#fireandlight

[jedibamf]

In the dance of shadows and light, the heart's fire reveals both creation and destruction.

Which path will your flames carve?

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(Note: As an artist I have been dabbling with AI to become more informed. A friend of mine shared a similar image and I decided to see what I could throw together. What you see is a combination of #DallE, #Motionleap and #AdobeExpress.

I am not sure if someone who uses prompts and AI tools can be considered an artist in the traditional sense. But prompting does take a certain amount of time, skill, and education for some of the more advanced pieces I've seen.

The jury is still out, for me. What do you think? Should AI artists be called something other than 'artist'? Prompt Engineer maybe? Or is AI just another medium and tool for artistic expression?)

[lunissims]

Posepack Comming soon

You are my moon I never had big Wishes ... I never asked for much ... .... I always got along with what I had. I was fine, what did I have to lose? I did not bring enough courage to tell you how I was feeling. I always postponed it until tomorrow. I had enough time but.... ...One Day.... .....One hour.... ...One moment.... .... made me realize that too much time had passed. That hung behind me forever. A moment separated me from me for decades. But fate brings together what belongs together. and now i will NEVER let you go again ... .... you are my moon, in the middle of the infinity of the stars. My light in the dark. I love you ... LUNA! In progress, one of 2 posepacks I'm working on right now. My sweet couple posepack. Comming Soon

[nocaptainreuben]

BREAKING: Fire&Lights feature in new book and it’s A-MAY-ZING!!!

When I finished Songs About a Girl last year, I couldn’t wait to see where Charlie’s story would go, so I was unbelievably happy to get my hands on Songs About Us and delve back into the world of Fire&Lights and Caversham High. It’s no secret that I’m a big Chris Russell fan and, having just finished his second novel, that fact is just getting more and more true. As I’ve said before, Chris has an uncanny understanding of teenage girls and writes so perfectly for YA that it’s hard to believe he’s still so new to the scene. 

Songs About Us kicks off a few months after the events of the first book, with the blogosphere having moved on to new dramas and Charlie trying to keep her head down, get through her GCSEs, and be an “ordinary girl”. Predictably, that doesn’t last long and when she reunites with the boys she is pulled back into the glamour, drama, romance and tension of life with the band. People like to be scornful about the passions of teenage girls, particularly when it comes to boybands, and it would have been easy for this trilogy to be dismissed as “a bit of fluff”, but this book shows just how wrong that judgement is. There is so much going on in the story that it is never boring or predictable, but rather than it being the shallow, sensationalised, materialistic experience of reading about bands in gossip magazines, Russell goes beyond the surface of all that and uses real issues to bring depth and emotion, painting these teen music sensations as real, normal people who the reader feels on a level with.

One example of this, which I was so happy to see included in the book, was when he addressed the manufactured relationship between one of the Fire&Lights boys and a fellow female pop star. I’m going to be very vague about this so as not to spoil anything, but when Charlie asked said boy about the relationship, he shared with her how he was struggling with his identity in terms of romantic relationships. And not only was it brilliant to see some LGBTQ+ rep in there, but I absolutely loved how it was handled. I think the thing that impressed me most was the fact that neither the character in question, the character he was speaking to, or the author felt the need to put a label on him; no word was ever given to his sexuality, just an explanation of how he felt. This was so refreshing, and when Charlie responded with:

“You shouldn’t put so much pressure on yourself... You are who you are. Maybe that’ll change, maybe it won’t. As long as you’re happy, none of it matters.”

I felt the need to stop and praise it to everyone around me. It was portrayed as something that Charlie literally couldn’t give a tiny rat’s ass about, because it didn’t change her friend whatsoever and had no impact on Charlie’s life, so why should she care just because it’s different to her own experience? This, along with other passing comments from background characters about their own sexualities, really helps to normalise LGBTQ+ identities and is exactly what we need in mainstream media.

I mentioned in my review of Songs About a Girl how Russell created such brilliant characters, with such an effective, visual style of writing about them that Fire&Lights very much felt like a real boyband. In Songs About Us, this was still true, but as we’ve now spent a bit more time with the boys, their personalities have started to be further developed away from the confines of what relates to the band. Obviously, Gabriel was the main feature of the previous book, so it was really nice to see the focus shift away from him a little and allow the other band mates to shine. The friendship between Charlie and Melissa also remains a strong element, and I was happy to see that even with things getting more complex, new characters being introduced, and more page-time being given to characters who’d previously been more in the background, that relationship wasn’t lost. Melissa is such a great character, who provides a lot of the comic relief in the more intense parts of the books, but more than that, it’s so important to see healthy female friendships in YA, and the fact that Mel didn’t take a back seat to any of the Fire&Lights drama or Charlie’s romantic relationships was such a positive thing.

