#82
(glad they finally posted this one... I love it!)
TIME TRAVEL FOR BEGINNERS
by Ardon Shorr
Every crumb of starlight
sails across the universe,
the journey of a million years
to end inside our eyes.
Except I was looking at you,
canvas coverall cinched at the waist,
as you undressed me with photons,
wrapped me in stories,
painted with x-rays,
until everything glowed
with backstory—the names of trees,
the name of an extinguished star,
still visible, ghost in the sky,
climbing a staircase of optic nerve
into an afterlife of sight.
Hand on my hand you pointed to the past:
the sun, an 8-minute time machine,
the moon, one second old,
and the incredible now,
unfolding like a cone,
megaphone of memory stretched to the sky
and balanced on the tip was us,
a luminous shout
of life at the speed of light.
In a blink, this moment reaches the moon.
When we pack up the hammock, it floats
in the acid clouds of Venus.
Which means that somewhere, there is a spot,
past the gaps in Saturn’s rings,
beyond the storms of Jupiter,
outside the curved embrace of the Milky Way,
at least one place in the universe,
where you could turn around and see us,
back when we were still in love.
—from Rattle #82, Winter 2023
Rattle Poetry Prize Winner
Ardon Shorr: “I was trained as a scientist. There’s this moment in an experiment where you can ask a question of the universe and actually get an answer. It’s like something is speaking to you, and for a moment, you’re the only one who knows it. Then you get to share it. Poetry is how I return to that moment.”
https://www.rattle.com/time-travel-for-beginners-by-ardon-shorr/
ELEGY FOR TÍO LAZARO
by Isabella DeSendi
Because he was already dying, he figured
there was no harm in huffing through 2 or 3 cigarettes
in the early morning before my mother would wake—
the animal of his thin, brown body lassoed
to an oxygen tank. Because he didn’t have papers
we had to drive two hours to retrieve the tank
from a discount store in Ocala
where my mom had to pay
out of pocket for air that would be filtered
from a rocket-ship shaped canister
into a tiny tube three times the size of a vein
directly into the soggy, plastic bags of my tio’s
stalling lungs just so he could drink cafecitos
& play crossword puzzles or the lottery
while we sat around in the kitchen
wondering how long we could keep him alive.
My mom was elbow deep in dishwater
when the letter came
denying our appeal for his citizenship.
No, he could not get Medicare.
Yes, he would have to go back after living
50 years in this country. This country,
where, at 20, he learned to fix engines
in chop shops and likened himself
to a surgeon—saying any man with purpose could fix
any broken thing if he simply tried hard enough.
Entiendes sobrina? It’s why God gave us hands.
Sometimes, I like to imagine him in the garage
surrounded by brutal heat and moonlight,
the broken chair under him barely keeping
itself together while he held metal chunks
in his hands like a heart, wondering where
it all went wrong, believing enough screws
could put it all back. Of course, this was after he fell
in love with a woman in Kentucky,
dreamt of being a local politician
and with that same American sense of disillusion,
grandeur—discovered heroin: the god he’d worship
until he felt nothingness, & after nothingness
the dull edge of sobriety, the death of his American wife
which meant the death of food stamps, which meant the death
of a life that allowed him to lay on the roof of his car
while he smoked Marlboros and recited constellations:
Andromeda, Aquilus, Ursa major, Ursa minor
which made him feel just as smart as the white men
he swept for. Aren’t our lives just simple constellations
made up of many deaths? Yes, someone in an office
in a building in this country decided no, he could not
get medical care. No, he could not stay.
Two nights later, Lazaro woke from a dream
screaming aliens were coming to get him.
That their ship was hovering over the house.
The light so bright he couldn’t see my mom’s hands
as she helped him back to bed. The next night he died.
Milky Way: one answer on yesterday’s crossword puzzle.
You can’t tell me the dying don’t know
when their time is coming.
The tip of the letter, still sticking out
of my mom’s black purse like a cigarette
already flickering gone.
