#pan arab league
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Submitted for your vexillological critique: the flags of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.
of these, Iraq is my runaway favorite, because the kufic style of calligraphy the Iraqi flag uses is really well-suited to display purposes. it just looks cool as hell. plus, "god is greatest" is nice and short as mottoes go. it's the kind of thing that works on a flag, if you're going to put text on it. i wouldn't, personally, but if you're going to, Iraq does it very well. red-white-black is a pretty good tricolor combination, and i like the nod to pan-Arab unity that it represents.
afghanistan and saudi arabia, by comparison, suck. the shahadah is just too long for a flag! it's not succinct. it's not a motto. it's like putting "Fredericksburg, Virginia: Home of Al Bumbry, 1973 American League Rookie of the Year" on your flag. it doesn't matter what kind of calligraphy you dress it up in--and Arabic does have some really pretty calligraphy--it's just gonna make a mess of your flag.
the recent update to the afghan flag is even worse--putting the name of your country on your flag is an F-tier move, a sign you are either the capital of bumfuck, and nobody has ever heard of you, or your government is on extremely shaky ground and you have to assert that yes, you really do run the country, in a sort of "my flag is causing people to ask a lot of awkward questions already answered by my flag" sort of way. i guess it could be worse--i guess they could have the outline of the country on there too--but it's hard to imagine how.
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Brazil's Lula, On Egypt Visit, Discusses Gaza War
Lula, on his second trip to Egypt and his first during his current term, is due to join an Arab League meeting to discuss the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by more than four months of war.
The Brazilian leader is expected to give a speech at the gathering, according to a statement from the office of the pan-Arab bloc's secretary-general, Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
In November, Lula accused Israel of committing the "equivalent of terrorism" in Gaza by killing innocent women and children in its war on Hamas.
Continue reading.
#brazil#politics#palestine#israel#egypt#brazilian politics#luiz inacio lula da silva#foreign policy#mod nise da silveira#image description in alt
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Why did Hamas take hostages and start a war?
I'm tempted to use the fable of the scorpion and the frog here, because what is Hamas without war? It was always going to be war, their entire existence is dedicated to overthrowing Israel and taking it for themselves. They went through a bit of rebranding in 2017 when they created a new charter that said they accepted the 1967 borders of Israel as the basis for a 10 - 100 year ceasefire (not a peace treaty though - that means recognizing the existence of Israel and of course, and never giving up claims to the 'right of return' of Palestinians into Israel, which would give Palestinians majority control over country), and they realized it was more acceptable to say they were anti-Zionist instead of anti-Jew.
But I'd argue they've never been too interested in the leadership of Gaza for the sake of the Palestinian people. They don't govern Gaza really, UNWRA manages most of the foreign aid that sustains schools and hospitals. Little interest is shown in building infrastructure. Hamas' main achievement in holding power was to establish a security force to consolidate it's own power, but at least reduced the anarchy, gang violence and competing terror cells that were running rampant. Gaza has received billions in foreign aid over the last 2 decades, it should look like a seaside paradise by now. I've noticed this with the Taliban too and even the Muslim Brotherhood during it's time in power in Egypt - ideologues and revolutionaries aren't really in it for the bureaucracy and daily work of governing a state. They want to be either unimaginably wealthy or powerful, they dream of running a global caliphate, and destroying Israel is just step 1 in creating the Arab superstate, destroying Western corruption, consolidating power and expanding from there. Hamas is a short form of its official name - Islamic Resistance Movement, and it is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Islamist organizing to create the new caliphate goes back to the 20s but it was overshadowed by a more secular pan-Arab movement until the six day war with Israel dealt the Arab league a resounding defeat. Islamism has been the new, organizing principle to rally around to consolidate regional, and ideally, global power. I'm finding wikipedia a surprisingly unbiased source if you want a quick overview, although you have to read a few different entries to get the full picture.
Israel has made so many attempts at appeasement and containment, which are ironically now dragged out as if the Israeli government was somehow complicit in creating Hamas because they allowed Qatari money to enter Gaza to be paid to Hamas political leaders (now spun as 'Israel brought briefcases full of cash to Hamas') or that they supported Hamas to undermine the PA (Hamas was elected and fought a war with PA to control Gaza so I'm not sure how Israel could have ignored them. I really can't imagine juggling the PA, PLO and Hamas, and every time you make peace with one the others splinter off and reject your agreements). Hamas, in turn, has spent the last 2 years preparing this attack, while also convincing Israel it was moving away from seeking conflict.
Anyway, you were asking about this war in particular, and not the first and second intifada, their war with Fatah, or the wars against Israel in 2008-2009 or 2014. I'm not privy to what intelligence Hamas possessed that now would be a good time to start another war, but I can make a few guesses:
Opportunity: They learned of security holes in Israel that they could successfully exploit to make a devastating attack.
Method: They had friends willing to supply weapons, training and intelligence. Most significantly, Iran and Hezbollah, but they also met with Russia, they sent a delegation to the Saudis in April and to Syria in June to try to smoothe over those relationships.
Motive: They felt that supply of support might fade in the future, and thus the time to strike was now. The U.S. has been simultaneously getting Arab countries to recognize Israel and normalize relationships with Israel. The Palestinian 'cause' couldn't exist without external support. There's not enough people and, let's be honest, no real history to support a sustained nationalist campaign. The Levant was a sparsely-populated, dirt poor backwater where remnant populations of invading Arab caliphates were overtaken by the Ottoman Empire for hundreds of years. Without external support, anyone who didn't want to be in or near Israel would have left and been absorbed by any number of the 22 Arab Muslim states in the region. Its claim to fame is that it's the site of religious significance to multiple religions and thus, its has symbolic significance.
But Hamas was formed as proxy fighters in a proxy war, and the U.S. efforts were moving toward peace at an alarming rate by sidestepping direct intervention (as they had with Camp David negotiations in the past). Instead, they took their message to the regional powers who, over the years, have now all had their own run-ins with iterations of this movement and now see it as a threat to their own rule. Egypt, Jordan, United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Morocco, and Bahrain have all recognized Israel. The Saudis were in the process of joining them, which threatened to tip the balance of power in the area.
The goals of this war were to make Israel respond so they could be freshly blamed for regional problems, make Hamas and Palestine relevant again to global interest and as a regional force and remind everyone that making peace isn't possible as long as radical groups remain a force that can undermine that process.
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Designed by architect Albert Laprade, the Palais de la Porte Dorée, whose construction began in 1928, stands at the entrance to the vast space designed to house the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris. [...] [Its] style was a perfect example of a colonial modernity [...].
The display of riches extracted from the colonies, and the depiction of people bent over working, busy doing a thousand actions destined to enrich France, make up the Palais de la Porte Dorée’s 1,200-square-meter façade. It was realized at a time when many cracks were showing in the colonial empire, and when anticolonial groups in France and Europe were honing their arguments. Far from the peaceful image of worlds laboring to enrich France portrayed on this façade, [...] [t]he 1931 International Colonial Exhibition fabricated an illusion: that of a successful pacification and a working empire. [...] The government wanted to impress and dazzle the public [...].
A veritable tour de force, in a day, the public could visit Angkor Vat, Timbuktu, the palaces of Niger, or of the Queen of Madagascar. These monuments of vanquished civilizations -- now “French possessions” -- proved that access to fabulous riches had been secured. The 1931 Exhibition glorified the French colonial “civilizing mission,” but behind this euphemism were assimilation policies based on dispossession, the Code de l’indigénat (Indigenous Code), which legalized various forms of discrimination in the colonies, forced labor, and exploitation. [...] The colossal aspect of the Exhibition only fleetingly masked these fissures. [...] By its very inordinateness, the Colonial Exhibition [...] inadvertently revealed the illusion that underlay the colonial project. [...]
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In Europe and France in the 1910s to 1920s, Black, Asian, and Arab people organized, wrote, and mobilized. Examples include the Pan-African Congress in Paris in 1919 [...]. The constituent congress of the League against Imperialism and Colonial Oppression was held in Brussels in 1927. [...] [I]t was attended by representatives of the African National Congress, [...] Albert Einstein, Henri Barbusse [...]. Let us not forget either [...] the uprisings in Vietnam in 1908; [...] the 1925 revolt in Syria; or again in Vietnam in 1930. [...] Revolts and demonstrations demanding rights broke out throughout the entire French colonial empire, including [...] the demonstrations in Abéché (Chad) in 1917; the demonstrations of the people of Gabon and the Middle Congo from 1917 to 1918 [...].
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As an institution, the museum partook in the invention of homogeneous, racialized categories (“Africans,” “Asians,” “Arabs,” “Europeans”) [...]. The Palais de la Porte Dorée’s multiple bas-reliefs [...] form a veritable “stone tapestry” and an imposing fresco of imperialist power. The work of sculptor Alfred Auguste Janniot (1889–1969), it constitutes a colonial encyclopedia. Entitled: “L'Apport des territoires d'outre-mer à la mère patrie et à la civilization” (“The Overseas Territories’ Contribution to the Motherland and to Civilization”), it is the only of its kind in France in terms of size.
In this bas-relief, a vast, diverse, and complex world is reduced to a flat surface on which these figures’ labor contributes to the greatness of France. [...] The colony as disciplinable “Nature” [...]. Humans and animals, plants and pirogues intermix and intertwine. Here, half a body emerges from the foliage; there a child perched on a woman’s hip hovers over a cactus. Further on, the name “Sudan” spills from a lion’s mouth. There is no social life, [...] the colony is “Nature.”
This disorder contrasts with its orderly finality: the anticipated export of products to France. But it is also a disorder that evokes the ordering of the world through colonization. [...]
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The colony was a huge enterprise in taming fauna, flora, humans, rivers, forests, and mountains. Nothing was to escape the colonizers’ eye, or control. Everything had to be renamed, ordained, arranged, distinguished according to norms that reinforced an epistemology and imposed rigid binarities on worlds that had complex understandings of the living. Colonization was a project of control, possession, and transparency.
Thanks to this bas-relief, the French were given the impression of knowing everything about a world laying at its fingertips, that colonization offered them the entire diversity of the world, pacified, disciplined, subjected. [...] The Exhibition’s Jardin d’Acclimatation was an instrument of this organization; the public could imagine it was visiting the jungle, the savannah, tropical forests, and seas comfortably and safely. [...]
