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homomenhommes · 2 months

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THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … March 8

Radcliffe-Hall & Lady Troubridge

1887 – The British sculptor and translator Una Vincenzo, aka Lady Troubridge was born on this date (d. 1963). Born Margot Elena Gertrude Taylor, she is best known as the long-time partner (28 years) of Marguerite "John" Radclyffe-Hall, the author of The Well of Loneliness. She married Admiral Ernest Thomas Troubridge in 1908 and gained her title when Admiral Troubridge was knighted in 1919.

Troubridge was an educated woman who had many achievements in her own right. Most notably she was a successful translator and introduced the French writer Colette to English readers. Her talent as a sculptor prompted Nijinsky to sit for her several times. Troubridge met Hall in 1915 as Troubridge was the cousin of singer Mabel Batten who was Hall's lover at the time. Mabel died in 1916, and Hall and Troubridge moved in together the following year. Troubridge wrote about the intensity of their relationship in her diary: "I could not, having come to know her, imagine life without her."

Both Troubridge and Hall identified as 'inverts', a term used by sexologists such as Krafft-Ebing and Havelock Ellis usually to connote what we now think of as homosexuality. Hall and Troubridge raised and showed dachshunds and griffons. The dachshunds shown in the Romaine Brooks portrait of Troubridge (above) were a prize winning pair given to her by Hall.

1900 – Otto Peltzer (d.1970) was a German middle distance runner who set world records in the 1920s. Over the 800m Peltzer improved Ted Meredith's long-standing record by 0.3 seconds to 1:51.6 min in London in July 1926. Over the 1000m he set a world record of 2:25.8 in Paris in July 1927, and over 1500 m Peltzer broke Paavo Nurmi's world record (3:52.6) and set a new one at 3:51.0 in Berlin in September 1926. Peltzer was the only athlete to have held the 800m and the 1500m world records simultaneously, until Sebastian Coe matched the feat over fifty years later.

Born in Ellernbrook-Drage in Holstein, Peltzer overcame childhood ill-health to become a successful athlete, winning his first German championship at age twenty-two. He started university in Munich in 1918, joining the TSV 1860 club, where he was nicknamed "Otto der Seltsame" (Otto the Strange). He continued in Munich, receiving his doctorate in 1925. In 1926 he was one of a group of German athletes invited to the AAA Championships at Stamford Bridge stadium in London, where he won the 800m, beating Britain's Douglas Lowe, who had won the event at the 1924 Olympic Games which, along with the 1920 Games, Germany had been barred from entering. In 1926, a specially arranged 1500m race between Peltzer, Paavo Nurmi of Finland, Edvin Wide of Sweden and Herbert Bocher of Germany took place in Berlin which was won by Peltzer in a new world record time.

Shortly before the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam, to which German athletes were again allowed to enter with Peltzer elected as team leader, Peltzer was injured in an accident while playing handball. Although he recovered enough to take part in the 800m heats, he failed to qualify for the final. In 1932 he was team captain, but poor arrangements left the German team trying to run with spiked shoes on the hard Olympic track. Peltzer made the final, but did not finish.

Peltzer was often persecuted for his homosexuality.In 1933 he joined the Nazi Party and the SS. However, in June 1935 he was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment for 'homosexual offences with youths'. He was released early on condition that he would end his involvement in sport, but was rearrested in 1937. After spending time in Denmark, Finland (where he slept rough and contracted bronchitis) and Sweden, he returned to Germany in 1941 having been assured that the charges against him would be dropped. However, he was arrested and sent to KZ Mauthausen, where he remained until the camp was liberated on 5 May 1945.

With homosexuality remaining a criminal offence in 1950s Germany, and Peltzer in conflict with the German Athletic Association (DLV), Peltzer's opportunities to coach athletics were limited in Germany. He obtained a commission from a German newspaper to report on the Melbourne Olympics, and after the Games tried unsuccessfully to get work with various national athletics organisations. He eventually came to India, coaching in the national athletics stadium in New Delhi, and founded the Olympic Youth Delhi club, later renamed the Otto Peltzer Memorial Athletic Club in his honour.

Following a heart attack in 1967, Peltzer was persuaded to return to Germany, and was treated in hospital in Holstein. After attending an athletics meeting in Eutin, Schleswig-Holstein, Peltzer collapsed and was found dead on a path towards the car park.

1929 – American poet, publisher, essayist and photographer Jonathan Williams was born (d. 2008). Williams was the author of more than a hundred books and booklets of gay poetry that merges flesh and spirit with a sense of history.

Williams was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and educated at St. Alban's School in Washington and at Princeton University. His real education, however, began at Black Mountain College (1951-1956), where he met Charles Olson and, in company with another gay poet, Robert Duncan, took on Ezra Pound's lesson of compact speech and William Carlos Williams' maxim "no ideas but in things."

Jonathan Williams has been described as a cross "between Richard Pryor and the Roman poet Martial." Indeed, his poetic reception has suffered from his refusal to keep the flesh and the spirit separate.

Either he is criticized by the traditional straight world for lowering poetic tone or ignored by the gay world, both for seeing the raunchiness of our world in classical terms and for having a sense of history. For him Zeus is a randy old-goat tourist snatching up the local Ganymede trade, and Catullus is familiar with jock straps.

"I haven't seen the territory yet that can't be sexualized or examined for its poetic cuisine, or its birds, or for its dialects," Williams wrote. In one of his collections, Quantulumcumque (1991) (the word means "as much as can be said in a small space"), is an epigram of a modern hustler that reappropriates classical epigram form:

Donnie pocket full of green bottom full of cum

But he was also concerned with feeling--with getting beyond what he called the verbal and imaginative penury of "hardcornponeography." What he imagined best was the hard-on longing for it of country boys wild for passion.

He also wrote a fine sequence based on the fears and failings of the men interviewed by Havelock Ellis and a beautiful love poem ("Lexington Nocturne"), in which he lets his hand hang for a moment in the hair of his as-yet-unseduced bedmate and concludes "let that be all / for then."

Williams was a pathologist of the ordinary, listening to the quirks and privacies of speech as they reveal character. Many of his poems sound like (and were) overheards:

i hear you do not care greatly for the fair sex the fair sex he snapped back which is that

Along with his lover, the accomplished poet, Tom Meyer, Williams kept busy running Jargon Press, which has been responsible for publishing a number of gay poets—James Broughton, Robert Duncan, Harold Norse, and Paul Metcalf among them.

Some of his essays and reviews have been collected in The Magpie's Bagpipe (1982), but much of his liveliest work still remains uncollected in the annual collections of squibs and ripostes that he sent out to friends.

If he had failings, they were the result of his being too large, of embracing multitudes, as Whitman would put it. His bibliography extends to more than a hundred books and booklets as well as many other publications. It would be hard to think of any one person who did more for poetry, gay and straight, in America.

Williams died on March 16, 2008 in Highlands, North Carolina. He was survived by Meyer, his companion for more than 40 years.

1963 – Jim Nelson was editor-in-chief of the magazine GQ.

Nelson began his journalism career in television, first working as a producer and writer at CNN and later moving to Hollywood where he worked briefly as a writer's assistant on television sitcoms.

He made the shift to magazines at age thirty, starting with an internship at Harper's Magazine, From 1994 to 1997 Nelson was an editor at Harper’s Magazine under Lewis Lapham, where he was responsible for the magazine’s Readings section. His writing has also appeared in The New York Times Magazine, Gourmet, and Food & Wine.

Nelson had been editor-in-chief of GQ since March 2003. He retired from that post at the end of 2018. Nelson joined the magazine as a senior editor in 1997, editing the work of such writers as Andrew Corsello, Elizabeth Gilbert, Charles Bowden, and Michael Paterniti. After working under Art Cooper as an executive editor, Nelson was appointed by Condé Nast to replace him as editor-in-chief in 2003.

Under his direction, the magazine has been nominated for sixty-two National Magazine Awards and has won for feature writing, reporting, design, photography, and general excellence, the highest honor in the industry. His own writing for GQ was cited in The Best American Sports Writing 2001.

Also during Nelson’s time at GQ, the magazine has been nominated for forty-one James Beard Awards and has won for restaurant reviews and critiques, distinguished food writing, writing on wine spirits or beer, and humor. In 2016 The Daily Front Row’s fourth annual Fashion and Media Awards honored Jim Nelson with the Magazine of the Year award for GQ.

Most recently Nelson launched ‘The Closer with Keith Olbermann,’ a twice-weekly web series offering political commentary on the 2016 election and other timely news topics. After garnering more than 75 million views[14] for ‘The Closer,’ Olbermann returned with a post-election series on GQ.com called ‘The Resistance’ where he continues the conversation about the President elect.Additionally, during Nelson’s time at the magazine, a number of GQ stories have become both small and large-scale film productions and TV series, including Concussion starring Will Smith, the Netflix series Last Chance U and the forthcoming film Granite Mountain.

He resides in Brooklyn with his partner, John Mario Sevilla, a dancer and choreographer.

1963 – Bruce Hayes is an American former competition swimmer best known for anchoring the U.S. men's 4x200-meter freestyle relay team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

A native of Sarasota, Florida, Hayes' success as a Texas age group and high school swimmer earned him a full scholarship to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He was the highest scoring freshman at the 1982 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, helping the UCLA Bruins win the national team championship.

Hayes represented the United States in several international swimming meets. His first national and international titles came in 1983. He won seven medals at the 1983 World University Games in Edmonton - the most by any American swimmer - and his win in the 200-meter freestyle was the only U.S. gold. A few weeks later, he won the 200-meter freestyle at the 1983 summer United States Swimming Championships.

At the 1983 Pan American Games in Caracas, Venezuela, Hayes won three gold medals in the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle races and in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay. He also collected three gold medals at the 1983 Descente International Invitational Swim Meet in Tokyo in the same three events.

