#baroque tv shows

[sesamenom]

some ideas from an au where maglor just keeps living in britain (/himring?)

especially in the earlier eras he had to put a lot more effort into styling/dyeing his hair to cover his ears & the blueness/Elf Sparkle. he also wore glasses for a while to dim the Treelight Eyes (because even as badly faded as he is, it's still really obvious with how old he is).

[marejadilla]

Lana Del Rey, “Gods & Monsters”, album “Born To Die”, 2012. "Gods & Monsters" is a song by American singer and songwriter Lana Del Rey, from her third extended play Paradise (2012), and the reissue of her debut album "Born to Die - The Paradise Edition". “Jessica Lange performed the song on the popular television show, "American Horror Story: Freak Show"

[mann-walter]

Just when I thought I have nothing worth writing about, no interesting movie or show or book, I remembered watching 37 Days in July which, obviously coincided with the anniversary of the summer before the war, and both The Odds (a 2009 short film by Paloma Baeza) and Taggart in August.

One of the highlights of this latter half of the year so far has been Jakub Józef Orliński’s new album with Aleksander Dębicz, specifically their rendition of “Music for a While” complete with its music video. Within this period, I'm also exploring Sting’s music beyond “Englishman in New York” and his John Dowland album that I don’t really like.

I’m now on and off watching Aces High, and I’m looking forward to things from Drama on 3. I’m starting The Simpsons’ older episodes. Honestly, they're much more to my taste than Family Guy. There have been lots of recommended shows, like CBC’s Ghosts, which seems alright, but I’m not too keen on watching whole episodes of it. That being said, some other shows look very interesting, namely, Call the Midwife, Everybody Hates Chris, and Abbott Elementary.

[singeratlarge]

RECORD OF THE WEEK—“Spying Surfing Dancing”https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/spying-surfing-dancing …Spy movie music, surf guitar, baroque pop, and retro sound effects came together for this imaginary soundtrack—like if Dick Dale did a score for “The Avengers” (the 60s British sci-fi/espionage TV Show). It’s on my download album IF I COULD DRESS LIKE CLIVE OWEN—MUSIC FOR FILMS NOT YET MADE. The track assignment on this album was modeled after a Brian Eno album in which every other song was an instrumental. Click here: https://johnnyjblairsingeratlarge.bandcamp.com/track/spying-surfing-dancing

#spymovie #filmsoundtrack #surfmusic #surfguitar #baroque #popmusic #artrock #progrock #TheAvengers #EmmaPeel #Steed #DianaRigg #PatrickMacNee #secretagent #secretagentman #DickDale #scifi #TVShow #CliveOwen #BrianEno #JohnnyJBlair 

[serinesaccade]

Les mis Enjoltaire ficrec list part 1

Hi all, I decided I'd do a scan of my extensive bookmarks list to bring together basically everything I've consumed of enjoltaire. I have not been publishing much but I can still share what brought me joy. These are not in a reasonable order (just by my reading history chronologically) and I'll be limiting them on a one-fic-per-author basis so I don't just recommend you my fave authors 100 times. See below the readmooore for the first part of this effort (page 1-5 of my bookmarks)

dressing apollo by Tegami

Model Enjolras and hot mess designer Grantaire on a reality TV show, handled brilliantly. What else do I need to say.  how sweet and lovely dost thou make the shame is also essential reading.

With My Feelings On Fire (Guess I'm a Bad Liar) by pumpkinspiceprouvaire

Enjolras and Grantaire enter the stupidest and pining-est arrangement of all time. This list is going to make it very obvious that I have trope preferences and frankly, I don’t care. This is Delicious and so is basically everything else by this author

Walk Me Home by kjack89 for serinesaccade

It is impossible to pick a good fic by kjack89 out of their infinite library of good fic so I cheated and picked the one written for me

no more cyanide kisses (i’m methylene blue) by Mousetrap

Hurts so good

send you my love on a wire by blairs

Hilarious fics, gotta love blairs

i looked to you instead by Anonymous

suckerpunch by televisionbodies

say my name a million times (and i still haven’t heard you say it enough) by dyhtps

the road not taken by Petr1chor

Another heavy debate over which fic to pick out of many greats

Revolution Barbie by StrangeOccurrence

Lesbiabs but like weirdly serious and sexual

It's You And It's Been From the Start by stellatundra

Screaming

best practices in seasonal dessert distribution: a primer by twofrontteethstillcrooked for stardust_and_sunlight

Brownie sweet

Beautiful & Good by Riotstar

Emotionally difficult for me to read like I am not sure I can continue but? Important?

in momentum. by AnnaBolena for ShitpostingfromtheBarricade

how long it's gonna be (before we get on the bus and cause no fuss) by samarskite 

The Finer Points of Communication by ShitpostingfromtheBarricade

God I love this author

And Pages To Go by femmebingley

here i am leaving you clues, by moonswinger

you can’t kill me after this fic bc I am already dead

Ho, Ho, Oh No by catstrophysics

stuck together by whooves

fire in our bellies and furtive little feelings by sarahyyy

Classic bigtime writer with big big list

the first time we met we hated each other by mariuscourf

I get so excited when they post

Silvertongue by resnovae

Compromise by Akigriffin

I am a sucker for acespec

What’s it like to date someone? by Wildrivver

Patron Saint of Silent Restraint by vivalataire for emmettcadrian

If It Ain't Baroque, Don't Fix It by vivalataire

Lost in Translation by ellevaire

It's Not the Same Anymore by ShameDumpster

Insanely cute and deeply real, I read it over and over

Witchboy by tothewillofthepeople

Ughh how does one write so good

[opbackgrounds]

