#warsaw cycling

[velovelo]

Polish poster for the 1974 International Peace Race

Artist: Wiktor Górka

[tiredandadventurousnerd]

Book Reviews

Flashback by Nevada Barr

The Warsaw Orphan by Kelly Rimmer

Eragon by Christopher Paolini

Eldest by Christopher Paolini

Brisingr by Christopher Paolini

[lanternlightersblog]

#Repost @maciej.karp • • • • • • Plac Trzech Krzyży #rower #bike #bicycle #cycling #warsaw #city #cityphotography #city #town #poland #bikelife #instaphoto #sony #sonyalpha #shade #lantern #lanterns #Ukrainewillwin #lanternlighter https://www.instagram.com/p/CnePMQ4ISzs/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[hyperions-fate]

To argue that support for armed resistance means excusing massacres is so patently ludicrous that it doesn't merit a response. It's little better than claiming that support for the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising logically entailed condoning the bombing of Dresden or Hiroshima. And there is an intense dishonesty and self-indulgence in the maudlin cry that the uprising of the Palestinians is simply another turn in a cycle of tragic, senseless violence. The underlying assumption is that true liberation could be achieved only if Palestinians meekly accepted their fate of exile and death and made sure not to disturb with their defiance the Beautiful Souls of Western liberals. Alas, Palestinians value their freedom, their dignity too much; that is their unpardonable sin.

[teeentyonepilots]

Seen in Warsaw, Poland: electric ad boards with a new tøp logo surrounded by fire with a “Clancy” border

The past two album cycles have had billboards pop up in places around the world followed by singles or announcements DAYS later.

With this fire imagery and mention of “inferno” in the red letters sent to fans, there’s a big chance inferno is a title of something (tour, album, song, etc)

[hero-israel]

There's a lot more like this.

I think we can take some pride in the fact that, even on a steadfastly very very pro-Jewish and pro-Israel site, readers are NOT galloping towards revenge and butchery, they are showing basic humane care for Palestinians. It is much better than you see aimed at Jews from our enemies.

So much of the popular understanding around Gaza has been twisted by propaganda and weasel-words. People can be astounded - or accuse you of lying - if you point out the normalcy, even luxury, in the sectors where the favored and well-connected live, or that the widespread accusations of "starvation" are a pure hoax, that so much of the "humanitarian aid" meant for them are just photo ops. The obviousness of how much the outside world doesn't care about Gaza is matched only by the obviousness of how we are expected to forget the hysteria and moral panics of each successive "report".

When the same people who claimed Gaza was a starving ghetto that would spontaneously Rapture into total emptiness four years ago now make more accusations against Israel's conduct, how are we supposed to believe them?

As a Jew, I cannot respect any notion of "genocide" that is NOT both deliberately aimed at cutting down / destroying a racial / ethnic population and also at least somewhat successful at it. The Palestinian population has never shrunk, has more than quadrupled since 1967, and in Gaza has more than doubled in the last 20 years. If that was like the Holocaust, like Warsaw, where do I sign up? There are people who recommend different definitions of "genocide," but before I take them seriously I would first ask them whether they apply the same term to the Oct. 7 massacre, or if they are purely bullshitting together ad-hoc terminology, like how Amnesty International made up a new definition of "apartheid" that is explicitly not supposed to resemble South Africa at all so any differences between Israel and South Africa are irrelevant neener neener no backsies.

My position is that there is a difference between genocide and killing civilians while bombing military targets. But I also recognize that beyond a certain number of dead civilians, that difference might be moot. I am still very worried that we might see a true cataclysm in Gaza. That that there could be a civilian death toll one or two orders of magnitude greater than any previous round. It never used to be true and I really, really do not want it to actually come true now. As my previous post said, I spent a year hoping the Israeli government would be less a gang of talentless fuckups than they seemed to be, they dashed those hopes, and now they're the same ones supposed to be managing the counterattack. They have to know the risks. It is their job to know and plan around those risks.

