#The Art Of Spiritual Direction As Improvisation | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

dustedmagazine · 1 year ago

Text

Listening Post: John Coltrane/Eric Dolphy’s Evenings at the Village Gate

In 1961, John Coltrane was reaching a wider audience via his edited single version of the Sound of Music classic "My Favorite Things.” He was also, although it seems trite to say given the trajectory of his career, in a state of transition. Moving away from his "sheets of sound" period to exploring modality, non-western scales and polyrhythms which allowed him to improvise more deeply within the constraints of more familiar Jazz tropes.

His personal and musical relationship with Eric Dolphy was an important catalyst for the development of his sound. Dolphy was an important presence on Coltrane's other key album from 1961, Africa/Brass and here officially joins the quartet on alto, bass clarinet and flute. Evenings at the Village Gate was recorded towards the end of a month-long residency with a core band of Coltrane, Dolphy, Jones, McCoy Tyner on piano and Reggie Workman on bass. The other musician featured here, on "Africa,” is bassist Art Davis.

The recording captures the band moving towards the more incandescent sound that made Live at the Village Vanguard, recorded just a few weeks later in November 1961, such a viscerally thrilling album. The hit "My Favorite Things" and traditional English folk tune "Greensleeves" are extended into long trance-like vamps. Benny Carter's 1936 classic "When Lights Are Low" showcases Dolphy's bass clarinet and in the originals "Impressions" and particularly "Africa" the quintet hit almost ecstatic grooves. Dolphy's solos push Coltrane further into the spiritual free jazz that so divided later audiences. Dolphy's flute on "My Favorite Things" and especially his clarinet on "When Lights Are Low" are extraordinary, particularly the clarity of his upper register.

The highlight for me is the 22 minute version of "Africa" that closes the set. The two basses, bowed and plucked, Tyner's chordal work and solo, the slow build from the bass solo where the music seems to meander before Jones' explosive solo heralds the return of Dolphy and Coltrane improvising together on the theme, spiralling up the register, contrasting Coltrane's long slurries with Dolphy's staccato bursts which lead to the thunderous conclusion.

As an archivist, sudden discoveries in forgotten basement boxes never surprises and the excitement never gets old. The tapes of Evenings at the Village Gate were recently unearthed in the NY Public Library sound archive after having been lost, found and lost again. Recorded by the Village Gate's sound engineer Rich Alderson these tapes were not meant for commercial use but rather to test the room's sound and a new ribbon microphone. As Alderson says in his notes, this was the only time he made a live recording with a single mic and, yes, there have been grumblings from fans and critics about the sound quality and mix particularly the dominance of Elvin Jones' drums. For me, one the best things about this is that you hear how integral Jones is not just as a fulcrum for the other soloists but as an inventive polyrhythmic presence, playing within and around his bandmates. I know that many of the Dusted crew are Coltrane fans and would love to hear your takes on the music and whether the single mic recording affects your enjoyment in any way.

Andrew Forell

youtube

Justin Cober-Lake: There's so much to get into here, but I'll respond to your most direct question. The single-mic recording doesn't affect my enjoyment at all. I understand (sort of) the complaints, but I think they overstate the problem. More to the point, when I hear an archival release, I really want to get something new out of it. That doesn't mean I want a bad recording, but there's not too much point in digging up yet-another-nearly-the-same show (and I have nearly unlimited patience for Coltrane releases) or outtakes that give the cuts the same basic idea but just don't do it as well. I was really looking forward to hearing Coltrane and Dolphy interact, and nothing here disappoints. Having Jones so dominant just means I get to hear and think more about the role he plays in this combo. It would sound better to have the other instruments a little more to the fore, but it's not a problem (and actually Tyner's the one I wish I could hear a little better).

I think your topic suggests ideas about what these sorts of recordings — when made publicly available — are for. Is it academic material (the way we might look at a writer's journals or correspondence)? Is it to get truly new and good music out there? Is it a commercial ploy? Is it a time capsule to get us in the moment? The best curating does at least three of those with the commercial aspect a hoped-for benefit. This one probably hits all four, but I suspect the recording pushes it a little more toward that first category.

Bill Meyer: I’m playing this for the first time as I type, and I’m only to track three, so my (ahem) impressions could not be fresher.

First, I’ll say that, like Justin, I have a lot of time for Coltrane, and especially the quartet/quintet music from the Impulse years. The band’s on point, it sounds like Dolphy is sparking Coltrane, and Jones is firing up the whole band. Tyner’s low in the mix and Workman’s more felt than heard; the recording probably reflects what it was like to actually hear this band most nights, i.e. Jones and the horn(s) were overwhelming.

How essential is it? If you’re a deep student of Coltrane, there are no inessential records, and the chance to hear him with Dolphy, fairly early on, should not be passed up. But if you’re big fan, not a scholar, then you need to get The Complete 1961 Village Vanguard Recordings box and the 7-CD set, Live Trane: The European Tours, before you drop a penny on this album. And if you’re just curious, start with Impressions. This group is hardly under-documented. The sound quality, while tolerable, is compromised enough to make Evenings At The Village Gate less essential than everything I just mentioned.

I’m only just now starting to play “Africa,” so I’ll check in again after I play that.

“Africa” might be the best reason for a merely curious listener to get this album. It’s very exploratory, the bass conversation is almost casual (not a phrase I use much when discussing Coltrane), and they manage to tap into the piece’s inherent grandeur by the end.

“Africa” is a great example of this band working out what they’re doing while they’re doing it.

Andrew Forell: On Justin’s points about the function of archival releases, I’ve been going back and forth on the academic versus time capsule/good music uncovered question. There is a degree of cynicism and skepticism in these days of multidisc, anniversary box sets in arrays of tastefully colored vinyl which seemed designed for the super(liquid)fan and cater to a mix of nostalgia and fetish. Having said that specialist archival labels have done us a great service unearthing so much "lost" and under-represented music. On one hand I agree with your summation and to Bill’s point, yes this quintet has been pretty thoroughly documented and yes the Vanguard tapes would be the place to start. But purely as a fan I am more interested in live recordings than discs of out- and alternative takes. I’m thinking for example of the 1957 Monk/Coltrane at Carnegie Hall and Dolphy’s 1963 Illinois concert especially his solo rendition of “God Bless the Child," recordings that sat in archives for 48 and 36 years respectively.

youtube

By contrast, the other recent Coltrane excavation, Both Directions at Once is wonderful but I’m not listening to it as an academic exercise, taking notes and mulling over the different takes, interesting as they are. I approach Evenings as another opportunity to hear two great musicians, in a live setting, early on in their short partnership. As Justin says, this aspect doesn’t disappoint. I agree with Bill that the mix is close to what you would you hear in the room, the drums and horns to the fore. All this is a long way to a short answer. A moment in time, a band we’ll never experience in person and when all is said and done, 80 minutes of music I’d otherwise not hear.

Jonathan Shaw: As a relative newb to this music, I can't contribute cogently to discussions of this set's relative value. Most of the Coltrane I've listened to closely is from very late in his life, when he was playing wild and free--big fan of the set from Temple University in 1966 and the Live at the Village Vanguard Again! record from the same year. None of that is music I understand, but I feel it and respond to it strongly. The only Dolphy I've listened to closely is Out There. So I'll be the naif here.

I need to listen to these songs another few times before I can say anything about them as songs, but I really love the right-there-ness of the sound. I like being pushed around by the drums and squeezed between the horns (the first few minutes of "Greensleeves" are delightful in that respect). Maybe I'm lucky to come to the music with so little context. It's a thrill to hear the playing of these folks, about whom there is so much talk of collective genius. Perhaps because my ears are so raw to these sounds, I feel like that talk is being fleshed out for me.

Jim Marks: I think that this release has both academic and aesthetic (if that’s the right word) significance for Dolphy’s presence alone. I am more familiar with the original releases than the various re-releases from the period, but it’s my impression that there just isn’t that much Dolphy and Trane out there; for instance, I think Dolphy appears on just one cut of the Village Vanguard recordings (again, at least the original release). In particular, I’ve heard and loved various versions of “Favorite Things,” but this one seems unique for the six-plus-minute flute solo that opens the track. The solo is both brilliant in itself and creates a thrilling contrast with Coltrane when he comes in. This track alone is worth the price of admission for me.

Marc Medwin: I agree concerning Dolphy's importance to these performances, and while there is indeed plenty of Coltrane and Dolphy floating around (he took part in the Africa/Brass sessions that gave us both Africa and a big band version of "Greensleeves") his playing is really edgy here. Bill is right to point toward the sparks Dolphy's playing showers on the music. Yes, the flute on "My Favorite Things" is really stunning. He's all over the instrument, even more so than in those solos I've heard from the group's time in Europe.

Jon, I'd suggest that there's a strong link between the albums you mention and the Village Gate recordings we're discussing, a kind of continuum into which you're tapping when you describe the excitement generated by the playing. The musicians were as excited at the time as we are on hearing it all now! It was all new territory, the descriptors were in the process of forming, and while Cecil Taylor, Ornette Coleman, Sun Ra and a small group of kindred spirits were already exploring the spaceways, they were marginalized. That may be a component of the case today, but it's tempered by a veneration unimaginable at the time. That's part of the reason Dolphy lived in apartments where the snow came through the walls. Coltrane had plenty to lose by alienating the critics, but ultimately, it did not stop his progress. These recordings mark an early stage of that halting but inexorable voyage. With the possible exception of OM, Coltrane's final work never abandoned the tonal and modal extremes at which he was grabbing in the spring and summer of 1961.

Jennifer Kelly: Like Jon, I'm not well enough versed in this stuff to put it context or even really offer an opinion. I'm enjoying it a lot, and I, also, like the roughness and liveness of the mix with the foregrounded drums. But I think mostly what I am drawn to is the idea that this show happened in 1961, the year I was born, and that these sounds were lost for decades, and now you can hear them again, not just the music but the room tone, the people applauding, the shuffling of feet etc. from people who are almost all probably dead now. It seems incredibly moving, and I am also taken by the part that the library took in this, in conserving this stuff and forgetting it had it and then rediscovering it. In this age of online everything-available-all-the-time, that seems remarkable to me, and proves that libraries are so crucial to civilization now and always, even as they're under threat.

Marc Medwin: A real time machine, isn't it? We are fortunate that we have these documents at all, and yes, the story of the tapes resurfacing is a compelling one! To your observations, audience reaction seems pretty enthusiastic to music that would eventually be dubbed anti-jazz by prominent members of the critical establishment!

Bill Meyer: I can imagine this music being more sympathetically received by audiences experiencing its intensity, whereas critics might have fretted because it represented a paradigm shift away from bebop models, so they had to decide if it was jazz or not.

It is amusing, given the knowledge we have of what Coltrane would be playing in five years, that this music is where a lot of critics drew a line in the sane and said, "this is antijazz."

