#whats more tragic than being separated from your sister after thousands of years together

[gideonnavsenormousbiceps]

Halloween costume for me and the girls:

[ladyrynofsunnydale]

Bo-Katan Week Day 6/ Bo-Katan and Korkie

Title: Mandalorians are Stronger Together

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Major Character Death

Relationships: Bo-Katan Kryze & Korkie Kryze, Bo-Katan Kryze & Satine Kryze, Korkie Kryze & Satine Kryze, Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze

Additional Tags: Post-Episode: s05e16 The Lawless, Family, Korkie Kryze is a Kenobi, Korkie Kryze Needs a Hug

Summary: Satine is dead and there was nothing Bo-Katan could do about it, and she needs to tell Korkie. An Aunt and a nephew who haven’t spent more than a day together are now all the immediate family each other has left.

Author’s Note: Happy Day 6 of Bo-Katan Week! Yeah, I just keep putting poor Bo-Katan in these heart wrenching situations. I can’t help it. She needs happiness, but my brain keeps churning out these. I was excited to write this as I love the thought of Korkie and Bo-Katan getting to know each other and developing a relationship, though unfortunately that all occurs after Satine, their connecting factor, is dead. Tragic from the beginning.

Warnings for loss and hurt

Tagging: @bokatanweek

Click on the link above to read or read down below

Bo-Katan watched the boy out of the corner of her eye. Korkie. Her nephew. Officially on his paperwork he was the son of one of her and Satine’s closest cousins and his wife. Unofficially, however, there was no way he was not Satine and Obi-Wan’s son.

Recognizing that Mandalore was a lost cause with the commandos she had, Bo had fled Sundari, leaving a few of her most trusted commandos to keep watch on Almec and Maul, though Maul had mysteriously disappeared. She’d left Korkie with some of her commandos on Kalevala when she’d gone back to Sundari to try to free Satine once again. She’d had high hopes for the Jedi when he’d shown up, but…it was not to be. Returning to Kalevala, Korkie was the first to greet her when she’d descended from her starfighter, his eyes filled with hope. She’d met them and shook her head and had tried to walk away, but Korkie jogged to keep up with her and grabbed her arm. Bo had almost growled and pulled her arm away.

“What happened? Auntie? Is she…?”

“She’s dead, Korkie.” Her words had been clipped and short, masking any emotion, and Korkie had stopped dead in his tracks.

“Dead?” she’d heard him say, and she had finally stopped and turned. “What…what happened?” Tears were filling his eyes, and Bo had clenched her jaw to keep any tears from forming in her own.

“Maul. He used her to bait Kenobi, then he killed her.”

“And you didn’t do anything?!” Korkie shouted, rage filling his eyes.

“There was nothing I could do Korkie! The throne room is designed to be impregnable.”

“You didn’t care about her at all! You just wanted to use her!”

“Don’t you dare tell me what I feel!” Bo had snapped back, striding back to Korkie and poking him in the chest with her finger. “You have no idea! No idea!”

Korkie had glared at her then turn and stormed off. Bo was shaking and to her shame she found she was way too close to crying. She’d stormed her way to Axe Woves, who’d she’d left in charge of the commandos she’d left behind, and demanded a report.

But now here she was, silently eating dinner, and she couldn’t help but stare at her nephew. His words had stung. When she was younger, Satine had been her world. She’d idolized her. After their parents had been murdered she and Satine had been separated, and she’d been scooped up by Death Watch. Her world had never been the same again. But in all that time, despite telling herself over and over that she hated Satine and her regime, she’d still loved her. Pre callously talking about killing her had cut her to the bone, but she’d gone along with it. She had hoped that maybe she could figure out a way to spare her sister. But in the end, Satine’s fate hadn’t even been in Pre’s hands.

She could see the tear tracks on Korkie’s face. He was off to the side, away from her other commandos, and his shoulders were hunched like he was trying to ward off a blow. Bo sighed and stood, walking over to him and sitting down on the log next to him.

“I’m sorry, Korkie.”

Korkie looked up and she could see more unshed tears in his eyes.

“No, I’m sorry Bo-Katan. I shouldn’t have lashed out at you.”

Bo bumped his shoulder with hers.

“We’re Kryzes. Lashing out is what we do best.”

That earned her at least a little smile.

“I can’t believe she’s gone,” Korkie said, his voice sounding so lost. “She’s been there for me for as long as I can remember.” He turned to Bo. “Were you two close?”

“When I was younger? Extremely. She was my big sister. She hung the moons and stars in the sky and I would have followed her anywhere.” Korkie smiled sadly at that.

“What happened?”

“The Civil War. And Death Watch.”

“Auntie,” Korkie began, his voice shaking, “Auntie wasn’t trying to destroy Mandalore. She was trying to make it better, safer.”

“And look where that got her,” Bo snapped and Korkie recoiled, though he gazed at her steadily. There was no way that Korkie was not Kenobi’s son.

“She wasn’t the one who attacked Mandalore with crime syndicates.”

Bo wanted to snap back at him, and she felt the heat of anger rising in her chest. What did he know? What did he know of what Death Watch was trying to do? They were protecting Mandalorian culture that had survived thousands of years. But she paused and glanced around at her commandos. Very few of them who were loyal to Mandalore and not Maul remained. Maul’s plans would strip Mandalore and destroy the planet better than Satine ever could have. Is this what Death Watch had led to? In her mind’s eye she saw the wasteland that was Mandalore’s landscape. Was warfare any better?

She glanced at him and noticed he didn’t have any food.

“Did you eat?”

“I’m not hungry,” he stated.

“You need to eat Korkie.”

“You’re not in charge of me, Bo-Katan.”

Bo opened her mouth to retort, her anger rising again, and bit back her reply. Standing she headed to where the food was being handed out and collected a ration and headed back to Korkie.

“Here. Eat.”

“I told you I’m not hungry.”

“Well, Satine would want you to eat. So eat.”

Korkie hesitantly took the ration and stared at it. With a sigh he slowly began eating, chewing for much longer than he needed.

“You need to swallow too.”

He glared at her, but swallowed. They sat in silence, Korkie slowly finishing his ration, both staring out into the gloomy darkness that was Kalevala in winter.

“This is the first time I’ve been off Mandalore since I was born,” Korkie said, and Bo looked at him. “Not quite what I was hoping for.”

“Kalevala isn’t exactly the prettiest planet.”

“That’s not what I meant.” They sat in silence again before Korkie once again broke it. “Did you know my parents?” he asked and Bo bit her inner lip. Every good lie had a grain of truth in it. Did she know the people who on his records were said to be his parents? Vaguely. She thinks she met them once when she was 6 when she had to go to their wedding. It was a very boring wedding. They seemed nice enough? Their deaths were one of the first of the Great Clan Wars. She remembered that. But Satine and Obi-Wan? Yes she knew them. Admittedly not very well, but she knew them.

“Yes,” she answered simply. “You remind me a lot of them,” she answered truthfully. He met her eyes and she saw the longing in his eyes. “You have your mother’s kindness and fire. And your father’s patience.”

“I wish I could have known them,” he said sadly and Bo’s heart softened for him. “Auntie Satine was the only family I had. The only family I really needed to be honest.”

“She was a good person,” Bo said, nodding. She glanced around and back to him. “You’re welcome to stay with us for as long as you like.” Korkie looked up at her.

“And if I don’t want to stay?”

“Then you don’t have to. But Korkie, those of us loyal to Mandalore, we’re a small lot.” A realization came to her like a knife to her gut. “We should stay together. Mandalorians are stronger together.”

“I’ll think about it,” Korkie said, and Bo nodded and stood, placing her hand on his shoulder. She opened her mouth to say something, anything, but closed it. Instead she squeezed his shoulder and nodded at him, and he nodded back.

Walking away she had one thought. She’d failed Satine, but she wouldn’t fail Mandalore. Or Satine’s son.

[lovejustforaday]

Sonic Youth Albums Ranked (Part 1)

There are few indie/alternative bands that I’d argue are as challenging and engaging, or as formative as Sonic Youth.

From their early days as a radical no wave project, to their mid-career as a hard-hitting noise rock band, to their later years as a mellow indie band with prickly guitar tones, Sonic Youth has reinvented the concept of both the guitar and rock music in general again and again. They’ve probably made at least fifty or so never-before-heard noises with their instruments. Combining these sounds with lyrics that regularly explore disillusionment, nihilism, social transgression, pop culture, feminism, abstract thought, underground scenes, and outsider art — it’s safe to say that Sonic Youth have always gone against the grain.

The members of Sonic Youth are obviously all musicians, but they have also been iconoclasts, satirists, and poets throughout their careers, creating music that demolishes both the conventions of rock as well as the social pretensions of the conservative American lifestyle.

Each member of the main lineup contributes something fundamental to the band:

-Guitarist/vocalist/de-facto leader Thurston Moore, the no-fucks-given anti-rock star icon and visionary (albeit he’s kind of a smug twerp these days)

-Bassist/guitarist/vocalist Kim Gordon, the reserved but sharp-witted feminist and multi-disciplinary artist

-Guitarist/sometimes vocalist Lee Ranaldo, the revolutionary master of bizarre guitar tunings

-Drummer Steve Shelley, whose soft and shy demeanor masks a deliverer of precise, high-speed rhythmic anarchy

I could go on and gush about this band forever, but I’ve decided to settle for writing a big nerdy list all about how I feel each Sonic Youth album holds up when ranked. With 15 proper records in total, there is a lot to digest. Likewise, I highly encourage you if you haven’t already to go listen to some of these LPs for yourself and formulate your own opinions about one of the most fascinating bands to have ever existed. This list is really just my two cents.

Note: we will be focusing on the 15 full-length studio albums recorded under the name “Sonic Youth”. This list does not include the s/t debut EP, nor does it include the “Whitey Album” or the SYR series since those are best understood as separate side projects. This list is going to be long enough as it is anyway.

15. Rather Ripped (2006)

Main Genres: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

A decent sampling of: Noise Rock

From any other band, this is a perfectly decent album with a few nice, gratifying guitar tones here and there. But as a Sonic Youth album, Rather Ripped sounds like the band is on auto-pilot. This is the band’s only album that to my ears sounds like it could’ve been written by any number of other alternative rock bands at the time. It just lacks a certain essential edge that their music usually has.

It really doesn’t help the case for this record that Thurston Moore began having an affair at this point in the career, and it is disgustingly present in the lyrics in hindsight, with the offensively titled “Sleeping Around” and possibly even “Incinerate” both probably taking inspiration from his dirty little secret.

I usually separate art from the artist to a certain degree, but in this case it really does kill part of the experience, because I can’t help but feel that Thurston is having a stupid little giggle to himself by hiding his affair in plain sight and it’s really just kind of pathetic. Kim Gordon is my favourite member of the band, and to me she’s the epitome of an extremely cool person, which only makes the whole thing worse. Seriously, quit bragging old man.

Speaking of “Incinerate”, I can confidently say that I think this is the band’s most overrated song. Certainly not their worst, but I really can’t fathom how so many people consistently put this up there with “Schizophrenia” or “The Diamond Sea” as one of Sonic Youth’s top five songs when it’s honestly just so...by the numbers.

That being said, Rather Ripped is not ‘bad’ per se, it’s mostly just that it really lacks something the band usually has, which makes the project feel a little soulless. Still, the record has its better moments. “Pink Stream” is rather ethereal sounding, which is pretty rare in the band’s discography given their usual penchant for the bombastic and ear-shattering, or the ominous and unsettling. “Turquoise Boy” is also a nice mellow track that probably could’ve fit in quite well as one of many solid tracks on A Thousand Leaves, albeit most of those tracks would still trounce this one.

Rather Ripped is all-around competent; it’s a pretty consistent listen and a decent enough beginner-level Sonic Youth album in terms of accessibility. But there’s just nothing about this album that really grabs me like literally any of their other LPs. There’s almost none of the band’s personality on this record (save perhaps Thurston’s inflated ego). Perhaps it is best to call it their “least interesting” album instead of their “worst”. Honestly, you could just skip this one and you probably wouldn’t miss much.

6/10

highlights: “Pink Stream”, “Turquoise Boy”

14. The Eternal (2009)

Main Genres: Indie Rock, Alternative Rock

A decent sampling of: Noise Rock

The Eternal is the last LP Sonic Youth put out as a band. With context, the record has somewhat of a somber feeling. Even its name ‘The Eternal’ seems to suggest that the band might’ve known that it would be their last record, as if the album could be at least partially a reflection on the band’s legacy that will eventually go on to outlive each member.

The band really does sound a little burnt out at multiple points on this record, particularly in terms of Thurston’s vocals which can be best described as sounding ‘exhausted’. Again, like Rather Ripped, the music is certainly competent and enjoyable, but it’s also noticeably less adventurous than on earlier LPs. The album is also a bit more sluggish than most of the band’s past work, feeling just about as long as Daydream Nation or Washing Machine despite being well over 10 minutes shorter than either of those LPs.

I’ll be perfectly honest: if it weren’t for “Massage The History”, this record probably wouldn’t be all that much better than Rather Ripped. Kim Gordon gets to have the very last words on the record with this grim and cryptic requiem about hers and Thurston’s relationship, indicating that she was at least partially aware at the time that the two of them were growing apart.

This would be the last album Sonic Youth put out before Kim became fully aware of Thurston’s affair with a younger woman, leading to her divorce and the band’s inevitable breakup. The song is honestly kind of painful to listen to for that reason, but it is also tragically and morbidly beautiful. “Massage The History” is chronologically the last track in the entire Sonic Youth discography which stretches across 15 LPs over the course of three decades, and it’s a very worthy swan song for the band, if also a bitter reminder that most things cannot last.

“Malibu Gas Station” is another standout, a nocturnal alternative rock jam that sounds very much like a track from the Sister-Daydream Nation-Goo era, and yet another example of Kim Gordon’s capabilities as a member of the band. Really, Kim basically carries this entire LP on her shoulders in terms of the lyrics and vocals.

