#Charles Radcliffe

[makoto-nihil]

The Ocean Hunter: Eyes of Truth - Log Entry 02-01

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==June 14, Year 10==

***The following morning, Father departed for his trip to Luna Sea without seeing me for one last time.***

"He left just a few minutes ago. He didn't mention if he'll stop by your friend's place to see you before his flight later this morning," Their uncle Roger's voice spoke on the other end of the line, still cheerful as ever. "But don't you worry about your father, boy."

Torel twisted the cord connecting the handset receiver to the wall-mounted telephone with one hand as they held the receiver with the other against their ear. The morning sunlight in the living room area on the other side of where Torel was in the apartment was peeking through the closed window blinds, but it still felt too early to be awake at seven in the morning, especially on a weekend.

A few minutes ago, their peaceful slumber was interrupted by the wall-mounted telephone ringing across where they were in the living room area of the apartment's main room in the dining room area. Since Torel was sleeping on the couch in the living room area last night, their earbuds were immediately subjected to the loud noise the moment the phone rang. At first they'd thought it was for Taka, since Chris had mentioned that in the past people would sometimes call him directly in the early hours before the auto shop opened to schedule appointments for repairs and maintenance ahead of time, much to his chagrin and annoyance. They'd pulled the pillow over their ears and tried go back to sleep in spite of the loud noise. A minute later, they'd heard Taka grumbling from his room, which was near the dining room area, followed by some shuffling, and then his door opening and him dragging himself to answer the phone and muttering to himself, accompanied by the sound of a metal crutch clacking against the hardwood floor. Another minute passed along with a small conversation muffled by the pillow over their ears before Torel heard Taka walk over, them hearing the crutch coming closer and clacking against the floor first before they felt him shake them by their shoulder with a gruff, "It's your uncle calling for you." Torel made sure to thank Taka before the older man headed back into his room to go back to sleep.

"Why, when we were young lads, we once got lost in the woods behind the family manor! I was scared out of my wits, being in the middle of nowhere, and your aunt, who had the entire woods mapped out in her brilliant and bright mind, was busy helping your grandmother with some historical records. But your father kept his chin up and remained absolute that we would find our way back home! Just when we thought we found the path we'd took earlier to head back home, a huge bear suddenly appeared and-."

"Roger, please!" Lady Murdoch's voice snapped in the background, interrupting Roger.

Torel heard his uncle's and mother's voice become muffled on other end of the line, as if his uncle had put a hand over the receiver to discuss something with her. "At least tell him to come home right now!" and "He'll come home when he feels like it" were what Torel managed to make out from the muffled discussion. A couple minutes passed before they heard their uncle get back to them.

"Anyways, I'm sure Samuel will be just fine," Roger said reassuringly.

"I guess so," was all Torel could mumble in reply.

***Despite how I felt about Father back then, even back since I was younger, I still felt a little worried about him. This was the first research expedition he'd done after he and his research institution were forced to stop five years ago because of what happened at North Sea. I thought about what if something happens during the trip? More importantly, would he return home like he'd always done in his previous trips?***

***Even so, I pushed those worried thoughts to the back of my mind.***

After his uncle wished them a good weekend before hanging up, Torel put the receiver back on the phone box and dragged themself back to the couch. As soon as they get some more sleep, they and Chris (who was still sound asleep despite all the noise outside his room) would continue with their study session for the upcoming exams which, as a result of their impromptu decision to stay over at Chris's apartment for the weekend yesterday, something they looked forward to at this point and would be for the rest of the weekend. They flopped back onto the couch and instantly fell back asleep the moment their head hit the pillow. The last thing they heard before their lights went out was the low whirring hum of the small rotating fan that sat on a chair next to the couch and towards them.

