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sineala · 5 years

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Avengers: The Man Who Stole Tomorrow

Now we come to the 1970s Marvel Comics prose novel that I was most excited to read -- Avengers: The Man Who Stole Tomorrow by David Michelinie. If you're familiar with the comics you can probably guess why I was excited, which is because, unlike all the other authors of these books, Michelinie was an actual writer at Marvel at the time he was writing this. He's probably most famous for his two Iron Man runs with Bob Layton -- the first of which was already ongoing in 1979 when this book was released -- but he also wrote actual Avengers issues during this time period. He didn't have a continuous run but he did about 25 issues total.

So I was really looking forward to this one, because I figured that, surely, if anyone could write a good Avengers novel it was going to be the guy who was literally writing actual Avengers comic books at the same time. And furthermore, I figured, given how beloved his Iron Man run is (Doomquest! Demon in a Bottle!), I might luck out and get some really good Tony characterization.

(I should say right now that if you're reading this hoping for Steve/Tony, there really isn't any. Sorry. I think they might exchange a couple words in the middle of an action scene at some point, but it's very sweet that they appear together on one of the chapter header images. That's about it.)

What I found was... complicated.

Michelinie isn't a bad writer, exactly. He's written some amazing comics, and he's very good at the banter here. He's not so great at writing prose and there is a lot of unnecessary exposition (like, there are three paragraphs about how Tony's repulsors work before he fires them the first time, which really slows down the action scene) and so many epithets, oh my God, so many epithets. So, I mean, he's not really a great novelist, but I have read a lot worse, and he's good at making the Avengers feel like the Avengers, which is what I wanted.

The problem here is everything else.

I know I haven't usually bothered going through the plots of these novels in a lot of detail because I've been reading them for character rather than for plot, but this is a very plot-motivated book. And so I think I'd really better summarize this whole thing, because it's basically two books shoved together. The first book is basically everything I wanted this book to be -- tense, dramatic, anchored in canon with a nice deep dive into canonical history that actually works, and it had me very, very excited to read the second half. I was really loving where this plot was going.

The second half of this book is where this book proceeds to go completely fucking off the rails.

Let me explain.

Okay. So the Avengers team these days is Tony, Steve, Thor, Vision, Wanda, Pietro, and Beast. We open with some team bonding in Avengers Mansion, a lot of exposition about who everyone is, Tony's secret identity, how Pietro still hates that Wanda and Vision are married, how Beast is a ladies' man and will crack jokes at every available opportunity. You get the idea.

They then decide to start the debriefing about their most recent mission. They are taping the debriefing, which is relevant because they are interrupted by a guy who shows up, calling himself Aningan Kenojuak, and he summons a magic bright green polar bear, knocks out all the Avengers, steals Steve, and disappears. When the Avengers wake up they conclude he is an "Eskimo shaman" who is probably from Alaska (okay, yes, there is some race fail here, but there is a reason that this specific guy is what he is, because this is one of those things that's gonna come up when you're dealing with Silver Age comics) and when they review the tapes (that recorded the whole thing) they hear him talking about someone "wing-footed."

So you remember how, in Avengers #4, there was that whole thing where Namor finds "an isolated tribe of Eskimos" who are bowing down and worshipping the frozen body of Captain America (not visible as Captain America at the time) as a god and Namor gets mad about that and throws the whole iceberg into the ocean and that's where Steve is when the Avengers find him?

So this Kenojuak, it turns out, was the guy who found Steve in the ice, and he really wants his god back, so he uses his magic String of Stones -- touching his string was also what summoned his magic polar bear -- to cover Steve in ice again. So now he has him here in Alaska covered in ice. Yep. Captain America has gotten iced again. Imagine how he must feel.

Meanwhile, Tony and Vision go to Atlantis to see Namor, who admits that maybe once upon a time he might have done something like that to a body he found, but what's it to you, land-dwellers? Also, fuck off. That's when Kenojuak comes to Atlantis and attacks Namor with his polar bear. They fight him off, he retreats to Alaska, and Namor agrees to help out. I guess he cares about Steve too.

We have some fun team banter on the Quinjet as Beast insists on playing Devo, while Pietro is no fun and would prefer some nice classical music, like Dvorak's New World Symphony. (The lyrics to Devo's "Jocko Homo" appear to be quoted without permission.)

Anyway. Kenojuak gets back to Alaska, hauls the Capsicle out of his igloo and goes looking for his village -- I guess it's been a few years since he's been home -- which has apparently been destroyed by a pipeline and replaced by a town and this makes him very angry and he's going to use his magic to destroy it. The Avengers show up and stop him, earning the gratitude of the town's residents, and they finally get Steve back.

This is when they find out that Steve... isn't melting. Uh oh.

Kenojuak, defeated, hands over his magic String of Stones to the Avengers, at which point they find out that it is not in fact magic but Sufficiently Advanced Technology. The Blue Totem gave it to him, he says, to accomplish his task. Can he describe the Blue Totem? Sure, he had a blue face and he wore purple and green and the Avengers are starting to have a really, really bad feeling about this because...

It's Kang. It's obviously Kang the Conqueror.

So what they have to do now is find Kang -- an explanation of who Kang is that is actually pretty comprehensible then follows -- and get him to unfreeze Steve, and the problem with finding Kang is of course that he could be anywhere in time.

So at this point in the book I was very excited. I mean, Steve's in peril! We have this fun plot thread linked to his actual canonical history! The Avengers are going to have to travel through time and save him from Kang! It's going to be just as dramatic and amazing and make me feel all the feelings as the Avengers strive to save Captain America!

I regret to inform you that this, alas, is where this book gets really fucking weird.

Beast picks up Steve's frozen body -- he'll be the one holding onto Steve here, pretty much -- and the team gathers together and apparently Thor can just time-travel by swinging Mjolnir around over their heads? Was anyone going to tell me this or was I supposed to find it out for myself?

Anyway, they end up in the year 3900, on an Earth where everything seems to be made of plastic (even the grass) and the first guy they meet is jealous of Beast for having so much fur and jealous of Tony for having so much metal. Everyone has stupid future slang. They are apparently all in some kind of theme park for humanity, and this guy is happy to point the way to Kang, who lives in a giant building with his name on the side. That was easy.

The building is basically a maze, and Beast gets split from the main team twice, and the second time they don't even bother going looking for him, even though he is the guy carrying Steve. It's a little weird. But they all make it to Kang's HQ just fine; Beast comes in through a service door because apparently he asked directions? It is really weird.

And Kang is all too happy to help them. He explains that he basically just gave Kenojuak the technology for the lulz once he found out what the guy wanted to do and he figured there was no way he was going to manage to ice Captain America. So the Avengers ask him to please bring Cap back and he does and Steve is perfectly fine.

So, you know... so much for narrative tension.

They leave Kang's HQ and are hanging out in the theme park, about to go home, and they're talking about how that was all too easy... when a Tyrannosaurus Rex attacks them.

Yeah.

The Avengers save everyone from the dinosaur but not before the nearby Richard M. Nixon Memorial Massage Parlor nearby -- look, I said this book was fucking weird -- is destroyed and its angry owner comes running out and she is a sexy, scantily clad woman, which the book makes sure to tell us. She is happy to tell them that they all agreed to live here under Kang's rule because otherwise he would destroy them because his plan... is to rule all of history!

I have no conceivable idea why this should come as a shock to the Avengers because it is pretty much the only thing Kang has ever wanted (except for the times he wants to try to kill one of his selves).

Nonetheless, the Avengers are shocked! And they realize that Kang only let them get away so easily because it was a trap! And now they have to go back and actually fight Kang! But first the rest of the team has to tell Beast he can't have a quickie with the massage parlor owner before they fight Kang. Yes, really. I had to read this with my own two eyes.

