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fluidsf · 4 years

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Polar Visions Amplitude reviewing -

John Wiese - Deviate From Balance

Released on 15 June 2015 by Gilgongo Records

Reviewed format: CD album

Connected listening - there are various ways to order a selection of John Wiese’s further discography. The Helicopter mail-order stocks various John Wiese releases as well as Sissy Spacek releases and releases by by John Wiese in collaboration with associates, you can find it here: https://helicopter.storenvy.com/collections/924921-john-wiese

Several solo releases by John Wiese are also available on physical and digital format from his Bandcamp page here: https://johnwiese.bandcamp.com

Many releases on Gilgongo Records are available on physical format through their mail-order store here: https://gilgongorecords.storenvy.com

After looking at one of Sissy Spacek’s recent new albums Featureless Thermal Equilibrium in the previous Polar Visions Amplitude it’s time today for the first of two follow-up reviews in which in this case we’re focussing first on one of John Wiese’s past solo albums, Deviate From Balance. Released back in 2015 on both a 2 LP vinyl package as well as a CD version on James Fella’s label Gilgongo Records our look is on the CD version which features the packed 79 minute album in full and what a collection of pieces it is. While the Sissy Spacek album showcases John Wiese’s talent in mixing Grindcore aggression with monolithic Noise screeches as well as maxing out the energy throughout, Deviate From Balance showcases John’s more restrained side in a collection of 10 tracks encompassing mostly live recorded compositions and improvisations that are leaning more towards intense choppy sound collages and noisy electro-acoustic interplay of acoustic and electric instrumentation with John’s electronics with a more conceptual edge to them. However while some of the titles of the 10 pieces suggest a somewhat philosophical or technical meaning behind these pieces, listening to these reveals a much more playful and raw sense of composition and performances from John and all musicians and artists involved in this album. Whilst John’s sound can be related to Free Improvisation, his rapid-fire editing and manipulation of sonic material on this album is much more complex and dazzling than many other artists and carries John’s signature knack for surprise, high frequency distortion crunches as well as shifting and abusing lo-fi sound recording equipment and electronics in as many ways as possible, almost as if they turn into crumbling fragile rocks. Disintegrating broken sound and dadaist absurdist humour is a recurring theme in John’s sound, making for an album that is much more enjoyable than overly academic contemporary Tape Music can be at times. Besides John’s sonics the involved musicians on this album are definitely an important element that adds many rich colours to the 10 pieces, featuring musicians like guitar virtuoso Oren Ambarchi, violin artist Jon Rose, sampling expert David Shea and drum machine musician Ikue Mori as well as many others. Before we’re diving deep into the 10 tracks on Deviate From Balance, let’s have a look at the packaging design of the CD version. The CD comes in a neat glossy oversized gatefold sleeve showcasing John Wiese’s minimalist design, artwork as well as a very colourful artist photo of John by Martin Escalante on the back. In terms of artwork I do like the photo-collages and art pieces on the inside of the gatefold a bit more than the cover this time as while the cover does highlight the general collaged, choppy nature of the album well in a visual manner, its subdued grayscale grainy images aren’t as striking as John Wiese’s other album covers but still, it’s a decent cover and the typography is quite stylish and repeats on the spine in a similar manner. The aforementioned imagery on the inside of the gatefold showcases both grayscale abstract art in the form of archaeological artefact style fragments on the left panel as well as a film roll like photo collage of a rather disturbed looking lady blowing up a balloon. The abstract images are a bit similar to the album cover though with darker and more distinct contrast but the photo collage also adds another good visual reference to the packaging regarding the tracks themselves in that balloon like squealing and screeching can be heard on some of the pieces and it also seems to refer to the album’s quite off the wall type of abstract humour. The left panel additionally features all album credits neatly laid out so you can find out all about the involved artists and recording locations plus sources. The CD itself comes in a convenient little black envelope with plastic protection and features a more LP like label design featuring simply the artist name, album title and Gilgongo label logo, somewhat similar to a Japanese mini-LP replica package. Now that we’ve looked at the package, let’s pop in the CD and dig in.

Deviate From Balance starts with Wind Changed Direction which is one of the most atmospheric pieces on the album. The piece blends organ like drone, chopped up distorted recordings of what sounds like children’s voices, machinery as well as other Industrial noises together to form a quite surreal mysterious soundscape. Quite like the title suggests the music sounds quite like you’re floating through the clouds right after the wind has changed direction. The drone feels both calming but also a notch ominous whilst the auto-panned chops of sound are both vaguely abstract and at times recognisable with John varying between distorted and resonant shards of crunchy sound and cleaner metallic elements. The voice samples hint somewhat at sonified memories, they sound like fragments from the past, conversations or event you might remember from childhood though the actual words are unrecognizable. This first piece is definitely one of the most straight-forward compositions on here in terms of structure with the drone both introducing and rounding off the piece as in both cases it eventually fades into the background. A quite lush start of the album. Following piece 356 S. Mission Rd continues the soundscape like approach but in a more ominous manner sounding quite like a cross of dark sounding orchestral music samples with strange hollow metallic resonances and washy shifting noises. The metallic resonances bring plenty of subdued Industrial shine to the piece but the aforementioned orchestral samples are what draws me into this piece the most as the screechy dissonant strings combined with ever so slightly differently timed horn crescendo suggest an ever apparent danger which is getting closer but just like in an abstract nightmare is stuck in a loop with the danger never reaching further than a certain indiscernible point. The shifting noise elements add some rawness to the piece which suggests some kind of turntable manipulations going on in the piece, a lovely brooding collage piece this is. Segmenting Process For Language, the next piece, is where things start to get more chaotic and free-wheeling though still very much controlled. The track featuring a live performance recorded at East Brunswick Club in Melbourne, Australia consists of wild and inspired mixtures of saxophone, (junk) objects, percussion, drums, guitar and noise as the musicians move into always differing “segments” made up of shards of sound, wildly swirling melodies, chords and tones. This does make for quite some literal clashes of sound but rather than being one of the more random sounding Free Improv performances the sections of interplay follow a much more recognisable structure in that certain droning tones as well as feedback lays somewhat of a base underneath the bursts of sonic mayhem. Whilst there are a whole lot of things happening in this recording I would like to name a few particularly enjoyable bits. These include the short bursts of squelchy synth swirls, resonant ground vibrating feedback laden noise, the hilarious goofy but still playful wordless vocalisations spat out by the musicians but also the at times disturbing dissonant chords which are formed and culminate in an absurdly, almost 50’s Horror film soundtrack like waves of organ droning at the ending of the piece after which we can hear the only applause that could be fit in on the tightly edited CD. An inventive juxtaposition of out of the blue musical absurdism with the more dadaist lightning strike like approach of collage based Harsh Noise carrying John’s seal of quality. The next track Superstitious does match its title rather well in terms of the sounds within and it’s the most Noise focussed piece on Deviate From Balance though still more along the lines of a layered soundscape. After the instrumental interplay of Segmenting Process For Language we’re back to a more noticeably composed piece which moves through various phases emitting a definite ambience of superstition through somewhat disturbing concrete sounds, noise and tones. Its beginning featuring chopped and quite heavily scrambled recordings of a scared woman wailing as well as various other waves of distorted sound and tone overtime moves to the climax of the piece which is an extended section of the aforementioned noise from by a nicely low end grounded stream of screechy sound featuring especially piercing high frequency sound manipulations quite like some kind of dystopian alien machinery, though your interpretation might definitely be much different. Regardless of how you interpret it, the piercing noise does give off quite an intense feeling of dread and fear and while the sounds used in the piece are sometimes somewhat recognisable, like dirt like crumbling sounds, coffee cups, car related sounds etc., again they’re manipulated and structured in such shifting and distorted manners that they feel like sudden waves of mind imagery than things you can really grab onto. The finale of the piece in which John frequency manipulates a continuous tone is quite gripping too and Superstitious as a whole sounds quite like both a physical and mind gripping piece. Cafe OTO is the track that follows and it’s obviously a live recording that was made at Cafe OTO. Moving back to the more improvisation based style of collaborative group performances that John Wiese has done together with other musicians this piece has a more continuous flow of sonic events and instrumental interplay and a generally might lighter edge to it than some of the other pieces. Especially the percussion blended with effect manipulations and saxophone performances are particularly good on here with percussion clattering, clinking, jumping around the room in quite hilarious surprising manners moving from crystal like tinkling to shells and wooden percussion whilst the saxes wildly swirling melody lines and screeches form sweet tonal abstraction that are wild but not going overboard and staying well in tune with the other elements of the performances. The “spat” out vocalisations are quite matching with the saxophone performance and whilst somewhat more subtle for most of the recording, there’s also some tasty, albeit less abrasive crashes of objects near the end of the recording. Again, John Wiese’s talent in highly abstract but always varied and uncompromising electronics and instrumental performances combined with the excellent inspired energy of all musicians that appears in his group performances shines through with the fun and details in the layers created making this suitable for many repeat listens. The following track Battery Instruments (Stereo) does work quite like an extension of the sounds from the Cafe OTO recording, though in a bit more minimalistic fashion being made up of mostly small, clicky and quite sounds. A collage of instrument, objects, electronics as well as short vocal bursts the piece puts the freely moving aspect of John Wiese’s group pieces into more of microscopic lowercase territory. It’s the shortest piece of the album at 2:12 minutes and works as kind of transition from Cafe OTO to the quite abrasive walkman Noise collage piece Memaloose Walkman, showcasing various crackling, scraping, spiky sonic details, a mysterious subdued drone as well as some quite tasteful bass string scratchings all panned quite widely (as this was originally a multi-channel piece). A sweet short piece this one. The aforementioned piece Memaloose Walkman then follows and it’s quite straight-forward in nature consisting of a mono tape collage of various recordings of gunshots. Besides splices and perhaps a bit of pitch adjustment there’s not much manipulation added to this but as a Noise piece it’s quite effective letting you hear the different swishing phased textures of shots from various guns as well as some bits of talk and music in between with a layer of crunchy saturation on top of everything. Simple but effective. Afterwards Dramatic Accessories continues within the Noise territory as a piece of quite a lot of instrument / object and especially turntable abuse featuring quite a lot of bassy and wild distorted screeches mixed with chopped recordings all presented through some crazy panning. One that will especially please harsh heads, within Dramatic Accessories there are various sections in which John and the other artists involved use all kinds of methods to create a variety of sounds ranging from the shifting kind of turntable warble, clicks, grating washes of distortion, chunks of feedback, amp hiss and metallic ringing. However whilst there are a lot of distorted sonic events happening within this piece, there is some sense of dynamics within however, created by the wild panning as well as shifting the phase and using some of the room acoustics and feedback of equipment to create some loud / softer / loud sections leaving some headroom for the sounds to not fully max out and become a bit overblown. The garbled object and instrument chops are clattering around often but strange distorted disturbing recordings of voices are also thrown in the mix making for an at times frightening but thrilling ride of unpredictable sounds. One element that is recurring throughout the wildly fluttering barrages of different sounds are certain grounded tones that bring forth some kind go base for all sounds to lean on as they continue changing in at times rapid manners. All in all Dramatic Accessories is another enjoyable sonic ride on Deviate From Balance in which rich and uncompromising textures are brought out in memorable ways through some fine inspired performances from all people involved. Solitaire follows, which is one of the two longest and final pieces on Deviate From Balance, at 11:15 minutes. In terms of approach the piece is somewhat similar to Dramatic Accessories but with the difference that rather than using vinyl, tape is being used here as one of the elements that create the various sounds within the piece. Solitaire follows a more continuous structure than other pieces on Deviate From Balance in that it’s mostly based on a set of repeating patterns within it's structure acting a bit like the compositional and performance equivalent of mechanical processes. Whereas Dramatic Accessories featured experiments with both clean and distorted sounds, Solitaire moves more into a quite crunchy rough direction featuring shards of chopped up instrument and music recordings, junk objects, voices as well a various especially percussive and resonant concrete sounds that ever continue to change in form. These repetitive patterns do give some kind of rhythmic drive to the piece but change often enough to not become sampler like and are more akin warbled broken tapes as the recordings are mercilessly abused through speed manipulations and ever increasing distortion. This is combined with a constant shift of stereo phase, through which on headphones you get the idea that the shards of sound are flying over your head and are forming 3D shapes in between your ears. A great listening experience which even works as the distortion gets quite murky and harsh nearing the end of the piece. Whilst the pattern style, on the fly pitch warbles and crunching noises carries on throughout, it’s great how some depth is slowly forming near the end of the piece, in which soft ticking percussive bits are being scattered between out ears and rimshot like ticking sounds are added for nice clean percussive accents. A very fluid piece in terms of progression and sound work which shows that whilst John Wiese’s solo and band works might at times sound very free-flowing and chaotic, he’s always got quite some noticeable control and focus within every piece, inspired and always different. Final piece Segmenting Process (Oregon) is indeed somewhat related to the earlier Segmenting Process For Language although in the case of this recording the segmenting of the several parts of the piece is even more clear. Being the longest piece on Deviate From Balance at 21:45 minutes the piece is also one of the most introspective and “organized” sounding tracks on the album as in here we can find the by now familiar mixture of acoustic, electric instrumentation with both electronic sounds and manipulations but also a more restrained approach to the Noise elements John Wiese has explored in various ways in most tracks before this one. Rather than almost overtaking the non-electronic instrumentation either through loudness or sharp (harsh) frequencies, the Noise is more in tune with the instrumentation as being a part of a blend of various sonic elements. This is also helped by the fact that with the larger group setting featuring brass, percussions, drums and more the piece required a larger venue to be performed which gives the piece some welcome acoustic space, adding some room ambience and keeps the piece nicely dynamic. Sounding most similar in approach to Electroacoustic Improvisation the pieces segments blending vibrant instrumental performances which vary from fluttering percussive tones, noises as well as more drone focussed falling and rising tones with crackling, noisy, humming, distorted, sample based and glitchy electronics sound quite like the piece is based on a mixture of dreams. Like a sonic interpretation of a dream world the piece moves from segment to segment with all of them featuring somewhat recognisable sounds like the instruments themselves or voices mixed with shaped abstract noises but everything carries some kind of mystery within it, which is especially caused by the somewhat unnerving textures created by the brass instruments within the performance. The absurdist humour element is still apparent within the piece however with at times goofy squeaky noises, drum kit hits, tinkling bells and other pointy bits of abstract sound keeping things nicely playful and light but still powerful as always. The flow of the piece also helps to keep things captivating and interesting throughout as its length might take some listeners a bit to get into it but with so many different events happening throughout there’s never any idleness in here. And with this last piece I’m getting into the conclusion of this review of John Wiese’s Deviate From Balance. I award this album a Polar Visions Amplitude of 85 dB, recommending you to definitely check out this album. Deviate From Balance showcases both John Wiese’s compositional and performance talents through a varied selection of recordings in which you can hear John’s approach in various settings ranging from surreal sound collages, Noise infused instrumental improvisations to rough tape manipulation and Electroacoustic Improvisation. Never resorting to mere academic musical studies John Wiese’s pieces on Deviate From Balance keep hitting the ears and mind in excellent and inspiring manners and will be a great discovery for fans of free spirited contemporary music, both analog and digital based sound collage works, (Harsh) Noise fans as well as anyone into inspired improvised music and will be a great addition to the collection of fans of John Wiese and Sissy Spacek.

