#(also I do mean VERY loosely inspired bc it's like. general concepts and such mostly)

[lian-fang-zun]

loosely fate/requiem-inspired haikyuu au idea that takes place in amagasaki (hyougo prefecture) and features the following master-servant pairings:

miya atsumu - gareth (lancer)

miya osamu - gawain (saber)

suna rintarou - okita souji (saber)

kita shinsuke - yagyu munenori (saber)

ojiro aran - huang feihu (rider)

and others tbh

[booklindworm]

A rant against Karen Traviss' understanding of history and her FAQ answers

Did you base the Mandalorians on the Spartans?

<cite> No. I didn't. </cite> Fair enough.

<cite> I really wish history was taught properly - okay, taught at all - in schools these days, because history is the big storehouse that I plunder for fiction. It breaks my heart to hear from young readers who have no concept even of recent history - the last fifty years - and so can't see the parallels in my books. You don't have to be a historian to read my novels, but you'll get a lot more out of them if you explore history just a little more. Watch a history channel. Read a few books. Visit some museums. Because history is not "then" - it's "now." Everything we experience today is the product of what's happened before. </cite> Yeah, I do to. Please, Ms Traviss, go on, read some books. Might do you some good. And don't just trust the history channels. Their ideas about fact-checking differ wildly.

<cite> But back to Mandos. Not every military society is based on Sparta, strange as that may seem. In fact, the Mandos don't have much in common with the real Spartans at all. </cite> You mean apart from the absolute obsession with the military ["Agoge" by Stephen Hodkinson], fearsome reputation ["A Historical Commentary on Thucydides" by David Cartwright], their general-king ["Sparta" by Marcus Niebuhr Tod], the fact that they practically acted as mercenaries (like Clearch/Κλέαρχος), or the hyper-confidence ("the city is well-fortified that has a wall of men instead of brick" [Plutarch, Life of Lycurgus])...

<cite> A slightly anarchic, non-centralized, fightin' people? Sounded pretty Celtic to me. Since I went down that path, I've learned more about the Celts (especially the Picts), and the more I learn, the more I realise what a dead ringer for Mandos they are. But more of how that happened later... </cite>

The Celtic people are more than one people, more than one culture. Celtic is a language-family! In the last millennium BC nearly every European ethnic group was in some ways Celtic, and they were not one. Later, after the Germanic tribes (also not one people, or a singular group) moved westwards, the Celtic cultures were still counted in the hundreds. Not only Scotland was Celtic! Nearly all of Western Europe was (apart from the Greek and Phoenician settlers on the Mediterranean coasts). The word “Celts” was written down for the first time by Greek authors who later also used the word “Galatians”. The Romans called these people “Gauls”, and this word was used to describe a specific area, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, the Cévennes and the Rhine: “Gaul”. So the Celts, the Galatians and the Gauls were all part of the same Celtic civilisation. "Celts, a name applied by ancient writers to a population group occupying lands mainly north of the Mediterranean region from Galicia in the west to Galatia in the east [] Their unity is recognizable by common speech and common artistic traditions" [Waldman & Mason 2006] Mirobrigenses qui Celtici cognominantur. Pliny the Elder, The Natural History; example: C(AIUS) PORCIUS SEVERUS MIROBRIGEN(SIS) CELT(ICUS) -> not just one culture "Their tribes and groups eventually ranged from the British Isles and northern Spain to as far east as Transylvania, the Black Sea coasts, and Galatia in Anatolia and were in part absorbed into the Roman Empire as Britons, Gauls, Boii, Galatians, and Celtiberians. Linguistically they survive in the modern Celtic speakers of Ireland, Highland Scotland, the Isle of Man, Wales, and Brittany." [Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia. by John Koch] "[] the individual CELTIC COUNTRIES and their languages, []" James, Simon (1999). The Atlantic Celts – Ancient People Or Modern Invention. University of Wisconsin Press. "All Gaul is divided into three parts, one of which the Belgae live, another in which the Aquitani live, and the third are those who in their own tongue are called Celtae, in our language Galli." [Julius Caesar, De Bello Gallico] <= I had to translate that in school. It's tedious political propaganda. Read also the Comentarii and maybe the paper "Caesar's perception of Gallic social structures" that can be found in "Celtic Chiefdom, Celtic State," Cambridge University Press. The Celtic tribes and nations were diverse. They were pretty organized, with an academic system, roads, trade, and laws. They were not anarchic in any way. They were not warriors - they were mostly farmers. The Celts were first and foremost farmers and livestock breeders

The basic economy of the Celts was mixed farming, and, except in times of unrest, single farmsteads were usual. Owing to the wide variations in terrain and climate, cattle raising was more important than cereal cultivation in some regions.

Suetonius addressing his legionaries said "They are not soldiers—they're not even properly equipped. We've beaten them before." [not entirely sure, but I think that was in Tacitus' Annals]

Regarding the Picts, in particular, which part of their history is "anarchic"? Dál Riata? the Kingdom of Alba? Or are you referring to the warriors that inspired the Hadrian's Wall? Because no one really knows in our days who the fuck they were. The Picts’ name first appears in 297 AD. That is later. <cite> Celts are a good fit with the kind of indomitable, you-can't-kill-'em-off vibe of the Mandos. Reviled by Rome as ignorant savages with no culture or science, and only fit for slaughter or conquest, the Celts were in fact much more civilized than Rome even by modern standards. </cite> That's how the Romans looked at pretty much every culture that wasn't Greek, Roman, Phoenician, Egyptian, or from Mesopotamia (read, if you want, anything Roman or Greek about the Skyths, the Huns, Vandals, Garamantes...).