Hayes won the 400-meter freestyle race at the 1984 winter United States Swimming Championships for his second national title. He finished third in the 200-meter freestyle at the 1984 United States Olympic Swimming Trials, qualifying him for a place on the 4x200-meter freestyle relay team in Los Angeles.

Hayes captured one more national title before retiring when he won the 200-meter freestyle at the 1984 summer United States Swimming Championships, held after the Olympics. He subsequently earned a Masters degree in journalism at Northwestern University in Chicago and then moved to New York City to begin a professional career in public relations. He joined Team New York Aquatics in 1990 and began competing again, this time in Masters swimming events.

He became the first Olympic gold medalist to compete at the Gay Games when he swam at Gay Games III in Vancouver in August 1990.

In 1992, Hayes became the first American Olympic gold medalist to declare his homosexuality publicly when he was profiled by Dick Schaap for ABC's World News Tonight regarding the challenges of being gay in the sports community. He became a spokesperson for the Gay Games IV in New York City in 1994.

At Gay Games IV, his swimming success continued - he set five 25-meter short course Masters world records in the 30-34 age group, including becoming the first Masters swimmer to break 4:00 in the 400-meter freestyle. He was included in Out magazine's 1994 list of the 100 most influential gays and lesbians in America.

Hayes worked for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games as the Assistant Competition Manager for Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics. During his time in Atlanta, he co-founded the Atlanta Rainbow Trout Masters swimming team.

He resumed his public relations career at Edelman in New York following the Atlanta Olympics and later worked for two years in Edelman's Madrid office. In 2002, Hayes became a charter member of the Gay Games Ambassadors. He attended the Gay Games' 25th anniversary celebration in San Francisco in 2007 and presented the Federation of Gay Games' inaugural Media Award.

Hayes swam again at the 2010 Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany, winning a bronze in the 1,500-meter freestyle (age 45-49) behind Aaron Murphy (Great Britain) and Jonathan Haines (Australia).

1965 – Robert Sabuda is a leading children's pop-up book artist and paper engineer. His recent books, such as those describing the stories of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Alice in Wonderland, have been well received and critically acclaimed.

Sabuda was born in Wyandotte, Michigan and raised in Pinckney, Michigan. He was skilled as an artist from a very young age, and attended the Pratt Institute in New York City. His specific interest in 3-D paper engineering (i.e., pop-up books) was sparked by a book he received that was illustrated by Vojtěch Kubašta. His interest in children's book illustration began with an internship at Dial Books for Young Readers while attending the Pratt Institute. Initially working as a package designer, he illustrated his first children's book series, of "Bulky Board Books", in 1987. Wide recognition only came his way after he started designing pop-up books for children in 1994.

Robert Sabuda kicked off the pop-up renaissance in 1996 with Christmas Alphabet, a series of elegantly constructed pop-up images that scaled the New York Times bestseller list, despite its then-staggering price tag of $19.99.

Matthew Reinhart began working alongside him and creating his own work when the two became a couple, in 1997. Now, working from their Tribeca studio with four assistants, Robert and Matthew start from scratch with each new book, crafting elaborate, intricately colored structures that leap from the pages, then sending the books off to be hand-assembled overseas.

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Robert and Matthew discuss their art

1970 – In the early morning hours, New York City police raid a gay bar called the Snake Pit for not having a license for dancing and selling alcohol, arresting 167 patrons. At the police station, one of the arrestees, an Argentine national named Diego Vinales so feared the possibility of deportation that he leapt from a second-story window of the police station, impaling himself on the spikes of an iron fence. He survived, though firemen were forced to cut out a section of the fence with Vinales still skewered on it, in order to move him to the hospital.

One journalist remarked, “It is no crime to be 'in' a place that is serving liquor illegally, the only crime is to run such a place. There were no grounds for hauling the customers away.”

Though charges against other patrons were dropped, Vinales was rebooked for "resisting arrest" and officers were stationed outside his hospital room to prevent another escape. The community organized a protest march.

1987 – Devon Graye Fleming, known professionally as Devon Graye, is an American actor and filmmaker. He is best known for portraying teenage Dexter in the TV series Dexter, as well as the second Trickster in The Flash. In 2019, he wrote the thriller film I See You.

Graye was born in Mountain View, California. He studied acting at the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco. Although Graye is American, he lived in the United Kingdom for all four years of high school.

Graye wrote a thriller screenplay titled Allison Adams, which was featured on the 2016 Black List for most popular unproduced screenplays.

He has been dating Canadian actor Jordan Gavaris since September 2013.

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tarasmithshifts · 3 months

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𝐁𝐀𝐍𝐃 & 𝐒𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐄𝐑 𝐃𝐑

ᴀʙᴏᴜᴛ ᴍᴇ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴅʀ: my name is tara smith, but i'm known as 'azrael'. in 2016 with my friends, kitty and jj formed a band we called 'utopia' and we started on youtube and soundcloud by doing covers, and when we got more popular, we made our first original song. it was called "SOS" (yup it's this one from ABBA but let's pretend yk) and it went viral on soundcloud and very popular on youtube. we got recognision, and it opened the door to music industry.

ᴍʏ ꜰʀɪᴇɴᴅꜱ ɪɴ ᴛʜɪꜱ ᴅʀ: kitty (lily buckley), jj (jack hart), billie eilish, willow smith, conan grey, harry styles and a lot of more!

ꜱ/ᴏ: billie eilish

ᴅɪꜱᴄᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜʏ: we debuted with an ep called "CANNIBAL" as we watched "the show"Hannibal" while writing and it was a huge inspo for this ep. it was also a success, we went on small tour in venues. first in america, then in europe.

⍣ ೋ we went super popular after we released our first single from our first album called "LOST IN OUR PAST" (2019). it was a huge success. album was full of 70s beats, vocals, etc. we were nominated for multiple awards and won all of them. we became one of the most successful artist of the year, and later even in decade. Our tour sold out in few minutes, and so that's how we did our first world tour. we performed at grammys, the biggest festivals like coachella etc. we won grammys for best album, best group, best group performance, best single & song of the year. we weren't ready for this kind of success, critics after all called this album a "renaissance of 70s music" we became pioneers of group music then, we mixed modern pop, 70s & 80s. we did covers of old songs, and on our tour performed with multiple artists, like tears for fears, fleetwood mac (which was crazy!!!!). at the time me and kitty got together.

⍣ ೋ after the success, we had multiple fights in the band, but we were still making music together. I started to make solo music, but only for fun. we got to work with conan grey, and we made a song "killing me" (yupp also this one but let's pretend!!!) in 2021 our bands needed to split up, as jj decided to left.

⍣ ೋ it was a huge case, fans protested, wanted to know what happened, but we decided to stay quiet. everything was clear, jj wanted something else from life. he started to work as a "ghost writer"

⍣ ೋ after band has split up, i called my managment that i want to release solo music. i didn't want to give up on music because of this situation. week after official announcement from band, i posted info about my first single of my solo album "GLOBAL DRUGS"

it was a huge success, i didn't think that i would go on world tour and sing in stadiums again. i brought kitty with me.

some of fans favourites

⍣ ೋ in december 2022 after i finished tour and came back to u.s., my agent called me that he wants to meet me and kitty. we met 2 days later in new york, in a studio we recorded first ep as "utopia". when we came in, first thing we saw was jj talking to some people in the studio. well, we were so back.

⍣ ೋ in march 2023 out of nowhere we dropped our second album called "WE ARE STILL HERE" and people went CRAZYYY. we had no idea how this album is gonna shake the whole internet and critics. it was completely new - it was jazz, 70s, soul, r&b. something that people claimed we didn't fit. but here we are :)))

⍣ ೋ in may 2023 i attended my first ever met gala, and there, in an interview i confirmed that this was the last project of ‘utopia’ for now. i said “we disappeared out of nowhere and left you all without any information. this is something like a goodbye, but we do not confirm that it will last forever. it depends on our feelings.” i also confirmed that i will release music as solo artist and that kitty will join me as a drummer

⍣ ೋ in may 2023 a week after met gala, i showed the world my summer tour, and except the festivals of course, there were 4 stadium concerts, “bonus” ones, only in europe. Paris, Barcelona, Berlin and final one in London. that’s the time when me and kitty broke up, after, as media called it “London accident”. (there will be another post about it, but basically kitty got herself into alcohol and drugs, and during the London show for almost 2 hours we couldn’t find her, and when my team finally found her, she was completely not contacting with the world around her, and it was not the first time.she couldn’t perform and i didn’t want to cancel the show)

⍣ ೋ in september 2023 i started dating harry styles, but only to january 2024 - we realised that we would love be each other besties than lovers 🤭 (bc in this dr he is a little younger and one direction split up later than in cr, his album “Fine Line” was released in 2024, and “Harry’s House” in late 2025)

⍣ ೋ in january 2024 i confirmed my second solo album, that will release 15/03 🫶

⍣ ೋ after release of this album, me and billie were spotted in public, spreading dating rumours, which we confirmed some months later

"ᴏɴᴄᴇ ᴀɢᴀɪɴ, ᴜᴛᴏᴘɪᴀ" - pinterest board

#reality shifting #shifting #desired reality #shifting community #quantum jumping #reality shifter #shifting realities #fame dr #actress #celebrities

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religion-is-a-mental-illness · 5 months

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7 Things pro-Palestinians Forgot to Tell You (...this war is not about land...)

You hear so much about Israel and Gaza in the news. But there are a few things that pro-Palestinians forget to tell you. Here is a quick summary of the things you need to know.

1) Why don’t the Palestinians have a state?

So you have the Jews and the Arabs fighting over the same piece of land. Why not divide it into two? This smart idea has been proposed a few times throughout history: in 1937, in 1947, in 2003 and in 2008. The British proposed it, the UN, and the Americans. And while the Israelis were willing to compromise and accept this solution, the Palestinians kept saying no to it. By the end of this video, you will understand why. Here is a hint. It is not about the land.