The pacing is excellent as well. Here is an author who understands perfectly when to pick up the excitement, when to drop, and how to do so with admirable subtlety so the story neither feels like an exhausting rollercoaster ride nor plateaus to a point where you feel like you could put the book down. Usually when I need to stop reading, I’ll do so at the end of a chapter because that’s a natural place to pause, but with Russell’s writing style it never feels like you can. His chapters often end so well on these enticing mini-cliffhangers, that you simply have to carry on reading, even when you have other things to do. Case in point: my friends and I had a Marvel Cinematic Universe marathon over the last couple of days, and after I picked up my book between films, I elected to keep reading even when Captain America: The Winter Soldier came on. Now, I know there’s a whole debate over the best Chris, and I’m not gonna say Russell is better than Evans, but… ;P

All in all, Songs About Us is an extremely strong follow up to Chris Russell’s debut, with plenty to satisfy the pickiest of teen readers; gripping plot twists to shock you, gorgeous boys to fall in love with, wonderfully nasty characters to be angry at, emotional moments to melt your heart, hilarious lines to make you pee your pants… Reading this book was honestly such an enjoyable experience, that left me with a huge smile for days, and I will be foisting it into the hands of everyone I can convince to listen to me.

[anrthrnsoul]

#firedancer #penrithwinterdrovingfestival #edenarts #penrith #igerscumbria #capturingbritain #lowlightphotography #fireandlight #firestarter #theenglishnorth (at Penrith, Cumbria) https://www.instagram.com/p/BpfMaXCgrps/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=17ns1bck5lhkj

[danofcrowsnest-blog]

The Awakening of Fire and Light Over Water

We have come to a world which exists not only as a set of conditions in and itself but as a set of conditions that operate in flux with the ever-shifting set of conditions, which is the self. This border between “self” and the “world” is not entirely obvious, other than to say that we are in possession of consciousness that remains in a constant state of arrival upon the unconscious realms.

What is this unconciousness that we have called the world? Where does it begin and where does it end? Where have the borders been set down? This is not an easy question to ask, and the easier that is seems to answer, the less you may be certain that you understand it. To start somewhere, it can be said that the unconscious world is everything that is not conscious. While the majority of us are capable, at least at some level of cognition, of understanding that the majority of our desires, our instincts, our emotions, our drives, our body, and our thoughts do not originate from within our conscious free agency, we very seldom feel, think or act this way. 

What is more, the unconscious world does not stop there at the edges that crown the dark recesses of our inner clockwork. In the same way that you have found that your nervous system is strung up and through your flesh and that this has given you an existence and a place of operation, the same can be said of the entirety of the universe around you. The inner operation of the traditional unconscious is not separate from the overall operation of the universe itself. It is to your own consciousness, a total sum of unconscious events spanning time and space, leading up to and away from you. In this way, the proper consideration of the unconscious process that is our body does not start and stop at the surface our own skin: yes, it is that, but it is also the rocks at our feet, and the stars in the sky. It is the people we share our lives with and the people that we don’t. It is the sound of birds or the babble of a mountain brook. The unconscious world is everything that is not yet known directly and intimately by that light of the conscious awareness.

I say yet because that is the journey of consciousness. To know. To explore. To spread itself. From the time you came to this existence, you have been moving from the darkness of the unconscious world to the light of your own conscious experience. At first, this expansion, this little-big-bang, began as you rapidly awoke to the realities of your own inner environment, which came to you as a four-billion-year-old progression of biological life. From here, your social, cultural and ideological context informed you of what and who you are. 

For most of us, we simply stop here, accepting this territory of being as a given.

There is another stage awaiting us, however, and that is the moving of the progression of consciousness from as something developed through the unconscious mechanisms of chance and accident, to something that is being developed by consciousness itself. The calling out of the deep to the deep, as it has been beautifully said.

This is the process that Christ referred to when he said that we live in a world of two births, the first being that is forced upon us as the flesh and the second being that of the spirit, which when it is called upon descends from “above”.

Up until now, this calling down of consciousness from above has been reserved for the saints and the sages among us, but as the unconscious world is itself growing in power and influence through the amplification of society and technology, the conscious will for consciousness itself is also building in a rapid response.

It is coming to pass that many in this age are beginning to feel the call for a new kind of life, even if they cannot yet articulate it. The world, despite offering an untold amount of wealth and comfort, is growing more and more confusing to our own programming. It is as if the more vivid the promises of the world and flesh have become, the more obvious it is that they are lacking something essential. It is when we have eaten our fill, satisfied our every urge, traveled to every land, and experienced the fruit of our greatest and most honest of our primordial ambitions, that we have been left with our hearts vacant and hollow. From this space, comes the rising of a new desire; the consciousness in the world stirs, and as it begins to wake up from its own dream of the world, opens new eyes to a new light.

The apt metaphor for this process, at least in the classical sense, would be the flame (consciousness) has it comes to burn upon the torch (unconsciousness). However, for the sake of a purposeful, if not even a playful concealment of the overt obviousness in that, I think a more poignant metaphor is that of the sailboat moving over an endless ocean. It is more inviting to that very consciousness to explore itself, to reveal itself, to itself.

