safety first

some of the things that are now lost forever: the largest collection of egyptian artefacts in latin america; the skeleton of the largest flying reptile ever found in Brazil; the oldest human fossil ever found in the country, named “Luzia” (over 11.000 y.o) and other 20 million extremely important relics and researches just burned to the ground. never to be seen again.

thanks to our government, of course, who didn’t want to pay the museum the necessary funds to make the essencial maintenances since 2014 (which by the way, costed less than a supreme federal court judge’s sallary: R$520 in a year).

another sad instance where the state’s indifference towards culture and history becomes painfully obvious. this is a massive blow to our cultural legacy.

this is what it looks like now:

here is a thread of wonderful pictures taken before the fire started, so you can see details of the museum that now is lost forever.

here is some of the international news saying on this, because most articles and videos are all in portuguese, u can check some of the news in english: (here *new york times*) (here *bbc news*) (here *le monde* for french speaking readers) (here *shorouk news* for people who speak arabian) (here *azteca news* for spanish) (here *corriere della sera* for italian).

it was a natural science and historic museum, there were all sorts of important researches and relics. all burned. this was our culture. our history. the first human fossil found in brazil (mentioned above, Luzia) was so important for science, since it proved that way before indigenous tribes existed in Brazil, there were black people.

despite its massive success, the extremely racist and very historically inaccurate Birth of a Nation was not without controversy at the time of its release.

a lot of activist groups tried to prevent its screening in their areas, and there was debate about whether or not showing it in cities would prove to be incendiary and start race riots. Black Americans did not like the film and were open about how they did not like it.

one of the responses to it was a full-length motion picture made some years later called Within Our Gates, about the racism and bigotry that still existed in the US. it was written and directed by Oscar Micheaux (Wikipedia), a black author/auteur who ran his own film studio and independently produced over forty pictures. his films had all-black casts and lower budgets, but proved to be popular. some of them are lost, but some aren’t, and Gates is one that’s been preserved at its full runtime. Here it is on YouTube; the cast is in the description.

talking about the influence of Nation on US cinema and by extension world cinema while removing it from its historical context makes it seem like everybody back then was just okay with the blatant racism and horrific plot, but they weren’t. and black Americans who were contemporaries of the film and of Griffith weren’t powerless victims needing to be saved, either. they had concerns and voices of their own, and they created art to express their feelings and strike back against the dominant narrative.

okay so for those of you who’ve never seen Birth of a Nation but know it by reputation, I’ll try and give you a tl;dr.

BoaN is based on a couple of really fucking racist books by this asshole Thomas Dixon. I say asshole because I don’t actually think a non-asshole could have written books like these. the books are The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (yes, really) and The Leopard’s Spots. I’ve read part of the latter book. it’s appalling. full of stereotypes. slavery was great, and the only good black people are the ones who fawn over their former white masters, and black political leaders are drunk and power hungry, and Reconstruction is evil, etc. basically it’s what you’d get if some pissed off motherfucker in the early 1900s decided to go all Hajime Isayama and write fixit fic for a war his side lost, which I’m guessing is exactly what happened.

anyway. DW Griffith read The Clansman, thought it was a great story, and decided to make a movie about it, and included bits of Leopard because I guess he thought he needed more Pointed Commentary about how unfit black people were for office???? fuck off, Griffith.

the basic plot of BoaN is two families, one from the Union and one from the Confederacy, whose children fall in love and go to war etc. it’s not that different from other American romances about the Civil War in that respect. but it takes this massive detour from the core story in the second half, to feature (1. a lot of examples of Why Black People Are Awful (featuring black Southerners practicing voter suppression and denying white people the vote, thus inspiring the creation of the Klan to ensure fair representation at the ballot and this is how you know the creative team had never, like, actually talked to somebody who wasn’t white) and (2. a horrific subplot in which a white woman is threatened with rape by a black man and then leaps to her death to prevent him from harming her, and the Klan heroically rides to the rescue and gets there in time to lynch the man. this isn’t even the only time the Klan gets to heroically ride to the rescue - they free the town the sympathetic Confederate family lives in from yet another Evil Black Man who’s got designs on the poor heroine and is given political power by a villainous Northern senator. but Northern and Southern heroes put aside their differences to defeat a common enemy, only that enemy is a racist stereotype. it ends with a double wedding, and a picture of the oppressed masses finding peace and refuge from war under a giant Jesus Christ.

that’s why it’s a horrifically racist film. it’s not just full of bad stereotypes, or blackface. it’s actively advocating for black Americans to be kept out of power and it presents the KKK as protecting white Americans against a cartoonishly evil menace that never existed. it’s historical revisionism at its worst. and it probably inspired the reformation of the Klan into the organization we know and loathe today.

as to why it’s technically good?

It’s one of the earliest films to use tracking shots (often called the earliest, but that’s not true - Cabiria introduced the concept a year prior), and it pioneered many of the editing techniques and camera techniques that form the backbone of American cinema and by extension quite a lot of world cinema. this is a very very early full-length film - sound is almost two decades away at this point, and most of the household name Early Movie Stars like Lon Chaney and Douglas Fairbanks weren’t quite working yet - and because it was both massively popular and critically acclaimed it basically wrote the book on How To Do Blockbuster Film. Hollywood has always been full of copycats, and everybody was blown away by how Griffith put a movie together. suddenly it was evident that stories on film could be gripping and tense in a way theatrical productions weren’t, and the editing and camera work could contribute to that tension. and I’ll get on my little soapbox and say that I think Cabiria did a lot of what Nation did but sans antiblackness? but at the same time you can’t divorce the development of the motion picture as we know it from BoaN and its imitators.