To be somewhat fair to OPLA, I don’t think the issues with the structural and story issues of the season can be entirely chalked up to “execs gonna exec.” A lot of it feels like it’s because the standard formula for live action television just feels fundamentally incompatible with the thing they were adapting. Live action tv’s comfort zone can be summed up as two people sitting in a room commenting on the plot, and then every 10-15 minutes the action (or “action” depending on the genre) happens. Which is a format that has made for some truly great, critically acclaimed television, but is fundamentally at odds with action-adventure/roadtrip format of One Piece. Between the inclusion of Garp and weird structural issues like characters randomly vanishing or plot points being immediately resolved/dropped, it feels like the live action adaptation is dragging its source material kicking and screaming into fitting that structure.

Season 1 was always going to be a little weird because they were going to have to make an overarching narrative where one did not initially exist in the manga. TV shows almost always utilize an A and a B plot story structure, so the marines were slotted into that B story arc role. This worked pretty good for Coby and Helmeppo, with the added bonus of them being able to adapt their cover story, but the Garp material was bad and the pacing of these scenes was also bad. However, I think it’s important to note that characters sitting around in an office set that can be reused for multiple episodes (or a set like Baratie that was already built) is cheaper than the island jumping the Straw Hats were doing. It was an efficient use of the budget for Garp to be the B plot, even if it mangled his character. This is and will continue to be something the live action will have to fight against for as long as it exists, so I would say get used to characters sitting around indoor sets talking. Otherwise an already ridiculously expensive series would just get exponentially more expensive.

TV shows also typically use mid season twists to help drive the narrative towards their second half, and as much as it pains me to say it, revealing Garp is Luffy’s grandpa early makes for a really good mid season twist. It recontextualizes everything that came before it and sets up a compelling drama for the episodes that come after. I’d have no problem with this, except, again, Garp was written really, really poorly.

The Alabasta saga has none of these problems. There is a natural marine B plot with Smoker and Tashigi that already exists in the manga with them spending a lot of time talking in offices (Crocodile also spends a lot of time hiding in an office so bonus points there, although if they are going to CGI some giant bananadiles that’d be expensive). There is an overarching narrative already written where one did not exist in the East Blue. And there is a compelling mid season twist in revealing Vivi is a princess. But by splitting the saga the live action is now going to have to come up with a narrative arc ending for the season where one does not exist in the manga, creating almost the opposite problem of season 1. Wapol as he is in the manga does not make for a compelling end of season villain like Arlong does, and I suspect that they’re going to turn Mr. 3 into that role instead just based on who they cast.

Now, while I think the live action did a good job capturing the Straw Hats, the blistering pace for season 1 meant that very few of the side characters that are so important to the manga got time to breathe, or really even exist (rip Gin), and slowing down the pace will help alleviate that flaw. The giants on Little Garden will have time to shine. Zoro vs 100 Baroque Works agents will have time to exist. The live action onlys will get it cry over a giant whale.

But dammit all, I want to have my cake and eat it too. Give me 10 episode seasons when the material calls for it, and give shorter sagas like Skypiea shorter seasons. Take the time to adapt the story that’s already there in the form that makes the most sense instead of Frankenstein’s Monstering one of the best selling comics of all time into the format a bunch of suits insist upon because of algorithm bullshit. Just let a good story be told well and the people will watch it, just as much as they watched season 1.

The sad thing is that season 1’s success proves to the suits with algorithms that 8 episodes is the way to go. If it had been less popular the solution would have been cancellation instead of fixing the pacing, and that’s why thinking too much about the state of modern TV depresses me.

[operafantomet]

"The history of the Musical-Theater Basel once began with Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. With this very production, the theater operator FBM Entertainment is fighting against the Basel government's plans to close the theater 29 years later.

(photo of the theatre's facade during the original 1995 production)

A few of the not-so-young premiere guests on Thursday evening will probably still have some memories of when Basel tried to establish itself as a musical city on October 12, 1995 with Webber's successful work based on the chilling novel by Gaston Leroux. Among them was certainly Basel tenor Florian Schneider, who sang and played the title role at the time. A good 700 performances were staged within two years before the musical was canceled in 1997.

At the premiere, Schneider was a sought-after interview guest for the numerous TV and radio teams in attendance. He was faced with a new production that didn't really seem particularly new. Nor could it, as the story is unmistakably set in the Paris Opera in the 1930s, when ballet dancers still wore tutus and the singers performed in lavish baroque costumes.

(...)

The tragic love triangle between the sad and evil phantom in the catacombs of the opera, the beautiful opera diva and the aristocratic lover is clearly still captivating, as the short but powerful final applause at the premiere showed. This was certainly also due to the vocal performance of the trio, above all the soprano Georgie Wilkinson as Christine, but also Dougie Carter as Raoul and Nadim Naaman as the Phantom.

