#IT COULD WORK JUST TRUST ME GUYS

[cartridgeconverter]

On the topic of Mozart opera fantasies for violin, here's a rant about Sarasate's Don Juan fantasy, which I really hate both as its own piece and as an arrangement.

NOTE: This is the recording I've been listening to. The performer is not very good, and the piece is not very good. It will not be a pleasant experience, unless you like bad violin playing.

To be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of even the more well-known Sarasate fantasies like the Carmen fantasy. My issue with that is that it's not transformative in a positive way. It just sounds like the songs from Carmen, but with unnecessary difficult bullshit. Ideally for me, the difficult parts would sound interesting and impressive, but not gratuitous.

However, Sarasate's additions to Carmen at least fit the song that he was arranging; this fantasy fails at even just that. What I will say is that it's harder to do something like this for Don Giovanni than for Carmen, as the style of an opera fantasy is generally "look how talented, fun, and cool I am", and most of Carmen's songs are "look how sexy, fun, and cool I am". There's not much like that in DG; even the Don himself doesn't really ever get a big flashy number. However, even keeping that in mind, the songs picked for this one are kind of inappropriate, especially once you start looking at the changes made. It starts off with Vedrai carino, goes into Deh vieni, then Il mio tesoro (!!), and ends with Giovinette che fate all'amore. These choices are a little weird; I would say that just looking at what's written for the voice, only "Tesoro" and "Giovinette" have stuff that's fun to play on the violin (in the former, the long runs, in the latter, there's some nice opportunities for spiccato.) There's only so many ways you can make a slower song interesting, with three of them in the same piece, there would have to either be some repeats or something that doesn't fit very well. Sarasate chooses the latter.

From what I've seen from one (1) not particularly reliable source on the internet, the exclusion of the more famous parts of the show was intentional; however, I can't help but think that surely something like the Catalogue Aria would be better to work with. That being said, even for the ones with some potential, Sarasate absolutely ignores them in favor of adding dumb bullshit that doesn't work with the style, meaning, or context of the original work! Sure, it doesn't have to be totally congruous with the text if it's an instrumental solo piece, but at the very least have it coincide with the style. It just shows a complete lack of understanding and it infuriates me because this could've been SO COOL.

I have a slight problem with starting with Vedrai carino. It's a nice song, but it's not particularly plot relevant and wouldn't draw you in as much as starting with, say, Deh vieni or Giovinette. Luckily, this one is not as bad as the other ones. The technique mainly used in this section is double stops- each note in the melody is played in either a third or a sixth. It's an elegant, simple way to make a slower aria more challenging on the violin.

The recordings I’ve heard are all horrendously out of tune on this part with bad tone quality, but that's the performer's problem and not Sarasate's. Then, on the line "Sentilo battere", he adds some mordents and runs expanding on the original instrumental part. The performer is out of tune again, but what can you do.

Next, Deh vieni. Again, he starts with just playing the vocal part, but for some reason starting on the line "Se neghi a me [...]", he adds these fast, cascading runs up and down the fingerboard that don't really fit the idea of a "serenade" and are extremely unpleasant to listen to. I refuse to transcribe these, partly because of how many notes there are and partly because the soloist in the recording plays it like hot garbage. Deh vieni in the original show is supposed to be part of a seduction, so why are there these horrible noises in the middle of a verse, leaving the first two phrases unresolved? It's incredibly stupid. There are plenty of ways to arrange this song in a successful way. Adding ornamentation, natural or artificial harmonics, and even shorter/lower-pitched runs would have been very nice.

Now this next one I have the most problem with. Since Il mio tesoro is one of my favorite arias in the show, I am taking it as an attack on me, personally, that Sarasate managed to fuck it up so badly. (Not really.) It starts out with the normal vocal part, but on the long "cercaaaate" note, the soloist does... this:

Which is completely moronic. It breaks up the nice long note and doesn't work well in the phrase. Hell, I don't think this would sound good in any context, much less a stately aria such as this one. He then repeats the A-section, only this time with runs:

I don't have too many, like, musical problems with this. There is just one thing: I suppose out of context this could be pretty good. However, recall that the A-section of the aria is about going and comforting the singer's sad girlfriend. If one wanted to add fiery, violent runs to Il mio tesoro, might I recommend the part where he's talking about being "a messenger of suffering and death"? I have even been so gracious as to write a short example: (excuse the cropping)

This is a perfectly appropriate way to arrange this song to include the fast-paced section the composer wanted without compromising the context of the original. Or, y'know, just pick something where this technique actually fits. This might work really nicely in Or sai chi l'onore, or even Mi tradi, although that might be stretching it.

