#musical I love for entirely secular reasons

[choilacanth]

Happy Easter/Jesus Christ Superstar annual fever.

[zagreuses-toast]

My Vetinari Playlist. Some songs are very specific others are entirely vibes based, also a lot of girlboss songs because those fit his approach to being a Tyrant the best somehow. Like Vimes he would vehemently hate some of these songs, I have added them nonetheless. Reasoning/guide to the songs under the cut.

Politics and The City, always the City. I think a lot about Vimes' internal monologue from Night Watch about the city's supply chain and Vetinari being the only ruler of the city to really worry about it's function :

Hymn to the Breaking Strain by Secular Solstice (because the Leslie fish version isn't available on Spotify. Vetinari isn't an engineer but he appreciates their value and danger)

All Along The Watchtower by Bear Mcreary (Vimes gets the Jimi Hendrix, Vetinari gets the version from BSG, which is ominous and was used to unveil a conspiracy)

& by Tally Hall

How Now Dark Cloud by TMBG

I Am Alone by TMBG

Darling The Dose by TMBG

His Kiss The Riot from Hades Town (I also imagine if Vetinari sang his voice would be a baritone of this caliber)

The Body Is A Blade by Japanese Breakfast

Stone Cold Coup D'etat

Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles

Ballad of a Politician by Regina Spektor

Everybody Wants to Rule The World by Tears for Fears (cover by NSP)

She's Always A Woman by Billy Joel

The Circle by Secular Solstice (this is actually a carrot song, but there's a reason Carrot and Vetinari get along)

Gun Song from Assassins (I am always thinking about men at arms and the Gonne)

This is where I would normally put the characters love interest songs but Vetinari's one true love is The Bit:

Hate the Villanelle by TMBG

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park & Pollution by Tom Lerher

Rest Employed by The Stupendium

I Palindrome I by TMBG

Party Dog by Tom Cardy (dog things AND city-state politics)

The World's Address by TMBG

Havelock "do I need a button that says Tyrant" Vetinari and his commitment to the Villain bit:

Villain by Stella Jang

Red Right Hand by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

Oh No! By MARINA

Villain by K/DA

Feeling Good by Nina Simone cover by Micheal Bublé (Bond villain sounding song but the lyrics are just enjoying normal nice stuff, exactly Vetinari's thing)

Enemy by Imagine Dragons

Bitch Better Have My Money by Rihanna (soundtrack to drumknott getting out the Tax Ledger)

I'm Alive from Next To Normal

No one Knows My Plan by TMBG

Be Prepared from The Lion King (did you think I wouldn't include a real Disney villain song, besides it's JEREMY IRONS aka Vetinari from the Color of Magic tv series)

Vetinari's nihilism and humanism, the roiling sea of evil and the moral imperative to be better than the gods:

Things Are Not What They Appear by The Gothic Archies

Last Wave by TMBG

This Too Shall Pass by Danny Schmidt

They're Only Human from the Death Note musical (hear me out, it's a conversation between Vetinari and Margolotta, you decide who's who)

Let's Get This Over With by TMBG

Cruel to be Cruel by Jessica Law

Living Thing by Electric Light Orchestra (Vetinari and his difficulty getting rid of one of a kind things, I think about leonard of quirm a lot)

Mad World by Gary Jules and Micheal Andrews

Misc:

I Like Fun by TMBG (entirely for the "my excellence at parkour may be unexpected at the age of 58" also the clock thing)

A Good Song Never Dies by Saint Motel (local patrician haunted by a little goblin girl's music forever)

Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons (Vetinari and Vimes song, ruining his life/the watch, being part of fixing it, constantly pushing him, occasionally pushing too hard)

[girl4music]

Thanks for tagging me @danielleitloudernow

10 songs I’ve listened to recently.

Well, I’ve been listening to this WayHaught playlist I made on Spotify pretty much constantly so all of the songs I’ve been listening to recently are either from scenes in ‘Wynonna Earp’ with Waverly and Nicole in or from fanmade WayHaught videos on YouTube. I’m pretty obsessed with this WLW/queer couple at the moment. They’re the best WLW/queer representation I’ve seen in TV art/entertainment since Xena and Gabrielle and they really remind me of them.

I really like their physically and emotionally intimate scenes because there is a lot of narrative build up and foundation behind them. This isn’t something you always get with WLW/queer ships if both characters in it are not main characters in the show. So a lot of intimate scenes between WLW/queer ships in TV art/entertainment just happen with no rhyme or reason for them to. And therefore they look extremely forced and contrived because of it. This doesn’t ever happen with Waverly and Nicole. There’s always rhyme or reason for why they are as intimate as they are - both in a physical and emotional context - and it just makes their relationship so real and authentic. I am always absolutely enraptured in watching their intimate scenes and a huge factor as to why is because of the music they chose to play over those intimate scenes.

1. Sam Smith - Fire On Fire

Not actually in the show but in my favourite fan video.

2. The Casket Girls - Secular Love

This song plays during WayHaught’s first meeting.

3. Fleurie - Wildwood

This song plays the first time WayHaught make out and decide to become an official but private couple.

4. IMUR - Breathless

This song plays during a make out scene between WayHaught - leading to their first time having sex off-screen. There’s a conversation between them showing that it is important for Nicole that Waverly truly and fully consented to having sex with her because it was Waverly that was initiating it and Nicole wanted to be sure that she was sure in going all the way with her. And by the gods after all the shit I’ve watched involving violations of consent between WLW/queer ships, I really fucking appreciated this great scene.

5. STACEY - First Move

This song plays when WayHaught are about to be sexually intimate after Waverly was possessed by a demon and Nicole asks her whether the other times that they were sexually intimate while she was under its possession were actually her and what was real and Waverly reassures her that every time was all her and that it was all real because she remembers everything that happened between them whereas she couldn’t remember everything when she was possessed by it. Again, the notion of consent there is very appreciated.

6. Robyn Dell’Unto - Common

This song plays when WayHaught get sent into an alternate Universe where there’s no Wynonna and they never got together. Waverly walks in with Nicole’s lunch at the police station and she sits on her desk. We see it all happening in slow motion from Nicole’s perspective because Nicole has a huge crush on Waverly who is about to be married to a guy. She has this big dumb expression on her face that entirely gives her away but Waverly is completely oblivious. And it’s just a very adorable scene between them that makes you see that they’re destined to be together.

7. Adaline - Ghost

This song plays during WayHaught’s first and only on-screen sex scene. It’s a really beautifully done scene that has so much narrative build up, foundation and emotion behind it because they have been separated from each other for a really long time. Well, it’s a really long time for Nicole, who experienced the separation as long as 18 months, 3 weeks and 4 days. It’s very emotional to watch the scene bearing this in mind and the two actors that portray WayHaught did it justice not only because of their insane chemistry but also because they choreographed the scene themselves.

8. SEIL LIEN - It’s Love That Brought You Here

This song plays during a scene where WayHaught are kissing on the bed and Waverly tells Nicole that while they were separated, an evil entity tried to pretend to be Nicole and fool Waverly. And when Nicole gets concerned, Waverly tells her nothing happened between them and even if it did, she’d have known immediately that it wasn’t the real Nicole because she knows every inch of Nicole’s body and how it responds to her touch. She then asks Nicole if she could tell her about her year and a half but Nicole is in her own mind and therefore isn’t present with Waverly because she’s so distracted with the anxiety that they’re in danger from monsters that have been trying to get into the Homestead since Waverly was separated from her. It’s a very poignant scene showing how much more difficult and traumatic the separation was for Nicole.

9. Desiree Dawson - All In

This song plays during a WayHaught engagement scene. There is another engagement scene but it was during a looming and inevitable apocalypse where Waverly proposed to Nicole and it wasn’t appropriate so they redid it. Even though this engagement scene was supposed to be a double proposal (Waverly to Nicole/Nicole to Waverly), Waverly asks Nicole to just let her propose alone because she wanted to in the first place and Nicole consents. And it’s a really well written and performed scene where you could see the actors felt real emotion because it mattered to them.

10. Lindsey Ray - Won’t Let Go

This song plays during WayHaught’s wedding, which is in the final episode of the show. In fact, the entire episode pretty much is all about WayHaught getting married. It’s not just the main narrative of the episode, it’s also the main narrative backbone behind the entire season because not only did both main WLW/queer characters survive to the end of the show, they were also endgame as a committed main WLW/queer ship and this was celebrated by them getting married and having the whole season revolve around that as a main narrative - wrapping the main narrative around the characters rather than the other way around as all character-centric genre shows should do. This hasn’t, doesn’t and likely will never happen again. It is absolutely groundbreaking that they achieved this. Especially in a time in TV art/entertainment when it was either Bury your Gays or Bury your Gay show. I know that it’s because it was a reward to the fans that fought so fucking hard for a final fourth season. Just that very fact makes me love this song all the more.

We certainly won’t let go because we deserve to be seen, heard and represented in TV art/entertainment just as much as the straight characters and straight observers are! We deserve main narratives! We deserve to live! We deserve to be happy! We deserve to be in love! We deserve to be treated as equals! Not killed off! Not cancelled! Not queer-baited! Not Man-Inserted! And not made to feel as less than deserving!

The creators/cast/crew for ‘Wynonna Earp’ did WLW/queer representation completely right and I’m in awe!

(Btw - I only put “/queer” because Dom identifies as non-binary and even if their character is female, I still feel it’s respectful to acknowledge this about them.)

[theselfshippingwitch]

Janine x Egon Wedding Questions

(This is for The Real Ghostbusters versions of the characters)

(also i'm gonna tag @ariel-seagull-wings bc they wanted to see my answers to this lol)

Imagine what music they would have? What food? Would it be outside? What kind of theme, if any, would they have?

I imagine Egon would want only classical music while Janine would be like PARTY!!! Lol she would still want the classic organ music as she’s walking down the aisle though, and at the reception they would have a combo, like they would start with classical and then go into more like dance music as the night went on. They would have their wedding in this amazing greenhouse venue in Brooklyn with this incredible ceiling. No theme, the venue is the centerpiece. 

The food would also tie in to the venue as they have a lot of fresh and light fruits and veggies (and mushrooms) for the cocktail hour and an amazing seasonally-appropriate salad before the main course.

Who would they invite?

Okay so Egon was definitely having like, a whole crisis about this bc his family is pressuring him to like, invite all these important figures from the scientific community and “uphold the reputation of the Spengler family within these prestigious circles” and whatever and Egon just wanted a small wedding but the guest list just keeps getting bigger and bigger and its so hard for him to ever say no to any of his family and it was like… 

It was Janine who encouraged him to advocate for himself and stand up for what he wants out of his big day bc she was not having all those stuffy scientific types at her party absolutely not

In the end, it was a celebration with extended family and close friends and louis who always ends up at janine and egon’s wedding no matter the circumstances of the occasion for some reason

jk louis is a close friend and we love and respect him is this house

Also Ray is Egon’s best man and Janine’s sister is the Maid of Honor

What season is it? Day or night? What colors do they wear?

It is a summer day (August 2nd, 1993), bright and sunny but luckily not too hot. The only other color beyond the natural green of the surroundings is the pink of the bridesmaid’s dresses and burgundy of the groomsmen’s ties.

Is it traditional or do they do something wild?

Traditional! It’s the wedding Janine has been dreaming of since she was a little girl (along with her Jewish wedding ceremony, which she had first). 

Did they write their own vows? Who is the person marrying them?