Jon Shaw: Yes, Bill, that seems bonkers to me. I am particularly moved by the minutes in that 1966 set at Temple when Coltrane abandons his horn altogether and starts beating his chest and humming and grunting. Wonder what the chin-stroking jazz authorities made of that.

Given my points of reference, this set sounds so much more musically conventional. But the emotional force of the music is still immediate, viscerally present. Beautifully so.

youtube

Andrew Forell: In retrospect, all those arguments seem kind of crazy. Yesterday’s heresies become tomorrow’s orthodoxies but what we’re left with is, as Jonathan says, the visceral beauty of Coltrane’s striving for transcendence and his interplay with Dolphy’s extraordinary talent which we hear here working as a catalyst for Coltrane. As Marc and Jen note the audience is there with them..

Come Shepp, Sanders & Rashid Ali, the inquisitors’ fulminations only increased and you think what weren’t you hearing?

Marc Medwin: I was just listening to a Jaimie Branch interview where she's talking about her visual art, about throwing down a lot of material and finding the forms within it. I think that might be another throughline in Coltrane's and certainly Dolphy's work, a gradual discarding of traditional forms and poossibly structures based on what I hate to call intuition, because it diminishes the process.

Then, I was thinking again about our discussion of the critics. I see their role, or their assessment of that role, as a kind of investment without reward, and yeah, it does seem bonkers now! Bill Dixon once talked about how the writers might spend considerable time and expend commensurate energy learning to pick out "I Got Rhythm" on the piano, and they're suddenly confronted with... well, the sounds we're discussing! What would you do, or have done, in that situation? It's really easy for me, like shooting fish in the proverbial barrel, to disparage critical efforts of the time, especially in light of the ideas and philosophies Branch and so many others are at liberty and encouraged to play and express now, but I wonder how I would have reacted, what my biases and predilections would have involved at that pivotal moment.

Ian Mathers: The points about historical reception are really interesting, I think. There's a famous (in Canada!) bunch of Canadian painters called the Group of Seven, hugely influential on Canadian art in the 20th century and still well known today. In all the major museums, reproductions everywhere, etc. They were largely landscape painters, and while I think most of the work is beautiful, it's so culturally prominent that it runs the risk of seeming boring or staid. I literally grew up with it being around! So it was a delightful shock to read a group biography of them (Ross King's Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution of the Group of Seven, if anyone is hankering for some CanCon) and see from contemporary reviews that people were so shocked and appalled by the vividness of their colour palettes and other aesthetic choices that they were practically called anti-art at the time. It's not surprising to me that this music would both attract similar furore at the time and, from the vantage point of a new listener in 2022 who loves A Love Supreme and some of the other obvious works but hasn't delved particularly far into Dolphy, Coltrane live, or this era in jazz in general (that would be me), be heard and felt as great, exciting, but not exactly formally radical stuff.

I don't think I would have noticed much about the recording quality were people not talking about it. "My Favorite Things" seems to have the overall volume down a bit, but still seemed pretty clear to me (agree with the assessments above; Coltrane, Dolphy, and Jones very forward, others further back although even when less prominent I find myself 'following' Tyner's work through these tracks more often than not), and starting with "When Lights Are Low" that seems to be corrected. It actually sounds pretty great to me! Although I absolutely defer to Bill's recommendations for better starting places for serious investigations, I can also say as a casual but interested fan who tends to quail in the face of box sets and other similarly lengthy efforts this feels from my relatively ignorant vantage like a perfectly nice place to start. I like Justin's rubric for why these releases might come about (or be valuable), but if I hadn't heard any Coltrane and you just gave me this one, my unnuanced perspective would just be something like "wow, this is great!" But maybe I'm underthinking it. And having that reaction doesn't mean that others aren't right to recommend better/more edifying entry points, or that having that reaction shouldn't lead one to educate oneself.

Jonathan Shaw: Maybe it's a lucky thing for me to be so poorly versed in Coltrane's music, not just in the sense of having listened to precious little of it. I am even less familiar with the catalog of music criticism, which in jazz seems to me voluminous, archival in scale. But even with music I'm extensively engaged with — historically, critically — I try to understand it and also to feel it. I can't imagine not feeling what's exciting in this music, energizing and challenging in equal measure.

Like Marc, I don't want to recursively impugn the critical writing of folks working in very different contexts. But I don't like it when the thinking gets in the way of the music's emotional and aesthetic force, which to me feels unmistakably powerful here.

Ian Mathers: Yeah, maybe that's a good distinction to draw; I can imagine in a different time and place feeling like the music here is more radical or challenging than it sounds to us now. But I can't quite imagine not getting a visceral thrill out of it.

Marc Medwin: And doesn't this contradiction get at the essence of what we're trying to do? Those of us who've chosen to write about music are absolutely stuck grasping at the ephemeral in whatever way we're able! How do we balance the ordering of considerations and explanations in unfolding sentences with the spontaneity of action and reaction that made us pick up a pen in the first place?! We add and subtract layers of whatever that alchemical intersection of meaning and energy involves that hits so hard and compels us to write! In fact, the more time I'm spending with these snapshots of summer 1961, the more I decamp from my own philosophizing about critical relativity to sit beside Ian. The stuff is powerful and original, and the fact that so much of what we're hearing now is a direct result of those modal explorations and harmonically inventive interventions says that the dissenting voices were fundamentally, if understandably, wrong! It could be that the musician can be inclusive in a way the writer simply can't.

I'm listening to "Africa" again, which is for me the disc's biggest single revelation in that it's the only concert version we have, so far as I know. How exciting is that Jones solo, and how much does it say about his art and the group's collective art?!! He starts out in this kind of "Latin" groove with layers of swing and syncopation over it, he goes into a melodic/motivic thing like you'd eventually hear Ginger Baker doing on Toad, and then eases back into the groove, all (if no editing has occured) in about two minutes. He's got the music's history summed up in the time it would take somebody to get through a proper hello!! Took me longer to scribble about it than for him to play it!!

Justin Cober-Lake: I'm not sure if Marc is making me want to put down or pick up a pen, but he's definitely making me want to listen to "Africa" again. (Not that I needed much encouragement.)

Andrew Forell: Africa/Brass was the first jazz album I bought. Coming from post-punk, I found it immediately the most exciting and challenging music I’d heard and it set me off on my exploration of Coltrane, Dolphy, Coleman and their contemporaries. This version of “Africa” is a highlight for me also for all the reasons Marc, Ian and Jon have talked about.

Bill Meyer: Yeah, "Africa" is quite the jam!

A thought about critical perspective — our discussion has gotten me thinking, not for the first time, about the impacts of measures upon experience, and the limits of critical thinking when I’m also an avid listener. If I’m listening for “the best” Coltrane/Dolphy, in terms of sound quality or most focused performances, this album isn’t it. But if I’m looking for excitement, this album has loads of it, and that might be enhanced by the drums-forward mix.

15 notes · View notes

theneoncaster · 1 year ago

Text

This October I'm running a MASSIVE TTRPG streaming event on TheNeonCaster Twitch channel - 7 one-shots across the month, GMed by myself and memberso f my Actual Play community!

The lineup is as follows:

Saturday 14th October 4-6.30pm BST/11am-1.30pm EDT: Death in Space - Old Mountain Home 7-10pm BST/2-5pm EDT: Eat the Reich - Grave Hage

Sunday 15th October 7-10pm BST/2-5pm EDT: Spire x Blades in the Dark - Chant of the Void Sea

Saturday 21st October 3-6.30pm BST/11am-1.30pm EDT: Delta Green - Operation Excelsior 7-10pm BST/2-5pm EDT: Justicar - AI Attorney: Asimov's Law

Saturday 28th October 3-6pm BST/10am-1pm EDT: Ritual - Digital Demonology 7-10pm BST/2-5pm EDT: Mork Borg - Under A Caged Star: Stellar Ascension

More info on what each games like (and teasers on their vastly different art directions) after the cut.

Starting off on Saturday 14th October is Goblin VTuber Sheela Ornthalas running Death in Space! Channelling retro spacefaring anime, a group escaping an old space station join the crew of a certainly suspicious ship.

Also on Sat 14th Oct, @urbanfriendden runs the so-fresh it-bleeding Eat the Reich from Rowan Rook & Decard! To defeat the nazis in the Hague, rebel artists dropped the Bosch Bomb, unleashing oil paint horrors. Now, vampire agents finish the job.

A surprise Sunday session on the 15th October is a fusion of Spire and Blades in the Dark, run by yours truly!

A spiritual sequel to our previous minicampaign in Blades in the Dark, Escape to the Void Sea. Hedonist gang Smile, the Widest wade into a growing conflict between practitioners of Radio and Ocean magic.

On Sat 21st October we have Boston drag queen and AP performer Juicy Garland running Delta Green! In present-day NYC, a series of murder victims are inscribed with occult markings. Can the Agents find the killer before they strike again?

Later on Sat 21st Oct is Irregular Joe running courtroom drama RPG Justicar from Nevyn Holmes. In the name of justice, even AIs stand trial! A surreal, improvised court case with VTubers, stock photo models and... pancakes?!

Our last event day is Sat 28th Oct, featuring a channel first - a solo RPG! I'm running the coming-soon Ritual from Hive Mind Creates. I'll be chanting, inscribing and tarot reading to protect myself from demonic attack!

And our final show! Following a previous coastal horror one-shot on our channel is a sci-fi hack of Mork Borg, run by Tom Greenwood. As a planet mined to exhaustion orbits the Caged Star in its twilight years, a group of scavengers look to a space elevator to escape.

Phew! That's a lot of shows! We collectively put a huge amount of work into making this event happen, so please so join us on The Neon Caster twitch channel across the month, and share with other TTRPG-loving folks you know!

#ttrpg #actual play #indie ttrpg #twitch #livestream

11 notes · View notes

llpodcast · 7 months ago

Audio

(Literary License Podcast)

Join us on the Literary License Podcast as we delve deeper into the intriguing world of dark family films. In this episode, we discuss the engrossing narratives of two cinematic masterpieces, "Dark Crystal" and "Labyrinth". These films, defined by their potent fusion of the gruesome with the stunning, encourage children to explore narratives that are often deeply symbolic and spiritual.

Listen in as we shed light on the intricate puppetry and artistry in "Dark Crystal", a dark fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz. Despite initially receiving mixed reviews, the richly textured plot, distinctive aesthetic, and well-rounded characters have cultivated a passionate following over time. Journey with us as we uncover this captivating blend of artistry and story-telling.

As the conversation progresses, we get lost in the fantastical world of "Labyrinth", another ingenious collaboration between Henson and renowned fantasy illustrator Brian Froud. From Froud’s unique faerie and dwarf designs to Henson’s visionary puppetry, we discuss how these creative forces created inviting worlds for children to delve into the symbolic and profound aspects of the narratives.