David Schraub does a decent job of capturing the "what comes next?" part. There needs to be SOME vision of breaking this cycle. The best scenario I let myself imagine would be that Israeli raids are able to truly wipe out Hamas' command capabilities, weapons, and infrastructure, and Munich-style track down and kill all the perpetrators of Oct. 7. The most respectable and talented leaders in the Palestinian Authority (*crickets*) will have to be physically airlifted into Gaza to assume command, maybe with some plucky UN peacekeepers, then Israel and regional partners (assuming it still has any) work on humanitarian aid and rebuilding so the locals feel like there is some option for a future that doesn't involve suicide belts. I have no hope for live hostage rescue.

[polish-art-tournament]

round 2.1 poll 2

(tap to view full images)

Jamniki w filmie, wieczór filmowy (Dachshunds in film, movie night) by Ryszard Kaja, 2017:

propaganda: dogy

Warsaw (XI) cycle by Edward Dwurnik:

propaganda: these are sooo nikifor coded but also whoaaaa modern details! and the colours are always so nice. they make excellent phone / laptop background and i bet would look great as wall decorations

[canmom]

games games'd recently

Solar Ash: the second game by the people who made Hyper Light Drifter. My feelings about it largely align with the reviews: gorgeous aesthetic if not quite as personally a vibe as HLD, the skating flows really nicely, the 'track down all the collectable things' structure was a little frustrating at times but I got used to it, the Shadow of the Colossus-like boss battles were a lot of fun when they worked.

It's a game about a decaying world full of people trapped in cycles of facing their last, worst moments. Most of the people you meet are some kind of animal people - cat people, fungus people, snail space imperialists - and the tone varies between darkly comedic and Meditating Severely On Death. The tone often swings a little pulpy.

So, ultimately - spoilers! - it turns out to be a time loop (something they pretty heavily foreshadow). Your player character Rei is one half of a split being who, after failing to save her world, has been resetting time and time again. The character 'Echo' who you encounter after every boss fight, with a white theme in contrast to your character's black motifs, is the other half of you - the half that isn't convinced to keep trying over and over again to save your planet and is pretty mad at Rei for prolonging this whole miserable existence.

In the true ending finale sequence, Rei finally concedes and turns into a big monster, and you play as Echo (who conveniently controls the exact same as Rei) to pull out the big spikes impaling her, metaphorically allowing her to reconcile with you and allow the world to move on with the other characters .

So like, big old trauma flashback metaphor I guess? The character's inner world is reflected in a big expansive scifi.

The thing that intrigues me most about this game is the tech art. For example, take the cyan goop you surf along in various levels. It looks like it's made of metaballs, and I kind of wonder if they are doing some clever stuff with meshing, or if they're rendering with signed distance fields, or what... in any case, it leads to some very cool level design where you can skate over all surfaces of the blobby space matter, and there is no consistent 'down' direction.

I went looking for how they did this and I ended up finding a half-hour talk from the lead technical artist, which doesn't really address the cyan goop, but does talk about integrating Houdini procedural simulations into the game using Unreal...

He talks mostly about the process of authoring the game's 'islands' (using a procedural editor tool that runs Houdini to generate the geometry), but does casually mention the clouds becoming 'really cool SDF clouds' in game, so I guess I called it! Really cool that that can run real time without being too expensive. I am definitely curious about how they handled raymarching so many metaballs (assuming they used raymarching, but that is the standard way to render SDFs).

It's kind of crazy that Heart Machine could go from a Game Maker game (even one with fantastic art direction) to a game as ambitious as this one. In practice though... running all over the bosses is cool but with the amount of camera hinting (necessary at the speed you're moving) it kind of feels like a series of QTEs, just figuring out where the next node is and trying to avoid jumping in the black goop, and if you screw up, you have to try again from the start. They're really cool sequences, but from a gameplay perspective, more like a rhythm game than anything.

This game didn't quite hit the same level of 'wow vibes' of HLD for me - I liked the atmosphere of HLD, the quiet and haunted world, the Nausicaa-like monsters. But I definitely enjoyed my time with it, and it's crazy inspiring on a tech art level.

The Thaumaturge: This is the latest game from 11 Bit Studios, of Frostpunk and This War of Mine fame. It's a fascinating concept: an RPG set in Warsaw at the turn of the 20th century, a world of boiling-over social tensions, in which you play essentially a wizard who summons invisible demons salutors to reveal secrets and manipulate people. Your father (also a wizard, you hated him) died mysteriously and now you're back at the family home to try to investigate.

