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mariacallous · 3 months

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Two years have passed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian brutality against Ukrainians has been striking, and the evidence of Russia’s war crimes is mounting as the atrocities continue.

What has become evident is that these war crimes are not aberrations or crimes of omission. They are part and parcel of what Russia is trying to achieve in Ukraine. Testimonies collected by my organization, the Reckoning Project, and by others point to the systematic and deliberate nature of Russia’s crimes.

This makes the pursuit of accountability in Ukraine not only about justice. It is also about denying Russia its objectives and setting a precedent for other states intent on attacking their neighbors. Ensuring accountability and justice in Ukraine will contribute to accountability and justice globally.

Every day, Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General publishes on its website the total number of war crime cases that the office has registered since February 2022. This month, that number passed 125,000. The number—staggering by any account—increases every day, sometimes by the hundreds, and stands for thousands of destroyed lives. Each case is a devastating tragedy in and by itself.

The actual number of war crimes is much higher, as the reported number doesn’t account for most of the crimes committed in the occupied territories, where Ukrainian law enforcement has no access—close to 20 percent of Ukraine. There may be some 3 million Ukrainians still living in these territories. Many residents have fled, but many still remain.

Beyond the scale of the crimes, it’s crucial to understand that the atrocities are integral to Russia’s war aims. Of course, some crimes are the result of a rogue soldier’s actions. But the bulk of crimes stem directly from how and why Russia is waging war against Ukraine. They are a feature, not a bug, of Russia’s war. They are systematic, deliberate, and serve a clear purpose.

Take the missile and drone strikes against civilian critical infrastructure. Last winter, Russia launched a massive air campaign against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, causing nearly irreparable damage to the energy network. The purpose of these attacks was to make Ukraine uninhabitable during the cold winter. This was intended to trigger a new wave of refugees into the European Union with the aim of creating divisions among Europeans and undermining their support for Ukraine.

Today, the barrages of missile and drone attacks against civilian targets—including schools, shopping malls, and apartment blocks—are meant to terrorize the population in order to undermine Ukrainian’s morale and put pressure on the government in Kyiv to capitulate.

Russia’s crimes can also be seen in the liberated territories. The scale and scope of these crimes became evident when Ukrainian forces entered previously occupied towns such as Bucha and Irpin in the early days of the invasion. Mass atrocities were also uncovered in the Kherson and Kharkiv regions after these territories were liberated.

The killing of civilians, torture, and disappearances were part of a deliberate strategy to terrorize the local population and rid the territories of Ukrainian resistance. These crimes were—and are—a deliberate means to subdue and control Ukrainians living under occupation.

When preparing the invasion, Russia developed plans to take over and exercise control over Ukrainian territories. These included filtration camps and death lists of notable activists, journalists, and politicians. Although Russia failed to take Kyiv, these policies are being implemented in the territories it managed to occupy.

As Alice Jill Edwards, the U.N. special rapporteur on torture, wrote in a report in September 2023, Russia’s torture of Ukrainians was “orchestrated as part of a State policy to intimidate, to instil fear, to punish, or to extract information and confessions.”

But these systematic war crimes are not merely about eliminating resistance and subjugating a conquered population to Russian rule. The aim is also to Russify these territories and the Ukrainians living there.

This can be seen in one of the most egregious crimes being committed by Russia: the deportation of Ukrainian children. Kyiv estimates that 20,000 Ukrainian children have been deported to Russia, of which fewer than 400 have been returned to Ukraine. The Reckoning Project and other organizations have documented ample evidence of these deportations.

Ukrainian children are sent to Russia—ostensibly to summer camp—and never returned to their parents. They are taken from orphanages in Ukraine and put in foster homes in Russia. They are separated from their parents in filtration camps. Many of the deported children are adopted by Russians and given Russian identities.

The deportation of children—the war crime on which the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin is based—goes to the heart of Russia’s objectives in Ukraine: to destroy Ukrainian identity, culture, and ultimately the nation.

This can also be seen in the systematic indoctrination and reeducation of Ukrainian children living in the occupied territories. Ukrainian children are effectively taught to abandon their Ukrainian identity and instead become loyal Russian subjects.

It is important to understand what Russian occupation means in Ukraine. It is not merely a question of switching the language from Ukrainian to Russian in schools or Ukrainian flags being replaced by Russian flags. Occupation means oppression, torture, disappearances, indoctrination, and kidnapped children. It means the eradication of one’s culture and identity.

Russia’s actions in the occupied territories demonstrably negate the argument that its invasion was sparked by fears that Ukraine would join NATO and pose a security threat to Russia. The aggression was driven by Putin’s imperial ambition of “gathering the Russian lands” by conquering Ukraine. The country’s possible membership in NATO or the EU was seen as an obstacle to this ambition rather than a security threat.

Moscow’s efforts to Russify Ukraine and Ukrainians are also why the notion of freezing the conflict and accepting Russian control over the occupied territories is unthinkable for most Ukrainians. Two years into the war, their will to fight remains remarkably high. This is because Ukrainians know what occupation means: the destruction of a large part of their nation. Contrary to many Western armchair strategists, they know that occupation is about people—not just about land.

Holding Russia accountable for its crimes in Ukraine matters first and foremost to the victims and their families. It is primarily about ensuring justice for those who have suffered from Russia’s aggression. But it is also about denying Russia its strategic objectives in Ukraine. The pursuit of accountability puts pressure on the perpetrators and can help deter further crimes. It is a way to push back at Russia’s attempt to terrorize the population, dismember the country, and destroy the nation.

The war in Ukraine is also part of Russia’s wider effort to remodel the rules-based international order. Moscow seeks a world where might makes right, where only strong countries are sovereign, and where disregard for the laws of war is the norm. It seeks a world in which Russia can act with impunity in its neighborhood and beyond.

In that way, the war in Ukraine was enabled by the weak international response to Russia’s past wars in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria. Just as impunity in Chechnya, Georgia, and Syria enabled Russian crimes in Ukraine, impunity in Ukraine would enable crimes elsewhere.

That Russia, in particular, is the perpetrator matters. As a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and a nuclear power, it has a direct impact on the fabric of the international system. Accountability in Ukraine will help deter other would-be perpetrators of war crimes, regardless of their international status and standing.

To this end, the arrest warrant against Putin for the deportation of Ukrainian children is particularly powerful. It restricts his ability to engage on the global stage and represent Russia in international relations. The designation as a suspected war criminal will follow him to his grave. Other would-be tyrants are taking note.

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unseisokel · 1 year

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Beginners Guide to Unnämed AKA U-san

Plus a little history on how they are friends with Shoto

Writing this incase any new Guildies come across my fics or fanart without Knowing.

I'll try to source things when possible, but some things are just left to quotes and summaries from U-san's twitter spaces other people made because they themselves don't keep the space up after each one ends.

Some Basic Background Information:

Unnämed, or more commonly called U-san, is a independent, nonbinary Japanese musician and vocalist, you can find their Twitter here

At the time of writing they have released one original song and 3 covers, find them on whatever music service you use through their Tunecore

They hold YouTube streams after the release of every song, typically giving life updates, singing karaoke, and thanking people who support them through super chats or streamlab donations

They sporadically hold random twitter spaces for shorter life updates or just to rant about something, as of writing they never once keep the recordings for these spaces

They had their first stream on December 17, 2022. It was an unarchived acoustic karaoke stream, roughly an hour long, mostly One OK Rock songs, their favorite band.

A Little History:

They would host several twitter spaces in the time leading up their full "return." Artist @/ooukination on twitter has a neat little comic summarizing that time period.

February 5th 2023, they drop their first original song, simply named Summer Song, marking an end to their elusive and silent era, now being more active on Twitter, and not deleting tweets a few minutes after making them.

