#chris pureka

[starfleetshrimps]

Star Trek ask game 2 & 11! 🖖

2) Least favorite ep?

oooooohhhuuuugghhhhh i actually really do not like 'Meridian' mostly because its sort of boring and I think it horribly mischaracterizes an already overlooked character (jadzia). like she would not leave her whole life for a lukewarm man she met less than a week ago. what the fuck are you talking about. and sisko is just fine with this? no. ew. im sure theres an episode I like less but this is what came to mine

11) song i associate with a character:

i was HOPING i would be able to answer this one! I've said it before and I'll say it again Chris Pureka's Eternal November is SOOOOOOO Garak/ASIT and I will be going over some choice lyrics here (the whole song im going over the whole song)

Dry the flowers, file the sheet-music, save me for the fire

"dry the flowers" (file the sheet-music)--Garak giving up gardening, his connection to Tolan when he was forced into exile. He also gave up his job orchestrating shit in the order.

'the fire'=the Fire (Cardassias razing) AND ALSO the war leading up to it.

I spent the day forgetting the dream that woke me up

look i can't explain this one without fully learning to animate. but if you get it you get it

The garden is empty and I still remember why I'm so reluctant to start it again

DO I HAVE TO EXPLAIN???? DO I NEED TO ADD??? THIS IS OBVIOUS I FEEL

eternal November shines through the marrow of me

okay so this is to me. garak saying that he is always cold. and also a callback to that one lie he told in the wire where hes like 'i was cold' and so i let them go' and then hes always cold on ds9 and then also on post-cacon cardassia bc its been fucked and hes lonely. also cold=lonely.

I never was a very good fighter they started me young

ONCE AGAIN. I FEEL THAT THIS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF.

You always were the very best lover that I couldn't love

(@ bashir obvs)

The years they will make you a pretty good runner, yeah I've been running around all of this time

this also seems self explanatory but like you know. hes been exiled, and hes been avoiding everything he can't deal with (i.e. feelings, for bashir and for cardassia and about tain, and mila, and palandine, and parmak. jesus is there anyone in this mans life he doesnt have angst about christ alive)

Shot in the dark, down in the shadows waiting for when, yeah just waiting for when the coast is clear...

Hes waiting for when he can go home to cardassia again. i have more feelings on these lines but if i tried to type them id go blind

You were running around so you'd never remember this fear lights a fire under you And all you leave behind are the smoke and the ashes a trail of grey and blue...

now THIS i feel is bashir talking to garak. telling him hes running around (here that means avoiding everything i mentioned before) and then. like you know. grey and blue. like garak.

Blame me dear for any disaster,

again hes talking to bashir here. this feels like when he keeps lying to julian telling him hes worse than he really is so that bashir will leave him alone/think he deserves what he's getting (most notably in the wire but he NEVER STOPS DOING THISSSS)

oh how the kerosene ran dry and we made our bed in that familiar graveyard between the sternum and the spine

This is garak sleeping in the wreckage of cardassia (Tolan's shed) and making those stone monuments that he was mostly doing for enrichment in his enclosure but them were coopted to be memorials

Oh darling I think that all of the answers went south on the backs of those grey winged birds or slipped through our finger

while we were sleepin

So stick with me here. I think this is Garak losing sight of all of his secrets, and I also think its him acccepting that he will never know all of tain's. because really, tain never told him everything--I think after the Fire hes coming to terms with the fact that he doesnt have the answers that actually fix anything. all his spying and information wont really help him at all anymore.

waiting for when, yeah just waiting for when the coast is clear...

(re:earlier)

Along the way the light is the medicine

now this has two meanings: number one garak misses the sun, warmth, light--its medicinal for him. AND. the only thing he had to look forward to (the only thing giving his life any light at all) was a one smug sanctimonious face. (the light is the medicine) (bashir is medicine) (it is a REACH and i have reached it)

along the way we search for the sun to call us down the dark corridor back into the world...

searching for the sun on cardassia; dark corridor=his exile, the war, etc,

back into the world=he is returned to cardassia, his homeworld.

as soon as I learn how to make animatics its over for you bitches

[templeofshame]

i got skin like birch bark

peel me off and lose me to the wind

i guess it's too late to protect myself from this

[myselfmysame]

I spent the day forgetting the dream that woke me up…

I never was a very good fighter they started me young. You always were the very best lover that I couldn’t love. The years they will make you a pretty good runner, yeah I’ve been running around all of this time…

Blame me dear for any disaster, oh how the kerosene ran dry, and we made our bed in that familiar graveyard between the sternum and the spine…

Along the way the light is the medicine. Along the way we search for the sun, to call us down the dark corridor back into the world….

