karadin reblogged
Grass sliding (滑草) in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia
I have friends at Indiana University and they've been saying there are snipers on IU Bloomington campus. And theres a bunch of cops everywhere. This is wild.
What is happening in usa university is very good to us and showing the world that's there no freedom if anything against Israel in this world
well, this reminds me of the lyrics of 'Ohio' about the shootings at Kent State of student protestors by the National Guard, the leadership now were the students then, it's full circle now.
Tin soldiers and Nixon coming We're finally on our own This summer I hear the drumming Four dead in Ohio
Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down Should have been gone long ago What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground How can you run when you know?
Liu Xueyi as Xie Yuchen, The Lost Tomb 2
karadin reblogged
Anonymous asked:
are there notable differences between traditional Chinese and Japanese fox spirit masks? There is that problem on the internet that usually gives results for Japanese objects when you search for Chinese items or books. I also wanted to ask if this also happens with the paintings between the Chinese and Japanese spirit foxes (because normally they both have the color white and red when they are drawn). That's why I wanted to ask if there are different elements between the two.
I will start by saying I'm not very well-versed in Japanese fox legends nor art history.
However, as far as I know, fox masks are an entirely Japanese thing that seem to have originated from Inari worship + Noh theatre. Neither Chinese opera nor surviving Nuo masks use that sort of design.
I asked my friend @ruibaozha if there were any examples of facepaints unique to fox characters in opera, and he genuinely could not think of one: even Su Daji was just portrayed as a beautiful woman, as shown in this 1928 photo:
Our souvenir stores do pick up the trend, though, and you could see people selling that sort of masks around popular tourist attractions, which just speaks to the widespread commodification of kitsune masks, I guess.
As for paintings...I know even less about that. Apart from Han dynasty tomb paintings, all I could think of are these goofy illustrations from old prints of Book of Mountains and Seas.
karadin reblogged
We lost something as a culture when computers stopped screaming in agony as you connected them to the internet.
You would not have survived the dark ages. A webring would spell great peril. There was no search. And the dark things lurked out in the open in those days.
The computer screamed because it knew.
if it didn't torture a landline phone for the duration of the process, was it really internet?
My dad hit me with the info that there was an option to turn it off... the sound... the whole time. But he didn't want to tell me. Or to stop me from the, presumably character building, ritual of struggling to smother it to death with a pillow at 12:30am so I could be on the Forbidden Web and not wake my parents.
time for one of my favorite tweets
Wang Yibo for Formed Police Unit Roadshow at China People’s Police University 4.25.2024
wang yibo as yang zhen ( formed police unit 2024 ) 🤍
karadin reblogged
Eowyn and Gothic Horror
I've ranted about the interpretation that Eowyn's rejection of gender roles was a symptom of her sickness, caused only by Grima's manipulations. An interpretation that doesn't hold to either Gandalf's speech in the Houses of Healing, when he specifies how the liberties denied to Eowyn and allowed to Eomer and her male peers played a crucial role in her depression, or when we see how Eowyn was really vindicated in her decision to ride to battle by her victory over the Witch King. A victory that wins her incredible renown and respect.
I think this reading comes about because people see the significance of Grima's contribution to Eowyn's despair, and think he is the sole source of it.
But Eowyn was not dissatisfied with her role and her enforced position in the house because of Grima's manipulations. She didn't rail against sexism because Grima played with her head and "poisoned" her traditionally feminine role for her.
Grima was able to prey on Eowyn, manipulate her and drive her to despair, because of the sexism that forced Eowyn to remain stuck in the house.
Look at the speech Gandalf gives Eomer about Eowyn's sufferings. The very first thing he mentions is the fact that Eowyn was denied the freedoms and opportunities Eomer had. The suffering that follows stems from that first initial injustice.
Because of that first injustice, Eowyn was rendered vulnerable, and Grima was able to exploit that. That isolation, that limited freedom, that unhappiness about her lack of choices, left her free game for Grima to take an already bad situation, and make it far worse.
Thinking about Eowyn's experience in Meduseld, what the impact of being confined to the domestic sphere did to her, and what is left her vulnerable to, makes me think of Gothic horror, and the role of sexism and domesticity in that genre too.
Eowyn's situation before the novels is that of a classic Gothic heroine. A fair, beautiful woman, trapped inside a decaying house, and preyed on by an awful monster, who hungers after her beauty and longs to possess her. Or else, destroy her.
