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0613magazine · 1 year

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230315 EL PAÍS

RM, the leader of K-pop band BTS: ‘We work so hard in Korea because 70 years ago there was nothing’

As he promotes his first solo album, the South Korean rapper reflects on the price of success, the history of his country and collecting art

Kim Nam-joon, 28, seems genuinely surprised that a group of fans recognized him a few days ago on the streets of Bilbao, Spain. “You’d like to think that maybe in small cities, on the other side of the world, you could go unnoticed...,” says the Seoul-born rapper known as RM. He’s better known as the leader of BTS, the K-pop boy band that has broken, in 10 frenetic years, all the records in the global music industry, Bilbao included.

Last summer the group’s seven members announced a temporary break as a group to develop solo projects and do mandatory military service in Korea. Their fans (called ARMYs), of which there are 72 million on Instagram alone, eagerly await the group’s reunion, which is slated for 2025. RM confirms that he is looking forward to it, too.

He is in Spain to promote his album Indigo, which came out in December, and to visit the Guggenheim, the Thyssen, the Prado, the Picasso foundation in Barcelona... “I’ve seen tons of Goyas and I’ve been struck by El Greco, but I’m stuck on Las Meninas,” says the rapper. The first track on the amateur art collector’s album is called Yun, so named for the abstract painter Yun Hyong-keun. “They call him the Asian Rothko, but his life is what interests me: he lived through the Japanese invasion, the war, he was tortured by the government, but he never gave in. In his work, I see anger, sadness, complexity, beauty...”.

Question. Your track opens with the lines, “Fuck the trendsetter/ I’m a turn back the time/ Far to when I was nine / When things were only good or bad / I think I was more of a human.” Does K-pop’s amazing success dehumanize the artist?

Answer. You start your career very early and as part of a group. There’s not a lot of time to be an individual, but that makes K-pop shine: it’s very young people all struggling really hard together.... You generate that energy that you only have in your 20s. You fight day and night to perfect the choreography, the videos, the music, and there’s an explosion, a Big Bang. Throughout our whole 20s we invested all of our energy and time in BTS. You get success, love, influence, power, and what’s next? The root of everything remains: the music... What was the question?

Q. Is that system dehumanizing?

A. My company doesn’t like how I answer this question, because I admit that, in part, it is, and then journalists throw up their hands and say, “it’s a horrible system; it destroys young people!” But that’s partly what makes this such a special industry. And the system is getting better and better, in terms of contracts, money, education; now there are teachers, counselors, psychologists...

Q. Korean record labels, called entertainment agencies, train their artists for years. You lived with your peers from when you were 16 to 19 before you debuted in BTS in 2013. What did your parents say?

A. My mom spent two years telling me “Go back to school, you were so good at it, go your own way, go to college, make music a hobby!”.... But there was no turning back.

Q. What was the most important thing you learned during your time as a trainee?

A. Oh, I would say dancing because I couldn’t dance before.

Q. And what did you miss out on because of it?

A. I really wanted to go to college because, you know, campus life.

Q. The cult of youth, of perfection, of overachievement in K-pop… Are these Korean cultural traits?

A. In the West, people just don’t get it. Korea is a country that has been invaded, razed to the ground, torn in two. Just 70 years ago, there was nothing. We were getting aid from the IMF and the UN. But now, the whole world is looking at Korea. How is that possible? How did that happen? Well, because people try so fucking hard to better themselves. You are in France or the UK, countries that have been colonizing others for centuries, and you come to me with, “oh God, you put so much pressure on yourselves; life in Korea is so stressful!” Well, yes. That’s how you get things done. And it’s part of what makes K-pop so appealing, although, of course, there’s a dark side. Anything that happens too fast and too intensely has side effects.

Q. What is the biggest prejudice about K-pop?

A. That it’s prefabricated.

Q. What would your career have been like if you had developed it in the indie music scene or in another country?

A. I often think about the multiverse, and Doctor Strange’s lesson is always the same: your version of the universe is the best there is; don’t think about the other ones. There is nothing better than being a member of BTS.