<cite> They also kicked Roman arse on the battlefield, and were very hard to keep in line, so Rome did what all lying, greedy superpowers do when challenged: they demonized and dehumanized the enemy. (They still used them in their army, of course, but that's only to be expected.) </cite> They were hard to keep in line, but they most definitely did not kick Roman arse on the battlefield. Roman arse was kicked along the borders of the Roman Empire, such as the Rhine, the Danube, the Atlas mountains, etc. And mostly by actually badly organized, slightly anarchic groups, such as the Goths or the Huns (BTW the Huns were not a Germanic people, even though early 20th century British propaganda likes to say so). Though they were also decisively stopped by the Parthians. Who were very organized. Ah well. <cite> While Rome was still leaving its unwanted babies to die on rubbish dumps - a perfectly acceptable form of family planning to this "civilisation" - and keeping women as chattels devoid of rights, the barbarian Celts had a long-standing legal system that not only gave women what we would think of as equal rights, but also protected the rights of the elderly, children, and the disabled. They had a road network across Europe and worldwide trade long before the Romans ever got their act together. And their science - well, their astronomical calculations were so sophisticated that it takes computers to do the same stuff today. </cite> See? You even say yourself that they weren't actually anarchic. Also you're not completely right: 1. women (of most Celtic cultures, with one notable exception being the Irish) were not allowed to become druids, e.g. scientists, physicians, priests, or any other kind of academics, so they did not have equal rights. Also, as in other Indo-European systems, the family was patriarchal. 2. the roads they had were more like paths, and did not span the entirety of Europe; the old roads that are still in use are nearly all of them Roman. Had the Celtic inhabitants of Gallia or Britannia built comparable roads, why would the Romans have invested in building a new system on top? 3. world-wide? Yeah, right. They traded with those who traded with others and so were able to trade with most of southern Eurasia and northern Africa, as well as few northern parts (Balticum, Rus), but that's (surprise) not the whole world. 4. most people use computers for those calculations you mention because its easier. It's not necessary. I can do those calculations - give me some time to study astronomy (I'm a math major, not physics) and some pencils and paper. 5. and - I nearly forgot - the kids didn't die. That was a polite fiction. The harsh truth is that most Roman slaves were Romans... <cite> So - not barbarians. Just a threat to the empire, a culture that wouldn't let the Pax Romana roll over it without a fight. (Except the French tribes, who did roll over, and were regarded by the Germanic Celts [...]) </cite> WTF Germanic Celts? What are you smoking, woman? Isn't it enough that you put every culture speaking a language from the Celtic family in one pot and act as if they were one people, now you have to mix in a different language-family as well? Shall we continue that trend? What about the Mongolian Celts, are they, too, proof that the Celts were badass warriors? I think at this point I just lost all leftover trust in your so-called knowledge. <cite> [...] as being as bad as the Romans. Suck on that, Asterix... </cite> Asterix was definitely a Celt, and unlike the British Celts, he was not a citizen of the Roman Empire.

<cite> Broad brush-stroke time; Celts were not a centralized society but more a network of townships and tribes, a loose alliance of clans who had their own internal spats, but when faced with some uppity outsider would come together to drive off the common threat. </cite> They might have tried, but they didn't. The first and only time a Celtic people really managed to drive off some uppity outsider would be 1922 following the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921*. The fact that France, Spain, Portugal speak Romance languages and the British (or Irish) Isles nearly uniformly speak English should be proof enough.

*Unless you count Asterix. <cite> You couldn't defeat them by cutting off the head. There was no head to cut off. </cite> You mean unlike Boudica and Vercingetorix. Oh wait. Tacitus, in his Annals, said that Boudica's last fight cost 80,000 Britons and 400 Romans their lives. He was probably exaggerating. But it definitely stopped much of the British resistance in its tracks. <cite> To the centralized, formal, rather bureaucratic Romans, for whom the city of Rome was the focus of the whole empire, this was a big does-not-compute. The Celts were everything they didn't understand. And we fear what we don't understand, and we kill what we fear. </cite> While that is totally true, it's also completely off the mark. The Romans demonized the druids, not every Celt, and they were afraid of what was basically an academic network. That had nothing to do with war. <cite> Anyway, Mandos....once I took a single concept - in this case, the idea of clans that operated on a loose alliance system, like the Celts - the rest grew organically. I didn't plan it out in detail from the start. </cite> That's really obvious. Maybe looking at some numbers and remembering that you weren't planning a small, local, rural, medieval community would have helped, too. I mean lets have a look at, say, Scotland (since you specifically mentioned the Picts): they still have less than 6 mio. people all together, and that's today. Mandalore is a sector. A sector of Outer Space with at least 2000 inhabited planets. How do you think that translates? It doesn't. <cite> I just asked myself what a culture of nomadic warriors would value, how they would need to operate to survive, and it all grew inexorably by logical steps. The fact that Mandos ended up as very much like the Celts is proof that the technique of evolving a character or species - find the niche, then work out what fits it - works every time. It creates something very realistic, because that's how real people and real societies develop. </cite> Celtic people were usually not nomadic! And, once again, non of them were predominantly warriors! It's really hard to be a nomadic farmer. I believe the biggest mistake you made, Ms Traviss, is mixing up the Iron Age (and earlier) tribes that did indeed sack Rome and parts of Greece, and that one day would become the people the Romans conquered. And apart from the Picts they really were conquered. <cite> So all I can say about Mandos and Spartans is that the average Mando would probably tell a Spartan to go and put some clothes on, and stop looking like such a big jessie. </cite>

