#James Ferrand

[transformers-mosaic]

Beast Wars: Second Chances - The Covers

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Cover A - Daniel Olsén Covers B & C - Seb Quickstrike - Ed Pirrie Depth Charge - Loke Mei Yin Snarl vs Terrorsaur - James Ferrand Waspinator - Jeremy Tiongson Dinobot sketch - Matt Frank

deviantART

wada sez: Okay, this one was as much a surprise to me as it is to you. Prolific Mosaic contributor Mike Priest asked me if I had any plans to archive Beast Wars: Second Chances, a full-length comic he originally pitched in a similar vein to War Journal and Spotlight: Stunticons. As nearly all the writers and artists who worked on this one were also Mosaic contributors, and I’ve always felt like there weren’t enough Beast Wars strips in Mosaic, and because Mike asked nicely, I couldn’t say no! Thanks to Mike’s involvement, I’ve got the original scripts and his original story treatment, titled Beast Wars: Beyond, which you can read below—although the final story ended up wildly different, if you want to read along without any spoilers whatsoever, I’d recommend coming back to this post later! It seems that Matt Frank was originally tapped for the project, as he produced a sketch of Dinobot which you can see below, but no further contributions from him ever surfaced.

Okay, this is my initial rough pitch for the story.

Again, anything and everything here is mutable and subject to tweaking and whatever, or downright ignoring and trashing.  I won’t cry.

We start roughly a month or two Earth-time after Primal’s crew left.  The first page should explain this and whatever, and then something akin to “BUT SOMETHING STILL STIRS on this planet!”  Cut to Depthcharge dragging himself out of the surf.

(I’m trying to work AROUND the Mosaic “Eternal”, making it more retroactively tied-in.)

We establish Waspinator as leader of the proto-human tribe, out on a hunt or something with some other humans.  Perhaps some brief proto-human comedy before we hit the nitty-gritty.

We establish Depthcharge wandering around, arguing with himself, totally nuts, screaming at no one in-particular (He’s arguing with Rampage, who only responds through text boxes, so to anyone else, DC looks like a nut).

Waspinator encounters Depthcharge, is initially scared and confused, but decides, what the hey, see what’s up with fishie-bot.  Waspinator honestly is curious/wants to help.

Depthcharge, in a confused, blind rage, grabs Waspinator and viciously beats him near to death.  And not in a funny, usual-Waspinator way.  He’s pleading, BEGGING for Depthcharge to stop.  I’m talking the reader needs to actually feel really bad for Waspinator; he is an endearing character and kind of our “hero” for this story.

Only when some of Waspinator’s human tribe start hitting Depthcharge with rocks and spears does he snap out of it, and is literally horrified at what’s he done to poor Waspinator. (Rampage is in ecstasy though; this is exactly what he wants to turn Depthcharge into; a killer like Rampage himself).

Depthcharge retreats, transforms to jet mode and flies off, horrified at what he’s become.

The proto-humans can’t do anything to help the dying, whimpering Waspinator.  So they make a stretcher and begin carrying him home.

Only they don’t make it.  Something attacks and kills them; Waspinator is too weak to help them.  And it takes Waspinator’s remains.  (Hints of a giant metal spider, perhaps in this sequence)

We establish Tarantulas.  Or rather an AI program that approximates Tarantulas’ personality and goals.  It is housed in a sub-level of Tarantulas’ former lair.  He “lives” through his Steel Tech proxy body, the (black and grey Transmetal Tarantulas), but he cannot particularly control it too well/or it really is just a poor substitute for a sparked body.

Tarantulas has a blank stasis pod that was affected by the Quantum Surge.  He plugs Waspinator’s spark into it.  And Transmetal Waspinator is born.  Waspinator comes back online strapped to a table, with the Steel Tech drone working on him (And Tarantulas’ face on a computer screen, establishing that he really is housed in his lair’s “hard drive”)

Tarantulas explains that he still has to accomplish the Tripredacus Council’s goals, even after death, and Waspinator is one of his new tools.

Faux-Tarantulas ALSO reveals that he has the bodies of Scorponok and Terrorsaur (both Transmetalized), which he recovered from the lava pit.  (TM Terrorsaur’s fine, but a new design for Transmetal Scorponok is essential.  NOT the McDonald’s toy design.  Make him larger and bulkier and his third mode should have flight capability- this is important for later)  

Fitting all three with “neural implants” that ensure obedience, Tarantulas explains he will use them to breach the Ark and carry out its destruction (His Steel Tech drone isn’t dexterous or durable enough to fight through the Ark’s automated defenses).

And Waspinator is a test subject.  Tarantulas releases him from his bonds and orders him to obey.  The neural implant holds, and Tarantulas decides to send Waspinator for a test-drive.  Waspinator speeds out of the lair in his new jet mode.

As he travels over the landscape, he is watched by someone new on the ground.  We don’t find out who it is YET.  Just a close up of a wide, toothy grin and an “Interesting”.

Meanwhile Depthcharge is having a nervous breakdown.  Rampage is slowly driving him insane, and Depthcharge starts repeatedly trying to kill himself.  It is MESSED UP, including Depthcharge throwing himself on his own sword, tearing bits off, and such.  But all the damage heals.  Exhausted and pained, Depthcharge suddenly becomes aware of a visitor watching him.

Cue DINOBOT II, standing arrogantly and grinning down on Depthcharge, telling him it won’t work.

Both Depthcharge and Rampage are surprised to see him.  Rampage particularly.

Meanwhile, Waspinator’s test-drive includes going back to his proto-human village and is ordered to raze it to the ground by Tarantulas.  But Waspy surprises Tarantulas (and the audience) by fighting the neural implant and eventually succeeding in burning it out, overcoming Tarantulas’ will by plumbing that can-do never-give-up Waspinator spirit and his genuine affection for the proto-humans.   Tarantulas is surprised by this, but notes he has back-ups anyway, activating Scorponok and Terrorsaur.

Back with Depthcharge and Dinobot, who, of note, acts somewhat uncharacteristically, giving half-answers and grinning a lot.  Rampage begins to suspect something is different or wrong with Dinobot.

Meanwhile, Scorponok and Terrorsaur are both activated and forced into line by the neural implants.  Terrorsaur is still his arrogant self, but Scorponok is more quiet and almost more professional (It’ll be seen/developed that he’s a bit disillusioned that Megatron never saw fit to recover him from the lava pit).  Anyway, as neither of them have any particular strong will to oppose the neural implant, they go to carry out Tarantulas’ orders to attack the Ark.

We establish the VOK, who realize the danger to the time stream is not yet over.  The two that “killed” Tarantulas decide to intervene.  They go to where Tigerhawk died and begin pulling his shattered pieces together with their powers.  (Tigerhawk would be dead, just a zombie shell animated by these Vok and while his body is whole, it is in horrendous shape, missing an optic, generally looking like a terrifying zombie).

