It took several days to do this since I was distracted by other things, but here’s my tribute piece to the late Akira Toriyama, modeled after Empyrea the eagle from Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King. I used the old Imperial Japanese Army flag since the sun is in the center rather than the Navy flag, where it isn’t.
Also, I’m super-addicted to AI art, so here’s what I’ve generated in the past few days:
Written by Union Civil War General Lewis “Lew” Wallace, the first fictional work of literature blessed by a Roman Catholic Pope (Leo XIII), and the inspiration for numerous live-action and animated film adaptations, Ben-Hur opens with the Three Magi: Gaspar the Greek, Melchior the Hindu, and Balthasar the Egyptian, visiting the newborn Jesus Christ in Bethlehem. Twenty-one years later, the Roman Messala and the titular Jewish protagonist, Judah Ben-Hur, have a rivalry, with the latter being sent to galley slavery for life after a tile from a home whence he witnesses a procession nearly kills the new procurator of Judea, Valerius Gratus.
A few years later, Ben-Hur labors as a galley slave aboard a ship commanded by Quintus Arrius, who is fascinated by the young Jew and thus adopts him as his son. In Antioch, Judah sees Messala again and yearns to rival him in a forthcoming chariot race while hearing of a Messiah speaking of a greater kingdom, not of the Earth. The race transpires, but the results are contested, with northern barbarians dispatched to kill the Jew when he finds himself in an empty palace following the games. However, a maneuver involving his falsified demise allows him to escape.
Afterward, Pontius Pilate succeeds Valerius Gratus as governor of Judea, and Ben-Hur seeks his mother and sister, who went missing after the incident that led him into slavery in the first place. He eventually meets the prophesized King of the Jews, witnessing His miracles and returning to his former palace. Throughout the book, Judah befriends Balthasar’s daughter Iras, who talks of an escaped galley slave Jew who murdered others when they reunite. Messala’s fate receives its resolution, Judas Iscariot betrays Jesus, and the Messiah is crucified, having refused the throne of His ancestor David.
While I had read this around a decade ago, it didn’t very well stick with me, but I remembered some elements. However, I enjoyed Ben-Hur more with my recent reread. The historical and geographical tidbits indicate that Wallace did his research, with the names of the Wise Men and their respective countries of origin adding nice touches. I could well relate to the themes, within and without my Christian faith, and while there were many portions I somewhat skimmed, I could still follow the central plot well. Granted, much of the dialogue is awkward, such as “Unclean, unclean!” regarding lepers, but Ben-Hur is a must-read for any Christian book enthusiast.
Since it’s a leap year day, I created a yearling boy scout horse character. Yeah.
AI Art
DreamUp
I bought DeviantArt PRO+ since I’ve become an AI art junkie and I’ll try to see if I can’t make any money off of whatever AI art I create (though I know you can’t do so with Bing Create images). Today’s DreamUp theme was “leap” so I made wallpaper of purple bunnies leaping. I tried various features with anthro art, even with the “Anthro” category activated and several “negative” prompts attempted, but most of it turned out looking weird, and the system seems to really struggle when it comes to things like certain types of uniforms and hats (like campaign hats, which Bing Create seems much better at).
AI Fursona Generator (Perchance)
Another AI platform that really seems to struggle when it comes to specific uniforms and hats, but it’s good for exotic designs, so I decided to make adoptables out of these on DeviantArt, and I Googled and nothing says I can’t not do so as is the case with Bing Create.
Bing Image Creator
I really went medieval when it came to Bing Create images today since I wanted to redo older prompts adding the term “anthropomorphic” in addition to 1920s-era Boy Scout uniforms, and I think they really made a world of difference.
The 25th was Soviet Occupation Day in Georgia (the country, not the U.S. State), so I AI-generated some Soviet Navy bunnies.
Today is Carnival Day, so here are some carnival barker bunnies.
Digital Art
Old birthday art for Kalika, a furry artist I’ve known since my early days in the fandom, side-by-side with newer digital art I did for her recently.
Yesterday was also the birthday of a DeviantArt user who really loves Polly Polaris, one of the four current mascots for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters baseball team in Japan, and I thought her design really cute, so I decided to do fanart with elements of my own style (i.e. referencing the faces of real-life squirrels).
Birthday art for Menkaure, one of the first members of the fandom I communicated with online in the 2000s.
AI art I generated because today was Armed Forces Day. The extra fifth one was the result of an initial attempt that was taking too long with a different prompt that got me the others.
Digital art I did myself, a redesign of my rabbit OC.
Based on the Christmas novelette of the same name by Charles Tazewell and the first and only Disney animated project directed by Don Bluth before he went rogue (having worked small parts on some of the studio’s prior animated features), the short film focuses on a Galilean boy who seeks to sell the eponymous donkey, past his prime. However, no one except a tanner takes interest, though the boy eventually sells him to a notable historical and religious figure. I found it enjoyable and tender, with a beautiful titular theme song and solid voice performances that don’t seem out of place in the Israeli setting.
Since I reject Jeffersonian philosophy. I bet most Americans haven’t actually read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety, and I’m sure Lincoln didn’t either in his famous Gettysburg Address, given some of the rhetoric one will encounter in the section detailing the offenses allegedly committed by King George III, and it was pretty much a hypocritical propaganda piece, with the Founding Fathers generally being men of privilege seeking to protect their own wealth rather than everymen, so one could argue that America was essentially founded upon hypocrisy and the lie that “all men are created equal” (if that were so, everyone would be of equal class and ability).