Because this is going to be the secular wedding (even though it has a lot of things based on Christian wedding traditions ik)  they wouldn’t have any religious figure marrying them. They would just get, like, a professional wedding officiant who just fits their vibe yk? And it was important to Janine that they write their wedding vows bc… she just needs to hear it, okay? She cannot just have Egon say “yeah, mmm-hmm” to whatever the officiant says, she needs to hear Egon say how much she means to him and we’re all gonna make him do it

Are they wearing suits? Dresses? Something else entirely?

Okay here’s the fun part FINALLY

Janine’s dress: 

Bridesmaid’s dresses:

Egon’s suit:

This means ray gets to wear his pea soup green suit that he already owns!!! Groomsmen’s suit:

What does their cake look like if they have one?

Does she throw the bouquet for someone to catch or does she pass out one flower to everyone to let everyone know they are worthy of love?

Janine definitely wants to throw her bouquet! Even though two of her bridesmaids are already married (her older sister, and her bff Violet who married Egon’s bff Ray last year)

Do they have a party afterwards? What music?

Yes!!! Yes they do!!! And the music is an eclectic mix of Egon’s classical music (with a live string quartet) and Janine’s playlist of party music with artists like Madonna and Cyndi Lauper (with a live DJ)

She also has a reception dress!:

Is it the wedding of their dreams or does something go awry?

Janine is too rich now for something to go awry

Also! How is the kiss!? Do they smooch softly? Sweetly? Passionately? Does he dip her into a deep smooch? Is it a soft sweet peck?

The kiss we’ve all been waiting for tbh

Very sweet and romantic. She puts a hand on the back of his neck while he holds her waist. He’s been mostly expressionless through the ceremony but he smiles as he kisses her, the softie

What is their honeymoon like? Is it a stay at home one? Do they go somewhere exciting? How long is the trip? Or stay at a hotel? Or maybe a cute little cottage somewhere?

They go to Cairo, Egypt! I feel like it’s the perfect mix of what they would both want out of a honeymoon. It’s an exciting city that’s got an ancient history and culture attached to it (egon is gonna study so many hieroglyphs you don’t even KNOW)

Does she take his last name or him hers? Do they keep or hyphenate their names? Or maybe they both take on a whole new last name together!

But they would have to change the name tags on the uniforms…

How many kids do they have? What are their names?

This is where it gets sketchy cuz fankids are a whole nother thing that I haven’t thought of yet for janegon but I DO know that they have a kid about one year apart from Violet and Ray’s oldest kid and they’re both boys and they’re besties who go on adventures together (the violet/ray kid is the timid one and the janegon kid is the bold one, you get where i’m going with this)

Where do they live?

In a penthouse apartment in Manhattan, where Janine can have space to write editorial articles for the magazine she created and runs, Egon can get to Ghostbusters HQ without too much trouble (even though he’s not part of the field team anymore he works on R&D with Ray out of there almost every day).

[irisbleufic]

I hate this new trend now a days for teens to make fun old books or classics like Shakespeare, Gatsby or Anne Frank(them forgetting she was real). Calling characters stupid or how they would do things differently in their place. When they have no idea. None zero. I seriously doubt they would. I hate when they say people who like these books are anti feminist or some other bullshit. Do they not realize what these books were to the people at the time of them?

This is a tricky and frustrating question. As someone who’s been teaching English literature and writing for approaching 17 years (and studying these disciplines for even longer), I’ve seen trends in attitudes toward the classics come and go. There’s not always a logical explanation for those trends from cohort to cohort of students, either.

Let’s take Shakespeare and Fitzgerald as examples, since those are two that you name in your ask. When I was in junior high and high school during the 1990s, it was trendy to love Shakespeare’s plays—but deeply uncool to love The Great Gatsby, for some reason. I remember being teased by classmates for liking the latter, because wasn’t it just so boring? My classmates seemed to feel like Shakespeare’s works at least had a lot of stuff happening in them. I don’t know about my classmates, but my attitude toward these authors’ works hasn’t changed over time. I still enjoy both.

When I was an undergrad from 2000-2005, I feel like Shakespeare was still cool (especially Hamlet). I can’t remember any of my undergrad classmates talking about Gatsby at all during my time as a music major who switched to an English major, all the while taking classes in both disciplines, only in different proportions. The only mention I heard of Gatsby during college was that there had been an operatic adaptation. I didn’t get to see it, and I kind of regret that.

While I was in grad school and first starting to teach from about 2007-2014, Gatsby landed on my radar again because it was back in fashion with high school and college students. I heard about more Gatsby-themed school dances and parties than I can count. I’m sure Baz Luhrmann’s film during that window of time helped. I don’t think I saw my students as enthusiastic about Shakespeare unless it was a creepy or violent one like Macbeth. There seemed to be a love of extremes in what they were reading, especially when it came to classics.

At this point in time, you’re right about Gatsby in particular falling out of fashion again with younger readers. It represents a level of risk and excess that, quite frankly, I can’t entirely blame them for disliking given how the majority of their teenage and young adult years are going. Just look at what’s happening in the world. I don’t think most of them find characters in those circumstances relatable.

There are exceptions to every rule, but social trends are reflected in what people read and how they critique it. Don’t forget that we’re also seeing social conservatism swing back with a vengeance, and not just in the US. From Christian fundamentalism in politics to secular purity culture (which is more or less the same thing with God’s name filed off) in fandom, I can think of any number of reasons why a book like Gatsby would be snubbed. Shakespeare seems to be faring better with my students at the moment, as the plays run such a wide gamut of events and issues.

As for making fun of Anne Frank and not believing she’s real, well…it’s hella antisemitic out there right now. That’s a whole other post that this Jew is way too tired to make.

[ghoulangerlee]

replying to this here @goldenbloodytears because I'm v sorry but this got uhh long because, while I am not an expert on vocals or anything like that, I do have some examples as to how I guess, I personally perceive the Papas' voices.

I just really love this man and his voice, in all iterations. And the rest is under a read more because I feel bad about putting this on people's dashes as one giant block of text asdlkfsjd

Also, Spillways got me into Ghost, so for the most part, I first had experience hearing Copia's voice, which is, yes, sort of nasally, I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing, though. Tobias talking about how the Copia character is less "experienced" maybe (I can't remember the exact wording atm) in the Loudwire interview he just did, makes the nasally thing sort of make sense even though I know it's logically bc the mask fit does it to him. Copia's voice being nasally and different from the other Papas who, when we got to know them, they were already elevated into their position, it'd make more sense we get a polished sound with them vs Copia who started out as a Cardinal and later became Papa, hence less "experience". But this is just me trying to find an in-universe reason for it other than idk man has a deviated septum or something.

ANYWAY, so, back to the topic of Secondo sounding more like Tobias than the others---

Tobias has a really nice voice, and there's this certain thing that it does that I am not musically talented enough to put into proper words, but okay, so, House of Affection is arguably the Tobias Forge song, it's him singing it, not as a character and it's in the chorus mostly, just the tone he uses. It's that airy sorta higher, not necessarily a light sort of sound but it sort of goes up. I'm doing a very bad job at describing this haha. I don't have the right words for it, but it's this all encompassing sound.

This Ritual performance that Secondo did also has that same sort of sound. You can hear it especially in the chorus bit, it's higher, he sings upwards, I guess? Much like in the chorus of House of Affection, it's a very, at least to me, similar sort of thing.

And there's a good video that sort of goes through Primo, Secondo and Terzo's singing through the years, which is here and I think that also gives a very good indication that like Secondo's voice is very close to Tobias' voice.

Primo's voice is sorta...deeper, I guess, is a good way to put it. When he begins the chorus of Ritual you can hear how much lower he's doing it, like he absolutely does not sound like Tobias to me.

Secondo's voice, for the purpose of me comparing it to Tobias' is like, an almost dead ringer, if I were to hear Secondo sing and then Tobias sing as himself then I would be able to tell they were the same person, just because of the way Secondo would like, project? His voice, it's pretty similar vocal wise to other projects that Tobias has worked on.

Terzo's voice in this video example, it's growly, like he really got that gravel sort of thing going on really good and if I didn't know any better, I'd think that Terzo was someone else entirely. He also puts on a like sorta of thicker accent? You can hear him roll his R's more in songs and such.

Like all of this is not to say that he doesn't sometimes slip up and sing sort of like himself, because he does. He did it during HellFest this year because he was losing his voice and I think overall that was just easier for him than to try and sing nasally.

Once again, here's a compilation I found of the first three Papas singing Ritual, but like together? It's really interesting to listen to because you can hear the differences better like this I think.

Just for the sake of me not using only one song, but Secular Haze is the same way to me. Like, obviously he's singing the song without a mask in the studio versions, so I'm using only live versions of the songs.

The first time I listened to Infesstisumam, I was sort of blown away by how much different it sounds from Opus Eponymous. And then once I got into some of Tobias' other projects, one day Secular Haze came on my playlist and I had to like, pause for a second because I was like "oh that's Tobias. That's him."

Like the man is very very good at changing his voice up each era and everything and I don't think it's extremely noticeable unless you're like focusing so much on voice differences, but the overlaps are there and he does sound really close to himself obviously with somewhat of an accent, but it's there.

As for Terzo's acoustic performances, he doesn't sound like Tobias, like to an extent, Terzo also has a sort of nasally sound, and you can hear it pretty well in Jigolo Har Megiddo, esp when he gets higher, and like honestly I think Terzo and Copia are the two who sound the least like Tobias when you compare them.

Also, like, there's this performance of He Is where his voice is deep which just, in my mind is so far from Tobias that I'm not sure who that man is other than Terzo.

It's not to say, again, that Terzo has never sounded like Tobias, because he has, and that's just a thing that happens sometimes, but like it's not as consistent as Secondo sldkfs.

Another example of y'know, Tobias, so we're not just going off of House of Affection is the Me and that Man song he featured in as Mary Goore, it, to me, gives me sort of like, Secondo vibes in terms of the voice? And like it's not live but studio so it has that more pronounced sound than a live vocal one I guess.

This clip of him performing live with Subvision his voice does that upward, sort of projection thing that when you listen to Secondo's performances, it's really really close to that.

The man is amazingly talented, and he knows how to change his voice and do little things to each Papa so they don't all sound the same, so when you know it's time for a new Papa, you're like "oh what's he going to sound like?" both music style wise and vocal wise.

This also got very out of hand, for a silly little post, I'm so sorry, once again, but your reply was just such a good question.

tldr; secondo and tobias are twin brothers

:)

[william-t-sickofyourshit]

When William saw how Alan and Eric were looking at each other, he felt tears swelling in his eyes. He noticed that Sebastian wiped a tear from the corner of his eye too. It was really such touching moment. And William felt warmth and pleasant aching in his heart. He glanced at Sebastian discreetly, and couldn't help but wonder... will they too, one day, stand together under a wedding arch?

The guests sat down, and music got quiet, the focus was now on the registrar who was conducting the ceremony. Her speech was lovely, and William was moved by how she spoke about love. Honestly, she was a secular official, but she spoke just as beautifully as any preacher would.

As she took a pause, Eric began fumbling with his pocket, and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it with shaking hands, and glanced down at the speech. The first sound that left him was strangled and shaky, and he had to clear his throat. "Sorry..." he whispered sheepishly, "...you just look so beautiful..." He quietly spoke to Alan, apologizing for the fact that he could barely speak through tears that were gathering. Alan blushed, smiling back at him. Obviously he didn't mind.

Eric then took a breath, looked at his speech again, and then... just put the piece of paper back into his pocket. And now, instead of glancing at the paper, he looked Alan right in the eyes as he spoke.

"Fours years ago, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to spend an evening at a club in London. I thought that I needed the crowd of the city to find company." Eric spoke. "But instead of a stranger... I met my neighbour... my colleague... my friend. I had to go all the way to London to discover that the love of my life lived just 10 minutes away from my front door, this entire time..."

