View allAll Photos Tagged introspective
How I perceive my disposition: dark, cynical, disheveled, self-conscious, attempting to understand myself.
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Unsubmitted photo - test image
Reflections - BRIEF 1
The people have spoken. Our Photo5 community have chosen ‘Reflections’ for the 2013 Open Brief (and what a great brief it is). The word inspires so many interpretations – whether it be stark reflections from mirrors, or transparent ones upon glass; you might capture an outdoor reservoir, or an introspective reverie. It’s a broad theme, so head towards what inspires you most and bring your own signature style to the shot.
There’s one key piece of advice I’ll offer for this kind of brief – don’t hold back. You need to catch our eye quickly with something original and compelling. So go big, go crazy and be different. Be critical and challenge your ideas. Ask yourself, “will others do something similar?” You really need to try and stand out to beat the other entries.
FLOUR // CONTRAST - Brief 2
Using flour, create a high contrast image with visual punch. Think about capturing a striking difference between elements – like tones or colours – to create a bold statement.
How will the texture of flour appear in high contrast – whether still, airborne or otherwise? How can you use backgrounds and negative space?
Don’t be limited by the flour* provided – you can use as much as you like.
Flour is such a great subject, so don’t be boring. Use it in an interesting way.
Discovering something unique may mean testing a lot of approaches, so don’t be afraid to fail. Be open-minded and experiment.
As the brief says, think about texture. Shutter speed techniques should be considered to create affects and drama in the piece.
EYES // PERSONIFY - Brief 3
First, make some cartoon eyes using the black and white circles inside your Photo5 box. Then use these to create an image that breathes life into something inanimate. Secret faces hide everywhere – on mailboxes and trees, throughout your home – you just need a bit of imagination to see them. Use the cartoon eyes to bring these characters to life. Think about their expressions and personalities. What are they doing? Do they tell a story?
This is a playful brief, so get out and have some fun. Focus on the ‘character’ element of the brief. You really need to create someone or something. How does the setting and scene add to their story? Try to spot something (and create someone) that no one else will.
JELLY // LIGHT - Brief 4
Create an image where light plays upon – or through – the distinctive qualities of jelly. Sometimes, if you look a little closer, everyday things can become quite extraordinary. What magic can you find in jelly? What can you create with it? And how can light make it even more striking? To bring your idea to life, use as much jelly* as you like (not just what’s provided).
Light is the key to any good image, and with a subject matter such as jelly, the opportunities to experiment are endless. So try something new. I want to see inspired effects created with either natural or studio light. Think about how aperture settings affect the subject and image too. Be a magician – create some magic with this ordinary subject.
SHADOWS // STENCIL - Brief 5
Create an image that incorporates light that's filtered through the stencil provided. You can use one pattern, or all of them. How do the shapes interact with difference scenes? What will the shadows fall across? Are the outlines of the shapes hard or soft, distorted or dreamlike? Think about how these shapes can create mood and texture in your image. The two key words from the brief are ‘mood’
and ‘texture’. How will you create these? What interesting techniques can you use?
Consider experimenting with different aperture settings, light sources and any other methods to play with focus in the image. And as with all the briefs, originality stands out. So surprise me
_mg_9162
tyson, this one not as introspective as the other one, demands his dinner at a certain time. no exceptions. "come home late, kloutse. come home late again."
Day 316 ~ Hospital Waiting
Friday, November 11th, 2016
After the election, I needed to withdraw. I went into my introspective cave and hid. Everyone I know and love has been super respectful and has allowed me to have my space. Thank you. Thursday night Jenny called me to let me know that her dad was in the hospital. They thought he had TB but tested negative and he was scheduled to have a lung biopsy on Friday. I had lunch with her on Friday then we went back to the hospital to visit. Robby is feeling fine, he isn’t sick or symptomatic, but there is a hole in one of the lobes of his lung. They still don’t know exactly what it is, but are treating it like a viral infection. On my way out to the car, this scene greeted me. I don’t know who the woman was, but we’ve all been there, haven’t we? Someone we love and care about it is in the hospital and we wait. Waiting is hard. Not knowing is hard. But the tangible love and goodness in life is found in those moments. That clarity strips you down to your bare soul.
Every image is a gentle negotiation between the seen and the unseen.
Black and white portraits and minimalist places dissolve into a calm, lucid silence—where light sculpts the hidden side of the soul and architecture reveals its poetic geometry.
Moments suspended between consciousness and dream, memory and presence, a journey in the language of introspective visual and photographic poetry.
In ogni immagine si consuma una silenziosa trattativa tra visibile e invisibile.
I ritratti in bianco e nero e i luoghi minimali si dissolvono in un silenzio lucido—dove la luce scolpisce il lato nascosto dell’anima e l’architettura rivela la sua geometria poetica.
Attimi sospesi tra conscio e sogno, memoria e presenza, un viaggio nel linguaggio dell’introspezione visiva e della poesia fotografica.
paper collage
9 x 12
2020
Sierra College 23rd Annual Juried Student Exhibition
2021 Juror: Aida Lizalde
Juror’s Statement:
“The Ridley Gallery at Sierra College has over two decades of being a visual arts and cultural hub in Rocklin, CA. It was an honor to be invited to jury their Gallery’s 23rd Annual Juried Student Exhibition, not only because of its significance to the regional art community and its history of exhibiting high caliber international and regional artists but also because I was once a community college student who directly benefited from student exhibitions and the guidance of the faculty who run them. Juried exhibitions and college art galleries presented me with an opportunity to gain experience exhibiting artwork, to find my peers who were also striving for a life in the arts, and to gain confidence and critical thought about my work through being exposed to contemporary art.
Last year, students across the world were faced with an extreme shift in their learning environment, many lost the resources, community, and safe spaces that schools, and especially art classrooms, provide for us. I admire the creativity, commitment, and achievement of all the students who submitted artwork, and the fact that the Ridley Gallery adapted their curatorial practices to continue creating a space, albeit virtual, to welcome their student’s work.
This exhibition showcased a strong move toward new media. Much of the work challenged the categories that we are used to, including artwork that fit the traditional gallery space and a more widespread viewing experience of visual media structured through internet culture. Some works reinforced the importance of traditional media like painting, drawing, and ceramics, to interpret introspective and personal spaces in a time of isolation, struggle, and healing.
I was impressed by the quality of work, the range in media, themes, and experimentation of the submissions. Many works showed concerns for the current events that our country is facing like the pandemic, race inequality, and wellness, and they did so with care and originality. Black Live Matters Tribute (2020) is an honest and potent view on being Black with powerful spoken word poetry and graphics, Lost Connections (2020) by Michael Caspi and Science or Magic by Kevin Belcastro (2020) focus on narrative, and in the case of Belcastro, a humorous and imaginative perspective. I admired the technical skill in digital paintings from Sheryl Rivera and Christina Becher, the strong personal symbolism in Kristol Lopez’ Daughter of Buffalo Haired Woman (2019), the mystery and visual poetry of Kimberly Tagye in Train from Berlin (2019), and Michael Quinn’s Orion and Joshua (2020). These were just a few of many artworks that I viewed with enthusiasm, curiosity, and delight, but many more showcase a promising future in the field and dominance over media. The artists included in this exhibition represent the genuine diversity of backgrounds and skills that Sierra College nurtures, and the timely and highly creative interpretation of our current society’s struggle, vision, and adaptability.” - Aida Lizalde
Serving as a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force, Edwards was decorated with the Victoria Cross in 1941 for his efforts in leading a bombing raid against the port of Bremen, one of the most heavily-defended towns in Germany. He became the most highly-decorated Australian serviceman of the Second World War.[1]
Born in Fremantle, Western Australia, Edwards joined the Royal Australian Air Force in 1935, and a year later was granted a short service commission with the Royal Air Force. Serving with the RAF throughout the Second World War, he gained a permanent commission and continued his career in the RAF after the war; he retired in 1963 with the rank of air commodore. Returning to Australia, he was made Governor of Western Australia in 1974.