2) You are next

You may well be saying to yourself: Who cares? So the Jews and the Arabs are fighting over a piece of land and each thinks that God is on their side and it is all just stupid religious stuff. Well, you’re wrong, because you may well be next. Hamas and all their friends – ISIS, Hezbollah, the Taliban, the Muslim brotherhood – they all want a Muslim world. They see Spain as a Muslim land, and Rome as the capital of the Crusaders, the infidels. And London, and Paris, and Berlin, and Manhattan… They accuse the Jews of wanting to control the world, yet they themselves very clearly state that that’s what they want to do. I listen to them, and so should you. Ignoring reality and wishful thinking doesn’t make you morally superior. I urge you to go to one of the anti-Israel rallies happening near you and ask the young Muslims (who, by the way, are the fastest-growing community in Europe) whether they prefer European democracy or Sharia law. Or whether it should be illegal to be gay. Really, please just try it and see.

3) Why are there so many Palestinian refugees in the world?

Hundreds of millions of people all over the world have become refugees as a result of war or other disasters from 1945 till today. A UN agency was set up to help all the refugees. And there is also another separate agency, called UNRWA, for the most privileged refugees in the world - the Palestinians. You’re probably asking yourself why the world needs two agencies? Well, the difference between these agencies is that UNRWA, the agency for the Palestinians, allows the Palestinians to pass their refugee status on to their sons and grandsons and great grandsons and so on. So instead of putting all the money into helping the real refugees in the world, the UN is pouring money into Gaza, whose people are using this money to finance Hamas.

4) Ethnic cleansing

Israel is accused of ethnic cleansing. Let’s check the numbers. In 1948 there were 160,000 Israeli Arabs; today there are two million. In 1967, there were around a million Palestinians; today there are 4.5 million. I am not very good at math, but I do know that two million is more than 160,000. Now let’s have a look at the number of Jews in neighboring countries. In Lebanon in 1948 there were 6,000 Jews; today there are about 100. In Syria, 80 years ago, there were more than 30,000 Jews. Today there are basically zero. In Egypt in 1940 there were 70,000 Jews. Today there are three. So yes, there is ethnic cleansing going on in the Middle East – but it’s the Muslims who are doing it to the Jews. My next video will be about this very topic.

By the way, the two million Arabs living in Israel enjoy exactly the same rights as the Jews. Is it all perfect and uncomplicated? No. But if you ask Israeli Arabs where they want to live – in Israel or under Palestinian rule, most of them will choose Israel. Israeli Arabs enjoy more rights and a higher standard of living than any Arabs in the Middle East. Did you know that it was an Arab judge that sent the president of Israel to jail? I guess not. Most Israelis don’t know about this either. And do you know why? Because what does it matter if the judge is a Jew or an Arab or a Druze? The president was a criminal and so he was sent to jail.

5) Hamas doesn’t like gays

You will have seen lots of so-called progressives marching proudly with the Palestinians in pro-Hamas demonstrations. They didn’t get put on the streets when half a million died in the war in Syria; they didn’t demonstrate when Iran murdered girls who refused to cover their hair. Pakistan is about to deport 1.7 million Afghans. I wonder if a single progressive will come out and demonstrate for them… The progressives have apparently decided to team up with Hamas. Do you know what one of the first things Hamas did when it came to power in Gaza was? They rounded up gay men and took them up onto a roof. And not to enjoy a rooftop party but… Lesbians are not welcome either. Actually, no progressive ideas are welcome in Gaza.

6) Gaza is not a prison

Let’s talk about Gaza. Is Gaza really the biggest prison camp in the world? Gaza shares borders with Israel and Egypt. Israel doesn’t control the border with Egypt, so how can it be a prison? Moreover, Hamas, which was elected in 2007, very clearly states that it wants to destroy Israel. And yet Israel continues to provide water, electricity and aid to Gaza. Have you heard about any other countries that provide humanitarian aid to their enemies? And how about this: did you know that the daughter of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was treated in an Israeli hospital? Hamas is one of the richest terror organizations in the world, and Haniyeh has a net worth of 4 billion dollars. He resides in one of the most expensive hotels in Qatar while his people are suffering in Gaza. But unlike others who blame Hamas leaders who have billions in the bank and are now living in Qatar and Turkey, I don’t blame them.

If Hamas enjoys the support of 65% of the people in Gaza, then what is happening is their fault. I will now say a crazy thing that has never been said before by the mainstream media. The people of Gaza are responsible for their situation. I know it’s shocking. They aren’t choosing terror because they are poor. They are poor because they are choosing terror. Money is not the problem. The people of Gaza get more money from the UN, the Arab countries, the European Union and the US than any other group, but instead of investing in education and infrastructure, they build tunnels and rockets. There is no shortage of that in Gaza.

7) Constitutions

I am sure you have noticed my heavy, yet beautiful, Israeli accent - and yes, this is the Israeli perspective. The thing is that after seeing this, you might switch to the BBC and see the other side, the Palestinian side. And you’ll be like: Who are the good guys and who are the bad guys? To answer this question, I like to go to the source, rather than relying on he said, she said. Let’s look at the basics, at what each entity, Israel and Hamas, says about themselves. The Israeli Declaration of Independence says: WE EXTEND our hand to all neighboring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighborliness, Israel will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion or race; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture;

The Hamas constitution says: Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam obliterates it. There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by Jihad. Jihad is its path and death for the sake of Allah is the loftiest of its wishes.

This conflict is not about land; it is about values. Jihad, violence and death versus freedom, equal rights and peace. Which side are you on?

I want to thank my supporters. You keep me going! The success of this video is determined by you. Like it and share it. See you next week. Yalla bye.

If you've been following me for a while, you'll know this is not some kind of strawman, it's an explicit tenet of Islam that it has global supremacist intentions.

If this was about land, it would have been resolved decades ago, since there have been multiple offers made, all of which have been rejected. It's about killing all the Jews, conquering the lands, and then waging jihad globally.

I've been talking about Islam and its goals for years, so to turn around and say, oh, this isn't about religion, when Hamas terrorists are telling you that it is, and it's exactly what Islamic doctrine declares... you suddenly have a short memory. What did you think it would look like?

This is Islam. This is jihad. This is what Islam wants. This is what Islam promises to do worldwide. This is what Islam looks like in full Muhammadean flight.

And exterminating jihadists who know they have their god's divine command behind them, who say themselves that the only solution is jihad, is the only way to defend a non-Sharia world.

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cadmusfly · 25 days

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Non Comprehensive List of the Nice Spanish Paintings That Mysteriously Ended Up in Marshal Soult's Collection

Sourced from the essay Seville's Artistic Heritage during the French Occupation in the book Manet/Velázquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting, which can be downloaded for free on the Met's website which is frankly awesome but i wish someone OCRed their book

In 1852 at the sale of his collection, there were 109 paintings up for sale - 78 from the Seville School, including 15 Murillos and 15 Zurbaráns.

It's interesting that Soult wanted to legitimize his ownership of these paintings via receipts and official documentation - the biography of him I was machine translating talks about the king questioning his collection and him pulling out receipts for each painting. But, well, the essay puts it like this: "The existence of an official letter can be explained by Soult's desire to dress up in legal or formal terms what was in reality theft or extortion."

I might put excerpts from the essay in a different post, but for now, let's look at the list! Modern locations of the paintings are in parentheses, and I must say, for an essay critical of historical reappropriation of artwork, a lot of these artworks are still extant. Not a dig or anything, just an observation.

I do not condone extorting or stealing priceless Spanish artworks anyway

On with the show!

Murillo The Immaculate Conception (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) Virgin and Child (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) Saint Elizabeth of Hungary Nursing the Sick (Church of the Hospital de la Caridad, Seville) Christ Healing the Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda (National Gallery, London) The Return of the Prodigal Son (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) Abraham and the Three Angels (National Gallery Of Canada, Ottawa) The Liberation of Saint Peter (State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg) Saint Junipero and the Pauper (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Saint Salvador de Horta and the Inquisitor Of Aragon (Musée Bonnat, Bayonne) Brother Julián de Alcalá and the Soul of Philip II (Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Mass.) The Angels' Kitchen (Musée du Louvre, Paris) The Dream Of the Patrician (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) The Patrician John and His Wife (Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid) The Triumph of the Eucharist (Lord Farringdon Collection, Buscot Park, Farringdon, England) Saint Augustine in Ecstasy [Not sourced from the above book, from a Christies auction actually]

Herrera the Elder The Israelites Receiving Manna (unknown/destroyed?) Moses Striking the Rock (unknown/destroyed?) The Marriage at Cana (unknown/destroyed?) The Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes (Musée d'Amiens, destroyed in 1918) Last Communion of Saint Bonaventure (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Saint Basil Dictating His Doctrine (Musée du Louvre, Paris)

Zurbarán Saint Apollonia (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Saint Lucy Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chartres Saint Anthony Abbot (private collection, Madrid) Saint Lawrence (State Hermitage, St. Petersburg) Saint Bonaventure at the Council of Lyon (Musée du Louvre, Paris) Saint Bonaventure on His Bier (Musée du Louvre, Paris) The Apotheosis of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Museo de Bellas Artes, Seville) Saints Romanus and Barulas (Art Institute of Chicago) paintings of the archangel Gabriel and Saint Agatha (both Musée de Montpellier)

Cano Saint John with the Poisoned Chalice and Saint James the Apostle (both Musée du Louvre, Paris) Saint John Giving Communion to the Virgin (Palazzo Bianco, Genoa) Saint John's Vision Of God (John and Mable Ringling Museum Of Art, Sarasota) Charity and Faith (present location unknown; 1852 Soult sale) Saint Agnes (destroyed in fire in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin)

Uncertain source, thought to be Murillo at the time A Resting Virgin (usually identified as The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, Wallace Collection London) The Death Of Abel Saint Peter Saint Paul

Other artists in his collection whose specific works weren't named Sebastiån de Llanos Valdés Pedro de Camprobin José Antolinez Sebastiån Gomez

#jean-de-dieu soult #jean de dieu soult #napoleon's marshals #napoleonic wars #napoleonic era #cad rambles about dead frenchmen on main #cadmus rambles

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eoieopda · 1 year

Note

hello! i have a song for the game. Thank you for doing this!

