#all things will unwind

[asailorsdrunkeneulogy]

My Brightest Diamond || I Have Never Loved Someone

[sinceileftyoublog]

TORRES, My Brightest Diamond, & Aisha Burns Live Show Review: 1/18, Lincoln Hall, Chicago

TORRES' Mackenzie Scott

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Many times throughout TORRES' set Thursday night at Lincoln Hall, Mackenzie Scott remarked how polite the audience was. While we're from the Midwest and are certainly very nice, I think we were just enraptured. First and foremost, Scott is an intense songwriter whose lyrics are diaristic, who puts her whole body into her guitar playing. Live, she demands attention. You never know when she's going to scream--she chose a good moment on "Helen in the Woods"--or show vulnerability with a creaky falsetto, like on love devotional "Gracious Day". Meanwhile, her scraggly guitars followed her vocal delivery on "Skim", as she shredded, leaning towards the crowd. Her atonal laying on "Sprinter" provided a sharp contrast to J.R. Bohannon's shimmery pedal steel. Over 10 years into playing as TORRES, traversing aesthetics and soundscapes, Scott has developed the stage presence to match the ferocity of the songs themselves.

From left to right: J.R. Bohannon, Rosie Slater, Scott, & Erin Manning

But then there was another reason we wanted to remain silent and soak it all in: the new TORRES songs from What an enormous room, out this Friday via Merge. For many in the crowd, this past Thursday was the first time hearing tunes bound to become new favorites in the catalog. I watched smiles form on the faces of folks realizing the plucky "Jerk into joy" will become an anthem, as Scott sang, "What an enormous room / Look at all the dancing I can do!" As as it was the band's second night playing these songs on tour, each member relished their opportunities to stand out, from Rosie Slater's driving drums on "Forever home" to Erin Manning's fried synths on "Happy man's shoes". Towards the end of the set, someone yelled, "Play 'Honey'!," referring to the song that made many of us fall in love with TORRES' music in the first place. They never played it. Had this been the last time TORRES played Lincoln Hall, I might have walked away disappointed. But years later, 6 records in, Scott's catalog runs deep enough that the supposed enormity of "Honey" is a small hike compared to the canyon sounds of her most recent material.

My Brightest Diamond

Jake Woodruff (left) & Aisha Burns (right)

Opening for TORRES was two artists who haven't released full-length albums since 2018 but are experimenting live with new material: My Brightest Diamond, the long-running chamber folk project of singer-songwriter Shara Nova, and multi-instrumentalist/former Balmorhea member Aisha Burns. Nova played solo, using percussion backing tracks and samples, walking out to the audio clip of the late, great Sinead O'Connor saying, "Fight the real enemy" on Saturday Night Live after tearing a picture of Pope John Paul II following her a capella rendition of Bob Marley & The Wailers' "War". Many of Nova's songs, both new and old, responded to O'Connor's fearless spirit. Nova's vocals were show-stopping on "Fight the Real Terror (for Sinead)", controlled over the harmonics of the recorded drums on "Imaginary Lover". Finger-snapping new single "Black Sheep" expanded on themes of ostracization and its oft-permanence even when the court of public opinion changes its mind, pertinent to O'Connor's story. In context, All Things Will Unwind standout "Be Brave", too, acted in spirit with Nova's newer material. "Imagine all the flutes and bass clarinets," Nova quipped to old-school My Brightest Diamond fans, but she didn't need to ask us; lines like, "Shara, this is going to hurt," tugged at our emotions more than any instrumentation could.

Woodruff & Burns

Really, it was up to Aisha Burns to yield happy tears from instruments. Accompanied by guitarist Jake Woodruff, she graced us with atmospheric loops, violin, guitar, and falsetto vocals. Songs from 2018's Argonauta (Western Vinyl) hypnotized the crowd, the dual guitar sway of "I Thought I Knew You Well" and impassionedly picked and sung "We Were Worn". And yes, she performed her great cover of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game", her vibrato and vocal harmonies with Woodruff standing tall against the sensuousness of the original. The performance got me excited for whatever comes next for Burns, whether original material or more clever covers.

Woodruff & Burns

[crabsnpersimmons]

(slowly cleaning out all the art i drafted but never posted)

sometimes the only way to recharge after a long day

is drawing your current blue trauma boi* in the outfit of your previous blue trauma boi**

*Moon, from my hairdresser AU "New 'Do, Same You" AU

**Red Clad Dewey from Another Eden

[spearxwind]

>STATIC SNOW /// VIOLENT FLAME<

(couldn't decide on one version so you get all of them)

[tsintotwo]

I was just trying to relax, Tom, you didn't have to personally attack me like this

[sinkat-arts]

Just silly daisuga redraws of that heatwave photoshoot going around on twt right now. I took liberties with the floaty.

