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pluviophile-bookworm · 4 years ago

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HSMTMTS 2x10: New and a bit alarming... ok, very alarming

I don't even know at this point if I'm more nervous or excited for this episode. I've done my waiting and, well, whatever lies ahead, good or bad, or a little bit of both, I just can't wait anymore, even though I haven't been so scared to press play since... well, since last week. Guess I should just go for it, then:

Ooh, shady Seb doing the recap! We love to see it. Like, seriously, I'm anxious about the Seblos fight, but shady Seb is kind of my new favourite Seb.

I just... Ashlyn's acting is top tier. Emotional connection to the material? Superb! Chemistry with her co-lead... well, he'd have to be co-leading for any chemistry to be possible. I love Ricky, and I feel for him with all he's been through, but he's just not lead material right now. And it shows. Especially next to Ashlyn, who is killing it!

Miss Jenn is on the verge of a bloody mental breakdown and I just... wish I could do something to make things better. She reminds me of my mum when a deadline approaches for her to submit an article, and I just feel for her right now. Gosh, I'm feeling for everybody today. My empathy seems to be at its peak and I might just burst from all these emotions this episode is making me feel even before the 5-minute mark.

Ok, but Miss Jenn being stressed means Carlos is stressed for two, which means... this is a really bad time for him and Seb to have personal problems. My heart just can't handle it.

Wow... I never thought I'd see the day! The two leads are actually talking to each other! This is a mid-July miracle!

Why does everyone keep pretending their HSM was good? It was a flaming hot mess! A child could see that.

Miss Jenn needs a lot of work on her 'gracious face'. I, like Carlos, have quite some notes. Only mine aren't exactly, how do you say... verbally formulated quite yet.

Did Carlos just refer to Miss Jenn as 'mother'? Because yes.

I've been in a couple of local theatre productions in my day, but none of them had actual physical sets — we relied on the audience's imagination quite a lot — so I wouldn't know what a good set is made of... but even I can tell that plywood and Elmer's glue = not good.

Kourtney is a multi-tasking icon and we love her. I feel like I don't say this enough, but she deserves all the love.

Ooh, shady Seb is... well, shady! 'Quit school and get a job at the pizza shop?' — I mean, you don't see Reddy or Kourtney (or Howie, for that matter) quitting school in order to work at the Slices! Those kids juggle it all and, as someone who's never had to balance school and a job all at once, they have my deepest admiration.

Still, I think they should have thought about 'inventing' something re: transformation earlier than this point. The personal drama has taken up too much of their time.

Why does everyone keep inviting people over to Ashlyn's? I mean, it's not like I've ever heard her complain, but the girl needs some rest! And her house is not a public space.

Oh, so they're making this into a contest? I mean, I have never been a fan of competition, but to each their own. And Redlyn are hosting! This is going to be so beautiful! (You know, unless the boys try to sleep — see my post from yesterday about Reddy's background noise machine)

'I'm not worried. But North High should be!' Ooh, I love this look on Ashlyn! See, there's a lead to take notes from! And Ricky should be the first to do so. Take notes about what a lead acts like, I mean.

Oooooh, Big Red claps back! We love to see it. Although, you know, it stems from the fact that he's nervous about coming up with a solution to the transformation problem. 'I get bossy around the power tools' — Yes, sweetie, and I love that look on you. Maybe you should be around power tools more often, if that helps.

Ughhh, look what the cat brought in! Lily (I wish I knew her last name so I could refer to her by it exclusively, but we'll have to make do). I hate that girl. She reminds me quite exactly of the girl who bullied me in seventh grade to the point where I wished I'd die before having to deal with her at school again. She and Lily both bring out my aggressive side, and I hate that about them.

Ricky — 'so good at being a leading man'? I don't know what Lily is playing at here, but Ricky has not shown himself to be a very good leading man this season. He has the potential to be, but he has not fulfilled it by this point. Sure, he supports his friends and they support him, but that's basic decency. Not yet good leadership. No hate on Ricky, just the truth.

'I vaguely remember him' — please tell me this is setup for Ricky leading Lily on and then slamming the door in her face with the truth. The way I see it, he's been given a chance here. A chance to be the supportive, protective best friend Big Red deserves. I just... have a lot of ideas about this and I don't want it to end badly instead.

'I'm just not well-liked here, and I don't know what to do' — well, of course you aren't well-liked, you little— (ok, ok, calm down, breathe, 10, 9, 8...) whatever. I mean, she hasn't even considered basic decency, as it seems. Must be a new concept to her.

'Don't start with me, Carlos!' Wow. As much as I hate it that my two faves' only interaction in so long is so hostile, I kind of like this side of Big Red. I wonder what other sides of himself he's been hiding.

Listen, I don't like Seb being patronised and babied, but... 'Chip, this is your mother speaking: go call your mother!' made me laugh so hard. They're leaning into the on-stage family dynamic and I live for it.

EJ's idea of using old skateboards for the spinning contraption is... a brilliant callback to the fact that Ricky and Big Red were first characterised as skateboarders... you know, before diving headfirst into the theatre thing. And it feels like it might actually work.

Miss Jenn's excitement at seeing Mr Mazzara ('Benjamin!!!') is perhaps only topped by the fact that he was halfway home, got a text from her and instantly went back to the school. I mean, these two have something that's really big.

Miss Jenn referring to the kids as 'my children', combined with Carlos calling her 'mother' earlier just warms my heart so much! Those guys really are family. I live for it.

Ok, but... as clear as it is that the Wildcats are very far behind NH in terms of budget, rehearsal time and who knows what else, I hate seeing Miss Jenn resigned to them losing. I want to see her have faith in them, talk about how they will win, and, in her own words, 'trust the process'. I mean, I guess it's good that, as a teacher, she wants to prepare her kids for a possible defeat (and I mean really possible if they don't step up their game immediately, especially some of them * cough* Ricky *cough *), but a team that goes out to the field expecting to lose has a very minimal chance of winning.

Despite everything I've been saying again and again about Nini lately, the fact that she just delivered a very different 'No, Seb' has just redeemed her. See, this one wasn't dismissive or patronising — this was like, 'no, Seb, don't put yourself down' and I love that spin on the catchphrase I'd grown to hate. See, many things can be redeemed. And some simply cannot. * cough* Devil's spawn Lily *cough *. Also, Seb being self-conscious about the fact that Carlos 'doesn't have many options' at East Hight is the perfect setup for In a Heartbeat — meaning they will either have a chance to talk about their issue, or they have a telepathic connection, in which case, what kind of soulmate stuff is that?

'You're my sister; he's my cousin' — yeah, Ash, putting it like that makes it sound a lot weirder than it should, but I do get what you're trying to say. This is not a drill! Ashlyn is a Portwell shipper (heck, maybe even the captain of that ship) — but I feel like we already knew that.

'Why'd I never hear about this?' — and there it goes. Within the same scene, Nini was redeemed and then made aggravating again. What does she care if Gina thought Ricky sent her chocolates? He didn't. Because he and Gina can't be anything but very good friends. And I feel like good friends is what Gina needs. Maybe that's why I wanted EJ to be that for her initially (or it was because I'm aroace and don't tend to notice romantic attraction between fictional characters — or real people for that matter — unless it's explicitly stated to be there). But I've been on board of the majestic S.S. Portwell for a few weeks now and it's finally about to set sail.

Yeah, Nini, get a root beer, calm the heck down and get over it!

'Your other clockwise!' — Why does this even need to be said? How many 'clockwise's are there? I absolutely understand why Big Red gets the way he gets around power tools. I'd be on edge too, if the people I was trying to work with didn't know what way clockwise is. Still, I feel like by the time I'm 30, nobody younger than me would have a reason to know what way clockwise is, and I don't know if I feel bad or neutral about it.

Oh, so there's no telepathy involved in Seblos' problem resolution — it's been Redlyn's good communication all along. I might have known.

Ooh, Portwell is being discussed on both sides! PORTWELL NATION HOW WE FEELING

Nini? Why is everything about Nini? There's no way everything is about Nini. In all seriousness, though, EJ's worries about letting the next girl go seem valid in regards to Gina, given that she explicitly stated (though not within earshot of EJ or anyone who could have tipped him off) that she needs someone who will show up and stay. But they'll figure it out. They'll find a way. I know it. They will, or I will riot, and I know I won't be alone in that.

Ooh, Howie is giving Kourtney the original blueprints! Looks like Reddy isn't the only one who has a spy on the inside.

Ahhh, Ricky! Not 'Let You Go' again. I haven't cried to it in three days and I was not ready to break that streak. But... wait, this is where Carlos approaches Ricky to ask him for help with writing a song for Seb, isn't it? I am definitely ready for this.

Oh, is it... is it Ricky who suggests Carlos write a song for Seb? Now that is what a good leading man looks like.

'I'm adjusting to being called bro' — me too, Carlito, me too. But... this scene must have been so emotional for Josh, given that he hadn't come out yet. I remember him crying during The Climb and... all I'm saying is I want Ricky to come out at some point, too.

Oh gosh oh gosh oh gosh... they were just talking about love languages and that's when Carlos shows up? Cinematic. Wait, there's Portwell too? This is what dreams are made of.

My oh my oh my! Risotto! For real this time. I might have just teared up. (Full disclosure: I did.) I've only had Portwell for about three weeks, but if anything happens to them, I will... you know how the meme goes. [side note: Wait, when I said 'for real this time', I was not expecting EJ would say it, much less word for word. Am I... writing this show now? It's usually my dad who predicts people's lines in TV shows]

'Not that I know of'... excuse me while I hyperventilate! These two are literal soulmates. They might share a brain, too, for all that I know. Portwell nation you ok guys?

I love that Ricky helped Carlos out with this song and is supporting him through it, but... I just might have preferred for him not to be there. I kind of need Seblos to have this moment to themselves. But, you know, with the way they feel about each other it might as well be like they're alone in the universe, let alone the room.

Ok, but Frankie's voice... brings out feelings in me that I didn't know I was capable of. Make of that what you will. Also, I'm not sobbing my eyes out, you are.

Ahhh Reddy my sunshine my sweet boy I love you but why did you have to cut Seblos' moment short? They were going to kiss, I know it. Oh well, they probably will, later on. Off-screen probably, but who cares? Not everything is for us to see. At least Carlos and Ricky had a moment there... Carlos calling Ricky 'bro' made me more emotional than I expected. It's like Miss Jenn says in s1: 'They're best bros, and that's a sacred thing... for reasons I will never understand'.

Ricky's acting sounds like a cat about to spit up a hairball, and it's so funny... in a scene that is supposed to be arguably the most dramatic of the entire play, that is not a good thing.

Oh my, oh my... you did not! You did not just end the episode with Ricky taking a fall from who knows how high. I was not ready. This episode was entirely too much for me. I will need 10 to 15 business days to recover from this, and we all know there aren't that many. But in the meantime you'll find me obsessively listening to In a Heartbeat for hours on end. Seriously, this episode is too much.

#hsmtmts #hsmtmts s2 #ricky bowen #nini salazar-roberts #gina porter #ej caswell #ashlyn caswell #ashlyn moon caswell #big red redonovich #carlos rodriguez #seb matthew-smith #kourtney greene #hsmtmts miss jenn #hsmtmts mr mazzara #jnk #seblos #portwell #redlyn #jenzara

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lofi-tophat · 4 years ago

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Let’s talk about the 70s punk scene and HWS England

I sometimes feel that the fandom doesn’t give England’s love for punk/rock music much justice. Some authors usually write about this human AU in which Arthur wants to be a rockstar and some others plainly avoid the topic whatsoever. Which is a pity because I actually believe the whole character has a deep punk reference, specially regarding appearence (might expand on this in another post but basically, for me, England seems like some random bushy browed anime 70s punk guy who suddenly has to put on a suit and attend world meetings, which is both fascinating and hilarious).

So I thought maybe we could dive a bit into very general punk history and then I’d like to share with you some hc regarding England’s involvement with punk culture in general (if you just want to read the hcs just scroll down to the last paragraph with the bullet ponts).

My experience in punk stuff is actually that I’m kind of a metalhead lol. Metalheads and punks had and probably still have a deeply-rooted rivalry. However, punk influenced metal a lot, and metal also influenced punk. So I stumbled upon many punk facts while browsing about my favorite metal bands.

Take this as historical hetalia... but counterculture historical hetalia :D (which is something we need more in the fandom, btw, I know military history is cool but its also cool how humans expressed themselves through art, fashion and music when they felt the pressure of authority and the frustration of society).

Historical context

Let’s return a bit in time and remember the 60s. The 60s were this blessed time in which people tried to defeat the establishment with peace and love. The hippie movement is from this decade and it influenced a lot on how people thought and behaved. In terms of counterculture, I must say this is a fascinating time in history (I recently discovered psychodelic science and its so incredible what was being talked back then).

Anyways, although a lot of young people were into this discourse of love and peace, some weren’t really that happy about it. In Europe, the post-war situation was sad and a lot of young people either were jobless or had the shittiest jobs you could imagine. Politics were also depressing. This was the origin not only for punk but also for other genres of heavy music, such as metal: People who didn’t want to be all happy and peaceful and had the need to express their frustration and anger, shouting about how society was fucked up. They needed an outlet.

Origins of punk

The origins of punk music are actually not quite clear. In fact, the US and the UK both claim that punk music was born in their country. Funnily enough, my country also claims to be the origin of punk (I’ll leave this mini-doc for you. Sadly, I don’t think this is a correct claim, mainly because their music was in spanish and I doubt that major punk bands took them as reference. Its a cool band tho).

I have to side with americans on this: The arguments for the american origins of punk are quite solid. The Ramones were the first actual punk band out there. They were active since 1974. Their music had all the elements of punk and, chronologically, they were the first ones performing this type of sound.

However, they didn’t have the aesthetic. That actually was a british invention. American punk had still leather jackets, jeans and sneakers. British punk? Well, remember all those ripped pants and shirts you commonly associate with punk? Yes, those were the Sex Pistols all along. They were the ones introducing the attitude and the style. The Pistols had some insane performances and a huge shock-value that can’t be found in early american punk. So you can safely say that your image of what a punk is is based mainly on the Pistols (also, for singing anti-authoritarian lyrics, they actually were managed by some dude who had a fashion shop. So yeah...).

Punk attitude or philosophy or whatever

The reason why I addressed the rockstar thing at the start of the post is because I find it curious. Punk is characterized by the whole Do It Yourself attitude and breaking with the establishment. Anarchism in punk is scandalizing people since there is no authority whatsoever. There wasn’t really any deep philosophy behind all of this, nor any political movement. Punk has nothing to do with a formal anarchist philosophy (which actually exists and has nothing to do with disorder). However, punk is characterized by the anti-establihsment lyrics. Remember, this is all about scandalizing people (which sometimes took great lengths). Presentations from british punk bands were also quite wild those days. They involved a lot of insults, spitting and, of course, pogo.

So, it is obvious that there is this deep concern about turning into a sellout, a pretty common fear in any underground scene. Authenticity was encouraged. Aspiring rockstars really didn’t have much mercy in the community so to speak, at least in this specific period.

I would also like to add how punk had other aspects beside the music. For example, fanzines were pretty popular in the punk scene in the 70s and a great way to engage with what was going on with bands and music. I remember also this interview of this band in which they remembered how a very high guy decided to recite his poem while the band was playing. So, yeah, literature, illustration, fashion and other stuff were involved in the punk scene too.

British punk was also characterized by a very nihilistic attitude and a total disregard for previous influences. 1977, a song by The Clash, stated:

No Elvis, Beatles, or the Rolling Stones!

Now, for the important stuff: The music. Punk music is all about being simple. Punk musicians aren’t really known for their virtuosity in their instruments, something that actually inspired musicians from a lot of heavy bands later. In fact, the famous Sid Vicious from the Sex Pistols never could learn how to play the bass. So the band disconnected his instrument from the amplifier and he only had to pretend to play. The guy actually tried to learn how to play bass but music wasn’t exactly his talent. He had tons of punk attitude though, and that was the reason why his band didn’t kick him out.

Vocals are usually shouted, the rythm is fast and the riffs are quite simple. In fact, there is this famous publication on a 1976 british fanzine that stated:

This is a chord

This is another

This is a third

Now form a band

HWS England and the 70s punk scene and onwards

Thanks to his immortality, it is obvious that England had to experience the 70s in all their glory (what a lucky bastard). Was he there? Hell yes. As I explained before in some of my hc posts, nations represent the population more than their Government, so I really believe that England felt the frustration from that post-wwii decade and he probably also felt pissed about this. Working for the Government must have felt really frustrating during those years.

In the past, he probably would have tried to take his ship and sail the seas or whatever, but that was not possible in the modern era. I guess that’s how he discovered punk.

Now, rock existed in England before punk. I mean, the Beatles, duh. So Arthur wouldn’t have been completely ignorant about rock music in general. Contrary to popular belief I don’t imagine him being that much of a beatlemaniac though. Sure he likes them, but the music didn’t resonated with him as much. But boy, that first time he heard the Pink Fairies in 1971 (Yes, this was an actual band, a proto-punk band)? Yeah, he could relate more to that.

More detailed stuff here:

Pubs were crucial for the development of punk music. They were these spaces in which bands could play, a venue to discover new music. Yes, Arthur must have been a regular in a lot of these pubs.

Fanzines probably fascinated Arthur as an outlet for his own writings and silly drawings. He probably created a cringey pseudonym and collaborated with a lot of them.

Its canon that England likes to critic american movies, and, taking from there, I think he’s the type of guy that has an opinion for everything. So I can imagine him also writing about what bands he enjoyed and what bands sucked.

Yeah, I can also see him being drunk and just reciting a poem while some rock band played behind.

With some ability, and a lil bit of tricks, Arthur could escape normal Government activities and perform with punk bands at nights. People were so into the music that he had no problem passing by.

Some cover art in CDs show Enlgland with a guitar and a bass (yes, not many people remember the bass cover art). So he probably plays both guitar and bass. He also probably plays the drums. Of course, he’s no virtuoso and he only knows the most basic stuff in those three instruments. I can see him being into songwriting tho.