We also see the extent to which structures of racism destroy the possibility of living differently, [...] the imagination, that they stifle us, that they sever ties [...]. We want to retrace the cartographies of transnational and transcontinental resistance, to give voice [...]. We no longer want to be put under house arrest, confined.
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All text above by: Françoise Vergès. “Decolonize the City.” e-flux Architecture (Appropriations series). May 2023. [All bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. At e-flux, Vergès explains, in an introduction, that this text “is a compilation of several extracts of the book De la violence coloniale dans l’espace public: Visite du triangle de la Porte Dorée (Of Colonial Violence in the Public Space: A visit to the Porte Dorée Triangle)“.]
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In conflict is not abuse, Sarah Schulman describes (among other things) how abusers often frame themselves as victims- certainly individual Palestinians are often victimized by Israeli policies, but Arab nationalism as a collective political movement is not the victim of aggression- the Arab League invaded, they were defeated, the idea of Pan Arabism was humiliated and stalled for the foreseeable future, almost a million Jews were chased out of their homes because of it- and voila Jewish Return and Sovereignty is cast as this impossibly unfair and abusive notion, poor Arabs, they don’t have enough states where they have ethnic and religious supremacy already 🥺
Those who want supremacy see equality as apartheid.
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temptation | jasonette
word count: +1k
summary: jason smirked at her, sharp and beautiful. "is that, like, a thing with you or something?" he asked, laughter clear in his voice.
a/n: this is just chaos LMAO
@maribat-calendar-events
ao3 | wattpad | series masterlist | masterlist | prompts
If Marinette was being honest, she didn't really take much notice of it the first time it happened. If she was being even more honest, it probably had been a thing for a long, long time but she'd chosen to never acknowledge it. Marinette was well-aware of how much effort it took a person to be good at something—especially because of her own experiences as an upcoming fashion designer. So, it only made sense that she would be impressed when someone achieved something at a high level.
The turned-on part threw her into a loop though.
Jason and Marinette hadn't been seeing each other long—just about a few weeks. As was to be expected in Gotham, their relationship began with a simple one-night stand and progressed from there. Up till, well, last week, their relationship had been purely physical, but now it was in the transition stage to something more of the just-enjoying-each-other's company stage.
It was a nice thing Marinette would admit, to sit in her boyfriend's apartment, his head in her lap and just talk about anything and everything. She was more comfortable with him than she had ever been with anybody else in her life—something she hadn't forced herself to think about for longer than a few seconds.
She and Jason were sitting in comfortable silence, each left to their own devices. Jason, with his head in her lap, was reading a book while Marinette stroked her hand through his hair, scrolling through Instagram aimlessly. Her interest was sparked when Chloe tagged her in a new post.
The video was labelled as Marinette felt confident up till the first question LMAO.
Marinette tapped on it curiously, wondering what the hell Chloe was talking about now. The video had captions so she played it silently. It was some sort of quiz show, and the first question was simple: a question about the Justice League. Jason had told Marinette enough about it for her to answer with ease. The second one, on the other hand, threw Marinette into a loop and she let out a soft snort when she understood what Chloe's comment meant.
"What's up?" Jason asked curiously, looking at her over his book.
"Nothing," Marinette said, shaking her head. "Just some quiz show Chloe tagged me in. Like, who could possibly know those answers?" Marinette laughed softly as the video continued to play.
"What are they?" Jason asked, flipping a page of his book.
Marinette raised an eyebrow at him, but nonetheless complied, rewinding back to the second question. "What countries made up the original Axis powers in World War II?"
Jason didn't even look up from his book. "Germany, Italy and Japan."
The video confirmed his answer and Marinette looked up at him, stunned. It wasn't much of a shock that she didn't know the answer—history and science had never been her forte anyway, but what was a shock was the familiar flip her stomach did at his answer.
"When Walt Disney was a child, which character did he play in his school function?"
"Peter Pan."
Marinette blinked hard. Jason did mention that he loved classics, so maybe that was it. Marinette nearly managed to convince herself that, right up until the timer ran out and the host confirmed his answer.
"Now for our next category," the host announced, "Geography."
Jason snorted, like it was easy, and Marinette felt her skin prickle at the thought.
"Which country borders 14 nations and crosses 8 time zones?"
"Russia," Jason said dismissively, and Marinette stared at him with her jaw open. Her stomach whirled as his answer was correct, once again, her heartbeat began to pound.
"The ancient Phoenician city of Constantine is located in what modern-day Arab country?" Marinette didn't even understand what that question meant.
"Algeria," was the one-word answer, and Marinette was staring openly at Jason now. He still hadn't looked up from his book.
"Apple Inc. was founded by three people: Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak and who was the last person?"
"Ronald Wayne," and whoops that does it. Marinette threw her phone and with moves, she didn't even know she had, she somehow managed to manoeuvre herself and Jason until she was in his lap.
"What?" Jason asked with concern, his book lying in a heap on the ground.
"That," Marinette said, pressing a hard kiss to his lips. "Was really hot."
Jason opened his mouth—no doubt to ask another question—but Marinette used the opportunity to slip her tongue into his mouth, digging her hands into his hair. A few seconds later, Jason pulled away, laughing.
"What?" Marinette demanded frustratedly.
"I'm so confused," he said with an amused smile on his face. "What exactly is happening?" Marinette shifted uncomfortably, a dark stain appearing on her cheeks and Jason tightened her grip on his waist, clarifying, "Not that I'm complaining, obviously, but, you know."
Marinette buried his head into her neck, sucking at his sweet spot repeatedly to distract him from her embarrassment.
"You're smart," she muttered finally, in answer to his question. It wasn't news to her per se—Marinette had seen Jason enough times with a textbook and adorable glasses on his face. But. Knowing that and seeing it were two very different things.
"I'm, well," Jason hesitated, "I'm okay. Not as good as Tim."
Apparently, the universe wasn't done with Marinette today, because right on cue, her phone came back with another question. "Mount Erebus which is the second-highest volcano in Antarctica was the first ascent by whom?"
Marinette stared at Jason with her breath in her throat.
He had the ability to turn a little red as he murmured, "Edgeworth David in 1908."
"Oh my god," Marinette said, looking at him with wonder and reverence in her eyes. "That's like—oh my god, I can't get over it—"
"Are you sure you're okay over there?" Jason asked with a stupid amused grin on his face.
Marinette crushed their mouths back together, pushing him back onto the couch, tangling their limbs together.
Pulling away to gasp for air, Marinette repeated, "Smart."
Jason smirked at her, sharp and beautiful. "Is that, like, a thing with you or something?" he asked, laughter clear in his voice.
"No," Marinette lied, emphatically and immediately. "Shut up."
She pressed her lips to his again, before Jason could retort back.
#jasonette july 2022#jasonette#jason x marinette#marinette x jason#jason todd#marinette dupain cheng#fluff#humour#basically marinette has a kink so to say#and jason is just confused LMAO#maribat#mlb x dc#dc x mlb
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'Eth Alth'eban was created by James Tynion IV and Julius Gopez in Red Hood and the Outlaws #21. The city's name is Arabic for "Snake's Nest".
James Tynion IV pitched the concept of the city to DC as follows:
"Deep in the Arabian Peninsula lies the hidden city of 'ETH ALTH'EBAN, the ancient stronghold city of The League of Assassins. It’s hidden in a labyrinthine series of canyons in the middle of the desert. It’s entrance should be reminiscent of the entrance to the Al Khazne temple near Petra (which you might find familiar from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade)… The primary difference is that there should be accents of copper throughout, including gigantic copper doors. The design should also have a snake theme, to it… with decorative snakelike flourishes. It should look ancient, aside from the copper which is polished and shining. The whole entrance is carved into the wall… It’s been standing for generations, hidden away from the world. Inside these walls is another story altogether… After proceeding through the doors and opening a high tech series of barricades, you find yourself somewhere spectacular… It’s an underground technological eco-paradise, with the architectural styles of a pre-Islam Arabia. It’s an unspeakably massive setting, with a huge artificial sun in the roofs of the cavern. It’s a full city under the ground, filled with the most dangerous people who have ever lived.
This is Ra’s al Ghul’s utopian paradise. This is what he has wanted to bring to the world for all these years… A place of magic, incredibly advanced technology, and nature, all together in a small bubble of paradise. Imagine it co-existing with luscious, tropical vegetation and wildlife… Hanging gardens, tropical birds, and crystal clear waterfalls built into the seams of the place… It’s like a beautiful city built into a nature preserve.
On top of this, there should be evidence of incredibly advanced technology, mixed in with the ancient, colorful architecture and wildlife. There should be smart-glass displays in the windows, and old style markets selling the most dangerous high tech weapons known to man (right across the aisle from a fruit-stand). The population of the city should not be predominantly Arabic, but more pan-global. Every person in there is a killer, or someone involved with the death industry. Showing the market, we should see 5-Star Generals in full regalia walking side by side with ninjas, next to people in suits of fully robotic killer body-armor. They’re all enjoying the freedom of the place.
Everyone should have a hint of danger to them, but there shouldn’t be a unifying code of dress or anything like it. It needs to be fluid and strange and contradictory in its elements to keep every moment visually dynamic. Also: In terms of the foot soldiers of the League of Assassins, I want to keep the Ninja Man-Bats… So we should always see a few of them flying around the place, particularly in the wide shots of the spires and towers of the place. We can see them flying around, or resting on the rooftops and minarets. It’s an added touch of color that I think really elevates the entire place. In the center of the city there should be a giant statue of Ra’s al Ghul holding the artificial sun at the roof of the cavern, towering over the buildings and spires. At the feet of the statue, there should be a large, ornamental fountain that has been sealed up with a polished copper lid with ancient marking and runes in Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic and Celtic characters. The largest building should be like a palace, directly behind the statue of Ra’s Al Ghul and the fountain beneath it. This is where Bronze Tiger and the ruling council of the League of Assassins has been running the show since Talia left to wage her battle with Batman in Gotham City."
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Events 4.22
1500 – Portuguese navigator Pedro Álvares Cabral lands in Brazil (discovery of Brazil).
1519 – Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés establishes a settlement at Veracruz, Mexico.
1529 – Treaty of Zaragoza divides the eastern hemisphere between Spain and Portugal along a line 297.5 leagues (1,250 kilometres (780 mi)) east of the Moluccas.
1809 – The second day of the Battle of Eckmühl: The Austrian army is defeated by the First French Empire army led by Napoleon and driven over the Danube in Regensburg.