—from Rattle #82, Winter 2023
Rattle Poetry Prize Finalist
Isabella DeSendi: “I wrote this poem after telling two of my poet friends the story of my tio’s death, including his vision of being abducted by aliens just days after we’d received the news about his deportation. My mom was still trying to figure out how to fight the government’s decision, how to break the news. My friends and I were huddled in a small circle during the intermission of a reading when I decided to share the story with them. One friend, Cat, turned to me and said, ‘Bella, this is a poem.’ She was right. This piece is an elegy for my tio, but it’s also a lamentation for immigrants in this country—and ultimately a song of praise for my mother, whose strength, generosity, and capacity for enduring I am constantly in awe of.”
https://www.rattle.com/elegy-for-tio-lazaro-by-isabella-desendi/
LEAF REMOVAL
by Al Ortolani
I listen to my wife on the phone
explaining to Leaf Removal, Inc.
how we just can’t
pick up the leaves anymore.
It’s getting to that point she says
that we need someone, which really
isn’t true because we could slide
down the hill on our heels, rake
the leaves into piles, douse them
with charcoal lighter, and set
them ablaze. Then we’d just need
a metal tined rake to lean on,
a little luck to keep the house
from going up in flames, and with
the garden hose uncoiled, nozzle
dribbling like a mouth, watch
last year turn to smoke,
a slip, an ass tumble. Instead,
two rabbits leap out of the leaves,
zig zagging ahead of the dog
who forever believes he’s a hunter
with sharp white teeth and
the speed to stay stride for stride
with the memory of himself.
—from Rattle #82, Winter 2023
Al Ortolani: “Lately, whenever I invoke the Muse for inspiration, she gives me poems from the ’50s, ’60s, and ’70s. Way back to childhood. Even if I don’t want to go in this direction, since the past is the past, old hat as they say, I know that rejecting the Muse can end up in something like poetic impotence. So I follow her lead, and dig around through images I should have sold at garage sales. Probably, there’s a lesson here about knowing thyself, remembering and learning, even when you’ve tried to forget.”
ON LEARNING THAT WOODPECKERS DON’T HAVE SHOCK-ABSORBING SKULLS
by Matthew King
Of course they don’t. Of course they optimize
the force that they apply with every blow.
They’d have to hammer harder otherwise,
to do the same amount of work. You’d know
this if you used your head for just a bit.
You don’t because you’d rather let them stand
as models of a headspace that you’d fit
yourself in gladly—wouldn’t it be grand
to bang and bang your brains and never mind?
You’ve seen how many jagged shards they spray,
you’ve seen how deep the holes they leave behind,
and thought, of course, they’ve got to have a way
not to feel all the force they must exert.
You wanted to believe it doesn’t hurt.
—from Rattle #82, Winter 2023
Matthew King: “Like Stephen Dunn, I started writing poems to get girls to like me. (He says ‘that’s the glib answer,’ but it doesn’t sound glib to me.) All these years later, I’m still trying to write love poems, though where love is not of the kind that I’ve come to think of as a ‘narcissism of two,’ with lovers gazing upon themselves reflected in each other, but where it’s a shared, responsive reception of the being of things, from different perspectives, in which speaking and hearing lovers—whether together or apart—reciprocally, deepeningly, open themselves and the world to each other.”
AIN’T MY PENNY NO MORE
by Haley Jameson
In a small town
somewhere South
somewhere East
where there were more corn
and more green beans
than people,
I asked my brother
about his dreams.
He told me,
“You gotta get out soon,
start planning now
or you’ll be stuck here.”
“Like you?”
“Like me,” and he
plodded along with his back
hunched low
and his hoe cutting deep.
From a distance,
he looked no different
than a workhorse.
I started working odd jobs,
delivery here
grocery clerk there,
and I started putting
everything into my porcelain
piggy.
But Daddy got sick,
so I gave Mama
half my savings.
So I gave Mama
all my savings.
I had to pick up the slack
help lift the burden
’cause Daddy couldn’t work
no more.
But I could.
Daddy had something
growing inside him
something bad
something big
and it was hungry,
just like we were.
And it ate Daddy,
took all the meat
off his bones
until he was just a skeleton
and then it ate his bones, too.
“That’s one less mouth to
feed,” Mama said
and I agreed.
So I started saving up again.
My brother’s hunched back
got permanent,
and he didn’t talk to me no
more about leaving.
He started showing me how
to farm
just like Daddy showed him.
