#but it's good to fly sometimes

[hummingbee-lievable]

Song of the Day #21:

'I, Carrion' by Hozier (released 2023).

I feel lighter than I have in so much time

I've crossed the border line of weightless

One deep breath out from the sky

I've reached a rarer height now that I can confirm

All our weight is just a burden offered to us by the world

Track #5 on 'Unreal Unearth'. (Definitely just thought the album was 'Unreal Earth' this entire time; can't decide which one I like better: I love the sort of surreal disassociation with Hozier's title and I like the alien sentiment that comes with my misinterpretation. What do you prefer?)

Fun fact: The entire album was largely inspired by 'Dante's Inferno'! Which is really freaking cool. This was largely created during Quarantine, and Hozier wanted to do a subtle nod to the pandemic without really making the music about that at all. The album itself is actually a progression of the nine circles of Hell, and you can follow that from the 'darkness of opening track "De Selby (Part 1)" to the breakthrough of closer "First Light"'*. The album has many mythological references beyond this, however. This song in particular was inspired by the legend of 'Icarus and Daedalus' (which I accidentally misspelled as 'Deadalus' at first which feels way funnier than it should be).

They are father and son, trapped in the labyrinth that Daedalus himself built (to hold the minotaur: half man, half bull). In order to escape, they build wings out of bird feathers and wax. He warns Icarus not to fly too close to the sun as his wings will melt, but once the boy starts flying, he finds himself drawn to the sun with such euphoria that he cannot stop himself from flying towards it, heedless of his father's calls. The sun melts his wings and he falls into the ocean. (Note: uhhh, don't try this at home kids.)

The song, according to Hozier, is inspired by that story and intermingled with a love story. He mentions the idea that sometimes there is joy so strong that it is worth the fall, and that plays out clearly in this song.

(Daeadalus was not exactly theeeee greatest fellow ever, fun fact. He tried to murder his sister's kid because the boy showed signs of great ingenuity (like inventing the potter's wheel! I owe him one) so he decided to do the obvious thing annddd... push him off of a high tower; Athena intervened (she is kind of a hoe for intellect- I never uttered these words) and turned the boy into a partridge in midair. To this day, partridges do not nest in high places and tend to stay on the ground unless necessary. They're also adorable, but that's unrelated.)

They're just so...flomphy!!

Personal blurb: Okay so, I'll be honest. I was in, shall we say, an altered state of mind when I first heard this song. And when the lines 'I do not have wings love, I never will' came on, I felt transported. At some point, I will write a short story about those lines, because good golly. I don't like a lot of Hozier's music, but he has grown on me, for the way he intertwines literature with lyrics. I may or may not have written an eight paged paper analysing 'Take Me To Church' for English class, so he passes muster at least a little. 😋

I love this song. I love the concept that sometimes it's worthwhile to burn your hand on the flame. And there's this- there's this space of limbo after an impulsive decision, where I'm floating in the middle of the choice and all I have to do is just be and breathe and let the wind take me. Of course, then I realise: hey, I had no money for that pot of tea (but goodness was it delicious and peaceful) also scaling that mountain is absolute garbage for your back (but my my wasn't the crisp breeze glorious) oh and don't you worry because leaving your phone behind and wandering into a forest for seven hours with a book and a bottle of water (stay hydrated kids) surely will have no negative impact and certainly not 83 missed calls and a group of villagers with pitchforks and torches coming after you (but wasn't it worth for the calm you are able to greet them from).

My friend told me 'life is for the living' and I love that. (But don't forget your water bottle. Hydrate or die-drate, birch.)

And no. Not every impulsive decision is going to be worth it, or a good idea. But sometimes we just need to cast the weight aside and... fly a little, you know?

P.S. My darling sister just reminded me that this song is very 'Good Omens' coded and-

You know what. I'm embracing it. It absolutely is. Come nerd out with me.

Hiii Smallsssss. This is not an invitation to catapult your body up the nearest cliff and then not call me. 😋

Because then I would be left with a...cliffhanger! (Might anyway, literally, if you call me, hanging from a cliff.)

Double P.S. I have been made aware of the possibility of tagging individuals that are fabulous enough to have a Tumblr, so...*drumroll please* @hozierofficial hello and thank you for your humanity.

References:

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[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 163

Danny pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a deep breath, counting to ten and then letting it out. Why was this always his luck? Alright. Okay. Time to move again thanks to Dan pushing his body too far again, and ending up in his core. This was not how he was expecting to spend his days when he ghost-adopted his clone and sort-of son now actual son. Welp, he’ll throw a dart at the map to figure out where he’ll go next. 

Hm. Well, pack up Ellie! They’re moving to a place called Smallville, you always wanted a horse, right?

[dammarchy211]

The song clip is from this video starting at about 3:50 :-]

I’ve been busy/summer burn out but my love to draw will never die so soooooooooo many doodles and sketches 5ever sorry

[inbabylontheywept]

you don't need a sous vide machine to sou vie! all you need is some plastic freezer bags and like, a cheap digital thermometer (and a pot for water). you might need to get finicky by adding water to the pot during the process to keep the water a consistent temp.