Anyway, they fight their way back to Kang and it is a lot tougher this time because they are dodging, among other things, pterosaurs and Messerschmitts (did you know that one model had a jet engine? I did not know this!), but Steve is good at tactics and the Avengers are all good fighters. This time when they make it back to Kang, he just says he can open time portals to anywhere and send them through and kill them all. Except he's not gonna kill Beast because Beast is blue and I guess Kang likes that in a guy.

So it's a good thing he's not going to kill Beast because while the Avengers are distracted with the time portals fighting samurai or whatever, Beast creeps around, figures out all the portal controls, eventually traps Kang, and then scatters him across, like, seventeen time portals so he's not going to be a threat any time soon. So that's how Beast saves the Avengers from Kang in, like, one page.

Anyway. All the Avengers go home and live happily ever after, except Steve, who feels guilty for letting down that one guy who thought he was a god so he's gonna go hang out in Alaska for a bit and talk to him.

So I think you can see why I'm kind of conflicted about this book -- I loved the first half (modulo the Silver Age racism) and thought it was going places and I was really excited about this dramatic story of the Avengers rescuing Captain America and then the second half was... I don't even know how to describe it. It was like they were two different books, and the first one was a four or five star book and the second one was, like... one. The characters were good, though, I guess. I just... what the fuck. I don't even know what I just read.

I also feel like fandom would be able to do a lot better than this -- like, "Steve is frozen and stolen by Kang the Conqueror" would be a great prompt and would make for some great stories and none of them would be this one. I feel like if this had been a comic and more people had read it we would have a dozen AUs. I just wanted... angst and feelings, I guess.

Of all these books so far, it's the one I paid the most for, and I'm not sorry I bought it, but I also definitely don't think it's worth the prices it's going for on the used market, because the actual plot is... really a letdown. Given Michelinie's comics work, I was expecting a lot more from this. I think I'd rec the Iron Man book, and then the Cap book, and then this. (I also have the Doctor Strange one, if anyone wants me to read and review that.)

But, hey, it does have a great title.

#posts i actually wrote

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mercerislandbooks · 4 years

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Why I Read What I Read: A Note from Cindy

I have been in bookselling, and bookreading, for many years and in my opinion, I am undeniably an expert at choosing the right book for me to read at any given moment. I am always confident that I will choose a book to read that will be worth my while and that I will, without any doubt, be entertained, rewarded, and even maybe eternally changed for having read it.

I am freakishly infrequently incorrect in this assessment.

I owe my 99 percent reading satisfaction success rate to my simple 5 Step Strategy that I have developed over time. And I’d like to share that with you.

Step 1. I judge a book by its cover. The foundational and supreme wisdom of judging a book by its cover is overtly obvious (so overtly obvious as to necessitate redundancy) and as such really should go without saying, let alone saying twice, so consider it not said, twice. Disclaimer: I can get past “cover judgement” if the conditions of Steps 3-5 (below) are met.

Step 2. I do not judge a book by its title. Titles fall into many categories ranging from profane to ridiculous to sublime. Having read and enjoyed many books with titles that didn’t initially appeal to me and having learned that authors don’t always get to call their books whatever they want, I have been, paradoxically, both less critical and more critical of titles ever since.

So there you have steps 1 and 2.

To reiterate: (1) The cover counts a lot, and (2) The title can be forgiven.

But it’s the next three steps that truly assure a sure-fire reading selection success story for me myself and I.

Step 3 involves what I call “Inclusionary Criteria.” It means that I have read the publisher marketing material and I am down with the plot line.

At the other end of the spectrum (Step 4) is what I call “Exclusionary Criteria” which kind of means this: I have a colleague who won’t read anything set in New York City. I won’t read anything where Elvis makes an appearance in any form. Or feral children. We all have toleration levels and right now toleration levels, more than ever, are sacred. I am keeping a six-foot reading distance from anything that doesn’t interest me.

As you can see, that takes hardly any time at all — which means less time debating and deliberating and more time spent reading!

And speaking of time spent reading, we now come to the final step, which requires a bit of context:

Nancy Pearl, the most famous librarian in the world, has suggested that you should allow a book a certain number of pages before you abandon it. The first iteration of her philosophy was that you should give the book the number of pages you have lived in human years. When she reached 51, she realized the flaw in her theorem and changed the equation to subtracting your age from 100 and that should be the number of pages you should read before casting a book to the… Little Library. Which makes sense: The older you get, the less patience you should be expected to have, especially as you become increasingly aware of your reading life’s mortality slipping away. So, by that calculation, at 60, I only have to read 40 pages of a book I don’t like before I can exchange it for a book I might like for the next 40 pages of my reading life?

Hmmm…

I respectfully disagree with Nancy Pearl on this.

And here is where I come to Step 5 in what I consider the crowning jewel of judgment and the expedient genius of my personal book assessment page allotment plan:

I give a book one page — the first page.

And then the next.

And the next.

And the next…

I have come to call this, simply, The First Page Continuum Ad Finitum Test (Note to self: Google “Latin phrases”). In other words, keep reading as long as you want to know what comes next — not just in terms of plot, but in terms of everything — all the way up to wherever and hopefully until the book reaches its “finitum.”

And there you have it.

So.

In late March I chose a book to read based on the absence of exclusionary material, the presence of inclusionary material, subjected it to the all-important first page test and feel that I have once again been rewarded for the experience of having read the entire book and that book is the one I shall here review, one which I finished reading three weeks ago last night at 10:58 pm.

Take Me Apart by Sara Sligar

To begin, this book has all the stuff I love in reading. A disenfranchised heroin — a former, failed, New York journalist (No spoiler alert here, just no spoiler, period.) turned archivist, obtains a fairly well-funded position managing a massive mess of documents left in the dilapidated estate of a controversial female photographer whose death, twenty years prior, ruled suicide, is the subject of many years debate in a small town on the coast of California. If you can read that sentence in one breath, you don’t have the virus — and you got the test result in less than 30 seconds!

The main character, Kate, is a querulous Nancy Drew type, except bitter and bi-polar, with an over-protective aunt and mother in the wings of her personal and professional life.

The photographer, Miranda Brand, is revealed slowly through emails, letters, critical reviews, newspaper articles and gossip columns, as well as in a vividly imagined photographic legacy, and a diary, all uncovered as the journalist-turned-archivist sorts through the documentary detritus of a fascinating if often mundane life.

Her finds range from pharmacy receipts ending in “Thank you for shopping Dolly Pharmacy!” to descriptions of Miranda’s vision as a photographer and depictions of her marriage to a narcissistic male painter, far less successful than she, rankled and turned cruel by her success. There is a telling scene in which, Miranda, in an attempt to assuage her husband’s ego, secretly offers to buy one of his paintings at a significant price. I’ll buy it, she says, Just give it to one of your assistants, or say it went to an investor in China… keep the commission… I don’t care… That’s not a direct quote (I loaned my copy to a friend) but it’s the gist.

Kate also learns that Miranda suffered a long-term bout with what was diagnosed as post-partum depression but reads more like post-partum resentment after the birth of her son, Theo. Also uncovered is the complicated love Miranda feels for Theo, how it has eclipsed her life as an artist, how the inconsistency of her affection and her insufficient attention to his needs creates an acute isolating agony of self-judgment on top of the readily offered judgment of others--those she knows only peripherally, but also that of her husband and son, both of whom she is perhaps ill-suited and maybe even ill-fated to love.

This is not so much a mystery, as a page-turning psychological examination of two women in two eras experiencing all the same sexism all over again a generation apart. Ideas explored are the concepts of perceived notions of women’s innate fragility set against the perceived sexual allure of male power. With Kate we learn that these sociologically ingrained perceptions often necessitate tiptoeing around the egos of powerful men just to stay relevant and the resentment women are often forced to swallow when that tactic, coupled with their competence, advances them exactly nowhere.

