#but British queens have always been extremely progressive for their time

[realasslesbian]

My final post on it (unless it’s not) but y’all out here with ‘lists of countries that have been invaded by the British’, but where’s your ‘list of countries still under British rule’? Oh yeah right, we can’t acknowledge the actual fact that Queen Elizabeth single-handedly performed the absolutely monumental feat of stopping and reversing British colonialism and has basically spent her entire time as queen dealing with the mistakes of the men around her. No siree, if we talked about that it might paint a woman in a positive light and we can’t have that now, can we?

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Anonymous asked: I noticed you did post to acknowledge the death of Uderzo, the co-creator of the Asterix comics. I have to ask Tintin or Asterix? Which one do you prefer?

It’s like asking Stones or Beatles? I love both but for different reasons. I would hate to choose between the two.

Both Tintin and Asterix were the two halves of a comic dyad of my childhood. Whether it was India, China, Hong Kong, Japan, or the Middle East the one thing that threads my childhood experience of living in these countries was finding a quiet place in the home to get lost reading Asterix and Tintin.

Even when I was eventually carted off to boarding school back in England I took as many of my Tintin and Asterix comics books with me as I could. They became like underground black market currency to exchange with other girls for other things like food or chocolates sent by parents and other illicit things like alcohol. Having them and reading them was like having familiar friends close by to make you feel less lonely in new surroundings and survive the bear pit of other girls living together.

If you asked my parents - especially my father - he would say Tintin hands down. He has - and continues to have in his library at home - a huge collection of Tintin comic books in as many different language translations as possible. He’s still collecting translations of each of the Tintin books in the most obscure languages he can find. I have both all the Tintin comic books - but only in English and French translations, and the odd Norwegian one - as well as all the Asterix comic books (only in English and French).

Speaking for myself I would be torn to decide between the two. Each have their virtues and I appreciate them for different reasons.

Tintin was truly about adventure that spoke deeply to me. Tintin was always a good detective story that soon turned to a travel adventure. It has it all: technology, politics, science and history. Of course the art is more simpler, but it is also cleaner and translates the wondrous far-off locations beautifully and with a sense of awe that you don’t see in the Asterix books. Indeed Hergé was into film-noir and thriller movies, and the panels are almost like storyboards for The Maltese Falcon or African Queen.

The plot lines of Tintin are intriguing rather than overly clever but the gallery of characters are much deeper, more flawed and morally ambiguous. Take Captain Haddock I loved his pullover, his strangely large feet, his endless swearing and his inability to pass a bottle without emptying it. He combined bravery and helplessness in a manner I found irresistible.

I’ve read that there is a deeply Freudian reading to the Tintin books. I think there is a good case for it. The Secret of the Unicorn and Red Rackham's Treasure are both about Captain Haddock's family. Haddock's ancestor, Sir Francis Haddock, is the illegitimate son of the French Sun King – and this mirrors what happened in Hergé's family, who liked to believe that his father was the illegitimate son of the Belgian king. This theme played out in so many of the books. In The Castafiore Emerald, the opera singer sings the jewel song from Faust, which is about a lowly woman banged up by a nobleman – and she sings it right in front of Sir Francis Haddock, with the captain blocking his ears. It's like the Finnegans Wake of the cartoon. Nothing happens - but everything happens.

Another great part is that the storylines continue on for several albums, allowing them to be more complex, instead of the more simplistic Asterix plot lines which are always wrapped up nicely at the end of each book.

Overall I felt a great affinity with Tintin - his youthful innocence, wanting to solve problems, always resourceful, optimistic, and brave. Above all Tintin gave me wanderlust. Was there a place he and Milou (Snowy) didn’t go to? When they had covered the four corners of the world Tintin and Milou went to the moon for heaven’s sake!

What I loved about Asterix was the style, specifically Uderzo’s visual style. I liked Hergé’s clean style, the ligne claire of his pen, but Asterix was drawn as caricature: the big noses, the huge bellies, often being prodded by sausage-like fingers. This was more appealing to little children because they were more fun to marvel at.

In particular I liked was the way Uderzo’s style progressed with each comic book. The panels of Asterix the Gaul felt rudimentary compared to the later works and by the time Asterix and Cleopatra, the sixth book to be published, came out, you finally felt that this was what they ought to look like. It was an important lesson for a child to learn: that you could get better at what you did over time. Each book seemed to have its own palette and perhaps Uderzo’s best work is in Asterix in Spain.

I also feel Asterix doesn’t get enough credit for being more complex. Once you peel back the initial layers, Asterix has some great literal depth going on - puns and word play, the English translation names are all extremely clever, there are many hidden details in the superb art to explore that you will quite often miss when you initially read it and in a lot of the truly classic albums they are satirising a real life country/group/person/political system, usually in an incredibly clever and humorous way.

What I found especially appealing was that it was also a brilliant microcosm of many classical studies subjects - ancient Egypt, the Romans and Greek art - and is a good first step for young children wanting to explore that stuff before studying it at school.

What I discovered recently was that Uderzo was colour blind which explains why he much preferred the clear line to any hint of shade, and it was that that enabled his drawings to redefine antiquity so distinctively in his own terms. For decades after the death of René Goscinny in 1977, Uderzo provided a living link to the golden age of the greatest series of comic books ever written: Paul McCartney to Goscinny’s John Lennon. Uderzo, as the Asterix illustrator, was better able to continue the series after Goscinny’s death than Goscinny would have been had Uderzo had died first, and yet the later books were, so almost every fan agrees, not a patch on the originals: very much Wings to the Beatles. What elevated the cartoons, brilliant though they were, to the level of genius was the quality of the scripts that inspired them. Again and again, in illustration after illustration, the visual humour depends for its full force on the accompaniment provided by Goscinny’s jokes.

Here below is a great example:

There’s a lot of genius in this. Uderzo copied Theodore Géricault’s iconic ‘Raft of the Medusa’ 1818 painting in ‘Asterix The Legionary’. The painting is generally regarded as an icon of Romanticism. It depicts an event whose human and political aspects greatly interested Géricault: the wreck of a French frigate, Medusa, off the coast of Senegal in 1816, with over 150 soldiers on board. But Anthea Bell’s translation of Goscinny’s text (including the pictorial and verbal pun ‘we’ve been framed, by Jericho’) is really extraordinary and captures the spirit of the Asterix cartoons perfectly.

This captures perfectly my sense of humour as it acknowledges the seriousness of life but finds humour in them through a sly cleverness and always with a open hearted joy. There is no question that if humour was the measuring yard stick then Asterix and not Tintin would win hands down.

It’s also a mistake to think that the world of Asterix was insular in comparison to the amazing countries Tintin had adventures. Asterix’s world is very much Europe.

Every nationality that Asterix encounters is gently satirised. No other post-war artistic duo offered Europeans a more universally popular portrait of themselves, perhaps, than did Goscinny and Uderzo. The stereotypes with which he made such affectionate play in his cartoons – the haughty Spaniard, the chocolate-loving Belgian, the stiff-upper-lipped Briton – seemed to be just what a continent left prostrate by war and nationalism were secretly craving. Many shrewd commentators believe that during the golden age when Goscinny was still alive to pen the scripts, that it was a fantasy on French resistance during occupation by Nazi Germany. Uderzo lived through the occupation and so there is truth in that. Perhaps this is why the Germans are the exceptions as they are treated unsympathetically in Asterix and the Goths, and why quite a few of the books turn on questions of loyalty and treachery.

Even the British are satirised with an affection that borders on love: the worst of the digs are about our appalling cuisine (everything is boiled, and served with mint sauce, and the beer is warm), but everything points to the Gauls’ and the Britons’ closeness. They have the same social structure, even down to having one village still holding out against the Romans; the crucial and extremely generous difference being that the Britons do not have a magic potion to help them fight. Instead they have tea, introduced to them by Getafix, via Asterix, which gives them so much of a psychological boost that it may as well have been the magic potion.

I re-read ‘Asterix in Britain’ (Astérix chez les Bretons) in the light of the 2016 Brexit referendum result and felt despaired that such a playful and respectful portrayal of this country was not reciprocated. Don’t get me wrong I voted for Brexit but I remain a staunch Europhile. It made me violently irritated to see many historically illiterate pro-Brexit oiks who mistakenly believed the EU and Europe were the same thing. They are not. One was originally a sincere band aid to heal and bring together two of the greatest warring powers in continental Europe that grotesquely grew into an unaccountable bureaucratic manager’s utopian wet dream, and the other is a cradle of Western achievement in culture, sciences and the arts that we are all heirs to.

What I loved about Asterix was that it cut across generations. As a young girl I often retreated into my imaginary world of Asterix where our family home had an imaginary timber fence and a dry moat to keep the world (or the Romans) out. I think this was partly because my parents were so busy as many friends and outsiders made demands on their time and they couldn’t say no or they were throwing lavish parties for their guests. Family time was sacred to us all but I felt especially miffed if our time got eaten away. Then, as I grew up, different levels of reading opened up to me apart from the humour in the names, the plays on words, and the illustrations. There is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child's eye view of the world.

The thing about both Asterix and Tintin books is that they are at heart adventure comics with many layers of detail and themes built into them. For children, Asterix books are the clear winner, as they have much better art and are more fantastical. Most of the bad characters in the books are not truly evil either and no-one ever dies, which appeals hugely to children. For older readers, Tintin has danger, deeper characters with deep political themes, bad guys with truly evil motives, and even deaths. It’s more rooted in the real world, so a young reader can visualise themselves as Tintin, travelling to these real life places and being a hero.

As I get older and re-read Asterix and Tintin from time to time I discover new things. 

From Asterix, there is something about the notion of one tiny little village, where everybody knows each other, trying to hold off the dark forces of the rest of the world. Being the underdog, up against everyone, but with a sense of humour and having fun, really resonated with my child's eye view of the world. In my adult world it now makes me appreciate the value of family, friends, and community and even national identity. Even as globalisation and the rise of homogenous consumerism threatens to envelope the unique diversity of our cultures, like Asterix, we can defend to the death the cultural values that define us but not through isolation or by diminishing the respect due to other cultures and their cultural achievements.

From Tintin I got wanderlust. This fierce even urgent need to travel and explore the world was in part due to reading the adventures of Tintin. It was by living in such diverse cultures overseas and trying to get under the skin of those cultures by learning their languages and respecting their customs that I realised how much I valued my own heritage and traditions without diminishing anyone else.

So I’m sorry but I can’t choose one over the other, I need both Asterix and Tintin as a dyad to remind me that the importance of home and heritage is best done through travel and adventure elsewhere.

Thanks for your question.

[queenwitchrowena]

☽〇☾ — ROWENA MACLEOD

❝ she wore her scars as her best attire, a stunning dress made of hellfire.❞ ☽〇☾  —  AESTHETICS

BELIEFE IN PROPHECY AND MAGIC OLD AS TIME  — WINTER SOLSTICE ORGIES  — BACKLESS FLOOR LENGTH GOWNS AS CASUAL WEAR —  WINGED EYELINER SHARP ENOUGH TO CUT YOU  — FINDING REDEMPTION AND MEANING IN UNEXPECTED PLACES

☽〇☾  — CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Rowena MacLeod Nickname: Ro (To a few people.) Age: 378 appears mid to late 30’s  (spent an additional 190 years in Hell) D.O.B.:  1643 Place of birth: Isle of Skye, Scotland Gender: Cis Female Species: Human/Witch (Natural) Height: 5’2” / 157 cm Weight: 110lbs / 50kg Eye color: Green Hair color: Vivid red copper Relationship Status: It’s always complicated and often fake. Sexuality: Sexually Progressive Powers: Innate magic, learned spell work, ability to create spell work. Weaknesses: Overestimating herself, pride, volatile anger, recklessness Occupation: Witch / Con Artist / Hunter Consultant / Queen of Hell Weapons: Hex Bags, spells, natural magic, Voodoo dolls, crystals, potions, alchemy, manipulation. She is capable of using traditional weapons such as knives and guns when necessary.

Personality: Rowena is intelligent, ambitious, proud, manipulative, Machiavellian, petty, sarcastic, reckless, often self serving, hateful, seductive. She resents anyone who dares to have authority over her. She flirts like mad with people, often for fun, often for her own gain. When she is on someone’s side she can be sweet, calm, warm, and courteous. When she has labeled someone as completely useless, unfortunately in her way, or an enemy, she can be ruthlessly vicious and violent. People that cross her may find themselves in various precarious situations up to and including violent deaths.

Rowena is hard to get to know deeply, she builds walls to keep people from hurting her, not just physically, but emotionally. She is never quite able to be rid of the parts of her that fear and loathe her past. She has always been a dreamer. She is slowly learning to trust and value people and loyalty, even if she might deny it.

Likes: People who can do something for her, knowledge, power, money, magic, Winchesters and their pet angels (though she will not state that out loud), creating her own spells, her son (not that she wants to, she hates him because it’s easier for her), flirting, elegant states of dress, stability, freedom.

Dislikes: Authority over her, being used, baring her feelings, feelings, weakness, abandonment, her own desperation, her past, swallowing her pride, not controlling a situation, being underestimated, being undervalued, people denying their own abilities with magic, most hunters, most other witches, her son lol, most demons, anything that makes her appear unsophisticated, limits.

Appearance: Rowena is a slim petite woman. Pale skin that burns and freckles if she doesn’t stay out of the sun or apply some sort of charm. She keeps her fiery red hair long, with fringe, and alternates between letting it curl naturally or straightening it. She wears it both up and down.

Her clothing choices tend to learn towards the impractical and formal. Long sleeve floor length gowns, dresses, heels, and assorted jewelry. She wears bold winged eyeliner and often bright and shimmery eyeshadow looks, bold red and coral lipsticks. Rowena may occasionally wear something that makes her blend in a bit better, stylish slacks and blouses, sometimes a suit jacket. She never appears not put together if it’s within her control.

Rowena has a number of scars on her body made by the insertion of spell work in the form of hex bags. There is a scar on her outer right thigh, one on the left side above her breast, and one on her left hip above the bone. She also has very faint stretch marks on her belly from pregnancy.

☽〇☾  —  BACKSTORY

Rowena MacLeod was born the daughter of a Tanner in 17th century Scotland. She was one of several children born to her parents.

Her mother did not follow witchcraft, her father forbid it, he was a strict man. But she knew that she was born a witch and that magic ran innately through her. She was forced to not speak of it, though she couldn’t always control it. Even without training or knowing the right words, Rowena could speak things into happening given enough passion.

She was different from most of her siblings, the only other one who was capable of magic was an older brother, Fergus, though he too was made to tamp it down. He died when they were still young. A fever took three more of her siblings in childhood, and her mother was often absent or in her own head after that.

When Rowena was 15 she fell in love with a charming wealthy married man. He promised her that he’d take her away and that they would be together. When she was 16 she found herself unwed and pregnant. Her father threw her out in shame, and though her lover housed her in the village after, he did not visit nearly as often after. She knew later his promises were all lies.

He came to see her only once more, on the eve of their son’s birth. It was a long and hard birth and it was said that she wouldn’t make it. Her lover kissed her on the forehead and told her that he loved her. It was his last kindness. He left her there, dying, penniless, and went back to his wife and other children, expecting her death. Though Rowena managed to make it through, weak as she was, with a healthy son to show for it. She named him after the brother that she had been closest to.

Afterwards, baby Fergus’ father denied ever knowing Rowena at all. She was alone, with a child she couldn’t help but desperately love, cast out of her family for her sin of bearing a child outside of marriage, and labeled a whore by everyone else.

She sought to use her magic, thinking it would be what would save them. But what little she could do only earned her a worse reputation. Rowena was forced to take her baby and leave, she thought elsewhere she might be able to tell people that she had been widowed, but it hardly mattered. She had nothing and no one, and a baby to care for. Life was hard for them. Rowena was often unable to provide even the most basic things for her child. With her reputation she couldn’t find any reputable work. Instead, she sold her body to pay for what meager little she could to keep a roof over their heads. And she learned what she could of magic from wherever she could.

She did her best for her son, taught him what she could, and tried to shield him from what she was. Until he grew to look more and more like his father, the man who had broken her heart.

She could barely look at him, the boy she loved, that only served to remind her of what she hated about her life. She wasn’t a good enough mother, he was the reason she was forced to scrape to get by. She couldn’t help but tell herself those things. And she couldn’t help but tell him in fits of anger.

When he was 8 and devoid of all the pretty baby fat of youth, Rowena was caught and about to be tried for her crimes as a witch. Before that could happen, she left her son in the care of a workhouse, unable to keep him with her. She told herself she would be back, but she had nothing to offer him, and he was a painful thing to look at. The personification of a wound never closed. At a certain point she knew that she had been gone too long and made up every reason she could to justify it.

She found the opportunity to study under the great Milanese witch Leticia D’Albioni, and soon after that she finally joined the ranks of the Grand Coven. The Grand Coven were critical of Rowena having a child with a “non-magic”, but they were willing to overlook this because of the great talent she possessed. However, her immense raw skill and recklessness with extreme witchcraft made them wary of her. This eventually led to her being hexed by the coven with a binding spell that restrained her magic, as well as being banned from performing magic, taking on students, or forming her own coven.

Rowena didn’t stop using her then limited powers when possible, still stronger than many witches, but she did fear the Grand Coven and their worldwide reach for centuries. She stayed off their radar as much as possible, learning where she could, and managing to take care of herself in other ways when necessary. She’d dodge the occasional run in with other witches, demons, hunters, The British Men of Letters.

300 years later, Rowena resurfaced, recently run out of the UK by a member of the British men of Letters. And with a goal in mind, intending to reclaim her lost power and start a coven of her own to do so.

It wasn’t until she learned that her son, who should have long been gone and forgotten, was reborn as the demon Crowley and King of Hell, that she was set on a new vicious path.

She reinserted herself into Fergus’ life. (Refusing to call him by his newer chosen name, though she would never explain to him what the name meant to her.) Rowena attempted to use her son for his position of power to help her with the Grand Coven. Aware of her manipulations, her son assisted anyway and captured the head of the Grand Coven, Olivette, for her. Tortured by Rowena, Olivette revealed the Grand Coven was much-diminished in its power because of a concerted campaign against witches by the Men of Letters. After learning this Rowena sought again to put together her own coven, something far greater than what the Grand Coven was, though she was met with either disinterest or thwarted plans. Still, she remained by her sons side in hopes that his power would be useful to her.

This led to frequently recurring encounters with the Winchester brothers and those that surround them. Sometimes on opposite sides, sometimes as allies.

See here for further detailed information.

☽〇☾  —  POST SEASON 15 EPISODE 3

Rowena expected to die and have her body eventually deteriorate and release the souls that she carried with her, back to hell where they belonged. Instead she found herself dead, but with an incredible amount of power stored within her from the souls that she absorbed. As she arrived in Hell by her own choice, Rowena is able to take control of Hell’s throne through the use of her still in tact magical abilities, and fear.

She is a powerful soul inhabiting her own body, though technically still dead, and has never become a demon.

As ruler, she immediately shut down all demon deals and overhauled hell to work the way that she wanted it to. Her opinion is that humans do plenty of things to put themselves in Hell, no need to assist the process. People will end up where the ought to.

☽〇☾  —  CURRENT

Since her arrival in Lebanon, Kansas, and once again a member of the living, Rowena has returned to reside in the Men of Letters bunker with the Winchester brothers.

[overthinkingkdrama]

Hi! So, I’ve just recently gotten into K-Dramas, and... I have a small issue, and that is though I LOVE them in the beginning, by the end they always disappoint me? Like, they start lighthearted and fun, and then by the end suddenly everyone’s in mortal peril, and I don’t care? Or they start all fantasy, and then it’s all about the romance in the end? So... Could you possibly recommend me ones that are good, or tone consistent, throughout? Please?

Hi! Thanks for dropping by for recs. These are some of my favorite asks. I just love going back through my watch list and finding dramas that fit a given criteria. It gets more fun the more dramas I've seen.

The thing about Kdramas that makes them a uniquely sticky beast is that many of them are live-shot week to week, at least for part of their run, and often the scripts are not fully written before filming begins. Popular Kdramas will also occasionally receive extensions which can cause further pacing and plot issues and (sometimes) cause a story to sputter out entirely. With the increasing prevalence of entirely preproduced dramas there's been an increase in overall drama quality and consistency in past years. That being said, Kdramas are still a decidedly mixed bag in terms of overall production quality. So it pays to either drop things with extreme prejudice if you stop enjoying them and watch widely, or to have a good drama filter friend (like me!) to give you vetted recs. As a genre a lot of the more "classic" feeling dramas have a tendency to start really light hearted and then swing super dramatic in the latter half. That's something I occasionally like, but lucky for you not all dramas are like that!

Your ask doesn't really tell me what genre of Kdrama most appeals to you, so I went through my list and tried to find you wide a variety of dramas that I think of as being well-paced and tonally consistent throughout. I've also tried to limit myself to dramas that I rated highly on MDL, although my primary criteria was "good and tonally consistent" so this list of dramas is kinda all over the map. But then, so are my tastes. Also, I kinda got the impression from your ask that you're not a fan of the uber-melodramatic side of kdramas and you want something a little more restrained and less soapy, so I tried to steer away from those more makjang dramas but did not entirely succeed, lol. I gave a couple sentences of description so you can more readily narrow down what you're interested in, and if you would like a more thorough review of the dramas some of these have full reviews on my blog which I went ahead linked where they exist.