(Dougie Carter and Georgia Wilkinson in Little Lotte)

In terms of the setting, however, some compromises had to be made in comparison with the original Basel Phantom. In 1995, the Phantom was able to make full use of the stage in a theater that had been built explicitly for this production. 29 years later, some compromises had to be made here, as this is a touring production, but one that can boast a high formal standard.

(photo of the original Basel proscenium and chandelier)

It remains to be seen whether the new Phantom production can prevail as an argument for the preservation of the musical theater. It has a relatively long run until December 22. The Basel government would like to convert the theater building into an indoor swimming pool. A popular initiative aims to prevent this. This means that the voters will ultimately decide whether "The Phantom of the Opera" will not only be the beginning of the theater's history but also its end."

Review from here: https://www.bluewin.ch/en/entertainment/return-of-the-phantom-of-the-opera-to-the-musical-theater-basel-2438493.html

[ananke-xiii]

"Tombstone", another crazy episode.

"The dead are rising in Dodge City, Kansas". This is what Jack says a little over-enthusiastically to Sam, Dean and Cas to prove to the latter that he's part of his father's family: "Look Dad! I can move the pencil! AND I've found a case... a hunter's case!".

Little does he know that on a certain day of many years before, Dean was also rising from the dead in Pontiac, Illinois. And the one who resurrected him was none other than his own chosen father, Castiel. Ten years later the same Castiel would also rise from the dead in a blackberry field. And the one who resurrected him was none other than Jack himself. Well, plus Dean.

When Dean met Castiel the first time he didn't believe what he saw while Sam was the one who believed without seeing. It didn't turn out particularly well for him since believing without seeing got him to resurrect Lucifer.

In "Tombstone" something different happens: Dean believes Cas the moment he spoke while Sam is confused ("No. You're – you're dead."). Again, it won't turn out well for Sam (when DO things turn out well for Sam, UUUH?!) this season cause this time he'll die and Lucifer will be the one who will resurrect him in one of the most forgotten scenes of the whole show.

Anyway. Back to Dean. This time he won't act like a total Thomas and will take on a Mary Magdalene's role, the first who turned around and saw Christ. But there's more.

The so-called "Widower's arc" interests me because it shows how symbols percolate through stories after stories and no one can stop them! Ha!

I know that "Tombstone" gives strong "Romeo+Juliet" vibes, I'm a baroque girlie I've seen most of Baz Lurhman's movies when they came out (I'm also an old girlie) so I totally see the reference. But a cross is also "just" a cross and in that scene it stands for "resurrection".

So I've been thinking about a myth, an ancient myth that has to do with brothers/gods killing another, love and resurrection and some more love and there's also gotta be a "rising sun" type of child in the mix. And what I came up with is the myth of Isis and Osiris (and Set and Horus). THEE Resurrection myth of all time. Right here in a silly TV show. Once you start looking around these symbols are everywhere. They're trying to murder me.

[fanaticsnail]

If Live Action Smoker is this great (genuinely never been into Smoker, like what, the actor looks great!), I fear for what will become of me if Live Action Doflamingo comes to be bcs imagine if this is how good-looking the cast is just for Baroque Works & Marines, you are telling me we won't have the warlords be the new Bachelors (that roses TV show I forgot its name)?

Lies. They will be those guys, we already have Mihawk be amazing, it can only get better.

Oh, that makes me think of LA Rosinante. (We can dream, right?)

If we ever get the Live Action Donquixote Brothers... I mean, my brain already short-circuited for an entire month when I saw them on screen in anime for the 1st time, how am I supposed to survive live action?

Also, Snail, I got so used to how you write Doffy speaking Spanish words that I will be disappointed if they don't let LA Doffy use some Spanish words. It's just so cute.

Y'all, we will not SURVIVE.

I will not survive.

Help.

Croc, Robin & Vivi left now & other Nefertari allies. Fingers crossed, but tbh I'm not worried at all after this cast reveal, they nail it

Just in case

🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

- Yandere Doffy Anon

Smoker is gorgeous, isn't he??

Oh my gosh, that's a bloody thought for a fic... "The Bachelorette" but it's for the warlords and the marines... Who we gonna give a rose to, hm? Can't choose 'em all.

Live action Doflamingo is going to be really attractive, I can feel it. In my head, I see Doffy and Rosi kind of like the Skarsgard brothers 💀

Doffy and Spanish just needs to happen 🥹👌.

They're gonna nail it, I can tell.

Welcome back, Yandere Doffy Anon!! I have your asks still in the ask box there so I can get spurred on to complete it! I promise I haven't forgot! 🖤🖤

[cursedcupcakemaster]

this is for Melody Seashells prequel chapter so I guess it's chapter one of the tales of the Raven idk I've been having a long week haha

@melodyseashell22 owns Melody, i only wrote this for fun

Twisted wonderland and it's characters belong to Yana Toboso and Disney

I own Celine Perrine and Thalassa Baroque

Tales of the Raven Vol. 1

Be careful what you wish for

Granting wishes sounds easy on the ears, however it is not such an easy task. Melody Seashell could tell you that, after all she has granted many wishes ever since she was a young fry. Her parents would bring their friends to see her and they would ask their wishes before she would conjure a lovely golden pearl within her hand and when they made their wish the pearl would transform. They would laugh in triumph but something within the recesses of her mind told her they had made a most grave mistake.

