#austra lunares

[mjulianwrites]

happy international asexuality day from the next day after dawn gang!

featuring prince cyrus (my cringefail het ace poor little meow meow whose repulsion is intersecting terribly with his religious issues), helios (the definition of aroace trans swag), and austra (sex-neutral unfuckable milf who wrote "conceive second child" in her planner)

transcripts below the cut (and in the image descriptions!)

“Ha!” A laugh like a slap. Cyrus bit into his cheek and barely managed not to look away. “Someone’s eager.” Which didn’t make sense to him at first, because yes, he was eager to leave, but he couldn’t think of a reason why that would be funny. It clicked several seconds too late—that leaving and going to bed on your wedding night didn’t mean sleeping, it meant—and no, no, no, he wasn’t eager for that, because— Well. Because it was wrong. Or because it had been wrong, it had been immoral, not the way of the light, and the dread he felt when he thought about it was a holy feeling, making sure he didn’t stray. There was a path written in the stars for him. He knew that. It had been good not to want that when it wasn’t the right thing to want, only now he was married and it was different, but—

If the Church of Siderum had ever done the world one service, it was letting Helios keep his new clothes. He indicated his outfit with a flourishy gesture—his suit today was a glossy midnight purple with gold lining, and not being in court gave him an excuse to wear his shirt with even more buttons undone than usual, so people could stare at his lack of cleavage all they wanted. Oh-so-chastely, of course, but he didn’t care that much if anyone had less than respectable intentions; that was their problem, and also very funny. Now that he liked how he looked, he minded being looked at considerably less.

You’re not particularly enamoured with Tristan Lunares, physically speaking. Then again, you’re not prone to being that sort of enamoured with anyone, so you’re hardly surprised. The wedding is tolerable. So, in the end, is your first night together; if anything, you somewhat appreciate his utter self-centeredness, because you’d really rather not waste your energy on feigning enthusiasm. But you need heirs, of course, and the logistics of that are rather non-negotiable. You don’t mind, really. You’re much more averse to your particular marriage than you are to the idea of motherhood.

[darcymercurialisunofficial]

If Evaine wasn’t a transphobe then we’d actually have more in common than me and my dad do.

[houseoflunares]

Public Service Announcement:

Under no circumstances should anyone in Nesus purchase an NFT (non-fungible token), even if its sale is being endorsed by a prominent government official. These digital collectibles are fundamentally worthless and serve only to enrich con artists who prey on people insufficiently educated on how to manage their finances. I encourage you to spend your hard-earned money on something of value.

- Lady Austra Lunares

[junecsea]

Playlist: lunar reckoning

Darkest Hour - Alvita

Rebel Girl - Angels & Airwaves

Prayer in C (Robin Schulz remix) - Lilly Wood and The Prick

Dear Fellow Traveller - Sea Wolf

Thunder Clatter - Wild Cub

City of Blinding Lights - U2

Beat and the Pulse - Austra

No Light, No Light - Florence + The Machine

Velvet Antlers - Death Vessel

[wlcmjungle]

Estamos prestes a ver um eclipse?

Dizem que a palavra tem poder, mas isso também se aplica a rumores?

Nas últimas semanas vem percorrendo as ruas o rumor de que a Mnet estaria prestes a lançar um novo programa de competição seguindo a premissas de seus investimentos passados: Produce 101 e Produce 101 season 2. As pessoas vêm comentando com tanto fervor a respeito desse possível programa que estou começando a acreditar que seja, de fato, algo real. Mas, o que realmente surpreende nessa história é que, pela primeira vez, a Mnet não estaria entrando sozinha nesse projeto.

De acordo com os boatos, a emissora de televisão teria formado uma parceria com uma empresa de entretenimento para seu novo programa. Muitos nomes foram levantados pelos internautas, mas três se destacaram entre os demais: SM, Lunare e BigHit. Certamente ambas as empresas têm potencial para entrar num projeto desse, mas será que isso realmente procede?

Se for confirmado como verdadeiro, estamos prestes a ver uma fusão interessante acontecer diante dos nossos olhos! Será que a indústria terá um eclipse de potencias?

Independente da verdade, uma coisa que podemos concluir desses boatos é que o programa é real. Por mais que ainda não tenha acontecido um pronunciamento oficial da Mnet, não é a primeira vez que nos vemos diante de uma situação assim. No lançamento do Produce também aconteceu o mesmo nas duas temporadas e a emissora apenas se pronunciou na hora de oficializar os realities. Sabemos que a Mnet não é ingênua, todo esse falatório é uma ótima publicidade para seus negócios e Lee Hongsoo, CEO da emissora, deve estar mais que satisfeito em ver tal repercussão. Por que iria desmentir?

Por enquanto, nos resta aguardar por novos sinais ou por um posicionamento oficial. Até lá, o que estão achando de toda essa agitação? Que empresa gostariam de ver se unindo a Mnet nesse projeto?

                                                                                                                                                                                               Kim Jihyun, Dispatch                                                                                                                                                                                               18/04/2017 às 10:21h

                                                                                                Comentários (168)

@kook95: estava SEDENTA por um novo reality, obrigada Mnet!!!  \o/ [ +689 | -56 ]

@miojocomnutella: MDS MDS MDS!!! Com tanta opção boa fica até difícil escolher!! Seria um sonho um reality da hybe?? Claro. Seria interessante um reality da Lunare?? Óbvio. Seria divertido um reality da SM?? Com certeza. Quem vier vai ser lucro, então só vem! [ +745 | -98 ]

@loveyourself: dedos cruzados para que seja um reality com a YG! [ +159 | -74 ]

@gudebae: sinto que esse eclipse na verdade será um apagão… [ +358 | -127 ]

@pensil: não importa a empresa, vai ser muito difícil algum programa superar o Produce. [ +244 | -62 ]

@austra: nem vou perder tempo especulando, quando o anúncio sair (se realmente sair) não vai ser nada do que estamos pensando -q [ +41 | -2 ]

                                                                                                                 Ver mais

[letshear]

Eostre (também conhecida como Ēostre, Eostra, Eostrae, Eastre, Estre, Ostara, Osterae e Austra) é a Deusa da fertilidade, amor e do renascimento na mitologia anglo-saxã, na mitologia nórdica e mitologia germânica. Seu nome significa “Deusa da Aurora”.