I really like Anywhere by Rita Ora and Namjoon.

thank youu x

oh this was such a cute song! 10/10

listen here

ft. boyf!joon, a whole-ass adventure across Europe in the span of 30 days, reader getting zooted after consuming the tiniest bit of an edible.

just take me anywhere / take me anywhere / anywhere away with you

Until now, every bit of your month-long trip across the European continent had gone according to plan.

Well, plan was generous.

Apart from identifying locations in each of your favorite books; purchasing all necessary travel tickets; and making hotel reservations, there had been no real plan. It was simply you and the best boy, taking in whatever sights you could. Good wine, even better cheese, and perfect company.

You’d left Korea on the first of November, landing in London and staying for two days. The turn-around was almost as quick as the Eurostar, projecting you onward over the rails to Paris. Most of those four days were spent nudging Namjoon along through the Louvre, wondering if he’d ever willingly leave. Begrudgingly, after several hours, he did — no assistance from security was necessary.

The first of your horrifying, turbulent, rickety, budget flights — in a tin can with wings — had delivered you to Barcelona. The second carried you to Milan, with your death grip on Namjoon’s hand lasting for the duration of your time in the air. After train rides from Milan to Rome, then Rome to Venice, a bus had carried you off to Salzburg.

When you’d found yourself in those living, Sound of Music hills, you didn’t even have to ask. Namjoon — without question or comment — joined you in spinning like a fool until you both dropped dizzy in the grass. Maybe it was the altitude, but you could’ve sworn the “I love you” he‘d murmured in that moment hit a little harder than usual.

A train to Vienna, a bus to Budapest, then — gulp — another panicked flight; this time to Kraków. Two days there, then — with a whine and several glasses of its homophone, downed quickly at the airport bar — a fourth flight to Prague. Shortly after, you’d boarded a train to Berlin.

By your fifth low-cost, high-anxiety flight, Namjoon had discovered an antidote. If you were at least as high as the plane itself, the creaking of that tiny, shaky hunk of metal was significantly less upsetting. It was fitting, after all, landing in Amsterdam while still floating off one (1) quarter of an edible.

God, what a light-weight.

Your incessant giggling had been overpowered by Namjoon’s, though he was stone-cold sober — just thoroughly amused. There, the two of you realized you’d made a mistake: the phallogical museum you were fascinated by was in Iceland, not the Netherlands.

On the subsequent train ride to Bruges, you’d vowed to hit the world-renowned dick museum on your next trip. Your current trip was now at its end, leaving you to scurry off to Brussels for a commercial flight back to Incheon.

Unfortunately, inclement weather had grabbed Belgium in a chokehold.

With your backs pressed against the wall, you and Namjoon sat weary on the floor near your gate. Your respective legs were sprawled out in front of you. Head resting on your shoulder, Namjoon spent a large portion of your wait in the liminal space between the dream and waking worlds.

If there had been any local hotels available for the night, he might’ve actually gotten some proper rest — in a bed, but likely still using you as a pillow. Instead, you were stuck where you sat: huddled together in the same terminal you’d been in for many, many hours.

Languidly, you traced mindless patterns into the denim fabric holding onto his quads for dear life. You sighed through a frown as you glanced down at him, “I’m sorry we can’t seem to get home, love.”

Too tired to move, Namjoon merely mumbled from where he’d nestled into your side, “Home is anywhere with you.”

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thececeverse · 27 days

Text

002. CHOUKA AIKAWA … ˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗

CHOUKA AIKAWA is a soloist under Republic Records, Flowerbank Entertainment, and Avex Trax. Starting out as a fashion blogger, YouTuber, former ballerina, and socialite in 2017, Chouka branched into acting in 2019, and finally made her way into the music industry in 2024. In addition to becoming a prominent fashion influencer, she has also become a prominent singer, with her debut single “Girls Don’t Cry” going on to become a chart topper.

BASICS … ˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗

BIRTH NAME … Aikawa Chouka

ENGLISH NAME … Love Rose Antoinette Aikawa

KOREAN NAME … Soo Sa-rang (수사랑)

NICKNAMES … Rosie, Marie Antoinette, Cupid, Ai-chan

BIRTHDAY … March 14th, 1999

ZODIAC … Pisces

BIRTHPLACE … Milan, Italy

HOMETOWN … Milan, Italy + Kyoto, Japan + Aoyama, Tokyo, Japan + Paris, France + Berlin, Germany + Amsterdam, Netherlands + Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

ETHNICITY … Japanese

NATIONALITY … Italian-Japanese-American

SEXUALITY … Pansexual

PHYSICAL … ˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗

HEIGHT … 5’7” 1/2 (171 cm)

WEIGHT … 119 lbs (53 kg)

BLOOD TYPE … O

PIERCINGS … N/A

TATTOOS …

꒰ ♡ ꒱ “Ti amerò per sempre” + located on left shoulder blade + shares with fiancé

꒰ ♡ ꒱ A rose encased in glass + located on left shoulder

CLAIMS … ˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗

FACE CLAIM … Minatozaki Sana (TWICE)

VOICE CLAIM … Ariana Grande (English) + YooA (Korean / OH MY GIRL)

DANCE CLAIM … Sunmi (soloist / ex-Wonder Girls)

CAREER … ˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗

COMPANY … Republic Records + Avex Trax + Flowerbank Entertainment + Wilhelmina Models + Creative Artists Agency

OCCUPATION … Singer-songwriter, social media influencer, actress, TV personality, businesswoman, model, former ballet dancer

DEBUT DATE … April 5th, 2024

TRAINEE YEARS … N/A

YEARS ACTIVE … 2024–present

SURVIVAL SHOWS … N/A

FANDOM NAME … Rosettes (로제트 + ロゼット)

COLORS … #FFA3B9 + #FFFFFF

BACKGROUND … ˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ 🩰 … ONE. IF I WAS A RICH GIRL

Aikawa Chouka was born on March 14th, 1999 in Milan, Italy. And unlike most in her field, she was born into immense wealth and prestige. Her father, Aikawa Chujirō (also known as Michael Aikawa), is the current president and CEO of the Aikawa Group. Originally founded in 1969 as a technology conglomerate, the company old its shares twenty years later for $20 billion, turning itself into a sprawling holdings company. Owning mostly luxury brands (including Versace), they also own multiple department stores in the United States such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s, and even Paramount. The Aikawa Group has been touted as the “Samsung of Japan,” and with a net worth of over $480 billion, the Aikawa family is the richest in the world.

Meanwhile, Chouka’s mother, Nakamura Aiko (also known as Liliane Aikawa) is an accomplished, London-born actress and designer, as the founder of luxury lifestyle brand Lily by Liliane, as well as a socialite, art dealer, and former model. Aiko was born into a family older and wealthier than her husband’s (or at least that would’ve been true in 1990), and is the only child of Nakamura Hiroaki, the president of the Nakamura Foods Company. Founded all the way back in 1909 (although the Nakamura family was rather high up in Japanese society generations prior), the food packing conglomerate is worth over $20 billion. Like her husband’s family, Aiko’s family also owns a department store, having acquired ownership of the Tokyu Department Store in 2009.

Obviously, Chouka grew up in the lap of luxury. Living in Milan for the first five years of her life, she attended a Japanese international school and learned her native language of Japanese, along with Italian and English. In 2004, Chouka and her family moved to Kyoto. And due to her family’s wealth, they would spend a lot of time moving.

During the summers of 2009 and 2010, they would live in three separate cities: Berlin, Amsterdam, and Paris. Starting in 2011, they would live in Singapore for a year. And finally, in 2015, the Aikawa family would move for the final time to the wealthy neighborhood of Aoyama in Tokyo. Chouka completed her final two years of high school there, and was involved in quite a few extracurriculars. She was a cheerleader, a member of her school’s tennis team, and she served as editor-in-chief of its newspaper club. Chouka would move again in 2016, but without her parents this time. She spent that winter at a boarding school in Switzerland, like most rich girls of her caliber.

By then, Chouka was a seasoned ballet dancer. At the age of three, she was placed in classes by her mother at the request of Chouka’s grandmother. She attended two separate ballet academies at some point: the Dutch National Ballet Academy and the Paris Opera Ballet. For years, Chouka believed that she would become the world’s next prima, but the universe had different plans.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ 🩰 … TWO. DRESS TO IMPRESS

For the most part, Chouka’s childhood was normal. However, when you have a designer for a mother, you tend to get dragged to a whole lot of fashion shows. At the tender age of thirteen, she attended her first show for Dior. And it wasn’t just that, either. Chouka grew up watching her grandmother order couture from Paris and Milan, she would be gifted old pieces from her mother, and her father even gifted her Louis Vuitton for her tenth birthday. After that Dior show, however, Chouka’s entire world changed.

She became quite obsessed with fashion, and she would spend hours flipping through fashion magazines or rummaging through her mother’s closet. All the balls and launch parties and red carpet events that Chouka would attend with her family changed her outlook on fashion, and after she was scouted by a modeling agency at fifteen, her interest only grew. She attended Fashion Weeks in Tokyo and New York, and modeled for brands like Betsey Johnson.

Chouka kind of knew that her career as a model was temporary, though, and her “true calling” was a fashion designer or journalist (courtesy of her mother). With the rise of the beauty guru, Chouka’s interest in fashion blogs, and all the time she spent on Instagram, however, she decided that, instead, she would become social media famous.

