#comes back from the dead to post my yearly art
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So my illustration final is to draw a scene from a classic novel :3
I’m very much torn between these two concepts but we will see what my prof says hehehhe
#comes back from the dead to post my yearly art#literally I’m so excited for this project tho#les mis#les miserables#enjolras#les amis#les amis de l'abc#art#grantaire#julis art#drawing#enjoltaire#jean valjean
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Sibling Shuffle: The LaLinde Family!
Here’s the LaLinde family! I looked at the concept art a lot with these guys lol
(I have no one to look over all my stuff IRL & I accept constructive criticism) (my ref. for Tempo’s armor had some weird shadows & I don’t think it looks right but at this point it’s fine)
This honestly took less time than I expected. Really surprised at how well I managed to copy Dr. LaLinde’s pose from her first appearance… anyway
Since there wasn’t much we were shown of Vesper Woman, I had to fill in a couple of gaps (and by that I mean a lot of them). We know she is supposed to annoy Tempo into experiencing emotions, and we know her job… but not much else. She didn’t even have a civilian name / design, and I don’t know if she was supposed to get one later on… so yeah this is what I’ve got for her! I’m really happy with her hair. I think it looks fun :)
As with Piano before her, Dr. LaLinde’s purple hair stood out too much from the rest of the cast. I felt a little guilty because it’s a pretty unique character feature & I already made Piano’s hair change, so she gets to keep a streak of purple.
Tempo gets a dress the same length as her original pencil skirt, but it more closely resembles the concept art for her civilian design. I don’t really have a reason other than I like her concept art outfit & because I can
WARNING: this is a VERY long post. I ramble a LOT.
Lore under the cut!
Around the time that Blues attempted to run away, Dr. LaLinde began work on her own robot child, Tempo. Tempo was created as a “child” more than a “tool” (much like the Light kids). Tempo was, like many kids, cheerful and full of energy.
Assuming the ARTS Convention is a yearly event, I’m going to say Tempo met Blues at one of those. Blues isn’t very comfortable in a crowded area, so he was already a bit thrown off when Tempo ran up to him all excited to meet another robot like her. It took a little bit for him to adjust to her enthusiasm, but they were pretty fast friends :)
Unfortunately, then Tempo was caught in a cave-in later that year, which basically destroyed her. Dr. LaLinde rebuilt her, but when it came time to restore her IC chip, she hesitated. She had lost her daughter once; was she willing to risk going through that again? And she had built Tempo with human-level emotions, who’s to say she wouldn’t end up traumatized? So, she set the IC Chip in a drawer in her desk, where Tempo’s personality and emotions sat until after the next ARTS Convention.
There are a few minor changes to how their reconciliation storyline goes from there. Tempo doesn’t forgive Dr. LaLinde immediately - she’s a little hurt that her mother let her stay dead for longer than was necessary. But she’s a very forgiving person, and makes an effort to trust and forgive Dr. LaLinde again, especially once they actually have an actual conversation about it.
Vesper Woman - who I’m giving the Civilian Name of "Rhythm" (because why would one sibling just. not have a personal name?) - was still created around MM4, (partially) to help Tempo restore her personality & emotions fully. I didn’t really change anything about her, more expanded on what there was already, which was not a lot but. she was literally introduced in the second-to-last issue so what can ya do.
She met Rock while he was trying to come to terms with the fact that he had been working for the bad guy. She tried to get him to cheer up a little, then brought him back to Geoworks HQ when he mentioned needing some help. And the other LaLinde’s recognized him (because they had been alive for longer than a week lol)
#sibling shuffle au#mega man au#mega man classic#my art#Lore#tempo lalinde#Dr. LaLinde#Dr LaLinde#Vesper Woman#Vesperwoman#quake woman#quakewoman#megaman#archie megaman#Rhythm LaLinde#I’m taking criticism & suggestions (especially on Rhythm’s stuff & the designs)#(Idk when I’ve tweaked too much please let me know)#Spiritus Ex Machina#Healing Journey arc
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My Love for Central Asian Literature Part 1 – Abdurauf Fitrat, Abdulla Qodiry, and Cho’lpon
I’m currently working on a script for my history podcast, the Art of Asymmetrical Warfare, about three Central Asian literary giants: Abdurauf Fitrat, Abdulla Qodiry, and Abdulhamid Sulayman o’g’li Yusunov also known as Cho’lpon and it got me thinking about their influence on my historical interests, reading tastes, and writing style.
If you’re wondering why a podcast about asymmetrical warfare is talking about three Central Asian writers, you should check out my upcoming podcast episode. 😉
How I Became Interested in Central Asian Literature
My interest in Central Asia has been a long time percolating and it was just waiting for the right combination of sparks to turn it into a hyperfixation (sort of like my interest in the IRA). I went to the Virginia Military Institute for undergrad and majored in International Relations with a minor in National Security and my focus was on terrorism. So, I knew a lot about Afghanistan and Pakistan and the “classic” “terrorists” like the IRA, the FLN, Hamas, etc. and I knew of the five Central Asian states (one of my professors was banned for life from either Turkmenistan or Tajikistan and sort of life goals, but also please don’t ban me haha), but my brain bookmarked it, and I went on my merry way.
Then I went to University of Chicago for my masters, and I took my favorite class: Crime, the State, and Terrorism which focused on moments when crime, government, and terrorism intersect. This brought me back to Pakistan and Afghanistan, but this time focusing on the drug trade which led me to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and their ties to the Taliban and it was sort of like an awakening. I suddenly had five post-Soviet states (if you know me, you’ll know I’m fascinated by post-Soviet states) with connections to the drug trade (another interest of mine) and influenced by Persian and Turkic identities. I was also writing a scifi series at the time that included a team of Russian, Eastern European, and Central Asian scientists and officers, so the interest came at the right time to hook my brain. Actually, if you buy my friend’s EzraArndtWrites upcoming “My Say in the Matter” anthology, you’ll read a short story featuring Ruslan, my bisexual, Sunni Muslim, Uzbek doctor who was inspired by my sudden interest in Central Asia.
Hamid Ismailov’s the Devils’ Dance
I wanted to know more beyond the drug trade and usually when I try to learn about a place whether it be Poland, Ireland, or Uzbekistan, I go to their music and literature. This led me to one of my all-time favorite writers Hamid Ismailov and my favorite publishers Tilted Axis Press.
Tilted Axis Press is a British publisher who specializes in publishing works by mainly Asian, although not only Asian writers, translated into English. They publish about six books a year and you can purchase their yearly bundle which guarantees you’ll get all six books plus whatever else they publish throughout the year. I’ve purchased the bundle two years in a row, and I haven’t regretted it. The literature and writers you’re introduced to are amazing and you probably won’t normally have found unless you were looking specifically for these types of books.
Hamid Ismailov is an Uzbek writer who was banished from Uzbekistan for “overly democratic tendencies”. He wrote for BBC for years and published several books in Russian and Uzbek. A good number of his books have been translated into English and can be found either through Tilted Axis or any other bookstore/bookseller. Some of my favorites include Dead Lake, the Manaschi, the Underground, and the book that inspired everything the Devils’ Dance.
Tilted Axis’ translation of The Devils’ Dance came out the same year I was working on my masters, and I bought it because it is a fictional account of Abdulla Qodiriy’s last days while in a Soviet prison. He goes through several interrogations and runs into his fellow writers and friends: Fitrat and Cho’lpon. Qodiriy is written as detached from events while Cho’lpon comes across as very sarcastic, as if this is all a game, and Fitrat is interestingly resigned to the Soviet’s games but seems to have some fight in him. Qodiry distracts himself from the horrors around him by thinking about his unwritten novel (which he really was working on when he was arrested by the NVKD). His novel focuses on Oyxon, a young woman forced to marry three khans during the Great Game. His daydreaming takes a power of its own and he occasionally slips back to talk with historical figures such as Charles Stoddart and Arthur Connolly-two British officers who were murdered by the Khan of Bukhara (not a 100% convinced they didn’t have it coming).
We spend half of the narrative with Qodiriy and the other half with Oyxon as she is taken from her home and thrown into the royal court of Kokand’s khans where she is raped and mistreated and has to survive the uncertain times of Central Asia during the Great Game. She is passed from Umar, the father, to Madali, the son, to the conquering Khan of Bukhara, Nasrullah who eventually murders her and her children. From a historical perspective, I have a lot of questions about Nasrullah because a lot of sources write him off as a cruel tyrant and nothing more which usually means there’s more…Before Oyxon and Qodiriy are taken to their deaths, there is a poignant scene where the two timelines merge into one that will stay with you long after the novel is over.
The book is a masterpiece exploring themes of colonialism, liberty, powerlessness in face of overwhelming might, the power of the human mind and spirit, the endurance of ideas, even when burned and “lost”, as well as being a powerful historical fiction about two disruptive periods in Central Asian history. It’s also a love letter to the three literary giants of Uzbek fiction: Abdurauf Fitrat: a statesmen who crafted the Turkic identity of Uzbekistan, a playwright and statesmen, Abdulla Qodiriy who created the first Uzbek novel (O’tgan Kunar which was recently translated by Mark Reese and can be bought in most bookstores), and Cho’lpon who created modern Uzbek poetry (you can buy his only novel Night translated by Christopher Fort and a collection of his poems 12 Ghazals by Alisher Navoiy and 14 Poems by Abdulhamid Cho’lpon translated by Andrew Staniland, Aidakhon Bumatova, and Avazkhon Khaydarov in any bookstore).
City of Kokand circa 1840-1888, thanks to Wikicommons
All three men were Jadids (modern Muslim reformers) who worked with the Bolsheviks to stabilize Central Asia, helped create the borders of the five modern Central Asian states, and were murdered by the Soviets during Stalin’s Great Purge of the 1930s. It was illegal to publish their work until the glasnost. Check out my history podcast to learn more about the Jadids and the Russian and Central Asian Civil Wars.
From a literary perspective however, Ismailov wrote the Devils’ Dance similarly to Qodiriy’s own O’tgan Kunlar and Cho’lpon’s Night (whereas Ismailov’s other books: Dead Lake and the Underground are more Soviet era Central Asian literature and his newest book the Manaschi is more post-Soviet). Like Qodiriy and Cho’lpon, Ismailov writes about MCs who are not the master of his own fate, but instead are going through the motions of a fate already written, one of his MCs is a woman unfairly caught in a misogynistic system that uses women as it sees fit (although I would argue that Hamid gives his women characters more agency than either Qodiry and Cho’lpon), and he writes about the corruption and inefficiencies of whatever government agency is in control at the time – whether it be a Russian, a Khan, or an indigenous agent of said government. All three books end in death, although only Cho’lpon’s Night and Ismailov’s the Devils’ Dance end in a farce of a trial. Even stylistically Ismailov mimics the rich and dense language of Qodiriy whereas I find Cho’lpon’s style crisper although no less rich for it.
Abdurauf Fitrat’s Downfall of Shaytan
While Ismailov led me down a historical rabbit hole which is captured on my history podcast, I also wanted to see if any of Fitrat’s, Qodiry’s, or Cho’lpon’s work had been translated into English.
So far, I can’t find anything by Fitrat except excerpts in the Devils’ Dance and Making Uzbekistan by Adeeb Khalid (one of my all-time favorite history books by one of my favorite scholars who also happens to be very kind and patience and I still can’t believe I interviewed him for my podcast).
Fitrat wrote a specific play I really want to read called Shaytonning Tangriga Isyoni which Dr. Khalid translated as Shaytan’s Revolt Against God. According to the summary provided by Dr. Khalid it is a challenging take on the Islamic version of Satan’s downfall.
According to Dr. Khalid, in Islamic cosmology God created angels from light and jinns from fire and they could only worship God. When God made Adam, He commanded all angels and jinn to bow before him. Azazel (who would become Shaytan) refused claiming he was better than Adam who was made out of clay. He was cast out of heaven and became Shaytan/Iblis.
Fitrat reimagines Shaytan’s defiance as heroic. He is disgusted by the angels’ submissive nature and God’s ability to create anything and yet he chooses to create servants. Azazel has seen God’s plan to create another being out of clay and have the angels worship him as well, which Azazel sees as a betrayal on God’s part. Gabriel, Michael, and Azrael try to convince Azazel to see reason and instead he brings his grievance to the other angels who are confused. God intervenes and the angels give in, but Azazel continues to defy God. God strips him of his angelic nature, and he turns into Shaytan who warns Adam of God’s treacherous nature and vows to free him and all other creatures from God’s trickery.
Doesn’t it sound amazing?! Fitrat has outdone Milton in terms of completely overturning God’s and Satan/Shaytan’s rules (also no wonder he was marked for execution right? Complete firebrand and pain in the ass (and I mean that with love)) and I really want to read it. So, either someone needs to translate this into English, or I need to learn Persian/Uzbek, which ever happens first, haha (judging on how my Russian is going…)
Abdulla Qodiry’s O’tgan Kunlar
While I can’t find any of Fitrat’s work in English, there have been two translations of Abdulla Qodiriy’s novel and the first ever Uzbek novel O’tgan Kunlar. In English, the title translates as Days Gone By or Bygone Days. There are two translates out there: Days Gone By translated by Carol Ermakova, which is the version I’ve read, and Otgun Kunlar by Mark Reese, which I haven’t read yet but I’ve heard him speak (and actually spoke to him about his translation – thank you Oxus Society) so you can’t go wrong with either one.
O’tgan Kunlar is an epic novel set in the Kokand Khanate in the 18th century and is about Otabek and his love Kumush. There’s also a corrupt official, Hamid who hates Otabek because Otabek is a former who wants to change the society Hamid benefits from. Hamid tries to get Otabek killed for treason because of his reformist believes, but the overthrow of the corrupt leader of Tashkent (who Otabek worked for) saves Otabek’s life. However, the corrupt leader’s machinations convince the Khan to declare war against the Kipchaks people, who are massacred. Otabek and his father vehemently disagree with the massacre of the Kipchaks.
Once Otabek is released and gets revenge against Hamid, he marries Kumush without his parent’s approval and is torn between the two families. His mother hates Kumush and forces him to take a second wife, Zainab. Obviously, things go terribly wrong as Otabek doesn’t even like Zainab and Kumush doesn’t know how to feel about her husband having a second wife. Zainab hates her position within the household and eventually poisons Kumush.
Abdulla Qodiriy thanks to Wikicommons
O’tgan Kunlar is considered to be an Uzbek masterpiece that is central to understanding Uzbekistan. Not only is it a great tragic love story, but it also highlights some of the things Qodiriy was thinking about as he engaged with other Jadids. Just as Otabek argued for reforms especially in the educational, social, and familial realms, the Jadids were making the same arguments. We can also see the Jadid’s struggle with the ulama and the merchants in Otabek’s struggle with Hamid. Qodiry attempts to capture the struggle women went through by writing about the horrors for arrange marriages and polygamy, but Kumush is an idealized version of a woman. She is the pure “virgin” like Margarete from Faust while the other two female characters; Otabek’s mother and Zainab are twisted, bitter woman who hurt those they “love”. One could argue they’ve been corrupted by the society they live in, but they also lack the depth of Otabek and even his father.
One of the most interesting parts of the novel is the massacre of the Kipchaks because it is written as the horror it was and both Otabek and his father condemn the action. His father even claims that there is no sense if hating a whole race for aren’t we all human? Central Asia is a vast land full of different peoples who share common, but divergent histories and while these differences have led to massacres, there have also been moments of living peacefully together. It’s interesting that Qodiriy would pick up that thread and make it a major part of his novel because this was written during the Russian Civil Wars and the attempts to create modern states in Central Asia. The Bolsheviks really pushed the indigenous people of Central Asia to create ethnic and racial identities they could then use to better manage the region and so one wonders if Qodiriy is responding to this idea of dividing the region instead of uniting it.
Cho’lpon’s Night
While O’tgan Kunlar is a beautiful book and Qodiriy is a masterful writer, I prefer Cho’lpon’s Night (although don’t tell anyone). Night was supposed to be a duology, but Cho’lpon was murdered before he could finish the second book. Cho’lpon wrote Night in 1934, after years of being attacked as a nationalist. It was a seemingly earnest attempt to get into the Soviet’s good graces. Instead, he would be murdered along with Qodiriy and Fitrat in 1938.
Night is about Zebi, a young woman, who is forced to marry the Russian affiliated colonial official Akbarali mingboshi. The marriage is arranged by Miryoqub, Akbarali’s retainer. Akbarali already has three wives and, like in O’tgan Kunlar, adding a new wife causes lots of problems in the household. Meanwhile Miryoqub falls in love with a Russian prostitute named Maria and they plan to flee together. While they are fleeing they met a Jadid named Sharafuddin Xo’Jaev and Miryoqub becomes a Jadids. Meanwhile Akbarali’s wives conspire against Zebi and attempt to poison her but she unwittingly gives it to Akbarali instead. Zebi is arrested and found guilty of murdering her husband and sentenced to exile in Siberia. The book ends with Zebi’s father, who encouraged her marriage to Akbarali, is driven made by his daughters fate and murders a sufi master while Zebi’s mother goes mad, wandering the streets and singing about her daughter.
Like Qodiriy, Cho’lpon is interested in examining governmental corruption, the need for reform, and women’s plight, but Cho’lpon is less resolute than Qodiriy. Cho’lpon’s novel is constructed similar to poetry: an indirect attempt to capture something that is concrete only for a moment.
His characters are own irresolute or ignorant of important pieces of information meaning they are never truly in full control of their fates. Even Miryoqub’s conversion to Jadidism is to be understood as a step in his self-discovery. In Cho’lpon’s world, no one is ever truly done discovering aspects of themselves and no one will ever have true knowledge to avoid tragedy.
Cho'lpon courtesy of Wikicommons
It is interesting to read Night as Cho’lpon’s own insecurity and anxiety about his own fate and the fate of his fellow countrymen as Stalin seemingly paused persecuting those who displeased him. While Qodiriy crafted and wrote O’tgan Kunlar in the 1920s, which were unstable because of civil war, but promised something greater as the Jadids and Bolsheviks regained control over the region, Cho’lpon wrote Night during the height of Stalin’s Great Terror, most likely knowing he would be arrested and executed soon.