Q. Did you imagine this version?

A. Not at all. My dream was not to be a K-pop idol. I wanted to be a rapper, and before that, a poet.

Q. You cite rappers like Nas and Eminem and groups like Radiohead and Portishead as influences, but you never mention boy bands.

A. The Beatles were also called a boy band... I’m not comparing us; they were the creators of everything. But I guess you mean NSYNC or New Kids on the Block; they’re bands whose pop music I actually liked, although I wasn’t a superfan... What got me was rap: rhythm plus poetry.

Q. You say you get jealous of those you admire. Who makes you jealous now?

A. Kendrick Lamar, always. And Pharrell Williams. He’s living history, I’d like to be that; maybe in the future. That’s why I don’t paint; being jealous of Picasso or Monet would be too much.

Q. You collect art. How do you choose the pieces?

A. I’ve only been collecting for four years, and it has changed. My focus is 20th century Korean art. But I’m not Getty or Rockefeller....

Q. You don’t do it to invest.

A. I can guarantee 100% that I do not. If I wanted to invest, I would buy Black artists, women, emerging Indonesian artists.... My goal is to open a small exhibition space in about 10 years because I think Seoul needs a place with young taste that’s also respectful of the Korean legacy, to which I would also like to bring artists like Roni Horn, Antony Gormley and Morandi.

Q. Have you always been a collector?

A. I have collected toys, like Takashi Murakami figures, then vintage clothes, then furniture, I love Charlotte Perriand and Pierre Jeanneret [both Le Corbusier collaborators], but my favorite is George Nakashima.

Q. Your album has songs from a variety of different genres. Some critics describe that as inconsistency, and others call it versatility....

A. I think the word “genre” will disappear in a few decades. R&B, Hyperpop, Jersey Club, UK Drill, Chicago Drill, K-pop! They don’t mean anything. Music is just, you know, stacks of frequencies that drive people into a certain mood.

Q. Are you sick of the “K-Pop” label?

A. You can get sick of Spotify calling us all K-pop, but it works. It’s a premium label. It’s that guarantee of quality that our grandparents fought for.

Q. Your album features Anderson .Paak, Youjeen and the elusive Erykah Badu. How did you convince her to collaborate?

A. She knew BTS because her daughter is a fan, but that wasn’t enough. I had to persuade her, I sent her a text with Yun’s story, explaining why I needed her wise queen’s voice for those verses.

Q. In your songs, you mix English and Korean, sometimes in the middle of a phrase. How do you choose one or the other?

A. Words in different languages have different textures; they have the same message, but with a different brushstroke. It comes naturally to me. I don’t play instruments, I compose and create melodies with my voice, which is my instrument, and most of my songs start with words.

Q. You have also gone through several identities. As a teenage rapper, you were Runch Randa; in BTS, you were Rap Monster and now you’re RM (for Real Me). Have you thought about using your real name?

A. [laughs] We all have a past, we call it black history in Korea. Runch Randa was my nickname in a role-playing game, then I wanted to be, you know, “a rap monster!″ Then I matured... I prefer my [real] name to be known by as few people as possible. I’m not John Lennon or Paul McCartney; I can check into a hotel and they don’t care about me, and I like that.

Q. The way you dress has changed a lot too.

A. I went through a phase of wearing XXL t-shirts and baseball caps. Then I got into high-end brands... As Rap Monster, I started wearing only black and white [he rolls his eyes and shrugs]. Now, I’m into timelessness. I’m over trends; I’m looking for vintage jeans, cotton T-shirts, natural things, that don’t scream “hey, I’m here!”

Q. You were just invited to Bottega Veneta’s fashion show in Milan, and rumor has it that you are going to collaborate with the brand.

A. I would love to, although I’ve lost interest in brands, fashion weeks and the constant change in Pantone... Bottega is different; they don’t use logos, they have a history with weaving and leather, they don’t even have Instagram. They are beyond the buzz.

Q. Is it hard to have an army of fans?

A. You can’t walk around in the middle of nowhere without being recognized, and the standards you’re held to are heavy. But you have to grow up and deal with it, not be self-pitying like “oh, I just want to be normal!” Look, if you want to think that fame is a stone, it’s a fucking stone, but if you think of it as love, as power... It got me what I was looking for: as quickly as possible, I got the influence and financial freedom to make the music I want to make without worrying about the charts... I’m not there 100%, but I try to focus on the noise inside, not the noise outside.

