three columns on the go.

I’m three months into a year-long one-day-a-week residency at the British Library where I’m promoting translation and the role of the translator. This is through curating a public events programme, exploring the Library’s multilingual staff and visitors through a short film, and even writing a collection of poetry inspired by the archive of poet-translator Michael Hamburger. There’s about a dozen projects I’m working on for it. It’s an amazing opportunity and it’s been incredible so far.

I’ve been volunteering as one of the coordinators and as a paid workshop leader for the Good Night Out Campaign for about a year. The campaign not only raises awareness about the amount of sexual harassment and assault that happens in bars, clubs, venues and pubs but primarily trains staff in participating premises how to react, handle and hopefully prevent harassment. It’s an intense but incredibly worthwhile role and I love doing this work. We’re in the process of rolling out the campaign across London and other cities in the UK. It’s also starting up in the US, Canada, Australia and the Czech Republic.

MW: ... your favourite piece of literature from the past and the present?

JC: In this moment I’m going to say Pale Fire, but basically anything written by Vladimir Nabokov. Could have easily been Lolita or any of his short stories. He is the master of the tragi-comedic and taught me so much about how the smallest difference in someone else and between characters can be enormous and have enormous consequences.

And from right now, even though she’s dead and it’s the centenary of her birth, Leonora Carrington’s collection of short stories The Debutante and Other Stories. It’s just come out with Silver Press in the UK and will make you feel like a child reading fairy tales for the first time.

MW: What have you most enjoyed translating ? How do you ensure such translations remain true to the original?

JC: I love telling great stories, including those that happen to have been written in German by someone else. I read a chapter I’d translated of my favourite German book at a reading event a few weeks ago and people went crazy for it, and couldn’t believe it hadn’t been translated. Literary translation for me, in brief, is getting across the same meaning even if the expressions or words wouldn’t match up in the dictionary. Word for word translation is a myth, languages can’t be mapped onto one another as every word/expression has a different nuance, history, tone in every language. Translation is technically impossible, and yet we do it every day. I could talk forever about translation.

MW: Do you prefer to construct, de-construct or destroy art - why?

JC: I have always wanted to make things and write, to express things and create art; it’s how I think about the world and how to be in it. Deconstructing makes me think of reviewing and I hate reviewing, in the most part (but not always) it’s preachy and there are too many rules to how to do it for me to be good at it or interested in it. You can’t be precious and art objects and all art has the fate of one day being destroyed. The ideas, impetus and energy behind or around something lives on of course, even if the object is gone. More art will come after the art that already exists and will override or usurp what comes before it.

MW: Is 'Girl Power', the spirit of the 90's Britpop age still around, and if so, where can it be found in UK culture today?

JC: I don’t really know much about Britpop, I was a bit too young at the time, though in recent years there’s been a lot written about how macho that period was and how that ‘girl power’ movement tried to rival this.

You won’t find much of a non-male or feminist presence in mainstream music (I’ve written before about how UK festival bills are overwhelmingly male) or if you do see a band with women in they’re treated in a tokenistic and frequently sexist way.

However, the DIY music scene right now is filled with the best punk and DIY bands who are feminist, queer and comprised of women, trans and non-binary musicians. It is seriously a weird novelty to go to a show – or should be – in the DIY music scene and see an all-male bill.

In fact, the norm in the scenes I move in is that every band will have at least one woman in, if not have multiple bands with all-women on the bill, and the people on stage and in the crowd will stand up for intersectional (anti-racist, anti-ableist, anti-transphobic and anti-homophobic) feminist values as the norm.

MW: Tell me about making music and your bands (seemingly) post-punk sensibilities....

JC: I play in a few bands, which I see as part of my creative practice and inseparable to all the other things I do. My writing has even appeared on my bands’ records and I’ve written about being in bands in my fiction and poetry.

I would refer to them as DIY punk/post-punk bands I guess; self-promoting, self-booking, self-releasing or put out on independent labels, previously self-recording, preferably playing in DIY and independent venues. Currently these are Sauna Youth (vox, sampler), Gold Foil (vox, bass) and Mind Jail (drums); and previously: Feature (vox, drums) and Monotony (drums).

I started teaching myself the drums when I was 18, and started my first (short lived but very fun) band when I was 19 at university. Over the last few years I’ve got to do a couple of short tours in the UK with Feature, and tour the UK, Europe and America with Sauna Youth, but thought I would slow down with music stuff this year; instead it seems to have ramped up. I have multiple band practices a week, sometimes in the day, so it’s handy being freelance.

There have been some really memorable highlights over the years, like supporting bands I admire in the DIY scene and beyond, playing a festival at one in the morning in San Sebastian in Spain, playing a basement show on a stormy night in Minneapolis, and getting to sing for Pissed Jeans at a festival in Switzerland. Most recently (at the age of 30) I’ve started playing the bass so I could replace our bass player in Gold Foil, while carrying on being the singer.

MW: What makes a ‘Good Night Out’ ?

