#made me so happy for musical theater as an art form and was just a great time overall

[pyrotechnicarus]

Dead Outlaw at the Minetta Lane Theater has me in a chokehold

[deathbxnny]

So tumblr decided to screw me over and posted the ask too early, which made me delete it in panic and lose the original ask. However!! I thankfully saved the first part of the ask, so here it is:

May I please request Yanqing learning to play a flute because he heard his s/o singing and wanted to be able to join?

Sorry again to the Anon. I also added/changed up the idea a little, so I hope you guys like it!!<33

Content: Established relationship, reader is a singer, teen reader, Jing Yuan being a smug menace, kind of unserious, sfw

Reader has no mentioned pronouns!

((Not proofread))

The trouble of young love. (Yanqing x GN!Reader)

"You... want to learn how to play the flute?" Jing Yuan muttered in near disbelief, his brow raising high as he gazed down at the determined boy, who gave him a simple nod of approval. "Yes. And preferably, by the end of this week." He stated as though it was the easiest thing in the world to simply just learn an instrument in under a week. The general unfortunately didn't doubt that Yanqing genuinely believed that, however.

Jing Yuan blinked in surprise before glancing around quickly in thought. Was this another prank of his? No, it definitely wasn't that simple.

"... And why?" "Oh well... uh..." Yanqing nervously pulled at the collar of his uniform, suddenly slightly flustered and unwilling to share what had gotten him so awfully motivated in the first place. Not that the older man really needed to hear it, as he already had an inkling on what, or rather who, it could be. "... Does it even matter why? I've just been feeling very... musically inclined lately." Jing Yuan snorted at that despite his better judgment, which made Yanqing scowl in offense.

"I'm having a hard time believing that, Yanqing."

The blonde crossed his arms in defiance. "You're not even taking my request seriously, Master." He said, watching as said man leaned back in his chair and near mockingly crossed his arms as well. "It's not that I'm not taking this seriously... it's just that you've never had an interest in such artistic things before." He clarified, even if Yanqing knew better than to believe that it was just an innocent inquiry. "Besides... learning to play a flute is the same as wielding a sword. You need alot of time and patience to hone your skills. A week won't suffice." "And if it is?"

Jing Yuan now grinned in amusement, having expected to be challenged on this. He supposed that this would make for a good teaching lesson in the long run and whilst it may not be the most responsible thing to do, he decided that this would also serve as a form of small punishment for disturbing his "work" in the grand office.

Ah, young love... truly a troublesome thing.

The older man figured that he was doing all of this for you only. Yanqing mentioned your fear of singing in front of large crowds before, and therefore, it didn't come as a surprise that he wanted to do everything in his power to make his lover happy. In a way, it made the general proud to see the boy slowly grow into a young man... even if it came at the cost of his sanity at times. You had changed the lieutenant of the cloud nights in many ways. Some good and some awfully questionable, to say the least. But he figured Yanqing would learn such things on his own in due time.

"Consider me defeated." "And I get a raise to my allowance?" "Perhaps I'll consider it, depending on how well you play." That's all Yanqing needed to hear, the excitement and fire that burned in him at the prospect of not only beating his own master and then also getting more money to share with his dear dove made him immideatly turn and filter out of the room with no further comment. Unknowing of the perilous path he'd have to take in order to learn the art of this instrument.

He was confident that he could make it in under a week so that he could accompany your singing during your first ever stage performance in the grand theaters of the Luofu, which is the whole reason he wanted to learn how to play the flute in the first place.

It couldn't be that hard after all, right?

---

Well, after a good 5 days of relentless training, he still couldn't play more than notes akin to demonic screeching. The general was fair enough to lend him a fancy flute from his own youth, alongside a guide and a couple of traditional music sheets. And yet, it all ended with him laying sprawled out on top of them, the instrument carelessly tossed onto a nearby pillow, whilst he stared up at the ceiling with a deadpan.

Perhaps he truly had underestimated the sheer power of the flute.

But he couldn't claim defeat. At this point, it had become something personal. A challenge that neared one of life and death. If he lost now, then the general would bring this up for centuries to come, and Yanqing did not want to live through that personal hell. Sighing deeply, he rubbed his tired eyes.

Surely, there had to be something he was doing wrong. And yet he just couldn't figure out what it was. He hadn't slept or rested properly in days either, having been too focused on this life changing mission that he just had no care for anything else. But the self-doubt was beginning to creep in, and he didn't know if he was more upset at himself or at the general. He simply wasn't as talented as you were musically.

And just as his eyes were beginning to flutter shut in defeat, your melodic voice breathed life right back into him. He inhaled deeply, quickly drapping a couple of blankets and pillows over the flute and music sheets before he quickly summoned a sword to act as though he was polishing it. Entering the room with an obvious air of worry and nervousness, you gave him a weak smile.

"Yanqing." You hummed gently, perhaps even nearly shyly as you approached him and took a careful seat next to him. His hand reached out and pressed it's palm against your warm cheek, a tired smile gracing his lips. "Hello there, my dove... it's late out. Why are you here?" He asked, nervous that you'd notice the golden flute that was sticking out from behind a pillow a couple meters away. But thankfully you only had eyes on him, as you fidgeted with your hands.

"The last rehearsal is tomorrow... and I'm starting to have doubts... especially after I heard the rumor regarding the general and the Master Diviner attending the performance as well! I didn't know it was going to be such a big thing..." And it wouldn't have been if Yanqing never mentioned a word of it. He should've guessed that his master would eventually figure out his plans and attempt to get first row seats to view his defeat. Something about it filled him with strong determination, the need to win resurfacing in his heart. If not for himself, then you.

"Don't worry about it. Just focus on your singing, and I'll take care of the rest." He said, a serious look on his face that made you raise a confused brow. Yet you thankfully didn't dwell on his cryptic words any further due to him swiftly changing the topic to more mundane things to keep you distracted.

He eventually walked you home, your hand in his, the sun having set completely hours ago. It was a calming moment that refocused his mind and soul on the task at hand, which he ofcourse immideatly resumed once he returned to the estate. It didn't matter to him if he had to stay up 2 more days for this to work.

He'd play the most beautiful sounds on the flute to accompany your singing and if it's the last thing he did.

At this point, he was perhaps just doing it to wipe that smug look off of his mentors face.

---

"Alright! All done... you look great, (Y/N)!" One of your friends grinned as she fixed up the last details on your rather lavish performance clothes. You tried to weakly smile back, unable to help the deep feeling of fear that ran through you. "Is the theater room full already?" "To the brim! And the General and Master Diviner have also arrived just now... man, it's a real fullhouse tonight." She trailed off, missing the way all color seemed to leave your face.

You had hoped that it was a simple rumour, but after sneaking a peek from behind the curtains into the grand hall, your fears truly did come true. Jing Yuan was casually leaning back in his seat as he conversed with Fu Xuan about a topic that made the woman deadpan at him in annoyance.

This is definitely going to be a disaster, you concluded with an affirmative nod.

"(Y/N)? Please get in formation. The performance is just about to start." The director whispered to you when the lights dimmed and you were pushed towards the stage. Your heart was beating against your chest, your mouth feeling dry. How were you supposed to do this? You couldn't do it. The fear was too great.

And it didn't help that Yanqing was nowhere to be seen in the crowd.

Gulping as the music started, you shakily opened your mouth when suddenly the most melodic symphony of a flute accompanied your at first trembling voice. You blinked in surprise, eyes glancing over to see your lover resting atop a fake tree as his fingers moved along the instrument. Finally understanding everything, you turned to the audience with newfound confidence. Your voice traveled throughout the entire stadium and bewitched it's listeners. No one could look away if they wanted to.

And by the end of the performance, no one could stay seated either, as they cheered and clapped loudly... except for Jing Yuan and Fu Xuan, who still looked hardly impressed next to the general. They watched as Yanqing approached you with a wide smile, your arms immideatly wrapping around him in sincere gratefulness. Giving the man an expectant look, the Master Diviner crossed her arms with a frown.

"Well? What type of teaching moment was this supposed to be?" She asked, not being convinced of his ways of teaching at all anymore. Jing Yuan kept staring ahead, a calm and victorious smile on his lips whilst he watched you and Yanqing happily talk on stage. "That he should learn how to be patient and not overdo things that take time, unless he wants to reap the consequences." Fu Xuan raised a brow, obviously very much unimpressed. "You do realise that this just proved to him that he doesn't need to do that?" "Ah no... he won't do it ever again. Just wait." He simply replied, his grin widening when Yanqing's face dropped. There was a pause... before the boy suddenly just finally collapsed into your arms and chaos broke out.

Fu Xuan gave Jing Yuan a near horrified glance, the older man only continuing to smile in content.

He did try and warn him after all.

Alrighttt... I hope this was fine, Anon!! I once again apologize for accidentally deleting your request and hope this was okay enough to make up for it!!<33

[onthesandsofdreams]

To Love A Dream

Fandom: The Sandman TV Pairing: Morpheus x Fem!Reader Rating: T Summary: You were not exactly ready to admit it, but you felt a bit... lonely. Because try as you may, you missed Morpheus being with you in the waking world. You two had met when your friend and fellow scholar, Hob had introduced you both Words: 1017 Notes: For my big sister @mousedetective, hope you like it! Prompt(s): 3. "That was not my intention." from @fictober-event 

Read @ AO3

You were not exactly ready to admit it, but you felt a bit... lonely.

Because try as you may, you missed Morpheus being with you in the waking world. You two had met when your friend and fellow scholar, Hob had introduced you both. And, well, the spark that was there was undeniable. The first time you had stared into his eyes, you were not exaggerating when you said that you could have drown in them, and happily so.

You had written several love poems about them.

Your excuse was that you were an English teacher and poet, no one could possibly fault you for finding beauty in a very handsome man, who also happened to be well mannered and had a voice that sent shivers down your spine. And, somehow, he had found you interesting too, enough that you both had began seeing one another.

You had grown sad when you had to return Stateside, thinking that the budding relationship you both had would cool off and fade away. To your pleasant surprise, you found out that no, Morpheus was not deterred and reassured you that the distance would not be a problem, you were skeptical... until one day, Morpheus showed up to the University you taught in.

Your heart had soared at seeing him there, listening to you speak about literature and your passion for gothic. He had had the smallest of smiles, but you were proud of having made him smile.

And you two got to know each other better. You had introduced him to new poets and writers, to new music and taken him to art exhibits, theater shows and to different restaurants as you did your best to discover what he liked. At the beginning, you could have sworn that he was just indulging you, but with the passing of time, you saw him relax and openly enjoy more things. It made you happy, for he was always so serious and the fact that he got some form of fun and happiness on the things you showed him, well, it made you happy in turn.

When you two had finally shared your first kiss, you could have sworn you walked on cloud nine.

And then, one day, he sat you down and told you who and what he was. You had been completely poleaxed at the whole concept, but you hurried to reassured him when you saw his countenance shift into worry and hurt.

But it did explain why your dreams had been so lovely.

Once he was certain that you weren't going away and leave him, he introduced you to his sister. Death was the loveliest, kindest ball of sunshine in human form. You two got on quite well.

From that moment on, you also met while dreaming and, if possible, your happiness grew twice fold.