I haven't finished this game yet (nowhere near, it's a big game), but I wanted to briefly comment!

In the first ten minutes of this game, you go to meet Rasputin. From that point I was already pretty much sold.

After sorting out some peasant-y business in what is essentially the tutorial area, you travel to Warsaw where the bulk of the game takes place, currently ruled by the Russian empire. Pretty much as soon as you get off the train, you run into Tsar Nicholas giving a speech, and get caught up in a tense standoff between the Russian cops and Polish workers. I ended up in prison lmao

This is the type of RPG that does have a combat system, and finds some... kinda awkward reasons to get Wiktor Szulski into fights now and again, but it's a pretty intriguing design oriented mostly around applying and exploiting status effects. But really, I'm here for the story, and the period setting. Although 11Bit are not a Polish studio, the game has the option of full voice acting in Polish, which is really sick - apparently they put some effort into giving it period language as well. And even though this is an occult story about wizard business, there's clearly a huge amount of love for the historical setting - there's a bunch of mini sidequests that just take you to look at landmarks and get a little bit of xp from it.

Wiktor is a fun protagonist to inhabit, and the game encourages you towards spicier dialogue options with its system of Flaws - essentially, each salutor is associated with a point of characterisation, such as pride, and if you feed that flaw by picking prideful dialogue options when they're offered, that will apparently make your salutor more powerful. It is certainly reminiscent of Disco Elysium's design with the thoughts as characters, but it's got enough of its own flavour to not feel derivative.

I will surely have much more to say about The Thaumaturge as I progress through it, but honestly, just wanted to shine a light on this game because it's fascinating. This kind of RPG doesn't come along often enough.

Neon White: Only just started on this one. It's exactly what everyone says: an addicting game designed to ease you into speedrunning. I have two friends on Steam who have played it and both of their times are very tight and several seconds faster than what I'm able to do lol.

Everyone also says the plot is a bit ehh and well... they're right. Strangely the tone reminded me most of all of the anime Mahou Shoujo Magical Destroyers: oddly casual, and despite the weebcore vibes, the character archetypes are more American - bubbly psycho girl, femme fatale, frat bro. It's very much aiming for humour, and generally it's not terrible, but the hit rate there is kinda mixed. I'm actually a bit surprised by it - given the aesthetic with the hannya masks everywhere, I was kinda expecting something way more chuuni, but it's quite laid back so far.

But none of that matters really because it's a speedrunning game, it's not about the story! The controls are tight as hell, the levels are elegantly designed to steer you towards picking up on shortcuts with a compelling learning curve, and restarting is incredibly easy. So far I've grabbed Ace medals on every level I've played, but there's a huge amount of room for improvement still. Definitely reminiscent of doing time trials in Mirror's Edge back in the day. Definitely gonna play this more.

[chicago-geniza]

Małgorzata Hendrykowska mentions learning from Maja E. Cybulska that Stefania published a text in English in India but having no idea what it was, how to find it, or if it pertained to art history. Well Małgosia it is a vignette of a type to those in the planned Polska jesień cycle that became Warzawa-Lwów 1939. It is called "August 1939" and was published circa 1946 in an anthology entitled All For Freedom: The Warsaw Epic, edited by Wanda Dynowska (Umadevi). The original text was published po polsku in the emigré newspaper Dziennik Polski. I have Autism

[omegaremix]

September 15 & 16, 2022.

Cold Waves X. It was a four-month wait from purchase to admission. I owed it to myself to go because goddamn it I’m a fucking industrialist. How should I even miss an opportunity to go to Brooklyn’s Warsaw and be around my type of people that are almost non-existent on Long Island? Plus, Paul Barker, Chris Connelly, and Front 242 would be there. It would be the third and final show of the year I’d attend, capping off a amazing run that started with Boy Harsher in April and continued with Sacred Bones 15th Anniversary (May).