By the time the alarm clock in Taka's room went off an hour later, Torel was still fast asleep.

~~~~~~~

==June 16==

***Soon enough, the exams had came and gone, and summer break finally arrived.***

"Finally, it's over!" Torel exclaimed, exhausted. They stretched their arms up as they spoke, only for exhaustion to catch up to them and causing them to suddenly slump onto Chris, who was walking next to them. They managed to sling their left arm around his shoulder before their body almost gave way.

The two were walking through a huge crowd of students flooding out of the front doors of the school building. Chris blinked down at their now-tired queer platonic partner before wrapping his right arm around their right shoulder to pull them up and turning his attention back to the book open in his left hand - Moby Dick - while keeping an eye on the path ahead. As the crowd around them started to scatter off to different directions, Torel leaned against their partner and walked alongside him for a few more minutes before they finally realized Chris hadn't said anything to their earlier proclamation. They lifted their head slightly up to look at him.

"Hey, aren't you glad the exams are over?" they asked, still feeling exhausted.

"Hm?" Chris's eyes flickered towards Torel. "Yeah."

Torel tilted their head a bit. Chris didn't look as tired as they were; in fact, he looks rather relaxed and calm. "Really? 'Cause you were looking extremely focused and tense during the exams, so I'd thought you'd be happy to be done with them."

"I am. I just didn't devote my entire brain power into completing them, unlike you." Chris then lightly tapped the book against Torel's head. Torel exclaimed in surprise and lazily swatted at him with their free hand while Chris cracked a small smile at them.

Torel then noticed some of the upperclasspeople nearby being surrounded by Torel's and Chris's fellow current year students. The crowded students were being wished by the underclasspeople good luck with getting into the colleges or universities of their dreams, their future endeavors and whatnot.

"You know, it's really sad to see them go," they remarked as they scanned the crowded upperclasspeople to find a familiar face. "It's kinda hard to see them depart for college or other ventures after all the studying sessions and support for each other and us underclasspeople for the whole year, except for the jerks of course. Even though there's a chance that they'll come back to the city to visit whenever they can."

Chris hummed in assent, looking up in the same direction as Torel was. Before he could say anything, he felt someone glomp onto his right side and squeeze his right arm tightly. He glanced over to see a familiar dark-skinned girl with dark short hair clinging onto his right arm. Torel too was glancing over to see who it was, this time standing upright instead of slouching. Chris sighed and turned his left hand to lightly tap his book on her head. "Hey, Kayla," he mumbled.

"It's...sad," she mumbled.

"Sad?" Chris inquired.

"They're leaving. They kept saying they're going for their dreams, but it's just an excuse for something else..."

"Like...hunting sea monsters?" Torel guessed.

"Hm?" She looked over at them with her emerald green eyes.

"Well, it's no surprise, Kayla." Torel, Chris, and Kayla turned around to see a tall, fair-skinned upperclassman with short brown hair approaching them from behind. "Considering the bounties on the Seven Great Monsters' heads had increased just yesterday, it's no doubt people like them would be enticed and distracted from their otherwise stated goals to try to claim the big prize," the upperclassman continued.

"Why would they, though?" Torel asked.

"Even though many others have tried and failed in the past?" Kayla followed.

"Who knows?" The upperclassman shrugged. "Maybe they think their futures aren't worth it in the long run and that hunting sea monsters for their bounties sounds more exciting and prospective."

"Well, maybe it's something else besides that. Maybe they just want to get glory and fame faster?" Torel pointed out.

"Or maybe it's for personal vengeance," Chris guessed.

Silence quickly fell over the four young adults. The chatter and noise from the other students around them continued on.

"So what about you, Charles?" Torel asked the upperclassman a minute later. "What do you really plan to do now that you're done with A-levels?"

"Me?" The upperclassman immediately straightened up and stood with his arms crossed. "Well, I ain't fishing anytime soon. Ain't got the time for that!" he declared. A bold smile streaked across his face.

"So, you're still going for it?" Torel inquired excitedly.

"Definitely!" His face was now beaming with confidence and his bright purple eyes twinkled with excitement. "In three to four years, depending on your perspective, England will hear from the next Charles Dickens, the most awesome writer of all time - Charles Radcliffe!" he proclaimed, extending his hand to the air with a flourish. "I just have to decide which of the many universities that accepted my application I would attend," he added, lowering his hand a bit.

"Well, guess that means we'll have to wait for more than three to four years for your first novel," Chris said in a jokingly half-resigned and half-nonchalant voice.

Kayla giggled with a hand over her smile.

"Chris~!," Torel whined with a sweat drop rolling down the side of their face.

"What?"

"Why you got to bring down the mood?"

"I wasn't."

Charles laughed and playfully cuffed Torel and Kayla by their shoulders, causing both Torel and Chris to bonk each other in the head and almost throwing Kayla off-balance. "Oh, I'm so going to miss y'all. But hey, my ol' pop sent my final manuscript of my short story to his friends at a literary magazine publisher just yesterday," he added with a wink. "With any luck, my months of drafts should pay off soon and you'll definitely see my first work before the semester starts."

~~~~~~~

Much later, the group had relocated to the city park. Since it was still early in the afternoon, the park wasn't very crowded when they arrived, and so they were able to find a spot in the grassy parts of the park to sit together under the warm afternoon sun. Torel and Chris sat next to each other, their satchels placed behind them to act as cushions, while Charles sat a bit from Torel's side and Kayla close by Chris's side and still clinging onto his left arm. For a while, the four friends did nothing but gaze out to the blue sea beyond while the the sounds of chatter and kids playing around them in the distance and the seagulls cawing above carried on.

But, it didn't take long for the calm and tranquility of the park, or rather the peaceful silence between the group, to be interrupted by loud chanting and shouting behind them in the distance.

"Them again?" Torel sighed in annoyance. They didn't bother to look over their shoulder to see where the source of the unexpected commotion came from - rather, everyone in the park and in the vicinity of the noise knew very well where it's coming from.

"Who? That group over there?" Charles inquired, looking behind him and pointing his thumb at the group of figures in black cloaks walking into the park.

"Who else?"

"Oh, the Vox maris Dei-whatever. That fanatic sea monster cult."

While Torel and Charles were chatting, Chris had quickly grabbed his satchel as soon as he heard the loud commotion behind them in the distance and got up, pulling Kayla with him in the process, considering that she was still clinging onto his arm and her satchel still slung on her shoulder, but she nevertheless willing to follow where he goes. Torel didn't notice this until they caught them by the corner of their eye heading down the hill. They looked back to where the cult group was and just then noticed the path the cultists were starting to walk down on would lead down close to where they and their friends were sitting. Quickly connecting the dots, Torel quickly picked up their satchel and followed after them with a "Hey, wait up!", Charles following suit.

The cult group soon walked past the four's original sitting spot, chanting loudly a disarray of phrases and gibberish. Some of the parkgoers looked at them, a few in annoyance and even shaking their heads. The rest were pulling their children towards them and away from the cultists while covering their ears. Eventually, the cultists reached the end of the path and were walking away from the park, much to the relief of every parkgoer, and the parkgoers resumed their activities before they were interrupted earlier. In the case of Torel, Chris, Kayla, and Charles, however, they remained at their new spot further down the hill and past the promenade and near the park's lighthouse.

"They seem to be going around more often than they used to," Kayla noted as she watched the cultists disappear from view. "Even though no-one listens to them at all."

"Well, who'd listen to them?" Charles remarked. "Scream and yell the same fanatical crap all the time, and people are bound to detest you, even ignore you completely. Though, it's not like that's ever stopped them from bothering everyone else they come across."

