>>40994
Don't know about Oranges, I doubt there was ever much fruit stuff from USA since we kind of live near asia and it's obviously much easer to buy them from here than from other side of ocean.

> Is this part of why Russians associate us with Coca Cola and Pepsi?

No, I guess it was one of the loudest brands. And soviet people who don't clearly understand "brands and companies" more felt like this things as your "symbols". There still from older generations people who don't really understand what companies, products and ads mean, interpritating them as overall face of nation and goverment, since in USSR all was made was owned by state obviously.
From there mentality of "we have Marx and Lenin and ruled by Party, USA have Coca-cola and Cowboys and ruled by Capitalists". So USA viewed as something same as USSR, just with diferent names and products, in late USSR just as "same, but more sucsesfull".

>Was this like a Russian holiday treat during Christmas?

Not during Christmas, Christmas fled together with last white resistance in revolution :/
And not Oranges but Mandarin and they basicly was once of year because of very limited import, so they accesable only when there is iternal harvest of them inside SU. This why it was "fruit that apper during specific time".

Oh god fucking shit, fuck
https://www.clovecigarettesonline.com/duty-notice

>Dear Customers...

>We were regret to informed you that we were currently cannot ship any package to US now due to COVID19 Outbreak in US. The post office closed the destination to US.

>We hope this Pandemic will be ended soon, and we will send them back later after our post office opening confirmation.
>Let us wait for 1-2 more weeks, your paid order will be send ASAP after they open.

>Thank You

>Take Care, Stay Safe....

FUCK
Why in the fucking shit aren't they sending these out now? What did Indonesia just ban us from the fucking airports or anyone so much as trading with us now? I mean just because we have by far the most
Oh. Fuck, are we starting to just get flat out trade blocked by everyone not even letting postal flights to and from America onto their territories anymore? We don't even have a million confirmed cases yet

I watched the 1974 cult classic Phantom of the Paradise. It's a rock opera/horror/comedy which mixes story elements from Faust with The Phantom of the Opera. First of all, every character is played over the top, and I loved Paul Williams as the music producer Swan. Secondly, get ready to hear the word "cantata" a lot, because of course it's a rock opera about a rock opera. I'd say the best way to describe Phantom, is to imagine Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory crossed with an episode of The Monkees, and dipped in LSD. So if that sort of thing sounds appealing, then I'd recommend. I enjoyed it.
Oh, this also had some great music. Here are the opening and closing songs, which were my favorites:

The Juicy Fruits - Goodbye Eddie
https://vimeo.com/135842282

Phantom Of The Paradise - The Hell of It - Paul Williams
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tB4AFJHJWS8

>>40454

>A "Bullet In The Head" previously mentioned has a car persecution/scene which is really nice.

I found that scene on Youtube, it was excellent. Real cars crashing into each other, bullets, blood, and even a flaming barrel used as a weapon. I haven't seen the full movie yet, but I don't mind knowing the ending first. I even saw the end of Fight Club before the beginning, so the Tyler Durden twist didn't really come as a surprise :D.

Since nobody took dibs on the new OP image, I'm now in the preliminary stage of producing one. Stand by. saging because not sure if sage contributes to systemkontra, probably does.

>>40332
I still can't really get used to digital art after all this time. The biggest problem is my inability to make accurate ellipses and curves. Too big to draw with the wrist (not like it's even advisable to draw with the wrist), too small to draw with the shoulder. The smallest circle I can make on it with the shoulder takes up almost the whole screen, which means I can't see the rest of the drawing if zoomed in. I have developed a hacky habit of simply blocking shapes in, and then carving out the negative space to avoid having to draw precise lines. But since I'm trying to get better at drawing, it's been pretty challenging. A single drawing easily takes me several hours of trial and error. Another interesting thing is that the trick of hovering the pencil and making "ghost marks" to practice a stroke doesn't really work with a tablet (at least non screen tablets).

Also it's an old model, so the pen and pressure control aren't great either. I almost use it as a binary button a lot of the times and control opacity/size manually or through laying strokes on top of each other. I also miss the material properties and textures of oil paints, but I can't afford them.

But being able to do image manipulation stuff is pretty valuable for productivity. I've actually been avoiding doing than in digital art if I can, as to not turn it into a crutch. Maybe that is stupid, because my autistic insistence on repeating every stroke dozens of times to get it right could be replaced with the warp tool. But I enjoy the process of putting down marks with my hand, doing image manipulation stuff puts me in a different brain space, where I feel like I'm "crafting an image" rather than "expressing myself", if that makes sense.

>>40153
It's funny how we often think of such moments of pure beauty perhaps mixed with a light touch of poignancy always stands out as those few moments that made our lives worth living.

For me I definitely have several although now that I think about it there was one moment of pure haunting beauty I just remembered that stands out and gets mixed with several actually beautiful moments.

Truth be told I find it incredibly difficult to differentiate between certain forms of beauty and terror or sadness, and between attractiveness and danger. I don't know why. I often confuse the look in a woman's eye with predation for example, and thus only fuels my voluntary celibacy as I instantly regard potential allies as threats. Meanwhile certain obvious threats and dangers attract me. Like ooooo poison and sharp things yay. So come to think of it a good many of my moments are mixed up. Wait how did OP phrase this specifically

>the best moment of your life ?
>the best
>not happiest
>not most satisfying, fulfilling, beautiful

Interesting though how my brain apparently colored in with synonyms so I literally thought you asked either beautiful or happiest moment. Well, the best. I wouldnt call them best but a couple shots I made curling were kinda neat. A few things I did to anonymously have a huge impact on the world were kinda neat but ultimately trivial, thought it was fun.

Honestly my mind keeps reflecting back to a moment swimming naked with an ex. It was under moonlight and I loved her, and it was cold at the edge of the pond. It wasn't even my best moment with her. But that entire relationship I was patently aware of my existential mortality and sought to hide ourselves as far away from God and the acknowledgment of any intelligence as I could, and cherished each and every moment knowing exactly what would happen. And it did happen. And while I've moved on since many many years ago when I'm not paying attention to anything in particular my mind still drifts back to her. It's still kinda spooky the ease with which I consciously deleted every trace of what she looked like topless in my memory. It was thorough. And it was easy and instantaneous causing me to question how much I may have done that beforehand and who or how I learned such a thing.

Yeah I ain't got much else. Most of my childhood was incredibly unhappy as was my teenage years. I basically only even had a narrow window of my life that was cool, and I spent the bulk of that stressed out and having mental breakdowns. I suppose if I did have a best moment I wouldn't even reveal it to myself consciously so that I could guard it and nothing could take it from me then.