#bamboo bookshelf

[whovians-suffer-most]

Living Room - Rustic Living Room Inspiration for a small rustic enclosed concrete floor and beige floor living room remodel with white walls, no fireplace and no tv

[pearlcatcher-problems]

pour one out for my tablet, finally broken after...... thirteen years

l m a o I was overdue replacing it but I love it so much ; w;

time to look at a replacement -- not doing wacom again because EXPENSE but maybe XPpen? No idea but I'm out of time now given the lineup of commissions I have and personal projects I want DONE.

[heartbeetz]

I've talked before about how I think it's funny that so many of my f/os are associated with reds (or pinks) and/or greens. But it only just occurred to me that that's probably connected to earth tones (especially reds and greens, but also brown/black) being my favorite colors for things to be. Like my bedsheets and plant pots and furniture and random decorative items are mostly reds and greens (+brown). Fucking of course I'd also be drawn to characters who are those colors. Whatever.

[cattownshend]

Great Room in San Francisco Great room - mid-sized contemporary dark wood floor great room idea with white walls

[leading-inpherno]

-> An elderly female demon entered Thieves' Den, staring around with curious eyes. This wasn't HER Thieves' Den and she knew it, but she couldn't help but be curious. - @windswept-ocs [WOODSTAFF]

Glory is rearranging things in their semi-outdoor office, their second set of smaller insect arms flexing slightly as they move some things from their bamboo bookshelf.

Lanterns hang overhead, the furniture is made of bamboo & light colored woods, earthy & natural decor adorning the bookshelves & tables. There are weapons & other sharp objects displayed on the wall, & flora in the shape of the Thieves Den logo.

They don't seem to notice the other leader. Glory is also in a less casual 'mode', their blindfold off, being discarded on their desk.

[tcfactory]

A little sneak peak from my daemon AU fic.

I think I'm doing an okay job keeping it on track so far, so it won't turn into another overly long monster of a story. :D

“See to it that this little beast is properly situated and cleaned up. I want to see neither hair nor hide of him until he can behave befitting of my peak!” “Understood, Shizun!” Ming Fan swiftly pulls Luo Binghe to his feet and half-pushes half-herds him out the door, but he stays lingering behind. “Asking for Shizun’s forgiveness, but the seniors at the library couldn’t provide Luo-shidi with a manual. They wondered if Shizun might spare one from his own library until they can rectify this shortcoming.” Shen Qingqiu doesn’t even deem that statement worthy of a verbal comment. Like a vengeful god on a warpath, he storms to his bookshelf and without even really looking pulls out a manual at random from a cluster of similar books. “Don’t bother returning it,” he says as he throws the book to Ming Fan. “Now, get out of my sight!” Clearly sensing that his master is one wrong word away from a temper tantrum, Ming Fan makes himself scarce with impressive speed. (...) When Shen Yuan arrives back at the bamboo house, he finds the front door ajar; likely the result of Ming Fan’s hasty retreat not much earlier. He’s just about to knock when he realizes that he can hear the scum villain pacing and muttering angrily inside. “...Of course it had to be that book. What else would it be?! This has to be karma, or-” He falls silent all of a sudden. There’s no other voice that Shen Yuan, but the way he goes on makes it clear that he’s talking to someone. “You are right. Let’s not lose our heads. Somebody will notice it eventually and Ming Fan is smart, he will help us cover for it if it comes to that. And if not-” He falls silent again, listening. He must be speaking to his daemon, Shen Yuan realizes. The daemons of high level cultivators can speak aloud, but in their natural state they communicate through a telepathic bond with their human and their family. It was always a huge party (ending in papapa, of course) in PIDW when Binghe could first hear a new wife’s daemon, because Xin Mo could draw upon these bonds to become even more OP.  Shen Yuan’s musing is interrupted by a brittle, chilling burst of laughter. “'What if he dies?' Who cares?! He won’t be the first or the last. Who am I to try and fight fate?” Shen Yuan stares at the door, his hand frozen halfway to a knock. So it was a mistake - Shen Qingqiu didn’t mean to give Binghe the false manual - but he noticed and he’s just going to… leave it be? Let Binghe ruin his cultivation - let him die rather than correct his mistake?? What kind of Shizun are you?! And the worst of it is that he doesn’t sound malicious or gleeful, oh no. Shen Qingqiu sounds upset and resigned. Like this really is some divine act of fate that he couldn’t possibly fight. Well, tough luck, because Shen Yuan won’t stand for this!

