#off topic but i recently got into epic the musical it’s SO GOOD

[sea-jello]

uhh hi morro enjoyers i finally finishing crystalized and started dragons rising specifically euphrasias episode and morrotober is soon so i’m coming back. do you remember me

no color idk just in case the colors clash horrendously

[resetting37]

The shows and franchises of Evelow

@darby-draws asked

I was recently thinking about some of my OCs being more fantasy nerdy vs scifi nerdy and it got me thinking about what type of genres and media your main OCs might like? for one, just in general scifi shows or horror movies or long fantasy books. But I was also thinking, with your own world its not as easy to say they the big obvious genre staples like LOTR or Star Trek for example... but does your world have similar Really Popular things like that.

Things like: Is there a really long running tv series thats had multiple iterations, like star trek that any of your OCs grew up with and have Big Opinions on? Fantasy epic multiple movies 3 hours each to tell the story? Would any of your OCs enjoy binging that over a long weekend for fun?

Thank you for the question !! I was going to make more faux posters of some shows that could exist in Evelow, but I'd rather just go ahead and talk about the topic. More could come in the future, we'll see. I'll also add in the character opinions. (sorry in advance if this gets long.)

So Evelow doesn't have the huge library of stories that we have. Mostly due to limitations, as Evelow's shows and movies are filmed in Evelow, and though it's a big civilization, it's not quite the same scope our present day world has. They'll have maybe one or two blockbusters a year, while most movies are indie or low budget. TV shows, however, are given more budget. Though there's not really enough on the screen for characters to be too picky in their genres, so I'll just present some vague ones.

Here are some popular shows/franchises:

Paranormal Paradise

Brother and Sister duo are on a secret unit that deal with the unexplained or the paranormal, as the title suggests. Pair that with sunsets and synth wave music, and you have a show that's currently on their third season.

This one is fairly popular with Evelonians. Out of my ocs, Kat thinks it's fun and while she's "team Una" (the name of the sister character), she finds the monsters designs the best part of the show. Cora thinks she's ridiculous, as she's "definitely team Kotori" (the brother.)

Kat eventually gets Morgan into it, but Morgan isn't the least bit interested in the "fandom" aspects, like head canons or introducing more recurring characters.

The show isn't really considered nerdy, but it's a popular one.

Feast of Legacies

This one is older in relevance to the current timeline, probably aired when my characters were kids and thus has more impact. (though probably not "age appropriate", kids still liked the fun outfits and action scenes) It was a dark fantasy show about a barbaric bounty hunter that was super campy and violent.

Future spin offs have since grew with the times or made things more serious, and those can be popular too. Ivar has even acted in one of the movies too, as a nod to his arena persona lol. Characters from the show come up a lot in halloween costumes and cosplays.

Morgan and Advik probably rewatch this one again as adults. "It still holds up, guys !"

•

I don't think space stories take up a lot of space (haha) in Evelow's culture, though there are some given that there are always going to be people fascinated by it, even if we don't know much !

They have a popular anthology show called "Planetary Politics" where each season involves a different planet and a story arc surrounding a different group of characters. The show can be experimental, with many seasons involving people in makeup and costumes, even a season fully animated (sorry they couldn't find any people who could successfully play the part of space jellyfish)

Advik and Ian used to watch this show together all the time, but since then Audrey has also taken a liking to it.

•

There's a good amount of horror movies roaming around Evelow, I'd say one of the biggest franchises is Tartar-us (Though the first movie that was released many years ago was called 'Under Deck')

It's campy, it's gory, and a staple in every horror enthusiast's library (except for the esteemed ones who think this franchise should have died a long time ago.)

here's Zack arguing to Ian it's the greatest movie of all time.

(though looking at this makes me realize that outer space play enough of a role in pop culture to be featured in spinoffs in movies such as the 'pirates' franchise for kids.)

•

I want to give my characters at least one more fantasy genre to have in their world, but I'll come up with more ideas later. I also feel like I've barely answered the original question ??? So I'll at least do that with my main cast

Audrey didn't grow up with movies unless they were brought over from other cities. Her town of Dile mostly had theatre and books. She liked heroes journeys, or stories with fantastical elements.

Advik loves both fantasy and sci fi. I'd say he likes fantasy more since he's much pickier about his sci fi. (He doesn't like stuff that tries to play it like it could happen in the world. I think HE'D be one of the few people really into space stuff.)

Katsumi likes more grounded stories. She doesn't care about world building if the character writing is bad. She loves style, but not if it's devoid of anything else. Also, if she has to see inaccurate costume design one more time, she swears...

Zack prefers sci fi over fantasy, since the former leaves room for potential horror elements. (since that's his actual favorite genre.)

Avery prefers fantasy over sci fi, since the stories tend to be more conventional and the costume designs are better. (She's much less picky than Kat in that department.)

"What's the difference, they're all movies" - Morgan. (She hates labeling things into genres.)

[half-filled-inkpot]

Go Stream Your Name Engraved Herein NOW

I’m tired of people dismissing the depth and beauty of works because they don’t understand the cultural and historical context and are unwilling to delve deeper. I’ve heard the vocal confusion and dismissal of the short film Bao and the complaints that the Mahjong scene in Crazy Rich Asians was too long and too difficult to understand for people who’ve never played Mahjong. But I won’t let this mentality negatively frame the reception of Your Name Engraved Herein. I’ve read too many interpretations of the movie that will influence how many people will watch it and hinder appreciation for it and I cannot sit idly by. So here’s why I appreciated and loved Your Name Engraved Herein and think that what other people interpreted as shortcomings are actually in fact strengths. 

In 2019, Taiwan approved same-sex marriage, marking a step of progress in Asia. Reviews of the film Your Name Engraved Herein view that this forward direction should be celebrated more throughout the film, believing that the heavy mood and painful scenes of bigotry hindered the potential of the film. Many have thought that the toxic values of the past dominated the film’s atmosphere, casting a somber mood and making it difficult to stomach. But I think these elements were essential in reminding us that not everyone had the opportunity to love openly and celebrate, and although Taiwan has made progress, what about those that grew up under a time where such rights were denied? 

I think the film is an intimate and beautiful homage to the people who lived through such a difficult time and had to fight for such rights--the director’s own experiences, the reference to activist Chi Chia-wei. Despite the tough topics and the painful bullying that we see, I think the film ends with beautiful light and hope. 

Spoilers ahead

Where critically acclaimed and famous Taiwanese films like Us and Them and You Are the Apple of My Eye use flashbacks to create an air of nostalgia and to remind us that maybe all we have to share is our past, untouchable memories, Your Name Engraved Herein uses flashbacks and time leaps to instead paint a more hopeful future. Their first love was an epic story. It’s painful realizing that they never got the same privilege as so many of us to have a happy family or spend life together, growing old. But where the protagonists in Us and Them and You Are the Apple of My Eye only have the past, our Jia-Han and Birdy have the future for the taking. Jia-Han’s younger self once held reservation and denial but he has instead transformed into one willing to accept his love and act on it, searching for Birdy despite the years. Despite the time and distance, they still share the same lively and youthful banter. While one may interpret the ending scene of what could’ve been and what they were cheated of, I like to think of it as a reunion instead. They are finally able to return to maybe the most tumultuous but also happiest time of their life. Now, with the recent change in Taiwan, they finally have a chance to make more memories together. 

I loved the framing of the story and think it demanded audience engagement. The movie opens with Jia-Han meeting Birdy. We then see that Jia-Han is reminiscing about his story with Birdy to the priest from Montreal that works at the Catholic all-boy’s boarding school. Immediately, Jia-Han’s and Birdy’s connection is apparent. They have furtive glances, genuine concern, and intimate moments. Birdy at first seems free-spirited, without fear of the opinions of others and authority. He’s vocal, righteous, and a bit rebellious. Jia-Han, in contrast, is more timid, constantly aware of the opinions of others and the rules. While he knows what is wrong and feels bad about it, he often follows or acts as a complacent party. But as Birdy and Jia-Han witness the detaining of activist Chi Chia-wei, we see that Birdy is more introspective and serious, unable to turn a blind-eye of the issues still prevalent despite the recent end of martial law in Taiwan. And Jia-Han, in the presence of Birdy, is more carefree and happy. It’s as if they have switched and turned off their outside persona. Birdy’s impulsivity gives Jia-Han joy and only Jia-Han’s presence can qualm Birdy’s inner thoughts and worries. We get to see how these characters deeply value each other. As the evening sets and the world around falls to slumber, it feels as if they are the only ones in the world and we, as viewers, are fully immersed in their story. The cinematography is halting as we see them zoom around in the city alone, untouched and in their own worlds. 

Jia-Han feels as if the world revolved only around them. So when Ban-Ban walks into the picture, I was awed by Jia-Han’s portrayal of jealousy and felt his pain because he was unable to walk by the side of Birdy in the way that he wanted to. The actor’s body language sells a stellar performance, but it is the dialogue and outburst at the father who is attempting to tend to Jia-Han’s wounds that show Jia-Han’s raw and powerful emotions. Whether or not it was intentional by the director, I think at this moment we question the timeline and framing of the story. What events led up to this moment with Jia-Han’s major head wound? When the priest says “If he doesn’t love you, don’t force him to” and “care doesn’t necessarily mean love,” I was stunned by this exchange, thinking that it was quite evident that Birdy and Jia-Han had love for each other. But then it made me ponder if this narrative told only from Jia-Han’s point of view was a deliberate choice made for us to question perspective and reality, how our vision becomes tainted when our feelings are involved. The powerful performance and film raised such immediate questions, causing wonder as we viewed the film in real time instead of afterwards, which made for a delightful and thought-provoking experience. 

In a truly climatic point, we finally see how all of the events led to the current moment. We see how Jia-Han gets a head injury and how the priest becomes his confidant. This pivotal mark not only has an approximately two hour momentum, but it is also powerfully performed by our two leads who at this point are passionate, protective, and broken-hearted. We witness a full range of love. Initially, at the beginning, we saw subtle and restrained affection, fleeting touches, and silent companionship. But as the story progresses, we see that these feelings can no longer be bottled. There are moments of visible and passionate concern and instinctual attempts at protection. This development shows the complexity, beauty, and pain of love. It is truly a breath-taking thing to see come alive on screen. While Jia-Han at this point becomes ready to vocalize and admit his feelings, Birdy is unable to and their lives diverge. 

A time leap gives us privy to Jia-Han’s closure. After he visits the resting grounds of the priest from his high-school days, he is able to offer his support to who is hinted to be the priest’s lover, reassuring that he was a good man, that the love was true, and that he will go to heaven. The reveal that the priest is gay encourages viewers to rewatch the dialogue with this new information to help drive our new interpretations. 

Already, I have re-watched this tear-jerking film a number of times. The steady pacing makes each scene seem essential despite the long 1 hour and 54 minute run time. Yet it passes quickly and we are left yearning for more. Aesthetically pleasing, the beautiful shots underscored by the accompanying, swelling music provide stunning visuals. As the camera focuses on the two leads, their outbursts don’t appear as overly done or too dramatic. Rather, the performances feel heart-breakingly real. In part, I think this is built on the focus on the details. The camera seems to linger a little longer on the faces of the actors, making us fully digest what they are conveying to us. This attention to detail highlights everything spoken and unspoken. 

I highly recommend this film. It reminds us that not everyone is fortunate and we all still have room for progress. But simultaneously it is tender and heart-warming, moving and touching, poignant and thoughtful. The powerful dynamic between the leads, the artistic filming, and the strong performance elevate this film to a truly inspiring, epic love story. Everything about it feels deliberate, personal and handcrafted gift for us to truly treasure. So I will cherish it and share it and I hope you do too.

[winryofresembool]

Things We Lost in the Fire, ch 27

aka Caleo uni au

Fic summary: Calypso starts studying at a new university, but to her annoyance her new flatmate is a loud mouthed mechanic who also likes to sneak his dog in whenever. But as she learns to know him better, she realizes they might have more in common than what she first thought. Eventually, even the darkest secrets come out…

Chapter summary:��The exam season is underway (yet somehow I don’t mention the exams all too many times...)

A/N: Yay, I'm back with this fic!! I think I can promise a bit more regular updates at least in the near future, but I will be starting to work longer hours possibly starting from next week so I will have a bit less free time then. I am still determined to keep up with my 500ish words per day goal so it should cause too much delay!

That's that, I hope you guys are as happy to return to this universe as I am! As usual, please let me know what you think :) This fic is about to take my longest fic position from Love Can Melt the Ice, so knowing that there are people who care about it really means a lot to me!

Words: 2393

Genre: romance & hurt/comfort

Warnings: none

previous chapter / AO3

Leo would have been lying if he had claimed that everything went back to completely normal after the talk with Calypso. Sure, they both really tried harder to act as neutral and friendly as possible around each other; whenever they were at home at the same time, they chatted casually about how things were going at work and at the university, their latest TV show or music discoveries, or some silly thing one of their friends had said or done recently. Sometimes they even watched something together or cleaned the common area together. However, the earlier confessions were never mentioned. On the surface things were ‘just fine’, but the unspoken words and lingering looks spoke for itself. Leo knew things were still heating up under the surface and sooner or later they would have to make some difficult decisions. But until then, he wasn’t going to risk anything by disrespecting the guidelines that they had set during their ‘big talk’, even if it was hard to resist sometimes.

One evening Leo found Calypso studying for her upcoming exams on the common area couch. She was wearing a pink, tunic length sweater that matched her lip color, and black leggings that hugged her legs tightly (not that he’d ever tell her that he had noticed such things). She had also pulled her now medium length hair into a messy ponytail so it wouldn’t bother her while she was reading, showing her nicely shaped facial features better. Despite noticing all that, Leo’s thoughts soon went to the facts that he had recently learned about his flatmate. Now he knew more about the hardships she had gone through; a dead sister, an abusive, controlling father, being alone all those years and the nightmares she had mentioned while drunk. Yet, somehow there she was, having escaped her father’s grip and looking perfectly content doing something as boring and normal as studying for exams. The girl was way stronger than he had earlier given her credit for, and Leo admired her capability to stay so calm; he wasn’t so sure the ghosts of his own past would leave him alone that easily.

“Hi,” he finally said before Calypso noticed that he’d been standing there just watching her far too long despite the rules they had set. “What are you reading?”

Calypso showed him the book. If she was surprised to see him, she hid it well. “A collage of Frenchmen’s experiences at the front lines during World War II. I know. A very cheerful way to finish the day.” She grimaced.

“Huh? I thought you were mostly focusing on older history? I didn’t know you study that stuff too,” Leo noted, shifting from one foot to another.

“Well, they do require us to have a good enough understanding of the newer events as well,” Calypso replied, now looking at him directly. For some reason that one look managed to make chills go down Leo’s spine. “It is true, though, that I am more interested in ancient history. There’s so much we still don’t know about those times and I want to be able to discover more.”

“I see,” Leo said. “I think I understand what you mean. I am constantly hoping to discover new ways to create things that will be useful for all of us. Flying dragons that use energy drinks as their energy source? How epic would that be?” Excitement surged through him when he simply thought about it.

“Isn’t that a bit out there?” Calypso asked, but Leo didn’t miss the amused glint in her eyes. “And what if everyone had flying dragons and that would cause horrible air accidents? I don’t know about you but to me they don’t sound very safe.”

“Sunshine, what’s life without some danger?” Leo questioned.