Never had I traveled to New York City on back-to-back days. But the money spent on tickets and round-trip train fare was doubly worth it. I was met with two almost-perfect days of blue skies, white clouds, and nice leveled temperatures. Two days of driving westward on the Long Island Expressway, down Sagtikos Parkway, through Southern State to Rt. 231, and heading south to Rt. 27A to the Babylon stop to Penn Station with alphabet and number lines back and forth to boot, followed by breezy night drives down 27A and Sunrise Highway / Rt. 27 at 3AM. A sense of perfect pitch-black quiet and normalcy waited at the end as a response to two days of unforgettable acts.

No journey to Brooklyn and back wasn’t without being drenched in heavy sweat traversing through subway lines, race-walking on the broken concrete, and standing in one spot for five hours. I’d meet an older gentleman in his Seventies who, like me on Friday’s half, wore a Killing Joke shirt. His debut album to my “Turn To Red”. I’d meet some pretty interesting characters at the stations including a Tommy Conte look-a-like smootching his boyfriend, an Asian girl in a purple dress who’s thigh was bloodied and bandaged, hot wicked pale leatherettes, and a boyfriend who boarded the ‘E’ line with his girlfriend who was literally covered with deep red hickeys from neck to chest.

It was an event incomparable to the Sacred Bones’ showcase before it, or the ten-hour endurance test that was Hospital Productions’ 20th Anniversary. A double-headed victory, nonetheless. And I have the tracklist to prove it:

Male Tears: “Dealer”

Bedbug: “Songs About Ghosts”

Gauche: “Cycles”

Smash Your Enemies: “Faithless”

Courtney Love (indie): “Stripmine”

Axe Rash: “Bury Your Way Out”

Curse Mackey: “After You, Destruction”

Ducks Ltd.: “Sheets Of Grey”

Gauche: “Boom Hazard”

Nick Klein: “A Bundle And Some Speakers”

JPEGMAFIA: “The 27 Club”

Beirut: “So Slowly”

Dead Leaf Echo: “Milk.blue.kisses (Foil In Motion)”

Marine Girls: “On My Mind”

Katy & Nick: “Dinner Line”

Pom Pom Squad: “Popular”

Thanks For Coming: “Hard Drive”

Male Tears: “2AM”

Traps PS: “Prim Dancer”

7 Year Bitch: “You Smell Lonely”

Mediaslaves: “%”

Restraining Order: “Upper Class Bum”

Revolting Cocks: “Get Down” (EXT)

Old Iron: “Planetisimal”

Courtney Love: “My Last Night”

Television Personalities: “Happy Families”

Soda Lilies: “At Night” (demo)

Paper Dollhouse: “Emeralds”

Marbled Eye: “New Crease”

Male Tears: “Hit Me”

Silent Servant: “Slasher”

Siouxsie & The Banshees: “Party’s Fall”

Katy & Nick: “Sailor”

Kaputt: “Accordion”

Guerilla Toss: “Famously Alive”

Television Personalities: "Posing At The Roundhouse”

Totally Unicorn: “Dead Before A Live Audience”

Infinity Land: “Small Town Ritual Abuse”

DJ Muggs & Riggs: “Heads On The Wall”

Acumen Nation: “Gun Lover”

Mess: “F.T.W.”

JPEGMAFIA: “What’s Crackin”

Michael Berdan: “Combat Shock (Sentimental About the Taste of Gun Oil)“

Breakfast Muff: "Crocodile”

Mr. Elevator: “I Am The Moon”

Belk: “Question Of Stress”

Fight Amp: “Ex Everything”

Spike Hellis: “Rook”

Baby Strange: “Midnight”

Smirk: “Irrelevant Man”

Vandal Moon: “Young. Deadly. Beautiful”

Exek: “ID'ed”

Akitsa: “Vers La Victoire”

Happy Meals / Free Love: “May You Be The Mother”

Sunrot: “21%”

Vandal Moon: “Queen Of The Night”

[justforbooks]

The Italian pianist Maurizio Pollini, who has died aged 82, was one of the giants of the keyboard in the second half of the 20th century, and yet for all the respect he commanded, his playing was criticised throughout his career for being excessively cool and cerebral. When he took first prize at the 1960 Chopin competition in Warsaw, the chairman of the jury, Artur Rubinstein, declared: “That boy plays better than any of us jurors.” But that success proved to be only the prelude to the first controversial event of his career. He withdrew from the international concert circuit for 18 months to broaden his repertoire and develop other cultural interests. It was not until nearly the end of the decade that his performance schedule achieved a normal rhythm, but his full return in 1968, coinciding with a contract signed with the Deutsche Grammophon (DG) label, launched a series of triumphs on the concert platform and in the recording studio.