[pidraya]

Well a short hiatus of perceived bliss

I guess it's back to courting the grey cloud I used to love

-Chris Pureka

[vefanyar]

Outline art by Carla Cascales

Welcome to Tolkien Femslash February 2025!

How does this work?

Simple! Below the cut you'll find prompts for every day of February, oriented along the "four words" principle to inspire a fanwork, including the song they were taken from. Use them as a guideline for art, moodboards, write a drabble containing them, make a fanmix for your OTP, let them shape a longer fic, there is no way you can go wrong. The only condition: Your fanworks have to contain femslash, and if you want to make them findable for others, please tag them #tolkienfemfeb25.

Prompts Below!

February 01: Breathe, shackles, shores, promised (Joy Oladokun - Jordan) 

February 02: Language, dimension, tower, horizon (Horizon - Luna Blake)

February 03: Slow, counting, flame, blessing (Chris Pureka - Barn Song) 

February 04: Drifting, back, peaks, lighthouse (Brandi Carlile - Carried Me With You) 

February 05: Opposite, currents, deepest, arms (Lights - Same Sea)

February 06: Chase, sun, rough, remember (Janelle Monáe - I Like That)

February 07: Honey, charming, awake, lines (Kehlani - Honey)

February 08: Divided, history, skin, lied (Mirah - Don't Die In Me) 

February 09: Satisfied, way, cherry, watching (Rina Sawayama - Cherry) 

February 10: Lightning, backwards, sheets, ashes (The Aces - Volcanic Love)

February 11: Below, streams, running, remember (Cœur de Pirate - The Way Back Home)

February 12: Nowhere, violet, taste, window (Allison Russell - Persephone) 

February 13: Veins, close, fade, whole (Zolita - Bloodstream)

February 14: Verse, holy, unspoken, light (LP - One Last Time)

February 15: Blinded, finally, rising, storm (Kacey Musgraves - Rainbow) 

February 16: Reflects, exist, leaving, devotion (The xx - Angels)

February 17: Dying, magpie, wandering, bound (Grace Petrie - Earthwire)

February 18: Lifted, dawn, chiffon, smile (MUNA & Phoebe Bridgers - Silk Chiffon) 

February 19: Senses, jailor, torture, lullaby (Kat Cunning - Heart of Gold)

February 20: Sleep, warrior, circle, start (Marika Hackman - The Girl Who Fell To Earth)

February 21: Smoky, wife, believing, glance (Melissa Etheridge - Juliet) 

February 22: Word, immune, incredible, tough (Sia - Incredible)

February 23: Ghost, years, singing, following (Linn Jennings - Ghost Streets) 

February 24: Vast, galaxies, forgive, silence (Hayley Kiyoko - somewhere between the sand and the stardust) 

February 25: Solitude, comforting, flicker, mend (Vanessa Carlton - Heroes and Thieves)

February 26: Apart, fever, fast, burning (Billie Eilish - WILDFLOWER)

February 27: Promise, divine, strangers, bride (Ethel Cain - Strangers)

February 28: Independence, blindfolds, raise, trumpet (Lido Pimienta - Declare Independence)

[yujeong]

Just let it rest Looking for a rope to keep me still Holing to the best of this and you Holding to the best of all this time

Broken Clock - Chris Pureka

+ Bonus:

The songwriter Chris Pureka has a line, “Looking for a rope to keep me still,” that has been misheard as “Looking for a road to keep me still.” The latter suggests a whole new sorcery: the way travel, or even running away, despite its hectic movement, can also ground us and bring us peace. The way leaving sometimes feels like arriving into who we are and who we want to be.

Taken from the book "How Poetry Can Change Your Heart" by Megan Falley and Andrea Gibson

[batnbreakfast]

Thanks for the tag @kurtsvonneslut ! 😊

The Rules: Pick a song for each letter of your URL and tag that many people.

