https://www.gq.com/gallery/mexico-city-street-style

Hello everyone!
Today we're going to be talking about a character who has sadly been left out to the wolves in Star Rail, but that is still liked by many, Himeko! As a side note, this is also the first of these that I'm not doing directly on the Star Rail sub, instead doing it on the new community I've created specifically to discuss the lore of the Honkai series, HonkaiLore! But anyway, let's get right into this!
Himeko's splash art
First of all, disclaimer:
The Honkai: Star Rail characters and Honkai Impact 3rd characters who have the same name and similar appearances, except for Welt Yang, are NOT the same person, but instead you may think of them as something akin of parallel versions of each other! I go into detail about this and how the Honkai universe works here! Also, spoilers for Honkai Impact 3rd ahead, be warned!
Now let's get started!

Star Rail's Himeko

To summarize a bit about Himeko in Star Rail, we know her as the "leader" of the Astral Express gang. As a young woman, she found the Express when it became stranded in her world, and decided to fix it up so it could once again travel through worlds. Once she did, she boarded it and since then has been travelling around the universe. Along the way, she's met many companions, starting with Welt and "his blond friend", up to the current crew with the Trailblazer being the newest member aboard.
Though Star Rail has not yet given us much else in terms of her story, we'll now take a look at what her story is in Honkai Impact 3rd, and how this Himeko, Star Rail's Himeko, is important even outside of her own game.

Honkai Impact's Himeko

Himeko Murata, born on June 11th, 1987, is the captain of a battleship known as the Hyperion, as well as the leader of Schicksal's Valkyrie Squad V. In the game, she is a mentor to the main characters, much like her role in Star Rail towards the rest of the crew. She's also their teacher at St. Freya High School.
Himeko's base battlesuit, Battle Storm
However, before she became all these things, she went through a lot in her life.