He had to take small break then, as his eyes filled with tears, and he couldn't stop them anymore.

"Alan... you're my best friend. My voice of reason. My rock. You're everything I'm not. You give meaning to my life. I love you more than words can express. And I just can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you... so please say yes, because I clearly don't deserve you, and I'm so lucky that a man like you even looked my way."

For I have sinned...

The principal cleared his throat, eyes scanning the notes that he had wrote down before this meeting. It already lasted an hour, and the teachers gathered in the faculty room were becoming restless and bored. But indeed there were some things to discuss, with the concert that the senior class was supposed to perform at the end of the semester, and with recent staff changes. 

William glanced down at his watch, sighing softly. His class was starting in 15 minutes, so at least, whether the meeting will be done soon or not, he will get to excuse himself. He looked out of the window, his mind wandering. Principal’s voice turned into white noise in the background. It was a pleasant day, late summer. But William was looking forward to a slightly cooler weather. Wearing all black could really be bothersome at times. 

“And lastly, I am pleased to announce that we have finally found replacement for the violin teacher. Dear Mr Tanaka, may he rest in peace, was with us for so many years that I’ve been concerned we won’t be able to find someone as good as to fill this position.” the principal spoke. “But Mr… Michaelis, was highly recommended to me, and he indeed has impressive references. He will be starting this week, so please welcome him warmly once he will arrive. Ah yes… about that. He will arrive today at noon, I need someone to pick him up from the train station and bring over for the tour around the school. Any volunteers?” 

William was barely listening, and definitely not paying much attention. He glanced at his watch again, and saw that it was time to leave, as his class was about to start. He raised his hand to excuse himself, and little did he know, he just volunteered.

“Father William! Excellent!” the principal exclaimed. “Just don’t be late, the train arrives at noon.”

“Train…?” William questioned, raising his brow. He had a feeling he was missing something…

***

Right after the meeting, William had to run for the class, so he had little time to clarify what exactly he had volunteered for. He was a piano teacher in this Music Academy, but also he served as a priest in local church. Well respected, and rather liked. So when he later found out it was about the new violin teacher, he didn’t refuse. Who, other than himself, would be a better choice to introduce a newcome to their community?

So even though he raised his hand by accident, he accepted this fate.

After classes, at noon, William took a taxi and drove to the train station, to pick up their new teacher. Wearing black trousers, and a black shirt with a thin tie, was absolutely dreadful in this weather, so William quickly found shelter under the roof of the station platform, that provided some shade.

The train had just arrived. William had no idea how Mr Michaelis looked like, but he figured he will just look for someone carrying a violin case with them. 

He was in for a bit surprise.

@crazyvik97

[killeriknik]

Killer Fish #1:

2000s Christian Metal

cleaning out some drawers, i rediscovered this album today. unfortunately, the cd and front cover have been lost somewhere in my house (hopefully). but it reminded me of a subgenre, or really a movement, that i hadnt considered fully before.

i found this cd in the basement of an odd store, half of which is a Moon Pie General Store, where you could find anything moonpie related as well as typical tourist junk. however, the other part of this business is a christian book store. on the main floor they sold new books. past the selections of bibles and christian novels/self help/anything, past the surprisingly funny secular selections of diary of a wimpy kid and Five Nights at Freddys novels, and past the section of childrens entertainment, there is a GIGANTIC basement.

scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net

scontent-atl3-2.xx.fbcdn.net

im not sure where the basement items they sold at a discounted price came from. it was like flea market levels of unsold stock. im talkin odd sh*t. at points they had 18+ erotica from the 90s, some Star Wars Episode 1 merch i regret not buying, 14 billion copies of a political hate book about president Obama, and of course a shit ton of cds. ive found suprisingly obscure and amazing books there, but thats not what this is about.

sometime maybe 2020-2021 i found this cd for 3 bucks. being an edgy teen with a hatred of Christianity, i was enthralled to find such a cd with the album name "buried alive." at a time in my life where i had limited to no internet access but blossoming music taste (and an impressive cd collection), I listened to this shit SO MUCH. heres one of my favs.

(sorry, wish i could find a better site to link their music, but the only site they seemed to upload to was myspace, and for some reason the site is broken, idk im not familiar with myspace)

The band Inhale Exhale was a semi popular american metal(core) group, hailing from Ohio. and like so many independent rock bands with the best music youve ever heard, they promptly disbanded with only a few albums under their belt.

R.I.P inhale exhale, 2005 - 2013.

its that yummy yummy mix of metal, emo, melodic hardcore, and probably countless other labels (can you tell i have a distaste for genres?) that rocked the scene in the 2000s to early 2010s, around a time when the Jesus Freak Movement had revived and infused its 70s hippie values into the grungey, edgy and dark undertones of the late 90s-00s, delivering the gospel with a unabashed punch. truly of another era, an era i wish i had experienced. i think this was the first "metal" music i ever listened to on my own, but i found out just today that they were in fact a christian metal band.

this year ive been really into metal related music. but ive also been really into the concept of christianity. my family, really my entire community ive been raised in is "christian". going to "christian" schools, having only christian "friends", adult role models who were "christian", its always been about salvation and damnation. as i became a teenager, i evolved into a creature who despised this religion, for many good reasons im sure ill talk on another time, but also pure teenage rebellion. studying the bible this year (as a part of my last year in.. you guessed it... a christian school) has been oddly eye-opening. maybe ive matured since i last cracked open the holy bibbel. but ive found myself debating the idea of it. at its core, it seems to my mind to be the best sounding religion out there. what i love most is the rich story and the themes of love, redemption, brokenness, true evil and true good; they resonate with me.

christian metal really hits the spot. the themes i have deep history with, pared with the aggression and beauty of the screams and rage filled melodic guitar riffs, as well as my personally over powering, nostalgic/anmoiac obsession for the 00s and early 10s creates a great mix. its a movement of music i wish i could be present in.

and why did christian metalcore decline in popularity into the 10s and 20s? im sure theres not an easy answer. i mean, look at popular christian music and culture today. its

so.

BLAND.

so void of life and culture, void of our beautiful human qualities. they speak the same, often hateful, script; they water down the thought provoking concepts and stories of their religion, and they try to remove what they think isnt acceptable. a lot of these christian metalcore groups have abandoned their roots, stating their disagreements with Christianity, which of course is valid.

hey, im still not sold on christianity, im still learning. everyone has their own free will to find what idealogies or lack thereof to believe in. so i mean no hate

i do feel though, in certain circumstances perhaps, this says something disturbing abt modern christianity. its mindnumbing. its boring. its really sad and honestly, with how perfected it appears to be, its f*cking ugly.

it also seems to connect with the way life today just dosent hit like it used to, and i know im not alone in my age group thinking this. there seems to be a blandness encroaching on our art and lives today. in the music, films, internet; a corporatization and general simplification of our art has been slowly killing us.

i long for a time when christians could death growl about god. but honestly, this can be done today if we really try. fuck modern christianity, fuck modernism in general; this isnt just for the christians. go nuts. scream, riot, portray your truths how you want to, dont follow some guideline.

i might have gotten out of hand with this post, i dont want to get to philosophical here. i guess thats what this blog is for though. christian metalcore is really cool tho, check it out. you might be surprised how many popular metal bands from that era had ties to christianity. ill include some recommendations, or you can search it out yourself.

have a punk ass day,

-nikki

(yeah i decided to use my current name, fuck it)

some bands:

 A Plea For Purging.

Shiver.

Heart of a Child.

The Fall.

Malevolence.

Underoath.

Norma Jean.

For Today.

Impending Doom.

Wolves At The Gate.

Phinehas.

Midst of Lions.

Demon Hunter.

killer fish.

[rollingredneck]

Everything But Rap and Country

I don’t like rap or country music. According to some is an indicator that I might be racist and/or classist. Which is a weird thing to extrapolate from musical preferences. When there are perfectly valid reasons to dislike both. My main reason for disliking rap is the constant use of the n-word. You can say it’s “different” without the “hard R.” No it’s not. A slur is a slur. And it’s making it difficult to have needed conversations in this country. Hell just look at the conversation around “Try That In A Small Town.” The criticism of the pro-vigilantism (and that’s just me being nice) song got immediately drowned out by “But the rappers use the n-word!” And any conversation about race in an average household gets immediately derailed by “The rapper used the n-word!” The common defense is that they want to “reclaim the word.” Why? Trying to reclaim a slur is like trying to rebuild a Pinto that exploded multiple times. You only hurt yourself and anyone in the general area. And you look stupid. But that is *nothing* compared to country music.

Hypocrisy drips from modern country music and the culture that surrounds it like a pot roast.

They sing about how they “respect the law” unlike us evil smelly city people. But every other Facebook post by country music fans is them dreaming of the day where they can gun down government agents they happen to not like.Not to mention the fact that most country music has been a pornographic love poem to booze and getting into good ol’ boy fistfights. How law abiding.

They constantly sing about the moral superiority of small town values. Ignoring the fact that we had to create a whole new category of laws and sentencing enhancements because small town people were using various minorities as punching bags while the community pretended they didn’t see anything.

Their songs about America basically depend on who’s in offce. If a Republican is in office, every country song is “Stand For the Flag or You’re A Commie.” If anyone slightly to the left of Jerry Falwell is in office every song becomes “Rural Americans Are the Most Oppressed and Shat Upon People In the History of Ever.” But the thing I find most reprehensible about country music is that when it comes to content criticism, country music is constantly treated with kiddie gloves and it wants to be. Songs about booze, fast cars and getting ladies drunk for the purposes of having sex with them (otherwise known in the legal world, as date rape) are basically the only secular music allowed in most conservative Christian households. Publications that review music for lyrical content to see if it’s “family friendly” bend over backwards to ignore the decidedly family-unfriendly content of country music.

Hell, if some of the lyrics in country songs were sang in rap or metal songs, there’d be Congressional hearings and the artists would be called to the carpet while they get lectured by everyone about the messages they send to kids..

And worst of all, neither rap or country want to be treated with the same artistic scrutiny. If you dislike rap, you’re called anti-black. If you dislike country, you’re called anti-lower class white.

No other music style tries to shield itself from criticism this way. Some people say metal is bad and violent or that R&B is entirely too sexualized. The response from the artists and fans isn’t to accuse everyone of race/class bias. It’s to say “Well you have fun with your music and we’ll let our music speak for itself.”

Modern rap and country can’t do this because it has very little to say.

[remotecog]

Christmas Day 2022 is For Good, For Success & Enjoy

Source: remotecog.com

Christmas Day 2022 is the biggest festival for Christians. The Christmas season falls in all the Christian communities around the world in December. Like every year, Christmas 2022 will be filled with many amazing events and shopping offers. This article will expose what is waiting for you. Christmas Day 2022 will gather in different countries including America, France, Australia, and Canada.

Are you thinking about how to spend the upcoming big day holiday? There is no reason to worry at all. I can give you a guide on what to do during the Christmas holiday.

No doubt, the entire month of December might be filled with parties & many more joyful moments. But whatever you do, share it with family and loved ones. You can enjoy Christmas a little more.

Christmas Day 2022 is a federal holiday in the USA. So, deals are open on hotels, flights & stores. Let’s enjoy it.

When is Christmas Day 2022? Is It Bank Holiday?

25th December 2022

Before the start of December, the mood of the festival starts all over the world. Especially in the Christian community, a festival mood is observed much more. Christmas falls on December 25 every year. Preparations for the celebration begin a month in advance.

Christmas is celebrated on December 25th every year. Although the date of Christmas 25th December is correct every year. The day (Saturday, Sunday, etc.) does not remain the same. Christmas 2022 is Sunday according to the calendar this year. The day may be any one of the weeks but the Christmas date is fixed as 25th December.

