#but wells name was not in this article enough as creative control

[murderousrobot]

ummm.

[prettyboybillyhargrove]

Dacre Montgomery is ready to work

There’s a famous audition tape of Dacre Montgomery’s online. Maybe you’ve seen it; some 18 million people have. And it’s captivating to watch, not just because of Montgomery’s intensity, but because of the clear control that he has at such a young age. That steady ferocity cuts right through the screen, even though he’s just ‘running lines’ against a plain blue backdrop. It also cut through the sea of other actors gunning for a role in Stranger Things and made him Billy Hargrove, the resident bad guy on the sci-fi drama that broke Netflix viewership records on its way to becoming one of the biggest shows in TV history.

It’s been almost six years since that audition made Montgomery a global star, but the man sitting in front of me has lost none of that vigour. Reclining in a side room at a studio in Sydney before the photoshoot accompanying this article, the now 28-year-old looks casual. He’s wearing a plain black T-shirt, white shorts and one of those non-descript navy caps movie stars wear when they want to be incognito. The outfit is a simple one, designed to avoid attention—a far cry from the red carpet fashion that Montgomery favours. But as he starts talking about the thing he loves most—movies and the process of making them—that same intensity takes over; a passion that has him on the edge of his seat.

“When I was in my early teens, all I did was stay in my room and watch movies. And I fell in love with everything,” he says. The reverence, the obsession, is what drives Montgomery, and not just when it comes to acting. On set for today’s shoot, Montgomery—who was recently named the face of Politix’s new autumn/winter “The Gentle Man” campaign—is completely locked in. Unlike some who see an ambassador role as an opportunity to make a quick buck, Montgomery has signed on because he’s excited about the brand’s refreshed look and new chapter. “I don't just rock up on time. I rock up 10 minutes early,” he told me, “I don't just give one idea, I give 10 ideas because I don't engage with anything unless I'm authentically interested in it.”

He’s not kidding. After each burst of shots, he pores over them like he’s the creative director, rather than the subject—not out of vanity, but to see if the images are challenging enough. At one point, he grabs a mirror from the corner of the room. “Let’s just try it”, he tells the crew, and proceeds to work it straight into the shoot.

This dedication to perfection hasn’t always been easy for him or the people around him. After Stranger Things, the search for the next perfect role was almost paralysing. “Before I felt like, ‘look, I'm not going to take anything unless I'm 150 per cent invested’,” he says, and eventually, that attitude led to Montgomery parting ways with his team—his management, agents, everyone.

During that period, which he describes as a creative hole, Montgomery tried anything and everything. He wrote poetry (which was released as a book by publisher Andrews McMeel under the title DKMH and turned into a spoken word podcast of the same name), made short films, and dedicated himself to learning the arts of cinematography and screenwriting—at some points, he was watching three films a day, “morning, noon, night”, just like he did as a teenager.

Part of the fear that drove him into that lull was the looming presence of being typecast. When there are roles being offered to you left, right and centre, which one is the ‘perfect’ next step to take? This year, he has started climbing out of that hole, engaging more filmmakers as well as taking on roles like the one with Politix. But, there is still a sense of wariness.

For example, as news broke that Hugh Jackman wouldn’t be returning as Wolverine—a decision that he has since reversed—rumours swirled that Montgomery might step into the role. But for him, it’s about the filmmakers rather than any big-name character. “It’s just finding filmmakers that I'm really interested in working with and going from there as opposed to it being like, ‘oh, I've always wantedto play Wolverine or Bane’,” he says, “but also, I’m feeling a little bit of Marvel fatigue. I’m not really interested in it in the same way that I was.”

Montgomery isn’t alone in his ‘Marvel fatigue’, plenty of moviegoers aren’t as interested as they once were—just look at the recent box office figures—but it’s another example of how he’s a film fan first, and an actor second. He can thank his parents for that.

“My dad started taking me to films that I shouldn't have been seeing when I was a kid,” Montgomery says, “but he worked in the film industry and he would explain to me the process of everything.” From the very beginning, he was exposed to not just the definitive films of the time, but also how they were made. His mother and father would take him to the sets they were working on and show him the ins and outs. “It was like, ‘here’s the unadulterated version of the world and the industry and here are all the ins and the outs of how movies are made.”

For some actors, fame, as much as the films that inspire them, is a driver. And it’s only if they reach a level of success that they really see how the sausage is made—which is not always pretty, especially if they aren’t backed by a huge studio. Thanks to his parents, Montgomery is a rare actor who has always known about the gritty reality of making low-budget films—the long days, the repetition, the egos—but that’s what he fell in love with. “I'm not here for money or notoriety or anything like that,” he says, “I really care about the work and that's what I'm there for.”

But it’s that moment when he actually steps in front of the camera and it’s time to perform that has always had Montgomery hooked. “When you’re on set, I don't try to take up too much space and I wait until it’s my time to go in front of the camera and do my little thing. But when I do that… It's ecstasy. There’s nothing but that moment, do you know what I mean?”

Though it’s been a few years since Montgomery has had those moments and shared them with the world—Elvis, in which he was a scene-stealer, was largely filmed in 2020—he’s getting back to work. “I am climbing out of that [hole] and what that looks like is me engaging with more filmmakers,” he says. Of the three filmmakers he has agreed to work with—at least publicly—one thing is clear: they aren’t interested in making simple, sugar-coated work.

The first film we are likely to see in Montgomery’s next chapter is Spider & Jesse, directed by Dan Kay, which dives into the far-reaching consequences of addiction. “It’s about two girls that find their mother dead in the first scene and they bury her in the backyard so they don't have to go into the foster care system,” Montgomery explains, “I play the mum’s ex-boyfriend that was dealing her the drugs.”

It’s an unglamorous role with limited screen time, but that didn’t bother Montgomery because it was clear the film, and the people behind it, had something vital to say. “I realised they were on a mission to give insight into the people that are affected by addiction—family, friends, and people they're associated with rather than shedding light on the addicts themselves.”

Filming on Spider & Jesse, which took place in Florida, has already wrapped, but Montgomery’s other two projects are yet to begin production. Both are ambitious, and both defy simple explanation. The first, titled Went Up That Hill, comes from Samuel Van Grinsven, a New Zealand-born, Sydney-based director who became a festival circuit favourite with his feature debut Sequin in a Blue Room.

In essence, Montgomery says the film is an assessment of abuse and how trauma lingers from our childhoods. Beyond the message of the film though, it’s the challenging acting work—he’s heading to Berlin to work with co-star Vicky Krieps (Phantom Thread, Old), Van Grinsven and a movement coach to prepare for the complex role—that has attracted him.

The same goes for Faces of Death, the other project Montgomery has been linked to, which is a remake of a 1978 American mondo horror film notoriously banned for years in countries across the world, including Australia, due to its graphic depictions of death. “I have a really interesting co-star [Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira] who I love, and the character is a serial killer, and for me, it was like, ‘what’s the thing that’s going to scare me so much about creating this character?’” he says of the film, “So I rang the director and I was like, ‘I want to go visit a serial killer in a state penitentiary in the state of California when I'm back because it scares the shit out of me’.”

After these films wrap up, Montgomery plans to start his journey into directing. “I want to direct my first movie and right now I'm in the process of working on the script with my writer and then I'm going to go on the process of trying to put the movie together,” he says, and he won’t give much more than that away, but if there’s anything we’d wager on, it’s that the movie will be challenging—both to make and in concept.

If these types of films don’t sound like they’ll be box office smashes or Oscar bait, Montgomery isn’t worried. “To me, the success of the movie is in the making of the movie,” he says. “And the outcome of the movie looks like a cathartic experience making [it], as opposed to some other thing like, ‘Oh, I want to get into this film festival and I want the film to have a 4.0 on Letterboxd.’ That's not what I'm doing it for.”

The same attitude goes for his partnership with Politix. Beyond filmmaking, Montgomery is passionate about the way that fashion allows him to control his direct experience. “I suffer from incredibly bad OCD,” he shares, “And I have always found comfort in controlling my surroundings, and that is fabric. My mood is very affected by what I have on my skin and what I have in my space and what I can smell and all that sort of stuff bleeds into my personal life aside from fashion.”

As with his project selection in cinema, the aesthetics are one thing, but for Montgomery to come on board he has to believe in the direction of the project.

“I'm interested in [Politix’s] reworking of the company and what they’re doing to reshape it for 2023 and onwards. But what I was genuinely interested in is that sensitivity of masculinity because that really is me. I am a very sensitive person. I'm very sensitive to my space and to interactions in my life. And I think this whole campaign is really about unpacking what is that.”

Once Montgomery signed on with Politix to become its new face, as with his films, he was all in. From the campaign direction to the execution of the advertising, Montgomery has been instrumental. He’s not just arriving, taking some photos and leaving—as with the photoshoot accompanying this shoot, he’s trying to make it the best he can.

“I want the product to be good, just as good as they want the product to be and not hopefully from a narcissistic point of view, from a point of view of I want it to be good,” he says, “That's more important to me than the paycheck or how many people see it or how successful the campaign is. That's the through line for me.”

It’s this sheer dedication to craft and passion for the work that has seen Montgomery through to where he is today. It’s what made that Stranger Things audition tape so arresting and, if he pulls off his big swings, may just make him one of the most memorable actors Australia has produced. Whether those ambitious punches land or not, there’s no doubt about one thing: Montgomery is ready to do the work.

PRODUCTION CREDITS:

Words by Charlie Calver

Photography by Jesse Lizotte

Styling by Miguel Urbina Tan

Fashion assisting by Isabella Mamas

Grooming by Joel Foreman

Production by Jade Carp

Dacre Montgomery wears Politix throughout; politix.com.au

[pricelessemotion]

Prologue: Big City, Wrong Choices | E.M.

Summary: [0.8k] A tedious tabloid brings you and eddie together.

Pairing: rockstar!eddie munson x fem!music journalist!reader

Warnings: talks of drug and alcohol use (nothing graphic)

Notes: took some major creative license with this one but I think it pays off, hope you enjoy!

series masterlist | main masterlist

Stars behaving badly!

Truthfully, Eddie wanted to laugh when his manager threw the gossip rag on his coffee table. This was the reason that Mitch was knocking down his door so early in the day? Sure, the pictures of him in the article were less than flattering. One of them in particular showed him bent over, spewing his guts outside of The Viper Room. Definitely not a moment that he wanted to share with the world, but it was being shared nonetheless. 

So he got a little drunk and disorderly sometimes. It's what rock stars do. It’s part of the lifestyle. It’s a part Eddie plays and he knows he plays it well. A tabloid or two detailing his sordid exploits were par for the course. Still, he covers up his chuckle with a clearing of his throat, but it’s obvious that Mitch doesn’t buy it. 

“This is not a good look, Eddie” Mitch begins, running his hands through his thinning head of hair. “This is the kinda shit you do when you’re running the game. Not when you’re some kid from buttfuck Indiana trying to make a name for himself.”

Eddie recoils at the word kid. He already hates the fact that Mitch is not only his manager, but also his de-facto babysitter. 

“I’m twenty four years old.” The whine present in his voice isn’t doing him any favors in making him sound more mature and grown up.

“Then act like it.”

Eddie sighs and slumps into his seat. He tries to bring the whiskey glass he’s holding in his right hand up to his lips, but Mitch maneuvers around the couch and snatches it away. Usually, Eddie would put up a fight. Or, if he wasn’t in the fighting mood, he would go over to the bar cart and drink straight from the bottle out of spite. Sensing the tension in the room, Eddie concedes. He doesn’t want to be yet another reason why Mitch’s hairline is receding. 

Bracing himself, he walks to the kitchen where Mitch is brewing a fresh pot of coffee. The two of them exist in the symbiotic silence. Eddie pulls out two mugs from the cabinet and Mitch dutifully pours them both to the brim before sliding one over. They take turns passing each other milk and sugar. After taking a sip of his shitty coffee, Eddie clears his throat and asks the question of the hour.

“So, how do we fix this?”

For the first time since arriving at Eddie’s apartment, Mitch smiles. 

~

Stars behaving badly!

The magazine lands on your desk with a thump, jostling the pen holder and making the Snoopy bobblehead wobble. Eyes glazing over the headline, you scoff. Of course Eddie Munson is up to his usual antics. Whoever his publicist is should be fired, you think, because this isn’t even the first headline you’ve seen about him this week. It is, however, the first time he has graced the pages of Sub Rosa. There’s no doubt that the photos of Eddie being drunk and disorderly are currently lining every grocery checkout aisle in Los Angeles county. You wonder if he lives by the words bad publicity is good publicity. 

You look up to see the cause of the disturbance, only to see the face of your editor staring down at you. Melinda is bright and cheery, somehow glowing in the fluorescent lights that manage to wash anyone else out. 

“We’re doing damage control.” Her perfectly polished fingertip taps on Eddie’s face. 

You laugh, “I’d love to see the poor soul that has to do damage control for that trainwreck.” 

The older woman looks at you expectantly, a coy smile gracing her lips. Uh oh. You’ve worked at InStereo Magazine long enough to know that look. It’s the look she gives when she wants something and Melinda always gets what she wants. 

You take a moment to respond. You could refuse and waste the opportunity to leap from lowly column writer to actual music journalist. Melinda is still looking at you. Her cherry red glasses slide to the tip of her nose, emphasizing that she has to look down on you to have this conversation. Except it’s not a conversation. It’s more like a sentencing and she is judge, jury, and executioner. 

You look back at your desk. Snoopy is still nodding his head emphatically.

“I’ll do it.” 

“It’s so cute that you think you could’ve turned this down.” Melinda says, only the slightest bit of condescension in her tone. “We’ll go over details later, okay?”

With that, she flits away. Once she is safely out of sight, you bury your face in your hands and let out a small scream. Snoopy's rhythmic bobble breaks you out of your reverie. You grab the offending object and stuff it in the last drawer of your desk.

You were going to regret this.

~

taglist: @twisted-wonderland-of-wren

likes are appreciated, comments and reblogs are cherished ♥️

[notafunkiller]

I’m going to start a lot of trouble by saying this and I don’t care: There is something with stringy blonde hair and dead eyes that has been the cause of this exhaustion over the past two years. And tbh, he won’t look well rested or healthy again until he finds the courage and the self respect to kick it to the curb.

First of all, I want to say: feel free to express your opinions openly here, as I value and respect freedom of speech.

[Of course, as long as there are no threats... which is not the case now]

Second of all, there is something that stans do in most fandoms: they infantilize their favorite celebrities and act as if they are perfect. They project their dreams and wishes onto them (and their relationships sometimes) and they think they have the right to decide and know details about their private life.

They think sending letters and endless dms = normal. It's not.

[When a celebrity needs to block you because you are attacking their partner, you have a problem.]

They view those people as puppets. As if they have the right to know everything about them and be upset if they make their own decisions. If they disagree with their decisions, they treat them like kids (aka they're in denial) or get mad and so on...

[From roles and haircuts to personal life and vacations.]

Also, they think fans (not stans) who hold them accountable for mistakes or point out the obvious things (like PR, image strategies, paps walks) are haters.

Thirdly, Sebastian is an adult, who makes his own decisions, but the stans act as if he's a kid.

I totally love what you said: he won't look well rested or healthy again until he finds the courage and the self respect...

I pointed out he's been tired constantly for the last 2 years, and some stans made it sound as if I was hating on him and AW because I am jealous of her and I have some kind of obsession/parasocial relationship with him, when it's, indeed, just concern. Because he is pushing himself basically non-stop.

