#ie. one was religious and one was not. both happened to have trees and lights and presents and father christmas

[skylordhorus]

i think i like. fundamentally genuinely do not understand organised religion and i feel kinda bad abt it in case it makes me blunder and grossly offend large groups of people because i have a fundamentally different outlook on like. belief

[lives-by-moonlight]

💍 + Garrett and Lilith

@insatiablelilith​ I got waaaay to into this but it’s adorable. There are somethings I thought would be better if you answer or if you wanted to add

where they get married

Garrett and Lilith agreed that they wanted to have a small venue, just their family and closest friends, so the venue itself is more intimate

they agree on going to the lodge Garrett’s grandfather has

it’s within a wooded area that is still right alongside a lake

also along a path it is within walking distance of a medium sized waterfall and a bit farther away is an apple orchard (that is run by a close family friend)

it has a gazebo-like area that used to have a swinging bench and picnic tables for when Garrett and his siblings would visit as kids

(it’s also close to a resort but far enough to get their own privacy for the guests)

I imagine that it’s something like this:

when they get married ( ie what time of day, what month and season etc. )

they decide on a summer wedding

it’s in late August (though before the long weekend) and have it on a weekend so it’s easier for people to come

they have it late afternoon so that by the time the reception dancing starts it is dark and when they are giving speeches the sun is setting

what traditions they include ( do they get married under a chuppah and crush a glass, garter toss, ‘something borrowed, something blue,’ etc. )

They do some of the same traditions, such as the something borrowed, something new, and something blue

however the wedding doesn’t have a lot of religious tones/traditions, it’s more legality wise then religious wise

however as a twist on the ‘tying the knot’ Celtic tradition, instead of tying a knot they are handcuffed together (as a joke to his job as a police officer) and the Minister calls it ‘The linking of the cuffs’

what their wedding cake looks like

every other layer is chocolate and the rest white

they also have a cake topper:

….who smashes cake into whose face

Garrett has it all planned to smash a piece of cake in her face, however Lilith gets help from his family to distract him so that she can sneak up on him

the instant he turns around she smashes the piece into his face

however, as he’s laughing, he moves to hug her and kiss her despite her trying to get away and kisses her so that cake and icing gets on her face as well as they laugh

there are many pictures of this and Garrett laughs at them every time

who proposed to who first

Garrett proposes to Lilith on the top of a mountain over looking water near sunset. He plans it as a ‘hike’ but then proposes to her when they get to the top

(if following the Jurassic World AU: they take the hike on the Isle and he proposes on one of the mountains. He’s not even sure how Simon knew it, however when Lilith says yes fireworks go over the water for them (of which none of that was planned by Garrett and he wonders if they had someone trailing them) but it is beautiful)

who walks down the aisle and who waits at the altar ( or neither )

Lilith walks down the aisle and Garrett is waiting at the altar

(Garrett also cries as he sees her walk down the aisle)

what their wedding dresses / suits / other look like

Garrett wears a general black suit and tie 

(I didn’t want to choose Lilith’s wedding dress, I thought that you’d want to do that :) )

what their wedding colour scheme is and what sort of decor they have

they mostly follow the woodland theme since the wedding is a woodland venue so most of the colour schemes are mostly green with wood and light flower themes to complement the space

here are some other things that I found that would fit their decor and woodland theme for their wedding

what flowers are in the bouquet ( if applicable. bonus: what do the flowers mean? )

(also thought that you’d want to choose this :) )

what their vows are ( eg poetry, traditional, improvised etc. )

they decide on their own vows but will say the ‘with this ring’ traditional promises

in Garrett’s vow he comments on how she is his ‘partner in crime’ as a joke

however his vows are sincere and express how much he loves her

he makes the promise to always make her laugh every day, to make her smile when she’s sad, to always take her on adventures, and to love her every moment because he knows that he’d never be able to stop

if anyone’s late to the wedding

no one is late, however during the end of the reception some kayakers go past along the lake and call to them congratulations 

who’s in the bridal parties / groomsmen / other

Garrett’s best man is his brother and the rest of his party are close friends

Garrett’s sisters are also a part of the bridal party

(didn’t know who Lilith would choose for the maid/matron of honour) 

what their bridal party / groomsmen / other are wearing

the groomsmen are also wearing general black suit tuxes with grey or white underneath 

the bridal party is wearing light green dresses to match the venue with brown touches (such as sash, top or bottom lining, etc)

who gives speeches at the reception ( bonus: what do they say? recount a sweet memory or two between them? tell an embarrassing story? )

the best man and maid/matron of honour obviously give speeches 

his brother shares some funny (and slightly embarrassing) stories about Garrett, but also shares the sweet memory of how he remembers Garrett meeting Lilith and the time when Garrett first told him that he loved her and how he thinks they are a perfect pair that complement each other