“Hmm, let me think: safe?” Calypso retorted.

“Ouch. Well, I don’t think I have time to invent flying dragons any time soon, so you don’t have to worry about that,” Leo reassured her, but now that the idea had been planted into his head, he decided to return to it some day in the future. Hopefully when he would be able to handle fire.

“That’s a relief,” Calypso replied. “Speaking of your inventions… have you decided what you’re going to do about your studies? The last time I asked you said you haven’t been in contact with your professor yet.”

That was a question Leo had been dreading for. He preferred to not talk about that topic unless he had to, but the truth was that he was still quite unsure about being able to continue. However, he hadn’t made any final decisions yet.

“I’ll… I’ll keep working to overcome my fear,” he responded vaguely. “I think I’ve made some small progress during our sessions. If I can keep that going, I may be able to retake the test next year. Small steps, you know.” In reality, so far he had managed to stay close to a small, burning candle for a short period of time without freaking out, but he still didn’t want to try the matches whenever Calypso suggested it. There was still a long way to go before he’d be able to use all the machines he needed during lab classes and at work.

“Okay,” Calypso said, but to Leo she sounded a bit unconvinced. Her voice got more reassuring, though, when she added: “You know that you can ask for my help any time you need it.”

“Yeah, thanks.” Leo nodded. “And same right back at you. I mean, you can ask me. If you need anything.” For some annoying reason he managed to only get stuttering out of his mouth at that moment. “Even if you simply want me to make you a miniature dragon in the middle of the night. It’s fine. I’d totally make it.”

“And why would I want you to make me a miniature dragon in the middle of the night?” Calypso looked at him questioningly. Before Leo managed to answer, her face softened into a smile and she added: “I really appreciate the thought, though. It feels so different… in a good way… to have people in my life who genuinely support me. I haven’t had that, well, since I got separated from my mom.”

She sat a bit straighter on the couch, her gaze going back and front between Leo and her book, and Leo wondered if she was debating if she should reach for him and touch his shoulder or something. Maybe even hug. One side of him wished she would just go for it. But that would have violated their newly made rules and neither wanted to make things even more complicated than they already were. They simply kept staring at each other for a while, as if trying to read each other’s thoughts, but finally Calypso sighed and turned her focus back on her book, closing it.

“I didn’t realize it’s already this late…” She said, adjusting her hair a bit with the hand that wasn’t holding the book. “I still need to finish an assignment for tomorrow.”

She stood up and started walking towards her room, but when she got past Leo, her arm briefly touched his. Leo’s arm was still tingling after Calypso closed the door behind her.

…

A few days later, Leo was still thinking of that incident when he almost fell over a big rock that was standing on his road. He and Jason were currently having a well deserved evening off after finishing their last exams of the semester earlier that day (Leo felt like he had at least succeeded with the calculations but his essay writing was a bit sloppy) and in honor of that they had decided to go for a long jog and after that have a big, unhealthy meal in one of their favorite pizza places. While they were on their way there, Jason had been explaining something about his holiday plans when Leo had zoned out, and Jason had to grab his arm so he didn’t fall.

“Hey, man, you OK?” Jason asked, frowning. “What just happened there?”

“Yeah, yeah. I’m OK.” Leo brushed some dust off the sleeves of his coat. “I was just… thinking. And didn’t notice the rock on the road.”

“Hmmm, what got you that thoughtful?” Jason inquired. “I bet you didn’t even hear what I just said.”

“You know I have a pretty nasty case of ADHD, sometimes I just zone out randomly,” Leo said defensively, not wanting to admit aloud that recently he had been even more distracted than usual because of a certain flatmate of his. “And no, I didn’t hear you.”

“Alright,” Jason shrugged. “I was telling you that Piper’s dad has invited us to visit him over the break. I’m not sure yet if we are going, though. Piper didn’t seem very enthusiastic about it. Sure, she wants to see him, but she suspects he’s still working most of the time so it would be the same to just call instead of traveling all the way to LA.”

“Mmmh,” Leo mumbled, trying hard to stay in the present moment. “I’m going to be at Waystation during the break so if you guys decide to stay, we can still hang out.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know what we decide to do. That wasn’t all, though…” Jason continued, his face becoming concerned. “I think Piper has seemed quite distant lately, and not just when we’ve been talking about that trip. Sometimes I worry that she’s gotten bored of me, or something.”

“No way, man!” Leo exclaimed. “I’ve seen you guys together often enough to know that she loves you. Maybe she’s just going through a rough phase or something.”

Jason didn’t seem quite convinced. “I guess so. It’s just that usually she tells me directly what’s bothering her. This… keeping things inside her isn’t like her.”

“Maybe you just need to give her some time,” Leo suggested. “It’s like me with Cal; I’ve learned to keep my mouth shut more often and in exchange she has slowly started opening up to me more recently.”

“She has? That’s great!” Jason cheered up. “How is it going with you two anyway? I heard some things about the Halloween party aftermath…”

“Nothing happened after the party!” Leo yelped, raising his hands. “Whatever Piper has told you, all lies.”

“Really? So you two wouldn’t have kissed if Piper hadn’t interrupted you guys?” Jason raised his eyebrow.

If Leo’s cheeks hadn’t already been red from the jogging, he certainly would have blushed. “Um… well… the point is that we didn’t. Besides, we’ve set some rules that we’re supposed to follow because we don’t wanna make our co living too complicated.”

“So there is something going on between you two and you are acknowledging it,” Jason teased. “You wouldn’t need to set any rules otherwise.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Leo muttered. “If you must know, we did admit that we like each other after the party.”

“But that’s great!” Jason exclaimed.

“It feels pretty crazy,” Leo replied. “Sometimes I wonder why she likes me, but maybe the Bad Boy Supreme’s magic is stronger than I thought.”

Jason snorted at his comment. “I don’t know Calypso as well as you do but I doubt it’s the so-called Bad Boy Supreme side that she cares about. You pretend to be all cool and try to seem like you don’t care about what’s happening around you but I think you do that only because you care too much. Maybe Calypso has noticed that as well.”

“Dude, you’ve been hanging out with Piper too much.” Leo shook his head. “That’s something she would say. ” “Well, she’s not wrong. Anyway, what happened after the big confession?”Jason asked curiously.

“We’re not together if that’s what you’re asking, ” Leo denied immediately. “I just mentioned the rules, remember? We wouldn’t need them if we had decided to go down that road.” “Ouch… but why? Why didn’t you just decide to do it?” Jason wanted to know.

“For some stupid, noble reasons,” Leo grunted. “I’m not gonna go into the details because it’s up to her to talk about it, but long story short, she thinks it’s safer that way. I think she’s afraid of hurting one of us.”

“And do you think she’s right?” Jason inquired.

“I… No! I’ve told her I can handle it. But I’m not gonna push it - believe me, Jo and Emmie have given me long lectures about respecting women’s boundaries. If Cal and I wanna keep living together, I have to let it be.”

“Yeah, I can see your point.” Jason nodded.

“Besides…” Leo added after a moment, his face falling as he thought about his past. “Bad things tend to follow me. Who is to say that I wouldn’t be the one getting her into trouble?”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because when have I ever been successful with anything I’ve done?” Leo asked in return.

Jason seemed to finally understand what event Leo was really referring to. “You’re still beating yourself for things that happened years ago?”

“Why do you think I’m not capable of going to some of the lab classes? Because I simply think that skipping is fun and I don’t care whether I pass it or not?” There had been a time when Leo hadn’t cared about his school success, but back in those days he hadn’t cared about much else either. Now that he had dreams and things to live for, he hated the idea that anyone would think he’d throw it all away just because he could. His new family deserved better than that for what they had done for him.

“No, no, I was not thinking that! You just never talk about it so I assumed… whatever.” Jason didn’t want to make Leo even angrier so he decided it was better to change the topic. “Maybe we should talk about something else. I still hope that you and Cal will work it out eventually.”

“Yeah. I hope so too. Same for you and Piper.” The friends had gotten close to their destination, so Leo exclaimed quickly: “Hey, I’m smelling the pizza now! Whoever is last at the door pays!”

“That’s a bad deal because you know I’m faster than you. I train every day!” Jason pointed out but soon sprinted after him.

[nyxshadowhawk]

Goth Tags

I know this is a YouTube thing, but I wanted to do these two lists, so I’m going to do them.

Ways in Which I’m Stereotypically Goth:

I’ve got the romantigoth aesthetic down. I love spooky, pretty things! I love gargoyles and ravens and black roses and moons and weird occult stuff and dark forests... I’ve got three Joseph Vargo posters in my dorm room, and I’ve run out of space to put resin statues in my bedroom. I wear lots of long, flowy black clothes and the occasional Goth Princess gown. I’ve also got an entire box (made of black wood with pentagrams carved in the top) full of silver and pewter jewelry, and Black Phoenix perfumes.

I really love spooky interior design and architecture. I loved Voltaire’s Gothic Homemaking and I drooled over Haunt Furniture. My dream home would probably be a Victorian-style, Addams-like mansion in the middle of nowhere (for when I become a world-famous writer...). I also REALLY love castles and old buildings, especially with gothic architecture and gargoyles. I really liked seeing old castles and churches in Scotland. Medieval Europe is 10/10 my aesthetic.

I’ve always really liked bats. When I was a kid (around six), my favorite episode of The Magic School Bus (for whatever reason) was “Going Batty.” That set off a bat obsession! Reading Stellaluna in seventh grade just reinforced it. I used to pretend to be one and wrap myself up in my blankets like wings. Bats are cute! I recently got back into them! There’s an adorable little plush one hanging above my bed. “So dark of wing and keen of craft, of all night flyers the master’s a bat.” (Actually, the master of night flyers is totally Prince Astor of Umbragard.)

I like horror stories and gothic literature. Back when creepypasta was big, I’d casually read collections of horror stories on Quotev. Now, I really love Nox Arcana’s “Tales from the Dark Tower,” Poe stories, Grimm’s fairy tales, and the like. I actually have a pretty strong stomach. I also genuinely love gothic lit. The Picture of Dorian Gray is my favorite. I didn’t make it through Frankenstein, though, it was too sad.

I’m introverted and a night owl. I wouldn’t say I have a “stereotypical” Goth personality, because I’ve been trying to be more optimistic and happy, and I’ve attempted to make friends, but one of the reasons I like Raven from Teen Titans is because I tend to be the isolated girl in dark clothes who’d rather be left alone. I’m not exactly stoic-- I’m an emotional wreck, but once you get me talking about a topic I’m interested in, I’m all moonlight and fireflies. I’m also a “tortured artist,” and I come alive at night. I stay up until at least 2 AM most nights. I ate breakfast at one today. 

I have a black cat named Edgar. I did not name him! He was given that name at the shelter. All the kittens in his litter were named after gothic writers, because they were all black! (His brother was “H.P.” after Lovecraft.) I was thrilled when my parents said we were getting him, and equally thrilled when they decided to keep his name. He’s such a sweet cat, and I love him.

I like vampires, but I have a complicated relationship with them. You’d think I’d be the kind of girl who’d be obsessed with vampires in middle school, especially if I loved the Vampire Friz episode of The Magic School Bus! But no. I wasn’t into vampires because they killed people and that was disturbing. (That’s why I independently created psychic vampires.)  However, since getting into Castlevania last Halloween, I’ve started to really warm up to vampires. I dressed as Lestat last Halloween, read Carpe Jugulum, have been consuming more vampire media than before... I’m still not obsessed, but I like them now. Still would hate to be one, though. SHADOWS FOR THE WIN!

I LOVE Halloween! I was devastated the two years it was canceled (freak snowstorm and Hurricane Sandy. Oh, by the way, my reaction to the current hurricane was, “He put his soul in a hurricane, now?!). I really miss trick-or-treating. I convinced my parents to throw an annual Halloween party, which gave me an excuse to get even more decorations for my room, and they pretty much can’t host it without me. Everyone shares my aesthetic during Halloween season!

I’m really into witchy and occult stuff. The more cryptic and spooky, the better. I was Wiccan-ish for a while, I don’t think I am anymore, but I’m still exploring my spirituality (through books like Nocturnal Witchcraft and Shadow Magick Compendium) with guidance from Hecate and Dionysus. 

Whether my music taste is truly “Goth” or not, it is certainly very spooky. Nox Arcana all the way! I really go in for the church organ and glockenspiel and chiming bells and melancholy piano and strings and harpsichords and minor keys. Listening to spooky music makes me happy. I have a whole list of creepy waltzes. Neoclassical is my thing. I also like Adrian von Zeigler, Peter Gundry, Two Steps From Hell, and fantasy music in general. 

Un-Goth Confessions:

I don’t like gothic rock. Some would say this means I’m not Goth, and it felt alienating for a while. Siouxsie and Bauhaus just aren’t really my thing. I don’t really like industrial and darkwave, either. The closest I get to traditional Goth music is Voltaire (I love the songs of his that I listen to, but I only listen to a handful), and a few songs by Dead Can Dance. I’m much more into Nox Arcana.

I don’t look stereotypically Goth. I joke that I look like Aurora and dress like Maleficent, because it’s true. My cheeks are permanently rosy and not easy to cover with white makeup (I don’t wear makeup often, anyway.) I have big blue eyes and wavy, golden hair (that I’m not going to dye). I don’t have any piercings— when my sister went for her second piercing, she encouraged me to get my ears pierced, but I broke down crying because I’m afraid of pain. I’m an adult!

I still like horsies and unicorns and other cutesy things from my childhood. I was really into Gen 3 of My Little Pony. I still have some fairy and ballerina stuff, even if I don’t display it. My bedroom is still lavender (and always will be). I definitely wasn’t spooky in childhood, and I’ve still got a non-spooky side. (It was kind of a big deal when I dressed as a rainbow unicorn fairy when I was seven, and then a dark sorceress when I was eight.)  I danced in my company’s adapted kiddie production of the Nutcracker until I graduated. I’ve got fluffy stuffed unicorns right next to my Spiral Bat Cat.

I HATE DIY. I don’t trust it! I don’t want to ruin my clothes with fabric paint or rip holes in things or in any way risk it turning out poorly. My style is tough to DIY anyway, but yeah.

I’m not really into the macabre. I only got into skeletons because of Undertale, and I don’t like, for lack of a better phrase, “the death aesthetic.” Blood, body horror art, the zombie look... I don’t really like anything morbid or sad. I’m iffy on graveyards and coffins.

I don’t like most horror films. I like spooky movies, like Coraline, but not horror movies. Although I like horror stories, I don’t like horror films, less because of the horror and more because they tend to end badly. I don’t like “everybody dies” stories, especially if it’s one where sympathetic people get killed off one by one, or slasher flicks that rely on jumpscares. Old-school gothic horror could work, though. I also like psychological thrillers like The Sixth Sense and Black Swan. Is Interview With the Vampire a horror movie? (I probably underestimate how strong my stomach is. Aladdin used to scare me. Look at me now!)

I still wear a lot of color. About half my wardrobe is black, which is still a lot, but not as much as most Goths. I’ve still got a lot of purple, and other colors.

I’m not a huge fan of Tim Burton. The only film of his that I really love was Corpse Bride. Beetlejuice wasn’t my style and didn’t contain enough of Lydia, Sweeney Todd was a bit too dark and gory (although I did like that one), Dark Shadows wasn’t as good as I was hoping, Alice in Wonderland was cool aesthetically but not a very good film, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was a dumpster fire... and The Nightmare Before Christmas doesn’t count because he didn’t direct it (and though I like it, I wasn’t blown away by it, either). My reaction overall? “Meh.”