Which brought you to your current problem, your little bout of loneliness. Yes, you understood that Morpheus was a ruler of a realm that was still being rebuilt - you swore that you frothed at the mouth at the thought of him being held prisoner - and that his presence was needed, but you also missed that quiet, loving presence that was.

"Your dreams have been barren as of late, are you well?"

Morpheus' voice startled you, raising a hand to your chest in an attempt to calm your heart, you said, "Oh, Morpheus, you startled me!"

"My apologies," he said and sat down on the chair opposite yours. And the look he gave you was a searching one. "Is something troubling you?"

You hesitated, would he think less of you if you admitted what troubled you? In the end, you decided to be honest. "I have missed you. In the waking world, I mean."

Morpheus frowned and thought for a moment, "I have been busy. But, I understand. Forgive me for making you feel lonely. That was not my intention. I have been remiss."

You gave him a tiny smile, relief washing over you on the fact that he did not think less of you for admitting it. "I understand, it just took me by surprise how much I missed you in the waking world."

"I am here now," he said softly.

"You are, and that's what matters." You closed your laptop and then, you knew what to do. "Want to cuddle in the couch while watching a movie? Death told me you haven't seen Mary Poppins."

Morpheus stood, offering his hand. "If it would please you."

You took it, "It would."

And you two forgot about the world for a few hours. And that was when you finally found the courage to show him the poems that you had written the first time you two had met. Morpheus had loved them, but when you protested that they were a poor gift, he disagreed. "It is not often someone writes something for me, not of what I am."

"Really?" You asked. At his nod, you said. "Then people are fools. I know you can change how you appear to those who see you, but your eyes. They are two stars Morpheus, I am sure that people would praise them to the high heavens given the chance."

"I have never been one to require such worship," he chided you gently.

You shrugged. "Perhaps not required, but, is it not nice knowing that someone finds beauty in you?"

Morpheus was silent for a moment, "I suppose it is rather flattering. But the fact that these come from you are what matter to me."

"Thank you, that makes me happy." You told him. "But please know that what I feel for you will not change should it ever please you to change your appearance. I fell in love with you, your appearance is a bonus, so to speak."

Morpheus smiled, took your hand in his and raised it to his lips, and the kiss that he placed in it was gentle. Like the touch of a pair of butterfly wings. "And what I feel for you will not change either. I love you, beloved."

"And I you, my Dream."

[herrlindemann]

Break Out - January 1996

Thanks to Ramjohn for the scans!

'Herzeleid' is an extraordinary album by an even more extraordinary band. This provides interesting topics for conversation, and (as always) everything is actually the same, ... but far from it!

As soon as I sit down at the table with the musicians in the Rosenau Theater in Stuttgart, their contours become blurred and I am exposed to a monstrous monster: the Rammstein collective!

“I can only function in this kind of community. There is simply no other way! That's why I try not to practice a personality cult." Rammstein makes his point of view clear right from the start.

And star producer Jacob Hellner and his team found out what it means to deal with such an entity bursting with self-confidence during the final mix of 'Herzeleid' in Sweden, which was even canceled.

“There was only a small offshoot of us present”, it sounds as a dark rumble. “We then drove to Hamburg - much to the delight of the sound man - to pat the producer on the fingers as a massive wall. We tried to be friendly, of course, but it pissed him off a lot the way we sit there and see how things are going. There was also real trouble, and some were in a bad mood. But in the end we pulled it off and made the best of the recordings, which I'm 80% happy with.”

This degree of absolute perfection also has its price. "I," Rammstein sighs, "need six times longer to make a decision, such as which video director to choose or which single to release. It's not easy, but the uncomfortable path is the path to happiness.”

If you look at the artwork of 'Herzeleid', the stage performance and such actions as the fashion show at a well-known designer in Munich, Rammstein can attest to a slightly theatrical image - not in a negative sense.

“Not theatrical, but open to any kind of art form. I just don't go on stage in a shirt and jeans, the stage show has to go with the music. I enjoy the staging a lot; a few things have been considered, a few are open, I'm still experimenting. And as for the cover: I'm a solid wall, live on stage as well as on record. Hence this artwork: Me as a massive wall of… flesh! A beast with six heads!”

And also a little pyromania it seems. Because without a comment, a petrol can is simply emptied on stage, and if the inexperienced spectator is lucky, he just barely escapes the sea of flames with an Olympic-sized jump.

"Maybe something went wrong, or better: went wrong," laughs Rammstein. “But if you're waiting for everything to be done professionally and with safety precautions, then you don't even try it. Also, the fire is there to communicate, to break the ice between the audience and me. Because announcements in the style of such classically stupid sayings as 'Hello Stuttgart, here I am' or 'I love you! I like you!' will not exist with me.”

The pre-tour of Rammstein will probably also remain unique, because this monster was presented together with Schlagerfuzzi's invited guests who couldn't even spell the term 'Rock'n'Roll' - chained, of course.

"But it worked!” enthuses this entity with a slightly diabolical undertone. “In the beginning it was weird playing in front of twenty to thirty people who were always dressed up. I really felt out of place there. But I managed to convince these guys. As long as they weren't lit, they even thought it was fine... but nothing serious happened! In a club with young people, everything is smoky, there's a mood in the air, fog - it's easy to give a concert there: but in front of a few suits, that was a challenge for me. But I couldn't always do something like that, produce so much hatred in front of a few people with a glass of champagne in their hands, but on this tour I tried to give everything, 1,000 people are in front of the stage.”

Shortly after the release of 'Herzeleid', Rammstein was already a huge thorn in the side of some, and many a record chain not only got a ban on advertising the sound carrier from the top executive floor, but this ingenious piece of aluminum was not even allowed to be made accessible to the customer - due to the supposedly tasteless texts.

"The BILD newspaper isn't being boycotted either," Rammstein gets angry at the message, which surprised him, "and it's far more tasteless and macabre, ... I don't get it! When I designed the music and the lyrics I didn't think about any record deals let alone censorship. I just made the music I wanted. And now that I hear reactions like this, hopefully next time I won't turn my head around and think, 'Is that allowed? Will you understand me? '. That's my biggest concern. Make music when your head thinks along, cuts something like that! But if someone boycotts me because of bad taste, let them do it! Only: I don't want to be mentioned in the same breath as any dumbass!”

It may be a bit provocative, or how else is the collective name Rammstein to be understood?

“My name obviously has something to do with the plane crash at the time. But I didn't know exactly what happened there, I only looked into it afterwards so that I wouldn't look so stupid when I was asked about it. But at first I just found the word really good. In hindsight I noticed that it's not so good to have such a name, but it stuck with me. And in the end there is no better name to describe my music.”

Sex/instinct/death - these three components clearly dominate the lyrical concept of Rammstein.

“I'll summarize these three points into one, and that's called love. So it's mostly love songs.”

Hmm, calling a song something like 'Weisses Fleisch' is kind of daring, because Rammstein puts himself in the role of a psychopath.

“Right, you recognized it. Others always ask, 'Isn't that a call for rape?' It's a song about two victims; the actual perpetrator becomes the victim if you listen carefully to the text. The song had an extreme riff and probably contains my heaviest beat, and that's where extremely deep lyrics come to mind, which really go to your heart. Incidentally, rape is a topic that is often talked about or written about in public. Curiously, when someone suddenly sings about it, they suddenly say, 'That's extreme!'. Hardly anyone talks about the points of view from which a perpetrator, i.e. a man, rapes a woman. Rape is a bad thing, but you should also look at the other side. Why does he do this? What is he feeling? What could he be thinking?”

The literary classic 'American Psycho' by Brad Easton Ellis immediately springs to mind. And indeed, Rammstein has already heard this comparison, but has not yet read the book, but they will do so as soon as possible. There is also an interesting parallel: 'American Psycho', a bitter satire on yuppie society in the States, has been praised to the skies by well-known literary critics, yet it always remains on the verge of being indexed, and some bookstores are shocked when asked about the book. "Intelligent people," Rammstein comments dryly, "who are not superficial and anxious also celebrate me. However, it does require a certain willingness to open up, and one should not close one's eyes to taboo subjects.”

Rammstein refuses to interpret the meaning and purpose of the complex lyrics.

“Then the magic would be gone, your own imagination would be lost. Just this much: One intention I have is that the lyrics are never flat!”

Most of the songs for the next album have already been written, and since the time between the creation of the songs and the recording process should be shortened so that everything stays fresh, we can expect another milestone as early as next year. Only: "I'll make everything easier for myself, I'll take my time and record as much as possible myself. And I already know pretty well where it's going. So I think the second album will be self-produced.”

Aha, were you dissatisfied with the producer Jacob Hellner?

“Not dissatisfied, but when you're confronted with a big name, you have correspondingly high expectations, and he's only human. I thought the man was making gold out of straw, but I didn't know that I was gold myself, so I kind of denied myself. Jacob just polished the gold a bit. I had to learn that first, because I judged myself to be worse than I am. He taught me that in the first place. He said: 'It's you! Stand up for yourself! You're good, and basically you don't need me at all!' He made it clear to me that I'm good, and he left me the way I am, didn't change anything about me.”

[therehavebeenstranger]

I was tagged by @allgremlinart in a "top 5 no-skip albums" tag game! i am very much more an albums person than an artists person and i have strong opinions so i am very excited to write this post :))) these are not in any particular order!

transangelic exodus- ezra furman

let's be clear. this could be pretty much any ezra furman album. there's a world in which this list is just five ezra furman albums*, but i'm trying to be restrained, and while ezra has many no-skip records, this is the one where skipping is going to do you the dirtiest. this genre-hopping, transformative, trans-formative, gorgeous album is furman at her very best. queer rage and fear and joyjoyjoy in this teeming pop AND punk rock album take us on a flight-for-our-queer lives trip across america. angel, i'll be your guardian if you'll be mine. This album has deep personal significance for me in my life as a queer jewish person. it is survival music. love-yourself-or-die music. it took a long long time to find the border of a kingdom of love outside the reigning order. i found my angel on a motorcycle i'm a queer for life outlaw outsider

2. darkness on the edge of town- bruce springsteen

okay. i mean, yeah. i'm a springsteen fan. i like the boss. but i am a springsteen fan in that i am from new jersey. a springsteen fan in that when my parents were first seeing each other, they would meet for dates in the bruce section of a tower records in manhattan; in that my father grew up in monmouth county in the 70s, doing his underage drinking at the stone pony, then became a man who wanted to rock his toddler in the rocking chair before bed but didn't know any lullabyes so used to sing me to sleep with thunder road. i'm a bruce fan in the way i am a brunette--it's hereditary, a happy accident of genetics. my relationship to darkness is a little different. it's the first bruce album i approached on my own and really spent time with, and man, what a place to start. so complete, so fresh, so moving. also, the best and most sensitive queer album ever made by an ostensibly straight man** (in my opinion this album is gay af). i think the song that makes this a no skip is candy's room. after all these heavy guitars, getting shocked with that song, hearing it build is like getting splashed with cold water in a good way. i feel like i don't breathe listening to this album.