Dive into rich, thought-provoking discussions on these two films with us. From Vicky Rae's first reactions to "The Dark Crystal" to insights from Joe Randazzo on the depths of puppetry as an art form, our team promises to bring fresh perspectives and interesting trivia. Hit play, sit back, and let us take you on an unexpected journey into the weird and wonderful world of dark fantasy films.

00:00:40 - Films that scare, entice, and invite children into the underbelly of life as we know it; 00:04:39 - Journey into the Dark Crystal Realm with Vicky and Joe; 00:27:21 - Enter the Labyrinth: A Tale of Music and Magic; 00:30:55 - Exploring Labyrinth; 00:37:48 - The World of Goblins - 00:42:31 - Comedic Goblin King; 00:43:50 - Puzzles and RPG Vibes; 00:46:59 - 80s Horror Nostalgia; 00:49:36 - TV Series Dilemmas; 00:51:56 - Yellow Jackets Excitement; 00:53:15 - Brad Pitt’s Improvisation; 00:55:21 - Tom Cruise and Height Banter; 00:56:16 - Rating Labyrinth; 00:59:06 - Magic Dance - David Bowie - Taken from the Motion Picture Soundtrack Labyrinth

#SoundCloud #music #Literary License Podcast #Dark Families #Dark Crystal #Labyrinth #Jim Henson

0 notes

openingnightposts · 8 months ago

Link

#Beatnik #EastVillage #EdwardAKliszus #LaMama #NewYorkTheater #OffBroadway

0 notes

kain888 · 9 months ago

Text

Eliminating the 12 Biggest lies in life can reveal the truths about us.

Living is as a process which may turn back on itself, or simply follow a predetermined plan, but in the end, it is the combination of these experiences that makes up the human being. Yet, it is when these preconceptions appear in our route of exposure that they are incorporated into our view of the world. Let's unravel the 12 biggest lies that life may throw our way:

1. Abundance is Scarce Contrary to the notion that resources and money are few. being enough are, in fact, plenty, and the world has limitless potential. Acknowledging the potential for abundance could lend itself to mountains of new experiences.

2. The Here after Paradox of life The idea, we will cease living when we die is something that alot of people can't still comprehend completely. whe we die we become energy and return to the universe with the knowledge that we have gained and if we have learned what was need we move on to the next life path.

3. Predetermined Paths As life is a worthwhile not scripted trip ; it's a dynamic journey. It's the idea that everything is decided beforehand which makes us worse prisoners of the aging process and we are not in position to find a different freely chosen way. we have set markers to meet and will be always given a choice. Embracing your life's uncharted paths and take active involvement in the construction of your story.

4. The Endless Grind Paradoxically, work does not mean producing or going to toil incessantly until death; prioritizing a balance life dictates enjoyment of all its forms. Actually, your passions are major keys to success and are of paramount importance.

5. Purposelessness The theory that your life had no reason to be born, not only sounds weird, but it also is absurd. Going deep into the reality of life and searching for the life-fulfilling path is an individual road which every person must take each time we come back.

6. Emotional Stigma It is fine to be sad or scared; those are part of the human life. It is not ment for us to live there. Vulnerability is the key to becoming more resilient individuals and engaging in authentic relationships with other people.

7. Birthplace Determines Destiny Your birth place doesn't make you any less successful. Though experiences differ, a slight sense of invincibility and iron determination can exceed any obstacle. Choose your strong sides and mark out your goals.

8. Fate's Role "If it's meant to be, it will be," is one of the oversimplified depictions of the real world difficulties. Success more commonly is as a result of making the first effort, being able to learn from errors, and persisting through difficulties with strength.

9. The existence of God Thereby God being a subjective and individual notion. Whichever way whether one accedes or not to spirituality, tolerance for various outlooks will enhances your world and give you a brighter outlook.

10. Illusion of Control However, only a certain level influence is in your power, being a full control is an illusion. being open to change and mastering the art of improvising and patience will give you true control over your life.

11. From the Ashes Rise a New Dawn (Your past does not define you) The future is not based on your past. Experience, learn lessons, grow, and shape the path of your life. Change is always constant it just requires action for it to move in a direction

12. True Wealth Material things don’t make you rich. Relationships, experiences and children are just some of the elements that bring true wealth to your life.

Life especially its trip is varied as well as multi-faceted. Through defying such falsities, we can move towards an informed and empowering standpoint that will provide opportunity for self-development and broader knowledge of the world outside.

Life's journey is complex and multifaceted. By challenging these falsities, we can embrace and move towards an informed and empowering standpoint that will provide opportunity for self-development and broader knowledge of the world outside.

#life coaching #mental health #overcoming #personal development

0 notes

zenfilmmaking · 10 months ago

Text

The Maverick of Mindfulness: Scott Shaw and the Art of Zen Filmmaking

Few figures in contemporary cinema embrace the unorthodox as vehemently as Scott Shaw. An author, martial artist, and filmmaker, Shaw has carved his own path, rejecting convention in favor of a practice he terms "Zen Filmmaking." This essay delves into Shaw's life, philosophy, and cinematic techniques, exploring his unique contribution to the world of film and its impact on both audiences and the industry itself.

From Martial Arts to Mindfulness:

Shaw's journey began far from the silver screen. An accomplished martial artist, he found himself drawn to Eastern philosophy, particularly the tenets of Zen Buddhism. The emphasis on mindfulness, improvisation, and living in the present resonated deeply, influencing both his martial arts practice and his burgeoning interest in filmmaking.

Breaking the Script: The Core of Zen Filmmaking:

Shaw's films defy traditional filmmaking norms. Gone are the rigid scripts and pre-defined narratives. Instead, Zen Filmmaking embraces spontaneity, improvisation, and an intuitive approach. Actors receive minimal direction, encouraged to respond organically to their environment and each other. The camera lingers on seemingly mundane details, inviting viewers to slow down and appreciate the present moment.

Shaw's Signature Style:

Several techniques mark Shaw's films as distinctively Zen:

Minimalism: Simple sets, natural lighting, and subdued color palettes create a stripped-down aesthetic, eliminating distractions and emphasizing the essence of the scene.

Improvisation: Actors improvise dialogue and actions, mirroring the Zen emphasis on letting go of preconceived notions and embracing the unknown.

Long Takes: Uninterrupted shots immerse viewers in the present moment, fostering a sense of timelessness and contemplation.

Silence: Dialogue is sparse, emphasizing the power of nonverbal communication and leaving space for introspection.

Impact and Influence:

Zen filmmaking isn't for everyone. Its slow pace and lack of clear narratives can be challenging for audiences accustomed to Hollywood fare. Yet, for those willing to surrender to its rhythm, the rewards are profound. Shaw's films offer a meditative experience, inviting viewers to be present in the moment, appreciate the beauty of the ordinary, and contemplate the deeper questions of life.

Beyond Entertainment: A Path to Awakening:

Shaw's work transcends mere entertainment. He views filmmaking as a form of personal and spiritual exploration, an opportunity to cultivate mindfulness and connect with one's authentic self. This is reflected in his workshops and teachings, where he guides aspiring filmmakers to access their inner creativity and embrace the Zen principles that define his unique style.

Criticisms and Controversies:

Zen Filmmaking isn't without its detractors. Some find its approach self-indulgent and criticize its lack of clear narratives. Shaw's unconventional methods and independent spirit have also clashed with the commercial constraints of the film industry.

A Legacy of Innovation:

Despite the challenges, Scott Shaw remains a force of innovation in the cinematic landscape. His dedication to Zen principles and his unwavering commitment to artistic freedom have challenged preconceived notions of filmmaking and offered a unique perspective on storytelling. He continues to inspire aspiring filmmakers and push the boundaries of cinematic expression, leaving a lasting legacy as a true maverick of the art form.

Conclusion:

Scott Shaw's Zen Filmmaking stands as a testament to the power of embracing the unorthodox. By blending Eastern philosophy with cinematic techniques, he has created a space for contemplation, introspection, and a unique experience of the present moment. While not for everyone, his films offer a valuable alternative to mainstream cinema, reminding us of the potential art holds to elevate and awaken. As Shaw himself declares, "Zen Filmmaking is not about making movies, it's about making life." With this philosophy, he continues to guide both filmmakers and audiences on a journey beyond the screen, towards a deeper understanding of self and a profound appreciation for the fleeting beauty of the present moment.

#scott shaw #zen filmmaking

0 notes

rk-ocs · 2 years ago

Text

Strength (unnamed persona character]

Horoscope reading

---

June 24, 1996

- SECRET LANGUAGE NAME -

COMPASSIONATE BLISSFUL WIZARD

- PERSONALITY TRAITS OF THIS DAY -

SKILLFUL

IMAGINITIVE

MAGICAL

AFFECTIONATE

SEDUCTIVE

OBJECTIVE

GOAL‑ORIENTED

COURAGEOUS

IDEALISTIC TROUBLED

DESTRUCTIVE

OBLIVIOUS

ISOLATED

SELFISH

DEMANDING

OVERLY EMOTIONAL

CRITICAL

PETTY

The Day of the Blissful Wizard

Traits...

SKILLFUL

IMAGINITIVE

MAGICAL

TROUBLED

DESTRUCTIVE

OBLIVIOUS

Meditation...

An artist is an instrument through which the Universe reveals itself

Advice...

Examine the effects of your work objectively and consider them from an ethical point of view.

Keep in touch with society’s values, if only to know what they are.

Beware of becoming too withdrawn or isolated.

Personality of this day...

Those born on June 24 are often completely taken up with their vocation, art or business concerns. The more highly evolved individuals born on this day devote themselves to creative, positive projects; the less highly evolved contribute their energies to undertakings with a decidedly negative or destructive cast. Both are equally involved, particularly in a technical sense, since June 24 people develop their own particular approach to their activities down to the last detail. Technique for these individuals is not so much an objective study which can be learned by everyone, but rather a highly personal set of tools which allows them to express themselves unhindered and master what they do.

Poorly evolved individuals are, of course, headed in the opposite direction, preferring conflict, hurt, pain, struggle and domination. It is unlikely but not impossible that the less evolved can turn their values around in a single lifetime, but since many of us are now granted a lifespan in excess of eighty-four years (one Uranus cycle), in a sense, more than one lifetime can be lived, offering opportunity for tremendous change. This change can come about through study, increased self-awareness, raised consciousness, influential experiences and above all, the basic desire to improve oneself.

June 24 people have what could be described as religious fervor for their principal activity. They strive for self-discipline and are capable of tremendous feats of concentration. They value a flowing, natural, spontaneous, somewhat improvised work method, but one backed by iron-clad technical skills. Even amoral June 24 people come to be aware that their work holds great potential for both good and bad ends. Those born on this day often encounter a severe mid-life crisis in their early forties concerning their ethics.