I'd really like to see a Mando – or anyone – wearing full plate without modern or Star Wars technology in Greece. Happy heatstroke. There is a reason they didn't wear a lot (look up the Battle of Hattîn, where crusaders who didn't wear full helmets and wore chainmail* still suffered badly from heat exhaustion). [Nicolle, David (1993), Hattin 1187: Saladin's Greatest Victory] *chainmail apparently can work like a heatsink CONCLUSION You're wrong. And I felt offended by your FAQ answers. QUESTION You're English. You're from England. A group - a nation - that was historically so warlike and so successful that by now we all speak English. A nation that definitely kicked arse against any Celtic nation trying to go against them (until 1921, and they really tried anyway). A nation that had arguably the largest Empire in history. A nation that still is barbaric and warlike enough that a lost football game has people honestly fearing for their lives.

Also, a Germanic group, since you seem to have trouble keeping language-families and cultures apart. If we were to talk about the family, we could add on the current most aggressively attacking nation (USA) plus the former most aggressively attacking nations (the second and third German Reich), also the people who killed off the Roman Empire for good (the Goths and Visigoth), the original berserkers (the Vikings) and claim at the very least the start of BOTH WORLD WARS. Why did you look further?

Some other sources:

Histoire de la vie privée by Georges Duby and Philippe Ariès, the first book  (about the antiquity) I read it translated, my French is ... bad to non-existent

The Day of the Barbarians: The Battle That Led to the Fall of the Roman Empire  (about the Huns) by Alessandro Barbero

If you speak Dutch or German, you might try

Helmut Birkhan: Kelten. Versuch einer Gesamtdarstellung ihrer Kultur, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Wien

Janssens, Ugo, De Oude Belgen. Geschiedenis, leefgewoontes, mythe en werkelijkheid van de Keltische stammen. Uitgeverij The House of Books

DISCLAIMER

I’m angry and I wrote this down in one session and thus probably made some mistakes. I’m sorry. Or maybe I’m not sorry. I’m still angry. She can’t know who reads her FAQ and at least two of her answers (on her professional website) were offensive to the reader.

[chojuuro]

my dash is always a couple days late fr some reason so this is old news but i would very much like to hear about killer b's three wives if u have anything at all on them :o

OK I HAVENT BEEN IGNORING THIS i just had to um. consider them some DSBHFJFS under a cut bc it got. kinda long

basically i don't know how to not make ocs to kiss canon characters who don't get the love that they deserve (see: chojuuro, kankuro, kabuto lol, shino, the 80s glamrock ninja from the war. yes i mean that. there r others too)

i dont have anything llke. super thought out yet and they're mostly just a concept. but. they are generally very loosely inspired by uzui tengen's three wives from demon slayer no i am not sorry i just think killer bee deserves three weed smoking girlfriends

ANYWAY.

i know i want one of them to be a generally well-known and well-respected kunoichi. she's got that hard outer layer and a mushy inside; stern, cold, serious, but who stops and feeds stray cats and cries at movies and also is a huge sap.

one of them is a civilian! maybe was a fan of bee's rapping BSDFHJ the fangirl-to-wife pipeline... very much a housewife type but the most hard-headed and strong-willed out of the three! u better be home for dinner by this time or else she will Get You.

and now that i THINK ABOTU IT. maybe the third was originally the third teammate from the omoi/karui/samui team. bc unless they just do things differently in kumo, which is entirely possible, their team consists of two lower ranked shinobi (karui and omoi are both chunin in part 2 according to the wiki) and their squad leader (samui is a jounin). so MAYBE she meets bee through them since karui and omoi were students of his. this isn't set in stone but i DO think it would be fun

a little part of me wants to say that they end up the adoptive moms of these three kumo kids from the first boruto chunin exam arc bc killer bee's kids being huge fanboys of his is SO CUTE to me

i have *checks my watch* almost 80 ocs at this point SO THESE THREE ARE JUST VAGUE THOUGHTS BUT. killer bee deserves a lot of love i dont make the rules (yes i do)