Both novels are beautifully written historical novels about a beautiful region, but I prefer Cho’lpon’s poetic prose and uncertainty.
Conclusion
Reading the works of Fitrat, Qodiriy, and Cho'lpon not only introduced me to a history I knew little about, but also introduced me to a whole literature I never knew existed. The books mentioned in this blog post are beautiful pieces literature and will challenge how you see the world and how much literature we miss out on when we don't read beyond authors who work in our native tongues.
The canon of Central Asian literature is immense, with only a handful of books and poems translated into English. I hope more works are translated so other people can engage with these books and poems and learn about these writers and the circumstances that shaped them. And, if you haven't, go check out Tilted Axis who are doing amazing work translating books so people can engage with them.
If you're enjoying this blog, please join my patreon or donate to my ko-fi
#central asian history#central asian literature#abdurauf fitrat#abdulla qodiriy#cho'lpon#O'tgan Kunlar#Days Gone by#Night#Hamid Ismailov#the Devils' Dance#Soviet Union#Soviet Central Asia#Uzbekistan
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Goodbye 2022, Hello 2023
Helloooo!! I don't really write journals and blog posts anymore, but I’d like to try and change that! At least a yearly one for art stuff since it’s nice to be able to set some goals and they’re kinda fun to look back on. Also I’ve been overly mysterious and closed off online and I feel like I come off kind of cold because of it sometimes. I miss connecting with people over shared interests like I once did before adulthood happened. Giant post under the cut!
Before we get onto art stuff, I kinda wanna touch on some personal stuff. 2022 was so chaotic for me. I got to visit Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania. (all very last second with the planning LOL) Those were the trips of a lifetime, my brain will never be the same. (in a “i found myself in europe” kind of way) I went to arizona to see my partner’s family again after 4 years of not seeing them because of covid and jobs and all that fun stuff. Yeah I’ve been on 14 airplanes in the past 6 months I’m done with traveling for a while I hope xD Also had a really amazing time with some long time friends that I never thought I’d meet in person, but here we are! I have anxiety issues, but I unknowingly did a lot to help myself this year and I didn’t realize that until I was looking back on everything recently. There were some other things earlier in the year too but those are boring/personal but were still a lot. I’m exhausted, but not for negative reasons.
Since covid restrictions lessened, my dayjob became much less busy. I was also able to go on actual vacation and It gave me some time to think about life and what it means to me. Do I care about money enough to grind like this? Can’t buy a house so, if I can pay my bills and save a little bit each month, that's enough for me. Maybe the antiwork reddit posts helped me on my way a little too LOL. Anyways the tl;dr is that the cost of owning and maintaining a second car was basically using up all the money I was making at work. I was able to quit, sell a car and take some commissions and the profit margin remained the same. It’s.. kinda sad. I’m mad at my old employer for dicking me around with small ass raises and stressing me out so much for no… reason…………….. Haha…………. He took good care of me (aside from the money thing) and taught me so many things that will be relevant for the rest of my life, but I’m glad I’m not managing 4 fast food stores anymore. I quit on super good terms and I got free pizza for life. Also I don’t have to listen to stupid ass customers yell at me over fucking pizzas anymore!! Yay!!
All that being said, I’m shifting my focus to art now. I’m in a way better mental state and I have a lot of support from my partner so I’m not worried about burning out again. I’m already pretty pleased with the fact that I’m actually improving again! I guess I just needed time to consistently work hard, instead of always being exhausted from a dead end dayjob. Also gotta shout out the people who pick me up and encourage me when it comes to art, you know who you are <3
Moving on from that, I want to talk about more art stuff! The first thing I wanted to say is that I’m DEFINITELY going to be streaming again. I got way too busy around the holidays so I haven’t streamed in a couple of months, but I’m gonna be doing that regularly again this week or next week. So many people have asked when I’ll stream again and that I helped get them through their work day????? Like DAMN you guys I’ll cry. I’m so glad y’all like my company, the feeling is definitely mutual. <3 Like I mentioned, I am a pretty anxious person so it’s gonna be hard for me to stick to a schedule. It’l be during weekdays around 1pm EST like it has been, just I’ll be doing it on random days to spare myself the worrying. Also sometimes I take NSFW work and that is not allowed on twitch, so yeah |D
Another thing I’ll definitely be sorting out this year is a discord server. I spent a lot of time thinking about this and talking to some of my friends who have one and I think it would be fun. My only worry is my inability to consistently check discord, so I’d need mods or to just pray nothing fucked up happens in there while I’m not looking :’D I’ve seen too much dark and questionable stuff happen in small, niche discord servers and public chatrooms. I’m terrified of fostering that kind of environment but I’m aware that isn’t likely to happen bc I think the people who follow me are pretty… normal? If anyone has any advice I am all ears! The point of the server would be to have a feed channel and some premium channels with extra goodies every month. (I’d connect it to my twitch subs. You guys deserve some extra snacks) Maybe some people wanna be pinged when I open for commissions I don’t know! It seems everyone has one these days and I want to try it. Any premium content will be hosted on my website PWYW style as well. This way if people wanna support me they can, but also you can download my silly little sketches for free if you don’t want to give anything. There would be other stuff but that’s the gist of it.
Lastly, I am officially open for commissions. You can find all that information on my website here: https://timegear.ink/commissions/ I have an empty slate right now so the turnaround should be pretty fast.
I guess that’s pretty much all I wanted to talk about? Thanks for reading my silly little rambles if you made it all the way through. <3 Here’s to a fun and productive 2023!
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This is something unrelated to a request but I was wondering if you're a self taught writer? Either way, what forms of practice do you recommend to improve your writing style? If you have the time to get back to this, I'd really appreciate it, thank you! ^^ <3
Hello, Anon. I would be more than happy to answer your query should it help with your own writing endeavours!
Yes, to your first question; writing is and has always been a past time I've indulged in over the years. My main field of study stands vastly different from what I get up to on Tumblr and Ao3.
In regards to your second question, my answer is pretty much generic— I have been writing fanfiction (and short original stories) for over ten years now.
Pretty much the only surefire way to improve at the craft is to write constantly, and as much as you can.
People would be laughing/horrified if I ever went ahead and published my first ever story here. 🤣🤣
That first draft is going to be horrible, no skirting past that disappointment. But on the bright side (this is something I often do to not feel entirely disappointed in my writing), you are going to look back at some of your older works, fast forward to your current style and catch the ways in which you have improved, exercising that writing muscle.
Two, writing on blindly, so to speak, without sampling other forms of literature, isn't enough. I'm sure the majority of us who're writers, are avid readers too.
We happened to fall in love with another's words before that affection carried over into our own passion for writing.
Read your favorites' works over and over. Go over dialogues/paragraphs that especially make you feel something and try to figure out why exactly it is that you like it so much.
Incorporate it into your own writing.
For example, I have many favorite authors I constantly inhale works from but one particular moment that truly clicked for me and made me go Yes, I want to write in this manner, evoke emotions like this, came with reading Cassandra Clare's The Infernal Devices series.
I adore how organically Clare paints the relationships in between her characters; her angst is a work of art /chef's kiss. Clare's works are what made me feel like I wanted to be the kind of author who can flesh her characters in a way that evokes strong emotions in her readers. [I don't know if that's obvious enough in my stories but that's always something I'm aiming for; character driven rather than plot driven writing.]
An excerpt from one of Clare's books:
Mother, Father:
I write anyway, to commemorate the occasion, the way some make yearly pilgrimages to a grave to remember the death of a loved one. For are we not dead to each other?
I wonder if you knew that I could hear you that day you came for me when I was twelve. I crawled under the bed to block out the sound of you crying my name. But I heard you. I heard mother call for her bach, her little one. I bit my hands until they bled but I did not come down.
Do not be afraid of your writing coming out clunky or all over the place at first.
It may take years to establish your own style of writing or it may be one that constantly evolves (I feel like mine is part of the latter) and that is A-okay.
And while it is important to stay in practice, it is equally important to know your limits and know when your creative juices need a break and you need to kick back and relax.
I'd also like to point you to an excellent blog here on tumblr, @/heywriters (without the /). They carry a rich collection of writing resources, specific writing tips among many other useful posts. ♥️ That's all off the top of my head for now.
Also, at the end, I'd like to make this light and say, while I wish I could look like this while I write:
I usually end up doing this: 😂
#no shame in being the second gif although you're going to beat yourself over it#try not to 😆#asks!#anonymous!#scribbled answers#writing advice (the oldest most generic one)#wish I knew magic tricks to this wizardry
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Welcome to the Family
Happy Mother’s day to all the mothers and motherly figures out there! This story is kind of inspired by my relationship with my older sister, who was honestly more of a mother to me than our actual mom. She’s awesome and I wish I could see her today but quarantine sucks lol.
Also, too me Logan Lerman is Tim. He’s just so awkward and cute and nerdy, and I think he’d be a great Tim.
Mother’s Day pt.1
“What the hell are you doing, Drake?” Damian’s snippy voice cut through the empty living room like a knife.
The once comfortably silent room, now held an awkward and thick tension as Tim Drake popped his head up from his work, annoyed at being interrupted. He looked back down at the paper and other supplies cluttered around the coffee table for a moment, not even embarrassed at being caught. It was a normal thing that he started doing shortly after moving into Wayne Manor all those years ago; Damian was still the one who was the odd one out.
“Making Mother’s Day cards; what else does it look like?” Tim rolled his eyes, motioning his hand with a slight wave to the finished card at the edge of the table. That one was meant for his mother, he made sure to finish it first, wanting to drop it off at the post office tomorrow after school so it’d get to her in time.
“Tt.” Damian shook his head, crossing his arms against his chest. He took a seat at the other end of the couch to look over the older boy’s work.
Damian Wayne wasn’t the type for such sentiment. He scoffed at the idea of Mother’s Day. Could you just imagine him, an al Ghul, giving his mother a card? Though, he didn’t put it past someone as pathetic as Drake to be one to celebrate the commercial holiday. Even Grayson and his father celebrated, and their mothers were dead. They’d both journey to the cemetery and placed roses on their mother’s grave. But that made much more sense to Damian, than making a card, they were paying their respects, while Drake was just giving his mother a worthless piece of paper.
“A simple piece of paper will really satisfy your mother? Tt.” Damian leaned back into the couch, arms still crossed but now lifting his leg to rest on his other thigh.
“Yes. It. Will.” Tim gritted, not in the mood for Damian’s taunting and insults; he was actually in a genially good mood for once.
He moved to open his mouth again, clenching the marker in his hand tightly; who did this kid think he was? He was glad the kid was over his phase of trying to actively kill him but he still found pleasure in making Tim’s life miserable. He tried closing his mouth, not wanting to get into it again but the third Robin still felt the need to defend himself against the spoiled blood son. He pushed the disappointed look Bruce would surely show him away after the old man would end of having to break up another fight between the two boys.
“I’m not just giving her card; I’m also sending her a gift card to her favorite restaurant and another one for a trip to this day spa. It makes her happy and since I’m not around I want to make sure she knows I miss her. You know like normal mother and son stuff, not that you would know anything about that.”
Tim cursed to himself as soon as the bitter and smug words left his mouth. Shit. He went too far; the dead silence that followed told him that much. He didn’t dare look up to see Damian’s face. He could practically feel the scowl, the deadly glare, beaming into the side of his head; it was like he was being blasted by Superman’s laser beams. Maybe that was being a little dramatic but Tim knew he shouldn’t have said that. He was better than stooping that low and saying something that brash. Even with the pair being fair from close, barely even being on speaking terms, Tim still knew how sensitive Damian was about his relationship with Talia.
He was half expecting to feel a punch come down from him, or a shove, anything that would physically harm him in response but much to Tim’s surprise he was just met with Damian’s signature sound, ‘Tt’, and then him shifting in his place. Tim scratched the back of his neck, unsure why Damian reacted so calmly, not that his body and pride weren’t complaining. He mentally shrugged and went back to making his second card.
The younger boy watched as Tim got back to work. He wanted to lash out at Drake’s dig at him and his mother’s relationship but Damian didn’t want to give Drake the satisfaction of knowing that he was insulted. He thought back to his father’s speech after their last fight about how they both needed to learn how to be the bigger person. Damian rolled his eyes at the memory and instead quirked an eyebrow up as he watched Tim begin to get back into making what appeared to be a second Mother’s Day card.
“Correct me if I’m wrong but last time I checked you only had one mother, Drake.” Damian said, nodding towards the second card.
“You would be correct.” Tim nodded, not looking up this time as he spoke. He reached for the blue Sharpie instead, filling in the bubble letters he wrote with it.
“Then why are you making another card? Did you realize how stupid that other one is and are starting over?” Damian pressed, leaning back once again to get comfortable.
Tim huffed, already over this conversation. It was times like this that he wished Dick and Halley still lived at home. Damian would be Dick’s shadow if he was here and not bugging him like this. With Halley, she’d swoop in the moment she felt a fight forming and would’ve gotten the demon spawn to shut up by now. But now that they were the only two left living at home Damian was all Tim’s problem. Maybe it was time to go back to the Titans?
“No, my mother’s card is done. This is for someone else.” Tim said, using his minimum art skills to draw a decent flower next to the y in Day. He huffed again when Damian responded immediately asking who specifically it was for. Tim let the marker drop from his grasp, losing his nerve. Rubbing his head, he pushed the hair fallen in front of his face out of his face, letting out a deep breath. Why did he care what he was doing? Damian has shown more interest in his current activity than he’s shown in anything in Tim’s life since they met. “It’s for Halley.”
“Tt.” Damian rolled his eyes, smirking. “Halley isn’t your mother, Drake.”
“No, but since I’ve moved here, she’s always been there when I need her and she’s done so much for me so this is my way of thanking her and showing that I love her.” Tim let himself get cocky again, snipping right back at Damian. He put emphasis in his speech, knowing that not only was it true but it would rub Damian the wrong way. “I do this for her every year and every year she gets all mushy and loves it.”
Damian narrowed his eyes at the older boy. Was Drake questioning his relationship with his older sister? They may only be half siblings but that was more blood than she shared with anyone in the bat family. When the pair first found out they shared the same mother, Damian had been less then enthused about no longer being an only child and furious at his mother for failing to mention her having a child with Deathstroke. Halley had been just as shocked and angry, but at her father for never telling her. She wasn’t surprised but still angry. Though unlike him, she quickly rushed to try and get closer to the boy. Even though Damian wanted no part of it, Damian was clearly her favorite brother; right?
Drake said this was a yearly thing but why has he never noticed before? He did know that they would occasionally spend what they grossly called Mandatory Sibling Bonding Day together, where’d they’d go out just the two of them, much to the annoyance of Damian. He didn’t understand why she wasted her time with Drake; what could they possible do for fun together? Granted, she did do the same with Grayson whenever they were around at the same time. The pair of them also being close, Grayson having been the one to help get her out of her old life with her father, Slade Wilson.
Damian thought about how his sister had a close personal relationships with all the Robin’s and Batgirl’s, even the failure that Damian deemed as Stephanie Brown; Halley was close to them all, all but him. Though that wasn’t completely true, they did have somewhat of a bond. They both had what she phased as shitty-ass parents, her father being Deathstroke himself while his was the Dark Knight, and they shared the same mother, Talia al Ghul. They’d never known about the other until Damian was brought to live with his father by their mother and Halley had long been taken in by Dick and Bruce.
He still remembered their first meeting, they hadn’t yet known about sharing the same mother but yet she was still eager to accept him. He of course didn’t share her gusto, especially after Slade revealed that Talia was her mother after he attacked the League of Assassin’s and killed his grandfather. Damian wasn’t keen on having an actual sibling, especially one with the blood of Deathstroke. But they also shared the same al Ghul blood and was quite the efficient fighter. But they were both incredibly set in their ways and persistent, as she was dead set on getting the younger boy to open up while he was dead set to prove that he was the most worthy al Ghul.
It infuriated him enough that she said she didn’t care about being an al Ghul, having no memories of being with the League of Assassin’s, as Slade and Talia agreed that she would go off to live with her father for her training. Damian said she was unworthy of the blood they shared and she didn’t deserve it. Though even now, he wouldn’t admit it but sometimes he swore he could still feel the pain from the beating she gave him when he tried to kill her in her sleep his first few months staying in the manor whenever he looked her way.
�� That was something he admired about his sister, again not like he would ever admit it, but her persistence was something he looked up to and even came to appreciate. Even after trying to kill her, being cruel, and treating her like how she treats Drake, at first even worse, she never gave up on him; a feat that no one else could say they’ve come close too; perhaps Grayson, but there were times where even the star-child of Bruce Wayne’s collection of wayward children would walk away from Damian’s outbursts because he simply had enough of the all give an no take. But not Halley; she’d stay every single time and with that she’d even give him a smile at the end of it.
She understood what it was like. Being raised by Slade Wilson was basically the same as being raised by Ra’s al Ghul. They never had a conversation about it, Damian always calling her a fool, she didn’t know what his childhood was like and then brushing her off. But who was Damian kidding? She made her first kill by age eight, so did Damian. She had expectations placed on her that no child should’ve been held up to, as did Damian. They shared bruises, scars and nightmares.
Grayson had tried with him, after his father failed but Halley was the one who truly helped him adjust to this new life he found himself in without even knowing it. What Grayson and his father didn’t understand was that you just couldn’t stop being who you were raised to be in a second, it took time, and Halley had been through the same transition. Granted she was looking to escape the life she had with her father whereas Damian was forced to be with his by his mother, but there were just some habits that where hard to break.
“You good there?” Drake’s voice cut Damian out of his thought process.
Damian snapped out of it, narrowing his eyes down at the card, noting Tim had stopped working on it and was looking at Damian as if he was a frozen computer screen. Scoffing, standing up to his feet, he uncrossed his arms, pointing a finger at the card for his sister. Trying to hid the fact that Drake caught him in such a deep thought, he cleared his throat before sneering,
“Her favorite color is purple, not red.”
