#like we have a version for benjamin but not for the femme version of the name. idk

[nmoroder]

yet another follow up for the atziluth swap au, aka "benji binah au" as i've titled it bcuz the basis of this au is literally it. assigning benjamin as the extraction team sephirah

i was troubled as to how the ruina designs would work and what would i need to swap there and then, as kindly pointed out in a comment to au's original post, i simply did the genderswap to match the sephirot by kabbalah and ruina designs came naturally. they look VERY similar to original, i know, all the more confusing to see them outside of this au haha

[fromtheringapron]

WWE WrestleMania XXVI

Date: March 28, 2010.

Location: University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. 

Attendance: 72,219.

Commentary: Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler, and Matt Striker. 

Results:

1. WWE Unified Tag Team Championship Match: ShoMiz (The Miz and Big Show) (champions) defeated R-Truth and John Morrison 

2. Triple Threat Match: Randy Orton defeated Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase Jr. 

3. Money in the Bank Ladder Match: Jack Swagger defeated Christian, Drew McIntyre, Dolph Ziggler, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Kane, Montel Vontavious Porter, Matt Hardy, and Shelton Benjamin. 

4. Triple H defeated Sheamus. 

5. Rey Mysterio defeated CM Punk (with Serena and Luke Gallows).

6. No Holds Barred Lumberjack Match: Bret Hart defeated Vince McMahon. Bruce Hart was the special guest referee.

7. WWE World Heavyweight Championship Match: Chris Jericho (champion) defeated Edge. 

8. Layla, Alicia Fox, Maryse, Michelle McCool, and Vickie Guerrero defeated Kelly Kelly, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, and Eve Torres. 

9. WWE Championship Match: John Cena defeated Batista (champion) to win the title. 

10. No Disqualification Career vs. Streak Match: The Undertaker defeated Shawn Michaels. Per stipulation, Michaels retired.

My Review

WreslteMania XXVI is a difficult show to sum up. It’s a pretty good WrestleMania, but also one that happens to be all over the place in tone and focus. Perhaps its reflective of how indeterminate the future of the WWE felt at the start of the 2010s. The roster was such a mishmash of eras that you’d be forgiven of not having a clue where the hell the company was going. John Cena, Batista, and Randy Orton were at the top of the card after their rise to superstardom in the 2000s, but the spotlight was still shared guys who rose to stardom in the ‘90s like Triple H and The Undertaker. Then there was a new generation of talent—The Miz, Sheamus, Drew McIntyre, etc. — bubbling in the undercard who seemed poised to rocket into the top at any moment. But wait! Time was also given to  . . . the 13-year-old feud between Bret Hart and Vince McMahon?!? Suffice to say, with the show splintering off in so many different directions, it’s not surprising it has some misfires.

Let’s start with the good stuff, though. The main event between Undertaker and Shawn Michaels is fantastic and I’m gonna throw it out there that I like it more than their match from the previous year. The stakes feel higher, the suspense level feels higher, and there’s more of a story here than just Shawn needing to beat Taker. He puts his entire career is on the line here, for heaven’s sake! And speaking of his career, like many at the time, I didn’t have a clue this would be Shawn’s last match. Most on-screen wrestling retirements are never legit, so there was plenty of basis to believe this one would be no different. But alas, this one was different, and we get about as good a sendoff as we could’ve gotten for someone who’s been dubbed Mr. WrestleMania.

On another show, the WWE title match between John Cena and Batista would’ve been the main event. Their match here is great fun. It’s actually an end of an era for the two men who were crowned as the leaders of the next generation at WrestleMania five years earlier. Batista would move on to Hollywood shortly after this and, while certainly not his last WWE run, it would mark the end of his career as a full-timer. Interestingly enough, Batista was really coming into his own as a heel at the time of his departure, even winning over fans who previously couldn’t stand him. He would resurrect his heel run in 2014 and 2019, again only for a short spell. A shame we haven’t been able to spend much time with arrogant heel ‘Tista and his impeccable designer fashion, but then I guess that’s what makes it so special.

As for what doesn’t work, I probably don’t need to go into much detail about the Bret/McMahon clash. The basics of the story are solid — Bret gets his long-awaited revenge on McMahon, with his family right by his side. It’s just not super fun to watch in execution, however well-meaning it may be. They match is dragged out much longer than it should and it takes the crowd completely out of it. Another misfire is the Money in the Bank match. This would be the final iteration of the match at WrestleMania before it becomes its own pay-per-view. It’s clear the concept needs some rejuvenation by this point as it’s now a lazy, bloated affair where everyone gets in their allotted number of spots and there are way too many participants. To cap it all off, the ill-advised decision is made to push Jack Swagger into the main event scene, an idea which would run out of gas in a matter of months.

The show seems to have some weird pacing issues as well. In the era of the Network, I’ve grown so accustom to Manias being stretched to the point of exhaustion, so it’s always little odd to go back and watch one that feels like it doesn’t have enough time. It’s almost like it’s struggling to figure out how spread out time across a card so stacked. The tag opener and Rey Mysterio vs. CM Punk feel like abridged versions of the matches we would’ve otherwise gotten, while Bret vs. McMahon gets more time than either combined. Even Money in the Bank feels somewhat rushed. I’m definitely not a huge fan of WrestleMania becoming a seven-hour event, and WWE has proven they struggle with time management on longer Manias, but this is one show where it seems an extra hour absolutely would’ve been to its benefit.

At its best, WrestleMania XXVI is a nice sampler plate of eras, even if struggles to give you equal portions for all of them. The multi-generational makeup of the card ensures there’s a little something for everyone and even closes the books on a couple of legendary careers. You’re bound to dislike some it but for better or worse, and this is a cheeseball thing to say, it definitely puts the “showcase” in the Showcase of the Immortals.

My Random Notes

No joke, I really did not think this would be it for HBK and even seriously thought Taker’s streak was in jeopardy. Am I a fool for thinking that? Maybe, but I like that wrestling conned into believing it in a way it hardly ever does anymore.

I feel like the temple entrance set is something that should’ve been more impressive than it is in actuality. They just stacked LED screens on top of each other and just rolled with it. It looks like something from Minecraft.

Ah, this show reinvigorates my fond feelings for Matt Striker. Such a handsome chap! Not surprising at all he would appear on a Bachelor ripoff a whole decade later.

I chuckled at Bruce Hart being the special guest referee for Bret vs. McMahon. You just know he huffed and puffed his way into that one, much to Bret’s annoyance.

I also chuckled at Diana Hart-Smith walking down to the ring with her best “evil, vindictive femme fatale on the cover of a pulp novel” look. God bless her. She needs to write another book.

I know Rey singing Happy Birthday to his daughter is meant to be a heart-warming thing but if I were a kid in the same situation, I would be traumatized. Just think of how uncomfortable it is when a room full of people is signing at you and then think of enduring that in an arena filled with thousands of people. CM Punk did her a huge favor by crashing the moment, as far as I’m concerned.

Not saying anything new here, but the whole Spear thing with Edge is cringe as hell and it’s for the best that it’s been forgotten in the annals of his career.

I know some people like to mock Vickie Guerrero doing Eddie’s frog splash, but I personally thought it was a sweet moment while staying true to comedically heel Vickie.

The official theme song to this Mania is “I Made It” by Kevin Rudolf. A time-period appropriate choice, I must say. I feel like the dawn of the 2010s is the only time a Kevin Rudolf could be a success.

I identify myself as someone who will always be more embarrassed by John Cena haters than Cena himself and I gotta say him posing next to the guys in the front row hating his guts is fucking hilarious. Cena is funny sometimes when he just straight-up trolls.

On the Legacy fallout: The storytelling for this was weird as hell. Am I the only who remembers that one time on Raw where they teased Ted turning face and the crowd was actually kinda into it? Then they completely abandoned it for whatever reason and just had Randy be the breakout face (as if he needed it) and dunk on both Cody and Ted at WrestleMania. I feel like Cody’s AEW origin story more or less began here.

Awwwwe, this show has little baby Drew McIntyre. It’s so interesting watching this with the benefit of hindsight. I remember a lot of people Not Feeling It when he was anointed as the Chose One, and truthfully I wasn’t feeling it at the time either, but watching it back really makes you appreciate how much hard work he put in to get to where he’d be a decade later. A lot of folks were dreading the inevitable Drew world title run in 2010. The title run did happen, but it was much later and much more welcome than anyone back than anyone could’ve imagined.

[d-ama-ien]

Okie my art isn’t great don’t be too judgy pls. Here’s the designs for GemAU

So, all the gems are lowkey femme versions because in SU gems are all women, but the male WKM characters still use male pronouns. Actor’s design is just High Fashion version of his WKM look, with the cravat designed around his gem.