(didn’t know what the maid/matron of honour would say I wanted to leave that more for you to decide since it more concerns Lilith)

Garrett’s mother also gives a small speech about how much she loves Lilith and how she thinks both of them are an adorable pair and wishes them the best

a few friends of theirs also share some stories and best wishes for them

who catches the bouquet( s )

one of Lilith’s friends?

what their wedding photos are like ( are they sweet, with the couple holding hands or kissing or ~gazing into each others eyes~? are they silly, with a snapshot of the ‘cake-smash’ moment? or are they artistic, with one of them facing the sunset or holding their bouquets? )

there are some sweet couple-y pictures such as the wedding ceremony and the nice pictures they take by the lake, on the deck of the lodge, by the water fall, and a few wedding party ones at the apple orchard (that they drive to)

however there are far more funny ones of them also at all these locations, and especially at the wedding reception because they love to get silly and wild with each other 

these can range from goofy faces to funny poses (such as funny dramatic kisses, Garrett lifting Lilith over his head or holding her bridal style)

they are a wild and goofy pair the silly pictures fit their wedding and the night much more 

what sort of food they have at the reception

they have the general choice of meat and spiced herbs potatoes with pasta and salad, however the food is delicious

who cries first during the ceremony

Garrett and it comes the moment he sees her, and then comes again during their vows 

how wild their reception gets ( who dances the best, who gets drunk first, etc. )

it gets pretty wild, however not trashy

people are hardcore dancing and having a good time but no one is smashed drunk to the point of ruining the party 

also it’s Garrett who claims to be a “Dance Master” (even though he fully knows hw’s dramatizing his dancing and that it sucks for laughs)

I mean:

he knows he’s a dork

what their rings are like

what sort of favours they have ( heart shaped sparklers, mini champagne bottles, personalised candy etc. )

as favours they allow the guests to take home one succulent plant and a baby tree that they can plant (or can take two of one if they don’t want the other) and they plant the leftover trees at the venue spot or will keep the succulents

where they go for their honeymoon

they spend the night at the lodge when everyone leaves and a few days after before going to the plane

they go to Austria for two weeks to look over the beautiful mountain and lake landscapes after those weeks they decide spontaneously to spend a week in Venice, Italy 

something memorable that happens during the party / ceremony ( do they run out of ice and someone goes to get it in full formal wear on foot, does anyone fall asleep in the middle of the party, etc. )

after the speeches and people are mostly done the deserts, the power goes out

there is still a bit of daylight so people can see

in the meantime, Garrett’s mother runs around the lodge and finds all the candles that they have and light them while Garretts sisters make a run to a craft store in their formal wear and basically buy out their stock of LED/fairy lights and candles and put them around the outside and lodge so that people can see (and it makes for some nice romantic lighting). Garrett’s brother grabs his bluetooth speaker so that there can be music

it comes on around eleven at night, but they decide just to keep it off  

who officiates the ceremony

a general minister that did Garrett’s brother’s and his youngest sister’s wedding 

what song their first dance is to

I was thinking maybe Everything I Do (I Do For You) by Bryan Adams

who gives who away as they walk down the aisle

I didn’t know how to answer this? More about Lilith’s choice

[introspectiveandroid]

Happiness

Honey, when I'm above the trees I see this for what it is But now I'm right down in it, all the years I've given Is just shit we're dividin' up Showed you all of my hiding spots I was dancing when the music stopped And in the disbelief, I can't face reinvention I haven't met the new me yet

When I get perspective I can be rational. But right now I cynically view the value of the relationship as drilling down to arguments about material things. You knew the hidden (real/raw) me and the end was unexpected (I was still into you). I’m stunned and can’t move on. I’m stuck.

There'll be happiness after you But there was happiness because of you Both of these things can be true There is happiness

Chorus just has a literal meaning as written.

Past the blood and bruise 

bad blood style- ie. fights

Past the curses and cries 

afterglow type- ie. arguments

Beyond the terror in the nightfall 

out of the woods type anxiety about closeting

Haunted by the look in my eyes That would've loved you for a lifetime 

The delicate music video/best friends staring contest look - Tay’s ‘loving look’

Leave it all behind  And there is happiness

I must stop clinging to the memory of us

Tell me, when did your winning smile Begin to look like a smirk? When did all our lessons start to look like weapons 

lessons meaning everything we learned about each other; our vulnerabilities and secrets, which we turned to hurt each other

Pointed at my deepest hurt? 

