#pro: we also get come thou long expected jesus

[queenlucythevaliant]

All I want for Christmas is nothing but my favorite carols in church

[hell-heron]

For the pros/cons meme - Romercutio, Tycutio, Bencutio, Tyvolio, Romtycutio, Romvolio, Rombalt (basically all of them lol except Montacrew OT3 cause we know that one has no cons 😉) I wanna hear all your opinions ❤️

Jesus Christ ahfjksdl

ok here come the Opinions

Romercutio

Pros: - I stoically acknowledge it’s the only one here with any canon basis whatsoever

- Gave us the extremely important Italian kiss! And the Mab speech snuggles! And the potential for death snuggles! I can respect it on this standpoint

- the banter is top notch. Romeo up and answering “in bed, asleep, where they do dream things true :D” is straight up one of the highlights for me. Baby boy babies

- can’t believe them being willing to die AND kill for each other is canon and absolutely no other possible interpretations of that scene exist-

Cons: -  they sort of seem types of people who get on great as friends but may be a lil idealistically incompatible for long term romance, which tbf applies to like everyone else here but they’re the only ones who are friends to lovers

- while I love your fic and some other I read the characterization is sometimes sort of unrecognizable to me, at least in the unrequited/more canon compliant ones? Mercutio is so joyless and humiliated a character and Romeo this pretty frat boy constantly getting into girls’ skirts (he wishes) that exists to be unattainable and pined for. A lot of these people tbh don’t sound like they like Romeo

- I just have a bit of a squick for unrequited love where the subject of it is both the protagonist and the only one getting a het love interest bc idk it feels sort of meanspirited for the other character? Just like from a narrative standpoint bc actually nothing from actual characterization suggests Mercutio gets significantly less laid than Romeo lol. And while I have much less trouble with requited stuff, fucking Romeo and Juliet is not a canon where I’m hugely tempted to subvert the canon het you know

Tycutio 

Pros - Mercutio does get a very gay monologue about the whole Prince of Cats thing

- Enemies to lovers! Banter! Sparring! Every version of the duel is so sexy!

- There is somewhat of an healthy foil situation that isn’t on characterization or values as they both are abjected disasters but like... on the axis of Mercutio’s chaotic neutral-ness and ability to question everything and see behind people’s bullshit VS Tybalt need to be aligned with a cause and self-righteousness. It feels like it has actually redemptive potential for them while all other enemies to lovers I acknowledge to be a wretched trash fire

- It’s really fun to rewrite versions of C’est le jour so they’re Tycutio instead of incesty

- potential for being a foil to r&j actually, like in the sense of another similar love story that was attempted but couldn’t withstand the hate and pressure like... internally rather than externally

- A Tender Thing

Cons: - I’m told the murder thing is a con to some people

- It gave us the Austrian kiss

- *gestures at the entirety of the revival*

- the fic is all so sexual agh which totally makes sense and I do imagine them to have some odd kink but I want to imagine it and not read it

Bencutio 

Pros: - it’s just very cute and ends in abject angst and “this is the truth or let Benvolio die”

- it seems like really wholesome and healthy and shit, like, there’s a lot of them having fun together and bickering and worrying about Romeo together because it doesn’t preclude them all being friends as a trio 

- the “thou art as hot a Jack as any in Italy” speech is so hot like. The level of “I see you beyond the stoic responsible exterior you’re projecting and the person you think you are and that’s okay and also you have really pretty eyes” and meanwhile it’s also trolling the whole time

- I totally imagine Benvolio’s interventions in the prince of Cats speech to be like “oh Jesus Christ and who is this Tybalt now .-.” all jealous

- I really love the Toho setup of them being the Montague leaders together and the potential for like mutual support and happiness through the fighting ok

Cons: - I’m gonna admit I’m invested in like multiple version of these guys but that you only get to with multiple layers of AU made up by myself or others

-  objectively Any Two Guys

- the fandom is composed of criminals obviously very averse to Romeo which is annoying as the trio friendship is a main part of both characters and also there’s no reason to be meanspirited, also I really disagree on the characterization on Benvolio as everyone seems to ignore 1) the aforementioned “thou art as hot” speech and 2) that he’s the one who has the idea to go the party