It took me some time to decide on songs - and I ran out of allowed audio links?! Rude!!

B Because the Night - Patti Smith Group

A

T

N

B

R - Read all about it - Emeli Sandé

E

A

K

F

A - Africa - Toto

S

T

I’m guessing that all of the Rizzles gang has been tagged by now, so I’m tagging @tebarambles @daisydoctor13 @ktlsyrtis @thewindysideofcare (that’s a lot of letters there 😄) @farminglesbian and everyone else who might need a bit of distraction!

[liltalle]

these are the shadowlands by violet_tides

@vefanyar's excellent Feb 3 prompt for Tolkien Femslash February 2025 was Slow, counting, flame, blessing (Chris Pureka - Barn Song). I worked in Fermi estimates, post-reembodiment overstimulation, and a cool glittery cloak.

[aldieb]

1, 2, and 3??

1. Song of the year?

“stay lucky” by the gaslight anthem. american slang was my album 10 years ago, and then we went and saw them in central park and it became my album again because all i want to listen to when i work out is brian fallon bitching about stuff. and that song felt like it was talking to me this time round

2. Album of the year?

unfortunately american heartbreak 😔 hard to beat 34 songs, every single one good, standing up to hundreds of hours of listening (letting it loop in order was the soundtrack to all the proofing and recipe calculations i did this spring/summer)

3. Favorite musical artist / group you started listening to this year?

somehow i listened to basically no new music this year? at one point spotify served me chris pureka because i’m gay and like to listen to sad people play the guitar, so i’ve enjoyed their stuff

[bloodycowboyclub]

HANGMAN PAGE BIRTHDAY WEEK -> Day 4: PLAYLIST

we’re more ghosts than people.

spotify | youtube

Mine Forever | Lord Huron

Dial Drunk | Noah Kahan, Post Malone

Palomino | First Aid Kit

Anti-Hero (Country Version) | Josiah & the Bonnevilles

Wild Horses (Acoustic) | Bishop Briggs

I Lied | Lord Huron, Allison Ponthier

cowboy like me | Taylor Swift

Spirit of the Forest | Antarctic Wastelands, Anita Tatlow

El Invento | José González

Can I Believe You | Fleet Foxes

Stay | Abraham Alexander

I’m Not a Smart Man | Dale Hollow

Not New | The Bright Light Social Hour

The Curse of the Blackened Eye | Orville Peck

No Mistakes | Sarah Shook & the Disarmers

Hangman | Chris Pureka

Burden | St. Catherine’s Child

My Ego Dies at the End | Jensen McRae

Dancing Away in Tears | Yola

Chasing Twisters | Delta Rae

Salt and Shadow | Thrice

Summertime Sadness | Lana Del Rey

[templeofshame]

I don't know if it's literally a response to "Iowa" but it's occurring to me that I know 2 songs about the midwest and keeping your feelings to yourself (and imo they're both queer) from opposite perspectives

[rainbowsky]

Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia & Biphobia

This has been a very distressing year of increased crackdowns on queer people and queer identities globally. Threats and protests at drag shows, queer events being shut down for safety reasons, another devastating mass shooting at a gay night club, transgender people being attacked, maligned and denied human rights and basic health care all over the place... it's incredibly depressing.

I already have a post here and another one here and yet another one here that are more political in nature. I hope you'll check those out and do what you can to spread the word and/or help out. But for this year's post, in the interests of lightening things up a bit from this relentless grief, I've decided to celebrate some of my favorite queer music artists who you might not have heard of before.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of my favorite queer artists. Just a few that I think don't get the recognition they deserve, and that I was able to come up with off the top of my head within the time I had available to make this post. There are so many great queer artists, and I will probably share more of them in the coming months and years.

Anohni

Truly one of the most beautiful voices on the planet. I've been a devoted fan of hers for many years, and she just keeps blowing me completely away and breaking my heart and holding it all together. I love her so damn much. She's a blessing to this world.

RVG

RVG (for Romy Vager Group, after the lead singer Romy Vager) from Australia are my current favorite new band. Romy has a spectacular voice and she knows how to use it. I can't wait for the new album to come out. Squid is my favorite new song so far, but Midnight Sun is a close second. I've shared it here because it has a video - more entertaining than staring at an album cover.

