#song is The Lost Garden by Radical Face

[shirecorn]

tried to adjust my printer according to a walkthrough to get less streaks on glossy stuff

well. There's less streaks.

We gotta put them back

[laughterbynight]

Le Comfort Tags

this is going to be long

these tags are brought to you by @burntotears

Comfort Movie(s): 2005 Pride & Prejudice, Jurassic Park, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, and Under the Tuscan Sun. Can't remember how well some of those aged...

Comfort Food (s): (okay so for about 9 months I had long covid before we had vaccines, which means, weirdly, my body developed allergies to a lot of foods I could tolerate previously. Old faves have *)

Cheese, big glass of Milk*, Pizza*, Tortellini Alfredo*, Miso Soup, Diet Coke*, Oat Milk Ice Cream, Teriyaki Salmon, Petit Fours*, Pastry Cream*.

Comfort Clothing: A very oversized T Shirt and nothing else or baggy pants and a velvet crop top. Very specific but it's my favorite thing to wear when I'm being cozy. I do like big sweaters but if I get overheated the feeling is ruined immediately.

Comfort Song(s): I apologize in advance but there's no way to make this short. Daydreaming means I'm always switching between a line up of songs that transport my brain to other places or set off specific feelings. Some probably don't sound comfortable per se but the familiarity is what gets me. A few have been my go-to escapism songs for well over a decade. And of course the line up is always in flux. Also, like, fanfic mood music is a must yo.

BZY-The Earth Laughs In Flowers Jean Dawson - Pirate Radio The 1975 - Happiness Great Heart - Johnny Clegg & Savuka the verve - bittersweet symphony Deco - bittersweet symphony New Radicals - You Get What You Give Tracy Chapman - Crossroads Temple of the Dog(aka soundgarden and pearl jam) - Hunger Strike ODESZA - Line Of Sight Steve Conte - Call Me Call Me The Midnight - We Move Forward Savage Garden - I Want You Stewart Copeland (yes from the police) - Misty Bog (spyro the dragon) Angels & Airwaves - The Adventure Broke for Free - A Beautiful Life Cressida- 6am (Kyau & Albert Remix) Niklas Harding & Arcane- Ice Beach Michael Cassette - Wateresque Nitrous Oxide - North Pole Fire Flowerz - Sugar

Technically you could probably put any intro and outro from the og toonami line up on this list. I stg it's like getting smacked in the face with nostalgia to hear anything from that time.

*if a song is like 8 minutes jump ahead 2. That usually gets you past the warm up.

Comfort Book(s): The Birth of the Firebringer, Vol 1. of the Sailor Moon manga, Pride and Prejudice (specifically the audio version by the sleepy bookshelf) which is also on spotify, and probably ACOMAF (the rest can rot but I still love that ONE book.)

Comfort Game(s): Spyro the Dragon (I know this game too well), Tomba 1 & 2, Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon DS Cute, Dewprism/Threads of Fate.

Comfort Streamers:

Tbh although I check in with a handful of streamers from time to time Ray is probably who I watch the most. Quick wit, sarcasm, and snark are my favorite things, so Ray is my go-to. (yes, that Ray. He escaped RT a long time ago. It's a whole thing that's been talked about by him. He's a safe one, don't worry.)

RayNarvaezJr.

dude plays pretty much anything and everything but if I had to rec somewhere to start go with either pokemon or stardew if you want chill vibes, or watch his plays of any of the resident evil or yakuza games for fuckery.

Comfort Youtube Channels:

I'm adding this because I use a few when I'm overwhelmed and need something familiar or gentle to watch. Separate from gaming stuff.

Kennie JD - Bad movies and a beat playlist (kennie is just hysterical anyway but omg these reviews. The Twilight ones in particular get me every time.

Anti-Chef - Watch Jamie attempt to cook through Julia Child's cookbooks. It's very charming and you're always rooting for him. He's very real about the process which is nice.

Dominic Noble - Lost in Adaptation. Exactly what it sounds like. Books vs Film and TV but he's also not an ass about it so it's a pleasant experience.

nigiricco - Bento videos like every three days it's wild but imo soothing to watch.

Sophia Phan - Movie Commentaries. She's adorable.

Imamu room - MORE BENTO

Joconde's baking - Really soothing baking videos imo as long as you don't mind the sound of it. Like almost asmr if that helps.

Chocolate Cacao - The master of baking chocolate I stg

José - Video essays and damn good retrospectives including scrubs, that 70s show, boy meets world, the golden girls, cheers, the fresh prince etc.

The Movie Budz - More great film commentary

PBS Idea Channel - Okay so this channel has been dead for 6 years now but it's STILL full of amazing videos that I have yet to see matched in their depth and scope. Plus it's nearly all pop culture which keeps it fun an accessible. If you aren't familiar with PBSID I highly suggest sifting through the archive. There are videos on everything from The Pokemon War Theory to How Does Night Vale Confront Us With the Unknown?

Hbomberguy - The dude with the Pathologic video. His other stuff is really good too.

Folding Ideas - Video essays and commentary plus some really good deep dives into other subjects like NFTs, Flat Earthers, and the Ralph Bakshi Lord of the Rings uh adaptation?

Primitive Technology - Okay, you know those videos YT recs where it looks like two guys built a hotel out of bamboo or something but it's clearly fake? This is the guy they're mimicking.

Peaceful Cuisine - Mostly vegan and/or gluten free cooking. Most videos have an asmr version and a version with soft music playing.

Was all of that necessary? Probably not. I am now tired. To think I trimmed down what I was going to add.

Tagging folks but like everyone feel free to do it, and no you don't have to do all the categories I did. I added the youtube videos and went kinda wild with music.

Going by my activity page again otherwise this will be too long

@loveayeti @corpsefluid @deviess @metaphysicaltelephone @cobaltbluepub @kerrykhat @doommsatic @isixdream @aetheling @thesoilofblackpepper @blue-shale @thematurescholar @ghost-proof @pixiereadsb00ks @dreaminginspacecowboy @truculentbantam @tfisathoughtfulnickelbakeryfire Zuloo Idk why I can't tag you but I see your ass on my activity page so consider yourself tagged.

[crowned-ladybug]

For the writing asks, 8, 12, 21 for a fic of your choice, 40, and 47 for a fic of your choice because I think it's such a silly fun question!

Thank you!! <3

8. What song would make a great fic (to either write or read)?

I don't write nor read songfics nowadays but in terms of inspiration? Rubs my evil lil hands together. I love every excuse to throw songs at ppl

last to fall by starset, bc there's too many fics about ppl kissing and not enough fics about whatever the fuck is going on here featuring something ancient and lonely and benevolent

summer skeletons by radical face, which Yes i Have in fact used lyrics from as a title before, but like. the vibes. gimme fic with these vibes. this is what your childhood friends AU should feel like whether it's about lifelong friends or friends-to-strangers or whatever else

pay no rent by turnpike troubadours, with the knowledge that this song is about the artist's cool aunt so i need this to be Specifically applied to platonic/familial relationships for fic pls and thank you

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

I don't have a grand one for this bc for the life of me i can't recall doing a complete 180° on a trope like this, But: fake dating/fake married

Not bc i used to Hate it and now i Love it but more bc it turns out it's not all annoying always, the problem is that every damn fake relationship fic i met for years and years was specifically focused on awkwardness and pining and kissing for practice and then having to make a whole deal out of fake-breaking-up and-

Well turns out if it's instead about two ppl who, regardless of whether they harbour romantic feelings for the other or not, are having a grand ole time running this con they embarked on for the sake of necessity/spite/financial gain/what have you, it can be entertaining as hell. You just gotta write it right. It's not about the awkwardness and the miscommunication, it's about being an impossible lil shit

(The only two examples I had any hand in from the past idk how many years are unfortunately deep in the depths of my DMs with Dima, but trust me. We did it justice)

21. If you wrote a “missing scene” in so here's to believing in ghosts, what would it be?

Simply the first fic to come to mind with an actual answer, let's go

It'd be one of the very, Very few times Rafe found Nate, survived the encounter, and the two of them stuck together for a lil while. Because i feel like wherever that could've gone could've been Interesting, but it unfortunately didn't make the cut for the sake of the already bloated as hell scene count and the flow i was Trying to achieve

40. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

I am Big on rereading, both my own stuff, stuff of ppl I know, and select fics by strangers that Live In My Brain. I only started actually using ao3 bookmarks Very recently so a lot of stuff is kinda just lost to me in that regard now, but yes, fics get reread A Whole Lot

47. If i don't know where (confused about how as well) was a pair of shoes, what kind would it be? Describe the shoes.

It's like a pair of old sneakers that you really should throw out by now but also keep justifying keeping bc like Technically they're still good for gardening or something okay, yes i know that the sides are cracked all the way down to the soles and the fabric is starting to tear out and some of the rings lining the holes the laces go in have come loose, and you never quite managed to get out the marker scribbles from that one time in class and- okay. Look. It's old as shit and falling apart and you're Emotionally Attached to it bc you wore it for Years so even if you never wear it again it can just sit on the shoerack or in a hallway cabinet or something until it crumbles to dust

Which is fitting considering "true and tried and covered in mud" is also a p good way to describe Raz and Lili's lifelong friendship in general

-

Questions list

[citrus-art-and-lifes-posts]

The Draw Queue

a list of things i intend to draw (not necessarily in order) jic any a yall were curious about the stuff thats living rent free in my mind these days lmao

security breach au character line up

security breach au glamrock op vs glamrock mega

security breach au kids (namely sari, sam, jack, michaela, miko, miles, raf and charlie)

Idw shockblurr

graphics for an rpg transformers game (mostly bgs but also some scene mock-ups)

astrotrain

swindle

(write) shockblurr post-war fic

fashionformers (mostly the elite trine but also some lost light mechs)

faeformers (mostly bgs but also some lost light mechs)

the tfa bots all wearing saris with sari

bayverse optimus

a mock-up of my dream home, with shockwave living in it, of course

more psychedelic transformers art - maybe with unicron/galvatron/cyclonus/the sweeps

getaway

city-speaker au, mostly with lost light mechs

the djd in a totally radical (tm) skating rink

overlord

sixshot

Form Before Function character line ups

Form Before Function ideas and plot points

Cybertronian Community headcanons (but as drawings!!!)

