#aaron of ithaca

[aaronofithaca05]

If you see changes in the blog composition or colour, don´t worry!

i´m making sure everything stays cohesive >:D

This is the colour pallette I´m aiming for:

As for anyone that has talked with me I love the sea to an obsessive level and I want this blog to reflect that so I´m going with my altered nautical theme, where I´m from the nautical palette is: black, white, blue and red, but as I want a more playful one i choose a blue closer to the blue of the Mediterranean and the red I changed towards orange and the intermediary cream (as yellow is to strong).

Though green in one of my favourites colours is way to difficult to pair with this palette.

In 10 min all send a screenshot of the blog!

the blog in green (where the archive is) will still be the same as I adore that image. (or maybe I´ll tweak the colours, who knows?)

[nyx-of-darkness-1620]

Recipe of masa de churros (churros dough) recipe from Madrid!

With this you can make churros, porras y rulos.

Ingredients.

-Frying oil, use olive if you can

- 320 ml of water

- A pinch of salt

- 160 g of baker's flour

-Sugar

Steps.

Pit the water and salt in a pot and let it boil and a pan with the oil and heat it as well

Add the flour slowly and mixing to the pot.

Get it out of the fire and keep stirring until a dough has formado.

With a plastic bag put the dough in a piping bag and let make sure you don't get air bubbles (if not they explode).

Put the dough in the pan and fry it.

Here you can make porras o rulos. Porras are straight while rulos are spirals (I prefer making spirals, the core is so good and where most of the flovour resides).

Roll them in a container full of sugar and let them cool a little and there you go! Churros!.

Also traditionally is served alongside hot chocolate, (chocolate a la taza) and it's called churros con chocolate.

Hope you like it and be carefull, oil is unpredicatble!

:D

Aaron of Ithaca

Oh my gosh thank you so much!!!!!! I cannot wait to make these!! Thank you!!!

[linn-94]

Chapter 8: Times Square

He waited for me to let go, so he knew I was okay. And after a moment I did.

"Sorry Aaron, I know this was supposed to be a date and now I'm all crying and talking about my ex."

"A date? Who said something about this being a date?" He said shocked and blushing.

"Uhmm you did when you messaged me." I also blushed.

"Ohh uhh.. it's okay Sophie. I'm happy you feel safe enough with me to talk about your past."

Aaron knew he wanted this to be a date, but he didn't want to push Sophie into things so he basicly ignored the fact that she knew he said it.

Sophie was okay with it, because she didn't want for things to go too fast.

"So Aaron, enough about me. Tell me about you."

"Well I'm on Broadway in a show called Moulin Rouge and I have a dog named Miles." He started.

"I know that already Tveit, tell me something else."

Aaron started laughing about how insisted Sophie was.

"I grew up in Middletown a small place an hour away from the city. I lived with my mom, dad and my brother John. I love them very much. And as it is for studying. I went to Ithaca, but didn't finish school because I got cast in the national tour of Rent. And from that moment on my life was in the theatre. I also did a few movies and television series."

The only thing I could do while listening to him was admiring how passionate he was. And how he looked even more handsome talking about his life.

Minutes passed by while talking to each other.

"Do you want to get another coffee? Or we could go somewhere else if you want to." Aaron suggested.

"Don't you have anything else to do today? You have a show tonight." I said.

"I have time, I have to be at the theatre 1,5 hour or so before the show."

"And you are not getting bored of me yet?" I asked.

"I will never get bored of you!" Aaron said, cheeks turning red.

"Well then maybe we can get another coffee and just take a walk through the city?"

"Perfect! Do you want the same thing as before?"

"I want an iced brown sugar shaken espresso if that's not too much to ask. I only drink the Macchiatto in the morning. Later in the day I like this one." I said nervous.

"No problem Sophie, I will get it for you."

Aaron walked away to order our to go coffee and I walked outside, waiting for him there.

I decided to text Melissa, because I hadn't spoken to her in a while.

Sophie:

Hey Lis, how are you? I miss you!

Melissa:

Soph! I miss you too. What are you doing right now? Have you seen Aaron already?

Sophie:

We actually got coffee this morning and now we are going to walk around town. Just hang out for a bit. I like it when I'm around him Lis!

Melissa:

Omg!! That's great! Enjoy the rest of your day and fill me in later. I want to hear everything!

I smiled at Melissa's message. And just at that moment Aaron walked outside with our coffee's.

"What are you all smiling about?" He asked with a smirk.

"Oh nothing, just realising it's a good day today." I said.

"I agree, this is one of the best mornings I've had in a long time." He said.

He handed me my coffee and we just walked through the city. The weather was just beautiful. It was warm, but not too hot.

We walked to Times Square. There was a big billboard with him and Ashley Loren. I loved Times Square and the billboard. Aaron noticed.

"Shall I take a picture of you? Here on Times Square with all the billboards. You can post it on your Instagram." He said.

I handed him my phone. He took it and it looked like he struggled with it.

"Is everything ok? Can you handle my phone?" I asked laughing. He blushed and then asked me to take a pose.

He took my pictures. Not just one but a few.

"So now you have a lot to choose from." He said.

I wanted to take my phone out of his hands, but he wouldn't give it back to me.

"Can I get my phone back mr. Tveit?" I asked teasing.

"You can have it back, but first you have to take a picture with me." He teased back.

I did as he said. I stood next to him. He wrapped an arm around my waist and we took a few pictures together.

When we both wanted to let go, we almost kissed. We were so close together during that picture.

We were both looking a bit awkward after it.

"Uhm just make sure you send me those ok?" He aksed breaking the awkward moment.

"I will, but I don't know if Instagram is the right place to send them."

"You don't have to send them on Instagram. You can send them another way, just look through your phone when you're home." He said all mysterious.

I looked at him for answers, but he didn't give them to me.

"Do you want to walk past the theatre?" He asked.

"Yeah sure, that sounds nice!"

As we were already on Times Square, the theatre was not that far away. When we arrived Aaron stood under the pillar with his picture on it.

"Sophie, can you take a picture of me and my twin brother?" He asked jokingly.

I laughed and took my phone out. I snapped a few pictures of him being silly with the pillar.

"I will also send those to you." I said.