Deviate From Balance is available on CD from Gligongo Records mail-order store here: https://gilgongorecords.storenvy.com/products/20648396-john-wiese-deviate-from-balance-cd-gggr-077

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atsixesandcevans · 5 years

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All Too Well

Summary: A collection of memories from your time with Steve, and the reality you now find yourself in.

Pairing: Steve Rogers/Reader

Word count: 2.2k

Warnings: angst, fluff

A/N: This was written for @yslbuckyx 1k celebration writing challenge, and my prompt was the song All Too Well by Taylor Swift. I had a lot of fun writing this, and although the song is quite angsty, I've tried to make the end of this slightly less so, as well as taking a few creative liberties to make the song work. It's technically also a modern-day au, but its not really mentioned, it just made it easier to make the song work. This also happens to be the first fic I've completed in 2 years, and my first fic for the mcu, so please be gentle, and I hope you enjoy! <3

Read on AO3

You cursed under your breath as you rifled through the storage boxes stashed under the bed, the ones filled with your winter wear, searching for your old scarf – worn and tattered but still your favourite – that you could’ve sworn you had put in there.

It was September, and the temperature had suddenly dropped, the world saying farewell to the long, hot summer, and you found yourself thrust into the chilled winds of autumn.

As you pulled out the last box, you heard a thud come from under the bed, and you ducked your head down to see what it was – a photo album. It sat, lost and forgotten, hidden from view, the memories too painful to look at, and too beautiful to get rid of. Distant sadness flooded through you as you realised what it was; the album you had filled with pictures of your time with Steve.

You reached under, grasping the solid cover, pulling it towards you. Your scarf forgotten, you perched on the end of your bed and started to flick through the pages, memories surging forward at the sight of every one.

The first picture was of you and Steve together, almost two years ago, right at the start of your relationship. You were huddled together, bundled up against the cold, snowflakes clinging to your eyelashes and the hair that wasn’t covered by your beanie. Wrapped around your neck was your old scarf, the one you had been looking for, the same one Steve had used to pull you closer to him so that he could press warm kisses to your lips, your cheeks, your nose. Your faces were bright, happy, the unbridled joy of the very first snow of winter.

In the picture, Steve had his arm around your shoulders, sharing the body heat he knew you needed, and he was looking down at you with the softest look on his face while you looked at the camera – though you couldn’t remember who was taking the photo.

Next to it was another, taken moments after the first, almost the same as the first, except in that one Steve had his lips pressed firmly against your cheek, the cold tip of his nose nudging the side of your eye.

Prospect Park had been beautiful that day, the light dusting of snow making the trees and grass look like something from a Christmas card. Families and couples had gathered all over the park, each with cold-brightened faces. Steve had taken you back to his apartment from the park, refusing to even entertain the idea of you walking all the way back to your place on the other side of town, even with him pressed tightly against your side.

It had been cold when you walked in, though Steve had immediately turned the heating on and gave you one of his sweaters to wear while he made cocoa. It was cold, sure, but you couldn’t help but think it felt so homely; pictures and trinkets placed on the empty surfaces, books lining the shelves, an easel set up in the corner by the window, some drawings and paintings pinned to the wall in an almost haphazard collage of both colour and monochrome.

You remembered, now, how you had left your scarf there that day. After spending the rest of the day cuddled with Steve, you had forgotten about plans you had made it the evening, and so left in a rush, your scarf forgotten on the coat rack by the door. You reasoned you’d take it home another time, but each time it remained forgotten until the warmer weather rolled in and you didn’t need it.

On the next page, there were three photos; one of the view from a hilltop, oranges and yellows and browns creating an autumnal sea as far as the eye could see, one of you in boots and a sweater, leg raised mid-kick through a pile of leaves, hair brushed back by the chill autumn wind, and finally one of Steve, crouched in front of a golden retriever, Charlie, face screwed up in a grin as his new companion gave him endless energetic kisses.

You’d come across Charlie on his walk during a trip you and Steve had taken upstate. On a rare day where you were both free, Steve decided the two of you would go on an adventure, so you took the car and lunch and just drove, not caring where you were going or if you got lost, only that you were together, full of that feeling that wasn’t quite love, but could be one day.

In a rare moment of distraction, Steve almost ran a red light because he couldn’t stop looking at you, the joy on your face as you sang along to whatever pop was on the radio. Steve didn’t care for the music, but it didn’t matter; the pure happiness on your face was all he cared about, and he found himself wanting to make sure you stayed that happy for the rest of your life.

And you were happy, then. Even now you could remember how right it all felt, how things were finally, finally falling into place.

The next page held just one photo – an old image, two young boys stood close together, wearing kid’s baseball uniforms, arms flung over shoulders and wide grins on their faces. One of the boys – Steve – was skinny, his uniform hanging off of his body. His dirty blond hair fell into his eyes, which were framed by black circular glasses. The tip of his nose was shiny and red, despite being in the height of summer, a sure sign of the hay fever he was no doubt suffering from at the time.

Bucky, in contrast, was taller, more filled out, and looked very much at home in the uniform, holding a baseball bat up against his shoulder.

It still baffled you how much Steve had changed physically since then. Obviously, he’d had one hell of a growth spurt, and now stood a little taller than Bucky, while he once only came up to his best friend’s shoulders. He was still the same at heart, though, from what Bucky had told you that day; soft, caring, but not afraid to fight for what was right. Always willing to stand up for the little guy, the one who couldn’t stand up for himself, just like Steve had been all those years ago.

Steve had taken you to Bucky’s apartment, a few months into your relationship, and the three of you had sat around the kitchen counter, box of photographs scattered across the surface, while Bucky told story after story from his and Steve’s childhood. Steve’s cheeks tinted pink as Bucky recalled the time he had thrown up after riding the Cyclone at Coney Island, and how the only real reason he got onto the Tee-ball team in the first place was out of sheer persistence as opposed to actual athletic talent. He really couldn’t play very well, but the coach had taken pity on him and let him on the team, placing him in a deep-fielding position so as to keep him as far from the action as possible (though it didn’t stop Steve from getting bruise after bruise from flying balls).

He told stories about how he had to come to rescue Steve on countless occasions when he got on the wrong side of one or other of the big kids that hung around the neighbourhood. How Steve’s mom would roll her eyes and fuss over him when he came home with yet another bruise or graze, yet how she never once told him to stop standing up for others, only to “be more careful,” quietly proud of her only son’s heart of gold.

It was the first time you had seen Steve truly embarrassed. While they had taught you about Steve’s past, you wondered, now, if they, like you, had thought that you were his future. Judging by Steve’s embarrassment, you had assumed he didn’t involve a whole lot of people in his past, and it broke your heart to think that he might think it was a mistake to let you in.

You’d stolen the picture. Or rather, it was given to you, by Bucky, while Steve was in the bathroom. He’d slid it across the counter with a wink, pressing one finger to his lips with a sly smirk which you had returned. You had never told Steve you had it, instead you’d tucked it away as soon as you had returned home, though you had been oh so tempted to frame it and hang it pride of place in your living room to serve as a reminder of the way your Steve had always been, kind-hearted and true.

That feeling was gone. Now, all the picture reminded you of was an easier time, and the promise of a future that couldn’t be.

A single tear hit the page and you took a deep breath, shutting the album abruptly. The memories were good, but you couldn’t help the way your heart ached just a little at what you had lost.

It had all changed so quickly between you and Steve, and you couldn’t place exactly what it was that had changed. Maybe the communication between you broke down, and Steve had become less open with his feelings, bottling things up like he had done when you had first met. Maybe the blame was yours; perhaps you had begun to ask too much of him, desperate for him to share his life with you. Or, maybe what you had was a masterpiece, a beautiful watercolour of bright oranges and pinks, until it was torn up by secrets and heartache.

Soon, it all became too much. Steve would cancel on plans with last-minute phone calls which almost always ended in an argument that was only ever partly resolved, neither of you wanting to be apart for long. During those arguments, you both became cruel, spouting hurtful things that neither of you really meant to say, but knew were at least partly true. You’d both attributed it to merely being honest with each other, but each time you both ended up feeling like crumpled pieces of paper, laying used and abandoned on the cold ground. Until it became too much, and you’d both finally waved white flags of surrender.