Tim watched, mouth left agape as Damian made his way out of the room without another word. He took another look down at the card and grunted, reaching for a new piece of paper, getting ready to start all over again. What a kid, he thought as he got back to work.
#damian wayne#damian wayne x sister!reader#tim drake#tim drake x reader#tim drake fanfic#damian wayne fanfiction#batbros#batfam x reader#batfam x batsis#dick grayson x batsis#dick grayson#jason todd#jason todd x reader#jason todd imagine#bruce wayne#batman fanfiction
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The Art School AU nobody asked for
I’ve had this idea for an emercury AU fic kicking around in my head for a while now, but I have so many other projects on my plate rn and nowhere near enough time or energy to write it. So instead I’m just gonna post all the deets in the hopes that one day I’ll be able to come back and actually do something with it.
Emercury Art School AU Summary:
“Emerald Sustrai may have managed to get into the dance program at one of the most prestigious art schools on Remnant, but she has one big issue – after just one year of study, she’s barely managing to stay afloat even with two part-time jobs and her grades have been suffering for it. Fortunately for her, her school offers extra credit to any students who are cast in the school’s yearly exhibition performance. Unfortunately, this year’s production’s theme is “passion” and the only spot up for audition for sophomores in the dance program is for a couples’ dance performance based on said theme.
Enter one Mercury Black—a fellow dance student with a reputation unsavory enough to overshadow his considerable talent, and quite possibly the last person on Remnant Emerald would ever want to work with…He also happens to literally be the only other person she can find to pair up with her for the show. Somehow, improbably, the unlikely duo actually make a pretty good team once they finally start to work out their differences, but as they perfect their routine for the big audition, Emerald finds herself in a whole new predicament: She may have set out to steal the show, but if she’s not careful she might just end up getting her heart stolen in the process...”
So yeah…as you can see, the basic premise is that Em and Merc are classmates at this school for the arts, but both of them are having trouble earning passing marks in this one foundation course they both need to graduate—Emerald because she is completely on her own and has to work a lot to pay for her living expenses and studio fees and stuff even though she has a pretty decent scholarship, and Mercury because he keeps really odd hours and misses class quite a bit for unexplained reasons. Noticing that she’s struggling even though she is a gifted dancer, one of Emerald’s teachers suggests that she try out for the big show that their school puts on every school year, since anyone who makes the cut receives a bunch of extra credit and each faculty also gives a grant to the students who they judge to have put on one of the top three best performances. The problem is, there are only a limited number of spots up for audition for each graduating year of each concentration course due to time and resource restraints, and this year’s 2nd year dance spot happens to be billed as a couples’ performance.
Emerald hits up everybody she can think of, but they're all too busy or can't commit to the project for other reasons. Pretty much out of options at that point, she’s just about ready to give up when she has a chance encounter with a classmate, one Mercury Black, after school. Through some sort of clerical error they managed to book the exact same practice studio for exactly the same time, and since they both really need the extra practice time and neither one is willing to back down, they end up sharing the room for a few hours. When they do, Emerald is really surprised to find out that Mercury is actually a really talented dancer, she just never noticed before because even though they have some classes together he comes in very irregularly. After a long, sleepless night contemplating doing something really, really ill-advised, she ends up approaching him at school the next day to propose that they team up and audition for the big show together since they appear to both be failing the same class and need the credit really bad, and to her surprise he agrees rather easily.
Thus, the two of them become reluctant accomplices. However, once they start working out the choreography together, they just can’t seem to see eye-to-eye on anything, which doesn’t bode very well for their performance considering that it’s supposed to embody the show’s theme. Emerald is more of a ballet dancer, while Mercury is more of a street dancer, having started out with breaking and had almost zero classical training before starting school. After a while (with a lot of practice and a LOT of unsolicited intervention from their nosy friends) our two favorite mayhem children finally start to bond and find some common ground, and naturally, lighthearted romantic hijinks ensue and sparks fly between the unlikely duo as they struggle to cooperate and put together a passionate couples’ dance good enough to get into the final production.
The Supporting Cast:
Em’s peeps -- Cinder (in the class above, sort of her mentor and was the one who encouraged her to apply to school in the first place), Weiss (met in freshman year, in the same ballet, jazz and contemporary classes this year, snarking buddies), Blake (ended up in most of the same classes together this year), Coco (upperclassman in the design course, loves dressing Em in different outfits and often forces her to stand in as a house model for her when she needs to work late into the night to meet a deadline)
Merc’s peeps -- Sun (met in class in freshman year, breaking and sparring buddies), Neptune (met thru Sun, in pop class together this year), Scarlet (ditto), Blake (in a few classes together, waits tables at the same diner where he works), Yang (met at a stunt training camp the Summer of freshmen year, waits tables at the same restaurant, fellow gym rat and occasional sparring partner)
Salem -- Headmistress of the most prestigious arts school on Remnant; has a bitter love-hate (mostly hate) relationship with her ex
Oz -- The headmistress’ ex-husband who runs a very successful Circe du Soleil type show and recruits a lot of his performers from her graduating classes
Glinda -- Chair of the dance department; Contemporary and ballroom dance instructor; is so so weary of her faculty’s incessant bickering
Winter -- Ballet instructor; came up in a rigid traditional Atlesian ballet school and generally looks down on all the other dancing disciplines and their instructors (”What they do can BARELY be described as dancing”); wishes the dance department were as disciplined as the music department
Qrow -- Jazz and tap dance instructor; doesn’t think that what his sister does really counts as actual dancing; jazz hands, rain hands and double dream hands and he’s dead serious about em
Raven -- Acrobatic and contortion instructor; thinks jazz hands look really stupid, just like Qrow and his corny, goofy ass dancing; was actually trained extensively in traditional Mistralian Highlands step dancing from childhood alongside her brother and used to perform internationally before switching disciplines
Tai Yang -- Hip-hop and pop dance instructor; specializes in pop and lock; Raven's ex; constantly catching strays from Qrow and Raven’s feud; just happy to still have a job tbh
Arthur & Tyrian -- Co-chairs of the theater department; Arthur teaches classical acting and Tyrian teaches method acting and they both think the other doesn’t teach “real acting”; somehow their department is actually really popular and all the students love the yearly musical theater production, which is the only time they ever seem to agree on anything
Hazel -- Long-suffering theater production instructor; works really hard to keep things running smoothly in the background despite the department heads' antics; hates the headmistress’s ex with a burning passion
Ironwood -- Chair of the music department; runs his department like a well-oiled machine and has put the fear of god into all his students; has won the national marching band championships seven years running
All the other students are in various departments at their school—e.g. Ruby plays the sax, Yang and Jaune are both acting majors, Oscar plays the cello, Nora and Ren play the tuba and the erhu respectively, Pyrrha is a triple threat etc.
A bunch of random plot points:
-Merc, Em and their friends are all in the same foundation classes together and the two of them start off vaguely aware of one another mostly owing to the fact that all their friends are friends, but they don’t really know each other (…or DO they??? *DUN DUNNN DUNNNNN*)
-Most of the faculty at their school can’t stand each other and the different departments have been engaged in bitter rivalries for years but somehow they all work really well together because at the end of the day they’re all professionals who are good at their jobs
-All of their friends are convinced that they’re secretly dating or hooking up at the very least, because they suddenly start hanging around each other a lot, holing up in the practice studio together until all hours of the night and showing up school at the same time the next morning and are constantly snipping at each other whenever they interact. Merc’s squad is actually v supportive and (against his wishes) are doing their very best to try and help their boy lay down the mac (Sun: “Hey Merc! Thanks for letting me drive the convertible last weekend!😉👍”) , even though they all generally acknowledge that he’s way out of his league and is headed down the path to utter destruction. Meanwhile, Em’s friends are pretty appalled by her abysmally low standards (Weiss: “Emerald, you’re dating down....WAY down.🙁”) and think that shes going thru some kind of self-destructive phase or something. They’re convinced she’s about to have her life absolutely ruined by that one smirky fuccboi type from their grade who has super sus habits and “reeks of criminality” (also Weiss).
-Almost everybody including most of his friends are convinced that Mercury is doing something really, really shady for cash on the low because he keeps super odd hours, misses class a lot and is always showing up with all these bizarre, unexplained injuries. In reality, Em finds out that it’s all because he’s been training as a stunt-man outside of school and works a lot of weird hours at his part-time job so that he can pay off his prosthetics, finance his extra courses and pay for his own living expenses, etc. Although he actually was involved in some serious criminal activity in the past, he’s been trying his best to stay on the straight and narrow ever since he finally cut ties with his scumbag dad, and now just works a lot of nights and weekends as a short order cook at the local greasy spoon.
-Once Mercury realizes that Emerald is like...constantly on the brink of starvation because she’s a destitute vagabond baby but has too much pride to ask for help, he starts subtly bringing her leftovers from work, which she grudgingly accepts (because he owes her for putting him onto the whole extra credit thing, so it’s not really charity...definitely NOT because she is extremely susceptible to offerings of food and her partner also happens to be a surprisingly good cook).
-Cinder is in the year above them and has known Emerald since they were in the foster system together as kids. She’s a prodigy at ballet and also a very accomplished acrobat and contortionist (as in, like, can easily shoot an arrow into a bullseye with just her feet while her legs are bent backwards all the way over the top of her head and stuff). At some point she sits in on one of Em and Merc’s rehearsal sessions and ends up dragging the hell out of them both for being way too stiff and exhibiting almost zero chemistry despite the “obnoxiously obvious sexual tension” between them. She basically ends up barking directions at them until they alter their choreo a bunch and finally start to look somewhat like an actual couple ("For fuck's sake... Lift her like she's the most precious thing you've ever laid eyes on and you're about to make sweet love to her, you idiot, not like she's a frigging sack of potatoes you're bringing home to peel!!!" "This man is supposed to be the moon to your stars...if you don't loosen up and melt into his arms like your soul is on fire, I will flip ALL this shit over and burn this wretched studio to the ground with both of you trapped inside!!!" ), after which things gradually start to get all awkward and messy between them because they start thinking about one another differently.
-They get into a bunch of compromising situations by virtue of the fact theatre and dance people are just kinda naked a lot and don’t care. At various points in the story their friends will walk in on the two of them in some sort of really eyebrow raising situation, get the complete wrong idea and run away, which in turn makes the two of them start to feel awkward as hell toward each other.
-Coco forces them to wear matching outfits that she made just for their performance.
-Their act ends up being this spicy contemporary couples’ dance that incorporates a lot of elements of acrobatic dance, breaking and ballet, essentially blending together both of their unique dance backgrounds.
This story idea has absolutely nothing to do with canon and Remnant is a lot like modern-day Earth with some exceptions, so there are no semblances etc. There’s no antagonist; in fact everyone around them is generally supportive and wants them to succeed--the main conflict comes from Emerald and Mercury only having three brain cells between them and not being used to caring about someone else in a lovey-dovey sort of way. I got the idea when I was watching dance videos online and started remembering all those cheesy dance-themed teen movies from the 90’s and early 2000’s. It’s pretty much just a wholesome little meet-cute/will-they-won’t-they type school romance in that same vein, where Em and Merc are forced to team up out of necessity, start to fall for each other and then have to deal with all the awkwardness that ensues...all with a bunch of help from their extremely eccentric, meddling-ass friends who are all convinced that the two of them are either already dating or about to be and are trying to keep them both from getting their hearts broken lol
Whew! Guess that’s about it for now...I’d like to try and flesh this one out more and maybe even publish it as a legit fic one day, but first I’ve gotta get back to work on *signal lost*
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it’s elle again! took me longer than I thought it would, but i’m here with the bio of my second son, harley. he’s my newest oc; i’ve had him for about a year, but i didn’t get to rp much during that time. i’m fluent in asl, so harley has a special place in my heart. usually my gifs that include him signing won’t actually match the signs up to what he’s saying, but this one does. he’s signing ‘hello, my name is....’ so it felt like an appropriate intro post.
[ chella man, genderqueer trans man, 21, he/him ] did you see who just walked in? it was that JUNIOR, the ╳ + HARDWORKING AND - DISORGANIZED ╳ one? you know, the one who lives at SONTHENA HALL, HARLEY HUA! i heard they are majoring in ART and they can’t wait to get out of here to BECOME AN ILLUSTRATOR. crap! stop staring, here they come!
name. harley hua hometown. detroit, mi major. art (illustration) birthday. may 27th, 2000 gender. trans man, genderqueer orientation. pansexual religion. jewish languages. english, asl, some cantonese and french hobbies. cheerleading, drawing, comic books
[ BIO ] [ tw. gender dysphoria ]
harley was born hard of hearing, although it wasn’t discovered until he was six. his audiologist discouraged his parents from teaching him sign, saying he would stop talking and stunt his language skills, so he grew up using his hearing aid and filling in the gaps with lipreading.
his yearly hearing tests showed he was gradually going deaf. he kept getting stronger hearing aids and being able to catch less and less of what was happening around him. the expectation was that he would get better at reading lips, but that only got him so far (only 30% of the English language is visible on the mouth!)
he had been a social kid, but he slowly withdrew into art. there, he could create anything he wanted. he often drew superheroes, or just ‘regular’ civilians (usually men). for a few years, harley took a sketch book and at least three graphic pencils everywhere he went.
in middle school, harley was eligible for a cochlear implant. his parents urged for him to get implanted, but decided to let him make the decision himself. he found a way to compromise with them; he agreed to get the surgery, but in exchange his parents agreed to pay for him and his brother to take ASL classes.
once activated, the implant was an immediate change. the world sounded different through it than what harley remembered, but he could understand his teachers and classmates better than he had in a very long time. he was able to join in again, and went from the kid scribbling in a notebook alone to being very outgoing. once he was able to use an ASL interpreter in classes, his confidence and grades shot up.
in high school, harley was very popular. it didn’t take long for his friends to give him a makeover, convincing him to throw out his baggy tshirts and most of his jeans, in favor of more feminine pieces. mini skirts, heels and crop tops (at least, when he could sneak them past his parents). he grew out his short hair to better hide his cochlear implants, smiling and nodding when he couldn’t keep up in conversations instead of drawing attention to his deafness. for the first time in his life he fit in, and he didn’t want to remind people that he was different.
(tw: dysphoria) but something was different, and it wasn’t his cochlear implants or the fact he was one of the only asian kids at his predominately white high school. something about the way he looked bothered him. he would often stare at himself in the mirror, and he knew the girl staring back at him in the mirror was pretty, but he couldn’t connect with ‘her’. she felt like a completely different person, almost like a mask he wore despite not understanding why he ‘needed’ to wear it or why he felt so numb to his own body.
the huas weren’t really hurting for money, but sending two teenagers to college only a year apart would be tough for any family. harley didn’t want to put that kind of stress on his parents, so he focused on cheerleading scholarships. he toured suffolk because it has one of the best cheer programs in the country. it was a dream school, but he doubted they’d want him on their team, let alone offer him enough money that he could afford to attend. yet that’s exactly what happened, so harley accepted and moved to boston.
during his freshman year of college, he realized nobody cared what he looked like in college. many of his classmates showed up to lectures in their pajamas. he started experimenting with his clothes, trading out the feminine pieces he’d been wearing for the past four years and wearing the things he wanted to; androgynous and masculine pieces. at first he wasn’t so sure why it made him happy, he just knew it did.
(tw: dysphoria) harley had never paid much attention to the trans community. he certainly never thought of himself as trans or genderqueer. sure, he often felt like an alien stuck in someone else’s body, but he assumed that was normal - something every girl secretly felt. after joining his college’s gsa and meeting trans people for the first time and hearing their stories, it began to click. harley came out towards the end of his freshman year of college, and started transitioning a few months later. his parents didn’t try to stop him, but it’s clear they don’t understand. a small part of harley is bothered by this, but he doesn’t let it get him down. it took a long time for them to accept he was deaf, too, but they eventually came around. they’re just slow to accept changes. between that and their refusal to learn ASL, harley isn’t on the best of terms with them, but he doesn’t stop to let this get to him.
overall harley is a very happy kid. he’s at his dream college, living his best life and preparing for the future he’s wanted since he was a kid
[ HEADCANONS ]
not wanting to take much money from his parents, harley works as a bartender three days a week at a popular bar near campus
if he’s not at work or in class, he’s either practicing cheer, working out at the student rec center, or at one of two coffee shops (one being the starbucks in his building, the other being an independent mom-and-pop cafe not far from campus)
he’s basically a jock villager from animal crossing. as stated before, he’s really into cheerleading. since getting his top surgery last summer he’s fallen in love with swimming. he also lifts weights and goes running a couple times a week with nadia.
harley is very busy, and his schedule is constantly fluctuating between working late nights and practices at any time of day. he’s pretty much always sleep deprived, and lives on an insane amount of coffee (he doesn’t like energy drinks).
harley’s preferred method of communication is asl. he uses interpreters in class and is involved with the deaf community in boston. but since most people on the squad only know a limited amount of sign, and other people he knows on campus don’t know the language at all, he often relies on the combination of his cochlear implant and lipreading to communicate. if he can’t hear with his cochlear implant (dead battery, too much background noise, etc) he won’t be able to understand enough by reading lips. but on the other hand, if he’s using his implant to communicate, watching the other person’s mouth helps him fill in the blanks.
[ WANTED CONNECTION ]
teammate // they do cheer together, so they spend a lot of time with each other
asl friends // harley prefers asl, so it would be great for him to have people to sign with!
regular customer // your character hangs out at the bar harley works at. conversely, they’re a bariste at one of the cafes harley is at multiple times a day
workout buddies // they lift weights together
rainbow family // in the queer community, they say you make your own family. harley doesn’t have a great relationship with his parents, and his brother is attending school on the west coast, so harley could use some lgbtq+ family in boston
comic book nerds // harley loves comic books. they were a major escape for him growing up and how he got into drawing in the first place. so maybe your character is also really into comic books, or they just share a passion for the mcu movies
[ FINAL NOTES ]
That’s all I got, but I’m open to almost anything with him. Looking forward to getting to explore him more here!