3. sunday in the park with george obcr, music and lyrics by stephen sondheim

i am at my most funadamental a musical theater bitch baybee! sorry! deal with it! sunday isn't quite my favorite sondheim*** this is my favorite sondheim recording. man, the music in this show--have you listened to sunday recently? all those voices in perfect harmony (harmony!) as the image comes together. the real delight is listening to patinkin and peters playing off each other--listen to color and light rn! one of my favorite moments in all recorded music is mandy's triumphant "and the care, and the feeling, and the life! moving on!" sunday is my favorite art about making art, and of course this gives us move on, which has the best art making advice in the world: just keep moving on. anything you do let it come from you then it will be true. give us more to see.

4. dogrel- fontaines d.c.

i don't have a long speech about this one. i have listened to some or all of this album at least once a week since it came out in 2019 and i still don't know how to talk about it. it's just fucking perfect. it's perfect. even if we just think about the opener and the closer--how is this an album with both big and dublin city sky on it??????

5. tea for the tillerman-cat stevens

this album is a part of my dna, basically! it's inside my skin! when i was very small, the music playing in my mom's car would always be either the la cage aux folles obcr, jesus christ superstar, or cat stevens (my parents are cool in my opinion! sue me!) and these songs in particular got so deep inside my imagination. they've never let go, nor do i want them to. my childhood was spent wondering what a moonshadow was, and would the faithful eye find me, picturing the frightening world described in where do the children play, or imagining sad lisa's tears, or seeing the father and son arguing, staring out the car window, wishing they could reconcile--knowing somehow that they wouldn't. this album taught me melancholy, but also beauty and mischief and joy--god, the brief burst that is the title song at the very end! magic, every time!

(honorary mentions: contra-vampire weekend, joy as an act of resistance-idles pretty. odd-panic! at the disco (leave me alone) sigh no more-mumford and sons (LEAVE ME EVEN ALONER) pony-orville peck, jesus christ superstar movie soundtrack-webber/rice many others i'll think of later probably)

Thank you to gremlin for the tag! you can probably tell i had a lot of fun with this one. i'm going to tag @danielkahndyke @hopelesslyfree @apocalypse-friend @bruce-wayne-simp and if you guys respond i will pretty certainly be combing your lists for recs (hey hopelessly i will listen to any taylor you put on there back to front even if it's not 1989 😘)

:)

*the full list would be, in no particular order, and only counting full length releases in the post-harpoons era: exodus, year of no returning, day of the dog, twelve nudes, perpetual motion people. all of us flames gets left out bc i still find that it leaves me pretty raw. it's a tough listen for me. this is the furthest thing from a critique.

**to me, this album is fundamentally about being queer and strange and from new jersey and having a dad. to me.

***attend the fuckin tale, baby...or go into the woods. or...have company over? or, or... i like sondheim

[jyp-priestess]

Lee Haneul was born on May 28th, 1999 as Li Ling. She was welcomed into the world by the bustling city of Shanghai, China, and her very successful producer parents. She walked and talked at the age of one before her little sister would take a share of her spotlight a year later. Li Xiang was partially left in her older sister’s care while their family welcomed their baby brother, Li Cheng. Despite their attention hogging, Haneul loved her siblings to death and gave them more love than they could ever ask for.

Haneul grew up with a plethora of opportunities. Her family had a theatre background, a big chunk of her family were musicians, and her parents were, of course, producers. With this, she grew up in a very musically inclined environment. However, she was still encouraged to pursue other fields despite this fact. They found it beneficial for her to branch out and expect different things instead of forcing something into her. These being her involvement in figure skating, volleyball, harp, violin, dance, singing, art, and much more.

From the young age of 6-12, Haneul did figure skating. Of course she did her training as well, but figure skating was her main focus aside from academics right up until she passed the audition. She won numerous medals and was well known in Shanghai for this.

Her siblings looked up to her and her achievements, but she encouraged them to go their own paths. Haneul never thought what she was doing was the best course of action, despite her huge self-confidence, so she didn’t want to influence her younger siblings to go on the same direction. She wanted them to complete their education from start to finish and get good-paying jobs to live happy, fulfilled lives.

During her summers as a kid, Haneul would help work her grandparents’ farm, but also do puppet and paper theater shows for the little kids. She’s always been a performer at heart. She showed great empathy in others and tried to help or make someone smile the best she could, friends and family often found it to be one of her best qualities.

As she grew older, her desire for music grew and her understanding of it widened. Haneul quickly outgrew the talent and dance agency she was in, and decided to enter a local audition of YG Entertainment. There were no other companies with open auditions in the area at that specific time so she went for it, hoping for the best.

On the application form Haneul did not write how she was the daughter of big producers. Of course, being 13 and having done the academic achievements she had, you’d expect a child to be mature by then, but it felt as if she was ready to be an adult. Her excuse that she finally revealed later on was, “I didn’t want such a small, but significant, factor to give me an advantage or disadvantage over the other people who were trying to get accepted too. Fighting on an equal platform feels a lot better than not.”

Roughly a month later, she was accepted, and on the condition she’d start her training whenever she graduated from high school. Maybe she was greedy at the time, but she studied extra hard that summer and took all the necessary tests to graduate early just before entering her 2nd year of high school. That decision turned out to become one of the best ones in her life. Of course she also became widely known for how she passed those tests with flying colors, a mark of her intelligence.

She was a trainee at YGE for roughly a year before SME requested she transferred. They’d seen her monthly evaluations and knew that someone that talented needs to be put in somewhere bigger and grander, or whatever their excuse was. Haneul didn’t care too much, but thought experiencing a different environment would be beneficial.

Haneul’s time at her 2 years at SME gave her more contacts and friendships than YGE could ever. Sure she came to know some of the biggest in the industry, but the trainees and debuted groups made her feel like home. They’d wake her up at 4 in the morning to raid her fridge and have her cook them food, and then proceeded to bug her the entire day. That was what made them all lovable… all 40 or so of them.

Even as a trainee, Haneul spent about 60% of the time dancing and singing, plus other typical trainee things. But that other 40% she spent at the company was for producing. She came from such a big producing background it was hard to ignore it. Some days she’d practice with her tracks, other times she’d dump them in a trash, it was a matter of taste mostly.

Then, to her greatest surprise and delight, JYPE offered her a job as one of their producers. She signed the contract and transferred, but never lost touch with her friends. That decision was probably the best one of her life. Believe it or not, she felt the most free at JYPE.

Haneul’s time as a trainee at JYPE was nothing short of well, short. Time flew by too fast, and she made connections quickly. Maybe it was how warm and sociable Bang Chan was, who knew practically everyone, or that she worked on pretty much everyone’s tracks, or maybe her own extroverted self was the cause of all of it. She loved the busy life regardless.

The 9 boys quickly became close and clamored over her every time they saw her. She didn’t mind, but to be truthful, there were days she wanted to spend alone or only with a single one of them. But that of course, is hard to make a reality with how clingy they were.

Haneul and 3Racha bonded the quickest, sharing their love of making music. On top of that, there was no doubt she was close to Chan and vise versa. Somedays they’d be coddled her but against one another, and others piled on top, without any worries. In fact, it was a huge worry for Haneul as Chan was pretty oblivious and her ever growing crush was a hot topic around her sunbaenims. She could never hate them for it despite how red she’d become when they began talking about it.

2017 came and Haneul was given the chance to debut. In fear of it overlapping with the Stray Kids show, she did prep over time, right up until the final episode aired and her debut in less than a week. However, she was teased far before the show even began airing. What an eventful period. The time she spent cooped up in offices and recording studios, then out shooting music videos and teasers was probably the most stressed she’d been.

She supported the boys through their entire journey on their, and thoroughly surprised them with her own debut as teasers flew in every week. She sacrificed many sleepless nights helping them cope rather than worry about her next recording or photo shoot for debut matters. She had even talked with JYP about their mental health in worry about how they’d proceed on the show.

The week she debuted and after was the busiest but quite possibly one of the happiest times of her life. She was given a lot of encouragement, even being called an early Christmas present at some point. Regardless, that was just how far she had came on her journey, and it was all worth it.

[calumaai]

(Unbecoming).(freeassociations)

It's funny that I've chosen to focus so decidedly on how we as a society are framing the internet as a space, when it's a space I personally avoided for much of my life. After being an early adopter of Instagram when it first launched in 2010 and amassing a following (mainly of paedophilicly inclined gay men) I deleted my  account in 2016. My conscious memory of the time was that I had just left boarding school and set blaze to pretty much anything I held dear and moved to Paris. Instagram had just launched their stories function. I would wake up and look at videos I had uploaded drunk and automatically delete them in total embarrassment. Getting used to living in a different city was hard, and suddenly having access to the detail of what I was missing in London via the immediate and intimate stories function felt quite intrusive. It's not that I didn't want to know, it's that I didn't want to have the choice. The problem continued when I would return to London, and see the fun my friends in Paris were having, the parties and dinners i was missing that weekend, wherever i was, Instagram showed me the cost, the other, and would rub my face in it. I would respond by sharing my own stories into the void, showing off how funny, witty and ultimately messed up I was online. I don't know if I wanted to shock, appeal or seduce. If I could see those stories now, I don't think I would feel I succeeded in any of those metrics, but maybe that isn't important. 

I was never interested in art when I was a child. I hated going to films ( but this may be because I was sexually assaulted in a cinema when I was 11) art galleries and the theater. I liked fashion and musicals (who would have guessed I was queer) but I also think that's because my family worked in fashion and took me and my sisters to musicals for our birthdays. I liked my family, I liked spending time with them, and I liked talking to them about musicals. I mean don't get me wrong I also did like musicals, but maybe not as much as everyone thought I did. But I loved seeng art being created, I loved being in the middle of something that felt bigger than the sum of its parts. I loved being in the room when things were made, channeling energy for art itself and seeing it manipulated in physical form. I saw beauty and culture being used as source material to become something that transcended the laws of reality. I liked that.

People say that when you start free climbing or bungee jumping, not that i'm planning to, the adrenaline rush is so large it fries your receptors and it alters them forever, meaning your tolerance and ability to feel happiness, fear and adrenaline are changed forever. I think I had that with beauty, or art, or commerce, or all of it. I have such a high tolerance for it but I also really crave it. Yet when it's happening it's not exciting. It's just that I do stupid things when I haven't had that energy for a while. I don't even mean too, but I have a penchant for being able to reduce things to rubble out of sheer boredom and desire to shake it all up. 

I'm a big believer in precipitation. That simply my presence is enough to create something new. The alchemy of my mind merging with the external world will create new knowledge. And i dont think I'm wrong here. Everyone is so busy living their lives that they don't really see how if we let go of the idea of control, we become magnets. Focusing on the pull of life, where it takes us produces quite interesting results. I can say this as I quit my job and spend a lot more time at art galleries. I don't really research or know what I'm going to see, but when I arrive I put my consciousness on autopilot (usually helped by music, especially William Basinski) and become a magnet, allowing myself to be pulled towards new knowledge and views. Sometimes that's reading the writing on the walls, sometimes that's trusting that there is nothing in the room is pulling me too it and continuing forward, sometimes it's sitting in front of a painting until i feel i know it intimately and have drank it dry. I always take photographs now for my own reference, so I can remember pieces as when I'm in the translucent state my memory can be quite weak. But allowing myself to enter any space not as a dominant force, but as part of a reaction, to be shaken about with the other content of the space (Art, people, believes, aesthetics, culture, floors, moods) and see what precipitates out, good or bad or indifferent, is how im finding joy right now. It's both freeing in its acceptance of my own scale and in how little we control but how much we know. Whilst it very much focuses on being present, it also allows me to trust that what happened in the past was correct, and that if I enter the same room on another occasion and different things precipitate from that concoction, it's because different elements were present this time around. I guess what i'm trying to say is i stopped living my life like a control variable. 