A ela é comemorado o sabbath de Ostara pois é dito que os antigos povos nórdicos comemoravam o festival de Eostre no dia 30 de Março e, sendo esta uma das celebrações mais próximas do equinócio, a Wicca absorveu a celebração da Deusa para esta data, assim como ligou a ela símbolos comuns do renascimento e fertilidade, tais como ovos e lebres. No entanto, não há imagens de Eostre, nem esculturas, nem lendas e nenhuma associação desta Deusa com lebres, coelhos ou ovos. Aliás, há até dúvidas que ela tenha sido cultuada ou mesmo existido já que o único relato referente a ela é de 725 E.C. escrito pelo monge inglês Beda. Ele explica que o mês lunar de Eosturmonath* “uma vez chamado assim em homenagem a uma Deusa … chamada Eostre, em cuja honra festas foram comemoradas.” *Eosturmonath era o 4º mês de um antigo calendário Inglês.

Jakob Grimm, em sua mitologia teutônica, afirmava que “Ostara, Eástre, era a Deusa da luz crescente da primavera”. A água na forma do orvalho, ou água coletada dos ribeiros, era recolhida neste tempo e tudo o que fosse lavado nessas aguas teria a juventude restaurada. Belas donzelas vestidas de branco puro eram vistas brincando por todo o país. Também de acordo com Grimm, a donzela branca de Osterode (uma cidade da Alemanha) aparecia com um grande grupo de chaves em seu cinto, e caminhava até córrego para coletar a água pela manhã.

.

Origens e ligações do nome da Deusa

Há fontes que ligam o nome Eostre com os nomes das Deusas do amanhecer correspondentes à Deusa romana Aurora e grega Eōs.

Usando material comparativo, como o inglês antigo “Eostre” nos permitem propor um termo Proto-Indo-Europeu (PIE) para a ‘deusa do amanhecer’, caracterizada como a que traz a luz de forma ‘relutante’, um ato pelo qual ela é punida. Em três grupos [linguísticos] indo-europeus, báltico, grego e indo-iraniano, a existência de um termo PIE para ‘deusa do amanhecer’ tem ainda mais apoio linguístico por neles ela ser designada como ‘filha do céu’. Todos [os termos correspondentes em lituano, grego e hindu antigo] derivados de um termo PIE ‘filha do céu’. O correspondente ‘filho do céu’ é impossível de ser reconstruído lexicamente, mas é, semântica e mitologicamente, associado com os ‘Gêmeos Divinos'” o que indica que possivelmente a Deusa tenha tido um irmão.

Já Ostara, como a Deusa também é chamada, tem origem anglo-saxã provinda do advérbio ostar que expressa algo como “Sol nascente” ou “Sol que se eleva”, Muitos lugares na Alemanha foram consagrados ao sol nascente, como Austerkopp (um rio em Waldeck), Osterstube (uma caverna) e Astenburg.

Tais indicativos ajudam, posteriormente, a construir Eostre como uma Deusa associada à luz crescente da primavera, momento em que trazia alegria e bênçãos a Terra.

Alguns historiadores dizem que Eostre é meramente uma das várias formas de Frigga (Deusa indo-européia – esposa de Odin), ou que seu nome seria um epíteto para representar Frigga em seu aspecto jovem e primaveril. Outros pesquisadores a associam à Astarte (Deusa Fenícia) e Ishtar (Deusa Babilônica), devido às similaridades em seus respectivos festivais da primavera.

.

Relações com a Mitologia

Alguns sites contam uma história de Eostre ligando-a a pássaros e lebres, porém não há nenhum registro antigo relacionado a isso, o que leva a crer que esse mito seja uma versão moderna criada para ligar símbolos de fertilidade presentes no paganismo com a Deusa.

No mito, conta que Eostre estava sentada em um jardim com algumas crianças, quando um pássaro voou sobre elas e pousou na mão da Deusa. Ao dizer algumas palavras mágicas, o pássaro se transformou em uma lebre. Isto maravilhou as crianças mas, com o passar dos meses, elas repararam que a lebre não estava feliz com a transformação, porque não mais podia cantar nem voar.

As crianças pediram a Eostre que revertesse o encantamento. Ela tentou mas não conseguiu desfazer o encanto. Eostre decidiu esperar até que o inverno passasse, pois nesta época seu poder diminuía. Quando a Primavera retornasse e ela seria restituída de seus poderes e poderia ao menos dar alguns momentos de alegria à lebre, transformando-a novamente em pássaro, nem que fosse por alguns momentos.

A lebre permaneceu até que então a Primavera chegou e Eostre, com seus poderes restaurados, transformou a lebre em um pássaro novamente. Agradecido, o pássaro botou ovos em homenagem a Deusa mas logo voltou a forma de uma lebre que, ainda feliz, pintou os ovos e os distribuiu pelo mundo.

Para lembrar às pessoas de seu ato tolo de interferir no livre-arbítrio de alguém, Eostre entalhou a figura de uma lebre na lua que pode ser vista até hoje por nós.

.

Simbologia

A primavera sempre foi vista como uma época de fertilidade e vida nova, por isso seus símboslos mais comuns são a lebre e os ovos.

A lebre é muito conhecida por seu poder gerador, sendo um símbolo de fertilidade além de ser o animal que, devido ao seu comportamento esquivo, é ligado à Lua. A lebre também acompanha muitas Deusas tais como Hécate, Freya e Holda.