"Father and the other scientists at his research institute have had a few bad run-ins with the cult because of their work," Torel said, adding to the conversation. "Those fanatics have been harassing them for years, for 'disrupting the harmony and well-being of the Seven Seas'. What they don't understand is that Father - and my family in that matter - and the other scientists have been doing the opposite for a long time, even before the Seven Great Monsters came."

"But, as to why they'd been more active lately," Charles noted, "it's probably cause of this so-called 'doomsday' that's supposedly coming up."

"Huh?!" Kayla tightened her grip on Chris's arm as she and Torel whipped their heads towards the older young adult. Chris, for his part, grunted in pain and patted Kayla's shoulder to get her to loosen up her grip, which she promptly does, before turning his head to look at Charles.

"Haven't you heard?" Charles looked at his younger friends' puzzled look. "I know I said that people would usually ignore the cult, but I picked up a few details or so from their ramblings this past week. Supposedly, this 'doomsday' they'd been wailing and crying about nonstop is drawing near, around this summer or fall or something. Course, it doesn't sound like Rahab, who they proclaim to be their so-called god, could ever destroy the world and remake it in his own image, since after all he is just a sea monster. I would say, though, that Great Monster is a better mystery than the other six," he added. "But hey, it's not like the world will end soon."

"What makes you say that?" Torel asked curiously.

"Call me crazy for actually catching on to what the cultists that walked by earlier were yapping about, but supposedly Rahab would have to wait until he and the other monsters find this...thing of sort." Everyone gave him unimpressed looks. "OK, I wasn't that attentive. But the way I see it, and given that it's been ten years ever since the Great Monsters appeared, it'll probably be years before that sorta thing could happen. I would say, though, this 'prophecy' kinda reminds me a bit of this old tale I've heard of before". Charles scratched his hair. "I think it was called, The Man of the Sea, or something..."

Out of the corner of Torel's eye, they noticed Chris perked up a bit.

"But either way, I forgot how the old tale goes," Charles quickly admitted. "It was something I read up on in a book while I was touring one of the universities I applied to over waaaaaayyy back during January break, in the campus library."

"I think I may have also read something like that too in the library back at home, now that you mention it," Torel noted, rubbing their chin. "What about you, Chris?" they asked as they glance over at him.

The moment the attention turned to him, Chris nearly froze. "I, uh...maybe?" was what he managed to stammer out, a sweat drop rolling down the side of his face.

"What do you mean, 'maybe'?" Charles inquired, tilting his head in curiosity.

Chris could still feel everyone looking at him. "It's...just something my Mom used to tell me..." He stopped talking with a sigh.

Torel noticed something flicker in his eyes when he spoke and immediately got the feeling of what it was. A pang of guilt twisted inside them. "Hey, you don't have to continue if it's making you uncomfortable," they quickly said, putting a hand on his shoulder, which they hoped communicated to him as reassuring. "Sorry for asking-."

"No." Chris patted the hand on his shoulder. "I-It's fine. It's fine." He took a deep breath before he continued. "I just...only know the parts of the tale that she remembered." He swallowed and cleared his throat a bit.

"There was once a man who lived with his two children in the sea. The endless ocean was his home, and the creatures were his friends. And they all lived happily together in the sea in peace.

One day, the man fell into a great slumber. But when he woke up, he found destruction...and one of his children gone."

Silence filled the air, save for the whistling winds coming from the direction of the sea far away and the hubbub up the hill where most of the parkgoers were.

"That's...all I know," Chris said apologetically, looking away. He curled his right hand halfway into a fist, if not all the way, had Torel not gently placed a hand on his back and Kayla squeezing his left arm.

"I'm sorry again," Torel apologized.

"I'll be OK," was his response.

A few minutes passed before anyone spoke.

"Well, I think I'll raid the public library and see if I can find the old tale in the folklore section or similar," Charles proclaimed. "If not, then I'll swing by your place, Torel, and raid your library! Kidding!" he exclaimed, laughing, as Torel moved to swat at him while shouting, "As if!"

"But really," Charles pointed out, "it does leave a lot of questions. Like who or what destroyed the sea that the man calls 'home', and what happened to his kids. Ahaha...theories abound!"

Charles pulled out a pen and a notebook from his satchel and started to jot down ideas and theories. As he does that, Chris glanced over at Torel, who had turned their head to look out towards the sea beyond.

"You're worried about your Dad?" he asked.

Torel bit their lip as they contemplated for a bit. They shook their head. "Not really...but a part of me is, as much as I don't really want to," they admitted reluctantly.

"Even after ten years, your ol' pop must be really crazy to go out to to the Seven Seas at a time like this," Charles remarked, lifting his head up as he continued to write. "But, everyone here still respects him, as far as my pop told me."

"Well, it wouldn't be the first time he'd crossed into dangerous territory for the sake of research," Torel shrugged, followed by a sigh, "but, who knows? Maybe he'll come back alive and okay from this trip, just like he always did."

***Or so I thought.***

***I didn't "hear" from Father until a week later...***

[carnevol]

Stalag Fashion

[sainztificc]

Charles and Daniel Radcliffe, they look so similar in the kid version don't they🥹

[dalyankiz1981]

Victor Frankenstein (2015)

Watched this one this morning. Much less dark than I was expecting and properly entertaining. Yeah yeah, I know… 😍 But also James McAvoy, Daniel Radcliffe and Jessica Brown Findlay! What a cast 👍

[breadcrumbsz]

just saying i’ve never seen daniel radcliffe and charles leclerc in the same room

[godscobhhq]

Cogsworth from Beauty and the Beast

Name: Charles Worth Age: 32+ Profession: Financial Overseer at BeteInc Pronouns: UTP FC suggestions: Tom Hiddleston, Daniel Radcliffe, Paul Bettany Availability: Open

Biography UTP

Notable character information: The stress of working for Adam is getting too much for Charles who might just need a hit of Pixie Dust to take the edge off.

