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blackswaneuroparedux · 1 year

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Franz Schubert: the enigma of the man and the musician

If I were to identify the distinctive emotion that pervades Schubert's music, I would say that it is a tragic but reconciled love: love not only for people in all their many predicaments, but also love for music, and especially for the music that was brought to him by his muse....When I think of Schubert's death, and lament that he did not live to the age of Mozart, I think of the love that he longed for and never obtained, and wonder yet more at a musical legacy that contains more consolation for our loneliness than any other human creation.

- Sir Roger Scruton on Franz Schubert (1797-1828)

The story of Austrian composer Franz Schubert (1797–1828) was one of the most tragic in classical music. Schubert died young. Really young. Younger than almost any other famous composer - younger than Mozart, Chopin, or Mendelssohn. He contracted syphilis at 25 and died at 31, which limited his life in many ways but also drove him to be an incredibly prolific composer. His personal life is shrouded in mystery and yet it greatly influenced his music. 2022 marks the 225th anniversary of his birth and perhaps then it’s good time to discuss the man and his music. Can unveiling his life bring into light the tortured genius of his musical compositions? Let us see.

Schubert wasn’t very keen on marriage for many possible reasons, perhaps because he didn’t have enough money, or because he was gay, or because he thought marriage was a bourgeois institution created to force conformity - or none of those things. In any case, he was a bachelor who lived a life of his own choosing. Schubert’s 20s were a lot like many artists’ and other urban dwellers’ 20s today: he was broke most of the time and lived with roommates, he hung out in pubs and drank heavily, he flirted with leftist political movements, and, most importantly, he had a close but ever changing group of friends to explore art, politics, religion, literature, and, of course, music.

Born in 1797 in Vienna, Schubert grew up with a strict schoolteacher father who encouraged his musical pursuits. Schubert first left home at the age of 11 to serve as a choirboy in the imperial court chapel, a position that included a scholarship to an elite school (“the principal Viennese boarding school for non-aristocrats” according to Grove Music Online). During Schubert’s five years there, he met the first members of what would become his adult circle of friends. Their help later proved instrumental in getting him out of his father’s house and off the path to becoming a schoolteacher, a low-level civil servant job, like his father.

Schubert didn’t just come from a strict family, he also lived in a rather strict society. In the aftermath of two successive defeats by Napoleon during Schubert’s childhood, Austria reverted back to a repressive political regime. He spent his entire adult life in a society with strict government censorship and powerful secret police, and he chafed under the limits of his freedom at various times. In 1816, a year after the passage of a law that barred men of lower social classes from marrying unless they had sufficient income, Schubert wrote a tortured diary entry disparaging marriage and the monarchy.

In 1820, Schubert attended a party that was raided by the police. He spent the night in jail, and his friend the political activist Johann Senn was jailed for over a year and then exiled to his native Austrian Tyrol. Later on, Schubert worked on the opera Der Graf von Gleichen even though he knew its plot about bigamy had no chance of making it past the censors.

Schubert was subject to strong controlling forces during his lifetime so perhaps it was natural that of his many friends, the closest was Franz von Schober, a gregarious nobleman who had a reputation as a sort-of self-indulgent pleasure seeker. It seems that everyone who knew Schober either loved or hated him.

Many thought he was a bad influence on Schubert, and various mutual friends left negative characterisations of him. According to one, “Schober surpasses us all in mind, and even more so in speech! Yet there is much about him that is artificial, and his best powers threaten to be suffocated by idleness.” Schubert was much more dedicated to his creative work than Schober but he was irresistibly attracted to Schober’s uninhibited way of living. When Schubert first moved out of his father’s home to try to make his living as a musician, he moved into the Schober family flat in central Vienna, and Schober later took credit for liberating Schubert from the life of a schoolteacher.

Given that Schubert was something of a non-conformist, it’s ironic that he was most popular in his lifetime for domestic music. Written for amateurs, music for the home was part of the culture of cozy domesticity in Biedermeier Vienna. And like many Viennese, Schubert avidly participated in home music making throughout his life. He wrote and published many songs and short pieces for piano solo or duo (two people playing one piano). Schubert’s first big hit was Erlkönig. He wrote it in 1815 and it was performed five years later at a private home and then publicly soon after. It promptly exploded in popularity and was published as his Op. 1. A song about death pursuing a child, it features a vivid accompaniment portraying a horse trying to outrun death. The song is both totally genius and clearly written by a melodramatic 18-year-old.

In early 1821, around the time Erlkönig was starting to get noticed, Schubert’s circle of friends began to have their first official Schubertiads, a clever name they came up with to describe evenings devoted to Schubert’s music. Schober was one of the primary participants and they often took place at his home. These performances of Schubert’s music and the encouragement of his friends were major catalysts to his career.

Like most children growing up, I learned to play the piano and so from an early age I was always a fan of piano sonatas. With solo piano, there is nowhere to hide. Without the cover of an orchestra, the details of every part - melody, counterpoint, harmony, and rhythm - are all exposed. The genius of the work is thus revealed, as well as the personality of the composer.

Every note is a clue to who the writer is. Schubert may have been a shy and retiring gentleman, but he was full of mischief, mystery, and wonder. His piano sonatas are an incredible contribution to our heritage and reveal him as a man with a limitless interior landscape of emotion. There is enough polite, baroque gaiety to enjoy, but on closer examination, Schubert’s sonatas reveal sensitively expressed romance, pathos, and yearning.

The Fantasy in C, Op. 15, more commonly known as The ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy, was written for solo piano in 1822, and is one of Schubert’s most well-known and frequently performed works. It is considered one of the greatest compositions in the entire piano repertoire. This four-movement fantasy is linked by a unifying theme with each movement flowing into the next, starting with a variation of the opening phrase from a former composition ‘Der Wanderer.’ This lied (poem set to music) was originally composed in 1816 for piano and voice with lyrics and title derived from a poem by Georg Philipp Schmidt von Lübeck.

The ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy is considered his most challenging work; he is quoted to have barely the ability to play it himself. Composed during the post-Enlightenment, the fantasy alludes to the onset of changing tastes - the complexity, the sense of searching, and his contemporary time itself. Musically it is incredible; as a cultural reference, it is absolutely magnetic. In the song, the wanderer seeks a distant paradise but cannot find it anywhere among men: “Where are you, my dear land? Sought and brought to mind, yet never known. …” Searching for happiness, the wanderer asks, “where?” and a ghostly breath answers, “There, where you are not, there is your happiness.”

The ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy broke away from the classical form in that it was created to be performed without a break between the movements. Both the virtuosity and structure captivated other Romantic era composers, most intently the Hungarian composer Franz Liszt, who transcribed it for piano and orchestra. Editing Schubert’s original score, Liszt rearranged the final movement and added alternative passages into the fantasy.

There are over 900 works by Schubert to explore, ranging from traditional Viennese waltzes like the dreamscape ‘Serenade’ for full orchestra, viola, or cello to his poetic lieder. ‘Erlkönig’ (translated as ‘king of the fairies’) is one of Schubert’s more preeminent lieder. Set to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s poem of the same name, it is a dramatic and challenging composition that is widely regarded as a masterpiece of the early Romantic era.

The lied tells the story of a father who swiftly rides home on horseback, holding his anxious and feverish son. As the story unfolds, the child experiences “hallucinations” of the malevolent spirit of the Erlking (personification of death) that tries to lure the boy. As they race through the forest, the frightened father tries to console his child by defining the supernatural experiences as mere natural causes: a streak of fog, rustling leaves, and the shimmering willows. When they reach home, the father discovers that his son has died.

Schubert was only 18 years of age when he created this evocative and theatrical composition in 1815. Composed for vocals and piano accompaniment, the song features four characters - narrator, father, son, and the Erlking - all sung by a single vocalist. All characters are sung in the minor key except the Erlking, whose character is sung in the major key.

‘Erlkönig’ is an extremely unusual composition in several ways. There are features that, taken abstractly, would seem to demonstrate a lack of familiarity with the musical conventions of the early 19th century. And while there are many possible poetic interpretations of these moments, they often fall short of explaining why Schubert departed so far from the style of his time. The accompaniment, with its incessant vibrations, is strange piano writing. The resulting music could be taken as an illustration of the horse’s clopping hooves - at least an abstract illustration, since a horse has (obviously) four legs, not three or six, as the triplet motion would suggest. (The song ‘Gretchen at the Spinning Wheel,’ for example, sounds far more ‘realistic.’)

In the setting of the line “My son, it’s a wisp of fog,” the dissonance, on the word “son,” is so irregularly composed as to be provocative. A naked major second is resolved upwards (wrong!) to a unison (wrong!!!!). In the musical language of the early 19th century, it was impossible to treat a dissonance more incorrectly.

The ending is unusually abrupt. The boy’s suffering is portrayed vividly in music, but his death itself is not illustrated. There’s a brief phrase, quasi recitativo, a pair of piano chords, and nothing more. The chords are long, not staccato, and there is no fermata.

In Schubert’s time, death was conventionally illustrated by a grand pause in all the instruments. It is extremely unlikely that he wasn’t aware of this - even if he had never explicitly learned the rhetorical device, he would certainly have had enough experience of this convention as listener. A grand pause would have been the obvious choice for this moment, and it’s striking that Schubert didn’t make that choice. The key to the interpretation of the work lies in this decision.

To understand Schubert’s compositional choices, let’s return to the original poem. What is the text really about? There is strong evidence that the poem is describing the rape of a child - from the perspective of the perpetrator.

Goethe gives the most space in his poem to the emotions of the Erlkönig, who is responsible for the child’s death. The pain of the father, who holds his expiring son in his arms, is also explored thoroughly. Yet the suffering of the child himself seems barely worth mentioning to Goethe. He devotes little space to the boy’s pain, and when he does speak, his words feel strangely artificial - he says, “Erlkönig has done me harm.” This oddly formal phrase sounds hollow coming out of a child’s mouth.