1836 – Texas Revolution: A day after the Battle of San Jacinto, forces under Texas General Sam Houston identify Mexican General Antonio López de Santa Anna among the captives of the battle when some of his fellow soldiers mistakenly give away his identity.
1864 – The U.S. Congress passes the Coinage Act of 1864 that permitted the inscription In God We Trust be placed on all coins minted as United States currency.
1876 – The first National League baseball game is played at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia.
1889 – At noon, thousands rush to claim land in the Land Rush of 1889. Within hours the cities of Oklahoma City and Guthrie are formed with populations of at least 10,000.
1898 – Spanish–American War: President William McKinley calls for 125,000 volunteers to join the National Guard and fight in Cuba, while Congress more than doubles regular Army forces to 65,000.
1906 – The 1906 Intercalated Games open in Athens.
1915 – World War I: The use of poison gas in World War I escalates when chlorine gas is released as a chemical weapon in the Second Battle of Ypres.
1930 – The United Kingdom, Japan and the United States sign the London Naval Treaty regulating submarine warfare and limiting shipbuilding.
1944 – The 1st Air Commando Group using Sikorsky R-4 helicopters stage the first use of helicopters in combat with combat search and rescue operations in the China Burma India Theater.
1944 – World War II: Operation Persecution is initiated: Allied forces land in the Hollandia (currently known as Jayapura) area of New Guinea.
1944 – World War II: In Greenland, the Allied Sledge Patrol attack the German Bassgeiger weather station.
1945 – World War II: Prisoners at the Jasenovac concentration camp revolt. Five hundred twenty are killed and around eighty escape.
1945 – World War II: Sachsenhausen concentration camp is liberated by soldiers of the Red Army and Polish First Army.
1948 – Arab–Israeli War: The port city of Haifa is captured by Jewish forces.
1951 – Korean War: The Chinese People's Volunteer Army begin assaulting positions defended by the Royal Australian Regiment and the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry at the Battle of Kapyong.
1954 – Red Scare: Witnesses begin testifying and live television coverage of the Army–McCarthy hearings begins.
1969 – British yachtsman Sir Robin Knox-Johnston wins the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race and completes the first solo non-stop circumnavigation of the world.
1969 – The formation of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) is announced at a mass rally in Calcutta.
1970 – The first Earth Day is celebrated.
1974 – Pan Am Flight 812 crashes on approach to Ngurah Rai International Airport in Denpasar, Bali, Indonesia, killing all 107 people on board.
1977 – Optical fiber is first used to carry live telephone traffic.
1992 – A series of gas explosions rip through the streets in Guadalajara, Mexico, killing 206.
1993 – Eighteen-year-old Stephen Lawrence is murdered in a racially motivated attack while waiting for a bus in Well Hall, Eltham.
2005 – Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi apologizes for Japan's war record.
2016 – The Paris Agreement is signed, an agreement to help fight global warming.
2020 – Four police officers are killed after being struck by a truck on the Eastern Freeway in Melbourne while speaking to a speeding driver, marking the largest loss of police lives in Victoria Police history.
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min al-mayyeh lil-mayyeh / Filasṭīn ʿarabiyyeh (من المياه للمياه / فلسطين عربية 'from the water to the water / Palestine is Arab')
This phrase was used throughout the First and Second Intifadas. It's a Pan-Arab call to arms that calls back to 1948 Arab solidarity against Israel. In 1948, Arab League Secretary General Azzam Pasha said "It does not matter how many Jews there are. We will sweep them into the sea." These statements are supposed to invoke the image of a victorious Arab coalition army pushing the Jewish population into boats.
"From the river to the sea – Palestine is an Arab Islamic land that it is legally forbidden from abandoning any inch of, and the Israeli presence in Palestine is a null existence, which is forbidden by law to recognize." According to many political movements in Palestine, any recognition of Israel is a betrayal of the Palestinian national movement. That's why Israel's peace talks with the PLO/PA were always accompanied by suicide bombings from militant "river to sea" factions.
"Hamas rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea." That is from Hamas charter. Rejection of two state solutions is a traditional Palestinian value. Most Palestinians disagree with Hamas corruption and methods. But they don't disagree with Hamas politics and rhetoric. Hamas designs their politics and rhetoric specifically to inspire popular support in the Arab world. Of course Hamas does not give two shits about these people. But they say the things people want to hear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uftxLGWjEKw&ab_channel=CoreyGil-Shusterfff
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What awaits the US in the Middle East
Despite strong trade and economic ties with the United States, the states of the Middle East are increasingly aware of the bleak prospects for American intervention in the region. Yesterday, June 20, the head of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, said that the EU had decided to postpone a ministerial meeting with the League of Arab States, which was supposed to take place this week, due to the fact that Syria was again admitted to the pan-Arab organization. Western countries and the United States are outraged by the fact that the League refused to obey their will and demonstrated determination and independence in the matter of restoring relations with Syria. The states of the League are gradually expanding their influence in the Middle East and are striving to restore stability and security in the region, which is hampered by European and American actors in every possible way. After returning to the League, the position of the American contingent in Syria was shaken, the Americans no longer have their former influence. As soon as the member states of the League achieve the elimination of the terrorist threat, Washington will be forced to withdraw its troops, including from Syria.
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I mean. Now I'm just arguing for the sake of arguing, I'm largely agreeing with you, and mostly peeved at the rampant hypocricy and anti-semitism on the left - but whilst Palestinians are just as mixed as any fertile crescent people, and we were never alone in EY, and the modern state of israel includes lands outside of what would have been the historic kingdoms - and it is true that all land has multiple groups with indigenity claims on it - but the separate identity as Palestinian is a modern invention. They were arabs and considered themselves arabs until that was no longer politically expedient, and the arabs are not indigenous to EY, modern or historical.
(obviously one can make a side argument here about assimilation and just because YOU consider yourself part of a majority group doesn't mean the majority group agrees and the absolutely appaling treatment of displaced populations from mandatory palestine by lebanon and syria and the implications that has re. my argument that palestinians considered themselves arabs vis-a-vis the pan-arabic movement and the arab league and whether the rest of the arab world considered them arabs, et cetera, everything is more complicated than it seems)
Previous related posts: one, two.
There are two parts to this question - the first is the part about Arabs being non-indigenous to EY, and the other is the part about the modernity of the Palestinian identity.
Regarding the first one, I didn't mention it in the last answer because I didn't think that it mattered, but now it is - the very simple fact is that we are all Arabs. Kind of. West Asia (and North Africa) is a region that can just be largely defined as "Arab". That means that everything west of Iran and south of Turkey (both of which are not Arab - Iran is Hindu-Arian and the Turks came from around the area western China if I'm not mistaken), fall under the broad spectrum of "Arabness", and yes that includes Jewish people, as we are first and foremost a Levantine people (regardless of the effects of the exiles). The word has specific connotations in the modern world, but underneath it all it just means that you are Western-Asiatic/North African (there are other areas but these are the main ones), and we all fall under this category.
The Edomites were Arabs, or a type of Arabs, and that is how they are usually referred to in academia. Canaanite people as a whole were a type of Arabs, and that includes us. We didn't magically appear here out of nowhere. We grew from the local Canaanite population as well as probably other Nomadic people from the southern area of EZ and from the areas east of the Jordan - that's all Arabs. Even specific ethic identities today, like the Druze and the Beduins, despite their uniqueness and differentiation from other parts of the Arab world, are still fundamentally Arab. And we are no different that any of them. Of course I'm not going to say that Saudi Arabians or Iraqis are indigenous to either the Levant or to EZ, even though they are Arab. But "Arab" is a huge word, far more similar to "East Asian" or "Slavic" than it is to "Jewish" or "Danish". It incorporates many peoples with many similarities, but also with many differences as well.
We are looking at thousands of years of ethnic memory, and new words are invented to talk about things all the time throughout history. And while the word "Arab" might not have existed back then, the basic meaning of it is still clear to us. And if you look at the basic facts - geographical regions, language families, central traditions and costumes - you can see how we all fall under this broad definition of "Arabness", which is far bigger than simply being indigenous to EZ or not.
Regarding the second one, this is actually a very important question, precisely because a lot of people on the right use it like a "gotcha" argument (which is also used by anti-Israelis, I'll touch that later). But, to me, the most basic response to the "accusation" that Palestinians as a people didn't exists before 48' is - so?
It always makes me laugh when I hear this argument, like that is literally how peoples are created. We have this sort of distorted notion of both history and our present existence, where we think that things are because they always were, but that's not how anything works. Everything started somewhere and at some point. At some point "me" becomes different than "them", my village is not the same as someone else's village, my city, my kingdom, my people. Sure, we are talking about long processes of cultural change and interaction, but more often than not, the actual point where a local identity becomes an ethnic identity, a national identity, is after a great victory or a great defeat.
A lot of scholars ask the question - would a peasant from Burgundy have called themselves "French" before the French Revolution? And the answer to that is, well, that is very complicated, but probably not. A huge portion of our identity as a Jewish people was formed specifically because of the Destruction of the Kingdom of Israel, and then twice as much by the destruction of the first temple and the experience of the first exile (by the elites of course). The same is applicable for many peoples around the world, who have since those events formed into modern national countries.
The problem is that we are so used for those seminal events to have already happen, preferably many years ago in a galaxy far far away, that it is hard for us to comprehend one that is happening right in front of our eyes.
The simple fact, that both sides seems to not understand, is that it means nothing if there was no Palestinian national-ethnic identity before 48', because there is one now. And this identity was formed in a specific geographical location in specific political-cultural conditions, and what we need to do is deal with it, because it is just as valid an experience as any other throughout history, and the many that will happen in the future (I cannot emphasize this enough - WE ARE NOT STATIC. Everything that exists today could, might, will change in the future, and that includes the very existence of entire countries and peoples, and that's not necessarily a bad thing, that's just how human life works).
What bothers me is both the right's obsession with this useless fact, AND the Palestinian's new obsession with proving that their identity is actually rooted in antiquity, which is just. NO. Just STOP. It is hard to be more left wing than me, you would just fall of the scale completely, but if you come into MY house (history and archaeology) and lie to MY face (that fucking antisemitic infograph from a year ago), I will tear you to fucking shreds. Any and all arguments I have seen thus far about this are unbelievably intentionally antisemitic and I just can't.