[idontliketomatoesleavemealone]

weve got two people legally named Charles so uhhh

Charles Muntz Jr is Charlie

Charles Radcliffe is Charley

[kickinganddriving]

The tumblr gods have given me questions and polls 🙏🏾

Answer and then reblog!

[nathalieskinoblog]

David Copperfield 1935 - 2019

[leer-reading-lire]

Last read:

Title: Supernatural Horror in Literature

Author: H.P. Lovecraft

Translator: Gabriela Ellena Castellotti

Number of Pages: 167

Rating: ★★★★☆

First published: 1927

Read: 22 - 30 December 2022

Thoughts:

Well, I had this book in my tbr list for the longest time and after two attempts I finally got around to read it.

Looking at the title, it makes me think that my professors at university would have never let me get away with a title like that. "Supernatural Horror in Literature" is a really broad subject and Lovecraft, not surprisinly, only mentions European (German, English and French) and United States authors. So his views are rather limited. In my opinion, he should had mention the countries and the time periods that he was going to refer to.

The requisite to be listed and comented favorably by Lovecraft is simply his subjective taste. I didn't find further arguments other that what he liked and what he didn't.

While I didn't expect Lovecraft to mention many women writers, I was still unsatisfied that he only recognized the talents of a handful, such as: Anna Laetitia Barbauld and Mary E. Wilkins Freeman.

In fact, the essay didn't contain much about gothic horror history that I didn't already know, thanks to courses I've taken and books I've read on the subject. However, I think it's a good place to start for someone just beginning with this kind of literature.

[d3mon-ology]

a cursed film adaptation of the secret history but paul dano, who is a whole father and almost has 4 decades on this planet, plays richard

[petalsprompts]

Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, CH, DBE 28th of December, 1934 — 27th of September, 2024

She received  numerous  accolades,  including  two  Academy  Awards,  five  BAFTA  Awards,  four  Emmy  Awards,  three  Golden  Globe  Awards  and  a  Tony  Award,  as  well  as  nominations  for  six  Laurence  Olivier  Awards.  She  was  one  of  the  few  performers  to  earn  the  Triple  Crown  of  Acting.

“ Do  not  be  stilled  by  anger  or  grief.  Burn  them  both  and  use  that  fuel  to  keep  moving.  Look  up  at  the  clouds  and  tip  your  head  way  back  so  the  roofs  of  the  houses  disappear.  Keep  moving. ” — Dame Maggie Smith in her memoir; You Could Make This Place Beautiful (2023)

"My  wife  and  I  were  deeply  saddened  to  learn  of  the  death  of  Dame  Maggie  Smith.  As  the  curtain  comes  down  on  a  national  treasure,  we  join  all  those  around  the  world  in  remembering  with  the  fondest  admiration  and  affection  her  many  great  performances  and  her  warmth  and  wit  that  shone  through  both  on  and  off  the  stage." — King Charles III

"The  end  of  an  era  of  the  sheer  definition  of  what  it  means  to  be  an  actor.  You  created  characters  that  clung  to  us,  moved  us,  entertained  us  ......  made  us  look  within.  You  defied  the  expectations  of  age....  crossed  generations.  You  were  greatness  personified  Dame  Maggie  Smith.  'A  lady  always  knows  when  it's  time  to  leave'  [...]  Godspeed  ♥️"  —  Viola  Davis

"She  was  a  fierce  intellect, a  gloriously  sharp  tongue,  could  intimidate  and  charm  in  the  same  instant  and  was,  as  everyone  will  tell  you,  extremely  funny...  The  word  legend  is  overused  but  if  it  applies  to  anyone  in  our  industry  then  it  applies  to  her."  —  co-star  in  Harry  Potter,  Daniel  Radcliffe

"Maggie  Smith  was  a  truly  great  actress,  and  we  were  more  than  fortunate  to  be  part  of  the  last  act  in  her  stellar  career.  She  was  a  joy  to  write  for,  subtle,  many-layered,  intelligent,  funny  and  heart-breaking.  Working  with  her  has  been  the  greatest  privilege  of  my  career,  and  I  will  never  forget  her."  —  Downton  Abbey  creator,  Julian  Fellowes

"Maggie  Smith  was  a  great  woman  and  a  brilliant  actress.  I  still  can’t  believe  I  was  lucky  enough  to  work  with  the  “one-of-a-kind”.  My  heartfelt  condolences  go  out  to  the  family  …  RIP."  —  co-star  in  Sister  Act & Sister Act 2: Back In The Habit,  Whoopi  Goldberg

"When  I  was  younger  I  had  no  idea  of  Maggie’s  legend  –  the woman  I  was  fortunate  enough  to  share  space  with.  It  is  only  as  I’ve  become  an  adult  that  I’ve  come  to  appreciate  that  I  shared  the  screen  with  a  true  definition  of  greatness."  —  co-star  in the  Harry  Potter film series,  Emma  Watson

"Heartbroken  to  hear  about  Maggie.  She  was  so  special,  always  hilarious  and  always  kind.  I  feel  incredibly  lucky  to  have  shared  a  set  with  her  and  particularly  lucky  to  have  shared  a  dance."  —  co-star  in the  Harry  Potter film series,  Rupert  Grint

"Anyone  who  ever  shared  a  scene  with  Maggie  will  attest  to  her  sharp  eye,  sharp  wit  and  formidable  talent,"  on-screen  son  in  Downton  Abbey,  Hugh  Bonneville

"I  had  the  unforgettable  experience  of  working  with  her;  sharing  a  two-shot  was  like  being  paired  with  a  lion.  She  could  eat  anyone  alive,  and  often  did.  But  funny,  and  great  company.  And  suffered  no  fools.  We  will  never  see  another.  God  speed,  Ms.  Smith!"  —  co-star  in  Suddenly,  Last  Summer,  Rob  Lowe

[carnevol]

We're all that's left, aren't we?