Many changes made to the 2022 and 2023 bank holidays in the federal states. This change was made as some public holidays fall on weekends (Sundays).

So Christmas 2022 moved to another day instead of 25th December. Many people doubt whether December 25 will be observed as a bank holiday. No doubt December 25 is not a bank holiday.

When is Christmas Bank Holiday 2022 in USA?

Usually, December 25th is a bank holiday in the United States. However, since December 25, 2022, is a Sunday, this day has been excluded as a bank holiday.

Why is December 25 not a bank holiday in the US? The reason is very simple. 25th December is not considered a bank holiday this year mainly due to two reasons. Firstly, 25th December is Christmas Day which is a public holiday. The second 25th of December is a Sunday which is a weekly public holiday.

For these two reasons, the Christmas bank holiday 2022 in the USA moved to 26th December. 

11 Federal Bank Holidays 2022 in the US

Federal Reserve Bank and American National Bank publish bank holiday schedules. The list is published on American Bank‘s website. According to the list, these 11 dates is federal states bank holiday. 

1 January, Saturday: New Year’s Day.

17 January, Monday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

21 February, Monday: President’s Day.

30 May, Monday: Memorial Day.

20 June, Monday: Juneteenth.

4 July, Monday: Independence Day.

5 September, Monday: Labor Day.

10 October, Monday: Columbus Day.

11 November, Friday: Veterans Day.

24 November, Thursday: Thanksgiving Day.

26 December, Monday: Christmas Day.

History of Christmas Day

Christmas Day 2022 is an annual Christian festival. This festival is celebrated on the occasion of the birthday of Jesus Christ on 25 December. It is not known whether this day is the actual birthday of Jesus. According to early Christian belief, Jesus entered Mary’s womb exactly nine months before this date.

According to this calculation, the date 25 December is considered as the date of Jesus’ birth. But there is another opinion too. Alternatively, the birthday of Jesus Christ is considered a historical Roman festival.

Although Christmas Day is a Christian observance by nature. But many non-Christian communities also celebrate Christmas in mass now. In some cases, the organization also discusses pre-Christian and secular ideas. Christmas Day 2022 is no exception.

Gift-giving, music, Christmas card exchanges, and church worship are the most popular traditions. Displays of Christmas trees, lights, garlands, and holly are all part of modern Christmas celebrations.

In some countries, the legend of Father Christmas is a very known character. He is popular for giving gifts to children. Father Christmas is famous as Santa Claus in North America, Australia, and Ireland.

Chrysostom has a long history. So I published it here in short form. The detailed history of Christmas will be presented to you in another blog.

Where Did Christmas Come From Originally?

When did Christmas start? There is a difference of opinion on this matter. The history of Christmas is also varied across countries, races, and regions. Not only that, Christmas is not celebrated on the same day in all regions.

In Western countries, people’s death days are given more importance than their birthdays. This distinction arises because Christmas refers to the birthday of Jesus Christ.

Now Christmas Day 2022 is being celebrated around the world. Christmas Day is celebrated on 25th December in most countries of the world. I will try to give the original idea of modern Christmas. This idea is based on the brief historical tradition of celebrating Christmas.

How did the Romans celebrate Christmas Day?

December 25 is the Christmas Day 2022. Let’s go back 300 years. Christmas was still celebrated then. At the end of the Roman Empire, their religion was Christianity. It was introduced by Emperor Constantine during his reign.

Before that, the religion of the Roman Empire was paganism. They had many gods and goddesses. They had different gods for every aspect of their lives.

Each of the gods ruled over certain subjects. Neptune was their sea god, as was Mars. Minerva was the goddess of wisdom and war tactics.

Zeus was the king of all gods. Zeus was the god of the sky. They did not believe in Jesus Christ as God. So, the Romans did not celebrate Christmas.

At that time in midwinter, they celebrated a religious festival like their own. It was not Jesus’ birthday. They celebrated Sternalia. Sternalia was like Christmas to the people of Rome.

They considered Saturn as the one-time ruler of the earth. The Romans celebrated Saturnalia for Saturn. Saturn was considered the father of Neptune and Jupiter. Similarly, Saturn was considered the grandfather of Minerva and Mars.

All arrangements were still pretty much the same as modern Christmas. At that time all educational institutions were declared closed Like Christmas Day 2022.

Some believe that Christmas Day originated from this idea. There are many concepts like Romans. Many regions or different ethnic groups also practice that concept. Again another class considers that as the origin of Christmas.

Different dates are associated with these different concepts. But the most popular is 25th December which is celebrated in most countries of the world.

What Do People Do On Christmas?

Joy in the festival is unlimited. There is no rule of thumb as to what you can and can’t do. There are also no set rules for what you should and shouldn’t do. But whatever you do, let it be for good. Be it for yourself or others.

Holiday Parade

Join the Holiday Parade during the Christmas holidays. This is a great opportunity to enjoy this special holiday season with joy. Why only the 4th of July holiday parade?

The streets of small towns like Middleburg, Virginia have many events during holidays. Many celebrities are also present there. Join them in the parade and have a great time.

Christmas 2022 Shopping

You Can go holiday shopping for Christmas day 2022. On the occasion of Christmas, there are huge discounts on shopping. Stores are too busy at this time. Christmas shopping starts in early December.

Stores also sell products at special discounts on Christmas shopping. It follows Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

You can do some inexpensive shopping for you and your loved ones before Christmas. Both online and offline stores also have various offers during this time.

Traveling

Get away from nature at Christmas to make the holiday memorable. It will also make an amazing holiday, both mind and body will be good. Where to travel on the Christmas holiday 2022?

Top 10 places to travel during Christmas 2022 in the USA

New York

Asheville, North Carolina

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania

Charleston, South Carolina

Newport Beach, California

Whitefish, Montana

Chicago, Illinois

Park City, Utah

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Charlotte, North Carolina

Christmas Day at Disney World

On the occasion of Christmas, Disney World is getting ready with various events. Various events at different Disney parks. You can visit these places with your family and loved ones and enjoy your vacation.

Click the button below to know the details of Disney World events.

Christmas Disney Words

FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)

Who Is Santa Claus?

Santa Claus is an ancient symbolic figure of Christmas. Santa Claus is called the Father of Christmas. This character is especially known in almost all countries for giving gifts to children.

Why Is It Called Christmas day?

Christmas Day usually means December 25th. But even a December 25 on the calendar page has a definite history. Christians believe that Jesus Christ was born on December 25. Therefore, the birthday of Christ they celebrate is called Christmas.

Do People Go To Church On Christmas Day?

No! Now few people go to church on Christmas. Once upon a time, people used to go to church on Christmas Eve to pray for the birth of Christ. They would light candles and pray there, pushing the crowd in thick piles. After the prayer, they exchanged greetings with each other. But nowadays Christmas is just for fun, entertainment, movies, and Disney World. Now, most churches are closed on Christmas Eve.

[night-unfurls-its-splendour]

After fifteen years, One Night With the King is a Dumpster fire of a movie that I was OBSESSED WITH when I was like 11 or 12 (I was obsessed with all things Queen Esther as a kid, because it was my sister's name--I took out my church library's copy of the Hannah☆Barbara cartoon so frequently I practically had partial fucking ownership of it and when my church cleaned out all of the VHS tapes I took it home to keep even though I didn't have a VHS player anymore).

It's a bad movie. It's not good. The dialogue is tragic, the costumes are bonkers, and Tiffany Dupont is... wow she's bad.

But

BUT

BUT

I watched it again for one reason

And it's only a so-so excuse because Hellboy: The Golden Army exists and if I want a fix why wouldn't I just watch that?

It was all for Luke Goss, okay?

So I re-watched it, beer in hand, and bring to you a live blog of a terrible movie that's still the only "Faith-based" LIVE-ACTION film that remotely comes close to being what one might consider "well-produced". (I had originally not stipulated live-action, such would have lumped Prince of Egypt in with the rest and that... that's almost Sacrilege.)

Buckle-in.

****

This took 3 reblogs to finish so for my full 3 part liveblog, click here

- This is produced by FoxFaith, which I'm guessing is why it has, like, production values.

- We start with narration by Gimli (John Rhys Davies plays Mordecai and it's pretty great).

- I'll give it this the music is pretty stirring.

- Tiffany Dupont, aside from being a pretty bad actress, is not pretty enough in my estimation to be Esther, because, like, Esther was chosen for her beauty (and I know they try to make it more romantic here by having him fall in lurv with her, but even so) she should be much prettier than that, call me shallow.

- Flashback 500 years to Saul's disobedient ass not going full genocide on the Amalakites like he was supposed to.

- Enter a very angry Peter "The Prohpet Samuel" O'Toole. I feel SO BAD for all the secular audiences who rented this from Blockbuster because they saw Peter O'Toole was in it, because he's only here for like one scene in this pro-logue flashback to give you background on why Haman is such a bitch; and they had the nerve to put him in the top billed cast to lure people in. His shoulder pads just kill me. WTF.

Did I mention this script is tragic? It can't decide whether it's Shakespeare or the Bible and it's clearly trying SO HARD to be both.

- Fleshing out the characters part one: Make Hadassah wanna get out of dodge! She wants to go to Jerusalem babayyy!

- Add one sassy housekeeper, for comic relief.

- Add cute boy-next-door/childhood best friend (the housekeeper's son) who likes Hadassah and wants to run away with her to Jerusalem babayyy!. He's called Jesse. It doesn't go so good for him.

- Tiffany dupont's got a very cozy mid-atlantic accent. I didn't think that was possible.

- Love how Hadassah's like "ooh look fancy rich person!" and her friends are all like "oh hadassah, always dreaming", implying that she's got these Anne Shirley style fantasies of being a princess, but then she's terrified of being rounded up with the opportunity of being queen. inconsistent.

- Ominous riders in black. Very unsubtle and swastika imagery associated with Haman. Not gonna say anything. I look askance at the implications there, though, given that this movie was shot entirely in India.

- So Hadassah sees the evil Agagite swastika. She clearly recognizes it. make note of this for later.

- Ominous night meeting between Haman and. . . Okay, Denethor is also here. He plays a bad guy. Of Course.

- I am so done with Haman's fucking "I'm so evil" bat-man voice.

- Haman just dumps out the money that Denethor just gave him for being evil-schemey behind the king's back. I guess because they make Haman's hatred of the Jews for revenge reasons his primary motivating characteristic, while greed is totally secondary. They really try to make him a ScaryEvilVillain (TM) instead of the snivelling asswipe he is in the Bible. More on that later.

- Okay, so flashback to Hadassah's dead parents giving her her VerySpecialNecklace that's apparently from the Promise Land. This is clearly very important. It's very unimpressive, and it's supposed to do this this where if the light catches it right, it refracts stars of David all over the place, which rotate aaround the room, even though the necklace isn't movie. I take major points away for this. it's so fucking cheesy.

- Mordecai talking with a priest pal who just came into town from Jerusalem "Ah, what ecstacy to stand in the presence of the Almighty, like the intimate embrace of a husband and wife. Foreshadowing the importance of Romance! *jazz hands* in this story. This one's for you, ladies!

- Dumb moth flutters past Hadassah, sitting on the roof, because we needed another cheesy motif here.

- Moth flies to the Palace, of course. Gimli's voice over continues to flesh out the characters. There's a subplot/motivation device here that includes references to going to war with Greece and the season of feasting here is a cause for debate on whether King Luke Goss is going to avenge his father's death and keep fighting Greece.

