#david ka

[sinceileftyoublog]

JID Live Show Preview: Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom, 3/21, Chicago

Photo by David KA

BY JORDAN MAINZER

With his third album The Forever Story (Dreamville/Interscope), in reflecting on his past and family and framing it within Black history as a whole, Atlanta rapper JID has effectively sculpted his artistic voice. The opening track of the ambitious record begins with a voice recording of his old football coach chewing him out. It’s funny, but it’s also fitting: The Forever Story pays tribute to the people who shaped JID, by nurturing him, criticizing him, and having his back. Take immediate highlight “Crack Sandwich”, in which he describes himself and his siblings engaging in an all-out brawl at a bar in New Orleans. The titular metaphor flips a Reagan-caused endemic on its head and reclaims it as one of ingenuity, JID admiring his brothers and sisters’ ability to survive in spite of white hegemony and systems of oppression: “On the football shit, but in class, he on the smart shit / Black man using his mind, it’s a target on your forehead,” he raps.

Indeed, The Forever Story is all over the place, thematically and sonically, but JID’s flow and versatility bridge disparate elements. On “Dance Now”, he claims he sold his soul to the Devil for his rap skills and then consciously adopts Tyler, the Creator’s gruff, Satanic register. Equally as impressive as his trademark Atlanta breakneck pace and Southern drawl are his singing chops, like on the spiritual “Kody Blue 31″ and funky “Bruddanem”. He effectively dances atop Kaytranada & JD Beck’s skittering percussion on “Can’t Punk Me” just as well as above the Aretha Franklin-sampled trap loop of “Surround Sound”. Perhaps most stunning, though, is his minimalist humility on “Sistanem”, a reflective and subdued track tackling his own toxic masculinity, addition, and guilt over not having a better relationship with his sister. “I'm not the only one affected by the poison in the mind / And the lifestyle that shine from the iced-out diamonds / That combine with misogynistic mindsets,” JID laments, before declaring, “I tossed that mindset overboard like an object,” one of seemingly infinite times he processes his internal struggles through unrivaled wordplay and layered poetry.

Tonight at the Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom, JID co-headlines with St. Louis rapper Smino as part of the Luv is 4Ever tour. You better bet they’ll do “Baguetti”.

[starblightbindery]

Animorphs #20-22 by @kaaauthor

This is a remake of a book I made almost exactly two years ago. That was the 11th book I ever made and this one is the 50th (!) I asked K.A. Applegate to sign the book while it was still in sheets, so I only had one chance to get it right.

🐅 Animorphs 20-22 was the first serialized arc in the 90s book series.

🐅 The heroes recruit a new kid to their guerilla team and grant him morphing powers, only for his selfish and sociopathic tendencies to jeopardize their fight against the alien invasion.

🐅 Young readers were challenged by this subversion of the "new kid" trope and the moral dilemma that developed. Do they kill a fellow teammate? How else can they neutralize him?

🐅 ALSO: Can these middle schoolers crash the G7 Summit and save Boris Yeltsin, Bill Clinton, and other heads of state from infestation?

Foil Quill on Verona bookcloth, with iridescent calligraphy ink edges. I wanted to give this trilogy the special edition it deserves.

[elklounge]

Look at my camp leader dawg… I’m gonna die.

I’m not the best artist in the world. However, I saw this photo of David Arquette and had to redraw it as Chris…plus there’s not a lot of Chris Hackett content out there. So I made this monstrosity.

More versions I did down below!

[azertyrobaz]

Doctor Who's Adiposians / The Boy and the Heron's Warawara

[son-of-a-binkibonky]

Adding the “rum-running-tunnel” bit to chapter eight, and then have the characters deliberately not call it MOONSHINE is so so fun.

The person/people behind that must’ve had such a fun brainstorming session

[ryan-waddell11]

Bowie x Joseph. This is how I win.

[comicalarchitect]

Samantha Reads Comics: Digressions on David #36

Closing out this arbitrarily-designated "season" of Digressions on David with some oneshots!

owned

can somebody explain Shanna's outfit to me? like, physically

that's Atlantis's ass!

fuckin OWNED

Shanna gets it! What, should superheroes just meet up and right away team up against a greater threat? No, they have to have a misunderstanding that leads to a fight first! How else would fans argue their cases in their dumb powerscaling forum threads?

Who's this blowjob? Magneto cosplaying as his shittier DC counterpart Doctor Polaris?

yeah, that was about as nothing as you'd expect a charity promo comic to be, but it was a sweet enough nothing. now let's get into something meatier:

love the way Jim Craig does the protruded maw

okay this rules

somehow that was an even more nothing story than the WWF one! but, again, an enjoyable enough nothing. one more comic for the post:

really and truly adore this cover

love how much every panel of this book is just a pulp novel cover

booty, ass, etc

look, I'm as willing to say "fuck Bruce Banner" as the next guy, but put him in a story with Hank Pym, and fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Hank Pym.