One example that led to Melody fearing what the wish would bring came when her parents had one of their friends who adored gambling more than anything else.

"I wish to be a billionaire" she said with the utmost confidence

Melody only had a forced smile upon her lips as the pearl she gave the woman shined turning a dark gray color

Indeed the woman's wish had come true within a matter of hours but it was not to last. Someone had lost their assets thanks to her wish and they were very keen on getting them back. Within a few days the woman was found surrounded by the money she had wished for stained with her own blood

According to reports the owners of the casinos the woman would frequent started to get angry at her constantly winning so they set about putting money from their more shady clients into her account

None of them were linked to Melodys family thankfully and they didn't say much about her power for a few months

Unfortunately the peace of that wouldn't last forever.

Another client soon came for a wish. A man who certainly seemed confident in his desire

"Can you make me the best dancer in the country?" He requested before Melody created the pearl and for a moment she believed maybe it wasn't as bad as the last wish she granted but once that pearl touched his hand and turned gray she had a sinking feeling in her chest

The man had become a rising star, in fact he was becoming famous throughout the country. The sad thing was that someone didn't quite like the man at all much less the fact the man had outshined their own candidate for the recent competition the client entered in.

The family was able to watch the performance on television as Melodys parents wanted to see the outcome of their "generosity "

The light turned on illuminating the beautiful stage as the audience cheered in anticipation of the dancers routine

It was a beautiful dance and that much everyone could agree on even Melody but that same sinking feeling came before she saw a splotch of red she was sure wasn't there previously before someone screamed and the place was in chaos with the TV showing the familiar colors signifying there was no signal

This time there was far more press and Melody had been forced into silence by her parents if she didn't want anything rotten to happen to herself

The heat died down after no connection to the Seashell family was made to the dancer.

Melody was scared of what happened but she feared her parents even more

One day something odd happened. She wasn't in her bed as she's usually be, at least before her parents started screaming at her to do everything. Instead Melody found herself within the confines of a dark place. It was small and dark like a closet it reminded her of a coffin. It clicked for her, she was in a coffin but before she could panic a bright light filled Melody's eyes. She shielded her eyes only to be met with whispers

"She looks scared" an effeminate voice said

"It happens " another said

When Melody opened her eyes she saw several people some around her age. A lot of them seemed in their own head about things. Two girls, one quite tall with a rather stoic look upon her face another with a kind smile and piercing eyes that seemed to be made from stars

A male voice called out "Seashell!, is there a Melody Seashell here?" A man with a crow like mask on his face approached

"You there young lady, are you Miss Seashell?" He inquired

Melody didn't know what to think of this situation at all but she managed to squeak out

"Y yes sir"

He took her wrist and dragged her to what looked like a large looking glass with an odd face within

"Simply step forward and answer it's question dear" he stepped back before Melody stepped forward

Swallowing the saliva in her throat Melody stepped forward as a pair of tall teal haired twins watched

"State thy name" the face within the mirror spoke with a deep and ancient voice one that Melody could speculate likely had been around for several eons

"M Melody Seashell" Melody spoke

The face within seemed to ponder for a moment before speaking again

"Thy soul shows promise of Mercy and Benevolence, the shape of thy soul is Octavinelle"

The two girls seemed to smile at Melody as the twin boys approached

"Do follow us miss Seashell, welcome to Octavinelle and welcome to night raven college furthermore " the first twin said politely with a graceful smile

The other laughed manically

"Angelfish is with us that's awesome come on angelfish we'll show you around~" he said

Melody was confused, why was he calling her that nickname

The two girls flanked to Melody

"They're not bad, neither is this place when you're used to it" the smaller one spoke

"We'll help you out in that regard " the taller girl said

Something about the two girls words felt reassuring

"I'm Thalassa and the tiny one is Celine " Thalassa said her voice a little more friendly now

"Melody" Melody said

"It's very nice to meet you Melody" Celine said

For the first time in a while Melody felt herself smile

Within a few months Melody settled into life in the Octavinelle dorm

The girls and the twins introduced her to the Monstro Lounge. They convinced Azul to allow her to perform as well as work with them in cooking and serving. Oddly as Melody worked there she heard that Azul could grant wishes much like herself. One day she asked if she could be present to see, of course Azul gave her an odd look but he allowed it no less. Thankfully for Melody he had a client that day, he instructed her to provide anything the guest wanted. By two o clock the client came while Melody and Celine served tea. By the end of the meeting Azul had drawn up a shining golden contract reminding her of the golden pearls she created when granting a wish but the shine was different. The client signed and Azul smiled with an odd twinkle in his eye before the client was escorted out. Celine tapped Melodys shoulder gently making her turn to her classmate

"You had an odd look when Azul brought out the contract, may I ask why?"Celine inquired

Melody felt a third presence

"It isn't a good idea to speak about this here" Thalassa told the two before leading them to the woodlands

"So why so interested in Azuls contracts?" Thalassa asked raising a brow

"Well it's kind of silly but I can do something similar to him" Melody admitted

"You can?" Celine asked

Melody nodded "I can grant wishes with these" she closed her hand before a glow emerged and opened it again revealing two golden pearls giving one to them each

"Thank you Melody" Thalassa said

"These are beautiful " Celine smiled

"Just watch what you wish for weird stuff happens sometimes " Melody told the two

"We will" Thalassa told her

Unfortunately for them,someone else had heard what Melody told Thalassa and Celine

A few days later Melody was just getting off her shift when she was approached by a student

He smiled at her in a way she knew was trouble

"Its Melody right ?" He asked

"Yes" she responded hesitantly

"Heard you can grant wishes that true?"