Meanwhile Waspinator is speeding along, knowing somehow he has to go back and stop Tarantulas, when he sees Scorponok and Terrorsaur in their new Transmetal vehicle modes, headed in the Ark’s direction, along with Tarantulas‘ Steel Tech proxy body.  Waspinator isn’t particularly positive he can take both of them, even with his new body, so he decides to go look for “crazy fishie-bot” and hopes Depthcharge is somewhat more lucid now.

Back with Depthcharge and Dinobot, Rampage suddenly senses a familiarity between his own spark and Dinobot and realizes Dinobot’s shell is now possessed by STARSCREAM!

Guilty as charged, Dino-Scream shrugs.  He’s been stuck in this time zone for a while and returned to the planet, but everyone’s left now.  So he looked for the Nemesis (Hoping to find something there he can possess without damaging history) and found Dinobot II’s ravaged, sparkless shell.  Possessing that and healing its injuries, Starscream set out for the Ark next.

Before anything can be done, Waspinator finds them, telling them (as best as he can) about Tarantulas’ plan to destroy the Ark and what not.

Depthcharge and Starscream don’t want to be erased from history, so they agree to help (Rampage even finds it interesting).

Faux-Tarantulas, Scorponok and Terrorsaur arrive at the Ark, and the latter two fight their way through Teletraan-1’s automated defenses (which come out of “sleep mode”).  Faux-Tarantulas hangs back.

But by the time they make it through, Waspinator, Dino-Scream, and Depthcharge/Rampage arrive.

We have a three-on-three battle.  Scorponok fights Depthcharge/Rampage (Scorpy’s new Transmetal body is bigger than his old one and almost a match for Depthcharge, even with the new ferocity that Rampage’s presence in his mind gives him).  Scorponok angsts over his abandonment by Megatron while they fight.  Terrorsaur fights the groundbound Starscream/Dinobot II (Starscream grumbles that this body sucks cuz it can’t fly) and manages to actually hold it off, as Starscream is unaccustomed to fighting like this.

Waspinator faces off against the Steel Tech Drone, and despite some initial trepidation, realizes he’s far more powerful now than any drone and takes the faux-Tarantulas down easily once his confidence is up.

Meanwhile, the zombie Vok-possessed Tigerhawk arrives at Tarantulas’s lair, runs roughshod over the meager defenses, and destroys the Tarantulas’ hard drive/AI for good.

This causes the neural implants in Scorponok and Terrorsaur to fail, and they stop fighting now that they are no longer under Tarantulas’ will.

Confused at what is going on, everyone leaves the Ark.  The Vok-possessed zombie Tigerhawk arrives.

First order of business is noticing Dinobot II.  The Vok declare (The Transmetal II clone body) an “abomination” and perversion of their technology. (Starscream’s like “Whoa, wait a minute!”)

The Vok incinerate Dinobot II’s shell in a blast of lightning from Tigerhawk.  We don’t see what happens to Starscream’s spark.

The Vok explain that the constant interference with the timeline has TO STOP, and tells everyone to get the hell off the planet.

Of course, everyone is like “uh, HOW?”

The Vok tells everyone to go into Earth orbit.  They will self-destruct Tigerhawk’s remains, with the release of alien energies ripping a Transwarp wormhole that’ll send everyone back to the right era.

Everyone of course is like “But…how do we get home from the middle of space?”

And the Vok of course are like “We don’t care, you’re going back to your rightful place in history or we’ll just kill you here and dump you there”

So everyone engages flight modes and follows Zombie-Tigerhawk up into space.  They stand back and the Vok do as they promised, detonating Tigerhawk’s shell and making a wormhole.  Everyone flies through in a flash, the Vok take their leave with some end dialogue about cleaning up some more small glitches or whatever.

Everyone arrives in the middle of space, nowheresville.  Depthcharge isn’t hanging with these “Preds” anymore and “Besides, I’ve got enough company as it is”.  He flies off into the nothingness of space, deciding to either find a way to deal with living with Rampage…or destroying them both.

Waspinator and Scorponok get into an argument about which direction Cybertron is, which ends in Waspinator engaging his jet mode and flying off alone.  Scorponok sighs and goes in the opposite direction, asking if Terrorsaur is coming.

Terrorsaur (who hasn’t said a word since they left Earth) just widely grins and unseen to Scorponok, we see the ghost of Starscream possessing Terrorsaur’s frame.  “Sure thing, pal.”  He follows Scorponok.

END.

Notes-

*Inferno and Quickstrike…well, seeing as Quickstrike’s head was hollowed out and made into a mask, I think they’re a little harder to swallow as still alive.

*I kinda tried to do the exact opposite of what the Botcon comics did…bring Tigerhawk back (albeit a Vok-possessed zombie) instead of Tigatron and Airazor.

*When the zombie Tigerhawk destroys the Tarantulas AI core, depending on preference, we can have him say “You last bit of Unicron” or some such, depending if everyone agrees on Tarantulas’s origins.

*I have Starscream possessing Dinobot’s shell and later Terrorsaur, trying to avoid the clichéd possessing of Transmetal Waspinator.

[ratelet-james]

James Ratelet, sur les chemins du Puy de Dôme, Clermont-Ferrand , Chaine des Puys, La basilique romane Notre-Dame-du-Port, La cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption ,Usine Michelin , Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France, Europ

[blackswaneuroparedux]

All you have to do is go fast enough and long enough.

- James Garner, Grand Prix (1966)

The cult classic Grand Prix (1966) was an ambitious journey into the soul of elite motor racing, Grand Prix even on today’s viewing manages to find the heartbeat of Formula 1 deep within the majesty of roaring machinery.

Several top drivers are in competition for the 1966 Formula 1 title. Among them is American Pete Aron (James Garner) of the BRM team (and formerly with Ferrari), who is fast but prone to mistakes. At the Monaco race, Aron's refusal to give way causes a serious collision with his teammate Englishman Scott Stoddard (Brian Bedford). Stoddard, who races in the shadow of his deceased brother, is injured and misses several races, His headstrong wife Pat (Jessica Walter) is fed-up with loving a man living on the edge and leaves him while he is still in hospital. Meanwhile, Aron is fired from the BRM team for reckless driving.

The Ferrari team are BRM's closest challengers. Veteran driver and two-time champion Frenchman Jean-Pierre Sarti (Yves Montand) is still the fastest man on most days, but he is starting to lose his motivation. Sarti is stuck in a loveless, distant marriage with businesswoman Monique (Genvieve Page), and starts a relationship with American journalist Louise (Eva Marie Saint). Sarti's team mate is young Italian Nino Barlini (Antonio Sabato), who lives the fast life on and off the track.

Aron hooks up with Pat, is hired by the fledgling Yamura team financed by tycoon Izo Yamura (Toshiro Mifune), and finally finds his winning form. Stoddard returns to racing despite the pain of his injuries, and more determined than ever, goes on a winning streak. With Sarti and Barlini also picking up victories, all four men enter the final race of the season in the hunt for the coveted championship with plenty to lose on the line.