Swerve/blue bots

cyberverse Perceptor/dead end

beeverse ratchet/drift

oplita <3

yes man (fnv)

g1 trine of cyclonus, whirl and tailgate

g1 trine of cyclonus, galvatron and stratagem

Sunder (religiously flavored)

SHIT TON OF REDRAWS (including but not limited to: shockwave in flowers, jackass!nautica, cyberverse whirl, mirage, primus!rung, etc)

megastar memes (check drafts)

Transformers Fashion Fanzine

MiniMegaRung

tfp soundwave collecting cassettes (minigame???)

crocknock vs a tuba

Til Someone Gets Hurt animation/animatic

Jazz sitting in people’s laps <3

Cerebros/prowl (check drafts)

transformers!among us (part 2)

magnet art with sunny/sideswipe

normal mechs dressing up their sparkling vs perceptor dressing up his sparkling

skystar fanzine

medic skywarp

FUCK TON of adopts based on color palettes

self-care transformers stickers

redraw shockwave ace header for pride month <3

All special ops mechs with full visor/facemasks

G1 scene redraws

bayverse ratchet/ironhide

fanart for several fanfics (fanfictuary???)

tfp cliffjumper

bayverse human!sunstreaker

cooking/baking/gardening/cleaning transformers stickers

pharma/tarn

(write) black sands chapter

(write) bayverse symbiosis/mecha au

egirl tfp soundwave

tfa longarm character sheet <3

getaway

primal/dinobot

redraw all the OLD icons

taraprowl

Tfp prowl/soundwave/swerve

Prowl, bloodynosed, hovering over a bathrom sink, staring at his reflextion in the mirror, thoroughly pissed off

tfp megatron, starscream, soundwave and shockwave facing off against tfp optimus, prowl, jazz and ratchet for beach day shenanigans

Cyclonus/octane

Transformers as chao / transformers in their respective chap gardens withtheir chao <3

bumblebee/blades

Late 90s scene!punk blueberry rodimus

double sided charm with red roddy in front of a cherry slushie and blue roddy in front of a blue raspberry slushie on the other side

skyfire zine

swerve zine

tfa game nostalgia zine

fashionmech (maga)zine

tarnma animatic

tfa optimus animatic

tfa blurr v shockwave animatic

song-based animatics (prowl, jazz, rodimus, drift, ratchet, pharma, tarantulas, chromedome, optimus, starscream, swerve, shockwave)

make a shockwave plushie

transformers as chao/transformers raising chao

finish transformers-themed acnh island

mecha-carebear adopts

acnh jacket of whirl, with sparkling whirl in his cockpit <3

tfs as space rovers

That one vocaloid pic, magnet, maybe with jazz and prowl or maybe hot rod and deadlock

Swinjack

Bumbleblades

Bunch of mechs who Shouldnt be in the rescuebots universe, but now Are (overlord, sunder, prowl, pharma, etc)

Megatron/nautica

texaid

Jedi "knights"

Earthspark megop

Waspinator cassette au

prowl/oilslick

Moonracer punk redesign

Tfa letfire & jetstorm with decepticon frames

Soundwave & cassette!entrapta

Femm-cassetticon!combaticons with onslaught as their host <3

[hinterland-clans]

Redid the theme songs post because the other one got so mixed up and i can't fix it and it bothers me a LOT lmao. anyways yeah some of them have been updated, list is under the cut because it's pretty long

GlenClan

Sandstar: Rio Grande- The Oh Hellos Wolfshadow: Oliver James- Fleet Foxes Flurryfeather: Zephyrus- The Oh Hellos Larkslip: Gypsy- Fleetwood Mac/Wait By The River- Lord Huron Applepatch: Lost- Amanda Palmer Oakfire: Elmleaf: To Be Alone- Hozier Russetmoon: I Think Your Nose Is Bleeding- The Front Bottoms Berrysplash: Blindsided- Bon Iver Foxtuft: Summertime- My Chemical Romance Sunblaze: Lakeripple: Silverbird: Laments of a Mattress- Hop Along, Queen Ansleis Greenshade: When You Grow Up, Your Heart Dies- Gunship/ Soldier, Poet, King- The Oh Hellos Duskfur: Wrecking Ball- Mother Mother/Poor George- James Supercave Jaystorm: Sirens- Hop Along, Queen Ansleis/Home- Gabrielle Aplin Lilystream: Anemone- Slenderbodies Bobtail: Kids Again- Artist vs. Poet Harepelt: Everything Is Alright- Motion City Soundtrack Acornshine: Girls Like Girls- Hayley Kiyoko Cloudfall: Hawktalon: Eat You Alive- The Oh Hellos Goldenglow: Oliver James- Fleet Foxes Icegaze: Fourth of July- Sufjan Stevens/Boreas- The Oh Hellos Rainmist: Maybe We’re Meant To Be Alone- Bad Suns Echocall: Georgia- Phoebe Bridgers Tuftear: Old Now- Rosemary & Garlic Sparrowscreech: Indica- Foxing Badgerface: Thrushsong: All I Want- Kodaline

Hickorystar: Cold- Novo Amor

PineClan

Rosestar: Passerine- The Oh Hellos / American Money- BORNS Hollyfrost: Sunlight- Hozier Fawnstreak: Breakers- Local Natives Coppershade: Phantom- Of Monsters And Men Ryeberry: Me And My Husband- Mitski Thicketburr: All Things Devour- aeseases Heronstalk: Brackenroot: Blazeflower: Heather- Conan Gray/Strawberry Blonde- Mitski Cloverlight: Could This Be Another Change?- The Samples Cindershock: No Children- The Mountain Goats/Cops and Robbers- The Hoosiers Tangleswirl: Holy The Sea- Forgive Durden/Arsonist’s Lullaby- Hozier Splinterfang: Be Nice To Me- The Front Bottoms/Settle Down- The 1975 Robindown: Tumbleflight: Fleetfox: Famous Last Words- My Chemical Romance/Stray Italian Greyhound- Vienna Teng Littlehawk: Swiftclaw: Wish You Were Here- Florence + The Machine/Nests- Keaton Henson Shimmertail: Son Of A Gun- Lord Huron Nitfeather: All of Me Wants All of You- Sufjan Stevens Bouncefoot: Between Days- Far Caspian Quickwhisper: Mintmoth: Cleopatra- the Lumineers Longear: On A Good Day- Robin Pecknold Ruepetal: Holy Branches- Radical Face

Strikenose: Dear Wormwood- The Oh Hellos/Candles- Daughter Galerush: The Love Club- Lorde Driftrunner: Devil Town- Cavetown Dawnsong: Bloomheart:

RiftClan

Screestar: Rut- The Killers Slatesun: For Sebastian From A Friend- Hop Along, Queen Ansleis Halfskip: Healer’s Dilemma- Mercedes Lackey Fernsplash: Kiss Goodnight- IDKHOW Snowspiral: Slow and Steady- Of Monsters And Men Smokestorm: Torches- The Oh Hellos Darkeyes: Street Fight- Adam Jensen Flintclaw: Any Emotion- Mini Mansions Aspenfleck: Bugbear- Chloe Moriondo Birdpounce: Pheasantruff: Looking Like This- Lyre Le Temps Brightnose: Rounds- The Oh Hellos Puddlepelt: Rose- The Oh Hellos Flamewisp: Community Gardens- The Scary Jokes / Sin Triangle- Sidney Gish Grassripple: No Light, No Light- Florence + The Machine Oceanroar: Fine, Great- Modern Baseball Minksnap: Eugene- Sufjan Stevens Whiskertail: Running With The Wolves (Wolfwalkers version)- AURORA Meadowmoth: Wild Roses- Of Monsters And Men Cavernpool: Any Emotion- Mini Mansions Dustplume: Blizzardfur: Batswoop:

Dovesky: Tilikum- Benjamin Francis Leftwich/Repeat Until Death- Novo Amor

Rubblecloud: Kitehop: Peakstream: Hailfur: Conifertuft: Bluemeadow:

Tempest Rogues

Sheen: Everything Moves- Bronze Radio Return / Land Of All- Woodkid Dusty: Perry: Bee: Snicker: Rudy: Clover: Honeyglow: Honeypie- Jawny

North Face Loners

Night: Sirens- Hop Along, Queen Ansleis Thorn: Time To Run- Lord Huron Fox: Hazel: Trees- The Oh Hellos Tacker:

Icewhisper: Curses- The Crane Wives/Kin- Radical Face

Wildland Loners

Whiskey: Skittles: Dolly: Weasel: Woodruff: Bushy: Skyler: This Must Be The Place- dad sports

Kittypets

Thor: Dexter: Snufkin: Jade (Jadewing): Strawberry Blonde- Mitski Beamer: Blitz: Katria:

Founders

Sorrelstar: Thus Always To Tyrants- The Oh Hellos/North- Sleeping At Last Asterheart: Sunflower/Thunder Mashup Oriole: Aspenstar: King- Florence + The Machine Chatterstone: Soap- The Oh Hellos Crowmask: The Moon Will Sing- The Crane Wives Shardstar: From Finner, Mountain Sound- Of Monsters And Men Spiderleap: Constellations- The Oh Hellos

Dark Forest Cats

Dawnshatter: Choke- IDKHOW Barkfang: Along Came A Spider- Tesco Value Sparkflame: Chillyfur: Mama Hates You- Ck9c Silverpine: Heart Of Glass- Mini Mansions/ Setting Sun- Lord Huron Bramblewasp: Sunshine- the Phantoms/Bad Bad Things- AJJ Tawnyfoot: Vinestar: Absinthe- IDKHOW Quietstar: Catabolic Seed- The Scary Jokes / Twenty Long Years- Lord Huron Twilightpaw: Cain- Cousin Marnie/Evelyn Evelyn- Evelyn Evelyn Blackflame: Przeklenstwo Milleheaven- Katarzyna Groniec / Honey, I'm Home- Ghost & Pals Starklight: Oleander- Mother Mother

[missingjackklinehours]

run alone (until i bring you home)

Out of each pleasant memory of Gabriel trying and ultimately succeeding in graciously brightening his mood, Raphael holds a certain memory close to his heart.

