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As the Mirror Master apparitions close in on Wally and Barry, the two think quick. Almost simultaneously, the two run towards the apparitions. They punch and kick every single one of them until again they all disappear. Before Mirror Master can conjure up more, Barry runs around the room and searches for the real Mirror Master. Wally stay put and a half dozen more apparitions appear before him. They all raise their guns up to him.

 

“I know you all aren’t real!” An apparition shoots his gun, but before it hits Wally, the shard disappears in front of his eyes. “Told you.”

 

Wally charges the apparitions and punches them all out of sight. He takes a defensive stance in preparation for more to come. While he’s doing that, Barry continues to run around the large room in search for the actual Mirror Master. Atop a platform stood a single Mirror Master. Barry approached him slowly and ready for it disappear in front of his eyes. Much to his surprise, that did not happen.

 

”Well that was a lot quicker than I would’ve liked.”

 

”It’s really you?”

 

”Indeed. Congratulations, you found me. I’m still not letting Iris go. If you want her safe than you have two choices.”

 

”What are they?”

 

”Well number one, and my favorite option, I kill you.”

 

”Not going to happen.”

 

Well than the only other option is the one where you have to go into the Mirror World and retrieve her yourself.”

 

”What? She’s in the Mirror World?”

 

”Oh, did you not figure that out? I mean I wouldn’t want her to just be out in the open so you could easily snatch her up and take me to prison. Like I said before. This story isn’t going to end so soon.”

 

”Alright. Let me go get her.”

 

”So the king chooses to take to the battlefield to save his queen! A dangerous new territory await him!” Mirror Master raises his gun to Barry’s head and fires. Before Barry can even react, the shard hits him and just like when Iris got shot, instead of killing him, Barry disappears into the mirror shard itself. ”Well I can’t let that be too easy on him. The evil king must also make his appearance!”

 

Mirror Master walks over to a mirror and shoots it with his gun. The shard hits the mirror and the mirror absorbs the shard. The Mirror Master walks into the mirror just like a door, and just like a door, the mirror leads Mirror Master into the Mirror World. There he saw Barry floating in the abyss. He laughed as he saw him struggle.

 

”Poor guy.”

 

Mirror Master lifts his hand up into the air and swipes it across his chest. Suddenly a mirror flies towards Barry, but instead of hitting him, the mirror places itself under Barry’s feet. Barry then gains control of his body and begins jumping from one mirror to the next.

 

”There you go…”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

3 to go...

Not quite simultaneous departures, the following SP45-078 headed Leszno service running a few minutes late quickly overhauls the steady progress of Ol49-32 upon 12.33 Wolsztyn-Nowa Sol service.

Route 328 Zbaszynek-Leszno saw no steam passenger diagrams at this particular time but due to the efforts of many there does so again 27years later to the day.

35mm / Ilford FP4.

24th March 1993

Please View Large Here

   

During a period when I was trying to come up with new images for a commissioned brochure, I dreamed in my sleep that I made a picture of a little boy blowing on my trumpet . . . The next day I brought my trumpet to work . . . I was playing (very loud) Louis Armstrong on my cd player . . .A shirtless kid happened to walk by and poked his head into my studio to hear the music. I quickly approached his father and asked permission to take a quick shot for my project . . . Within a week I had this portrait in the gallery front window . . . and once again was playing Louis Armstrong on the cd player . . . when a guy came in off the street to show me the tears that came to his eyes when he simultaneously looked at the picture and heard the music . . . doesn't get better than that . . .

Simultaneous constrasts

1913

Detail

Sonia Delaunay

Museo Thyssen Madrid

www.milkbook.it/sonia-delaunay-una-vita-a-colori/

Title:

 

Crossroads in March.

  

B♭ (B Flat)

A Novel by Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃

一部分の公開を更新しました。今回が最後です😃

 

“Synopsis”

 

A Palestinian group from Gaza hacks into North Korea’s cryptocurrency system, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. Their true goal is not money—but to recreate the lost homeland of Gaza on American soil.

Amid the backdrop of hardline Republican immigration policies and a growing wave of xenophobia, a quiet plan begins to take shape: the gradual collapse of America from within.

During a speech at Madison Square Garden, Republican presidential candidate Justin Bradford is shot. Almost simultaneously in Los Angeles, former president Owen Reed is attacked at a rally for Democratic hopeful Ryan Bennett.

Two assassinations—mirroring one another—ignite a nation’s deepest divide. Yet, against all odds, Justin survives. His blood type is one in 2.5 million: the Bombay Blood Group.

The only person who can donate such blood is Anaya Patel, a community art facilitator working in Brooklyn. Her blood, stored in the Bellevue Hospital Blood Bank, is used for an emergency transfusion that saves the candidate’s life.

Jack Vance, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, suspects a Gaza-based network behind the attacks. Together with Cameron Bartlett, the FBI Director of the Los Angeles Field Office, and Veronica Reeves, a senior investigator from New York, he begins to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Their investigation leads them to Rafi Gannam, a former architecture student at the Islamic University of Gaza, who has infiltrated redevelopment sites across Los Angeles and New York—embedding C4 explosives deep within beams and structural cores.

His targets: new residential districts where agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) live—symbols of “the order America built.”

Veronica urges the President to pursue dialogue to prevent further destruction, but President Grant M. Ranford refuses to listen.

Meanwhile, the recovering Justin and his Democratic rival Ryan appear on national television, calling for unity beyond political divisions.

Their words of reason, however, are drowned out when Grant takes the stage in Iowa, defiantly declaring: “We will never bow to terror.”

Among the crowd, Rafi’s operatives have already taken their positions.

As chaos erupts and the stage collapses, Amir Nasser—once Rafi’s comrade, haunted by the memory of his sister’s death in Gaza—tries desperately to halt the chain of destruction.

But Rafi’s conviction remains unshaken.

Under the twilight beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, amid the city’s fading noise, the two men part ways.

It is the boundary between prayer and vengeance, between hope and nothingness.

  

“Characters”

 

Anaya Patel – 25, Community Art Facilitator

Arjun Singh – 26, Anaya’s boyfriend, Luminatech Innovations

Mika Sato – 25, Anaya’s friend, Community Art Facilitator

 

Justin Bradford – 27, Republican Presidential Candidate

Eleanor Blake – 26, Justin’s fiancée

 

President Grant M. Langford – 61, Incumbent Republican President

Vice President Charles “Chuck” Baines – 64, Incumbent Republican Vice President

 

Ryan Bennett – 30, Democratic Presidential Candidate

Sophia Bennett – 30, Ryan’s wife

Owen Reed – 65, Former Democratic President

 

Jack Vance – 45, Secret Service, Former FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Ben Holloway – 30, Jack’s colleague

Darryl Ross – 29, Jack’s colleague

Elijah Kane – 28, Jack’s colleague

 

Marcus Dane – 45, FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Cameron Bartlett – 55, FBI Los Angeles Field Office, Field Office Director

Tom Caldwell – 38, FBI Technical Unit, Marcus’s subordinate

 

Veronica Reeves – 41, FBI Special Agent

Alexander Harris – 52, FBI New York Field Office, Field Office Director

Elliot Chen – 36, Technology Unit Chief

Alicia Monroe – 58, FBI Director

 

Zakaria Haddad – 51, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Engineering Professor, New York Team

Amir Nasser – 23, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Electronics Engineering, New York Team

Rafi Gannam – 32, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

Rohan Shah – 29, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

 

Majid Hamza – 47, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Information Technology, Los Angeles Team

Samira Hammad – 28, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Engineering, Los Angeles Team

Saeed Kabari – 35, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Business Administration, Los Angeles Team

Reem Nasser – 30, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Media Studies, Los Angeles Team

 

Noah Levi – 55, Israel, residing in Tel Aviv, Jewish

  

B♭ will be released worldwide on February 29, 2026.

Recently, director Ridley Scott remarked that streaming films and series have become dull.

I agree.

If you have two hours to spare for such stories, I ask for only two minutes of your time.

Two minutes with my novel will outlast those two hours.

I am confident of that.

  

Stay tuned.

Mitsushiro

October 9th, 2025

 

P.S.

Micchan — the man who challenges Netflix. 😃

  

Manhattan. New York. USA. 2017. ... 7 / 10

(Today's photo. It was previously unpublished, but has recently been re-edited from the original.)

  

Images.

Taylor Swift … This Love

youtu.be/PfJzQuqWSSE?si=TrtL4Mb-uN2dNmML

  

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🌟 My New Novel: "B♭" (B Flat)

 

This is the 20th installment! 😄

The following is still in the first draft stage. I will revise it further.

•The order of the content being shared is random.

•This will be the final time I share partial excerpts.

 

The full novel will be released on February 28, 2026.

Please look forward to it! 😃

 

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My new novel

B♭ (B Flat)

 

English translation by GPT-5, in collaboration with Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

“Jack, look at your phone. Another message just came through. The IP address traces to a branch of the New York Public Library near Grand Central — via the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.”

It was a FaceTime from Ben. He was standing by in the NYPD Midtown South command post just beside the Garden. Despite everything that was happening, Ben’s voice was calm.

Jack slid his finger across his iPhone and read the short line that appeared. The characters lay down carelessly, yet somehow they gave the sentence a shape.

— There’s an arched ceiling in the underground concourse of Grand Central. Come there. Jack Vance. And don’t come alone — though, of course, you won’t be alone. —

The message struck at the inside of Jack’s chest like a ringing.

The car threaded north along Vanderbilt Avenue and came up at the southern lip of Grand Central. The city had not quite woken; the damp that hid in the canyon between buildings carried the metallic smell of morning. Jack let off the gas and eased the black SUV to the curb, almost sliding it along. As the tires brushed the edge of the pavement, the remaining beads of rain on the road leapt up into streaks of light.

He pushed open the heavy door and stepped out. His shoes hit the cobbles a beat later. Once he turned to look down the street behind him, the red reflection of a siren flashed through a shop window and briefly lit the faces of passersby, whitening them for a single instant.

Weaving through that cut of light, Jack made for the stairs that led down to the concourse. The service door groaned with a slight metallic protest. Inside, a low hum, like the breathing of a subway, filled the space. A cold breath struck his cheeks, and from the depths of the HVAC ducts a distant station announcement blurred toward him.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Jack took the stairs of Grand Central two at a time. The amber lighting flowed across his soles; his footsteps linked together like the heartbeat of the terminal.

The iron handrail was cold, passing a faint tremor into his fingertips. From far down the stairs other footsteps layered over one another, keeping an old rhythm that led downward. The arched ceiling drew the air in gently; the lights spread a thin film of glow.

The concourse smelled of damp; the old brick walls seemed unable to forget past rains and exhaled them faintly. The floor tiles were dulled by years of feet; hairline cracks ran through them, where little memories of the city had gathered. Jack walked without attending to these things. His gaze was naturally drawn to the darkness at the far end of the corridor. The usual stream of commuters hurried past.

Weathered signs and bulletin boards clung to the walls like pillows for torn flyers. A cleaner dragged her mop in a single ribbon; beyond it, a lone bench sat as if sketching a pale loneliness.

The air that moved through the passage felt to Jack like the slow pulse of a city’s vein. He felt his breath fall into the same beat and kept walking.

Light touched the tiles at his feet and shadows stretched and swayed. The faint metallic noise of an escalator sounded somewhere far away; the gust from the stairs cooled the heat that had gathered in his body. The scent of the city, the underground damp, and the faint warmth of old lamps mixed; time began to melt slowly.

Stopping, Jack rubbed his palms and let his eyes roam. The hum all around carried a peculiar echo that blurred one’s sense of direction. He told himself he was only looking for “it,” somewhere in the concourse.

As he moved again, a high metallic scrape suddenly sliced the air. His neck muscles twitched and a tautness ran through the soles of his feet. Reflexively he froze; at the edge of his vision a receiver quivered.

Its cord, knotted with the weight of years, twisted; dusty metal glinted dully. A telephone that should have been unused rang out abruptly, like a festival bell — an alien note within the city’s hush. The sound was low but it made the air itself tremble.

Jack turned to it slowly. The heavy underground air seemed to press against the backs of his knees. All he heard was his own breathing and the faint vibration of the receiver. People flowed past as if nothing had happened: a mother led a child by the hand, an old man refolded his newspaper and tucked it under his arm, and moved on.

The receiver was calling to Jack. The call came from a tear in silence, spreading slowly like ink trembling on the reverse side of an old map. He reached out without speaking and picked up the handset. The metal was cold; that cold dropped reality onto his palm.

“…Jack.”

The voice was low but distinct. Its timbre made time seem to slip backward just a touch. He recognized the voice from online footage; yet unlike the voice heard on television, here it carried not a blade but the color of a distant sunset.

Through the receiver Jack felt the corridor’s edges, the bench’s solitude, the small scrap of paper on the floor trickle into the pauses of the conversation. The voice let the city’s details slide in through the window of speech.

“What’s up, Amir? Sounding a little low.” Jack’s voice was quiet and heavy, like a stone dropped to ground. Through the handset he heard Amir’s small nasal laugh.

“Sometimes you get down — you’re only human.”

The voice was calm and remote. It was not the public mask Amir sometimes wore, but something honed in shadow. During the call the brief chatter of a passing parent and child snapped into the line and then was gone.

“Listen carefully to what I’m going to say. Well, you’re probably recording.”

“Likewise,” Jack replied.

Amir’s words fell smoothly through the receiver, making tiny ripples on the tiled floor of the underground. The noise around them blurred once and then resolved again: the mother’s footsteps, the mop’s scrape, the distant clink of a vending machine — all intersecting with the rhythm of speech.

“I’m out of the team. The reason? I don’t want to watch more people die. That’s it.”

Jack felt the receiver’s pulse under his fingers. The voice tried on calm but Jack could hear a tremor beneath. The lights in the concourse blurred slightly with each of Amir’s sentences.

“Are you asking me to believe that? Your professor Zakaria says don’t talk like that — he went out in a big way.” Amir fell silent and let out an exhale that sounded like a laugh as if to shrug something off. At the corridor’s edge a child sucking on candy made a tiny wet sound that filled the space between words.

“So what now? Heartbroken?” Jack asked.

“Something like that. This detonator will destroy many buildings yet.”

That phrase punched through the little room inside the receiver. For an instant the light underground clouded faintly. Yet the corridor moved on as always; no one turned. The anomaly existed only in sound.

“Tell me exactly where, how many, what mechanism — brief. Don’t mix in jokes.” Jack’s tone chilled like ice cracking. Amir tried to explain calmly, but Jack listened more to the weight behind the words than to their particulars. In the pauses, the phone booth’s shadow stretched and traced a thin black groove across the floor.

“We weren’t trained terrorists, not professionals. The information was distributed piece by piece. Think of how betrayal would happen — like how I can call you now.” Amir’s voice was careful; not fearful. Jack pressed the receiver to his ear and felt the city’s everyday noises woven into the fabric of the explanation. An old woman adjusting her bag at the corridor’s edge, the faint opening of a shutter somewhere distant — the beginnings of small workdays.

“We infiltrated about five years ago. We planted C4 in the core of buildings that were being built then. Rafi studied architecture, so he knew where to place it. You’ve seen the collapse a million times online, you know how it looks. To detonate, you need an old phone that reads a ‘mute reader’ QR code. Along with it is a tablet I made myself. I embedded C4 into two-thirds of its battery. The tablet has old fingerprint authentication — the kind from a long time ago. I made two of them. One is in Los Angeles, one in New York.”

“So there are two detonators?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t the only one from the electronics department. Also, the phones that read the QR code are ancient, too specialized — they never caught on.”

“How do you trigger it?”

“There’s a special QR code placed on a site. You hold the phone up and read it. The QR is a 3D layer. The code rises in relief, deciphers itself, converts into a detonation code, and sends it by radio.”

“Radio? Not Wi‑Fi?”

“If it were Wi‑Fi you’d shut it down quickly. I modified the tablet. It’s not Wi‑Fi — it uses FM radio, like pirate radio.”

“We can jam the frequency.”

Amir laughed for a long moment before speaking.

“I set the app so the frequency can be changed arbitrarily. I also set it so that any signal sent to jam the frequency triggers the detonation. So either way, boom.”

Jack was silent for a little while, then asked,

“Where is the QR code located?”

“I don’t know. Everything was compartmentalized. Hardware production, QR placement, activation method. By scattering the flow, it seemed designed to deter betrayal.”

Silence fell again between them. Amir lifted his eyes from the ground and said,

“Jack, I’d tell you if I knew. Only those holding a mute reader would know. Today, that’s…”

“Just Rafi?”

“That’s right.”

Silence spread between them. The call hovered like thin ice. Jack’s breathing returned slowly to the present. The underground light was narrow but it marked him clearly.

“Why are you talking?”

“Like I said. I’m tired of people dying.”

“You knew you’d talk and yet Rafi let you go unharmed? Sounds too neat to be true.”

“Maybe I’m just making it up to dupe you.”

“Jack, take it easy. Amir, don’t move.”

Veronica’s composed voice cut into the call.

“Jack, he’s quite handsome in person.”

Amir, who was standing on the opposite side of the wall from Jack, holding a receiver himself, smiled at that.

The joke across the handset dried the damp air of the concourse a little. They were tracing different faces of the same space with their fingers.

Jack tightened his grip on the receiver and nodded softly. The nod felt like a small signal matched to the city’s beat and also like the announcement of yet another endless season.

Light in the corridor flowed slowly; shadows folded and layered; the conversation seeped into the tiles and sank.

Jack looked around slowly. The NYPD officers who routinely guarded Grand Central from terror stood at the entrances. Under Veronica’s orders, they had all focused on keeping Amir within range. Red and green laser dots from M4 carbines with Picatinny rails marked Amir’s feet. Likely the red came from the terminal’s NYPD contingent and the green from Veronica’s team. Two squads had lined up their sights to contain his movement. Of course, the sights were not on Amir’s forehead.

Suddenly a sharp smack of sound struck the receiver.

“Amir, who are you?” It was Ana.

Amir’s eyes widened for an instant then he recovered.

“Was I followed? Miss Patel. And who are you? Getting in Jack’s way.”

He shrugged with his thumb and pointed to his own feet, where the red and green laser dots rested. Ana stepped forward in her voice.

“Please. Come with Jack.”

Jack added, “For now, get arrested. We’ll hear the details with Veronica.”

Veronica said nothing; Jack assumed she nodded. He switched the receiver in his hand.

Amir laughed.

“If I were to say yes and surrender, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now, would we? Look — trains are coming in. Watch your crosshairs.”

The concourse swelled with people in the early morning. New York breathed around the terminal. The stream of humanity was the city’s pulse, its very blood flow; warmth surged through the concourse.

When Ana shifted her gaze for a moment to that tide of people, she spoke calmly and gently.

“Please. To Jack.”

Amir’s smile fell when he met her look. He accepted Ana’s gaze and said,

“Do you remember the morning at the exhibition when we first met? That wasn’t an accident. I went there to kill you.”

Ana’s eyes went white. Life drained from her gaze; the surrounding clamor carried her away and it vanished. Then, softly, she said, why?

“If you disappear, Bombay Blood in America will be just Justin and me.”

////////////////

Across the nation television networks switched to breaking news. Anchors’ voices trembled as they searched for words; the screen held still images of the scene. Smartphone notifications chimed all at once, but what arrived felt less like words than an announcement of silence.

Social feeds filled in an instant; everyone stared at the frozen time on their screens.

“What is going on…?” Hands halted midreach as people watched the images. On distant street corners, in cafés, in offices, faces of people holding their breath were shown.

An old woman on a park bench gripped her bag; a mother with a child went speechless; a driver tightened his hands on the wheel. Silence took the city’s clamor, the suburbs’ stillness, the open fields of the countryside and wrapped them all together in a single deep breath.

Emergency responses began within government agencies. Phones rang; red alarms flashed on screens. A presidential aide lost words and the pen in his hand trembled. Hallways inside the White House fell quiet; only footsteps echoed.

Words could not be pinned down; fear and confusion spread like a chain. Emergency teams moved; experts began analysis. Reports, communications, camera footage — every piece of information crossed and re-crossed — yet the four had slipped through all eyes of surveillance.

Their silence left no record, but it scored a sure claw mark on the world’s timeline.

City, state, nation, the world — all inhaled together and froze in the same instant.

The four shadows completed their mission at the center of the world without being recognized, then dissolved as shadows into the curtain of night.

  

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My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

There’s still more to come. 😃

(This is not the final draft.)

Set in New York City.

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

Notes

1. "Bombay Blood Type (hh type)"

•Characteristics: A rare blood type that lacks the usual ABO antigens — cannot be classified as A, B, or O.

•Discovery: First identified in 1952 in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).

•Prevalence: Roughly 1 in 10,000 people in India; globally, about 1 in 2.5 million.

•Transfusion Compatibility: Only compatible with blood from other Bombay type donors.

2. 2024 Harvard University Valedictorian Speech – The Power of Not Knowing

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

3. Shots Fired at Trump Rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

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Title:

 

3月の交差点。

  

僕の新しい小説

 B♭ (ビーフラット) ……. Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

“あらすじ”

 

北朝鮮の仮想通貨システムをハッキングし、数億ドルを奪取したガザ出身のパレスチナ人グループが、アメリカ合衆国へ密かに潜入する。

彼らの目的は、失われた祖国ガザを、アメリカの地に「復元」することだった。

共和党による強硬な移民政策と、国内にくすぶる排外感情を利用し、アメリカ社会を内側から崩壊させる計画が静かに進行していく。

共和党大統領候補ジャスティン・ブラッドフォードがマディソン・スクエア・ガーデンで演説中に狙撃され、ほぼ同時刻、ロサンゼルスでは前大統領オーウェン・リードもまた、民主党候補ライアン・ベネットの集会で撃たれる。

国家を二分する双方向の暗殺。だが、ジャスティンは奇跡的に生還する。

彼の血液型は、世界でわずか250万人に一人といわれる「ボンベイブラッド」。

その希少な血を提供できたのは、ブルックリンで活動するコミュニティアート・ファシリテーター、アナヤ・パテルだった。

彼女の血液はベルビュー病院の血液バンクに保存されており、緊急輸血によって、候補者の命はかろうじて繋がれた。

シークレットサービスのジャック・バンスは、テロの背後にガザ出身の組織が関与していることを察知し、FBIロサンゼルス支局長官キャメロン・バートレット、ニューヨーク支局の特別捜査官ヴェロニカ・リーブスと共に捜査を進める。

やがて彼らは、イスラム大学で建築学を学んだラフィ・ガンナムが、ロサンゼルスやニューヨークの再開発現場に潜入し、梁や構造体の中枢にC4爆薬を仕込んでいた事実に辿り着く。

標的は、ICE(移民・関税執行局)やERO(執行・送還作戦部門)の職員が暮らす新興住宅街——すなわち、「アメリカが築いた秩序」そのものだった。

ヴェロニカは、これ以上の破壊を防ぐため、大統領への対話を進言するが、現職のグラント・ランフォード大統領は耳を貸さない。

一方、命を取り留めたジャスティンと民主党候補ライアンは、テレビを通じて国民に訴えかけ、分断を乗り越えようとする。

だが、その理性の声を嘲笑うかのように、グラントはアイオワ州での演説を強行し、「テロには屈しない」と宣言する。

その会場には、すでにラフィの仲間が率いる工作チームが潜入していた。

崩壊する会場の惨状を前に、仲間の一人アミール・ナッセルは、かつてガザで妹を失った記憶に引き裂かれ、破壊の連鎖を止めようとする。

だが、ラフィの信念は揺るがない。

ウィリアムズバーグ橋の下、夕暮れの喧騒のなか、二人は決別する。

それは、祈りと報復、希望と虚無の境界線だった——。

 

“登場人物”

 

アナヤ・パテル 25歳 コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

アルジュン・シン 26歳 アナヤの恋人・ルミナテック・イノベーションズ社

 

佐藤 ミカ 25歳 アナの友人・コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

 

ジャスティン・ブラッドフォード 27歳 共和党大統領候補

エリノア・ブレイク 26歳 ジャスティンの婚約者

 

グラント・M・ランフォード大統領 61歳 共和党大統領現職

チャールズ・ベインズ副大統領 64歳 共和党副大統領現職

 

ライアン・ベネット 30歳 民主党大統領候補

ソフィア・ベネット 30歳 ライアンの妻

 

オーウェン・リード 65歳 民主党前大統領

 

ジャック・バンス 45歳 シークレットサービス 元FBIロサンゼルス支局

ベン・ホロウェイ 30歳 ジャックの同僚

ダリル・ロス 29歳 ジャックの同僚

イライジャ・ケイン 28歳 ジャックの同僚

 

マーカス・デイン 45歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局

キャメロン・バートレット 55歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局 支局長

トム・コールドウェル 38歳 FBI技術班 マーカスの部下

 

ヴェロニカ・リーヴス 41歳 FBI特別捜査官

アレクサンダー・ハリス 52歳 FBI ニューヨーク支局 支局長

エリオット・チェン 36歳 テクノロジー班主任

 

アリシア・モンロー 58歳 FBI長官

 

ザカリア・ハッダード 51歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 工学部教授 ニューヨークチーム

アミール・ナッセル 23歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 電子工学部 ニューヨークチーム

ラフィ・ガンナム 32歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

ロハン・シャー 29歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

 

マジード・ハムザ 47歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 情報技術学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サミラ・ハンマド 28歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 工学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サイード・カバリ 35歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 経営学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

リーム・ナセル 30歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 メディア学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

 

ノア・レヴィ 55歳 イスラエル テルアビブ在住 ユダヤ人

  

僕のこの小説は、来年、2026年2月末日に公開します。

 

先日、リドリースコット監督がサブスクの映画やドラマ群がつまらないと話していたようだけど、同感です。

僕も非常に退屈です。

それらに2時間を要するなら、僕の小説を2分間だけ読んで欲しい。

その2分間は、2時間を越えるでしょう。

僕は自信があります。

ぜひ、期待してお待ちください。

 

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

09th. Oct . 2025.

  

追伸

ネトフリに挑戦する男、みっちゃん。😃

  

マンハッタン。ニューヨーク。アメリカ。2017. … 7 / 10

 

(今日の写真。それは未発表済みです。しかし最近、オリジナルから再編集しています。)

  

Images.

Taylor Swift … This Love ( 和訳 )

youtu.be/PfJzQuqWSSE?si=TrtL4Mb-uN2dNmML

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

第20弾。 😄

以下は、まだ初稿の段階です。まだ推敲します。

公開している内容の順番はバラバラです。

今回で部分的な公開を最後にします。

2026年2月28日。

その日にすべてを公開します。

期待して待っていてください。😃

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

「ジャック、スマホのメッセージを見ろ。またメッセージが飛び込んでいる。IPアドレスは、グランドセントラルターミナルのそばにあるニューヨーク公共図書館の分館、スタヴロス・ニアルコス財団経由だ」

 ベンからのフェイスタイムだった。ガーデンのすぐそば、NYPDのミッドタウン南分署に設置された対策室で待機しているベンからだ。ベンの声はこれだけの事件が起きているにも関わらず、冷静だった。

 ジャックはアイフォンに指を滑らせ、表示された短い文を確かめた。文字列は無造作に並んでいたが文の輪郭を整えているように見えた。 

 

― グランドセントラルの地下コンコースにアーチ形の天井がある。そこへ来い。ジャック・バンス。言うまでもないがひとりでだぞ、と言っても一人ではないと思うがな ― 

 メッセージは、ジャックの胸の内を強く叩いた。

 

 車はヴァンダービルト・アヴェニューを北へ抜け、グランドセントラルの南端に差しかかった。街はまだ朝を迎えきれず、ビルの谷間に籠もった湿気が金属の匂いを帯びていた。

 ジャックはアクセルを抜き、黒いSUVを滑らせるように歩道ぎりぎりへ寄せた。タイヤが縁石をかすめる瞬間、路面に残る雨粒が光の筋となって跳ねた。

 ジャックは重いドアを押し開き、足を落とした。靴音が一拍遅れて石畳に響いた。

 彼は一度だけ背後の通りを見やると、赤いサイレンの反射がショーウィンドウの奥をよぎり、通りの影に沈む通行人の顔を、刹那だけ白く照らした。

 その光の切れ目を縫うように、ジャックは地下コンコースへ降りる階段へと向かった。

 通用扉は重く、金属の軋みがわずかに響いた。構内には地下鉄の呼吸のような低い唸りが満ちていた。

 冷気が頬を打ち、空調ダクトの奥から、遠くの構内放送が滲んで聞こえくる。

 額の汗を拭ったジャックはグランドセントラルの階段を一段飛ばしに駆け降りた。照明の琥珀色が靴底に流れ、ターミナルの心臓の鼓動のように足音が連なった。

 鉄の手すりは冷たく、指先に浅い震えを伝えた。階段の奥からは人の足音が複層的に重なり、地下へと導く古いリズムを刻んでいる。アーチ型の天井は空気を柔らかに吸い込み、照明は薄く膜のように光を張っている。

 地下コンコースの空気は湿り、古い煉瓦の壁は過去の雨を忘れられずに微かに匂っているようだ。床のタイルは長年の踏み跡で曇り、ところどころにひびが走って、そこへ街の小さな記憶が溜まっている。

 ジャックはそれらを意識せずに歩を進めた。彼の視線は、通路の奥にある暗がりへと自然に吸い寄せられていた。そこにはいつもと同じ出勤途中の人たちが早足で過ぎていく。

 壁際に並ぶ古びた看板や掲示板は、折れたチラシを枕にして眠るように貼り付いている。清掃員が一つの帯のようにモップを引き、その先でベンチが一つ、淡い孤独を描くように置かれている。

 通路を流れる空気は、まるで都市の静脈のゆっくりした鼓動だとジャックは思った。自分の呼吸が、その鼓動と同じ拍に馴染むのを感じながら、歩みを進めた。

 足元のタイルに光が差し、影がゆらりと伸びた。エスカレーターの金属音が遠くで微かに鳴り、階段から吹き下りる風がジャックの体にこもった熱を冷ました。街の匂いと、地下の湿り気と、古い電灯の微熱が入り混じって、時間はゆっくりと溶けてゆく。

 歩を止めたジャックは掌をこすり、周囲に視線を散らした。耳に入る雑踏は、独特の反響を帯びて方向感覚を曖昧にする。彼はただ、どこかにいる「それ」を捜しているのだと自分に言い聞かせる。

 再び歩き出した瞬間、金属が擦れる高音が辺りの空気を裂いた。一瞬、彼の頸筋が弾かれ、足元に微かな緊張が走った。反射的に足を止めると、視界の端で受話器が小さく揺れていた。

 コードは年月の重みでねじれ、埃まみれの金属部分が鈍く光っている。誰も使わないはずの電話が、唐突に、祭りの鐘のように鳴った。都市の静寂に差し込む異音。音は低く、しかし確実に空気を震わせた。

 ジャックはゆっくりと視線をそれに向けた。地下の重い空気が一瞬、膝の裏を押すように沈む。耳に届くのは自分の呼吸と、受話器の小さな振動音だけだ。周囲の人々は何事もないように通り過ぎ、母親が幼児の手を引き、老いた男が新聞を折りたたんで小脇に抱え直し、去ってゆく。

 受話器はジャックを呼んでいた。沈黙の裂け目からの呼び声は、まるで古い地図の裏側で震えるインクのように、じわりと広がる。ジャックは無言で手を伸ばし、受話器を取り上げた。金属は冷たく、その冷たさが掌に現実を落とした。

「……ジャック」

 声は低く、だがはっきりしていた。耳に残る音色に、時間が少しだけ逆戻りする気配があった。ネットの映像で見知った声の輪郭。しかしテレビで聞いたときとは異なり、そこには刃ではなく遠い夕焼けのような色度が含まれているようだった。

 ジャックは受話器越しに、通路の端の人影や、ベンチの孤独、床に落ちた小さな紙片──それらが会話の合間に流れ込むのを感じた。声音は会話の窓に、街の細部を滑り込ませるものだ。