The Fans and the Fan Culture

We used the nickname U-san to refer to them in the time before they acknowledged it, because they still hadn't decided on a name for themselves, only having "unnamednow" as a twitter handle, so it was a bit of a place holder, but on a twitter space U-san expressed that they found the name cute, and so U-san has endured.

In absence of any word of a return or any real way to reach them, the #dear_u_san was created by fans on twitter wanting to send their words of encouragement and fanart.

Pre-Summer Song depictions of U-san only had their YouTube and Twitter icon to go off of, they overlapped to give us this:

Half of a face and a hand reaching hold out a blue flame. Fanartists of the time would either obscure their top half their face with long bangs, exaggerated shadows covering their eyes, or a cloth/paper over the face (to symbolize their "death" as it were)

U-san has two main variations of how they depict themselves in their MV's, a blue eyed, black haired individual we see in Summer song, and a version with white hair with yellow eyes featured in Shinunoga E-wa, later taking up the entirety of the Tot Musica screentime, and now both of them sharing the spotlight in the most recent release, Kickback.

Before the release of Summer song all we had was U-sans twitter icon which started off with no color but was updated to include some colors, their hair staying white.

The pre Summer Song fanart had almost always had white hair as a result.

But afterwards when we got the "true" U-san appearance with Summer Song, fans were left questioning the significance of this white haired icon that U-san notably kept even when they updated their twitter header to the new Kanishiima illustration. It wouldn't be until Shinunoga E-wa that they changed their icon- using the one shot out of four with their white hair. This pattern of having a white haired icon and the black haired banner keeping true even now.

To draw a distinction between the two, Ooukie proposed the nicknames U-Shiro and U-Kuro, sometimes shortened to just Shiro and Kuro by other u-rei's.

The blue flame was on their original icon(s) was adopted by fans as a sort of mascot, Ooukie to my knowledge being the first to do so here

With nothing but an empty space and a crumb of a self portrait, U-reis started brainstorming (more like trying to make a universe to subsequently justify in universe) why they were absent and illusive, ex. Here, again from Oouki

We kind of didn't have any kind of consensus on a fan name until Ooukie again, supplied us with U-rei, which quickly spread, eventually making its way to U-san acknowledging it on stream, giving their approval on stream

Outside of the usual U-rei depiction of a small blue flame guy, others began to make 'sonas/ oc's to play around with the loose idea of U-san as a character and a type of world they would reside in, which lead to the twitter hashtag #u_rei_sona

U-rei-sona's typically are spirits, mythical beings, ghosts, and any manner of being that can be connected to the idea of death and rebirth, which is what U-san went through sort of in a meta narrative kind of way

He was among the many viewers of U-sans first livestream, the unarchieved karaoke, vague tweeting his thoughts on his main and alt accounts

Shoto and U-san's History

Later during his subathon happening a few days after U-san's stream, he dedicated a song a friend he didn't explicitly name but was certainly alluding to U-san by the way he described this friend and how this song and band was one of their favorites. See full clip here

That was it for a while until Summer Song released, and we (the public) saw them both interacting, sharing their similar struggles with broken eye glasses, their choice in earrings and plenty of private interactions I'm sure, that we aren't privy to

Shoto would invite U-san to accompany him on his Dead Space Remake streams which as of writing of this post, there are two that U-san features in (here and here)

During a bathroom break on the first stream, U-san tells us that he's thankful for Shoto, because they didn't have a lot of people to interact with, watch the full clip

Then finally, recently they met irl during Shoto's vacation to Japan, where they lost an hour of their time to Tokyo station confusion, U-san talks about the experience in their KickBack after party stream and I'm sure Shoto will tell his half of the story when he goes to stream to talk about his vacation

We knew they had met before U-san told the tale on stream because both made voice tweets only a few hours before U-san's Kickback cover was due to release.

.....and that's about it yeah! This is just a starter guide, I didn't even get into the theories surrounding U-san's music vids the possible lore implications if they're all connected, how U-san dodges questions about their hair color changing and the imagery of drowning they used-

There's a lot to be had here, and U-san's career is just getting started! They have told us time and time again that our donations and support are going directly to fund future projects, so there are surely more great things in store for us.

If you have read this far uhhh thank you? If you found this helpful be sure to share it to spread the U-san agenda.

#unnämed #u san #dear u san #vtubers #shxtou #shoto vtuber #indie music #en vtuber

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kaddyssammlung · 4 months

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Take Me Back To Eden-

transcript from the Revolver mag Special Edition

I don't own any of this!

In the cold, slow-moving early days of January 2023, something incredible happened, with

no warning. Sleep Token unleashed a new song upon the world that was, at the time, their

most jaw-dropping offering to date. Chokehold begins omniously with a scratching, grinding buzz and Vessel sings declaratively “When we were made, it was no accident, We were tangled up like branches in a flood”. The soft trill of a piano comes in, the suspense builds and then one of the most dramatic riffs the band have committed to record crashes down.It's just the first twist in a dynamic single full of them.

Chokehold struck a crowd with fans and landed Sleep Token cosigns from some unlikely voices. Lorna Shore, frontman and deathcore YouTube star Will Ramos covered the song and then dissected Vessel's vocal technique with a panel of experts. On the Charismatic Voice YouTube channel. Even Wilder was when American Idol star Chris Daughtry surprised a crowd at London's Royal Albert Hall with a dusky acoustic performance of the single. Yet the most remarkable thing about Chokehold is that, for all the fervor it steered, the song Sleep Token released just 24 hours later had even more profound impact on their career. On January 6th, the day after Chokehold's release, the band dropped a second 2023 single called The Summoning. If Chokehold started a fire, this new song poured kerosene on it. A near 7-minute masterpiece, The Summoning took Sleep Token genre blending approach to new extremes, spanning the divide between death metal-esque savagery and slutty funk. Not only did it work socially, but it somehow made beautiful sense conceptually. The song quickly went viral on TikTok, partly because of the stunning contrast between the styles it plays with and also due to its esoterically charged lyrics. Sleep Token had hinted at lustful thoughts in the past, but The Summoning was easily the most overtly sexual song to date. At this point, over half a decade into their career, Sleep Token were hardly unknowns, and the hype around them had been building in the underground alternative metal scene. But the one true punch of Chokehold into the Summoning sent them skyward.

Sleep Token dominated online conversation, trending on Twitter for days on end, and their streaming numbers shot through the roof. Multiple songs trended on Spotify simultaneously, but it was The Summoning that really took off, rocketing to 15 million plays on the platform in less than two months. As of this writing, it tops 18 million Spotify streams. On January 17th, Sleep Token embarked on a sold-out UK headlining tour, playing some of their biggest venues to date, including the 5,000 capacity Hammersmith Apollo in West London. Befitting the band's grounding audience and the launch of their latest chapter, these rituals were notably scaled up in terms of production. Sleep Token performed amid a stage setup, festooned with plants, and vessels started wearing an elaborate shoulder piece emblazoned with gold to protect him from sleep, for some fans have theorized.

Additionally, the trio of female backing singers from 2022's Room Below Ritual were along for the ride. The three women affectionately nicknamed the Vesselettes in some fan circles, performed in cloaks, their faces covered while they stood eerily stuck still. The tour was made even more special by Sleep Token, debuting two brand new songs during their set, the angsty pop metal exercise Granite and the elegant, chest-infused Aqua Regia. The studio versions were released in the middle of the tour, once again dropping within 24 hours of each other on January 18th and 19th. Respectfully, even before Sleep Token's third album was formally announced, fans understood that this sudden wave of new songs heralded an imminent follow-up to This Place Will Become Your Tomb. After the release of the apocalyptically heavy Vore in the middle of February. That speculation became fact, Take me Back to Eden, was announced for a mid-may release and was set to be the final installment of the band's album trilogy. The group's devotees had already been trying to figure out the record's title from the secret code that had appeared on the band's lead-up graphics. On Take Me Back to Eden, the turbulent hot and cold dynamic between Vessel and Sleep reaches its breaking point. His devotion to and lust for Sleep persists, but Vessel recognizes that he is quite literally in a Chokehold within their relationship, even more so than on the band's previous work. His emotions were conflicted enough on this record. On Granite, Vessel rages against Sleep's uncommunicative behavior, even labeling him aggressive and controlling, while on Aqua Regia, despite the song's undercurrent of desire, he affirms that he is done dancing to alarm bells.