With Miranda, psychological fragility and even insanity is presumed of a female artist who puts Art before Family. Her devastation and even revulsion when her husband wants her to bear a second child is understandable and absolute.

There is also a pretty steamy love story. Theo, now Kate’s employer, with two kids from his first marriage, is tall, enigmatic and of course, brooding. I can hardly “spoiler alert” that because it’s as predictable as all get out from the get go but it’s also presented as a refreshingly realistic love story unfolding in a series of simmering sensations and awkward, self-revealing conversations as love stories truly really do.

Best of all, after all, there is a resolution. There is no cliffhanger, no threat of a sequel. Only the promise that a connection will remain.

And that, in my opinion, is almost always the best resolution — that a connection will remain.

Cheers, regards, and thanks for reading,

Cindy

#cindy #cindy corujo #island books #take me apart #sara sligar #book review #bookseller #bookseller recommended #journal

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pieces-falling-from-me · 6 years

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all of them

Woman!• 1. List 5 things you want to do before the year ends. --- Get another piercing, successfully bake banana bread, read three more books...ummm and I’m not sure what else. The year is almost up!• • 2. What color are your pants? --- Dark destroyed jeans• • 3. Favorite motivational quote. --- “Have some fire. Be unstoppable. Be better than everyone else here and don’t give a damn what anybody else thinks.” (Cristina Yang)• • 4. When was the last time you drank coffee? --- Around 3pm today• • 5. What was the last thing you ate? -- A maple pumpkin muffin!• • 6. Favorite animal. --- Polar bears• • 7. Favorite song. -- Vienna, by Billy Joel or Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper• • 8. Last movie you watched? --- Wonder Woman• • 9. Any turn ons? --- Lots ;)...soft hair, people who smell good, ear kisses, nice collarbones, creative talent, brown eyes• • 10. Any turn offs? --- Also lots. Rudeness, cockiness, patriarchal bullshit, men who have chest hair• • 11. List 4 big words off of the top of your head. --- triskaidekophobia, ubiquitous, penultimate, pamplemousse • • 12. What are some meaningful movies? --- Music of the Heart, The Freedom Writers, Kedi• • 13. 2 most important people in your life right now? -- My wife and daughter :)• • 14. What are 3 things you want to do before the month ends? --- Start Christmas shopping, go hiking before it snows, pay bills lol• • 15. When was the last time you read a good book? --- Just finished one! I’m always reading.• • 16. How long do you study for usually, if you study? --- I was the worst at studying. Always super last minute.• • 17. Do you have any nicknames? -- A couple• • 18. Favorite kind of perfume? (fruity, alluring, etc.) --- Slightly sweet, slightly vanilla-y, slightly smoky• • 19. Do you have any international friends / friends who live out of state? --- Lots!• • 20. What is something unique that you do every single day? --- Umm...I honestly have no idea. • • 21. If there was a movie based on your life, what would it be called? --- “Gay Chaos”• • 22. When was the last time you bought a gift for someone? --- Just this weekend! I bought my wife a necklace. I mean, she picked it out, but it still counts.• • 23. Are you a shopaholic? --- I don’t think so. I do love shopping though when the mood strikes.• • 24. What are some songs that always make you feel better? -- Vienna, by Billy Joel, Time After Time, by Cyndi Lauper, and anything by the Barenaked Ladies• • 25. List 3 activities that you can only enjoy by yourself. --- I really can’t think of any. I pretty much like doing anything with my wife or kid :)• • 26. If you could live in any biome (and survive) which biome would you live in? --- Forest, or Tundra• • 27. How do you like being roused in the morning? --- ...let’s just say my FAVOURITE way is rated R ;)• • 28. How was your day? What did you do? --- It was ok! I went grocery shopping, baked some muffins, and did some casual job hunting while my daughter was at preschool• • 29. What did your last text message say? --- “I’ll eat your muffin.”• • 30. Do you respond to texts quickly? --- Usually right away, unless I literally can’t• • 31. Who was the last person you called? --- My wife• • 32. List 5 things that are on your wish list. --- Like, anything?? World peace, the end of climate change, gun control in America, a food processor, and a private jet• • 33. If you were famous, what do you think you would be famous for? --- Something music-related• • 34. Winter or summer? -- AUTUMN• • 35. What is a quality that all people should have? --- Kindness• • 36. If you could have a large collection of one item, what would that item be? --- Hmm....seaglass• • 37. What have you been thinking about lately? --- Whether or not I want to go back to work.• • 38. What is the secret to a happy life? --- Loving yourself• • 39. What are some phrases you say often? --- “That’s the worst.”, “For real.”• • 40. Favorite food? --- IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE! Lasagna and pie are right up there, though.• • 41. List 3 wishes. -- Didn’t I already do this?• • 42. What are some of your greatest fears? --- My loved ones getting sick or dying, fire, President Trump• • 43. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? --- Season 2 of Wynonna Earp• • 44. Most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen (in real life)? --- She’s sitting right beside me.• • 45. Spicy food:Like or dislike? --- LOVE• • 46. Scary movies:Like or dislike? --- If I’m in the right mood.• • 47. Do you like to travel? --- Love it.• • 48. Any regrets? --- Not really, no. There’s no point in regrets.• • 49. Do you like rain? --- One of my fave things ever.• • 50. What do you spend most of your money on? --- Eating out, probably• • 51. Would you rather visit the past or the future? --- Hmmm. Past.• • 52. Favorite clothing store? --- Simon’s, Anthropologie, Old Navy/Gap, and a local store called Belle et Rebelle• • 53. What is the best advice you can give to those who are feeling down? --- It gets better. Truly.• • 54. How often do you think about your future? Does it scare you? --- All the time. It’s terrifying.• • 55. What angers you the most? --- Currently? The lack of gun control in America. And I’m not even American.• • 56. When was the last time you got majorly angry? --- See above.• • 57. When was the last time you got really sad? --- Also see above.• • 58. Are you good at lying? --- Haha no• • 59. What foreign language would you like to learn? --- I’m trying to learn Italian, currently! I’d also love to learn Spanish.• • 60. How many languages can you speak and what are they? --- English, French, and VERY basic Italian.• • 61. How often do you go to parties? If you don’t, what do you do instead? --- Not too much anymore, but usually once a month some friend has a gathering. Otherwise I mostly stay home, or go out with the wife or with the wife and kid.• • 62. What books do you plan to read this year? --- I never really plan ahead, I just pick up whatever seems interesting at the time.• • 63. Do you have breakfast every morning? --- Most mornings• • 64. Tell us a secret. --- Calzona will rise. Shh.• • 65. How many concerts have you been to? --- Too many to count• • 66. Last hug? --- Earlier this afternoon• • 67. Who knows you better than anyone else? --- My wife, hands down. Also my twin.• • 68. Baths or showers? --- Both! Showers for actual cleaning, baths for just...soaking.• • 69. Do you think you’re ambitious? --- Somewhat.• • 70. What song is stuck in your head? --- Taylor Swift’s new song, which I actually hate.• • 71. Countries you’ve visited? --- A lot• • 72. What do you most value in your friends? --- Their kindness and sense of humour• • 73. What helps you to sleep better? --- Valerian tea.• • 74. What is the most money you have ever held in your hand? --- Uhhh in my hand?? About 5 grand, I think.• • 75. What makes you nervous? --- Sharing my writing, making new friends• • 76. What is the best advice you’ve ever been given? --- “Being nervous is the same physical reaction as being excited. So you’re not nervous -- you’re excited.”• • 77. Is it easier to forgive or forget? --- Forgive• • 78. First mobile phone? --- First I ever bought myself that was truly mine? A little Motorola candy bar phone. It had a colour screen!• • 79. Strangest dream? --- I usually don’t remember them, actually!• • 80. Best dream? --- Probably something sexy...haha• • 81. Who is the smartest person you know? --- My wife• • 82. Who is the prettiest person on tumblr? --- @myfaerytale ;)• • 83. Do you miss anyone right now? --- Yeah• • 84. Who do you love? Why? --- I love my wife and daughter more than anything in this world.• • 85. Do you like sharing? --- Depends what I’m sharing ;)• • 86. What was the last picture you took with your phone? --- My daughter this afternoon with her hands full of pumpkin muffin dough• • 87. Is there a reason behind everything that happens? --- Yes, I think so• • 88. Favorite genre of music? --- Pretty much everything, honestly• • 89. If you had one word to describe yourself, what would it be? --- Laid-back• • 90. Describe your life in 5 words. --- Laid-back, loving, exciting, fun, happy• • 91. Describe the world in 4 words. --- Chaotic. That’s really the only word.• • 92. Craziest thing you’ve ever done? --- Ummm….a naked polar bear dip?• • 93. First three songs in your favorite playlist? --- I don’t have any premade playlists!• • 94. Are you more creative or logical? --- Creative• • 95. Would you rather lie or hurt someone with the truth? --- Truth• • 96. What are you most proud of? --- I’m raising a pretty great kid• • 97. What personality trait do you admire in other people? --- Kindness, laughter• • 98. When you imagine yourself as really, really relaxed and happy, what are you doing? --- Laying in the sun reading• • 99. How do you usually start a conversation? --- Hi?• • 100. What is the best news you could hear right now? --- That Trump and the entire Republican Party are gone.

