#Pop Culture

[bourbontrend]

Discover the magic of Vox Machina in a bottle! Critical Role has teamed up with Find Familiar Spirits to bring you Sandkheg's Hide, a limited-edition bourbon inspired by the iconic in-game drink. Perfect for fans of Critical Role and whiskey enthusiasts alike! Don't miss out on this unique collaboration. #CriticalRole #FindFamiliarSpirits

[carewyncromwell]

“Good day, everyone. It seems that we, once again, are on the cusp of that most wondrous time of year -- the Feast of Christmas. 

“I am called Bartholomew -- or more commonly just ‘Bat’ -- Varney...and this time of year is by far my favorite of the lot. To mark this occasion, my ‘mundane’ has once again given me access to her ‘Askbox,’ so that I may discuss aspects of this wonderful holiday with you, her followers, whether through historical lectures, editorials, or even lively debates. She encourages you to consult the ‘Bat Comments on Christmas!’ tag to see my previous entries to this series, to like and reblog these posts if you find them engaging and interesting, and to send in other holiday-related Asks to me, if you wish to see more. I was born in the mid-18th century and currently occupy what my mundane calls the ‘HPHL’ and ‘Fantastic Beasts’ timelines, but I have also been given access to the Fourth Wall, so that I can discuss aspects of Christmas Yet to Come as well.”

The single best aspect of Christmas is the fascinating way it has changed and will continue to change.

[Bat replaces the spent Blood Pop in his mouth with a new one with a grin that shows off his sparkling white fangs.]

“...Our subject today, appropriately enough, actually regards Christmases Yet to Come, as well as those of the Past and Present. Yes, my friends, it is time we discuss my favorite novel of all time, which arguably changed how Christmas is celebrated more than any other piece of text ever written -- Charles Dickens’s immortal classic, A Christmas Carol.

“Now, for those of you who have grown up with Christmas as a holiday, and even for many who haven’t, it would be silly to go into a full summary of the tale. It’s such a popular and well-adapted story, even back in my own era, that even those who haven’t read Dickens’s novel are familiar with it, simply through cultural osmosis...and from what I understand, over time, it’s only become more widespread. But truly, we’re not going to delve too deeply into the story of miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who initially scoffs at the thought of giving back to his fellow men and treating his employees and associates kindly around Christmas, before he’s haunted by three spirits who teach him the true meaning of the season. Instead, I’d like to talk more about the book’s publication, its themes, and ultimately why it both is a perfect time capsule of the up-and-coming Christmas fads of the mid-1800′s and ultimately came to popularize and set in stone customs we still associate with Christmas today. 

“Charles Dickens was a celebrity of his day. Originally the man had no concept of what he wanted to do with his life -- he even once considered a life on stage as an actor -- but writing truly ended up being his calling. First finding success as a journalist, Dickens then became famous across Britain when he wrote The Pickwick Papers and Oliver Twist. Even her Majesty the soon-to-be Queen Victoria was purportedly enamored with them. Unfortunately Dickens’s success ended up being a double-edged sword. John Dickens would frequently use his son’s fame as leverage to borrow money, only for Charles to have to frequently come to his rescue when John couldn’t pay the lenders back. And with his family still growing (three going on four, at that time), Dickens had to keep the money rolling in, in order to pay for his family’s lifestyle. They were part of what was called the ‘middling sort,’ or the ‘middle class,’ as I’ve heard it more frequently called, which had only just started to form about a century prior, as education and land ownership became more widespread in Europe and America. Just a century ago, that ‘middle class’ had been the main force behind the American and French Revolutions and the Enlightenment ideals that argued against the superiority of kings and nobles over the common Man -- now most of their members were trying to find comfort and contentment in their new status as the ‘petit bourgeoisie.’ But there was still activism and fresh ideas to be found in their ranks, if one were to look carefully.

“The wide publication of books via printing presses and that subsequent increased access to education and knowledge fueled a new appreciation for history in 19th century Europe. Not too long ago, as I’ve discussed previously, Christmas had been banned in England, only for that idea to blow up spectacularly in the Puritans’ faces. And well, with England having lost their foothold in the American colonies and having spent even more years and money warring with France under the leadership of Napoleon Bonaparte before finally defeating him soundly at Waterloo, there was a new sense of nostalgia in England for when their country was great and prosperous...namely, the Renaissance, under the rule of Queen Elizabeth I. The arts became more reputable and profitable again after the likes of Oliver Cromwell had tried to shut down theaters en masse; investment in new technologies and sciences were promoted, sparking an Industrial Revolution in England; and holidays of the Tudor era were reinvented for a new generation, including -- you guessed it -- Christmas. 

“But Christmas, as celebrated in Tudor England, was a very bawdy, raucous, messy affair. A public outdoor festival punctuated by drinking and debauchery didn’t really suit the ‘proper’ attitudes of the Victorian-era middle class. So, just as we always have with Christmas since the beginning, old traditions were attempted, adapted, and -- in some cases -- flat-out made up. One such tradition I’ve discussed previously that was likely completely fabricated around this time is the act of kissing under mistletoe. Other fads that were ultimately discarded was putting fruitcake under your pillow -- replaced with just eating it at holiday gatherings -- and wearing animal-themed costumes -- which I would argue was just shifted over to our celebration of holidays like Halloween. Even the idea of electing a ‘Lord of Misrule’ -- an aspect of the holiday I always enjoyed as a boy, which was also very popular back in the Elizabethan era -- didn’t last, under the Victorians. But still, these new twists on old traditions -- caroling at people’s doorsteps; hosting parties with friends and family; playing parlor games; exchanging presents; decorating the house with mistletoe, holly, and evergreen trees; eating lots of good food -- would become very fashionable among this new middle class and how they celebrated Christmas. And with the arrival of more Romantic ideals in Europe at the turn of the 19th century, the concept of children being evocative of innocence rather than sin became much more mainstream. This then prompted middle-class parents to want to make the old bawdy Feast of Christmas more family-friendly and to use some of their new wealth to give both themselves and their children some joy during the holiday season. 

“Dickens, like many members of the Victorian middle class, loved Christmas and the new fashionable ways it was being celebrated. Considering the man also greatly disdained organized religion, as well, it’s not entirely surprising he enjoyed the secular trappings that encouraged joy and extravagance without making it too focused on the church. But Charles Dickens didn’t just think Christmastime should be a time for the middle class to indulge for themselves. The true inspiration behind his novel A Christmas Carol ultimately ended up being Dickens witnessing the horrific conditions child workers suffered through in the new Victorian factories he saw in England, including the Cornish Tin Mines. He became convinced that something had to be done to combat the poverty and injustice he saw in the streets, and he ultimately thought that a story about Christmas might be a more palatable way to deliver that message to the mass public, including other members of the middle class, than a mere article would. And so Dickens partnered the Victorian fad of indulgence with social activism...which, ironically enough, perfectly adapted another tenant of Christmas back in my day, as well as its progenitor celebration of Saturnalia -- the redistribution of wealth. Whether Dickens realized it at the time or not, he had adapted the core of Christmas for a new generation -- this time, not by the poor having to beg or threaten the rich at their doors for their best food and drink, but by the new middle class and the wealthy being compelled by civic duty to give back to the needy willingly. 

“A Christmas Carol was an instant success. Thousands of copies were sold all over England from the moment it first hit shelves on December 19th, 1843, with the entire first run being sold out by Christmas Eve of that year and twelve more editions being published by the end of the following year. It is by far Dickens’s most well-known, read, and beloved novel, and it has only become more popular over time. And yet, in his day, Dickens didn’t enjoy the profits he probably should’ve from A Christmas Carol, after all his efforts. Part of this is because of how much money he invested into the publication of his manuscript. Dickens envisioned his book as something that should be bought and given as a Christmas present, and so spared no expense in making each book a work of art. The books were bound in red cloth, printed on gilt-edged pages, with hand-painted illustrations. All of this took a big chunk out of Dickens’s profits. Another problem, however, was that this expensive binding was the only way the book was published, which made it so that many poorer people who wanted to read this new book written by the great Charles Dickens about the virtue of giving to the poor didn’t have the five shillings needed to buy it. And this is why a lesser publisher ultimately plagiarized the novel, condensing it somewhat and printing it much more cheaply without permission, so as to cash in on those who couldn’t afford the full, official manuscript. Dickens later took that publisher to court for copyright infringement and won, but the whole affair still hurt his profit margin. 

“Even so, A Christmas Carol’s legacy is undeniable, and many of the Christmas traditions we love most today -- mere passing fads of Dickens’s era -- were popularized because of this very well-received and circulated little book. Christmas cards and gifts. Games and toys. Caroling. Childhood innocence. Christmas trees. Eating turkey, pies, and warm chestnuts for Christmas dinner. Giving to the poor. Even just the concept of the ‘holiday spirit,’ of ‘good will toward men’ -- of hope and charity, in the midst of the cold and hunger of winter. The ritual of taking time off work specifically just to celebrate at home with your loved ones, rather than go to church or go out drinking in the streets. All of this is what Christmas is all about in the minds and hearts of so many...but it wasn’t, until Charles Dickens wrapped all of these ideas up in a neat little package and gave it to the world, in the form of a manuscript he had to finish in less than six weeks and yet clearly put so much heart and soul into.”

[Bat removes the spent pop from his mouth. He reaches into the inside of his waistcoat, taking a sip of blood from his pewter flask. Then, clearing his throat, he puts the flask down and then reaches into the other side of his waistcoat, out of which he fetches out a very small, leather-bound copy of A Christmas Carol -- a present from someone, no doubt.]

“...And so...to close this out...let me quote one of my personal favorite sections of the novel. It’s a part of the story far less quoted than the infamous ending, but it’s a passage I’ve always found so striking, and one I think similarly embodies the beauty of Dickens’s work...”

[Bat opens his tiny copy of the manuscript and reads:]

“‘A small matter,’ said the Ghost, ‘to make these silly folks so full of gratitude.’

“‘Small!’ echoed Scrooge. 

“The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices, who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig: and when he had done so, said, 

“‘Why! Is it not? He has spent but a few pounds of your mortal money: three or four perhaps. Is that so much that he deserves this praise?’

“‘It isn’t that,’ said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter, self. ‘It isn’t that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy or unhappy; to make our service light or burdensome; a pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and looks; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impossible to add and count ‘em up: what then? The happiness he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune.’”

[Bat looks up from his book with another fanged grin as he takes another sip of blood from his flask.]

“...Happy Christmas to you all.”

((OOC: HAPPY BATMAS!! 🎄🥰 Yes, friends, for all this month and next, Bat had free reign over the Askbox to chat Christmas with you all! Please consider sending in Asks, or of course, just liking/reblogging my entries to this series! It’s truly so much fun to work on, and I’m so thrilled to do some more fun installments to it this year!))

[that-spider-witch]

On the topic of Book!Edward Hyde

Or rather: The topic of his existence (or lack thereof).

Browsing through the J&H tag, I’ve seen a lot of book readers be spiteful of every single adaptation of the character and its pop culture version because it misses the moral of the book: That Hyde and Jekyll were just one and the same, and that Jekyll was the one doing all the bullshit that went down and that Hyde was just a mask to keep his reputation intact.

Most of these rants go on to imply or outright accuse of any author doing the split personality take on the plot to have never actually read the original book, or that Edward Hyde never existing is something that the book leaves loud and clear, something irrefutably canon.

Having read the book too, I’m here to say: Yes and no. You could read the book and still get a “two character, one body” impression from it. Allow me to explain...

While the plot of “Jekyll is Good, Hyde is Bad” is truly bullshit and the very thing that the original novel rips into pieces, whether Hyde could be considered to have a will of his own is a little more ambiguous and it can actually be interpreted either way.

Note that I’m using the word “will” and not “personality”: Hyde is still Jekyll, they both have the same personality, but while Jekyll is a rational human being, Hyde is Jekyll but without the strings of societal norms, morals and impulse control holding him down.

Book readers who go by the take that Hyde never existed also claim that the book is very clear that the changes brought by the formula are just external: Jekyll is completely himself the whole time and “Hyde” is just a mask.

And this is true... At first. Depending on how you interpret Jekyll’s unrealiable narration, “Hyde” actually slowly develops something of a will of his own as Jekyll’s evil nature, given a body of its own by his dumb experiment, continues to develop.

Here’s a fragment of how Jekyll describes the experiment and the very first transformation:

“That night I had come to the fatal cross-roads. Had I approached my discovery in a more noble spirit, had I risked the experiment while under the empire of generous or pious aspirations, all must have been otherwise, and from these agonies of death and birth, I had come forth an angel instead of a fiend. The drug had no discriminating action; it was neither diabolical nor divine; it but shook the doors of the prisonhouse of my disposition; and like the captives of Philippi, that which stood within ran forth. At that time my virtue slumbered; my evil, kept awake by ambition, was alert and swift to seize the occasion; and the thing that was projected was Edward Hyde. Hence, although I had now two characters as well as two appearances, one was wholly evil, and the other was still the old Henry Jekyll, that incongruous compound of whose reformation and improvement I had already learned to despair. The movement was thus wholly toward the worse.”

“Edward Hyde” (who at this point still doesn’t truly exist as his own being and it’s just a mask for Jekyll to use) is evil because Henry Jekyll himself is evil. But while Jekyll-as-Jekyll has good personality traits as well as bad, Jekyll-as-Hyde is just everything that Jeyll finds evil about himself and nothing else. This paragraph also states very clearly that Jekyll’s intentions were never good.

If this was the only instance in which anything along the lines of “two characters as well as two appearances” was mentioned, then yes, there would be no room for debate on the whole “Hyde is just a fake identity and nothing else” because there wouldn’t be evidence of the contrary. It would be clear text.

Except that Jekyll, unreliable narrator that he is or not, also gives us evidence to support the theory that Hyde, while still not being a completely separate split personality on his own right, does develop a certain awareness of himself and a will to act somewhat separate from Jekyll’s. 

Of course, this all still falls on Jekyll’s own fault, and even if we consider Hyde as something of an alter, he’s still nothing but the scapegoat that Jekyll uses:

“The pleasures which I made haste to seek in my disguise were, as I have said, undignified; I would scarce use a harder term. But in the hands of Edward Hyde, they soon began to turn toward the monstrous. When I would come back from these excursions, I was often plunged into a kind of wonder at my vicarious depravity. This familiar that I called out of my own soul, and sent forth alone to do his good pleasure, was a being inherently malign and villainous; his every act and thought centered on self; drinking pleasure with bestial avidity from any degree of torture to another; relentless like a man of stone. Henry Jekyll stood at times aghast before the acts of Edward Hyde; but the situation was apart from ordinary laws, and insidiously relaxed the grasp of conscience. It was Hyde, after all, and Hyde alone, that was guilty. Jekyll was no worse; he woke again to his good qualities seemingly unimpaired; he would even make haste, where it was possible, to undo the evil done by Hyde. And thus his conscience slumbered.”