- it doesn’t add anything at all to the play 

Tyvolio 

Pros: - I think it brings some spicy angst to the duel and also like, somewhat justifies Tybalt only wanting vengeance on Romeo for the ball despite him being there too

- really interesting potential for foils if you assume they have a similar situation within their families which is decently supported by the play and Very by the musical (I’m currently Stewing with thoughts about this re the Italian Jesus Christ this is the last time I write subs) , but tbh even without that you can do lots of different things with the way people cope with high stress situation and what personalities they make for themselves also in light of both of them getting a “my God you’re so full of bullshit” speech from Mercutio

- GeR

Cons: - they absolutely wouldn’t get along ever and you have to really contrive a premise for them to meet and don’t immediately ditch each other

Romtycutio 

Pros: - Wretched boy <3 

- The only thing nicer than a ship where two people murdered each other is a ship where all three murdered each other

Cons: I literally never thought about this ship before we talked about it

Romvolio

Pros: - they’re so unfairly pitted against each other shipping is cathartic tbh

- they’re sweet babies and I love them

- their first dialogue in the play is so tender, they’re so obviously emotionally close (or at least expect themselves to be emotionally close even if that is changing a bit as they Become Men with different priorities and all) and Romeo being all alarmed at Benvolio saying he weeps for him ad calling him “good soul” is just so sweet

- agh all the potential for baby fic and codependency and snuggles 

Cons: - I just see them more as brothers, and like I imagine a bit more of a age difference between them than I would normally ship tho that’s like most items on this list entirely my opinion

Rombalt 

Pros: - I’ve become ridiculously attached to the Tybalt is Rosaline AU

- Apparently it’s a kink for me *sideyes* 

- I find it quite poetic Romeo takes time to talk to Tybalt’s corpse in the cript and tell him that now he can have revenge and so. Very much fucked up shit potential

Cons:  - Doesn’t seem very long term healthy for Romeo aghdjs unlike Romtycutio that like has a buffer

- It’s a bit arbitrary for me to like as enemies to lovers? Like I get the feeling of why Tybalt dislikes Mercutio and Benvolio but Romeo is literally target with murder for going to a party so it’s just sad 

[viruswithsaas]

Roadburn 2018: day by day (2/3)

The festival kicked off on thursday and our original plan was to start with the Waste of Space Orchestra set that the organisation had commissioned for the festival but the line to enter the otherwise spacey 013 main hall was so disencouraging that we decided to enjoy the sun a bit longer and then check out the first Earthless set.

Like mentioned earlier, Earthless was one of the San Diego jam rockbands that more or less invaded Tilburg with sets all over the place with the first in the 013. Besides the Cheech & Chong version of jazz, jam rock is also a difficult genre for the audience. It requires some effort and an adventurous mindset and even then it is pretty much hit or miss. If the band is not “feeling” it, you can expect a half assed cacophony but if it’s good, it is a thing of wonder that will fill you up with delight. Earthless were definitely on a roll and sure, the guitar player had a bit of a Jimi Hendrix-complex and loved his wah-pedal very much, but it was a perfect opener.

Insect Ark in the hot, small and crowded Cul de Sac was less than perfect. Just like the show in Brussels one or two years ago, the doom duo started off awkwardly and didn’t pull itself together until the last third of the set or so. A shame because I like Insect Ark and love Ash Spungin’s drumming style; clever, never one hit too much or too few. Just like Meg White of the White Stripes but tighter.

After some much needed post-Cul de Sac rehydration, it was time for Cult of Luna’s final show with Julie Christmas. Don’t you just love her name? All joking apart, that was an amazing show, the post metal band played incredibly and la Christmas is an energetic Wednesday Addams-esque appearance that filled up the entire stage on her own.  With a landslide the highlight of the day, not even Weedeater, a proto-type stoner metal band with bears and gnarly fuzzes that rather plays loud than tight, could change that. Good times, good times. Maybe we were not as pro-active as we would like to have been but tomorrow we were going to change that.