Himeko's early life and Ryusuke

She was born to her father, Ryusuke Murata, and an unnamed mother. Her mother had a chronic disease, and spent all her time in a hospital. The doctors always requested that Ryusuke stay by her side, in case her condition would worsen, and in any case, to have someone close to her by her side. But Ryusuke would always leave.
Himeko as a child and her mother
You see, Ryusuke worked for Schicksal as the leader of a research facility, specifically the one in charge of a satellite, known as the 4th Divine Key. This was a satellite built by the Previous Era, a civilization from 50,000 years in the past, and it was a tool that would repair the world if and when that civilization was wiped out by the force known as the Honkai. 50,000 years later, it had completed its task and now floated around the Earth without a purpose, enticing Ryusuke to join the team. He had become obsessed with the prospect of alien life and its discovery through space exploration, and believed that his research would change the course of human civilization forever.
Though these may have seemed like selfish and impossible dreams (and selfish they most definitely were), the truth is that Ryusuke would indeed come across alien life. More than that, he would befriend it. But instead of finding it, he was found by it himself. One night, after one of his projects were cancelled for lack of credibility, Ryusuke went home in a rage, especially as this was the same day he received a notice from the hospital, notifying him of his wife's death. At the moment that he decided he would not let anyone or anything get in his way, someone, or more specifically something, approached him.
Ryusuke receives a letter from the hospital, and is watched by something
This little furball is known as Pepper Mint. He belongs to an alien race known as the Sugars, a race that travels from planet to planet, forming their civilization in a sort of "pocket dimension", a world of their own where they are never interrupted. They normally do not interact with humans, as they feel as though if they are discovered they must leave the current planet and move on to another one, but Pepper Mint decided to attempt to meet a human to become his "host". This is because the Sugars have an ability to become monsters, and lend this power to a host, and Pepper Mint had heard the story of Sugar Molass, another of his race who had traveled to Earth and found her host around this area.
Pepper Mint, after coming into contact with Ryusuke, informed him of another alien race, known only as the Sky People. This was a dangerous race, unlike the Sugars, who travelled across different worlds to find places that had high amounts of Honkai energy. They would then take over said places, take all the Honkai energy to feed their own devices while also replacing all living things with their own devices. Ryusuke made it part of his mission to stop the Sky People, perhaps in an attempt to justify the intensity of his research to himself.
Later, in 2005, Himeko had enrolled into the California Institute of Technology. She was studying Space Engineering, following in her father's footsteps, while also having become keen on following alien sightings and rumors of the sort. During her class under teacher Welt Yang, she received a notification for an alien sighting in New Mexico.
Himeko receives a notification for a new alien sighting
Welt Yang, as you may know, was not just any ordinary teacher. He was the sovereign of the group known as Anti-Entropy, as well as the Herrscher of Reason, a super powerful being. After becoming friends with Himeko accidentally, he saw this photo and immediately recognized it. It was not an alien, but instead the Arahato, a mech developed by Anti-Entropy. Of course, he couldn't tell Himeko this, as Anti-Entropy's actions, and the Arahato, were top secret. In order to protect the secret without allowing Anti-Entropy to hurt Himeko in any way, Welt decides to board the same plane as her, and they go to New Mexico.
Here, Welt and Anti-Entropy do their best to cover up the Arahato's existence, eventually finding a way to fool Himeko by plastering up a movie poster for the upcoming Arahato movie (in a rush, the word "coming" was mispelled), which upset her as an explanation but she believed it and left.
The Arahato movie poster
All the while, Ryusuke Murata had his own plans. He had contacted Anti-Entropy, warning them that Schicksal was to use the 4th Divine Key and its immense power to attack them directly. He had requested that they give him asylum in exchange for information on how to stop this attack, to which the Anti-Entropy scientists, Tesla and Einstein, agreed.
After meeting, they discuss the intel that Ryusuke had for them. He had brought a device for unlocking the 4th Key, as well as a document detailing its uses. Einstein shared her worries, as she had not found any information that hinted at the 4th Key even having any use as a weapon, but they took Ryusuke's gifts anyway, as he went to visit his daughter.
Ryusuke meets with Tesla and Einstein
Upon arriving to find Himeko and Welt talking, Welt feels a strong presence coming from Ryusuke. Though he didn't know it at the time, this was the presence of the Sugars' monster form. He decided to look into it immediately, even though Ryusuke didn't seem highly suspicious.
Upon activating the device Ryusuke had given them, Einstein and Tesla found that the 4th Divine Key began releasing Honkai energy and creating a storm over Houston. As Ryusuke, who was spending some time with Himeko, received notification of this, he left in a hurry and met once again with the scientists, claiming that Otto, Schicksal's Overseer, had planted a trap in the device that would activate the Key if anyone attempted to stop it. After helping them break into the device's emergency shutdown, they are able to stop it, but the device's existence, and the fear of reactivating it in an attempt to break its code, leads to Tesla deciding to launch Anti-Entropy's special Anti-Honkai missiles, the Silver Bullet, against the 4th Divine Key to destroy it. Ryusuke, with a small and fast smirk, states that he knows how to find the key's exact location.
Ryusuke offers to help find the key's coordinates
Welt, having his suspicions about Ryusuke, decides to go to his house, where the two men are forced into an amicable conversation due to Himeko's presence. Eventually they are left alone, and Ryusuke introduces Welt to his alien friend, and his monstrous form.
Ryusuke takes Welt into the Sugars' world, where they learn more about the Sky People. This is in an attempt by Pepper Mint to form an alliance between humans and the Sugars in order to stop the Sky People, not just from taking Earth, but to stop their plans entirely. However, the rest of the Sugars race is opposed to this alliance, and decide that they will leave the planet as they have been found out by humans.
Pepper Mint explains some details of the Sky People
As they leave this world, they find that Himeko has been attacked by the Sky People. Taken into Anti-Entropy's care, they find that she has been infected by them, and Ryusuke decides to reveal his intel in full to help his daughter. It turns out that his plan was to give the scientists of Anti-Entropy the wrong coordinates to launch the Silver Bullet, instead having it hit the asteroid the Sky People were using to survey and attack Earth. After having Welt use his powers to destroy this asteroid, it seems Himeko's infection recedes and disappears.
However, Ryusuke is not done. He reveals to Welt that he had been investigating blueprints from the Previous Era, that detailed a project named Project Ark. He wished to create a spaceship that would be able to save a few humans and send them into space, in the meantime allowing the Sky People to take the Earth, or the Honkai to destroy it. Welt is obviously opposed to this, as a majority of humankind would perish as a result, but Ryusuke has become obsessed with the prospect of space exploration and breaking free from the limitations of the human race. He is even willing to sacrifice his daughter for this. In a fit of rage, he crushes Pepper Mint, killing him and taking his power for himself to battle Welt.
Ryusuke crushes Pepper Mint
Despite this monstrous power, Welt is able to defeat, and kill, Ryusuke. Himeko, completely unaware of any of this, or even her father's motivations, is later informed by Anti-Entropy that her father had indeed died. However, his actions, as well as his cause of death, are kept secret from her, being written off as some sort of accident. Himeko, however, is not so easily fooled, and has her suspicions that they may be covering something up. In the end, she decides to join Schicksal after finishing her PhD to find out what truly happened.

Himeko's life in Schicksal

Himeko was not someone with any special abilities. In fact, she had lower Honkai adaptability than most, she was taken in by a mentor, a woman by the name of Ragna Lothbrok. Ragna incentivized Himeko, believing that anyone can become a Valkyrie with enough effort, and Himeko was eventually able to become one, at the age of 19, considered late compared to the average person. In an effort to become stronger against the Honkai, Himeko received an artificial stigma, an implant given by Schicksal that enforced a person's capabilities, but, for Himeko who had low Honkai adapability, this stigma reduced her lifespan, slowly corroding her body.
Ragna Lothbrok, as seen in a stigma art
In 2010, the Valkyrie squad Himeko belonged to, with Ragna as its leader, was sent to subdue the Herrscher of the Void, who had reappeared 10 years after its initial awakening. Her entire squad was killed in front of her eyes during this mission, with Himeko herself being the only survivor. Shortly after, she decided to join St. Freya High School as a teacher, perhaps in an effort to not allow other Valkyries to end up like her squad.
In 2014, the Herrscher of Thunder manifested for the first time in the city of Nagazora, and Himeko was sent to subdue and stop her from destroying the city. Here, Kiana Kaslana, Bronya Zaychik and Mei Raiden had all met and were traveling together, attempting to survive in the midst of a large scale Honkai attack on the city. However, the reality was that the Herrscher of Thunder had manifested within Mei herself. Himeko, using the Scarlet Fusion battlesuit, was able to match up to, and subdue, the Herrscher of Thunder.
Himeko dons the Scarlet Fusion battlesuit
Following this, Himeko and the principal of St. Freya, Theresa, persuade the three girls into joining the school and becoming Valkyries of their own, with Himeko becoming their main teacher, and leader of their Valkyrie squad.