Her hurt is often referred to ‘scars’ in other songs. A past trauma?

I hope she'll be your beautiful fool Who takes my spot next to you. 

Allusion to Daisy in Gatsby - this makes me think of ‘an ever lovely never needy jewel whose shine reflects on you’ - like maybe get an undemanding pretty trophy gf next. 

No, I didn't mean that Sorry, I can't see facts through all of my fury 

she tries to suppress her bitterness

You haven't met the new me yet There'll be happiness after me But there was happiness because of me Both of these things, I believe 

she’s flipped you to me now: so saying we both made each other unhappy but we did once make each other happy and we will both be happy again

There is happiness In our history, across our great divide There is a glorious sunrise 

I think of the FaceTime birthday with KK- dunno why but it could be evoking a happy shared memory. 

Dappled with the flickers of light. From the dress I wore at midnight 

the infamous dress of the song? - I wonder if it could be a dress worn on NYE and something significant happened at midnight on NYE in their past~ ‘I want your midnights’. She’s evoking a happy memory anyway here.

Also, those line probably have a double meaning implying the sun will rise on the darkness that is this end - they will get through the bitter part of break up.

leave it all behind 

stop pinning for those happy times

And there is happiness 

let your self move on

I can't make it go away by making you a villain I guess it's the price I paid for seven years in Heaven

I wonder if it’s a religious/biblical reference. She made religious references to love before in holy ground/false god.

The rapture is the second coming of Christ. Story is He will sweep the righteous into heaven for 7 years of protection to avoid the great tribulation, which is God’s wrath, reigning down shit on sinners -as prophesied in revelations.

Her false god protected her from snakegate. Is this the lover that didn’t have to save her but said yes to running away with her in ‘call it what you want’? The saviour who protected her during her personal apocalypse.

Or….

More simple. Some people think the seven years in heaven is a reference to a party game where you kiss in a closet.

Or…

Simplest. They were together for 7 years and it was awesome.

And I pulled your body into mine every goddamn night 

it was a long term relationship

Now I get fake niceties

relations are now strained and estranged

No one teaches you what to do When a good man hurts you And you know you hurt him, too 

Realises both are hurt and hurt each other

Honey, when I'm above the trees I see it for what it is 

I can be objective

But now my eyes leak acid rain on the pillow where you used to lay your head

A hyperbolic version of a term like ‘bitter tears’ (like bitter acidic eg. lemon juice). They are so copious they are like rain i.e. I am currently bitter and cynical and emotional - not objective.

Also acid rain is very destructive and toxic so also a metaphor

 After giving you the best I had Tell me what to give after that

and I’m gutted: I gave it my all. I think of the ‘I tried badge’

All you want from me now is the green light of forgiveness 

think of the story ‘closure’ tells, plus it’s another allusion to Gatsby

You haven't met the new me yet And I think she'll give you that 

she wants to move past this bitter stage and thinks she can

[noisykate]

Cordoba and Granada

27 January 2017

They say ‘never start with an apology’, but this week of sightseeing has been so overwhelming to the senses, that any effort to summarise it is doomed to failure.  Not helped by finding the camera battery flat on day one, and no charger packed. D’oh. Ellen took loads of pictures, and these will follow, but in the meantime I include some links.

How to start? There is no point just rewriting the guide book, so I will just give a hint at what we got up to, and what it was like.

18 Jan    Ellen arrives Alicante.

Drive back to Cartagena through a blizzard. Ellen staying in hotel near the Naval museum.  Locals all very excited by worst weather conditions (ie first snow) since 1983.

19 Jan    Day set aside for sightseeing around Cartagena. Very, very cold, raining, snow on ground on hills. Marble walkways through town treacherously slippery. Sightseeing largely abandoned. Ellen still staying in hotel near Naval museum.

20 Jan    C&E set off for Cordoba. Five hour trip, stunning drive through the Sierra Nevada, snow on verges and covering the hills.  Slightly worrying conditions, but it was all fine.

Arrive Cordoba, hotel a 3m walkway away from the famous Mosque/Cathedral, in pedestrianised ‘no cars except authorised’ zone, which we drive through to park under the hotel. Armed police obviously not on traffic duty and not bothered.

Lovely hotel, the ‘Maimonides’.