Music equipment:

Guitar: Definetely a Telecaster

Bass: Fender P-bass and I can also see him having a Rickenbacker 4001

All these instruments are full with stickers. Punk instruments look really cool btw. (I wish my bass could look like those I see in certain punk bands)

England’s probably the kind of guy that doesn’t cut his strings at the head of his guitar.

He can actually play guitar/bass and sing at the same time.

England plays bass with a pick (what an asshole, we bassists know picks are not allowed)

Contrary to popular belief, I can see England appreciating good rock music from other countries and supporting them. He probably insists that punk music was born in the UK though.

1977: The Queen was going to celebrate her silver jubilee. And England had no problem with this. He really had none... but he HAD to be in that boat trip with the Sex Pistols. There’s no way he was going to miss that. He later had to explain his abscence that day to his Government officials (Btw, my hc for England’s relationship with his monarchy is “It’s complicated”. I can explain this later. Just remember that he was really pissed those days)

I can see Arthur in general being really involved with the scene. A lot of the stuff they were making actually matches with his canon interests and even personality. So he probably enjoyed those days and felt quite at home. I can even say that, for a long time, he hadn’t felt that kind of connection with his own people.

Although I can see England being attracted by the nihilism in the scene, I think his romanticism protects him from embracing it fully.

England had to live a double-life during this era. Not that it was new for him.

Arthur was pierced several times by some random, drunk teenagers. He doesn’t remember who tho. He was also drunk. Obviously his piercings close really fast, unless he has a permanent jewel in there.

I can actually see England expanding his music taste. Although punk is in his heart, it wouldn’t be strange for me that he’s overall a rock nerd and enjoys other genres, specially those with fast drum beats and heavy riffs. So I can see him having some metal favorites too, having a certain taste for prog rock and even digging into hardcore.

I’m still unsure if England would have been a massive Pistols fan as fanfics usually portray him. I mean, maybe? I would say he is definetely into acts such as the Pink Fairies (I mean, c’mon, its perfect). The Clash and the Damned probably also have a place in his heart.

After the punk scene dried out (the 80s weren’t that great for punk music although it was the birth of even heavier forms of music based on punk), England also was eager about the new genres flourishing during these times based on punk. Acts like folk punk might have had an appeal for him. He’s also fond of the punk-ish bands from the 90s like Green Day.

“Punk will never die!” shouted England while stage diving in some random small concert. He likes to support new bands these days.

The most fascinating thing, maybe in a more poetic sense, is that England’s immortality probably also helps him to keep up a punk spirit as much as his nationhood allows him, instead of aging poorly and angry like a lot of punk musicians... I mean, he aged poorly, but for other reasons lmao.

#hetalia #hws england #lofi-tophat: really long hc #in the next issue: America is a swiftie WITH EVIDENCE #I do enjoy some american metal bands but I don't see America being that much into heavy music #he probably doesn't even care if punk was born in the us or not so england maybe won that one #guys i could ramble forever with my music hcs but ill just leave you with Moldovas extensive pop collection #finland's passion for folk metal acts like korpiklaani #and cuba shouting AZZUUUUUCAAARRR in karaokes #btw pirate metal exists kind of as a subgenre but it exists and england is into it

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livvywrites · 4 years ago

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What kind of magic systems does the world of Metanoia have?

an excellent question!!! forgive me while i ramble a bit (or a lot!)

—

so first, a little on where magic comes from, & how it’s used. (& i do apologize if this is something you’ve read before!)

eldora’s creation myth says that the planet grew from a seed—or, rather, that a seed was planted in the ether, and from that seed grew the World Tree, embodied by the nymph, Vitala, the goddess of Life. in her roots nestled the core of the world, and over these roots which grew the surface—forest, desert, swamp, ocean.

the core of the world is Eldora’s heart, and the heart is the source of all magic.

the magic of it travels up, through rock, caves, dirt, & soil to emerge at points known as wellsprings. these are treated as sacred places, often with temples built near them to whichever god it seems to represent in its manifestation. wellspring spots are varied. there are large crystals, pulsing with ethereal light; lush gardens with glowing flowers that bloom nowhere else, and all year round; standing stones that seem to hum, electricity snapping in the air; etc.

the spot of the World Tree is the most powerful wellspring.

there are also places where magic returns to the core, & is filtered back down to be cleansed, revitalized. these places are also called wellsprings, and are considered just as sacred—though people do not often set up near them, as these are “dead zones”, where magic can be used by few. they are still visited by pilgrims, or by those hoping to slow the effects of magical illnesses, curses, etc.

as such, magic flows through the very air of eldora. it’s in the soil; the plants; the animals; the food… and the people. everyone can use magic on eldora, though most are limited to what they can pull from the air. this is usually small quick spells.

enchantments, which are a stable of eldoran life, and often have functions similar to electricity for us, also run off of this power. (and too many enchantments, or too powerful of one, can cause the same effect as a reverse wellspring—creating a dead zone through which magic is hard to use).

there are also people who are born with their own internal supply of mana. no one is really sure why this is (including me), only that it can happen randomly—and is more likely to happen if one or both parents do have mana. these people are usually referred to as “mages” in general terms—though others pick up classes/jobs that have different titles.

these people are still able to cast in a dead zone, & can fuel an enchantment with their own internal power, though this can be draining, fast. they can also cast more powerful spells.

(this is getting long so! under the cut it goes)

—

now a look at spells! i’m still working on exactly how this works. some stuff i have pinned down, but.

so, first. casting spells. there are three main things that go into casting one—intelligence, willpower, and mana. intelligence has to do with how well you understand the spell—it’s components, what it does, what it means to cast it. willpower is a measure of intent, how determined you are to cast the spell. it is also a measure of how well you understand yourself and your capabilities. mana is the well of magic you have to draw upon. this well can fluctuate in childhood, but by adulthood (whatever that means for a particular race) it will have evened out.

intelligence & willpower can be increased. mana can’t be—unless you’re a Slaeyr, and that comes with a steep price.

spells are made up of runes. runes… i think of them a bit like coding. it’s a language, of sorts, with a specific syntax that wouldn’t necessarily make sense to hold a conversation in. it informs the magic of what to do with it.

of course, mages can cast spells without knowing runes—by focusing their intent and shaping the spell from that. but runes provide a… shape. a structure. something for the mind to focus on & thus better will the spell into existence.

there is no particular runic alphabet. runes are single symbols that mean entire words, which can be strung into sentences (or code lines*, to continue the above analogy) to create spells. sentences can grow fairly long for more complicated and varied spells. most spells hinge off of at least one rune, and complex spells can contain many. usually, spells contain anywhere from 3-7 runes.

enchantments always contain at least five runes, but often more, as an “anchored” spell needs more guidance.

mages do not have to speak the names of runes out loud to cast the spell—only to remember them, imagine the shape of them. some, however, do find that speaking the names aloud helps, and so they do. (in complex spells, though, this can get tedious, so some mages will invent a verbal shorthand.)

—

from here… um. i feel like i should know what to talk about next, but!! i don’t? like i’m sure there’s different schools of thought as to how magic should be cast between different associations, but… ah. i don’t know what those are.

i guess i can talk about the different like… jobs / specialties in magic users? tho i also feel like this has gotten fairly long!!

anyway. thank you very much for letting ramble at you, anon!!! i hope you enjoyed :D

*disclaimer: all i really know about coding is like… basic css & html. you know, the stuff to edit already in use tumblr themes? xD i keep meaning to pick more up but. you know. so i really can’t take the analogy too far.

#metawb #asks and answers #lovely anons

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masterhandss · 5 years ago

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(I am sorry for adding another, but this one is a bit less specific) thanks to the Otome game’s artwork for the pirates and clear imagery of Silva’s flintlock pistol. Guns exist, gunpowder exists. That is chaos waiting to happen. What do you think could happen with that new bit of info for the crew, especially in terms of Geordo’s fire magic. Or just general h/c and potential drama.

It’s okay, thank you for all your asks! I have a lot of asks and questions to answer and I’m trying to get through all of them (really slowly), but i’m really happy to see yours and everyone’s ideas and headcanons!

thanks to the Otome game’s artwork for the pirates and clear imagery of Silva’s flintlock pistol. Guns exist, gunpowder exists. That is chaos waiting to happen

I’ve seen a few people talk about the implications and world building that comes with the knowledge that guns exist. I’m pretty interested in it and its one of the reasons why i’m excited for the nintendo switch game!

My personal interpretation of this information is that, yeah guns and gunpowder do exist, but its only currently exclusive to one country. Quid, from what I translated, is the country of engineering. I’m not the smartest potato of the bunch but I know that probably doesn’t really say anything about the country’s weaponry, but i’m assuming that Quid is the most technologically advanced country.

I’m more of just accepting and assuming the fact that only Quid (and by extension, the Weiss Pirates who I assume are from Quid) have guns because yknow, each country is known for something. Sorcier has Magic, Lousabre has high crime rates, Etran has trading, Xiarmah has eastern culture and etc. In order to have Quid stand out as well, it’s gonna need something of its own so advanced technology and weaponry sounds good to me.

I know realistically it doesn’t make any sense, because that would mean Quid has the military prowess to take over any country they want, because they have guns and maybe even other forms of firearms, but there are lots of series where each country/region/island has different extreme levels of weaponry but can exist just fine (like Granblue Fantasy and Fire Emblem Heroes. For the latter example, FEH just introduced a new arc where a country with advanced tech and guns have just been introduced the other day, so Book V of feh may have influenced this interpretation). Some countries still use swords and magic, and some countries have guns and robots but can coexist just fine (don’t ask me how gsjdgf).

In addition to this, I’m gonna assume that guns have only recently been invented and is either still in its production/experimentation stage and the Weiss Pirates stole guns from a cargo, or they are just about to be shipped out and introduced to other countries before the Weiss Pirates stole guns from a cargo. I don’t like the idea that the Weiss Pirates themselves invented guns because that would make them too much for a powerful threat, and I don’t think the writers of the hamefura game would bother to write them as that much of a big threat.

I guess unlike most, I’m not the type the analyze historical periods and world building implications of stuff like this, but I tried ahahaha.

I guess I just know so much fantasy series where swords, magic and guns (and even robots) can coexist, that the idea that we have some in hamefura doesn’t even surprise me at all.

What do you think could happen with that new bit of info for the crew, especially in terms of Geordo’s fire magic

If the otome game is gonna seriously address the implications of Quid having advanced form of weaponry, then damn we might get a short arc of them trying to stop a possible war ahahaha. Hamefura’s magic is very weak (I can make a long ass essay just complaining about the existing magic system based on what we know from the series so far) so I’m not really sure what to think of Geordo’s magic when compared to guns and other forms of firearms. There’s a lot of debates between “technology vs magic” and the winner of that usually depends on who is asking.

On the scale of power, I think Geordo probably has no match against a gun or a make-shift bomb/bazooka. Magic activates really slowly in Hamefura so Geordo’s strength (or at least the levels I’m personally imagining) isn’t really much in battle even if it is. I mean we know he can burn a man alive as he implied in LN8 and that would give magic the advantage in terms of power (magic can possibly be equal when it comes to area damage than a bomb/bazooka but that only depending on the magical output), but again he really lacks in terms of speed. Unless Fire Magic has a spell where they can make fire balls rain from the sky? Fire magic seems like it only manifest through the hands so I’m just imaging Geordo with flamethrower hands.

I might not be giving Magic a fair fight here because I may or may not be exaggerating in my head how weak magic is in hamefura. I’d love to revisit this question again when we get more insight about how magic works in the series, like whenever Vol. 10 rolls around.

I’d love to see the crew’s reaction to seeing a gun for the first time. A “what the hell is that?” line from either Alan or Keith would make me a happy champ kshdfdsf. Plus points if Katarina immediately identifies it as a gun before anyone else in the ship are even told what the weapon is.

I’d be really sad if the upcoming otome game doesn’t touch up on the guns though. Somehow I feel like the artists/writers didn’t think too much of it and just added guns to complete the full pirate aesthetic.

Or just general h/c and potential drama.

Going back to where I said “I wouldn’t like it if the Weiss Pirates invented guns themselves”, there’s also the possibility that guns are treated in the same way as they are in “Dragalia Lost”. Since we know in hamefura there was a Golden Age of Magic in the past, where magic is so common that even Dark Magic is normal to see, then maybe there was also a point where technology was also advance before their ancestors decided to abandon it in order to maintain their roots with nature and magic.

This is just a random idea of mine, but it would be cool if Katarina and Silva can bond over the existence of his guns. Silva seems like he might be a “robin hood” kind of character to me. Katarina will obviously freak about guns at first, but she would chill with it when she finds out that the Weiss Pirates aren’t bad people. Unlike others, she isn’t as afraid because she used to live in a world where guns are more common (though that doesn’t mean she isn’t afraid of guns). Maybe Silva’s pistol is a gift from a family member or from his ancestors, and when he realizes that Katarina isn’t freaking too much about the gun, he can give its backstory. I don’t know, something like “this gun only shoots down evil! This bullet kills so that the people/public can live another day!” or something like that.

There’s most likely not gonna be a plot like this in the nintendo switch game but hey, it works if they want to treat the gun like an artifact rather than a new invention.

I don’t know if I gave a satisfactory answer here, but I tried gasjhgsj I’m writing this late at night so I might rewrite this if I can think of anything better to say in the morning :DD I’m not a smart bean either so I’m so sorry if my answers sound so dumb gfsjhgf

Thank you for the ask!

#mh ask #my next life as a villainess #hamefura #hamehura #bakarina #destruction flag otome #katarina claes #silva #hamefura silva #the pirate who summons trouble #hamefura game

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tanoraqui · 5 years ago

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grooooan I’ve been very writer’s block-y recently; pls enjoy this 2am-written peek at like...3 chapters forward in Iron, Blood and Grave Dirt. See, I DO have a plan for this fic!

This is a story about soup.

(Let’s pretend that this is what Wei Sizhui has been thinking, for the last several days. It’s probably close enough.)

Soup is, by rough definition, individual solid food items mixed together in a liquid base, and somehow cooked. There’s a lot of disagreements about the nuances, but we can all agree on a common-sense definition of soup, right?

(Wrong, but the internet hasn’t been invented yet in the year Fantasy!Ambiguously-Ancient China, so, yes. Yes we can.)

By a certain measure of metaphor, a family is - no, start the other way around. By a certain measure of symbolism, soup is family. That is, in Wei Sizhui’s experience, soup - good soup, really really good soup with pork ribs and lotus roots - is something his uncle makes when Jin Ling is sick, or that one time he broke his arm falling off the docks, or usually just on Aunt Yanli’s birthday, for which Jin Ling is always in Lotus Pier, no matter how much bickering has to be done with LanlingJIn first. The Good Soup has never been made for Wei Sizhui, but in fairness, he’s never gotten sick, because - he’s been praised - his golden core developed so exceptionally early. (This, like many things in Wei Sizhui’s life, is something the will be addressed later. For the first time, later is coming very soon.)

Wei Sizhui has never felt much of the loss, because he did have the honor of staying int he kitchen and helping his uncle make the Soup. Very much his uncle, not his sect leader - it wasn’t Sect Leader Jiang who swore so profusely while fiddling with the heat on the stove, nor who showed Wei Sizhui - Wei Yuan, the first time - how to hold a knife to shave a lotus root, or cut the meat without losing any of the rich juice. It might’ve been Sandu Shengshou, just a little, but it was mostly just Wei Sizhui’s shushu. And then they’d bring the soup to wherever Jin Ling was pouting in bed, and then they’d eat it. If it was Aunt Yanli’s birthday, they might eat out on the pier instead, or by the Clarity Bell Pavilion.

Because family, in turn, was like soup. You took some solid, individual things, that maybe weren’t even that good on their own, or they were bitter or twisted or cut to pieces, and you put them in a pot and warmed them up and they became...good. Sometimes it was very fine, all sorts of healthy herbs or richest meats at a grand banquet, but sometimes it was just...

A soup could be a single gnarled, curmudgeonly lotus root and a too-spicy chili pepper mixed together in a smooth, sweet lotus-flavored broth. You could add some expensive oil of peony and a little curmudgeonly peony root, and a necromantically charged potato, and...

Well, maybe not all at once. But once the peony oil burned off and the lotus broth all ran out, spilled over bloody soil, you could still hold it together with a watery broth, and maybe a few dashes of tall white leeks.

Another variant of the metaphor: dozens, hundreds of souls slain by a single beast accumulating in a single blade shoved into the monster’s side, dark iron already charged with resentful energy from its wielder’s hand. There for centuries, to stew - to soup? - in the broth of their collective resentful energy, individualities fading, melting, into one not-quiet-consciousness that burns (like hot soup!) with rage, resentment, and the need for the control so sorely lost with death. Or imagine it on an even grander scale: hundreds, thousands of lives lost is grand and terrible battle, left to rot on a n empty hill - turning it into close to a mountain, with thier volume. More and more corpses added over the centuries, discarded and forgotten, solid corpses and individual vengeful souls bleeding together into something even grander and more terrible than the first fires that bore them...

And sometimes (to switch tracks with all the grace of a drumseller’s cart hitting a rut), when a very angry sword of death and a very, very vengeful mountain of even more death love each other very much, or at least are brought into proximity by a...shall we say “donor”? By a willing donor of the raw stuff of life...(blood! I mean blood! Get your mind out of the gutter!)

...Anyway. These are things Wei Sizhui could, hypothetically, be thinking, as he lies on the bare stone of the cave at the top, the center, of the Burial Mounds, and feels like he could probably sink into the hard stone if he wished. Maybe even if he didn’t wish. It feels like an embrace, around the deity-binding ropes tying his hands and feet together, and he can’t quite resist the urge to press into it. Not as a blanket, though, or bed - the sense of it is vast and cold and as dark and deep as...nothing he’s ever felt before, but it makes him think of the bottom of a lake. Maybe the bottom of an ocean? But if the ocean was electrifying. He feels better than he did in Yi City. More awake. More aware. Fluttering on the surface are hundreds of little corpses, which aren’t part of it, and within it are thousands of drips and drags of others - corpses but also ghosts, ghouls, petty yaos. Really a ton of crows. Which all very much are part of it, like individual waves in the water. And, of course, there are the intruders, all the bright golden cores around him - so many trembling with fear or the effort of inedia or simple weakness, ready to be snapped up...and another, on the outskirts -

“Sizhui?” One of the little- Jin Ling. Jin Ling pokes him in the shoulder, once and then again, hard. “Wei Yuan, you’re being weird again.”