[medievalandfantasymelee]

The First Round of Contest Has now Concluded.

This Round began with 148 Contenders - Now 74 remain.

All polls in this round (as well as summaries of each day's results) may be found here

The 10 Closest Tilts in the First Round (in Reverse Order) were

10. The Sheriff of Nottingham [Alan Rickman] Def. Kili [Aiden Turner]

9. King Marke of Cornwall [Rufus Sewell] Def. Prince Prospero [Vincent Price]

8. Sir Guy of Gisbourne [Basil Rathbone] Def. Finan [Mark Rowley]

7. Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert [Ciaran Hinds] Def. Robert the Bruce [Chris Pine]

6. Hugh Beringar [Sean Pertwee] Def. Father Beocca [Ian Hart]

5. Bard the Bowman [Luke Evans] Def. Will Scarlet O'Hara [Matthew Porretta]

4. Lin Shu [Hu Ge] Def. Arman [Matvey Lykov]

3. Meriadoc "Merry" Brandybuck [Dominic Monaghan] Def. Geoffrey Chaucer [Paul Bettany]

2. Saladin [Milind Soman] Def. Jon Snow [Kit Harrington]

1. Rodrigo Borgia [Jeremy Irons] Def. Lord Tywin Lannister [Charles Dance]

And the 10 Tilts with the widest margins of victory were (in reverse order):

10. Inigo Montoya [Mandy Patinkin] Def. Corlys Velaryon [Steve Toussaint]

9. Frodo Baggins [Elijah Wood] Def. Prince Chauncley [Daniel Radcliffe]

8. Aragorn Elessar [Viggo Mortensen] Def. Ahmad [Mahesh Jadu]

7. King Henry II [Peter O'Toole] Def. Thomas Becket [Richard Burton]

6. Thorin Oakenshield [Richard Armitage] Def. King Edward IV [Max Irons]

5. Gawain [Dev Patel] Def. Matrim "Mat" Cauthon [Donal Finn]

4. Éomer, Son of Éomund [Karl Urban] Def. King Arthur [Sean Connery]

3. William Thatcher [Heath Ledger] VS. King Vortigern [Jude Law]

2. Boromir, Son of Denethor [Sean Bean] Def. Alessandro Farnese [Diarmuid Noyes]

1. Faramir, Son of Denethor [David Wenham] Def. Uther Pendragon [Gabriel Byrne]

The Tilt with the most votes (by far) at 5,177 Votes was Geralt of Rivia [Henry Cavill] Vs. Sir Gary Galavant [Joshua Sasse] Which Galavant won with 57.7% of the Vote

It was an exodus of two-by-twos this round with both of our Ewan Mitchells [Aemond Targaryen and Osferth], both of our Henry Cavills [Geralt of Rivia and Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk], AND both of our Iain Glens [Ser Jorah Mormont and Prince Hamlet] losing their respective tilts to Erik Thurgilson [Christian Hillborg], Fili [Dean O'Gorman], Galavant [Joshua Sasse], Prince John [Oscar Isaac], "The Player" [Richard Dreyfuss] and Ned Stark [Sean Bean]. Even both of our Laurence Oliviers [Prince Hamlet and Henry V] were sent scurrying to the vents in disgrace, losing their tilts against Cesare Borgia [Francois Arnaud] and Elrond Half-elven [Hugo Weaving].

In fact, nearly of of the men of Middle Earth fared uncommon well in this round, with only three losing their matches. Haldir [Craig Parker] was unable to best the charms of that most magnificent of minstrels, Hubert Hawkins [Danny Kaye]. Kili [Aiden Turner] had a strong start against George, the Sheriff of Nottingham [Alan Rickman], but the race tightened about halfway through, and the Sheriff was able to pull through a stunning last-minute victory. Despite his brutal focus and discipline and grim sense of humor, Uglúk [Nathaniel Lees] suffered a crushing defeat under the cloven hoof of a greater and sexier evil, Darkness [Tim Curry]. The Sons of Denethor, Boromir [Sean Bean] and Faramir [David Wenham] truly dominated their oppositions (Alessandro Farnese [Diarmuid Noyes] and Uther Pendragon [Gabriel Byrne]) and were the only competitors to achieve margins of victory exceeding 90% in this round.

The Men of Westeros did not fare so well. Of their 14 remaining competitors only four now stand:

Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark [Sean Bean]

Ser Bronn of the Blackwater [Jerome Flynn]

Khal Drogo [Jason Momoa]

Petyr "Littlefinger" Baelish [Aiden Gillen]

Ser Davos Seaworth [Liam Cunningham]

Ser Jorah Mormont [Iain Glen]

Prince Oberyn Martell [Pedro Pascal]

Ser Criston Cole [Fabien Frankel]

Lord Corlys Velaryon [Steve Toussaint]

Sandor "The Hound" Celgane [Rory McCann]

Jon Snow [Kit Harrington]

Gendry [Joe Dempsie]

Aemond Targaryen [Ewan Mitchell]

Tywin Lannister [Charles Dance]

But what of our Robins and Arthurs?

We began the Round with 3 of Each, but only one of each survived the round.