Above all, June 24 people want to be left alone to do what they love most, and therefore their family and friends must be highly understanding of the strict privacy they need for their work. Occasionally those born on this day venture out to perform on a high level in the world, but usually do their most important work in the confines of their safe, and often secret, home base. Those June 24 people who work in offices or primarily out in society usually value their home life more than their work, and reserve the larger part of their energies for personal interests.

Health...

Because of the above-mentioned tendency of June 24 people to enter a state of blissful fervor, they tend to lose touch with practical realities, which can have disastrous health consequences. June 24 people often face cardiovascular, respiratory and gastric difficulties. The practice of meditation, which promotes and allows for an emptying of thoughts and emotions, can be helpful in heading off these physical problems. June 24 people respond well to a strict and basic diet, with regular mealtimes. Such a diet not only serves to ground them, but also reduces excess aggression, as does a more limited consumption of meat and sugar. Nicotine and alcohol use should be limited, if not eliminated altogether.

Numerology...

Those born on the 24th day of the month are ruled by the number 6 (2+4=6), and by the planet Venus. Because those ruled by the number 6 are magnetic in attracting love and admiration, and since Venus is strongly connected with social interaction, it may be a struggle at times for June 24 people to get the privacy which they need for their work. Since the astrology of Cancer lends strong Moon influences, and the number 6 shows the primary influence of Venus, those born on June 24 will be even more highly prone to blissful, imaginative states. Often love becomes the dominant theme in the lives of those ruled by this number.

Archetype...

As if to emphasize this last point, the 6th card of the Major Arcana is The Lovers, symbolizing the love that unites all of humanity through integration of masculine and feminine polarities. On the good side this card indicates affections and desires on a high moral, aesthetic and physical plane; on the bad side, unfulfilled desires, sentimentality and indecisiveness. Because of the influences of the Moon and Venus which are already present, those born on June 24 will have to keep a handle on projective fantasies and beware of being carried away with regard to love, relationships and beauty.

The Week of Magic

Traits of this week...

AFFECTIONATE

SEDUCTIVE

OBJECTIVE

ISOLATED

SELFISH

DEMANDING

Advice...

Exercise your magical powers with care.

You may need to be a bit tougher on yourself.

Keep your eye on the goal and resist any tendency to drift.

Do not lose yourself so readily in ecstatic experiences or you may have trouble finding yourself again.

Beware of repressing your feelings or allowing destructive emotions to control you.

Personality of this week...

Those born during the Week of Magic quickly fall under the spell of enchantment. Romantic and inspirational, they often put forth their talents and energies in service of a higher purpose, be it family, religion, philosophy, arts or political or social causes. Because they can wholeheartedly throw themselves into devotional activities, they often appear as mild, even self-effacing. For many of them, anonymity is a goal in any career they follow. There are also more aggressive folks, however, who become assertive as they mature and have few problems letting the world know who they are.

Easily seduced, they can also enchant others, whether consciously or unconsciously; such seductive individuals may have a sweetly innocent charm. They must be wary of being imposed upon, but they usually have good defensive instincts, and in the emotional sphere even mild individuals will gently lay down guidelines that should not be overstepped. The more aggressive of them are often aware of their persuasive powers, which they may use without qualm to get their way, even when other individuals are hurt in the process.

Although possessed of charm and magnetism, they can be remarkably cool customers. They have a useful objectivity, and their reasoning powers make an effective foil to their deep emotions. They are in fact an interesting blend of logic and feeling. When they make an appeal to the emotions of others, they do so in a detached, thoughtful way. Not easily upset, they inspire confidence through their sympathy, concern and willingness to help. They have a way of entering the hearts of those they love, and a reluctance to give up their position there, even when separations prove necessary.

These tend to be private people who will not easily grant access to their inner world. They frequently do best when they are able to work at home, and they often set up their home as a kind of retreat or sanctuary. To be allowed to share their living space implies great trust and respect. An invitation to visit this highly personal world is more often felt as a true gift, or the reflection of a desire to share, than as a sign of ostentation or of a need for sociability.

These folks must beware of isolating themselves from the society around them and living in an unproductive dreamworld. Such detachment will hold them back in their personal and spiritual development, and toward the end of their lives they may view it as a sign of failure. Since staying in touch with reality is especially important for them, they may find friends and lovers who are more extroverted than they are an essential link to the world. They should also beware of a kind of passive selfishness, in which it seems to others that they think the world revolves around them and that they constantly demand attention, if without saying so. Their special needs and wants as sensitive individuals can impose heavy demands on their friends and intimates, who may at the same time find themselves denying their own emotional and physical requirements.

No area is more important to them than love. They see love as a primary reason to live, one that may get them through many a difficult period. Forced to choose between love, on the one hand, and wealth or power, on the other, they usually choose the former. Many are quite able to love from afar; platonic love has a special meaning for them. Others see the possession of the love object as a necessary and blissful consummation, but they, too, are patient in the pursuit. Quiet persistence and a belief in their powers can guarantee them success.

They have a tremendous capacity for love but are equally capable of withholding it. No matter how deeply in love they fall, they are masters of their emotions and can consequently be very dangerous people to be involved with. You must listen to them carefully, for although they can give their hearts fully, the fact that they are spending their time with you is no guarantee that they have done so. They are capable of a wide range of personal interaction, from acquaintances and friendships to full-blown passion. Each relationship will have its own structure, including what is and is not allowed in the area of physical contact. Sensitivity to such laws is definitely a prerequisite for the relationship’s future.

They can be nurturing parents, but many will think twice before they make the lifelong commitment of having children. This may be because, as children, they tend to enjoy the warmth of a close family; they can suffer terribly in conditions of marital strife or divorce. They have a tendency to idolize at least one of their parents, and to need to get along well with their parents once they are grown. It is not surprising, then, that once they decide they are truly in love (generally an important prerequisite to commitment for them), they can make faithful and devoted mates. Never take the romantic needs of those born during the Week of Magic for granted, however; candlelight dinners, vacations in glamorous locations, and the occasional spontaneous gift are all musts to keep the flame bright.

The Way of Compassion

Traits of this way...

GOAL‑ORIENTED

COURAGEOUS

IDEALISTIC

OVERLY EMOTIONAL

CRITICAL

PETTY

Suggestions...

Develop a moral code, and live by it.

Find some way to serve others, and stick to it.

Their goal...

TO BE WORTHY OF THE TRUST OF OTHERS

They must release...

THE NEED FOR VANITY AND EGO AFFIRMATION

Their reward...

THE JOY OF GIVING OF ONESELF

Their balance point...

PERSONAL NEEDS & SOCIETAL NEEDS

Personality of this way...

Those born during the Way of Compassion must learn to mute their own ego drives so that they can become a part of what goes on around them rather than forever demanding to be at the center of things. These people are here to develop a greater commitment to, understanding of, and concern for others. Because these individuals are gifted with the ability to implement their visions, by developing a deeper compassion they have the potential to help create a better world by working toward a greater good—whether for their own families, their community, or society in general. Learning selflessness is an extremely difficult assignment for these individuals, entering the world as they do with a radiant energy that attracts attention and inspires admiration. However, in order to grow, they must learn to direct the spotlight away from themselves and onto the more important concerns, ideas, or causes of others. Instead of being a single star at the center of their own solar system, they must learn to become one of many in a whole social galaxy.

The most successful will firmly set aside their selfish aims to work tirelessly for the common welfare and good. The core lesson here is that the best interests of a group can be congruent with their own self-interest and that by advancing the cause of their coworkers, family, political group, municipality, country, or humanity as a whole, they are, in fact, advancing their own cause as well. First, however, they must have the capacity to understand what the common good actually is. Assisting such an identification process is their innate visionary ability. The trick for these energetic, on-the-go individuals is stopping long enough in their busy lives to broaden their vision enough to understand those around them. They can transform themselves by using their considerable energies selflessly in defense of an entire group.

Unavoidably, these individuals must learn about the nature of compassion. Involving both empathy and sympathy, compassion requires the ability to place oneself in someone else’s shoes: to feel as they feel, to see as they see, and to care what happens to them. For these folks, both of these skills will need some significant further development. Often they will be confronted by some important lessons involving loss or suffering that will ultimately give them the ability to relate to those less fortunate than themselves. These lessons can take many forms: suffering due to addiction; struggling with their own illness or that of a loved one; money problems, such as undergoing bankruptcy; or the death of near family members. They may also occur on a smaller, less traumatic scale, simply as part of the wounds of everyday life. But it is how they deal with their own personal misfortunes that is significant. Will they devolve into selfpity, or will they rise above it all and perceive that they are not alone; that because of their own experience they have something to offer others? Often it is personal misfortune that sinks the well of compassion into the hearts of these men and women.

The predominant area of challenge for these individuals will be the social sphere. Any activity that draws them into contact with their fellow human beings on an equal footing will help them. First, they will be forced to hone their social skills to a fine edge. Despite their tendency to remain aloof, this will force them to mix with a wide variety of people from all walks of life—whether they like it not. By discovering the ways in which people are alike rather than different, these individuals will finally be able to begin their life’s work. This will prove to be a challenge since others are often put off by them and tend to view them, at least initially, as haughty and superior. A positive side effect of this process of forced social interaction is that they will learn much more about the ways of the world, becoming much better informed and plugged into the latest trends. Frequently, the most evolved will actually become social commentators and critics, successfully overcoming their own narrow perspective of selfinterest for the public good.

A hurdle for these folks is learning actually to give of themselves. They may become irritable when called upon to share, whether their time, their money, or even their personal feelings. All too often they will give generously up to a point and then pull back, particularly if they get little acknowledgment in return. In other cases, their success orientation may be successfully harnessed to a company or other group, but their need to keep the group in the spotlight will be only a thinly disguised extension of their own abnormal need to receive reflected glory, whatever the cost. Obviously, unless they take the time to build a strong set of human values or a moral code, they will be easily lured onto the byways of egoism.

People who initially view these folks as self-centered, narcissistic, or haughty may welcome the transformation in their personality toward more empathy, warmth, and sharing. Naturally, they should avoid sycophants who build them up through fake admiration; most often such dependent individuals are just looking for a source of power they can latch onto. Rather, these individuals would do well to seek out socially skilled people who can introduce them to other groups and individuals engaged in the kinds of humanitarian efforts that will help them progress. Any service activity will help this goal. It is quite possible for them to do a complete turnaround and to begin to live for others, in a healthy sense, rather than needily attracting attention.