JAZZ HANDS

[comradelup]

fuck it. balance youtuber au because i’ve been thinking about it

(modern au with no magic but still elves/dwarves/etc)

the twins have a joint channel but they post things together as often as they make videos on their own. they do vlogs, story times, and challenge videos both together and not, but do stuff with fashion/makeup together. taako does cooking on his own and lup does chemistry experiments that involve fire more often than not. if someone says they like the twins’ videos it’s a wild card as to what they watch them for, but everyone ends up liking all of their content because who can hate the twins? they have a lot of “annoying influencer” energy but are actually really nice to fans/people in general and donate a lot of their Youtube Money to charities and stuff (all of the ipre does this too because fuck rich people except for them)

magnus’ channel is mostly woodworking/construction projects. he does occasional story times and in every one he’s carving and/or painting a wooden duck. he does vlogs too and half of them are him buying more woodworking stuff (idk shit about it so idk what he’d get lol) and the other half have a part where he sees someone walking a dog and him going to meet them. almost every video includes/mentions julia and people make “magnus talking about julia” compilations bc he loves his wife and talks about her all the time. he’s very positive in general and everyone loves how he’s a human golden retriever

merle’s channel is 99% gardening, 1% collating with the others. he made one joke along the lines of plant fucking and it was not serious at all but his subscribers/followers made into such a big joke that he makes at least one joke per video except for when his kids are in the video, which is when he makes it suuuper educational and fun and wholesome. mookie tries to eat the plants and play with the soil and mavis tells her dad about what she’s learned about biology in school. also he puts “(emotional)” and “(not clickbait)” at the end of video titles randomly despite knowing what they mean

barry’s channel is science-centric (yes he collabs with lup frequently) but about more feilds of science. sometimes he goes on rants about theoretical physics like a madman a la bdg’s unraveled series and sometimes he makes videos titled “making the volcano kitchen experiment but the size of a kiddie pool (emotional).” he also has a series about paranormal activity/cryptids, stuff like “why ghosts should be and are real” and “my top five favorite pieces of bigfoot evidence” and like i said this is a no magic au but he once was asked in a q&a about what he’d do if he was a lich and gave a surprisingly detailed response? people were really confused but intrigued?? did barry invent magic???

lucretia 100% has an art channel, but she also writes prose and poetry in her free time and sometimes reads them for videos. she posts speedpaints of her work (digital and traditional) with her telling her process/inspiration or doing story times as the background audio. she had a period of time where she started writing a whole novel in her spare time (basically the balance story but different characters) and all her videos were her making concept art. her fans loved it and boosted it to the point where it actually got published, so now she’s a best selling author with a seven book series. now she keeps making videos of her concept art for other book ideas (the other arcs) with her infodumping about the characters/plot/etc

davenport doesn’t actually have a channel, but has been in the background of all the others’ videos to the point where he’s treated like a cryptid and has a small fanbase of his own. he’s mostly in merle’s videos (because they’re dating) and magnus’ vlogs (because magnus Loves His Friends) but he’s been in at least a handful of everyone’s videos. he makes a twitter and instantly gets thousands of followers. he tweets the most random shit at the most random times and half of them become memes. people find out he’s a professor at the college the rest of them met at and everyone looses it

kravitz is in a similar position as davenport, but he was convinced to start a channel. he mostly does stuff involving antiques because he collects them, so he does haul videos of what he bought or thrifted and videos of him restoring them as he looks up how old they were and what random shit they were used for and stuff. people make compilations of him getting off topic and going on a tangent about taako then realizing he just rambled for ten minutes and getting flustered. he also plays a handful of classical instruments and makes occasional collabs with lup + barry

despite having completely different channels they’re all friends??? people didn’t know at first but they found out through davenport and kravitz “this one guy who i think is dating taako but i’m not sure and idk his name” showing up in everyone’s videos. from then on they started collabing more often and it’s really fun to see them outside of their element. lup once almost burnt down magnus’ workshop while making a chemistry video with him. taako tried to teach kravitz how to make macaroons (keyword: tried) and kravitz talked about this new antique shop he found the whole time. barry went on and on and on about biology while gardening with merle, who tried to follow along but failed and ended up making fun of all the scientific names for plants

they call themselves the red robes after the main characters in lucretia’s novel (they’re not similar to the characters but there’s seven of them and six youtubers + one davenport)

they once did a big group collab where the twins dressed everyone up in high fashion outfits and lucretia painted a big portrait of all of them. it was very wholesome but also had a lot of lup and taako arguing over what accessory fits who and “no this person should do their hair like this!” and at one point magnus and kravitz just dipped to go play cards and talk about dogs

speaking of wholesome angus has a channel of his own which is mostly booktube with him getting halfway through a mystery novel, predicting the ending, and being 100% correct. he’s done videos with the others and is kinda associated with them but not totally, and is often lovingly referred to as the nephew to the rest of them

killian and carey don’t have a channel but are in the bg of magnus’ videos often. they were referred to as “magnus’ lesbian friends” until they got popular on instagram and became an internet power couple. johann has a small channel and a soundcloud he plays violin on and did one (1) collab with lup and it made him blow up overnight. avi has a semi-popular twitter and is mostly known as johann’s bf. sloane and hurley have a channel about drag racing/cars in general and don’t show their faces and go by the raven and ram

i was trying to think of who’d have a gaming channel and it’s 100% graham, who casually mentions that he’s friends with Pro Wrestler Jess The Beheader

lucas has a science focused channel similar to barry’s where he tries to be educational and ends up being annoying/kind of wrong about it. barry has a mini series called “lucas miller is a bitch here’s why” and it’s him disproving lucas’ theories with a deadpan expression and generally being better at science than him

remember when i said taako and lup have influencer energy despite being nice? yeah, lydia and edward are like that but they’re actually annoying. they have a popular makeup/fashion channel and lup and taako have gotten into slight drama with them over how the wonderland twins have been rude to them and the how the red robe twins are “jealous.” the internet is divided over who likes which pair of twins better

lup learns that greg fucking grimauldis (who the twins knew in high school) has a popular twitter/insta platform and tweets the “i am to collect” speech out of nowhere from everyone’s pov. taako tweets the video he took of him telling her and her immediately going “no fucking way that ASSHOLE is getting away with what he did to me” and opening twitter. it becomes a meme and he pays her back and changes his social media handles to “gregfuckinggrimauldis”

i can’t think of anything else because i don’t know enough about youtube but yeah.