[karmiya]

I actually do a lot of research and am collecting what may one day be an entire bookshelf's worth of reference books, so I thought I'd share one. This is my pride and joy, at least as far as research goes:

To Live as Long as Heaven and Earth is a translation of the Shenxian Zhuan, a series of biographies of Daoist immortals by Ge Hong. The (extensive) introduction by Professor Campany also includes a lot of the translator's own research, drawing on various sources in order to provide a good overview of practices attributed to Daoists in common folklore. If you're interested in the Xianxia and Wuxia genres and their origins, I think this is an invaluable English-language text. Its focus is entirely on traditional beliefs, but through it you can see just how much of the modern fantasy genre in China is based entirely on traditional folklore.

The images of talismans, for example, are extremely familiar to any viewers of modern fantasy dramas or donghua. These look very similar to the talismans we see in the Modao Zushi donghua, don't they?

This is a really interesting little section describing levels of ascendance. It's a lot simpler than modern novels with their million stages of core formation, isn't it? (Though, to be fair, most novels I read are by authors who don't care to get into that level of detail and focus on characters and storytelling, thank goodness!) The 'tianxian' sound a bit like heavenly officials in more recent stories, don't they, whereas the dixian are regular immortal cultivators who still live on earth. The use of shijie (corpse simulacrums) meanwhile, seems to mainly be maintained as a means of faking one's death, not as a means of escaping the notice of the officials of the underworld!

The main paths of immortality outlined in Ge Hong's work are: internal cultivation, external cultivation (alchemy), the arts of the bedchamber, and diet. The first three are very familiar, but I've noticed that diet-based cultivation shows up much more rarely in modern stories. I can only immediately think of Ye Baiyi from Word of Honour, who begins to age again after descending from the mountains and imbibing mortal food once more.

One thing I found interesting is that most accounts of immortals flying either depict them doing so under their own power, or placing a talisman within a bamboo staff and flying on that (or sending some poor soul on a sudden trip across the country!). Flying swords seem to be a much more modern convention.

One thing that's really amusing to me is how much energy the author (Ge Hong, not the translator) dedicated to poking fun at Confucius and Confucianism. Even though the three major religions eventually became known as the Three Teachings and are in modern terms viewed as very harmonious and complementary, historically there was often a huge amount of religious tension. Confucians and Daoists bickered with each other a lot, and then Buddhists got into the fray as well as Buddhism became more and more popular in East Asia. While Buddhism was present in China in Ge Hong's time, it had yet to reach its later popularity; this is probably why Buddhism is barely mentioned in Ge Hong's writing. There are a few indirect references and borrowings from Buddhist tales, and Professor Campany posits that some were intentionally used in competition with Buddhism, while others may have been added by later compilers/transcribers of the text who were Buddhists themselves.

A lot of Cnovels depict this sort of religious tension (Thousand Autumns is a good example), and it's really interesting to see that in these translated historical texts. Even though there are plenty of texts I can't get access to and/or wouldn't be able to read in the original language, there is a huge amount of English-language and translated scholarship on Chinese history available. A lot of it is fascinating to read from a perspective of a fan of Chinese fantasy, since the genre draws so heavily on real history and folklore.

[headspace-hotel]

Minecraft 1.20 is going to be really exciting for builders, the bamboo blocks look so nice and make bamboo an even more useful material.

My only issue with the building updates is that "Chiseled Bookshelf" is a bit of an odd name for the chiseled bookshelf. (I also think we should be able to dye the covers of books.)

