Ninajirachi - All At Once (Official Audio) YouTube video by Ninajirachi

#songoftheweek: All At Once by Ninajirachi #music

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MlQ...

If everyone watching #Artemis is in the mood for space stuff today, may I humbly recommend the album The Race for Space (2015), from the incomparable Public Service Broadcasting. An utter delight filled with absolute bangers, featuring historical recordings from the space race. An old favourite.

Public Service Broadcasting - The Other Side YouTube video by Tim Jefferies

#songoftheweek: The Other Side by Public Service Broadcasting #music

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDqE...

A two-page from Anzu and the Realm of Darkness. Anzu and the Gatekeeper are standing on top of a cave entrance in the middle of a great body of water, saying good-bye to a GIANT octopus.

A fun little jaunt through Japanese folklore with a good emotional core, I give Anzu and the Realm of Darkness an

✨8/10!✨

Also, the colorist- Diana Tsai Santos- did an AMAZING job! I love hyper-limited palettes, and their choice of an orange/green/purple palette was 100% the right call! I did like that Earth was mostly orange/green and Yomi was orange/purple; a clear shift in tone that doesn't break the color scheme.

The contrast between the rounded shapes of her characters with the scratchy, almost vibrating linework made the world of Yomi simultaneously welcoming, thrumming with life, and a little bit dangerous.

A page from Anzu and the Realm of Darkness. Anzu and the Gatekeeper are walking through a wonderfully illustrated night market full of Yokai.

Finally, I have to talk about how much I ADORED the art! Nguyen's line work reminds me of chunky block prints- a style that I absolutely love- and it meshed well with her character designs.

Anzu is targeted by powerful spirits of Yomi because she feels like she doesn't fit in anywhere- that makes her vulnerable to their promises of a better life. I thought Nguyen did a good job at connecting all the cool adventures with this more sober theme, and it pays off wonderfully in the ending.

While I do think the book is primary meant to be a fun adventure, I do have to praise the emotional arc: Anzu learning how to deal with her grief and reconnecting with her community.

A two-page spread from Anzu and the Realm of Darkness. Anzu is taking in the beautiful view of Yomi, and Queen Izanami welcomes her to the Realm.

I was also impressed with how Nguyen presented Shinto mythology in a way that's easy for kids to understand, but doesn't dilute the original stories. You can know nothing about Shinto or Japanese folklore, and you'll still be able to understand what's happening in the plot.

Anzu & the Realm of Darkness iss a great little adventure book! The book's biggest strength is the worldbuilding. The visuals alone show much research Nguyen did, from the designs of the Yokai to the environments of Yomi.

A page from Anzu and the Realm of Darkness. Anzu has just stumbled into Yomi, the titular Realm of Darkness.

Then, a stray dog steals her necklace- a gift from her late Obaachan- and she chases after it. After tripping down a ravine, Anzu finds herself in Yomi, the Shinto underworld! Queen Izanami offers to help Anzu home, but something is off- and why does Izanami hate the Gatekeeper of the realm...?

Anzu and her family have just moved to a new home during Obon, a time for celebrating one's ancestors. But between the move and the recent death of her Obaachan, Anzu just isn't in a celebratory mood. After an embarrassing encounter with one of her neighbors, Anzu goes into the forest to cool off.

A photo of Anzu and the Realm of Darkness by Mai K. Nguyen.

This week's book is Anzu and the Realm of Darkness by Mai K. Nguyen!

#books #booksky #thriftbooks #reading #graphicnovel #comics #yabooks

Slayyyter - $T. LOSER (Official Video) YouTube video by SlayyyterVEVO

#songoftheweek: ST. LOSER by Slayyyter #music

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sfk...

A political sign reading "SAY NO to war with Iraq," but the "q" has been covered over with an "n"

Did some sadly appropriate recycling #nokings

A woman with glasses reading in bed with a cat looking over the book.

Currently. Minus the cat, because I don’t have one, but
reading in bed at the end of a long week is perfection.