「どうした、アミール。覇気のない声だな」

 ジャックの声は静かだが、地面に落ちる石のように重みを持っていた。受話器の向こうで、アミールがすこし鼻で笑うのが聞こえた。

「ときどきは落ち込むこともあるさ、人間だからね」

 その声は穏やかで、かつ遠い。以前に見せた公の顔とは違い、こちらは影の中で磨かれたものだった。通話の間、隣を通り過ぎる親子の会話がスナップのように割り込み、また消えていった。

「ジャック、これから言うことをよく聴け。ま、録音はしてるだろうけどな」

「それはお互い様だろ」

 受話器の向こうで、アミールの言葉は滑らかに落ち、地下のタイルに小さな波紋を作るようだった。周囲の雑音が一度だけ音像を濁らせ、また整頓される。母親の靴音、清掃員のモップの擦れる音、遠くの自販機の冷える音──それらが会話のリズムに交差してゆく。

「俺はこのチームから降りた。理由は、もう多くの人間が死ぬのを見たくないからだ。それだけだ」

 ジャックの指先が受話器の脈動を確かめた。声は冷静を装うが、その奥に震えがあるのを彼は聴き取った。地下の照明の輪郭が、アミールの言葉ごとにわずかに滲む。

「それを信じろって言うのか? お前らの教授、ザカリアはそんな弱音を吐くなって言ってるぞ、せっかく盛大に死んだのに」

 アミールはしばらく黙り、何かを笑い飛ばすような吐息を漏らした。通路の端でキャンディを舐める子供の小さな舌音が、言葉の間を埋めた。

「で、どうしたんだ? 失恋でもしたのか?」

「そんなところだ。この起爆装置は、これからも多くの建物を破壊する」

 その一言が、受話器の内の小さな部屋を突き破った。ジャックは一瞬だけ、地下の光が薄く濁るのを見た。だが通路は相変わらず普段どおりで、誰も振り返らない。異変は音の中にしか存在しない。

「どこにどれくらいセットし、どんな仕掛けなんだ、正確に、手短に話せ。つまらないジョークは混ぜるな」

 ジャックの口調は掴みかけた氷のように冷たい。受話器の向こうでアミールは静かに説明を試みるが、ジャックは言葉の細部よりもその声が持つ重さに耳を澄ます。通話の合間、壁際の電話ボックスの影が長く伸び、床に細い黒い溝を引いた。

「俺たちは、一般人で訓練されたテロリストではない。しかし、渡された情報は各個人へ分散されていた。たとえば今、俺がこうしてあんたに電話しているように裏切りが生まれた時のことを考えてね」

 アミールの声は慎重で、しかし怯えはない。ジャックは受話器を耳にしっかり押し当て、周囲の生活音がそのまま説明の布地となって織り込まれていくのを感じていた。通路の端で老女がバッグを直す音、遠くでシャッターが開く小さな仕事のはじまりの合図が聞こえた。

「俺たちが潜入したのは、今から5年ほど前だ。その頃に建てられていた建造物の中枢にC4を仕掛けた。ラフィは大学で建築学を学んでいたからね。崩壊する様子はもうネットでも100万回再生だからわかってるだろう。起爆させるためには、ミュートリーダーというQRコードを読み取る昔の携帯電話が必要だ。それとペアで独自に俺がつくったタブレットもだ。このタブレットのバッテリー部分、3分の2にC4を埋め込んだ。このタブレットも大昔にあった指紋認証式のタブレットだ。俺が作ったタブレットは2台だ。それがロサンゼルスとニューヨークに分かれて存在している」

「つまり、起爆装置は2台か?」

「わからない。俺の他にも電子工学部の人間がいたからな。それからQRコードを読み取る携帯電話は大昔、あまりに特殊すぎて売れずに浸透しなかった機器だ」

「どういう流れで起爆させるんだ?」

「あるサイトに特殊なQRコードが設置されているらしい。そこに携帯電話をかざして読み込む。QRコードは3Dレイヤーだ。コードが立体的に浮かび上がって解読し、起爆させるコードへ変換させ、電波で飛ばす」

「電波? Wi-Fiではなくか?」

「Wi-Fiだったら、あんたらすぐに止められるだろ? そこは俺がタブレットを改造した。Wi-FiではなくFM電波だ、パイレーツラジオ(海賊ラジオ)と同じ仕組みだ」

「ならば、周波数を駆逐できるぞ」

 アミールはしばらく笑ってからいった。

「周波数はいくらでも変えられるようにアプリを設定した。ちなみに周波数を妨害しようと発せられた電波も起爆するようセットした。つまり、いずれにしても、ドカンだ」

 ジャックは、しばらく沈黙してから続けた。

「QRコードは、どこのサイトにあるんだ?」

「わからない。すべての過程で分散している。ハードの製造、QRコードの場所、起爆させる操作。流れを散らすことで、裏切りを抑止しているようだった」

 ふたりの間に再び沈黙が落ちた。アミールは、足元に落とした視線を引き上げて、いった。

「ジャック、ここまで話しているんだから、知っていたら話しているさ。つまり、ミュートリーダーを手にしている人間にしかわからない。今で言うなら ….」

「ラフィだけ、か」

「そのとおりだ」

 二人の間に沈黙が落ち、通話は薄い氷の上で揺れている。ジャックの呼吸がゆっくりと現実を取り戻した。地下の光は細く、しかししっかりと彼を照らしている。

「アミール、どうして話す?」

「さっきもいったとおりだ。人の死にはうんざりだ」

「お前がこうして喋ることがわかっているのに、ラフィはお前を無傷で解放したのか? この話を信じるにはうますぎないか?」

「確かに。俺が適当なことをいって、あんたらをカモるかもね」

「ジャック、お疲れ様、アミール、その場を動かないで」

 ヴェロニカの落ち着いた声が二人の通話に割り込んだ。

「ジャック、実物はなかなかの男前だな」

 そういったアミールは、ちょうどジャックのいる壁面の反対側で受話器を手にしていた。

 受話器越しの冗談は、地下の湿った空気を幾分、乾かせた。彼らは同じ空間の別々の面を指でなぞっているようだ。

 ジャックは受話器を握りなおし、静かに頷いた。その頷きは、街の鼓動に合わせた小さな合図のようでもあり、また終わりのない季節の一端を告げるものでもあった。通路の光がゆるやかに流れ、影が折り重なり、会話は地下のタイルにゆっくりと染み渡っていった。

 ジャックは、ゆっくり辺りを見渡した。元々、グランドセントラルターミナルをテロから守る為に、日常的に警護していたNYPDが出入り口に構えている。非常事態の現在、ヴェロニカの指示で一斉にアミールを射程内に捕らえていた。ピカティニーレールを持ったM4カービンの赤とグリーンのレーザーサイトがアミールの両足に張り付いていた。おそらく、赤はターミナルのNYPDで、グリーンがヴェロニカのチームだろう。二つの班がアミールの動きを封じようと照準を定めていた。もちろん、照準はアミールの額にはない。

 突然、ジャックの受話器の向こうから頬を叩く音が響いた。

「アミール、あなたは何者なの?」

 その声はアナだった。

 アミールは一瞬目を丸くしたが、すぐに自分を取り戻した。

「ジャック、つけられてたのか? ミス・パテル。君こそ何者なんだ? ジャックの邪魔をしているよ」

 彼はそういって親指を逆さにし、自分の足を示した。そこには、赤とグリーンのレーザーサイトが静かに張り付いていた。アナはアミールに詰め寄ると言い放った。

「いっしょに出頭して」

 その言葉にジャックは付け足した。

「とりあえず捕まれ。詳しい話は、ヴェロニカといっしょに聞いてやる」

 ヴェロニカは足さなかったが、おそらく頷いているだろうと思いながら、ジャックは受話器を持ち替えた。

 アミールは一笑した。

「言うまでもないが、はい、わかりましたというなら、ここで対話してないよな。ほら、列車がたくさん到着したぞ、照準に気をつけな」

 早朝のターミナルに、人が溢れ出した。ターミナルを中心にニューヨークは呼吸している。人の流れは、都市の脈動であり、血流そのものだ。コンコースには人の熱気が溢れ出していた。

 溢れた人の流れに一瞬目を移すと、アナは冷静に、そして穏やかな眼差しでいった。

「おねがい。ジャックのところへ」

 アミールも同じように笑みを消すと、アナの視線を受け入れ、いった。

「君に初めて会った展示の朝を覚えているかい? あれは偶然じゃない。僕は君を殺しに行ったんだ」

 アナの視線が白くなった。眼差しからは生気が失せ、周囲の喧騒に流され、消えていった。そして、どうして? と小さく言葉を落とした。

「君が消えれば、アメリカでボンベイブラッドは、ジャスティンと僕だけだ」

 

////////////////

 

全国のテレビ局が緊急報道に切り替わった。

 キャスターの声は震え、言葉を探す間、画面には会場の静止した映像が映った。スマートフォンの通知が一斉に鳴り、しかし、届くのは言葉ではなく、静寂の報せのように感じられた。

 SNSのタイムラインは瞬く間に情報で埋まり、誰もが画面の中で止まった時間を見つめていた。

「どういうことだ…?」画面を見つめる手が、思わず止まる。

 画面の向こう、遠くの街角でも、カフェでも、オフィスでも、息を呑む人々の姿が映る。

 公園のベンチに座る老女は、手にしたバッグを握りしめ、子供を抱く母親は言葉を失い、運転中の男性はハンドルを握る手に力を込めた。

 沈黙は、都市の喧騒、郊外の静けさ、田舎の広野を一斉に包み込み、世界を一つの深い呼吸に束ねた。

 政府機関では緊急対応が始まっていた。電話が鳴り、スクリーンに赤い警報が灯っている。大統領補佐官は言葉を失い、ペンを握る手が微かに震えている。ホワイトハウス内の廊下は、普段の喧騒を消し、足音だけが響いた。

 誰も正確に理解できないまま、言葉は混乱と恐怖の連鎖として広がっていく。政府内の応急対応が動き、専門家たちが分析を開始する。報告書、通信、カメラ映像、あらゆる情報が交錯するが、四人の存在は、すべての監視の目をすり抜けていた。

 四人の沈黙は、記録に残らず、しかし世界の時間軸に確実な爪痕を刻んだのだ。

 都市、州、国家、世界 — すべてが一瞬にして同じ呼吸をし、同じ時間の中で凍りついた。

 四人の影は、誰にも認識されることなく、世界の中心でその使命を終え、影のまま、夜の帳の中に溶け込んでいった。

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  

僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

舞台はニューヨークです。

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

追記 この小説を多少説明しました。

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

メモ

 

1

「Bombay型(ボンベイ型、hh型)」

•特徴:通常のABO血液型を持たない(A、B、Oに分類されない)特殊な型。

•発見地:1952年、インド・ムンバイ(旧ボンベイ)で初めて確認。

•発生頻度:インドでは1万人に1人程度だが、世界的には約250万人に1人とも。

•輸血制限:同じBombay型しか輸血できない。

 

2

2024年ハーバード大学首席の卒業式スピーチ『知らないことの力』

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

 

3

Shots fired at Trump rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

  

used photos:

candid

left: photo by Lotti (Nikon coolpix)

right: my photo (Panasonic G2),

diptych and processing by me.

 

Row Row Row your Boat (youtube)

 

Part of the sets: "Lotti - Lottchen" and My Memory-Photograph-Album.

 

Diptych:

Lotti: COOLPIX L4 - DSCN7517

Ingrid: DMC-G2 - P1820835 - 2014-08-02

Title.

road surface.

 

B♭ (B Flat)

A Novel by Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃

 

“Synopsis”

 

A Palestinian group from Gaza hacks into North Korea’s cryptocurrency system, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. Their true goal is not money—but to recreate the lost homeland of Gaza on American soil.

Amid the backdrop of hardline Republican immigration policies and a growing wave of xenophobia, a quiet plan begins to take shape: the gradual collapse of America from within.

During a speech at Madison Square Garden, Republican presidential candidate Justin Bradford is shot. Almost simultaneously in Los Angeles, former president Owen Reed is attacked at a rally for Democratic hopeful Ryan Bennett.

Two assassinations—mirroring one another—ignite a nation’s deepest divide. Yet, against all odds, Justin survives. His blood type is one in 2.5 million: the Bombay Blood Group.

The only person who can donate such blood is Anaya Patel, a community art facilitator working in Brooklyn. Her blood, stored in the Bellevue Hospital Blood Bank, is used for an emergency transfusion that saves the candidate’s life.

Jack Vance, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, suspects a Gaza-based network behind the attacks. Together with Cameron Bartlett, the FBI Director of the Los Angeles Field Office, and Veronica Reeves, a senior investigator from New York, he begins to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Their investigation leads them to Rafi Gannam, a former architecture student at the Islamic University of Gaza, who has infiltrated redevelopment sites across Los Angeles and New York—embedding C4 explosives deep within beams and structural cores.

His targets: new residential districts where agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) live—symbols of “the order America built.”

Veronica urges the President to pursue dialogue to prevent further destruction, but President Grant M. Ranford refuses to listen.

Meanwhile, the recovering Justin and his Democratic rival Ryan appear on national television, calling for unity beyond political divisions.

Their words of reason, however, are drowned out when Grant takes the stage in Iowa, defiantly declaring: “We will never bow to terror.”

Among the crowd, Rafi’s operatives have already taken their positions.

As chaos erupts and the stage collapses, Amir Nasser—once Rafi’s comrade, haunted by the memory of his sister’s death in Gaza—tries desperately to halt the chain of destruction.

But Rafi’s conviction remains unshaken.

Under the twilight beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, amid the city’s fading noise, the two men part ways.

It is the boundary between prayer and vengeance, between hope and nothingness.

  

“Characters”

 

Anaya Patel – 25, Community Art Facilitator

Arjun Singh – 26, Anaya’s boyfriend, Luminatech Innovations

Mika Sato – 25, Anaya’s friend, Community Art Facilitator

 

Justin Bradford – 27, Republican Presidential Candidate

Eleanor Blake – 26, Justin’s fiancée

 

President Grant M. Langford – 61, Incumbent Republican President

Vice President Charles “Chuck” Baines – 64, Incumbent Republican Vice President

 

Ryan Bennett – 30, Democratic Presidential Candidate

Sophia Bennett – 30, Ryan’s wife

Owen Reed – 65, Former Democratic President

 

Jack Vance – 45, Secret Service, Former FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Ben Holloway – 30, Jack’s colleague

Darryl Ross – 29, Jack’s colleague

Elijah Kane – 28, Jack’s colleague

 

Marcus Dane – 45, FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Cameron Bartlett – 55, FBI Los Angeles Field Office, Field Office Director

Tom Caldwell – 38, FBI Technical Unit, Marcus’s subordinate

 

Veronica Reeves – 41, FBI Special Agent

Alexander Harris – 52, FBI New York Field Office, Field Office Director

Elliot Chen – 36, Technology Unit Chief

Alicia Monroe – 58, FBI Director

 

Zakaria Haddad – 51, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Engineering Professor, New York Team

Amir Nasser – 23, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Electronics Engineering, New York Team

Rafi Gannam – 32, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

Rohan Shah – 29, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

 

Majid Hamza – 47, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Information Technology, Los Angeles Team

Samira Hammad – 28, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Engineering, Los Angeles Team

Saeed Kabari – 35, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Business Administration, Los Angeles Team

Reem Nasser – 30, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Media Studies, Los Angeles Team

 

Noah Levi – 55, Israel, residing in Tel Aviv, Jewish

  

B♭ will be released worldwide on February 29, 2026.

Recently, director Ridley Scott remarked that streaming films and series have become dull.

I agree.

If you have two hours to spare for such stories, I ask for only two minutes of your time.

Two minutes with my novel will outlast those two hours.

I am confident of that.

  

Stay tuned.

Mitsushiro

October 9th, 2025

 

P.S.

Micchan — the man who challenges Netflix. 😃

  

(Nikon Coolpix 8700 shot)

Manhattan, New York, U.S.A. 2017 … 15 / 16

(Today’s photo. It has not been published before, but I’ve recently re-edited it from the original.)

  

Images.

 

ONE OK ROCK - We are [ LIVE ]

youtu.be/uyaKoj7wABY?si=l5TIci49GRdoYQDD

  

English lyrics and Japanese translation

youtu.be/wOS8u80wvEs?si=g2ghwRsJRmqn3C22

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

My new novel

B♭ (B Flat)

 

Volume 19😄

The following is still in its draft stage and will be revised further.

Key parts are not disclosed.

The order of the content shown here is mixed.

(Of course, this is not the final version.)

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

My new novel

B♭ (B Flat)

English translation by GPT-5, in collaboration with Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

Twilight sank over the harbor town, dimming the air as the rusted girders along the pier turned a burnished red.

The park in Red Hook was nearly empty; the chains of the swings stirred in the wind, clinking faintly.

Children’s laughter drifted from afar, only deepening the stillness that hung over the place.

Amir stood outside the wire fence, gazing at the scene, and something half-forgotten stirred within him.

There had been evenings, too, in the rubble of Gaza.

Out from the ruins of broken houses, his mother would appear—

breathless, dust clinging to her clothes, coming to find him, to hold him close.

He could still recall the scent of her hair, the warmth of her arms.

“Let’s go home,” she had said.

Even if “home” was nothing more than a collapsing shell of stone and dust, her voice alone had led him back.

A mattress laid atop debris.

A room with no walls, only wind.

Yet each time his mother’s hand brushed his forehead, that place became, undeniably, home.

Amir’s gaze returned to the New York children swaying on the swings.

The innocent rhythm between mothers and sons was repeating itself again, bathed in the soft light of dusk.

It was a world untouched by weapons or blood.

“Rafi,” he murmured, barely louder than the wind,

“maybe… we don’t have to go on.”

Rafi didn’t look away.

His eyes were clouded with the sediment of Gaza—blood and dust, the memory of ruin.

His father’s body fallen in shadow.

Walls blackened with fire.

Dreams torn apart.

What filled him was not tenderness, but a cold and merciless anger.

“Don’t forget, Amir,” he said, his voice hard as stone.

“In the same place where your mother held you, our fathers were slaughtered.

Those ruins are not just ruins.”

Amir fell silent.

The river’s surface rippled red in the twilight; across the East River, the towers of Manhattan shimmered faintly, blurred at the edges.

Peace and destruction, memory and hatred—

they mingled together in the same wind.

Behind the wire fence, children’s laughter still rang out.

But to the two men, it sounded only like an echo from another world.

 

The setting sun sank quietly, staining the bridge’s iron joints red as the heat beneath it trembled in the air.

Rainwater pooled in the cracks of the concrete, reflecting a thin sheet of gold.

A faint steam rose from the damp air, and the salt from the harbor clung to Amir’s nose.

The boarded door of an abandoned factory hung loose,

the wind pushing in old newspapers and leaves, swirling them into tiny spirals.

From afar came the cry of cicadas, and a city bus exhaled a sigh through its brakes.

Beneath the bridge stood Amir, Rafi, and several others scattered in silence.

Some wiped sweat from their brows, eyes lowered to the ground;

others rested hands upon the girders, gazing out toward the distant light.

At intervals, the shadow of a parent waiting for a child passed by,

a white-roofed van gliding through the heat.

Amir rubbed his back, the sweat clinging to his shirt, and sat down in the shadow of the bridge pier.

Rafi stood a short distance away.

Their shadows stretched long, wavering under the harsh westering sun.

No one among their comrades moved; their stillness was a kind of breathless waiting.

“Can’t we stop here?” Amir’s voice wavered into the humid air.

In his mind, he saw again his mother’s hand reaching through a crack in the stone wall—

that small, dirt-stained hand that once touched his cheek.

The desire to return to that warmth still flickered faintly in his chest, like an ember refusing to die.

Rafi clenched his jaw, and spoke through his teeth, his words as brief and cold as a stone cast into the sea.

“Don’t forget, Amir.

If you forget that night, we’ll betray the dead.”

His voice merged with the creak of metal underfoot, irreconcilable with the laughter of children or the cry of cicadas drifting in the distance.

Amir narrowed his eyes, watching the flow of light beyond the railing.

Across the river, windows shimmered in layers—

places where life went on, where dinners were being served,

where children’s laughter and footsteps would echo softly through the gardens.

A deep shadow cut across Rafi’s face.

His fists were clenched, the veins on his hands taut and bright.

“That wish of yours,” he said quietly,

“do you know it might become someone’s gravestone?”

Amir’s gaze fell to a small white rabbit doll at his feet.

It was caked with dust, one eye missing.

Perhaps it belonged to a child who once played beneath this bridge—

or perhaps it had simply wandered here by chance.

Either way, to Amir, that single missing eye seemed like a fleeting glimpse of a world quietly disappearing.

Silence spread between them.

The wind hummed low through the iron beams.

Around them, the world went on moving.

A van door shut.

A parent touched a child’s shoulder.

A bus turned the corner.

Their comrades drew shallow breaths, eyes fixed on the ground or the far horizon.

Without looking back, Amir began walking toward the city beyond the bridge’s shadow.

Behind him came a single breath from Rafi—

a sound that carried the stillness of a corpse.

The summer dusk slowly swallowed the bridge.

The men beneath it remained as faint silhouettes,

poised between the red of sunset and the cold gleam of steel.

Rafi quietly unzipped his bag and drew out a tablet.

His fingers trembled slightly,

but he took a slow breath to steady himself,

and aimed the camera at the mark of “B♭” at the bottom of mellow-echo.net.

A dark screen flickered to life, revealing a deep-layer QR code.

Without hesitation, his finger slid along the words:

“C4-ID: Vanta+Core / Ready.”

That movement sent a faint tremor through the tension of the men beneath the bridge,

blending with the dry scent of rust and the damp summer air.

From the far side of the East River, under another bridge,

sparks began to rise—one, then another—

tiny flashes glowing red in the dark.

The light quivered across the shadows,

and the sound of metal striking metal echoed low.

Rafi’s eyes followed the fading silhouette of Amir’s back.

The others stepped silently away,

drawing a little farther from the bridge.

Moist air clung to Rafi’s skin,

and the mingled red of dusk and chill of steel filled the space around him.

In the hush beneath the bridge,

each flash and creak formed a strange rhythm in his chest.

A cicada cried once in the distance.

The city’s murmur faded to a far-off haze.

Pressed beneath that wave of tension,

the men held their breath,

confirming each other’s presence only through glances and the rhythm of their breathing.

The summer dusk slowly—yet surely—

swallowed the bridge, the city,

and the shadows that remained.

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

There’s still more to come. 😃

(This is not the final draft.)

Set in New York City.

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

Notes

1. "Bombay Blood Type (hh type)"

•Characteristics: A rare blood type that lacks the usual ABO antigens — cannot be classified as A, B, or O.

•Discovery: First identified in 1952 in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).

•Prevalence: Roughly 1 in 10,000 people in India; globally, about 1 in 2.5 million.

•Transfusion Compatibility: Only compatible with blood from other Bombay type donors.

2. 2024 Harvard University Valedictorian Speech – The Power of Not Knowing

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

3. Shots Fired at Trump Rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Title.

路面。

  

僕の新しい小説

 B♭ (ビーフラット) ……. Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

“あらすじ”

 

北朝鮮の仮想通貨システムをハッキングし、数億ドルを奪取したガザ出身のパレスチナ人グループが、アメリカ合衆国へ密かに潜入する。

彼らの目的は、失われた祖国ガザを、アメリカの地に「復元」することだった。

共和党による強硬な移民政策と、国内にくすぶる排外感情を利用し、アメリカ社会を内側から崩壊させる計画が静かに進行していく。

共和党大統領候補ジャスティン・ブラッドフォードがマディソン・スクエア・ガーデンで演説中に狙撃され、ほぼ同時刻、ロサンゼルスでは前大統領オーウェン・リードもまた、民主党候補ライアン・ベネットの集会で撃たれる。

国家を二分する双方向の暗殺。だが、ジャスティンは奇跡的に生還する。

彼の血液型は、世界でわずか250万人に一人といわれる「ボンベイブラッド」。

その希少な血を提供できたのは、ブルックリンで活動するコミュニティアート・ファシリテーター、アナヤ・パテルだった。

彼女の血液はベルビュー病院の血液バンクに保存されており、緊急輸血によって、候補者の命はかろうじて繋がれた。

シークレットサービスのジャック・バンスは、テロの背後にガザ出身の組織が関与していることを察知し、FBIロサンゼルス支局長官キャメロン・バートレット、ニューヨーク支局の特別捜査官ヴェロニカ・リーブスと共に捜査を進める。

やがて彼らは、イスラム大学で建築学を学んだラフィ・ガンナムが、ロサンゼルスやニューヨークの再開発現場に潜入し、梁や構造体の中枢にC4爆薬を仕込んでいた事実に辿り着く。

標的は、ICE(移民・関税執行局)やERO(執行・送還作戦部門)の職員が暮らす新興住宅街——すなわち、「アメリカが築いた秩序」そのものだった。

ヴェロニカは、これ以上の破壊を防ぐため、大統領への対話を進言するが、現職のグラント・ランフォード大統領は耳を貸さない。

一方、命を取り留めたジャスティンと民主党候補ライアンは、テレビを通じて国民に訴えかけ、分断を乗り越えようとする。

だが、その理性の声を嘲笑うかのように、グラントはアイオワ州での演説を強行し、「テロには屈しない」と宣言する。

その会場には、すでにラフィの仲間が率いる工作チームが潜入していた。

崩壊する会場の惨状を前に、仲間の一人アミール・ナッセルは、かつてガザで妹を失った記憶に引き裂かれ、破壊の連鎖を止めようとする。

だが、ラフィの信念は揺るがない。

ウィリアムズバーグ橋の下、夕暮れの喧騒のなか、二人は決別する。

それは、祈りと報復、希望と虚無の境界線だった——。

 

“登場人物”

 

アナヤ・パテル 25歳 コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

アルジュン・シン 26歳 アナヤの恋人・ルミナテック・イノベーションズ社

 

佐藤 ミカ 25歳 アナの友人・コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

 

ジャスティン・ブラッドフォード 27歳 共和党大統領候補

エリノア・ブレイク 26歳 ジャスティンの婚約者

 

グラント・M・ランフォード大統領 61歳 共和党大統領現職

チャールズ・ベインズ副大統領 64歳 共和党副大統領現職

 

ライアン・ベネット 30歳 民主党大統領候補

ソフィア・ベネット 30歳 ライアンの妻

 

オーウェン・リード 65歳 民主党前大統領

 

ジャック・バンス 45歳 シークレットサービス 元FBIロサンゼルス支局

ベン・ホロウェイ 30歳 ジャックの同僚

ダリル・ロス 29歳 ジャックの同僚

イライジャ・ケイン 28歳 ジャックの同僚

 

マーカス・デイン 45歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局

キャメロン・バートレット 55歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局 支局長

トム・コールドウェル 38歳 FBI技術班 マーカスの部下

 

ヴェロニカ・リーヴス 41歳 FBI特別捜査官

アレクサンダー・ハリス 52歳 FBI ニューヨーク支局 支局長

エリオット・チェン 36歳 テクノロジー班主任

 

アリシア・モンロー 58歳 FBI長官

 

ザカリア・ハッダード 51歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 工学部教授 ニューヨークチーム

アミール・ナッセル 23歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 電子工学部 ニューヨークチーム

ラフィ・ガンナム 32歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

ロハン・シャー 29歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

 

マジード・ハムザ 47歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 情報技術学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サミラ・ハンマド 28歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 工学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サイード・カバリ 35歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 経営学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

リーム・ナセル 30歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 メディア学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

 

ノア・レヴィ 55歳 イスラエル テルアビブ在住 ユダヤ人

  

僕のこの小説は、来年、2026年2月末日に公開します。

 

先日、リドリースコット監督がサブスクの映画やドラマ群がつまらないと話していたようだけど、同感です。

僕も非常に退屈です。

それらに2時間を要するなら、僕の小説を2分間だけ読んで欲しい。

その2分間は、2時間を越えるでしょう。

僕は自信があります。

ぜひ、期待してお待ちください。

 

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

09th. Oct . 2025.

  

追伸

ネトフリに挑戦する男、みっちゃん。😃

  

( Nikon coolpix 8700 shot )

  

マンハッタン。ニューヨーク。アメリカ。2017. … 15 / 16

 

(今日の写真。それは未発表済みです。しかし最近、オリジナルから再編集しています。)

  

Images.