[queer-reader-07]

Hi! 💕

For the ask game:

orchid, bamboo, mahonia, sage and nutmeg

Sorry its a lot lol, you can just pick your favorites lol.

hi!! i love having multiple to answer <3

send me asks!!

orchid: what's a song you consider to be perfect?

i'm a slut for hozier first, human second

bamboo: do you change into a different outfit when you get home?

not usually tbh. i usually keep the same stuff on all day unless i've suddenly gotten really uncomfortable and/or dysphoric at some point in the day.

mahonia: what place, thing, activity inspires you most and how do you express yourself when it does?

oooh i love this one! honestly my friends inspire me most! like seeing the art they make (drawing, writing, poetry, etc) always makes me want to do art! especially when i read the stuff my friends write i'm always like "oh maybe i should get back to that piece i haven't touched in 2 months"

sage: what medium of art is the most touching to you? why do you think that is?

music 100%. especially when experienced live. there is something so raw in song writing i think, the way feelings and pain and love and joy can be wrapped in lyricism. it sounds nice when you're just hearing it, but when you truly start to listen it starts hitting you deeper and harder in your chest.

live music especially feels so personal and intimate, even in a large theater. being in a room full of people who know all the lyrics, singing along to these songs about love and joy and loss and the feral energy of life is enough to make me cry in a really human way.

nutmeg: how's your room decorated? do you have a specific theme or style going on?

i do not have a cohesive theme or style in any aspect of my life lmao. one of my friends described my room by saying that "it looks like the inside of [my] brain" which has always stuck with me. i have drawings up on one wall and song lyrics printed on metallic painted cardboard above my desk. there's a movie poster for star wars by my bookshelf and a dune poster next to a foldout magazine poster of the jwst pillars of creation. i have crucifixes adorned with rosaries above my bed because i'm not catholic but they give me some twisted form of comfort and they're next to the photos of my friends and i.

it's messy an incoherent but it's so very Me.

[limitlessscion]

this isnt from a meme but i have two questions: 1) what did satoru's childhood bedroom looked like? and 2) does he play video games?

what did satoru's childhood bedroom looked like?

He had two different rooms growing up.

As an infant, his room was deep within the Gojo family manor, at the center of a large compound dating back centuries that had been constructed especially for the Six Eyes child. The walls are solid with no windows, sound-proof, and are carved with charms that are fiercely protected family secrets. Spells on them prevent them from being able to be recorded manually or digitally, and memories of their existence erased when leaving the compound. The knowledge of how to activate them are bound to only the Clan Head, and the Six Eyes user themselves; nobody else is able to retain the knowledge in their minds even if they learn of it.

The charms are able to supress the effects of the Six Eyes and alter its perception in different ways. It is a necessary aspect of raising a baby that was born with the curse of the Six Eyes, to safely acclimate them to the intense amount of information and learn how to process that information correctly. However you can imagine how dangerous such spells are to the Six Eyes user if they fall into outside hands.

The compound has several layers of security outside of that central room, a lot of which was added after the assassination of a newly born Six Eyes user many generations past by Kenjaku.

When he was older, around the age of four, he was given a room in the main family living compound near the rooms of the clan head and other high-ranking members. The room was plain though; he never got a say in personalizing it. It was cleaned daily by servants, so the fact he'd drop candy wrappers on the floor or that his desk after a study session would be a mess of scrolls and notes and scattered writing utensils never stuck. Every day as he'd get ready for bed the whole room would be pristine, sterile, and lacking any touches of his personality. One time he'd stolen a sticker book from a servant child and placed some on the wall— and they'd been removed the next day.

The floors are patterned tatami, one window opened to the outside of the compound that looked out over a managed creek and koi pond with a wall of bamboo growth. The opposite wall is a shoji screen that opens into the courtyard. His bed was a western style bed by the window with a small nightstand, and the rest of the room was taken up by a work desk and bookshelf.

He was given very little privacy and agency in his life in general.

does he play video games?

Yes! His first ever video game was Pokemon Silver, given to him on his 10th birthday. Karasu, the head of his security detail, has a strong soft spot for children. For various reasons with his background, he was one of the few people who treated Satoru like a child, was not afraid of him, and had plenty of real parental experience. He'd broken a lot of rules fulfilling his promise to make Satoru's birthday that year a good one, as his birthday was actually an annual event that Satoru always hated.