Since Damien is a “sapphire” he has to go high femme, reforming to have long hair instead of short hair that would be appropriate for a ruby. His dress is high necked so that if (somehow) someone saw his neck past all that hair, they still wouldn’t be able to see his gem. Damien has to have bangs that cover his eyes, since sapphires only have one eye and use their future vision to see anyways. He’s developed a very strong sense for objects in his area. The red ribbon on his dress form diamonds, to show he’s a member of red diamond’s court. Celine’s hair is completely non standard for a ruby, but she has to cover her eye so that no one sees she only has one. Her design is otherwise standard for one of Mark’s rubies, the high necked design was already in place so she doesn’t stand out keeping her neck covered. The long hair is unorthodox, but her diamond doesn’t mind so no one can make a fuss about it. If anyone notices that she’s a bit skinny for a ruby, they don’t comment, the same way no one comments on how Damien is a hair larger than the other sapphires.

William also has to present as high femme in public. Pearls are supposed to be dainty and feminine, so that’s how he is when outside of the court. His “for the public” outfit is based off a pretty common style of lyrical dance costume, since pearls are all dancer inspired. In private he pushes his hair out of his face, and wears a button up and slacks with red suspenders so he still represents his diamond. (He doesn’t get the mustache until his first reformation after leaving Mark with Celine)

Benjamin is just a “standard” pearl, the only thing notable about his design is he also wears a lyrical dress, but it’s much more subdued than William’s and only had red accents, showing he wasn’t made specifically for his diamond. Abe looks like the Zicrons in the show do, since the two we see are nearly identical I don’t feel like I can do much with that design. That’s it thanks for reading this long post :D

[beatdisc]

RSD 2019 LIST

Record Store Day, our favourite day! Because we love celebrating with all our beloved regular customers and new friends. This year we're planning to make it the biggest and best day ever! Here's what's happening this year. > HUGE RANGE OF RSD EXCLUSIVE RELEASES (list below) < > LIMITED EDITION BEATDISC COFFEE MUG! < > 500+ OF PRE-OWNED LPs HITTING THE RACKS < > THOUSANDS OF 45s & CDs FROM THE ARCHIVE ** < > 20% OFF AUDIO-TECHNICA TURNTABLES (2019 RANGE) ** < > TWO A-T LP60 TURNTABLES TO WIN < > MARK-DOWNS** GIVEAWAYS, PIZZA, PARTY! < > COFFEE VAN FROM 6AM (see below) < ** = SAT & SUN 

OUR LIST OF RSD EXCLUSIVE TITLES

This year we have 192 TITLES! A few things to note for the morning rush. If you're here first thing please join the line and we'll serve everyone in order. One copy per RSD title per person & no holds. AUS LIST TITLES Bob Evans - Suburban Songbook [LP] Broderick Smith – Suitcase [LP] Jebediah - Of Someday Shambles [2LP] Johnny Diesel & The Injectors - Johnny Diesel & The Injectors [2LP] The Amity Affliction – Youngbloods [LP] The Birthday Party - Mutiny/Bad Seed [2LP] The Hard Ons - Harder & Harder [7”] The Loved Ones - Magic Box [LP] The Mint Chicks - Screens [LP] The Reels - The Reels [LP] US LIST TITLES Ace Frehley - Spaceman [LP] Adrenalin O.D. - Let's BBQ [LP] Alien Weaponry - Tu [LP+7''] Anderson .Paak - Bubblin' [7''] Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch - Twin Peaks: Season Two Music And More [2LP] Aretha Franklin - The Atlantic Singles 1967 [5x7'' Boxset] AxCx (Anal C**t) - Picnic Of Love [LP] B-52's, The - Mesopotamia [LP] Bad Religion - My Sanity [7''] Basement - Be Here Now [7''] Benjamin Gibbard - Me And Magdalena / The Concept [7''] Bill Hicks - Revelations: Variations [2LP] Billy Joel - Live At Carnegie Hall 1977 [2LP] Bingo Hand Job (R.E.M. w/ Bragg, Hitchcock & Holsapple) - Live At The Borderline 1991 [2LP] Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - E. 1999 Eternal [2LP] Broken Social Scene - Let's Try The After Vol. 1 & 2 [LP] Buari - Buari [LP] Buffalo Tom - Buffalo Tom (30th Anniversary) [LP] Canned Heat - Remember Woodstock [LP] Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica [2LP] Charlatans, The - Us And Us Only [LP] Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Dice Game And Let It Fall [10'' Chuck Mosley - Joe Haze Session #2 [7''] Courtney Barnett - Everybody Here Hates You [12''] Craig Mack & The Notorious B.I.G. - B.I.G. Mack (Original Sampler) [LP+Cassette] Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 Way Street (Expanded Edition) [3LP] Culture - The Nighthawk Recordings [LP] Curren$y, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist - Fetti [LP] Czarface - Double Dose Of Danger [LP] David Bowie - Pin Ups (2015 Remastered Version) [LP] David Bowie - The World Of David Bowie (Compilation) [LP] David Bowie / Marlene Dietrich - Revolutionary Song / Just A Gigolo [7''] Death Grips - Steroids (Crouching Tiger Hidden Gabber Megamix) [LP] Def Leppard - The Story So Far, Vol. 2 / B Sides [2LP] Desmond Dekker & The Aces - Pretty Africa [LP] Devo - This Is The DEVO Box [6LP] Doors, The - London Fog [10''] Dr. Dog - Live 2 [LP] Dr. Dre - Nuthin' But A ''G'' Thang [12''] Duran Duran - As The Lights Go Down (Live) [2LP] Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs - Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto [LP] Elton John - Live From Moscow [2LP] Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Purse EP [LP] Elvis Presley - Live At The International Hotel, Las Vegas, NV August 23, 1969 [2LP] Eric Clapton - One More Car One More Rider [3LP] Fatlip - The Loneliest Punk [LP] Flaming Lips, The - King's Mouth: Music And Songs [LP] Fleetwood Mac - The Alternate Fleetwood Mac [LP] Frank Black - Frank Black [LP] Frank Black - Teenager Of The Year [2LP] Frank Zappa - The Guitar World According To Frank Zappa [LP] Golden Earring - Moontan [LP] Gorillaz - The Fall [LP] Grateful Dead - The Warfield, San Francisco, CA 10/9/80 [2LP] Green Day - Woodstock 1994 Live [LP] Green Jelly - Cereal Killer Soundtrack [LP] Green River - Live At The Tropicana 1984 [LP] Greta Van Fleet - From The Fires [LP] Hawkwind - The 1999 Party: Live At The Chicago Auditorium 21st March, 1974 [2LP] High On Fire - Bat Salad [LP] Hockey Dad - Dreamin' [LP] Idles - Meat / Meta [EP] Iggy Pop - Hippodrome - Paris 77 [2LP] Iggy Pop - The Villagers b/w Pain & Suffering [7''] Insurgence DC - Broken In The Theater Of The Absurd [LP] James Brown - Sho Is Funky Down Here [LP] Janis Joplin - Woodstock Sunday August 17, 1969 [2LP] Jeff Buckley - In Transition [LP] Jeff Tweedy - WARMER [LP] Jethro Tull - North Sea Oil [10''] Joe Strummer - The Rockfield Studio Tracks [12''] John Cage Meets Sun Ra - John Cage Meets Sun Ra: The Complete Film [7''+DVD] John Lennon - Imagine: The Raw Studio Mixes [2LP] Julien Baker - Red Door / Conversation Piece [7''] Justin Courtney Pierre (frontman of Motion City Soundtrack) - Open Mic At The Lo-Fi Vol. 1 [LP] Kooks, The - Live At The Moth Club [LP] Kool Keith - Complicated Trip [12''] Kristin Hersh - Crooked [LP] L7 - Burn Baby [7''] Lemonheads, The - Can't Forget / Wild Child [7''] Lou Reed - Ecstasy [2LP] Louis Armstrong - Disney Songs The Satchmo Way [LP] Madonna - La Isla Bonita: Super Mix [LP] Madonna - True Blue (Super Club Mix) [LP] Mark Lanegan Band - Stitch It Up [7''] Mark Ronson - Nothing Breaks Like A Heart [12''] Mastodon - Stairway To Nick John [10''] Matthew Sweet - Pleasure Island, Live [LP] Menzingers, The - No Penance b/w Cemetery's Garden [7''] Midnight Oil - Breathe Tour '97, Live [LP] Mission Of Burma - Peking Spring [LP] Mo-dettes, The The Story So Far [LP] Monty Python - Monty Python's Life Of Brian [LP] Morrissey - Lover-To-Be [7''] Moses Sumney - Black In Deep Red, 2014 [12''] Motorhead - Overkill / Bomber [2x7''] Motorhead - Rockaway Beach [7''] Mumford & Sons - Delta Acoustic Sessions | Live From Electric Lady [10''] My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade Is Dead! [2LP] Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Wait & Return [LP] Ol' Dirty Bastard - Intoxicated [LP] Olafur Arnalds - Re:member + String Quartets [LP+7''] Otis Redding w/Booker T. & The M.G.'s + The Mar-Keys - Just Do It One More Time! Live At The Monterey Pop Festival [LP] Parliaments, The - Baby I Owe You Something Good [LP] Pearl Jam - Live At Easy Street [LP] Pelican - Midnight & Mesaline [7''] Peter Howell & John Ferdinando - Ithaca, Agincourt And Other Psych-Folk Fairy Tales [2LP+CD] Pink Floyd - A Saucerful Of Secrets (Mono) [LP] Police, The - Message In A Bottle [2x7''] Prince - His Majesty's Pop Life / The Purple Mix Club [2LP] Procol Harum - Procol Harum (50th Anniversary USA Edition) [2LP] Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Soundtrack) [2LP] Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody / I'm In Love With My Car [7''] Ramones, The - Live At The Palladium, New York, NY (12/31/79) [2LP] Robert Johnson - Kind Hearted Woman Blues / Terraplane Blues [10''] Robyn - Body Talk [2LP] Rolling Stones, The - Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) (UK) [LP] Rolling Stones, The - She’s A Rainbow / Live At U Arena, Paris / 25.10.17 [10''] Rolling Stones, The - Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (UK) [LP] Roxy Music - Roxy Music - Remixed [2LP] RZA - Birth Of A Prince [2LP] Salvation Army, The - Live From Torrance And Beyond [LP] Santigold - I Don't Want: The Gold Fire Sessions [LP] Serj Tankian - Harakiri [LP] Sherman Brothers, The - Simply Sherman: Disney Hits From The Sherman Brothers [LP] Shocking Blue - Single Collection (A's & B's), Part 2 [2LP] Sly & The Family Stone - Woodstock Sunday August 17, 1969 [2LP] Soccer Mommy - For Young Hearts [LP] Sublime - Nugs: Best Of The Box [LP] SUNN O))) - Life Metal [2LP] Tangerine Dream - Le Parc [2LP] Tangerine Dream - Machu Picchu [LP] Ten In The Swear Jar (Xiu Xiu) - Fort Awesome: Complete Recordings [2LP] Teyana Taylor - Gonna Love Me / WTP (Remixes) [12''] Thrice - Deeper Wells [LP] Todd Rundgren - The Complete U.S. Bearsville & Warner Bros. Singles [4LP] Too $hort - The Pimp Tape [2LP] Townes Van Zandt - The Best Of Townes Van Zandt [2LP] U2 - The Europa [LP] Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Alternative [10''] Various Artists - Boy Meets Girl: Classic Stax Duets [2LP] Various Artists - Brazil Classics 30th Anniversary Box Set [3LP] Various Artists - Coneheads (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Folk And Pop Sounds Of Sumatra Vol. 2 [2LP] Various Artists - Ghost World (Soundtrack) [2LP] Various Artists - I Am Sam (Soundtrack) [LP Various Artists - Lost In Translation (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Malcom X (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Mickey Mouse Disco [LP] Various Artists - New Jack City (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Office Space (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Poppies: Assorted Finery From The First Psychedelic Age [LP] Various Artists - Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions Of Weezer [LP] Various Artists - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Soundtrack) [2LP] Various Artists - Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Stax Does The Beatles [2LP] Various Artists - Sugar Hill Records: The 12'' D.J. Boxset [6x12'' Boxset] Various Artists - The Crow (Soundtrack) [2LP] Various Artists - Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets Highlights [2LP] Various Artists - Woodstock 3 Days Of Peace Music (Mono PA Version) [3LP] Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground [LP] Vitamin String Quartet - VSQ Performs Bjork [2LP] Weezer - Dusty Gems: The B-Sides [LP] Weezer - Weezer (Teal Album) [LP] Wes Montgomery - Back On Indiana Avenue: The Carroll DeCamp Recordings [2LP] Wipers, The - Alien Boy [7'' EP] Wonder Years, The - The Wonder Years Live From Maida Vale [10''] Yes - Yes [LP] UK LIST TITLES Dexys Midnight Runners - At The BBC 1982 [2LP] Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message [2LP] Mighty Boosh - The Complete Radio Series [3LP] Ronnie Lane & The Band Slim Chance - At The BBC [2LP] Sigur Ros - Lunar Halo 22° [LP] Sigur Ros - Variations In Darkness [LP] Thin Lizzy - Black Rose [2LP] Various Artists - The Freakbeat Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The Mod Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The Northern Soul Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The Psychedelic Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The R&B Scene [2LP] Venom - Manitou [7" picture disc] Yazoo - Reconnected: Live [2LP]