Director John Frankenheimer creates a three hour masterpiece celebrating both the men and the machines involved in the international pinnacle of motor racing. Large segments of Grand Prix consist of action from races at the legendary Monaco street circuit, the dangerously fast and incredibly scenic Spa in Belgium, Zandvoort in Holland, Clermont Ferrand in France, Silverstone in England and the final showdown at the imposing Monza in Italy, with its intimidating steeply banked corners.

Other than playing with split-screen imagery, Frankenheimer uses no tricks, and just mounts his cameras at every possible angle on the cars, capturing the pure raw speed, incredible danger, and classic beauty of racing in the mid 1960s. This was the era of rudimentary safety protocols, with drivers facing the risk of serious crashes, injury and death at every corner. The visuals are stunning, with the cars blasting at top speed past unprotected poles, trees, spectators, and structures.

Whenever the cars are running, Grand Prix is one of the best studio efforts of the '60s. The film only stalls when it's off the track, which is where more than half of this three-hour epic takes place. Grand Prix is an exhilarating celebration of men addicted to the thrill of racing with an unknown destiny, speeding into magnificent madness.

[news2pjm]

Que le spectacle commence ! 17h00 : Bande son des invités groupes et chanteurs 17h50 : James vous anime (Prog' J'Mag / J'Web Tv...) 18h00 : Gaël Illusionniste (Magicien professionnel) de Blois (J'Mag #56) 18h30 : Tao de Red Gordon (Groove, Néo-métal) de Clermont-Ferrand (J'Mag #37) 19h00 : Jeanne Morisseau (Folk Rock, Auteure, Peintre) de Villejuif (J'Mag #64) 19h30 : Isabelle Guiard (Comédienne, auteure, chansons enragées) du Beauvaisis (J'Mag #62) 20h00 : Régine Teyssot (Comédienne de doublage Les Simpsons) de Boulogne-Billancourt (J'Mag #49) 20h30 : Johnny Guitare (Sosie de Johnny Hallyday) de Saint-Jean-de-Monts (J'Mag #44) 21h00 : Jonathan Dassin (Variétés, Soul) de Paris (J'Mag #61) 21h30 : Yerao (Métal moderne) de Tours (J'Mag #63)

[pedroccitti]

Angers sporting club Saïd Chabane Gérald Baticle, Bordeaux Football Club des Girondins Gérard Lopez Vladimir Petkovic, Brest Stade brestois Denis Le Saint Michel Der Zakarian, Clermont-Ferrand Clermont Foot Ahmet Schaefer Pascal Gastien, Lens Racing Club Joseph Oughourlian Franck Haise, Lille LOSC Olivier Létang Jocelyn Gourvennec, Lorient Loïc Féry Christophe Pélissier, Lyon OL Olympique lyonnais Jean-Michel Aulas Peter Bosz, Olympique de Marseille OM Pablo Longoria Jorge Sampaoli, Metz Football Club Bernard Serin Frédéric Antonetti, Monaco AS Association sportive Monaco FC Dmitri Rybolovlev Niko Kovac, Montpellier-Herault Sport Club Laurent Nicollin Olivier Dall'Oglio, Nantes Football Club Waldemar Kita Antoine Kombouare, Nice OGC Jean-Pierre Rivère Christophe Galtier, Paris PSG Nasser Al-Khelaifi Mauricio Pochettino Kylian Mbappé Lionel Messi Neymar da Silva, Reims Stade de Reims Jean-Pierre Caillot Oscar Garcia, Rennes Stade rennais Football Club Nicolas Holveck Bruno Genesio, Saint-Étienne ASSE Association sportive Roland Romeyer Bernard Caïazzo Claude Puel, Strasbourg Racing Club de Strasbourd Alsace Marc Keller Julien Stephan, Troyes Simon Cliff Laurent Battles Ajaccio AC Athletic Club Ajaccien Christian Lecat Olivier Pantaloni, Amiens Sporting Club Football bernard Joannin Philippe Hinschberger, Auxerre James Zhou Jean-Marc Furlan, Bastia SC Sporting Club Claude Ferrandi Mathieu Chabert, Caen Stade Malherbe Olivier Pickeu Stéphane Moulin, Dunkerque Union Sportive du Littoral Jean-Pierre Scouarnec Romain Revelli, Dijon Football Côte-d'Or Olivier Delcourt David Linares, Grenoble Foot 38 Stéphane Rosnoblet Maurizio Jacobacci, Guingamp En Avant Fred Legrand Stéphane Dumont, Le Havre Athletic Club Football Vincent Volpe Paul Le Guen, Nancy Association Sportive Nancy-Lorraine Jacques Rousselot Daniel Stendel, Nîmes Olympique Rani Assaf Pascal Plancque, Niort Chamois Niortais Football Club Guy Cotret Sébastien Desabre, Paris FC Pierre Ferracci Thierry Laurey, Pau Football Club Bernard Laporte-Fray Didier Tholot, Quevilly-Rouen Union Sportive Michel Mallet Bruno Irles, Rodez Aveyron Football Club Pierre-Olivier Murat Laurent Peyrelade, Sochaux Football Club Frankie Yau Omar Daf, Toulouse Football Club Damien Comolli Philippe Montanier, Valenciennes Football Club Eddy Zdziech Olivier Guegan 24h du Mans Alice Pérésan-Roudil Amazon Avatar Barbie Batman Beyonce Black Mirror Bordeaux Boulevard Voltaire Cannes Champion League Chargé de création graphique Chat GPT Château Circuit Bugatti Coupe du Monde Damien Bridonneau Didier Deschamps Didier Raoult Disney Dua Lipa Elon Musk Emmanuel Macron Eurovision Fasting Féminicide Football Gérald Darmanin Gérard Depardieu Gilbert Bordes Guillaume Musso Incendie Inflation Instagram Jean-Luc Mélenchon Jeux olympiques Johnny Depp Jordan Bardella Justine Triet Keto diet Ligue 1 Liverpool Lizzo Margo Robbie Marine Le Pen Marseille Marvel Mediapart Monster energy Mylène Farmer Netflix Nicolas Sarkozy Novak Djokovic NUPES Olivier Dussopt Olivier Véran Olympic games Olympics Olympique de Marseille OMAD Paris Paris 2024 Paris Saint-Germain PSG Qatar Rodez Roman Polanski Retraites Russia Russie Sandrine Rousseau Sécheresse Star Wars Succession Taylor Swift The Office Tik Tok Ukraine Union Unionizing Virginie Grimaldi Woke Wokiste

[journaldenimportequi]

Vendredi 12 mai 2023

Woody Allen et compagnie

Encore une fois j'écris après une absence relativement longue. Que puis je écrire pour me défendre ? J'étais occupé à vivre ! Il s'est passé plein de trucs.

Il y a quelques semaines mon frère et moi avons fait une autre de ces soirées que nous surnommons bros night.

Je crois que c'était encore à mon initiative, mais je n'en suis pas très sûr.

Donc, nous sommes sortis, avons bus, puis mangés, dans un restaurant au cœur du vieux Clermont-Ferrand et puis, un peu ivre, j'ai suggéré qu'on rentre et nous sommes rentrés chez mon frère où nous avons vus un film, après quoi nous sommes allés nous coucher.