Satoru poured hundreds of hours into Silver. His favourite Pokemon are Lugia and Feraligatr for that reason— in the end, he was still a simple boy who liked the cool legendary on the cover and his starter Pokemon. Once he started playing, there was no way to make him stop anymore; so Satoru's obedience and good behaviour was bought using promises of gaming time and the purchase of new games. Satoru stole extra time for himself too, often playing under the covers at night, or finding quiet hidden corners when he had little pockets of time to himself.

Fun fact: Satoru figured out how IVs and EVs and the damage formula worked entirely on his own.

He exclusively played with handheld consoles; TV consoles required sitting down in a static location with a screen, which gave him no privacy and much less opportunity to sneak gaming time in. It is for a similar reason that he never watched anime or movies, only read mangas and books.

[babyzanna]

I have two chinese lucky bamboo plants at my mum's and I decided to take one to my place (aiming to take the other next commute) but their roots were so entwined I think I felt some echo of their pain being seperated as I pulled them apart. now I have one here on my bookshelf facing the window and it's all alone and the leaves are going yellow and droopy and I think it's because it's heartbroken.

Peter Wohlleben says plants nowadays have mostly forgotten how to talk to one another and retreated too far into themselves. I keep wondering if their roots will know where to reattach to each when they meet again or if I've severed their connection permanently so they will forget how.

[interstellarmoons]

My Perfect Hologram (Not Meant To Be, But Thank You)

Recently hurt, lost, and afraid

I saw you standing over there

Appearing to come to my aid

Though seemingly part of a pair

“Just friends” I hoped to myself

So easy to talk and relate to

Like a rare read on a bookshelf

Perusing veins of each other’s bamboo

I though that you could be it

The other part of my cracked half

It was indeed her that you were with

But thank you, my perfect hologram

[accidental-spice]

Top 5 obscure objects in your house (decorative or functional, idk)

A wooden giraffe on top of the bookshelf

Essential oil shelf

Jar full of beach glass

My dying bamboo plant

An old explosives case that now holds movies

Thanks for the ask!!

[studioahead]

Artist Spotlight: Leslie Williamson

Leslie Williamson is a photographer of interiors. We mean this literally – in books like Still Lives and Modern Originals she photographed the studios and homes of iconic artists, including some of our Northern California favorites – but also figuratively, because what is remarkable about Williamson is her ability to touch upon the life of a space, or as she calls it, the soul – the part that offers a glimpse of a person's inner world, even when that person is no longer part of this one. In speaking with her, and looking at the mysterious, quiet, strangely emotional places she has photographed, I kept thinking of Gaston Bachelard's maxim in The Poetics of Space: "all really inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home." Flip through any one of her books, and you will see how such notions take shape.

Studio AHEAD: Let's start with your essay "Doc's Lab," published a few weeks ago in a recent WildSam guide, Big Sur & HW 1. Tell us about it and what draws you to this particular landmark in Monterey.

Leslie Williamson: It’s funny how that came about. I became a little enthralled with Ed Ricketts and his Pacific Biological Laboratories when I moved to Monterey in April 2020 (yes, a pandemic move…). I am sure it won’t surprise you to learn that when I am in a new place, I research “house museum” to find what is around me, and when I did this in Monterey, Pacific Biological Laboratories came up. I have never read any Steinbeck so I wasn’t familiar with Ricketts and his story, but with the quiet of the pandemic I soon became a fan. Ricketts is such an inspiring character! It’s no wonder he was Steinbeck’s best friend and muse.