Contents
1 Early life
2 Early Air Force career
3 Second World War
4 Later career
5 Later life and governorship
6 Notes
7 References
8 External links
Early life
Edwards was born in Fremantle, Western Australia on 1 August 1914, the third of five children to Welsh parents Hugh, a blacksmith and farrier, and his wife Jane (née Watkins), who had emigrated to Australia in 1909.[2] Named after his father, he was always referred to by his middle name of Idwal in his family.[3] Edwards received his initial education at White Gum Valley School, before attending the Fremantle Boy's School where he achieved well academically, although he later claimed this was due to a good memory rather than high intelligence. However, Edwards was reluctantly forced to leave school at the age of fourteen as the family finances could no longer support him.[4][5] Described as a "shy, under-confident, introspective and imaginative lad" at this stage in his life,[4] he gained employment as a shipping office clerk.[6]
With the onset of the Great Depression, Edwards found himself unemployed, before gaining a job with a horse racing stable in Fremantle. His position entailed him taking the horses to the beach each morning for a swim, grooming them, and attending the twice weekly race meetings; a lifelong interest in horse racing consequently emerged at this time.[4] After later working for a brief period in a factory, he enlisted in the Australian Army in March 1933 and was posted to the 6th Heavy Battery, Royal Australian Artillery, with the rank of private. During this period, Edwards was an active sportsman, excelling in Australian rules football—where he played six matches with leading Western Australian Football League (WAFL) club South Fremantle[7]—and cricket with the Fremantle garrison team.[5]
Early Air Force career
In 1935, he was selected for flying training with the Royal Australian Air Force at RAAF Point Cook, after which he transferred to the RAF, being granted a short service commission as a pilot officer on 21 August 1936.[8] Posted to No. 15 Bomber Squadron, he was appointed adjutant of No. 90 Squadron in March 1937, flying Blenheim bombers. He received a promotion to flying officer on 21 May 1938.[9]
In August 1938, Edwards was piloting a Blenheim near the Scottish border when he flew into a storm at 2,300 metres. When the ailerons froze, the aircraft was forced down to 1,600 metres and Edwards ordered the navigator and rear gunner to bale out of the aircraft. Down to 230 metres, he made an effort to jump clear, but his parachute became entangled with the bomber's radio mast pylon. In the ensuing crash, he sustained head injuries and a badly broken leg, which was only saved after extensive surgery, which left that leg shorter than the other. After the accident, he was declared unfit for flying duties until April 1940, when he was posted to No. 139 Squadron for active service due to the outbreak of war.[6] He was promoted to flight lieutenant on 21 May 1940.[10]
Second World War
In May 1941, Edwards was made Commanding Officer of No. 105 Squadron replacing their squadron commander who had been killed in an anti-shipping raid on Stavanger. At that time, the Squadron was engaged in a series of daylight operations against Germany and the occupied countries, with its principal targets being enemy shipping, power installiations, shipbuilding yards, locomotives, steelworks and marshalling yards.[6] On 15 June, by now an acting wing commander, Edwards led six Blenheim bombers on a search for enemy shipping and soon sighted a convoy of eight merchantmen anchored near The Hague. He launched an attack at low level, his bombs striking a 4,000 ton ship. He was subsequently awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for this action.[11]
On 4 July 1941, Edwards led a daylight attack ("Operation Wreckage") against the port of Bremen, one of the most heavily-defended towns in Germany. Edwards' force of twelve Blenheims attacked at a height of about 50 feet through telephone wires and high voltage power lines. The bombers successfully penetrated fierce anti-aircraft fire and a dense balloon barrage, but further fire over the port itself resulted in the loss of four of the attacking force. Edwards brought his remaining aircraft safely back, although all had been hit and his own Blenheim (serial V6028) had been hit over 20 times. His actions in the raid earned him the Victoria Cross (VC).[12]
The full citation for Edwards' Victoria Cross appeared in the London Gazette on 22 July 1941, it read:[13]
Air Ministry, 22nd July, 1941.
ROYAL AIR FORCE
The KING has been graciously pleased to confer the Victoria Cross on the undermentioned officer in recognition of most conspicuous bravery:—
Acting Wing Commander Hughie Idwal Edwards, D.F.C. (39005), No 105. Squadron.
Wing Commander Edwards, although handicapped by a physical disability resulting from a flying accident, has repeatedly displayed gallantry of the highest order in pressing home bombing attacks from very low heights against strongly defended objectives.
On 4th July, 1941, he led an important attack on the Port of Bremen, one of the most heavily defended towns in Germany. This attack had to be made in daylight and there were no clouds to afford concealment. During the approach to the German coast several enemy ships were sighted and Wing Commander Edwards knew that his aircraft would be reported and that the defences would be in a state of readiness. Undaunted by this misfortune he brought his formation 50 miles overland to the target, flying at a height of little more than 50 feet, passing under high-tension cables, carrying away telegraph wires and finally passing through a formidable balloon barrage. On reaching Bremen he was met with a hail of fire, all his aircraft being hit and four of them being destroyed. Nevertheless he made a most successful attack, and then with the greatest skill and coolness withdrew the surviving aircraft without further loss.
Throughout the execution of this operation which he had planned personally with full knowledge of the risks entailed, Wing Commander Edwards displayed the highest possible standard of gallantry and determination.
Photograph of a man with two women. The man is in the centre, wearing military uniform, a cap and a large coat, with a bag over his shoulder. He is holding the hand over the younger woman on his right. Both women are dressed formally, with hats and fur coats.
Edwards with his wife, left, and mother-in-law, right, leaving Buckingham Palace after attending an investiture ceremony.
In July 1941, Edwards took the Squadron to Malta, in order to conduct operations against Axis shipping carrying reinforcements from Italy to Tripoli and Benghazi. The unit remained in the area until October, when they returned to Britain. Participating in a goodwill mission to the United States, he was appointed chief flying instructor at an operational training unit in January 1942, before re-assuming command of No. 105 Squadron on 3 August.[6] During this time, Edwards married Cherry Kyrle "Pat" Beresford; the pair were later to have a son, Anthony, and a daughter, Sarah.[14][15] He was promoted to temporary wing commander on 1 September.[16]
On 6 December 1942, Edwards participated in a daylight bombing raid on the Philips Factory at Eindhoven, the Netherlands. Despite heavy opposition, the bombers successfully damaged or destroyed many of their targets, with two gun posts being silenced. Several members of the raid were decorated, including Edwards, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO);[17] becoming the first airman to receive the Victoria Cross, Distinguished Service Order and Distinguished Flying Cross in the Second World War.[14] Promoted to acting group captain, he assumed command of the bomber station at Binbrook in February 1943, where, despite his senior position, he continued to participate in operations.[18] On 18 August, he was promoted to war substantive wing commander.[19]
With the end of the European campaigns in sight, Edwards was transferred to the Pacific theatre, first to Ceylon as Group Captain, Bomber Operations. In January 1945, he was Mentioned in Despatches,[20] and appointed the senior administrative staff officer at Headquarters, South East Asia Command; serving in this position until the conclusion of the war.[14]
Later career
Edwards continued his career in the post-war RAF, and was granted the substantive rank of squadron leader from 1 September 1945.[21] Posted as a staff officer at Air Headquarters, Malaya, from November 1945 until February 1946, he served with the Netherlands East Indies Forces for a short period before returning to Malaya as air adviser to the General Officer Commanding. In September 1945, he was posted as station commander at the RAF Base in Kuala Lumpur; he remained there until May 1947,[14] and was awarded an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his services in south-east Asia.[22]
Returning to Britain in June 1947, he undertook a six month course at the Staff College, before receiving a two year posting as senior personnel staff officer of No. 21 Group, Flying Training Command. Promoted to wing commander on 1 July 1947,[23] his next posting was as the senior instructor on the leadership course at Digby, Lincolnshire. Subsequently, he was appointed station commander at Wattisham, Suffolk. He was promoted to group captain on 1 January 1954.[24] During the Suez Crisis, Edwards commanded the RAF Station at Habbaniyah in Iraq, before returning to Britain on 21 October 1958 to command the Central Fighter Establishment, West Raynham, with the acting rank of air commodore.[14]
Awarded a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1959 New Year Honours,[25] he was promoted to the substantive rank of air commodore on 1 July 1959,[26] and appointed as an aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II in March 1960.[14] His final appointment with the RAF was as Director of Establishments at the Air Ministry, London, from January 1962 until his retirement on 30 September 1963.[12]
Later life and governorship
Bronze, life size statue of a man wearing the clothes and equipment of an aviator. A street and buildings can be seen in the background.