Classic recordings of Chopin Etudes, of music by Schumann and Beethoven, and of modernist repertoire such as Pierre Boulez’s Second Sonata consolidated his reputation and, at its best, Pollini’s playing combined expressive but unsentimental intimacy, tonal beauty, textural clarity and a formidable technique. Particularly in his later years, Pollini’s breathless, impatient delivery of Beethoven’s sonatas often seemed to deny their rhetoric, as though he was embarrassed by large romantic gestures or overt emotionalism.

Pollini’s cerebral instincts appeared to deprive him of the ability to live in the moment: romantic subjectivity, it seemed, had constantly to be interrogated.

Pollini was born in Milan. His father, Gino Pollini, was one of Italy’s leading architects of the interwar period; his mother, Renata (nee Melotti), who had studied singing and piano, was the sister of the modernist sculptor Fausto Melotti. Such a background, in which “old works and modern works co-existed together as part of life”, as Pollini later put it, was to have a formative influence on his own approach to art. The discovery of his musical talent led to lessons with Carlo Lonati and Carlo Vidusso (from 1955 at the Milan conservatory) and various competition successes prior to Warsaw. His 1963 London debut, playing Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto with the LSO under Colin Davis, was criticised by the Times as “rushed” and over-impetuous.

Peter Andry, the responsible executive at EMI in the early 1960s, told in his autobiography, Inside the Recording Studio (2008), of the pursuit of the 19-year-old who had just won the prestigious Warsaw competition: “We quickly signed the young Italian, a slender, bespectacled young man with an elongated brow but a very pleasant manner.” One of their first (and only) projects together was a recording of the two sets of Chopin Etudes, Opp 10 and 25. It was not long after this that Pollini appeared to suffer a crisis of confidence. EMI sent him off to study for two years with the pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, but even as his musicality deepened, and reviews were often complimentary, Pollini retreated from the spotlight. He refused to allow the Etudes to be released – though this was in part because DG, shortly to sign Pollini as an exclusive artist, wanted to make their own version. The EMI sets were finally released only in 2011 (on Testament), winning plaudits for their spontaneity and freshness.

It was also in the 60s that music and politics first became intertwined in Pollini’s career. A friendship with a fellow-student, Claudio Abbado, a like-minded leftwing idealist, led them to seek radical ways of bringing classical music to factory workers, including a cycle of concerts at La Scala for employees and students. Another friendship, with the Marxist avant garde composer Luigi Nono, was equally important, resulting in the commission of two pieces for Pollini, including one for piano, voice and tapes, commemorating an assassinated Chilean revolutionary. Pollini’s radical outlook remained with him throughout his career, as did his intellectual approach to art and life. If too often that cerebralism seemed at odds with the heroic or passionate romantic sensibility of the music he played, there were compensations: the visionary gleam in a Chopin miniature; the anticipation of modernism in the ghostly finale of the same composer’s Second Piano Sonata.

Even when declining physical stamina took its toll in later recitals, Pollini commanded admiration of a sort for his continued willingness to pit himself against some of the most demanding works in the repertoire. The breathless impatience of his foreshortened phrases was unsettling, but glimpses of the old magic were still in evidence. The programming of his five-concert series The Pollini Project at the Royal Festival Hall, spread over five months in 2011 – which moved from Bach, through late Beethoven and Schubert to Chopin, Schumann, Liszt and Debussy to modernists such as Stockhausen and Boulez – represented a personal statement about landmarks in the history of piano music.

His interpretation of Boulez’s Second Sonata, notable for its precision and explosive energy, but also for its lyricism and Debussy-influenced pointillism, remains without peer. Stravinsky’s Petrushka likewise drew from him an incomparable muscularity coupled with tonal clarity that was ideally incisive rather than brutal. If Pollini’s playing was controversial, it was so because it explored the dichotomy of intellect and emotion fundamental to music-making.