I still contain a childish exuberance. I squealed and bounced up and down when the new Nox Arcana album was released. I will probably do the same before and/or after watching Season 3 of Castlevania, and when Grimoire of Souls is released. This is how I know that Goth stuff is part of my true personality. 

There’s a lot of Goth clothes that I don’t wear, in addition to not dying my hair, not wearing makeup, and not having piercings. I’d wear black heeled boots like Dracula’s, but not platform shoes. I don’t like fishnets. I hate ripped clothing. Not a fan of hoodies. I also will not wear leather clothing. And spiked collars? No no no. I’m pretty much strictly a Romantigoth. Maybe that doesn’t make me less Goth. But it makes me less stereotypical, especially when so much of the Goth stuff online is geared toward that end of the subculture.

And I don’t know if this makes me more Goth or less Goth, but I have one outfit from Hot Topic. And an epic “House of Belmont” t-shirt.

Okay, that was interesting.

“I’M SO GOTH, I LITERALLY DARKEN A DOORWAY!”

[starringemiliaclarke]

Emilia Clarke on Why Game of Thrones Is the Perfect Form of Escapism + HQ Scans

As Daenerys Targaryen on Game of Thrones, Emilia Clarke created a warrior queen for the ages. Her legend can be told on the walls of caves or on T-shirts at Comic-Con. But behind the Valkyrie wigs and very testy dragons, Clarke has an inspiring origin story of her own.

A valley sprawls before her, rich with every color of green in the kingdom, reaching out to a twinkling city, which borders the infinite sea. Her hair (tinted not with peroxide, but tiny flecks of actual gold) glows with a radiance that makes the setting sun so jealous it hides behind the surrounding mountains, and the evening sky blushes. She is Daenerys Targaryen, Queen of the Andals, Breaker of Chains, Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea. Everything in sight belongs to her.

Just kidding! She is Emilia Clarke, sitting high above Beverly Hills in a glass mansion rented for a magazine cover shoot. So high up that passing aircraft rattle the bones of the house and those inside it. So high up that you can see Santa Catalina Island in the distance, peeking out from behind a curtain of fog. She laughs about something the makeup artist says, and the last of the evening light bounces off of her cheekbones and shoots into the camera lens.

We are in the sky to talk about Clarke’s reign as one of the most preeminent television actresses of our time, as Daenerys on Game of Thrones. But first, I have a few questions about her abandoned career as a jazz singer.

Clarke’s default emotion is joy — her resting heart rate seems to be just below that of someone seconds after winning a medium-expensive raffle prize — but it quickly congeals into theatrical horror when I reveal that I know that she is a casual but talented singer of jazz music.

When she was 10, Clarke was an alto in a chorus that she describes as “very churchy.” Then a substitute teacher introduced her class to jazz. “I just innately understood it,” she explains. “I was always sliding up and down the notes. Every time, the [chorus] teacher would be like, ‘Quit sliding, just sing that note and then that one and that’s it. Stop trying to fuck with it.’ Then this [jazz teacher] was like, ‘Fuck with it. That’s the point.’ ” Fast-forward a couple of decades, and Clarke was singing “The Way You Look Tonight” at the American Songbook Gala in New York, honoring Richard Plepler, erstwhile CEO of HBO. Nicole Kidman was there, too, and that is the story of Emilia Clarke, a very famous singer.

Just kidding, again! That is the story of Emilia Clarke, extremely famous actress, and it is not even the beginning. Game of Thrones, the HBO fantasy epic that has captured the global zeitgeist for most of the past decade, has entered its ultimate season. Since the show premiered in 2011, Daenerys’s searing platinum blonde has been branded into the brains of every living person with cable access, so much so that she has become as recognizable an action figure as Princess Leia. Every autumn, legions of Americans don Grecian-style dresses and carry stuffed dragons to Halloween parties in homage. Kristen Wiig even appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon in a full Daenerys getup. This phenomenon exists in part because it’s a relatively easy costume to assemble, but more likely because Game of Thrones is the most popular TV show in the history of TV shows.

It’s also just one of three popular entertainment franchises Clarke has participated in. Last year: Solo: A Star Wars Story, as a paramour of Han Solo. Two years before that: the fifth Terminator movie, beside Arnold. She was also Holly Golightly in a short-lived Breakfast at Tiffany’s production on Broadway. None of those projects were particularly successful — but none of that matters, to a remarkable degree, because what matters is: The people love Daenerys.

They love a character whose series arc begins with her indentured servitude as a warlord’s concubine and ends, most recently, with her fighting for sovereignty over a league of nations and for a throne made of swords. They love how fictional languages drift from her mouth like dancing smoke, and how her searing-white mane retains a fearsome curl, even in or near battle. They love the whole dragons thing.

The people would love Emilia Clarke, too, if only they knew who she was. During the first few seasons of Game of Thrones, Clarke was able to fool the general public into believing she was very regular civilian Emilia Clarke, because Daenerys was blonde, and Clarke was not. Now, she says, recognition happens more frequently. Particularly Stateside.

For reasons I cannot fathom, Americans feel more entitled to command the attention of celebrities. “People are like, ‘UH-melia CLORK!’ ” she says, in perfect American. In London, people are prone to whisper about her as she passes by. “ ‘Was that Emilia Clarke?’ ”

“I move like a shark when I’m in public,” she says. “Head down. I think I’ve got quite bad posture because of it, because I’m determined to lead a normal life. So I just move too quickly for anyone to register if it’s me or not. And I don’t walk around with six security men and big sunglasses and a bizarre coat. I really try to meld in.” It gets worse when the show is being promoted, but otherwise, she says, it’s not so bad.

“I move like a shark when I’m in public. Head down…I’m determined to lead a normal life, so I just move too quickly for anyone to register if it’s me or not.”

Her best efforts aside, anonymity may be a pipe dream. The show is as decorated as a Christmas tree in a craft store. Game of Thrones has won a Peabody and 47 Emmys, the most of any television drama in history. The show marries critical praise with popular success, then it mercilessly slaughters those who have come to celebrate this union and receives even more acclaim (“The Rains of Castamere,” season 3, episode 9). The plotlines are famously convoluted. Luckily, we have an entire web’s worth of episode explainers, encyclopedias designed specifically for the Westeros universe, and a self-explanatory Funny or Die segment called Gay of Thrones, starring Jonathan van Ness.

When Mad Men first aired, television bloggers dutifully unpacked its symbolic elements, and millennials celebrated the show’s style with Mad Men–themed parties that were really just ’60s-and-one-red-wig-themed parties. Game of Thrones is basically an economy of its own. Since the show premiered, tourism to Croatia, whose coastal port Dubrovnik stands in for the fictional city of King’s Landing, has nearly doubled. Game of Thrones–themed weddings are so popular that it is almost impossible not to attend them — in 2016, Clarke accidentally walked into one that was occurring at the same hotel where she and the cast were staying during filming. (It was not a canonical wedding, and no guests were harmed.)

Game of Thrones has also earned one of the most important pop culture accolades of the century: The attention of Beyoncé Knowles. I believe it is her favorite TV show, and this is why.

Exhibit A: Jay-Z reportedly gave her a prop dragon’s egg from the set, at great personal expense. Exhibit B: At an Oscars after-party this year, Beyoncé approached Clarke (“voluntarily,” according to the actress) to introduce herself. “I watched her face go, ‘Oh, no, I shouldn’t be talking to this crazy [woman], who is essentially crying in front of me,’ ” remembers Clarke. “I think my inner monologue was, ‘Stop fucking it up,’ and I kept fucking it up.”

“I was like, ‘I just saw you in concert.’ And she was like, ‘I know.’ ” Clarke also mentions that Beyoncé complimented her work but declines to share specifics.

Why are people (more specifically, everybody) and goddesses (more specifically, Beyoncé) all obsessed with a show about some dragons and lots of dungeons?

“The show is sensationalist in a way,” Clarke explains, in an effort to describe a TV series that features twins having sex and a child’s defenestration in the very first episode. It doesn’t matter — Clarke’s conversational style is so intimate and emphatic that basic facts feel like sworn secrets. When she smiles, she does so with every single muscle in her face. “It’s the reason why people pick up gossip magazines. They want to know what happens next…. You’ve got a society that is far removed enough from ours but also circulates around power. How that corrupts people and how we want it, and how we don’t want it.”

In other words, Game of Thrones’ value proposition is creating a rich other world for people to experience a prestige, high-production version of pure, horny, violent, unbridled drama. It is, according to Clarke, pitched perfectly: “I think it caught Western society at exactly the right moment.”

“I don’t know about you,” she says, “but when I watch something, it’s escapism. I’m feeling crappy; I’m just sad, moody, depressed, upset, angry, whatever it is. I know that distraction is what makes me get better. Distraction is what really, really helps me.” She laughs and then quickly pivots to a caveat: “I’m sure that’s not what a therapist would advise.”

It is at this point that Emilia Clarke leans in very close, her breath knocking at my sideburn, and explains to me the bombastic and devastating ending to the most important TV show of the decade.

Wow — just kidding once more. But, uh, while we’re on the topic, how is this whole thing going to end?

It was not hard to root for the Breaker of Chains, until recently. Now we’re seeing the gentle unspooling of her character, and flickers of a dangerous prophecy that she will ascend the throne only to follow in her father’s footsteps and burn it all to the ground. For a while, Daenerys seemed like the Lawful Good ruler, but we have had the great pleasure of watching how power can pervert people. (Nate Jones, at Vulture, leads a thrilling discussion of this very topic.) (Also, if Daenerys were to rule the Seven Kingdoms, only to go nuts, we might at the very least have a spinoff to look forward to.)

Clarke will never say. Throughout 10 or so years in the public eye, her interviews have been peppered with the same handful of charming personal details from her career — the service jobs she worked prior to making it, dancing the funky chicken during her Game of Thrones audition — which feels a lot like walking a vast beach and finding the same series of 10 seashells.

Then, in March, some very different treasure washed ashore when The New Yorker ran the most illuminating profile of Emilia Clarke to date. It was written by Emilia Clarke.

If I am truly being honest every minute of every day I thought I was going to die.

In it, Clarke revealed that she had suffered two near-fatal brain aneurysms during the early seasons of Game of Thrones. The first hit her mid-plank during a training session, and not long after, doctors discovered a second that required them to open her skull for a risky operation. The recovery period was, to her, more painful than the aneurysms. “If I am truly being honest,” she wrote, “every minute of every day I thought I was going to die.” She also announced her charity venture, SameYou, which seeks to provide rehabilitation for young people recovering from brain injuries.

The second time we talk, it is the day before the Game of Thrones New York premiere, and Clarke is at a morning fitting, surrounded by a coronation’s worth of gowns. It’s early, and a passing cold has fried the edges of her voice. But her words still vibrate with so much joy, it’s like she doesn’t even notice. She’s just happy to be here, wherever she is.

Source

Emilia Clarke on Why Game of Thrones Is the Perfect Form of Escapism + HQ Scans was originally published on Enchanting Emilia Clarke | Est 2012

[kalyxhistory]

Make way for the Fürst! 💪 How can I make this one not overly convoluted with too much praise? I fear I can't. 😅 First of all Phil (@jaroslawthewise) is the big boss of @Kaptorga - Visual History, whom you have seen in the recent @schandmaulband video aswell, portraying the warrior. And by big I mean he doubles me in weight and size (sometimes. Because I'm tiny.😜😘) ! Apart from being my handsome brother from another mother we share a love for awful jokes, melodeath, doggos and history 🎵🐶⚔ When we first met in person I just had to hug him right away, and because I'm awkward af I was afraid my make up would rub off on him and I'm thankful that a) it didn't and b) he's so accepting of my awkwardness. I suspect my silly self makes him laugh hard from time to time. He's got an amazing musical talent and what's even more striking is that I've never seen anyone else in my entire life who's working more relentlessly hard for his dreams, than he does. Him being an archaeologist I oftentimes stare at him agape due to what he already found, like an epic sword, all sorts of skeletons and bones and even jewelry 💍🛡🗡💀 His sweet dog princess Finchen miraculously loved me from the very first moment we met, probably because we're sharing this inherent awkwardness 😀 and I honestly have no idea how I deserve such a friend ❤ If you want to watch him and Adam present all sorts of historical topics, all you have to do is follow the link in my bio to get to @kaptorga 's Youtube account and indulge in more reenactment goodness than you can probably handle 😉 #pagan #heathen #historicaladvisor #science #reenactment #heathenry #norsegods #bffs #historynerds #igers #vikings #vikingsofinstagram #reenactor #vikinger #actor #actress #kaptorgavisualhistory #kaptorga #history #myself #nerdgirl #slavicarchaeology #archaeology #archeology #witchythings #vikingstyle #phantastik #altmodel #historicallycorrect #reconstruction https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw9NzJmnJ9z/?igshid=1u2ud53va91nc

[sometimesalwaysmusic]

OTTAWA EXPERIMENTAL MUSIC

For this edition of Sometimes Always, we chatted with Adriana (AC) from Ottawa Experimental Music. We learned more about the background of the site, the tremendous progress they’ve made since 2013, and upcoming plans to keep the momentum rolling. Read on and check out more of what the Ottawa post-rock and experimental music scene has to offer!

VITALS

Web: https://www.facebook.com/OttawaExperimentalMusic/

Email: forgotteninthewoodsagain@gmail.com 

Upcoming shows: 

Sunday, November 11 - OEM Five Year Anniversary show. RAAS, Clavius, Forgotten in the Woods Again, Obsidian Will, Novusolis, Deathsticks. $10. 7PM. Minotaure, Hull, QC 

SA: Tell us a bit about the origins of OEM. When did the website start, and what was your main goal in doing so? AC: I officially created the page on September 8th, 2013. My main goal in creating the page was to specifically help promote the experimental music scene here in Ottawa. There are a lot of great music related pages on Facebook that generally speak to music in Ottawa but I felt like it would be helpful to have a page that showcased this particular scene with bands from not just Ottawa but all over Canada and the world. I also thought it would be a great tool for connecting these bands.

SA: Are there any other websites, in the experimental music realm or not, that serve as inspiration or a model for OEM? AC: Definitely. The Post-Rock Community page was a big inspiration at the beginning. There's also wherepostrockdwells and sites such as Echoes and Dust etc.

SA: Thus far in the website's existence, what has been your biggest success? AC: The biggest success has been connecting with so many wonderful and awesome musicians, bands, writers and promoters from near and far. Each time the page receives a message from a band, musician, fan etc, that's a measure of success, knowing that they thought enough of the page to contact us.

SA: Conversely, what is the biggest challenge you have faced, and how have you dealt with it? AC: The biggest challenge has been to get people out to shows. It's a constant struggle and a reoccurring topic of discussion.

SA: Do you have any advice for somebody looking to start a music website in this day and age? AC: My advice would be to have a clear mission statement, don't do it alone and think about what you will and will not do. Posting and/or re-posting events, music/band info will inevitably lead to other things such as writing reviews, putting together shows and helping bands find other bands etc. This is all great but can quickly get overwhelming if you have competing priorities.