[urmomsstuntdouble]

Ok so I may be doing a thing so... which songs do you think have the general vibes of "we're semi-immortal nations who have lived longer than any human"? Sorry if this is kind of hard but I like your concepts of nation lore and I'm wondering if you were ever inspired by any songs

i love this ask anon! and thank you! i do want to mention that there will be a heavy bias towards english speaking and american artists on this list, and getting other perspectives on this is probably also a good idea. but anyway! list! (which since its kind of long i shall also put on an spotify link)

Hand in My Pocket- Alanis Morissette

this song feels like acceptance to me, and i think it’s important to put on this list because imagine you’re born and you know there’s something different about you, and then when you’re like 8 years old someone’s like oh by the way. you’re the human representation of the country we’re currently living in, or smth like that. i would cry. i think it’d take a while to accept, and that a lot of them don’t really like themselves, but this just feels hopeful and ok and i think its very good. 

Into the West- Annie Lennox

my lotr brainrot is showing again lmao. this is half bc of elves also being semi immortal beings who live for thousands of years in tolkein’s work, and also because the nature of the song is that we’re saying goodbye to all these characters and especially goodbye to frodo and bilbo. i think that goodbyes are something that’s sort of central to life as an immortal, at least in a place where immortals are rare. 

Vienna- Billy Joel

it’s always been my interpretation of this song that vienna was supposed to represent heaven and a peaceful death. a piece of nation lore that i like is that they can be killed, but they’ll come back as long as there’s a nation still existing, and that a lot of them might want to die but they can’t, and are therefore dreaming of a ‘vienna’ of their own. 

Lost- Amanda Palmer

this song fits into the theme of death again, cause the message is that you never really lose anyone as long as they’re still with you emotionally. i like that vibe and i think it fits again with being an immortal in a world of humans. 

Wild Heart- Bleachers

this feels very much young and free, which is how i think the nations must look from the outside. 

Strangers Like Me- Phil Collins

once again it’s all about that ostracisation! wanting to know what it’s like to be a person, when you’re representing people, and it’s just..yea

Like Real People Do- Hozier

dont u ever wish u were a real boy 

What’s Up?- 4 Non Blondes

this is sense8 propaganda. i really like the way this song is used to emphasize the way the sensates are both lonely but also that literally always they have each other, and i think the bonds between nations are sort of similar. 

God’s Away On Business- Tom Waits

this is mostly bc of the title tbh. i like the vibe of them being abominations too though, like 

Don’t Let This Feeling Fade- Lindsey Stirling, Rivers Cuomo

this song is super inspirational to me, and i think it’s because of this bit: 

“What really matters in life? Is it a sprint or a marathon? And what if finish lines make us happy? Or are we glad we can run at all? I never do it to lose, but losing occurs And when I do it for the love, lose never hurts Loose, loose grip on what I can't hold Who you fooling with a handful of fool's gold? Lose, lose, when you do it for the wins only Love gave you meaning, it never was a trophy It never was a trophy Yeah, enjoy the race, homie”

i think the idea of life being a marathon is especially aplicable to the nations, bc they have no idea when their marathon is going to end. at least you and i know we’re going to die someday, and some of the probable causes. the being glad to run at is also a bit strengthening to me because yeah life is such a wonderful thing, even if you’re cursed with so much of it. finally, the line about love giving you meaning, rather than a trophy, is something that’s just so. good line. but it also has another layer of meaning where the nations are concerned, because love for the nation literally gives them existence (imo) so. yeah. and then trying to enjoy it, because that’s all you really can do. idk its powerful to me

Where Do We Go- Lindsey Stirling, Carah Faye

i really like this song, specifically bc of the idea of where do we go from here, and just. the desolation. chef’s kiss. 

Those Days- Lindsey Stirling, Dan + Shay

nostalgia!

I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow- The Soggy Bottom Boys (from O Brother Where Art Thou)

idk this is more about the instrumentals. i think its a good vibe though

I’ll Fly Away- Gillian Welch (from O Brother Where Art Thou)

i want to break free! but make it country and old fashioned. it also puts an emphasis on weariness i think and thats something that i think the nations also struggle with

Sleep Now In The Fire- Rage Against The Machine

this song is a bit anti colonialism

The Chain- Fleetwood Mac

i think this fits into like. lost chances and opportunities and the struggle to go on

Left Alone- Fiona Apple

i like the idea that the nations beg to be left alone and while they’re loveable in some senses, their people find it hard to love them on a personal level. like everybody loved american but alfred is just some dude and most people don’t really care about him

Relay- Fiona Apple

i love the imagery in this song, about evil and hatred and all that. its very song