Age of Youth: A well written slice-of-life ensemble drama about a group of 5 college age women who end up boarding together. There are a couple moments of high drama/trauma toward the end of the show that might be a turn off. But other than the finale the tone is consistent. 9/10 

Arang and the Magistrate: A dark fantasy fusion sageuk with a romance. I included this drama because it does a good job of developing the creepy worldbuilding and fantasy throughout. Though at points it can be a bit slow and the special effects are hella cheesy. 8/10

Argon: A tight, journalism driven suspense drama. Not always my genre but I found it very engaging, and at eight episodes it does not overstay its welcome. 8/10

Be Melodramatic: Another female-centric slice-of-life ensemble drama, though with an emphasis on fourth wall breaking comedy and clever dialogue. Very funny and heartfelt.  8.5/10

Cheese in the Trap: Maybe a controversial inclusion, but I very much enjoyed this drama. A slice-of-life college romance with psychological thriller elements. Some critics felt that the drama focused too heavily on the second male lead in the later half of the story, but YMMV. 8.5/10

Coffee Prince: Classic cross-dressing romance and still probably the best of its kind. A wonderfully nuanced and progressive handling of the subject matter, even after 13 years. Deals with serious subjects but doesn't go too melo with it. 8.5/10

Children of Nobody: My best of 2019, a dark psychological thriller about a child psychiatrist and a police detective who have to confront gray morality while attempting to track down a serial killer who only targets unrepentant child abusers. 9.5/10

Ex-Girlfriend Club: On the lighter side, a friends-to-lovers type romantic comedy about the writer of an autobiographical webtoon who has to figure out a way to get along with a group of his ex-girlfriends to make a movie based on his work. Only 12 episodes. 8.5/10

Go Back Couple: Also only 12 episodes (these shorter dramas tend to be better paced I find) a time-slip drama about a divorced couple who get the chance to relive their twenties and end up realizing they still have feelings for each other. This drama is both very funny and it had me bawling on multiple occasions. 9.5/10

Healer: A favorite of a lot of drama fans, this is an action-focused romance about an awkward soft boy with a secret identity as a highly skilled errand boy to criminals and an intrepid tabloid reporter who is his biggest fan. This drama is pretty tropey, but it's fun and the romance is great. 8.5/10

Hello Monster (aka I Remember You): A police procedural with a background love line about a criminal profiler looking for his lost brother and a detective looking for her father's murderer. One of my personal favorites. 10/10

Hit the Top (aka The Best Hit): A time-slip fish-out-of-water comedy about a 90s pop star who winds up in modern day Seoul and ends up befriending his biological son and meets old friends who his disappearance left in the lurch. 9/10

Incomplete Life (aka Misaeng): A realistic office drama that gave me real world work anxiety, focusing on a failed Go player who winds up an intern at a highly competitive shipping company and has to find a way to earn his keep even without the background and college education of his coworkers. Unbelievably well done ensemble drama. 9/10

Just Between Lovers: A romantic melodrama about two people whose lives were irrevocably changed by a tragic mall collapse that nearly killed them as children, meeting again as adults and finding comfort and healing in each other. A rough sit at times, but a wonderful love story with incredible acting. 9/10

Just Dance: High school, slice-of-life, drama about a dance club in a technical high school and a group of working class kids who reluctantly become involved in this club and befriend each other. Only 8 episodes (or 16 thirty minute episodes, depending on how you recon it.) 8.5/10

Life on Mars: Remake of the British show of the same name, this is a surreal time-slip police drama, about a forensics expert who gets shot in the head and wakes up in 1988. Or does he? He could also be dying on an operating table. It's hard to tell. Dark, suspenseful and trippy. 9/10

Matrimonial Chaos: An off-beat comedy about two dysfunctional couples who become inescapably mixed up in each others lives. One that's having a hard time getting divorced and another that's having a hard time getting married, and all the messy weird emotions that go along with that. This is another one of those, makes you laugh/makes you cry throughout dramas I have an affinity for. 9/10

Moment of Eighteen: A heartfelt high school drama about a straightforward but awkward loner who is forced to transfer to a new school, immediately earns the ire of a powerful student and experiences first love. Not my usual thing, but very well written with complex and likeable characters. 8/10

Mother: A cold and socially isolated woman becomes a temporary teacher and upon discovering one of her students is being severely abused and neglected, decides to pose as the child's mother and go on the run with her. Like Children of Nobody, this can be a bit of a rough watch because of the subject matter but it is very well done. 9.5/10

My Mister: A healing, human drama about a structural engineer in his 40s and a debt-ridden young woman in her 20s who end up crossing paths and saving each other from a miserable existence. My current all time favorite drama. Cannot say enough good things about it. Practically perfect in every way. 10/10

One Spring Night: A very restrained and naturalistic slow-burn romance about a woman who is about to get married and suddenly begins to question her relationship and a single father who had given up on love who find themselves irresistibly drawn to one another. 9/10

Prison Playbook: An ensemble slice-of-life drama centered on prisoners and correctional officers in their day to day lives. I find the actual het romances in this drama totally useless, but it's a large and talented cast playing a variety of lovable characters. 8/10

Psychopath Diary: Recent fave. A screwball black comedy about a mild mannered pushover who loses his memory and finds a diary that convinces him he's a psychopathic murderer, which gives him a huge boost of confidence from his new found identity, much to the chagrin of those around him and the actual owner of the diary himself. 8.5/10

Queen In Hyun's Man: A drama about a Joseon scholar who time travels to modern day Seoul and meets an actress who just landed a part playing the queen he served in the past. This one might be on the border line of too dramatic or tonally inconsistent, but it's got one of the most pitch perfect finales in Kdramas and the 45 min episodes keep it a snappy watch that doesn't drag or meander too much. 8/10

Reply 1988: A late 80s nostalgia drama about a group of families who all live off the same alley. Lovely family drama, comedy with a variety of romances. Long ass episodes especially later in the run, but I have rewatched the whole thing and I loved every minute of this show. 9.5/10

Save Me: A dark drama about a young woman who finds herself forced into a dangerous cult by her family, and is desperate to escape, and a group of 4 local young men who try to help her. One of the more unique and well done OCN thrillers. 9/10

School 2013: High school ensemble drama that launched a whole bunch of careers. In general I avoid school dramas (I know there have been three on this list so far, but those are like the only three, lol) but this show got me so invested in all these students and teachers. Also the two male leads are so shippable. 9.5/10

Secret Love Affair: A romantic melodrama about a piano prodigy from an underprivileged background who catches the eye of a married older woman and the two fall into a passionate affair. This drama involves cheating (obviously) but it's beautifully filmed and written and the music is to die for. 9.5/10

Signal: This is a supernatural crime thriller and a perennial favorite in the Kdrama community. An imbittered criminal profiler finds an antique police radio which allows him to speak with a police detective 15 years in the past, and uses this to crack cold cases and try to prevent brutal crimes from ever happening. 9/10

Six Flying Dragons: This one is a bit different from the others on the list, first of all because it's a more traditional historical drama, and secondly because it 50 episodes long. But it is so, so very good. And if you're looking for overall consistency in terms of storytelling and tone this drama has it in spades. 9/10

SKY Castle: A unique melodrama about a group of affluent competitive mothers who will go to any lengths to get they're children into the best medical schools, and a mysterious school coordinator with shady motives who gets brought in as a ringer to give them an edge. This show is kind of hard to sell but very entertaining and watchable. 7.5/10

Stranger (aka Secret Forest): The story of a stalwart prosecutor who, due to a childhood trauma is unable to feel the full spectrum of emotions, works with a bighearted police detective to root out corruption around a series of murders. This one’s rather cerebral and requires your full attention but the leads are amazing and there's a second season coming out this year I'm very much looking forward to! 9/10

The Nokdu Flower: Another sageuk drama about the latter years of the Joseon Dynasty surrounding three people who fall on different sides during the Donghak Peasant rebellion. Incredibly well written and involving historical drama. If you're not sure you're ready to commit to something like Six Flying Dragons, I think this would be another good entry point into the genre. The acting is amazing. 9/10

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes: A romantic melodrama and psychological thriller about a dangerous enigmatic young man on the cusp of becoming either a human being or a monster. He becomes involved in a fraught relationship with the sister of a police detective at the same time her protective older brother begins to focus on him as the prime suspect for a murder. High key moody and tragic if you're into that kind of thing (I am). 9/10

Touch Your Heart: On the complete other end of the drama spectrum, this show is pure unadulterated fluff, which managed to keep me giggling and swooning throughout the run, even though it's typically not my thing. An actress joins a law office as research for a role and falls for the ace attorney she's assisting. 8.5/10

WATCHER: Another OCN thriller about three different people with shady motivations who are connected to the same murder case and become involve in a corruption task force looking into dirty cops. One of those "trust nobody, everyone's a suspect" dramas with lovely complex characters and a fully engaging plot. 8.5/10

Sorry that got so out of hand! This is what happens when you don't give me a little more direction I guess. These are all dramas I quite enjoyed and I believe you will find something in there that will suit your fancy. This is a pretty accurate cross section of my tastes.

Happy watching!

Jona

[scotianostra]

On June 7th 1812 James Young Simpson was born in Bathgate  the seventh son of a baker.

At the age of 4, James went to the local school where he excelled. The family pulled their belts in, in order to send him to college. In 1825 at the age of 14 he studied arts at Edinburgh University, transferring to medicine two years later. He qualified at the age of 18 but until he could take up his degree at the age of 20, he worked as assistant to the professor of pathology. Already he had determined to become an obstetrician even though the specialty was still regarded with disfavour by the profession. 

Settling in Stockbridge, he built up a large practice and obtained a position in the Leith Lying-in Hospital. From his writings and lectures on the subject, his exceptional ability was soon recognised. At the age of 24, he was elected president of the Royal Medical Society of Edinburgh.

By now the University of Edinburgh medical faculty had become one of the finest in the world. The chair of midwifery, founded in 1726, was the first of its kind in the British Isles. The incumbent, Professor James Hamilton, was due to retire in 1839, and Simpson set his mind on succeeding him. Finally it was a choice between him and Evory Kennedy of Dublin. Simpson won by a single vote. Over the next 30 years he made Edinburgh the foremost centre in the field. 

Simpson had a magnetic personality that appealed to all he met. Kindly, gentle, religious, and sympathetic, he inspired the confidence and love of his patients. All his life he worked extremely hard but always found time to attend the poor. He was an excellent host, gathering about him people from all walks of life. Exceptionally well read, he had wide interests. With an alert intellect, he was a brilliant conversationalist who enjoyed controversy. When in argument he was right, he was irresistible, and when wrong, formidable. Not only was he an acute observer and experimenter but also gifted with insight and vision. For example, in his graduation address he foretold the use of x rays and other methods of body imaging, saying: “Possibly by the concentration of electrical and other lights we may render many parts of the body, if not the whole body, sufficiently diaphanous for the practiced eye of the physician and surgeon”. 

Simpson started to use ether on January 19, 1847 but didn't like the smell and was determined to find a better alternative.  On the weeks running up to the evening of November 4, 1847, they had tested several anaesthetics  running a series of experiments trying to find inhaled painkillers that would be less smelly and flammable than ether and have fewer side effects. It was an unusual twist on the standard gentleman’s routine of after-dinner drinks, Simpson and his assistants, George Keith and Matthew Duncan finally got round to testing chloroform on the advice of Dr Waldie of Liverpool. It had been used before but not on a regular basis, the three men were poured a quantity into a glass and they each raised their glasses to their noses, and breathed in deeply. A sweet smell filled the air, and the younger physicians became lively and talkative.

“This is far better and stronger than ether,” Simpson thought. The next he knew, he was looking up at the ceiling, with noise and confusion all around. Duncan had collapsed under a chair, snoring loudly, and Keith lay on his back under the table, kicking it violently despite his unconsciousness. After gradually waking up and struggling back into their seats, the doctors were eager to experiment again—though more cautiously this time. Other family members watched these remarkable events. After inhaling the chloroform herself, Simpson’s niece-in-law called out, “I’m an angel! Oh, I’m an angel!” before folding her arms and falling asleep at the table. The group continued to sniff the chloroform until it all evaporated.

The experiment was a grand success, and Simpson and his colleagues lost no time in having large supplies of chloroform manufactured to use on their patients. Its use spread rapidly, as it was easy to obtain and administer and less harsh in its effects than ether. Simpson wrote extensively in defense of the substance, countering doctors and clergymen who argued that pain was necessary for the body and ordained by the Bible. He delivered one of his pithiest ripostes in an 1848 exchange with “an Irish lady.” She chastised him by saying “how unnatural it is for you doctors in Edinburgh to take away the pains of your patients when in labour.” He responded, “How unnatural … is it for you to have swam over from Ireland to Scotland against wind and tide in a steamboat.” For Simpson and his supporters relieving pain was as great an innovation as steam power. Both inventions seemed to prove 19th-century ideas about boundless technological progress and the perfectibility of humankind.

Nevertheless, objections to anesthesia—especially when used for women in labor—continued. Soon, however, chloroform received an unexpected supporter. Queen Victoria and her consort Prince Albert requested the compound for the birth of their eighth child, Prince Leopold, in 1853. John Snow administered the drug, using a few drops on a simple handkerchief rather than the inhalers and masks then on the market. The queen, who remained conscious throughout the procedure, recorded in her journal that the effect was “soothing, quieting, delightful beyond measure.” She received the drug again in 1857 for the birth of Princess Beatrice, her ninth and last child. When her oldest daughter Princess Victoria had her own first child in 1859, the queen rejoiced, “What a blessing she had chloroform.”

Pics are of Simpson, his statue at the West End of Princes Street and that famous occasion on testing chloroform.

[sheikah]

No one has to like Daenerys, (I do for the record), but how in the world can someone say with a straight face that she is a fascist??? Way to throw around a term with zero understanding. Also, why is she being bashed for wanting the kingdoms, yet other characters are being praised or encouraged to break off and form their own kingdoms?

I think that a lot of people have a kind of warped understanding of what the Seven Kingdoms really mean, and see the entire Targaryen dynasty as some sort of negative allegory for the worst aspects of an absolute monarchy. But that simply isn’t the case. 

Aegon I’s conquest was, indeed, a violent one. And the following Dornish wars and wars with the Iron Islands were bloody. Despite that, Aegon himself was not in his time widely viewed as some sort of bloody tyrant or dictator, and there was some reasoning to his goal of uniting Westeros that goes beyond a simple, selfish desire for power. 

Aegon was actually approached first by the Storm King Argilac Durrandon. He proposed an alliance based on a marriage between Aegon and Durrandon’s daughter, Argella. A huge piece of land from around the Trident to Blackwater Rush would be given to Aegon as Argella’s dowry. Argilac was not actually the lord of this land in the first place, but he made the offer in the interest of creating a manned border between his own lands and Harren Hoare’s–essentially trying to buy a shield in the form of the Targaryens. 

However, Aegon was faithful to his two sister-wives, Rhaenys and Visenya, and responded that he had no desire for a third wife. Instead, he offered his friend, Orys Baratheon, as an alternative for the alliance. But it was rumored that Orys was Aegon’s bastard half-brother, so Argilac was angry and took the offer as a personal slight. He responded by chopping off the hands of Aegon’s envoy and delivering them to Dragonstone. How barbaric!

The painted table at Dragonstone did not yet include strict borders between the Seven Kingdoms but Aegon knew that they were un-united and–based on encounters like this one with Argilac–ungoverned. He called together his council, and after many days of deliberation they settled on the conquest of Westeros. 

So Aegon was born on Dragonstone and only came to the decision to conquer the rest of Westeros after provocation and discussion. 

His actual reign, as stated above, had its problems; but there were also many years of peace. He established his capitol at King’s Landing, and at that time it was so peaceful that for awhile there were not even walls around it. He wasn’t worried about being attacked. 

Every year as king, Aegon made a progress around Westeros observing his country and making sure that everything was proceeding peacefully and efficiently. For him to personally oversee his kingdom this way is, as you probably know, a much more engaged and accountable ruling style than we’ve seen from kings like Robert Baratheon. 

Aegon was also careful to respect the Faith of the Seven and was crowned by a septon. 

All in all, I think there is a very exaggerated view of Aegon’s conquest and subsequent rule in the fandom that contributes to a lot of anti-Dany discourse. But, again, in reality his conquest and rule were not so bad.

I personally think it is meant to parallel the real-world Norman conquest that solidified the union of the warring Anglo Saxon, Celtic, and Viking people in Britain in the 10th century. Sometime in the early 900s AD, Alfred the Great established an infrastructure and influence throughout the warring kingdoms that lead to unification under his grandson, Eadred in 955 AD. So when William the Conqueror landed in 1066 the groundwork was already in place for him to rule, and while conquest in still conquest, this unification (even under a monarch instead of a democracy) was still a good thing in the interest of peace and shared resources. Because after the fall of the Roman Empire there, there was a lack of order and a series of violent conflicts that ended with unification.

So, similarly, Aegon’s Conquest can be viewed positively for its unification of the warring and sometimes lawless state of Westeros prior to his reign. 

After Aegon’s death, of course, not all ensuing rulers were good. In particular Maegor the Cruel comes to mind as a failure. But there were also good kings, most notably Jaehaerys I, also called “the Wise” and well-loved by his people. Taken from AWOIAF Wiki: 

“Jaehaerys was the longest-ruling Targaryen monarch, having ruled for fifty-five years. Because of this, he is referred to as the ‘Old King.’ His reign is remembered as the most prosperous period in the history of the Targaryen monarchy. His reign brought peace, stability, and justice to the Seven Kingdoms. Jaehaerys is possibly the best king that Westeros ever saw, and is regarded as such by many historians and laymen.”

So I don’t think that there is much basis for these arguments in the fandom for the independence of various kingdoms, or that the Targaryens were universally horrible or exploitative tyrants. On the contrary, having a unified kingdom has been a good thing when done right. 

So, how can it be done right?

Well, I think that Dany represents that in her eagerness to “Break the Wheel,” and her willingness to allow individual kingdoms conditional independence. 

We know that Dany was willing to let Yara Greyjoy rule the Iron Islands as its queen, and that Dany told Tyrion that other kingdoms could have their independence, too, so long as they “asked” like Yara did. The implication is that so long as these kingdoms agree to abide by Dany’s laws (no more “raping and reaving,” no slavery, etc) and to be her ally in any potential conflicts, they can be independent for all intents and purposes. But there is still a loose union happening, which is good. This allows the kingdoms autonomy while still sharing resources and protection with one another. 

If the North were to break away from the Seven Kingdoms as an independent kingdom, yes–they would be alright for awhile. They have the most land and the most people of any of the individual kingdoms. But in Winter, I have to wonder how well they could get along with no alliances. We know that The Reach produces most of the food. Presumably there are Winter crops to sustain the North, but is that really enough for the Northern population? Or, considering that the Northern population took a hit in the War of the Five Kings, is there enough manpower to farm enough crops to feed the entire kingdom through a whole Winter? And what about issues like the White Walkers? The Northerners absolutely cannot face that threat without the help of others. So I think it’s clear that independence is not all it’s cracked up to be by some arguments I’ve seen here. 

So, back to Dany. I do think that there have been points in Dany’s arc where her motives could be viewed as questionable to the audience (speaking mostly about show!Dany here). But we can see that has all been resolved now. Dany was tempted by extreme violence and the possibility of attacking and taking King’s Landing by force. We were told more than once in season 7 that Dany could have easily succeeded in doing this. Instead, she chose a better way. Additionally, while Dany started the season adamant on obtaining fealty from Jon with the assurance of keeping the North under her rule in the future, she ended the season with only the will to “save” the Northerners, only the will to fight alongside Jon as an ally, not to dominate the North or strip Jon of his power. 

She explicitly stated in her small council meeting back at Dragonstone in 7.07 that she was not going to conquer the North, she was going to save it. I think this is setting things up for Dany to allow Sansa to rule the North as Queen in the North, just like Yara wanted to do with the Iron Islands, down the line. 

So this places Dany as a happy medium between the disorganized chaos of several independent nations vying for power over one another, and the stricter rule of Aegon I. 

Again, we can turn to historical precedence to confirm this. Dany sails to Westeros from Essos, an exiled royal seeking to take back the throne she feels is her birthright. In the process of doing so, she has helped to halt hostilities between two long-warring families: the Starks and the Lannisters. 

We know that the Starks and the Lannisters represent the Yorks and the Lancasters from the Wars of the Roses in British history and that those wars were ended when Henry Tudor (a royal with a claim to the English throne) traveled to England and married Elizabeth of York, establishing the Tudor dynasty.

So Dany can be seen as a representation of Henry who will marry a Stark/York (Jon), unifying warring houses (the Targaryens, Starks, and Lannisters) and establishing a lasting dynasty. 

The Tudor dynasty was by no means perfect and peaceful. But under Henry Tudor’s son, Henry VIII, the Laws in Wales Act was passed in 1535 that began the process of establishing what is now the United Kingdom. 

For all these reasons, we can conclude that Dany is not a fascist but actually a unifying ruler who will represent a positive shift for Westeros. She has Essos under her power as well, where she abolished slavery and established a tenuous peace. If she is able to rally the whole of Westeros under her banners, there will be something close to world peace on Planetos. Additionally, we know that she will allow autonomous rulers in individual kingdoms, and respect kingdom borders, so long as they abide by her reasonable rules. In doing this, she will be creating a sort of United Kingdom of her own. And all of that will be made possible with a Stark alliance, thereby bolstering the political value of Jonerys as a ship, too.

Anyway, the antis have been saying this sort of stuff about Dany for years now, always insisting that with the next book or season, she’s going to become some evil tyrant and commit some genocide. But she never does, and she never will. We’ve got precedent and context to prove that. (And all of this without even scratching the surface of Dany’s character/behavior and interest in equality and personal freedom.)

[rockrevoltmagazine]

MASON HILL Release Official Music Video for "D.N.A."

First Rock Act to Debut Album in UK Top 20 since GRETA VAN FLEET in 2018 & and the first British rock act debut album Top 20 and #1 UK rock chart since Royal Blood in 2014!!

Glasgow, UK based Rock band MASON HILL has released the official music video for their blistering metal single, “D.N.A.” Directed and produced by David Barras and Scott McKay for Strangeboat Productions, “D.N.A.” is the third single off the band’s chart dominating debut album, Against The Wall.

“D.N.A.” is also dominating German and French charts, sitting comfortably on Rock Antenne FM’s‘ top 20 and hitting top 10 in the Heavy 1 French radio chart.

“A blistering and hook filled bit of gleaming modern metal, it manages to perfectly mesh heaviness with melody that shows a maturity way beyond most of their peers.

With a superb production, this just doesn’t pop out of the speakers, it practically roars, the Highland passion in full flow and Celtic fire blazing.” – Metal Planet Magazine

Released on March 5th, Against The Wall achieved the UK national album chart at number 19, taking a coveted top 20 album position, and reached over 750,000 streams on Spotify. The long awaited album, which received critical acclaim from both media and fans alike, also hit number 1 in the UK rock album chart. It is the first time a rock band has debuted with their album in the UK Top 20 since Greta Van Fleet in 2018 and also the first time a British rock act as debuted with their album in the UK Top 20 and # 1 in the UK rock album chart since Royal Blood and Lonely The Brave back in 2014!

It is an incredible achievement for new British rock band, starting from an almost zero sales base and during a pandemic when there has been no traditional retail, no live shows or touring opportunities. The innovative marketing campaign run by both 7Hz Productions (ADA) and the band involved a six month fan building initiative utilizing the band’s social platforms, streaming performances, virtual ‘in store’ launch events, dark ad audience building and strategic media take over promotions. Coupled with very positive press reviews, online reviews, regional radio support, and four Planet Rock playlist additions, the band’s new album has connected musically with rock fans resulting in a surge of sales.

The band is set to release their next digital single, a cover of the 2005 Foo Fighters hit “The Best Of You,” all platforms on April 23, 2021.

Against the Wall Track Last: 1. Reborn 2. No Regret 3. Against the Wall 4. Broken Son 5. D.N.A. 6. Who We Are 7. Find My Way 8. Hold On 9. Out Of Reach 10. We Pray 11. Where I Belong 12. Reborn (Reprise)

Purchase / Stream Against the Wall Online: iTunes | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube

  Click HERE to Order ‘Against the Wall’ Vinyl (Red & Blue Vinyl Sold Out)!

MASON HILL has also announced UK tour dates. The 17 date UK & Irish tour will head out in early September with support from Hollowstar and Empyre. Despite never having headlined a club tour before, the band has sold 1,800 tour tickets in just 2 weeks!

“Our fans have been so supportive and to have a top 20 national album on our first release is mind blowing. We are extremely humbled at the reception Against The Wall has received and needless to say, it has been an extremely bright light for us during this long Covid tunnel. It has made us even more hungry to get back out and play live again. Everyone is itching to crank up the volume and blast out the new material” – (Scott Taylor – Vocals)

Tour Dates: 09/02 @ Tunnels – Aberdeen, Scotland 09/03 @ Garage – Glasgow, Scotland 09/04 @ Macarts – Galashiels, Scotland 09/09 @ Grand Social – Dublin, Ireland 09/10 @ Voodoo – Belfast, Ireland 09/14 @ Junction 2 – Cambridge, England 09/15 @ Corporation – Sheffield, England 09/16 @ Fleece – Bristol, England 09/17 @ Patterns – Brighton, England 09/18 @ Leos – Gravesend, England (Sold Out) 09/20 @ Globe – Cardiff, Wales 09/21 @ Joiners – Southampton, England 09/22 @ Nightrain – Bradford, England 09/23 @ Waterloo Music Bar – Blackpool 09/24 @ Underworld – London, England 09/25 @ Rebellion – Manchester, England 09/26 @ KK’s Steel Mill – Wolverhampton, England

Click HERE for Additional Dates & Ticketing Information.

To trace the Mason Hill story to its origin, Scott Taylor and James Bird met at school in Glasgow. At the age of 14, Bird was already an accomplished, award-winning, gifted guitar prodigy, who’d shared a stage with Ozzy Osbourne/Black Label Society man Zakk Wylde, a personal hero, toured across the UK, and secured endorsements from leading music brands. The teenage Taylor already harboured dreams of fronting a rock ’n’ roll band, and the pair’s friendship and shared aspirations led them to form a band. In 2013 the pair formed Mason Hill, adding drummer Craig McFetridge, bassist Matthew Ward, and guitarist Marc Montgomery in due course. Five diverse, colourful characters, the members of the group were instantly bonded by a shared, singular vision for their band: Taylor relinquished long-held plans to become an Olympic swimmer in order to focus on music, while Ward withdrew from a degree course at the University of Glasgow, where he’d been studying microbiology/virology. For these ambitious young men, Mason Hill was and is priority number one.