Something all book readers will be familiar with is that Jekyll’s narration uses “I” when writing about most of Hyde’s actions, while also mentioning both Henry Jekyll and Hyde on third person. Jekyll tries to dissociate himself from his crimes this way.

But... Whether also done by Jekyll to still reflect guilt from himself or not, the text also refers to Hyde as having a nature of his own, albeit one irreversably connected to Henry Jekyll’s own hidden desires.

“Between these two, I now felt I had to choose. My two natures had memory in common, but all other faculties were most unequally shared between them. Jekyll (who was composite) now with the most sensitive apprehensions, now with a greedy gusto, projected and shared in the pleasures and adventures of Hyde; but Hyde was indifferent to Jekyll, or but remembered him as the mountain bandit remembers the cavern in which he conceals himself from pursuit. Jekyll had more than a father’s interest; Hyde had more than a son’s indifference. To cast in my lot with Jekyll, was to die to those appetites which I had long secretly indulged and had of late begun to pamper. To cast it in with Hyde, was to die to a thousand interests and aspirations, and to become, at a blow and forever, despised and friendless. The bargain might appear unequal; but there was still another consideration in the scales; for while Jekyll would suffer smartingly in the fires of abstinence, Hyde would be not even conscious of all that he had lost. Strange as my circumstances were, the terms of this debate are as old and commonplace as man; much the same inducements and alarms cast the die for any tempted and trembling sinner; and it fell out with me, as it falls with so vast a majority of my fellows, that I chose the better part and was found wanting in the strength to keep to it.”

There’s a clear divide here, with Jekyll and Hyde having something of a different outlook on life, something that outright doesn’t make sense if we are to consider Edward Hyde as just Jekyll’s alias. 

Something to note here is that the divide between the two personas is not of a moral nature, but something much more mundane and selfish: To Henry Jekyll, his social status is everything, and his main drive to keep transforming into Hyde again and again is to enjoy a life of sin without repercussions. To Hyde, said social status can go to hell for all he cares, but still keeps the ruse because his concealment is ultimately necessary for his continued existence, something that the narration will go back to later.

After this point of the book, which is when Jekyll goes to sleep and wakes up transformed on his other body the next morning, the doctor becomes scared and goes cold turkey for two months, having decided to stop being Hyde forever and return to a normal life. It doesn’t lastlonger than that: Hyde returns not because he takes control, but because Jekyll turns himself into Hyde on purpose once again, by his own free will.

“I do not suppose that, when a drunkard reasons with himself upon his vice, he is once out of five hundred times affected by the dangers that he runs through his brutish, physical insensibility; neither had I, long as I had considered my position, made enough allowance for the complete moral insensibility and insensate readiness to evil, which were the leading characters of Edward Hyde. Yet it was by these that I was punished. My devil had been long caged, he came out roaring. I was conscious, even when I took the draught, of a more unbridled, a more furious propensity to ill. It must have been this, I suppose, that stirred in my soul that tempest of impatience with which I listened to the civilities of my unhappy victim; I declare, at least, before God, no man morally sane could have been guilty of that crime upon so pitiful a provocation; and that I struck in no more reasonable spirit than that in which a sick child may break a plaything. But I had voluntarily stripped myself of all those balancing instincts by which even the worst of us continues to walk with some degree of steadiness among temptations; and in my case, to be tempted, however slightly, was to fall.“

Something fun to note here: Jekyll describes Hyde, and/or himself when he’s Hyde, as being comparable to a child. First by merely noting that Hyde’s body is younger than Jekyll’s, then by comparing him to a “son” and Jekyll as the ��father”, and now comparing the murder of Danvers Carew to a child breaking a toy. 

Speaking of the murder, Jekyll is 100% guilty of it: Even if Hyde was a completely different being with his own traits and goals, which he is not, Jekyll would still be responsable by virtue of willingly going through the transformation again like an idiot.

That being said, the text continues to give Hyde some semblance of personality:

“Hyde had a song upon his lips as he compounded the draught, and as he drank it, pledged the dead man. The pangs of transformation had not done tearing him, before Henry Jekyll, with streaming tears of gratitude and remorse, had fallen upon his knees and lifted his clasped hands to God. The veil of self-indulgence was rent from head to foot.“

From this point on, everything goes to hell: Henry Jekyll is relieved that now that Hyde is a wanted murderer, he now has no choice but to stay as Jekyll and leave that sinful double life of his finally behind (”Jekyll is the Good half” my ass!). But, surprise surprise! He starts to transform unwillingly, and now he needs to constantly drink the potion to stay as Jekyll. 

Fun fact: Do you remember which thoughts are the ones that trigger the first unwilling transformation after the murder?

“I sat in the sun on a bench; the animal within me licking the chops of memory; the spiritual side a little drowsed, promising subsequent penitence, but not yet moved to begin. After all, I reflected, I was like my neighbours; and then I smiled, comparing myself with other men, comparing my active good-will with the lazy cruelty of their neglect. And at the very moment of that vainglorious thought, a qualm came over me, a horrid nausea and the most deadly shuddering. These passed away, and left me faint; and then as in its turn faintness subsided, I began to be aware of a change in the temper of my thoughts, a greater boldness, a contempt of danger, a solution of the bonds of obligation. I looked down; my clothes hung formlessly on my shrunken limbs; the hand that lay on my knee was corded and hairy. I was once more Edward Hyde.“

The thought that he, too, was just like any other man. Something that his Hyde half knows as a fact, but that Henry “I’m superior than all these lazy peasants around me because I’m rich... I mean, because I have active good-will” Jekyll considers undignified, and therefore, cruel or evil. O Sweet, sweet Victorian hypocresy.

And it is from here on out that the narration acknowledges Edward Hyde as being his own character somewhat, somehow, at least as part of Jekyll’s conciousness.

After the transformation and the visit to Lanyon:

“My reason wavered, but it did not fail me utterly. I have more than once observed that in my second character, my faculties seemed sharpened to a point and my spirits more tensely elastic; thus it came about that, where Jekyll perhaps might have succumbed, Hyde rose to the importance of the moment.”

“Then I remembered that of my original character, one part remained to me: I could write my own hand; and once I had conceived that kindling spark, the way that I must follow became lighted up from end to end.“

“He, I say—I cannot say, I. That child of Hell had nothing human; nothing lived in him but fear and hatred.“ 

“When I came to myself at Lanyon’s, the horror of my old friend perhaps affected me somewhat: I do not know; it was at least but a drop in the sea to the abhorrence with which I looked back upon these hours. A change had come over me. It was no longer the fear of the gallows, it was the horror of being Hyde that racked me.“

It’s curious how Jekyll’s narration uses “I” when looking back at Carew’s murder, and yet it is just from here on out that he’s oh so repulsed by Hyde than he uses He/Him pronouns for him. 

And, most of all, when he has locked himself up:

“The powers of Hyde seemed to have grown with the sickliness of Jekyll. And certainly the hate that now divided them was equal on each side. With Jekyll, it was a thing of vital instinct. He had now seen the full deformity of that creature that shared with him some of the phenomena of consciousness, and was co-heir with him to death: and beyond these links of community, which in themselves made the most poignant part of his distress, he thought of Hyde, for all his energy of life, as of something not only hellish but inorganic. This was the shocking thing; that the slime of the pit seemed to utter cries and voices; that the amorphous dust gesticulated and sinned; that what was dead, and had no shape, should usurp the offices of life. And this again, that that insurgent horror was knit to him closer than a wife, closer than an eye; lay caged in his flesh, where he heard it mutter and felt it struggle to be born; and at every hour of weakness, and in the confidence of slumber, prevailed against him, and deposed him out of life. The hatred of Hyde for Jekyll was of a different order. His terror of the gallows drove him continually to commit temporary suicide, and return to his subordinate station of a part instead of a person; but he loathed the necessity, he loathed the despondency into which Jekyll was now fallen, and he resented the dislike with which he was himself regarded.”

And what immediately follows is my favorite part of the book:

“Hence the ape-like tricks that he would play me, scrawling in my own hand blasphemies on the pages of my books, burning the letters and destroying the portrait of my father; and indeed, had it not been for his fear of death, he would long ago have ruined himself in order to involve me in the ruin. But his love of life is wonderful; I go further: I, who sicken and freeze at the mere thought of him, when I recall the abjection and passion of this attachment, and when I know how he fears my power to cut him off by suicide, I find it in my heart to pity him.”

This petty behavior of supposedly destroying and vandalizing Jekyll’s stuff to spite him is mentioned yet again just a few sentences later,along with the following line:

“This, then, is the last time, short of a miracle, that Henry Jekyll can think his own thoughts or see his own face (now how sadly altered!) in the glass. Nor must I delay too long to bring my writing to an end; for if my narrative has hitherto escaped destruction, it has been by a combination of great prudence and great good luck. Should the throes of change take me in the act of writing it, Hyde will tear it in pieces; but if some time shall have elapsed after I have laid it by, his wonderful selfishness and circumscription to the moment will probably save it once again from the action of his ape-like spite.“

This assertion from Jekyll that, as far as he’s concerned, he will be already dead when he transforms for the last time, is what closes the book:

“And indeed the doom that is closing on us both has already changed and crushed him. Half an hour from now, when I shall again and forever reindue that hated personality, I know how I shall sit shuddering and weeping in my chair, or continue, with the most strained and fearstruck ecstasy of listening, to pace up and down this room (my last earthly refuge) and give ear to every sound of menace. Will Hyde die upon the scaffold? or will he find courage to release himself at the last moment? God knows; I am careless; this is my true hour of death, and what is to follow concerns another than myself. Here then, as I lay down the pen and proceed to seal up my confession, I bring the life of that unhappy Henry Jekyll to an end.“

If taken at face value, these lines actually paint Edward Hyde as being somewhat able to think his own thoughts and do his own actions, while still just being the childish, “ape-like” part of Henry Jekyll’s mind. Emphasis on childish, not evil, the evilness is all on Henry. Edward Hyde is still nothing but Henry Jekyll’s psychological scapegoat, and the one that Jekyll technically leaves behind to deal with the mess he himself created by “dying”.

I’m not trying to get more people to interpret the book this way nor am I saying that the ”Hyde is not real and Jekyll is a lying bitch” take is actually wrong, because it is not. I’m just pointing out the book could actually be interpreted differently by different readers, and they’d still have sentences in the book to back their interpretation on.

Now, if we could all stop hating and throwing shade on every content creator out there who “got the book wrong”, that’d be peachy. 

[idreamtofmanderleyagain]

princess-nazario:

It's ok, thanks for clearing things up. See, everytime theres a post that might just be different the tumblr-fad! Version you speak or questions how tumblr might be romanticizing them theres always annoying people in the replies saying that theres a version where she wanders down the underworld herself, or that the version where shes kidnapped is...weak or a damsel in distress since it doesnt fit into tumblrs made idea of empowerment?? Its so annoying honestly. I saw this kind of stuff in a lot of posts while exploring the greek myth tag and its just... infuriating. I definitely should ignore them but it seriously makes me kind of sad and angry at the same time? The hades and persephone posts are everything(mostly tumblr-fad!) Version I reread your original post and yes I do agree, tumblr-fad! Persephone does take away a lot of the complexities and archetypes I read you examine. I think Hadestown might portray Hades and Persephone's power struggle well, it doesnt completely ignore the implications its giving off for the sake of some romance. This is what tumblr is doing and it's really annoying. By doing this and reducing the characters here to simple boxes it's taking away your interest in the myth, I think that's what you meant? I think your study of Hades/the underworld being Persephones self, cthonic meaning "spirit of nature within, inner self" while I dont fully understand that's really cool. I especially dislike how woobified and depowered he usually is in the tumblr-fad! Theres a lot you can work with him as the antagonist in a retelling I think. In fact maybe itd be great to have a retelling that explores the power struggle between Hades and Persephone and shows how Persephone gets through adversity and becomes of equal power through oppressive authority? Thatd be really cool. Tumblr-fad! Version is the twilight of myths but kind of the opposite. In twilight, the author itself romanticizes the creepiness and power struggle that might be there between Edward itself(although Bella does have a lot of agency so I think that's why it resonated so much with female readers?) while the Persephone has a various amount of versions, most versions being she was kidnapped/abduction with many meanings and metaphors and allegories to things, and tumblr-fad! Version ignores nuance in favor of their ships. Thanks for being so open and honest about this, I honestly was stressed because I thought my response maybe being immature or uninformed might be irritating or annoying. I haven't been sneaking through your blog or anything like that, I just saw your original post in the goddess demeter tag so I searched up "Persephone" on your stuff since I was curious with what else you might have to say about it. I wish Tumblr could maybe bother to learn something called not everything is entirely not THIS thing or the OTHER and maybe do something different from what Hades and Persephone coming to be known as the peak of all love stories on the website.

@princess-nazario I hope you don’t mind, I copy pasted your last reblog into a new post thread because the last one was getting massive.

I think I’m starting to understand what you’re getting at regarding the perception of victims as “weak,” and it makes a lot of sense. Thank you for clarifying regarding the “damsel in distress” trope because that’s when it clicked for me what you were talking about. I actually agree on that point, I think there is a tendency for pop feminism to kind of portray more vulnerable, sensitive or fragile women as less feminist, so I can see how you’re applying that to your views on how people on tumblr perceive the story of Hades and Persephone.

That said, I think you have a lot of different angles you’re looking at this whole thing from, and that’s great! However I think there’s so many subjects you are trying to tackle here that it seems like you are kind of are only half informed about, maybe from exploring discussions online. I think this is resulting in conclusions that are kind of confused and lacking in more solid foundations, if that makes sense. I think maybe you might benefit from exploring each element further on their own merits.

For example, did you know that there are a lot of different feminist viewpoints on Twilight itself? And not all feminists completely condemn it? In my opinion, there are a lot of things about Twilight to criticize, however there was a distinct element of hatred for the interests and desires of teenage girls involved with how people responded en masse to the Twilight phenomenon. I don’t think you were old enough to be directly familiar with all this at the time. I think a decent primer would be this video from Lindsay Ellis (tho please keep in mind that some of her most recent content is not for younger audiences). It doesn’t cover all angles of the topic, but it does give an alternative perspective in retrospect about the raging Twilight hate that swept through pop culture for a long time:

Also, there is a whole conversation to be had about the concept of “woobification,” and why that word exists, as well as how it is used in conversations about girls and women’s fantasies. The original post I made shows that I have my own frustrations when male villains and darker archetypes are whittled down to something seemingly non-threatening and “socially acceptable” myself (like...turning the beast into the prince in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast), but in my experience, people have often used the word “woobie” to describe any explorations of the vulnerability of these types of male characters when women do so because they find those men intriguing or attractive, and that can get kind of tricky because in many ways, those conversations can harbor a subtle resentment and shaming towards female fantasties, period.