If I Could Turn Back Time- Cher

turning back time while also having a positive outlook! 

that's all I have off the top of my head, but if you'd like more music or for a more specific vibe, feel free to send an ask! i hope this is helpful for your project :P

[sinceileftyoublog]

New Bums Interview: Married Couple Vibe

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Unlike the mathematical approach of Six Organs of Admittance or the wound jangly pop of Skygreen Leopards, Ben Chasny and Donovan Quinn’s New Bums is like its name: contemporary slacker vibes, loose playing, easy, gorgeous tunes. The band’s first record, Voices in a Rented Room, came out in 2014, and almost immediately afterwards, they started recording its follow-up. It wouldn’t be released until this March, as the more layered but just as lackadaisical Last Time I Saw Grace (Drag City). Both Chasny and Quinn write songs, and each plays off the other one’s style as much as presenting their own. For instance, on the energetic “Oblieration Time”, which juxtaposes soloing and acoustic strumming, Chasny attempted to write lyrics like Quinn. As for Quinn’s lyrics, more generally, Chasny’s instrumentation shifts them. “One of the great things about songwriting [is] the way the lyrics come across versus what they actually mean,” Quinn said on a Zoom call earlier this year with me and Chasny. “The same words can be funny, sad, [or] ironic depending on the instrumentation behind [them]. It’s really fun to see what Ben does.” Chasny agrees that instrumentation matters, not citing a general philosophy but rather a YouTube video with almost 10 million views that overlays a scene of Darth Vader visiting the Death Star with a snippet of Spandau Ballet’s “True”.

Indeed, the buddy quality of New Bums shines through when they’re in the same room--even a virtual one. They laugh and play with each other and finish each other’s sentences, having been friends for a long time. But such a laid-back feeling wouldn’t be possible without each member’s distinct personalities. Chasny, knowing I was set to interview Chris Corsano later that day about his and Bill Orcutt’s excellent Made Out Of Sound, had me communicate an inside joke to Corsano, with whom he shares a band, Rangda. (The joke? Telling Corsano that he should make a pack of beats called “Chris Corsano’s Breakbeats,” to which Corsano cackled and replied, “You’ve been talking to Chasny.”) Chasny’s also self-deprecating: “I’m not a very good violin player, but the last song has me on the violin,” he shrugs about Last Time’s “Follow Them Up the Slope”. And he forgets the titles of the songs, facetiously chalking it up to the album’s lyrical themes of decay. Quinn, simply, is humble and go-with-the-flow.

Underneath it all are some serious aesthetic and instrumental chops from the both of them, a mix of guitars, harmonium (the circular “So Long, Kus”), violin, and keyboards. Opener “Billy, God Damn” is twangy and layered. “Onward to Devastation” features tasty riffing following the lilting folk of “Marlene Left California”. “Wild Dogs” shimmers, while “Hermitage Song” stuns with deep string textures. All in all, Chasny and Quinn talk about these songs with the same exuberance they do their other projects, or music by Corsano and Orcutt, or even legendary records by 90′s German drone artists. Music fans make music makers, and music bums never fade.

Read my conversation with them below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: What’s unique about Last Time I Saw Grace as compared to Voices in a Rented Room?

Donovan Quinn: I think both of the records come from the same place. A buddy record is the way I would put it, where it grew out of me and Ben in a room, playing two guitars, talking about ideas and records we admired. This one, we built the songs up a little bit more, added some layers to the songs with overdubs, and really added some depth to a lot of the compositions with vocal and guitar work and different synths, whereas the first one we tried to keep it as barebones as possible.

Ben Chasny: Yeah. I would say the first one was more slopdog, like a mutt running wild, and this one isn’t showdog level, but trimming up the dog a little bit, teaching it a couple tricks.

SILY: Maybe album 3 will be showdog. 

BC: Yeah. I think it’ll probably take a poop right in front of everybody, but it will still be up there.

SILY: Those layers are what I noticed from the get-go, on [opener] “Billy. God Damn”. Is that why you decided to have it first on the record and release it ahead of time?

BC: We ran through a number of sequences on the record. It just felt like a good one to start out with. There are definitely more vocal layers on this than the other record we did for sure.

DQ: Yeah, I don’t have a clear memory of recording a lot of these songs because we did it over a long period of time, and “Billy God Damn” is one of those songs. I think we put it first because it set a good tone for the rest of the record.

SILY: The sequencing definitely struck me. It goes back and forth between more up-tempo tracks like “Obliteration Time Two” and more lilting tracks like “Marlene Left California”. Is that something you had in mind when ultimately deciding on the order of the tracks?

BC: I think so, yeah, trying to balance it out without having one of the sides of the records being too much one direction.

SILY: I love records like this where the palate is mostly vocals and guitars but you throw in a wildcard like the harmonium, or the cello on “Street of Spies”. It makes those songs stand out.

DQ: “Street of Spies” has our buddy Jason Quever on cello who has a band called Papercuts. I work a lot with Jason and he was kind enough to put some cello on that one.

BC: He did the drums and some of the strings on the first record, too.

SILY: You could say the whole album has a loose quality, but on that song especially, you kept the false start and the countdown from the live recording.

DQ: We do like that kind of sketchbook vibe with our records.