[beeprich]

i’m deleting my IT playlists from my spotify under the cut i have listed all of the songs to each playlist in case y'all were that fond of em (feel free to follow @ lilriottt lol i still got some non-it bangers)

eddie

1. cut to the feeling - carly rae jepsen

2. lottery - kali uchis

3. my my my - troye sivan

4. american boyfriend - kevin abstract

5. going away to college - blink 182

6. hair - lady gaga

7. greedy - ariana grande

8. lo que siento - cuco

9. papoutai - stromae

10. make out in my car - sufjan stevens version

11. mama don’t make me put on the dress again - trixie mattel

12. brooklyn baby - lana del rey

13. kiss - prince

14. ship to wreck - florence and the machine

15. lies - marina and the diamonds

16. 400 lux - lorde

17. only angel - harry styles

18. wetsuit - the vaccines 

19. white ferrari - frank ocean

richie

1. quixoticelixer - red hot chili peppers

2. too drunk to fuck - dead kennedys

3. what’s my age again - blink 182

4. this song is not about a girl - flume

5. denial - the vaccines

6. flash delirium - mgmt

7. no friends - san cisco 

8. age of consent - new order

9. el scorcho - weezer

10. amoeba - adolescents 

11. boys - brockhampton

12. suck it and see - arctic monkeys

13. dare - gorillaz

14. creepin up the backstairs - the fratellis 

15. bloodstains - agent orange

16. masseduction - st. vincent

benverly

1. blossom - milky chance 

2. you were meant for me - jewel

3. friday i’m in love - the cure

4. ophelia - the lumineers 

5. pelican - the maccabees

6. sonora - spendtime palace

7. rhiannon - fleetwood mac

8. forrest gump - frank ocean

9. ironic - alanis morissette 

10. lovefool - the cardigans

11. kiss me - sixpence none the richer

12. check yes juliet - we the kings

13. iris - the goo goo dolls

14. wanted you - twin peaks 

15. linger - the cranberries

16. riptide - vance joy

17. happy together - the turtles

stanlon

1. medicine - daughter

2. little secrets - passion pit

3. hallelujah - rufus wainwright

4. angels - the xx

5. breezeblocks - alt-j

6. sea of love - cat power

7. boys dont cry - the cure

8. sleep alone - two door cinema club

9. not about angels - birdy

10. easy to love - ivan & alyosha

11. flightless bird, american mouth - iron & wine

12. rivers and roads - the head and the heart

13. daylight - matt and kim

14. cough syrup - young the giant 

15. santa fe - beirut 

16. marks to prove it - the maccabees

17. dreams - fleetwood mac 

bichie

1. cecelia and the satellite - andrew mcmahon in the wilderness 

2. handsome - the vaccines

3. somebody told me - the killers

4. the end of all things - panic at the disco

5. anything, anything - dramarama

6. wrong number - the cure

7. holocene - bon iver

8. tessellate - alt-j

9. dance on our graves - paper route 

10. how soon is now? - the smiths

11. bizarre love triangle - new order

12. blister in the sun - violent femmes 

13. cocoon - milky chance

14. love my way - the psychedelic furs

15. what you know - two door cinema club

16. sub-mission - sex pistols

17. the killing moon - echo & the bunnymen

kaspbrough

1. toothpaste kisses - the maccabees

2. lovesick - peace

3. love - lana del rey

4. too much - sufjan stevens 

5. our song - the xx

6. lottery - kali uchis

7. the blower’s daughter - damien rice

8. almost lover - a fine frenzy

9. still into you - paramore

10. childhood sweetheart - chunk berry

11. you don’t know how lucky you are - keaton henson

12. skinny love - bon iver

13. best of friends - palma violets 

14. to build a home - the cinematic orchestra 

15. medicine - daughter

16. atlas hands - benjamin francis leftwich

17. picasso - the cinema

reddie

1. caroline - amine 

2. lovesong - the cure

3. the night josh tillman came to our apt. - father john misty 

4. there is a light that never goes out - the smiths

5. shut up kiss me - angel olsen 

6. ivy - frank ocean

7. my kind of woman - mac demarco 

8. africa - toto

9. the predatory wasp of the palisades is out to get us - sufjan stevens 

10. love will tear us apart - joy division 

11. your best american girl - mitski 

12. i always knew - the vaccines 

13. buddy holly - weezer

14. a 1000 times - hamilton leithauser + rostam

15. irreversible cure - spendtime palace

16. tyrant - kali uchis

17. you - keaton henson

beverie

1. punching bag - cage the elephant 

2. fluorescent adolescent - arctic monkeys 

3. island in the sun - weezer

4. someday - the strokes 

5. believe me natalie - the killers 

6. shut up and let me go - the ting tings

7. heads will roll - yeah yeah yeahs

8. sour cherry - the kills 

9. everyday is like sunday - morrissey 

10. china girl - david bowie

11. time to pretend - mgmt

12. no you girls - franz ferdinand 

13. stella - san cisco

14. anna sun - walk the moon

15. hang me up to dry - cold war kids 

16. teenage icon - the vaccines 

17. lily lee - spendtime palace 

stenbrough 

1. romeo and juliet - the killers

2. teenage blue - dreamgirl

3. real love baby - father john misty

4. it’s nice to be alive - ball park music

5. chateau - angus & julia stone 

6. heroes - david bowie

7. see you again - tyler, the creator

8. no room in frame - death cab for cutie

9. fallingforyou - the 1975

10. i love you so - the walters

11. wouldn’t it be nice - the beach boys

12. coming home - leon bridges

13. last nite - the strokes

14. mardy bum - arctic monkeys 

15. seaside - the kooks

16. baby blue - king krule

17. a little while - yellow days

stozier

1. miss atomic bomb - the killers

2. this love - maroon 5

3. mystery of love - sufjan stevens 

4. old lovers in dressing rooms - keaton henson

5. cry baby - the nbhd

6. heart skipped a beat - the xx

7. only if for a night - florence and the machine

8. wet dreams - the growlers 

9. i love you, honeybear - father john misty 

10. love is a laserquest - arctic monkeys 

11. the less i know the better - tame impala

12. two fingers - jake bugg

13. come undone - duran duran 

14. cupid’s chokehold/breakfast in america - gym class heroes 

15. undone (the sweater song) - weezer

16. somebody else - the 1975

17. crooked teeth 

[alongcamepolyblog]