By track 9, Do You Wish That You Loved Me he reaches the firm conclusion that not only is Sleep incapable of returning the love he has craved all along, but perhaps Vessel himself cannot muster the same devotion he seeks from the deity. I cannot hope to give you what I cannot give myself.

By the album's closing track, Euclid, the relationship has finally splintered,leaving Vessel feeling reflective but also anxious to move forward knowing that Ijust need to leave this part of me behind.

Once again, every song to Take Me Back to Eden comes with its own visual identity, but the symbology is Sleep token's most complex and detailed to date.

Each song is represented by its own fantastical character, best described as monsters or demons that are illustrated by Alex Tillbrook in the art booklet that comes with physical copies of the record. Some of the creatures appear in music videos' form as well. Each character looks distinct from the others, but they do share some common features. Many have devil-like horns, and the majority have an unusual number of body parts. The character representing Ascensionism has four arms. The one for Rain has three heads, and the creature for Chokehold has numerous arachnid-like legs.

Meanwhile, the character representing War has arms with two venues, flytrap-like mouths in place of hands, echoing the song's motif of consumption and swallowing, and linking to its title's reference to the fetish voraphilia, the erotic desire to consume or to be consumed by another person or creature. In addition, most of the characters hold at least one weapon, and many wear some form of armour. These accoutrements are possible, reflective of the heightened sense of conflict between Wesley and Sleep throughout the album.

The character representing the summoning, who wears a shoulder piece akin to the one

that Vessel wears on stage, clutches a huge gun, almost as big as the creature itself, while others wield axes and other bladed weapons. In two of its four hands, the floating character in a knight's helmet representing Ascensionism holds a handgun and a three-pronged dagger, like a mini version of Poseidon's trident. There are also a few references to weaponry in the lyrics in Chokehold. Wesley reclaims, I come as a blade, a sacred guardian. When in Aqua Regia,he speaks of a perfect start to a perfect war, putting down the roses, picking up the sword.

One compelling fan theory about these characters is that their sleep previous vessels. Others speculate that they could be a physical manifestation of Vessel's personal demons, or even past versions of Vessel himself. Indeed, there are references to the concept of past lives on the album. In Ascensionism, the line, tell me you met me in past lives,suggests Vessel's and Sleep's toxic bond predates this lifetime, or perhaps that's just what Sleep tells Vessel to create, the illusion that their connection is stronger than it really is. The Apparition reinforces the idea, well I believe somewhere in the past, something was between you and I in my dear. If Sleep and Vessel have been entangled for decades or even centuries across different incarnations, it raises the question of what the weapons are for.

Are they for Vessel to use while defending and protecting Sleep, or tools for him to battle the deity as the toxicity between them worsens? The two song-representing characters who've most intrigued fans correspond to the album's final two tracks, both are quite different compared to their armoured, multi-limbed peers. The figure for the pain-mouthed song Take Me Back to Eden, interestingly Sleep Token's only title track to date, has no face but bears angel wings and a scythe. Their juxtaposed element of an angel and a Grim Reaper evoke themes of death, worship,and immortality. All themes that crop up at the end of the album's story defend consensus as that title track concludes Take Me Back to Eden, while the album's actual closer Euclid wraps up the trilogy overall serving as a sort of epilogue. The character representing that song is a masked figure dressed in a toga-like garment holding Vessel's severed head. What does that ominous image mean about the future of Sleep Token? Some fear it's a signal at the end of the band, while others have wondered if it foreshadows the group re-emerging with a new story and a new look perhaps similar to the way Slipknot changed the mask with each album's cycle, or how Ghost kill-off versions of Papa Emeritus to make way for a successor. At the very least, the figure reflects the song's focus on rebirth throughout the death of the old Vessel proclaims I must be someone now. Musically Take Me Back to Eden is Sleep Token's most ambitious body of work to date.

Its sonic rage is considerably greater than This Place where we come here to folding in sounds and genres. The band hadn't touched before. The extremes are also so much more pronounced.

The summoning and Vore are the heaviest songs of their career so far, while a eerie, almost tropical-sounding deary statue of me is Sleep Token at their poppiest. Meanwhile, the colossal Are You Really Okay feels like Sleep Token's taken a arena-sized ballad, though its lyrics are claustrophobic, dark, and hint at self-harm. Since its corresponding character is holding a baby ( Since its corresponding character is holding a baby and the song mentions Vessel being woken up by a loved one dripping crimson on the carpet, some fans have posited that Are You Really Okay is not about self-harm at all, but rather a miscarriage). The most impressive musical feats on the record, however, are Sleep Token's two longest songs to date. The super-sized pair the 7-minute Ascensionism and 8-minute Plus Take Me Back to Eden unify every aspect of Sleep Token's sound, from delicate piano balladery to crushing heavy metal to bursts of trap-infused R&B (Both notably use autotune to add a disembodied quality to vessel's voice.)

Together, the two pieces feel like a culmination of the band's sonic explorations so far, elevating the music into the heady realm of progressive rock while floating with the long-form movement-based structures of classical music. Even as it marks an incredible step forward for the band, both creatively and commercially it landed at number 16 on the Billboard 200 Take Me Back to Eden and occasionally looks back. It's the most self-referential installment of Sleep Token's trilogy, especially towards its conclusion where the nods to previous songs become most overt in particular lines in the opening verse of Take Me Back to Eden.

I dream of phosphorescence, bleed through spaces, and we drive through crystal waters Perfect oceans can be interpreted with callbacks to sundowning in this place will become your tomb, read prospectively. Later, the titled rap evokes the LP's beginning by echoing the opening lines of Chokehold, creating poeticbookends to the album's narrative. Similarly, the entire trilogy concludes looping around to its start with a section of The Night Does Not Belong to God being revived in Euclid, bringing the story full circle. As for Sleep Token's own story, Euclid's image of a vesseldisembodied hit notwithstanding the band's journey continues. At least for now, Take Me Back to Eden has skyrocketed them to previously unimaginable heights. The latest, this anonymous masked band with their eccentric whip, lashing sound, and dizzying mythology have become bona fide arena headliners. They sold out a breakthrough-year-capping December gig at London's12,500-capacity Wembley Arena within just 10 minutes. We know Sleep Token's story will continue in 2024, too. They already have shows booked, including an April run in Australia, an appearance at Las Vegas' sick New World Festival. We want that. What does the future hold?

Might they scale even higher heights? To sleep, to dream.

#sleep token #sleep token worship #sleep token revolver

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thenowherejournal · 2 months

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The Death of Healthy Relationships in Portrayed Fictional Literature

An Opinion Article By Nad and Francis (February 2024)

Books are like windows for readers that allow them to see the characters’ lives, experiences and relationships with other people in the story. Through printed texts, consumers of fictional media can be directly affected by what they read. In the modern day, there are numerous genres that one can choose and indulge themselves in.

As of 2022 book sales statistics, one of the popular genres nowadays is romance novels as it makes the majority of readers experience a whole variety of emotions that makes them feel like they are also experiencing it. Through captivating narratives, it evokes us to feel loved, hurt, comforted or ecstatic especially when we witness the connection and bond between the characters. The concerning thing about this is that most contemporary romance novels do not depict healthy romantic relationships between the characters and oftentimes, the conflict between them is not resolved. Considering this, regular consumers of this type of literature can be affected negatively.

