#quincy troupe
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daweyt · 11 months ago
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Quincy Troupe, from “A Mind Apart: Poems of Melancholy, Madness, and Addiction; ‘River Town Packin House Blues’”, edited by Mark S. Bauer.
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tamsoj · 1 year ago
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Quincy Troupe, "River Town Packin House Blues," from A Mind Apart: Poems of Melancholy, Madness, and Addiction
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chantssecrets · 8 months ago
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Born July 22, 1939, in St. Louis, Missouri, Quincy Troupe is an awarding-winning author of 12 volumes of poetry, three children’s books, and six non-fiction works. In 2010 Troupe received the American Book Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement.
When, in the fall of 1987, he travelled to the south of France to interview a critically ill James Baldwin, they knew it was his last chance to speak at length about his life and work. The result is one of the most eloquent and revelatory interviews of Baldwin's career, ranging widely over his youth in Harlem, his friendship with Miles Davis and Toni Morrison and his thoughts on race.
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mordere-diem · 1 year ago
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"the sound we hear is real when we know it coming from the terrifying mystery of a hip shaman's horn, we see the music form in the shape of the hot tongue of a bic flame lighter tonguing out gushed heat,                     flames as sounds, as words inside the scorched flow of lava, inside a tongue that is red, white, & blue, laced with dues paid in philadelphia, in hamlet, north carolina, where a language was fractured there,"
Quincy Troupe, Words that build Bridges Toward a New Tongue
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dustedmagazine · 2 years ago
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Listed: Arthur King
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Arthur King is the creative alias of multidisciplinary artist Peter Walker, whose works span film, music, photography, painting, and sculpture. His latest album, Changing Landscapes, centers around a Latin American insect known as the Zompopa, or leaf-cutter ant, building improvised soundscapes over the tropical insect noises. In her review, Jennifer Kelly wrote, “Changing Landscapes (Zompopa) is, indeed, a deeply affecting listening experience, melding the twittering, chittering serenity of the tropical wild with angelic vocals (Mia Doi Todd in particularly lovely form), electronics and other instruments.“ Here Walker lists some books and films that have inspired him.
5 books:
The Spell of the Sensuous (David Abram)
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This book is gorgeously insightful. He touches on the tenets of ecopsychology, which posits all things in the natural world as having a soul, the anima mundi. He suggests, as do countless other wise teachers, that all things are connected in an intricate webwork, and that our individual well-being is undoubtedly connected to the well-being of all things.
Pagan Grace (Ginette Paris)
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A mythological book with an in-depth psychological perspective. Basically, the gods of old can be seen as representing different parts of the psyche, because they were born from deep human needs that were otherwise unexplainable. Dionysus and Hermes are of particular interest to those dabbling in the creative arts. Paris was also one of my favorite professors in grad school.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections (C.G. Jung)
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In this insightful memoir, Jung writes about a listening exercise he did in his home, basically active listening, when the sounds he heard, once he became still, filled the air like a natural sort of symphony. With a little attention, the background became the foreground. Brian Eno later elaborated on this concept with his production of (and coining of the phrase) ambient music. Jung also reflects on his intensive engagement with his unconscious when he was middle aged, a process that took him more than a decade and ultimately produced his seminal The Red Book. That period of his life, he says, came to define all that happened before it and all that happened after it. He is an inspiration to dive deep.
Miles: The Autobiography (Miles Davis and Quincy Troupe)
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I’ve read more music biographies than I’d probably admit to, but this one is special. Released just a few years before Miles’ death, I read it in my early twenties and remember loving it. What a story he had! I’m still a huge fan, and am looking forward to re-reading this one when I have a nice long break from whatever else it is that I occupy my time with.
Dream and the Underworld (James Hillman)
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Hillman is just a force unto himself. The way his brain works is almost too hard to follow sometimes, the way he loves to turn phrases around on themselves to propose another viewpoint. One of my favorite concepts of his relates to the dream world, or the unconscious, and the task of trying to understand its contents. Hillman explains that in order to understand something irrational, we must irrationally understand, or more simply, try to move away from our logical, intellectual processes, and enter a more creative realm.