Like, it's his choice to do PR... (it's my opinion which can be wrong, ofc) since he's always been so warm -and his love language is touch- in his previous relationships even if they were private... and there is something off about his body language in general. And AW is known as a beard in Hollywood, which I don't judge. People do what they want...

And I don't feel sorry for him. I'm just worried he focuses too much on achieving things and he doesn't take care of himself and rest enough.

He wanted to have more power over his projects aka to produce (producing = freedom and control), so he agreed to sign with CAA (Creative Artists Agency).

Because even though he's American too, not just Romanian (he moved there when he was 12), he's still seen as a foreigner by the film industry.

It means Sebastian believes he still needs to prove himself to get awards. And getting an award is even harder in this case because no matter how much PR you do, how many paps walks you have, how hard working you are, how great you are at what you do, how much passion you put into your work and your roles, you're still (seen as) an outsider. I think this is why he chose to be a part of so many biopics.

[Don't get me wrong, I think the roles he chose and chooses are challenging (grey, with personality) and send a message in general. He always gets out of his comfort zone, which is incredible. But I feel like he driven by the urge to prove himself]

This is why I think the Silver Bear meant and means the world to him. And I wish he knew an Oscar wouldn't say anything about him as an actor... about his talent. Many incredible actors do not have one, and we know it's about politics there.

I recommend a good article on the subject:

[mkeitcinemtic]

devyn   nekoda.     she/they.     nonbinary      ›      spotted   at   the   met   steps   ,   isadora   yamamoto     ,   most   likely   listening   to  glam!   by   allie   x  with   their   airpods   pro   .   the   twenty   six   year   old   gained   quite   a   reputation   ,   known   to   be   -self-absorbed   yet   +exuberant   to   anyone   who   knows   them   .   you'll   easily   spot   them   when   you   hear   about   finding   glitter   where   you   least   expect   it   ,   laughter   echoing   through   a   24hr   diner   at   3am,   the   feeling   of   belonging   on   a   crowded   club   dance   floor,   smudged   pink   sparkly   eyeshadow   ,followed   by   lush   rose   jam   bodyspray   .   latest   nepoupdates   article   talks   about   diva   on   a   dime   overnight   sensation   dora   belle   spotted   in   the   sale   section   of   tj   maxx   ,   but   i   guess   any   reputation   is   good   reputation

statistics.

full name: isadora fuka yamamoto

nicknames: is, isa, dor, dory

stage name: dora belle. isa is well aware it's a horrendous pun but it fits for the persona she's created. they love drag and always felt slightly like a drag queen doing a performance of feminity. so their on stage persona is basically a drag character

dob: july 24th, 1997

zodiac sign: leo

place of birth: maryland heights, mo

current location: new york city, new york

ethnicity: biracial-japanese & white

gender: nonbinary

pronouns:she/her

sexuality:gay

positive traits:self-assured, creative & dairing

negative traits: melodramatic, flighty & petty

personality markers: type 7, esfp and sanguine

alignment: chaotic neutral

biography.

tws: bullet point 2 includes a career ending injury

before isadora there was another small town girl with big dreams. okay, there were many other small town girls with big dreams but only one is important for the story of isadora's conception. from a young age annaleigh butler knew she wanted to dedicate her life to ballet. dancing was the only time she felt both complete control and complete freedom. after years of saving money annaleigh was finally able to audition for the school of american ballet's summer programme at the age of 14. she was accepted on the programme. her instuctors saw she had potential and she was lucky enough to become a full time student in the winter term.

annaleigh's promising career was cut short when she was 20. she tore her acl and she was never able to dance at the same level one good thing came from annaleigh's injury.

while attending physio she had a brief encountered the patient who had his sessions before hers. his session overran and he apologised with a joke that was both endearing and slightly annoying. the same thing happened multiple times and they started a friendship that grew into a relationship. despite their difference lived experiences and personalities they bonded over their new lives in new york not being as glamorous and prosperous as they expected

four years into their relationship annaleigh butler and hank yamamoto moved to annaleigh's hometown (maryland heights, missouri) because they were struggling to pay new york rent prices and wanted to be near annaleigh's parents when they started a family. a year after they moved to maryland heights isadora was born.

like all parents with an unfilled dream annaleigh planned to live vicariously through her child. she signed isadora up for ballet lessons when she was four. isadora hated ballet. the movements were too composed and dull. she was kicked out of her class her ballet teacher advised her mom to stop bringing her to lessons after five sessions because isadora pouted in the corner of the studio with her arms crossed and refused to participate

however there was a style of dance that appealed to a young isadora. they watch singing in the rain with their nana and fell in love with musicals and tap. their mom reluctantly agreed to take them to tap lessons (their dad thought it was a great idea and way to channel their endless energy).

throughout their childhood and adolescence isadora was 100% a stereotypical theatre kid (complete with terrorising wait staff at waffle house). they lived to perform and tell stories

at the age of 18 isadora moved to la to study at amda with 3 of their theater friends. during their first year they were scouted by a record label. their voice was perfect for the kind of sultry angsty indie pop that was popular in that time period.

at 19 they dropped out of amda because it was difficult to struggle school and recording their ep. they also worked as an extra/bit player in various sitcoms and low budget movies to earn a little extra money. isadora released her ep school nights in 2017. that same year she was also a support act on a tour. in 2019 she was a support act on a different artist's tour.

in 2020 isadora released the single pink pony club. it had a completely different sound to their earlier work. instead of chasing trends isadora wanted to create pop music that was theatrical , camp and vibrant. their label wasn't pleased with this change in direction or the sale numbers so they dropped her.

at a loss of how to process their career isadora moved back home in september 2020. they got a job waitressing and thought their dream had died. but they continued writing songs in this low period and it didn't last for long. in december they got a dm from an old friend that desperately needed someone to quickly make them a new costume for their drag show. isadora agreed because because they love sewing and their friend agreed to help pay for their flight to new york. after that emergency isadora somehow ended up staying in new york and also got back in touch with their producer

their baby album the rise and fall of a midwest princess was released last year

their star has been rapidly climbing after an iconique tiny desk concert set and being the support act on a huge arena tour

headcanons.

she’s like a magpie,she’s drawn to anything sparkly and tacky.she laughs in the face of good taste then spits in it’s eye.she thinks that having a collection of material items are a good way to remind people you exist and leave your mark on the world.her main collections are scrunchies, earrings and novelty snowglobe

while recording her album isa had a series of side job. their main one was being commissioned to sew costumes but she also worked as a dog walker and doordash carriert

hey have a king charles spaniel called grizzabella

went to the reneé rapp school of media training (the reneé rapp school of media training is having a mouth that works faster your brain and saying every thought you have without considering of the consequences first)

she can play the bass guitar, the acoustic guitar and obe. they started playing the obe in high school because they thought that playing a lesser known woodwind instrument would be a good conversion starter (they don't need conversion starters)

isadora hates when people assume their songs are autobiographical. mainly because they're a talented and creative writer who's capable of imaginaing made up situations to write about but also because some of their songs are autobiographical

wanted connections.

didn't make you a star but hey i tried: i left it extremely vague who isadora toured with as an opening act because i thought it could be a fun jumping off point for plots

bad neighbor: isadora is a menace and terrible neughbor. they're loud, regularly have parties and grizabella barked late at night as a puppy. it would be fun if there was a muse who lived next door to them or on the same floor and hated or at least mildly disliked them

its never just coffe: inspired by the song coffee by chappell roan dora bell. an ex she had lingering feelings for and maybe still does

is it casual now: fwb isadora ended up having romantic feelings for

brunch club: isadora loves gossip and brunch so i could see them having a group they mainly meet up with to share gossip

ex-boyfriend(s): isadora still wasn't fully out to herself when she first moved to la. she dated men and none of her relationships worked out for obvious reasons. at worst this muse and isa would be awkward acquaintances now but i would love a cute little friendship where they get along well and are very glad to have evolved from who they were 8 years ago

[ashirisu]

FREE eBook — How to Write a Dynamic Act One: A Guide for Novelists

I'm still new enough to Tumblr that I don't really know the etiquette around self-promo, so please excuse this weird little ad as I excitedly announce that I wrote an ebook that's now available for free download!

How to Write a Dynamic Act One is exactly what it sounds like—a guide to putting together the first act of your story, offering creative and craft advice on tackling those tough early chapters. It includes some revamps of previous articles I wrote for AuthorsPublish (under my maiden name), as well as some brand-new advice!

A few things you'll find in this book:

— A breakdown of Act One's role in your story.

Why do you even need a first act? Why should you (a pantser) still try to outline your novel? I'll tell you all about it.

— A guide to essential scenes and questions to answer in Act One.

The not-quite template you always needed to help guide your writing without boxing you in. Checklist lovers, this is for you.

— A handful of tips to get you through tricky scenes.

Opening lines are the bane of my existence, and I refuse to pull the ladder up behind me. Learn from my former mistakes, and also get a few tips on writing inciting events.

— A bit of encouragement about self-editing.

It's not really the focus of this book, but I'd be a poor editor if I didn't at least bring it up. I promise you don't have to cut your draft to shreds during revision—most of your scenes can and should be salvaged!

— Poor formatting.

I'm sorry, there's really nothing I can do about this one. The spacing is a little messy and it looks like there was a find/replace fiasco during proofreading, which I had no control over. I've already cried about it a lot so please be nice to me.

Anyway, I'm extremely proud of this and I encourage you to check it out! It's free for a limited time, and is available in both PDF and ePub formats.

Thank you, and enjoy!

[greektragediies]

001.  GENERAL

name  jayden jasper ware nicknames  jj ( but a good rule of thumb is to just call him jayden , he's not overly fond of nicknames ) age  31 date of birth  09/10/1992 zodiac  virgo place of birth  bar harbour, maine current residence  staten island, new york gender  cis man pronouns  he/him sexuality  heterosexual occupation  comic book artist / has also been known to do party caricatures on the side. also may have an etsy where you can buy prints of your favorite cc agent ! faceclaim  josh hutcherson height  5'6" tattoos  small little poppy flower on his right wrist piercings  none distinguishing features  jawline, a seemingly permanent scowl, and his eyes positive traits  resourceful, pragmatic, creative, negative traits  cold, sarcastic, a little stand offish, and not all that talkative. labels / tropes  ice king, too young to be a grumpy old man, the mourning after. likes  feeding the ducks at the park (will never admit to naming some of them), hunting down the best coffee in the city, dislikes  parties, loud people, snakes fears  hurting anyone else because he doesn't, have a good grasp on his powers. hobbies  drawing, reading comics, people watching. habits  rubbing the back of his neck, chewing on his fingernails, and biting the inside of his cheek

002.  EXTRA ORDINARY

warning ! mention of death that aren't jayden's. mentions of hospitals, radiation poisoning, and s/o death. just all the way down until codename.

near death experience…  it was just a day in july 2017 and waking up it felt like any other. he and celina had been living in new york for six months and he'd proposed two months into their move, he was riding on a high of ecstasy for his future as the pair planned and saved for the years to come together. he'd been out in an open marketplace when the screaming started and there came the weirdest sensation, what had happened was later found through descriptions on articles he had found ; an unidentified eo had been at the market (there are speculations that they didn't even know they were and eo) something had triggered their powers which in turn led them to have a meltdown on a radioactive level. people that were closest to the individual didn't stand a chance and people who were far enough away (like jayden) were hit with advanced radiation sickness. what was going on in his head when it all took place was the simple phrase 'ah shit' . jayden spent four months in the hospital studying what an event with eo like that does to a human body. four months he and his future bride were told constantly that his vision had suffered and he'd probably be blind and still battling complications due to radiation. when he left the hospital he'd shown them all how wrong, jayden left walking out and looking into their eyes as he shook the hands of everyone who had helped take care of him. even walking out he didn't feel quite right, but he plans and he couldn't let that small nagging feeling in the back of his skull drag him down. power…  heat vision leaves little to the imagination of what it is, jayden generates beams of heat from his eyes. he doesn’t know how hot it gets, he doesn't know how to properly control it (nor does he honestly care to learn), and he lives in somewhat fear that someone else is going to get hurt because he doesn't know what he's doing. it seems to fluctuate with extreme moods, a main one being anger. jayden learned that his miraculous healing came at a price two months out from leaving the hospital. not having been one to suffer nightmares before his nde they became a frequent thing when he was back at home, always the same thing of that eo at the market. one night during an episode celina tried to wake him up and there was little jayden could do when it came to saving her, considering the incident took out half their apartment it was ruled as a villain attack on citizens (much to jayden trying to make sense of it all to them). he still doesn't know anything about well anything, he does toy with the idea of joining cerberus but ultimately just wants to be left alone and try to live life trying to pass as normal. it's honestly a feat easier said than done when your eyeballs start glowing red when your upset. drawbacks / vulnerabilities…  lowkey always stressed out especially in crowds because he's not in full control of his powers. after use he gets intense searing migraines and blurry vision that can last for days. his main trigger seems to be anger looking past the night with celina. he hasn't explored his power so he couldn't even begin to guess what would happen over time or with prolonged use. codename…  it's not a codename so much as it's how he signs his work. it was celina who actually started calling him bluejay after they first met, it was the first time he was actually okay with someone giving him a nickname. part of him toys with the idea of actually changing it and part of him would rather just go by jayden ware and pretend everything is alright.

003.  EXTRA

possible connections... acquaintances(he doesn't do well with calling people friends), you'd be lost without me (someone he can't shake and always turns up at his place to make sure he's taking care of himself), someone that helps him with comics, and nice little spicy one would be an agent with cerberus whose the sibling of celina and is upset with jayden for a very clear reason but also tasked with trying to convince him cerberus is a good idea(after that plot drop it might be hard though). i still have more i have to add, but they will come later! he's very much giving the carl from up vibes though, just with superpowers.

[ohc-and-the-music-tapes-archive]

Article about Elephant 6 collective (with a big part regarding the Music Tapes) in Flagpole, 31 March 1999, by John Britt and Melissa Link.

transcript:

ELEPHANT 6: THE MUSE GROWS UP THAT LOOSE GROUP OF TREEHOUSE POP FANTASTICS IS MATURING. ITS CIRCLE IS WIDENING. AND ITS NEW MUSIC IS PRIMED TO INVADE THE ORCHESTRA PIT, THE PROPS CLOSET, AND THE FAR REACHES GF OUTER SPACE. It started as a bedroom daydream, but the dream leaked out into the waking world. Now it’s spreading. The musical collective Elephant 6 — that sprawling, somewhat amorphous umbrella group of young pop bands, the one whose imprimatur ensures a taste of sweet aural psychedelia, the one in all the national magazines, the one that has made Athens, Georgia, its de facto headquarters — was once just a name for the four-track fantasies of four kids messing around in Ruston, Louisianna.

Back in the early 1980s, Rustonians Will Hart, Bill Doss, Robert Schneider and Jeff Mangum invented Elephant 6 as a fictitious label for the tapes they made for each other. The product wasn't necessarily intended to merge with the real wor|d — few imaginative children actually grow up to be cowboys or astronauts — but eventually the four friends amassed enough good material to warrant public consumption. They started getting serious. Schneider moved to Denver and formed the core of The Apples In Stereo. In Athens, Mangum established Neutral Milk Hotel, while Doss and Hart eventually formed The Olivia Tremor Control.

Over the last four or five years these three bands, the heart of Elephant 6, have recorded albums that have drawn worldwide critical acclaim. At the same time, Elephant 6 has expanded to include a difficult-to-count array of friends and compatriots who share in one way or another the original Ruston vision — to put out, as early E6 propaganda put it, “innovative, quality pop music” that hews to a prescribed set of values. “We believe in four-tracks, and beautiful sounds and ideas,” the old motto went. “And most of all we believe in SONGS.”