"w well yes" she responded

"Think you could grant my wish?"

Melody nodded before a golden pearl appeared within the palm of her hand and spoke a wise warning others had not heeded before

"Be careful what you wish for "

[mikrokosmos]

J.S. Bach - Orchestral Suite no.3 in D Major, BWV 1068 (c.1730)

I want to say I was listening to this one in my rocking chair next to my books on music. Or with wine and cheese at someone's party. No, I put this on while I washed the dishes. I thought I'd share my old post on this same piece but realized that I'd never written about this suite. And I don't have anything profound or introspective to say about it. It made taking down this mountain if dirty dishes feel like a grand accomplishment. It's a reminder that this music was written for the audience to enjoy. It doesn't have to be treated like music theory homework. That being said, I do like looking at the history of the orchestral suite, which would develop into the symphony. What can we hear from Bach's Proto-Symphony no.3? The Orchestral Suite was a carryover from France's Ouvertures. It would start with a slow section to draw in the audience, and then a lively counterpunctual exercise. After the "heavier" opening movement, the rest of the pieces are light dances, galanteries (minuets, bourrées, courantes, sarabandes, gavottes, allemandes, gigues, etc.). Because the German political elite had a taste for French art, they would have music played during their banquets and parties. Bach had no real interest in this kind of music (which would be a decent income source) because he was already dedicated to writing church music. But what few he did leave behind (we only have four Orchestral Suites attributed to him) sounds like great party music. The Suite in D Major is scored for 3 trumpets, timpani, oboes, violins, viola, basso continuo, giving it a louder sound than the others. The Ouverture starts with the slower grand statement announced by the trumpets and timpani. As you'd expect from Bach, this opens into a counterpunctual explorations of the melodies that developed out of the opening, but with the vibrancy of Vivaldi's fast paced concertos. The ending section cuts back and ends with a more subdued coda. The Air of this suite has stuck in our culture through films and TV, popular for its beautiful melodies. I remember first hearing it in the most ironic example I know; played during the library scene in Seven (or "Se7en") from the 1995 film. The ugliness and depraved misanthropy in the film is contrasted for a moment by the idealized "beautiful music" by an idealized "Great Composer". I thought it was showing the spectrum of human minds, that the "greatest" Baroque composer comes from the same human family as a lunatic serial killer using the Christian "Seven Deadly Sins" for gruesome punishments against his victims. Listening to it now I think it's fascinating that someone could have been touched or moved by the gorgeous Aria without words Bach wrote for whatever party or occasion, and she would have no idea that the same music would be heard again as so many of these festival pieces were back then. The latter dances show off the trumpets to make each one boisterous and lively. Two Gavottes with heavy emphasis on the beat, an upbeat Bourrée, and ending on the always fun and swaying Gigue. Of these dances I think I love Bach's gigues the most because they're always densely woven with his long waves of counterpoint across each instrument to create a dance that makes me think of old pub drinking songs or sailors dancing and drinking at sea. Another reminder that this music is supposed to be fun and enjoyable for anyone, and you can turn your own living room into an 18th century court for fun.

Movements:

Ouverture

Air

Gavotte I/II

Bourrée

Gigue

[melliotwrites]

Hi! I’m writing my own music, and Adamandi is an inspiration. I’m just wondering, has there been any inspiration when it came to you two writing musicals? (Adamandi, The Art of Pleasing Princes, Ghost Story, and any other future musicals.) Such as, any movies, TV shows or any other musicals? I find the aesthetics and music in these musicals all so different and I love that! And the themes in these musicals are so interesting! (/vpos!)

Great question! It's hard to separate genuine inspiration from research, since once we get an idea we usually try to consume everything that's related to what we want to write to figure out what we wanna add to the cultural conversation. Sometimes we also get inspiration from a work because we don't like it and want to position our piece in opposition to that one. But for this post we'll try to keep it to Genuine Inspiration that we consumed before we wrote each piece (hey, this thing is cool, this helped me figure out how I wanna write my thing for the better.)

Maybe we'll break this up by show:

TAOPP

Fun light fantasy with heart that plays with the tropes of fantasy settings, a la classic DND settings, Six of Crows, Terry Pratchett

Mel took a class on the High Middle Ages and read On The Origins of Courtliness (from which the title is derived!) and The Ballad of Tristan and Isolde, which got sort of melangéd into the Princes court world- living and dying by the king's pleasure, etc.

Aesthetically, the TV show The Great? Mel watched it a little bit before writing Princes and the anachronistic dialogue + rules of court drama have something to do with it.

Not much musical inspo for this tbh, I think it was just our first go at Writing A Show Together so a lot of our influences were just other musical soundtracks we thought might be the vibe we were aiming for. (Probably Pippin, 35mm, Great Comet, etc..)