 

ONE OK ROCK - We are [ LIVE ]

youtu.be/uyaKoj7wABY?si=l5TIci49GRdoYQDD

  

英詞と和訳

youtu.be/wOS8u80wvEs?si=g2ghwRsJRmqn3C22

  

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僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

第19弾。 😄

以下は、まだ初稿の段階です。まだ推敲します。

重要な部分は公開していません。

公開している内容の順番はバラバラです。

(もちろん最終稿ではありません。)

 

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僕の新しい小説。

 

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

English translation by GPT-5, in collaboration with Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

 夕暮れは港町の空気を沈ませながら、埠頭に錆びついた鉄骨を赤銅色に染めていた。

 レッドフックの公園は人影もまばらで、遊具の鎖が風に揺れ、かすかな音を立てていた。子どもたちの笑い声が遠くにひびき、かえって静けさを際立たせているようだった。

 アミールは金網の外からその光景を見つめ、胸の奥に忘れかけていた感覚を呼び戻していた。

かつてガザの瓦礫の町にも夕暮れはあった。

 破壊された家々のあいだから、母の姿が現れた。息を切らし、砂埃をまといながらも、彼を探して抱きしめに来る母の匂いを、アミールは今も覚えていた。

 「家に帰ろう」と母は言った。

 家とは呼べないほど崩れかけた場所であっても、その声だけが彼を導いた。瓦礫の上に置かれた布団、壁もない部屋に流れ込む風、それでも母の手が彼の額を撫でるたび、そこは確かに家だった。

 アミールの視線は、ブランコに揺れるニューヨークの子どもたちへと戻った。母と子の無邪気な時間が、夕暮れの柔らかな光のなかで繰り返されている。

 その光景は、武器や血とは無縁の世界だった。

「ラフィ……俺たちは、もうやめてもいいんじゃないか」

 低く呟いた声は、風に溶けるほど弱かった。

 ラフィは目を逸らさなかった。その瞳には、ガザの砂塵に埋もれた血の記憶がよどんでいた。

 倒れ伏した父の影、焼け焦げた壁、裂けた夢。彼の胸に満ちているのは、優しさではなく、冷たい怒りだった。

「忘れるな、アミール」

 声は硬い石のように響いた。

「母の腕に抱かれた記憶と同じ場所で、父たちは殺されたんだ。あの瓦礫はただの瓦礫じゃない」

 アミールは唇を閉ざした。

 夕暮れの川面が赤く揺らぎ、イーストリバー越しのマンハッタンの高層ビルの影がかすかに滲んでいた。

 平和と破壊、記憶と憎しみが、同じ風の中で混じり合っていた。

 金網の内では、子どもの笑い声がまだ響いていた。

 しかし、ふたりの耳にはそれが遠い世界の残響にしか思えなかった。

  

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 夕陽は鉄の骨の継ぎ目を赤く染めながら、橋の下の熱気に揺れつつ静かに沈み込んだ。

 コンクリートの裂け目に溜まった水が、夕陽を映して薄い金色に光っている。湿った空気にわずかな湯気が立ち、港から流れる潮の匂いがアミールの鼻腔に絡んだ。

 廃工場の戸板は半ば外れ、風が古い新聞紙や枯れ葉を押し込み、小さな渦をつくっていた。蝉の声が遠くから響き、路線バスのブレーキ音が一度、吐息のように洩れた。

 橋の下には、アミールとラフィのほかに、数名の仲間たちが散らばって立っている。肩をすくめ、汗を拭いながら地面に視線を落とす者もいれば、鉄梁に手をかけ、遠くの光景をじっと見つめる者もいた。

 時折、子どもを待つ親の影と、白い屋根の送迎車が通り過ぎる。

 アミールは汗で張り付いたシャツの背中をさすり、橋げたの影に腰を下ろした。

 ラフィは少し離れて立った。影は長く伸び、照りつける西日に揺れていた。仲間たちは微動だにせず、息を殺すようにその場にいる。

「ここでやめられないのか」

 アミールの声は、蒸し暑い夕暮れの空気に溶けかけた。脳裏には、母が崩れた石壁の隙間から差し出した小さな手が浮かんでいた。母の手はいつも、汚れた掌で彼の頬を撫でてくれた。そこに帰りたいという欲が、胸の奥でまだ微かに温かく息をしている。

 ラフィは奥歯を噛みしめ、舌先だけで言った。簡潔で、海に投げる石のように冷たい。

「忘れるな、アミール。あの夜のことを忘れたら、俺たちは死んだ者たちを裏切る」

 その声は、波打つ鉄板の軋みと混じり、遠くの子どもたちの笑い声や蝉の声とは相容れなかった。

 アミールは目を細め、橋の欄干越しに流れてゆく光を見た。向こう岸に、きらめく窓が幾重にも並んでいる。そこには暮らしがあり、夕飯の匂いが立ち、子どもたちの笑い声や庭先で遊ぶ足音が、柔らかく響いているはずだ。

 ラフィの頬に深い影が刺さり、拳を握りしめている。手の甲の血管が鋭く浮いた。

「お前のその願いが、誰かの墓標になることを、お前は知っているのか」

 アミールの視線は、足元に落ちた小さな白いうさぎのぬいぐるみに止まった。埃にまみれ、ひとつの目が欠けていた。

 そのぬいぐるみは、橋の下で遊んだ遠い誰かのものかもしれない。あるいは単に迷い込んだだけかもしれない。どちらにせよ、アミールにはその欠けた目が、消えていく日常の一瞥に思えた。

 沈黙がふたりを隔てた。風が、橋げたの鉄梁を低く鳴らした。

 周囲の世界は動き続ける。送迎車の戸が閉まり、親が子の肩を叩く。バスが一台、角を曲がる。仲間たちは微かに息を整え、視線を地面や遠方に巡らせたままだ。

 アミールは振り返らず、橋の影から街のほうへ歩き出した。

 後ろでラフィの吐息が一つだけ聞こえた。それは骸のような静けさを残し、夏の夕闇が緩やかに橋を飲み込んでゆく。橋下の仲間たちは、かすかな影のまま残り、夕陽の赤と鉄の冷たさの間に佇んでいた。

 ラフィは静かにバッグを開き、タブレットを取り出した。指先に、微かに震えはあったが、心を鎮めるように深く息を吸い、mellow-echo.netの最下部にあるB“♭(フラット)”に、ミュートリーダーのカメラをかざした。暗い画面にディープレイヤーQRコードが浮かび上がると、指先はためらうことなく、“C4-ID:Vanta+Core/Ready.”の文字に沿って滑った。その手の動きは、橋下に残った仲間たちの緊張を微かに揺らし、乾いた鉄の匂いと湿った夏の風に溶けた。

 イーストリバーを挟んだ対岸の橋下から、火花が一点、また一点と立ち上り、暗がりに赤く瞬いた。小さな光は、橋下の影を揺らし、鉄梁にぶつかる音が低く響く。ラフィの視線はアミールの背に残る影を追い、仲間たちは無言で後退りし、橋下から少しずつ距離を取った。

 湿気を帯びた空気がラフィの肌をまとい、夕陽の赤と鉄の冷たさが入り混じる。橋下の静寂の中、火花の閃光と小さな軋みが、ラフィの胸の奥に奇妙な律動を生んだ。遠くで蝉が一声鳴き、街のざわめきは遙か彼方に霞んでゆく。

 その緊張の波に押されるように、橋下の仲間たちは息をひそめ、視線と呼吸だけで互いの存在を確かめあった。

 夏の夕闇は、まるで橋を、街を、そして残された影を静かに、しかし確かに飲み込んでいった。

  

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僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

舞台はニューヨークです。

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

追記 この小説を多少説明しました。

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

メモ

 

1

「Bombay型(ボンベイ型、hh型)」

•特徴:通常のABO血液型を持たない(A、B、Oに分類されない)特殊な型。

•発見地:1952年、インド・ムンバイ(旧ボンベイ)で初めて確認。

•発生頻度:インドでは1万人に1人程度だが、世界的には約250万人に1人とも。

•輸血制限:同じBombay型しか輸血できない。

 

2

2024年ハーバード大学首席の卒業式スピーチ『知らないことの力』

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

 

3

Shots fired at Trump rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

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An Articulated Truck's Low Loader Trailer Wheels turn simultaneously while cornering Dublin Ireland

Two WGs departing Saharanpur, the one on the left for Delhi, the one on the right for Haridwar. Not scheduled as simultaneous - both were running late! Luckily I had Agfa 1000 to turn to in one back, or I wouldn't have got anything at all. 16/1/94.

Nelo Teixeira make use of vernacular materials in order to highlight the simultaneous legacies of traditional, modern and post-colonial histories within contemporary Angolan society. Nelo Teixiera belongs to a long lineage of mask-makers, and his installation comprises a community of standing figural sculptures arranged in a circle facing inwards. Adapting the forms of ‘ritual’ objects, Teixiera’s work blurs the distinction between artifacts and art objects. The sculptures are fashioned from recycled and discarded materials found on the streets of Luanda, also raising questions about artistic and economic value.

 

The Angolan Pavilion for the 56th Biennale di Venezia is titled “On Ways of Travelling,” yet the exhibition more accurately invokes some of the barriers to the freedom of movement that are experienced by many in Angola, and elsewhere in Africa – visas, economic hardship, borders and road traffic. Yet “travel,” in this context, is not only meant to signify physical movement; it also refers to the meeting of disparate worldviews, lifestyles and temporalities, as well as to states of dreaming, desire and longing for change. The subject is nowhere more relevant than the present context in La Biennale di Venezia, an essential destination for international art tourism and an early precedent for the phenomenon of the ‘global exhibition’ of contemporary art.

 

Approaching the Pavilion itself feels like a form of travel through time and space: the exhibition is mounted on the second floor of the Palazzo Pisani, a Baroque Venetian palace on the Grand Canal that now houses the Conservatorio Benedetto Marcello. In order to reach the installations, one traverses a richly decorated entrance hall to the sound of music students convening and rehearsing.

Out with the Werewolves and looking for a spot to capture something interesting earlier this week. When I glanced in the mirror and saw the red sky behind and the Supermoon in front, parked up and I grabbed the quickest camera - the phone.

 

Not the best focussed shot - but it looks different me thinks.

Happy Holidays! Finishing my work in Lightroom 4 now, and uploading new video of the goddesses!

 

Enjoy the video shot at the same time as the stills:

 

youtu.be/4TaO0Dh69HI (this video was shot while I took one of my most famous & most-viewed photographs ever! be sure to watch in full 1080p hd!)

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvbZgl6Af4 (some more video of the goddess!)

 

Canon 5D Mark II Photos of Beautiful Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess!

 

The video was shot with the awesome Panasonic X900MK 3MOS 3D Full HD SD Camcorder. I highly recommend it!

 

The goddess was tall, thin, and fit, with long, natural brown hair, pretty blue eyes, and a great smile!

Cute freckles!

  

It was a nice sunny, windless, warm, winter's day out on the beach, where the sun stays low all day for epic shooting!

 

Shooting simultaneous stills & video rocks! I do it on every shoot now, while also mounting several stationary DSLRs/camcorders for video in addition to the Panasonic or Sony Camcorder bracketed to my Canon 5D or Nikon D800E.

 

The sea & sand goddess was tall, thin, fit, and athletic, with gorgerous brown hair and pretty blue eyes and long legs! She's a dancer! Wearing a pink polka-dot bikini!

 

Pretty freckles too!

 

May the Hero's Journey Mythology goddesses guide and inspire you throughout the new year!

To view more of my images, of Cistaceae, please click

"here" !

 

The Cistaceae are a small family of plants (Rock-Rose or rock rose family) known for their beautiful shrubs, which are profusely covered by flowers at the time of blossom. This family consists of about 170(-200) species in nine genera that are not very distinct, distributed primarily in the temperate areas of Europe and the Mediterranean basin, but also found in North America; a limited number of species are found in South America. Most Cistaceae are subshrubs and low shrubs, and some are herbaceous. They prefer dry and sunny habitats. Cistaceae grow well on poor soils, and many of them are cultivated in gardens. They often have showy yellow, pink or white flowers, which are generally short-lived. The flowers are bisexual, regular, solitary or borne in cymes; they usually have five, sometimes three, petals (Lechea). The petals are free, usually crumpled in the bud, and sometimes in the open flower (e. g. Cistus incanus). It has five sepals, the inner three of which are distinctly wider, and the outer two are narrow and sometimes regarded as bracteoles. The sepal arrangement is a characteristic property of the family. The stamens are numerous, of variable length, and sit on a disc; filaments are free. The ovary is superior, usually with three carpels; placentation is parietal, with two or more ovules on each placenta. The fruit is a capsule, usually with five or ten valves (three in Helianthemum). The seeds are small, with a hard, water-impermeable coating, weighing around 1 mg. Recently the neotropical tree Pakaraimaea dipterocarpacea is placed here, following APG IV (2016) The ability of Cistaceae to thrive in many Mediterranean habitats follows from two important ecological properties: mycorrhizal ability and fast renewal after wildfire. Most Cistaceae have the ability to create symbiotic relationship with root fungi of the genus Tuber. In this relationship, the fungus complements the root system in its task of absorbing water and minerals from the soil, and thus allows the host plant to dwell on particularly poor soils. In addition, an interesting quality of T. melanosporum is its ability to kill all vegetation except the host plant within the reach of its mycelium, and thus to give its host some sort of "exclusiveness" for the adjacent land area. Cistaceae have also optimally adapted to the wildfires that frequently eradicate large areas of forest. The plants cast their seeds in the soil during the growth period, but they do not germinate in the next season. Their hard coating is impermeable to the water, and thus the seeds remain dormant for a long period of time. This coating together with their small size allows these plants to establish a large seed bank rather deep in the soil. Once the fire comes and kills the vegetation in the area, the seed coating softens or cracks as a result of the heating, and the surviving seeds germinate shortly after the fire. This mechanism allows the Cistaceae to produce a large number of young shoots simultaneously and at the right time, and thus to obtain an important advantage over other plants in the process of repopulating the area. Cistus, Halimium and Helianthemum are widely cultivated ornamental plants. Their soil requirements are modest, and their hardiness allows them to survive well even the snowy winters of Northern Europe. Some Cistus species, mostly C. ladanifer, are used to produce an aromatic resin, used in the perfume industry. The ability of Cistaceae to create mycorrhizal relation with truffle mushroom (Tuber) prompted several studies about using them as host plants for truffle cultivation. The small size of Cistus shrubs could prove favorable, as they take up less space than traditional hosts, such as oak (Quercus) or pine (Pinus), and could thus lead to larger yield per field unit. Cistaceae has been listed as one of the 38 plants used to prepare Bach flower remedies, a kind of alternative medicine promoted for its effect on health. However, according to Cancer Research UK, "there is no scientific evidence to prove that flower remedies can control, cure or prevent any type of disease, including cancer.

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In-camera double exposure exploring our concepts of scale and size. Northern Colorado during Autumn.

linktr.ee/rich_herrmann

drums crowned by tapering domes were deliberately scored to resemble candles, thus manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude.Why are onion domes predominant in Russian architecture?

soumis il y a 3 ans par res3k

Does it have any connection to similar domes in mosques?

Onion domes are predominant in Russian architecture because they became an important stylistic component of Russian Orthodox church design. According to what I have read, the dome's importance comes from symbolic and technical aspects. Russian onion domes have complex symbolic associations, from the classic "vault of heaven" to their appearance as tongues of flame, recalling the holy spirit. On the technical side, you have the often repeated theory that the domes were an adaptation to the climate, especially Russia's heavy snowfalls. The wooden construction of the onion dome would also have been a plus for Russian architects, was this material was in greater supply than the stone necessary for traditional, byzantine-style dome construction.One final reason for the predominance of the onion dome in Russian architecture: the origin of the dome and the associations that come with its origin. Russian church architecture, which features the dome most prominently out of all, is heavily influenced by Byzantine architecture. As Orthodox Christianity was the predominant religion, it follows that Russian builders sought to emulate the styles of the center of Orthodox Christianity, namely Constantinople. This architectural tradition places high importance on centrally-planned, domed spaces. This architectural tradition was combined in Russia with the native wooden-building traditions that have much in common with Scandinavia. These traditions stressed complex, creative wooden constructions with strong vertical components such as steeply pitching roofs and elaborate frameworks. The onion dome is a product of the combination of these two traditions. One source, an examination of the origin of the domes by S. V. Zagraevsky, argues that the domes were a Russian development in the 13th to 14th centuries along these lines--that Russian carpenters, skilled in complex woodwork from both building construction and shipbuilding (alluding to Rus's Scandinavian roots) developed the onion dome independently in order to fulfill the need for domes over Byzantine-influenced churches using wooden construction. This form of dome becomes widespread in the medieval period, thus cementing itself into "tradition" and becoming an essential part of Russian architecture.Note on sources and origins: like always, the story is far more complex than can be presented, and I would invite an expert on Russian culture to step in. The origins of the onion dome are shrouded as no original wooden domes from the period survive and scholars are forced to work from written and illustrative documentary evidence, which is open to varied interpretation. What I have read also presents two conflicting stories: that onion domes were a product of Indian and Byzantine sources that combined in the Islamic world, or that they were the products of independent developments that settled on the onion shape to suit their own technical or symbolic needs and which are only distantly connected to other similar designs in Central Europe, Russia, the Middle East, India. What is conclusive is that the widespread use of these domes dates back at least to the 12th-13th centuries. On sources, the most recent source on onion domes in English that I found (thanks to wiki) was Forms of the domes of the ancient Russian temples. Other works, such as National Elements in Russian Architecture and The Origin and the Distribution of the Bulbous Dome date back to the 1940s, but provide good insight into wooden dome architecture (note: these are JSTOR links). The wiki article on the Onion dome has a good introduction on these domes and has a list of sources, although many of them are in Russian.

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[–]intangible-tangerine 1 point il y a 3 ans*

This is a story which begins with early Slavic Christian Religious architecture, which exerted a strong influence on secular architecture on the region. I'm just going to generalise and use 'church' here for all buildings used for Christian religious services, not bothering to distinguish between churches and basilicas and cathedrals and so forth as I don't wish to over complicate matters.

When the Kievan Rus, a confederation of Slavic tribes living in parts of modern day Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, were gradually Christianised from the mid 8th to the early 11th c. they were primarily influenced by missions from the Byzantine Church and so they adapted the Byzantine dome for their own church architecture. However, whereas Byzantine Churches usually featured a large central dome, as can be seen with the most famous example, the Hagia Sophia these early medieval Slavic churches feature several smaller domes with the characteristic bulging onion shape, see the Cathedral of Saint Sophia in Novgorod built in the late 11th c. which may be due to some influence from earlier Slavic pagan architectural styles that are lost to us. Perhaps reflecting earlier buildings with multiple tower structures or bulged roofs.

This onion dome hasn't been completely dominant through all of the history of Russian and Eastern European Christian architecture, during the later medieval period a fashion for pointed roofs emerged, such as that of the 15th c. Spasskaya Tower in Moscow. Nevertheless the onion domed towers continued to be built alongside these. Sometimes the two styles were used simultaneously as seen with this early 16 th church at Ostrov, near Moscow where a pointed roof is topped off with a small dome.

... and so this story continues, waves of architectural fashions such as 17th c Ukrainian Baroque and 19th c Neo-Classical Byzantine sweep through the region, some of which typically incorporate onion domes and some of which don't, but it never disappears from the architects' tool kits. Because it was associated so strongly with the original conversion of the Keivan Rus, regarded as the common ancestor culture of Russia Ukraine and Belarus, it was had strong connotations of connecting later structures to this past and tying them in with a narrative of distinctive Russian/Slavic identity.

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True or not an architect once told me that the shape was heavily influenced by Russian climatology, with significant quantities of snow along the year this shape prevents the snow to accumulate on the roofs hence they would not collapse under the snow weight.You seem to be downvoted as a non-historian, but the hypothesis if very plausible. Initially church architecture in Russia was obviously very influenced by the Byzantine architecture, and domes were either egg-shaped, or even flatter than that (modern reconstruction of the Pirogoshcha Church of Our Lavy in Kiev, Ukraine)). But then in Russia they were quickly replaced by so called "helmet domes" (example: Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir, Russia). And it is this transition that might have been indeed influenced by the simple snow factor.

Starting as of XIII and for sure by XVI century helmet domes gradually evolved into onion domes. I don't know why it happened. Maybe, in a way, it "just happened", because all styles tend to evolve somewhere, and it does not always happen for particular reason, or serve a particular purpose.

I am not quite sure I can endorse what intangible-tangerine said in the comment nearby about secular architecture being an example here. Secular architecture in Russia was overwhelmingly wooden, and the only major type of brick "domes" that evolved from wooden domes is the tent roof church, which was quite popular for a while, but was then officially prohibited in XVII century for some reason, and allowed only for construction of bell-towers. It is rather uncomfortable to make a roundish dome, be it egg-, helmet-, or onion-shape one out of wood (even though it is technically possible). I am also not aware of any evidence for pre-Christian, or secular round dome-like structures in Russian architecture.As for pagan temples, it looks like Slavic pagan shrines were almost always located outdoors. While among Western Slavs some temples might have apparently existed, for some reason in modern reconstructions they are always depicted quite squarish in design (but here I am not sure, as the whole topic of Slavic Paganism is a rather sketchy one, due to a strong influence from romantic neo-pagan groups).

[+]Centurion521 nombre de points du commentaire sous la limite (11 enfants)

www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1gb89y/why_are_on...

An onion dome (Russian: луковичная глава, lúkovichnaya glava; compare Russian: лук, luk, "onion") is a dome whose shape resembles an onion. Such domes are often larger in diameter than the drum upon which they sit, and their height usually exceeds their width. These bulbous structures taper smoothly to a point.It is the predominant form for church domes in Russia (mostly on Russian Orthodox churches) and in Bavaria, Germany (German: Zwiebelturm (literally "onion tower"), plural: Zwiebeltürme, mostly on Catholic churches), but can also be found regularly across Austria, northeastern Italy, Eastern Europe, Mughal India, the Middle East and Central Asia.

 

Other types of Eastern Orthodox cupolas include helmet domes (for example, those of the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Novgorod and of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir), Ukrainian pear domes (Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiev), and Baroque bud domes (St. Andrew's Church in Kiev).Art historians disagree on when and why onion domes became a typical feature of Russian architecture. Byzantine churches and architecture of Kievan Rus were characterized by broader, flatter domes without a special framework erected above the drum. In contrast to this ancient form, each drum of a Russian church is surmounted by a special structure of metal or timber, which is lined with sheet iron or tiles.By the end of the nineteenth century, most Russian churches from before the Petrine period had bulbous domes. The largest onion domes were erected in the seventeenth century in the area around Yaroslavl, incidentally famous for its large onions. Quite a few had more complicated bud-shaped domes, whose form derived from Baroque models of the late seventeenth century. Pear-shaped domes are usually associated with Ukrainian Baroque, while cone-shaped domes are typical for Orthodox churches of Transcaucasia.Russian icons painted before the Mongol invasion of Rus do not feature churches with onion domes. Two highly venerated pre-Mongol churches that have been rebuilt—the Assumption Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. Demetrius in Vladimir—display golden helmet domes. Restoration work on several other ancient churches revealed some fragments of former helmet-like domes below newer onion cupolasPrior to the eighteenth century, the Russian Orthodox Church did not assign any particular symbolism to the exterior shape of a church.[10] Nevertheless, onion domes are popularly believed to symbolise burning candles. In 1917, noted religious philosopher Prince Yevgeny Trubetskoy argued that the onion shape of Russian church domes may not be explained rationally. According to Trubetskoy, drums crowned by tapering domes were deliberately scored to resemble candles, thus manifesting a certain aesthetic and religious attitude.[11] Another explanation has it that the onion dome was originally regarded as a form reminiscent of the edicula (cubiculum) in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Onion domes often appear in groups of three, representing the Holy Trinity, or five, representing Jesus Christ and the Four Evangelists. Domes standing alone represent Jesus. Vasily Tatischev, the first to record such interpretation, disapproved of it emphatically. He believed that the five-domed design of churches was propagated by Patriarch Nikon, who liked to compare the central and highest dome with himself and four lateral domes with four other patriarchs of the Orthodox world. There is no other evidence that Nikon ever held such a view.brightly painted: their colors may informally symbolise different aspects of religion. Green, blue, and gold domes are sometimes held to represent the Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus, respectively. Black ball-shaped domes were once popular in the snowy north of Russia.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_dome

More position accuracy

Less momentum precision

Inexact simultaneous values

Memories of Brambletye Boys Preparatory School 1967 – 1971.

 

When I went to Brambletye at the age of nine, in September 1967, it was my fifth school in the last four years. As my parents were routinely being posted within the Army, they felt a boarding school would give me a more stable education. I vaguely remember touring the school with them and Mr Blencowe, the Headmaster, one summer before term and being asked if I would be happy there for the next four years, to which I obediently replied, "Yes".

 

The school seemed to be based on many military methods. Each boy was allocated to one of four Houses named after great British military heroes: there were Nelson, Marlborough and Drake, and I was in Wellington. Many boy's fathers had been to Brambletye when they were young and it was not unusual for them to insist their son followed in the same House. Instead of prefects we had Officers. As just one part of the overall military discipline we had to march everywhere!

 

We had no first names even though all our parents may have thought long and hard about choosing a name that would either continue the family line, please a grandfather or uncle or be one of the "in" names in the 1960’s. Despite this being formalised by Christening we were only referred to by our surnames. The list of boarders showed a proliferation of double-barrelled surnames, and one poor boy was even blessed with a triple barrelled title. If you had the same surname as someone else, the older and more senior added "1" to his name, the junior adding "2". You had Smith 1 and 2 because they were common. They did get as far as Sommerfelt 3 but no other parents managed to produce four offspring within the four year scope of preparatory school life (fertility treatment had not been developed at this time!).

 

I remember the first night, going to bed later than it should have been at 6.30pm, and a few of the other sixteen or so boys in the dormitory sobbing into their pillows. They were comforted by the matrons in their starched white uniforms. I had the benefit of a few months on the majority of them as I was a Spring baby born in March, while there were still others born later in Autumn of the same year who were in the same intake. Whether this classified me as "retarded" because there were younger and cleverer boys in the same class, I shall never be sure, but I do know I didn't cry on the first night.

 

The dormitory was a long room with nine steel framed beds down one side, seven down the other. One side had deep windows stretching from the high ceiling down to near the floor, overlooking the shallow valley below. To the right you could see a lake or reservoir that glistened in the sun. It appeared only a few miles away. To me it symbolised "freedom" as on nice sunny days you could see yachts sailing on it. But between the shimmering water and me was a gulf that might as well have been a thousand miles wide. I never ever did reach its shores, and be able to look back across to the school.

 

Winter terms could be dark and huge curtains were drawn across those high dormitory windows. In summer time even they couldn't make it dark enough to sleep until late. But at least in summertime you could find the enamelled tin potties which were strategically located around the dormitory. These could get rather full and smelly over night and were a disgusting trap for little feet as boys sneaked around barefoot in their pyjamas after lights out. There was many a time when a toe stubbed a potty in the dark. There would be a stifled shriek either followed by the splashing of urine onto the wooden floor or the crashing of an empty tin potty skidding across the dormitory. If it crashed into the steel frame of a bed you had about 10 seconds to run back to the other end of the dormitory in pitch darkness, find your bed, leap under the blankets and "be asleep" before simultaneously the lights came on and a Master strode into the room. Anyone caught out of bed was in for a whacking!

 

Actually this only happened rarely. Dormitory raids were the exception rather than the rule. Mind you it was difficult from the juniors dormitory. The dormitory door led into a magnificent hall, very much the Headmaster's part of the school, with offices, and staff rooms to the right. A huge skinned tiger with his stuffed head, bared teeth and glass eyes, lay star shaped on the parquet floor, ready to rip into your ankles if you dared pass. To the left lay a wood panelled corridor leading to Mr Blencowe's room. Ahead, past the tiger, rose a magnificent wooden grand staircase. Above it a huge portrait of a very stern gentleman stared down forbiddingly towards the dormitory door. Access to the other dormitories could only be gained across this hall and up the staircase. With doors to left and right from which a master might appear at any moment, the staring, watching eyes of the portrait, and the risk of a master or matron appearing on the landing above, it was incredibly risky in a Colditz sort of way left to venture upstairs after lights out. If a number of you were caught, wielding pillows, tip toeing upstairs, there was only one outcome. A quick march down the panelled corridor to the left took you to Mr Blencowe's office. Normally being there was not good news, but it always gave me the chance to see the two black cast statues of Charles I and Henry VIII(?) that stood in his hallway. I was always impressed by these 3ft tall figures and thirty-five years later was quite upset to hear that they ended their lives thrown in a rubbish tip.

 

There were a number of strange procedures for First Years. One peculiar rule was that juniors had to line up outside the toilets every morning. A junior officer held a book – perhaps it should have been called a log book. According to the order of name in the book each boy would enter the toilet as a cubicle became available, do what he could and return to report to the officer with either a "1" or a "2" to confirm which bodily function had been completed. A twelve or thirteen year old officer then had the medical responsibility when noting a certain boy had not reported a "2" for several days, to tell him to go back in and try harder. Serious cases of constipation were referred to the school nurse.

 

After lunch we were required to rest. This meant returning to our dormitory to lie fully clothed in our uniforms on our beds and in silence. Of course at our age this was the last thing we wanted to do. Sleeping was difficult at this time of the day; after all lights out was at 6.30pm every night. You could take one book to read, but if you had made a poor choice you were stuck with it. Fidgeting was not allowed, even if you were bored!

 

Apart from the above two additions to the day's routine it didn't really matter which year you were in, the routine Monday to Friday was the same.

 

We got up on the alarm bell, dressed and washed. Then all 120 or so boys marched by dormitory into the Dining room to sit on wooden benches down the sides of long wooden tables topped by either a Master or Matron at each end. Grace was said in a silent room to immediately be followed by the din of scraping of chairs and benches, clattering of china and cutlery and 120 chattering boys. The food was always prepared and brought to the ends of the tables in large aluminium trays by some curious little Spanish couple called Angela and Manuel. I was never sure where they lived but it appeared to be in a large cupboard at the end of the dining hall!

 

The Master or Matron served the food, helped by the boy on the end of the row. We all moved round one place each day. As each plate was filled with food it was passed from boy to boy down the line to the end. Breakfast was always cornflakes in the summer term followed by bacon, egg and plum tomatoes. Sometimes the egg was scrambled in a watery pale yellow mush of nothing. For variety it was fried into flat discs of rubber. In winter it was porridge poured out of a massive jug - every day. Sometimes I ate a few spoonfuls, but despite a rule that you sit there until you eat it, there was always a hungry chum nearby that preferred to eat my porridge than have a dose of scrambled egg. Once I sat in the dining hall whilst the rest of school had morning inspection, chapel, prep and the first lesson, before Angela took pity on me, gave me a smile, and removed the solid, cold bowl of porridge from in front of me. I would have sat there all day, but I think she had been waiting to go shopping!

 

After the meal we returned to the dormitory to make our beds. This was a precise science recalling military traditions of the 45 degree hospital tuck and razor sharp folds. Points were attributed to the house for clean and tidy dormitories. We then had a short time to brush up our shoes and present ourselves for inspection in the main hall. This was to all intents and purposes a military parade with the Captain walking up and down each line to give a head to toe examination of brushed hair, tie knot, clean knees and polished and tied shoes. We always faced one side of the hall and your eyes naturally rose up to some huge ornate wooden boards listing the names of all the old School Captains who had gone on to better things. I was always struck by this board as it listed boys all the way back to the time of the Great War. I never thought my name would be on this board and I was proven right!

 

Next came chapel. A short march took us into a beautiful little chapel. I still remember there was so much wood in it and some lovely religious frescos. As a "non-singer" chapel during the week was quite straightforward. You stood up, sang, sat down, knelt, stood up, sang, knelt, sat up, listened to the lesson………..the routine was the same every day. I once was told to read the lesson. I was given a week to prepare for it, and fretted every day over it. Shaking in my shoes I read it in front of the whole school and apparently missed a whole verse out of it, but next to nobody noticed.

 

We had a short spell of "prep" until nine o'clock (time to do the home work you didn't do lastnight) before it was full steam into lessons.

 

Colonel Molesworth, was our French teacher. He was so regimented in everything he did, at lunchtime he would disect a rectangular tray of rice pudding with skin, into 24 precise portions using a knife to gauge the proportions. Then he would take the knife and try to cut a rectangular block of rice pudding! I tell you what, he had some knack! I detested rice pudding, porridge, semolina or tapioca, and still he always managed to give me the same sized portion as everyone else!

 

He was even more amazing at French. He taught us Franglais, a language quite unknown to the Gallic people of France, so that even after finishing at Brambletye, and continuing it at High school, I still could not speak French after nine years.

 

He would have left today's England's football team in tears with his rules. In the days of wingers on each side, inside left, centre forward, inside right, with right, centre and left halves and a left and right back you could not move out of your "box". As a right back, cross an imaginary line between the goal and the centre spot into the left half and the whistle would blow and you would be sent to run a quick circuit of the four pitches on the lower playing fields. Colonel Molesworth approved of the shoulder barge whereby a four stone weakling on the ball could be shoulder-barged with the force of a charging rhinoceros and no foul given. Similarly Henniker–Heaton's clod-hopper boots, which were built of half inch thick leather coming up to the middle of his shins, tipped on the sole with half inch steel studs and re-inforced toe caps, could quite legitimately be used to separate an opponents leg from his foot at the ankle without any thought about the need to take time off sports through injury, physiotherapy or scans.

 

Colonel Molesworth: clipped moustache, highly polished brown shoes: what did he do in the war? (Mmm; he was prisoner. That seems appropriate)

 

Mr Trevanion was hard. Oh yes!!! He taught Maths. You didn't say much to Mr Trevanion, you just answered his questions as directly as possible. You tried not to meet eye to eye with him either: his stare was deadly! Sometimes you would have to stand by the desk and wait whilst he marked your work. I noticed his hands then. They were hard!

 

Scripture was taught by Mr Jones, definitely a man to respect, and whilst he could be strict, I did seem to do well in his classes gaining a few "A-"s, "B+"s and "Satis" all over my work. He made me Form Captain. It was my job to let the class know what their Prep was for the next day so I must apologise to the whole class, now for the first time in thirty-four years, that one day I gave them the wrong details. This meant that the majority of them were in trouble with Mr Jones the next day for doing the wrong work. Protest as they did it was proven I couldn't have given the wrong information as there were a number of boys who had completed the same work as me. They naturally kept quiet because these were the ones who had copied off me!

 

Mr Ogle taught Geography which I liked. I was good at locating the Amazon mouth, the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, the Nile, etc, on a blank map of the world with pinpoint precision. Is this why I later qualified as a Navigation Officer in the Merchant Navy twelve years later? But Mr Ogle was an arty-farty type of teacher into music and art as well. He seemed to swan around in his black gown and couldn't be taken too seriously.