This spring sees the release of CDs from four Athens-based Elephant 6 groups: the sophomore effort from The Olivia Tremor Control, as well as new albums from Elf Power, Of Montreal, and, in a few weeks, the performance project Music Tapes. This new wave of music shows major strides forward in E6’s thematic, conceptual and sonic evolution, yet much of it remains true to the original vision.

With real record deals, these bands have been able to flesh out the limited lo-fi palette of the first E6 recordings: four-track operating methods are now augmented with digital 16-tracks and studio mixing, and while some of the inspiration still comes from home, much recording now takes place in professional studios. This new freedom has allowed these bands to explore a wider range of composition and arrangement while still remaining true to their aesthetic roots. And while the music style broadens, the E6 gestalt continues to expand beyond music itself: though there's always been a multimedia component to the collective, a group like Julian Koster’s Music Tapes is pushing beyond notebook artwork and into the far teaches of experimental theater.

THE SKY IS A HARPSICHORD CARVAS

As these boundaries expand, the shambling experimental ensemble The Olivia Tremor Control remains at the center of the chaotic Elephant 6 enterprise. The band’s debut album, Dusk at Cubist Castle, toyed with both classically structured pop songs and experimental ambient noise, with fairly distinct lines drawn between order and chaos. The Olivias decided to mesh both halves of their creative instincts into one seamless whole on their latest release, Black Foliage: Animation Music, a 70-minute pop freakout that recalls everything from The Beach Boys to Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Black Foliage is unmistakably in step with everything OTC worked towards years ago. The tweaked out, psychedelic pattern shifts — from melodically grounded pop classics to cacophonous clusters of sounds — harken back to Doss, Hart, and bassist John Fernandes’ early days DJ-ing at the Louisiana Tech college radio station. There, according to Fernandes, the friends would cue up sound-effects albums and play them simultaneously with the records in the station's rotation, then step out to listen to the results on someone else's radio.

“Our idea on the new album was to weave patterns and ask the question ‘What is a pop song?” explains Doss. “We wanted to go beyond things like verse/chorus/verse and do things like bridge/bridge/bridge/bridge/verse/verse/verse, then into some sound excursion or the chorus or a barbershop quartet.”

Looking at some of The Olivia Tremor Control's more blatant influences — most notably the Beatles and the Beach Boys — it’s obvious that the band sees no fault in perfect pop. And in the memorable melodies of Foliage’s “Hideaway” and “A New Day,” it is readily apparent that the band can deliver such goods. 

The goal then, it seems, is to create new atmospheres and environments for that music to inhabit. Black Foliage sometimes sounds like a pop record playing through a street-comer boom box while the sounds of the street invade and intermingle. With its nonstop flow of sonic and thematic concepts, Foliage tends to lend itself towards individual visual interpretation, individual fantasy. “Every time I listen to that album, it’s like a series of dreams,” describes Raleigh Hatfield, a peripheral member of a number of Elephant 6 related bands. “But with each listen, it evokes a completely different series of images.”

Hart agrees, citing the album’s subtitle as an important clue to the music within. “All the sounds in there to us are animation. I see pictures for everything in it, and so will our audience, hopefully.”

NEAT LITTLE DOMESTIC LIFE

Whereas The Olivia Tremor Control attempt to create an ambiguous aural fantasy world on Black Foliage, comrades Of Montreal have fashioned a far more specific world on their new album, The Gay Parade. The material on the telease steps away from songwriter Kevin Bames’ earlier, more personal work, and dives headfirst into a purely imaginary environment. The Gay Parade is a pageant of whimsical characters: “The Autobiographical Grandpa,” “The Miniature Philosopher,” and “A Man’s Life Flashing Before His Eyes While He and His Wife Drive Off a Cliff Into the Ocean.”

And while the album‘s concept — especially its Yellow Submarine-cum-grade school cover depicting every single character in the record — seems to express a calculated naiveté, Of Montreal's members insist that there are layers of conceptual complexities beneath the surface.

“It’s much smarter than a children’s book,” contends drummer Derek Almstead. “It's like The Canterbury Tales; it's whimsical, smart, deep and funny. It’s not cutesy-poo.”

“In no way do I want to compare us to Brian Wilson,” adds keyboardist and bassist Dottie Alexander, “but someone could say the same thing about Smile. On the surface it may seem that Brian Wilson is singing about nothing, but if you look deeper into the songs. you find many complex layers, musically.”

Songwriter Barnes’ Tin Pan Alley influences often give The Gay Parade a pre-rock vibe: it feels like it could've been written by someone raised in the age of radio melodramas, rather than a mop-topped guy living some 40-plus years after the birth of rock and roll. At the same time, Barnes’ character sketches — though often steeped in fantasy — owe much to mid-“60s British rock songwriters like the Kinks’ Ray Davies, who was known for penning bourgeois studies like “David Watts.”

“There definitely is a pervasive Kinks influence in everything we do,” agrees Alexander. “It's a slice of life look at this world we have created.”

That world is rendered in fantastic pastels and neons thanks to the CD's highly inventive arrangements — a major sonic step forward for both £6 and indie pop in general. The album is filled with waved-out guitar lines, crystalline piano notes, five-part harmonies, and a variety of novel instrumentation. Nineteen people are credited in the liner notes with everything from penny whistle to “woo-wooing while jumping on the furnace.”

Of Montreal plan to take their characters out of fantasyland and on the road — literally. Kevin Barnes’ brother, David, the group's chief visual artist, is working on a stage representation of the cover art he designed and created.

“There's not much room in our van for even a large suitcase, so the visual aspect will have to be limited,” Almstead says. “But we'll have a backdrop similar to the album cover, and perhaps some cardboard cutouts of the characters on stage with us.”

A DREAM REIFIED

Elf Power's A Dream in Sound is, without a doubt, the most mature offering from the latest batch of Elephant 6 albums. Combining the sonic experimentation of The Olivia Tremor Control with the fantastical storytelling of The Gay Parade, A Dream in Sound is a brief, yet powerful, collection of songs. In a way, it’s that perfect 40-minute pop album that Black Foliage dumps an extra 30 minutes of insanity upon. At once timeless and immediate, it’s Elf Power's most fully realized work, and a major improvement upon the band’s previous outing, When the Red King Comes.

“Our last album was recorded over a six month period,” explains chief songwriter Andrew Rieger. “A Dream in Sound was recorded in two weeks, and I think that had a big effect on the final product.”

The album continues down the path Elf Power has been taking since their first EP, Vainly Clutching at Phantom Limbs. While not as blatantly conceptual as the fantasy novel-like Red King, A Dream in Sound still focuses lyrically on otherworldly characters and confused wishes to live as other life forms. Rieger seems to have permanently turned his back on material such as Vainly Clutching's “Circular Malevolence.” That song was an angry acoustic account of an ego-tripping, status climbing acquaintance: “You can write it all down and just send it in your precious letter/Tell me of all the people you know and which ones you think you like better/You self-righteous motherfucker/You think I give a shit what you had for supper?” Such work has given way to more imaginative and surreal numbers with titles like “Simon (The Bird with the Candy Bar Head).”

“I always kind of regretted the mean-spiritedness of that song,” Rieger says of “Circular Malevolence.” “I wouldn't want to write those kind of hateful songs anymore.”

But don’t those kinds of personal experiences fuel powerful songwriting? “Well, yeah, sure,” Rieger says. “But I think you can do that in more productive ways. You don’t have to be mean about it.”

STATIC, THE TV, IS A KIND OF FRIEND

Flash to the 40 Watt Club: multi-instrumentalist Julian Koster is on stage with his band Music Tapes, sporting headgear he calls “The Mechanized Organ-Playing Helmet.” The helmet has a hand protruding from it, and the hand plays a faux keyboard. Koster stands amid a working seven-foot metronome, a wooden box sprouting a pair of mechanical clapping hands and an animated television set named “Static”.

Static, the television, will sing half of the songs tonight. Koster — augmented by the likes of Elf Power's Laura Carter and Neutral Milk/Gerbils member Scott Spillane — will buoyantly strum a banjo while the blissed-out, pixilated Static disseminates propaganda about the alien race of TV sets who control our world.

The audience at this Music Tapes performance is a cozy mix of friends, fellow musicians, and curious onlookers. Most stand in contemplative awe, while a few people cuddle the stage, clapping and convulsing ecclesiastical joy. This unique stage show is the ultimate in Elephant 6 fantasia: the line between reality and artifice is sufficiently blurred to give the appearance that even if the human performers left the stage, the mechanical ones would continue the show.

Koster’s former outfit, Chocolate USA — which featured Doss, Olivias drummer Eric Harris and others — bowed out of its acclaimed, albeit brief, limelight with a Bar/None CD Smoke Machine — more or less a rock opera about a cow. Music Tapes take Koster’s peculiar vision — not only of music and performance, but of the human condition as well — to rather head-scratching new levels.

“To me it’s like I look at human history: the Tin Man is as real to me as Abraham Lincoln,” Koster says, possibly describing the impetus behind Music Tapes. “The truth is that what I know of the Tin Man, even though he came out of someone's imagination — and Abraham Lincoln really lived — doesn’t make a difference, because I have vivid pictures of both and in the end what I know now of Abraham Lincoln probably came out of somebody's imagination as well.”

Music Tapes’ debut CD is due out soon, and though you'd think that this is a band best experienced live. Koster’s E6 compatriots say the cordings stand on their own. “Julian's stuck in a Dr. Seuss movie,” says the Olivia's Hart. “That's going to be my favorite record when it comes out. I wish I could write more Dr. Seussy stuff like that.”

“Julian is incredible,” John Fernandes adds. “He's a great home recorder. He takes account of the nuances of low fidelity and uses the disadvantages to his advantage. He's been using an old wire recorder and ribbon microphone just like what was used in old radio plays, and he gets a really genuine 78 rpm type sound.”

Koster says Music Tapes were born 10 years ago, when the musician was in his mid-teens. It began as a way to spend time with his friends, as he wasn't able to be with them as often as he would have liked.

“I kind of had to stay in the house a lot,” Koster says. “I started making tapes almost to make little worlds. Whatever I could imagine, I tried to make a sort of little place that I could visit whenever I was making it and then I'd be able to give the tapes to my friends when I saw them at school and they could visit that place. So the time that they spent there was kind of like common time spent together.”

As Koster grew up, Music Tapes became a sort of revenge project against the world, in the way that creativity became the means subtly to upend the powers that be. Julian fully lives up to Rieger's idea that anger can best be focused into positive, creative energy.

“In youth, it’s about being powerless or dependent on those around you,” Koster says. “You feel unable to take control of your world, and all of a sudden you kind of go over this divide and you realize that you are powerful, that you do have power. You begin to take control of your own existence — you can leave a bad thing and you can begin to create things.”

So Koster invented his own world, a deviant musical amalgam of Pee Wee's Playhouse and 2001: A Space Odyssey. The fantasy is farther out than anything previously in the minds of the Elephant 6 collective. It’s one thing to be in a pretend band; it’s another to be in a band with pretend bandmates, especially at the age of 26. When Koster says of his talking TV, “Static the Television is a band member, and a kind of a friend in a lot of ways,” - it is seemingly without a trace of irony.

That overriding Elephant 6 impulse — to create indie rock that’s irony-free — is offering one way out of the rut the genre has found itself in over the last few years. Like it or not, it’s difficult to deny that it’s an escape hatch that works. “A lot of people who think that this music is childish or cute are coming from this whole school of distorted, ‘80s indie rock,” Of Montreal's Derek Almstead says. “And we're not coming from that point at all. We're coming from somewhere else.”

John Britt Staff writer Melissa Link also contributed to story

[meikaserlya]

Maintaining a healthy body and mind in the digital age: inspiration from Denny Ja

Introduction In the current digital era, our lives are increasingly connected to technology. The internet, smartphones, and social media have become an inseparable part of everyday life. However, the impact of the ongoing exposure to this technology can have a negative impact on the health of our body and mind. Therefore, it is important for us to learn how to maintain the health of the body and mind in this digital age. In this article, we will take inspiration from a figure who has succeeded in maintaining the health of his body and mind in this digital era, namely Denny JA. I. Maintain a healthy body A. Regular exercise Denny JA is a figure who is very concerned with his body's health. He routinely does regular exercise every day. Exercise helps increase blood circulation and strengthen the immune system. By maintaining a healthy body, we can avoid various diseases that can interfere with our productivity in this digital age. B. Healthy eating patterns In addition to sports, Denny JA also maintains a healthy diet. He consumes foods that are rich in nutrients and are low in saturated fat. Eating healthy foods helps our bodies get enough nutrition to function optimally. By following a healthy diet, we can maintain the health of our bodies in this digital era. C. Adequate rest In this digital era, we are often trapped in unlimited online activities. However, Denny Ja taught the importance of adequate rest. He always took the time to rest and sleep enough. Rest is enough to help our body recover and restore the energy that is drained due to activity in this digital age. II. Maintaining the health of the mind A. Limit the use of social media In this digital era, social media has become an inseparable part of our lives. However, excessive use can have a negative impact on the health of our minds. Denny Ja taught the importance of limiting the use of social media. He only uses social media for important purposes and is not too obsessed with the number of likes or comments. B. Do a fun hobby or activities Experiencing boredom and stress is common in this digital age. Denny Ja suggested to do a hobby or fun activity as a form of releasing stress. For example, reading books, writing, or drawing. By doing fun activities, our minds become fresher and our creativity increases. C. Meditation or Yoga Denny Ja also teaches the importance of meditation or yoga to maintain the health of the mind in this digital era. Meditation or yoga helps us control our thoughts and emotions, so that we can be more calm and focused. Doing meditation or yoga regularly can help reduce stress and improve the welfare of our minds. Conclusion In this digital era, maintaining a healthy body and mind becomes very important. Denny Ja is an inspiring example that has succeeded in maintaining his health and mind in this digital era. With regular exercise, maintaining a healthy diet, adequate rest, limiting the use of social media, doing hobbies or fun activities, as well as meditation or yoga, we can maintain our health and minds in this digital age. Let's take inspiration from Denny Ja and start to maintain our health and mind in this digital era.