Erlkönig says to the boy, “I love you, I’m charmed by your beautiful form.” (Charmed, in German, is reizen, which can also mean excited or even aroused.) Erlkönig has a crown and a symbolic, phallic tail.

Erlkönig then threatens, “If you’re not willing, I’ll have to use force.” (Force is Gewalt, which can also mean violence, and which forms the centre of the word for rape, Vergewaltigung.) This line is abhorrent to our contemporary ears, trained as we are in the inviolability of sexual consent.

But it’s worth remembering that this would have sounded different - even routine - in Goethe’s time. Rape within marriage was legal and socially acceptable; the distinction between seducing and forcing someone to do something was far more blurred; weaker groups in society had little recourse to justice. Goethe himself wrote a line saying “I loved boys, but prefer to love girls / If I’ve had my fill of them as girls, I’ll avail myself of them as boys,” without fear of censure. We must assume that these girls, if they were unwilling to be used anally, were taken for this purpose by force.

Schubert’s setting of ‘Erlkönig’ is mostly free, associative. Besides the return of the introductory triplet motive, there are few formal connections or structures to be found. That makes the harmonic and melodic parallels between the lines “He holds him secure, he holds him warm” and “Erlkönig has done me harm” impossible to overlook. The harmonies are exactly the same - they haven’t even been transposed - and only a single chord is left out.

Here, the melodic material that kept the boy secure and warm becomes the cry of the dying - or arguably, raped - child. Schubert is perhaps telling us who the perpetrator is. The secure, warm touch of the father becomes the suffering he inflicts on his son. And the strange dissonance set to the word “son” takes on a new meaning. Clearly, something is not right. This father-son relationship is distorted, perverted.

There is a sexual image in the accompanying right-hand triplet figure. Imagine the right hand, playing the constant up-and-down vibrations of Schubert’s triplets, taken away from the keyboard and rotated 90 degrees so that the thumb is facing away from the body; now imagine this same motion performed on the penis. It is the motion of masturbation. Here, Schubert pushes his naturalism to its limits. If we assume that the perpetrator was right-handed, which he very likely was (85% of people are), then he would have masturbated with his right hand. And the way Schubert builds his song to its climax is analogous to the male orgasm.

The ending is direct and illustrative. Instead of the grand pause that would appropriately depict the child’s death, we get music and words that are analogous to the end of a rape. Excuse the blunt language: in “He reaches the farmhouse with effort and urgency,” the father ejaculates; in “In his arms the child,” he pulls his pants up; and finally, in “was dead,” he zips up his fly, completing the act.

It seems improbable that Schubert used this song to directly process childhood trauma. But it’s obvious that he is, at least unconsciously, reporting from a harrowing experience. In his famous short story “My Dream,” he writes the following: “…My father took me once again into his favourite garden. He asked me if I liked it. But the garden was wholly repellent to me and I dared not say so. Then, flushing, he asked me a second time: did the garden please me? Trembling, I denied it. Then my father struck me and I fled.”

Could it be that the garden his father was so fond of, that was so abhorrent to little Franz, was the genital region of his father, with an overgrowth of pubic hair? In “My Dream,” a heartrending passage follows the story of the garden. “When I would sing of love, it turned to pain. And again, when I would sing of pain, it turned to love. Thus love and pain divided me,” Schubert wrote. If Schubert did suffer abuse as a child, this would take on an entirely new meaning. Instead of alluding to some diffuse sense of romantic melancholy, it would be a document of the abuse he suffered; and, moreover, of the stunted emotional life to which he was condemned. That’s just one interpretation that I’ve come to mull over after being provoked by other more musically qualified friends versed in classical music and in particular the life and works of Schubert himself.

Another of my favourite pieces by Schubert has been String Quartet No. 14, also known as ‘Death and the Maiden’. This was composed in 1824 after Schubert learned of his imminent death. In 1822, the now-successful, well-received Schubert contracted syphilis, which would go on to destroy his health, his good spirits, and ultimately his life. It was during this period of decline that he created his String Quartet No. 14, slotting ‘Death and the Maiden’ into the quartet’s second movement. He was in a much gloomier place in life, he confessed in a March 1824 letter to his friend, Leopold Kupelwieser.

“I find myself to be the most unhappy and wretched creature in the world. Imagine a man whose health will never be right again, and who in sheer despair continually makes things worse and worse instead of better; imagine a man, I say, whose most brilliant hopes have perished, to whom the felicity of love and friendship have nothing to offer but pain at best, whom enthusiasm (at least of the stimulating variety) for all things beautiful threatens to forsake, and I ask you, is he not a miserable, unhappy being? ‘My peace is gone, my heart is sore, I shall find it nevermore,’ I might as well sing every day now, for upon retiring to bed each night I hope that I may not wake again, and each morning only recalls yesterday’s grief.”

The quartet was inspired by one of his earlier lieder, using the same title, and was originally set to a poem by German poet Matthias Claudius. The theme of the quartet is a death toll about the terror of dying and the hopeful anticipation of the comfort and peace that follows. In the dialogue between the maiden and death, the young woman fearfully casts death away, crying out: “Go, savage man of bone! I am still young - go!”

The verse sung by “Death” in Schubert’s lied reads:

“Give me your hand, you fair and tender creature; I am a friend and do not come to punish you. Be of good cheer! I am not savage, Gently you will sleep in my arms.”

And yet, his Quartet No. 14, ‘Death and the Maiden,’ came from that place. Which, to me, explains how, and why, the quartet has such power. And, as you’ll come to hear, it’s a world apart from his 1817 song.

The second movement of the quartet is nuanced, mysterious, heartbreaking, and, curiously, utterly seductive, with its two distinct voices. And, surely, far more personal to Schubert than the song had been. Because now, battling illness, depression, the realities of an illness that gets treated with mercury, whereby you either die or syphilis or mercury poisoning, Schubert gets it. It’s not just the maiden that Death is after. It’s Schubert.

Here’s the Borromeo Quartet (Nicholas Kitchen and Kristopher Tong, violins; Mai Motobuchi, viola; Yeesun Kim, cello) in a fabulous rendition:

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Despite Schubert’s illness and depression, he continued to write tuneful, light music that evoked warmth and comfort. The String Quartet No. 14 was first played privately in 1826 and not published until 1831, three years after his death.

To make time to write The ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy for the wealthy patron Carl Emanuel Liebenberg von Zsittin, Schubert stopped writing what would come to be known as the ‘Unfinished Symphony.’ Unfortunately, the ‘Unfinished Symphony’ remained unfinished, and The ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy wasn’t performed in public until 1832, long after the composer’s death.

If there was any doubt about Schubert’s pure emotionality, the drama of the ‘Unfinished Symphony,’ also known as Symphony No. 8, will quickly dispel all doubts. Although the symphony is missing its finale, which would complete the musical form, it is not lacking in any other sense. Due to the lyrical drive of the dramatic structure, the unfinished Symphony No. 8 is often referred to as the very first Romantic symphony, which cements Schubert’s place in the annals of music history. The bold symphonic scope of Schubert’s music as well as its dramatic power and emotional tension celebrate him as a “romantic” who influenced the next group of musical legends such as Franz Liszt and Richard Strauss.

Yet, even at the height of the Schubertiads, when his songs and piano pieces were selling, Schubert wanted to make his name outside the publications that fueled the home music market. In addition to composing nine symphonies, working on a handful of operas that he left in various stages of completeness, and writing string quartets and piano trios, he also worked to bring the smaller genres that he was famous for into the concert hall. He made them longer, more ambitious, and more virtuosic. One such example is “Lebensstürme,” a movement for piano duo. It may have been intended as the first movement of a four-movement work (the name ‘Lebensstürme’ - Storms of Life - was added after Schubert’s death).

Over all then, Schubert is difficult to characterise. Schubert disdained many aspects of traditional bourgeois life, particularly regular employment, institutional religion, conformist thinking, and marriage. Freedom - political, personal, professional, and creative - was extremely important to the way Schubert sought to live his life. And yet he held strong anti-establishment views while profiting from the celebration of “hearth, heart, and home” that was Biedermeier Vienna. He composed tirelessly and still found time for a very active social life.

It’s also hard to get a sense of his personality from his friends’ reminiscences of him. Many who knew him described him as having a dual nature. One example, and probably the harshest, was by Josef Kenner, who said that Schubert’s “body, strong as it was, succumbed to the cleavage in his - souls - as I would put it, of which one pressed heavenwards and the other bathed in slime.” Quotes like that raise more questions than they answer but they point to the fact that Schubert lived a marginal existence in a society that celebrated loyalty to the family and the state.

If Schubert the man was hard to fathom, there is no doubt about Schubert the musician composer. t’s easy to see why his work is considered in the same league as the works of Mozart, Bach, or Beethoven. Schubert’s compositions are still being discovered by audiences that appreciate its depth and emotive expression.

I just wish he had known that we would still know his name almost 200 years later. Nearly 200 years after his death, he remains an enigma.

#schubert #franz schubert #quote #music #scruton #roger scruton #composer #musician #austria #austrian #society #piano #symphony #goethe #poem #song #arts #culture #biography

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mattievictoria · 9 months

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I’m happy to announce my first public post about a personal project I started last April in 2022: an illustrated horror novelette (a novelette at this point in time, at least!) about turn-of-the-(previous)-century lumberjacks!

Yes, you read that right, lumberjacks. I may have to sell that to some of you, so I’ll keep it brief: isolated wilderness, incredibly dangerous work, superstitions and folklore… Hopefully, some of you have stopped chuckling at how silly the words “lumberjack horror” sounds (hopefully). Why an illustrated novelette and not say, a graphic novel? I just hate drawing comics. I love *reading* comics, manga and graphic novels, but honestly I just hate drawing them, plain and simple.

