#Vinyl Records; Sawyer Musings

[muse-soup]

Muse as a Deity ✨

Rules: Think carefully about your character and their development through their journey (canon or OC) within their story. Fill out the chart and tag whoever you want! Multi-muses, feel free to pick any of your characters-- just a few, or all of them. Please repost, so the dash isn't clogged with reblogs.

(Saw this floating around and it looked fun. Under a cut for length.)

God Of: Innovation

Associated With: machinery, time/clocks, the act of creation/invention

Sacred Plants: broccoli, wild radishes, apples

Sacred Stones/Gems: tiger's eye, quartz, siliceous rocks

Sacred Animals: chickens, blackbirds

Colors: orange, light blue, chrome, copper

Food: popsicles, broccoli stew

Scents: peaches, ozone, motor oil, cut grass

Accepted Offerings/Ways to Honor: tools, hardware, machinery, blueprints, ideas, dreams

God Of: Drudgery, Steadfastness

Associated With: chores, hard work, workplace injuries, getting back up when you're knocked down

Sacred Plants: Cucumbers

Sacred Stones/Gems: diamonds, limestone

Sacred Animals: peacocks, dogs

Colors: green, blue

Food: waffles, pickles, cucumbers

Scents: maple syrup, parchment, rich soil, cucumber blossoms, pickle brine

Accepted Offerings/Ways to Honor: favorite foods, first aide supplies, relaxing after hard work, praise and recognition

God Of: Journeys

Associated With: self-discovery, displacement, getting lost and finding your way back

Sacred Plants: dandelions (especially when they've gone to seed)

Sacred Stones/Gems: watermelon tourmaline, moonstone

Sacred Animals: hedgehogs, pigeons

Colors: red, grey

Food: beef stew, instant noodles, fast food

Scents: wet pavement, vanilla, wildflowers

Accepted Offerings/Ways to Honor: music, snacks, reflecting on how where you've been has brought you to where you are now

God Of: Entropy, Philosophy

Associated With: unexplainable happenings, true randomness

Sacred Plants: cilantro, lime, hot peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, onions, avocados, rice, beans, what, corn, oak trees

Sacred Stones/Gems: volcanic rocks

Sacred Animals: sea turtles, creatures that live in tide pools, livestock

Colors: warm tones, green

Food: beef, chicken, pork, hot sauce, tomatoes, lettuce, salsa, guacamole, rice, beans, cheese, sour cream, tortillas

Scents: spices, cooked meats

Accepted Offerings/Ways to Honor: meditation on your place in the universe, contemplation of the unknowable, colorful hats and scarves

God Of: Chaos

Associated With: chance, gambling, revelry, liars, absurdity

Sacred Plants: pumpkins

Sacred Stones/Gems: fire opal, rocks which have been painted

Sacred Animals: spiders, crabs, geese

Colors: orange, green, purple, black

Food: pumpkin cookies, pumpkin wine, grilled cheese

Scents: pumpkin, swamp gas, wine, sugar, sea breeze

Accepted Offerings/Ways to Honor: Soup (definitions of "soup" are broad and flexible), disguises, gambling paraphernalia, the laughter of children

I tag anybody who's looking for a good thought exercise.

[metancias]

𝚒𝚏  𝚝𝚑𝚎  𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍'𝚜  𝚜𝚘  𝚖𝚢𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚒𝚘𝚞𝚜 ,  𝚑𝚘𝚠  𝚌𝚊𝚗  𝚠𝚎  𝚋𝚎  𝚘𝚛𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚛𝚢 ?

                                      °   —   𝙄𝙉𝙏𝙍𝙊  𝙏𝘼𝙎𝙆  . 