He laughed and looked at me.

"Hey Sophie, will you do me a pleasure and see the show tonight?"

"Well Aaron, I would love to, but since you're in the show a ticket would cost me a fortune and I don't have that kind of money right now." I said a little embarresed.

"No no no, you don't have to pay for it! You'll get the ticket from me silly."

"Aaron I'm not a charity case. You already paid for my coffee twice and now this."

"Soph I'll get you in the audience tonight, please say yes. I really want you there!"

He called me by my nickname how could I refuse now?

"Ok Aaron, I will be there. Just tell me when and where I have to be."

"Can you meet me here at 5?" He asked.

"5? But the show starts at 7 and you don't have to be here at least 1,5 hour before the show."

"I know, but I have a surprise for you. Please meet me at 5 here in front of stagedoor?"

"Ok I'll be here at 5"

[astoryinred]

Hi Kat! Could you do ✍️ and 🎬 for the Fanfic Writer ask? Thank you! :)

✍️ What’s your ideal writing setup?

- A well lit place with a better view than the gray cityscape I have. Ideally with free flowing hot chocolate

🎬 If a movie or show were based on your fic, which fic would you choose and who would you fancast?

- I'd love to see a series on "Letters to Ithaca" or the years leading up to it (a sitcom on the Latin Quartier). For Enjolras I'd still fancast Aaron Tveit or Anton Zetterholm. For Eponine it would either be Samantha Barks or Carrie Hope Fletcher.

[therasslingrob]

#158) Godzilla (2014)

This American Godzilla film is good, but it's just not the Godzilla flick that I prefer to watch. I guess I would partially blame my malevolence towards the Gareth Edwards take on the Gojira on my bad experience with seeing it theatrically. Yeah, it's not my fault that the Regal Cinemas in Ithaca, NY had the subtitles on during this. It just took quite a bit of the film's immersion away. But I digress.

As far as this movie goes, it's fine in a competent manner. The action is good, the cast was good with Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Elizabeth Olsen, Ken Watanabe, and a miscast Bryan Cranston. The funny thing here is Johnson and Olsen portraying husband and wife here in Godzilla (2014), then the next year they are siblings in Avengers: Age of Ultron.

The CGI was alright, but one thing that could have been better is more time for Godzilla onscreen. There was approximately ten minutes in the film of Godzilla. There was more in Roland Emmerich's 1998 movie. 13 minutes isn't much more, but it is more nonetheless.

[concerthopperblog]

Sweet Oblivion Fall 2023 North American Tour: Baroness w/ Jesus Piece & Escuela Grind @ Variety Playhouse

A few months ago, Baroness announced via their socials that they would release their sixth (6th) studio album entitled, Stone. Soon thereafter, Baroness dropped their Sweet Oblivion Fall 2023 North American tour schedule onto the eager masses. As an added bonus for the fans, check out their amazing supporting artists appearing on selected dates: Jesus Piece, Escuela Grind, Portrayal of Guilt, Primitive Man, KEN Mode, Wayfarer, Chat Pile, Vile Creature, Soul Glo, Sheer Mag, Midwife, Hoaxed, Cloud Rat, Imperial Triumphant, Uniform, and Agriculture. For this tour stop at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Georgia, Jesus Piece and Escuela Grind would be the opening support. If you have followed my column here on Concerthopper.com, you may have recognized Baroness from previous reviews that I have done over the years. So, you must know as a fan that I would not miss this massive tour as Baroness promotes their new album, Stone, across North America with some talented friends.

Baroness is a mix of art/alternative/progressive metal from Philadelphia, PA. that formed in 2003. Baroness has released six (6) LPs, four (4) EPs, and several singles since forming as a band. As mentioned earlier, the album, Stone, their latest release. Currently, the band consists of John Dyer Baizley (lead vocals/rhythm guitar/keyboards/percussion), Nick Jost (bass/keyboards/additional backing vocals), Gina Gleason (lead guitar/backing vocals), and Sebastian Thomson (drums). Anytime that I witness Baroness perform live, I know that I am in for an energetic and fiery performance by the band. Tonight’s blistering performance by Baroness would be no different.

Confession time: over the years I have had the opportunity to take photos of some of my favorite artists/bands, and I have found that I have a fondness for certain artists/bands as I am doing photography during their set. Baroness is one of those acts. Whether it is Baroness’ dynamic energy as they perform blissfully on stage, the moments during their performance when bandmates turn to each other and give each other a joyous smile, the crunchy riffs from both John and Gina and the love and continuous support that they show to the crowd each night gets me every time I see them live.

Baroness The Masquerade 10/18/2023 setlist:

·         “Last Word”

·         “A Horse Named Golgotha”

·         “March to the Sea”

·         “Beneath the Rose”

·         “War, Wisdom, and Rhyme”

·         “Under the Wheel”

·         “Chlorine & Wine”

·         “Shine”

·         “Seasons”

·         “Wake Up/Fugue”

·         “The Sweetest Curse”

·         “Isak”

·         “Shock Me”

·         “The Gnashing”

 Check out Baroness over on their Official Bandcamp page or their Official Shop (merch or Stone) and some them some support!

Jesus Piece is a metalcore/hard core metal band from Philadelphia, PA that formed as a band in 2015. They have released two (2) LPs, three (3) EPs, and several singles and are currently signed to Southern Lord Records. The band features Aaron Heard (vocals), David Updike (guitars), John Distefano (guitars), and Luis Aponte (drums) with touring musician Alexander Cejas (bass). This would be my first time getting a chance to see Jesus Piece perform live. This, I feel, is the point of Baroness bringing out a horde of incredible bands that may have performed under the radar for some music fans. From the start, you could feel the anticipation building in the crowd for the start of their vicious and brutal set. When the band first walked on stage, the crowd let them know that they were ready for the impending onslaught.

Head over to Jesus Piece’s Official Bandcamp page today and give them some support.