The Herrscher of the Void

It turned out that the Herrscher of the Void had actually manifested within Kiana, Himeko's "favorite" student due to how much she saw of herself in her. In 2016, this Herrscher once again was released into the world, prompted by a plan by Schicksal's own Otto Apocalypse. Himeko was given a serum, known as HSN-b46, by Fu Hua. This serum had been created by a man known as Dr. Magi, when asked by Kiana to create an antidote to Himeko's Honkai corrosion.
Kiana asks Dr. Magi to create Anti-Honkai serum for Himeko
Himeko was led by Fu Hua's powers to find the Vermillion Knight battlesuit, a prototype of the Godsbane series which held a gem with Honkai energy close to the level of a Herrscher. This, combined with Himeko asking Tesla for help to create an anti-Honkai weapon using the serum, known as the God-Slaying Spear, would ensure that she'd be able to defeat the Herrscher of the Void.

The Final Lesson

(You can see the following section for yourself [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dmvNGxYPCU)!)
With serum in hand and equipped with the battlesuit, Himeko prepares to battle the Herrscher of the Void. Though she is continuously overpowered by her, she continues to fight, though completely unable to touch her. She continues to take attacks, and her corrosion worsening to the point of almost completing the process of zombification, but she does not stop, as she wishes to save her student.
Himeko's face and body show signs of Honkai corruption
In one final attack, using up the rest of her strength, and with a lesson to Kiana to always continue to fight and change the world in the way she wishes to see it, Himeko brings down her greatsword on the Herrscher and... misses. Well, seemingly. Himeko never intended to hit the Herrscher at all. After all, she is using Kiana's body, and Himeko does not wish to hurt her. Instead, all Himeko did was for one purpose only: to get close enough. At this moment, while the Herrscher is stunned before her brain can process what's happening, Himeko injects the God-Slaying Spear, with the serum, into the Herrscher, forcing her out of Kiana's body. Having used up all of her power, Himeko peacefully passes away, as the world created by the Herrscher of the Void crumbles around her. Himeko's journey ends after saving her dear student.
Himeko stands, almost lifeless, over the Herrscher
Himeko's journey ends here, but her legacy does not. Kiana would adopt her ideals, fighting for the beauty she saw in the world. Despite it not being perfect, she would fight to turn it into the world she wants to see. Kiana would eventually take on powers similar to those Himeko displayed using the Vermillion Knight battlesuit, fully solidifying her legacy. Finally, they hold a funeral for her, only having the pieces of her sword that they were able to recover.
Himeko's sword fragments lay upon her coffin

Full Circle

13 years later, in 2029, Welt Yang finds himself traveling to a spaceship owned by the Sky People, along with his "friend", Void Archives. I won't go into too much detail about Void Archives, as his identity and details are not important here.
On this spaceship, they find the portrait of someone Welt recognizes: it's Himeko, but not the same Himeko he knows. Void Archives explains this is a Himeko from a world not the same as their own, and Welt decides that, since the Sky People were interested in her, she might be in danger, and he feels a sense of responsibility to help her.
Star Rail Himeko's portrait, visible on the left side slightly cut out
This leads to Welt and Void Archives, through yet unknown means, traveling to the world inhabited by the Himeko we see in Star Rail. From there, we know from lines in Star Rail that Himeko takes the both of them in, before Void Archives eventually leaves for some unknown reason, and that leads us to where we are today with Star Rail!

Conclusion

This ends the story of Himeko Murata! As always, some details were cut out to make sure everything fit in a decent length post. The last thing I want to point out is that, as you may have already seen, the Herta Space Station holds an easter egg to this story.
Shards of Himeko's sword, kept as a Curio
We can find the remains of Himeko's sword, as they were found in Honkai Impact. Though it's unclear how they got here or why, one can see that interacting with them while using Himeko brings some special dialogue, which you can see in the image above, as a small easter egg. This dialogue is a refence to a specific scene, the last scene in which we see HI3's Himeko, during the Everlasting Flames cutscene of the game.
\"Turn into a moon that always tells the warmth and brightness of the sun\"
Himeko appears one last time, within the flames brought about by Kiana's newfound powers. She smiles, before disappearing into the flames, solidifying her legacy within Kiana and her influence on not just her but the entirety of Honkai forever.
This ends the story of Himeko! Thank you very much for reading, and I hope you've enjoyed! Himeko is a very important character, perhaps not for her own characteristics or actions, but she is both the reason Kiana, the main character of Honkai Impact, is who she is today, and also the reason Welt ended up on the Astral Express, and why the Express can even run at all! I look forward to see how her story and character will develop now that we see her on this new path!
(As a side note, Himeko being keen on the Express and even able to fix it reminds me of a Himeko that continued to follow her father's path in being excited and fascinated by space, which is a very poetic thing, what do you think?)
As always, feel free to leave any suggestions, corrections or comments you wish, and I'll respond to everyone! Besides that, I'll see you next time!