⌈  —  basics .

name :  sawyer  gage  bennett nicknames :  sawyer  /  the  kid  dynamite  birth date :  november  19 ,  1997 gender :  cis male  pronouns :  he  /  him  ethnicity :  norwegian  nationality :  american  hometown :  houston ,  texas  demigod abilities :  telumkinesis ,  enhanced physical prowess ,  odikinesis  cabin number & godly parent :  cabin  5  --  ares  how did their godly parent meet their mortal parent? :  lisa  bennett  wasn’t  living  in  the  safest  neighborhood  during  her  younger  days .  when  going  home  from  a  late - night  shift  at  the  local  diner ,  she  was  jumped  by  a  bunch  of  hoodlums .  ares  was  about  to  jump  in  to  save  her ,  but  she  was  able  to  hold  up  on  her  own .  impressed  with  her  tenacity  &  fighting  skills  ,  ares  offered  to  bring  her  to  a  hospital  to  heal  her  wounds .  the  rest  is  history . 

⌈  —  muse  appearance .

faceclaim :  herman  tømeraas .  height :  6′1 .  hair colour :  dirty  blond .  eye colour :  light  brown  with  flecks  of  green .  dominant hand :  right .  distinguishing features :  crooked  nose ,  faint  scar  on  his  upper  lip  dress style :  laidback ,  not  too  concerned  with  trends .  usually  found  sporting  jeans  &  plain black  v-necks  with  vans .  sometimes ,  you  can  catch  him  wearing  his  clubmaster  reading  glasses .  

⌈  —  camp - related .

go - to  weapon :  a  celestial  bronze  norwegian - styled  viking  sword  favourite camp location :  the  arena .  he  feels  most  in  his  element  when  he’s  in  battle .  on  a  good  day ,  sawyer  can  be  a  sparring  partner  or  an  instructor .  their opinion of their godly parent :  indifferent .  he’s  just  glad  he  has  a  place  to  stay ,  so  all  his  income  would  go  towards  his  mother .  age they were claimed : seventeen .  how they were claimed : sawyer  was  brought  to  camp ,  by  a  satyr .  just before  his  first  capture  the  flag  ,  ares  claimed  him  by  bathing  him  in  a  red  aura  &  clothing  him  in  fine  celestial  bronze  armor .   sawyer  was  to  credit  for  this  win ,  though  people  say  it  must’ve  been  thanks  to  ares ’  blessing .  stance on the new cabins : for  the  new  cabins  reason for their stance :  as  an  ares  kid ,  sawyer  is  all  about  strategy .  having  the  minor  gods  at  camp  seemed  advantageous  in  terms  of  boosting  morale  of  unclaimed  demigods  &  would  provide  opportunity  of  learning  skills  &  powers  of  more  kids  for  proper  training .  their opinion on lyssa pentelute :  while  he  can  understand  her  motivations  &  wouldn’t  invalidate  her  feelings ,  he  simply  doesn’t  agree  with  it .   quests : sawyer  been  on  three  quests  since  his  arrival  at  camp .  proven  to  be  an  asset  due  to  his  physical  prowess ,  there  is  no  question  as  to  why  he  is  a  recurrent  quest  member .  thanks  to  his  experience ,  sawyer  was  given  the  title  of  head  counselor  of  cabin  5. 

⌈  —  personality .

positive traits :  sensitive ,  warm - hearted  ,  inquisitive  negative traits :  awkward ,  insecure  ,  stubborn  mbti :  isfj .  alignment :  chaotic  good .  hogwarts house :  gryffindor .  kinsey scale :  1 ,  heterosexual  with  incident  homosexual  tendencies .  archetype : the  great  father  -- the self ;  wise  old  man -- the persona  what candle scent are they :  vanilla  bean  goals & desires : sawyer  doesn’t  have  much  personal  goals ;  he  just  wants  to  provide  his  mom  with  a  comfortable  life .  as  he  is  protective  of  his  cabin ,  he’s  willing  to  do  anything  just  to  help  his  half - siblings  out .  but ,  something  he  won’t  admit  to  himself  is  that  he  desires  human  connection .  fears : rejection ,  failure  ,  anything  bad  happening  to  his  mother  ,  losing  people  hobbies :  mma  fighting ,  writing  ,  reading  ,  collecting  vinyl  records  habits : tends  to  express  himself  with  body  language  rather  than  words ;  clenches  his  jaw  a  lot  &  curls  his  fists  into  balls  when  frustrated .  sometimes ,  he  forgets  that  he  isn’t  wearing  glasses  &  habitually  presses  on  the  bridge  of  his  nose  like  he’s  pushing  his  glasses  back  up . 

