magistralucis

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My little ratmech contribution (financially incentivized)

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Agates carved into orange slices by wutong_crystal_carvings.

Source: x

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scrolling through the birdbuddy feed and this shows up and makes me lose my fucking mind

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Thomas Cardinal Lawrence Medieval Style

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i feel like i‘ve lost my spark and trying to get it back is fucking exhausting

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playmobil wild boar with 3 young (7295)

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2025 Translation Tuesday Entry - 12/52 Title: Зеркало мира (The Mirror of the World) Artist: Воскресение (Voskresenie) Album: Воскресение 1 (Resurrection 1, 1979)

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Сущность явлений и лет вереница (The nature of phenomena and the sequence of years,) Лица друзей и маски врагов (The faces of friends and the masks of foes,) Ясно видны и не могут укрыться (Are clearly visible, and cannot hide themselves) От взора поэта, владельца веков (From the poet's eyes, the master of centuries.)

Свет дальних звёзд и начало рассвета (The light of distant stars and the breaking of dawn,) Жизни секреты и тайны любви (The secrets of life and the mysteries of love) Миг вдохновения солнцем согретый – (A flash of inspiration warmed by the Sun -) Всё отражается в душе поэта (All those things are reflected by the poet's soul,) В зеркале мира… (In the mirror of the world...)

В зеркале мира видно, кто и как жил (One sees, in the mirror of the world, who lived and how.) Видно, кто песню-неправду сложил (One sees those who composed the false song;) Видно, кто хочет, чтобы всё было «ночь» (One sees those who'd rather the whole world were dark;) Видно, я должен людям помочь (One sees that I have to help people.)

Зеркало мира есть у меня: (I have with me a mirror of the world:) Хочешь взглянуть, так не бойся огня (If you wish to see, then fear not the fire.) Этот огонь воспоёт моя лира (My lyre will sing of the glory of this fire,) Пусть люди знают – есть добрая сила (Let the people know this: a kind force dwells) В зеркале мира… (In the mirror of the world...)

Новое утро – добрая весть (A new morning spells good news,) Доброе утро – новая песня (A good morning is a new song,) Ясен мне путь, и послушна мне лира (The way is clear to me, and my lyre obeys,) Голос поэта снова зовёт вас заглянуть (Once again, the poet's voice calls you to look) В зеркало мира… (In the mirror of the world...)

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I hope you've all had a happy Easter! I originally had these guys scheduled for further back in the year, and with a different song, when I was first planning this project - but in April 25, given the current state of the world and the time period, I couldn't resist moving them forwards. Even the band name demands it. 🐣

Воскресение (Voskresenie, 'Resurrection') are one of the grandaddies of Russian rock. They're still playing to this day; the frontman, Aleksei Romanov (b. 1952), is over seventy years old and still going strong. Like many other groups discussed in the previous weeks, they've gone through multiple line-ups; while this is mostly an eighties translation project, today we must go back just a tiny bit to let this group breathe, as that was when the incarnations of the band I want to talk about existed. Two immortal albums (Воскресение 1 and 2), three break-ups followed by reforms, and all in three short years, from 1979 to 1982.

it was politics of course it's always politics

'Some guys make music, higher-ups get upset' is just the bread and butter of the Soviet music scene, honestly 😵 Воскресение was targeted, much in the same way Круг and Аракс were targeted, and for a similar sort of crime: the financial sort, on the surface, but probably for the sake of social order deeper down. Alexei Romanov was arrested in August 1983 and charged with 'private entrepreneurial activities' - that's to say, holding concerts and selling tapes of their own music for money. As mentioned in the Аракс post, which bands got to earn 'legitimate' money and how much was dependent on whether you were state-approved or not; if you were not legitimate you would have to work another job, which might put significant time constraints on you or prevent you from moving around freely.

Romanov's guitar and his savings were all confiscated, and he was given a probation of three and a half years, which meant that he could no longer perform during this period. It seemed Воскресение was done for good, and it might well have stayed that way - if not for a 1989 concert they were allowed to hold, celebrating ten years of the band's existence. That brought the spark back, and since then, Воскресение has living up to their name. Never mind the tenth anniversary, last year was their forty-fifth! 💫

And that's what I think is important. Over the course of this project, I've found out so much about so many bands in the USSR. What surprises me the most, every time, is just how many of them have changed their line-ups and/or rotated between musicians, often to the point of not even resembling the era I picked them up in. Not only that, it never fails to surprise me that so many of those musicians are recognizable across multiple groups, as if they were all sharing from a single pool of immense talent.

Воскресение is a living embodiment of this practice. As of 2025, Воскресение's line up consists of four people: Alexei Romanov, Alexei Korobkov, Yuri Smolyakov, and Sergey Timofeev. The line-up in 1979, when they made 'Зеркало мира' and the other tracks of Воскресение 1, consisted of Romanov, Sergei Kawagoe, Evgeny Margulis, and Alexei Makarevich.

In between those years they have gone through many, many changes in line-up. Only Romanov is an 'original', and he has seen so many skilled musicians pass him by: Kawagoe and Margulis are the original founders of Воскресение, and they did so having come straight from Машина времени (Mashina Vremeni, 'Time Machine'), a rock band with an even older (est. 1969) and finer pedigree. Alexei Makarevich is a cousin of Andrei Makarevich, who is the leader of Машина времени. For the recording of Воскресение 1 they added two other musicians, Andrei Sapunov and Konstantin Nikolsky (of Цветы/'Tsvety' fame). They first completely upturned this line-up in September 1980, and Margulis left for... guess what, Аракс! 🤪

All this took place in just a single year of Воскресение's existence. If I were to cover every bandmate it would take forever, and this introduction is already too long as it is. But my point is that they were an evolving band, and by necessity, this was true of every band Воскресение's members came from or left for. That adds up to a lot of bands, many of whom were going through the same thing. I have to cut down a lot for brevity when I write those commentaries, but when you track Soviet music history, you will see a lot of the same names occurring across multiple bands - coming and going despite the long hours, low pay, the brutal schedule of concerts, the occasional questionable legalities, sometimes actual legal trouble that prevented them from doing what they loved.

Today's song was chosen because 'Зеркало мира' is the explanation for why anybody would put themselves through this, and furthermore why anyone would create, living in chaotic times a life inherently challenged by a nation at best indifferent and at worst hostile to your cause. It may not be a complicated song, but I think it's a beautiful song, and one you can take to heart when you are a creator. I like it very much. 💖

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making stuff is one of the best parts of being alive

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my personal pick for most underrated animal is the european legless lizard, which i think is often taken to just look like a normal and rather plain snake, but if you're familiar with reptile anatomy at all it looks more like some sort of bizarre heraldic fantasy creature than basically anything else on earth

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Security alert: Your orb was pondered from a new location

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My pods (:

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i love ppl who talk in the tags bc it satisfies my deep desire to know ppl’s opinions on everything without needing to have a conversation with them and ask. even better when it’s a side tangent that barely has anything to do with the post, or a personal anecdote, or a joke. tag talker mutuals you’re my favorite. tag talkers rise up

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everything. cost money

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Gold ring with enamel portrait of the Virgin Mary, Byzantine, 900-1200 AD

from The Houston Museum of Fine Arts

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A pair of gold earrings with garnet, pearl, and chalcedony elements, Byzantine, 6th century AD

from Hindman Auctions