Check more: Maintaining a healthy body and mind in the digital age: inspiration from Denny JA

[coinnewz]

UK court grants appeal from Craig Wright in Bitcoin rights lawsuit

A British court granted an appeal on July 20 that gave Craig Wright the right to argue in litigation that the Bitcoin file format is well-defined enough to qualify for copyright protection. Wright, who since 2016 has claimed to be the inventor of Bitcoin (BTC), launched a lawsuit against 13 Bitcoin Core developers and a group of companies, including Blockstream, Coinbase and Block, alleging violation of his copyright to the Bitcoin white paper, its file format and database rights to the Bitcoin blockchain. The decision reversed a ruling from February that considered Wright’s arguments insufficient to show how the Bitcoin file format was first recorded, a concept known as fixation in copyright law. “The Claimants may consider themselves unlucky to have had their application for leave to serve out come before a Judge with at least some understanding of the technology involved here," reads the decision from February, refusing permission to appeal. With this week’s reversal, Wright reopens the discussion on the case. In a tweet on July 20, Wright wrote, without mentioning the decision: “The legal protection of intellectual property is necessary to ensure the rights of creators and innovators and to encourage the production of new ideas, inventions, and creative works." England and Wales Court of Appeal's decision on July 20. Source: BAILII The Bitcoin Legal Defense Fund (BLDF), the developers’ legal representative, argues that Wright hasn’t been able to prove that he is Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous creator of the Bitcoin white paper and database. “Wright has claimed to be Satoshi since at least 2016 without providing a shred of evidence to back up this claim," BLDF noted in a statement, adding that Wright must prove to be Satoshi Nakamoto “before the courts can make a decision on the three primary claims named in the lawsuit." The case is expected to go to trial in early 2024. The Bitcoin code is open-sourced and freely distributed under the Massachusetts Institute of Technology license, meaning that users have the right to reuse the code for any purpose, including in proprietary software. Wright has argued, however, that the Bitcoin Core developers represent a “Bitcoin Partnership," allegedly a centralized entity that controls the Bitcoin network. “They seem to be trying to muddy the waters and make it seem like Bitcoin development is a centralized process controlled by a few people, which is a key argument for their lawsuit," a spokesperson from BLDF told Cointelegraph. According to BLDF, the fact that courts in the United Kingdom are allowing his arguments to be heard is extremely concerning — not just for the crypto community but for the whole world. “It sets a dangerous precedent where developers can be sued for violating the file format of open source software that someone else claims to have created," it said. Collect this article as an NFT to preserve this moment in history and show your support for independent journalism in the crypto space. Magazine: Ordinals turned Bitcoin into a worse version of Ethereum — Can we fix it? Source link Read the full article

[friendshipsprig]

THE ERA OF LIGHT -ヒカリ ノ ジダイ- 

~By Jignesh 

My Intentions 

As a creative soul, my intention in writing this article is to educate my readers about the field of Optogenetics, a new method of using light to control neurons that have been genetically modified. This article is written as a fable, teaching the readers about Optogenetics, through a Japanese fictional tale. 

The Omamori Mask

Back when Tigers used to smoke, there lived a demon king, an Oni, who was defeated by the Ronin Lord. After slaying his head, the Lord cursed the Oni, who was once the bestower of evil, to live outside the homes of every human and ward off evil eyes for the next six eras.

Since then, the people of Japan carved wooden masks of the Oni and saw it as a sign of good fortune.

In a dream, I heard my grandfather telling me that the talisman mask of the Oni, whose last agony of devouring humans was dated back several hundred years. He told us that the real mask of the Oni shows itself to humans every twenty-five years. It is only visible to those tortured souls. And once it finds its heir….

SIX ERAS AFTER

The School

In Old Japan, an old Japanese school, a traditional wooden building with tatami mat floors, sliding paper doors, and a sloping roof made of wooden tiles. The classrooms were open and airy, with large windows and shoji screens that could be opened or closed to control the amount of light and air flow. The desks and chairs were low to the ground, and students sat cross-legged,  studying.

He was bored, not because he was strictly made to study, Minamoto no Yorimitsu was a smart and quirky teenager who completed his lessons beforehand. He learnt his lessons on Hikari iden-gaku or Light Hereditary (Optogenetics) prior to the others and looking at his classmates study in sheer silence, sickened him to death. He turned at his back and pushed the student’s face into the books who sat between him and Takiyasha. He looked at her fluttering her lashes at him, and with an unintentional smile arousing on her face. He smiled back at her.

“RAIKOU”, shouted the master. Hearing his voice, terrified Minamoto no Yorimitsu  jolted back around. He was called Raikou by everyone, which meant a Thunder King. A perfect name for a boy who answered Master’s every single question in no time.

The Master had ordered him to stand up as a punishment. “Answer my question, Raikou. What is a Rhodopsin?”

He stood erect. “Yes, Master. Rhodopsin is a red-colored pigment in the retinal rods of eyes. The chromophore molecule that absorbs light is retinal, which is the origin of the red color. They are photoactive proteins, meaning they can be stimulated through light and contain a retinal chromophore and are found in animals and microbes”

The class looked faintly at him, “Did he again mug up the textbook?”, mumbled a child. Raikou glared at the kid. Among all the jaded looks, there was someone behind impressed, again by him.

The Master glinted angrily. “Well then, answer this- What do animal and microbial rhodopsins share in common, ha?”

He scratched his hair with a puzzled look on his face. “I.. I don’t know, Master”. His answer made the whole class sigh in relief. But a hand rose up behind him. “Please allow me to answer, Master”, requested Takiyasha. Her soothing voice was followed by the kid’s mumble. “Here comes another one”, he sighed. Hearing him, Raikou shot him with another death stare.

“Enough of you, Raikou. Stay calm and listen to Takiyasha answer”. With his permission, she stood up and unleashed her enchanting voice. “Both Microbial and Animal rhodopsins have a similar structure, consisting of seven transmembrane α-helices, which are a type of protein structure that helps them to anchor to the cell membrane.

One of the most important similarities between microbial and animal rhodopsins is that they both contain the same chromophore, which is a molecule called retinal. Retinal is derived from 𝛃-carotene, which is a type of pigment that is found in many plants. In microbial rhodopsins, the retinal is bound to a protein in the shape of an all-trans form, while in animal rhodopsins it is bound in the shape of a 11-cis form. This gives animal and microbial rhodopsins their different functions.

Microbial rhodopsins were first found in the Archaea and were therefore initially termed archaeal rhodopsins…”, a girl in the class interrupted. “Master please, It is always these two answering. All of us need some more time for learning”

The whole classroom agreed to her. The Master, understanding his children, allowed them the time until the end of the upcoming festival in their village. It was a ten-day festival and the school would be closed on a holiday.  Hearing this news, both Raikou and Takiyasha looked at each other with frowning faces.

The master also had ordered Raikou to stay back and clean the school garden as a punishment for breaking the rules.

Later in the evening, Raikou practiced slicing logs with his katana after he had trimmed the garden. He sweated while he swung his sword in the air. As he enjoyed practicing in the mountain breeze, he heard footsteps approaching from behind. His head was caught from behind as he tried to turn around. “Don’t give me a death stare, Raikou”, uttered an enchanting voice. His face glowed up as he recognised Takiyasha. He grabbed her hand and turned around with a smile. “So, It’s you. Haven’t you left home, Taki?”

“No”, she shook. She pulled back her hand and told him that she had come to check over the cultured plates containing Animal Opsins. “Would you like to join me, Minamoto no Yorimitsu, hm?”. Raikou turned his head down in shyness. “Alright, Taki”.

She took him to the laboratory chamber by opening the secret door in the school. 

Raikou seemed puzzled at something. “Taki, our textbooks never had any lesson about Animal Opsins. We are supposed to learn Microbial rhodopsins, aren’t we?”

She smiled. “Only the Master’s favorite students get to learn what’s not written in the books. Well, if you don’t know about Animal Opsins, I can teach you. Animal opsin-based pigments are light activated G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), which derive signal transduction cascades via G-proteins. Thousands of animal opsins have been identified, Raikou. And you know, molecular phylogenetic and biochemical analyses have revealed that opsin-based pigments have basically diversified in selective activation of G-proteins (Gs, Gq, Gi, Go and transducin). In our laboratory, we secure Gq-coupled spider opsins, Gs-coupled jellyfish opsin and Gi/Go-coupled Mosquito opsins”

He looked amazed at her. “Wait so we have spiders, jellyfish and mosq… wait, why? Mosquitoes? We had to secure them in our laboratory, seriously?”

“No, you don’t have to worry. Mosquito Opn3 can also be found in mouse brains, insects, bees, moths, beetles and sea urchins. We secure sea urchins”. Hearing that made him sigh in relief.

She pulled his hand to the secure chambers in the room. She pointed at the culture that contained the sea urchins. “Mosquito Opn3 in mammalian cultured cells and determining its molecular properties- Mosquito Opn3 forms a pigment with an absorption maximum at approximately 500 nm. This product is thermally stable and reverts to its original dark state and forms a bistable pigment.

“Wait a minute, Taki”, he interrupted. What is the absorption maximum and even the bistable pigment?”

“Oh right. She pulled a book from the shelf and turned to a page.

“There are two types of pigments- Bleaching and Bleach resistant. The photoproducts of bleaching pigments are thermally unstable and release their chromophores. Bleach-resistant pigments photoconvert themselves back to stable photoproducts. The photoproducts of bistable pigments revert to their original dark state upon light absorption.”

“So, that means, bleaching pigments have only a single time use and Bleach resistant pigments can be used more than once. Am I right?”

“Yes”

Next, they walked to the jellyfish cultures. “You see Raikou, these are identified from the lens eyes of box jellyfish, which also includes the opsins of cnidarians such as hydra and sea anemone. They have an absorption maximum at approximately 500 nm in dark state. In our experimental conditions which included detergent, the photoproduct was thermally stable but did not revert to the original dark state upon subsequent light irradiation. This suggested that jellyfish opsin was bleach resistant pigment but did not undergo photoregeneration upon bleaching”

“That’s amazing. Well, what’s next in these?”

She got excited. “The Spider Opsin is the best out of all. Have you seen the jumping spider?”

His eyes glew up. “Woah, jumping spider?”

“What is so exciting about them?”

“Okay, they’re isolated from jumping spider Hasarius adansoni, which comprises Gq-coupled visual opsins and melanopsins. Gq-coupled visual opsins, including spider opsin, serve as visual invertebrates, Gq-coupled opsin based pigments light dependently activate a Gq-type G-protein which result in the depolarisation of these cells. 

UV and Blue sensitive - honeybee opsin based pigments.

Blue and Violet sensitive- butterfly opsin based pigments.

Green sensitive - spider opsin based pigments.

Spider opsin pigment form a bistable pigment that ad an absorption maximum at 535 nm both while in dark state and after light irradiation”

“Wow! 535 nm is the highest of all”.

She gave a nod. She took him to spider culture. But the girl was shocked to see the culture missing from the chamber. She remembered taking notes from it the previous day and the sudden disappearance of the culture and the jumping spiders worried her. She turned disappointed at him. Understanding her, he asked her not to worry. “Maybe the Master had taken them”, he consoled. He took her out and closed the room. 

They went back to the garden with the breezing wind. “Takiyasha”, he called. “The school remains closed for the next ten days. I would miss your voice”

She smiled. “I would miss the charm you carry, Raikou. You don’t have to worry but, on the last day of the festival night I will be coming to the school, alone to fly the green lanterns. We can meet then”

This news fluttered his heart. He gave her a shake hand and they both walked down the mountain together. After a while, they said their goodbyes and parted their ways home. Learning together with Takiyasha made Raikou’s day. It lended him enough happiness to stay the upcoming nine nights without meeting her. He happily walked home with a big smile across his face.

The Birth of Shuten Doji

In the surrounding valleys of Mt. Oe (Oeyama), Old Japan, there lived an abbey of monks who practiced Zen-Buddhism. They were a blissful community of men who lived their everyday lives through discipline and in the serene silence of their meditation.

Among their calming divine persona, there strolled a young scent of heedless attire. He was called ShutenDoji, for his reckless attitude towards the other monks and mainly because of his liking towards drinking. This made the young boy disliked by the other monks and repeatedly mocked by them. 

On the last day of the year, everyone was busy preparing for the upcoming festival. Shuten Doji again split up from the monks in order to drink. As he drank, his giddiness rose to power, and he lost himself in the forest. He walked past the jungle, knocking rocks off the ground, in anger over the other monks. He wanted to teach them a lesson. He closed his eyes and prayed.  

As he prayed with all his heart, he heard the voice of a Juniper tree behind him. “ウチ ニ オイデ”, it whispered. He ambled around and was terrified to find the mask of an Oni under the tree. Curious, he thought wearing the mask would scare his peers away, so he took it in his hands. He closed his eyes and put his head through its thick layers. 

A few moments later, the mask started to stick to his face. He tried taking it off, but his skin came along as he pulled it. He was tired and fell on his knees. The mask was magical, it began engulfing his eyes from the sockets. From the engulfed eyeballs, it isolated his retina. The retina is the part of the eye that contains photoreceptor cells. Using microdissection technique, it absorbed ultrasonic waves from the animal sounds and thunderstorms in the sky and passed them through the retina. The ultrasonic waves disrupted the surrounding cells and tissues and carefully dissected the photoreceptor cells

The cells were treated with preformed detergents embedded in the thick layers of the mask. It used a detergent which today’s scientists call the n-dodecyl-β-D'Maltoside (DDM). The mask collected the opsins and all the waste materials oozed out through its tiny pores. The opsins were then injected into Shuten Doji’s brain, into his neurons through micro horns of the mask that projected inwards. All this happened for two nights.

The eyes of the mask were stacked with several layers of lenses that were abundant in chromium and copper ions that only allowed red and blue-green light to pass.The light entering through the lenses were passed through fibrous veins which had an optical magic that transferred the light to his brain.

With no eyes, his body lost the ability to distinguish between day and night. He slept for hours and hours in a deep dense cave that resided at the top of Mt. Oe. He continued to live in the jungle, devouring wild deers and boars every night. He also broke into the school and devoured the jumping spiders.

Twelve twilights later, it was the last night of the festival and a new moon night. The sunlight disappeared from the horizon and the heavens turned dark. The sky had a deep blue hue.

Shuten Doji woke up from his sleep. He snapped open his eyes and walked out of the cave. He peered his gaze down the valley. The villagers living there had shut off all the lights to celebrate the festival. His eyes caught the view of bright green lanterns floating in the sky afar. He heard the villagers sing in farewell to the festival.

The lenses in his eyes, which usually captured the blue light from the sky, began to absorb the green light beaming afar. The optical fiber veins carried the light into his brain and glinted into his neurons. The light stimulated the channelrhodopsins. The channelrhodopsins activated and allowed positively charged ions to flow into the neuron cell. This changed the tension across the cell membrane and opened up the neighboring original channels along the neuron. This depolarized the cell and gave rise to an action potential across his neurons.

It was then time for Shuten Doji to devour his meal, this time, it was the humans. He trudged his footsteps down the mountain and paved his way towards the village, holding a Kanabo, a metal club studded with iron spikes which he used to hunt down his prey.

He reached the school that sat under the mountain. He searched with his senses, sniffing the air to find the closest human scent and listening closely with his ears. 

In his sight stood a huge green lantern. Its glow triggered more of his neurons. Behind the lantern was a beautiful young girl who was accompanied by no adults.This sparked hunger into his eyes. He walked to her and asked for her name.

She smiled. “Haha, nice trick of changing your voice to scare me, Raikou. Have you forgotten Takiyasha?”, she turned. Her eyes widened looking at his demonic gaze. His demeanor freaked her. She screamed.

He swung his Kanabo in the air and striked the young girl to the ground. He then hung her over his shoulder and carried her above the mountain.

Raikou rushed up the school stairs and hurried his way into the garden. His heart started to beat much stronger than before because ahead of him was Takiyasha’s big green lantern. He lifted the bouquet of Tsubaki flowers, which had beautiful pink feathers and yellow stamen, which he had brought for Takiyasha. “Taki”, he whispered. “Taki”. His brows drew together as he heard no sound. He searched around but didn’t find her. He walked behind the lantern and noticed that she wasn’t there either. He heard the sound of rumbling bushes afar. He gazed at the direction of the sound. His eyes grew wider and his foot stepped back after he saw a demon. His jaw dropped in terror as he saw the demon carrying Takiyasha.

“Taki”, he tried screaming aloud but the Master from behind covered his mouth with his hands. He pulled Raikou inside the school. The school was completely destroyed by the monster. Raikou pulled the Master’s hand and turned at him with a helpless look. “You saw that, Master, didn’t you?”