Statue of Edwards in Fremantle, Western Australia.
Returning to Australia, Edwards became the Australian Representative for Selection Trust.[18] In 1966 his wife, Cherry, died; he married Dorothy Carew Berrick in 1972. The pair were said to complement each other well, as Dorothy limped on her left leg after being knocked over by a car on a crosswalk in Sydney in 1970, while Edwards limped with his right after his flying accident in 1938.[27] In 1974, Edwards relinquished his position as the Australian Representative for Selection Trust and was appointed Governor of Western Australia. He was sworn in on 7 January 1974,[28] and knighted as a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) the following October.[29]
His knighthood involved some controversy, following his wife's public comment that he was the only Australian state governor without such an honour. As knighthoods were then conferred by the Queen on the recommendation of her Federal and State governments, and the Governor was the Queen's representative in the state, this was seen as highly inappropriate, especially given the Western Australian ALP State government of the day, led by John Tonkin had a policy of not recommending Imperial Honours. However, the Tonkin Government was defeated in April 1974 and the incoming Liberal Premier, Sir Charles Court, was happy to make the necessary recommendation.[30]
While Governor, Edwards' first official role was to christen Alan Bond's America Cup challenger, Southern Cross. One of the couple's first visitors to the Governor's estate was a man by the name of Thomas Dunhill, who had consumed ten beers and wanted to see the house. Lady Edwards apparently found him in the pantry; he was arrested by the police but no charges were laid.[27] Ill health forced Edwards to resign his vice-regal appointment on 2 April 1975,[14] and he and Lady Edwards went to live in Sydney, where he continued in semi-retirement with commercial interests.[27]
On 5 August 1982, while on his way to attend a Test match at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Edwards unexpectedly collapsed and died; he was buried in the Karrakatta Cemetery, Perth, after a State Funeral. His Victoria Cross is on display at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra,[31] and on 26 November 2002 a life-size bronze statue depicting Edwards was unveiled by then Governor of Western Australia, John Sanderson, in Kings Square, Fremantle.[32] The Hugh Edwards Ward at Hollywood Private Hospital has been named in his honour.[
Unsubmitted photo - test image
Reflections - BRIEF 1
The people have spoken. Our Photo5 community have chosen ‘Reflections’ for the 2013 Open Brief (and what a great brief it is). The word inspires so many interpretations – whether it be stark reflections from mirrors, or transparent ones upon glass; you might capture an outdoor reservoir, or an introspective reverie. It’s a broad theme, so head towards what inspires you most and bring your own signature style to the shot.
There’s one key piece of advice I’ll offer for this kind of brief – don’t hold back. You need to catch our eye quickly with something original and compelling. So go big, go crazy and be different. Be critical and challenge your ideas. Ask yourself, “will others do something similar?” You really need to try and stand out to beat the other entries.
FLOUR // CONTRAST - Brief 2
Using flour, create a high contrast image with visual punch. Think about capturing a striking difference between elements – like tones or colours – to create a bold statement.
How will the texture of flour appear in high contrast – whether still, airborne or otherwise? How can you use backgrounds and negative space?
Don’t be limited by the flour* provided – you can use as much as you like.
Flour is such a great subject, so don’t be boring. Use it in an interesting way.
Discovering something unique may mean testing a lot of approaches, so don’t be afraid to fail. Be open-minded and experiment.
As the brief says, think about texture. Shutter speed techniques should be considered to create affects and drama in the piece.
EYES // PERSONIFY - Brief 3
First, make some cartoon eyes using the black and white circles inside your Photo5 box. Then use these to create an image that breathes life into something inanimate. Secret faces hide everywhere – on mailboxes and trees, throughout your home – you just need a bit of imagination to see them. Use the cartoon eyes to bring these characters to life. Think about their expressions and personalities. What are they doing? Do they tell a story?
This is a playful brief, so get out and have some fun. Focus on the ‘character’ element of the brief. You really need to create someone or something. How does the setting and scene add to their story? Try to spot something (and create someone) that no one else will.
JELLY // LIGHT - Brief 4
Create an image where light plays upon – or through – the distinctive qualities of jelly. Sometimes, if you look a little closer, everyday things can become quite extraordinary. What magic can you find in jelly? What can you create with it? And how can light make it even more striking? To bring your idea to life, use as much jelly* as you like (not just what’s provided).
Light is the key to any good image, and with a subject matter such as jelly, the opportunities to experiment are endless. So try something new. I want to see inspired effects created with either natural or studio light. Think about how aperture settings affect the subject and image too. Be a magician – create some magic with this ordinary subject.
SHADOWS // STENCIL - Brief 5
Create an image that incorporates light that's filtered through the stencil provided. You can use one pattern, or all of them. How do the shapes interact with difference scenes? What will the shadows fall across? Are the outlines of the shapes hard or soft, distorted or dreamlike? Think about how these shapes can create mood and texture in your image. The two key words from the brief are ‘mood’
and ‘texture’. How will you create these? What interesting techniques can you use?
Consider experimenting with different aperture settings, light sources and any other methods to play with focus in the image. And as with all the briefs, originality stands out. So surprise me
_mg_9418
Belgian freecard by Boomerang.be. Photo: Warner Bros. Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss in The Matrix Reloaded (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 2003).
Keanu Reeves (1964) is a Canadian actor, producer, director and musician. Though Reeves often faced criticism for his deadpan delivery and perceived limited range as an actor, he nonetheless took on roles in a variety of genres, doing everything from introspective art-house fare to action-packed thrillers. His films include My Own Private Idaho (1991), the European drama Little Buddha (1993), Speed (1994), The Matrix (1999) and John Wick (2014).
Keanu Charles Reeves was born in 1964, in Beirut, Lebanon. His first name means ‘cool breeze over the mountains’ in Hawaiian. His father, Samuel Nowlin Reeves Jr., was a geologist of Chinese-Hawaiian heritage, and his mother, Patricia Bond (née Taylor), was a British showgirl and later a costume designer for rock stars such as Alice Cooper. Reeves's mother was working in Beirut when she met his father. Upon his parents’ split in 1966, Keanu moved with his mother and younger sister Kim Reeves to Sydney, to New York and then to Toronto. As a child, he lived with various stepfathers, including stage and film director Paul Aaron. Keanu developed an ardour for hockey, though he would eventually turn to acting. At 15, he played Mercutio in a stage production of 'Romeo and Juliet' at the Leah Posluns Theatre. Reeves dropped out of high school when he was 17. His film debut was the Canadian feature One Step Away (Robert Fortier, 1985). After a part in the teen movie Youngblood (Peter Markle, 1986), starring Rob Lowe, he obtained a green card through stepfather Paul Aaron and moved to Los Angeles. After a few minor roles, he gained attention for his performance in the dark drama River's Edge (Tim Hunter, 1986), which depicted how a murder affected a group of adolescents. Reeves landed a supporting role in the Oscar-nominated period drama Dangerous Liaisons (Stephen Frears, 1988), starring Glenn Close and John Malkovich. Reeves joined the casts of Ron Howard's comedy Parenthood (1989), and Lawrence Kasdan's I Love You to Death (1990). Unexpectedly successful was the wacky comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (Stephen Herek, 1989) which followed two high school students (Reeves and Alex Winter) and their time-travelling high jinks. The success led to a TV series and a sequel, Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey (Pete Hewitt, 1991). From then on, audiences often confused Reeves's real-life persona with that of his doofy on-screen counterpart.