And here also comes in this obsession with the fact the Israel was founded in 48', cause that makes it "new" and therefore somehow "fake", which is just?!?!?!? what?!?! that's how countries work?!??! particularly those that have gained their independence from the UK or any other empire???? Even if Palestine would have been officially founded as a modern country it would still have happened around the same time?!?!?!?!? would that have made it fake?!?!?!?! that's the MODERN part of MODERN countries!?!?!? they didn't exist before like that????? all of these borders around the world are fucking new?!?!? and everyone is still fighting over them?!?!?! It's like that one Lebanese actress what's-her-name who said last year that she has wine that's older than Israel, like?!?!!? girl?!?!???! do I have some news for you about Lebanon?!?!!?
Can you tell I'm pissed?
Anyway, yeah. We keep trying to make sense of the human experience, put it in little definable boxes and pack them up in neat little block towers. But the truth is that we can't, we are just too complicated and annoying for that. There will never be a clear cut answer for anything. But hopefully, this was helpful enough.
(BTW - just in case if it wasn't clear - every single things that we say when discussing history is always always always prefaced with a "probably" and "as far as we know at the moment". And for everything I say, there will be those who'll disagree on some or all points. Most of them are wrong. No, I'm kidding. Kind of. Depending on the subject...)
#always a fun subject to discuss online#like walking into a mirror store with a sledgehammer and hoping for the best#to be honest to far it was okay but like i'm terrified that less nice people would find these#israel#jewish things#archaeology#history#ancient history#ip conflict
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Kết Quả Thi Đấu
Hướng dẫn cách mua vé trực tuyến trận đấu trên sân Mỹ Đình giữa Đội tuyển Việt Nam với Nhật Bản (11/11) và với Saudi Arabia (16/11) thuộc Vòng loại cuối FIFA World Cup 2022 khu vực châu Á. Trận đấu giữa Việt Nam vs Nhật Bản ở vòng loại thứ three World Cup 2022 khu vực châu Á diễn ra trên sân vận động Mỹ Đình lúc 19h00 ngày 11/11, theo giờ Việt Nam. Vào 00h00 ngày 8.10 sẽ diễn ra trận đấu giữa tuyển Trung Quốc và Việt Nam tại vòng loại thứ three World Cup 2022 khu vực Châu Á trên sân vận động Sharjah. Phong độ mà các cầu thủ chủ nhà đã thể hiện thật sự rất bết bát, trận thua vừa rồi cũng đã là trận thua thứ 8 sau thirteen vòng đấu vừa qua của tân binh Premier League năm nay.
Thethao.vn cập nhật hyperlink phát sóng trận đấu giữa U21 SLNA vs U21 Viettel hôm nay. Với mục đích hoạt động phi lợi nhuận, nên người dùng khi truy cập vào trang net 90Phut TV sẽ không phải chi trả bất cứ khoản phí nào. 90p TV hướng tới mục tiêu xây dựng và phát triển thành một chuyên trang tường thuật trực tiếp bóng đá on-line miễn phí chất lượng tốt nhất Việt Nam. Chính vì thế các bạn có thể hoàn toàn yên tâm khi xem bóng đá hoặc tham khảo thông tin liên quan đến bóng đá tại đây. Cập nhật hyperlink xem bóng đá trực tuyến Việt Nam vs Lào ở bảng B AFF Cup 2020. Chưa hết kênh trực tiếp này còn chia sẻ nhiều thông tin hữu ích khác liên quan đến bóng đá Việt Nam và thế giới.
Kết quả Aston Villa vs Leicester City ở vòng 15 Ngoại hạng Anh. Cập nhật link xem bóng đá trực tuyến trận Aston Villa vs Leicester City lúc 23h30 hôm nay 5/12. Đặc biệt, mọi trận đấu đều được phát sóng hoàn toàn miễn phí cho tất cả khán giả theo dõi nên 90p TV xứng đáng với biệt danh mà người hâm mộ đặt cho là “vua trực tiếp bóng đá online”. Nếu bạn còn nghi ngờ hay phân vân về chất lượng của kênh trực tiếp bóng đá này thì hãy tìm hiểu qua các thông tin dưới đây. Xem bóng đá trận đấu giữa Việt Nam vs Nhật Bản (19h00, 11/11) tại vòng loại thứ 3 World Cup 2022 khu vực châu Á bảng B sẽ được tường thuật trực tiếp trên các kênh VTV6, VTV5, VTV Go, FPT Play. VietNamNet cập nhật kênh sóng phát và link xem trực tiếp trận đấu ra quân AFF Cup 2020 giữa Việt Nam vs Lào.
Dẫu vậy, ralf rangnick gabriele lamm-rangnick chắc chắn không phải là đối thủ dễ nhằn như những Leeds, Norwich hay Crystal Palace. Lầu 10, tòa nhà VOV, số 7, đường Nguyễn Thị Minh Khai, phường Bến Nghé, Quận 1, TP.HCM. Pha đi bóng ngoặt vào trong rồi dứt điểm vào góc gần của Quang Vinh.
Một trong những trang internet nổi bật, được nhiều người lựa chọn đó chính làTheVang TV. Ở vòng này, Man United sẽ có chuyến làm khách được dự báo đầy dông bão tới sân của Watford. Lúc này, Quỷ đỏ cần phải đánh bại Watford bằng mọi giá để cải thiện vị trí trên bảng xếp hạng cũng như giúp cho HLV Solskjaer giảm tải áp lực. felix pan thông tin từ nhà sản xuất, bộ phim mang về 420 tỷ đồng doanh thu trong nước và khoảng một triệu USD (tương đương tỷ đồng) doanh thu quốc tế. Malaysia tạm vươn lên đầu bảng B sau khi đánh bại Campuchia ở trận đấu sớm. Đội đương kim á quân giành chiến thắng với tỉ số 3-1 nhờ các bàn thắng của Safawi Rasid, Akhyar Rashid và Kogileswaran Raj.
Trong khi đó, ĐT Việt Nam bị đánh giá yếu nhất bảng B và cũng phải trải qua four trận toàn thua ở lần đầu tiên góp mặt ở Vòng loại thứ three World Cup 2022. Liverpool có chút vấn đề về lực lượng, trong khi Arsenal đang có mạch trận bất bại khá ấn tượng. Năm lần hành quân tới Anfield gần nhất, Arsenal chỉ thắng 1 và thua four. Với sự xuất sắc của Mohamed Salah trên hàng công, Liverpool được dự đoán sẽ bỏ túi 3 điểm ở trận này để gây áp lực lên nhóm trên.
Link xem trực tiếp Syria vs Mauritania, Arab Cup, 22h00 ngày 6/12. Thethao.vn cập nhật link tường thuật trực tiếp trận Syria vs Mauritania hôm nay nhanh nhất. Thethao.vn cập nhật link tường thuật trực tiếp trận Tunisia vs UAE hôm nay nhanh nhất. Link xem trực tiếp Morocco vs Saudi Arabia, Arab Cup, 22h00 ngày 7/12. Thethao.vn cập nhật link tường thuật trực tiếp trận Morocco vs Saudi Arabia hôm nay nhanh nhất. Link xem trực tiếp Philippines vs Singapore, Premier League, 19h30 ngày 8/12.
Để xem được những trận cầu hấp dẫn hãy chọn TheVang TV bạn nhé. Trang net này còn cập nhật kết quả các trận đấu và lịch thi đấu của các giải trong thời gian nhanh nhất và chính xác nhất. Đông Timor giành quyền dự AFF Cup 2021 thông qua các trận đấu vòng loại, họ thậm chí không cần phải chơi trận 'chung kết' xác định vé dự giải khi đối thủ Brunei tuyên bố bỏ giải.
Xem bóng đá cho iOS là ứng dụng xem bóng đá dành riêng cho thuê bao MobiFone. Giúp người dùng cập nhật tin tức về trận đấu, thông tin trước mùa giải, các sự kiện bóng đá, các video clip hay, kết quả của toàn bộ những trận đấu đang diễn ra một cách nhanh chóng. VietNamNet cập nhật kênh sóng phát và hyperlink xem trực tiếp trận đại chiến MU vs Arsenal, ở vòng 14 Ngoại hạng Anh.
#tỷ số atletico#getafe đấu với atlético madrid#ket qua getafe#atlético madrid đấu với osasuna#ralf rangnick gabriele lamm-rangnick#felix pan#betis đấu với atlético madrid#atlético madrid đấu với betis#atlético madrid đấu với rayo#atletico madrid#atletico#aletico#atlético madrid#tin chuyen nhuong liverpool moi#atlético de madrid#ket qua alaves#kết quả alaves#a madrid#vải mango cao cấp
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Title: Partners {6}***
OA Zidan/Zeeko Zaki x Reader
Warning: Cursing, Fluff, Angst, Talk of Sex Trafficking, Plot, NSFW, SMUT,
ALL STARS on The NSFW Meter, DO NOT READ AT WORK
Words: 7k
Summary: You’re a damn good FBI agent in your own right. It is definitely partly to do with how well you’ve been trained and partly to do with you not letting anything or anyone distract you. You have a six-year plan that you’re fast-tracking for four. After being transferred from your office in Tampa, you’ve been sent to New York, which you’ve labeled the “big leagues.” Your first day there, after being introduced to your new partner OA Zidan you realized you’ve moved out of the frying pan right into the pot of distraction. A year later and your growing attraction for your partner still hasn’t been snuffed out.
Note: This is a first for me writing about a TV show and interjecting into it. Let’s see how this goes. I hope you guys enjoy this. As always, thank you for reading.
If you enjoyed this please, LIKE, COMMENT, REBLOG. ❤️❤️
***Loosely Edited/Proofread***
***Interactive***
Previous Chapters: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
~~~~~~~~~~~
His hand gripped the nape of your neck and squeezed. It wasn’t hard enough to hurt you, but it was just enough for you to clench around him as a new gush of wetness eased his glide. Every time OA’s hips slapped against your ass, his grip would tighten then loosen as he retreated to repeat the action again and again. He knew what he was doing. This new status of your relationship was new, but he’d been paying attention to every single cue your body gave to tell him what you liked, didn’t like, and what drove you insane. When he slammed forward and rotated his hips, your reflex was to lurch forward away from him.
“Fuck,” you forcefully whispered.
“Did I hurt you?” His voice was filled with concern as he began to pull out. Gripping around him, you kept him where he was.
“No, just--.”
OA bent over your back, pressing his chest onto you before he kissed your ear.