But I knew if I picked up that
hoe,
I ain’t gonna be getting out of
here no more.
I saved every penny I could
said I gotta keep saving
while the savings were mine.
But then Mama got sick.
So I gave my brother
half my savings.
So I gave him
all my savings.
I had to pick up the slack
carry the burden on both
shoulders now.
Mama had swallowed the
whole ocean
and it filled up her lungs
and no matter how much she
coughed
she just couldn’t get that
water back out.
It swallowed her,
too.
“That’s one less mouth to
feed,” my brother said
and I agreed
and he handed me that hoe
and I took it.
—from Rattle #82, Winter 2023
Haley Jameson: “I journal through poetry. I’ll write about a mundane event or follow a train of thought to the end. It’s healing to get it out of my head and see it written down in front of me, whether it makes sense or not.”
MARRIED TO AMAZEMENT
by James Crews
The man I married sat next to me
after our wedding, October light pouring in
over dusty pews as he loosened his tie
and sipped from a cup of apple cider,
closing his eyes to savor the taste.
Now I think I didn’t marry him so much
as his amazement for the everyday,
the way he still gasps each time we see
something new—baby painted turtle
plodding through a stream in the quarry,
or a neon-orange caterpillar inching
across crisp leaves on the trail,
how he kneels to film it from every angle
while I crouch beside him, in awe
of his awe, learning all that I can.
—from Rattle #82, Winter 2023
James Crews: “I live in Shaftsbury, Vermont, with my husband and have been writing poetry since the third grade when my teacher, Mrs. Brown, required us to recite a new poem each week, and I thought it would be more fun if I wrote and memorized my own. I believe in the power of writing to heal and release, and write the poems I most would want to meet in the world.”
ALL THAT I HAVE
by Chris Anderson
We’re in a busy shopping mall, very crowded—
this was before the virus—and an ordinary-looking man
walks out of the crowd into the center of the atrium.
He’s middle-aged, wearing a leather jacket, hands in his pockets.
And he starts to sing. He opens his mouth and starts to sing,
loudly and clearly. At first you think he’s crazy,
he’s some kind of crank, but then you realize, wait a minute,
his voice is beautiful, it’s powerful—he’s singing
a famous aria—he’s singing Nessun Dorma, from Puccini.
This guy’s a tenor, this ordinary man who has emerged
from the crowd is a tenor, and he’s a great tenor, and his voice
is building and rising, and people are stopping and looking,
the expressions on their faces are changing, people who
would never be caught dead at an opera, who don’t have any idea
what opera is, they’re stopped in their tracks. One little girl
turns around and looks up at her mother, amazement
in her eyes. O look at the stars, the tenor sings, that tremble of love
and hope, and his voice builds and builds, it rises to its climax,
and he hits that final, high note, and he holds it, holds it
until it’s ringing in the air of that crowded mall, and something
transcendent has happened, something wonderful has risen up
out of that ordinary gray day, something excellent and pure,
and everyone knows it, they feel it, and they burst into applause,
burst into tears. They clap and clap. And the tenor smiles,
and looks around, then puts his hands in his pockets and walks
back into the crowd. He disappears. O that I might hold
my one note and walk away! O that I might disappear!
—from Rattle #82, Winter 2023
Chris Anderson: “During the pandemic, I happened to watch a video about a flashmob in a shopping mall in Leeds, and it moved me so much I sat down and wrote the poem more or less in one fell swoop. Later, as I was polishing it, I realized that it was about poetry, too, as I guess every poem is underneath. We are all singing our arias in the mall, and we all want them to matter somehow, to make a difference, however briefly, even though we soon disappear, back into the crowd.”
Schau dir "Formel 1: Fortschritte in der Software | Gerrits Tagebuch #82 | Miniatur Wunderland" auf YouTube an https://youtu.be/3ujaGUFfgC0
Abgefahren. Respekt.
Sora from ‘Kingdom Hearts’ is the last addition to the ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ roster
Sora, the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts, is the final playable character for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. (YouTube screenshot)
It’s the end of an era. The 89th and final fighter to join the cast of *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *is Sora, the protagonist of the *Kingdom Hearts *series.