I'm a queer woman, whose dated mostly cishet dudes my life. After coming out, I've dated a few girls (even having a few non-monogamous relationships) but I'm finding myself falling for a cishet monogamous dude that I *surprise* am reeeeeeally into. Am I a bad queer for having these feelings, and am I an even worse person for being confused on where I lie on the monogamous/non-monogamous spectrum?

Oh, honey. The very short and very firm answers I have for you, for both of your questions, are no, and no, not at all. 

It’s Pride month, and there are lots of things floating about about queerness. Equinox has a horrible joke of an ad campaign about the ABCs of LGBTQ+, and they kick off the video with “ally” (gag me) – erasing asexuals from the queer community completely – and then lumping in kink and S&M as if those things are inherently queer, or all queers are kinky. This is the entirety of my reaction to that:

NYC Pride is supposedly going to be televised this year, because everyone wants to get in on queerness as spectacle. But the problem with marginalized identities being perceived through the lens of a dominant [read: white supremacist, cissexist, heteronormative, patriarchal] narrative (i.e., white cishets with money who like glitter and dislike the history that is the Stonewall Riots being led by Black and Latina trans women) is that the dominant narrative fucks us up. From adolescence (or even earlier if you’re Black or POC), and continuously. 

What I’m getting from you letter is mostly that you don’t feel queer enough. “Not queer enough” is just another version of “not enough” and, in my experience, at the root of every “not enough” – especially for someone who lives within one or more marginalized identities – is how we’re not shaping up to some distant, inauthentic ideal (which is *always* seen through the lens of whiteness).

What does “queer enough” look like, to you? Take a moment and really think about it. What are the narratives that you’re bringing to “queer enough” that have you stuck in the position of feeling like you’re falling short?

I’m also a queer woman who for a long time dated mostly cishet dudes all my life, and when I was stewing in my ‘not enough’ feelings, they usually had to do with my femmeness, and how I was worried about being read. (This is called internalized femmephobia.) My response was to cut off all my hair (and then, ridiculously, have a lot of feelings about being read as too butch/“too gay”; read: “too much.” We truly cannot win.) I got a tattoo of a Sailor Jerry mermaid rocking a pixie cut and reading a book with her boobs out to telegraph to the world that I LIKE GIRLS. I later got an undercut, a septum piercing; all markings of things that I thought would make me more “visibly queer.” (And maybe it did, but now I’m also Brooklyn-adjacent, so I look pretty much like everyone else. Oh well.) 

But here’s the thing with visibility that I think is important to note: My bbqueer striving to be “visibly queer” was a privilege, even as it was causing me anxiety and feelings of not enough-ness; trans folks, and BIPOC folks, queer and straight, struggle with hypervisibility in ways that my light skinned, cisgender ass generally does not, and it is important to me to state that plainly.

Did any of the things I did to establish my queer chick street cred actually make me any queerer? No. You know what does make me queer? 

The fact that I’ve always felt a little odd my whole life, and it wasn’t until I found my queerness that some part of that began to ease. My intense relationships with female friends that crashed and burned in startling ways, which I now realized were warped and stuck in a pressure-cooker by the queerness that I didn’t have words for, since I was raised so steeped in Catholicism and heteronormativity. The fact that I’ve had to fight to recognize my queerness; the fact that my parents made me stop watching Xena for “the violence” when I have a sneaking suspicion I probably was made to stop watching it for the gayness (and I don’t say that to criticize my parents at all – I don’t even think that was something that consciously registered for them; that is part of my queerness too). The fact that my dad tried to make me stop watching Buffy when Willow came out as gay – he TRIED lol – and I literally told him over my dead body. The fact that Willow came out as gay and it still took me an additional ten years to realize that I’m bisexual, bc lol, where are all the bi girls on TV??? Where are the bi girls who look like me? (Here’s one.)

I understand your angst, though. As queer women, we’re so often told that our sexuality is contingent on who we’re with. My doctors have treated me that way – when I have male partners, I’m straight, and when I have female partners, I’m gay. When I come out about being non-monogamous, I’m pretty sure all they see is a neon-sign over my head that, depending on the doctor, reads “HIGH RISK” at best, and “SLUT” at worst. These are messages that we have to deal with every day. It is so, so rare to find a place and a community that validates who you are, exactly as you are.

And the queer community isn’t exempt from that, either! I had a girlfriend who identified as a lesbian who had a problem with me having sex with dudes. I had a girlfriend who identified as poly who hated the idea of me having other partners, so she asked me to be in a closed triad with her and her husband – and then the two of them, jointly, decided to dump me, in part because seeing him with me scared the crap out of her. 

Our world is imperfect, and our communities reflect that. It takes strength and resilience and the deepest, fiercest love for who you know yourself to be to fight that. It can be exhausting, and sometimes we don’t always win these battles with “not enough,” because our society is not structured to encourage or even allow us to love ourselves. And I’m sorry for that, and I am sending you all of my love, not just because it’s June and it’s Pride month, but always, because you deserve so much better than this.

With regard to where you stand on the spectrum of monogamy and non-monogamy – fuck that scale. You are where you are, and how you do relationships is your business, and your partner(s)’ business, and anyone on the outside looking in can go fuck themselves. Maybe you’re feeling more monogamous right now – cool. Maybe you’re just super deep in New Relationship Energy with this exciting new person – that’s also fine! Either of these things or neither of them can be true, or one of them can be true sometimes, or they can both be true at least half the time, and the only thing that means is that’s where you are at right now, and where you are right now in your dating life is not a comment on how ‘good’ of a queer you are. You don’t have to be good. You just have to be yourself.The most important thing I ever learned about queerness was last summer at the LAMBDA Writers Workshop. My teacher was Benjamin Alire Saenz, and the first thing he asked us to do was to write about what scared us most in the world. I wrote about not being enough – not queer enough, not Latina enough, not good enough at non-monogamy, not enough of a writer. Not enough, not enough, not enough. He said to us, “Queer is an identity that is entirely self-defined” – and your ability to do that, to be who you are, all of who you are, and say fuck you to the cishets who want queerness to look the way they want to consume it, and a similar buzz off to the queers who would suggest your queerness is not queer enough because of who you’re with – is not only an act of resistance, but also the best gift you could give yourself, and a gift you have always deserved.

Happy Pride, love.

[flightsseries-blog]

FLIGHTS #1 POETRY, PERFORMANCE & BOOKS [be]FOR[e] INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY TUESDAY 7 MARCH 2017 7-9.30pm, doors & book tables from 6.30pm AIMÉE LÊ ALISON GIBB GHAZAL MOSADEQ MENDOZA MMMMM (LUNA MONTENEGRO & ADRIAN FISHER) SANDRA KEATING SOPHIE MAYER PRUE CHAMBERLAIN JENNIE COLE ELEY WILLIAMS THE HORSE HOSPITAL, COLONNADE, BLOOMSBURY, LONDON WC1N 1JD £5 waged, free entry unwaged. All welcome. RSVP via Eventbrite Flights is an occasional event series of poetry and performance, emphasising the work of female-identified poets, performers, and artists. The series programming is guided by the principle of inclusivity. Flights #1 will take place on 7 March 2017 at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury, London, on the evening before International Women’s Day.

Featuring:

ALISON GIBB

Alison Gibb is a poet-artist and researcher, investigating language and creating poetic outcomes through experimental explorations into the processes, methods and critical spaces of visual art, poetry and performance.

Alison’s publications a.vase - 2017, Silent Diagrams –2013, Parallel To Red In Chorus -2011 are published by Knives, Forks and Spoons press. Her sound collage CD, Pomegranates In The Oak, was produced by zimZalla in 2012, and her bookwork I am knot . . .a. poster in pieces of POWER was published by ambergris press in 2015.

alisongibb.com

SANDRA KEATING

Sandra Keating is an experimental multidisciplinary artist working with visual narratives, social commentary, the psychology of art and conceptual art as therapy. Her process-based practice involves automatism, catharsis and flow. As part of this she has a series of artist books she blacks-out as a process of "concealing in order to reveal” in terms of finding new narratives and observing inner psychological outcomes. This Black-out poetry has always been practised solo but recently, her newest versions are made as group works. 