Q. How are you facing going into your thirties?

A. I have never been through such a confusing time. For a decade, I was the leader of BTS, and it was very stable and fun; things only got better. In 2023, a lot of things have changed, professionally and personally, although I can’t tell. As I’m about to turn 30, I like myself more than I did when I was 20. Now I will spend a year and a half in military service, which is a big deal in every Korean man’s life. And after that, I am sure I will be a different human being, hopefully a better and wiser one.

Source: EL PAÍS

#2023 #bts #rm #el pais

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oyesmendes · 2 years

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love is just a word - part 9

a/n: buckle up mi amor, this is the last one for the road! this story has brought me so much joy, and so much escape from the real world. i started it out as a side project, something to get my creativity juices flowing... and look where we are now with NINE parts + shorts... and the love that you guys have for this series has really been mindblowing. now im going to stop rambling, and i hope you guys enjoy the last part!!

this chapter is paired with a favourite song of mine so feel free to listen to it here

read all other parts here!!

Mallorca, Spain

"One more week, mi guapo." You're getting out of the car, thanking the driver as he pulls out your luggage.

"That's another race, another seven days." Pierre whines.

It had been more than four weeks since New York, and you had been working things out with Pierre at your pace. Things had fallen into normalcy over time, like a long distance couple working out their troubles. You worked on the last few projects on hand, spending most of your time at shoots in the city, or editing photographs at Joe’s bakery. Pierre texted you and Facetimed whenever he had the chance, and you sent pictures or called to update him about the various mundane things in your life. For the first time in your life you properly communicated, and it felt like a breath of fresh air.

You fought hard, and Pierre proved to be fighting just as much, if not more for the both of you.

"Hey,” You press your phone between your shoulder and ear, dragging the luggage up a couple of stairs, “I miss you too, guapo, but you know I have to do this."

He sighs, following his PR manager to some media stunt the Red Bull team had organised, "I just wish I could be there with you."

"I know, but I'll see you as soon as you're done with the race." He has no clue about the surprise you have install for him.

Pierre stays silent as you roll your luggage up the all too familiar pathway of the Sainz summer home. The familiar shadow of piñon jumping and barking in excitement by the window. Reyes is standing by the door with him now, waving you in.

The phone is still pressed to your ear as you listen to his soft breathing.

"Pierre?" He hums in response.

"I love you."

"I love you too, chérie."

Reyes embraces you in her arms the moment you get to the door.

"Are you cooking empanadas?" You ask once you pull away, the aroma overwhelming your senses.

"Of course, mija. I've got your favourite gazpacho too. Now c'mon, let's get you settled in before the boys get back."

It felt like deja vu, every summer holiday of your childhood spent on this property. So many memories of you and Carlos littered this home, and it felt like a time capsule. You set your bags down in the spare bedroom, stopping to peak into Carlos’ room. Pictures of you had long been replaced or removed, but the room remained the same. Light blue walls and a queen sized bed. That poster of Monaco you’d gotten him for his 18th birthday.

“Nothing’s changed, right?” Reyes is standing next to you, a wooden spatula in her hand.

“Do you want to head outside? The weather is beautiful today, and I think piñon over here wants some company.” You see the furry friend wagging his tail excitedly, and can’t help but to agree to take him outside.

You're standing barefoot on the grass, leaning against the wall which overlooks the sea. Piñon is speeding after a tennis ball you threw, running rounds around the area.

After about an hour, the boys are starting to pull up in their car, all of them filing out and heading straight for the kitchen. You can hear the commotion from outside, but you decide to stay, not wanting to have too many eyes on you.

"You have a guest in the backyard." Reyes tells Carlos while preparing the tapas on the counter.

"Who?" He asks, furrowing his brows. Reyes only shrugs, turning back to the dishes. The rest of the boys avoid eye contact, even Carlos Sr has his mouth attached to the edge of a glass, trying not to say anything to his son. They were all in on this plan, and would be damned if they ruined whatever was going to happen.