SA: If you had to choose a favourite Ottawa show you've ever seen, which would it be and why? AC: This is truly a tough question. I don't think I can choose. In the last 5 years alone, many of the shows I've been to have given me inspiration and have further fortified my love of music. If I may rephrase the question...which show would you categorize as having a classic rock n roll moment? Now this is a little easier for me to answer. Last year, The City Gates, a shoegaze band from Montreal, played at Bar Robo. The band was on fire and the singer was in the zone. In the middle of this one track, the singer falls, face first. I gasped, I'm sure many did. And as quickly as he fell, he got up and continued singing the song without missing a beat. I remember being shocked, relieved and having this overwhelming feeling to laugh at what I had just witnessed. I thought to myself, now that's rock n roll man.

SA: You are personally active in a number of local bands, including Forgotten in the Woods Again and Constellation 425. What is your favourite Ottawa gig you’ve ever played, and why? AC: Another tough one Pierce. I don't think I can choose. Each show I've played with FITWA and the couple I've done as Constellation 425 have been pretty awesome. I've had the opportunity to meet and play with some great musicians/very cool people. At each of these shows, I came away with a new and wonderful experience. I guess most recently, FITWA was invited to join Wisconsin band Searchlights, on a couple of their Canadian dates during their North American tour. This one was special to me because I've been friends with the guys in Searchlights since the OEM page started, almost anyway. We met online, liking each other's music and remained friends. To finally get to meet them and hear their music live was a dream come true.

SA: What are your three 'deserted on an island’ albums and why? AC: Whoah, this is almost impossible to answer. I hope I never get deserted on an island! I'm already regretting my choices and missing all the other albums I would have brought with me! Here it goes: 1. Mogwai's Hardcore will never die, but you will. I love every track off this album. It's imaginative, heavy, atmospheric, patient and epic. 2. Hammock's An Introduction to Hammock. This band is my warm blanket on a cold day, my calm place in a storm. 3. 65daysofstatic's Wild Light album. A perfect album in every way. It's emotive, and the keys on this album are out of this world.

SA: What comes next for OEM in 2018? We wish you the best, and good luck! AC: I'm not too sure. Probably more of the same, continue to share the music being made in the experimental music scene and help bands out as much as I can. I should say that there's a festival of sorts planned for November 11th at Minotaure in Gatineau to celebrate OEM's 5th year of existence. We have a great line-up and a lot of giveaways to mark the occasion. I hope many will attend to help celebrate the occasion. Thank-you Pierce for this opportunity to be interviewed and all that you do for the music scene here in Ottawa. Cheers!  

[plungermusic]

Where else asks “What do you want, jam on it?”

That dismissive English phrase pretty much sums up the mindset of the domestic music scene, where ‘jam’ is considered an unnecessary addition, an indulgent extra, a superfluous frippery… which maybe explains the weird lack of appreciation* here for the likes of jam scene titans Umphrey’s McGee and the need for Plunger to fly 4,000+ miles to hear them play.

We were in good company: even with Covid uncertainty (we presume) reducing numbers a bit from previous years, well over 1,000 people crammed into the exploreasheville.com arena on each night: young fans, old fans, and remarkably from a UK perspective a LOT of female fans; there were rock fans, dance fans, Dead fans, prog fans… all intent on the music with a minimum of yakking.

The band celebrated their return to Asheville after the enforced two year hiatus with a pair of ‘hit-heavy’ nights, displaying all the eclectic variety and outstanding musicianship that hypnotises their fans (and seemingly bamboozles everyone else!) From stadium epics like 2x2, August, a brooding The Floor, Seasons and a majestically chilly In The Kitchen; through laddish singalong quirk-funk in 40s Theme, Mail Package, Slacker and Ringo, reggae-tinged Higgins and Resolution, to the angular prog complexities of JaJunk and Hurt Bird Bath, and the evergreen crowd favourite All In Time. And being totally honest, those glib labels don’t even begin to scratch the surface of the twists and turns each song takes over the course of their length (in the case of JaJunk two other full tracks, while All In Time straddled two nights!)

As well as ‘the hits’ UM wheeled out some less-often-heard numbers: Breaker, Atmosfarag and (showing their always-deft hand at a mash up) Plunger’s first live experience of the Nine Inch Nails/Beatles hybrid Come Closer. Other live debuts (for Plunger) were the first night trio of Get In The Van, the spiky off-kilter Uncommon, and Believe The Lie, and night two’s loping Featish Women Wine And Song. More recent material came in the excellent electronic robot-two-step of The Silent Type and the brand new single I Don’t Know What I Want, while further covers featured a bleakly topical triad of Mark Knopfler’s We’re Going To War, Metallica’s … And Justice For All, and the second night finale Wings’ Live And Let Die.

Hard to pick a top track from two nights of genius but there’s always a special place in Plunger’s heart for the swirling dancefloor banger The Triple Wide: it’s been a welcome presence at five of the six runs we’ve caught and this year’s outing had us gliding round the floor like a blissed-out Fred Astaire on castors… or so we like to think.

Almost 12 hours of the most exhilarating, scintillating, switchback-taking, expectation-defying, eye-popping music (and lights, did we mention the LIGHTS?!?!) zipped past in a heartbeat - no longueurs, no drop in energy levels, no time wasting… no problem.

We got jam ALL over it, and we love it!

Live recordings of both nights available for download now from http://www.umlive.net - if you’re not a dead from the neck up Brit jam-hater...

*When we say ‘lack of appreciation’, it’s more like blowing a dog whistle for a cat - it doesn’t even seem to register on their consciousness at all!

[tanithrea]

Sunday 6VIXXs

Sitting sipping on a hot chocolate (instant, not the melt the choc and add all extras that becomes an epic journey of self discovery type) and watching vixx is a wonderful way to spend the 3pm break time.

while you enjoy an actual day not at work and an afternoon where you can’t phone or fix things cause companies are closed, there is no mail, and you have resigned yourself to the fact you may or may not achieve any domestic chores, sort your life out, order messages to come so you have lunches all next week, call your Gran cause you have been a neglectful grand-daughter, order xmas pressies cause doing any xmas shopping in December is just a no when you work in retail...etc.

And a great number of things have taken up my mind space this week. I have had moments of almost anxiety/panic and been able to push them back down.

Then there have been highs of going to see Dylan Moran (Irish comedian absolutely hilarious, watch his dvds or the tv show Black Books), going on a staff night out that was more fun than expected and even though my voice was not at its best when I was enlisted to karaoke the others are all still impressed.

I have been contemplating things I see on my tumblr feed and some things that stick out today:

1. I have no idea who they are, edawn & Hyuna I think, don’t know their groups or history or anything but reading that a company fired two idols for simply admitting they were dating is a reprehensible action and I would hope a legally wrong one so the couple can sue. Also cause they found out from the internet. It is ridiculous to punish their careers for this and although I get that the groups are staying quiet about it all out of fear of their own jobs I personally would have a hard time if I didn’t speak out to support my colleague in this time.

As for the toxic ‘fans’ (don’t care what country you are from) who petitioned to fire them, who send hateful stuff to them and for the insane claim that their dating incurred “financial and emotional harm” to them you need a hard slap and a reality check.

You are never going to date your fav idol. He isn’t going to see you in a crowd of 5000 and go wow that’s the one for me. You are not and will never be in a relationship with them. They are people and when not performing or in public they have friends, family, history, ex’s, issues, outbursts and they poop just like everyone else.

99.99% of us won’t even see our fav idols live let alone touch or interact with them and if I buy an album or support my bias - I support him for who he is and I want him to be happy and if that becomes him married or having kids - then I will support that too. He isn’t lying to me by singing these lyrics and then falling for someone, you don’t own idols. They are looking for their lobster just as much as any of us. They have suffered hardships, possibly gone through traumas and could have any number of scary life experiences, why would you want to be remembered for being in that catagory? You don’t and shouldn’t have the power to crush them at a whim of adolescent bunny boiler jealousy. Get over it and see the real humans they are. Also if you think it’s ok to send horrible msgs about death threats and suicide to idols not only are you a sorry human being you need help. Seek professionals.

2. I have been watching kdramas and just finished Bride Of The Water God. It was good although it stumbled in bits and pacing was off there were some really good 😱💔😭😍moments. Also the guys in it were so hot! Lol

im now back into catching up on Hongbin in witch’s love although I know what the ending is going to bring. Wishing he got to really show his ever increasing talents more. Can’t wait to see all the VIXX drama performances like Beans and N have so far in the coming months.

Actor wise I am loving Park Seo-Joon, Woo Do-Hwan, Park Hyungsik, Nam Joo-Hyuk, Ahn Jae-Hyun, Song Seung-Heon, Seo Kang-Joon, Lim Ju-Hwan, all of the Hwarang cast really, Lee Jonghyun and of course all the acting ViXX memebers!

On my list to watch ASAP is - W, Mad Dog, Tempted, Save Me, What’s Wrong With Secretary Kim, Are You Human Too?, Manhole, Triangle, Tunnel, Lovely Horribly, Sassy Go Go, Goblin, Photo People, Spellbound, The Legend of The Blue Sea, The Starry Night The Starry Sea, Scarlet Heart, Protect The Boss....a ton more. Hyuks Chasing, and new upcoming project. Catch up on Familiar Wife and hope that someone uploads the TV showing of Mata Hari with Leo.

Saw trailer for Bleach today so adding that to list, switched, Solomon’s perjury, mr sunshine, man to man, a man called god and a few others.

Shows I reccomend - Wednesday 3:30pm, Orange Marmalade, Moorim School, Tunnel, Bride Of The Water God, Blood, Black, Forgotten, We Got Married (Lee Jonghyun), Newlywed Diary s1, Spy, Hwarang, My Only Love Song, Strong Woman Bong Soon

In non kdrama inspired stuff - recently saw Searching... and it was brill. Highly reccomend and genius filming idea. Pulled off the way it should be and others failed to do. The Spy Who Dumped Me was disappointing and didn’t gel well despite the few hilarious scenes in the film. The Happy Gang Murders- ok but wait for it on sky movies or Netflix. Looking forward to seeing Crazy Rich Asians on Tuesday after work!

3. Although I still haven’t found another group I could say ‘I love them’ cause I’m hard set VIXX, the last few weeks I have opened to a few guys and groups through friends and exposure.

I added Kim Jaejoong to my list pretty quickly lol then Lee Jonghyun, Park Hyungsik and I would say mainly cause my kpop guro mate and guide Jackie I have seen a lot of Monsta X and I didn’t really feel a link to any of them but having seen the emotional side of Wonho he would be the one I would add to the list, just not quite there yet but almost.

I have listened to a lot more of their music, and I feel like I’m open to hearing others yet I recoil into vixx as soon as I see posters and gifs about other bands claiming they are record breaking at whatever chart/award/audience numbers/hair dying/stripping on stage...etc whatever statistics it is cause I get that defensive pang for my boys.

So I totally understand the passions folks have for their group/s. I have it too.

Just listen to the other instincts as well that say that other group worked hard too, each should get a share of the limelight and they each have their own struggles they went through to get there. Try to ignore the impulse to roam stomping around the internet screaming your band/bias is the only talented super human in the universe while eating everyone else’s as snacks. But do share, get excited, encourage new listeners/fans, support and go bonkers happy. 👍🏻😉

4. Everything is being turned into musicals. While I LOVE a good musical not every single topic in the world is suited to it. Lol also in saying that I’m super happy Leo has another musical casting as Death character Tod in Das Elisabeth. He loves the stage and singing so it’s just pure joy for him. Also Ken announcing he has a run as Man In The Iron Mask king and again seriously hoping some starlights get some clips to share up on YouTube cause we/I are desperate to see these. Lol my almost stroke after regaining consciousness seeing leo as death poster was seeing what looks like Park Hyungsik in the same role. Meaning two of my list working together and in rehearsals together...⚰️😍need a pic of that and some official confirmations what I’m seeing in the pic is truly who I think it is!

I will now sort some dinner, maybe binge some kdrama, have a shower and go to bed as I totally enjoy my totally wasteful Sunday which at this point would only be made better by being snuggled up to bias/nice guy watching a movie/show with the special hot chocolate I mentioned at the start. I hope you all have a restful night, if you are working today then when your day off comes I hope it’s perfect and relaxing. 👍🏻😉💖🌟

[projectalbum]

Radio songs. 189. “Green,” 190. “Out of Time,” 191. “Automatic for the People,” 192. “Monster,” 193. “New Adventures in Hi-Fi" by R.E.M.

For R.E.M., signing to Warner Bros Records meant reaching more people, in the U.S. and abroad. It meant a bigger promotional push behind their albums.

It meant an exponential increase in their touring schedule, to the point where all four were pretty burned out by the idea after being on the road for most of ’88-’89. But for me, it was a move that meant my favorite music in existence was allowed to sprout from the fertile loam of commercialism.

If you’ll remember from my previous post, it was a compilation of songs from the WB era that first made me a fan. And it was the first few albums under that banner that made R.E.M. superstars, i.e. a band established enough that I would be aware of them growing up. It’s hard for me to grasp the amount of R.E.M. saturation that existed from roughly ’88 - ’94. By the time I was humming “What’s The Frequency, Kenneth?” and “Orange Crush” in high school, it was 2005 and the band’s incandescence had faded to the soft, respectable glow of “Dad Rock.” They were hipper than the Billy Joel & Electric Light Orchestra discs that they had replaced in my repertoire, but as far as my peers were concerned, barely. 

The first Christmas after I had announced myself as a fan brought, in shiny happy gift wrapping, Green (#189) and Out Of Time (#190). A veritable Mandolin-apalooza: in the campfire folk trance of “You Are The Everything,” mournful character study “The Wrong Child,” and midnight hippie spiritual “Hairshirt” that are scattered through the mix of Green, and powering the über-hit that secured their legacy, “Losing My Religion,” on Out Of Time. My relationship to those tracks has dipped and risen through the years— I was much less open to strange acoustic explorations back then (or in the case of “LMR,” its overfamiliarity), so I tended to skip them. I grooved on the electric menace of “Turn You Inside-Out” and the poptimism of “Untitled.”

“World Leader Pretend,” in which all the band’s instruments, including Stipe’s voice, seemed tuned to a lower register than ever before (now THAT’S some counter-programming to the bubblegum of “Stand”), has become a God-level composition in my mind. It’s gained some resurgence recently, seen as a pointed critique of the venal and power-hungry who are obsessed with controlling geopolitical barriers. "I raised the wall / And I will be the one to knock it down,” the protagonist intones, and yeah, “the Wall” has a connotation for current events in 2018, as it did 30 years ago (roughly a year after the album’s release, Berlin’s concrete schism was demolished). But I hear the divided self in “World Leader Pretend”: the man erecting the walls of his own isolation chamber, shoring up his fragile ego against outer pain, denying the possibility for connection. "I decree a stalemate, I divine my deeper motives / I recognize the weapons / I've practiced them well, I fitted them myself.” In other words, I hear myself.

Fortunately, he concludes that it’s within his power to level these barriers he's constructed, and I feel I can learn the same lesson. There’s a triumphant slide guitar in the bridge, an iconically Country-Western flavor that the band returns to on one of the most indelible tracks on Out of Time— the descriptively-titled “Country Feedback.” Heartache on an epic scale, deliberate, hypnotic tempo but bubbling like a volcano, the words a stream-of-consciousness chant over Peter Buck’s searching electric guitar and Mike Mills funereal organ. “It’s crazy what you could have had,” Stipe laments, his voice rising, and then, “I need this. I need this.” Is it the confession that he needs, or the connection slipping away from his grasping fingers? He’s called it his favorite song in the band’s canon; they’ve performed it with Neil Young providing the wailing guitar counterpart, like a Dead Man end credits song that never happened, and there’s a clever mashup on the Unplugged set that bowled me over (I’ll mention it when I get there).