In 2015, Chouka launched a blog of her own: Love Moda. This was unusual for her family, as like the real-life, Japanese rendition of the Young family from Crazy Rich Asians, they were notoriously private. They would sporadically appear in news articles, Aiko would give the occasional magazine interview solely for brand reasons or to promote a new project, and Chujirō mainly limited his media appearances to business publications. Obviously, though, Chouka had vastly different aspirations. Love Moda was mentioned in an editorial she did with Tatler, and that kind of exposure—plus the fact that she had money—made interest in her blog skyrocket. By 2016, it had amassed over 10,000 readers.

By the next year, Chouka had cemented herself as a somewhat of a “baby influencer.” Despite the invites to Paris fashion shows and the articles being written about her in Vogue, however, she was far from mainstream. Her small legion of fans wanted her to be, though. Chouka was asked to start a YouTube channel by one of them, and so on May 19th, 2017, she did.

Chouka was already a bit of a “micro-celebrity,” so by the summer, her sizable following had transferred to her new channel. Her YouTube gradually begin to grow larger than her blog as the beauty community gained traction themselves, and her status as the “Aikawa Group heiress” was definitely a selling point, alongside her feminine, “rich girl” fashion and peculiar accent. By the end of 2017, the brand deals were beginning to roll in, and everyone was gradually starting to know her name.

In 2018, a particular video of Chouka’s suddenly went viral. What followed afterwards was the exact mainstream fame that she’d been looking for. She moved to Los Angeles from New York and was scoring ambassadorships with the likes of Kate Spade, Nina Ricci, and even Prada. She was getting invited to award shows, launch parties, and was a seasoned Fashion Week attendee at that point. And by 2019, Chouka blew up even further. She was named “fashion’s newest It girl,” she made her way into the acting industry, and it was pretty much impossible to escape her.

2018 was also a rather difficult year for her, though. At that point, Chouka had been a ballerina for sixteen years. But with her rising career online, she knew that she couldn’t pursue her lifelong dream of prima stardom without giving up her YouTube career.

Although ballet would always have a special place in her heart, her career aspirations had obviously changed. Even then, though, Chouka was still training, and she still wanted to attend another ballet academy. But balancing that and what clearly transformed from a hobby into her way of life was asking for too much. So that year, Chouka hung up her pointe shoes and bid goodbye to ballet. That decision was a difficult one, but it was probably for the best, as her career as an influencer has done more for her than a ballet career ever would. And there was still a whole lot more in store.

⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚ 🩰 … THREE. ALL THE INFLUENCE IN THE WORLD

Within the next five years, Chouka would grow to become one of the best fashion influencers on the planet, with 11 million subscribers, over twenty brand deals, and countless successful business ventures to her name. Even with a billion dollar bank account, though, she—like most influencers nowadays—couldn’t help but branch into the music industry.

In late 2023, Chouka signed to Republic Records and Avex Trax to manage her American and Japanese activities, promising her fans a debut by the next year. And on April 5th, 2024, she fulfilled her promise. Debuting with the single “Girls Don’t Cry,” her debut was a smash hit. Surprisingly, it was received far better than the music of other influencers, nearly becoming a No. 1 hit and turning Chouka into an up and coming pop princess. Even with her previously existing and clearly successful career, Chouka has plans for an album, a Japanese debut, and a potential Korean debut. Her first single already has fans eager to see what she has next, and her next projects can turn her into not only an It girl of the fashion world, but an It girl of the music industry, as well.

Flowerbank Entertainment belongs to @pinkscaped + @venusvity ! ♡

#˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗ COME INTO THE VERSE !#˗ˏˋ ꒰ ♡ ꒱ ˎˊ˗ CHAR … CHOUKA !#PROFILES !#kpop oc #fictional kpop oc #kpop oc soloist #kpop soloist #kpop solo artist #fake kpop idol #fictional kpop idol #idol oc soloist #idol soloist #fake idol oc #idolverse #fictional idol oc #fictional idol community

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bcacstuff · 11 months

Note

Are you giving any credence to the info Purv has regarding CM?

You don't say so 😳

Good observation Anon! How come there's always something new when I just showed how fabricated her 'proof' is....

Eeeeewwwww

Yes I've seen it 🙄... The Hyrox patch is the same for one whole season, only the city name changes

The one for Glasgow this year

Berlin

Birmingham

Los Angeles

Do you need more?

Oh and this season (22/23) so far there have been these many events

I didn't take the time to count all the participants of all those events, if someone wants to be my guest. But I think you can imagine there are thousands and thousands of people all over the world owning these patches of the Hyrox event.

Oh and I don't know how to clearly identify what exact city or cities the patches (note patches as in plural) on the backpack are from. Can you?

Yeah, sorry this is very blurry, and it is going to look very shippery this way. I just can't help... but really... help me out here?

And... yes, as I noted above, and there's still not something wrong with my eyes and I swear I didn't have a drop of alcohol all day. (and it's 3.30am right now) but I'm not seeing double... do I? I see two, as in 2 patches of this season! Do you see it too???

I don't know, but it seems to me that every participant only get one (1) patch from the event he/she participates in. And by my knowledge, and as we can see on the website, Sam only participated in the one at Glasgow. No other ones!!! Go, f.i look at Nic Rasenti's entries. he has a lot more, London and Glasgow. Oh, perhaps Nic was with her in Paris? Is that how she knows Sam? he has been in Paris before with Nicole. And perhaps he was hoping he would be one of the friends invited for his Miami birthday party and told Cinderella to go there too.... 🤪

See what I did here? I just did what shippers do, and what Purv does. She tries to paste a couple of random things together that slightly can in some very far fetched way be connected, but there are a ton of other options, which conveniently aren't taken into account. Needless to say I don't think it was Nic in Paris cheating on Nicole 😉 But I take it that my dearest gentle readers do understand that.

Right... next. Btw. she wrote 6 weeks ago in a hotel with Cinderella... 😉

Now see, here's an Anon that can calculate for herself and use a calendar as well. Exactly, 6 weeks ago was Easter weekend, he was not only with his family but also spotted on the airport in Edi by a fan. (on 8 April)

But okay okay, I hear you she 'posted' a bunch of pics, she could have easily posted that a week later on. Okay... cause, it was Friday 30 March right, her Anon spotted them in a restaurant in Paris. Friday after he had just been one day on set (per the birthday post for Dries), that particular post you should expect Cinderella to like, especially if he would have given her the privilege to leave the set already after one day to spent the weekend with her in Paris. But exactly that one was not liked by her according to the fantasy lalalanders (how rude!)

Oh and for the record, if you would like to be in Paris in no time and not go through all the trouble an airport has, (going there Antwerp - Brussels and all the checks and security) we in Europe rather take the Thalys to Paris. Brings you right in the city at Gare du Nord, Very comfortable travel, and you'll be in the heart of Paris within the hour. Check it out people! (but yeah, I figure you in the US wouldn't dream of it)

right next...

I haven't seen any video, I did never requested to follow Cinderella (I never follow any of those or OL related accounts). I really do not need to see it but thanks for your observation Anon

There is no way anybody can identify the woman in NYC in the video, I even have the original one without the watermark... But for what it is worth, it doesn't strike any similarity to the pics I've seen from Cinderella.

Yes we're calling her Cinderella. Thanks for you message, maybe I can make some more sense out of it. Read on!

Oh... now that's rude, he didn't even bring a whole case of his whisky like he did for his birthday in Miami??? Not even a bottle??? Now... I'm totally disappointed now... or could it be that... oh right wait the backpack...

or just maybe not! ^^

Ah right the backpack! Uhm, I posted the image above. Let's do some comparing of backpacks we know Sam owns and travels with. (as that is what shippers do as well).

December 2022 leaving NYC

See the grey straps? No match

11 January fanpic by QueenNurys IG

These straps look even more broad with some cushion thing on the shoulder, I don't see a match. Do you?

and doesn't this backpack look sort of green? 🤔

Nope nope nope....

I think you're suffering from confirmation bias Anon. Don't worry though many do in this fandom

How am I doing so far Anon?

And how well did that work out 🤐

Conclusion: As said above, a lot of pasting things together. I really think P should be a bit nicer to shippers at this point as her posts are even worse in putting all kind of 'proof' together that is purely random and wouldn't hold in any court. She's making a fool of herself by doing the same things she condemns shippers for. Making the most fantastic connections that can be debunked easily in many ways. More over how these things come up right after something is posted here, like the Hyrox events. Why did she not notice that before... ooh right yes, her eyes after yesterday her eyes are hurting... but she had weeks in advance to figure this all out, no? Really, I almost have more respect for shippers for putting their posts together with proof (that also doesn't hold, don't get me wrong) but at the very least had more proper investigation and thoughts than what is fabricated here in 2 nights....

Now my dearest gentle readers, I hope you will grant me some sleep (3.50am right now) and hopefully I can spend my time from here on to real news and not fabricated nonsense.

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the-garbanzo-annex-jr · 6 months

Text

by Rikki Hollander

Anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic activists whose life’s mission it is to delegitimize the Jewish state have been going through a rough patch as they’ve seen Western support for their mission drop in the wake of the atrocities perpetrated by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists on civilians in Israel — including the targeting of infants in their cribs and of the elderly and infirm, of women and children, as well as men who were either brutalized, tortured, raped, burnt alive, decapitated, massacred or taken hostage — all as a means of achieving Hamas’ stated goal of annihilating the Jewish state and its Jewish residents. The date of the Palestinian terrorist invasion, Oct. 7, 2023, marked the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

To be sure, there are still some supporters in the West who celebrate the carnage in Israel unleashed by the terrorists and others who justify the massacres, but the vast majority of Americans and international leaders have expressed solidarity with Israel –lighting up landmarks all over the U.S., as well as in Paris, London, Rome, Berlin, Madrid in Israel’s blue and white colors. They understand and have expressed recognition of the existential threat faced by Israel from its neighboring, Palestinian genocidal terrorist regime and the Palestinian leaders who refuse to condemn its savage actions.