“Oh- sorry.” Wei Sizhui sits up (forces himself to sit up). Lan Jingyi, too, is looking at him with worry, not remotely concealed behind Lan quietude.

“Sorry,” he repeats. “I’m just...” He lowers his voice, so no one else will hear but the three of them. “Hanguang-jun is coming, and- my father, and Wen Ning.”

The epithet still feels strange on his tongue, but it’s undeniable, especially in this place.

“Really?” says Lan Jingyi, and sits back in relief that’s a little too loud. “Oh, thank goodness. We’re saved!”

“You’re sure?” Jin Ling asks, more anxious. “You can really tell, with your...” He gestures vaguely at all of Wei Sizhui.

Wei Sizhui shouldn’t be able to. They’re far too far away, much farther than he can usually sense dead things, much less living things - even living things as spiritually powerful as Hanguang-jun, or as as demonically powerful as the Yiling Patriarch. Or dead things as demonically powerful as the Ghost General. But his palms rest flat on the stone floor and the currents of the dark ocean carry him outwards, beckon him to stay and fill him with such strength that he idly wonders if he could break the deity-binding ropes. But...

“I’m sure,” he says. “We’ll be out of here soon.”

#mdzs #the untamed #lan sizhui #my fic #ficlet

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raeseddon · 5 years ago

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Why Being The Parent of a Disabled Child isn’t an Identity: A Discussion

( Trigger warning for mention of abusive relationships )

A note to all the parents of disabled or neurodivergent kids, from an Adult disabled child.

For the sake of you, your child, and your relationship with that child: Having a disabled child is not an identity.

[[readmore]]

I know it can feel like it, because it's all media and society focuses on when they see you out and about with your child. Pretty much all protrayals of parents in media who find out they have a disabled child cease to be people-- they are henceforth Parents of a Child With [Insert Disability/Neurodivergence Here.] And it's deceptive because at first, finding supoprt communities of other parents with the same problems feels like Mana From Heaven. But please, watch how other parents in your support communities change as their children grow, especially when the disability/neurodivergence is managed to a point where the child can join "normal" society. If you see a parent panicking, or freaking out in a way that seems over the top, (especially when reports of how the kid is doing are positive) be careful. You might be watching the beginning spiral of a parent who no longer knows how to be anything but a caregiver. And that parent needs help.

Also, if you start to feel the urge to panic, or worry, or start inventing senarios were you are back to being a carer after your Adult disabled child leaves the proverbial roost, find someone, preferably a professional, to speak to. Because the alternative is that you become someone who infantilzes your Adult disabled child in order to hold on to a piece of your identity that--in a perfect world-- would never have rooted itself in you the way it has.

I should say something about my own experiences just so you don't think I'm talking out of my ass-- at six or eight months old my parents noticed I was only reaching for things with one arm. They took me to a neurologist who diagnosed me right-hemipsheratic cerebral palsy. As soon as I was old enough, I was in physical therapy. At five years old, I had my first ever seizure, at which point I was diagnosed with epilepsy, which has a high co-morbidity rate with CP. I came from a pretty traditional middle class (back when there really was a middle class) family where my father worked full time and my mom worked seasonally as a tax-preparer. My mom was the one who took up the bulk of the responsibility as carer, making sure I got to OT/PT, speech therapy, the works. I had no idea how much of her personal identity she put into her role as carer until the marriage disolved and her various issues lead to me spending more and more time with dad, intitially as a survival strategy (emotionally/mentally speaking) and then because I enjoyed his company, even if it meant getting to know him as a person at an age where most kids rely on dads for driving lessons and other... dad stuff. It wasn't always easy, but again, it was a survival strategy first and foremost.

It became apparent very quickly that not only did mom think I was "picking sides" but that she was furious with me because I didn't understand all of her (very real and unfortunatelt necessary) personal sacrifices so that I had the physical quality of life that I did. I was too young and hormonal at the time to realize that she A) should have never have had to make those sacrifices, and B) the blow they dealt to her personal identity would leave lasting and horrific scars on both of us.

Because when society looks at a parent of a child with disabilities, and a disabled child, they don't see two distinct people: they see a Walking Disability, and a Selfless Marytr, who willingly gave up every part of themselves to give that Walking Disability a "chance" at a "normal life."

I've known and talked to a ton of disabled adults and their parents over the years, and there are a few things that run like a universal thread throughout:

Just because a truly loving parent would choose a million times to give their entire life and identity up to care for the child, doesn't mean they want to, or should have to. If I could go back in time and provide my mother with a way to take some of the burden off of herself so that she could continue to grow along with me as a person, I would. Whether it would mean making it so that dad didn't have to work as much so that they could actually split the emotional and physical load, or some other way, I'd do it in a heartbeat. We, as a society need to stop looking at parents who are forced to subvert everything about themselves: their interests, their hobbies, their education, and their growth as a person, so that their disabled children have a fair shot, as aspirational. Parents are people, and they deserve the social support to continue being people, despite also having disabled children.

The inability of parents and carers to divorce themselves from their roles as carers damages the child's self esteem and overall ability to imagine a future of even limited independence. Speaking from both personal experience and having a disabled and neurodivergent friend group who have all admited to similar experiences. I was able to move away from living with my mom at nineteen, almost right after I graduated high school, to living with dad who was much more willing to encourage any form of independence he could. The encouragement wasn't always realistic in some ways, but when it worked, it worked, and I clung to that independence literally as long as a physically could.

If a marriage was rocky or straight up unhealthy before the birth of the disabled child 'staying together for the kid(s)' always makes things worse. There are the one in a few billion times when having the child actually forced the parents to work their shit out, but most of the time, it's a recipie for decades of misery and emotional (and physical) trauma for everyone involved. This is especially true if a degree of independence is acheived by the child that means they can live away from home. Once the child is gone, everything about the marriage/relationship that didn't work comes rushing back--and unfortunately, by then, the parents are so used to being miserable together, that being miserable apart is even more terrifying. As someone who came to realize as an adult that long before my parents divorced, the cracks were there and there were "near misses" it makes me wish they'd divorced when I was much younger. Of course, the reality is that parents who have disabled children are more likely to stay in unhappy at least or absusive at worst relationships because without shared income, caring for the disabled child would be impossible. It's a no-win situation.

Finally, circling back to my first point: Even when abuse isn't present and the marriage is healthy, the most well meaning parent may find themselves infantilizing their Adult child because once that child is gone, they will have lost a major pillar of their identity. There are times this comes close to feeling like a universal experience, it's so common. "Cutting the apron strings" can be scary even when both parents know its for the best, but the problems usually start with making harmless comments about how they'll "always be there" for the child, and if left unchecked the comments could become passive aggressive, and finally downright attempts to guilt the Adult child into staying.

This is why it's so, so important to observe your own behavior, as well as the behavior of other parents in support communities, and keep an eye on the ones who try to inject anxiety into the experiences and milestones that edge your Adult child towards the best degree of independence they can acheive. A lot of the time it'll lead with "Well aren't you worried that [insert bad experience here] will happen?" Which is why it's vital to be able to tell when an anxiety is your own or when it's someone elses. A good way to do this is to just have regular, open communication with your kid. Express your worries, talk them out, and allow your kid to make assurances, even if it's in the form of "I have a friend group/support network that I can go to before I will need to go back to you with a problem." Make it clear in the support communities that these communications are happening with your kid, and if people still try to drag you into worrying that whatever reassurances that have been given "won't be enough"... flag that person as someone who is probably having a problem with the idea of their kid acheiving independence. Every parent starts at a different place when it comes to the idea of a disabled or neurodivergent kid acheiving some form of independence, but there are ways to avoid almost all of the major issues that end up poisoning the relationships between parents and their adult disabled kids.

#disability #disability issues #tw:abuse

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imdoingthismspaintadventure · 6 years ago

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In which I nerd out about PS and portal windows.

THE GREEN TEXT WAS ATTRACTIVE. NOW VIEW THE RED TEXT AGAIN.

Oh god we’re going back to TG again.

John is 1000% done with all these huge logs.

TG: when the film crew zooms where the presidents at TG: im like if that dudes black ill eat my hat TG: turns out he is, so we're all "damn, director's got gumption" TG: like we'll all flip our shit he aint shining shoes or somethin TG: its called freemancipation. if its not pres-election its god-ascension TG: in bruce almighty. whoops, different bruce from the one i just mentioned EB: aaaaaarrrgh!

Oh my fucking god TG was still going on and on with his reality-shattering godraps. That is amazing.

He is creating the perfect pop culture amalgam in there, too! I said it before but TG, you are a treasure.

TG: cant explain to me why this aint condescension to think ill shit a brick TG: not even he can convey the intention with his quickspun wit TG: rather defray all this tension, sit on his lap while he whittles a splint TG: and some guy eyes what he does and patronizes: i guess negrocity's the mother of invention

I’m having an astral journey reading this.

TG, what in the actual fuck are you talking about??

You are the god of rambling I swear

EB: stop rapping for a second you horse's ass! EB: i have something important to talk about. TG: whats up EB: rose is in trouble and she needs help. i was going to connect to her with sburb but i lost my copy! TG: ok

Horse’s ass is a good insult.

Yeah I guess TG now has to bail her out after the car fuckup

EB: also she lost battery power. if she can get back up and running, she'll need someone with the game to get her out of there before her house burns down. EB: so i think you should use your copy of the game to help her! TG: my copy? TG: thats going to be tough

Oh no what will the shenanigans be this time.

EB: why? TG: i lost it TG: its a stupid story and id rather not talk about it TG: shit be embarrassing yo

Oh fucking hell.

Why are all the copies of this game getting lost so easily??? Take care of your videogames!!

What did you do to lose it, now I’m scared of whatever bullshit sequence of events transpired

EB: i thought you said you had two? TG: well yeah TG: one is my brothers copy EB: ok, well get his then! TG: alright TG: but hes not gonna be happy about that

Is this going to be like a Dad situation where there is an interactive boss? That was really great so I hope it is!

EB: whatever. EB: also you might want to read rose's walkthrough to get up to speed on this. TG: oh man EB: what? TG: nothing really TG: look all im saying is the girl tends to lay it on kinda thick you know? EB: /ROLLS EYES

Embrace the purple prose TG! Let it envelop you in its glorious overwritten radiance!

Ooh we’re back with the purple lady herself!

She needs to find an alternative energy source asap, to help John and be able to stay communicated, before she burns to death!

Your LAPTOP is out of BATTERY POWER. There's only one thing left to do. Time to make your way to that BACKUP GENERATOR.

Yup, figured it would end up being relevant.

Rose: Knit laptop cozy to shield your laptop from the rain.

...really?

Time managment is not really your strong point it seems.

Oh you already had one made!!

The heart octopus is just the best.

I remember her inventory system to be an unholy nightmare.

That would be such a waste of time! Besides, you already knitted one a while ago. You retrieve it from your KNITTING BAG and apply it to your LAPTOP. You captchalogue the LAPTOP PLUS COZY.

Cozy laptop is cozy!

Rose: Equip grimoire to strife specibus.

Ooh.

That could either result in getting arcane eldritch powers that man was not meant to know... or just a book to bludgeon people to death with.

Both seem worth it.

NOPE

I change my mind this just screams death.

That would be incredibly ill-advised! There are some dark forces you just don't want to mess around with. You understand this better than most. You put the book down.

I like the fact that Rose has an object with such dark and terrible powers even the inventory system and the narrator are advising us to put it as far away as possible from anything resembling a weapon slot.

Was I correct in the eldritch powers thing??

Rose: Recaptchalogue your items!

Oh hello again you terrible, terrible captchalogue system.

You grab the KNITTING BAG and the GRIMOIRE, in that order. It's always a logistical puzzle with your TREE MODUS. The tree AUTO-BALANCES, leaving the KNITTING BAG accesible in the ROOT CARD.

Imagine having one of this in a real videogame.

Seems the kind of move Yoko Taro would do.

................That rithym minigame

Rose: Allocate knitting needles to strife specibus.

Eesh, that seems like a very nasty weapon by necessity.

You feel a lot more comfortable with this as a weapon. You're so handy with those needles, you feel like you could probably use them to filet a sword fish.

Damn, Rose could be fucking deadly with those.

Say goodbye to all the tender spots of flesh in your body.

John has it lucky with his captchalogue thing.

You lose the ROOT CARD in the process, severing the tree. Hey, careful with all that stuff!

Yeah let’s not break the laptop. Or the Necronomicon, Or both.

Rose: Knit plush cuddle-cthulhu to soothe nerves.

Greatest idea so far.

...it’s the actual necronomicon isn’t it.

That would also be a preposterous waste of time!!! Besides, you're quite sure you've never heard of this creature called "Cthulhu" before. There are however many other specimens of the ZOOLOGICALLY DUBIOUS you're familiar with. Such as...

Or this universe’s version of it at least.

Rose: Consult the grimoire.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT’S FLUTHLU!! WITH A BUNCH OF HORRIFYING BEASTS AROUND IT.

IN THE IMAGINARY CITY STREETS

HOW HAVE YOU BEEN, LAST TIME I SAW YOU, YOU GOT STABBED BY A VERY CHARISMATIC DETECTIVE AND BEHEADED BY A WINDOW PORTAL.

IN CASE YOU COULDN’T TELL, I REALLY APPRECIATE THE REFERENCE.

FLUTHLU, FOUL PATRICIAN OF MISERY. To hear his mammoth belly gurgle is to know the Epoch of Joy has come to an abrupt end

Oh god, we get to see even greater elder gods now!!

Nrub’yiglith.... is that a reference to Shrub-Niggurath? Seems the most likely one to me.

And NRUB'YIGLITH, SHAMEBEAST KING OF GROTESQUERY, WRITHE-LORD OF THE MOIST BEYONDHOOD. Hearing his melodious chirps and tongue-clicks causes one's bones to explode.

WRITHE-LORD OF THE MOIST BEYONDHOOD!!

These descriptions are fucking amazing.

Oglogoth....Ok, this is definitely Azathoth, the daemon sultan.

Nice!

And of course there's OGLOGOTH, THE DEEP ONE. Whenever he grinds his teeth, all the children of a random galaxy somewhere will frown continuously for a nine thousand year span.

These fucking descriptions.... Holy shit give me 500 of these.

He is the first and smallest of the SMALLER GODS, appointed in servitude of a vile, unfathomable pantheon of MIDDLING GODS which caters to the whims of the NOBLE CIRCLE OF HORRORTERRORS, an omniscient, omnipotent order of the elite few, forever cloaked in the darkness of the FURTHEST RING.

What the fuck???

So in the homestuck universe, Azathoth is just a scrub! There are a whole three tiers above him in power!

The noble circle of horrorterrors, cloaked in the darkness of the furthest ring...

Someone should make a story with all this lore, or use it in a DnD campaign. Some of this is legitimately really good.

OH MY GOD

THE WINDOW PORTALS. THEY ARE OUTLINED HERE AS WELL.

And then there's this strange page containing some rather mysterious notes on summoning procedures. You've never been quite sure what these diagrams are getting at.

.....of course they are the summoning rituals!!

They lead to the imaginary city and if you cut their power while you are outside an eldritch being appears!!

Flutulhu was summoned after a city-wide blackout, so I wonder what would be needed for oglogoth... I was going to say a planet-wide blackout, but the imaginary city is.....all that exists over there, alongside the four realms and the cathedral/brothel/sun and moon/GPI, and all the other cosmology.

Maybe if you were outside a window during the last supermassive black hole?? That is probably the most pitch black you could ever get while in the imaginary world....

#Homestuck #Homestuck liveblog #mspaintadventures #mspaintadventures liveblog #Problem Sleuth #oglogoth

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theworldbrewery · 6 years ago

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Hot Takes: Elves

“When an elven soul returns to Arvandor, it is adopted by the other gods of the Seldarine and given respite from the world for a time, during which it is left alone to ponder its creator’s disappointment.” -Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, p 36

I have three sourcebooks in front of me, and all of them are trash.

Elf lore has gotten more fucked up with every new release, and WotC seem to just be digging themselves deeper.

The drow and Lolth

Narrow depictions of ethereal beauty

Relationships with other races, especially orcs

At the root of this is the rather uncomfortable blend of religious themes and racial predestination found in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes.

Disclaimer: I don’t want to suggest that all the official elf lore is bad. I want to suggest that all the official race lore is bad, actually.

Let’s dig in. Scroll to the bottom of the post if you wanna skip all the bad stuff WotC already wrote about elves.

“[The drow] are infamous for their cruelty, evilness, and desire to dominate.” -Sword Coast Adventurer’s Guide, p. 107

“To most, [drow] are a race of demon-worshipping marauders [...] emerging only on the blackest nights to pillage and slaughter the surface dwellers they despise.” -Player’s Handbook, p. 24

“The surface elves’ attitude toward murder [...] is carried to the extreme by the drow, who have elevated the assassination of both enemies and friends to an art and who consider killing to be just another tool for resolving disputes and clearing the way for social advancement.” -Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, p. 40-41

So all this is bad. We’re gonna throw all this out in a hot sec, but I’m quickly going to discuss why the lore looks like this in case someone is unfamiliar with it:

basically, the creator of All Elves, Corellon, had a descendant goddess named Lolth, who apparently claimed that elves could attain superiority over other races, had a major falling-out with Corellon, and her followers went with her into exile and became the drow. Also in Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, the elves were revealed to be trapped in a cycle of reincarnation where they spent an undetermined period of time dead, alone, and left to contemplate how disappointed Corellon was in them for agreeing with Lolth even a little bit. For some reason, this reincarnation cycle is presented as a good thing... somehow. (this is why elves have a blase reaction to murder, since the deceased will just be reborn later, and why the drow seem to be just fine with killing recklessly.)

This all could be just fine! Except drow are conspicuously the darkest-skinned subrace of elves, and also the one most aligned with a ‘matriarchal’ society. It’s worth pointing out that Corellon is a nonbinary god, but also that the elves “viewed Corellon as their father, the one who had sired them, and Lolth as their mother, the one who set them on the path to their destiny” (p. 36 of MToF). So not only is Corellon being forced into a cisnormative creator narrative, but the comparative “woman” power is being characterized with cruelty and violence. So there’s a lot going on with ‘innate’ savagery and race.