The acoustic arrangements and sonic experimentation continued on Automatic for the People (#191), with a purge of the bubblegum (“The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite” is a notable exception, but for a goof, it’s gorgeous.) Much has been made of the album’s apparent preoccupation with mortality and loss. For sure, there's the straight-forward teen suicide deterrent “Everybody Hurts,” predating It Gets Better by a couple decades; “Sweetness Follows,” about the steady, plodding journey through mourning, and the peaceful plateau you can reach; “Monty Got A Raw Deal,” a steely Western ballad inspired in part by the tortured, bisexual film actor Montgomery Clift. But it’s a hopeful album, not a dour slog.

To me, the common thread is The Past: that personal history that’s less about the agreed-upon facts and more about the feelings tied to events, coloring your reminiscence. “Drive,” the darkly insinuating opening track, takes inspiration for its rhythmic Beat poetry vocal from David Essex's “Rock On,” a song that Stipe might have heard as a teenager, one that itself looks back a further 20 years to the birth of rock n’roll. Add the string arrangement by rock royalty, John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, and it’s nostalgia brined in nostalgia.

We’re looking at the reflection of the old photograph as caught by the passing streetlights: several layers of removal from the events. But in looking back, our feelings strike us clearer than whatever life we’ve built for ourselves in the interim; we’re still dwelling on whatever innocence we think we’ve lost. "I have seen things that you will never see / Leave it to memory me,” are the parting words of a person at the end of their life in “Try Not To Breathe” (often in the running for my favorite R.E.M. recording). "I will try not to burden you,” they promise, holding in secrets of a time gone by in hopes that the listener will forge a new path.

“Find The River,” which draws the book to a close with accordion and harmonizing voices, is another in a line of R.E.M. songs drawing on the river as a symbol of lost harmony. In youthful exuberance, there was “Nightswimming,” but "The ocean is the river's goal / A need to leave the water knows,” and time moves inexorably forward. The past feeds into the unfathomable depths of the future. Automatic for the People draws its title from the slogan at a soul food joint in the band’s hometown. It’s that sense of their own history, 8 records in and on top of the world, that merges with their innate creative restlessness, compelling them to shoot off in a new direction.  “I have got to leave to find my way."

This fuels their mission statement with each album since the WB era began: “Let’s write songs that don’t sound like ‘R.E.M. songs.’” If Automatic is self-reflective, Monster (#192) is about adopted personas. The sound of a middle-aged Art Rock band pretending to be a 20-something Glam Rock band, adding more neon and guitar distortion and posturing than you can shake a Mott The Hoople at. “What can I make myself be? (Faker!)” 

The video for “Crush With Eyeliner” furthers that sense of playful irony: the band members pushed off to the corner of the bar as a new generation, from a different cultural background, expresses the song for them. The entire radioactive orange LP kind of encapsulates every messy teenage feeling I've had since high school. I'm still a "faker," pretending to sing this song. And looking good doing it. (Though, full disclosure, the first time I did karaoke I went with “Bang and Blame.” I don’t mind telling you I nailed it.)

Monster is marked by the most prevalent sexual overtones in R.E.M. canon, as if they were embracing that self-aware Rock Star trope. It’s hard to get more on the nose than the title “Star 69,” but “I Don’t Sleep, I Dream” wins the prize with “Are you coming to ease my headache? / Do you give good head? / Am I good in bed?” As the public debated Michael Stipe’s sexuality, he parried the question in the press and played with his image in the lyrics. The topic of his “Crush” is gendered “she,” giving hetereos like myself plenty to appropriate for our own impossible Cool Girl daydreams— never mind that it’s an ode to his friend Courtney Love. “King of Comedy” addresses a legion of Rupert Pupkins getting their big shot by whatever means necessary, but it also contains the lyric "I'm straight, I'm queer, I'm bi,” a few years before he revealed publicly where the needle pointed on that dial for him. “Tongue” is a lilting, falsetto performance: piano-driven cabaret written for a female protagonist lamenting her inconsiderate lovers. More masks for a closely-scrutinized celebrity to find freedom behind.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi (#193) felt as appropriate a title as any for my first year at a university— trading my hometown for a cinderblock dorm-room, starting down my career path with all the film courses they’d allow me to sign up for. The road-grit guitars, open road expansive sound, Stipe’s tour-shredded front man vocals: the album is alternately weary and electrified. Choruses and riffs fit to fill a stadium (as many basic tracks were recorded at live soundcheck) beside intimate 3AM tour bus confessionals. I scored this huge chapter of my young life with the strutting, T. Rex glam of “The Wake-Up Bomb,” arena-ready choruses of “Bittersweet Me” and “So Fast, So Numb,” felt inspired by the dreamlike inscrutability of “How The West Was Won and Where It Got Us” and darkly-reflective poetry of “E-Bow The Letter.”

I’m not overly surprised to hear that this LP didn’t hit with the same impact as the previous ones— it’s always felt like an acquired taste that I couldn’t impart to anyone else. “You haven’t heard 'Leave?’ Ah man, it’s over 7 minutes long, and there’s a constant siren loop in the background! But trust me, when you hear the acoustic riff from the opening interlude reprised by double-tracked electric guitar, the goose pimples will be visible from space.”

Where Monster boasted the straight-arrow torch song “Strange Currencies,” the hushed, surrealistic “Be Mine” seemed as if it emanated from my own bruised heart. "I'll be the sky above the Ganges / I'll be the vast and stormy sea / I'll be the lights that guide you inward / I'll be the visions you will see”— it’s a cross-spiritual devotional that funnels the tenets of world religions into a promise for total intimacy. I would pay top dollar for the raw footage of Thom Yorke’s guest interpretation. 

Despite the public’s anemic response, the band’s estimation of Hi-Fi’s strengths is justifiably high. It’s an accomplished, energetic record that shows every member playing at his peak. It’s now frozen in history as the last document of the band as a foursome. In the next entry, I’ll delve into the CDs released after drummer Bill Berry retired and R.E.M. dramatically changed gears, rocketing into the 21st century.

[theibgirls]

CAS is an essential part of the IB programme, but coming up with ideas for it can be very challenging, especially if money is tight. Therefore, I present to you 99 Free (or at the very least, inexpensive) CAS ideas!

Please like/reblog if this helped you, and so that it can help others! ❤︎

Creativity

1. Learn a new language: Free apps or websites like Duolingo or Mondly can help you learn a variety of languages. Here is a post about the language availability on various apps. You can even practice by manually translating song lyrics, which really is just an excuse to listen to Bollywood hits, K-pop, or even Shakira- there’s no reason to not have a little fun with it! If you do just 10 minutes a day you’ll get over an hour of CAS done every week. If you do 20 minutes a day, you’ll get over 2 hours a week, and by spending a little more than 20 minutes on one or two days you can easily get 2 and a half hours of CAS a week. 10 weeks of this and you’ll have 50% of your creativity hours done, and all while having fun listening to songs, and not having to spend a penny!

2. Making gifs or edits: You’re already on tumblr, why not use it as an opportunity for CAS? Making original content takes time, and will quickly fill up those 50 hours! If you don’t want your CAS supervisor see which fandoms you’re a part of, make school related content, for example making subject moodboards (self spon), edits of your required reading (maybe typography for your favourite quotes?), or giffing your favourite historical figures. If you’re experienced you can mass produce content, and if you’re a beginner you can check that “new skills” box! GIMP is free, and Photoshop has a free trial. After that you can either pay for it, or perhaps scour the internet for alternative ways to keep it (though you didn’t hear it from me). If you fulfill requests then it counts as service as well.

3. Art: You can either create digital art using the programs listed in the previous suggestion, or you can do it the old fashioned. While art supplies tend to cost a lot, there is no shame in making sketches or comics using good ol’ ink and lead pencils that you already have in your pencil case, and doing it in a notebook. If you’re willing to splurge, there are tons of ways to go with your art!

4. Photography: While a good camera is expensive, you probably already have a camera in your phone. The quality won’t be ideal, but you can easily practice photographing different motifs in different styles. You can also retouch and enhance the photos with GIMP and Photoshop, as mentioned above.

5. Join or create a low maintenance club: Baking and music may be fun, but ingredients cost money, and so do instruments. A debate club or film club won’t cost anything, except maybe if you buy popcorn! Regular meetings will ensure regular CAS hours.

6. Write poetry: Writing a good poem can take many, many hours, which in the context of CAS is a good thing! Take a stroll in the forest or by the seaside and feel those creative juices flowing!

7. Write a book: You know that idea for a novel you’ve had for ages? Write it down. It may feel awkward to show to your writing to your supervisor, but think of it as a free editor or focus group. This is a great excuse to fulfill your dream of becoming an author. Who knows? Maybe the final product is good enough to send to a publisher, or to self-publish on amazon so you can make some money!

8. Make Redbubble designs: A spin-off of the digital art suggestion. Whether it’s simple text or intricate fanart, Redbubble is a great place to display your creativity, and can even make you some money if you’re lucky!

9. Join a choir: Privately owned choirs may cost to join, but your local church will probably let you in for free.

10. Play an instrument: If you don’t already own an instrument, this isn’t a great option on a budget. However, some of you will already own a keyboard or a guitar, and may even already be taking lessons. If you are, then there is no reason not to use it for CAS. And if you own an instrument but don’t go to classes, simply practice on our own or watch tutorials on YouTube.

11. Dungeons and Dragons: Shocking, I know, but it is actually quite easy to justify D&D as creativity. A friend of mine succeeded in doing this, stating that it involved team work, initiative, commitment and problem solving. It goes to show that most things can be justified as CAS if you word everything well enough.

12. Makeup, nail art, or body paint: I highly doubt that applying mascara in the morning counts, but there are certainly many ways to express yourself with makeup. SFX, intricate patterns and new techniques certainly require creativity.

13. Dance: Dance will be expanded on in the Action section, but dance is not only exercise, but a form of expression which requires passion and creativity.

14. Learn coding: Coding has become a valuable skill in the recent years. There’s an endless amount of sources online, many of them free. Not only is it an interesting skill, but it’s an impressive skill to see on a résumé.

15. Make a game or an app: Game development is certainly not easy, but that just means that there will be plenty of hours for you to log! It also has the potential to make you money, which of course is a plus!

16. Start a YouTube channel: Buying a microphone and camera is expensive, but unless you’re aiming to become a YouTube star there’s no reason to spend money on equipment. CAS doesn’t discriminate between a $500 camera and a built in webcam, or between Adobe Premiere and Windows Movie Maker, so utilize what you have.

17. Join the school newspaper: The school newspaper is a great way to ensure regular hours, and can even count as service. There are many different types of articles, so you can get some variety in it too.

18. Send in articles to a newspaper: If you think the school newspaper is aiming too low, you can always submit articles to local newspapers or online magazines such as Buzzfeed. Your submissions may not always be published, but it’s worth a try, and the hours will count anyway!

19. Make a PSA video: There are tonnes of important causes you can promote, and a PSA video is a great way to do it. Furthermore, the service aspect will count for service hours, and if you do it with a friend it can count as a CAS project.

20. Acting: There are plenty of auditions around, whether it be to a school play or primetime TV. You don’t even need to get a role, simply auditioning is enough as you’ve been a risk taker (your coordinator will appreciate you using the IB learner profile in your reflections), and been creative.

21. Making a short film: Combining he last two points, making a video and acting, take this chance to make a short film (or a full length one depending on your ambition) and Kenneth Branagh’ it as producer, director, writer and lead.

22. Learn animation: Self-explanatory, and a very impressive skill to have.

23. Free online courses: Whether it be public speaking or anthropology, there are many free courses online which can be justified as creativity. Some courses may even look good on your résumé.

24. Make a board game: Board games are a lot of fun, but harder to make than they seem. Your creation might not be the next Monopoly, but it may provide some entertainment when you’re meeting your friends, and wouldn’t playing games with your friend be a great way to get CAS hours?

25. Gardening: A beautiful garden is a challenge to create, but challenges are a part of CAS! From a terrarium to a full scale English garden, there are many options for gardening. Here are some cheap ideas.

26. Make a podcast: Podcasts have become quite popular in the last few years, so try it out for yourself! There are many different topics you could cover, some which could count as service. Discussing one of those topics with a friend could be a great idea for a CAS project.

27. Make a website: This one is quite self-explanatory. Like the podcast, you could easily add a service aspect into it, and working with a friend could make it a CAS project.

28. Translating transcripts of spoken word poem: this one comes from @kahvia, who says “I found the transcripts of the poems on the Internet (some are hard to get, so once I just messaged the author on Facebook) and translated into my native language. It's hard and time consuming, but can be done on the go, so you can do CAS when commuting.”

29. Calligraphy: I must confess that I don’t know a lot about calligraphy, but I assume that amazing tools can cost quite a bit. But remember, CAS isn’t about quality, it’s about quantity, so screw expensive tools and just go for it!

30. Create your own font: Like with most things in life, wikihow has got your back.

31. Make an interactive story: Cool and largely uncharted territory, and definitely a unique experience. This will help you out.

32. Learn origami: Origami is beautiful, and the possibilities are endless. Although origami paper is preferred, it is possible to use regular paper too, which will save you some bucks. Google and YouTube have a million tutorials, so they got you covered.

33.  Make a Studyblr: Do you have any idea how many hours I’m getting just by making this list?

Action

1. Go jogging: Perhaps the most obvious free exercise is jogging. All you need is a pair of sneakers and you’re good to go (jogging)!

2. Play Pokémon Go: If you are still one of the few people playing Pokémon Go, walk until your eggs hatch. You could simply walk, but games make it a bit more interesting. On your CAS worksheet you can simply say you plan on walking 2km a day, but in your head and your heart it’s an epic quest for Pikachu.

3. Yoga: Yoga has numerous health benefits and is a great choice for those who don’t like exercise. Power yoga is an option for those who prefer a challenge, but beginner’s yoga isn’t too strenuous and can easily be done at home. Although a yoga mat is preferable, a lot of the moves can be done on the bed or just the floor. YouTube and the app store have thousands of free options, so there’s plenty to choose from, from 10 minutes to an hour. Half an hour before bed each day will have you finishing up your activity hours in no time!

4. Swimming in a public pool, lake or ocean: There are some public pools, but many pools require an entrance fee. The ocean does not. It’s not as easy to swim laps as in a pool, but it will do in a pinch.

5. A 30 day exercise challenge: The internet is full of 30 day exercise plans. Although they’re usually not an ideal fitness plan it will challenge your commitment, and you can get a month worth of CAS.

6.  Biking: Assuming you already have a bike, biking is a very cheap method of exercise, but very efficient. Biking to and from school will count, and if takes about 20 minutes back and forth a day, you’ll get 100 minutes in a school week. It’s regular exercise, and therefore it’s regular CAS.

7. Free apps: There’s an almost unlimited amount of exercise apps in the app store, and many of them are free. Try them out! Even a 7 minute exercise app can be useful. 49 minutes every week can be rounded up to 50 minutes, which is a great place to start if you’re new to CAS.

8. Dog walking: If you have your own dog, good for you! Take the adorable little pupper out for a walk. And if not, ask a neighbour if you can steal their dog take their dog for walks. Another case of regular exercise resulting in regular CAS hours.