Similarly with lyrics, I wasn't really thinking of a lyrical style, but I think I based a lot of my song forms on Something Rotten as the other show I knew set in the same era (using the very loose definition of "the same era"). ~Mel

ADAMANDI GENERAL INSPO:

the usual dark academia medias (Maurice and Another Country were our favorites) and also attending undergrad at a dark academia ass college

Lots of folk horror! (The Wicker Man (1973) - was particularly fun for me in thinking about the Catholicism storyline -Mel)

Jordan Peele movies like Get Out and Us

For musicals, Passion was really inspirational in both tone and subject matter.

Lyrically, I tried to think about Falsettos and Sunday- very lyrically dense shows that portray the intricate vocabularies of a specific, often highly intellectual subculture. What shibboleths do academics use to identify who does and doesn't belong? And why is the word "shibboleth" so not singable :( I think really liking Matilda as a kid also had something to do with it. ~Mel

I looked at a lot of horror musicals for a research paper but didn't like them much. (Except Little Shop. I love Little Shop and kinned the dentist in high school.) So I guess that's inspiration but in a what-Not-to-do way? Which is how I stumble on a lot of "inspiration" - Elliot

ADAMANDI MUSICAL INSPO:

chamber pop, baroque pop (incorporating the orchestral/acoustic elements of "dark academia" movie soundtracks with alternative pop and rock that's associated with the dark academia aesthetic more thematically)

The Dresden Dolls/Amanda Palmer's music

swing, jazz, dark cabaret (for the 1930s vibe)

Murder ballads (e.g. American Murder Song)

also weirdly the soundtrack to the Yellowjackets TV show. I love the eerie vocals in them and the creepy use of body percussion/breath - Elliot

here's an early inspo playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2wjhDj3ZzR01ghNfB03sYC?si=6f38f4c5f2ee43c7)

GHOST STORY

(more of a reading list since we're thinking top-down for this one!)

M. Butterfly by David Henry Hwang. I will never write anything as bangin' as "Being an Oriental, I could never be completely a man." - Elliot

Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection by Julia Kristeva

Stranger Intimacy by Nayan Shah

A View From the Bottom by Tan Hoang Nguyen

Ishtyle: Accenting Gay Indian Nightlife by Kareem Khubchandani

For musicals, Assassins and Parade

Arcadia and Follies are my touchstones for how the past and present can intersect onstage, and what got me excited about doing it ourselves! ~Mel

GHOST STORY MUSICAL INSPO

ragtime, jazz, Americana, blues, folk, country ! For inspo, trying to look for American folk music as close to 1880 as possible, but it's hard to find. Allowing myself to listen to stuff up til 1920.

Also alternative pop/rock/indie/whatever per usual. https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0QwtUiwwZfc3TYMy0DarOq?si=cc9d5129d43b4aeb is my working inspiration playlist right now - Elliot

[singeratlarge]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Paul Badura-Skoda, singer-songwriter Bruce Barr, composer-guitarist Glenn Branca, William Butler (Arcade Fire), Roseanne Cash’s 2009 album THE LIST, Le Corbusier, Kevin Cronin, Britt Ekland, my cousin Daniel Ertel, The Fisk Jubilee Singers (1871), Ioan Gruffudd, Fannie Lou Hamer, Thor Heyerdahl, David Hidalgo (Los Lobos), the 1929 film THE JAZZ SINGER (the first major “talkie”), Mylon LeFevre, “Swedish Nightingale” Jenny Lind (she filled concert halls before microphones were invented), Carole Lombard, Thomas McClary (Commodores), The Monkees 1969 appearance on the LAUGH-IN TV show, Meg Myers, producer Jim Pierson, Shostakovich’s 6th Iron Quartet (1956), Fay Spain, Millie Small, Matthew Sweet, Karol Szymanowski, George Westinghouse, and the 1965 single by The Supremes, “I Hear a Symphony.” The song is a romantic idyll for the wonders of a lover, and it was the 6th #1 hit single for The Supremes. It was composed by the incomparable Motown Records songwriting team of Brian Holland, his brother Eddie, and Lamont Dozier. They’d been writing since they were teenagers and wrote hits for The 4 Tops, Marvin Gaye, Martha Reeves, and others. Dozier said, “We were keeping up not only with what was going on at Motown, but in the world, meaning The Beatles, The Beach Boys…There was definitely a standard…Everything that came out had a signature as well as it had to sound like a hit.” Dozier said they’d regularly go to chamber, opera, and symphony concerts “for song concepts.” Baroque, electronic, ethnic, and orchestral influences became part of “the Motown sound.”

“I Hear a Symphony” was a turning point. Early Motown hits like “Money” and “Please Mr. Postman” were rooted in r’n’b, rock’n’roll, and gospel, and they sold mostly to teens, but Motown President Berry Gordy envisioned a broader audience. Ray Charles had already merged “strings with soul,” but his audience was older. The Beach Boys, Phil Spector, The Beatles, and other British Invasion pop acts cherry-picked ideas from musicals, classical, and the avant-garde (perhaps prophesying the “progressive rock era” when Keith Emerson would do Bartok, Bernstein, and boogie-woogie in one flash). By comparison, Motown was even more pro-active about marrying classical, jazz, and pop/rock to “soul music.” Motown arrangers (Paul Riser, etc.), were inspired by Broadway and the jazz orchestrations of Duke Ellington and George Gershwin. They hired musicians from the Detroit Symphony to connect elegance with The Funk Brothers, the Motown house band. “I Hear a Symphony” features the muscular drumming of Benny Benjamin and the distinctive baritone sax solo of Mike Terry. 