“Can’t take it?”
His voice was so damn deep and seductive. Your belly did backflips as you turned your face to the side to look at him.
“You tell me. I thought I was taking it very well,” you countered. OA’s smile was wide before he pressed his lips to yours to passionately kiss you. Just as t, you were getting into it, he pulled his lips from you and kissed a trail down your spine.
Deciding to tease him, you winded your hips against him, eliciting a satisfied “ah” from him. Peeping back at him, he had his head dropped back with his eyes closed, enjoying the sensations your movement gave him. Slowly you began to move back and forth. You knew he was close. You’d paid close attention to the cues his body gave too. The veins bulging in his neck said he was really close. You sped up and forcefully crashed your ass onto him. It quickly turned into you chasing your release while trying to please him.
OA’s grip on your hips tightened, and you knew what was coming. He quickly pumped into you, sending goosebumps across your skin. Your moans got louder, and soon, you were calling his name louder and louder until your release took over. OA groaned and slammed into you with four staggered thrusts. That was when your knees gave out. OA dropped back onto the bed, taking you with him to cuddle up to your back.
“To think we almost missed out on this,” OA said before he kissed your shoulder blade.
You let his words sink in as you snuggled closer. You couldn’t get close enough.
“Was there a time when you almost--,” you paused, trying to find the word.
“Pushed you into an office or an alley and kissed you?”
You snorted. “I guess.”
“There were a few times. Do you remember the hostage case? We got the perp in integration, and you took the lead, I remember watching in the other room and the way you got into his head and flipped every single notion he had and reason he had to protect the other guy had my jaw dropped. Then when he sang like a canary, I couldn’t believe it. I went in after they’d taken him, and I was so close,” OA confessed.
“What stopped you?”
“The cameras.”
You busted out laughing with him joining in. Slowly it dawned on you what your reality was, and you got silent.
“Are you thinking about it?”
“About what?”
“You know what,” OA pressed as he kissed your neck.
He smelled so good you doubted you’d ever want to be too far from him. Even that thought had you rolling your eyes.
“Thinking about the fact that this is against every rule? Or thinking about the fact that if anyone finds out about this, then there will be consequences? Or thinking about--.”
OA rolled on top of you and pressed your hands above your head, stopping your words.
“I don’t care about the rules or the consequences.”
You didn’t know how he could even say that. He’d worked his ass off to get where he was today. He’d put up with an incredible amount of shit to be the agent he was. How could he be so ready for it to be for nothing? The way he stared at you said he saw the panic in you. Biting your bottom lip, you pushed against his hands, finding little to no resistance. You cupped his bearded jaw and brought his head to you and kissed him.
You got enveloped in the kiss and rolled onto him. You decided to focus on here and now with him. You wanted to enjoy him fully without any nagging thoughts of what reality held for you come Monday morning or even beyond. Neither of you was going to put voice to the things you knew about the dangers of you getting entangled.
You awoke to the soft sound of a sitar and the aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and other spices that screamed comfort. As you stretched, you noted how sore your muscles were. You climbed out of bed and threw on your robe then walked toward the music. You had no idea what time it was, but it was still light outside. When you rounded the corner, there was OA in your kitchen in nothing but his boxer-briefs cooking up a storm.
It was a beautiful sight, one you were not accustomed to. He was the first man to grace your apartment, let alone your kitchen and bed. Slowly you let your eyes drink in every inch of his beautiful skin. He was perfect. You got lost in your thoughts and gawking over him that you didn’t realize he’d turned around and was doing some gawking of his own. OA cleared his throat loudly, bringing your eyes to his.
“Yeah, you’ve been caught.”
Embarrassment filled you as you covered your face. “No, don’t hide. Own what a pervert you are.”
You laughed loudly, then glared at him.
“Come on, the price for voyeurism is a dance.”
“Oh no, I can’t dance to this,” you protested.
“Lies. Remember when we all went to that Egyptian place, and everyone had a turn with dancing?”
You slapped yourself in the head because you did remember. You had the guts to get up and dance that night.
“You held your own. I remember those moves. Come on,” OA coaxed.
Rolling your eyes because you knew he would never let it go, you walked to him and took his outstretched hands then began moving your hips to the beat the best you could. As soon as you found your rhythm, the music picked up, and OA was leading you around the kitchen in a traditional and modern mix of an Egyptian dance. In no time, you got into it and tapped into your inner belly dancer. When OA pulled up behind you, you rolled your hips then circled them before you jerked them to the beat. The two of you dance around the kitchen together, having a great time. The song was a really good one; you couldn’t lie.
By the end of it, you and OA were laughing together while he hugged you to him.
“See, you’d fit right in. my aunts would love you.”
That sounded serious. Your eyes met, and both of you realized it then. He kissed your nose, then your forehead enhancing the intensity of the moment.
“It smells incredible. What’re you making?”
“Mm, lunch, kofta, or meat on a stick it’s a beef kabab, a red lentil soup, and Aish Baladi, which is a flatbread,” OA listed.
“Wow. You cooked all of this?”
“Yes. I can cook.”
“Wow. I had no idea. I thought in your culture it was all about finding a beautiful wife who could make all of this for you,” you teased. His adorable dimples broke out.
“Yeah. If you ask my umi, then yes, that is what a textbook good wife would be able to do. If you ask me, though, I’d like to spoil my woman.” He kissed your cheek and carried a trail to your neck.
“Oh, I bet you would.” a giggle escaped you as he nibbled your skin.
“Come on, gorgeous, let me feed you,” OA said as he walked away but not before he dropped a slap to your ass.
He gathered plates and utensils as you pried even more into the pots curiosity getting the better of you. When OA realized it, he ushered you away from the pots and put the dishes in your hands, prompting you to set the table that was in the kitchen by the window. For the next few minutes, you worked in silence, him finishing the details on lunch and you making the table presentable. It all felt so domestic and normal like it wasn’t strange that the two of you had just fallen into this situation. It felt like you’d been doing this the entire year.
OA served you filling your plate with kofta and Aish Baladi before he filled your soup bowl with lentil soup. The scents melded together so nicely that you could not wait to taste his handiwork.
“I’m so hungry.”
“I bet. What else do you expect after having sex on every inch of this place?”
Your jaw dropped at the call out. “It takes two to tango, thank you very much,” you countered. OA smiled widely. When he sat, you went for your utensils but stopped.
“We say prayer right?”
OA smiled, showcasing those enviable dimples again. “Ideally.”
“Okay, come on. Show me.”
You watched what he did and mirrored him exactly. With his hands held out palms up, he closed his eyes and said a quick prayer in Arabic that you did your best to repeat the look on his face said he was impressed. Once he was finished, you waited for him to continue. The way he looked at you had you ready to blush.
“After you,” he insisted. You took up your kofta and bit into it, moaning as the spices hit your taste buds.
“My goodness, this is really good.”
“My mother’s recipe.”
The two of you ate and joked together like you’d done this every since day since you’d met. He told you more about his family, which included his headstrong sisters, who he worried most about constantly. As he spoke about them, you could see how much he loved them and his entire family. Your mother told you that if you were going to settle down with anyone, make sure they loved their family above everything else. It was clear he loved them this much. He asked about your family, and you told him, finding it easier to open up to him now than it had been any time before.
It was as if you thought if he didn’t know too much about you, it would keep him at a distance. Like the line would somehow be crossed if you told him about your childhood and your friends back in Miami. It was ridiculous thinking about it now, especially since you’d jumped over that line in a way that could not be ignored. You liked this side of him. He looked perfect, sitting shirtless, eating his childhood favorites, and talking about the things that made him happy. Listening to him made you happy.
When both of you’d stuffed your bellies to damn near capacity, you found yourselves in the bathtub making out like a couple of horny teenagers who’d just discovered sex. When kissing got too hot, and both of you became too flustered, OA would showcase just how good he was with his hands. He massaged every inch of you, dissolving every knot in your body. With your back to his chest and you seated between his legs, he kissed your skin and whispered nothing but the sweetest words that a girl could easily get used to.
After a bath, you sat in the living room with the intention of watching something on TV. Those intentions quickly changed. Neither of you could keep your hands off of each other. Neither of you could go longer than five minutes without giggling or making some form of contact, whether it being eye, or physical. You felt like a schoolgirl who was head over heels with the popular guy in school that was showing her she meant the world to him.
For the tenth time you tried to focus on the TV and not his scent that refused to stay on his side of the couch or the sight of his colossal thighs spread next to you. his lap looked like the perfect seat and his face like the only throne you’d ever need.
“Fuck it,” OA grunted before he pounced you, to your delight.
In seconds you both were naked yet again with your arms wrapped around his neck, and his lips fastened to yours. He kissed you with meaning like you were the beginning and the end for him. You matched him emotion for emotion, desperation for desperation. You were practically obsessed with the way he tasted, and it hadn’t even been seventy-two hours yet. As he kissed you, your hand slowly trailed down his chest and torso, pressing every slope and dip to memory. If temptation and hedonism were a person, he would be it. In a matter of minutes, OA was nestled snugly in your heat, completely filling and stretching you.
His slow and deep thrusts brought goosebumps to your skin and sucked the oxygen right out of your lungs. The soft music in the background set the perfect tone for the sultry transference you were engaged in.
“I don’t think I can ever get enough of you,” OA groaned out as he thrust into you at the most torturous speed. You felt every single inch of him as he stretched you.
“Ever?”
“Ever. Uuugh, jeez!” OA rotated his hips, making you moan loudly as your back arched off the couch.
“Mmm, you drive me crazy, you know that,” OA panted before thrusting forward again stroking that part of you that instantly sparked your body to come alive in a hyperactive state of arousal, making you again arch your back. You reached out needing to touch him in some way, but with one of his hands, OA grabbed yours and pinned them to the back of the couch, trapping you.
You didn’t know how it was possible, but that one action made you want him even more than you already did. His thrust stayed at the same pace. He languidly stroked into you softly, commanding your body to do whatever he wanted. If he wanted it to overheat, all he had to do was rotate his hips to touch spots in you that you didn’t even know you had. If he wanted to steal your breath and have your soul leave your body, all he had to do was fill you to the hilt. The man knew what he was doing, and it showed in everything he did. His kisses were not kisses of an amateur. They were kisses of a grown man, a man who knew how to listen to and follow the cues of a woman’s body.