He is survived by his wife, Marilisa (nee Marzotto), whom he married in 1968, and their son, Daniele.

🔔 Maurizio Pollini, pianist, born 5 January 1942; died 23 March 2024

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[eretzyisrael]

Tisha B'Av - The Ninth of Av

What Happened on the Ninth of Av?

On Tisha B'Av, five national calamities occurred:

During the time of Moses, Jews in the desert accepted the slanderous report of the 10 Spies, and the decree was issued forbidding them from entering the Land of Israel. (1312 BCE)

The First Temple was destroyed by the Babylonians, led by Nebuchadnezzar. 100,000 Jews were slaughtered and millions more exiled. (586 BCE)

The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans, led by Titus. Some two million Jews died, and another one million were exiled. (70 CE)

The Bar Kochba revolt was crushed by Roman Emperor Hadrian. The city of Betar – the Jews' last stand against the Romans – was captured and liquidated. Over 100,000 Jews were slaughtered. (135 CE)

The Temple area and its surroundings were plowed under by the Roman general Turnus Rufus. Jerusalem was rebuilt as a pagan city – renamed Aelia Capitolina – and access was forbidden to Jews.

Other grave misfortunes throughout Jewish history occurred on the Ninth of Av, including:

The Spanish Inquisition culminated with the expulsion of Jews from Spain on Tisha B'Av in 1492.

World War One broke out on the eve of Tisha B'Av in 1914 when Germany declared war on Russia. German resentment from the war set the stage for the Holocaust.

On the eve of Tisha B'Av 1942, the mass deportation began of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto, en route to Treblinka.

Aspects of Mourning: The Afternoon Before Tisha B'Av

During the afternoon prior to Tisha B'Av, it is customary to eat a full meal in preparation for the fast.

At the end of the afternoon, we eat the Seudah Hamaf-seket – a meal consisting only of bread, water, and a hard-boiled egg.

The egg has two symbols: The round shape reminds us of a sign of the cycle of life. Also, the egg is the only food which gets harder the more it is cooked – a symbol of the Jewish people's ability to withstand persecution.

Food eaten at the Seudah Hamaf-seket is dipped in ashes, symbolic of mourning. The meal should preferably be eaten alone, while seated on the ground in mourner's fashion.

When the afternoon prior to Tisha B'Av occurs on Shabbat, there is no Seudah Hamaf-seket with eggs and ashes. Rather, the regular Shabbat "third meal" is eaten, albeit without guests and fanfare.

Restrictions on Tisha B'Av

Upon sundown, the laws of Tisha B'Av commence – consisting of the following expressions of mourning:

1. No eating or drinking until nightfall the following evening.

Pregnant and nursing women are also required to fast. If one suspects it could be harmful to the baby or mother, a rabbi should be consulted.

A woman within 30 days after birth need not fast.

Others who are old, weak, or ill should consult with a rabbi. (MB 554:11)

Medicine may be taken on Tisha B'Av, preferably without water.

In case of great discomfort, the mouth may be rinsed with water. Great care should be taken not to swallow anything. (MB 567:11)

2. Other prohibitions include:

Any bathing or washing, except for removing specific dirt – e.g. gook in the eyes (OC 554:9, 11). (Upon rising in the morning, before prayers, or after using the bathroom, one washes only the fingers. See OC 554:10, OC 613:3, MB 554:26)

Anointing oneself for pleasure. (Deodorant is permitted.)

Having marital relations.

Wearing leather shoes. (Leather belts may be worn.)(see: Laws of Shoes and Chairs)

Learning Torah, since this is a joyful activity. It is permitted to learn texts relevant to Tisha B'Av and mourning – e.g. the Book of Lamentations, Book of Job, parts of Tractate Moed Katan, Gittin 56-58, Sanhedrin 104, Yerushalmi end of Ta'anis, and the Laws of Mourning. In-depth study should be avoided. (MB 554:4)

3. Other mourning practices include:

Sitting no higher than a foot off the ground. After midday, one may sit on a chair. (OC 559:3)(see: Laws of Shoes and Chairs)

Not engaging in business or other distracting labors, unless it will result in a substantial loss. (OC 554:23)

Refraining from greeting others or offering gifts. (OC 554:20)

Avoiding idle chatter or leisure activities.

