#Daniel Casimir

[new-age-cassandra]

elaborating further on my Arthur Lester Sufjan Stevens post because i feel like it

(in other words super long post incoming)

starting with John My Beloved, because obviously. thinking about all the poetry and also “Beloved of John”

next is Drawn to the Blood. the religious themes in all of Sufjan’s music goes so well with Arthur but specifically the lyrics about prayers in this somg and “What did I do to deserve this now?”

and of course…Casimir Pulaski Day. this song just screams Arthur and especially in regards to his relationship to Bella and even Bella’s relationship to Daniel. “the complications you could do without, When I kissed you on the mouth” like yeah Arthur and Bella weren’t in romantic love but to me there was still a form of love between them. “when your father found out what we did that night, and you told me you were scared” Daniel finding out about the pregnancy. and just the latter half of the song being about grieving and partially even drifting from religion and god. this song is just the Arthur song ever I think.

these are just some of my favorites if yall want more or have any other ideas PLEASE tell me

[nor2on]

FINALLY. THE FIRST PORTRAIT BATCH IS DONE. these have been in the works since august, and only fully finished today. each batch will have 9 portraits in it, some with altercations like Fachnan and Caesar.

ok so here's everyone, from left to right:

MAIN CAST: Narcyz, Maverick, Tavish, Cedrick, Fachnan

"START OF THE WAR" CAST: Tolka, Caesar, Buis (*note about them, Tolka's story takes place separately from the other two. their stories all just take place at the start of the war and fallout, so I've grouped them together)

piece of trash side character: Casimir

sorry that the post is formatted so awfully, this format is intended for instagram and I was simply too lazy to make a different one

[headmateelevator]

hihi! could we maybe get a level 3 dsmp headmate?? preferably maybe a schlatt, revbur, or tubbo?? thank you so much, and take your time! :]

order up!

name(s) - Wilbur , Remi , Reese , Cyrus , Eveline , Gabriel , Jonah , Pandora , Riley , Wren , Rory , Symphony , Alastair , Alastor , Amon , Ash , Asher , Ashes , Asmo , Avarice , Avaricia , Bael , Balam , Bane Banshee , Baphomet , Behemoth , Belial , Bellatrix , Bellinor , Berry , Birsha , Blake , Blazer , Brimine , Bull Bune , Cain , Caine , Cambion , Casimir , Caym , Cerberus , Charon , Cherry , Claude , Colere , Corbin , Corvid , Creseis , Cronus , Crow , Crowley , Cruella , Damian , Damien , Damon , Daniel , Dantalion , Deirdre , Dem , Demonia , Dera.

pronouns - he / it / they / ash / boom / burn / fire / heat / spark / click / song / bomb / dea / death / ado / adore / kni / knife / blood / bloods / arrow / arrows / sin / sins / vi / vile / vi / villain / ash / ashes / bit / bitter / fea / fears / hiss / horn / hunt / hx / hxm / imp / infer / infernal / jest / joke / le / lethal / lie / liar / mal / malice / moon / moons / ni / night / rose / roses / rui / ruin / scare / scares / soul / souls / spi / spite / smo / smoke / fog / fogs / hy / hymn / ly / lyr.

gender(s) - Male , Smpgender , Revivelious , Revburic, Revivallexic , Undeadsensus , revivedcorpse , nohurevboy , deripalettic , gunpowder scent , Cigarette Smoke Scented , darkacawritic , poemgender , myracademic , acadelibre , priacademic , comfycoric , cogticksoundic , ABAB , AMORAB , AMarAB , Betweenlandic , limbobodien , resugender , Liminic , Vitaluxmortem , resurractic , Martyrshric , nartyric , Grimegender , rotgender , oddthing , deaddfluid , somethingmasc , chaosgender , firebodiment , rockystimmic , panfiregender , creatureweirdo , guitarvampic , forgettic , bloodyspiral , bloodfiend , bloodyskullic , bloodigowne , bloodcovic , evilbodiment , cionláidic.

orientations - pansexual demiaroace.

role(s) - Janusian , Persecutor-Protector , Silent Watcher , Observer.

species - HUMAN...? , HUMAN:) .

source(s) - REVIVEBUR , DSMP.

emoji(s) - 🚬 , ⚰️ , 🪦 , ⚱️ , 💉 , 🩸 , 💊 , 🩹 , 🩻 , 🔪 , 🗡️.

likes - journaling , puzzles , tea , fire , smoke , vintage items and clothing , routines , history , social events , music listening.

dislikes - overly bright or clashy clothing , very sweet foods , confrontation for other alters actions.

front triggers - source , the smell of cigarettes , important social situations , having to write something , songs dea enjoy.

personality description - his demeanor is composed, he remains quiet most times in the innerworld, leaving unspoken thoughts and emotions. he may appear aloof or distant at times, though he can easily have an intelligent conversation with someone once one is started.

typing quirk - he types with proper spelling and punctuation most times. except in moment when he is tires, busy, upset, etc, he will type in blunt, short sentences and double letters. (ex. tthhe quiick brooown fox juumps ovver thee laazy doog.)

typing example / small message - we have an important event to go to today. I've not been told all of the details, but I know that it is some sort of social event, I'll most likely take front when we arrive to stop more anti-social headmates from experiencing large amounts of stress or discomfort, unless I hear of anyone else with plans to front during the event.

faceclaims -

( 1 - 2 - 3 )