In the following years, Keanu Reeves tried to shake the Ted stigma. He developed an eclectic film roster that included high-budget action films like the surf thriller Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991) for which he won MTV's ‘Most Desirable Male’ award in 1992, but also lower-budget art-house films. My Own Private Idaho (1991), directed by Gus Van Sant and co-starring River Phoenix, chronicled the lives of two young hustlers living on the streets. In Francis Ford Coppola’s adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992), Reeves embodied the calm resolute lawyer Jonathan Harker who stumbles into the lair of Gary Oldman’s Count Dracula. In Europe, he played Prince Siddharta who became the Buddha in Bernardo Bertolucci’s Italian-French-British drama Little Buddha (1993). His career reached a new high when he starred opposite Sandra Bullock in the hit action film Speed (Jan de Bont, 1994). It was followed by the romantic drama A Walk in the Clouds (Alfonso Arau, 1995) and the supernatural thriller Devil’s Advocate (Taylor Hackford, 1997), co-starring Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. At the close of the decade, Reeves starred in a Sci-Fi film that would become a genre game changer, The Matrix (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 1999). Reeves played the prophetic figure Neo, slated to lead humanity to freedom from an all-consuming simulated world. Known for its innovative fight sequences, avant-garde special effects and gorgeous fashion, The Matrix was an international hit. Two sequels, The Matrix Reloaded (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 1999) and The Matrix Revolutions (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 1999) followed and The Matrix Reloaded was even a bigger financial blockbuster than its predecessor.
Now a major, bonafide box office star, Keanu Reeves continued to work in different genres and both in big-budget as in small independent films. He played an abusive man in the supernatural thriller The Gift (Sam Raimi, 2000), starring Cate Blanchett, a smitten doctor in the romantic comedy Something’s Gotta Give (Nancy Meyers, 2003) opposite Diane Keaton, and a Brit demon hunter in the American-German occult detective film Constantine (Francis Lawrence, 2005). His appearance in the animated Science Fiction thriller A Scanner Darkly (Richard Linklater, 2006), based on the novel by Philip K. Dick, received favourable reviews, and The Lake House (Alejandro Agresti, 2006), his romantic outing with Sandra Bullock, was a success at the box office. Reeves returned to Sci-Fi as alien Klaatu in The Day the Earth Stood Still (Scott Derrickson, 2008), the remake of the 1951 classic. Then he played a supporting part in Rebecca Miller's The Private Life of Pippa Lee (2009), which starred Robin Wright and premiered at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival. Reeves co-founded a production company, Company Films. The company helped produce Henry's Crime (Malcolm Venville, 2010), in which Reeves also starred. The actor made his directorial debut with the Chinese-American Martial arts film Man of Tai Chi (2013), partly inspired by the life of Reeves' friend, stuntman Tiger Chen. Martial arts–based themes continued in Reeves's next feature, 47 Ronin (Carl Rinsch, 2013), about a real-life group of masterless samurai in 18th-century Japan who avenged the death of their lord. Variety magazine listed 47 Ronin as one of "Hollywood's biggest box office bombs of 2013". Reeves returned as a retired hitman in the Neo-Noir action thriller John Wick (Chad Stahelski, David Leitch, 2014). The film opened to positive reviews and performed well at the box office. A sequel, titled John Wick: Chapter Two, is currently in production and is scheduled to be released in 2017. This year, he could be seen in the psychological horror film The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2016) and the romantic horror-thriller Bad Batch (Ana Lily Amirpour, 2016). Reeves’ artistic aspirations are not limited to film. In the early 1990s, he co-founded the grunge band Dogstar, which released two albums. He later played bass for a band called Becky. Reeves is also a longtime motorcycle enthusiast. After asking designer Gard Hollinger to create a custom-built bike for him, the two went into business together with the formation of Arch Motorcycle Company LLC in 2011. Reported to be one of the more generous actors in Hollywood, Reeves helped care for his sister during her lengthy battle with leukaemia and has supported such organisations as Stand Up To Cancer and PETA. In January 2000, Reeves's girlfriend, Jennifer Syme, gave birth eight months into her pregnancy to Ava Archer Syme-Reeves, who was stillborn. The strain put on their relationship by their grief resulted in Reeves and Syme's breakup several weeks later. In 2001, Syme died after a car accident.
Sources: Biography.com, Wikipedia, and IMDb.
And, please check out our blog European Film Star Postcards.
Depeche Mode were strung like the Phantom of the Opera; on the one hand ashamed and hidden, and on the other, a star without a stage, craving the light like a dying sunflower. This duality has placed Depeche Mode in a unique position, niche, gloomy, introspective stadium fillers. Too influential to be underground, yet not mainstream either. They filled a space no-one in the music industry even knew was there, and yet into that breathless vacuum has rushed more than two generations of fanatical fans to prostrate themselves on the alter of Gahan's strutting vocals, Fletch's inimical synth or Gore's dark, biblical obsessions with girls, spirituality, girls and women.
Songs of Faith and Devotion wasn't their finest album, but that is no way a slight, because 20 years later it remains one of the most interesting. Dropping in summer 1993, we faced a taut, stringy Dave Gahan, tattooed and filled with the vacant joys of heroin. Dave had been deeply impressed by the emergent grunge scene spear-headed by Nirvana, Jane's Addiction and Pearl Jam. He was ready to take DP in a new direction and ready to issue ultimatums to Gore and Fletch. Anybody who's seen the 1989 documentary 'Depeche Mode 101" and beheld the wonders of Gahan striding around in his Y-fronts threatening to fire his manager would recognise the force of character in the deceptively soft-voiced singer. Yet somehow the quartet managed to find a middle ground , it worked. Somehow.
Songs of Faith and Devotion is the only radical departure, sonically, in DP's back-catalogue. Gahan's immersion in LA culture and Grunge can be heard in the muscular flex of real guitars - yes real guitar in a Depeche Mode record! - and the throb of a drum that doesn't require the suffix 'machine'. Furthermore it seems to be the album the divides fans like no other, yes electro purists should look elsewhere, but there are standout records on the album that are classic Depeche Mode, even with the conventionally rock emphasis. Let's start with track 1, "I Feel You", a brawny-belter, banded about with muscle and foot-stomping grandiosity. Yes it's unusually aggressive for a band of DP's reputation but none more so than their signature tune 'Personal Jesus'.
'Walking in My Shoes" is more recognisable DP, eloquent with beautiful counter-melodies and gorgeous synth textures curtesy of Fletch. "Condemnation' is a true oddity, a gospel song sung with utter conviction by Gahan. It may in fact by the vocal performance of his career. It is an odd inclusion however and reflects the degree of varying musical influences that were struggling for dominance within the band at the time. Perhaps in some ways it says more than that about the people in it.