Escuela Grind is a power-violence/grindcore/ death-grind band originally from Ithaca, NY (known as Escuela) but is now based out of Pittsfield, MA. The band was formed in 2016 and consists of Katerina Economou (vocals), Kris Morash (guitar/bass), Jason Eldridge (bass/guitars), and Jesse Fuentes (drums). Escuela Grind has released two (2) LPs and several EPs/singles since forming as a band. What can I say except – WOW! Escuela Grind came to Atlanta to lay the foundation for the evening with some fast, heavy, and in-your-face grindcore metal. Those who came early were in for a real treat getting to see Escuela Grind do their thing on stage. You could see the crowd vibing with the band as they powered through their albeit brief but memorable setlist.

Show Escuela Grind some love, head over to their Official Bandcamp page today to check out their merchandise and music.

You can read some of my previous reviews featuring Baroness that were published by Concerthopper over the years by following these links: “Baroness: One Sunday in East Atlanta” (2015), “The Gold & Grey Tour: Baroness & War on Women – Buckhead Theatre” (2019), and “The Omens Tour: Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, Baroness, & Suicide Silence: Live at Coca-Cola Roxy!” (2022).

You still have time to catch the Sweet Oblivion Tour before it ends on December 1st in their hometown of Philadelphia, PA at Union Transfer.

October 24, 2023 - Sunshine Theatre Albuquerque, NM w/ Primitive Man & Midwife.

October 25, 2023 - Nile Theater Mesa, AZ w/ Primitive Man & Midwife.

October 27, 2023 - The Observatory Santa Ana, CA w/ Primitive Man, Midwife, & Agriculture.

October 28, 2023 - The Bellwether Los Angeles, CA w/ Primitive Man, Midwife, & Agriculture.

October 29, 2023 - The UC Theatre Taube Family Music Hall Berkeley, CA w/ Primitive Man, Midwife, & Agriculture.

October 31, 2023 - Hawthorne Theatre Portland, OR w/ KEN Mode and Hoaxed.

November 3, 2023 - The Crocodile Seattle, WA w/ KEN Mode.

November 4, 2023 - Rickshaw Theatre Vancouver, B.C. w/ KEN Mode.

November 6, 2023 - Union Hall Edmonton, AB w/ KEN Mode.

November 7, 2023 - Palace Theatre Calgary, AB w/ KEN Mode.

November 9, 2023 - The Depot Salt Lake City, UT w/ Wayfarer.

November 11, 2023 - Summit Denver, CO w/ Wayfarer.

November 12, 2023 - The Waiting Room Lounge Omaha, NE w/ Wayfarer.

November 14, 2023 - First Avenue Minneapolis, MN w/ Chat Pile.

November 15, 2023 - The Vic Theatre Chicago, IL w/ Chat Pile.

November 17, 2023 - The KING of CLUBS Columbus, OH w/ Vile Creature.

November 18, 2023 - Saint Andrew’s Hall Detroit, MI w/ Vile Creature & Cloud Rat.

November 19, 2023 - The Danforth Music Hall Toronto, ON w/ Vile Creature.

November 20, 2023 - Theatre Beanfield Montreal, Canada w/ Vile Creature.

November 22, 2023 - Empire Live Albany, NY w/ Soul Glo.

November 24, 2023 - Agora Theatre and Ballroom Cleveland, OH w/ Soul Glo & Cloud Rat.

November 25, 2023 - Roxian Theatre Pittsburgh, PA w/ Soul Glo.

November 26, 2023 - Town Ballroom Buffalo, NY w/ Soul Glo.

November 28, 2023 - Royale Boston, MA w/ Sheer Mag & Imperial Triumphant.

November 29, 2023 - Webster Hall New York, NY w/ Sheer Mag & Imperial Triumphant.

December 1, 2023 - Union Transfer Philadelphia, PA w/ Sheer Mag & Uniform.

 Curious about Concerthopper? You can find more music-related articles, interviews, various photo galleries, indie music reviews, our ‘Bars & Bites’ section, our exclusive “She Said, She Said” column, or become a Concerthopper at www.concerthopper.com. Sign up for our monthly newsletter by following this link: The Setlist! Please ‘Like’ our page on Facebook and follow us on Instagram to stay up to date in 2022, on all music-related events/festivals such as North American Tour: 1000 Mods & The Well Live at Bogg’s Social & Supply (Atlanta), This Wild Life live at Montage Music Hall, Double Trouble Live II: Cradle of Filth & Devil Driver live at The Ranch Concert Hall & Saloon (Fort Myers), Blackout Tour Part 1: From Ashes to New w/ The Word Alive, Catch Your Breath, and Ekoh @ Rapids Theatre, Kiss of Death Tour ’23: In This Moment & Ice Nine Kills w/ Avatar and New Years Day Live at Hertz Arena, It Still Moves Anniversary Show: My Morning Jacket @ Fox Theatre, 10 Years of Wage War: House of Blues (Orlando), and Nth America Tour: Wolfmother @ The Eastern by following us on all social media formats: Concerthopper on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.  You can also follow my concert hopping on Facebook and Instagram for even more photos not available on Concerthopper.com.

[millingroundireland]

Bibliographic essay for the last five posts

This was originally part of the the third chapter in my family history on the Mills family, and published on WordPress, but has been broken up into various parts for this blog.

For the information on the Mills family, I used Find a Grave memorials of the following people:

John N. Mills (#8761820), Virginia Ellen Whitworth (#27406663), Rev John Thomas “Tom” Mills (#140243544), Bertha Ann Lane (#140246323), Cecil Virginia Mills (#140243354), Otis O’Neal Jackson (#126140098), Bonnie Gail Jackson (#142300585), George Newton Mills (#58071180), Ernest Everett Mills (#181497900), Mary Opal Brownfield (#181498075), John Simon Mills (#22708610), Sandra K. “Sandy” Bogdanich (#78076180), Lucille Virginia “Nan” Mills (#45100040), John Maurice Harding (#139577346), Glenda Juanita Mills (#50664713), Aaron Burr Mills, Jr (#94997079), Millie Lucille Freeman (#94997208), Naomi Lorraine Mills (#19591030), Virgil V. Porter (#19590904), and Cozette Mills (#152732975).