Anyhow, I tried and tried to visit Pacific Biological Laboratories throughout the pandemic but it was always closed. Finally one day, as I was on a walk, the door was open and the nice docent let me in even though I didn’t have a reservation. Oh my goodness that space, it gave me goosebumps!!! It is just so special – steeped in history on a few different levels: early 20th-century Cannery Row and the PBL/Doc Ricketts era and through to the birthplace of the Monterey Jazz Festival and the men’s club that left it to the city of Monterey. Of course I photographed the space and my plan was to write an essay to accompany it that would go on the Still Lives Portal on my website. I have begun sharing my stories in real time there. Happily the WildSam project seamlessly dovetailed in unexpectedly. I am thrilled they wanted to publish my essay in their 50th WildSam guide. I hope people will read the essay while looking at the images. It will really bring it to life.

SA: While we're talking about places, I want to mention a photograph you took that I find so compelling: of JB Blunk's Moongate sculpture that leads to JB Blunk's house. We've been to the estate, and to get there you have to go deep into the woods of Inverness, along a windy road up a steep mountain far from everything, and there is a sense of the space caught unawares, as if no one is supposed to see it. I'm not really sure this is a question! But maybe you can speak about this feeling; it's very powerful.

LW: Thank you! It is a special place for sure. I experienced that same feeling on my first visit. Somehow my emotions come through in my images a lot of the time. I’m not sure I can say more than that. It has always been that way. 

SA: I love the home libraries of various Californian luminaries that you shot in Interior Portraits – partly because whenever I'm in someone's house for the first time I head straight to their bookshelf, and partly because they're incredible spaces. Ray Kappe's library, with its bright blue cushions and the bamboo forest outside, shows his relation to reading. What sort of objects "speak" to you as the kind that tell a story, and how do you photograph that object in way that helps it best tell its story?

LW: First off, can I just say I love libraries too…so much. There was a time when our bookshelves were a window to our mind, heart and soul. I just added a Bibliophilia section on my SL Portal that shares people's bookshelves. I always photograph them and they never make them into my books so I decided they needed a venue of their own.

As for other objects that speak to me, I never know what they are going to be. It is different for every person/space I am in. I generally just trust my gut. From Una Jeffer’s narwhal tusk, to Georgia O’Keeffe’s record collection, I seem to be able to sense where there are meaningful stories.

SA: What role does writing play in your photography, and vice versa?

LW: My writing is still a surprise to me. I see it as in service to my photography; but having said that, the "Doc’s Lab" story ran in WildSam with none of my photographs, so maybe that is evolving? When I wrote Handcrafted Modern, it was a bit of an unexpected turn of events that led me to writing the book, as well. But in hindsight, it was the magic combination of expression I didn’t know I was looking for. The photography always comes first and I let my curiosity run rampant as I shoot. Then, after I have edited the images, I hone in on the stories I want to share in the writing. That is the general scenario my process takes.

SA: Speaking of which, you've now published four books. Tell us a little bit about this process – whether you've a vague idea for each project... or how you build a narrative between each space photographed ... maybe a hint as to the next project you're working on…..

LW: The process of creating my books has evolved quite a bit since Handcrafted Modern. I began just because I wanted to see the spaces of my favorite architects and designers and this evolved into a plan to create a library of how creative people live in the 20th/21st centuries. And that is still happening, but I realized pretty quickly that the discernment of my choice of spaces to photograph is very specific. I am looking for what I call “soul spaces”: spaces that are still imbued with their inhabitant’s soul if they are no longer with us and an innate expression of the owner if they are still living there. There is always a certain je ne sais quoi that I am looking for. I know it when I see/feel it. But I am not sure there are words to describe it.

As for what’s next, I am looking to more shows in art galleries and museums. There is a particular project I am just diving into that will be in a major museum in a few years. I can’t say more. And of course there will be an accompanying book. Creating books is in my DNA.

SA: Finally, pretend you are not Leslie Williamson and that Leslie Williamson comes to one of the homes you've lived in – any of them from your whole life – to photograph it for Still Lives: The Sequel. What room would you want her to capture? What is in it?