Time flew when you were together. There never seemed to be enough time, and you found yourselves spending as much time together as possible, neither wanting to say goodbye. Perhaps that’s where your relationship broke down; you both fell for each other so hard and so fast, perhaps neither of you stopped to think about whether you were even ready to commit fully to each other.

Now, though, time seemed to drag. You often felt paralysed by it, going through the motions each day with no real goal. You’d changed in the year since your relationship with Steve, you knew you had. The heartbreak had torn you apart, made you more closed off, submitting yourself to an altogether lonely existence.

You were still trying to find your old self again, the person you were – loving, open, optimistic to a fault, the very things that Steve claimed to have fallen in love with – before you dated Steve. Before the days he’d wear his plaid shirts because you’d told him they made him look like a sexy lumberjack, and mornings you’d wear nothing but that after a night full of nothing but love and passion and the promise of forever, forever, forever.

The finality of it all had hit you when you received a box of your belongings from Steve. You hated that you felt hurt by the fact that he didn’t even have the decency to give them to you in person. It had been shoved to the back of the closet as soon as you had opened it, the memories attached to the things inside too raw and painful for your aching heart. The rain poured that day, and where Steve once would have taken you home, insisting that he didn’t want you to catch a cold, you now trudged home alone, rain soaking your feet despite the umbrella clung tightly in your fist.

What you didn’t know was that Steve had kept your old scarf, had it stashed away in his drawer ever since that first week when you left it at his place. He takes it out sometimes, to remember a time when he was so full of light and hope, to remind him of your innocence and optimistic view of the world. It still somehow smelled like you, though the scent was fading, and he refused to wash it, clinging desperately to that last sliver of a better time, before he lost what he now realised what the only real thing he had ever known, the only time he had felt so truly, wholly in love.

Love like that was rare, magical, and although it had hurt when it ended, and still did sometimes, you were both grateful to have even experienced it at all.

It was rare, I was there, I remember it all too well.

#yslbuckyxwritingchallenge #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers/reader #steve rogers/you #steve rogers #captain america #mcu #marvel cinematic universe #steve rogers fanfiction #steve rogers fanfic #captain America fanfiction #captain America fanfic #all too well #taylor swift #songfic #beth writes #my fic

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x--daughters-of-darkness--x · 4 years

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DELAIN: Chillin’ As Doomsday Approaches

In the band’s press release, you state that Apocalypse & Chill will surprise your listeners. What are some of these surprises you have in store for them?

We always write our music pretty organically, so we set out with every album to make it bigger, better, and louder. But it’s not like we’re going to completely change. We just go with whatever inspiration brings us. However, on this album there are some new elements. We’ve got a real choir, we’ve got Timo screaming, and we have full instrumental tracks, which we’ve never done before. There are definitely some parts where we really explored what we could do differently. And then what I mainly think will surprise our listeners is, especially in the first half of the record, the sound is very electronic, without going away from sounding like Delain. They’re all very much from a pop and electronic side of the spectrum. And I think that some of our fans who like us for our previous material, they will kind of be scratching their heads during the first half. But towards the second half of the album, it picks up on the orchestral elements again and becomes more symphonic. There’s plenty of new things on the record, but I definitely think that our fans will be able to appreciate what we’ve done.

How did these electronic influences creep in? Was there something specific you were listening to or interested in that made you want to incorporate it into your music?

I don’t know. I think that within the writing team, Martijn comes up with really 80s synth parts and I often come up with kind of like 90s dance parts. Those two mix well in our music. But it’s not like we said, “We’re going to incorporate this.” When we meet up to write, we all take some ideas with us, like a verse or a chorus or a theme or whatever. We sit down and listen to it and see what we want to work on all together. That’s how those ideas work themselves into the music.

With these ideas, themes, and lyrical inspirations, was there anything going on in your life or the world in general that catapulted these ideas into the songs?

Yeah, I think so. One thing that’s relevant for the way that we’d written this album is the fact that we’ve recorded it very fragmented. Martijn is a producer who really spearheaded this idea of “let’s do everything in several blocks of just a couple of songs” instead of in one go. Because first of all, we didn’t have enough time to have one big block for writing and recording and mixing the entire album because we’ve been touring like crazy. So, this gave us a lot of flexibility, but also the chance to go back on the songs now. All these ideas come from different places as well. But I must say that over the last few years, definitely a lot of it has been inspired by the concerns about the world today. If you open up a newspaper, if you turn on the TV, you see the world quite literally being on fire. And then if you open your socials, you’ll see everyone living their most perfect lives. There is this great contrast between the two where you wonder how can these actually exist at the same time and is this even the same world? And I think that contrast is also visible in the songs on our album.

The visual of the album cover and the promo photos have a 1950s cinematic movie star theme. Is that the concept or theme behind it?

It was really that contrast between the impending doom that you sense when you look at the news these days and then at the same time the complete projections that is very much the majority of things you see on socials. That was very interesting. Since it is so much about zeitgeist, Netflix and chill, it’s a very 2019 thing. So, we felt like the play on words was really fitting for this album. And then when I was playing with the idea of that title…it’s not like I think of a song first and then the title and then the artwork. Usually when you think of a title, there is an image in your head. Or when you think of the music, you see something, like you can imagine it. And for this title right away, I could imagine someone lounging while the world is on fire. I actually put this image together in Photoshop, but I am not a very practiced designer. We really liked that image. We’ve been also looking for images that were more towards the kind of covers that we usually have, like the more art nouveau/romantic/goth imagery, but it just didn’t fit the theme and the title as well as this one. What we eventually did to give it that identity and authenticity that my mockup was lacking, is we gave it to this collage artist. She works really analog. She cuts up images and papers and she reworked the image into what is now the cover and also continued that for the promo photos in the inside. Inside of the booklet you’ll find all of us wearing sunglasses and having different natural disasters reflected in our sunglasses. We put that topic throughout the entire artwork. Not that a lot of people get to see CD booklets these days, but for those who do buy the physical thing, we always try to give it something extra.

How did getting Beast in Black’s Yannis Papadopoulos to sing on “One Second” come about? Did you specifically write his part or realized after the fact that he’d be a good fit?

We realized afterwards that it would be a good fit. We really like working with guest musicians. It’s always a very nice surprise to see what other people, other creatives come up with when they listen to your music. Yannis, we’ve been in touch with him for a while. We met him in Greece. I remember during an after party at a show he taught me a bunch of Greek curse words! We had a few songs where we thought we could really use a guest here, we could really imagine his voice there. Then we were at a festival this summer and they played there as well, and that’s I think when the deal was struck. We gave him a choice. We had three songs where he could imagine it. We always try to give our guests an amount of freedom, so they can really make it their own.

The video for “Burning Bridges” has such cool visuals and beautiful scenery. Where was that shot, and how did the concept and the characters come about?

It was filmed in Snowdonia, which is a gorgeous part of Wales. We filmed it with the company Video Inc., which is a company that we’ve actually worked with for four different videos in one year. In 2019, we did four videos with them, including “Ghost House Heart.” The idea behind “Burning Bridges” for me lyrically was really that the protagonist of the song keeps leaving his surroundings in order to get away from the negative energy there—the negative energies are following him. The real question is, are those negative energies actually coming from your surroundings or are you the one bringing them? And then leaving and burning your bridges behind you will solve absolutely nothing. That was the idea that we wanted to work with for the video as well. What I really like about Video Inc. and how they work is we’ve had in the past where we pitched a song to other video companies and they came up with all these ideas that didn’t fit the song at all. And then we thought, “Oh, we have to give him some more input.” So, any images or ideas that we have with the themes, we send them over, but sometimes then people just say, “Okay, we’ll do that.” And what I really like about Video Inc. is they take the idea and then they go over it. They’re the video makers, that’s their expertise, and they give their own twist to it. “Burning Bridges” is definitely one of the most dramatic ones of the four videos, and I’m really happy with how it turned out.

You’re the frontwoman and the main focal point of the band, but the album closer “Combustion” is a cool instrumental that gives the rest of the band a chance to shine. Was this a song specifically created as an instrumental or music that you had trouble finding words for it?

It wasn’t meant to be a song with lyrics ever. Actually, this song was written by Timo and I’m sure that Joey also had a say in it because his drumming parts are very prominent. They actually started performing this song as a showpiece Joey had at his graduation at music school, and they performed it there. We really loved that song and that performance. Another thing is when we write songs for Delain, we really like pop structured songs. None of us in the band are ego trippers, none of us try to show off what we can do. We just do what the song needs, but on this track, they really get to shine. And I think that it’s really cool to give them that moment to shine because we have some really fantastic musicians in the band and they play very functional parts in the regular songs. So, I think that this is a great opportunity for them to show what they’ve got. Also, this is an egocentric reasoning, but for me, a lot of the songs have become much harder to sing. I really appreciate the two minutes of taking a breath during the shows! I think that on the album Apocalypse & Chill, that song for me, represents the explosion, the combustion, the apocalypse itself, if you will. I think it’s got a very symbolic function on this record.

What’s the music scene like in the Netherlands? You’re a very well known international touring band, but what was your humble beginning like?

Delain is a little bit of an odd example in that case because Martijn had rolled out of Within Temptation, who were at their breakthrough, and he had so many well known guests on this album that he wrote and that took a long time. There was a lot of work that went into that, and he had a whole big business plan that he used to get to the labels as well. But we got into that label straightaway for the first record because of all that hard work that Martijn had already put into it and the planning he did and the whole set up of the project. But, if I look at the scene that I was in before I got involved with that, the Dutch metal scene is a very small scene. Everyone knows each other, everyone is in everybody’s bands. I was I think in four bands at that moment. I was in a band, a guitarist in that band was doing a project, and I was in that project and then Martijn did arrangements for that project. And that’s where he heard me. So, he asked me for his project. I know that’s a very confusing sentence, but that may be a good representation of the Dutch music scene. It’s very interesting because a lot of metal comes from the Netherlands and actually a lot of symphonic metal comes from the Netherlands. But you would never tell if you looked at the Dutch mainstream music media. I don’t know, maybe it’s because it’s not exotic enough for us, or maybe it’s because it’s too exotic. The Dutch popular music is basically just dance and hip-hop. And I have nothing against dance and hip-hop, but sometimes it’s weird to me. I do these Dutch guest things and there will be people from multiple genres, and I will always be the one with the most followers on Instagram and Facebook. And they will be like, “But we don’t know you!” And that’s very typical for Holland, I think. Music that is very well known internationally is not really well known in the Netherlands itself. On the other hand, it also has its benefits because I bet that even if Delain would have a massive hit in the genre that I could still go grocery shopping without people recognizing me!

Delain has been around for 18 years and you have this new album out and upcoming gigs for the next few years. What are you looking forward to the most in the near future?

We have already reached so many things that we wanted to reach with Delain. It’s been really amazing. It’s been an absolute roller coaster. Martijn and I do most of the work behind the scenes, and we’re a really tight team and we both have started talking about how we might want to start doing some things outside of Delain every now and then. I think our biggest goal for now is to really find a balance and do anything in order to keep making beautiful music together. Because if I look at what we’ve done in the past, if I look at the album that we made now, I’m just really, really proud. It is really a product of our team. The sum is more than its parts, so to speak. I just really hope that we can keep doing that and make a lot more beautiful music and hope that people keep enjoying it. Delain has been around for 18 years and you have this new album out and upcoming gigs for the next few years. What are you looking forward to the most in the near future? We have already reached so many things that we wanted to reach with Delain. It’s been really amazing. It’s been an absolute roller coaster. Martijn and I do most of the work behind the scenes, and we’re a really tight team and we both have started talking about how we might want to start doing some things outside of Delain every now and then. I think our biggest goal for now is to really find a balance and do anything in order to keep making beautiful music together. Because if I look at what we’ve done in the past, if I look at the album that we made now, I’m just really, really proud. It is really a product of our team. The sum is more than its parts, so to speak. I just really hope that we can keep doing that and make a lot more beautiful music and hope that people keep enjoying it.