I also somewhat think the document to be sacrilegious in that it invoked the name of the Creator then didn’t didn’t extend the “rights” to everyone like the “merciless Indian savages” it condemned, although from one of my English classes in high school I know Thomas Jefferson had condemned slavery in previous drafts, which to be showed that slaves were actually held in somewhat higher regard than the Native Americans, since they did contribute to the American economy, even if forcibly so. I further think statements of the American Revolutionaries like “No King but Jesus!” were blasphemous since the Bible says Christ is “King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Master of Masters.”
I think generally the main reason none of this comes up in discussions about United States history, particularly the Southern Independence War, is that the looney American patriots and those who defend the Confederacy tend to paradoxically be one and the same, and vice versa. I actually think the Thirteen Colonies would have been better off staying with Britain, since it would become a more peaceable country within the following century, given the establishment of Canada as a Dominion, and I imagine that today, Texas would either still be independent or a Canadian Province, and endless resources wouldn’t have been squandered in the name of America extending its own imperialist foot across the world.
Since it’s Sunday, I’ll also mention that Sigmund Freud had said the invisible commandment of all religions is “thou shalt not question,” though I think that could really apply to many subjects such as politics, science, and journalism, but in some cases people only selectively question points of conflict, instead of all. In the entertainment industry, as well, there are many books, movies, and video games that are treated as untouchable, regardless of whatever flaws they may actually have, and those who dare question their hypothetical infallibility fall victim to their countless apologists. As far as media goes, their quality, good or bad, is in my mind strictly a point of view rather than fact.
Definitely Martin Luther King, Jr., since he pretty much set the bar for contemporary social justice and I stand about where he stood politically and socially, yet American society is still far from what he imagined, since things like race and ideology in particular remain incredibly divisive.
The first Indiana Jones film sequel, actually occurring chronologically before the first, opens with American songstress Willie Scott performing a Chinese rendition of the titular theme from the old Broadway show Anything Goes in 1935 Shanghai, where the eponymous college professor, archaeologist, and adventurer negotiates with Chinese mobsters in an exchange of treasured artifacts, which culminates in a shootout that leads to Indy escaping with the woman who semi-serves as a love interest, along with his trusty sidekick Short Round, portrayed by Vietnamese child actor Ke Huy Quan (who would ultimately append Jonathan to his name upon becoming a United States citizen, his other notable role being Data in The Goonies).
The party of three escapes on a cargo plane whose pilots eventually bail out, and after a lucky escape, they find themselves in colonial India, where the first village they encounter has lost a precious stone along with its children used by an evil shaman as child labor, and Indy decides to help them, traveling to a Maharaja’s palace for a hearty “meal”, and that night, after an assassination attempt, he finds a passageway into the eponymous temple, Short Round coming along and Willie following suit to rescue them from a trapped room that nearly kills them, although she needed to overcome her fear of bugs (which I very much share, so it would be hard for me in such a situation).
The remainder of the film involves the three dealing with the cult that stole the sacred stones and kidnapped the children and concludes satisfactorily. It’s very much a good film, but it’s probably my least favorite of the series due to being way too dark and gross at times, and when it originally came out showed the flaws of America’s film rating system (it was instrumental in adding PG-13 to it, although I more think it should have been rated R). Apparently in the eyes of the MPAA’s film raters, saying the f-word is a lot worse than ripping someone’s heart out or otherwise attempting to murder someone, which says a lot of the sorry state of how Americans perceive certain “offensive” content.
The film’s overall xenophobic attitude is another reason I don’t hold Temple of Doom to the in the same regard as other Indiana Jones films (and Short Round is a memorable sidekick, but not in a good way), given the portrayals of the Chinese and Indian people and society, and that I think is another factor to consider when giving movies content ratings. Even so, John Williams’s score is also notable, given the mentioned Chinese rendition of one of the older Broadway showtunes, along with several pieces fitting the Asian locales throughout the movie, along with “The Raiders March” and its various remixes, the ending theme worth sitting through the opening credits to hear. Not a bucket-list film like Raiders but has nonetheless aged well.
The inaugural Indiana Jones film starring Harrison Ford as the iconic adventurer / college professor opens with Dr. Jones on an expedition to South America to filch an idol from a temple so that it can be displayed in a museum, with backstabbing aplenty as there would be throughout the main plots of future installments. This subplot doesn’t really have much bearing on the main narrative, like its first two sequels, and when Indy gets home, he hears that the Nazis are seeking the eponymous Ark of the Covenant due to a combination of Hitler’s interest in mystical artifacts and that the Ark itself allegedly makes armies that hold it invincible.
Sure enough, Indy agrees to get ahold of the Ark first, traveling first to Nepal where his old love interest, Marion Ravenwood, daughter of Indy’s old mentor Abner, has the headpiece of the Staff of Ra necessary to reveal the Ark’s location, where others who wish to find the artifact before him get into a tussle, and everyone moves on to its current resting place in Egypt, with several more conflicts in Cairo leading to the desert, where the Nazis waste their resources digging in the wrong location. Luckily, Indy and his trusty sidekick Sallah manage to find the Ark, resulting in a game of keep-away between them and the Nazis.
Given the ending scenes in the film, said game of keep-away seems incredibly unnecessary; Indy could have very easily just stayed home, and it would have ended largely the same way (save maybe for positive historical circumstances given the Nazis’ involvement), though he wouldn’t have hooked up with Marion, critical later in the franchise. It’s certainly an amazing movie and “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” but as I’ve said before, critics and audiences confuse that with “infallible,” and I think it’s sad I found out about the film’s glaring issues through Cracked and not any “professional” critics, which says a lot about the sorry state of any kind of entertainment journalism, really.
St. Gallen's Scribblings 