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Happy Holidays Everyone!
Here’s my yearly Christmas fic if your interested! I love all the art you’ve been posting! Repost with links to your art and fics! Let’s make a thread!
Gathered for Greetings
I’m going to end up writing a Christmas fic every year, aren’t I? That’s okay. I just hope that next year I’m no literally writing it on Christmas day! Curse you, procrastination!
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When they’d received the invites in the mail, they’d been skeptical.
Togetherness wasn’t something that none of them were used to, but it was something that they were willing to play at, if only because of the simply apocalyptic year that they’d all had thus far. Due to obvious circumstances, the majority of them had little to no experience with planning holiday events, let alone even attending them, but that wasn’t going to stop them from trying. In a strange turn of events, Nero and Kyrie were probably the most well acquainted with how holiday parties worked due to the addition of the orphans a short while back, but even then they had never thrown a party. After all, there weren’t exactly a lot of people they could invite, and they didn’t have a very spacious living area. Try as they might, there was only so much that they could do, especially on their limited finances.
But there was one unexpected additional point of intrigue that made this particular holiday get together a bit more interesting than it already seemed to be at first glance, and that was the setting that it was set to take place in. That, and who’s idea it was in the first place. Towards the start of the holiday season, V had approached Nero with a very much out of character proposition:
“... I think we should do something this year… at my house.”
Nero remembered looking at him as though he had grown a second head. Had V lost his mind? From what he knew about his generally socially challenged sibling, this particular request seemed like something he’d come up with after a particularly traumatic head injury or as the result of a late-night cheese binge. Was he caught in the middle of some kind of irreverent fever dream?
“Why do you wanna do that? I thought you hated parties.”
V had looked away from him, obviously uncomfortable with the reality that he was now going to have to explain what he was thinking. He’d figured that he’d more than likely have to do that, but that reality did little the quince the feeling of unease that he felt in the pit of his stomach. Voluntary honesty was difficult, especially when it forced him to speak on matters that he could frankly do without digging out of the lower recesses of his mind. He’d prefer to keep his problems buried deep, and this certainly counted as a problem, but he’d brought this up, so he was going to follow through.
“You’re correct, I do… but this is the first time I’ve ever had a family to actually commemorate the occasion with, and as such, the first time I…” he paused for a second, looking down at the floor with an earnest look of sadness.” I’ve never actually celebrated Christmas. Ever. Even as a child. I was hoping to change that.”
So naturally, not being a heartless psychopath, Nero couldn’t turn down such a heartfelt plea, especially from such a close member of his family. It was rare for V to ask for anything, and after the frankly hellish few months they’d had since his resurrection, he couldn’t think of a logical reason to dismiss his idea. He’d had an opportunity once or twice to do something for the holidays once he’d met Kyrie’s wonderful family as a younger child, but the idea of literally never doing anything for it at all… It actually hurt his heart a little to imagine that. Aside from cultural or even religious reasons, how on earth did that even happen?!
That was a question for another day. If his older sibling wanted to have his house destroyed by their extended family, then he was happy to help him in that regard. So in the last days leading up to Christmas, Nero, Kyrie, and Nico had brought the children over and they had spent several long hours decorating, wrapping gifts, and generally trying to keep V from having a protracted anxiety attack from the prospect of having everyone they knew at his house. Planning it was one thing, but actually doing it was another thing entirely, and he’d never been the best at long periods of social interaction. It drained his social battery to even think about it.
“Do you think they’re actually going to come over? Hell, do they even like Christmas? They barely like each other!” Nero shouted down to V over his shoulder as he shrugged and secured the last of the lights over a doorway. He was dead tired of climbing this ladder, and he hoped that the architects that built the place and decided that it needed close to fifteen-foot ceilings were burning in hell right now. But if he ever saw V climb a ladder again, he was going to have an anxiety attack.” I can’t see our old man even being the festive type. Maybe Dante but…”
He shrugged, fussing over the bottom of the gigantic Christmas tree that Lady and Trish had brought over early that morning. Where they had managed to find a real twelve-foot tall tree on Christmas day was anyone’s guess. It was probably Morrison’s handiwork, considering the fact that he’d helped them bring it over in the first place. That man could find ice in hell. Lady and Morrison were in the kitchen with Kyrie and Magnolia. They were helping taste things while the two of them finished up the last of the cooking. V had helped them cook a short while before deciding to turn his attention to the entirely bare tree. Three people in one kitchen was a bit of a crowd, but considering the fact that this had once been Magnolia’s family home, not inviting her would have been extraordinarily unkind. In an ironic twist, he’d managed to find ornaments but nothing to actually put them on. How fortunate that they’d arrived when they did.
Nico and Trish were on either side of the tree, attempting to help him get the last few ornaments on and clean up the bristles that had fallen on the tree skirt. As it turned out, V was actually horribly allergic to pine needles. They made him break out in an extremely itchy rash, a fact that he’d gone his entire life without knowing due to the fact that he’d literally never gone near a pine tree. It made the process of hanging ornaments slow and slightly nervewracking, to say the least. He imagined that this was what it would feel like to try and decorate poison oak.
“I’d imagine that they have mixed feelings about this time of year, to say the least. It more than likely brings up unfortunate memories.” He stepped away from the tree and allowed himself to slump over on the couch. All this standing didn’t agree with him.” Admittedly, I was pleasantly surprised when Dante agreed to come over. Even more so when he called back only a short while later to inform me that Vergil would be following suit. I suspect there was violence involved in that negotiation.”
Trish scoffed slightly, trying and failing not to laugh.” Oh, I’m sure there was. I don’t think either of them like parties. It’s one of the few things they agree on!”
With a relieved sigh, Nero climbed down from the ladder, thoroughly done with hanging things.” Sorry, but those are gonna have to stay up until next year. No way I’m going back up there.”
V nodded, equally tired and ready to get started with the festivities..” Agreed. It is quite a hassle. Thank you all for tolerating my request. It seems that none of us particularly enjoy large gatherings or decorating for that matter. I’m flattered that you would do so for my sake at your own expense.”
Everyone present waived him off nonchalantly. None of them minded on this one occasion. It was a welcome moment of normality in their entirely supernatural lives, and they couldn’t say that those happened very often.
“Yea, well as long as this goes better than that damn beach trip, I think we’ll all be just fine.” Nico said as she walked towards the kitchen with a bag full of pine needles.” Now don’t touch that godforsaken tree again or I’ll skin you all alive. I’m tired of cleaning!”
An awkward silence washed over the room as they thought about that trip. It had been a stressful year, hadn’t it? Between that and Belial… “yea, well if you aim low, you can’t be disappointed, can ya? That’s how I talk myself out of bed every day.!”
They all turned in the direction of the doorway, surprised to see who had spoken. Standing before them were Dante and Vergil, the two of them seemingly taking in the surprisingly festive atmosphere. It had been Lady’s idea to play Christmas music. She’d even brought over wine for the occasion. She was perhaps the most excited person there besides Magnolia and the children who were playing in the next room over with Lucia. Getting the redheaded guardian there in time had been nothing short of a logistical nightmare, but they had pulled it off nonetheless. Even Matier had managed to come over for the occasion, no doubt surprised to be invited in the first place. There were still a few stragglers who would be coming later on such as Patty, but the number of people who had agreed to come in the first place was enough for V.
Much to their collective surprise and disbelief, V actually laughed at that statement. It was a sentiment that he honestly had to agree with. It was rare that V actually agreed with Dante on something so wholeheartedly, but this was one of those occasions.” You make a valid point, Dante. I suppose I’m just glad you both came.”
Dante and Vergil almost seemed flattered by the statement, unsure of what to really say. It had taken quite a bit for them to talk themselves into coming over, but seeing everyone there wasn’t something they expected and as such, they were a little unsure of where to start. But they were willing to try, and that was what counted, wasn’t it?
Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all…
Looking notably uncomfortable, Vergil glanced in the direction of the tree. It had been a long time since he’d seen one of those… It brought back vague but vibrant memories he thought he’d lost to the void of despair that was his life a lifetime ago. Perhaps actually attempting to make a few new ones wasn’t such an awful idea after all.
“... Thank you for inviting us.”
With that statement, the entire room fell strangely silent again, everyone collectively surprised to hear Vergil say something so… agreeable. It was a nice change of pace. One could only assume that he was genuinely pleased to be included in something like this, but it was hard to tell. They had no point of reference. But if the barely concealed look of surprised pleasure on Dante’s face was anything to go off of, they had done something right.
It was Nero’s turn to break the silence. He was admittedly starting to get hungry, and he was sure the children were probably driving Lucia insane in the next room. It was actually time to celebrate.” Anytime. Now let’s go eat. Kyrie and V were cooking and magnolia brought over desert again.”
Dante practically teleported into the kitchen.” Well, hell you shoulda started there! Speak up next time!”
Vergil shook his head and followed after him at a much slower pace. He was in much less of a hurry to get to the kitchen. He hadn’t really come there for the food.” At least he’s eating something besides pizza.”
Nero and V nodded in agreement. The holidays were supposed to be about the little things. It was about time they went and enjoyed them. After all, it wasn’t every day that they all got to spend time together without it being a life or death situation. They were going to savor that. Well, that and the food. The food was probably going to be amazing.
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Thanks for reading this little holiday fic that I threw together! You’ll all see how this ties into the main story once we get there in Hirathe. I thought you might like this. Happy Holidays everyone! See you on New Years! I hope next year is a little better!
#Happy Holidays#DMC5#V#Vergil#Nero#Dante#Lady#Trish#Nico#Kyrie#Devil May Cry 5#Devil May Cry V#Post Devil May Cry 5#DMC#DMCV#Post Devil May Cry V#Devil May Cry#Fic#A03 FanFiction#Skvader
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Doing yearly writing reviews isn’t really a thing. But once you start doing ‘em, it doesn’t feel right to stop, you know?
Seeing progress in other arts is of course a lot easier than seeing progress in writing, but I think there is some forward movement for me, especially when I also consider my compilations from 2017 and 2018.
In regards to 2019, I’ve selected various kinds of writing for this post: analytical essays, opinion pieces, news articles, creative fiction, and maybe some works that can’t be categorized so easily, too. It was a very difficult year on many fronts; I dealt with job struggles, financial insecurity, destroyed relationships, medical hardships, seemingly endless cyberstalking and online harassment.
But there were good things, too. New friendships. New passions. New outlooks. I feel like I’ve learned and grown a lot more in these past couple of months than I have in a long, long time.
The end of 2019 is more than just the end of one year. It’s also the end of a decade. But I think the best advice I’ve received all decade comes from this year:
✄ Sometimes, you have to say yes to saying no.
✄ If you can’t do something well, do something poorly!
✄ The best option may be to simply not engage.
✄ You don’t have to apologize for disappointing others.
✄ Your worth isn’t measured by how much you “accomplish.”
✄ You have rights: the right to have your needs and wants respected, the right to make mistakes, the right to determine your own priorities, the right to not be responsible for the actions or problems of others, the right to express yourself, the right to be human. It’s not selfish or narcissistic to stand up for your rights.
And, since it is the end of the decade and all, here’s also a comparison between one nerdy fandom essay from August 2010 and another from August 2019:
2010 (with added spaces because yes, this really was just a huge block of text originally):
Also, in my own opinion, nobody really gave a damn for Xion all that much save for Roxas. I mean, yeah, Axel cared a little, but in the end, he got totally mad at her, got mad any time she was mentioned, got mad whenever Roxas worried about her, got mad when she showed up at the clock tower. She was his friend, yeah, and he didn’t want her to go, but in the end, he would have chosen Roxas above her anytime.
The other “mean villains” didn’t really care. Luxord didn’t care, Demyx didn’t care, Xaldin got exasperated once at her, but overall didn’t care, Xigbar didn’t care, Xemnas outright said he didn’t care, Saix was rather cruel to her, but really, in the end, he didn’t give a damn for her. The others weren’t around long enough to have an impression on her. I think even Riku didn’t really care all that much for her, in all honesty. He just wanted his best friend back.
Also, you have to keep in mind that we played the game through Roxas’ perspective, and it’s in my personal belief that he fell in love with Xion. And if you’re in love with someone, when she gets into a coma, or goes missing, or ignores you, you’re gonna be upset, and talk about it. So Roxas did.
But you know, he doesn’t actually do a lot of it until the end of the game. Before that, it’s all about the THREE of them. He loves his friends (even if he doesn’t know it), and he wants them to be together forever, but when Xion goes missing or whatnot and they can’t ALL have ice cream together, he gets upset.
2019:
I’ve written more on the subject here, but to keep it short, Ryuko only tries to take Nui’s life when she’s convinced herself that she’s a monster, and her development is less about her becoming less okay with killing people and more about how she won’t let her anger and rage control her. What makes Ryuko’s attitude so different in the end isn’t that she’s reconsidered her thoughts on murder but that she’s composed. Come episode 22, Ryuko ain’t saying that she’s gonna kill anyone to sound tough or to intimidate. She keeps her cool even against her worst enemies.
But that’s just what I think! Maybe I’ve interpreted the character all wrong. But Ryuko’s freak-out after she goes berserk and hurts others in episode 12, her devotion to defending even people she’s just met… I just struggle to see her as someone who’s actually a-okay with killing. The fact that Ryuko’s perfect fantasy in episode 20 depicts her as a sweet girl without any of the violent tendencies that she has in reality also points this way; not to mention, Ryuko outright admits that her picking fights and causing trouble are bad things when remarking on her childhood in episode 8.
And Ryuko? She doesn’t want to be bad. All the poor girl’s ever wanted is love, and I can’t imagine she’d ever think that getting angry and killing people would get her a lot of that.
Progress may be slow, but it does happen.
At least, I think so.
Image Texts
January 2019
And personally? I find that sweetness just absolutely, utterly charming. When I understood what the rap was trying to communicate, I couldn’t imagine listening to the song without it. Heck, even before I understood, I found the “without rap” edits empty and barren. No matter how “silly” the lyrics might come off, the unabashed cheese is fantastic. The rap section that I was once “meh” about legitimately became my favorite part of the song.
Plus, I really can’t stress enough how sad the song is when it’s purely Ryuko. The official [nZk] remix replaces Senketsu’s rap with a reprise of Ryuko’s first verse, which recounts how she and Senketsu met. And it’s tragic! She says, “But I’m all alone,” and she is. Senketsu isn’t singing with her, no matter her claim that she can hear his voice. Considering what happens to Senketsu in the end, his absence in the song hits even harder.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/182361051017/oomoj-marshmallowgoop-the-rap-is-good
February 2019
The focus then shifts away from Ragyo, but Kill la Kill ain’t at all done with building the audience up yet. As the scene moves to the following day, viewers are met with quick, close-up shots of Uzu’s note to Ryuko, timed right to the beat of “Blumenkranz.” Uzu wants to duel, and we soon get to see his full request in an engaging low-angle shot where Ryuko looks up to this sign looming over her. The weight and gravity of the situation is effectively conveyed: the smooth transition from Ragyo to here, as well as the music and shot composition, let us know in no indirect terms that this fight isn’t something to be brushed off. Uzu’s duel is a big deal, and it’s very much connected to Ragyo’s expansive empire.
And the tension just keeps growing. Ryuko’s reaction to Uzu’s note is presented with a dramatic canted, high-angle shot. The camera—which is just slightly tilted—peers down at both Ryuko and the sign, communicating a sense of danger and unease. Viewers already know that the upcoming battle is important, but here, we also understand that it’s not going to be easy.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/182841724817/all-the-discussion-around-episode-6-of-kill-la
March 2019
Kill la Kill the Game: IF is currently being featured at the 2019 Game Developers Conference that runs until March 22nd in San Francisco, and a flurry of new gameplay videos are now available for viewing. Notably, these videos feature full English subtitles for the character dialogue for the first time since EVO 2018 last year and never-before-seen stages, such as what seems to be the Fiber Castle in the Kiryuin Manor.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/183766224117/kill-la-kill-the-game-if-gameplay-footage-from
April 2019
I mean, Kill la Kill ended over five years ago now. There’s been fairly minimal new content ever since—an OVA in September of 2014, a few pieces of merchandise here and there, a small crossover with Grand Summoners last year. And then, not even 11 months ago, out of seemingly nowhere, there was confirmation for a full-blown Kill la Kill video game. That we now know will be released in just 14 weeks!
Lots of jokes were made about the announcement for a game so many years after the series finale, but, like, seriously, as a longtime Kill la Kill fan, it’s hard to wrap my head around. Ever since the show ended, I’ve dedicated over half a million words to writing about it, spent tens of thousands of yen on books and Blu-rays and CDs, devoted nearly 60 GB to my own GIFs and edits. I’ve loved this thing to death. I’ve always found more and more that I want to write and create from this series, but I never really imagined nor expected that we’d ever get much more official content from the original creators themselves. And now we are getting so much more, and???
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/184228103137/kill-la-kill-the-game-if-releases-on-july-25th-in
May 2019
Kiznaiver: Oh, I was so excited to love this show! I was lucky enough to see an advanced screening of the first two episodes, and I was totally hooked. It was drop-dead gorgeous—and probably the prettiest series Trigger has ever put out—and I was very intrigued by the plot and characters. I remember just coming back to my hotel room at like 3:00 am after the premiere, utterly filled with excitement. I mean, Kiznaiver was directed by Hiroshi Kobayashi, the episode director behind the two episodes that got me hooked on Kill la Kill (episodes 5 and 18)!
But… my excitement quickly died. The story tried to develop way too many characters in way too little time, and I never enjoyed the romantic pairing of Katsuhira and Noriko, finding it shallow, undeveloped, and nonsensical (in a bad way), which… kind of ruins a lot of the series when that’s arguably the heart of the whole thing.