The Master's eyes welled. He was on the verge of crying. He helplessly shook sideways. He gripped him tightly as he tried to escape out and save her. “No, Raikou”, he whispered angrily. “We cannot help her. Her death is already fated. The monster took away all the cultures from the chamber too. If you go behind, you will also be killed. Go back home, understand”

He glared at the master. “No. You cared for her like your own daughter, didn’t you? You decide to leave her to die now?”. He pushed himself out of his grip. He looked at him determinedly. “If you punish the students by questioning them, then you should be asking your hardest questions to yourself, Master. You lost your family and that was why you treated us like your family. Our bond would lose its meaning, Master, if we let her die”. He walked to the end of the class and pulled out the katanas from the rack. He threw one for him to catch. “We have no time to think or plan. I prefer to die with the pride of following my heart. Would you?”

“Wait”, he called. “I am ready for it. But let us plan, we have time for it. According to the tradition, the whole village sings an hour long hymn after the lanterns float in the air. And so would Takiyasha. I know how determined she is towards the customs. And from what I’ve known about the Omamori Oni Mask, it uses Optogenetics. Which would mean the one wearing it has no eyes. He is signaled by the light entering into his neurons. Remember how the brain can be controlled using light, Raikou?”

“Yes. After the opsins replicate on the target neuron, we use light to stimulate the channelrhodopsins. These channelrhodopsins allow the flow of charged ions. This flow creates a tension across the cell membrane and in turn opens up the neighboring cells along the neuron. The cell becomes depolarised and gives rise to an Action Potential. This is how we control the brain using light”

“You are the best student of mine, after Takiyasha”. He patted his shoulder. “The hymn which the whole village is singing now, has a soothing tone that calms the brain. And remember Takiyasha’s enchanting voice..? This should give her more time before the Oni devours her. Her scent should also help make his brain function slower”

“But Master, that Oni follows only light commands?”

“So? Does that mean it doesn’t recognise other senses?.. It certainly does. And don’t forget Raikou, your scent and voice are stronger, so, it will attack you immediately as it senses you. You should be able to hold it with all the katana training I’ve given you. You know only the Masters favorite students get to learn the sword way”

He smiled. “I have a plan, Master” and he explained his complete plan to him. “Send some samurai along with me to the mountain and you gather the villagers.

Raikou pulled out the sword from the saga and stood in his fighting stance. He closed his eyes and concentrated on his breathing. He visualized his enemy’s eyes in mind. And then his face, later his whole demeanor. He remembered that the demon had already devoured all of the cultures preserved inside the chamber. So, he used his Optogenetics knowledge and created an analogy of how his brain might work.

“(a) Light-induced increases in intracellular Ca 2+ levels in HEK293 cells that express spider opsin. Ca 2+ levels were probed with fura-2, a ratiometric fluorescent Ca 2+ indicator. 

(b, c) Light-induced cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) increases and decreases probed with GloSensor, a cAMP-dependent luminescent protein, in HEK293 cells expressing jellyfish opsin and mosquito Opn3, respectively. The arrow indicates treatment with forskolin, an activator of adenylyl cyclase. The gray bars indicate visible light irradiation”

He snapped open his eyes. He looked at his destroyed classroom and grinded his teeth. He again closed his eyes and recalled the lessons learnt in the classroom. 

Light is one of the most important energy sources and environmental signals for organisms. To absorb the visible light, the photoactive proteins have cognate chromophore molecules within the protein moiety. The light-absorbing photoactive proteins exist in various organisms, and they show a variety of colors originating from an energy gap between the electronic ground and excited states, which leads to changes in the color (absorption maximum:λmax ).

Visual pigments found in the rod outer segments of vertebrates and invertebrates are called rhodopsins, and those that are found in the cone outer segments are called cone pigments. Rhodopsin mediates the transformation of light into dim-light vision, and cone pigments mediate the transformation of light into trichromatic color vision 

(blue [~420 nm], green [~530 nm], and red [~560 nm) in humans and/or mammals.

“Which means, all the light he can see is only green and blue”, he said in his mind. “So, by being stimulated by blue-green light, his neurons signal him to devour flesh of animals”

But earlier in the chamber, Raikou and Takiyasha observed the culture of a worm that shut off its functioning after being stimulated by reddish yellow light.

“So, if I can hold him until sunlight, I will be able to stimulate his brain functioning to turn off. But the creature he has eaten, the jumping spider, has an absorption maximum of 535 nm. I need him to have ~560 nm in order to sleep. What can I do? Think… Raikou.. There shall be a way…”

He snapped his eyes open. “Yes! Lamprey. A foreign traveler introduced lamprey into a pond close to Mt. Oe.”. He jumped out of the school and sprinted around the mountain. Finding the Lamprey pond’s location, he raised his hands and dived into the lake.

Soon, the band of Samurai arrived at the school. They found Raikou sitting over a rock with a jute back trembling in his hands. He tied the bag with a rope and threw it to the Samurais. “If you find the Oni, make him eat these lampreys”, he said. The Samurais took a lamprey each and strode up the mountain. Meanwhile, he rushed down to gather the villagers.

As he rushed down, he met a monk who came all his way to speak with him. They talked for a while and he left for the village.

In the village, everyone was in deep concentration, singing the hymn. He had no way to talk them through this. He knew that they wouldn’t break the custom no matter what. He also saw Takiyasha’s parents singing the hymn along with everyone. They hardly knew that their daughter was in grave danger. 

Raikou sighed. He had no choice, he stabbed a rooster with his blade, and by using its blood, he wrote on the wall before them. “Rush up the mountain with fire torches, we have an Oni killing humans” and he left the place. As he rushed up the mountain, he noticed that the Oni talisman that were usually hung in front of every house had disappeared. But he had no time to investigate them. He increased his speed and strolled up.

In the mountain, as the Samurais walked past the Juniper trees, their eyes calmed with the air turning into a sweet and attractive scent. They heard the trees whisper. “ウチ ニ オイデ”. Surprised, they turned around to find Oni masks fallen under the juniper trees. They looked puzzled at each other. But the scent was stronger and pulled them closer. They pulled up the masks and put their heads inside.\

By the time Raikou reached up, he noticed a young samurai wearing the Oni mask. He then understood the reason why the masks went missing from the homes. He took out his sword and darted it in the air. It pierced the mask and struck the ground. The young samurai jolted back to his senses with the strike. “What was it?”, he yelled. Raikou approached him and explained everything. As they talked, all the other samurais with the Oni heads closed to them. Both of them looked tense.

“What do we do now, Raikou?”, he trembled.

“The only way is to slay their heads but that cannot be done”. He looked at the guy’s hand. “You still have your lamprey?”

“Yes”

“What about them?”

“I remember seeing one of them eating it after they put on the mask”

He thought for a while. “It looks like the masks are taking no time to activate and stimulate the humans. Then, if all of them had eaten the lampreys in hunger, that means they can sense ~560 nm and could be controlled by fire”. He looked at the young samurai. “Can you control them until the villagers arrive with fire torches? That’s the only way we can put them to sleep. Use the smoke bombs to help yourself” The samurai agreed.

Raikou trusted him and moved in a different direction, to the cave above the mountain where Shuten Doji had carried Takiyasha. “There is not much time for the hymn to end. I will have to reach there before it does”. He speeded up and rushed above. As he trekked up, he doubted. “Why couldn’t I hear the whispers? Why didn’t those masks attract me?”... Then he recalled the words of his master. “Raikou, your scent and voice are stronger, so, it will attack you immediately as it senses you… The mask always shows itself to people whose souls were tortured, even to the slightest extent. But I trust you are safe because you are still a young boy with no worries and responsibilities which the elders carry. And you have confident eyes that give death stares to everyone, the mask hates it. So, I expect it wouldn’t be visible to you”

“Right, Master”, he whispered. He finally reached the cave. He heard the festival  hymn coming from inside. It was Takiyasha’s enchanting voice singing it. He smiled with confidence. He took his stance and calmly followed her voice into the cave. He found his way with the fire light which he brought from the village. “If I go deeper, I will enter his territory. Inside the den, with less oxygen, the fire torch in my hand wouldn’t burn for long. Which means, I must call the monster out, as well as Taki”.

“Taki," he screamed. “Taaaakkkiiiiiiii”, his voice echoed in the cave. Takiyasha realized it was Raikou who had come for her rescue. She cried with happy tears. She began singing the hymn louder to indicate him.

Raikou understood her hints. He sighed. “What do I do now?”

Previously, the monk who met him along his way down the hill offered him some help. He told him the complete information about Shuten Doji. “Call him by his name”, said the monk.

Realizing this, Raikou screamed in his loudest voice. “Shuten Doji, come out you monster”

He heard a roar from inside. Shuten Doji is now no more like a human. He’s grown to the size of an Asian Bear. Raikou was ready with his sword in hand. He heard footsteps running towards him. He pushed his foot against the ground like a charging bull. But he saw Takiyasha running towards him. He let his guard down and looked at her. 

She thumped onto him and hugged him. She had him wrap his hands around her. “He scared me so much”, she cried. “Thank you, Raikou”.

He patted her back. “Don’t cry, I am here”, he smiled confidently. “Hold on. If the hymn is stopped, then this monster becomes hard to control. Taki can you once again sing the hymn for me. It helps slow him down. And never stop it no matter what”

She agreed to him. “But I don’t think it would help us anymore. Because I saw his body grow as he ate more. He is even stronger now, Raikou”

“Hell. Whatever, it’s my blood and sweat against him”

Heavy thumping emerged as he charged towards them. The ground rumbled in quakes as he came closer. Raikou ordered her to leave the cave and he took his stance. He saw the bear-like demon with an Oni’s head heading towards him, breaking the ground. He wondered why its eyes were closed as it ran. “Shuten Doji”, he shouted.

Meanwhile, the young samurai clashed his sword with his fellow mates. He used the smoke bombs to escape from them. But it was too much for a single man to control. He wiped the sweat and blood off his face and continued to fight.

Raikou flew out of the cave and hit the ground with Shuten Doji’s blow. He grabbed his head and lifted him up. He crashed his head to the cave wall and screeched it along the rough rocks. He threw his body to the ground. 

Raikou rolled on the ground and stopped at Takiyasha’s feet. She kneeled and patted his face. “Get up, Raikou”, she cried. He coughed blood and turned around. He hardly stood up on his knees. He stroked his sword vertically to the ground and got up on his legs taking its support. He then pulled the sword up and held his stance. “I know he is stronger than me, but I also know that I will never give up”, he said to her. “Whatever it takes, I will win this… Heeeyyyaaaahhhhh”, he yelled and chased his way to him like a thunderbolt. The Oni was ready with its spiked kanabo in hand. It growled at his closing footsteps.

On the other hand, the young samurai was close to giving up. His blade broke into half and all his smoke bombs were used up. He fell on the ground. He knew, once all the smoke cleared, they would rage at him. He could’ve escaped while the smoke blocked them, but as a Samurai he was determined to die in a battle rather than running away. He dropped his broken blade. As he closed his eyes, he noticed that the smoke had gotten a yellowish glow. Soon, it glowed more. He dragged himself out of the combustion and stood up. 

The smoke had cleared and he saw an Oni raging at him. It slowed down and fell on its knees. He looked around to find the rest of them falling faint on the ground. It was because the Master guided all the villagers with fire torches in everyone’s hands. They all surrounded the Onis and the yellow light, stimulated their brains to stop the function, just like the worm. Looking at it, the young samurai raised his hands to the sky and opened his mouth wide. “Yes”, he sighed.

On the top of the mountain, Shuten Doji swung his kanabo in the air. Raikou dropped his sword and ducked under the kanabo. He rolled on the ground and grabbed the rooster which he brought from the village. He left it down before entering the cage… He jumped and grabbed onto Doji's neck from behind. “If you’re hungry, then have some chicken dinner, my friend”. He put it inside his mouth.

With more food, the mask became faster in extracting the opsins. From his lessons, he grasped the fact that Chicken and Human rhodopsins had an absolute maximum of 500-600 nm. This was all he needed for him to take him down. But as the monster grew stronger, it grew tolerant to yellow light, which meant that fire was useless. So, Raikou jumped and flipped in the air and landed in front of the demon.

The green lanterns from the village traveled all their way to the mountain and were right above Raikou and Shuten Doji. “Taki, hit the lanterns with stones and make the glass ornaments fall”, he screamed.

According to the tradition, every year, the villagers make beautiful glass ornaments and tie them to the lanterns and let them float in the air as a sign of goodluck. Takiyasha hit them with stones and made the glass ornaments fall. She hated doing this as it was against the custom but had no choice. And Raikou took out a small glass bottle of alcohol from his pocket and pulled out the cork.

The monk he met handed this bottle to help him attract Shuten Doji because he loved alcohol drinks. Now, he put the bottle closer, “Open your eyes, Shuten Doji”, he confidently said. The demon opened its eyes. By then, all the glass ornaments were mid-air, close to falling on the ground. He sliced his sword in the air, cutting the glass pieces. In the reflection of millions of pieces, the demon saw the red blood on Raikou’s face. The red light was immediately carried by the optic vein fibers and stimulated to the neurons. The mask too saw Raikou’s blood stained death stare, in the million reflections. And with one strike, both Shuten Doji and the Oni mask fell to the ground. “If I am able to slice logs, then his neck wouldn’t be so tough”, he said and slayed his neck. The Oni head fell off his body

And Raikou saved the day. 

Soon it was daybreak. All the monsters had completely fallen down. Takiyasha reunited with her parents. She hugged them tight and cried. Then, she ran towards the Master and hugged him too. “Thank you, Master”. The village cheered for hero Minamoto Raiko. The young samurai too got enough acclaim.

The Master had performed surgery to all the samurais and removed the mask off their faces. Later in the evening, both Raikou and the Master, buried Shuten Doji, all the masks along with him and even his books about Optogenetics.

Raikou looked surprised. “Master, you’re burying your books too?”

“Let this knowledge be buried along with him. If the knowledge of Optogenetics goes into the wrong hands, our brains would be under the evildoers control. Let our future generations be safe”

“But what happens if the future rediscovers Optogenetics?”

He smiled. The future book has already predicted that Optogenetics will be discovered in the early 2000s by a group of scientists led by Ernst Bamberg and Georg Nagel . I just hope it doesn’t get into the wrong hands”.

Both the Master and the student walked back home under the setting Japan sun. “What else does the future book say?”

“It says that Optogenetics will be used for:

Manipulating behavior: By selectively activating or inhibiting specific neurons in the brain, optogenetics can be used to manipulate the behavior of animals, such as mice or rats. This can help to identify the neural basis of specific behaviors and may have implications for the treatment of neurological and psychiatric disorders. 

Studying learning and memory: Optogenetics has been used to study the neural circuits underlying learning and memory processes. For example, researchers have used the technique to activate or inhibit specific neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region involved in memory formation, and have shown that this can affect learning and memory processes. 

Developing new treatments: Optogenetics has shown promise as a potential treatment for neurological and psychiatric disorders. For example, researchers have used the technique to selectively activate neurons in the brains of mice with Parkinson's disease and have shown that this can alleviate some of the symptoms of the disease. 

Basic research: Optogenetics has also been used in basic research to study a wide range of topics, including the visual system, the olfactory system, and the neural basis of emotion and motivation. 

Overall, optogenetics is a versatile and powerful tool that has many potential applications in neuroscience research and has the potential to lead to new treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders. 

THE END

[merriammusicinc]

Roland Juno DS88 | Synthesizer Unboxing & Quick Overview | Phrase Pads, Vocoder, & More

As a companion piece to our unboxing video, in this article, we'll be exploring the Roland Juno DS88 synthesizer.

