lachrymosestories

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I really like the mini-game of mixing herbal tea🫖

It makes me want to drink herbal tea, but I'll hold back by drinking the jasmine tea I have at home.

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We're all sinners here

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Sinners studies in heavypaint

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two more sinners doodles for good measure 💞

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Yes omg that is something I completely forgot you mention but you described it so perfectly

Okay i wanna talk about Remmick's choice for songs in Sinners so here goes. Fair warning i know a good deal about irish music history but not as much about American folk so I can talk more about the latter two songs than I can the first.

First, obviously the music choice across the entire movie was perfection. But the choice of the three songs Remmick plays add so much to what he represents (cycle of oppression, loss of history and culture, the consuming nature of white supremacy, etc.) so I want to focus specifically on that.

So Remmick starts with 'Pick Poor Robin Clean', an old American folk song. This is one i hadnt heard before, but the title comes from a common phrase in folk and blues - its meaning being to literally strip someone of all their belongings and resources. It seems to be a very "mild" (in terms of musical intricacy) song that hides racist tendencies, something "normalized" within white american culture at the time but looking back on was clearly opressive at the best and most often overtly racist. The song also foreshadows his intentions - he wants to consume sammie and everyone else at the juke joint, strip them of everything and subsume them under his hivemind "utopia". Specifically with Sammie, of course, he wants to steal his music and its power to connect back to his own lost history. This music represents the white culture spreading across america, one that, as seen in Remmick, severed someone from their culture and history under a uniformity. Remmick definitely suffers from that, but he also ultilizes it to get power, and he attempts to repeat the cycle with sammie. He pretends to be southern and an extreme racist to get into the klans member's house, and he puts on a similar 'southern charm' facade with sammie too at first, calling forth his own whiteness and playing into a sort of christian 'neighbourly kindness' ideology (hooefully thst phrase makes sense).

As this initial attempt at "love and peace" (not actual peace, of course, as we know where his intentions lie) fails, he then tempts Mary by playing 'Will ya go, lassie, go". This song is an Irish ballad, but one that easily would have been played by early american folk. Its in the same class as 'Danny Boy', an irish song that crosses over into a brand of clean, american folk. It's one that might be played by those who would not necessarily play something more overtly irish like what Remmick plays next (which I'll get to). It represents the transition of being adopted into american whiteness - which did happen to irish people, who were for a time not seen as "white enough" but were later subsumed and normalized into whiteness. The song shows how culture can be swallowed and lost over time. During this song, we also see him start to slip an irish lilt into his singing, reaching back to his roots. Again, that transition from irish to american. The song is also, as mentioned, a love song, which plays with Mary's own troubles. The whole thing is a rouse, its meant to make her want to connect with Remmick and feel safer with him compared to the almost jostlingly out of place previous song.

Which brings me to the final song. Hoo boy. So 'Rocky Road to Dublin' is one of the most famous Irish Shanties/Drinking Songs. Any Irish Shanty Choir would know it. The song itself is about leaving home, leaving ireland itself, in search of work - "then off to reap the corn" - eventually ending up in Liverpool. The song is inherently about the troubles of emmigration and longing for a lost homeland. Its also the most irish, including the very com.on whack fol lol le rah, which is a lilt that veries from song to song but is common across irish shanties. It is about irish struggles, and has the strongest irish voice to it. The song represents Remmick's plea to Sammie, his longing to connect to his past. But the song has an eerie sense to it as well.

Another post I saw here talked about how, in contrast to 'I lied to you' where everyone contributes to the song with their own history and culture, in this song remmick forces his own culture upon them, and that's exactly what he's doing. He has fully adopted an Irish accent, as have the other singers around him - despite him being the only named Irish person their. The dancing is all uniform and sychronized, which is very typucal for irish dance -especially riverdancing which LET ME TALK ABOUT THAT. okay brief tangent. Riverdancing is all about stiffness and perfection of movement to emphasize the quick steps. It is precise and demanding, the exact opposite of the chaotic freedom of the dancing at the juke joint. It represents not only the irish culture remmick is adopting but also the way he is forcing those movements on others. The whole scene feels off not because the song is oppressive - but because Remmick himself has lost the meaning of the music. He became so obsessed with his own lost past that hes now doing the same thing to others just to get it back. The song feels unsettling because no one else should know it, they dont share that history with him. Instead, he stole their past and implanted his own, the exact thing that was done to him and ireland itself by britain, and to irish immigrants by america.

The irony is his connection was right there the whole time. Irish shanties are typically a way to connect with others and feel united. I remember my grandfather telling me stories about people coming to the pub after all the tourists left and just gathering and singing. The songs hold meaning, they tell stories of hardhsips and history. The sharing of those shanties and drinking songs has a lot of the same power as the music in the juke joint - with very different contexts, of course. The movie was never criticizing irish culture (of course), or longing for a past that was ripped away. Remmick could have easily told sammie all of that, and shared a song with him in the juke joint, had that connection, without any violence. But he wanted the power for his own, he wanted to take it and use it how he pleased, with no care for its meaning or sammie's own desires.the song choice is a reversal of the loss of culture. It starts with a completely american folk song, then traces back to its irish roots, following the path remmick himself likely went down in the past. It represents how he wants to both cling to his own history but also how he weaponizes his own trauma to try and manipulate sammie and others. We see this again in the baptism scene but honestly i could spend a whole post talking about that scene so i will stop here.

What a movie man. This is just one aspect of all of the layers it included.

[lachrymosestories]

Okay i wanna talk about Remmick's choice for songs in Sinners so here goes. Fair warning i know a good deal about irish music history but not as much about American folk so I can talk more about the latter two songs than I can the first.