Nevertheless, I like this record for what it represents if nothing else, and I would still say that it is a level above Rather Ripped thanks to the album closer, and more on par with the next couple of albums on this list. However, I would never recommend that anyone start their Sonic Youth journey with this LP. You can listen to their discography in just about any order you want to, but I’d highly recommend that you save this one for last. The Eternal is a mostly bittersweet experience that is best appreciated after hearing the rest of the band’s output.

7/10

highlights: “Massage The History”, “Malibu Gas Station”

13. Experimental Jet Set, Trash, And No Star (1994)

Main Genres: Noise Rock, Alternative Rock

A decent sampling of: Experimental Rock, Post-Punk

Experimental Jet Set, Trash, And No Star came right after the modest commercial success of Goo and Dirty, and I think you can hear on this LP that the band is reacting to that success by trying to resharpen some of the edges that were smoothed out by Butch Vig’s production on Dirty. Basically, this sounds rather like Dirty but less put-together, less consistent, and a lot more raw.

I appreciate that they wanted to do their own thing and challenge expectations again, and you can really tell that the band is mostly playing around on this record, but in this case I gotta say that the songwriting seems to suffer a little because of that.

The album starts off promising enough with two major highlights. First, there’s a rare acoustic offering with the lo-fi opener “Winner’s Blues”, the first of many tracks that would appear on later Sonic Youth LPs proving that Thurston’s vocals can actually be quite soothing. Then there’s the winding, topsy-turvy patterns of “Bull In The Heather” where lyrically Kim mocks the infantilization of women in her usual snarky, sing-talking fashion. Later on the record, there’s also “Bone” which has a very sinister, bluesy swagger to it that I really enjoy.

But everything else from here on out is kind of a mixed bag. The main setback really seems to be the track lengths; it’s actually pretty weird for a Sonic Youth album at this point in the band’s career to be full of songs that are mostly only two or three minutes long like they are on Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star. That’s not inherently bad of course, but a lot of these tracks really only sound like ‘parts’ of a Sonic Youth song; some really good ideas, but largely underdeveloped.

Take “Starfield Road” for example, which takes a whole minute to build up this really cool and bizarre turbulent sound storm, and then Thurston starts singing over it for a couple of bars until it all sorta just stops abruptly. This track could work in theory if it was structured differently. “Mildred Pierce” off of Goo does something similar, but with that track there’s pay off at the end with the sudden wicked, destructive breakdown which catches you off guard, but here there’s simply no pay off for the listener.

Combine the lack of complete songwriting with the fact that this is actually one of the longest tracklistings on any Sonic Youth album at 14 tracks, and you get an album that feels like it’s bloated with lots of filler. Mind you, there’s still a lot of great little moments on this LP, but very few of them come together to make great songs. It’s an excellent sampler of just how many different ways Sonic Youth can play with a riff or make weird new static noises, but with regards to songwriting, Experimental Jet Set, Trash, and No Star feels more like a collection of demo tapes than a proper album. Still, there’s some cool energy on this record and I’d say it’s a worthwhile listen for any diehard fan.

7/10

highlights: “Bull In The Heather”, “Bone”, “Winner’s Blues”

12. NYC Ghosts & Flowers (2000)

Main Genres: Experimental Rock, Noise Rock, Art Rock

A decent sampling of: Post-Rock, Art Punk, Beat Poetry, No Wave

This is a good example of why we can’t have nice things. Somewhere between A Thousand Leaves and this record, Sonic Youth had most of their gear stolen by some jackass, which effectively meant pressing a hard reset button on the band’s sound for at least one album.

Likewise, a lot of people say that this is their worst record, and yeah I get why those people feel that way, but I actually like NYC Ghosts & Flowers for the fact that it forced the band to undergo yet another major sonic transformation. It‘s certainly more consistently interesting than Rather Ripped or The Eternal, just a very strange album in general, and for that it gets some extra points. I should also mention that this is the first of a couple of albums where the band collaborated with the acclaimed avant-garde artist Jim O’Rourke.

With lyrics influenced by the legendary mid-20th century ‘beat poetry’ scene born out of the band’s own New York City, this is the most 'abstract' Sonic Youth ever sounded. You can hear hints of the band’s no wave origins on this record, but with all of the crude chaos of those early LPs replaced with cerebral tension.

It’s also more sparse than any of their other studio albums, even more so than the dark and intangible Bad Moon Rising. Unfortunately, in this case that also leads to some tracks like “Nevermind (What Was It Anyway)” feeling somewhat empty, or perhaps sometimes too monotonous or repetitive without enough sonically gratifying moments.

But there are exceptions, and the middle portion of this album is where the new formula mostly thrives. “Small Flowers Crack Concrete” is vivid post-rock art poetry, not unlike a more noisy, sporadic version of some of the songs off of Slint’s beloved post-rock classic Spiderland. “Side2Side” is very aurally pleasing, with plinkety guitar staccatos and Kim’s voice hopping from one ear to the other like some kind of noise rock ASMR.

“StreamXSonik Subway” is a freaky little track that sounds calmly menacing, and I really like the high-pitch computer-y bloops. But then right after that there’s the seven and a half minute title track “NYC Ghosts & Flowers” which could probably give me a headache if I didn’t distract myself with something else while I was listening to it; truly maybe the worst track of the band’s entire discography if I was asked to pick one.

Overall, I’d say that NYC Ghosts & Flowers is a very artistic and fascinating experience in the moment, but I don’t really end up remembering much of it an hour or two after listening to the record. It just doesn’t really stay with me like some of their other records, and I don’t often feel the need to revisit this LP. I think Sonic Youth does the whole ‘sparseness' thing better when they’re aiming to sound vast, haunting, or nihilistic, as opposed to this kind of small, cerebral, sit-down-in-an-empty-room-and-listen experience which I personally find a bit more suited to other bands.

That being said, I applaud them for taking a lot of risks on this one, and I genuinely like NYC Ghosts & Flowers for the moments where it really does seem to be on the cusp of something groundbreaking. It's also a pretty polarizing record for most listeners, so maybe you’ll love it.

7/10

highlights: “Small Flowers Crack Concrete”, “Side2Side“, “StreamXSonik Subway”

[srbachchan]

DAY 4451

Jalsa, Mumbai                       May 14,  2020                      Thu 11:27 PM

Birthday  EF - Brinda Shah ..  Pawan Randhawa .. Friday, May 15 .. and our wishes go out to the birthdays of the two .. may you remain safe in these times and be happy .. .. love from the Ef

Old times of the past times .. remembrances of the School times .. moments of the lasting times .. of class mates and dormitories .. of theatre plays and farewell concerts .. of singing ditties .. of humour among all .. of a recapture of the events of the year .. of still knowing the moments that went by then in 1956-58 .. names , pet names, and the happiest days of our lives ..

..a picture from the School records .. the School play of 1957 .. The Government Inspector by Nikolai Gogol .. I played the Mayor of the city .. this picture is after the play finished and our Principal the Rev R C Llewelyn , the tall collared on the right reading the results of the Best Actor Kendal Cup results .. and  .. yooo hooo .. its moi .. and I am dumbfounded and cannot move .. Ma and Babuji in the audience .. especially come up to see me during our Founders Week .. 

find me .. found me .. our Drama teacher Mr Berry the tall figure right in the middle .. well just behind him with a smile on my face .. uniformed ..

moment of pride for Parents .. when you achieve they are filled with a most peculiar emotion .. its tears and happiness .. happens often .. see a film where you appreciate your sons work and you cannot speak for quite a while .. just choked with emotion .. the Hall is Milman Hall , named after an important contributor to the School .. the Hall where we held all our theatre and farewell concerts .. where the odd film was shown on an 8mm projector .. where we all recovered when the flu of 1957 hit the nation and the world .. the Hall where our prize distribution took place .. the Hall where we were instructed at the prize giving ceremony to look into the face of the dignitary giving the award .. the Hall where on the class of ‘58 get together after 50 years , yours truly is made the Chief Guest and does what he has been witnessing when in School as a student ... time and life brings so many changes and challenges ..

.. and this new challenge .. looms large now .. a DIGITAL release ..

.. Amazon Prime .. June 12, world wide release .. 200 plus country’s .. a first for many reasons .. a situation that cannot be altered .. theatres opening could take time .. or not open at all .. uncertainty .. 4 complete films in line for release .. must do in this year .. contracts severe .. finances and other contractual obligations need consideration .. not just my films there are other artists too .. they also need to space out their films .. recovery of investment .. cannot take forever .. if the digital price is amicable then they go for it .. it is the future .. the option to release in theatres later always open .. that contained in the terms .. so yes in time there could be theatre  release as well .. others wait for the results of digital release to make decisions on their films .. will find out by June 12, 2020 .. some complain why on Amazon only and not of Netflix .. but the deal has been struck with Amazon .. so Amazon .. cant have two different distributors of the same film in the same city .. yes imagery is reduced to the mobile or TV screen .. but most of the stuff these days is seen thus is it not .. patience then .. a few more days and we shall see ..

gosh !!!  almost started putting down the words of our School farewell song :

“ a few more days and we shall be .. rejoicing at our liberty .. and when the moment comes to scram .. we’ll trundle down to Kathgodam .. “

‘then the bells will ring .. and the boys will sing .. as the boxes are being taken away ..

‘and the girls will cry .. as we bid them goodbye .. and we wish them a happy holiday ..’

Goodness ... never ever imagined that I would remember the words of the singing .. that was 1956 .. its 2020 now .. 64 years .. !!! 64 .. thats a life time !!

brought to tune by our Vice Principal Mr Thomson, and written by him too .. he would also write the farewell ditties too .. a compilation of all the events that had taken place and were of some importance .. put together in a humorous manner .. and the students involved in that moment had to come up and sing their portions on stage .. such fun .. still remember my lines ..

the matter was somewhat .. err.. dubious .. breaking bounds .. the girls sister school had come for a picnic on the hill above Sherwood, on Dorothy Seat .. thats the name of that location on the hill, at the edge of a spur, where a young girl named Dorothy used to sit and paint the Himalayas that could be seen from there  .. she fell over tragically and died and the Hill was named after her ..

So some of us enterprising Lotharios during our lunch break broke bounds, stealthily went out from behind the School up the Hill to simply get a glimpse of the girls and return in time before the bell rang for class .. as we were negotiating some bushes on reaching the top of the location, one of us saw a Teacher of the girls School, coming across in our direction .. we , thinking that she had noticed us panicked and scrambled down the hill, in some velocity, making a lot of noise in the rubble and stones that came our way  .. the Teacher we came to know later had not actually seen us but was coming to pick up a pullover of one of the girls which was lying close to or vantage point .. but because of the scramble she reported the matter to our Principal who at dinner when the entire School sits for their meal in one Hall , came and announced that some boys had been seen going up to Dorothy Seat and to own up and stand up .. all of us stood up, much to our embarrassment .. for the rest of the School boys had not known of or escapade .. 

It was 6 of the best for us .. 6 cuts of the cane , from the Principal, a Tennis Blue from Cambridge or Oxford .. had a most devastating forehand .. we were taken into a side room in his office as was the drill with all these cases and were given the cane .. a wheel barrow lay in one corner, we were made to bend down and hold the handles so our posteriors were nice and tight .. and then .. whack .. 6 cuts from the well oiled bamboo canes safely kept in a separate drawer .. dark black bruises, lines of the cuts, would appear on our backsides despite the frantic rubbing to ease the pain, we would indulge in .. the morning baths were a site for us all .. for the entire dormitory bathed together under showers in a line and the rest of the guys would giggle and laugh at our black bruised stripes on the skin of our behinds .. !!!!

ahhhhh .. the happiest days of our lives ..

oh  .. heck .. so .. forgot to mention what was written for us in the concert .. there was a piano ditty played by Mr Thomson .. and each of us that had a verse written for us came up on the stage in rhythm and said our line and went back .. mine and another co artist that broke bounds with me had this . .. after the description of the event that took place was sung out in tune , ours was ..: like a culmination of what we did on that day and what the end result was .. of getting caught and being punished .. so we had to sing :

‘we’re now confirmed misogynists, and worthy of the name .. we’d rather run a thousand miles than meet a blooming dame ..’

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

the innocence of those times and the factor of fun and enjoyment even in the most adverse conditions .. not a care, not a concern .. never again to be relived .. which is why they be the happiest days of our life !!

Amitabh Bachchan

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Alex Recommends: May and June Books

I must apologise for the late arrival of this post. It should have been up days ago but I’ve been struggling to read much for the last month or so. My head has been very foggy and dark with all of the confusion, anxiety and hate that has been filling my news feeds and I’ve been filled with a desire to combat it. Before this month, I’d have run in the opposite direction from any kind of confrontation but recent events have given me the kick up the butt to actively do better. I’ve been calling out bigotry when I come across it and I’ve noticed that some people, notably my older relatives, haven’t necessarily reacted favorably to the changed, more outspoken Alex. It has been pretty daunting and I’ve worked myself up into fits of rage and tears several times over the last couple of months.

A lot of things have changed for me since my last Alex Recommends post. I’m currently temporarily living in Staffordshire with my boyfriend because my depression got too bad for me to stay at home for much longer. I missed him unbelievably much and I knew that spending some prolonged time with him would help -and it has. Both him and I have spent 12 weeks religiously following all of the rules, so we’re both extremely low-risk for catching and spreading COVID-19 and being together was something that we simply really needed to do. Please don’t hate me for it! In other news, I have also started writing again, which feels amazing. I’m now a few thousand words into a queer Rapunzel retelling that I have lots of ideas for. Maybe I’ll even post an extract or two, when I feel it’s ready to show you.

In the centre of the renewed energy of Black Lives Matter and the undeniable exposure of the horrors that is police brutality, the book blogging and BookTube worlds vowed to uplift Black voices. I wrote a very long, in-depth blog post full of Black-written books and Black book influencers. Please check it out to diversify your TBR and educate yourself on Black issues, which is what every white person should be doing now and always.