Domestic settings and isolation are pretty crucial themes in the gothic genre, and for that reason it has historically been seen as a woman's genre. It taps into a pretty universal fear of what happens when home ceases to be a safe space, a fear that historically, has a particularly great resonance for women.
Whereas traditionally home is a refuge and respite for men from the world, the home is the woman's only true acceptable sphere. And yet even there she is subordinate. Therefore, she is vulnerable. With no place in the outside world, she has no escape, no respite, no refuge. If home becomes an evil, she is trapped. And because she has no place in the social sphere, she has no voice either. She is invisible, she is overlooked, her sufferings and her contributions are passed over,
Eowyn is isolated. Eowyn is vulnerable. Eowyn is overlooked. And because Eowyn is isolated and vulnerable and overlooked, Grima is able to get his hooks into her and drive her to despair. She is a wild animal, trammelled and caught in a hutch, a predator's helpless prey. But Grima didn't put Eowyn in the hutch. Eowyn was already there. Grima just took advantage of that.
Even after Grima is gone, Meduseld is still a place Eowyn longs to escape, and while its evil is purged and she does return, it is only for a short while. Grima's defeat is not enough to make Meduseld a place where Eowyn can find real happiness or fulfilment. On its own, it still represents a role for Eowyn that she wishes to move beyond.
The healing counterpoint to Eowyn's gothic castle of horrors, the hutch she was caught in, is in escape, and in a return to nature.
Eowyn's entire romance with Faramir takes place within the gardens of the Houses of Healing, where we see Eowyn start to recover from her ordeal. It takes place on the open, in the garden, on the ramparts, with much notice given to the sky and the sun and the elements around them.
(Also, the Houses of Healing themselves are not a domestic setting, but a public one, and there we see women working alongside men and holding authority.)
Eowyn's happy ending, her great escape, climaxes with her decision to go with Faramir to Ithilien.
Ithilien is the exact opposite of a hutch. It's descriptions are filled with natural imagery, and is known as the Garden of Gondor. It is a place for growth and fresh starts. A place of freedom. A place for a wild thing.
When Faramir suggests that he and Eowyn live in Ithilien, he reasserts again and again that they will go there if it is Eowyn's will. Both Tolkien and Faramir put emphasis on the importance of Eowyn's will, and Eowyn's right to freedom of movement.
In his plans for their future, Faramir talks of "us" and "we", removing the separation between men (belonging to the social sphere) and women (belonging to the domestic), and speaks of Ithilien as a shared dwelling place for both of them. Faramir only distinguishes between himself and Eowyn when he puts importance on Eowyn's will, and at the end, on Eowyn's influence.
At the close of his speech, Faramir says all things will grow with joy in Ithilien, if Eowyn is there. Returning Ithilien to its former glory, allowing it to bloom once more, is to become Faramir's life's work, and still it is Eowyn's influence he puts centre stage. Far from being kept confined to the domestic sphere, relegated to being Faramir's home support while he dominates the rehabilitation of Ithilien, Faramir places Eowyn's work and Eowyn's significance at the heart of their future together.
Eowyn goes from being shut in the house, where everything around her was decaying and falling to ruin, to being freed to stand in the heart of nature, where there is a chance for influence, growth, and fresh starts.
260424 Latest TGCF Cornetto Ad | 天官赐福 x 可爱多
There's always someone who thinks the GIFs I make of these ads are fan-edited SO HERE IT IS IN FULL CLIP GLORY
which is definitely not an omen
This is where Brexit Britain has gotten us. Can't even have a proper apocalypse now.
update, team of the Household Calvary were exercising the horses when a construction crew dropped cement from a height and the startled horses (7) started running, 3 of the riders were thrown off. Of the horses who bolted, two (shown) were injured by running directly into traffic where the white horse hit a stationary bus, shattering the glass, the other horse struck a cab. Four bystanders including someone on a bicycle were injured. All riders, horses and bystanders are recovering, the two injured horses were taken into surgery. Note, when horses are running in fright you cannot get in front of them, the safest route is to follow until they run themselves out. 150 Household Calvary horses are exercised in the Capitol daily, to accustom them to city noise and traffic for parades, but incidents may happen. The last incident of injury to HC was in 1982 when an IRA bomb killed 4 riders and 7 horses.