Carlos makes his way outside, and Piñon is running toward him immediately. At first, he's distracted by the four legged creature, until it starts barking towards a certain direction, and he looks up to see you.

You're standing with your arms folded loosely, a small smile on your face. You had a summer dress on, one of the many you he loved to see you wearing. The sunlight shone on you and you were practically glowing underneath it; something about you had changed.

"Castaña..."

You manage a small wave before gesturing to the outdoor seating area; away from the prying eyes of their family. He follows you, and so does piñon, the both of you sit on opposite sides of the table. A part of him is happy you’re here, but another part of him is afraid of why you were here. Because the last time he checked, you almost smacked the living shit out of him in Madrid.

“Lo siento, Carlitos.” You start, your eyes locking with his for the first time in a long awhile. There's a pause, Carlos searching for the right words in his brain.

“I’m sorry, too. For everything, Y/N.” He tries to grab your hand but you pull away quickly, muttering a soft apology.

“This ends here, Carlos. Whatever that has gone down in our lives, let it be gone; I want to start over, with Pierre. I see- No, let me finish.“ You tell him when he opens his mouth to speak.

“I see a future with Pierre. And I know its hard for you to hear this, but it is what it is. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me after us; after the disaster of the last three years, he taught me what love is - and what love isn’t.” You reach out for his hand this time, holding it softly in yours,

“So this is me asking you, to give us your blessing, to be happy for us." You rub a small circle around the scar on his thumb from the time he was learning to make your favourite pasta and cut himself with a pair of scissors. A permanent reminder that there had been you and him.

“If you need time, I understand. I just had to let you know.”

Carlos doesn’t say a word after, leaving the both of you to stew in the silence. You shift in your seat, pulling your hand away from his again. You wanted to get up and leave, the tension being too strong. But you stayed on; you watched him. His eyes are focused on a particular tree in the garden behind you.

"Te quiero mucho mi amor, I always will. You know that?" He says seriously.

You look down at your hands, toying with the rings on your fingers, "I know."

"I broke up with Isa because of you, because of us." You take in a sharp breath, the air suddenly growing a lot warmer. Carlos looks at your hands, then your face.

"Chilli I-"

He cuts you off, "I found a picture of us in one of the boxes when I moved to Maranello. Remember your Dakar helmet?"

You nod. Carlos smiles softly to himself, picturing that dark green helmet sitting on one of his shelves. He recently even put out the picture from that moment next to it, and every time he passes it he's reminded of all the things he's lost. Its a bittersweet feeling for him - to know how good the both of you once were, to know that he was the one that fucked it all up.

All the happiness you could've shared. All those summer nights slow dancing in the kitchen, all those times at a race weekend, all those times with you; and only you.

He wants to be unfair; to not give you his blessing, after all, did you really care about what he thought of this? Did it matter if he gave you his blessing? But then he looks at you, and he sees the glow on your face, the happiness practically illuminating your eyes. The magical light Pierre gave you, one that Carlos knew he could never achieve even in this lifetime.

“Does he make you happy?”

It was a genuine question, and you gave the most genuine answer. A smile forming on your face when you think about Pierre.

“I'm the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Carlos nods, leaning back against the chair.

“Then you have my blessing.” There’s a subtle shakiness in his voice, the feeling of pain in his chest; but Carlos knows he has to let you go. After all, he had to take the blame for letting you go three years ago. He stands and you follow suit, walking around the table to hug him.

“Mucho gracias chilli, you have no idea how much that means to me.” There are tears threatening to spill at the edge of his eyes, and when you see them, your thumb grazes his cheek. The tears start to flow with the contact of your skin on his, and you're wiping them away.

You press a kiss on his cheek, "I'm sorry time wasn't in our favour in this lifetime."

He does the same, leaving a kiss on your forehead, "we'll try again in our next life."

Silverstone, Great Britain

Carlos is brisk walking down the paddock for the press conference, barely stopping for anyone. He was nervous to say the least. Him and Pierre in the same room for the first time since Monaco. Whoever thought about this pairing for the press conference definitely read the gossip columns.

It was nothing damaging - only a picture of you, holding onto your helmet and speeding off on a motorbike from Carlos's hotel. That morning from Monaco. But of course, the pot was there, and people seem to love spending their time stirring it.