Note that the B-section never appears in the piece. ARRGH

The one piece that I think is handled well is the Giovinette section. It's an energetic, joyful song, so the usage of double-stops and spiccato for a rougher sound is good.

After that, there are again weird random octaves which I don't like too much. Then, the ornamentation and deviation from the vocal part is actually really nice and fun. It really gives the feeling of a wedding party, and the orchestra is very lively. Love the timpani in particular.

To me, it feels like Sarasate wanted to write a fantasy with four Giovinettes. If that's the case, then why didn't he use Ah fuggi il traditor, or Fin ch'han dal vino, or Madamina? Why did he have to ruin all these things that I love /j?

If you want to hear a good Don Juan Fantasy, try the Wolff/Vieuxtemps duet for violin and piano. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-uqEUEb2ZA It uses the statue's scene, what I think is supposed to be Vedrai carino, La ci darem, Batti batti, and Giovinette again. Lots of Zerlina, so it doesn't have as much diversity of characters as the Sarasate one has, but I'd rather have no 'tesoro' than a bad 'tesoro'.

Feel free to rb with your opinions if you disagree, I'm just a violin student :P

[bambeebirdie]

Okay consider Bruce Wayne is the very well known bankroller for the Justice League. Batman is still part of the league, but they don’t know he’s Bruce Wayne. So, due to Bruce Wayne being such a well known figure and very obviously connected to the Justice League, that has kinda made him a target for certain people which means the Justice League has decided to assign one of their members to help keep him safe. Insert notorious billionaire fighter Superman becoming the part time bodyguard of Bruce Wayne in this epic superbat romance

[radioroxx]

funny thing about aus in which another one of the party joins the loops with siffrin is that, while the others are 10x more likely to mention the loops, i cant imagine any of them would go to siffrin first.

[sweepingboy]

Feng Xin and Xie Lian remember their childhood with warmth, as a time when they didn't have so many worries.

Mu Qing prefers not to think about his yearly years at all.

The same events evoke completely different emotions in them. Feng Xin and Xie Lian talking about the luxurious feasts in the royal palace feel nostalgic and Mu Qing thinks about the greasy looks that some noble guests would throw at the pretty servant, sleepless nights spent washing the magnificent clothes on which the prince accidentally spilled a drink or dripped sauce and how after barely resting he will prepare the morning outfit for the prince as a day of grueling training awaits them. He remembers the cold tone of the guoshi, tryings to slip away from a group of bullies and work work again.

He recalls waiting for the week to end so he can return to his poor little house and feel the warmth he's been dreaming of as he hugs his mum tight.

[banditblvd]

onemotion.com’s sketch pad thing was so unbearably laggy

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

Imo Jason is “irredeemable” by default because I don’t see what he needs redemption from.

[miutonium]

Its 4 am, I should be sleeping but why is it that I just have the urge to draw and ship her with a pathetic nerd gf??

[kyotosummer]

I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort I want comfort

STOP MAKING LEONARDO SUICIDAL.

[anaalnathrakhs]

i feel it's so fucking stupid and ungrateful but it still hurts a little when someone gifts me something i just don't like. i don't know. i know it's dumb and inaccurate to astrain that much meaning to a simple gift, but it feels kinda like they don't know me. i guess it feels like people don't see me, like a reminder that the person i reflect and the person i feel like are incredibly different.

[apassingbird]

i'm so happy i decided to take a leap of faith and start over (again) because i've finally found something i'm both good at and enjoy doing and i just. i love my job so fucking much.

[fvneralhouse]

really quick adding a big space here because idfk how i would tage this

TW/CW: uhh big robot centipede

their name is hal and they are the nicest robot ever they love people

fun fact: hal can extend its body to be 10x longer (they are quite big)

(art by me (gutshops), any characters shown owned by pynn (cattrucks/cultcats))

[deoidesign]

we will recieve some glimpse in what Time And Time Again would have been if webtoon gave you enough time?

To be honest, at this point I don't think it would have been entirely different. It would have been More, I guess. Each part perhaps a little longer, development a bit slower, delving a bit deeper into their psyches, more time periods and mysteries...