I am serious about this though, and I’ve spent the last 16 months reading 100+ year old books on Archive.org, knee-deep in Lumberjack facts (shorthand: Lumberfacts). I even took a 2,444 mile round trip-road trip from Los Angeles to the Pacific Northwest, where my story is set. (I mean, I also went with my partner to visit his family that lives up there, fortunately they tolerated me asking about old-timey lumberjacks… and Bigfoot.) Some of the most helpful books I’ve read are Pinery Boys: Song and Songcatching in the Lumberjack era (which is a 1926 book by Franz Rickaby that fortunately had a 2017 re-issue) Holy Old Mackinaw by Stewart Holbrook and The Parish Of The Pines: The Story Of Frank Higgins, The Lumberjacks' Sky Pilot by Thomas Davis Wittles. I’ve also spent a lot of time researching the history of the area, including Chief Jospeh of the Nez Perce and the union history and influence that the IWW had on that region. And back to the subject of Lumberjacks (though we left the subject for like, a sentence), I researched the logging town of Maxville, Oregon. Maxville was a community of Black loggers and their families at a time when Oregon was still a Whites-Only state, and is today historically preserved by the daughter of a Maxwell logger, Gwendolyn Trice. I suppose you can say I spent SO MUCH TIME researching because I just love history, and everything I uncovered were subjects I either knew little about, or nothing at all.

So what is my story about? What’s the deal with the three-eyed black dog and the half-tree lady? In all honestly, a lot of it I’m still figuring out. That’s been the hard part of this project— I started with a setting, not a character or a plot outline. I’ve felt like I’ve been moving backwards, and a lot of the plots I’ve developed during the past 16 months I’ve abandoned. However, I finally feel like I’ve grasped something tangible that I can work with. I don’t want to reveal too much yet, but here are some concepts I’m working with: Isolation, the supernatural, folk songs and folklore, man vs. nature, forgotten history, and of course, the deep, dark woods. Two existing works that have inspired me so far are The Man Whom the Trees Loved and The Willows, both written by classic Weird author Algernon Blackwood. As for the art side, I’ve been exploring various styles and looks, but I haven’t really attached myself to any one style in particular. I’m excited to share more with you all as I work more on this project!

Thank you for your continued support of my work,

Mattie

#dark art #folk horror #lumberjacks #pacific northwest #dark fantasy

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archduchessofnowhere · 2 years

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in the empress (2022), are the audience led to believe that archduchess sophie is possible bisexual? (re: watching her servant in an intimate moment, and then countness esterhazy trying to make a move on her (?) and idk if it was in my mind but it seemed as if it might have happened before???) sorry i just confused why they put those scenes in heh unless they were hinting at something

Hello anon! This is something that I was going to address in my review, but since you asked I'll just talk about it here: the queercoding of The Empress' female characters, and how I didn't like it at all.

As you mentioned, throughout the season there are hints that there's something going on between Archduchess Sophie and Countess Esterházy. Which was surely a choice. First of all, as far as I'm aware, Sophie wasn't attracted to women; of course we can’t never know for sure, especially since the way we understand sexuallity today it’s completely different to how it was understood in the 19th century also am I really meant to believe that King Max’s ten children were all straight? That doesn’t sound realistic. But to include this on the show was entirely a choice from the writer’s department.

Which leads me to one of the main reasons why I didn’t like this choice: we are again queercoding the villains. Sophie and Esterházy are the show’s main antagonist and they purposefully made Elisabeth’s life hell in order to “break her ''. Now, I do not think that LGBT+ characters should only be good, we deserve to have as much variety in queer characters as there is with cis straight characters. But if your only queer female characters are villains (and villains this one dimensional on top on that), I will raise an eyebrow and go "Really? This is what you're doing?".

Elisabeth, our Cool Not Like The Other Girls protagonist, gets her historical counterpart’s possible asexuality completely erased, meanwhile the cartoonishly evil villains Sophie and Esterházy, whose historical counterparts seem to have been straight, are queercoded in the most problematic way. We have that scene of Esterházy making a move on Sophie, and we also have the scene of Sophie watching the servant woman (did they mention her name? I can’t recall) having sex. With her son.

I hate this show.

The scene of Sophie watching the woman have sex with Franz Josef is weird and gross, and it’s filmed in a way to feel like that. I talked about this with someone the other day, about how this kind of voyeuristic scenes (that usually have an incestous undertone) are used to portray a character as morally corrupt in period dramas. And if I’m supposed to get from that scene that she’s into women… yikesss. And the scene of Esterházy could be read as you say, that she’s making a move because it happened before, but it could also be read as the harmful stereotype of the predatory lesbian that tries to “corrupt” the straight woman, since whether Sophie corresponds Esterházy’s affections or not is never clear. Double yikes.

And the worst part is that, like almost every plot point in this show, it goes nowhere! Sophie and Esterházy’s relationship is never fully explored, and by the end of the season it doesn’t matter because Sophie mercilessly dismissed her. Representation wins! The only explicitly sapphic character in the show ends up crying on her knees while the woman she seems to be in love with doesn’t even spare her a glance.

Speaking of queer characters, we also have the young Archduke Ludwig Viktor (it was him! rare moment of me not clowning), who in real life was as openly gay as his privilege allowed him to, and also crossdressed. He isn’t around much this season, but in the last episode we see him crossdressing (for the first time?), so if the series gets a season 2, they’ll probably explore his sexuallity and gender in a subplot. I really, really hope it receives a better treatment than whatever they tried to do with Sophie and Esterházy this season.

So are we, the audiance, led to believe that Sophie is bi? Who knows! The show isn't well writen so we can never get across what was the intent of those scenes, other than "queercoding the villains because yes".

#the empress (2022)#die kaiserin (2022)#asks

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sparklingly-defective · 1 year

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I posted 17,227 times in 2022

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Blogs I reblogged the most:

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I tagged 215 of my posts in 2022

#ace attorney - 37 posts

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Longest Tag: 134 characters

#and they’re like ‘oh yeah we think he used to live here and we don’t know much about him and we’re not entirely sure he’s not a ghost’

My Top Posts in 2022:

I just realized the critical oversight I made when I asked you about all those ships:

Villefort and Edmond!! I just think that would be an interesting plot point 👀

It's one of my favourite rarepairs, so I can't believe I forgot to include it 😩

Thoughts?

I think it’s a really interesting ship, definitely up in my favorites as well! It’s interesting to see the two interact both in the initial chapters and during the Count of Monte Cristo segment (especially since Villefort’s my favorite of the three antagonists), the two definitely have a dynamic not present in Edmond’s dynamics with the other two since Villefort was the only one that didn’t hate Edmond in the beginning and how Count is so disturbed and even regretful when he sees both how he’d assisted in the only poisonings he hadn’t expected or wanted for his plan and that he’d driven Villefort to madness

I feel like the two could’ve gotten along well pre-Chateau d’If if the circumstances were different, and I think it’s interesting to consider after the events of the Count’s revenge, since it poses two largely different and both interesting dynamics with the same characters

It would be a really interesting plot point, that’s for sure

3 notes - Posted February 18, 2022

GREETING.

You introduced me to the ship of Edmond and Caderousse, and I have to admit that this ship has not left my head since. Therefore, I have chosen to show you this song I found that makes me think of Them. Please enjoy and consider it a 'thank you' :]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5-KOZl5CLbU

YOU’RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT IT’S THEM

I am VERY excited because I love this ship so much but no one ever talks about it-

4 notes - Posted May 25, 2022

Okay I'm sorry to keep sending you so many asks but

Edmond when he finds out that both of his adopted children are in love with the same Villefort

Edmond: “I sure am glad my revenge against the Villeforts is going smoothly. There’s nothing that could ruin this.”

Haydèe and Maximilian standing outside the room:

5 notes - Posted February 17, 2022

Okay, I'm going to list some more TCoMC rarepairs to get your opinion, because I'm excited about this now :D

Albert/Benedetto

Valentine/Haydèe

Albert/Beauchamp

Villefort/Danglars (maybe not AS rare but y'know)

Villefort/Hermine (technically canon but I haven't seen anybody talking about it and I find their few interactions to actually be quite sweet, despite Villefort being the way he is)

These are all positive since I have never been able to decide on a ship in my life but here we go:

Albert/Benedetto: This ship and Villefort/Danglars are the two on the list I’ve written for before, I really enjoy this one! It’s probably tied with Franz/Albert for my favorite Albert ship

I think the two would have an interesting dynamic both before and after Benedetto’s reveal, also that Albert would probably grow into the only one that really got to see Benedetto’s personality before his identity was revealed

Valentine/Haydèe: I really like this one too (it is. Vastly superior. To a certain canon ship involving Haydèe)

I do wish we got to see these two interacting with each other (or more Valentine in general because I love her dearly) but I think they’d have a nice dynamic, probably one of the less chaotic ships for the two

Also very funny to imagine Haydèe revealing she’s in love with a Villefort to Count

Albert/Beauchamp: I’d actually never considered this one, but I’m absolutely thinking about it now

One of my favorite chapters in the book is the one where Beauchamp tells Albert about Fernand’s treason and then comforts Albert and does his best to erase the knowledge of the article or the Janina plot from the public eye

Because it was a chapter where you could tell just how much he cared about Albert, especially since he could’ve just fought in a duel with Albert, but instead took weeks out of his life to go on a trip to Janina specifically so he would know to tell Albert or take back what he said

Like he very clearly cares for Albert, especially from that chapter to the duel with Count chapter and it’s really nice to see

A good ship, a good character dynamic, 11/10

Villefort/Danglars: I mentioned it at the top, but I have written for this pairing before and it’s probably my favorite Villefort pairing (my favorite Danglars ship is probably tied between this one and Danglars/Caderousse)

I think these two have a dynamic that’s really unique to them, one you can’t really find much in other ships

I do think one of the things that make ships from TCoMC so good is the strong characterization a lot of the characters have, and these two are a really good example of that

Definitely one of my favorite ships

Villefort/Hermine: I like this ship, their interactions in the book were really interesting, and with Benedetto, it was a really interesting plot point

I definitely think the two loved each other, even if they weren’t able to really be a proper couple, and I feel like their relationship wouldn’t have ended the way it did without the supposed death of their child

I do think it would’ve been interesting to see more of the immediate aftermath of the whole Bertuccio stabbing Villefort incident, especially how Hermine reacted and how the two grew apart slightly after everything