With a renewed interest in participatory practice and environmental art, in 2015 she has also started to develop Project Wonderlands, an interdisciplinary body of work based on ecopsychology and nature reconnection which involves research, visual observations, theory-based works, socially engaged art projects, group work and experiential workshops. Her current book for this work is a First Edition of J.G Ballard’s “Concrete Island,” and she has invited the public and other various artists to participate in the Black-out process.

sandrakeating.com

AIMÉE LÊ

Aimée Lê (b. 1990, Ann Arbor, MI) is a Vietnamese American writer. With Fiona Chamness, she is the author of Feral Citizens (Red Beard Press, 2011). Recent projects include an EP of (mis)translated Greek pop songs, Aliki in Saigon (interview), presented at the Sound Acts festival in conjunction with AMOQA/Athens Museum of Queer Arts, publications in Muzzle, Litmus Press editions, and The Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry. Her main interests include materialism, Marxist theory, performance, narrative and the novel. Some past forms of communal living have included organising a full-time tent occupation of Dartmouth College in solidarity with Occupy Wall St. and a live-work collective, West Side School for the Desperate. She currently lives in London in a tent in an ecological commune in opposition to airport expansion, and is pursuing a PhD in Practice-based Poetics at Royal Holloway, University of London, on “’The National Question’ in American Literature 1913—present”; in general trying to be about it.

SOPHIE MAYER

Sophie Mayer’s most recent poetry books are (O), published by Arc, and kaolin, or How Did a Girl Like You Get to Be a Girl Like You, published by Lark Books, both in 2015. She was the co-editor of the activist poetry projects Catechism: Poems for Pussy Riot; Binders Full of Women; and Glitter is a Gender, and founder of the website I Don’t Call Myself a Poet.

She is also a feminist film activist and critic – author of Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema (2015), curator with Club des Femmes, and a regular contributor to Sight & Sound, the F-Word and Literal. She has reviewed poetry for Shearsman Magazine and Poetry Review, among others, and was part of the experimental collaborative poetry project A Thing Like You and Me, edited by Sarah Crewe for aglimpseof. Her current project is Disturbing Words, a subscription email newsletter about the language of where we are now.

sophiemayer.net

MENDOZA

mendoza is a Northumbrian poet and researcher investigating disembodiment, liminal space and marginal entities through poetic practice. Their work evolves through a series of creative processes: performance, making and unmaking, appropriation and assimilation, exploring the interaction between sound, image and text as a means of de-constructing / (re)constructing the ‘self’. The emphasis is on both the materiality of the text and the creation of (single or multiple) textual identities. mendoza, a.k.a. Linus Slug: Insect Librarian, is the founder of ninerrors poetry series, editor of FREAKLUNG poetry zine and co-editor/event organizer at Stinky Bear Press. Recent publications include: “the science of poetry • the poetry of science” Linus Slug / Peter Manson broadside 2015, and “Type Specimen: An Observant Guide To Linus Slug”, Contraband, 2014.

MMMMM (LUNA MONTENEGRO & ADRIAN FISHER)

Adrian Fisher and Luna Montenegro are artists and poets based in London. They work collaboratively under the name mmmmm, creating text, performance, film, installation and sound. They are interested in ideas of ritual, presence and the collective and have shown their work in Europe and Latin America. Their practice develops in a variety of contexts including museums, art galleries, site-specific spaces, residencies, poetry forums, magazines, radio, pubs and public spaces. They have been members of the London Biennale, The Writers Forum in the UK and Chile and were two of the founders of the infamous bobs cabaret, a weekly all-night art warehouse in London. They have made over 10 films together with Gines Olivares under the collective mmmmmfilms. They run a small press 'One Night Stanza' and are part of the experimental sound band 'the yet'.

mmmmm.org.uk

GHAZAL MOSADEQ

Ghazal Mosadeq is a poet and writer and a doctoral researcher at Birkbeck College, University of London. Her research focuses on models of autobiography and how Sūfi traditions of writing inform and disturb such models. She writes in Persian and English and also translates from these two languages. Her first poetry book, Dar Jam-i Ma, published in 2010, was short listed for the Kor-sheed award (women’s poetry award in Iran). She won the Bay-Haqi Prize for fiction in 2013. Her books have been published internationally by Heermand Press (Iran), Morvarid Publishing House (Iran), Red Ceiling Press (UK), Susak Press (UK) and in magazines such as Karnameh, Bukara (Iran), Poetry Wales (UK), Writer’s Hub (UK), Words Without Borders (USA), and Serie Alpha (Brazil). She is the Co-founder of “Zeer Pelleh”, an avant-garde poetry and performance group in Tehran. She is also the founder and editor of a new publishing project, Pāmenār Press.

Organisers: PRUE CHAMBERLAIN

Prudence Chamberlain is a lecturer at Royal Holloway, University of London, and previously Poet in Residence at Surrey University. Her co-written House of Mouse was released by Knives, Forks and Spoons Press in 2016, while Dirt Talk is forthcoming with Pyramid Editions in March 2017. girlasavendingmachine.wordpress.com

JENNIE COLE

Jennie Cole is a poet and artist, currently undertaking practice-based doctoral research with the Poetics Research Centre at Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL). Her research investigates uses of citation in art and poetry, drawing from Walter Benjamin's uses and theories of citation. In her practice, Jennie works across film and video, audio, performance, artist's books, and other printed matter, with enthusiasm for unruly formats, the crossing of discourses, and varied approaches to the means of finding language. Her works have been exhibited, published and performed internationally, appearing in things and places including POLYply, Caesura Gallery, Otoliths, MCBA Book Arts Biennial, E.ratio, Small Po[r]tions, Performance Research, The Poetry Library (Southbank Centre), European Media Art Festival, OOMK Future Library, and Athens Digital Arts Festival. Jennie's poetic sequence GARGANTUA is available from BlazeVOX. jenniecole.org

ELEY WILLIAMS Eley Williams is co-editor of fiction at 3:AM magazine. Her collection Attrib. & Other Stories (Influx 2017) was chosen by Ali Smith amongst 'the best of debut fiction' for this year's Cambridge Literary Festival. Eley has a small book of poetry, Frit, forthcoming from Sad Press in 2017.

eleywilliams.com

flightsseries.tumblr.com

With thanks to all members of the RHUL Poetics Research Centre for their ongoing support, to Simon and Ira at LCBA, and The Horse Hospital.

FLIGHTS #1         7-9.30pm         Tuesday 7 March 2017 at The Horse Hospital, Colonnade, London WC1N 1JD

RHUL POETICS RESEARCH CENTRE

[theloniousbach]

COUCH TOUR: PIANO RECITALS (mostly) from the 92nd STREET Y (mostly), APRIL 2020

The piano recital is becoming the way to experience real time performances of European Tradition Art Music in this time of the Great Disruption.  The 92nd Street Y’s series is impressive and so is an outlet I rely on.

I wrote a full separate review of Jonathan Bliss's readings of the Beethoven Sonatas #30-32 on March 26.Let this serve as a compendium of shorter notices of six April performances.

The next to last was the Bach Partida in D Minor for violin which includes THE Chaconne from the artist’s bedroom and the very last was a tape of a pre-Disruption recital at the 92nd Street Y.  

Such archival recordings are where that venerable institution is heading.  I thought/hoped they might have an Angela Hewitt Bach Toccatas tonight, but it didn’t come on.  Instead, she is due again next week for the English Suites.  They also plan to show Peter Serkin’s last recital with them, including the Goldberg Variations.  Finally, later in the month, they promise the Vienna Piano Trio with a program that includes “Archduke.”  

So look for at least another compendium note, if not three separate ones.

MARC-ANDRE HAMELIN, 14 APRIL 2020This music was so bright, crystalline in a sense but not fragile at all.  In part, it was the program (the Enescu was literally a "carillon" ) but Hamelin is renowned for his technique.  It was striking.  He also played a Fasoli, so that's the first one of those I ever saw/heard.  That had to be part of it as they are, by reputation and this experience, remarkable instruments.The program included some Debussy Preludes from Book II which I liked though that is not the unanimous opinion in the household.  They are so harmonically open and adventurous that they speak to my jazz side.

Here's the "setlist:"

C.P.E. BACH: Rondo in C Minor, Wq. 59/4 

ENESCU: Choral and Carillon Nocturne, Op. 18, Nos. 6 and 7 

FAURÉ: Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat Major, Op. 63 

SCRIABIN: Fantasie in B Minor, Op. 28 

LISZT: Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude 

 DEBUSSY: selections from Préludes, Book 2 4. «Les fées sont d’exquises danseuses»: Rapide et léger 5. Bruyères: Calme 6. Général Lavine – eccentric: Dans le style et le mouvement d'un Cakewalk 7. La terrasse des audiences du clair de lune: Lent 11. Les tierces alternées: Modérément animé 12. Feux d’artifice: Modérément animé

For the record, we did not watch this live, but the next evening.