The announcement came from a pre-recorded Tuesday-morning presentation by *Smash *director Masahiro Sakurai, who also provided a 40-minute breakdown of Sora’s background and moves. (In what Sakurai swears is a total coincidence, Sora — the Japanese word for “sky”— shares his name with Sora Ltd., the small game company Sakurai co-owns with his wife Michiko.)
Kingdom Hearts is a popular series of action-RPGs that crosses over characters from Disney franchises — Goofy and Donald Duck are Sora’s sidekicks for many of his adventures — and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy.
Sora himself is an original character who is charged with defending various worlds, many of which are explicitly based on popular Disney franchises such as The Little Mermaid *and *Toy Story, from incursions by malevolent creatures called the Heartless.
While the *Kingdom Hearts *series began on the PlayStation 2 in 2002, several side games like 2012’s *Dream Drop Distance *were released on Nintendo portables like the 3DS.
Until today, the only *Kingdom Hearts *game on the Nintendo Switch was the 2020 rhythm-based spin-off *Melody of Memory. *However, Sakurai disclosed during the Sora presentation that the first three games are being ported to the Switch at an unspecified point in the future, with 2019’s *Kingdom Hearts 3 *planned for release via cloud gaming.
Naturally, due to Disney’s involvement, getting Sora into Smash *presented some unique licensing difficulties for Nintendo, with Sakurai noting that Sora required “more coordination” than other characters. There’s a rather conspicuous lack of direct references to Disney characters in *Smash, despite how prominently they feature in the actual *Kingdom Hearts *series, which suggests there have been some legal workarounds here.
Science said it couldn’t be done. (YouTube screenshot)
Sora in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *is a light, floaty character who’s deliberately been made easy to use, as opposed to some of the more complicated DLC fighters like Pyra/Mythra. While he’s technically fighter #82 on the official roster, the inclusion of various “echo fighters” — characters who play identically but look different, such as Ryu and Ken — means the final roster for *Ultimate *is 89 characters.
Many of Sora’s moves are based off of his appearance in the original *Kingdom Hearts, *such as a 3-hit ground combo. His special moves include a multi-directional airdash called Sonic Blade, a Counterattack which lets him block and retaliate against incoming hits, and three offensive spells, Firaga, Thundaga, and Blizzaga, the availability of which rotates in that order whenever Sora casts one.
As with every character in *Smash, *Sora comes with eight different color variations, since a single game of *Smash *could theoretically have up to eight players using Sora at once. Sakurai noted during the presentation that Sora’s particular variations are the most elaborate of any character in *Ultimate, *as each one represents a specific version of the character from his home series.
Sora’s P5 variation in particular is from the Timeless River world in *Kingdom Hearts II, *which is visually based off of 1928’s “Steamboat Willie,” the short cartoon that originally introduced Mickey Mouse to the world. As such, P5 Sora in *Smash *is in black-and-white, with a unique set of simplified facial animations to make him look like an early 20th-century cartoon.
…okay, they probably should’ve changed Sora’s hair color for some of these. This is going to get confusing. (YouTube screenshot)
Players who purchase Sora also get his unique character stage, Hollow Bastion; a new Spirit Board that features eight other original characters from Kingdom Hearts, *including Kairi and Riku; *and nine of the original, non-Disney-affiliated songs from the *KH *series’s soundtrack. Players who have save data from *Melody of Memory *on their Switches will also unlock a tenth track, a swing arrangement of “Hand in Hand,” which is also used as Sora’s victory theme.
The Hollow Bastion stage in *Smash *is a simple floating platform, with Maleficent’s castle from the original *Kingdom Hearts *visible in the background. However, when a fight set in Hollow Bastion draws towards its conclusion, the stage transitions to a new area, Dive into the Heart, which is a darkened arena with special character art from *KH *visible in the background.
At the start of the presentation, Sakurai also announced the eleventh and final round of special paid costumes for player-created Mii Fighters. This is a relatively small wave, which includes two special character hats taken from Nintendo’s *Splatoon *series, but it also marks the introduction of a full character costume based upon the Slayer, the protagonist of the *Doom *series of video games. The Doom Slayer outfit, for Mii Gunners, is based upon his appearance in 2016’s Doom.