5 movies:
Three Thousand Years of Longing (d. George Miller)
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I’m a big fan, it turns out, of recent George Miller movies. Mad Max: Fury Road being one of them. This latest film of his is wonderfully mythological, and the editing and sound design is a joy to experience. It’s also refreshing to see Middle Eastern/Muslim mythology at work.
The Red Turtle (d. Michaël Dudok de Wit)
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We (Arthur King) have an ongoing live scoring event called “Unknown Movie Night,” where both the audience and band find out what film we’re scoring the moment it plays. The Red Turtle was the most recent selection, just a few weeks ago now. It’s a beautifully simple animated tale from the stupendous Studio Ghibli, and is both heart wrenching and eye opening. I can say this after watching the film, not listening to it! As far as I know, it has very little dialogue, so we all enjoyed this one, with its newly-minted improvised score, very much.
Children of Men (d. Alfonso Cuarón)
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Another director-to-be-a-fan-of, this is a masterpiece by Cuarón, in my opinion. Easter eggs aplenty in this one — lots of ripe and symbolic imagery about the fall of humans. Maybe we won’t be too far off in the real-world 2027? The story is so rich and the film making is both otherworldly and familiar.
Hereditary(d. Ari Aster)
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I don’t like horror films. I tend to avoid them. But this one is just so well done, it’s perhaps worth being scared out of your gourd for a little while. It’s the kind of psychological thrill ride that goes way beyond the jump scares and into a deeper realm of unfolding realities and supernatural phenomena. Maybe watch this one during the day, with other people around.
Inception (d. Christopher Nolan)
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OK so maybe we’re ending with an easy one, but I needed it after just remembering Hereditary. I love the metaphors in this film associated with the different layers of one’s psyche. As we enter deeper and deeper into the subject’s mind, we find not only more irrationality, but also more barriers of entry. The last stronghold in this case, the deepest nook of the psyche, is pictured as a military-style fort in a secluded frozen land, armed to the nines and just about impossible to penetrate. Sound familiar?
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yokelfelonking · 4 months ago
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With a hammer named Death?
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heyitsnyixie · 2 months ago
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My first mistake was thinking ANY of these men were neurotypical.
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l0uterstella · 3 months ago
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❄️ FUYUGUMI "A Song for the Yearning Angel / Yearn for the Angel" SYNOPSIS
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Michael, a medical student in college, appears detached from the world and acts aloof. Uriel tells Raphael, who is worried about Michael, that the souls of former angels are aliens to the human world, therefore it is inevitable that he would be shunned. So Raphael descends down to Earth... Michael climbs over the rooftop fence, and Raphael immediately reaches his hand out. It felt as if he had met Raphael long ago.
CAST: Tsumugi Tsukioka - Michael Tasuku Takato - Raphael Hisoka Mikage - Uriel Homare Arisugawa - Metatron Azuma Yukishiro - Fred Guy - Derick
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soulsforscrapbooks · 1 year ago
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How the Dracula Stage Play Influenced Future Adaptations
So I wanted to let people know about the stage adaptation of Dracula, because it established a lot of tropes that have come to define the novel as well as vampire fiction in general, despite the fact that large changes were made when bringing the book to the stage. Sometimes, honestly, it seems like more adaptations pull from the play than the book. Okay:
The original stage adaptation of Dracula was written in 1897 by Stoker himself! Here you can see the manuscript in his own hand:
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Apparently he hated how it turned out, because he called it “dreadful” and it was performed only once and then never again. The role of Mina was played by Edith Craig, a well-known figure in the suffragist movement and the daughter of Ellen Terry, Stoker's friend, whom he mentions in the book. The next attempt at adapting the novel would not be until the 1920s, after Stoker had died.
The 1924 adaptation by Hamilton Deane stays fairly close to the events of the novel. Some key points:
The entirety of the action takes place in the Harkers' house
Mina and Jonathan are already married
Dracula is already in England, and the storyline involving Jonathan as a prisoner of the Count has been omitted
To accommodate the female members of his theater troupe, Quincy is now a woman! Her name is still Quincy, and she is described as “feisty,” and is a close friend of Jonathan and Mina. (There don’t seem to be any photos from the 1924 play, sadly.)