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onlovestreetwithjimmorrison · 7 years

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Mary and Jim to the end

Before Jim Morrison became famous with the Doors, he and Mary Werbelow were soul mates. In the never-ending procession of Morrison biographies, she is mentioned briefly but never quoted. Google her, and not a single photo appears. She has never spoken publicly about their three years together - until now.

By ROBERT FARLEY Published September 25, 2005

[Courtesy of Mike Sanders]

WHERE THEY MET:

Clearwater Beach, Pier 60. Mary was in high school, Jim just finished a year at St. Pete Junior College. His second cousin, Gail Swift, who lived in Clearwater, says their relationship was intense: “I think they answered a lonely call inside each other.”

Go to photo gallery

BEAUTY CONTESTANT:

Mary, at 18, competed for the title of Miss Clearwater 1963. The Clearwater Pass Bridge is behind her.

[Courtesy of Clearwater Public Library]

Mary Werbelow is polite but firm: She doesn't do interviews. Ever.

Jim Morrison was her first love, before he got famous with the Doors. Friends from Clearwater say that for three years in the early 1960s, Jim and Mary were inseparable. He mourns their breakup in the Doors' ballad The End.

For nearly 40 years, all manner of people have tracked Mary down and asked for her story, including Oliver Stone, when he was making his movie starring Val Kilmer as Jim. Others waved money. Always she said thank you, no.

"I have spoken to no one."

She can't see what good could come of it; some things are just meant to be kept private. Besides, journalists always get it wrong. They focus on Jim Morrison as drunk, drug abuser, wild man. They don't know his sensitivity and intellect, his charm and humor.

"They take a part of him and sensationalize that. People don't really know Jim. They don't really have a clue."

Mary is afraid to share. Because nobody could ever fully understand him, or her, or them. Not to mention how painful it is, even 40 years later, to relive something she would rather forget. She still aches for love lost; her regret never relents.

She lives in California, alone, in an aging mobile home park. By phone she is told that back in Clearwater, to make way for condos they're tearing down the house on N Osceola Avenue, the place Jim lived in when they met. His room was in back, books stacked everywhere save for the path to his bed.

"That was a lovely home," Mary says. "It's a shame to knock it down."

Across a dozen conversations, she amplifies on stories the old Clearwater crowd tells, and adds some of her own. She says she's not sure why she's talking now. Maybe it's just time.

SUMMER 1962, CLEARWATER:

Nine years before Jim died

Mary and best friend Mary Wilkin spread their beach blanket near Pier 60. Our Mary was 17, wearing a black one-piece, cut all the way down the back, square in front - a little daring for the time, especially for a buttoned-down Catholic girl.

Amid the flattops on the pier, the guy with the mop of hair stood out.

Jim had been sent here by his father, then a Navy captain, after he blew off his high school graduation ceremony in Virginia. He had just finished the year at St. Petersburg Junior College and lived with his grandparents, who ran a coin laundry on Clearwater-Largo Road.

On her beach towel, Mary turned to her friend and uttered the first sexual comment of her life:

"Wow, look at those legs!"

Jim tagged along when his friend came over to flirt with Mary Wilkin. He told our Mary he was a regular pro at the game of matchsticks, a mental puzzle in which the matches are laid out in rows, like a pyramid. Loser picks up the last one.

Jim challenged Mary and suggested they spice things up with a wager. If she won?

"You'll have to be my slave for the day."

If he won? Mary had to watch beach basketball with him.

As Mary's first command, she marched Jim to the barber. She was just finishing her junior year at Clearwater High, where all the boys had flattops; she was not going to be seen with such a hairy mess.

"Shorter," she told the barber.

"Shorter.

"Shorter."

To a buzz cut.

He must really like me, Mary thought. I'll see if I still dig him by the time his hair grows out, and if I do, it won't matter.

Slave order No. 2: Iron and clean. And wash her black Plymouth, a.k.a. "The Bomb."

Jim had begun the wax job when Mary's father rescued him with a picnic basket and suggested the couple adjourn to the Clearwater Causeway.

To cap slave day, Mary had Jim chauffeur her to St. Pete, in the shiny Bomb, to see the movie West Side Story.

Mary was on the high school homecoming court. Her friends did cotillion dances at the Jack Tar Harrison Hotel, hit Brown Brothers dairy store for burgers and malts, and shopped Mertz's records for Ben E. King, Del Shannon and Elvis Presley.

Hair shorn, Jim still attracted attention, shy behind granny glasses, army jacket and a conductor's hat. The local law stopped him multiple times to check his ID.

He read his poetry at the avant-garde Beaux Arts coffeehouse in Pinellas Park and visited St. Pete's only live burlesque show, at the Sun Art Theater on Ninth Street.

Friends who thought they knew Mary couldn't fathom why she would want to hang out with the likes of Jim Morrison.

What they didn't know was how out of place Mary felt in her social circle. Jim talked like no one she had met.

"We're just going to talk in rhymes now," he would say.

He recited long poems from memory. "Listen to this, listen to this," he'd say, "Tiger, tiger, burning bright . . ." - excited, like it was breaking news, not William Blake.

This was not puppy love, Mary says, like the earlier boyfriend who played guitar, wrote songs and serenaded her by phone. This was different. This was intense.

"We connected on a level where speaking was almost unnecessary. We'd look at each other and know what we were thinking."

She liked her alone time, in her bedroom, dancing and drawing.

Jim liked his alone time, in his bedroom, reading.

They skipped dances and football games and hung out, at her house, his grandparents' house, wherever.

"I hated to let him go at night. I couldn't shut the door."

When it came to sex, Mary's answer was no.

"It was not happening. And it didn't for a long time. I'm surprised he held out that long."

Mary's grandparents were strict Catholics. She had visions of them at the last judgment, watching her. "It was too much for me to bear."

The poet

Everybody, everybody, remembers the notebooks. Any time, any place, Jim would fish one from his back pocket, scribble and chuckle.

Chris Kallivokas, Bryan Gates and Tom Duncan. And Phil Anderson, George Greer, Ruth Duncan, Gail Swift and Mary. They all remember.

Around Jim, you always felt watched. He'd bait and goad, get a rise, take notes. "There was no one who wasn't under observation," Gates says. "His only purpose in life was observation."