O ovo sempre esteve associado ao começo da vida. Não são poucos os mitos que nos falam do “ovo primordial” ou “ovo cósmico” que teria sido chocado pela luz do Sol, dando assim vida a tudo o que existe. O ovo e todas as sementes) contém “todo potencial”, cheio de promessa e vida nova. Ele simboliza o renascimento da natureza, a fertilidade da Terra e toda a criação.

A Primavera também é um tempo visto relacionado a pureza, da juventude e da beleza, atributos que, mais tarde também foram ligados à Deusa.

Muito se diz também sobre a ligação de Ostara/Eostre com a Páscoa cristã. Caso seja este o seu interesse, há um outro post que discorro longamente sobre o assunto.

.

Deusas com aspectos semelhantes:

Mitologia Grega: Eos

Mitologia Nórdica: Frigga

Mitologia Romana: Aurora

.

Guia rápido de Correspondências:

Invoque Eostre para: abundância, criação, nascimentos, fertilidade, geração, maternidade, pureza, juventude e beleza. Animais: pássaros e lebres. Bebida e comidas: pratos que levam como ingrediente coelho e comidas brancas. Pedras: pérola. Cores: branco e prateado. Face da Deusa: Donzela. Estação do ano: Primavera Sabbath: Ostara Data comemorativa: 30 de março Símbolos: lebre, ovos.

Fontes wikipedia.org/wiki/Eostre http://www.carlanayland.org/essays/eosturmonath.htm https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2011/apr/23/easter-pagan-roots

Eostre, Senhora da primavera Eostre (também conhecida como Ēostre, Eostra, Eostrae, Eastre, Estre, Ostara, Osterae e Austra) é a Deusa da fertilidade, amor e do renascimento na mitologia anglo-saxã, na mitologia nórdica e mitologia germânica.

[dillydallydance]

Let’s say I synced my year on the lunar calendar, which will give a kind of excuse for this year’s delay in publishing lists (an exercise that still tickles my rational/irrational relationship to music).

This year saw the beginning (and then a complete neglect) of dddance+microclimat office playlists. The year in music then revolved much more than usual on single songs, one-hit discoveries, music blogs, spotify+deezer recommendations, etc. A few numbers explanation: In a way the list could have been quite long, but here are the 100 most played/curious songs. Ranking mattered only for the first 75, so it starts in alphabetical order. This is a much different exercise than ranking albums: I focus on replays, songs I shared, songs that were contagious to others.

Here is the playlist in full:

via SPOTIFY

ALSO ON DEEZER HERE

Adult Jazz – Eggshell

Bess Atwell - Cobbled Streets

Cass McCombs - Opposite House

Drake - One Dance

Explosions in the Sky - Desintegration Anxiety

Flume - Smoke & Retribution (feat. Vince Staples & Kučka)

Francis and the Lights - Friends (feat. Bon Iver)

Griefjoy - Scream Structure

Her - Five Minutes

Honus Honus – Santa Monica

Justice - Safe and Sound

La Femme - Le Sphynx

Lady Gaga – Joanne

Mark Pritchard - Beautiful People (feat. Thom Yorke)

Masasolo - Really Thought She Loved Me

Midnight Faces - Heavenly Bodies

Miya Folick - I Got Drunk

Nicolas Jaar - Killing Time

Niki & the Dove - So Much it Hurts

Plants and Animals - No Worries Gonna Find Us

Two Door Cinema Club - Bad Decisions

We Are Wolves - Wicked Games

Wilco - If I Ever Was a Child

Wild Beasts - Get My Bang

Wild Nothing - Reich Pop

75. Adele - Send My Love (To Your New Lover)

Always start the list with a pretty good joke. I know this album is 2015, but this single is 2016, and I danced on that in the office, sang it in a Karaoke in Tokyo and here I am a single-only Adele fan !