So we’re just gonna throw all that out, because it sucks. It’s got signficant racist implications of inherent violence in racial groups. Sure, WotC tries to retcon it from an in-born racial trait to a cultural one, but it still preys on the concepts of racial essentialism, whether biological or cultural, and fuck that noise.

“Usually, true elves were a naturally slender and athletic race. Elves had a similar range of complexions to humans, with wood elves typically coppery or pale skinned and wild elves having darker pigmentation.”

“[Elves] live in places of ethereal beauty, in the midst of ancient forests or in silvery spires [...] Elves love nature and magic, art and artistry, music and poetry, and the good things of the world.” -Player’s Handbook, p. 21

Moving on from the drow, official lore gives the impression of elves as a whole as graceful, thin, and more ‘white.’ The quote above from the Forgotten Realms wiki (which is often used for lore reference) asserts that “wild” elves have “darker pigmentation”--a frankly horrifying example of the same problem with the drow characterization equating savagery, or lack of civilization, with dark skin colors. It’s... bad. It looks bad and it is bad.

Furthermore, the ‘good’ elves (and this itself has to be interrogated) are “naturally slender and athletic,” and constantly being characterized as beautiful. We’re equating elves with thinness and apparent youthfulness--you’ll never hear about the beauty of gnomes, for example, who are just as long-lived but who continue to age at a human-ish rate (making them extremely old-looking by the end of their lifespan). Looking young, thin, and athletic combined with the goodness, grace, and artistic nature of elves creates 1) a very human-esque image of beauty that elves almost surely shouldn’t possess, and 2) a serious problem of describing most elves as “good and beautiful” and drow as “evil”.

“Although they can be haughty, elves are generally gracious even to those who fall short of their high expectations—which is most non-elves.”

“Most of the gods accepted Corellon’s mutability and passionate behavior, but these traits infuriated Gruumsh, the greatest of the orc gods.” -Mordenkainen’s Tome of Foes, p. 35

The PHB has a subsection on elven attitudes toward other races, specifically dwarves, halflings, and humans. This subsection is comprised of backhanded compliments: dwarves are stupid and clumsy but brave and good craftworkers, humans go much too fast but they’re good at accomplishing stuff, etc. In MToF, we see the “elven perspective” that if elves are reincarnated souls of their ancestor elves, then half-elves are a reincarnated but weak elf, a human soul in an elf-ish body, or a “true elf” trapped in a half-body until freed by death, all basically bummers. And don’t get me started on orcs, where their god was the cause of the bloodshed that created the first elves.

In the official lore, elves look down on everyone, all the time, for just about any reason. And those reasons almost always fall into (you guessed it!) racial stereotyping!!

There’s no discernible reason for elves to be as “haughty” as they are. Apparently they’re just so perfect that it’s impossible to live up to their expectations. I guess.

And that’s not even getting into the concept of eternally punishing all elves for apparently disagreeing with Corellon, all of one (1) single time. It’s... horrific. Reading up on the reincarnation cycle has only convinced me that it’s designed as a unique torture where elves have to spend their childhood totally aware of how they betrayed their primary deity in a past life, then when they “sleep” or trance out they also relive those memories, and then forget them just in time to die and be forced to spend up to millennia pondering how Corellon is upset with them. And that’s the elves who get reincarnated! The drow live shorter lives, and will never reach the apparent paradise of Arvandor. They just go to some other afterlife plane, presumably the one reigned over by an evil spider goddess.

Like. That’s so awful and grimdark, and steps all over the “elves are descended from the fey” thing, but more than that?

It’s horribly unimaginative. It’s just so boring in comparison to all the potential an elf society contains. (not to mention it’s wayyyy too focused on the cosmic side of things rather than a societal view.)

Reimagining Elves

yeah, so, given that we’re scrapping... pretty much all the elf lore.... I’d be remiss in not providing some cooler, more inventive options. As always, you can always choose to craft your own, but here are some ideas to get the gears turning.

Racial interactions: Elves live in close communities composed of one’s extended family, and place a lot of emphasis on family ties and the political relationships between elf families. These family communities tend toward conservatism, with the elders of the family deciding things like marriages, suitable careers, etc.

Marrying outside the complicated political machinations of elven culture is verboten, so having half-elf children is especially off-limits. Or leave that whole hangup in the lorebooks entirely! Maybe having loads of half-elf children, especially by multiple humans, is super popular because then you can get your political influence into many different places! Who knows!

But also, any culture that doesn’t lean into this community structure is seen as totally incomprehensible and not worth bothering with. Too many failed marriages with orcs who don’t understand things like “individual property rights”.

Aesthetics: Elves tend to do artsy stuff, but their definition of “art” is... unusual, for most other races. They carve large boulders in the woods and just... leave them there for travelers to find, or manipulate the growth of vines to take shapes like one of an elf drawing a bow, or weave a glimmering silver net of fine thread and hang it from the trees like a dew-speckled spiderweb. They’re reclusive, living in artists enclaves.

They might dress in loud colors, play screamo music because it’s “expressive”, and paint their faces with blocky shapes because it’s “an avant-garde reflection of the soul.” Go wild.

Elves can be chubby, elves can be fat, elves can be buff, elves can be light and dark-skinned, elves can glow in the dark, elves can be disabled, elves can be chronically ill (actually, imagine elves with disabilities or illness creating the most pretentious medical aids or training like. a direwolf as a service animal. cause they’re that extra.), elves can be tall or short or whatever. just make sure they have pointy ears (unless...)

Subrace differences, gender: different elf communities have very different views on gender; none of which are “there are two immutable genders/sexes.” for instance, high elves might have a rigid 2-gender system, but it mostly relies on sets of stereotypes and social roles that adolescent elves have to choose as they mature, and then they’re ‘locked in’ for the rest of their life, and they’re seriously looked down on for violating those rules one gender is not valued over another, but they’re rigid systems.

wood elves may have a ‘what’s a gender’ approach instead, but then any elf who comes up with a gender identity for themself is suspected of wanting to be like those snobbish high elves or something.

The drow are inclined to have lots of genders, but there’s a clear hierarchy that places “femininity” (by an elf definition) above other gender presentations in emulation of their goddess, Lolth.

Subrace differences, food: Elves divide themselves by how they cultivate their food. Wood elves cultivate “wild” foods by feeding meat and dairy-producing animals and taking care of naturally occurring plants, and harvesting from the technically-untamed world when they need supplies.

High Elves have gardens and livestock pens, which are typically exquisitely maintained, but they don’t eat meat; all animals are strictly for dairy and textiles.

Drow have a collectivist system of crop production, which involves sustainable growing practices on the lands they own aboveground and harvesting at night. They keep animals to eat weeds, bees to pollinate and for honey, and spiders that catch pest insects that would damage the crops.

Religion/Ancestry: some elves believe their elf gods shaped them from the fey, some believe they were descended from the fey and the gods adopted them, and others insist that evolution is fake and the gods created them from whole cloth and the fey thing is just a coincidence.

Weapons: Elves train with weapons because it is: an artform (weapon dancing), a skill competition, an environmental necessity (either for hunting or for battle), or what have you.

The drow, as a whole: you get to choose one. Either the drow are evil, or the drow are dark-skinned, or neither of those are true (on like, a subrace level. individual drow can be whatever). Anyway. If the drow aren’t evil (the better option anyway), they weren’t exiled to the Underdark. Obviously. but a significant portion of the elven population is descended from winter eladrin/the Unseelie Court, and as a result they are allergic to sunlight to varying degrees, so they’ve made a home underground. They worship the spider goddess because she taught them to weave clothing from the web of giant spiders that live in the Underdark. Let Lolth be the goddess of practical craftwork, rather than art for art’s sake, a goddess of knowledge and advancement instead of murder and savagery.

Obviously you can use any and all of these in your own campaign. If you don’t use them, have fun making up your own lore that is clearly superior to existing WotC elf lore!

#dnd #pathfinder #dungeons and dragons #critical role #taz #elves

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animebw · 6 years ago

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Short Reflection: Dr. Stone

Sometimes I wonder if I’m turning into an anime hipster. When you’ve seen as much of the medium as I have, you start seeing all the patterns and tropes that most of the popular stuff employs, and the same things that once amazed you now come off as commonplace and trite. More and more I find myself enjoying the shows that slip a little under the radar, while the big seasonal fare everyone flocks to has a bigger chance of leaving me cold. Maybe I’m growing jaded and cynical, maybe this just hasn’t been a particularly good year for anime (certainly this fall season has been a flop and a half), or maybe I just need to catch up on all the shows that everyone’s been banging on about from 2019. Hell, I haven’t even watched Demon Slayer, Kaguya-Sama or Vinland Saga yet, it’s definitely far too soon to write the entirety of popular anime off. So if I’m not as over the moon for Dr. Stone as everyone else seems to be, perhaps it’s because I know anime’s capable of far more impressive, imaginative, important accomplishments than a mostly competent adaptation of a goofy shonen property. But as I’m so often fond of saying, sometimes just being good enough can be, well, good enough, And whatever else one might say about Dr. Stone, it is, at the very least, good enough.

Dr. Stone’s biggest strength is easily the uniqueness of its premise, and the way it uses that premise to tell a kind of story you don’t see that often. A mysterious event causes the entire human race to become petrified into stone statues all at once, and as years pass, nature reclaims the entirely of human civilization. By the time the first petrified human is revived, it’s four thousand years later and the world has been reduced back to its natural, prehistoric state. Thankfully, this first revival is Senku Ishigami, a teenage super-genius who’s so absurdly smart he was able to keep exact track of how long he’d been petrified by counting the seconds he was locked in that stone cocoon. Human civilization may have fallen, but every incredible thing we’ve accomplished throughout six thousand years of recorded history is still there in Senku’s head. And after reviving a couple of his classmates to ally with, Senku sets out on a mission to restore all the petrified people and rebuild the entirely of human civilization from the ground up, using nothing but his extensive knowledge of all things Science(tm). Can he and his friends fast-track their way through millennia of societal evolution while staying alive in an untamed, hostile new world?

So essentially, Dr. Stone is a survivalist Bill Nye shonen adventure where the appeal comes not from power levels and flashy fights, but from watching this smart-ass Mensa wannabee Macguyver his way through countless technological breakthroughs, using the natural ingredients of the world itself to build a smorgasboard of inventions from the ground up. That’s a really creative idea for a long-running story, and this show makes full use of how fucking cool basic engineering and chemistry can be. We take a lot for granted in today’s modern world, and it’s only when everything is stripped back to its roots like this that you really come to appreciate how goddamn cool it was that humanity was able to figure out all these crazy applications for nature’s basic resources. Over the course of these episodes, we get to see how everything from soap to pulley systems to medicine to fancy food to freaking record players gets made, and the logic behind their construction is all sound enough that you can really believe Senku could pull this off. There’s a real giddiness to this show’s creative spirit, reminiscent of a kid breaking out the chemistry kit and figuring out what wild creations they can pull off with the limited tools at their disposal.

And through rebuilding all these scientific breakthroughs, Dr. Stone makes you truly appreciate how incredible the things we take for granted truly are. There’s a character with poor eyesight who Senku ends up recreating glasses for, and as someone who’s been wearing glasses for over a decade, I was shocked by how emotional I got when she puts the glasses on and sees clearly for the first time in her life. I’ve barely thought about the importance of glasses in my life at all, but that one moment truly made me appreciate how much better my life has been with the ability to see clearly. There’s a genuine power to science and progress, a power to improve lives, deepen our appreciation of the world around us, and make us better, more thoughtful people in the process. And Senku’s journey to restore all the progress civilization’s made in the past few millennia helps you appreciate just how impactful all our commonplace inventions really are. A single light bulb illuminating the jungle makes you realize how incredible it is that we have reliable light sources at our disposal that we can control with the press of a button. A silly little ramen stand makes you appreciate how cool it is that we made fine cuisine out of the basic necessity of food. If there’s one thing I really appreciate Dr. Stone for, it’s for helping me better appreciate how goddamn good we have it in today’s world, and how we still have the potential to make it even better by carrying on the march of scientific progress.

So if I have so much praise for Dr. Stone’s central conceit and its execution, then why am I otherwise so ambivalent about the show at large? Well, it’s kind of a combination of factors, but it mostly all boils down to the fact that as good as this show’s scientific storytelling is, it’s trapped in a show that tends to feel highly pedestrian and shallow otherwise. The background art and music are both very pretty and sell the beauty and wonder of this future prehistoric world, but the actual animation is incredibly stiff, relying on punchy facial expressions and impact frames to cover for how little motion there actually is. Unfortunately, the moment-to-moment pacing is pretty draggy on top of that, with jokes that grate on for too long and punchlines that follow too slowly on top of their setup, so the admittedly creative facial expressions can only do so much. On top of that, pretty much all the vocal performances are turned up to 11, and a good chunk of the characters can be seriously grating as a result. The whole affair’s trying so had to be waaaaaacky and silly that it far too often tips over into obnoxiousness, to the point where you just want everyone to shut up, stop sucking on so much helium, and take a deep breath before getting back to business at a more measured timbre. Thankfully, Senku himself manages to be funny in his exaggerated mannerisms and speech more often than the vast majority of the cast, in no small part thanks to Yuusuke Kobayashi’s vocal performance grounding him in just the right balance of slimeball preening, flamboyant posturing, and actual gravitas. Considering Kobayashi brought very similar energy to Re:Zero’s Natsuki Subaru, with similarly winning results, this was pretty much a perfect casting choice. It’s just a shame that few of the other voice actors are able to strike a similarly effective balance.

I guess my overall point is, Dr. Stone is a very good concept with a very good execution of that concept, but it’s hindered by the juvenile, unfocused slurry of show surrounding it. And I’m at the point of my anime-watching habits where I pay as much attention to the craft of the show itself as the story that show exists to facilitate. Maybe if I was younger, Dr. Stone’s expertly crafted central thesis would have been enough to get me just as hyped for it as everyone else seems to be. As is, though, while I’m definitely frustrated by how much better this show could have been, that central thesis still really damn works, and that’s enough to make it worth a recommendation regardless. We could use more shonen that eschew the classic battle formula in favor of more experimental story frameworks like this one. Not every show that can make the invention of glasses feel as genuinely meaningful as Deku smacking down bad guys with finger-snapping effort. So for all its faults, there’s still enough of value to Dr. Stone for me to award it a score of:

6/10

And with that, we’re almost done with the leftovers of the summer season! I’ve just got one more summer short reflection to get to, and, well, let’s just say I’m going to be... far less forgiving on that one. Until next time!

#anime #the anime binge-watcher #tabw #dr. stone #dr stone #senku ishigami #summer 2019 anime #summer 2019 sr #summer 2019

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theloniousbach · 6 years ago

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Into the New Year for Jazz

I have submitted the following to a dear friend who runs the jazz show on Toledo Public Radio for inclusion on the website.

INTO 2020 WITH JAZZ SPECTRUM

Even as I gladly accept these invitations to sum up the year or, even this time, the decade, I don’t quite do as I’m told and so don’t color between the lines I’ve been given. Sorry.

Like you, our listeners, I rely on Jazz Spectrum to introduce me to current developments and to fill in gaps between 1982, say, and 2015 when, alas, jazz wasn’t my primary listening. It is again in no small measure due to this show that I am back in this wonderful game. I am developing enough current knowledge to be on the lookout for current players (let’s start with the members of Artemis who do fascinating work individually and collectively--more shortly) and trends, but I’m not auditioning dozens of recordings every week, putting together a four hour show, and doing all the work that makes the show such a resource.

So I don’t have a best of 2019 or best of the 2010s to offer. But, I do have some thoughts.. So, bear with me, or don’t and go re/read our host’s more fine grained observations.

In thinking about the impact on hip hop on this music, I offhandedly texted my old friend that jazz has always been fusion music. I didn’t happen to have a teenager bring home the latest incarnation of African American popular music, rhythm, and rebellion, so I’m learning about it indirectly when I see Terence Blanchard, Robert Glaspar, and Stefon Harris. Brilliant players all of them with crack bands and a deep grounding in the wider tradition from which they can bring the new energy into the music. Today I prefer pianos to guitars and acoustic instruments to electric ones, with little affinity for vocoders, looping, and effects. The beats are infectious and jazz drummers are amazing for their huge ears and magical abilities to move the beat around, using the timbres of the drums to comment on everything the rest of the band is doing. As an example I was just able to watch Nate Smith+Kinfolk via live streaming from our local club. He was a dynamo with as much energy and power as the rest of the band--solid and smooth as they are--combined.

Hip hop has to be part of what propels this rhythmic invention. If my kid perversely stuck with our traditional English and Celtic folk music, then, that I don’t get hip hop from him is my problem, not jazz’s. I embraced my generation’s fusions--rock, funk--and went back to Latin, Afro Cuban, rhythm and blues, show tunes, Third Stream, gospel, blues, and ragtime and saw them come into jazz. So I’m prepared intellectually at least to welcome these latest developments. These fusions have made and remade jazz, so yes it’s always been fusion music.

But let me borrow an idea from my quarter century looking at evolutionary biologist Edgar Anderson who worked at the Missouri Botanical Garden from 1922-1969. His signature idea was that repeated backcrossing is as important a source of genetic variation as mutations and thus gives natural selection something to work on. To apply it to jazz, it was jazz before and after Dizzy Gillespie started playing with Chano Pozo, but now we have Cuban and Latin and African rhythms in everyone’s musical DNA. All sorts of tunes from all sorts of players now can just naturally take on a Latin feel. It’s part of jazz that then continues to listen with its big big ears.