Kiznaiver is still super, super pretty, though. That last episode’s animation got me shook.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/184700944732/so-have-you-watched-the-other-stuff-studio-trigger
June 2019
I do recognize that many, many matters do not warrant conversation. I do recognize that the phrase “I’m just trying to have a conversation” can be—and has been—utilized as a means of directing criticism away from inflammatory, unacceptable, inhumane remarks. I in no way feel that hateful, discriminatory comments should be promoted.
Simultaneously, however, “conversation” should not automatically be a dirty word in the field of analyzing and seriously engaging with fiction, and thoughtful reactions should be supported and striven for. Nothing in fiction is ever black and white. There are so many nuances and complexities to the storybook realities of our media. I want commentators and critics of fiction to be passionate about listening, considering, and rethinking those nuances and complexities. Isn’t that why we do this work at all? To share our own point of view and open ourselves up to others?
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/185289615202/we-need-to-change-the-way-we-seriously-discuss
July 2019
Initially, I was really bummed by this lack of development. But as I thought about things more, I… didn’t mind so much. If this dream or universe or whatever is something that Satsuki “experiences” before the events of the anime, of course she won’t grow as a character here. Maybe this game is kind of the Kill la Kill prequel I’ve been begging for for over half a decade.
And as much as I didn’t get anything, I thought the ending bits between Ryuko and Satsuki were so good.
Like, I suppose Ryuko’s absorbing the Life Fibers or something?? But wow, pretty.
And the part where they talk before Satsuki disappears? That’s my kinda anime bullshit. It’s the kinda anime bullshit I wanted from the OVA between Ryuko and Senketsu.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/186648065467/goop-plays-kill-la-kill-the-game-if-satsuki
August 2019
That book, Log. 2, is a fan doujin from Kotaro Nakamori, who worked as an animator and animation director in Kill la Kill. There’s a bunch of assorted fanart in there, and I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Nakamori is a fan of Urusei Yatsura and wanted to make a little crossover between that series and Kill la Kill.
Personally, though, as someone not too familiar with Urusei Yatsura, I kinda just saw the image as oni-Satsuki (with oni being demon/ogre-like creatures in Japanese folklore). Oni are traditionally depicted wearing tiger skin loincloths, and Lum herself is definitely basically a space oni. So, I saw the cover and got super excited about oni-Satsuki because I love oni a lot, haha.
Fun fact: character designer Sushio has also drawn Kill la Kill characters as oni for setsubun, a celebration that’s held on the last day of winter (February 3rd). During setsubun, you might see folks dressed up like oni—who get beans thrown at them in an effort to bring in good luck and chase naughty demons away.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/187228888187/do-i-see-satsuki-wearing-lums-outfit-in-your-last
September 2019
Though I don’t see it much anymore, I remember lots of comparisons between Ragyo and the villains of Saturday morning cartoons back in the day. She was described as a generic, two-dimensional “evilz for the sake of evilz” baddie and criticized for her simplicity.
And though I did admittedly agree to an extent—I craved a lot more depth and insight, particularly in regards to her haunting line about “still having something of a human heart” whilst brutally attacking her own daughter in the final episode—I also found Ragyo to be a remarkably compelling, powerful, and horrifying villain even without tons of backstory and explanation. Perhaps my write-up on her first scene in episode 6 best details why; this woman has such a presence, and the visual language of the series amplifies that presence spectacularly. Ragyo’s intimidating and scary without the audience even needing to know anything about her.
And… I’d say that’s a good villain. That’s exactly what a villain should do.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/187987858537/on-ragyo-kiryuin
October 2019
And, though there are no visuals, so I can’t be sure if it’s an “Ocean of Light” or not, the fourth Drama CD also has the same kinda deal happening. In the CD—which takes place immediately after Ryuko learns the truth of her origins—Ryuko’s pain manifests as an explosion of light that knocks both her and Senketsu unconscious and pushes Senketsu away from her. The sound effect here is familiar, and I’m personally convinced that this is another “Ocean of Light” moment.
Which brings me to the “light” part of the terminology. Light is often associated with good, yes, but light is also associated with heat, and heat is associated with pain. In the Drama CD, Ryuko’s light is so hot that Nui even remarks that Senketsu “almost burned” from it, and when Mako embraces Ryuko after swimming through her “Ocean of Light” in episode 12, Ryuko’s touch scorches Mako’s skin.
I’ve already written an essay on the symbolic and narrative use of fire, warmth, and heat in Kill la Kill (that you should totally read because it’s actually maybe Kinda Good, Maybe), and relating to that, I see the “Ocean of Light” as a physical representation of Ryuko’s fiery spirit. That fire can be used for good, and that fire can also be painful, but no matter what, that fire is a part of Ryuko.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/188247077227/i-always-wanted-some-explanation-you-are-smart
November 2019
She looks around her cottage. Her eyes find the walls and the furnishings. Her eyes find the scratched floors and stained wood. She does not voice it to the once-emperor, but she had never been able to remove the stains from the attack. Her son's blood has painted the brown wood red. It is a reminder of what she cannot remember. It is a reminder of the past she has forgotten.
“This home feels so desperately lonely,” she admits. “I do not know who is missing. But it is not complete.”
The man is quiet. He did not expect to find himself feeling sympathy for the woman's plight. Perhaps she is a fool, to have given her heart to a demon. But kindness ought not be punished, he thinks. Or has he grown so cold that he believes it should be?
December 2019
🏀 Michiru and Shirou’s relationship may be the focus, but Nakashima emphasizes that Michiru’s relationship with Nazuna is also involved in the story in a big way.
🏀 Nakashima stresses the importance of depicting teen girls realistically. Two women screenwriters are on board: Kimiko Ueno and Nanami Higuchi. Both wrote for Little Witch Academia. Ueno also wrote for Space Patrol Luluco, and Higuchi was behind the production reports in Trigger Magazine (and, interestingly, wrote the script for the anime adaptation of BEASTARS).
🏀In regards to Michiru and Nazuna’s relationship, producer Naoko Tsutsumi (also an animation producer for Kiznaiver and Little Witch Academia) provides input as well. Nakashima says that they greatly value and take to heart the opinions of the women creators.
Full post: https://marshmallowgoop.tumblr.com/post/189928986922/otomedia-winter-2020-bna-brand-new-animal
#shut up goop#goop makes a (kinda) personal post#ramblings#writing#on to 2020!#right before the new year in my time zone as per usual lol#image texts under the cut#kill la kill#kingdom hearts#brand new animal#kiznaiver
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Innerview: Sonya Baughman / Review Magazine
July 2008
Image: DJG's "Live & Let Die" Record by Paul McCartney & Wings
Note: Interview for a magazine feature.
01) Where did you grow up and where do you live now? My young cloth diapers treaded a lot of dirt, dead animal and doggy acres in the North Central stick regions of Missouri, Mid-West, USA. Currently, adult plastic diapers drag and sag me in mid-town Kansas City, MO. The first six years had me bucking bales, falling off hay wagons, piercing my cheek on a hay bale stinger, assisting with the old cow stuck in the mud, designing elaborate tunnels and forts from tomato cages, watching “The Muppets” and “Star Wars” a lot, hearing scary stories of Leopard Man, posing for many pictures with dead and live animals, rocking out in cowboy boots to “Live & Let Die” on my Papa Smurf guitar, and crying at night to my raccoon wallpaper…among many other early formative brain tattoos. Act Two had many dry summers and the bank repossessing the farm and moving us to the home and acres where my Dad grew up. The new place had a blacktop in front of it and a gravel lane with a bridge/creek. The blacktop was a reservoir for leaving behind summertime shoe and bike impressions and for popping tar bubbles in the blistering heat. I also was of age to really explore and build many forts and treehouses in the ditches, barns and woods. Also, I started to go hunting and spend time in the fields with my Dad. We never had a shortage of animals and pets too. A lot of spare time was also spent in the sandbox or in the bedroom designing and building things based on what I saw and experienced. There was also a massive in-take of drawing and pop-culture from comics, books, music, television and movies. There wasn’t much of a cap on what my siblings and I could devour. Oh, and loads of sugary sweets and cereals. Go through the yearly motions and I end up at Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO. There I got some very formal education and incredible interaction with students and design professors from the great making thing ways of Eastern Europe and Russia. I pretty much maxed out my art and design class card and was even making a ton of design work on the side for musicians. I then received a higher calling to drop out of school and make my guts out in Kansas City, MO which is where I’ve flopped around now for the past seven years. 02) Talk a little about your artistic background. Are you self-taught, did you go to college for art (if so, where)? My background is painted with loads of pop-culture from the 1980s and ’90s mixed in with the soil of farm life. I also designed and built many elaborate tree houses and forts up until the age of eighteen and spent most any spare minute in the sandbox or locked in my room drawing, reading, studying, video game playing, movie watching and just playing in general. I’ve never understood people’s ability to get bored or to not use the creation within them to ooze life out. I’ve enjoyed drawing comics, sports mascots and WWII battle scenes with my Dad at a young age that involved aircraft carriers, tanks and flags of those involved in conflict. My older brother would also draw a lot with me. He was better though. My younger sister and brother were pretty solid too. We have no idea where our creativity came from other than a great uncle, maybe? Also in my youth I would make giant collages out of magazine clippings and lots of mix tapes of Dr. Demento’s bizarre radio program and recorded and memorized many a variety of cartoon episodes and cool shows like Pee-wee’s Playhouse. I’ve also been a constant collector all my life. Back in the day I was all about the whole spectrum of toys, comics, ball cards, cereal boxes and loads of other junk…even kept dead animal parts under my bed. In the fifth grade I won a county wide logo contest for a skating and bowling fun center and it was the first time I realized disappointment with design as my logo was butchered by those higher-up. In middle-school up until my junior year of high school I studied more comics, logos, sports architecture and wanted desperately to design new-vintage baseball stadiums until the realization of my poor math skills hit like a ton of collapsed buildings. I even won a Kansas City Royals baseball essay contest. Getting made fun of daily in high school stunk, but it really fueled my work ethic, dreams and caused me to lock up in my bedroom at night. Though, I still wish I would have worked harder in my youth. I still really enjoy working hard and being alone to this day. In the summer of 1996 I was selected to attend the first ever Missouri Fine Arts Academy and learned that I had more to offer with my insides and got a chance to interact with more likeminded minds. I came back to my senior year of high school with notebooks of typographic graffiti designs and a whole new language of what I thought was the art world. There was also a new art teacher at my school and he was serious and seriously cool and recognized that I had something to offer. I also came back to my senior year with more confidence in expressing myself and decided to dive into the world of graphic design for my post-high school studies. I had no idea what I was going to really do with it, but I knew I just wanted to use my gift of making stuff for the rest of my life. And graphic design somehow promised a bit more security in money than going the fine art route. Though, I’ve now managed to merge the two and to still not make any money. My high school scores had me at number 12 out of 24 in my class and I scraped the bottom of the test barrels to get me into college. Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, MO said I could come and so I did. They were the only institution I applied for and I had liked it from my three week stay at Fine Arts Academy the previous year. College was great, but I could tell quickly that I wasn’t a top art pup like I was in my small school way back down the line. I was with the bigger dogs now. I struggled with drawing classes because I realized that I wasn’t as good as I had been told I was for the previous eighteen years. That was a set-back and I still wish to this day I would have worked harder at drawing. But, mostly I have trouble drawing in a cramped room with a ton of people breathing down my neck and at certain times of the day. The introduction and foundation art classes were more my calling and I could take the stuff home and work alone and all night. Most of my friends complained because they couldn’t wait until sophomore year when we would be on the computer for design. I didn’t really understand what I was getting into with graphic design. In fact, one day I exclaimed to my friends that I was taking the graphic design route that didn’t use computers and was entirely hands-on. They thought I was pretty insane for saying that and pretty much called me a fool. It’s kind of funny now though. I was so naïve at 18 and 19 to what the formal graphic design world was and I think I still am ten years later. Back when I was more bushy-tailed, I just wanted to make things and cut stuff out and not chain up to a computer…and I guess I’m still bushy-tailed, though I have a computer and use it mostly as a tool. When I finally did get placed in front of a computer, it was a struggle and I just couldn’t get into it and past the screen barrier. It almost stopped me from majoring in graphic design. But, we weren’t on the computer all the time as we were taught to conceptualize and to think and to be hands-on too. But, we needed to know the computer too. I just couldn’t get along with the computer for the longest time. Of course, the computer whiz kids just couldn’t wait for the next semester that involved a wordy world called typography. Which, naively enough I thought was about the art of map making. I liked maps, so I was excited too. But, I soon found out it was a whole new world that would poison the ABCs in me forever…good and bad. At least in type class we were still taught to think and do things by hand before messing with computer fonts. That first year or two of official design school was just terrible for me as I felt I wasn’t really “getting” it and didn’t think I would be happy as a graphic designer. I was just fulfilling project requirements and with zero heart or much care. It wasn’t until I haphazardly signed up to duel major in illustration that things started to make music inside of me. I began to really pour myself out and realize that I could approach things in a similar light as to when I was a child and be happy. Illustration saved me and I found my voice with it and my classmates and instructors started noticing. The energy there was great and everybody fed off of each other and helped each other see in new light(s). I also began to understand the valuable importance of the experience of my schooling as the instructors not only had a unique style of teaching, but they also had interesting backgrounds and culture from Eastern Europe and Russia. I could mildly relate to them as I was a transplant from the foreign farm world of North Missouri. After many design trips to studios I began to feel a very empty feeling with the profession I had chosen to represent my working life. It was not what I wanted to do with a “career”, or my time. I didn’t wish to work in a factory of fried monitor goo-lash. I wanted to just make stuff and at my own pace and pleasure. I was also very protective of my work and wanted parental rights and not for it to belong to another man’s name or dream. My love for music started to fuse with design and I began to start making many things on the side for musicians, which spread to other types of word-of-mouth work for me. An eye-popping lecture by modern rock poster designer Art Chantry sealed my personal deal for wanting to do my own thing. Shortly after that I decided I needed to change many gears in my life and secretly drop out of school following my final design class in the fall of 2001 and live with a band (and some) in a big old dilapidated orange house behind the original Lamar’s Donuts in Kansas City, MO. While some senior students had trouble looking for one real world client to work with for their final projects, I had close to 10 off the top of my head and whole bunch of future blank pages to fill. 03) During the time you have been making art have you always been drawn to this type of graphic expression? Did you “find” a style or did a style find you? I’d say a bit of both. I’ve never really gone for a set “style”. I’m sure that I’ve got one that has become recognizable to my thumb prints. Honestly, I never really think too hard about what I’m making or the why or how of the making until I have to answer questions like this. Then I start to over-think things. Also, whenever I’m told that I’m a good collagist or good at hand type or so-and-so rendering, then that is the only time I really make an effort to switch gears. I have boiled the majority of my output to be relational to the immediacy of my moods, thoughts, tickles, inclination and whatevers. Though, sometimes life can get in the way and I’ll have to slide down a small sliver of time and energy depletion, like I am with trying to get this writing out on time! But, I’m a big fan of cranking stuff out no matter what. Life is pretty darn short to sit on my hands. It seems that style can be a bit of a drag for some people and/or a hole. I’ve always been more in-tune to the folks who just follow what their gut, heart, hands and eyes speak instead of creating a set template. Some people never stray too far from that and only a few can truly get away with it. Edward Gorey is perhaps one of the few who could really make it work for me. I would certainly love to draw and think as well as he did, but I might be quite miserable doing the same thing over and over even if I was able to do it for a living. I think that a lot of people get confused and think they need to have a style and either invent one or pick other people’s noses instead of sniffing what they’ve been wearing all their life. Style to me is a lot like decorating or something. Though, at the same time that decoration might marriage perfectly to what somebody thinks they need. I don’t know though. Sometimes I think it’s funny when we as people think we need something to look or feel a certain way that’s already been communicated or visualized. I think that sometimes we are too caught up in what’s done before instead of thinking for ourselves. I’m guilty too. What’s really confusing to me, on a personal level, is when I get a request like, “We like all your work so make whatever you want!” and then the client ends up being really disappointed because it wasn’t in their “style” and then it’s awkward. Style is just an odd thing to me. But, most things are. I try to just trust my gutty heart and just make. 04) Do you see your work as communicating your identity or as helping to communicate the identity and message of others? … or both? I see it as me communicating what I’ve gathered from being on the Earth for 29 ½ years and spreading that manure the best I can. It’s a heaping helping to tell the story of others by telling my story. Most of my work fits into fine art and design, at least I’m always told that. I’m not really sure. Of late I’ve been pushing into more of the fine art bin. But, I’m not a big fan of labeling things and I would like to do many things with this thing I do. With design, one does have a role to play with helping somebody else tell their story, and at times, sell their story. There is also a responsibility to the venue the product is in or where it will eventually end up, whether a fine package on a shelf or a poster in the gutter. I feel it can be easy for a designer to lose perspective of the role playing. With leaving behind an identity…well, I like the idea of a paper trail, time-line and bruising thumb prints on this life. However, I don’t necessarily have the intent to say “Hey, look at me.” I am just another human, and one who happens to make things. If the work speaks or inspires (probably frightens and confuses on occasion), then that means a lot to me, especially in these fast-paced and flashy “everyone’s a designer-decorator” times with millions of images and advertisements everywhere. I think it’s great to recognize and at times celebrate gifts and achievement. But, I feel there needs to be a healthy balance. It can be a dangerous thing to play with at times. Some artists I feel become the work of art themselves and end up playing God with the gift and this saddens me as it usually ruins them in the long run. 05) Is there anything about your geographic location that has given you a unique perspective on design and the art you create? Certainly, growing up country might have my visions at a stranger advantage, and a howling merge to that with the city life now. You might see a lot of wonderfully strange things on the streets of the city due to the amount of activity by varieties of people and culture. But, only in small town Missouri do the deer pile up outside the meat locker and blood runs next door to the Baptist church as the high school band splash-marches through it. Growing up it was easy to take my lifestyle for granted. I enjoyed it immensely, but when I was 15 to 18 I wanted to get out a bit more. I was hungry to explore, and not just the many acres we lived on. I wanted the rest of the world. I became a little disgruntled with growing up country and I think that there is a certain stereotype placed upon people anywhere they are, but country folk get it pretty