June was Pride Month and I tried my best to compile a series of recommendation posts in honour of it. These included gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, ace, pansexual and intersex lists. I’ve had some great feedback on this, so I hope you find some fantastic new reads. It felt especially poignant to put them together the same year that one of my childhood heroes came out as an ignorant trans-exclusive feminist. As a lifelong Harry Potter superfan and someone who has repeatedly publicly supported Rowling in the past, I feel the need to clarify where I now stand. I do not support or agree with a single thing that she has said in recent times with regard to transgender people. I’ve never felt my own status as a cisgender female threatened by trans people wanting more rights or believed that children or women were at risk due to their existence. 

I read her words more than once and struggled to find any semblance of the woman who wrote the books that have most defined my life. I’m hesitant to say that we can always successfully separate the art from the artist but I will say that it makes sense to me that the Rowling of 2020 is not the same Rowling that wrote Harry Potter. She was a destitute single mother when Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997 and of course, she is now a million worlds away from that lifestyle. It breaks my heart but it makes sense to me that she has changed beyond belief because her life has changed beyond belief. I’m not and never would make any excuses for her recent behaviour and I have stopped supporting her personally but I will not be getting rid of my Harry Potter books and I will undoubtedly re-read them several more times. However, I am now hugely reluctant to buy any more merchandise or special editions of the books, which saddens me but at the moment, it feels right. There is no coming back for her from this and I will make a conscious effort to keep Harry Potter and Rowling away from my future content. It can be really tough to admit that the people you once really admired aren’t great humans but it’s something that we all have to acknowledge in this case, in order to move forward with our own quests to become our best selves.

It didn’t feel right to post my May recommendations last month as I didn’t feel comfortable promoting my own content in the midst of boosting Black voices. So today I’m bringing you a bumper edition of Alex Recommends. Here are 10 books that I’ve enjoyed since the start of May that I’d love to share with you. Enjoy! -Love, Alex x

FICTION: Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Set in the affluent neighbourhood of Shaker Heights, Ohio in the 1990s, two families are brought together and pulled apart by the most intense, devastating circumstances. Dealing with issues of race, class, coming-of-age, motherhood and the dangers of perfection, Little Fires Everywhere is highly addictive and effecting. With characters who are so heartbreakingly real and a story that weaves its way to your very core, I couldn’t put it down and I’m still thinking about it over a month after finishing it. 

FICTION: Get A Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

When coding nerd Chloe Brown almost dies, she makes a list of goals and vows to finally Get A Life. So she enlists tattooed redhead handyman and biker Red to teach her how. Cute, funny and ultimately life-affirming, this enemies-to-lovers rom-com was exactly the brand of light relief that I needed this month. The follow-up Take A Hint, Dani Brown focuses on a fake-dating situation with Chloe’s over-achieving academic sister and I can’t wait to get my hands on that.

FICTION: The Rearranged Life of Oona Lockhart by Margarita Montimore

Just before her 19th birthday at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1983, Oona Lockhart finds herself inexplicably in 2015 inside her 51-year-old body. She soon learns that every year on New Year’s Day, she will now find herself inside a random year of her life and she has no control over it. Seeing her through relationships, friendships and extreme wealth, this strange novel has echoes of Back To The Future and 13 Going On 30 with a final revelation that I certainly never saw coming.

NON-FICTION: The Five by Hallie Rubenhold

Atmospheric and engaging, The Five details the previously untold stories of Polly, Annie, Elisabeth, Kate and Mary-Jane -the women who lost their lives at the hands of Jack the Ripper. Full of fascinating research and heartbreaking accounts of what these women’s lives may have been like, Rubenhold paints a dark immersive portrait of Victorian London and gives voice to these tragic silenced lives. Although we can’t know for certain if these accounts are entirely accurate, they feel very plausible and in some ways, The Five exposes how little time has moved on, when it comes to the public portrayal of single, troubled women.

NON-FICTION: Unicorn by Amrou Al-Kadhi

From a childhood crush on Macaulay Culkin to how a teenage obsession with marine biology helped them realise their non-binary identity, Unicorn tells the story of how the obsessive perfectionist son of a strict Muslim Iraqi family became the gorgeous drag queen Glamrou. Packed full of humour, honesty and heart, this book will give you the strength and inspiration to harness what you were born with and be who you were always meant to be.

MIDDLE-GRADE: The Super Miraculous Journey of Freddie Yates by Jenny Pearson

When fact-obsessed Freddie’s grandmother dies, he discovers that the father he has never met may actually be alive and living in Wales. So he has no choice but to grab his best friends Ben and Charlie, leave his home in Andover and go to find his dad! I laughed so many times during this madcap adventure and I know the slapstick crazy humour will hit the middle-grade target audience just right. It’s also a wonderful depiction of small town Britain with a focus on the true meaning of family.

MIDDLE-GRADE: A Kind Of Spark by Elle McNicoll

When Addie learns about her hometown’s history of witch trials, she campaigns tirelessly to get a memorial for the women who lost their lives through it. This wonderfully beautiful novel gives a unique insight into the mind of an 11-year-old autistic girl with a huge heart. Busting myths about neurodiversity while tackling typical pre-teen drama, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry but most of all, you’ll close the book with a huge smile on your face. 

HISTORICAL FICTION: Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

In 16th century Warwickshire, Agnes is a woman with a unique gift whose relationship with a young Latin tutor produces three children and a legacy that lasts for centuries. This enchanting, all-consuming account of the tragic story of Shakespeare’s lost son, the effects that rippled through the family and the play that was born from their pain will send a bullet straight through your heart. Wonderfully researched and beautifully written, Hamnet is worth all of the hype.

HISTORICAL FICTION: The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

When a vicious storm kills most of the men of Vardø, Norway, it’s up to the women to keep things going but a man with a murderous past is about to come down with an iron fist. At the heart of this dark tale of witch trials, grief and feminism, two women find something they’ve each been searching for within each other. Gorgeously written with a fantastically slow-burning queer romance, Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s first adult novel is an addictive, atmospheric read with a poignant, tearjerker of an ending.

SCI-FI: Q by Christina Dalcher

When one of Elena’s daughters manages to drop below the country’s desired Q number, she is sent away to one of the new state schools and Elena is about to find out something she’d really rather not know about the new system. Packed full of real social commentary and critique of life as we know it while painting a picture of how things could be even worse (yes, really!), this pulse-racing, horrifying sci-fi dystopian gripped me from the first page and refused to let me go. 

[dweemeister]

2019 Movie Odyssey Award for Best Original Song (preliminary round)

Many of my longtime followers will know what is below. And yes, it’s that time of year again!

There are a few folks I wanted to extend invites to that I wasn’t able to get to in time (because of stuff IRL). If you are listed (and are interested), let me know so I can sort you into a group as soon as possible: @dansmonarbre, @dog-of-ulthar, @fredsbarandgrill, @loveless422, @shadesofhappy, @somequeerdistortion, @thethirdman8. Otherwise, you will still be tagged for the MOABOS final anyways because of your prior participation in previous years.

As is the year-end tradition on my blog, there is an Oscar-like ceremony honoring some of the best achievements from movies that I saw for the first time in their entirety this calendar year (the "Movie Odyssey"). I’ve always considered MOABOS a musical thank-you for your moral support on and offline throughout the year.

An unspecified number of songs have already advanced to the final round. Twenty songs will compete in this preliminary round. Like every year there has been a preliminary, there are two groups - Group A and Group B. Even moreso than last year, songs from musicals dominate and, after a year where personal time has come at a premium, it has also resulted in the most monolingual field we’ve had in a preliminary.

INSTRUCTIONS IN THE GROUP YOU HAVE BEEN SORTED INTO, please rank (#1-10) at least five of your group's songs. Please consider (to the best of your ability): how musically interesting the song is (incl. and not limited to musical phrasing and orchestration); its lyrics; quality of performance; context within the film (contextual blurbs provided for those who haven’t seen these films); choreography/dance direction (if applicable); and the song's cultural impact/life outside the film (if applicable, and the least important factor). Imperfections in audio and video quality may not be used against any song. The top four songs in each group automatically advance to the final round. I reserve the right to pick 0-2 songs from one or both groups that finished outside the top four in their respective groups to contest the final round. This was never a true democracy, as you all know!

The deadline for submission is Tuesday, December 10 at 11 PM Pacific Time. That's Friday, December 11 at 1 AM Central Time / 2 AM Eastern Time / 7 AM GMT / 8 AM CET / 9 AM EET. This deadline may be pushed back if there are a large number of people who have not submitted in time - but I would rather not have that happen, especially because more people are going to be called in for the final round. Feel free to send in comments and reactions with your rankings - it’s always fun to read reactions to individual songs, and it usually makes the process (for everyone) more enjoyable! Tabulation details are under the read-more.

Take your time, and and listen more than once if you wish. Please pay attention to which group you have been sorted into. The songs are (“Song title”, composer and lyricist, film title):

GROUP A

“Can You Imagine That?”, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Performed by Emily Blunt, Pixie Davies, Joel Dawson, and Nathanael Saleh

Shortly after Mary Poppins (Blunt) becomes the governess for the Banks children (Davies, Dawson, and Saleh), she draws a bath after the children have covered themselves in dirt. The bath, however, is infused with Mary Poppins’ signature magic, leading to a fantastical segment.

“Detroit”, music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, The Happiest Millionaire (1967)

Performed by John Davidson and Lesley Ann Warren

(partial use in film)

Lovebirds Cordy Biddle (Warren) and Angier “Angie” Buchanan Duke (Davidson in his film debut) have been discussing their future together. Angie does not want to inherit his father’s tobacco business - instead wishing to head to Detroit to be a part of the automotive industry (the film is set in 1916, as the city was booming because of the auto industry).

“Gay Paree”, music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, Victor/Victoria (1982)

Performed by Robert Preston

In this musical, Carroll “Toddy” Todd (Preston) is a gay performer at the Chez Lui nightclub in Paris. This songs appears shortly after the opening credits and a short introductory scene. The use of the word “gay” in this song may be interpreted however you wish.

“Honolulu Baby”, music and lyrics by Marvin Hatley, Sons of the Desert (1933)

(Initial performance) / (brief reprise) / (non-film version)

First performance by Ty Parvis; reprise by Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy; full non-film version by The Beau Hunks

Laurel and Hardy have tricked their wives into believing they have taken a Hawaiian cruise rather than attending the national meeting of a fraternity known as the Sons of the Desert - their wives disapprove of the latter for reasons that give away too many jokes in one of the best (and funniest) films I saw all year. The reprise is part of a joke that I’d also rather not spoil.

“I Dug a Ditch”, music by Burton Lane, lyrics by Lew Brown and Ralph Freed, Thousands Cheer (1943)

Performed by the Kay Kyser Band, Kathryn Grayson, Georgia Carroll, Harry Babbitt, Sully Mason, M.A. Bogue, and chorus

NOTE: An entirely separate song, “Should I”, is integrated from 3:04-3:36.

Apologies for the text overlaying the video. The second half of Thousands Cheer is essentially an elaborate revue musical performance for American World War II troops in which the film’s initial pretense of attempting a story is entirely dropped. “I Dug a Ditch” is one of the songs appearing in the film’s second half.

“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again”, music by Elton John, lyrics by Bernie Taupin, Rocketman (2019)

Performed by Elton John and Taron Egerton

This is the first song played over the end credits of this biopic of Elton John. This is John and Taupin’s (John’s songwriting partner through the 1960s-1990s) first collaboration outside the Sherlock Gnomes series for this decade.

“Into the Unknown”, music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Frozen II (2019)

(end credits version)

Performed by Idina Menzel and AURORA; end credits version performed by Panic! At the Disco

Some years after being crowned Queen of Arendelle (which happened at the end of Frozen), Elsa hears an eerie voice calling out to her - a voice that will connect Elsa to her parents’ tragic fate. The voice’s melody will reprise throughout the film’s score.

“The Shady Dame from Seville”, music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, Victor/Victoria (1982)

(Initial performance) / (reprise to be watched at your own spoiler-y risk)*

Performed by Julie Andrews; reprise by Robert Preston

*watch at your own spoiler-y risk because it gives away the film’s comical musical ending

Victoria Grant (Andrews), after making her Parisian debut playing a man named “Victor” who is impersonating a woman, has become the hit vaudeville act of Paris. This is one of her signature performances. Preston’s reprise - which appears near the film’s conclusion - was done in one take, hence his sweaty and fatigued appearance at the end.

“Trường Tương Tư”, music and lyrics by Leon Le, Song Lang (2018, Vietnam)

Performed by Isaac and Liên Bỉnh Phát

Lyrics in Vietnamese

English translation and context are in the link.

“(Underneath the) Lovely London Sky”, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, Mary Poppins Returns

Performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda

This is the opening song in Mary Poppins Returns. Lamplighter Jack (Miranda) is turning out the London gaslights as night turns into morning, as he bikes through the city’s streets - filled with indicators of the Great Depression, industrial pollution, and the general overcast weather that tends to be associated with England. Jack reprises the songs a few times across the film and the song is quoted in the film’s score.

Group A participants include: @addaellis, @cokwong, @halfwaythruthedark, @myluckyerror, @phendranaedge, @plus-low-overthrow, @theybecomestories, @umgeschrieben, @yellanimal. Between six to ten others will be participating in this group, including myself and my sister.

GROUP B

“Crazy World”, music by Henry Mancini, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse, Victor/Victoria (1982)

Performed by Julie Andrews

Victoria Grant (Andrews) is a woman playing a man named “Victor” who is impersonating a woman. Victoria, as Victor, has become the hit vaudeville act of Paris. This is Victoria’s first performance as “Victor” not pretending to be a woman. Is your head spinning yet?

“East Bound and Down”, music and lyrics by Jerry Reed and Dick Feller, Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Performed by Jerry Reed

This is the theme song for this comedy, which also describes the plot somewhat. Smokey and the Bandit is about two truckers - “Bandit” (Burt Reynolds) and “Snowman” (Reed) - who have been offered $80,000 by a rich Texan to pick up 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana, Texas and return to Atlanta within twenty-eight hours. In 1977, Coors was only found in the Western U.S. and transporting it across Southern state lines was illegal (giving Coors a mystique in the Eastern U.S.).