What has always excited me are these hybridizations and that is what will continue to invigorate the music into the 2020s.Kodri Gopalnath who died this October was not a jazz musician, but he brought the saxophone to Carnatic (Indian) classical music. Rudresh Mahanthappa studied with him and brought that tradition into his playing. It’s there now all the time whether in his reimagining of Charlie Parker on his 2015 album “Bird Calls” or with Rez Abassi in the Indo-Pak Coalition or his own “just jazz” gigs. This quote from his Wikipedia article captures this idea of introgressive hybridization: “In a 2011 interview with Westword newspaper about the resulting album, Samdhi, Mahanthappa said, "my idea was to take whatever I learned—take that knowledge—and really put in a setting that has nothing to do with Indian classical music.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudresh_Mahanthappa

Since some of Miles Davis’s 1970s work incorporated sitars and tablas and remembering John Coltrane’s “India,” this music has been in the mix for decades. It prompted a “Miles from India” two-CD set from 2008. I try to keep an eye on Mahanthappa, Abassi (recording 1970s fusion tunes acoustically is damned clever), and especially Vijay Iyer to watch how jazz varies and is enriched. I saw Iyer with his trio in 2016 catching extended hypnotic improvisations, one phased into “Epistrophy” before churning on. He has recorded in lots of other settings, including duos with Wadada Leo Smith and Craig Taborn and with a sextet. It is important music.

That’s one hybridization that backcrosses into jazz. Another is with Middle Eastern, including Israeli, music.Abdul Al-Malik recorded on oud as well as bass in the late 1950s and early 1960s and Anour Brahem played oud with Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette on “Blue Maqams” in 2017. Those are first generation crosses. It’s when someone like Omer Avital plays jazz informed by his Israeli upbringing that the introgression happens, when there are new scales, new rhythms to incorporate. Avital’s own albums and with the OAM trio (including a set with the intriguing tenor Mark Turner) are favorites. I also owe Jazz Spectrum an exposure to the Chicago trumpeter Amir ElSaffar and his Two Rivers Project which explores his Iraqi roots in a jazz context.

Anat Cohen is an exuberant player, exuding joy at what she and her bands do. She has played with her brothers, Avishai and Yuval, with lots of Israeli in the mix, but she has Brazilian and Edith Piaf too. She is in the multinational band Artemis: two Canadians--leader Renee Rosnes and trumpeter Ingrid Jensen, Chilean Melissa Aldana on tenor, bassist Noriko Ueda from Japan, and the lone American, and the amazing drummer Alison Miller. Their debut album, probably with Cecile McLorin Salvant, will be a highlight of the coming year as their run here in St. Louis this October was.

I am particularly astounded by what drummers are doing these days. Of course, there are sources--Max Roach, Jack DeJohnette’s insistent but subtle cymbals--and Art Blakely and Elvin Jones were not simply powerful engines driving the band. But Miller is a fine example of, call it, “melodic drumming” where each drum/brush stroke is perfectly placed on the drum head, cymbal, even rim or side of the drum, to deliver not just a beat but a harmonic/melodic comment on the rest of the band. There are so so many players and they make just about every show I see special. Witnessing the magic in the making is why live performance is so much richer than recordings.

But to return to hybridizations, starting at least with Mid East ones, let me focus on London as a key world center for this music. Precisely as the still Metropolitan center of a thankfully fading empire (Imagine there’s no countries/It isn’t hard to do/Nothing to kill or die for), it is a hybrid zone. Yazz Ahmed is a Bahrani-Brit whose trumpet playing is enriched as she explores her Arab heritage. She does exciting stuff and has followed up “La Saboteuse” with “Polyhymnia” this year. Shabaka Hutchings has Barbadian heritage and brings that to his tenor and several key projects in the London scene. I’m drawn to the intensity of Sons of Kemet where he solos over Theon Cross’s tuba and two drummers, but Hutchings also works with The Comet Is Coming and The Ancestors. I’m a sucker for low brass, so I keep an eye on Cross too and he has his own FYAH released and is in the SEED Ensemble.

That London is a major jazz center is a development worth monitoring. I think it speaks to the vibrancy of this music and the role of these hybridizations in keeping it so exciting.

I am eager for the 2020s.

#2019 #wgte #jazz

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lairofsentinel · 6 years ago

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that bi post is interesting- i guess i have a third pov tho. ive seen some people use bi in a "new" way, to mean stuff like "attracted to women and nb people", "to men and nb people" or "attracted to several genders but not necessarily all" and so on, but also to mean, yeah, pan. and ngl thats cool. i think bi's pretty much a neat catchall for multisexuals of all kind, a bit like how queer is a catchall for anyone not cis or straight, and historically bi even used to group ace people too.

i reread your tags three times and actually it seems that we agree- i guess im just tempted to say that while everyone agrees on the meaning of pan, some people however use it differently to reflect their experience better. but unlike most people i dont view it as a bad thing but way more as something great because people can talk about their experience without feeling bound by, well, limits and definitions and blah i guess ? and as a trans person i find this great and important, not transphobic

Hello there,

thank you for sharing your pov.

I mean, the “new” way sure has a lot to do with “in which country you live”. Here, where I live, people is not using bi-pan in any new different way. But I've seen/read certain strange uses online. [the funniest use and also the only one that annoyed me was, time ago, when some weird straight people started to say: “I'm bisexual, but I only like men/women”.... like... what? How that bisexuality works? XD, but anyway, I'm nobody to go as a gender/sexuality police. Pft, I can't even speak English properly in a discussion. xD]. Also, years ago, some weird people started to say that pansexuality included trans people, while bisexuality no, so they kind of enforced the concept that “bisexuality ” had a transphobic root in its own... which is stupid, since statistics shows that trans people has quite more chances to be in a relationship with a bi/pan partner than a gay/hetero one... so.... soooooo......really crazy the way people spread misinformation.

The meaning of the tags... well... it's long: I can't be anything else but chill about the enormous amount of words that LGBT community has crafted along these last years, because sure, we all want to have the exact right word for us, to condense all our complexity in a single word XD. But let's be honest, no way that would happen, ever. So, until people “discovered” [or more like accepted] that gender and sexuality are a spectrum and are more complex than 3 or 4 words, we developed a lot of words along the way, and made use of the same word with several different uses, making of this world a more complex one [because we are never satisfied with our own :P]. And I'm not even counting on the fact of those “re-appropriated” words that were a slur previously, back in time, such as queer. Those words are a whole lot of mess.

Two simple examples:

A friend of mine at work is a bisexual woman [happily married with her wife <3] explained to me that, in her case, she decided to use bisexual over pansexual simply because in her teenage, bisexual was a strong word, a prohibited one, one she was not allowed to use and one that brought her years of shame and trauma and violence. Pansexual was not invented back then. So, for her, who can be attracted to everyone, all genders [and even loves Turians, go figure :P] pansexual had no meaning. Instead, bisexual was the word that made her feel proud once she go out of the closet. Bisexual was all what she could not be in that moment, and was a lot of shit she had to suffer in order to endure, so she finds a lot of pride in that word.

Another case: I, for example, feel super weird with labels. I'm nb, I give a fuck to any word of any gender. But I live in a Spanish speaking country and.... the HELL with the strongly gendered languages... I keep jumping from masculine to feminine or using the “new” neutral forms with -e [that all puritans hate and fight me for that]. But still yet, I keep using the word gay [in English, because at least it's more neutral than any other], because for the world, I'm a gender that can't be hidden once I speak [you know, damn voice] and I kind of be attracted to people of the “same” gender that everyone attaches to me [I said it in that way, because I'm more like a demy-gay, but forget to use demisexual here, nobody knows shit XD]. So... the obvious, shortest way, and efficient way to get rid of that problem every time I have to deal with that [aka, some person asks me with a reasonable argument that doesnt make me to toss them away], it's the word gay. But again, not even that means what it usually means, in my case. But again, imagine explaining all this shit, all the time, every time someone asks me with good reasons?. No way, I'll get bored of all that jabber.

So, these 2 single examples are to explain that... well, LGBT identity words, today, are a mess. Especially if you start adding those trans-masculine and trans-feminine and a lot of extra adjectives.... to me it's more confusing to understand what that person truly is, but what it's clear with that is that such person has a complex identity that wants to be acknowledged. So, if I know this, and if it's relevant for some valid [aka non-creepy] reason, I would ask to understand exactly the shade they mean, so I can acknowledge them properly. Because every gender and sexuality is a mess by its own. We will never get one single word that can embrace it wholly. I know some lucky people got it, they are gay, and cis, or trans and hetero and they are super fine with that...and I'm happy for them, they don't need extra explanations for describe their genders and sexualities xD.

That's why my tags were like that. Pansexuality appeared some decades ago [it's a super young word], specially in countries that are not USA [which it is the country that everything usually revolts around, here in tumblr]. Pan is a super new word, that mostly young people would be more inclined to use. It's more meaningful for young people [maybe. This is not a must. More like an average estimation.]

It's like queer. The oldest LGBT people, with USA-background, will probably hate it to use it. They attached to that word a slur shade that pierced their lives, it's too harmful even to use as a re-appropriated word. Yet, young people love it. Specially people without usa-background. Some of them can't even fathom the hard history meaning behind it.

Well, queer word, outside the history, is a whole mess in its own XD. What does a person mean when they say that they are queer? Are they gay? Are they trans? Are they nb? . Nobody knows. And it's ok, the clear meaning in that word is “look, I'm not cis and/or hetero”. And that's the way it works. I like to use it sometimes too, now that it has been popularised in the South hemisphere thanks to the influences of Butler.

So, yeah, we agreed, anon. XDI tried to say the same as you in my messy tags. I wrote that because sometimes I find such a nerdrage about the **chastity** or the **purity** of languages with this mess of words, or the annoyance of people that don't know the 52 labels at our disposal to describe the LGBT experience. And I simply say that it's okay not to know all of that, and not to force or stress into picking one, because most probably, you will not get it completely explained in one single word, since words, despite being 52, are limited, and sexuality and gender is a whole mess with flavours, colours and shits, that—even worse—may change with time xD.

So... the most mature attitude I think someone can take about this mess is to relax about those labels, pick the ones they think fits better for them, and understand that everyone has their own gender/sexuality, and that label may not suffice, so, when it's relevant, it's ALWAYS important to speak honestly. Yeah, all this textwall could never enter into the tags. xD.

#sexuality #gender #bisexuality #pansexuality #asks

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trainthief · 7 years ago

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Hey I was wondering if you'd ever consider doing like a top 20 fav classical music albums or composers list or something. Obviously if that just sounds stressful disregard this but I know you are like, into classical music & I grew up with my parents playing it & recently got, like, into the classical station but aside from like 3 artists I like I don't know where to start & I like your blog and would be interested in hearing about like, your taste

Sorry for responding to this so late, I’ve had a real week and I wanted to make sure I had time to put some thought into answering this ask. I’d definitely love to help, I always like recc’ing classical stuff to people! The idea of 20 absolute all time favorites is a difficult one for me because I love so much stuff and it’s really difficult to compare like… Caroline Shaw’s modern experimental chorale stuff to Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. Anyway, instead I will give you some full length pieces in different styles that I think are great for new listeners, and explain a little about what each one is doing and what I love about it, and some more pieces I recommend if you enjoy what you’re hearing. Hopefully that will help!

In no particular order:

Appalachian Spring by Copland: Let’s just get this one out of the way up front. If you’ve been following me for any amount of time at all, you know I’m deeply in love with Copland. He essentially invented the American compositional style by adding jazz elements to the established practices, which caused an absolute uproar at the beginning of his career as people then considered it an unholy mix of high and low culture. He doubled down on this concept when he wrote “Fanfare For The Common Man” which essentially stands as a celebration of the working class and those who couldn’t afford to see the symphony anyway. He was, I should also note, both gay and Jewish. A real icon. Anyhow, although I love so much of his work and could go on forever, I consider listening to Appalachian Spring in its entirety a spiritual experience, no exaggeration. Take it on a hike, listen to it while you look at the trees and think about whatever crosses your mind, and by the time the Coda hits you… well I personally can’t tell you what experience to have, but I feel for a second like I can see and be seen. Anyway, aside from that, just good music, very pretty. If you’d like similar music that incorporated jazz effectively into classical work, I’d of course recommend another favorite of mine: Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin.

Russian Easter Festival by Rimsky-Korsakov: As a general rule of thumb, Russian composers are ALWAYS good for some drama. This piece in particular is great because it’s not only fanfare and excitement, there’s a touch of pastoral calmness that I really love (more on that as a concept later) at the beginning, but we still get plenty of wildness. There’s a frantic octave part the violins play around minute 5 that always makes me want to scream. If you like this, I’d also recommend checking out Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol. The man knows how to write sexy.

Romance in D by Berkey: I recommend this partially because it’s a lesser known and very beautiful piece, and also because it’s a good lead-in to a whole subset of classical called Furniture Music. Essentially called that - originally by the composer Satie - because it’s nice to put on in the background. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still fun to listen to, and from a compositional and performance standpoint it can still be very impressive. But it’s just good and calming and you could certainly sip tea to it in the restaurant area of a ritzy 1920’s hotel while you read a novel and ignore your rich husband asking if you’d like any marmalade. A good example of the same effect is the soundtrack to Phantom Thread. It’s also good for studying. If you like that conceptually, I’ve got a whole playlist here.

Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky: A really excellent intro to classical and one of my favorite works, AND like the last one, also a lead-in to an informal format. Pictures was written with the idea that each song was a separate painting that the listener could imagine they were looking at in a museum. For that reason, each one has a different style and personality, and feels very descriptive and exciting. A collection of small related pieces is called a suite, but I haven’t yet been able to find a technical name for that specific kind of storytelling structure within a suite. It’s not uncommon though, and in that same vein I’d also recommend The Planets by Holst (about the planets, as you might assume), and Carnival of the Animals by Saint Saens (about… yeah you get it).

Spem in Alium by Tallis: We’re taking a wild left turn now and veering into the Christian choral tradition dating back to the 1500s. Like anyone else who isn’t even a Christian, there’s a few things about Catholicism that I’m obsessed with. Namely the hymns and the stained glass. Focusing only on the hymns, Tallis is one of the best examples of polyphonic hymnal work. Polyphonic, essentially, means that the different voices in the piece are moving around each other and will frequently change their notes in a way that will compliment - but is not necessarily in line with - the direction of the piece as a whole. It makes more sense if you just listen. The style, however, was developed in an attempt to capture the idea of the stars and planets circling each other in their own independent orbits, because at the time people had just started to turn their gaze to the sky for answers about their own lives. Aside from that very cool background, I just find the really human side of the choir format in particular paired with the elevation of music being this untouchable but powerful thing paired with the holiness of the concept paired with how awesome the acoustics of a chapel can be…. It’s just a lot. If you like this I’d also recommend Miserere Mei by Allegri, Ave Maris Stella by Dufay, and O Magnum Mysterium by Lauridsen

Peter Grimes by Britten: Classical music is so rooted in every musical tradition, and visa versa, that it’s almost impossible to separate it conceptually from a lot of genres. Technically, “classical” refers to a period of time more than it does a genre anyway, but let’s not get pretentious about it. While we’re pushing the boundaries of what can and can’t be included in this list, let’s talk Opera, and specifically Peter Grimes. When asked to describe it, Britten said it was “a subject very close to my heart—the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual.” More specifically the struggle was an allegory for gay oppression, and ironically Britten wrote the lead role with his lifelong partner Peter Pears - an opera singer - in mind. To give a taste without giving too much away, the Prologue establishes that Grimes, a fisherman, is being questioned over the death of his apprentice. The townspeople are all convinced before the questioning even begins that he must have done it, but the coroner decides the death was accidental. Grimes is let free and advised not to get another apprentice, but he of course ignores this…. If the vocal side of opera doesn’t do it for you, there are 4 Sea Interludes from this work that are really great independently. If you want even more opera with even more drama, I’d recommend looking at Tosca or Turandot both by Pucccini. If you think classic opera is too high brow and you want something a little sillier, try Mozart’s Magic Flute. If you want something more new age and weird, try listening to Two Boys by Muhly or selections from Einstein on the Beach by Glass (but probably not all 5 hours, Knee Play 5 and Spaceship would be my top 2).

Symphony No. 6 “Pastoral” by Beethoven: I mentioned earlier when describing the Russian Easter Festival that I love a piece with pastoral calmness. Getting back to that point, I haven’t ever seen one word that’s commonly used to describe this particular sense in a piece, but I personally call it a Pastoral after Beethoven’s 6th. In general, the symphony is one of my favorites as a composer and listener, especially given that it’s really just about taking a walk in nature which is one of only 3 themes music should have anyway in my opinion. A good amount of my music is written with this feeling in mind. Aside from all that context, the first movement in particular is very nice, passionate but not sensational, and is just about being excited to be outside. Nothing wrong with that. This subset of music is probably the most informal of all the ones I’ve listed so far, but if you’d like more “Pastorals,” or pieces that have a nice calm passion to them, I’d also highly recommend Enigma Variations: Nimrod by Elgar, Fantasia on a Theme of Tallis by Vaughan Williams, Once Upon A Time In America by Morricone, Musica Celestis by Kernis, and of course again Appalachian Spring by Copland. (I would also be legally sent to jail if I didn’t mention that while we’re on the subject of Beethoven, his 9th Symphony is generally considered one of the greatest achievements in classical music).

Rite of Spring by Stravinsky: A lot of these pieces have been good jumping off points into different musical concepts, but with this one I’m sticking my description to the initial piece itself. I got the chance to email with a composer I admire and he at one point described composition not in the sense of writing something “smart”, but in writing something “detailed”. The Rite of Spring is a really great example of detailed composition. It’s extremely experimental with its time changes - essentially the way that you should be counting your notes as a musician constantly changes and always into a pattern that’s difficult to keep track of - and also with its chord structure. The music itself can be jarring and odd to listen to but the composition wasn’t random and when studied shows an obsessive elbows-deep involvement in the work that I really admire. It might not surprise you to hear, however, that at the initial performance the audience was so furious that the lighting technician had to continually flash the lights to confuse them, out of fear of a riot. If you’d like something a bit more fun to listen to by the same composer, however, Firebird is a good one. And if you’d like another great piece that was completely booed off the stage at its premier, I’d recommend Grand Pianola by Adams.

Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev: While we’re in the general vicinity of ballet, I should get into that deeper. Ballets can have some of the most fun music to listen to because the timing is required to be so much more specific. Romeo and Juliet is a lot of fun, particularly the “Montagues and Capulets” and “Masks” sections. Another great ballet is, of course, The Nutcracker by Tchaikovsky. I’d also recommend Don Quixote by Minkus, and Rodeo by Copland…. I know I know

Violin Concerto in D by Tchaikovsky: I said Russians bring the drama, and it’s doubly so when it’s a gay Russian. This piece is a classic example of the solo concerto format, which is a staple of classical as a whole. The setup is a single player on whatever instrument the piece is written for accompanied by an orchestra, and is usually a showcase of technical skill by the soloist. This one in particular is basically THE turning point in a violinist’s studies and just about every violinist learns it as soon as they’re capable of taking it on. Personally I still vividly remember when my teacher finally gave it to me, it’s a very specific sense of accomplishment. Similar examples of the solo concerto format on different instruments would be Piano Concerto in F by Rachmaninoff, and Oboe Concerto in C by Mozart, both of which I absolutely love.

The Revd Mustard His Installation Prelude by Muhly: I’ve gone on forever so I’m trying to be quick. Nico Muhly is one of my favorite modern composers and Revd Mustard combines his classic ecstatic and constantly moving style with an organ, which I’m a sucker for. Contemporary classical in his style can be difficult to listen to because it’s gotten very experimental and as a result, very complicated. But if you don’t go into it with the expectation that you’re going to hear a structured and logical Mozart-like piece and you instead surrender your opinion until the whole thing has come together for you, it can be really interesting at the very least. As a side note, Nico has collaborated with Sufjan, Bjork, Jonsi, Teitur…. lots of people. You’ve certainly heard him before even if you didn’t know it. For more classical from the last few decades I’d recommend Partita for 8 Singers by Shaw, Tissue No. 7 by Glass, Different Trains by Reich, the Red Violin Concerto by Corigliano (especially because I just saw it live a few days ago and am still reeling), Perpetuum Mobile by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten by Part. Each of which is vastly different, stylistically speaking, but all of which I really love. And for more organ listen to one of my favorite pieces of all time, Symphony 3 by Saint Saens.

Ok, you know what? I’m cutting myself off because I’ve gone on forever. If you haven’t been put off of asking me questions entirely by now, please feel free if you want even more recommendations in a specific style, or want to know more about something you enjoy. Clearly I love talking about this. Hope that helped!

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zyzzyva1936-blog-blog · 7 years ago

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“Lemma the Librarian - Beast of the (Morning) Wood”

Published: February 13, 2016

http://www.mcstories.com/LemmaTheLibrarian/index.html

A little bit of bookkeeping first: this story opens with “In the end we decided to just put that nasty business in Kymri behind us and head for the next book...”. There is a story there*, but it works perfectly well as a noodle incident, so I’m not going to linger. On to the Lovecraft!

This story, I think, crosses the line into straight-up parody. The fact that Gwenneg is the nicest, most benevolent Old One cultist you could ever imagine! (The bit where he reenters the story kindly helping out an injured old man is what put him over the edge for me, although his inability to say the word “sex” despite running an orgiastic cult is also pretty great**.) The consenting sacrificial victim demanding that she be unnecessarily chained to the altar to be ravaged! Rothek-Zarduk, the black beast of the woods with a thousand young perpetually spurting penises! Iason, attempting to cut his own junk off to save the world!

It’s a hilarious story, is my point. For all that “the sun blazed a brilliant purple in a black sky full of gleaming, fat, jewel-colored stars” - which is a pretty great line - and the fact that the village is, in theory, sliding into a chaos dimension where it will be horrifyingly unmade, there’s never any real sense of danger. It’s just too silly to really carry that over.

Which, strangely enough, is vitally important for the sake of advancing the overall arc. Lemma’s conscience and willingness to endure dangers to help others continues to grow, of course, but this is also the one where Lemma and Iason Do It for the first time. If they’d done it without any kind of weird-ass mind control, it’d be anticlimactic and not really fit with the themes of the story; if they’d done it under the influence, it’d be creepy and kinda unpleasant for a romantic couple we’re presumably rooting for. But by having them agree do do it, Lemma get all cock-crazy in the process, and the whole thing be wrapped up in jokes, in a parody so silly as to be impossible to take seriously, we’re over the hump without any real moral qualm at all. It’s a fine needle to thread but @midorikonton carries it off well.

*“Harping on About It”, available on Smashwords and @midorikonton‘s Patreon. Support your local porn merchants!

**I 100% believe that his acolytes get up to some crazy orgy shit in the woods, and he has not so much as touched any of them. Which is not usual cult-leader behaviour, but it’s a parody and it’s much funnier this way. “Please, master, take us! Take us violently!” “But then who would chant the important ancient chants?” “...Fine. We’ll just be over here, fucking, if you need us. (Jerk.)”

When The Fuck Are We? 🤷

Not as much to say about this one*. We’re in Thumbria, “the northernmost of the Seven Kingdoms”, ie Northumbria, the northernmost of the Heptarchy kingdoms. Name’s a little more mangled than usual, probably because unlike Kyrno, etc, it’s an English name, and unlike Mercia it’s still somewhat in use. The people here mostly seem to have Celtic names again, although they’re also super-rural, so that works in either the “ancient Celtic Britons” or “unassimilated Celtic subjects of Angles” cases. The villagers seem pretty unconcerned about a cultists stealing their daughters off to his weird religion, and once they run out of other options turn to his religion without much qualm. As mentioned before, that kind of casual syncretism is much more of a preclassic thing than a dark ages thing. Chalk one up for the Bronze Age Collapse.

Gods are, of course, period: gods are in pretty much every culture and time. “Demons” are a bit more Christian-tinged (the demons we see later in the series are probably the most explicitly Christian thing in the whole series) but the idea of powerful, malevolent spirits to go with the beneficent ones that get worship are also pretty widespread and thus also period. Great Old Ones... are not. They’re an invention of Lovecraft (and even more, his followers and pastichers) in the 20th C. The closest ancient religions have would probably be the spirits of Chaos destroyed by creator gods at the beginning of various mythologies - Tiamat defeated by Marduk** is the most famous, probably, but lots of others have something similar. But Tiamat is just a big ol’ chaos dragon, not a threat to the structure of the universe itself, and - crucially - is dead. Generally speaking, chaos in ancient myth is something that has been defeated, not something that needs to be kept at bay. Lovecraft’s brand of cosmic horror springs from very modern concerns; it’s nihilistic and hopeless and very anti-humanocentric, which is a fundamentally alien view to any of the cultures we’ve been talking about in the historical sections.

On the other hand, Lovecraft has soaked into modern fantasy pretty deeply, if only in the cliched monsters with “eyes on tentacles and tentacles with mouths on the end and eyes that were also mouths” sense, and without that we’d miss out on “we’d all go insane, dissolve, and die, though the order in which those would happen was up for grabs.” So I think it’s worth it in this case.

*Ironically, I could probably ramble for a long time about bardic culture for “Harping on About It”. Frustratingly for my timeline-establishing efforts, there’s also a character that runs around screaming “we’re in the sixth century! We’re in the sixth century!” But I committed to only writing about the publicly available stuff.

**Which, according to the author’s note, is part of the etymology for “Rothek-Zarduk”, and the green grass grew all around all around and the green grass grew all around. Although Marduk’s role in that myth is of the conqueror of primordial chaos, rather than its embodiment.

~ Next time: Lemma gets mindfucked, as usual, but so does the reader, hoo boy. I am driven entirely mad, and talk about Thomas the Tank Engine.

#Lemma Reviews

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johnboothus · 5 years ago

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Next Round: The Owners of Ruffian and Kindred on Why Its Time to End Indoor Dining Now

Airing between regular episodes of the VinePair Podcast, “Next Round” explores the ideas and innovations that are helping drinks businesses adapt in a time of unprecedented change. As the coronavirus crisis continues and new challenges arise, VP Pro is in your corner, supporting the drinks community for all the rounds to come. If you have a story or perspective to share, email us at [email protected].

In this episode of “Next Round,” VinePair CEO and founder Adam Teeter speaks with Patrick Cournot, Alexis Percival, and Moshe Schulman, owners of Ruffian and Kindred in the East Village, NYC. The team returns after first speaking with Teeter in April 2020 to discuss how they’ve managed after receiving PPP loans, shifted from offering provisions to full-service outdoor dining, and continued to reinvent their restaurants along the way.

Both Ruffian and Kindred have undergone major transformations, from moving wine lists online, to operating as shared coworking spaces during the day. Thanks to their motivated team, the restaurants have made it this far, but their owners are unsure of what the winter has in store for Kindred, Ruffian, and restaurants nationwide.

In this conversation, Cournot, Percival, and Schulman dive deep into what customers don’t see from the outside, and why restaurants need government officials to approve grants and aid now. While this team has done everything they can to constantly reimagine their restaurants, they anticipate new mandated restaurant closures as soon as next week. The restaurateurs emphasize that Americans must change their behavior and support politicians who deliver the hard truth.

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Or check out the conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter. And this is a VinePair Next Round conversation. We’re bringing you these conversations between our regular podcast episodes to give a clear picture of what’s happening to restaurants and bars during the Covid-19 crisis. Today, I’m again really lucky to be talking with Alexis, Patrick, and Moshe, the partners in the amazing wine bars and restaurants Ruffian and Kindred in New York City’s East Village.

For those of you that listened to the podcast earlier in March, they were some of the first people we talked to when all the crazy shit started to hit the fan. And again, we are really lucky to have you guys back to talk to us about what’s going on now. So Alexis, Patrick, Moshe thank you so much for joining me.

Alexis: Thanks, Adam.

Patrick: Thank you.

A: So do you guys want to just give us a quick update? The last time we spoke, you were just amazing in your transparency of what was happening with your businesses, your negotiations with your landlords. We were at a point at that time where outdoor dining wasn’t even a thing anyone was thinking about. You guys hadn’t started the Ruffian wine shop yet. We were just talking about “how are you adapting to being closed?” We talked about how you generously opened up your refrigerators and gave food to your employees, and everyone was just trying to get their bearings at that point, right? No one really knew what was happening. I think PPP was just beginning to be talked about. Obviously, a lot has changed since then. So I’d love it if you could update the listeners on what’s happened to your businesses since we last spoke and kind of bring me up to speed as to where we are today.

Moshe: How many years ago was that? A lot, a lot has happened. I was saying, just in a quick summary, I would say that both Ruffian and Kindred have continued. We’ve continued to adapt and invent as we’ve gone along, we’ve probably created three to five different iterations of “what a restaurant is” during this period. So we went from doing a wine shop at Ruffian and provisions at Kindred, to doing complete, full-service outdoor dining. And during that time, continuing to update and adapt as the new guidelines came out by the hour. So as Pat and Alexis said, yeah, it feels like years ago. But we’ve been able to survive by continuously adapting and hustling. And that’s where we are today. I know that was a quick summary, but Pat or Alexis might be able to jump in.

A: That was a pretty quick summary, Moshe. There’s a lot more that happened, but I understand it all feels like a blur. So Patrick, so what has happened at Ruffian?

P: I think we’re talking about April, May, that territory. And in or around April or May, we started to do literally one dish to go, just a khachapuri — a Georgian-style cheese boat. And at that moment, when we were just trying to figure out what any kind of sales would look like that weren’t strictly online, we wanted to pick a dish that we thought reflected us making something from scratch, and doing something that related to the Caucasus, where a lot of the wines that we championed come from and we wanted to get to do something new and we hadn’t done khachapuri yet. So yeah, we started with just that dish and for at least two weeks, I want to say we were just selling glasses. Like plastic cups of wine to go. Orange wine, $12 a glass or something to go with the khachapuri, and you could go eat in the park. We’re next to Tompkins Square. So it was really warm out back then, or I think that was even before the summer, really. And we moved into summer and we built a platform at first and we just had patio umbrellas out there. And on rainy days, it was just overwhelming. You couldn’t do anything, and over about a month, I think we went from just a patio, to building a tent structure above it and started to do almost proper service. And as soon as we felt like we could do something fairly proper, we kind of solidified our direction we were going with, which for Ruffin was we actually made ourselves vegetarian — a significant change for us. We were always a vegetable-championing restaurant, I guess. And we always tried to cook things that we thought were on the edge of what we were interested in trying to grow in a new direction. But that was a pretty big change, and enabled us to grow an audience that was very willing to try stuff at that time. It allowed us to reduce our price point. So what our customers saw by 20 percent, in a stretch where most restaurants actually were increasing prices. And this was at that weird moment where New York State or City allowed us to do that 10 percent tax, which was just a terrible idea and which we didn’t do. It doesn’t make any sense. Why would you be tricking your customers into paying more? Charge them what you want to charge them. So, we were actually not stretched trying to lower our prices, because we felt as customers of places like ourselves, that we had less money and we were very unclear about what was going on and having something just nice and just delicious, and an opportunity to go out was all we needed. So this enabled us to do that and we grew more ambitious, and pretty early on, decided to do a tasting menu. And with vegetarian food, we were able to do a tasting menu I think at first at $25, and now it’s at $30 per person, three courses, and it’s about to become a four-course meal. And it’s one of the few tasting menus that’s open right now in New York. And so that allowed us to start to dial in concept again and get back to the roots of what we do, which for us on the wine side, myself and Alexis are the wine people for us. And tasting a lot of wines was complicated. And so that was the next step. It was like, well, in an era of when you don’t get to taste wine, how do you taste wine? First to us, adapting our outdoor area to be able to set up the distributor that comes into taste-test at one table. Setting up a middle table where we would put our glassware. And then we would step back to a third table to taste. So essentially, we would never be even within six feet of our distributors, they could pour wine for us, then we would take the glass, drink, taste, spit, et cetera, put our glasses back, they would refill it. And that’s been a weird process. I bring this up when I’m supposed to talk about Ruffian, because that led to the idea for us of doing Kin Co, which Alexis and Moshe will get into later, which became the orange wine festival we did at Kindred.

A: I mean, I gotta get Alexis in here, too, because you both are famous for loving to work with thousands of different books. And I can’t imagine that that was easy now. And so the fact that you still kept doing it just blows me away. I know a lot of other places around the city that basically went to one or two reps. What was that like? I’m assuming that people who sell to you were very thankful that you were still willing to meet with them. I think you probably now have a really great look into that, too. What’s it been like for them? For reps who are selling wine right now? How have you noticed their worlds have changed and especially for the kinds of wines that some of them are selling? You guys buy the wines that are kind of harder to find, that are more on allocation. Does it seem like their lives have gotten harder, too, when you meet with them and they taste?

Al: Well, right in the beginning in April when we had a lot of inventory to sell, ‘cause we were sitting on a lot, especially at Ruffian, and we basically sold off the whole cellar. Wine reps would check in periodically, but a lot of our reps are friends, and they were incredibly sensitive to the fact and they didn’t want to add insult to injury by being like, “Hey, buy wine.” You know, the feedback I got from them early on was that they were selling because wine shops and liquor stores were doing great. But it was all things that would retail for between $10 and $15. So they were moving quantity, but they weren’t moving allocation wines, and they weren’t really moving things on a higher price point. So it definitely hurt them, particularly people who most of their accounts were restaurants. They really got slammed. I can’t speak for Patrick, but I mean, obviously we were very conservative when we started buying inventory again for both restaurants, but I was relying on my notes from the previous two months pre-Covid. So I would look back at my tasting notes from a month or two prior. So I felt pretty good, current, and confident in the things that I was buying. ‘Cause a lot of reps weren’t coming to the city and they weren’t sure how to conduct tastings or whether to use those little mini bottles or to drop off sample bottles. It was a little ambiguous at the beginning, and I guess we’ve just sort of slowly ramped it up. I’d say in the last maybe two months, we’ve been doing a lot more in-person. Usually now like three to four a week.

A: Wow. OK.

Al: And the other impact I would note would be in some ways, ‘cause you brought up the weird stuff, weird s*** that we carry. This has been a help because a lot of things that would be allocation weren’t really moving. And so things that would have flown out the door really quickly when we would inquire about them, would still be there. So that kind of helped, but for people bringing in or trying to get new containers in, there’s been a delay with some of that.

A: That’s crazy. And has the fact that you guys really have a clear thesis in terms of the wines that you pour been a benefit to both of the places over the last few months? In that, you know, I know that I can’t find really amazing Georgian wines, Greek wines, et cetera, at a lot of places besides Ruffian and Kindred, and you guys sort of do the work for me. Did you find that that was also true for the majority of your customers and has been what’s helped continue to make you a destination?

Al: Certainly for Ruffian Wine Shop. I mean, the initial feedback we got from people was not that they weren’t buying wine from a multitude of different restaurants and stores. It was that they knew that we carried stuff that they couldn’t get elsewhere.

A: Right. That makes a lot of sense. OK. So obviously, Patrick, I was just so excited about talking about the fact that you guys were tasting six feet apart and stuff that we got off track. But are you guys still open and operational?

M: Oh yeah, sorry, let me jump back in. We were probably talking around August, maybe into September at that point when Alexis and I were really just pulling from her previous notes, buying stuff from previous years. Which — at least let me just make one caveat since we’re talking probably to mostly professionals — I think what we noticed or what’s challenging is one, quality, even though we want to say in the wine world “X vineyard always makes great wine” or something like that. And I think that’s partly true, but we realize how much work and how much added value we put in by just tasting through many, many different skews and different producers and finding one that was just the right thing at the right time and fit in with everything else. And not being able to taste as often has forced us to rely on, I think a second best principle for finding deliciousness, which is that kind of backup, sommelier knowledge. Where the trust in our distributors instead of getting that penultimate moment where we literally taste it and we’re like, “Oh, that’s delicious. This tastes like …” and it might have nothing to do with the typical description of that region. So the most interesting things about Ruffian are often the wines that don’t fit nicely into their traditional descriptor, the Grüner Veltliner that doesn’t taste like you think it’s going to taste. So I found wine less exciting in that stretch in April, May, June. And I was also in a very depressed mood, which therapy has helped a lot. And also I was coming off of having Covid in January, February, and my palate was f*****, and I couldn’t taste a lot of things. I wasn’t getting a lot of enjoyment. So moving out of September into the last slightly fall months, I think we’ve gotten more into this rhythm and I think that we’ve been talking more about exciting flavors and how the flavor inspires the meal or something like that. And now, we’ll get into the things we moved into most recently. We’ve gotten back into a lot of the challenging projects that we used to do at Ruffian and Kindred, which require, like, if we know 15 or 20 wines on a specific menu. Let’s say on an orange wine menu, that meant that we probably tasted a hundred plus. So, it took several weeks of lead-up if we only tasted with four people every week, just to get that density of tasting in, and if we expect our customers are coming here saying, “Oh, Patrick and Alexis or Libby or Charlotte taste everything, and therefore it’s good,” then we better taste everything. So it’s been the last few months where I really felt like we got back into our old gig, and now I think as Moshe and Alexis are going to say all of a sudden, I think we started to feel like we were doing something new and different. Maybe even more exciting than what we were doing before. That the challenge has forced us to adapt in a way that all of a sudden we were more happy about. And I feel really proud about Ruffian’s changes.