PEDJA MUZIJEVIC, 17 APRIL 2020

If Hamelin's Fasoli was striking, Muzijevic's Yamaha Disklavier (partially covered, lid unopened) was too.  Add that we couldn't see the keyboard and this one was less satisfying despite a differently thoughtful program.

The instrument sounded fine as, after all, we are listening on an iPad four feet away.  This is not high power audiophilia at play.  I have to imagine it serves important pedagogical purposes and works as a home piano for a working musician  who worked on the road.

He is certainly engaging, showing us (his phone? device?) to our seat, but then before the Satie showing a favorite work of art in his apartment and then putting "us" on his piano so he could recite (against the composer's strict instructions otherwise) the rather surreal text that informs the composition.  He started and ended with CPE Bach with another reading of the Rondo that Hamelin played in the middle.  He viewed the program as bouncing between Berlin (the younger Bach), Paris with Antheil and Satie, and New York (Glass from 1979 and John Cage selections from the remaining score to a lost ballet, "The Seasons.").  A nicely thoughtful/provocative program.

C.P.E. Bach: Sonata in C Minor, Wq. 65/31 

Antheil: Selections from La Femme 100 Têtes (nos. 2,3, 5,6 and 8) Phillip Glass: Mad Rush 

C.P.E. Bach: Rondo in C Minor, Wq.59/4 

Satie: Embryons desséchés 

Cage: Prelude and Spring, from The Seasons 

C.P.E. Bach: Sonata in G Major, Wq. 55/6

RENANA GUTMAN, 20 APRIL 2020

The encore, oh so familiar but I can’t name that tune, had a delicacy that much of the program lacked.  I’m fond of the Bach but it was, well, Baroque and busy.  The Debussy had some space but it is often not simply pretty Impressionism.  This was the second time that Faure’s Nocturne has appeared in this series.  I don’t know it well enough to compare Gutman’s to Hamelin’s, except to say it’s a showcase piece.  As are Scriabin and, especially, the Chopin.

It was an acoustically too bright room, an art gallery with a plate glass window behind the piano through the Faure if not the Scriabin.  Wood floors, higher ceilings bounced the sound around even after a curtain was drawn.  She used lots of pedal, as she was supposed to, but the tones rumbled and layered on top of one another.  I am not an audiophile and I freely admit, we listened on an iPad.  But I felt I didn’t get the full effect of her formidable technique.

Bach: French Suite No. 6 in E Major, BWV 817 

Debussy: Rêverie Fauré: Nocturne No. 6 in D-flat Major, Op. 63 

Scriabin: Selected Preludes, Op. 11 

Chopin: 24 Préludes, Op. 28

JULIA HAMOS, 23 APRIL 2020

SCHUBERT: Fantasia in F Minor, for piano four-hands, D. 940 (with Benjamin Hochman, piano)

BARTÓK: 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs, Sz. 71

SCHUMANN: Symphonic Études, Op. 15

After fighting the room for Guttman’s sound, this recital was a return to the series’s promise.  The material was just as virtuosic (we’ll talk about the Schumann shortly), but there was a lightness and clarity even as the notes rumbled in the mid-lower register.  This room, in Hamos’s parents’ house, was just warmer, smaller, a rug under the instrument.

The Schubert was dedicated to her recently deceased grandfather and was emotionally significant for him and the love of the piano it engendered.  We settled in and yet the four hands were clear and complementary.  Only a few of the Bartoks sounded like folk songs, but others evoked jazz in this very predisposed listener.

But the highlight was the Schumann.  Etudes, so they were short, but not at all miniatures.  They were majestic in conception and grand in presentation.  I was drawn into my exploration of what makes symphonies symphonies.  These become tests to go with the Liszt transcriptions of Beethoven or the Hummel settings for flute/violin/piano/cello of some of the later Mozart for home performance.  But, he develops themes in, at once, broad strokes with multiple subtle voicings.  I will return to these.

ALANA YOUSEFFIAN, 24 APRIL 2020, CANDLELIGHT BAROQUE CONCERT, TRINITY CHURCH WALL STREET

Not piano and not sponsored by the 92nd Street Y, but I had to sneak in a performance of the Bach Partida in D Minor, including THE Chaconne.  It was from the artist's apartment and had that kind of charm and intimacy.

I valued seeing the Chaccone in the context of the dance forms that precede it in the work as a whole.  The finale is of course stunning and this version was too, properly somber but somehow lighter.  I take that as Youseffian's interpretation. The rest of the Partida is thoughtful too but it balances the work.

I "left" at the intermission, but reportedly she answered questions and then played a serious of shorter pieces.  I'm glad that she led with the Bach.

PAMELA FRANK/STEPHEN PRUTSMAN, Aired 28 April 2020

This had to have been a taped performance (there was an audience, it took place in a concert hall) but the only specific reference was that the encore Chorale in G was for Peter Serkin who died February 1.

They performed all 6 of the Bach Sonatas for Violin and Keyboard at 92 Y on March 5.  While this may have been from that recital, what was advertised was 5 in F minor, 3 in E, 4 in C minor, and 6 in G plus the Chorale.

I have no complaints with an all-Bach program but what made tonight special was the musical conversation.  Piano recitals, including Fred Hersch's Tune of the Day series, are wonders of the instrument.  If, as it appears, they are the primary way to hear real time (or at least almost) performances, I can be content, witness this series.  But to hear the back and forth of even a duet stands out in my current listening context.

I still listened to the piano primarily for the way it complemented and danced around the violin.  Complemented as much as accompanied or it could have been that the left hand (mostly) accompanied the right hand and the violin.  And, undoubtedly because of the ensemble character of the keyboard writing (keyboard, not piano, of course), it lacked the conventions of the 19th Century piano virtuosi.  I kind of liked taking a break from them  to hear different possibilities from the instrument.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: The Multifarious Feminism of the Whitney Biennial

Aliza Nisenbaum, “MOIA’s NYC Women’s Cabinet” (2016) (photo by Benjamin Sutton/Hyperallergic)

Could we consider the 2017 Whitney Biennial a feminist exhibition? Twenty-five of the 63 artists in the show are women. There are additional women in the participating collectives and more exhibitors who are gender fluid. The percentage isn’t as high as in 2010, when there were more women than men in the show, but certainly better than in 2014, when women made up only 32%. Even when they haven’t been included, feminists have played a critical role in the biennial, critiquing the show for its lack of diversity. Groups such as the Ad Hoc Women Artists’ Committee and the Guerrilla Girls have protested the exhibition over the decades.

The versions of feminism on display in the current biennial are incredibly rich and varied. Among the most beguiling and subtly transfixing are the digital interventions of Porpentine Charity Heartscape. In her seven web-based games, installed on desktop computers in a small, darkened room, viewers encounter text-based questions and worlds that prompt emotionally manipulated responses, leaving us either unnerved or enthralled. In one game, you feeling your anxiety rise as the empty, dark intervals seem to lengthen between text bursts about the isolation of a hospital stay.

Porpentine Charity Heartscape and Neotenomie, “With Those We Love Alive” (2014), hypertext (image courtesy the artists)

The biennial also features works by several lesbian artists — Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Carrie Moyer, and Ulrike Müller — associated with the LTTR Group (the acronym originally stood for “Lesbians to the Rescue,” then changed to “Listen Translate Translate Record,” and then just became their collective moniker). The LTTR Group is a genderqueer collective founded in 2001; it produced an annual feminist art journal for five years, changing its name and editorial staff with each issue. At the Whitney, the Austrian-born Müller has contributed a wool rug with a black cat in a field of geometric designs; the feline as a wry, lesbian pussy joke takes on broader implications in the politicized milieu of 2017, when the pink pussy hat became the de rigueur fashion statement for the January Women’s March in response to a statement by our now president.

Works by Ulrike Müller in the Whitney Biennial (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

Müller also has a set of small abstract paintings on paper with some transparency, in dialogue with densely opaque enameled paintings installed in a nearby hallway. Though there are color and shape differences between the two groups, the forms are consistently simple, curvy, and gorgeous. Moyer has filled a room with large acrylic-on-canvas paintings in her signature butterfly and nonobjective compositions. Recalling Color Field painting, the works suggest luxurious, diaphanous curtains featuring super sexy, psychedelic, even tender forms, with occasional accents of glitter. Abstraction can be a strong vehicle for feminism, and has been recognized as such since the beginning of the second wave of feminist art. Müller taps into this by combining a strong and potent color sensibility with an undoing of the harsh and drastic modernist ideogram; she adds flair and drama that earlier modern artists would never have allowed. Moyer’s dense surfaces recall surrealist spaces, but rendered as abundant, decorative spreads and sprays.

Works by Carrie Moyer in the 2017 Whitney Biennial (photo by Benjamin Sutton/Hyperallergic)

Meanwhile, Dupuy-Spencer probes the present more explicitly. While many visitors seem to gravitate toward her depiction of a Trump rally, I was mesmerized by her pencil drawing titled “Matriarchs of the Hudson Valley (1980s-90s)” (2016), which looks like an update of a Sylvia Sleigh painting. Here, Dupuy-Spencer glorifies a homey, soft lesbian world, a sharp contrast to the butch pleasures and intensities of the nearby and much larger acrylic painting “Veteran’s Day” (2016). In the latter, she interrupts the femme associations of the flowered yellow wallpaper by showcasing a framed photograph of soldiers in salute, as well as a framed newspaper clipping from which Cassius Clay peers out — with volumes by Lorca, Lorde, and Sontag pictured on the bookshelf, for further contrast.

Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, “Veteran’s Day” (2016) (photo by the author for Hyperallergic)

An intersectional critique of how sexuality and race connect with gender comes into play in the work of several artists in the biennial. Like Dupuy-Spencer, the Latinx artist Aliza Nisenbaum works in an expressive, figurative style. Nisenbaum’s paintings are clearly informed by a knowledge of recent developments in her medium; among other references, they recall for me Sleigh’s work and the decorative motifs in the background of Joyce Kozloff’s art. Nisenbaum’s “MOIA’s NYC Women’s Cabinet” (2016) locates her immigrant sitters in a composition which draws upon the long tradition of group portraiture, a format historically reserved for the elite. Nisenbaum’s women dominate the painted space, and she emphasizes their individual beauty, collective strength, and social potency and vibrancy as a group, bolstered by colors and patterns. Her brand of feminist art offers a reprieve from the often harsh realities of immigrant life.

In another gallery, three video monitors display pieces of a multiyear project, Liquor Store Theatre, by Detroit-based artist and choreographer Maya Stovall. Three African American women dancers, including Stovall, make slow, balletic movements on sidewalks in front of various liquor stores. Under brightly lit signage, the artist intermittently interviews residents about life in Detroit. Her portraits of the gritty urban landscape are marked by the bustle of its residents’ everyday movements; the liquor stores are loci of these communities. Stovall heightens, brightens, and saturates the colors to draw out beauty from these otherwise unremarkable settings.

Maya Stovall, “Liquor Store Theatre, vol. 1, no. 3” 

Deana Lawson’s photographs have long been a personal favorite. She crafts highly determined situations and places figures in elaborately arranged environments. In “Ringbearer” (2016), a grandmotherly figure sits in an interior space next to a standing young boy, who holds a heart-shaped ring pillow. “Signs” (2016) moves outside to show a group of four shirtless, muscled young men flashing hand gestures resembling gang signs. In her work, Lawson looks at the black body and the life of the black family. I’m particularly fascinated by the way she achieves such a exquisite intensity and range of melanin tones in a medium that has, for most of its history, been antagonistic to black and brown skin.

In the Whitney’s lobby and on its fifth floor, African American filmmaker Cauleen Smith has hung a set of 16 banners from the ceiling. Catalyzed by videos of police shootings, Smith put illustrative but cryptic symbols — showing cameras, pencils, microphones, and eight balls — on one side and sayings on the other. The latter read: “I’m so black that I blind you,” “No wonder I go under,” and “You don’t hear me though,” among other messages. Like Barbara Kruger decades before her, Smith keeps the subject and object in a shifting relationship. Her phrasings perpetuate ambiguity for the viewer about how the action is to be received.

Detail of Cauleen Smith’s “In the Wake” (2017) banners (photo by Benjamin Sutton/Hyperallergic)

In a biennial filled with such multifarious feminism, it’s unfortunate that the most discussed work has been Dana Schutz’s painting of Emmett Till’s murdered body, based on photographs from his open-casket wake in 1955. Schutz, who is white, is considered a feminist artist for her painterly focus on the oft-dismembered or disfigured body, calls herself a feminist, and has been at the center of a dialogue about feminist painting for more than a decade. But what concerns me about her particular brand of white feminism here is that she’s making a spectacle of the body of a black boy — who was murdered due to the lies of a white woman — in order to aggrandize her artistic mission. Her treatment of Till’s horror is superficial as she crudely renders his mangled face as an impastoed clump of paint. It’s gimmicky and bespeaks her own lack of self-awareness.

Feminist art speaks volumes about gender, sexuality, the situation of the body in society, and how those identities and issues intersect with race, class, ability or disability, and other realities. In this way, the 2017 Whitney Biennial offers a window onto some of our most pressing cultural concerns, as well as our shortcomings. There are other important feminist artists who have work in the show, such as Anicka Yi and Beatriz Cortez, and though there could be more, it’s significant that so many are included. In 2005, artist and critic Mira Schor aptly wrote: “Perhaps the most important political act I perform is to identify myself publicly as a feminist.” The women in the biennial proclaim their own feminisms artistically and publicly; in today’s political climate, that feels more important than ever.

The 2017 Whitney Biennial continues at the Whitney Museum (99 Gansevoort Street, Meatpacking District, Manhattan) through June 11.

The post The Multifarious Feminism of the Whitney Biennial appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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[beatdisc]

TWO WEEKS TODAY until Record Store Day 2019!

Everyday until RSD we plan to give ya'll updates about what will be happening at Beatdisc Records on April 13th. We have our biggest party planned, so stay tuned for all our exciting news!

#BeatdiscRSD update 1;

Below you will find our list of ordered exclusive titles, broken down into the 3 lists (AUS, USA & UK).

PLEASE NOTE: We are not guaranteed all these titles and some titles we may get cut down to only one copy and others we may never get. We won't know exact titles until a few days before RSD, so please bare with us.

All titles are sold on a first come first served basis and we cannot hold any titles - sorry. If you see something that's missing, get in touch ASAP and we may be able to squeeze something in.