#Charlotte Wessels #Delain #2020 interviews

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identityexcavationstation · 4 years

Text

The High Fidelity Remake is Good and my Identity is Irreversibly Linked to Music Consumption

Hi! So, I’m kinda insane about playlists.

This year I’ve made a lot of them. They’ve been short and snappy on index cards, scanned and pasted in a book and uploaded to the internet. (I’ve really fallen in love with index card playlists and they’re my thing now and I think everyone should do them always and forever.) They were easy to churn out as a retrospective exercise because the music I listened to as a teenager really defined my high school experience. Also, I have most of my favorite songs from that period in a very dramatic playlist I started in 2014 so it was really a game of copy-and-paste.

Making these smol boys in batches has been a really peculiar experience because for years now, I’ve only made one playlist at a time. In my second semester of college, I’d officially burned myself out listening to only CHVRCHES for three months and began venturing elsewhere. (Don’t get me wrong, CHVRCHES absolutely bangs, but you can only listen to “Never Ending Circles” so many times before getting seasick.) All of the random songs I was listening to made me feel kinda hazy and purple, like I’d done all of this before. So I made a playlist full of them and called it “Deja Vu.”

I added to it all semester, and then suddenly it was summer and I didn’t feel purple and hazy anymore⁠—everything was blue and crisp on the way to South Haven as my friend blasted “Settle Down” by Kimbra in her beat-up Honda. So I started a new playlist and named it the first word that popped into my head: “Roots.”

Using Deja Vu as a rubric, I developed some ground rules for the playlists I would go on to create. They are pretty nonsensical but also exceedingly firm because if I don’t make rules for every area of my life I feel like I’m falling into a deep and limitless void. Health! Anyway, the rules are:

The playlist’s title has to be a short noun (seven letters maximum).

This has since transformed into a noun that is also a verb.

To generate a title, I ask myself what short word I would use to describe the phase of life I’m currently in. The answer comes quickly and reflexively, and I choose the very first word I think of.

One song per artist, no repeats!

Exceptions are made for artists who are featured on a track.

There have been times when I’ve obsessively listened to a whole album or an artist’s entire discography, so I have to choose just one song that represents the very best of that album or artist.

Tracks are added chronologically, based on when I first hear them and/or start listening to them compulsively.

The playlist has to contain an amount of tracks that is divisible by five.

If a song in a playlist is deleted from Spotify, I have to find a replacement asap that is accurate to what I was listening to when that playlist was being created.

and, most importantly,

I can’t make a new playlist until I feel I’m finished with the current one.

These playlists represent seasons of my life, cycles in which I change and evolve and stagnate and fuck up and try again. The only rule I have for beginning a new playlist is that I feel done with the current one—those songs are a little stale and don’t represent me anymore. These “seasons” don’t have any set length, and I can never predict when I’ll feel like a new being who needs new songs to define her. So far, my life has looked like this:

Deja Vu - 176 days (12.03.16 - 05.28.17) Most common lyrics: now, love, time, need, take

snow that covers ivy that covers bricks, towers made from dining hall dishes, smiling at the bus stop without knowing, sheet masks in the dorm bathroom at 2am, pink string lights and pink crocheted blankets and pink shag carpeting, cheap beer behind tarps and walking everyone home

Roots - 111 days (05.28.17 - 09.16.17) Most common lyrics: love, one, give, wanna, know

t-shirt tan lines, mozzarella and tomato and basil and singed spaghetti, sunset walks around abandoned high schools, green leaves outlined in watercolor, the smell of mildew and old paper in banker’s boxes, sweat-soaked french braids, the knife twist of eye contact, tarot readings under lamplight

Walls - 110 days (09.16.17 - 01.04.18) Most common lyrics: wanna, know, baby, take, feel

crying in the gender-neutral restroom, pretty boys holding guitars or rolling rock, photos in the forest, blue carpeting and lofted bedframes, pitch-black bonfires, sitting in the dining hall to just watch the people pass, snow on eyelashes in large wet clumps, laughing at lies

Bite - 78 days (01.04.18 - 03.23.18) Most common lyrics: know, love, stay, come, need

impatience at the airport, texting on the laundry room floor, nervous night drives, five grilled cheese sandwiches, acne like freckles, ceiling photos taken in secret, watercolor lines and paper houses, broken glass on the sidewalk, ink-stained forearms, notebook paper comics, writing small on basement walls

Windows - 131 days (03.23.18 - 08.01.18) Most common lyrics: love, now, know, baby, fall

books piled up by the bed, rum and coke and orange juice and vodka and cheap white wine, rainy day night walks, streetlights turning the leaves orange, echoes from the party upstairs, solo trips to the grocery store, always leaving the blinds open, aperol and chai lattes and smørrebrød, never coming home

Grip - 136 days (08.01.18 - 12.15.18) Most common lyrics: know, boy, lost, girl, night

read receipts, the creaking of an empty house, sand and bricks and traffic cones, sitting on the curb and shaking, applause at dinner, bubble tea, bike rides in torn jeans, mr brightside blasting at 10am, doodles during lectures, embroidery at the kitchen table, blue bus panic attacks, half an apple for lunch

Wait - 117 days (12.15.18 - 04.11.19) Most common lyrics: heart, want, one, back, know

crying in the lobby, measuring oats by the quarter cup, drunken voice memos, shoes on power lines, another bowl of granola, reading all the lyrics, photos taken with the flash on, sleeping on strange couches, shoeboxes full of photographs, wire catching the sunlight, fifteen minutes of windchill

Wave - 108 days (04.11.19 - 07.28.19) Most common lyrics: wanna, know, now, love, come

dancing on the porch, reading on the roof, tipsy trips to the corner store, silent heavy parlor air, chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, barred windows and string lights and exit signs, highlighting the important parts, nails tapping on wooden tables, wet wind before the storm, biking straight into the smoke

Home - 178 days (07.28.19 - 01.22.20) Most common lyrics: down, know, now, wanna, think

steep downhill walks, fingertips covered in graphite and lead, blank faces on green walls, forest walkways, hands gripping thighs too tightly, light leaks in darkrooms, the handwriting of strangers, chains trapped between teeth, white words left unread, twirling at the tennis court, yellow becoming blue

Hand - 63 days (01.22.20 - 03.25.20) Most common lyrics: know, time, love, die, back

masking tape messages, laughing four shots in, BiC .07mm HB mechanical pencils slipped into coat cuffs, cheeks blushed with red ink, green floodlights and kissed knuckles, windows fogged from the inside, falling asleep with earbuds in, finger guns and everything in boxes, wedging open locked doors

_______________________________________________________________________

It’s interesting to look back at these playlists altogether, see them as self-contained units, little stories I tell about myself, about the people I used to be. Adding a song to one of these playlists was like making a vow, entering a relationship with a collection of sounds. It’s like I was saying “this song is now a part of me.” I constructed this little world for myself in the space between my ears, and it, in turn, created me.

I really mean it when I say that the first word that floats to the front of my mind becomes the title of whatever playlist I’m making. I never question what the word means, and its meaning always ends up describing that season of my life.

“Roots” became a period of reconnecting with essential pieces of myself I thought I had abandoned.

During “Grip,” I was holding on so tightly to things that had left me ages ago, and I think I knew that, even if I was unable to admit it to myself.

“Wait” revealed itself in two ways: it was a time in which 1.) I felt stagnant and restless, unable to be patient, and 2.) I was forced to grasp with a physical and emotional weight that had been bearing down on me.

The mind is a magical thing—it processes what we refuse to recognize.

Speaking of which, these playlist covers have been driving me up the wall for ages. They’re like nails on a freaking chalkboard for my synesthesia. Is “Bite” a heavily blue playlist? Sure. But is “Home” purple? Is “Grip” pink??? I think the fuck not!

(I could do a whole goddamn blog post on synesthesia, and I might.)

Now that I know how to switch out playlist cover art (can you believe it’s taken me this long to figure out how to do that?), I have decided to issue myself a challenge/project/way to procrastinate actual work I have to do.

I’d like to make a piece of cover art for all of the above playlists. And because I am, to reiterate, insane, I’m setting up some Rules For Creation:

All works must be the same size, on the same type of paper using similar materials (tbd but probably graphite, colored pencil, watercolor, fineliners, and/or collage).

The preliminary sketch for each cover must be created while listening to the playlist.

Each piece can (must?) incorporate the five most common lyrics as listed above because goddammit I did not spend four hours compiling lyrics in a web-based word cloud generator for nothing.

If I’m not having fun, I won’t make myself do it because this is literally just for laffs.

Anyway, I’m looking forward to creating some fun weird art! I know nobody is gonna read this and nobody is gonna comment but if, by some miracle, you feel like it, comment a playlist you’ve made that you’re really proud of! Or comment if you have some weird playlist rules! Or cyberbully me! Anything’s fair game.

TL;DR playlists are fun and I’m a maniac :)

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sxftrxchxe · 6 years

Text

written on these walls-rt

AN-merry chrysler!

SONG: story of my life

WARNINGS: none

FANDOM: it 2017

WORDS: 2122

SUMMARY: theres a secret santa and yn recieves a really special gift

yn-your name

nn-nickname

"I don't know why we even bother doing secret Santa. We all know we have presents for each other already." Eddie stated slapping a piece of red ribbon away and rolling his eyes. Currently all eight members of the losers club were gathered in Bill's bedroom with a small Christmas tree by the door. Each were surrounded by a huge pile of wrapping paper and ribbons and just general Christmas left overs. yn picked up a ribbon and grinned.

"It's tradition Eds." She stuck it to his forehead and giggled as he attempted to swat it off. "Plus you know you loved your Christmas themed inhaler. Whoever thought of that was a genius!" Eddie sighed and stopped trying to peel the decorative sticky off of his head. If the inhaler covered in red glitter with a pretty bow stuck to the top said anything about the quality of the other gifts he was in for a proper laugh. Plus ever since his mom started actually letting him do things he might as well stay till morning.

Beverly ignored the grumbles from the short boy and rubbed her hands together declaring it was her turn to open something. Soon enough everyone except yn had opened a gift. Bill got a pretty new sketchbook with expensive looking pencils and watercolors clearly given to him from Stan if the handwriting was anything to judge by. Ben received a new kids on the block album he didn't have and a pretty framed picture of him and Beverly. It wasn't quite clear who gave it to him but yn had her suspicions it was Eddie due to his awkward wiggling as Ben tore the paper open. Eddie himself of course had the 'Christmas inhaler' from Beverly that yn had helped decorate. What Eddie didn't know was Beverly was also hiding a fanny pack for him for later she just didn't want him to get all soppy on her in front of the others. Beverly was given a small pile of chocolates, a gold bracelet and a new chain for her key. yn didn't have to guess who got it for the redhead since it was her. Mike had gotten a farming handbook and Polaroids from his recent photography phase. Bill himself had blurted to yn he got Mike weeks ago meaning she only smiled and shrugged when Mike asked her if she knew. Stan had been bought an entirely new camera and updated bird book. yn didn't really know who who given the curly haired boy such a meaningful gift but from the pretty wrapping paper alone she had her money on Ben. Richie had been given a gift that the buyer would surely regret. A blow horn, joke handbook and a new Hawaiian button up. yn saw Mike physically cringe when Richie told a joke making yn giggle at the irony. After all wasn't it Mike who had given the boy the gift?