74. Rihanna - Work (feat. Drake)

73. Leonard Cohen - You Want it Darker

72. Larry Gus - At Your Desk

71. Moby & The Void Pacific Choir - Are You Lost In The World Like Me

70. Childish Gambino - Redbone

69. Car Seat Headrest - Fill in the Blank

68. Suuns – Translate

67. Radiation City – Separate

66. Preoccupations – Anxiety

65. Massive Attack - Voodoo in My Blood (feat. Young Fathers)

64. Bat For Lashes - Sunday Love

63. Animal Collective - Golden Gal

62. Islands - The Joke

61. James Blake - I Hope My Life

60. Kendrick Lamar - untitled 06 | 06.30.2014

59. The Avalanches – If I Was a Folkstar

58. Yeasayer - Gerson's Whistle

57. Peter Bjorn and John - Breakin' Point

56. Palace Winter - Positron

55. Prism Tats - Death or Fame

54. Deakin - JUST AM

53. Funeral Suits - Tree Of Life 

52. Los Porcos - Do You Wanna Live?

51. Dinner - Turn Me On

50. Bibio – Petals

49. Local Natives - Past Lives

48. Izzy Bizu - Someone That Loves You

47. LUH – I&I

46. The Kills - Doing It To Death

45. Blood Orange - “Best to You” (ft. Empress Of)

44. Cullen Omori - Synthetic Romance

43. Metronomy - Back Together

42. Methyl Ethel - Idée Fixe

41. PJ Harvey - The Wheel

40. Father John Misty - Real Love Baby

39. Mind Enterprises – Girlfriend

38 Devendra Banhart - Middle Names

37. Money - You Look Like a Sad Painting on Both Sides of the Sky

36. James Supercave - Virtually a Girl

35. Christine and the Queens - It

34. Beyonce - Formation

33. Austra - Future Politics

32. The Palms - Push Off

31. Michael Kiwuanuka - Love & Hate

30. Porches - Be Apart

29. The Weeknd - Starboy (feat. Daft Punk)

28. Globelamp - Controversial/Confrontational

27.The 1975 - Somebody Else

26. The XX - On Hold

25. Yoko Ono - Soul Got Out of the Box (feat. Portugal. The Man)

24. Anohni - Drone Bomb Me

23. Kanye West – FML

22. Júníus Meyvant - Color Decay

21. Operators - Cold Light

20. David Bowie - Blackstar

19. Julien Doré - Le Lac

18. Rae Sremmurd - Black Beatles (feat. Gucci Mane)

17. Jarryd James - Do You Remember (feat. Raury)

16. Andrew Bird - Left Hand Shake (feat. Fiona Apple)

15. Hamilton Leithauser + Rostam - In a Black Out

14. Georgia - Move Systems

13. Empress Of - Woman Is a Word

12. Beck – Wow

11. The Last Shadow Puppets – Aviation

10. Glass Animals - Life Itself

Glass Animals discuss How to be a Human Being with sass and swag, tackling the ridicule of some scenes of “life itself”, with a sense of derision felt equally in lyrics, synths and guitars. You can bounce your ass off as he admits “I can't get a job so I live with my mum / I take her money but not quite enough / I make my own fun in grandmama's basement / Said I look mad, she said I look wasted”.

09. Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros - Hot Coals

This band involves quite a bunch of people, but rarely do they connect as much as they do on "Hot Coals", a jazzy, expansive number that breezes through a tickled intro, sexy and lively arrangements, percussive transitions, a piano-horns climax and a quiet landing that revolves around one of Alex Ebert’s rare displays of seriousness and humility (he’s usually quite annoying). The line "Stay the fuck in my heart" is aggressive, while the massive build-up is softly supporting it. The song is in full possession of the band’s collective skills.

08. Damien Jurado - Exit 353

Visions Of Us On the Land marks the end of a prolific album trilogy. Jurado’s voice is unique: tearful and brittle on acoustic songs. It’s also interrogative and existential, when he tackles the grandeur of of a spiritual journey, as on “Exit 353”. “You were with me all along / I let go and you held strong” is a transcendent contrast to the final part of the song where he acknowledges, in a loop, “I was alone there / I was alone then”. His state of grace, on the land, in the country, or within himself, becomes ours in a true grasp of communal beauty.

07. Loney Dear – Hulls   +    SOHN – Rennen

I don’t know how to characterize Loney Dear’s music, especially as I discovered him with “Airport Surroundings”, a song quite at odd with the rest of his catalogue. But this guy can haunt with all sorts of minimalism (hear the early “Harm” and “Distant”). ‘Hulls’ does that in a ferocious way, disturbing with piercing pulses and sharp words about estrangement. It climaxes subtly, sharing in part the tortured violence of not being loved back.

“Rennen” from Sohn picks up the same mood as with his previous album, Tremors. It’s isolated (this time literally, as Christopher Taylor secluded himself in Northern California to record his new album). It’s icy, nocturnal and pretty damn soothing. As the rest of the album again shows him to be clumsy in motives and styles, his voice is self-assured of its beauty, and emerges as one of the most pristine foreground to the kind electronic anxieties he puts forward.

06. Radiohead Burn the Witch – Daydreaming - Decks Dark - Present Tense

I always use the stupid first-grade imagery of music that makes you float, but if a band truly has the power to challenge gravity’s configuration, Radiohead reshuffle again the palpable arrangements of upright rock/electronic music, with guitar, bass, synth and drum sounds all muddled to uplift Yorke’s newfound transparency. It’s not to say that the band settled on a desirable balance between clarity and ambiguity, but a few, scarce moments of contrast bring the most rewarding seconds on the album: as “Identikit” is set afloat by Ed’s back vocals (and that choir!), Jonny conflicts the tones up and down with one of his crudest electric solo (see also the final of “Decks Dark”, with raw bass and guitar lines framing an highlight on the album). It’s Jonny too that, bringing magnificent string orchestrations, makes the record sound pastoral and idyllic even in its gloomiest moments. The contrasts are truly atmospheric, and serve as a support to a clear theme of “lightness”, persistent in the lyrics (am I really writing about Radiohead and lightness?). “Present Tense” offers such mutation in the singer’s cynicism, in a way that one can actually believe him when he sings “Don’t get heavy / Keep it light and / Keep it moving”, backed with some of the loveliest and charming music ever penned by the band (choir vs. echoed vocals vs. old-fashioned continental fingerpicking). Such words ultimately make me the most liberated too, as if I’ve watched old cousin struggle for more than 20 years, reaching a point where he embraces enlightenment: “With my spirit light / Totally alive / Totally released”.

05. M83 – Solitude

The retro-looking music of M83 always toyed with a form of adolescent, dream-like purity. It’s lovely when it’s innocent and doesn’t make sense. The whole world discovered that it could also be exhilarating with 2011’s “Midnight City”, or saturated with immature happiness on Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. M83 gives the music for those who want to feel small and silly in a big world. But this year’s Junk also proved that the cool-irony gets clumsy when that vintage obsession is overblown. Yet, “Solitude” is all that: it’s excessive and immoderate. It’s superb, grandiose, melodramatic, and lavish. And to the credit of Gonzales, it’s also immensely skilled and savvy.      

04. The Tallest Man on Earth – Rivers

A sweeter voice, less Dylan, evermore Matsson. Fingerpicking magic. The song is delicate and poignant. The bareness of its first half is slowly lifted by soft horns and subtle piano notes. This guy is steadily good.  