JC: Going to see a show, or going to the cinema on my own and always one where harassment doesn’t have to ruin your night: www.goodnightoutcampaign.org

MW...and a 'Good Night In' ?

JC: Watching RuPaul’s Drag Race.

MW:: How do you envisage the rest of 2017 panning out for you?

JC: Finishing the novel, starting a new poetry collection, pulling off my residency projects, helping Good Night Out grow, and going on tour later in the year. Oh, and I’m getting married.

www.jencalleja.com

@niewview​

(C) Mark Watkins / June 2017

[newstfionline]

Troops Who Cleaned Up Radioactive Islands Can’t Get Medical Care

By Dave Philipps, NY Times, Jan. 28, 2017

RICHLAND, Wash.--When Tim Snider arrived on Enewetak Atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean to clean up the fallout from dozens of nuclear tests on the ring of coral islands, Army officers immediately ordered him to put on a respirator and a bright yellow suit designed to guard against plutonium poisoning.

A military film crew snapped photos and shot movies of Mr. Snider, a 20-year-old Air Force radiation technician, in the crisp new safety gear. Then he was ordered to give all the gear back. He spent the rest of his four-month stint on the islands wearing only cutoff shorts and a floppy sun hat.

“I never saw one of those suits again,” Mr. Snider, now 58, said in an interview in his kitchen here as he thumbed a yellowing photo he still has from the 1979 shoot. “It was just propaganda.”

Today Mr. Snider has tumors on his ribs, spine and skull--which he thinks resulted from his work on the crew, in the largest nuclear cleanup ever undertaken by the United States military.

Roughly 4,000 troops helped clean up the atoll between 1977 and 1980. Like Mr. Snider, most did not even wear shirts, let alone respirators. Hundreds say they are now plagued by health problems, including brittle bones, cancer and birth defects in their children. Many are already dead. Others are too sick to work.

The military says there is no connection between these illnesses and the cleanup. Radiation exposure during the work fell well below recommended thresholds, it says, and safety precautions were top notch. So the government refuses to pay for the veterans’ medical care.

Congress long ago recognized that troops were harmed by radiation on Enewetak during the original atomic tests, which occurred in the 1950s, and should be cared for and compensated. Still, it has failed to do the same for the men who cleaned up the toxic debris 20 years later. The disconnect continues a longstanding pattern in which the government has shrugged off responsibility for its nuclear mistakes.

On one cleanup after another, veterans have been denied care because shoddy or intentionally false radiation monitoring was later used as proof that there was no radiation exposure.

A report by The New York Times last spring found that veterans were exposed to plutonium during the cleanup of a 1966 accident involving American hydrogen bombs in Palomares, Spain. Declassified documents and a recent study by the Air Force said the men might have been poisoned, and needed new testing.

But in the months since the report, nothing has been done to help them.

For two years, the Enewetak veterans have been trying, without success, to win medical benefits from Congress through a proposed Atomic Veterans Healthcare Parity Act. Some lawmakers hope to introduce a bill this year, but its fate is uncertain. Now, as new cases of cancer emerge nearly every month, many of the men wonder how much longer they can wait.

The cleanup of Enewetak has long been portrayed as a triumph. During the operation, officials told reporters that they were setting a new standard in safety. One report from the end of the cleanup said safety was so strict that “it would be difficult to identify additional radsafe precautions that could have been taken.”

Documents from the time and interviews with dozens of veterans tell a different story.

Most of the documents were declassified and made publicly available in the 1990s, along with millions of pages of other files relating to nuclear testing, and sat unnoticed for years. They show that the government used troops instead of professional nuclear workers to save money. Then it saved even more money by skimping on safety precautions.

Records show that protective equipment was missing or unusable. Troops requesting respirators couldn’t get them. Cut-rate safety monitoring systems failed. Officials assured concerned members of Congress by listing safeguards that didn’t exist.

And though leaders of the cleanup told troops that the islands emitted no more radiation than a dental X-ray, documents show they privately worried about “plutonium problems” and areas that were “highly radiologically contaminated.”

Tying any disease to radiation exposure years earlier is nearly impossible; there has never been a formal study of the health of the Enewetak cleanup crews. The military collected nasal swabs and urine samples during the cleanup to measure how much plutonium troops were absorbing, but in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, it said it could not find the records.

Hundreds of the troops, though, almost all now in their late 50s, have found one another on Facebook and discovered remarkably similar problems involving deteriorating bones and an incidence of cancer that appears to be far above the norm.

A tally of 431 of the veterans by a member of the group shows that of those who stayed on the southernmost island, where radiation was low, only 2 percent reported having cancer. Of those who worked on the most contaminated islands in the north, 20 percent reported cancer. An additional 34 percent from the contaminated islands reported other health problems that could be related to radiation, like failing bones, infertility and thyroid problems.