Rating: Gen

No warnings apply.

Fic & Playlist available on AO3! (however, feel free to read under the cut.)

@spnarchangelweek <3

Asters indubitably remind Raphael of Heaven's Messenger; his younger brother, Gabriel.

Bold yet delicate petals that sway amiably in the breeze. Gabriel, the animated fledgling who would joyously dance when he was feeling down, carefree giggles falling from his flushed lips when he stumbled. Father forbid if one of Gabriel's elder brothers had a mere smudge of gloom present in their actions—The jubilant fledgling would've been dead set on a clear-cut mission: doing absolutely anything in his power to cheer up his brothers. Gabriel had always been his brothers' little ball of sunshine, much like the vibrant citrine center of an aster flower.

Out of each pleasant memory of Gabriel trying and ultimately succeeding in graciously brightening his mood, Raphael holds a certain memory close to his heart. He wouldn't forget it, even if his mind permitted so.

.•° ✿ °•.

Morning skies were always Raphael's favorite. The dawn of a new day, the faint ghost of the moon stuck stubbornly to the yellow skies like a splendid dream with far too much detail. He would spend countless hours just watching the stars fade.

This particular morning was radically different.

Raphael had just lost his childhood friend, the kind black swallowtail butterfly that had captivated him with her bulging eyes as a meek fledgling. She always met Raphael in his garden, sucking away at the supple nectar within the flushed milkweed flowers he'd grown specifically for her. However, it had been a few days since she'd returned from her lengthy adventure to find a mate, and Raphael was growing increasingly worried.

The dawn skies echoed glum without her fragile wings fluttering across them. The milkweeds looked to weep.

Raphael had never been an expressive angel, quite the contrary. It was all about subtlety with him, something only his closest brothers—archangelic—had knowledge of. He himself hadn't even noticed his mistake: He'd forgotten his watering can before he'd embarked on the short trip to his garden.

It was such a trivial feat that Raphael hadn't cared enough to realize it was missing, until he'd long since reached his garden and after he checked if his swallowtail friend had reappeared; She hadn't. It was like the cherry on top of his sick discontentment—He would have to trudge back to the familial archangel nest with a heavy heart and convoluted thoughts.

At least, he thought he would. A too-familiar presence had abruptly stumbled upon him, and Raphael slightly turned in a befuddled daze towards the nearing sensation of Gabriel's easily-recognizable grace.

Gabriel was supposed to be in combat training with Michael that day. There was no particular reason the youngest archangel should have been approaching Raphael's garden. Raphael blankly watched Gabriel land with a small crash—Gabriel hadn't mastered flight at that point in time.

Raphael couldn't help the nearly-imperceptible upward tug of his lips at the sight of his youngest brother now covered in soil and scrambling to stand up, trying to smoothly act as if he hadn't almost knocked himself out. In his jittery hands glimmered Raphael's steel watering can. Raphael peered at it with interest, his stare flicking up to his brother. Gabriel, after briefly maneuvering his head to the side to spit stray grains of dirt out of his mouth, wiped his lips with his arm before flashing a toothy beam at his older brother.

"You still have soil in your teeth," Raphael had remarked.

He observed Gabriel's expression switch from gaiety to dismayed surprise. The younger angel's hand shot up to scrub frantically at his teeth. Raphael's attention reverted to the spot behind Gabriel, the spot where his brother had crash-landed, and he softly sighed in dissatisfaction when his eyes scanned over the healthy aster bush his brother had crushed.

"... And, you ruined my flowers."

Gabriel's scrubbing stopped in an instant to offer Raphael an apologetic look.

"Sorry, dude," Gabriel once again displayed his bright beam, continuing to speak through his smile with a muffled tone, "Did I get it all?"

Raphael transiently paused his assessment of his brother's accidental floral destruction to sweep his sight over Gabriel's smiling teeth—Nothing but pearly whites. A chaste nod followed, and Gabriel's simper dimmed to a close-mouthed one. Raphael continued to eye the watering can curiously, prompting Gabriel to brighten, as if he'd completely forgotten what he'd come for in the first place. The youngest archangel tilted his head sweetly as he merrily extended his hands, presenting the steel watering can in all its glory. Raphael concisely inspected it, his gaze jumping back to Gabriel's face with slight suspicion.

"Aren't you supposed to be with Michael today?" Raphael hesitantly took his watering can from Gabriel's hands. His younger brother pulled his arms back, the grin on his face morphing into the signature pout that Raphael's mind always regressed to when thinking of Gabriel.

"Exactly right! I'm supposed to." Gabriel shuffled in place, his rascal pout never budging. "Let's just say this is a detour, okie dokie?"

Raphael's prodding eyes slanted in both incredulity and curiosity. Gabriel passively considered his brother's expression before swiveling on his heel, facing the aster bush he'd indirectly demolished. Raphael studied him silently, off-put by the lack of mischief that always seemed to follow his youngest archangelic brother.

"I can help replant these!'' Gabriel's voice was jam-packed with genuine enthusiasm. Raphael's suspicion has reached its peak, and he dubiously stepped forward to stand next to his younger brother. Side-by-side, the pair of archangels skimmed over the crumpled mess of lavender petals and evergreen leaves.

"Firstly, you're terrible at gardening," Raphael calmly stated, and Gabriel cocked his head to peer at Raphael with what was probably slight offense prominent on his face. Raphael ignored him as he spoke. "And secondly, why are you really here?"

Raphael marginally pivoted to watch his brother's expression. Gabriel's features didn't take long to fall, and Raphael's entire being peaked in both interest and concern. The Messenger briskly looked away with a hint of timidity, his eyes of sky falling back to the flattened plant before them.

"You forgot your watering can," He said meekly, as if afraid to speak its silly truth. He added even softer, "You never do that."

Raphael's stare simply bore more intensely into his brother, utterly bewildered. Gabriel continued, an anxiety-prompted ramble.

"And you came home late yesterday. I'm worried, Raph," The youngest archangel admitted, releasing a massive sigh as he did so. Gabriel seemed relieved, like the thought had been plaguing his mind significantly. Raphael immediately softened, quick to soothe his brother. His lips moved on their own, and a blatant white lie tumbled out.

"There's no reason to worry, Gabriel," Raphael delusively assured, and he slightly jumped when the Messenger's head snapped back up; Raphael could now physically see the uneasiness present on his brother's face.

"Y'know, you could at least try to sell it a little better," Gabriel whined with a tenuous smile, and Raphael offered an apologetic look in response. A couple beats of silence enveloped the pair, with neither one of the angels bearing the right words to say. Gabriel's abstracted gaze gingerly drifted elsewhere.

Raphael attentively followed his brother's now-fixated stare. The older angel's being subtly slumped purely out of sheer impulse when his eyes lay on the faded coral color of milkweeds—They seemed terribly empty without a familiar pair of miniature black and blue butterfly wings atop them. A flit of acquainted worry spread like a consuming disease over his grace, a halfhearted wash of paltry waves over a burning embodiment of celestial light.

A physically inaudible hum of lamented harmony buzzed from the grace beside him, and a gentle touch brushed against his shoulder. The sudden sorrow within Raphael fleeted away as quickly as it had birthed when the warmth was perceived. With a meager twist of his head, Raphael’s pale eyes once again met the now-sympathetic azure irises of his brother. Gabriel wore a modest frown, his face contorted in enhanced concern.

"Does it have something to do with Basil?" Gabriel's expression grew more worried when the words left him, and hearing it aloud somehow made it more real to both of them. "Is she okay?"

Raphael's movements delayed, and his own uncertainty seemed to float rapidly to the surface at the sight of Gabriel's shared fear. Gabriel had met Basil, Raphael's befriended swallowtail butterfly, a couple years after Raphael had become close with her; Gabriel had happily insisted that he wanted to introduce himself to his big brother's childhood friend.

Raphael's face remained stone as he hesitantly nodded. Gabriel's concern transformed into what looked to be frightened grief.

"Is she…"

"I'm not sure. She hasn't returned from her journey to find a mate." Raphael stated weakly, briefly glancing back at the milkweeds that lowly drooped in melancholy without the swallowtail. The wind drifted through their petals, calling out to her.

At this, Gabriel looked to be a bit relieved. The youngest archangel's face broke into a soft smile after a couple of seconds, and Raphael's eyes ever-so-slightly slanted in inquisition. Gabriel's simper never faltered as he kneeled down in front of the destroyed aster bush.

Raphael watched curiously as his brother began to speak in an upbeat, sing-song tone that was so… Gabriel. He simply turned towards Raphael again with a blinding flash of happily smiling teeth.

"If you say I'm that bad at gardening… then help me replant these! Let's surprise Basil with them when she comes back from her trip!"

A stunned pause ensued on Raphael's end, but never on Gabriel's; His younger brother's essence remained in a harmonizing melody, a sweet positivity radiating from his grace like comfortable currents of summery morning light.

Always so bright. Always so cheerful.

Raphael returned Gabriel's smile.

°•. ✿ .•°

It's silent without Gabriel.

Still. Empty. Void. Overpowering, almost.

And within that silence, thousands of words still seem to be spoken. Shrieked. Wailed. Raphael blindly listens, unaware it's merely a cold reflection of Heaven—of himself.

A muted cry of fear, a tremble of loneliness echoed across space and time. Velvet petals of lull lilac petals mirror the agonized harmony in pity. The aster bush he and Gabriel planted together distantly watches Raphael mourn.