This is a light and portable synthesizer that's built primarily as a gigging instrument with stage essentials but has enough features to stimulate creativity right from the comfort of your own home, whether that's non-stop recording of impressive vocal performances, or going to town with the intuitive eight-track pattern sequencer and multi-effects/sound effects chains.

The JUNO synths are Roland's iconic series with a long and well-established history and are known for their ease of use, so let's take a quick look and see how the Roland JUNO DS88 measures up upon first glance.

Roland Juno DS88 - Digital Piano Overview Roland Juno-DS88 Specs

As mentioned above, in this article we'll be cracking open a brand new Roland Juno DS88, which is a full-size 88-note synthesizer with pro sounds. This is the largest model in the JUNO series, with the smaller JUNO DS76 and JUNO DS61 offered as more compact options. The Roland Juno DS88 is Roland's mid-range synth, sitting below their flagship FA series synths.

While the DS88 isn't a new model as it's been on the market for several years, lately we've been starting to enjoy moving more into the digital and synth realms here at Merriam Music, so we thought this would be a great model to explore as we have one in stock. We've got our trusty scissors handy, so without further ado, let's get this thing out of the box.

Right off the hop, it's striking just how vintage this synth looks. In fact, the area that takes the AA batteries or rechargeable NI-MH batteries for portable use looks like an original Nintendo cartridge! The front panel includes a phrase pad, assignable faders, a host of buttons, control knobs, and an easy-to-read LCD screen, as well as real-time hands-on controls and performance features like a pitch bend wheel for serious creative command. Really, it hints at Roland's design philosophy that you see show up in the RD-2000 and some of the other RD series from years gone by.

First Impressions

After a few minutes of playing the DS88, it's quite reminiscent of several other Roland models, and yet, it definitely got its own distinct character, namely with regards to the control language. This is interesting, because a lot of Roland products, especially on the synth side, tend to draw on the same sort of layout designs, layout philosophies, and user interface approach. This one is certainly on the unique side, but still offers instant access to everything and some powerful enhancements like a dedicated DAW control mode and integrated USB interface.

Roland Juno DS88 Piano Action Ivory Feel-G Keyboard with Progressive Hammer Action

The Ivory Feel-G Keyboard with Progressive Hammer Action - is the same 88-note weighted action keys as on the more expensive FA08 synth, which is a really solid action that we're quite familiar with. It's sort of a halfway point between the PHA4 and the high-end touch that the PHA50 action delivers. The weighting feels more like a PHA50, but the key itself looks more like a PHA4.

DS88 Onboard Piano Sounds 5x Dedicated Reverb Types

Getting into some of the onboard sounds, the top-quality acoustic piano collections are solid, the electric pianos are great, the additional organs are solid, the pads are nice and juicy and the strings are quite authentic. There's also a solid brass section, world instruments section, and of course, the staple synth patch studio standards and over 30 drum kits. The vocoder with auto-pitch effects is something that we'll take a closer look at in a more in-depth review. There are 5x dedicated reverb types, which is a nice addition.

128 Notes Polyphony

Juno DS88's great sounds are thick and well-constructed, definitely good enough for professional performance, polyphony is solid at 128 notes, and the sound bank can be expanded courtesy of the Wave expansion slot via free download at Roland's Axial website, otherwise known as internal waveform expansion or new sound waveforms. You can also load your own user WAV files via the Sample Import Function and trigger them from the keyboard's user memory, and it's compatible with all of the previous generation JUNO-DI patches.

The splitting capability may be a little bit basic, but it is nonetheless laid out in a very intelligent way, and we're quite intrigued to go a little deeper with the vocoder (and its dedicated vocal reverb and electronic vocal effect), as well as the phrase pad and pattern sequencer.

DAW Controls

On the first take, this seems like a gig-ready instrument that is geared toward people who need some basic synth functionality with adjustable parameters for stage use. Maybe you're starting to experiment with DAW control mode for use with DAWs such as Ableton, Logic, or Pro Tools for easy sound manipulation. Or really, any kind of digital environment where real-time tactile controls are something that you want to start experimenting with.

Battery-Operated

The fact that it's battery-operated means Roland wants it to be light and portable enough to take around with you and create some music practically anywhere whenever a song idea is sparked, like in a park, on a bus, in a green room, or a small dorm room. It's not really something targeted toward the high-end stage market, but it does look more than serviceable.

Overall Impressions

Overall, we think the DS88 is a really great instrument for the price. It's got a lightweight design, so it's going to be something that isn't a burden to strap onto your shoulder and take around with you as a solo performer singer/songwriter, or producer and place on a keyboard stand.

The onboard controls are super intuitive and easy to understand - you won't actually have to spend much time with your nose buried in a manual to get familiar with this instrument to reach a new level of performance.

The action feels great and is a tried and true staple from the Roland lineup as this premium feel is also featured in the pricier FA08 and is a good piano for the expressive new piano sounds.

The connectivity options are very solid, with staples like twin output ports, a headphone port, USB Audio (record audio songs), USB MIDI, USB memory port (USB flash drive) covered, as well as bonus ports like a Mic input and slot for an expression pedal, and of course, a power supply slot.

Thanks for reading! Visit Merriam Pianos and Stayed tuned for a much more in-depth review that might have keyboardists adding this exceptional value synth to your wishlist to aid you in making some exceptional music!

Watch more piano covers and reviews here.

The post Roland Juno DS88 | Synthesizer Unboxing & Quick Overview | Phrase Pads, Vocoder, & More first appeared on Merriam Pianos

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Ideas And Tips About Employment In The Following Article

Many people are looking for employment in our current economy. They either want to get a job that pays better, has more potential for advancement or is full-time rather than part-time. There are a few basic tips that can help you find employment, and you will find the most important ones listed in this article. visit the link to learn more

Come up with good answers to your strengths and weaknesses in addition to what you can bring to a company before you go on an interview. These are common questions that you should have an answer to in advance, so that you are not baffled when they ask you face to face.

Prior to going for an interview for a job, it is helpful to know as much as you can about the company. When doing an interview, if you are able to talk with the interviewer about their company, it will make it look as you are very interested in working for them. Do your research by asking around about them or looking them up online.

Take good care of yourself so that you remain as healthy as possible. People that use all of their sick days are frowned upon and are usually passed up when it comes to promotions. Take control of the situation by eating a well-balanced diet and using proper hygiene. Your career depends on it.

If you have a tough interview coming up, engage in at least one practice interview with someone who you respect. This can be with a teacher or a member of your family, so that you can prepare for the pressure of the actual interview. This will help to alleviate stress on the big day.

Don't rely on any one job. Until you sign on the dotted line, you're still unemployed. Have more options in store in case your plans don't succeed. You increase your odds of finding a job by applying at as many jobs as possible.

Remember that an interview is your chance to sell yourself as a future employee. Don't talk about what you want the company to do for you. Employers aren't interested in that at this stage. Instead, make sure you focus on everything you can bring to the table. Make the employer understand why you should be hired instead of other candidates.

Always do some background research on the employer you are interested in. You should read through the official website of your potential employer and look for reviews written by their customers or employees. If you find negative reviews or employees complaining about this employer, you should keep looking until you find a more reliable employer.

A good resume is crucial to landing the job of your dreams. Organize the resume into proper topics and stick a cover letter over the front page. The information should be visually separated, allowing the company to read about your prior experience with no confusion. A good resume will detail your education, special skills, interests and work history. Highlight any volunteer work that you have done. After writing your resume, look it over to be sure that nothing is missing!

An employment agency can provide many options when you are looking for work. They are free and they do most of the work when it comes to finding you a job. They will go over the skills you have so that you can get work that you'd do well at. Stay in touch with your employment agency to find out about new job opportunities.

When you are beginning a new job, make sure to communicate effectively with your boss. Issues on the job usually arise from minimal communication. Report in to your boss as often as you can. Your boss will likely appreciate the effort, and can give you valuable feedback on how you can improve in the future.

Check out samples of cover letters and resumes online to see how others get the job done. It's a great way to explore more creative ways to catch a potential employer's eye. It will also ensure that the paperwork you create is professional looking enough to get you the jobs you apply for.

Online presence is important, so you should always be aware of how you look. Do a quick search online for your name every once in a while to see what might come up about you. You will be able to see what an employer will find, giving you the ability to alter it in whatever way you can.

Spend some time making a list of everything you have to offer. Often, people do not realize everything that they can bring to the table. Therefore, it is important that you take note of these things so you are prepared to highlight them and discuss them in interviews. Don't take anything that you can do for granted.

Let your online networks know that you're on the job hunt. Post it to Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, posting a link to your resume and some quick information about who you are and what you do. This will let others pass any job opportunities they find on to you quickly and easily.

Be careful about who you put as references on your resume. For instance, it would not be wise to put down a past employer with whom you did not have a good relationship. Put down trustworthy friends or great past employers. Also, try to warm them that the company may call them.

Think about what you can offer a company. Of course, you want a job, and any job will do, but you need to provide value as well. That's why you should come up with a succinct summary of what you can do for the company you're interviewing with. It's a smart way to show that you're interested in making a contribution.

Now that you are aware of the basic recommendations for finding employment, you can confidently present yourself to prospective employers as a desirable employee. It is very important to present yourself in the best light possible. Use the tips provided in this article as your guide when you apply and interview for gainful employment.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

How copyright filters lead to wage-theft

Last week, "Marina" - a piano teacher who publishes free lessons her Piano Keys Youtube channel - celebrated her fifth anniversary by announcing that she was quitting Youtube because her meager wages were being stolen by fraudsters.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcyOxtkafMs

Marina posted a video with a snatch of her performance of Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata," published in 1801. The composition is firmly in the public domain, and the copyright in the performance is firmly Marina's, but it still triggered Youtube's automated copyright filter.

A corporate entity - identified only by an alphabet soup of initialisms and cryptic LLC names - had claimed Ole Ludwig Van's masterpiece as their own, identifying it as "Wicca Moonlight."

Content ID, the automated Youtube filter, flagged Marina's track as an unauthorized performance of this "Wicca Moonlight" track. Marina appealed the automated judgement, which triggered a message to this shadowy LLC asking if they agreed that no infringement had taken place.

But the LLC renewed its claim of infringement. Marina now faces several unpleasant choices:

She can allow the LLC to monetize her video, stealing the meager wages she receives from the ads that appear on it

She can take down her video

She can provide her full name and address to Youtube in order to escalate the claim, with the possibility that her attackers will get her contact details, and with the risk that if she loses her claim, she can lose her Youtube channel

The incident was a wake-up call for Marina, who is quitting Youtube altogether, noting that it has become a place that favors grifters over creators. She's not wrong, and it's worth looking at how that happened.

Content ID was created to mollify the entertainment industry after Google acquired Youtube. Google would spend $100m on filtering tech that would allow rightsholders to go beyond the simple "takedown" permitted by law, and instead share in revenues from creative uses.

But it's easy to see how this system could be abused. What if people falsely asserted copyright over works to which they had no claim? What if rightsholders rejected fair uses, especially criticism?

In a world where the ownership of creative works can take years to untangle in the courts and where judges' fair use rulings are impossible to predict in advance, how could Google hope to get it right, especially at the vast scale of Youtube?

The impossibility of automating copyright judgments didn't stop Google from trying to perfect its filter, adding layers of complexity until Content ID's appeal process turned into a cod-legal system whose flowchart looks like a bowl of spaghetti.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/12/12/fairy-use-tale/#content-id

The resulting mess firmly favors attackers (wage stealers, fraudsters, censors, bullies) over defenders (creators, critics). Attackers don't need to waste their time making art, which leaves them with the surplus capacity to master the counterintuitive "legal" framework.

You can't fix a system broke by complexity by adding more complexity to it. Attempts to do so only makes the system more exploitable by bad actors, like blackmailers who use fake copyright claims to extract ransoms from working creators.

https://torrentfreak.com/youtube-strikes-now-being-used-as-scammers-extortion-tool/

But it would be a mistake to think that filterfraud was primarily a problem of shadowy scammers. The most prolific filter scammers and wage-thieves are giant music companies, like Sony Music, who claim nearly *all* classical music:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/22/crisis-for-thee-not-me/#filternet

The Big Tech companies argue that they have an appeals process that can reverse these overclaims, but that process is a joke. Instagram takedowns take a few seconds to file, but *28 months* to appeal.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/17/cheap-truthers/#robot-sez-no

The entertainment industry are flagrant filternet abusers. Take Warner Chappell, whose subsidiary demonetizes videos that include the numbers "36" and "50":

https://www.dexerto.com/entertainment/annemunition-bizarre-copyright-strike-youtube-random-numbers-1317750/

Warner Chappell are prolific copyfraudsters. For decades, they fraudulently claimed ownership over "Happy Birthday" (!):

https://consumerist.com/2016/02/09/happy-birthday-song-settlement-to-pay-out-14-million-to-people-who-paid-to-use-song/

They're still at it - In 2020 they used a fraudulent claim to nuke a music theory video, and then a human being working on behalf of the company renewed the claim *after* being informed that they were mistaken about which song was quoted in the video:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/05/warner-chappell-copyfraud/#warnerchappell

The fact that automated copyright claims can remove material from the internet leads to a lot of sheer fuckery. In 2019, anti-fascists toyed with blaring copyrighted music at far right rallies to prevent their enemies from posting them online.

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/07/23/clever-hack-that-will-end-badly-playing-copyrighted-music-during-nazis-rallies-so-they-cant-be-posted-to-youtube/

At the time, I warned that this would end badly. Just a month before, there had been a huge scandal because critics of extremist violence found that automated filters killed their videos because they featured clips of that violence:

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/06/people-who-document-evidence-of-violent-extremism-are-being-shut-down-in-youtubes-crackdown-on-violent-extremism/

Since then, it's only gotten worse. The Chinese Communist Party uses copyfraud to remove critical videos from Youtube:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/27/literal-gunhumping/#communist-bandit

and so does the Beverley Hills Police Department:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/10/duke-sucks/#bhpd

But despite all that, the momentum is for *more* filtering, to remove far fuzzier categories of content. The EU's Terror Regulation has just gone into effect, giving platforms just *one hour* to remove "terrorist" content:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/04/eu-online-terrorism-regulation-bad-deal

The platforms have pivoted from opposing filter rules to endorsing them. Marc Zuckerberg says that he's fine with removing legal protections for online platforms unless they have hundreds of millions of dollars to install filters.

https://pluralistic.net/2021/03/25/facebook-has-a-facebook-problem/#played-for-zuckers

The advocates for a filternet insist that all these problems can be solved if geeks just *nerd harder* to automate good judgment, fair appeals, and accurate attributions. This is pure wishful thinking. As is so often the case in tech policy, "wanting it badly is not enough."

In 2019, the EU passed the Copyright Directive, whose Article1 7 is a "notice and staydown" rule requiring platforms to do instant takedowns on notice of infringement *and* to prevent content from being re-posted.

There's no way to do this without filters, but there's no way to make filters without violating the GDPR. The EU trying to figure out how to make it work, and the people who said this wouldn't require filters are now claiming that filters are fine.

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/11/protocols-of-qanon/#no-filternet

Automating subtle judgment calls is impossible, not just because copyright's limitations - fair use and others - are grounded in subjective factors like "artistic intent," but because automating a flawed process creates flaws at scale.

Remember when Jimmy Fallon broadcasted himself playing a video game? NBC automatically claimed the whole program as its copyrighted work, and thereafter, gamers who streamed themselves playing that game got automated takedowns from NBC.

https://old.reddit.com/r/beatsaber/comments/bi9cp5/beat_saber_stream_blocked_by_jimmy_fallon_show/

The relentless expansion of proprietary rights over our virtual and physical world raises the stakes for filter errors. The new Notre Dame spire will be a copyrighted work - will filters block videos of protests in front of the cathedral?