21 Jan    Cordoba Mosque/Cathedral visit. Wow. Search for ‘Cordoba Cathedral images’ for better pictures than mine. (Ahem)

Mosque and cathedral both stunning, architecturally and historically of huge significance within Spain and on the wider political/religious stage. The rhythm of the repeating arch design of the mosque is disrupted by the imposition of the cathedral through the middle of the building, in an act which is generally regarded now as the most astonishing cultural vandalism.  Wikipedia says:

The insertion (of the cathedral into the mosque) was constructed by permission of Charles V, king of Castile and Aragon. However, when Charles V visited the completed cathedral he was displeased by the result and famously commented, "they have taken something unique in all the world and destroyed it to build something you can find in any city."

The church is itself is beautiful, introducing a shock of light and vertical space to the intimate gloom of the mosque, and contains amazing architectural detailing, most notably a vast and exquisitely carved choir stall construction.

The transition between Christian and Moorish control, which happened several times over the centuries, is presented within the building as an entirely orderly, peaceful and voluntary transaction. Seems unlikely….

The ‘Spanish Inquisition museum’ nearby boasts ‘six rooms of torture equipment as used by…’. Deeply nasty – the tone of it was horrible; titillating, prurient, pornographic. We skipped it in favour of some of the more uplifting offerings.

22 Jan    Cordoba Azahara palace https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medina_Azahara  – ruins of a moorish palace outside Cordoba. Apparently this is one of the most extravagantly constructed and decorated palaces ever, almost entirely looted out over the centuries, leaving only enigmatic ruins. The visitor centre at the bottom of the hill is the only source of any information on the site.  The signage and visitor information at the site itself is quite astonishingly poor, the ruins capped and ‘reconstructed’ in places in modern times, leaving the visitor mostly just baffled.

 Nearby, there was a small mountainside settlement called ‘Las Ermitas’, a cluster of monastic cells around a beautiful little chapel, exuberantly decorated in the baroque style, in stark contrast to the asceticism of the monks’ cells. The last monks left in the late 50’s. A wonderfully peaceful and holy place.  http://www.cordoba24.info/english/html/ermitas.html The tranquil mood was broken slightly by the drive down, which saw Ellen, unused to being a passenger, struggling with the drive down the winding, narrow road. Hilarious.

Over the two-and-a-half days in Cordoba, we also visited:

·         Jewish quarter, http://www.andalucia.com/cities/cordoba/juderia.htm including a tiny synagogue. The jews were hounded out of Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, and almost all traces of them removed. This is allegedly one of only three old Synagogues on the Iberian peninsular.

·         Roman bridge,  http://www.andalucia.com/cities/cordoba/romanbridge.htm  awarded a prize by architects following highly controversial reworking in recent years, permanently removing roman paving and parapets to facilitate a new lighting scheme.

·         Huge riverbed; mostly now swamp and scrub with some large willow trees, navigable to here from the sea in ancient times. There is a modern pontoon on very long dolphin, so presumably there is some local traffic, and times when the river levels rise substantially.

·         Little townhouse; built, decorated and furnished in the Arabic style – fascinating to see how the bare bones of the architecture come alive when dressed for living, with bright tapestries and cushions, cooling plants and small fountains and pools full of cut flowers. http://www.lacasaandalusi.com  

The drive to Granada was again lovely, about two hours, mostly through olive and orange groves, the trees making wonderful patterns in the rolling hills.

23 Jan    Granada.

We stayed for three nights in the Hotel ‘Washington Irving’, named after the New York writer who stayed hereabouts while visiting the area to write his ‘Tales of the Alhambra’.

The hotel is quite posh, and very newly refurbished, with our guide book (originally published about 10 years ago) referring to the place as ‘derelict’. Unrecognisable as an ‘old’ building, it has been architected into an anonymous modern international hotel, with no trace of the quirky 19th century ambience the guidebook said we might glimpse through the barred broken glass doorway.  Our room was lovely, very glamorous and comfortable, the room itself reasonably priced, although their priorities require some tweaks – there was a wonderfully ridiculous ‘pillow menu’, from which you can choose (and I quote) “…to enjoy your dreams in a different way…” reclining on an “Audrey Hepburn” or “James Dean”, or perhaps “for our younger guests” – a “Mickey Mouse” – but nowhere to hang a dressing gown while you shower.

The hotel is currently let down by a comical food offering; Ellen’s main course arrived looking more like a tapas, with two very tiny cutlets of pork perched in the middle of a huge plate decorated with a drizzle of some pretty goo. We waited for the dish of vegetables to arrive, but no, that was it – beautiful and tasty, but hugely overpriced, and just not enough to eat.

On checking out, we intended to let them know what we thought of their food, but they forgot to charge us for parking the car (18Euro per day) so we said nothing and legged it.

24 Jan    Alhambra.

To say anything about the Alhambra is to select, leave out, and struggle for descriptive superlatives. There are endless websites.