bad. I definitely ate from both sides of the fence, but also didn’t want to be hung up in it for a living. As I grow older I appreciate my roots a lot more and celebrate them and am very thankful. I enjoy going back home. And some day I’d like to move outside of the city to a small plot of land with a making things shack out back. But, my family home isn’t too far down the road for a getaway weekend visit to sit with the stars, coyote yips and fish. 06) What do you consider influences on your art? (this can be other artists, music, philosophy, nature – anything. this question is not just limited to “I’m a big fan of Banksy”) First thing, I believe in the compiling of all days in life to influence an artist’s output (horse apples or clean streets). Our walks tell a lot about who we are in the present prints. I feel that one would be lying to me if what they created was not in their full vision. But, I too think that we all wear and share influences as witnesses to what we’ve seen and where we’ve been. We all help shape each other. I’ve rattled off my early influences of popular culture. I think I’m more in-tune with my child’s self now than I was then as I sit alone and make things and pull from all my days. It’s also easy to feel that I was really moving and discovering more back then with naïve, childlike faith that I’m trying to get back now. I have some good days though and mostly when I’m not thinking too much. I’m still a fan of absorbing lots of things and from many angles. Of course I have my artistic influences. One of my big influences as a child was my Grandma Gibson. She is from the old school of the country and a very hands-on person with making many things like clothing, dead animal backpacks, blankets, pillows, fridge magnets and game board pieces. I still have a lot of the things from those years. I think a lot of my approach to making things came from her. My “professional” art world as a kid had an outside knowledge from trips to museums and PBS specials, though I felt a little detached from that world and still kind of do. My heroes were at the movies because they were more immediate to me, guys like Jim Henson, Stan Winston, Dr. Indiana Jones, Rambo and Han Solo. But, it was Henson’s world that opened me up to the first idea of an artist’s legacy, vision and spirit and glimpse of another world. Something big-time ached in my decade old gut the day I found out he passed away. Musically speaking I was very much a child of my Mom’s Beatles records, “oldies” music and a ton of television theme songs, novelty sing-alongs and old church songs. I still put a lot through my ears now and my biggest influences in music in my older years are Bruce Springsteen, Jeff Buckley, Elliott Smith and Bob Dylan. Also, I am still a big fan of tons of picture books and just anything really. I just know that I’ve never had bare space on the walls and shelves of my home and head. Oh, and wherever I am I’m usually distracted by the stuff on the ground. I’m a big collector of found notes, writings, scribbles, addresses, children’s drawings and good-bad-silly-stupid-smart designs. I like to collect ‘em all. I’ve also collected stamps since I was 10. I’m a big nerd. Here’s a listing of some names in the art and design canon who have made things that either attracted, influenced or moved me in some ways (in no particular order): Saul Steinberg, Seymour Chwast and Push Pin, Lester Beall, Edward Gorey, Ray Johnson, Art Chantry, Henryk Tomaszewski, Vaughn Olver and V23, Raymond Pettibon, Paul Klee, Stanley Donwood, Stefan Sagmeister, Cy Twombly, Saul Bass, Ivan Chermayeff, Ralph Steadman, Robert Rauschenberg, Jean Michel-Basquiat…most anybody who has something to say and develops a bad back carving out their paper trail. Movies are also a giant influence on my work and I study them almost daily. Some of the filmmakers who capture a certain craft of unique spirit that I enjoy include P.T. Anderson, Wes Anderson, Michel Gondry and the Coen Brothers. Folk Art is another big mind-blow and one of my favorite areas to study and get ticked by the of-the-moment heart, purity and passion. I love the idea of somebody just up and making something for the heck of it and not for art’s or ego’s sake. That’s the childlike thing I miss the most. The makers and shakers that move me the most from the folk art movement are Henry Darger, Bill Traylor and Robert E. Smith. And sometimes I get more out of the work on display in county and state fairs by everyday arts and crafters than so-called “professional” art and design work. 07) What is your perspective on the place of poster art here in the Midwest (or KC specifically) as it interacts with the rest of the art community and how the poster art coming out of this community may be perceived on a more national level? I’m curious about this because of the recognition Kansas City artists in general have been receiving lately on a national and international scale and how the art world tends to waffle between interest and disinterest in artists in this region. The music scene here is very interesting to me and a lot of times I think that it is just like 20 people all making it happen. Though, there is a lot of talent, diversity and genre-bending for a small town like this. There are a lot of groups making a mark here and down the highways, same with the people making stuff for them. Though, I get a little strange sometimes because I sometimes feel that the small scene mixed with the internet’s social networks and fewer record stores (oh, and most of my posters take up a whole bulletin board!) makes the poster almost secondary information and so-so decoration. In the same thought though, most of the stuff I see on the internet passes by me in a two-second window like that of highway advertising. Though, some do stick out to me because I’m always on the look to get tickled. And I don’t feel the art of the printed piece will die any time soon. Anyway, the scene just works here in Kansas City somehow and everybody takes care of and appreciates each other’s roles and contributions. I’ve had some great response to what I’m slapping up, but at the same time I think that a lot of people don’t get it. What’s not to get, it’s not too special? But, that’s fine with me. I’m not sure where I am in the scene. Maybe more-so in the “seen” department with my meager budgeted work hanging above a stool in the blurry-eyed late hours. I still think that toilets are one the best places for information gathering. Poster art in general in the last ten years alone has received a great breath of fresh air. Many of the makers are respected within a small collective, and have also been breaking through to represent on a national level of design aesthetic, as well as a well-rounded view of the printed timeline to life and culture. It’s also something that anybody can do and a lot of bands still just make their own stuff, which I’m cool and whatever with it. Everybody has their own style, agenda and empty pockets. But, the personal computer has saturated the landscape with a lot of “samey”. Then again, if it works, it works. In the end if it gets people interested and enthused, then what is there for a bum like me to complain about? And sometimes I really get a kick out of unskilled design stuff(s). I try to stay out of design politics for the most part. There is more to life than design dogma. Though, there is design all around us as we interact with it in every way from the tip-top of a tree to a paper scrap for this article. I enjoy the simple act of creation and inspiration that comes from something that seems like nothing, yet has always been a “something” growing and building and will continue to grow if the viewer lets it do so. You just have to add the proper mix of ingredients, I guess. And I guess my brain isn’t one to formerly function on the full realization to what it’s thinking. So, I’m babbling right now. I do know that something I’ve always enjoyed about the concert poster is the relatively short life span it has and how that can be used to the advantage. I just want to encourage people out there, designers/artists, non designers/artists or even church secretaries, to really push things and work harder. I don’t really care if everyone isn’t versed in design and art. In general I just encourage more to experiment with poster art, find your voice(s) and find new ways to spread the good word. Even if it’s not for a concert or an event, just make something and get it out there. Throw your junk off the overpasses if need be. 08) How has your work been received within the arts community here (and also in other geographic regions if you have been branching out)? For seven years now I’ve somehow managed to remain fairly anonymous and at the same time have sparkled a bit of attention…maybe just a glittering. Life and day job dwindle my hours to where it’s hard to even pay attention on my own stuff sometimes, so I don’t get out much here in the city. Though, I guess it is easier to keep up with things on the internet, papers and here-say. I think Kansas City is making her own dent right now with a wide variety of things going on in the arts landscape. The town is kind of booming and bustling right now. Being that we’re a small town, it’s easy for a small fish to get more wet feet. Though, I’ve never put my whole foot into anything. I just do my thing. Some days I’m not really sure what that thing is, but I do it despite my muck. When I first started on my design quest, like when anyone tackles something head-on, I was head-over-heels and not sleeping much. I was also living with bands and interacting more and actually going to shows several times a week. I don’t know how I did it without exhausting my ticker, but for some reason it all worked. I started to garner a little bit of buzz here that seemed to spread quick outside the state and international borders. Many people contact me from all over and slap my stuff alongside some of my design favorites in magazines and books. It’s a hoot. People are always interested in my story and creations. It’s all still really odd and blushing to me in some light that the little things I make are reaching a selective audience on a much grander scale. Anyway, I’ve certainly learned now that sleep is important and that it’s better for me to work smarter, not harder. Though, that’s not entirely the truth as I still work pretty darn hard and I believe in it greatly. Still, I’ve struggled with my own brand of discontent since I fell from a slide and blacked-out at the age of five. It’s something that I’m working and wrangling with. But, with any kind of actual work you’ve studied, worked hard with and duct taped up the switch with 24-7, you learn to just not think and rather DO and the moves become mechanical. I just have to put to use different types of oil to keep from rusting. It all becomes a fluid thing, or something constantly coming down on me in the grocery aisle, tree leave holes and side walk crack scribbles. It can be challenging when life stuff gets in the way, but I shouldn’t see it as getting in the way. I easily get confused, but then I realize that the things I experience and see and do (good-bad) all go into my design pot mixed with my past and then I just have to do the upchucking as I move forward and I tend to feel better. Recently I’ve definitely stepped back on my massive production of concert posters and I’m sure that many people reading this will think, “Geesh, I don’t think I’ve ever even seen this idiot’s work?” Not only has my life changed in some ways, but I also had to give myself permission to take a time out and to learn to say no to some things. A break was needed before burnout and bitter rotted my worms in the apple, among other things. I had a year of little activity and practiced sitting on my nest. I still made a bunch of stuff, but a lot just for me. I’ve also been involved in various group art shows around the country, design books and special art projects with friends spread about. Another thing I did, and still do, is just to see what other avenues I’d like to take my one man show. I’m learning to use the internet for the medium that it is too. Anyway, I’ve always got some stew samples back burning, but my biggest competition is myself…on top of time, energy and money. Mostly myself, as I’ve always been extremely hard on myself. Though, I’ve been told I make it look easy. I’ve never been good at math, so you go figure. I get exhausted from trying to figure this out. 09) Is artwork your main profession and, if not, are you intending to make it so? It’s really flattering and kind of sad when every spring I get more and more inquiries from freshly plucked and talented college students about a possible internship or job with DJG Design. In general, due to what most think to be a large and varied output of work, people who don’t know what I’m about think that there is a D, a J and a G making things. It always excites me to be contacted by enthused students and other design people (any walks of life, really) who saw something or connected to my work and got a spark. It makes me rosey, but it also keeps me a little down as I don’t make enough money to do this full-time. But, it all keeps me at my little basement bay working on my bad back and poor eye sight, keeps me (under)grounded in some ways. I’ve always worked full-time jobs and have been married now for three years. So, certain responsibilities come with walking hand-in-hand with another. For now I just spin the day job blues and try to stay content and disciplined, burning the fuel before and after work. But, age is setting in a bit and I’m getting antsy. I also grow tired easier. Good things do come out of day jobs, good design work does too. For the first four or five years I was a janitor and groundskeeper. So, loads of perks came from great finds, discards, dumpster dives and lots of free food and more time to read and study and draw. Heck, I even designed a few posters between clock punches. Currently my position has me staring at a computer doing data entry. The health care, artificial air and hours are great and I can walk out my back door and be there in seven minutes. But, it can be difficult to know that I’m sitting and squandering something back home. I do take it with me everywhere upstairs, and I do a bit of networking during the day time, but there is still that itch to make things full-time and not have a full plate of non-stop. It’s all hard to balance. But, making things is the only thing that I’m told that I’m somewhat good at. Well, other than eating junk food, watching movies, being confused and petting my four kitty cats. I am fast approaching thirty and the visual of time stacking is more evident than ever. Each space between second hand clicks is another scratch of tiny pine box to me. I am slowly checking off my list of “Before 30 Goals”, but I’m usually several cars back and sometimes it’s a pileup. Life takes a different course too. But, I have caught back a hold of a torch of some sort. I am constantly tacking up side boards to the wagon. After eight years of looking at Gigposters.com, I finally have ALL of my poster work up on there. It’s a great way to generate exposure and get my work out some more. I also have my new website up and an extensive volume of imagery on my Flickr.com account. It can be a bit odd to put one’s self out there in such a reservoir fashion, but I do like the idea of the timeline and personal file cabinet. And if my house burns down, it’s all digitized and makes it easier on my friends when they have to move me. So, day jobs…they are both blah and bling in my mind. My sling shots just point back at me on certain days. Sometimes they change direction with every sentence. At least I’m now under a thousand dollars on my student loans. I don’t make a thousand dollars in most years on design. 10) Tell me a story – have you had any strange poster requests? A project where you just about lost it? A poster that succeeded beyond expectations or failed in a way that took you totally by surprise? A project-situation-chaos that always sticks out when I’m asked a question like this happened to me back in June of 2002. It’s not a poster, but it’s pretty whacky and ended up being one of the best things that I think I’ll ever make. It was a special run of 250 homemade CD packages for the band Elevator Division. I’ve had many projects that demand more production time than my little brain imagines, but this one was the worst. Actually, the finished piece is a lot tamer than my initial idea. Though, the final image’s concept married to what the band was communicating on the disc inside is way better. The following true story I’ve released for a previous interview, I just tweaked a few glitches… The idea came at the night I started printing. Well, actually it was spray paint. I had an image made for a month or more and then changed it at the last stroke of inspiration. It married the themes for the album “Whatever Makes You Happy” perfectly. With reflections of war and relationships in the songs, I made an image of a hand shooting off its index finger like a missile. It was the idea of shooting off one’s options and making decisions. It was aggressive, inviting, serious and humorous all in one. It was not only fitting for the band/music but also to the national/world agenda and climate. I went to war that night with many cans of spray paint and the idiot mind to do two-hundred and fifty all in one massive sweep, and in my basement, which is something I will never do again because I could have died. I will probably also never be involved with another package like this again (take that back, I have been). Anyway, each one was hand-cut from cardboard and handmade stencil sprayed and rubber stamped. Inserts were cut, folded and glued. At the last mist of red spray a crack of thunder shook the massive turn-of-the-century home and I bolted from the basement and out the front door to a down poor fit for Noah himself. I was like a much less cool version of Dr. Frankenstein though. I leapt off the front porch and slid head first down the embankment and into the street turned river current. But, like a taxidermy nightmare, I was born again. The drug dealing squatters across the street were on their front step perch per usual summer evening, looking at the fire in my eyes and the red paint streaming from ears, nose and mouth. It was a high much higher than that of chemical substance. Well, maybe a three pack of design, life and paint fumes. 11) What is it about the poster as an art form that you feel is unique among other art forms? What purpose does it serve in your mind that can’t be served by another type of visual art? I’ve hinted at this in a previous question. I like the idea of the poster’s life-span being short, relative to the date and time…event, whatever. But, if it connects in the right way, and it can be different for everyone as art-design-whatever, is all relative to the viewer, I think that even a concert poster’s impact can last a long time. Since my first year in Kansas City I’ve had people find me out and say that they had a bedroom wall filled up with my work. It really moved me that something so simple (and sometimes stupid) that I squeezed out caused somebody else to be moved enough to hang it above their dreams at night. It means a lot to me when others get something out of something I’ve made. I know from child to adult, I myself have gotten something out of the stuff I’ve collected and tacked to my walls. It’s odd, yet a really nice feeling to know I’m somehow contributing to a landscape in some way. Making things is an act that I’ve always needed to do and has helped me get the best out of many days. I’ve always had difficulty with contributing in many forms of communication and on some days it’s terribly hard even just to be out and about. Making things has served as my calling with communication. It’s nice to know it can help others too in whatever way. -djg
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POST #24- J’s Year in Review 2019
Jesus Christ it’s 36 degrees and dark at 5:30. The most depressing time of year for me. I owe my friends a few reviews and keep putting them off. I’ll do them tomorrow. Hell, maybe when I have time over the weekend I’ll get that one out I promised a few weeks ago. Here I am, sitting on the couch trying to figure out which record I want to highlight next. It’s a daunting task. A lesson I’ve learned over the past year. I need to get those reviews out but my mind (and ears) get the best of me. What do I do instead? I listen to a couple of records and skip right to the end. What I mean by end is that cliche year in review article that all music journalists put out with their favorite artists, songs, records, and shows of the year. This is all new to me. Shortly after the new year I decided it was time for me to get in the game. I don’t have much to offer but I wanted to put my perspective on paper. My first article was a piece about Tyler Childers raising awareness and getting a large donation of bottled water for the citizens of Martin County, Kentucky. I knew about Martin County. I didn’t know how deep it went. It wasn’t the meet and greet and small solo set that made me want to write about my experience. It was Tyler’s words. It was the raw emotion and the choked up words that inspired me to be a writer. I wanted as many people to know about this event as I could possibly get the word to. Be it 5, 10, 20 or even 30 people that read the article and learned about the plight of the citizens of Martin County have been in for years. That maybe 5, 10, 20 or even 30 people that may learn how to contact their representative and ask questions. I hope it inspires people to learn about their community and lend a helping hand to those in need. That event was last year, but it inspired my path this year.
Let me begin by saying that I have met some of the most amazing people over the past 12 months. I will touch on as many of those people as much as I can. I am going to highlight the music that has moved me over the same amount of time. I’m gonna forget people. I’m sorry in advance. I could put a list of my top 10 albums out but that just wouldn’t be fair. To be honest, there is one album that stands head and shoulders above all others. It’s not even a competition. How do you compete with amazing art? I look at it like its a steady stream of good shit coming out and keeping my playlist full.
Album of the Year (Any Genre)
Sound and Fury - Sturgill Simpson
Why?
It’s f*cking amazing. Earth shattering. Ground breaking. LOUD!
Sturgill Simpson took everything you thought you knew about him and his music, threw it out the window of his muscle car, and backed over it about a hundred times. This man does not give a shit. I screwed up on my first listen. There are two ways this album should be heard. 1) On a turntable with the volume turned as loud as it can possibly go. 2) Watching the accompanying anime movie with the volume turned as loud as it can possibly go. Unfortunately I did neither. Most of my first listen was a track at a time on my phone or in my truck. Dead. Wrong. If I had it to do over again I would most definitely start with the anime.