You: Ah, yes, Egg Guy! Guy who ate 15 raw eggs! Wow! Hey, you seem extremely reasonable and controlled and ludicrously hinged. Like, 20 goddamn hinges on you. More hinges than a door store. May I recommend carefully putting eggs in a bag, putting a thermometer in water, then boiling the egg bag while watching it carefully whilst it rises to temperature? Also keep in mind that any significant mistake in this process will simply result in the worlds largest and least appetizing hardboiled egg clusterfuck.

Me: Oh wow, what a wonderful idea. By the way, I seem to have dropped my pen. Yes, here, on the side of the line that says "Stand Back - He Bites." Yes, it refers to someone else. Yes, I am very scared he'll come back while I'm still in range. All the more reason for you to be a good chap and pick up the pen for me. That's right. Perfect.

Perfect.

[merrysithmas]

i live for the idea that when zuko ages he doesn't magically gain the comforting coherent wisdom of iroh but keeps giving the most nonsensical advice (take a bite of the silver sandwich, look inside yourself to find your other self) to his child and grandchildren but with more and more emboldened and unhinged confidence the older he gets

[biblically-accurate-dca]

rainbow moon :]

[puppyeared]

i feel like im not making any sense but does anyone else feel like there are stories that let u run with them and ones that spell everything out for you

[antiquepearlss]

Wouldn’t it be really funny if Rapunzel just, forgot about Varian’s whole villain arc in convenient moments?

Like Varian is suspected by some villager of conspiring with criminals and she’s just like “Why would Varian be around criminals lmao?” Or he commits some petty crime (against someone who totally deserves it) and when he’s accused she’s just like “Varian has never done anything wrong in his entire life!”

Varian: pranks Frederic by putting thumbtacks on his throne, puts blue dye in Nigel’s shampoo, steals classified documents for shits and giggles, sneaks in fake documents within real documents, replaces the guards swords with inflatables, blackmails uppity nobles, goo bombs Kiera and Catalina’s treehouse, dyes all of Lance’s clothes hot pink, and steals Eugene’s makeup.

Rapunzel: Varian is such a silly little guy. What a sweet lad.

[wordswhisperinthedark]

I think the biggest reason why the long forms are my favourite sfth thing is that as someone who spends ages writing because the words won't go the way I want immediately, it's amazing to see a group conjure up such wonderful and well-written stories with beautiful arcs and conclusions (plus the healthy doses of chaos), and well fleshed-out characters in the space of like, 30 minutes or less?? On the spot?? And with other people all throwing their ideas in at the same time?? *mind blown*

[lillymakesart]

my new OC: cempaka!

she is based on the story/universe that my friend @haydardotjpg's OCs indra and yuwei exist in! pls go checkout haydar's art he is amazing!! his ocs can be found more easily on his ig but if you're lazy this is his oc indra (cempaka's one-sided love interest) and yuwei (indra's fated lover)

also, cempaka means "magnolia" in malay!! (she gets a flower name bc my name is lilly which is also flower c:)

bonus first iteration under the cut!

i accidentally had "poinsettia" flower in mind when i did this iteration instead of an actual magnolia, hence the color scheme. but yeah, this is as self-insert as it gets LOL like she's literally MEEEEEE but still very different and i love her as she is <3

[ablog]

Girl help I wish to travel to different dimensions just to watch a movie/show I really like a little to the left

[dee-daa]

do you think asmodeus doesn't shower because his natural scent is an aphrodisiac and it being more smelly makes it more effective?

[an-au-blog]

Oh, your love is sunlight

Happy (late) Valentine's Day (version without text ↓ +description in tags)

[why-the-heck-not]

”having cats is so cozy :3 they’re so cute aww look at her purr aw what a sweetheart”

i’m collecting pieces of a bird into a plastic bag on this fine sunday evening

[batsplat]

bat splat thank youuu for saying the pecco jorge rivalry is just for pecco as opposed to having the specter of Vale hanging over it. I want to ask tho, I have been seeing people say the only reason pecco wins the race is because he copies jorge's setup throughout friday/saturday/Sprint. Wanted your opinion on this because I have also heard that Pecco gives decent engineering input and builds his race slowly over the weekend. Was just confused about how much data sharing can actually help, and how much does it help with the ducati specifically!! Have a nice day, love your posts

have a good day too, anon!! and I will gladly spread the pecco narrative independence agenda!! it's something I really do like about the rivalry - expanded a bit in the comments under this, but it's neat to have something that really is Just Pecco's. from inception it's very much his own rivalry, his own narrative... idk, this sport is too reliant on valentino to provide any kind of narrative tension, and it's just sort of refreshing to see this multi-year narrative play out that has fuck all to do with that guy. enough