The kinds of things I feel sad about missing are things like. I wanted to give Steve a cane. I wanted to touch more directly on Adam's PTSD. I wanted to get more into vampires, share some more of the worldbuilding I did, I wanted to send them to so many places, I have a list that's like an entire page of ideas! just... More! I still want to do these things, I'm trying to fit everything I can in... But yeah. Theres really only so much I can do with the limited time!

It's hard to explain, but when you rewrite everything to make it smaller, it's not necessarily different in very tangible ways. It's not quite like "this was the original ending but I had to change it" (for me, at least) it's more like... I planned a five course meal for my guests, but had to go with three. Everyone is still getting fed! And no one expected five courses anyways. The goal is that we're all full and happy.

I know this makes it confusing why I'm complaining about the situation, if it's no different tangibly what's the problem? Well the answer to that is it's extremely hard to condense things that, quite frankly, were already pretty dense. It's really hard! But it's work worth doing, to me...

So to answer your question, the glimpse into what it would have been is what I'm going to give you.

[blujayonthewing]

so in juniper's campaign we've just found ourselves in a high-stakes situation that I as a player do frankly find stressful and am anxious about, but hey hi also the DM was like 'okay here are the exact mechanics of how this is going to work because I don't want to surprise you with serious repercussions, also here are all the options you will have to try to do something about the situation-- [affected player] what do you think? honest feedback, I don't want it to feel unfair, I want to be clear that I am not just trying to kill your character, and if it ends up being badly balanced we can revisit it down the road' and oh my god I could COLLAPSE and WEEP with gratitude

[designernishiki]

it’s just sorta hitting me that we know like almost nothing about what the fuck majima was doing in 5 when he was supposed to be dead??? like???? he was in on katsuya/mirei’s plan and caught onto what was going on really early and whatnot but. what the hell was he DOING for all that time. he just shows up at kurosawa’s at some point with zero explanation how or under what pretext or anything. how did he fake his death in the first place? how did he get it announced on the radio and put in the news despite there being no body or anything to prove that he died?? I have so many questions about his side of the story it’s insane how much was brushed off bdhffdjdjdjsjdnd

[quibbs126]

I’ve moved on to drawing characters’ parents now, because I just want to keep drawing character and shirking what I actually need to do

Okay that’s partially a lie, I am writing a PowerPoint thing with my notes (though so far it hasn’t gone much farther than appearances), but still, I guess I’m doing this now

Oh and also, I switched over to my normal marker pen because the thing I was using for the lineart, my normal sketching pen, gives me no real line weight, and it was bothering me so much. Though I might still switch again, likely over to the syrup pen, at least to try it out

So anyways, first up we have Norma, and now (tentatively) Juliet, Marcus and Julian’s parents

I had already designed their grandpa, might as well draw the parents too

So I don’t really know what Norma and Julius’ original roles were, they probably didn’t have any, but they were around, and Norma was outgoing while Julius more reserved and probably smart. Then I considered having them be dead, which I still might do, but I also don’t know

I am thinking though that the two are archaeologists or something, and that if they’re alive, they’re just out traveling for work, and someone else watches their kids (if Marcus and Julian aren’t adults I guess). In retrospect I’m realizing I could have had Anya be that, but oh well

So I’ve mentioned that Marcus and Julian are supposed to have half markings, half white fur, so basically here Norma has the white fur, while Juliet has the markings, like her dad

I also decided that Norma has some extra hair color at the end, mostly just to give her a bit more spice

One thing you may have also noticed is that originally, Juliet was named Julius, and that yesterday I said Jules had a son that was Marcus and Julian’s dad. Well today while drawing her and giving her long hair, I decided “you know what, screw it, Julius is a woman now”, and so now she is

And also by which I mean, I didn’t just flip her gender, she’s transfem. She eventually realized she was a woman and is much happier living as one with her wife. Not sure if she transitioned before or after their kids, but they’re probably chill with it

Admittedly I’m still working out what her new name would be, and I just slapped on Juliet so that I have a name. I was asking my Cookie Run Discord server for help, since I didn’t know who else to ask, but I didn’t really like the suggestions, so Juliet’s her tentative name right now

But I don’t really like Juliet much either, it really does sound to me like a poorly thought out genderbend name, like Sonic to Sonia or Sonica, you get what I mean. Slap a bow on and they’re now a woman