Choosing a partner with more of a social conscience may help them; however, their true challenge may be in child rearing. Having children can prove an excellent test because they will have to acknowledge the daily needs of others and be forced to serve them but also to discover to what extent their selfishness has dissolved. Every bit of ego they are able to drop in this process should bring fulfillment and reward. Here, it is hoped, they will be compelled to learn how to sacrifice their own needs for the needs of their own children or other children for whom they are responsible. If this particular lesson is not learned, dire consequences are the inevitable result. These folks could well benefit from having unusually talented or special children who require even more attention, time, or care than is typical. Concerning loved ones, disabilities, illnesses and accidents will all test their ability to give of themselves unselfishly and compassionately.

What is best for them are life situations that challenge them to find a balance between their own personal needs and the needs of those who are near and dear to them. It may be crucial for them to discover the best balance between career and family life if they are truly to do the work of putting the interests of others before their own. Making promises and keeping them, giving unconditionally, and fulfilling obligations without feeling resentment will do a great deal to build the moral fiber and character of these individuals. However, it may not hurt if, every once in a while, they totally indulge themselves, since by doing so they will get the desire to do so out of their systems while perhaps realizing how empty pure selfishness can be. A renewed sense of commitment to others might even ensue.

The Way of Compassion might be likened to an individual looking into a mirror admiringly, only to watch their image dissolve and reassemble into a kaleidoscopic of smaller images, each representing various individuals in their life, past and present. This image of a multiplicity of forms making up a single one serves as a reminder that we are all connected and that even the most isolated individual is rarely alone. As the once narcissistic individual gazes admiringly into the glass, the love of self is transmuted into the love of humanity.

The Path of Compassionate Magic

The Week of Magic

travelling

The Way of Compassion

Their fulfillment...

FINDING DEEP PERSONAL FULFILLMENT IN GIVING TO OTHERS

Their challenge...

LEARNING THAT FEELING DEEPLY IS NOT THE ISSUE; TAKING ACTION IS

Personality of this configuration...

Always able to bring a touch of magic to others, there is something special about the individuals born during the Cusp of Magic when placed upon the Way of Compassion. Their deep sensitivity blesses them with a key ingredient of this path: a natural empathy for others. In fact, Cusp of Magic people can be so sensitive that they tend to isolate themselves from the world and its problems, perhaps out of fear of overloading their minds and hearts with the needs of others. Thus, the principal challenge of this configuration will be to find the balance between working for the needs of others and seeing to their own. Cusp of Magic people will doubtless be invited to experience true commitment to a cause or social structure, one that will encourage them to deepen their sometimes superficial involvements. Still, if Cusp of Magic people work to cultivate their capacity for love and fight the pull of fantasy, their success is ensured.

The Month of the Domesticator

Their motto...

I Feel

Personality of this month...

The Month of the Domesticator is the fourth month in the Personology year, representing deep feeling, protectiveness and the home. It symbolically relates to the period when the human being typically matures, settles into a home base and acquires the use of introspection as a means to understand life. Specifically, it can be compared to the evolution and refinement of emotional experience in the young adult. Having children of one’s own for the first time brings out strongly protective instincts.

This month is associated with highly personal emotions and also with the life of the subconscious. Dreams are integral to their world. If the ocean may be said to represent the universe of diffuse feeling, then this month can symbolize the crystallization of those emotions in a single being. These people hide their extremely sensitive interior from view.

People born during the Month of the Domesticator transmute airy, verbal and changeable energies into fixed, steadfast and straightforward ones.

Their personality can be likened to the young adult seeking to establish their own home, career and perhaps family for the first time. Although they are protective and they know how to wait, it is a mistake to assume these are passive individuals. They can be quite aggressive in getting what they want, but often prefer to avoid making demands—expecting others to understand their needs, sensitivities and diverse moods.

A strong bond of empathy with another person is far more important to a person born this month than reason or logic. As with the young adult, deep emotional friendship is of the utmost importance to them, and with it the corresponding need to trust and share. Indeed, they find it hard to work with those with whom they do not share a personal bond of mutual understanding.

These are often unusual people who are well aware of what sets them apart from others. Their talent for non-verbal expression is reflected in the arrangement of their home, with special emphasis on the kitchen and bedroom. Activities such as eating, sleeping, sexual expression and the sharing of affection or sympathy must be private, regular and satisfying in order to offer the unusual amount of psychological support so necessary to them. Without these, they grow nervous and irritable.

A quiet evening alone with friends can be an ecstatic experience for those born during the Month of the Domesticator. Yet, many have strange aspects to their personalities which must be periodically revealed in public. Generally speaking, appreciation is not as important to these people as is expression and release. Of course, they are particularly persuasive in the private sphere, where they best work their special brand of magic.

The Season of Development

Their mode of thought...

DEVELOPERS

Result- and reward-oriented, these folks need to pick the vegetables and fruits they grow, but also eat them too.

Concepts of this season...

Magic, Oscillation, Exposure

Their motto...

I Feel, I Create, I Serve

Elements of this season...

Water, Fire, Earth

Personality of this season...

The summer solstice usually occurs on June 21st in the northern hemisphere (this date marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere (this date marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere, but in the southern hemisphere summer begins on December 21st). At this magical time, days are longer and nights shorter than at any other time of the year. As summer wears on, however, the days shorten and the nights lengthen. Summer is the second quarter, or 90° degree segment, of the yearly cycle. It extends from the summer solstice to the fall equinox.

Summer is traditionally the period in which the new life of springtime grows to maturity. Temperatures are at their warmest during this period, and most of animal life experiences lazy afternoons when it is too hot for much movement. This is traditionally the time for vacations, for taking off from work to enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities. School is out, and more young people are thus active and about in the mornings. Colorful flowers and blossoms abound. All the fullness and abundance of nature is revealed. The rhythm of life in this quadrant is slower and more sensual, but diets tend to be lighter, and clothing freer. Life is in many respects easier in summer than at any other time of the year.

Generally speaking, those born in the summertime have more measured responses than those born in the spring and, although enthusiastic, are more critical. Their energies are perhaps a bit less focused on initiating projects and more on bringing them to fruition. Summertime people tend to be a mixture of introvert and extrovert, but feelings now play a more important role in coloring their lives. Empathic urges to help and become involved with others are strong during this period. Summertime people often experience an emotional interaction not only with people but with their work and environment.

Summertime people may not display an overwhelming need to bring their contributions out in the world. Many hidden characteristics develop at this time, and being appreciated is not always the most important thing. Rather than placing their freedom and independence above all else, summertime people are prepared to serve others and also to invest time in them. Summertime people need to be needed.

#persona series #original character #strength #june 24

0 notes

csperspectives · 2 years ago

Text

Book Review: Concerning the Spiritual in Art by Wassily Kandinsky

[disclaimer: this is a book review i wrote for my modern art class. i did combine multiple versions to create this specific one for my blog. it has the original, edited, and final version all together. the version i turned in for my modern art class is shorter, more condensed, and straight to the point. the original version of the book is in german; however, i read m.t.h sadler's translated version.]

[entry notes: i originally thought that this book will be easy to read, but I WAS COMPLETELY WRONG. and i will explain it in my review down below. this is my academia voice shining through; however, i refuse to let that dictate how i will be posting the entry.]

anyways.. here is my review on concerning the spiritual in art by wassily kandinsky

"there is no 'must' in art, because art is free... nothing is absolute" (32). m.t.h. sadler did a fantastic job translating concerning the spiritual in art by wassily kandinsky. still, this book was challenging, even with the translations, perfect grammar, and punctuation structures. throughout the book, kandinksy always refers back to the spiritual world of art, and he uses color and music as a gateway to have an intensive feeling towards art when the viewers look at it. in addition, using the spiritual world of art impacts the artist's consciousness, allowing them to create their versions of modern art. it is interesting to mention that kandinsky uses "him" and "her" when referring to painting and music; he purposely did that to pay tribute to the artists or to acknowledge that art and music are a class of things that give people life and meaning.

as mentioned earlier, kandinsky consistently refers back to the spiritual world of art; with this, every chapter has something to do with what feel about a particular artwork. he wrote the book to give an in-depth meaning of how the spiritual world affects us through art. he does an outstanding job specifying it in every painting in the book. for instance, kandinsky wrote about raphael's canigiani holy family (1508), mentioning that the various forms in the painting allow different relationships to happen, ultimately deciding the whole composition of the artwork. not only that, but the viewers can also clearly depict the form of the triangular perspective in the paining. in general, this painting provides a lot of languages through form.

[PAUSE: before i continue, i would like to note that this book review is specific to one of the chapters in kandinsky's book. let's get back into it.]

KANDINSKY'S CHAPTER: THE LANGUAGE OF FORM AND COLOUR, leverages him to use form and color as his greatest weapon. the form of the paintings alone is a powerful weapon that can release the inner suggestion of the artist. however, the use of color explodes on the canvas to provide motion and movement- kandinsky's painting: improvisation no. 29 (1912) is full of color that moves across the canvas. kandinsky's chapter provides figures that articulate and translates each color to the next, with ref in the middle of the spectrum; it shows that the motion of red can lean left in an excentric direction or right in a concentric direction.

KANDINSKY'S CHAPTER: THE LANGUAGE OF FORM AND COLOUR, is dense and challenging to understand if read once. there is always a spiritually attached to the element that may strengthen or destroy the painting. there needs to be more understanding of the inner and outer sensations of the artwork with every artist kandinsky identifies. the painting can destroy itself by using specific colors that provide no movement. without looking at the figures, it is completely hard to depict. not only that, another fault kandinsky has in the chapter is the description of the paintings. by providing many different artworks, he does not explicitly write about them well. additionally, with artworks throughout the years, they were taught to follow the instructor's style instead of preceding practice. this is one form of negativity because kandinsky states, "the inner desire for expression- which cannot be determined" (35).

with that being said, if the reader is interested in the general form, color, and theory, just as i am, they would appreciate kandinsky’s book. however, if the viewer is interested in the spiritual world of art, i recommend reading the translator’s introduction and the chapter on the psychological working of colour. this book is arduous to read, but it is eye-opening once you start reading it slower and breaking everything down.

signing off: jhanella mae

#art #music #color #kandinsky #wassily kandinsky #book review #modern art #form #colour #theory #destruction #psychology #hard #difficult #artist

1 note · View note

justforbooks · 2 years ago

Photo

The distinctive sound of Pharoah Sanders’ tenor saxophone, which could veer from a hoarse croon to harsh multi phonic screams, startled audiences in the 1960s before acting in recent years as a kind of call to prayer for young jazz musicians seeking to steer their music in a direction defined by a search for ecstasy and transcendence.

Sanders, who has died age 81, made an impact at both ends of a long career. In 1965 he was recruited by John Coltrane, an established star of the jazz world, to help push the music forward into uncharted areas of sonic and spiritual exploration.