“Fortuosity”, music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman, The Happiest Millionaire (1967)

Performed by Tommy Steele

Irish immigrant John Lawless (Steele) is one day off his Transatlantic ferry and is soon to take up a job as the Biddle family’s butler. This is the first song in The Happiest Millionaire, performed shortly after the opening credits. The song is also on the musical rotation for Disney parks’ Main Street and is reprised during the film and quoted in its score.

“Fun and Fancy Free (I’m a Happy-Go-Lucky Fellow)”, music and lyrics by Bennie Benjamin, George David Weiss, Ned Washington, and Eliot Daniel Fun and Fancy Free (1947)

Performed by Dinah Shore, chorus, and Cliff Edwards (as Jiminy Cricket)

Played over the opening credits; the main musical ideas are used a few times in the film’s score. This is Jiminy Cricket’s second appearance in a canonical Disney Animation Studios feature film.

“The Joint Is Really Jumpin’ in Carnegie Hall”, music and lyrics by Roger Edens, Ralph Blane, and Hugh Martin, Thousands Cheer (1943)

Performed by Judy Garland and Jose Iturbi

The second half of Thousands Cheer - where this song is found - is essentially an elaborate revue musical performance for American World War II troops in which the film’s initial pretense of attempting a story is entirely dropped.

“The Next Right Thing”, music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Frozen II (2019)

Performed by Kristen Bell

Anna (Bell) has seemingly lost her friends and her sister at what is the lowest point in the film. Uncertain what to do, she recalls a small piece of advice that leads her forward.

“Nowhere to Go but Up”, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

Performed by Angela Lansbury, Ben Whishaw, Pixie Davies, Joel Dawson, Nathanael Saleh, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Mortimer, Julie Walters, Jeremy Swift, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, David Warner, Jim Norton, and company

On a sunny spring day, the Banks family and Mary Poppins go out to the local park to make a day of it. Certain non-lyrical inclusions in this song cannot be explained without spoiling the film. This is the final song of Mary Poppins Returns.

“Sương Chiều”, music and lyrics by Leon Le and Hoàng Song Việt, Song Lang (2018, Vietnam)

Performed by Isaac and Tú Quyên

Lyrics in Vietnamese

English translation and context are in the link.

“Trip a Little Light Fantastic”, music by Marc Shaiman, lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, Mary Poppins Returns

Performed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Emily Blunt, Tarik Frimpong, Pixie Davies, Joel Dawson, Nathanael Saleh, and company

After being scolded by their father, the Banks children are taken home by Mary Poppins (Blunt). Along the way, they encounter their friend, lamplighter Jack (Miranda), as they take a lengthy detour. The cycling skills seen in this number are probably anachronistic.

“Woodstock”, music and lyrics by Joni Mitchell, Woodstock (1970)

Performed by Crosby Stills, Nash & Young

This song appears in the end credits to Woodstock - the official documentary film for the eponymous August 1969 musical festival.

Group B participants include: @emilylime5, @ideallaedi, @introspectivemeltdown, @maximiliani, @mindo80, @themusicmoviesportsguy, @nazur, @stephdgray, and @underblackwings. Between six to ten others will be participating in this group, including myself and my sister.

If you have any questions or comments regarding the process or the songs involved, you may contact me at any time in any way you prefer. If you are having difficulty accessing the videos (especially if it is region-locked), please let me know as soon as you can.

Thank you all for being amazing followers and friends, and I thank you for your participation and support for the Movie Odyssey, this blog, and for me personally - no matter how long I’ve known you or in what capacity. I didn’t do as much outreach this year due to personal reasons, but I hope we have a healthy amount of participation. You will all be tagged for the final round regardless of your participation here. If turnout in one group is lagging behind compared to another, I may ask some of the more senior participants to participate in the other group, too. There is no pressure if you can’t do this, everyone. Thank you all again, and happy listening!

TABULATION

This preliminary round uses a points-based, ranked choice method which has been used since the first time I asked friends, tumblr followers, and family to help out. A respondent’s first choice receives 10 points, the second choice receives 9, the third choice receives 8, etc. The winner is the song that ends up with the most total points. This method, for the first time ever, will not be used for the final round. Tiebreakers for above: 1) total points earned; 2) total #1 votes; 3) placement on my ballot; 4) placement on my sister’s ballot; 5) tie declared

[deliriousabsol]

More Things Than You Ever Cared To Know About My Writing

This was originally posted by ‘vorchagirl’, reblogged by someone I follow. And I thought it would be fun to just outright answer these in a questionnaire type way, rather than as asks. So here we go =)

Feel free to do this yourselves if you like it. Just please remember to add the original poster.

Fanfiction Questions

Fandom Questions

1. What was the first fandom you got involved in?

Properly? Probably Pokemon. I’ve been writing fanfiction for it for years.

2. What is your latest fandom?

Funnily enough, Sonic, despite being a fan since I was like seven years old. I’ve just never seriously got into it since then until now.

3. What is the best fandom you’ve ever been involved in?

The Pokemon fandom. I’ve made some awesome friends in it.

4. Do you regret getting involved in any fandoms?

You hear things, but I’ve not really come across any toxicity besides the reaction to the Sonic Movie.

5. Which fandoms have your written fanfiction for?

A good few, but the only ones you’ll find are Pokemon, Sonic and Zootopia.

6. List your OTP from each fandom you’ve been involved in.

Zootopia - Judy/Nick

Sonic - Shadow/Rouge, Silver/Blaze

Pokemon - I don’t usually ship in Pokemon, but Jessie/James because reasons

7. List your NoTPs from each fandom you’ve been in.

Sonic/Amy. Sorry. Some art is cute, but it’s not my jam.

Shadow/Maria. I don’t ship animals with humans.

I also don’t ship yaoi/yuri pairings.

I do not poop on any ship. If it’s one I’m not fond of, I just scroll on and leave it be. Shipping can be pretty toxic sometimes, and I just don’t get it at all.

8. How did you get involved in your latest fandom?

I was writing Mask Behind the Monster and my husband’s aunt suggested I join a specific Sonic forum to post it in. So I joined the Amino and posted it, all nervous. The reception blew me away, and I met some awesome people, so I stuck around.

9. What are the best things about your current fandom?

The friends I’ve made.

10.  Is there a fandom you read fic from but don’t write in?

Probably. Can’t think of any off the top of my head.

Ship Questions for your Current Fandom

11. Who is your current OTP?

Shadow/Rouge. Also Infinite/Amy. This is because of my current writing projects.

12. Who is your current OT3?

None.

13. Any NoTPs?

We’ve been over this *looks up*

14. Go on, who are your BroTPs?

Sonic/Tails =3

15. Is there an obscure ship which you love?

Infinite/Amy. I didn’t initially.  But if it’s done right, and there are reasons for them to be together in that setting, then it works. 

16. Are their any popular ships in your fandom which you dislike?

Sonic/Shadow, Infinite/Gadget

I’m also not a fan of most Pokemon anime ships.

17. Who was your first OTP and are they still your favourite?

Knuckles/Amy. I still have a soft spot for it.

18. What ship have you written the most about?

Amy/Espio. I went through a phase... Read a couple of ‘fics and thought ‘Why not? Sounds like fun.’ XD

19. Is there a ship which you wished you could get behind, but you just don’t feel them?

Not really. As much as I like shipping, because I’m a fluff-junkie, I have to just like it.

20. Any ships which you surprised yourself by liking?

Again. Inf/Amy. This one took me by surprise.

Author Questions

21. What was the first fanfic you ever wrote?

Erm... if I remember right, Some cringy self-insert Pokemon ‘fic when I was like 14/15.

22. Is there anything you regret writing?

Everything I regret writing has been deleted.

23. Name a fic you’ve written that you’re especially fond of & explain why you like it.

The End and Mask Behind the Monster. I can’t choose one over the other. They were both written with a lot of meaning and emotion behind them, and I have a soft spot for both.

24. What fic do you desperately need to rewrite or edit?

I keep thinking about re-writing The End, but I worry it will lose its fire if I do...

25. What’s your most popular fanfic?

I think... THINK... it’s Mask Behind the Monster.

26. How do you come up with your fanfic titles?

To Title is hard. System:Reboot was a suggestion off a friend who I have lost touch with. Its working title is ‘Hacked’. A lot of my stories have preliminary working titles until I come up with something. The End was named after a song. Confectionary Conundrum was originally called ‘Sugar Snow’ which is the name of the sweet shop in that story. The Mainframe Saga’s Scrivener file is still called ‘Datastream’. Its separate books have been renamed as I’ve been ‘planning’ them out (as much as I plan).

27. What do you hate more: Coming up with titles or writing summaries?

Probably summaries, because FFNet leaves very little space to do so.

28. If someone were to draw a piece of fanart for your story, which story would it be and what would the picture be of?

I have actually had fanart, so this is hard to say. A lot of people like drawing my cyberpunk Infinite redesign which has surprised me.

29. Do you have a beta reader? Why/Why not?

My husband proof-reads my stuff, and then I question him on it. I don’t have a beta. I’ve thought about it, but I stick to a strict time-frame when it comes to uploads where I strictly give myself very little leniency. So if it wasn’t beta’d in time, I’d get a little frustrated and I do not like to pester people. I also worry I’ll be told to edit and cut a LOT, and I don’t like to butcher my ‘fics. I do that enough while I’m writing 8D

30. What inspires you to write?

My faith. That is a BIG one. You will find references and metaphors to my faith throughout my stories. Particularly in The End and The Mask Behind the Monster. Music is another huge inspiration drive. I’ve come up with entire scenes and even plots or sub-plots listening to music. I was just on a walk listening to some cyberpunk tracks when I got the spark for The Mainframe Saga.

31. What’s the nicest thing someone has ever said about your writing?

Oh boy. Where do I start? I think I was especially moved when someone told me they read The Mask Behind the Monster to their sisters.

32. Do you listen to music when you write or does music inspire you? If so, which band or genre of music does it for you?

Yes. A lot. I listen to a variety of stuff from Christian rock and EDM to cyberpunk instrumental tracks. Main bands are Thousand Foot Krutch, Family Force Five, Cruxshadows, Holon, Misanthropix, Scandroid and Celldweller.

33. Do you write oneshots, multi-chapter fics or huuuuuge epics?

It really varies. I lean towards epics. Even Glitched ended up being longer than planned, if memory serves, although it’s not epic length. The Mainframe Saga is made up of chaptered ‘fics, ficlets and one-shots.

34. What’s the word count on your longest fic?

I couldn’t tell you, because Scrivener crashes when I try to get the word count for System:Reboot XD

35. Do you write drabbles? If so, what do you normally write them about?

I don’t, but I have thought about it.

36. What’s your favourite genre to write?

Sci-Fi. Hands down.

37. First person or third person - what do you write in and why?

I prefer third person, particularly restricted third person, because it is easier to write about different characters. That way the reader knows what’s going on when the main cast do not. I was very surprised I enjoyed writing first person so much in Mask Behind the Monster, though. But I did leap into third person a couple of times to give a wider perspective.

38. Do you use established canon characters or do you create OCs?

I love creating OCs. But I will use canon characters in the Sonic fandom.

39. What is you greatest strength as a writer?

From what I’ve been told, character development.

40. What do you struggle the most with in your writing?

Violence. And tragic back stories. I have legit questioned my sanity when coming up with scenes that include this.

Also... when I write fluff... I kind of grind to a halt and struggle through it. Often interspersed with gazing from the window and thinking well further ahead than where I’m currently at. This often results in forgetting dialogue I think up during my garden gazing.

Fanfiction Questions

41. List and link to 5 fanfics you are currently reading:

I won’t post links because it is much too fiddly. But Guiding Light by Ambyssin, Heart Song by Suetonicsonic, Fall From Power by Lordius Dannius.

Hands of Creation by Namohysip, and The Curious and the Shiny by Nebula Dreams. Both of which I seriously need to pick up again.

I believe you can find all of them on FFNet.

42. List and link to 5 fanfiction authors who are amazing:

Same applies as above. Ambyssin, Suetonicsonic, Namohysip, Chibi Pika and Nebula Dreams.

43. Is there anyone in your fandom who really inspires you?

Ambyssin has provided some amazing constructive criticism on System:Reboot which has resulted in me making a terrifying antagonist out of Gadget the Wolf. I strongly hope no other antagonists will develop what I have nicknamed ‘Socket Syndrome’. His drive and commitment to his writing has been pretty inspirational, too.

But in all fairness, I think most, if not all, of my writing friends have been inspirational and very supportive. I offer digital high-fives to each and every one of you.

44. What ship do you feel needs more attention?

I can’t think of any. People should write what they like. And I believe if you want to read it, and it doesn’t exist, then you should write it yourself if you can.

45. What is your all time favourite fanfic?

Guiding Light by Ambyssin. It’s not often I fall in love with a fanfic.

Fall From Power by Lordius Dannius is another.

46. If someone was to read one of your fanfics, which fic would you recommend to them and why?

The End or The Mask Behind the Monster, because they’re pretty special to me.

47. Archive Of Our Own, Fanfiction.net or Tumblr - where do you prefer to post and why?

FFNet. I’ve been posting there for years. I’m iffy on AO3. I’ve considered posting to Tumblr, but my solution to that is to post links and artwork instead.

48. Do you leave reviews when you read fanfiction? Why/Why not?

If I feel I have something to say, I’ll post a review. I like to make sure I do so, though, and I have been known to make notes on my computer and post reviews in bulk to works posted on Serebii.

49. Do you care if people comment/reblog your writing? Why/why not?

I love comments, and I will try to respond to each one. Reblogs are totally welcome!

50. How did you get into reading and/or writing fanfiction?

I’ve been writing for many, many years. Since before I was ten years old. Pokemon likely got me into fanfiction. I can’t remember writing it for anything else prior to that cringy ‘fic I mentioned earlier (which we will never, ever talk about. Ever.)