 

English and Latin were taught by Mr Glanfield (Glanners). I'm not sure why I don't remember much about him. I suited Latin as it was very regimented, but unfortunately being good in Latin at Brambletye proved completely useless for any application in the rest of my life. Mr Glanfield lived in a room at the end of the dormitory corridor, up a short flight of stairs. I only got whacked by Mr Glanfield once with a hair brush (and I deserved it for being an irritating little shit in the dormitory after lights out). It was he who also developed the "sitting in" form of punishment. For minor mis-demeanors you could get a 15 minute "sit in" for each offence up to a maximum of an hour's worth. When the rest of the school was free to play, anyone on a "sit in" was required to sit upright, in silence, facing forward, in a classroom for just you, a Master to watch over you and any other miscreants doing their "sit in". If you accrued more than an hour's worth of "sit in", you not only had to do your time, but were sent down to see the Headmaster for a bit of serious talking, and maybe a whacking too!

 

Learning the dates of births and deaths of every English King and Queen, major battle and historical event from 1066 until the 20th Century by heart, now doesn't seem such a waste of time when you bump into a foreign tourist who knows British Empire history better than you do. But I couldn't trust the History teacher (whose name I conveniently cannot recall) who showed slightly too much favouritism to certain boys.

 

Science was a mix of chemistry, physics and biology taken by Mr Blencowe, a very mild man, who as headmaster had to be all things to the school. Not only did he have to lead the school in prayer and hymn in chapel, but conduct daily inspections, administor the whole school and invariably fill in for any teacher who was "away" for whatever reason. Science was fun. Apart from the effects of burning sodium and magnesium we had everything from breeding locusts to hatching chicks and copulating Xenopus toads. I remember Mr Blencowe saying something about injecting the toads to make them breed. I know at the time I thought the whole matter strangely peculiar: why was the male, scrabbling franticly at the top of the tank and the female lying completely breathless at the bottom? There were eggs everywhere! This was not mating as I knew it. Normally it is the male that is exhausted! It's taken 34 years for Mr Blencowe to admit he was supposed to give the female a larger dose, but he gave it to the male by mistake!

 

Music lessons were the worry. Singing was not my strength but I learned, as a matter of self-preservation, to mime quite well. Mr Sharpe didn't just have a sharp tongue; his hand could to do some damage too. This didn't just happen in music lessons, but more memorably in chapel rehearsing for the main Sunday service. We would have to sing all the hymns and psalms selected for the next day's service. Mr Sharpe would sit in the organ pit, fingers and feet bouncing off the organ keys and pedals. With back to us, suddenly he wouldn't be happy with what he was hearing, leap out of the pit and race to the pew where he thought the wrong sound was coming from. Miming was no good at this point: you had to start singing quickly – and in tune too! Without the rhythm and backing of the organ it was doubly difficult and we had to continue to sing as he would come along our row, ear cocked to what we sang. If he heard the wrong note a hand would flash out so fast: "Whack!" right across the face!

 

I distinctly remember the row of five classrooms partitioned off from each other by wooden folding doors. At prep or when letter writing on Sunday the doors were folded back to allow one teacher to oversee everyone as they worked in silence. With the partitions closed during the day, we sat in cast iron framed desks with a flip up seat. There was an ink well filled regularly with a jug of the blue stuff. It was often spilt and some boys had significant indelible stains on various parts of their school uniform. Ink was used as an offensive weapon too, either flicked from the nibs of fountain pens or launched as a sodden ball of blotting paper into the front rows of the classroom. In one English lesson I remember a classmate taking several thick rubber bands, placing them over the tip of forefinger and thumb to form a catapault, and then placing a pellet of folded card into the "V", pulling it back, until the elastic would stretch no more before firing it into the bare neck of the boy immediately in front of him. Five minutes later he dared to do it again, but this time his aim was slightly out so that the hardened pellet richochetted off the back of the boy’s head, thudding into the wall of the classroom above Mr Glanfield's head, before falling to the floor near his feet! All hell broke loose then and I had to quickly withdraw both hands from under the desk lid where I had been constructing a Concorde shaped aeroplane out of a felt tip pen body, some paperclips and a folded exercise book cover.

 

There were regular intervals in the day to run off energy, shout and run about. These were often five or ten minute spells between chapel and lessons, tea and chapel, prep and bed along with morning breaktime and after lunch –unless you were a junior of course.

 

In the winter and spring term we changed into our sports gear after lunch. We only played football in the winter term, and rugby in the spring term. In summer, games were played after the afternoon break and we always played cricket.

 

Playing football and rugby in the colder, wetter months, every day was not particularly pleasant. Apart from being hacked to death by Hennicker-Heaton's boots, it was normally wet and cold. Being in the lower league playing fields and being refereed by Colonel Molesworth meant a long trudge from the playing fields up to the school. I hated how his military precision required us to play until the second hand of his watch hit the hour when some of the younger masters, watching the rain clouds gather, would blow the whistle early. Two hundred and forty hot, sweaty and wet boots were taken off and hung up in the small lean-to boot shed which stank like a giant mud wrestlers armpit, before the boys went up to shower. Colonel Molesworth's troop, coming from the furthest field, always arrived last to find the changing rooms awash with muddy water and clods of grass, the wooden duck boards barely allowing you to change into dry clothes only by hanging yourself on the clothes hooks, and reaching down to pull your socks on.

 

If it was too wet to play games, we had to don our macintoshs and "gum" boots and walk up and down the school drive. Normally after two laps from one end to other you were allowed back inside out of the rain! Colonel Molesworth would call out, "Left, right, left, right"………c'mon chaps!"

 

Afternoon tea comprised of filing past to pick up your Marmite sandwich (jam on Sundays) and third of a pint of milk bottle. These were consumed whilst each boy sat on his allocated locker surrounding the main hall. Every day we would pass the crates of milk on the way to breakfast. In summer they sat in the sun and were still there at 3.30pm. Sometimes you could barely press the bottle top to remove it because the pressure had built up so much, and when you could, you would find the top half of the milk completely solid, curdled and sour. Some would clamp a hand over the bottle, shake it vigorously and swallow the lot in one. Some would put it on the floor, and whilst sat on the locker, "knock it over by mistake". This normally resulted in them being given another one to drink!!!

 

After games it was back into the classroom for more lessons until teatime. Too often it was bland macaroni cheese - just macaroni cheese on a plate which was abhorred by every boy. Still were to come "Prep", our homework session of homework carried out in silence in the classroom another parade and chapel service before we normally had half an hour or so of play before bed. With juniors tucked up in bed by 6.30pm, the second years were despatched by 7.00pm, third years at 7.30pm. Even the oldest boys had to be in bed by 8.00pm!

 

Saturday was a "half-day". Lessons and chapel Sunday service rehearsal (watch out for Mr Sharpe) in the morning followed by freetime in the afternoon. Freetime could be spent in many ways. There was a boating pond. Electric boats were rare then, and there was certainly no radio control. Most boats were either free sailing yachts or clockwork powered. We could play rounders, fly model planes, roller skate, do woodwork or pottery, go in the monkey-climb or into the woods. There were marionettes and a steam engine Club too. There were great Chestnut trees so the school went conker mad in October. The school drives were lined with rhododendron bushes and you could in places climb through the bushes without touching the ground for up to 200 yards or so in places. Amongst these boys had dens as they did in the bracken filled bushes of the woods. We had khaki coloured jackets that made us quite camouflaged and apart from the dens there were caverns dug out of the sandstone. These could have been dangerous, but despite having fires in them, the odd roof collapse and "wars" between different groups I'm not aware that there were any casualties.

 

Sunday was different. Instead of lessons we had the full service in the chapel lasting 75 minutes. This sometimes seemed quite interminable, especially when the sun was shining outside, but you couldn't relax because the headmaster's wife, teachers and matrons filled the pews behind you.

 

And then it was to letter writing. We had to write one letter every week. I nearly always wrote to my parents in Germany. It tended to get a bit repetitive although the scores and names could normally be alternated on a regular basis. "I got A minus in Latin. The First Eleven played Ashdown House and we won 5 –2. The Second Eleven lost 2-0. Crompton and Wallis 2 have got German measles and have gone to the sick bay for three days. Only 62 days to go until the end of term and I am looking forward to seeing you (for the first time in 3 months)". Normally we had to bring writing pads to school with us at the start of each term. The trick was to get a small one with widely spaced lines so that Colonel Molesworth's demand for all letters to be two full pages didn't require too many words. Whether it was censorship or not, we had to take them to the front of the class for the teacher to read before we could "finish" which normally on a Sunday meant escape into the woods.

 

Young as we were, the confines of the school were exactly that. There were areas you would never go in. In the woods there was only a small fence that marked the limit of where we were allowed to go. It might only have been a two strand barbed wire fence but I never crossed it. It was as if there was a hidden Nazi watchtower ready to machine gun you if you touched the tripwire. The limits were marked by a two bar metal fence or the drives in other directions, easily enough crossed, but like the shimmering lake, in four years that I was there, what lay outside was not part of my world.

 

But apparently there were two escapes in my time at the school. All of a sudden there were rumours that someone had done a runner, but shortly afterwards the school propaganda system kicked in and the "hero" became someone taken out of school urgently to visit a dying grandmother.

 

I think we bathed twice a week. We lined up in the bathroom, with three tubs, where we would take turns to leap in. I don't think the water was changed, and matron would wash our hair. Every week we had a "sock" night or a "pants" night when everyone would throw that item in big baskets to be washed. Jumpers, shirts and trousers were washed less frequently. Only seniors, and only if they were over 5ft, could wear long trousers. At least once a term we were weighed and our height was recorded. Presumably the details helped our parents to recognise us when they next saw us! “Oh yes, darling, this one’s 4 ft 5 inches and about 5 stone, just like Timothy’s report says: this must be our son!”

 

I do remember a few "special" events. We occasionally were shown a film in the library. Apart from Treasure Island and The Robe these normally frightened me, especially the one of the headless horsemen attacking people in the dark! I only saw television a few times. There were some very basic " watch and learn" type physics programs in black and white but the only other thing I saw on TV was a fuzzy grey, live, image of the some men walking on the moon, for the first time.

 

We had some Spanish guy with long, horny nails come and play classical guitar, which seemed extremely tedious for us and him, and some cowboy who came and shot some balloons in the main hall.

 

Every year there was a school play. I was too young to be in Oliver. Just as well, as I was scared of the Bill Sykes character played by Jonathon Hughes De'Ath. Without girls in the school female parts had to be played by boys. It was whispered that one master reputedly quite fancied Cadicott-Bull who played Nancy. On the same basis I was quite glad I wasn't too attractive in my blonde pigtails, pink dress and Bo-Peep hood as a sailor's girl in the Pirates of Penzance. Playing a black cannibal in HMS Pinafore was much less dubious!

 

There were visitors to the school. Unfortunately one of these was the school dentist. Once a week we got sweets. A table was set up on the main hall stage and class by class we were taken to line up and chose our sweets. We each had a shilling with which you could get two handfuls of packets of sweets. Then decimalisation came in 1971 and we were robbed! Our shilling had become 5p. Straightaway we could only get about half as much. If we weren't robbed here, there were other chances to take advantage of us.

 

Every so often a long haired traveller we called the "Swindler" parked near the school. He had a Commer van. It was stacked with miniature chess sets, models, pen-knives and games. Since leaving the school I've never understood why he was given access as he must have obtained his name and reputation from somewhere. But the knives were the most frequently bought items either for activities in the woods or for playing "splits" where two opponents face each other, with two knives. Each in turn throws their knife into the ground, the opponent having to stretch one foot to the knife leading to them eventually doing the splits. Whilst everyone had a knife (and some might come close in this game) I was never aware of any knives being used as weapons. Anyhow, if in any sort of confrontation all you had to do was raise a hand and shout "Pax" (meaning "Peace" in Latin) and for some mysterious reason you were safe. Similarly if a prowling Master was spotted when boys were doing something they shouldn't, the warning word, "Cave" (pronounced "K.V" and meaning "warning" in Latin) was urgently passed from boy to boy.

 

There was also a barber who visited a school. Everyone got a cut and there was never any discussion over which style would suit. We all got the same. Strange that we sat in a small room having our hair cut next to a large glass case of British stuffed birds. I wondered if we would turn out the same.

 

There were tennis courts and a swimming pool at the school. I didn't take tennis, but one summer a keep fit regime was started. At about 7.00 am we were taken to the tennis courts where we did press-ups, star jumps, and lots of exercises in the dewy, cool morning air. I remembering it lasting a week or so, and then strangely we never did it again.

 

We had rehearsals for Sports Day, practising marching onto the fields, when we would line up in front of the parents in white shorts, T-shirts and rubber plimsolls. We had to compete in at least two events. Not a natural runner I actually surprised myself by getting into the heats of the 100 yard hurdles one year. I couldn't jump consistently high enough to ensure I could clear the hurdles, so I developed a technique to deliberately hit the hurdle but make sure I never tripped on it. I was glad when they introduced a new sport called, "Throwing the cricket ball". Requiring one to take a short run and throw the ball as far as you could in the general direction of "away from you", it was a shame they never introduced this at national level as this might have been something I could have done reasonably well at

 

I had a garden. Those that wanted one were given a six by six plot to till. That's six feet by six feet. Almost everyone who had one turned them to carrots, radishes, lettuces and nasturtiums, which we were persuaded we could eat. Some added these into their Marmite sandwiches and gave mixed reviews.

 

Swimming at Brambletye was definitely to be avoided unless you were a frog or a newt……..and despite the name I was not one of the latter. Fed by a stream, this "pit" was filthy for all but a week of the year. It might have been natural, for it was full of the flora and fauna of East Sussex, but it was icy cold even in the middle of summer. Forced to swim its length as a test I would willingly have covered the distance at the fastest possible speed if it hadn't been for the heart seizures and cramps I got when first entering the water. Fortunately I never showed enough promise to get in the swimming team. How some boys could enthusiastically take up diving I shall never know.

 

In quieter times I enjoyed playing billiards in the library. Also there was a reasonable selection of books but it was Hornblower and the World War Two escape stories I enjoyed most. This was partly lived out in the upper reaches of the school. Removing some of the wood panels in the bathroom, we found we could climb into the roof space and travel extensively throughout the length and breadth of the school at night, above the dormitories and master's bedrooms. If this had been Colditz we would have built a glider up here and escaped to freedom!

 

Some of the fixed steel ladder fire-escapes added to the Colditz feel. Forbidden to use them unless there was a fire practice or real emergency, they were actually so dangerous it was only very rarely we went down them even in a drill.

 

Some steep stairs led to the sick bay in the highest part of the school. Catching something highly contagious was quite desirable as long as it wasn't too life threatening. This meant you were isolated in the sick bay, totally exempt from the normal routine, far from the reach of masters and officers and safely tucked up in the motherly care of the matrons. This was the place to have a good time! An outbreak of measles and chicken-pox was of little use to me as I had reasonable resistance to most diseases and only fell to them when most of the school had already got it. This meant the sick bay was already full and I usually ended up confined to my dormitory back under the gaze of the masters and officers.

 

On the return to each term posted on the notice board there would be all the important dates: start and finish of term, half term, Easter holidays, etc. the holidays were so short, and the terms seemed so long. When I first started at school we were all boarders – day pupils didn't start until 1971. A half term or Easter seemed such luxury. You got a Saturday, Sunday AND Monday off, all together. Normally I went to my grandparents who lived nearby. Once there were about four of us who had nowhere to go. We got to watch television and have jam sandwiches in Mr Ogle's bungalow as compensation! I used to fly unaccompanied to my parents in Germany each holiday or to Wick when they moved to the north of Scotland. Once my brother and I were caught up in the effects of a strike at Edinburgh airport.

 

From time to time they added cut outs of certain articles from the daily newspapers and I remember regular features on the Vietnam War and Cassius Clay who would fight any man in the ring with his fists, but refused to fight in a war.

 

Mail used to arrive regularly and was handed out after breakfast. Seeing my parents only in between terms, I felt particularly lucky having such loving parents who ensured I was always well supplied with very regular, long letters every week. Other boys, some sons of diplomatic staff based in Embassies around the world, saw their parents very rarely, not even going home in the holidays sometimes. Some were lucky to even get a card on their birthday. But most received a parcel from home on their birthday. These were handed out on the matron's landing where they had to be opened in front of the staff. Food, sweets and money were immediately confiscated to be saved and supplied to the individual on a rationed basis.

 

The school changed quite a bit towards the end of my time there as Mr Fowler-Watt was phased in as Headmaster. He had an aggressive look to him and the style of the school became more progressive. Unlike Mr Blencowe who had more of a pained look on his face when a boy's behavior frustrated him, Mr Fowler-Watt could explode in rage. The Scots breeding in him meant the songs of Gilbert & Sullivan were out for the school play and in came the ghouls, witches and blood letting of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Extensions were built to the school, and new Portacabin classes positioned on the ground that was once my garden. And then another class of boy arrived; the day boys, namby pambies who went home to their Mummies every night, and arrived by car, freshly washed and dressed each morning. There was even talk of girls joining the school soon! What was the place coming to?!

 

Having laboured through the Common Entrance Exams to Public School, I left Brambletye to join my parents and brothers now living in the far north of Scotland near John O'Groats. The difference could not have been more extreme. I passed into the comprehensive school with girls (!), straight into the highest stream without need for examination. This was a lucky streak as they were all sons and daughters of nuclear physicists, doctors and engineers imported from the higher echelons of the fast breeder nuclear industry, the Royal Navy and Rolls Royce. Even though I was always towards the lower end of the class, as each year went by, I was dragged along by the very high standards so that on finishing some 30 of the 32 in the class went on to University. Each night I would endure a journey involving two buses taking an hour and a quarter, sometimes battling through blizzards in the dark to deposit my brother, the cattleman's son and I at the end of the mile and a half farm road. We had the freedom to drive our own cars from there to the house even at the age of thirteen.

 

Which type of school was best for me? Both were best. Brambletye undoubtedly taught me self-discipline and respect, kept me fit and healthy. But without life at the comprehensive school I could have been scared of the outside world, completely institutionalised by the limits of the school boundaries and routines. But perhaps I should thank Brambletye for making me want to explore more, starting me on a journey in life that has so far taken me to almost 60 countries. Married now for twenty-five years, with three fine children and director of a highly respected business at Manchester airport I look back on life so far with no regrets and fond memories of my years at Brambletye. I am what I am much because of Brambletye. It's not all good: my wife still has to tell me to change my socks and underwear more frequently!

 

My name never did get on those big boards in the main hall, but featuring in four separate photos in Peter Blencowe's history of the school makes me realise that even though I never made the First Eleven, Second Eleven or even Third Eleven in football, it was the mix of characters and abilities that made the school what it was and every boy can be very proud to have been part of its history.

 

I was surprised, in 2008, to discover Brambletye Preparatory School had risen to become the most expensive prep school in the country.

 

A pair of nearly simultaneous and parallel Iridium satellite flares, on October 9, 2017, as they descended into the north. The left or westerly flare was much brighter and with a sharp rise and fall in brightness. While it was predicted to be mag. -4.4 I think it got much brighter, perhaps mag -7, but very briefly. The right flare was predicted to be ,ag. -3.3 which was about correct.

 

These are Iridium 90 (left) and Iridium 50 (right). I used GoSatWatch app to look up the predictions and satellite identities. Several other satellite trails are also in the picture.

 

This is a stack of 40+ exposures each, 2 seconds at 1-second intervals, with the Sigma 24mm lens at f/1.4 and Nikon D750 at ISO 6400.

Tall, thin, fit, and tan pretty brunette swimsuit bikni model goddess modeling the Nikon D800 E-based 45WindSurfer / 9shooter !

 

A most beautiful Asian goddess !

 

Shooting photographic stills & video @ same time with Nikon D800 & 70-200 mm VR2 Nikkor Lens bracketed to a camcorder--the awsome Panasonic HDC-TM900 32GB Flash Memory HD Camcorder ! It shoots stabilized 60P video for super-smooth slow-mo when I slow it down in post!

 

I call it the 45WindSurfer Bracket, as you can catch video's constant wind and still photography's intermittent waves!

 

Just as windsurding was invented by combining two sports--surfing and sailing--so too was 45windsurfing born by combining two art forms!

 

When you get to work with pretty swimsuit bikni models, you want to make the most of everyone's time & shoot stills photography and motion pictures / video @ the same time!

 

Shooting (45WindSurfing) !

 

The 45WindSurfer bracket allows one to attach any two cameras! Can hardly wait to attch a 4K Sony or JVC!

 

Modeling a Gold'N'Virtue bikini!

 

All the best on your hero's journey!

 

beach socal cali california sea sun sand surf

19920808DE Christine K. had a relationship simultaneously with the British minister of war and a Russian GRU officer at the height of the Cold War. Did not go well. Berlin Germany #blackandwhite #83 #profumo #affair #knownknowns&unknownknowns #art #realpeople #reallives #truestories #portraits #b&w #photography #instagram #street www.hughes-photography.eu www.flickr.com/photos/michael_hughes www.hughes.berlin

It's that time again!

 

After a long hiatus, Maxine is ready to start her search for a new BFF!

 

As always the competition will run simultaneously on My Scene Hangout as well as Flickr.

 

This competition is centered on both your photos AND your role-play participation. So make sure you take part in the social interactions "In character" as well as you do your photos. It's a competition to find a new best friend, how will we do that if we don't know who you are?

 

Season 3 will play differently as previous seasons. Maxine isn't seeking a perfect polite prince or princess. So if your character has a few rough edges, that's ok. Just remember the golden rule: Even if you hate each other, you have to be nice to Maxine. >:D

 

Another major change is that this season will be split down the middle. It’s a battle of the sexes! 7 Contestants will be picked for each gender so I encourage you Flickr veterans to step out of your comfort zone of using girls and challenge yourself with a male doll. I'm not saying you WON'T get chosen if you audition with a girl, but there are only 7 slots open for females.

 

The competition won’t start until I have 7 boys and 7 girls for the final cast. It is open to all doll types. Barbie, Bratz, My Scene, Ever After High, Monster High, whatever you like and feel comfortable with.

 

The prize for winning Maxine's My New BFF is an exclusive OOAK Maxine doll. The same doll that will be used in the contest. She will come to you in custom packaging and on her soft bust Obitsu body!

 

To audition you’re going to have to submit two photos:

A full body photo of your character dressed in pink (if a girl) or blue (if a boy)

A close up photo with your name and age in a ‘Confessional’ style to act as your avatar for when you post in character in the My Scene Hangout.

 

In the description for both photos please include the following:

Name:

Age:

Hometown:

Likes:

Dislikes:

Why I should be picked for Maxine’s My New BFF 3:

  

Girls Auditions:

1. Noir Blank

2. Mami Tomoe

3. Kylie Brooke

4. Monique DeFusco

5. Lucy Fields

6. Beverley Wingoal

7. Amanita Styles

8. Prue Warren

9. Kimberly

10. Jenny

11. Reira Giraldo

12. Michelle Foucault

13. Ariana Valentine

14. Darleen Kingston

15. Willow Stoner

16. Erin Blaire

17. Scarlett Stone

18. Ashlee Smith

19. Jenny Junn

20. Knaomi Kampbell

21. Amalia Reyez

22. Leyla Delories

23. Cherry Hallett

24. Onyx Rose Thorn

25. Miranda Pruce

26. Beatrice "Bubbles" Buble'

27. Veronica Hinely

28. Navija Alina

29. Riley B.

30. Angelia Larsen

31. Ava Lanshé

  

Boys Auditions:

1. Nathan Wrott

2. Wren Hayward

3. Justin

4. Deimon Säterly

5. Carter McFields

6. Max Steele

7. Joey Layne

8. Samson Ellis

9. Nasim Narcessian

10. Liam Rose

11. Jaden Diederich

 

AUDITIONS ARE CLOSED! 6/3/2015

Title:

Handle. Concrete. Drain.

  

日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃

 

B♭ (B Flat)

A Novel by Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

“Synopsis”

A Palestinian group from Gaza hacks into North Korea’s cryptocurrency system, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. Their true goal is not money—but to recreate the lost homeland of Gaza on American soil.

Amid the backdrop of hardline Republican immigration policies and a growing wave of xenophobia, a quiet plan begins to take shape: the gradual collapse of America from within.

During a speech at Madison Square Garden, Republican presidential candidate Justin Bradford is shot. Almost simultaneously in Los Angeles, former president Owen Reed is attacked at a rally for Democratic hopeful Ryan Bennett.

Two assassinations—mirroring one another—ignite a nation’s deepest divide. Yet, against all odds, Justin survives. His blood type is one in 2.5 million: the Bombay Blood Group.

The only person who can donate such blood is Anaya Patel, a community art facilitator working in Brooklyn. Her blood, stored in the Bellevue Hospital Blood Bank, is used for an emergency transfusion that saves the candidate’s life.

Jack Vance, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, suspects a Gaza-based network behind the attacks. Together with Cameron Bartlett, the FBI Director of the Los Angeles Field Office, and Veronica Reeves, a senior investigator from New York, he begins to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Their investigation leads them to Rafi Gannam, a former architecture student at the Islamic University of Gaza, who has infiltrated redevelopment sites across Los Angeles and New York—embedding C4 explosives deep within beams and structural cores.

His targets: new residential districts where agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) live—symbols of “the order America built.”

Veronica urges the President to pursue dialogue to prevent further destruction, but President Grant M. Ranford refuses to listen.

Meanwhile, the recovering Justin and his Democratic rival Ryan appear on national television, calling for unity beyond political divisions.

Their words of reason, however, are drowned out when Grant takes the stage in Iowa, defiantly declaring: “We will never bow to terror.”

Among the crowd, Rafi’s operatives have already taken their positions.

As chaos erupts and the stage collapses, Amir Nasser—once Rafi’s comrade, haunted by the memory of his sister’s death in Gaza—tries desperately to halt the chain of destruction.

But Rafi’s conviction remains unshaken.

Under the twilight beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, amid the city’s fading noise, the two men part ways.

It is the boundary between prayer and vengeance, between hope and nothingness.

  

“Characters”

 

Anaya Patel – 25, Community Art Facilitator

Arjun Singh – 26, Anaya’s boyfriend, Luminatech Innovations

Mika Sato – 25, Anaya’s friend, Community Art Facilitator

 

Justin Bradford – 27, Republican Presidential Candidate

Eleanor Blake – 26, Justin’s fiancée

 

President Grant M. Langford – 61, Incumbent Republican President

Vice President Charles “Chuck” Baines – 64, Incumbent Republican Vice President

 

Ryan Bennett – 30, Democratic Presidential Candidate

Sophia Bennett – 30, Ryan’s wife

Owen Reed – 65, Former Democratic President

 

Jack Vance – 45, Secret Service, Former FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Ben Holloway – 30, Jack’s colleague

Darryl Ross – 29, Jack’s colleague

Elijah Kane – 28, Jack’s colleague

 

Marcus Dane – 45, FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Cameron Bartlett – 55, FBI Los Angeles Field Office, Field Office Director

Tom Caldwell – 38, FBI Technical Unit, Marcus’s subordinate

 

Veronica Reeves – 41, FBI Special Agent

Alexander Harris – 52, FBI New York Field Office, Field Office Director

Elliot Chen – 36, Technology Unit Chief

Alicia Monroe – 58, FBI Director

 

Zakaria Haddad – 51, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Engineering Professor, New York Team

Amir Nasser – 23, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Electronics Engineering, New York Team

Rafi Gannam – 32, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

Rohan Shah – 29, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

 

Majid Hamza – 47, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Information Technology, Los Angeles Team

Samira Hammad – 28, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Engineering, Los Angeles Team

Saeed Kabari – 35, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Business Administration, Los Angeles Team

Reem Nasser – 30, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Media Studies, Los Angeles Team

 

Noah Levi – 55, Israel, residing in Tel Aviv, Jewish

  

B♭ will be released worldwide on February 29, 2026.

Recently, director Ridley Scott remarked that streaming films and series have become dull.

I agree.

If you have two hours to spare for such stories, I ask for only two minutes of your time.

Two minutes with my novel will outlast those two hours.

I am confident of that.

  

Stay tuned.

Mitsushiro

October 9th, 2025

 

P.S.

Micchan — the man who challenges Netflix. 😃

  

(Nikon Coolpix 8700 shot)

 

Manhattan. New York. USA. 2007. … 1 / 10

 

(Photo of the day. This has already been published, but I recently re-edited it from the original.)

  

Images.

Yazmin Lacey – Voice Notes

youtu.be/Ojp1BXMrDwY?si=NfsrDz0b6_MGBolr

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

There’s still more to come. 😃

(This is not the final draft.)

Set in New York City.

 

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:: Soundtrack ::

 

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack )

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . For Japanese)

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Sweet Summer rain ver.)

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-sweet-s...

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Hard days ver.)

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-hard-da...

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 

Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

Notes

1. "Bombay Blood Type (hh type)"

•Characteristics: A rare blood type that lacks the usual ABO antigens — cannot be classified as A, B, or O.

•Discovery: First identified in 1952 in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).

•Prevalence: Roughly 1 in 10,000 people in India; globally, about 1 in 2.5 million.

•Transfusion Compatibility: Only compatible with blood from other Bombay type donors.

2. 2024 Harvard University Valedictorian Speech – The Power of Not Knowing

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

3. Shots Fired at Trump Rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

Mitsushiro Nakagawa belong to Lot No. 402 _.Copyright©︎2025 Lot No.402_ All rights reserved.

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Title:

ハンドル。 コンクリート。 排水溝。

  

僕の新しい小説

 B♭ (ビーフラット) ……. Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

“あらすじ”

 

北朝鮮の仮想通貨システムをハッキングし、数億ドルを奪取したガザ出身のパレスチナ人グループが、アメリカ合衆国へ密かに潜入する。

彼らの目的は、失われた祖国ガザを、アメリカの地に「復元」することだった。

共和党による強硬な移民政策と、国内にくすぶる排外感情を利用し、アメリカ社会を内側から崩壊させる計画が静かに進行していく。

共和党大統領候補ジャスティン・ブラッドフォードがマディソン・スクエア・ガーデンで演説中に狙撃され、ほぼ同時刻、ロサンゼルスでは前大統領オーウェン・リードもまた、民主党候補ライアン・ベネットの集会で撃たれる。

国家を二分する双方向の暗殺。だが、ジャスティンは奇跡的に生還する。

彼の血液型は、世界でわずか250万人に一人といわれる「ボンベイブラッド」。

その希少な血を提供できたのは、ブルックリンで活動するコミュニティアート・ファシリテーター、アナヤ・パテルだった。

彼女の血液はベルビュー病院の血液バンクに保存されており、緊急輸血によって、候補者の命はかろうじて繋がれた。

シークレットサービスのジャック・バンスは、テロの背後にガザ出身の組織が関与していることを察知し、FBIロサンゼルス支局長官キャメロン・バートレット、ニューヨーク支局の特別捜査官ヴェロニカ・リーブスと共に捜査を進める。

やがて彼らは、イスラム大学で建築学を学んだラフィ・ガンナムが、ロサンゼルスやニューヨークの再開発現場に潜入し、梁や構造体の中枢にC4爆薬を仕込んでいた事実に辿り着く。

標的は、ICE(移民・関税執行局)やERO(執行・送還作戦部門)の職員が暮らす新興住宅街——すなわち、「アメリカが築いた秩序」そのものだった。

ヴェロニカは、これ以上の破壊を防ぐため、大統領への対話を進言するが、現職のグラント・ランフォード大統領は耳を貸さない。

一方、命を取り留めたジャスティンと民主党候補ライアンは、テレビを通じて国民に訴えかけ、分断を乗り越えようとする。

だが、その理性の声を嘲笑うかのように、グラントはアイオワ州での演説を強行し、「テロには屈しない」と宣言する。

その会場には、すでにラフィの仲間が率いる工作チームが潜入していた。

崩壊する会場の惨状を前に、仲間の一人アミール・ナッセルは、かつてガザで妹を失った記憶に引き裂かれ、破壊の連鎖を止めようとする。

だが、ラフィの信念は揺るがない。

ウィリアムズバーグ橋の下、夕暮れの喧騒のなか、二人は決別する。

それは、祈りと報復、希望と虚無の境界線だった——。

 

“登場人物”

 

アナヤ・パテル 25歳 コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

アルジュン・シン 26歳 アナヤの恋人・ルミナテック・イノベーションズ社

 

佐藤 ミカ 25歳 アナの友人・コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

 

ジャスティン・ブラッドフォード 27歳 共和党大統領候補

エリノア・ブレイク 26歳 ジャスティンの婚約者

 

グラント・M・ランフォード大統領 61歳 共和党大統領現職

チャールズ・ベインズ副大統領 64歳 共和党副大統領現職

 

ライアン・ベネット 30歳 民主党大統領候補

ソフィア・ベネット 30歳 ライアンの妻

 

オーウェン・リード 65歳 民主党前大統領

 

ジャック・バンス 45歳 シークレットサービス 元FBIロサンゼルス支局

ベン・ホロウェイ 30歳 ジャックの同僚

ダリル・ロス 29歳 ジャックの同僚

イライジャ・ケイン 28歳 ジャックの同僚

 

マーカス・デイン 45歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局

キャメロン・バートレット 55歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局 支局長

トム・コールドウェル 38歳 FBI技術班 マーカスの部下

 

ヴェロニカ・リーヴス 41歳 FBI特別捜査官

アレクサンダー・ハリス 52歳 FBI ニューヨーク支局 支局長

エリオット・チェン 36歳 テクノロジー班主任

 

アリシア・モンロー 58歳 FBI長官

 

ザカリア・ハッダード 51歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 工学部教授 ニューヨークチーム

アミール・ナッセル 23歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 電子工学部 ニューヨークチーム

ラフィ・ガンナム 32歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

ロハン・シャー 29歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

 

マジード・ハムザ 47歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 情報技術学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サミラ・ハンマド 28歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 工学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サイード・カバリ 35歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 経営学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

リーム・ナセル 30歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 メディア学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

 

ノア・レヴィ 55歳 イスラエル テルアビブ在住 ユダヤ人

  

僕のこの小説は、来年、2026年2月末日に公開します。

 

先日、リドリースコット監督がサブスクの映画やドラマ群がつまらないと話していたようだけど、同感です。

僕も非常に退屈です。

それらに2時間を要するなら、僕の小説を2分間だけ読んで欲しい。

その2分間は、2時間を越えるでしょう。

僕は自信があります。

ぜひ、期待してお待ちください。

 

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

09th. Oct . 2025.