[tinukis]

i went to one piece orchestra tonight !!

seeing/hearing kohei tanaka and hiroshi kitadani... was amazing... ESPECIALLY having the honor to listen to we go, over the top, uuus, and we are all live !! literally we are, over the top, and uuus are my FAV one piece openings so clapping and singing along with hiroshi himself was just so... magical.

it made me really happy that i've become a one piece fan 🥹🫶♥️ im a little sad i had to experience it all by myself and i dont know many who are into one piece... but still a wonderful occasion regardless.

[takecarelove]

today was actually lowk fire!!!! for once!!! i tried a blueberry muffin at a cafe and got a 20 oz matcha which were both lovely and not see at all which is just how i like it!!! omg it made me so happy i cannot express it enough <3 rehearsal ended at 4 so it was super short (not sweet but short nonetheless!) and then i ended up hanging with some friends afterwards and we got silly drinks and then picked up cat food for one of them and met their cat :)) and then headed back to school and hung for a bit!!! i was not planning to go to hoco this year bc i didn't want to find fancy clothing and i hate the environment so much but actually they're just planning to like get dinner together, maybe go for an hour, and then we're going to go to an escape room which is super fun <33 AND we planned that one of the girls is actually going to ask me to homecoming so that the bad guy from my post last night BACKS OFF AND I'M SO SO EXCITED FOR IT ALL <3

[latejulys]

logging in to see Beautiful Images at the cost of being subjected to 9725168340 opinions

[emry-stars-art]

PSA since I keep going through my inbox like a kid on christmas: I see your asks, I will not ignore them forever, I SWEAR I’m getting to them they’re just TOO GOOD TO RUSH/DO HALFWAY. stop having good ideas and I’ll stop having to do them justice /j

[theboarsbride]

This week was another long week and I'm just. Exhausted. Sad. Frustrated. Burnt out and tired and. Done.

[shivunin]

WIP Wednesday

Tagged by @greypetrel--thank you for thinking of me, friend! I've got a few things banked that I don't think I've shared yet c: (Tagging, in turn, @vakarians-babe @cullenvhenan @ndostairlyrium @dungeons-and-dragon-age @brother-genitivi @heniareth @zenstrike @palipunk @daggerbean @jtownnn, if any of you would like to share something!) Here is a sweet snippet from that Act 2 piece I've been talking about. This particular chapter lines up with parts of Palimpsest, if you've read it, and makes sense enough on its own if you haven't:

Fenris’s eyes found hers unerringly the moment he stepped through the doorway. There was something on his face—something intense, vital, having nothing to do with anger or regret. The sight of it jolted her, and though she’d been playing the tipsy fool for nearly half an hour now she almost gave up the act at once to ask him what he meant by it. 

He swung a leg over the bench and sat beside her, just as he had for years now, but something new hummed in the empty space between them. She could hear it under the conversation and laughter of her friends, feel it in the moments when her sleeve brushed against his shoulder, see it when she glanced his way and the corner of his mouth rose in a faint but noticeable smile. 

What was this?

Maria didn’t know. It made her giddy, brought a flush to her cheeks. She was grateful for the latter, for it made her performance of drunkenness even more convincing, but it also felt…it was too much. She’d felt only echoes before, the flutter in her chest when he gestured in that elegant way he had, the heat in her ears that she batted aside whenever she watched him execute an especially graceful or brutal maneuver during a fight. She knew how she felt about him; she could list a dozen reasons that she shouldn’t feel them (foremost amongst them that he couldn’t be comfortable with that sort of attention) and a hundred reasons why she couldn’t help herself regardless. She hadn’t spent the last three years debating herself for and against it for nothing, for the Maker’s sake, but this—

When they all stepped out into the night air, she was relieved. It cooled some of the flush on her cheeks, though not soon enough to hide it from the others. 

“D’you feel a fever coming on, Hawke?” Merrill asked from Isabela’s back, her eyes glassy with too much drink. Even so, she lifted cool hands and patted Maria’s face carefully, feeling her forehead and cheeks in turn. “I’ve a draught for it in my room if you’re getting sick.”

“I’m fine,” Hawke assured her, reaching up to hug her one-armed, “just a bit too much to drink.” 