But we didn’t. We started out with a plus two hour set of Motorpsycho. Weird thing is that I’ve seen the individual members with other bands but never with the “mothership”. So, I sort of knew what to expect but not really. Anyway, it was amazing. Its start was slow. Very slow but after the opening song the band kept the tempo up. Of course you had to be into instrumental 70′s styled jazz/heavy rock music to enjoy but euhm, yes, Motorpsycho, damn.

From Motorpsycho with its intricate, jazzy style to the hard, brutal and loud Converge playing the “You Fail Me” album (with another detour to rehydrate) and it was.... I can’t say. Metalcore is one of the few genres that I find awful (along with reggae) and although Converge is brainier than Five Finger Death Punch (not difficult, “plus bête, on meurt”) it never really connected with me.

Seen that we liked Earthless the previous day, we decided to head over to the new venue Koepelhal, basically a giant patched up warehouse but still very cool, and check out their set with singer Damo Suzuki. But given the monotony of the band and Suzuki, we quickly headed back to 013 for Godflesh which was equally monotonous but only much louder and with the compressors running red hot.

Luckily Igorrr was there to save the day with a superb electro-metal set, a drummer and two brilliant singers. It was fun, it was danceable and the theatrics of the singers gave it a bit of a cabaret feeling. Yes, a lot of the music was pre-recorded and blablabla but one, it’s 2018 so shut up about 1979 already and two, this shit was TIGHT AF! But, second day, all in all, we didn’t see as much as we would have liked. Third day was going to be different.

Euh, yeah kinda? We started off slowly by skipping Bell Witch playing the entire funeral doom opera “Mirror Reaper” but we saw the Húgsja set with Ivar Bjørnson (Enslaved) and Einar Selvik (Wardruna) which was gorgeous. It wasn’t too different from Wardruna, perhaps a bit more mellow and new age-y, but with Selvik’s esoteric vocals and the wonderful folk music, who really cares?

Panopticon had to deal with a bad soundmix but their furious, take-no-prisoners black metal went down easily. Not really super duper original but still good.

Last minute we decided to skip Boris, getting hydrated with friends, and Zola Jesus, because the headliner was coming up: the post rock titan collective that is Godspeed You! Black Emperor.

It was a brave decision of Roadburn to make this band the headliner of 2018. GY!BE is pretty much anti-headliner material. Long songs without a catchy chorus or vocal hooks, a style and aesthetic that feels more like an arthouse movie entrance than a full fledged band, bit of a murky image without a recognisable face and no hits, even by independent standards. During the show, I felt that many spectators didn’t bother check out the band before coming to Roadburn and were expecting something completely different. Well, fuck them because GY!BE was AWESOME! Close your eyes and you’ll see apocalyptic landscapes, fields of grass waving in the wind, comets flying by. A lot of bands say that they are all about the music but there is only one band that can and should make that statements.

After the brilliance of GY!BE came Thou x The Body and it was basically a fuckload of heavy noise. It has the sophistication of a donkey raping a goat and it even sounded like that too! But in its sloppiness and uncontrollable noise, it was fun.

Excellent third day!

Before heading back home to our own homes and showers, we wanted to see few more acts. The first was the other commissioned piece “Vánagandr: Sól án varma”, thank heavens for copy/paste, from the Icelandic black metal scene. This piece was just… wow… It was brutal, layered, dense and incredibly creepy. At moments it felt like the score for a horror movie. With a MIDI-controller, three guitars, drums, bass and four people singing, there was a lot going on and it packed enough variation and dynamics to keep this overwhelming 90 minutes long blastbeat fest interesting. The performance was spot on and the response to it was amazing.

A band that slipped under our radar but turned out to a pleasant surprise was Watter in the Green Room and a nice change of scenery. Watter played a mellow hybrid of alternative rock and soft electro. With all the super loud black metal mayhem going on in the main room, this was an oasis of tranquility. Perhaps this would sound a lot more boring on record but in the then current context it worked. In the main hall afterewards it was time for more black metal with Wiegedood. It was more straight forward and “simpler” than the commission from the far north but was at the time just a bit too much. Before getting in the car we wanted to catch another glimpse of the second set of Godspeed You! Black Emperor. This time the people were prepared for it, you could the many people sitting down and attentively listening, and the atmosphere was more relaxed and respectful. Again, GY!BE was by far the best thing of the entire weekend, no question about it.