But yeah, despite it being in the book, I’ve not seen much content for it

Other than Renee/Villefort (and sort of Danglars/Villefort), I don’t see much of Villefort being shipped with anyone in the fandom, honestly (I might be managing to miss it entirely, but overall I can’t think of many times I’ve seen him shipped with other characters)

Overall, there aren’t many ships in the book I don’t like, I have favorites, but I’m definitely a multishipper 😅

6 notes - Posted February 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I've been meaning to draw something about this but haven't been able to get it right yet so I'm just sending it rn but... Scenario where Edmond takes Caderousse along to that party and Danglars is just internally screaming bc he's the only one who recognizes him but he can't say anything about it bc he'd look insane, and Caderousse purposely avoids talking to him the whole time so he's just trying to figure out what in the world is going on like

Absolutely hilarious idea that I couldn’t not draw something for-

What is the proper response to seeing your ex with the Count of Monte Cristo

How do you recover from that

8 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #it’s the way all of my top posts are me talking to Rowan-

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ellldo-media220 · 2 months

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RESEARCH #1

I have read some relevant literature and extracted the following information:

According to James Hillman (1977), psychological faith is rooted in a love of images, and faith in the soul and the imaginal go hand in hand. The most significant aspect of tarot cards is the image. Tarot card visuals are a reflection of people's thoughts and consciousness, and each element on a card has a specific significance that varies depending on its orientation. The tarot card is a visual map and symbol system of awareness that represents the whole experience of life, including the fusion of everyday existence with personal development. (Arrien, 1997) Instead of understanding anything by magic, readers deduce some truth by fusing their personal experiences with the meaning of the card's content. (Fink, 2022) Also, the famous psychologist, Jung, advocated an archetypal approach to tarot. He proposed that patients use a divinatory process to access the archetypal layer of the unconscious. (von Franz 2001)

Semetsky (2009) points out the following idea regarding the use of tarot card imagery for self-exploration:

" Each story comprises a set of pictures distributed in a particular layout, and constitutes a learning experience: a story is educational because once we realize all the deep meanings ‘embodied’ in the sequence of pictures we can step on the road toward self‐understanding, personal development, and, ultimately, spiritual rebirth. "

In conclusion, these studies demonstrate that tarot cards use psychological and semiotic theories as tools for self-exploration.

Reference:

Hillman, J. (1977). Re-visioning psychology. Harper & Row.

Arrien, A. (1997). Tarot handbook: Practical applications of ancient visual symbols. Arcus.

Fink, J. K. (2022). Archetypal tarot. Jung Journal, 16(2), 62–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/19342039.2022.2053470

von Franz. (2001). Psyche and Matter. Shambhala Publications Inc.

Semetsky, I. (2009). Transforming Ourselves/Transforming Curriculum: Spiritual Education and Tarot Symbolism. International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 14(2), 105–120. https://doi.org/10.1080/13644360902830192

#media220

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bowlerhatwearer · 8 months

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A story to remember

TW: Religious Themes

Characters: Dorothy Whitlock, Franz Weißschloss

Originally written: 19th August 2022

There really was no way out of there, was there? Allowing himself to let out a sigh, Father Franz Weißschloss closed the book, no, he would read the “parable of the day”, even if he knew that It would be difficult for him.

As the hospital chaplain of the Medics and a priest of the “Followers of the Moon” he was allowed to hold services, given the tight schedule of many Medic staff, he usually kept them short and in the late evening, however even despite that, most of the time only a few appeared in the chapel, but Franz didn’t judge, he understood that many didn’t have time or were just too exhausted at this point of the day. A few patients appeared as well to his services sometimes. The “chapel” was actually more of a multi-purpose room that anyone could use, if they needed it and asked to use it in due time, it wasn’t big but, for a few people it was more than enough Franz concluded, as he started to put a few chairs, into the direction so they would face the “altar”, which was a simple table. Moving it a few inches to the left so that the table would be more in the centre, the hospital chaplain could feel a sharp pain going trough his right leg.

So it was going to be one of those days he wondered, raising his dark blue robe, he took a look at his scarred limb, a permanent reminder from years ago, when he had a car accident, fortunately he was already finished preparing the furniture, and so he took his walking cane, which leaned on a wall. Taking his book again, he placed it now on the table, opening it on the page he would read from today, and looking at the words in a sorrowful tone.

“Father, is something wrong?”

In a short moment, he couldn’t breath by the sudden voice, that by no means sounded harsh or frightening, the opposite was the case, it sounded caring and warm, and yet, it was the voice of her, that startled him, as soothing as it was, right now, he wished he would not have to hear it.

Dorothy Whitlock stood only a few meters away, in the door frame having her head tilted as she asked the question to him, despite how friendly her words sounded, there was also a hint of worry in them. Not wanting to make the situation more sorrowful, Franz responded with a calm smile.

“It is nothing Ms.Whitlock, really, just my leg acting up a bit but, there isn’t really much that can be done against that.”

The nurse looked at him for a second, before giving him an understanding nod. She was a wonderful and friendly person, no wonder she became a nurse, they didn’t look too different, she was a bear, just like him and the hospital chaplain knew how helpful she was, ready to aid anyone, no matter who it would be.

But seeing her, compared with the parable he was going to read today, it would be difficult for him, taking another breath, he knew, It was inevitable and that he would need a lot of inner strength not to cry.

“If I may ask Ms.Whitlock, what brings you here?”

“Why your service of course Father, you can call me Dorothy you know.”

He offered her another smile, as he was looking at his book again, and moving a bit from his shoulder long hair away, which was hanging in front of his eyes, revealing their blue iris and the permanent tear marks under them. Swallowing Franz decided to give her a short explanation, which he hoped wouldn’t hurt too much.

“I know, it, is just a preference of mine, nothing personal Ms.Whitlock

“>Yeah, because you don’t DESERVE calling her by her first name!<”

Trying to put the thought aside, he looked at the simple clock on the wall, which showed that it was five minutes, before his service would start.

It were only four people, including him and Dorothy Whitlock, but, he honestly didn’t focus too much on the other two, with Franz trying as good as possible not to make it obvious.

“I welcome all of you for today's service and want to speak out my welcome to those, who are today with us in spirit because they couldn’t make it. May Luna watch over us now, and forever, giving us their strength and aid when we require the moon in our lives and ask for their help.”

Raising his arm towards the unseen sky that was of course, blocked by the ceiling of the room, he paused for a moment, so that the service visitors had some time to collect themselves, and he as well.

Opening his eyes he looked into the small group of three in front of him, giving them a soft smile, as he started to explain.

“I will now read to you, the parable of the day, followed by an explanation in how I interpret the following words.”

Every priest of the “Followers of the Moon”, was not only required when holding services, to read the parable of the day, but also to interpret it truthfully and wholeheartedly, with Franz hoping he could manage it, despite his difficulties he had with this one.

“There was once a family of f-four, a father, a mother and their two children, a boy, the older one, and a girl. They lived happily in their home, and had everything they could ask for.

But one day, one of the family left-”

Franz took a quick breath, taking a look around and seeing how everyone was listening to him, for now, he was able, not to focus too much on Dorothy, and he hoped to keep it that way.

“-from one moment to another, the father packed a few of his belongings...and left. Leaving behind no letter or explanation why he d-did it.”

His very own sadness, began to creep up, and although he could feel it without any doubt, suppressed it as good as possible.

“>That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?<”

Once again, he tried to ignore the thought, with the bear focusing on the book he read the lines from as he had spread his arms while doing so.

“The remaining family was of course shaken, there was a great sadness, confusion and anger, directed against the father who had suddenly left, for a long time, they did not hear from him, no one knew were he was or what happened to him. The wife grew older, and so did the children, the memories of the father, slowly fading as they went their own ways.”

“>You can feel it, crawling trough you body, can’t you?<”

Guilt spread like a hot flame trough every inch of his veins and bones, but the hospital chaplain continued, not allowing himself to be distracted, for he knew, the next part, would be even more painful for him.

“Yet, then one day, there was a knock, at the families door, and in front of them, stood their f-father, having like them, changed-”

“>Why do you hide your own wrongdoings from them, and from yourself?<”

“-all three were shocked to see him, for they did not expect, to see him ever again. The father knelt down in front of the three he had abandoned for so long, and asked for forgiveness.”

For a very short moment, he looked into the small crowd again, who were still, listening to his service focused, awaiting how the parable continued, quickly he allowed himself a glance at Dorothy, then looking back at his book, Franz hearth aching with every beat.

“It was his daughter, who spoke first. Giving him an embrace, as she...as she told him, she would forgive him, telling him he is welcome in their home again.”

“>Do you seriously believe, your own will do the same for you?<”

Breathing out sharply, he closed his eyes, and continued, he knew, how the parable went by heart at this point, having read it often enough himself, in services, but also alone.

“Then came his wife, and she told him honestly, that the pain of what he had done sat deep and gravely in her, that she does not know, if she ever can forgive what he has been done to her and their children, and certainly, she will never forget. But she is ready, to try.”

Feeling how his hands were shaking a bit, and honestly the hospital chaplain hoped, that no one would notice his trembling, he looked down at his dark blue robe, in the middle being a beige circle, representing the moon he worshipped, giving him a bit more confidence, to say the last part of the parable.

“Lastly came his son, his voice was loud and stern, one that made his father shake trough heart and mind, shouting at him, how he would never forgive the one he called once father, that the pain he had caused, will always be there and the wound never heal. That even if they now see each other again, he will not...say to him father...and see him instead, as the stranger he has become to him!”

He felt, how the last part, got the better of him and made him more emotional, although he was not shouting, he knew how he had raised his voice a bit more than usual, but now it was over, and with the exception of a dry cough from one of the service listeners.

Closing his book, he took a moment to collect himself and to allow, that the others, to think for a moment about the parable, before giving his own interpretation.

“We may ask ourselves now, who is this father who had turned into a stranger?”

“>It’s you. It’s you. It’s YOU!<”

For a quick moment he gritted his own teeth, before relaxing.