Carlos gets there ten minutes before the conference was scheduled to begin. He’s hovering outside the room until he spots Pierre walking in as well. They nod at each other, nothing more shared. Then they were being called in. It felt like there were more cameras flashing than usual, and the reporters seemed to be buzzing for something they had no clue about. Something was not right.

The usual questions about the track and race rivalry were asked, and standard answers were given. It seemed to be going down well, considering the suspicions Carlos had. Until a reporter with blonde hair, and a dark purple shirt opened his god damn mouth.

“Alright we’ll take the next question.”

“So Pierre, Carlos - how do you two feel about being played by the same girl?” The reporter had a smug look on his face, and you could hear the audible gasp from both the Ferrari and Alpha Tauri PR managers.

“Excuse me?” Pierre sat up straighter in his chair, ready to take a swing at the man.

“Y/N Y/LN. Did you see the pictures?” Sure they knew about the pictures. Pierre was ready to brawl with that reporter, but they were both being told to get up and leave.

“I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about here,” Carlos scowls at him, “but Y/N and I are best friends, and we always will be. There’s nothing more between me and her than just pure friendship." His PR manager is about to drag him by the collar, but Carlos knows he has to get this in.

"Just so you know, Pierre is an amazing boyfriend, and I couldn’t be happier to be supporting their relationship.”

He is ripping off the mic from his head, and pats Pierre’s shoulders as they make their way off the stage.

“If you’re so interested in reporting our love lives,” Pierre turns back to the audience, “then go work for some gossip magazine. Don't waste everyone's time asking stupid questions."

They're headed for the media pen, which no doubt will be another battle to fight. Carlos stops Pierre just before they emerge, "I meant what I said mate. Take care of her for me, okay?"

Pierre nods, and both the men hug each other.

It was race day. You’re speeding along the empty paddock next to Pyry, who’s handing you a set of headphones. You’re trying to look as presentable as possible, but the task was proving to be more on the impossible end, especially after a twelve hour flight.

“Does he know?”

“Of course not, I’m the best secret keeper you know.” You roll your eyes at the Finn, who’s now leading you into the garage. There were less than five laps left to the race, and Pierre was in P11, trying his best to keep his spot. When the mechanics and engineers spot you rushing in, the smiles on their face grew. Somehow the word got around, and everyone knew about your surprise except for Pierre himself. You throw a small wave to them, and head straight to Franz Tost.

“Ah there’s my new head of media,” he announces.

"I hope you're ready for the mess to clean up after this weekend." Of course he would refer to the press conference. And you were well prepared to tackle on the gossip columns and other news outlets spouting all sorts of speculations.

"I'll make sure everything's sparking clean." You wink at Franz, who's giving you another side hug before you go to Pierre's race engineer. A couple of team members came to pat you on the back, congratulating you on the new title. It was no surprise that you'd be a new addition, considering the very blatant conversations and rumours that were flying around. You had been offered the role weeks ago by the Alpha Tauri team, but the love triangle you had been caught in had delayed the agreement, only allowing you to sign the contract days before Silverstone.

So now you're here, in the middle of the 2021 season. Head of Media for Scuderia Alpha Tauri. It had a nice ring to it, you weren't going to lie.

The race ended, and Pierre had gone off to media duties, having you stew in the excitement of this surprise for awhile longer. You're standing in the middle of the paddock, speaking to someone but barely paying any attention as you tried to spot Pierre walking over. You were playing with your fingers, occasionally biting your lips as you ran through multiple scenarios in your head.

Then you see him, all other worries forgotten. And he sees you too. You can tell that he doesn't believe his eyes at first, turning his attention to Pyry before he does another take. Pyry smacks him on the back to confirm that his eyes weren't playing tricks, and he starts running towards you, his race suit hanging dangerously low on his hips. Your arms are wide open, and it’s almost dramatic as hell, but you couldn’t be bothered at this point in time.

Pierre collides straight into you and you're being lifted in the air, excited squeals escaping your lips.

"Mon chérie." He buries his head in your neck. When he pulls away, he takes your head in his hand, feeling your cheeks.

"Is this real?"