It is in this first major adaptation that the idea of the Count as suave and debonair is brought into existence. This change is to allow Dracula to interact more easily onstage with the other characters, whereas in the book he stays an offscreen threat for large amounts of time. This is also the first instance of Dracula wearing a high-collared pointy cape, which was originally done to hide the actor better whenever Dracula had to “disappear” through trapdoors. 
Here is Raymond Huntley as Dracula in the 1924 stage adaptation:
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The play was a success, and quickly moved to Broadway:
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This version, adapted by John Balderston, was a complete revision not just from the book but from the 1924 stage play, and a LOT of changes were made:
Quincy, Arthur, and MINA have been removed from the story. Mina is mentioned as having died mysteriously before the play takes place.
Jonathan’s relationship to Dracula has been completely removed. He is not involved with bringing the Count to England at all. He is also now wealthy, and has traveled Europe extensively, where he has heard folktales about vampires.
Lucy is now engaged to Jonathan, and her last name is now Lucy Seward. This is because……..
John Seward has been aged up and is now Lucy’s father. 
The action takes place at Seward’s house/asylum.  
Renfield is allowed to just sort of…wander around Seward’s house when the plot requires him to be there. He gets dragged away by attendants whenever he needs to be offstage. He also survives. 
The Broadway version also made large changes in characterization:
Lucy is weak and feeble when we meet her in the play. She is helplessly preyed upon by Dracula, and yet is sexually tempted by him when under a trance. She and Dracula share a passionate kiss at the end of Act II, right before she willingly exposes her neck for him to bite. 
Jonathan is still concerned for Lucy as she is slowly turned, but he is more wary of her and goes along willingly with Van Helsing’s ideas regardless of how Lucy feels.
Renfield is portrayed as actively malicious, through fearful and subservient to the Count. 
Seward is seen as a strong-willed father who leads his asylum with a firm and confident hand. He believes Van Helsing more readily when confronted with the existence of vampires.
Dracula himself is once again depicted as charming and suave, and he spends time during the first act as a mysterious but pleasant dinner guest of the Sewards.
Despite these massive revisions, the Broadway version was a hit, partially to due the charisma of Bela Lugosi, who originated the role. (Below is Bela Lugosi as Dracula along with Seward, Van Helsing, Jonathan Harker, and Renfield on the floor:)
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Bela Lugosi, of course would go on to star in the 1931 film adaptation. Other famous stage Draculas include Jeremy Brett and Frank Langella (Langella's revival would also give us this amazing Edward Gorey art:)
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So we can see that the stage plays influenced many versions that would later come, as well as the idea of vampires in pop culture at large. It’s interesting how the motifs and themes we expect when we hear the word “Dracula” were actually the creation of people besides the author, and these differences don't seem to have been majorly disputed in the last 100 years. Has this happened with other classic novels? I'm not sure, but I'd love to see an accurate adaptation of Dracula in stage or film form, and see how it might influence filmmakers and directors for the future.
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alldancersaretalented · 5 months ago
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Dancers attending P21 Intensive
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Olivia Elise Victoria Nikolovva
AM Dance
Aurora Monroe
Ale Mancillas Dance Studio
Balbina Cueva
Allegro Performing Arts Academy
Arina Bryzgunova Bella Verbera-Hernandez
Aspirations Dance Company
Lola Nelms
Avanti Dance Company
Hayden Goren Eva Graziano Mia Menji Kaylee Randeniya Rosie Zahoul Sans Blair Tennant
Capitol Dance Company
Malia ?
Center Stage Performing Arts
Tommie Milazzo
Club Dance Studio
Brooklyn Besch Emma Kleve Claire Pistor
Dance Alliance of Camarillo
Shiloh Lark Farrah ?