51. Rant or Gush about one thing you love or hate in the world of fanfiction! Go!

I love the creativity behind it, especially OCs. Pokemon OCs are my favourites, particularly in PMD or Pokecentric settings. Both Sonic and Pokemon offer a lot of inspiration to create OCs as the worlds are both pretty vast. AUs and canon settings both offer massive scope for creativity. It’s seeing peoples’ headcanons and takes on the franchises that I really enjoy. Yes, I do like shipping, but a story does NOT need it to be a good story. It’s the way people tell it that matters more to me.

I know this says ‘one thing’. But I just want to make it clear, the one part of fanfiction I don’t like, is M-rated stuff. And I will not read it. It... bugs me when a ‘fic I’ve been enjoying suddenly changes its rating XD

(I do not own any of the fandoms or characters mentioned in this post) <- Nervous Nelly moment?

[mydarlingklaus]

Unexpected Bliss

A cute quick thing I wrote for the upcoming 5x11 episode of TO. There’s no direct KC, yet, but still KC and a teenage Hope is in it so don’t complain (: 

Happy reading!

Klaus turned and was immediately star struck as his older sister walked towards him in her wedding dress with flowers in hand. With not much prep time after Freya’s surprise proposal to Keelin Rebekah managed to find, well compel, the couple the perfect outdoor venue not too far from the plantation the family resided in New Orleans. The youngest Mikaelson sister planned practically everything, from colors to seating arraignments, though of course the happy couple had the last word. It was a simple and intimate gathering with the Mikaelson family and some members of Keelin’s wolf pack in attendance. The hybrid genuinely grinned looking at his sister in her white bohemian styled dress, appearing more beautiful than ever with a shy smile on her face. 

“You can stop looking like a proud dad any time now.” Freya teased now standing in front of him. “How about a proud brother instead?” Klaus smirked. “You look beautiful Freya.” Kissing her cheek. “Thank you. You look very handsome.” She complimented his simple all black tux. “I’m still in disbelief that this is happening. I’m really getting married.” Her cheeks reddened and she could feel the tears building in her eyes for the thousandth time that day, determined to ruin her makeup. Rebekah would never forgive her. Klaus’s lip curved into a gentle smile at her overwhelmed state full of bliss and happiness, finally. “You deserve it.” He genuinely declared. She smiled wide, blinking away her tears. “Thank you and also for agreeing to walk me down the aisle. I love Kol and Elijah but this just felt right. Somehow me and you ended up being the closest, who would’ve predicted that?” He softly laughed. “It was nothing, I assure you. I was honored when you asked.” Freya exhaled into a smile. “You’ve sacrificed a lot for this family, for me. A debt that I will never be able to repay.” “Klaus...” He put his hand up. “I’m serious. Everything you’ve done for Hope: being by her side when I couldn’t, practically helping Hayley raise her and being the support system she needed through this tragic transition in her life...” Their family was still coping with the loss of Hayley 2 months ago. Klaus hadn’t stopped feeling guilty or helpless trying to be there for his daughter and Elijah. It took awhile for them all to realize they needed to move forward, no matter how difficult it became and they managed to do so, together. He sighed before continuing. “This has been difficult for all of us, and I don’t know if we would’ve had the strength to suppress it all without you.” She sniffled tightening her hold on the flowers. “Keelin’s good, you two are good together. You deserve to be happy, one of us needs to be.” Klaus half joked. Freya sympathetically smiled at her younger brother who appeared more somber than he probably wanted to express. She pressed her lips together and sniffed her tears back. “That means a great deal coming from you. We’ve been through a lot, you and I. Our relationship did not start off great.” “Understatement.” Klaus corrected with a teasing smirk making them both softly laugh. Now they could laugh at the bad memories from their first encounters. Neither accepting nor trusting one another as family and even wanting each other dead; typical Mikaelson fashion. Yet here they are now, standing together with happy tears and smiles as Klaus prepared to walk her down the aisle for her wedding. It was surreal. “Yeah well we overcame it, we Mikaelsons always do.” Freya claimed, holding more meaning behind it than let on. Klaus simply nodded. “Our family has been through a lot, especially recently. If anything all the tragedy our family has endured only made me realize more than ever how short life truly is, even as an immortal you can agree with me on that.” He silently agreed. “It’s too short to feel like you’re in it alone or holding back from what you really want, and you’re not alone Klaus no matter how much you wish you were.” She sassed. He smirked. “What makes you think I don’t have everything I want? My entire family is finally back together, that’s all I’ve ever wanted for centuries.” “True, but I know you.” She answered. Klaus flinched when Freya grabbed his hand in hers. Affection still a foreign concept for him. She continued. “While family is very important you also need more, you should want more. I know you don’t believe it but you deserve happiness too Klaus.” His jaw tightened. “Our family is an extremely loyal one and I love that but, the short time I’ve been apart of it I’ve seen how easy it is for us to be selfish with each other. Wanting more for ourselves outside of family isn’t going to break us.” Freya began. Klaus furrowed his eyebrows. “We’ve created this notion that if we’re not shackled to each other for life we’ll fall apart not, realizing the negative effects it actually has on our family. We stop each other from being happy and then resent each other after.” “Freya-“ “I will always believe in ‘always and forever’ but family is supposed to be unconditional love, not forced. We can live separate lives and still be as close as ever, we might even be closer being apart.” She happily suggested. “It’s a cycle that’s been around for a thousand years and needs to finally come to an end. I almost lost Keelin for good over it and I don’t want that to happen to any of us again.” Freya claimed. Klaus’s jaw clenched and unclenched. He knew everything she was saying was true, if Rebekah and Elijah lecturing him for over the centuries wasn’t proof enough. “Why are you telling me all this now?” He asked. She laugh-cried. “Because I’m getting married and preparing to start a new life outside of my siblings for the first time in over a decade. I’m happy, really happy. I just want you to know that you need to start looking out for yourself too.” “I don’t need any help in that department, love.” Klaus smugly claimed. Freya rolled her eyes. “Uh huh, well you’ve come a long way since when we first met and even more before that. I’m not the only one who’s noticed, everyone has, especially a certain Mystic Falls headmistress...” She said with a teasing grin. His smirk dropped and a  blush of red instantly rushed to his face at the mention of the baby vampire in Mystic Falls, who he hasn’t seen or spoken to since she was last in New Orleans. The last time Klaus and Caroline were together was 2 months ago when they went on a brief, yet effective, road trip to track down a runaway Hope. Just the few hours being together Klaus was reminded of how much he genuinely missed her. Unfortunately, with everything happening lately with his family, there never seemed like a right time for Klaus to reach out to her. He didn’t even know what to say after receiving her more than generous letter following Hayley’s death. Not that she’s been far from his mind, but he definitely didn’t want to talk about it with one of his sisters. “Freya.” He warned. ���Hey, you can’t get mad at the bride on her wedding day.” She smiled with a raised brow. Klaus glared which only amused Freya more. “I met your mysterious ‘friend’ when I visited Hope at school and was well informed your colorful history together.” She said suggestively. His blush grew and he dropped his hand from her hold. “I’m not discussing this with you.” Klaus claimed crossing his arms over his chest. Freya couldn’t help but laugh at Klaus’s embarrassment, like a teenage boy with a crush. “You can be in denial all you want. I just wanted to say she’s nice, pretty and definitely seems like she can handle you.” He subtly grinned knowing she definitely could. “Not to mention your daughter adores her like crazy and Hayley trusted her as well.” - So do I. Klaus wanted to add. Freya stepped closer to Klaus and smiled. “Look I might not know the extent of your story with Caroline and I might not know her as well as everyone else, but she seems like a good person and good for you. You guys have been in each others lives for a long time and she obviously cares about you...you care about her too.” - I more than care about her. His thoughts never ending. It still boggled his mind that Caroline Forbes, the baby vampire who unintentionally stole his undead heart over a decade ago and swore wanted nothing to do with him, cared about him as much as he did her. Klaus frustratingly sighed. “Fine yes I care about her, deeply. What’s your point?” The witch scoffed. “My point is that I want you to be happy and I think Caroline makes you happy, if that blush on your face isn’t proof enough.” He tried, and failed, to hide his small smile. There has been an obvious change in their dynamic since being in Mystic Falls together all those years ago. Caroline was more comfortable and unashamed of her feelings for him now, which was refreshing as much as scary. They hadn’t discussed much where their relationship would go now since re-entering each other’s lives, and frankly Klaus wasn’t sure he wanted to know. If anything, all these years constantly entering and exiting each others lives only proved to him how much they weren’t meant to be. Talking about it only made him dread. He nervously licked his lips, staring down at his feet. “If only it was that simple.” “Why can’t it be?” Freya shrugged. Klaus quickly stared up at his older sister. “You care about her, she cares about you and you both keep coming back in each other’s lives for a reason. Don’t you think you owe it to yourself to see where it could go? Stop making excuses and just go for it!” She persisted. He use to fantasize the possibilities of what could happen if Caroline finally gave him a chance. Yes, he promised to wait for her forever but the fact it might happen sooner than he thought was terrifying. No, no it could never happen. Not even now. The hybrid gulped. “I cant go back to Mystic Falls. I made her a promise-“ “Forget the promise! You’re acting worse than a child!” She joked. The corner of his lips twitched up. “Love, this is your wedding day. Shouldn’t you be focused on your love life instead of mine?” Her teeth scraped over her bottom lip. “Yes, it is my wedding day yet here I am focusing on you instead of the insane butterflies in my stomach ready to burst thinking about walking down that aisle towards the woman I love in a few minutes. I’m doing this because I care about you and love you.” Klaus stiffened but soon relaxed when Freya leaned in to give him a much needed reassuring hug. He awkwardly wrapped his arms around her tight making the witch smile. “Please be happy.” She whispered in his ear before kissing him lightly on his scruffy cheek and pulling away. “Don’t pretend that you aren’t dying to see her either.” Klaus simply rolled his eyes. - If only you knew. Anything Klaus was preparing to say was halted by his 15 year old daughter storming through the doors. The witch and hybrid both stared at the young girl confusingly as she stumbled in closing the doors behind her and approaching the two. “Hey! Sorry for the abrupt entrance but- oh my god, you look so beautiful Auntie Freya.” Hope happily complimented. “Thanks Hope.” Klaus stepped towards his daughter. “Sweetheart what are you doing back here? You’re supposed to keep the guests occupied till we come out.” “I know, I know. Uncle Elijah wanted me to inform you that we’re a little delayed because we only had enough chairs for 20 people and a special guest decided to show up last minute so Marcel had to go find another chair for her-“ “Special guest?” Freya asked. “Her?” Klaus asked at the same time. The younger witch pressed her lips together nervously, trying to avoid her father’s gaze and quickly looked over at her gorgeous auntie. “Did I mention how amazing you look Auntie Freya!” The girl nervously praised. Klaus took another step forward, towering over his daughter when he took in her sudden anxious behavior. “Hope...” She cautiously looked up at him. “Mhmm?” “Might I ask, who this special guest is?” Klaus asked. Hope shrugged. “Just a last minute rsvp.” She confirmed with a nervous smile. “Hope.” He challenged. She gulped, looking between the siblings with fidgety fingers. It’s not that she tried keeping this a secret, well at least till Klaus saw for himself anyway. Sighing in defeat, the young Mikaelson looked up at Klaus. “Fine, I invited her as my plus one but Auntie Freya said I could invite anyone I wanted-“ “Who, Hope?” He pressured. Sighing again, she grabbed his hand and walked him over to the back door. “Maybe you should see for yourself.” She warned Klaus’s eyes lowered as Hope opened the door enough to where it wouldn’t alarm the guests but Klaus would still be able to look through. He poked his head in to see all the guests in their respectable seats. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary until he spotted, her. The hybrid’s heart sank into his throat, stomach in knots and hands felt clammy when he immediately saw who was sitting in the front second row. Her recognizable bouncy blonde curls swung side to side as she looked around, flashing that signature pageant smile at the random guests introducing themselves to her and those wandering blue eyes he always drowned in. - I’m hallucinating. There’s no way she’s here. Klaus thought to himself. Blinking a few times to confirm this was real, that she was really here. The longer he stared the more real it became and anxious he felt.   His breath caught in his throat as he slowly turned his head to glare at his sneaky daughter. “Surprise?” Hope whispered with a nervous smile.

Please leave reviews on the attached link (:

[charlottedabookworm]

Time is cruel but Gods are crueller Part 3

hamelin-born said:                                                                                                                            *sobs endlessly* So /beautiful/. I really love how they look at one another and just /know/ and - yeah. Well. 

Glaive Ulric’s background and personnel file have suddenly gained the /undivided/ attention of the Citadel 

And the fragments the listeners catch from listening Very Hard Indeed to their reunion paint a - tragic picture. “I thought you were dead” “I thought YOU were dead!” “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry -” “The Old Man told me that He cursed your line, I should have KNOWN- ”/I’ll kill Him/“ 

@hamelin-born  

:D I’m glad that you liked it! And yeah, I just loved the idea of them looking at each other and just knowing. 

Nyx’s file is pored over, but there's nothing really to find. Nyx is 2000 years old but Galahd kept him pretty well hidden and it wasn’t hard to fake a file when you have an entire people willing to lie and say that you were born here and then and related to this person and that one. It lists his age, which is fake af but says that he joined at 18 and is around 32 now. It says that he has a deceased mother and sister - which is technically true, but the ones that are listed as dying during the Nif attack on Galahd were technically the King and her Heir, both of whom Nyx had semi-adopted, and not the mother who died when he was a child and the older half-sister that died in a hunt when he was 30. There's no father listed at all - but that’s pretty normal for Galahdians - and honestly, they can’t find any Nif connections and the file seems real and they don’t understand this.

And, from an outside perspective, their conversation is a heartbreaking reunion of a family split apart and broken by people who they trusted. They’re very careful not to mention any names during the conversation - mostly because they don’t want to summon anyone and centuries of paranoia don’t disappear in seconds.