HERE IS ONE HORRIBLE MAN WHO I HATE. /J - 💿🐄 sorry this took so long. we lost the hyperfixation on this source and procrastination beaned up. still fun though!! - 🌈

[pupsmailbox]

DEMON︰DEVIL ID PACK

NAMES︰ abadden. abaddon. ace. adder. alastair. alastor. amon. amy. antagone. ash. asher. ashes. asmo. avarice. avaricia. bael. balam. bane. banshee. baphomet. behemoth. belial. bellatrix. bellinor. berry. birsha. blake. blazer. brimine. bull. bune. cain. caine. cambion. casimir. caym. cerberus. charon. cherry. claude. colere. corbin. corvid. creseis. cronus. crow. crowley. cruella. damian. damien. damon. daniel. dantalion. deirdre. dem. demonesse. demonette. demonia. dera. devilie. devume. diablo. diedre. dizzy. dracula. emily. entropy. ezra. fang. fangesse. fangette. felix. foras. furfur. furio. furiosa. grimbaer. hades. hecate. hermes. hex. ialyre. ira. ire. james. janus. jester. jinx. jinx/jynx. jynx. karina. kawa. lacey. lamb. lamia. layla. lilith. lilloth. lolia. luci. lucien. lucifer. lucius. lunesse. lycan. magnus. mal. malcius. malice. malicia. mallory. malorie. mammon. mania. mara. marnise. meilius. midas. minerva. misery. moonesse. moonette. moonie. moony. night. nightesse. nikolai. nithvine. noire. noiresse. noirette. nyx. omen. paimon. pandora. peri. persephone. pitch. ram. rena. rogue. ruby. sanguis. seere. seiriphi. silas. sinn. skittle. snake. stella. toxin. vessel. vex. vexa. vic. vice. victor. victoria. vince. vincent. viper. virtue. voss. vulture. wither. zoe.

PRONOUNS︰ ace/acedia. ang/anger. ash/ash. ava/avaritia. bad/bad. bat/bat. bit/bitter. black/black. blood/blood. burn/burn. claw/claw. con/conjure. crackle/crackle. dark/dark. dark/darkness. deceit/deceitful. demon/demon. demon/demonic. devil/devil. envy/envy. evil/evil. fang/fang. fear/feared. fiend/fiend. fire/fire. flame/flame. fraud/fraud. geh/gehenna. gluttony/gluttony. goat/goat. greed/greed. grey/grey. grr/growl. gu/gula. hades/hades. hate/hate. hel/hel. hel/helheim. hell/hell. hell/hellish. here/hersesy. hiss/hiss. horn/horn. hx/hxm. hy/hym. h⸸/h⸸m. imp/imp. inferno/inferno. ira/ira. ix/ix. jest/jest. joke/joke. lamb/lamb. lava/lava. lethal/lethal. level/level. liar/liar. lie/lie. limbo/limbo. loom/loom. lust/lust. lux/luxuria. night/night. poison/poison. pride/pride. punish/punish. red/red. satan/satan. scare/scare. sheol/sheol. shx/hxr. shy/hyr. sh⸸/h⸸r. sin/sin. sli/slither. slither/slither. sloth/sloth. soul/soul. spite/spite. succubi/succubus. suffer/suffer. super/superbia. tart/tartarus. thief/thief. thxy/thxm. thy/thym. th⸸y/th⸸m. toxin/toxin. tre/treachery. twist/twisted. un/holy. unholy/unholy. venom/venom. vil/villain. vile/vile. villian/villain. vio/violence. wick/wicked. wrath/wrath. wretch/wretched. ⚰️. 🐐. 👹. 👿. 💀. 🔥. 🔱. 😈.

[skylarynns-silverado]

Character Source List

Sources [usually films or television shows - anything else will have notation] will be in bold. Characters will be formatted with their in-universe name, followed by the original character in italics. Name formatting will be [First Name] [Middle Name] ["Nick Name"] [Maiden Name/Original Surname] [Married Name/Taken Surname] as applicable. I will probably also be adding links to everything, but later.

Wanted: Dead or Alive 1958-1961 Joshua Everett "Josh" Randall - Josh Randall

Rawhide 1959-1965 Randolph Jacob "Rowdy" Yates - Rowdy Yates

The Magnificent Seven 1960 Franklin Vaughn "Frank" Randall - Vin Giovanni Vittorio "Gio" Auditore - Bernardo O'Reilly Brittony "Britt" Calvin - Britt Byron Allen Lee III - Lee Carlos "Chico" Hernandez - Chico

The Dollars Trilogy 1964-1966 Jonas Blake "Joey" Yates - The Man With No Name / Joe/Manco/Blondie

Hang 'Em High 1968 Jeremy Cooper "Jed" Yates - Jed Cooper Rachel Warren - Rachel Warren

Once Upon a Time in the West 1969 Emilio "Harmonica" Arman - Harmonica Jorge Gutierrez - Cheyenne

Rustlers' Rhapsody 1985 Revelin "Rex" O'Houlihan - Rex O'Herlihan Peter Twist - Peter

Silverado 1985 [to be honest I'm taking almost all the characters, but main characters/love interests:] Emmett Martell - Emmett Paden Cassidy - Paden Tyree Ransom Ekker - Tyree Hannah Kincaid Weslan [Cobb] - Hannah Weslan Malachi "Mal" Johnson - Malachi "Mal" Johnson Jacob "Rattlesnake Jake" Martell - Jake Stella Bonneville - Stella Rae Johnson - Rae Johnson Phoebe Hartshorne - Phoebe