4. Following Tisha B'Av, all normal activities may be resumed, except for the following which are delayed until midday of the 10th of Av, because the burning of the Temple continued through the 10th of Av:

Haircuts and washing clothes. (When Tisha B'Av falls out on Thursday, these are permitted immediately following Tisha B'Av, in honor of the coming Shabbat.)

Bathing. (When Tisha B'Av falls out on Thursday, bathing is permitted on Friday morning.)

Eating meat and wine.

Music and swimming.

Prayer on Tisha B'Av

Lights in the synagogue are dimmed, candles are lit, and the curtain is removed from the Ark. The cantor leads the prayers in a low, mournful voice. This reminds us of the Divine Presence which departed from the Holy Temple.

The Book of Eicha (Lamentations), Jeremiah's poetic lament over the destruction of Jerusalem and the First Temple, is read both at night and during the day.

Following both the night and day service, special "Kinot" (elegies) are recited.

In the morning, the Torah portion of Deuteronomy 4:25-40 is read, containing the prophecy regarding Israel's future iniquity and exile. This is followed by the Haftorah from Jeremiah (8:13, 9:1-23) describing the desolation of Zion.

In the afternoon, Exodus 32:11-14 is read. This is followed by the Haftorah from Isaiah 55-56.

Since Tallis and Tefillin represent glory and decoration, they are not worn at Shacharit. Rather, they are worn at Mincha, as certain mourning restrictions are lifted.

Birkat Kohanim is said only at Mincha, not at Shacharit.

Prayers for comforting Zion and "Aneinu" are inserted into the Amidah prayer at Mincha.

Shortly after the fast is broken, it is customary to say Kiddush Lavana.

When Tisha B'Av Falls on Shabbat

For a full treatment of this topic, see: When Tisha B'Av falls on Shabbat or Sunday.Here is a brief overview of the special conditions that apply:

The fast is pushed off until Saturday night/Sunday.

All other prohibitions of Tisha B'Av (washing, learning Torah, leather shoes, etc.) are permitted on Shabbat itself, except for marital relations. (Of course, regular Shabbat restrictions apply, such as anointing with cream and showering.)

Seudah Shlishit has none of the restrictions of Seudah Hamaf-seket, and may include meat and wine. However, the mood should be somber, should not include invited guests, and eating must stop before sundown.

Ma'ariv on Saturday night is delayed, so that everyone can say "Boruch Hamavdil bein kodesh li'chol," then remove their leather shoes and come to synagogue.

Havdallah on Saturday night is recited only over a candle, without wine or spices. On Sunday night, Havdallah is then said over wine.

Regarding the various prohibitions, some are lifted immediately upon completion of the fast (e.g. bathing, laundry and haircuts), while others remain prohibited until the following morning (meat, wine and music).

with thanks to Rabbi Moshe Lazerus

Source: aish.com

[cuttlefresh]

I'M WICKED, I MAKE VIDEOGAMES AND I'M NEW IN TOWN

Hi - here are the videogames I've put out so far and/or am working on.

1968 (Available on itch.io) – 2020

You’re a child whose mother has locked herself in her room. Explore your house, talk to your siblings, find mom.

I made this game during the first COVID-19 lockdown, where I felt an incredible sense of loneliness. I set it against the background of the invasion of the Warsaw Pact Forces of Czechoslovakia, though it has much less to do with the invasion than I thought it would at first. In hindsight, it’s a game about family - something near and dear to me.

It's available on itch.io for 3 bucks, but if you reach out to me via DMs, I can hook you up with a code. You shouldn't spare money you don't have, please.

PARASITE CYCLE (Demo available on itch.io) – TBD

When the seaside town of Ichishima becomes the target of a new PARASITE CYCLE, it is up to a schoolgirl possessed by an earworm to save the world as we know it.

The game I'm working on right now - a horror RPG-slash-visual novel-slash puzzle game. Don't know when it's gonna come out, but I think it'll be cool. Hopefully. Engage in conversation with hands, occult enthusiasts and yourself (g-guh?!) as you engage invaders from beyond.