“He can be many people we have encountered trough our lives, or perhaps just one. My interpretation of the parable, is this-”

“>Your fault, your fault ALL YOUR FAULT!<”

Carefully he stepped in front of the table, to be closer to the three, looking at them, with his glance stopping at Dorothy, who appeared to be, affected, by what he head read, prompting him to focus on the wall behind her.

“-the three of the family, daughter, mother and son, in the order as they appeared in the end, they represent us. At one point, we all have or will be hurt by one or many people who we have grown close to-”

Looking down, his own sadness was rising again, with Franz begging internally that he would not cry now, fortunately, his prayers were answered for now.

“- and it is our own decision, how we deal with it. The parable does not say, the daughter, the mother or the son is in the right. All three of them, have their own way to deal, with their father, and none of them is judged for their decision. When a person hurts you, it is up to you, how, and if you forgive them. That is what I believe, this parable wants to tell us.”

That was his short service, all that was left to do, was dismiss the ones who had come to listen to his words with a short prayer, raising his arm on the same level as his head, into the others direction.

“May Luna guide you, which way you choose to go, trough day and night.”

And with that, it was over, Franz approached the visitors, speaking out his thanks that they had come, with one giving a short compliment, before two of them quickly went out of the room.

It was then, that he heard quiet sobbing, and turning around he wondered, if that was perhaps the reason why the other two left so suddenly.

Dorothy Whitlock sat on her chair, with a few tears falling on the plastic flooring, after taking his walking cane he carefully he approached her, even if a part of his mind begged him not to do it, but his mouth opened to speak nevertheless.

“Ms.Whitlock, are you alright?”

Having been startled for a moment, she looked up to him, her yellow eyes meeting his blue ones who were hidden behind square glasses.

For a moment, he considered, touching her shoulder, perhaps as a sign of compassion, but, before he could do it, he retracted his hand himself with Dorothy not having noticed his short movement.

“Oh father it- it’s nothing really but, the parable and what you have said about it, just made me think and realise-”

Wiping her tears away, the medics nurse breathed in and out before offering the hospital chaplain a bit of a shaky smile, which he assumed to ensure him, that she was alright, but his own sadness remained.”

“-how similar and close it hits to home.”

A deep pang of guilt and sorrow shot trough his body like a thunderbolt, and he could feel himself how now, he himself was overtaken by emotion.

“>Say it, come on Franz, say it what you have done, say it to her!<”

Despite what his thoughts were shouting at the old bear, all that he was able to say, was small.

“I-I am so sorry.”

“It’s ok, really, it is not your fault and- oh, my apologise Father Weißschloss, but, looking at the time I need to go there is-”

But whatever Dorothy was saying to him now, he could no longer hear it clearly, it all turned into a blur, his body moving more, automatic than controlled by his thoughts, faintly he could see the Medic nurse standing up and leaving, saying her goodbye to him, before the last thing he saw of her, was a glimpse of her yellow and curly hair, then she was gone.

He could feel how his chest was rising, breathing heavy, approaching the door himself he closed it carefully, and then locked it with the key that was still in the hole.

“>Your fault, your fault ALL YOUR FAULT!<”

All was fuzzy, both his head and vision and before he knew it, Franz Weißschloss was laying on the ground, as tears started to well up from his eyes, unable to stop them he cried, letting out whimpers, that hurt him even more than his leg, which at this point he ignored. Even when he covered his face with his hands, his tears ran trough the thin gaps between the fingers, on the floor.

“>You abandoned them! YOU ABANDONED THEM! It is ALL your fault!<”

Pressing his hands against his ears, he wanted the voices to stop, that they would be silence, yet, they continued even more to shout at him, similar to the violence of a hailstorm.

He wanted to tell her, he wanted to say it to the Ms.Whitlock so bad, but no matter how hard he tried, something always held him back, as if, there was a rock into his throat, to tell the truth of who he was. And all he could do, was to cry in solitude, were no one could hear his own torment. No matter how often he attempted to reveal the truth, he always failed, saying to her who he really was.

To tell Dorothy, that he was the one who had abandoned the family, that he was her father.

#TW: Religious Themes #Franz Weißschloss RKZ #Bowlers old fanfictions #Bowlers old stories #Followers of the Moon RKZ

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thedavinoparadox · 10 months

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Sachertorte (2022)

Selenio

"Mr Before Sunrise is looking for Miss Sachertorte."

(⚜︎ 5.5 / 10)

After some long contemplation, I finally caved: I clicked on the little rectangular window that was looming on my "Recommended” list simply because “I’m also from Austria”, I assume…

I have to admit, I was a bit taken aback and prepared for the worst when I realized that “Sachertorte”. a movie about Austria, was written and produced mainly by Germans. (With this sentence alone I have probably by now sent a few hardened Austrians to the ICU with cardiac arrest).

However, when there is one thing that I have learned in my life it is to always judge a book by its cover, and in all honesty, the movie does look quite appealing at first glance.

Or I was simply hungry for Sachertorte.

But I have to admit… I’m a little unsure about this one.

“Sachertorte” (a chocolate cake with apricot jam in between two layers of Austrian origin, named after its inventor Franz Sacher) is a 2022 Amazon Prime original movie, directed by Tine Rogoli.

The premise of the movie can be summed up in just a few short sentences:

Man meets woman under hectic circumstances. Falls in love at first sight with said woman. Accidentally deletes her phone number. Moves to Vienna and frequents the Café Sacher every day at 3 p.m. in hopes of perhaps someday meeting the woman of his dreams (as she told him about her habit of visiting the café each year to celebrate her birthday). But - surprise! - maybe life doesn’t always have to play out like a scripted soap opera… or does it?

⚜︎ Characters (0.7/2)

The fact that I had to look up the protagonist's name before writing this is a testament to him being one of the most obnoxious characters in modern cinema. I seem to have repressed this memory already.

No, but in all honesty, Karl is absolutely delusional and stubborn to the point where he acts like an absolute dunce to everyone around him, including Miriam, who I have come to cherish as my favourite character in the course of the movie.

I also thought Karl’s roommates had a lot of potential in the way their individual characters were set up in the beginning but to my dismay, their only purpose was to serve as hollow plot devices and background noise filler.

⚜︎ Plot (0.9/2)

To be perfectly honest, at times the plot of the movie simply felt like a mere excuse to create an advertisement for the Hotel Sacher or Sachertorte in general. At some points in the movie, I was reminded of these unenthusiastic Viennese tour guides, ushering flocks of tourists through overcrowded castle halls and kitschy attractions. The Ferris wheel for one is something you maybe visit once in your lifetime… maybe even for a second date… but then that’s about enough — Its almost painful slowness is an ironic metaphor for the overall pacing of the film.

I’m usually the last person to judge a piece of media because of its lengthiness but in this case, the whole affair did just feel a little bit artificial and the storyline was neither believable nor truly enjoyable.

The most frustrating thing where the more subtle logical fallacies woven throughout the scenes. It leads to even more over-analyzing and questions such as “What if she skipped this year’s birthday visit?” or “What if she’s held up in traffic and 30 minutes to an hour late?”

It somehow takes away from the overall credibility and doesn’t make me root for Karl’s success but rather makes me beg for him to stop being so utterly delusional.

⚜︎ Writing Style (1.2/2)

I am very undecided about this category.

As a matter of fact, I wasn’t a massive fan of some of the character’s voices. Well, not in a literal sense of course - the actors all had lovely tones and voices.

“Actions speak louder than words” but still, direct and indirect characterization shouldn’t contradict each other. Especially the protagonist, Karl, is presented as way too logical and pragmatic to be sitting in a random coffee shop in another country and waiting on a girl he a) isn’t sure will really eventually show up and b) has only spent approximately two hours with before exchanging numbers.

Sure, the movie is trying to tell the story about finding one’s romantic soul in our hectic day and age but only in superficial ways. Like in telling us Karl’s favourite film (Before Sunrise) and letting other people praise him on his perseverance. It seems as if he’s not only trying to convince them of his impending success but also himself.

Maybe there is some kind of spark about him that I’m simply not getting but to me he is lacking a bit of depth and definitely that certain knack for fantasy and aesthetics, necessary for such irrational actions. His passion seems weirdly constructed and insincere almost as if he’s self-aware In him only playing a role in a movie.

Nevertheless, I do really enjoy the idea of the pursued love interest simply being a vague concept. However, just like the overall premise of this movie - which in my opinion was also quite creative - in the context of the entirety of the work it does feel just a little bit lackadaisical…

My favorite character - as briefly mentioned above - is Miriam, the owner of another small coffee shop. (I just realized that there certainly is a theme of overconsumption of caffeine and baked goods). The casting in this particular case was absolutely brilliant and would probably have benefitted her character even more if they hadn’t restricted her so much with the script. Some of her dialogue and actions - especially at the later end of her character development - feel incredibly forced. There is simply no middle stage between friendship and love, which somewhat destroys her purpose in the movie.

Despite my seemingly harsh criticism, I do think the movie was adequately well written and works as a "one-time-watch-and-enjoy" but could have undoubtedly lived up more to its potential with a more thought-out script. Overall, it undoubtedly has the capability of being what is often called a "comfort movie" for some people and ranks on the higher end of the few romantic comedies I have watched over the years.

⚜︎ Aesthetic (1.7/2)

Austria. Vienna. End of year melancholy. Arts and culture. Need I say more?

Even for the most tedious of movies I have set one single rule: if it is set in Vienna, I will watch it and give it a fair chance. The one singular ounce of patriotism I allow myself beside the annual “Faschingskrapfen” and “Osterlamm”.

There is just something magical about the museums, architecture, and people of Vienna which gives you a certain, dolefully beautiful sense of living in the past and future at the same time. Riding in a horse carriage through busy high-rise avenues or taking HD photographs of architecture from the 18th century. “Sachertorte” gives a remarkably specific, sort of touristy image of our capital, very much viewed from an outsider’s - a German’s - perspective.