Ever since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack awakened this sense of solidarity with Israel, the anti-Zionist activists have been urgently scrambling to shift the narrative, justifying Hamas actions as “the right of colonized people…to resist the occupation of their land by whatever means they deem necessary,” attacking “the governments of the colonial West for… hypocritically standing with apartheid Israel and duly adopting its deceptive timeline of the current ‘violence’ as if it all began on Saturday with the powerful armed reaction of the oppressed Palestinians in Gaza” and trying to change the conversation to condemning the Israeli Defense Force’s targeting of Hamas strongholds and weaponry even while trying their best to avoid civilian collateral deaths — by falsely branding Israel’s actions as war crimes.

In the midst of all this, a brutal murder took place in the U.S. The victims were a 6-year-old, innocent Palestinian boy stabbed to death and his mother, who was injured in a stabbing by his family’s deranged landlord who entertained paranoid delusions about the Palestinian Muslim family killing him after reportedly hearing news stories about the massacres by Palestinian terrorists in Israel.

Enter the anti-Zionist activists who cynically exploited the tragic event for their own purposes as they attempted to attack Israel and connect it to Israeli military actions. Ahmed Rehab , Executive Director of the Chicago Office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) and CAIR’s National Strategic Communications Director, spoke at a press conference alongside the family members of the victims where he essentially blamed the support expressed for Israel and condemnation of Hamas actions as contributing to the murder and tried to turn the conversation to allegations of crimes by Israel. He said:

“I blame the murderer for the murder, but also I ask all people of conscience, I ask our leaders, I ask our media to what extent …was [the murderer] radicalized and brainwashed by this lopsided, one-sided atmosphere that has fanned the flames of hatred against Muslims and Palestinians. And just as the families of these Palestinian-American citizens back in Gaza and in Palestine are suffering from what is now being called war crimes – blanket bombings, etc. – and this boy, this family who sought refuge in the United States have now been stabbed – one is killed and one is in serious condition, we fear for her life. And I was speaking to the father and he said part of the reason we came here was to escape the settler-violence in which situations like this could occur with impunity, and it chased us all the way to the United States.”

Rehab used his platform to attack not only Israel and its supporters, but he impugned Jews, as well, for the murder by insinuating, without an iota of evidence, that the murderer, Joseph Czuba, was a Jew. In fact, he was not. (Czuba and his wife belong to a Catholic church in Plainfield, Ill.) Nor was there ever any indication that the perpetrator was of Jewish background. But the opportunity to delegitimize the Jewish state and its Jewish supporters was too good to miss, so despite any evidence, the CAIR spokesman inferred that the murderer was a Jew radicalized by the news reporting from Israel.

Lest anyone still doubts that anti-Semitism is inherent in the anti-Zionist narrative depicting Jews in Israel as settler-colonialists responsible for all the violence in the Middle East and Jewish supporters responsible for violence elsewhere in the world, and lest they doubt the anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic agenda of CAIR, just listen to its spokesman’s words and innuendo. Watch below.

#cair #antisemitism #ahmed rehab

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my-deer-friend · 2 months

Note

Have you visited many locations associated with your historical research? What are your dream destinations?

This is such a lovely question – thanks, Shaun!

A few; not nearly enough, but that's unsurprising considering I am interested in American history but have not (yet) crossed the Atlantic.

One of my favourite things to do is simply walk around in the areas I know my historical faves lived and worked in, which has resulted in my dragging some very patient friends around obscure streets in London, Warsaw, Berlin and Paris.

Versailles was also a highlight in that regard – walking through the same rooms and gardens, trying to imagine the impression it would have made, taking in nuances and details and other sensory information to build a richer picture of their experience. One of the best moments was taking the shuttle back to the palace building from the far end of the gardens and seeing the buildings emerging slowly and majestically up ahead, imagining it through the eyes of someone arriving for the first time after months in transit from half-way around the world.

I will be in New York for a few days in March and I hope to tick off some of the revolutionary-era sites in the city, though the list of those is fairly short. I'll be sure to visit Philadelphia and Charleston at some point as well, both for the official sites and for the walking-around-on-the-streets vibe.

If I could instantly teleport to anywhere in the world right now, though, it would be to the state archives in Geneva. I just know there are things in there relevant to my research that aren't coming up in the catalogue searches, and if only someone let me in for a week or three...

#asks #18th century history

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homomenhommes · 17 days

Text

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more … April 11

1780 – William Smith and Theodosius Reed are pilloried in England for attempted sodomy. They are attacked by a crowd throwing objects, killing Smith. The London Morning Post endorsed the crowd's actions.

1901 – The Wisconsin author Glenway Wescott, was born on this date (d.1987). A major American novelist during the 1920-1940 period and a figure in the American expatriate literary community in Paris during the 1920s Wescott was the model for the character Robert Prentiss in Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

He produced a series of best-selling, highly regarded novels, notably The Grandmothers (1927), The Pilgrim Hawk (1940) and Apartment In Athens (1945), although he didn't complete a novel after the age of forty-five. He was equally well known as an arts impressario and for the company he kept.

Wescott is a linking figure at the heart of the American literary scene in the middle of the 20th century. As a young writer in 1920s Paris, he associated with Hemingway, Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald. On his return to the States he was a central figure in New York's artistic and gay communities - W. H. Auden, Christopher Isherwood, Somerset Maugham, E. M. Forster, Jean Cocteau, Ford Madox Ford, Thornton Wilder, and many others were among his acquaintance.

Wescott by Lynes

Although only some of his work hints at his sexuality, he wrote a private journal from 1937 until the 1950s, focusing on his private life and relationships with fellow gay artists including lifelong partner Monroe Wheeler, photographer George Platt Lynes and Paul Cadmus – this was published in 1990 as Continual Lessons. His relationship with Monroe Wheeler lasted from 1919 until Wescott's death.

There was a Paul Cadmus painting that hung in his house. In it, three men, clearly arranged in a triangle, are sitting on a picnic blanket. The men are George Platt Lynes, Monroe Wheeler and Wescott himself. The picture below may be that painting:

1914 – Norman McLaren (d.1987) was a Scottish-born Canadian animator and film director known for his work for the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). He was a pioneer in a number of areas of animation and filmmaking, including drawn on film animation, visual music, abstract film, pixilation and graphical sound.

His awards included an Oscar for the Best Documentary in 1952 for Neighbours, a Silver Bear for best short documentary at the 1956 Berlin International Film Festival Rythmetic and a 1969 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film for Pas de deux.

McLaren was born in Stirling, Scotland and studied set design at the Glasgow School of Art. His early experiments with film and animation included actually scratching and painting the film stock itself, as he did not have ready access to a camera. His earliest extant film, Seven Till Five (1933), a "day in the life of an art school" was influenced by Eisenstein and displays a strongly formalist attitude.

McLaren's next film, Camera Makes Whoopee (1935), was a more elaborate take on the themes explored in Seven Till Five, inspired by his acquisition of a Ciné-Kodak camera, which enabled him to execute a number of 'trick' shots. McLaren used pixilation effects, superimpositions and animation not only to display the staging of an art school ball, but also to tap into the aesthetic sensations supposedly produced by this event.

His two early films won prizes at the Scottish Amateur Film Festival, where fellow Scot and future NFB founder John Grierson was a judge. Grierson, who was at that time head of the British General Post Office film unit, saw another of his movies at an amateur film festival and took interest. He hired Mclaren for the GPO as soon as he completed his studies.

After making four films for the GPO in London, including Love on the Wing, McLaren moved to New York City in 1939, just as World War II was about to begin in Europe. He worked as a freelancer until 1941.

At the invitation of Grierson, he moved to Canada in 1941 to work for the National Film Board, to open an animation studio and to train Canadian animators. During his work for the NFB, McLaren created his most famous film, Neighbours (1952), which has won various awards around the world, including the Canadian Film Award and the Academy Award. Besides the brilliant combination of visuals and sound, the film has a very strong social message against violence and war. If you have never seen this brilliant 8 minute film, take the time to watch it below:

Not many Canadians realize that Neighbours garnered its Academy Award in the documentary category, or that McLaren's film was cut and expurgated in classrooms in many countries because of its resolute depiction of violence between two next-door families. The irony is that McLaren was the most gentle of figures, whose experiences filming the brutal fighting during the Spanish Civil War turned him into a lifelong pacifist.

In his early period in Canada, McLaren spent considerable time developing the animation department of the board. McLaren's presence at NFB inspired younger generations of animators, notably Oscar-winning producer, writer and director Derek Lamb, director Kaj Pindal and, perhaps most notably, the tragic, driven talent of Ryan Larkin. Also among his pupils are numbered James McKay of Toronto and George Dunning who designed the animation for the Beatles' film Yellow Submarine.

McLaren was gay, and his longtime companion was NFB director Guy Glover, whom he met at the ballet in London in 1937. The two were together until McLaren's death in 1987.

1932 – Joel Grey (born Joel David Katz) is an American actor, singer, dancer, and photographer. He is best known for portraying the Master of Ceremonies in both the stage and film versions of the Kander & Ebb musical Cabaret. He has won the Academy Award, Tony Award, and Golden Globe Award. He also originated the role of George M. Cohan in the musical George M! in 1973, and the Wizard of Oz in the musical Wicked. He also starred as Moonface Martin in the Broadway revivals of Anything Goes, and as Amos Hart in Chicago.

Grey was born in Cleveland, Ohio, the son of Goldie "Grace" (née Epstein) and Mickey Katz, a Jewish actor, comedian, and musician. He started his career in the Cleveland Play House's Curtain Pullers children's theatre program in the early 1940s, appearing in productions such as Grandmother Slyboots, Jack of Tarts and a lead role in the their mainstage production of On Borrowed Time.