The background:

In 2001, three intellectually disabled D.C. residents brought suit against the city in Doe ex rel. Tarlow v. D.C, after they were subjected to at least three involuntary procedures: two abortions and one elective eye surgery. Ultimately, the district court agreed that these women’s due process rights had been violated and that “constitutionally adequate procedures” had not been followed.

On appeal [2007], Judge Kavanaugh vacated the District Court’s injunction, arguing that “accepting the wishes of patients who lack, and have always lacked the mental capacity to make medical decisions does not make logical sense.”

Potential script:

“I am a voter from [city], and I found out that, in 2007, Judge Kavanaugh ruled that performing abortions without the woman’s consent was legal and acceptable. I believe this is a terrible violation of rights. I urge the senator to vote against Kavanaugh because he supports involuntary abortions.”

(Ideally, “I urge Senator [name] to vote against…”)

Potential more script:

“At the very least, I urge the senator to request that Kavanaugh explain which abortions are acceptable.”

The way to refer to the case, if that’s needed, is “Doe Tarlow vs DC.”

But still interested in feeding yourself? What if I told you that there’s a woman with a blog who had to feed both herself and her young son…on 10 British pounds ($15/14 Euro) per week?

Let me tell you a thing.

This woman saved my life last year. Actually saved my life. I had a piggy bank full of change and that’s it. Many people in my fandom might remember that dark time as when I had to hock my writing skills in exchange for donations. I cried a lot then. 

This is real talk, people: I marked down exactly what I needed to buy, totaled it, counted out that exact change, and then went to three different stores to buy what I needed so I didn’t have to dump a load of change on just one person. I was already embarrassed, but to feel people staring? Utter shame suffused me. The reasons behind that are another post all together. 

AgirlcalledJack.com is run by a British woman who was on benefits for years. Things got desperate. She had to find a way to feed herself and her son using just the basics that could be found at the supermarket. But the recipes she came up with are amazing. 

You have to consider the differing costs of things between countries, but if you just have three ingredients in your cupboard, this woman will tell you what to do with it. Check what you already have. Chances are you have the basics of a filling meal already. 

Here’s her list of kitchen basics. 

Bake your own bread. It’s easier than you think. Here’s a list of many recipes, each using some variation of just plain flour, yeast, some oil, maybe water or lemon juice. And kneading bread is therapeutic. 

Make your own pasta–gluten free. 

She gets it. She really does. This is the article that started it all. It’s called “Hunger Hurts”.

She has vegan recipes.

A carrot, a can of kidney beans, and some cumin will get you a really filling soup…or throw in some flour for binding and you’ve got yourself a burger. 

Don’t have an oven or the stove isn’t available? She covers that in her Microwave Cooking section. 

She has a book, but many recipes can be found on her blog for free. She prices her recipes down to the cent, and every year she participates in a project called “Living Below the Line” where she has to live on 1 BP per day of food for five days. 

Things improved for me a little, but her website is my go to. I learned how to bake bread (using my crockpot, but that was my own twist), and I have a little cart full of things that saved me back then, just in case I need them again. She gives you the tools to feed yourself, for very little money, and that’s a fabulous feeling. 

Tip: Whenever you have a little extra money, buy a 10 dollar/pound/euro giftcard from your discount grocer. Stash it. That’s your super emergency money. Make sure they don’t charge by the month for lack of use, though.

I don’t care if it sounds like an advertisement–you won’t be buying anything from the site. What I DO care about is your mental, emotional, and physical health–and dammit, food’s right in the center of that. 

here’s a website that translates the time into hexidecimal colours,

here is a website where you can create your own galaxies

here is a website where you can play flow

here you can interact with organisms in different environments to see how to music changes

here you can play silk which is an interactive generative art designing website.

Here is a website where you can travel along a 3D line into the infinite unkown

here is a website where you can listen to rain with or without music

Sound can aid in calming you down, de-stress you, block out noises, mollify distractions, ground you, lift your mood, and be overall absorbing in a positive way, helping to cope with things like auditory hallucinations to self-harm urges and general winding down. Here are some sounds I recommend-

Rice Fields The water is good for blocking out environment sounds and distractions, the frogs cover human speech frequencies, and the cicadas block higher frequencies.

Fish Tank The air and water pumps and hum of the fish tank serve as effective noise blockers and are calming to many.

Cat Purr Due to the frequency range of cat purr vibrations, it’s used in sound therapy to produce therapeutic effects such as calming nerves, helping with shortness of breath, easing pain, and positively affecting physical healing.

In Utero The quiet internal sounds of a heart beating, blood and fluid rushing, and muffled rhythmic breathing can soothe and lull one into sleep.

Fan The white noise and machine components of a fan calm the mind while softening environment noise.

Healing Water Comprised of largely water sounds (waterfall, stream, creek, brook), which drowns out other distracting or threatening noises while relaxing the senses. Also good: Crystal Stream, which covers a large frequency range; Water Stream, more white noise oriented; Underwater, a bit deeper and more bubbly; and Dark Water, featuring a mellowed echo sound due to the cave location.

Osmosis A range of soft, low hum noises interspersed with shimmering, light bells, this is good for promoting focus, relaxation, and feelings of balance and peace while mitigating noises of distraction.

Sweep Noise These frequency peaks are good for masking sounds and resemble wind, waves, blowing sand, and passing traffic.

Sled Dogs An immersive, cheerful noise blocker if you like dog sounds.

Twilight Designed to be a perceptual shift of emotional resonance that may help with mood, anxiety, insomnia, and pain.

Jacqueline Daddy Carlyle