He had just turned 80 when he reached a new audience after being invited by Sam Shepherd, the British musician and producer working under the name Floating Points, to take the solo part on the widely praised recording of an extended composition titled Promises, a concerto in which he responded with a haunting restraint to the minimalist motifs and backgrounds devised by Shepherd for keyboards and the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra.

By then he had become a vital figure in the recent revival of “spiritual jazz”, whose young exponents took his albums as inspirational texts. When he was named a Jazz Master by the US National Endowment for the Arts in 2016, musicians of all generations, from the veteran pianist Randy Weston to the young saxophonist Kamasi Washington, queued up to pay tribute.

Farrell Sanders was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, a segregated world where his mother was a school cook, his father was a council worker and he grew up steeped in the music of the church. He studied the clarinet in school before moving on to the saxophone, playing jazz and rhythm and blues in the clubs on Little Rock’s West Ninth Street, backing such visiting stars as Bobby Bland and Junior Parker. After graduating from Scipio A Jones high school, he moved to northern California, studying art and music at Oakland Junior College. Soon he was immersing himself in the local jazz scene, where he was known as “Little Rock”.

In 1961 he arrived in New York, a more high-powered and competitive but still economically straitened environment. While undergoing the young unknown’s traditional period of scuffling for gigs, he played with the Arkestra of Sun Ra, a devoted Egyptologist. Sanders soon changed his name from Farrell to Pharoah, giving himself the sort of brand recognition enjoyed by all the self-styled Kings, Dukes, Counts and Earls of earlier jazz generations.

Amid a ferment of innovation in the new jazz avant garde, Sanders formed his own quartet. The poet LeRoi Jones (later known as Amiri Baraka) was the first to take notice, writing in his column in DownBeat magazine in 1964 that Sanders was “putting it together very quickly; when he does, somebody will tell you about it”.

That somebody turned out to be Coltrane, who invited him to take part in the recording of Ascension, an unbroken 40-minute piece in which 11 musicians improvised collectively between ensemble figures handed to them at the start of the session. When it was released on the Impulse! label in 1966, critics noted that the leader, one of jazz’s biggest stars, had given himself no more solo space than any of the other, younger horn players, implicitly awarding their creative input as much value as his own.

Coltrane also invited Sanders to join his regular group, then expanding from the classic quartet format heard at its peak on the album A Love Supreme, recorded in 1964. With Alice Coltrane and Rashied Ali replacing McCoy Tyner and Elvin Jones at the piano and the drums respectively, and other young musicians coming in and out as the band toured the US, the music became less of a vehicle for solo improvisation and more of a communal rite, sometimes involving the chanting of mantras and extended percussion interludes.

While some listeners were dismayed, accusing Coltrane of overdoing his generosity to young acolytes, others were exhilarated. For both camps, Sanders became a symbol of the shift. “Pharoah Sanders stole the entire performance,” the critic Ron Welburn wrote after witnessing Coltrane’s group in Philadelphia in 1966. The poet Jerry Figi reviewed a performance in Chicago and described Sanders as “the most urgent voice of the night”, his sound “a mad wind screeching through the root-cellars of Hell”. Sceptics believed Sanders was leading Coltrane down the path to perdition.

When Coltrane died of liver cancer in 1967, aged 40, Sanders began his own series of albums for Impulse!, starting with Tauhid (1967) and Karma (1969), which included an influential extended modal chant called The Creator Has a Master Plan. He continued to work with Alice Coltrane, appearing on several of her albums as well as those of Weston, Tyner, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Sonny Sharrock, the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra, Norman Connors and others.

In 2004 he was inducted into the Arkansas Black Hall of Fame. Ten years later, he travelled from his home in Los Angeles to Little Rock, the city where his classmates had tried, in 1957, to desegregate the local whites-only high school, for an official Pharoah Sanders Day.

When asked to explain the philosophy behind the music that Baraka described as “long tissues of sounded emotion”, he replied: “I was just trying to see if I could play a pretty note, a pretty sound.” In later years, those who arrived at his concerts expecting the white-bearded figure to produce the squalls of sound that characterised Coltrane’s late period were often surprised by the gentleness with which he could enunciate a ballad. “When I’m trying to play music,” he said, “I’m telling the truth about myself.”

🔔 Pharoah (Farrell) Sanders, saxophonist and composer, born 13 October 1940; died 24 September 2022

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at http://justforbooks.tumblr.com

#JUST FOR BOOKS #Pharoah (Farrell) Sanders #in memoriam

14 notes · View notes

astrowithkaro · 2 years ago

Note

Hi! Love your blog so much. Can you do June 24??

Language Of Birthdays: June 24 - Cancer

The Day Of the Blissful Wizard

Usually the more highly evolved individuals born on this day are attracted to spiritual pursuits which they see as manifesting Divine Love. Those on their path to this ultimate goal cultivate kindness, awareness, sensitivity, psychic abilities, religious fervor and respect for all living things. Poorly evolved individuals are, of course, headed in the opposite direction, preferring conflict, hurt, pain, struggle and domination. It is unlikely but not impossible that the less evolved can turn their values around in a single lifetime, but since many of us are now granted a lifespan in excess of eighty-four years (one Uranus cycle), in a sense, more than one lifetime can be lived, offering opportunity for tremendous change. This change can come about through study, increased self-awareness, raised consciousness, influential experiences and above all, the basic desire to improve oneself.

Above all. June 24 people want to be left alone to do what they love most, and therefore their family and friends must be highly understanding of the strict privacy they need for their work. Occasionally those born on this day venture out to perform on a high level in the world, but usually do their most important work in the confines of their safe, and often secret, home base. Those June 24 people who work in offices or primarily out in society usually value their home life more than their work, and reserve the larger part of their energies for personal interests.

Strengths:

Skillful

Magical

Imaginative

Weaknesses:

Troubled

Destructive

Oblivious

Advice

Because of the mentioned tendency of June 24 people to enter a state of blissful fervor, they tend to lose touch with practical realities, which can have disastrous health consequences. June 24 people often face cardiovascular, respiratory and gastric difficulties. The practice of meditation, which promotes and allows for an emptying of thoughts and emotions, can be helpful in heading off these physical problems. June 24 people respond well to a strict and basic diet, with regular mealtimes. Such a diet not only serves to ground them, but also reduces excess aggression, as does a more limited consumption of meat and sugar. Nicotine and alcohol use should be limited, if not eliminated altogether.

Examine the effects of your work objectively and consider them from an ethical point of view

Keep in touch with society's values, it only to know what they are

Beware of becoming too withdrawn or isolated

#cancer astrology #cancer sign #cancer zodiac #cancer sun #cancer horoscope #cancer aesthetic #cancer reading #cancer tarot reading #cancer tarot #cancer daily horoscope

6 notes · View notes

the-seas-song · 3 years ago

Text

Richard Armitage and Astrology

Hi! I find astrology fascinating, and am an armchair expert on it myself, so I found Richard's comments in his recent Total Film Magazine interview very interesting. This is what he said:

I’ve been incredibly lucky. I’ve dabbled with having my celestial chart looked at every couple of years, just for a little tune-up. Every time, the guy sighs, and goes, “What can I say? You’ve just got a sprinkle of luck.” And I say, “That’s good, because I don’t have the talent, so I really need the luck!”

[cut]

There is a naughty, dark side to me. I am quite strongly affected by the moon. So if there’s a full moon I’ll go a bit crazy. (source)

This isn't the first time Richard's mentioned astrology – he's mentioned being a Leo, reading his daily horoscope, and finding out he was born in the Chinese Year of the Pig; but these were all informal twitter comments. He has also mentioned the effect the moon has on him before, in February 2020:

“Everyone has cycles of positive mental and emotional feelings and negative mental and emotional feelings and I know that I am profoundly affected on a monthly cycle. I always look at the calendar when I'm feeling particularly low and check the lunar cycle to see if it's a full or new moon.” (source)

However, what prompted me to write this is that Richard's personal put-downs were even more direct here than usual; and the connection that has to his natal, or birth, chart.

A little disclaimer: Personally, I think general horoscopes (like the ones you find in magazines) do far more harm than good. They are based solely on the twelve sun signs, and your sun sign is just one puzzle piece out of 25+ pieces that make up your natal chart. This is why many people don't relate to their horoscope or it's personality description.

Your natal chart, however, is a whole different animal. It's an intricate puzzle created by the exact date, time, and location you were born; which is why most people find their natal charts to be scarily accurate.

Back during the Hobbit days, a fan blog reported that Richard told a NZ fan that his birth time was just after 4 a.m. I used 4:05 for this post, and being off by a few minutes doesn't really make a difference.

Richard and self-esteem

I really feel for and relate to Richard's self-esteem struggles, because our charts mirror each other. We are both Leo suns; but I have my moon in Aries with my MC and Chiron conjunct each other in Virgo and sextile my North Node; while Richard has his moon in Virgo with his MC and Chiron conjunct each other in Aries and sextile his North Node.

What on earth does that mean?

Each planet represents a different part of you. The sun represents your ego/conscious self; the moon your emotions, mercury your mind/intellect, venus love and beauty/aesthetics, mars passion and drive, etc.

On top of the twelve planets, there are specific points and asteroids that are also important. Your MC, or Midheaven, represents your career and public persona. Your North Node describes your inner journey and life purpose. The asteroid Chiron describes your major soul wound, that you will be forced to deal with throughout your life.

A conjunction and a sextile are two of several different kinds of aspects. The different kinds of aspects are the different ways your respective puzzle pieces can interact with each other. Some are 'easy/positive' and some 'difficult/negative'. A sextile is considered easy/positive. A conjunction means two things are next to each other and overlap with one another, and is usually considered positive.

Leo and Aries are both fire signs. Fire signs are generally playful, warm, passionate, confident, and optimistic. Virgo is an earth sign. Earth signs are generally practical, grounded, sensual, and logical.

Richard's personality is dominated by an almost equal amount of Leo and Virgo influence, with both his sun (core self) and venus (love and beauty) in Leo and his moon (emotions) and mercury (mind) in Virgo.

Aries and Virgo are said to be the most difficult Chiron signs, because they are the wounds tied directly to your self-worth (Aries is the wound of Self and Virgo is the wound of Perfection). With Aries Chiron you feel a core sense of worthlessness, like you're missing a fundamental piece of your core self. This deeply felt lack of self-worth leads people to be people pleasers and have issues with confrontation and conflict.

Aries rules the planet mars. It is the warrior planet of passion, drive, and combat. A conventional Aries is confident, outgoing, impulsive, and strong willed. Aries and mars are definitely the rowdiest sign and planet in the zodiac. However, with Chiron here the traits are inverted, and so someone like Richard is much more likely to be scared of his inner passion, confidence, and willpower – depending, of course, on what the rest of his chart is like.