9. Dance: Not all dancing has to be taught in class. Online you will find numerous tutorials for various dance styles, from belly dancing to hip hop. And if you choose to learn a dance style from another culture, like India’s kathak or the Latin samba you get to learn about other cultures and therefore be a global citizen (as the IBO likes to tell us to be).

10. Dance apps or games: This activity isn’t as focused on independent learning as the previous dance suggestion, but it works nonetheless. Games like DDR or Just Dance are found in many households, so you might already have access to them at home. Just Dance includes an exercise mode, so give it a go! And if you don’t have them, there’s always the free Just Dance app, which should do the trick, memes aside.

11. PlayStation or Wii games: Certainly not a cheap option if you don’t already have the consoles or games, but if you have Wii Sports or PlayStation 3 Sports Champions you have a great way to exercise without leaving your living room.

12. Self-defense: When you can’t afford to go to a self-defense class, we have the internet. Learning proper self-defense is sadly very important, but since it’s important to learn, why not learn it for CAS? Practice with a friend until you’re a ninja, or until you have 15 hours of activity completed.

13. Celebrity workout tape: You know the ones. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a Jane Fonda tape from the 80s which you recreate in a leotard, but then again, why not? You could use a random person’s workout tape, but I think Jane Fonda can be trusted (I mean she’s 80 and have you seen how good she looks?). Cheesy as celebrity workout tapes are, especially the ones from the 80s, there’s something special about them. Many of them can be found online, so give them a go, leotard or no!

14. Jump rope: Chances are you still have a jump rope lying around the house from when you were a kid. Rope jumping is actually very good exercise, so try to find your old toy again- it will come in handy!

15. Chair workouts: Fulfill your dream of becoming Britney Spears with some chair exercises. There’s no need to buy fancy equipment when you can just go to your kitchen instead.

16. Basketball: No need to join a team as long as you have a hoop at home. Many people still have a hoop over the garage door from when they were children, why not utilize them?

17. Join a school club: Of course, any club works, but most clubs will require an entry fee. School owned ones are unlikely to ask for one.

18. Hiking: Fresh air, breath-taking views, and all that crap.

19. Running competitions: 5k runs are frequently put on, why not join one?

20. Walk home: Is it cheating? Probably. But walking is activity, so why shouldn’t you take advantage of it? You don’t need to specify that you’re walking home, you can simply say a daily walk of x minutes.

21. Basic gymnastics or acrobatics: When I say basic, I mean basic. Somersaults, cartwheels, the works. It’s technically exercise, and you can say you’re doing acrobatics without going into further details.

22. Tree climbing: An alternative to rock climbing, only it’s free.

23. Use stockings as resistance bands: I honestly don’t know how well this works, but google said it works so it must be true.

24. Water gymnastics: Once again, doing things properly is overrated. Go to a pool and try to figure it out yourself, or with a friend. It may look ridiculous, but you’ll be trying. Another option is to do it some meters away from an ongoing class, because stealing exercise kinda works according to an episode of Will and Grace.

25. Badminton: When I say badminton, I don’t mean fancy professional badminton, I mean “get a gas station badminton racket and play in the park or your lawn”.

26. Foraging: Go look for mushrooms in a forest and keep track of how long you’ve been out and how long you’ve walked.

27. Orienteering: Although I personally despise orienteering with a violent passion, I have many friends who enjoy it, one who even does it for fun. Orienteering can be planned with friends, and can take place in a forest or a city.

28. Treasure hunt: Almost an extension of orienteering, you can plan a treasure hunt in a city or a forest. With the added element of the treasure hunt, there’s a case for creativity, and doing it in a group can work as a CAS project.

29. Frisbee: Frisbees are cheap and can be bought at a gas station, and work as a fun group activity.

30. Help the elderly: As you will see in the Service section, elderly neighbours might need some help cutting grass or shoveling snow. And as anyone who has ever shoveled snow knows, it’s a surprisingly efficient exercise.

31. Gym trial: Many gyms offer a free trial for a day or a week, or even a month, which is easy to take advantage of. Use the free days to their full extent, and if that isn’t enough, go to another gym chain and use their trial. Obviously this won’t be a long term thing, but if you work long, and not necessarily hard, 15 hours should be manageable.

32. Pilates: An alternative to yoga that works as well at home as at a gym.

33. PARKOUR: … don’t die.

 Service

1. Join Amnesty: Amnesty is an organization that raises awareness for a number of important issues, and often collect signatures for their causes. Be the one who hunts for signatures and watch the service hours roll in.

2. Join the Red Cross, or any other charitable organization: The Red Cross needs no introduction. It is perhaps the most famous charity in the world, and does a lot of good. However, there have been controversies surrounding it in the past, so if you want to support another charity instead, go for it! Find a charity that is important to you and the service hours will feel even sweeter.

3. Blood donation, or spreading awareness for it: Donating blood will often get you a small payment, and you can’t do it often, so it isn’t ideal for service. However, going to your local donation center and asking for pamphlets and sign up forms to bring to school or a stand at the mall is a great way to raise awareness and encourage other people to go donate blood. It’s one of those things people talk about doing but always put off, so be the person that changes their mind-set!

4. Helping out at school events: School discos, bake sales, or bazaars always need volunteers, and it’s a great way to get many hours done at once. Contact the PTA at your school or other schools in the area and see when upcoming events are taking place and you’ll easily get at least 15 hours of service done. If you really phrase things well you might even be able to get some creativity hours.

5. Dog walking: Expanding on the point in Action, you can walk other people’s dogs as service. Ask a neighbour if they need help, or post an ad at the grocery store. Service hours and spending time with dogs, what more could you want?

6. Volunteer at an animal shelter: Like the previous point, this really is just a great excuse to hang out with animals. Check the local shelter to see if they need any helpers!

7. Volunteering at a senior center: Senior centers are always in need of more hands. Whether it’s cleaning the resident’s rooms, walking with them or just making sure they have some company, there will always be something the center will need help with.

8. Volunteering at a hospital: Not all hospitals allow untrained volunteers, but some hospitals do. If you volunteer at a hospital you will not perform the duties of a nurse, but instead simply provide some company for the people staying there.

9. Homeless shelter: Homeless shelters always need more volunteers. There’s a variety of roles you can fill, from handing out food to collecting donations. No matter what it is you do, it will have a great impact on the people who rely on the shelters.

10. Make a PSA video: As mentioned in the Creativity section, making a PSA video is a great idea for a CAS project as it combines creativity and service, and results in lots of hours.

11. Bake sales: Baking yourself will obviously cost a bit, but most ingredients can probably already be found in your home. Set up a stand in the school corridor, and find a charity to donate the profits to.

12. Volunteer at a library: Most libraries have a variety of volunteer opportunities, from tutoring children to teaching seniors how to use technology. Go to your local library and see what volunteer programs they have!

13. Shoveling snow: Winter doesn’t treat people who live in cold places well. In case of snow you might have several neighbours struggling to clear the snow from their lot. Offer them a hand and feel the CAS hours piling up!

14. Cutting grass: Like shoveling snow, cutting grass is something people need to get done, but it’s backbreaking and time consuming. Go around the neighbourhood and see if anyone needs any help with it!

15. Assisting elderly neighbours: If you have any elderly neighbours, offer to do chores for them, like cleaning and cooking. They’ll be sure to appreciate it, and it can get you semi regular CAS hours.

16. Car washing: No, this does not have to include a red bikini, but it does give you two options: either offer to wash cars for free as service, or to set a price so you can give the profits to charity. All you need is a sponge and some water, so get scrubbing!

17. Scouts: Most scout groups require a member fee, so it’s not ideal to become a scout if you aren’t one. However, if you’re already a member, being a scout leader will get you many, many hours, so take advantage of it!

18. Student union: Student unions work hard, and can therefore get you many hours. There will be a wide range of activities to organize and participate in, so you’ll have some much needed variety.

19. Prom committee: If you’re not interested in joining the student union, there may be some committees that are separate from the union. Prom committees, graduation committees, etc., are all great options that can get you plenty of hours.

20. Babysitting: Give your neighbours a night off by offering to babysit for free. Remember, it doesn’t count as service if you get paid, so make sure the only money you get is to pay for dinner.

21. Tutoring: Some schools have study halls, or a homework club, aka after school homework help for the younger kids. And if your school doesn’t offer it already, ask if you can start it. It’ll be a chance for you to tutor younger kids, and if nobody shows up and wants your help, so what? You offered the service, and even if no one came, the hours count.

22. Start a club: Being a member of a club will get you creativity hours, starting one will get you both. Do it with a friend and you’ve got a CAS project.

23. Join a big brother/big sister organization: There are several of these organizations going around, and a popular one in the US is bbbs.org, which states that their mission is to “Provide children facing adversity with strong and enduring, professionally supported one-to-one relationships that change their lives for the better, forever.” A noble cause for sure, and one which your CAS coordinator will adore. It will tick most outcome boxes, and you will gain something from it too.

24. Volunteer in a political campaign: If there are any elections happening in your country soon, get involved for the good of your community, and your CAS hours!

25. Volunteer at a hotline: Many countries have crisis hotlines that often need more volunteers, why not help out?

26. Start Kiva team: kiva.org is a great website that revolves around microloans. It has the option to make or join teams of lenders. Make a team and try to gain members, spread awareness and get donations to lend money to people in need around the world. As they are loans, you get money back in kiva credit which you can then donate to someone new, thus creating a circle of good. Team meetings to decide which individuals, countries or field partners to donate to next will get you many CAS hours.

27. Plan an athletic event for charity: Whether it be a 5k, orienteering, a treasure hunt (all as mentioned in the activity section), or anything else you can think of, it’s a great way to involve a community, and any entrance fee can be donated to charity. By participating yourself, you can tick all three CAS boxes, and doing it with one or more people makes it a great CAS project.

28. Writing letters to soldiers: This may not be an option everywhere, but some countries have organizations where you can write letters to the soldiers overseas who don’t have anyone writing to them, which is sure to be a morale booster.

29. Host a free workshop: Workshops are a great way to learn new skills, or to teach your skills. Maybe you can teach something you learned from/for your creativity hours!

30. Neighbourhood watch: Neighbourhood watches are a great way to help ensure safety in your local area, so either join one or start one.

31. Volunteer to help immigrants and/or refugees: There are many organizations that work to help immigrants and refugees become integrated in society, whether it be activities for children or events to help newly arrived people learn the local language. Look up any local organizations and see if they’re looking for volunteers!

32. Park maintenance: Many parks need help with a lot of maintenance, from cleaning to repainting benches. Contact whoever is in charge and see if they need any volunteers.

33. Studyblr: Coming up with 99 free CAS ideas is surprisingly time consuming, and so is everything else about a studyblr, so give it a go and get those hours!

[morwensteelsheen]

AFTA Chapter 5 Notes

Éowyn is wearing green for a few reasons.

 First, as a reference to green being the medieval “middle” colour (please ask me about the middle colour and Dante’s Purgatorio lmao) —

“Medieval scholars inherited the idea from ancient times that there were seven colours: white, yellow, red, green, blue, purple and black. Green was the middle colour, which meant that it sat balanced between the extremes of white and black.” [x]

And also as a reference to Pastoreau’s take on green knights:

“Conversely, a green knight was a young knight, recently dubbed, whose audacious or insolent behaviour was going to cause great disorder; he could be good or bad.” [x]

And lastly as a reference to Dante’s Purgatorio, in which Beatrice, his first and greatest love, appears to him atop the mountain of purgatory described as such (Kirkpatrick translation): 

So now, beyond a drifting cloud of flowers (which rose up, arching, from the angels’ hands, then fell within and round the chariot), seen through a veil, pure white, and olive-crowned, a lady now appeared to me. Her robe was green, her dress the colour of a living flame.  

Éowyn embroiders as a thistle as a reference to Hugh MacDiarmid’s brilliant poem, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle: 

O fain I’d keep my hert entire,    Fain hain the licht o’ my desire, But ech! the shinin’ streams ascend,    And leave me empty at the end. For aince it’s toomed my hert and brain,    The thistle needs maun fa’ again. —But a’ its growth ’ll never fill The hole it’s turned my life intill!

Her little cultural mix up with food service is loosely inspired by the transition period between when service à la française was popular, and when service à la russe became popular. Adapted for my own purposes.

Éowyn musing that the Gondorrim probably hired people to hold their swords for them is loosely based on the role of actual medieval squires, lol 

The basics of Boromir (and Éowyn’s!) education is based on notes given by Tolkien in Appendix F of LOTR. 

Specifically: “[S]o that at the time of the War of the Ring the elven-tongue was known only to a small part of the peoples of Gondor, and spoken daily by fewer. These dwelt mainly in Minas Tirith and the townlands adjacent, and in the land of the tributary princes of Dol Amroth.”

Boromir’s discussion on the artistic/political merit of print culture is based on my own private research. For more on that, I suggest James Raven’s chapter, “The Book as Commodity” in The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain.

Éowyn’s belief that her people could remember more history than the Gondorrim is based in reality — people raised in oral cultures tend to have better long-term recall. More on that in David Rubin’s Memory in oral traditions: the cognitive psychology of epic, ballads, and counting-out rhymes.

The idea that very few people actually went into the archives/libraries of Minas Tirith is not totally supported by the text, but I’m fudging it based on the following:

“And yet there [in Minas Tirith] lie in his hoards many records that few even of the lore-masters now can read, for their scripts and tongues have become dark to later men.” (This is a reference to Adûnaic iirc But) — The Fellowship of the Ring

"Yet now, if the Rohirrim are grown in some ways more like to us, enhanced in arts and gentleness, we too have become more like to them, and can scarce claim any longer the title High. We are become Middle Men, of the Twilight, but with memory of other things. For as the Rohirrim do, we now love war and valour as things good in themselves, both a sport and an end; and though we still hold that a warrior should have more skills and knowledge than only the craft of weapons and slaying, we esteem a warrior, nonetheless, above men of other crafts.” — The Two Towers

The description of Imrahil’s outfit is based both on this marvellous description in AnnaFan’s Whenas In Silks and on Joffrey Baratheon’s fabulous outfit from fuck knows what episode of GOT. Absolutely brilliant costuming. 

Blue is also a colour with a fascinating history (I recommend checking out Pastoreau’s book on the topic if that’s your sort of thing). Blue pigment was pulled from the woad plant, a plant native to the Mediterranean, so it seemed fitting to associate it with Imrahil. 

Blue was also the colour of medieval royalty, and given that Imrahil is the only ‘royalty’ (as such, obviously used very, very loosely) remaining in Gondor, it’s another nice fit. 

Here’s a cute little Google Arts and Culture ‘exhibit’ on the history of the colour, if you’re bored. 

Okay so on Faramir being a bit of a loudmouth as a teenager, I suspect this might be controversial. My take is based on this:

Within minutes of meeting Sam and Frodo, he’s shooting his mouth off about, like, literally everything. Gondor being shit, wars being shit, the Rohirrim being shit, so on and so forth. Obviously he’s serving the narrative function of being Gondor’s Big Exposition Man™ before we get to MT in the next book, but as a character moment it’s pretty intense. This is how he behaves at age 36 and as (effectively) one of the highest ranking military commanders in Gondor. 

He’s still pretty mouthy with Big D when he’s getting sent away to Osgiliath. I know there’s a tendency to interpret the line as miserable self-pity, but I think he’s being snippy about it. 