03. Whitney - No Woman

At the moment when I feel that indie music has not many ways left to re-characterize itself (indie is a ‘character’, right?), two former Smith Westerns guys come out with the perfect indie-folk song, making that indie thing as relevant as ever. And they do so without reinventing a single ingredient: a vacillating falsetto, inexpensive Em-A-G chords known for bringing down cynicism in an instant, a mythic-american narrative of isolation and drifting the land looking for a sense of purpose. It’s solitude without pathos (thanks to those horns). It’s sad and beautiful. It’s humble and hopeful. It knocks you down in less than 4 minutes, simple, competent and candid. I shared this song the most this year, usually with the same immediate response: “yeah, I’m hooked too”.

02. Frank Ocean - Pink + White

The fact that I’m not so passionate about R&B or soul music kept me unreasonably distant from Frank Ocean. It trickles down also (shamefully) as an involuntary estrangement with some of the most relevant black voices elevating the contemporary cultural discourse. I mean, I can go to sleep to Billie Holiday’s “Strange Fruit” and wake up to Kendrick’s “Alright”, but I missed out on the latest of D’Angelo, Miguel, and yes, Solange and Beyonce. “Channel Orange” is revered on every sides of the universe, but it surprisingly never gave me the thrills. I read of how much of a talented singer-songwriter he is, and can’t deny any of the praises thrown at his relevance and his voice. But a few blogposts from him also hinted at a profound humanity, which kept me curious to whatever he (seldom) chooses to sing about. And here I am in 2016, finally joining the collective applauses, abusing of his ineffable empathy, worshiping the true beauty of his sensibility. Compared to the previous album, the R&B tag isn’t that obvious, probably due to the album’s deliberate minimalism. He dissolves any need for labels, cuts instead his flesh open, and makes his bowels sing along some of the most creative melodies of the year. It’s raw yet meticulous, comforting yet secretive, avant-garde yet immediately rewarding. Blond ended up as one of the albums I replayed the most this year. The combination “White Ferrari” and “Seigfried” are so well crafted in introspection and intimacy, it’s like you can hear him bleed (also, thanks Jonny Greenwood). I’m guilty of choosing also the duo of “Ivy” and “Pink+White” in particular, especially as the latest is the most immediately likable song here. But damn, how willingly am I grooving along the pristine voice, breezing with the chill and sensuous summer melody. It’s 2016’s song for walk-grooving on bass and piano tempos, set adrift on dreamlike lyrics and imageries. This is smooth smooth smooth. I’m glad I’m now fully onboard with this Ocean guy.

01. Bon Iver - 33 "GOD"

What the fuck is this guy singing about? “Holocene” was arguably one of the prettiest songs of the last decade, but there is this line about “laying waste on Halloween” that makes it surprisingly mundane. The whole ‘mood’ of such songs aligns with the Divine, yet any attempt to dissect it (maybe no one should) shows rather a collection of references to everyday places and times. It is an undeniable signature of Justin Vernon that whichever mediums he works with (may it be the resonance of elementary guitar chords, the cold echoes of autotune, or stretched electronic pulses), human-scale alienations will dominate, and will be collected into a transcendent ‘mood’. And for me Vernon is exactly that: not much of a skilled musician, but a skilled collector, a curator. Fragments of sounds and words are built in such a universal and relatable image-space; vaporous lines draw contours of quotidian episodes; passages are momentarily crafted between memories and estrangements. He gives order to what are merely fleeting impressions of the world. In “33, ‘GOD’”, when Vernon juggles aptly from sacred allusions (“I could go forward in the light”) to everyday realisms (“Well I better fold my clothes”), his questions, struggles and uncertainties briefly take shape as an engaging and responsive ghost figure. The most enduring appeal of Vernon is to do so without veering into overconsciousness, without sounding like a self-professed guru of ‘crystal healing’ bullshit (or in the case of this song, “bird shit”). Like most, I breastfeed shamelessly on the allusive accessibility of the opening piano line, or the immediacy of words like “I’d be happy as hell if you stayed for tea”. But later these tangible trajectories quickly dissolve in foreground/background disorienting dialogues. Vernon’s vision traces a mythical path in such conflicting suggestions, a path that varies with each listening, and probably will vary with the next albums to come. His voice, as always, will remain the only trustable, guiding structure.

In only 10 years, Vernon positioned himself as that father figure, for me and the music industry. Has it been only 3 albums? He gave voice to many with his own festival in Eau Claire, and assured his presence through numerous collaborations of all scales (from Kanye to this year’s Francis and the Light). Bon Iver were once revered as an easy folk band, but it appears ‘logical’ and ‘in line’ with this ascension that “22, A Million” is their most experimental and obscure record. It’s quite claustrophobic in fact compared even to the cabin made “C Em Am Em” sing-along progressions. This voluntary opacity isn’t a surprise also for bands struggling with 2nd or 3rd albums, panicked with stardom (or grammys). The result is too often a naive form of conceptual obscurantism, a way to shout something like: “People give me credits, but I’m not obvious. I’m genuine. I’m fucked up. I’m a dark creator.” To be honest, it is slightly the case here: the album’s cryptic visuals and song titles are mysterious (or fucked-up) for about 2 minutes, but perdure as uninteresting, unnecessary packaging gimmicks. Still, the album, and “33, ‘GOD’” in particular, ranks on the good side of the catchy-experimental trend, as Vernon got us accustomed to use his pervasive vulnerability as the code-cracking tool to float over the opacity of his text. It is an intimate, subtle, relationship, and here again his trademark voice will succeed to draw you as close as always.

LISTEN TO THE COMPLETE PLAYLIST HERE

via SPOTIFY

ALSO ON DEEZER HERE

.

