The great Czech American wood engraver, illustrator, and type and book designer Rudolph Ruzicka (1883-1978) began to do a series of color wood-engraved city scenes in the 1910s: Newark, New York City, Prague, the fountains of Papal Rome. He began his series on Boston and its environs beginning in 1911 as annual New Year’s keepsakes for D. B. Updike’s Merrymount Press, and would continue the series until a year after Updike’s death in 1941. These would be Ruzicka’s last set of multi-color wood engravings before he turned his attention mainly to type and book design.
The selection of Boston-area views shown here are reproductions drawn from the original blocks at the Boston Athenaeum and published in 1975 by David R. Godine as Boston, Distinguished Buildings & Sites Within the City and its Orbit as Engraved on Wood by Rudolph Ruzicka, printed by the Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, Connecticut. In the introduction, Walter Muir Whitehill, former Director of the Boston Athenaeum, who also wrote commentaries on each plate, offers this epigraph about Ruzicka and his engravings of city scenes:
HE PUT BURIN TO BOXWOOD & PRESERVED CITIES.
Click on the images to view the captions. Our copy of Boston is another gift from our friend Jerry Buff.
I really hope Marienne won't be the focus in season 4 because after season 3 I can't watch any normal woman partnering up with Joe 😭. Love Quinn was a fucking riot and I need him to pair up with another unhinged partner just so Joe can continue to suffer.
Abandoned Quincy Mine at Hancock Shaft House, just outside Hancock, MI:1953
Quincy Mine was a set of copper mines that operated mainly between 1846-1945. It is a designated National Historic Landmark District and some parts can still be toured.
Lmao 10 minutes in and I can already see why people criticised this movie of using SEA cultures only as window dressing.
So from the get-go we’re given a very fast recap on why the “Kumandra” land is divided, hence leading to Raya’s dad hatching up a plan to bring peace and unity to the land once again. So he invited the other nations’ leaders for a meal and there’s even a scene of him cooking soup (ok these parts are cool! Food is always a big deal around this region).
But then.... the scene segways to him and his venerable guests just.....? Standing around and chatting? As if he’s hosting a freaking cocktail party?? agshgsj lmao I can’t. They even show a guy carrying around a platter with, what I assume an assortment of traditional sweets, as if he’s carrying some freaking hors d'oeuvre. This scene would honestly portray the SEA cultures more effectively if they have the leaders sit together on the floor with food //already// being served on platters. Like where’s the soup??? You already made the assets why not show it again????
I know this is a fantasy world and they can eat however way they like but it’s just.... so jarring. Replace the movie inspiration from pre-colonial SEA countries to something that is more well known in the media, like, let’s say, feudal Japan, and everybody would’ve found that scene disconcerting as well.
And then there’s Raya asking Namaari to choose “Rice or stew?” Biiiitch we eat them together!!!! It’s like Raya asking “spaghetti or tomato sauce?” Lmao I’m sorry but it broke the immersion for the SEA cultures that already exist in the barest of minimum in this movie.
Also yes I’m hyperfixating on this specific scene before everybody got turned to stones because afterwards there’re barely any part of the story that /reflect/ our cultures. You can sum up the remaining 80% of the movie as Raya cosplaying Lara Croft in search of the stolen gems.
Anyway, the good things about the movie are:
1. Raya is a great main character! The voice actress for Raya did an amazing job as well.
2. From a technical point of view the visuals and animations are breathtaking, but it’s from Disney so this was to be expected.
I can list a thousand things on why this movie is bad lmao but the main ones are:
1. There are some massive plotholes in a few of the crucial scenes.
2. The theme of trust is nice, but the delivery is... kinda messed up, especially towards the end. Even lego movies show better culpabilities than this movie.
3. I appreciate Disney wanting to flex its team of incredible animators but I wish all those action scenes were replaced with Raya actually creating a meaningful bond with her ragtag bunch of misfits and LEARNING about each others’ cultures, thus slowly erasing her prejudice that she harboured since she was a child. We really don’t need to see Raya fighting Namaari for //every single gem//, which eventhough looks impressive, serves the story none whatsoever.
4. I know there are a team of people who put a lot of their hard works in the designs but all of the dragons look..... so...... ugly I’m so sorry.
I would’ve been less critical of this had Disney simply promote it as a fantasy movie instead of touting it as THE FIRST SOUTH EAST ASIAN REPRESENTATIVE in every single promotion they did. So, yeah... in conclusion don’t watch it it’s bad.