I copied and pasted this from the Facebook post I made in the cruise group the other day, so that’s why it’s worded the way it is! Enjoy!
So, where exactly is “Elftower, New Mexico”? And what is it, besides an uncomfortable tune that’s seldom played?
Most of you won’t know me, those who do probably remember me as the guy who spent most of the first cruise dressed up as “Gunslinger”; I thought I’d share this here first, as it seems only fitting that a fictional Gunslinger should palaver with his traveling companions, before blabbering to the world at large, the location of the ethereal “door” we all seek.
Thanks to the assistance of the diligent Web Archive (known to many under the pseudonym “Wayback Machine”), I’ve been able to ascertain the “what” and the “where” of Elftower, New Mexico. I’ve included the relevant resources here, so that you may peruse them at your leisure.
To understand the “what”, we must also understand the “when”. The year is of two-thousand or perhaps two-thousand and one, as we measure time. Shabutie (the sons of Coheed and Cambria, and yet also the fathers of Coheed and Cambria, so it was in this “when”) are in the process of shedding their “Naked Prey” nomenclature, to favor the names of their elders. In this “when”, it was written that “Elftower, New Mexico” (known better as “The Willing Well”, in our “when”) was spawned after the cataclysmic fall of France: Sector 14, acting as a door between the fiction and the real.
So now that we comprehend the “what” and “when”, and understand that in this “when”, things are not as they are in ours, what about the “where”?
In this “when”, it was alleged that Elftower existed on the border of Texas and Oklahoma, and perhaps it did; but by the grace of the Internet Archive, a picture of Elftower, as it were, has been preserved. Careful comparison of this image to the image libraries in our “when” reveals, conclusively, that the “where” of “Elftower, New Mexico” is in our time, known as “Grafton, Utah”, standing beneath the shadow of the great Zion.
I’ve chosen my manner of words here in an attempt to have a bit of fun with my character (without sweating my ass off in a duster and a serape under the hot Caribbean sun). Hopefully that was also a bit of fun for fellow fans of both the Amory Wars and The Dark Tower!
To speak plainly: TL;DR - internet archive confirms that “Elftower, New Mexico“ is the rough draft equivalent of the Willing Well, and reveals that it’s located in Grafton, Utah. If you should choose to visit, please be respectful of the land, the historic places, and the dead who rest there.
Link to the archived Shabutie website, which has some other interesting bits of info—> http://web.archive.org/web/20010501183916/http://shabutie.8m.com/index.html
Long days, and pleasant nights!

spongeboob ai

A horny toad perched on top of a Porcino (Boletus barowsii). Found at aprox. 9,500 ft in Jemez New Mexico on the 25th of July 2021.
These species, along with countless others, are threatened by the degradation of our soil health. It's a reminder that we must do everything in our power to protect our earth and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come and so that we may experience endless beauty and bounty!
Come check out Southwest Funga Fest for a chance to learn how to safe guard our biodiversity!
Pictures taken by ecological_projects
https://www.unifungi.com/swff

Photo taken with flash, found because some part of this scene was glowing in the dark... what are they, and what's going on here?

Following on from my 'In Vision' commentary notes, I had a request from freddythefuckingfish to recap 'Louis and the Nazis'. Here it is, along with some additional notes from Louis' follow-up visit to Lamb and Lynx for his 'Call of the Weird' book.
​
​
\"I thought it was time to leave.\"
​
Opening Scene

• The episode opens with tape being put on a kitchen floor by April, while she is being watched by her aspiring pop-duo daughters, Lamb and Lynx
• They all laugh when April starts to use the tape to draw a swastika, because she's a Nazi
• Note: the twins go by 'Prussian Blue', which is a reference to how the walls of gas chambers could be stained blue by the Nazi's usage of Zyklon B, which contained Prussic acid
• Louis asks if April cares about "people's feelings", which quickly descends into April going on a rant about "The Jews" and how she just thinks the swastika is "neat"
• Personal Note: there's something about April's agitated head and mouth movements that reminds me of a Muppet
• April refers to Louis as a "brainwashed lemming"
• Lamb and Lynx dance a merry jig to the sound of bagpipes, before we go to the opening credits