Mason Hill are Scott Taylor (Lead Vocals), James Bird (Lead Guitar), Marc Montgomery (Guitar), Matthew Ward (Bass) and Craig McFetridge (Drums)

THE STORY SO FAR Mason Hill has spent their formative years “learning their craft” on stages up and down the UK. This included high profile shows supporting the likes of Graham Bonnet (Rainbow), Snakecharmer (feat. ex-Whitesnake, Thunder & Wishbone Ash members), Toseland, Marco Mendoza (Whitesnake, Thin Lizzy, Ted Nugent, The Dead Daisies) and Stone Broken.

“this is the best new heavy rock act currently performing in the UK.” (Fabrications HQ)

“a prodigious talent that belies their fledgling years.” (Planet Rock)

In December 2015 the band released their debut E.P, the self titled Mason Hill, featuring four tracks which highlighted exactly why this band are turning heads – outstanding songs that demonstrated a maturity far beyond their years. Recorded at The Foundry Music Lab with Sandy Jones (Wet Wet Wet) in the producer’s chair, the EP has been critically acclaimed amongst the music press and fans alike.

2016 brought several breakthroughs in the band’s career, firstly the invitation to perform on The Rising Stage at Ramblin’ Man Fair, headlined by Whitesnake and Black Stone Cherry, winning the UK wide Highway To Hell battle of the bands competition that earned them opening the main stage slot at Hard Rock Hell, alongside the likes of Ugly Kid Joe, Ratt, and Glenn Hughes, appearing at Winterstorm Festival, alongside the likes of Ricky Warwick, Last in Line (ex-Dio) and Inglorious to selling out their first ever headline show at the famous Cathouse Rock Club in Glasgow with one month left to spare – a feat only achieved in recent times by Anthrax and Black Stone Cherry.

The career progression continued into early 2017 when the band was special guest to Inglorious in London at their sold out second album launch show, appeared triumphantly at Download on The Boardie Takeover Stage, opened for Airbourne at their sold out show in Edinburgh. and returned to their hometown for their second headline show at G2; again this sold out with demand so great that it was upgraded to the 750 capacity The Garage where the likes of Magnum, Tesla, and Symphony X have performed – packing the place to the rafters

The first promo video “’Now You See Me” was released in 2017, which to date has more than a quarter of a million views.

The year ended with support for GUN at Glasgow Barrowlands in December plus an appearance at Planet Rockstock:

“Fresh-faced Glasgow boys Mason Hill were nothing short of a triumph. Completely packing out the room, they served up a rock and roll storm from the offset with anthems like ‘Now You See Me’ before showing off another side of their art with powerful closer ‘Where I Belong’ that delved into rock ballad territory. In fact, the Planet Rockstock faithful were so won over we’ve been inundated with requests for Mason Hill to be bumped up the bill in 2018” (Planet Rock)

The band spent a lot of time developing material for their album and the first show of 2018 was at Glasgow’s King Tuts which sold out in three days, ten weeks in advance of show!

Ladies and gentlemen – Mason Hill are back with fire in their belly. This group of high achievers carry the pressure of early success but as they take to the stage to the intro tape, it is obvious they have class and confidence…” (Down The Front Media)

“There are few up and coming acts in Scotland that have made a notable impression as swiftly as Glasgow rockers Mason Hill. They have grown in popularity and garnered an insane following like nothing else” (SMS, Scotland)

“Mason Hill never disappoint, in fact they always take it to the next level every time you see them” (Jace Media)

This was followed by an appearance at TRNSMT on the same day as Queen, and Steelhouse Festival in Wales alongside such as Black Star Riders, Glenn Hughes and, Myles Kennedy.

The latter part of 2018 saw Mason Hill going out on tour supporting The Dan Reed Network at shows across the UK and a return to Planet Rockstock, by popular demand after their performance in 2017, this time on the main stage.

In a further development Mason Hill agreed to part ways with Frontiers Records.

A further sold out King Tuts show followed in 2019 and a sub headline slot at Planet Rock’s Winters End in February 2020. Since then live activity has been curtailed by the covid 19 pandemic, in common with every other band. However the band has not been idle and the focus has been on the debut album, recorded at Riverside Studios near Glasgow and vocals in New York, and mixed by Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro).

In 2020 the band signed a management contract with Jaba Music and a record deal with 7Hz Productions, and the album release date is planned for 5 March 2021. Three singles have so far been released to date from the album to critical acclaim.

2021 promises to be a big year for Mason Hill, despite on going restrictions.

Mason Hill are just getting started!

Connect with MASON HILL: Official Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

MASON HILL Release Official Music Video for “D.N.A.” was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

[sussex-nature-lover]

Wednesday 17th February 2021

A Discussion Involving Darwin and Flowers

Charles Darwin  1809 -1882

Author  "On the Origin of Species" 1859

It can be said that no one person has influenced our knowledge of life on Earth as much as the English naturalist Charles Darwin. His theory of evolution by natural selection, explained his beliefs of where all of the astonishingly diverse kinds of living things came from and importantly, how they became adapted to the demands of their particular environments. Not only did his controversial work revolutionise what we know about the Earth and its inhabitants, but his writing still provokes debate today.  

Occasionally the local news here will feature something about Darwin’s home, The Darwin House in Orpington near Bromley. Bromley is classed as Kent by the way, but is located only 13.3 miles from Charing Cross which is the landmark from which all distances To and From London are calculated.

The Evolution of Down House

and so, from such TV snippets I developed a little bit more of an interest in the man and his family, his everyday life and his thought processes, rather than just stopping at the theory of his published works. The way his home evolved seems like a kind of metaphor for his theories of how life evolves.

Our Snowdrops have survived the snow. These and the wild Cyclamen are the only flowers we can see right now

Recently I’d stumbled across an article and found it interesting to ponder on... lockdown does this kind of thing to you. It examined Darwin's so-called 'abominable mystery'  - not quite the chicken and egg debate, but another ‘who can say?’ Apparently not only was the famous naturalist always seeking for answers but his later years are described as ‘haunted’ by the question of how the first flowering plants evolved.

Darwin coined the phrase ‘Abominable Mystery’ in 1879. He wrote to a close friend, Dr Joseph Hooker, who was an explorer and also a botanist "The rapid development as far as we can judge of all the higher plants within recent geological times is an abominable mystery."

The mystery centres on the rise of the flowering plants (angiosperms) the family of plants that produce flowers and bear their seeds in fruits. They make up the vast majority of all known living plants, from Oak trees to wildflowers and water lilies.

Flowering plants appeared on Earth relatively recently (on a geological timescale at least) and swiftly diversified in an explosion of colour, shape and form.

The ‘Cottage Garden’ at Sissinghurst with its riot of orange, red and citrus tones (see below)

"In the fossil record they appear very suddenly in the Cretaceous, dated at about 100 million years ago, and there's nothing that looks like an angiosperm before them and then they suddenly appear and in considerable diversity," says Richard Buggs, Professor of Evolutionary Genomics at Queen Mary College of London. As a side note, what a name!

Questions raised by the sudden appearance of flowering plants are at the heart of Darwin's abominable mystery, he explains.

"Why isn't there a gradual evolution of the angiosperms? Why can't we see intermediate forms between the gymnosperms - things like conifers - and the flowering plants? And why, when they appear, are they already so diverse?"

Darwin was deeply troubled by how flowering plants conquered the world seemingly in the blink of an eye, while other large groups, such as the mammals, evolved gradually.

The advent of flowering plants suggested evolution could be both rapid and abrupt, which is in direct contradiction to an essential element of natural selection

natura non facit saltus - nature makes no leap   

Although that, I suppose, with the current theories as to how the novel Coronavirus is meant to have leapt species, is an arguable point. If you want to explore the idea there’s a link at the end of this blog.

Darwin toyed with the idea that flowering plants might have evolved on an as yet undiscovered island or continent. Only months before he died, he wrote to his friend, Hooker "Nothing is more extraordinary in the history of the Vegetable Kingdom, as it seems to me, than the apparently very sudden or abrupt development of the higher plants. I have sometimes speculated whether there did not exist somewhere during long ages an extremely isolated continent perhaps near the South Pole." That seems such a quaint idea today.

In the library at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Professor Buggs came across a re-print of a lecture from 1876 by the Scottish botanist William Carruthers that gives new context to Darwin's thinking.

William Carruthers rose to become Keeper of Botany at the British Museum, and "a towering figure at the time in paleobotany". In a lecture to the Geologists Association in the library of University College London, Carruthers highlighted the problems that Darwin had with the fossil record, focussing on the sudden appearance of flowering plants. His comments were reported in The Times and the scientific press, sparking a public debate.

"Carruthers was using the abominable mystery to launch an attack on evolution itself," says Prof Buggs. "He thought that God had created the angiosperms in the Cretaceous; they hadn't evolved.

"To Darwin and his friends, this was anathema, basically, because he [Carruthers] was trying to bring supernatural explanations into the fossil record."

But Darwin had a problem. The points Carruthers was making about the fossil record were actually very difficult to explain in terms of evolution, says Professor Buggs. He thinks this is what prompted Darwin to coin the phrase "an abominable mystery" and that it tormented him to the end of his days.

So -  is the mystery solved?

In short, no. "One hundred and forty years later, the mystery's still unsolved," says Professor Buggs. "Of course, we've made lots of progress in our understanding of evolution and in our knowledge of the fossil record, but this mystery is still there."

“ We often think that the history of science is a tale of inexorable progress, where mysteries get smaller and smaller. Darwin’s abominable mystery is a reminder that sometimes the mysteries get bigger “

The Wonder of Flowers

Sissinghurst Castle Gardens’ world famous White Garden

One of my most favourite things - something I really covet, is the central urn in the White Garden.

Each time we visit the planting has changed and there are different surrounding pots. I never leave without having waited patiently to get a clear shot of it without other visitors crowded around. One day I want a garden feature just like this...one day.

True fact - one of our funniest overheard remarks occurred at Sissinghurst. A lady whose voice carried rather well, asked her friend ‘IS THIS THE WHITE GARDEN?’...

Fair question? Hhhhm, we were in the middle of the Cottage Garden (see above and far above) at the time...😂

NB: since that video was taken, the second garden ‘room’ at Sissinghurst has been totally stripped and redeveloped into ‘Delos’ 

Before

After

View of Delos showing the Tower

I’ve got to be honest, it doesn’t appeal to me at all, I much preferred it before.

Further reading Garden Ideas to Replicate from Sissinghurst 

I have this bookmarked and like I said...one day!

So anyway, that’s the enduring abominable mystery, how did we get from something like this - well, approximately like this, I’m using photographs to hand rather than aiming for biological accuracy

Succulents in Sissinghurst Herb Garden

to something like these?

We have no answer as yet, but what a joy that it happened. In my mind, from now on,  I shall be thinking of flowers as Darwin’s ‘Miracle’

What Did I Learn Today?

Loads, obviously, but also that Charles Darwin was born on the same day as Abraham Lincoln

And if that’s whetted your appetite and you want to read about ‘Why Darwin Was (could’ve been) Wrong’ take a look at this fascinating article about sideways evolution which is very topical today.

LINK

[youandmebeingsadistrouble]

Sheila Na Gig

For the last few months I have been researching witches, pagan rituals, traditions and Celtic history. I first came across the Sheila na Gig statues when researching women’s rights before and after British rule over Ireland.

In Celtic Ireland women enjoyed legal rights, rights that would been seen as being very progressive even in some of today’s societies. Women kept their own property in marriage and a wife could divorce her husband for fourteen different reasons. British conquest brought to an end Ireland’s independent legal system and removed most of Irish women’s traditional rights. It also brought sexual prudity, which hadn’t previously been part of Irish culture.  

In Celtic tradition there are many stories of strong warrior women, equal to men, if not stronger. There is Queen Maeve who led her army to victory, in one battle drowning an army in urine and menstrual blood. The narrative of this story has changed over the years, having been influenced by patriarchal readings of what happened, but compared to the stigma in today’s society around women and menstruation, this story is quite a powerful display of womanhood; menstruation shown as being powerful, a superpower nearly, instead of a weakness or something to be ashamed of. Irish women would fight in every rebellion as equals to men. It is easy to be unaware of this history and these legends in modern Ireland and can easily be hard to imagine when we are currently still fighting for economic and reproductive rights in Ireland.

The policing of female sexuality is not only a problem in Ireland, as control over women’s bodies and sexuality can be seen in most societies around the world. There is no doubt that the female body is political, whether it is being sexualised or de-sexualised, but there is power in realizing that we cannot continue to apologize for existing, for having needs, wants, desires and power. I am obviously particularly interested in the history of women in Ireland, being an Irish women myself, specifically Northern Irish. I was pleasantly surprised by the information I discovered on Irish women and the struggle for a United Ireland, the equality and respect they were granted as they fought alongside men. It is impossible to escape the effect of centuries of religion in Ireland, and with this religion comes the control over women in Ireland. This is why I was particularly interested and surprised when I discovered the figurative carvings of Sheila na Gigs that were carved on churches and castles in Ireland and Great Britain.  

My discovery of Sheela na Gig statues is what led me to continue to research the history of women in Ireland, from Celtic legends to the Easter Rising. There is something so striking, so powerful in these unapologetic carvings with their exagerated vulva’s. I was also especially surprised to find that many of the Sheela na Gig carvings appeared to be masturbating, quite a radical depiction of women considering that even today female masturbation is quite a taboo subject and still not widely explored in modern art. There are many different explanations for what the Sheela na Gigs represent and it can be imortant to look at who is giving the explanation, for example, the theory that they are on churches as a warning against lust probably came from religious figures. There are suggestions that the Sheela na Gig represents a pagan goddess, perhaps the goddess cailleach, who was so powerful she could create and shape the hills and valleys. The imagery of a goddess is powerful in itself as she represents an immanent power, authority, control and respect. She is a spiritual figure that seeks to empower women in their own choices and self worth unlike many of the spiritual figures in other religions.  

There are claims that the carvings are fertility figures, although many of the Sheela’s do not fit a fertility function. But this theory is no less empowering, as the ability to carry and give life can be seen as one of the greatest signifiers of a woman’s strength and power, the vulva being the gate between the womb and life, and so it is not hard to see how the Sheela’s could be associated with fertility.

My favorite interpretation is that the Sheila na Gig are used to ward off evil, that they perform a powerful type of Anasyrma as a form of protection. Anasyrma is the gesture of lifting up the skirt or kilt, connected with religious rituals, eroticism, and lewd jokes. It is a form of exhibitionism similar to flashing, but differs in that instead of being for the implicit purpose of the exhibtionist’s own sexual arousal, it is instead done only for the effect of the onlooker.  

Anasyrma is effectively the exposing of the genitals, always by a women, and is interesting in that it, is the woman using her genitals as an apotropaic device that could be interpreted as empowering to herself, while historically and socially it has widely been men exposing their genitals to women in a form of power over women, an unwanted sexual advance. We can see similar figures to the Sheila na Gigs performing anasyrma such as the ancient Greek figure Baubo. Baubo’s performance of anasyrma is performed to create humor and laughter. There is also the Putta di Porta Tosa figurine in Milan mounted at an entrance in the city wall. The figure shows a woman standing, facing outward towards any potential attackers and she is holding a knife while lifting her garment to expose herself with the other. This is another example of a statue using anasyrma for protection. Another interesting example of this is Jean de La Fontaine’s painting ‘Nouveaux Contes’ showing a woman lifting up her skirt to terrify the devil himself. This shows the anthropic power that anasyrma has been believed to have, that it is strong enough to ward off the worst evils. A story from The Irish Times (September 23, 1977) reported a potentially violent incident involving several men, which was averted by a woman exposing her genitals to the attackers.  

It is not only the exposing of female genitals that has mythical powers but the female body in general. In a similar vein to Queen Maeve and the power of menstruation that I spoke of before, Pliny the Elder wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning.  Another interesting example of sexuality and eroticism having powerful effects on the earth is Balkan Pagan traditions where women would run into the fields and lift their skirts to scare the gods and end the rain. This was brilliantly explored by Marina Abramovic in her performance piece 'Balkan Erotic Epic’  where she dressed in traditional folk costumes and reenacted these ancient rituals.

In Africa woman have in the past, and still do, strip naked as a curse and as a means to ward off evil. Women give life and so they can also take it away. Women invoke this curse under the most extreme cases, causing the men they curse to an extreme form of ostracism. It was used by women in Nigeria during the second Liberian Civil War and against President Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast, cursing his rule. In 2002 members of the Niger Delta Women for Justice occupied the Chevron Texan oil company in Escravos to protest for better treatment from the company. When the military showed up to remove them the women threatened to naked curse them and so the soldiers did not even touch them.

These are just a few examples of the influence and history of the female body and supernatural powers believed to be held by women around the world. There are undoubtedly even more examples than this, but I found these examples particularly interesting when exploring the female body and genitals in art and performances. For a subject often surrounded in shame and taboo it is intriguing to see learn of its use in forms of protest, its perceived influence over nature, life and death and war. It seems clear that despite an attempt from external forces to stigmatize the power of the female body, there is a undeniably history of it’s power in every culture.

With my project I am seeking to channel the different interpretations of what the Sheela na Gig means and the power of the female body in different culture’s, particularly Irish, legends. I have created my own interpretation of the Vulva using only sticks and wool, which is fitting, as Irish women have been weaving for centuries. By wearing my brightly colored 'vulva’ and bringing attention to it I am performing my own type of anasyrma, alluding to the different powers this brings. I am empowered by it’s ability to ward of evil, to scare men and to evoke fear in an enemy. I am empowered by presenting my own version of female sexuality as opposed to the usual presentation of female sexuality that is catered towards the male gaze. I am empowered by performing this piece on my own terms with the power from within connotations it has for me as a woman as opposed to the power over which male 'flashing’ seeks to bring. I do not seek to perform this piece to make anyone uncomfortable but to bring attention to the provocative and political nature and history behind exposing the female body and genitals. I am also able to see the comedy in my performance as my act can be perceived with surprise and humor, channeling anasyrma’s power to allow for a letting go of sadness. I certainly find it to be a humorous performance and often find myself laughing while trying to perform it.

All in all what inspired me and what I want to convey with this piece is the power of the female body to provoke and protest, to be beautiful, strong, and magical. There is no denying that whether or not you believe in these stories of the powers of the female body and the female genitalia, the fact that they exist is proof enough that they must have some power, to have provoked such a strong reaction from so many different people throughout history.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Boing Boing Charitable Giving Guide 2017 /Pls RT!

Here's a guide to the charities the Boingers support in our own annual giving. Please add the causes and charities you give to in the forums!

The Tor Project The Tor anonymity and privacy tools are vital to resistance struggles around the world, a cooperative network that provides a high degree of security from scrutiny for people who have reasons to fear the powers that be. From our early hominid ancestors until about ten years ago, humans didn't leave behind an exhaust-trail of personally identifying information as they navigated the world -- Tor restores that balance. —CD

Planned Parenthood Because we deserve health care, including reproductive, gender, and sexual health care. Because access to birth control and safe abortion is a human right. Because Trump's regime wants to destroy all of this. —XJ

Software Freedom Conservancy Software Freedom Conservancy does the important, boring, esoteric work of keeping the internet from tearing itself to pieces, playing host organization to free software projects like Git, Selenium and Samba (to name just three). The Conservancy keeps these projects legally sound and gives them a scaffold to hang their institutional structures on them. Without the Conservancy, the software you love and depend on would be in dire peril

Electronic Frontier Foundation I have been proudly associated with EFF for a decade an a half now and have watched, half-awed, as it grew from a scrappy, brilliant little organization to a powerhouse of enormous scale and power. Every cause, every fight enumerated on this page and in your life and mine will be lost or won on the internet. EFF is the best hope we have of keeping that internet free, fair and open. —CD, MF

Creative Commons Creative Commons is best known as a tool for sharing-friendly artists, but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Since the beginning, and all over the world, CC has provided governments, agencies, research and scholarly institutions and NGOs with the tools to easily share across borders and the bewildering array of copyright laws. We can't beat trumpism without collaboration tools, and that includes legal tools. —CD

Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia) For 15 years, Wikipedia has been figuring out how to negotiate truth among diverse and even warring points of view. It's not always pretty and it's not always nice, but no one's yet found a better way to let ideas bash against each other until something everyone agrees upon emerges. It's not pretty, but compared to our democracy, it's a beauty queen. —CD

Human Rights Data Analysis Group For more than twenty-five years, the team at the [Human Rights Data Analysis Group (HRDAG)](https://hrdag.org/) has held perpetrators of mass violence accountable. They are a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that applies rigorous science to the analysis of human rights violations around the world. They provide unbiased, scientific results that contribute to accurate quantitative arguments. HRDAG's analysis brings clarity to the often confused narratives of human rights violence and support the movement for justice. One of their bigger projects for 2018 examines the growing use of machine-learning techniques in the US criminal justice system. At best, these methods reproduce existing biases in data. More often, machine learning amplifies the biases in the data and thereby exacerbates criminal justice strategies that disproportionately affect marginalized populations. Currently, they are working with partners at the San Francisco Public Defender's office and the New York Legal Aid Society to evaluate risk assessment tools being used in those cities. They are also analyzing how current bail practices may disproportionately disadvantage marginalized populations, in particular, lower-income defendants. Other ongoing HRDAG projects include research on mass violence in Syria, Colombia, Mexico, and more.