  

追伸

ネトフリに挑戦する男、みっちゃん。😃

  

( Nikon coolpix 8700 shot )

 

マンハッタン。ニューヨーク。アメリカ。2007. … 1 / 10

 

(今日の写真。それは発表済みです。しかし最近、オリジナルから再編集しました。)

  

Images.

Yazmin Lacey – Voice Notes

youtu.be/Ojp1BXMrDwY?si=NfsrDz0b6_MGBolr

  

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僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

舞台はニューヨークです。

 

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:: Soundtrack ::

 

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack )

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . For Japanese)

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Sweet Summer rain ver.)

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-sweet-s...

B♭ ( My Novel . Soundtrack . Hard days ver.)

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-hard-da...

 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 

Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

追記 この小説を多少説明しました。

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

メモ

 

1

「Bombay型(ボンベイ型、hh型)」

•特徴:通常のABO血液型を持たない(A、B、Oに分類されない)特殊な型。

•発見地:1952年、インド・ムンバイ(旧ボンベイ)で初めて確認。

•発生頻度:インドでは1万人に1人程度だが、世界的には約250万人に1人とも。

•輸血制限:同じBombay型しか輸血できない。

 

2

2024年ハーバード大学首席の卒業式スピーチ『知らないことの力』

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

 

3

Shots fired at Trump rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

Mitsushiro Nakagawa belong to Lot No. 402 _.Copyright©︎2025 Lot No.402_ All rights reserved.

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Collected in 1901 simultaneously with the Lermontov Gallery in Pyatigorsk. Both kurzal made St. Petersburg Metal Works and the Warsaw production company "Gostynsky and K" and arrived at Kavminvody by rail unassembled. The pavilion of the machine department of the All-Russian Art and Industrial Exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod, designed by Professor A. Pomerantsev, served as a model for their creation. The creative discoveries of the Russian specialist were able to be developed and implemented by the Polish architect Z. E. Khrzhanovsky in the form of collapsible premises. The opening of Zheleznovodsky Kurzal took place in 1902 and coincided with the 65th anniversary of the death of A.S. Pushkin. VF Komissarzhevskaya, N. N. Khodotov, M. Dalsky and other famous actors of the beginning of the last century played on the stage of the Pushkin Gallery. In 1918, Soviet power was proclaimed here in Zheleznovodsk. In 1937, to the 100th anniversary of the death of A.S. Pushkin, a sculpture of the poet, created by sculptor S.D. Merkurov, was installed in the exhibition hall of the gallery.

Title:

Traveler.

  

B♭ (B Flat)

A Novel by Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃

一部分の公開を更新しました。今回が最後です😃

 

“Synopsis”

 

A Palestinian group from Gaza hacks into North Korea’s cryptocurrency system, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. Their true goal is not money—but to recreate the lost homeland of Gaza on American soil.

Amid the backdrop of hardline Republican immigration policies and a growing wave of xenophobia, a quiet plan begins to take shape: the gradual collapse of America from within.

During a speech at Madison Square Garden, Republican presidential candidate Justin Bradford is shot. Almost simultaneously in Los Angeles, former president Owen Reed is attacked at a rally for Democratic hopeful Ryan Bennett.

Two assassinations—mirroring one another—ignite a nation’s deepest divide. Yet, against all odds, Justin survives. His blood type is one in 2.5 million: the Bombay Blood Group.

The only person who can donate such blood is Anaya Patel, a community art facilitator working in Brooklyn. Her blood, stored in the Bellevue Hospital Blood Bank, is used for an emergency transfusion that saves the candidate’s life.

Jack Vance, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, suspects a Gaza-based network behind the attacks. Together with Cameron Bartlett, the FBI Director of the Los Angeles Field Office, and Veronica Reeves, a senior investigator from New York, he begins to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Their investigation leads them to Rafi Gannam, a former architecture student at the Islamic University of Gaza, who has infiltrated redevelopment sites across Los Angeles and New York—embedding C4 explosives deep within beams and structural cores.

His targets: new residential districts where agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) live—symbols of “the order America built.”

Veronica urges the President to pursue dialogue to prevent further destruction, but President Grant M. Ranford refuses to listen.

Meanwhile, the recovering Justin and his Democratic rival Ryan appear on national television, calling for unity beyond political divisions.

Their words of reason, however, are drowned out when Grant takes the stage in Iowa, defiantly declaring: “We will never bow to terror.”

Among the crowd, Rafi’s operatives have already taken their positions.

As chaos erupts and the stage collapses, Amir Nasser—once Rafi’s comrade, haunted by the memory of his sister’s death in Gaza—tries desperately to halt the chain of destruction.

But Rafi’s conviction remains unshaken.

Under the twilight beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, amid the city’s fading noise, the two men part ways.

It is the boundary between prayer and vengeance, between hope and nothingness.

  

“Characters”

 

Anaya Patel – 25, Community Art Facilitator

Arjun Singh – 26, Anaya’s boyfriend, Luminatech Innovations

Mika Sato – 25, Anaya’s friend, Community Art Facilitator

 

Justin Bradford – 27, Republican Presidential Candidate

Eleanor Blake – 26, Justin’s fiancée

 

President Grant M. Langford – 61, Incumbent Republican President

Vice President Charles “Chuck” Baines – 64, Incumbent Republican Vice President

 

Ryan Bennett – 30, Democratic Presidential Candidate

Sophia Bennett – 30, Ryan’s wife

Owen Reed – 65, Former Democratic President

 

Jack Vance – 45, Secret Service, Former FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Ben Holloway – 30, Jack’s colleague

Darryl Ross – 29, Jack’s colleague

Elijah Kane – 28, Jack’s colleague

 

Marcus Dane – 45, FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Cameron Bartlett – 55, FBI Los Angeles Field Office, Field Office Director

Tom Caldwell – 38, FBI Technical Unit, Marcus’s subordinate

 

Veronica Reeves – 41, FBI Special Agent

Alexander Harris – 52, FBI New York Field Office, Field Office Director

Elliot Chen – 36, Technology Unit Chief

Alicia Monroe – 58, FBI Director

 

Zakaria Haddad – 51, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Engineering Professor, New York Team

Amir Nasser – 23, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Electronics Engineering, New York Team

Rafi Gannam – 32, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

Rohan Shah – 29, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

 

Majid Hamza – 47, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Information Technology, Los Angeles Team

Samira Hammad – 28, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Engineering, Los Angeles Team

Saeed Kabari – 35, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Business Administration, Los Angeles Team

Reem Nasser – 30, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Media Studies, Los Angeles Team

 

Noah Levi – 55, Israel, residing in Tel Aviv, Jewish

  

B♭ will be released worldwide on February 29, 2026.

Recently, director Ridley Scott remarked that streaming films and series have become dull.

I agree.

If you have two hours to spare for such stories, I ask for only two minutes of your time.

Two minutes with my novel will outlast those two hours.

I am confident of that.

  

Stay tuned.

Mitsushiro

October 9th, 2025

 

P.S.

Micchan — the man who challenges Netflix. 😃

  

Manhattan. New York. USA. 2017. ... 2 / 10

(Today's photo. It was previously unpublished, but has recently been re-edited from the original.)

  

Images.

Taylor Swift … This Love

youtu.be/PfJzQuqWSSE?si=TrtL4Mb-uN2dNmML

  

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🌟 My New Novel: "B♭" (B Flat)

 

This is the 20th installment! 😄

The following is still in the first draft stage. I will revise it further.

•The order of the content being shared is random.

•This will be the final time I share partial excerpts.

 

The full novel will be released on February 28, 2026.

Please look forward to it! 😃

 

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My new novel

B♭ (B Flat)

 

English translation by GPT-5, in collaboration with Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

“Jack, look at your phone. Another message just came through. The IP address traces to a branch of the New York Public Library near Grand Central — via the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.”

It was a FaceTime from Ben. He was standing by in the NYPD Midtown South command post just beside the Garden. Despite everything that was happening, Ben’s voice was calm.

Jack slid his finger across his iPhone and read the short line that appeared. The characters lay down carelessly, yet somehow they gave the sentence a shape.

— There’s an arched ceiling in the underground concourse of Grand Central. Come there. Jack Vance. And don’t come alone — though, of course, you won’t be alone. —

The message struck at the inside of Jack’s chest like a ringing.

The car threaded north along Vanderbilt Avenue and came up at the southern lip of Grand Central. The city had not quite woken; the damp that hid in the canyon between buildings carried the metallic smell of morning. Jack let off the gas and eased the black SUV to the curb, almost sliding it along. As the tires brushed the edge of the pavement, the remaining beads of rain on the road leapt up into streaks of light.

He pushed open the heavy door and stepped out. His shoes hit the cobbles a beat later. Once he turned to look down the street behind him, the red reflection of a siren flashed through a shop window and briefly lit the faces of passersby, whitening them for a single instant.

Weaving through that cut of light, Jack made for the stairs that led down to the concourse. The service door groaned with a slight metallic protest. Inside, a low hum, like the breathing of a subway, filled the space. A cold breath struck his cheeks, and from the depths of the HVAC ducts a distant station announcement blurred toward him.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Jack took the stairs of Grand Central two at a time. The amber lighting flowed across his soles; his footsteps linked together like the heartbeat of the terminal.

The iron handrail was cold, passing a faint tremor into his fingertips. From far down the stairs other footsteps layered over one another, keeping an old rhythm that led downward. The arched ceiling drew the air in gently; the lights spread a thin film of glow.

The concourse smelled of damp; the old brick walls seemed unable to forget past rains and exhaled them faintly. The floor tiles were dulled by years of feet; hairline cracks ran through them, where little memories of the city had gathered. Jack walked without attending to these things. His gaze was naturally drawn to the darkness at the far end of the corridor. The usual stream of commuters hurried past.

Weathered signs and bulletin boards clung to the walls like pillows for torn flyers. A cleaner dragged her mop in a single ribbon; beyond it, a lone bench sat as if sketching a pale loneliness.

The air that moved through the passage felt to Jack like the slow pulse of a city’s vein. He felt his breath fall into the same beat and kept walking.

Light touched the tiles at his feet and shadows stretched and swayed. The faint metallic noise of an escalator sounded somewhere far away; the gust from the stairs cooled the heat that had gathered in his body. The scent of the city, the underground damp, and the faint warmth of old lamps mixed; time began to melt slowly.

Stopping, Jack rubbed his palms and let his eyes roam. The hum all around carried a peculiar echo that blurred one’s sense of direction. He told himself he was only looking for “it,” somewhere in the concourse.

As he moved again, a high metallic scrape suddenly sliced the air. His neck muscles twitched and a tautness ran through the soles of his feet. Reflexively he froze; at the edge of his vision a receiver quivered.

Its cord, knotted with the weight of years, twisted; dusty metal glinted dully. A telephone that should have been unused rang out abruptly, like a festival bell — an alien note within the city’s hush. The sound was low but it made the air itself tremble.

Jack turned to it slowly. The heavy underground air seemed to press against the backs of his knees. All he heard was his own breathing and the faint vibration of the receiver. People flowed past as if nothing had happened: a mother led a child by the hand, an old man refolded his newspaper and tucked it under his arm, and moved on.

The receiver was calling to Jack. The call came from a tear in silence, spreading slowly like ink trembling on the reverse side of an old map. He reached out without speaking and picked up the handset. The metal was cold; that cold dropped reality onto his palm.

“…Jack.”

The voice was low but distinct. Its timbre made time seem to slip backward just a touch. He recognized the voice from online footage; yet unlike the voice heard on television, here it carried not a blade but the color of a distant sunset.

Through the receiver Jack felt the corridor’s edges, the bench’s solitude, the small scrap of paper on the floor trickle into the pauses of the conversation. The voice let the city’s details slide in through the window of speech.

“What’s up, Amir? Sounding a little low.” Jack’s voice was quiet and heavy, like a stone dropped to ground. Through the handset he heard Amir’s small nasal laugh.

“Sometimes you get down — you’re only human.”

The voice was calm and remote. It was not the public mask Amir sometimes wore, but something honed in shadow. During the call the brief chatter of a passing parent and child snapped into the line and then was gone.

“Listen carefully to what I’m going to say. Well, you’re probably recording.”

“Likewise,” Jack replied.

Amir’s words fell smoothly through the receiver, making tiny ripples on the tiled floor of the underground. The noise around them blurred once and then resolved again: the mother’s footsteps, the mop’s scrape, the distant clink of a vending machine — all intersecting with the rhythm of speech.

“I’m out of the team. The reason? I don’t want to watch more people die. That’s it.”

Jack felt the receiver’s pulse under his fingers. The voice tried on calm but Jack could hear a tremor beneath. The lights in the concourse blurred slightly with each of Amir’s sentences.

“Are you asking me to believe that? Your professor Zakaria says don’t talk like that — he went out in a big way.” Amir fell silent and let out an exhale that sounded like a laugh as if to shrug something off. At the corridor’s edge a child sucking on candy made a tiny wet sound that filled the space between words.

“So what now? Heartbroken?” Jack asked.

“Something like that. This detonator will destroy many buildings yet.”

That phrase punched through the little room inside the receiver. For an instant the light underground clouded faintly. Yet the corridor moved on as always; no one turned. The anomaly existed only in sound.

“Tell me exactly where, how many, what mechanism — brief. Don’t mix in jokes.” Jack’s tone chilled like ice cracking. Amir tried to explain calmly, but Jack listened more to the weight behind the words than to their particulars. In the pauses, the phone booth’s shadow stretched and traced a thin black groove across the floor.

“We weren’t trained terrorists, not professionals. The information was distributed piece by piece. Think of how betrayal would happen — like how I can call you now.” Amir’s voice was careful; not fearful. Jack pressed the receiver to his ear and felt the city’s everyday noises woven into the fabric of the explanation. An old woman adjusting her bag at the corridor’s edge, the faint opening of a shutter somewhere distant — the beginnings of small workdays.

“We infiltrated about five years ago. We planted C4 in the core of buildings that were being built then. Rafi studied architecture, so he knew where to place it. You’ve seen the collapse a million times online, you know how it looks. To detonate, you need an old phone that reads a ‘mute reader’ QR code. Along with it is a tablet I made myself. I embedded C4 into two-thirds of its battery. The tablet has old fingerprint authentication — the kind from a long time ago. I made two of them. One is in Los Angeles, one in New York.”

“So there are two detonators?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t the only one from the electronics department. Also, the phones that read the QR code are ancient, too specialized — they never caught on.”

“How do you trigger it?”

“There’s a special QR code placed on a site. You hold the phone up and read it. The QR is a 3D layer. The code rises in relief, deciphers itself, converts into a detonation code, and sends it by radio.”

“Radio? Not Wi‑Fi?”

“If it were Wi‑Fi you’d shut it down quickly. I modified the tablet. It’s not Wi‑Fi — it uses FM radio, like pirate radio.”

“We can jam the frequency.”

Amir laughed for a long moment before speaking.

“I set the app so the frequency can be changed arbitrarily. I also set it so that any signal sent to jam the frequency triggers the detonation. So either way, boom.”

Jack was silent for a little while, then asked,

“Where is the QR code located?”

“I don’t know. Everything was compartmentalized. Hardware production, QR placement, activation method. By scattering the flow, it seemed designed to deter betrayal.”

Silence fell again between them. Amir lifted his eyes from the ground and said,

“Jack, I’d tell you if I knew. Only those holding a mute reader would know. Today, that’s…”

“Just Rafi?”

“That’s right.”

Silence spread between them. The call hovered like thin ice. Jack’s breathing returned slowly to the present. The underground light was narrow but it marked him clearly.

“Why are you talking?”

“Like I said. I’m tired of people dying.”

“You knew you’d talk and yet Rafi let you go unharmed? Sounds too neat to be true.”

“Maybe I’m just making it up to dupe you.”

“Jack, take it easy. Amir, don’t move.”

Veronica’s composed voice cut into the call.

“Jack, he’s quite handsome in person.”

Amir, who was standing on the opposite side of the wall from Jack, holding a receiver himself, smiled at that.

The joke across the handset dried the damp air of the concourse a little. They were tracing different faces of the same space with their fingers.

Jack tightened his grip on the receiver and nodded softly. The nod felt like a small signal matched to the city’s beat and also like the announcement of yet another endless season.

Light in the corridor flowed slowly; shadows folded and layered; the conversation seeped into the tiles and sank.

Jack looked around slowly. The NYPD officers who routinely guarded Grand Central from terror stood at the entrances. Under Veronica’s orders, they had all focused on keeping Amir within range. Red and green laser dots from M4 carbines with Picatinny rails marked Amir’s feet. Likely the red came from the terminal’s NYPD contingent and the green from Veronica’s team. Two squads had lined up their sights to contain his movement. Of course, the sights were not on Amir’s forehead.

Suddenly a sharp smack of sound struck the receiver.

“Amir, who are you?” It was Ana.

Amir’s eyes widened for an instant then he recovered.

“Was I followed? Miss Patel. And who are you? Getting in Jack’s way.”

He shrugged with his thumb and pointed to his own feet, where the red and green laser dots rested. Ana stepped forward in her voice.

“Please. Come with Jack.”

Jack added, “For now, get arrested. We’ll hear the details with Veronica.”

Veronica said nothing; Jack assumed she nodded. He switched the receiver in his hand.

Amir laughed.

“If I were to say yes and surrender, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now, would we? Look — trains are coming in. Watch your crosshairs.”

The concourse swelled with people in the early morning. New York breathed around the terminal. The stream of humanity was the city’s pulse, its very blood flow; warmth surged through the concourse.

When Ana shifted her gaze for a moment to that tide of people, she spoke calmly and gently.

“Please. To Jack.”

Amir’s smile fell when he met her look. He accepted Ana’s gaze and said,

“Do you remember the morning at the exhibition when we first met? That wasn’t an accident. I went there to kill you.”

Ana’s eyes went white. Life drained from her gaze; the surrounding clamor carried her away and it vanished. Then, softly, she said, why?

“If you disappear, Bombay Blood in America will be just Justin and me.”

////////////////

Across the nation television networks switched to breaking news. Anchors’ voices trembled as they searched for words; the screen held still images of the scene. Smartphone notifications chimed all at once, but what arrived felt less like words than an announcement of silence.

Social feeds filled in an instant; everyone stared at the frozen time on their screens.

“What is going on…?” Hands halted midreach as people watched the images. On distant street corners, in cafés, in offices, faces of people holding their breath were shown.

An old woman on a park bench gripped her bag; a mother with a child went speechless; a driver tightened his hands on the wheel. Silence took the city’s clamor, the suburbs’ stillness, the open fields of the countryside and wrapped them all together in a single deep breath.

Emergency responses began within government agencies. Phones rang; red alarms flashed on screens. A presidential aide lost words and the pen in his hand trembled. Hallways inside the White House fell quiet; only footsteps echoed.

Words could not be pinned down; fear and confusion spread like a chain. Emergency teams moved; experts began analysis. Reports, communications, camera footage — every piece of information crossed and re-crossed — yet the four had slipped through all eyes of surveillance.

Their silence left no record, but it scored a sure claw mark on the world’s timeline.

City, state, nation, the world — all inhaled together and froze in the same instant.

The four shadows completed their mission at the center of the world without being recognized, then dissolved as shadows into the curtain of night.

  

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My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

There’s still more to come. 😃

(This is not the final draft.)

Set in New York City.

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

Notes

1. "Bombay Blood Type (hh type)"

•Characteristics: A rare blood type that lacks the usual ABO antigens — cannot be classified as A, B, or O.

•Discovery: First identified in 1952 in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).

•Prevalence: Roughly 1 in 10,000 people in India; globally, about 1 in 2.5 million.

•Transfusion Compatibility: Only compatible with blood from other Bombay type donors.

2. 2024 Harvard University Valedictorian Speech – The Power of Not Knowing

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

3. Shots Fired at Trump Rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

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Title:

旅行者。

  

僕の新しい小説

 B♭ (ビーフラット) ……. Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

“あらすじ”

 

北朝鮮の仮想通貨システムをハッキングし、数億ドルを奪取したガザ出身のパレスチナ人グループが、アメリカ合衆国へ密かに潜入する。

彼らの目的は、失われた祖国ガザを、アメリカの地に「復元」することだった。

共和党による強硬な移民政策と、国内にくすぶる排外感情を利用し、アメリカ社会を内側から崩壊させる計画が静かに進行していく。

共和党大統領候補ジャスティン・ブラッドフォードがマディソン・スクエア・ガーデンで演説中に狙撃され、ほぼ同時刻、ロサンゼルスでは前大統領オーウェン・リードもまた、民主党候補ライアン・ベネットの集会で撃たれる。

国家を二分する双方向の暗殺。だが、ジャスティンは奇跡的に生還する。

彼の血液型は、世界でわずか250万人に一人といわれる「ボンベイブラッド」。

その希少な血を提供できたのは、ブルックリンで活動するコミュニティアート・ファシリテーター、アナヤ・パテルだった。

彼女の血液はベルビュー病院の血液バンクに保存されており、緊急輸血によって、候補者の命はかろうじて繋がれた。

シークレットサービスのジャック・バンスは、テロの背後にガザ出身の組織が関与していることを察知し、FBIロサンゼルス支局長官キャメロン・バートレット、ニューヨーク支局の特別捜査官ヴェロニカ・リーブスと共に捜査を進める。

やがて彼らは、イスラム大学で建築学を学んだラフィ・ガンナムが、ロサンゼルスやニューヨークの再開発現場に潜入し、梁や構造体の中枢にC4爆薬を仕込んでいた事実に辿り着く。

標的は、ICE(移民・関税執行局)やERO(執行・送還作戦部門)の職員が暮らす新興住宅街——すなわち、「アメリカが築いた秩序」そのものだった。

ヴェロニカは、これ以上の破壊を防ぐため、大統領への対話を進言するが、現職のグラント・ランフォード大統領は耳を貸さない。

一方、命を取り留めたジャスティンと民主党候補ライアンは、テレビを通じて国民に訴えかけ、分断を乗り越えようとする。

だが、その理性の声を嘲笑うかのように、グラントはアイオワ州での演説を強行し、「テロには屈しない」と宣言する。

その会場には、すでにラフィの仲間が率いる工作チームが潜入していた。

崩壊する会場の惨状を前に、仲間の一人アミール・ナッセルは、かつてガザで妹を失った記憶に引き裂かれ、破壊の連鎖を止めようとする。

だが、ラフィの信念は揺るがない。

ウィリアムズバーグ橋の下、夕暮れの喧騒のなか、二人は決別する。

それは、祈りと報復、希望と虚無の境界線だった——。

 

“登場人物”

 

アナヤ・パテル 25歳 コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

アルジュン・シン 26歳 アナヤの恋人・ルミナテック・イノベーションズ社

 

佐藤 ミカ 25歳 アナの友人・コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

 

ジャスティン・ブラッドフォード 27歳 共和党大統領候補

エリノア・ブレイク 26歳 ジャスティンの婚約者

 

グラント・M・ランフォード大統領 61歳 共和党大統領現職

チャールズ・ベインズ副大統領 64歳 共和党副大統領現職

 

ライアン・ベネット 30歳 民主党大統領候補

ソフィア・ベネット 30歳 ライアンの妻

 

オーウェン・リード 65歳 民主党前大統領

 

ジャック・バンス 45歳 シークレットサービス 元FBIロサンゼルス支局

ベン・ホロウェイ 30歳 ジャックの同僚

ダリル・ロス 29歳 ジャックの同僚

イライジャ・ケイン 28歳 ジャックの同僚

 

マーカス・デイン 45歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局

キャメロン・バートレット 55歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局 支局長

トム・コールドウェル 38歳 FBI技術班 マーカスの部下

 

ヴェロニカ・リーヴス 41歳 FBI特別捜査官

アレクサンダー・ハリス 52歳 FBI ニューヨーク支局 支局長

エリオット・チェン 36歳 テクノロジー班主任

 

アリシア・モンロー 58歳 FBI長官

 

ザカリア・ハッダード 51歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 工学部教授 ニューヨークチーム

アミール・ナッセル 23歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 電子工学部 ニューヨークチーム

ラフィ・ガンナム 32歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

ロハン・シャー 29歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

 

マジード・ハムザ 47歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 情報技術学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サミラ・ハンマド 28歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 工学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サイード・カバリ 35歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 経営学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

リーム・ナセル 30歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 メディア学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

 

ノア・レヴィ 55歳 イスラエル テルアビブ在住 ユダヤ人

  

僕のこの小説は、来年、2026年2月末日に公開します。

 

先日、リドリースコット監督がサブスクの映画やドラマ群がつまらないと話していたようだけど、同感です。

僕も非常に退屈です。

それらに2時間を要するなら、僕の小説を2分間だけ読んで欲しい。

その2分間は、2時間を越えるでしょう。

僕は自信があります。

ぜひ、期待してお待ちください。

 

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

09th. Oct . 2025.

  

追伸

ネトフリに挑戦する男、みっちゃん。😃

  

マンハッタン。ニューヨーク。アメリカ。2017. … 2 / 10

 

(今日の写真。それは未発表済みです。しかし最近、オリジナルから再編集しています。)

  

Images.