Quigley Down Under 1990 Matthew Quigley - Matthew Quigley

Maverick 1994 Bret Maverick [Jr.] - Bret Maverick Annabelle Bransford - Annabelle Bransford

The Marshal 1995 Veronica "Ronnie" Davis - Veronica Cole

The Quick and the Dead 1995 Jessamy "Jessie" MacIntyre - The Lady / Ellen Cameron "Cam" McPhee - The Kid / Fee Herod Cortney "Cort" Cobb - Cort

The Magnificent Seven 1998-2000 [much like Silverado I'm taking almost all the characters, but main characters/love interests:] Christian "Chris" Larabee - Chris Larabee Vincent Ulysses "Vin" Tanner - Vin Tanner Nathan Jackson - Nathan Jackson John Daniel "J.D." Dunne - J.D. Dunne Buck Wilmington - Buck Wilmington Ezra Phineas Standish - Ezra Standish Mary Travis - Mary Travis Casey Welles - Casey Welles Inez Recillos - Inez Recillos

Firefly 2002 Robert Malcolm "Bobby" Reynolds - Malcolm "Mal" Reynolds Zoe Martinez - Zoe Alleyne Washbourne Jayne Cobb - Jayne Cobb Eleena Vasquez - Inara Serra Simon Morgan - Simon Tam River Morgan - River Tam Kaylee Frye - Kaywinnit Lee "Kaylee" Frye Sheppard Book - Derrial Book

Supernatural 2005-2020 John Winchester - John Winchester Dean Winchester - Dean Winchester Samuel "Sam" Winchester - Samuel "Sam" Winchester

3:10 to Yuma 2007 Daniel "Dan" Evans - Daniel "Dan" Evans William "Will" Evans - William Evans Benjamin "Ben" Wade - Ben Wade Charles "Charlie" Prince - Charlie Prince

Six of Crows 2015 Caspian/Casimir "Caz" Zima Winters - Kaz Brekker Haruko - Inej Ghafa Christophe "Kit Benny" Benoit - Jesper Fahey Wyatt Vanderbilt - Wylan Van Eck Hannah "Nan" Gallagher - Nina Zenik

The Magnificent Seven 2016 Samuel "Sam" Chisolm - Sam Chisolm Joshua "Josh" Faraday - Josh Faraday Manuel Vasquez - Vasquez Goodnight "Goody" Robicheaux - Goodnight "Goody" Robicheaux Billy Rocks - Billy Rocks Red Harvest - Red Harvest Emma Cullen - Emma Cullen

The Hunters 2020 [a series I am currently working on writing] Elias Hawkins - Elias Walker Hawkins Lucas "Luke" Hearne - Faolan Lucas "Luke" MacTiernan Auryon "Aury" Hearne - Auryon "Aury" Hearne-MacTiernan Hawkins Sebastian "Owl Eyes" St. James Cheyenne - Sylvain Alistair Abigale "Abby" McKenzie - Kindra Arden

Jessta James Music Videos 2021-2022 [specifically Hell's Coming With Me, Loaded Gun, and War Cry] Josiah "Josey" James - Jessta James

Original Characters 2023+ [that I've made for the project] Melissa "Missy" Ekker - Tyree's mother Bethany "Beth" Skinner - a love interest

[manyfandomocs]

Grishaverse OC Masterlist

Name: Aciano Ghafa (Healer)

Fic: This Action Will Have No Echo

Love Interest: Potentially Tolya Yul-Bataar

FC: Dev Patel

Name: Amon Gomaa (Alkemi)

Fic: One Jump Ahead

Love Interest: Wylan Van Eck

FC: Mena Massoud

Name: Anastasia Beketov (Heartrender)

Fic: How Villains Are Made

Love Interest: The Darkling

FC: Summer Bishil

Name: Anatoly Morozova Kirigan (Shadow Summoner)

Fic: Throne of Darkness

Love Interest: TBD (Considering Genya, Zoya, maybe Alina, maybe an OC idk idk)

FC: Thomas Doherty

Name: Anka Fedin (Alkemi)

Fic: Crow's Blood

Love Interest: Kaz Brekker

FC: Ellie Bamber

Name: Casimir Dubovskoy (Healer)

Fic: Nobody's a Picture Perfect

Love Interest: The Darkling

FC: Bradley James

Name: Dimitri Chanov (Tailor)

Fic: Deck of Hearts

Love Interest: Jesper Fahey

FC: Logan Lerman

Name: Dušan Stanek (Otkazat'sya)

Fic: Seafaring Attraction

Love Interest: Nikolai Lantsov

FC: Brenton Thwaites

Name: Ekaterina Van Eck (Durast)

Fic: No Mourners

Love Interest: Kaz Brekker or Nina Zenik

FC: Ann Skelly

Name: Liliya Grankin (Durast)

Fic: Opposite Sides of Affection

Love Interest: Matthias Helvar & Nina Zelnik

FC: Alexandra Dowling

Name: Ludwig Brekker (Heartrender)

Fic: The Bastards of the Barrel

Love Interest: Maybe Jesper Fahey

FC: Finn Cole

Name: Marinus Sihvola (Otkazat'sya)

Fic: Merchant of Ketterdam

Love Interest: Jesper Fahey & Wylan Van Eck

FC: Daniel Sharman

Name: Mikhail Morozova Balinski (Inferni)

Fic: Throne of Darkness

Love Interest: Mileva Kalugin

FC: Richard Madden

Name: Mileva Kalugin (Tidemaker)