I’m getting the impression that maybe there’s something about Hades and Persephone, or at least the archetypes they embody, that really intrigues you, but you’re not sure what you are supposed to think and feel about it from a feminist perspective. That’s ok, ultimately you’ll figure it out on your own. I can’t tell you what to think about the myths themselves on their own, separate from contemporary feminist media because that’s ultimately it’s own thing, and you can springboard your own perspectives and reimagining off of the original in any way that feels right to you.

 What I can do though, is leave you with some age-apropriate content that I was consuming at your age, as well as a link to a site that explores stories with similar archetypes that Persephone embodies. 

The site is called Girls Underground, and it explores and catalogues stories about girls who go on heroine’s journeys in the��“Cthonic” context like I was talking about, as in exploring their own inner psyches through the experience of traversing a strange, scary, magical place. Sometimes these stories involve the trope of a spooky attractive male character who takes on an adversarial role that is sometimes also romantically charged, but not all of them do. I think the resources page may be of particular interest to you because it links to essays on subjects within this genre of storytelling. The Examples page has a ton of other stories not listed here that you can take a look at, however not all of them (but many of them!) are kid friendly.

Movies that I would recommend: 

Labyrinth (1986), which was my favorite film since early childhood, and is the reason I love these types of stories to begin with.

Legend(1985), which doesn’t depict a healthy dynamic, but is a great film and does have a big place in the general conversation about this type of storytelling.

Howl’s Moving Castle, either the book or the film. 

Pan’s Labyrinth is rated R for some gore and violence, and it has scary moments, but I think it’s fine for most teens. The character of Pan is not part of that whole “demon lover” trope because the heroine is a small child, but he takes on a similar role in terms of being a figure that embodies the underworld and thus a major part of the heroine’s psyche.

Honestly, I would consider Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (the original, not the live action remake) a good rendition. It was written by a woman.

Jean Cocteau’s black and white La Belle et La Bete.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, or a film adaptation of the same.

Rebecca by Daphne DuMarier, which is what my username is from. I’m fond of the Hitchcock film adaptation.

Honestly, the 2004 adaptation of Phantom of the Opera is...flawed, but it was my introduction to Phantom, and it’s a lot of melodramatic fun. 

It’s worth noting that in a lot of these stories, there are not perfect, healthy relationships depicted between men and women. There is cruelty, there is harm. But in many cases, that does not mean these stories have nothing to say about relationships between men and women, nor does it say that they are solely tales about abuse and we cannot find romanticism within them. Each story has it’s own flaws, it’s own strengths, hold deeper meanings beyond the surface. They contribute something distinct to a rich history of artistic explorations of the dynamics of power in romance and the female experience with our own desires within a patriarchal society.

[witchofapollo]

Current Witchblr Controversies Report

Going down the witchblr tag is something that I do pretty often to keep my queue going and also to give attention to some lesser known witchblr blogs. It has become more and more often that I am seeing a lot of discourse (often seeing all different sides). There is nothing wrong with that. You have a right to share your opinion (tho you are not exempt from being judged for that opinion). I tend not to reblog discourse posts that has a subject that I am not fully educated on.

Here are the current Witchblr discourse trends as of 08/24/2019:

Blogs dedicated to spying in witchy discords and taking screenshots of “cringy witchy behaviors” for their blog

The effectiveness of doing spells/sigils/etc for the Amazon fires

Whether or not using honey is ethical 

The effectiveness of substituting items in spells that were created by someone else. 

Different interpretations of hellenism and kemeticism and which one is the “right” one

Twin Flames and how they work, what they are, how to find yours, and if a twin flame can be abusive or not. 

Elitism in witchcraft

Previous Witchblr discourse that has mostly calmed down:

The girl who got arrested for using bones that rises to the top of soil in graveyards after a storm without permission from any of the families and without knowing whose bones they are 

Sixpencee (this was pretty much a wide-spread tumblr controversy, but they posted a lot of stuff that fit the witchblr aesthetic and witchblr blogs reblogged from them

Whether or not witches had to be vegan to be a true witch

Wicca vs. Witchcraft

Whether or not it is possible to be a Christian witch

Incorporating practices into their craft from closed religions or cultures

Wend*gos

The ethics of using human bones in practice, including those that were bought at oddity or antique stores. 

Also the girl who posted a pic of a child’s skull she just acquired

The same girl who made a necklace with a big toe being the charm on it (for a commission)

The same girl who asked for people to mail her any teeth that got pulled out (usually for something in return)

Whether witches could be male/NB/trans-feminine 

Vegan diets for carni/omnivores

Dragon/Demon/Fae kin

Free Spirit Companion adoption vs. paid Spirit Companion adoption

Having minors being mods or working for a spirit companion adoption service

People claiming they are gods

Dangers of using ouiji boards

Dangers of summoning demons

Worshiping or following a pantheon that is presented in a fictional  environment in pop culture

Whether or not your pet is your familiar

The chunk of Malachite that is in the shape of a dildo and whether or not it was safe to use it as such

Please note that this post has no indication of what sides I’m on. This is just an informational list. Any and all queries about a subject should be sent to my inbox. Also, I do NOT RECOMMEND putting your opinions of the subjects listed above on any reblog of this post to avoid a cycle of conflict on this post. However, feel absolutely free to share more Witchblr controversies that I might have missed. 

[thornbolts]

10/12 Occult Faire Purchases

For once, Remington Thornbolt wasn't a vendor, and she celebrated the prospect of visiting a market where she was just a nameless face, unshackled by infamy or even her undead nature.

These were the times Remington treasured, the normalcy. Meeting Realta and Sabanth here was a surprise, but far from an unwelcome one. The two had been traveling through Lordaeron, hoping to dip into Hillsbrad to Silverpine.

A good choice; Tirisfal Glades was nothing but a blighted wasteland. Even the dead could not survive. The Blight did not discriminate.

But when the two mentioned they’d be going down to Uther’s Tomb, something nagged at the forsaken’s conscience: Andorhal. The city wasn’t far. Remington offered a black glass rose to Realta, a selfish request to lay the piece at the town square in respect of May. 

Gregory nor Remington ever gave her a proper burial. Andorhal was ground zero during the Plague and a war zone for Scourge, Alliance, and Horde for so many years. For all the resilience and thick skin the hunter had attained throughout the years, facing the place where she had lost everything was too much.

Purchases:

Kul Tiran Hydromancy Purification Oil (for Leontine Lowtide)

The secrets of Kul Tiran tidesage hydromancy are locked near-exclusively behind their cultural gates.

Since their inclusion into the fold of the Alliance, attempts have been made to secure the method by which these hardy oceanic people use pools of purified water to view the past, present, and future with little to no effort - or connection to the leylines.

One method explained poorly by a drunken acolyte - plied by many, many rounds - was that tidesages bless a pool of water, and then add drops of oil from the processing of a very rare fish into that pool; this would create an oil-slicked surface that granted the tidesage commune with the past, present or future.

This oil has been procured by that source, and those familiar with the practice may be relieved or angered to find a source of considerable holy oil away from Boralus, or their homeland.

"Leo,

I know how bad you miss your home. This oil caught my eye when I first saw it. I ain't know much about ttidesages, but this seems like a little piece of home you can treasure.

Keep your chin up.

-Rem."

---

Hyldnir Rune-painted Bones (for Remington Thornbolt)

A bag of mostly intact bones recovered from mass graves dug outside of vrykul settlement areas.

These are scattered remains of the Hyldnir - those that attempted to ascend by battle to the position of ruling Ulduar by the side of Thorim, due to the unfortunate death of his beloved Sif.

The unworthy frost vrykul Hyldnir that perish in these rounds of combat are buried in a mass grave, their caretakers indifferent to ensuring their spirits are honored by their body's proper internment. This left their bones exposed to the frigid cold and fleeting magic of Icecrown.

These bones have been collected by those who would desecrate them for turning down allegiance to the Lich King; inscribed with runes for empowerment, they can instead be cast as reading bones for divination.

Ever since she studied under Alton, the elderly Thornspeaker who Remington once nursed back to health in return for shelter, bone reading had become a hobby for the undead.

Even Remington knew powerful bones once she saw them. And these bones were to be added to her existing set.

---

Imported Incense Bundle (for Pastor Floemarch and Loira Winford)

Several varieties of Pandaria’s most beloved and highly exported incense bundles. Crafted in the heights of Kun-Lai and packaged with a small wood plate upon which to rest the stick upright for clean, compact burning. Each stick is thickly applied with incense and has a base of a thick river reed, guaranteeing a long, slow burn time for optimal scent distribution.

These incense bundles come in four scents, and each bundle has ten sticks.

Dragon’s Blood, a cloying cinnamon scent with an undertone of rich amber and orange (for Pastor Floemarch) x10

Vibrant Garden, a scent of the Dream following a rainstorm; earthy and herbal. (for Loira Winford) x10

“Pastor Floemarch,

When you get the chance, I got a request to make of you. Ain’t nothing bad. Just holler when yer free.

Figured that you might enjoy this scent. It’s the least I could do for allowing us to shack up on the property.

Thank you for being the spiritual anchor for this little family we’ve all made together.

Embrace the shadow, pastor.

-Rem”

-

“Loira,

I got a suspicion I know what yer doin’. Yer bloody staff and singed robes ain’t exactly subtle. Keep it away from the caravan, and we’ll be solid. Anyone asks, I don’t know anything.  

You know I worry. Stay safe, you hear?

Remember: Patience. Discipline.

-Rem”

--

Protection Spell Kit x5 (for Billy Highman)

Are you a warrior with no Holy Shield? A loved one in danger? This spell will create a barrier around your friends or home to keep out unwanted enemies and spirits.

This kit contains: Protection Candle Vial of Heart Poultice Carved Moonstone Pouch of Dreamfoil Instruction Scroll

“Billy,

I know you try yer best when we get in the inevitable fight. I don’t know much about magic, but the instructions on these kits should provide some sort of protection if you do it right.

Remind me to help you with your aim later when you’re free. Just dawned on me we haven’t gone on a bonafide adventure ever since you first joined the caravan.

-Rem”

--

Dispel Spell Kit x5 (for Ryeolan Quillsong)

Has someone cast dark magic on you, did you accidentally turn your wife into an Artichoke? This kit will help you undo your mistakes and counter that curse!

This kit contains: Vanilla Bean Candle Draenic Ink Diamond Chips Bag of Prayer Beads. Instruction Scroll

“Ry,

I’ll admit it: I laughed my ass off when I saw the pair of eyes I assume you drew on the back of pops’ head. I got you a little something-something. Ain’t too learned in magic, but these should help if you ever get in over your head. 

They’re dispel kits. If something goes real bad, just use these instructions to reverse it.

You help brighten up the caravan, and I’m always grateful for it. Keep at it.

-Rem”

--

Purple Glitter Bullets? (for Remington Thornbolt from Realta & Sabanth)

A small box of bullets specialized for long distance rifles. When they hit a target, aside from the damage they also explode in a fine glittering powder which comes in a color determined by the box which is both safe to eat and also stays on for at least 6 hours before washing. 

Whether you are claiming your prize in a hunt, trying to make sure you can find a trespasser you managed to clip, or just want to add that extra bit of play to your gun-play these bullets are the Cogs Crank!"

The undead was definitely caught off-guard as this strange ammunition found its way into her palms by the two nightborne. While these probably weren’t as lethal as actual ammunition, the hunter reckoned she could use these as tagging rounds to mark whatever encroaches on the Respite--And also as a prank to shoot someone in the ass with.

--

Locket of Mother’s Love x2 (for Gregory Thornbolt & Remington Thornbolt)

These lockets are a simple gold brass, polished and opening to two empty photo frames. If placed to the heart when thinking of fond memories of one’s mother, the locket will emblazon its insides with two pictures of your mother - even if none are in existence. 50 silver.

The ability to cry was long gone, but sadness was ever present when Remington thought of her mother. May Thornbolt was the first to pass from the Plague of Undeath.

The forsaken had nothing of her mother save for the gambler’s hat which was always present on her head.

As Remington pressed the locket over the cavity of where her heart would be, the locket shimmered with two pictures:

A photograph of May Thornbolt leading a young Remington by the hand through the forests and another of the priestess smiling, cheek pressed against her daughter’s.

The Fence Macabre would now see the forsaken always wearing the locket.

(Mentions: @hinahinagray, @ms-winford, @glitchphil, @lynaeclarke)

[rwt-mystic-corner]

~*Pagan Meme*~

Tagged (via proximity and desire to do it) by @stormwaterwitch​! And I tag: Anyone who sees this (as long as they’re okay with tags)!

Do you have a magical/Pagan name?

I do, but I prefer not to publicize it. The “RWT” in my url is the abbreviation, though!

How did you find Paganism?

It was less of a defined epiphany, and more of a gradual realization that led to a transition. I’ve always thought trees and wind and thunderstorms had “power”, and I always delighted in FEELING it!  But I didn’t appreciate that power reverently, in a dedicated worship fashion, until I was about 14, and started reading about Wicca. 

From the first book I picked up (”Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner” by Scott Cunningham), everything just felt right, and the exercises came naturally to me. I never understood why “pagan” was an insult, and I always secretly believed there was more than one God or force of nonphysical power in the universe, despite being raised Christian. I met with them, communed with them, prayed to them, asked them for guidance... All that book really gave me was a name, and the gateway to an identity I now proudly embrace. (And, well, more structure and definition for what I was feeling, and ways to more directly consult and praise them.)

How long have you been practicing?

Witchcraft: I learned that little “wishes” sent out to the world had an impact at a very young age. It was an intrinsic part of my worldview, even at age 8! So without knowing I was working magic, I’d been practicing it my entire life. Pagan-dedicated worship, though? 12 years. Same time for dedicated, focused actual witchcraft.

Are you out of the broom closet?

To most people, yes. I came out as pagan to some of my co-workers within like two months of knowing them. 8F (Though I don’t openly chat about actually practicing witchcraft unless I’m prompted, because I’m not a fan of attempted evangelism.)

Solitary or group practitioner?

Solitary, though I occasionally join forces with friends and spirits.

What is your path?

I call it eclectic paganism, wherein I’m definitely pagan, but I’ve gleaned elements of truth from Buddhism and Daoism as well. As for my path in witchcraft, I call it more of a “mystical” practice, because I’m all about understanding divine mysteries, harnessing forces in the universe, and introspection as a study of microcosm. “Witchcraft” generally indicates a lot more use of physical tools, words, and rituals than I’ve ever used. (At least, not since I was about 16.) 