A page from Harvest of Empire. Favorite quote: "'This country doesn't care about Cubans," Rosario told me. "We're just pawns of politics."

An invaluable resource for those who want to understand how we got to our current mess of Latin-Anglo American relations, I give Harvest of Empire a

✨10/10!✨

Ch 14, Puerto Rico USA: A history of Puerto Rico's colony status and suggestions for how to fix the uneven relationship we have now. Absolutely fantastic as both an introduction to the subject and as a refresher.

A page from Harvest of Empire. Favorite quote: "NAFTA set off a stampede of US and other foreign investors to gobble up key portions of Mexico's manufacturing, agricultural, and banking industries. The sudden infusion of foreign capital, however, drove so many small Mexican manufacturers and farmers out of business that millions of people were dislocated and unemployment mushroomed. Thus, instead of reducing the pressure on Mexicans to migrate, NAFTA fueled it."

Ch. 13, Free Trade: An extensive analysis on the failure of NAFTA, and possible alternatives for future policies. If you're confused about NAFTA, or just plain don't know anything about it, read this!

Ch. 12, Speak Spanish, You're in America!: A history of the bilingual/English-only fight in education, state policy, law, and everyday life.

A page from Harvest of Empire. Favorite quote: "In 2007, 40 percent of those seized under the [Fugitive Operations] program were merely 'ordinary status violators,' the study concluded. In other words, a program designed by Congress to go after dangerous fugitives had turned, in large part, into a way for ICE agents to raid individual homes and seize undocumented immigrants."

Ch. 11, Immigrants Old & New: A history of Latino immigration policy and all the attempts at reform. Arguably the most relevant chapter for our current political climate, as Gonzalez includes a history of ICE. He also includes a section debunking common myths about Latino immigrants.

A page from Harvest of Empire. Favorite quote: "'It is more likely that an individual will be struck by lightning than that he will engage in voter fraud,' concluded the Brennan Center for Justice, after its own exhaustive study of voter irregularities."

I would argue Harvest is the most important section of the book; if you have limited time, read this part. Let me do a chapter-by-chapter breakdown:

Ch. 10, The Return of Juan Seguin: A history & in-depth analysis of Latino voter trends. A vital chapter to read for those involved in voter outreach.

Part 3: Harvest

Harvest is an analysis of modern Anglo-Latin American policies, both domestic and abroad. It covers topics such as US immigration policy, Latino activist groups, the growing Latino voter bloc in the US, NAFTA, and a history of Puerto Rico's uneven relationship with the mainland.

The regions he covers are (in order): Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Central America, and Colombia & Panama. Be prepared to learn just how many times the US was fucking around in Latin American countries for the sake of corporate interests.

Part 2: Branches

Each chapter in Branches is about a specific Latin American region; for each one, Gonzalez gives a brief history of the land & its migrants, what conditions made immigration to the US appealing, and why those conditions existed in the first place.

A page from Harvest of Empire. Favorite quote: "Both the English colonial administrators and, later, the state and federal governments fostered speculation. Time and again, those in charge of the government created overnight fortunes for their friends and themselves through corrupt schemes aimed at amassing huge holdings."

However, if your knowledge of colonialism in South America & the Caribbean is spotty, I HIGHLY recommend you read this section. Also, I found his analysis on how racial relations developed in Spanish colonies vs English colonies (found in Chapter 1) to be particularly insightful.

Part 1: Roots

Roots is a summary of the colonial period from the 1500s to the 1950s. For those who have sought out in-depth history books about colonialism in the Americas, most of the content in this section will be familiar to you.

While I do recommend reading the whole book, I recognize that not everyone has the time to do so. I hope my summaries can help those who may be interested in this book, but want to focus on the parts that are relevant to their local community's needs.

Thus, I'm going to structure this review a little differently: I'm going to go over the book section by section, summarize each one, and how it can be useful in regards to our current mess.