Dance Dimensions Performic Arts Center
Victoria Safahi Serena Wilcox
DanceDynamicsLV
Lyla Haider
Dance Collective DC
Janelle Liu
Dance Edge Studios
Antonia Zanin
Dance Magic Performic Company
Savannah Lee
Dance Makers of Atlanta
Nola Paulina
Danceology
Ella Bustillos Hudson Hensley Ella Nani Knight Ella Koehnen Soleil Lynch Aria McCrea Cheyenne Ringerman Sydney Swinehart
Dance Republic
Graisyn Clare
Dansé Escuela de Danza
Alexa Ahumada Marielisa Portillo Isabella Trabucco
DC Dance Factory
Pay Lynch
Dolce Dance Studio
Brixtyn Cappo
École de dance Louise
Léonie Macorig
Edge Studios
Sienna ? Aria Giusti
Encore ELite
Leona Zariel
Epic Motion Dance Studio
Maria Sofia Rodríguez Mia Sofia Covarrubias Tinoco
Essence of Dance
Ava Killam Makena Killam Briar ?
Eternal Dance Company
Maddie Kronenberg
Evoke Dance Movement
Emmy Claire
Evolution Dance
Scarlett O'Neil
Evolve Dance Center
Maria Belen Salido
Evolve Dance Centre
Izabella Modarresi
Excel Performing Arts
Emma Sheff
Fusion Dance Omaha
Gigi Murray
Glass House Dance
Eden Cui
Groove Studios WA
Kaiden Koths Abby Mae
Hart Academy of Dance
Lydon Thach
Havilah Dance Company
Caitlyn Marie Malea Jade Moore
Inferno Dance Co
Maizie Smith
Instyle Dance Company
Jacilynn Mar
Janet Dunstans Dance Academy
Adeline Glenn
K2 Studios
Neriah Karmann Lennon Reign Jessica Sutton
Larkin Dance Studio
Matinly Conrad Palmer Petier
Legacy Dance Productions
Sophie Boonstra Paisley Clarke
Legacy Studio of Performing Arts
Brynne Smith
McKinley School of Dance
Teodora Narancic
Murrieta Dance Project
Khloe Cabrera Gracie Gilroy
N10 Dance Studio
Claire Avonne Kingston Madison Ng
No Limits Dance Academy
Ayanna Voulgaris
Nor Cal Dance Arts
Aria Davi Aubrey Paz Olyvia Reza
North Calgary Dance Centre
Ellie Blakley Georgia Blakley
OCPAA
Libby Haye
Onstage Dance Center - Los Alamitos
Adalyn Nicole
Pave San Diego
Eleanor Bullock Aryanna La Fontaine Cooper
Pave School of the Arts
Sofia Cuevas Stella Fisk Livi Matson
Perception Dance
Mabel James
Project 21
Ellie Anbarden Olivia Armstrong Lilly Barajas Sienna Carlston Kami Couch Katie Couch Kenzie Couch Airi Dela Cruz Stella Eberts Gracyn French Regan Gerena Richie Granese Mady Kim Brooklyn Ladia Leilani Lawlor Chloe Mirabel Savanna Musman Madelyn Nasu Avery Reyes Berkeley Scifres Bristyn Scifres Sara Von Rotz Leighton Werner
Project 520 Dance Studio
Adelynn ? Karli Heim Sasha Muratalieva
Queen City Dance
Annabel Speck
Seattle Storm Dance Troupe
Claire Clark
Shooting Stars Dance Studio
Karsyn Hernandez Malani Maliya
Stars Dance Studio
Hannah Burak Catherine Clayton Fabiana Pierleoni Elie Rabin
Starstruck Performing Arts Center KS
Kinley Winn
Steps Dance Center
Emmie Pitt
Studio Fusion
Harley Gross Juliet Anne Wydo
The Collaborative
Addison Cullather
The Company Space
Piper Perusse Stella Marcordes Vivian Marcordes
TheCREW
Isabella Tamayo
The Dance Collective DC
Eva Rogachevsky Quincy Thomas
The Dance Collective MD
Lyla Urban
The Dance Company of Los Gatos
Scarlett Blu Chloe Rose
The Vision Dance Alliance
Emily Polis
Utah Ballet Festival
Ruby Taylor
West Coast Dance Complex
Mila Barnett
Xtreme Dance Studio
Jocelyn Longroy
YYC Dance Project
Kinsley Oykhman
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princesschimchim1325 · 1 month ago
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Starting to get back in my bleach era ✌️
(AKA being completely obsessed & down bad for Toshiro Hitsugaya's adult form & for Byakuya Kuchiki)
Speaking of, why does no one ever write for a quincy!reader/oc for Toshiro? Especially in the TYBW, where he turns into his adult form. You cannot tell me that a person with good sense, even if an enemy & a quincy, will not thirst and stare at his fine ahh when he looks like that.