Portrait of Nushirwan the Just (verso) from a Shahnama (Book of Kings) of Firdausi (940–1019 or 1025), 1330-1335, Cleveland Museum of Art: Islamic Art
Mongol interest in illustrating manuscripts focused on Iranian epic poetry. The Shahnama (Book of Kings), a compilation of the epics and tales of Iran’s legendary heroes, was a natural choice because it included subjects that suited Mongol taste, such as banquets, battles, hunting, and magical or fantastic events. This large formal enthronement portrays the Sasanian king of Iran, Khusraw I Anushirwan (531–579), descendant of Bahram Gur. The inscription above the king’s head reads, “Picture of Nushirwan the Just.” Nushirwan held seven banquets, this being the fifth, to celebrate the explanation of a troublesome dream by Buzurgmihr, the wise and virtuous minister who is probably portrayed wearing the elaborate turban on the left.
Size: Sheet: 59.3 x 40.2 cm (23 3/8 x 15 13/16 in.); Image: 24 x 22 cm (9 7/16 x 8 11/16 in.)
Medium: opaque watercolor and gold on paper
So Nobunaga Concerto’s vol 21 is about to be released and it’s getting very, very close to the ending 😭. I don’t follow its magazine’s release but I hope we’re getting at least another volume after this? I think Ayumi Ishii would draw Saburo on the cover of the final volume instead of Hideyoshi... but who knows, maybe him on the cover marks the beginning of a new era after Nobunaga’s death lol.
I still have no idea who’s going to die in Nobunaga’s stead... Saburo? Mitsuhide?? NEITHER HOPEFULLY??? (Ayumi has been following history faithfully though so maybe both of them will die l...m.a..o.) From what I (barely) understood so far, Saburo is still chugging along as the cool, laidback guy that he is, and seems to be more or less resigned to his impending death. Also he has a very sweet goodbye scene with Tsuneo ;_; so Saburo surviving this entire ordeal might cheapen that moment?
On the other hand, Mitsuhide is absolutely resolute in protecting Saburo and he’s clearly upset whenever Saburo even mentions the word “death”, so him failing to keep his promise to Saburo in the end might even be more heartbreaking? This ending also means Mitsuhide will automatically die 2 weeks later anyway lol.
Now kiss.
So possible endings are:
1. Mitsuhide finally takes back his true identity as Oda Nobunaga to trade his life with Saburo and ultimately lives up to his whole promise of ~ I only live for your sake ~, even if it means “sacrificing” Nobunaga himself. It’s a bittersweet ending and by killing himself, it also means Mitsuhide technically did “kill” Nobunaga 😭 thus following the true history. Not sure how the author is going to portray Hideyoshi hunting down Mitsuhide though (whose identity is now being assumed by Saburo). Saburo will most likely escape and perhaps lives somewhere in peace with Kichou and Oyuki? Ngl I’m looking forward to a showdown between Saburo and the Hideyoshi bros lol.
2. Saburo dies as Oda Nobunaga because he’s shown signs towards accepting his death in the Sengoku era. Also, historically Ranmaru dies together with Nobunaga and I can’t imagine how Saburo will react to not only losing Mitsuhide, but also Ranmaru for his sake. Apart from Kichou and Oyuki he can’t really let anyone else knows he survives, and we know historically that life isn’t exactly rose-coloured for the other people that he cares about; Oichi, Shibata, Sassa... so I’m not sure if Saburo can just abandon them to live a peaceful life somewhere with Kichou...
3. Saburo dies regardless - either as Nobunaga or Mitsuhide - and he returned back to his own era. One of the funny thing about the time travel in the series is that the people who got thrown back into the past roughly died in the Sengoku era after 30+ years. Dossan, Matsunaga, and now Saburo. Yasuke was sent to the past around the same time as Saburo in modern era, but he arrived at a much later period than him. So either Saburo FINALLY picks up a history textbook to find out what happens to his family and retainers (micchi.... 😭) or Yasuke will also return to modern time and tells Saburo what transpired after his death. If Yasuke also follows the 30+ years rule, he might have lived in the past all the way until Ieyasu took over Japan?
Anyway regardless of how it ends this has been such a great series!!!! Thank you Ayumi Ishii ;_____;!!!
In the manga we saw Sakura giving Syaoran a White’s Day gift but we never get to see him giving her the chocolate on Valentine’s day 😔 (because the boy literally just dropped his chocolate in the freaking mailbox) so I drew a terribly drawn comic of what might actually happened on that day
Find yourself a boyfriend that won’t die from your constantly growing magical power.
Also, asdsjfdsdjksdf I found out about this pretty late in the series but I AM SO HAPPY CCS HAS A SEQUEL? MY FIRST OTP?? THEY ARE STILL ALIVE AND WELL AND AS ADORABLE AS EVER???
If you like CCS too can we be friends or recs me more ppl to follow on twitter --> https://twitter.com/anj_lemau pls all I want to talk about right now is CCS 😞😞😞😞