Institute for the Future There are no facts about the future, only fictions. As we've learned in this election, nothing is certain about tomorrow. But even as our attention is captured by the present, we can begin to write the story to come. A place to start is the Institute for the Future's Future for Good fellowship.  Institute for the Future, where Mark and David are researchers, is a 50-year-old nonprofit that helps the public think about the future to make better decisions in the present. The Fellowship directly supports inspiring social innovators who are working to make tomorrow a better place. You can help too. Make a donation of $100 and you’ll receive IFTF Distinguished Fellow Bob Johansen's new book "The New Leadership Literacies: Thriving in a Future of Extreme Disruption and Distributed Everything." -DP & MF

The National Wildlife Federation National Wildlife Federation is a voice for wildlife, dedicated to protecting wildlife and habitat and inspiring the future generation of conservationists. Now's the time: the shortlist for our new Secretary of the Interior is reportedly Sarah Palin and Forrest Lucas, an "advocate of trophy hunting and puppy mills ... who never met a case of animal exploitation he wouldn’t defend." — RB

The Marine Mammal Center When seals, sea lion, or many other sea going pals need help, if they get lucky, they may be taken to The Marine Mammal Center, a veterinary hospital just for them. Thousands of heartbreakingly cute, but very wild, animals are rescued, rehabilitated and released on an annual basis. I'm a volunteer. In addition to the hundreds of highly trained volunteers that make the hospital run, the center always needs cash for fish and medicine.   —JW

The Southern Poverty Law Center & the Anti-Defamation League The Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defemation League fight hate, teach tolerance, and help secure justice, and fair treatment for all. "There is no 'them' and 'us.' There is only us." --Greg Boyle —JW

Facing History and Ourselves Facing History and Ourselves is an international educational group that helps young people study issues around racism, antisemitism, and prejudice in history, from the Holocaust to today's immigrant experiences to the killing fields of Cambodia. Their aim is to teach young people "to think critically, to empathize, to recognize moral choices, to make their voices heard, we put in their hands the possibility--and the responsibility--to do the serious work demanded of us all as citizens." —DP

Free Software Foundation/Defective By Design The Free Software Foundation's principled litigation, license creation and campaigning is fierce, uncompromising and has changed the world. You interact with code that they made possible a million times a day, and they never stop working to make sure that the code stays free.  —CD

Free Software Foundation Europe Software has eaten the world, and software freedom is increasingly synonymous with human freedom. In Europe, far-right parties and authoritarians are inheriting a constellation of gadgets and devices that are "defective by design," built to allow corporations spy on and control their owners -- and those thugs are contemplating how they can use those companies' extraordinary powers to put whole populations under their thumbs. Free software in Europe, free software everywhere! —CD

The Internet Archive: In an era where the control of information has been weaponized, the Internet Archive's mission -- universal access to all human knowledge -- is a revolutionary manifesto. The Archive isn't screwing around: they're siting a copy of their data in Canada to resist trumpian grabs and spying and redecentralizing the internet to save us all from tyranny.  —CD

Open Rights Group While we were all fighting about Brexit, Theresa May's Tory government passed the most intrusive surveillance bill in the history of modern democracies. It's a longstanding joke that the gnomes of Westminster Village think that Nineteen Eighty-Four was a manual for statecraft, but the joke is getting less funny by the second. ORG is a decade old: spunky, going though a timely growth spurt, and badly needed. —CD

Amnesty International I just looked up Amnesty's founding principles and found tears rolling down my cheeks: "Only when the last prisoner of conscience has been freed, when the last torture chamber has been closed, when the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a reality for the world’s people, will our work be done." These values need our support more than ever. —CD

ACLU On November 9, 2016 ACLU changed its homepage to a picture of Trump superimposed with the words SEE YOU IN COURT. ACLU's deep bench of kick-ass lawyers has been lately augmented by a much-needed group of freedom-fighting technologists, welded into the fighting force we'll need for the next four years and beyond: from voter suppression to free speech, the ACLU is key to the fight.  —CD, MF

Liberty With the UK plunging into surveillance dystopia where human rights are an afterthought and racial profiling is becoming official doctrine, it needs Liberty, an organisation with 80+ years' track record fighting for human rights in many incarnations of the British project. The Tories ran on a platform of repealing the Human Rights Act: when the government is officially anti "human rights," you need someone like Liberty to take the "pro" side. —CD

826 National Born in San Francisco’s Mission District in the back room of a pirate supply store, 826 National teaches young people the art and magic of creative writing through classes, DIY publishing projects, in-school programs, and drop-in tutoring at seven centers around the US. And it’s all free for the kids. Help open more 826 locations around the country! —DP

Fight for the Future Some of the Internet's savviest, hard-working-est activists. Fight for the Future is in all the Internet fights, kicking ass on Net Neutrality -- a fight that's back on in 2017, thanks Trump -- mass surveillance and justice for Chelsea Manning. -CD

Demand Progress Aaron Swartz co-founded Demand Progress, and as you'd expect from that history, they're relentless in reinventing the activist playbook for the 21st century. -CD

MySociety Software in the public interest -- it's a damned good idea. MySociety produces software like Pledgebank ("I will risk arrest by refusing to register for a UK ID card if 100,000 other Britons will also do it") and TheyWorkForYou (every word and deed by every Member of Parliament). It's plumbing for activists and community organizers. —CD

https://boingboing.net/2017/12/10/charitable-giving-guide-2017.html

[michaelgeertzen-blog]

HISTORY OF SCARVES

OUR COMPLETE GUIDETHE ORIGINSCASHMERE SHAWLSWAR DUTYTHE EMERGENCE OF SCARVES AS ACCESSORIESDEVELOPMENT OF SYNTHETICSSCARVES AS A PROPAGANDA TOOLPOST WAR SCARVESSILK SCARVES AS A GLAMOUR ACCESSORYSCARVES AS A LUXURY ACCESSORYA DECLINE IN POPULARITY IN THE 90'S REDISCOVERING AND REIMAGINING CLASSIC DESIGNSCASHMERE SCARVESADAPTING STYLES TO MODERN LIFERECENT TRENDSFINAL THOUGHTS Men's Scarves & Ancient RomeMen's Scarves & The Croatian MilitaryMen's Scarves & French FashionThe Battle of Steenkerque:  Beginning of the Modern NecktieMen's Scarves & BeethovenMen's Scarves & Victorian EnglandMen's Scarves In Modern War And AviationIn Summary – The Scarf & History

HISTORY OF SCARVES

As a symbol of femininity, the scarf is the ultimate chic fashion accessory oozing sophistication and elegance. As a garment worn for practical purposes, a scarf can provide the wearer warmth or keep them cool. The scarf comes in a many a shape and form demonstrating its ubiquity and ability to blend into the wardrobes of undoubtedly every woman over the past few decades.

The origins of the scarf trickle back to Ancient Egypt, precisely to Queen Nefertiti, who was believed to have worn a woven wrapped scarf under an extravagant jewelled headpiece. Whilst scarves are more often than not associated with the female wardrobe nowadays, they have been worn by men and women for many centuries. In Ancient Rome, men wore them as ‘sweat cloths’ used to keep cool and dry sweat.

In the Far East, scarves were worn by military personnel to show rank. Scarves with numerous designs, worn in various ways can be viewed on the terracotta army soldiers, which were buried away more than 200 years BC. It is even said that on his return from Egypt, Napoleon Bonaparte gifted his wife Josephine be Beauharnais a pashmina scarf. Whilst she was cynical at first about this exotic gift, she is noted to have collected over 400 scarfs over the next 3 years adding up to a total of around £80,000.

It is easy to believe that the scarf was an overnight success, however the evolution of the scarf from a plain practical accessory to a trendy must wear item most definitely did not happen overnight.

Cashmere shawls became the epitome of high fashion in the 19th century. The famously Paisley pattern was established during this time as it was the first town to manufacture cashmere ‘Paisley’ shawls similar to those brought back by Bonaparte.

The town was home to 7000 weavers and the shawls were so popular that even Queen Victoria purchased a shawl in 1842. In the latter half of the century, the popularity of shawls declined as new trends emerged. Women's wardrobes developed so that it became more and more impractical to wear a shawl draped over one's shoulders.

During the First World War, knitting became more than just a hobby for women, children and even men all over the world. It was considered patriotic war duty. Tons of socks, sweaters and scarves were produced to send to servicemen to keep them warm and dry in wartime conditions.

Whilst knitting nowadays is often considered an old-fashioned hobby, knitting saved the lives of many servicemen during the war. Knitted goods were produced by the ton and shipped out to troops who were battling harsh, wet and cold conditions not only in the trenches but also in the air too.

In addition to knitted scarves, pilots would also wear white silk scarves whilst flying as the soft, supple fabric provided protection from neck chafing. During the First World War, silk played a very important role in military operations. Silk bags were used to carry gunpowder charges for weapons as silk left no residue when burnt. After the war, this surplus silk was made into garments, scarves, and furnishings.

With the emergence of silk in the west, manufacturing methods were improving and many clothing brands started producing silk accessories. Liberty Of London started producing light silk scarves that became extremely popular during the post-war years. Their energetic prints provided a much-needed tonic to the gloom that was life on the home front in the early years after the war.

Similarly, in 1937 French fashion house Hermès started importing Chinese silk to be woven into luxurious square scarves. Raw silk imported from China was especially strong and more durable. Designs reflected the Equestrian background that was deeply rooted in the history of Hermès and these designs still prove to be the most popular nowadays. The classic Hermès touches which have become synonymous with the brand such hand-rolled edges, hand-painted details and its 90cm x 90cm were all established at this early stage.

Silk scarves, both now and then, are a luxury and can be unaffordable for many women. With the invention of rayon in the 1930s, also known as viscose, this slippery fibre was a semi-synthetic material that was named ‘artificial silk’. It could mimic all the properties of silk but it was a fraction of the price.

The scarf trend continued booming as it allowed more and more women to dress in the latest fashions. However, with the outbreak of the Second World War, wardrobes had to become practical and sensible above all else. Many women were drafted in to take over jobs that were ordinarily done by men. From working in weapons manufacturing factories to flying military planes, the demands of ‘war work’ came first.

Safety concerns within factories meant that women operating machinery had to make sure any long hair was clearly swept away. This meant that women wore headscarves as a matter of necessity rather than an accessory. As a result of clothes rationing throughout the Second World War, the colour palette became dull and sullen as materials were limited to cotton and linen, which were cheaper and more accessible.

Despite the restraints of the war, notable British scarf brand Jacqmar of London continued producing scarves with imaginative propaganda themes from 1940 -1945. Jacqmar started out supplying silk to couture fashion houses around the world but soon noticed a lot of cut-offs that were produced and as a result, they started producing silk scarves, which became extremely popular during the course of the war. Fabric supplies were often short during this time, therefore Jacqmar would use offcuts from parachute silk as well as rayon and linen.

Designs for scarves were based around 3 central themes: military, allied forces and the home front. These were especially popular amongst young lovers and nowadays have become treasured collector's items. Even the British Museum in London owns several rare Jacqmar scarves in their war costume collection. In the post-war period, designs celebrated victory, as one can imagine, and then progressed to more generic patterns such as florals and geometrics.

After the end of the Second World War, the world was craving for more bold and vibrant colours in their wardrobes. Patterned scarves attracted a wide audience during this time. From 1946 – 1955 textile company, Ascher commissioned designs from leading artists around the world. Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore were among the 42 world-renowned artists who contributed to the Ascher ‘Artists Squares’. The project not only united the art community post-war but also married ideals in both art and fashion making fine art more accessible to the many.

As a form of self-expression, the silk scarf quickly came back into fashion; the material allowed for bright patterns and vivid, sharp details to be printed. Hermès grew in popularity with the likes of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly wearing scarves in movies or parading their chic Hermès scarves throughout New York and Monaco.

Silk scarves gained notoriety and soon became a symbol of glamour, power and independence. In the words of Audrey Hepburn below 'When I wear a silk scarf I never feel so definitely like a woman, a beautiful woman.'

Whilst Audrey liked to wear her scarves tied neatly around her neck, Brigitte Bardot styled her scarf into a statement headband. Grace Kelly wore a Hermès silk scarf on the cover of LIFE magazine in 1956; however, she hit headlines again when she wore a Hermès scarf as an arm sling later on in the same year. Even the Queen, Elizabeth II, was emblazoned on a postage stamp wearing an Hermès scarf.

Designs at this time were light-hearted and captured an optimistic spirit which in turn meant that women could be playful with not only their scarves but also their whole outfit choices. Not only was the headscarf ‘the’ accessory amongst the rich and famous, it also gave them privacy. When styled with the big sunglasses of the 60’s, the pairing acted as a veil for those who endeavoured to keep a level of anonymity.

During this decade, it wasn’t only the fashionable elite that were buying into the luxurious silk scarves. Famous New York restaurant, ’21 Club’ often simply ‘21’, has been frequented by celebrities since the 1930’s. Notable guests include Elizabeth Taylor, John F Kennedy and Ernest Hemingway to name but a few. It is most probably recognised by the 21 jockey sculptures that feature on the façade of the restaurant.

Each Christmas the owners would give away a customised scarf to their regular customers. These designs would change yearly, however, the central theme was always equestrian and jockeys. These have now become iconic in terms of scarf memorabilia as designs were so rare and very much sought after.

Many fashion houses also transferred their signature style onto scarves to encapsulate the feel of the brand. The famous tartan check of Burberry could be worn by women all over the world on a scarf costing less than a fifth of the price of a signature Burberry tan trench coat. This gave luxury fashion brands a dominant global presence but more importantly, it gave women the opportunity to show off their designer purchases.

Designs of the 80’s were bold and confident. Chanel used daring chains, to imitate the chain handles on their handbags, and placed large interlocking CC logos over their scarves. These memorable designs captured the distinctions from brand to brand and allowed women to firmly identify with certain brands aesthetics over others.

With the 90’s approaching and the rise of manufacturing and cheap labour, many silk alternatives grew in popularity. Bright vivid designs could just as easily be printed onto these materials and with less expensive dyes in the process too. As silk is a particularly labour intensive practice, farmers became disillusioned with the product when demand fell.

Silk scarves fell out of favour during the 90s and people flocked to buy accessories that were innovative and striking. This elegant, stylish accessory was no longer the must-have item in the woman’s wardrobe and soon disappeared from the spotlight.

However, technology and transportation boomed in this decade, making travel easier and far more accessible to the majority of the population. As the world opened up so did the fashion industry. Designers took inspiration from all over the world and rediscovered treasures of the past.

Pashmina shawls which were only worn by wealthiest and most well-connected ladies were re-envisioned and transformed into daily lifestyle necessities of the modern-era woman. Rediscovering the sensuous qualities of cashmere wool meant that these scarves were admired for their comfort and practicality over design.

Cashmere scarves and pashminas rose in popularity, as they were undeniably soft, warm and luxurious. They were considered exotic and rare as cashmere was woven from Cashmere goats that inhabit the mountainous regions of Kashmir, India. Their exclusivity attracted a large following that were drawn to its fine, downy texture.

In fact, the name ‘Pashmina’ translates to ‘Soft Gold’ in the Kashmiri language. Traditionally the goats are reared by nomadic tribes inhabiting regions at very high altitudes where temperatures drop to -40c in the winter. For this reason, the Cashmere goat grows a thick undercoat to keep them warm. As temperatures rise into spring, this coat is shed and this is where the wool used to make pashminas is collected.

Many scarves are sold as pashmina’s in tourist markets around the world, but there is an easy trick to test whether the scarf is made from true pashmina wool. If the entire scarf can pass through a ring with a diameter of 1.3cm then you can be sure that it’s a genuine pashmina.

These scarves became popular in the 90s as they could be worn as a shawl wrapped around the shoulders. As fashion became more daring, many styles of clothing became sleeveless or strapless. Shawls allowed women to wear these on-trend styles but also protect their modesty by covering bare arms and chests.

More recently we have seen a shift towards other uses for scarves, new styles demand accessories that adapt to our fast-paced lives. These items need to be flexible and keep up with the ever-changing demands of the fashion industry.

Hermès re-invented the scarf with their Hermès ‘Twilly’ scarf, a long ribbon-like scarf which is named after the ‘twill’ weave pattern used to create its fantastic drape. They look chic when wrapped around the handles of a handbag, giving a touch of personality as well as protecting the bag. These scarves can also be wrapped around wrists to make sleek, stand out bracelets.

As the Twilly is small, it can be used as a headband or used as a ribbon tied around a hat. It can also be used as a hair tie or braided into plaits to add hints of colour and pattern to hair. More recently, we have seen these scarves used as belts either on their own or wrapped around a belt then fastened around the waist.

The multiple ways in which the ‘Twilly’ scarf can be incorporated into the modern woman’s wardrobe had made it one of Hermès’ most successful designs. The Twilly scarf is a truly modern update to the otherwise classic silk scarf.

If we look at recent trends from the catwalk we can see many nods to the timeless look of the silk scarf as well as refreshing new styles. Stella McCartney sent models down her AW17 runway with headscarves reminiscent of the queen on her Scottish country hideaway trips.

Prada opted for chunky knit scarves tightly wrapped like a choker to contrast sleek, tailored garments. More and more we see runways filled with silk bandanas and headbands that exude glamour and substance but are still relatable for both older and younger generations.

Turbans have always existed solely within religious dress for many centuries as a symbol of respect and social status among men. However, ever since Prada paraded rainbow-hued glossy turbans down the runway in 2007 it now comes second nature to many women to wrap a silk scarf around their hair then wrapped into a turban.

Our love affair with scarves is unlikely to end anytime soon. We are enchanted with their multitudes of forms and the possibilities seem endless when it comes to pattern and print. From a blooming floral design to an indulgent woven pashmina, they morph with each season and our relationship with these scarves develop because as well as being a much-adored fashion accessory they also provide comfort, protection and modesty. Whether one is wearing a trendy headscarf as a fashion statement or as a belt, wrist tie or handbag accessory it will forever have a permanent in every woman’s wardrobe.

https://startupfashion.com/fashion-archives-a-look-at-the-history-of-the-scarf/

MORE HISTORY:

It’s safe to say that pretty much everyone has a scarf or two in their closet. This accessory is a staple that comes in a variety of colors, fabrics, and styles-there is a scarf out there for every taste.  Whether you a fashionista showing off a beautiful silk Hermes piece or just trying to keep warm, the scarf has become a timeless symbol of comfort and style.

Early Origins

So how did such a simple accessory become so ubiquitous? In fact, scarves have been worn for a lot longer than you might think. As far back as 1300 B.C to be exact. The very first scarves date all the way back to ancient Egypt, where it was a status symbol that denoted nobility and royalty. Queen Nefertiti was the original trendsetter-she was perhaps one of the first to wear a scarf. She frequently styled a scarf-like fabric behind her iconic cone-shaped headdress.

China was also home to early adopters of the scarf. There, it was originally part of the Chinese military uniform. Dating as far back as 1000 B.C., fringed, rectangular scarves were discovered on sculptures of Chinese soldiers. Scarves would continue to be a part of military dress: another early Chinese iteration of the accessory (around 230 B.C.) was part of the uniform for soldiers serving under Emperor Cheng. These scarves helped to denote military rank. Similarly, Croatian soldiers in the 17th century wore scarves according to rank as well. Those lower on the totem pole wore scarves cut from cotton, while the scarves belonging to officers were made from fine silk.

The next version of the scarf that cropped up was a bit more utilitarian. In ancient Rome around 10 A.D., Romans began using a piece of fabric known as a sudarium, or “sweat cloth,” which is exactly what it sounds like. Those engaging in exercise or strenuous physical labor would often keep a piece of linen around their person in order to keep clean and wipe away sweat. Men wore them so often it became a kind of accessory- tied around the neck, draped over the shoulder, or knotted around the waist.

From around the late 1600’s to early 1700’s, the scarf began taking on a less functional, more “fashion” role in the form of the cravat. In fact this neck-piece, which originated in Paris, was inspired by the neck-wear of the aforementioned Croatian military- the name is an allusion to the original source. Cravats were cut from a long strip of white fabric, typically embellished with embroidery or lace. The accessory was especially popular during parts of the French Revolution, where it grew in size and extravagance, occasionally obscuring the bottom half of the face. During the Revolution, the cravat was sometimes dyed in different colors to demonstrate allegiance to a certain side.

An Early Fashion Statement

From then on, scarves began to make their way into mainstream fashion- for both men and women. For example, Napoleon is said to have had cashmere scarves from India sent to his first wife Josephine. Also around this time, the Third Duke of Krakow supposedly created the first knit scarf. However, the accessory truly became popularized after Queen Victoria’s ascension to the throne in the early 1800’s. She frequently wore glamorous accessories such as silk scarves, which soon became stylish among nobility, as they differentiated them from lower classes.

Speaking of silk scarves, that particular accessory as we know it was first crafted in 1937 by, who else- Thierry Hermes. This was the first truly luxury silk scarf, and differed from anything that had come before it. Hermes’ company purchased raw silk directly from China to be spun into yarn. This was then woven into a high-quality fabric that was twice as strong and much heavier than other scarves of that time. As a final touch, a beautiful image would be expertly hand-printed onto the scarf. These intricate designs required around 43 screens to get beautiful color effects. Hermes’ first printed scarf design featured two women in white wigs playing a game.

Scarves As A Necessity

Soon after, rayon was invented, which was good news for women who otherwise couldn’t afford luxurious but expensive silk scarves. This material made the look much more accessible. In the 1940’s, scarves were worn a variety of different ways for numerous occasions- during the war years they were more of a necessity than a fashion statement. Cotton, linen and wool scarves also came into fashion as other, less frivolous alternatives to silk. Magazines even advised women who didn’t want to spend a lot of money on a new hat to tie their scarves into turbans and snoods. Scarves were even used as a safety measure- women working in factories had to cover their hair to prevent it from being caught in machinery.

A Staple of Fashion

From then on, scarves remained a staple accessory for both fashion and function. From 1970’s head wraps to today’s hipster neck-wear, scarves have cemented their place in the fashion world.

https://www.pashminapassion.com.au/pashmina/the-historical-and-cultural-significance-of-scarves-and-shawls/

The historical and cultural significance of scarves and shawls

Scarves and shawls are used across cultures all over the world, and it is not something utilized only during the winters, or extreme summers. They have been around for centuries are have a history far beyond being a fashion accessory! The historical and cultural significance of scarves and shawls is an quite an interesting read.

In cold climates, a thick knitted scarf, often made of wool, is tied around the neck to keep warm. This is usually accompanied by a warm hat and heavy coat.

In drier, dustier warm climates, or in environments where there are many airborne contaminants, a thin headscarf, kerchief, or bandanna is often worn over the eyes and nose and mouth to keep the hair clean. Over time, this custom has evolved into a fashionable item in many cultures, particularly among women. The cravat, an ancestor of the necktie and bow tie, evolved from scarves of this sort in Croatia[citation needed].

Religions such as Judaism under Halakhah (Jewish Law) promote modest dress code among women. Married Jewish women wear a tichel to cover their hair. The Tallit is commonly worn by Jewish men especially for prayers, which they wrap around their head to recite the blessing of the Tallit.

Young Sikh boys, and sometimes girls often wear a bandanna to cover their hair, before moving on to the turban. Older Sikhs may wear them as an under-turban.

Islam promotes modest dress among men and women. Many Muslim women wear a headscarf, often known as a hijab and in Quranic Arabic as the khimar. The Keffiyeh is commonly used by Muslim men.

Additionally, several Christian denominations include a scarf known as a Stole as part of their liturgical vestments.

Silk scarfs were used by pilots of early aircraft in order to keep oily smoke from the exhaust out of their mouths while flying. Silk Scarfs were worn by pilots of closed cockpit aircraft to prevent neck chafing; especially fighter pilots, who were constantly turning their heads from side to side watching for enemy aircraft. Today, military flight crews wear scarfs imprinted with unit insignia and emblems not for functional reasons but instead for esprit-de-corps and heritage.

In ancient times, the practice of donning a scarf or a wrap was mostly attributed to perspiration, the Romans called it “sudarium” which literally meant sweat cloth. These cloth items were used to wipe the sweat on the face and neck, and were initially worn by men. Also, according to historians, during the rule of Chinese emperor Cheng, scarves were made of cloth and were used in order to identify the officers and the ranks of the Chinese warriors. But then with the passage of time women too began to use them, and today it is a completely new avatar.

Scarves and shawls are now made from the finest materials available and are much sought after by men and women across the world. It has in fact moved up leaps and bounds in the social ladder and today stands as an expression of love and respect which is often exchanged as a gift.

So next time you wrap a beautiful Pashmina Scarf or Shawl around your neck or shoulders you will know you are not just being fashionable but donning an accessory that has had many practical uses over the centuries and serves a purpose for many cultures.

https://textilelearner.blogspot.com/2016/05/different-types-scarf-wearing-techniques.html

Different types of scarves:

Different materials:

Alpaca: for cold autumn winter days: Alpaca scarves are made from wool of the alpaca, which is a lustrous and silky natural fiber, warmer and softer.

Cashmere: for cold autumn winter days: This soft, luxurious fabric is made from the wool of the Cashmere goat. It is light in weight and, when handled with care, becomes softer with time.

Cotton: for hot spring summer days: Classic and easy, cotton is staple for its ability to be laundered and its durability. It’s a cool fabric, perfect for summer wear.

Jersey: For cold autumn winter days: This stretchy, soft cotton is breathable and light-weight. Jersey is an ideal pallet for beading, studding, sequins, and other embellishment.

Linen: For hot spring summer days: Promoted for its coolness, linen is often considered the most breathable fabric of the bunch. It is made from the fibres of the flax plant.

Pashmina: For cold autumn winter days: Pashmina refers to a type of shawl or scarf made from the cashmere wool of the pashmina goat.

Satin: For cold autumn winter days: Satin is a glossy, soft fabric most often made from silk or polyester. Satin comes in several forms or weaves, which may vary in shine, thickness, flexibility, and weight.

Silk: For hot spring summer days: Silk is a natural protein fibre obtained from the larvae cocoons of the mulberry silkworm. It can be shiny or matte in lustre, and is especially delicate.

Wool: For cold autumn winter days: Wool comes from the fleece of sheep and other animals. It’s very warm, durable, and with proper care should last you for years.

Shapes & Styles

2. Neck

Whether worn bandana-style, tied into knot, or looped into a feminine bow, neck scarves are sweeping Hollywood, runways, and city streets with gusto this season. Channel your inner Mad Men, classic girly-girl, or country club queen in one of our signature neck scarves! We carry styles perfect for a men's neck scarf as well as neck scarves for women. Try cute patterns like dots or floral or go abstract with stripes and shapes.