Fic: Throne of Darkness

Love Interest: Mikhail Morozova Balinski

FC: Lily James

Name: Neela Kuhar (Otkazat'sya)

Fic: Without Armor

Love Interest: Kaz Brekker and Inej Ghafa

FC: Naomi Scott

Name: Radul Jastrow (Squaller)

Fic: Storm of Love

Love Interest: Alina Starkov

FC: Sam Claflin

Name: Raisa Helvar (Otkazat'sya)

Fic: Unforgiving Ice

Love Interest: Possibly Inej Ghafa

FC: Georgia Hirst

Name: Ulyana Palkin (Tidemaker)

Fic: Changing Tides and Princely Hearts

Love Interest: Nikolai Lantsov

FC: Bruna Marquezine

[seriously-mike]

How The World Was Made Boringly Efficient

I have already reposted several posts about history under the tag #history was written by the Victorians, about the misconceptions that entered the public consciousness during the early modern era (mostly the Victorian age, indeed) and refuse to leave. That and, I promised a post about the modern perception of government and public services that just can't line up with fantasy worlds and, even, the ideas of some historians.

It hit me in @milkywayan's post about medieval food, the typical idea of which is heavily tainted by Victorian ideas that, unsurprisingly, came from then-contemporary poverty food. And I really don't want to sound like Ted Kaczynski, but: blame the industrial society for that. And capitalism.

There will be a lot of things in this post that I copied from an unfinished draft of mine tentatively titled "Writing Fantasy in the Information Age" - mostly because back then I focused on the modern times entirely too much and a lot of the issues come from earlier eras. This is a general disclaimer for the tangents that will appear further on.

For the King and... That's It

The medieval (and earlier) concept of government was heavily personal, and with a lot of independence involved. I do remember, for example, scenes from the Asterix comics where the Roman governors did as they pleased and as long as their duties towards Rome were fulfilled (for example, paying the set taxes and pocketing much more for personal gain) they were left unbothered. The same can be said about patriotism, or more precisely the loyalty to the ruler, because the concepts of patriotism and nation as we understand it are Enlightenment-era ideas. And when I'm saying it was personal, it was personal. For example, the entire clusterfuck that was 17th century Poland started with the overly inflated ambitions of Swedish Prince Sigismund Vasa, a fanatical Catholic (oh shit) elected the king of Poland. His fanaticism caused us no end of trouble and wasted opportunities - for example, in order to hold the Swedish throne after his father Johan III died, he had to be forced to sign religious liberties for the local Protestants and never really gave up ideas of Catholic reconquista of Sweden, leading the regent, Sigismund's uncle Karl IX to oust him and take the throne, which led to over half a century of violent dynastic shin-kicking as both sides tried to take over the other without much success. Mostly because Sigismund refused to allow his son, prince Władysław, to change his faith for political reasons - neither to secure the Swedish throne nor, after we thoroughly kicked a lot of Muscovite ass, the throne of Russia. Just fucking imagine: we forced the Russian tsar Vassily Shuysky to pay homage to king Sigismund and accept prince Władysław as the new tsar only for the king to go "lol, nope" and scuttle the whole plan. All that despite two centuries and a half of wide-ranging religious tolerance introduced by king Casimir the Great and reinforced by various acts throughout the reign of the Jagiellonian dynasty.

And since we're at the 17th century clusterfuck, there's the issue of Cossack ataman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who caused us a lot of trouble because nobody gave a shit about his personal feud with noble Daniel Czapliński. Basically, Czapliński stole part of Khmelnytsky's land, Khmelnytsky filed complaints to everyone higher and higher up culminating in an audience with the king, and achieved fuck-all. Much like a lot of people trying to get any help from the Polish government ever since. Worse yet, he was given a lot of shit for being that old-school Ruthenian Orthodox Cossack with a stupid haircut, mostly from the local prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, who was as much of a Polish Catholic poser as he could be. So, unfortunately, Khmelnytsky made some hasty and truly weird alliances, started a war and lost it, much like a lot of neglected Cossack leaders before and after him. Neglected, you ask? Well, I told you it was personal: the local nobles weren't willing to accept the Cossack leaders as people of equal standing, for various reasons, and treated them like uppity peasants.

And as for filing complaints to the King, we don't have the greatest track record about that either - for example, @bizarrepotpourri cited an example from the 15th century chronicle of Jan Długosz, regarding robber knights in southern Poland, that apparently never saw a resolution, as the stories of supposed punishment have multiple contradicting versions that don't line up with any records and sound like a smear campaign orchestrated by a rival noble family that was unsuccessfully tempted into treason by the Hungarians.

So, don't be surprised by all the free-for-all fuckery that goes on in A Song of Ice and Fire, for example. GRRM, while being laughably inept in some fields and rude and unreasonable about others, nailed the ambitions and liberties medieval nobles had, the way kings had to rely on the nobles by bribing and threatening them when necessary, and not really giving a shit as long as the internal conflicts didn't threaten the Royal house. Also, back to the elevator pitch for this post, and the quote by historian David Sturdy, don't expect the peasants to feel much loyalty to the land or country - they obey their local noble, and the king just in case, but apart from that they'll focus on defending their heimat - mostly their village and some lands around it, and if dragged into a bigger conflict by their liege (whether on the orders of the king or because of some dick-measuring contest against the neighboring noble), they'll be fairly confused about the whole thing. Forget the enthusiastic cries of "For Temeria!" from The Witcher 3 and other nonsense like that. They're more likely to raise torches and pitchforks against unjust taxes and services forced on them.