Like stated earlier, Roadburn is at a turning point and the focus might change but the team behind the festival have crafted out their own little world where it can do as it pleases. With Heilung as headliner, it looks like we can expect another edition where anything could happen.

I used to say that Roadburn is always ahead of the curve but that no longer applies. Roadburn IS the curve.

[jolie-guerrier]

Some Anti-Theist Religious Bits & Pieces: Round Thirteen

Of all of those Big Questions important to philosophical standards that surround life, the universe and the whole lot, the geographical regions of theology and religions and the nature of deities continue to fascinate. Opinions proliferate in books, articles, films, conversations in bars and pubs, and in reality anywhere and everywhere two or extra human beings are in proximity. There's the pro side; there's the anti-side. There are not too many fence-sitters. I'm still inside the anti-camp as the subsequent bits and portions illustrate.

Regarding Religion

*You do not want a god to have meaning and cause to your lifestyles.

*There is one trait that the multi-thousands of differing religious perception structures / theologies have exhibited and that is the strength of the human imagination to boldly cross and believe imaginary standards by no means imagined before. The world would be a much less colourful and exciting vicinity with out our various mythologies.

*I think there ought to be mandatory religious and Biblical training in schools when you consider that that need to ensure a consistent movement of atheists growing up and entering the network!

*Religions regularly do accurate in an effort to masks the evil they do, but can now do with impunity.

*The Catholic Church: AIDS is horrific however the use of condoms is worse since God does not approve of 'beginning control' for any reason Engagement Rings Perth. It is seemingly taught in Africa with the aid of Catholics that the use of condoms makes "Baby Jesus cry". Weird.

*Then too we had the Catholic Church's Index of Prohibited Books. It wasn't simply the Nazis that burned books. Now you have got to be certainly insecure and unsure of your theology and a way to shield it if you have to cover at the back of a diminished curtain that consequences via the censoring of divergent reviews. It's just every other nail in Christianity's coffin.

*There's no more proof for informal and disorganised non secular notion (like being non secular without being a member of any formal non secular cult / organization / church) than formally organised religion. It's all just a shape of "woo".

*When it comes to faith, "stay and allow stay" True Believers are very tons in the minority. (Via Greta Christina).

*Any faith is just a operating hypothesis about how life, the Universe and the whole thing, but mainly the world, works. As such, that religion is difficulty to scrutiny and rebuttal and being challenged and corrected as could any other operating speculation from every other topical vicinity or of difficulty rely of problem to human beings, from the sciences via to political structures.

*We do not tend to move purchasing for the logo of faith we need among all of the extraordinary and extensively differing brands of religion on provide after which picking the most suitable the way we do for the multi brands of packets of biscuits on provide on the grocery store or for a specific logo or fashion label of dress on the ladies fashion shop and apparel department. Instead we keep ingesting / sporting the same brand again and again and once more due to the fact that was simply the manner we were raised. Likewise, we tend to hold the faith that become shoved down our throats whilst we were youngsters. This is in element due to subculture (if it was top sufficient for Mum & Dad its true enough for me) in addition to own family / social pressure. Of direction in a few societies the pressure borders on real bodily threats and punishments if you stray from the well-known fold.

*Thanks to Christianity and its all-loving, all-simply, all-merciful God, over 50,000 innocent human beings have been tortured and achieved - they had been referred to as "witches" but were no extra real witches than folks that turned the thumb-screws, tightened the rack, and lite the bonfires surrounding the stake. By the manner, this practice remains going on in many remote regions in underdeveloped international locations. God (and His servants right here on the planet) ought to hold their heads in disgrace for Exodus 22: 18 "Thou shall now not go through a witch to stay".

Regarding Religion vs. Science

*According to Leviticus 11: 6 and Deuteronomy 14: 7, hares (i.E. - rabbits) cheweth the cud. This of route is zoological nonsense. Chalk up yet another Biblical oops.

*The time-honored fashion over all of recorded history is that natural reasons have supplanted, normally exceeded in explanatory power, supernatural (i.E. - spiritual) explanations. I'd guess it is a fashion on the way to hold on maintaining on.