I looked at the original census documents for the 1880, 1900, 1920, 1930, and 1940 censuses, focusing on Dora A. Mills (1880), John Newton Mills (1900), Edward E. Mills (1900), and Margaret E. Mills (then Cosgrove) (1900), Margaret E. Mills (then Cosgrove) (1910), Robert B. Mills (1910), Edward E. Mills (1910), John N. Mills (1920), Robert B. Mills (1930), and John N. Mills (1940). I also looked at, on Family Search, the death record for Dora A. Mills in 1895 within Massachusetts Death Records; Hattie B. Mills (then Beals) death certificate in 1912 within “Massachusetts Deaths, 1841-1915” record collection; death certificate of John N Mills in 1945.

I also used certain records with the National Archives of Ireland’s Diocesan and Prerogative Wills, 1595-1898 database, specifically one for a person with surname of Mills or Wallis, and first name of Elizabeth, in the Cashel and Emly diocese, Waterford District, and living in Crossogue, County Tipperary when the probate was served in 1760. I also used the search engine for this National Archives’s database, listing 147 people with the surname of Mills.

For information on Joseph B. Mills, I used pages from Smith’s history of Warren County in 1895, page 492 of the Laws of the State of New York: Passed at the One Hundred and Ninth Session of the Legislature published in 1886 and digitized on Google Books, page 51 of Norton’s Ithaca City Directory 1890-1891 digitized by the Tompkins County Public Library, page 286 of the 1894 book titled History and biography of Washington county and the town of Queensbury, New York digitized by the Internet Archive and on genealogytrails.com, a page on the site of Warren County, NY government titled “Chairmen of the Board of Supervisors,” a page titled a “Historical Listing of Supervisors by Town 1888-2016” hosted by the Warren County government with a specific focus on page 3 of the PDF which focuses on the town of Chester, page 4 of the Proceedings of the Board of Supervisors of the County of Warren in 1901 digitized on Google Book.

I also used newspaper clippings from fultonhistory.com including: “Pottersville,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1881; “Personals,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1881; “Chester,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1886; “Legislative Yeoman,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1886; “A Judgment Reversed,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1890; Article about case by Samuel T. Guilford, The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1890; “Sheriff’s Sale,” Lake George News (Warrenburg), 1890; “Farewell Testimonial,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1891; “The Board of Health,” Paterson Morning Call, Jul 13, 1892; “Pottersville,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), Jul 2, 1893; Joseph B. Mills, “Warren County Laws,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1895; “Standard Bearers Chosen,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), Sept 1, 1894; “Chester Town Audit,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1894; “Official Canvas,” Lake George News (Warrenburg), autumn 1894; “Republicans at the Burg,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1895; “Personals,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), Apr 15, 1895; “Town Tickets Nominated,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1896; “Personals,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1897; “Republican nominations,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1897; “List of Nominations,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1897; “Chestertown,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1897; “Personals,” Lake George News (Warrenburg), 1897; “Personals,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1897; “State Capitol Employees to J.B. Mills,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1897; “Pottersville,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1897; “Personals” (different article), The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1897; “Statement,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1898; “Recovered value of his hay,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1899; Varying articles about Mary A. Hammond suit, The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1899; “Necrology,” Daily Times (Troy, NY), 1900; “In Memoriam,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1900; “Obituary,” Daily Times (Troy, NY), 1900; “Deaths,” Washington County Post (North White Creek, NY), May 11, 1900; “Personals,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), 1900; “Warren County” (obituary), Daily Times (Troy, NY), May 7, 1900; “County Audits,” The Morning Star (Glens Falls), Dec 1900; “One Hundred Years Since Organization of Warren County,” The Daily Times (Glens Falls), 1911.

Also see a 2010 article titled “Sheriff seeks historic photos for display” in the Sun Community News & Printing for the detail about Joseph’s missing photograph. For the information on Joseph’s will, I used the will which is within Ancestry.com’s New York, Wills and Probate Records, 1659-1999 collection which derives from Wills, Vol G-I, 1897-1909, New York County, District and Probate Courts, pp 466-467. A harder to read copy of this will is within the same Ancestry.com collection which derives from Estate Records, No. 1-13, 353, Book of Wills, New York. Surrogate's Court (Warren County), Warren, New York, Wills, Vol G-H, pp 466-67. The latter record has a page, 468, that notes the minors of Joseph B. Mills. For the letter of testamentary and administration see the Letters of Administration and Testamentary, 1830-1919, New York. Surrogate's Court (Warren County), Warren, New York, Letters of Test, Vol H-K, 1894-1918, Ancestry.com.

© 2018-2023 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[allxthingsxglxtter]

Look who just woke up- is that AARON FONTAINE? No, I must have been mistaken that’s ERASMUS from THE ODYSSEY (OC). I heard he is 35 and stuck here just like everyone else. Even in the 20’s, they still give off IN LOVE WITH A MAN HE SHOULDN’T, DETERMINED TO PROTECT, NO HOPE OF SURVIVAL impression. They’re known to be quite DEVOTED but have a tendency to be PESSIMISTIC on their bad days 

Gender/Pronouns

He/Him

How long have they been in Sydney?

He’s been in Sydney two years to his memory.

Job

He’s a farmhand

Which suburb do they live in?

Erasmus has a small place in Liverpool

Memories of their real life :

If pressed, Erasmus can’t say he remembers much of his family. His mother died when he was born, and he vaguely remembers having an older brother and his father’s face.  But he was abandoned on the streets of Ithaca by the time he was seven, and was lucky enough to be found by a guard and brought to the palace grounds to be raised by him.  Erasmus doesn’t know what prompted the man to take him in, but he determined even at such a young age to be useful. He was taught to respect the gods, and not forget to make offerings regularly, and even as a young boy he didn’t fail in honoring the gods. He left offerings weekly at the least, most often praying to Athena for her wisdom and guidance.  He started training to fight, knowing that he would be enlisted to serve the kingdom as soon as he became a man, and Erasmus wanted to prove himself.  Be worth rescuing, and something more than the lost boy who’d been abandoned by his family.