Bill strode over to the tree and picked up the last gift. A small rectangular shaped object wrapped in shiny light blue paper. It had her name written on it but in such weird handwriting that it almost seemed like the person was trying to hide their identity. yn chuckled and smiled at her friends. Each of them urged her to open it, Beverly even saying she'd do it herself if yn didn't. So rather slowly she began tearing the wrapping paper, starting from the side.

At first her present seemed like just a notebook and she smiled despite knowing she had a pile of empty notebooks at home. Then the paper ripped more revealing pretty painted wooden letters spelling out 'the losers club'. The girl gasped and quickly tore the rest of the paper off in a moment of giddy ness. Then her hand flew to her mouth as she gasped. The rest of the losers crowded around to see what the girl had been so taken back by only to gasp or make some noise too.

In front of them was a pastel pink notebook yes. But the wooden letters that spelt 'The Losers Club' were painted white and had each of their names in it. In the middle was a picture Mrs Denbrough had taken in 1990 of all eight standing by the quarry, arms around arms and faces beaming. "Holy fuck that's adorable. Open the first page nn I want to see what this is about!" Beverly begged her friend, her green-grey eyes gleaming as her they glided across the cover.

yn didn't fight back and instead opened the first page. Tears already flooded her eyes a picture of the original five was stuck to the inside. They were dressed as members of the Scooby gang with Georgie joining them to be Scooby Doo himself. The picture was captioned with 'Making new friends never meant losing old ones to you. 1883-∞'. The impact was only worsened seeing Georgie's face smiling up at him since he disappeared a little over three years ago. yn stroked the picture as a tear fell off of her face and onto the page.

No one spoke as the girl went from page to page, taking her time to take everything in. There was pictures of her with everyone. A picture of her and Beverly blowing kisses to the camera with their arms linked captioned 'True friends aren’t the ones who've always been there. It's the ones that come and say "Hey I love you" and prove it'. Several of her and Bill though the years with captions a mixture of 'someday you'll thank yourself for not giving up' and 'here's to the months that turned into years and friends that turned into family'. A dozen of her and Mike at his farm with different animals each time. Mikes favorite was the one ynwas laughing as a mischievous sheep rammed her back and he was laughing more than her as he tried to steady her. Loads with Ben but her favorite being one at the river taken from the back where she had her arms in the air as he pointed at her laughing. New kids on the block was a crazy drug according to the caption. She couldn't count the amount with Eddie on both hands. Eddie had began to cry when he saw a photo the night he told yn about his dirty little secret. He remembered Beverly taking it as his eyes stung and his face was blotchy. The camera flash hurt his eyes. Yet he didn't feel sad during that photo since yn had a tight grip around his neck and was holding his hand with her other hand with such comfort he couldn't possibly feel uncomfortable. yn was crying too, her face covered in streaks and clothes wet yet she was smiling. Pride Eddie decided it was as he nuzzled his nose on yns shoulder. The girl patted his head reassuringly before flipping to the next page.

A picture of her and Stan as they sat in his bird watching tree. It was taken from below meaning you could see their dangling legs and hair blowing behind yn much better than Stans or hers faces. Yet there was something about the way yn had her legs kicking out and Stan was steadying her back you could tell neither minded. Especially since the photo on the other page was still taken from below only behind too. The sun was beginning to set and yn had dozed off on Stans shoulder. He was making sure she didn't fall with one arm whilst the other was holding up his binoculars. yn choked on her tears and Stan barely held back his own. Pages and pages covered in more photos each meaning a lot to someone or everyone. Beverly and her holding hands and eating ice cream during the summer. Bill, Beverly and her lying in a row tanning as Stan set upright at the end scouting for birds. Mike, Richie and yn having a bike race as Eddie ran after them, clutching an inhaler. The whole group laughing so hard they were crying in Bills room during a rainy October. Even Georgie was there usually accompanied by a younger looking Bill and yn as they all grinned at the camera, teeth missing and innocence gleaming in their eyes. It was all there and it was yns.

She finally flicked to the last page. A collage of her and Richie every year since they were five in kindergarten. Each year they were in a different pose and wearing different clothes but they still always smiled and stood in the same spot. yn closed the notebook and hugged it to her chest as she sobbed. The losers pulled her into a group hug rubbing their eyes and noses on each other's shoulders and promising to always love each other.

•

Night had fallen completely over Derry. The electric clock on Bill's bedside table told yn it was 3:15 am as she flicked to the another page with Eddie. He looked concentrated as he braided her hair into daises. She was rereading her secret santa again, tracing each page and wiping her wet eyes, perched on Bills windowsill as to use the moonlight to be able to see. Behind her was a mess. Wrapping paper no one was bothered to tidy up after their emotional evening, bits of ribbon and glitter everywhere. On Bill's bed was Bill himself lying with his legs over Stans chest as Ben curled up on his pillow like a kitten. Eddie and Mike lay on the same blanket though Eddie kept twisting and kicking Mike in his sleep making him grunt. Beverly has chosen a whole spot for herself before Richie invaded it bringing a huge fluffy blanket and pillows by the Christmas tree. yn was lying with them at one point but then gave up since Beverly kept kicking Richie and calling him a useless yo-yo. The windowsill was much more beautiful and peaceful anyway.

Just as she flicked to a picture of her Richie and Bev who were both holding up middle fingers as she scolded them the floorboard behind her creaked. The girl squeaked before relaxing when she recognized Richie. She smiled softly at him before turning back to the book, stroking the picture gently. "Hey" Richie whispered sitting under the windowsill.

"Hey." yn replied back reaching one hand down to stroke his curls as she continued to flick through the book. They sat in silence for awhile, the only noise being Eddies breathing and the occasional page turning. yn tried to subtly sniff and hide her tears knowing Richie would probably tease her about it. It was only when she got to the collage of her and him she choked up more and he noticed. "Sorry if I seem like a baby." The girl told him wiping at her face and coughing slightly. "I guess I am a baby anyway."

Richie blinked in shock before sitting on his knees. yn looked down at him and sniffed, hoping he wouldn't notice the mess she currently was. "You're not a baby," Richie promised. yn scoffed and kept sniffling. Richie sighed and stood over her. The girl looked up and his eyes met hers. "You're the strongest person I know".

"Well that's a fat lie." yn laughed aloud before remembering the others were sleeping.

"What do you mean?"

"You know yourself so how can I be the strongest? Anyway it doesn't matter I just want to know who made me the scrapbook." Richie laughed and yn moved over so he could squeeze beside her on the windowsill. She lay her head on his chest and closed her eyes listening to his heart. Richie rubbed her hair gently. "Hey Chee?" Richie hummed in a reply and yn yawned "who did you get for secret santa?"

Richie paused before replying. "Beverly. Thank god she liked it she probably would kill me if she didn't." yn froze before pulling away. Richie blinked before yn leaned in. Next thing he knew the girl was on his lap, his hands were in her hair and her lips were on his. Neither complained of course since they had a massive crush on each other since they were fourteen. yn pulled back after a minute or so, red cheeked and out of breath. Richie lay his head on hers and pulled her close. "W-Why?"

"I know you got me the scrapbook Richie. I had Beverly you absolute idiot it literally said my name on the bracelet." They were silence for a minute before they both busted into laughter. They laughed so much yn fell off the windowsill and then they laughed more. The other losers awoke and complained but couldn't help but smile when they noticed the kids slightly puffy lips.

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sncollection · 2 years

Text

WELCOME!!

So... just made another blog hehe

As someone who took lots of pictures daily, I really have this desire to share my arts and how I view the world thru the digital lens. I'm an old school person. I like how people used to snap pics and print it out and collaged into a physical album. Of course, I can do that too but why do that when I can just share it here, right? Can't believe Tumblr is freeeeeee!!

Of course I tried other medium such as VSCO, Flickr and Instagram... but it's just not how I want it to be. VSCO; it's kinda odd posting your pictures without actually editing it. Flickr; I used up all the free uploads, which is only 1,000 photos. I have to subscribe in order to upload more... so yeah, no. Instagram; well, I did made a new account "@thesngallery" and uploaded some pics from time to time, but idk man, Instagram is reallyyyyyy just not for me. I think it'll be easier if I have the app (I purposely don't download the app so whenever I open Instagram, it's actually thru the chrome web), so it's really quite a hassle for me to upload pics there.

Then I realised that... I can actually just create a new blog and post my pics on Tumblr. Since I can easily just open Tumblr using my Mac and upload everything from the iCloud. Easy as 1,2,3 hehehe....

Can't wait to make this gallery filled with aesthetic photos!! <3

#SN

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niamhdonlan · 2 years

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My first zine pages

Subhumans page

My starting idea for the page i'm going to show you, was to use an existing album cover and make it my own, a lot of the process for this one was simply me playing around with photoshop and procreate, and trying to make it look fun and bright, as well as being able to improve my skills on photoshop.

As at first I wasn't completely sure if I wanted to use this page in my actual zine I didn't photograph the process of the journey as well as I would of wanted to, if I knew how much I would love the final outcome. So the top photo is before pro create and the bottom photograph was in the second stage of making the collage. First I will explain the first steps I took on photoshop with actually laying out the images and figuring out how I wanted it to look. As I said before the basis of this idea was to use an album cover as the background, and one of my favourite punk bands were Subhumans, who I have already mentioned in my previous research as they were a very politically driven punk bands, and I always thought their cover of the album The Day the Country Died was really cool, and I really wanted to use this.

But I really wanted it to be bright so I decided to test out colour ways on the gradient map, where I decided to choose noise, which makes the colours al to more in your face and have an almost grainy effect on it. I then went to adding the photographs I wanted to use for it, with the bottom left one being one of my friends at a gig, after putting the photo in, and using the select and mask tool to get rid of the background I realised that she also had mohawk style hair just like the photo, so I decided to build the rest of the photos around this. The bottom photo I got from my friends art account called Cr0sspxtch, where she provided me with a folder of photos she had used at a gig, and seeing a photo of our friend Liam who has a mohawk I thought it would fir perfectly. However I didn't only want to use photos, I was interested in the idea of using a zine page, so I again looked through the Fanzines book by Teal Triggs which has so far being really helping me in this project for research and inspiration for my own work, here I found the perfect zine called '10 things Jesus wants you to know'.

Where the man had a mohawk, and the woman also had a spikey type hair cut, so I felt like this fit in really well. I was definitely happy with the progress so far but I still wanted to add something more. I wanted to link the fact that Subhumans were a very politically driven band so I thought a nice contrast would be to use a punk headline, and one of the most famous punk headlines of the 70's titled 'Punks with prospects', I thought this was a really nice bottom touch and as I knew I was going to add quite a bit on procreate I decided this would be a good time to move it to there.

This is the first time I had really started to experiment with procreate, I knew that I loved doing digital work but I also wanted to use my own handwriting and stick to the old zine style as well, and I knew that with procreate you can use many different types of pen and pencil styles using an apple pen which gives it a more physical feel than it does when using a font on photoshop. I'd already decided that I wanted to have fun with this piece, so I just started drawing whatever I could think of onto the page as this felt like the most authentic way to do it. From this I started to draw a black line around the mohawk in the album cover and add little bits of text like 'riots in the city' and 'subhumans', I did this by using a pencil type pen, I then coloured in the newspaper headline and the t-shirt in the bottom left corner, and as I did that in red I thought it would look cool to add some devil horns and tail, keeping the whole page quite sketchy. I loved the sketchy look of the whole page so far and while testing pens I drew a smiley face, and actually ended up really liking it so kept it in. One of the last things I did to that page was colour in the teeth green and yellow and from this I thought I gave the man quite a grim look, so I decided to extend this, as on the original album cover there is spit and also snot coming out of his mouth and nose, so I chose to extend this by drawing some of my own in green and while onto the photo below of Liam, I thought this looked quite humorous and on top of this is brought in the two elements of the cover and the photo well, so I decided to keep it. The one reason i was really like ring this page is because of how sketchy and authentic it felt to me.