Asters indubitably remind Raphael of Heaven's Messenger—his younger brother, Gabriel. And within the stillness, they remind him of Gabriel's absence.

Lavender beauty blooms quick, and wilts quicker. Raphael replants them every year.

He's counting.

It's as if the flowers hold a piece of Gabriel that Raphael refuses to let go of ever since his baby brother left Heaven. A pout perhaps, or a cheery bliss. A crack of golden morning light within their stamens, a careless dance in the wind. It's all so… Gabriel.

Raphael smiles in their presence, he can't help it.

In Heaven's soil, he plants aster flowers each day in hopes for his brother Gabriel's return.

[bokutosbestie2]

Read my OIKAWA X Reader

“ Gods and Monsters “

Summary: Y/N is a Princess, until one day she beings to catch feelings for Prince Oikawa whom she met..The thing is she is An Angel and he is the prince of the monsters.. Will their love be able to grow in a environment where Gods and Monsters don’t interact due to the hate and conflict they have with one another?

Enjoy!

Yes this story was inspired by Lana del Rey song " Gods and Monsters " 💀🤚

There is a land of Gods and monsters

I was an Angel

You may wonder where are the monsters?

They live next to us but we're separated by A border. This border was a garden and it looks very deceiving It's filled with glistening flowers with rivers of gold, but in reality, it's filled with creatures. Creatures that can devour you in a minute once they see you. The angles guard their side of the border as well the monsters guide their side.

Everything seemed to be peaceful after a certain war happened which cause the monsters and angels to lose trust and go against each other. It's been 30 years since that war happened, but we still don't seem to get along.

But we all have gotten used to it. The rules were pretty simple never cross the Garden which separates us angles and monsters. If we were to try to cross we can get killed by either side.

I truly do wonder why we can't just get along and be nice to one another, but when I tell people that they think of me crazy. They must think I'm just a foolish princess with radical ideas.

As I sighed looking at the window Suga looks at me

" What's wrong princess ? " he asked in a worried tone

" Oh nothing, I was just lost in my thought. You know how it is I'm always wondering why can't we all just get along " I said to Suga as I looked out the window where I can see the border.

" Princess you and your ideas.. I too wish we could get along. Maybe one day.." Suga said as he looked at the Princess

" But who knows tho it's been 30 years, So maybe you can change the world Once you have the throne "

I looked at Him as he Grinned at me

" I like your thinking " I laughed

" ANYWAYS You have to get up and get ready to meet with the Prince of Nekoma. They will be here in 3 hours you must get ready and look presentable. "

" UGH SUGA ANOTHER PRINCE REALLY!? " I said as I looked at Suga with my angry face

" y/n your ABOUT TO BE 17! You know how your father is. You need to find yourself a suitable prince for you to get married to.." Suga said as he pushed me off the bed.

" Now I must get going, SO DONT BE A PAIN IN THE ASS! " As he walked out the door I flipped him off.

" dOnT bE a pAiN iN tHe aSs! " I rolled my eyes as I mimicked Suga.

I get up from the ground, as I walked to the bathroom to shower and change.

As I changed into a white Flowy dress with lace straps I being to wonder what will I do for the next 3 hours before the prince of Nekoma came.

Hmm, maybe I should go see if Kags wants to hang out before I have to see the prince.

I leave my room as I walked thru the halls And greet the servants.

" Good morning y/n! "

I heard a recognizable voice so I decided to turn around

" OH GOOD MORNING TO YOU DACHI!! " I say in excitement

Dachi is an assistant who works for my father, he helps him plan his meetings and other important stuff.

" Where are you off to this early in the morning," he says in a suspicious tone as he raised an eyebrow.

" I'm off to go see if Kags isn't too busy, so we can hang around before the prince comes, " I say as Dachi changed his face into a smile.

" Oh ok! Well don't stay out there for too long you need to be presentable for the prince " he said

" Ugh, your guys and the prince of Nekoma " I rolled my eyes.

" You haven't even met the Poor guy just give him a chance. " Dachi said in a worried tone.

" Fine, I'll give him a chance but I have to get going"

" Ok get going but don't be late "

" OK THEN SEE YA " I waved at Dachi and ran for the open palace door.

I take a deep breath of fresh air.

Oh, how I love the outside, the flowers, the cute animals and can't forget the beautiful rivers filled with gold.

As I walked off to go Find Kags I began to get distracted by the stores and the smell of street food.

Many people Greet me as I walked around the place.

As I walked even further then I  bumped into a stranger.

" SHEEZ watch where you're going! " the voice said In an irritated voice.

" Well EXCUSE ME MAYBE YOU SHOULD WATCH WHERE YOURE GOING " I said in agitated voice as I get up from the ground

As I get up I see an unfamiliar face. He has brown silky hair with brown glistening eyes. He has such a pretty boy face it Tics me OFF.

" Here let me help you up " he said as he put his hand up.

" No no it's fine I got this " I said as I stood up straight

" Hmm you don't seem like your from here? "

" Uh how did you know " he said in a worried tone

" Cause no one wears a cloak " I said as I tried to keep my laughter in

" WELL FOR YOUR INFORMATION ITS A VERY FASHIONABLE LOOK " He said in a offensive voice.

" Yea yea whatever I have to get going " as I leave straight ahead the strange boy grabbed my wrist

" SHEEZ what's up with you "

" Uh I'm kinda lost " the brown hair boys says

" WHAT DO U MEAN YOUR LOST? " I looked at him dead in the eye

"Well-

" OK! where did you even come from? " as I questioned the boy I noticed he got nervous

" Ah from the fields near the river of gold," he said as he looked at the ground

" Hmm, that's pretty close to the border! " I said

" Ah yes yes THAT'S WHERE I want to go near the border," the boy said as he got excited.

" Well lucky for you I'm trying to get there "

" Perfect " he grinned

" Ok let's go before I change my mind "

" I'm coming ~," he said in a cheerful voice

As we walked I realized I never caught his name.

" HEY, PRETTY BOY WHAT'S UR NAME? " I shouted at him

" Me pretty boy ~ wow already catching feelings " he looked at me with a smirk

" Not even close " I rolled my eyes

" Well my name is Toru Oikawa," he said

" AH OK OIKAWA LETS GO I don't have enough time, I have to meet up with a random-ass prince " I said as I walked faster

" A prince? " Oikawa thought to himself as he walked behind you.

Chapter 2

[passionate-reply]

This week on Great Albums: one of very few albums that I think is truly perfect. John Foxx’s second solo LP, The Garden, is a masterpiece of Medieval mysticism, romantic longing, and modern electronics. Transcript below the break!

Welcome to Passionate Reply, and welcome to Great Albums! In this installment, I’ll be looking at a classic sophomore album, and one which epitomizes the principle of taking one’s sound in a different direction the second time around: The Garden by John Foxx, first released in 1981.

While The Garden was Foxx’s second release as a solo artist, it’s also his fifth LP overall, as he had spent the late 1970s fronting the original incarnation of Ultravox. Foxx’s Ultravox was an eclectic mix of influences from glam, punk, and, of course, electronic pioneers like Kraftwerk, but it would be the latter of these ideas that dominated Foxx’s solo career. His 1980 solo debut, Metamatic, is some of the purest, starkest, and harshest minimal synth around, and remains one of the most iconic early works of the subgenre.

Music: “Underpass”

If you want more like Metamatic from Foxx, you’ll want to skip ahead to the 1990s, because he turned his back on this thin and aggressively inorganic sound remarkably quickly. While he would produce several more LPs in the 1980s, the group of them seems to grow progressively lighter and softer, with less blistering analogue synth, and more radio-friendly love themes. But while Foxx’s third and fourth efforts are often panned, The Garden has actually won nearly as many fans over the years as Metamatic, proving itself to be powerful in its own ways, despite its radically different aesthetic. Where Metamatic dealt in brutalist city blocks and Ballardian psycho-sexuality, The Garden takes place in moldering cathedrals, embracing Gothic splendour and (imagined) Medieval emotionality.

Music: “Europe After the Rain”

“Europe After the Rain” opens the album, and also served as its lead single, becoming a relatively minor hit in the charts. As we hear it, we immediately become aware that Foxx has abandoned the instrumental palette of Metamatic, made almost exclusively with an ARP 2600 synthesiser, in favour of something more lush. On “Europe After the Rain,” traditional instruments like acoustic guitar and piano are impossible to ignore, though the constant bass synth ensures we never forget Foxx’s roots either. It also seems to be a major thematic leap away from Metamatic, with its tender and romantic feel. Still, that may not necessarily be all there is to it--the song is presumably named after a famous painting of the same title, by the Surrealist Max Ernst, executed in the early 1940s as World War II was first beginning. Ernst’s painting is a sort of apocalyptic vision, in which crumbling structures are overtaken by vegetation, and two figures wander through it, seemingly passing by one another. Perhaps Foxx’s “Europe After the Rain” is also a theme for a devastated landscape, its lovers meeting again the last survivors of some nuclear holocaust? Maybe it isn’t too far away from the themes of crushing modernity employed on Metamatic after all.

Note, as well, the emphasis on “Europe,” conceptually--The Garden is, at least partially, a sort of search for a new European cultural identity. The Garden fuses electronics, and hence Europe’s characteristic technological achievements, with a love of more traditional European cultural ideals, namely, the aesthetics of Medieval Christianity. For evidence of that idea, look no further than its most obvious apotheosis, the track “Pater Noster.”