- Speaking of King Luke Goss. If there was any doubt to the idea that this movie was made for us thirsty Christian gals, this is how they introduce him:

- Very disappointed that they didn't deck the feasting hall with "White and blue linen hangings fastened with white linen cords". And all the cups are supposed to be gold and each one different from the other. #bookaccuracy fail here.

- So because we're fleshing out the characters, Vashti refuses to show up to the feast when summoned, not because she doesn't want to be shown off like a horse, but because she's in protest of the king going to war with Greece. I guess because she doesn't want him to die? Anyway, understandable change, since he's a RomanticHero (TM).

- Hadassah sneaks out to check out the feast with Jesse.

- Ahhh JOKES! WE GOT 'EM!

*pretty sure he said "I would drink also to my guard" the joke makes more sense in that context*

- So then Denethor suggests they drink to Vashti's beauty, knowing the crowd will urge the king to bring her out and show her off. I guess Xerxes kind of has an arc here where he has to decide "are you gonna do what your father would have expected of you or being a peace-time culture king like you want to" and has to decide to face up to his advisers and make is own choices, y'know. He's only been king for three years, so this is a pretty decent character building device.

- The crowd is chanting for Vashti. And because Xerxes has drank at least half a glass of Respect Women juice, so he's like "What are they serious? They expect me to just trot her out?" then his sneaky advisors who want to stir shit up are like "Vashti's protesting the war, this would put her in her place." but Hegai, the cool eunuch (played by the late Tommy "Tiny" Lister, God rest his soul) is like "Sir, don't do it. You know the queen's position on the war." But Xerxes does it anyway. Ya'll know the story from there. Feminist Icon (TM) Vashti is like "Bitch, no".

- Jesse and Hadassah, are watching the feast from the rafters and flirt badly. Hadassah just wants to see the queen too. Jesse tries to kiss her and she's like, nah bro.

- You guys want a laugh?

- King Luke Goss, having opened himself up to having is pride wounded by his women, does indeed have his pride wounded. Denethor and the guys tell him that he's gotta put his woman in her place, lest all the women in the kingdom defy their hubbands. This is from the Book. King Luke Goss's right hand man is like "Well, protocol says you gotta throw her out on her ass so *shrug*".

- Take a drink every time they say the word "Protocol"

- Cue Mordecai's "Oh shit" face.

- Hadassah is like "hey jesse this just escalated. If there's no Queen with pretty dresses to admire, then let's run away to Jerusalem babayyy!

- Gimli explains in voice-over that the king sent out a decree that every eligible young woman be sought out and brought to the palace. Like Cinderalla, but with more police brutality.

- unfortunately for our pal Jesse, they round up young men too. You know, cuz if there's gonna be this huge influx of women in the palace, you need eunuchs to attend to them.

- hadassah is bummed that Jesse didn't show to run away with her. Then we cut to Mordecai explaining that women are being rounded up. "But no worries, I'm sure they won't get you. i mean how many women could they possibly need? I bet the nobles have already gotten their daughters an in through bribes. but uh, just in case, we'll give you a Babylonian name. How about Esther?"

- So Hadassah, having just been told that girls are being rounded up on the streets, decides she's gonna go for a walk. guess what happens then?

- the soldiers who nab her steal her VerySpecialNecklace.

- Hadassah and the gals are brought into a dank looking vestibule. In a neat editing thing she Prays that for God to "turn these dungeons into someplace wonderful". cut to a torch-lit room with marble-tiled floors. I see what you did there.

- Hadassah tries to cheer up the gals by showing them all the cool silks in this nearby chest that's just there, already open. Cuz, you know, she's brave. One girl is like "Am i ever gonna see my parents again?!" and Hadassah is like "No, Im sure we'll be home in no time!" but then this other girl, who is much prettier than Tiffany Dupont is like "OH SO YOU THINK WE'RE NOT PRETTY ENOUGH?" it's tough being the main character.

- ENTER HEGAI, THE COOL EUNUCH.

- That night Hadassah has a flashback to the night the scary riders in black with their swastika braclets killed her parents.

- Hadassah wakes up in the morning and Hegai the cool Eunuch finds her spinning around in the garden because she's such a free spirit. Hegai the cool Eunuch is like wtf is wrong with you?

- War council shit. they're telling King Luke Goss the budget for the big war. and he's like "You know we could spend that on infrastructure." Denethor is like, nah let's do war things instead because the greeks are all democracy. gag. King Luke Goss's right hand man points out that war costs a bunch, and it's prbably a good idea not to spend so much when you're not militarily gifted.

- Hegai the Cool Eunuch gives the gals a pep talk. "Okay, so you've been kidnapped and held here to be married off to a king who dismissed his last wife for disobedience. This sucks. But, not as much as having your balls cut off. You're in a much better situation, and you get to to keep the jewelry even if you get sent home. He also mentions being blinded in this scene, in relation to his own capture and castration, and I just want to say I think it's cool that they included Tommy Lister's blind eye as part of his character here.

- Cue spa montage.

- Haman puts the works in motion for his big play against the jews, and starts putting it out that the Jews are super into Greek democracy and thus pose a threat.

- Lunchtime for the candidates. Hadassah gets out of eating her ham by throwing it to the monkeys.

- Hadassah complains that the Queen training consists mostly of beauty treatments and not on things like finances and literature other queen shit. Hegai the cool Eunuch is impressed that she can read.

- Hadassah comes back to her room that night to find that Hegai has stocked it with scrolls. Cut to her reading the Epic of Gilgamesh to the gals. Hegai the cool Eunuch listens in, and is moved, lamenting that he can't read it in its original Akkadian, like Hadassah can, and says that reading is one of the few pleasures left to him. This is actually quite an affecting scene.

- Hegai the cool Eunuch lets the gals into the treasury to pick out their jewelry for their interviews. The gals go hog-wild, cuz they get to keep it. Hadassah hangs back and asks Hegai's opinion on what would most suit the king's tastes. Because maybe she is smart? Since King Luke Goss is a man of simple tastes under it all, Hegai gives her a simple necklace. And surprise! it's hadassah's VerySpecialNecklace that got snatched when she was taken!

- Because Hadassah can read and she and Hegai the cool Eunuch are pals, Hegai has her come read the chronicles to the king.

- I see they saved the blue and white linen hangings for King Luke Goss's bedroom. Okay.

- King Luke Goss is making some sculptures because he's arty that way. Hadassah comes in, sits on the bench and starts reading the chronicles (King Luke Goss is obscured by a gossamer curtain)

- "Admiral Xtes was honored for serving twenty years in the Royal Fleet. After a lengthy speech, he promptly keeled over and died. *Giggle*" Even though, reading the chronicles and giggling cutely at them would have been a fine way to endear herself to the king all on its own, she decides to deviate by reciting the story of Jacob and Rachel from memory.

(No Shit, though, Luke Goss's line delivery here sends me.)

- King Luke Goss is all "Pretty sure that's not in the chronicle. But you've got me interested tell me the ending." So then after he asks her name he's like

- And again, bitch is living my best life.

- My kingdom for some chemistry here, because Luke Goss is putting out and I'm just getting nothing from her.

- oh also, he explains the sculpture he's currently working on is gonna be Eros when it's finished. He never actually says Eros because that would be too bow-chika-wow for this ChristianMovie but we know who he means. And I'm here for it.

- Then Hegai comes and collects her and is like "OKay, i pulled some strings for you, this was not your formal interview, you get another one, and you CANNOT tell anyone else that you got an early sitting with him because it's not strictly fair.

- So she goes back to her room and has this fantasy of King Luke Goss coming into her room, and I mean which of us wouldn't?

- Cut to a dusty military camp. King Luke Goss is sparring. The choreography is Season 5 of GoT Levels of bad

Because King Luke Goss is shirtless! As he is for at least a third of this movie. Because they KNEW their target audience.

- Hegai the Cool Eunuch shows up and tells King Luke Goss that the advisors have ordered candidates to be brought for their interviews at the camp, and king luke goss is like "You have got to be kidding me." Hegai is not kidding him.

- Jesse, it is now revealed, has become Hatach (Who we shall call "the Sad Eunuch"). Hatach is an actual figure from the Bible, who became Esther's personal chamberlain. He finds a moment alone with Hadassah, commenting on her change of name. This is the first time she's seen him since he didn't show to run away with her. She comforts him about their having to use Babylonian names by reminding him that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were pagan names too. Jesse, because he's a know-it-all, rattles off their Jewish Names (Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, for those of you who didn't ace your Bible trivia in Sunday school, like i did).

- Jesse/Hatach the Sad Eunuch tells Hadassah that he's found a way for them to escape. Unfortunately for him, Hadassah's pretty stoked on captivity since she's all goo-goo eyes for King Luke Goss now. Jesse the Sad Eunuch feels betrayed, of course, and wonders to her what good could come from their situation. (BECAUSE OLD TESTAMENT PEOPLE DIDN'T KNOW STUFF).

- Hadassah says that rather than lamenting their situations, they should make the best of them. Which is easy for her to say, because her situation means that she might get to marry King Luke Goss, while Jesse's situation just means that he no longer has his family jewels. He's resigned to never being able to be involved with Hadassah, but still wants her to run away with him. This poor fuckin' guy.

- It's time for the individual interviews to begin! First up is Misgath of Persepolis, a daughter of a rug merchant, and dumb bimbo. For her interview, she's supposed to go riding with the king. Which does not work out for her because she cant ride a horse, and also put on ten pounds with all the gold jewelry she snagged from the treasury. Hijinks ensue.

- Hadassah is bummed because King Luke Goss hasn't asked her back to read for him again, which he suggested he would. Hegai is like "damn girl it's only been like four days" but because Hadassah is a teenager "a few days is a thousand years". Hegai sympathizes with her and tells her about the girl he intended to marry before he was captured and cut.

- Back with King Luke Goss, he's waiting in his tent for the next candidate, who, he's informed, is having some stage fright. She winds up throwing up. King Luke Goss is done with this shit.

- MONKEYS!

- And now it's time for Esther's official interview (I'll be calling her Esther from here on out). Fortunately for her, her interview is taking place on familiar territory, the king's bedroom.

- Esther is super nervous, even though she has a significant head-start over all the other candidates.

- He has her read to him again, same pattern as before, except this time he seems really impatient. He complains about the endless procession of women he's being subjected to. But then he notices that it's her, and not the other dumb bimbos he's come to expect. She's SUPER nervous now.

- He questions the fact that she's only wearing the one piece of jewelry (her VerySpecialNecklace). She stands by it. He asks if she's simply adorned because she has a low estimation of her self-worth. She responds that the necklace is her only valued possession and she brings it as a gift for him, not as a trinket she expects to keep for herself. Good move. Wonder if Hegai the cool Eunuch taught her that line.

- I just noticed that you can hear the fans that are producing the wind to make the curtains flutter in the background of this scene. Good lort.

- Tiffany Dupont's makeup in this scene is almost as tragic as the script.

~~posting here because I've reached the image limit, so i'll reblog with the next part~~

[latibulesims]

Hey Lati!

I’m so sorry to press you for more information, but I’m so fascinated by your filming process and I have some additional questions if that’s okay. Specifically around your sets that are just individual rooms, are these just multiple secular room sets on one lot, or do you use a different lot for each set? Like with the River’s house when any family member is coming downstairs, is Tresor or Raign’s room not on that lot? The living room and kitchen? Lol I’m just so fascinated by this if that’s the case, and if so it’s extremely impressive because they look like they all could actually be one complete set. Sorry if this makes zero sense, I’ve just never thought to try this and now I really want to! ☺️ Thanks so much!