LW: Oh wow…what a question! I am not sure any of my former or current homes would warrant being included in one of my books. But I do wish I could time travel back and photograph all of my former living spaces starting with my childhood home, where my father still lives, before we remodeled it in 1976. I can’t really remember it before that and am curious what it was like in its original state and how my parents had it set up, what objects they had, etc. I also wonder if there is an evolutionary through line of my own that would be evident in my own bedroom/homes throughout my life starting from my first bedroom. Like artists who make a portrait of themselves once a year, I wish I had a portrait of my living spaces for every year. I would be fascinated to see that, just for my own curiosity and self learning.

Photos by Leslie Williamson

Leslie Williamson’s home in Monterrey, CA.

“The Party Room” at Doc’s Lab on Cannery Row in Monterey. Originally the home of noted marine biologist and Steinbeck muse Ed Ricketts.

Detail in Ed Rickett's former home and business, Pacific Biological Laboratories, on Cannery Row. Monterey, CA.

JB Blunk’s ‘Moongate’ sculpture and his home in Inverness, CA. 

Detail of the living and loft area in JB Blunk’s home.

Artist and AIDS activist Derek Jarman’s library at Prospect Cottage, his home in Dungeness, UK.

The kitchen/greenhouse and a longe area in the home of artists Evan Shively and Madeleine Fitzpatrick. Marshall, CA.

Artist David Ireland’s sitting room in his home and masterwork, 500 Capp Street. San Francisco, CA.

Stair detail in artist Jesse Schlesinger’s home. Sausalito, CA.

[khudrang]

The shutter sound snaps and captures the linear streams of golden drenching the luscious green in an almost palpable sheen, reminding me of the treacles of honey being deposited on awaiting squares of flakiness. The scenery mimics my iris, where I let it linger for a little longer. Walking into the room, the dreary does not pass my sensibilities, and I step back out to let the warm currents pierce me once again. 

The following day, my fortune takes a bow and I visit a dwelling that itself dwelled in my heart since I was child. My heart skips a beat upon witnessing it in its full glory; perhaps it went back to the time the residence took foundation. The red tiled roof against the bleach white walls, like the dusk bleeding its farewell on a blanket of fresh snow. Creepers mark the path, and the rows of petaled jewels usher me into that archive of an abode. Stepping in, I’m first greeted with the scent of limestone, followed by a waft of jasmine, perhaps from the incense, perhaps from the silver braid of the woman of the house. The space is suspended in a time before, and I can feel myself regress to a cooler summer with every passing second. The shelves around the room are chock full of reminders; reminders to hone, reminders to seek, reminders of benevolence, reminders of spirit, reminders of patronage, reminders to create, and reminders of decay. Each merchandise on those stone shelves loudly boasted of its fineness; the meticulously weaved threads, the highly refined and finished edges, the laboriously carved impressions, the tanned leather beaming with its glossy surface. If you kneeled closer to the ground, however, perhaps to feel strands of a bamboo basket on your fingertips, you would hear the quiet pleas running through these prideful declarations; the plea to be saved from extinction. 

A tinkering from the adjacent room grabs my attention, and I float towards it as if in a state of hypnosis. My eyes bear witness to a figment of my imagination; the sunrays from yesterday tip their hats through the windows near the ceiling, greeting me once again in an unbending, militant fashion. They lay to rest, as if spent from their journey of lightyears, on the glorious wooden swing that resides in the middle of the room like an unyielding but nurturing patriarch. Two hangings of earth lamps flank the swing and sway lightly in the breeze entering the room, making that soft tinkling noise, mimicking the rightly analogous fireflies. There is a painting of an infantile holy figure on the left wall, its blue striking against the copper lap that is perched right above it. 

As I was leaving, I noticed another characteristic of houses from the bygone era: the high ceilings, which make anyone standing under them feel invincible, make them feel as tall as the walls themselves, and offer them plenty of space to explore and make mistakes. It is exactly the kind of place tradition and heritage would prosper in. While I walked out with my arms full of many commodities, I also walked out with a lingering question; these symbols of craftsmanship that will now adorn my bookshelf, that adorn the dresser of another, and that adorned the rooms of that fantastic house, will they get lost in time or passed down with it? Do they represent the time gone, or how it stands still while the world goes by?

@hindumyththoughts (since you asked to be a part of my taglist :D)