Every time you tried to move from his grip, OA stopped and waited for you to settle down. When you refused, you’d stare into his eyes, trying to convince him to let you go or speed up, but OA was in no mood to listen. His one goal seemed to be to drive you insane. OA stared down at you with his bottom lip hooked in his mouth and intense eyes penetrating you so profoundly you were sure he could see the contents of your soul. He retreated, leaving just a just the tip of his intrusion. You bucked against him, trying to get the friction you needed.
OA used his free hand to hold your waist, stopping your feeble attempts to use his body for your own pleasure, then stroke full speed ahead, sending your breasts jerking. Your gasp was loud, and the clench around him tight, so tight his groan was long. Using his weakened state against him, you pushed him to the side, flipping him to the couch. Before he regained control, you straddled, putting him right where you wanted him. You pressed your hands on his chest for brace as your body rolled through the pleasure.
“Not so strong now, huh?”
OA smiled through his pleasure, then licked his lips, tempting you more. “You found my weakness and took advantage,” he teased.
“And what weakness is that Special Agent Zidan?” You slowly rolled your hips and fought the urge to moan. He felt so good.
OA’s hands gently gripped your waist when you began taking control of his pleasure. What began as slow rolls of your hips turned into energetic circles that had no reason to them but to make him shout your name. Every so often, you slowed it down, never allowing him to predict your next move. With every roll and buck of your hips, OA’s jaw dropped more and more while his eyes rolled back further and further.
When you began bouncing on him, his curses began, but they remain strangled in his throat.
“I can’t hear you,” you teased, speeding up your bounce. Every time you dropped back onto him, you forcefully did it hard enough that a shiver rushed through you. OA’s hands moved from your waist to your hips to hold you. As soon as they squeezed, you stopped.
“Uugh, please don’t stop.”
“Keep your hands on the back of that couch, or I will leave you to finish this yourself,” you warned.
The look in his eyes screamed defiance, while the smirk on his lips said he liked this side of you. As he bit his bottom lip, he slowly removed his hands to grip the back of the couch. The way the cushion sunk underneath the pressure of his hand said he was holding it dangerously tight, showing you just how close he was to flipping you back over to show you just who was stronger.
OA slid his body a little lower, so his back was angled and neck tilted downward.
“Such a good boy,” you coaxed with a cocky smile as you began to bounce on him again only this time, starting from the beginning with slow teasing swirls of your hips. After circles, you rolled them in a figure eight; after that, you combined the two until you gradually sped up.
You loved the sounds he made. He was not shy about letting you know just how good you were making him feel. Every change you made, his back arched. Every time you clenched around him, his grip tightened, sending all the veins in his arms bulging.
“What is your weakness, Omar?”
The clench in his jaw said he liked the way you said his name. In truth, you liked the way it felt. Swirling your hips against him, you expected him to cave—he did not.
“Won’t tell me?”
OA bit his bottom lip and dropped his head back, giving you perfect access to his neck. Hovering over his chest, you licked across his Adam’s apple along his skin, collecting the droplets of sweat that littered his skin. Once at his neck, you bit the flesh and sucked it into your mouth. OA groaned again before he brought his head back down to capture your lips and claim them as his. From the beginning, the kiss was erotic and blazing hot. Your tongues danced together; when yours twisted around his, he sucked on yours controlling who had the power. You’d always suspected he was a tease, and he was showing you just how much of one he was. His kisses did what they always did, made you dizzy, and distracted, making you almost forget what you were trying to do—almost.
You quickly pulled away from him and went to his ear. “Nice try. My interrogation practices are undefeated,” you whispered before you gently nibbled his ear. You intended to slip away, but OA was quicker. He pulled you to him and kissed you stupid, stepping his game all the way up. You were so open for him that you didn’t care who took control.
“You forget who I am,” OA gruffly spoke with your faces mere centimeters from each other.
“And you seem to not know who I am,” you countered, clenching around him again. OA sucked in a sharp breath as his eyebrows knitted together. “Put them back,” you ordered drunk off the power you possessed. You knew if he genuinely wanted to, he could have flipped you onto the couch and had you screaming “fuck me” in the six languages you were conversational in.
OA groaned but didn’t obey right away; instead, he nudged his hips up, thrusting into you to remind you just how good he could make you feel. One thrust was more than tempting enough to give in, but you didn’t become who you were by caving at the first sign of pressure. OA’s smile was playful as he put his hands back onto the back of the couch.
Fully drunk off of the power you held, you got lost in the music playing and teased him mercilessly. OA’s eyes never left you and your body. He watched you as if you were the best show he’d ever seen. You knew what he wanted without him saying a word. When he wanted you to go fast, you went slower. When his eyes pleaded with you to bounce, you bucked. After a few minutes, he looked to be on the verge of taking what he wanted to hell with you giving it. You didn’t know if you were more excited at that prospect or afraid. As you sped, you locked eyes with him.
“What’s your weakness?”
He was close to cracking, you could tell, but instead of telling you, he remained silent. You braced your hands on his torso and wildly rode him determined to make him speak. OA’s moans tumbled from him one after the other. The setting sun shone through the window and bathed your skin in its glow, highlighting the sweat that decorated your bodies. Your own orgasm was quickly creeping up on you, and you weren’t sure who would crack first. Once you thought it, OA slid further down the couch until it was just his back on the seat, and that was when his hips rose to meet you in one quick thrust.
His thrust came one after the other until he was pummeling into you. As you panted, the whine in your voice got louder and louder until you were damn near breathless. With one hand, OA gripped your hip steadying you so he controlled your body and controlled just how deeply he delivered your pounding. His other hand sank into the hair at the nape of your neck, pulling your head back just enough to tell you that you were at his mercy now.
Any control either of you possessed before was gone. Both of you were moaning and grunting at the top of your lungs, not caring who heard or who had a problem with how loud you were. The pleasure you felt was all-consuming and maddening all at the same time. You frantically chased your release just as fiercely as OA chased his.
“You!” OA’s shout was sudden. “You’re my weakness, Y/N. You make me weak,” he confessed in a rush.
No words had ever held more power than those from him to you. You bucked against him in no coherent fashion, as if you were riding a mechanical bull. He met your movements with his own penetrating thrusts, which only propelled you more forcefully into the orgasmic cloud that was so close to you.
Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock.
Ignoring the faint sound, you remained in the bubble of sensual pleasure the two of you were wrapped in. The knocking persisted and even got louder. Soon it was too loud to ignore; your body fell out of sync with his, and your movements staggered and clashed with his. OA’s frustration was evident with his loud grunt.
“Hold that thought,” you panted out, trying to catch your breath. You stood sliding off of his length. Glistening, it bobbed in the air between you, distracting you. OA brought his hand to it and slowly stroked himself.
“This thought?”
You smiled and fell for the trap. You slid back onto him, throwing your head back, relishing in the complicated mix of pleasure and a dull ache that only he could produce. You rocked back and forth several times, forgetting the knocks and ringing of the doorbell. You tried to focus only on him, and just when both of you were finding your synchronized stride, the doorbell obnoxiously rang back to back.
“Fuck!”
OA’s frustration over the interruption had you giggling. He shot you a warning look.
“I guarantee you won’t be laughing in a little while,” he promised before he pumped up into you, making you whimper. He didn’t stop with one stroke; he did it again and again. Just when you were going to hover over him, another knock came from the door.
Knock, knock, knock, knock.
Both you and OA kissed your teeth in annoyance. Sighing, you stood from him and swung your leg over him, ready to find your robe. When you bent to retrieve it, OA dropped a heavy-handed slap to your ass, which had you biting your bottom lip ready to leave whoever was at the door there for however long it took for you to get yours.
“Get rid of em’—quick,” OA instructed.
You smirked, “Oh, have plans, huh?”
With a smirk of his own, he nodded, “A few and they involve several of your body parts.”
You gasped and pressed your hand to your chest. “Agent Zidan!”
OA smiled and watched you tie the robe around you before you walked from him down the hall to the door. Forgetting to look at the video feed of your front door, you opened it with a lazy smile to see Kristen.
“Kristen!”
Like cold water, your sex induced haze dissipated, leaving you wide-eyed.
“I’ve been knocking and ringing for like three minutes. What’re you doing in there?”
You pulled the door closer behind you blocking her view. “What’s happening?”
“Nothing. What’s up?” You tied to look as calm as possible. “Why’re you here?”
Kristen studied you for a few moments, then looked to your attire, and her face lit up. “Do you have a guy in there?”
“What? No. It’s nothing. I was—resting,” you lied.
“With the screams and shouts, I heard that’s doubtful.”
You pinched your lips and tried to remain collected to not give anything away.
“What’s going on?”
“I’ve been trying to get in touch. Did you hear OA is okay?”
“Yeah. I saw the message briefly before I fell asleep. I’ve been trying to catch up on some sleep,” you expertly lied.
“Well, everyone’s been called to assemble at the JOC. We couldn’t reach you or OA for that matter. I said I’d come by and grab you,” Kristen informed.
“Wow, I haven’t heard from him. He’s gotta be resting after what he’s been through.”
Kristen nodded, accepting your guesses.
“Yeah. So do you wanna change?”
You grabbed the collar of the robe and nodded. “Yeah. I’m gonna grab a shower too. I’ll meet you at HQ,” you said.
“Sounds good. You should hurry, it’s Sunday, and it sounded urgent,” Kirsten finished.
“Got it! Thanks, Kristen.”
You smiled at her as she began walking away. You wanted to make sure she was actually leaving. When you were sure, you walked back into your apartment and locked the door. When you walked back into the living room, the first sight of OA still laying there with his member still out and so damn inviting had you forgetting Kristen’s words.
“You and I have very different definitions of quick,” OA teased. “Come here.” He stroked himself a few times, reigniting the flame within you that the impromptu visit had doused.
“God, you look so tempting.”
“Let me tempt you then,” OA coaxed. You whined and watched him stand and walk to you. Once before you, he easily lifted you into his arms. You wrapped your legs around his waist and moaned when you felt his giant hands grip your ass to hold you onto him.
“We gotta go, that was Kristen, we’ve been summoned,” you informed. OA didn’t look phased.
“They can wait a little longer,” he whispered before he sheathed himself in your soaping core.
Both of you released a satisfied sigh as if there was nowhere in the world, either of you would rather be. OA took the lead and moved your body as he wished. He began slowly stroking into you, using his lower half as a wave reaching depths inside of you that had you whimpering as you held him to you. When you whimpered, he mewled. When you clenched around him, he slammed into you, holding you steady so you felt every inch of him.