Music: “Pater Noster”

“Pater Noster” is, of course, a setting of the Latin-language translation of the so-called “Our Father” or Lord’s Prayer, one of the most popular and well-known texts in Christianity. “Pater Noster” is the album’s most obvious love letter to the Middle Ages, but an informed listen will show that it has little to do with actual music from that era--I actually could forgive the synthesisers, which might be analogized to the role of church organs, but the percussion-propelled nature of the track is what really makes it feel ahistorical to me. Despite the religious themes of The Garden, Foxx always averred not being any sort of authentic believer in religion or God, and maintained that he was interested in the traditions of the Church purely on aesthetic grounds. Whether you think this sort of appropriation is appropriate and respectful or not, it’s certainly one of the album’s prominent themes, and part of what makes it feel as unique as it does. While I’ve emphasized the themes of romanticism and religiosity, it’s also worth noting that The Garden is not a complete break from Foxx’s earlier works, and in its return to a more guitar-driven sound, it often winds up riffing on something not unlike punk.

Music: “Systems of Romance”

Astute followers of Foxx will have already noticed that the track “Systems of Romance” shares its title with the third and final LP he released with Ultravox, in 1979. Apparently, it was written that much earlier, though it wouldn’t be seen to completion until several years later. Combining a hard-driving guitar, played by Foxx’s Ultravox bandmate Robin Simon, with the inscrutable, sensual, elemental lyricism Foxx employs throughout his mid-80s oeuvre, the track “Systems of Romance” really feels like a bridge between 70s art rock and 80s avant-synth-pop, moreso than anything else on the album. Much as “Systems of Romance” extracts a certain prettiness from punk, so does the aesthetically-oriented “Night Suit,” which plays with appearance, deception, and masculinity.

Music: “Night Suit”

“Night Suit” is the track on The Garden that I feel is the most exemplary of its own time period, a mysterious ode to a mystical garment that could almost feel at home on an album by Visage. The Garden is interested in “romantic” themes, but “Night Suit” truly feels at peace among the New Romantics. It’s got some of the most “believable” rock influences, with a prominent guitar riff from Simon, and yet its emphasis on the power of fashion and appearances, destructive, and perhaps even supernatural, is hard to imagine in a genuine punk context. As it implores us to “be someone” or “be no-one,” it’s easy to fit “Night Suit” into one of the major themes throughout Foxx’s career: the tranquility and liberation of personal anonymity. Why is the “Night Suit” a suit in the first place? The song wouldn’t make sense if it didn’t deal with a garment that is also a non-garment, something to wear that feels default, neutral, and unassuming--not to mention classically masculine.

On the cover of The Garden, the main thing we see is, well, a garden. Despite Foxx’s more obvious personal presence on the albums before and after The Garden, it’s easy to miss him here, dwarfed by the scale of nature that surrounds him. It’s almost like the album is more meant to be about this place, and the concept of “the garden,” than it is Foxx as a person, or any particular perspective of his.

While the actual capital-R Romantics were deeply interested in the “sublime,” and the scenes and moments in which mankind faces its vulnerability and insignificance when compared to the natural world, it’s also worth remembering that a “garden,” by definition, is really not a natural space at all, but rather one which is arranged by human hands. Even if this composition resembles those of Romantic painters, I think it’s worth looking earlier in the European past to interpret this one. Gardens were one of the most prominent symbols in Medieval literature, and scholars have suggested that they serve as symbols for sensuality, romance, and the yoni itself. Through the association with the Garden of Eden, gardens often represent a sort of lost, but longed-for paradise, and a return to innocence which is as tantalizing as it is impossible. In particular, “Europe After the Rain,” with its theme of lovers meeting again after the passage of some time, seems to connect with this idea.

In hindsight, The Garden really stands alone in Foxx’s career, a masterpiece whose precise style he would never attempt again. We might say it became that Garden of Eden, to which the artist could never return. While Foxx’s interest in Medieval spirituality would return on ambient works like Cathedral Oceans, and he would occasionally return to love songs with an electronic backing, the precise combination of lovelorn bardistry with a flair for the baroque that appears on The Garden remains totally singular. Foxx’s follow-up to this album, 1983’s The Golden Section, narrows its thematic focus towards poppy love songs, and its instrumental focus, likewise, is that of a fairly unremarkable mid-80s synth-pop record. But at the same time, I like to think that tracks like “The Hidden Man” manage to maintain a sense of the mystical.

Music: “The Hidden Man”

My favourite track on The Garden is “Walk Away.” While it lacks the severe and tragic grandeur of the album’s title track, which closes the album on a lofty note, “Walk Away” shares some of its delicate qualities, reviving the soft piano that we heard on “Europe After the Rain.” Thematically, “Walk Away” seems to deal with fragility and transience, and the grave significance that a brief, passing moment may have--which makes that “delicateness” feel all the more poignant in context. Its call-and-response outro, featuring one of Foxx’s most anguished vocal performances, really makes it a stand-out. That’s everything for today--as always, thanks for listening!

Music: “Walk Away”

[ain]

tagged by @bunnibo over a week ago sorry this is so late + thank you for tagging me !!

for this tag game: only using song titles from one artist/band, cleverly answer the questions and tag people!

artist: radical face

gender: secrets

how are you feeling: all is well

if you could go anywhere: the lost garden

favorite mode of transportation: asleep on a train

your best friend: sunn

fave time of day: always gold

if your life was a tv show: fog in the house of lightbulbs

relationship status: nothing compares 2 u

this was really fun thank you !

tagging: @ubiquitas @7sharks @partiallygreen @twelve-olympains @imweirdatlast @lovesickens @honey-marble-owl @oblvions @evie-leafy

[agent-astronaut]

Rules: put your playlist on shuffle and write your favorite lyrics from the first 10 songs

I was tagged by @cae-des (thank u <333)

1.  And you can be sure that if you're feelin right / A day dream will last a long time into the night  (Daydream - The Lovin’ Spoonful)

2. But it's you, it's you, it's all for you / Everything I do / I tell you all the time / Heaven is a place on earth with you / Tell me all the things you want to do (Video Games - Radical Face)

3.   When I watch the world burn / All I think about is you [...] So I put my phone down / Fall into the night with you (Doom Days - Bastille)

4.  If the Lord don’t forgive me / I’d still have my baby and my babe would have me (Work Song - Hozier)

6.  I'm looking for answers, but lost in my head / Now I reach into darkness and take what I get / I hold it down (Hold It Down - Noah Kahan)

7.   What's left of my heart's still made of gold /  And I know that I'm still fucked up / But aren't we all, my love? (Rainbow - Kesha)

8.   What if you had a thought? / Its time to make the great escape (Bicycle Lane - Tom Rosenthal)

9.   And as the smoke came floodin' in beneath the doorway / I saw Satan shakin' hands, holdin' a briefcase / Where inside there's a plan that contains an X Command / For soldiers in the desert and toy soldiers marchin' in the sand (Where Are All The Scientists Now - Jukebox the Ghost)

10.   Look around / We made a garden of the love we found / So many reasons I would fight to stay /You're the courage when I fade/ Take a look at what we've made (Honeybee - The Head And The Heart)

I tag @fishpeen @orowit and @cae-des again asjdlkasj

[kays-kg-works]

Hmmmmmmm I’m gonna go ahead and try dropping a link to this (at the time I’m making this post) 60-song playlist I’ve made for My Love, My Life (the official title I’m going with for the kakagai series). It’s pretty much all kakagai songs with a few thrown in there that are for only Gai or only Kakashi. It’ll grow with time since I need enough to use as chapter titles for the series, but it’s already pretty long so...

 Here y’all go!

Edit: I’m gonna uuuh try putting a track-list under a read-more so people can see it without having to view the playlist page

My Love, My Life Tracklist

Series Title

My Love, My Life - Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, and Meryl Streep

Part One - All I Want

I Hate You But I Love You - Russian Red

Whatever It Takes - Imagine Dragons

We’re Going to be Friends - Jack Johnson

Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You) - Bombay Bicycle Club

Born Bold - Valley of Wolves

Song of Storms (Piano) - LilyPichu

Dance Around - Beltane

Lay My Body Down - Rag’n’Bone Man

Panic Room - Au/Ra

My Friends - Oh Wonder

Icarus - The Crane Wives

Better For Me - Fake Laugh

Wake Up - Arcade Fire

Not the Ghost - The Crane Wives

Move Forward - Bedroom

Birds - Imagine Dragons

In Case You Don’t Live Forever - Ben Platt

The Wisp Sings - Winter Aid

The Other Side of Paradise - Glass Animals

In My Veins - Andrew Belle

Heart - Sleeping At Last

All I Want - Kodaline

Part Two - Unravel

Always Gold - Radical Face

Drown - Seafret

Silent Invitation - URBVN

Sick of Losing Soulmates - Dodie

Of the Night - Bastille

Landslide - Oh Wonder

Waves (Acoustic) - Dean Lewis

Three - Sleeping At Last

This is Home - Cavetown

Fire Fire - Steam Powered Giraffe

Black Pear Tree - The Mountain Goats and Kaki King

The Next Right Thing - Kristen Bell

Human - Christina Perri

It’s OK, I Wouldn’t Remember Me Either - Crywank

Lung - Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Two - Sleeping at Last