Have 1000 words of said conversation from Ardyns POV below the cut

"Nyx. Oh, my son. I am so sorry." It was little more than a whisper, murmured directly into his child's hair.

 Ardyns' son was buried in his arms, his whole body shaking and his head pressed into his neck, seeking comfort in a way that he hadn't since he was a small boy fresh from a nightmare. Comfort that Ardyn honestly needed just as much as Nyx did. His son had been cursed, cursed and then alone for two thousand years - and Ardyn hadn't known. He hadn't known that his son was alive, never in all of his years had he felt as much a failure as a father than now.

 "I thought you were dead! But the time I got to Galahd, they'd already announced your execution. I thought that uncle had killed you." His heart broke a little more, unable to help picturing the boy he had sent away arriving home to the news of his death at the hands of a man that Nyx had trusted. At the mention of his brother his rage flared, and Ardyn tightened his grip on his son.

 "I had thought you dead as well. My brother told me that there had been an accident, that you had died not long after we separated. Believe me, if I had known you alive - no force on this world would have stopped me from finding you."

 "I know. I know dad. But, fuck. I am so sorry."

 He closed his eyes and shook his head, unable to even imagine what Nyx could be apologising for, but feeling the apology like one would a stab to the heart. Nyx shouldn't be apologising. Not after Ardyn had gotten him cursed with Immortality. He hated the fact that Nyx felt the need to apologise - that his son would ever have a reason to say anything in such a broken tone of voice.

 "No Nyx. You have nothing to apologise for-"

 "Yes, I do! I left you-" And he couldn't let that stand. Nyx had always had a difficult time accepting that he was not to blame for events, but the responsibility for this lay solely on Ardyn's shoulders.

 "I ordered you to leave me. And if you had not then you most certainly would have died." So he couldn't regret it - could never regret putting his sons' life first, no matter the consequences.

 "But I should have known that you were alive."

 "You couldn't have known, Nyx-"

 "I should have. The Old Man told me. When I discovered the curse the Old Man told me that He had cursed 'the Line of Ardyn'. I didn't even think about why he didn't just say that He had cursed me, didn't even think about what that might have meant for you-"

 Ardyn cursed Ramuh as much as he thanked him. Nyx was one of his chosen, so of course the Astral would protect him and try to tell him - but Ardyn knew from experience that gods were fickle. And Nyx didn't need that guilt, no matter that the Old Man was trying to help.

 "Nyx. My son. You thought me dead and buried long before you discovered the curse, you had grieved my loss and accepted my fate - why would you have thought of me? You were a child."

 His anger was starting to build once again, the scourge in his blood rising with it, at the thought of his son being cursed because of Ardyn's sins - because of his blood in Nyx's veins. They had no right...

 Nyx grumbled, irritated. "I was twenty." He had to fight a laugh, though the retort amused him as much as it saddened him. His son at 20 had still been a child, still an innocent in so many ways. And, while the retort showed that at least some of the boy Nyx had been remained, the betrayals and everything that had happened afterwards had hardened him - turning him from a happy boy who did his best to help everyone and always had a smile into a paranoid man who was rare to laugh and gave his trust to few.

 "You were a child, Nyx. An innocent. You had committed no crimes, nor been charged with any wrongs. They had no right to do what They have, no right to judge you based on my sins. I am so sorry for what I have caused you to suffer."

 Because this was his fault. Bahamut held a large portion of the blame, as did Somnus, but the largest portion came to rest on Ardyn. Ardyn who chose to fight his destiny instead of dying for it, who had brought the wrath of the Astrals down on the two of them.

 "Father, no. You did nothing wrong. Not wanting to die for His plans, trying to find another way - that's all part of being human and you didn't deserve to be judged for it, not then or now. And I don't regret standing with you, nor do I regret sharing this curse - not when it means that I can see you again, after all of this time. I- I hope that you don't either."

 He swallowed back his grief at the fact that his son would even ask him that. "Oh, my son. I do not regret any of our time together, not in the past nor now. But I will kill Him for this. He had no right to do this to you, no right to curse an innocent for the sins of the father, and I will see him pay for it."

 "Father. Please. I can't lose you again."

 "I swear to you, my son, that you will not. Nevertheless, I cannot - will not - leave this transgression unpunished. Not when He will use it against the both of us. It may not be immediately, but I will make him pay."

 Nyx pressed himself closer, and Ardyn knew that - while he understood - he wasn't happy. But he had to do this - because he loved his son and he would never be safe as long as Bahamut lived.

 "I understand Father."

[theblankgarden]

Dear Frances,

Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted (1892) centres on the eponymous heroine, Iola Leroy, the daughter of a white slave owner and one of his slaves. When the novel opens, we are at some point during the American Civil War, and a group of slaves meet in secret to discuss the Union army’s progress. Forbidden to congregate, they hold clandestine prayer meetings in the woods. They are talking in code about the war, so as to hide their knowledge from their white owners. Most of them desert their owners and join the Union army, and one of them informs the Union commander of a young woman who is being held as slave in their vicinity. Her name is Iola Leroy, and they decide to rescue her.

The story then jumps back to the years prior to the war, and we follow Iola’s story. Her father, Eugene Leroy, was a wealthy slaveowner who had survived a serious illness through the care of one of his slaves, Marie, who was one-quarter black. He fell in love with her, set Marie free, sent her to a northern school, then married her and had three white children.

Eugene decides to raise Iola, Harry, and Gracie as white, to protect them from prejudice. They were educated in the North and their black ancestry was hidden from them. While at school, Iola even professes a pro-slavery stance. However, when Eugene suddenly dies of yellow fever, his cousin, Alfred Lorraine, decides to make use of legal loopholes to overtake Leroy’s property. Lorraine goes to court to declare Marie’s manumission illegal and her marriage is then annulled. She and her three children revert to slavery and are separated and sold away by Lorraine, who becomes the heir of Eugene’s fortune.

The plot shifts back to the war, when Iola has been rescued from slavery and becomes a nurse in a military hospital. She then receives a marriage proposal from a white medical doctor, Dr. Gresham, who initially professes to be against miscegenation. Upon knowing about Iola’s black ancestry, he asks her to hide it from others and to pass as white. The novel explores her struggle with the question on whether or not she should pass as white and hide her ancestry, so as to make her life easier and take advantage of opportunities for assimilation into white society.

This is a topic that would be explored many times later in literature, such as in Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral by Jessie Redmon Fauset (1928) and Passing by Nella Larsen (1929), and you take a clear stance on it: embracing black identity is a more fulfilling experience for the characters, even if it means that they will have to confront racism to find a job or a house. Further, you make clear that, by asking Iola to ‘pass as white’, Gresham is not only exercising a (not so) subtle form of oppression, but also romanticizing her past as a slave as well as fashioning his role as some kind of ‘white saviour’.

You explore not only the personal but also the political implications of ‘passing’, and, such as in Harriet Wilson’s  Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black (1859), you also dismantle the conflation of skin colour, social class, civil rights, and morality, as well as criticize the racism of northern white Americans who were used to think of themselves as ‘more enlightened’ as their southern counterparts.

As Iola sets out to find her mother and bring her family together, she strives to improve the conditions of black people. Caught in the intersection of racial and gender oppression, she struggles to assert her professional independence as a woman during the post-war Reconstruction period.

Such as in Geraldine Jewsbury’s The Half-Sisters (1848), you explore the idea that the fact that a woman has a career does not endanger her womanhood, but rather enhances her roles as wife and mother and contributes to a better family life, as a source of self-respect. Further, you seem to equate enforced domesticity with moral corruption. “”Uncle Robert,” said Iola, after she had been North several weeks, “I have a theory that every woman ought to know how to earn her own living. (…) I think that every woman should have some skill or art which would insure her at least a comfortable support. I believe there would be less unhappy marriages if labor were more honored among women.””

Through conversations between the characters, you incorporate discussions (and speeches) on religion, racism, the rise of violence against black people, temperance (the discussion on the damaging effects of alcohol, as part of a larger discussion on male violence against women), women’s rights, assimilation, education, moral progress, and the movement for equal rights for black people. “”Slavery,” said Mrs. Leroy, “is dead, but the spirit which animated it still lives; and I think that a reckless disregard for human life is more the outgrowth of slavery than any actual hatred of the negro. “The problem of the nation,” continued Dr. Gresham, “is not what men will do with the negro, but what will they do with the reckless, lawless white men who murder, lynch and burn their fellow-citizens”.”

The novel incorporates genres such as slave narrative, sentimental novel, historical fiction, social protest, and the coming of age narrative, as well as political and social commentary. I particularly liked the use flashbacks and dialect throughout the novel, and the fact that its main political ideas are incorporated through conversations conveyed in dialect, providing not only a black perspective but a black voice. You seem to link the topics of how slavery fractures the family unit and how racism fractures one’s notion of identity – particularly racial identity, as in the case of ‘passing’. “I ain’t got nothing ‘gainst my ole Miss, except she sold my mother from me. And a boy ain’t nothin’ without his mother. I forgive her, but I never forget her, and never expect to. But if she were the best woman on earth I would rather have my freedom than belong to her.”

The subtitle of the novel – “(…) or, Shadows Uplifted” – seems to suggest racial and civil empowerment, as well as the release from the shadows of war and slavery. “The shadows have been lifted from all their lives; and peace, like bright dew, has descended upon their paths. Blessed themselves, their lives are a blessing to others”.  It also hints at religious enlightenment and salvation, at the uplifting of the afflicted, as you explore the moral contradiction of slavery and Christianity: “But, Mr. Bascom,” Harry said, “I do not understand this. It says my mother and father were legally married. How could her marriage be set aside and her children robbed of their inheritance? This is not a heathen country. I hardly think barbarians would have done any worse; yet this is called a Christian country.” “Christian in name,” answered the principal”. Finally, the subtitle also points to the lifting of the “veil of concealment” represented by the act of ‘passing’, and to a defence of the assertion of black heritage and black identity.

Iola Leroy resists the literary convention of the “tragic mulatta” and its conflation with the “fallen woman” trope to evoke sympathy in a white reading audience: your book does not portray miscegenation as a catalyst to a female character’s demise, and you refuse to use Iola to placate white readers. She is her own woman.

Iola will eventually choose her black heritage, and you frame this choice as one of truth and moral fortitude over (white) appearance and shallowness. Some have read this framing as a conservative choice in its disavowal of passing (which they read as a disavowal of miscegenation and equality); to me, however, particularly in the context in which you were writing, your framing reveals ‘passing’ as a subtle form of oppression and the need of assimilation into white society as a conservative stance.

The highlight of the book for me is the fact that it encompasses a variety of black experience, from slaves to freed blacks to mixed-race characters to black intellectuals and the black upper class: it is a jam session of black voices, with an underlying, radical beat of resistance and hope.

Yours truly,

J.

‘Head of Mrs Eaton (Fanny Eaton)’ by Joanna Boyce Wells (1861)

“Miss Leroy, out of the race must come its own thinkers and writers. Authors belonging to the white race have written good racial books, for which I am deeply grateful, but it seems to be almost impossible for a white man to put himself completely in our place. No man can feel the iron which enters another man’s soul.” – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Iola Leroy: Shadows Uplifted

*

Now, Captain, that’s the kind of religion that I want. Not that kind which could ride to church on Sundays, and talk so solemn with the minister about heaven and good things, then come home and light down on the servants like a thousand of bricks. I have no use for it. I don’t believe in it. I never did and I never will. If any man wants to save my soul he ain’t got to beat my body. That ain’t the kind of religion I’m looking for. I ain’t got a bit of use for it. Now, Captain, ain’t I right?” – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Iola Leroy: Shadows Uplifted

*

“Miss Iola, I think that you brood too much over the condition of our people.” “Perhaps I do,” she replied, “but they never burn a man in the South that they do not kindle a fire around my soul.” – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Iola Leroy: Shadows Uplifted

*

One day a gentleman came to the school and wished to address the children. Iola suspended the regular order of the school, and the gentleman essayed to talk to them on the achievements of the white race, such as building steamboats and carrying on business. Finally, he asked how they did it? “They’ve got money,” chorused the children. “But how did they get it?” “They took it from us,” chimed the youngsters. Iola smiled, and the gentleman was nonplussed; but he could not deny that one of the powers of knowledge is the power of the strong to oppress the weak. – Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Iola Leroy: Shadows Uplifted

About the book

 Broadview Press, 2018, 352 p. Goodreads

Penguin Classics, 2010, 256 p. Goodreads

Beacon Press, 1999, 320 p. Goodreads

First published in 1892

My rating: 3,5 stars

Projects: The Classics Club; A Century of Books; Back to the Classics, hosted by Karen

My thoughts on Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted (1892), by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper #readwoman #readsoullit #zoracanon Dear Frances, Iola Leroy; or, Shadows Uplifted (1892) centres on the eponymous heroine, Iola Leroy, the daughter of a white slave owner and one of his slaves.

[kaispen]

Fresh Start, BFFs, the Lunar New Year 2018, My Fourth Take on Meet Me in St. Gallen

February 17, 2018

I’ve found myself smiling more often these days.

It must be from clarifying my principles these days, solidifying the lodestar that leads me to my new life, my fresh start.

I spent the Lunar New Year satisfyingly.

First, I had lunch with a friend, E, who, in the course of our friendship (of more than ten years), had risen to a high-ranking position in the four-thousand student strong university he has worked in for the past twenty years. His salary grade had risen four fold, his influence larger. But he wants to go back to his passion, where the real action is: classroom teaching.

In mid-afternoon, I went uptown to meet a friend whose niece was engaged in a Virtual Assistant online job. Two months from now, I will have been on leave, but will still need to earn a living. F, the niece, accommodated my request. After years, my mind finally accommodated the process of an SEO’s job. Just as we finished, BFF joined me in my friend’s house.

My friend’s elder sister, the lady of the house, held us captive by her animated, passionate storytelling of the mishaps of house construction in an upscale subdivision – the one we were visiting: the price padding of the engineer (a cousin whom she helped finish college), the deplorable paint job, the substandard water closets and lavatories (which looked as large as those in local ship cabins). She reenacted her rage in stage play proportions, it was hard not to follow. If it hadn’t been for the mommy duties of bff, we would have stayed till God knows what time.