D E I T Y

What’s your brand of deism?

Oh boy, this one’s fun. Technically speaking, I’m an agnostic theist. I believe there is definitely something out there, but I also believe it’s impossible for humans to understand and truly comprehend exactly what that divine power is. Hence, “agnostic” (”not knowing”) “theist” (believes in godlike power). The pantheon I’ve connected most to is the old Finnish crew.

Who is your patron God/ess?

Matrons Mielikki and, well, the second is a bit of a close-kept secret. ;}P (While she’s not nearly well enough known to be considered “pop culture”, she’s been a very powerful force in my life since inducting me as a follower.)

What Gods do you worship?

Regularly? None of them, oops;; But mostly the two aforementioned. I’ve also felt a connection to Hestia, , and a weird connection to the Egyptian pantheon that definitely was Not worshippy, probably mostly from a past life? (But I was so irreverent in that life, it would probably be an insult to worship them now, ehheh;;)

Do you fear darkly aspected Gods/Goddesses, or rather respect them?

They’re practically my guardian angels. (I’m a shadow witch; their domain is my source of power! My spirit guide is a creature of the darkness!) I deeply respect, and in moments revere them, though I don’t really worship any by name.

Do you worship the Christian God?

I didn’t even “get” him when I was taken to church every Sunday. Or when I spent a week at Missionettes camp. Or when I could feel every single other person in that big room being spiritually elevated, and it felt so positive, and yet, I couldn’t feel what they were connecting to. He has never made himself known to me, so I couldn’t if I tried.

Do you worship animals? Or plants?

I revere and respect their power, and I appreciate the messages they may carry from my matrons and local spirits. So in a sense, yes?

N A T U R E

Do you regularly commune with nature?

Not as often as I’d like to... but when I’m at work with the dogs outside, and the sky is clouded over with a strong, consistent breeze: I do reach out to the forest behind my workplace and gaze off into the sky.

Taken a camping trip just to talk to nature?

I wish! I’ve never really been alone on a camping trip. Someday I absolutely will, though~ (Even though the forest Mielikki connected to me is at a local metropark with no campgrounds, and no other forest has ever “opened its heart” to me that way... it’s still a powerful feeling.)

Describe the moment you felt closest to Mother Earth?

...It’s hard to pick just one, honestly. It must be moments in which I’ve talked to the trees, or sat in the river just to feel the ground beneath me, the water around me, to breathe and get lost in it until I became a part of it...

Do you have a familiar?

I might. I haven’t exactly been working with him lately, but my chinchilla Dusty came to me in a magical way. I dreamed about holding an off-white chinchilla with a singular spot. And then went into work the next day, and saw him there. A tiny white chinchilla, with one little gray spot, just like in my dream. I resisted, initially; I was still healing from the loss of my first chinchilla, and didn’t quite trust myself? But he stayed in that cage for awhile, maybe a month, and as I took care of them, he gradually started coming closer and closer, losing his nerves, growing braver, growing closer... and then grooming me! We bonded, but he would still avoid everyone else in the store. Then one day, as I was debating whether it would be the right time to take him home, I heard the lyrics played on the radio: “Dreams do come true, from out of the blue”. So I took it as a sign, and now? He’s so very highly attuned to my moods. He gets excited when I’m excited, even if I’m just sitting there smiling at my computer screen. He runs to hide when I’m feeling frightened. He sits at the cage door and watches me when I’m getting lost in contemplation, and he seems to “join me” in peaceful meditation, and will curl up and sleep. He followed me around my room when I was setting high-powered defensive wards around it in the apartment, and if I lowkey enchant his veggies, he’ll always go for the one I was holding first.

I haven’t figured out how to incorporate a chinchilla into meditations or spellwork yet... (buuut it’s hard to rework something you’re not really doing lately, yikes.)

Have you ever called upon the powers of an animal in ritual? Or a plant?

Plants, definitely-- just today, I stirred a little ginger into my soup (to help with my perpetual stomach trouble), and worked a little magic to pull out all its healing properties I could. During meditation, I often have animal guides coming to aid me, or direct me, or watch over me, or just stop by to see what I’m doing. And of course, there was my old familiar, a tangerine ring-neck dove named Fizzy, who used to sit with me in meditation, watch over me in rituals and lend his flight to my prayers and spells, and I used his feathers in travel and creativity spells. 

Do you hug trees?

Not traditionally. I do lean against them when communing, though.

Give them gifts?

Ooh, no, but that’s a good idea. (I have adopted other gifted plants that others didn’t want, though.)

What are your favorite plants to work with?

Ooh, that’s tricky! Peppermint, maybe? Meadowsweet and heal-all remind me of a very dear witchy friend. Sandalwood usually has great results for me, but incense tends to dilute them... Probably pine above all, actually! It’s special to Mielikki, it smells wonderful, the trees are resilient and never mind giving a few needles or boughs, and the softer, enduring energy blends really well with my gentle persevering nature.

What are your favorite trees to work with?

See above. c: Closely followed by willow and hawthorn.~

What is your favorite holiday?

Definitely Samhain/Halloween!

What is your least favorite holiday?

Beltane, Litha, and to a degree, Lammas. I can’t do the ~summer energy~ thing, it makes me feel like I’m burning up and overstimulated. Moonlight rituals aren’t as bad, but I still tend to pass out in the heat, so, you know... Very Hard to Get Witchy when you’re seeing spots and your head is swimming. (The energy overstimulation doesn’t hit me as hard as it used to, not on the front end, but I don’t have as much time to dedicate to meditation and cleansing anymore, so it builds up more quickly anyways.)

Have you ever held a ritual on a holiday?

Quite often! Well, assuming Esbats count. I used to do mini-rituals for every single Wiccan holiday that I wasn’t doing a full-blown prayer/meditation session for. But that only lasted a year or two, because the story behind them didn’t really connect with me anymore.

Ever taken a day off work to celebrate a Pagan holiday?

I did, one Samhain when I had requested off and my boss just forgot. I opened up about it, as long as he promised not to laugh, and told him it’s a spiritual day for me, and he gave me the day off. Nowadays I at least request Samhain off when I can afford to, but lately my finances don’t really allow me that luxury. lP

Do you celebrate Yule on the 21st rather than the 25th?

You know, sometimes it’s the 20th and sometimes it’s the 22nd, but yes~ Back when I was 16ish, I would wake up on the morning of the solstice and watch the sun rise, to feel out the new year and perform a ritual of “planting seeds” for the coming year... hmm. Considering all the big life goals I’ve been setting lately, maybe I should get back into that routine....

[oldfaerieofwinds]

Witchblr Tag!

I was tagged by @glitchingwolf! Thanks, these are always fun!

1. What were the first items on your first altar? A resin dragon statue and some glowsticks because I didn't have candles at the time lol

2. What is something that you always incorporate into your daily routine as a result of your craft? I don't have a daily routine because I don't really get much time to myself. One of my kids usually come calling if i'm gone from their routine for more than 2 minutes lol

3. What song always helps get you into the right atmosphere? If you don’t have one, name your favorite song! Panic! At the Disco is my go to a lit of the time lol

4. What does your grimoire look like? Bonus points for pics! I’d love to see them!! I don't have a physical one but I've been thinking about making one

5. Name a deity, spirit, familiar, or god(dess) that you work with the most? Why do you work with them so often? I'm a pop culture witch so I work with Hylia from the legend of zelda series, but I also work with my dragon companion K. K has been around since the start of my witchcraft journey and for whatever reason he decided he liked me even though our first meeting was... interesting lol

6. Do you dress a certain way because of your craft/beliefs? Nope

7. Does your family or friends know about why you have so many plants, crystals, and glass jars? Not all of them, i'm only semi open about my practice

8.Top five things on your shopping list because of your craft? Tea, candy, fruit, chocolate, and fruit juice

9. Something that about your craft/religion that makes life a bit harder because of it?

Umm, well finding space for it I guess. Like physical space for things lol. Also food isn't actually allowed where my altar is, so I usually have to sneak it. And like, the fact that I work with a "fictional" deity can make it hard to relate to other witches and would make me sound even kookier outside of witchblr lol

Tag five witchy tumblrs you love!

Umm, I will tag @stormwaterwitch @darkfyretheumbrawitch @satsekhem @gerudo-witch and @ocarinawitch!

[sofreakinmanyfandoms]

November 10 - I Wish...

And today we have a two-fer! Besides being part of my NaNo project, it’s also for the wonderful @buckysforeverprincess‘s Into the Nightmare 2k Challenge! Congrats lovely, and I hope you like it! It’s my first Loki fic, so feedback would be wonderful.

Word count: 1713

Warnings: Mentions of death at the beginning. Cheesy pun that references sex at the end. (NO SMUT)

Pairing: Jinn!Loki X Reader

Prompt: “I promise, I’ll make all your wishes come true.”

Beware! A jinn can make you wish your heart out; be careful what you say unconditionally.

You stared at nothing as the men lowered the coffin into the ground. Your brother, the last family you’d had in the world, was gone.

To put it mildly, the last few years were… rough. Five years ago, your dad had been killed in a car accident. Two years ago your mom had lost her almost decade-long fight with cancer. Now, two weeks before your birthday, you were laying to rest your brother, dead from a drug overdose at far too young an age.

Feeling anything other than numb seemed impossible, so when the service was over you set off on foot towards your apartment in the hope that you’d at least be able to feel exhausted when you made it back. The city felt wrong, off-balance; people were going on with their lives while yours had fallen down around you. There was no way the two weeks of bereavement leave your job allowed would be enough time to recover. Even combining it with your personal leave, you would have barely over a month before people would be expecting things from you, things you weren’t sure you would ever be able to do again. Things like function like a human.

The first snow of the year started to fall as you reached the park. All around there were people laughing, children looking up in wonder and catching snowflakes on their tongues, but all you felt was… cold. You felt cold, and numb, and ready for everything to be over.

It was suddenly all too much, and you stumbled over to the nearest bench and collapsed, pulling your jacket tighter around your shoulders and letting the shivering take over your body. There was no reason to pretend to be strong anymore. Everyone you loved was gone. You let your head fall back, mind racing yet finding nothing you could focus on; you didn’t even realize you where whispering until it slipped out.

“I wish…”

“I’d be careful how I finished that sentence if I were you.”

The man suddenly appeared by your side, startling you enough that you almost fell off the bench. As it was, you ended up sitting sideways, arms splayed out and gripping the back and seat on either side of you. You took in his appearance: tall and thin with long, dark hair, wearing a black overcoat and a green scarf. His eyes were dark and locked on you, sending a chill down your spine that had nothing to do with the weather.

“Who are you?”

His lips curled into a cold smile that made you want to run, yet you couldn’t seem to move.

“Now isn’t that such a human question to ask. Always ‘Who are you?’ and never ‘What are you?’, which is honestly the more interesting question.” He leaned back against the bench, moving his arm to rest along the back so his hand almost brushed your white knuckles. “Fortunately for you, I’ve been around long enough to not care about making you work for the answers to both and am graciously willing to just provide them. My name is Loki, and I am a jinn.”

Your mind scrambled at the familiar word, your mouth engaging to help it process the strange information.

“A jinn… so, you’re saying that you’re a supernatural creature? One that can take human or animal form?”

“Well recalled,” Loki said, looking pleased at your knowledge. “I am indeed a spirit, and I can take whatever human or animal form I desire.” He ran a hand down the front of his coat, smoothing the lapel. “This form pleases me more than most, so it is the one I usually take, although I’ve been known to take others when it is to my advantage. It’s easier to get what I want from men if I appear as a woman. You, however,” dark eyes swept up and down your body, “seemed as though you would find this one acceptable.”

Acceptable, he says. Loki sits there with the name of a god and the body to match and tells you he thought you’d find his form acceptable. You couldn’t catch the snort of laughter before it escaped, and something behind his eyes lit up when he heard it.

“I see you find my race amusing,” he said, tipping his head and quirking up one side of his mouth. “I’ve had worse reactions, but I’ve also had better. More receptive, that is.”

“I’m sorry,” you shook your head, still trying to hold back giggles, “but you’re expecting me to believe that I’m sitting on a bench next to some mystical spirit from folklore and having a conversation with him. There’s really only so much my mind can handle, and I reached my limit some time ago.”

Loki didn’t seem affronted by your accusation; although you supposed if he started conversations this way very often he’s probably heard worse.

“Don’t blame me for this conversation,” he said, his tone slightly condescending. “You’re the one who stepped into the middle of a jinn’s home,” he swept his hand out to indicate the park, “and started making a wish. Not all jinn grant wishes, but I happen to find you human’s petty wants amusing, so here we are.”

“Look, you seem like a nice guy,” you lied as you stood, just ready to get the conversation over with and get back to your apartment so you could wallow in your grief in peace. “I’m just really not in the mood for conversation in general right now and this one’s a bit heavier than the average small talk that strangers have with one another in the park while it’s snowing, so I’m going to be on my way now. Goodbye.”

“Not so fast.” Loki grabbed your arm before you even realized he’d stood. “Let’s go somewhere more private, shall we?”

The world around you appeared to dissolve and you found yourself standing in the middle of your living room, Loki still holding on to your arm. You jerked away from him, eyes wide and heartbeat erratic.

“What the hell? What just happened? What did you do?”

“I took us somewhere more private,” the man – jinn – purred. “This is your apartment, is it not?”

Your voice dropped from its rather shrill scream to a harsh whisper. “Have you been stalking me?”

“Darling,” he rolled his eyes, “I don’t have to stalk you. I’m a jinn.” He spread his arms wide and smirked. “I just know things.”

You wanted to slap him, so you did.

“Ow.” He turned to study his jaw in the mirror you had over your mantle, running his fingers tenderly over the red hand-shaped welt that was already forming. “You have a surprising amount of strength for a human of your size. I’m almost impressed.”

“Get out of my house.” Your voice had gone flat and emotionless. This was definitely the worst and strangest day of your life, and you just wanted to curl up on your couch and watch old cartoons while eating the pint of ice cream that was currently in your freezer. The only thing keeping you from that was this, this jinn who had decided it was okay to interrupt your life and enter your apartment without permission. Wasn’t there a rule against this sort of thing?

“You’re thinking of vampires.”

“Stop reading my mind!” you shrieked, picking a pillow off your couch and throwing it at him. He caught it right before it could hit his face.

“All right, all right,” Loki said, dropping the pillow and putting his hands up in surrender. “No more reading of minds. But you’re obviously upset,” he held up a finger before you could cut in, “and you were even before I found you, so don’t pretend all your frustration is directed at me. Now, I’m offering you the standard pop-culture-approved three-wish pack. You get three wishes, fulfilled by yours truly, and I get a little bit of entertainment while helping out a poor soul in need. I promise, I’ll make all your wishes come true.”