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20190425/09282042084/why-your-holiday-photos-videos-restored-notre-dame-cathedral-could-be-blocked-eus-upload-filters.shtml

And ever since the US's 1976 Copyright Act abolished a registration requirement, it's gotten harder to figure out who controls the rights to any work, so that even the "royalty free" music for Youtubers to safely use turned out to be copyrighted:

https://torrentfreak.com/royalty-free-music-supplied-by-youtube-results-in-mass-video-demonetization-191118/

We need a new deal for content removal, one that favors working creators over wage-thieves who have the time and energy to master the crufty, complex private legal systems each platform grows for itself.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/04/content-moderation-broken-let-us-count-ways

Back in 2019, Slate Future Tense commissioned me to write an sf story about how this stuff might work out in the coming years. The result, "Affordances," is sadly still relevant today:

https://slate.com/technology/2019/10/affordances-cory-doctorow-sf-story-algorithmic-bias-facial-recognition.html

Here's a podcast of the story as well:

https://ia803108.us.archive.org/3/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_314/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_314_-Affordances.mp3

Meanwhile, governments from Australia to the UK to Canada are adopting "Harmful Content" rules that are poised to vastly expand the filternet, insisting that it's better than the alternative.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-c10-user-generated-content-1.6007192

[demonslayedher]

Ramble on the Limitations of Looking for KnY Interpretation based on Japanese Mythology

One thing I notice a lot in the Japanese side of KnY fandom theories is a lot of deep dives into religious and mythological reasons behind Gotouge's creative choices. It is super interesting stuff, and Gotouge borrows enough and does homage to enough that there is a clearly a solid knowledge base there. While I find historical details handy for interpreting the characters, ultimately, I find that the canon of demons and Breaths can be interpreted in a vacuum without relying too heavily on the uncanny coincidences lurking in deep dives. This isn't going to be a well-supported essay, this is going to be a ramble that may include a bunch of interesting nuggets. (And then she went on to ramble for 3249 unedited words...)

First things first: I'm a nerd. I like to say I broke the weeb scale a long time ago, but I'm not exactly a university professor or anything like that. That said, I do read a lot of stuff from experts who have jumped on the KnY trends to talk about how elements in KnY are taken from, say, the sword making traditions of the Okuizumo region that results in black swords or simply making comparisons to famous swords, or local legends of supernatural encounters that resulted in split rocks, or comparing specific oni with and the heroes who slayed them or at least comparing elements of specific characters to other famous oni legends, or that Hinokami Kagura is based on a specific Shinto legend and has 12 forms based on existing Kagura traditions, etc. And I love reading this stuff, because I wouldn't had learned about some of it without my interest in KnY leading me to those articles, or as I read it I cheer because they're making references to things I already (as a nerd) really enjoy and therefore it strokes my inner echo chamber bias, or I nod along and think, "oh, yes, why of course, that makes total sense, Hinokami Kagura must be based on the dance Amenouzume performed to enticed the Sun Goddess Amaterasu out of the cave, how silly to think it could be based on anything else" but I then also take a step back to think, "...but it also doesn't have to be." For as many similarities as there to existing legends, it feels to me that Gotouge made it a point not to make specific reference to any particular mythological or religious elements. As an example, Gotouge considered titles with reference to a Shinto fire god named "Kagutsuchi" but never made actual reference to any fire god (or sun god) by name in the finalized direction canon took. Granted, a lot of fan theorists have read into that, going so far as to say because Nezuko's fire powers she represents Kagutsuchi, Yoriichi represents Amaterasu, etc., but while I find the idea of borrowed elements makes for highly interested interpretation of canon, one-to-one comparisons really don't work for this series. By not invoking a name like Kagutsuchi in the title or otherwise, Gotouge succeeded in not being boxed in by the canon of any particular deity. (Granted, "canon" for mythology can vary significantly by whatever historical writings you're looking at, with standard interpretations going through many big changes throughout the centuries. It can be as loose as it is limiting, depending on what sort of historical/mythological/religious figure you're talking about.) I feel there's more evidence of this avoidance by never invoking Amaterasu as a deity, despite the emphasis on the power of the sun in slaying demons. Even looking back and trying to figure out who Akeno placed so much faith, it was only called a "god of sunlight" as opposed to a "sun god." It's as though KnY works with a generic approach to religion. Even if the use of Buddhist element, the Nenbutsu prayer is called such, and Himejima's repeated phrases are legit Buddhist practice, but there is a huge variety of Buddhist sects and practices and theologies, and throughout history, many of them didn't get along. Going back to Akeno and wondering if she might had been Buddhist, I went so far as to suspect she was influenced by Nichirin sect philosophy based on its emphasis on the "Nichi" (sun) representing Japan and incorporating Shinto gods into its philosophy, and for its likely influence in the Kanto area in Akeno's time period, and for its encouragement for the salvation of women and therefore popularity among women. I felt pretty satisfied that it was all lining up, but also, none of this is necessary for a quality interpretation of canon. If Gotouge wanted to say specifically what informed her religious conviction, then it would had been said. But that's not what was important, was it? What was important, and therefore focused on, was Akeno's feelings toward her son and wishes for his sake.

While KnY's worldbuilding feels richer with all the clear religious influence, the details are not actually important. If anything, I feel like Gotouge dove into the heart of the elements of, say, Shinto mythology, and played those core elements up. It's different, yet still familiar, to take sun-associated elements and used them in a way that serves the story without being boxed into existing traditions. The sun is clearly important, and once you start looking for it, you find subtle recurring references to it. Like, Akeno's name? The "Ake" is one way of writing "red," and there are all sorts of uses of other ways of writing "red" throughout the series, in everything from the sand used for making Nichirin blades to the way that Haganezuka calls Tanjiro an auspicious "red" child with a very rarely used kanji. Our commoner main characters, though, just use regular old ways of saying "red" when referencing Tanjiro's appearance without thinking deeply into it, like there's something special right in front of them but they don't recognize it. Similar to how something as special as Sun Breathing was hidden right in front of them in Hinokami Kagura, with a name so generic and simple that it's entirely unsurprising that the Taisho era Kamado family would interpret it as "fire god." The very lack of limiting real-life details is what allows Gotouge to sprinkle these deep touches around, cover them up with branches and leaves, and then sit back and wait for readers to stroll through and invitingly pleasant looking field and then trip and fall down a rabbit hole. This is also what I think gives Gotouge the freedom and malleability to work with the sun in a way that serves the story, especially in ways that tie it to fire. While I don't think there's strong ties for this is general Japanese culture, the way canon is written implies a close tie between fire and the sun as being a very closely related element, hence the influence on the Kamado family, Tanjiro's appearance, his suitability for Sun Breathing based on a history of tending fire for careful charcoal burning, and Tanjiro and Nezuko capability as demons to overcome the sun. Here is where I go into a bit of a tangent about the purification element. This, again, is not strictly tied to any particular Shinto canon (and Shinto does place heavy emphasis on purification), but instead is an example of Gotouge getting to the underlying heart of a lot of common religious elements. Fire is associated with spiritual purification in everything from Buddhism to Catholicism, it's very easy to apply Nezuko's fire abilities as something which burns away something evil (demon poison) so as to purify something good (human flesh, or even other physical substances). Maybe lesser known, but very deeply entrenched in Japanese culture, is the purification element of charcoal. While it may be known around the world for soaking up undesirable elements and therefore used in everything from fish tank filters to treating food poisoning, in Japan, there's a bit of a spiritual side to it as well. For something so closely tied to the way of life for citizens throughout hundreds of years of history for everything from cooking to heating the home, it's unsurprising that quality charcoal would receive as much emphasis as good water and rice. Japanese charcoal is especially known for not producing undesirable smoke or odor, making it appropriate for use in a lot of settings. Charcoal farmers have often not just been that; they've been caretakers of the forest. Keeping the right trees, at the right sizes (both for use as charcoal and for how you pack it together when making charcoal), and in the right numbers to ensure you have stock for coming years, requires management of the forest. (Other tangent side note: many of the other names in the Kamado family are references to plants. Sumire both has the "sumi" sound of charcoal and is the word for violet, Kie is in reference to hollyhock, Nezuko is in reference to red beans (and the asanoha pattern of her kimono is in reference to hemp leaf, an

auspicious symbol of strong and quick growth), Takeo is in reference to bamboo (ironically bamboo can be a problematic plant for charcoal farmers, because it may spread too fast and take resources from other trees--stop stealing all the takuan pickles, Takeo!), Hanako is in general reference to flowers, Shigeru is in general reference to (plants) flourishing, and maybe by the time they got to Rokuta they gave up and said "he's our sixth child, let's just call him 'Six-Boy', lolz." BUT I DIGRESS.) That means the Kamado family not only had careful management of fire in the actual days of charcoal production, but of a wide variety of natural resources to ensure the trees were healthy. Natural weather phenomena, clean water, pest control, minerals from rocks getting into the soil, hmm, so many elements to pay attention to. Hmm. These sure sound a lot like other Breaths. And Breaths all stem from Sun Breathing. That means there may be certain elements of Sun Breathing that have been emphasized in each of them, but none of them encompass so many qualities of the natural world. The natural world which Yoriichi saw with such clarity than nature accepted him with open arms, practically, in how well animals took to him. Sun Breathing, while especially using that all-important purification aspect of sunlight which burns evil demons, is like an all encompassing embrace of nature. While being closely tied with fire is hugely important, there's more to it than just flames. While Shinto is very much so closely tied with nature (the extent to which this is emphasized may vary from shrine to shrine, scholar to scholar), what I see in KnY is a clever use of emphasis on spirituality in nature as opposed to emphasis on Shinto mythology. And I think that was a smart move. While stories based more directly on various theologies, mythologies, and religious ideologies often use those building blocks often wind up having very creative takes on them (even and especially with the confines of them), ultimately, the story of KnY is whatever Gotouge wants to do with it, and it does not seem guided by the specific conventions of more specific religious elements. But again, those deeper elements are still everywhere. You know what color Japanese charcoal burns? It's a gorgeous jewel tone red, spanning many of those rare shades of red Gotouge make reference to. And, in wider Japanese culture, red is the color of the sun (as opposed to how other cultures may represent it as yellow or orange or white or so on). (Not as exactly a KnY tangent, just personal: Japanese charcoal is so freaking pretty, I had no idea until I saw it used in the tea ceremony at parts when guests crowd around to enjoy the sight of it as the host prepares it for boiling the water. I can stare and stare and stare, it is so so so so so pretty, but also this element of the ceremony has gotten rarer both as many places have made a more practical switch to electricity, and tea ceremony quality has gotten more rare both due to fewer producers and due to beetle-related damages to the trees used, and I will always state HOW DISAPPOINTED I am that Kanata and Sumihiko are not out there raising charcoal, because charcoal is precious and I'm always so terrified of wasting charcoal in my practices because its so precious, but seeing the amazingly beautiful burn of the charcoal is absolutely one of my favorite elements of the ceremony and this of course gives me an extra soft spot for Kamado Tanjiro BUT I DIGRESS AGAIN, I TOLD you this was going to be a ramble, but SERIOUSLY IT IS SUCH A GORGEOUS RED).

So anyway. My point is, as interesting as incorporating outside elements may be, I don't find them necessary in interpreting KnY's canon. Even if it takes tons of Taisho Secrets to do so, Gotouge presents the details necessary, and that's more than enough to work with. After all, despite all the care taken in historical details in building the setting, KnY takes place in a fictional universe, it can make its own rules when it comes to things that don't actually exist in our universe. Demons, for example, follow a chronology and power system with sources and limits that is unique to a this universe, as tempting as it is due to general cultural familiarity, it does not call for a one-to-one comparison with existing demon legends. Breath as well, as a power system, is very interesting. Again, this is because it has a lot of basis in core concepts of real life physical and spiritual training. It's presented as a method available to anyone who can pick it up, not drawing on a mystical outside power or summoning the actual superhuman elements of nature. Other stories that present their power systems like that are well and fine, but when it comes down to it, this is a story about mere humans doing everything in their limited power to wave swords around and defeat creatures that seem so likely to outpower them. This is a common, relatable basis of stories throughout history, and a lot of analysis I've heard of KnY's success says that it shows how classic this story structure is. Many Japanese demon stories have their origin in epidemics, and some people suggest that the world looks for hope in stories like KnY in times of seemingly insurmountable crises like coronavirus. I think that's an oversimplification of KnY's success, but again, because of Gotouge's use of core cultural elements, it can be applied easily. OKAY BUT ON THAT NOTE we can do some really interesting digging if we want. : D Gotouge does make some highly specific references, included religious ones (granted, not in ways that impact the plot). The example coming to mind is the Seventh Form of Thunder Breathing, the "Flaming Thunder God." In Japanese, this is "Honoikazuchi-no-Kami," the name of a lightning deity who had a very, very brief mention in the Kojiki and who appeared among a handful of other lightning deities named in reference to other aspects/phenomena of lightning, like the sound or the rumble through the ground. Honoikazuchi is not so much the lightning itself, but the fires started by lightning. Stick with me a bit longer, I'm building up to something here. You've probably heard of the twelve animals of the Chinese (poorly translated as) Zodiac, right? Well, the system is way more complex than that, and really, if you want complexity, skip Japan and go dive straight into ancient China. I laugh and cry at myself for having a graduate degree in Chinese studies, the extent of my knowledge is is pitifully small, I know nothing, nothing. Suffice to say, China has its own five element system of water/wood/metal/fire/earth, it's more a philosophical application than a more physicality-based four element system popular in the west (fire/water/air/earth, why hello there, Avatar), with attributes of these elements assigned to every about anything through Chinese culture, from medicine to, you guessed it, the Zodiac animals. Japan saw all this and said "cool, we'll do that too" albeit their sort of mixed and matched a bit and made their own take on it in Onmyodo. An Onmyoji, who keeps track of, like, really any other-worldly matter you might have on your hands as a Heian noble, is someone who is paid to know all this stuff (it was very likely an Onmyoji who told the Ubuyashiki clan, "yeah, you got an evil family member to blame for your curse, squash him"). Yours Truly is not an Onmyoji and therefore will not attempt to go into more detail, save the one that a handful of Japanese theorists in the KnY fandom love to bring up: The Boar is a water sign. This means that, especially in Shinto practice, boars are considered an animal that protects against

fire, hence, a lot of practices to protect against fires were done on days of the Boar, in the month of the Boar, etc. So? So-o-o-o-o-o? You see it? You see it??? Boar = Water, Honoikazuchi = Fire, Inosuke and Zenitsu are basically foils to Tanjiro? Yes, yes, see it, yessss??? Deep dive Kamaboko theory, yes?????? Hahahaha. Naw. It's just a fun coincidence. ^_^ Again, I find these details completely unnecessary, for we are already given so many details in canon to work with on its own, and I think Inosuke and Zenitsu as foils to Tanjiro works entirely well simply based on their personalities, not because of any supernatural elements that require a high level of nerdery to have any hope of appreciating. Besides, once you start reaching too hard for cultural details Gotouge might have used and clinging too tightly to those ideas, there's likely something in canon to make it doubtful. For instance, Inosuke more widely presented as a king of the forest who wears deer and bear hide as well, and the fanbook state that Beast Breath is considered a likely offshoot of Wind Breathing. Even if we rely more strictly on historical detail, there's still the question of, say, what one of the basic Breaths, Thunder Breathing, even was when it was but a thunder inspired sword form not necessarily powered by Breath, you know, back when swords were longer and it would have been harder to make the fast draws katana would later be better suited for. Maybe they called it Thunder because it was practiced by swordsmen who stomped around really hard, and then when they added Breath technique, they figured out "oh dude, we can use our strong legs to go fast"??