When Jim drove, Mary kept a notebook at the ready.

"Write this!" he'd say, dictating an observation. Or he'd pull over and scribble himself.

Everyone has a story about Jim's brainy side. Kallivokas remembers the night his Clearwater High buddies and a new kid came by Alexander's Sundries, his father's drugstore on Clearwater Beach. They wanted Kallivokas to come party, but he had a term paper due the next day, on Lord Essex. Naturally, he had written all of two sentences.

"I know all about him," the new kid volunteered. Jim wrote the paper off the top of his head, with footnotes and bibliography.

"To this day, I don't know if it was right," says Kallivokas, who says he got an A+

They would rag Jim that the books crowding his living space were for show. He'd look away and challenge nonbelievers to pick any book and read the beginning of any chapter. He'd name the book, the author and more context than they cared to hear.

"He was a genius," Mary says. "He was incredible."

She says his heroes were William Burroughs, William Blake, Hieronymus Bosch, Norman Mailer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, Arthur Rimbaud, Aldous Huxley, Jack Kerouac.

Mary didn't have heroes like that. "Jim was my hero."

The provocateur

Pre-Mary, Jim's buddy Phil Anderson brought him to a house party on Clearwater Beach.

Jim was dazzling with the dictionary game. People would pick obscure words, and Jim would tell the definitions.

Phil turned, and his pal was standing on the couch, peeing on the floor. "Needless to say, we were asked to leave."

That was Jim. He'd charm, then provoke. It was worse when he drank.

He got epically drunk on Chianti at the all-day car races in Sebring, crawled around in a white fake fur coat like a polar bear covered in dirt and tried to launch himself onto the track. Friends grabbed his ankles.

"He'd get a real pleasure out of shocking people and being a little eccentric and peculiar," Kallivokas says. "And that came to the forefront when he had a couple drinks."

Mary says he rarely drank in her presence.

"It was out of respect for me. We were in love, and he didn't want to do things that I didn't like."

"That's a real key to understanding Jim," Gates says. "She was the love of his life in those days. They were virtually soul mates for three or four years."

In the fall, Jim transferred to Florida State. Most weekends, rain or shine, he hitchhiked back to Clearwater, 230 miles down U.S. 19. Most days in between, letters postmarked Tallahassee arrived at the Werbelow mailbox on Nursery Road.

Mary's father intercepted one, read the page about sex and never got to the part that made clear Jim was writing about a class. Furious at her father's snooping, she burned all Jim's letters, a move she came to regret, deeply.

She wasn't much of a letter writer herself. At Jim's direction, she wrote once a week and included the number of a public telephone in Clearwater and a time he should call.

On his end, Jim would put in a dime for the first two minutes. They would talk for hours. When the operator asked him to settle up, he'd take off. Free phone service.

On her end, Mary would loiter by the phone at the appointed hour, glancing about, certain it was the week the cavalry was coming to arrest her.

"I was so scared," she says, laughing. "I just thought it was normal. I see now it wasn't."

She always assumed he had her wait at different phones for her protection; now she's thinking it was his way of making sure she wrote him at least once a week.

March 30, 1963:

Eight years before Jim died

It's hardly something Mary brags about; she says she would have declined. But when the Jaycees called to recruit her for the Miss Clearwater competition, Mary's mother answered the phone.

"Oh, yeah," mom said, "she'll be happy to do it."

The third and final night of competition, more than 1,000 people packed Clearwater Municipal Auditorium. Five finalists matched "beauty, personality and poise."

Mary was looking good, not that Jim was thrilled. If she won, it was on to Miss Florida. Less time for him.

In her toreador outfit - tight-fitting green pants with red sequins down the sides from hip to ankle - Mary did the bossa nova, swirling a red and yellow satin cape. The Clearwater Sun called her performance a "house-stopper." Time for her big question: "If your husband grew a beard, what would you do?"

What a stupid question, she thought, and answered: "I'd let him grow it. Whether he would kiss me or not would be another matter."

She told the judges she was headed for college, torpedoing her chances because it meant she would not be available to fulfill all obligations of Miss Clearwater.

Sitting through other contestants' routines, Mary scanned the darkened hall until she spotted Jim, bored senseless. But there.

She got first runner-up.

1964-65, Los Angeles:

The breakup

Mary's father banned Jim from the Werbelow house. Mary won't say why; she doesn't want to add to the Morrison myth.

When she followed Jim to Tallahassee for a semester, her parents objected. When he started film school at UCLA and Mary announced she was following him to Los Angeles, they were devastated.

To bribe Mary to stay, her mother bought her an antique bedroom set, no competition for a 19-year-old following her heart.

Mary says Jim asked her to wear "something floaty" when she arrived in Los Angeles. "He wanted me to look like an angel coming off the plane."

Instead, she drove out a week early and surprised him.

Together again, in an exciting, intimidating city, they kept separate apartments. Mary got her first real job, in the office of a hospital X-ray department. Later, she donned a fringe skirt and boots as a go-go dancer at Gazzari's on the Sunset Strip.

Jim studied film. At the end of the year, a handful from among hundreds of student films were selected for public showing. Jim's was not among them.

Shortly after, Mary says, he told her he was humiliated, considered his formal education over and needed to forget everything. He built a fire in his back yard and incinerated many of his precious Florida notebooks.

Mary says he started doubting her commitment. "You're going to leave me," he would tell her.

"No, I'm not. How can you say that? I'm in love with you."

After one fight, Jim went out with another woman. He wasn't home the next morning. Mary went to the woman's house, but she said Jim wasn't there.

Mary called: "Come out wherever you are!"

Jim slinked forward, a hand towel around him. Mary bolted and, in a blur, hit the woman's fence as she sped off.

"That was the beginning of the end."

He was drinking hard and taking psychedelic drugs. The darkness she says she had seen from the start was overtaking him, and she didn't want to watch him explore his self-destructive bent. She felt he had swallowed her identity. Whatever he liked, she liked.

"I had to go out and see what parts of that were me. I just knew I had to be away from him. I needed to be by myself, to find my own identity."

She enrolled in art school. The day Jim helped her move to a new apartment, she told him she needed a break.

"He clammed up after that. I really hurt him. It hurts me to say that. I really hurt him."

They split up in the summer of 1965.

A few months later, Jim got together with a film school buddy, Ray Manzarek, who says he wanted to combine his keyboards with Jim's poetry. They started the band that became the Doors.

Friends from Clearwater never saw it coming. Back then, Jim didn't have much interest in music. He didn't even appear to have rhythm.

"He didn't sit around and sing," Mary says, laughing. "Jim, no, he was a poet. He wrote poetry."

By phone from his home in Northern California, Manzarek says all the guys in film school were in love with Mary. She was gorgeous, and sweet on top of that. "She was Jim's first love. She held a deep place in his soul."

The Doors' 11-minute ballad The End, Manzarek says, originally was "a short goodbye love song to Mary." (The famous oedipal parts were added later.)

This is the end, Beautiful friend

This is the end, My only friend, the end

Of our elaborate plans, the end

Of everything that stands, the end

No safety or surprise, the end

I'll never look into your eyes . . . again

. . .

This is the end, Beautiful friend

This is the end, My only friend, the end

It hurts to set you free

But you'll never follow me

The end of laughter and soft lies

The end of nights we tried to die

This is the end

* * *

Within two years of their breakup, Light My Fire was No. 1 on the charts and Jim was the "King of Orgasmic Rock," the brooding heartthrob staring from the covers of Rolling Stone and Life.

He took up with other women, notably with longtime companion Pamela Courson, but Mary says she and Jim kept up with each other. She says she was his anchor to the times before things got crazy.

"I'd see him when he really needed to talk to someone."

Before a photo shoot for the Doors' fourth album, she says Jim told her: "The first three albums are about you. Didn't you know that?"