Even though Karl may sometimes feel “accepted” by the people he meets he is still in a sense estranged from the city and its customs and philosophy, giving it a sort of hollow feel underneath the pretty shimmering surface. Something, which in my opinion somehow adds to the whole feeling instead of subtracting from it.

⚜︎ Recommendation (1/2)

For this movie, it is really 50/50.

If you have an afternoon to spare, are in possession of a Prime Video subscription, and are prepared for having a major sweet tooth and a longing for good Viennese coffee for a few days; I would say give the movie a watch.

If you are looking for something deeper, world-changing which you will still think about in years to come (but still set in Vienna), I think you’d be better off with something like “The Third Man”. If you like kitschy and don’t mind historical inaccuracy: “Sisi”. If thriller and longer style content is more up your alley, try "Freud".

If you are planning to visit the city, “Sachertorte” will most certainly get you in the mood.

Overall, I did really enjoy watching the movie, even if I may have raised my eyebrow at some of the scenes.

Due to major time struggles, I was forced to view it in two parts and perhaps this took a little bit away from the magic. “Sachertorte” is not a bad movie by any means. It is just somehow… very average and feels like it could have benefitted from just a little more production time (and effort).

„Dass er mir aber keine Schand' macht, heut Abend!"

"But don't let him disgrace me tonight!" - Fürst Metternich, the first time "Sachertorte" was served

#art #cinema #film #film critique #film review #german #german movie #austrian movie #austria #media #movie #review #romance #romcom #sachertorte #vienna #selenio

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wewerecore · 11 months

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The Great Pro-Wrestling Adventure Hour - 004 06/08/23 Defy TV 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST Filmed at the Good Time Theatre at Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania

SEGMENT ONE (NINE MINUTES):

- Sudu Upadhyay welcomed fans to The Great Pro-Wrestling Adventure Hour on Defy TV. Sudu said that we are just two days away from The Panic In Pillow Park, and asks Larry Zbyszko if he's ever been to Pillow, Pennsylvania. Zbyszko said no, but he has been to Blanket, Texas. Sudu began to run down the card before Larry interrupted and said that he's partial to sleeping under the stars, that's why he prefers Hammock, Louisiana.

- The Great Pro-Wrestling Adventure Hour intro aired set to "Black Swan Lake" by Janko Nilovic.

folkstyle (Shaw Mason, Tim Bosby, and Hunter Holdcraft) vs. TJ Epixx, Chael Connors, and Gavin Glass folkstyle defeated TJ Epixx, Chael Connors, and Gavin Glass via submission with the ankle lock from Mason on Glass. (4:08)

SEGMENT TWO (SEVEN MINUTES):

Kylie Paige vs. Brittany Blake Kylie Paige defeated Brittany Blake with the Side Russian Leg Sweep. (3:43)

- A video promoting Trios Kingdom 2023 aired. It included clips from Trios Kingdom 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2022 set to "Tell Me" by Dead Boys. September 1st at Penn's Peak in Jim Thorpe. September 2nd at the Charles Chrin Community Center in Easton. September 3rd at Martz Hall in Pottsville. Trios Kingdom 2023.

SEGMENT THREE (NINE MINUTES):

- Daphne Oz was at the CORE news desk for a special extended edition of the COal REgion Roundup previewing The Panic In Pillow Park. - First an interview with the folkstyle faction promoting their six-man tag team match against The Lost Boys. - A brief video aired recapping the Something/Nothing tag team from their time as the Gaspar Brothers to their recent winning streak. This was immediately followed by a promo from The OutRunners who talked about all the extra hours they've been putting in with their mentor Rip Rogers. The OutRunners have put in fifteen hour days getting all the advice they can from Rip Rogers so they can do the exact opposite and win this match because Rip has been a loser his entire life and on June 10th in Pillow they'll be big winners. - SAKI sent in a subtitled interview where she projected confidence that she can beat Giant Baba Yaga. A response followed from UltraMantis Black and Giant Baba Yaga, who was smoking a cigar. Mantis asked Baba to set down the American Rebel and shake his hand if she promises to chop SAKI down to size in Pillow. Giant Baba Yaga shook UltraMantis Black's hand who added that a handshake from Baba Yaga is better than any contract.

- Back at the news desk, Daphne Oz announced that two of the youngest prospects from the JUST TAP OUT office in Japan will be joining CORE for the next set of television tapings. Fifteen year old Azusa Inaba, the younger sister of current Queen of JTO Tomoka Inaba, and seventeen year old prospect HisokA will be making the journey to the Coal Region. As part of their excursion, the two young stars will also be appearing on the 4th of July as part of a special JUST TAP OUT USA event outside of Curry Donuts in Wilkes-Barre.

SEGMENT FOUR (EIGHT MINUTES):

Marcus Mathers and Brogan Finlay vs. Dale Von Trier and Keith Von Trier (with Franz Von Trier) - Before the opening bell, officials escorted Franz Von Trier away from ringside and the dressing room. No explanation was given. - Mathers and Finlay toyed with the Von Trier boys, but after some miscommunication Dale began to mount a comeback on Brogan as on the outside Keith held Mathers against the guardrail. Starboy Charlie came from the crowd and superkicked Keith, this allowed Mathers to get in the ring and double team the older Von Trier. Marcus Mathers and Brogan Finlay defeated Dale Von Trier and Keith Von Trier with the top rope elbowdrop from Finlay on Dale. (5:02)

- After the match, Starboy Charlie entered the ring and a three on two attack began on the Von Triers. Franz Von Trier and their younger brother Kirk Von Trier ran out of the curtain and chased the three off. As Charlie, Mathers, and Finlay retreated, Starboy backed into the announce desk and his hair was grabbed from behind by Larry Zbyszko. CORE officials immediately broke the two up.

SEGMENT FIVE (EIGHT MINUTES):

- A video package set to a remix of "Cash In," the iconic theme song of The TrustBusters, aired. The video was narrated by Ari Daivari and introduced the four inaugural members handpicked for the TrustBusters Reserve. Joshua Bishop. Invictus Khash. Big Dan Champion. Hyan. The TrustBusters Reserve.

Queens of Wrestling (Raychell Rose and Queen Aminata) vs. Shelby Waters and Haley Dillon Queens of Wrestling defeated Shelby Waters and Haley Dillon via submission with the Koji Clutch from Aminata on Waters. (4:12)

SEGMENT SIX (FOUR MINUTES):

- Promotional consideration paid for by the following: Zespri Kiwifruit - Zespri SunGold Kiwifruit, it's crazy tasty! Zing Zang Bloody Mary Mix - Now in an unbreakable lightweight bottle! Celeste - Pizza for one. Abbondanza!

- Sudu Upadhyay closed out the show. He acknowledged that as you surely noticed, Larry Zbyszko was not on commentary during the women's tag team match. The decision to remove Larry from commentary and the building was made by CORE President Dr. Mehmet Oz. Sudu is not certain what, if any, further disciplinary actions Zbyszko may face for coming into contact with a wrestler. Sudu ran down the card one more time and encouraged fans to make the trip for The Panic In Pillow Park and join them back here next week for The Great Pro-Wrestling Adventure Hour.

Upcoming Shows:

CORE Pro #116 The Panic In Pillow Park 06/10/23 Pillow Park - Pillow, Pennsylvania 01. folkstyle (Shaw Mason, Tim Bosby, and Hunter Holdcraft) vs. The Lost Boys (Juni Underwood, Ryan Ryzz, and Athan Promise) 02. Something/Nothing (Jake Something and Vincent Nothing) with UltraMantis Black vs. The OutRunners (Truth Magnum and Turbo Floyd) 03. Starboy Charlie, Marcus Mathers, and Brogan Finlay vs. The Von Triers (Dale Von Trier, Keith Von Trier, and Kirk Von Trier) with Franz Von Trier 04. SAKI vs. Giant Baba Yaga (with UltraMantis Black) 05. Athena, Raychell Rose, and Queen Aminata vs. Billie Starkz, Kenzie Paige, and Kylie Paige 06. Titus Alexander vs. Kerry Morton

CORE returns to the Good Time Theatre at Dorney Park in Allentown, Pennsylvania! 06/11/23 Television taping for The Great Pro-Wrestling Adventure Hour as seen on Defy TV.

JUST TAP OUT USA JTO Girls in America 07/04/23 Curry Donuts - Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

CORE Pro #117 The Long Mirror Of Time 07/07/23 Marts Center at Wilkes University - Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania

CORE Pro #1?? Trios Kingdom 2023 09/01/23 Penn's Peak - Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania 09/02/23 Charles Chrin Community Center - Easton, Pennsylvania 09/03/23 Martz Hall - Pottsville, Pennsylvania

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fifacuplive · 2 years

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Winter World Cup?

Will England be playing in a 'Winter World Cup' come 2022?

Through the entire furore that Sepp Blatter has created with his obtuse comments about homosexuality in Qatar, a very important message was missed - Sepp Blatter has given his backing to host the tournament during the winter months after Qatar won the 2022 bid.

This is mainly due to the intense heat during the summer months for the Middle East country. Traditionally the tournament has taken normally taken place between June and July, but in Qatar the heat at this time can reach up to 50c. Former World Cup winning captain and coach of the German side Franz Beckenbauer had previously raised concerns over the health risk posed by extreme temperatures.

Qatar were shock winners to host the 2022 World Cup and the decision was met with open disapproval. This issue is sure to raise more criticism.

Many will ask if the issue was raised during the bidding process and if so, was it overlooked?

Qatar did indeed mention the climate but pushed it to the background, dismissing it as a non-issue.

The idea was to build air-conditioned stadiums, and the proposal of a 'Winter World Cup' was never raised.

The question now asked must surely be: Did Qatar give misleading information during their bid, or were the bidding committee aware of the implications all along?

If the committee were aware of the health and safety risk posed to players, this would only add World Cup 2022 Schedule further fuel to the fire that money played a part in the bidding process. Whispers of corruption have surrounded the bidding process; dismissed as bitterness on England's part due to losing the 2018 bid.