I also had a short run on facebook in my pre-teens. Again it was devastatingly cringe, and I was using it to get up to lots of awful things. On facebook ,there was a feeling that it was your inner circle, people you knew. Even though I think I had 1200 friends which is insane at the age of 11 and i didnt know even half of them probably, it was fenced off, what you put in the space was protected, firewalled off and I had to admit people in to see it. Even Peer to Peer interactions were protected and happened within an amphitheater of guests I had invited. Yet that had to go, again i can't remember why. I think partly to do with shock value, but i remember telling people i didn't like that i met people and they had seen me online, on facebook before. If we take our permitted space, whether it was real or not i didn't like it when i felt that was violated. When someone had seen in and taken something from me. I didn't realize that what i was putting online was building concepts of me i wasn't in control of. Because yes i was a bully, i seemed popular and witty (to 11 year olds) and older than my years. But internally i had no basis of a self, so when others, especially others i hadn't even friended yet, were putting together pieces of digital ephemera and artifacts to deduce who i was when it would take me another 14 years to even begin the same process, it was incredibly threatening. So i pulled the plug, on everyone. They had taken something from me so i would take all of myself from them. The circus has left town and to me, they all died the moment i deleted that account. I had taken back the control. They would be left starving.

Now that I think about it, I deleted instagram because of my abusive ex. It was the summer of 2016 and my gaslighting boyfriends story had just become undone, and as the curtain he enclosed me within fell, i saw just how much life had happened whilst i was stuck in cave he created for me. I felt so weak, feeble and stupid. All the people who had messaged me telling me about him, my family's messages of fear, my silence throughout it all. But i didn't delete instagram to heal, well not only that. I did it to punish him. I wanted to be dead. To be gone. We already lived in different countries, so we weren't going to run into each other, but that wasn't enough. My instagram profile felt like a tie between us. Somewhere he could come to drink from me. An unguarded back door. And I wanted him to know I would rather die, digitally, than let him have anything from me. He didn't want me, well then he couldn't have me. So I committed digital suicide. I took myself offline, I closed access to me. Fuck everyone else fuck it all. I managed to sever the line of self. I was an instagram influencer but he died in 2016, RIP. 

I think feeling like this is how I feel about all social platforms now. That they allow others to commodify you, to consume parts of you, and you lose control of yourself. Now maybe that's not true for everyone, but maybe it is. These spaces where you tie yourself to your name, drank my desires, channeled them away from reading, from art, from music, and into them. I believed i would form myself on the battlefield of social media, ruling my own little kingdom, commodifying a shiny branded form of identity to shield the undeveloped shriveled self i really was (am)

Social media filled voids with opinions and limits, gave fake spaces that could appear full, with no windows to see that they were actually prisons. I could squeeze myself into them and trick myself that I was comfy. There was no space for emptiness. i was relived to be Shrowdingers cat with the door always open. I could never evolve or become because someone was always watching. But at least i was never alone. I was forever visible, a line of a digital meeting point always living with no time to reflect or contemplate. 

Derek Jarmans words below echo what I want now and what I have taken from leaving social media, why I am glad I left the coliseum when I did. But make no mistake, what i did was suicide. But sadly no one even noticed. 

I want to share this emptiness with you; Not fill the silence with false notes, or put tracks through the void. I want to share this wilderness of failure with you. The others have built you a highway; fast lanes in both directions. I offer you a journey without direction, uncertainty, and no sweet conclusion. When the light faded, I went in search of myself. There were many paths, and many destinations.

[bastianblog]

Denny JA: Peek at the charm of cultural wealth: Why is religion inspiring?

   Religion is one important aspect in human life since ancient times. Religion provides moral guidelines, spirituality, and trust in many people throughout the world. No wonder religion is often considered a source of inspiration in art, literature, music, and many other fields.    One of the figures who consistently raised religious issues in his work was Denny JA. He is an intellectual, writer, and professor who has made a major contribution in the world of Indonesian literature. Through his writings, Denny JA has peeked at the charm of cultural wealth created through religious inspiration.    In his works, Denny Ja often raises deep religious themes. He understands that religion has a strong attraction, is able to inspire and influence many aspects of human life. In Denny Ja’s view, religion is not just a set of rules and rituals, but a source of human wisdom and understanding of the existence and purpose of life.    One example of Denny Ja’s work that describes the charm of cultural wealth inspired by religion is the essay poem “God, let me be a prostitute”. In this essay poem, Denny Ja tells the story of the struggle of a woman trapped in poverty traps and hard life. Through the life journey of the main character, Denny Ja illustrates how religion can be a source of inspiration and strength that encourages humans to fight and improve their lives.    Not only in the world of literature, Denny Ja also raised religious issues in the form of performing arts. One famous example is the theater performance “Reading Yasin’s letter in the middle of the night”. In this show, Denny Ja brought the audience on a spiritual journey through the reading of Yasin’s letter. Through this experience, the audience is faced with the strength and beauty of religion that can bring peace and happiness.    Through his works, Denny Ja also invites people to apply religious values in daily life. He believes that religion does not only apply in places of worship, but must also be a part of daily life that affect attitudes, behavior, and relationships with others.    However, Denny Ja also realized that religion does not always bring positive inspiration. There are times when religion is misused for political purposes or personal interests. In Denny Ja’s view, humans must be able to understand the true essence of religion and interpret it wisely so as not to get caught up in fanaticism that leads to conflict and intolerance.    Denny Ja reminds us that the charm of cultural wealth created through religious inspiration must be able to bridge differences and strengthen unity. Religion should be a source of peace, harmony, and tolerance between religious communities. In this increasingly complex world, inspiring religious values can be a strong foothold for people in facing challenges and changing times.    In his conclusion, Denny Ja is one of the figures who have peeked at the charm of cultural wealth created through religious inspiration.

Check more: Denny Ja: Peek at the charm of cultural wealth: Why is religion inspiring?

[disneylanddilettante]

The Disney Renaissance Killed the Disneyland Star

This post has been brewing and stewing in my brain for some time.

We here in the Disney theme park fandom are prone to lament the modern attraction design philosophy that says everything must be based on a movie. Aside from spectacularly clueless comments about “a random mountain in India or whatever” and misuse of the term “barrier to entry,” the reason behind it seems to boil down to: That’s what guests want. On the one hand, this is very clearly an excuse to do what Marketing wants (because film IPs are proprietary in a way that broad concepts are not, and can be merchandised accordingly), but on the other hand…it seems to be…kind of…true? The vast majority of the public, in my experience, does think of Disneyland (which I am going to use as synecdoche for all Disney parks, because it’s the one I grew up with, it’s easy to say, and because I can) as a place where you see Disney characters walking around as if they were real, and go on rides based on Disney movies, and anything else there is just to, idk, fill space until they can think of a cool movie makeover for it.

I have spoken to people online who quite enjoy Disneyland, but also think the Enchanted Tiki Room should become a Moana attraction, Tom Sawyer Island should be something to do with The Princess and the Frog, and the Matterhorn should be turned into Frozen. When I challenged them as to why, they didn’t seem to understand the question—what did I mean, “why?” Isn’t it self-evident? A couple years ago, one of the Super Carlin Brothers (I don’t remember which one; anyway I couldn’t tell them apart if you put a gun to my head) made a video expressing bafflement over the use of Figment as a mascot in Epcot because “He’s not from anything.” As if a ride in that very parkwere nothing.

So there is something to the assertion that film IP tie-ins are what regular guests expect and want. But the question remains as to why they want that—after all, it didn’t used to be that way. Costumed characters and rides based on movies have always been part of Disneyland, of course, but in past decades, the most elaborate and promoted attractions were the ones based on unique concepts that had nothing to do with the movies. The reasons to love Disneyland were things like the Haunted Mansion and the Mark Twain and Space Mountain…not so much the chance to meet Mickey Mouse. So what gave the public the idea that it was all about movies and characters? I’m sure there are several reasons, but I’m going to focus on one that I don’t see brought up that often.

I’m going to blame the Disney Renaissance.

Let me give you some personal background. I’m a young Gen-Xer, born in 1977. I was a child of the 80s…and in the 80s, Disney wasn’t doing so hot. Feature Animation had dropped to a cinematic release about once every four years, the live-action division was even less productive, and the corporate raiders were pawing at the door. In those days, when I saw a Disney movie in theaters, probably four times out of five it was a re-release of an older classic. (Anyone else remember when that was a thing?) There wasn’t much new at Disneyland either. The biggest thing to happen in the first half of the decade was the remodel of Fantasyland, which added one new ride—based on Pinocchio, a 43-year-old film—and otherwise just rearranged and refined what had always been there. On the other hand, the big Imagineering projects of the 60s and 70s were mostly still going strong.

The upshot is that if you were a Disney fan in those days (there weren’t many of us, even in my age cohort), you were a fan of the older movies and/or the parks. And for all its genuine quality, that stuff was showing its age. It was made in decades past, and there was a corniness and a quaintness to much of it. Most of the kids my age considered Disney “baby stuff” and were eager to put it behind them. It seems to have been a widespread phenomenon, because I don’t remember the park being very crowded when I was a young kid. Queues for even the roller coasters tended to top out around 45 minutes and it was very rare that we didn’t have time to do everything we wanted on a given visit.

And then, the year I turned 12—the year my age bracket hit puberty and could definitively be said to have outgrown cartoons altogether (except for the weirdos like me)—The Little Mermaid hit theaters.

Two years later, we got Beauty and the Beast.

And the hits kept coming. Suddenly, Disney was the hottest thing in entertainment again. Not just kids—by this time the generation that would come to be known as Millennials—but their parents watched these movies and went wow, this is really good. Disney is better than I thought. Maybe we should rent some of those older movies that I remember from when I was a kid. Maybe we should go to Disneyland… Unlike in the past, when families went to Disneyland because it was advertised and known as a family destination, families went to Disneyland because the kids were going gaga over the new Disney movies and the parents wanted to make them happy.

So a whole new generation of fans flocked to the parks, most probably never having been before, or not recently. They didn’t know what to expect. They just knew they loved these new movies with their endearing lead characters (so much more full of personality than Snow White or Alice or Pinocchio) and their big bombastic Broadway-style musical numbers (so much more in line with current musical tastes than the Tin Pan Alley ditties from Cinderella or Peter Pan or The Jungle Book). That’s what they wanted from Disney, whether they were paying six bucks a head plus popcorn, or fifty bucks a head plus lodging.