Ethel Cain

I've already talked about her a lot here on my blog. She's amazing, and her album Preacher's Daughter is one of my favorite releases from last year.

Oliver Sim

I've talked about him before on my blog. Some of you might recognize his voice from the XX, one of my favorite bands. He recently came out with a solo album that I also absolutely love. I know I've shared this video before, but it's such a favorite that I had no choice but to share it again.

Perfume Genius

Love him so much. He always manages to have a simultaneously nostalgic, moody, anthemic and totally 'of the moment' sound.

The Irrepressibles

Ugh. So good. Everything Jamie does is amazing - the aesthetic, the sound, the demeanour. Truly a massive, massive inspiration. His voice totally kills me. This particular song is so gutting and beautiful. If you look up the lyrics, you'll cry.

Chris Pureka

They are such a brilliant songwriter. Emotional, powerful songs, and such a unique, expressive voice. Their sound is deceptively simple but everything is memorable and sticks with me.

I'm aware of how painfully white this list is, but I saved a few for another list I'm working on. You'll see that one in a week or two.

[gkettle]

*"Burning bridges" by Chris Pureka starts playing*

I adore the early 90s anime style, wanted to try my hand at it

[trekwiz]

Followed you after seeing your comment about how ALL christian denominations are fucked and how the ones that try to look progressive just shield the rest from criticism. Its so nice to see someone who gets it, it can be so so so exhausting to try to explain all that shit to people who havent studied christianity and still see it as the "nice, awkward, naive homeschool kid" religion, instead of the extremely dangerous, actively-toxic-to-its-followers-and-their-friends, terrifying death/rape cult that it is.

Anyway i saw you were looking for music recs. It seems dumb to suggest but just in case you havent listened to it, the Mountain Goats' All Hail West Texas album has a similarish vibe and is soooo fucking good. Ummm, Chris Pureka (queer folk artist) has some heart-achingly beautiful folksy stuff. Evan Greer (another queer folk artist) has some fucking kickass stuff that, again, has a very similar vibe. Those three are definitely worth a listen. :)

Honestly, one of the things I regret about my growth as a person was allowing people to convince me that it isn't all denominations, for far too long.

As a teen, I was angry about homophobia and the cause was apparent: Christians never hid that they were behind those atrocities. They were openly taking credit, and yet they were joined by, "no, really, that's just the bad denominations. I belong to a really progressive church."

It was amazing, really. Every Christian I met was one of the good ones. They all belonged to a great church that didn't discriminate. They were accepting. And supportive. I couldn't find the evil ones. Where are they? No one belonged to one of the bad churches. But THEY all know which ones are the bad ones. It's all those "fake Christians" from unspecified denominations. Sometimes it was an "opposing" denomination from theirs. It's all so theoretical.

They were nowhere to be found. And yet, these rare bad ones somehow maintain the political power to prevent our full equality under the law. But if everyone belongs to a good church, how do they control the narrative so well? How is the Christian "sanctity of marriage" argument still such a popular perspective if it's just an almost nonexistent few bad Christians? How did the "grooming" bullshit rise to such prominence again? There are no secular arguments for homophobia. Am I supposed to believe that suddenly the good Christians have lost their voice temporarily? That they're just being drowned out by a small powerless minority that tricked them into voting for their candidates?

And then you spend time with those good ones. They deny that Billy Graham supported conversion therapy while calling for a national holiday to celebrate such a "great man." They're very supportive. Don't you know that your sin of being gay is no worse than their sin of committing murder? It's all the same. And you know, some people genuinely have a problem with us having rights, would it really hurt us if we just compromised and let them punch us five times, instead of six? You confide in one of the really progressive "I like to think of myself as a follower of Jesus, not a Christian, because Christians really do bad things" and they use your distress at the fascist threat as an opening to witness, "Yeah, Christians are awful. But you'd love Jesus. He wouldn't support these behaviors. Isn't he great?"

There isn't a denomination of Christianity that doesn't believe that what we are is immoral. There are some that cushion the language to trick us into spreading the message of our oppressor. But not one treats any LGBT trait as being neutral--as a characteristic that just exists. There's inherently a judgment. The "good ones" are just a sleight of hand meant to trivialize the seriousness of what their religion is doing to us.