Haha no you make total sense!! First of all thank you for watching my series, and don't worry at all about asking questions! I know filming with The Sims 2 can be difficult bc of how often it crashes and its loading time, so any tips I can give to help the game crash less, im happy to share 💖

The sets are actually on different lots entirely! So, when Tresor "comes downstairs", or the characters go from the living room to the kitchen, I load an entirely new lot! I think the only exception I make is with bathrooms because they're so tiny haha, but any time you see the characters going from one room to the other, it's usually a different lot all together. :')

It may sound exhausting to some, having to jump from one lot to another, but over the years (I've been doing this since 2017, at least!) I've managed some tips that help, for those that are interested:

1) I make multiple sims of the same character, so that every sim belongs to every lot! So, if Tresor for example needs to be in her bedroom, the living room and Simons bar within the same episode, I create 3 Tresors (TresorBED, TresorLIVING, TresorBAR), and that way I don't have to move her around.

I should also note that I change neighborhoods every episode (more on that in tip #3), so it might sound like a lot of sims over the episodes but really it's usually just 3 versions of the same character in one neighborhood at a time.

You might find it's easier to just move the sims from one lot to the other, but in my experience moving the sims around (or using the tombstone to extract them) always ends up crashing my game so this is a really good way to avoid it all together!

2) I don't film chronologically, but by sets! This is my #1 tip. I basically gather up all the scenes I have in 1 set and I film them. That way i dont have to go back and forth between lots, instead I just finish off all the scenes I need using a lot and move on to the next! Sometimes a set has so many scenes I end up filming in one set for weeks at a time (usually Simons bar, haha, that S2E1 Christmas episode needed like 3 sets (Simons bar, Simons living room, The Rivers living room), and I spent two months just filming in Simons bar).

The only time I won't recommend this, is when you havent yet found your own style. Then you might risk something like this happening: You're just starting to film, and you have the 1st and last scene in the episode in the same set. So, you film them both. Then you film a couple more scenes after that, and then you reach the final set and by then your filming skills have changed (if you haven't found your style and take months filming an episode - which is completely valid, BTW - this could mean a drastic change). Then, scene #1 (which you filmed at the very beginning) could have a completely different filming style than scene #2 (which you filmed at the very end), and so on. You wouldn't want that.

I had something like that happen to me, where I discovered reshade mid-filming an episode, so the scenes I filmed at the beginning of the episode didnt have it, and then the scenes I filmed at the end did it. It made the epsiode look incosistent, which is something I don't really care about (and neither do my viewers, really), but you might so letting you know as a heads up! Some of these tips do compromise the "professionalism" of the episodes, but it's how i manage to film and pop out episodes with (relative) quickness :').

Thats why for many reasons, including should you want to film by set instead of chronologically, I suggest you find your style before filming an episode or starting a series all together. This can be done through creating small machinimas, filming tests, music videos, etc. Take it from someone who can't even handle sitting through the first 8 episodes of my own series because of how much my style back then. The way it drastically changed from one episode to another irks me so much! 😅

3) And this is my most controversial one, LOL, but I always build sets + new neighborhoods from scratch with every episode. As I mentioned above, I change neighborhoods with every episode because, in my experience, neighborhoods get corrupt with time so starting with a fresh neighborhood every episode helps avoid crashing. Previously, neighborhoods would get so corrupt, they'd stop loading at all mid-filming an episode, so im forced to interrupt my filming streak and build the sets and characters all together which absolutely wrecks any motivation I have to film afterwards. Once, this happened mid-filming a scene and so I had to rebuild, and let me tell you: Theres a difference between sets looking a bit different because I had to rebuild between episodes, and sets looking different within the same scene. At least when you rebuild the set with every new episode, you can blame minor changes on the fact that time passed from one episode to the other.

Also: I make sure to build all the sets I need for the episode before I start filming, because I dont want anything to interrupt my filming once I start it. If Im forced to build when I'm motivated to film, I end up losing that motivation in the time I spend building, if that makes sense. As u probably already know as a machinima maker, we do the work that is usually required of a team (writer, director, editor, and also stylist and set designers), so I like to do things one at a time so I can have a clear understanding of my schedule and timetable. So, I dedicate 2 days to style all the sims, a week or so to build all the sets, usually months to film the episode, then another week to edit and audio edit. I try my best not to have all of those parts overlapping, otherwise it gets too overwhelming.

The reason I rebuild from scratch, as opposed to just extracting the lot and installing it in a new neighborhood is because, again, I prefer a fresh start and have found that lots are less likely to get corrupt if they're "new". A lot of people think im crazy for it LOL, or that it's a colossal waste of time, and maybe it is! But it's the process that works best for me, and I end up filming really fast with much less crashing and hiccups because of it!

Hope that helps!!! :') Let me know if you have any other questions about my filming process or any other tips 💖💖💖 I'd love to help!

[southeastasianists]

Editor’s note: The following is a guest piece authored by LGBT+ advocacy group Heckin Unicorn on so-called conversion therapy in Singapore. It was not produced by Coconuts Singapore.

Sam embarked on a journey of self-discovery in his 20s. He had been through many abusive relationships, and for reasons he couldn’t quite grasp, he’d always felt that something was missing in his life. Sam wanted to get in tune with his emotions. He wanted to heal.

At 26, Sam flew to Japan to attend a spiritual workshop. The workshop’s exercise was simple, but intense: attendees were paired up, and for 3 hours, each pair had to stare meditatively into each other’s eyes. The poetic beauty in this exercise wasn’t lost to him: staring into the windows of another’s soul would help him get in touch with his own.

Yet for hours, nothing happened.

Then his sensei came over and gently touched his chest, or what spiritual practitioners called the “heart space”. And in a single stroke, Sam’s inner soul broke loose with an explosive force. He started shrieking — so uncontrollably, in fact, that he had to be restrained by several workshop attendees. Anguish, anger, and confusion raced through his mind. It was an excruciating 30 minutes of raw physical reaction, as if years of emotions ripped through his body. Yet it was nothing compared to what was about to hit him in the months to come.

Because in that moment, something clicked into place. Sam suddenly recalled that he was a victim of “conversion therapy” over a decade ago. He finally understood why he’d always felt that something was missing, and why he felt so strongly that he had to heal himself. Deeply repressed and harrowing memories came rushing back like an avalanche.

Sam fought to stay alive over the next 3 months. He suffered from hallucinations, and would cry inconsolably for days on end. He would vomit uncontrollably. His body burned in pain. He wanted to end the suffering. He wanted to end his life. But in between the painful outbreaks, Sam found the strength to fight for his survival. He knew that to live, he had to find out more about what had happened to him. He began researching extensively about “conversion therapy”, and the more he researched, the more he recalled the lost years of his adolescence.

Slowly, his memories fell into place.

Sam went through a lot at a young age. He learnt that he was gay while going through puberty. And through interactions with his closest family members, he learned that it was something he needed to get rid of.

When he came out to his mum at 13, she told him that she expects a grand funeral when she dies. It was her cold, indirect way of telling him that she expects him to bear children and grandchildren for her. When Sam turned to his aunt, she called him derogatory names and told him that people will not accept him if he continues to be gay. The message from his family was clear: turn straight, or else.

So at 15, Sam scoured the internet for answers about his sexuality. In the age of dial-up internet, genuine LGBTQ+ content was hard to come by. The information that he found about STDs scared him — HIV was still called the “gay virus” back then. Sam started getting desperate. He needed to find a way to turn straight.

And then he found a solution — or so he thought.

Sam began attending a “conversion therapy” programme offered by a local church when he was 15. It marketed itself as a counselling service that could help people who were “struggling with unwanted same-sex attraction”, and sounded exactly like what Sam was looking for. Even though he only signed up for their counselling services, he felt compelled to attend their church services as the years went by. His family never knew that he was participating in “conversion therapy” sessions; they were more concerned that he was converting from Taoism to Christianity.

Perhaps the scariest part about the “conversion therapy” programme was how, to 15-year-old Sam, it just felt right. Sam’s 1-on-1 sessions with his counsellor felt like normal counselling sessions. Sure, scripture was quoted a lot in their hour-long sessions, but to Sam — and anyone who desperately wanted to turn straight, for that matter — everything seemed to make sense. Because in a world full of rejection, the programme claimed to provide all the answers.

Sam’s memories about his counselling sessions are hazy, but their core message remains clear in his mind: you’ll go to hell if you’re gay. It was a powerful and terrifying message, and it fueled Sam’s desire to continue with the programme. He didn’t know back then that his sexual desires were innate and perfectly normal, so he confided his feelings with his counsellor and followed everything he was instructed to do. For a long time, everything he heard in his counselling sessions made him feel like turning straight was a real possibility.

Celibacy was a strong mandate of the “conversion therapy” programme. Sam’s counsellor told him many times that he would go to hell unless he stopped masturbating. He told Sam that it was wrong and sinful to have sexual desires. And as an impressionable teenager going through the peak of puberty, Sam absorbed and believed everything his counsellor told him.

Throughout his 4 years in the programme, Sam suppressed his desires and took things to the extreme. He would hold tightly onto his bed frame every night before going to bed to prevent himself from touching his body. It was a physically and mentally exhausting exercise, but Sam managed to push through every night for 6 consecutive months before he succumbed to his desires. He wouldn’t know this until years later, but this extreme psychological conditioning left him with a debilitating inability to touch himself.

In one church session, the pastor discouraged churchgoers from listening to secular music. Only Christian music should be allowed in their lives, the pastor declared. The next week, Sam brought his entire music CD collection to church, and watched it being burnt and destroyed. Sam was so enthralled by the programme’s promises that no physical coercion was required to get him to engage in such extreme activities. To him, listening to everything they say was the only way to not end up in hell.

There were a few reasons that ultimately made Sam leave the programme after 4 years. First of all, nothing worked. Sam knew that he was still gay, and that all he managed to do was to suppress his innate desires and convince himself that he isn’t worthy of love. He was also harassed by a cell group leader, but nothing seemed to be done about it after he raised this up to the church leadership. And in an attempt to negotiate some joy back into his life, Sam asked a church friend if God would accept him if he were to be in a loving gay relationship, but abstained from sex for life. The answer: an unequivocal no.

When Sam left the programme at 19, he wasn’t a changed man — he was broken. He left not because he realised that their teachings harmed his mental health, but because after 4 years of trying, he has resigned to his fate of going to hell.

Sam turns 38 this year. And in the last decade or so, he’s been to hell and back.

After spending thousands of dollars in medical scans, Sam was diagnosed with fibromyalgia. In simple terms, he experiences chronic physical pain induced by his extreme psychological trauma (side note: psychological trauma isn’t the only factor that could induce symptoms of fibromyalgia). These painful outbreaks aren’t just unpredictable, but also incurable. His chest would tighten and he would gasp for air; his face would twitch suddenly and uncontrollably; he would suffer from the inability to speak; he is often fatigued and would suffer from migraines.

Sam also faced considerable financial challenges over the last couple of decades. There were months when Sam was unable to get out of bed. His inner demons would take control, and he would find himself once again fighting for his life. Because of this, Sam had been in and out of jobs. This, coupled with his expensive medical treatment and therapies, set his finances back considerably.

It would be nice if we could end Sam’s story on a positive note. But the truth is that even though Sam is a fierce survivor, his experience with “conversion therapy” still affects him decades after the sessions have ended. Sam isn’t ready to date yet, because he thinks that he carries too much emotional baggage for any relationship to work. He continues to face difficulties fully accepting his sexuality, even though he understands that there’s nothing wrong with being gay. And he continues to sleep with his arms wide apart, because physical contact still makes his body burn in pain.