It was during his training that he first encountered Odysseus, the prince someone who had a presence in the training yards and among the soldiers.  He had a sharp wit, and didn’t seem to miss any detail of what was happening around him, not even Erasmus.  Erasmus was surprised when the prince first bothered to interact with him, but they soon had become good friends despite their differences in standing.   Odysseus quickly was someone he was attached to, respecting him greatly as well as finding him attractive, and in a different world he would have voiced his feelings to the other man.  However, he was a rejected orphan and Odysseus was a brilliant prince who soon became king, and Erasmus was now a part of his personal guard.  He knew he was in love with him soon after the crown passed to him, and even as Odysseus was married to the woman he loved.  He knew it was foolish, his heart held by someone who’d never return it, but it was also pointless to try and stop as he had to be at Odysseus side day in and out.  So he didn’t, Erasmus choosing to love the unattainable and simply dedicate his life and time to ensuring that his King was happy and alive.

Then came the call to war, Odysseus called to honor a vow he’d made to Agamemnon years before and sailing for the city of Troy.  Something about it all felt like it was more than it seemed, and as they prepared and assembled some of Greece’s most famous heroes, including Odysseus himself, Erasmus knew it was unlikely they all would return.  He swore a vow then to make sure Odysseus made it back to Penelope and his newborn son Telemachus, and then said goodbye to his adoptive father before sailing for Troy.

The war wasn’t at all what Erasmus expected. Years of endless fighting.  Small victories and big here and there, but it never felt like Troy was any closer to falling.  It was during this long period that Odysseus seemed to truly notice Erasmus, the guard finding the King’s eyes on him more than usual. When Odysseus shifted closer one evening while they were conversing in his tent Erasmus didn’t think anything of it, and was taken by surprise when the other kissed him.  It got more intimate from there, Erasmus assuming he was just a distraction, a way to sate the other’s needs while they were gone, but as the years wore on..they became more.  Odysseus expressed that he had feelings, and would be speaking with Penelope about them on the return, loving both his wife and the man who’d been at his side for years.  The talk made Erasmus happy, but something in him still said he’d never make it back to Ithaca, and he continued to make his offerings to the gods, still asking Athena and the rest to bring Odysseus home safe.

Ten years passed at Troy.  Ten years until finally the Horse was built, and everything came to it’s terrible end.  Spoils were gathered, and the ships that had come to those shores finally pushed off for home. For a brief moment Erasmus hoped they could make it home without incident, and then.  First the Lotus Eaters, then the Cyclops, and Circe, and every other danger between.  The men dying off one by one, and Erasmus knew his instinct would prove true.  He’d never see home again.  He tried to be there for Odysseus as much as he could, wanting the man he loved to be able to scrap together some semblance of peace whenever he did see his family again, but Erasmus couldn’t ever get him to talk about what if he didn’t live, just wanting to know Odysseus could be ready for that.  So all he could do was write a letter for him that Erasmus kept with his things, wanting Odysseus to know at the very least how much he was loved.  

When their journey passed the sea monster Scylla, Erasmus wasn’t surprised when it came his time to die, the creature’s tentacle around him before he could even react and he was yanked off the ship and into the horrifying creatures mouth, gone within moments. 

What was their fake life like?

TBD

[jazzruinedmylife-blog]

Tuesday 12/6/22

1 PM -- Teeth cleaning w/the lovely Bonna. Asks me if I went on my road trip. Chickened out, I said. Office being remodeled. Saw Bullis in waiting room w/daughter. Short conversation. What are you doing now kind of thing. Blah, blah, blah. 

4 ish -- DD. Bought bracelet from Scuba Steve. White coral. Jamie will love. 2 Wild Turkey & sodas. Maria bartending. Kenda popped in. Said hello. Will be cooking again. Didn’t move to Ithaca. 

Chinese for dinner.

7 -- Rehearsal at Matt’s. Picked up, drove Aaron. Go over X-mas tunes. Accompany Jojo on La Vie En Rose. 

11 -- Home. No Schlem chat. 

[path-of-my-childhood]

Billboard’s Greatest Pop Stars of 2021: #1 - Taylor Swift

By: Jason Lipshutz for Billboard Date: December 16th 2021

“You guys turned a hard thing into a very, very wonderful experience,” Taylor Swift told an audience of diehard fans at a November screening of her All Too Well short film at New York City’s AMC Lincoln Square theater. Before unveiling the self-directed companion piece to the 10-minute version of the fan favorite epic of the same name, featured on the re-recorded Red (Taylor’s Version), Swift expressed gratitude to a group of supporters that helped turn a non-single breakup track from her original 2012 album into a signature song worthy of expanding past the double-digit minute mark. “All Too Well” could have been little more than a personally revealing footnote to her career, Swift pointed out; instead, the fans identified its intimate power, championed it, and ultimately revived it, to create one of the most eagerly anticipated revisited songs in pop history. “All of this is happening,” Swift told her audience, “because you made this happen.”

Well, yes and no. Swift is correct that the fandom that gathered around “All Too Well” - a long-form songwriting feat, with some of the most evocative lyricism of Swift’s career - in the nine years since its original release helped clear the path for “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” as a capital-E Event stretching beyond the Swifties into the mainstream. Yet she deserves a ton of credit herself: No other popular artist harnessed that type of fan energy with as much passion and imagination in 2021 as Swift, across albums and platforms, on projects that challenged the modern music industry while still succeeding wildly within it.

Swift began 2021 still riding high from a triumphant 2020 – a year she reasonably could have taken off, having delivered her Lover album in August 2019 and watched her planned Lover Fest stadium shows fall victim to the pandemic the following year. Instead, Swift fell down a musical rabbit hole that yielded two full albums and, in hindsight, catered perfectly to her songwriting strengths. The first one, Folklore scored the largest debut week for an album in 2020 upon its July release, and companion piece Evermore earned the fifth-largest in December, both ending 2020 and starting 2021 atop the Billboard 200 albums chart.

With Evermore, Swift continued the sonic reinvention kick-started by Folklore, an unexpected alt-folk exploration recorded in secret during quarantine with indie vets like The National’s Aaron Dessner and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon. Evermore would go on to spend three total weeks atop the Billboard 200 in 2021. Meanwhile, its hushed, woodsy single “Willow,” which launched atop the Hot 100 in December alongside the album release, grew into a radio success in the spring, ascending to No. 1 on Billboard’s Adult Pop Airplay chart in April.