Singing it demanded an exuberance that stretched the vocal abilities of then-22 year old Diana Ross. She still claims it’s one of her favorite Supremes songs to do, and it’s on my list of 12 pieces of music that changed my life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpL1TTxffO0

#birthday #dianaross #supremes #symphony #motion

[angrycloudloud]

Percy Jackson show art appreciation post!!!

There are spoilers from the books and the TV show also bad quality images from the show. So... Read and look at this at your own discretion.

Now. Let's start with Olympus and the thrones in the last episode. (And sorry again about the bad quality of the pictures, i couldn't take screenshots of it)

I said it last night in another post, but i SAW the arches... And Ancient Greek temples, usually, didn't used circular temples or arches very often, and the uses of those temples are either unknown or for "death related" things (this is an over simplification, the greeks were all over the mediterranean sea and some places adapted the structures of the greek temples to match the practices of the locals) ANYWAY... The tholos were more like circular temples than actually temples with arches so...yeah...arches in greeks IS something historians know they can build, but they weren't frecuently used by the greeks.

So... This... The arches in the show were bothering me,

...until someone pointed out some fan theories that i really liked and that having some context from the books (specially the hoo ones) it make sense that there's some arches there... Just because in those theories Percy is considered (spoiler) both Poseidon and Neptune child so It could be a subtle way to point that out.

And in the temples of Olympus, i needed a moment to analyze the scene.

First, we have the column corridor, which is interesting because those were actually more used in Ancient Egypt temples than Ancient Greek ones, but then i started thinking and saw what was behind those columns and the building with the arches behind...

I'm sorry again about the quality of the pictures, but as you can see (mostly imagine in the last one) there are some temples there that aren't really Greek. But they are temples used in other cultures in the eastern Asia. Also there's a building with a Big ass dome that reminded me of the domes of three Christian temples: Saint Sophia (now isn't a Christian temple anymore but a cool af mosque with so much interesting art and history), Saint Peter of the Vatican (the Big ass church where the Pope does his Pope things) and Saint Maria del fiore in Florence (relevant dome in fact, Brunelleschi did his best there). (I put the images of those domes down here so you don't have to suffer with the shitty images i took from the show... They are in order of mention.)

Now... WHY?! Why putting all those temples? It could mean two things (maybe more, but these two are the ones that made more sense for me)

There's other pantheons and gods living up there in what the show called Olympus, implying that all the gods that are canon in the Riordanverse live up there above New York.

The temples are from gods that had connections with the cultures that are represented with those temples (this is cool because some greek gods are actually being studied for their similarities in their cults and rites to other gods and deities from Asia) or have influenced posterior cultures and they've took the most "modern" temples and structures of buildings for their own temples (which is cool because all renaissance and baroque can't be understand without the influence of ancient greek and ancient rome discoveries at that time).

Now, i'll talk about the thrones and i'll cry because i don't have good pictures from them so you all have to trust me or read this watching the show 😅 because i can't have better pictures now and i need to write this as soon as possible before i forget everything.

That place. That place is ANCIENT, that IS The Mount Olympus throne room, it's there since the gods were gods. It is there since they defeated Cronos, and i think the show captured that perfectly.

...i can't put more pictures... So i'll post another post just for the thrones.

And another one later, just analyzing Percy's cabin. Because i think there's much more than just what we see in the architecture language of that cabin. (Maybe it's just me reading too much because college had made me mad and crazy with reading architecture like i used to read books.)

[pleeezbarbra]

I've been rewatching The Young Pope and goddd what a fucking serve that little show is

It's so gorgeously shot, incredibly acted, the sets and costumes, the Vatican! No other thing on the TV (that I watched) has ever came close to consistently showing the sheer fucking GRANDEUR of catholicism.

I was raised catholic but lost my faith around age 11 or 12 and became an atheist, I dislike the hateful hypocrisy of polish breed of religion with passion, but damn, the architecture of catholicism, the dressmaking, the music, the ART, for centuries they bankrolled a big chunk of it. My childhood church was built for the Lutherans and then taken over after the war by the roman catholic parish, and I always found it so cold and empty compared to beautiful little Baroque church my grandparents attended. I'd spend the occasional mass just staring at all the details inside of it, the gold dripping off the Rococo altar, the sculptures, the lushly frescoed ceiling.

Just LOOK AT IT:

This was built for a town that back in XVII c. had a population of 1000! I'm so sorry protestants but your churches just don't hold a candle to this shameless opulence.

I also like that the show isn't poisoned with irony. Nowadays Christianity is the butt of the joke, the one faith that everyone on the left can safely make fun of, what with the pedophilia in catholic church (as if there's none in other churches), but it's kind of refreshing to see faith - not the church system, that is shown with all its flaws, but faith - shown with kindness. I almost envy the people who are able to so easily believe in god, and pray, and hope, and know there's some higher thing. I envy the certainty.

Anyway watch The Young Pope if you haven't, it's fierce.