That leads us to Virgo. Chiron Virgo feels impure, like there is something fundamentally wrong with them. This kind of low self-esteem makes you feel like you have to constantly try to 'fix' yourself so people will love and accept you. It's an OCD type of perfectionism that only ends in failure and heartbreak.

A good example of how this works is when I talked to my therapist recently. I hadn't quite succeeded in meeting my goals, and so my automatic response was to condemn myself for failing. My therapists immediate response was to congratulate me on how much progress I had made.

Ironically, unlike with Aries, this isn't an inversion of the conventional Virgo. Conventional Virgo is meticulous, detail-oriented, focused, patient, efficient, practical, perfectionistic, systematic, and pessimistic with high expectations. If Aries is the official warrior of the zodiac, Virgo is the official nit-picker.

This means that Richard's subconscious intellectually (mercury) and emotionally (moon) expects and demands perfection, whilst simultaneously feeling fundamentally worthless. In short: ouch.

Interestingly, a significant number of celebrities have their Chiron conjunct their MC. Personally, I think Richard hit the nail on the head as to why in his essay on the Human Condition for Cybersmile:

The answer in my humble opinion, (and believe me it is humble, to a point of taking 43 years to be shared) is actually something which applies to my work as an actor. It’s why sometimes actors are called in to work with therapists, in large corporations, in schools. It’s why drama therapy is fantastic to understand what we do, how we do it and what the outcome might be, and in an improvisation where we aren’t playing ourselves sometimes we explore avenues that are too frightening or unacceptable in our own lives.

[cut]

So going back to my very first point, the “social media society” in which we’d all like to feel safe, supported, excited, creative, spontaneous, innovative, courageous, is really in our own hands. And back to acting, it’s taken me a long time to shake off the effects of bullying in school. That people were always laughing behind my back. I was always looking out of the corner of my eye. I now have incredible peripheral vision which is so useful, (as is Kinesthetic sense…Google it) but try being a brave, experimental, uninhibited actor with all of those hang ups. Wasn’t happening.

So here is the thing, and it’s key to my work and I think ours as a community. When we speak or write, we ultimately desire to ‘affect’. If we aren’t watching the destination of that affect, then how do we know our words have landed and the ‘effect’ they have caused?

[cut]

If I have a strong opinion about something which I want to express I really task myself with backing it up with the ‘why do I feel that?’

Again it’s part of my work building a believable character, and actually part of building a believable ‘me’ outside of my work. Just.. “because that’s what I feel” is a bit of a cop out.

[cut]

As for Bullying, it’s like the moment the pot boils over, or it’s the poisoned stream that can’t be cleansed, so why bother. Well I think that’s what art is for. It’s can support the best and the worst of ourselves. We can ‘attack’ a canvas with black angry paint, we can ‘savage’ a piano keyboard, we can dance until we drop, we can read about a Puritan society who executed elders, we can explore the psychology of a serial killer, and when we can’t do this ourselves we can experience it, and witness it through others.

It’s more than being nice. Edward Munch’s “The Scream” is far from nice. Francisco Goya’s “Saturn” is horrific, Metallica, Die Antwoort etc etc. But then there is Monet, Faure, Renée Fleming, Peter Jackson, Ariana Grande (ok it’s getting a bit eclectic I admit) but when we look, listen and empathize, we tune in to the Human Condition.

We are all part of The Human Condition, whether we like it or not. Social Media. Expression. The Human Condition.

Us human beings are wired for emotion and connection. For actors, their career gives them a way to safely process and explore their personal wounds through the characters they play. For Richard in particular, his mars is conjunct his North Node. So, his mars and North Node are sextile his Chiron and MC.

Remember, Aries (the sign of Richard's Chiron and MC) is ruled by mars. Mars is the warrior planet, like Aries is the warrior sign. This means that Richard's spiritual journey/life's purpose (North Node) deals directly with healing his soul wound so he can accept and embrace his inner confidence and willpower. This explains why he ends up playing a lot of ultra-masculine characters – mars/Aries are the most macho of them all.

This isn't to say I think Richard should change who he is! I wouldn't be interested in him if he was ultra-masculine or macho. However, for his own sake, I would be overjoyed to see him gain more self-esteem and inner confidence.

Extrapolating from my own personal experiences, the constant criticism and judgement I received during my adolescence from my peers and various authority figures (like family members and teachers) for being unconventional and 'over the top' caused me to turn on myself and repress my passion and will-power for several years. I think it's highly likely that Richard experienced this too.

Here are some quotes from Richard that illustrate everything I've been talking about (emphasis is mine):

Armitage is still notably handsome, but, within minutes of meeting him, it’s apparent how incongruous it is that this bookish, sensitive, self-described ‘melancholic, philosophically-minded softie’ and ardent fan of The Great British Bake Off was cast as beefcake killer totty for a considerable part of his career. ‘It’s ridiculous. It’s the complete opposite to who I am. I’m such a pacifist,’ he laughs. ‘But then, part of me always felt: “Well, isn’t that why we’re actors?”

[cut]

'I think the turning point was losing my mum,” he says. “Up until that point, I felt like I mustn’t put a foot wrong, that if I said the wrong thing or revealed too much about my personal life, it could all come crashing down, and it would come down on my parents, and they wouldn’t be proud of me anymore.” He shrugs. “Now that I’m past that I’m actually much more carefree about the choices I make.” (source)

Richard Armitage puts his head in his hands and emits a noise that's somewhere between a sigh, a laugh and a groan. “Oh no! Why would you want to pin this up?” he says with a horrified whisper.

[cut]

Never has a man seemed more ill at ease with the heartthrob label. He squirms with embarrassment in his chair every time the subject comes up. He is grateful for the loyalty of his fans, he says, but worries that “there is this thing of, 'Is he just totty?' Because the industry will sometimes write you off as a serious actor if they think that. I have always been conscious of that and fought against it, because I don't really see myself like that at all.”

[cut]

This brings us back to Astrov, who looks so relentless towards the future that he can't see the truth in front of his eyes. “It's interesting that he's an outsider in the play. I've often felt like that myself in life. I'm quite a solitary person. I enjoy my time with me, and sometimes it's not necessarily healthy, because I can talk myself into quite a dark place.

I'm an optimist, but at the same time, there's a discipline in me that will attack me for not working hard enough, not achieving enough, not being good enough. You always think, 'I'll grow out of that. With success, those voices will disappear.' But they don't, they get louder. I suppose I'm learning a bit about myself through Astrov.” (source)

The answer in my humble opinion, (and believe me it is humble, to a point of taking 43 years to be shared) is actually something which applies to my work as an actor. … And back to acting, it’s taken me a long time to shake off the effects of bullying in school. That people were always laughing behind my back. I was always looking out of the corner of my eye. I now have incredible peripheral vision which is so useful, (as is Kinesthetic sense…Google it) but try being a brave, experimental, uninhibited actor with all of those hang ups. Wasn’t happening. (Human Condition essay)

So I kind of travelled on that line for a while, and I was bullied for it as well. The problem with me is that as soon as you try to push me down or say “you can’t do this” and “I don’t think you should do that”, I immediately push back. So I did – I’d decided really young that I was going to try to make a career out of it.

[cut]

Actually, there was something I wanted to add to what Shaun said, about inclusivity, is that um, no matter how – how much confidence you have or how, in my case, lack. Y’know, I always felt like a misfit, or an oddball, or that I didn’t belong. But I always – I always told myself that ‘you exist in the world, so therefore there’s a place for you in this industry’. I think anybody who feels like, “I can’t become an actor because…” – you exist. And, y’know, the job of filmmakers is to write about our life and society, and if you are a part of that, then there’s a place for you in the industry. (source)

I'm a bit of a brooder. I don't like confrontation, so I think I suppress things. When my temper does come out, it goes all the way – the kind of temper you can't apologize for. Yep, the chair getting thrown out of the window. Those emotions are scary, but hey, they come in useful when you're acting. (source)

Armitage is a noticeably calm presence but he talks with passion.

[cut]

In the past, he has described himself as a shy person. “Not any more,” he says forcefully. “I mean… if I’m very, very honest, I’m a big guy, I think I’m at times quite a frightening person.”

In what way?

“I think I’m quite uncompromising. I can’t bear bulls---. And in a way the shyness is me protecting other people from that. I can feel that there’s an intimidation that can happen if I own my full height, and speak at my full volume. So I’ve learned over the years to just tone it all down a bit.” (source)

I've become one of those actors who find it difficult to say no when things are offered. I think if I had come out of drama school and been an instant Hollywood superstar I would be taking long, leisurely holidays. But I always feel somehow it's going to be taken away from me so I work when I can. When you struggled with work as I did when I left drama school you make hay when the sun shines. There was a time when I thought, and my agent thought, it wasn't going to happen for me. We both sat down and I actually said I don't know if I can stay in this state. The interesting roles have only come since I got into my 30s. But I didn't know that was going to happen. I'm a bit of an all or nothing kind of guy. To be honest, I had no blind faith in myself. I don't think I could have stayed around as a jobbing actor. I would probably have quit. Who knows? I think I would have found that too frustrating. But at the moment when I thought I was going to quit, something happened and it all changed again. (source)

[talking about being cast in the Hobbit]

There was a little bit of guidance as to what they were looking for. I felt that I was too young for the character, too tall for that character, so I thought, you know, ‘I’ll just look at the scene they’ve written’. And then I realised the essence of the character that they were aiming for. So I went to meet Peter and Phillipa and we read some of the scenes. I think we spent an hour-and-a-half talking about the character and what their vision was, and I sort of explained who I thought he was, and that was it.

[cut]

Yeah, my first instinct, whenever that kind of thing happens, is to say, 'Well what's wrong with the part? Why did nobody else want it'? Which is kind of the story of my life really. When I get offered something, I'm like, 'Well there must be something wrong with it if they're offering it to me!'

[cut]

But you know, the thing is, you talk about all of this: ‘How did you get the role? And how did it feel when you got the role?’ And once all that’s died down you start to think, ‘I’ve actually got to go and play this now’. They’ve trusted me. Everyone’s happy, everyone’s celebrated, the phones have gone down and the deal’s been done. Now it’s over to me to make the role work. And that’s the scariest moment, because you do have that elation and then the work begins and you think, ‘How the hell am I going to do this?’ (source)

How was it for you taking on this beloved role, this character that has such a huge responsibilty on his back? Could you relate in some ways?

Richard Armitage: Yeah. There is always building within him this paranoia that he’s not a good enough leader, and that weighs him down. I have experienced that same feeling as an actor in this role. And I was aware of taking on the responsibility of that character, so there was something I could latch onto there, as one of the people who loved ‘The Hobbit’ book and had envisioned that character. It took me a while to be convinced that I could do it, it wasn’t until I saw some sketches, this one particular pencil sketch….there was something about this characters eyes and the way that his hands are crossed, I thought, “I think I can do this, I can pull this off.” (source)

Q: I wanted to ask you about what your Arkenstone is. For you personally.