Both of us are not keen on being in a relationship with someone, the most we can do is observe other people’s romantic relationships and other people who want to be in one– and as far as we’ve seen it, the more we question what the romance standard really is. A lot of modern romance novels depict so much toxicity that it could affect a person’s perception of what a healthy relationship is. Even though challenges and complications between characters make a story more interesting, the depiction of romance in those stories can be resolved in a healthier way without making it problematic.

Cleopatra and Frankenstein, Coco Mellors’ debut novel, tells the story of Cleo and Frank’s relationship and how they were too emotionally broken from their childhood trauma to even be in a relationship in the first place– and while being married out of circumstances at that. Not to mention, their problematic age gap of 20 years where Cleo is 23 years old, the younger one out of the relationship.

In Sad Girls by Lang Leav, a popular novelist and poet, the relationship was built on a lie. Audrey (the main protagonist) told a false rumor about her friend that caused her to commit suicide. After that, Audrey started dating the girl’s boyfriend. In reality, however, the death was caused by an accident where the boyfriend pushed her off during an argument about the rumor and she hit her head. He panicked, so he staged it as a suicide. The other problem here is that Audrey and the guy still dated after knowing the truth.

Malibu Rising is another popular novel by Taylor Jenkins Reid. She is a New York Times best-selling author and won awards for some of her stories. Her other notable novels are Daisy Jones and the Six and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. In Malibu Rising, One of the couples to note here are the parents. In the story, their relationship went rock bottom when the mother ended up being a doormat by the rockstar father– He cheated many times, to the point that he prioritized her less after receiving fame. She then ended up being an alcoholic and eventually drowned. Before her death, and despite all that has happened, the mother loved him too much even if that was the situation.

Then there’s Sally Rooney’s Conversation with Friends– a plotline that involves four characters, cheating, affairs between all four of them, toxic relationships and friendships, interwoven relationships– we could go on about all this. Colleen Hover’s books are also prime examples of romanticizing unhealthy romantic relationships like her novel, It Ends With Us, which glamorizes domestic abuse.

All this to say, these romance novels depict problematic relationships but the same books are also extremely popular because of the controversial stories in them. We watched a popular YouTuber, poet, and author, Dakota Warren, talk about her perspective on these kinds of “romance” literature and she pointed it out perfectly; “Romance does not usually go hand-in-hand with this (toxicity) unless the romance is so toxic and problematic that it should not be called ‘Romance.’”

Having said all that, we’d like to give these books and other similar literature the benefit of the doubt and take into account that the authors may or may not have intended to depict them as a feel-good romance read because somewhere out there, some people are experiencing these stories in real life. Through these books, we can empathize with them and comfort them by saying “I see you, I understand, you’re not alone”. However, as long as people recommend and market it as “a good romance novel”, maybe we should reconsider it.

All things considered, we are not in the position to tell other readers, especially consumers of contemporary romance novels to not read these types of books at all. As we previously stated, there are some things that we can gain from them like making us feel alive, thrilled and enthralled. But just like other things in life, everything should be in moderation. Depictions of “romance” in these types of novels should not be idealized and be considered as the standard of what relationships should be. Instead, we should take these depictions as “warning signs” of what an unhealthy relationship is and try to avoid becoming somewhat of the character who has shown these toxic traits.

#literature #contemporary literature #romance #romance novels #sally rooney #taylor jenkins reid #lang leav #dakota warren #novels #books #booktok #bookworm

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malaismere · 1 year

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AO3 Stats: Comparing Campaigns

(for my other critical role fic stats, check out my ao3-stats tag)

First off: total number of fics (by month) since the start. C2 and 3 have been pretty consistent since 2019, around 400-500 range, occasionally peaking higher, breaking 600 with the end of C2 and 700 in October this year with Laudna's resurrection lining up with October monthly prompts.

Zooming in...let's compare campaigns. The left is total counts, the right percentage. They don't add up to 100% because oneshots like Undeadwood and EXU Calamity are in the total fic count, and any fic with tags for multiple campaigns counted as both (although instances of just Allura or Artagan in a C2 fic or just Keyleth or Delilah in a C3 fic were not counted for C1). EXU was counted in as C3; any fics with just Dariax or Opal are therefore included in C3 counts.

C1 has been pretty consistent in the 50-100 range (10-20%). It has peaks in September 21 (one person writing Kimallura for sapphic september. seriously), February/March 2022 (Legend of Vox Machina) and September/October of 2022 (Bells Hells visit Whitestone).

C2 was pretty constant in the 80-90% range through its runtime (the drop below 70% in 2019 is when Undeadwood aired) and mostly around the 300-400 fic mark, although with peaks higher (most notably the end of C2) and drops lower (2020 hiatus). After C3 starts, it stays around the 200 fic mark and around 40-50%, hitting an all time low of 27% in September, and 140 fic in August (excluding January 2018's 116).

C3 is around the 200 and 40% mark for most of it's runtime so far, staying just under C2. While the other campaigns aren't affected by EXU Calamity airing in June of 2022, you can see a sharp drop for C3. However, following that, C3 reaches an alltime high with over 300 fics in September and October with Laudna's death and resurrection, breaking the 50% threshold. In December, things went back to normal, which could be a sign that was an outlier...or a blip for the M9 reunion.

#critical role #ao3 stats #cr stats #vox machina #mighty nein #bells hells #cr meta

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frnwhcom · 2 months

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The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth II: An Era of Transition and the Future of the British Monarchy

Queen Elizabeth II, the longest-reigning British monarch in history, ascended to the throne on February 6, 1952, and her reign lasted until her death on September 8, 2022. Born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on April 21, 1926, her life and reign encapsulated a period of extraordinary change both within the United Kingdom and across the globe. Her tenure saw the transformation of the British Empire into the Commonwealth, the end of the Cold War, the dawn of the digital age, and significant shifts in social norms and values. As the figurehead of the UK and 15 other Commonwealth realms, her consistent presence provided a sense of continuity amidst these vast changes. Early Life and Ascension Elizabeth was not born as the direct heir apparent to the throne; her destiny changed with the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII, in 1936, which made her father the king and her the next in line. Educated privately at home and serving in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II, Elizabeth's early life was a blend of royal duty and service to her country. Her marriage to Philip Mountbatten in 1947 was a union that lasted 73 years, until his death in 2021, and played a central role in her life and reign. Together, they had four children: Charles, Anne, Andrew, and Edward, whose lives and activities have also been closely followed by the public. Reign and Legacy Throughout her reign, Queen Elizabeth II navigated the monarchy through times of both turbulence and triumph. She worked with 15 UK Prime Ministers, from Winston Churchill to Liz Truss, and met with numerous world leaders, influencing diplomatic relations through her engagements. Her reign was marked by a dedication to public service, with countless engagements, state visits, and ceremonial duties performed with unwavering commitment. Elizabeth's ability to adapt the monarchy to the times without sacrificing its traditions was among her most notable achievements. She embraced television and the internet to connect with the public, including the annual Christmas broadcast, which became a significant aspect of her communication with the Commonwealth and the world. Death and Transition The death of Queen Elizabeth II marked the end of an era and the beginning of a new chapter for the British monarchy. Her son, Charles, succeeded her as King Charles III, bringing to the throne a different perspective shaped by years of advocacy on environmental, social, and architectural issues. The Future Monarchy King Charles III faces the challenge of leading a monarchy in a modern, more questioning world. With debates surrounding the monarchy's funding, its role in society, and the relevance of the Commonwealth in the 21st century, his reign is poised to be one of adaptation and potential transformation. Charles has indicated a desire to streamline the monarchy and focus on sustainability and social issues, which could redefine the royal family's role in British society and beyond. The transition also raises questions about the monarchy's place in the UK and its relevance to younger generations. While the monarchy has historically enjoyed strong support, changing demographics and societal values suggest that its future role may need to evolve. The life and times of Queen Elizabeth II represented a bridge between centuries, embodying tradition while facing forward. As the British monarchy enters a new era under King Charles III, it stands at a crossroads between its historical legacy and the demands of a changing world. How this institution adapts will likely define its relevance and survival in the years to come, continuing a story that has fascinated and engaged people around the globe for more than a millennium. Read the full article

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justacynicalromantic · 10 months

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It is a long read but I promise you it's worth every minute you'll spend on it.