She says she didn't have the heart to tell him she had never really listened to them. She had heard Doors songs on the radio, but she didn't go to his concerts, she didn't keep up with his career.

Mary vehemently denies it, but Manzarek says she told Jim, "The band is no good and you'll never make it." He says Mary wanted Jim to go back to school, get a master's degree and make something of himself.

When Mary moved, she says, Jim had a knack for finding her. He would eventually ask if she had changed her mind. "Why can't we be together now?"

Not yet, she would answer, someday.

More than once, she says, he asked her to marry.

"It was heartbreaking. I knew I wanted to be with him, but I couldn't."

She thought they were too young. She worried they might grow apart. She needed more time to explore her own identity.

In late 1968, Mary moved to India to study meditation. She never saw Jim again.

March 1, 1969, Miami:

Two years before Jim died

With the Doors coming for their first Florida concert, Chris Kallivokas left a message with his old friend's record company. He says Jim called him back, loving life.

"The chicks we get, the money. . . . It's great."

"So that crowd control works," Kallivokas teased, talking about theories that intrigued Jim in Collective Behavior class at FSU. He said Jim answered:

"You've got to make them believe you're doing them a favor by being onstage. The more abusive you are, the more they love it."

They planned a reunion in Clearwater.

* * *

Some 15,000 fans cram into the 10,000-capacity Dinner Key Auditorium, a sweaty, converted seaplane hangar in Miami. Jim Morrison announces his drunken presence with dissonant blasts from a harmonica.

The cover boy, 26 now, has a paunch and beard, a cowboy hat with a skull and crossbones and noticeably slurred speech.

One stanza into the second song, Five to One, he berates the crowd.

"You're all a bunch of f - - - - - - idiots!"

Confused silence. Uncomfortable laughter.

"Letting people tell you what you're gonna do, letting people push you around. How long you do think it's gonna last? . . .

"Maybe you like it. Maybe you like being pushed around. Maybe you love it. Maybe you love getting your face stuck in the s - - -."

Screams from the audience.

"You're all a bunch of slaves. . . .

"Letting everybody push you around. What are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do about it? What are you gonna do! What are you gonna do! What are you gonna do!"

He talks as much as he sings. He wails about loneliness and rants about love. Three songs after berating the crowd, the music softens and he lets loose a plaintive:

"Away, away, away, away, in India

"Away, away, away, away in In-di-a

"Away, away, away, away in In-di-a."

* * *

Morrison invited the crowd onstage, and the concert disintegrated. Amid the chaos, he supposedly unzipped his pants, exposed himself and simulated sex with guitarist Robby Krieger.

With the country debating indecency run amok, Jim Morrison was Exhibit A. He was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior, a felony, plus indecent exposure and two other misdemeanors.

The courtroom in Miami was packed. State witnesses saw what they saw. Others said it was hype, Morrison only simulated what he was accused of. There wasn't a single damning photo.

Bryan Gates hadn't seen Jim in ages. They caught up during a break, and talk inevitably turned to Mary. What ever happened to her? Gates asked. Jim said he had lost touch, California seemed to have swallowed her up psychically.

He was acquitted of the felony but convicted of indecent exposure. On Oct. 30, 1970, he was sentenced to six months of "confinement at hard labor" in the Dade County Jail.

Out on appeal, he moved to Paris, where he shared an apartment with Courson.

The Doors released L.A. Woman in April 1971, with hit songs Love Her Madly and Riders on the Storm. Months later, Jim Morrison was dead.

On July 3, 1971, Courson found him in the bathtub. The listed cause of death was heart attack; drugs were suspected. He was 27.

September 2005

34 years after Jim died

Mary is 61, unemployed and rarely leaves her mobile home. She says she married and divorced twice, and she has no children.

"I can't find anybody to replace Jim. We definitely have a soul connection so deep. I've never had anything like that again, and I don't expect I ever will."

She painted, mostly realistic oil portraits. She won a small legal settlement after she said she developed multiple chemical sensitivities from rat poison that seeped through the vents of her art studio over the years. It makes it difficult to be around scented products, and she gave up her art.

Mary would not meet with a reporter for this story or allow her photo to be taken. She says she weighs exactly what she did in high school - 107 pounds - but now her hair is long and gray. "People sometimes tell me I look like an artist."

She doesn't think the early Doors albums are all about her but says the lyrics include references to her and Jim's shared experiences, including the "blue bus" in The End. She considered writing about the references but decided against it. An artist herself, she didn't want to spoil people's various interpretations.

For decades, she says, she brooded over how things might have turned out had they stayed together but finally concluded it was destiny. "He was supposed to go into that deep, dark place."

His grave in Paris draws pilgrims from around the world, but not Mary. Quite the opposite, she says. She wants to forget, and still she feels his ghost checking on her.

Lines in Break on Through especially pain her, lines she interprets as Jim saying she betrayed him by not getting back together:

Arms that chain us

Eyes that lie

"I promised it wouldn't be forever, that I'd get back together with him sometime. I never did. It's very painful to think of that. For a long time, any time I would think about him, or anyone would talk about him, I'd cry.

"It used to make me so sad. I never gave him that second chance. That destroyed me for so long. I let him go and never gave him that second chance. I felt so guilty about that."

Mary says she is tired. She has trouble sleeping. She says she's not sure if she has done right by talking so much. She's worried that others will seek interviews that she does not want to give. She wants that made clear: She does not want to talk about Jim anymore.

- St. Petersburg Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this report.http://www.sptimes.com/2005/09/25/Doors/Mary_and_Jim_to_the_e.shtml

#Jim Morrison #Mary Werbelow

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topfygad · 5 years

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Types of Wildlife to Spot During an Antarctica Cruise – I am Aileen

Due to the cold and harsh environment in Antarctica, it’s expected that it is NOT a hospitable place for ‘life‘ to survive in. In fact, as 98% of the continent remains covered in ice, things get extremely grim in the winter with temperatures that are able to fall down to -70°C (it even reached -94.7°C back in 2010 and -89.2 in 1983) — and that comes together with 24 hours of darkness too. Nevertheless, the good news is that the tip of the continent (which is called as the Antarctic Peninsula) as well as the surrounding sub-Antarctic islands are more hospitable; so, they become ideal spots for witnessing some of the amazing Antarctic animals!

TRIVIA: Antarctic life forms are typically called as ‘extremophiles’ given that they can thrive in physically extreme habitats that would typically be detrimental to most life on Earth.

This term though is usually only used for microbes but penguins are sometimes referred to as such given that they can live in this place in which most other normal animals cannot.

With that said, if you are ever a part of an Antarctica expedition, below are some of the incredible Antarctic animals that you can see during your cruise through the surrounding islands and the Peninsula itself! .

Wanna go to Antarctica? Email [email protected] w/ code IAMAILEEN to get a discounted quote!

Top photo ofPenguins on Iceberg from Shutterstock.com .

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» Penguins (Birds) «

Naturally, penguins are the first type of animals that people think of when Antarctica comes to mind. (And in case you’re confused — nope, there are no polar bears here in the south, those are found way up north!)

Apart from the various other birds that one can find in the region (such as skuas, albatrosses, snowy sheathbills, geese, etc. which you can see nesting along the shores of Antarctica in the summer or that you could witness from your ship as you make your way into the continent), I’ll rather be focusing on the penguins for this section.

So, to date, there are 17 species of penguins in the world but only 7 of them live on and around Antarctica:

Four (4) live and nest in and around the Antarctic continent: Adélie, Emperor, Chinstrap, and Gentoo

The first 2 are found way further in the icy continent and the rest prefer to be at the northern tip

Three (3) breed in Antarctic and sub-Antarctic islands: King, Macaroni and Rockhopper .