It didn’t take long for either of you to be at the precipice of your undoing. You felt the wall at your back, and that was when OA hammered into you with the speed of a roadrunner. In seconds you shouted out as your orgasm overtook you and pulled you so deep in the sea of gratifying pleasure that you didn’t care if you drowned in it. Long minutes passed with both of trying to catch your breath and regain your strength. Once you did, OA brought you both to the shower, where you washed each other, trying your best not to get lost in each other yet again.
After a shower, OA dressed and reluctantly left you. It took him several attempts to get through the door, thanks to his sticky fingers trying to get you back into the bed or on the couch or even against the wall. His will was strong, and you were finding you were so corruptible when it came to him. Once he was gone, it took you some time to come down from the thirteenth cloud you were on. You kept replaying the last near forty-eight hours and everything that happened and all that you felt. Needless to say, it was challenging to get your head out of the clouds and back into professional mode.
By the time you made it to the JOC, it was almost an hour and a half since Kristen had stopped by. You did your best to hammer into your head to act as if everything was the same, and nothing had changed. When you walked into the office, you politely smiled at everyone and greeted them as you made it to your desk.
“Y/N, wonderful you were able to join us,” Isobel shouted out, acknowledging your presence. “Any idea where OA is?”
“No, no clue.”
“Here, here, sorry. I’m here,” OA called out as he pushed through everyone to show his face. You kept your eyes forward, not confident you could keep the smile off your face.
“Glad that you’re feeling well enough to join us, OA,” Isobel began. “Are you sure you don’t need more time to rest and recuperate?”
“No. I’m feeling better than ever. Saturday was just what I needed.” OA replied.
You couldn’t help but smirk then. Pressing your lips together, you tried to stop the giggle that threatened to escape. You peeped over to him to see he was also smirking.
“All right. Great work with that bomb, OA. Next time you’re feeling like being the hero, don’t we’d rather have you here with us than watching over us from the great beyond,” Jubal said. You glanced at OA and gave him a stubborn look that was a warning for the next time he wanted to be an idiot. OA smiled and nodded.
Jubal walked to the front of the JOC, where all the screens were signaling he wanted everyone’s attention. “So normally we don’t do Sundays, but this is urgent. New Dawn Bringers, otherwise known as NDB, have been found to have a connection with a serious trafficking cult that the FBI has been trying to lock down, The Rose Vortex. SVU has been running an operation. They have one of their own inside as we speak,” Jubal informed. He walked to a computer and tapped Ian on the shoulder who brought visuals on the screens before you.
“As of twelve hours ago, she’s gone quiet. We’ve also heard chatter that leadership in NDB is coming to town, and that means they need to be entertained. We have the big bosses, and we want them all,” Jubal finished.
“Okay, sounds good. What’s our play?” Jubal pointed at Kristen, acknowledging her question.
“We have an inside man who says they are getting a new shipment of eh-em, women,” Jubal added.
“What’s our in?”
Isobel and Jubal looked at each other with your question. After looking at them for a few seconds, your alarm slowly rose.
“Uh, why are you guys looking at me?”
Isobel cleared her throat and stood from her partially seated position. “You’re our in,” she announced.
OA sat up in his seat. “How?” You caught the controlling tone in his voice.
“I’ve read your file, Y/N. In Miami, you went undercover with--,” Isobel began before you cut her off.
“The Mantiago Cartel, yeah. It was a week at a sketchy—sex—club,” you slowly finished catching on.
“Yes, a well-known club that serviced that cartel. You got in with the leader and were integral in taking him down. The plan is to get you in with that shipmen to get into the cult,” Isobel informed.
“Absofuckinglutly not!”
All eyes flew to OA. No one spoke, everyone was in too much shock, you included.
“Let’s talk in my office,” Isobel coolly replied as she took a few steps in that direction.
“It doesn’t matter if we talk here or there, the answer is still no,” OA declared.
“OA!”
When he looked at you, he saw the alarm in your eyes. He took a breath and rubbed his goatee around his lips down to his beard. You stood and walked ahead to Isobel’s office. You filed in first, then Isobel, Jubal, and finally, OA. Once the door closed, Isobel was the first to speak.
“Okay, Agent Zidan, take a breath,” she cautiously began as if giving him a nonverbal reminder of who he was. “The plan is simple; Y/N will infiltrate the shipment. Once at the cult location, you will locate the SVU agent and assess the situation. Your objective is to get the bosses into a compromising position for us to bring them in and nail their asses to the wall to give us the win,” Isobel explained.
“While bringing in whatever intel you can on NDB,” Jubal added.
“No. You want her to go undercover as a trafficked sex slave, and before you tell me don’t know what’ll happen, yeah, we do. These women are kidnapped, brutally and violently broken in, then drugged up to be pimped out. There is no way we’re letting Y/N in that,” OA finalized.
“OA, we understand, but she’s had experience with this. I am confident in her ability and skill to get in, find the agent and accomplish the objective,” Isobel reasoned. “Y/N, what do you say?”
You looked between Isobel and Jubal, who waited each with different expressions on their faces. You could feel the death rays from OA beside you. When you looked at him, the look was worse than you expected. He looked at you expectantly. He expected you to say no.
“I can do it. It’s not a big deal,” assured. OA rolled his eyes, clenched his jaw, then turned his back to you.
“All right, we’ll get you up to speed. Let me say this, as a woman I know what I am asking you, I know the danger and risk this will put you in but I am one-hundred percent sure that this is not more than you are capable of,” Isobel slid in with a warm smile before she walked out of the room.
Before you could say anything to him, OA was bolting out the door too. Jubal put the files in front of you. he looked as if he had a question to ask, but instead, he nodded and patted your shoulder. “We have you, Y/N,” he said before he walked out of the office.
The next two hours passed with you drilling yourself, trying to memorize everything in the files. With your head on the task at hand, it didn’t mean that you didn’t see OA every time he stalked past the room with the sourest expression on his face. You knew he was pissed, and it bothered you. His worry wasn’t unwarranted. He was right going undercover like this was dangerous, especially seeing how dangerous and racist the NDB was that danger was increasingly greater.
When you got up to stretch your legs, you saw him at his desk. As you approached, you tried to act as normal as possible. Once beside him, you inhaled his scent, one of his favorite things.
“Think you can quiz me?”
The look he gave you was an incredulous one that said you were crazy. “No, thanks.”
“OA, come on. Let’s talk,” you whispered. OA sighed and looked around him, accessing the number of eyes on you.
“Fine.”
“Conference room at the end of the hall,” you instructed before you walked off, making a pit stop in the office to gather the files.
Once inside the conference room, you paced the room, walking around the table. Almost eight minutes passed before the door opened, and OA walked in. He stood beside the door with you, standing across the room where the projector was. You stared at each other, neither wanting to concede. At the same time, you both walked around the conference table to meet in the middle. Once before each other, you sighed when you saw the tight clench of his jaw.
“Come on, Omar.”
OA groaned and went soft. “Of course, you’d use my name at a time like this.”
“You’re being unreasonable,” you continued.
“Me? Y/N, this is a sex trafficking ring, a racist one. This is too dangerous, and you know it.”
“No, you know what I know is I've done this before. Neither is the less evil. If this were a week ago, you wouldn’t be acting like this, and you know it,” you breached.
OA sighed again and dropped his head back. “Are you saying I’m acting worried for your safety because—,” he began.
“Am I wrong?”
OA didn’t speak for almost a minute before he sat on the conference table, leaving you to stand there waiting. He rubbed his face and mumbled something that you didn’t catch.
“Yes, you’re wrong. If it were a week ago, I’d still object. I would still feel the same way I do now, about the case and you.”
You stared at each other again. He reached out and pulled you between his legs to him. “There are so many ways this can go bad, so many ways you can get hurt, and I won’t be there. I’m—I’m scared.”
Your heart melted at his admission. OA scoffed.
“I’m fucking scared, and I don’t know what to do about it. I have no control here. If it’s you and me out there, then there is some control, with this--.”
You gripped his jaw and made him look at you. “I get it,” you whispered. OA sniffled and clenched his jaw in that control freak trying to keep his impulses internal way that you’d fallen in love with. You couldn’t help but kiss him even though it was a bad idea, especially considering where you were right now. OA kissed you back, letting it remain slow and tender.
You pressed your forehead to his then sighed as you pulled back to look at him. “We can’t let our fears get in the way of the job. You know that,” you whispered. OA nodded.
“I know, I know, but you’re more than the job now, Y/N. This is more, and no matter if we wanted to just leave things unspoken or not, it is still something. Friday night meant something, Saturday meant something, a few hours ago—that meant something. You’re not just my partner anymore,” OA finished.
He was right; the dynamics of your relationship had now changed. You’d crossed a line, and professional was not what this was anymore. It was something more. Something that neither of you had discussed for whatever reasons, but you both knew you would have to have the discussion. Now was not the time, though.
“OA, this is happening. I can’t be distracted in there. I can’t have you in the back of my head worrying that you’re not okay with this, that you don’t have my back in this.”
“You’re kidding, right? Y/N, I always have your back; I will always have your back. Yeah, I don’t agree with this op, and I wish that you would reconsider, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have your back with it. Your back, my back, we got that.”
You nodded and dropped your forehead to his chest to release a relieved breath. You desperately needed to hear those words, and you hadn’t realized how desperately until now. OA kissed the top of your head.
“I’m going to do whatever necessary to make sure you come home to me. Whatever it takes,” OA finished.
You locked eyes with him seeing the vehemence of his declaration radiating from them.