Before that, however, Swift won another album of the year trophy. At the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards in March, Folklore took home the top prize — the third of Swift’s career, following wins for Fearless at the 2010 ceremony and 1989 in 2016. Not only did the win help Swift enter the record books, as the fourth artist overall and only woman with three album of the year wins (following Frank Sinatra, Stevie Wonder and Paul Simon), the accomplishment was also a bit of personal validation after Swift’s two previous albums, 2017’s Reputation and 2019’s Lover, were not even nominated in the top category. Once again, Swift thanked the fans, this time for embracing the artistic swerve of her 2020 output: “You guys met us in this imaginary world that we created,” she said in her acceptance speech, “and we can’t tell you how honored we are forever by this.”

One month later, Swift returned to that first album of the year winner of hers. In April, Fearless (Taylor’s Version) kicked off the behemoth endeavor of re-recording her first six studio albums. Announced in 2019, the project followed the acquisition of Swift’s master recordings by Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, as a way for her to essentially reclaim ownership over the period of her career that made her a household name. What could have been an industry curiosity based around a rights dispute instead played out like a widescreen revisit to a pivotal era of Swift’s career, as hits like “You Belong With Me” and “Love Story” were lovingly re-created, and previously unreleased tracks from the Fearless recording sessions were finally unveiled as “From The Vault” treasures.

The amount of care that Swift put into Fearless (Taylor’s Version) turned the 26-track set into a must-hear remake of the diamond-certified original, and fans embraced it as such. The full-length became the first re-recorded version of a previous No. 1 album to top the Billboard 200 albums chart upon its release, with the biggest debut week of 2021 at the time with 291,000 equivalent album units, according to MRC Data.

It wasn’t the only way that Swift’s towering legacy cast a shadow over the first half of 2021, either. In between the April release of Fearless (Taylor’s Version) and the June announcement that Red (Taylor’s Version) would be the next re-recorded album to arrive in November, Swift proved a key influence, and contributor, to another artist’s year-defining album. Pop singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo hasn’t been shy about her love of Swift’s music over the course of her breakout year, name-checking the superstar as a sonic and spiritual guide when “Drivers License” was released back in January, and receiving an Instagram shout-out from Swift during the debut single’s quick ascent.

Rodrigo’s debut album Sour took the adoration even further upon its May release: the heart-wrenching piano ballad “1 Step Forward, 3 Steps Back” borrowed from Swift’s own heart-wrenching piano ballad, 2017’s “New Year’s Day,” resulting in Swift and Jack Antonoff being listed as writers on the track. Two months after the album’s release, Rodrigo also added Swift, Antonoff and Annie Clark as co-writers to the post-breakup reflection “Deja Vu” due to the bridge’s similarities to Swift’s own complex-romance remembrance, 2019’s  “Cruel Summer.” Rodrigo is pop’s rookie of the year with 2021’s biggest breakthrough album - which Swift gets some of the credit for, in ways both figurative and literal.

Delays in the vinyl shipping of Evermore pushed the album back to the top of the Billboard 200 when the record was finally sent out to fans in June, displacing Sour at #1 for a nice bit of teacher-student pop interplay. Swift stayed active all summer, guesting on two songs on How Long Do You Think It’s Gonna Last?, the latest album from Dessner’s Big Red Machine project - a charming continuation of the Folklore/Evermore era of gentle songwriting and rustic textures - and tossing out the Taylor’s Version re-recording of 1989’s “Wildest Dreams” to have a little fun with an unexpected viral moment the song was enjoying on TikTok.

But by then, the 1989 era wasn’t the one fans were anxiously awaiting to revisit. If Red (Taylor’s Version) had simply matched Fearless (Taylor’s Version) in terms of fanfare and listenership, Swift’s year would have still been pretty spectacular. Instead, her second re-recorded album wildly outpaced its predecessor in nearly every way, turning the release of “All Too Well (10-Minute Version)” into a cultural sensation - The short film! The remarkable SNL performance! The new lyrical allusions that launched a thousand Jake Gyllenhaal jokes! - and another chart-topper for Swift. With its November debut atop the Hot 100, “All Too Well (Taylor’s Version)” also became the longest #1 in the chart’s history - in the age of TikTok virality and dwindling attention spans, no less.

The expanded “All Too Well” wasn’t the only new revelation from the set, which also boasted new collaborations with Phoebe Bridgers, Ed Sheeran and Chris Stapleton on old “From The Vault” tracks; the Stapleton team-up, “I Bet You Think About Me,” has been getting airplay on Swift’s old stomping grounds of country radio. In the end, Red (Taylor’s Version) drove as much conversation as any of Swift’s recent all-new studio albums, and scored a blockbuster debut, with 605,000 first-week equivalent album units moved - good for the third-best debut week of 2021 with, it bears repeating, the majority of its songs released nearly a decade earlier.

Even without a proper new album in 2021, Swift sent three separate projects to the top spot of the Billboard 200 during the calendar year - the first female artist to accomplish that feat in the chart’s 65-year history. And in November, one final domino fell for Swift’s re-recordings project when iHeartRadio announced that it would now only be playing Taylor’s Versions of her older hits from each album as they rolled out - after streaming platforms had already given them prominent placement on main pages and major playlists. In addition to the impressive sales of her re-recorded albums, the reactions from the streaming and radio worlds underline the widespread acceptance that these new recordings have replaced the classic versions as the ones listeners will be digesting and caring about moving forward.

As Swift enters 2022, she once again has the chance to make history: Evermore is nominated for the album of the year Grammy, and a victory at the Jan. 31 ceremony would make her the most celebrated artist in the 64-year history of the category. While other popular artists are rightfully celebrating award nominations and chart achievements, Swift can do both, while also credibly changing the way artists can approach creative ownership and sonic shifts. If Swift changed the game in the mid-2010s when pivoting from country to pop, playing it top 40’s way and earning the splashiest commercial wins of her career, including the distinction of also being Billboard’s Greatest Pop Star of 2015, the past year found her rejecting the game entirely and drawing up her own rules. Now, she has the power to pull any sound she wants into her mainstream orbit, or make any industry institution reckon with her impact. She could release a 20-minute version of a song on her next re-recorded album, and you’d be foolish to bet against it becoming a hit.