Grey won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in March 1973 for his performance as the Master of Ceremonies in the 1972 film version of Cabaret. His victory was part of a Cabaret near-sweep, which saw Liza Minnelli win Best Actress and Bob Fosse win Best Director.

In 1958, Grey married Jo Wilder; they divorced in 1982. Together, they had two children: actor Jennifer and chef James. He is also a photographer; his first book of photographs, Pictures I Had to Take, was published in 2003; its follow-up, Looking Hard at Unexpected Things, was published in 2006. His third book, 1.3 – Images from My Phone, a book of photographs taken with his camera phone, was published in 2009. An exhibit of his work was held in April 2011 at the Museum of the City of New York, titled "Joel Grey/A New York Life."

In January 2015, Grey opened up about his sexuality in an interview with People, stating: "I don't like labels, but if you have to put a label on it, I'm a gay man."

1955 – The American singer songwriter Michael Callen was born on this date (d.1993). He was a architect of the response to the AIDS crisis in the United States.

First diagnosed with "Gay related immune deficiency" (GRID) in 1982, Callen quickly became a leader in the response to the epidemic. He was a founding member of the People With AIDS Self-Empowerment Movement among other organizations, and he testified before the President's Commission on AIDS and both houses of the United States Congress. As a founding member of the New York Gay & Lesbian Community Center Board, and through his activities in other organizations around the country, he also became a leading voice in Gay and Lesbian politics.

In 1983, Callen co-authored the book How to Have Sex in an Epidemic: One Approach, which outlined the tenets of safe(r) sex. In 1990, he wrote Surviving AIDS, which received an Honorable Mention from the American Medical Writers Association.

He was a founding member of the Gay a cappella singing group The Flirtations, with whom he recorded two albums. He also had a solo album, Purple Heart (Significant Other Records, 1988), which a review in The Advocate called "the most remarkable Gay independent release of the past decade."

In partnership with Oscar winner Peter Allen and Marsha Melamet, he wrote his most enduring song, "Love Don't Need a Reason," which he sang frequently at Gay pride and AIDS-related events around the country. In 1993 he appeared in the films Philadelphia (as part of The Flirtations) and Zero Patience (appearing in drag as a singing virus, Miss HIV).

During the last year of his life, Michael worked furiously to record over 40 tunes; Twenty-nine of these compositions have been released posthumously as a double CD, titled Legacy, which garnered four Gay & Lesbian American Music Awards, including Album of the Year and Best Recording by a Male Artist. Legacy, recorded with the help of such prominent musicians as Holly Near, Cris Williamson, David Lasley, James Taylor, Greg Wells, k.d. lang, Fred Hersch, Arnold McCuller (Phil Collins) and Steve Sandberg (David Byrne, Ruben Blades) is a testament to Callen's commitment to the Gay and Lesbian community as well as his own passionate struggle for Gay identity and selfhood.

Callen died of AIDS-related complications in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 38.

1961 – Vincent Gallo is an American actor, director, musician and painter. Though he has had minor roles in mainstream films such as Goodfellas, Arizona Dream, The Funeral and Palookaville, he is most associated with independent movies, including Buffalo '66, which he wrote, directed, scored and starred in and The Brown Bunny, which he also wrote, directed, produced, starred in and photographed.

Gallo was born in Buffalo, New York. Both of his parents emigrated from Sicily. Gallo lived in New York City and from there traveled around most of Europe. In his adolescence, Gallo was frequently arrested for petty crimes and for indecent exposure, and has reminisced in print about his compulsive adolescent masturbatory habits. While living in New York, Gallo was a go-go dancer at various homosexual clubs and has also admitted to prostituting himself to homosexual clientele. "I did do sexual things for money. With men, I've never performed or had fellatio performed, but I did do jerk-off things. I would go in a peep booth and watch straight porn and get paid 5 or 10 dollars to have somebody watch me masturbate."

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Gallo was a painter in the New York City art scene showing with famed art dealer Annina Nosei, performed in a rap duo and was part of the first hip-hop television broadcast Graffiti Rock, and played in an industrial band called Bohack which released an album titled It Took Several Wives. In the early 2000s, he released several solo recordings on WARP records. Gallo is known for his outspoken views and generally sarcastic nature, once stating: "I stopped painting in 1990 at the peak of my success just to deny people my beautiful paintings; and I did it out of spite."

Gallo has modeled, most notably for Calvin Klein, and been photographed by Richard Avedon. He first began painting, then racing motorcycles, and finally became an actor.

Gallo acted in the film Arizona Dream, with Johnny Depp, in the cult comedy Palookaville, and in The Funeral, and had a lead role in the film Truth or Consequences, N.M.

In 1998, his debut film Buffalo '66 was nominated for, but did not win, an award for "Best First Feature" at the Independent Spirit Awards.

In 2003, Gallo starred in and directed the film The Brown Bunny. The film, which chronicles a motorcycle racer's cross country road trip, co-starred Chloë Sevigny. The film, which contained a scene of Sevigny performing unsimulated oral sex upon Gallo, received overwhelmingly negative critical response to its initial cut and became a media scandal, in part due to Gallo's use of a still image from a sex scene on a promotional billboard. According to Andrea LeVasseur of the Allmovie, The Brown Bunny "premiered to much derision at the Cannes Film Festival."

1969 – Leonard Miron is a Romanian television and radio presenter and journalist and works for Romanian National Television (Televiziunea Română).

He was born in Galaţi, Romania but was brought up in Piteşti and graduated from the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy before starting a career in media. He speaks fluent English and French as well as German and Spanish.

He has worked on a number of different television programmes, but is best known for presenting music shows and galas such as the national selection for the Eurovision Song Contest.

Since September 2005 he has been living in London, where he has been studying for a Ph.D. in London and working at the same time as a flight attendant for a London-based airline. He returns to Romania weekly, where he presents a range of light entertainment shows.

Starting in 2014 Leonard has worked for Viking River Cruises, one of the biggest river cruise lines in the world. As a Program Director on Viking Embla and Viking Lif, Leonard rapidly gained both respect and popularity among both passengers and crew, and was mentioned in stories in magazines and newspapers in USA, Canada, Australia and Europe. His popularity increased season after season and in 2017 he was a constant presence in reviews published by the acclaimed website cruisecritic.com

He came out as gay in November 2012.

2013 – The French Senate in Paris approves the law for equal marriage and adoption rights for gay and lesbian couples.

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museenkuss · 9 months

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Nude or red lips? Clean lines or ruffles? Harper’s Bazaar or Vogue? Brunch or happy hour? Paris or Milan? Mini or maxi? Sparkling wine or cocktails? Autumn/Winter or Spring/Summer? Three day city trip or wellness weekend? Bombshell curls or sleek bob? Berlin or London? Silk scarf or gold watch? All black or colourful prints?

#sigh. I feel like rewatching Shoppaholic #you KNOW I’m a glossy pages kind of girl. like it’s SUCH a specific kind of glam I had to try and capture it

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herrlindemann · 11 months

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Rock Hard - November 2005, interview with Schneider

Faster than expected, Rammstein, Germany's most successful band, are honoring us with their fifth album. The album that will be released at the end of October is called 'Rosenrot' and it comes up with a few musical surprises. We listened to it at the official press event in Paris.

As is well known, the band from Berlin has never lacked for original ideas. For the 'Rosenrot' listening session, some members of the press floated into the French capital and a London double-decker was rented, which was plastered with Rammstein advertising and with which the scribblers were sent on a sightseeing tour of Paris. Not a normal sightseeing tour, of course...

After dropping off all their bags and armed only with pen and paper, each press person is handed a sealed Discman containing a copy of the new album. In times when illegal pre-copies of all kinds of acts are haunting the Internet weeks before the release, these precautionary measures are understandable. The thing has the advantage that you can listen to the record several times in peace and quiet, because such a sightseeing tour takes a while. And most of the present writers actually have no more sight for the sights of the Seine metropolis, because one is too engrossed in the somewhat surprising sounds of 'Rosenrot'. Here is a short description of the nine pieces that were already ready to listen to at the time of the press event:

Let's start with 'Benzin', a track that was originally intended for the last album 'Reise, Reise' and was suggested by the record company as the first single. Once you've heard the song, you'll know why: The thing is a real anthem, a great catchy tune at a brisk tempo, equally danceable and headbang-compatible. The text either has no deeper meaning - or it's so obvious that I didn't recognize it on the first listens...

'Spring' reminds a bit of 'Stein um Stein' from the last album in terms of song structure and tempo. Very catchy and equipped with a nice piano melody in the background. The text starts out as a classic here-some-misfortune-happens-and-I-have-to-goggle story, but takes a slight twist towards the end and becomes a wicked story.

'Rosenrot' is about the eternal call of the woman and ends lyrically (of course) in a tragic way. "You have to dig deep wells if you want clear water " is one of the telling lines of text. The song is only slightly pompous; during the verses only bass and drums are used, synths hardly appear at all. Cool!

With 'Zerstören' the tempo is increased again to match the title. This is the classic Rammstein beat with plenty of lowered guitars. There's even a brief solo, and towards the end of the song there's a totally unexpected break. Let yourself be surprised! The statement of the text is marked with the punctuation « I would like to destroy something, but it must not belong to me! » Very well put.

Also 'Mann gegen Man' is pretty heavy, with an almost exploding chorus. Lyrically the only song Rammstein could catch fire with. It's about homosexuality, but of course with the band's typical, rough wit.

'Feuer & Wasser' tells the tragic story of desire and an unfulfilled love. In addition a sluggish, relaxed beat. A really nice number!

'Wo bis du' also comes with an extremely relaxed beat and a simple but effective melody line. A song with a melancholic mood that once again deals with fading love and loneliness.