Taylor Swift … This Love ( 和訳 )

youtu.be/PfJzQuqWSSE?si=TrtL4Mb-uN2dNmML

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

第20弾。 😄

以下は、まだ初稿の段階です。まだ推敲します。

公開している内容の順番はバラバラです。

今回で部分的な公開を最後にします。

2026年2月28日。

その日にすべてを公開します。

期待して待っていてください。😃

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

「ジャック、スマホのメッセージを見ろ。またメッセージが飛び込んでいる。IPアドレスは、グランドセントラルターミナルのそばにあるニューヨーク公共図書館の分館、スタヴロス・ニアルコス財団経由だ」

 ベンからのフェイスタイムだった。ガーデンのすぐそば、NYPDのミッドタウン南分署に設置された対策室で待機しているベンからだ。ベンの声はこれだけの事件が起きているにも関わらず、冷静だった。

 ジャックはアイフォンに指を滑らせ、表示された短い文を確かめた。文字列は無造作に並んでいたが文の輪郭を整えているように見えた。 

 

― グランドセントラルの地下コンコースにアーチ形の天井がある。そこへ来い。ジャック・バンス。言うまでもないがひとりでだぞ、と言っても一人ではないと思うがな ― 

 メッセージは、ジャックの胸の内を強く叩いた。

 

 車はヴァンダービルト・アヴェニューを北へ抜け、グランドセントラルの南端に差しかかった。街はまだ朝を迎えきれず、ビルの谷間に籠もった湿気が金属の匂いを帯びていた。

 ジャックはアクセルを抜き、黒いSUVを滑らせるように歩道ぎりぎりへ寄せた。タイヤが縁石をかすめる瞬間、路面に残る雨粒が光の筋となって跳ねた。

 ジャックは重いドアを押し開き、足を落とした。靴音が一拍遅れて石畳に響いた。

 彼は一度だけ背後の通りを見やると、赤いサイレンの反射がショーウィンドウの奥をよぎり、通りの影に沈む通行人の顔を、刹那だけ白く照らした。

 その光の切れ目を縫うように、ジャックは地下コンコースへ降りる階段へと向かった。

 通用扉は重く、金属の軋みがわずかに響いた。構内には地下鉄の呼吸のような低い唸りが満ちていた。

 冷気が頬を打ち、空調ダクトの奥から、遠くの構内放送が滲んで聞こえくる。

 額の汗を拭ったジャックはグランドセントラルの階段を一段飛ばしに駆け降りた。照明の琥珀色が靴底に流れ、ターミナルの心臓の鼓動のように足音が連なった。

 鉄の手すりは冷たく、指先に浅い震えを伝えた。階段の奥からは人の足音が複層的に重なり、地下へと導く古いリズムを刻んでいる。アーチ型の天井は空気を柔らかに吸い込み、照明は薄く膜のように光を張っている。

 地下コンコースの空気は湿り、古い煉瓦の壁は過去の雨を忘れられずに微かに匂っているようだ。床のタイルは長年の踏み跡で曇り、ところどころにひびが走って、そこへ街の小さな記憶が溜まっている。

 ジャックはそれらを意識せずに歩を進めた。彼の視線は、通路の奥にある暗がりへと自然に吸い寄せられていた。そこにはいつもと同じ出勤途中の人たちが早足で過ぎていく。

 壁際に並ぶ古びた看板や掲示板は、折れたチラシを枕にして眠るように貼り付いている。清掃員が一つの帯のようにモップを引き、その先でベンチが一つ、淡い孤独を描くように置かれている。

 通路を流れる空気は、まるで都市の静脈のゆっくりした鼓動だとジャックは思った。自分の呼吸が、その鼓動と同じ拍に馴染むのを感じながら、歩みを進めた。

 足元のタイルに光が差し、影がゆらりと伸びた。エスカレーターの金属音が遠くで微かに鳴り、階段から吹き下りる風がジャックの体にこもった熱を冷ました。街の匂いと、地下の湿り気と、古い電灯の微熱が入り混じって、時間はゆっくりと溶けてゆく。

 歩を止めたジャックは掌をこすり、周囲に視線を散らした。耳に入る雑踏は、独特の反響を帯びて方向感覚を曖昧にする。彼はただ、どこかにいる「それ」を捜しているのだと自分に言い聞かせる。

 再び歩き出した瞬間、金属が擦れる高音が辺りの空気を裂いた。一瞬、彼の頸筋が弾かれ、足元に微かな緊張が走った。反射的に足を止めると、視界の端で受話器が小さく揺れていた。

 コードは年月の重みでねじれ、埃まみれの金属部分が鈍く光っている。誰も使わないはずの電話が、唐突に、祭りの鐘のように鳴った。都市の静寂に差し込む異音。音は低く、しかし確実に空気を震わせた。

 ジャックはゆっくりと視線をそれに向けた。地下の重い空気が一瞬、膝の裏を押すように沈む。耳に届くのは自分の呼吸と、受話器の小さな振動音だけだ。周囲の人々は何事もないように通り過ぎ、母親が幼児の手を引き、老いた男が新聞を折りたたんで小脇に抱え直し、去ってゆく。

 受話器はジャックを呼んでいた。沈黙の裂け目からの呼び声は、まるで古い地図の裏側で震えるインクのように、じわりと広がる。ジャックは無言で手を伸ばし、受話器を取り上げた。金属は冷たく、その冷たさが掌に現実を落とした。

「……ジャック」

 声は低く、だがはっきりしていた。耳に残る音色に、時間が少しだけ逆戻りする気配があった。ネットの映像で見知った声の輪郭。しかしテレビで聞いたときとは異なり、そこには刃ではなく遠い夕焼けのような色度が含まれているようだった。

 ジャックは受話器越しに、通路の端の人影や、ベンチの孤独、床に落ちた小さな紙片──それらが会話の合間に流れ込むのを感じた。声音は会話の窓に、街の細部を滑り込ませるものだ。

「どうした、アミール。覇気のない声だな」

 ジャックの声は静かだが、地面に落ちる石のように重みを持っていた。受話器の向こうで、アミールがすこし鼻で笑うのが聞こえた。

「ときどきは落ち込むこともあるさ、人間だからね」

 その声は穏やかで、かつ遠い。以前に見せた公の顔とは違い、こちらは影の中で磨かれたものだった。通話の間、隣を通り過ぎる親子の会話がスナップのように割り込み、また消えていった。

「ジャック、これから言うことをよく聴け。ま、録音はしてるだろうけどな」

「それはお互い様だろ」

 受話器の向こうで、アミールの言葉は滑らかに落ち、地下のタイルに小さな波紋を作るようだった。周囲の雑音が一度だけ音像を濁らせ、また整頓される。母親の靴音、清掃員のモップの擦れる音、遠くの自販機の冷える音──それらが会話のリズムに交差してゆく。

「俺はこのチームから降りた。理由は、もう多くの人間が死ぬのを見たくないからだ。それだけだ」

 ジャックの指先が受話器の脈動を確かめた。声は冷静を装うが、その奥に震えがあるのを彼は聴き取った。地下の照明の輪郭が、アミールの言葉ごとにわずかに滲む。

「それを信じろって言うのか? お前らの教授、ザカリアはそんな弱音を吐くなって言ってるぞ、せっかく盛大に死んだのに」

 アミールはしばらく黙り、何かを笑い飛ばすような吐息を漏らした。通路の端でキャンディを舐める子供の小さな舌音が、言葉の間を埋めた。

「で、どうしたんだ? 失恋でもしたのか?」

「そんなところだ。この起爆装置は、これからも多くの建物を破壊する」

 その一言が、受話器の内の小さな部屋を突き破った。ジャックは一瞬だけ、地下の光が薄く濁るのを見た。だが通路は相変わらず普段どおりで、誰も振り返らない。異変は音の中にしか存在しない。

「どこにどれくらいセットし、どんな仕掛けなんだ、正確に、手短に話せ。つまらないジョークは混ぜるな」

 ジャックの口調は掴みかけた氷のように冷たい。受話器の向こうでアミールは静かに説明を試みるが、ジャックは言葉の細部よりもその声が持つ重さに耳を澄ます。通話の合間、壁際の電話ボックスの影が長く伸び、床に細い黒い溝を引いた。

「俺たちは、一般人で訓練されたテロリストではない。しかし、渡された情報は各個人へ分散されていた。たとえば今、俺がこうしてあんたに電話しているように裏切りが生まれた時のことを考えてね」

 アミールの声は慎重で、しかし怯えはない。ジャックは受話器を耳にしっかり押し当て、周囲の生活音がそのまま説明の布地となって織り込まれていくのを感じていた。通路の端で老女がバッグを直す音、遠くでシャッターが開く小さな仕事のはじまりの合図が聞こえた。

「俺たちが潜入したのは、今から5年ほど前だ。その頃に建てられていた建造物の中枢にC4を仕掛けた。ラフィは大学で建築学を学んでいたからね。崩壊する様子はもうネットでも100万回再生だからわかってるだろう。起爆させるためには、ミュートリーダーというQRコードを読み取る昔の携帯電話が必要だ。それとペアで独自に俺がつくったタブレットもだ。このタブレットのバッテリー部分、3分の2にC4を埋め込んだ。このタブレットも大昔にあった指紋認証式のタブレットだ。俺が作ったタブレットは2台だ。それがロサンゼルスとニューヨークに分かれて存在している」

「つまり、起爆装置は2台か?」

「わからない。俺の他にも電子工学部の人間がいたからな。それからQRコードを読み取る携帯電話は大昔、あまりに特殊すぎて売れずに浸透しなかった機器だ」

「どういう流れで起爆させるんだ?」

「あるサイトに特殊なQRコードが設置されているらしい。そこに携帯電話をかざして読み込む。QRコードは3Dレイヤーだ。コードが立体的に浮かび上がって解読し、起爆させるコードへ変換させ、電波で飛ばす」

「電波? Wi-Fiではなくか?」

「Wi-Fiだったら、あんたらすぐに止められるだろ? そこは俺がタブレットを改造した。Wi-FiではなくFM電波だ、パイレーツラジオ(海賊ラジオ)と同じ仕組みだ」

「ならば、周波数を駆逐できるぞ」

 アミールはしばらく笑ってからいった。

「周波数はいくらでも変えられるようにアプリを設定した。ちなみに周波数を妨害しようと発せられた電波も起爆するようセットした。つまり、いずれにしても、ドカンだ」

 ジャックは、しばらく沈黙してから続けた。

「QRコードは、どこのサイトにあるんだ?」

「わからない。すべての過程で分散している。ハードの製造、QRコードの場所、起爆させる操作。流れを散らすことで、裏切りを抑止しているようだった」

 ふたりの間に再び沈黙が落ちた。アミールは、足元に落とした視線を引き上げて、いった。

「ジャック、ここまで話しているんだから、知っていたら話しているさ。つまり、ミュートリーダーを手にしている人間にしかわからない。今で言うなら ….」

「ラフィだけ、か」

「そのとおりだ」

 二人の間に沈黙が落ち、通話は薄い氷の上で揺れている。ジャックの呼吸がゆっくりと現実を取り戻した。地下の光は細く、しかししっかりと彼を照らしている。

「アミール、どうして話す?」

「さっきもいったとおりだ。人の死にはうんざりだ」

「お前がこうして喋ることがわかっているのに、ラフィはお前を無傷で解放したのか? この話を信じるにはうますぎないか?」

「確かに。俺が適当なことをいって、あんたらをカモるかもね」

「ジャック、お疲れ様、アミール、その場を動かないで」

 ヴェロニカの落ち着いた声が二人の通話に割り込んだ。

「ジャック、実物はなかなかの男前だな」

 そういったアミールは、ちょうどジャックのいる壁面の反対側で受話器を手にしていた。

 受話器越しの冗談は、地下の湿った空気を幾分、乾かせた。彼らは同じ空間の別々の面を指でなぞっているようだ。

 ジャックは受話器を握りなおし、静かに頷いた。その頷きは、街の鼓動に合わせた小さな合図のようでもあり、また終わりのない季節の一端を告げるものでもあった。通路の光がゆるやかに流れ、影が折り重なり、会話は地下のタイルにゆっくりと染み渡っていった。

 ジャックは、ゆっくり辺りを見渡した。元々、グランドセントラルターミナルをテロから守る為に、日常的に警護していたNYPDが出入り口に構えている。非常事態の現在、ヴェロニカの指示で一斉にアミールを射程内に捕らえていた。ピカティニーレールを持ったM4カービンの赤とグリーンのレーザーサイトがアミールの両足に張り付いていた。おそらく、赤はターミナルのNYPDで、グリーンがヴェロニカのチームだろう。二つの班がアミールの動きを封じようと照準を定めていた。もちろん、照準はアミールの額にはない。

 突然、ジャックの受話器の向こうから頬を叩く音が響いた。

「アミール、あなたは何者なの?」

 その声はアナだった。

 アミールは一瞬目を丸くしたが、すぐに自分を取り戻した。

「ジャック、つけられてたのか? ミス・パテル。君こそ何者なんだ? ジャックの邪魔をしているよ」

 彼はそういって親指を逆さにし、自分の足を示した。そこには、赤とグリーンのレーザーサイトが静かに張り付いていた。アナはアミールに詰め寄ると言い放った。

「いっしょに出頭して」

 その言葉にジャックは付け足した。

「とりあえず捕まれ。詳しい話は、ヴェロニカといっしょに聞いてやる」

 ヴェロニカは足さなかったが、おそらく頷いているだろうと思いながら、ジャックは受話器を持ち替えた。

 アミールは一笑した。

「言うまでもないが、はい、わかりましたというなら、ここで対話してないよな。ほら、列車がたくさん到着したぞ、照準に気をつけな」

 早朝のターミナルに、人が溢れ出した。ターミナルを中心にニューヨークは呼吸している。人の流れは、都市の脈動であり、血流そのものだ。コンコースには人の熱気が溢れ出していた。

 溢れた人の流れに一瞬目を移すと、アナは冷静に、そして穏やかな眼差しでいった。

「おねがい。ジャックのところへ」

 アミールも同じように笑みを消すと、アナの視線を受け入れ、いった。

「君に初めて会った展示の朝を覚えているかい? あれは偶然じゃない。僕は君を殺しに行ったんだ」

 アナの視線が白くなった。眼差しからは生気が失せ、周囲の喧騒に流され、消えていった。そして、どうして? と小さく言葉を落とした。

「君が消えれば、アメリカでボンベイブラッドは、ジャスティンと僕だけだ」

 

////////////////

 

全国のテレビ局が緊急報道に切り替わった。

 キャスターの声は震え、言葉を探す間、画面には会場の静止した映像が映った。スマートフォンの通知が一斉に鳴り、しかし、届くのは言葉ではなく、静寂の報せのように感じられた。

 SNSのタイムラインは瞬く間に情報で埋まり、誰もが画面の中で止まった時間を見つめていた。

「どういうことだ…?」画面を見つめる手が、思わず止まる。

 画面の向こう、遠くの街角でも、カフェでも、オフィスでも、息を呑む人々の姿が映る。

 公園のベンチに座る老女は、手にしたバッグを握りしめ、子供を抱く母親は言葉を失い、運転中の男性はハンドルを握る手に力を込めた。

 沈黙は、都市の喧騒、郊外の静けさ、田舎の広野を一斉に包み込み、世界を一つの深い呼吸に束ねた。

 政府機関では緊急対応が始まっていた。電話が鳴り、スクリーンに赤い警報が灯っている。大統領補佐官は言葉を失い、ペンを握る手が微かに震えている。ホワイトハウス内の廊下は、普段の喧騒を消し、足音だけが響いた。

 誰も正確に理解できないまま、言葉は混乱と恐怖の連鎖として広がっていく。政府内の応急対応が動き、専門家たちが分析を開始する。報告書、通信、カメラ映像、あらゆる情報が交錯するが、四人の存在は、すべての監視の目をすり抜けていた。

 四人の沈黙は、記録に残らず、しかし世界の時間軸に確実な爪痕を刻んだのだ。

 都市、州、国家、世界 — すべてが一瞬にして同じ呼吸をし、同じ時間の中で凍りついた。

 四人の影は、誰にも認識されることなく、世界の中心でその使命を終え、影のまま、夜の帳の中に溶け込んでいった。

  

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僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

舞台はニューヨークです。

  

19

www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/54851971628/in/dateposted...

 

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www.flickr.com/photos/stealaway/54840848974/in/dateposted...

 

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

追記 この小説を多少説明しました。

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

メモ

 

1

「Bombay型(ボンベイ型、hh型)」

•特徴:通常のABO血液型を持たない(A、B、Oに分類されない)特殊な型。

•発見地:1952年、インド・ムンバイ(旧ボンベイ)で初めて確認。

•発生頻度:インドでは1万人に1人程度だが、世界的には約250万人に1人とも。

•輸血制限:同じBombay型しか輸血できない。

 

2

2024年ハーバード大学首席の卒業式スピーチ『知らないことの力』

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

 

3

Shots fired at Trump rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

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I captured 17 shots of lightning striking the World Trade Center in this intense storm. There were more strikes that I couldn't capture because I had to clean the water drops off the front of the lens.

I decided to group-together and post simultaneously all of the Amsterdam bicycle shots, just to “get it out of my system”. #849 thru #855 were all shot at the bicycle parking area at Amsterdam Centraal (The Central Station). The rest, #856 thru #861, were shot around the city at various locations. #862 was shot at a village outside of Amsterdam, Marken.

  

(From Wikipedia, edited):

Amsterdam is known as one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world and is a center of bicycle culture. Thirty-eight percent (38%) of all journeys in the city are made by bicycle. Most main streets have bike paths. Bike racks are ubiquitous throughout the city. In 2006, there were about 1,000,000 bicycles in the city. Each year, about 100,000 of them are stolen and 25,000 end up in the canals.

 

As is common in Dutch cities, Amsterdam has a wide net of traffic-calmed streets and world-class facilities for cyclists. All around are bike paths and bike racks, and several guarded bicycle parking stations (Fietsenstalling) which can be used for a nominal fee.

 

Bicycles are used by all socio-economic groups because: they are quick and convenient from point A to point B and due to Amsterdam's small size. There are 400 km of bike paths. The flat terrain is certainly a factor, as is the arguable inconvenience of driving an automobile. Driving a car is discouraged, parking fees are expensive, and many streets are closed to cars or are one-way. Amsterdam's bike paths (Fietspad) are colored brown, in order to differentiate it from a footpath.

Amsterdammers ride a wide variety of bicycles including the traditional Omafiets - the ubiquitous Dutch roadster with a step-through frame - to anything from modern city bikes, road bikes, mountain bikes, and even recumbent bikes.

 

Happy Holidays! Finishing my work in Lightroom 4 now, and uploading new video of the goddesses!

 

Enjoy the video shot at the same time as the stills:

 

youtu.be/4TaO0Dh69HI (this video was shot while I took one of my most famous & most-viewed photographs ever! be sure to watch in full 1080p hd!)

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TvbZgl6Af4 (some more video of the goddess!)

 

Canon 5D Mark II Photos of Beautiful Swimsuit Bikini Model Goddess!

 

The video was shot with the awesome Panasonic X900MK 3MOS 3D Full HD SD Camcorder. I highly recommend it!

 

The goddess was tall, thin, and fit, with long, natural brown hair, pretty blue eyes, and a great smile!

Cute freckles!

  

It was a nice sunny, windless, warm, winter's day out on the beach, where the sun stays low all day for epic shooting!

 

Shooting simultaneous stills & video rocks! I do it on every shoot now, while also mounting several stationary DSLRs/camcorders for video in addition to the Panasonic or Sony Camcorder bracketed to my Canon 5D or Nikon D800E.

 

The sea & sand goddess was tall, thin, fit, and athletic, with gorgerous brown hair and pretty blue eyes and long legs! She's a dancer! Wearing a pink polka-dot bikini!

 

Pretty freckles too!

 

May the Hero's Journey Mythology goddesses guide and inspire you throughout the new year!

A series of layered, "surrealist" pieces, part of my "Process Art" work, this time done in black and white. Why should powerful and unusual pieces always be in vivid colours? I wanted to try my hand at B&W surrealism as a way to expand my vocabulary - and hopefully come up with something effective.

 

View Large on Black.

Special glasses required.

365 2023 #166

A very unlucky mouse caught simultaneously in two mouse traps!

Latest of 4 projects I am simultaneously working on right now.

 

A year ago ( well more), two individuals simultaneously set out on a journey, a conquest to chronicle their every day by collecting light. Many miles separated them, in fact they were on other ends of the country but this mission and the platform they used to share it introduced and kept them together. And although their age old quest is coming to a close, their bond is unbreakable and the magic has just begun.

 

haha so im being really cheesy sorry but not really. we had a blast at Alex and Karrah's Flickr Gathering and this is one of the many shots that was composed by one of the creative minds present at the event. Concept credit: Mia

 

facebook / formspring / tumblr

Woman simultaneously front and backlit from reflections while walking at the train station early in the morning.

Bath Abbey churchyard this morning.

 

Participants breaking the world record for simultaneous waltzing.

when you dress like this, in a very public venue, there is nowhere to hide

 

Photography by Hope

a simultaneous multi-sensorial multi-dimensional pan dream deja vu for eyes and demons and dogs and involutions of leaves and faces and blue veins and grey outlines for plumbers, pipe-fitters and fire and light water children and lost animals helping those on crutches.

Title:

Silence.

  

B♭ (B Flat)

A Novel by Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃

一部分の公開を更新しました。今回が最後です😃

 

“Synopsis”

 

A Palestinian group from Gaza hacks into North Korea’s cryptocurrency system, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. Their true goal is not money—but to recreate the lost homeland of Gaza on American soil.

Amid the backdrop of hardline Republican immigration policies and a growing wave of xenophobia, a quiet plan begins to take shape: the gradual collapse of America from within.

During a speech at Madison Square Garden, Republican presidential candidate Justin Bradford is shot. Almost simultaneously in Los Angeles, former president Owen Reed is attacked at a rally for Democratic hopeful Ryan Bennett.

Two assassinations—mirroring one another—ignite a nation’s deepest divide. Yet, against all odds, Justin survives. His blood type is one in 2.5 million: the Bombay Blood Group.

The only person who can donate such blood is Anaya Patel, a community art facilitator working in Brooklyn. Her blood, stored in the Bellevue Hospital Blood Bank, is used for an emergency transfusion that saves the candidate’s life.

Jack Vance, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, suspects a Gaza-based network behind the attacks. Together with Cameron Bartlett, the FBI Director of the Los Angeles Field Office, and Veronica Reeves, a senior investigator from New York, he begins to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Their investigation leads them to Rafi Gannam, a former architecture student at the Islamic University of Gaza, who has infiltrated redevelopment sites across Los Angeles and New York—embedding C4 explosives deep within beams and structural cores.

His targets: new residential districts where agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) live—symbols of “the order America built.”

Veronica urges the President to pursue dialogue to prevent further destruction, but President Grant M. Ranford refuses to listen.

Meanwhile, the recovering Justin and his Democratic rival Ryan appear on national television, calling for unity beyond political divisions.

Their words of reason, however, are drowned out when Grant takes the stage in Iowa, defiantly declaring: “We will never bow to terror.”

Among the crowd, Rafi’s operatives have already taken their positions.

As chaos erupts and the stage collapses, Amir Nasser—once Rafi’s comrade, haunted by the memory of his sister’s death in Gaza—tries desperately to halt the chain of destruction.

But Rafi’s conviction remains unshaken.

Under the twilight beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, amid the city’s fading noise, the two men part ways.

It is the boundary between prayer and vengeance, between hope and nothingness.

  

“Characters”

 

Anaya Patel – 25, Community Art Facilitator

Arjun Singh – 26, Anaya’s boyfriend, Luminatech Innovations

Mika Sato – 25, Anaya’s friend, Community Art Facilitator

 

Justin Bradford – 27, Republican Presidential Candidate

Eleanor Blake – 26, Justin’s fiancée

 

President Grant M. Langford – 61, Incumbent Republican President

Vice President Charles “Chuck” Baines – 64, Incumbent Republican Vice President

 

Ryan Bennett – 30, Democratic Presidential Candidate

Sophia Bennett – 30, Ryan’s wife

Owen Reed – 65, Former Democratic President

 

Jack Vance – 45, Secret Service, Former FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Ben Holloway – 30, Jack’s colleague

Darryl Ross – 29, Jack’s colleague

Elijah Kane – 28, Jack’s colleague

 

Marcus Dane – 45, FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Cameron Bartlett – 55, FBI Los Angeles Field Office, Field Office Director

Tom Caldwell – 38, FBI Technical Unit, Marcus’s subordinate

 

Veronica Reeves – 41, FBI Special Agent

Alexander Harris – 52, FBI New York Field Office, Field Office Director

Elliot Chen – 36, Technology Unit Chief

Alicia Monroe – 58, FBI Director

 

Zakaria Haddad – 51, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Engineering Professor, New York Team

Amir Nasser – 23, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Electronics Engineering, New York Team

Rafi Gannam – 32, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

Rohan Shah – 29, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

 

Majid Hamza – 47, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Information Technology, Los Angeles Team

Samira Hammad – 28, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Engineering, Los Angeles Team

Saeed Kabari – 35, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Business Administration, Los Angeles Team

Reem Nasser – 30, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Media Studies, Los Angeles Team

 

Noah Levi – 55, Israel, residing in Tel Aviv, Jewish

  

B♭ will be released worldwide on February 29, 2026.

Recently, director Ridley Scott remarked that streaming films and series have become dull.

I agree.

If you have two hours to spare for such stories, I ask for only two minutes of your time.

Two minutes with my novel will outlast those two hours.

I am confident of that.

  

Stay tuned.

Mitsushiro

October 9th, 2025

 

P.S.

Micchan — the man who challenges Netflix. 😃

  

( iPhone 13 Pro shot )

 

Motosuka Beach. Kujukuri Beach. Sanmu City. Chiba Prefecture. Japan. October 9, 2025. … 0.9 / 10

(Photo of the day. Unpublished.)

  

Images.

Taylor Swift … This Love

youtu.be/PfJzQuqWSSE?si=TrtL4Mb-uN2dNmML

  

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🌟 My New Novel: "B♭" (B Flat)

 

This is the 20th installment! 😄

The following is still in the first draft stage. I will revise it further.

•The order of the content being shared is random.

•This will be the final time I share partial excerpts.

 

The full novel will be released on February 28, 2026.

Please look forward to it! 😃

 

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My new novel

B♭ (B Flat)

 

English translation by GPT-5, in collaboration with Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

“Jack, look at your phone. Another message just came through. The IP address traces to a branch of the New York Public Library near Grand Central — via the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.”

It was a FaceTime from Ben. He was standing by in the NYPD Midtown South command post just beside the Garden. Despite everything that was happening, Ben’s voice was calm.

Jack slid his finger across his iPhone and read the short line that appeared. The characters lay down carelessly, yet somehow they gave the sentence a shape.

— There’s an arched ceiling in the underground concourse of Grand Central. Come there. Jack Vance. And don’t come alone — though, of course, you won’t be alone. —

The message struck at the inside of Jack’s chest like a ringing.

The car threaded north along Vanderbilt Avenue and came up at the southern lip of Grand Central. The city had not quite woken; the damp that hid in the canyon between buildings carried the metallic smell of morning. Jack let off the gas and eased the black SUV to the curb, almost sliding it along. As the tires brushed the edge of the pavement, the remaining beads of rain on the road leapt up into streaks of light.

He pushed open the heavy door and stepped out. His shoes hit the cobbles a beat later. Once he turned to look down the street behind him, the red reflection of a siren flashed through a shop window and briefly lit the faces of passersby, whitening them for a single instant.

Weaving through that cut of light, Jack made for the stairs that led down to the concourse. The service door groaned with a slight metallic protest. Inside, a low hum, like the breathing of a subway, filled the space. A cold breath struck his cheeks, and from the depths of the HVAC ducts a distant station announcement blurred toward him.

Wiping the sweat from his brow, Jack took the stairs of Grand Central two at a time. The amber lighting flowed across his soles; his footsteps linked together like the heartbeat of the terminal.

The iron handrail was cold, passing a faint tremor into his fingertips. From far down the stairs other footsteps layered over one another, keeping an old rhythm that led downward. The arched ceiling drew the air in gently; the lights spread a thin film of glow.

The concourse smelled of damp; the old brick walls seemed unable to forget past rains and exhaled them faintly. The floor tiles were dulled by years of feet; hairline cracks ran through them, where little memories of the city had gathered. Jack walked without attending to these things. His gaze was naturally drawn to the darkness at the far end of the corridor. The usual stream of commuters hurried past.

Weathered signs and bulletin boards clung to the walls like pillows for torn flyers. A cleaner dragged her mop in a single ribbon; beyond it, a lone bench sat as if sketching a pale loneliness.

The air that moved through the passage felt to Jack like the slow pulse of a city’s vein. He felt his breath fall into the same beat and kept walking.

Light touched the tiles at his feet and shadows stretched and swayed. The faint metallic noise of an escalator sounded somewhere far away; the gust from the stairs cooled the heat that had gathered in his body. The scent of the city, the underground damp, and the faint warmth of old lamps mixed; time began to melt slowly.

Stopping, Jack rubbed his palms and let his eyes roam. The hum all around carried a peculiar echo that blurred one’s sense of direction. He told himself he was only looking for “it,” somewhere in the concourse.

As he moved again, a high metallic scrape suddenly sliced the air. His neck muscles twitched and a tautness ran through the soles of his feet. Reflexively he froze; at the edge of his vision a receiver quivered.

Its cord, knotted with the weight of years, twisted; dusty metal glinted dully. A telephone that should have been unused rang out abruptly, like a festival bell — an alien note within the city’s hush. The sound was low but it made the air itself tremble.

Jack turned to it slowly. The heavy underground air seemed to press against the backs of his knees. All he heard was his own breathing and the faint vibration of the receiver. People flowed past as if nothing had happened: a mother led a child by the hand, an old man refolded his newspaper and tucked it under his arm, and moved on.

The receiver was calling to Jack. The call came from a tear in silence, spreading slowly like ink trembling on the reverse side of an old map. He reached out without speaking and picked up the handset. The metal was cold; that cold dropped reality onto his palm.

“…Jack.”

The voice was low but distinct. Its timbre made time seem to slip backward just a touch. He recognized the voice from online footage; yet unlike the voice heard on television, here it carried not a blade but the color of a distant sunset.

Through the receiver Jack felt the corridor’s edges, the bench’s solitude, the small scrap of paper on the floor trickle into the pauses of the conversation. The voice let the city’s details slide in through the window of speech.

“What’s up, Amir? Sounding a little low.” Jack’s voice was quiet and heavy, like a stone dropped to ground. Through the handset he heard Amir’s small nasal laugh.

“Sometimes you get down — you’re only human.”

The voice was calm and remote. It was not the public mask Amir sometimes wore, but something honed in shadow. During the call the brief chatter of a passing parent and child snapped into the line and then was gone.

“Listen carefully to what I’m going to say. Well, you’re probably recording.”

“Likewise,” Jack replied.

Amir’s words fell smoothly through the receiver, making tiny ripples on the tiled floor of the underground. The noise around them blurred once and then resolved again: the mother’s footsteps, the mop’s scrape, the distant clink of a vending machine — all intersecting with the rhythm of speech.

“I’m out of the team. The reason? I don’t want to watch more people die. That’s it.”

Jack felt the receiver’s pulse under his fingers. The voice tried on calm but Jack could hear a tremor beneath. The lights in the concourse blurred slightly with each of Amir’s sentences.

“Are you asking me to believe that? Your professor Zakaria says don’t talk like that — he went out in a big way.” Amir fell silent and let out an exhale that sounded like a laugh as if to shrug something off. At the corridor’s edge a child sucking on candy made a tiny wet sound that filled the space between words.

“So what now? Heartbroken?” Jack asked.

“Something like that. This detonator will destroy many buildings yet.”

That phrase punched through the little room inside the receiver. For an instant the light underground clouded faintly. Yet the corridor moved on as always; no one turned. The anomaly existed only in sound.

“Tell me exactly where, how many, what mechanism — brief. Don’t mix in jokes.” Jack’s tone chilled like ice cracking. Amir tried to explain calmly, but Jack listened more to the weight behind the words than to their particulars. In the pauses, the phone booth’s shadow stretched and traced a thin black groove across the floor.

“We weren’t trained terrorists, not professionals. The information was distributed piece by piece. Think of how betrayal would happen — like how I can call you now.” Amir’s voice was careful; not fearful. Jack pressed the receiver to his ear and felt the city’s everyday noises woven into the fabric of the explanation. An old woman adjusting her bag at the corridor’s edge, the faint opening of a shutter somewhere distant — the beginnings of small workdays.

“We infiltrated about five years ago. We planted C4 in the core of buildings that were being built then. Rafi studied architecture, so he knew where to place it. You’ve seen the collapse a million times online, you know how it looks. To detonate, you need an old phone that reads a ‘mute reader’ QR code. Along with it is a tablet I made myself. I embedded C4 into two-thirds of its battery. The tablet has old fingerprint authentication — the kind from a long time ago. I made two of them. One is in Los Angeles, one in New York.”

“So there are two detonators?”

“I don’t know. I wasn’t the only one from the electronics department. Also, the phones that read the QR code are ancient, too specialized — they never caught on.”

“How do you trigger it?”

“There’s a special QR code placed on a site. You hold the phone up and read it. The QR is a 3D layer. The code rises in relief, deciphers itself, converts into a detonation code, and sends it by radio.”

“Radio? Not Wi‑Fi?”

“If it were Wi‑Fi you’d shut it down quickly. I modified the tablet. It’s not Wi‑Fi — it uses FM radio, like pirate radio.”

“We can jam the frequency.”

Amir laughed for a long moment before speaking.

“I set the app so the frequency can be changed arbitrarily. I also set it so that any signal sent to jam the frequency triggers the detonation. So either way, boom.”

Jack was silent for a little while, then asked,

“Where is the QR code located?”

“I don’t know. Everything was compartmentalized. Hardware production, QR placement, activation method. By scattering the flow, it seemed designed to deter betrayal.”

Silence fell again between them. Amir lifted his eyes from the ground and said,

“Jack, I’d tell you if I knew. Only those holding a mute reader would know. Today, that’s…”

“Just Rafi?”

“That’s right.”

Silence spread between them. The call hovered like thin ice. Jack’s breathing returned slowly to the present. The underground light was narrow but it marked him clearly.

“Why are you talking?”

“Like I said. I’m tired of people dying.”

“You knew you’d talk and yet Rafi let you go unharmed? Sounds too neat to be true.”

“Maybe I’m just making it up to dupe you.”

“Jack, take it easy. Amir, don’t move.”

Veronica’s composed voice cut into the call.

“Jack, he’s quite handsome in person.”

Amir, who was standing on the opposite side of the wall from Jack, holding a receiver himself, smiled at that.

The joke across the handset dried the damp air of the concourse a little. They were tracing different faces of the same space with their fingers.

Jack tightened his grip on the receiver and nodded softly. The nod felt like a small signal matched to the city’s beat and also like the announcement of yet another endless season.

Light in the corridor flowed slowly; shadows folded and layered; the conversation seeped into the tiles and sank.

Jack looked around slowly. The NYPD officers who routinely guarded Grand Central from terror stood at the entrances. Under Veronica’s orders, they had all focused on keeping Amir within range. Red and green laser dots from M4 carbines with Picatinny rails marked Amir’s feet. Likely the red came from the terminal’s NYPD contingent and the green from Veronica’s team. Two squads had lined up their sights to contain his movement. Of course, the sights were not on Amir’s forehead.

Suddenly a sharp smack of sound struck the receiver.

“Amir, who are you?” It was Ana.

Amir’s eyes widened for an instant then he recovered.

“Was I followed? Miss Patel. And who are you? Getting in Jack’s way.”

He shrugged with his thumb and pointed to his own feet, where the red and green laser dots rested. Ana stepped forward in her voice.

“Please. Come with Jack.”

Jack added, “For now, get arrested. We’ll hear the details with Veronica.”

Veronica said nothing; Jack assumed she nodded. He switched the receiver in his hand.

Amir laughed.

“If I were to say yes and surrender, we wouldn’t be having this conversation now, would we? Look — trains are coming in. Watch your crosshairs.”

The concourse swelled with people in the early morning. New York breathed around the terminal. The stream of humanity was the city’s pulse, its very blood flow; warmth surged through the concourse.

When Ana shifted her gaze for a moment to that tide of people, she spoke calmly and gently.