Taylor Swift is making the type of moves within and outside of her music that elevate an artist from superstar to legend. Those moves are often very hard to execute, but no one who had been paying attention was the least bit surprised when she stuck each landing. Wind in her hair, Swift is here, and making it look all too easy.

[aaronofithaca05]

Odysseus

Odysseus!!!!

Ὀδυσσεύς, Οὖτις 

Neither man nor mythical!

The man of many ways, the raining King of rocky Ithaca!

Odysseus Laertiades, father of Telemachus and husband of Penelope!.

The cunning boi and the best of the Achaeans below Achilles.

I can rumble about this man and his life for days without end >:D

Thanks so much anon!

[therearemorethings]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Criminal Minds (US TV) Rating: Mature Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings Relationships: Luke Alvez/Penelope Garcia Characters: Penelope Garcia, Luke Alvez (Criminal Minds), Derek Morgan (Criminal Minds), Aaron Hotchner, Emily Prentiss, Jennifer "JJ" Jareau, Spencer Reid, Matt Simmons (Criminal Minds), David Rossi Additional Tags: I'm not sure how to tag this, Homer's Odyssey, Character Study, Slow Burn, Canon Divergence, Romance, Soulmates kind of Summary:

When Penelope was little, her mother used to tell her the story of Penelope of Ithaca.

A story about journeys, patience and true love.

[ithacahq]

WELCOME TO ITHACA.

AARON TVEIT — Alexander Reynolds, Criminal Justice Professor at Cornell (connection: Andrea Rossi’s ex-spouse) SARAH SHAHI — Salome Marciel-Loma, Business Owner (Beholder, Art Gallery) and Artist ANDRÉ LAMOGLIA — Silvio Couto, Cornell University junior (veterinary science major) and Alley Cat Cafe part time employee LORENZO ZURZOLO — Stefano 'Stefan' Incanti, unemployed

Congratulations - first and foremost we’d like to say that we’re very happy to have you as a part of our group! Please refer to the new member checklist for more information.

[seemingmusic]

GO SMALL

I recorded the vocals for “Go Small” outdoors in the Pyrenees mountains one morning last summer. The birds you hear are real. It’s a song about clinging to a vital sliver of sanity by focusing only on what was right in front of me: a room, a garden, my own hands. The drums feature Sarah Hennies and Aaron Fuleki. Its video was filmed in lockdown, at a shack in the woods of Ithaca, NY. When the world is run by cruel and greedy men, it’s hard to “go small,” but that intimacy and focus really saved me. This is a song for recentering—all without forgetting your rage. It feels like life under quarantine. It feels like 2020.

[johnrossbowie]

LEAVING TWITTER

I wrote this earlier in the fall, before the election, after dissolving my Twitter account. I wasn’t sure where to put it (“try up your ass!” – someone, I’m sure) and then I remembered I have a tumblr I never use. Anyway, here tis.

How do you shame someone who thinks Trumps’ half-baked policies and quarter-baked messaging put him in the pantheon of great Presidents? How do you shame someone so lacking in introspection that they will call Obama arrogant while praising Trump’s decisiveness and yet at the same time vehemently deny that they’re racist? How do you shame someone for whom that racism is endearing and maybe long overdue?

You don’t. It’s silly to think otherwise.

Twitter is an addiction of mine, and true to form, my dependence on it grew more serious after I quit drinking in 2010. At first it was a chance to mouth off, make jokes both stupid and erudite and occasionally stick my foot in my mouth (I owe New Yorker writer Tad Friend an apology. He knows why, or (God willing) he’s forgotten. Either way. Sorry.) I blew off steam, steam that was accumulating without booze to dampen the flames. Not always constructive venting, but I also met new friends, and connected with people whose work I’ve admired for literal decades and ended up seeing plays with Lin-Manuel Miranda and hanging backstage with Jane Wiedlin after a Go-Go’s show and exchanging sober thoughts with Mike Doughty. When my mom passed in 2018, a lot of people reached out to tell me they were thinking of me. This was nice. For a while, Twitter was a huge help when I needed it.

I used to hate going to parties and really hated dancing and mingling, but a couple of drinks would fix that. Point is, for a while, booze was a huge help, too.

But my engagement with Twitter changed, and I started calling people my ‘friends’ even though I’d never once met them or even heard their voices. These weren’t even penpals, these were people whose jokes or stances I enjoyed, so with Arthurian benevolence I clicked on a little heart icon, liked their tweet, and assumed therefore that we had signed some sort of blood oath.

We had not. I got glib, and cheap, and a little lazy. And then to make matters much worse, Trump came along and extended his reach with the medium.

There was a while there where I thought I could be a sort of voice for the voiceless, and I thought I was doing that. I tried very hard to only contribute things that I felt were not being said – It wasn’t accomplishing anything to notice “Haha Trump looks like he’s bullshitting his way through an oral report” – such things were self-evident. I tried to point out very specific inconsistencies in his policies, like the Muslim ban meant to curb terrorism that still favored the country that brought forth 13 of the 9/11 hijackers. Like his full-throated cries against media bias performed while he suckled at Roger Ailes’ wrinkly teat.  Like his fondness for evangelical votes that coincided with a scriptural knowledge that lagged far behind mine, even though I’m a lapsed Episcopalian, and there is no one less religiously observant than a lapsed Episcopalian. But that eventually gave way to unleashing ad hominem attacks against his higher profile supporters, who I felt weren’t being questioned enough, who I felt were in turn being fawned over by theirdim supporters. If you’re one of these guys, and you think I’m talking about you, you’re probably right, but don’t mistake this for an apology. You suck, and you support someone who sucks, and your idolatry is hurting our country and its standing in the world. Fuck you entirely, but that’s not the point. The point is that me screaming into the toilet of Twitter helps no one – it doesn’t help a family stuck at the border because they’re trying to secure a better life for their kids. It doesn’t help a poor teenager who can’t get an abortion because the party of ‘small government’ has squeezed their tiny jurisdiction into her uterus. It doesn’t help the coal miner who’s staking all his hopes on a dying industry and a President’s empty promises to resurrect it. I was born in New York City, and I currently live in Los Angeles. Those are the only two places I’ve ever lived, if you don’t count the 4 years I spent in Ithaca[1]. So, yes, I live in a liberal bubble, and while I’ve driven across the country a couple of times and did a few weeks in a touring band and am as crushed as any heartlander about the demise of Waffle House, you have me dead to rights if you call me a coastal elitist. And with that in mind, I offer few surprises. A guy who grew up in the theater district and was vehemently opposed to same-sex marriage or felt you should own an AR-15? THAT would be newsworthy. I am not newsworthy. I can preach to the choir, I can confirm people’s biases, but I will likely not sway anyone who is eager to dismiss a Native New Yorker who lives in Hollywood. I grew up in the New York of the 1970s, and that part of my identity did shape my politics. My mom’s boss was gay and the Son of Sam posed a realistic threat. As such, gays are job creators[2] and guns are used for homicide much more often than they are used for self-defense[3]. I have found this to be generally true over the years, and there’s even data to back it up.