[mjulianwrites]

credit to @yvesdot for this template!

happy almost new year! 2022 was the first year in a very long time that i consistently wrote every month, so i'm excited to look back on it! my writing this year was dominated by my latest wip, next day after dawn, including both canonverse content and a lot of stupid au bullshit <3

details under the cut!

january

in january i was still very much in dearer than a friend mode after finishing the first draft in november, but with no progress to make on the book itself i ended up writing some speculative post-canon (and very non-canon) nonsense involving preston getting into a terrible terrible relationship with another man. this one was a collab with @inkgel for which we definitely wrote a sane and normal amount of content

It’s not that he intended for this to happen. But the truth has been bubbling up for so long now, and eroding him a little more each time it does, wearing away at whatever remains of his willpower, his sense of himself, his belief that he has anything left to lose. And he’s already damned. He knows that deep down. He could repent, he supposes. Maybe God would forgive him. But Val won’t. He doesn’t really see the point. And it’s because of that too. Because he’s alone now, in a way he never has been, never could have been for the past eleven years of his life, because he always had someone who was supposed to be his. He’s not sure how he’s supposed to forget it when it feels like a piece of him has been ripped out, leaving a gaping wound that throbs and bleeds and refuses even to begin to heal. So he has to find someone to fill it, even if they don’t fit quite right.

february

in february i was mostly focused on my classes, but that did involve reading paradise lost and briefly getting very fixated on eve. i wrote less than two pages of this, but i was having fun with some dialogue between eve and satan. it was interesting to try to figure out what the pov of someone so ignorant of the world might look like

“Are you an angel?” I ask. That creature that he is talking to as I am talking to you. I do not really know what an angel is. He would not let me listen with him so it could be explained to me. But I know that an angel is something greater than me, and you are greater than me, but you are not Him, so I think maybe that is right. “I was an angel,” you say. “Was?” “I don’t know if I can explain it to you.” I feel something when you say that, something that I have no name for, but I know it is something that is bad to feel. Frustration, I think. I am good at naming things. I am as good as him. Sometimes I wish that He had left some of the animals for me to name too, but that is something that is bad to wish.

march

in march i decided i needed to get out of endlessly spinning dtaf mode. i also read gtn and remembered how much i love ensemble casts. and lo and behold, next day after dawn was born. this was one of the very first scenes i wrote, between mona and her mother austra when mona is (spoilers) experiencing life threatening illness moments. their mother/daughter dynamic is everything to me

“Don’t lie,” she said, and tried not to think about the fact that she sounded more than a little like she was begging. “Don’t—Selene can’t lie for shit, and she told me everything was fine, but she probably just wanted to avoid a difficult conversation, probably thought it was for the best, because she’s an idiot, but if you lie—” The room felt suffocating, stuffy and overly hot. She was suddenly viscerally aware of the sticky dampness of sweat beneath her shirt, and that, somehow, was more overwhelming than the pain that spiderwebbed from her pounding head all the way down her back. Her mother was silent, her face still very nearly impassive, but there was something in the slight furrowing of her brows that Mona thought looked terribly sad. “Don’t you dare,” Mona said furiously. Her eyes were burning. She blinked hard to clear the definitely-not-tears forming there. “Don’t you dare act like I’m going to die.”

april

more ndad snippets! this was from the first full scene i finished, which ended up being prince cyrus' pov of the first night after the coup. he is so mentally ill

Cyrus thought that was a nice enough idea on paper, given the circumstances. But when it became clear that it involved putting on his least comfortable court clothes and shuffling into a musty, overly crowded hall where three scuffed tables and a dozen mismatched chairs had been pushed together in some imitation of a royal banquet, he very quickly began to have second thoughts. Cassandane tried to motion for him to sit at the head of the table when they came in. He sat just to the right of it instead, as he would have if he really had been at court. If the king had been here. But the fact that he wasn’t didn’t make it feel any more right to take his place. So Cyrus didn’t. No one else did either. The chair sat untouched at the front of the room, a ghost in an empty seat. Not a ghost, Cyrus tried to remind himself. Just not here. He would be back soon. They would all be back soon. He couldn’t handle thinking anything else.

may

ndad strikes again! this is going to be most of this. here we have the first darcy pov i wrote, featuring them being sent to woo princess cassandane for prince cyrus and falling head over heels in love with her themself. (take a shot every time someone in ndad has a line about being or not being their father's son)

“I am not a real princess,” she told them after a long moment. “But I am interested in becoming a queen.” She looked one already, Darcy thought. Her eyes were diamond hard, her jaw and cheekbones carved from marble. She could have knocked her father’s statue to the ground and stood on the pedestal in its place and put it to shame. She could have told them to do anything for her, and it wouldn’t have crossed their mind not to obey. She was all that a queen should be. And Darcy was what they should have been. They were not truly the King’s ambassador, nor the Prince’s surrogate. Their loyalty went only as far as their self-interest. They were not their father’s son. But they were, if nothing else, an excellent liar, which was why they could never fully explain the sudden urge they felt to tell her the truth.

june

in june i wrote a short story for a shakespeare-themed horror anthology! it did not get in, but this was my first shot at horror, so i had a ton of fun anyway. i'll probably post this one on ao3 soon -- it's fun little examination of the inherent freakiness of the ending of all's well that ends with, this time with 100% more black magic

Here’s my confession: I don’t love my wife.  Confession’s probably the wrong word though. Cause it’s not like I can tell anyone. Everyone around here thinks we got our perfect miracle of a storybook ending, so maybe I’m the one who’s wrong for not wanting it. Maybe I deserve this. My happily ever after. I don’t know how they believe it. Well, they believe it because I said it, I said I love Helen, and the lie came out smoother than it should have, given the circumstances, because God knows I’ve had too much practice. Maybe I sounded like I meant it. What I actually said was that I’d love her forever. I never said I was smart.

july

we're back in ndad land, and oh boy, this was a month. july was the first time i've ever beaten nanowrimo, fully unintentionally, simply because @wren-is-writing and i went fucking insane with the au fanfiction. but the piece that started it all was renan's backstory, aka renan's spiral into destroying every part of himself over his love for a terrible little boyboss war criminal (hi king cyrus). this is the first time the two of them meet, when cyrus is still in his rakish misbehaving prince era. brainworms are found in the gay old men