Volodymyr Rafeyenko, the author of the article, is an award-winning Ukrainian writer. I want to share a bit about him for a greater perspective, his experiences add valuable insights to his reflections. Rafeyenko got his degree in russian philology&culture studies in Donetsk University, he mostly wrote and published in russian. In 2014 when Donetsk was occupied by russians and russia-backed separatists he was forced to leave. He then moved to a town near Kyiv where he's written his first novel in Ukrainian - Mondegreen: Songs about Death and Love. In 2022 upon russia's full-scale invasion Rafeyenko with his wife spent an awful month in a house between Bucha and Borodyanka until they were able to flee. After February 24, 2022 Rafeyenko says that he will never publish anything in russian. Read his article (maybe even twice, I'll definitely read it many times). I'll share just one passage from it:

"Dozens of wonderful writers, musicians, artists, and other geniuses of the Russian national spirit, both in earlier periods and current ones, have turned out to be incapable of forming mechanisms that would recreate humanism in Russians. The most that the representatives of this culture are capable of is a cheap variety of a brutal and cynical sentimentality. Sentimentality is generally uncomplicated and does not demand much: it is notable for the fact that you do not need to do anything for its sake. Sentimentality is a feeling without action — life in which there is no gleam of conscience and accountability for one’s existence, only the beautifully soulful praise of existence given to them by the Creator. It is difficult to find bigger animals than sentimental people."

#ukraine #russia #russian culture #russia is a terrorist state #russian invasion of ukraine #war crimes #culture

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ofhouseadama · 1 year

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Bella Adama ??? — November 24, 2022

Bella, thirteen to possibly fourteen years of age, passed at home on Thanksgiving night. Originally from parts unknown and returned to the pound no fewer than three times, she lived the best life a goblin disguised as a dog could ask for after being rehomed to the nanny (Leah) in the aftermath of a divorce. She is survived by her caretakers and moms, Leah and Emily Adama, in addition to her sister Lady Adama, her beloved Not-Mom Not-Dog, Mira Adama, her favorite auntie and dogsitter, Layla, her begrudging grandfather, Lou, and doting grandmother/insurance agent Jody. She is predeceased by her grandmother, Sharon, her sister, Luna, and the many birds that she hunted and killed over the course of her lifetime.

Rumored to have been a criminal turned into a dog as punishment for misdeeds, Bella never completed the requisite number of good deeds to turn back into a human. Instead, she extended her sentence as a mutt through endless garbage crimes, destruction of property, numerous instances of tearing curtains off the wall and placemats off of tables, and more than one noise complaint from the neighbors. On one notable occasion, she rammed her stubby little body repeatedly into an HVAC duct under the house, tearing it from its fittings and sending it crashing to the ground. She escaped the backyard more times than anyone may ever know. She was a bully and a terror, opinionated and forceful, and made sure no one in the house ever missed a meal. Her mothers regret never getting her DNA tested to see what mix of breeds would result in such demonic behavior. She was the worst.

Over the course of the eleven documented years of her life, Bella never met anyone she didn’t want to make into a friend. This included every PetSmart employee, vet techs, contractors, neighbors, visitors, and the mail carrier. Unfortunately, Bella never developed a single manner or sign of good breeding. But those who could tolerate her absolutely unhinged idea of affection could rely on her to headbutt them repeatedly should they dare stop petting her before she was done. By February 2019, she was fed up with only having one mom to give her attention, and threw herself into Emily’s lap during her first visit to South Carolina and acted like a normal dog one whole time. Leah was so shocked at the sight that she immediately called her father. Leah and Emily would wed later that year, Emily being successfully suckered by Bella’s con.

The last few years of Bella’s life, she enjoyed constant snacks and affection. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, both Leah and Emily started working from home. The conditions of the pandemic brought her precious Not-Mom Not-Dog into the home as well, and between the various insomnia episodes and wfh schedules of Leah, Emily, and Mira, Bella was never without a human to accost into giving into her will.

In the end, despite facing many health scares (many eaten and vomited up socks and plastic grocery bags, garbage heists, containment breaches, a chronic pancreatitis diagnosis, possible liver cancer, and one notable incident with an entire roll of Christmas ribbon which resulted in surgery) over the yawning chasm of a decade of chaos and bad behavior, death came as a friend. She spent her last weeks pampered at home, and passed in the laps of those who loved her the most.

There will never be another dog as perfect as she was.

In lieu of cards or flowers, please make a donation to your local humane society or give your dog a piece of cheese.

#death cw #pet death cw

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cyarskaren52 · 10 months

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Music Legend Tony Bennett Dead at 96

The world is mourning the loss of a musical icon. Tony Bennett, the chart-topping singer who shattered records with his nearly 70-year career, has died at the age of 96. The musician's longtime publicist Sylvia Weiner confirmed Bennett's death to The Associated Press July 21. Details on his cause of death are unknown at this time, but he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2016.

Born in Queens, New York in 1926, Bennett was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1944 and returned to the U.S. in 1946. Following his discharge, Bennett embarked on what would become an astounding musical career, which he began as an opening act for singer Pearl Bailey in 1949. Bennett's career took off with his 1951 hit, "Because of You," and skyrocketed from there, with the musician releasing over 70 albums throughout his career. In addition to winning 19 Grammy Awards, including an honorary Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award presented in 2001, Bennett was also the recipient of two Primetime Emmy Awards (for performances in 1996 and 2007, respectively). He also helmed his own Saturday-night television variety show on NBC called The Tony Bennett Show in 1956.

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Celebrity Deaths: 2022's Fallen Stars

In addition to his individual releases, Bennett was known for frequent collaborations with other notable artists throughout the years including Barbra Streisand, Celine Dion, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Amy Winehouse and more recently, Lady Gaga.

His final album, Love for Sale—a collaboration with Gaga released in September 2021—broke a Guinness World Record title for Bennett, as he became the oldest person to release an album including new material at the age of 95. He also went on to break the individual record for the longest span of top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 chart for any living artist at the time.

In February 2021, Bennett's family revealed he had been battling Alzheimer's disease for years prior. Bennett's last televised performance was alongside Gaga for MTV Unplugged in December 2021. Bennett is survived by his wife of 56 years, Susan Crow, and his two adult sons from a previous marriage, D'Andrea "Danny" Bennett and Daegal Bennett.

For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App

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#in memoriam #tony bennett #Spotify

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stick-named-figure · 1 year

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🗣️👀

ask list

anon this is like pandora's box of questions. i still have like 5 essays i want and need to write about. like. here i'll put some mini analyses under the cut.

parkour, what it says about how the color gang handles problems, and also how they carry themselves

yes i want to write another essay on parkour. like. god. parkour is a fucking goldmine into how the sticks process getting around and how they handle competition, winning, and (very literally) obstacles.

like that green jumps over yellow's hands on the ironbars course, or that red and blue (despite punching each other every opportunity they get) aren't that competitive with each other, often being more cautious about getting around over speed.