Between 1948 and 1958, 43 atomic blasts rocked the tiny atoll--part of the Marshall Islands, which sit between Hawaii and the Philippines--obliterating the native groves of breadfruit trees and coconut palms, and leaving an apocalyptic wreckage of twisted test towers, radioactive bunkers and rusting military equipment.

Four islands were entirely vaporized; only deep blue radioactive craters in the ocean remained. The residents had been evacuated. No one thought they would ever return.

In the early 1970s, the Enewetak islanders threatened legal action if they didn’t get their home back. In 1972, the United States government agreed to return the atoll and vowed to clean it up first, a project shared by the Atomic Energy Commission, now called the Department of Energy, and the Department of Defense.

The biggest problem, according to Energy Department reports, was Runit Island, a 75-acre spit of sand blitzed by 11 nuclear tests in 1958. The north end was gouged by a 300-foot-wide crater that documents from the time describe as “a special problem” because of “high subsurface contamination.”

The island was littered with a fine dust of pulverized plutonium, which if inhaled or otherwise absorbed can cause cancer years or even decades later. A millionth of a gram is potentially harmful, and because the isotopes have a half-life of 24,000 years, the danger effectively never goes away.

The military initially quarantined Runit. Government scientists agreed that other islands might be made habitable, but Runit would most likely forever be too toxic, memos show.

So federal officials decided to collect radioactive debris from the other islands and dump it into the Runit crater, then cap it with a thick concrete dome.

The government intended to use private contractors and estimated the cleanup would cost $40 million, documents show. But Congress balked at the price and approved only half the money. It ordered that “all reasonable economies should be realized” by using troops to do the work.

Safety planners intended to use protective suits, respirators and sprinklers to keep down dust. But without adequate funding, simple precautions were scrapped.

Paul Laird was one of the first service members to arrive for the atoll’s cleanup, in 1977. Then a 20-year-old bulldozer driver, he began scraping topsoil that records show contained plutonium. He was given no safety equipment.

“That dust was like baby powder. We were covered in it,” said Mr. Laird, now 60, during an interview in rural Maine, where he owns a small auto repair shop. “But we couldn’t even get a paper dust mask. I begged for one daily. My lieutenant said the masks were on back order so use a T-shirt.”

By the time Mr. Laird left the islands, he was throwing up and had a blisterlike rash. He got out of the Army in 1978 and moved home to Maine. When he turned 52, he found a lump that turned out to be kidney cancer. A scan at the hospital showed he also had bladder cancer. A few years later he developed a different form of bladder cancer.

His private health insurance covered the treatment, but co-payments left him deep in debt. He applied repeatedly for free veterans’ health care for radiation but was denied. His medical records from the military all said he had not been exposed.

“When the job was done, they threw my bulldozer in the ocean because it was so hot,” Mr. Laird said. “If it got that much radiation, how the hell did it miss me?”

As the cleanup continued, federal officials tried to institute safety measures. A shipment of yellow radiation suits arrived on the islands in 1978, but in interviews veterans said that they were too hot to wear in the tropical sun and that the military told them that it was safe to go without them.

The military tried to monitor plutonium inhalation using air samplers. But they soon broke. According to an Energy Department memo, in 1978, only a third of the samplers were working.

All troops were issued a small film badge to measure radiation exposure, but government memos note that humid conditions destroyed the film. Failure rates often reached 100 percent.

Every evening, Air Force technicians scanned workers for plutonium particles before they left Runit. Men said dozens of workers each day had screened positive for dangerous levels of radiation.

“Sometimes we’d get readings that were all the way to the red,” said one technician, David Roach, 57, who now lives in Rockland, Me.

None of the high readings were recorded, said Mr. Roach, who has since had several strokes.

Two members of Congress wrote to the secretary of defense in 1978 with concerns, but his office told them not to worry: Suits and respirators ensured the cleanup was conducted in “a manner as to assure that radiation exposure to individuals is limited to the lowest levels practicable.”

Even after the cleanup, many of the islands were still too radioactive to inhabit.

In 1988, Congress passed a law providing automatic medical care to any troops involved in the original atomic testing. But the act covers veterans only up to 1958, when atomic testing stopped, excluding the Enewetak cleanup crews.

If civilian contractors had done the cleanup and later discovered declassified documents that show the government failed to follow its own safety plan, they could sue for negligence. Veterans don’t have that right. A 1950 Supreme Court ruling bars troops and their families from suing for injuries arising from military service.

The veterans’ only avenue for help is to apply individually to the Department of Veterans Affairs for free medical care and disability payments. But the department bases decisions on old military records--including defective air sampling and radiation badge data--that show no one was harmed. It nearly always denies coverage.

“A lot of guys can’t survive anymore, financially,” said Jeff Dean, 60, who piloted boats loaded with contaminated soil.

Mr. Dean developed cancer at 43, then again two years later. He had to give up his job as a carpenter as the bones in his spine deteriorated. Unpaid medical bills left him $100,000 in debt.

“No one seems to want to admit anything,” Mr. Dean said. “I don’t know how much longer we can wait, we have guys dying all the time.”