AUS LIST TITLES Bob Evans - Suburban Songbook [LP] Broderick Smith – Suitcase [LP] Jebediah - Of Someday Shambles [2LP] Johnny Diesel & The Injectors - Johnny Diesel & The Injectors [LP] Mother & Son - Mother & Son [LP] The Amity Affliction – Youngbloods [LP] The Birthday Party - Mutiny/Bad Seed [2LP] The Hard Ons - Harder & Harder [7”] The Loved Ones - Magic Box [LP] The Mint Chicks - Screens [LP] The Reels - The Reels [LP] US LIST TITLES Ace Frehley - Spaceman [LP] Adrenalin O.D. - Let's BBQ [LP] Alien Weaponry - Tu [LP+7''] Anderson .Paak - Bubblin' [7''] Andrew Oldham Orchestra, The - The Rolling Stones Songbook [LP] Angelo Badalamenti, David Lynch - Twin Peaks: Season Two Music And More [2LP] Aretha Franklin - The Atlantic Singles 1967 [5x7'' Boxset] AxCx (Anal Cunt) - Picnic Of Love [LP] B-52's, The - Mesopotamia [LP] Bad Religion - My Sanity [7''] Basement - Be Here Now [7''] Benjamin Gibbard - Me And Magdalena / The Concept [7''] Bill Hicks - Revelations: Variations [2LP] Billy Joel - Live At Carnegie Hall 1977 [2LP] Bingo Hand Job (R.E.M. w/ Bragg, Hitchcock & Holsapple) - Live At The Borderline 1991 [2LP] Bob Dylan - Blood On The Tracks: Original New York Test Pressing [LP] Bone Thugs-N-Harmony - E. 1999 Eternal [2LP] Broken Social Scene - Let's Try The After Vol. 1 & 2 [LP] Buari - Buari [LP] Buffalo Tom - Buffalo Tom (30th Anniversary) [LP] Canned Heat - Remember Woodstock [LP] Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica [2LP] Charlatans, The - Us And Us Only [LP] Chris Robinson Brotherhood - Dice Game And Let It Fall [10'' Chuck Mosley - Joe Haze Session #2 [7''] Courtney Barnett - Everybody Here Hates You [12''] Craig Mack & The Notorious B.I.G. - B.I.G. Mack (Original Sampler) [LP+Cassette] Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - 4 Way Street (Expanded Edition) [3LP] Culture - The Nighthawk Recordings [LP] Curren$y, Freddie Gibbs and The Alchemist - Fetti [LP] Czarface - Double Dose Of Danger [LP] David Bowie - Pin Ups (2015 Remastered Version) [LP] David Bowie - The World Of David Bowie (Compilation) [LP] David Bowie / Marlene Dietrich - Revolutionary Song / Just A Gigolo [7''] Death Grips - Steroids (Crouching Tiger Hidden Gabber Megamix) [LP] Def Leppard - The Story So Far, Vol. 2 / B Sides [2LP] Desmond Dekker & The Aces - Pretty Africa [LP] Devo - This Is The DEVO Box [6LP] Doors, The - London Fog [10''] Dr. Dog - Live 2 [LP] Dr. Dre - Nuthin' But A ''G'' Thang [12''] Duran Duran - As The Lights Go Down (Live) [2LP] Ed O.G. & Da Bulldogs - Life Of A Kid In The Ghetto [LP] Elton John - Live From Moscow [2LP] Elvis Costello & The Imposters - Purse EP [LP] Elvis Presley - Live At The International Hotel, Las Vegas, NV August 23, 1969 [2LP] Eric Clapton - One More Car One More Rider [3LP] Fatlip - The Loneliest Punk [LP] Flaming Lips, The - King's Mouth: Music And Songs [LP] Fleetwood Mac - The Alternate Fleetwood Mac [LP] Frank Black - Frank Black [LP] Frank Black - Teenager Of The Year [2LP] Frank Zappa - The Guitar World According To Frank Zappa [LP] Gorillaz - The Fall [LP] Grateful Dead - The Warfield, San Francisco, CA 10/9/80 [2LP] Green Day - Woodstock 1994 Live [LP] Green Jelly - Cereal Killer Soundtrack [LP] Green River - Live At The Tropicana 1984 [LP] Greta Van Fleet - From The Fires [LP] Griot Galaxy - Kins [LP] Hawkwind - The 1999 Party: Live At The Chicago Auditorium 21st March, 1974 [2LP] Herbie Hancock - Dedication [LP] High On Fire - Bat Salad [LP] Hockey Dad - Dreamin' [LP] Idles - Meat / Meta [EP] Iggy Pop - Hippodrome - Paris 77 [2LP] Iggy Pop - The Villagers b/w Pain & Suffering [7''] Insurgence DC - Broken In The Theater Of The Absurd [LP] James Brown - Sho Is Funky Down Here [LP] Janis Joplin - Woodstock Sunday August 17, 1969 [2LP] Jeff Buckley - In Transition [LP] Jeff Tweedy - WARMER [LP] Jethro Tull - North Sea Oil [10''] Joe Strummer - The Rockfield Studio Tracks [12''] John Cage Meets Sun Ra - John Cage Meets Sun Ra: The Complete Film [7''+DVD] John Lennon - Imagine: The Raw Studio Mixes [2LP] Julien Baker - Red Door / Conversation Piece [7''] Kooks, The - Live At The Moth Club [LP] Kool Keith - Complicated Trip [12''] Kristin Hersh - Crooked [LP] L7 - Burn Baby [7''] Lemonheads, The - Can't Forget / Wild Child [7''] Lightnin' Hopkins - Strums the Blues [LP] Lou Reed - Ecstasy [2LP] Madonna - La Isla Bonita: Super Mix [LP] Madonna - True Blue (Super Club Mix) [LP] Mark Lanegan Band - Stitch It Up [7''] Mark Ronson - Nothing Breaks Like A Heart [12''] Mastodon - Stairway To Nick John [10''] Matthew Sweet - Pleasure Island, Live [LP] Menzingers, The - No Penance b/w Cemetery's Garden [7''] Midnight Oil - Pleasure Island, Live [LP] Mikey, Leo, Donny, Raph - Pizza Power Single [7''] Mission Of Burma - Peking Spring [LP] Mo-dettes, The The Story So Far [LP] Monty Python - Monty Python's Life Of Brian [LP] Morrissey - Lover-To-Be [7''] Moses Sumney - Black In Deep Red, 2014 [12''] Motorhead - Overkill / Bomber [2x7''] Motorhead - Rockaway Beach [7''] Mumford & Sons - Delta Acoustic Sessions | Live From Electric Lady [10''] My Chemical Romance - The Black Parade Is Dead! [2LP] Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - Wait & Return [LP] Ol' Dirty Bastard - Intoxicated [LP] Olafur Arnalds - Re:member + String Quartets [LP+7''] Otis Redding w/Booker T. & The M.G.'s + The Mar-Keys - Just Do It One More Time! Live At The Monterey Pop Festival [LP] Parliaments, The - Baby I Owe You Something Good [LP] Pearl Jam - Live At Easy Street [LP] Pelican - Midnight & Mesaline [7''] Peter Gabriel - Rated PG [LP] Peter Howell & John Ferdinando - Ithaca, Agincourt And Other Psych-Folk Fairy Tales [2LP+CD] Pink Floyd - A Saucerful Of Secrets (Mono) [LP] Police, The - Message In A Bottle [2x7''] Prince - His Majesty's Pop Life / The Purple Mix Club [2LP] Prince (The Artist Formerly Known As Prince) - The VERSACE Experience: Prelude 2 Gold [Cassette] Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody (Soundtrack) [2LP] Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody / I'm In Love With My Car [7''] Ramones, The - Live At The Palladium, New York, NY (12/31/79) [2LP] Robert Johnson - Kind Hearted Woman Blues / Terraplane Blues [10''] Robert Plant - Fate Of Nations [LP] Robyn - Body Talk [2LP] Rolling Stones, The - Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) (UK) [LP] Rolling Stones, The - She’s A Rainbow / Live At U Arena, Paris / 25.10.17 [10''] Rolling Stones, The - Through The Past, Darkly (Big Hits Vol. 2) (UK) [LP] Roxy Music - Roxy Music - Remixed [2LP] Rush - Hemispheres [LP Picture Disc] RZA - Birth Of A Prince [2LP] Salvation Army, The - Live From Torrance And Beyond [LP] Santigold - I Don't Want: The Gold Fire Sessions [LP] Serj Tankian - Harakiri [LP] Sherman Brothers, The - Simply Sherman: Disney Hits From The Sherman Brothers [LP] Shocking Blue - Single Collection (A's & B's), Part 2 [2LP] Sigur Ros - Lunar Halo 22° [LP] Sigur Ros - Variations In Darkness [LP] Sly & The Family Stone - Woodstock Sunday August 17, 1969 [2LP] Soccer Mommy - For Young Hearts [LP] Stargaze & Greg Saunier - Instruments (A Track By Track Re-Composition of Fugazi's 'In On The Killtaker') [LP] Steve Earle - El Coyote / Don't Let The Sunshine Fool You [7''] Sublime - Nugs: Best Of The Box [LP] Sugar Hill Records - Sugar Hill Records: The 12'' D.J. Boxset [6x12'' Boxset] SUNN O))) - Life Metal [2LP] Tangerine Dream - Le Parc [2LP] Tangerine Dream - Machu Picchu [LP] Ten In The Swear Jar (Xiu Xiu) - Fort Awesome: Complete Recordings [2LP] Teyana Taylor - Gonna Love Me / WTP (Remixes) [12''] Thrice - Deeper Wells [LP] Todd Rundgren - The Complete U.S. Bearsville & Warner Bros. Singles [4LP] Too $hort - The Pimp Tape [2LP] Townes Van Zandt - The Best Of Townes Van Zandt [2LP] U2 - The Europa [LP] Used, The - The Used Live From Maida Vale [10''] Van Morrison - Astral Weeks Alternative [10''] Various Artists - Boy Meets Girl: Classic Stax Duets [2LP] Various Artists - Brazil Classics 30th Anniversary Box Set [3LP] Various Artists - Coneheads (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Folk And Pop Sounds Of Sumatra Vol. 2 [2LP] Various Artists - Ghost World (Soundtrack) [2LP] Various Artists - I Am Sam (Soundtrack) [LP Various Artists - Lost In Translation (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Malcom X (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Mickey Mouse Disco [LP] Various Artists - New Jack City (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Office Space (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Poppies: Assorted Finery From The First Psychedelic Age [LP] Various Artists - Rockabye Baby! Lullaby Renditions Of Weezer [LP] Various Artists - South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut (Soundtrack) [2LP] Various Artists - Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse (Soundtrack) [LP] Various Artists - Stax Does The Beatles [2LP] Various Artists - The Crow (Soundtrack) [2LP] Various Artists - Vitamin String Quartet: VSQ Performs Bjork [2LP] Various Artists - Where The Action Is! Los Angeles Nuggets Highlights [2LP] Various Artists - Woodstock 3 Days Of Peace Music (Mono PA Version) [3LP] Violent Femmes - Hallowed Ground [LP] Weezer - Dusty Gems: The B-Sides [LP] Weezer - Weezer (Teal Album) [LP] Wes Montgomery - Back On Indiana Avenue: The Carroll DeCamp Recordings [2LP] Wipers, The - Alien Boy [7'' EP] Wonder Years, The - The Wonder Years Live From Maida Vale [10''] X-Ray Spex - I Am A Cliche [2LP] Yes - Yes [LP] Zero 7 - Home (Alternative Mix) / Somersault (Danger Mouse Remix ft. MF Doom) [10''] UK LIST TITLES Dexys Midnight Runners - At The BBC 1982 [2LP] Fall, The Medicine For The Masses - The Rough Trade Singles [4x7" Boxset] Ginger Wildheart - Maggie [12"] Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five - The Message [2LP] JJ Cale - Stay Around EP [7"] Mighty Boosh - The Complete Radio Series [3LP] Parcels - Tieduprightnow / Tape EP [7"'] Ronnie Lane & The Band Slim Chance - At The BBC [2LP] Thin Lizzy - Black Rose [2LP] Various Artists - The Freakbeat Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The Mod Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The Northern Soul Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The Psychedelic Scene [2LP] Various Artists - The R&B Scene [2LP] Venom - Manitou [7" picture disc] Yazoo - Reconnected: Live [2LP] CANCELLATIONS Dio - Last In Line (Live) [LP] Stray Cats - 40 [12''] Sigur Ros - Variations In Darkness [LP] Sigur Ros - Lunar Halo 22° [LP]

#RSDaus #RSD2019 #BeatdiscRSD

Record Store Day Australia

STAY TUNED HERE > Record Store Day 2019 at Beatdisc Records