This page was by far my favourite so far and I felt like the most evolved piece I had done showing my progress in using photoshop and also decided i certainly wanted to use pro create again, so I felt like it really set me off on the right track for the rest of my zine and gave me confidence to start making more pages. On the other hand I knew I didn't want to get too comfortable in my digital work and show what else I could do with my physical work.

Gig blood page

My baseline idea for this page came from a photo I took at a gig, that I has already shown in my digital sketchbook.

I thought it would be fun to name the page gig blood, as I took this photon at a gig when one of my friends got a busted lip from being in the mosh pit. Throughout the years punk gigs are notoriously known to be quite violent, Vim Renault writes about this for punkgirldiaries.com 'When the punk movement took off, the violence came on board. Bands like the West Ham supporting ‘Cockney Rejects’ took part in what has been described as ‘the most violent ever punk gig’...there were riots all the time at punk gigs.' A difference now however is that punk gigs aren't violent in the way of rioting and actual fights going on but in the most pits it's not uncommon to be hit or hurt, as the whole premise it to push each other around. On top of this there is a real sense of friendship inside the scene, most people know everyone there as the same crowd go to the gigs so no one hold anything personal if they get hit by one of their friends, and I really wanted to develop this idea into a page.

This is the work I did on photoshop for this page, I pre planned to do most of the work on photoshop for this so I wanted to keep it simple and just use photo shop as a way to display my images in the best quality I could. I added another photo I took of her in that night at the same gig and use the select and mask tool to get rid of background, and lay it on top of the other photo, and make sure I left an intentional gap so I could write gig blood at the top like a headline.

Here was my outcome, my first step was to fill in the white gap that I had left, for this I used to eyedropper tool on procreate to get the purple colour out of the photo itself and used a textured pen to start to fill in the gap, however I thought this looked quite flat and wanted to include more of the colours, so I used the eyedropper tool again to get the red out of the photos and the same pen to fill it in. I was happy with this, and it was really cohesive with the images, so I moved on to writing gig blood. Im usually not the best with handwriting but the one I used really helped me to write it quite quickly, I wanted the letters to be different sizes so as I wrote one letter too another I was changing he size as I went along, which I thought gave it a really interesting effect, it didn't really take me long at all to write it out and I was happy with the final outcome. To add more elements to the page used a pencil tool to draw round the photo of her and the top of the other photo in the same red and also black, which is only a small addition but I felt like it needed it just to bring kore colour into it with the black instead of moving just red and purple, this is why I also outlined gig blood with black pen as well.

This page possibly took me the fastest although it didn't feel rushed, I just had quite a developed idea of what I wanted it to look like before I did it so it wasn't too hard to actually translate that to the page. On top of this I also don't really have any negative feedback for this page as I think its quite simple, which isn't usually my style as I like to have really busy, in your face work, but it was nice to go more out of my comfort zone for this one to be happy with it without loads of elements onto it, and i really feel that this is because the images are quite interesting, and large on the page, and I wanted them to be the main focus.

I decided to put these two pages together as a double page spread, as they both have music links with the album and gig factors, and in addition to this I felt as though the colours worked quite well together. Lastly because the subhuman page is quite loud it could of been too much to put another loud page next to it, which gig blood is not.

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nobraineronline · 3 years

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The Marvel of NFT’s

NFT or “Non-Fungible Tokens” are the latest cryptocurrency marvel. Everyday we hear something exciting from the crypto world. At one point it gives us money making and investing opportunities, however, it’s not only that. Blockchain technology is growing day by day and providing solutions in al industries. Whether it’s a financial solution, gaming, sports or crypto domains.

What is NFT?

NFT’s specifically, where “Non-Fungible” means something unique and cannot be replaced. NFT’s convert Digital piece of art and other collectables into unique, one of a kind, verifiable assets. These assets can be traded on the blockchain. In actual, it is a unit of data stored on a digital ledger, called a blockchain. This certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable. NFT’s are becoming mainstream now, especially after Christie's auction house sold the first-ever NFT artwork for a huge amount of $69.3 Million. This was a collage of images created by digital artist, Beeple. Since then payoff has been huge for many artists, musicians, influencers and investors who are spending Millions to own NFT versions of digital images. Another example is Jack Dorsey's first tweet which is now bidding for $2.5 million, a video clip of a LeBron James slam dunk sold for over $200,000 and a decade-old "Nyan Cat" GIF went for $600,000. NFTs can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio and other types of digital files. Access to any copy of the original file, however, is not restricted to the buyer of the NFT. While copies of these digital items are available for anyone to obtain, NFTs are tracked on blockchains to provide the owner with a proof of ownership that is separate from copyright.

The Year of NFT’s

Undoubtedly, 2021 is now being considered as the year of NFT’s. There has been an enormous curiosity in using NFT’s. Various Blockchains like Ethereum leading the way, Flow and Tezos have their own standards in support of NFT’s ensuring that the digital item represented is authentically one-of-a-kind. Simply, NFT can be anything, digital art, drawing, music, video and as mentioned above, Tweets, that is available digitally

Authenticity

Anyone can copy a digital file as many times as they want, including the art that’s included with an NFT. However, the specialty of NFTs is that they are designed to give something additional that can’t be copied i.e. the real ownership of the work. To understand clearly in terms of traditional art, anyone can buy a Monet print but only one person can own the original.

NFT Market value

Remarkably, NFT market value increased many folds in 2021 reaching up to $22.5 billion where it was only at $250 Million in 2020. Seems unbelievable, right? But trust me, it is and its increasing day by day. The economic momentum NFTs have in the crypto market has exploded because of a trend towards digital collectibles

NFT Formats

NFT’s can be in various formats explained briefly below

Digital art

Digital art is an artistic work or practice that uses digital technology as part of the creative or presentation process. Such art work was adapted at the earliest because of the ability of Blockchain technology to assure the unique signature and ownership. Various art pieces sold at very huge prices, few mentioned below: ArtistNamePrice SoldBeepleEverydays - The First 5000 Days$69.3 Million in 2021BeepleCrossroad$6.6 MillionDylan FieldCryptoPunk #7804$7.5 MillionDylan FieldApe, Fedora #6965$1.5 MillionKrista KimMars House$0.5 MillionJa RulePortrait of Fyre Media logo$.12 Million

Collectibles

NFTs can represent collectibles like card collections, tickets, but in a digital format.

Games

NFTs can also be used to represent in game assets, such as digital plots of land, which are controlled by the user instead of the game developer. NFTs allow assets to be traded on third-party marketplaces without permission from the game developer.

Music & Musicians

Now for the musicians, as various social media channels like YouTube, Instagram or TikTok help them to market their music to their audiences, NFT’s allow them to sell their music online. Musicians can tokenize their work on blockchains using non-fungible tokens. For example, Kings of Leon, released their first album i.e. WHEN YOU SEE YOURSELF on NFT (Blockchain platform). This NFT went on to generate a reported $2 million in sales.

Motion Picture

And then comes the Film, Motion pictures industry reacted a bit slower than others to the NFT craze. However, on March 13, 2021, Adam Benzine's Oscar-nominated documentary “Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah” became the first motion picture, documentary and Academy Award-nominated film to be minted and auctioned as an NFT. Not only that, Legendary Entertainment will release an exclusive Godzilla vs. Kong NFT collection on the same day the film hit theatres and similarly many others coming up

Sports & Athletes

How can we forget sports? NFT’s are becoming very advantageous for sports people & Athletes. In September 2019, NBA player Spencer Dinwiddie tokenized his contract so that others can invest into it. Additionally, Dapper Labs, a blockchain technology-based company, has collaborated with the NBA to create "N.B.A Top Shot", a marketplace for digital highlight clips. In March 2021, pro tennis player Oleksandra Oliynykova offered prospective NFT buyers the lifetime rights to part of her right arm.

Fashion

In 2019, Nike acquired a patent that allows for blockchain technology to attach cryptographically secured digital assets in the form of NTF's to physical products, such as a pair of sneakers, under the name "CryptoKicks". NFTs challenge the norms of contemporary art with an approach to creative expression that is entirely digital and verifiably unique thereby pushing the art world into new territory.

How can I buy and sell NFT’s?

There are several marketplaces specifically around NFTs, which allow you to buy and sell. Few of them are OpenSea, Rarible, Superfarm, Ethernity, Enjin and Nifty Gateway, but there are plenty of others. You can very easily upload your art work on any of these platforms and put them up for sale. Pricing can be in various crypto currencies but most preferable is Ethereum. There are some charges involved in uploading your art which included platform fee and transaction charges. However, it’s worth trying. And the good part is that even if your art work is sold various times among investors, every time it is sold you will get the royalty. Sounds good?

NFT’s, An opportunity or….

So, what do you think about NFT’s? Is it something you look forward to invest in? or you have rolled up your sleeves and ready to put up your digital art or music piece for sale. Whatever is in your mind this is a booming market and worth checking out. Hopefully few deserving artists can make good money out of it without asking agencies, recording companies or producers to help them out. But to close this article, 2021 IS THE YEAR OF NFT’S Read the full article

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jeremystrele · 4 years

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Taking The Opera House Online With Digital Programming Associate, Sophie Penkethman-Young

Dream Job

by Sally Tabart

The Sydney Opera House looking truly majestic! Photo – Sean Fennessy for The Design Files.

Architectural details inside the Sydney Opera House. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Sophie Penkethman-Young, Digital Programming Associate at The Sydney Opera House. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Sophie was part of the digital programming team that helped bring the impressive From Our House To Yours program to life in record time! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Sophie behind-the-scenes at the Opera House. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

‘I feel like a typical day actually mainly involves me carrying around a lot of hard drives and wishing that I was better at labelling them’, says Sophie! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Behind-the-scenes at the Opera House. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

Tools of the trade! Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

An empty Opera House theatre, where digital events have been live-streamed since May. Photo – Alisha Gore for The Design Files.

When Sophie Penkethman-Young landed her dream job as Digital Programming Associate at the Sydney Opera House in February of 2020, she had no idea how busy her new job was about to get. To be fair, none of us knew how much our lives were about to change back then. But for someone working in digital programming at one of Australia’s most prestigious cultural institutions, the almost immediate halt of physical events in March of 2020 meant that things were about to get really intense.

‘At first it was a bit chaotic’, Sophie says of the quick pivot to creating a weekly digital program from scratch (!) when COVID hit. But alongside a talented team, Sophie helped put together an impressive digital offering which includes never-before-seen footage from the Opera House archives, podcasts, long-form articles and behind-the-scenes content. In May, the team added weekly live recordings and live-stream performances to the program. ‘We transformed Joan Sutherland Theatre into a “digital stage” with a focus on new work that responds to the current moment’, Sophie says. Since its launch, the From Our House to Yours program has been enthusiastically received locally and around the world with more than 4.5 million views and downloads, including 15 million minutes viewed of video and 103,000 podcast downloads.

Sophie went to ANU School for Art, majoring in Photography Media Arts. She then went on to complete honours in Screen Arts at the University of Sydney’s School of Art, and has nearly finished her Masters in Art Curating, focusing on internet-based practice and digital museum theory at the University of Sydney. Last year, she wrote her thesis on internet art, and the importance of programming online, and she’s previously worked at Carriageworks and experimental/emerging art gallery Firstdraft in Woolloomooloo.

If anyone was prepared to tackle the unique challenges of hustling a rich online arts program in 2020, it’s Sophie!

The most important verb in the get-your-dream-job-lexicon is…

Make. I think that you should just make as much as possible, the only way to get better at a craft is by making! Also make lots of different things, make videos with your friends, make podcasts, collage, build your own website. The more you do this the more empowered you will feel to learn new skills and keep growing.