Love Like You - Rebecca Sugar

Fear of the Water - SYML

Far From Home (The Raven) - Sam Tinnesz

I Lost A Friend - Finneas

Unravel (Acoustic) - TK from Ling Tosite Sigure

Part Three - Hello My Old Heart

Ayahuasca - Vancouver Sleep Clinic

I’ll Be Good - Jaymes Young

Man or A Monster - Sam Tinnesz ft. Zayde Wolf

Hello My Old Heart - The Oh Hellos

Some Nights - Fun

Hurts Like Hell - Fleurie

The Enemy - Andrew Belle

I Have Made Mistakes - The Oh Hellos

Save Yourself - Kaleo

Fallen - Gert Taberner

I Love You - Billie Eilish

Break My Heart Again - Finneas

Rewrite the Stars - Zendaya and Zac Efron

Wake - The Antlers

Are You With Me - Nilu

Lovely - Billie Eilish and Khalid

When the Party’s Over - Billie Eilish

Paralyzed - NF

Dancing With Your Ghost - Sasha Sloan

Fix You - Coldplay

All We Do - Oh Wonder

Human - Dodie

Part Four - Can’t Help Falling In Love With You OR Feel Something

Fools - Lauren Aquilina

Where’s My Love - SYML

I Hold You - CLANN

Watch Your Back - Sam Tinnesz

Make This Go On Forever - Snow Patrol

Unworthy - Vancouver Sleep Clinic

Killing Me to Love You - Vancouver Sleep Clinic

I Want More - Kaleo

Don’t Deserve You - Plumb

Feel Something - Jaymes Young

Bitter Water - The Oh Hellos

I Knew I Loved You - Savage Garden

Ultralife - Oh Wonder

Bare - Wildes

Putting the Dog to Sleep - The Antlers

The River - AURORA

Devil Town V2 - Cavetown

Can’t Help Falling in Love With You - Haley Reinhart

Eight - Sleeping At Last

Only Us - Ben Platt and Laura Dreyfuss

Runaway - AURORA

Part Five - Nine

Welcome Home - Radical Face

Carry You - Novo Amor

Nine - Sleeping At Last

Can’t Go Back - The Crane Wives

Sit Down Beside Me - Patrick Watson

Let It All Go - Birdy and Rhodes

When We Were Young - Hollow Coves

In The Wind - Lord Huron

Soft Universe - AURORA

Crash - Eden

5 AM - Amber Run

Broken Crown - Mumford and Sons

Once Again - CLANN

Arctic - Sleeping At Last

Keep You Safe - The Crane Wives

Stay Alive - Jose Gonzalez

Honeybee - Steam Powered Giraffe OR This Will End - The Oh Hellos

Breathe - Cutts

From Now On - Hugh Jackman

All This And Heaven Too - Florence and the Machine

Honeybee - The Head and the Heart

Epilogue (Might end up just being Talk to Me but could become a multi-chapter thing depending on how I feel when I get around to it, so here are the prospective ones that may or may not end up as part of it beyond that)

Talk to Me - Cavetown

A Thousand Years - Christina Perri

Cold Cold Man - Saint Motel

Is That Alright - Lady Gaga

[askremiandenvy]

Needlework and Seedlings--a playlist for Kirin

A playlist of songs inspired by the unfolding of Kirin’s arc in navigating her grief. Though created with her journey in mind, these songs may resonate with anyone who has dealt with trauma or loss.

Tracklist (Song- Artist):

Coda- Echos // (“Are you dreaming, too?”)

Thirteen- The Antlers // (“Couldn’t you have kept this all from happening? Dig me out from under our house”)

Viva la Vida- Coldplay //  (“I used to rule the world, seas would rise when I gave the word”)

St. Jude- Florence and the Machine // (“Maybe I’ve always been more comfortable in chaos”)

Please Just Stay Dead- Nicole Dollanganger // (“Wild fires have been eating you inside my head, trying to smoke you out or burn you alive in it”)

Homesick- Radical Face // (“But you're not the same, you died along the way. Now we're ghosts and we're praying for winter”)

Empty- Ray LaMontagne // (“Well I looked my demons in the eye, laid bare my chest, said: ‘do your best, destroy me’”)

Lung- Vancouver Sleep Clinic // (“Can somebody pick me up? This voice is too loud. I’m losing you in the crowd”)

Crown of the Lost- Piano Magic ft. Vashti Bunyan // ( “I have dreams in which you’re a nightmare, I have dreams in which you’re unfair. But angels still dance in your garden, and flowers still grow in your hair”)

When the World Was Mine- The Count of Monte Cristo OST // (“Gone now, my tomorrow. So fast, my tomorrow's gone. The world I left behind lives only in my mind”)

Epilogue- The Antlers // (“You're screaming, and cursing, and angry, and hurting me. And then smiling, and crying. Apologizing”)

Shallows- Daughter // (“Let the water rise, let the ground crack. Let me fall inside, lying on my back”)

Faded From the Winter- Iron and Wine // ( “Needlework and seedlings, in the way you’re walking to me, from the timbers. Faded from the winter”)

[lurusciutelumare]

Music Game

Rules: We’re snooping on your playlist. Put your entire music library on shuffle and list the first 10 songs, then choose 10 victims.

Tagged by @goatsandgangsters \o/ 

A Pound of Flesh - Radical Face

The Only Hope for Me Is You - My Chemical Romance

The (After) Life of the Party - Fall Out Boy

Nuvole Bianche - Ludovico Einaudi

Winter Winds - Mumford & Sons

Thunder - Imagine Dragons

Bad Blood - Bastille

The Garden Is Overgrown - CHAMPS

Lost on You - LP

Movement - Hozier

Not gonna tag anybody because I’m on this site so little I’m not even sure I know 10 people anymore lol

[sidpah]

Glory!

“Royal families, listen! Destitute soldiers! Listen! Listen to me, my sisters and brothers!” Demented cries bellow from the pulpit of what’s now Greene Street. In front of a boarded up ex-liquor store I’m transfixed by the sermonizing of a one-legged African-American-Sidpahan man known only by the locals as Jerry. He’s propped on a cane of some light-hued hardwood, the handle carved into a striking asp. Preaching to a crowd with his bastardized southern American drawl, inciting praise to his powerful transplanted gods.

I pause my running from nowhere to nowhere to listen, bag once more clutched protectively to my chest. Immensely glad and entirely astounded that no one plucked it from me while I slept. There are still some good people here, surely…

“Glory! Glory! Tell the root-high children to seek their fame! Tell them to swarm the hills with golden royal violence! The journey has been sanctified! It’s far but the effort is justified! They’re lewd as the brothels of Sodom to the Antigens.” With every punctuation mark he projects a crooked finger toward a different member of the crowd, impaling them on his accusation.

“The bomb in your chest will beep incessantly – clicking – ticking – a reminder of smokestacks and time-clocks you are avenging. Dark brown broth will splash the feet of the weary. But don’t be dismayed! Don’t be dismayed… Don’t be dissuaded from the path of your glory! Glory, ah, Righteous Glory – Ah! We sing under our inked cloaks, smoking Xeroxed doctrines of perpetual change. Our lungs may blister. Our teeth may fill our throats, gums raining radiation-poisoned bone, all the while the bomb is beeping…”

Superimposed across his face I see monochromatic images of nuclear weapons tests, two-dimensional facades swept away by shadows and dust clouds. Nuclear tornadoes shredding suburbia. A few grains of blowing sand get caught in my nose –

I sneeze.

Jerry doesn’t seem to notice.

Why would he? His eyes are raging to the heavens, his free hand shuddering upward.

“Don’t be distracted by sunlight, by bikinis, by cold intoxicating drink! Seasons change, my friends. Seasons always change! And you must not be caught off guard… Summer, summer, bringing its rumors of a fruitful future – Bare loins, wet lips… One child thought something radical and was lost! Blinded, his lot was hidden beneath the craterous clay. Feel that giddiness of adolescence, but focus its fire! Even if you can’t pinpoint exactly what that adolescent fire felt like… Remember possibility, hopefulness, the feeling that your efforts are all aimed at that fruitful boundless Future that promises you the fulfillment of every desperate wet dream – seventy virgins and all the booze your ghostly liver can handle. Remain diligent and grounded, yes, for you can beware, my friends and children, be aware that without any formal ceremony, all those delusions, twenty-some years of them, will crumble the day you find, with a cold detached bluntness only this godless realm can provide, that you’re there. You’ve arrived. And that the Future proves to be nothing at all like the brochure. Someone’s transformed it into the simple drudgery of an endlessly repetitious present with no time off for good behavior and no window from which to watch the Sun plunge herself hopelessly into the ocean. And those seventy virgins have likewise been melted down and congealed into one gargantuan craggy, flabby old housefrau with runny pendulous tits and uncontrollable flatulence who lords herself over you and crushes your nuts twice as hard every time you feel so bold as to ask her for a sip of her cheap screwtop port wine… Let that image ground your feet to the earth where they can be utilized for the good of humanity while they can still leap and run!”

“Age don’t mean shit!” a young man yells at him, a red plastic cup of frothy beer in his hand. “Guerillas got guns and capitalists got money and power. All’s you got is words!”

“Never underestimate the power of words! Words are the beginning and the end. Words are sound and sound began the universe like sound’ll destroy the universe! Don’t tell me you can’t make a difference! You’re one man, you’re one woman… You’re all god! Do you see? You are all god! Only you can make a difference! Don’t be fooled. The mugshots are overflowing with young men staying cool shot by hot gunpowder flashes while the bomb ticks. Tell me, how hard is it to fool a fool? Stay still. Eeeaaase into the insurgency. Don’t smile. Suck in your gut. Sneer a little. Pooch out your lips. Sniff in those nose hairs, (sniff!) no, no, on second thought, blow them out. Tangle that mop – let’s not continue the charade that you are civil… and human. You are a wild beast god! You are a warrior god! You are a vengeful god! And you can make all the difference! Differences are just a matter of opinion… Opinions are a matter of disparate states of ignorance… You’re a god whose awareness is clothed in the trendy garments of your generation. It’s hidden beneath oversized basketball jerseys with someone else’s name on the back. It’s hidden beneath Saris and batik dresses and overalls with a confederate flag on a red trucker’s cap. It’s there underneath tunics and black berets, balaclavas and vestments with satin crosses running vertical pillars beside the grey tufts of hair in your ears. You are what you wear and whose name you rent. So rent a good one for today! Rent a good one! Chernov, Bookchin, Gibran, Chavez, Crowley, Ashoka, King, Ghandi, Gautama, whichever one resonates your bones, whichever one will move you to action! For the name will be your armor! The name will be your will! You will conjoin the name and flesh as one and reconcile collapsed dynasties of promising risk to the present stifled by this potential-refracting smog!”