The others are already drinking deep again, eager to accept another newcomer into their circle for the night, but your mouth has gone dry. It’s almost hard to look at him. It’s harder to look anywhere else. He notices you staring. When he catches your eye, it makes your heart jump into your throat. “What?” he asks. “Something in my teeth?” You’re barely breathing. “Your Highness,” you manage, and you can’t read the look that crosses his face. Hebes slaps his hand down on the table so hard it makes your glass rattle, and lets out an incredulous, booming laugh. “Stars above, Renan, is that Prince Cyrus?” The boy next to you winks and flashes another incandescent grin. “Just call me Cy.”

august

and here we come to just a small selection of the insane au fanfiction wren and i engaged in. not ALL of it was about cyrenan, just most of it. here's some darcy and cassandane in the criminally extensive college au. darcy's pining, what else is new

It would happen, though, they told themself. It would happen eventually. Because she loved them, they were sure, even if neither of them had phrased it that way exactly. They’d as good as told each other more times than they could count. They had always worked that way, reading between the lines but knowing they were on the same page. “You’re brilliant, you know,” they murmured, dropping their voice so low they were sure only she could hear it. Just one more way of telling her. They knew she’d understand. “At dancing or in general?” “Both.” “I do know,” Cass replied. Her slow, curving smile made them flush too much to hide.  “I want to do this more often,” they whispered. They risked stroking their thumb lightly across her shoulder, a gesture they hoped was too small to catch. “I want to do this all the time.” Forever wasn’t a word they would pull out in public regardless of how softly they were speaking, but they were sure she got that too.

september

we're back to canonverse ndad, thank god. more backstories! this one chronicles austra's girlbossification, and this moment specifically is right after her daughter mona is born

She’s not going to make it. That’s the first thing the doctors tell you. It’s the first thing the Church proclaims on the matter too. You’re still confined to your hospital room. You can’t witness it pronounced in a chapel or read it in a star chart. You have to hear it from your husband’s mouth instead. His eyes are red. He’s been crying. You haven’t been. You’ll break down when there’s nothing left to fight for, not a moment sooner than that. Your daughter needs surgeries that haven’t been performed in a century. Your daughter has long brown eyelashes that flutter when you kiss her while she sleeps. Your husband tells you that her doom is written in the stars, and he says it like he thinks it’s true.

october

and i actually followed austra's backstory up with castor's, because apparently i spent some of this year being semi productive. castor's terrible little psyche revolves around the fact that his brother (everyone's favourite son) died when he was a teenager and he thinks it's his fault for not being a hardened soldier at 17. here he is trying to be a hardened soldier (it's not going well)

You’re not a natural. You’re not even a hard-won talent. Even when you’re not half sleepwalking, you’re slow, clumsy, unsure. Your sword arm grows sore after barely an hour. The straps of your armour chafe against the skin of your neck and leave it raw. You’ve tried your best, memorized a hundred manoeuvres in sparring sessions, but somehow you still freeze in the field. The first time an enemy makes a swipe for you, you run like a coward. By the fiftieth time, you’ve learned to stand your ground, but you don’t know if your allies feel the difference. At night, every comrade you couldn’t save has your brother’s face. He had scars when he—when you saw him the last time. A barely-there line through his eyebrow, another tiny one on his chin. Your father has the gouged-out pit in his left cheek, the mark that proves he is and isn’t invulnerable. Every time a blade flashes in your face, you wonder if you’ll end up with a matching one. It never happens, probably because you’re too quick to flinch back from the strikes that might get close enough. Your skin remains despicably pristine.

november

wow, a new wip? well maybe. this one is still in very early stages, but i got seized by brainworms consisting of "what if richard and bolingbroke from shakespeare's richard ii were lesbians (and not cousins) and fucking hated each other." also it's the 80s, i think. rielle is our larger than life femme richard who's never met an emotion she couldn't turn into a performance, and the narrator here is jack, butch bolingbroke, who has a lot of daddy issues and hates rielle so fucking much.

Don’t get me wrong. My dad was an asshole. He was a dyed-in-the-wool red-blooded homo-hating bigot and I didn’t shed a tear at his funeral. But he was the kind of asshole where if I called my hair a pixie cut and ditched the Doc Martens for mascara when I came around for dinner, he’d happily keep paying my tuition. He’d even hug me, sometimes. Mostly after Mom died. Both arms around my shoulders, like he meant it. So I had my reasons, basically, for not wanting to publicly tell him to go fuck himself.  And even if I hadn’t, she was the last person I owed an explanation. Easy for her to say she’d cut off her parents in a heartbeat when she didn’t have any, just an inheritance ten times the size I was ever getting and a bunch of framed tabloids with pictures of a Rolls-Royce twisted around a lamp post and a cherub of a girl who knew, even at ten years old, how to cry pretty.

december

this past month i've been juggling grad school apps and finals and prepping for my thesis, so i haven't written a ton, but i went back to fun shakespeare fanfiction collabs with @inkgel for a bit! here's me attempting to write julius caesar pov `for our caesar/antony character study that we did after playing those characters on zoom (and playing them as in love, of course)

He could do the same with Antony. Antony wouldn’t make him ask twice for it—wouldn’t make him ask at all, probably, because he is always so delightfully quick to capitulate, all it would really take is a finger ghosted over those plush and slightly reddened lips. But Caesar doesn’t like him to be carved out of marble. He likes it when Antony stumbles, the laugh bubbling up from his throat loose and lazy, the perfect planes of his cheekbones marred with a ruddy flush. When Antony clings onto him, half for balance, half because he’s surely looking for any excuse to. When he hangs on several moments longer than he needs to, his pupils blown, his hair mussed not-quite-artfully, and kisses him with the heady scent of wine still on his breath. Perhaps sometimes he would deign to think he loved it, but it’s been years since that word has been his to offer. These days, it’s only for lesser men to give.

if you got this far, thank you so much for reading! see you all in 2023!!