Let this be clear: “conversion therapy” practices exist in Singapore. Many of these programmes continue to showcase “success” cases without acknowledging, or perhaps understanding, how “conversion therapy” can irreparably damage a person’s psychological and physical wellbeing.

According to the United Nations, any attempt to change or suppress someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity is a form of “conversion therapy”. Many international psychiatric organisations have condemned “conversion therapy” practices because the medical consensus agrees that they not only don’t work, but could cause mental harm to participants (page 115). Taiwan has fully banned “conversion therapy” practices, while Germany has done so for minors. Other countries such as Canada, Israel, New Zealand, and the UK are considering legislation that would make them illegal.

Yet “conversion therapy” remains legal in Singapore. Many teenagers like Sam will continue to enrol in programmes that psychologically condition them to suppress their innate sexuality. Most of them would emerge from the programmes with their sexuality unchanged, but mental health deeply affected. Some of them will kill themselves.

[ruminativerabbi]

Bibi Out, Naftul In

I had an important decision to make last Sunday morning: what music to listen to as I drove around in far-eastern Connecticut looking for the last-minute things we needed to buy for Emil’s wedding that afternoon. Lots of things suggested themselves, but I finally settled on “Brightly Dawns our Wedding Day,” a quartet from The Mikado and one of Arthur Sullivan’s most lovely choral pieces. The music—a BBC recording that Spotify recommended—was gorgeous. But, as I drove around looking for open stores, I realized that I was listening not only to an appropriate piece of wedding-day music, but also to a (choral, but trenchant) comment on the topic I knew even then I wanted to write about this week: the new government in Israel and the promise it holds for the future.

The plot line of The Mikado is a bit complicated, but the basic idea is that the singers are rejoicing over a happy marriage about to take place and noting, in four-part harmony, that one must always rejoice over happy events even without knowing what the future will bring. (Within the storyline of the operetta, the union being celebrated is unlikely to endure for more than a single month because the groom’s execution has already been scheduled for thirty days in the future. Emil and Adam’s union, on the other hand, I fully expect to be permanent and enduring. But the deeper point is that love should always be celebrated for its own sake and not merely because of where it might conceivably lead or tragically not lead, which idea I certainly can endorse wholeheartedly.) In the end, no one knows the future. But when two hearts are joined as one and from two separate individuals emerges a couple wholly devoted to each other’s welfare—that is a moment to rejoice, not to suffer over your inability to forecast every twist and turn on the road ahead.

And that is something like the set of thoughts I bring to the remarkable and—at least by myself—unexpected departure of Benjamin Netanyahu for greener pastures (or jail) and the no less unexpected ascension of Naftali Bennett to the office of Prime Minister.

Bennett heads a coalition of, to say the very least, strange bedfellows. In fact, it would not be entirely wrong to say that the parties to the new coalition, co-led by Bennet and his unlikely partner Yair Lapid, are united by more or less nothing at all other than their wish to send Bibi packing, which goal they have actually managed to accomplish. So the question isn’t whether the parties to the new government are each other’s natural allies (which they certainly aren’t) or whether they will attempt to exploit each other’s wish for the government not to collapse to accomplish their own goals (which they certainly will), but whether they will be able effectively and successfully to govern a nation known for its political fractiousness and, at least recently, political instability. That, more than anything else, is the question.

They are a very diverse lot, the partners to this new coalition.

Most unexpected of all, I suppose, would have to be Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamic Raam party. At first blush, there shouldn’t be anything too surprising here—Arabs make up about 20% of the Israeli population and there have been many Arab MKs in the past. But this is the first time an Arab party has been invited into the corridors of power as a member of the governing coalition. Is this a sign of desperation, welcoming into the government people whose allegiance to the Jewish nature of Israel is beyond tenuous? Or is it a sign of health, and of great health at that, this notion of a democracy specifically not excluding citizens from positions of power because of their ethnicity or their faith? I think I think the latter: part of the democratic process has to be a willingness to allow all citizens to be represented by the leaders they themselves choose. And that right cannot be abrogated by their unwillingness to toe this or that party line. It’s a daring move, bringing Raam in. It could obviously backfire. But it could also herald a new period in Israeli politics, one in which the citizenry is represented in the government in an unprecedented, but ultimately reasonable and fair way. We’ll see.

Bennett himself is the leader of the Yamina party, a tiny right-wing group that has exactly six seats in the 120-seat Knesset. That’s both good and bad: good, because Bennett’s retention of power will obviously have to depend on his ability to compromise with people who are in many ways totally dissimilar from himself or the other MKs of his own party, but bad because it means the PM has no natural power base on which to rely and will almost definitely be at odds with the vast majority of his fellow Knesset members. Yair Lapid, who heads the centrist and very hopefully-named Yesh Atid (“There Is A Future”) party, will take over as Prime Minister in two years. (In the meantime, he will serve as Foreign Minister.) Yesh Atid did better than Yamina, but they still only have seventeen seats in the Knesset. That means that together Bennett and Lapid only control twenty-three out of 120 seats. Will there be enough common ground for the members of the government to govern? Or will the coalition collapse almost immediately now that the only glue holding them all together—their common loathing of Netanyahu—has vanished with the object of their loathing himself. I suppose we’ll see about that too.

The other parties in the coalition are all far more likely to be uncomfortable in each other’s presence than comfortable. The left-wing Labor and Meretz parties have almost no important positions in common with the right-wing New Hope and Yisrael Beiteinu parties. Nor does it bode particularly well that the sole centrist party in the government now is Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party. (Gantz will remain in place as Minister of Defense.)

It’s also important to notice who isn’t in the new government. For the first time in a long time, there are no Haredi parties represented. Whether that will signal a sea-change in Israeli policy towards drafting ultra-Orthodox young men remains to be seen, as also remains to be seen whether the new coalition will have the strength finally to break the Orthodox stranglehold on matters of personal status (like marriage and divorce) and to offer a fair deal to non-Orthodox Jews in Israel whose tax shekels pay the salaries of the nation’s Orthodox rabbis but who must also pay dues to their own synagogues to support their own clergy. It’s unlikely that the coalition will want to step too heavily on the toes of the nation’s ultra-Orthodox population. On the other hand, the possibility of change with respect to the imperious, self-righteous way the chief rabbinate has been permitted to impose its will on the entire nation is something we can only hope to see realized.

So the chances of long-term success are not great. The coalition holds a razor-thin majority of exactly two seats in the Knesset. (This basically means that for anything at all to be accomplished, more or less every single member but one of the coalition has to be on board.) There are eight parties that belong to the governing coalition, a number only exceeded one single time in the past history of Israel. Whether that turns out to be the kiss of death or a sign of vibrant democracy at its most pliable and effective remains too to be seen. On the other hand, the new government includes nine female cabinet ministers, the most ever. But on the other other hand, none of the governing parties is led by a Jew of Middle Eastern or Sephardic origins—not a good sign for a nation in which non-Ashkenazic Jews have often felt looked over or disregarded.

So, to sum up, there are a thousand good reasons to expect the Bennett government to collapse momentarily. The man himself is a bit of an anomaly too—he will be Israel’s first religiously-observant Prime Minister who appears in public wearing a kippah, yet he leads a nation overwhelming secular in its orientation. (Whether his ascension will eventually be seen as emblematic of the nation’s move from the secular Zionism of the state’s founders to the kind of religious Zionism that has religion itself at the core of its self-conception—that too will be revealed only in the future.) He is Israel’s first Prime Minister born to American parents too, a natural, fluent English-speaker (like Netanyahu) who will do well on American television—which is key for Israeli politicians who want to win the hearts of the American public. But, of course, Bennett is also a natural Hebrew speaker—which is important since he now leads a nation of native-born Israelis to whom the ability to speak English well is unimportant and who will be far more closely tuned into the nuances of his Hebrew-language speeches and rhetoric.

The Israel of today is not the Israel of 1948. But neither is it the Israel of 1967 or even of the early 2000s. The nation today, particularly in the wake of the success of the Abraham Accords, is facing a set of potential foreign policy break-throughs, including with the Palestinians, that are unprecedented. So maybe the notion of a coalition that includes left-wing, right-wing, and centrist parties, plus an Arab party, will turn out to be the perfect government to move Israel successfully into the next decade, one—and the first—that can truly claim to represent the widest possible spectrum of opinions and positions. Things could go south at any moment, obviously. But for the moment I’m hoping for the best and wishing PM Bennett success in leading his nation forward successfully for these next two years.

[sosation]

On the Passing of Michael Brooks

I only relatively recently became aware of Michael, less than a year ago. In that time he has impacted my life more than any other media personality, more than anyone I’ve never met.

Even though the first time I voted was for Obama in 2008, my political consciousness really began during my 2nd stint of college at UTA circa 2014/15. My history undergrad was waking me up to the power dynamics and hegemonic systems that exist in our society. I was beginning to understand geopolitics under the tutelage of Dr. Joyce Goldberg and getting really wrapped up in 20th century diplomacy. The Snowden leaks had happened and the Michael Brown demonstrations in Ferguson were drawing attention to the militarization of our police forces and their tactics on US citizens. I began to see capitalism as consisting of, and causing and contributing too, countless problems. Then, the 2016 election cycle stoked my already burning interests.

During this time, there was little “left-tube” to be found. Since 2012, streaming on our X Box has been my wife and I’s primary means of entertainment. Slowly more and more of our time was being spent on YouTube. The Young Turks was really the only progressive voice on Youtube, to my knowledge, at that time. (I wasn’t yet aware of Pakman, Kulinski, Seder and Brooks.) And even though they were my primary source of news, I wasn’t crazy about the hyperbolic presentation, Cenk’s ego, or some of the attitudes expressed by various hosts at various times. That being said, I learned a lot. I was exposed to many many great journalists and they certainly helped me solidify and articulate many of the arguments I had been thinking and feeling during this time. I even became a Texas Wolf-Pac Volunteer right after Trump’s election. 

I ended my bachelor’s and master’s programs under the Trump presidency. (May ‘17, Dec ‘18 respectively.) During this time I read and wrote more than I ever have in my life. Under Dr. Christopher Morris, Dr. Patryk Babiracki, and Dr. Pawel Goral, I read Marxist historical theory and studied the history of the Cold War  from the perspectives of the US, USSR and Europe. I also began watching less and less TYT and more Secular Talk, David Pakman, and David Doel. While these shows are great, there was little to no international perspectives or geopolitical discussions happening. (Doel being Canadian accounts for something but, IMO, anyone who lives in the 5 Eyes is hardly a non-western perspective and therefore significantly less valuable in regards to gaining the insight of the peripheries of the globe. As the hegemonic “leader” of the world, Canadians, New Zealanders, Aussies and Brits, can point and laugh at the US all they want but they are taking our lead-systematically and economically.That’s not to say that their perspective is unimportant, just not the same as those outside the western sphere) Furthermore, there is still even less of a historical perspective being represented in regards to current events anywhere on YouTube. No one seems to have a long dureé, an understanding of how history plays out- again and again, and how capitalism is responsible for much of our recent history. Marx did. Michael did. 

I began my teaching career in earnest last summer, 2019, as a Geography teacher. First time I’ve ever had a salary and the first time that I didn’t have to wear a hat (or hairnet) to work. My lunch was 2nd lunch, 12:35-1:15. Here in Texas, The Majority Report was live and it began showing up consistently on my youtube feed so I began watching them while I ate my sandwich and apple, before students from guitar club would show up for a quick lesson before 6th period. I had watched TMR before, particularly live streams on twitch during the first few primary debates this cycle. They reminded me a little too much of an east coast morning talk show for me to take them too seriously at first but I eventually began to see that while Sam is--well-- Sam, the others on the show had quite a lot to say and clear, logical and articulate reasons for their positions...especially this guy Michael. Once I heard that he had his own show it quickly became the most listened to podcast in my feed. (This in itself is no small feet. I’ve been listening to podcasts for hours a day (sometimes 8) since 2012. It, too, no doubt contributed to my education and understanding of our world during this same time period but that is another blog all itself.)