[trevorbarre]

Spirit of ‘68, Part Two

Obscurantist alert!

I was somewhat taken aback on first hearing Song Cycle, to find that the sixth track, the final one of Side One of the vinyl edition, somewhat fancifully called ‘Van Dyke Parks’ (in actual fact it belonged in the ‘public domain’), was an almost exact replica of another track on another favourite album. 1971′s Sunfighter, a classic from the late period of San Franciscan psychedelic music’s golden period, by Jefferson Airplane’s Grace Slick and Paul Kantner, contains a track called ‘Titanic’, a brief, rather throwaway impressionistic piece depicting the doomed ship’s last moments, sinking to the music of the resident palm court orchestra. Having lived with Sunfigher since circa 1974, I always thought that it was an original, out-of-character experiment by SF’s finest, although credited to one Phill Sawyer. ‘Van Dyke Parks’ is clearly a lock, stock and barrel facsimile of ‘Titanic’, but precedes it by some three years, and is given absolutely no credit by Slick/Kantner. A minor observation, to be sure, but it somehow encapsulates how little real credit Van Dyke Parks has been given by pop/rock history, despite producing a record that could not, as a work in itself, be copied as easily as the lysergic duo did with the miniature Titanic piece.

Song Cycle is a rich mulch of American song forms, from Charles Ives to Tin Pan Alley. The record ushered in an era in which pop music came of age, whilst acknowledging without any heavy-handed irony or snarkiness, its ancestors and earlier influences. It’s heavy use of strings,brass sections, harp and oblique lyrics was very much ‘not of the moment’, however. The Jefferson Airplane and Grateful mode of po-faced ‘experimentation’and rambling improvisation was at its height in 1968 (Crown of Creation and Anthem of the Sun being, respectively, the prosecution’s evidence in this particular year’s case). Rather ironically, by the following year, what eventually became known as Americana emerged with The Band and the Dead’s change of direction signalled by Workingman’s Dead and, in 1970, the epochal American Beauty. Park’s vocals are an uncanny forerunner of the somewhat ethereal style of later Americana idols such as Mercury Rev and Animal Collective. Sadly, his influence across later American popular music remains mostly unacknowledged, partly, as earlier intimated, by a certain obdurateness in his works, a determination to follow his own muse that would be praised to the skies with artists like Bob Dylan, but remains un-celebrated in his particular case. Maybe his time will eventually come.

In 1970, at the age of fifteen, I couldn’t really afford to make ‘spot purchases’. One of the artists that interested me as I was familiarising myself with the contemporary musical landscape (she appeared on the inner sleeve of CBS records at the time, along with other ‘underground’ acts that the major label was trying to promote) was Laura Nyro. Her 1968 album, Eli and the Thirteenth Confession was one of these CBS contenders that were portrayed on the inner sleeves - great and enigmatic title, beautiful and enigmatic writer/performer, the album remained tantalisingly out of grasp until I could afford to finally buy it several years later. Thankfully, the hype proved not to be ‘hype’, although, sadly, Nyro seems to have disappeared into history to a similar degree as so many of the less worthy acts that appeared on the CBS ad department sleeves have done. In the late sixties, Nyro was one of the names to watch for fans of challenging, yet approachable song writing. Several other bands had hits with her songs, as had been the case with the early Bob Dylan. Perhaps I will blog about Nyro separately (as Richard Williams has done), but suffice to say that Carole King (with the omnivorous Tapestry) and Joni Mitchell (with her peerless ‘run’ of albums throughout 1971-76, one of the greatest in rock/pop music history) appear to have sidelined Nyro in the eye of posterity. Both Eli and the following New York Tendaberry are the equal of the best of her sister’s records (well, maybe not Court and Spark or Hissing of Summer Lawns, but, hey, how many records can really match these? Really?). 

The third of our 1968 triumvirate is, like Van Dyke Parks, deserving of some of the long-term kudos and recognition that Leonard Cohen managed to garner in his own life time.