on the set-up copying, obviously that is bullshit. I mean, to be clear, I'm sure pecco absolutely copies the set-ups of other ducati riders, but that's very much a mutual process - it's something that benefits all the ducati riders, and they've all openly spoken about this. it's very helpful to be able to see the data from seven other riders!! that's a big part of why ducati has been so bloody good!! the main difference is that jorge tends to be faster from the start of the weekend, whereas pecco tends to take time to reach his level. which I suppose makes some people draw the conclusion that pecco is only fast once he's copied someone's set-up. again, this isn't the case - it is just a difference in approaches. points come... well, unfortunately, not just on sunday anymore, but they certainly do not come on a friday. pecco knows this, which is also why sometimes he's not even trying to top an fp1 session - this year there have been quite a few instances of jorge but not pecco throwing on a fresh set of tyres towards the end of fp1 and setting a particularly impressive lap time. there's also nothing wrong with THAT approach, jorge is playing to his strengths, but at a certain point we're just talking different run plans

(there is also a very obvious logical fallacy with this line of reasoning. if you are copying someone's set-up, then by definition you have the same set-up as them. and if you beat someone with the same set-up, then it stands to reason that you were riding better than them. sure, you can argue the success is less earned because your team... idk, just lazed around all weekend, but at the end of the day surely you still cannot be a bad rider if you are getting more out of another rider's set-up than they themselves are able to manage)

and yeah, pecco is known for giving good feedback! just being a good learner in general. here, actually, a little throwback from start of 2019 where pecco's crew chief gabarrini (who also ofc has worked with casey, lorenzo and briefly with marc) compared pecco and marc:

"A driver - all of them do this - starts at a certain level and ends the day at a higher level. What makes the difference is starting again where you were. Few have this quality: it often happens that a driver sets good times - without knowing why, without being aware of how he got there. The 'good' ones, on the other hand, have this characteristic: they achieve a result and know why they did it," explained the chief technician. Gabarrini even goes so far as to compare the MotoGP rookie with the current world champion: "I saw this quality in Márquez: I was with him when he made his debut in the MotoGP World Championship. His ability to not forget what he had learned impressed me. Once he had understood an aspect of the riding style, the set-up or any other thing to be faster, he had it in him forever. Pecco also has this quality." "In Valencia we started with a base similar to the one Lorenzo used: on paper it suited Bagnaia, based on what you could understand when you saw him riding a Moto2 bike. From then on, the normal changes to the set-up were made so that he could ride the bike as he liked. In the meantime, Pecco has worked enormously to adapt his style to the Ducati."

and there you have it - pecco's good at progressively getting better at stuff, including over the course of the weekend. as for the set-up copying thing, partly it's just typical competitive paranoia (even though it feels like the fans are currently doing it more than the riders). back in the day, valentino and jorge used to have the world's dumbest arguments about this every other week. led to one of my all time fave messy jb moments:

god I miss that guy so badly. they don't do ride-or-die like that anymore

the point is that both sides were engaging in pretty silly mudslinging, just kind of for the vibes of it. valentino/jb trying to get under jorge's skin and jorge a bit more earnestly aggrieved. as ever, if you want to read more about how that particular era of jorge/valentino unfolded, see here. this is just to say, this kind of faffing about is a tale as old as time and it's always a bit silly... you had jorge say that it was impossible for them anyway to copy each other's data in the very same answer as he accused valentino of copying his set-up. like, I'm sorry, I am not going to take this seriously. a lot of sports is about having dumb arguments

and yeah, again, pecco does gradually build up his level over the weekend. more of a valentino than a casey, it's fair to say. and that'll hurt him in the sprint format - which I talked about a bit recently while going through casey's latest interview about how sprints are satan's providence:

so yeah, casey thinks that if anything there isn't enough time to work on set-up, and mat oxley thinks it's rubbish to say pecco relies on sprint data to be better on sunday. (as I said in that post, I do find it fun if unsurprising that casey is so virulently anti-sprints, because you'd think a lot of aspects of the format - including less time for everyone for working on set-ups - really would have suited him. keeping it real.) so on the whole... y'know. maybe he just gets better over the course of the weekend. it's been known to happen. there's actually some pretty significant ways in which the current version of the sport isn't all that pecco-friendly, from the shitty michelin front tyre we're keeping for another year to the sprint format we appear to be stuck with. it's just that he also happens to be on the best bike - and the fact that he's winning a lot but simultaneously isn't highly rated by fans makes people want to believe that the current series is 100% ideal for him

a lot of fans are loathe to admit pecco might actually be a good rider so they'll find basically everything to justify that prior. including getting into increasingly conspiratorial territory. but my actual take is this - if pecco has been gaming the system so expertly that he is somehow the only guy able to take full advantage of everyone else's data, so shrewd and cunning that he can spread magic dust on his bike so that he suddenly leaps ahead of jorge, such a dastardly operator that he can steal the set-up that poor jorge perfected on friday morning to fix his bike five minutes before the sunday race, then... good. I support it. I hope he's cheating. the more unearned the success is, the better in my books. long live corporate espionage and foul play

[wigglebox]

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