Merrill hummed in acknowledgement and snuggled her head back into Isabela’s shoulder. Isabela eyed Hawke for a moment before lifting an arm for Maria to tuck herself under. 

“Watch yourself, sweet thing,” Isabela murmured into her ear, “that one bites.”

“Nothing to watch,” Hawke murmured back, and pulled away. “Make sure she has water. She always forgets.”

“No, I don’t,” Merrill murmured, but Isabela smiled broadly. 

“Sure there isn’t,” she said, “we’ll see about that, Hawke. C’mon, kitten. Let’s get you home.”

Hawke smiled after them, shaking her head, and when she turned she found Fenris waiting, eyes fixed on her. 

The way he watched her sometimes…it had been wary at first, she was certain. Over the years, it had been replaced with mild exasperation, sometimes laughter, occasionally tentative affection. Now, there was something else in his eyes, some unnameable focus that set her heart to racing again the moment it’d finally calmed.

“Ready?” she asked Fenris. 

The moon loved the sight of him, she’d often thought. Its light was like silver-gilt on the planes of his face when he angled his head to the side and it tangled in the strands of his hair with the gentlest of brushstrokes. 

Who do I think I am, Varric? she wondered, looking toward the stairs home. Maybe I drank too much, after all. 

She knew better, of course, but it was a convenient enough excuse to seize upon.

“I am,” Fenris said, and together they started up the stairs home. 

Later, she wouldn’t remember much about the conversation that followed. He’d told her not to apologize to him—that much she held onto—but everything else was washed away by the way he’d reached out and taken her hand in his. His fingers were calloused and warm, bounded on every side by cool metal that occasionally snagged on her robes. While they finished climbing the steps to Hightown, Hawke wished fervently that she lived a little further away—somewhere outside of town, perhaps, so this walk could go on forever and she’d never have to let go. But of course the stairs home were as they’d always been, the walk as long or short as ever, and when they paused before her doorway they said goodbye in their usual manner. 

For the first time, as she pressed her cheek to his breastplate and wrapped her arms around him, Hawke wished that she could hear the thud of his heart through his armor. Was his racing as much as hers? Had the touch been a whim or did it mean something more? Her mind buzzed with it, hummed with the way he tentatively wrapped his arms around her in return, the whisper of his breath against the loose curls along the edge of her braid. This was—something new. She was almost certain of it. 

And yet, even then, the tiniest sliver of doubt held her from asking him what he wanted. It was not an unkind little voice. It was sympathetic—sorrowful, even, and its words were only logical. 

You’re not ready, it whispered when she would have held on to him more tightly. After a moment, it added: He’s not ready. 

So, flushed and weak-kneed, Hawke bade him goodnight as if nothing had changed at all. She was fortunate, she supposed, that she’d been keeping her feelings tucked neatly away this long. It had been necessary practice for this—whatever this was. 

When she climbed into her bed some time later, it felt almost unbearably cold, too large for her by far, and she huddled on the edge of the mattress trying to will herself to sleep. 

What would it feel like to—

No. He was her friend. It was enough; more than enough, after everything they’d seen.

But when he’d held her hand, he’d been gentle and firm. If he touched her somewhere else, what would it—

No. 

She had no idea what she was doing. She had very little experience with any of this, and having a crush on one’s friend was a different creature entirely than deciding to pursue these feelings. No. Until she could…figure this out, she’d leave it to Fenris. 

Hawke rolled over until her face was buried in the pillow. She groaned long and loud, and when she was finally done she closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

[t4tstarvingdog]

i’ve got to go home and crank that thang

[chirpsythismorning]

When Blue Meets Yellow In the West: A Series Long Theory - Part 2

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,

[galaxywings-art]

Brain dead, head empty

[constantvariations]

There was this series I read when I was a kid called Unwind where parents could sign their kids up to be harvested for organs and limbs to use as transplants. I don't remember a whole lot of the story but the bit that stuck with me the most was the ending:

The main character lost his arm and, while he was unconscious, was given an arm from an Unwound, who happened to be a personal antagonist with a shark tattoo. His girlfriend was paralyzed by the same incident (an explosion, I think) was conscious when rescued, and declined to have any transplants because it would mean benefiting from the very system that they'd been trying to destroy

Penny being made human reminds me of this. She wasn't capable of giving input to having her entire body irreversibly modified, nor did anyone even bother to ask if this is what she would've wanted. They went with what they thought was best for her without really thinking of her