And that would have been fine but for the fact that endearing characters and big bombastic musical numbers are really hard to build traditional dark rides around. What you can do, though, for people who want to meet their favorite characters, is build dedicated character meet-and-greet spots. What you can do for people who want to sing along with Academy Award-winning songs is create huge colorful parades and stage shows that feature those songs. Best of all, if you are certain people who shall go unnamed, these sorts of things are much cheaper to create and operate than rides. Corporate was more than happy to meet, rather than try to exceed, the expectations of this new wave of fans.

The newer guests got used to seeing more-or-less verbatim (condensed) film content in the form of these shows and parades. The classic dark rides began to look decidedly odd to them—why are the movie events out of order? Why doesn’t the main character show up more? Why don’t we get to hear all the songs? And no one was there to explain it to them, because the older generations of fans had largely drifted away and the internet wasn’t quite a household staple yet. Rides that weren’t even based on a movie seemed even odder—what does a Wild West roller coaster have to do with Disney? What does a submarine ride have to do with Disney? I thought this park was supposed to be for kids, but my kids don’t recognize this stuff! They should build a Lion King ride! They should build a Toy Story ride! That Snow White ride isn’t suitable for kids; they should do something about that! I didn’t pay all this money to stand in line for an hour and a half and go on a ride that my kids don’t get!

The pattern was set. IP tie-ins were what the people wanted, and they closer they hewed to their source material, the more guest approval they got, simply because people didn’t know any different. And it has snowballed from there. The Disney Renaissance was amazing for the art of animation, but I think it was a net negative for the art of theme parks.

Tl;dr The Disney Renaissance changed guest expectations for Disney entertainment products in ways that were incompatible with classic Imagineering principles.

[mishinashen]

Self-Portrait by Alphonse Mucha, 1899

Alfons Maria Mucha (Czech: 24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator, and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs, which became among the best-known images of the period.

In the second part of his career, at the age of 43, he returned to his homeland of Bohemia-Moravia region in Austria and devoted himself to painting a series of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world, which he painted between 1912 and 1926. In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work. It is now on display in Prague.

Alphonse Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in the small town of Ivančice in southern Moravia, then a province of the Austrian Empire (currently a region of the Czech Republic). His family had a very modest income; his father Ondřej was a court usher, and his mother Amálie was a miller's daughter. Ondřej had six children, all with names starting with A. Alphonse was his first child with Amálie, followed by Anna and Anděla.

Alphonse showed an early talent for drawing; a local merchant impressed by his work provided him with paper for free, though it was considered a luxury. In the preschool period, he drew exclusively with his left hand. He also had a talent for music: he was an alto singer and violin player

After completing volksschule, he wanted to continue with his studies, but his family was not able to fund them, as they were already funding the studies of his three step-siblings] His music teacher sent him to Pavel Křížkovský, choirmaster of St Thomas's Abbey in Brno, to be admitted to the choir and to have his studies funded by the monastery. Křížovský was impressed by his talent, but he was not able to admit and fund him, as he had just admitted another talented young musician, Leoš Janáček.

Křížovský sent him to a choirmaster of the Cathedral of St. Peter and Paul, who admitted him as a chorister and funded his studies at the gymnasium in Brno, where he received his secondary school education. After his voice broke, he gave up his chorister position, but played as a violinist during masses.

He became devoutly religious, and wrote later, "For me, the notions of painting, going to church, and music are so closely knit that often I cannot decide whether I like church for its music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompanies." He grew up in an environment of intense Czech nationalism in all the arts, from music to literature and painting. He designed flyers and posters for patriotic rallies.

His singing abilities allowed him to continue his musical education at the Gymnázium Brno in the Moravian capital of Brno, but his true ambition was to become an artist. He found some employment designing theatrical scenery and other decorations. In 1878 he applied without success to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague, but was rejected and advised to "find a different career". In 1880, at the age of 19, he traveled to Vienna, the political and cultural capital of the Empire, and found employment as an apprentice scenery painter for a company which made sets for Vienna theaters. While in Vienna, he discovered the museums, churches, palaces and especially theaters, for which he received free tickets from his employer. He also discovered Hans Makart, a very prominent academic painter, who created murals for many of the palaces and government buildings in Vienna, and was a master of portraits and historical paintings in grand format. His style turned Mucha in that artistic direction and influenced his later work. He also began experimenting with photography, which became an important tool in his later work.

To his misfortune, a terrible fire in 1881 destroyed the Ringtheater, the major client of his firm. Later in 1881, almost without funds, he took a train as far north as his money would take him. He arrived in Mikulov in southern Moravia, and began making portraits, decorative art and lettering for tombstones. His work was appreciated, and he was commissioned by Count Eduard Khuen Belasi, a local landlord and nobleman, to paint a series of murals for his residence at Emmahof Castle, and then at his ancestral home in the Tyrol, Gandegg Castle. The paintings at Emmahof were destroyed by fire in 1948, but his early versions in small format exist (now on display at the museum in Brno). He showed his skill at mythological themes, the female form, and lush vegetal decoration. Belasi, who was also an amateur painter, took Mucha on expeditions to see art in Venice, Florence and Milan, and introduced him to many artists, including the famous Bavarian romantic painter, Wilhelm Kray, who lived in Munich.

Count Belasi decided to bring Mucha to Munich for formal training, and paid his tuition fees and living expenses at the Munich Academy of Fine Arts. He moved there in September 1885. It is not clear how Mucha actually studied at the Munich Academy; there is no record of his being enrolled as a student there. However, he did become friends with a number of notable Slavic artists there, including the Czechs Karel Vítězslav Mašek and Ludek Marold and the Russian Leonid Pasternak, father of the famous poet and novelist Boris Pasternak. He founded a Czech students' club, and contributed political illustrations to nationalist publications in Prague. In 1886 he received a notable commission for a painting of the Czech patron saints Cyril and Methodius, from a group of Czech emigrants, including some of his relatives, who had founded a Roman Catholic church in the town of Pisek, North Dakota. He was very happy with the artistic environment of Munich: he wrote to friends, "Here I am in my new element, painting. I cross all sorts of currents, but without effort, and even with joy. Here, for the first time, I can find the objectives to reach which used to seem inaccessible." However, he found he could not remain forever in Munich; the Bavarian authorities imposed increasing restrictions upon foreign students and residents. Count Belasi suggested that he travel either to Rome or to Paris. With Belasi's financial support, he decided in 1887 to move to Paris.

Mucha moved to Paris in 1888 where he enrolled in the Académie Julian[18] and the following year, 1889, Académie Colarossi. The two schools taught a wide variety of different styles. His first professors at the Academie Julien were Jules Lefebvre who specialized in female nudes and allegorical paintings, and Jean-Paul Laurens, whose specialties were historical and religious paintings in a realistic and dramatic style. At the end of 1889, as he approached the age of thirty, his patron, Count Belasi, decided that Mucha had received enough education and ended his subsidies.

When he arrived in Paris, Mucha found shelter with the help of the large Slavic community. He lived in a boarding house called the Crémerie at 13 rue de la Grande Chaumière, whose owner, Charlotte Caron, was famous for sheltering struggling artists; when needed she accepted paintings or drawings in place of rent. Mucha decided to follow the path of another Czech painter he knew from Munich, Ludek Marold, who had made a successful career as an illustrator for magazines. In 1890 and 1891, he began providing illustrations for the weekly magazine La Vie populaire, which published novels in weekly segments. His illustration for a novel by Guy de Maupassant, called The Useless Beauty, was on the cover of 22 May 1890 edition. He also made illustrations for Le Petit Français Illustré, which published stories for young people in both magazine and book form. For this magazine he provided dramatic scenes of battles and other historic events, including a cover illustration of a scene from the Franco-Prussian War which was on 23 January 1892 edition.

His illustrations began to give him a regular income. He was able to buy a harmonium to continue his musical interests, and his first camera, which used glass-plate negatives. He took pictures of himself and his friends, and also regularly used it to compose his drawings. He became friends with Paul Gauguin, and shared a studio with him for a time when Gauguin returned from Tahiti in the summer of 1893. In late autumn 1894 he also became friends with the playwright August Strindberg, with whom he had a common interest in philosophy and mysticism.

His magazine illustrations led to book illustration; he was commissioned to provide illustrations for Scenes and Episodes of German History by historian Charles Seignobos. Four of his illustrations, including one depicting the death of Frederic Barbarossa, were chosen for display at the 1894 Paris Salon of Artists. He received a medal of honor, his first official recognition.

Mucha added another important client in the early 1890s; the Central Library of Fine Arts, which specialized in the publication of books about art, architecture and the decorative arts. It later launched a new magazine in 1897 called Art et Decoration, which played an early and important role in publicizing the Art Nouveau style. He continued to publish illustrations for his other clients, including illustrating a children's book of poetry by Eugène Manuel, and illustrations for a magazine of the theater arts, called La Costume au théâtre.

[austajunk]

Tsumionji with Love me#5 (sequel to the previous prompt) Mikan adds to Hiyoko's ropework multiple dancing fans decorating her body, inserts a headphone in one of her ears, and places her in a position where she can wriggle in place in a dance-like way. On Hiyoko's curious stare and angry-questioning "Mmmfff?" the nurse explains that she still wants the dancer to develop her life's talent, even in the basement. ..."True Ultimate Nihon-Buyo should see dancing with a rope between her legs as an easy challenge, right? " -thought Hiyoko...

Good lord. Stop feeding me so well!! But then again… I always wanted to indulge in dark Tsumionji content.

Bondage, dubcon and humiliation beneath the cut.

“I don’t want to hurt you,” said Mikan brightly. She adjusted the ropes a little more, ignoring the squealing noises from Hiyoko’s throat. “There, there now…”

In a way, Mikan was happy that Hiyoko was getting more and more vocal. Each new sound she made was different from the last. Some sounds were sniffles and cries. Some were little moans and whimpers of pleasure, something she was embarrassed to show her Nurse. But that was okay. Mikan would catch on to them anyways.

The Nurse had been between Hiyoko’s legs, giving her pretty pink lips a few hungry licks. One lick, then two, then three… Hiyoko’s moans were forced and drawn out until her legs were trembling.

“Ah… that’s a little embarrassing, isn’t it?” Mikan sang, pulling back up after her delicate meal. “The more I try to clean you, the more you get wet down here. Are you as dirty deep down as I’ve always been, Saionji-chan? It’s okay if you are… no one will ever see this side of you but me.”

Mikan grinned and stretched. Then she replaced her finger in Hiyoko’s pussy with the rope she originally tied down there, making sure it rubbed relentlessly against her clit with every move the dancer made. “There….and of course…with these ropes cutting into you, it must be so uncomfortable. Wearing this kimono everywhere…how about something like this instead?”

Her hands peeled the front of Hiyoko’s kimono back, letting her full breasts spill to the forefront against the ropes. Hiyoko gritted her teeth on her gag as the cool air of the basement hit her exposed flesh. “Mhmmph…Mhmm…”

“Your nipples are already so cherry hard!” Mikan marveled, putting her hands up to her cheeks in awe. “So cute…but one more thing…”

Several decorated fans were clipped to the ropes. “These will add to your performance, okay? Mhm hmmm! Saionji-chan, you will dance, alright?”