After this strong opening we have (and it pains me to say this in ways you cannot comprehend), the usual collection of hits and misses. I hesitate to call Depeche Mode a singles band, but I perhaps only 'Music for the Masses' and 'Violator' are albums that I can put my hand on my heart and say I appreciate each and every track. In Your Room' is the standout recording, a histrionic warbler, a slow-builder with a deeply spiritual preoccupation and vocal. It stands shoulder to shoulder with the best of DP.
'Rush' and 'Mercy in You" are worth noting, the former with a rocky, powerful sound and fatty drum reminiscent of early Trent Reznor. The latter mixes classic DP, gloomy, pretentious, unfulfilled, with a hint of throaty guitar feedback and bluesy dirt.
Despite sometimes being likened to a proverbial Black Sheep, Songs of Faith and Devotion would be a chart topper in both the US and UK, proving that for a band that hit its peak with 1990's 'Violator", there was still the worshippers, the faithful. The ones still enthralled by a band that sings about nothing we know, little we understand and everything that we feel.
Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil
War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.
This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.
They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.
But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.
This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.
Where the Thinkers Go
They gather where the dust has settled,
where books whisper in the hush of halls.
Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,
cradling centuries of questions.
They drink coffee like it’s ink,
trace words like constellations,
follow Rilke into the dusk,
where solitude hums softly in the dark.
Outside, the world is fraying—
war threading through the seams of cities,
the weight of history pressing forward.
Inside, they turn pages, searching
for answers, for solace, for fire.
And somewhere between the lines,
between time-stained margins and fading ink,
they find the ghosts of others who
once sought, once wondered, once read—
and they do not feel alone.
Three Haikus
Night falls on paper,
books stacked like silent towers,
thoughts burn in the dark.
Tea cools in the cup,
a poem lingers on lips,
war rumbles beyond.
Footsteps in silence,
the scent of old ink and dust,
pages turn like ghosts.
ooOOOoo
Reading as Resistance
These young women do not read passively. They underline, they take notes, they write in the margins. They challenge the texts and themselves. They read because the world demands it of them—because, in a time of conflict and uncertainty, thought itself is an act of resistance.
Their books are worn, their pages stained with coffee, their minds alive with the urgency of understanding.
1. Political Thought, Society & Liberation
Essays, theory and critique on democracy, power and resistance.
Chantal Mouffe – For a Left Populism (rethinking democracy through radical left-wing populism)
Nancy Fraser – Cannibal Capitalism (an urgent critique of capitalism’s role in the destruction of democracy, the planet, and social justice)
Étienne Balibar – Citizenship (rethinking the idea of citizenship in an era of migration and inequality)
Silvia Federici – Caliban and the Witch (a feminist Marxist analysis of capitalism and gender oppression)
Didier Eribon – Returning to Reims (a deeply personal sociological reflection on class and identity in contemporary Europe)
Antonio Negri & Michael Hardt – Empire (rethinking global capitalism and resistance from a leftist perspective)
Thomas Piketty – Capital and Ideology (a profound analysis of wealth distribution, inequality, and the future of economic justice)
Mark Fisher – Capitalist Realism (on why it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism)
2. Feminist & Queer Theory, Gender & Body Politics
Texts that redefine identity, gender, and liberation in the 21st century.
Paul B. Preciado – Testo Junkie (an autobiographical, philosophical essay on gender, hormones, and biopolitics)
Judith Butler – The Force of Nonviolence (rethinking ethics and resistance beyond violence)
Virginie Despentes – King Kong Theory (a raw and radical take on sex, power, and feminism)
Amia Srinivasan – The Right to Sex (rethinking sex, power, and feminism for a new generation)
Laurent de Sutter – Narcocapitalism (on how capitalism exploits our bodies, desires, and emotions)
Sara Ahmed – Living a Feminist Life (a deeply personal and political exploration of what it means to be feminist today)
3. Literature & Poetry of Resistance, Liberation & Exile
European novels, poetry and literature that embrace freedom, revolution, and identity.
Annie Ernaux – The Years (a groundbreaking memoir that blends personal and collective history, feminism, and social change)
Olga Tokarczuk – The Books of Jacob (an epic novel about alternative histories, belief systems, and European identity)
Édouard Louis – Who Killed My Father (a deeply political and personal exploration of class struggle and masculinity)
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other (a polyphonic novel on race, gender, and identity in contemporary Europe)
Maggie Nelson (though American, widely read in European academia) – On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (a poetic, intellectual meditation on freedom and constraint)
Benjamín Labatut – When We Cease to Understand the World (a deeply philosophical novel on science, war, and moral responsibility)
Michel Houellebecq – Submission (controversial but widely read as a dystopian critique of political passivity in Europe)
4. Ecology, Anti-Capitalism & Posthumanism
Texts that explore the intersections of nature, economics, and radical change.
Bruno Latour – Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (rethinking ecology and politics in a world of climate crisis)
Andreas Malm – How to Blow Up a Pipeline (on the ethics of radical environmental resistance)
Emanuele Coccia – The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture (rethinking human and non-human coexistence)
Isabelle Stengers – Another Science is Possible (rethinking knowledge and resistance in an era of corporate science)
Kate Raworth – Doughnut Economics (rethinking economic models for social and ecological justice)
Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking coexistence and posthumanist futures)
The Future of Thought
These are not just books; they are weapons, tools, compasses. These women read not for escapism, but for resistance. In a time of political upheaval, climate catastrophe, and rising authoritarianism, they seek alternative visions, radical possibilities, and new ways of imagining the world.
Their books are annotated, their margins filled with questions, their reading lists always expanding. Knowledge is not just power—it is revolution.
Experience the warmth and happiness of nature with this charming portrait of an Akita Malamute mix sitting contentedly in the forest. With a joyful smile and tongue playfully out, the dog gazes directly at the camera, surrounded by tall ferns that beautifully frame the scene. This image captures the joyful and serene spirit of a dog at ease in its natural woodland habitat.
Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil
War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.
This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.
They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.
But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.
This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.
Where the Thinkers Go
They gather where the dust has settled,
where books whisper in the hush of halls.
Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,
cradling centuries of questions.
They drink coffee like it’s ink,
trace words like constellations,
follow Rilke into the dusk,
where solitude hums softly in the dark.
Outside, the world is fraying—
war threading through the seams of cities,
the weight of history pressing forward.
Inside, they turn pages, searching
for answers, for solace, for fire.
And somewhere between the lines,
between time-stained margins and fading ink,
they find the ghosts of others who
once sought, once wondered, once read—
and they do not feel alone.
Three Haikus
Night falls on paper,
books stacked like silent towers,
thoughts burn in the dark.
Tea cools in the cup,
a poem lingers on lips,
war rumbles beyond.
Footsteps in silence,
the scent of old ink and dust,
pages turn like ghosts.
ooOOOoo
The Intellectual Pursuit: What They Read in 2025
In a world teetering between war and uncertainty, young academic women turn to books—not as mere escape, but as a way to confront reality, to seek wisdom in the echoes of history, and to understand the weight of the present. They read in dimly lit libraries, at café tables littered with half-drunk cups of tea, in quiet university archives where dust clings to forgotten volumes. They are drawn to words that unravel complexity, books that demand contemplation, and authors who have wrestled with the same existential questions that haunt their minds today.
Here is what they read.
1. Existential and Philosophical Works
In times of crisis, philosophy becomes a mirror—reflecting both the weight of the world and the possibilities of thought. These books challenge, unsettle, and offer a way to navigate uncertainty.
Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (moral clarity and reflections on human suffering)
Hannah Arendt – The Origins of Totalitarianism (a timeless study of power, ideology, and authoritarianism)
Byung-Chul Han – The Burnout Society (a philosophical take on modern exhaustion and performance-driven culture)
Jean Baudrillard – Simulacra and Simulation (a critique of reality and illusion in an age of digital manipulation)
Albert Camus – The Plague (a novel that mirrors today’s existential and ethical dilemmas)
Søren Kierkegaard – The Concept of Anxiety (an exploration of freedom, dread, and the human condition)
These thinkers guide them through uncertainty, offering both discomfort and clarity—challenging them to see beyond the immediate chaos.