“I don’t need your wishes. You’d twist my words anyway. Everyone knows that a wish fulfilled by a jinn comes with a price tag.”

Loki rolled his eyes at you. “Of course it does, darling. But could it really be worse than whatever you’re going through already?”

You took a moment to think about it. You had no family, almost no friends (coworkers don’t count), and before you reached the park were ready to just give up on life and sleep the rest of it away in your warm and moderately comfortable bed. Sure, there were plenty of things you wanted, but you also knew a bit about jinn, and you weren’t about to trust one.

“I’m good, thanks. You can go now. I don’t need help from an evil spirit.”

Loki approached you slowly, his eyes locked on yours.

“I prefer to think of myself as mischievous. And you see, darling, your lips are saying no,” he backed you against the wall and trapped you between his arms, “but your mind is screaming want. I don’t have to try to read it to feel the desire coming from you in waves.”

“Yeah, well, that’s what happens when you pick a form that’s practically sex on legs.”

Crap. You just said that out loud, didn’t you?

Loki’s pupils had blown wide, and he took a moment to run his eyes up and down your figure, reaching a hand out to slip your coat off your shoulders.

“New offer,” he leaned in and whispered in your ear, sending a shiver of something you didn’t care to identify down your spine. “You tell me what you want, anything, and I’ll see what I can do. As long as you don’t wish it, just tell me, it’s not a binding contract and you can back out if you don’t like what happens.”

Before you could even thing about it, you replied, “I don’t want to be alone.”

“Then you won’t be,” Loki told you, pulling you close. “You won’t be ever again.”

He did ended up screwing you – as part of the deal. You didn’t mind at all.

[truly-fantastic-me]

tagged by: no one

+ Basics:

- Do you have a magical/Pagan name? The closest I have to a “magical/pagan” name is the surname Haddock.

- How did you find Paganism? Toothless.

- How long have you been practicing? 5 years this year.

- Are you out of the broom closet? me? out of the broom closet?? in this shitty Christian-dominated society?? don’t make me laugh...

- Solitary or group practitioner? Solitary

- What is your path? pop culture paganism, spirit work, death, draconic, alien energies, with a vast ol’ mix of dragonkin, merfolkkin, vampirekin and fictionkin.

—-

+ Deity:

- What’s your brand of deism? hard ass polytheism.

- Who is your patron God? I have three. but I’m not sure if I call them patrons?? just.. my gods??

- Who is your patron Goddess? n/a

- What Gods do you worship? Death (aka Arkay “from” the elder scrolls), Fathurmor (aka Toothless “from” the HTTYD soon-to-be trilogy) and Jel, a creator god  that once ruled over the planet Mars (along with others)

- Do you fear darkly aspected Gods/Goddesses, or rather respect them? Depends on which one?? I haven’t met each one, and if I did, I’m fairly certain that I wouldn’t fear them in a “omg they’re bad i wish they didn’t exist” but rather fear them in a “holy shit they’re intimidating do not piss them off”

Other than that, all the respect in the world goes to them in my eyes. They work their asses off the maintain the balance too and they should get the same respect “lightly-aspected” deities would get.

- Do you worship the Christian God? Nope, sorry.

- Do you worship animals? Or plants? no, but my respect goes to them.

+ Nature:

my spirituality isn’t really earth-bound...

- Do you regularly commune with nature? uh.. not really?

- Taken a camping trip just to talk to nature? well tbf, nature is a really nice place to be in and its very refreshing on the mind. So if I had the money, I would, but.. no. I haven’t. and it would more likely just to enjoy nature.

- Describe the moment you felt closest to Mother Earth? uh.. the closest to Mother Earth I have is Jel, who is very much respectful of nature.

- Do you have a familiar? i.. don’t?

- Have you ever called upon the powers of an animal in ritual? no

- Or a plant? no

- Do you hug trees? uhh.. i think i’ve hugged a tree spirit, does that count?

- Give them gifts? no

- What are your favourite plants to work with? N/A

- What are your favourite trees to work with? N/A

—-

+ Wheel of the Year:

- What is your favourite holiday? uhh Halloween

- What is your least favourite holiday? labor day??? i apologize that my answers are so Christian-centric, but labor day just sounds capitalist to me.

i say this as i know literally nothing about labor day

if i’m really honest though, my least favorite holiday would likely be easter. for very personal reasons and not because of religious abuse

- Have you ever held a ritual on a holiday? uhh.. not really.

- Ever taken a day off work to celebrate a Pagan holiday? I’d love to be able to do that.. if I could work hahaha..

- Do you celebrate Yule on the 21st rather than the 25th? uhh, I say happy solstice, but that’s about it.

- Have you ever felt the veil thinning? I feel more spiritual energy when the veil is supposedly thinning.

- Ever danced the Maypole? uhh.. what’s that?

- Know what the Maypole symbolizes? i’m assuming its a sacred thing, so i’m not gonna say anything else in order to avoid disrespecting anyone.

- How do you usually celebrate the Pagan holidays? I.. just answered that question in all of the questions above..

like all of the questions above were literally just different forms of that question.

—-

+ Divination:

- Do you use Tarot? I want to.

- Do you use runes? I want to

- Do you use a pendulum? yeah, but mainly for energy work

- Do you use dowsing rods? No.

- Do you use astrology? uhh. not really? its an interesting practice, but, i’m not really that much into it.

- Any other forms of divination? uhh..

—-

+ Spells:

- What was the first spell you did? a forgiveness spell to allow myself to forgive someone who had hurt me. but tbf, I was kind of a douche to them too. like, incredibly ableist. ew. - What was the latest? just a devotional spell to my gods. - Ever done a love spell? no - A job spell? No

- A healing spell? I do healing energy manipulation sometimes? - What was the most powerful spell you’ve ever performed? probably the devotional work

- What deities do you usually call on? my gods??? what? do you honestly think i would call on gods that aren’t mine??? wtf no!

ok i’ve done that before quite a few times with Bastet and Hecate i’m so sorry.

—-

+ Cryptozoology:

- Do you believe in vampires? yep

- Werewolves? yep - Shapeshifters? yep - Elves? yep - Fairies? yep - Dragons? yep - Nymphs? yep - Sprites? yep - Mermaids? yep, but merfolk - Satyrs? yep

basically, everything exists somewhere.

- Ever “seen” any of the above? i think by “seen” you mean encountered, but yes.

- Ever used any of the above in magic?  what do you mean by used?? I dont’ believe in using spirits for your own gain. the magick i use are usually from me, and if not, then they’re from my gods in the form of devotion.

- Do you have one of them as a personal guardian? yeah, my gods. One of them is a dragon, another one of them is literally Death Himself, and the other is a literal extraterrestrial creator god. there’s a few other gods that aren’t necessarily my “patrons” but i still think of them as family.

—-

+ Random:

- Do you see a rabbit, a man or a woman in the moon? i see a night fury’s head tbh...

- Own a cat? no, but i wish i did.

- Do you work with chakras? i’m not hindu, so chakras aren’t really mine to work with??

- Do you believe in past lives? its only half my spirituality lol

- If so, describe a few briefly. uhh, lets see, being crucified, being burried alive, falling to my death, to name a few. i have more, but i can’t describe them as briefly as my deaths.

- Do you believe in soul mates? i do kinda. but like? its not in the way you think. its less romantic and more.. any kind of consensual relationship that two or more people feel connected enough to call eachother soulmates and that relationship can be platonic, queerplatonic, romantic, or sexual.

- Do you have a spirit guide? edit: uhh no and i prefer not to be culturally appropriative thank you very much

i apologize for changing the comment to this question. the previous answer wasn’t mine, but from someone that posted this meme before me. i know i should’ve when i did this meme.

- Is it always love and light? love and light? why should i have my paganism centered around only two aspects on the multiverse??? that’s so limited, dude. 

also, light =/= good and dark =/= bad.  anybody who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something.

tagging: whoever the fuck wants to do this

[godaddywebsitebuilder285]

Cross-Cultural Design

When I first traveledto Japan as an exchange student in 2001, I lived in northern Kyoto, a blockfrom the Kitayama subway station.

My first time using the train to get to my university was almost a disaster, even though it was only two subway stops away. I thought I had everything I needed to successfully make the trip. I double- and triple-checked that I had the correct change in one pocket and a computer printout of where I was supposed to go in the other. I was able to make it down into the station, but then I just stood at a ticket machine, dumbfounded, looking at all the flashing lights, buttons, and maps above my head (Fig 5.1). Everything was so impenetrable. I was overwhelmed by the architecture, the sounds, the signs, and the language.

Fig 5.1: Kyoto subway ticket machines—with many line maps and bilingual station names—can seem complicated, especially to newcomers.

My eyes cravedsomething familiar—and there it was. The ticket machine had a small button thatsaid English! Ipushed it but became even more lost: the instructions were poorly translated,and anyway, they explained a system that I couldn’t use in the first place.

Guess what saved me?Two little old Japanese ladies. As they bought tickets, I casually looked overtheir shoulders to see how they were using the machines. First, they looked up atthe map to find their desired destination. Then, they noted the fare written nextto the station. Finally, they put some money into the machine, pushed thebutton that lit up with their correct fare, and out popped the tickets! Wow! Itried it myself after they left. And after a few tense moments, I got my ticketand headed through the gates to the train platform.

I pride myself onbeing a third-culture kid, meaning I was raised in a cultureother than the country named on my passport. But even with a cultural upbringing in both Nigeriaand the US, it was one of the first times I ever had to guess my way through atask with no previous reference points. And I did it!

Unfortunately, the same guesswork happens online a million times a day. People visit sites that offer them no cultural mental models or visual framework to fall back on, and they end up stumbling through links and pages. Effective visual systems can help eliminate that guesswork and uncertainty by creating layered sets of cues in the design and interface. Let’s look at a few core parts of these design systems and tease out how we can make them more culturally responsive and multifaceted.

Typography

If you work on theweb, you deal with typography all the time. This isn’t a book about typography—othershave written far more eloquently and technically on the subject. What I wouldlike to do, however, is examine some of the ways culture and identityinfluence our perception of type and what typographic choices designers canmake to help create rich cross-cultural experiences.

Stereotypography

I came across the wordstereotypography a few years ago. Being African, I’m well aware of the way my continent isportrayed in Western media—a dirt-poor, rural monoculture with little in theway of technology, education, or urbanization. In the West, one of the most recognizablegraphic markers for things African, tribal, or uncivilized (and no, they arenot the same thing) is the typeface Neuland. Rob Giampietro calls it “the NewBlack Face,” a clever play on words. In an essay, he asks an importantquestion:

How did [Neuland and Lithos] come to signify Africans and African-Americans, regardless of how a designer uses them, and regardless of the purpose for which their creators originally intended them? (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-01/)

From its release in 1923 and continued use through the 1940s in African-American-focused advertising, Neuland has carried heavy connotations and stereotypes of cheapness, ugliness, tribalism, and roughness. You see this even today. Neuland is used in posters for movies like Tarzan, Jurassic Park, and Jumanji—movies that are about jungles, wildness, and scary beasts lurking in the bush, all Western symbolism for the continent of Africa. Even MyFonts’ download page for Neuland (Fig 5.2) includes tags for “Africa,” “jungle fever,” and “primitive”—tags unconnected to anything else in the product besides that racist history.

Fig 5.2: On MyFonts, the Neuland typeface is tagged with “Africa”, “jungle fever”, and “primitive”, perpetuating an old and irrelevant typographic stereotype (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-02/).

Don’t make, use, orsell fonts this way. Here are some tips on how to avoid stereotypography whendefining your digital experiences:

Be immediately suspicious of any typeface that “looks like” a culture or country. For example, so-called “wonton” or “chop-suey” fonts, whose visual style is thought to express “Asianness” or to suggest Chinese calligraphy, have long appeared on food cartons, signs, campaign websites, and even Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts with racist caricatures of Asians (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-03/). Monotype’s website, where you can buy a version called Mandarin Regular (US$35), cringingly describes the typeface’s story as “an interpretation of artistically drawn Asian brush calligraphy” (Fig 5.3). Whether or not you immediately know its history, run away from any typeface that purports to represent an entire culture.

Fig 5.3: Fonts.com sells a typeface called Mandarin Regular with the following description: “The stylized Asian atmosphere is not created only by the forms of the figures but also by the very name of the typeface. A mandarin was a high official of the ancient Chinese empire” (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-04/).

Support type designers who are from the culture you are designing for. This might seem like it’s a difficult task, but the internet is a big place. I have found that, for clients who are sensitive to cultural issues, the inclusion of type designers’ names and backgrounds can be a powerful differentiator, even making its way into their branding packages as a point of pride.

The world wide webfont

Another common design toolyou should consider is webfonts—fonts specifically designed for use on websitesand apps. One of the main selling points of webfonts is that instead ofputting text in images, clients can use live text on their sites, which isbetter for SEO and accessibility. Theyare simple to implement these days, a matter of adding a line of code orchecking a box on a templating engine. The easiest way to get them on your siteis by using a service like Google Fonts, Fontstand, or Adobe Fonts.

Or is it? That assumesthose services are actually available to your users.

Google Fonts (and every other service using Google’s Developer API) is blocked in mainland China, which means that any of those nice free fonts you chose would simply not load (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-05/). You can work around this, but it also helps to have a fallback font—that’s what they’re for.

When you’re building your design system, why not take a few extra steps to define some webfonts that are visible in places with content blocks? Justfont is one of the first services focused on offering a wide range of Chinese webfonts (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-06/). They have both free and paid tiers of service, similar to Western font services. After setting up an account, you can grab whatever CSS and font-family information you need.

Multiple scriptsystems

When your design workrequires more than one script—for instance, a Korean typeface and a Latintypeface—your choices get much more difficult. Designs that incorporate morethan one are called multiple script systems (multiscript systems for short). Combining them is aninteresting design challenge, one that requires extra typographic sensitivity. Luckily,your multiscript choices will rarely appear on the same page together; you willusually be choosing fonts that work across the brand, not that work well nextto one another visually.

Let’s take a look at an example of effective multiscript use. SurveyMonkey, an online survey and questionnaire tool, has their site localized into a variety of different languages (Fig 5.4). Take note of the headers, the structure of the text in the menu and buttons, and how both fonts feel like part of the same brand.

Fig 5.4: Compare the typographic choices in the Korean (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-07/) and US English (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-08/) versions of SurveyMonkey’s Take a Tour page. Do the header type and spacing retain the spirit of the brand while still accounting for typographic needs?