Lors de cette soirée j'ai aussi suggéré qu'on francise le nom de notre soirée en  le changeant en bringue fraternelle. Ca en jette, comme ça, non ?

Je suis aussi sorti avec mes copines Justine et Canel. Nous avons mangés mexicain, c'était très bon et j'en ai profité pour offrir un livre (signé Lena Dunham) à Canel et elle l'a reçu avec une joie non feinte, ce qui m'a ravi : j'adore faire des cadeaux et je vise souvent juste. Voilà un autre avantage à me fréquenter !

Quoi d'autre ? Oh, j'ai fait la connaissance d'une jeune fille adorable, je n'en dirai pas plus pour ne pas me porter la poisse mais je dois la rencontrer en juin, à Paris.

J'ai décidé de multiplier mes escapades parisiennes et pour que ça me coûte moins cher parfois je rentrerai le soir afin d'éviter de payer une nuit à l'hôtel (pourquoi n'y ai je pas pensé avant?).

En ce moment je replonge dans l'oeuvre du désormais controversé Woody Allen.

J'ai revu et acheté, entre autres, Annie Hall et Manhattan, ce qui confirme ce que je savais déjà, à savoir qu'ils sont ses deux plus grands films des années 70 et mes deux favoris.

J'ai acheté deux bouquins sur lui alors j'étudie sa filmo avec attention. Définitivement l'un de mes trois cinéastes favoris.

Quelle œuvre il aura laissé ! Et ce n'est pas terminé (même si j'ai conscience que sa carrière et sa vie touchent leur fin).

Ce qui est agréable quand je revois ses films des années après c'est que j'en découvre à chaque fois des nouvelles références (souvent littéraires) qui m'avaient totalement échappées lors des visionnages précédents (comme Borges ou Henry James par exemple, deux écrivains que le moi de 20 ans, inculte, ignoré complètement).

Oh, j'allais oublier mais l'autre jour j'ai fêté mon 38ème anniversaire.

On a fait ça un peu modestement, il n'y avait pas d'invités, juste moi et mes parents, ainsi qu'un gâteau à base de choux à la crème.

J'aurai aimé que mon frère soit là mais il ne met les pieds chez nous que très rarement.

Quelques réflexions en vrac :

Les suçons, il ne faut pas avoir honte de les montrer, au contraire, il faut les arborer avec fierté telles des médailles d'amour !

Je ne suis pas très intelligent, voilà l'un de mes plus gros complexes. Mais, j'ai de l'esprit, ça compense. L'intelligence est un truc de matheux, de toutes façons...

L'absence totale du sens de détection du second degré est un symptôme fréquent chez certains autistes et un symptôme constant chez 100% des imbéciles.

Lundi prochain, normalement, je vois Justine et nous allons nous échanger des cadeaux d'anniversaire et manger japonais, autant vous dire que j'ai hâte !

Allez, à la prochaine, les ami(e)s !

Bande son : Magical Mystery Tour, the Beatles

[lecturesaflo-ts]

In scontru di... Emma S. James

Je remercie tout d’abord Emma S. James d’avoir bien voulu répondre à mes questions. Interview en date du : 18 janvier 2023 à Clermont-Ferrand Portrait d’auteur Nom et Prénom et/ou pseudo d’auteur(e) : Emma S. James Si vous deviez vous présenter en quelques lignes : Alors, je m’appelle Emma. J’ai 29 ans, les 30 ans approchent et ça m’angoissent. Je suis une personne souriante (la plupart du temps)…

[drjacquescoulardeau]

Catalogue Kindle de JC, ou son frère James https://jacquescoulardeau.medium.com/catalogue-kindle-de-jc-ou-son-fr%C3%A8re-james-a1ef6e70c230  

I just published Catalogue Kindle de JC, ou son frère James https://www.academia.edu/92415908/Catalogue_JC_2022. Ce n'est pas une forêt. Trop d'espèces différentes. C'est le Petit Trianon, sans les moutons ni la reine qui jouait à la bergère et se baignait nue avec ses pages dans un bassin d'eau douce. Et pendant ce temps la France croulait sous les réformes jamais faites et la mauvaise passe climatique depuis au moins cinq ans. Nous avons tous une reine dans nos combles qui se prend pour une brioche et n'est qu'une tranche de painr assis, comme ces élus LFI de Clermont Ferrand qui veulent empécher Michelin de faire sur ses propres terres un centre de culture industrielle qui serait presqu'unique au monde. Et c'est bien pour cela que le James, ou Jacques, de là-bas Jérusalerm fut jeté par dessus les murs sur ordre du grand prêtre, puis forcé de se déshabiller entièrement, puis de creuser sa tombe, dans laquelle il descendit et s'agenouilla, puis y fur enterré juqu'au cou, et finalement lapidé par les habitants de Jérusalem assistant au spectacle. Il y a toujours un James ou un Jacques qui finit mal, quand il est le frère cadet d'un autre qui lui aussi a mal fini.

Éditions La Dondaine, 2023

[nofatclips]

Family Affair (Sly & the Family Stone cover) by Iggy Pop featuring Bootsy Collins on bass

[transformers-mosaic]

Transformers: Beast Wars - Second Chances - Page 3

Originally posted on February 2nd, 2011

Story - Curt Lunsford Art - James Ferrand Colours - Jeffrey Witty Letters - HdE

deviantART

wada sez: Per Flaherty on deviantART: “one of the things this story addresses is what happens to Dinobot after the end of "Nemesis" since his body is not found aboard the Nemesis in the G1 episode "Microbots".” See below for the original script for this one.

Page 3

Panel One

(Shot of Dinobot II(DBII) walking away from the Nemesis, in beast mode)

Panel Two

(Close-up of DBII’s face.  He’s just raised his head, and has a puzzled look).

DBII:  Hmm?

SOUND EFFECT(in small letters):  Poooooosssshhhh

Panel Three

(Shot of DBII looking toward the sky.  In the distance we can see a small sparkle, followed by a long plume of smoke)

DBII:  No…

Panel Four

(Shot of DBII transforming.  This doesn’t have to be very large)

SOUND EFFECT:  BRRR-TTOON

Panel Five

(Close-up of DB II’s robot mode cyborg eye.  It’s extended, similar to a microscope)

SOUND EFFECTS(near eye):  Whirr…

Panel Six

(We see, still very far away and kinda blurry, the unmistakable shape of the Autobot shuttle the Maximal’s used to escape Earth)

DBII(tagless):  NOOOO!!!!

Panel Seven

(Close up of DBII’s face.  He has a look of disillusion, hopelessness)

DBII:  The war is over…

Panel Eight

(Shot of DBII sitting on the ground.  He’s sitting like all the strength in his legs gave out all at once)

DBII:  …my existence has become meaningless…

[ratelet-james]

James Ratelet, sur les chemins du Puy de Dôme, Clermont-Ferrand , Chaine des Puys, La basilique romane Notre-Dame-du-Port, La cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption ,Usine Michelin , Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, France, Europ

[burlveneer-music]

Iggy Pop - Family Affair - a Sly & the Family Stone cover on the occasion of his 73rd birthday! With Bootsy on bass! Produced by Bill Laswell!