2. Poetry and Literature of Longing, Loss, and Human Experience
Sometimes, only poetry and fiction can capture what analysis cannot—the deep, wordless truths of grief, love, exile, and the quiet resilience of the human spirit.
Anne Carson – Nox (a fragmented, deeply personal meditation on loss and memory)
Paul Celan – Todesfuge (haunting post-Holocaust poetry that lingers between beauty and horror)
Rainer Maria Rilke – Letters to a Young Poet (a lyrical guide to solitude, art, and self-discovery)
Ocean Vuong – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (poetry-infused storytelling on identity and survival)
Virginia Woolf – The Waves (a novel that reads like a long poem, exploring time, consciousness, and human connection)
Clarice Lispector – The Hour of the Star (a sparse, existential novel that lingers long after the last page)
These books are read slowly, lines underlined in pencil, phrases whispered to oneself in quiet moments.
3. Political Thought and Social Critique
Understanding the present requires looking at the past and tracing the patterns of history, power, and resistance.
Naomi Klein – Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World (on misinformation, conspiracy culture, and the fracturing of reality)
Timothy Snyder – On Tyranny (20 lessons from history on how democracy is lost—and how it can be protected)
Achille Mbembe – Necropolitics (on the politics of death, control, and who gets to exist in modern power structures)
Olga Tokarczuk – Flights (a novel that blurs fiction and philosophy, exploring movement, exile, and identity)
Rebecca Solnit – Hope in the Dark (on why history is shaped by those who refuse to give up)
These books are read with urgency—annotated, discussed, debated. They provide frameworks for understanding the unfolding crises of today.
4. Science, Psychology, and the Search for Meaning
In times of uncertainty, some turn to the mind and the universe—to trauma studies, quantum physics, and new ways of seeing.
Carlo Rovelli – The Order of Time (a poetic examination of time and its illusions)
James Bridle – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future (on the unpredictability of AI, climate change, and human systems)
Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score (on trauma, memory, and how the body stores experiences)
Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking human and non-human relationships in a time of ecological crisis)
These books stretch their understanding beyond politics and poetry—into the unseen forces that shape the self and the cosmos.
And then I found myself in the loneliest of places, my love
where I could no longer remember, why I came
Searching for something but finding nothing, except myself
here, in this loneliest of places.
It was a beautiful though, The Light,
The morning sun,
The oldest of trees
All except those inanimate projections
Not living, never being
For I knew better
No... I know better
Deep in my beating heart
That the loneliest road goes on
Yet I can go no further.
Truly, I never wanted to find nothing
So I turned around.
My love, my life, is back there
I thought, half asleep.
and I am heading the wrong way.
Who knew that FGR would cause me to become so introspective?
I thought really hard about this, and the fact is, I really don't have any bad habits. I used to have quite a few, but I've managed to eliminate all of them.
The last one to go was nail-biting. I had horrid looking fingernails for most of my life because I'd chew them down to the quick. But last year I decided to get my teeth fixed. With these braces on my teeth, it's just not possible to bite off a fingernail.
Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil
War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.
This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.
They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.
But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.
This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.
Where the Thinkers Go
They gather where the dust has settled,
where books whisper in the hush of halls.
Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,
cradling centuries of questions.
They drink coffee like it’s ink,
trace words like constellations,
follow Rilke into the dusk,
where solitude hums softly in the dark.
Outside, the world is fraying—
war threading through the seams of cities,
the weight of history pressing forward.
Inside, they turn pages, searching
for answers, for solace, for fire.
And somewhere between the lines,
between time-stained margins and fading ink,
they find the ghosts of others who
once sought, once wondered, once read—
and they do not feel alone.
Three Haikus
Night falls on paper,
books stacked like silent towers,
thoughts burn in the dark.
Tea cools in the cup,
a poem lingers on lips,
war rumbles beyond.
Footsteps in silence,
the scent of old ink and dust,
pages turn like ghosts.
ooOOOoo
Reading as Resistance
These young women do not read passively. They underline, they take notes, they write in the margins. They challenge the texts and themselves. They read because the world demands it of them—because, in a time of conflict and uncertainty, thought itself is an act of resistance.
Their books are worn, their pages stained with coffee, their minds alive with the urgency of understanding.
1. Political Thought, Society & Liberation
Essays, theory and critique on democracy, power and resistance.
Chantal Mouffe – For a Left Populism (rethinking democracy through radical left-wing populism)
Nancy Fraser – Cannibal Capitalism (an urgent critique of capitalism’s role in the destruction of democracy, the planet, and social justice)
Étienne Balibar – Citizenship (rethinking the idea of citizenship in an era of migration and inequality)
Silvia Federici – Caliban and the Witch (a feminist Marxist analysis of capitalism and gender oppression)
Didier Eribon – Returning to Reims (a deeply personal sociological reflection on class and identity in contemporary Europe)
Antonio Negri & Michael Hardt – Empire (rethinking global capitalism and resistance from a leftist perspective)
Thomas Piketty – Capital and Ideology (a profound analysis of wealth distribution, inequality, and the future of economic justice)
Mark Fisher – Capitalist Realism (on why it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism)
2. Feminist & Queer Theory, Gender & Body Politics
Texts that redefine identity, gender, and liberation in the 21st century.
Paul B. Preciado – Testo Junkie (an autobiographical, philosophical essay on gender, hormones, and biopolitics)
Judith Butler – The Force of Nonviolence (rethinking ethics and resistance beyond violence)
Virginie Despentes – King Kong Theory (a raw and radical take on sex, power, and feminism)
Amia Srinivasan – The Right to Sex (rethinking sex, power, and feminism for a new generation)
Laurent de Sutter – Narcocapitalism (on how capitalism exploits our bodies, desires, and emotions)
Sara Ahmed – Living a Feminist Life (a deeply personal and political exploration of what it means to be feminist today)
3. Literature & Poetry of Resistance, Liberation & Exile
European novels, poetry and literature that embrace freedom, revolution, and identity.
Annie Ernaux – The Years (a groundbreaking memoir that blends personal and collective history, feminism, and social change)
Olga Tokarczuk – The Books of Jacob (an epic novel about alternative histories, belief systems, and European identity)
Édouard Louis – Who Killed My Father (a deeply political and personal exploration of class struggle and masculinity)
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other (a polyphonic novel on race, gender, and identity in contemporary Europe)
Maggie Nelson (though American, widely read in European academia) – On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (a poetic, intellectual meditation on freedom and constraint)
Benjamín Labatut – When We Cease to Understand the World (a deeply philosophical novel on science, war, and moral responsibility)
Michel Houellebecq – Submission (controversial but widely read as a dystopian critique of political passivity in Europe)
4. Ecology, Anti-Capitalism & Posthumanism
Texts that explore the intersections of nature, economics, and radical change.
Bruno Latour – Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (rethinking ecology and politics in a world of climate crisis)
Andreas Malm – How to Blow Up a Pipeline (on the ethics of radical environmental resistance)
Emanuele Coccia – The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture (rethinking human and non-human coexistence)
Isabelle Stengers – Another Science is Possible (rethinking knowledge and resistance in an era of corporate science)
Kate Raworth – Doughnut Economics (rethinking economic models for social and ecological justice)
Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking coexistence and posthumanist futures)
The Future of Thought
These are not just books; they are weapons, tools, compasses. These women read not for escapism, but for resistance. In a time of political upheaval, climate catastrophe, and rising authoritarianism, they seek alternative visions, radical possibilities, and new ways of imagining the world.