PLUS how they planned each escape from the endless loop. like that it shows off green's ambidexterity or that orange's a very fast thinker!

god i love parkour so much. so much 😭

note block universe, the whole thing

like i've been planning this essay since i first saw episode 29 and it WILL get done some day i swear. there's just so much about it. i was listening to big band villagers today and like, there's this shared bass line between a trombone and a tenor sax i had never consciously noticed! it's really good! like aaron grooves and scott buckley just went SO hard in this and i can't possibly overstate that.

ALSO there's just. all of green's character building leading up to this episode? like obviously the note block episodes are part of that and that green's musical skill is a pivotal part of it. but there are other things that are insanely important to why note block universe works the way it does, most notably being green's ability to mimic and copy.

in the second build competition episode (episode 17: build battle), we see it very clearly that green is good at deriving other's works. green's first move is making banners for their build of the combine (it's a pretty cute vehicle ngl), which isn't something you can really... do unless you have a very good idea as to what you're building (or it's already built). green keeps looking over at blue's build! (it could be seen as them looking at the image. it was probably that too but i can't look at green's build and explain it any other way ngl).

there's also that alan made blue's build worse on purpose in the first build competition (episode 2) so that green's would look better. that doesn't quite have anything to do with what i'm saying about green but it's funny as fuck. sorry blue, you're too good at building so we had to nerf you.

but anyway, green's ability to mimic and improvise on what someone is doing is pivotal, like how they instantly rephrase their question to the baby zombie to match their genre.

i have SO much more to say on it. the essay's gonna come in like... at least three parts because i have a lot to say and it'd become too directionless otherwise.

king in general

OK LOOK. my obsession with king is a little embarrassing and i'm not even sure i can fully explain it but like. there's a lot to talk about their character and there's plenty i just made up. it is that deep, actually.

like how king would rather destroy an entire world than process their trauma and emotions. i think that's really funny (<- closest word for "i think that's terribly human of them and also tragic").

plus i think that king's intelligence is kinda... glossed over in a manner? obviously we have no clue on HOW much king had to teach themselves but it's insanely impressive to learn enough physics in the span of... say a year or two to create that staff.

i estimate the time between gold's death and king's entry to the nether to be at least half a year, since the warden exists (first in-game appearance in february 17, 2022) and the version of minecraft gold died in has since been changed to be 1.17.0 (released june 8, 2021). i kinda... have to ignore the desktop dates, since if the dates were true the series wouldn't be possible (first seen date is june 12, 2021 [episode 25], last seen date is june 14, 2021 [episode 30]). plus... a week-ish turnaround from gold dying to king creating the staff just. idk! i can't suspend my disbelief enough for that! i literally have to make it be a few months at least.

plus... if it's only been a week or so since gold died... it makes their relationship with purple like... uncomfortable. like more so. it's... i don't like rating coping mechanisms. it feels unproductive, y'know? but like... finding a new kid to project your "my kid died" feelings onto, especially one who has previously been abused isn't the... best way to cope. it has to be longer for me to be able to buy into their found familial dynamic.

#ask game answer #answer #anon #self post #avm #this really was pandora's box! i fully believed it was a year or so since gold died!#alan's asking me to accept that gold died as little as a few DAYS before s3?#cannot do that sir #cw death mention #avm king orange #avm mango #blorbo posting #musing

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mariacallous · 2 years

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Another mysterious death among Russian top executives last week drew further attention to the ever-increasing number of suspicious demises among the oligarchs and critics of President Vladimir Putin, raising questions on whether they have become all too common to be completely coincidental.

Ivan Pechorin, a top manager at the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic, was found dead in Vladivostok after allegedly falling off his luxury yacht and drowning near Cape Ignatyev in the Sea of Japan two days before, according to the local administration.

"On September 12, 2022, it became known about the tragic death of our colleague, Ivan Pechorin, Managing Director for the Aviation Industry of the Corporation for the Development of the Far East and the Arctic," a statement from the company said.

Pechorin is said to have been tasked with modernising Russia's aviation industry and worked directly under Putin.

Earlier this year, the company’s 43-year-old general director Igor Nosov also died from a reported stroke after taking over the reins in May 2021.

Meanwhile, another aviation expert died under strange circumstances: the former head of the Moscow Aviation Institute Anatoly Gerashchenko was pronounced dead after falling down "several sets of stairs" on Wednesday, according to a statement issued by the institute.

Geraschenko led the institute -- which closely collaborates with the Russian Ministry of Defence and has aided the development of the likes of MiG fighter jets -- until 2015, but it is believed to have remained in an advisory role since.

The Russian aviation industry has long been suspected of having direct ties with espionage.

In 2018, former deputy director of the Russian national air carrier Aeroflot Nikolai Glushkov -- who famously claimed that about one-fourth of the company's employees were officers of one of the branches of the country's intelligence -- was found hanged in his home in New Malden, London.

Glushkov was a notable Kremlin critic and a close friend of the late oligarch Boris Berezovsky, who was also found dead with a ligature around his neck in 2013.

Glushkov's death also occurred right after the novichok poisoning of former GRU spy and double agent Alexei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, prompting the investigators to label it as suspicious.

The results of an inquest finalised in April 2021 showed that Glushkov was unlawfully killed, with his death made to look like a suicide by hanging.

'Tripped and fell while smoking'

The news of Pechorin's death came less than two weeks after the chairman of the board of Russia's largest private oil company, Ravil Maganov, died in what Russian news agencies cited as an accidental fall from a hospital window.

Initially, a statement by his company Lukoil said Maganov “passed away after a severe illness” on 1 September but did not give further details.

Russian news reports later stated his body was found on the grounds of Moscow's Central Clinical Hospital, where Russia's political and business elite are often treated.

Maganov appeared to have fallen from a sixth-story window, the reports said. Some sources claimed he tripped and fell while smoking, stating a pack of cigarettes was found by the window. The news site RBK also said police were investigating the possibility of suicide.

Lukoil was one of a few Russian companies to publicly call for an end to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, calling in March for the “immediate cessation of the armed conflict”.

Incidentally, Maganov was not the first Lukoil official to die under suspicious circumstances since Kremlin's full-scale aggression against its western neighbour began in late February.

A former top manager Aleksandr Subbotin was found dead in the basement of a residence in a Moscow suburb in May.

Russian news reports said the house belonged to a self-styled healer, Shaman Magua, who practised purification rites.

Magua testified that Subbotin came to his house under the influence of alcohol and drugs and demanded that the healer, whose real name is Aleksei Pindurin, performs a healing ritual for hangover symptoms.

Investigators said the preliminary cause of Subbotin's death was determined to be heart failure.

Yet, it is Ravil Maganov's demise that caught the attention of the press, having been the most well-publicised in a string of accidental self-defenestrations and other suspicious deaths of those who either profited from good relations with Putin or were a thorn in his side -- or both.

Anti-war oligarchs die under strange circumstances

At least another eight Russian oligarchs have died in strange circumstances almost since the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine. All had in common close links to the Kremlin, immense wealth, a connection to Russian gas and an anti-war stance on Ukraine.

This has raised the suspicions of international investigators, who are beginning to believe that these deaths may, in fact, have been staged suicides or assassinations due to their stance on the Kremlin's aggression against Ukraine or their links to corruption in the Russian gas company Gazprom.

It all started in St Petersburg in the run-up to the war.

Only a month before the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, a top executive of the gas company Gazprom was found dead in his cottage near St Petersburg.

Leonid Shulman, 60, was found in the bathroom of the house with slashed wrists, local news reported, citing a source.

According to the police authorities, a suicide note was allegedly found next to his body, in which he recounted his suffering after a leg injury -- which Gazprom claimed caused him to take a leave of absence.

The version has been questioned after the Warsaw Institue think tank stated that Shulman, who was the head of the transport service at Gazprom Invest, was involved in a possible corruption case at the Russian gas giant.