To all Poptimists! "[this track] made me feel good and it was good company and I hoped I could put it out and it would be good company for someone else too" Featuring: Bootsy Collins on bass Recorded and engineered by Olivier Ferrand, Studio Los Angeles Engineering: James Dellatacoma Mixed at Orange Music Studio, West Orange, NJ Produced & Mixed by Bill Laswell Coordination: Yoko Yamabe Mastered by Mickaël Rangeard QDS Mastering, Paris. Written by Sylvester Stewart Published by Mijac Music (BMI)/Sony ATV Music Publishing ℗ Thousand Mile Inc.

[tcm]

Francois Truffaut: The Actor by Susan King

Film directors on occasion have walked from behind the camera to appear in front of it. Part of the fun in watching Alfred Hitchcock movies is to see his wry cameos. The late Agnes Varda was a delightful presence in her documentaries such as in the award-winning FACES PLACES (2017). John Huston, who won Oscars for the direction and screenplay of THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE (’48), received a supporting actor Oscar and Golden Globe nomination for THE CARDINAL (’63) and another Golden Globe nomination for CHINATOWN (’74).

And Vittorio De Sica, the Italian neo-realist master of such Oscar-winning foreign films as THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS (’70), also received a supporting actor Oscar nomination for A FAREWELL TO ARMS (’57). Even French New Wave maverick Jean-Luc Godard has an uncredited role in Montgomery Clift’s final film THE DEFECTOR (’66).

Fellow New Wave pioneer Francois Truffaut acted in four feature films before his untimely death at the age of 52 in 1984. He made his acting debut in his haunting THE WILD CHILD (’70), which was inspired by the 19th century journal of Dr. Jean Itard revolving around his work with the Wild Boy of Aveyron, a feral child found in the forest. Itard named the boy Victor and attempted to civilize him.

Truffaut took on the role of the serious-minded doctor and Jean-Pierre Cargol, a young Gypsy boy, made his debut as Victor. The filmmaker’s daughter Laura Truffaut told me in a 2000 Los Angeles Times interview that he thought it would be easier to direct newcomer Cargol if he took on the role of Itard and also, “because he felt it wasn’t a great role for a professional actor.”

Her father, she noted, “was much more interested in the child than Dr. Itard. I think he worried that unconcsciously a professional actor would feel slighted or neglected by him.” Truffaut gives a poignant performance. And his good friend Alfred Hitchcock was so impressed with his turn, he sent Truffaut a funny telegraph asking the director for the autograph of the actor who played Itard.

He next starred in his brilliantly funny valentine to filmmaking DAY FOR NIGHT (’73), in which Truffaut gives a charming turn—he actually smiles in this movie—as a film director named Ferrand. He is so obsessed with cinema that film stock probably pulsates through his veins.

And while Itard had one charge, Ferrand must keep his cast together during the filming of a less-than-impressive romantic drama “Meet Pamela.” There’s the infantile leading man (Jean-Pierre Leaud of Antoine Doinel fame); Jacqueline Bisset as the British actress recovering from a nervous breakdown; an Oscar-nominated Valentina Cortese as an aging actress who can’t remember her lines; and Jean-Pierre Aumont as a veteran leading man with a secret. Truffaut won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and was also nominated for his direction and screenplay.

Four years later, Steven Spielberg cast him in his best-known role in the blockbuster science-fiction classic CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (’77) as Claude Lacombe, the compassionate, charming and even wide-eyed French scientist who is leading a UN investigating team on a series of unusual UFO activity. Truffaut was one of Spielberg’s idols and was thrilled he agreed to do the part. “I am not an actor; I can only play myself,” he told Spielberg, which was exactly what the filmmaker wanted.

Bob Balaban, who played the scientist’s translator David, recalled his experience working with Truffaut in a 2014 Los Angeles Times interview. “I got the job because I could speak French; at least what’s what my agent must have told them I guess,” Balaban explained.

Because his French was rusty, he basically lied about his prowess with the language. “I had a crash course in Berlitz, went on vacation and met Truffaut and explained to him in my very halting French I had lied to get the job, which he thought was very funny,” said Balaban, He wrote about his experiences in Close Encounters of the Third Kind: An Actor's Diary.

Truffaut kept a tape recorder in his room and would practice simple phrases like “Hello, how are you this morning?” during the evening. “He was so embarrassed he would speak inadequate English. He was an adorable, fun, loveable person but rather proper and just didn’t want to get caught speaking in a language he couldn’t be understood in.”

I witnessed an audience boo at the end of a screening of his dour drama THE GREEN ROOM (’78). Based on three Henry James short stories including “The Altar of the Dead,” the drama revolves around a World War I vet who writes obits for the local paper. Obsessed with death, he has a room in his house that is a shrine to his late wife. After the room is destroyed in a fire, he finds a chapel in ruins where he not only honors his wife but all of the dead he has known. Needless to say, things don’t end well for Truffaut’s Julien Davenne.

According to his costar Nathalie Baye, Truffaut almost shuttered the production because he feared he was giving a bad performance. She recalled that “he would say to me, ‘It’s madness; it will never work.’ And he came close to wanting to stop everything.”

Though some critics gave the film strong reviews, Truffaut didn’t fare as well. The New York Times’ Vincent Canby stated, “Truffaut does not make it easy for us to respond to Davenne.” And Time Out believed the film failed because of “Truffaut’s lack of range as an actor which his not helped by the script’s purple prose.”

I have seen GREEN ROOM a few times since 1979 and admire it more as I have gotten older. And though Truffaut the director miscast Truffaut the actor, we should admire that he took himself out the comfort zone as an actor. He doesn’t give a great performance, but he gives a brave one.

[serafino-finasero]

Beyoncé, the culmination of 50 years of pop and R&B acts

The legendary-in-her-own-time Beyoncé, femme extraordinaire, celebrity to the celebrities, star to the stars, is the culmination of fifty-some years of pop and R&B history. She is all the best of history's pop and soul acts rolled into one, seemingly having absorbed all the best of them within the few years between her birth on September 4th, 1981 and the time she scored her first girl group hits in the mid- to late 1990s. 

Not only has she absorbed all the best of the best, she has distilled it into something that appears bigger and better than most of what we’ve seen in global-scale crossover entertainment since the dawning of Elvis Presley's impressive and wildly successful take on African American music in the 1950s.

[Above: Destiny's Child chaneling the Supremes – Kelly Rowland, Beyoncé Knowles, Michelle Williams (L-R), circa 2006]

Beyoncé's got the gloss and glamour of a Diana Ross, having her own Supremes in Destiny's Child – laced with the sexy afro-futurism of funk-rock girl group Labelle. She innovates musical styles and lyrical content like the Beatles or Bob Dylan did, writing trendsetting songs that change entire genres of music for good.