​
Meeting Tom Metzger

• Louis is driving to meet "one of America's most notorious" racists, Tom Metzger (who died in 2020)
• Tom has a garden ornament with a motion sensor that makes a noise when you approach his house, then has what looks like another motion sensor to the right of his front door, with a security camera on the left
• Tom says he's "more serious than most of the Nazis [he's] met"
• There appears to be a sign that says "No Snivelling" on one of the doors in Tom's office (I couldn't find any significance to that)
• Tom shows Louis a racist cartoon from his newsletter, claims that he is better looking than Denzel Washington, and then (in my opinion) tries to get a reaction out of Louis by using The N-Word, but Louis remains stone-faced
• Tom says that he would not use that word in public if Louis asked him to, but that he would not stop using it in private (even as a favour to Louis)
• Louis: "It makes me think slightly less of you."
• Tom: "Well, that's okay, I'm not here to adopt you."
• Louis takes a look at Tom's music collection, and Tom's wife flatly says "It's part of history" when Louis asks her if it's shocking to have the image of a black man being lynched on an album cover
• Tom, again, seems to be intentionally saying extreme things to get a reaction out of Louis, but, when Louis doesn't bite, he does then tone things down a bit
• Tom's youngest daughter arrives, and doesn't consider herself to be a racist (mentioning how people judge her solely for her last name)
• Abrupt cut to a different room, with a tired-sounding Louis now lounging in a chair with a drink in his hand, and what look like papers in his lap, telling Tom that "it bespeaks kind of a hatred"
• Personal Note: Uh... what just happened? How much time has passed since the interview with Tom's daughter? Is that a copy of Tom's newsletter in Louis' lap? Is that the "it" he's referring to?
• Tom, with a beer in his hand, sounds upset as he tries to justify his hatred for "blacks" with, "they kill my friends, they imprisoned them for life"
• Louis, almost sounding drunk, uncharacteristically replies with, "That's such bull. That is such bull."
• Tom yells at Louis about black people committing crimes in England, then starts to make a phone call to end this very awkward and out-of-place scene
• Personal Note: What was going on there?! Both men acted completely differently towards each other, while Tom's wife and daughter appeared to be nervously stood in the doorway. Just a really weird scene that felt like something directed by David Lynch.
• Over at the karaoke bar ("Lets Party Right Here!"), we see someone who looks like Danny Trejo serenading a table of middle-aged women
• Louis says it has been a "long and, in some ways, depressing day [...] I was even more confused when the karaoke bar [Tom] took me to turned out to be largely non-white"
• Louis: "I could only assume that, for Tom, karaoke sometimes took precedent over racism."
• We hear a (mercifully short) clip of Tom "singing" 'Bad to the Bone' (he sounds like the love-child of Elmer Fudd and Les Claypool)
• Note: None of what was said between Louis and the Metzger's while they were at the bar is in the episode, and we only hear Louis speak in voice-over.

​
Meeting John Malpezzi

• Louis is being driven by Tom to meet his new "manager", a man named John Malpezzi, who was "supposedly a show business veteran"
• When John gets in the car, Louis tries to get him to talk about the racist things Tom says and publishes, but John seems like he was expecting that line of questioning and is having none of it
• John gives the, oddly specific, example of how he has known people in the past who would "throw you out of the air plane, over the jungle" for trying to catch him out like that
• Louis had been keeping his powder dry during the car trip, as he knew that there were rumours of John having a "colourful career" and that he "had spent time in prison"
• Louis is more direct once they arrive at their destination and John, after initially trying to shut down the conversation about his past, admits that he had legally represented the Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar
• John had also been looking at "85 years" in prison for cocaine trafficking, but only served "3-and-a-half" years (here's an archived LA Times article from 1987 that covers what happened)
• Louis says that who John was, and whether what he was saying was actually true, was "vague to me, and possibly to him, too"

​
Meeting Skip

• Louis visits Skip and his family, some of Tom's "skinhead supporters" who were hosting a rally that Tom would be speaking at
• Skip had followed Tom since 1983 and thought he had "done a lot of good *awkward pause\* he's a good patriot"
• Skip's brother says that telling someone "you're on the fence" is considered to be an insult by skinheads
• The second Louis suggests that he might be Jewish, Skip immediately starts eyeing him up and becomes less friendly towards him
• Louis spent the afternoon with the family before Skip really started to become agitated
• Skip: "You're a Jew, that's why you got so much animosity. [...] You're a Jew. ...You're part Jewish."
• Skip points at the sound guy and says, "He's not Jewish, I'll tell ya that, right now."
• Personal Note: the camera pans over to the sound guy and he reminded me of Seth Rogen, who is Jewish
• According to 'Call of the Weird', Louis' Director was Jewish
• I think you can just barely hear a member of the crew start to interject when it's clear that Skip isn't going to let go of the issue, however I can't make out what they're saying
• Louis, after Skip and his family have all left: "I thought it was time to leave."