So here it is:

You have arrived here, to this world as if you have awoken to find yourself on a sailboat adrift upon a violent and cruel ocean of potentials. The deck is empty, littered with refuse, and while you have a huge sail set against the onslaught, you find yourself with neither functioning rudder nor compass. Instead, you find an ornate painting of a wheel next to an equally elaborate painting of a compass. It is obvious that someone, or far more likely a series of someones, had carefully put them there, but regardless you are now alone. You know how these things should work, but no matter how hard you claw at the wood, no matter how bloody your fingers become, the vessel does not respond. It does what the ocean has compelled it to do.

So you turn to the map, which of course, has been torn into a thousand pieces and scattered. Those few fragments that have not been lost to the waters can only be found in the darkness of the damp corners and hidden nooks and crannies. What little information that you have gathered is now clutched into your white-knuckled fist and you are forced up to the mast, where you then begin to navigate only by blind force; you raised and lower the sails, driving you more or less into nowhere, from nowhere.

However, as you are nearly overcome with the absolute futility of this cruel arrangement, you find yourself starting out over the ocean. In these long moments, you have become aware of something else, something far more subtle than the pointless ropes and pulleys and painted facades that appear to present themselves to you. This something you sense is beyond the ocean and the creaking of the wood, the spray of the waves and the rolling of the wind, the pain and the loneliness of the current endeavor. Even though you are aware of it, you cannot look directly at this new thing, as if it can only be looked at out of the corner of your eye. Regardless, it is there. You know it.

It is growing awareness of a new vessel that exists just underneath everything, and you are aware that it somehow carries the entire scene. The boat, the water, the wind, everything. And it is here when something in your heart whispers, “now, up to the helm with you”.

I hope this voice finds you.

[masdelinda]

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A post shared by Linda Gonzalez (@masdelinda)

#ferrybuilding #fireandlight #lovethebay #belight (en San Francisco Ferry Building)

[thewilliesband]

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Back @alleytapsnashville for our '3rd Sat' residency! 7-10 #originalsong #thewillies #nashvillescene #jazzagethump video by @andrewrozario with amazing dancing thanks to @swingdancenashville #printersalley #swingpunk #swingdance #swingmusic #ragtime #banjo #trombone #trumpet #piano #fireandlight @afritzlife @daleweeksphoto @ddoughtie85 @sneakysnake1978 @dehartrob (at Alley Taps)

[alexanderbitar]

Since my last posting, I was reminded by an old friend about previous usage of #blueonorange to make #dynamicimagery. ¡ALL effects in camera, NO Photoshop manipulation of flames! * Thanks #frederick.k.johnson.1 for modeling in one of my first experiments with #fireandlight on #FILM back in the day when I was a student at #portfoliocenter in Atlanta. Very grateful for your patience while we got the image right & not complaining about the slight burns. This was one of my first attempts on #tungsten64 #120film with #profotostrobes and gels. * Shoutout also to #louiscahill (@ginkandgasoline) for letting me use your space and trusting me not to burn the back of your studio down. * #Handsoffire #beautifulblackskin #bluemagic #orangewall #moderndayjinn #Throwback (at Atlanta, Georgia)

[louisenolanmakes]

#fireandlight #helix #kelpiesofinstagram #kelpiesofscotland #falkirk #hny2017 (at The Kelpies)

[thetexasbohemian]

Friday night shenanigans 💫🌟✨ . . . #neonlights #outdoorfire #fridaynightfun #fireandlight #instafuntimes #lightshows #familyfun #ringtoss #inthedark #naturegirl #texasgirl #igtx #igtexas #texasoutdoors #thetexasbohemian #bohemiansoul #wildandfree #bohemianlife #satxbloggers

[lexihoops]

I've entered the #HomeOfPoi photo contest for 'Your Best Performance Photo of 2018'! 📸 My photo, Fire & Lights by #JasonNorwoodPhotography can be found here 👉 https://www.homeofpoi.com/us/competition/show/164_10046 I would love it if you could all give my pic a vote!! Also, please check out the rest of the gallery of amazing performance photos! They are spectacular!!😍 💞 #homeofpoi #photocontest #fireandlights #oklahooper #moodhoops #mhfuturehoop #fireLED #gloodyssey2018 #flowarts #hooper #hooplah #infinitecircles #coquetryclothing #mhfirewicks #futurehoopshuffle #flowmies #circuseverydamnday https://www.instagram.com/p/Br5K6rHhZ0c/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1jeu7b46wwdlu

[louisenolanmakes]

#hny2017 #kelpiesofscotland #falkirk #fireandlight #lightdrawing (at The Helix)

[louisenolanmakes]

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#lightdrawing #fireandlight #falkirk #kelpiesofscotland (at The Kelpies)