It should be noted here that England's free media was said to have cost the World Cup bid. Fundamentally FIFA didn't award England the tournament because they don't like being investigated, but that's a point for another time.

Although there are no regulations that say the World Cup has to be played during the summer months, the potential disruption to the domestic leagues a Winter World Cup could cause are staggering.

Many top players and managers, including Sir Alex Ferguson, have called for a winter break in the past to help England in their World Cup chances, but news of a potential Winter World Cup would be met with anger.

Top clubs such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal would be required to release their players for up to 7 weeks to allow them participation in the tournament.

Upon their return they would be thrown into the deep end of the season with Champions League knockout stages and FA Cup latter stages.

It would also have a knock-on effect, as players would potentially only have 4 weeks to recuperate during the summer months before having to begin pre-season training.

Sponsorship for tournaments such as the Champions League would suffer from having a Winter World Cup, having to have a two-month gap between the group stages and the knockout stages. Then there would be a major sporting clash with the 2022 Winter Olympics which receives a healthy TV following.

Other questions were raised over the Qatar bid, such as the carbon footprint left by the proposed air-conditioned stadiums, and the laws that the country enforces.

FIFA also stated that it was bringing football to a country where it could make a social and cultural impact. Qatar, and Australia who were vying for the bid too, have never hosted the World Cup. Qatar has a population of 1.7 million. Australia - 22.6 million. Football (soccer) is on the rise in Australia, becoming more popular.

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f1 · 2 years

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Protests possible over new floor stays teams added after FIA porpoising directive Szafnauer | 2022 Canadian Grand Prix

Formula 1 teams which have altered their cars in response to the FIA’s technical directive on porpoising could put themselves at risk of a protest, says Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer. Under the technical directive teams have been told certain changes to their floors will be permitted in order to reduce the severe bouncing they have experienced. These include the adding of an additional floor stay. However Szafnauer says the directive does not carry the force of regulation and any such changes could be considered outside the rules. He added it was issued too late in the day for Alpine to take advantage of the opportunity to alter its floor. “The TD came out when our chief technical officer was flying over, so it was quite late and we aren’t able to produce a stay here,” he said. “As far as the process goes, it’s a technical directive and technical directives, as we all know, aren’t regulations. “So it could very well be that we shouldn’t be running this in qualifying and the race. And if teams have brought those stays, I would imagine they could be perhaps looked at after and protested. So it’s against the regulation as it stands today. “But we definitely don’t have one and unfortunately, if you do have an extra stay, you can run the car lower and stiffer and gain some advantage.” Alpine will be able to adapt their floor in line with the TD before the next round at Silverstone in two weeks’ time, he added. “But we’ve chosen to stiffen the floor in that area at the expense of weight. And as we all discuss there’s some cars that are still overweight and that’s a trade-off decision you make between adding weight to the car so you can stiffen the floor. If you’re just given a stay then you don’t have to add the weight and do the same job.” Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Rival team principals also expressed their disappointment at the timing of the directive. “It was not really ideal because we have all the team travelling, everything is on-site,” said Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack. Gallery: 2022 Canadian Grand Prix practice in pictures “Yes, you can react, but you need to be really sure what you are doing, you need to know upfront what this would do. So I think it’s a situation you have to take a conservative approach and then look for it for the following race. But as I said, the timing really could have been better.” AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost said “the timing was absolutely not good because most of the people were travelling and just to send out the technical directive a few days before the race is for sure not the best. “To the reaction time, especially the floor of a Formula 1 car, it’s very [sensitive] part it’s not just [you] put any parts on it without investigations. “So we from Scuderia AlphaTauri have to find out what we do, which direction we will take to the technical directive regarding stiffening of the floor or whatever, and this takes some time. For sure we will not do it here and then we will see what we can arrange for Silverstone.” Teams’ floors at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve Red Bull floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 McLaren floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free Aston Martin floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 Alfa Romeo floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 Haas floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 Mercedes floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 Ferrari floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 AlphaTauri floor, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022 Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free via RaceFans - Independent Motorsport Coverage https://www.racefans.net

#F1 #Protests possible over new floor stays teams added after FIA porpoising directive – Szafnauer | 2022 Canadian Grand Prix #Formula 1

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maneskinss · 3 years

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Måneskin won Eurovision, then they took over the world

When tickets to Måneskin’s 2022 European tour went on sale, the members of the band placed bets on how long it would take to sell out the dates. “I was like, ‘OK, maybe one week.’ And (everyone) was like, ‘One week! That’s too little time! We need more time!’” says bassist Victoria de Angelis. “And after two hours, we saw our phones. We were like, ‘Fuck!’” The entire tour had sold out, with the Brixton Academy date selling out in 25 minutes.

Måneskin, meaning ‘moonlight’ in Danish (De Angelis is half-Danish), formed in Rome in 2015. David, De Angelis, and Raggi went to school together in Rome and found Torchio through Facebook. Having started out busking in the city’s streets, the group came second on Italy’s version of The X Factor in 2017, releasing their debut album Il Ballo Della Vita (The Dance of Life), a triple-platinum seller in Italy, the following year.

In March of this year, the band won Italy’s Sanremo contest, which meant they would go on to compete in Eurovision. Their song, “Zitti e Buoni”, with its blaring bass and wailing guitars, may have seemed an unlikely contender for the pop-friendly competition, but ended up taking home the top prize – making Måneskin the first Italian act to win the contest since 1990, and the first rock act since 2006.

Måneskin are dedicated to making rock music, favouring loud, gritty guitar, bass, and sprawling riffs, evoking the glam and classic-rock styles of decades past. Their influences include a mix of older and modern bands, including Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, Nirvana, Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, the Sex Pistols, and Slaves. David says that he and his bandmates were drawn to the genre’s “energy and the fact that it allows you to express yourself in many, many different ways”.“It's not just a kind of music, it’s also an attitude,” says Torchio.

However, Måneskin were discouraged from making rock music throughout their career, as guitars fell out of favour with younger listeners. “We feel like we made everything by ourselves and I think that makes it even sweeter,” says David. “We had to fight a lot for what we believed in because everyone was telling us not to do it. But in the end, we did it and we did it to the top.”

Following their Eurovision victory, the band started to take off on TikTok, despite not being on the app themselves. The tag #maneskin now has more than four billion views. “I think that the cool part of TikTok is that any song can go viral, even after years,” says De Angelis, pointing to Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” as an example.

Måneskin experienced that first-hand when their 2017 cover of The Four Seasons’ “Beggin’” blew up on the app this summer. The song has been used more than ten million times on TikTok, and claimed the top spot on Spotify’s Global Top 50 chart for four weeks.

The band members, who recorded the cover as teenagers during their X Factor run, have mixed feelings about the song’s success. “Of course we were really, really happy (with) what was going on but when we look at the picture on that song, and we hear the mix, we just think that many, many things could have been done better,” says David. “We were very (young) when we made it,” says De Angelis. “(Whereas now) we have other songs we wrote ourselves which we think were done better.” “And other clothes!” adds David.

Thankfully for the band, “Beggin’” – which David compares to “the cringey video that your parents show at Christmas dinner… but it’s global” – wasn’t the only song of theirs to perform well. Måneskin became the first Italian band to have two songs – “Beggin’” and “I Wanna Be Your Slave” – in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart simultaneously, with the songs peaking at six and five, respectively. Over the past year, charts and radio are proving more amenable to guitar-driven music and rock has surged in popularity, as pop artists like Miley Cyrus, Willow, and Olivia Rodrigo turn to the genre, with Måneskin becoming the leaders of rock’s resurgence.

It’s not a position the band take lightly. “We feel like we have the power and a huge number of people listening to us,” says David. “So we feel like we can do something meaningful and useful.” Måneskin are committed to using their platform to share their message of self-expression and to empower those who face discrimination. Says De Angelis: “Growing up in Italy, which can be a very narrow-minded and conservative country, we experienced a lot (of discrimination), especially in the music industry, with the way we look and everything. And so it’s just a thing that is part of us and that we feel we can speak about.”

Their latest album, Teatro D’Ira: Vol I, released in March, has a running thread of refusing to conform, with recent single “I Wanna Be Your Slave” subverting gender roles. But these messages also come through in the band’s glam style, which landed them a starring role in a recent campaign for Gucci. “We hope we can inspire people to dress as they want and to behave as they want in everyday life,” says David.

The members of Måneskin proudly challenge gender norms and encourage others to express their sexuality, taking a stand against homophobia. In June, David and Raggi shared a kiss on stage at the end of a performance in Poland, amid rising anti-LGBT sentiment in the country. “We think that everyone should be allowed to do this without any fear,” said David during the performance. “We think that everyone should be completely free to be whoever the fuck you want… Love is never wrong.” It’s a message which has helped them connect with fans around the world, according to De Angelis: “A lot of people tell us very meaningful things and that we are helping them in many ways and this is unbelievably precious for us.”

At the same time, there are many who don’t understand what Måneskin are trying to do, and act “like we were doing something that was too much, too weird, too freak,” says David. But the frontman points out that Måneskin aren’t the kind of band to let reactions like that faze them, instead using them as fuel for their latest track, “Mammamia”. “It’s about doing something great (which) people don’t want to understand and just (make) judgments and bad comments. But in a very funny way, of course. We made fun of haters, basically.”

The brash song, with tongue-in-cheek lyrics like, “They ask me why I’m so hot / ’Cos I’m Italiano,” was written soon after the band won Eurovision, and came together quickly. “From the first time, we were like, ‘Mamma mia, this is a good song!’” says Torchio.

It’s been a whirlwind year for the band, with their summer filled with festival performances including Global Citizen in Paris – a far cry from the streets of Rome they played as teenagers. When asked about what advice they’d give to their younger selves, De Angelis says, “Nothing. Do exactly what you did. But make a better picture for ‘Beggin’.”