​
The Gathering of the Gods

• Tom: "Yo, yo, yo, are you ready to go, to the Hate-ananny? Huh?!"
• Tom is wearing a t-shirt that says "Some People Are Alive Simply Because It's Illegal To Kill Them"
• Louis heads to a major event ("by skinhead standards") with Tom, which is being held at "Skip's place" (or at least in a field near "Skip's place")
• According to 'Call of the Weird', Louis had "security experts" who refused to accompany him into the festival (they would have been required to give up their weapons), so Louis was told to "stay alert at all times" and that the crew should run to the exits as quickly as possible, if things went bad (the armed "security experts" remained parked outside in their van)
• Tom only attended "one or two" events per year, and Louis suspects that he felt embarrassed by Louis being part of his "entourage"
• According to 'Call of the Weird', the scene where a group of skinheads ignore Louis was not an exaggeration, as not a single skinhead at the event would let Louis interview them
• Louis: "I felt like the schoolkid nobody wanted to be friends with."
• Lamb and Lynx take to the stage, and the appreciative crowd of shirtless male skinheads salute them at the end of their song (a few look like they are wiping tears from their eyes)
• According to 'Call of the Weird', Louis did not know of Lamb and Lynx before the festival, and only spoke to April by chance, because her lack of tattoos made her look approachable
• Personal Note: I don't mean to imply that Louis is lying here, but I can't imagine that they planned for the episode to be an hour of Tom and some random skinheads, so what were the 20 minutes dedicated to April's family originally going to be about?
• Tom takes to the stage, where he yells a lot and is a racist
• The sign for the event reads "The Gathering of the Gods, An Ian Stuart Memorial, The Flame That Never Dies, American Front"
• [Ian Stuart was an English nationalist, white supremacist, and the lead singer of the punk band 'Skrewdriver'. Stuart died in 1993 and this episode is from 2003, so the "memorial" might be for the 10-year anniversary of his death.]
• The day after The Gathering, Tom tells Louis how he likes skinheads because they're "not hypocritical" and are "strong racists"
• Note: Tom is slightly out-of-focus during this short interview, with the camera more focused on the greenery behind his head

​
Meeting April, Lamb, and Lynx

• According to 'Call of the Weird', the only hint that April's house contained Nazis was a "battered" car bumper sticker that read "My Boss is an Austrian Painter"
• Louis arrives at April's house, where a bored-looking Lamb and Lynx sing about "Marxist black dictators" in Africa
• According to 'Call of the Weird', April had been making the twins sing "white power" songs for other Nazis since they were at least 8
• Louis: "They don't seem old enough to really know what that's about."
• April: "Well, I've explained it."
• The girls demonstrate that they are not, in fact, old enough to know what that's about
• According to 'Call of the Weird', there exist white nationalist children's books that (and this is meant to be taken seriously) contain "E is for Eugenics" and have illustrations made by prisoners who were found guilty of hate crimes
• April is looking ahead to when Lamb and Lynx are 16-year-old girls, because any "young... man" or "red-blooded American boy" would find them "very appealing" (well, that isn't creepy at all...)
• April's fiancee refused to appear on camera, as he felt it could lose him his job (he was a public school teacher, though she cautiously only says "an educator")
• April wouldn't let her 11-year-old children play "Nintendo" games, but a violent, first-person shooter named "Ethnic Cleansing" was perfectly fine
• Personal Note: I did play 'Ethnic Cleansing', just for a laugh, many years ago, and it's not even "funny bad", it's just rubbish
• April drives them all to a horse ranch, and Louis looks lost for words when the family start rocking out to skinhead music (one of the twins seems to find it funny how visibly uncomfortable he is)
• April asks the crew to only tell people that they are making a documentary on the girls' music, as she doesn't want anyone "hurting my horses because of my politics"
• April essentially says that she is so racist that she struggles to hide it
• Louis: "I've noticed."
• According to 'Call of the Weird', April would bring up race, or "The Jews", in almost every conversation Louis had with her, no matter what the original topic was
• April talks about how she "wouldn't want to have anything to do with" her daughters if they went against her beliefs
• [What ended up happening when Lamb and Lynx grew up and renounced their racist beliefs (albeit with just a little bit of holocaust denial left in there) is that April... wait for it... waaait for it... blamed "The Jews".]

​
A Trip to Bill's Ranch

• They drive to meet April's father, Bill, who owns a cattle ranch where his cows are branded with a swastika
• Bill, who lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, says that Louis can't "see what's going on" with the white race
• There's a rare production snafu when the camera man is forced to rush over to everyone else when Bill starts talking
• Personal Note: based on how this is the last scene shown at the ranch and they are all gathered by their cars, my best guess is that this was originally meant to be a long shot of everyone getting in their cars to leave, but Bill had other ideas
• Bill, like Tom, is the kind of racist who pauses for effect and looks for a reaction after saying The N-Word
• Louis takes so long to answer the straightforward, "Do you usually date white women?" that I suspect he's trying to get April and Bill more worked-up (not that they need encouraging)
• After Louis asks if a Jewish woman would be considered "white", Bill imitates a "Jewish Princess" by squawking "Louis! Louis! I want a new ring, Louis!", like he's one of the Monty Python cast in drag
• As April drives them home, she says that she considers her racist indoctrination by a Nazi to be a "gift"
• Note: Bill's wife is not shown here, but she was featured in another documentary, Nazi Pop Twins (2007), and did not share his extreme views