“Please. To Jack.”

Amir’s smile fell when he met her look. He accepted Ana’s gaze and said,

“Do you remember the morning at the exhibition when we first met? That wasn’t an accident. I went there to kill you.”

Ana’s eyes went white. Life drained from her gaze; the surrounding clamor carried her away and it vanished. Then, softly, she said, why?

“If you disappear, Bombay Blood in America will be just Justin and me.”

////////////////

Across the nation television networks switched to breaking news. Anchors’ voices trembled as they searched for words; the screen held still images of the scene. Smartphone notifications chimed all at once, but what arrived felt less like words than an announcement of silence.

Social feeds filled in an instant; everyone stared at the frozen time on their screens.

“What is going on…?” Hands halted midreach as people watched the images. On distant street corners, in cafés, in offices, faces of people holding their breath were shown.

An old woman on a park bench gripped her bag; a mother with a child went speechless; a driver tightened his hands on the wheel. Silence took the city’s clamor, the suburbs’ stillness, the open fields of the countryside and wrapped them all together in a single deep breath.

Emergency responses began within government agencies. Phones rang; red alarms flashed on screens. A presidential aide lost words and the pen in his hand trembled. Hallways inside the White House fell quiet; only footsteps echoed.

Words could not be pinned down; fear and confusion spread like a chain. Emergency teams moved; experts began analysis. Reports, communications, camera footage — every piece of information crossed and re-crossed — yet the four had slipped through all eyes of surveillance.

Their silence left no record, but it scored a sure claw mark on the world’s timeline.

City, state, nation, the world — all inhaled together and froze in the same instant.

The four shadows completed their mission at the center of the world without being recognized, then dissolved as shadows into the curtain of night.

  

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My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

There’s still more to come. 😃

(This is not the final draft.)

Set in New York City.

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

Notes

1. "Bombay Blood Type (hh type)"

•Characteristics: A rare blood type that lacks the usual ABO antigens — cannot be classified as A, B, or O.

•Discovery: First identified in 1952 in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).

•Prevalence: Roughly 1 in 10,000 people in India; globally, about 1 in 2.5 million.

•Transfusion Compatibility: Only compatible with blood from other Bombay type donors.

2. 2024 Harvard University Valedictorian Speech – The Power of Not Knowing

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

3. Shots Fired at Trump Rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Title.

無音。

  

僕の新しい小説

 B♭ (ビーフラット) ……. Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

“あらすじ”

 

北朝鮮の仮想通貨システムをハッキングし、数億ドルを奪取したガザ出身のパレスチナ人グループが、アメリカ合衆国へ密かに潜入する。

彼らの目的は、失われた祖国ガザを、アメリカの地に「復元」することだった。

共和党による強硬な移民政策と、国内にくすぶる排外感情を利用し、アメリカ社会を内側から崩壊させる計画が静かに進行していく。

共和党大統領候補ジャスティン・ブラッドフォードがマディソン・スクエア・ガーデンで演説中に狙撃され、ほぼ同時刻、ロサンゼルスでは前大統領オーウェン・リードもまた、民主党候補ライアン・ベネットの集会で撃たれる。

国家を二分する双方向の暗殺。だが、ジャスティンは奇跡的に生還する。

彼の血液型は、世界でわずか250万人に一人といわれる「ボンベイブラッド」。

その希少な血を提供できたのは、ブルックリンで活動するコミュニティアート・ファシリテーター、アナヤ・パテルだった。

彼女の血液はベルビュー病院の血液バンクに保存されており、緊急輸血によって、候補者の命はかろうじて繋がれた。

シークレットサービスのジャック・バンスは、テロの背後にガザ出身の組織が関与していることを察知し、FBIロサンゼルス支局長官キャメロン・バートレット、ニューヨーク支局の特別捜査官ヴェロニカ・リーブスと共に捜査を進める。

やがて彼らは、イスラム大学で建築学を学んだラフィ・ガンナムが、ロサンゼルスやニューヨークの再開発現場に潜入し、梁や構造体の中枢にC4爆薬を仕込んでいた事実に辿り着く。

標的は、ICE(移民・関税執行局)やERO(執行・送還作戦部門)の職員が暮らす新興住宅街——すなわち、「アメリカが築いた秩序」そのものだった。

ヴェロニカは、これ以上の破壊を防ぐため、大統領への対話を進言するが、現職のグラント・ランフォード大統領は耳を貸さない。

一方、命を取り留めたジャスティンと民主党候補ライアンは、テレビを通じて国民に訴えかけ、分断を乗り越えようとする。

だが、その理性の声を嘲笑うかのように、グラントはアイオワ州での演説を強行し、「テロには屈しない」と宣言する。

その会場には、すでにラフィの仲間が率いる工作チームが潜入していた。

崩壊する会場の惨状を前に、仲間の一人アミール・ナッセルは、かつてガザで妹を失った記憶に引き裂かれ、破壊の連鎖を止めようとする。

だが、ラフィの信念は揺るがない。

ウィリアムズバーグ橋の下、夕暮れの喧騒のなか、二人は決別する。

それは、祈りと報復、希望と虚無の境界線だった——。

 

“登場人物”

 

アナヤ・パテル 25歳 コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

アルジュン・シン 26歳 アナヤの恋人・ルミナテック・イノベーションズ社

 

佐藤 ミカ 25歳 アナの友人・コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

 

ジャスティン・ブラッドフォード 27歳 共和党大統領候補

エリノア・ブレイク 26歳 ジャスティンの婚約者

 

グラント・M・ランフォード大統領 61歳 共和党大統領現職

チャールズ・ベインズ副大統領 64歳 共和党副大統領現職

 

ライアン・ベネット 30歳 民主党大統領候補

ソフィア・ベネット 30歳 ライアンの妻

 

オーウェン・リード 65歳 民主党前大統領

 

ジャック・バンス 45歳 シークレットサービス 元FBIロサンゼルス支局

ベン・ホロウェイ 30歳 ジャックの同僚

ダリル・ロス 29歳 ジャックの同僚

イライジャ・ケイン 28歳 ジャックの同僚

 

マーカス・デイン 45歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局

キャメロン・バートレット 55歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局 支局長

トム・コールドウェル 38歳 FBI技術班 マーカスの部下

 

ヴェロニカ・リーヴス 41歳 FBI特別捜査官

アレクサンダー・ハリス 52歳 FBI ニューヨーク支局 支局長

エリオット・チェン 36歳 テクノロジー班主任

 

アリシア・モンロー 58歳 FBI長官

 

ザカリア・ハッダード 51歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 工学部教授 ニューヨークチーム

アミール・ナッセル 23歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 電子工学部 ニューヨークチーム

ラフィ・ガンナム 32歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

ロハン・シャー 29歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

 

マジード・ハムザ 47歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 情報技術学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サミラ・ハンマド 28歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 工学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サイード・カバリ 35歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 経営学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

リーム・ナセル 30歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 メディア学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

 

ノア・レヴィ 55歳 イスラエル テルアビブ在住 ユダヤ人

  

僕のこの小説は、来年、2026年2月末日に公開します。

 

先日、リドリースコット監督がサブスクの映画やドラマ群がつまらないと話していたようだけど、同感です。

僕も非常に退屈です。

それらに2時間を要するなら、僕の小説を2分間だけ読んで欲しい。

その2分間は、2時間を越えるでしょう。

僕は自信があります。

ぜひ、期待してお待ちください。

 

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

09th. Oct . 2025.

  

追伸

ネトフリに挑戦する男、みっちゃん。😃

  

( iPhone 13 pro shot )

  

本須賀海岸。九十九里浜。山武市。千葉県。日本。10月9日。2025. … 0.9 / 10

(今日の写真。それは未発表です。)

  

Images.

Taylor Swift … This Love ( 和訳 )

youtu.be/PfJzQuqWSSE?si=TrtL4Mb-uN2dNmML

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

第20弾。 😄

以下は、まだ初稿の段階です。まだ推敲します。

公開している内容の順番はバラバラです。

今回で部分的な公開を最後にします。

2026年2月28日。

その日にすべてを公開します。

期待して待っていてください。😃

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

「ジャック、スマホのメッセージを見ろ。またメッセージが飛び込んでいる。IPアドレスは、グランドセントラルターミナルのそばにあるニューヨーク公共図書館の分館、スタヴロス・ニアルコス財団経由だ」

 ベンからのフェイスタイムだった。ガーデンのすぐそば、NYPDのミッドタウン南分署に設置された対策室で待機しているベンからだ。ベンの声はこれだけの事件が起きているにも関わらず、冷静だった。

 ジャックはアイフォンに指を滑らせ、表示された短い文を確かめた。文字列は無造作に並んでいたが文の輪郭を整えているように見えた。 

 

― グランドセントラルの地下コンコースにアーチ形の天井がある。そこへ来い。ジャック・バンス。言うまでもないがひとりでだぞ、と言っても一人ではないと思うがな ― 

 メッセージは、ジャックの胸の内を強く叩いた。

 

 車はヴァンダービルト・アヴェニューを北へ抜け、グランドセントラルの南端に差しかかった。街はまだ朝を迎えきれず、ビルの谷間に籠もった湿気が金属の匂いを帯びていた。

 ジャックはアクセルを抜き、黒いSUVを滑らせるように歩道ぎりぎりへ寄せた。タイヤが縁石をかすめる瞬間、路面に残る雨粒が光の筋となって跳ねた。

 ジャックは重いドアを押し開き、足を落とした。靴音が一拍遅れて石畳に響いた。

 彼は一度だけ背後の通りを見やると、赤いサイレンの反射がショーウィンドウの奥をよぎり、通りの影に沈む通行人の顔を、刹那だけ白く照らした。

 その光の切れ目を縫うように、ジャックは地下コンコースへ降りる階段へと向かった。

 通用扉は重く、金属の軋みがわずかに響いた。構内には地下鉄の呼吸のような低い唸りが満ちていた。

 冷気が頬を打ち、空調ダクトの奥から、遠くの構内放送が滲んで聞こえくる。

 額の汗を拭ったジャックはグランドセントラルの階段を一段飛ばしに駆け降りた。照明の琥珀色が靴底に流れ、ターミナルの心臓の鼓動のように足音が連なった。

 鉄の手すりは冷たく、指先に浅い震えを伝えた。階段の奥からは人の足音が複層的に重なり、地下へと導く古いリズムを刻んでいる。アーチ型の天井は空気を柔らかに吸い込み、照明は薄く膜のように光を張っている。

 地下コンコースの空気は湿り、古い煉瓦の壁は過去の雨を忘れられずに微かに匂っているようだ。床のタイルは長年の踏み跡で曇り、ところどころにひびが走って、そこへ街の小さな記憶が溜まっている。

 ジャックはそれらを意識せずに歩を進めた。彼の視線は、通路の奥にある暗がりへと自然に吸い寄せられていた。そこにはいつもと同じ出勤途中の人たちが早足で過ぎていく。

 壁際に並ぶ古びた看板や掲示板は、折れたチラシを枕にして眠るように貼り付いている。清掃員が一つの帯のようにモップを引き、その先でベンチが一つ、淡い孤独を描くように置かれている。

 通路を流れる空気は、まるで都市の静脈のゆっくりした鼓動だとジャックは思った。自分の呼吸が、その鼓動と同じ拍に馴染むのを感じながら、歩みを進めた。

 足元のタイルに光が差し、影がゆらりと伸びた。エスカレーターの金属音が遠くで微かに鳴り、階段から吹き下りる風がジャックの体にこもった熱を冷ました。街の匂いと、地下の湿り気と、古い電灯の微熱が入り混じって、時間はゆっくりと溶けてゆく。

 歩を止めたジャックは掌をこすり、周囲に視線を散らした。耳に入る雑踏は、独特の反響を帯びて方向感覚を曖昧にする。彼はただ、どこかにいる「それ」を捜しているのだと自分に言い聞かせる。

 再び歩き出した瞬間、金属が擦れる高音が辺りの空気を裂いた。一瞬、彼の頸筋が弾かれ、足元に微かな緊張が走った。反射的に足を止めると、視界の端で受話器が小さく揺れていた。

 コードは年月の重みでねじれ、埃まみれの金属部分が鈍く光っている。誰も使わないはずの電話が、唐突に、祭りの鐘のように鳴った。都市の静寂に差し込む異音。音は低く、しかし確実に空気を震わせた。

 ジャックはゆっくりと視線をそれに向けた。地下の重い空気が一瞬、膝の裏を押すように沈む。耳に届くのは自分の呼吸と、受話器の小さな振動音だけだ。周囲の人々は何事もないように通り過ぎ、母親が幼児の手を引き、老いた男が新聞を折りたたんで小脇に抱え直し、去ってゆく。

 受話器はジャックを呼んでいた。沈黙の裂け目からの呼び声は、まるで古い地図の裏側で震えるインクのように、じわりと広がる。ジャックは無言で手を伸ばし、受話器を取り上げた。金属は冷たく、その冷たさが掌に現実を落とした。

「……ジャック」

 声は低く、だがはっきりしていた。耳に残る音色に、時間が少しだけ逆戻りする気配があった。ネットの映像で見知った声の輪郭。しかしテレビで聞いたときとは異なり、そこには刃ではなく遠い夕焼けのような色度が含まれているようだった。

 ジャックは受話器越しに、通路の端の人影や、ベンチの孤独、床に落ちた小さな紙片──それらが会話の合間に流れ込むのを感じた。声音は会話の窓に、街の細部を滑り込ませるものだ。

「どうした、アミール。覇気のない声だな」

 ジャックの声は静かだが、地面に落ちる石のように重みを持っていた。受話器の向こうで、アミールがすこし鼻で笑うのが聞こえた。

「ときどきは落ち込むこともあるさ、人間だからね」

 その声は穏やかで、かつ遠い。以前に見せた公の顔とは違い、こちらは影の中で磨かれたものだった。通話の間、隣を通り過ぎる親子の会話がスナップのように割り込み、また消えていった。

「ジャック、これから言うことをよく聴け。ま、録音はしてるだろうけどな」

「それはお互い様だろ」

 受話器の向こうで、アミールの言葉は滑らかに落ち、地下のタイルに小さな波紋を作るようだった。周囲の雑音が一度だけ音像を濁らせ、また整頓される。母親の靴音、清掃員のモップの擦れる音、遠くの自販機の冷える音──それらが会話のリズムに交差してゆく。

「俺はこのチームから降りた。理由は、もう多くの人間が死ぬのを見たくないからだ。それだけだ」

 ジャックの指先が受話器の脈動を確かめた。声は冷静を装うが、その奥に震えがあるのを彼は聴き取った。地下の照明の輪郭が、アミールの言葉ごとにわずかに滲む。

「それを信じろって言うのか? お前らの教授、ザカリアはそんな弱音を吐くなって言ってるぞ、せっかく盛大に死んだのに」

 アミールはしばらく黙り、何かを笑い飛ばすような吐息を漏らした。通路の端でキャンディを舐める子供の小さな舌音が、言葉の間を埋めた。

「で、どうしたんだ? 失恋でもしたのか?」

「そんなところだ。この起爆装置は、これからも多くの建物を破壊する」

 その一言が、受話器の内の小さな部屋を突き破った。ジャックは一瞬だけ、地下の光が薄く濁るのを見た。だが通路は相変わらず普段どおりで、誰も振り返らない。異変は音の中にしか存在しない。

「どこにどれくらいセットし、どんな仕掛けなんだ、正確に、手短に話せ。つまらないジョークは混ぜるな」

 ジャックの口調は掴みかけた氷のように冷たい。受話器の向こうでアミールは静かに説明を試みるが、ジャックは言葉の細部よりもその声が持つ重さに耳を澄ます。通話の合間、壁際の電話ボックスの影が長く伸び、床に細い黒い溝を引いた。

「俺たちは、一般人で訓練されたテロリストではない。しかし、渡された情報は各個人へ分散されていた。たとえば今、俺がこうしてあんたに電話しているように裏切りが生まれた時のことを考えてね」

 アミールの声は慎重で、しかし怯えはない。ジャックは受話器を耳にしっかり押し当て、周囲の生活音がそのまま説明の布地となって織り込まれていくのを感じていた。通路の端で老女がバッグを直す音、遠くでシャッターが開く小さな仕事のはじまりの合図が聞こえた。

「俺たちが潜入したのは、今から5年ほど前だ。その頃に建てられていた建造物の中枢にC4を仕掛けた。ラフィは大学で建築学を学んでいたからね。崩壊する様子はもうネットでも100万回再生だからわかってるだろう。起爆させるためには、ミュートリーダーというQRコードを読み取る昔の携帯電話が必要だ。それとペアで独自に俺がつくったタブレットもだ。このタブレットのバッテリー部分、3分の2にC4を埋め込んだ。このタブレットも大昔にあった指紋認証式のタブレットだ。俺が作ったタブレットは2台だ。それがロサンゼルスとニューヨークに分かれて存在している」

「つまり、起爆装置は2台か?」

「わからない。俺の他にも電子工学部の人間がいたからな。それからQRコードを読み取る携帯電話は大昔、あまりに特殊すぎて売れずに浸透しなかった機器だ」

「どういう流れで起爆させるんだ?」

「あるサイトに特殊なQRコードが設置されているらしい。そこに携帯電話をかざして読み込む。QRコードは3Dレイヤーだ。コードが立体的に浮かび上がって解読し、起爆させるコードへ変換させ、電波で飛ばす」

「電波? Wi-Fiではなくか?」

「Wi-Fiだったら、あんたらすぐに止められるだろ? そこは俺がタブレットを改造した。Wi-FiではなくFM電波だ、パイレーツラジオ(海賊ラジオ)と同じ仕組みだ」

「ならば、周波数を駆逐できるぞ」

 アミールはしばらく笑ってからいった。

「周波数はいくらでも変えられるようにアプリを設定した。ちなみに周波数を妨害しようと発せられた電波も起爆するようセットした。つまり、いずれにしても、ドカンだ」

 ジャックは、しばらく沈黙してから続けた。

「QRコードは、どこのサイトにあるんだ?」

「わからない。すべての過程で分散している。ハードの製造、QRコードの場所、起爆させる操作。流れを散らすことで、裏切りを抑止しているようだった」

 ふたりの間に再び沈黙が落ちた。アミールは、足元に落とした視線を引き上げて、いった。

「ジャック、ここまで話しているんだから、知っていたら話しているさ。つまり、ミュートリーダーを手にしている人間にしかわからない。今で言うなら ….」

「ラフィだけ、か」

「そのとおりだ」

 二人の間に沈黙が落ち、通話は薄い氷の上で揺れている。ジャックの呼吸がゆっくりと現実を取り戻した。地下の光は細く、しかししっかりと彼を照らしている。

「アミール、どうして話す?」

「さっきもいったとおりだ。人の死にはうんざりだ」

「お前がこうして喋ることがわかっているのに、ラフィはお前を無傷で解放したのか? この話を信じるにはうますぎないか?」

「確かに。俺が適当なことをいって、あんたらをカモるかもね」

「ジャック、お疲れ様、アミール、その場を動かないで」

 ヴェロニカの落ち着いた声が二人の通話に割り込んだ。

「ジャック、実物はなかなかの男前だな」

 そういったアミールは、ちょうどジャックのいる壁面の反対側で受話器を手にしていた。

 受話器越しの冗談は、地下の湿った空気を幾分、乾かせた。彼らは同じ空間の別々の面を指でなぞっているようだ。

 ジャックは受話器を握りなおし、静かに頷いた。その頷きは、街の鼓動に合わせた小さな合図のようでもあり、また終わりのない季節の一端を告げるものでもあった。通路の光がゆるやかに流れ、影が折り重なり、会話は地下のタイルにゆっくりと染み渡っていった。

 ジャックは、ゆっくり辺りを見渡した。元々、グランドセントラルターミナルをテロから守る為に、日常的に警護していたNYPDが出入り口に構えている。非常事態の現在、ヴェロニカの指示で一斉にアミールを射程内に捕らえていた。ピカティニーレールを持ったM4カービンの赤とグリーンのレーザーサイトがアミールの両足に張り付いていた。おそらく、赤はターミナルのNYPDで、グリーンがヴェロニカのチームだろう。二つの班がアミールの動きを封じようと照準を定めていた。もちろん、照準はアミールの額にはない。

 突然、ジャックの受話器の向こうから頬を叩く音が響いた。

「アミール、あなたは何者なの?」

 その声はアナだった。

 アミールは一瞬目を丸くしたが、すぐに自分を取り戻した。

「ジャック、つけられてたのか? ミス・パテル。君こそ何者なんだ? ジャックの邪魔をしているよ」

 彼はそういって親指を逆さにし、自分の足を示した。そこには、赤とグリーンのレーザーサイトが静かに張り付いていた。アナはアミールに詰め寄ると言い放った。

「いっしょに出頭して」

 その言葉にジャックは付け足した。

「とりあえず捕まれ。詳しい話は、ヴェロニカといっしょに聞いてやる」

 ヴェロニカは足さなかったが、おそらく頷いているだろうと思いながら、ジャックは受話器を持ち替えた。

 アミールは一笑した。

「言うまでもないが、はい、わかりましたというなら、ここで対話してないよな。ほら、列車がたくさん到着したぞ、照準に気をつけな」

 早朝のターミナルに、人が溢れ出した。ターミナルを中心にニューヨークは呼吸している。人の流れは、都市の脈動であり、血流そのものだ。コンコースには人の熱気が溢れ出していた。

 溢れた人の流れに一瞬目を移すと、アナは冷静に、そして穏やかな眼差しでいった。

「おねがい。ジャックのところへ」

 アミールも同じように笑みを消すと、アナの視線を受け入れ、いった。

「君に初めて会った展示の朝を覚えているかい? あれは偶然じゃない。僕は君を殺しに行ったんだ」

 アナの視線が白くなった。眼差しからは生気が失せ、周囲の喧騒に流され、消えていった。そして、どうして? と小さく言葉を落とした。

「君が消えれば、アメリカでボンベイブラッドは、ジャスティンと僕だけだ」

 

////////////////

 

全国のテレビ局が緊急報道に切り替わった。

 キャスターの声は震え、言葉を探す間、画面には会場の静止した映像が映った。スマートフォンの通知が一斉に鳴り、しかし、届くのは言葉ではなく、静寂の報せのように感じられた。

 SNSのタイムラインは瞬く間に情報で埋まり、誰もが画面の中で止まった時間を見つめていた。

「どういうことだ…?」画面を見つめる手が、思わず止まる。

 画面の向こう、遠くの街角でも、カフェでも、オフィスでも、息を呑む人々の姿が映る。

 公園のベンチに座る老女は、手にしたバッグを握りしめ、子供を抱く母親は言葉を失い、運転中の男性はハンドルを握る手に力を込めた。

 沈黙は、都市の喧騒、郊外の静けさ、田舎の広野を一斉に包み込み、世界を一つの深い呼吸に束ねた。

 政府機関では緊急対応が始まっていた。電話が鳴り、スクリーンに赤い警報が灯っている。大統領補佐官は言葉を失い、ペンを握る手が微かに震えている。ホワイトハウス内の廊下は、普段の喧騒を消し、足音だけが響いた。

 誰も正確に理解できないまま、言葉は混乱と恐怖の連鎖として広がっていく。政府内の応急対応が動き、専門家たちが分析を開始する。報告書、通信、カメラ映像、あらゆる情報が交錯するが、四人の存在は、すべての監視の目をすり抜けていた。

 四人の沈黙は、記録に残らず、しかし世界の時間軸に確実な爪痕を刻んだのだ。

 都市、州、国家、世界 — すべてが一瞬にして同じ呼吸をし、同じ時間の中で凍りついた。

 四人の影は、誰にも認識されることなく、世界の中心でその使命を終え、影のまま、夜の帳の中に溶け込んでいった。

  

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僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

舞台はニューヨークです。

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

追記 この小説を多少説明しました。

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

メモ

 

1

「Bombay型(ボンベイ型、hh型)」

•特徴:通常のABO血液型を持たない(A、B、Oに分類されない)特殊な型。

•発見地:1952年、インド・ムンバイ(旧ボンベイ)で初めて確認。

•発生頻度:インドでは1万人に1人程度だが、世界的には約250万人に1人とも。

•輸血制限:同じBombay型しか輸血できない。

 

2

2024年ハーバード大学首席の卒業式スピーチ『知らないことの力』

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

 

3

Shots fired at Trump rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

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Title.

CHASE

 

B♭ (B Flat)

A Novel by Mitsushiro Nakagawa

 

日本語のあらすじ等は下の方にあります😃

 

“Synopsis”

 

A Palestinian group from Gaza hacks into North Korea’s cryptocurrency system, stealing hundreds of millions of dollars. Their true goal is not money—but to recreate the lost homeland of Gaza on American soil.

Amid the backdrop of hardline Republican immigration policies and a growing wave of xenophobia, a quiet plan begins to take shape: the gradual collapse of America from within.

During a speech at Madison Square Garden, Republican presidential candidate Justin Bradford is shot. Almost simultaneously in Los Angeles, former president Owen Reed is attacked at a rally for Democratic hopeful Ryan Bennett.

Two assassinations—mirroring one another—ignite a nation’s deepest divide. Yet, against all odds, Justin survives. His blood type is one in 2.5 million: the Bombay Blood Group.

The only person who can donate such blood is Anaya Patel, a community art facilitator working in Brooklyn. Her blood, stored in the Bellevue Hospital Blood Bank, is used for an emergency transfusion that saves the candidate’s life.

Jack Vance, an agent of the U.S. Secret Service, suspects a Gaza-based network behind the attacks. Together with Cameron Bartlett, the FBI Director of the Los Angeles Field Office, and Veronica Reeves, a senior investigator from New York, he begins to uncover a vast conspiracy.

Their investigation leads them to Rafi Gannam, a former architecture student at the Islamic University of Gaza, who has infiltrated redevelopment sites across Los Angeles and New York—embedding C4 explosives deep within beams and structural cores.

His targets: new residential districts where agents of ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and ERO (Enforcement and Removal Operations) live—symbols of “the order America built.”

Veronica urges the President to pursue dialogue to prevent further destruction, but President Grant M. Ranford refuses to listen.

Meanwhile, the recovering Justin and his Democratic rival Ryan appear on national television, calling for unity beyond political divisions.

Their words of reason, however, are drowned out when Grant takes the stage in Iowa, defiantly declaring: “We will never bow to terror.”

Among the crowd, Rafi’s operatives have already taken their positions.

As chaos erupts and the stage collapses, Amir Nasser—once Rafi’s comrade, haunted by the memory of his sister’s death in Gaza—tries desperately to halt the chain of destruction.

But Rafi’s conviction remains unshaken.

Under the twilight beneath the Williamsburg Bridge, amid the city’s fading noise, the two men part ways.

It is the boundary between prayer and vengeance, between hope and nothingness.

  

“Characters”

 

Anaya Patel – 25, Community Art Facilitator

Arjun Singh – 26, Anaya’s boyfriend, Luminatech Innovations

Mika Sato – 25, Anaya’s friend, Community Art Facilitator

 

Justin Bradford – 27, Republican Presidential Candidate

Eleanor Blake – 26, Justin’s fiancée

 

President Grant M. Langford – 61, Incumbent Republican President

Vice President Charles “Chuck” Baines – 64, Incumbent Republican Vice President

 

Ryan Bennett – 30, Democratic Presidential Candidate

Sophia Bennett – 30, Ryan’s wife

Owen Reed – 65, Former Democratic President

 

Jack Vance – 45, Secret Service, Former FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Ben Holloway – 30, Jack’s colleague

Darryl Ross – 29, Jack’s colleague

Elijah Kane – 28, Jack’s colleague

 

Marcus Dane – 45, FBI Los Angeles Field Office

Cameron Bartlett – 55, FBI Los Angeles Field Office, Field Office Director

Tom Caldwell – 38, FBI Technical Unit, Marcus’s subordinate

 

Veronica Reeves – 41, FBI Special Agent

Alexander Harris – 52, FBI New York Field Office, Field Office Director

Elliot Chen – 36, Technology Unit Chief

Alicia Monroe – 58, FBI Director

 

Zakaria Haddad – 51, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Engineering Professor, New York Team

Amir Nasser – 23, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Former Islamic University Electronics Engineering, New York Team

Rafi Gannam – 32, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

Rohan Shah – 29, Gaza Strip, Palestine; Islamic University, Architecture, New York Team

 

Majid Hamza – 47, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Information Technology, Los Angeles Team

Samira Hammad – 28, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Engineering, Los Angeles Team

Saeed Kabari – 35, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Business Administration, Los Angeles Team

Reem Nasser – 30, Gaza Strip, Palestine; University of Palestine, Media Studies, Los Angeles Team

 

Noah Levi – 55, Israel, residing in Tel Aviv, Jewish

  

B♭ will be released worldwide on February 29, 2026.

Recently, director Ridley Scott remarked that streaming films and series have become dull.

I agree.

If you have two hours to spare for such stories, I ask for only two minutes of your time.

Two minutes with my novel will outlast those two hours.

I am confident of that.

  

Stay tuned.

Mitsushiro

October 9th, 2025

 

P.S.

Micchan — the man who challenges Netflix. 😃

  

(Nikon Coolpix 8700 shot)

Manhattan, New York, U.S.A. 2017 … 11 / 16

(Today’s photo. It has not been published before, but I’ve recently re-edited it from the original.)

  

Images.

 

ONE OK ROCK - We are [ LIVE ]

youtu.be/uyaKoj7wABY?si=l5TIci49GRdoYQDD

  

English lyrics and Japanese translation

youtu.be/wOS8u80wvEs?si=g2ghwRsJRmqn3C22

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

My new novel

B♭ (B Flat)

 

Volume 19😄

The following is still in its draft stage and will be revised further.

Key parts are not disclosed.

The order of the content shown here is mixed.

(Of course, this is not the final version.)

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

My new novel

B♭ (B Flat)

English translation by GPT-5, in collaboration with Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

Twilight sank over the harbor town, dimming the air as the rusted girders along the pier turned a burnished red.

The park in Red Hook was nearly empty; the chains of the swings stirred in the wind, clinking faintly.

Children’s laughter drifted from afar, only deepening the stillness that hung over the place.

Amir stood outside the wire fence, gazing at the scene, and something half-forgotten stirred within him.

There had been evenings, too, in the rubble of Gaza.

Out from the ruins of broken houses, his mother would appear—

breathless, dust clinging to her clothes, coming to find him, to hold him close.

He could still recall the scent of her hair, the warmth of her arms.

“Let’s go home,” she had said.

Even if “home” was nothing more than a collapsing shell of stone and dust, her voice alone had led him back.

A mattress laid atop debris.

A room with no walls, only wind.

Yet each time his mother’s hand brushed his forehead, that place became, undeniably, home.

Amir’s gaze returned to the New York children swaying on the swings.

The innocent rhythm between mothers and sons was repeating itself again, bathed in the soft light of dusk.

It was a world untouched by weapons or blood.

“Rafi,” he murmured, barely louder than the wind,

“maybe… we don’t have to go on.”

Rafi didn’t look away.

His eyes were clouded with the sediment of Gaza—blood and dust, the memory of ruin.

His father’s body fallen in shadow.

Walls blackened with fire.

Dreams torn apart.

What filled him was not tenderness, but a cold and merciless anger.

“Don’t forget, Amir,” he said, his voice hard as stone.

“In the same place where your mother held you, our fathers were slaughtered.

Those ruins are not just ruins.”

Amir fell silent.

The river’s surface rippled red in the twilight; across the East River, the towers of Manhattan shimmered faintly, blurred at the edges.

Peace and destruction, memory and hatred—

they mingled together in the same wind.

Behind the wire fence, children’s laughter still rang out.

But to the two men, it sounded only like an echo from another world.

 

The setting sun sank quietly, staining the bridge’s iron joints red as the heat beneath it trembled in the air.

Rainwater pooled in the cracks of the concrete, reflecting a thin sheet of gold.