The music the musicians play is something Byzantine in my head, it doesn’t have to be that in your head, but that’s just where I was going with it. 

Militarily: we’re in autumn 3016 here, So it’s not as if the war proper is gearing up yet, but we’re definitely starting to see a larger output (if you will) of Orcs, and Sauron putting forth a more concerted effort to strip away Gondor’s military resources. 

There is remarkably little in canon about the two or so years leading up to the start of the Ring War. Off the top of my head, all we’re given is the destruction of the bridge at Osgiliath, which happens in the summer of 3018. 

I’m not a military historian and I’m not going to pretend to be, so I’m mostly just guessing at what the latter days of a war of attrition/early days of a hot war would look like. Forgive me.

Faramir marking the gravesites of the fallen is lifted directly from Altariel’s The Book of Days

A note on the level of communication between Henneth Annûn and Minas Tirith —

We know very little about the practicalities of it. What we know for certain is that access to Ithilien is limited, and knowledge of the location of Henneth Annûn even more so. Still, in February and March 3019, Faramir’s on record as doing quite a bit of riding around between HA, MT, and Osgiliath. He wasn’t doing that of his own volition, most of what he was doing was coming from higher command, so I think it’s not unreasonable to think that there would have been pretty regular communication with the outside world. Have I inflated that regularity to serve my regency-esque purposes? Absolutely. But I also don’t think I’m shooting too wide of the canon mark with it either.  

For reference, the distance between Minas Tirith and Henneth Annûn, via Cair Andros, is about 65 miles, which is an eight or so hour ride by horse. Given that the Rangers, when we meet them in Two Towers, number about two or three hundred strong (per Window on the West), it’s not unreasonable to think they may have had a dedicated messenger or two to make communication with MT easier. 

[orbemnews]

Big Business Takes on Anti-Asian Discrimination Corporate America takes on anti-Asian discrimination Top business leaders and corporate giants are pledging $250 million to a new initiative and an ambitious plan to stem a surge in anti-Asian violence and take on challenges that are often ignored by policymakers, Andrew and Ed Lee report in The Times. Donors are a who’s who of business leaders. Individuals who are collectively contributing $125 million to the newly created Asian American Foundation include Joe Bae of KKR, Sheila Lirio Marcelo of Care.com, Joe Tsai of Alibaba and Jerry Yang of Yahoo. Organizations adding another $125 million to the group include Walmart, Bank of America, the Ford Foundation and the N.B.A. The initiative has echoes of the recent effort by Black executives to round up corporate support to push back against bills that would restrict voting. Anti-Asian hate crimes jumped 169 percent over the past year; in New York City alone, they have risen 223 percent. And Asian-Americans face the challenge of the “model minority” myth, in which they’re often held up as success stories. This shows “a lack of understanding of the disparities that exist,” said Sonal Shah, the president of the newly formed foundation. For example, Asian-Americans comprise 12 percent of the U.S. work force, but just 1.5 percent of Fortune 500 corporate officers. The group’s mission is broad. It is aiming to reshape the American public’s understanding of the Asian-American experience by developing new school curriculums and collecting data to help influence public policy. But its political lobbying efforts may be challenged by the enormous political diversity among Asian-Americans, Andrew and Ed note. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING India’s Covid-19 crisis deepens. The country recorded nearly 402,000 cases on Saturday, a global record, and another 392,000 on Sunday. A business trade group is calling for a new national lockdown, despite the economic cost of such a move. The C.E.O. of India’s biggest vaccine manufacturer warned that the country’s shortage of doses would last until at least July. Credit Suisse didn’t earn much for its Archegos troubles. The Swiss bank collected just $17.5 million in fees last year from the investment fund, despite losing $5.4 billion from the firm’s meltdown in March, according to The Financial Times. Verizon sold AOL and Yahoo. The telecom giant divested its internet media business to Apollo Global Management for $5 billion, and will retain a 10 percent stake. It’s a sign that Verizon is giving up on its digital advertising ambitions and focusing on its mobile business. A third of Basecamp employees quit after a ban on talking politics. At least 20 resigned after the software maker’s C.E.O., Jason Fried, announced a new policy preventing political discussions in the workplace. The company isn’t budging: “We’ve committed to a deeply controversial stance,” said David Hansson, Basecamp’s chief technology officer. Manchester United fans are still mad about the failed Super League. Supporters of the English soccer club stormed the field yesterday, forcing the postponement of its highly anticipated match against Liverpool. They called for the ouster of the Glazer family, United’s American owners, over their support for the new competition meant mostly for European soccer’s richest teams. Succession hints and other highlights from Berkshire’s meeting At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway on Saturday, Warren Bufett and Charlie Munger spoke out on a typically broad range of topics, from investing regrets to politics to crypto. (They also picked fights with Robinhood and E.S.G. proponents, for good measure.) Buffett watchers also got their clearest hint yet as to who will succeed the Oracle of Omaha as Berkshire’s C.E.O. when the 90-year-old billionaire finally steps down. It’s Greg Abel. CNBC confirmed with Buffett that Abel, the 59-year-old who oversees Berkshire’s non-investing operations, would take over as C.E.O. “If something were to happen to me tonight it would be Greg who’d take over tomorrow morning,” Buffett said. Charlie Munger, Buffett’s top lieutenant, dropped a hint on Saturday, saying, “Greg will keep the culture.” Buffett took on Robinhood. The Berkshire chief said the trading app conditioned retail investors to treat stock trading like gambling. “There’s nothing illegal about it, there’s nothing immoral, but I don’t think you’d build a society around people doing it,” Buffett said. Robinhood pushed back. “There is an old guard that doesn’t want average Americans to have a seat at the Wall Street table so they will resort to insults,” tweeted Jacqueline Ortiz Ramsay, the company’s head of public policy communications. And Buffett got blowback on E.S.G. Berkshire shareholders followed his lead and rejected two shareholder proposals that would have forced the company to disclose more about climate change and work force diversity. But each proposal got support from a quarter of Berkshire shareholders, a relatively high percentage. And big investors spoke publicly about their backing for the initiatives: BlackRock, which owns a 5 percent stake in Berkshire, said the company hadn’t done enough on either front. Other highlights from the Berkshire meeting: Munger let loose on crypto. “Of course I hate the Bitcoin success and I don’t welcome a currency that’s so useful to kidnappers and extortionists,” he said. “I think the whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization.” Ajit Jain, who oversees Berkshire’s insurance operations, and Buffett traded quips about whether the company would insure Elon Musk’s trip to Mars. “This is an easy one: No, thank you, I’ll pass,” Jain said. Buffett said it would depend on the premium and added, “I would probably have a somewhat different rate if Elon was on board or not on board.” “We will not be anywhere near as focused on buybacks going forward as we have in the past.” — Intel C.E.O. Pat Gelsinger told CBS’s “60 Minutes” that in the future the semiconductor giant would focus less on buying its own shares and more on expanding production capacity to alleviate severe chip shortages. Ted Cruz rejects ‘woke’ corporate money Ted Cruz has sworn off corporate donations, and he used an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal to tell executives about it. The Republican senator from Texas criticized company chiefs for what he said were ill-informed criticisms of Georgia’s new voting laws. “For too long, woke C.E.O.s have been fair-weather friends to the Republican Party: They like us until the left’s digital pitchforks come out,” Cruz wrote. These companies “need to be called out, singled out and cut off,” he added. Cruz’s rejection may not make a big difference. After the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, many corporations pledged to withhold donations from lawmakers who voted against certifying the election results, at least for a period of time. Cruz, who is viewed as a key player in the efforts to reverse the vote, could be shut out for longer than others. But he’s not strapped for cash: He brought in more than $3 million in campaign funds in the three months after the riot, largely from individual donors. It highlights a new schism between Republicans and corporate America. Those ties were already fraying under President Trump’s unpredictable administration. President Biden’s proposed tax hikes and regulatory push would have typically driven companies into the arms of Republican allies, but Cruz, for his part, said he’s no longer interested in what the corporate donors and lobbyists have to say. “This time,” he wrote, “we won’t look the other way on Coca-Cola’s $12 billion in back taxes owed. This time, when Major League Baseball lobbies to preserve its multibillion-dollar antitrust exception, we’ll say no thank you. This time, when Boeing asks for billions in corporate welfare, we’ll simply let the Export-Import Bank expire.” An epic antitrust case begins Today, Apple and Epic Games meet in court for a trial that could have implications for the future of the App Store and the antitrust fight against Big Tech. DealBook spoke with Jack Nicas, a technology reporter for The Times, about what’s at stake. Why is Epic suing Apple? Many companies, including Spotify and Match Group, have complained loudly and publicly about the control that Apple has over the App Store, and the 30 percent commission it charges. Epic basically set some bait for Apple: It began using its own payment system in Fortnite, a very popular game, which meant Apple couldn’t collect its commission. It knew how Apple would react: Apple kicked Fortnite out of the App Store. Then Epic immediately sued Apple in federal court, and simultaneously launched a sophisticated PR campaign to paint Apple in a bad light. [Epic is suing Google for the same reason.] Why do businesses that aren’t Epic or Apple care about this case? If you’re a company that sells any digital goods or services, whether a game, music or a dating platform, you likely pay a large share of your revenues to Apple. If Epic wins here, that could eventually put an end to Apple’s commissions, or at least cause Apple to loosen its control over the App Store. So it really would upend the economics of the app industry. And beyond that, an Epic win would boost the push for antitrust charges against some of the biggest tech companies, including Apple. Now on the other side, if Apple wins, it’s really only going to bolster its already strong position. Who is expected to win? It’s certainly unclear at this point, but there is a thinking among legal experts that Apple has the upper hand, and that’s in large part because in antitrust fights, courts are more sympathetic to the defendants. But some legal experts think that Epic’s case could be strong. What will you be watching for? The C.E.O.s of both companies, Tim Sweeney and Tim Cook, will be testifying at the trial. Sweeney will likely have to explain why Epic is suing Apple and Google, but not Microsoft and Sony and Samsung and Nintendo, which charge very similar commissions and have similar rules. And Cook will have to answer some very pointed questions about how Apple does business, and how it potentially creates rules in its App Store to hurt rivals. I think there’s an opportunity for the lawyers on Epic’s side to elicit some interesting answers from him. Read the full report about the case from Jack and Erin Griffith. THE SPEED READ Deals Legendary Studios, the producer of movies like “Godzilla vs. Kong,” has reportedly held talks to either merge with a SPAC or buy another studio. (Bloomberg) Politics and policy Why investors have largely shrugged off President Biden’s proposal to raise capital gains taxes. (NYT) As the head of the nonprofit Venture for America, Andrew Yang pledged to create 100,000 jobs nationwide. The group created about 150. (NYT) Tech An internal Amazon report warned management that its sales team had gained unauthorized access to third-party seller data, which may have been used to help its own products. (Politico) Tesla is reportedly stepping up its engagement with Beijing officials as it faces greater pressure from the Chinese government. (Reuters) Best of the rest “Has Online Retail’s Biggest Bully Returned?” (NYT) How remote work is decimating Manhattan’s retail stores, in pictures. (NYT) Eli Broad, the billionaire businessman and art collector who reshaped Los Angeles, died on Friday. He was 87. (NYT) We’d like your feedback! Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com. Source link Orbem News #antiAsian #Big #Business #discrimination #Takes

[marveloustiming]

Look at the Stars (Part 3/?)

I strode through the doors as they slid open, Peter walking behind me. I found three men standing there. I put my hands out as a man came rushing at me. I blasted two shards of ice at him, one in the leg and in his shooting arm, while Peter got the other one other. I quickly caught a guy that came up from behind Peter, grabbed his chin, and set my hand ablaze. Peter turned his head to me and nodded. He shot a guy that came from the long hallway knocking the man onto his back. As I passed him the man complained about his neck. I stepped on his arm and let out some electricity which knocked him unconscious. Up ahead I saw Peter take the orb and start tossing it up and down. I let out a full laugh. This way the others wouldn't just bail on us. I could hear a quiet echo of a song up ahead. It was Escape by Rupert Holmes. I smiled. He must have been taken from Terra a long while ago. We came up to the cage where Peter got tased and there I could see the blue man with Peter's headphones on, reading my book. One of the few comforting things that I had in my life were in his filthy hands. I could just hear the the electricity crackling at my hands. While Peter went to the side, I placed my hands right on his shoulder and gave him a sharp shock while Peter cracked the man on the side of the head with the orb.

"You have anything to keep you breathing outside?" He asked, glancing at me as we both collected our lost items. "Yep. And I'm assuming that very scary face mask will be helping you breathe?" I asked, a little bit of sarcasm leaking into my voice. "Oh you betcha!" I could hear the the smile in his voice. We walked through the jail and eventually made our way out. I activated my mask and maneuvered my way through space shooting fire out my hands and feet. I hit the ladder right after Peter. Gamora and Drax helped Peter up and then lifted me up right after. These two show spirit! They shall make keen allies in the battle against Ronan. Companions, what were you retrieving?" Peter handed his walkman to Drax while I held my book, said "My old myth book," and walked past him. "Imbeciles." Whether that was directed at me, Peter, Gamora, or all three of us was a mystery to me. While the ship flew I sat next to Rocket, reading and listening to my music while he built something while humming a tune. "Yo Ranger Rick, you can't take apart my ship without asking me! What is this?" Peter yelled. "Don't touch that. Its a bomb." Warned Racket. "A bomb? And you leave it lying around?" "I was gonna put it in a box!" Rocket defended. "Rocket, what the hell is a box going to do?" I jumped in. "Who's side are you on Marris?" Rocket accused. "His because it is his ship after all." I pointed out softly. "Exactly! Thank you Arva!" Peter said. "Oh whatever" and I stopped listening after that, letting my music flow through my head as I pictured all of the epic battles going on in my book. I could barely register the yelling that was going on and the fact that Gamora had walked out of the room.

I felt Peter tap on my shoulder and I looked up to see him jerking his head toward the head of the ship. I sat in the copilot seat while head sat in the front seat. "You seem pretty peaceful for a person that travels with a homicidal raccoon." He said. "I wouldn't say peaceful. I just prefer to stay out of things that could get innocent people, myself, or my friends killed. Plus I can be incredibly oblivious, so that probably doesn't help me." I chose my words carefully, trying not to reveal to much. "Well you seem nice. Rocket and Gamora or just plain rude, Drax is to literal, and the tree is just confusing." Peter admitted. A smile crept onto my face. "You'll get used to Groot. Even though 'I am Groot' is all he says he's actually pretty nice." I said. "How can you even tell what he's saying?" Peter interrupted. I held my hand up onto my knee and willed vines to grow. A small smile rested on my face as he looked at it, awed as the small vines created different patterns. "I am able to control nature. I guess since Groot is a tree as well as a human type figure I can understand him. Anyways I haven't properly gotten to know Gamora or Drax to properly make an assumption. I do know Rocket though. He may come off as an ass but he's a good guy. There is just a lot of pent up emotions inside of him. The sarcasm and rudeness is just a way to hide it. Don't judge him to harshly." I've known him long enough to see a lot of it come to light. All of the pain and hurt that he's contained. As I glanced over I could see I could see him staring at me. I wondered briefly what he was thinking.