I landed this job by…

Being enthusiastic! I remember in my interview talking about how difficult it would be to find a sound that represented the Sydney Opera House, with all its different forms of programming. From memory (and this is kind of embarrassing) I sort of made a whooshing sound to try and indicate the architecture of the building aurally.

Work in 2020 for me has been…

Wild, I mean 2020 has been wild in general for everyone! It’s been strange because I wrote my thesis last year on internet art and what it means to program online and why it’s important. When I wrote it, it felt really niche and academic, whereas now it feels very real and salient. I am so grateful to be working for an organisation that was already so invested in the digital space before COVID, so that we had the tools to be able to serve our artists and our audiences quickly.

A typical day for me involves…

Lots of things! Editing podcasts or videos, working with artists to help them realise digital outcomes for their works, emails, meetings with production for upcoming shows.

I’m working most days from home right now, but I go to the Opera House frequently on Saturdays for the live streams, where I help produce panels and performances. I feel like a typical day actually mainly involves me carrying around a lot of hard drives and wishing that I was better at labelling them.

The most rewarding part of my job is…

The best thing about my job is that it is super varied, and allows me to use every skill I have. I built up my skill set through my own art practice, previous jobs and helping friends with projects, so I’m not really a master of anything, and I’ve mainly learnt things from YouTube. To be able to work in a job where I can completely throw myself in and use everything I know while also learning new things every day is really exciting.

I am also super lucky to be a part of a great team, there are so many conversations that I’ve had with colleagues that have been so inspiring, I don’t know if you can get that many places.

On the other hand, the most challenging part is…

Switching between different projects all the time. Sometimes I feel like my brain is stretched between so many different timelines and projects and mediums that it can be a bit hard to focus. I’ve started closing all the tabs on my computer every couple of hours just to keep the chaos at bay.

Something I’m proud of achieving at work is…

Ziggy Ramo‘s Black Thoughts live stream. Ziggy is an amazing artist and this project was the most special and important thing I’ve worked on in my career. It was also completely different from anything I’ve worked on. We storyboarded the whole show based on the album and then commissioned illustrator Kambarni to create this tapestry-like illustration that talked to the album’s themes of love, compassion, dispossession and systemic racism. The whole work had to be re-envisioned multiple times due to COVID restrictions and through that we built a lot of trust with the artists. I love this project so much, please go watch it.

A piece of advice/a lesson I’ve found useful is…

Do something because you want to, make things because you think that they should be made, and when you find something special, put your whole self behind it.

Check out the Sydney Opera House’s impressive digital offering here!

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ngophilantropical · 5 years

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How literacy makes us more human

David Lewis Brooks, CMO, Philantropical.org (Hawaii-based NGO)

Retired Associate Professor, English Language Unit, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Kitasato University Article for October 2018 Kitasato Library News

[ The photo collage above is a composite of various old family photographs from the family picture albums of the author's parents: Jerry and Rebecca Brooks]

Mr. Brooks first joined the teaching staff at Kitasato’s Sagamihara campus in April, 1996, as a emergency teacher recruited by Prof. Yukio Seya in March of that year to fill a sudden part-time English teacher vacancy. Mr. Brooks was subsequently employed as a full-time teacher member of the English Language Unit the following year, and has continued in the position of Associate Professor until his mandatory retirement in March 2019. After his retirement, he will remain as an adjunct professor at Kitasato University one or two days a week, he'll likely be teaching part-time as well at Aoyama Gakuin University for two graduate or undergraduate courses, and may also be working on a volunteer basis in the part-time position at the University’s Office of International Affairs from April, 2019, until the 2024. In addition, Mr. Brooks will be managing director of a new travel company based in Hawaii that specializes in edutrekking, travel expeditions for small teams that combine travel with eco-tourism and humanitarian endeavors.

The role that books have the power to play in and on one’s life can be as varied as the influences that he or she gains from the people one knows and meet throughout, as impressive as the places where a person has lived or traveled, or as significant as the experiences that a person encounters throughout the span of his or her lifetime. I should say ‘can play’ because it really depends on what relationship literacy plays in a person’s life. As best as we know, humans appear to be the only animal species on our planet that encodes and records thoughts and stories in order to commu-nicate across time and space what it means to be a human, and to express both his or her awe for the natural world, including for human civilization itself, and to be able record for the edification of fellow citizens of this planet the impact that human activity has on these domains.

Without any permanent way to leave a decipherable record of their thoughts or experiences, animals simply exist in all their glory and then die anonymously. But humans can leave a written record of their own or collective histories, and also their unique personal philosophies which can inspire both present and future generations.

With this definition in mind, I would like to take this opportunity to recall how reading and writing have impacted my own life, and to hopefully stimulate my fellow humans: the students, teachers, and staff at this institution, to become advocates and practitioners of effective literary communication. Just as learning to ride a bicycle is only useful as a physical skill if:

The person actually has a bicycle that he or she can ride when they need it.

The person knows how to ride the bicycle to actually go some place that he or she wants or needs to go.

The person knows exactly or approximately where they want to go on the bike.

And lastly, the person described above actually rides the bicycle somewhere from time to time.

The person actually has a bicycle that he or she can ride when they need it..

Reading and writing are literacy skills that function similarly to the cognitive, physical and affective skills necessary for riding a bicycle. Let me explain this analogy in more detail, as it may not be obvious how the two behaviors relate.

The literacy skills of reading and writing are highly interrelated to the total human communication skills encompassed in language acquisition, whether it’s with your own native tongue, or with a highly utilitarian international language, of which English is the single, most striking example in human history, or with one of the many major and minor world languages that are learned by people around the globe, the most popular ones being Spanish, Chinese, French, German, or Russian. If learning a language is a tool, as well as a skill — like riding a bike, then we first need to know that language in order to communicate what we need and want, and to understand what it is others are asking us to know, say, and do. That’s just basic communication.

Further, like a bicycle, simply owning or possessing a set of foreign language vocabulary and being able to string them together in a reasonably correct way in order to make meaningful and effective sentences is inadequate if a person doesn’t actually do that. That would be like being a “paper driver” for a bicycle. We don’t need a driver’s license to ride a bike in any country because basic mobility on a two-wheeled vehicle is a fundamental human capacity. So too are the skills of reading and writing in any language. You simply don’t need a license to communicate—it is as fundamental to human existence as breathing, eating or walking. Learning to use a language like English should be as fun, as natural, and as uncomplicated as learning to swim, to ride a bike, or to play a musical instrument.

Instead, in Japan’s fundamentally antiquated educational system, learning English has long been turned into a difficult mentally-challenging endurance competition and a social marathon race, whose ultimate prize is attaining admission to the hallowed halls of revered academic institutions. The negative effects of this educational institution rat race, which many students barely survive as independent, strong-willed participants, has far-reaching effects on the Japanese psyche.

To prevent this essay from concluding its premise by sounding like the bitter murmurings of a disgruntled and unfulfilled language educator, let’s return to its central goal:

To challenge everyone to give meaning to their lives by sharing, through reading and writing in English and in Japanese, in the joys and sorrows of the human condition, to gain valuable insights and wisdom in dealing with life through the recorded experiences and thoughts of our fellow human beings, and to add one’s own voice to the stream of billions of other human voices. In so doing, we enrich our own lives and add something of value to the legacy of the human experience.

#four language skills importance of reading Kitasato Library News literacy role of literacy philanthropy

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930club · 8 years

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ART BLANCHE: Malibu

The metaphor practically writes itself. Anderson .Paak’s music fuses together different genres and influences into one swirling, beautiful concoction. The end result: a sonic collage.

So says even the man himself.

Dewey Saunders, meanwhile, frequents in more literal forms of collage, preferring paper and scissors (and occasionally Photoshop) to Anderson’s microphone.

As collaborators, they have brought together the metaphorical and the literal, with Dewey’s compositions adorning the covers of Anderson’s records.

Anderson .Paak - Malibu (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“I’ve actually been working with Anderson for a couple of years now. I did his Venice album cover… in 2013, and was doing stuff for him even before that,” Dewey explained. “It’s funny because I used to listen to him when he was Breezy Lovejoy still. I was first a fan and then we got connected when I started doing these rapper portraits and posting them on Instagram, he wanted one so I did it and it eventually turned into like this poster series. That was when he first released his single ‘Drugs’ so I did the single cover for that and then Venice came out that year.”

Most recently, Dewey created the artwork on Anderson’s critically lauded record Malibu. Just like the album, Dewey’s art has also earned a deal of critical acclaim. But for Dewey, the process of working on Malibu was different than past collaborations with Anderson.

“So Malibu came around and that was different than Venice because he had gotten this art director named Cory Gomberg and Cory basically art directed the whole campaign for Malibu,” Dewey said. “It was a pretty long process of back-and-forth even though there was... a pretty hard deadline we had to meet. And it just, we dialed it in so precisely... working with Cory made my work get tighter and just added a level of polish, I think, just by having so many edits and having everybody look at it and critique it and everything. So it was definitely a group effort.”

Anderson .Paak - Venice (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

In total, Dewey worked with Anderson and Cory to put together art for Malibu’s cover, gatefold, singles, and various other associated pieces. Strangely enough, Dewey’s work on the project didn’t start with the album or singles, but with the European tour poster.

“I actually had done the poster and then Cory came onto the project and we redid it and [then] did all the singles for Malibu,” he explained.

Redoing the poster allowed Dewey and Cory to build a cohesive aesthetic for the art that matched Cory’s vision for the record cover, which they would then use as a blueprint for the rest of the artwork as well.

“Cory’s initial inspiration that we were kind of looking at was this 10cc cover from the 70s I guess. It was this diver with a diving helmet and he was carrying this girl out of the water… That just kinda sparked the idea [that] we wanted it to have it this 70s classic LP feel to it. So that was the jumping off point as far as the composition.”

10cc - Deceptive Bends (Via discogs)

Originally, they used a photo of Anderson merging from the water, carrying a woman, just like on the 10cc record, but a last minute decision -- due to the photo being, as Anderson put it, “a little too Fabio-ish” -- had them change the image to Anderson at the piano instead.

Looking back, it “was [a good decision] in retrospect but at the time was a big change for the cover,” Dewey said.

Surrounding Anderson on the cover are a myriad of images that relate back to the record’s lyrics. As Dewey and Cory were initially working on the artwork, they would listen to the album, digging into the music for imagery to pull out. Dewey would then look through old and rare books and magazines for material to use, scanning them into his computer and compiling the piece together digitally.

Some of the images they used were overt: the car, the suffer, the “Cali-beach feel”; but many of the things they pulled out were hidden deep within the art, ready to be discovered by those willing to hunt for them.

Anderson .Paak - The Season (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“The picture of Anderson in the top hat is really surreal and absurd in a way, so we added all these other elements that go with it, but also are kind of popping out: the ship and the whale and everything happening at once is just this epic scene that would never really happen but it’s this alternate universe. That’s what’s so great about collage is that you can make this semi-believable thing happen, this magical moment.”

“A lot of thought went into the imagery. So everything was very specifically placed and there for a reason,” Dewey said. “And a lot of little elements that are there for the people that are really looking, especially if you get the printed versions of the record -- a lot of little, hidden little elements.”

To match the cover art, Dewey and Cory then worked on the record’s gatefold, which they would also use for a poster that accompanied some of the physical releases.

Anderson .Paak - Malibu gatefold (Courtesy of Dewey Saunders)

“That’s a scene with Anderson underwater on the piano again with all the naked girls surrounding him and there’s all the divers and fish swimming around -- so it’s a pretty complex scenario,” Dewey said. “So the whole concept was very beach-y and then going into the underwater, very psychadelic as well and just having the collage elements made this a very surreal atmosphere.”