The morning after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, Alexander Tyulyakov, 65, a senior executive of Gazproms's Corporate Security, died at his home in the same village as Shulman. According to the Russian newspaper Novaya Gazeta, his body was found hanged in the garage.

The same newspaper quoted an unnamed law enforcement source as saying that Gazprom's own security unit arrived at the scene of the suicide at the same time as the police and was also investigating the death.

One of two deaths that have taken place abroad is that of Mikhail Watford, who lived with his family in the UK. On 28 February, the Ukrainian-born 66-year-old oil and gas magnate, who also built a property empire in London, was found dead at his home in Surrey.

Watford's cause of death was determined as death by hanging, but his wife and children, who were at home at the time, were unharmed. UK authorities were treating Watford's death as unexplained but not suspicious.

It later emerged that Watford, commonly referred to as Misha, had changed his surname from Tolstosheya after moving to the UK in early 2000.

Murder-suicides escalate suddenly among Putin-friendly oligarchs?

In March, the bodies of Russian billionaire Vasily Melnikov and his family were found in his luxury flat in Nizhny Novgorod, a city in western Russia.

Melnikov had made his fortune working for one of the medical companies affected by Western sanctions.

According to the Russian newspaper Kommersant, Melnikov, along with his 41-year-old wife and two young children, aged 10 and 4 respectively, died of stab wounds. The murder weapon was allegedly found at the scene of the crime.

The newspaper reported that the oligarch had killed his family before committing suicide, although neighbours and other relatives disagreed with the official version.

Other media have claimed that Melnikov's company, which imports medical equipment to Russia, was on the verge of bankruptcy due to Western sanctions imposed in retaliation for the war in Ukraine.

The latest case has taken place in Spain, more specifically in Lloret de Mar, where Russian oligarch Sergei Protosenya, 55, was found dead along with two other family members on 19 April.

The former head of the gas giant Novatek, with a personal worth of €400 million, was found hanged, along with those of his wife and daughter, who were stabbed to death in the family villa.

What was initially classified by the police as a double homicide followed by Protosenya's suicide was later categorically denied by his son.

Several family friends have also come out in public to state that Protosenya is, in fact, the third victim of a "staged suicide" and that the oligarch would have been incapable of murdering his family.

The Catalan police are still actively investigating the case.

Just a day before the death of Protosenya and his family, the body of Russian oligarch Vladislav Avayev was found in his Moscow flat, along with the bodies of his wife and 13-year-old daughter. His daughter Anastasia, 26, was the one who discovered the crime scene.

Russian state-owned news agency TASS quoted a source close to law enforcement as saying that preliminary evidence pointed to Avayev -- former advisor to Putin and former vice-president of Gazprombank -- killing his wife and daughter and then committing suicide.

A pistol was found in the oligarch's hand, and the flat was locked from the inside.

Gazprombank is Russia's third-largest bank and is associated with Gazprom, the world's largest publicly traded natural gas company.

Avayev was not the last Gazprom top-level manager to die under strange circumstances, however.

On 2 May, Andrei Krukovsky, the 37-year-old director of a Sochi ski resort owned by the gas giant, died after allegedly falling off a cliff while hiking near the Achipse fortress, the scenic area's landmark monument.

“The general manager of the Krasnaya Polyana resort, Andrei Alekseevich Krukovsky, tragically passed away. He loved the mountains and found peace there,” TASS news agency reported.

The Krasnaya Polyana is one of the most popular ski venues in Russia and was a part of the Olympic complex during the 2014 Sochi Winter Games.

And on 4 July, multi-millionaire businessman Yuri Voronov was found in the swimming pool at his home in the affluent Vyborgsky neighbourhood of St Petersburg with a gunshot wound to his head.

The police retrieved a handgun at the scene, while bullet casings were found at the bottom of the pool, local media reported.

The 61-year-old Voronov, whose death was deemed to have been a suicide, was the CEO of Astra-Shipping transport and logistics company, a subcontractor to Gazprom with lucrative contracts tied to its operations in the Arctic.

Self-defenestrations the most suspicious

Maganov's death on Thursday also follows the pattern of prominent Russians falling out of windows to their deaths.

In October 2021, a Russian diplomat was found dead after he fell from a window of the Russian embassy in Berlin, Der Spiegel reported.

The unidentified man was a second secretary at the embassy, but German intelligence sources told the newspaper they suspected he was an undercover officer with Russia's FSB.

Investigative outlet Bellingcat said it used open-source data to identify the man as Kirill Zhalo, the son of General Alexey Zhalo, deputy director of the FSB's Second Service, responsible for dealing with internal political threats for the Kremlin.

In December of the same year, the founder of nationalist blog Sputnik and Pogrom Yegor Prosvirnin died after falling out of a window of a Moscow apartment building.

Prosvirnin's naked body was found next to a knife and a gas canister after shouts and yelling were heard from his apartment, local media reported.

Prosvirnin, a right-wing activist, originally supported Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 but later became a vocal critic of Putin, predicting a civil war in Russia and the collapse of the Russian Federation.

And on 14 August, Dan Rapoport, Latvian-American investment banker and outspoken Putin critic who had just left Ukraine after the Russian invasion, was found dead in front of a luxury apartment building in Washington DC.

Police say they were not treating Rapoport's death as suspicious, the Washington-based Politico reported, but the case remains under investigation.

Rapoport became rich while in Moscow before falling out of favour with the Kremlin, mostly due to his support for the opposition leader Alexei Navalny, according to reports.

In 2017, Rapoport's then-business partner, Sergei Tkachenko, also fell to his death from his Moscow apartment's window.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, at least four health care workers have fallen out of windows in Russia, with only one surviving despite grave injuries.

At least three incidents of doctors self-defenestrating from hospital windows took place over a two-week period between April and May 2020, with media reports claiming they had protested working conditions during the worst wave of infections in the country prior to the incidents.

In December 2020, a top Russian scientist developing a novel COVID-19 vaccine, Alexander Kagansky, was found dead after falling from his high-rise apartment in St Petersburg.

According to Russian outlets, police claimed Kagansky stabbed himself and then jumped to his death.

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gone2soon-rip · 9 months

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BRAY WYATT (Born Wyndham Lawrence Rotunda,1987-Died August 24th 2023,at 36.Heart attack).American professional wrestler. He was best known for his tenures in WWE from 2010 to 2021, and then again from 2022 until his death in 2023, where he performed under the ring name Bray Wyatt.

Rotunda was a third-generation professional wrestler, following in the footsteps of his grandfather Blackjack Mulligan, his father Mike Rotunda, and two of his uncles – Barry and Kendall Windham. His younger brother Taylor Rotunda is also a professional wrestler, best known as Bo Dallas. Alongside his brother, he held the FCW Florida Tag Team Championship twice while in WWE's then–developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW), where he wrestled under various ring names between 2008 and 2012. He briefly wrestled on WWE's main roster from 2010 to 2011 under the ring name Husky Harris, most notably as a member of The Nexus.

After returning to WWE's developmental territory, which had been rebranded as NXT, Rotunda was repackaged as Bray Wyatt. Portrayed as the villainous leader of The Wyatt Family, a bayou-dwelling cult, he returned to the main roster alongside Wyatt Family members Luke Harper and Erick Rowan in 2013. He subsequently became a three-time world champion in WWE, holding the WWE Championship once and the Universal Championship twice. He also held the SmackDown Tag Team Championship (with Luke Harper and Randy Orton under the Freebird Rule) and the Raw Tag Team Championship (with Matt Hardy) once each.