"What are your powers? I saw you use fire, ice, nature and electricity but is that all?" Peter asked. "I control the elements, electricity and am able to turn into other animals. I have also been able to expand off of my powers in recent years. Like how I was able to create ice out of water or a force field out of electricity." I explained. I set the tips of my fingers on fire, making little patterns in the air. Peter looked at me like he was confused. "How did you get your powers? That doesn't seem like you would get them naturally." He said, probably already guessing what had happened. "Funnily enough I did get the ability to control nature, well naturally" I said as I looked down at my hands "How I got the rest though doesn't need explaining. Some assholes got curious about what I could do and they picked me up from Terra. They put me through a bunch of experimentation and I eventually got out of it. What happened in there to make me what I am doesn't really matter." He looked surprised at something but before he could say anything Groot and Rocket walked in. Rocket sat in the seat next me while Groot stood behind me. I looked in front of us to see what looked like a giant skull with thousands of lights attached to it. It was beautiful.

"What is it" Drax asked. "It's called Knowhere. The severed head of an ancient celestial being. Be wary heading in. There are no regulations whatsoever here." Gamora said. As we flew inside I could see that hundreds of things were being built inside of the skull. Lights and small mining ships flew around collecting the brain matter of the skull. "Hundreds of years ago the Tivan group sent workers in to mine the organic matter within the skull. Bone, brain tissue, spinal fluid, all rare resources highly valued in black markets across the Galaxy. It's dangerous and illegal work. Suited for outlaws." "Well that all sounds absolutely lovely." I commented. "Well me and Marris come from a planet of outlaws. Billie the kid, Bonnie and Clyde, John Stamos." Peter said, winking at me. All I did was roll my eyes and grin. Those were such old references. "Sounds like a place in which I would like to visit." Drax said. "You should." A few kids came up to us, two going up to Gamora. I clutched the vine that was in my hand when a set of twins came up to me. I grew a flower crown on my head and put it on the girls while I gave a orange tulip to the boy. I smiled at the two before Peter ushered us away. He looked at me and said softly "That was cute." before walking to the head of the group. "Your buyers in there?" Rocket asked Gamora. "We are to wait for his representative." She said as a man was pushed out of the area. "This is no respectable establishment. What do you expect us to do while we wait?" Drax asked, seemingly confused. We all parted ways after that. The barbaric lizard racing that Drax and Rocket seemed to be into just scared me a little bit so I went to look for something else. Eventually I found a small bookshop. I got something called The Darkest Minds by Alexandra Bracken. I smiled and thanked the lady behind the counter before putting my headphones on and walking around to find something else to do.

I found a small balcony on the outskirts of the the skull. I was listening to 'Angela' by The Lumineers when Peter walked up to me. The music was blaring so loud that I didn't hear what he had to say. I laughed softly before saying "Sorry, didn't hear you, could you repeat it?" He gave a smile back before saying "You have headphones." I nodded. "I got them on some random planet a while ago when my last ones broke." I replied. "They aren't connected to anything. Don't you have a cassette player?" I grinned widely. "No they're Bluetooth. They don't need to be connected to anything. And cassette players aren't really around anymore. Now we have tablets and phones." I showed him my tablet with it's old case. "But these are giant! How in the hell are you supposed to carry this?" I chuckled. "You should see all the music it has though! There's something called Spotify that has millions of songs on here! Even songs from the 1980s!" I said excitedly. I never really had someone to talk to about this stuff. Rocket had said he didn't want learn about my 'trash planet' and poor Groot had gotten so startled when he heard the the music that he crushed my tablet. I didn't exactly want to talk to them about it after that. I talked to Peter about what I could do with the device, the main topic being music. He showed me his cassette player and the music he had while I showed him Spotify and the giant playlist I had. The excitement went down a little when he told me how his mom gave gave him the cassette player. "It must be nice, having a part of her with you. My parent ditched me as soon as they found what I could do. You had a parent growing up. That's good." I said.

I was quick to feel confused when I heard yelling outside. Peter and me walked outside to see a crowd forming around a fight. I pushed through only to be stopped by a man. "Hello sweetie." He said in a repulsive tone. I only shoved him harder, sending him into the crowd. I walked into the middle to see Drax on top of Groot punching him repeatedly. I grabbed Drax's arm and dragged him off of Groot. "Stop! Stop it!" I saw out of the corner of my eye Rocket aiming a giant gun at us. "Rocket no! Put that shit down now!" I snarled. "This vermin speaks of affairs he knows nothing about!" Drax yelled. "That is true!" Rocket shouted back. "He has no respect!" Drax shouted again. "That is also true!" " Hold on! Hold on!" Peter shouted at Rocket. I could see Groot get up next to me. "Keep calling me vermin tough guy! You just want to laugh at me like everyone else!" Rocket said. I felt my shoulders go slack at that. He never admitted that to anybody he didn't trust. We always got laughed at the talking raccoon, the giant tree, and the freak girl. We were a shit show. It had always bothered us when people muttered about us. How we could never be normal. And now all of it was coming to light. "Rocket, buddy, no one is laughing at you. I promise." I said in a soft tone, hoping to calm him down. "Don't try to sell me that Arva. You know how people look at us! They see some angry rat, a stupid tree, and a freak girl who can kill them in one second!" He shouted at me. "Rocket you're drunk alright? No one's laughing at you." Peter said. "He thinks I'm some stupid thing! He does! Well I didn't ask to get made! Neither did Arva! We didn't ask to be torn apart and put back together over and over and turned into some little monster!" Rocket yelled. For a moment I saw Peters eyes flick to me before he focused on Rocket again. "Rocket no ones calling you a monster." Peter said. "He called me vermin! And she called me rodent! Let's see if you can laugh after five or six good shots from this!" He shouted, lifting hi gun again and pointing it at Gamora, who had joined a few seconds after me and Peter. I immediately jumped in front of the weapon. "Rocket! Rocket, buddy! Four billion units! Rocket! C'mon man, just suck it up for one more lousy night and then we're rich!" I yelled and slowly but surely he put his weapon down. "Fine. But I can't promise that after all this I'm not gonna kill every last one of them." He said tiredly. "See! That's exactly why none of you have any friends! Five seconds after you meet somebody you're already trying to kill them! Arva seems like the only calm one of you people, and she can probably do the the most damage!" Peter yelled. "We have travelled halfway across the quadrant and Ronan is no closer to being dead." Drax said walking off. "Drax!" I yelled. "Let him go. We don't need him." Gamora told me, right as the door to the area was opened.

[highwiredazeken]

SAGA: EPIC ACOUSTIC SYMMETRY AND BEYOND

Interview by Ken Morton - Photo by  Alexander Mertsch 

Saga has been presenting their sweeping progressive rock tapestries to the world since 1977, unveiling an intriguing auditory adventure on each and every album.  Symmetry is the next exhilarating chapter in the Saga legacy, featuring imaginative acoustic renditions of their classic songs.  Inspired by the final tour of founding member Jim Crichton in 2017 where they opened their shows with an all acoustic performance, Symmetry presents another side of Saga that longtime fans will want to revisit time and again.  Highwire Daze recently interviewed guitarist and Saga co-founder Ian Crichton to find out more about the vibrant world of Symmetry, the Canadian bands connection with Los Angeles with their song Say Goodbye To Hollywood, creating music in a pandemic age, and other topics of interest.  Read on…

How did the idea of Symmetry come about and what was it like revisiting these songs in a different way? The idea came – we did a final tour with my brother Jim Crichton in 2017 in Europe – and we wanted to do something special – so we came up with the idea of opening up for ourselves acoustically. It’s something we’ve always talked about doing in the past – about doing these heavier prog rock sort of songs acoustically – let’s do it! So, we put a set together – a 50-minute set – where we opened up for ourselves – and we had a giant backdrop which was actually the front cover of Symmetry – like an old library overgrown and all that which covered the main show. Anyway, people really liked it – it went down really well – so that sparked the idea of doing a record like that – and it took about a year and a half to do it – I was touring in between. But then with the event of Covid last year – I was touring in February – we got shut down March 14th – and I’ve been here ever since. But that made it really possible to get down and finish the record.

What was it like to record this music in the middle of a pandemic and all of this social unrest in the world? Was it more difficult to record? You mean keeping your eye on the ball and that sort of thing with all of this crap going on? Once you get into the music and stuff, it actually helped make everything else go away. So, there was no problem that way. It actually of helped, because I kept touring with Saga – we still tour – and that kind of shut everything down. And it was a challenge of making a record that’s not just a couple of acoustic guitars and cut down of songs. We wanted to keep it exciting and keep the same kind of feel – only on acoustic instruments.

I would like to talk about three of the songs on Symmetry then and now. The first single on Symmetry is Tired World. Give me a little background on the song and what it was like to do this remake of it. Tired World was on our first record – I was 20 years old when we recorded that. We played three years in the clubs before we started breaking out into shows. We used to play that every night and it was a great little thing, because you get a great long guitar solo in it. You really got your chops together playing in the clubs every single night. And do to it acoustically – yeah it was challenging. The solo that I did on that song – it’s pretty long – and I really had to think about it. I’d be playing banjo for a while – so what I ended up doing was implementing part banjo / part guitar and building a solo that way to make the same kind of excitement. It was pretty challenging, but we’re happy with the record.

Wind Them Up is the second single and the second song I’d like to talk about. Give me a little background on that song then and now… Wind Them Up was one of our biggest hits. I arranged Wind Them Up myself and I re-wrote the ending. I thought if we were going to do an acoustic record, it would be nice to tackle one of the bigger hits.  So yeah, I sat down and mapped that whole thing out on acoustic as a bed track and we just when from there.

And then the third track I wanted to talk about was Say Goodbye To Hollywood, then and now. Highwire Daze is based in the Los Angeles area and I was wondering if you have any connections to the Los Angeles/Hollywood area? We certainly do Ken. My brother Jim – our relationship with Los Angeles started in 1986/87. We chose a famous producer to do one of our records Wildest Dreams – Keith Olsen whose done mega records – and we went down there and had him produce us. We were living in England at the time – Michael, my brother and myself – and that lead to Jim moving to Los Angeles. We actually made a studio in his ranch house on Burbank there – and then when he moved out, he built a regular studio right beside Sound City in Van Nuys there. Jimmy built a full-on studio there for 25 years – and we recorded every Saga record in Los Angeles from 1987 to 2005. I spent a lot of time in your area Ken.

And tell me about the Say Goodbye To Hollywood song then… Okay, well that song was sparked – once again we were in Jim’s studio in Van Nuys. We were hired by Stephen J. Cannell to do songs in his upcoming show Cobra – which ran 22 episodes and was not a hit. The album we did called Steel Umbrellas was on the back of this TV show. It was kind of a different record for us. Anyway, Goodbye To Hollywood was one of the songs and that was going to go into the show too. That was about all I could say about it. That was the sign of the times, the TV show and all that kind of stuff. It didn’t mean I wanted to Say Goodbye To Hollywood. (Laughs) Because I love it down there. It’s like 10 degrees up here right now in Southern Ontario…

Have you managed to play any live dates at all during the pandemic? No. I had an offer from Quebec City to do a show and then the Covid numbers went crazy – up and down and up and down. At one point we were going to have this beautiful theater and we could have had maybe 300 people in the theater and then do a sort of small pay for view, put it on the net show. I was sort of working on that for a while. It just fell apart – their numbers went crazy up there with Covid and no one was going to be allowed in. Plus, the fact that Mike Sadler – our singer – Michael, he lives in Missouri in the States and he couldn’t get over the border – so that kind of shut that down. We’re all kind of in that mode, until everyone gets vaccinated or whatever is going to happen here.

You announced a few upcoming shows. What are you looking forward to the most about these Out Of The Shadows tour dates and do you think that they’re going to happen? In June? Yeah, we’ll your guess is as good as mine. I got a call from our tour manager a couple of days ago – tickets are selling really well and that makes me nervous – happy at the same time but it’s in this world – right? I’m told that the Norwegians are urging for shows to go back on and all that. After all this time I just don’t know. But I am going with the flow. If we could do it, it would be great – but we’ll see.

What do you think has kept you so passionate about Saga since 1977? It’s been like a family business with Jim and myself – with brothers – we played when we were very young as kids – we went into various bands and all that sort of stuff and ended up starting Saga. And hell or high water, we were hellbent on making this into something. And once you’ve put so much time into it – depending on if everyone is still getting along and all that stuff – I didn’t see any reason in discarding something like that. With Saga, I’m very fortunate – we’ve been playing original music my whole life. For me, it’s better than going off and playing other people’s songs. I haven’t done that. This has more satisfaction.

What do you think has made you and Michael Sadler work so well together after all this time? Well, I’ve known him forever. I met Mike when I was 13 years old or whatever. He was around. Mike and Jim were in a band called Truck – it was a cover band doing Genesis and Gentle Giant and all this. Up here in the clubs you could play Monday thru Saturday night, week after week after week – it was so healthy for bands in the 70’s. You weren’t making a fortune, but you were making enough money. You were playing every night and it was in a world where everyone liked going out to bars and seeing bands. So yeah, it was really healthy. And then comes the 80’s and everything starts shutting down, you know. Different generation don’t like to go out to bars anymore to see bands and all that. But Michael, I’ve known him forever and it works.

Do you still keep in touch Rob Moratti? I understand you’ve actually played on some of his solo albums. Yeah, I speak to Rob still. I’ve played one solo on one song per record. He did one of my favorite Saga records, The Human Condition.

What do you think about The Human Condition in retrospect – the one Saga record without Michael Sadler on lead vocals? I love it! When Michael (briefly) left the band, I spent the entire year, day after day, right up to New Year’s Eve – first of all, I had to find a singer – and I could not find another Mike Sadler. Michael’s got his own voice and stuff. So, I gave up looking for that. Basically, I just wanted to find a great singer – and the band was going to change a bit of course because Michael wasn’t there. And I wanted to make sure it was really good – and boy, I never worked harder in my life I tell you. I’m very happy with that record. I like all the songs on it very much. Rob did a fantastic job!

Are you involved with any other projects outside of Saga? I had been in the past – 15-20 years ago I put out a couple of solo things that were okay. I’m involved with something right now, but I can’t really talk about it – I’ll see where that goes. But mainly Saga. But it’s the biz – it still works – it still draws in (many) people and it works.

Any chance of any brand-new Saga albums coming up? We’re talking about it. No set date or anything like that, but there are discussions going around about doing another record like that. And I’m getting a lot of requests to do another acoustic record too – and tour acoustically too!

What do you hope 2021 brings for Saga overall? I hope the world gets healed and we get back to business and all that. Good will to everyone really. Saga is an endless thing – it’s the Saga story forever!

Do you have any messages for Saga fans out here in the States? I’d like to say from the bottom of my heart that we miss you. It’s been a long time since we’ve played for you. We’ve had a lot of requests on the Internet and stuff like that. We’ve had a lot of challenges too in being able to secure shows there, but I’m still going to keep trying. We’re still looking around for promoters – not at the moment because of Covid. But we hope to see you soon.

Symmetry by Saga is now available worldwide via earMUSIC!

Current line-up Michael Sadler – vocals, guitar, bass, synthesizer, drums (1977–2007, 2011–present) Ian Crichton – guitar, synthaxe, banjo (1977–present) Jim Gilmour – synthesizer, keyboards, vocals, clarinet, saxophone, harmonica (1980–1986, 1992–present) Mike Thorne – drums, electronic drums, vocals (2012–present) Dusty Chesterfield – bass, keyboards, Moog synthesizer (2019–present)

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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