Jan's snowsuit whips

[nofatclips]

Tear Garden and My Thorny Thorny Crown by The Tear Garden from their debut EP

[unaturalhistory]

[evilwriter37]

Finally watched Coraline all the way through. I’d tried that movie so many times but it was so creepy to me. Still very creepy. Very fucked up. But very good.

[cryptocollectibles]

Wolverine 9 Issue Lot (1990-1996) by Marvel Comics

Written and drawn by various.

[dogboyboyshorts]

aughck. the return feels yet again. i just had to do an evangelion screenshot redraw about it, of course

[onlylonelylatino]

Ka-Zar, Hulk and Wolverine by Adam Kubert

[don-dake]

諗緊…「皇室」 有冇喺🏇馬場🏇賭一番一場呢？🤭 仲有，睇到杜先生用咗 「父皇、母后、娘親、皇弟」 嚟稱呼大家…心到軟晒喇！可以睇得出，佢對當年呢個製作經驗經歷時期有多麼幾咁有好感，多麼幾咁有珍惜！🥰

《無頭東宮》 (2002) 幾位演員：陳妙瑛，向海嵐，張兆輝，杜大偉，敖嘉年，喺今年 (2023) 嘅 2月舉辦搞咗個聚會喔！真係好開心可以睇到呢班演員重逢！尤其係陳妙瑛！自從佢喺廿幾年前退出娛樂圈之後，想喺網上搵到佢嘅���影都相當艱難喔囉！

[團員照來源：IG anneheung，do.david]

改寫：好感激 mslinchinese @ Instagram 嘅幫助！😺

[thaoworra]

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Poetry Association recently released the poems that made it to the finalist stage for consideration for the 2024 Rhysling Awards for Short and Long Speculative Poems of the year. Congratulations to all of the nominees! This will be the 46th year these awards have been conferred!

Short Poems (50 finalists)

Attn: Prime Real Estate Opportunity!, Emily Ruth Verona, Under Her Eye: A Women in Horror Poetry Collection Volume II

The Beauty of Monsters, Angela Liu, Small Wonders 1

The Blight of Kezia, Patricia Gomes, HWA Poetry Showcase X

The Day We All Died, A Little, Lisa Timpf, Radon 5

Deadweight, Jack Cooper, Propel 7

Dear Mars, Susan L. Lin, The Sprawl Mag 1.2

Dispatches from the Dragon's Den, Mary Soon Lee, Star*Line 46.2

Dr. Jekyll, West Ambrose, Thin Veil Press December

First Eclipse: Chang-O and the Jade Hare, Emily Jiang, Uncanny 53

Five of Cups Considers Forgiveness, Ali Trotta, The Deadlands 31

Gods of the Garden, Steven Withrow, Spectral Realms 19

The Goth Girls' Gun Gang, Marisca Pichette, The Dread Machine 3.2

Guiding Star, Tim Jones, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa, ed. Lee Murray (Clan Destine Press)

Hallucinations Gifted to Me by Heatstroke, Morgan L. Ventura, Banshee 15

hemiplegic migraine as willing human sacrifice, Ennis Rook Bashe, Eternal Haunted Summer Winter Solstice

Hi! I am your Cortical Update!, Mahaila Smith, Star*Line 46.3

How to Make the Animal Perfect?, Linda D. Addison, Weird Tales 100

I Dreamt They Cast a Trans Girl to Give Birth to the Demon, Jennessa Hester, HAD October

Invasive, Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, Polar Starlight 9

kan-da-ka, Nadaa Hussein, Apparition Lit 23

Language as a Form of Breath, Angel Leal, Apparition Lit October

The Lantern of September, Scott Couturier, Spectral Realms 19

Let Us Dream, Myna Chang, Small Wonders 3

The Magician's Foundling, Angel Leal, Heartlines Spec 2

The Man with the Stone Flute, Joshua St. Claire, Abyss & Apex 87

Mass-Market Affair, Casey Aimer, Star*Line 46.4

Mom's Surprise, Francis W. Alexander, Tales from the Moonlit Path June

A Murder of Crows, Alicia Hilton, Ice Queen 11

No One Now Remembers, Geoffrey Landis, Fantasy and Science Fiction Nov./Dec.

orion conquers the sky, Maria Zoccula, On Spec 33.2

Pines in the Wind, Karen Greenbaum-Maya, The Beautiful Leaves (Bamboo Dart Press)

The Poet Responds to an Invitation from the AI on the Moon, T.D. Walker, Radon Journal 5

A Prayer for the Surviving, Marisca Pichette, Haven Speculative 9

Pre-Nuptial, F. J. Bergmann, The Vampiricon (Mind's Eye Publications)

The Problem of Pain, Anna Cates, Eye on the Telescope 49

The Return of the Sauceress, F. J. Bergmann, The Flying Saucer Poetry Review February