While Beowulf [Gerard Butler] bested King Arthur [Richard Harris] with a handy but respectful margin of 56.8%, Sean Connery's Arthur was unhorsed by Eomer [Karl Urban] in what can only be termed a crushing defeat, with a margin of 84.4% of the Vote. Only Bradley James's incarnation was able to defeat his opposition, Prince Henry [Dougray Scott], who, though strong contender, proved no match for Arthur's winning smile.

On the Robin side, our last Robin standing, is Cary Elwes, who defeated Ahmed Ibn Fahdlan with a tidy 70.8% margin. Richard Todd's stunningly attractive but lesser known Robin was defeated by the only remaining Son of York, Richard III [Aneurin Barnard], while the iconic Errol Flynn iteration was unhorsed (rather ironically) by one of the most appallingly unjust and underhanded aristocrats in the lists, Adhemar, Count of Anjou [Rufus Sewell]. We can neither confirm nor deny allegations made against the Count of cheating, nor the veracity of the rumours circulating that the Count's rather costly saddle was stolen from his tent at the end of the day while Adhemar was enjoying a flagon of wine with fellow victors Sir Guy of Gisbourne [Basil Rathbone], Sir Guy of Gisborne [Richard Armitage], the Sheriff of Nottingham [Alan Rickman] and His Royal Highness Prince John [Oscar Isaac].

Our third Sir Guy [Michael Wincott] did not join them, as he rather unfortunately lost his match against Sir Wilfred of Ivanhoe [Anthony Andrews] and, after a rather unpleasant exchange with his cousin the Sheriff, preferred to drink in the company of a different, more polite Sheriff [Peter Cushing] (who also lost his match against the Hound [Rory McCann]) and his friend Prince Prospero [Vincent Price].)

But I am sure some of your are curious as to how the Master of Revels' list of Secret Favourites is faring. Well, I can tell you, it sustained some heavy losses this round, though a still rather healthy 34 remain in the competition. Aye, but at what cost?

[mikrokosmos]

The Gothic in Classical Music History (1760s-1920s)

Intro Back in high school I fell in love with two things; classical music, and Edgar Allan Poe. I’ve always loved Halloween, October, spooky things, ghost stories, horror and slasher movies, etc. And I always loved finding classical music that was also spooky, or dark, or evocative of the same eerie experience of a cold and foggy October day. Thinking about these memories made me want to put together a short list of Gothic Classical music.

But what do I mean? There is no true “Gothic music” as in a specific movement in classical history, because the traditional Gothic refers to literature. Not all art movements have corresponding trends in all mediums. Even so I thought it would be fun to say, if there was such a thing as Gothic music, what would that include?

18th Century

John Henry Fuseli - The Nightmare (1781)

Music of the 1760s-1790s, corresponding with the first wave of “Gothic Novels” in the English language. Some names in this era include Horace Walpole (The Castle of Otranto), Ann Radcliffe (The Mysteries of Udolpho, The Italian) and Charles Brockden Brown (Wieland). The closest we have to music of this same era would be in the Sturm und Drang style. Sturm und Drang (Storm and Stress) was used to describe music written in a minor key that was restless, agitated, intense, emotional, and more extreme than the typical expectations for restraint and lightness/clarity, music that aristocrats in powdered wigs and velvet and lace could relax with. Strong changes of emotion and more emphasis on subjectivity, reflected by sudden modulations and pulsing rhythms.

The most famous piece that I associate with Sturm und Drang is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “little” g minor Symphony no.25, K.183 (1773). It is famously used in the opening of Miloš Forman’s Amadeus (1984). It is a fun piece, and that opening movement is full of fire, and probably the young Mozart having fun (he wrote it at 17. If you ever want to lower your self esteem, look up what music Mozart wrote at your current age.). Another major work would be Joseph Haydn’s “Farewell” Symphony no.45 (1772), written in the very unusual for the time key of f# minor. And of course, even though he comes later, anything Ludwig van Beethoven published in a minor key has a lot of muscular passion to it, and his early/classical era of the 1790s is no joke. Check out the final movements of his Piano Trio no.3 in c minor and his Piano Sonata no.1 in f minor, or his most famous early sonata, the Pathetique.

But if the Sturm und Drang style and Gothic genre also emphasize the disturbed and the psychological, we can include programmatic works that do the same. Mozart’s opera Don Giovanni (1788) has an incredible moment in the finale. The sociopathic hedonist is confronted by the ghost of the man he murdered in the first act, who possesses a statue and confronts Don Giovanni with his sins. Don Giovanni doesn’t repent, so he is dragged into hell with a chorus of demons. Always a good reminder that Mozart wasn’t the eternal child who wrote pretty melodies.

19th Century

Caspar David Friedrich - The Abbey in the Oakwood (1810)

Music of the early 19th century corresponds better with Gothic fiction because Romanticism in art brought greater interest in the supernatural, in the subjective, in emotional reactions to the universe… major names in fiction include the poetry of Lord Byron (Darkness), Mary Shelley (Frankenstein, The Last Man), and Sir Walter Scott (The Bride of Lammermoor). Greater emphasis is put on the anxiety of the unknown, supernatural fears beyond our control.

Of all Franz Schubert’s songs, Erlkönig (1815) best exemplifies the Gothic (and this is a bold claim because I only know about a fraction of Schubert’s extensive song output). In it, a father and son are riding on horseback. The son is sick with fever. As they ride, the son cries out that he can hear the Elf King calling out to him, some evil spirit or demon that wants to take the son’s life. The father tries to calm him down, but the Elf King gets closer and closer. By the time they reach home, the son has died. Was the Elf King real? Was the son hallucinating from fever? How literal should we take this text? The ambiguity of subjective experiences and how we interpret and understand reality is a major theme in Gothic fiction.