Regarding Faith & Belief

*Saying which you simply recognize some thing (with out proof to back up your know-how) is simply now not a pathway to fact.

*If you say your religion trumps proof then you definitely are absolutely immune to both self-correction and proof against dissent.

*Religious belief is perception in the unverifiable. There's no proof to be discovered inside the religious pudding. Any evidence to be located comes after you've got kicked-the-bucket and by means of then it's too little, too overdue to inform each person.

*The idea of identifying what's true based totally on what you want to be authentic is absurd in the acute. Reality is what truth is and your ideals to the opposite are inappropriate. So any notion system that encourages people to disregard reality is a horrific notion machine and that covers Christianity right down via and along with New Age "Woo".

*The high coaching of monotheistic religious notion in an invisible magic man in the sky is an apparent instance known to computer programmers of GIGO - Garbage In; Garbage Out.

*Christian: You must recognize my beliefs.

Atheist: No! I may appreciate you as being an sincere and likable man or woman however that doesn't imply I need to admire what you believe in.

*You have a right for your personal spiritual beliefs till such time as you cross the road and your non secular ideals enter the public arena and start to harm others.

*It's hypocritical in the intense so that you can bucket the religious ideals of others whilst the ones beliefs do not conform on your ideals and then expect your religious ideals to get a free bypass.

Regarding Prayer & Miracles

*For the Catholic Church to declare some event as a bona-fide miracle (i.E. Fatima, October 1917), properly that's comparable to a real believer in Bigfoot or the Yeti affirming that a photograph of an eroded 'primate' footprint inside the snow is absolute evidence of same. True believers will obviously advise occasions that mirror proof for his or her actual notion.

Regarding Morality

*The concept that religious faith mechanically makes you a very good and moral person is absurd in the intense. Prisons in America, Canada, Western Europe, Australia, and many others. Are full of Christians. Prisons in Muslin nations are full of prisoners of the Islamic religion. And then too, what about all of these people of the cloth and the collar - like Catholic (and other) clergymen and other clergy who use their positions of authority to one) mentally abuse little children with terrifying threats of eternal punishment in Hell and 2) who bodily abuse youngsters in their care, especially engaging in sexual abuse. And this is simply scratching the surface of the evils committed via those professing religious religion.

Regarding the End Times

*Faith is a crock! Evidence? There have been thousands of precise prophetic forecasts made by way of the faithful for the End Times; End of Days; the Second Coming; the Rapture; Armageddon; the Apocalypse, and so on. There have been multi-millions of trustworthy believers who've believed the ones prophets. All such prophecies have failed. None have ever come to skip. Score: the truth of really actual reality 1; religion 0.

*We're nonetheless ready!

*Sorry Michele Bachmann and all related "End Times" fanatics, however some other day has come and long past and once more, God's a no-show. And Jesus, of Second Coming repute, seems to be a chunk tardy as properly. Did they neglect to set the alarm clocks? Did they omit the bus? Maybe their Holy Chariot had a flat! Michele Bachmann and organization may trust that the stop is nigh (and has been for pretty a few considerable time) and the Rapture is imminent (and has been for pretty some significant time as well), but I assume it's pretty safe for you to plot and pay for your next excursion and increase that nest egg on your lengthy years in retirement.

Regarding the Soul / Afterlife

*This can also come as a surprise to many but there was no perception in an afterlife in historic Israeli Jewish groups. The handiest real connection with an afterlife inside the Old Testament is at Daniel 12: 2. That's it. There are not any other hits for "life eternal" or "eternal life"; "lifestyles eternal" or "eternal lifestyles"; or "afterlife" or "lifestyles after demise" or even "resurrection". So there is no place given for an afterlife in the Old Testament because with the only exception there may be no concept of an afterlife in the Old Testament and Daniel 12: 2 noted no afterlife area. Now this is quite unexpected given the prominence the afterlife receives inside the New Testament. Perhaps the afterlife became simply an after-thought on God's component as in "gee, it would be wonderful to have a few consistent deliver of new faces and agency to speak to me here upstairs on my heavenly throne".