Yall are missing out on a very funny & delicious enemies to reluctant allies to friends to lovers troupe with them. Especially since it draws some parallel to Toshiro & Isshin (the soul reapers) and reader & Masaki (the Quincy ladies).
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hatchetburiied · 1 month ago
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MUSIC AS REBELLION
Noah's music, in short, is her way of making sure history isn't obscured or changed by those who would twist the story and place the blame on innocents, her act of rebellion against Yhwach. In most places like the Wandenreich who are ruled by someone like Yhwach, music is indeed seen as a way to make the common man think. It can tap into your emotions in ways no one knows, it can make you think...it can open your eyes.
Music plays a decisive role in dictatorships. Like no other art, it appeals to people’s emotions without detours via the intellect, which totalitarian regimes like to undermine. Music, as everyone knows, can overwhelm, and ruling powers have exploited this potential at all times. In dictatorships, this usually happened in a planned manner and on a large scale. Music policy in almost all regimes shows certain similarities. One of its basic features is that it distinguishes between desired music (music that benefits the regime) and undesired music (music that does not benefit or even harms the regime) and acts in two directions: Desirable music and its composers are strongly promoted, while undesirable music and its composers are marginalized, suppressed or made to conform. (X)
Noah's music is no different seeing as how her & the troupe's songs are well known throughout quincy history- try as the wandenreich may but these songs will never die. Noah's been writing songs since she was a CHILD, her most popular one (A message about what happened 1000 years ago to her home) is seen as a POWERFUL rebellion anthem- it makes people think, it's not a sob story. The words used, the way it's sung- the way it can be used to rally those together no matter the side against an enemy...
It's such a powerful weapon that no one can silence it, even if she somehow lost the ability to speak, they'd still live on. It's a slap to the face for the quincy empire hiding in the shadows of their enemy, and Noah knows it. Her music while an act of rebellion is also a suicide act once she's within those walls, it could get her killed but it doesn't stop her from continuing what she loves and believes in. Besides it has to be a fragile empire of one group can gift hope through their art to those who wish to see the freedom of their people and incite rebellion.
Music is still a powerful weapon in it's own right as it is, but to have it reach not just the people you know as a species, but an entirely different race alone and have it spark hope for them as well.
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alivesoul · 1 year ago
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Poet, playwright, activist, educator, and essayist June Jordan was born in Harlem, New York City, in 1936. An only child, she was raised by her Jamaican immigrant parents in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. She began writing poetry at only seven years old. Jordan attended high school at the Northfield School for Girls in Massachusetts and university at Barnard College, which she left without a final degree due to her alienation from the strictly white and male literary curriculum there. She married and later divorced Columbia student Michael Meyer, with whom she had one child. Despite anti-LGTBQ+ stigma at the time, Jordan’s writing openly acknowledged her bisexuality.
The author of 27 books—including essay collections, libretti, and children’s books as well as volumes of poetry—Jordan was also a lifelong activist who fought fiercely for civil rights, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights, and anti-war causes. She taught at CUNY’s City College, Yale University, Sarah Lawrence College, and SUNY Stony Brook before being appointed professor of African-American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, where she founded Poetry for the People. Jordan’s many accolades include grants and awards from the Rockefeller Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, PEN America, the National Association of Black Journalists, and numerous other institutions. She died of breast cancer in 2002. A widely influential poet who worked in accessible language to convey deep truths around identity, Jordan is celebrated today for both her literary writing and her dedicated advocacy for social justice and historically excluded groups.