A look of utter panic, anger, and defiance washed over Hiyoko’s face. Mikan found it amusing and adorable. She looked her best either helpless of confused. “Well… it’s to remain healthy!” Mikan reasoned, watching the fans sway in Hiyoko’s ropes. “You need to keep practicing your Ultimate talent… or your body will fall out of shape! I c-couldn’t bear that happening. But of course… you won’t be dancing for a bunch of g-gross men… just me…”

Hiyoko was about to pipe up but a sudden noise started playing in her right ear. Music. Traditional music she could recall from different theater performances. “Mhn…” Her hips recalled the motions. So did her arms even if they were bound. She missed dancing. She missed the use of her legs. She just wanted to be free again, but Mikan would only keep her this way.

With a pitiful sniffle, she moved her hips in an upright circular motion. Mikan gave a soft clap, smiling to encourage her captive. The ropes worked against Hiyoko’s voluptuous form, digging into her breasts and her pussy.

‘My… My… body feels hot…’ Hiyoko’s mind was flushed with hot thoughts. Her body wriggled and swayed to the music, seeking the urge for freedom. She couldn’t stop. The fans spun in the air as though she were a work of art trapped in bondage.

“I c…can’t hold… it all in…” She thought, shutting her eyes tightly. It all felt too good. She wanted to grope her own breasts and reach down to play with herself. It didn’t matter who was watching…

She shuddered hotly, drool forming to her lips as her first climax rushed her like a wave.

“Ah… Saionji…” Mikan’s lips curled back into that depraved smile. Her eyes caught the glistening juices that coated down Hiyoko’s thighs.

“Saionji… that’s so shameful…hehe… but it’s okay…make as much of a mess as you want!”

Hiyoko whimpered and tried to close her thighs in shame, but it didn’t matter. Eventually she’d adjust. She was already falling in love with her new life.

It was only a matter of time…

[knochengeier]

Drawfee Classpects???

I set a while ago to spitefully Classpect the Drawfee crew because they rightfully made fun of homestuck.

PREFACE:

I should state clearly that this is not meant as an attack on any members of Drawfee, and that I will be leaving out the majority of the negative aspects of the analysis. It should also be mentioned that this is more of an analysis of their online personas rather than who they actually are.

I did mention that I would leave out most negative things, but some things are core to a persons persona something they consciously and willingly put out into the world; again, this is not what I actually think these individuals are like, and is not a reflection of how I feel about them as a person. Things like "Julia doesn't know media" and "Jacob is the bad boy of Drawfee" that are explicitly stated as part of the persona is free game.

So, without further ado

——————————————————————————————————

——————————————————————————————————

Caldwell, Prospitian Muse of Breath:

A Muse is the embodiment of and the inspiration to others through their aspect. The Muse class is one in a pair of incredibly powerful and rare classes known as the “master classes.”

Breath is the aspect of individuality, drive, optimism, and most importantly freedom.

As the Muse of Breath Caldwell inspires others to be themselves and be free, motivating creativity and driving others to pursue their dreams. Caldwells unbound optimism and resolve is a force to be reckoned with, in fact he so embodies freedom and enthusiastic ambition that he left Drawfee to pursue his own creative endeavors on the west coast.

Caldwell commands not only the forces of Skaia, but Skaia itself; his inspiring aura would be strong enough to end the war between Prospit and Derse in an instant, and even those that opposed him would find it hard to stay committed to their cause for long.

Caldwell would have the power to: a. control the wind, weather, and possibly even lightning by freeing the electrons from their atoms (though that might be an active ability) b. bypass any restraints, physical or otherwise, by any means necessary which c. Also means that he can most likely teleport at will and d. Probably turn incorporeal.

——————————————————————————————————

Nathan, Prospitian Sylph of Hope:

A Sylph is a person who passively invites the healing and generation with their aspect.

Hope is the aspect of possibility, inspiration, and positivity.

As the Sylph of Hope Nathan is the light that helps others with his positivity and inspiration, not only does he help people but he inspires them to create their own hope. A Sylph of Hope would be able to see the potential for positivity in everything, and seek to be as amiable as possible, in turn helping others do the same.

Drawfee is as much a show about success as it is failure, it’s something that people can watch and say “These people make mistakes just like me” and they inspire hope for those down on their art.

One of the longest held of these humanizing aspects of the show is the apology at the end of every episode, which only became a thing after Nathan disliked a drawing so much that he was compelled to apologize, and it stuck. As much as that drawing might have sucked it inspired others who weren’t happy with their art to keep at it, and we are reminded of that after every episode.

Nathan is one of the first members of the crew to assure somebody that even if the piece didn’t come out the way they wanted, that it still looks good and is impressive nonetheless.

Nathan is the glue that holds this session together; with the presence of a prince, a bard, and a lord this session should have been doomed since the start, but Nathan’s pure awe inspiring hope promoted the best in everybody.

Nathan’s powers would include: a. A buff akin to bardic inspiration that could affect people to fight harder b. Healing abilities c. Probably an energy beam d. Manifestations of other’s hopes and dreams in the form of glowy specters like a JoJo stand.

——————————————————————————————————

Julia, Dersite Lord of Void:

A Lord is the embodiment and commander of their aspect, not through inspiration but rather assimilation and domination.

Void is the aspect of confusion, secrets, and doubt.

As the Lord of Void Julia is the sovereign of secrets; unpredictable, unknowable, and the proprietor of unknown knowledge Julia uses her runes and studied knowledge to summon hideous abominations creatures from the void.

Void players have an inextricable link to the furthest ring; the furthest ring is the incomprehensible and unnavigable space that exists outside of the universe. The furthest ring acts as an impassable border between universes inhabited by massive eldritch gods called the “Horrorterrors.”

Julia would not only have the ability to traverse the furthest ring and visit other universes, but she would also have the ability to bend the horrorterrors to her will. She would be able to switch in and out of grimdark mode at will, and most likely would not be adversely effected.

Julias powers would most likely include: a. The creation and manipulation of black holes and the general desperation of physical matter b. The ability to turn invisible and probably teleport c. The ability to erase peoples memories and mute their senses, and d. The ability to speak, read, and write the language of the horrorterrors.

——————————————————————————————————

Jacob, Prospitian Prince of Rage:

A Prince is a destroyer of and with their aspect.

Rage is the aspect of fate, defiance, and rejection.

As the Prince of Rage Jacob is the destroyer of and through failure, negativity, and rejection. Jacob forged his own path, he destroyed his fate as a writer and destroyed the limits and expectations for what an artist could be, and he got a job at college humor despite the odds.

Jacob is also, or was, a punk; a subculture that is predicated on the destruction of barriers through rebellion.

Even though he can use Rage for good he often doesn’t; he is well known for stirring discourse, his particular brand of Rage elicits anger and hatred thanks to his flaming hot takes.

He is also known for his infinite petty anger at dumb things ex. “see animals shouldn’t live under ground,” “lizards shouldn’t have to lick their eyes,” “muppet is short for man-puppet,” “mayo is food lube,” and “if god’s ever been mad at anything I’ve said, he hasn’t done shit about it.”

Jacob’s abilities would be: a. Becoming physically stronger the angrier he gets, or somebody gets at him b. The ability to create and control lightning c. The ability to pacify or remove the anger from somebody d. The ability to make people fear him or e. turn against their own allies.

——————————————————————————————————

Karina, Dersite Knight of Heart:

A Knight is a person who precisely uses and exploits their aspect as a weapon or a tool.

Heart is the aspect of emotion, passion, and identity.

As a Knight of Heart Karina uses feelings as a weapon. Not only does Karina use her powers to literally use the emotions of her characters (see Schmidt and Nando) as a tool to effect others, but she also has deep passions like Neopets, Digimon, and Yugioh that she uses as a weapon to torment the Drawfee crew.

Karina is passionate about her identity, never missing a chance to mention any of her favorite things like Beelzemon, Seto Kaiba, catboys, or her Texan roots (Bucky’s).

Karina would have honed impulses, knowing when and where to act and how to do (or draw) something challenging. She also has the ability to hype up her friends, strengthening their resolve.

Karina’s abilities would be: a. She can create a powerful glowing weapon by materializing her soul b. She could find out the weaknesses, emotions, and insecurities of enemies c. She could split into multiple versions of herself to create a veritable army of clones, and d. Enter a soul form where she is basically impervious to most attacks.

——————————————————————————————————

David, Dersite Maid of Time:

A Maid is a person who heals and regenerates their aspect or with their aspect.

Time is the aspect of machines, music, and endings.

As a Maid of Time David heals time; more often then not time is not an abstract thing, and the responsibility of time players is to keep the timelines in order and fix paradoxes.

David, as the chief editor for Drawfee is responsible for taking whatever dumb shit the crew gives them and edit it to make the video palatable.

David is also interested in theater (see “Artists Draw Posters for Musicals (They've Never Seen)” one of the only episodes in which they appear) which is related to time through music.

An interesting thing to note about Time is that it is often equated with heat, fire, and lava, something David has experience with, revealed in the episode “Drawing What We're Thankful For In 2019” in which Nathan depicts David with an overheating external drive (something that is also mechanical).

David could: a. Essentially freeze time, making moments last for hours b. Heal paradoxes in the time line c. Fix events so they go favorably, or d. Speed up time to heal a wound

——————————————————————————————————

Tristan, Prospitian Mage of Light:

A Mage is a person who understands their aspect by experiencing it.

Light is the aspect of fortune, luck, relevance, and knowledge.

As a Mage of Light Tristan has an innate and personal understanding of lore; Tristan, through his interactions with pop culture, knows a lot about said things.

Mages often experience their aspect in a negative way, seen in the frequent possession of Tristan by the Lore Librarian, and his burden of knowledge about absurd and obscure facts about nerd media.

Tristan is one of the only people on the crew who understands how the game works and what the final boss’s deal is, but you know he’s going to be cryptic and vague about it because it’s funny. Tristan would have the uncanny ability to know what something is without having seen it before.

Tristans abilities are: a. Foresight, he can tell exactly when and where something will happen and manipulate them in his favor b. He can give people luck or take it away c. He can manipulate light and probably use it as a projectile, and d. Know exactly what has to be done at any moment.

—————————————————————————————————���

Willie, Dersite Bard of Blood:

A Bard is a person who invites the destruction of or with their aspect

Blood is the aspect of bonds, stability, and unity.

As the Bard of Blood Willie actuates the severing of bonds and the dissolving of stability.

Willie is a change maker, he breaks down the stable and familiar structure of the established group dynamics in Drawfee often in an antagonistic way; Willie is well known for his hatred for Jacob, and his very presence elicits the rage in both of them.

Videos in which Willie appears are marked by hostility, but through him new and interesting things get made.

Being a bard isn’t all bad, Bards of blood are not one sided; A bard of blood has the ability to destroy using the bonds they have, uniting a group of people under a cause to destroy something, like rallying the crew against Jacob.

Willie, like a lot of the crew, has a lot of buffing abilities; utilizing his bonds he can make others more powerful and fight harder than they could otherwise.

Willie’s abilities are: a. Control of literal blood b. Group sync, he acts as a conduit through which the coordination and damage output increases, and c. Dismantle, he can break the bonds of atoms and make physical matter crumble away.