3. Ponchos

Nothing says posh like a poncho! Whether lined with fur, adorned with embellishments, or in sophisticated blacks, tans, and greys, our capes and ponchos add the perfect amount of pizazz to a classic gal’s wardrobe. Once you’re wrapped up in these stylish outfit additions, you’ll be the cat’s meow at your next soiree.

4. Head

Hair and head accessories have been a staple for fashion since the first bobby pin was invented. Whether you want to have that 50's ponytail flair or are looking for that gypsy, tousled hair look, head scarves can add exciting style to your daily fashion. Didn't have time to wash your hair? No problem! Sport a head scarf instead! Wear the scarf as a head band, bandana, or a wrap. A skinny scarf or square scarf works great for this trend that wears well in any season. You can even use a silk head scarf at night to help keep curls in place!

5. Infinity

The infinity scarf is like our love for scarves: it never ends. Instead, it goes on for forever in an ever-so dashing, flashy, and comfy-cozy way. A wool infinity scarf will keep you warm while bringing bold colors to your winter outfits, but there are infinity scarves that are perfect for any season. A circular scarf doesn't let its physical shape limit its stylish possibilities; whether you prefer a sleek, simple loop scarf or one bursting with bright, glittering detail, we have infinity scarves for women that you'll love! And before you know it, you'll find yourself wrapped up and feeling fabulous without ever having to tie a knot.

6. Pashmina

If there were a master list of the must-haves for every woman’s wardrobe, the classic pashmina would be at the top. The pashmina is timeless, and with its infinity of uses, you’ll find yourself wearing it as a warm shawl, as a trendy solid colour statement piece, and a million-and-two other scarf-tying ways. From bold prints to demure silvers, you can do no wrong with a pashmina. Find a gorgeous cheap pashmina to add to your wardrobe.

7. Square

There’s nothing square about square scarves; the moment it’s tied, looped or knotted around your dainty neck, it makes a bold style-statement. Whether you’re sporting one in chevron, hearts, abstract shapes, leopard print, or even a festive holiday neckerchief, square head scarves will surely turn heads. If you’re loving their silky-smooth feel, check out our full collection of square silk scarves.

8. Shemagh Scarves

Shemagh scarves, otherwise known as keffiyeh scarves, are a square cotton type traditionally worn by Arabs. These are worn around the neck or the head to protect from the sun and dust. This scarf is known for its white checkered weave that is combined with a dark colour.

9. Bandana

A bandana scarf is a piece of cloth in the shape of a triangle or a square that is folded into a triangle. These are often made of cotton and are popularly donned by cowboys and associated with western wear. Bandana scarves can be worn on the head, neck, and as a ponytail wrap. They may also come in silk as well.

Wraps

Shawls

https://www.realmenrealstyle.com/mens-scarves-history/

MENS HISTORY WITH THE SCARF

You're taking part in a manly 2,200 year-old tradition.

A tradition that many of history's greatest warriors, statesmen, and artists partook in.That's right – the scarf (or variations such as the necktie and cravat) have been in our wardrobes for over two millenia.Let's start at the beginning. Men's Scarves & Ancient China The first men's neckwear we have solid historical evidence for was worn by Chinese soldiers in the 3rd century B.C.E.  The terracotta soldiers buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China, can still be seen wearing tied neck scarves.  These were used to denote rank in a form of early military insignia. The terracotta soldiers buried with Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of unified China, can still be seen wearing tied neck scarves.  These were used to denote rank in a form of early military insignia. Chinese art from still earlier includes depictions of both men and women wearing fringed, rectangular pieces of cloth similar to scarves, dating back as early as 1000 B.C.E.

A band of linen cloth known as a “sudarium” was part of a standard gentleman's costume in the late Roman empire. It was worn around the neck or knotted around the waist in the first century C.E. Emperor Nero (among other peculiarities!) wore a sudarium around his neck during almost all public appearances, and is even depicted with it on some coins from his reign.

Soldiers in the Croatian military used scarves to denote rank, much like the early Chinese.  Historians do not know when the practice started, but it gained fame when Croatian soldiers impressed the French court of Louis XIII in 1636.

By the reign of Louis XIV the neck scarf was a staple of the French court.  They were named “cravats” after the Croats that had introduced them.  Many paintings of noblemen at the time, including Louis XIV, include a brightly-colored cravat. The style was spread across Continental Europe by military men, and was brought back to England by King Charles II when he returned from exile in 1660.

The Battle of Steenkerque in 1692 is remembered more for its fashion significance than its military impact:  the French army (led and heavily populated, at the time, by noblemen and gentlemen of class) was surprised by opposing forces, and the young men went into battle with their cravats hastily tied one end over the other rather than being done up in an elaborate bow. The result was the “steinkirk,” an Anglicized spelling of the battle and the prominent form of menswear in England for a good thirty years after the battle.  It replaced much larger and lacier cravats with a simpler knot and plainer cloth. The ends were twisted together and tucked through a buttonhole, creating a shape much more like our modern necktie.

When Ludwig von Beethoven set out to woo Therese Malfatti in 1810 he adopted a new personal style, which included silk scarves to go with his new suits.

Queen Victoria of England was a great proponent of fashionable accessories, including scarves for both men and women. Neck scarves and cravats became a status symbol, with the material and even the knot of your neckwear indicating your social class. Around this time coachmen and drivers also popularized the familiar “four-in-hand” knot as a way of tying their scarves while still holding the reins, i.e. the reins to four horses in one hand while you tie your scarf with the other.  This is still the knot many men use for their necktie today. Burberry, still a source for iconic neck scarves, was founded in 1856 (though their distinctive tartan pattern was not created until the 1920s, and even then began as a jacket lining rather than a scarf pattern).

By the First World War scarves were a staple winter garment for men. Knitting them was a patriotic chore encouraged in both America and Great Britain during the war.  Art from the time depicts soldiers wearing scarves in the trenches (the iconic trenchcoat, fittingly enough, was also designed by Burberry for the war effort). Early aviators considered scarves essential flight equipment. They provided warmth at high altitudes and needed padding when pilots craned their necks back and forth to scan for other planes.  Scarves enjoyed popularity among young men in the 1920s and 1930s partly because of their military origins and most likely – as is today, their ability to transform an outfit from mundane to striking.

The man's scarf has been replaced as an item of daily business wear by the necktie. Scarves are now an accent for men who choose them rather than a necessity that signifies your rank or class status. The few associations left range from the ultra-formal white scarf worn over a tuxedo jacket to the striped scarves of clubs – although these are becoming more and more rare. So while neckwear is a daily chore for some men, it is also a tradition dating back before the birth of Christ. So tie a scarf on with confidence, knowing that over 80 generations before you have done so with gusto. And that's something to cheer you up in front of the mirror each morning.

[worryinglyinnocent]

Fic: Love is a Layered Cake (4/10)

Summary: Summer has come, and with it, the Great British Bake-Off. Sheep farmer and spinner Rum Gold is one of twelve contestants competing for the crown in the latest show. In addition to navigating the perils of televised baking, ridiculous challenges and his fellow bakers, he also has to contend with his undeniable crush on one of the judges, the beautiful and talented Belle French…

Rated: G

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[Week One: Cake] [Week Two: Biscuits] [Week Three: Bread] [AO3]

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Week Four: Pies and Tarts

In which Gold curses apricots, considers jumping into a fridge, and goes on an adventure involving noodles.

Also, Astrid gets a starring role in the show for one night only.

“It’s time to dust off the innuendo, everyone!” This was Ella’s announcement as she came into the break room early on Saturday morning. Her bright and breezy demeanour, with sunglasses nowhere in sight, was something of a shock to the gathered bakers, who were getting used to seeing her rather hungover of a morning before filming started and she had to look perfectly put together for the cameras.

“Someone’s chirpy,” Jefferson remarked.

“Of course.” Ella gave him a sweet smile. “I always enjoy any week in which I can wring the English language to within an inch of its meaning and in doing so give all the censors a heart attack. Last year during pies and tarts week we got a grand total of twenty-three complaints about the nature of my speeches. I intend to get to at least thirty this year.”

“You do realise that if you do that they’ll threaten to take you off the air,” Ursula pointed out.

“Oh darling, you enjoy it just as much as I do. You’ve been practicing your one-liners in the mirror all week.” Ella pouted, and Ursula had to concede the point.

“That is true. I suppose it’s all part of the bake-off banter. It wouldn’t be the same if we were respectable every week. Still, are we all ready?”

If pressed Gold would say that he was about sixty-three per cent ready. He was hanging all his hopes on the second day, when they would be making pies, because pies were something that he could generally make without too much bother. Of course, this was a baking competition and the simple meat pies that he made for his family wouldn’t really cut it, but he had more confidence in his abilities there than today. Pastry was one of his stronger areas, but unlike bread it could be hit and miss. Belle had said that she didn’t believe in the star baker curse, which was all very well when she wasn’t one of the bakers whom it might affect. If he got off to a good start then so much the better, but if he performed poorly today, then he would certainly be having words with Belle about her theory as proof that the curse definitely did exist.

All the same… It was a well-known fact of the bake-off that despite the increasingly difficult challenges that lay ahead of them, it was extremely rare for the person who was star baker in bread week not to make it through to the grand final of the competition. If he was going to believe in any of the strange legends that surrounded the bake-off, Gold thought that it would be better for him to believe in that one.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” Emma said. “Which is not ready at all. I’ll be all right as long as the technical challenge does not involve puff pastry in any shape or form.”

“What’s wrong with puff pastry?” Lance asked. “It’s easy!”

“Are you mad, man? Puff pastry is the food of the devil! I mean, I enjoy eating a good apple turnover as much as the next person-” here the entire party broke off into laughter as the next person to enter the room was Regina, self-confessed queen of the apple turnover “-but when it comes to puff pastry, mine always comes out of a packet. I have long since given up attempting to make it.”

“No, no, no.” Leroy had come over to investigate their argument. “There’s something very therapeutic and logical about it.” It was rare for Leroy to engage in conversation with the others; he wasn’t anti-social per se but he generally spent most of his time chatting to Astrid and the other production staff whom he knew through her, and to hear the down-to-earth builder talking about baking being therapeutic was certainly an eye-opener. Then again, it wasn’t too strange. Leroy and Lance were both definitely pastry men, that had been established during the first week together, and this would be their week to shine out. Gold had enjoyed finding all the other baker’s strengths, and he wondered how things would continue to pan out as the series progressed and the things they had to make became ever more complicated. He dreaded to think what the technical challenge in the finale would be, if he made it that far.

He shook his head; it was far too early to be thinking about that yet when he hadn’t even started baking today, let alone got through the technical challenge, and there were still another five weeks to go before the finale after this one. Six more people to lose. He didn’t really want to lose anyone, apart from Zelena. They were growing into good friends and a real set of characters, and they’d all be a loss to the tent if they were to leave. He certainly didn’t want to leave himself. Now all he had to do was make sure that he didn’t.

X

In Belle’s opinion, pies and tarts was another crucial week in sorting out people’s strengths and weaknesses, as it was the first week that the bakers would be tackling pastry. Perhaps those who had not had huge successes thus far would come into their own today. She glanced down at her shoes as they waited outside the tent for the production to begin; she’d worn her favourite bright blue peep-toed heels and they were sinking into the soft ground where it had rained overnight. Granny took a look at her footwear and tutted with good-natured disapproval.

“I don’t know how you can even stand up in those things, let alone walk around or do anything useful in them,” she said. “Ruby’s just as bad. I would say that I thought she was a bad influence on you, but when it comes to ridiculously high shoes, I know that you’re the instigator every time.”

“It’s not my fault, Granny, I really need the extra height!” Belle complained. “The last couple of baking shows I did in the intervals between bake-offs, the producers had me stand on a box so that I didn’t look dwarfed by the other presenters!”

“Well, I’m not exactly a giant myself, but I don’t feel the need to strap miniature spears to my heels. Give me my sensible Hotters any day.”

“To each their own, Granny.”

Belle’s relationship with Granny was a long-standing one, going back long before the bake-off. She’d been at school with Ruby Lucas, and in a way, it was Granny who had inspired Belle to start baking in the first place, as she had always loved watching her best friend’s grandmother create all these amazing cakes and pies when she’d been visiting after school. Although the two girls had grown apart, as school-friends do when distance gets in the way, the lessons that Granny had taught her were still a part of Belle’s baking repertoire, and when she had the opportunity to work with the woman who had become both a personal and professional icon, she wouldn’t have passed it up for the world.

It was time for them to enter the tent, and Belle unstuck her feet from the ground and followed Granny, Elsa and Ursula inside. Although they had only lost three bakers, the tent still felt emptier as the work benches were respaced each week to avoid having everyone clumped together and too many empty benches, and the gaps between everyone were getting steadily bigger. By the time they got to week six they’d all be looking rather lonely in their own little corners, and Belle sometimes found the tent quite sad to look at with so few people in it. Still, there were still nine of them here today, and plenty of work to be getting on with.

“Good morning bakers,” Ella said brightly. “Welcome to week four of the bake-off, dedicated to pies and tarts. I have been categorically forbidden from making inappropriate jokes about this, which I think is most unfair.”

“Believe me, the viewers will thank me for it,” Ursula said. “For your signature challenge this week, Belle and Granny would like you to bake a frangipane tart. It must use shortcrust pastry, and it must be open topped, but it can use any filling you choose.” She glanced over at Ella with a warning look. “Don’t say it.”

Ella just grinned. “You’ve got two hours for your topless tarts.”

A ripple of mirth ran around the tent, and Belle, for all she tried to remain as poised as possible during each week, couldn’t help but give in as well. It was all part of the show’s charm; as racy as Ella and Ursula could be, there was never any harm intended, it was just in-keeping with the ideal. There would be more than one reference to soggy bottoms before the weekend was out; it was a staple of pie week and Belle thought that the audience would be disappointed if they didn’t get a couple of the usual jokes in.

Ursula groaned. “You had to go there.”

“Of course I had to. On your marks!”

“Get set!”

“Bake!”

The tent burst into a flurry of activity as flour was sifted and butter cut into it. Shortcrust pastry was one of the easier pastries in Belle’s opinion, with no repeated turning, rolling and chilling involved, but as with any tart, blind-baking the pastry was crucial to ensure a crisp base that would hold its filling - at the same time this was often a stumbling block for bakers who would go on to overbake the finished product. Like with bread, timing was crucial for each stage of the baking process.

After letting the bakers get settled into their pastry-making, Belle and Granny began the rounds. Leroy was up first, making a poached pear tart that he admitted, with a sheepish little smile, was Astrid’s favourite. His dough was already chilling in the fridge and Belle had to admire the speed and skill with which he’d got it made. Astrid had said that she hoped Leroy would make it into pie week so that he could come into his own, and he showed no signs of letting her down now. Mal was using figs as her fruit of choice, Regina had decided on plums: “I don’t want to be accused of only ever using the one fruit, as much as I love apples they don’t really go with a frangipane. You need a softer fruit for that, I think.” Elsa and Lance had both gone for raspberries.

Much to Belle’s surprise, Zelena was not using a green fruit, and she almost commented on the fact as they came over to her bench to find her elbow deep in blueberries. She and Granny had started making bets on how much more green she could incorporate into her cooking without it looking strange. At least they knew that she was going to enjoy one of the upcoming technical challenges. Green would be in abundance.

“Good morning Zelena,” Belle said brightly. In the week following the baking disaster that had got Rory sent home, Belle had not been able to get the idea out of her head that Zelena had somehow had a hand in the catastrophe. She knew that it was ridiculous to assume something so heinous of the woman just because they didn’t like her and she was trying to keep an open mind as they chatted animatedly about her blueberry and lavender frangipane, but the feeling of unease had been getting slowly and slowly stronger in the intervening days. They had no proof - well, not unless they went through all the reams of camera footage from the day and found something suspect - but the ill feeling remained, and Belle was determined to keep a close eye on the redhead this week in case of any more ‘mishaps’ on the part of the other contestants. Hopefully everything would prove to be unfounded and they could continue on their culinary journey with no further disasters of the scale that Aurora had unfortunately experienced.

“You need to be careful with lavender,” Granny was saying. “You have to be incredibly precise with the amounts you use otherwise it can completely overpower the other flavours.”

Zelena listened happily, her expression open and benign, but Belle still did not trust her. They moved across the tent to speak to Gold. The production team seemed to have finally got the message and were keeping the two of them as far apart as possible now, and Belle had to say that she was glad. The man had enough to worry about without Zelena mentally undressing him all the time.

“Good morning Raymond,” Granny said. “Tell us all about your frangipane tart.”

“It’s apricot and almond,” Gold said.

“A classic,” Granny agreed. “Well, because it’s a classic, we’re expecting great things.”

“Way to make him feel confident, Granny,” Ursula remarked. “Don’t worry,” she added to Gold. “You’ll be fine.”

“I’m really not sure about that,” Gold muttered. “The apricots are getting above themselves.”

He was in the middle of trying to peel the small fruits, and he seemed to be having some trouble. Although Belle didn’t believe in the idea of the Star Baker curse, she wondered if the contestants had created a self-fulfilling prophecy by going into a week expecting to do badly and therefore finding more problems for themselves.

“We’ll let you get on,” Granny said kindly, sensing his mounting frustration, and they moved on to speak to Jefferson, who was using pears and hazelnuts. One of the things that Belle had always enjoyed the most about the competition was seeing the sheer amount of different things that the contestants could come up with to flavour their creations with. It was incredibly rare to have two people making very similar things, and the depth and breadth of creativity that they showed never failed to make her smile. That was, however, one thing that she was slightly worried about with Gold. So far his bakes had all been pretty solid, but thus far he hadn’t strayed too far into adventurous territory, sticking with flavour combinations that were tried and tested and keeping things simple. There was nothing wrong with the basics, it was something that Granny had often espoused when bakers tried incredibly inventive ideas that had gone rather wrong in the execution, but all the same, as time went on and the bakes became more difficult, he might be left behind as the others came up with wilder ideas.

Once they had spoken to all of the bakers about what they were doing, Belle and Granny returned to their usual pastime of wandering the tent. A couple of contestants in past series had jokingly accused them of trying to be menacing, but even though Granny was thought of as a tough judge and sometimes difficult to please, but not even the most nervous of dispositions could ever really find her menacing.

Determined to keep an eye on Zelena, Belle made herself a cup of tea and settled on the bench at the back of the tent, next to the microwave. The redhead was behaving herself, completely absorbed in her own work and not paying attention to the other bakers, and she was beginning to think that perhaps she had been too hasty to judge her. All the same, that little niggle refused to die away, even as Ella called time on the challenge and they moved back to the front of the tent to let the production crew clean up around them before the judging began. She got the feeling that Zelena was planning something, and she wished she knew what it was.

Frangipane was difficult to get right with its mixture of textures, especially when using berry fruits on the top which had a tendency to exude a lot of juice and make the whole thing rather soggy. Regina, Leroy and Jefferson were definitely the frontrunners. Zelena’s had, as Granny had expected, suffered from an overdose of lavender that masked all the other flavours. Gold had also not fared too well; he’d had the bad fortune that the fresh apricots he’d used weren’t very flavoursome and whilst his frangipane sponge was very good, he had fallen into the trap of overbaking the pastry case, making it dry and crumbly. Belle gave him a sympathetic smile. It wasn’t a bad bake, not one that had put him in a precarious position for the next round - Mal and Elsa had also done badly with overbaking, and there was still the technical challenge in which everything could turn around.

All the same, she did feel sorry for him, with this disappointment coming on top of his last week’s triumph.

X

“I was betrayed by my apricots,” Gold muttered to Jefferson as the two of them sat in the lunch room, discussing the morning’s bake.

“That’s the trouble with fruit,” Jefferson mused, holding up a small satsuma and looking at it critically from every angle. “You can never tell whether it’s going to be good or bad until you get inside it. The flavour is impossible to determine from the outside.”

Gold raised an eyebrow. “I imagine that’s true of a lot of things.”

“No, not at all.” Jefferson was fully earnest as he turned towards Gold, still holding the satsuma as if he was presenting it for Gold’s inspection. “Now, when you pick up an old bread roll, you can immediately tell from the outside that it’s hard and dry and past its best. Same for cheese, you can see where it’s gone dry and brown. Or grown a furry coat. But take this satsuma. You know how satsumas go all horrible and shrivelled up inside when they’re old?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you have no way of knowing if your satsuma is shrivelled up inside until you peel it. Until you peel it, it could be either fresh and juicy or wizened. Schrödinger’s satsuma.”

“I’m beginning to think that you and Lance have a thing about Schrödinger,” Ella said, coming over to them with a large mug of coffee. “Last week it was dough, this week it’s wizened satsumas. You should be glad that the cameras aren’t rolling in here otherwise I would be making some very terrible jokes about your word choice.”

“I didn’t think you needed an audience to make terrible jokes, Ella,” Jefferson said brightly. “You do it all the time.”

“Ah, but it’s always better when I know I have the chance of offending a little old lady in Chipping Norton with my witticisms. Chin up, Mr Gold,” she added on seeing Gold looking despondent after his performance in the first challenge. “There’s still plenty of time for things to look up.”

Gold, unfortunately, did not share her optimism, and he definitely believed in the Star Baker curse at that point in time. A lot of people were feeling the pressure this week, it seemed. It was like the difficulty had been ratcheted up a notch. Still, there was no use in getting himself down before he’d even started on the final two challenges, and he tried to see the bright side. He had certainly not fared the worst in the challenge, even though he was nowhere near the best. He wasn’t going to get sent home right now. He just had to go into the rest of the weekend with a determination to do better. Having done so well the previous week, it would be extremely ignominious to have to go home and tell Aunt Elvira that his previous glory was all undone.

They trooped back down into the tent for the technical challenge, Granny dispensing a few cryptic words of advice before she and Belle were banished from the tent. Ursula outlined the challenge.

“This afternoon, bakers, the judges would like you to make six mini pear pies. These are individual pies made with rough puff pastry and whole poached pears. You have two hours on the clock for this challenge. On your marks.”

“Get set.”

“Bake!”

Gold sighed as he turned over the recipe card and pulled the cloth off his allotted ingredients, reading through the instructions before getting to work. If there was one thing that he had learned during the past few weekends, it was that two hours was an incredibly short amount of time. He could see a cameraman coming towards him as he began to make his pastry so that it could have the maximum time to chill between turns, and he recognised him as Walter, who was a friendly soul and never too intrusive; Gold didn’t mind talking to him.

“I’ve never poached a pear before,” he muttered. “I hate pears. No-one in my family enjoys eating pears.”

Walter gave a snort of laughter, readjusting the steadicam on his shoulder. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard you so vehement about something.”

“Well, pears are the fruit of the devil.” Why had it had to be pears, of all the things? At least he wouldn’t be expected to sample his own creation. Across the tent, he heard Emma cursing the fact that they were using puff pastry, albeit the quicker to make version than painstaking full-puff, which involved layering butter and dough. At least in rough puff the butter was already in the dough.

“Who grates butter!” Mal moaned from the back; the recipe had provided them with chunks of frozen butter for grating into the pastry mixture, a process that required great arm strength. It was clear that this challenge was not going to go down as one of the favoured ones, and only the pastry aficionados like Lance and Leroy would get through it without too many problems. Gold just got on with it, feeling the time ticking away as he rolled and turned the pastry and put the pears on the heat, glaring at the offending fruit with such ferocity that Jefferson burst out laughing.

The final hurdle in the challenge came when the contestants had to glaze the pears and wrap the strips of pastry around them before putting them in the oven. Several people complained of their pastry falling off the pears due to the temperature, and Gold was quite sure that no-one in the tent was going to get this challenge perfect. He wedged the pastry strips on as best he could, trying to make sure that there were no glaring gaps between them, and shoved them in the oven, letting out a long breath as he rested his forehead on the edge of his workbench. When he moved away there was a sweaty smear there and he surreptitiously flicked at it with his tea towel. He hadn’t realised just how hot and bothered the challenge had made him. The mood in the tent was far less jovial than it had been in the morning, the entire atmosphere quieter and full of tension. Even Ursula and Ella were speaking to the other bakers in hushed tones, calm and reassuring. Everyone was feeling the pressure this afternoon.