Their books are annotated, their margins filled with questions, their reading lists always expanding. Knowledge is not just power—it is revolution.
Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil
War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.
This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.
They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.
But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.
This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.
Where the Thinkers Go
They gather where the dust has settled,
where books whisper in the hush of halls.
Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,
cradling centuries of questions.
They drink coffee like it’s ink,
trace words like constellations,
follow Rilke into the dusk,
where solitude hums softly in the dark.
Outside, the world is fraying—
war threading through the seams of cities,
the weight of history pressing forward.
Inside, they turn pages, searching
for answers, for solace, for fire.
And somewhere between the lines,
between time-stained margins and fading ink,
they find the ghosts of others who
once sought, once wondered, once read—
and they do not feel alone.
Three Haikus
Night falls on paper,
books stacked like silent towers,
thoughts burn in the dark.
Tea cools in the cup,
a poem lingers on lips,
war rumbles beyond.
Footsteps in silence,
the scent of old ink and dust,
pages turn like ghosts.
ooOOOoo
Reading as Resistance
These young women do not read passively. They underline, they take notes, they write in the margins. They challenge the texts and themselves. They read because the world demands it of them—because, in a time of conflict and uncertainty, thought itself is an act of resistance.
Their books are worn, their pages stained with coffee, their minds alive with the urgency of understanding.
1. Political Thought, Society & Liberation
Essays, theory and critique on democracy, power and resistance.
Chantal Mouffe – For a Left Populism (rethinking democracy through radical left-wing populism)
Nancy Fraser – Cannibal Capitalism (an urgent critique of capitalism’s role in the destruction of democracy, the planet, and social justice)
Étienne Balibar – Citizenship (rethinking the idea of citizenship in an era of migration and inequality)
Silvia Federici – Caliban and the Witch (a feminist Marxist analysis of capitalism and gender oppression)
Didier Eribon – Returning to Reims (a deeply personal sociological reflection on class and identity in contemporary Europe)
Antonio Negri & Michael Hardt – Empire (rethinking global capitalism and resistance from a leftist perspective)
Thomas Piketty – Capital and Ideology (a profound analysis of wealth distribution, inequality, and the future of economic justice)
Mark Fisher – Capitalist Realism (on why it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism)
2. Feminist & Queer Theory, Gender & Body Politics
Texts that redefine identity, gender, and liberation in the 21st century.
Paul B. Preciado – Testo Junkie (an autobiographical, philosophical essay on gender, hormones, and biopolitics)
Judith Butler – The Force of Nonviolence (rethinking ethics and resistance beyond violence)
Virginie Despentes – King Kong Theory (a raw and radical take on sex, power, and feminism)
Amia Srinivasan – The Right to Sex (rethinking sex, power, and feminism for a new generation)
Laurent de Sutter – Narcocapitalism (on how capitalism exploits our bodies, desires, and emotions)
Sara Ahmed – Living a Feminist Life (a deeply personal and political exploration of what it means to be feminist today)
3. Literature & Poetry of Resistance, Liberation & Exile
European novels, poetry and literature that embrace freedom, revolution, and identity.
Annie Ernaux – The Years (a groundbreaking memoir that blends personal and collective history, feminism, and social change)
Olga Tokarczuk – The Books of Jacob (an epic novel about alternative histories, belief systems, and European identity)
Édouard Louis – Who Killed My Father (a deeply political and personal exploration of class struggle and masculinity)
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other (a polyphonic novel on race, gender, and identity in contemporary Europe)
Maggie Nelson (though American, widely read in European academia) – On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (a poetic, intellectual meditation on freedom and constraint)
Benjamín Labatut – When We Cease to Understand the World (a deeply philosophical novel on science, war, and moral responsibility)
Michel Houellebecq – Submission (controversial but widely read as a dystopian critique of political passivity in Europe)
4. Ecology, Anti-Capitalism & Posthumanism
Texts that explore the intersections of nature, economics, and radical change.
Bruno Latour – Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (rethinking ecology and politics in a world of climate crisis)
Andreas Malm – How to Blow Up a Pipeline (on the ethics of radical environmental resistance)
Emanuele Coccia – The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture (rethinking human and non-human coexistence)
Isabelle Stengers – Another Science is Possible (rethinking knowledge and resistance in an era of corporate science)
Kate Raworth – Doughnut Economics (rethinking economic models for social and ecological justice)
Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking coexistence and posthumanist futures)
The Future of Thought
These are not just books; they are weapons, tools, compasses. These women read not for escapism, but for resistance. In a time of political upheaval, climate catastrophe, and rising authoritarianism, they seek alternative visions, radical possibilities, and new ways of imagining the world.
Their books are annotated, their margins filled with questions, their reading lists always expanding. Knowledge is not just power—it is revolution.
Living in Transit: The Thinkers of a World in Turmoil
War looms over Europe, uncertainty seeps into everyday life, and the weight of history presses upon the present. The world is burning, and yet—there are those who seek understanding, those who bury themselves in the quiet refuge of books, the dim glow of libraries, the solitude of knowledge.
This series captures the introspective minds of young academic women—readers, thinkers, seekers. They wander through old university halls, their fingers tracing the spines of forgotten books, pulling out volumes of poetry, philosophy, and psychology. They drink coffee, they drink tea, they stay up late with ink-stained fingers, trying to decipher the world through words.
They turn to Simone Weil for moral clarity, Hannah Arendt for political insight, Rilke for existential wisdom. They read Baudrillard to untangle the illusions of modernity, Byung-Chul Han to understand society’s exhaustion, Camus to grasp the absurdity of it all. They devour Celan’s poetry, searching for beauty in catastrophe.
But they do not just read—they reflect, they question, they write. Their world is one of quiet resistance, an intellectual sanctuary amidst the chaos. In their solitude, they are not alone. Across time, across history, across the pages they turn, they are in conversation with those who, too, have sought meaning in troubled times.
This is a series about thought in transit—about seeking, reading, questioning, about the relentless pursuit of knowledge when the world feels on the brink.
Where the Thinkers Go
They gather where the dust has settled,
where books whisper in the hush of halls.
Pages thin as breath, torn at the edges,
cradling centuries of questions.
They drink coffee like it’s ink,
trace words like constellations,
follow Rilke into the dusk,
where solitude hums softly in the dark.
Outside, the world is fraying—
war threading through the seams of cities,
the weight of history pressing forward.
Inside, they turn pages, searching
for answers, for solace, for fire.
And somewhere between the lines,
between time-stained margins and fading ink,
they find the ghosts of others who
once sought, once wondered, once read—
and they do not feel alone.
Three Haikus
Night falls on paper,
books stacked like silent towers,
thoughts burn in the dark.
Tea cools in the cup,
a poem lingers on lips,
war rumbles beyond.
Footsteps in silence,
the scent of old ink and dust,
pages turn like ghosts.
ooOOOoo
Reading as Resistance
These young women do not read passively. They underline, they take notes, they write in the margins. They challenge the texts and themselves. They read because the world demands it of them—because, in a time of conflict and uncertainty, thought itself is an act of resistance.
Their books are worn, their pages stained with coffee, their minds alive with the urgency of understanding.
1. Political Thought, Society & Liberation
Essays, theory and critique on democracy, power and resistance.