Some tips as you attempt to choose multiscript fonts for yourproject:

Inspect the overall weight and contrast level of the scripts. Take the time to examine how weight and contrast are used in the scripts you’re using. Find weights and sizes that give you a similar feel and give the page the right balance, regardless of the script.

Keep an eye on awkward script features. Character x-heights, descenders, ascenders, and spacing can throw off the overall brand effect. For instance, Japanese characters are always positioned within a grid with all characters designed to fit in squares of equal height and width. Standard Japanese typefaces also contain Latin characters, called romaji. Those Latin characters will, by default, be kerned according to that same grid pattern, often leaving their spacing awkward and ill-formed. Take the extra time to find a typeface that doesn’t have features that are awkward to work with.

Don’t automatically choose scripts based on superficial similarity. Initial impressions don’t always mean a typeface is the right one for your project. In an interview in the book Bi-Scriptual, Jeongmin Kwon, a typeface designer based in France, offers an example (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-09/). Nanum Myeongjo, a contemporary Hangul typeface, might at first glance look really similar to a seventeenth-century Latin old-style typeface—for instance, they both have angled serifs. However, Nanum Myeongjo was designed in 2008 with refined, modern strokes, whereas old-style typefaces were originally created centuries ago and echo handwritten letterforms (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-10/). Looking at the Google Fonts page for Nanum Myeongjo, though, none of that is clear (Fig 5.5). The page automatically generates a Latin Nn glyph in the top left of the page, instead of a more representative Hangul character sample. If I based my multiscript font choices on my initial reactions to that page, my pairings wouldn’t accurately capture the history and design of each typeface.

Fig 5.5: The Google Fonts page for Nanum Myeongjo shows a Latin character sample in the top left, rather than a more representative character sample.

Visual density

CSS can help you controlvisual density—how much text, image, and other content there is relative to thenegative space on your page. As you read on, keep cultural variables in mind: differentcultures value different levels of visual density.

Let’s compare what arecommonly called CJK(Chinese, Japanese, Korean) alphabets and Latin (English, French, Italian, etc.) alphabets. CJK alphabetshave more complex characters, with shapes that are generally squarer than Latinletterforms. The glyphs also tend to be more detailed than Latin ones, resultingin a higher visual density.

Your instinct might beto create custom type sizes and line heights for each of your localized pages.That is a perfectly acceptable option, and if you are a typophile, it may driveyou crazy not todo it. But I’m here to tell you that­ when adding CJK languages to a designsystem, you can update it to account for their visual density without rippingout a lot of your original CSS:

Choose a font size that is slightly larger for CJK characters, because of their density.

Choose a line height that gives you ample vertical space between each line of text (referred to as line-height in CSS).

Look at your Latin text in the same sizes and see if it still works.

Tweak them together to find a size that works well with both scripts.

The 2017 site for Typojanchi, the Korean Typography Biennale, follows this methodology (Fig 5.6). Both the English and Korean texts have a font-size of 1.25em, and a line-height of 1.5. The result? The English text takes up more space vertically, and the block of Korean text is visually denser, but both are readable and sit comfortably within the overall page design. It is useful to compare translated websites like this to see how CSS styling can be standardized across Latin and CJK pages.

Fig 5.6: The 2017 site for Typojanchi, the Korean Typography Biennale, shows differing visual density in action. It is useful to compare translated websites like this to see how CSS styling can be standardized across Latin and CJK pages (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-11/).

Text expansion factors

Expansion factors calculatehow long strings of text will be in different languages. They use either adecimal (1.8) or a percentage (180%) to calculate the length of a text stringin English versus a different language. Of course, letter-spacing depends onthe actual word or phrase, but think of them as a very rough way to anticipate spacefor text when it gets translated.

Using expansion factors is best when planning for microcopy, calls to action, and menus, rather than long-form content like articles or blog posts that can freely expand down the page. The Salesforce Lightning Design System offers a detailed expansion-factor table to help designers roughly calculate space requirements for other languages in a UI (Fig 5.7).

Fig 5.7: This expansion-factor table from Salesforce lets designers and developers estimate the amount of text that will exist in different languages. Though dependent on the actual words, such calculations can give you a benchmark to design with content in mind (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-12/).

But wait! Likeeverything in cross-cultural design, nothing is ever that simple. Japanese, forexample, has three scripts: Kanji, for characters of Chinese origin,hiragana, for words and sounds that are not represented in kanji, and katakana,for words borrowed from otherlanguages.

The follow button is a core part of the Twitter experience. It has six characters in English (“Follow”) and four in Japanese (フォロー), but the Japanese version is twenty percent longer because it is in katakana, and those characters take up more space than kanji (Fig 5.8). Expansion tables can struggle to accommodate the complex diversity of human scripts and languages, so don’t look to them as a one-stop or infallible solution.

Fig 5.8: On Twitter, expansion is clearly visible: the English “Follow” button text comes in at about 47 pixels wide, while the Japanese text comes in at 60 pixels wide.

Here are a few thingsyou can do keep expansion factors in mind as you design:

Generate dummy text in different languages for your design comps. Of course, you should make sure your text doesn’t contain any unintentional swearwords or improper language, but tools like Foreign Ipsum are a good place to start getting your head around expansion factors (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-13/).

Leave extra space around buttons, menu items, and other microcopy. As well as being general good practice in responsive design, this allows you to account for how text in your target languages expands.

Make sure your components are expandable. Stay away from assigning a fixed width to your UI elements unless it’s unavoidable.

Let longer text strings wrap to a second line. Just ensure that text is aligned correctly and is easy to scan.

[suzanneshannon]

Cross-Cultural Design

When I first traveled to Japan as an exchange student in 2001, I lived in northern Kyoto, a block from the Kitayama subway station.

My first time using the train to get to my university was almost a disaster, even though it was only two subway stops away. I thought I had everything I needed to successfully make the trip. I double- and triple-checked that I had the correct change in one pocket and a computer printout of where I was supposed to go in the other. I was able to make it down into the station, but then I just stood at a ticket machine, dumbfounded, looking at all the flashing lights, buttons, and maps above my head (Fig 5.1). Everything was so impenetrable. I was overwhelmed by the architecture, the sounds, the signs, and the language.

Fig 5.1: Kyoto subway ticket machines—with many line maps and bilingual station names—can seem complicated, especially to newcomers.

My eyes craved something familiar—and there it was. The ticket machine had a small button that said English! I pushed it but became even more lost: the instructions were poorly translated, and anyway, they explained a system that I couldn’t use in the first place.

Guess what saved me? Two little old Japanese ladies. As they bought tickets, I casually looked over their shoulders to see how they were using the machines. First, they looked up at the map to find their desired destination. Then, they noted the fare written next to the station. Finally, they put some money into the machine, pushed the button that lit up with their correct fare, and out popped the tickets! Wow! I tried it myself after they left. And after a few tense moments, I got my ticket and headed through the gates to the train platform.

I pride myself on being a third-culture kid, meaning I was raised in a culture other than the country named on my passport. But even with a cultural upbringing in both Nigeria and the US, it was one of the first times I ever had to guess my way through a task with no previous reference points. And I did it!

Unfortunately, the same guesswork happens online a million times a day. People visit sites that offer them no cultural mental models or visual framework to fall back on, and they end up stumbling through links and pages. Effective visual systems can help eliminate that guesswork and uncertainty by creating layered sets of cues in the design and interface. Let’s look at a few core parts of these design systems and tease out how we can make them more culturally responsive and multifaceted.

Typography

If you work on the web, you deal with typography all the time. This isn’t a book about typography—others have written far more eloquently and technically on the subject. What I would like to do, however, is examine some of the ways culture and identity influence our perception of type and what typographic choices designers can make to help create rich cross-cultural experiences.

Stereotypography

I came across the word stereotypography a few years ago. Being African, I’m well aware of the way my continent is portrayed in Western media—a dirt-poor, rural monoculture with little in the way of technology, education, or urbanization. In the West, one of the most recognizable graphic markers for things African, tribal, or uncivilized (and no, they are not the same thing) is the typeface Neuland. Rob Giampietro calls it “the New Black Face,” a clever play on words. In an essay, he asks an important question:

How did [Neuland and Lithos] come to signify Africans and African-Americans, regardless of how a designer uses them, and regardless of the purpose for which their creators originally intended them? (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-01/)

From its release in 1923 and continued use through the 1940s in African-American-focused advertising, Neuland has carried heavy connotations and stereotypes of cheapness, ugliness, tribalism, and roughness. You see this even today. Neuland is used in posters for movies like Tarzan, Jurassic Park, and Jumanji—movies that are about jungles, wildness, and scary beasts lurking in the bush, all Western symbolism for the continent of Africa. Even MyFonts’ download page for Neuland (Fig 5.2) includes tags for “Africa,” “jungle fever,” and “primitive”—tags unconnected to anything else in the product besides that racist history.

Fig 5.2: On MyFonts, the Neuland typeface is tagged with “Africa”, “jungle fever”, and “primitive”, perpetuating an old and irrelevant typographic stereotype (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-02/).

Don’t make, use, or sell fonts this way. Here are some tips on how to avoid stereotypography when defining your digital experiences:

Be immediately suspicious of any typeface that “looks like” a culture or country. For example, so-called “wonton” or “chop-suey” fonts, whose visual style is thought to express “Asianness” or to suggest Chinese calligraphy, have long appeared on food cartons, signs, campaign websites, and even Abercrombie & Fitch T-shirts with racist caricatures of Asians (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-03/). Monotype’s website, where you can buy a version called Mandarin Regular (US$35), cringingly describes the typeface’s story as “an interpretation of artistically drawn Asian brush calligraphy” (Fig 5.3). Whether or not you immediately know its history, run away from any typeface that purports to represent an entire culture.

Fig 5.3: Fonts.com sells a typeface called Mandarin Regular with the following description: “The stylized Asian atmosphere is not created only by the forms of the figures but also by the very name of the typeface. A mandarin was a high official of the ancient Chinese empire” (https://ift.tt/2T4LppO).

Support type designers who are from the culture you are designing for. This might seem like it’s a difficult task, but the internet is a big place. I have found that, for clients who are sensitive to cultural issues, the inclusion of type designers’ names and backgrounds can be a powerful differentiator, even making its way into their branding packages as a point of pride.

The world wide webfont

Another common design tool you should consider is webfonts—fonts specifically designed for use on websites and apps. One of the main selling points of webfonts is that instead of putting text in images, clients can use live text on their sites, which is better for SEO and accessibility. They are simple to implement these days, a matter of adding a line of code or checking a box on a templating engine. The easiest way to get them on your site is by using a service like Google Fonts, Fontstand, or Adobe Fonts.

Or is it? That assumes those services are actually available to your users.

Google Fonts (and every other service using Google’s Developer API) is blocked in mainland China, which means that any of those nice free fonts you chose would simply not load (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-05/). You can work around this, but it also helps to have a fallback font—that’s what they’re for.

When you’re building your design system, why not take a few extra steps to define some webfonts that are visible in places with content blocks? Justfont is one of the first services focused on offering a wide range of Chinese webfonts (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-06/). They have both free and paid tiers of service, similar to Western font services. After setting up an account, you can grab whatever CSS and font-family information you need.

Multiple script systems

When your design work requires more than one script—for instance, a Korean typeface and a Latin typeface—your choices get much more difficult. Designs that incorporate more than one are called multiple script systems (multiscript systems for short). Combining them is an interesting design challenge, one that requires extra typographic sensitivity. Luckily, your multiscript choices will rarely appear on the same page together; you will usually be choosing fonts that work across the brand, not that work well next to one another visually.

Let’s take a look at an example of effective multiscript use. SurveyMonkey, an online survey and questionnaire tool, has their site localized into a variety of different languages (Fig 5.4). Take note of the headers, the structure of the text in the menu and buttons, and how both fonts feel like part of the same brand.

Fig 5.4: Compare the typographic choices in the Korean (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-07/) and US English (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-08/) versions of SurveyMonkey’s Take a Tour page. Do the header type and spacing retain the spirit of the brand while still accounting for typographic needs?

Some tips as you attempt to choose multiscript fonts for your project:

Inspect the overall weight and contrast level of the scripts. Take the time to examine how weight and contrast are used in the scripts you’re using. Find weights and sizes that give you a similar feel and give the page the right balance, regardless of the script.

Keep an eye on awkward script features. Character x-heights, descenders, ascenders, and spacing can throw off the overall brand effect. For instance, Japanese characters are always positioned within a grid with all characters designed to fit in squares of equal height and width. Standard Japanese typefaces also contain Latin characters, called romaji. Those Latin characters will, by default, be kerned according to that same grid pattern, often leaving their spacing awkward and ill-formed. Take the extra time to find a typeface that doesn’t have features that are awkward to work with.

Don’t automatically choose scripts based on superficial similarity. Initial impressions don’t always mean a typeface is the right one for your project. In an interview in the book Bi-Scriptual, Jeongmin Kwon, a typeface designer based in France, offers an example (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-09/). Nanum Myeongjo, a contemporary Hangul typeface, might at first glance look really similar to a seventeenth-century Latin old-style typeface—for instance, they both have angled serifs. However, Nanum Myeongjo was designed in 2008 with refined, modern strokes, whereas old-style typefaces were originally created centuries ago and echo handwritten letterforms (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-10/). Looking at the Google Fonts page for Nanum Myeongjo, though, none of that is clear (Fig 5.5). The page automatically generates a Latin Nn glyph in the top left of the page, instead of a more representative Hangul character sample. If I based my multiscript font choices on my initial reactions to that page, my pairings wouldn’t accurately capture the history and design of each typeface.

Fig 5.5: The Google Fonts page for Nanum Myeongjo shows a Latin character sample in the top left, rather than a more representative character sample.

Visual density

CSS can help you control visual density—how much text, image, and other content there is relative to the negative space on your page. As you read on, keep cultural variables in mind: different cultures value different levels of visual density.

Let’s compare what are commonly called CJK (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) alphabets and Latin (English, French, Italian, etc.) alphabets. CJK alphabets have more complex characters, with shapes that are generally squarer than Latin letterforms. The glyphs also tend to be more detailed than Latin ones, resulting in a higher visual density.

Your instinct might be to create custom type sizes and line heights for each of your localized pages. That is a perfectly acceptable option, and if you are a typophile, it may drive you crazy not to do it. But I’m here to tell you that­ when adding CJK languages to a design system, you can update it to account for their visual density without ripping out a lot of your original CSS:

Choose a font size that is slightly larger for CJK characters, because of their density.

Choose a line height that gives you ample vertical space between each line of text (referred to as line-height in CSS).

Look at your Latin text in the same sizes and see if it still works.

Tweak them together to find a size that works well with both scripts.