Sea Change, David C. Kopaska-Merkel and Ann K. Schwader, Scifaikuest May

Seed of Power, Linda D. Addison, The Book of Witches ed. Jonathan Strahan (Harper Collins)

Sleeping Beauties, Carina Bissett, HWA Poetry Showcase X

Solar Punks, J. D. Harlock, The Dread Machine 3.1

Song of the Last Hour, Samuel A. Betiku, The Deadlands 22

Sphinx, Mary Soon Lee, Asimov's September/October

Storm Watchers (a drabbun), Terrie Leigh Relf, Space & Time

Sunflower Astronaut, Charlie Espinosa, Strange Horizons July

Three Hearts as One, G. O. Clark, Asimov's May/June

Troy, Carolyn Clink, Polar Starlight 12

Twenty-Fifth Wedding Anniversary, John Grey, Medusa's Kitchen September

Under World, Jacqueline West, Carmina Magazine September

Walking in the Starry World, John Philip Johnson, Orion's Belt May

Whispers in Ink, Angela Yuriko Smith, Whispers from Beyond (Crystal Lake Publishing)

Long Poems (25 finalists)

Archivist of a Lost World, Gerri Leen, Eccentric Orbits 4

As the witch burns, Marisca Pichette, Fantasy 87

Brigid the Poet, Adele Gardner, Eternal Haunted Summer Summer Solstice

Coding a Demi-griot (An Olivian Measure), Armoni “Monihymn” Boone, Fiyah 26

Cradling Fish, Laura Ma, Strange Horizons May

Dream Visions, Melissa Ridley Elmes, Eccentric Orbits 4

Eight Dwarfs on Planet X, Avra Margariti, Radon Journal 3

The Giants of Kandahar, Anna Cates, Abyss & Apex 88

How to Haunt a Northern Lake, Lora Gray, Uncanny 55

Impostor Syndrome, Robert Borski, Dreams and Nightmares 124

The Incessant Rain, Rhiannon Owens, Evermore 3

Interrogation About A Monster During Sleep Paralysis, Angela Liu, Strange Horizons November

Little Brown Changeling, Lauren Scharhag, Aphelion 283

A Mere Million Miles from Earth, John C. Mannone, Altered Reality April

Pilot, Akua Lezli Hope, Black Joy Unbound eds. Stephanie Andrea Allen & Lauren Cherelle (BLF Press)

Protocol, Jamie Simpher, Small Wonders 5

Sleep Dragon, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

Slow Dreaming, Herb Kauderer, The Book of Sleep (Written Image Press)

St. Sebastian Goes To Confession, West Ambrose, Mouthfeel 1

Value Measure, Joseph Halden and Rhonda Parrish, Dreams and Nightmares 125

A Weather of My Own Making, Nnadi Samuel, Silver Blade 56

Welcoming the New Girl, Beth Cato, Penumbric October

What You Find at the Center, Elizabeth R McClellan, Haven Spec Magazine 12

The Witch Makes Her To-Do List, Theodora Goss, Uncanny 50

The Year It Changed, David C. Kopaska-Merkel, Star*Line 46.4

Voting for the Rhysling Award begins July 1; a link to the ballot will be sent with the Rhysling Anthology, as well as with the July issue of Star*Line. More information on the Rhysling Award can be found here.

[talonabraxas]

Merkaba Meaning: Ancient Technology

The word Merkabah has both Hebrew and Egyptian origins. In Hebrew, the word stands for chariot. In this context, the Merkabah is a chariot that helps us meet and recognize the various cosmic energies that govern our world. In the Egyptian language, the word is broken down into three parts:

Mer (light) Ka (spirit) Ba (body)

In the human body, the Merkabah comprises the first eight cells formed after fertilization. These cells are found at the root chakra of the body. Since this point is seen as the center of our body, the Merkaba meaning can be seen as the intersection of our physical and subtle energies. When described this way, our light body forms the basis for creating our physical and spiritual selves.

Regarding sacred geometry, the light body is represented by a star tetrahedron known as the Star of David. Looking closely at the figure, we understand how it stands for balance, stability, and integration. The top tetrahedron is said to represent masculine energy—which stands for logic and rationality—while the bottom one represents feminine energy—which stands for emotion and intuition.

The top can also represent the Universe, while the bottom represents the Earth. In other beliefs, the top can symbolize spirituality, whereas the bottom symbolizes physicality. These energies are opposite, but they come together to form a whole. We move closer to the Divine when we achieve a similar balance within ourselves.

Some believe that the tetrahedron in the Merkabah is also related to the solar plexus chakra, which stands for our feelings of self-worth. When this chakra is balanced, we have the self-confidence to create our destiny. The star tetrahedron is ideal for our spiritual journey because the top part is connected to the spiritual realm. In contrast, the bottom part is grounded in the physical realm.