“But Mr. Bowie,” you might say, though I insist you call me John - “those studies are conducted by elitist institutions and those institutions suck!” And again, I am not going to reason with people who will dismiss anything that doesn’t fit their limited world view as elitist or, God Help Us, fake news. But the studies above are peer-reviewed, convincing, and there are more where those came from.

“But John,” you might say, and I am soothed that we’re one a first name basis - “Can’t you just stay on Twitter for the jokes?” Ugh. A) apparently not and B) the jokes are few and far between, and I am 100% part of that problem.

I have stuff to offer, but Twitter is not the place from which to offer it.

After years of academically understanding that Twitter is not the real world, Super Tuesday 2020 made the abstract pretty fucking concrete. If you had looked at my feed on the Monday beforehand – my feed which is admittedly curated towards the left, but not monolithic (Hi, Rich Lowry!) – you’d have felt that a solid Bernie surge was imminent, but also that your candidate was going surprise her more vocal critics. When the Biden sweep swept, when Bernie was diminished and when Warren was defeated, I realized that Twitter is not only not the real world, it’s almost some sort of Phillip K. Dickian alternate timeline, untethered to anything we’re actually experiencing in our day to day life. This is both good news and bad news – one, we’re not heading towards a utopia of single payer health care and the eradication of American medical debt any time soon, but two, we’re also not being increasingly governed by diaper-clad jungen like Charlie Kirk. Clouds and their linings. Leaving Twitter may look like ceding ground to the assclowns but get this – the ground. Is not. There.

It’s just air.

There are tangible things I can do with my time - volunteer with a local organization called Food On Foot, who provide food and job training for people experiencing homelessness here in my adopted Los Angeles. I can give money to candidates and causes I support, and I can occasionally even drop by social media to boost a project or an issue and then vanish, like a sort of Caucasian Zorro who doesn’t read his mentions. I can also model good behavior for my kids (ages 10 and 13) who don’t need to see their father glued to his phone, arguing about Trumps incompetence with Constitutional scholars who have a misspelled Bible verse in their bio (three s’ in Ecclesiastes, folks).

So farewell Twitter. I’ll miss a lot of you. Perhaps not as badly as I miss Simon Maloy and Roger Ebert and Harris Wittels and others whose deaths created an unfillable void on the platform. But I won’t miss the yelling, and the lionization of poor grammar, and anonymous trolls telling my Jewish friends that they were gonna leave the country “via chimney.” I will not miss people who think Trump is a stable genius calling me a “fucktard.” I will not miss transphobia or cancelling but I will miss hashtag games, particularly my stellar work during #mypunkmusical (Probably should have quit after that surge, I was on fire that night, real blaze of glory stuff I mean, Christ, Sunday in the Park with the Germs? Husker Du I Hear A Waltz? Fiddler on the Roof (keeping an eye out for the cops)? These are Pulitzer contenders.). Twitter makes me feel lousy, even when I’m right, and I’m often right. There’s just no point in barking bumperstickers at each other, and there are people who are speaking truth to power and doing a cleaner job of it – Aaron Rupar, Steven Pasquale, Louise Mensch, Imani Gandy and Ijeoma Oluo to name five solid mostly politically based accounts (Yes, Pasquale is a Broadway tenor. He’s also a tenacious lefty with good points and research and a dreamy voice. You think you’re straight and then you hear him sing anything from Bridges of Madison County and you want him to spoon you.). You’re probably already following those mentioned, but on the off chance you’re not, get to it. You’ll thank me, but you won’t be able to unless you actually have my email.

_______

[1] And Jesus, that’s worse – Ithaca is such a lefty enclave that they had an actual socialist mayor FOR WHOM I VOTED while I was there. And not socialist the way some people think all Democrats are socialist – I mean Ben Nichols actually ran on the socialist ticket and was re-elected twice for a total of six years.

[2] The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, “America’s LGBT Economy” Jan 20th, 2017

[3] The Violence Policy Institute, Firearm Justifiable Homicides and Non-Fatal Self Defense Gun Use, July 2019.

[your-not-invisible-to-me]

“Maybe we’re tough and we’ll try anyway” Next to Normal has always been such an important thing in my life. It helped me deal with my mental health for years, and gave me characters to connect to when I felt isolated. It also introduced me to @aarontveit. I’ve never told this story so publicly before, but after I came out as trans at 14, I spent so long trying to figure out what name would be the best fit for me. It wasn’t until I was sitting on my bathroom floor one day, watching the Next to Normal bootleg ironically enough, that the name Aaron hit me. I wanted a name that would remind me of happiness, that meant something to me. And at 14, him and his work had meant so much to me and I instantly knew. It felt right. Ever since then I had this dream of getting him to write out this bar of music from the show for me, cause I wanted it tattooed. I never thought it would be possible until this past September, the Next to Normal reunion happened and they saw my comment on the chat. Suddenly I had a message on Twitter from a hero and I knew it was my chance to ask him. And he said yes. Thank you @aarontveit for your unbelievable kindness towards me, and for all that you’ve unknowingly done for me over the years. And thank you for making this small dream of mine come true. And thank you for introducing me to Ithaca because coming here was one of the best decisions I have ever made. (Disclaimer: I know the bar isn’t written how it is in the libretto. I cut it a certain way to how I wanted it before sending it to him) (at Ithaca College) https://www.instagram.com/p/CKngHVjJoTY/?igshid=lnq8yyex7hzx