And... that's about it! I hope you'll consider following (I guess this is how it works on the Tumblers?), I have much to share about PARASITE CYCLE and other upcoming games :)

Your friendly neighbourhood tumbler bumbler, - R.

[elizabethkitley]

this is from her web page for context, since the anon didn't mention it and only said she wasn't licensed to do psychotherapy I thought they should mention this:

"I graduated in psychology with a specialization in clinical psychology at the SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences in Warsaw and completed first-cycle training at the CTSR Solution-Focused Therapy Center.

As part of my studies, i completed the following modules:

Sports psychology

Psychological help for abused children

I also completed postgraduate studies in sports psychology at SWPS University of Humanities and Social Sciences in Warsaw."

interesting

[abwwia]

Aneta Grzeszykowska, Hair 1, 2009

c-print, 120 x 150 cm, ed. of 3 + 1 A.P.

Aneta Grzeszykowska, Hair 2, 2009

c-print, x150 120 cm, ed. of 3 + 1 A.P.

Born in 1974, graduated from the Graphic Arts Department at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw. In 2014 won Polityka's Passport Award in The Visual Arts category. Lives and works in Warsaw.

The primary medium in which Aneta Grzeszykowska works is photography. However, she treats it instrumentally, as a tool for the realization of advanced, artistic and ontological exercises. The artist is interested in the role photography plays in creating and documenting a personal identity. Therefore, in her film projects or doll sculptures, the human figure acquires the shape and aura of a marionette. One of the main topics of Grzeszykowska's works is her own identity, with which she plays on many levels: by erasing her own figure from a family collection of photographs (Album, 2005), or by impersonating Cindy Sherman in her classic cycle Untitled Film Stills (2006). Some projects by Grzeszykowska – like the cycle of illusionist portraits of non-existent people (Untitled, 2006) – take advantage of the possibilities offered by digital image manipulation, while others use photography and film in a classic way by emphasizing the performative dimension of the artist's activities. The motifs which she obsessively returns to in her works are absence, invisibility, disappearing, and the confrontation of body and thought with non-existence. Source and more HERE

[usafphantom2]

RAF typhoons are sent to Poland for joint exercises before the Warsaw Security Forum

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 03/10/2023 - 16:00in Military

Four British Royal Air Force (RAF) Typhoon fighters were sent to Poland to conduct joint training exercises alongside allied aircraft from Poland, Spain and Italy.

The deployment will provide an opportunity for RAF pilots to practice air combat against different types of aircraft and develop tactics to exploit their weaknesses.

The Typhoons, which were sent to Poznan Air Base today, will remain in Poland for two weeks and will attack targets outside visual range, simulating several possible combat scenarios. They will be supported by a team of more than 50 RAF employees during the deployment.

It is just one of many joint exercises carried out with Polish forces, including the permanent sending of hundreds of troops from the United Kingdom to Poland, as part of NATO's commitment under Operation CABRIT.

The activity comes before the participation of UK Ministers in the Warsaw Security Forum this week. Defense Minister James Heappey and FCDO ministers Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Lord Ahmad will use the forum to emphasize the need to maintain support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia.

Earlier this year, the foreign ministers and defense ministers of the United Kingdom and Poland signed a strategic partnership on foreign policy, security and defense - emphasizing the commitment of both countries to European security and collective defense through NATO.

On Wednesday, James Heappey will visit the RAF personnel deployed with the Typhoons, as well as the troops deployed in eastern Poland operating the Sky Sabre surface-to-air missile system, strengthening Poland's air defenses near the border with Ukraine.

The Warsaw Security Forum focuses on transatlantic cooperation in response to common challenges, organized for the first time in 2014, bringing together ministers and senior officials from all over the defense to provide a forum to discuss the challenges faced by Central and Eastern Europe, and the international community in general.

The United Kingdom is the partner nation of this year's Warsaw security forum and the British Embassy in Warsaw worked closely with the Polish government and conference organizers to design a program that reflected the UK's objectives and views, as described in the Refresh 2023 Integrated Review and Defense Command Document 2023.

Tags: Military AviationEurofighter TyphoonNATO - North Atlantic Treaty OrganizationRAF - Royal Air Force/Royal Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Daytona Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work throughout the world of aviation.

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