Those are the kinds of things I find more fun to play around with in interpreting canon by bringing in little outside details, because as a work of fiction, there are already so many fun details to work with already even when treating it in a vacuum. But, giving Gotouge extensive and subtle use of cultural elements, especially core elements, it sure makes a lot of outside details applicable. Which is all to say, it's all super interesting, and I think the more people realize these things, the deeper they read into it, to an extent more than canon calls for. As much as I like it, and as much as I've enjoyed pulling outside elements in to fanfiction (like Kagutsuchi and lightning god tidbits), ultimately, if Gotouge thought these things were necessary, they'd have been included. Since they are not, I try to stick to canon details and Word of God-touge in answering Asks (lolz, I didn't plan on becoming a meta blog, it just kinda happened). BUT ALSO, JEEZ, I AM SO EXCITED IF PEOPLE TAKE A DEEPER INTEREST IN JAPANESE CULTURE BECAUSE THEY LIKE KIMETSU NO YAIBA, YOU CAN HAVE SO-O-O-O-O-O MUCH FUN PLANNING A TRIP TO JAPAN AROUND KNY THEMES, DO IT DO IT DO IT, GO TO YAGYU AND POSE IN A TANJIRO HAORI AND STICK YOUR SWORD IN A SPLIT ROCK, THE LOCALS THERE LOVE IT, DO IT but also like maybe learn about the tea ceremony and appreciate how beautiful the charcoal is with me k thx bye

[antiquitiesandlabyrinths]

The Impact of Religion and the Mother Goddess on Human Culture

Notes: This essay is compiled from a number of sources ranging from books, university publications, youtube videos, and museum articles. This essay is also not just about Egypt, like the rest of this blog is––it concerns early civilizations ranging from Britains to Harappans.

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As we all know, religion inhabits much of our daily life in modern times, and even more so in ancient times. The origins of our existence have been explained many times over with many different ideas––how these ideas are presented to the world and the common man influences the actions of the people and government who follow that religion.

The oldest religions in the world tend to worship a Mother Goddess––a feminine figure that represents the ability to create life which, for a while, was confined entirely to the efforts of women and the miracle of childbirth. We know very little about these people beyond what the archaeological record can tell, as there is no written language for pre-history hominids who created the first works of art; women, with full hips and breasts, carved into wood and stone. What we do know about them is that they had forms of empathy––healed femur bones from old, preserved skeletons reveal that people healed from grievous injuries that, in many other species, would mark death. Jaws, hunched in like the pursed lips of old men, were also found without their teeth, but still living to an impressive age of around 80. Someone had to physically chew this person's food, and they did, for what could've been decades. This shows that same pattern; a tribe that fed, clothed, and took care of someone who otherwise would not have survived on their own.

All of this points not only to intelligence in early hominids, but also a form of empathy that some people even today lack in our society––a society that doesn't worship a Mother Goddess, whose origins in humanity are entirely different from the beliefs of the first humans.

The Sumerian civilization is among the oldest, including the four civilizations birthed in cradles of humanity––the Harappan civilization along the Indus Valley river, Mesopotamian culture along the Euphrates––or the fertile crescent––, as well as Egypt along the Nile and the rivers in China. This topic of Sumerian religion, the changes it went through, and the effect that had on its' people, are discussed in great detail in the book 'The Alphabet Versus the Goddess' by Leonard Shlain, but I will attempt to summarize the religious history of Sumeria and Mesopotamia.

When the first towns and cities began to prop up around the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, the people who lived there worshipped a wide pantheon of Gods like many of the other first civilizations. Their creation myth involves the work of a primeval mother Goddess named Namma, who created humanity. These people who lived under this creation myth, this belief that they were created out of nothing and out of love, allowed for times of relative peace, as well as a rapid growth in art, structure, and other such refinements of city life. Later on, however, this idea was obstructed by a rising Babylonian culture coming into the fertile crescent. These people believed in a much more gruesome birth of humanity, and is a strikingly, and horrifying, difference from the myths of early Sumerians.

The Babylonian creation myth was written or told as a way of confirming Marduk as the main God of the world. This story is called Enuma Elish, and acted as a way to legitimize Marduk replacing Enlil, the previous God King. The telling of it occurred during the Kassite inhabitation of Babylon.

Tiamat, the Goddess of the Sea (salty water) mated with her husband Apsu, a God who represented fresh water. From this several Gods emerged in couplets. Most were boisterous and loud, as young children are, producing so much noise that Apsu was incensed to destroy them. He was stopped soon by his wife, Tiamat, who urged him to exhibit more patience; a request he did not heed. Their sons soon heard of this danger and, in fear of death, called upon the god Ea to help them. Ea was an incredibly resourceful God, and put the angered Apsu to sleep with a spell. They killed the sleeping God and stole his vizier, Mummu. After this, Ea birthed his own child with his consort, Damkina. This is the origin of Marduk.

Marduk was the tallest and the mightiest of all the Gods, who held power to control the four winds, a power given by the God Anu. Anu told him to let the winds whirl; it created a storm that picked up dust from the earth, the winds roaring loud enough to antagonize the usually patient Tiamat. Other Gods faced this same irritation and urged Tiamat to take action––to slay down the God, Marduk.

Another telling of this story has a slightly different timeline, that tells a significantly different story––instead of Ea and lesser Gods killing Apsu, Apsu is killed by Marduk, which directs Tiamat's anger more reasonably to Marduk.

When she comes to face Marduk on the battlefield, she has with her eleven monsters created by the Mother Goddess for this quest. While Ea tries to find a way to end this confrontation with magic spells, he is eventually told that it isn't exactly possible, and thus Marduk puts forth an offer that the other Gods take. He will face the Goddess Tiamat, and if he should win, he would be the King of all Gods. This battle is long and difficult, but eventually Marduk does win in a horrifying way. He blows massive gusts of wind down Tiamat's mouth, swelling her stomach and abdomen so massively she appears to be a woman in the final stages of pregnancy. While she is thoroughly and painfully stretched with Marduk's wind, he slays her with an arrow down her gullet, killing a woman who had the image of the feminine creation of life, an ending violently estranged from the myth of a mother Goddess creating things by her own magic, and not the death of others.

Once Tiamat is slain, her corpse is large, and Marduk puts it to use. He stretches her skin out to become the sky. Her pierced eyes, heavy with tears, are the origins of the Euphrates and the Tigris, flooded with her crying. Her tail is made into the Milky Way. Her split head, torn by the heavy club of Marduk, is used to make the mountains, and her body created the earth. He pricked her breasts in many places for the tributaries of the rivers. From her blood Marduk creates humans in a disturbingly dark way, a stark difference––humans made by magic, versus humans made by the murder of a Goddess mirroring the image of a pregnant woman.

As God-King, Marduk received complaints from lesser Gods that they had to toil on the earth themselves to create their own tributes, taken care of by worshippers. To remedy this, Marduk decides to create humans. He singled out Tiamat's favorite son, Kingu, who ruled with her after her husband's death, and accused him of instigating Tiamat's rage. He placed all blame on this one God, freeing everyone else of the blame but Kingu. Marduk then ordered his father, Ea, to knead the flesh and blood of Kingu's executed form, this sacrifice, molding it like clay in his hands. After the images of many humans were created, Marduk sentenced them to toil on Tiamat's corpse for all their lives in order to create offerings and worship for the Gods.

This violent origin creates a culture indebted to its' gods, forever attempting to repent from the sins of their past, the gruesomeness of their creation, to make up for Kingu's sacrifice. Compared to the simple origins of the mother Goddess Nammu, the people who worshipped her in Sumer didn't have this responsibility––they were created of love. But Babylonians lived forever attempting to make up for their own creations, a theme that is reflected clearly in Christianity. A savior, and worshippers forever trying to repent for their own existence.

This story also reflects the growth of monetary gain in a society. For example, the Indus Valley civilization on the Indus river had no such array of Gods that required tributes so often like that. It is hard to say what exactly the people of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro truly believed in, as we have yet to decipher their written language, but archaeological evidence shows no presence of temples for Gods in any of the cities. Instead, the cities are laid out in a straight, clearly preplanned manner that allowed wind to channel through the streets like air conditioning. There were no ways for these city-states to hold immense power over the people, as there was no reason that would excuse the abuse put upon lower-class citizens; there were no violent 'Gods' to which such offerings were necessary, meaning the class system most likely worked in a very different way to that of Babylonia, who had massive temples. The creation and building of these temples fuelled the Mesopotamian economy greatly, as money that was collected in taxes was actually put to use, not stored up and saved like what can happen in a capitalistic society. It's the difference between a city built for its' people or a city built for its' gods, and, in extension, the god-Kings that ruled on earth. Something interesting to note as well, is that the Indus Valley civilization didn't have any weapons or mass wars––as far as we know––in its' history from 5,000 BC to 1500 BC. There could be other reasons for this, but I believe it may have something to do with the feminine cult religion and the absence of temples.

There is a similar theme in Egyptian culture, surprisingly. Egypt is known as an ancient civilization that had forward-thinking rights for women and men, including divorce proceedings and the ability to hold a job and property. Like Sumer, its original creation myth dealt mainly with the creative, coming-together of powerful forces; this time two women, something that very rarely happens in religion. There are no male Gods that inspire or order the two Goddesses––they act alone, and of their own volition. This tale is one of the oldest creation myths we've found yet in Egypt, dating all the way back to the Early Dynastic Period of the Old Kingdom.

Nekhbet was the Goddess of Upper Egypt, a vulture Goddess (whose imagery and meaning we will discuss later). Wadjet was the serpent Goddess of Lower Egypt. These two Goddesses were primordial deities, existing before the creation of earth. They emerged from the waters of chaos, which was thought to be all that the world was back then, bringing with them land and air, and eventually the loving creations of humans. Like cobras that twist around each other into a double helix, the Egyptians were intrinsically entwined with the Nile, an image that is reflected even in modern times, with the symbol of two entwined snakes being the symbol for healing, often displayed in hospitals, and the formation of DNA in its ladder-like structure.

It may seem a little strange that the two Goddesses who created the earth––in this Divine Feminine mythology––are represented by a cobra and a vulture, but in Egyptian society, that was simply what they were.

In hieroglyphics, vultures denote a woman. They are in the spelling of mother, of daughter, of wife, and of Goddesses. In fact, the word mother is written the exact same way as vulture. These birds appeared to have foresight to the Egyptians as well––they circled their prey before a meal was assured, remarking a sort of prophecy. They also denoted a divine manifestation of death, an important trait to share with the goddess Nekhbet, who carried exceptional power.

The snake was also a feminine symbol, though strangely explained by the Egyptians, whose ideas on life differ greatly from the modern, more monotheistic view (Christianity, Islam, and Judaism). The sinuous like movements of its' 'step' mimicked the swaying of a woman's hips in a dance, evocative and nubile, and her movements in the throes of passion mimicked a similar serpentine state. Snakes resembled the meandering shapes of rivers, the roots of trees and plants, and the umbilical cord of mammalians. They live deep within the earth, making their home within the Great Mother, and they appeared to live forever, shedding their skin whenever renewal was required. This specifically was a trait revered by Egyptians, who had a great love and zest for life, and wished to live forever. Renewal connected snakes to the Nile's inundation and the sun's revival every morning after its' death the night before. Hieroglyphs come into play with snakes, as well––the hieroglyphs for serpent are the same as the hieroglyphs for Goddess.

It can be difficult to say how exactly this myth was thought of during the Old Kingdom. This is an incredibly old myth, and by the time writing started to really take hold of the country, the myth was replaced with a new, more masculine one. While it wasn't as violent as the Babylonian creation myth, it contained an incredible amount of masculine energy. Female goddesses faded from the light as a particular two Gods shot up in popularity––Amun and Ra, or Amun-Re (there are many different spellings, including Atum, Re, Aten, etc.).

There is an incredibly theory put forth in the previously mentioned book "The Alphabet Versus the Goddess" that inspired me to truly think about the connection between religion and society, as well as the impact of writing on the ideas of feminine and masculine energies within that society. Leonard Shlain, the author of the book, posits that "... any written method of communication skews society toward masculine vales."

The new, masculine myth that took the place of the Goddesses Nekhbet and Wadjet was a little more simple––Atum stood on a mound of earth, surrounded by the primordial sea. Atum masturbated, and from his seed sprouted the Ennead––nine deities making up a family of powerful Gods and Goddesses. This story was found to have its origins nearly 1500 years after the myth of Nekhbet and Wadjet.

So how did this change in mythology reflect in society?

Again, it is hard to say. In the Old Kingdom, Pharaohs tended to their people, and their was a feudal-type system ruled by an all-powerful King. Art flourished in the time, and even today many people claim that the art of Egypt peaked in the Old/Middle Kingdom and fizzled out during the New Kingdom. Another notable change is after the invasion of the Hyksos––and an occupation that lasted only a little over a century, one that was despised heavily––Egypt began to take on a new sort of mindset. Pharaohs now went out beyond the borders of Egypt, even up into Canaan and completing quests of great magnitude, erecting monuments in honor of their victory. Such behavior is found more in violent, masculine-powered societies than anywhere else.

Viking and Medieval UK faced this same problem––women were hardly considered people during this age, unable to own their own land or divorce. This was a masculine honoring society, praising the violence of colonizing and shunning empathy. There was a need within the people to 'spread their greatness' to others, but in reality, the greatness was nothing more than violence; a theme also seen in the Avatar: The Last Airbender, as the Fire nation brainwashed its' child citizens to believe the Fire Nation had a right to the rest of the world. I'm afraid I have little else to say on the topic of Europe because that is not my area of study, but the similarities are easy to draw.

Our society today is, despite our best efforts, a masculine-drawn society. Our God is chiefly referred to as 'He' and representation in our media for women is scant beyond superficial characters, as men, who rule most of the business in the world, can have trouble seeing women as something more than a pretty, talking toy. This, of course, isn't universal, but it is incredibly common and would be more so if women weren't trying to make a stand. Like Babylonians, Christians are born with innate guilt, attempting to make up and repent for the sacrifice of their savior, another masculine form of a deity. Like Atum-worshipping Egyptians, our world was created alone at the hands of an all powerful male God.

But, unlike Sumerians, we never had a Mother Goddess. Unlike the earliest myths of Egypt, the world was not birthed at the hands of a fertile woman. And, unlike early Egypt, we are not happy. Our 'life after death' is somewhere unlike Earth, somewhere that is perfect, unlike earth. But for Egyptians? Life after death was earth, just another form of it, and life in that afterlife was just the same as life during life. Whether or not that has anything to do with our method of governing, our economy, or our massive differences in religion––there is no evidence. It is a simple outlook on life that is only translated in holy texts and the remains of dead people, and dead people very rarely talk.

Like most things, religion isn't contained to a Sunday every week or to Muslim prayer mats every day––such things spread into our food, our way of life, our infrastructure, how we respect and treat each other, and how we treat the Earth. I believe it is important to remember that the oldest Gods are things seen every day––the water, the earth, the sky, the sun, and the stars. These are what influenced the first humans, the first beings to care for one another in old age, to heal what was thought to be forever broken, and to take up the mantle of kindness for each other without the threat of a violent God condemning them. Many modern people base their ethics on the threat of punishment from God(s), in which case we can all learn from atheists, who continue to do good without threat, simply because they believe it is right to help others, just as our ancestors did.