The 2017 site for Typojanchi, the Korean Typography Biennale, follows this methodology (Fig 5.6). Both the English and Korean texts have a font-size of 1.25em, and a line-height of 1.5. The result? The English text takes up more space vertically, and the block of Korean text is visually denser, but both are readable and sit comfortably within the overall page design. It is useful to compare translated websites like this to see how CSS styling can be standardized across Latin and CJK pages.

Fig 5.6: The 2017 site for Typojanchi, the Korean Typography Biennale, shows differing visual density in action. It is useful to compare translated websites like this to see how CSS styling can be standardized across Latin and CJK pages (https://ift.tt/2T2Emhi).

Text expansion factors

Expansion factors calculate how long strings of text will be in different languages. They use either a decimal (1.8) or a percentage (180%) to calculate the length of a text string in English versus a different language. Of course, letter-spacing depends on the actual word or phrase, but think of them as a very rough way to anticipate space for text when it gets translated.

Using expansion factors is best when planning for microcopy, calls to action, and menus, rather than long-form content like articles or blog posts that can freely expand down the page. The Salesforce Lightning Design System offers a detailed expansion-factor table to help designers roughly calculate space requirements for other languages in a UI (Fig 5.7).

Fig 5.7: This expansion-factor table from Salesforce lets designers and developers estimate the amount of text that will exist in different languages. Though dependent on the actual words, such calculations can give you a benchmark to design with content in mind (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-12/).

But wait! Like everything in cross-cultural design, nothing is ever that simple. Japanese, for example, has three scripts: Kanji, for characters of Chinese origin, hiragana, for words and sounds that are not represented in kanji, and katakana, for words borrowed from other languages.

The follow button is a core part of the Twitter experience. It has six characters in English (“Follow”) and four in Japanese (フォロー), but the Japanese version is twenty percent longer because it is in katakana, and those characters take up more space than kanji (Fig 5.8). Expansion tables can struggle to accommodate the complex diversity of human scripts and languages, so don’t look to them as a one-stop or infallible solution.

Fig 5.8: On Twitter, expansion is clearly visible: the English “Follow” button text comes in at about 47 pixels wide, while the Japanese text comes in at 60 pixels wide.

Here are a few things you can do keep expansion factors in mind as you design:

Generate dummy text in different languages for your design comps. Of course, you should make sure your text doesn’t contain any unintentional swearwords or improper language, but tools like Foreign Ipsum are a good place to start getting your head around expansion factors (http://bkaprt.com/ccd/05-13/).

Leave extra space around buttons, menu items, and other microcopy. As well as being general good practice in responsive design, this allows you to account for how text in your target languages expands.

Make sure your components are expandable. Stay away from assigning a fixed width to your UI elements unless it’s unavoidable.

Let longer text strings wrap to a second line. Just ensure that text is aligned correctly and is easy to scan.

Cross-Cultural Design published first on https://deskbysnafu.tumblr.com/

[themanicnami]

Hi I'm a beginner and I wanted to know if there's any information I should know before beginning? Thank you

Research, research, research. Research everything you can, take notes, save resources, and before using anything for a spell look into what it is. Some oils, crystals, and herbs can be dangerous if used wrong. Some stones are toxic if put into water or will dissolve thus ruining them, others will fade if left in the sun, some break and chip easily. Certain herbs can cause medical problems if you are on medications, others if too large amounts are ingested can cause severe reactions such as internal bleeding. Some herbs can’t be burned or vapors inhaled without causing illness. Oils can be highly toxic and can cause chemical burns if not diluted or well researched.

Safety is important so I always stress for beginners to be smart about things. Use proper fire safety when burning things, keep a bowl of sand or salt near you in case the fire flares. Keep your hair tied back if it is longer than your jaw when burning things, roll up your sleeves, make sure you are in a space that is safe to have smoke (open a window if needed). Have something safe to put the burning object/paper in, such as an earthenware or clay bowl/plate. Holding burning paper is just a bad idea. Don’t ever leave candles burning if you are not in the room or if you are leaving, don’t fall asleep with candles and incense burning. When using oils on candles, keep a close eye on them in case any of the oil catches fire. Don’t ever put water on an oil fire! 

When using ingredients in a bath, make sure the items you’re adding to the bath is safe. As previously stated certain oils can cause skin irritation or burns (such as pure citrus oil and basil essential oil). If you are female don’t put sugar into your bath (you can use honey but don’t use more than a tablespoon or two and don’t use it too often) at risk of a causing yourself a yeast infection (not fun). Make sure the herbs you are using are safe to use in baths and again if a crystal is not safe in water, keep it on the floor or near the tub, but not in the water or where it will get wet.

Be smart, don’t ingest random plants you find outside, unless you are certain it is safe. Keep your oils, incense, candles and herbs away from familiars or pets for they can get seriously sick from them.

Research so you can also find what interests you, that way you can find or make your own path. Don’t feel rushed, don’t feel like you have to do spells immediately and all the time. You can have down time, its okay to go weeks without doing anything ‘witchy’. Don’t let others try any “gatekeeping” with you. It doesn’t matter your gender, age, religious views, sexuality, star/birth chart, race, whether your family members are witches or not, etc. You are a witch if you practice magick and want to be called a witch, that’s all that is necessary. Don’t bother with people who try to say otherwise. 

Pop culture magick and technomancy/techno magick is still magick. There are people you will meet who will try to talk down about those who use emoji spells, computers, shufflemancy, etc. Everyone’s path is valid and if you choose to use any of those, you are valid.

You don’t need to practice in a coven to be a witch. You don’t have to be wiccan or pagan to be a witch. You can be any religion you want or not be religious at all.

Cursing is not something you should be ashamed of. If you decide to use curses, that is your choice. If others don’t agree with you that’s their choice. You do you, don’t worry about them. 

Magick and spells are exhausting! You may feel drained after even just making a sigil or doing a tarot readings. That’s okay, you’re new at it. Give it time, take breaks. Take nice rests afterwards, stay hydrated, take naps, etc.

To help prevent exhaust ground and center yourself, practice energy work, learn how to improve your visualization and practice meditation if possible. Trust me, it all helps.

Keep a Grimoire full of the information you find such as correspondences, star/birth charts, vocabulary, herbs, crystals, toxic plants, safety practices, etc. Keep a Book of Shadows to take personal notes on yourself, your practice, your spells and their outcomes. These tools can help you greatly.

Anything can be used for witchcraft you don’t have to buy any specific crystals, herbs, tools, oils, etc. budget witchcraft is a thing. You can use everyday items in your craft just fine such as common foods, kitchen tools, colors, markers, paper, cleaning supplies/tools (be careful, don’t mix bleach with any other cleaners!), toys, art supplies, office supplies, etc etc. Use whatever you have as long as it is safe.

Do what makes you happy. You don’t have to force yourself to practice something you don’t find joy in. Tarot cards not your thing? That’s okay. You don’t like tea? That’s fine, use juice, smoothies, broth, etc instead. Don’t take baths, you prefer showers? Cool, use shower spells instead of bath spells. Do what makes you happy, do what makes you comfortable. You don’t have to work with spirits, you don’t have to work with plants; you don’t have to do anything.

If you want more information for beginners check out my tags: beginner magic, beginner witchcraft, masterpost, herbs, crystals, essential oils, spells, curses and my general witchcraft tags. 

Good luck dear~~

[rnaelstrome]

Tags

This is a list of all the tags I use on this blog, with some additional descriptions to tell you what the tag may involve.

A:

air

altars - includes whys, how tos and pocket altars

animals

anxiety - for posts about easing anxiety (not creating it!)*

astrology - star signs and horoscopes come under this tag

astronomy

autumn

autumnal equinox - also includes mabon stuff

B:

beauty - contains posts about glamours and sigils involved in appearance 

beginner - for all the really new witches, contains information sheets, definitions and basic spells and sigils etc.

beltane - floralia and walpurgis night too

black colour

blue colour

books

bottles - spell bottles and some charms can be found here

brown colour

C:

candles

celtic - mythology, history, deities, festivals etc.

challenge - witchy tumblr challenges, such as the grimoire challenge

chaos - chaos witchcraft

cleansing

colours - colour magic/k

creativity

confidence

crystals - a general tag for anything to do with crystals

crystal grids - specifically for crystal grids and patterns

curses - hexes also found here

D:

dark

dark colours

dawn

divination

diy - for witch related diys

dusk

E:

earth

eclectic - eclectic witchcraft

elements

empaths

enchantments

energy - posts to do with magic/kal energy in particular

essential oils

evening

eyes - similar to my beauty tag, but specifically for the eyes

F:

familiars

finding - searching spells etc.

fire

G:

geometry - anything involving sacred geometry

germanic - mythology, history, deities, festivals etc.

glamours

glitter

gold colour

greek - mythology, history, deities etc.

green - green witchcraft

green colour

grimoire

grounding

guide - for information masterposts as well information sheets and graphics. different to the beginner tag as it contains more complex and advanced stuff as well as the basics.

H:

happiness

healing* - includes health related stuff too

hellenic

herbs

I:

ideas - general witchy ideas and concepts

imbolc - dísablót stuff too

incantations

incense

ingredients - information on lots of ingredients and how and why to use them

J:

jars - basically the same as my bottles tag (found above)

K:

kitchen - kitchen witchcraft

L:

lammas - includes august eve and lughnasadh things

latin - phrases for spells and incantations

light

light colours

lips - same purpose as my eyes tag

love

luck

M:

meditation - tips, information etc.

midday

midnight

money

moon - includes the full moon, moon phases etc.

morning

motivation

N:

nature

night

norse - mythology, history, deities, festivals etc.

O:

oils

orange colour

organisation - grimoire organisation, ingredient organisation and more

P:

pagan - mythology, history, deities, festivals etc.

pets - separate from my familiars tag, specifically for pets

pink colour

planets

plants

pop - pop culture witchcraft

potions

protection

psychics

purple colour

R:

rain

recipes - witchy food and drink recipes, see my kitchen tag for more stuff

red colour

removals - ways to remove any and all types of magic/k, includes curses and hexes

rituals

roman - mythology, history, deities, festivals etc.

S:

safety - for information on safety when doing stuff with certain items, as well as procedures

salt - everything and anything salt, includes black salt and recipes

science - for science witchcraft

sea

secret witchcraft - ways to hide and be discrete about your craft, if you so wish to be

secular

self love - ways to appreciate and take care of yourself, with the help of magic!

shielding

sigils

silver colour

skin - see the descriptions for my lips and eyes tags

sleep

space - space and cosmic witchcraft

spells - a very general tag, for any and all spells, basic and advanced

spirits

spring

storms

stress* - stress relieving magic/k

strength - both emotional and physical

study - academia related posts

summer

summer solstice - includes midsummer and litha stuff

T:

tarot - tarot in general

tarot spreads - specific to tarot spreads

teas

tech - technology witchcraft

tips - lots of witchy tips!

travel - posts involving stuff for travel (charms, protection and more)

U:

urban - urban witchcraft

V:

vernal equinox - includes ostara (ēostre) and liberalia things

visualisation - similar to my meditation tag

W:

warding

water

weather - weather witchcraft

white colour

wicca

winter

winter solstice - along with yule, saturnalia, brumalia and midwinter stuff

wisdom

Y:

yellow colour

Other Tags

aesthetic - lots of pretty pictures and posts

asks

humour - because who wants to be serious all the time?

my posts

* sorta-disclaimer: the stuff found in these tags is obviously no substitute for proper medicine. It’s intended only to add to healing, not as a replacement for medicine. If you have a medical issue, please go and see a doctor!

If there’s anything else you’d like me to tag, be it for easier reference or as a trigger, please do not hesitate to send me a message or an ask. My inbox is always open to questions and queries about this list. Thanks for reading, and good luck!

[jazzworldquest-blog]

USA: EP Release: Total Music: The Golden Conversation between American and Brazilian Music Blossoms on Alexandra Jackson: Legacy & Alchemy

EP Release: Total Music: The Golden Conversation between American and Brazilian Music Blossoms on Alexandra Jackson: Legacy & Alchemy

Music industry veteran and IT entrepreneur Robert Hebert happened to be in Brazil on a work trip. One day in Rio, he stepped out of an ordinary hotel elevator and had a revelation. “I heard these young musicians in the lobby, and realized that Brazil might create the next Sade, the next singer to really synthesize pop, jazz, and Brazilian sounds like Sade and her producer Robin Millar did.”

Hebert’s insight led him somewhere altogether different, ever deeper into Brazil’s unique repertoire, heritage, and spirit. Amalgamating the golden age of 20th-century Brazilian sounds with Chicago jazz and funk, unleashing a soulful young vocalist from Atlanta on the Brazilian and Brazil-inspired songbook, Hebert created the first, epic project on his new independent LEGACY AND ALCHEMY label, Alexandra Jackson: Legacy & Alchemy. At the center stands singer Alexandra Jackson, supported by some of the most significant musicians in samba, bossa nova, and MPB, and by American jazz and funk heavyweights.

“We wanted to bring together Brazilian and American musicians and create something around the vocals, and to our pleasant surprise, it was an American vocalist who made this possible,” remarks Hebert. “We embraced the highest level of Brazilian music, with its great musicianship. The highest levels of Brazilian music and American jazz have always resonated.”

Legacy & Alchemy pays homage to samba, now in its second century, with the classic “Sonho Meu,” which contrasts Jackson’s voice with that of 96-year-old samba grande dame and songwriter Doña Ivone Lara. It demonstrates the power of Brazilian bossa nova with a cheeky, gender-reversed “Girl from Ipanema,” in which Jackson finds a whole other American-inflected swing to beloved song. It also draws on songwriting inspired by Brazil’s boundless musical creativity and resilience: “Brazilica” (by Chess Records alums Charles Stepney, Maurice White, and Ramsey Lewis) and “Our Time Now” (a heartfelt anthem co-crafted by Lionel Richie and Rod Temperton that ends with the powerhouse contribution by Armando Marcal from Rio de Janeiro’s legendary Portela samba school (reigning champion of Carnaval).

The main musical catalyst was a young singer out of Atlanta, the daughter of a remarkable, culturally and socially prominent African American family, Alexandra Jackson. With intensive vocal training and wide-ranging musical interests, Jackson had the sensitivity, sensuality, and strength to capture the essence of these songs, whether singing in English or Portuguese. (Jackson worked with coaches for weeks to be able to nail the lyrics and win over Brazilian critics.)

“I’ve worked with so many top singers, and I don’t think anyone else I’ve worked with could have or would have even tried to do this.  Alexandra could and did.  The biggest thing is she made it convincing for Brazilians,” including standout performances as part of the 2016 Rio Olympics festivities.

“There’s a huge melting pot of music in our world today,” says Jackson. “This album offers the opportunity for people to step outside the box. It’s not just jazz, not the blues, not soul, not bossa nova, not samba, but it’s a mix of them all.”