Why are you posting this @alivesoul?
Because June Jordan taught a class at the University of California Berkeley called Poetry for the People and that class has been permanently cancelled. A shame. Teacher/Poets are essential to any higher learning experience as poetry informs us in every way of the world around us. I can't imagine my college experience without the poetry of Nikki Giovanni, Quincy Troupe and so many others. Beyond that, June is a truth hunter, a truth gatherer, and a truth provider---a modern day griot. I truly hope she finds a safe space within the diaspora to continue her work as she represents the very best of what it means to be Black in this country. The attack on Black intellectuals from Ta-Nehisi Coates to Claudine Gay is truly one of the great academic and cultural crimes of my lifetime and cannot continue to go ignored. Never have I seen so many highly educated and accomplished black men and women so unfairly attacked and discredited. These men and women are literally trying to save the soul of country by shining a light on the FACTS of our history, present AND on those who would profit from lies, greed and violence. If there is one thing I would implore those who read this blog to do, it is to read, study and protect not only our history but those who make it their business to make sure it is never forgotten.
We are excellence.
Peace.
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reiiishii · 21 days ago
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🖊+ florence
LET ME GUSH ABOUT MY OCs // Accepting!!
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The matriarch of the Fleur La Vie Troupe...
Florence was a former maid staff member of Yhwach's Lichtreich, she saw first hand how his kingdom ran and while she was simply dirt to the king (considering her status as a Gemischt Quincy), and while she was there she was married to a quincy soldier and she had a son [James Darcy, lovingly nicknamed Jay]. Now, when I made Florence I had a very specific song in mind when I made her titled 'Leave Luanne' from the 35MM musical- it's about an abused woman attempting to escape her husband, who later comes back as a vengeful spirit after her husband beats her to death to drag all abusive men to hell [including her husband]. While Florence survives by running away in the night, she still holds so much anger and grudges towards Yhwach & his men as well as the kingdom he ruled and they served (Her husband never knew what became of her or Jay)
Florence lived life on the run and before long she started to collect runaway quincies, giving them a safe haven on the road but there were a few rules she had for them: 1- help each other out, no one does the heavy lifting alone and 2- NEVER call her mother, ma, or mom. Other than that, she let them do as they pleased. Yes while she reigned with an iron fist, the group still had free reign. Florence taught them all how to forage, cook, sew, hunt, all the necessities to survive honestly, and while she would never admit it she loved every quincy who passed through the troupe...
Then she met Sabirah, as james grew, the two of them raised him and overtime the group started to either grow, die off, or leave- various people died of natural causes but never them... Then Rose joined, then Nova & Tamara Buckley, then Gale, a woman named Penny [who died from illness], a grandmother and granddaugher duo, and of course, Noah Gringoire.
As the group grew, money ended up being incredibly tight, so the bright idea to become a performance troupe came from James, Florence could give less of a shit about what they did so she reluctantly agreed and that became their main source of income. HOWEVER!!!! In the future, long before Ichigo & co., the troupe ended up stranded in a part of Yhwach's territory, unable to leave and forced to stay.
...that was the beginning of the end for them. While she wasn't present for the troupe's massacre, Florence was killed in a tavern fire that some soldiers caused to stop their performances while she saved the lives of the workers and patrons within alongside the help of the troupe telling them she was proud of them [Rose & Noah witnessed her death, prompting the group to drop all their belongings and RUN...but of course, we know how this ended. with them dead, and those who survived split into different paths...]
Florence ultimately gives up her spot in the afterlife to haunt Yhwach to the end of days once he dies, her anger was enough to cause her to follow him down to hell and STAY there to torment him and remind him of everything he's done. She carried her anger and rage with her until the day she died, and it came back to manifest in her following him down to hell to know EVERYTHING he's done.
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dustedmagazine · 8 months ago
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James Kaplan — 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool (Penguin Press)
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There are two or three jazz albums almost everyone seems to have: Dave Brubeck’s Time Out, John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme, and Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue. The first two records were well received on release, but not so much Davis’s. It wasn’t only a departure from the kind of music he played at the time, but seemed out of step with what everyone else was doing, too. And yet it’s taken on a life of its own, becoming if not the most talked about jazz record ever, then certainly the best-selling.