A faint steam rose from the damp air, and the salt from the harbor clung to Amir’s nose.

The boarded door of an abandoned factory hung loose,

the wind pushing in old newspapers and leaves, swirling them into tiny spirals.

From afar came the cry of cicadas, and a city bus exhaled a sigh through its brakes.

Beneath the bridge stood Amir, Rafi, and several others scattered in silence.

Some wiped sweat from their brows, eyes lowered to the ground;

others rested hands upon the girders, gazing out toward the distant light.

At intervals, the shadow of a parent waiting for a child passed by,

a white-roofed van gliding through the heat.

Amir rubbed his back, the sweat clinging to his shirt, and sat down in the shadow of the bridge pier.

Rafi stood a short distance away.

Their shadows stretched long, wavering under the harsh westering sun.

No one among their comrades moved; their stillness was a kind of breathless waiting.

“Can’t we stop here?” Amir’s voice wavered into the humid air.

In his mind, he saw again his mother’s hand reaching through a crack in the stone wall—

that small, dirt-stained hand that once touched his cheek.

The desire to return to that warmth still flickered faintly in his chest, like an ember refusing to die.

Rafi clenched his jaw, and spoke through his teeth, his words as brief and cold as a stone cast into the sea.

“Don’t forget, Amir.

If you forget that night, we’ll betray the dead.”

His voice merged with the creak of metal underfoot, irreconcilable with the laughter of children or the cry of cicadas drifting in the distance.

Amir narrowed his eyes, watching the flow of light beyond the railing.

Across the river, windows shimmered in layers—

places where life went on, where dinners were being served,

where children’s laughter and footsteps would echo softly through the gardens.

A deep shadow cut across Rafi’s face.

His fists were clenched, the veins on his hands taut and bright.

“That wish of yours,” he said quietly,

“do you know it might become someone’s gravestone?”

Amir’s gaze fell to a small white rabbit doll at his feet.

It was caked with dust, one eye missing.

Perhaps it belonged to a child who once played beneath this bridge—

or perhaps it had simply wandered here by chance.

Either way, to Amir, that single missing eye seemed like a fleeting glimpse of a world quietly disappearing.

Silence spread between them.

The wind hummed low through the iron beams.

Around them, the world went on moving.

A van door shut.

A parent touched a child’s shoulder.

A bus turned the corner.

Their comrades drew shallow breaths, eyes fixed on the ground or the far horizon.

Without looking back, Amir began walking toward the city beyond the bridge’s shadow.

Behind him came a single breath from Rafi—

a sound that carried the stillness of a corpse.

The summer dusk slowly swallowed the bridge.

The men beneath it remained as faint silhouettes,

poised between the red of sunset and the cold gleam of steel.

Rafi quietly unzipped his bag and drew out a tablet.

His fingers trembled slightly,

but he took a slow breath to steady himself,

and aimed the camera at the mark of “B♭” at the bottom of mellow-echo.net.

A dark screen flickered to life, revealing a deep-layer QR code.

Without hesitation, his finger slid along the words:

“C4-ID: Vanta+Core / Ready.”

That movement sent a faint tremor through the tension of the men beneath the bridge,

blending with the dry scent of rust and the damp summer air.

From the far side of the East River, under another bridge,

sparks began to rise—one, then another—

tiny flashes glowing red in the dark.

The light quivered across the shadows,

and the sound of metal striking metal echoed low.

Rafi’s eyes followed the fading silhouette of Amir’s back.

The others stepped silently away,

drawing a little farther from the bridge.

Moist air clung to Rafi’s skin,

and the mingled red of dusk and chill of steel filled the space around him.

In the hush beneath the bridge,

each flash and creak formed a strange rhythm in his chest.

A cicada cried once in the distance.

The city’s murmur faded to a far-off haze.

Pressed beneath that wave of tension,

the men held their breath,

confirming each other’s presence only through glances and the rhythm of their breathing.

The summer dusk slowly—yet surely—

swallowed the bridge, the city,

and the shadows that remained.

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

There’s still more to come. 😃

(This is not the final draft.)

Set in New York City.

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

Note: I gave a brief explanation of this novel in the following video:

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

 

My new novel:

B♭ (B-flat)

Notes

1. "Bombay Blood Type (hh type)"

•Characteristics: A rare blood type that lacks the usual ABO antigens — cannot be classified as A, B, or O.

•Discovery: First identified in 1952 in Mumbai, India (formerly Bombay).

•Prevalence: Roughly 1 in 10,000 people in India; globally, about 1 in 2.5 million.

•Transfusion Compatibility: Only compatible with blood from other Bombay type donors.

2. 2024 Harvard University Valedictorian Speech – The Power of Not Knowing

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

3. Shots Fired at Trump Rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Title.

CHASE

  

僕の新しい小説

 B♭ (ビーフラット) ……. Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

“あらすじ”

 

北朝鮮の仮想通貨システムをハッキングし、数億ドルを奪取したガザ出身のパレスチナ人グループが、アメリカ合衆国へ密かに潜入する。

彼らの目的は、失われた祖国ガザを、アメリカの地に「復元」することだった。

共和党による強硬な移民政策と、国内にくすぶる排外感情を利用し、アメリカ社会を内側から崩壊させる計画が静かに進行していく。

共和党大統領候補ジャスティン・ブラッドフォードがマディソン・スクエア・ガーデンで演説中に狙撃され、ほぼ同時刻、ロサンゼルスでは前大統領オーウェン・リードもまた、民主党候補ライアン・ベネットの集会で撃たれる。

国家を二分する双方向の暗殺。だが、ジャスティンは奇跡的に生還する。

彼の血液型は、世界でわずか250万人に一人といわれる「ボンベイブラッド」。

その希少な血を提供できたのは、ブルックリンで活動するコミュニティアート・ファシリテーター、アナヤ・パテルだった。

彼女の血液はベルビュー病院の血液バンクに保存されており、緊急輸血によって、候補者の命はかろうじて繋がれた。

シークレットサービスのジャック・バンスは、テロの背後にガザ出身の組織が関与していることを察知し、FBIロサンゼルス支局長官キャメロン・バートレット、ニューヨーク支局の特別捜査官ヴェロニカ・リーブスと共に捜査を進める。

やがて彼らは、イスラム大学で建築学を学んだラフィ・ガンナムが、ロサンゼルスやニューヨークの再開発現場に潜入し、梁や構造体の中枢にC4爆薬を仕込んでいた事実に辿り着く。

標的は、ICE(移民・関税執行局)やERO(執行・送還作戦部門)の職員が暮らす新興住宅街——すなわち、「アメリカが築いた秩序」そのものだった。

ヴェロニカは、これ以上の破壊を防ぐため、大統領への対話を進言するが、現職のグラント・ランフォード大統領は耳を貸さない。

一方、命を取り留めたジャスティンと民主党候補ライアンは、テレビを通じて国民に訴えかけ、分断を乗り越えようとする。

だが、その理性の声を嘲笑うかのように、グラントはアイオワ州での演説を強行し、「テロには屈しない」と宣言する。

その会場には、すでにラフィの仲間が率いる工作チームが潜入していた。

崩壊する会場の惨状を前に、仲間の一人アミール・ナッセルは、かつてガザで妹を失った記憶に引き裂かれ、破壊の連鎖を止めようとする。

だが、ラフィの信念は揺るがない。

ウィリアムズバーグ橋の下、夕暮れの喧騒のなか、二人は決別する。

それは、祈りと報復、希望と虚無の境界線だった——。

 

“登場人物”

 

アナヤ・パテル 25歳 コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

アルジュン・シン 26歳 アナヤの恋人・ルミナテック・イノベーションズ社

 

佐藤 ミカ 25歳 アナの友人・コミュニティアート・ファシリテーター

 

ジャスティン・ブラッドフォード 27歳 共和党大統領候補

エリノア・ブレイク 26歳 ジャスティンの婚約者

 

グラント・M・ランフォード大統領 61歳 共和党大統領現職

チャールズ・ベインズ副大統領 64歳 共和党副大統領現職

 

ライアン・ベネット 30歳 民主党大統領候補

ソフィア・ベネット 30歳 ライアンの妻

 

オーウェン・リード 65歳 民主党前大統領

 

ジャック・バンス 45歳 シークレットサービス 元FBIロサンゼルス支局

ベン・ホロウェイ 30歳 ジャックの同僚

ダリル・ロス 29歳 ジャックの同僚

イライジャ・ケイン 28歳 ジャックの同僚

 

マーカス・デイン 45歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局

キャメロン・バートレット 55歳 FBI ロサンゼルス支局 支局長

トム・コールドウェル 38歳 FBI技術班 マーカスの部下

 

ヴェロニカ・リーヴス 41歳 FBI特別捜査官

アレクサンダー・ハリス 52歳 FBI ニューヨーク支局 支局長

エリオット・チェン 36歳 テクノロジー班主任

 

アリシア・モンロー 58歳 FBI長官

 

ザカリア・ハッダード 51歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 工学部教授 ニューヨークチーム

アミール・ナッセル 23歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 元イスラム大学 電子工学部 ニューヨークチーム

ラフィ・ガンナム 32歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

ロハン・シャー 29歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 イスラム大学 建築学部 ニューヨークチーム

 

マジード・ハムザ 47歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 情報技術学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サミラ・ハンマド 28歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 工学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

サイード・カバリ 35歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 経営学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

リーム・ナセル 30歳 パレスチナ・ガザ地区 パレスチナ大学 メディア学部 ロサンゼルスチーム

 

ノア・レヴィ 55歳 イスラエル テルアビブ在住 ユダヤ人

  

僕のこの小説は、来年、2026年2月末日に公開します。

 

先日、リドリースコット監督がサブスクの映画やドラマ群がつまらないと話していたようだけど、同感です。

僕も非常に退屈です。

それらに2時間を要するなら、僕の小説を2分間だけ読んで欲しい。

その2分間は、2時間を越えるでしょう。

僕は自信があります。

ぜひ、期待してお待ちください。

 

Mitsushiro Nakagawa

09th. Oct . 2025.

  

追伸

ネトフリに挑戦する男、みっちゃん。😃

  

( Nikon coolpix 8700 shot )

  

マンハッタン。ニューヨーク。アメリカ。2017. … 11 / 16

 

(今日の写真。それは未発表済みです。しかし最近、オリジナルから再編集しています。)

  

Images.

 

ONE OK ROCK - We are [ LIVE ]

youtu.be/uyaKoj7wABY?si=l5TIci49GRdoYQDD

  

英詞と和訳

youtu.be/wOS8u80wvEs?si=g2ghwRsJRmqn3C22

  

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

  

第19弾。 😄

以下は、まだ初稿の段階です。まだ推敲します。

重要な部分は公開していません。

公開している内容の順番はバラバラです。

(もちろん最終稿ではありません。)

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

僕の新しい小説。

 

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

English translation by GPT-5, in collaboration with Mitsushiro Nakagawa

  

 夕暮れは港町の空気を沈ませながら、埠頭に錆びついた鉄骨を赤銅色に染めていた。

 レッドフックの公園は人影もまばらで、遊具の鎖が風に揺れ、かすかな音を立てていた。子どもたちの笑い声が遠くにひびき、かえって静けさを際立たせているようだった。

 アミールは金網の外からその光景を見つめ、胸の奥に忘れかけていた感覚を呼び戻していた。

かつてガザの瓦礫の町にも夕暮れはあった。

 破壊された家々のあいだから、母の姿が現れた。息を切らし、砂埃をまといながらも、彼を探して抱きしめに来る母の匂いを、アミールは今も覚えていた。

 「家に帰ろう」と母は言った。

 家とは呼べないほど崩れかけた場所であっても、その声だけが彼を導いた。瓦礫の上に置かれた布団、壁もない部屋に流れ込む風、それでも母の手が彼の額を撫でるたび、そこは確かに家だった。

 アミールの視線は、ブランコに揺れるニューヨークの子どもたちへと戻った。母と子の無邪気な時間が、夕暮れの柔らかな光のなかで繰り返されている。

 その光景は、武器や血とは無縁の世界だった。

「ラフィ……俺たちは、もうやめてもいいんじゃないか」

 低く呟いた声は、風に溶けるほど弱かった。

 ラフィは目を逸らさなかった。その瞳には、ガザの砂塵に埋もれた血の記憶がよどんでいた。

 倒れ伏した父の影、焼け焦げた壁、裂けた夢。彼の胸に満ちているのは、優しさではなく、冷たい怒りだった。

「忘れるな、アミール」

 声は硬い石のように響いた。

「母の腕に抱かれた記憶と同じ場所で、父たちは殺されたんだ。あの瓦礫はただの瓦礫じゃない」

 アミールは唇を閉ざした。

 夕暮れの川面が赤く揺らぎ、イーストリバー越しのマンハッタンの高層ビルの影がかすかに滲んでいた。

 平和と破壊、記憶と憎しみが、同じ風の中で混じり合っていた。

 金網の内では、子どもの笑い声がまだ響いていた。

 しかし、ふたりの耳にはそれが遠い世界の残響にしか思えなかった。

  

///////////////////////////////////

  

 夕陽は鉄の骨の継ぎ目を赤く染めながら、橋の下の熱気に揺れつつ静かに沈み込んだ。

 コンクリートの裂け目に溜まった水が、夕陽を映して薄い金色に光っている。湿った空気にわずかな湯気が立ち、港から流れる潮の匂いがアミールの鼻腔に絡んだ。

 廃工場の戸板は半ば外れ、風が古い新聞紙や枯れ葉を押し込み、小さな渦をつくっていた。蝉の声が遠くから響き、路線バスのブレーキ音が一度、吐息のように洩れた。

 橋の下には、アミールとラフィのほかに、数名の仲間たちが散らばって立っている。肩をすくめ、汗を拭いながら地面に視線を落とす者もいれば、鉄梁に手をかけ、遠くの光景をじっと見つめる者もいた。

 時折、子どもを待つ親の影と、白い屋根の送迎車が通り過ぎる。

 アミールは汗で張り付いたシャツの背中をさすり、橋げたの影に腰を下ろした。

 ラフィは少し離れて立った。影は長く伸び、照りつける西日に揺れていた。仲間たちは微動だにせず、息を殺すようにその場にいる。

「ここでやめられないのか」

 アミールの声は、蒸し暑い夕暮れの空気に溶けかけた。脳裏には、母が崩れた石壁の隙間から差し出した小さな手が浮かんでいた。母の手はいつも、汚れた掌で彼の頬を撫でてくれた。そこに帰りたいという欲が、胸の奥でまだ微かに温かく息をしている。

 ラフィは奥歯を噛みしめ、舌先だけで言った。簡潔で、海に投げる石のように冷たい。

「忘れるな、アミール。あの夜のことを忘れたら、俺たちは死んだ者たちを裏切る」

 その声は、波打つ鉄板の軋みと混じり、遠くの子どもたちの笑い声や蝉の声とは相容れなかった。

 アミールは目を細め、橋の欄干越しに流れてゆく光を見た。向こう岸に、きらめく窓が幾重にも並んでいる。そこには暮らしがあり、夕飯の匂いが立ち、子どもたちの笑い声や庭先で遊ぶ足音が、柔らかく響いているはずだ。

 ラフィの頬に深い影が刺さり、拳を握りしめている。手の甲の血管が鋭く浮いた。

「お前のその願いが、誰かの墓標になることを、お前は知っているのか」

 アミールの視線は、足元に落ちた小さな白いうさぎのぬいぐるみに止まった。埃にまみれ、ひとつの目が欠けていた。

 そのぬいぐるみは、橋の下で遊んだ遠い誰かのものかもしれない。あるいは単に迷い込んだだけかもしれない。どちらにせよ、アミールにはその欠けた目が、消えていく日常の一瞥に思えた。

 沈黙がふたりを隔てた。風が、橋げたの鉄梁を低く鳴らした。

 周囲の世界は動き続ける。送迎車の戸が閉まり、親が子の肩を叩く。バスが一台、角を曲がる。仲間たちは微かに息を整え、視線を地面や遠方に巡らせたままだ。

 アミールは振り返らず、橋の影から街のほうへ歩き出した。

 後ろでラフィの吐息が一つだけ聞こえた。それは骸のような静けさを残し、夏の夕闇が緩やかに橋を飲み込んでゆく。橋下の仲間たちは、かすかな影のまま残り、夕陽の赤と鉄の冷たさの間に佇んでいた。

 ラフィは静かにバッグを開き、タブレットを取り出した。指先に、微かに震えはあったが、心を鎮めるように深く息を吸い、mellow-echo.netの最下部にあるB“♭(フラット)”に、ミュートリーダーのカメラをかざした。暗い画面にディープレイヤーQRコードが浮かび上がると、指先はためらうことなく、“C4-ID:Vanta+Core/Ready.”の文字に沿って滑った。その手の動きは、橋下に残った仲間たちの緊張を微かに揺らし、乾いた鉄の匂いと湿った夏の風に溶けた。

 イーストリバーを挟んだ対岸の橋下から、火花が一点、また一点と立ち上り、暗がりに赤く瞬いた。小さな光は、橋下の影を揺らし、鉄梁にぶつかる音が低く響く。ラフィの視線はアミールの背に残る影を追い、仲間たちは無言で後退りし、橋下から少しずつ距離を取った。

 湿気を帯びた空気がラフィの肌をまとい、夕陽の赤と鉄の冷たさが入り混じる。橋下の静寂の中、火花の閃光と小さな軋みが、ラフィの胸の奥に奇妙な律動を生んだ。遠くで蝉が一声鳴き、街のざわめきは遙か彼方に霞んでゆく。

 その緊張の波に押されるように、橋下の仲間たちは息をひそめ、視線と呼吸だけで互いの存在を確かめあった。

 夏の夕闇は、まるで橋を、街を、そして残された影を静かに、しかし確かに飲み込んでいった。

  

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僕の新しい小説。

 B♭ (ビーフラット)

 

舞台はニューヨークです。

  

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Soundtrack.

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack/pl.u-47...

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

iTunes Playlist Link::

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b/pl.u-47DJGhopxMD

 

For japanese

music.apple.com/jp/playlist/b-my-novel-soundtrack-for-jap...

  

追記 この小説を多少説明しました。

youtu.be/3w65lqUF-YI?si=yG7qy6TPeCL9xRJV

  

メモ

 

1

「Bombay型(ボンベイ型、hh型)」

•特徴:通常のABO血液型を持たない(A、B、Oに分類されない)特殊な型。

•発見地:1952年、インド・ムンバイ(旧ボンベイ)で初めて確認。

•発生頻度:インドでは1万人に1人程度だが、世界的には約250万人に1人とも。

•輸血制限:同じBombay型しか輸血できない。

 

2

2024年ハーバード大学首席の卒業式スピーチ『知らないことの力』

youtu.be/SOUH8iVqSOI?si=Ju-Y728irtcWR71K

 

3

Shots fired at Trump rally

youtu.be/1ejfAkzjEhk?si=ASqJwEmkY-2rW_hT

  

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"In Japanese, ma, the word for space, suggests interval. It is best described as a consciousness of place, not in the sense of an enclosed three-dimensional entity, but rather the simultaneous awareness of form and non-form deriving from an intensification of vision." (Wikipedia)

 

It's one of the most fundamental concepts in the Japanese culture, and its significance is not limited to visual arts. For example, it is said that ma (間) is important in oral communication - silence is a word in Japanese language.

Waves caught breaking simultaneous off a cliff wall.

 

As a surf photographer I look for patterns in the ocean. Here I was waiting for a swell that supposed to arrive before dark, but started to fill in after the sun set. No worries because this motion blur worked out perfect! Hiking for a good hour to find a spot high up a hill to find the view I wanted. Happy with the result.

  

↳ Follow me : Facebook | Instagram | Flickr

 

If you liked this shot please leave a Comment or put it up in your Favourites!

 

If you want to buy this image, please contact me via

Jop Hermans Photography

Bailey being simultaneously coy and athletic. What a guy!

 

The goddess was tall, thin, and fit, with long, natural brown hair, pretty blue eyes, and a great smile!

Cute freckles!

 

It was a nice sunny, windless, warm, winter's day out on the beach, where the sun stays low all day for epic shooting!

 

Shooting simultaneous stills & video rocks! I do it on every shoot now, while also mounting several stationary DSLRs/camcorders for video in addition to the Panasonic or Sony Camcorder bracketed to my Canon 5D or Nikon D800E.

 

The sea & sand goddess was tall, thin, fit, and athletic, with gorgerous brown hair and pretty blue eyes and long legs! She's a dancer! Wearing a pink polka-dot bikini!

 

Pretty freckles too!

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Wet plate process)

This deteriorated dry plate portrait of Theodore Roosevelt is similar to a wet plate image but has substantial differences.

 

The collodion process is an early photographic process.

  

Contents

 

1 Description

2 History

2.1 21st century

3 Advantages

4 Disadvantages

5 Use

6 Search for a dry collodion process

7 Collodion emulsion

8 Collodion emulsion preparation example

9 See also

10 References

11 External links

 

Description

 

Collodion process, mostly synonymous with the "collodion wet plate process", requires the photographic material to be coated, sensitized, exposed and developed within the span of about fifteen minutes, necessitating a portable darkroom for use in the field. Collodion is normally used in its wet form, but can also be used in humid ("preserved") or dry form, at the cost of greatly increased exposure time. The latter made the dry form unsuitable for the usual portraiture work of most professional photographers of the 19th century. The use of the dry form was therefore mostly confined to landscape photography and other special applications where minutes-long exposure times were tolerable.[citation needed]

History

 

The collodion process is said to have been invented in 1851, almost simultaneously, by Frederick Scott Archer and Gustave Le Gray. During the subsequent decades, many photographers and experimenters refined or varied the process. By the end of the 1850s it had almost entirely replaced the first practical photographic process, the daguerreotype.

 

During the 1880s the collodion process, was largely replaced by gelatin dry plates—glass plates with a photographic emulsion of silver halides suspended in gelatin. The dry gelatin emulsion was not only more convenient, but it could also be made much more sensitive, greatly reducing exposure times.

 

One collodion process, the tintype, was in limited use for casual portraiture by some itinerant and amusement park photographers as late as the 1930s, and the wet plate collodion process was still in use in the printing industry in the 1960s for line and tone work (mostly printed material involving black type against a white background) since it was much cheaper than gelatin film in large volumes.[citation needed]

21st century

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

 

The wet plate collodion process has undergone a revival as a historical technique over the past few decades. There are several practising ambrotypists and tintypists who regularly set up and make images at Civil War re-enactments. Fine art photographers use the process and its handcrafted individuality for gallery showings and personal work. There are several makers of reproduction equipment. The process is taught in workshops around the world and several workbooks and manuals are in print. Many artists work with collodion around the globe, including traveling photographer Craig Murphy, Kurt Grüng, Sally Mann, and Ben Cauchi. Other artists to note are Luther Gurlach, James Walker[disambiguation needed], Stephen Burkeman, Sam Davis, Quinn Jacobson and Ken Merfeld. There are many more as well that have contributed to bringing this process forward to a modern age.

Advantages

A portable photography studio in 19th century Ireland. The wet collodion process sometimes gave rise to portable darkrooms, as photographic images needed to be developed while the plate was still wet.

 

The collodion process produced a negative image on a transparent support (glass). This was an improvement over the calotype process, invented by William Henry Fox Talbot, which relied on paper negatives, and the daguerreotype, which produced a one-of-a-kind positive image and could not be replicated. The collodion process, thus combined desirable qualities of the calotype process (enabling the photographer to make a theoretically unlimited number of prints from a single negative) and the daguerreotype (creating a sharpness and clarity that could not be achieved with paper negatives). Collodion printing was typically done on albumen paper.

 

The collodion process had other advantages, especially in comparison with the daguerreotype. It was a relatively inexpensive process. The polishing equipment and fuming equipment needed for the daguerreotype could be dispensed with entirely. The support for the images was glass, which was far less expensive than silver-plated copper, and was more durable than paper negatives. It was also fast for the time, requiring only seconds for exposure.

Disadvantages

 

The wet collodion process had a major disadvantage. The entire process, from coating to developing, had to be done before the plate dried. This gave the photographer no more than 10 minutes to complete everything. This made it inconvenient for field use, as it required a portable darkroom. The plate dripped silver nitrate solution, causing stains and troublesome build-ups in the camera and plate holders.[citation needed]

 

The silver nitrate bath was also a source of problems. It gradually became saturated with alcohol, ether, iodide and bromide salts, dust, and various organic matter. It would lose effectiveness, causing plates to mysteriously fail to produce an image.[citation needed]

 

As with all preceding photographic processes, the wet-collodion process was sensitive only to blue light. Warm colours appear dark, cool colours uniformly light. A sky with clouds is impossible to render, as the spectrum of white clouds contains about as much blue as the sky. Lemons and tomatoes appear a shiny black, and a blue and white tablecloth appears plain white. Victorian sitters who in collodion photographs look as if they are in mourning might have been wearing bright yellow or pink.[1]

Use

"A Veteran with his Wife", taken by an anonymous photographer, shows a British veteran of the Napoleonic era Peninsular Wars. It is a hand-tinted ambrotype using the set collodion positive process, made circa 1860.

 

Despite its disadvantages, wet plate collodion became enormously popular. It was used for portraiture, landscape work, architectural photography and art photography.[citation needed] The world's largest wet process collodion glass plate negatives known to survive, measuring 53 inches (1.35 m) x 37 inches (0.94 m), are held at the State Library of New South Wales.[2][3][4]

 

The wet plate process is used by a number of artists and experimenters who prefer its aesthetic qualities to those of the more modern gelatin silver process.[citation needed] World Wet Plate Day is staged annually in May for contemporary practitioners.[5]

Search for a dry collodion process

 

The extreme inconvenience of exposing wet collodion in the field led to many attempts to develop a dry collodion process, which could be exposed and developed some time after coating. A large number of methods were tried, though none was ever found to be truly practical and consistent in operation. Well-known scientists such as Joseph Sidebotham, Richard Kennett, Major Russell and Frederick Charles Luther Wratten attempted, but never met with good results.[citation needed]

 

Typically, methods involved coating or mixing the collodion with a substance that prevented it from drying quickly. As long as the collodion remained at least partially wet, it retained some of its sensitivity. Common processes involved chemicals such as glycerin, magnesium nitrate, tannic acid and albumen. Others involved more unlikely substances, such as tea, coffee, honey, beer and seemingly unending combinations thereof.[citation needed]

 

Many methods worked to an extent; they allowed the plate to be exposed hours, or even days, after coating. They all possessed the chief disadvantage, that they rendered the plate extremely slow. An image could require anywhere from three to ten times more exposure on a dry plate than on a wet plate.[citation needed]

Collodion emulsion

 

In 1864 W. B. Bolton and B. J. Sayce published an idea for a process that would revolutionize photography. They suggested that sensitive silver salts be formed in a liquid collodion, rather than being precipitated, in-situ, on the surface of a plate. A light-sensitive plate could then be prepared by simply flowing this emulsion across the surface of a glass plate; no silver nitrate bath was required.

 

This idea was soon brought to fruition. First, a printing emulsion was developed using silver chloride. These emulsions were slow, and could not be developed, so they were mostly used for positive printing. Shortly later, silver iodide and silver bromide emulsions were produced. These proved to be significantly faster, and the image could be brought out by development.

 

The emulsions also had the advantage that they could be washed. In the wet collodion process, silver nitrate reacted with a halide salt; potassium iodide, for example. This resulted in a double replacement reaction. The silver and iodine ions in solution reacted, forming silver iodide on the collodion film. However, at the same time, potassium nitrate also formed, from the potassium ions in the iodide and the nitrate ions in the silver. This salt could not be removed in the wet process. However, with the emulsion process, it could be washed out after creation of the emulsion.

 

The speed of the emulsion process was unremarkable. It was not as fast as the ordinary wet process, but was not nearly as slow as the dry plate processes. Its chief advantage was that each plate behaved the same way. Inconsistencies in the ordinary process were rare.

Collodion emulsion preparation example

This section's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. (December 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

 

Below is an example of the preparation of a collodion emulsion, from the late 19th century. The language has been adapted to be more modern, and the units of measure have been converted to metric.

 

4.9 grams of pyroxylin are dissolved in 81.3 ml of alcohol, 148 ml of ether.

 

13 grams of zinc bromide are dissolved in 29.6 ml of alcohol. Four or five drops of nitric acid are added. This is added to half the collodion made above.

 

21.4 grams of silver nitrate are dissolved in 7.4 ml of water. 29.6 ml of alcohol are added. This is then poured into the other half of the collodion; the brominized collodion dropped in, slowly, while stirring.

 

The result is an emulsion of silver bromide. It is left to ripen for 10 to 20 hours, until it attains a creamy consistency. It may then be used or washed, as outlined below.

 

To wash, the emulsion is poured into a dish and the solvents are evaporated until the collodion becomes gelatinous. It is then washed with water, followed by a washing in alcohol. After washing, it is redissolved in a mixture of ether and alcohol and is then ready for use.

 

Emulsions created in this manner could be used wet, but they were often coated on the plate and preserved in similar ways to the dry process.

 

Collodion emulsion plates were developed in an alkaline developer, not unlike those in common use today. An example formula follows.

 

Part A: Pyrogallic acid 96 g Alcohol 1 oz.

 

Part B: Potassium bromide 12 g Distilled Water 30 ml

 

Part C: Ammonium carbonate 80 g Water 30 ml

 

When needed for use, mix 0.37 ml of A, 2.72 ml of B and 10.9 ml of C. Flow this over the plate until developed. If a dry plate is used, first wash the preservative off in running water.[citation needed]

The Escort MKI was developed in the UK and introduced there late 1967. She had her debut on the continent at the Jan. 1968 Brussels Motor Show.

This Escort Mk1 was built simultaneously in the UK, Portugal, Genk (Belgium) and Saarlouis (Germany) and also at other locations in the world.

 

1298 cc L4 engine.

860 kg.

Production Ford Escort Series: Nov. 1967-July 2002.

Production Escort this Mk1 version: Nov. 1967-March 1975.

Original old Dutch reg. number: March 30, 1973.

 

Car was sold fourteen times after 1995 and bought by a garage company two days before this picture was made, at Nov. 14, 2023.

The original colour used to be blue.

 

Photo taken by © Jørgen, not by me.

 

Amsterdam-Centrum, Muiderstraat, Nov. 16, 2023.

 

© 2023 Sander Toonen Amsterdam | All Rights Reserved

The eclectic fabric contortions made by Sonia Gomes ( born Brasil 1948 ) simultaneously evoke the idea of viscera and the sacred object, mixing expressions of love, domesticity, and totemic terror. Weeping fabrics that she has either found or has been given, Gomes follows the fault lines of affect or memory - this child's blanket, that woman's dress, a tablecloth - making and revealing arrangements intuitively, as if she were weaving her history with that of somebody else.

 

In her sheer candour, her sculptures become impressively expressionistic, seemingly free to do as they like, as Gomes herself seems to think about the nature of her artistic process.

 

Her work reflects belief expressed by the Italian Renaissance artist Michelangelo - that his sculpture is a process of revelation, of rendering explicit the inner life of the material. He is known to have said, "Carving is easy, you just have to go down to the skin and stop." Skin is important within the body of Gomes's work. The organ of sensuous contact with the world at once defines and limits its experience. It is not just about finding a work of art well designed or beautiful, it's about feeling it through your fingers.

 

Because cloth is a second skin, a sense of personal history permeates Gomes's fabric sculptures. A believer in the élan dital, a creative force in all organisms, she trusts that every material is magnetized with the latency of life. With that in mind, looking at her sculptures and fabrics reminds us that if almost every piece of fabric can be woven, molded, or tied together in order to become something new, then not only does the object have an inner life, but we, who are experiencing it, have it as well.

 

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonia_Gomes

66597 passes through platform 2 with 4L66 12.28 Wahswood Heath RMC to Parkeston whilst 43055 brings up the rear of 1B48 13.32 Nottingham to St Pancras.

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