She's got the raw 'n’ roll of a Tina Turner whipping herself, her Ikettes, and her audiences into a frenzy with sweaty song-and-dance; she's got the sex ‘n’ glitter of a Donna Summer in her disco heyday; the funkin’ down-to-earth R&B of a Chaka Khan; the innovative eclecticism of a Prince; the corn-fed country soulfulness of an Etta James; the inspirational gospel ‘n’ jazz of Aretha; the no-prisoners-taken ambition of Madonna.

She has taken the showmanship, the infectious megalomania and savvy (video) imagery of the Jackson family of entertainers to a new level, coupling those assets with the youthful enthusiasm and global sing-along appeal of even light pop acts like, say, ABBA, the Pointer Sisters, and the Spice Girls. 

[Above: Beyoncé performing at the Vanderbilt Stadium in Nashville, Tennessee on August 23, 2018 during the On The Run II Tour, which she co-headlined with her husband, rapper Jay-Z | source: Beyoncé’s Facebook page] 

Rather than eliciting much envy, Beyoncé's fame and success seem to motivate. She uses her music, voice, status, and celebrity to uplift and inspire. With an extremely rare combination of cutthroat self-assuredness, boundless talent, unapologetic femininity and strength, and endearing humility and sensitivity, she takes her audiences 'to church,' makes them get in touch with their spirits, makes them embrace and celebrate who and what they are.

Although I do not tend to uncritically view anyone, not even Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, as some sort of messiah, it cannot be denied that she touches people where they live – in the here and now; in a post-modern, eclectic world full of possibilities, opportunities, and inclusiveness, but also of insanity, betrayal, loneliness, changes and fears, ultimately delivering comfort, encouragement, irresistible beauty, and realistic hope for more and better – not only for one's self, but for the world and all its people.

[Above left: photo by Peter Lindbergh for Beyoncé's album ''I Am... Sasha Fierce'' (2008) / centre: Knowles at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, April 2018 / right: The Formation World Tour, 2016, photo by Felisha Tolentino, source: beyonce.com]

The ever-changing colours and multi-layered sweetness of Queen B's lemonade lure us like bees to her hive, but it's the strangely soothing bitterness of recognition of our own complex souls that keeps us drinking it. Beyoncé is irresistible and shall forever remain one of the, if not the, biggest and brightest of stars the world will ever see.

Eh, yeah, I'm a fan. Can you tell? Lol

Happy birthday, Beyoncé.

Tasio Ferrand © September 4, 2019 

Cover image: GIF of Beyoncé in the video for the song ''Dance for You'' from the deluxe edition of her fourth studio album, 4 (Parkwood Entertainment / Columbia Records, 2011). The video in 1940s film noir style was co-directed by Beyoncé and her brother-in-law, her sister Solange’s husband, Alan Ferguson.

[whileiamdying]

MILLER & SON by Asher Jelinsky Fiction | 2019 | USA | 21min A transwoman mechanic lives between running her family’s auto shop during the day and expressing her femininity at night, until an unforeseen event threatens balance of her compartmentalized life. CAST & CREW Written & Directed by: Asher Jelinsky Produced by: Kate Chamuris Cinematography by: Robert Nachman Production Design by: Robert Aguirre Edited by: Selinda Zhou Sound Design by: This Is Sound Design Music by: Art Bleek, Curtis Heath Casting by: Russell Boast, CSA Starring: Jesse James Keitel, Ryan Cutrona, Travis Hammer, Alexandra Grey SELECTED FESTIVALS Student Academy Awards - Winner, Gold BAFTA Student Film Awards - Winner, Best Live Action Cannes Lions Young Director Award - Winner, Gold Clermont Ferrand International Short Film Festival - Nominee, Grand Prix Venice TV Award - Nominee, New Talent BFI London - Official Selection Palm Springs International Shortfest - Official Selection Seattle International Film Festival - Official Selection Maryland Film Festival - Official Selection Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival - Official Selection AFI Fest - Official Selection Outfest - Official Selection Ashland Independent Film Festival - Winner, Best Narrative Short (Jury & Audience Awards) Nevada City Film Festival - Winner, Best Performance Jesse James Keitel North Carolina Gay and Lesbian Festival - Winner, Best Long Form Dramatic Short FilmOut San Diego - Winner, Outstanding Artistic Achievement Follow Miller & Son on social media: www.millerandsonfilm.com facebook.com/millerandsonfilm http://instagram.com/millerandsonfilm https://twitter.com/millersonfilm

[grimoiresontape]

Collyries: Cosmetics and Magical Gazing

This is a blog post about 'collyries', which I don't feel terribly bad about referring to as early modern magical cosmetics. I have frequent misgivings when Cool-Trying Historians attempt to excite interest in their topic by drawing clunky comparisons to some modern phenomenon ("hey fellow kids did you know books were, like, the iPads of medieval monastries?!") but, the thing is, these sorcerous 'confections' are fully designed to adorn the visage and literally empower and amplify the magic which comes out of faces. Gazing. Ensorcelling words. Enchanting breath. The evil eye. The look of love.

"Magical make-up" seems especially fair when we consider the mythic origins of cosmetics. In the Apocryphal Enochic materials, a particular fallen angel of the Grigori – the Watchers – is named as the explicit teacher of the violent and deceptive secrets of both weapons and cosmetics.

"And Azazel taught men to make swords and knives and shields and breastplates; and made known to them the metals [of the earth] and the art of working them; and bracelets and ornaments; and the use of antimony and the beautifying of the eyelids; and all kinds of costly stones and all colouring tinctures. And there arose much godlessness, and they committed fornication, and they were led astray and became corrupt in all their ways." [Book of Enoch 8:1–3a]

This tutelary patron, Azazel, is blamed fairly extensively by the Enochic God: ‘The whole earth has been corrupted through the works that were taught by Azazel: to him ascribe all sin.’ [Book of Enoch 2:8] Quite the reference for a curriculum vitae there.

So, 'collyries': a word describing magical preparations applied to the face, most typically the eyes. Thus, when Renaissance occult philosopher Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa warns of the power of sorcerous 'bindings', he offers some initial context for how these salves, pastes, and powders were considered:

'Now there are such kind of bindings as these made by Sorceries, Collyries, Unguents, love potions, by binding to, and hanging up of things, by rings, by charmes, by strong imaginations, and passions, by images, and characters, by inchantments, and imprecations, by lights, by sound, by numbers, by words, and names, invocations, sacrifices, by swearing, conjuring, consecrations, devotions, and by divers superstitions, and observations, and such like.'