At sundown, my best friend dropped me off at the uptown mall where I had my progressive eyeglasses checked. After ten months, my glasses had scratches on its surface, so I asked what my next best option was. Separate reading and distance glasses. Reading glasses were the priority. She had frames on sale, Php900 frame + lens. I told her I’d come back. At the ground floor, I found myself reading glasses worth Php300 and brought those home.

After I checked on my son, my friend, L, and I decided at the spur of the moment to hang out. Movie or whatever. Sin Island, I said. She’d wanted to watch Fifty Shades of Grey to which I was averse. Sin Island has better reviews. It has sex, but the movie sounds more intelligent than the dumbing damning Fifty Shades. In the end, we ended up at the hotel with our friends who had gotten married three days before. We had a riot recalling our maddening party days – how my marriage ended with that famous scuffle at the bar wherein my best friends had their starring roles. L’s crazy seven years with her unfaithful husband. Our bride friend relived her escapades which her husband listened to bemusedly. I had just learned that night that the bride and L had the craziest times (before bff and I joined their group).

A story: So L, and the newly wed bride, R, and their other friend, M, were regulars at the happening club in the early 2000’s. They were popular chicks who didn’t go to clubs to snag guys, but simply to drink and get drunk. They were natural partygoer magnets whose table was always a bus stop of hi’s, hello’s from acquaintances and admirers. One time, a younger guy they named D, a cousin of yet another friend, swung by their table. R & M were busy drinking and eating crispy pata while L just drank and ended up chatting with the new guy, D. Before everyone even knew it, L bit D in the chest! Bewildered, flattered and physically in pain, D showed his bruised chest where L had bit him to R & M.

The next week at ladies’ night, L, M, and R were at the same club again. Shortly after they’d settled down to their table to get drunk, D arrived with his basketball posse. D told his team that the hot girl who had given him his battle scar was sure to be in that place. Boy, was she ready to hump, he told his team smugly.

“So where’s the hot girl who’s so onto you?” asked the leader of their team, a tall, imposing man who was eyeing the area. “Over their, boss,” said D, pointing to my friends’ table.

“Fuck, that’s my sister!”

We all bawled over with laughter!

Yesterday was a refreshingly fun day.

Today was better.

My day started going to bff’s office to accompany her to the hospital, hoping to get her eyes checked by a glaucoma specialist.

While waiting for her to finish a conference with her client, I browsed some business starter articles.

I glowed when she and her client emerged into the receiving area. It turned out she was talking to my high school crush, now an aging heartthrob whose career as a playboy has seen better days.

“That voice!” I gushed when he’d gone out. “My goodness, the original Jerry Yan has aged well!”

At two hospitals, the doctors were not in. We went off to have lunch of greens and fish along the main thoroughfare of our city. Our conversation revolved around my immediate plans while going to one specific topic to another, but always back to my plans.

It felt good talking to a friend who didn’t need much explanation over where I have been in life. And even better that she was supportive without being patronizing. Bff has hardly been patronizing.

“Remember when you already had your son, but I was still single and free? That time when you said I could do anything I wanted? It’s you who’s at that place right now. Fresh start. And I am excited for you.”

Fresh start, she wrote on the restaurant’s place mat using her Pilot Prera Fountain Pen.

In mid afternoon, I introduced her to the blind masseuse I went to for a head and shoulder massage. She had wanted to have a massage the day before, but her husband invited her to go shopping on the mall wide sale. Her headache worried her. I told her to have her eyes checked, thus the decision to go doctor-hunting this morning. But since there were no doctors, she had an almost satisfying appointment with the masseuse. It would have been perfect if not for the lack of minutes or the comfort of her bed at home.

But the day was hardly over.

After I’d dropped by to check on my son, bff and I resumed our day.

Because her husband was going to sleep over at the province, she decided to watch Meet Me in St Gallen with me (my fourth viewing).

I went along with her as she finished her Saturday tasks of closing up her law office for the weekend, releasing the payroll to the men who were working on their house construction (this is why my friend’s sister the day before was even more relevant, because bff and husband were having theirs built, too), and then off to the movies. Along the way, we chatted about many things: her marriage, business, our insecurities, people we knew, loved, hated, our children, our escapades in the past.

“This is a good movie to watch if we were in our twenties,” bff said on the first episode of the movie. “Yeah,” I replied, “this is for people who haven’t tasted the bitterness of heartbreak.”

“Sometimes, he’s gwapo,” she’d say of Carlo Aquino, the leading man, “sometimes, so-so.” “To me, he is sooo gwapo,” I whispered my declaration.

On the second episode, she said, “Celeste is to me, as J is to Jesse.” We squealed quietly as I didn’t see that coming. J is her eternal college crush, Salvador del Mundo’s friend. “My god and my husband is not here tonight!” she fake-grumbled when Jesse pulled Celeste for a kiss.

We would laugh as other viewers would make spot on quips, rude as commenting in movie houses was. Eventually, we subsided into taking in the serious scenes that would tie the movie together.

Towards the end of the movie, after Celeste told Jesse that she had a boyfriend, the two were just walking along the snow covered path, Celeste picked her phone up, and we, the audience were tight chested and in tears, someone from a row above us whispered audibly, “Her boyfriend is dead.” Bff and I stifled our hearty laughs through our heartache and tears.

And then the movie ended.

“Reality kills romance.” That is bff’s famous FB comment concluding what she made up about Sharon and Gabby’s small screen McDo ad, that part 2 of the real/reel life lovers reunion would be computing the latter’s arrears in child support for their daughter KC.

Trust and thank bff for taking us for a smooth landing from Cloud 9.

This is the context to which I analyzed Meet Me in St. Gallen with bff.

It is sheer poetry, the movie, I maintained. It is unrealistic, said bff. Because no one would pull off what Celeste did to Jesse in their first meeting. Yes, it was sassy, I agreed, and people like my younger self, would have wanted to emulate. “You’re a stalker!” But reality is, no self-respecting guy would pursue such a cuckoo, if cute, but cuckoo nonetheless approach from a girl. And in real life, the girl, too, would have had other recourses if she did suspect that the guy was a stalker.

But they were in their early twenties and they were in a film. So, yup, it worked out.

Next, we both agreed that we had grown old and crossed over to the dark side, not agreeing to Celeste and Jesse’s decision of sharing that night four years later. Yes, it happens in real life on a regular basis, but no, we didn’t agree that they had to do it.

Besides, Celeste was too good to be true, holding her sassy tongue when “Mahal’s” name blinked while Jesse’s phone rang. In reality, we would have given Jesse a piece of our mind the morning after. And yes, Celeste would have been capable of that, given her cheeky nature.

But the film showed sheer poetry in the wordless minutes when beautiful body language and eye contact danced to the languid melody of “The Morning After”. Celeste is the humanized ideal version of ourselves. The tragic heroine who cried in silence as her torn lover left her to face the aftermath of that morning after.

Indeed, Celeste made Jesse her ideal man. It is hard to marry the ideal man lest he fall short of her expectations. The farting, the bad odors, irritating habits and unforgivable quirks. Reality kills romance. “Good thing I have low expectations of my husband,” bff declared. “Yes, because either you discard the situation or find a way to live with yourself and him,” I added. “This is why I’m single and ‘Because This is My First Life’ is such a good series.”

“But still, that guy above us wanted to kill Celeste’s boyfriend,” we burst out laughing. “I still want them to end up together,” I’m not sure if I said that aloud of just thought about it (why do you think I watched it a fourth time?).

“As much as critics compare it to the ‘Before’ trilogy, in my opinion, St. Gallen is incomparable. I found the intellectual talk in the ‘Before’ trilogy contrived. Here in St. Gallen, the movie spoke to the audience about things that matter – “

“Yes, it has layers, it has depth.”

“Indeed! It talks about life, about love. About things that matter to people. Destiny, choices,”

“And they are so beautiful, the two of them. And Carlo Aquino looks like J.”

“I want to make an oeuvre as beautiful and magical as that.”

“Make a book out of the love letters sent to you.”

Our conversation turned to Amy Tan’s books. We would have talked into the night if bff’s babies weren’t waiting. It was time to call it a night at nine p.m.

After a lighthearted chat with my son, I said a thanksgiving rosary for the wonderful lunar new year. Fresh start. I’m feeling hopeful.

My lodestar verbalized, on the way to being solidified. I’ll write that in another post, I hope.

I had to write these events down before my bedtime shower. Good night.

[dailyaudiobible]

12/13/2017 DAB Transcript

Obadiah 1-21, Revelations 4:1-11, Psalms 132:1-18, Proverbs 29:24-25

Today is the 13th day of December. Welcome to the Daily Audio Bible. I’m Brian. It's good to be here with you today. And that from the Old Testament today, we will read in its entirety, the book of Obadiah before moving onto the next step forward in the book of Revelation.

Obadiah:

The book of Obadiah has but 21 versus, making it the shortest book in the Old Testament. And, yet, it deals with a very long-running family issue. Contained in this one chapter is a prophecy of the complete destruction and doom of the Edomites. And if we look back on the beginning of our adventure through the Bible, we’ll remember the story of Jacob and Esau. And Jacob's descendants became the children of Israel. Right? Jacob's name was changed to Israel. He had kids. They were children. The children of Israel. Esau's descendants became the Edomites. And they were often in conflict. When God delivered the children of Israel from slavery and bondage in Egypt, the Edomites wouldn't allow them to pass through their land on the way to their promise land. And at other points in history, when Israel was being attacked and overrun, the Edomites stood by silent just watching it all go down. And God reached the end of his patience. And, through the prophet Obadiah, predicts destruction. We have good application for this today too, for although we've been redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and have been made children of God, therefore making us all family, all too often we see brothers and sisters at war with one another. We’re standing by silently as brothers and sisters are destroyed before our eyes, often on the Internet. And perhaps they're getting what they deserve in our judgment. The book of Obadiah shows us a very clear picture of how God feels about this. And, so, we begin Obadiah chapter 1 verses 1 through 21.

Commentary:

Okay. So, we need to talk about this proverb for a second because Proverbs 29:25 is worth committing to memory, is worth carrying around with you, is worth having at your fingertips. Because heeding it can change the path that your life is on. It can change the trajectory of where you're going. It can shift your orientation to what you think is going on around you, inside of you. Because, for the most part, as a culture, as a people, even as believers in Jesus, we don't heed this proverb's wisdom. And when we look starkly at what not paying attention to what this proverb is saying is doing to us, it becomes pretty clear how profoundly this is affecting us. And the proverb says, ‘the fear of man is a snare, but the one who trusts in the Lord is protected.’ Now this word fear, as it's translated into English here, is a word that means trembling, anxiety, care, dread, as well as fear. And we all seem to carry that as sort of like a base layer of a motion somewhere down inside of us, this anxiety that's just always on the alert. And its deep within us. It touches our identity. Our fears can speak that deeply. And then to gauge how anxious we should be in a situation, we begin the comparison game. How I am I doing compared to him or her or them? And then it feeds into all of this anxiety. And because it's uncomfortable or painful, it feels true, and it shifts our identity and value of ourselves, and it becomes for us exactly what the Scriptures say, a snare, a trap. And all we have to do is kind of look back over the last 24 hours. Look at our interactions and find the point at which anxiety was rising up in us, fear was coming up inside of us, and for the most part we’ll find that there attached to a fear of man, fear of others in some way. And so, we’re being counseled from thousands of years ago that this is a trap. It's exposing where our trust truly lies. And as the proverb goes on, ‘the one who trusts in the Lord is protected.’ So, when our identity is rooted in the trust of the Lord, that's a totally different outcome than when our identity is rooted in the fear of man. And if we’ll just go through the next 24 hours, watching ourselves when we were feeling anxious, when fear seems to be overwhelming us, we can detach from that for a second just to observe - where did this come from, why is this happening, how can I follow the trail back - and we’ll find where our fears lie, and we’ll find that we’re not trusting the Lord in it.

Prayer:

Father, we take this counsel, we heed it, it's true, and it certainly can change things. So, we begin to observe ourselves and invite Your Holy Spirit to show us how so many of our fears are connected and are trapping us, are snaring us, because we’re ultimately afraid of each other or in competition with one another, rather than resting in the fact that we are Your children and You’re protecting us, and that we can, should, must trust You. Come Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Announcements:

dailyaudiobible.com is the website. It’s home base. It’s where you find out what's going on around here.

A few things are going on around here. Today is about the last day to call in your holiday greetings for the annual Daily Audio Bible family Christmas that we do each year, our kind of virtual Christmas party that we have together. So, definitely, definitely don't delay anymore. If you're planning on participating, all you have to do is call one of the prayer lines. So, for example, here in United States, 877-942-4253 is the number to call. And, like I’ve been saying, the only rule about this is just don't combine a holiday greeting and a prayer request in the same call. If you have a prayer request, certainly, certainly call that in, but if you also have a holiday greeting, call that in separate. And we’re going to get to work on putting our Christmas party together. So, don't delay anymore. If you want to be involved, call that in.

The Daily Audio Bible Christmas Boxes are going fast, as they do. We still have some available. If you're in the United States and you want to get the Daily Bible Christmas Box in time for Christmas, because it is full of things that you'll…some things you’ll want for yourself and some things you'll want to give away…if you want that to arrive in time…then Monday December 18th is, kind of the cutoff date for that. You can certainly order after that and we will certainly ship, but it's kind of…we’re looking at the delivery schedules and…thinking that's about where we’re getting close. So, keep that in mind.

Early registration for the More Gathering for women is open right now. And early registration pricing will last until the end of the year. This makes a wonderful gift idea. So, take advantage of that. And all the details about the more gathering can be found at moregathering.com or in the Initiatives section at dailyaudiobible.com. All of your questions and the details that you would want to know about it are there.