First, obviously the music choice across the entire movie was perfection. But the choice of the three songs Remmick plays add so much to what he represents (cycle of oppression, loss of history and culture, the consuming nature of white supremacy, etc.) so I want to focus specifically on that.

So Remmick starts with 'Pick Poor Robin Clean', an old American folk song. This is one i hadnt heard before, but the title comes from a common phrase in folk and blues - its meaning being to literally strip someone of all their belongings and resources. It seems to be a very "mild" (in terms of musical intricacy) song that hides racist tendencies, something "normalized" within white american culture at the time but looking back on was clearly opressive at the best and most often overtly racist. The song also foreshadows his intentions - he wants to consume sammie and everyone else at the juke joint, strip them of everything and subsume them under his hivemind "utopia". Specifically with Sammie, of course, he wants to steal his music and its power to connect back to his own lost history. This music represents the white culture spreading across america, one that, as seen in Remmick, severed someone from their culture and history under a uniformity. Remmick definitely suffers from that, but he also ultilizes it to get power, and he attempts to repeat the cycle with sammie. He pretends to be southern and an extreme racist to get into the klans member's house, and he puts on a similar 'southern charm' facade with sammie too at first, calling forth his own whiteness and playing into a sort of christian 'neighbourly kindness' ideology (hooefully thst phrase makes sense).

As this initial attempt at "love and peace" (not actual peace, of course, as we know where his intentions lie) fails, he then tempts Mary by playing 'Will ya go, lassie, go". This song is an Irish ballad, but one that easily would have been played by early american folk. Its in the same class as 'Danny Boy', an irish song that crosses over into a brand of clean, american folk. It's one that might be played by those who would not necessarily play something more overtly irish like what Remmick plays next (which I'll get to). It represents the transition of being adopted into american whiteness - which did happen to irish people, who were for a time not seen as "white enough" but were later subsumed and normalized into whiteness. The song shows how culture can be swallowed and lost over time. During this song, we also see him start to slip an irish lilt into his singing, reaching back to his roots. Again, that transition from irish to american. The song is also, as mentioned, a love song, which plays with Mary's own troubles. The whole thing is a rouse, its meant to make her want to connect with Remmick and feel safer with him compared to the almost jostlingly out of place previous song.

Which brings me to the final song. Hoo boy. So 'Rocky Road to Dublin' is one of the most famous Irish Shanties/Drinking Songs. Any Irish Shanty Choir would know it. The song itself is about leaving home, leaving ireland itself, in search of work - "then off to reap the corn" - eventually ending up in Liverpool. The song is inherently about the troubles of emmigration and longing for a lost homeland. Its also the most irish, including the very com.on whack fol lol le rah, which is a lilt that veries from song to song but is common across irish shanties. It is about irish struggles, and has the strongest irish voice to it. The song represents Remmick's plea to Sammie, his longing to connect to his past. But the song has an eerie sense to it as well.

Another post I saw here talked about how, in contrast to 'I lied to you' where everyone contributes to the song with their own history and culture, in this song remmick forces his own culture upon them, and that's exactly what he's doing. He has fully adopted an Irish accent, as have the other singers around him - despite him being the only named Irish person their. The dancing is all uniform and sychronized, which is very typucal for irish dance -especially riverdancing which LET ME TALK ABOUT THAT. okay brief tangent. Riverdancing is all about stiffness and perfection of movement to emphasize the quick steps. It is precise and demanding, the exact opposite of the chaotic freedom of the dancing at the juke joint. It represents not only the irish culture remmick is adopting but also the way he is forcing those movements on others. The whole scene feels off not because the song is oppressive - but because Remmick himself has lost the meaning of the music. He became so obsessed with his own lost past that hes now doing the same thing to others just to get it back. The song feels unsettling because no one else should know it, they dont share that history with him. Instead, he stole their past and implanted his own, the exact thing that was done to him and ireland itself by britain, and to irish immigrants by america.

The irony is his connection was right there the whole time. Irish shanties are typically a way to connect with others and feel united. I remember my grandfather telling me stories about people coming to the pub after all the tourists left and just gathering and singing. The songs hold meaning, they tell stories of hardhsips and history. The sharing of those shanties and drinking songs has a lot of the same power as the music in the juke joint - with very different contexts, of course. The movie was never criticizing irish culture (of course), or longing for a past that was ripped away. Remmick could have easily told sammie all of that, and shared a song with him in the juke joint, had that connection, without any violence. But he wanted the power for his own, he wanted to take it and use it how he pleased, with no care for its meaning or sammie's own desires.the song choice is a reversal of the loss of culture. It starts with a completely american folk song, then traces back to its irish roots, following the path remmick himself likely went down in the past. It represents how he wants to both cling to his own history but also how he weaponizes his own trauma to try and manipulate sammie and others. We see this again in the baptism scene but honestly i could spend a whole post talking about that scene so i will stop here.

What a movie man. This is just one aspect of all of the layers it included.

[lachrymosestories]

Apocalypse soon, Oleg Vdovenko (soon)

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happy 6th anniversary SOMA <3 (text from 2061: odyssey three)

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[insert (sea)weed joke here]

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Made a comic based on the safe mode trailer. Any excuse for more SOMA, y’all. Any excuse.

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Need me a tinfoil hat

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People will be writing essays and analyses on Sinners in its regards to music, African American studies, Native American studies, colonization, religion and spirituality, and the diaspora for DECADES to come. And it’s all deserved because that movie was fucking amazing at touching every single one of those points.

Ryan Coogler, you’ve done it again king 🫶🏾

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SINNERSSS 🧛‍♂️🥀🦇🧄🇮🇪

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we are all sinners

[lachrymosestories]