Michael was everything that I was looking for. He was unabashedly a Marxist. He was intelligent and enjoyed rigorous thinking and leftist theory. He was hilarious and did fantastic impressions. He also was compassionate, kind and empathetic. He was a humanist, in the truest sense of the word and he understood, and articulated to me, that Socialism is a humanist movement. After I became a patron, I once asked him on Discord what his credentials were and he said that his Bachelor’s was in International Relations, which explained so much. Again, he was the only media personality that I was aware of that was knowledgeable and curious about the same things I was. He understood history. He valued history and its importance, so much so that he dedicated a separate Sunday show just to “Illicit Histories” where he would invite Historians from all over the world to discuss leftist movements in their own countries and how we could apply those lessons here and vice versa. This was it. This is what was missing from our national discourse--an international perspective and voice, and a historical perspective and voice. Michael was both and he was damn good at it. 

The Michael Brooks Show was an inspiration. Michael, Matt Lech and David Griscom were smart, eloquent, young men who articulated the systemic failures of our time, who critically discussed and analyzed our current political discourse and who pondered possible solutions based in history. The guests of TMBS, the network Michael created, really were the shining feature. Ben Burgis, Artesia Balthrop, Molly Webster, Glenn Greenwald, Adolf Reed, President Lula De Silva, Slavoj Žižek , Noam Chomsky, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Richard Wolff...the list goes on and on and on. These people brought so much insight to the state of our world. Professors, Journalists, people who have spent their lives working on the cause, a cause for a better future, one based in humanity and empathy. Michael was able to bring his own empathy for humanity into his interviews, asking thoughtful direct questions that got to the heart of the issue-- while simultaneously bringing levity to a serious topic by making jokes in the voice of Gandhi, Mandela, Obama, or Bernie, to name a few. He, fucking, got it man. He understood how the world was connected. He understood that we are ALL humans, and that we all deserve to be treated with dignity, and he understood that Marx was right about a ton of shit and he wasn’t scared to remind you of that. 

Michael, for me, was an exemplar. He was a role model. I looked up to him. I had no idea he was only 13 months older than me, I thought he was probably in his early 40’s just based on the amount of shit that he knew. My personal 10 year goal was to be on his show. I wanted to either become a writer or go back into academia. I even wrote into a show a couple of months back and asked him which was a better choice. He was honored to be asked such a heavy question but didn’t feel comfortable giving that kind of life advice and I don’t blame him. He recommended that I continue teaching high school if that’s what I enjoy doing, and I do, and I likely will. He has shown me how to speak up for ideals that are right, regardless of what people think. Like, I understood that in the abstract, but watching someone do it multiple times a week really put it in my head that I need to advocate for my position publicly. I tell people that I’m a marxist- which in Texas is unheard of, even among leftists. Mostly due to people not understanding labels and what that even means. So I tell them. Thanks to David’s weekly recommended readings I haven’t stopped reading leftist theory even though I finished grad school over a year and a half ago. If TMBS never existed I never would have had the opportunity to read any of that. 

My heart bleeds for Matt and David. I can’t imagine what they’re going though. I want them to continue, to keep the community alive in his name. But I completely understand if that is just too painful. 

I was thinking earlier, trying to find an appropriate historical comparison to his passing. There are many but as a North Texan, the one that I ended up landing on was the passing of Dimebag Darrell Abbot. He did a lot. He accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He inspired many to do things like him. It was entirely unexpected and not one person, not one, has a bad thing to say about the guy. Dimebag was adored. He listened to people, strangers, fans. He was kind and open-hearted and treated everyone with respect. Which made it extra hard when he passed. The same can be said for Michael. For Michael, since Socialism is more than just music, he inspired us to educate ourselves, to ask questions, to remember the periphery-Latin America, Africa, and Asia,-- to remember history and value it, to be compassionate, to educate others and to be active in our own communities. 

He will be sorely missed. The one thing I keep telling myself is that his death has the potential to bring even more attention to his message-- to help further catapult this movement into something undeniable. To bring more awareness to how power works and to finally activate us to become, as Michael said at Harvard on Feb 1, 2020: machiavellian.

 “...we still have to put work into reminding everybody that (Dr. MLK Jr.) was on the left. He wasn’t a guy who came out once a year and said ‘everybody should treat each other nicely. ...The other thing I loved about this speech was he talked about the fallacy- that certain Christians misunderstand love as a seeding of power. And then Nietzsche came along and rejected christian morality because he thought it was denying someone’s vitality- the will to power in a healthy sense, and he said ‘Love without power is sentimental and anemic. And power without love is abusive and corrosive’ I’m paraphrasing. And that was when I saw, I thought, ‘well here, ok, we know the left-wing Dr. King. Well here is the machiavellian Dr King, and I love it.’ I want the left to have Machiavelli, so we can have the strategy, the ruthlessness, the clarity, to actually win these battles. And be ruthless with institutions. And then I want us to learn how to be really kind to each other, welcoming of a broad set, and actually have a movement that has the capacity to do that.”

Let’s do the best we can to make that happen. Educate yourself about power. Educate yourself about ideologies. Read Marx and Engels. Read Slavoj Žižek and Adolf Reed. Read Michaels book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right. Don’t get caught up in identity politics. Never lose sight of class dynamics. Use this knowledge to educate others and make informed decisions. Register to vote. Run for office. Effectuate real change. Do the intellectual rigor that was happening on TMBS every week, multiple times a week. Thank you for all that you brought to us Michael, you will be sorely missed and I hope to see you at the clearing at the end of the path. 

Anthony Sosa

7-21-20

[catholicartistsnyc]

Meet Theresa Ambat

THERESA AMBAT is a music composer, producer, and sound designer based in Seattle, WA. [website]

From Theresa: 

I have my own personal music on Spotify and Apple Music and I just started doing freelance music production for film and video games. I also sometimes compose music using a programming language called SuperCollider. 

CATHOLIC ARTIST CONNECTION (CAC): Where are you from originally, and what brought you to Seattle?

THERESA AMBAT (TA): I was born in Japan and moved to Washington as a baby (dad was in the Navy). Lived in a small town for most of my life, then moved to Seattle to study Computer Music at the University of Washington. I now work for a parish in the greater-Seattle area!

CAC: How do understand your vocation as a Catholic artist? Do you call yourself a Catholic artist?

TA: I'd say that I'm a Catholic who is an artist. My vocation is to be a follower of Christ, and creating music is a major way for me to do that. I'm not a praise & worship artist and my work isn't always explicitly Christian, but my work is built on the foundation that is my faith and relationship with the Lord. Everything I create is for Jesus.

All I desire is to share truth, beauty, and goodness through my art. If someone can encounter Christ through my work -- whether that be by feelings of peace and solidarity, or something as incredible as conversion of the heart -- that brings me so much joy. 

CAC: Where in Seattle do you regularly find spiritual fulfillment?

TA: I was a part of a really wonderful Catholic community called the Prince of Peace Catholic Newman Center when I was in college. If you're a college student or young adult in the Seattle area, I'd highly recommend getting involved there! They've got Dominicans, tons of young people looking to explore their faith, awesome events, just overall an A+++ community. That place played a serious role in my relationship with Christ -- I don't know where I'd be without it. 

CAC: What is your daily spiritual practice?

TA: I've been struggling a little bit with daily prayer habits since starting full-time work--I guess I'm still trying to figure out a good routine. But since I work at a church I have the opportunity to do a holy hour and go to mass once a week which is great. Usually when I get home I pray a rosary with my family. I've also been reading "The Mystical Journey to Divine Union" by John Paul Thomas which is about St. John of the Cross.

I found my spiritual director Fr. Marcin during my senior year of college. At the time I was making a pretty big life decision about my future: to accept a position as a FOCUS missionary or stay in Washington to further my music career. Fr. Marcin was actually the person who kept telling me I needed to find a spiritual director, haha. We already had a good friendship by then so I just asked him! In the end, I discerned that the Lord was calling me to stay in Washington to live out mission in my job/music. 

CAC: Describe a recent day in which you were most completely living out your vocation as an artist.

TA: When in-person shows were still a thing, I performed for a SoFar Seattle show in January. It was my first paid gig ever and like, 20 of my friends (who are also Catholic) came. I think they filled up almost a third of the venue.

What's cool about SoFar shows is that the audience remains completely silent during your performances. No phones, no talking, people have to stay for the ENTIRE show, giving you the artist full-freedom to share your work without the fear of people not paying attention.

Before performing I talked about how I was Catholic, the ways the Lord was working in my life at the time, and how they related to my music. Being in secular Seattle, it was absolutely terrifying! But wow, I was received so well. After the show people started sharing with me how my story/music resonated with their own stories. If they were Catholic or not, I have no idea!

The Lord was SERIOUSLY present that night. All of my friends who came are incredible witnesses of Christ and it was just so cool to even see them interact with other people at the show and share Christ -- not by bible thumping or swinging around rosaries -- but simply by their presence and the joy that bleeds out of them.

Thinking back, yeah, I really wanted to share Christ with others through my music that night. But I'm now realizing how much of an impact my friends had on the show. Just imagine walking into a venue where THAT many people are striving for sainthood. The environment changes. I really felt like I was a part of the body of Christ that night.  

CAC: How do you financially support yourself as an artist?

TA: I currently have a full-time job at a really wonderful parish which is my main source of income. I only started freelancing maybe 2.5 months ago but to my surprise it's been flourishing well! Creating a personal website and demo reel made it really easy to share my work with others and I've found most of my gigs through the Catholic Creatives facebook group as well as Instagram.

The biggest piece of advice I have for finding work is to use social media as a tool. Document your process on instagram, create a demo reel and put it on the front page of your website, post on the Catholic Creatives facebook group! 

[Editor’s Note: Remember, you can also post in the Catholic Artist Connection Facebook group and send and find notices in the newsletter!] 

I know we all cringe at the idea of "networking" but if you think about it in the lens of evangelization, it's actually quite beautiful. No, I'm not saying that you need to "convert" people in your tweets and insta posts. But just remember that very interaction you have with a person is sacred and is an opportunity to love. Even in the digital world. When people see your joy and desire to serve, they can tell you're serious about your art and will want to work with you.

In the future (maybe 5ish years from now) I'd love to make freelance music production a full-time career. I still have quite a ways to go but I know the Lord is asking me to be patient and invest in the season that I'm in now. Transitioning out of college it's very easy to focus so heavily on the far future that we miss out on what's happening right in front of us. I'm really grateful for the opportunities the Lord has given me to serve now. 

CAC: What are your top 3 pieces of advice for Catholic artists post-graduation?

TA: 1. Post-graduation is REALLY hard. Especially during this COVID-19 pandemic. You're going to be told a lot of lies by Satan, but just remember that that's all he is. A liar.

Jesus? He is truth. So in response to each of those lies you might hear, just remember a truth that Jesus is telling you.

2. Invite God into your creative process! Make your work a prayer, write something in the adoration chapel, ask God what he thinks about your work, etc. I recorded my first album in front of the tabernacle and the Lord has blessed that piece of work in so many ways.

3. DO IT! Just do it. That thing you've been wanting to make for 72589247329 years, just start. It's never too late to just start. Stop letting your expectations for yourself get in the way. Stop waiting to get that "one piece of gear" that will make/break your project. God gave you a gift for a reason--to bring glory to his kingdom. Use it!

Let's be saints, together!