After a hiatus from August 2018 to April 2019, Wyatt returned with a new gimmick. Portrayed as suffering from a transformative multiple personality disorder, he randomly switched back and forth between two characters: his "good side" of Bray Wyatt, a Mr. Rogers–esque children's TV host, and his bad side of The Fiend, a grotesque horror-themed monster clown. He was released from WWE in July 2021 but returned at Extreme Rules in October 2022, with a new character that claimed to be his "real-life" self but gradually re-incorporated his multiple personalities in addition to some new ones. After one televised match at the 2023 Royal Rumble, he went on a medical hiatus in February due to contracting COVID-19 and died of a heart attack that August.Bray Wyatt - Wikipedia

#Bray Wyatt #Wyndham Lawrence Rotunda #American Professional Wrestlers #Professional Wrestlers #WWE Wrestlers #Notable Deaths in August 2023 #Notable Deaths in 2023

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macgyvertape · 10 months

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Movies from this week are Dracula (1936) and the 2 sequels Dracula’s Daughter, and Son of Dracula; as well as the Karnstein Trilogy of Hammer Studios (The Vampire Lovers, Lust for a Vampire, Twins of Evil). The 1930s Dracula collection also included House of Dracula and House of Frankenstein (which I didn't watch). I unintentionally seemed to have picked notable entries in the genre of lesbian vampire films (Daughter of Dracula & Karnstein movies).

Some thoughts and questions:

The 1930s films were affected by the Hays code, despite a lot of unsourced statements otherwise. The Karnstein movies were also affected by the British Board of Film Classification, which I didn't know was a UK censorship board.

I’m interested in the difference between Hays code and recently post Hays code movies (also fuck the Hayes code). My impression of Hammer studios was based on their pre Hayes code films, and that is rapidly changing due to their 70s sexploitation films with a lot of topless scenes.

My October 2022 vampire movie month has now extended to reading non fiction filmography books; Celluloid Vampires; Life after Death in the Modern World and The Hammer Story: The Authorised History of Hammer Films.

Sad I don’t know enough about the 1930s to recognize any distinctive fashion markers, or even how much suits like that were worn daily. How hot and awful would it be to wear a 1930s suit all day outside like in the movie, nowadays?

I had a moment of mentally re-framing things when I remembered the 30s movies were made and some were set during the Great Depression. It’s a period of time I only really know from AP US History class briefly touching on it; and in pop culture reading Grapes of Wrath, and the American Girl Kit series. I’d be fascinated to read reviews from when these movies came out, just because I have such a pop culture influenced mental image of daily life during that time.

Son of Dracula was done “Filming began on January 7, 1943 and concluded on February 2”, was that short production schedule typical to the time, since this would have been during WW2?

I didn't realize 1930s Universal had a monster cinematic universe, with not just Dracula but other monsters as well. Makes their failure to launch the "Dark Cinematic Universe" in the late 2010s even more embarrassing. Watching House of Dracula the movie definitely expected my to be familiar with the Frankenstein movies.

A lot of ableism to unpack about how the poster advertises “hunchback” alongside the other villains like it’s a genre trope. I’ve seen some of the post genre parody with Terry Pratchett Igor, and I didn't realize this trope originated from the Universal 1930s movies.

My favorite movie was: The Vampire Lovers (1970) - in good horror the vampire isn't just a vampire, in this film it's also about a 70s view of predatory lesbianism and female sexuality. I support women’s wrongs: there should be more female vampire/human monster romance. The extremely homoerotic topless scenes were a lot of fun to watch, especially with how much of an ingenue Emma was. The costuming seemed like it was going for an early 1800s fashion and I found it interesting in how much variety there was in the dresses.

My least favorite movie was Son of Dracula (1943) - this is the only 1930s Dracula film that has multiple black characters but only in minor roles, and they are all extremely dated servant stereotypes. I would be cheering on Alucard preying on the main characters especially because they live on a damn plantation but to be really petty he didn't even bother not to have an American accent. The script has other problems, but why change the setting to the Deep South then do nothing with that setting?

#vampire movies #mac watches movies #karnstein trilogy #the vampire lovers #dracula

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frnwhcom · 3 months

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The Life and Times of Queen Elizabeth II: An Era of Transition and the Future of the British Monarchy

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isthatmanahimbo · 2 years

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Today we bring to you a console classic from the 16-bit era: Sabin Rene Figaro!

Sabin is a main player character in Final Fantasy VI, first released in 1994 for the SNES (released as Final Fantasy III in North America). It has since been released to many major systems, ranging from the Playstation to the Wii and even to iOs, and most recently remastered in a 2.5D style in February of 2022. Hailed as one of the greatest games the series has to offer, Final Fantasy VI begins the series' lean into sci-fi as well as fantasy, and boasts the largest selection of playable characters of any mainstream Final Fantasy to date.

Sabin is one of a pair of twins, with his brother Edgar having taken over the role of king of their kingdom, Figaro – sick with grief at the death of their father, rather than chafe under the societal expectations of a king Sabin fled the country to pursue the life of a mountain hermit instead of co-ruling with his brother. He plays the role of Monk in the party, equipping light armor and fist weaponry, and his special combat command is called Blitz, which he learned under his master Duncan.

That last part is important, because it is with Blitz that this author must begin their assessment of Sabin as a himbo. If you have been following this blog for a little while, you know this author likes to begin with Buff when applicable, and it is here that this author would like to bring up the thing for which Sabin is most well-known: he fucking Suplexes a train. This is not hyperbole or metaphor, mind you – using the Blitz command, the player can input the proper combination of keystrokes to ensure that during a boss battle with the Phantom Train, Sabin can pick the fucking thing up and slam it onto the ground over his shoulder. Even if Sabin were not toked as fuck (he is), the ability to do so being not just canon but encouraged (as it is Sabin's party specifically which encounters the Phantom Train shortly after learning the Suplex command) renders all discussion of Sabin's Buffness moot. Sick wrestling moves aside, it is also notable that Sabin is required at one point in a timed story quest to hold up a house for several real-life minutes – but is it really a FF6 playthrough if you don't Suplex the Damn Train? This author doesn't believe so.

Blessedly, Final Fantasy VI knows what it's doing with its character archetypes, for as strong as every muscle on Sabin's body is, we find his decision-making to be a little lacking. Indeed, when the options Think and Act are placed on a table before him, every single time Sabin will smash down that Act button before the situation can be explained to him – we see examples of this as early on as immediately after his introduction, when he joins the Returners while vocally admitting he does not understand their mission statement, and less than an hour later when Ultros attacks the party and begins to swim away Sabin dives into literal white water to give pursuit. Sabin is happy to do the literal heavy-lifting so long as he has someone to consign the actual hard work of thinking to (usually his intellectual brother, in whom he places ultimate trust).

And although Sabin is particular in whom he places his trust, once he's in, he's all in baybee. His very first appearance we learn that his immediate peer, and son of his master, Vargas has killed his father, and Sabin takes a moment in the middle of battle to weep for his beloved master before wrecking ass. Indeed, as touched on before, Sabin's huge heart full of love and loyalty is the impetus for his mountain man excursion – so bereaved by his father's death, so disillusioned by the public's apparent lack of compassion, Sabin flees society. His big heart is apparent even in his more antagonistic moments – humorously, he has a bit of a rivalry with party member and feral child Gau, finding the child infuriating, but upon learning that the boy's father abandoned and mistreated him Sabin promptly chewed him a new asshole (and had to be physically restrained from laying him out). And upon joining the Returners, he is a valuable and trusted teammate for more than just his muscles – when returning to the fray after the end of the world, Celes is heartened by Sabin's attitude after they save a child together, finding the strength to carry on through his boisterous proclamation that the end of the world couldn't possibly keep him down.

Truly, that's a himbo we can count on to be by our side.

Total Himbo Score: 21

#is that man a himbo?#whoa mama! rating: himbo #final fantasy #final fantasy vi #final fantasy 6 #sabin rene figaro #sabin final fantasy #sabin ff6 #sabin ffvi

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