While it’s hard to tell if this was deliberate, since the Doom Slayer was one of the most commonly-requested characters for Smash, his appearance as a Mii costume also follows up on one of the funnier running jokes of early 2020.
When it was announced that Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons *would come out on the same day as Bethesda’s *Doom Eternal, the Internet decided all at once that this meant the Slayer was best friends with the Animal Crossing *signature character Isabelle. This led to countless comics, cartoons, animations, and parody songs. Now the Slayer and Isabelle can hang out together pseudo-canonically in *Smash.
A new wave of Smash Amiibos is also planned for release next year. Minecraft‘s Steve and Alex will come out in collectible toy form next spring, while Sephiroth, Pyra, Mythra, and Kazuya are all planned for release after that.
Spoiler: he did. (YouTube screenshot)
According to Sakurai, today’s reveals mark the last downloadable content that Nintendo will release for *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *after three and a half years. Since its release in late 2018, *Ultimate *has become the third best-selling game on the Switch, with 24.77 million copies in circulation as of June of this year. Once Sora is released, a full version of *Ultimate *will include 89 fighters, 116 unique stages, 140 Mii Fighter costumes, cameos from over 450 games, and a soundtrack comprised of over 1,100 songs.
Ultimate *also has a professional tournament league, which held its latest event, Low Tide City, in Round Rock, Texas, this past weekend. Nintendo is notorious for keeping *Smash‘s pro scene at arm’s length, but did partner with the amateur-league organizer PlayVS in May to make both *Smash *and *Splatoon *into varsity-level athletics.
Sora, as well as the new Mii Fighters, will be available for purchase on Oct. 18. *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *owners who’ve bought the second Fighter Pack will automatically get Sora for no additional cost, but Sora can be bought individually for $5.99.
posted by pod_feeder
Sora from ‘Kingdom Hearts’ is the last addition to the ‘Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’ roster
Sora, the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts, is the final playable character for Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. (YouTube screenshot)
It’s the end of an era. The 89th and final fighter to join the cast of *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *is Sora, the protagonist of the *Kingdom Hearts *series.
The announcement came from a pre-recorded Tuesday-morning presentation by *Smash *director Masahiro Sakurai, who also provided a 40-minute breakdown of Sora’s background and moves. (In what Sakurai swears is a total coincidence, Sora — the Japanese word for “sky”— shares his name with Sora Ltd., the small game company Sakurai co-owns with his wife Michiko.)
Kingdom Hearts is a popular series of action-RPGs that crosses over characters from Disney franchises — Goofy and Donald Duck are Sora’s sidekicks for many of his adventures — and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy.
Sora himself is an original character who is charged with defending various worlds, many of which are explicitly based on popular Disney franchises such as The Little Mermaid *and *Toy Story, from incursions by malevolent creatures called the Heartless.
While the *Kingdom Hearts *series began on the PlayStation 2 in 2002, several side games like 2012’s *Dream Drop Distance *were released on Nintendo portables like the 3DS.
Until today, the only *Kingdom Hearts *game on the Nintendo Switch was the 2020 rhythm-based spin-off *Melody of Memory. *However, Sakurai disclosed during the Sora presentation that the first three games are being ported to the Switch at an unspecified point in the future, with 2019’s *Kingdom Hearts 3 *planned for release via cloud gaming.
Naturally, due to Disney’s involvement, getting Sora into Smash *presented some unique licensing difficulties for Nintendo, with Sakurai noting that Sora required “more coordination” than other characters. There’s a rather conspicuous lack of direct references to Disney characters in *Smash, despite how prominently they feature in the actual *Kingdom Hearts *series, which suggests there have been some legal workarounds here.
Science said it couldn’t be done. (YouTube screenshot)
Sora in *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *is a light, floaty character who’s deliberately been made easy to use, as opposed to some of the more complicated DLC fighters like Pyra/Mythra. While he’s technically fighter #82 on the official roster, the inclusion of various “echo fighters” — characters who play identically but look different, such as Ryu and Ken — means the final roster for *Ultimate *is 89 characters.
Many of Sora’s moves are based off of his appearance in the original *Kingdom Hearts, *such as a 3-hit ground combo. His special moves include a multi-directional airdash called Sonic Blade, a Counterattack which lets him block and retaliate against incoming hits, and three offensive spells, Firaga, Thundaga, and Blizzaga, the availability of which rotates in that order whenever Sora casts one.