Guards! Guards! ...Guards?

While the concept of a Guild of Thieves as some kind of organized crime in the fantasy city of your choice is farfetched, don't expect any serious police force either. The city guard was usually tasked with manning the city gates and towers, also for fire watch duties, and, as I read in a book fragment helpfully photographed by @jurian-is-cinnamon-roll, the enforcement of some decency laws fell directly on the local executioner - for example, a too deep cleavage could get you a whipping. The judiciary role was fulfilled mostly by the city's government (unless some Serious Shit happened, as that required the appeal to the next instance higher up) and, unsurprisingly, the guards were often used as the Group In Charge's personal enforcers as well, meaning they were widely disliked and corrupt as fuck. So, getting caught by the onlookers and dragged to the nearest guard in the name of public safety was as or even more likely than being seized by the conveniently close patrol.

Another very important issue related to the city guards is that there was no municipal lighting to speak of - as in, no street lights, meaning that after sunset, the whole city was pitch-ass dark and you had to bring your own lamps and/or hire servants (called link-boys) to do it for you. And even then, with understaffed and corrupt city guard, you risked getting robbed by gangs of thugs.

Out of the cities, it was even worse: with the traffic few and far between, because not really that many goods had to be shipped long way away, there was nobody to come to your aid on the long stretches of roads, particularly through uninhabited terrain like all the vast woodlands or bare, rocky areas. Typical robbers weren't the Merry Men of Sherwood, but brutal thugs if not outright homicidal maniacs. Sometimes even minor nobles, particularly in German states, supplemented the income from their fiefs by ambushing trade caravans, at least until they became too much of a nuisance and had, for a lack of a better word, a posse sent after them. Then, there were pirates - while a lot of the current pop culture focuses on the late 17th-early 18th "Golden Age of Piracy" on the Atlantic, there are also the earlier North Sea pirates preying on the Hanseatic ships in the 14th century and Barbary Pirates operating on the Mediterranean Sea for over a millenium - from the 8th to the 19th century.

Million Ways to Die in the Medieval Times, A Lot of Them Embarrassing

I once said jokingly that “in Bismarck’s time, they made a lot of babies in the countryside because they wore out quickly”, a reference to many infant and child deaths that unsurprisingly skewed the statistics and led to the “barely anyone lived past 30 in the Middle Ages” myth.  Sure, there’s five centuries between Middle Ages and the Iron Chancellor, but as opposed to other things mentioned before, we had to wait for the important changes in the field of medicine all the way to late 20th century. Here's a page from a 17th century document listing the number of deaths in London, 1632 AD.

So, what was I saying about "making a lot of babies because they wore out quickly"? Over two thousand dead babies that year in London alone, not counting stillborn ones. Almost 1800 cases of tuberculosis, an illness pretty much unheard of in the modern world because we vaccinated the ever-coughing shit out of it. Over a thousand cases of fever, over half a thousand cases of pox and almost as many deaths by the notoriously neglected British teeth (read: abscesses, infections, inflammations, etcetera). In a city of about 250 thousand inhabitants.

Of course, any medical help was entirely private, small-scale and fully paid for by the patient - be it actual physicians, resident or itinerant barbers, herbalists or whoever had any medical knowledge or at least conviction of it. There was also a lot of mad science and outright quackery going on, not to mention treason - I do recall a case where the court physician of a Pomeranian duke was executed because somehow, strangely, the duchess' every pregnancy ended in stillbirth - until it was found out that he conspired with the neighboring state (I can't remember whether it was Denmark or one of the German states that had their distinct identities back then) to prevent the duke from siring a legitimate heir.

There were also no hospitals to speak of - what was called a "hospital" was, in fact, an almshouse - part asylum, part housing for the poor and elderly who had to express their gratitude by praying daily for the almshouse's founder good health and fortune. This also means that monks running those places didn't necessarily have any medical knowledge to speak of.

And since we're at embarrassing deaths, let's go back to the previous sections that regarded justice and law enforcement. You're probably thinking that in the Middle Ages, the lawmakers were going out of their way to have people hanged for just about anything and, well... that's bullshit. Not quite Victorian bullshit, as the stereotypical harsh law dubbed the "Bloody Code" was introduced during the reign of king George III - you know, the crazy one - although it has been entirely the doing of the British parliamentarians taking it out on the poor, as they're wont to do even now. While earlier penal codes like the Holy Roman Empire's Constitutio Criminalis Carolina did warrant the death penalty for grand theft, they also defined fairly high value of the stolen items - if I remember correctly, one golden ducat. The Bloody Code, however, aimed at a value about twenty times lower, and that would be 12 pence, or one shilling. Even with over two centuries of gradual depreciation of coin, that value was bubkes, and so the juries often undervalued the stolen goods, as not to hang everyone dragged before the court. For example, a sheep that was worth six shillings could be valued at ten pence, just so the thief could be hauled off to Australia instead and get pressed to work there. And while I know that other Tumblr users know the subject better than me, I learned long ago that being hanged was indeed embarrassing, certainly much more than having your head chopped off in public.

But, a lot of punishments weren't meant to be an embarrassing death or even maiming - if you ever saw the device known as the stocks, that one was meant mostly for embarrassment. Not only you had to be locked in them for several days, but also everyone around knew you and could give you a couple of harsh words or rotten produce. So your reputation was most probably dragged through the worst kind of shit by that, and if you kept going at it, you could be chased out of the area with the promise of a very embarrassing death if you returned, or just skip that and die a very embarrassing death. There were also other creative devices that made your life hard and made you look stupid, but I think I should leave that for some other time.