And it's unavoidable. You cannot create a sect of Christianity that will be good and peaceful in the world--at least, not without throwing away the very things that define Christianity. The basic structure of the religion is inherently damaging to a person's way of thinking: the absolutely worst, most unforgivable thing you can do is question the existence of Jesus or his inherent goodness. Regardless of denomination, questioning the authoritarian leader is grounds for eternal torture. You cannot have a healthy environment based on that perspective.

The concept of witnessing and missionary work is designed for genocide. The whole premise is to make people in other cultures "accept" that they're inferior, destroy their cultures, and join into Christian culture. It's why, regardless of denomination, that missionary work has always been so bloody--even into the present. Those bodies buried at Canadian church schools aren't that old. You can't view the world that way and end up as a good person. The core of Christianity--the very thing that defines the religion--perfectly resembles a fascist regime.

There are no denominations without these critical flaws. That we're so willing to pretend that there is, is why they came back so strongly after just a couple years of legal defeats. The LGBT-phobic sentiment never went away; it's still mainstream Christian thought. We'll never be able to end our oppression until we stop pretending that Christians have a right to these beliefs.

Regarding music--thank you for the recommendations! And please, no feeling dumb for making a recommendation. It's not obvious but my experience with music is. Well, it feels weird to call it new, but in the scheme of things, it is.

Short story: I learned as an adult that having a heart murmur can really mess up your ability to perform music. Music education in school was very frustrating for reasons that I didn't understand at the time. So I just didn't interact with music in any way at all. I expected it in games and movies, but just listening didn't bring me any joy. And in some ways, I haven't fully shaken that--I like listening on work days where I don't have a ton of meetings; it helps me focus on the tasks. I rarely just listen.

There were 2 things that changed my perspective. I was asked to join an African Percussion group in college (specifically Ewe music from Ghana)--I was learning about live audio for video production, and the instructor had me help them setup their PA system during performances. They ended up inviting me into the group, and I finally got something out of music.

A couple years later, I went to my first Renaissance Faire. And I found I was drawn to the really loud music--the kind that you can physically feel, not just hear. Which was an obvious connection to the percussion music I'd been playing. And I loved it!

That led me to be open to play Guitar Hero and Rock Band when I was invited to, which let me appreciate some more music. But I still prefer the playful kind. I'll take bag rock over rock any day.

So I don't really have a lot of knowledge around music. I don't know a lot of the groups people think would be obvious to know. And I don't really have a lot of language to describe what I like about different kinds of music. And so, despite your preface, feel comfortable: I had never heard of Mountain Goats before.

I will say, the content of the Mountain Goats and Chris Pureka were close to what I was looking for, but the feeling of the music wasn't. I found a couple songs from both that I liked, though, so thanks!

I tend to like really energetic music. I often shorthand to "fast" but I recognize that's not the main defining characteristic, I just don't have better words for it. Evan Greer was pretty much EXACTLY what I was looking for--thank you!

What I liked about the folk song I mentioned, and some of the artist's other work before she outed herself as a bigot, was the "fantasy" setting. Folk music is a genre where I'm less likely to enjoy content about modern life. I mean, most of my favorite music tends to lean towards fantasy/renaissance/scifi. But folk in particular, I like it to reflect a different time--past or future--I live here in this time, so it doesn't feel as interesting. I also liked the power in her voice (I don't have the language for what I'm describing; it's not just the forcefulness of her tone, but the way you know the instruments will never compete for focus against her voice), and the driving energy of the rhythm.

Here are some examples of what I personally would describe as a similar vibe:

March of Cambreath by Heather Alexander; Wanderer's Path by Mythemia; Wake Skadi by Hagalaz' Runedance.

Not quite as comparable, but I would consider Zumbaj by Reliquiae (or, since they seemed to have pulled the song for some reason, Šarena gajda by Rece-Fice zenekar és Bea Palya is a close enough substitute) and Dawson's Christian by Vixy and Tony to be the kind of vibe I'm going for.

(Actually, from that selection, it's probably kind of obvious about how much I enjoyed Evan Greer's work. Again, thank you!)

Though even compared to these, I felt like the song I referenced is still a unique outlier in this company, and I wanted more with that kind of defiant old gods kind of feeling.