Still, soon enough the pies were coming out of the ovens and Ursula was calling time on the challenge. The pies were placed on the judging table at the front and the clean-up began again. It was interesting to see the vastly different levels of success that they’d all had, and Gold wondered just who had got it right in the end.

When Belle and Granny came back into the tent at long last, it was clear that they were trying not to laugh at the disparity.

“Well, we’ve certainly got some, erm, variety here, haven’t we?” Granny said. “Shall we start?”

In the end Leroy came first, and considering the discussions on puff pastry that they’d been having the day before, Gold couldn’t say that he was particularly surprised. Gold himself was sixth; not great but not completely terrible either. Mal was at the bottom; the majority of her pastry had slid off the pies in the oven and they’d ended up as poached pears sitting in little puddles of puff pastry. Belle and Ursula were consoling her in one corner of the tent as Gold got ready to leave for the evening, hoping that Sunday’s showstopper would bring a better enough performance to guarantee his safety for the next week.

“Feeling confident about tomorrow?”

Gold jerked out of his reverie on hearing Zelena’s voice beside him, and he found her leaning on the workbench next to him, a smile on her face that would be called pleasant if it weren’t so hungry. He looked around desperately for an exit but he was somewhat hemmed in, and any attempt to escape would be incredibly obvious. That was the trouble with the tent, there were no doors, well, except for the doors on the fridges. He weighed up the potential drawbacks of diving headfirst into a fridge to get away from his conversation partner and decided that it was really too much of a risk. The only way to get rid of Zelena would probably be to give her what she wanted, otherwise she’d just persist. Unfortunately, right now it looked like what Zelena wanted was to take one of his kidneys.

“As confident as can be expected,” he said in answer to her question, inching away from her along the bench. She followed him.

“You know, if I didn’t know better I’d say that you were avoiding me,” she said, her tone obviously trying to be playful but succeeding only in sounding menacing. “We’ve never really got to know each other properly.” Gold just stared at her like a deer in the headlights, and she seemed to smirk at his discomfort. “There’s something about you, you know, that makes me wonder. You certainly showed us all last week. What other hidden talents have you got squirrelled away?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Gold said coolly, taking another measured step away from her. Zelena just laughed.

“There’s really no need to run away,” she said. “I don’t bite.”

“I’m really not so sure about that,” Gold murmured. “Are you like this with everyone?”

“Of course not. Just the people I find interesting and want to get to know.”

“I can assure you I am incredibly boring and you don’t want to get to know me.” He’d almost managed to get the workbench between himself and Zelena but she grabbed his hand.

“Oh, I beg to differ.”

Gold looked down at her hand and tugged his wrist away from her vice like grip.

“Let go of me, please.”

“I just want to talk to you.”

“Please let go.”

“Hey, Gold, are you coming? We’re going to be late.”

It was Emma whose intervention saved him; she was standing at the entrance to the tent with Jefferson, Elsa and Lance, and even though Gold had no idea what he was supposed to be late for, he grabbed the out with both hands and feet and wrenched himself out of Zelena’s hold, making his way down towards the group with as much speed as his cane could give him.

“You ok?” Emma asked under her breath. “She looked like she was about to eat you alive.”

“I’m glad I’m not the only one who got that impression,” Gold replied faintly. “Thank you for rescuing me.”

“You’re welcome. We were going to go and get Chinese, there’s a great place down the road from the hotel; Elsa discovered it. You’re welcome to join us.”

Gold nodded, still shaken from the encounter with Zelena. “Please.”

The group left the tent together and Gold glanced back over his shoulder at Zelena. If looks could kill, well, the four of them would be dead several times over from the amount of venom in her stare.

“There is something about that woman that I really don’t trust,” Elsa said once they were in the cab heading for the restaurant. “She just seems so calculated and scheming all the time. I mean, if one of us had a problem with our bake then we’d all chip in to help each other out, wouldn’t we? It’s part of the beauty of bake-off that even though it’s a competition, it’s so friendly, not cutthroat at all. But I really don’t think you’d get any kind of assistance from her. The opposite, in fact.”

“Yes,” Emma agreed, for all the world lost in thoughts of Zelena and the worrying aura that she consistently presented. “From what I overheard from the judges chatting earlier, Belle’s not entirely convinced that she wasn’t responsible for Aurora’s catastrophe last week.”

“When did you overhear the judges chatting?” Elsa exclaimed. “Have you got any more juicy tidbits? Were they discussing who’s going to leave this week?”

“Woah, woah, calm down!”

“We can’t calm down!” Jefferson was just as excited at the prospect of clandestine gossip from the judges as Elsa was. “You have to tell us these things! You can’t just say that you overheard the judges chatting and then not elaborate!”

“I did elaborate, I said that Belle was suspicious of Zelena!”

“Yes! And?”

“And there is no and! That was it!”

“How did you come into this knowledge in the first place? Where were you?”

“I was on my way to the bathroom, if you must know. They put Granny and Belle in that little cubby hole room along the corridor from the break room. Maybe so that they’re not in the break room putting us off our lunch when we’re trying to relax before going into nerve-wracking technicals. Anyway, the door wasn’t closed properly and that was what I heard.”

“Well, that’s definitely news to squirrel away,” Jefferson said. He seemed rather gleeful at the prospect and Emma and Lance gave him a sceptical look.

“You’re getting way too into this,” the other man said.

“But it’s exciting! You never get to see all the gossip and behind the scenes back-stabbing on the actual programme! We’re right in the thick of it now!”

Jefferson and Elsa were still trying to get non-existent information out of Emma by the time they arrived at the restaurant, and Lance and Gold let the three of them get on with it. It was a pleasant evening and the food was, as promised, excellent. It was strange; Gold had never really thought about socialising with the other bakers outside of the tent, even though those who were from places too far away to go home daily were all in the same hotel a couple of miles from the filming location. They had their breaks together in the house obviously, but those tended to be taken up with discussing the events of the day so far, the conversation topics never straying too far from baking. Well, except when Jefferson was concerned as the man could turn his attention to absolutely anything at a moment’s notice. But out here, away from the pressures of knowing that the cameras would be back on them soon enough, it was easier to think of his fellow contestants as friends rather than a bunch of strangers he was just getting to know in fits and starts as they competed against each other. They could have been any group of people out for a meal together. True, they didn’t look like the most typical group of people given the disparity in their ages and looks, but they all got on well, which was the main thing. He stirred around the noodles on his plate, listening to Lance and Elsa argue over which of the major animation studios was the best. He’d learned more about these people in a couple of short hours than he had in three previous weekends in the tent, and he found it sad that they would eventually all be going their separate ways as they gradually left the tent and went back to their day jobs.

Gold knew that he was not the best at friendship; given his isolated location and the demanding nature of his life, it was hard to keep in contact with people and besides, he had always been content with just Bae, Aunt Elvira and Mr Dove for company. They were all he needed, really. But all the same, he still found himself wondering at the possibility of keeping in touch with his new-found friends after the series had finished. He could hope, at least. He was amazed that they had adopted him into their friendship in the first place, odd one out as he was, but they were open and accepting, never once making comment on his limp or his nervous demeanour, and they had certainly helped him out as far as Zelena was concerned. He remembered the look that she had been wearing when he’d been rescued this evening and it sent a shiver down his spine. He felt like he needed to watch his back, but at the same time, he got the feeling that the people sitting around the table would be watching it for him as well. It was reassuring.

It was late by the time they returned to the hotel and Gold remembered that he hadn’t checked in with Bae. It was a Saturday, he and Aunt Elvira would still be up watching Match of the Day, so he sent a quick text.

Going ok so far. I think.

Bae’s reply was almost immediate.

You’re late. Everything ok?

It’s fine. I went out to dinner with some of the others.

*faints* OMG Dad you have a SOCIAL LIFE now! I’m telling Aunt E.

Gold rolled his eyes and didn’t reply, collapsing back onto his bed and wondering what the following day would bring. With any luck it would be a little better fortune than today’s bakes had had.

X

“Good morning bakers, and welcome to the second day of our pies and tarts week which will, unfortunately, be focussed on pies.” Ella gave an overly dramatic sigh at the prospect of being unable to make quite as many jokes as she had done the previous morning.

“Considering the number of complaints we’ve probably clocked up already, this is likely a good thing,” Ursula pointed out. “Today is showstopper day, and as usual, Belle and Granny are looking forward to seeing you pull out all the stops as you create a three-tiered pie. Now, the pies must share some kind of common theme that links them all together, although exactly how you go about this is up to you. You can use any pastry you like, and any filling, sweet or savoury, but the pies must be able to support themselves and must have at least three tiers.”

“You have four and a half hours on the clock. On your marks.”

“Get set.”

“Bake!”

Gold had to wonder when in his life he would ever need to make a three-tiered pie. He’d never even made a three-tiered cake before, and he really doubted that anyone would want a tiered pie instead of a cake at their wedding, which was the only time he could think of people wanting multiple heights of baked goods. Nevertheless, this was what the judges wanted, so it was what he was going to give them, and he set about creating the first batch of hot water crust pastry that would form the basis of his pies. Looking around the tent, it seemed that everyone else had had a similar idea - hot water crust pastry required no blind baking and was very sturdy, unlikely to lose its shape or collapse under the weight of the other pies on top of it. This was going to prove to be one of the busier challenges, Gold could already tell that from the amount of ingredients that were piled up on everyone’s benches. With three different pies and different fillings to make, there would be no space to sit and think about everything that could go wrong, like there had been during bread week. Gold supposed that this was a blessing in a way as it would take his mind off stewing pessimistically, but at the same time he was already panicking about getting everything done in time. He’d practiced as much as he could, but ultimately he worked long hours and making bread (easy and life-long practised) or cake (extremely quick in comparison), was far more tempting a task after the day’s herding was over. Still, Aunt Elvira and Bae had given the seal of approval to the pies that he had made, and he was hoping that he could win the judges over too. Having been star baker the previous week, it was clear that they were expecting something spectacular from him today when they came over. The little star badge pinned to his apron suddenly felt rather heavy.

“Hello Mr Gold,” Ella said brightly. “What are you making today? It all looks very… meaty.”

“Ella, please.” Belle shook her head in despair. “What are we going to do with you?”

“Love me.” Ella beamed beatifically.

Belle just rolled her eyes and turned her attention to Gold. “Tell us about your three pies.”

“I’m making Christmas-themed pork pies,” he replied. “I know it’s not exactly the right season for it, but I’m hoping that by the time it actually gets to Christmas I’ll have them perfect.”

“Please don’t tell me that you’re going to put sprouts in them,” Ella said. “I’ll have to disown you if that happens.”

“There are no sprouts,” Gold assured her. “The bottom one will be filled with layers of pork with a sage and sausagemeat stuffing. The middle one is layered with bacon and a herb stuffing, and the top one has cranberry sauce and onions.”

“They sound delicious,” Granny said. “I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out.”

They left him to cross over to Jefferson, who was going above and beyond the call of duty and was attempting to create a four-tirered pie inspired by the four seasons. Belle praised his ambition but was rather concerned about how he was going to get it all done in the time, which was something Gold was wondering about his own creation. Emma was at the bench in front of him this time and she turned to exchange an incredulous look with him when she too heard the extent of Jefferson’s prospective bake.

“I thought three was pushing it!” she exclaimed. “I don’t think there are enough sausages in the world to create that many pies.”

“Sausage pies?”

“Yeah, Henry loves them. They’re kind of like toad in the hole, but in a pie instead of Yorkshire puddings.”

“Right…”

“They taste amazing!”

“I’m not saying that they don’t, I’ve just never come across the concept before.”

“Well, now you have. Although I must say, yours are making me really want a full Christmas dinner when I get home tonight. Graham’s going to think I’ve gone mad.”

Gold just shook his head in good natured despair and returned to the more pressing task of lining the pie tins with his finished pastry, trying to ensure that it was an even thickness all the way round, not so thick that it wouldn’t cook but not so thin that the filling might leak out through it. The cameras kept coming around at various points and he tried to keep up the easy chatter that the other contestants did so well, telling the crew what they were doing at any given point, but even after three weeks in the tent, he didn’t think that the awkwardness would ever really fade away, and they left him alone for the most part. Whilst there were still nine of them in the running, they had plenty of other, slightly more eloquent candidates to choose from, so Gold just got his head down and focussed on his pies and the heady aroma of herbs and onions that was enveloping his workbench. He heard Jefferson exclaiming that he really didn’t have enough room for all his pies on his workbench and lamenting that he might have to start filling them up on the floor, which Belle pointed out was incredibly unhygienic and should he do that, she would not be sampling the finished product for fear of food poisoning. It was only once the pies were in the oven that he had any time to sit and think, and to that end, he settled himself on the floor beside his oven to watch their progress for a while, stretching out his bad leg in front of him. Truth be told, he was hiding. After Zelena cornering him the previous evening, he wanted to avoid any kind of contact with her at all, and if she couldn’t even see him, then so much the better.

“Ah, the classic oven watch.”

Gold startled to find Ursula crouching down beside him and nodded half-heartedly.

“I see. It’s not so much a desire to see what’s in the oven as to not see what else is in the tent.”

“More who else is in the tent.”

“Well, with any luck her pies will turn out terribly and she’ll get the boot,” Ursula said brightly. It was telling, Gold thought, that they all knew who they were talking about without any names being mentioned. Unfortunately, Gold didn’t think that was likely. The trouble with Zelena was that she was pretty good at what she did, and since this was a baking competition, it would have been very obvious that different motives were at work if she were to be sent home when there were other, worse bakers in the tent. Mal and Elsa hadn’t had a great weekend and today was going to be crucial for them to remain in the running.

The timer beeped and Gold reached up onto the bench to silence it and grab the cook’s thermometer that would hopefully tell him if his pies had reached the maximum temperature to show that their filling was fully cooked on the inside. He couldn’t fit all three in the oven at once so he was going to have to cook the final, smallest one after the others had finished baking; he only hoped that he would have enough time. Ursula patted his shoulder and got back to her feet, letting him get on with it as she went over to investigate how Jefferson was getting on with his own monstrous concoction. Gold trusted in Jefferson’s superior skills, but at the same time the chaos going on at the other man’s workbench was rather disconcerting. His pies had reached temperature, thank god, and he shut the oven to given them another five minutes in order to get a really good golden-brown finish.

He’d just put the final pie in the oven and was letting the larger ones cool when he heard an exclamation from the back of the tent and everyone’s attention snap in that direction, with the cameras and crew all heading over towards Mal’s workbench. He grabbed his cane and levered himself to his feet to see what all the fuss was about, and was alarmed to see flames on Mal’s workbench. She was flapping at the blaze with an oven mitt, which really wasn’t helping, until Lance had the bright idea of using a spatula to scoot the burning tea towel into the sink and put out the fire with water. Once the panic had calmed down and they’d established that there was no need to get the fire brigade out, it became clear what had happened. Mal had been attempting to make a three-course meal pie, including a lemon meringue pie on the top, and she’d had a slight accident with the blowtorch whilst trying to cook the meringue. She gave a sigh.

“I have been accused of being a dragon in the past,” Gold heard her mutter as she went about salvaging her pie, “but I’ve never actually got to the stage of breathing fire before. This is incredibly embarrassing. I’m an arson investigator for God’s sake!”

Time continued to tick by and as pies began to assemble on the workbenches, Gold received his first real view of the competition. Jefferson’s creation was indeed enormous; Ella commented that she could probably live in it if she hadn’t eaten it first. Mal’s was looking somewhat haphazard and slightly charred on the top thanks to her misadventures with the blowtorch. Lance’s looked amazing; the crusts of the pies were beautifully decorated with delicate pastry shapes and the entire thing was a rich golden brown that made Gold want to bite into it with gusto straight away. He looked at his own offering, which he didn’t think was too bad, even if he did say so himself. The pastry of his topmost pie was a little darker in colour than the rest of the pies as it had taken longer to cook than he’d expected, and there was a little leakage on the top where the cranberry juice had spilled out of the seam between the sides and the lid of the crust, but over all, he was happy with what he’d produced.

Ursula called time on the challenge and the clean-up and artistic photography began, that agonising wait before the judges began calling them up when all they could do was sit there and look around at what everyone else had created.

Finally the judging began. Gold was the first to be called up, and he immediately came upon a problem. His bake was too large and heavy for him to carry one-handed, and too precarious for him to risk not using his cane.

“Hey, let me.” Elsa dashed round from the bench behind him and picked up the creation easily, bearing it up to the table at the front, and Gold followed on gratefully.

“Well, it certainly looks tempting,” Granny said. “A little bit uneven, but still a nice colour on each of the pies.”

They cut into the pies, tasting each one and proclaiming the verdicts. A little dry, but well-filled and tasty. Gold was happy with that; he’d done enough to be safe, he thought, and he could definitely live with that. Ursula carried his bake back to his bench and he sat back to watch the rest of the judging; there was nothing else he could do to affect the outcome now. Mal and Elsa had both struggled in the challenge again; all of Elsa’s pies had managed to leak and catch on the sides, and having been absent for two weeks, Mal’s accident-prone streak had returned with a vengeance. It would probably come down to the two of them, and Gold would be sad to see either of them leave. Both were strong personalities within the tent, and Elsa had become a good friend over the last few weekends.

Gold had to admit that Leroy’s tower of pies was incredibly impressive. The crisp pastry crusts showed no signs of leakage anywhere, and they were all baked to golden perfection. Each pie was topped with shiny glazed fruit - apricots, apples and cranberries on the top. A trio of pork pies complimented perfectly by the layers of sharp fruit, or so Granny and Belle said when they had sampled a small piece from each of the tiers. Despite the obvious success of his creation, Leroy was looking unaccountably nervous, and Gold turned his head on one side as he tried to work out what was going on in the man’s mind. He had never seen Leroy in the least bit nervous before; he was always reliably in the middle of the field producing things that were not exactly spectacular but were solidly baked and tasted great even if they did not look like masterpieces. This was the first time that Gold had really seen Leroy pull all the stops out, but even so, he and Astrid had already said that pies were his speciality. Perhaps he was feeling the same kind of nervousness that Gold had felt last week, during his own strength. But his judging was ostensibly over and he’d done very well, certainly the best of all the bakes that had been judged so far.

“There’s one finishing touch I need to put on,” he mumbled, and with a speed and grace that belied his stocky build, he darted forward and placed a little square of card atop the glazed cranberries, crowning the towering concoction with a small velvet box before he turned to Astrid, bowing low. “Astrid, will you marry me?”

Without exception, everyone in the tent’s attention turned to Astrid, standing out of sight of the cameras at one side. All the steadicam operators swung around to find her beaming despite the tears that were pouring down her face.

“Of course I will, you hopeless romantic!”

From what little he knew of Leroy before this week, Gold would have thought that ‘hopeless romantic’ would be the last words used to describe him, but today’s events had proved him spectacularly wrong. Astrid rushed across the tent and threw her arms around her fiancé, covering him with sloppy kisses, and the tent erupted into applause and cheers, until a polite cough from Ursula reminded them that they were in the middle of the showstopper judging and they probably ought to get a move on.

“Be careful, you two,” she said. “Remember that this is a family show! We don’t want to be getting complaints from Ofcom. We’re probably already on the watchlist for the amount of tart jokes Ella made yesterday.”

“It wouldn’t be Bake-Off without double entendres and proposal pies.” Ella gave a happy sigh. “Congratulations, you two.”

Astrid pecked a final kiss to Leroy’s bald head and together they carried his triumphant pie back down to his workbench, and Emma brought up her sausage pies.

“I really don’t know how I can top that now,” she said. “I mean, Granny’s a national institution but I don’t think that asking her to marry me will work in my favour.”

“You never know.” Granny winked. “I wasn’t always a granny, you know. I’ve seen all sorts of things in my time.”

Gold did not doubt that. Granny’s solo cooking show, which had been running for longer than the bake-off, was filmed in her own kitchen at home, a vast room which had an antique crossbow mounted on one wall, a weapon that the entire country had unanimously decided that she definitely knew how to use, and almost unanimously decided that she had killed someone with.

The judging came to a close, and the contestants were left to their own devices as the tent was cleaned up and reset for the final announcement of who would not be going through to the next round. Gold didn’t think that he needed to worry - his performance had not been as good as last week but he didn’t think that he had disgraced himself either. It was going to come down to a choice between Leroy, Lance and Regina, who had all performed well throughout the weekend.

Naturally, the only topic of choice in the tent was Astrid and Leroy’s very new engagement, with everyone flocking around them to admire the ring and ask about the circumstances of the proposal.

“That was very brave,” Jefferson was saying to Leroy. “What would have happened if she’d said no?”

Leroy shrugged. “Then she would have said no.”

“He knew I was going to say yes.” Astrid laughed, and rested her head against Leroy’s shoulder with a happy sigh. The rest of the production team had accepted that they weren’t going to have her help during the reset and had given in with good grace, carefully manoeuvring themselves around the crowd that had gathered at Leroy’s bench. “I’ve been asking him when he was going to propose properly for months and he’s always said that he was waiting for the right moment. I never dreamed that it would be now.”

“Yeah, I’d have been a bit stuck if I hadn’t survived this long,” Leroy muttered.

“I had every faith in you,” Astrid said. “You’re a fantastic baker.”

It was this compliment that made Leroy blush, his smile going from ear to ear and lightening a face that was usually dour. It was clear that for all his grumpy demeanour, the two were clearly completely smitten with each other, and Gold had high hopes for their future marriage.

It was clear, however, that not everyone in the tent was as happy with this turn of events as the rest of them were. Zelena was not part of the group and could be found in deep conversation with one of the cameramen in one corner of the tent. From the pout on her face and the way her arms were folded, it was clear that she was complaining about something, and as much as Gold did not want to be anywhere near her, he was morbidly fascinated to find out what she might be saying. Emma caught his eye, nodding in Zelena’s direction, and together they crept a little bit closer under the guise of eating Emma’s leftover sausages.

“I just think it’s so unfair,” Zelena was moaning. “I mean, he clearly only did it for attention. If he comes away with the star baker crown now because of this, then I will complain to the producers about favouritism and publicity stunts.”

“Kind of rich considering what she’s been trying to pull,” Emma muttered, thinking back to their encounter with her after the technical the previous evening. “Leroy waited until Granny and Belle had finished judging his bake before he added the proposal, it’s hardly going to affect how it looked or tasted when they were looking at it, is it?” She shook her head. “I really do worry about her. One of these days I think that she’s going to go too far and something catastrophic is going to happen. To think, she was so sedate last week that I had high hopes for her enthusiasm for chaos being dampened, but she’s back to her old tricks this week. With vigour.”

“Well, it’s almost over now,” Gold said, trying to bring Emma’s brooding back to a lighter place. “Tomorrow is another day and all that.”

“Yes, next week is another week, with all sorts of potential for things to go wrong. Sometimes I wish that we could get rid of people by popular vote.”

“That would be fraught with danger,” Gold said.

“I know. But Granny and Belle can’t boot her off without due cause and her baking is good all the time. She’s always safe and coming back next week to slowly spread all kinds of poison.”

“Well, if the production crew knows what’s good for them then they won’t take any notice of her.” For all Gold sounded calm and wise, he was feeling the exact opposite, and he was just as worried about what Zelena might start getting up to as Emma was. More so, since he seemed to be the object of her twisted affections. Why had she set her sights on him, of all people? There wasn’t anything particular special about him, and if she was a black widow type then she would be sorely disappointed if she was planning to seduce him and murder him to inherit his estate; certainly he owned a lot of land and livestock but farming was hard work and by no means the most lucrative of professions. Perhaps she’d singled him out as the weakest in the pack, that was more likely. All the same, he really didn’t know what she was hoping to achieve other than giving off some pretty stark weirdo vibes. They were all going to have to keep a strict eye on her for the foreseeable future. Perhaps if their fears compounded further, they could rope in Ursula and Ella for assistance. They’d proved themselves more than willing to help out the bakers in the past, and this had the makings of being something far more sinister than a simple baking problem.