Mostly Rural and All-Natural

Now, let's focus on the post that started it all: the food. The Victorian age is well past the time when the majority of people started moving to cities, meaning that a lot of stuff had price tags and not many people could actually grow their own food. The Middle Ages, well, they were mostly rural and all-natural, like the title of this section says. This meant that, as the post about the food mentioned, people not only had a well-rounded diet that included eggs, milk and cheese, but also a large variety of vegetables and herbs, plus a lot of stuff found or caught in the wild - now, while venison and boar were the meat of kings and you would be royally fucked up for poaching those, nobody was particularly bothered about hares, for example. Also, when it came to clothing, homespun wool and linen were common materials and they could be dyed using various plants growing in the wild. The little display I linked should give you an idea of what was possible - and what, unsurprisingly, people refuse to acknowledge due to historical misconceptions.

This, of course, doesn't cover a lot of sumptuary laws that were common through history (and moreso in the Far East, particularly Japan). For example, the Ancient Romans had strict regulations as to who was allowed to wear silk clothing and clothing that was dyed purple, and multiple sumptuary laws in medieval Europe regulated the permission to wear certain furs, most importantly ermine that is now archetypical of royalty, and the amount of precious metals. So don't be surprised at the story I mentioned in the post about medieval executioners: I'm guessing that sumptuary laws were the reason why the infamously flamboyant clothes of a corrupt guildmaster were off-limits to the executioner who would be permitted to take them otherwise.

And Then What?

Okay, let's finish this. What's the deal with "boringly efficient" of the title? Well, for starters: the urbanization, industrialization and flight to cities that led to the simplification and unification of clothing, food etc. through large-scale production. That moved the burden of making clothes or growing food from single families to large enterprises, but also changed the whole structure of people's diets due to logistics. Our vegetables aren't the medieval vegetables, our dairy is not the medieval dairy and most importantly, our meat isn't the medieval meat, for better (no parasites like tapeworms) or worse (being pumped full of veterinary medicine, water and salts, for example). We also have access to incomparably more fabrics and dyes due to the progress of chemistry and textile industry. But still, those things are produced elsewhere, by someone else, and most of us just have to buy the same standard stuff from the store instead of creating bespoke outfits or at least hiring someone skilled to do it. Boring, right?

While luxury imports were well known since the ancient times, the formation of trading companies that at one point could rival governments and noble houses in their power did increase the range and volume of imports, and colonization of far-off regions also added a thing or two to that. And with the increase of volume, the prices tend to drop, so a lot of extraordinary stuff like all the exotic spices, now being grown in large-scale plantations, became boring. I mean, I can have cinnamon any day now - a lot of medieval nobles would die of bloody flux at the sight of such impertinent flamboyance.

Then, there's politics and sociology running forward full-blast ever since the late 18th century. The Enlightenment redefined a lot of fundamentals, like the concept of a nation divorced (or sometimes widowed) from the reigning monarch and his lineage. The necessity to include first the bourgeoisie and later even the peasants' representation in the government also required surveillance and maintaining order among them instead of just, well, keeping them around and sending the troops to beat the shit out of them if they became unruly. Hence the development of modern police forces, intelligence agencies and, on the other hand, social services to make sure the poor aren't wallowing in desperation and lawlessness (mostly). So most of the time, everything is peaceful and boring. Of course, there's still exploitation going on, but fortunately nowhere near the scale that caused large-scale uprisings in the medieval times (unless some government spectacularly fucks up and causes nationwide riots, which happened even in post-WW2 Europe) - mostly because of the necessity of representation I mentioned above.

Also, governments need people alive and working to pay taxes and, sometimes, wage wars. So they can't just ignore epidemics, dishonest food companies causing mass food poisoning by cutting costs, etcetera. Hence the rapid progress of medicine and incomparably more chill approach to law and its enforcement (mostly). Hard to believe the Medieval times were way crazier, right?

[thenoticeblog]

Willow: House of Griots | Pilot Script Table Reading

We’re back at it again with the Principal Cast of “Willow: House of Griots,” working through a table reading for the Pilot Episode. We discussed upcoming events, reviewed production scheduling and details, watched our short film “Willow: State of Emergency,” and sunk our teeth into this special 90-minute pilot episode of “House of Griots.” Much love to Elliot Guilbe for the Photography, Glenn Quentin for the Production Support, and Sultan Ali for the Marketing Support.

Principal Cast Ashley Noel Jones as Willow Kerubo Brown Suzanne Darrell as Iyoba the Foundress Cameisha Cotton as Diane X Kirrin Tubo as Taina Lilian Oben as Vanessa Charles Masiko Ensemble Reader Tommy Coleman Stage Directions Reader Heru Khuti

Showrunner & Writer Paul A. Notice II

Heads Up: Our Short Film “Willow: House of Griots” will be available on Amazon Prime later this year. Keep an eye out for our announcement. In the meantime, save the date for our upcoming Short Film Screening at Weeksville Heritage Center coming OCTOBER, 21st, 2023! Details coming soon!

You can Support “Willow: House of Griots” here.