#1 – Adélie Adélie penguins are commonly found along the coast of Antarctica and you can easily identify them by their small height (around 18 to 28 inches), the white ring surrounding their eyes, and the feathers at the base of their bill. As one of the Antarctic animals, they mostly feed on sea creatures such as krill, little fishes and the occasional squid. If you come around early to mid-December, you can witness baby Adélies because they are usually born around that time.

Adelie Penguins from Shutterstock.com Where to find them: Inside the Antarctica continent, Antarctic Islands (e.g. Half Moon Island) and sub-Antarctic islands

TRIVIA: There’s a reason behind the cute walk or waddling of penguins. Aside from the fact that it’s the only way they can move given their short legs, it’s also a way for them to save and conserve energy. You can think of their motion as an inverted pendulum wherein swinging back and forth makes them continue to move more efficiently.

#2 – Chinstrap It’s clear to see they’re called this way, after all, chinstrap penguins have distinctive black feathers that run under their chin which makes them look like they have a teeny tiny helmet, right?

As for the chinstrap penguins’ chicks, they are typically born between late February and early March; so if you come sometime before those months, you can possibly see them incubating their eggs (they often lay two eggs).

Where to find them: Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctic Islands and sub-Antarctic islands

Chinstrap penguins typically have two chicks per mating season, and they are born between late February and early March.

TRIVIA: The breeding practices of chinstrap penguins are quite dramatic. Males would race to find the very best nests, and then wait for their mates to arrive. If a male can’t find a nest to his liking, he may even force couples out of the nest that he has chosen (talk about forceful!) But once he has a nest, he will give his mate 5 days to show up— if she won’t, he’ll be moving on. Though, if his original mate catches him with another lady, these female penguins will fight over his affections!

#3 – Emperor Emperor penguins are the most southerly of the Antarctic animals and they are also the largest, bulkiest, and heaviest of all penguin species — given that they can stand from 43 to 51 inches and weigh from 22 to 45 kilos. Apart from their height, you can easily identify emperor penguins from their pale yellow breast and bright yellow and orange patches near their ears (this is apart from the typical ‘penguin tuxedo’ look).

And of course, the emperor penguins’ chicks who have silver grey down (or layer of fine feathers) are easy to spot too. If I say so myself, they are the most adorable baby penguins of all!

Emperor Penguins from Shutterstock.com Where to find them: They can be quite difficult to find as they’re found further in the Antarctic continent (e.g. Snow Hill Island, Dion Islands). However, there have been times where they are spotted in the Antarctic Peninsula or even in South Georgia.

TRIVIA: Emperor penguins are the only penguin species that breeds during the harsh Antarctic winter. After laying a single egg, the female returns to the sea to feed and replenish her energy while the male incubates it. If you’ve watched documentaries of this before, you would know how they have excellent camaraderie when all the males huddle together in the winter for warmth while taking turns standing outside of the said huddle.

#4 – Gentoo Gentoo penguins are the 3rd largest penguin species; yet, they’re still fairly small. With a height that can span from 20 to 35 inches, you can recognize them instantly from the wide white stripe across the top of their head as well as their bright red orange bill.

Baby gentoo penguins are usually hatched in October; so, since Antarctic cruise expeditions start in November, you won’t be able to see them with their eggs but of course you can see the baby chicks waddling about since it takes them 3 months before they can become independent.

Where to find them: Falkland Islands, sub-Antarctic islands, and Antarctic Peninsula (e.g. Cuverville Island)

TRIVIA: The penguins may be slow on land but they’re fast in the water! Most penguins swim underwater at around 6 to 11 kilometers per hour (kph), but the fastest penguin — the gentoo — can reach up to 35 kph. Imagine that!

#5 – King King penguins are the 2nd largest of the penguin species and I have come to witness almost a MILLION of them when I landed in South Georgia‘s St. Andrews Bay —it was phenomenal!

Their look is similar to that of the emperor penguins with slight differences on the cheek or ear patches. One could even say that unlike the emperor penguins who have a jet black color, king penguins rather have dark grey. When it comes to baby chicks though, king penguins don a brown fluffy fur. They shed this for months through a process called moulting until they finally achieve the ‘signature look’ of adult king penguins. (NOTE: When early explorers first saw the baby king penguins, they thought they were an entirely different animal!)

King Penguins from Shutterstock.com

Wanna see almost a MILLION of them? Read about my experience in South Georgia for this!

Where to find them: Falkland Islands, South Georgia, and sub-Antarctic islands

TRIVIA: King penguins have a long breeding timeframe that lasts for about 14 months. Meanwhile, their diet rely on small fish (e.g. lanternfish) and squid. They rely less on krill and other crustaceans which is what other penguins mostly feed on.

#6 – Macaroni Macaroni penguins may be small but they are flashy given their big orange bills and bright and spiky orange eyebrows (which are called as ‘crests’). Crests are actually common in all penguin species but they’re in a lighter color and not as predominant as that of the macaroni penguins.

When I first saw this kind of penguin, I immediately remembered Lovelace of Happy Feet!

Macaroni Penguins from Shutterstock.com Where to find them: Sub-Antarctic islands (e.g. South Georgia, Heard Island)

TRIVIA: Penguins seem to look like they’re wearing tuxedos, right? Well, this is helpful for camouflaging them while out hunting in the waters (against their predators like the leopard seals).

#7 – Rockhopper If macaroni penguins are flashy, rockhopper penguins are too — BUT, in a more subdued way since their crests or eyebrow markings are less striking but are still spiky and bright yellow that extend all the way to the crown of their heads.

As for their name, this came about because they typically hop around their rocky environment. You won’t find them in Antarctica itself but they are found in the northern Antarctic islands.

Where to find them: Falkland Islands and sub-Antarctic islands .

BONUS: Magellanic These are named after the famous Portuguese explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, who first spotted them in 1520. You won’t find these cute penguins in Antarctica as they’re mainly a South American penguin as they breed in coastal Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands — however, since your Antarctica trip may stop by the Falkland Islands, they’re worth mentioning here!

» Whales «

In the Antarctic summer, there are various types of whales who go around to feed on the nutrient-rich waters and there are about 15 whale species that can be found there. Sure enough, spotting them from your ship or from a zodiac boat is one of the most exciting experiences you can have in an Antarctic expedition!

Some of the types of whales that you can see (if you’re lucky) are:

Sperm whales: the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator that mainly feed on squid (medium-sized ones, even giant squid, colossal squid), octopus, and fish. Fun trivia: they have the largest brain of any animal on Earth and can live for more than 60 years.

Orcas or Killer whales: they’re technically NOT a part of the whale species but rather belong to the oceanic dolphin family. They have a diverse diet: some feed only on fish while others will hunt seals and dolphins. It’s helpful to note that other than the Antarctic regions, they’re found in a lot of other places like the tropical seas and the Arctic regions.

Fin or finback whales: they are the 2nd-largest mammalian on Earth after the blue whale, and with their long and slender bodies, they’re a sight to be seen in the waters!

Humpback whales: known for frequent breaching (or coming to the water’s surface to breathe) as well as doing other amazing surface behaviors, humpback whales surely are popular with whale watchers!

Blue whales: the largest animals ever known to exist that can grow as long as 100 feet and weigh more than 120 tons! They used to be abundant on all oceans (numbering at about 239,000) until the 20th century when they were hunted almost to extinction. As of 2002, it is estimated that there are approximately 5,000 to 12,000 of them worldwide.

…and others: you can spot minke, sei, southern bottlenose whales, etc.

Humpback Whale from Shutterstock.com During my Antarctica expedition, I was able to see fin, humpback and killer whales!

TRIVIA: You need NOT to be afraid of these gentle Antarctic animals. Even if they are aggressive toward their prey, they don’t really attack humans. Sure, you may have heard of killer whales who attack their trainers but that’s because they have been raised in captivity.