Many famous German operas lean into the supernatural and magical. In this period we get Carl Maria von Weber’s Der Freischütz (1821), considered to be the first Romantic opera. In it, our main character Max who needs to win a shooting contest so he can be allowed to marry his lover, Agathe. He is given a gun that can shoot magic bullets by another forrester Kaspar (who has his own plans). Kaspar tells Max to meet him in the “Wolf’s Glenn” in the woods at midnight for more magic bullets. In the Wolf’s Glenn, Kaspar calls for a spirit, the Black Huntsman Samiel, to help him curse the other characters, offering Max’s soul in exchange. Making deals with demons/the devil was another fascination in Romanticism.

Legends of a diabolical nature were springing around great musicians. At the end of the 1700s, Giuseppe Tartini wrote his most famous composition, the “Devil’s Trill” Violin Sonata in g minor which is full of virtuosic passages. Tartini claimed that the Devil appeared to him in a dream, and that he sold his soul in exchange for the Devil to be his servant. He handed the Devil his violin, and the Devil “…played with such great art and intelligence, as I had never even conceived in my boldest flights of fantasy. I felt enraptured, transported, enchanted: my breath failed me, and I awoke” Source

Similar stories came about with violinist Niccolò Paganini, who astonished the audiences of the early 19th century with his (for the time) otherworldly technique, dazzling them with scales and leaps and scratches the likes of which you can hear across his 24 Caprices for solo violin. A young Franz Liszt was at one of Paganini’s concerts and he was enthralled and inspired to become the “Paganini of the Piano”. He too would dazzle audiences with his percussive intensity, glittering arpeggios, and dreamy modulations to possess women with the spirits of hysteria and other dated misogynistic diseases. Cliche to say but before Bieber Fever, before Beatlemania, there was Lisztomania.

The sense of Faustian bargains comes through in the pieces Liszt wrote after Goethe’s Faust. The Faust Symphony (1857) includes a movement for Mephistopheles, the demon/ the Devil that bargains with Faust. The Mephistopheles movement has no original theme, but takes and corrupts the themes of Faust and his lover Gretchen into a mocking tone. Later on, Liszt was inspired to write a tone poem “The Dance in the Village Inn” or Mephisto Waltz no.1 (c.1862). He also wrote it for piano around the same time. The story has Mephistopheles taking Faust to a wedding in a village and playing the violin so madly, the partygoers are intoxicated by the music and go off dancing in the woods. Emotions taking over and making one act irrationally was another fascination in Gothic fiction.

Liszt would go on in his later years writing a few more Mephisto waltzes, with a lot of forward thinking harmonies and piano writing, unfortunately not as popular. Mephisto waltz no.2 (1881) has moments that make me think of Debussy, and the third (1883) has glittering and ethereal moments. But the best example of Liszt’s interest in the Gothic would be his earlier concert piece Totentanz (1949), or Dance of Death (Danse macabre). In it, the piano and orchestra play out variations on the Medieval chant Dies Irae, always reminding us of the inevitability of death. The variations depict skeletons dancing wildly all while the Mephistopheles at the piano unleashes his seductive tones.

The Dies Irae chant goes across our pop culture, with one famous iteration being a synthesized version of passages from Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique that Wendy Carlos wrote for Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) after Stephen King’s novel of the same name. And it was Berlioz’s symphony that enchanted audiences in 1830 with new, titanic sounds beyond what orchestra music had been before. In the story of the Symphonie fantastique, an artist has tried to overdose on opium after feeling rejected by unrequited love, but instead he has a vivid drug induced nightmare where he is sentenced to be beheaded via guillotine, which was still a traumatic living memory for the Parisian audience. He then sees himself among ghosts and monsters during a witches’ sabbath, the lovely woman’s beautiful theme is distorted into a grotesque mockery, the Dies Irae comes back among the cackling. It was a new degree of imagination expected from the audience. Later, Berlioz would depict demons in Pandæmonium (the Capital of Hell in Dante’s Inferno) at the end of his Damnation of Faust.

Through the mid to late 19th century we get authors of Gothic literature such as Edgar Allan Poe, Elizabeth Gaskell, Emily and Charlotte Brontë, Nathaniel Hawethorne, and Victor Hugo. We also get two more operas that have Gothic themes. First is Richard Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman (1843). In this opera, a ship on the North Sea collides with the Ghost Ship of the Flying Dutchman who is cursed to sail the seas forever, but is allowed to come ashore once every seven years and if he can find a wife, he will be freed. I’m sure you can guess how this opera ends. The overture is often played in concert for a condensed version of Wagnarian thunder and romance. The next important opera is Giuseppe Verdi’s Macbeth (1847), because Shakespeare was being revived and translated in different languages across Europe and Verdi loved his plays. In the opera, Macbeth comes across a chorus of witches that foretell his success and downfall. He is too ambitious and goaded by Lady Macbeth, plans to take the throne through deception and murder. Lady Macbeth is later haunted with phantom blood on her hands which only she can see. And Macbeth succumbs to his inevitable fate.

We also get two significantly “Gothic” pieces of orchestra music. They are both tone poems, which also reflects the concert goers’ tastes. The one that has always been a quintessential “Halloween classical” piece is Camille Saint-Saens’ Danse Macabre (1875), opening at the stroke of midnight (softly evoked by the harp), a violin shrieks out the tritone (the “Devil’s interval” which the Romantics thought meant was cursed by the superstitious Medievals, really it was an idiom for “hard to use in music”) and introduces ballroom music along with the clacking bones of skeletons dancing in the graveyard (evoked by the xylophone). The skeletons dance through the night until the rooster crows at dawn.