​
Tom's "Ambassadorial" Trip

• Louis is back with Tom and John, who were considering an "ambassadorial trip" to Mexico
• John refers to Tom as an "international politician"
• Louis refers to Tom as a "racist politician"
• John acts like Tom being a "racist politician" is a good thing, because then he'll be popular "in a racist country" like Mexico
• Tom and John act like they're making a sequel to 'Grumpy Old Men' as Louis drives them into Mexico
• John meets a lady friend (or "whore", as Tom calls her) at a bar, before they put on sombreros, and start to get sloshed on booze
• Louis: "The ambassadorial visit was degenerating into a pub crawl."
• After making two American tourists uncomfortable with his shameless racism, a drunken Tom loudly asks the staff in a souvenir shop if they have any rings with swastikas on them (I think someone says "You're lucky there's no black people about, man" in the background)
• Tom disappears, returns even more drunk, and accuses John of "neglecting his security duties"
• Tom and John drunkenly argue about, of all things, how racist John actually is
• Louis notes that this was Tom at his most "unguarded", and Louis was struck by Tom's "fantasies of his own importance"
• During the drive home, Tom Metzger, "one of the most dangerous racists in America", drunkenly mumbles about Mexico being a "vurry inturressting playst too vizzit"
• Two elderly, boozed-up racists babble on about nothing

​
Goodbye to Tom and John

• Tom's day job was a 'TV Repairman', and a Peruvian client Tom is very friendly with says that they get on great, just don't talk about "politics"
• Louis tries to get Tom to address the inconsistency of Tom being friends with someone who appears to be non-white
• Tom never really answers the question, instead nit-picking the definition of a "friend" and just saying that Louis doesn't understand
• After arguing with Tom in the car, Louis says that he found it "hard to take Tom totally seriously" and sums him up with "there was a touch of karaoke about this supposed international politician"
• Louis visits John to try and challenge him on the racism that Tom publishes
• John (again, probably expecting to have to deal with this) refuses to play along, and only gives vague, non-committal answers to everything Louis throws at him
• The scene ends with a prolonged silence, after John lights up a cigarette and tries to look cool

​
Goodbye to April, Lamb, and Lynx

• Louis plays guitar with Lamb and Lynx in a recording studio, where they are working on their debut album
• According to 'Call of the Weird', April was careful to ensure that the album could be sold in Germany, so the song titles did not explicitly reference Nazism (apparently, "Aryan" was okay), and any images of the girls saluting would be removed for the European release
• Louis asks the 11-year-old girls if they want to date skinheads *awkward pause\* when they get older
• April would approve of the girls dating any skinhead that was a "hard worker" who didn't "booze it up" and "cause trouble"
• When alone with the girls in the car, they tell Louis that they are being home-schooled because of "money problems", and "also that" April disagreed with what was being taught
• Lamb and Lynx's friends did not know about the family's racism
• One of the twins endearingly calls Louis "Shaggy" when she says goodbye to him
• Louis has a final conversation with April, where he tries to confront her about the disadvantages Lamb and Lynx will face in life, because of how they have been indoctrinated by her
• April basically blames everyone else for the problems her children will face, then goes on a disturbingly childish rant where she says things like "I find other races annoying. They bother me. [...] They're just not pretty."
• Louis: "I feel like I'm pretty well-connected to reality."
• One of the only times April does not have a comeback is when Louis says she is "out-voted" when it comes to "civilised thought"
• Louis: "My journey through the world of Nazis had reached a frustrating conclusion, with an argument, in a kitchen, with a mother of two."

​
End Credits

• A scene with Louis and John (seemingly recorded after John lit up his cigarette) plays by the credits, where Louis asks John about Tom saying that he was better looking than Denzel Washington
• John confidently asserts that Tom is better looking (?)
• John says that they want to trademark Tom's "beautiful" head to make mugs shaped like it (??)
• Cut to Louis holding a large head-shot photo of Tom, wondering where you would drink from if Tom's head was a mug (???)
• Some random old woman (John's mother?), who I don't think we ever see in the episode, turns up to say that "people like mugs, and his head would make a good mug" (????)
• Louis looks like he legitimately has no idea if he should take anything that they're saying seriously (and neither do I)

​
\"People like mugs, and his head would make a good mug.\"
​
'Call of the Weird' Follow-up Visit

• Note: There is more than this in the book, but it's mainly just "I asked April about ____, and she responded by being an obstinate bigot, then said something racist". Louis also spoke to people working at a white supremacist record label, which wasn't anything worth mentioning.
• April was not happy with the documentary after she saw all the negative comments about her online, so rebuffed Louis' attempts to stay in contact
• Louis eventually got her to agree to meet up again around a year later, by offering to take the girls to a theme park
• Louis would also be meeting a new member of the family, baby Dresden (named after a German city that had been fire-bombed during World War 2)
• Coincidentally (cough-cough), Louis had been allowed to meet the twins again just in time for them to be promoting their new CD
• Certain images made to promote the CD were quite "provocative", prompting a member of a white nationalist message board to comment "Do you think Hitler would have allowed his little girl out, dressed like that?!"
• They all went to a Halloween-themed amusement park and Louis tried to talk to the twins about whether their views on race had changed
• The twins would still parrot the usual stuff from April, but they seemed disinterested, and preferred to focus on music
• Lamb and Lynx had already started to write more "commercial" music, and were considering the possibility of having a separate group where they wouldn't perform any "white power" songs
• The twins would finally be attending a regular school, because April claimed to be satisfied with one she had found that was "70% white"

​
And that's the end of the recap. Louis did have a Skype call with the twins for his 'Life on the Edge' series during the lockdowns of 2020, where it seemed like they had managed to grow up without any trace of April's hatred and prejudices, so I guess you could say this does have a happy ending (unless you're a Nazi).