[dontstopbereaving]

WHAT A MERRY-GO-ROUND

I have been on an Alexander McQueen kick recently, which apparently just means having a zillion Wikipedia and Vogue tabs open, immersing myself in every runway show the late designer put on from his debut to 2010, going through them as I would a director’s filmography. I am interested in how shocked and thrilled I can still be by images I first saw as a high schooler in the early 2000s, waiting patiently for the little QuickTime video compilations on the official McQueen website to load. Somehow as an adult nearing the age the designer was when he took his own life, I can understand with more nuance the charges of misogyny lobbed against him in his earlier work, the revulsion many had to the uglier images and nihilism his clothes seemed to express. But even moreso, I am realizing how much I have internalized his work and how much truth I found in it even before I had the words to identify it. Even when he evolved out of bird-flipping youthful rebellion against the often cruel and stupid industry he worked in, a brutality remained, enshrined in increasingly baroque and elegant structures, but refusing to go away, a thousand memento mori strutting with bald-faced honesty down the runway. 

I am thinking about a kind of feminine or otherwise alternative understanding of violence. I only use the shorthand of "feminine" because our mainstream western understanding of violence is so inseparably male. Mainstream violence is punctuation. It is a narrative device that incites problems and solves them. It is a thing to be overcome, to wrestle with and win or die. In Alexander McQueen’s work I find an ambient violence, one I think I understood on an instinctual level even as a merely macabre teen in Iowa. Violence can never be overcome, violence will happen to you and violence will live within you in equal measure. And so one must find ways to live alongside it, to lie down in it, to press ones hands against it and stare into the darkened mirror. Until it becomes something beautiful by force of will.

I just finished watching A Murder At the End of the World, and near the end there’s a dialogue between its two young protagonists, amateur sleuths chasing a cold case of serial killer and the women he murdered. There comes a moment where the days on end living and breathing this violence breaks Bill (Harris Dickinson.) As a man he is revolted by this scourge, in the way one is revolted by anything one could potentially be complicit in. It becomes clear to him that solving this murder solves nothing, that it is in the very fabric of the world. He is inconsolable, transformed by the epiphany. Darby (Emma Corrin) — the daughter of a Iowa coroner, who is probably on the spectrum anyway — can’t relate. She has grown up immersed in, perhaps desensitized by, this world. She wants to bring the killer to justice in the way one wants to solve a Friday crossword, because it’s the one thing she feels she has the power to do. This impasse, a seemingly subtle difference in perspective, proves insurmountable; the couple parts ways. I was mixed on this series by its conclusion, but this conversation lingered with me. In a TV landscape rife with men avenging murdered and violated women, you rarely hear a man talk with this kind of holistic despair about the phenomenon. Whether or Bill or Darby are the more evolved in their understanding of violence is left up to the viewer’s interpretation.

When Alexander McQueen killed himself I was living in Downtown Los Angeles, slowly emerging from what had been the worst year of my young life thus far. I remember reading the news and being driven out of my apartment by a sudden urge to walk. I headed up Spring Street in the morning before the pathetic little hipster boutiques of the gentrification-resistant north end were open. It would have been a Saturday. In my memory the streets were wet with one of those frigid Los Angeles winter rains that had left the sky stingingly clear and blue above the roofs of the darkened loft buildings. I was in a daze. The world that had killed this man that I did not know but had felt tied to and changed by, as so many had, felt impossibly bleak. And yet, at this point, I knew I had decided to keep living in it. My face was wet and I blinked against the light I had been so rudely dragged back into.

This week it is -22 degrees in Iowa City. The wind chill is -40. We are told not to go outside, that exposed skin can be frostbitten within 10 minutes of exposure. I am watching a lot of YouTube clips of McQueen shows and slowly exiting what has been the worst year of my young life thus far. I had a dream the other day where I gave away my dog, because, I reasoned in the dream, he had given me enough happiness and it was time to let someone else own him and thus be made happy too. Immediately I regretted this decision, and spent the rest of the dream searching for him in vain, cursing myself and my shortsightedness. Because, I realized, love and beauty are also ambient. They are not means to an end, means to some imagined stasis we call happiness. We have to live alongside the things that make us feel good, which is easier said than done. We have to press up our hands against our contentment and not fear it, let it overtake us and make us stronger. This has been shockingly difficult thing for me to learn. It was so much easier to lie down with violence.

The posthumous retrospective of McQueen’s work at the met was called “Savage Beauty.” That interpretation of his body of work never quite sat right with me, but indulge me as I try to re-interpret it to my liking: In his two or three years before his death McQueen made liberal use of an engineered printing technique he’d developed. Using patterns from the natural world and his eye for tailored cuts, his highly structured dresses and jackets became kaleidoscopic mirrored bursts of color that created an impossible dimensionality on the wearer’s body. They looked like butterflies, and they were the signature of Plato’s Atlantis the last show he staged before his death. In McQueen’s body of work I see both beauty and violence not as some wild thrashing thing slashing garments and flesh, nor as a mere state of being, but as the means of cracking open a confine. Of splitting a hardened cocoon and continuing on in a new body, no matter how boneless and weak it leaves you at first. This is the savagery: the uncultivated self and the sheer force and unruly optimism it takes to live in it.

January 14, 2024