[rukiakwashere]

Chasing Last Summer

An amazing experience while working with talented artist for the @grishaversebigbang 

Corporalki: 

@gimmedafood

Materialki:  

@anubem (link to art), 

@bookish-ginger (link to art),

@wellwatersurprise  (link to art)

Summary: 

As Jesper is trying to settle down, away from cards on the Van Eck estate with Wylan alongside him as a work partner, wondering what to do with his father’s empire, they both start thinking of what they want. The Summer they left behind them went great so maybe it was time to get something serious going on. While busy reordering their priorities, Wylan receives a letter (more like hides it) and it all goes downhill after that...

Jesper boards a ship... The Wraith makes a visit and convinces some cane-dude to tag along... Some Grisha appear... And Wylan may or may not fulfil one of Kaz’s lifelong dreams

tl;dr Post-Crooked Kingdom Wesper making their best to figure out themselves and each other.

Ao3 Link : https://archiveofourown.org/works/33678499/chapters/83698627

[Chapter one under cut]:

Jesper looked at the clock on the wall for what seemed like the twentieth time in the meeting. He fidgeted on his seat looking left and right spotting both familiar and unfamiliar faces. Men and women, mostly old, everyone much older than he was.

Wylan was on his left, completely still and focused on the woman speaking loudly,  moving her hands animatedly to make her point. Jesper thought that her hands were too distracting, he really couldn’t make what the point was with so much waving around. Wylan on the other hand seemed to perfectly understand. He nodded a lot when anyone paused, he offered his opinion when asked and he conversed easily with all the businesspeople around him. It suited him, Jesper thought. Wylan Van Eck looked like a businessman in his own right. His young and calm presence made people trust him and his ironed black and white suit made them believe he was one of their own, refined elite. 

Jesper, on the other hand, didn’t know what to make of himself. His long legs never remained in the same place for more than mere seconds and his awkward posture as he tried to fit on the chair always brought on curious and sometimes annoyed stares. People weren’t used to seeing someone like him sitting on their expensive and elegant chairs. They simply weren’t made for him.

Still, Wylan never commented on anything. Sometimes he caught Jesper’s stare in a meeting and all he did was nod- like he was on autopilot. Jesper didn’t know what to make of it. Was he just another face in Wylan’s business-related crowd? Sometimes he wasn’t that sure if Wylan was only keeping him around because of the promise they had made months ago. Was he just pitying him? 

Jesper didn’t know if being Wylan’s secretary was the lowest or highest point of his life to date. 

Occasionally, he wondered what life would be like if he had never made that deal, not being Wylan’s eyes. Nina’s offer echoed in his ears. Ravka… Would he dare to leave home and become a Grisha? Probably not. 

He would have been back at the Barrel, sitting at a gambling table spending the money he had till it vanished. At least working with Wylan saved him from going broke again, he concluded. Still, was he happy with where his life was at now? Spending his days waiting for the next meeting, talking about things he had little interest in with people that didn’t interest him?

Wylan though… The ginger’s presence was steady and when they weren’t in a meeting, he was okay to be around. Jesper didn’t mind his presence, he rather enjoyed Wylan’s witty remarks and random facts. 

The past few days though, the ginger seemed less and less enthusiastic about anything. Dark circles seemed to have formed permanently below his eyes and he seemed to be sighing a lot – and it didn’t seem to be because of Jesper’s breathtaking presence.

“Wy?” Jesper mouthed, poking the ginger’s shoulder lightly. Wylan didn’t seem surprised, turning discretely towards him with a tired smile. 

“What happened?” Jesper read the ginger’s lips. 

“You cool?”, he mouthed back.

~~~

Wylan had the audacity to snort, suppressing his laughter at Jesper’s question. He opted for a small hands-up and a smile that nearly reached his eyes. Sincerely, he felt tired and spent.

He didn’t know business. Kaz had taught him the basics, which felt more like the principles of manipulation, bribery and theft – which Wylan had decided pretty quickly, were better than nothing.

His father had given up on him early on, realizing Wylan’s bad relationship with letters would make him a bad businessman and would let people exploit him freely. His father never imagined, though, his son would have found Jesper, the only person Wylan could put his trust on fully - and did so every day. 

Jesper was the one responsible for what came in and what went out, who might prove beneficial and who was to be avoided. He read stacks of papers daily, and even though his legs wouldn’t stop moving and tapping the floor, he read them all and reported every line he found even slightly useful back to Wylan. While all Wylan could do was sit and wait, pretending the numbers he could make out at the sheets in his hands were enough.

He didn’t understand why Jesper was still there. His awkward fidgeting at the meetings they attended together made it clear that he felt out of place. Wylan was sure Jesper was longing for action, his revolvers out, not hidden inside his jacket. Sure, they were sharing their profits but was Jesper missing the Slat? Did he want to go back to risking his life every day? To feel the thrill of chasing and being chased? Was Jesper still around him out of pity, trapped in a promise he had made while in action, when he wasn’t sure if he would make it out alive to see the next sunrise? 

Maybe, it was the same as his awkward confession, a stupid phrase that kept replaying in Wylan’s mind even though he had hit stop months ago. Maybe I like your stupid face. 

Wylan was annoyed with himself about how a six-word sentence that nearly insulted him made him feel so tingly and weird inside. He soon realized though, as the battle came to an end, as his dad backed off, as Kaz won whatever feud he had with Pekka Rollins, that some things that are best left unsaid can rise in the heat and uncertainty of a battle and what happened between him and Jesper had been one of them. 

We were fugitives, bounties on our heads. Of course, some emotions would be misunderstood, Wylan repeated in his head.

What happened with Jesper was one of them. Wylan was passable and the time they had spent together just- was like that. It meant nothing more. Jesper might have kissed him twice, or once – damn Kuwei – but as things calmed down and they went back to their lives, old and new, he didn’t approach him again in that way - apart from the occasional flirting - and Wylan… Wylan felt really stupid to have expected something more.

Wylan poked the side of his cheek, annoyed with himself. This wasn’t time for his thoughts to be drifting. The meeting… He had to speak with Lady Kadrir and make sure their agreement held,even though the head of the Van Eck family had changed and he needed to speak with that white haired man and give his condolences to that Lady and so many things he had never pictured himself doing ever before.

He never expected to be here. When his father still tolerated him, Wylan dreamed of a music school and maybe joining a theater orchestra with his flute. Even when his father decided otherwise, he still hoped for a demo-related work at the Crows or maybe someone reaching out and joining a traveling band… never business. His father had made it clear early on that he was not suited for that and it was the only thing Wylan and his father had agreed upon. He wasn’t sure he would like it… and he had yet to decide.

Business was… weird. Wylan’s perspectives of it had been two; one when he was growing up, seeing his father busy with paperwork he was always signing… and then, there was business the way the Dregs did it. Meetings under the fold of darkness, sometimes gunshots sounding along, a gambling parlor expecting tourists and sailors from far away…

Yet, what he felt he was doing on his own, was different. Sure, Jesper seemed to be writing and reading tons of stuff but Wylan thought of business as constant meetings, a lot of useless information in his head and a relentless bell ringing in his head reminding him to be polite yet entitled. That was the way. 

At first, he liked being good at it, memorizing estates, meeting people that didn’t look at him down their noses, because Wylan Van Eck possessed property the same way they did. He sat and talked and traded in the language they understood.

Still, that feeling had slowly drifted away, as the bell in his head rang louder and louder. He felt lost and disconnected, yet he wouldn’t stop. He was more determined than ever not to give up. Those meetings had come to be the only place where he felt like he proved his worth. The only thing he could be good at and be of use.

“Mister Van Eck.” 

It was his turn to speak.

“As my father retired and passed me on new property, I’ve made the decision to establish a reliable network around the Van Eck brand.” Words scripted and exercised in front of a mirror, delivered to an audience just like in a theater. 

It’s fine. I can work like this. At least that’s what he convinced himself as he went on with his speech.

~~~

[appassaddle]

In worldbuilding, one of the best touchstones you can give people is in arts. Music is especially great because it’s one of the longest lasting sense-memories people have, so giving that to your fictional characters makes them that much more real and relatable. ATLA, as a great fantasy world, makes great use of this (how many times have you sung a song from the show? be honest.) so this is a list of possible musical influences that could be part of the various nations outside of the music we’re given in-show. The musical possibilities with bending and having benders has just... so much cool potentital, because look at what we’ve got without even having powers!

Check it:

Earth kingdom – lithophones

The Earth Kingdom would have absolutely sick lithophones (instruments made from resonating stone).

Lithophones are also some of the oldest dated musical instruments, going back to prehistoric times, and can be found in locations/cultures around the globe (singing/ringing/sonic/resonant rocks of different types are everywhere) in both natural and man-made settings. (Musical caves/stalactite organs vs carved or shaped settings)

Some examples:

Bianqing: (also known as qing, biên khánh in Vietnam, and pyeongyeong in Korea) A stone gong originating from China, played in a set (or singular) hung on racks, with a characteristic angular shape. (Not to be confused with bianzhong, which are metal bells, often played together with bianqing.)

          [example] [example] [example]

Ðàn đá: a stone mallet instrument from the western/central highlands of Viet Nam. They are a historic instrument and got a revival in the 1950s, so they are fairly common in the modern era as well.

          [example] [example]

          If you’re interested in checking out the work of Viet musicologists, check out their website: https://www.vienamnhac.vn/home-page

For a look into how stone based instruments can be made, check out this report from a small town in Japan that specializes in a specific type of musical stone (sanukite): https://www.kensanpin.org/en/report/no47/

Some examples of instruments made from sanukite: [example] [example]

(I can also totally see towns in the EK having stones specific to their region and their local musical tone.)

Post metalbending revolution they would probably partner up with…

The Fire Nation likely has a strong lean towards metallophones. In Western music the most well known of these would be vibraphones, glockenspiels, and bells. (In the ATLA soundtrack, a notable metallic sound is Azula’s signature sting.) But for the FN, more likely influences could be along the lines of:

Gamelan: this is a genre/type of ensemble from Indonesia, the main three styles being Javanese, Balinese, and Sudanese. (Styles depend on island of origin and cultural purposes.) It has a rich history and cultural importance that cannot be done justice in a few lines her, but it’s absolutely amazing music. Gamelan is used for religious/spiritual purposes, dance, puppeteering/storytelling, theater, general concerts, community gathers, and more. Ensembles range in size and instrumentation, but the main timbre is in the various metallophones (barred, gongs, cymbals, etc.), as well as drums, strings, woodwinds, and singers. [example] [example] [example]

[If you’re interested in learning more, the Wikipedia page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamelan actually has whole video modules via youtube to learn about the various styles of gamelan and multiple sources both print and online to access!]

Steelpan/steel drums: Originating from Trinidad and Tobago, these instruments have a very universal popularity for their bright tone and accessibility. There are many variations on steelpan such as the hang drum, handpan, steel tongue drum, and others. [example] [example] [example]

For the polar Water Tribes, I’d imagine they’d have a much stronger oral/vocal tradition than instrumental, with the exception being portable/durable instruments like hands drums, bone flutes, etc. (So this section is a little less instrument based and more appropriate vibes.)