I applaud with the crowd and look to the slick old Rat Pack reject next to me who seems not to hear a word Jerry’s said. He’s a tourist in the worst way…

“It costs fifty goddamn cents to tune a note up a single half step these days; you know as well as I do someone’s getting rich on the deal,” he croons to the woman next to him… He’s an old crooner from the Vitalis school… He’s just sightseeing. His paradigm’s been rusted in place for decades… He grinds out his flower cigar in the hair of a tiny Mexican boy in front of him… The boy winces but makes not a peep… He knows how to earn his pay… And the hair may grow through the scar tissue someday, he consoles himself through the pain. And if not, he already has the head of a monk, so maybe it’s a sign from the dios…

“What’re you selling?” a pretty young girl with dirty hair chides Jerry. “I ain’t got nothin’ to do with your revolution.”

“You have everything to do with it. For it is your revolution. Can’t you see it? Can’t you see it?”

“See what, that you’re a raving crackpot?”

“That smog filth creeping up blue windowpanes as if its fingers were pulling its body of decay face to face with little eyes contemplating Saturdays eternal,” Jerry continues to the mostly enraptured crowd. It doesn’t matter what he says when it’s projected with such vim and tenor. “Well those eyes will be lucky to see week’s end! Those thin grey gauzy straw fingers scale the slick glass. And we’re stuck! Trapped! What can we do? Bending slick rubber spines, conforming to the bulldozer force against our bodies, we dirty things, soft things, rubbery things bend in acceptance; what else can be done if we can’t first accept? The world must first be the world it is for it is with us as we are – It is as it is it just is! We are as we are as we always were! Oppression ferments our miserable weakness into fuuuel for expansion, fuuuel from the incineration of our carcasses, trees and fauna immolated to produce scores of glowing numbers on a screen – Something sick’s crawling mold up the outside wall – Don’t nobody open that window! Don’t nobody even think of opening it up and lettin’ that mean-hearted bastard in here! What trains pass by with ignore-angst and great pillars of concrete hum into the world is the mating song of that decrepit fiend...”

I’m now not so much listening as swaying, my body scooping and rising in waves with the loops of each phrase, and I’m fighting the heavy urge to run up and grab him by the arm. I must speak to him after his sermon is finished…

“Meanwhile, right here, the Mass’s Fragile Hope makes her pillow of unsheathed straw while smokestacks burn halos of oil and lead around all the bowed heads singing her praises while pissing on her gravestone – their cronies making their fortunes by burying her dead in these distant lands – Look up! Look all around you at these iron girders miles high, each one proclaiming itself a shiny monument to frame her beauty, while their mirrored glass reflects the steady demise of a glorious culture in angry spiteful children eyes… Can’t you see why this is your revolution? All around you this quaint village’s roofs are all in cinders. Never mind the culprits and heroes bound together by fear, all running chaos as cedar smoke recedes, buckets of water splashing the cobblestones so there’s none left by the time they try to throw it on the burnt-out hulls of their homes – Guarantees mean little in a village of burning houses... On veldt and stones, a bright sun turns… She sleeps among the weeds and moss… reeds are her tangled arms – And we all eye her sweetly yearning for those things she brings us, those things we had once back when we were living in the garden, back when we were inchoate and dust and dreamskin clad…”

Sometime in the meantime, I must’ve been mesmerized by the rhetorical arrows slung by his amped-up jaw bow streaking manic implications that made everyone watching him see a second good leg supporting his torso of angry beaming bricks of light. But damned if I didn’t get struck upside the head by one of those darts missed its target and I tumbled… Or maybe I got cold-cocked by some fratboy’s beer-leaden fist. Either way, down I went, listening to his warning admonitions singing a paranoid lullaby…

 Fragrant holy spirals off her eyes rain down over my glistening melt tongue… A cloud rolls her tongue making roof glisten with tiny ice eyes… Melt on fragrant crystals in tiny spirals, holy and glistening…

 Sprawled across sidewalk… a gaping hole above my ear… How far I’d slid since the demiurgic healing of that strange blond delicacy in Kalday’s mud-walled hovel… I’m so far distant smelling gin or urine, smelling roasted goat limbs over flaming spit, smelling the dead leather shoes of bright fashionistas complaining about meals three weeks since digested to bored mannequins in distant cities… I’m mindful of the patterns being woven by that nightmare-spirit casting my shadow on his own behalf... And as I sidle away from this decaying body already having lost the earth, water, heat and breath, wavering through currents of black chi, I’m pulled. Left shipwrecked on bed with a diseased stranger… Calling a number I wrote on palm to breathe heavy and cum in my pants… Curled under blankets soaked with dejection. I’ve already got what I need, I mumble in my twilight sleep…

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week - 34

It dawned on me last night, that watching films and writing these short reviews is somethings I truly enjoy. I thought to myself: If I could do that as a job, it would be ideal. I see up to 4 films and more per day, anyway. So now I am going to embrace it, and make it my job.

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(2 + 1) by my new favorite Polish director, Paweł Pawlikowski:

✳️✳️✳️ Cold War, starts with a group of ethnomusicologists searching the countryside for old traditional folk sounds before they are lost forever, and ends 15 surprising years later at the most intense heartbreak. An absolute masterpiece - 10/10.

Here’s a short trailer that shocked me, since I didn’t realize what a disastrous love story it was until the end. (Photo Above).

✳️✳️✳️ Ida, the first Polish Oscar winner for Best Foreign Language Film (2012). In 1962, a 17 year old novice nun, before taking her final vows, discovers that her parents, who were murdered in the war, were Jewish.

A featured snippet from John Coltrane’s Naima represents the mood of the story.

Stark and austere black & white compositions, a journey into Poland’s darkest soul. Best film of the week.

✳️✳️✳️ However, The woman in the fifth, Paweł’s previous film, was forgettable and listless. It’s hard to imagine that the director of this standard fair will rise to produce the magical lyricism of his two later films. Even Joanna Kulig (Zula from ‘Cold War’) doesn’t elevate it and make it worthwhile.

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Ida’s visual style was inspired by The Passion of Joan of Arc, and Paweł’s framing often evokes Maria Falconetti’s tortured face. Carl Dryer’s haunting 1928 film is still fresh and extremely modern. Even more than the radical close ups, I was struck by the gender imbalance of the play: One frightened 19 year old girl, against a full battery of grotesque, powerful and menacing old men, who demand complete fealty from her. 9/10.

The film had its world premiere at the local Palads Teatret. Apparently, the original models for the film's set are stored at the Danish Film Institute Archives - Maybe I’ll get a chance to see them one day.

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Abbas Kiarostami’s slow-moving Iranian film Taste of Cherry, about a man driving on the outskirts of Tehran, looking to pay somebody to cover him with dirt, after he commits suicide. Probably the inspiration to Ramin Bahrani’s ‘Goodbye Solo’. It ends with Louis Armstrong's "St. James Infirmary Blues." 8/10.

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Costa-Gavras’s 1972 State of Siege was a searing indictment of the brutal US meddling in Latin America, and the shameful, deadly repression of leftist regimes. So many atrocities committed in the name of the Imperialistic Yankee dollar: Death squads, torture, mass assassinations, deadly coups - The same playbook for 70 years.

Chaotic opening scene of the army sweeping the street. The whole movie was terrifying. 7+ / 10

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Peter Jackson’s They Shall Not Grow Old. The Uncanny Valley effects created by using colorized footage from the trenches of WW1, corrected for speed, and laid with voice-overs of actual British servicemen, talking about their war memories. The moment when the soldiers reach the battlefield, and the film shifts from the black and white to color is breathtaking. 8/10

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A Fantastic Woman, a 2017 sensitive Chilean movie about a trans woman, whose older lover suddenly dies, leaving her to confront his estranged family and to deal with ugly problems of identity, respect and dignity. It’s compassionate and eventually hopeful, though not necessarily fantastic.

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Thelma, an atmospheric Norwegian thriller about a young student with psychokinetic powers who falls in love with another girl, while losing her mind. Very slow burning and moody. Reminds me that I want to re-watch Polanski’s Repulsion.

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Aretha Franklin X 2: 

✳️✳️✳️ Respect, the new, terrific, slick Aretha Franklin bio, which is also a solid feature directorial debut for the director Liesl Tommy. The small girl part was best, but the whole story was well-made. Recommended.

✳️✳️✳️ ... And the final gospel concert from ‘Respect’ was recorded by Sydney Pollack in 1972, and just-recently released as Amazing Grace. With glimpses in the background of Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger (at 0:51).

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Woodstock, the documentary of the festival at  Max Yasgur's farm. Unfortunately, this is only 1/2 of the original film. Re-watch.

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Carey Mulligan X 3:    

✳️✳️✳️ An education, a beautiful story about a naive 16 year old girl in 1961 London who is being seduced by a charming and sophisticated conman twice her age. The title can be understood in two different ways. 7+/10.

✳️✳️✳️ Never let me go - A British filming of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel didn’t get me. Part subtle science fiction story about compulsory body donors, and part love story with the always-aweful Andrew Garfield in a boarding school setting, its appeal just flew past me.

✳️✳️✳️ Drive - a perfect arthouse thriller by Nicolas Winding Refn. The action scenes are similar to Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver and many other LA-At-Night  action films, but the romance is tight and constrained. The motivation of laconic hero Ryan Goslin is being commented on in the 4-5 songs that puncture the action, with the last one calling him “A real hero - a real human being”, however he is not a real human being, but a replica of the Steve McQueen / Clint Eastwood mold.

Re-watch.

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I haven’t seen the great American saga Days of Heaven for many years. Through the gorgeous cinematography of Néstor Almendros, the score by Ennio Morricone, and especially the voice over story telling by the little girl Linda Manz as she saw it, it’s still as perfect as it was years ago. 10/10

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Brazil, Terry Gilliam’s 1985 satiric version of George Orwell’s 1984. Dystopia! Bureaucracy! Ducts! With young Jonathan Pryce as a dreamy glam rock flying Phoenix.

Too bad that Gilliam never got to film Hieronymus Bosch, for example his Garden of Earthly Delights!

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I’ve never seen a Bob Ross painting show or knew much about him except that he had a landscape painting program on PBS, so the new documentary Happy Accidents, Betrayal & Greed was all news to me.