Al: Yeah, Pat, I would also add along with the tasting menu for the food at Ruffian, it’s pretty incredible that there’s also a wine pairing option. And it’s really, really cool, and changing all the time. And one of the things that I was challenged with as we were opening back up, and I think you guys would agree was that, how do we provide hospitality behind a mask and six feet away? How do you care for people and make them feel taken care of and provide the dining out experience without endangering staff or endangering the customers? But not have them feel like you’re barking at them because you know, they can’t hear you. And one of those ways were those little details to bring the Ruffian, and then later the Kindred experience in an evolved way, I guess, in this weird new circumstance.

A: Did you guys start taking reservations at Ruffian? You hadn’t taken them before right?

P: Yeah, we did four-and-a-half years of no reservations at Ruffian, and we started doing reservations post-Covid. They have been really wonderful. I’m very surprised. I think that we all felt like reservations were a bad thing. Specifically in the Covid sense, since we don’t do indoor dining while we’re not required to take people’s numbers, the reservations actually do that for us. And so if someone were to get sick at a restaurant, we have a very good means of reaching out to everyone. So wow, never thought about reservations in that sense, but really, really helpful in terms of communication, so that that’s been helpful. And also I used to work as a maître d’, Alexis used to work as a maître d’, and I think maybe Moshe did as well. And one thing that I missed, for the last five years at Ruffian, and I really love now at both Kindred and Ruffian, is that if somebody comes to the restaurant and they make reservations, so they have their identity now in Resy, we can take down notes about your experience to enable us to do better, or bring in other ideas in a subsequent experience. And even though we know our customers well, and Alexis and I would always try to do this, if one of us weren’t here, for instance, how would another random bartender know? You know that on one night, we had one person X with us. So now they could see I’ve opened up the notes and read, this person loves X wine and we don’t have that wine anymore. And I immediately look at the reservation when I come in at 3 in the afternoon or 2 in the afternoon. And I’m like, “Oh cool. This person, I don’t know if I’ve ever met before.” But I already know I’m excited about them trying this, this, and this by the glass, or if they ask about it by the bottle, this, this, and this, it was like bringing back one of those fine dining elements that — I don’t love fine dining, but there’s so many wonderful things about it — and it allowed us to insert that in a casual experience and allow people to define their experience, or for us to define their experience better and more and more specifically.

A: That’s crazy. Yeah. And that makes a lot of sense.

M: Yeah. I will say just add to what Patrick said, I think we’ve always had this discussion as a group, you know, with Ruffian since it’s 20 seats, it’s tiny. And it was almost impossible to do it before, but then certainly the pandemic challenged us. How do we come back and have some hospitality, but also do it in a more efficient way? And I think the two answers, at least in the early parts, other than the wine shop, were the tasting menu and offering reservations. And like Patrick said, they’ve proven to both work incredibly well and they’re something we’ll continue to do.

A: Wow. So it sounds like now at this point, Patrick, Ruffian is still open. I don’t want to jump too far ahead, but I want to talk to you guys about the decisions you’re gonna make in the future at both, but so Moshe and Alexis, can you talk about Kindred? Because Kindred was always more of “the restaurant,” right? Whereas Ruffian was the wine bar that also served great food. So what happened at Kindred?

Al: Well, so Kindred had only been open for a few months and was still getting its feet under it in terms of its identity and coming out strong and getting kind of set in people’s minds. And then we had to close. So, I think when we were really reopening for business, we started with Ruffian and put our efforts there first to get it rolling ‘cause it was the known quantity, I guess. And then we moved on to what to do with Kindred. And when we very first reopened, we were looking at doing provisions, sort of CSA, grocery. Because at the time, things were still difficult to acquire in the city. It didn’t quite take off in the way that we thought. I think that maybe we joined it just a little late and a lot of people had left the neighborhood by that point.

A: Hmm. Interesting. OK.

Al: Luckily, it didn’t take very long for outdoor to get going, and we hopped right on that immediately. I think they announced it and that afternoon we started commandeering the space outside of the restaurant so that cars wouldn’t park there, to the chagrin of our neighbors, unfortunately, but outdoor has really been great. Our landlords worked with us well. We’ve been very fortunate at both restaurants to be able to take frontage on either side that is larger than our frontage footprint, like wider. And so I do know that there was a collective sigh of relief amongst us and the staff when we were open operationally as a restaurant again, because it was like, “Oh, we know how to do this. We know how to be restaurants.” You know, we don’t know very well how to do provisions on the fly, but we can definitely be a restaurant. That worked out really great. And then I guess the next iteration to help bolster sales, Moshe, would have been work from Kindred. Am I right? Or am I skipping something?

P: The virtual menu, which I think was Moshe’s idea, that that was really effective. I don’t know if you guys want to call in about that.

M: Sure, yeah, part of the evolution of outdoor dining — we went through so many different iterations of that as well, between how big the menu is, how small the menu is, changing overnight from provisions to full service. And then we decided to get rid of paper menus and go to digital for the Covid precautions and less contact, but it’s also more efficient. And it’s just more immediate. And that has proven to work out really well. We were able to customize what guests can see with what the items are. But more than that, the idea was, “how do we offer the same details for the same hospitality again, without having too much front-facing contact or getting too close to each other?” And with this digital menu system, you’re able to provide all the details that anyone would need to know. Allergies, or what grade is this wine? Where’s it come from? So that proved to be very useful and helped us continue to adapt in the new model.

A: So I have a question for you guys. Obviously this is a little off topic, but I’m curious to hear your take because there’s been these articles that are ridiculous, but you have certain people, like the The New Yorker published an article recently, like, I’m sick of digital menus, right? That digital menus make everyone get on their phones and we don’t talk to each other, whatever. And my reaction to this is it’s a f****** pandemic, guys. We’re really publishing articles that we don’t like phone menus? Maybe get over yourself. But I’m curious. Are you aware of those kinds of articles? Is it just because I’m a journalist in this space and I’m reading all of it? And if you are aware of those articles, is your reaction the same as mine? Which is, “this is ridiculous that anyone is even writing them and someone is publishing them.”

M: Kind of, yeah, I’m saying it’s interesting if people are complaining about being on their phones for a menu, they’re usually on their phones in general at the tables.

Al: Yeah, they’re usually on Tinder.

M: And I think for the most part, our guests actually have had great feedback overall at both Ruffian and Kindred, and I think we’ve done them in a creative way. We have the QR code on coasters at Kindred with our logo. So I think it is a little more inviting than just having printed paper, but I think it provides a lot of the info anybody would need from a server or a sommelier that they may not otherwise be able to get right now because of the restrictions of six feet and just general hygiene.

Al: I’m going to come in just on the opposite side of that in that I actually, I don’t love them. I think that handheld menus are a part of the dining experience and the overall aesthetic. But just because I don’t like something doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t change and adapt. There are pluses to the digital menu. Several of which we listed here, and it does look great. We’ve made it as close to our restaurants’ aesthetics as possible. And that’s just the way it is right now. You do the best with what the changing world is presenting you.

P: I brought it up because I wanted to say something else about Ruffian. During the pandemic, Alexis has predominantly run Kindred’s [wine] list. I predominantly run Ruffian’s list. Along with Ruffian I currently do it with the beverage director at Kindred. Alexis does cocktails with Charlotte, who’s our head bartender. So while we talk all the time, we’ve each kind of picked up different things about the digital menu that we like and focused on. And Alexis has used the digital menu, especially for the bottle list at Kindred, to be very easy to get through and pretty seamless. I think you can get through almost whatever it is, 50 bottles, very quickly scanning your eye around on a phone without flipping through a big book. When you’re doing that in a wine bar, you’re always knocking a glass over or something. So I found that experience at Kindred is really efficient and, since we have cocktails and other things, we really focused on streamlining it and making it easy for our guests to get in and out and get what they want. And also pictures, which, hey, you could never have that in a paper menu. And also at Ruffian, since the wines are always more unusual in that sense, we’re not trying to get the classics from Slovenia. We’re trying to get eccentric wines from around the world. If you come into Ruffian, we would have you taste something, and we would also give you fun descriptions about them or the menu was categories and fun categories. And that was a piece that had been taken from Ruffian by not having paper menus and not having the sit-down experience. So through the digital menu, we were able to bring that experience back. And as the staff over here, along with Alexis, we would come up with descriptions of the wines. And when you click on a wine you were looking through the menu, you see all the options by the glass, or by the bottle, you can click on it. Then you see a picture of the bottle. Then you see 50 words on what we think about the wine and stuff like that. And we could never have given you that consistent of an experience previously.

A: That’s awesome. And I agree with you. I think there are definitely things I miss about the paper menu, but there’s also things I like about these digital menus and I understand that it just is what it is.

P: You know, when we started with the digital menu, it wasn’t pretty, right? It was an ugly looking menu, but we started on early because we knew the reality of the situation, and instead of fighting against the reality we looked at it and said, what can we do to make it better? And Moshe, and then us as well, reached out to the owner of the company and actually asked them to work with us to help streamline it. To add pictures, to allow us to put our logo on the front page, and we invested in it over several months, and over several months, it got better. And if people continue to invest in it with their creativity and their passion, it would also continue to get better. So I don’t know the person who wrote this article, and I think that it’s detached from what our customers have told us who enjoy it, and we certainly don’t want to be unsafe, but also it’s just this attitude of like, during the Covid thing, during all the aspects that we’re going to discuss, embracing the real situation and at least trying to inhabit it with your love and care enables something that might not be your first choice to maybe all of a sudden be different or better or more helpful than you imagined it to be. And for people to sit on the sidelines and just be upset, they’ll still be upset at the same thing. And as we’re getting towards winter and people are upset about not being prepared for outdoor winter dining, this was something that we invested in over a lot of time. And continue to tinker and adapt over several months with our love and also, with money and with time. And so, I think to hear somebody say that I would want to say, I’m glad you’re not a restaurateur because you know, the restaurateurs need to be adopting because we don’t know what the next problem will be. And we don’t know that this is going to go away. So maybe we’re stuck with these online menus forever. Let’s make them better if we are.

A: So another question. I think it was in July — I can’t keep anything straight anymore — at some point, New York city allowed 25 percent indoor dining. Did you ever consider doing indoor dining, and are you doing indoor dining now?

M: Well, Adam, if you don’t mind, just before that, I just wanted to finish the Kindred evolution. So I would say, Kindred was kind of rolling along, doing full service outside dining only for a couple of months, and we were double the size in terms of labor. We were at least at that point, and it’s always been harder to control in terms of finances and cutting costs. And so we had a couple of really scary weeks, right after Labor Day where people just leave town, things start dropping off and we had to reinvent again. And then one of the ideas that one of our employees, Jake, had brought up early on, and then my wife kind of also mentioned again while we were away for the weekend was, why don’t people just work from Kindred during the day? And it’s something I’ve thought about as well for a while, because I’ve worked in WeWorks, we’ve all kind of done the coworking thing. And I was like, you know what? We’re at a scary spot. Let’s pull the trigger. Let’s make it happen. And I think within two days, we pulled together a “Work from Kindred,” service where we opened up our patio from 9:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. for people to come and have an outside coworking space, socially distanced, for $25 a day, free coffee. All the charging stations, everything could get in an office, but outside when the weather was still really nice. Our chef, Josh, put together three really delicious, but simple dishes for lunch. And people were able to get wine.

Al: Oh, look you mentioned Josh. I just wanted to say our chef partner, Josh, who’s not on this interview, has been absolutely killing it and has just been so adaptive to all the challenges that have come his way. So I just wanted to throw that in there.

M: Absolutely. Agreed. And I think that helps. Work from Kindred actually launched really well, because people needed something to eat, and it was delicious, and they came back for that and the Happy Hour specials. And so I would say it proved to be really successful, and it was another eye-opener for all of us where we threw another idea at the wall, put it together overnight, worked crazy hours, but understood there was a need for it. We had a hundred people who did the work from kindred over a six-to-eight-week period, multiple times. And that’s something that we can certainly do in the spring and we will do in a better fashion now that we understand how to run it. But that more importantly took us out of this financial hole for a minute where it allowed us to survive another week or two while we tinkered again with the concept. So after we did Work from Kindred, we again needed to continue having money coming in to survive as we all do. And that’s when Patrick came along with The Orange Wine Festival idea, and together, we ran with that to bring ticket sales in, which allowed us to continue operating in a healthy way. But we can talk about that a little more, but just to get to the end of Kindred’s evolution, during this phase of transitioning to the Orange Wine Festival and the Work From Kindred, we understood we were coming into colder months and we had to make a change. So unfortunately we did have to let go of some of our staff, and cut it down to a skeleton crew. And then we opened up a new pop-up called Après-Ski which we started Oct. 31. Much slimmer menu, much smaller staff, hot cocktails, different menu, complete different menu. And this has allowed us to, again, survive and embrace the cold in a creative and fun way. And people have responded really, really well. I’ll stop there and then we can jump back.

A: Yeah, so I am curious, thanks for bringing up to speed with both places. So in July I think — I could be wrong — at some point the city finally decided that it would allow indoor dining. A lot of that was coming from pressure, you heard about a lot of restaurants, especially in Queens, et cetera, that were on the border of towns where there was Long Island right across the border and three doors down, basically you heard restaurateurs trying to sue the city, saying they’re letting people inside their establishments and we’re still not doing it here. So there was definitely a push from certain places to make sure that that would happen and the city finally relented and allowed 25 percent indoor dining. Did you guys think about it and did you open indoor dining or not?

P: We think about everything. We thought about that long enough to literally think that it wasn’t even worth asking our staff. We went to our staff and essentially told them, this is what we’re thinking. We don’t think it’s safe. Do you feel differently? And I don’t think anyone said anything remotely different to that. And then we were like, OK, then let’s start talking about ways that we could do this safely.

Al: And in Ruffian you can’t. You have to squeeze by people in order to use the restroom. 25 percent of Ruffian is like, you’re still on top of each other.

M: Yeah. And I think, the bigger picture here, which we all talked about, is that obviously everyone’s struggling. People were trying to get back to work. Businesses are trying to stay open. And for the folks who don’t have any outside dining, I understand why they were pushing for 25 percent. However, in the big picture of what’s going on in the country right now, there’s no one who would agree and say 25 percent, No. 1, is sustainable. It might almost save your business. But also, No. 2, the writing was on the wall, even in the summer, from all the experts. Saying that November, October, November come the winter, this thing is coming back, and there’s no way anyone’s going to be able to survive indoor dining without having the cases increase. And that’s proven to be true. We’re in it right now, as we’re talking, where we’re at 2.6 percent in Manhattan, it’s a 19 percent increase in Newark. We have Chicago and San Francisco have shut indoor dining down and many other countries and other cities will follow here. And it was just, you know, from my perspective, and I think Alexis and Pat would agree. It was a little confusing to see other larger restaurateurs certainly in New York City jump on 25 percent just because they could, knowing the consequences. And we’re so close to a vaccine, the quickest a vaccine has ever been created, and why ruin it now? Why couldn’t we wait a little bit? Just keep doing outdoor dining, keep the cases low.

Al: People couldn’t wait because there’s been no help. And you’re speaking to two issues, Moshe, that just popped into my mind while you were speaking. Adam, you mentioned restaurateurs out on the fringes of the city, which have totally different challenges than what we have in Manhattan. And that speaks to the totally ham-fisted approach to all of these regulations that have just been like a hammer where a scalpel will do and just not looking at the individual needs and the individual situations of the different zip codes and how they operate. And certainly now this closing at 10:00 p.m. thing for outdoor, which is completely idiotic. It’s just been incredibly frustrating. I understand why, if you’re a restaurant with no frontage and 25 percent of your restaurant will actually bring in enough sales, I see that quandary and I understand why some people decided to do it for survival purposes. We have a different situation. We’re very fortunate to have more seating outside than we actually have inside. But that’s because people have been backed into a corner with absolutely no help. We have restaurant friends who didn’t want to open inside, but didn’t have a choice if they wanted to survive. There’s no help. There’s no help. And there’s no help coming anytime.

A: Yep. That’s completely true. And that’s a really, really good point.

M: Yeah. And what I would add to that is that, earlier in the pandemic, when we were all dealing with the same unknowns, a lot of the bigger voices in our industry were pushing for it. We got to get our insurance, we gotta get this relief. We’ve got to get that, but the moment 25 percent hit, they all kind of went quiet. And to me, that’s pretty troubling because now we’re in a situation where they’re going to shut down all indoor, probably by Monday, if I were to guess by next week, as the cases continue to go up.

A: Right, and we’re talking Friday the 13th, if people are listening to this one, it will run next week.

M: Yeah. And I think by the time people listen to this, Cuomo and de Blasio will probably shut all indoor dining down. And then where does that leave everyone? We’re back to square one, but with even more cases. The folks who weren’t able to survive without 25 percent will still be in the same situation. So Alexis is right, and I agree. It comes down to focusing on what really will help, which is The Restaurants Act being passed and getting more PPP and the PUA getting restored to give everyone a lifeline to get through the winter and get through outdoor dining without having cases go up. And stop relying on scarier situations of having people indoors. And the science is clear, it’s indoor dining and gyms.

A: Well, I think that’s interesting that you bring that up, Moshe, because I think Alexis, what you said is really true that people have been backed into a corner.