It is a complex of buildings within a high protective and defensive curtainwall on top of a hill; constructed and reconstructed, destroyed and restored over the centuries of its existence, for a wide range of motives. The brilliantly readable guidebook by Robert Irwin advised that almost everything we think we know about the place is wrong, with the truth of its original design now lost, the function and flow of the rooms further obscured by fantasy/myth/legend and poor historical archaeology, compounded by well-intentioned ‘restoration’ over time, and the need to pass many thousands of tourists through the place as fast as possible.

It is impossible to be ‘objective’ about the place; the scale of it, and its very foreign-ness, demands that we try and make sense of it, and we can only do that within the framework of our own life and experiences. Poverty and excess, power and subjugation, religious conviction and political duplicity – it is all here, confusing and enigmatic.

The Rasmid Palace is utterly beautiful, tiled with complex tessellated patterns and decorative plasterwork, the proportions of the buildings and their adornment all according to Pythagorean mathematical rules including ‘the golden ratio’. Paradoxically, much of the Alhambra has survived because it was made using ‘poor’ materials (wood, plaster, ceramic tiles), with virtually no intrinsic value and hence not worth looting.

The Palace of Carlos V, built in the centre of the complex, probably on the foundations of earlier Moorish buildings, is a striking square building in massive stone, with a circular courtyard, completely out of keeping with the rest of the compound. It now houses a museum, and art galleries.

The Generalife is a separate, much smaller, more domestic-scaled complex slightly further up the hill, with a wonderful garden.

The entire Alhambra complex is irrigated by an sophisticated arrangement of aqueducts and underground pipework, feeding fountains and pools as well as kitchen and ornamental gardens.

Ellen retired for a siesta, while I took in the Generalife, and later the steep footpath down between the Alhambra compound and the Generalife, to the Albaicin.

The setting of the Alhambra is stunning, with views down over the Albaicin area, a maze of tiny lanes around white-painted red-tiled buildings in the Moorish style, mostly built around little courtyards. The lower lanes are chaotic and colourful with market traders selling Moorish lanterns, textiles and leather goods.

In the other direction, the Sierra Nevada towers over the valley, the high snowfields catching the low winter sun.

The only significant irritation was the jostle of (mostly but not exclusively Japanese) tourists with bloody selfie-sticks, their backs to the sublime scenery and architecture, gurning and pouting at their cameras. During the busy season later in the year this must be a real joy. Do they ever actually look at the pictures they take? And when they do, what do they see?

25th Jan We spent the day in recovery, drifting into the town mid-morning, wandering around slightly aimlessly, drifting into a random art exhibition of photographs -of all things- the 9/11 attacks in New York, a very personal event for Ellen, who lost some close friends that day. We sat for an hour watching a sort of slide show of stunning and horrifying pictures, talking about it.

Lunch was a coffee and a shared pizza at a café in a square. A small group of young men at a nearby table were very striking, simply because their faces were so like those we had seen in the 15th century paintings in the Carlos V museum. Their modern clothes seemed like costumes, their ‘real’ clothes somewhere piled just out of sight, perhaps with their pikestaffs and standards leaning against a nearby wall. A very odd experience.  Ellen says that this rarely happens in the States, where the many mixed immigrant populations have homogenised over the generations.

The Albaicin deserved another visit, and we spent a couple of hours wandering up and down the little lanes, peering through gateway railings, framing the view of the Alhambra with another alignment of lanes, the Sierra Nevada above.

The Royal Chapel of Isabella and Ferdinand (aka Mr and Mrs Spanish Inquisition) nearby boasts two of the most enormous sideboards I have ever seen, each about 8m long, and the most gaudy and stupendous baroque altarpiece, depicting the martyrdom of several saints in gloriously grotesque and fully detailed technicolour.  For me, the very common Spanish-flavoured focus on suffering as a religious journey here ceased to be a meditation on the human condition, and stepped over the bounds of decency to become voyeuristic sadism, perhaps because of the close association of the place with Ferdinand and Isabella. They do not come across as nice people.

26th Jan Drive back to Cartagena, through the wonderful Sierra Nevada.Tapas in our usual bar.

27th Jan Ellen home, driven to the airport for 10am. Collapse in heap, write this, shopping, tv, bed.

Ellen promises to share her wonderful photos when she gets back, so I will post a selection when I get them.

It has been a wonderful few days; the places themselves, and stimulating company, talking a lot about everything.

Even with so many riveting distractions, it was difficult not to keep returning to the Trump question – sorry Ellen, I really don’t hold you personally responsible, but he is just SO bizarre. But also, in the context of so much historical excess and madness, he fits right in.