Key to art was Dewey and Cory’s ability to capture Anderson’s aesthetic and create visuals that felt authentic to his unique musical voice.

“It was an interesting process because I wasn’t really used to working with such close art direction and we were just able to spitball and brainstorm and create really specific feels of imagery that [feels] cohesive with the music… [We made] this psychedelic landscape that was for Anderson that was kinda a unique aesthetic that [matched] his,” Dewey said.

“I think that’s a thing that I kinda pushed [for, and] that Cory kind of pushed me to do, to really create this perspective and depth through so many layers and so many different things happening. ... it elevated my collage game, I would say.”

-Dylan Singleton

#Art Blanche #Dylan Singleton #Anderson .Paak #Anderson Paak #Malibu #Venice #Dewey Saunders #Cory Gomberg #Album Art #Album Covers #10cc

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gamedesignerben · 7 years

Text

Baldessari’s (optional) assignments for his 1970 Post-Studio Art class at CalArts

I could only find abridged versions, or blurry photos of the original handouts, so I transcribed everything, and here it is.

1. Imitate Baldessari in actions and speech 2. Make up an art game. Structure a set of rules with which to play. A physical game is not necessary: more important are the rules and their structure. Do we in life operate by rules? Does all art? 3. How can we prevent art boredom? 4. Write a list of art lies, un-truths that might be truthful if we really thought about them. However consider this: Art truths that we have often are boring in their correctness. 5. How can plants be used in art. Problem becomes how can we really get people to look freshly at plants as if they've never noticed them before. A few possibilities: 1. Arrange them alphabetically like books on a shelf; 2. Plant them like popsicle trees (as in child art) perpendicular to line of hill; 3. Include object among plants that is camouflaged 6. How can gallery use be subverted, as in land art? Exchange locations with another business? Photo gallery sq. ft. for sq. ft. and paste up in another space? One way glass in front of gallery? 8. Give police artist verbal description of Baldessari and have him do drawing. Perhaps everyone in class do verbal description. 9. Describe a neutral object completely with fileand tape or video. Do it until you have fully translated all its qualities to the medium. Perhaps better a class project in that more insights would be available. 10. Create art from our procedures of learning. How does an infant learn? How do we continue to learn. How do we learn speech? To count? To know danger? Investigate Montessori methods, books and learning and perception. 11. Do a tape recording of raw sounds and edit into a composition. 12. Make up a list of sound as art projects (see example). 13. How can a gallery space be used rather than put art objects into it? 14. Two man film project. Each shoots up an amount of film. Each edits the others film. A film collage problem. Important that the footage be "found" 15. Given: The availability of an airplane or helicopter for a short time use i.e., an hour. What would you do? 16. Given: $1. What art can you do for that amount? 17. Cooking art. Invent recipee. They are organizations of parts, aren't they? 18. Subvert real systems. I.e., dial a number that records passages while the person is out and dial another number that gives recorded messages. Put the two phones together. Put a sigh that says "SLOW" in the middle of a street. Get it? 19. What art can arise from magic and myth. Or just a magic trick on video. 20. A sensory deprivation piece. A sensory overload piece. 21. Ecological guerilla art. 22. Disguise yourself as another object--a tree maybe. Or becoming a tree. A big bird? 23. What are the minute differences in things that are supposed to be the same? And vice versa. If you took 36 photos of a lawn, would they all be the same? Or of 36 sections of the same lawn? Or of a wall? Or 36 identical nails (either, finger or kind you hammer). 24. File loops of slides of all the objects one stares at in a given interval when in an arbitrarily chosen room. Or recorded on a tape recorder as one's eyes look on them. 25. 36 slides from start to finish of simple motion like picking your nose, scratching your ass and so on 26. Slides of #24 projected in correct places in another room. 27. Wet and dry. I.e., how does wet gravel in a parking lot look next to another dry area. Perhaps an actual situation, where something would be constantly wasted. 28. Recreate sculpturally with other materials in a magic realist approach any 12" sq area of earth land. Perhaps better yet to keep your own seeth out of it would be to have another choose it for you. 29. Have some take a photo portrait of you just before you go into a store to steal something. Have your portrait taken immediately after the act. Photo the object stolen. 30. Design and have printed your calling card. 31. Steal the trash from Pres. Corrigan's wastebasket and make a collage of it. 32. Have yourself photographed in act of insulting a person. To repeat each time insulting a new person. 33. Pay homage to a movie star, rock musician, etc. in form of a pilgrimage visit. Photograph is required of the two of you with a personalized signed greeting by the culture here. Or it could be a famous person's grave. In this case a photo of you at the grave. Person's name on the gravestone should be visible. No signiture necessary. 34. Defenestrate objects. Photo them in mid-air. 35. What kind of art can be done with real animals? 36. Record all actions, thoughts, for 1/2 hour on tape recorder. 37. What kind of works can be done literally under the earth. 38. Liquid works. 39. Chemical works. 40. Biological works. 41. Photograph landscape in color. Make 8x10 color print. Make some color changes. Color landscape to match retouched photo. Color landscape to match photo. Rephoto. 42. Class make up list for scavenger hunt. Exhibit works at end of day. 43. Forgeries. Each in class tries to forge my signature on a check by looking at an original. Or forgeries of forgeries of forgeries, etc. 44. Take any sentence of text to 6 signpainters to be lettered in letters of same style and height. Study differences. 45. Punishment. Write "I will not make any more art" "I will not make any more boring art" "I will not make make good art" (or something similar) 1000 times on wall. 46. One person copies or makes up random captions. Another person takes photos. Match photo to captions. 47. Serial TV works. 25 ways to fold a hat, to comb your hair, 25 different people spitting. 48. Develop a visual code. Give it to another student to crack. 49. Disguise an object to look like another object. 50. Do a film or TV script or scenario. Use TV layout paper. 51. A video tape that is a result of reading a book. You give book report in front of camera. 52. Smell pieces. 53. Touch pieces. 54. Art that you see by looking up or down 55. How do we get eyes off the visual and into experience. Rent a service rather than an object from Yellow Pages. 56. Take a canvas stretcher, size of your choice, to an upolsterer and have it upolstered with fabric of your choice. 57. A piece that deals with measurement--up, down, right, left, etc. and where spectator is located. 58. Make up list of distractions that often occur to you. Recreate on video tape 59. Make up art parables. 60. Edmund Scientific Catalog project. What art can you make my ordering from this catalog. Maybe grow plants chemically. 61. Hypnosis. Can art ideas be planted and removed in a mind? 62. A wall drawing based on numerous persons height--each marks his height on wall with line, signs name and date. 63. What art can arise from such phrases as: 1. Entasis. 2. Gestalt with some left over information. 3. Simple shape, simple experience. 4. Unitary form with reduced relationships. 5. Unitary form with line of fracture. Or can pure information be art? 64. The structural movement of cameras as subject matter. 65. Performance pieces. I.E. Speak thru your hand to your thigh but not with your head. Or talk with your knees t osomething knee-high. Or what are your dog-like traints without imitating a dog. Or the delivery of a speech to an imaginary person in different spaces in a room. Do a series of artificial voices. Can the various positions of the hand change the resonance of the voice? Say "good morning" every morning into a tape recorder for the length of the tape. See Growtowski, Towards Poor Theater. 66. A snapshot album of things to see in Los Angeles with exact locations so that others could locate sights (sites). 67. Document change, decay, metamorphosis, changes occuring in time. 67. Do good an bad compositions (by photo) of same scene, object. Frame a photo in viewfinder and move camera a foot to side before shooting. 68. Make up a list by looking at art books. Talking to artists on things to avoid in making art. Do them. Ask yourself if results are good or bad art. 69. What art can come from the use of a set of walkie-talkie radios? 70. By using movie camera to follow actions and by your observations into cassete recorder, document the movements of someone secretly for an entire day. Or have someone follow you. 71. Photos are flat. Photograph flat surfaces. Maybe exchange them. 72. Change, control, alter, arrange light in room environment. 73. Art Powers. How much and what kind of art can you make from kleenex and masking tape, for instance. 74. A film video tape etc that deals openly with a physical flaw of yours (in your estimation). A film called PIMPLE? 75. Information exchange. You writer letters to someone and they to you and so on. Framed letters of Refusal (I am sorry, but...) for instance. Or Thanks (That you for your ...blah blah etc). 76. Random photos. End of, beginning of, roll photos. Camera sent up with pidgeon, balloon, given to another person with shooting instructions, shooting from hip, etc. How do we avoid our good taste? 77. Using of time devices. Time clock (that prints time in and out), random time devices (red dot on cash register tape), a fuse, a candle 78. Large scale art that can be seen in its entirety. For instance, if you dyed sheets each a separate color and arranged them checkerboard like, say a hundred or more, they could only be experienced by walking through them, but the ycould be seen (also photoed) by helicopter or airplane. 79. Photograph backs of things, underneaths of things, extreme foreshortenings, uncharacteristic views. Or trace them. 80. Put labels on things that list their contents. 81. Design an art test. 82. Can one give and take away aesthetic content? 83. Street works, art determined by locaiton. What would you do on top of a 30 story building? What would you do under water? 84. Given $50, could you increase the sum in a period of time? 85. Describe the visual verbally and the verbal visually 86. Film of, or video of, children's play activities--walking on a ledge, drawing a line in the dirt, etc. 87. Do a work of art by telephone. Or use TBA (John Collins). 88. An all word TV tape. Or a single word. 89. A real time movie or video tape. A steaming cup of coffee. 90. If photos come from reality, what kind of reality comes from photos? Reconstruct a photo tree-dimensionally. 91. Scenarios. Do a movie for an existing, stock scenario. Or 1 person write scenario, another shoot movie. Or grabag scenario--everyone write 2-3 scenes, drop in box, someone pull out maybe 10 and they are shot in the order drawn out. Or everyone do their version of the grabag scenario. 92. Video tape of making sound effects. 93. Design a secret handshake (for our class members?) 94. Verbally describe a landscape instead of painting one 95. A distinctive work that is based on parts and not a whole, that is one see the parts and never teh whole 96. Prove a point as in a science fair diorama, display tableau such as, "How quickly does bread mould under certain conditions?", or "a plant growth hampered by use of conditioned water?", "The effect of colored lights on plants", "Is untreated seaweed useful as fertilizer", "What effect does ultra Sonic vibrations have on plants?", "The effect of asperin on potato plants", "Why is a rainbow round?", "Do race, color, texture affect the strength of hair?" and etc. 97. Take the titles of any amateur art exhibit and illustrate them. For instance much titles as, Ah, Toro!, Autumn Leaves, Mexican Patterns, Xenogeniala #2, Xanadu, Wharf Enchantments, French Restaurant, Boat Patterns, blah blah 98. Repaired or patched art. Recycled. Find something broken and discared. Perhaps in a thrift store. Mend it. 99. Art that requires the rental of a Service rather than an Object. 100. How does one react to a minor stress problem. Perhaps compare what he is thinking to his outward behavior. 101. Put new canvas over old paintings. 102. Composition based on the duration of say, one gal of paint. 103. A 30 day continuous line of adding machine tape. 104. The shapes of shadows of well known people (or well known artists for a specific example) 105. Reversals. Be black, say things backwards, all while standing upside down. 106. Put make-up on dogs and other animals. On trees and plants. 107. "If each of us were to confess his most secret desire, the one that inspires all his plans, all his actions, he would say: 'I want to be praised.'" (E.V. Cloran). Do a piece that deails with Praise as a theme. 108. Photograph of umbrella and sewing machine on an operating table. That's Surrealism isn't it? 109. Blow powdered color through straw on drawing made with fat on wall underground. That's cave art isn't it?

#baldessari #art #list

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