I get it. Anime is not for everyone. If I could give someone a starting point with anime, it would most definitely be Sound and Fury. This album is The Wall of our generation. After my first listen I posted, “Album of the Year Any Genre”. I fully stand by that assessment.
Favorite Albums of the Year
This is where I will most definitely make someone mad or make myself mad for leaving off someone who deserves to be included.
Home - Billy Strings
Favorite Tracks: Away From The Mire and Watch It Fall
Country Squire - Tyler Childers
Favorite Tracks - Creeker and Peace of Mind
Stranger In The Alps - Buffalo Wabs and the Price Hill Hustle
Favorite Tracks: Buffalo’s Canon and Stewball
Between The Country - Ian Noe
Favorite Tracks: Barbara’s Song and Methhead
Seneca - Charles Wesley Godwin
Favorite Tracks: Hardwood Floors and Seneca Creek
Chris Knight - Almost Daylight
Favorite Tracks: I’m William Callahan and Go On
The Wind - Eric Bolander
Favorite Tracks: Closer to that Flame and Ghost
Josh Nolan - Kind Heart to Follow
Favorite Tracks: Makin’ Eyes and The Honeysuckle
Nicholas Jamerson - Floyd County All Star
Favorite Tracks: Patience and Floyd County All Star
High Expectations - Sean Whiting
Favorite Tracks: Melody and Misery
Songs Only A Mother Could Love - Wayne Graham
Favorite Tracks: By and By and Every Evil Thing
On The Hilltop - Nic Allen and the Troubled Minds
Favorite Tracks: Cheap Pills and Wine and For Heaven’s Sake
Cheap Silver and Solid Country Gold - Mike and the Moonpies
Favorite Tracks: Cheap Silver and Danger
The Gospel - The Local Honeys
Favorite Tracks: Amazing Grace and Let the Church Roll On
Full Moon/Heavy Light - Ona
Favorite Tracks: Young Forever and True Emotion
Trial and Error - Vintage Pistol
Favorite Tracks: Lay It Down and Leave Me Behind
The Pilot Light - Derek Spencer
Favorite Tracks: The Witches of Appalachia and Lit By Moonlight
We Fall, We Break - Walter DeBarr
Favorite Tracks - Wicked Eyes and We Fall, We Break
Alive at Hillbilly Central - Arthur Hancock
Favorite Tracks - Take Me Back To The Country and Kenton’s Outdoor Seating Area
Cuz I Love You - Lizzo
Favorite Tracks: Truth Hurts and Juice
I have to give a shoutout to some amazing visual artists for their work on some of these records. Jimbo Valentine and Colonel Tony Moore did an absolutely amazing job on the Country Squire album art. With Valentine’s futuristic hillbilly aura and Moore’s gritty comic book background, their collaboration is my favorite album artwork in some time. Honorable mention goes to Nashville Tattoo Artist, Squishy Eyes. His work for Billy Strings’ home is colorful and visually stimulating. I definitely want some skin art done by this guy!
Next. Let’s talk festivals. Jon Grace burst onto the scene this year putting on not one but two music festivals. Jon and I go way back. We’ve been to country shows, rock shows, heavy metal shows, nu metal shows, Ozzfest. You name it and we were probably in the vicinity. Laurel Cove Music Festival was Bell County’s first foray into the music festival scene and it started with a flash of lightning, then another, then a shit load of rain. An outdoor music festival being held at a beautiful natural amphitheater turned in to an indoor show in the conference room at Pine Mountain State Park. It was a tough decision to make, but in the end, it was worth every minute. The lineup came together in short order and provided us with two days of blistering sets. Jon then put together the FREE Cumberland Mountain Fall Festival in downtown Middlesboro, KY. Featuring local and regional talent for another two days of fun and music. 2019 set the bar high for live music in Bell County.
Festival of the Red is located in the heart of the Red River Gorge area and put on three days of camping and music. The only downside was that I was only there on Saturday. My buddies Blake and Dave packed in the truck with Dave’s little boy Waylon to make the two hour trip to Slade to catch up with old friends and new.
Master Musician Festival is a yearly mainstay in Somerset, KY. Tiffany Finley and company put together a stellar lineup year after year. My wife and I went for the day on Saturday and returned home with memories that we still laugh about months later. I first want to give a shoutout to the staff of MMF for enduring a brutal storm and having the integrity to cancel the headlining act in the face of severe storms. We were devastated that we missed out on a Jason Isbell set, but we are also blessed that we were not injured in a stupid storm. The party rolled on to Jarfly and into the wee hours of the morning.
This brings me to the granddaddy of them all.
Kickin’ It On The Creek.
The Roberts do it up right on Ross’ Creek. The 5th Annual Kickin’ It On The Creek held on Byron Roberts’ farm is something every music fan should experience once in their life. I went to Irvine in June to attempt to buy tickets in person. I left the house Saturday morning around 4:30. My anxiety hit when I got into town and parked and saw the line stretched nearly a half mile down the road. What do you do though? You hop in line! My friends Jon and Daniel arrived about an hour and a half ahead of me and were about 15 people in front of me. Throughout the morning we made conversation with both veterans and newbies alike. The vibe was jubilant. It was almost like a family reunion atmosphere, and this was just the presale. Long story short, about 3 hours later we get to the front of the line when Byron exits the store to announce the tickets were sold out. My friends who were 15 people in front of me were the last group in. It made me ill to realize I was that close. Never fret, the next step was an online sale that supposedly sells out in seconds. Over the next few weeks, karma would smile on us as we were able to purchase enough tickets so everyone in our group of friends were able to procure tickets. Now the wait.
I’m not a festival virgin by no means. I was fortunate enough to go to three Bonnaroo festivals in the early 00’s. Needless to say, I had an idea of the festival life. However, I can’t begin to explain the giddiness that my wife and I felt driving to the festival that Thursday evening in late September. We made it just in time to set up camp and catch Bedford Band and one of the acts I most looked forward to, Buffalo Wabs and the Price Hill Hustle. The family atmosphere was in full effect. We were home. On Friday we were treated to sets by a variety of artists handpicked by the Roberts family. Favorites included Luna and the Mountain Jets, Crownover, Laid Back Country Picker, Green Genes, Jericho Woods, Vintage Pistol, Magnolia Boulevard, John R Miller and the Engine Lights, Town Mountain, and the ‘Lectric Wooks. Saturday favorites included Abe Partridge, Padre Paul Handleman, Wayne Graham, William Matheny, Senora May, Ona, The Wooks, Arlo McKinley, and festival headliner Tyler Childers. I’m already thinking about KIOTC 2020.
This year was magical. I heard amazing music, saw amazing music, introduced my children to amazing music, and most importantly shared with with my wife. I met lifelong friends and have several shows to look forward to in 2020.
Upcoming shows I’ll be attending are The Wooks, Arlo McKinley, Eric Bolander, Charlie Woods and Deep Hollow, and Dave Shoemaker at the Bell Theater on December 21st. 2020 brings Morgan Wade/Kelsey Waldon, Town Mountain/Buffalo Wabs/Geno Seale, Billy Strings, and Sturgill Simpson/Tyler Childers. The festival circuit is also ramping up with dates set for Laurel Cove 2020.
-Josh Trosper
*This is an independent review. The Hillbilly Hippie Music Review was not compensated for this review.
*The opinions expressed are solely that of the author(s).
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Mark Your Calendars for October 20th!
Tales speak of a dock that creaks, and a lake where the waves are dead. Smell of rot abound and whispering sounds that get inside your head.
Caer Darrow, the birth of death, and place where it all began. Many have blundered and been ripped asunder, the intelligent ones have ran.
Yet on one night, years in the making, the tone of terror does shift; for a celebration that will sweep the nation, from a certain group, a gift.
We give to you, our audience, a night of mirth and fun, to stare down fears with courage and joy until the eve is done.
For half a decade the Tirisfal Theatre has brought you laughter and tears, so come celebrate that with us in a place to face your fears.
That's right, folks!
A few years ago some may recall that we ended the Big Bash, our yearly anniversary celebration where we would put on a huge party to commemorate another year of performing for you, our beloved audience! However, we've grown nostalgic for the event. It really was one of our favorite things to do, taxing as it may have been on resources and my personal finances! This year, we're returning to Caer Darrow to put on a spooktacular Hallow's End themed party to commemorate FIVE YEARS of performing for the denizens of Wyrmrest Accord and beyond!
This evening will be jam packed with tons of events to do, music streaming by a DJ, tons of prizes just for showing up and signing our guest list, and accompanied by the premiere of a brand new play from us, which will be revealed soon!
The event begins on SATURDAY, October 20th at 5:45 PM server at the Isle of Caer Darrow in the plaguelands, and will draw to a close around 11:00 PM server or so! Times are still not entirely concrete, but this post will be updated as changes come and reblogged, so please follow us if you want to keep up to date with all the information on this event!
What do we have in store for you so far? Take a look!
Straight from the Crypt, an UN-ALIVE DJ!
6:00 to when the costume contest happens!
What would any self-respecting Hallow's End party be without music straight from the world beyond? All night long, music will be streamed live for all our guests! It'll be a mix of spooky themed songs and tracks to wake the dead, and the dance floor will be open all night for people to come and socialize with one another, dance, and meet new friends up until the Costume Parade begins later in the evening!
The Castle of Critter Carnage - Pet Battle Tournament!
6:00 Signups, 6:40 start!
We know it's just a keep, but let's pretend for a moment, shall we? Bring forth ye critters for a return to form with an old favorite of ours! The Pet Battle Tournament of the Tirisfal Troupe will see to it that you will be pit against one another in this unique take on a pet battle tournament, where each round will obtain a special set of rules decided on by the roll of a dice! Having a good spread of pet families will be almost required to win this tournament and be crowned the Tirisfal League Champion, and have a chance to face off against our mystery champion!
There are plenty of prizes at stake, including a Landro's Lichling pet code from the TCG! As we draw closer to the date, more information about the tournament will be revealed, but in the meantime, please do train those pets for the bloodbath to come!
The Dire Docks of Death - Tales from Beyond the Grave!
6:00 to 9:00
The commotion of the pet battling and the loud noises of the dance floor a bit too much to endure? Well then head on down to the eerily quiet docks for the night, where the troupe's storyteller will be weaving tales of dread and the dead all night long! Five stories that tell of the history of the plaguelands, the Scourge war, and others lesser known tales will be told in rotation all night long! So if you find some of the other events to not be your thing, why not pop in for a spell and listen?
(art by Brea Foster)
The Treasure Demon's Hoard!
No Set Time - Be On the Lookout!
You won't know when, you won't know where! But there's whispers of a demon who hoards gold on the isle, who might pop in for a nasty surprise when his hiding spot is occupied by meddling partygoers! When the demon appears, follow him fast as he seeks to salvage his treasures from prying eyes! You might find him clumsier than his passion for gold implies, and he might just pelt you with bags upon bags of his loot. This short event will occur only once this evening, but you won't want to miss it, as over 150,000 in gold will be spilled like blood on the battlefield!
When You're On The Guest List...
Hourly Raffle + Big Raffle after the performance!
No one can take you higher on OUR guest list! Just by telling us you were here, you will be entered in a chance to win some amazing raffle prizes! These items range from a Vial of the Sands, to toys from the Shadowmourne quest, and even game time! A full list of prizes will be posted at a later date, but as anyone from our events will tell you, we tend to go a little overboard for this, and this year is absolutely no exception.
A full list of prizes will be given in an upcoming post, but for now, know that this year we've also included a little incentive for those who come early and stay all throughout. There will be a secondary raffle that is drawn every hour for additional prizes! Best part, you can win more than once and it won't affect your presence in the final raffle!
The Tirisfal Costume Contest
9:00 to 9:40
If you haven't noticed, this time of year is a pretty big deal! It's a chance to dress up like something you're not and really take the world by storm with your creativity! We like that here in the Tirisfal Theatre Troupe, and so as per tradition with the Big Bash, there will also be a costume contest! Starting at 9 PM server, gather at the bridge to Caer Darrow, where everyone will take part in a short parade through the isle and into the keep, where the final events will begin! Wear your most creative costumes, then line up upon the stage and take part in the costume contest, where 10 finalists will be selected by our unbiased judges, and the winner of that 10 will then be voted upon by you, the audience, to see who is best dressed! Hefty gold prizes await creative minds, and unlike our transmog competitions, there are no restrictions to what you can wear to complete your visage! Toys, other types of armor, non-moggable items, it'll all be about how creative you can be!
Will you arrive as the Dragon Tamer and their trusty steed? Will you don a pumpkin helm, shovels, and overalls to be the pumpkin farmer from beyond? Or will you surprise us with a perfect lookalike of Atos? Let's see what you've got!
More details on this to come in a future post, including rules and prizes! Currently there's over 200,000 gold in prizes to be given for this, but more prizes are on the way!
The Mystery Performance!
9:40 to 10:45
It is a play that no one has seen. It is a play that no one has heard. The Tirisfal Theatre has conjured up something frightening this year to perform just for you! To cap off our late evening, the Tirisfal Theatre Troupe will do what we do best, and what we're celebrating five years of doing; a full feature original play written and directed by Atos Sunhart, and performed by the amazing talents of the Tirisfal Theatre! What sort of play is it? Is it a comedy? A drama? Or could it be something...new? Who is to say...well, besides us, as we do kind of have to rehearse it, but still! You won't want to miss this presentation to close off a fanastic celebration!
Light of Fright in the Dead of Night!
Closing
Probably our most ambitious idea ever, we plan to close the evening off with one of our famed fireworks shows at the center of the fort. This time, however, before we even begin, we will be giving additional fireworks to as many of our audience as possible so they may join us when we call for the grand finale at the end, in the hopes of lighting up the night in a way never done before! Come join us and stay till the end so you may be a part of this beautiful spectacle, and send off the event with a bang!
These events and more await you at Caer Darrow, on SATURDAY, October 20th! The Big Bash is a proud tradition of the Tirisfal Troupe, and we have never been more excited to pick it back up than we are this year! We hope to see you all there, and hopefully in one piece; don't let the old gods get you, now...
More events and more information to come as we draw nearer to the date! And thank you, Wyrmrest Accord, for five amazing years! Consider this just the beginning, as many more amazing things are yet to come!
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To be franc...
Those of you who know me will likely be aware of my Francophile tendencies. I was lucky enough to be brought up believing that Milners road-tripping en masse (we are a densely populated family) to the South of France was the reciprocal of “summer holidays”.
These excursions were always excruciatingly last-minute, consistently chaotic, and of immeasurable comedic value. They have provided me with anecdotes to look back and laugh at for a lifetime (and the necessary ammunition to win the school Holiday Diary Competition EVERY frikkin year).
Before my siblings and I were introduced to the art of travelling lightly
To give you an idea: top of the list of Things to Pack was always superglue... The knight in shining armour that night when an ornamental china vase was knocked off its perch in our rented gîte and smashed into three gazillion pieces so that the rest of the holiday became Project: Meticulously-Stick-Vase-Back-Together-So-That-Nobody-Will-Ever-Know. The fairy godmother that fated afternoon when my Dad’s trip au WC culminated in him being catapulted across the bathroom floor still on the loo seat. At least the latter calamity took only one lot of 24 hours to re-adhere. I won’t mention that both incidents occurred at the same location within the space of a week. I will not.
Anyway, I have subsequently always had a soft spot for L’hexagone and the french ways, and I went on to study french through school and into university (NB yes only into university, never made it out the other side thanks to that other calling I’m still hoping one day I can convince concerned relatives counts as an advisable career choice). Now still, I like to read in french, plug into Radio France Inter while I’m driving, and delve into french cinema in a bid to keep up what I have learned, and stay vaguely in the loop of what I've long since found to be such a wonderfully unique and rich culture.
Over the years, I’ve been enchanted to discover some of the more quirky traits of the country, its traditions and people. These have mostly only served to increase my francophilia. When recently I was tickled to learn that in France it is illegal for any man or woman to name their pig “Napoleon”, I had the idea to investigate and compile my own little ode to the country’s characterful culture, comprising some of the more left field facts and largely unheralded titbits of info...
1 - There is not a single stop sign in Paris
Up until 2012 there was ONE, situated at the exit of a construction yard. Now - nothing. A newsletter issued by Paris police deemed stop signs unnecessary as priority should always be given to the right in the city centre.
2 - You can marry the dead
If you can prove the deceased party’s intent (e.g. posted wedding banns), and the family of the deceased approves. An impressive 3 out of 4 posthumous marriage requests are accepted.
3 - The Statue of Liberty was a present
She was constructed by Gustave Eiffel (yup - different colossus, same guy), and gifted by the people of France to to the people of the US to mark their independence.
4 - It’s illegal to call your pig Napoleon
Out of respect for the revered head of state.
5 - It’s illegal to kiss on trains
This law was introduced in 1910, to prevent delays caused by last minute platform pouting.
6 - 20 min King
Louis XIX managed 20 minutes before abdicating, making him the world’s shortest reigning monarch.
7 - Home to oldest human
Her name was Jeanne Calment, and she made it to the hitherto unparalleled age of 122 years 164 days.
8 - Home to luckiest human
And, if a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records is proof enough, that’s a fact. The former president and historical icon (and one of my favourite figures to study) Charles de Gaulle survived no less than 32 assassination attempts in his time.
9 - Taking back the After Hours
French law gives workers the “right to disconnect” once the working day is done. They are free to ignore all business emails, calls and the like, at least until 9am tomorrow.
10 - Vive the carrier pigeon
The french army is the only in Europe with carrier pigeons still within its ranks. They’re kept close to Paris, intended for communicative purposes should apt catastrophe strike.
11 - Change? If you’re lucky
Traders are not legally obliged to give change; the law states it is the customer who must provide the exact money.
12 - They get their Zzz’s
The french are the biggest sleepers of the developed world, averaging 8.83 hrs.