Special Thanks to all of our supporters: Josmar Trujillo Nana Dakin Will Duggan James Reilly Kirrin Tubo Paul Notice Sr. Marco Rodriguez Nyle Emerson Doreen Notice Jade Notice Nichole Villafane Sita Sarkar Justin Prince Kiera Williams Paul VanDeCarr Jeannette Colyvas Daniel Notice Laura Edmondson Tommy Schaperkotter Glinetta Collins Larry Powell Erica Saucedo Megan & Liv Jeannette Colyvas Ian Harkins Jim Costanzo Melissa Noelle The Ellen & Andrew G. Celli Foundation, Inc. Holly Heckart Sarah Fleming Edward Rice Ataefiok Etukeren Joann Selvidge James Gantt Jade Notice Marie Casimir Rama Orleans-Lindsay Shiloh Hodges Benedict Nguyen Lizette Vernon Lily Bo-Shapiro Saleem Kashif Kendra Foster Anika Chowdhury Lia Bonfilio Katrina Reid Zell Davis Robin Holmes Gabby Sherba

[cooladddy]

Humorous and Unscripted Moments Captured in the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Contest

In the 2023 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards, a spirited greenfinch receives a telling-off, a batfish seems to swim with human legs, and a kangaroo appears to play an imaginary guitar. Established in 2015, this yearly competition (as noted before) seeks to create a connection with wildlife, highlighting the challenges they encounter. Every year, it attracts thousands of entries globally, offering a plethora of charming photographs. These images remind us of the similarities between animals and humans, whether it's unique personalities, amusing antics, or our shared planet. The 2023 finalists' collection is viewable on the event's website, where the public can still participate in voting for their favorite image for the People’s Choice Award.

Photo © Danielle Goonan

Photo © Jason Moore

Photo © Dakota Vaccaro

Photo © Jacques Poulard

Photo © Wendy Kaveney

Photo © Thomas Vijayan

Photo © Otter Kwek

Photo © Adrian Slazok

Photo © Delphine Casimir Read the full article

[burlveneer-music]

Daniel Casimir - Boxed In - another strong British jazz release with a large ensemble playing double bassist Casimir’s compositions

London-based composer/bassist, Daniel Casimir returns with his solo debut album Boxed In, a dynamic collision of pulsing modern jazz & orchestral instrumentation. Featuring Casimir’s quintet of fellow British jazz luminaries, including Nubya Garcia, Moses Boyd, Al Macsween & James Copus, Boxed In astutely bridges traditional and contemporary jazz forms with enveloping strings, woodwind & brass arrangements, but under its intricate musical surface seeks to confront some necessary hard truths.

_Quintet_ Daniel Casimir- Double Bass Moses Boyd – Drums Al Macsween – Keys Nubya Garcia – Tenor Saxophone James Copus – Trumpet _Brass_ Sean Gibbs – Trumpet Andy Davies - Trumpet Tom Dunnet – Trombone Rosie Turton – Trombone _Woodwind_ Faye MacCalman – Clarinet Samuel Rapley – Clarinet Gareth Lockrane – Flute _Strings_ Julia Dos Reis – Viola Miranda Lewis – Cello Rebekah Reid – Violin Rhiannon Dimond – Violin Vocals Ria Moran

[blackforestdeerman]

No, Daniel just tried to pet him because, and I quote "attention dish was empty". Even Walter and Casimir tried to tell him not to pet the swans! He was....very regretful and bruised.

One... That was one FUCKING HELL of a party. How long did it last? Days? I'm not sure, wasn't in mortal-time.

Two WHERE THE FUCK AM I?

[sinceileftyoublog]

Binker Golding Interview: Youth and the Wild

Photo by Carl Hyde

BY JORDAN MAINZER

“I’m just not that interested in fitting in.”

It’s a statement that certainly rings true for Binker Golding’s second solo album Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy, out Friday via Gearbox Records. Up until this point, you could pinpoint the tenor saxophonist, composer, and one half of excellent duo Binker & Moses as part of an ever-burgeoning British jazz scene, one that has seen the likes of Sons of Kemet, Nubya Garcia, and Zara McFarlane receive global reach and acclaim. Press play on Dream, however, and you hear an unfamiliar sound, at least for Golding: bluesy slide guitar, then drums, piano, and double bass, all before his saxophone enters. It sounds like the instrumental to a classic rock song, still embedded in a jazz tradition, but threatening to bridge the gap.

Sure, in a few years and probably many albums later, we’ll look back on Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy as Golding’s “heartland jazz Americana” record, one where influences of John Mellencamp and Skip James rubbed elbows with the current cream of the crop of UK jazz heavyweights like drummer Sam Jones, bassist Daniel Casimir, and pianist Sarah Tandy. The genre-hopping is certainly thrilling, on moments like Golding’s saxophone taking a lead vocal against Billy Adamson’s twangy guitar lines on “Love Me Like A Woman”, or the rock harmonies of guitar, piano, and saxophone on album closer “All Out Of Fairy Tales”. But the idea that Golding isn’t concerned with fitting in is especially illuminating when listening to the album, which was born out an intense period of self-reflection for Golding. He had lost both his biological father and stepfather. He was looking at the characteristics he had inherited from his dad, good and bad. He was looking at himself as a man. If jazz as a genre is one inherently collaborative and outward-looking and listening, Golding’s second album--though displaying mighty band chemistry--is a bit of a thematic outlier. It’s instrumental, but you can hear the way it communicates the contrasts between the expanse of the music and middle American landscapes and the inner depth of Golding’s thoughts. 

I asked Golding some questions about Dream Like A Dogwood Wild Boy over email, including its influences, communicating lyrical themes instrumentally, and playing live. Read our conversation below.