Vocal/oral tradition: It’s hard to find a culture that doesn’t have some form of oral or sung tradition, but with the cultural influences behind the Water Tribes, I’d guess that a strong tradition would be in throat singing. Throat singing is found in multiple indigenous cultures around the world with various styles of overtone singing (producing more than one tone at once). Some examples are:

Inuit - [one] [two]

Tuvan (Mongolian) - [one] [two] [obligatory plug for The Hu bc they are some of the coolest people on the planet]

Tibetan - [one] [two]

Italian - [one] [two]

Ainu - [one] [two]

Tan Dun, Water Music: Tan Dun is a composer who has done film scores and currently focuses on what he calls “organic music” where the main focus is using naturally occurring materials/sounds. [performance]

Water drumming: One of the coolest ensemble performances, just straight up using water as an instrument. These examples are from Vanuatu and the Baka people of Cameroon. [one] [two] [three] [four] [five]

Sea Organ: Located in Zader, Croatia, this experimental instrument is played by the tides and waves. [video]

Hand drums/frame drums: these styles of drums can be found around the world, throw a dart at a map and there’s probably a style of hand drum from there. They are among the simplest style of drum to make, needing a round frame and hide to stretch over it. Here are just a few examples: [one] [two] [three] [four] [five] [six]

Air Nomads probably had a hug musical tradition between the temples, skybison herding, and traveling. Both singing and wind instruments were probably very popular (we see Aang being able to play multiple instruments). Simple flutes make good travel instruments and being able to share news and information via song when stopping at towns would be a valued skill (in communities before reading was a common skill, it would usually fall to either dedicated criers or bards to pass along information in an understandable and memorable way).

Singing/chants: Learning songs from around the nations would be fun for those who travel, it’s easy to imagine an informal song competition for the most variety or strangest or most locations or dirtiest ones learned during their travels. But given the strong influence of Tibetan Buddhism on the Air Nomads, some traditional Tibetan vocal music examples (a couple of other examples are under the Water Tribe section as well)- [one] [two] [three] [four] [five]

(Tibetan musical notation is also regarded as some of the most beautiful in the world, I’d strongly recommend taking a look.)

Sheng- This is a free-reed mouth organ from China and it has an incredibly long history. Traditional shengs are handheld with few keys, more modern versions vary in size, number of pipes, and keys. It’s a pretty delightful instrument imo. [one] [two] [three]

Panflute: There a lots of different kinds of panflutes found around the world, the most famous being the Greek and Peruvian styles. Some different kinds include paixiao (China), wot (Laos, northern Thailand), nai (Romania, Moldova), siku (Andean), and kuvytsi (Slavic). Variations include the cut of pipes to produce the sound, arrangement of the pipes, and materials used.[siku] [paixiao] [wot 1] [wot 2]

It would also be very cool to have carvings into the mountains that could be played by airbending oh man.

All of these are, of course, just barely dipping a toe into the vast amounts of beautiful musical cultures out there, but hopefully it helps inform and build on what is there. If something tickles your fancy, please feel free to go digging and find more about it! (If you aren’t sure where to start, I’m happy to help, just drop me a line and I can at least point you in the right direction. I make no claim to be any kind of expert here, but I can get you to them!)

[moons-and-stars-and-shit]

Hey so I'm here to request cake, if it isn't than sorry for sending in this request but if it is than hi, ur writing is really good.

I'm very short like 4'11 maybe 5ft w/ shoes. I have blonde & black hair, glasses, and brown eyes. My body type is pretty petite/fit since i work out quite a lot.

I'm pretty introverted & quiet when you first meet me but once you get to know me i talk a lot (like an annoyingly large amount). I would say I'm pretty honest/blunt since i don't like sugarcoating things and i really suck at lying, I'm also kinda sarcastic & teasing to my friends. I'm also kinda a flirt, less because of my interest in someone and moreso to gauge people's reactions. My big three are virgo sun, leo rising, aries moon and as for my mbti I'm not really sure since i get different results all the time so the most i know about that is that I'm an IxTx (intp, intj, and istp are the results I've gotten).

I really like music and don't really listen to a specific genre but my favorite would probably have to be rock. My hobbies aside from music are art/drawing, reading, watching tv. I also really like horror movies/shows.

I like people who can be equally as sarcastic and competitive as me. My biggest pet peeve would probably be bad smells and i hate crowded areas.

I like the 90s/00s aesthetic a lot and i tend to like colorful things that have some edge to them. Similar to my music taste i don't dress in a specific style but I do often gravitate towards the 00's clothing (like delia's catalogues, platforms, baggy pants, mini skirts, crop tops, etc.)

@allthegoodusersaregone

Romantic Matchup

Tsukishima Kei

How Y’all Met

Ok so he always saw you around school

But he never talked to you

You we’re just so quiet

Honestly he’s never even seen you talk to someone besides basic conversations

So, he just stayed clear of tour path

However

You had decided to become a manager for the volleyball team

And Tsukki being his teasing self, started to pick a little fun at you

But he was SHOCKED when you just snapped back at him with some witty remark

He was like 😧

But his face was like 😐

He tried his best not to look phased by what you said

But he was definitely shocked

And a little impressed???

Like come on...

You just made a comeback to THE Tsukishima

Takes some guts

And some wit

Anyways over time you two developed a relationship

An odd relationship filled with teasing and sass

But a relationship nonetheless

And he hates to admit it but...

He was crushing on you

But mf would never ever tell you that

So, you would have to be the one to confess

He accepted your confession as nonchalantly as possible

But in the inside mans was bursting with joy

Tsukki on the outside: 😐🙄😏

Tsukki on the inside: 😍🥰❤️✨

What They Love About You

He loves how blunt you are

It annoys him when people just beat around the bush

He prefers that people just cut straight to the point

And you do just that

Almost brutally

But he doesn’t mind

He loves that your sarcastic

Oml he’s never met someone who can handle his sarcasm

And even throw back a few jabs

So he’s happy that his s/o is able to do both

Alright but of a weird one

He loves that your short

Because A: he thinks it’s funny

B: he thinks it’s cute

And C: if he ever runs out of roasts for you, he can always tease you for your height 😗

Favorite Things To Do Together

He likes to read with you

Just sitting on the couch with a good book and reading

Maybe some cuddles

Honestly he likes doing art with you 👀

He sucks at it

Tease him 😈

But he still likes doing it with you

He mayhaps keeps all of your sketches in a box 🤭

Didn’t hear it from me tho

OOF

LOVES TO WATCH HORROR MOVIES WITH YOUUUU

But teases the shit outta you if you get scared 🥲

But will still comforts you ❤️

Astrology

Virgo + Libra

When Virgo and Libra join together in a love match, it can be like puting two puzzle pieces together.

Each locks into the other and sits comfortably in place. Both Signs seek security in partnership, and they share a love of beauty and culture.

They can work together efficiently and smoothly because they desire similar rewards.

The Virgo-Libra relationship may trickle along in the beginning, but it will rev up once both partners grow to respect one another.

Virgo and Libra both appreciate superficial pleasures, and they often enjoy collecting bone china, art or photographs.

They also enjoy the theater and all forms of art. Practicality and pleasure are important to both Signs, and they compliment one another in many ways.

Virgo appreciates Libra’s charm and diplomacy, and Libra can even things out when Virgo doesn’t get their way.

Libra appreciates the Virgo love of order and the tangible rewards that come with it.

Additionally, Libra and Virgo are willing and able to see the different sides of an argument, and together they make decisions only after examining the facts.

Overall Aesthetic

2000 Babes

[thecandlesticksfromlesmis]

My sister's college's theater group decided to FILM their musical one person at a time and edit it together(!!) and I'm in engineering grad school, and am aware that art school is a v v different experience but this made me think: how are you guys doing this? Are you ok? How do you learn to direct if there can't be two people on screen together? Is it like the Tom Holland thing where he didnt know who was in scenes with him? Are the editing students happy about this? If you dont want to answer I totally get it but I'm asking because engineering not in person kills me so I just. Can't fathom what you're doing. I wish you the best 💙

HEY omg yeah it’s a mess. It’s been a mess since this all started and I think it will continue to be a mess for the rest of this year. 

Rest of post under the cut cause I’m just ranting.

So when everything first hit, all filmmaking was stopped completely, which for me as a screenwriter was fine because I am not required to be on set unless I wrote the script (or have been bamboozled into script supervising ugh) anyway. But I know it hurt literally every other discipline, especially cinematographers because they need to touch cameras in order to learn and the school provides all their tech. 

Towards the end of last year, the school started back up with productions, making it mandatory for all the films to be shot on our big sound stages (usually we have free rein of all of LA and a little outside it in shoot in) and to include a COVID safety supervisor. Our sound stages were upgraded with new air ventilation systems and the school also rented out other stages to accommodate the huge number of shorts that needed to be shot. 

In order to be on set you had to have proof of a negative COVID test and have isolated in your home for two weeks before shooting. On set was a big production of face shields and masks and sanitizer and staying six feet away from each other---except for the actors. The actors could be in scenes together, provided they did all the steps above and agreed to be close to someone in a scene.

No one is happy lmao. It’s pushed back thesis schedule SO MUCH, that lots of people in my class will still be having to shoot and finish thesis after we technically graduate this year. Technically, I’m still responsible for writing a script for a project that was cancelled and removed from the “you need to do this to graduate” list. It’s been rescheduled to shoot in August when I will be rigorously prepping for the huge event where I pitch all my project to industry execs. I don’t wanna do it, but my whole team still wants to so ya know 🤷🏼‍♂️

I have no clue how the fuck the production designers are functioning. I hope they’re still able to go to the school to access the building stations and literally all their materials. Editors have to go into the school to do their work because AVID costs so much money and no one is gonna buy it personally and that’s what they edit on! Directors are being dramatic as usual (lol I love some of them but goooood the shit they’ve put writers through y’all). 

Basically, it’s all around absolutely NOT what we signed up for to earn our masters. This school’s big selling point is hands on, collaborative work, and it’s really tough to do that now. Writers have less to deal with, but what I wouldn’t give to be sitting in workshop, giving notes to people in conversation form, rather than trying to have a natural dialogue over zoom. It sucks! And I miss my friends. 

There was this beautiful room on campus, that was a “no talking zone” in the library, that I used to work in every day. It was a room full of screenplays--like stacked shelves top to bottom of bound screenplays, some original behind glass doors, some signed by writers. It was really good place for me to focus on what I came here to do. I really really miss it. It made me feel a part of something! I have barely left my house for a year and now all the words I’ve written are trapping in our one bedroom apartment and it’s so stifling. The stories are blending together and GOD I can’t wait to get a break. 

I’m burnt out and tired of the one thing I know how to do. 

But I’m going to end this on a bright note! Mike and I are getting our second shot soon, we’re working on a film project right now, I’m finishing drafts of stories I’ve been working on for so long. If everything was the way it was before all this, the things I’m accomplishing would feel so small and not impressive. But now I’m realizing just how hard they really are to finish, and I should be less hard on myself in the future! 

Anyway, thanks for asking! Hope engineering grad school is going well. I’m sure it’s hard with all this going on too! Wishing you the best 💚