Souls Entwined

Built in 1923, the Edinburgh Bungalow Court is in the Beverly Grove section of Los Angeles. Photo by Adrian Scott Fine/L.A. Conservancy.

Time was quickly running out for the threatened Edinburgh Bungalow Court when the Los Angeles Times’ Nita Lelyveld published an article late last January titled, “Are you a fan of old L.A.’s charm? These historic bungalows need a savior with deep pockets.”  In the eleventh hour, the story inspired a longtime Los Angeles Conservancy supporter to come to the rescue. 

We say it all the time, historic buildings do not save themselves. It takes passionate and committed people who are willing to interrupt their daily lives and take a stand for what they believe is right: advocating for the preservation and reuse of a threatened historic place. Heather Fox and Brian Harris are two such people. They met and became friends, and collaborators, over their shared interest in saving the Edinburgh Bungalow Court. Without their efforts and that of many others who took part in this journey, including the Conservancy, Edinburgh would not be standing today. 

There’s a lot of reasons this doesn’t make sense. For one, just timeline wise; by the time that Xiang Liu went from guy that shows up and bites her sometimes while they talk and have sexual tension, to genuine good friend, she was already in love with TSJ.

But this season also shows that— it’s the opposite if anything. She starts considering Xiang Liu when Jing is (in her eyes) no longer an option. And even then, it’s still Tushan Jing on her mind as she walks down that aisle. It’s still the loss of him that sends her into this morose state for years.

Xiang Liu is a potential temporary escape; he is the one she waits for by the sea, hoping he might take her away from this wedding. Tushan Jing is the one she thinks of when she is actually getting married.

The reason she’s estranged from TSJ in the first place is because she held him to a standard higher than anyone else; a standard meant only for the person she wants to spend her life with.

I don’t know if it would be different if, in another story she’d met XL first, and they’d met on better terms, but that’s not this story. Lost You Forever has a million what ifs.

She’s not settling for Tushan Jing; she’s certainly not viewing him as a second choice, and she is CERTAINLY not less in love with him.

Honestly, ship wars make NO sense in a narrative as well written as this one - sure people can disagree who they'd prefer XY to end up with but the narrative is so clear and logical and inevitable (based on characters and interactions) as to why things end up the way they do, shipwise and otherwise and what it means.

I remember there was a narrative from fandom in s1 too that she settled for Jing and even then it boggled me. Yes, he does not fulfill literally every possible need and want for a person in her life she has (he can't take her on insane dates a la XY or share childhood connection or or) but nobody can, not if you are in any way emotionally healthy. In s1, she clearly fell for him and liked him and desired him. If that's settling, sign me uo.

And s2 - I agree so much that the reason XL has a chance is because she can't have Jing - he'd never have gotten a chance for her heart if the break-up of s1 did not happen. Yes, now as things stand provided XL would be willing to let go of his cause, she might eventually move on to him and be happy (and it wouldn't be settling either; just as earlier it was not settling for Jing and/or later it won't be either - people are complicated) but she is not there yet (and she never will be since he won't let her - one of the things that drives me insane about a certain type of discourse is that she cannot pick someone who won't LET her pick him; how would that work?) but that is not what's going to happen. It's a what-if at best. She's a woman who didn't settle when she chose Jing the first time and she won't be settling now either.

The very fact that she can't let go of Jing despite wanting to and she's the queen of let go shows how much she loved him (and yes, so do her insane standards for him - they are in proportion to how much she let him into her heart and how vulnerable and hopeful he made her and how unguarded.)

It does not make Xiang Liu less cool or less worthy or less anything but it's how the narrative rolls due to all these characters' traits and experiences.

I think fandoms in general tend to impose their preferences (in both "this is the guy I'd like" or "this is the narrative I want") on the existing narratives without much consideration of what the story is actually telling. But in a story as well written and as good at explaining exactly what people feel and why it's especially bad. Also, the need to bring down one love interest to bolster your preferred one is odd to me.

“We were in a car, and they were in a bus following our car. They were a bunch of scraggly looking guys. But I loved them and I especially loved Keith, because I love that rugged look he had. Mick was, like, a pretty boy maybe. Keith used to say, “Oh, we would have great babies because you have that black, thick hair and I have black, thick hair.” Now his is not so black. (Ronnie laughs) I remember Keith and Mick asking me about James Brown and I said, “I don’t even know the guy.” — Ronnie, on touring with The Rolling Stones. (They were HER opening act in 1964.)