If you want to partner with the Daily Audio Bible as we approach the end of the year then, thank you humbly and profoundly, like every day, with a heart full of gratefulness that this community exists and that the global fire burns on, and that we keep taking steps forward together. Thank you for making that possible. So, there’s a link on the homepage at dailyaudiobible.com. If you prefer, the mailing address is PO Box 1996 Spring Hill Tennessee 37174.

And as always if you have a prayer request or comment or holiday greeting, at the moment, 877-942-4253 is the number to dial.

And that's it for today. I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer Requests and Praise Reports:

Good morning Daily Audio Bible community. This is Diane O. B. in Newburg Indiana calling. And this is a prayer call and a praise report. And first of all, I want to say I am praying for this lady in California that is studying for her board exams, that had some really tragic things happen to her because her parents wanted a boy rather than a girl. I’ve been praying for you honey, every single day, and the Lord has been giving me a heart to pray for you and I believe you have the mind of Christ and you do think the thoughts of Christ. And when you take these board exams, I believe you are doing them at the end of December, you are going to pass with flying colors. And I thank You Lord for granting this wish and desire and prayer of mine. I’m going to be praying for you every day, that you have peace and no anxiety. And I’m praying for all of the others in the community. I thank you for hearing my prayer requests and lightening my load. And I just want to say do not be discouraged do not be disheartened. God loves you and He’s with you. He made you and He will take you back to heaven with Him if you have invited Him into your heart. So, God bless everybody and that’s what I wanted to say. Amen. 

Hi DAB family. This is Marked as His. I’m calling from Balsam Lake Wisconsin. I haven’t called in probably over 4 months now but I hope you all are doing well. Two praise reports. My mom, who was diagnosed with breast cancer around Easter time just successfully finished up both chemo and radiation and her prognosis looks great. So, that’s awesome, and thanks. We did get all off our corn harvest in on time and our soy bean harvest. So, thank you again for that. Right now, I am struggling with feeling very overwhelmed and attacked by anxiety and self-doubt. My cousin, who abused me as a child is getting married. And I feel very betrayed because getting married is something that I’ve always wanted and I feel like God is playing a huge joke on me, giving that gift to my cousin first. And I know I’m supposed to trust in God’s wisdom and His sense of timing but right now it is really hard. It seems like I’m getting the raw end of the deal again. So, I hope all is well with you. And thank you so much for being a family to me too. I’m so glad I turned here than other really bad coping mechanisms, that they soon pass. So, anyhow. Thank you all. Bye.

Good morning my DAB friends. It’s Margo from Australia. We have this morning had a bit of a miracle and I thought I would love to share it with you guys and you could share our joy and excitement. I’ll have to talk quick though. Some of you may remember, my husband and I are applying to join the mission aviation fellowship and as part of that my husband had to pass a class on medical for his pilot’s license. And he’s been having a bit of trouble with his blood pressure. His diastolic blood pressure needs to be under 90 and he’s been up to the doctor multiple times getting it checked and just can’t seem to get that number below 90 despite the fact that he’s quite slim and quite fit and healthy. It’s just some unfortunate reason. And he’s also been getting quite bad headaches. So, this morning he woke up with a really bad headache and we thought perhaps it might be associated with the blood pressure. So, we went up to our local pharmacy to get it checked and the diastolic blood pressure was 97, which is upsetting. But, just after that the doctor phoned and said, you have to come up today and get that blood pressure checked. It’s the last day we can do it for your pilot medical. So, we thought, oh no, we already know it’s really bad, this does not look good. So, we just straight away prayed, asking the Lord for a miracle and he went off to the doctor and guess what the number was? It was 85 and he even checked it twice. And we just praise in God because He is a God who works miracles. I can’t actually remember the last time his diastolic blood pressure was that low. It truly is a miracle and He is a God who answers prayer. And just Glory to God. He loves us. I hope that encourages you as it’s encouraged us. Bye for now.

Hi Joyce in California. Hey, this is mom Annette in Oklahoma City. And little sister, little girl, I wanted to wish you the most happiest of birthdays on December 20th and I wanted to call you and sing [singing] Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Our beautiful DAB daughter, Happy birthday to you. [singing stops]. You know, we can’t always pick the families that we’re born with but we can pick the families that we surround ourselves with. And, I’ll tell you, I know around my job, I've made many daughters and sons and I would wish nothing more than to have you be my honorary daughter. And I wish you the best. I wish you the success that you are looking for. I pray that your studies go well and your examinations are exemplary, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Joyce, I love you and I'm giving you a great big hug, all the way from Oklahoma City. Have a beautiful birthday December 20th, a day we will honor from now on.

[austindailyglobe-blog]

Nun Says She's Left With Nothing After Legal Fight With Katy Perry

Struggling with ill-health, including breast cancer, Sister Rita Callanan looks into her pantry for scraps of food and sees, yet again, only cereal.

Her bank balance is zero, her healthcare cheque has bounced on more than one occasion and she’s not sure who’s going to foot the bill for her next round of cancer treatment.

Now 80 years old, she scratches her head in bemusement as to how this has all happened. A few years ago, she had hundreds of thousands in the bank and was a paper millionaire.

As one of the few remaining sisters alive, who belong to the historic Order of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Los Angeles, her future was secure. Their historic convent sits in the uber-trendy Los Angeles suburb of Los Feliz and is today worth in excess of £10 million.

Sister Rita Callanan has been at the center of a legal dispute involving pop star Katy Perry

That is until Katy Perry came along. The 32-year-old singer tried to buy it without the nuns’ permission. She agreed to a deal with the Royal Catholic Archbishop of Los Angeles (RCA), headed by Archbishop Jose Gomez, who claims the convent is under its ownership and sold it to Perry for £10 million in July 2015.

Katy Perry wants to purchase a historic convent in Los Angeles worth £10m (pictured), which is owned by historic Order of the Immaculate Heart of the Blessed Virgin Mary

The convent (pictured) sits in the uber-trendy Los Angeles suburb of Los Feliz and is today worth in excess of £10 million. The order of nuns say they have owned it for 45 years

Pop star Perry agreed to a deal in 2015 to buy the convent with the Royal Catholic Archbishop of LA, headed by Archbishop Jose Gomez, who claims the convent is under its ownership

But Sister Callanan (pictured) and her fellow Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, 89, had claimed that it’s been the Order’s property for 45 years and it’s their right to sell it and nobody else’s

Pop singer Katy Perry agreed on a deal in 2015 with the archbishop to buy the convent for £10m

But two nuns took exception to this. Sister Callanan and her fellow Sister Catherine Rose Holzman, 89 – a combined age of 169 years – claimed that it’s been the Order’s property for 45 years and it’s their right to sell it. They found a buyer in property developer Dana Hollister.

On Friday, in the latest round of the epic court battle, Sister Holzmann tragically collapsed and died in the Los Angeles courtroom. Now only Sister Callanan remains in the fight against Perry and the RCA. Sister Callanan has vowed to keep on fighting and asked the public to help the cause, setting up a GoFundMe page to help with their legal costs.

She says: ‘On March 9th, 2018 we tragically lost Sister Catherine Rose, my beloved fellow IHM Sister and original organizer of this GoFundMe campaign. She was my cherished partner in this ongoing legal battle to keep our convent. It is now more important than ever to continue this fight and for our cause to prevail.’

Independent of who is right or wrong, amid such a complex legal battle, there’s the human cost. Sister Callanan is suffering from cancer and diabetes while multi-millionaire Perry told the nuns that she wants the stunning 22,000ft Mediterranean-inspired property so that she can ‘sip green tea and find herself’.

Our exclusive images show why the stunning property – which was designed in an Italianate and Mediterranean style and has a monastery, fountains, a pool, and stunning views over the San Gabriel Mountains – is at the heart of such a fierce battle.

The house was built in 1927 for a broadcaster and entrepreneur Earle Anthony, who enlisted the help of architect Bernard Maybeck. After being purchased by Sir Daniel Donohue and his wife Countess Bernardine Murphy Donohue in the early 1950s, they virtually gave it away to the sisters, who pooled their money together, and paid £431,000 in 1972 and paid it off over three years.

Sister Callanan says: ‘All we are asking is to sell our own property, keep our own money so we can take care of ourselves until the last person dies, then the money and property can go to the archbishop. There are not many more years, give me a break. He’s supposed to be a chief shepherd.

In 2005, Archbishop was supposedly given the go-ahead by the Vatican to take control of the convent although this point is now being disputed. A ‘pontifical commissary’ was put in place – like a conservator of the estate – who assumes responsibility for the sisters.

But Sister Callanan says: ‘He claimed that Rome gave him permission, now we did a lot of research and Rome has done research, and these claims, this letter to give him authority was not from Rome, but a friend of the archbishop’s.

According to Sister Callanan, he started ‘sending us to retirement homes, one by one, separately, so we weren’t a unit.’ She says all their bank accounts were closed – they each had upwards of £215,000 in their accounts.

‘All these years of my religious life, I would never have expected to be fighting an archbishop to keep our own property and money, so we can care for ourselves. We don’t want the archbishop handling our money.

Sister Callanan is now at a tiny convent attached to St Bernadette’s Catholic Church in Los Angeles; the convent is a depressing building, grey and cold, not even a hundredth of the size of their spiritual home.

The house at the center of the dispute was built in 1927 for a broadcaster and entrepreneur Earle Anthony, who enlisted the help of architect Bernard Maybeck

The sprawling convent was purchased by Sir Daniel Donohue and his wife Countess Bernardine Murphy Donohue in the early 1950s where they lived there until the early 1970s

The Donohues virtually gave the property (pictured) away to the sisters, who pooled their money together, and paid £431,000 in 1972 and paid it off over three years

Katy Perry has been embroiled in a legal battle with the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary since early 2015 over their former convent

She lives frugally and can’t buy expensive groceries, as she now has to rely on a stipend – a regular sum of expenses – from the RCA, which she says is barely enough to survive and was reduced this month. She says the archdiocese refuses to pay any of their legal bills.

‘The archdiocese pays my rent and bills where I am – £358 for rent and £179 for a housekeeper – but the rest comes out of my stipend, which they’ve reduced by £538 a month,’ she explains.

‘My health insurance has only been partly paid recently – I got cancellation notice from health insurance, as they didn’t pay the bill, so I had to borrow money from a friend as I didn’t want it canceled. I was two months in arrears. They better pay it back to me.

‘I have health issues, I have diabetes and breast cancer. They don’t pay some of the bills on time, I said when it comes to this sort of insurance, you have to pay it. I don’t know if I’m covered, I’m supposed to be, that’s all I know. Sister Catherine Rose had an unpaid medicine bill for £500 then she made out a check to the pharmacy and it bounced. It’s horrible.

‘He is claiming he’s taking care of us, that’s not true. We send bills up there and they don’t get paid. I get my stipend, but it’s not leaving me enough for living expenses for the way the cost of living has risen groceries.

‘I pay automobile costs, supermarket fees, magazine subscriptions, and also running a house isn’t cheap. I’ve got family members who are very sick, close family members have died including my own sister, there are so many things, it’s just punishment.

Sister Rose Catherine Holzman, 86, (left) and Sister Rita Callanan, 78, (right) were locked in a battle over who has the right to sell the historic convent where they once lived. Sister Holzman collapsed and died in court last Friday after telling the star to back off leaving Sister Callanan

The Sisters said they had found a buyer in Dana Hollister. Hollister filed for bankruptcy and list’s Perry’s company – The Bird’s Nest, LLC, as one of her creditors to whom she owes £3.73m

Sister Callanan says that she found out about the sale of the convent to Perry by the archbishop though a friend, and claims the archbishop did this without consulting the sisters

‘I was yelling and reporting it to Rome, they have now sent a check so I have money for groceries. Everything they don’t pay for us, it goes right to the Pope. The Vatican is well aware of what this man is doing.

‘It’s caused us so much duress. I had to go for a chest X-ray as I thought I had pneumonia. I wanted to turn my back, but I couldn’t. I’ve been the one leading the charge, I couldn’t leave this. Does it affect my health? Yes, it does. My doctor knows what this man [the archbishop] is doing, she’s a Catholic, but she’s not practicing because of this man. I ask God: ‘What’s going on?’ ‘Course it makes you question your faith. But I’ve got to believe. I have to say: ‘Lord increase my faith.’

Sister Callanan says that she found out about the Perry sale through a realtor friend, and claims the archbishop did this without consulting the sisters.

‘I had a real estate package a friend had given me, showing that this archbishop had everything settled to sell to Katy Perry. I told him that I know she has a license to be able to throw parties until 1 is, have x amount of people over, he tried to tell me it was just ‘exploratory’, I said: ‘This is not exploratory, I am not stupid.’ They call it machismo,’ says the sister.

In the archdiocese’s defense, it states that the main concern ‘is and has always been the care and well-being of all the IHM Sisters.’ Three of the five sisters who are alive have sided with the archdiocese although Sister Callanan says this is because they’re all older than her and blindly believe ‘whatever the archbishop tells them,’ before adding: ‘One of the sisters is on morphine twice a day, you’re telling me she can make decisions? No, she cannot. I’m also the youngest at 79.’

Ultimately, Sister Callanan says she will have to accept the decision, whichever way it turns out, although other nuns in the US are looking on at this unique case. She thinks this is a test case which means that, if they lose, any archdiocese could stake a claim for ownership of convents in its area.

‘It’s been a horrible fight for women who have been in religious life for so long who have done so much for our archdiocese. It was our property, we had the deed, he said he had the authority and had a letter from Rome from his friend that wasn’t even recorded. It was a lie,’ she says.

‘We just want to sell our own property. We live a very simple life. Catherine Rose is in St John of God Gard Retirement Home in LA, the others are at Nazareth House [an assisted living convent].

‘If he can take our money, so can any archbishop or cardinal anywhere, the other sisters are watching us. Instead of standing up with us and fighting, they’re hiding their money, pretending they haven’t got any, as they don’t want this to happen to them.

‘They say watch your back, but you go on and live your life.’

If you know someone who might like this, please click “Share!”

Nun Says She’s Left With Nothing After Legal Fight With Katy Perry was originally published on Austin Daily Globe