Practically speaking, these collyries could come in the form of salves or washes. I am going to draw a line - however arbitrary - between the magic of beautifying or buffing oneself with compounds, and using these specialised magical preparations to imbue a 'magical expression' with greater potency. The former are employed to enchant oneself, whereas the latter I would argue enchant what one is throwing out, from evil side-eye to come hither glances. For instance, beyond this disclaimer, we will not consider the use of belladonna eye-drops - to widen the pupils and thus beautify the 'good lady' using them - despite these arguably being collyries, because they do not help with the "launching outwards" of a particular magical working, as much as they do glamour oneself. Likewise, the term 'collyrium' is sometimes used in medical herbalism to denote health-giving eye-washes and salves. I would also qualify these uses as internal 'buffs' like beautifying cosmetics. Now, this internal/external definitional divine falls apart in practice, I accept. If one is intending to stir the passions of lust in someone at a bar, we have two modes of looking: what we look like and how we look at them. For now though, if only for an artificial simplicity's sake (and brevity), I am going to concentrate on the latter. To reiterate for the herbalists: collyries can of course be employed to bolster health or affect one's physickal constituency, but for now we will content ourselves to consider those used to affect magical expression, especially gazing.

So how did such sorcerous eyeshadows and lipsticks work? In order to answer this we need to take a foray into understanding one of the underlying medical, occult, and cosmological models of the pre-modern magic: humoural theory.

But What Even Are A Humourals Theory Humoural theory formed the central operative European medical model for (at least) one and a half millennia, surviving from ancient Greece well into the early modern period. It was simply one of the most historically embedded, best regarded and most widely used medical models in the early modern period. It charted typologies of personality and behavioural proclivities of emotional expression, and indeed emotional experience. As Nogah Arikha puts it, ‘humoural theory explained most things about a person’s character, psychology, medical history, tastes, appearance, and behaviour.’ [Nogah Arikha, Passions and Tempers: A History of the Humours (New York: Harper Collins, 2007), xvii] It is proper to consider humoural theory as a magical principle concerning the organisation of the organic naturally magical cosmos, for the humours were considered the biological corollaries of the four classical elements.

Humoural theory posited substances (literally, ‘moistures’) that ‘controlled the whole existence and behaviour of mankind, and, according to the manner in which they were combined, determined the character of the individual.’ [Raymond Klibansky, Erwin Panofsky, and Fritz Saxl, Saturn and Melancholy: Studies in the History of Natural Philosophy, Religion, and Art (Nendeln: Kraus reprint, 1979), p. 3] Moreover, they linked humans and their environment in that they ‘corresponded, it was held, to the cosmic elements and to the divisions of time’. [Klibansky, Panofsky, and Saxl, p. 3] These cosmic elements, these 'originall grounds of all corporeall things' are of course understood by an occult natural philosophy of what Agrippa calls 'elementated world'. [Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy (London, 1651), 8] These classical four elements were corresponded to the humours: choleric Fire, sanguine Air, phlegmatic Water, and melancholy Earth.

As a brief but important note, the sanguine humour was often called 'blood', but the term could be used to refer to the actual sanguine humour, to the gross carrier liquid of all humours (which is why phlebotomy was thought to void all deleterious humours not just the sanguine ones). Sanguinity could even on occasion refer to 'subtle' sanguine vapours or aerial spirits in the body. Crucially also 'seed' (both male and female) and breastmilk were considered forms of rarified blood. Semen, especially, ‘as Galen had explained, was concocted out of blood’’[ Arikha, p. 164-5. For more on seed and blood, see Lesel Dawson, Lovesickness and Gender in Early Modern English Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008), p. 25-6, 85-6, 165-6, 209] This resulted in a further level of association ‘that those that are of a sanguine Complexion, are generally very Amorous’. [James Ferrand, Erotomania or A Treatise Discoursing of the Essence, Causes, Symptomes, Prognosticks, and Cure of Love or Erotique Melancholy (Oxford, 1640), p. 141] There is a rule-of-thumb that dictates that, in a way, prior to the wider acceptance and application of Paracelsian ideas about the organs, that all medical pathology was the study of malfunctioning or 'wounded' blood.

Humoural theory worked with connections between physiological and psychological affectivity in an incorporated and ensouled mind-body subject. It offered discourses for the distempers of the passions to be just as important to physical as to mental health. After all, at least potentially, ‘passions distemper the body, loose the spirits, ingender the humors, and produce diseases’ - moreover, ‘inordinate passion, is [itself] a most sharpe and violent disease: always dangerous and deadly…’ [M.I. Abernethy, A Christian and Heavenly Treatise: containing Physicke for the Soule (London, 1622), p. 264] This was no mere complaint about hysteria:  'the idea that heightened passion causes diseases and even death was common wisdom.’ [Michael MacDonald, Mystical Bedlam: Madness, Anxiety, and Healing in Seventeenth Century England (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), p. 181.]

The elements and their humours were apprehended by occult philosophers and astrologers (when those even were distinct personages!) through the elemental 'Triplicities': the four elementally-based groupings of the twelve signs of the zodiac, as when we refer to Aries, Leo and Sagittarius as 'Fire signs'. This created a greater degree of specificity of the elements and humours as apprehended in time, as when the Sun passed through these as the belt of zodiac revolved over the course of a year. What was time after all, mused Proclus (and, crucially, quoted Agrippa), but the movement of the celestial bodies? The wandering stars of the seven classical planets were also afforded elemental and humoural identities and associations, adding to the nuance of astrological diagnosis of humoural imbalances, and indeed to the range of astrological magical interventions, to either down- or up-regulate the humours of oneself or others, to balance or imbalance.

Such planetary humouralism and humoural planetary magic survives fossilised in idiomatic and figurative language to this day: we speak of people as saturnine, or mercurial, or having a sunny disposition, or even of lunacy itself. Such humoural theory did not simply set stringent "personality types", it articulated proclivities to particular experience and expression of passions. As one seventeenth-century passion theorist phrased the relationship, 'Passions ingender Humors, and Humors breed Passions'. [Thomas Wright, The Passions of the Minde in Generall (London, 1601), p. 64.] Such was the passional-humoural feedback loop of expression and habituation: a hot-headed angry Martial person not only lived in an angry world, but made themselves more likely to become angrier more easily. As we shall see, by the porous or "leaky" early modern self, such a choleric feedback might even extend its influence through and beyond the body, breath and speech of the angry person to begin to innervate and galvanise the natural choler of 'elementated world' around them. The angry person makes their world angrier. A stray furious look here, a bitter word there. Ripples in the imaginal fields of affect and contagion.

Express Your Bad Self The power of the humours - like other occult virtues - could be stirred, gathered, directed and deployed through words and signifying representational images, even images conjured and fixated in the imagination. This was most easily performed with humours and passions by being somewhat predicated on concepts of plethora (excess): from ‘the common Proverbe, ex adundantia cordis os loquitur, from the abundance of the heart, the tongue speaketh’. [Wright, Passions, p. 78-79] One could not help venting humours and passions when one expressed oneself. This welling tide of humours motivates us to speak up or pull a face at all. Indeed, the ex-pressive as well as behavioural affectivity of the passions was founded on the notion of the impassioned ensouled mind-body complex producing and being subject to inordinate unbalancing excesses. Impassioned and passionate, one simply had to get the words out.