[darcymercurialisunofficial]

please rank the hotness of all the women in the royal court against a theoretical butch kane

A theoretical butch Kane? Well, why not. Though, dear anon, I will say that I believe that objectively, order of hotness here should probably most closely follow the order of those who are closest to the throne. The natural order, if you will.

So, as requested:

1.Princess Cassandane - As the wife of Prince Cyrus III and future Queen of Nesus, it’s only polite to put her first.

2.Lady Austra Lunares - Second in line to the throne, and I respect MILFs.

3.Selene Lunares - Incredible conversationalist, genuinely pleasant to be around, we have similar tastes in media.

4.Mona Lunares - Frankly she could spit on me and I’d say thank you. Church of Siderum DNI.

5.Drea Martis - Incredible skill with a knife, muscles that suggest she could throw me like a sack of potatoes, and she’s not annoying to be around? Sign me up (theoretically, as she’s married).

6.Jada Martis - I don’t see much of her these days, but again: MILFs >>>>. Her fatal flaw is l*king Castor Martis.

7.Theoretical Butch Kane - I need you to understand. They would be leagues above real, non-butch, cisgender male Kane, but I doubt the xenophobia or inability to control their volume would be gone. How unfortunate :( Though being slammed against the wall by the throat via Theoretical Butch Kane, again, would be much of an improvement compared to being thrown around by regular plain cisboy Kane.

[houseoflunares]

also pls drop ur thoughts on vander and farrington?? i picked up on some vibes too tbh but i wasnt sure if vander was the type to do something like that

I did not create this blog to speculate baselessly about my colleagues' private lives. I will say, perhaps uselessly, that I would be extremely happy to address questions about the legislative agenda for the upcoming session of parliament and other matters of political policy.

That said, while Vander has not given any indication of untoward conduct, everything about Farrington's behaviour leads me to believe that he is almost certainly engaging in some sort of ill-advised affair. Given that such an affair has not come to light, I am forced to conclude that the other party probably has a considerable amount of discretion, as I cannot imagine that Farrington would be exercising any.

- Lady Austra Lunares

[houseoflunares]

If you did an am I hot poll like your dad I'm sure you'd get better results than him...hey maybe that's a good idea for a system of government!

I would prefer to be assessed on the basis of my principles and qualifications as a leader.

- Lady Austra Lunares

[houseoflunares]

lady austra are you a serious goose?

I take it that this question is playing off of the colloquialism "silly goose." I do consider myself a largely serious person.

- Lady Austra Lunares

[houseoflunares]

Not you shading helios in your last post?? He has more swag than you could ever dream of old lady

I am not concerned with how much "swag" the man formerly known as Perseus Farrington has. I am concerned with his ability to competently manage the Nessian treasury, which thus far has proven to be notably lacking. I am also concerned that a bastard who has no right to inherit anything from King Cyrus appears to be marking himself as a prince by way of his name. I would hope that kind of blatant overreaching would be checked by those with the authority to do so, but Farrington has thus far been rewarded with a frankly dangerous amount of responsibility and a title rightfully owed to Lord Sterces Saturnini's daughter, who spent the better part of fifty years preparing to take on the role.

- Lady Austra Lunares

[houseoflunares]

say hi to evaine for me 😳 (sexual intent)

I will not be conveying sexual intent to any of my colleagues. If the public is interested in hearing more from Lady Whitby, I would consider allowing her access to this blog on a temporary basis, but I would strongly request that you all keep your messages professional.

- Lady Austra Lunares

[houseoflunares]

How do you deal with having soooo many guys names Cyrus in your life? If I was you I’d probably default to calling them big, medium, and little based on age, but then I’m not sure what you’d do when Cassandane has Vander’s baby and names it Cyrus to keep up the lie that’s it’s totally her husband’s kid who should totally take the throne? Minuscule Cyrus?

I'm going to set aside the fact that there are more affair allegations being thrown around; suffice it to say that if there is evidence that Princess Cassandane's child is not Prince Cyrus' legitimate heir then I or someone else will certainly look into it. Presumably, in that case, the child would not be allowed to keep the name Cyrus. As some people doubtless still remember, traditional royal names are reserved exclusively for legitimate children of the monarch or their descendents who are in line to inherit the throne.

To address the rest of your question, I have never had trouble keeping track of my family members. My father has always been King Cyrus, and his grandson is Prince Cyrus. My brother was, of course, also Prince Cyrus when he was alive, but unfortunately there was only a short period during which he might be confused for his son, and he was always just Cyrus to me when we were among family. I suppose the Prince's son would also be just Cyrus while my father is still alive, but I will also add that Prince Cyrus might have a daughter, and that he is welcome to choose a more unique name for a son.

- Lady Austra Lunares

[houseoflunares]

austra what are your goals for the next parliament session?

Thank you for asking. More details can be found on the official parliament website, but some of our broad priorities include:

Expanding rail access to underserved parts of the country, particularly Caelus, Saturnini, and northern Lovis

Lowering the cost of pharmaceutical drugs, and addressing supply chain issues that lead to pervasive shortages outside of urban centers

Subsidizing trade education programs, particularly for aspiring doctors and engineers in impoverished areas

Providing more reliable access to utilities, particularly potable water and electricity, outside of urban centers

Relocating Nessian troops from some of the recently reappropriated regions of Calterra in order to use the land to increase agricultural production

Requiring increased public transparency about the details of how government spending is allocated (especially with regard to Ceremonial Expenses)

Beginning discussions about the possibility of a mechanism for parliamentary impeachment of government officials failing to fulfill their duties in the near future

All of these goals will require collaboration from multiple branches of government, so if these issues are important to you, I strongly encourage you to reach out to your local representative and to consider submitting an official petition to King Cyrus.

- Lady Austra Lunares