13 - Most visited country in the world
...with more than 90 million yearly tourists. And priority is to the right in Paris guys, dontcha know?
14 - Most Nobel Prize for Lit. winners in the world
To date, the only Nobel Prize category where the US doesn’t come out on top is Literature. From Sully Prudhomme to Patrick Modiano, France has won sixteen. Sartre declined his.
15 - Most time zones in the world
With overseas territories spread across the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Oceans, as well as South America, France claims twelve different time zones.
16 - Transgressive Trousers
Back in 1800, a law was passed prohibiting women from dressing like men. This law was only recently readdressed, and until January 2013, women could still officially be arrested for wearing trousers.
17 - Rampant Roundabouts
With 30,000 plus, France lays claim to more than half the world’s roundabouts.
18 - We could’ve been more than neighbours
Facing German threat in 1940, the UK and France briefly considered becoming one - a single nation with common citizenship and a single parliament. Recent events put the final nail in that coffin didn’t they...
Et pour la SuSo: “Chienne de vie” by Zoufris Maracas // Listen here.
References
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/07/07/tourists-queue-sweltering-french-heat-amid-record-number-visitors/
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/10-unbelievable-french-laws-you-need-to-know/
https://thefactfile.org/france-facts/
https://www.swedishnomad.com/facts-about-france/
https://www.buzzfeed.com/bullo/things-you-might-not-know-about-france
https://www.thelocal.fr/20121004/paris-only-has-one-stop-sign-police
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posthumous_marriage
https://money.cnn.com/2017/01/02/technology/france-office-email-workers-law/index.html
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Just Be: The Value of Constructive Rest
You have actually attempted every little thing to deal with tension overload, and also you still feel drained. Have you tried simply doing absolutely nothing? In clinical parlance, it's called constructive rest.
I'm balancing on my father's athletic shoe, age eight. Some neighbor is talking-- developed speak about rain gutters or football-- but after that he stops and also overlooks at me. '3rd quality,' he says cheerily. 'So, just what's your favorite topic?' I don't hesitate: 'Recess.' I flash a self-conscious smile.
Recess, I'm assuming, really is far better than math and also background-- it's just what I have actually simply found out, still swirling in my head, plus the liberty to absorb it, plus the Jungle Fitness center, plus some unusual emptiness. However I smile because at eight years old, I already know what's expected. No one has ever before rested down to discuss it to me, I recognize the needs of a society owned by a job values, the demand to maintain unstructured time in its place. So, I take place to say to the good man that spelling's rather great also. I regret it to this day.
Twenty years later on, I'm considering recess-ish things. And work ethic. And rare vacuum. Adult life experiences an obvious lack of set up recess, we just take harsh estimates of it now and also then.
Indeed, a few yoga exercise experts could admit that their preferred component of course is Savasana (Corpse Pose), the silent mins of existing still at the end (see 'Find Serenity in Savasana'). They also might flash an awkward smile later. In a nation that frequently gauges its self-regard in efficiency, that would not really feel amusing calling remainder a rewarding pastime?
But under the amusing feeling, there exists something major. Therefore it is that, as another overbusy American, I'm attempting to imagine a full-bore Savasana developed right into our lives-- not the yoga exercise pose itself yet rather something broader. Having actually remembered to call our papas on Daddy's Day, we would certainly hang up and also show before sitting down to pay bills. After an extreme company conference, we would certainly going someplace silent to digest the experience. Rather than downing coffee and the front web page before work, we would certainly delight in the quiet of the morning. The opportunities are endless, in addition to diverting. On crowded street edges, one would see not just bus quits however individuals quits. Instead of iPods and also cellular phone, people would not leave home without their lavender-scented eye cushions. Yes, there would be laughing at first. However soon sufficient, somebody would certainly mention that laughing is a kind of rest too.
' The concept behind Savasana is to totally release,' Tara Mathur, a reflection instructor at the worldwide Art of Living Structure in San Francisco, informs me. 'The advantages of a task only actually obtain taken in when you've done this. With Savasana, it's physical-- the position is created to make sure that no muscular tissue has to strain-- but also psychological. It resembles meditation: being dead while you're still to life. Fatality not as a morbid thing but as flexibility and also agility.'
With Savasana's freedom and also agility, it's stated, we find ourselves able to absorb all the experiences as well as poses of the technique that came before. Savasana is a resting posture, however the relaxing we do is energetic, it is about incorporating exactly what we've discovered-- yes, a radical concept by itself. Yet many striking to me, Savasana is structured right into the technique. We're not delegated find some silent time later on, we're led to it by the hand. Were it not part of the drill, I 'd just roll up my floor covering as well as head house. I understand this concerning myself. Much more important, yoga recognizes this regarding me, for this reason the built-- in Savasana. We such as a deliberate rest-- need it, also-- but the majority of us typically aren't progressed sufficient to demand it without coaxing.
From books like Juliet Schor's Overworked American and Carl Honoré's In Praise of Slowness to national projects such as Repossess Your Time Day, a task started last year by a group called the Simplicity Forum, the message of our very own busyness has crept right into the cumulative awareness. Require reducing down in a culture blowing up with productivity are, in such a way, revolutionary. But they're additionally ending up being typical-- and also are normally overlooked. ' I require a holiday,' individuals whimper consistently, and afterwards they maintain precisely working, as if the possibility of damaging devoid of the numerous hours, also briefly, is just fantasy. 'This year, I'm mosting likely to simplify,' we swear, however the brand-new electronic organizer we buy in order to help us accomplish this grand goal winds up contributing to the heap.
I see no requirement to make another plea for us to function much less, you've heard them all. Nor do I feel drawn to release yet an additional questions right into our strange connection to function, or to busyness. Instead, I intend to consider the matter from the opposite side of the equation. Why is it that our nonworking hrs don't seem enough to invigorate us? Just what do we perform with ourselves when we're not active? And also when its time lastly arrives, do we enjoy our 'recess' at its energetic, purposeful, restorative best?
"TV is not Relaxation"
Following six straight hours of job, as well as coming before six even more, I commit 30 nonrefundable mins to Judge Judy. For but a moment-- the length of a Ziploc bag commercial-- I wonder if this is the finest method to invest my job break. Then the 30-second area mores than and also Judy is back.
The abiding and self-congratulatory myth relating to Americans as well as relaxation is that we've obtained as well much on our plates to partake. As a society, plainly we have underdeveloped suggestions regarding nothingness. While we're certainly busy, we're not too hectic, not by a long odds, not by at the very least four hrs of TV a day, inning accordance with Nielsen records, plus Internet browsing, tours to the shopping center, and more. We have, oddly sufficient, massive books of apparent free time. That we prefer to use so little of it to proactively deal with the different devastations of stress and anxiety suggests a connection to downtime that wants rethinking.
Of the current mainstream dabblings in the anti-busyness motion was a Redbook short article called '15 Ways to Streamline Your Life.' 'Do nothing' made the checklist, but the Redbook suggestion of doing absolutely nothing appeared to do not have the deliberateness of Savasana. 'Maybe you'll review old love letters,' the post recommended. 'Possibly you'll repaint your nails red. Whatever.'
Not lengthy back, I began doing points that just weren't on my to-do list-- silly things, meaningless court TV-ish things-- simply to feel my RPMs cycle downward. I liked it. With reducing sense of guilt, I 'd push back from my workdesk and also sink onto the sofa, or wander out the back door to adjust a passionflower creeping plant. But by as well as by, I understood my deceleration wasn't actually enhancing my whole lot. It happened to me that simply as the recently reformed cigarette smoker soon discovers himself hooked on coffee, I would certainly exchanged numerous hours for virtueless entertainment, the Wonder bread of remainder. Just not doing anything isn't without quality, it's putting down the pencil, which's a begin. Nothingness alone could recover just so much of the upset soul.
' The majority of Americans are doing what I call default relaxation activities, which generate lower degrees of procedure advantages,' states author Schor, who's additionally a teacher of sociology at Boston College. Refine advantages are the leisure activities associated with higher levels of human contentment. 'Watching TV and also buying, for instance, are revealed to have low procedure advantages,' Schor claims. Mathur, the reflection teacher, says, 'In modern culture, when we state we're tired, we generally mean our mind is tired.' Usually, however, we cannot listen up as well as offer it a remainder. Instead, we hunch down on the sofa with the remote in hand. 'With TV, you're adding input instead of removing or cleansing. In a manner, your mind is mosting likely to be a lot more worn out when you're done.'
Liz Newby-Fraser, academic dean at the California Institute for Human being Science, explains this in physical terms. 'Watching 2 hrs of television is not relaxation. With TV, there are stimuli that turn on the considerate nerve system, as opposed to the parasympathetic, which is connected with real remainder.'
The clinical instance for purposeful leisure has acquired prestige over the last few years. Americans may not require longer or even more frequent holidays simply to enjoy, yet our ears do prick up at health cautions. Inning accordance with the National Ag Safety and security Database, a database of farming health, safety, as well as injury prevention materials funded by the National Institute for Occupational Safety as well as Health, 'Clinical study approximates as high as 90 percent of health problem as well as disease is stress-related.' As well as there's no lack of studies linking mental stress to heart trouble. In 2003, for instance, it was reported at the American Heart Organization's Scientific Procedure (four days of talks as well as investigatory discussions) that the variety of heart attacks in a Brooklyn health center increased significantly during both months after September 11. As well as Joe Robinson, owner of the Job to Live Campaign, has created that taking a yearly holiday reduces the threat of heart attack by 30 percent for males and also 50 percent for women.
A Relaxed Workaholic?
And yet I'm doubtful-- or, rather, unmoved. I long for a less demanding existence but appear incapable of making the necessary way of living adjustments. Do I desire to have 10 good friends over for a fancy supper tonight? Yes! Will I rip out the yard concrete as well as amend the soil myself? Yes! Did I accept the assignment to write this story despite a mountain of other work? Yes!
I'm not the only one. To evaluate our cultural perspectives regarding leisure is to confront our real feeling concerning it: We do not desire that much leisure to begin with. Previous labor secretary Robert Reich wrote in The Future of Success that are only 8 percent of us (compared to 38 percent of Germans as well as 30 percent of Japanese) would certainly favor much less job if it suggested much less pay. A Lou Harris public viewpoint poll showed that Americans' leisure had actually decreased 37 percent over a 20-year duration. In the September/October 2000 problem of Utne Visitor, Joe Harrison declared that in the mid- '90s, the United States passed Japan as the most worn country in the industrialized world, according to a record published in 2001 by the International Labor Company, Americans work 137 hrs (regarding 3 as well as a half weeks) more a year than Japanese workers. The 2002 publication Affluenza: The Intense Epidemic explains 'a painful, transmittable, socially transferred problem of overload, debt, anxiety, and waste arising from the relentless pursuit of more.'
Such examinations right into job as well as leisure in this country bring about impressively befuddling concerns regarding humanity itself. If our default leisure tasks do us little bit good, and an extra thoughtful mind-body recognition makes us a lot more effective, why do we still pick Survivor over meditation or yoga exercise or simply a few mins of actual quiet? One line of thinking recommends that we can not birth to deal with the messy barrenness of our hollow, online, box-store, early-21st-century lives, we do not dare glimpse the abyss. Schor, for her component, sees it extra merely: Tv's simple. 'Reflection requires an ability,' she claims. 'TELEVISION needs none.'
But creating abilities for much better remainder need not be an impossible job, I'm told, nor have to our vast order of business be totally discarded. Lots of people are looking for a counterbalance to the tensions of their lives, states Michelle Adams, health and fitness as well as motion treatment director at the prominent Canyon Ranch health spa and also health facility in Lenox, Massachusetts. 'You can attain that leisure in a number of methods: 3 minutes of music, a few mins of purposeful silent in bed after the alarm goes off-- even running, if you discover how to concentrate on exactly how your body is feeling. People assume reflection has to take location in a peaceful, dark area, yet that's not the situation.'
Schor concurs that an extra restful, reflective life and antique American performance needn't be mutually exclusive. The increased effectiveness of a healthy employee isn't difficult to imagine, and various other relevant advantages have been shown as well. 'One study shows that individuals living with just what I call volunteer simplicity leave less an ecological impact,' Schor informs me-- an exemplary point, certainly, as well as additionally financially beneficial to those individuals in the lengthy term.
But will Americans ever really select an extra peaceful life? There's inertia and habit to emulate, plus, there seems to be an overlooked mirrors that the rushing and also the vegetating are The U.S.A. at its bipolar best. A few of the best art, success, as well as enjoyable appear born of imbalance. Doesn't our mix of mad and also leisurely give us Friday evening, offer us New york city City after all?
Newby-Fraser puts it by doing this: 'The U.S.A. is very obsessed with achievement as well as addicted to certain adverse excitement. It's still possible to be a workaholic and to aspect in regular leisure. I, myself, am a workaholic as well as I don't view myself.'
When I tell Schor, Mathur, Adams, and also Newby-Fraser about my idea for incorporating a kind of generalised Savasana right into daily life, each responds with something like protected optimism. 'Many people do not live life in a proactively deliberate method,' Schor informs me, but includes that some do: 'You have actually obtained some polarized fads now. The majority is doing this dominant point [TELEVISION, buying, and so on], yet an expanding minority is beginning to do something else, to do this volunteer simpleness. You most likely to places like the Pacific Northwest as well as see increasingly more of it. It's about transforming mindsets toward consumerism, a propensity to be much more reflective as well as diligent.'
In concept, anything could be introspective, from lying quietly, to being in church, to several type of motion. The major thing, Mathur states, is choosing that remainder is a beneficial business in the first area. 'There are still one or two in each yoga class that rise and also leave after asana technique,' she keeps in mind. 'It has to do with seeing Savasana as a similarly valued pose and activity.
I desire to experience the value of Savasana. So, after taking in all the research study and also viewpoints of the specialists, I walk my worn self to the hallway outside my residence workplace. For the following 10 mins, my metaphor of generalized Savasana is mosting likely to be a literal Savasana for me, as best as I can take care of. My busyness awaits me, back at my desk, and I find it oddly liberating to approve this. I will not vow to much less job, I've tried it and it does not happen. Instead, I'm mosting likely to 'not work' better.
At one point in our conversation, Schor informed me her vision for the initial step: Americans, whose efficiency grows approximately 3 percent a year nowadays, must trade the moment they acquire for vacation, for leisure. After reflection, this looks like an additional method of saying recess. Which lengthy back really was one of my preferred things.
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An 8-year-old told me about Pablo Avendano’s death: “My dad’s friend was just killed riding his bike.” The 8-year-old was a friend of my son, Dai. I had taken the boys out for water ice in our neighborhood in Philadelphia. “He went out to work and he’s never coming back,” my son’s friend said, bobbing on his feet. “And he didn’t even like his job!” Avendano made deliveries through Caviar, the food-ordering app.“His boss is probably in trouble,” Dai said.
Avendano was joyous, passionate, a rush-seeker. He partied, always smiling. “Totally gregarious. Tequila bottles did not stay full,” his roommate told me. He gave his friends the impression that, when they spoke, they had his full attention. He looked for people who were alone, and tried to connect. “I never had a brother, but whenever I saw Avendano, we hugged, we kissed,” Randon Martin, a blue-eyed, dreadlocked young man who worked with Avendado, said. “I loved him, and he made you feel loved.”
Avendano, like many of his friends, considered himself an anarchist and a communist. He grew up in Miami and studied political science at Florida International University. While there he once slept in a cardboard hut on campus for three days in solidarity with the homeless in Miami’s Liberty City. He organized students in support of campus janitors fighting for higher wages. In Immokalee, Florida, he marched with workers against exploitative labor conditions in the tomato fields, part of a movement that would eventually result in a deal for better pay and working conditions. After college, Avendano worked in restaurants, in retail, and for cleaning and landscaping crews. He stayed political. Martin showed me a picture on his phone taken by the photographer Devin Allen during the 2015 Baltimore riots. In black and white, Avendano is smiling, washing pepper spray from his eyes with milk.
After moving to Philadelphia in his late twenties, Avendano started working as a bike courier for Sparrow Cycling Couriers, a worker-owned collective run out of a storefront in Center City. Sparrow’s couriers mostly deliver food and legal documents. They put business decisions to a vote, and their work earns them wages and a stake in the company. But for Avendano, it wasn’t enough to live on; to make rent, pay bills, and have fun. So he picked up delivery work through Caviar. As a Caviar courier, Avendano earned according to a formula that weighs demand, distance, and riders. He got a bump during peak hours: meal times and some other periods, as determined by the app. Rain, according to online postings from people identifying themselves as Caviar couriers, raises pay. Of course, rain also makes the work more dangerous. Avendano signed the 11-page Courier Agreement, which says in capital letters, in three separate provisions, that it disclaims liability for all work injuries, including death.
The evening of Saturday, May 12, the clouds had burst, pouring down rain, so people were ordering in. Avendano decided to deliver some food through Caviar to make some extra cash. He was riding his bike down Spring Garden Street, which divides Center City and the northern neighborhoods, when a Mitsubishi SUV struck and killed him.
Three hours later, Avendano’s younger brother Bryan and their mother, Graciela, were watching a Spanish show called Merlí on Netflix, at Graciela’s row home in south Philadelphia, when there was a knock on the door. Bryan answered and an officer asked whether Avendano lived there. Bryan balked. Avendano had always told them, “If the cops come looking for me, don’t let them in.” But Bryan did, shifted by a gravity in the officer’s voice. He found himself between the police officer in the foyer and his mother on the couch, translating as the officer told his mother that her eldest son was dead. Avendano was 34 years old.
One night not long after Avendano’s death, I went on the Ride of Silence, a yearly eight-mile procession that mourns cyclists killed in traffic. Three hundred or so cyclists gathered in the rain at the Art Museum for the pre-ride ceremony. The lead organizer read the names of the dead over a PA system. Avendano’s was the 11th name, the most recent death and the last on the list. The organizer flubbed the name and read, “Pedro—”
“Pablo!” came a shout from the crowd.
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