A: Me personally?

Q: And I meant for this to be materialistic. What's the thing that you covet so much that it makes you mad that you don't have it?

A: Well, it's actually not material. It's not material, and it's – (laughs) You want a comedy answer, don't you? But it's respect. It's the thing that always eludes you, you know. You have to fight for it and when you get it, your arkenstone, the thing that crowns you, is respect.

Q: And also a sweater.

A: And a sweater. I do have this little natty number.

Q: It's a good one man.

A: Tom Ford made this personally. But hey, he can have it back. I don't covet wealth and material. (source)

Q6: You’ve done a variety of different roles, I wonder what influences you to pursue those roles?

R: More often than not, you go where you’re wanted. So getting hired is still kind of a revelation to me, a shock and a surprise. Sometimes you have very flat periods, where I don’t really care what comes next, I just want to work on something. I feel like I’ve got a little cloud of luck over my head so the right thing always seems to come along. But again, I’m easily excited about literature and stories, so I’ve always said I don’t really pursue glory, I’d happily do acting for two people in my living room if it was a role that I really enjoyed with a story I’d really like to tell. So it’s chance, I would say.

[cut]

Q8: Once in an interview about Thorin, you were asked what your arkenstone was and your answer was respect. I like this answer a lot. So I was wondering what’s your red dragon? As you said yesterday he’s a character who sheds his skin, improves, and becomes something. I was wondering if there was something you’d like to improve, become?

R: I guess the antithesis of that is disrespect. Do you mean in myself?

Q8: Yes.

R: Yeah I try not to be too disrespectful. I guess I value the truth. I think we’re living at a time at the moment where the truth is warped and there’s a word that’s been in my head for a long time, and particularly recently it’s come to the surface. When I was studying Macbeth, at the RSC, I read a long thesis about the gunpowder plot, which was one of the things they thought that Shakespeare (or whoever Shakespeare was) was stimulated by to write Macbeth. And the word equivocation was used in this thesis, it was actually about equivocation and what equivocation is. And if you look it up in the dictionary, at the moment most politicians are equivocating. When you don’t answer a question, or you bend the truth to make it seem like you are answering the question, and in fact you’re telling a lie. So I would say my red dragon would be equivocation.

[cut]

Then there was the physical form that I was studying and observing, but also, I do sometimes enjoy locking myself away in a room and reading a book or just doing something alone, and you sometimes can go a couple of days without speaking to anybody. I don’t know whether anyone else experiences this or whether I’m just a weirdo. But I find that when that happens my voice changes, and I always forget how to make a noise, I have to do a warm-up before I go into the world and start speaking again.

[cut]

Q15: I was wondering if you ever had to pull out of a project because it felt wrong or something, and what is the point where you say “nope I can’t do this”?

R: Um, no. But that’s partly to do with the fact that I have a lot of loyalty, probably too much loyalty for my own good, really, and there’ve been moment when I’ve been on board a project, and actually it happened this year with The Lodge, I was already on board that project and something else came along which was bigger and better and brighter and more money, and your agent says “look we can pull you out of The Lodge, they can probably recast it,” and here I think “I’ve already started this process, I don’t want to let people down,” and I don’t have a problem with that at all, I never have any regrets over the things that you miss or the things that you decide not to do, I think there’s a strong enough reason why you’ve decided not to do it, but in general no I haven’t ever pulled out of something. There was one television show I remember, I’m not going to say what it is, but after the first readthrough, I did call my agent and asked, “can I get out of this?” And then he quickly got back to me and said, “don’t do it. Don’t build a reputation built on disloyalty.” So I try not to.

[cut]

Q18: I think you are very handsome, but your character Francis hated the way he looked, how did that make you feel?

R: Francis hated the way he looked? Yeah. I guess there is something we relate to in that. Without getting too personal, I don’t always enjoy looking at myself in the mirror. I don’t do it very often, to be honest. I do it just to be sure I don’t have food on my face. I do it in character, actually. I do spend a bit of time studying my own face when I’m playing a character, which is interesting because your face does change. (source)

He cannot see the handsomeness: “I think I am odd-looking. I have big lines on my forehead.” I squint, looking for them, but he is talking over me, sounding slightly panicked. “I shouldn’t draw attention to it, because then everyone else will see the oddness.”

[cut]

Laziness is what makes him angry: “Laziness in myself. Laziness in other people. And dishonesty. All things I feel capable of myself. I have a propensity to be lazy and lie about it. Fear makes me rageful. There are words in The Crucible I actually find it quite hard to say.” I beg for an example — The Crucible is in the public domain. “No,” he says, “you’ll see it in the play.” I tell him it will make no sense in print if he will not tell me. But he won’t. So I change the subject. It works. “OK, I will give you a line.” He inflates a little and says: “Is there no good penitence but it be public?” And then: “Were I stone I would have cracked for shame this seven month.” (source)

Q: How would you describe your evolution as an actor since you started?

A: I think everything has to do with the fact that today I’m not afraid anymore. At first, I was embarrassed to do something wrong or do things badly or make myself ridiculous. Today, I am almost looking for opportunities to be ridiculous or vulnerable or to make as much of a mistake as possible. In a sense, it’s now the opposite of being undercover.

Q: Are you the actor you dreamed of being when you started?

A: Not yet. I am not yet fearless enough. It’s in waves, actually. But I have already approached this dream. There were moments, especially during Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which I performed on stage, where I felt I had no control over things. That’s what I’m looking for: to lose control.

Q: You often play bad guys. What do you like in these characters?

A: I like disobedience. I like the fact that you can be disobedient thanks to your creativity. As a person, I must always be polite in life, be careful and correct so as not to hurt anyone. In a fantasy world, I can be as offensive as I want. It’s an outlet. (Laughter)

[cut]

Q: Many actors are moving to directing. Is this also your goal?

A: I would like to, but I do not think I’m smart enough. I am good when it comes to working with another’s vision. I do not think I have that creative spontaneity that creates a vision from scratch. But the future will tell. (source)

I applaud Richard for being so open and direct about his fears and insecurities. It takes a lot of bravery to do so. And while I've seen some fans get annoyed with his continual self-deprecation, I think his honesty and openness is much more significant, and shows his inner strength. He doesn't try to pretend to be someone he's not.

He recently described himself as “patient, obsessive, and silly” (source). The patient part is classic Virgo, and the obsessive part comes from an element of his natal chart that I have not mentioned.

The silly part, however, is classic Leo. Like I said above, he has an almost equal amount of Leo and Virgo in his personality. Personally, I'm proud to be a Leo, but I also know we get misunderstood a lot of the time. I wrote the following for an essay of mine on Leos in Disney:

Your sun sign represents your core identity. Just like the physical sun is the center of the solar system and its energy creates life, the astrological sun is our consciousness and life force. Each of the twelve sun signs are ruled by a different planet and element.

Since Leo is the fixed fire sign, we don't inherit the reckless and impulsive nature of fire, but instead are a steady flame. No sign is more reckless and impulsive than Aries, because they have the double combination of being a cardinal sign and a fire sign. Meanwhile, all four of the fixed signs struggle with stubbornness and admitting when their wrong.

Leo's are well known to be natural leaders and the rulers of the zodiac. We are ruled by the sun and our animal is the lion. We dream big and are born with big personalities, and we can't help but be theatrical and dramatic. This means we are always self-centered in the sense of being strong-willed and having a strong sense of self. It does not mean all Leos are egotistical.

Unhealthy Leo traits all revolve around the ego: attention-seeking, egotistical, selfish, bossy, controlling, pushy, jealous, possessive, lazy, vain, arrogant, aggressive, and obstinate.

Healthy Leos, however, are known for our fire-based traits – being animated, theatrical, happy, outgoing, independent, competitive, charismatic, creative, open-minded, open-hearted, confident, assertive, playful, warm, social, courageous, idealistic, affectionate, romantic, optimistic, and adventurous.

What isn't often talked about is our steadiness, our fixed-based traits. Leos are authentic, steadfast, fiercely loyal and protective, consistent, persistent, full-hearted, dedicated, need to do their best, generous and selfless, honorable and moral, genuine and direct, extremely supportive, hard-working and responsible, dignified, strong-willed, and ambitious and determined.

Something that is often mentioned but highly misunderstood is our trait of courage. Having courage doesn't mean you're fearless or reckless. The definition of courage is “the power or quality of dealing with or facing danger, fear, pain, etc.” It means that instead of running away from our problems or denying our emotions; healthy Leos face them and be genuine and direct with ourselves, embracing our vulnerability.

Having a big personality doesn't necessarily mean someone has a big ego. C.S. Lewis once said, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking of yourself less.” Leos have huge hearts and are incredibly generous. The sun never goes retrograde, always shines, and gives life and energy to all living beings – it isn't selective or discriminatory. Healthy Leos are like mini suns; which is why we are also irrepressibly upbeat, optimistic, and fun-loving.

We're not pushovers. We are like roses – we have both flower petals and thorns. If you mess with someone we love you're going down. We're too loyal and protective to let major things slide; and even if we forgive, we never forget. Little things? We'll try to work them out with you.

Being naturally strong-willed and assertive is healthy – it just means we usually make horrible subordinates and yes people. There's nothing wrong with having high standards and being open about them. In fact, in relationships it's far better in the long run to open and frank about what you need and what you consider a dealbreaker from the beginning.

And oh yes are we ambitious and competitive – but most often with ourselves. We're natural leaders who always dream and think big. For a healthy Leo it's not about being the best, but doing your best. We have to be grand and intense, we're ruled by the sun. It's all or nothing for us. Settling is not something a Leo does. We need to be the best leader, the best friend, the best partner, etc. that we possibly can.

Also, in astrology each sign rules a different body part, and Leo rules the heart and upper back.

Adding to this, Leos are known as the Kings/Queens of the zodiac not because we're egotistical, but because our sun sign is the sun. It's like a double amount sun. I could go into significantly more detail about this, but it involves a lot of technical astrological details; so if anyone wants to know more just message me!

Going back to Richard, having his core self (sun) and love/beauty (venus) in Leo explains why he is an actor and artist; and why he is often warm, silly, and dramatic when he feels comfortable – his long interview with The Anglophile Channel (and it's deleted scenes) does a great job of showing the synergy between his Leo and Virgo sides.

We see Richard express the heartfelt, generous, sincere, and honorable side of Leo all the time. This is why I'm sure he has the inner-confidence and strength hidden within him to overcome the deep pain his Chiron causes him (like it does to us all). I hope he continues to find projects and people that help him on his journey to heal.

Thank you for reading this, I'm wishing him and you all the best. Take care!

#Richard #Richard Armitage #Astrology #Mine

34 notes · View notes