See the problem is, when I originally named the parents, it was sort of supposed to be like they mashed together their names in some way to make their kids’ names. Marcus and Julian coming (somewhere) from Norma and Julius. Not only that, but as I’ve now decided, the lavender hair side of the family has a naming convention of Jul-, so I wanted to stick with that, hence Juliet. So Juliet here has to somehow fit in with those rules. Honestly I’m thinking of changing Norma’s name alongside Juliet’s, to see if I can think of something better for both

Wait crap, I’ve gotten sidetracked. I still have some more to say about Juliet here, but just know that I don’t really like her name and it will likely change, along with Norma, and let’s move on

One thing I have thought about when it comes to Juliet is that she personally has issues with her own father, Jules. He was distant due to the Striker project and they never really saw eye to eye (Jules did care about her, he just didn’t say it out loud to her). It’s part of the reason she works in archaeology, because in her eyes it’s the antithesis to science, which is looking into the future, while she looks into the past

It’s not really that important, but her feelings and resentment towards her father would probably have some role in the Striker story, especially since Striker’s confusing Julian for Jules

Anyways, on to the last person, Anya

Straight up, she’s just here because I needed a third person to put here, and she’s supposed to be Nina’s mom, so

She was originally dead, but I’ve now decided she’s not, I have too many dead parents, she and Erik are just divorced for reasons. Maybe Erik later realized he was gay or something. Nina lives with Erik most of the time due to wanting to be a doctor like him, but she visits her mom on the holidays. I don’t know

I feel like she and Norma ended up looking similar due to the white fur, but they have white fur for different reasons. Norma has it for her sons’ marking weirdness, and Anya has it because Nina has white fur and I was trying to show that it came from her mom’s side instead of the albino weirdness it originally was (because I didn’t understand albinism at the time). Unfortunately I decided to put them on the same page, so their similarities are incredibly obvious

As I stated earlier, maybe I could make Norma and Anya related, like I don’t know, they’re sisters and Anya looks after Norma’s kids while she’s out. Though that means that Anya and Erik are probably living in the same town. I mean, I guess that can happen with divorced couples, I’m not really familiar with how they work, but to me it feels like they should be living in separate towns or something, I don’t know

Also it again brings the problem of “character who already has cousins on one side now has cousins on another”, just now with Nina instead of the other three. I guess cousins are somewhat common (I wouldn’t know, I don’t have any, at least not first cousins), but I feel like I’m using it too much. Granted, right now it really is only Nina, Mercury, Venus and Saturn that have it, so maybe not

I don’t know, forget about Anya. She’s not important and I didn’t really think about her when making her, I literally just needed a third person because I had made Norma and Juliet

And so yeah, I guess that’s it for today’s characters. Not that great, I need to think more on these characters before I draw them. I think I’ve got too much energy now and I don’t spend enough time thinking on things first, just drawing like crazy

[orcelito]

I'm at the painful "confession" scene during the kage summit arc. It really is so emotional, but also... hm.

When I was younger, like 13 or so, I was a big Sakura and Naruto shipper. They were the first pairing I read fanfic for even. And in a way, I do still enjoy the two of them together... but it's moments like these that really drive home the fact that it Doesn't really work in canon. Not the way that it's set up.

As Sakura puts it, "Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke! That's all you think about!"

She's told that Naruto has feelings for her and decides to use it to convince him to stop going after Sasuke. She does love him, but not in the way she's trying to confess. The love they share is one of comradery, not necessarily romantic. The love of two people who have gone through such pain together, and who have leaned on each other throughout it all. And the fact that she's turning around and saying she loves him "simply like everyone else", now... it's trivializing. And the fact that she's trying to convince him of this, the fact that she thinks she Can convince him of this, is pretty hurtful. They've come a long way from when they were kids, Naruto the goofball vying for her attention while she yelled at him for being stupid. Sakura respects Naruto so much more than before, and Naruto respects her too. So the fact that she's still doing this... She's desperate, really. She thinks the promise he made to her to bring Sasuke home is what's driving him to let himself be hurt over and over and over again in the pursuit and protection of Sasuke.

But she's wrong.

That may be part of it, but it's only part. Naruto wants Sasuke back for himself, too. He let himself be beat up to avoid selling him out. He chases after him with single minded determination. Sasuke is his entire drive to get stronger, to catch up, to bring him home. Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke indeed.

As it is, Naruto knows she's lying to herself. And no matter what she says, he will keep going after Sasuke. Because that's just the person that Naruto is.