Facial expressions, and especially the eyes, were some of the primary means to read and diagnose impassioned states. Yet this very readability also made them an excellent means of transferring passions. The seductive glance conveys a magical image as potentially powerful as any Venusian talisman of a maid holding a comb and mirror. Not only was this because ‘the countenance is the Image of the same’ passion prompting and enacted by it, but due to the origins of affections in the soul; for ‘by the eyes as by a window, you may looke euen into the secret corners of the Soule: so that it was well sayde of Alexander that the eyes are the mirror or Looking-glasse of the Soule.’ [Helkiah Crooke, Mikrocosmographia: A Description of the Body of Man Together with the Controversies Thereto Belonging (London, 1615), p. 8-9] The eyes did not merely convey meaning, but affectivity: the signifier was also the signified. An angry look carried an affective seed of anger itself. Thus a magnifying glass could also be a mirror, and this sense of reflection has a deep occult significance, as the ‘Looking-glasse’ looked both ways. As ‘the Eyes wonder at a thing, they loue it, they desire it; they are the bewrayers of loue, anger, rage, mercie, reuenge: in a worde; The eyes are fitted and composed to all the affections of the minde; expressing the very Image thereof in such a manner’. [Crooke, Mikrocosmographia, p. 9. Emphasis added.] Again, “expression” was a literal as well as figurative term. To think of expressions in both behavioural and idiomatic light, malefic choleric expressions and their dangerous martial qualities are preserved in much modern idiom: the sharp tongue, bitter words, cutting remarks, seeing red, staring daggers.

Gaze Amplifiers A particular expression while gazing was not the only way to augment magically affective ‘overlooking’. The clearest example is that of ‘Collyries', magical salves to smear upon the eyes to magnify the effects of fascination. Here is Heinrich Agrippa on their potencies:

‘Collyries, and Unguents conveying the vertues of things Naturall, and Celestiall to our spirit, can multiply, transmute, transfigure and transform it accordingly, as also transpose those vertues which are in them into it, that so it cannot act only upon its own body, but also upon that which is neer it, and affect that by visible rayes charmes, and by touching it, with some like quality. For because our spirit is the subtile, pure lucid, airy, and unctuous vapour of the blood; it is therefore fit to make Collyries of the like vapours, which are more sutable to our spirit in substance, for then by reason of their likeness, they do the more stir up, attract, and transform the spirit. The like virtues have certain ointments and other confections.’ [Agrippa, Three Books of the Occult Philosophy, trans. 'JF' (London, 1651), p. 90]

Such 'Collyries' would be made from ‘the gall of a man’, which was the main depository of yellow bile, and thus powerful for strengthening choleric gazes. Consider the very phrase "having the gall": filling with fiery boldness. Such collyries could also be compounded from animal ingredients, such as ‘the blood of a lapwing, of a bat, and of a goat’. [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 134] These animal components were considered sources of appropriate occult virtue. One reason for this consideration was the idea that humours and passions were regulated by the rational faculties of the human soul, faculties that animals lacked. So the beasts of the earth were considered to express and even, in their use as spell components, enmatter unadulterated humours and passions. Raw feelings, to be marshalled and manipulated. Wolf parts were choleric, as their howling indicated. Cats were melancholy... as their howling also indicated. For more on this fascinating dimension to Shakespearean witches' brews, see Gail Kern Paster's 'Melancholy Cats, Lugged Bears, and Early Modern Cosmology: Reading Shakespeare's Psychological Materialism Across the Species Barrier', in Reading the Early Modern Emotions, edited by Paster, Katherine Rowe, and Mary Floyd-Wilson.

Now, I hope I do not need to state the importance of knowing the chemical and biological as well as magical affectivity of any materials you might chose to use in this manner. I do not wish to speak down to anyone by stating "do not rub random blood into your peepers". But, yknow, maybe don't. There are a wealth of herbs and other ingredients that contain the appropriate occult virtues to work as collyries that won't cause other problems. Consider adapting planetary correspondences for plant allies you already work: choleric humours respond to Solar and Martial virtues; phlegmatic humours to those of Venus and the Moon; jovial Jupiter is considered especially sanguine; and Saturn is well known as the ruler of melancholy. Again, to disclaim, I must strongly advice that if you are pregnant or might be pregnant, do not attempt any working, magical or medicinal, where you are taking herbs or other substances internally or through a mucous membrane like the eyes.

By these means of compounding humourally and passionally-charged materia, the humours expelled through the eyes and the passions expressed, vivified, and received were empowered and amplified by the virtues of these salves and eye-washes: for ‘such like passions also can magical confections induce, by suffumigations, by collyries, by unguents, by potions, by poisons, by lamps and lights, by looking-glasses, by images, enchantments, charms, sounds and music’. [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 135] Such magical eye-washes were not some half-baked tacked-on gimmick; they were as core a part of magical tool use as lamps, images, and incantations.

Yet amplifying the ejection of a sort of astral poison out of one's eyes was not the only use of such preparations. Agrippa goes onto to foreground the importance of sight and vision in terms of the all-too-real magic of the imagination:

'Now the sight, because it perceives more purely and clearly than the other senses, and fastening in us the marks of things more acutely and deeply, doth most of all and before others, agree with the phantastic spirit, as is apparent in dreams, when things seen do more often present themselves to us than things heard, or any thing coming under the other senses. Therefore, when collyries or eye-waters transform visual spirits, that spirit doth easily affect the imagination, which indeed being affected with divers species and forms, transmits the same by the spirit unto the outward sense of sight; by which occasion there is caused in it a perception of such species and forms in that manner, as if it were moved by external objects, that there seem to be seen terrible images and spirits and such like. So there are made collyries, making us forthwith to see the images of spirits in the air or elsewhere...' [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 134]

There is also a strong dimension by which collyries affected the imagination. For ‘when collyries transform visual spirits, that spirit doth easily affect the imagination’ either of oneself – in order to ‘make invocated spirits to be seen’ – or of others, in order to manipulate their senses and passions. (Those interested in magical preparations for seeing spirits might find this blog post compiling grimoiric instructions for such material useful.) These perceptual distortions of the magical gaze upon the overlooked’s imaginations could induce targets to ‘hear horrid, or delectable sounds’ making them ‘angry, and contend, nobody being present, and fear where there is no fear’. [Agrippa, Three Books, p. 134-5] Here occult passion manipulation is working directly on the imagination, through the inducement of impassioned hallucinatory states.

Lest this talk of imagination sound "too psychologising", we should bear in mind Agrippa is also clear that 'by divers rites, observations, ceremonies, religions and superstitions; all which shall be handled in their places. And not only by these kind of arts are passions, apparitions and images induced, but also things themselves, which are really changed and transfigured into divers forms...' The field-like qualities of the pre-modern magical imagination did not mean "it's all in your head". Rather, that something moving through your head (and heart!) - the tides of choleric boldness and anger, phlegmatic fear and hope, sanguine love and lust, and melancholy cogitation - flowed through us, into and out of the world, reminding and reanimating 'elementated' components of the responsive interconnected cosmos of their own natural magic. Nature itself could also be charmed, in this continually unfolding dance of attraction and rebuffing; the inhale and exhale of sympathia and antipathy expressing itself through the actions of a dancefloor or cast shade, variously as majestic and cutting as the turning celestial orbs spinning to the music of the spheres.