Enter James Kaplan, a biographer best known for his two-volume book on Frank Sinatra. In 3 Shades of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool he turns his focus onto Kind of Blue and the confluence of three jazz icons: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Bill Evans. However 3 Shades of Blue doesn’t live up to its potential and ultimately feels like an unnecessary retread of familiar material.
Kaplan opens the book in the 1980s, with Miles Davis playing auditoriums and ordering Wynton Marsalis off his stage. Kaplan himself enters, a young journalist for Vanity Fair, who lands an interview with the trumpeter, and two hit it off. From there he goes back in time to Davis’s early years and then mixes in Coltrane and Evans — but it’s Miles who is the book’s center. This has its benefits and drawbacks: he’s a more compelling figure than Evans and he lived longer than the book’s other two principals. But he’s also the most written about, too, and Kaplan has a hard time bringing anything new to light. So instead we get the familiar stories about him gigging with Charlie Parker, getting in trouble with the law and spending the late 1970s getting high in his brownstone. Same with Coltrane’s obsessive practicing and dental woes, and Evans’s heroin addiction.
Possibly the only new information comes from Kaplan’s suppositions about his subject’s inner feelings. For example, Kaplan suggests that Davis was sexually interested in Evans: “his all-American good looks and professional intensity were attractive to women — and to Miles Davis.” Why? Because Davis once put his arms around Evans while he played piano, a move Davis also pulled on Red Garland. Kaplan doesn’t think Davis felt similarly with Garland.
Indeed, 3 Shades is sloppy. It could useanother once-over by an attentive editor. Kaplan occasionally derails his narrative with odd asides about Frank Sinatra or by repeating points he made earlier in the book. At one point he goes off on a tangent about a 1980s photo of Davis in a section set some 30 years previous. Elsewhere he’s careless about sourcing quotes: on one page he quotes pianist Jon Batiste on Evans’s use of touch, then inserts a lengthy block quote about Evans’s playing. But the second quote isn’t Batiste. It’s from a biography of Evans by Peter Pettinger, a fact readers would only notice if they search Kaplan’s endnotes.
In some ways, 3 Shades feels like a rush job but one without a specific anniversary in mind. In others, it feels overlong and rambling: one doesn’t need a garish description of Davis in the late 1970s in a book nominally about a record from 1959. In others it feels more like him remembering his encounters with Davis, both on record and in person, than a proper biography of any of these three musicians.
But it’s not so much that the book doesn’t know what it wants to be, it’s that it doesn’t need to be here at all. People new to Davis, Coltrane or Evans will find a lot of information here, but those who already know them won’t find anything not already in other biographies by Ben Ratliff, Pettinger or Quincy Troupe. And newcomers will find those a more linear, less convoluted read to boot.
Roz Milner
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rebellenlied · 3 months ago
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hi im at work but a tidbit of gale lore-
the patriarch of the march clan is her grandfather (who i envision to sound like thurl ravenscroft. deep and booming, holds great authority, yanno?)
the march family is a clan of high standing in the wandenreich, and because gale was the only daughter between her parents, it was suggested she be married off to continue the lineage of echt quincies.
gale, as softspoken as she is, left in the dead of night, and joined the fleur la vie troupe. this resulted in her meeting james darcy, florence wheth's son (both belong to @/reiiishii).
she carried with her a hammered dulcimer (one of those that could be taken on the go!), and helped sew/repair clothes for other troupe members, along with caring for the younger members.
gale was killed alongside the rest of the troupe (barring lenore, noah (@/reiiishii), rose (@/hxbiris), the buckley sisters (@/magiclcss) and sabirah (@/reiiishii)), and lenore made sure she was laid to rest besides james when she went to bury those who didn't survive the massacre.
and yes, james and gale did have a happy few years and got married some time before the wandenreich found and destroyed the troupe - think finnick and annie's wedding in mockingjay!
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