For the next hour, OA drilled you on the contents of the folder and helped you do what he did best, get your head in the game.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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A survey of my ‘spotify wrapped’ from 2020
So, I listen to music between a lot of platforms, I hate how spotify operates as a company (and like in a way that’s pretty comparable to my loathing of the publishing/distribution sides of creative industries,) and I fucking refuse to ever pay for spotify askjdhd
However based on the aggregate of my 100 most-listened-to songs from a year of mostly hitting shuffle on an artist, album, or playlist on mobile, I do have some reflections and highlights. From that I made something of a survey of that list which includes my #1 and #100 song in addition to 1 song from each set of ten, for a total of 12 songs. These represent artists and genres I really got into this year, as well as longtime favorites that are worth talking about:
1. “Bad Trip” - Bad Trip (single) - Xena Elshazlii & Fady Haroun: "Bad Trip” is probably my favorite 2020 release, like if I had to pick one. The track has incredible energy, from the soft piano and vocalization intro to the verse with it’s sparse drums, subtle bass line, and slight strings to an absolute banger of a chorus with punchy staccato synths, reinforcement of the drum groove, and addition of an electric guitar. Elshazlii & Haroun pack a lot into 2-and-a-half minutes of music, and the variations in texture, mix, & music in each iteration of the song’s discrete sections are *chef’s kiss* ---verse 1 and chorus 1 are not identical to verse 2 and chorus 2, to say nothing of the short instrumental transition b/n the first chorus and second verse. Whenever I listen to “Bad Trip” I’m compelled to hit ‘repeat’ ---which is not a normal occurrence for me---and experience the builds and releases that this track brings once again. I don’t know much Arabic beyond the slang terms and exclamations that peppered my grandparents’ & parents’ speech when they spoke to each other in Armenian, but I’d be a liar if I didn’t tell y’all that “Bad Trip” is among the songs that make me want to learn the language so I can better sing along w/ them.
3. “City Lights” - Sailorwave II - Macross 82-99 ft. Kamei: "City Lights” is the opener to Macross 82-99′s 2018 EP Sailorwave II, and it does that job immaculately. While I recommend the entire EP and an exploration of the Future Funk genre as a whole, you can’t go wrong with getting a taste of either through “City Lights.” The track bursts to life w/ synth brass chords and fast drums, quickly finding its way into punchy up-tempo horn line w/ light rhythm guitar and an active & bouncy bass line joining the mix. “City Lights” more or less goes from A to B to C and after the instrumental opening, the track shifts to a more under-voice horn line offering a countermelody to a mid-to-low register vocal line which is soon after joined by high voices punctuating the beginning of each phrase. The horns, guitars, and singers are cut from the track as the song enters its final section, a rap verse from featured artist Kamei accompanied with a slower-moving bass and light synth chords & wash in the middle register. Taken all together, “City Lights” ---like “Bad Trip” before it---packs a lot of music into a short duration & leaves me wanting more, which I especially long for when listening to the track outside of the context of the EP (which is what I usually do.)
12. “Turn to Hate” - Pony - Orville Peck: There’s a lot I could have done better in 2019, and “check out Orville Peck” is pretty high up there. “Turn to Hate” is a song that is at once heartrending, sincere, & catchy as all get out. Peck does one of my favorite possible things a musician can do on this track, and that’s make me Feel Things at a quick tempo. The vulnerable lyrics sung in outlaw country bass are supported by a fairly simple chord progression that acts as a solid foundation for a lot of texture ---moving guitar lines in the accompaniment part and middle-ground lines that move in and out of the melodic foreground. My moment of pure delight on the track is Peck’s laconic “yeehaw” that leads into a guitar solo that does so much work w/ its relative simplicity. “Turn to Hate” is an excellent song to get you into Orville Peck’s music if you aren’t already, if any of this piques your interest then I strongly recommend exploring his output of classic country meets 2010s indie meets camp gay sensibilities meets emotional realness. (This is as good a place as any to advise you to check out Yola and her album Walk Through Fire.)
27. “Water No Get Enemy” - Expensive Shit - Fela Kuti & Africa 70: I’m a newcomer to Afrobeat which is a fuckin’ shame because it contains a lot of the things I love most in music: rhythmic density and variety, jazz and “folk” idioms working together, a sense joy in the music-making with righteous anger at injustice in the music’s purpose, and a kick-ass horn section. "Water No Get Enemy” by Fela Kuti & Africa 70 is as good an intro as any to Afrobeat as it’s a delightful & excellent piece of music by the genre’s pioneer. It’s worth mentioning that in addition to its musical quality, Afrobeat is also deeply connected with Pan-Africanism and the resistance to the presence of European colonizers in Sub-Saharan Africa. To be frank, whatever I write can’t really do justice to this song or the musical movement from which it comes, go listen to it... a jam you can dance to while hating the British!? Immaculate.
31. “Vardavar” - EP No. 1 - Tigran Hamasyan: The first of two songs from Armenian Jazz-fusion pianist/keyboardist and composer, Tigran Hamasyan, is a fast moving rhythmically dense piece of music named after the Armenian holiday of the same name ---Vardavar is a holiday of pre-Christian origin that Armenians celebrate in July in observance of the transfiguration of Christ, it involves throwing buckets of water on each other! Appropriate to its namesake, the running piano line through much of the track and the melodic lines are both exceptionally fluid and reminiscent of water. The rhythm of the tune follows a highly irregular subdivision of the bar that it’s best to feel along w/ as a listener ---seriously, unless you’re transcribing the tune or practicing/rehearsing it, don’t worry about counting---and get lost in with the flow of the music. Notable features of the track are the dense layering of instrumental/vocal lines on the melodic and countermelodic material, breakdowns & entire sections where the music takes to longer notes, “slower” feel & division of the bar, and a slower harmonic rhythm, unexpected unisons b/n instruments, and the transformation of Armenian folk melodies & texts between vocalized material and statements of the original material. There is no living musician whose work I love more than Tigran’s and if you’re not familiar with it “Vardavar” is an excellent place to start.
46. “Boyish” - Tropical Jinx - Little Big League: "Boyish” is better known as one of the singles from Japanese Breakfast’s sophomore album Soft Sounds from Another Planet where Michelle Zauner presents the tune at a slow tempo with an unassuming instrumental accompaniment, wash of synths in the chorus, and low-register closing guitar solo which leaves the audience with a sense of melancholy & vulnerability. The original version from the 2014 LP of Zauner’s former band, Little Big League, offers a different take on the text: noisy guitars, driving rhythm, aggressive drumming on a rock groove, and a vocal delivery offering more of the rage of heartbreak than its sadness. Zauner refers to “Boyish” as an ‘ugly girl anthem’ and that intention is very apparent on this version of the track ---whereas the Japanese Breakfast take on it gave me a sense of being in the gender hinterlands b/n acceptable presentations of masculine and feminine. Both versions of the song are really worth seeking out for different reasons, and I chose to highlight Little Big League on this list because they’re a solid guitar-driven emo band that deserves appreciation in its own right.
50. “Dreaming” - Eat to the Beat - Blondie: What do I need to say about Blondie!? A CBGB act from the late-70′s that straddled the worlds of Punk and New Wave at their peak with a mix of an exceptional rhythm section (that bass!) diverse and compelling guitar work, and the captivating and ever-iconic vocals and presence of Debbie Harry. “Dreaming” might be my favorite song from Blondie and has had a special place in my heart since I first listened to them with my mom. It’s one of those songs that I’m tempted to call a perfect pop song: a joyful performance, lyrics that are at once simple and relatable ---whom amongst is unfamiliar with longing!?---music full of hooks & containing the kind of energy that just goes and takes you with it!
65. “Holy” - Shadow Theater - Tigran Hamasyan: The second entry from Tigran Hamasyan comes from his 2013 album Shadow Theater ---an excellent work as a whole---and is one of the slower, more spacious, and simpler tracks from it. “Holy” is a setting of the Armenian liturgical piece “Soorp Soorp” which is frequently used in the celebration of the Eucharist (even in the Armenian Protestant church I grew up in) and it’s achingly beautiful. There’s always something to be said about a musician capable of complex and virtuosic feats on their instrument doing something very simply and very well, and that’s what the entire ensemble brings ---including frequent collaborator Areni Agbabian who provides the vocals. Even as the texture thickens in the middle of the song, the middle ground & harmonic support coming from strings and bassoon (Ben Wendel) is simple, under-voice, and reverent. “Holy” is the kind of piece of music that offers an encounter with God ---even if one would never otherwise believe in something beyond the material; even just for a moment.
77. “The Day the World Turn Day-Glo” - Germ Free Adolescents - X-Ray Spex: X-Ray Spex is one of those bands I’ve listened to before on a recommendation I received ages ago but never really followed up on beyond the one song sent my way. “...Day-Glo” is a fuckin’ banger of song that just bursts with this wonderful energy from the jump & showcases the best qualities of X-Ray Spex’s sound: driving guitars, wild saxophone lines, and chaotically charismatic lead vocals from singer Poly Styrene. X-Ray Spex have an output that is wild and fun as hell to explore, and “...Day-Glo” is an excellent place to start ---you’d also do well to check out their more notable song “Oh Bondage, Up Yours!”
84. “Marquee Moon” - Marquee Moon - Television: Listen, you don’t need to read some internet lesbian with a music degree go off about Television ---one of the most musically interesting acts to come out of CBGB and one of many definitive proofs that Punk is not a label that people should fucking fight about having a true definition of. Clear 11 minutes in your day, find a pair of headphones so you can experience the use of stereo in the recording and enjoy each element of the song, especially with regards to Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s interlocking guitar lines.
96. “Leylum” - Kokorec - Collectif Medz Bazaar & Sevana Tchak: Armenian folk music, baby!! Collectif Medz Bazaar offer a lively and joyful rendition of the classic folk song “Leylum” which has been burned in my mind from church and community gatherings ---the fun ones with music and all of your aunties dancing in a circle and such. Listen to this song and DM me if you aren’t dancing along of joining in on the response parts as best you can. I think this particular recording offers a nice entry point into an exploration of Armenian music, the instrumentation hits a lot of the staples of Armenian folk ensembles ---duduks, dohl, dumbek, clarinet, shvi, etc.---and the song itself is an up tempo dance tune which I find to be easier to start with than ballads or liturgical music.
100. “Electrastar” - Paradize - Indochine: Back in the hazy past of 2017, one of my friends from undergrad and I were hanging out and playing music for each other. In a departure from his usual library of French Baroque music, he played a song by French New Wave band, Indochine. That song was “Electrastar” which is a consistent favorite of mine, my favorite song from its album ---Paradize, which is already a solid record---and a great entry point into the musical output of a band which has been active for about 40 years. "Electrastar” features driving rhythm guitar, pulsing synth under the texture, eminently catchy chorus and post-chorus, and a very care-full and effective approach to the mix. Also, not for nothing but that album cover is 👀
Survey of 2020 Listening
#magatha.txt#long post#music recommendations#Xena Elshazlii#Fady Haroun#macross 82-99#kamei#orville peck#fela kuti#tigran hamasyan#little big league#blondie#x-ray spex#Television#collectif medz bazaar#sevena tchak#Indochine#french mention
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