There was no more time for deliberation; the tent had been reset and they were being shepherded down to sit in the centre ready for the judges’ return. Both Granny and Belle were smiling broadly as they entered with Ella and Ursula.

“Well, bakers, I think we can safely say that this has been one of the more exciting weeks in the bake-off,” Ursula began. “What with proposal pies and the tent almost being set on fire.”

“Yes, we’re considering installing a sprinkler system,” Ella added.

“According to you, all we have to do is have a rainstorm,” Ursula pointed out. “Still, in spite of the triumphs and the mishaps, there has been some blindingly good baking going on today. Belle and Granny almost came to blows when they had to decide who was star baker.”

“We should have let them fight it out and charged an entry fee for spectators. It would bring a whole new dimension to the bake-off.”

Ursula just rolled her eyes, not bothering to make any kind of response to Ella’s suggestion.

“However, they finally made their minds up based on the performance in all three challenges across the weekend. This week’s Star Baker is Lance.”

The competitors applauded heartily; it was definitely a well-deserved win. Lance had been a strong contender throughout the show so far and it was great to see his dedication rewarded.

“As you know, we can’t take everyone with us,” Ella continued. “I always hate this part. The baker who will not be joining us next week is Mal.”

“We’d like to make it clear that this is in no way a result of the blowtorch incident, and we’re very sorry to see you leave,” Belle said.

Gold was sorry to see Mal leave as well; he would miss her frankness and somewhat cavalier approach to baking. As they all gathered together to congratulate Lance and commiserate with Mal, Gold went over to Leroy and Astrid.

“I’m sorry you didn’t win; I know this was going to be your week.”

“Are you kidding?” Leroy was still grinning in spite of missing out on the Star Baker title. “I’m going to marry Astrid! I’ve won the jackpot!”

Gold had to laugh at the unfailing optimism. Yes, those two were going to be absolutely fine. He made his way back over to the main crowd, who had started to disperse. Zelena had already left, citing wanting to get onto the motorway before the traffic got too bad, and no-one mentioned the fact that the traffic on a Sunday evening at seven o’clock in that part of the country was likely to be non-existent and let her go without another word. Mal and Regina had also vanished, leaving a small group chatting animatedly. It really was telling just how much more vibrant the tent became ‘after hours’ so to speak, in Zelena’s absence. The runners rushed about taking mics off and pulling out the judges and Lance for pieces to camera, and finally, Gold had the opportunity to talk to Belle alone. She was standing at one of the windows to the tent, staring out with a fond smile on her face.

“Something interesting going on out there?” he asked.

Belle waved him over, pointing out Mal and Regina outside, holding hands. “It seems that Leroy and Astrid’s isn’t the only relationship that’s moved onto the next level today. I’m glad that there’s some consolation for her, even if she is going home.”

“We’ll certainly miss her animation,” Gold said. “And everyone loves a good real-life romance story.” He moved away politely as Mal leaned in to kiss Regina’s cheek.

Belle turned to him, still smiling, and for the first time, Gold realised that they were on the same page. There was something in the curve of her lip, something in her bright blue eyes as she held his gaze unwaveringly.

“Yes,” she said softly. “I certainly do.”

Gold shuffled awkwardly, completely at a loss for how to proceed. If this was Belle announcing her interest in him, which he was sure it was, then he was completely screwed. What did he do now? He couldn’t exactly call Aunt Elvira for advice, and besides, her advice would probably come straight out of Ella’s book and be something along the lines of ‘ravish her on the nearest workbench’, adding in various foodstuffs depending on how adventurous she was feeling at the time.

“I do, too,” he finally managed to say, his tongue tripping over the words and making him look even more of an idiot that he already did. “I should, erm…” Oh God, what should he do? His natural instinct was to run in the opposite direction, but he didn’t want her to think that he wasn’t interested in her or that she had scared him off. He was interested. He was also terrified, not of Belle but of the entire idea of romance in the first place.

Thankfully, Belle seemed to have understood, and she touched his arm gently.

“You’re a good man, Raymond Gold, and I like talking to you.”

“I like talking to you too.”

“Good.” Belle’s smile was merry, a little smirk. “I’m glad to hear that we’re both reading from the same songsheet.”

Gold nodded. “I think we are.”

They were left in silence again, neither of them really knowing what to say next, but it was not uncomfortable, and Gold had managed to stop his internal panic. Belle patted his arm and moved away to talk to the others.

“Till next week then, Mr Gold?”

“Till next week, Belle.”

He looked down at his shoes for a long while, wondering if that had really just happened, the dull ache in his ankle telling him that yes, he really was awake and yes, that had really happened. Till next week. Belle liked him and was entertaining some kind of romantic thoughts towards him. It was more than he could have dreamed of, and he didn’t want anything to mar this perfect moment. Eventually though, he had to leave the tent to go and catch his train, but her words and her little smile stayed with him throughout the long journey back to Scotland. It was already dark by the time he arrived home; Dove had taken care of the sheep in his absence and was being treated to hot cocoa and scones in the kitchen, with Aunt Elvira happily yakking on nineteen to the dozen. Gold knew that he really ought to go in and rescue his farmhand, but at the same time, he knew that as soon as he entered the house he would be met with a barrage of questions, and right now he wanted just a few more moments to savour the events of the day.

The front door opened and the sheepdogs rushed out to greet him eagerly, Bae following not too far behind.

“So how’d it go?” his son asked.

“The tent nearly caught fire and there was an on-screen proposal of marriage,” Gold said blithely, as if such things happened every day. Bae’s eyes widened.

“Really?”

“Would I lie to you?”

“You lied to me about the existence of Santa Claus.”

“That doesn’t count. Santa Claus is a universal lie and finding out about it is a rite of passage for every child. At least we managed to keep up the illusion for longer with you because you don’t have any siblings to break the news early. But I am not lying about the fire or the proposal.”

“Who set who on fire? Who proposed? Who accepted? Did they accept?”

“All in good time, Bae. You’ll find out when the series airs.”

“That’s months away! Hang on.” Bae’s eyes narrowed again and he gave his father a sage look. “Are you telling me all this because you don’t want to admit that you got kicked out?”

“Your lack of faith in me is wounding. No, I did not get kicked out. I was solidly middling for the entire weekend and am safely through to dessert week, god help us all.”

“Well done.” Bae paused. “Are you coming inside or not?”

“Yes, I’m coming in.” He decided that it would be best to keep his interactions with Belle to himself for now; he didn’t think that he could handle the Spanish inquisition from Elvira at this point in the night.

But it gave him confidence. He was going back next week, and Belle was looking forward to speaking to him again. That had to account for something, and Gold found himself thinking forward with anticipation, rather than trepidation, and he slipped off into heady dreams of Belle, bread, and crème brulée.

====

Next time: The bakers tackle desserts, blowtorches are banned and then reinstated, and Gold sees an entirely new side to Belle…

====

Mini pear pie recipe here 

Gold’s apricot frangipane recipe here

[madewithonerib]

How to Find Your Place | Derek Prince [2 Timothy 1:9]

2 Timothy 1:9-11 | He has saved us & called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose & by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time eternal. And now He has revealed this grace through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has abolished death & illuminated the way to life & immortality through the gospel, to which I was appointed a preacher, an apostle, & a teacher.

Everything is based on the teaching of the Word of God.

If I ever get away from teaching the Word of God, I get into trouble. When I’m teaching the Word of God, I’m like a duck in water.

I’m absolutely free, in my element. But you take a duck out of water & put it on land, then it looks very clumsy.

That’s how I am if I ever get out of the scope of my ministry.

>> I give you this as an example, because it’s true in some measure for every Christian. In your ministry, in your calling: You’re like a duck in water.

When you get out of your calling, you’re not in your calling, you’re like a duck on land. A duck waddles on land, its clumsy. You look at it & wonder how it ever get around. But once it gets onto the water, it’s all together different.

That’s why it’s so important for everyone of us to know the area, in which we are called.

Another thing that I would bring out in those words that God spoke to me, He said: “In truth, & faith, & love.” And that again has proved progressive.

Before I was saved, I was a philosopher, I was a logician (a reasoner). So the first thing that I grasped in Scripture was TRUTH; & I sought to find the truth — to fit the truths together & see what I would call the intellectual framework.

But people used to tell me, I was very hard to approach; I was distant, I just presented truth & left people to help themselves.

Truth sometimes can frustrate you, if you can’t receive it with faith. Because you can see what could be, what you could be, but you can’t appropriate it.

GOD led me to a place, where I could minister in faith; & I could minister faith to the ppl, whom I ministered truth.

So that they were then able, by faith, to apprehend & apply the truth. But that wasn’t the end. Because the end, of the commandment is love [1 Timothy 1:5].

1 Timothy 1:5 | The goal of our instruction is the love that comes from a pure heart, a clear conscience, & a sincere faith.

Basically, I have learned that we cannot really help people—in the Christian life—unless we love them. You don’t love ppl, you can’t really do much for them.

And I have to give God the glory that gradually, He has melted my somewhat austere military British exterior—that today I really love people.

austere: severe or strict in manner, attitude, or appearance. (of living conditions or a way of life) having no comforts or luxuries; harsh or ascetic.

I love you people, I look at you with a love of God. I long for the best of every one of you—whether I’ve ever known you personally, or not.

>> My desire is that you should be all that you can be—in Christ.

That is just an example of the faithfulness of GOD, with respect of calling.                     _____________________________________________________

Now you probably don’t have the same calling that I do. But you have a specific calling from God.

And you will never be really satisfied, you’ll never be a duck in water—until you are in your calling. There are many different callings.

Going back to 2 Timothy 1:9, we find it even more exciting.

It says, “He has saved us & called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose & by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time eternal. [2 Timothy 1:9] 

I want to emphasize that your calling is HOLY. Once I realized what God had called me to be, I made up my mind that I by His grace would be the best teacher of the Scriptures that I could be.

Not comparing myself with any other teacher. And for well over 40 years, my life has been shaped by my God-given desire to be able to teach the Scriptures the best that I can.                     _____________________________________________________

One of the things that I’ve done is (1) Discipline my mind, I am very careful what I let into my mind. Basically, I hardly ever read anything—unless I feel God wants me to read it.

Before I was saved, I read hundreds of books in various languages.

But I’m not that way now. I very seldom look at the newspaper. If I want to find out what’s going on in the world, we buy a weekly news magazine.

I don’t want to advertise any one particularly on television—but there are 2-3 magazines. You see you try to find the news by television, you waste a whole lot of time. You’ve got to sit through a lot of advertisements; & a lot of news that is absolutely unimportant one week later. You might just as well never heard it.

I don’t want to waste time.

For me time is extremely precious, so I try to store my mind only with the things that will enable me to teach the Bible—with clarity.

If I have one ambition, it’s to be clear. Sometimes I’ve worked at it, for years, there are truths in the Bible that were very confusing to me (years ago). But I have plowed away at it; worked at it—whittled it down, until in most cases, it’s what I teach.

I’m able teach with simplicity & with clarity.

My aim is not to confuse people.

Sometimes at the end of a sermon, somebody will come to me, “Brother Prince, that was a deep message;” & I say, “Lord, what did I do wrong now?”

My aim is to be simple,

People have sometimes said about me, that when I teach: they think, “Well why didn’t I ever know that? Because it’s obvious.” That’s my aim.

I would like everybody to go out of a meeting & say, “Well what he said was absolutely obvious.” I have no higher ambition than that.

So I’ve disciplined myself.

Let me give you an example from athletics...

Any athlete that wants to compete in the Olympics, has got to discipline themselves—such an athlete has to be very careful about what they eat, by the way they spend their time, the exercise they take, the things they read.

They’ve got to build up a positive attitude, in their minds.

They’ve got to go into that competition that they can succeed.

I was a very close friend in my early years, with one of the most famous ballerinas of our century. Anybody who knows about ballet, her name was Margot Fonteyn.

Dame Margot Fonteyn, DBE, stage name of Margaret Evelyn de Arias, was an English ballerina. She spent her entire career as a dancer with the Royal Ballet, eventually being appointed prima ballerina assoluta of the company by Queen Elizabeth II.

I was a close friend of hers—when she was an unknown dancer. And I consider her to be the most successful ballerina of this century.

But I’m not surprised, because I knew how seriously she took her dancing.

There were other ballerinas in the same company, that perhaps had the same ability, but they didn’t have the same dedication.

Now I’m not encouraging you to go into ballet. What I’m trying to show you is: IF you want to succeed, you’ve got to discipline yourself.

You’ve got to order your priorities.

You’ve got to eliminate a lot of things out of your life—which are non-essential.

So it’s a Holy Calling, I wonder if you understand that? I mean it’s not to be played with, it’s not to be bartered for anything else.

It’s HOLY.

2.] Then Paul goes on, here in 2 Timothy 1:9, “

2 Timothy 1:9 | He has saved us & called us to a holy calling, not according to our works, but by His own purpose & grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.

That’s an exciting statement, before anything was ever created, before God ever set time in motion—He knew what He was going to do.

He knew you would be born. He knew you would become a believer. And He had a plan for your life.

I tell people: “You are not an accident.” There’s a divine plan & purpose for every believer, which didn’t start in time. It started before creation. GOD fore-knew us.

The Scripture says, “He predestined us.”

That means He arranged the course that our life is to take.

And He had a specific plan & purpose for everyone of us.

Then it says it was not according to our works.

IT’S NOT ACCORDING TO WHAT WE CAN DO!

It’s not necessarily according to what we’ve been trained to do. I think I can illustrate this from my own case:

I was an only child, I never had brothers or sisters. Girls were a very strange race to me. I didn’t understand them. I mean I had g/fs but that’s different.

You can have a g/f without understanding girls.

And I was intellectually very successful. So you’d think that God would have me to be some professor in some college, or something like that. When I discovered my calling, I married a lady who had a children’s home—with 8 girls in it. And I became a father to 8 girls in 1 day.

You couldn’t think of anybody less qualified—for that position than me.

Basically, God tends to put us in a position for which we’re not qualified. That’s not always true. The reason being, He doesn’t want us to rely on our own abilities—it’s not according to our works, but it’s according to His grace.

You think of some of the most successful servants of God, throughout the centuries—they’ve been weak people, often ppl with few qualifications. Who’ve been put in places of danger & difficulty. You wouldn’t ever imagine that they would succeed.

But you see the thing about grace is this: Grace cannot be earned.

You’ll never achieve grace by working for it.

Works & grace are mutually exclusive. I explain it this way, grace begins where human ability ends.

>> If you can do it by yourself, why should God give you His grace?

But when you come to the place where God wants you to do something, & you can’t do it, then you have to depend on His grace.

And that’s what God wants us to do.

So let me read that verse again: If you can just begin to grasp that, it’ll give you a sense of being important—not that you become conceited. But that you realize that you are part of a tremendous plan that GOD conceived before He created anything.                    _____________________________________________________

One of the greatest problems with ppl in the world today is: Low Self-Esteem. They don’t think they’re worth much.

I would have to say a person with low self-esteem is unlikely to make the best of life. And I believe a Christian should never have that problem.

Let me explain two reasons, 1st the one I’m given:

If you’re a Christian, you’re part of an eternal plan. You have a special job, a special calling, one that nobody else has. You have a responsibility that no one else can carry out.

Then 2ndly, you know how to find out how much you’re worth? I’ll tell you, suppose right now my wife & I are in the middle of selling a house, & let’s say we were told when we bought it that it was worth $55K USD—when we tried to sell it we discovered nobody would pay $55K USD for it—so we were happy to get $50K. Now what’s the house worth? It’s worth what someone will pay for it. You can put any price tag you want on something you want to sell. But it’s worth what someone will pay. No more. Now you are worth what God was willing to pay for you. What did He pay for you? He redeemed you with what? The precious blood of Jesus Christ. Something that is infinitely valuable. Something on which you can put no price-tag.

And if you can grasp that fact: GOD was willing to pay the blood of His Son, to redeem you—you’ll never feel, you’ll never have a problem with self-worth again.

>> Because you’re worth what GOD was willing to pay for you.

Do you see that? I’m sure you didn’t see that, because I see you’ve got a look of surprise on your faces. Well try to digest it, try to absorb it, meditate on it.

Read it over & over again, until it becomes real to you.

You see God’s Word is a mirror, & if you want to know what you’re really like inside you have to look in the mirror.

The first time you look in the mirror: It’s horrible. You discover you’re a sinner; you’re defiled. Your garments are horribly unclean.

But if you’re wise & you act on what God shows you, you repent & trust Jesus for salvation—you’re cleansed, you’re washed, you’re sanctified.

God takes away your filthy garments, & clothes you with the garments of salvation & a robe of righteousness. And next time you look in the mirror, you’re astonished because you don’t see the old (whatever it might be).

You don’t ever see that old person. You see somebody quite different. You’ve changed, transformed. Wearing a garment of salvation & spotless robe of righteousness.

But that’s only the beginning, because God intends to go on changing you. I didn’t intend to look at this Scripture, but take a look in 2 Corinthians 3:18.

2 Corinthians 3:18 | And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into His image with intensifying glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. 

What’s the mirror? Word of God

If you want the Spirit of the Lord to transform you, you’ve got to keep looking in the mirror. If you look away from the mirror, the Spirit of God no longer works on you.

He only works on you when you are looking in God’s Word. So if you go on looking in the mirror (Word of God), & yielding to the Spirit of God, you see glory that’s to you.

And you think that’s wonderful, the next time you look: You’ve been moved from glory to glory...It’s progressing. Understand?

The problem with most Christians, who have a low sense of self-worth, is they don’t spend enough time looking in the mirror (reading God’s Word).

They spend a lot of time looking in the physical mirror. And they’re not always satisfied with what they see. But they don’t spend time looking in the Spiritual Mirror (God’s Word)—which is very satisfying, if you yield to the Spirit of God.

And really there are no limits, we are continually being transformed from glory to glory to glory to glory—indefinitely.                   _____________________________________________________

Alright now let’s turn to Ephesians 2:8-10, which was the passage that both Ruth & I proclaimed.

>> Ephesians 2:1-10 | Made Alive in Christ By Grace Through Faith And you were dead in trespasses & sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body & the mind, & were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— & raised us up with Him & seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His Grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (v.1-7) For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

I understand that to mean: We didn’t get the faith, God gave us the faith. >> He gave us the faith to be saved.

I know when I was confronted with the gospel, I realized two things. (1) I couldn’t understand the gospel; & (2) I couldn’t believe it.

>> I wanted to understand, I wanted to believe.

But God brought me to a place, where when I did understand it, I realized God had given me the understanding. God had given me the faith.

I had nothing to boast of. It didn’t proceed out of myself, it was given me by God’s grace.

Then it says, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”

That’s a wonderful Scripture, it doesn’t fully come out in the English translations. But the word for workmanship, in Greek, & its the word from which we get poem. So we’re God’s poem, we’re not just something He manufactured—but we’re His creative masterpiece. Created in Christ Jesus.

Then it really blesses me when I meditate on this is: When God wanted to show the universe just what He could create, to display His creative ability to the whole universe & all of that had been created by Him.

Just to prove what He could do, He went to the scrap heap for His material. And that’s where He created you & me—on the scrap heap. Is that right?

At least I know where I was, & God said: “Do you want to see what I can do with scrap material? This is going to be the crown of all My creative genius.

>> It’s the church of Jesus Christ. The Bride of Jesus Christ.

That’s what we are. We’re His poem, we’re His creative masterpiece. And we’re created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

That brings out the same truth as 2 Timothy 1:9, we don’t have to decide what we’re going to do.

We don’t have to fashion a career for ourselves. We have to find out what are the good works—which God prepared beforehand for us to walk in.

You see I’ve seen Christians take two different courses, some of them they’re saved—but they’re personally ambitious, they want to make something of themselves in this world. So they go about the ordinary way of getting an education & so on, they work hard at it; & they become something.

>> But it probably isn’t what God intended them to be.

Then there are other Christians, who abandon themselves to God — they give up their personal ambitions, they say God make me what You want.

I don’t want to boast but in a certain sense, when I married my first wife & became father to those 8 girls — I renounced a very promising university career. The leader of my college told me that within a few years, I’d get such & such positions. And really I was set for success.

If you know the British educational system, before WWII: If you had become a fellow at King’s College Cambridge at the age of 24, you had it made.

And a lot of my friends thought I was just throwing my life away. To give all that up, to take responsibility for 8 girls.

Well if I had gone back to Cambridge, & got the position that I could have got, I would have had to retire at age 65. If not sooner with a very minimal pension.

Here I am nearly age 74, I’m not even thinking of retiring, I’m travelling the world. I’m doing the thing I enjoy most. I’m seeing lives continually changed.

WHY should I have not give that up for the sake of some little career at a university. See what I’m saying?

I’m sure you’ve all heard of David Livingstone, the missionary who really opened up Africa — who is a world famous name. He became a doctor, but then went to Africa. His brother also became a doctor, so when David went to Africa — his brother thought David was totally doing the wrong thing. The brother said, “I don’t want that kind of life; I want to make a name for myself.”

Today in the British Encyclopedia Britanica, David’s brother has one line stating that he’s the brother of David Livingston. David has 16 paragraphs. (lol) You see? In the long run, it always pays to trust GOD.

There will always be a step of faith. You will always have to give up something. Jesus said you have to give-up your own life. But if you lose your life, you’ll find the life that God has for you — which is exciting, its challenging.

I don’t for a moment suggest that you’ll have exactly the same kind of life that I have — but you will have a life that will be rich & exciting & challenging.

And when you come to the end of your life, you won’t look back on many many years that produced nothing of permanent value. You’ll have fruit that will endure for eternity.

So bear in mind, you are God’s workmanship — created for something special that He has for you to do — & you will never find full satisfaction until you discover that special something, so my aim is to help you.

Now I believe the best place to turn to in the Bible, for the steps to discover what God wants you to be is Romans 12:1-8.

Romans 12:1-8 | Therefore I urge you, fellow believers, on account of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy & pleasing to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test & approve what is the good, pleasing, & perfect will of God. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but think of yourself with sober judgment, according to the measure of faith God has given you.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, & not all members have the same function, so in Christ we who are many are one body, & each member belongs to one another.

We have different gifts according to the grace given us. If one’s gift is prophecy, let them use it in proportion to your faith; if it is serving, let them serve; if it is teaching, let them teach; if it is encouraging, let them encourage; if it is giving, let them give generously; if it is leading, let them lead with diligence; if it is showing mercy, let them do it cheerfully.

Now in the first line contains the word therefore, & I’m always telling people, some of you have heard me say it: when you find a ‘therefore’ in the Bible, you want to find out why it’s there for.

So I want to tell you why the ‘therefore’ is there for: The previous 11 chapters have been the most wonderful exposition, in my opinion the greatest masterpiece of logic in language.

By which Paul has unfolded the eternal plan of God: For salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. He’s dealt with it in many different aspects. Also in CH 9-11, he has particularly unfolded God’s plan to deal with Israel.

And now he’s dealt with the theology, & I want to point out to you that the NT never presents mere theology. It always challenges us to apply the truths in our lives, in a practical way. And so that’s where the therefore comes in.

Paul says: In the light of all that God has done for us, of all His grace & mercy, what is our appropriate response?

And now he tells us.

I beseech you therefore brethren that..

Now I love this passage. Because I was a philosopher, I know how complicated philosophy can be—how involved—& a lot of theology is just philosophy with religious language. And the fault of being an average theologian, you come out with a lot of complicated long sounding words. But he didn’t, he came down to what the Americans call the knitty gritty.

What is it? What do to with your body.

So in the light of all His glorious truths, Paul says now I want you to put your body on God’s altar as a living sacrifice. So it’s essentially what you do with your body that’s going to determine your success in life.

Why does Paul say a living sacrifice?

Because he’s contrasting it with the sacrifices of the OT. Where the animal sacrificed was placed on the altar, but it was dead. He says I want you to put yourself just as really it was dead.

He says I want you to put yourself just as really, but alive not dead. >> So that’s the response that God requires: Is that we give ourselves unreservedly to GOD, as a sacrifice. We put ourselves on the altar.