Though the project resulted in 23 tracks with more than 35 contributing artists in featured roles (and 100 musicians and engineers overall), this first EP-length burst of songs sets the historical stage for the project’s ongoing engagement with Brazilian and American music’s decades-long dialog. The project’s bigger-picture goal is as ambitious as its scope: “I want to reintroduce this music to the world,” says Hebert. “I want to return it to its rightful place in the mainstream.”

This ambition has a powerful historical precedent. Brazilian music was some of the most popular in the world until the British Invasion struck and tastes shifted. There was a reason Brazilian music resonated worldwide: the sway of samba, the wry elegance of bossa nova balanced the earthy and the refined. It channeled some of the world’s most breathtaking musicianship. Hebert reached out to everyone from Jobim’s son and grandson, to samba elders like Lara and its next generation master (percussionist Pretinho de Serrinha), to the iconic Brazilian composer Ivan Lins.

Hebert and his collaborators knew it was time to elevate these elements again. “We’re really giving all we got to reintroduce this music to the mainstream, where it left off in the mid 60s. I wanted to choose songs that were hits in Brazil. Some may be familiar, but many are incredible songs the world outside of Brazil hasn’t been exposed to very much yet. We’re alchemizing it with American music, and the heart of this music is Chicago,” Hebert’s hometown and the birthplace of a jazz aesthetic that pairs perfectly with midcentury Brazilian sounds.

This alchemy creates what project advisor and contributor Ivan Lins calls “total music,” music that has no limits due to its geographical origins, that is timeless and widely compelling. Lins, along with the legacy of icon Quincy Jones, inspired Hebert to reach for the best possible performers and performances as the vision came together.

“Quincy has really inspired me over the years — not just with music, but the way he applies his true genius to the interaction of master-level human beings.  I have known him since 1993 and his musical legacy was a guiding star for me on this project. [In the wake of the untimely passing of Rod Temperton, Jones directly assisted in securing co-writer’s Lionel Richie’s blessing for “Our Time Now.”] I knew if Quincy were doing this, he would really try to get to the heart and soul of the music in a way that opened up the musicianship, that brought something new to it. I did the best I could, knowing I’m less than 1% of the musician that Q is,” Hebert laughs.  “But, I just kept asking myself for 3 years … as a Producer, what do I think Q would do?” 

To get there, Hebert asked multi-instrumentalist, composer, and producer Larry Williams to be his main collaborator. Williams, who has worked with Jones, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Sheila E, and Michael Jackson, over a 40-year career was lead producer on eight of the 23 tracks recorded for the project. “This record got done because of Larry.  No Larry Williams … no Rod Temperton, no Ivan Lins, no Djavan, no Al Jarreau,” Hebert notes. “Larry was my anchor.  I knew that this ambitious undertaking would get done because Larry Williams was in my corner. I needed one of the greatest arrangers of our time to get us over the top, where we needed to be.  That could only happen with a music master of Larry’s genius, commitment, focus, pedigree and context.”   

Hebert and Williams formed a Chicago-meets-Rio house band to record in Brazil. It included Williams and Marco Brito as primary keyboardists, tag-teaming super bassists (Darryl Jones, Arthur Maia), one of Brazil’s greatest drummers (in a country of excellent drumming) Teo Lima, guitarist Ricardo Silveira, percussionist Armando Marcal, horn players and arrangers Marcelo Martins and Jesse Sadoc. They were joined by vocal masters Chris Walker (who produced the vocals for the album), Darryl Tookes, and Curtis King, and by percussionist Pretinho da Serrinha. The Brazilian and American feels for the pocket differ, but the conversation between and among master musicians adds another layer to an already rich mix.

Hebert also gathered an orchestra for the two songs orchestrated and conducted by Larry Williams, and 4 songs orchestrated and conducted by Hebert’s 1970s’ Chicago high school bandmate Charles Floyd (who has gone on to conduct over 500 orchestras all over the world).  Hebert named the orchestra “The Bossa Nova Noites Orquestra” … comprised of Brazil’s top orchestra musicians under the supervision of concertmaster Ricardo Amado.

It is no accident Hebert and company made the record they did, one that has all the precision and warmth of a Quincy Jones project, or the early Sade projects produced by Robin Millar, but with all the virtuosic scrappiness of Chicago and Rio.

“This is old school; I’m not interested in contemporizing this music with drum machines or sequencers. Computers cannot spiritually collaborate, interact, and connect in context and in real time with a human,” Hebert states. “I wanted to create an environment and commitment to the alchemy of the music, based on humans endeavoring to evolve the origins of the music.  Brazilian, African and American music have a history of connection due to the slave trade, and that’s what creates this sense of musical integrity, what ties it all together. I let the music masters of Brazil and America contemporize the music with their insight, context and virtuosity.”  

Links

Alexandra's Facebook

Alexandra's Instagram

Alexandra's Twitter

Alexandra's Vimeo

Facebook (Album)

Instagram (Album)

Twitter (Album)

Vimeo (Album)

Contact

Publicist

Ron Kadish

ron@rockpaperscissors.biz

812-339-1195 X 202

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2FO93h5

[disneygeekcom]

Disneyland Resort Debuts all-new ‘Magic Happens’ Parade Feb. 28, 2020, with Magical Moments from Beloved Disney and Pixar Stories including ‘Frozen 2,’ ‘Coco,’ ‘Moana’ and More

New daytime spectacular brings a joyous, regal and whimsical procession to guests of all ages at Disneyland Park

‘Magic Happens’ features stunning floats with Disney characters, imaginative music co-composed by singer-songwriter Todrick Hall, artistic costumes and modern choreography

ANAHEIM, Calif. (Jan. 21, 2020) – Disneyland Resort will debut its all-new “Magic Happens” parade at Disneyland Park on Feb. 28, 2020. The incredible “Magic Happens” daytime spectacular celebrates the awe-inspiring moments of magic that are at the heart of so many Disney stories. This new parade, led by Mickey Mouse and his pals, celebrates moments of magic from Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar Animation Studios films as they are brought to life on a grand scale with stunning floats, artistic costumes and a surprising and energetic musical score combined with beloved Disney tunes.

“When you come to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, there are so many ways to immerse yourself in our stories, but a parade is a unique experience because it’s the only way for you, as the audience, to stay in one place and have so many stories, characters and magical moments pass right in front of you,” said David Duffy, creative director for Disney Live Entertainment. “We’ve designed the ‘Magic Happens’ floats so that characters, scenes and surprises are revealed a little at a time, making each float a journey of discovery.”

“Magic Happens” includes something for everyone and will be enjoyed by guests of all ages. This new parade features nine newly designed floats, highlighting magic from classic Walt Disney Animation Studios tales such as “The Sword in the Stone,” “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty,” to more recent stories including “Frozen 2,” “Moana” and “The Princess and the Frog,” as well as Disney and Pixar’s “Coco.” The new floats were created as pieces of moving art, with their lines and aesthetic design working to tell a story along the parade route, while also evoking a sense of magic.

“This parade celebrates the way magic affects both the characters in the stories and the guests who are watching,” says Jordan Peterson, show director for Disney Live Entertainment. “‘Magic Happens’ is like a love letter to those special transformative moments.”

In addition to the stunning floats, the parade route along Main Street, U.S.A., will be filled with dynamic performers and more than two dozen Disney and Pixar characters. The parade’s costume design draws inspiration directly from modern runways, making each costume look fashion-forward, yet uniquely Disney. Many performers and characters in “Magic Happens” will don all-new costumes, specifically made for this parade.

While the music and stories seen in “Magic Happens” are rooted in iconic Disney lore, the soundtrack and choreography are heavily influenced by today’s pop culture designers, putting a contemporary spin on the classic Disney hits. “Magic Happens” features an energetic musical score and new songs, co-composed by singer-songwriter, Todrick Hall.

“This is a full circle moment for me,” said Hall, who began his career at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida as a performer in “Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage.” “I learned how to dance from watching Disney parades, so the fact that I am getting to create the music that these iconic Disney characters are going to be performing to is pretty much the most epic thing that has happened to me in my life!”

“Magic Happens” is a whimsical and joyous procession that allows the Disney magic to shine through. The parade features distinct stories with a mix of characters, making it feel contemporary and classic, fun and regal, and surprising and familiar – all at the same time. Highlights of the all-new “Magic Happens” parade include:

Mickey Mouse leads the way, gliding along on glistening swirls of magic emanating from a giant, iridescent magical hat. Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy, Pluto and Chip ‘n Dale join in, dancing along with a group of eclectic and artsy performers representing stylized aspects of magic.

Depicted in this image on her voyager canoe, Moana journeys forth on the crest of a towering wave, inspired by beautiful koa wood carvings, and inset with dazzling, animated glimpses into the magic the ocean holds. (Disney)

On her voyager canoe, Moana journeys forth on the crest of a towering wave, inspired by beautiful koa wood carvings, and inset with dazzling, animated glimpses into the magic the ocean holds. This is the first full-scale “Moana”-inspired float to be created for a Disney park.

Depicted in this image, guiding Moana on her journey is Maui, who travels along on his own magical piece of the islands with Moana’s adorable pet pig, Pua. (Disney)

Joining Moana on her journey is Maui, who travels along on his own magical piece of the islands with Moana’s adorable pet pig, Pua. Maui makes his official Disneyland Resort debut in “Magic Happens.”

Depicted in this image, Miguel appears in person for the first time, celebrating the magic that happens when he strums the guitar of Ernesto de la Cruz in the Disney and Pixar film “Coco.” This spectacular float connects the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead with a vibrant marigold bridge, and fantastical alebrije spirit animals join the procession, along with Miguel’s dog Danté. (Disney)

Miguel appears in person for the first time, celebrating the magic that happens when he strums the guitar of Ernesto de la Cruz in the Disney and Pixar film “Coco.” This spectacular float connects the Land of the Living and the Land of the Dead with a vibrant marigold bridge, and fantastical alebrije spirit animals join the procession, along with Miguel’s dog Danté. This is the first time the film “Coco” has inspired a float for a Disney Parks parade.

Depicted in this image, from Walt Disney Animation Studios’ “Frozen 2,” Anna and Elsa explore the mysteries of an enchanted forest protected by Nokk, the mystical water spirit, as their friends Kristoff, Sven and Olaf tag along. (Disney)

From “Frozen 2,” Anna and Elsa explore the mysteries of the Enchanted Forest protected by the Nokk, the mystical water spirit, as their friends Kristoff, Sven and Olaf tag along.

#gallery-0-5 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 50%; } #gallery-0-5 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-5 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Depicted in this image, Cinderella is seen inside a grand pumpkin, just as it magically transforms into a glistening carriage to whisk her off to the ball. (Disney)

Depicted in this image, Tiana and Naveen from “The Princess and the Frog” are seen amidst a swirl of golden flowers where they share a kiss, completing their transformation back into human forms. (Disney)

Depicted in this image, Merlin from “The Sword in the Stone” wisely leads the way for young Arthur, who finds the magic within himself as he pulls the sword from the stone, claiming his place upon the throne. (Disney)

Depicted in this image, the regal grand finale of “Magic Happens” celebrates magical moments from several classic Disney stories, including the happily-ever-after scene from “Sleeping Beauty” with a trio of fairies and Princess Aurora’s gown shimmering between hues of pink and blue. (Disney)

The regal grand finale of “Magic Happens” celebrates magical moments from several classic Disney stories. The start of the finale brings together a collection of many iconic magical characters, including Genie, Aladdin, Tinker Bell, Peter Pan, Blue Fairy, Pinocchio and Fairy Godmother. These characters lead the way as more floats are introduced, each highlighting the moments of magic that changed the characters’ lives:

From “Cinderella,” guests watch the moment of “Bibbidi Bobbidi Boo” as Cinderella is seen inside a grand pumpkin, just as it magically transforms into a glistening carriage to whisk her off to the ball.

From “The Sword in the Stone,” Merlin wisely leads the way for young Arthur, who finds the magic within himself as he pulls the sword from the stone, claiming his place upon the throne.

Tiana and Naveen from “The Princess and the Frog” are seen amidst a swirl of golden flowers where they share a kiss, completing their transformation back into human forms.

The happily-ever-after scene from “Sleeping Beauty” features the three good fairies and Princess Aurora, whose gown shimmers between hues of pink and blue.

Spring is a great time to visit the Disneyland Resort and experience the new “Magic Happens” parade, as the resort is offering special, limited-time ticket and hotel offers. Kids everywhere* along with Southern California residents** may visit the theme parks for as low as $67 per person, per day with 3-day, 1-park per day tickets through May 21, 2020. And guests who stay and play in the heart of the magic can enjoy special savings with room offers at the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort. Hotel guests can save up to 25 percent off select rooms, Sunday-Thursday nights, based upon availability through April 16, 2020.*** Guests can learn more about these offers at Disneyland.com.

* Offer valid for children ages 3-9. Tickets expire 13 days after the first day of use or on May 21, 2020, whichever occurs first.  Each day of use constitutes one full day of use. Tickets are nonrefundable, may not be sold or transferred for commercial use and exclude activities/events separately priced. Offer may not be combined with other ticket discounts or promotions. Subject to capacity, restrictions and change without notice.

** Valid only for Southern California residents within ZIP codes 90000-93599 and Northern Baja California residents within ZIP codes 21000-22999; proof of eligible residency, including valid government-issued photo ID, is required for purchase and admission. Tickets expire May 21, 2020.  Each day of use constitutes one full day of use. May purchase up to 5 tickets per eligible person per day with valid ID. Tickets are nonrefundable, may not be sold or transferred for commercial use and exclude activities/events separately priced. Offer may not be combined with other ticket discounts or promotions. Subject to capacity, restrictions and change without notice.

*** Savings based on the non-discounted price for the same room at the same hotel. Travel must be completed by April 17, 2020.  Premium room types included in offer are Premium, Deluxe and Woods/Garden/Courtyard rooms; select Concierge rooms; and only Paradise, Artisan, Junior and Regal suites.  Not valid on previously booked rooms. Advance reservations required. Subject to availability as the number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited. Excludes applicable fees and taxes.  Limit two (2) rooms per reservation and occupancy restrictions apply per room. Not valid in combination with any other hotel discounts or offers. Subject to restrictions and change without notice.  Separate Theme Park admission required to enjoy the Parks. 

#MagicHappens Parade Debuts @ #Disneyland on Feb 28 (Disney Information & Concept Art) #MagicHappensParade Disneyland Resort Debuts all-new ‘Magic Happens’ Parade Feb. 28, 2020, with Magical Moments from Beloved Disney and Pixar Stories including ‘Frozen 2,’ ‘Coco,’ ‘Moana’ and More…