Chantal Mouffe – For a Left Populism (rethinking democracy through radical left-wing populism)
Nancy Fraser – Cannibal Capitalism (an urgent critique of capitalism’s role in the destruction of democracy, the planet, and social justice)
Étienne Balibar – Citizenship (rethinking the idea of citizenship in an era of migration and inequality)
Silvia Federici – Caliban and the Witch (a feminist Marxist analysis of capitalism and gender oppression)
Didier Eribon – Returning to Reims (a deeply personal sociological reflection on class and identity in contemporary Europe)
Antonio Negri & Michael Hardt – Empire (rethinking global capitalism and resistance from a leftist perspective)
Thomas Piketty – Capital and Ideology (a profound analysis of wealth distribution, inequality, and the future of economic justice)
Mark Fisher – Capitalist Realism (on why it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism)
2. Feminist & Queer Theory, Gender & Body Politics
Texts that redefine identity, gender, and liberation in the 21st century.
Paul B. Preciado – Testo Junkie (an autobiographical, philosophical essay on gender, hormones, and biopolitics)
Judith Butler – The Force of Nonviolence (rethinking ethics and resistance beyond violence)
Virginie Despentes – King Kong Theory (a raw and radical take on sex, power, and feminism)
Amia Srinivasan – The Right to Sex (rethinking sex, power, and feminism for a new generation)
Laurent de Sutter – Narcocapitalism (on how capitalism exploits our bodies, desires, and emotions)
Sara Ahmed – Living a Feminist Life (a deeply personal and political exploration of what it means to be feminist today)
3. Literature & Poetry of Resistance, Liberation & Exile
European novels, poetry and literature that embrace freedom, revolution, and identity.
Annie Ernaux – The Years (a groundbreaking memoir that blends personal and collective history, feminism, and social change)
Olga Tokarczuk – The Books of Jacob (an epic novel about alternative histories, belief systems, and European identity)
Édouard Louis – Who Killed My Father (a deeply political and personal exploration of class struggle and masculinity)
Bernardine Evaristo – Girl, Woman, Other (a polyphonic novel on race, gender, and identity in contemporary Europe)
Maggie Nelson (though American, widely read in European academia) – On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint (a poetic, intellectual meditation on freedom and constraint)
Benjamín Labatut – When We Cease to Understand the World (a deeply philosophical novel on science, war, and moral responsibility)
Michel Houellebecq – Submission (controversial but widely read as a dystopian critique of political passivity in Europe)
4. Ecology, Anti-Capitalism & Posthumanism
Texts that explore the intersections of nature, economics, and radical change.
Bruno Latour – Down to Earth: Politics in the New Climatic Regime (rethinking ecology and politics in a world of climate crisis)
Andreas Malm – How to Blow Up a Pipeline (on the ethics of radical environmental resistance)
Emanuele Coccia – The Life of Plants: A Metaphysics of Mixture (rethinking human and non-human coexistence)
Isabelle Stengers – Another Science is Possible (rethinking knowledge and resistance in an era of corporate science)
Kate Raworth – Doughnut Economics (rethinking economic models for social and ecological justice)
Donna Haraway – Staying with the Trouble (rethinking coexistence and posthumanist futures)
The Future of Thought
These are not just books; they are weapons, tools, compasses. These women read not for escapism, but for resistance. In a time of political upheaval, climate catastrophe, and rising authoritarianism, they seek alternative visions, radical possibilities, and new ways of imagining the world.
Their books are annotated, their margins filled with questions, their reading lists always expanding. Knowledge is not just power—it is revolution.
Spirit Journey 05/07/2014
-Charlotte Grillo
“Spirit Journey” ...the springboard for this, my writing assignment, immediately set my mind ablaze in anticipatory excitement for its potential bounty of material. Immediately my ideas, like an eclectic collection of souvenirs from past travels simultaneously sparked and ignited fireworks in my minds eye, yet, true to the nature of such grand displays, the show was over just as quickly. My springboard, as it turns, was feeling more like a diving board (situated over the Grand Canyon! ) How could I possibly expatiate on such a thing or things, in prose, and under 300 words? My quest to finish what I started required I forge ahead. I assume I did what any lost writer might do to find their way home and retraced my steps backwards. In perusing my own personal journals and notes I discovered at least one thing on which i can elaborate...a simple deduction brings me to the following conclusion: A spirit journey is one trip you may not even be aware you’re on at the time. My writings clearly reveal I’d been on a spiritual journey long before I knew how to define such a process. The extent of ones vernacular will never limit their travels inward...thoughts without the thinker. I believe the journey starts, much like a spark, with a desire to learn, a willingness to be introspective….hell, maybe just some deep thinking will send you on your voyage!
Lots to think about these days, and not all of it's cheerful. Today I resent being an adult, the one who figures it out. Today I would prefer to be sixteen again.
Project SoulPancake: Get Punched!
No, that's not some cute way of describing an arts and crafts or introspective challenge. It's exactly what you think it is. Get. Punched. And I think it goes without saying that if you want the bragging rights, you probably shouldn't be telling your puncher to hold back. Have you pissed anyone off lately? This might be the perfect way to offer a truce! ;)
As a reminder, these challenges are not necessarily photo themes. So you need to complete the challenge and then find a way to let it inspire a photograph. Post your photos to the group pool and include some meaningful commentary on them - hopefully either talking about your experience completing the challenge or discussing a topic that the challenge stirred up in you. Please also post your weekly challenge photos to the weekly thread (this thread right here!) so that we can easily access them as a group.
Have at it, gang!
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While I know that I wasn't the only one holding back on actually getting punched, my strongest contender was my injured sister (uncommonly supportive of this endeavour it ought to be said) and it seemed inappropriate to have her risk further injury to help me. Or at least that was the excuse.
I tried to see if I could hit myself hard enough to leave bruising but isn't just the way that when I wanted to inflict bruising, my body seemed remarkably resistant to it. So no joy there but I'm sure a psychologist would have something to say on the topic of self-harm for the sake of photography.
And then I went to see the local pantomime where the strong hero stands up to the villain in defense of the damsel. The standard fare with even a mock bout of fisticuffs thrown in for good measure. Maybe if I hadn't the week's challenge running at the back of my mind, it wouldn't have hit me so hard. But in the midst of all the laughter and hilarity, I was struck with shame. Shame for a time I didn't take the punches and someone else did.
I'm not talking of physical violence but a sustained period of bullying and verbal denigration. And while I wasn't silent, I wasn't as vocal in opposition as ought to have been. I didn't confront the bully directly and while the victim still thanks me for standing up for them, I'm always ashamed that I didn't do more.
So I'm tagged by this little game! I never do chain letters! I don't like them; they are a waste of time, etc. However, once in a while it's good to be introspective and let others in for a little peek at the real you. So..... I'll do this one.
16 things about me:
I can recognize any English grammar mistake in a second's time, and it usually frustrates me. Because I'm a teacher, I want to teach.......
I don't mind dust in my house. Not at all.
I write poetry.
I don't really like to use the phone very much. I forget half of the things I should say or ask. Sometimes I stammer and stumble.
I am not repelled by the smell of a skink, in fact I rather like that smell, although I pretend not to like it when I'm with others.
My favorite colors are blue and green, especially when used in combination.
I hate committees; I think they destroy really good individual ideas because they try to reach a concensus.
I've had four knee replacements, and now, a broken leg! But it's fixed.....
I love to play spider solitaire on my computer.
I used to teach children how to write in cursive, and now, because I use the computer all the time, my cursive writing is barely legible!
I really, really love to shop..... maybe better than anything else.....
I played the clarinet and the oboe when I was in school..... I played for a total of ten years. One never forgets that.
I really wanted to be a writer and write novels and short stories..... my mother said I needed to major in education just to be sure of an income if I needed it..... I never got back to my first and main interest.
I am terrified of big spiders..... 1 inch and hairy is too big and scary.
I spent three weeks in Alaska in 1989. I took 8 hours of video with my camcorder and couldn't get anyone to watch it except my mother.
Over 7 years ago, I married my cousin who gave me my first kiss at 10, and whom I had neither seen nor heard from in 50 years.....