Then 'Te Quiero Puta' is on the program, and the title already gives it away: The piece is sung entirely in Spanish, has a hard, dancefloor-compatible groove and is repeatedly loosened up by Mexican brass sections. Ultra cool and the favorite of most writing colleagues.

‘Ein Lied’ is ultimately pretty easy to describe: imagine the quiet beginning of 'Mein Herz brenn', stretch it out to the length of an entire song - and you have a rough idea of what the track sounds like. Lyrically a homage to the legions of Rammstein fans.

Even if the final album version will ultimately contain one or two more tracks, it can already be said that 'Rosenrot' has definitely become the most unusual and calmest Rammstein album to date.

But first of all, the question arises as to why Rammstein put out a new album so quickly in the first place, when in the past at least three years have usually passed between the individual studio releases. Drummer Christoph Schneider answered questions.

"Well, we had just put too many good songs on tape during the production of 'Reise, Reise'," laughs the drummer. « And since we don't like double albums that much, we decided to save some songs for a quick follow-up record. After the last tour activities we barricaded ourselves in the rehearsal room in spring and composed a few more tracks. So 'Rosenrot' is a mixture of leftover tracks that we couldn't fit on 'Reise, Reise' and brand new material. »

Didn't you already have songs left over from previous studio productions that didn't make it onto the album? Or did you just have a special boost of creativity this time?

« Not much material is usually left after our strict in-band quality control, and in the past when we had more material than needed, it was mostly released as B-sides. But that would have been a waste in the current case, then B-sides always get lost somehow.

However, one could almost think that there is a kind of master plan behind the arrangement of the two plates. A lot of time had passed since the release of 'Mutter' so it made perfect sense to come back with a loud, rowdy album like 'Reise, Reise' to let the world know that Rammstein were back. If 'Reise, Reise' was full of hard tracks and lyrical provocations (just think of the first single 'Mein Teil', where it was clear from the start that certain media would jump on it and guarantee the band maximum promotion), that's how it is with 'Rosenrot' there is much more room for more relaxed tones, and with 'Mann gegen Mann' there is only one text that the band could offend with.

« For one thing, it was clear to us that we had recorded too many quiet songs on 'Reise, Reise'; we couldn't possibly have put them all on the record. So when we were writing the song this spring we knew we had to compose some heavier material to round things off. On the other hand, I have to admit that we would never have dared to propose 'Mein Teil' as the first single, and we were very surprised at the time that the record company chose exactly this song. So it wasn't really our plan to provoke as much as possible right away. »

Do you actually want to go straight back on tour for 'Rosenrot', or are you taking a break for now?

« We will definitely go on tour again at some point, but not for this album. Especially since we've been on the road a lot in the past few months anyway and have also played at numerous festivals. »

Could it be that this time you traveled abroad less than usual?

« No, rather more. »

You skipped America this time. Were you worried that the Americans would take offense at the song 'Amerika'?

"No, not at all. I don't think the song really got that big of a response over there, and some fans took it more as a pro-America anthem anyway. We were supposed to be touring there in the fall, but we had to cancel that, as well as shows in Mexico and Asia, because our keyboardist Flake fell ill. He's caught a pretty nasty infection and there's no telling at this point when he'll be operational again.”

Let's wish the busy keyboard man a speedy recovery. After all, there are legions of fans who would be happy to see more Rammstein concerts. Especially since it should be known what a high entertainment factor the Berlin shows have. And especially when it comes to outfits, the group always comes up with something original. For example, the boots Schneider used to wear on stage on the last tour didn't look particularly comfortable to pedal properly in. Or did you start with particularly light material?

« No, no, those were real, heavy boots. »

You want to tease me...

« Okay, see through! They were actually normal sneakers with huge cuffs on top. Looked bulky but was quite comfortable to play with. As a drummer, you are pretty limited in your choice of costume anyway, because you need a certain freedom of movement. »

Well, you would have to have a very direct connection. At least I read that your sister is part of the team that designs your stage clothes.

« She was actually involved in it before, but hasn't been there for a few years due to time constraints. But in general, people get very precise specifications from us regarding stage costumes. During the last tour, the Bavarian costumes were the basic idea. We're a German band and we thought about what people associate with Germany - and that's when we came up with traditional costumes. Anyway, the Bavarians are the only ones who still consciously maintain such customs. The clothes should then be 'industrialised' a bit and had to be made of very specific materials due to the pyro effects. »

And who decides who is allowed to do what? Or do you have no limits? It is at least noticeable that Flake always shoots the bird with you and comes along with the weirdest outfit.

« There are no specifications; everyone decides that for themselves."

I'm not asking that without reason, because right from the start you saw Rammstein as a collective from which no one should stand out. A welded unit without a star. But it has been noticeable for a long time that Flake takes a few liberties and breaks out of the collective — be it in your video clips or in the form of small solo interludes at the shows. Is unity slowly crumbling?

“We're just very different characters. For some, the show is incredibly important, while others concentrate more on the music. For example, I couldn't do what Flake pulls off at all. I'm not the type for that, and it wouldn't look half as fun on me. He also really lends himself to certain roles. Of course I could gossip and say that Flake is overdoing it at the moment and that he should concentrate more on playing, but the most important thing is that the balance between music and show is always there. People like Till and Flake are more the show guys. That's perfectly fine as long as it's not at the expense of the music. I mean, sometimes we play in small clubs without a show. That also works, but in the long run it would no longer be fun for some gang members. The show effects are ultimately also a trademark of Rammstein. »

You seem to be more the guy who cares about the music. Don't you sometimes feel a bit restricted because the sound of Rammstein doesn't leave much room for breaks and tills and instead you mostly have to drum pure rhythm?

« In the beginning I really enjoyed this machine-like, straight style, and I also learned a lot from it. But of course there came a point where I got a bit bored. As a musician, you always want to develop yourself. Since 'Mutter’ we've slightly changed the style and there are quite a few songs that are much more varied for me as a drummer. At first my colleagues resisted my suggestions, but after the songs were finished they realized that a Rammstein song doesn't always have to have a dead straight beat. »

Nevertheless, due to the whole orientation of the band, live you are almost condemned to always play exactly to the click. There is probably no room for improvisation in Rammstein's music.

« But in the end we all suffer from it. Our sound imposes a certain structure and discipline; everything else would not fit Rammstein at all. In that respect it's okay. Sometimes on tour we build open sections into some tracks where there is room for improvisation - strangely enough, however, after four concerts at the latest, we leveled ourselves off again so that everyone plays the same thing every evening. »

As far as I know, you also play with in-ear monitors. Do you still get anything of the concert feeling and the reactions of the audience?

“The mix that I ask for also includes the sound of the stage and the audience. For me, however, this is definitely the most pleasant and, above all, the most gentle on the ears.”

One could maliciously add that Rammstein rarely interacts with the audience anyway. Thankfully, Till refrains from the usual nonsense like 'Are you in a good mood?' And so on; on the other hand, some of your fans would like a little more communication.

«I can understand that. Till can't and doesn't want to do something like that, and you should respect that. Some may find that arrogant, but it's certainly not meant that way. After all, we can't force Till to do anything. Doesn't help if he doesn't feel comfortable with it. Our music also leaves little room for gimmicks. But when we sometimes build in small spaces like this where the audience can participate, we also notice how grateful the fans are and that they are up for such things. »

On the other hand, you have the image of an 'unapproachable' band anyway, which already has to do with the fact that you always play in big halls due to your success. At a club show you go to the tour bus after the gig if you want to meet the band; with you this is hardly possible.

« Yes, and sometimes that's really a shame. In the long run, such a tour can be very one-sided. You drive to the concert, hang out a bit after the gig, drive on to the next town and actually hardly have any contact with the outside world; you are always surrounded by the same people. And the hotel bar is also very boring in the long run. »

Just as boring as television, where Rammstein rarely appears — at most at special events like the Echo Awards.

« At such big events we can present ourselves as a band as we see ourselves. You can build a special stage or do something special that a normal TV show just can't do. We did something like that twice at the beginning of our career and realized that it looked like shit. So we don't do shows like that anymore. »

But you actually played live at the Echo Awards, right? I'm asking because you guys were wearing those killer costumes from the 'Keine Lust' clip.

« Yes, that was absolutely live and very complex. We sat alone in the mask for six hours. We needed ten make-up artists for this five-minute performance. »

May I ask how you turned yourselves into 150-kilo monsters so deceptively real that even the author of these lines looks slim against them? Okay, widening the body isn't a problem with the usual tricks, but everything else...

« Anything that had to do with skin was the difficult part. Special molds were made, a silicone base mask was made, which you then put on and which is glued in a complicated way. It is 100% connected to your skin, so all your facial expressions look absolutely real. The transitions are then unvarnished, it is colored, shaded and so on. And of course you sweat like crazy underneath it. »

So nothing that you could use on a normal tour. Although I would like to raise a question that I have asked the band in the past: after every Rammstein concert you leave the hall with the feeling that you really won't be able to top this show next time - and yet you always succeed. Somehow you must be driving yourself crazy by now with the pressure to do better every time. Simply because you expect it from Rammstein...

« Oh yes, we rack our brains from time to time. Of course you can always use the latest lighting and pyrotechnics that are currently on the market. It's just always very expensive. »

I believe that without Rammstein the German pyrotechnics economy would collapse anyway. But sometimes it's the small, technically not so complex things that really stick with the audience. I'm thinking of the scene where Flake was thrown into the oversized cooking pot and jumped out again with his bottom on fire.

« We don't lack such ideas, however. Something like that usually arises in group dynamics - you just have to check out what can be implemented technically. »

#Rammstein #Christoph Schneider #Till Lindemann #Flake #Paul Landers #Oliver Riedel #Richard Kruspe #2005 #interview #translation #*scans #*

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