Anyhow, many of these Antarctic whales have been hunted in the past resulting to endangered status on some of the species. This is as evidenced by some of the whaling stations that you will pass by during your cruise; nowadays though, there are international regulations on these whaling activities and the entire ocean surrounding Antarctica is regarded as a whale sanctuary.

» Seals «

In Antarctica, there will be 4 types of seals that you will likely find, namely:

Elephant seals: they are the largest Antarctic animals and the ones found here in the southerly part of the world are bigger than the elephant seals that you will find in the north (such as in USA, Canada, etc.). Truth be told, elephant seals can be as heavy as 3,000kg!!! Also, as what you might be thinking, they acquired their name due to their snout that looks like an elephant’s trunk. (Diet: fish and squid).

Leopard seals: the infamous spotted predators of the adorable penguins (and even their fellow seals), fur seals are the 2nd largest species of the Antarctic seals. They’re also known to be fierce in nature to just about anyone and although they don’t attack humans often, it’s advisable to keep a distance from them. During my expedition, we spotted some of them in the waters from our ship but they weren’t so visible.

Weddell seals: these seals gather around cracks in the ice and are also often seen lying on their sides when on land. They’re very docile so they’re said to be the most approachable and the best-studied of the Antarctic seals. In terms of appearance, they’re often compared to cats due to their somewhat similar facades, not to mention that their upturned mouths make them look like they’re smiling. (Diet: fish, krill, squid, prawns and crustaceans.)

Crabeater seals: contrary to what you might think, these seals don’t eat crabs (they actually mainly eat Antarctic krill). You can quickly identify them in the ice due to their pale color — that is if you’re lucky to spot one as they’re customarily found on free-floating icea from the Antarctic coast. Nevertheless, your chances are high since they’re the most abundant seal species in the world.

Around the Antarctic waters though, and mostly in South Georgia Island, you will see the Antarctic fur seal which is a less aggressive seal than the leopard seal. When we landed in South Georgia we had to take caution of “attacking” fur seals who sporadically do so due to concerns that we’re out steal their girls or harem — nope, I’m not kidding! Competition is fierce for space and females that’s why they may even charge at penguins. Rest assured, it’s safe since they only run after you if they feel like it and then give up easily if you either make noise or point a stick towards them (it makes them stop running for some reason).

Weddell Seals from Shutterstock.com

TRIVIA: Being as they are, seals are actually slow predators and they hunt by waiting in places where prey might appear. For example, leopard seals usually patrol in the edges of the ice in the water and they lie there waiting for any penguins who might enter the ocean.

Moreover, much like the whales, seals also used to be hunted heavily for their skin and oil. Now that they’re protected, their numbers have grown to millions!

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Antarctic animals truly are awe-inspiring — may it be the thousands of waddling penguins, the numerous cuddly seals, or the lurking grand whales. I hope you can see how it would be such an incredible experience to be able to see them up close in the wild or in their natural habitat!

Here’s to wishing that you also get to this remote part of the world and undergo these once-in-a-lifetime encounters!

What do you think of these Antarctic animals?

Which would be your favorite? Or who do you think is the cutest?

Or, have you been to Antarctica before? How was it?

Did you like this article? Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or YouTube and be notified about my newest posts and updates!

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failedimitator · 5 years

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My friend S is a freelance illustrator, and every now and then, she draws caricatures of musicians and actors for one of her clients. The other day, while going about my day and minding my own business, S sends me a caricature of a man in a yellow jacket with his fist up in the air. For some reason, he also has the hail of a red panda.

“Who do you think that is?” she ask on Whatsapp.

“A pokemon Freddie Mercury?” I reply.

Next, she sends me something that was a little more ambiguous. There isn’t a recognisable posture or any obvious facial features on this figure, but it is short and wearing a tilted snapback, huge gold-rimmed sunglasses, and gold chains. And again, a red panda tail.

“Is this supposed to be a Pokemon Bruno Mars?”

“I don’t know why you keep saying Pokemon,” she replies. “But yes, it’s Bruno Mars. How about this one?”

S then sends an illustration of a gorilla in a squat, wearing a white t-shirt and sneakers.

“Who’s that supposed to be?” I ask.

“Well, Kanye West has no defining features I can put on a gorilla.”

The concept of being professionally black is something I’ve written about before. Being professionally black is a bit like being in the army reserve, at a moment’s notice, you might be called upon to defend/explain the humanity of your people. It’s a thankless -- like jury duty -- and like jury duty, you do it not because it’s fun, but because it’s your civic responsibility.

“Please don’t draw Kanye West as a gorilla,” I text back.

“I am,” she replies. “Who cares? Someone has to be the gorilla.”

“What do you mean by ‘someone has to be the gorilla’?”

Turns out, her client has three animals -- a gorilla, a red panda, and something else -- in their logo, and all three animals need to essentially cosplay famous musicians. That’s her brief.

“The gorilla always looks kind of dumb, and Kanye is kind of dumb,” she texts.

“But Kanye is also a black man,” I reply. “And there’s history of white people calling black people monkeys. Whether or not it’s intended, this is not separate from that.”

“My client is a Chinese company,” she replies. “They don’t care.”

“But that is not the point. It’s still in bad form.”

“Do you think people actually care in Malaysia?”

I don’t think they do. For one, Malaysia has a negligible population of black citizens, and the rest of us migrants who live here are at the very bottom, or nearly very bottom, of the society. So no, no one would really care.

Secondly, I’m going to take a massive guess and say that if the entire history of the United States was siloed off from the rest of the world, then we probably wouldn’t care either. We’d all be calling each other apes and gorillas without any baggage.

But of course the history of the United States isn’t siloed. Even if most people in the world aren’t aware of actual US history, we are all familiar with the aftermath of it through pop culture. American movies and music. The books we read. The post, for example, is full of American analogies, and I’ve never set foot in that country. It’s the side-effect of being an imperialist country. Or, come to think of it, the effect.

The only reason I’m black is because black people exist in America. And the only reason black people exist in America, is because of slavery. So even though “black culture” isn’t my culture, people all over the world -- non black people -- keep ascribing it to me. All the fried chicken and watermelon jokes. Questions about Pap and Hip Hop. Accusations of sexual promiscuity.

To quote the storyteller and poet Rives,

“Just imagine that your friends and your family have heard that you collect, say, stuffed polar bears, and they send them to you. Even if you don't really, at a certain point, you totally collect stuffed polar bears.”

Black culture is now my culture.

“What I’m saying is,” I text my friend S, “just because you’re not going to get in trouble doesn’t mean you should do it. You shouldn’t do it because it’s offensive to a group of people.”

I can’t see S because it’s a text message, but I imagine her sighing before she replies to me.

“Racist white assholes in the 60s ruining everyone’s fun. As far as I know, they have zero black customers, so hopefully it won’t be an issue.”

I actually sigh before I reply.

“But they’re not making you draw Kanye West! YOU have the power to stop this.”

“So just because some racist people 60 years ago said some really bad shit, for eternity no one can ever draw a gorilla cosplaying Kanye West?”

This is not true, of course. Using ape as an insult for black people isn’t something from 60 years ago. It’s something from today. Now. As now as the warm air coming out of your nose when you exhale.

I tell S this.

“Well, I guess I don’t hang out with enough aggressive racists.”

The only responsibility the jury has is to decide, given the facts and evidence presented in the courtroom, whether the accused is guilty or not guilty. What comes after that is in the hands of the judge.

I don’t know if S actually sent in the caricature of the gorilla to her client. That’s not on me. My sole responsibility while performing my role as a professionally black person is to give a verdict: racist or not racist. What my friend S decides to do with that information is totally and completely on her.

#Day 185 #27032019 #black #racism #white supremacy #blind spot #privilege