Hello everyone!
I’m a genealogist & I am trained in discovering local Michigan family lineages and stories through vital records, census records, and newspapers.
This is the interest form I put together for anyone interested in learning more about their personal Michigan family history. I create family trees, ancestral maps, and historical road trip itineraries based on YOUR personal family history! It’s a great way to connect with your heritage and wonderful knowledge pass down to future generations.
LINK TO INTEREST FORM: Family History Interest Form
Here are some things you can discover from my research:

• Newspaper articles about your ancestors (Crime? Scandal? Who knows!)
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• Your great-great-great grandparents’ names
• Physical descriptions of your ancestors from census records and war draft cards
• Six full generations back of your family tree
• Photographs of your ancestors you have never seen before (Found in Newspaper archives, I have subscriptions to several newspaper websites)

I have a degree in Anthropology and have spent several years working for a professional genealogy company. I have been working as an individual genealogist for about 6 years. If you have any questions about my research, please fill out an interest form or email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
For those of you with ancestry outside of Michigan, please send me a message. I’d be happy to help you or direct you to a better suited genealogist. Thanks!
Ancestral Origins Map Example
https://preview.redd.it/8m6hol8qlz4b1.png?width=962&format=png&auto=webp&s=5da314f663275ea9172261277d16cf5a92f665df
USA Origins Map Example
https://preview.redd.it/4kgbqnqqlz4b1.png?width=973&format=png&auto=webp&s=7393277bc64f732b5524720f0d57249973e6b99b
LINK TO INTEREST FORM: Family History Interest Form

Hello everyone!
I’m a genealogist & I am trained in discovering local Michigan family lineages and stories through vital records, census records, and newspapers.
This is the interest form I put together for anyone interested in learning more about their personal Michigan family history. I create family trees, ancestral maps, and historical road trip itineraries based on YOUR personal family history! It’s a great way to connect with your heritage and wonderful knowledge pass down to future generations.
LINK TO INTEREST FORM: Family History Interest Form
Here are some things you can discover from my research:

• Newspaper articles about your ancestors (Crime? Scandal? Who knows!)
• Custom ancestral mapping showing your approximate ethnic admixture
• United States migration mapping showing how your ancestors migrated throughout the country
• Your great-great-great grandparents’ names
• Physical descriptions of your ancestors from census records and war draft cards
• Six full generations back of your family tree
• Photographs of your ancestors you have never seen before (Found in Newspaper archives, I have subscriptions to several newspaper websites)

I have a degree in Anthropology and have spent several years working for a professional genealogy company. I have been working as an individual genealogist for about 6 years. If you have any questions about my research, please fill out an interest form or email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
For those of you with ancestry outside of Michigan, please send me a message. I’d be happy to help you or direct you to a better suited genealogist. Thanks!
Ancestral Origins Map Example
https://preview.redd.it/8cn24lkelz4b1.png?width=962&format=png&auto=webp&s=7e7cc430d01dcf278fe305b44bc9bb779512ef09
USA Origins Map Example
https://preview.redd.it/dcam4i1flz4b1.png?width=973&format=png&auto=webp&s=6c58d1ae0f7c82d45d5ba751d18778fd0d1afb3b
LINK TO INTEREST FORM: Family History Interest Form

Hello everyone!
I’m a genealogist & I am trained in discovering local Michigan family lineages and stories through vital records, census records, and newspapers.
This is the interest form I put together for anyone interested in learning more about their personal Michigan family history. I create family trees, ancestral maps, and historical road trip itineraries based on YOUR personal family history! It’s a great way to connect with your heritage and wonderful knowledge pass down to future generations.
LINK TO INTEREST FORM: Family History Interest Form
Here are some things you can discover from my research:

• Newspaper articles about your ancestors (Crime? Scandal? Who knows!)
• Custom ancestral mapping showing your approximate ethnic admixture
• United States migration mapping showing how your ancestors migrated throughout the country
• Your great-great-great grandparents’ names
• Physical descriptions of your ancestors from census records and war draft cards
• Six full generations back of your family tree
• Photographs of your ancestors you have never seen before (Found in Newspaper archives, I have subscriptions to several newspaper websites)

I have a degree in Anthropology and have spent several years working for a professional genealogy company. I have been working as an individual genealogist for about 6 years. If you have any questions about my research, please fill out an interest form or email: [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])
For those of you with ancestry outside of Michigan, please send me a message. I’d be happy to help you or direct you to a better suited genealogist. Thanks!
Ancestral Origins Map Example
https://preview.redd.it/k9gdpfkiiz4b1.png?width=962&format=png&auto=webp&s=9b7f3069f9df734d7b429fca6bd3f0a9cf4fb4c0
USA Origins Map Example
https://preview.redd.it/hltvsh6jiz4b1.png?width=973&format=png&auto=webp&s=e6b441d9bd99deacfd67b7b3afdffae1c7565fbc
LINK TO INTEREST FORM: Family History Interest Form