Since I Left You: Why did you decide on a blues, heartland rock, Americana-influenced aesthetic for your second album?

Binker Golding: The music is just another part of who I am. It’s an honest reflection of how I felt at the time. I think people often think that you’re hopping genres or being influenced by something new that you’ve come across, but it just wasn’t the case for this record. The music was right there on the surface for me. I’ve always felt deeply attached to those styles, and over the course of my life, I’ve become them. I suppose it surprises people, given the current climate of British jazz, but I’m just not that interested in fitting in.

SILY: The first single and opening track "(Take Me To The) Wide Open Lows" opens with bluesy slide guitar riffing. Was it important for you to open with a specific sound so different from what you had presented before?

BG: Yes, I’d say so. It’s usually a good idea to make a big statement on the first track of a record, to draw the listener in and let them know what sort of world the album inhabits. In a way, the first track is an overture for the rest of the album. I felt “Wide Open Lows” was probably the most representative of the sound of the album, so it made it as the first track. I don’t think it would’ve worked anywhere else on the record. I wanted the guitar solo that opens the track to be unusually long. I wanted a sprawling track that was evocative of the sort of landscapes I was thinking of. I’m also against the contemporary idea that a piece of music has to get straight to the central part as quickly as possible. Intros are currently at their most short in the history of popular music. I think this is a travesty.  

SILY: Like you've said, it's hard to explicitly explore concepts like masculinity, humanity, love, and sex on an instrumental album. At times, however, I feel like certain instruments--whether your saxophone or electric guitar or even drums--take the lead the way a vocal would. Did you notice that? Was that intentional?

BG: There was definitely a lyrical intention to the way I wrote the melodies and to the way I directed the band, in particular the soloists, Billy Adamson on guitar and Sarah Tandy on piano. The solos the three of us played were as free as ever, but we were deliberately trying to play the songs in a lyrical fashion. For most of the songs, I wanted people to hear them and say, “There should be words to this,” or, “I can hear lyrics to this.” I wanted to invite the listener into making up their own lyrics to the songs.

SILY: What's the inspiration behind the title "My Two Dads"?

BG: Literally, my biological father and my stepfather, both of whom died in 2020. I wasn’t looking to pay tribute to them in any way, and I don’t like to think of it as a tribute as such. I often write pieces and get halfway through and start to think to myself, “This is about this person,” or, “This is about this time,” etc. The piece is less about the memory of them and more about the feeling of the loss of them. I realized I had no more male father figures in my life, and there was a profundity to that. I also had three friends who were going through the exact same thing at the exact same time. All of them were males, and the loss of our fathers were a big talking point for us.

SILY: Were you at all inspired by British folk and folk-rock on this record?

BG: Not so much British folk, but certainly American and Canadian folk-rock. Mainly Neil Young, James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, [and] Tracy Chapman, and then hugely by heartland rock musicians, mainly Springsteen and John Mellencamp. I listen to a lot of old American folk music also. The Delta Blues artists like Skip James and Mississippi Fred McDowell are very important to me. I listen to a lot of the traditional Appalachian music also.

SILY: What's the inspiration behind the album title?

BG: Dogwood is a tiny town in Kentucky. It’s very remote. It’s somewhere I imagined I’d like to go to and just be alone, have no worries or cares, at least for a short time. Youth and the wild go hand in hand with that idea. I like instructional titles. If they’re good, they help the listener get into the music. I take great consideration over them.

SILY: What's the story behind the album art?

BG: The album is another portrait of me in one way or another. My first album was, too, but this one was a bit more complex. The cover is very loosely based on the painting Wanderer above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich. The important thing about the painting and cover of the album is the fact that the face is hidden, and as a result, you can’t tell what expression the subject has on. I wanted it to be ambiguous. The back cover is just a shot of my hands. The inside has pictures of my face, but the expression is completely blank, which is deliberate. I wanted the listener to decide what mood the album is based in, in a similar fashion to the Mona Lisa. The wanderer above the sea fog is slightly triumphant in the sense that it symbolizes the conquest of nature. Something has been won. I wanted the cover to be the opposite. I’m not on a mountain top. The ground is completely flat, and there’s no crop left. Instead, there are weeds growing where the crop once was. I didn’t want it to be negative, just subtle and ambiguous.

SILY: Are you playing this record live? If so, how are you adapting it to a performance?

BG: Yes, we’ve been playing it very faithfully live. It’s not too hard to adapt, minus some of the guitar parts. We play the songs in the exact order that they appear on the record. I don’t really think they work any other way. We also don’t play any of the songs from the previous album, as I don’t think they blend very well, except for “You, That Place, That Time”.

SILY: What's next for you?

BG: I’m currently writing a follow up to this album. When one’s done, I just start another one. I’ve not found a better way to live my life. I’m happy living like that.

SILY: Anything you've been listening to, watching, or reading lately that's inspired you?

BG: I seldom draw inspiration from external sources, which people often find odd to hear. I read regularly and watch films often, but as I say, they don’t often feed back into my work except for in a technical aspect. I suppose people that tell stories about people are ultimately the thing that’s inspired me most in the last 5 or so years. For example, the filmmaker Ingmar Bergman: I’d like to one day make an album that serves the same purpose as one of his films. I’m interested in telling stories about people through music.

[jooffo]

danbert ! (digital, 2023, me)

[thenoticeblog]

Support The Notice Blog this Giving Tuesday!

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