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First watch, and only because the highlights always looked somehow ‘funny’ - Fletch. But American comedies of the 80′s and 90′s were so uncharitably lame. 1/10.

Maybe it would have been better if they used their first choice, Mick Jagger.

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Throw-back to the art project:

La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc Adora.

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(My complete movie list is here)

[dfroza]

the Spirit within acts as a deposit of things to come

that will be…

just as an engagement ring

(A pure seed)

marriage itself on earth reflects upon the eternal tapestry of a heavenly marriage to come as a secret elopement away from this world. and there is a beautiful mystery in the way our Creator made the body of a woman to become as “One” body with a man as a lifelong commitment of trust. sex is sacred and is only meant for marriage as a safe space shared in this bond.

Today’s reading of the Scriptures from the New Testament is the 3rd chapter of the Letter of First Corinthians where Paul reflects upon planting a pure seed and the body becoming the Temple of the Spirit:

My brothers and sisters, I cannot address you as people who walk by the Spirit; I have to speak to you as people who tend to think in merely human terms, as spiritual infants in the Anointed One. I nursed you with milk, as a mother would feed her baby, because you were not, and still are not, developed enough to digest complex spiritual food. And here’s why: you are still living in the flesh, not in the Spirit. How do I know? Are you fighting with one another? Are you comparing yourselves to others and becoming consumed with jealousy? Then it sounds like you are living in the flesh, no different from the rest who live by the standards of this rebellious and broken world. If one of you is saying, “I am with Paul,” and the other says, “I am with Apollos,” aren’t you like everybody else? So who is Apollos really? Or Paul for that matter? We are only servants, agents who led you to faith, and the Lord commissioned each of us to do a particular job.

My job was to plant the seed, and Apollos was called to water it. Any growth comes from God, so the ones who water and plant have nothing to brag about. God, who causes the growth, is the only One who matters. The one who plants is no greater than the one who waters; both will be rewarded based on their work. We are gardeners and field workers laboring with God. You are the vineyard, the garden, the house where God dwells. Like a skilled architect and master builder, I laid a foundation based upon God’s grace given to me. Now others will come along to build on the foundation. Each serves in a different way and is to build upon it with great care. There is, in fact, only one foundation, and no one can lay any foundation other than Jesus the Anointed. As others build on the foundation (whether with gold, silver, gemstones, wood, hay, or straw), the quality of each person’s work will be revealed in time as it is tested by fire. If a man’s work stands the test of fire, he will be rewarded. If a man’s work is consumed by the fire, his reward will be lost but he will be spared, rescued from the fire. Don’t you understand that together you form a temple to the living God and His Spirit lives among you? If someone comes along to corrupt, vandalize, and destroy the temple of God, you can be sure that God will see to it that he meets destruction because the temple of God is sacred. You, together, are His temple.

Don’t let anyone deceive himself. If any one of you thinks he is wise in matters pertaining to this world, he is going to be really disappointed. In fact, one must be deemed a fool by worldly standards in order to become truly wise because the wisdom of this rebellious and broken world looks like foolishness when put next to God. So it stands in Scripture, “He catches the wise in their deceitful plotting.” And the Scriptures add, “The Lord knows the highest thoughts of the wise, and they are worthless.” So there is no reason for anyone to boast in human leaders. You already have it all. So whether it is Paul, Apollos, Cephas, the world, life or death, the present or the future—it all belongs to you. You belong to the Anointed One, and the Anointed One belongs to God.

The Letter of 1st Corinthians, Chapter 3 (The Voice)

Today’s paired chapter of the Testaments is the 38th chapter of the book (scroll) of Isaiah which documents a poem written by King Hezekiah:

Meanwhile, back in Judah, Hezekiah became very sick and was about to die. Learning of it, Isaiah, Amoz’s son, went to visit him.

Isaiah: Here is what the Eternal One has to say:

Eternal One: Get your affairs in order. You are going to die. You are not going to recover from this.

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and started praying.

Hezekiah: Eternal One, I beg you to remember how I have followed the path You set before me, and how I did so with all my heart. Remember how I have done what You wanted with sincerity of purpose every step of the way.

Then Hezekiah broke down and wept. He wept and wept. Then a different word from the Eternal came upon the prophet Isaiah.

Eternal One: Go and tell Hezekiah that the Eternal, the God of your ancestor David, says: “I have heard your prayer, and I have seen your tears. I’ve decided to add another 15 years to your life. Not only that, but I will also rescue you and this city and not allow you to fall under the control of the Assyrian king. I Myself will protect this city, Jerusalem. You’ll know that I, the Eternal One, will keep My promise by this sign: I will make the sun’s shadow—which has climbed these steps of Ahaz’s stairway—go backward 10 steps.”

And the shadow on the stairway moved backward 10 steps. When Hezekiah, king of Judah, recovered from his illness, he composed a poem.

Hezekiah: I thought for sure in the prime of my life

that I’d been brought to the gates of death,

that I’d miss out on the rest of my years.

I thought: That’s it. I will never again see the Eternal in the land of the living.

I will never again enjoy the company of those alive in this world.

My time on earth is folded up and packed away like a shepherd’s tent.

It’s as if a weaver has snipped me off from the loom and rolled me up.

From day to night You bring my life to an end.

I stay calm until morning arrives,

then like a lion He breaks all my bones.

From day to night You bring my life to an end.

Oh, how I argue and mourn for my passing life!

Like a swallow or a crane I twitter;

like a lonesome dove I moan.

My eyes become bleary from looking up to the heavens for help.

I cry, “O Lord, way up high, I am oppressed; come and help me!”

But what can I say? God has spoken to me.

Things are as He made them.

So I am determined to go slowly, make the most of my years,

even though I am bitter to the core.

But I so wanted to live! So I prayed, “Lord, by these things, people live

and my spirit is grounded in the same.

So heal me, let me live!”

Paradoxically, my bitter experience was pushing me toward wholeness.

For You, God, have put behind all my shortcomings and wrongdoings.

You have rescued me from death.

You pulled me from a black hole of nothingness and held me close to You.

And so I join the living in giving thanks to You.

After all, thankful voices never rise from the land of the dead.

After all, the songs of praise never soar from death’s dark realm.

Those who go down into the pit—that great black nothingness—

They can’t even begin to hope for Your faithfulness.

But ah, the living! And I am among them today,

giving praise and thanks to You for life,

The old telling the young about the loyalty of Your love.

The Eternal will rescue me,

and we will break out the stringed instruments.

We will sing and make music for the rest of our lives,

right here in the house of the Eternal.

Isaiah instructed the physicians to apply a compress of squashed figs to the boil on Hezekiah’s skin to help him recover.

Hezekiah: When will I know that I am well enough to go to the Eternal’s house? Is there a sign I should look for?

The Book (Scroll) of Isaiah, Chapter 38 (The Voice)

A link to my personal reading of the Scriptures for friday, july 16 of 2021 with a paired chapter from each Testament of the Bible along with Today’s Proverbs and Psalms

A post by John Parsons about new identity:

At the time of his baptism, the heavens were torn open and the Spirit descended on Yeshua like a dove. The Heavenly Voice then proclaimed: "You are my son; my beloved: my favor rests upon you" (Mark 1:11). The Voice from heaven not only validated Yeshua's ministry before the others, but it more radically revealed that the blessing of his relationship with God - his chosenness - was something we could ultimately know as well: "You are my beloved child; my favor rests upon you." The Voice was given for our sake -- so that we might know (John 12:30).

Baptism, after all, represents being identified and immersed with God's life: it is like a rebirth or a "crossing over" from the realm of this world to that of the realm of the spirit; from the old to the new... When we hear (shema) the Heavenly Voice within our own hearts saying, "Fear not; you are my beloved child: I have chosen you to know me," you come alive to inherit the blessing of knowing God as your Father, your Abba, your friend...

"O heavenly Father -- O Abba -- help me to know myself as your beloved child, chosen and forever loved by you from the foundation of the world... My heart yearns for you; from the inmost depths do I need you; I cry out; my heart aches, for your blessing is this: that my heart would know you, and that in my great need you would forever be my beloved, my life, my beginning and my end, my all in all. Amen." [Hebrew for Christians]

7.15.21 • Facebook

Today’s message (Days of Praise) from the Institute for Creation Research

July 16, 2021

Whom Shall I Fear?

“The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” (Psalm 27:1)

Think back to your youngest childhood days. Do you remember being afraid of the dark? Were you scared when your parents turned off the nightlight?

Flash forward to more logical adult fears—thieves, natural disasters, negative bank account balances, unemployment, public speaking, shark attacks, political turmoil, and death. While some of those fears may seem far-fetched, there are other fears you might encounter that will truly drive you to your knees in prayer.

How would you respond to life-threatening persecution? What if your children recant their faith and abandon everything you’ve taught them from Scripture? Could you handle the loss of loved ones and all of your possessions?

The Bible is filled with examples of faithful believers who suffered (Hebrews 11:36-38). Many of the sorrow-filled Psalms were written by King David. But he wasn’t the only subject of fear, suffering, and trauma. Perhaps you are reminded of Job. He was a godly man. Yet the Lord allowed Satan to torment him, removing nearly every good thing from his life (Job 1:12; 2:6). How could he respond in faith to the One who protected his soul?

In today’s text, David draws our hearts to what Spurgeon calls “a threefold cord which could not be broken.” The Lord is our light, salvation, and strength. And then he asks two rhetorical questions: “Whom shall I fear?...Of whom shall I be afraid?”

With the Lord on your side, you need not fear anyone or anything. His love for you is sure and steadfast. Nothing in the entire universe—darkness, disaster, demons, or the devil—can separate you from His love (Romans 8:38-39). MH

A tweet by illumiNations as a collaborative effort of global Bible translation:

@IlluminationsBT: Meet one of our illumiNations partners - SIL @SILintl. Learn more at: https://www.sil.org

7.15.21 • 12:03pm • Twitter