And some of the restaurateurs I’ve talked to have said, it’s actually not fair to pin it on them. Like if you look at the article that came out this morning in The Washington Post, what they’ve basically proven is actually this new spike is actually to be blamed on basically people around the country who’ve said, f*** it. And made their pods bigger. And have had people inside their homes and there were a lot of people who have had people over to watch football because we’ve decided that the NFL and college football should still happen this fall. And so people had viewing parties and it’s spreading just as much there as in the restaurants, but the easiest thing to blame is the restaurants. Right? And it’s not fair to just blame them and penalize them, especially when there’s no relief. So you’re going to have people who keep pushing back and saying, no, like, please let us stay open at 25 percent, or are they going to try to break the rules, because they need to survive. And so I think that it’s so much more nuanced.

P: Yeah. I agree with you on some levels, but I think what we have been discussing over the last few weeks, and I say over the last two or three weeks. Four weeks ago, I would be saying the same thing as you. We’re like well, New York isn’t “the place.” It’s not the epicenter of this anymore. we don’t know enough about these facts. It seems like a very poor decision to have indoor dining to us. But cases are low, and no one’s proving that they’re encouraged statistically. And then over each week, more and more statistics have come out to the point that this morning, when we were just trying to talk normally, and have normal morning meeting stuff like, the numbers that we’re dealing with now, are so jarringly overwhelming. The city and state had said they would close indoor dining, if it was at 2 percent or would reevaluate. We are so far past that point that we are now talking about possibly closing public schools before closing indoor dining. And from what we’ve heard at least in San Francisco, but we’ve heard this also way months ago in Canada, they were saying that they can prove quite clearly, or they see statistical trends that show that indoor dining dramatically affects this. And we started indoor dining and now they keep saying, it’s always about a month after when you do something. Right? So here we are, we’re in a f****** disaster. A month ago, our people would have been more understanding, but for the major players in the industry that have connections to scientists, to good lawyers, to consultants, to politicians, and are smart and thoughtful and should be doing this stuff. They have been surprisingly silent as New York went from 2 percent to 2.2, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6. And now are we literally going to wait until Monday? On Monday, we’re going to be at 3 percent, right? So I think that the goals have changed, or the goalposts have been moved. And unfortunately pressure from a lot of these restaurateurs has caused those goal goalposts to move.

I do think the government, especially the federal government is to blame for their inaction and just overwhelming stupidity. But the city and state government had rules and didn’t follow them. And restaurateurs that knew better seemed to lean in and try to force them, and are still forcing them, to act in a way that’s dangerous to the other civilians and the livelihoods of other New Yorkers.

A: Oh, yeah. I mean, I completely agree with you that I think it still spreads inside.

P: I hope that tomorrow when this comes out this applies more pressure, not only on politicians and I hope everyone is doing this, but also other restaurateurs, to say this is crazy. And if it comes to things like outdoor dining that affect us more, obviously we’re understanding, too. We think that the government needs to act very aggressively. You know, it should be smart. As Alexis said, acting aggressively can be using the scalpel, not the hammer, but we think they should be acting aggressively from a more thoughtful perspective. And if we had already agreed on that 2 percent threshold, what are we doing?

A: So why do you think that so many of these restaurateurs are not? Is it a money grab? Is it they don’t think that their customers will eat on the sidewalk? Because they have gone silent, but I mean, you’re closer even to a lot of the people in the restaurant business than I am in covering it. Do you have an idea of why this could be?

P: The smart restaurateurs that we know that work at their own restaurants are not doing indoor dining and the few that are, are doing it very cautiously and are doing way more precautions than what are being required of them. So we’re not connected to the larger restaurant groups and we try to gauge from them stuff, but the largest restaurateur in our neighborhood, Ravi DeRossi, we’ve spoken to him and I don’t think his places are focusing on indoor dining. And I don’t know if they’re doing much of any, if any at all. So it seems like big restaurateurs like him are quite clear about the science and everything else about this. And we would all love to sit more people indoors and make more money. Moshe also, he’s talked a lot about Kindred, and all these changes. But one thing he didn’t say was, post-PPP loan, Kindred has simply lost money every week. We’re not trying to figure out how to make money. We’re just trying to figure out how to pay our landlords and employees and vendors as much as we can and continue to pay as much tax to the government as we can. That’s all we’re doing. We’re not making money. We’re literally losing money every week. 25 percent more sales or something won’t ever add up to 25 percent because no one wants to eat indoors. It’s stupid.

M: Yeah. I don’t have a good answer for you, Adam, about why they are doing it. I don’t think there is a good answer, and I don’t know. It’s just been disappointing, honestly.

Al: I personally think some of them can diversify. I think some of them probably have enough investorship to sit tight and then relaunch, and I think some of them have large and diverse companies that can focus on other revenue streams besides sit-down dining.

M: But I think, also just in terms of outdoor dining, obviously that’s safer but I will say just as a general note, in terms of the cases rising, it’s also been concerning how the general public, I think, has kind of taken a little bit of a back step, just based on the inquiries that I get at Kindred in terms of large parties. Now while we’re legally allowed to have a 10-person group at a table, but I’m getting inquiries for 15, 20, 25. And I’ve gotten, I would say, 30 to 40 in the last two weeks. And at the same time, I’ve also gotten probably 10 cancellations due to Covid or exposure to Covid in the last five days. And so there’s something going on where, obviously the information is out there, but for some reason it’s digesting in some people and others, maybe not. So that’s also been interesting to see.

Al: Well, yeah. And Moshe, don’t you think that’s also turning a blind eye themselves personally, not realizing that’s a risk to take, to have a large group of 15 people, but that’s also putting restaurants in a really awkward situation. We legally cannot accommodate you. And that’s added duress to restaurants to have to say no, and our job is to make people happy and say yes to most things. And we can’t. We can’t.

A: Well, yeah, that’s sort of what I’m curious about. And this seems like where our conversation is evolving is, me bringing up the indoor people, it seems like at the same time that restaurateurs like you, responsible ones, are realizing it’s a problem. And shouting, we should shut this down again, et cetera. You have this population in the country that is just kind of over it. And so they’re being looser and they’re saying, OK, fine. Like I’ll get together inside with my 10 friends. Or, I mean, it’s shocking to me that you’re having those calls, but I’m not surprised that people are looking and saying, “hey, can we have 15- or 20-person gatherings?” I look out in the park in Brooklyn and I see 30 people sitting together and I’m like, these people are not all in the same pod. Like, there’s just no way, you know? And so, all of that then is affecting the restaurant industry because the larger this spreads, the more restrictions that happen and then restaurants can’t reopen and people are out of work and the government’s providing no support. So what have you thought about as this is clearly probably going to get worse, right? We’re talking two weeks before Thanksgiving. If you read the data, the government, all the top scientists are predicting we’re gonna have a massive super-spreader event because people aren’t gonna listen and they’re going to go home. Just do a quick search on Kayak and every single rental car in the city is out around those dates. Right? So people have clearly planned that they’re leaving and they’re going to either go home and get Covid and bring it back to the city, or they’re going to take Covid to wherever they’re going. So we’re going to see a huge, super-spreader event in the next probably two weeks. Have you guys thought about closing? Is that something that you want to do? Or that you feel like you’ll be forced to do it? Like what is going through your minds as we’re getting into a time in the year where we think Covid is going to spread pretty dramatically, and it’s also going to get super cold?

P: Adam, you asked before whether we thought about doing indoor dining. And in all reality, we didn’t really think about doing it, we just brought up the idea ’cause we bring up ideas and we try to talk about everything. Whereas closing, we had already made an agreement, loose terms that we would close. We were saying probably right before Christmas and close for a couple of weeks. Just planning it out, more than a couple months in advance, just because our staff would need to know. We’re trying to figure out how there is gonna be government aid, So we’ve been thinking about that, and I have a 5-year-old, so I’ve already been thinking about the high possibility that like right after Thanksgiving, there might be no more public school or something like that. So I think that those things have been percolating around. The last three weeks have been like there’s a stop sign. The light has already turned red, and a car is speeding towards that stop sign. And as an onlooker, seeing a kid walking on the street, you’re like, Oh, he’s got to stop. Oh, they’ve got to stop. Oh, they’ve got to stop. And they keep going as fast as they’re going. That’s what we’re watching right now. In our plans for, “oh, of course, we’ll be able to make it till January to December and then close” are being scuttled by the insanity that’s going on right now. I think we’re jumping almost like 200 percent in one month in the country. The current situation, I think we’re now having to reevaluate things almost daily. And we never planned to be reevaluating a decision that’s only three weeks away, three weeks away. But we’re being forced to do that because people are being irresponsible. Whereas before we were being forced to do that, well we still are, because the government is giving poor indication of what’s going on. So yeah, if you’re asking I’m sure this is a broader conversation we’ll talk about, but yes, we are planning about this, and this is something that we’ve barely even gotten to have a meeting about because things have gotten so bad in one week.

A: Right? It’s crazy.

M: Yeah. We had, you know, we had multiple meetings about like Pat said, what happens, come the break. In December a planned break. And then, you know, whether there’s PPP again or not, then we would make a decision of what kind of service we would offer or do we take a pause while there is government relief, but as Pat is saying, this thing is happening now in real time, where by next week we might be forced, who knows what the city is going to do? And so we haven’t even had a chance to have a full meeting about it, but we’ll be dealing with it in real time as the things change by the hour. And hopefully we can make it until our planned break if it’s safe. If not, we’ll have to adapt and navigate the other course.

Al: Yeah. I think our initial plan, which as Pat was saying, is getting kind of scuttled, was surely there will be relief by then and we can hibernate mindfully and thoughtfully, unlike in the summer where it was sort of like forced upon us. And we’ll plan it out, and we’ll be able to pay people, and everyone would get a break because as we’ve mentioned several times, we’ve reinvented ourselves at two restaurants over and over and over again and continue to do so. Everyone is kind of exhausted and needs a reset. And now, reports are saying there won’t be any relief until at least the Administration changes. And that’s after our planned break was supposed to happen. So, Ruffian’s holding steady. Kindred is struggling week to week. And then are we going to hibernate, or what? You know, we’ve tried. We’ve tried to be like the ants, but we’re going to end up being forced to be like the grasshopper.

A: Right. Yeah. It is. It’s just really insane. And yeah, I think that the biggest moral of the story is back to what we talked about the last time we spoke, which is that the government needs to provide relief and there needs to be more pressure put on the government to do so.

P: For sure. Interesting, as we’re talking, I just got an email from the Department of Transportation about new guidelines for roadway barriers, as we’re getting into the winter and enclosures and snow. But you know, again they’ve been consistently two months behind everything in terms of guidelines, but this is not the most important thing right now. Why are they sending this out when we need to focus on what we are doing with indoor dining? Well, we have to shut the whole city down or the country down for another two weeks to kind of quell this new surge. So we’re going to have to redo our barriers again, guys.

A: Yeah, well I think all of this just shows, of all the conversations that I’ve been lucky to have with people like yourself who’ve been gracious with your time to talk with me, just all the red tape is insane. And all the changing regulations, things that I think the normal consumer doesn’t realize. I did an interview yesterday with James the owner of Popina, and I don’t think consumers realize that even to have heaters in his backyard, he has to bring the Fire Department in to approve everything. Right? Like he can’t just order them and set them up. So he’s had them for two weeks and hasn’t been able to turn them on, so that’s insane.

Al: People aren’t thinking of things like electricity. This is old New York. Most restaurants in the city don’t have enough power. Most of them don’t have enough power to power the equipment they do have. Nevermind adding 1,200-, 1,500-watt heaters outside. Multiples. We had to have the electrician in. And sometimes we don’t know if we’re throwing good money after bad, because it’s all a gamble and we’re like, maybe this will pay off, but maybe it won’t at a time when we don’t have extra money to throw around. And it’s really scary. You know, every time we pull the trigger on a decision, like to upgrade our enclosure, to add decoration, to put in more lighting or get the electrician. Every time we make one of those decisions, it’s like, man, I hope that pays out.

A: Yeah. I completely agree with you. And I think, hopefully we’re helping, but sort of to take this a little bit full-circle back to the phone menu idea. It’s like, I feel like consumers need to be much more aware of all the restaurants are going through. So when you show up, you should feel lucky that you’re able to eat outside and have an experience at all, right? This expectation that maybe there’s heaters that keep you warm enough, or that the decor looks nice enough, is all kind of ridiculous. Everyone’s just trying to do what they need to do.

M: Yeah. Even if the restaurant has heaters, please dress appropriately for the weather, you know, it’s not the beach. And, you know, I think to your point, Adam, as restaurateurs, I think we would put that olive branch out to customers and say, just be mindful of how long you’re sitting and are you canceling or no-showing? Please let us know with as much time in advance, I had to send out a text to all of the reservations tonight. We’ll be enforcing our cancellation policy, ‘cause we had probably 60 no-shows or canceled heads — 20 reservations equals 60 people — over the last couple of weekends. For whatever reason, some of them are Covid-related. Some are not. Some people just forget, and they don’t show up. And we’re working on such thin margins that if I don’t have that table available, and a no-show or cancel just an hour or two hours before, that’s a hundred dollars or $200. But every bit of money is important right now.

A: So, I mean, I guess to wrap all this up, ’cause we’ve talked for a good amount of time now, what do you guys think consumers could be doing to help support you more? And what can we do obviously with the elected officials, and what do you want them to hear from you right now that they should be doing in order to support you more?

M: Well, I would say to our guests and any guests who want to enjoy, come to Ruffian and Kindred, and we’re so grateful that people continue to book a table at either spot and some do both in one night. And we hope that people continue to do that. And then we have our wine shop at Ruffian that people have been ordering from. I think staying consistent with that. And our loyal customers are great. And we welcome that. We’re doing so many interesting and fun things at both spots. At Ruffian, we have our regular service menu. We’re doing everything but the bird for Thanksgiving that you can pre-order and get delivered or pick up. It’s a delicious menu, but except the bird. It’s vegetarian and vegan. And we’re about to go into a new pop-up at Ruffian that I’ll let Pat talk about. And at Kindred, we’re doing this Après-Ski pop-up where you can enjoy hot cocktails and some delicious food, Alpine-themed. So I would say just continue to dine with us, and keep those guidelines in mind and how much we have to put in to offer a service and an experience. And on the politician side, I think the challenge is they’re constantly two months behind and I wish they would get on the ground a little bit more and talk to small businesses to understand what we need, and what are we anticipating? And certainly on the federal level, we need the Restaurants Act to pass. We need more grants, and certainly the PPP would go a long way. And they need to restore the PUA to give unemployed people a lifeline as well.

A: Pat, do you want to add anything? Or Alexis?

P: Moshe mentioned our last place Ruffian, we’re now switching into what we were expecting for winter. We’ve been expecting winter. Well, for the Department of Transportation and for our mayor and for the city and state officials, obviously winter is coming, but winter was on the calendar from the beginning of the year, right? For next year, also. So we’ve been expecting winter for a long time. So, I work in the industry in a way my wife doesn’t, she loosely participates in our restaurant, but also is a partner and thinks about it. But I mean, she doesn’t spend her day-to-day on this and instead would say, you know, I don’t want to worry about stuff all day long. I’ve got to worry about my business and other businesses, you know? And so for a lot of people, I think the “staying up to the minute with what’s going on with Covid” and everything else is probably not what we all need. We need relaxation in our lives. We need less worries. But that doesn’t mean that the truth goes out the window.

And so I think for the two of us, we try to think, we try to protect ourselves from all the scary thoughts at times, but at least have a plan that’s realistic. And based on what’s going on out there. So Kindred is converting into an Après-Ski because obviously it was going to be cold and for multiple months we’ve been preparing for how we enjoy outdoors in the cold. At Ruffian we will now convert ourselves into what we’re calling “Base Camp,” which is supposed to give people a fun experience of what it feels like to be at, maybe almost a base camp at Kilimanjaro or any of the big guys in Europe. So like an opportunity to have fun outdoors in the cold and make it an exciting experience. We’re all clear that we’re out there because of Covid and because we’re not denying the truth, but at least in that opportunity, you get to go have an exciting time in one of the safer ways that one can enjoy themselves right now, and build some story and narrative around it. But, as far as people in general, especially when it comes to our relationship to our politics and to our government officials and what we can say and what we can do, obviously support us as long as it’s safe. We don’t want to be outside causing New York a problem if it’s no longer safe. So we understand that, but I think what we would hope for people is some of these things and especially nationally in Covid, but also locally in New York were inevitable. Inevitable. No scientists that we know of were saying anything other than this for this winter, right? Everyone has said the same thing for half a year straight. So I don’t understand at what point New York City and New York State’s government — well, obviously the national government is a f****** s*** show. We haven’t talked about them and we don’t need to. I feel bad for our city and state that they need to pick up the pieces that the worst president ever has left, but the reality for them is this. And I think that they need to stop moving goalposts and doing stupid things. They need to know the truth and we as a public need to be supportive of that truth. And if that means closing restaurants down now to protect public schools if we can, we should do that. And if that means closing even outdoor dining down, if that’s what has to happen, I think as a public, we should be supportive of it. But at least expect people to have a plan, especially a plan around the poorest people and the people that are most in need right now. And in terms of normal employees and insurance, can we seriously as a nation get some kind of plan around PUA and what insurance looks like when everyone gets let go in a couple of days, right? That stuff is imminent. In a couple of weeks, people will lose their jobs. They will lose insurance. We had this plan in place over summer. We made this plan again. I think the pressure needs to build up on this horrific president and this horrific Congress, that is we cannot wait until January for this stuff. Maybe for other stuff, maybe for PPP loans, but we cannot wait until January for unemployment benefits and for security for employees and low-wage employees. It’s everything. But I also hope people support the truth. And once again, this truth was inevitable. We all knew. We just tricked ourselves into thinking otherwise. Support the truth and support politicians when they’re delivering us hard truth.

A: Well guys, I really want to thank you again for taking the time to talk to me about both what’s happening with your business, but also just giving really great insight that we all should really pay attention to. It’s always great to talk to the three of you. And I know it’s not going to be an easy few months, but I appreciate that you’re always willing to make the right decisions, and really think about what’s happening as a whole. And I think you’re really great examples for a lot of other people in the business. So I just appreciate you a lot and thanks again for joining me on the podcast.

Al: Aw, thanks, Adam.

P: Thanks, Adam.

Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now, for the credits. VinePair is produced and hosted by Zach Geballe and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity

The article Next Round: The Owners of Ruffian and Kindred on Why It’s Time to End Indoor Dining Now appeared first on VinePair.

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