BC: [laughs] I have a feeling I know what you’re gonna say, Donovan.

DQ: I’m not gonna say what you think I’m gonna say...Me and Ben have known each other for so long, it’s a married couple vibe where we know what the other person is gonna say or is thinking...With the way you can record records now, it’s pretty easy to really get things lined up and cleaned up. We thought with New Bums, it would be kind of a nice contrast to not do that, to keep things a little bit frayed.

SILY: It goes with the aesthetic suggested by the band name, too.

DQ: Yeah, exactly.

SILY: Did anything inspire the lyrics specifically?

DQ: Not anything specifically, but over time, both me and Ben writing, we kind of developed a sense of a type of record lyrically, and it seemed to be a lot of songs about decay and certain kinds of desperation. We built from that, not totally consciously, but everything seemed to gravitate towards it.

BC: I will say, when I wrote some of the lyrics to the song “Obliteration Time”, I was actually trying to write songs like Donovan’s band Skygreen Leopards, and I was hoping he would pick up on it. I was like, “Did you pick up on it?” He was like, “No, I didn’t at all.” That was what I was trying to do.

SILY: In some ways, you still have a ways to go in your marriage, then.

BC: Yeah, a lot of ways.

SILY: What were you going for on the first line of “Street of Spies”, “Who gives a fuck about clemency?”

DQ: You know, I don’t remember. And when we were listening back to different vocal takes, there was one that was so unusually angry for me that Ben was saying I sounded like Rage Against the Machine or something, so we changed it. I don’t know. It’s just meant to have the language contrast the mellow vibe of the song. I like that style when if you have a mellow song with lyrics that contradict that feel.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the album title?

BC: It’s a line [on the album]. When you listen to [the] song, you realize it’s the name of a woman, Grace, but in context on the front of the record, it has a different meaning, which we thought would be kind of fun. You listen to the record, and you realize, “Ah, I see what they’re talking about.” 

DQ: That was kind of a last-minute title. I think we got lucky with it. It fits really well with the kind of themes developed in the record: decay, desperation, etc.

SILY: Is Grace a real person or just a character?

Both: Just a character.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the cover art?

BC: Donovan had the concept behind the art.

DQ: We were gonna see if anyone noticed this, but if you look at the first cover and the second cover, it’s basically the same elements, but we took things away. The first one has the two triangles, and it’s pictures of me and Ben, and this one doesn’t have any pictures. The idea is for every album to have the same basic design that takes elements away to eventually have nothing at all.

SILY: What are you gonna lose on the next one? One of the triangles?

BC: Possibly. That’s when I get kicked out of the band.

SILY: Or it’s self-titled, and you can use New Bums as the band and the title.

DQ: The other day, something cool happened that reminded me of the cover and the two triangles. It doesn’t totally work, but I did this video that heavily references ZZ Top. For the video, we bought a couple of ZZ Top magical keychains, and I was trying to open a box with it, but the fucking thing broke! But the two extreme points of the keys broke off, and what’s left looks a lot like the two triangles.

BC: The original record cover from the first record was based on one of my favorite records, pretty much a tribute to it, a band called The Black Vial. He did a record called Frozen Morning in maybe the mid-90s. He did 300 of them, this German guy, Liebried Loch. They were wrapped in black electric tape, and that’s what held the photograph on. This really gorgeous looking record, one of the most dark, depressing records I’ve ever heard in my life. It’s just droning on electric guitar on a practice amp, really distorted, singing songs like, “Black crows, flying no more!” We based the original artwork off that record and then modified it.

SILY: Have you thought about doing a live stream or socially distant show?

BC: We should try to figure out how to do it together. We still have to figure out Zoom. We may not do Zoom a lot. We’re more Google. We know technology.

SILY: You’re not Luddites?

BC: We have most of our meetings on Google Hangouts. 

DQ: New Bums has a lot of meetings, and we spend a lot of time together, so it’s surprising it’s taken us 5 years to do two albums and two tours. 

BC: We do have some great video footage from that tour a couple years back filmed at a bookstore in San Francisco called Adobe Books, and I think we’re gonna put that out for people to check out.

SILY: Were some of the songs from this record performed there?

BC: Yeah, we [did] “Cover Band”.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

DQ: I’ve been watching a lot of movies more than anything else. I have the Criterion Channel service, so I’ve been finding a lot of inspiration in that. I was just recommending the movie Close-up to Ben, if you want to feel that doing any kind of artistic endeavor might have some meaning, it’s worth it.

BC: I’ve been watching a lot of Poirot. That guy’s great. His relationship with Hastings is quite similar to Donovan and me, though I won’t say who is Poirot and who’s Hastings.

Last Time I Saw Grace by New Bums

[dishengs]

Meta: Spiritual Swords

Spiritual swords itself is a concept, but it’s not a concept that is set in stone. The original meaning of spiritual swords (灵剑 ling jian) translates to, in the literal sense “a sword with consciousness”, implying that the sword has a personality of its own. This is the original concept that is eventually devived by various media and dramas across the years that morph them into many ways of how a cultivator comes to earn their spiritual swords. 