As with every character in *Smash, *Sora comes with eight different color variations, since a single game of *Smash *could theoretically have up to eight players using Sora at once. Sakurai noted during the presentation that Sora’s particular variations are the most elaborate of any character in *Ultimate, *as each one represents a specific version of the character from his home series.
Sora’s P5 variation in particular is from the Timeless River world in *Kingdom Hearts II, *which is visually based off of 1928’s “Steamboat Willie,” the short cartoon that originally introduced Mickey Mouse to the world. As such, P5 Sora in *Smash *is in black-and-white, with a unique set of simplified facial animations to make him look like an early 20th-century cartoon.
…okay, they probably should’ve changed Sora’s hair color for some of these. This is going to get confusing. (YouTube screenshot)
Players who purchase Sora also get his unique character stage, Hollow Bastion; a new Spirit Board that features eight other original characters from Kingdom Hearts, *including Kairi and Riku; *and nine of the original, non-Disney-affiliated songs from the *KH *series’s soundtrack. Players who have save data from *Melody of Memory *on their Switches will also unlock a tenth track, a swing arrangement of “Hand in Hand,” which is also used as Sora’s victory theme.
The Hollow Bastion stage in *Smash *is a simple floating platform, with Maleficent’s castle from the original *Kingdom Hearts *visible in the background. However, when a fight set in Hollow Bastion draws towards its conclusion, the stage transitions to a new area, Dive into the Heart, which is a darkened arena with special character art from *KH *visible in the background.
At the start of the presentation, Sakurai also announced the eleventh and final round of special paid costumes for player-created Mii Fighters. This is a relatively small wave, which includes two special character hats taken from Nintendo’s *Splatoon *series, but it also marks the introduction of a full character costume based upon the Slayer, the protagonist of the *Doom *series of video games. The Doom Slayer outfit, for Mii Gunners, is based upon his appearance in 2016’s Doom.
While it’s hard to tell if this was deliberate, since the Doom Slayer was one of the most commonly-requested characters for Smash, his appearance as a Mii costume also follows up on one of the funnier running jokes of early 2020.
When it was announced that Nintendo’s Animal Crossing: New Horizons *would come out on the same day as Bethesda’s *Doom Eternal, the Internet decided all at once that this meant the Slayer was best friends with the Animal Crossing *signature character Isabelle. This led to countless comics, cartoons, animations, and parody songs. Now the Slayer and Isabelle can hang out together pseudo-canonically in *Smash.
A new wave of Smash Amiibos is also planned for release next year. Minecraft‘s Steve and Alex will come out in collectible toy form next spring, while Sephiroth, Pyra, Mythra, and Kazuya are all planned for release after that.
Spoiler: he did. (YouTube screenshot)
According to Sakurai, today’s reveals mark the last downloadable content that Nintendo will release for *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *after three and a half years. Since its release in late 2018, *Ultimate *has become the third best-selling game on the Switch, with 24.77 million copies in circulation as of June of this year. Once Sora is released, a full version of *Ultimate *will include 89 fighters, 116 unique stages, 140 Mii Fighter costumes, cameos from over 450 games, and a soundtrack comprised of over 1,100 songs.
Ultimate *also has a professional tournament league, which held its latest event, Low Tide City, in Round Rock, Texas, this past weekend. Nintendo is notorious for keeping *Smash‘s pro scene at arm’s length, but did partner with the amateur-league organizer PlayVS in May to make both *Smash *and *Splatoon *into varsity-level athletics.
Sora, as well as the new Mii Fighters, will be available for purchase on Oct. 18. *Super Smash Bros. Ultimate *owners who’ve bought the second Fighter Pack will automatically get Sora for no additional cost, but Sora can be bought individually for $5.99.
posted by pod_feeder
C'est plus que de la SF | #82 Faut-il voir Dune de Denis Villeneuve ? - Débat | Ausha
https://podcast.ausha.co/c-est-plus-que-de-la-sf/82-faut-il-voir-dune-de-denis-villeneuve-debat
#podcast
#dune
#culture
#littérature
#cinéma
#SF
#ScienceFiction