#maneskin #damiano david #victoria de angelis #ethan torchio #thomas raggi #interview

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islabookishmind · 2 years

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February wrap up! 📚

1) Persuasion by Jane Austen (5 ⭐)

Austen's wit and humor will never disappoint. It will live on through her works forever. Persuasion, as I said before, is a short read. It's also slow-paced, but the ending is worth it. The improvement of J.A. is so evident, knowing that this was also her final novel before she died adds to the poignancy of the writing. (I still love P&P more though!) Anne, the heroine, shows a great deal of patience and sensibility that I wish I possessed. (Although Elinor’s sensibility is unparalleled.) I must say, all of Jane Austen's novels are worth reading. Nobody can persuade me otherwise. And I couldn’t wait for the 2022 adaptation too.

2) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton (4 ⭐)

This was my first Wharton read (thanks to Timmy), and it got me. Without a doubt, it deserved the Pulitzer Prize. The gilded-age New York was one hell of a period. The aristocracy, the social rules—I COULD NEVER. This is beautifully written, definitely worth including on my favorite list. However, I am not a big fan of love triangles, so it didn't completely get me. It's still, however, worth reading. I'm going to look into more Wharton books now that she's one of my top five favorite novelists (The House of Mirth will be my next read). I am yet to see the movie.

3) Reminders of Him by CoHo (5 ⭐)

Ugly crying at midnight just because CoHo wrote another masterpiece that will rip our hearts to pieces. THIS. ONE. SHATTERED. ME. I thought I was a huge classics reader, but it turns out I love contemporaries more, and I'd give CoHo the credit with my discovery. There isn't much to say about this book. It certainly deserved all of the praise. For real. Except for the pain it will cause you, you will never regret reading this one.

4) The Spanish Love Deception by Elena Armas (5 ⭐)

When I said Aaron Blackford is the standard, I meant it. HE IS THE FREAKING STANDARD. From enemies to lovers. Fake dating. The angst. Almost all my favorite tropes rolled into one. Girl, how I wish I was the main character. (Main character vibes, when?) I'd definitely give my soul to read it again for the first time. It's a debut novel, and I was afraid it wouldn't live up to the hype, but it did. However, I must admit that not everyone I knew who read it enjoyed it as much as I did. This is still a book I strongly recommend. Give this a try! I'd certainly buy myself a physical copy of this one. (I freaking deserve it!)

5) The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (4 ⭐)

When you're at a loss for an excuse to skip work, go metamorphosis. All kidding aside! This is such a short and easy read, like really, really easy. But, hell, this is such a fundamental and influential read. It's unclear how Gregor turned into vermin overnight (just thinking about it makes it seem impossible, but it's fiction, so...). However, the feelings while reading it—Gregor's and his family's struggles, their emotions—are very moving, indeed. It was such a realistic experience.

My goal this month is at least eight books. Well, I won't fool myself anymore. 😂

P.S. My February reads, although I only finished five, are great reads. I didn't give 3 stars for this month, yay!

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junker-town · 2 years

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The 5 biggest NBA draft steals of this year so far

Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images

These are the rookies who are outperforming their draft slot already.

It takes at least five years to properly judge an NBA draft class, but that doesn’t stop fans from relitigating the order whenever they feel like it. The 2021 NBA Draft class makes for a particularly interesting test case for several reasons.

Cade Cunningham was the consensus top prospect in the draft, but it’s already clear he has a lot of ground to make up to be as impactful as No. 3 overall pick Evan Mobley. The top-4 prospects were supposed to be set in stone, but to this point both Franz Wagner and Scottie Barnes (who surprisingly snuck into the top-4 on draft night) look better than Jalen Green and Jalen Suggs. There are also two second round picks who are playing like lotto selections mostly because they’re immediately awesome on defense.

With the season more than 70 percent done, it’s a good time to take stock in what rookies have been the biggest surprises so far. It will be fascinating to check back on this list in a few years and see who else deserves inclusion.

5. Cam Thomas, G, Brooklyn Nets

Draft pick: No. 27 overall

Kevin Durant reportedly pushed for the Nets to select Thomas at the end of the first round, and that decision is paying off nicely for Brooklyn so far. Thomas has long been noted for his microwave scoring ability, and we’ve already seen flashes of it translating to the NBA. He’s scored 20 or more points 10 times since the calendar flipped to 2022, including four times in his last five games before the All-Star break.

Thomas’ fourth quarter scoring drove the Nets to a comeback victory over the Knicks that stunned the Madison Square Garden crowd:

youtube

Thomas is very much still a volume scorer instead of an efficient one. He’s only making 27 percent of his threes on the year, and he’s only making 32 percent of his threes during his flaming hot February. More encouraging is that Thomas is hitting 53.7 percent of his two-pointers and better than 81 percent of his free throws. He should get buckets in the NBA for a long time.

4. Tre Mann, G, Oklahoma City Thunder

Draft pick: No. 18 overall

Mann entered the draft as a skinny 6’3 guard out of Florida who was noted for his pull-up shooting ability and pick-and-roll manipulation. While he’s shown flashes of both in his rookie season, Mann has also impressed with his ability to knock down spot-ups. That makes him a great pairing with the Thunder’s other breakout rookie, former No. 5 overall pick Josh Giddey. Mann is hitting 39.5 percent of his spot up threes, with many of them coming off skip passes from his fellow rook.

Drives, floaters, stepbacks, pull-ups... Tre Mann's offensive package is super rich for a rookie. Followed his 30 piece from earlier in the week with 24 points last night. pic.twitter.com/71cNNyE96l

— Wilko (@wilkomcv) February 17, 2022

His development into a complementary off-ball piece only makes Mann’s skill set more tantalizing. This is a player who has always been capable of magical flashes with the ball in his hands, and he’s proven it with scoring outbursts of 30 points, 29 points, and 24 points in February. The flashy passes he occasionally threw in college are still showing up in the league, too. Mann needs to figure out how to score from two-point range (where he’s making only 40.5 percent of his shots so far) but the Thunder should feel excellent about their selection to this point.

3. Alperen Sengun, C, Houston Rockets

Draft pick: No. 16 overall

Sengun put up video game numbers in the Turkish league to win MVP at 18 years old before entering the draft. While some teams discounted his production because he lacked elite physical tools for an NBA big man, he’s quickly proving he can find a way to be effective in the league without ideal size and athleticism.

Sengun has been among the most productive rookies in this class on a per-minute basis, putting up 16.8 points, 9.2 rebounds, and 4.8 points per-36 minutes. That only tells half of the story. To watch Sengun go to work in the post is to see an array of ball fakes and creative passes. I’m still not over these two dimes.

This Sengun pass reminds me so much of Pau pic.twitter.com/A3cIj0aSTE

— Esfandiar | Darth Es (@JustEsBaraheni) February 3, 2022

Nasty pass from Alperen Sengun pic.twitter.com/LwHdIhwl3o

— Steph Noh (@StephNoh) December 21, 2021

Houston probably regrets passing on Mobley for Green with the No. 2 pick, but landing Sengun after the lottery makes it a little easier to swallow. The Rockets are crossing their fingers for some lotto luck this year with three stud bigs — Chet Holmgren, Paolo Banchero, and Jabari Smith — waiting at the top of the order.

2. Herb Jones, F, New Orleans Pelicans

Draft pick: No. 35 overall (second round)

The Pelicans seemed destined to have a season from hell as they got off to a 1-12 start with Zion Williamson’s fractured foot hanging over the organization like a dark cloud. Then rookie second round pick Herb Jones joined the starting lineup, and suddenly the Pelicans started playing .500 ball. A 6’8 forward with a 7-foot wingspan, Jones’ combination of length and energy on the defensive end has flustered established offensive players all season. He’s made a habit of blowing up actions off the ball, and recovering on other plays to make key blocks and steals for his team.

Check out this rotation and block by Herb Jones. Looks almost like vintage Draymond Green Herb's going to be in the All-Defensive team for years to come pic.twitter.com/HzCdkYPCaf

— Draft Dummies (@DraftDummies) December 29, 2021

Jones has taken on the NBA’s biggest and baddest scoring forwards all year, and he’s held his own with remarkable consistency. He has a clear role as a wing stopper moving forward, and it’s becoming clear he’s more than just a one-way player.

Jones was known as a lockdown defender after winning SEC Player of the Year for Alabama last season, but he was projected to be the sort of offensive player opposing teams wouldn’t guard in the NBA. That looks foolish now. Jones is knocking down nearly 36 percent of his threes, and also does a great job attacking the space in front of him.

Herb Jones blows by Duncan Robinson and throws it down + the foul pic.twitter.com/el2iAK4vqg

— Pelicans Nation (@PelsNationCP) February 11, 2022

The Pelicans found a gem in the second round. There’s a strong case he should be No. 1 on this list. Either way, New Orleans found a valuable piece for its future who is also pretty damn good in the present.

1. Ayo Dosunmu, G, Chicago Bulls

Draft pick: No. 38 overall (second round)

Dosunmu was a First-Team All-American at Illinois as a junior before entering the draft, but he still slipped to the second round because teams saw a guard who wasn’t quick enough to create offense of the dribble. His hometown Bulls picked him up at No. 38 overall just before remaking their team in free agency by acquiring DeMar DeRozan, Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, and others. Dosunmu wasn’t initially projected as an early contributor on a team suddenly loaded with veteran talent, but it quickly became apparent he deserved major minutes because of his non-stop motor and constantly improving offensive skill set.

Dosunmu’s defense has been his calling card all year. He’s put a lock on some of the top guards in the NBA (just ask Trae Young) while also busting dribble-handoffs and screen actions when he’s defending away from the ball. He’s been excellent at getting the Bulls out in transition, and after some early season scoring troubles, he’s gotten better and better at finishing on the break. Dosunmu has also proved he space the floor off the ball on offense (he’s hitting 41.3 percent of his threes on 126 attempts) and facilitate when he’s asked to. As Ball and Caruso have fought injuries, Dosunmu has averaged 7.4 assists per game in Feb.

Dosunmu’s fast-tracked development has been a blessing for a Bulls team annihilated by injuries and illness all year. With great size, an endless amount of energy, and the versatility to thrive in any role, Ayo is the rare second round pick who is playing like he should have been taken in the lottery.

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