General

Things that are generally accepted as “canon” for most xianxia world medias, or are common on most xianxia dramas:

A spiritual sword is considered a high-level weapon. It has a personality, it is a living thing to cultivators. It’s considered disrespect to mistreat your sword. Most cultivators give these swords names, as they’re usually made by renowned or incredibly skilled weaponsmiths. It’s quite similar to how artists giving their paintings a title, mostly because they see them as a unique thing.

As previously mentioned, spiritual swords have their own persona. Which means there is a possibility of swords sometimes not being compatible with their owner. For example, if an owner turns dark or starts committing evil deeds, whereas their swords are of morally good nature. It’s very possible for the sword to consider killing its own owner because it simply could not bear to see its owner’s evil deeds.

Most of the time, the swords choose their owners, and the owners choose their swords. One spiritual sword, on most occasions, may only acknowledge one owner in its lifetime. There are exceptions, of course, for spiritual swords to be inherited or acknowledge a new owner, but the aforementioned is just in general. 

How do cultivators earn their spiritual swords?

As stated in MDZS, cultivators get their own swords as a coming-of-age ceremony when they’re 14, the same age they receive their courtesy names ( for WWX, he might’ve received his courtesy name differently but it’s irrelevant to cover here ). For most cases, cultivators come of age when they’re 14-15. The internet is a mess when it comes to these informaiton so I think as long as it’s not too far off it works...??

Spiritual swords and where they came from

Honestly, I haven’t read anything that makes this concrete, so below are just a number of ways I’ve seen in various media of how spiritual swords came to be.

How to ‘make’ spiritual swords

Spirits of cultivators: The essential to make a spiritual sword, most times a soul is necessary. It’s easier to think of it as a spirit inhabiting a vessel. In xianxia world, a spirit can be ‘forged’ into a sword. Or, a spirit can latch itself onto a tree or flower ( remember the time WWX was explaining the differences of a devil, demon, and xxx to Lan Qiren ?? )

Spirits of people / a loved one: It depends entirely on the situation. There are no hard rules and it occurs at a random chance, but sometimes, when cultivators or humans die, there is a chance that their spirits would bound itself to inanimate objects that they loved most when they were alive. Most of the times these spirits held grudges or unfulfilled wishes that cause them to be unable to depart to the afterlife. Lots of things could happen, honestly: a weaponsmith’s spirit latching itself onto his most prized possession, a couple who died together ultimately bounding themselves onto their own swords via a blood pact. I think that Face To Fate is a good representation of cultivators as well as the Chinese equivalent of onmyodo ( Japanese ). It demonstrates ideas of how the Jianghu life is for cultivators and there’s also dual cultivation ( Not sex but like;; sword styles that can only be practiced between spouses due to its nature )

Sword spirits itself: In Chinese fantasy, it’s common belief that when something exists for long enough, absorbing the natural energy flow of the world, it can develop a life on its own. Let’s say a tree lived for 10,000 years, a tree spirit may be born from it. Oftentimes, these spirits don’t have clear memory before they develop a consciousness. Similar to that concept, the same can be said for animals, fishes, and therefore, swords. ( But please don’t say something about tables and chairs developing personas that would be so weird ADASD; I think I have to research more on why certain objects are able to develop consciousness and others not ). Anyways! In this case, sword spirits in these swords technically never had a human life, but they were swords themselves. 

Swords with no spirits: Sometimes, a cultivator who is strong enough is able to forge their own spiritual swords. These are very rare and sparsely heard of, but in this case, the swords do not have a consciousness, unlike the other methods. This sword is also made from energy, but they do not use souls or spirits to be their energy source.

Miscenallous aka just my rambling about more facts

So I’m trying not to involve too many of my own interpretation bc I don’t want to convey false information.  Most of these are just ‘generally accepted facts in xianxia media’ or just facts that have existed for so long over the decades and became sort of ‘canon’. The original rules of a xianxia world are very loose-- they’re mostly like guidelines that allow the writer to let their imagination run free. For spiritual swords, at least, or just when it comes to cultivation: it’s all about natural energy and Yin and Yang and Chi energy ( the energy flows within a living person ). It’s believed that a human’s spirit or soul is also considered energy, which is why they’re used as a source to power up swords and ‘enhancing’ them. Mostly, they’re just like batteries for the swords. But if a cultivator is powerful enough to forge their own spiritual swords, then those swords do not possess a conscious.

There exist also evil cultivators that tie a victim’s soul to a sword, using the sword as a form of prison for the victim. In these cases, the victim is likely unwilling to inhabit the sword, and requires some form of act to be performed in order to be free. 

More references:

[1] About life energy - real-life concept behind what inspired xianxia or cultivation. It’s more scientific than fantasy, actually. Traditionally it’s used in Chinese medicine and for doctors to determine the condition of their patients. Fantasy elements become intertwined with it and later became xianxia and xuanhuan.

[2] About what it means to ‘cultivate into immortality’ read the ‘history’ section - MDZS characters are all not Buddisms, but Taoism. Mentioned by WWX when he was scolding the juniors about burning paper money. Traditionally, there’s actually a lot of ... religion(s)? I’m not sure if that’s the right address, such as Legalism, Buddism, Taoism, and Confucianism. I don’t know Legalism as much as the other three but these are the big 4!  When it’s decided by modern people that it was simply too tedious, it gradually merged and became Buddism. Modern Chinese people are all buddisms unless stated otherwise.