Trump goes before US Supreme Court to state that it would be legal for him to -
as President use the US military to kill a political rival
as President order the military to stage a coup
it is UNPRECEDENTED for a US President to have blanket immunity from any and all crimes in and out of office,
All of the lower courts have slammed down this defense
however, the US Supreme court, packed by Trump to be extremely conservative and including two judges who are underqualified (to the extreme) and did not pass the standards of the American Bar Association, has not only decided to take the case, but to WAIT as long as possible before hearing it, and will most likely pass the case back down to the lower court, all to give their benefactor Trump the ability to hold off his Jan 6th case until after the US election in November.
Justice Thomas, under a cloud for taking bribes has stated that 'all Presidents are criminal'
but during the case, the conservative judges Would Not Address The Issue of The Case (Trump driving an insurrection to stop the certification of the last election)
If Trump does become President again, he will erase all federal cases against him, this is why he is running, to try to avoid prison and penalties.
karadin reblogged
Can I be controversial for one sec
I do enjoy when fictional gay people are tormented by their sexualities and have internalized homophobia and are violent about it both with themselves + with others. I do love to see a bisexual self destructing because they don't accept their feelings. It's cathartic to ME.
but give them a reason other than institutionalized hate, because it hasn't always existed - check your history.
karadin reblogged
That's because this is Silmarillion
karadin reblogged
taking your own advice is so hard. it’s “make bad art” this and “kill your perfectionism” that until i sit down with an idea i like. the i have to execute it perfectly Or Else
karadin reblogged
Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 重啟之極海聽雷/Reunion: The Sound of the Providence/The Lost Tomb Reboot/this thing has too many names
Reunion (I'm just going to call it that) is a 2020 action drama about the most specialest little babygirl in the tomb-raiding world, his two husbands, and the cadre of assorted weirdos they pick up as they try to follow a set of directions left by a dead (?) man in the thunder.
Imagine if someone showed you the Mandalorian, and you were like, gee, that was a neat little sci-fi one-shot! because you'd never heard of Star Wars. That was basically my experience watching this show, having no idea that the Lost Tomb franchise (DMBJ) was even a thing. Turns out that not only is there a whole big continuity out there with these characters, but that Reunion takes place a few years after the main story's resolution. Don't worry, though -- Reunion doesn't spoil you for that resolution. It doesn't spoil you for much, period. Look, DMBJ has a weird relationship to endings, okay?
I have written a more thorough where-to-start guide for DMBJ as a whole, so if you want to consider other entry points, well, that information is there for your consideration. Yet it is my opinion that this is the best entry into the overall franchise, and a fun thing to watch just in general, and I'm here to make my case for both of those.
The rest of this rec will assume that you have no familiarity with the DMBJ series. That's okay; you don't need any. All you need is to trust my five reasons you should watch this.
1. Old Man Yaoi
As you begin this show, you are introduced to the Iron Triangle. That's them in the picture up there. Left to right, you have: Xiao Ge, magically tattooed immortal hottie who just got back from ten years in [scene missing]; Wu Xie, our protagonist, who's just a little guy and it's his birthday; and Wang Pangzi, the literal best.
(And yes, Wu Xie is in his 30s and Pangzi is in his 40s, which is not technically old man anything, but ... look, if you watch, you'll see why I think I'm justified in calling it that.)
They are extremely married. They are a disaster trio of disasters so disastrous that no one else should ever be subjected to their chaos. They're going to make sure lots of people are, though, don't you worry about it. Sometimes those people even deserve it.
However, because the show (tragically!!) decides that Xiao Ge has somewhere else to be like 95% of the runtime, most of the relationship you get to see is between Wu Xie and Pangzi.
I'm saying this now as an old gay nerd who just this year celebrated her 15th wedding anniversary: I have never, never felt so represented in media as I have watching Wu Xie and Pangzi interact. There's a little wake-up song they sing together near the end of the show, and it just ... it packs so much character development into thirty seconds. These boys have been living adjacent lives for so long that they've made up their own little shared songs about the mundanities of daily living. That is just what happens when you marry your best friend and then decide to get old and weird together. Ask me how I know.
Look, if you want to know whether this show is for you or not, watch to the end of the first episode, to the part where Pangzi flips over the table. If your heart is filled with joy (as it should be), keep going.
Love makes a tomb-raiding syndicate family.
karadin reblogged
Shûi Lóng Yín 水龍吟
Xiao ShùnYáo 肖順堯 film wrapping 殺青 VLog.
Bye for now Shên LángHún 沈郎魂! Looking forward to meeting you!
I never thought the most arduous thing about shooting an historical fantasy chinese drama might be the wigs