Veronica Yvette Bennett (later known as Ronnie Spector) was the daughter of a Black-Cherokee mother and Irish-American father. Her older sister, Estelle Bennett and their cousin Nedra Talley (Black-American, Cherokee and Puerto Rican) formed The Ronettes, an American girl group from Harlem, New York in the 1950′s.

Ronnie would marry Phil Spector of Philes Records (pictured here) in 1968 and has been quoted to say that he was destructive and bizarre – including adopting children without her knowledge and surprising her with them for Christmas. He kept her a prisoner in their Beverly Hills mansion surrounded by barbed wire and guard dogs, even hid her shoes to keep her from trying to run away.

“Keith Richards was there before I even got there. He’s known to be late. I got to the studio, and then Joey Ramone came in. It’s kind of dim in the studio and Keith is on one mic and I’m on another. And you can see Joey sitting in the control room, just staring. He looked at Keith; he looked at me. And that was like his dream. To see Ronnie Spector and Keith Richards in one room. He didn’t move when we were in the recording studio. He died shortly after that. That was the last time I saw Joey.” – On recording with Keith Richards in 2006

“Even in the Sixties, we didn’t party. I remember going to these clubs, and people would be slobberingall over me because of alcohol. It would make me sick. Everybody tells me I look so great for my age, and that’s because I didn’t do drugs. I drank beer and smoked cigarettes. But I looked after my voice. My voice makes me money. But even if that wasn’t the case, I still wouldn’t have gone to clubs. It was boring to me.” – I’m Married to the audience. (Ronnie Spector)

Ronnie with Bruce Springsteen [1975] and David Bowie and Iggy Pop [1976]

With looks to match her formidable talent, the cat-eyed siren bewitched the likes of John Lennon, Jimi Hendrix and David Bowie — all of whom vied for her affections — and served as a muse for Brian Wilson, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, and even punk pioneers, the Ramones.

Her fiery live performances laid the groundwork for generations of front-women to come, and her edgy fashion is still in style. Decades later, her influence lived on in Amy Winehouse, who frequently cited Spector as an idol. “We took it from the streets to the stage,” she says of the Ronettes’ iconic pencil skirts, thick mascara and sky-high beehives. “That’s why they called us ‘The Bad Girls of Rock ‘n’ Roll.’”

American pine marten (Martes americana)

That’s a deep… dock.

by Penzilla

I think most of us have caught onto the fact that Dong Mae has a specific way of speaking in that he’s always reminding the speaker that they’re above him (you know, in the sense that he lowers himself when he’s talking about himself and then elevates the speaker he is directly addressing). And of course, this is a behaviour that is embedded into him, because it is literally the way the societal status is structured. No one lets him forget—nor does he himself forget—his roots and that on Joseon land, he is still a baekjeong (butcher), the lowest of the low, the class of untouchables.

However, Dong Mae rarely means it when he says “nari/naeuri” (a title used to address someone higher in status; used exclusively for men). He mocks the word. It dances on his tongue like a joke. “Oh, sure, of course you’re above me, but who’s the one holding the sword?” Dong Mae himself says to Ae Shin that the world has changed, that there is no noble person nowadays that dares to irk him in any way. He uses the term ‘naeuri’ to even those who are commoners, even while he’s torturing them or trying to get information from them. He’s actually quite formal in his speech, too. But even as he says the very word, he doesn’t let anyone else forget that while his father’s blade cut cows and pigs, his sword cuts humans—no matter where they are from. Dong Mae started out at the bottom and crawled his way to the top, cutting down anyone down who got in his way. It’s the way he has survived up until now, and he’s not showing any signs of slowing down. It’s the path that he’s chosen. I also find it interesting how he uses it against Eugene, almost as a weapon every single time he says it. He also uses the phrase “American naeuri” as if to keep reminding Eugene that he is essentially a stranger, a foreigner (especially more so at the end of episode 7)—someone who does not belong near Ae Shin any more than he does.

But on another part, it’s also interesting to consider how this language of elevation comes into play with Ae Shin. Everyone calls her “aegisshi” (meaning ‘my lady’; used for women who have not yet married), and Dong Mae is no exception to the rule. However, when he uses the word, I always feel that it’s undercurrent with a deep emotion, a word that cuts his tongue and leaves a bitter taste in his mouth. The word itself is a reminder—a brutal reminder—of a line that he cannot cross, no matter how many swords he holds, no matter how many times he’s cut others down. She is someone who is out of his grasp; he says so to Eugene at the end of episode 7: “I feel as though someone’s cut in front of me, even though it was never really mine to start with.” Every time he says the phrase to her, it’s a reminder to himself, and also to her where they truly stand.