Now Jesus in His teaching to the Pharasees, He pointed out to them that the sacrifice didn’t sanctify the altar, but the altar sanctified the sacrifice that was placed upon it.

To sanctify means to make holy.

Now I don’t need to go into your background, but many of you in the course of your lives up to this point had been involved in things that were impure & sinful & unholy. Basically that’s the major problem of the younger generation in the world today. They’ve been involved in sexual immorality, drugs, the occult.

Maybe by God’s grace, that doesn’t apply to some of you.

But suppose someone like that gets wonderfully saved by Jesus.  >> Is there any possibility that a body that’s been defiled by sin & evil practices can ever become holy? The answer is yes, but only in one way.

If you place your body on the altar, the altar will sanctify what’s placed on it. There’s no other way, that you can have a holy body in the light of all that you’ve been through...some of you.

And suppose that you’re not married. You meet another Christian that you want to marry. Marriage is the union of two bodies. Can you come together—with holy bodies? YES, if you’ve placed your bodies on God’s altar.

It’s marvelous.

When I think of my own background, & I don’t need to go into any details, but I could look back on so many things that I wished I had never done. But I don’t have to spend the rest of my life regretting what I did. All I have to do is put my body on the altar, & let the altar take care of the past.

>> The altar sanctifies the sacrifice.                  _____________________________________________________

So that’s the 1st thing. And then Paul says that your sacrifice will be acceptable to God, & it’s your reasonable service.

It’s the least you can do, in view of what God has done for you.

You see the first great sacrifice, in the Christian life, was offered by who? Who offered the first great sacrifice? JESUS, that’s right.

He gave His body, on the cross, as a sacrifice for our sins. He bore our sins in His own body on the tree.

That we being dead to sin, might live for righteousness. By whose wounds we were healed?

Now if we follow in the steps of Jesus, we will come to the place where God asks us to put our body on the altar — not in literal crucifixion — but in a total surrender to God.

Where you say: “God now my body is Yours. I don’t control it. I don’t choose what happens to it; it belongs to You.”

From now on, I don’t decide what work I do. The clothes I wear, the food I eat. All that’s Your responsibility. Because I’ve given my body to You.

[maidenoftheforestlight-blog]

So...I was reading an article the other day in which a critic noted that American film adaptations of British classic literature often seem to downplay the element of classism that is typically so pervasive in... well, British literature in general, but definitely anything written before the mid 20th Century. That made me think about GOT as an adaptation of ASOIAF, and the way that class is depicted as an element of the world building in the books vs the show. 

In the books, of course, most of the POV characters are of the nobility and pretty much all of them would be considered “classist” to a modern audience, at least to some extent, because they do not mix with the “common people” and subscribe to the social hierarchy of their society. A notable exception is Arya Stark, who is “class blind”, so to speak. Especially at the beginning of the series, Arya seems both largely ignorant of the realities of class distinction and also seems not to care about class as social construct at all. This, of course, is largely because Arya is a child and has not yet been made aware of the ugly reality of the social order which places her very near the top of the pyramid (as a Lord’s daughter) and her friend Mycah pretty near the bottom (as a butcher’s boy) and therefore makes their friendship extremely difficult to sustain, even impossible to sustain, once the idyllic bubble of her Winterfell childhood is popped. And Mycah’s death essentially was the result of the social order, the status quo, punishing him for daring to play with another child so far above his station. This is something Arya still doesn’t quite grasp after the fact, but it is quite clear to reader. There is to be no justice for Mycah. No one is going to fight for his parents in court, and proclaim the injustice of an innocent child’s murder. No one. 

You see, because Mycah is lowborn no one will seek justice for him, “no one had raised a voice or drawn a blade or anything, not Harwin who always talked so bold, or Alyn who was going to be a knight, or Jory who was captain of the guard. Not even her father” thinks Arya in despair. All these men are “good” men by Westerosi standards, but all of them understand the social order, subscribe to the social order, and will not fight the Crown on the issue of a murdered peasant child. Basically, it isn’t a deal breaker for them that their king allowed it to happen and it would be for most people today who hope to be worthy of the  description of “good person”. This is because all of these men that Arya wants to step up and fight for Mycah’s right to live as a human being are classist. Now, they are “good” Westerosi men, and would never kill an innocent child themselves, but they are classist nonetheless because they uphold the classist social order. The fact that Arya, as an innocent unbiased child, cannot understand this at all makes it quite clear to the reader that the social hierarchy is both inherently stupid, unjust and morally bankrupt. Yet, at the same time, it highlights that being without class based prejudice is not on the Westeros checklist of what constitutes a “good guy”. 

You see the same sort of thing in stuff like Jane Austen novels. Was Darcy a good gentleman landowner who looked after the people who worked for him and were tenants on his land? Yes, he’s a good dude. But is he “classist” and only hangs out with people of his own social status or higher, also pretty much yes. By modern standards that is. Darcy is still pretty progressive by Regency standards (which Austen was making a point of) for being friends with the Bingleys and marrying Elizabeth. Yet a modern reader can’t help but note that Bingley is still rich dude and is planning to become a gentleman landowner himself, and Elizabeth... well her mother may be middle-class, but her father’s status puts her and Darcy on equal ground, if only in name. So is Darcy classist? Yes! Even Elizabeth is by modern standards (Lydia is probably the most open minded of all in that regard!) and this is almost always downplayed in modern adaptations, particularly American adaptations, which brings me back to the point of this whole post...

Ahem. So the article I was reading that made me think of all this, quoted Robert Irvine, a British critic, whose opinion was (in my own words) that American film adaptations of Jane Austen’s work did their best to downplay the classism in them because of the fact that American culture plays up the egalitarian nature of their society, where anyone can do anything if they just believe and have the grit and determination to pursue their dreams. Essentially, he was saying that it was believed that the American audience could never truly accept or like classist heroes or settings, where respect and authority is blatantly passed down through ancient family names, wealth and land ownership. Clearly, this take on things can easily be related to ASOIAF and GOT because the setting, Westeros, is based on medieval Britain, and the social situation is very medieval indeed, feudalism, kings, queens, lords, ladies and knights, oh my! And of course, peasants...the great unwashed masses...

What I find interesting, is that GRRM in writing ASOIAF generally tried to stay fairly true to what medieval nobles might actually think about class, and indeed, the sort of sentiment that might exist among peasants towards the nobility. The show on the other hand... All of this is out the window! What exactly does class mean in the GOT universe? They seem to have reduced it to, “if you care about class then you’re a baddy” (I’m assuming this based on the fact that the few times it’s ever brought up as an issue it’s by someone we’re not meant to like). Otherwise, they have low born people being besties with nobles and sassing them like equals and nary an eyelid was e’er bat. This kind of thing might work to make your noble born protagonists more likable to the modern audience, but it really messes up the worldbuilding when it comes to the presentation of the smallfolk. This is especially evident with the way the whole Sparrow movement was dealt with in the show. The writers apparently decided to use that aspect of the plot to reinforce everyone’s hatred of religious extremism and the Sparrows basically became Christian fundamentalists. The problem is, the Sparrows are actually more of a “by the people for the people” kind of deal and in the pseudo-medieval setting, they represent how religion could actually empower the medieval  lower classes through the messaging of the destructive powers of wealth and greed on the nobility and the equality of all men under God. The Sparrow movement emerged out of the downtrodden masses and just because they organise under the banner of their faith, it doesn’t mean that they can just be dismissed as evil extremists! They have every right to “fight the power!” They’d been suffering under these shortsighted nobles for yonks! 

Except... this is made obvious to book readers... not to show watchers. You see, as far as any casual viewer of the show is concerned, being a peasant in Westeros ain’t so bad. Nobles will be friends with you! You can sass them all you want. Look, they’ll teach you to read and say you can be their family and come live with them in Winterhell! I’m specifically pointing out the characters of Bronn, Davos, Gendry and Hot Pie here because these are pretty much the only members of the small folk we see represented as developed characters in the show. All the other small folk are basically just extras, the “fickle mob” who are so incredibly stupid they don’t even know to hate the people who blew up their holiest site and murdered the leader that was fighting for their rights... but I digress. With these specific characters, we get just one shade of the noble/small folk dynamic. Arya is “class-blind” and doesn’t care about her friend’s low social status, ditto Stannis for the most part, and ditto Tyrion (and how hilarious that is if you know anything about book!Tyrion). Without any other evidence to the contrary, it is possible for a casual viewer to assume such relationships are not unusual in Westeros and that, indeed, it may even be a fairly egalitarian society where with enough grit and determination, YOU TOO CAN BE A LORD! A similar thing happens with the show’s portrayal of institutionalized sexism and  misogyny... but that’s another issue... 

What I’m really getting at here is that it is quite interesting to see how class is handled in the books as opposed to the show. GRRM, though he is an American author, is pretty content with writing classist “heroes”, but D&D are most certainly not. Likewise, GRRM, though an atheist, is apparently ok with depicting a religious movement with roots in the lower class fighting for their rights, but D&D are not about showing the poor rising up when they can just beat us over the head with the evils of organised religion. So what is this about? GRRM is an american author so I thought, “It can’t just be something in American culture that prevents them from being able to understand or sympathise with classist character...”. But then I thought, “Oh, but GRRM is deliberately making his heroes complex and problematic, he wants the reader to squirm over their faves”. However, the show blatantly avoids class based issues, definitely erases classism from those character’s we’re meant to sympathise with and demonises it in those characters we’re meant to dislike. So it seems as if they, at least, believe that classism is just too off putting in a supposedly “good” character. So I put this to any American followers I have. Is this the case? Is Robert Irvine right? Is a classist mindset something you simply can’t get down with? 

Speaking as someone who grew up with full awareness of class and its impact on everyone, it really isn’t a deal breaker for me on whether or not I like a character. This is despite the fact that I strongly believe in equality and don’t hold with any “good breeding” nonsense. It still seems natural to me for a character to have class based biases because I grew up in a society where that is pretty much expected of everyone to a certain degree, though it is, of course, frowned upon to actually express these biases in polite society. Especially if I’m reading historical fiction or fantasy! Gosh, nothing annoys me more than when writers try to force me to like a character by making them so much more “modern and progressive” than anyone in their society has any right to be!

But let me know how you feel! I’m truly interested from a cultural studies kind of standpoint as, I admit, it’s something I’ve actually noticed a lot in American cinema and television. 

[lovehaswonangelnumbers]

New Post has been published on https://lovehaswonangelnumbers.org/month-ahead-october-2019-sun-sign-horoscopes/

MONTH AHEAD OCTOBER 2019 – SUN SIGN HOROSCOPES

MONTH AHEAD OCTOBER 2019 – SUN SIGN HOROSCOPES

By Rose Marcus

October 13: Full Moon in Aries: 2:08 pm (20:14 Aries)

October 27: New Moon in Scorpio: 8:38 pm (4:25 Scorpio)

October 2: Pluto ends retrograde: 11:37 pm

October 3: Mercury enters Scorpio: 1:15 am

October 3: Mars enters Libra: 9:22 pm

October 8: Venus enters Scorpio: 10:06 am

October 23: Sun enters Scorpio: 10:20 am

October 31: Mercury stations retrograde: 8:42 am (27:38 Scorpio)

**Please note, all times listed are PDT, please check your local listing.

Dates to Watch: October 1 – 8, 12 – 15, 27, 28, 30, 31

October Overview:

Have you felt stalled, stuck, or stymied over the past few months? That is about to change. Saturn in Capricorn has recently ended retrograde and Pluto in Capricorn will do the same just before midnight (PDT) on October 2. Time and reality’s dictates hit the forward march, now heeding a more specific drumbeat. Both transits are hard at work on the completion of lengthy chapter while also actively in script development for the next storyline.

We have also been under the influence of Jupiter’s square to Neptune, a transit that has been in effect since the start of the year. Jupiter/Neptune has kept the potential and the uncertainty well afloat. Having surpassed their peak as of last month (see paragraph below) the duo will progressively disengage as the month advances. As this happens, what is already in existence but that has escaped full view will make its presence better known. Once the writing on the wall becomes clearer, Jupiter in Sagittarius, a future bound archetype, aims to take the ball and run with it.

The last Jupiter/Neptune peak (September 21) has launched the formal impeachment inquiry into Trump. (For those astrologically versed, transiting Jupiter is exactly on Trump’s south node and opposing his Uranus.) Undermining his campaign for re-election on October 21, Jupiter/Neptune has also unearthed old photographs of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in blackface costume.

British supreme court has ruled that Boris Johnson’s suspension of parliament was illegal (misleading the Queen is almost a literal interpretation for Jupiter/Neptune). At the time of this writing, parliament is back in session and requesting Johnson’s resignation.

Ceres, travelling in Sagittarius for most of this year, catches up to Jupiter on Oct 25. This conjunction completes the information gathering mandate started in 2012. Marking the start of a new hunting season, Ceres/Jupiter have a target already lined up – to true our aim regarding what is in our highest and best interests, to realign our beliefs in order to maximize our creative potential, and to get us better up to speed with what lies on the road ahead. Supporting the Saturn and Pluto agenda, Ceres/Jupiter moves us further along a completion and a seeding track of significance.

To a large extent, what’s in motion and what is meant to bridge us into the next phase of the journey is already well under way. That is not to say that life or the future is fated, but that it is becoming more transparent, that progressively we are getting better clued in. (Setting bigger wheels in motion, the Ceres/Jupiter transit on October 25 makes a direct impact to Trump’s chart, shooting directly at his moon (conjunct), opposite his sun.The transit is likely put Trump on the run or into flight in some increased way.)

All three personal planets change sign this month. On October 3, just a few hours after Pluto ends retrograde, Mercury enters Scorpio.Mars enters Libra at the end of the same day. Through the middle of November, Mars revs up personal, social, and financial relationships, trends, politics and contracts (karmic, actual). What’s motivating or compelling you, them or it? What’s lurking in the recesses of desire, need, and compulsion?Venus in Scorpio on October 8 takes it deeper, makes it more emotional, more impactful, and perhaps more urgent. Venus in Scorpio and Mars in Libra in mutual reception (in each other’s signs) are enriched by each other’s resources.

Mercury in Scorpio, Venus in Scorpio, and Mars in Libra have slated this next month or so for a powerplay, for the undertaking of important and critical karmic work. The full moon in Aries on October 13 (square Pluto) and the new moon in Scorpio on October 27 (opposite Uranus) loan themselves out for exactly this purpose. (Remember that you will only feel the impact of these transits on a personal note if they are making direct contact to your chart. Otherwise, you’ll simply bare witness or be indirectly affected).

The full moon in Aries on October 13 (Thanksgiving weekend in Canada) is in dynamic tension to Pluto. Noting favour from Jupiter (trine the sun, sextile the full moon) it could be the start of getting things moving in a better direction. It can make for a good weekend for a getaway. Let yourself off the hook or cut yourself extra slack.

The new moon in Scorpio on October 27 could have quite a kick to it. It could even feel somewhat like a full moon, thanks to the involvement of Uranus by opposition and Mars/Saturn square. Watch for the brakes to come off or for a hot button to be pushed. This new moon could trigger difficult breakup, see a difficult (but necessary and timely) corner turned, or provoke something political. A weather extreme is within possibility too. Uranus is always good for some degree of intensity, stress, or shock value. On the other hand, Uranus can trigger an exceptional opportunity, especially for the brave of heart and the astute visionary.

Mercury in Scorpio begins retrograde motion on October 31. Stay on watch for preliminary hints and clues. Don’t take things for granted, don’t discount or glaze over it, you could miss out something important. At the same time, don’t let fear or obsession get the better of you! The retrograde agenda will start to set up as early as October 10/11 when Mercury begins what is known as the shadow phase. Mercury ends retrograde at the same degree (11 Scorpio) on November 21. The retrograde can dial up issues of trust and abandonment, sex, drugs, addictions, and self-sabotage. To the plus, Mercury retrograde in Scorpio can help you to get more committed to an empowerment initiative, whether that has to do with inner work, health, finances or relationship situation.

At the time of this writing, Brexit is scheduled to take place on October 31 at 23:00 hours GMT, approximately 5 hours after Mercury begins retrograde. It’s not the best time to be starting anything! Will it get pushed back again or will the deal fall apart? Noting the upcoming eclipses (Dec 26, Jan 10), it is likely Brexit will get a time extension (to the end of January) and leave with a contract in place.

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[ohnohetaliasues]

• Info

Okay, first off, let me say, she is gorgeous!!!!! I’m in love with her appearance. You’ve nailed the stereotypical Irish appearance, and that has made me insanely happy as a Hetalia OC reviewer, and as a girl of Irish decent. I have that texture of hair, and the eyes are definitely a good color. I actually have green eyes myself. Not that green, kind of dull green, but you get what I’m saying. Her hair is very nice, and I’m okay with the color, as it’s stereotypical, and it’s also a natural hair color, and is something I’ve seen before in nature. The freckles are a good touch, too. I especially like the Celtic symbol on her dress in the first picture. Anyway, onto the info.

Name: Janet O’Connor / Seana Ó Conchobhair. (Janet and Seana have the same meaning, “gift from God”, but Janet is the anglicized version of “Seana” ) She has freckles, red curly hair and pale skin, with big emerald eyes. Her body is kinda curvy: she has wide hips, big thighs and butt, but a pretty narrow waist and a small bust. She has a scar behind her right shoulder from a shot of the 1916 Easter Rising. She’s kinda strong, and has a lot of strenght in her legs (due to step dancing and her love for cycling).

Very very good representation there. Irish people are stereotyped to be very robust and muscular. I like the work you put into this a lot. I especially like how her name was Anglicized, since the British had control over the Irish for a very long time.

I set her birthday on the 17th of March, Saint Patrick’s Day. I think she might look around 25.

Good. Good age too, considering Ireland is over 3,000 years old. While her birthday is fine, I’d suggest January 21 as an option as well, as that’s Ireland’s independence day from the English.

I started drawing her in this green “celtic/country-like” dress to make her look stereotypical, but of course she doesn’t really dress like this. She likes long and comfy skirts, overalls, blouses and off the shoulders shirts. She would wear any kind of boots. She’s pretty sensitive to cold so she starts wearing sweaters pretty early after the summer.

It gets cold in Ireland fairly early, so good addition.

She is just Ireland, both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The country was never “split” before 1921 so I thought that she decided to let England control the North together with her after the referendum. I draw her with the flag of the Republic of Ireland because it’s the country she totally takes care of.

Good choice.  

• Personality:

She’s stubborn and extremely patriotic, she says what she thinks and hates being told what to do, but she can be really friendly with people who show respect for her and her culture.

Describes the Irish in a nutshell. Good job. You obviously did a lot of research.

 Also, she’s kinda protective and caring towards the ones she loves, and really welcoming with people who visit her country. She’s very hospitable, and wants her guests to feel great. She’s a daydreamer and has a strong sixth sense, being able to perceive other’s emotions from one look, making her very sensitive and compassionate. She’s loud and energetic, and really proud of irish traditions. In her opinion, anything made in Ireland is the best, and Ireland is like heaven on Earth. She’s really sarcastic, and loves making fun of someone she doesn’t like by making witty comments (she usually swears using gaelic words and phrases). She has always been a rebel, and sometimes she can be moody and really short-tempered. She tends to hold grudges (forgive but not forget) and when she feels blue she often isolates herself from the rest of the world.

• Interests:

She’s a great fan of rugby (her favourite athlete is Brian O’Driscoll), and she can play a bit of Camogie. She also likes watching boxe, and she’s a fan of Katie Taylor and Conor McGregor. She likes swimming a lot, and often goes to the beach or to the lake to spend a lot of time in the water. She loves gardening and spends a lot of time in it; her garden is full of different kind of flowers and plants. She also cultivates a large number of vegetables, potatoes above all. She likes watching cooking shows (she’s a fan of the scottish cook Gordon Ramsay) and she’s pretty good at cooking “rural/rustic” dishes. I think she was good at hunting, but I imagine that after many battles she’s now a bit tired, and prefers other hobbies, such as playing harp (her harp is a Camac Vendome, and she called it Erin). She loves music, but she’s not so good at singing, though, even if she loves attending folk rock concerts and scream the song lyrics! She’s a big fan of Dropkick Murphys, Flogging Molly, The Cranberries, Clannad, Enya, Sinead O’Connor and many other musicians, but now her favourite band is probably U2. She loves to dance, especially folk music, but in her life she learnt different styles of dancing such as walzer or latin. She’s crazy about DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and the Just Dance games on Wii (I guess Alfred was the one that let her know about these games). She can obviously see magical creatures such as the Leprechauns and all the “aes sídhe”(even the dangerous ones), and she likes telling stories, legends and jokes; she gets really excited for Saint Patrick’s Day and Halloween (Samhain), which originated in her own country. She’s pretty religious and pious, but after all the things she went through in her life she’s far from being bigot or narrow-minded. Plus, she also feels a strong bond with the ancient traditions of her land. So she’s ready to go to mass every sunday but she’s also the first being excited about celtic festivals like Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasa.

I don’t have much to say cuz this is all so great!

She prefers beer over whiskey, and her favourite is Guinness, but her favourite whiskey is Jameson’s. Her favourite dishes are colcannon and Irish stew. Her favourite snacks are crisps sandwiches and beans on toast. She has three rabbits: a white one, a black one and a red/orange one. She called them Columba, Brigit and Patrick, just as the three major saints of Ireland. She’s scared of Banshees (the woman-like spirits that will cry and scream if a clan member from one of the major families in Ireland will soon die -such as the O’Connors-) and snakes, seen as evil spirits by Saint Patrick, who taught her many things when she was very young.

I’m very happy!

•Short history:

Talking about her history, christianity and Saint Patrick’s work had a great influence on her when she was young, but she didn’t forget her past and celtic origins at all. She was an energetic and extrovert child, but she became a little more suspicious towards strangers after the viking invasions in the IX century, but the warrior king Brian Boru was able to get them out of the island after a couple of centuries. Unfortunately, her island was declared as property of the English king Henry II in 1171, who became Lord of Ireland.

Good, I’m so glad you included this!

From then ’til 1542 was the period of Lordship of Ireland, and after this King Henry VIII officially became the first Irish King with the Crown of Ireland Act. The isle became part of the United Kingdom in 1800 (Acts of Union). During all this time Janet has always tried to rebel and gain freedom and independence, in one way or another, for example by joining “The Sea Queen of Connacht” Grace O’Malley during her journeys and fights against the english crown in XVI century. In the XVII century Penal Laws came from England in order to make Ireland accept the Anglican Church, and because of this there have always been many religious fights between them. She suffered the Irish Great Famine that happened in 1845, and she also travelled to the U.S. where she could work together with Alfred for a bit. She still hasn’t forgiven England for that period of mass starvation, even though her country received a little help. She’s grateful towards the other countries that helped her with donations.

Irish history is full of rebellions towards England and its laws: english government took away many rights from irish people, there was land expropriation, and many cultural things such as gaelic language and traditional dance were banned. Ireland has always tried to keep in touch with England’s enemies like France or Spain in order to get some help, but things didn’t always end up well. At the beginning of the XX century the rebellions ended up in some cruel fights between the two parts, also because of the birth of the IRA (Irish Republican Army) , a revolutionary military organization, born after the famous Easter Rising. This rebellion ended up in a disaster, but the next years were crucial: Ireland became a battlefield in which IRA and civilians fought against the english military forces. Michael Collins was a very important man in this period, and his work determined the end of the Irish War of Independence in 1921. After that, the Irish Free State was born, but the Northern region of Ireland (six counties) stayed with the United Kingdom. After this, a long civil war started between those who wanted Ireland to be unified and the ones who thought that it wasn’t necessary to take things too far and accept the situation. The fight went officially on ’til 1998 with the Good Friday Agreement, a treaty that explained relations between Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and United Kingdom at best. ( still in progress, adding more things in the future! sorry if I made any mistake, I don’t speak english as first language ^^“ )

My god that was amazing. You really did your research and I’m so proud of you! I taught you well, young Padawan.  Your English seemed fine to me! Anyway, on that note, please send in the updates asap, because I’d love to see more of this!

~Kat