The other great Halloween concert piece is Modest Mussorgsky’s Night on Bald Mountain (1867) which depicts another witches sabbath, this time on St. John’s Night, a major holiday in Slavic Eastern Orthodox culture. Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) would help bring this poem to life with an animated phantasmagoria of ghouls and skeletal horses and other demons flying around the mountainous demon Chernoberg.

[Here I want to give a quick shoutout to Cesar Franck’s Le Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman), a tone poem about a Count who doesn’t go to church one Sunday, and instead rides around to whip peasants for his own amusement, so demons drag him to hell. Not nearly as famous a concert piece as the others mentioned in this list but it has colorful orchestration so you should check it out.]

The initial idea for Fantasia was for Disney to repopularize Mickey Mouse by writing him into an animated version of Paul Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice. The original poem by Goethe was a classic that Paul Dukas set to music in 1897. In it, we hear the Sorcerer leave his Apprentice to clean the floors of his workshop. The Apprentice uses magic to bring a broom to life so it can do the chores for him. The Broom mindlessly pours buckets of water all over the floor, and the Apprentice isn’t good enough with magic to stop it. He chops it up into pieces with an ax, but they regenerate into several brooms which go back to marching water in. The Sorcerer returns to clean the mess and scolds his Apprentice. This charming tale has a darker and more diabolically fun tone in Dukas orchestra.

20th Century

Harry Clarke - Illustration for "Masque of the Red Death" (1919)

In the same exact year of Dukas’ tone poem, we get Bram Stoker’s Dracula. At this turn of the century other major names include Gaston Luroux (The Phantom of the Opera), Robert Lewis Stevenson (Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde), Henry James (The Turn of the Screw), Oscar Wilde (The Picture of Dorian Gray). At this time, there are a few more pieces that continue trying to evoke Gothic subject matter. One comes from Gustav Mahler’s Symphony no.7 (1905), sometimes dubbed “Song of the Night”. Two of the symphonies five movements are titled “Nachtmusik” (night music), the first is more in line with Gothic anxiety and spookiness than the second which is more like a serenade. But the most Gothic movement is the Scherzo which sits in the middle of the symphony and is like a Viennese ballroom full of dancing corpses and skeletons as waltz music decays with them.

A surprising example (at least, because of how relatively obscure it is) comes from Claude Debussy with parts of an opera based on Poe’s The Fall of the House of Usher that he worked on between 1908-1917. Not too much a surprise on the one hand because French translations of Poe’s work became popular and influential. On the other hand Debussy is more known for evocative sound pictures, unique musical colors, and subtlety. Perhaps he was drawn to symbolist and psychosexual interpretations of The House of Usher, the same interests that preoccupied him with his only finished opera Pelleas et Melisande. Roger Orledge reconstructed the opera and tried to stay true to Debussy’s style, so what we do have is passable and as shadowy and vague as his other orchestral masterpieces.

Maybe the hardest work to recommend (but I do recommend regardless, give it a chance) is a Modernist song cycle for chamber ensemble. Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire (1910) uses freely chromatic atonality to give a demented color of psychosis experienced by Pierrot, personified version of a stock character for old Commedia dell Arte plays, a clown who over time became the “sad clown”. Maybe a precursor to the demon from Stephen King’s It, or the demented clowns and jesters that laugh at the madness of the cosmos across Thomas Ligotti’s short stories.

This was only meant to be a small overview of works that could fit my own view of the Gothic in music. There are more examples I could include, so as a hint toward today, I’ll end with a piece that was written about a century ago, yet sounds as if it could have been written today. Henry Cowell’s The Banshee (1925) is a short piano piece, so if you can, at least listen to this one. Instead of playing with the keys like you’re “supposed to”, Cowell asks the performer to drag their fingers along the wires directly. This creates disturbing reverberations and scratching sounds that tingle the back of your neck, that feel like the otherworldly cry of a Banshee.

Happy Halloween.

[kaijuno]

“Since her death in 1979, the woman who discovered what the universe is made of has not so much as received a memorial plaque. Her newspaper obituaries do not mention her greatest discovery. […] Every high school student knows that Isaac Newton discovered gravity, that Charles Darwin discovered evolution, and that Albert Einstein discovered the relativity of time. But when it comes to the composition of our universe, the textbooks simply say that the most abundant atom in the universe is hydrogen. And no one ever wonders how we know.”

—

Jeremy Knowles, discussing the complete lack of recognition Cecilia Payne gets, even today, for her revolutionary discovery.

Cecilia Payne’s mother refused to spend money on her college education, so she won a scholarship to Cambridge.

Cecilia Payne completed her studies, but Cambridge wouldn’t give her a degree because at that time there's not much exposure for woman, so she said to heck with that and moved to the United States to work at Harvard.

Cecilia Payne was the first person ever to earn a Ph.D. in astronomy from Radcliffe College, with what Otto Strauve called “the most brilliant Ph.D. thesis ever written in astronomy.”

Not only did Cecilia Payne discover what the universe is made of, she also discovered what the sun is made of (Henry Norris Russell, a fellow astronomer, is usually given credit for discovering that the sun’s composition is different from the Earth’s, but he came to his conclusions four years later than Payne—after telling her not to publish).

Cecilia Payne is the reason we know basically anything about variable stars (stars whose brightness as seen from earth fluctuates). Literally every other study on variable stars is based on her work.

Cecilia Payne was the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within Harvard, and is often credited with breaking the glass ceiling for women in the Harvard science department and in astronomy, as well as inspiring entire generations of women to take up science.

Cecilia Payne is awesome and everyone should know her.