"Yes, mi amor." You chuckle at his child-like gaze.

“I have one more surprise for you.” You spot Franz walking over, and he pats Pierre on his back.

“I see you’re cozying up with our new head of media."

Pierre looks to you, surprised and confused all at the same time. His mind is racing, he couldn’t believe his ears.

“But what about New York? What about your job?” He asks, worried that you were giving everything up again like you did the last time. And you knew exactly what he was thinking, even when he didn’t show it.

“New York was my escape, but this is my passion. To be here, at the pinnacle of motorsport, with the love of my life, creating new memories for everyone.” You felt a sense of pride saying that, finally being true to yourself in what you wanted in life. Pierre has on a smile, then his lips crashes into yours and you stumble back, laughing. Nothing more needed to be said between the two of you as you hugged in the middle of the crowds. You’ve fought, and you’ve both won.

And this is what love is, what love will be, for the rest of your lives.

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#formula 1 #formula one #formula 1 one shot #formula 1 x reader #pierre gasly #pierre gasly x reader #carlos sainz jr x reader #carlos sainz x reader #carlos sainz jr #carlos sainz junior

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usafphantom2 · 2 years

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Belgium will buy a second A330 MRTT tanker, raising the MMU fleet to ten aircraft

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 09/08/2022 - 20:23in Military

The European fleet of Airbus A330 MRTT (Multi-Role Tanker Transport) tankers and transport aircraft will eventually increase from nine to ten aircraft, thanks to a new investment of more than 270 million euros granted by Belgium.

This fleet, which bears the name of MMU (MSTT Multinational Unit), brings together six European NATO member countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway and the Czech Republic). It now has a "pool" of seven devices of the nine currently ordered, and the last two were delivered at the end of July.

The STAR plan (for "Safety & Service, Technology, Ambition, Resilience") approved this summer by the Belgian government and parliament, however, provides for Belgium to invest, in the second half of the decade, in the equivalent of an MRTT to achieve a participation of "two MRTT equivalents". Belgium will effectively be the "economic owner of the plane", but will be made available to all countries that have participated financially, namely Germany, Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, the Netherlands and Norway. The fleet will therefore increase from nine to ten aircraft, the office of Belgian Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder told the Belgian agency on Monday.

The STAR plan sets an amount of 272.38 million euros for this additional contribution - equivalent to one thousand flight hours per year - for the period of 2025 or 2026 (for budget authorization) to 2029, the year scheduled until the end of payments, according to the defense office.

Replenishers, essential for large-scale air operations, are a rare system in the arsenal of European air forces that, however, try to fill this gap. Thanks to MMU, for the replacement in France of the 12 former American Boeing KC-135 by 15 Airbus A330 MRTTs and in Spain by the planned conversion of three civilian A330s into "tank aircraft". These planes are also capable of carrying out passenger transport missions and/or medical cargo and evacuation (or Medevac in military jargon).

Belgium joined the MMU project in early 2018, allocating an amount of 258 million euros, equivalent to an initial aircraft. This guarantees you an annual quota of 1,000 flight hours for in-flight refueling missions, passenger transport - including the trips made by King Philippe to Denmark, the Middle East or the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) - and/or medical freight and evacuation (up to six patients in "high care" and simultaneously sixteen patients in "low assistance", as well as the necessary medical personnel

The A330 MRTT has the two existing refuelling systems, which allows you to refuel almost all combat aircraft in service in the West. It has the probe systems (boom), used by many American planes (F-15, F-16, F-35, C-17, E-3 AWACS) and the basket (bar and basket) widely used by European fighters, such as the French Rafale and Mirage, the Eurofighter or the Swedish JAS39. The seven aircraft already in service operate both at the Eindhoven airfield (southern Netherlands) and in the military part of Cologne airport (western Germany).

Tags: A330 MRTTMilitary AviationBelgian Air Component wings - Belgian Air ForceNATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization

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Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, he has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. It has works published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. He uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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architectuul · 2 years

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Sustainable-Sustainable Architecture

Critical Concrete is an architectural social initiative in Porto that provides an alternative way of teaching, learning and creating architecture. Through running workshops, summer school programs and combining both theoretical and practical activities, the project fosters sustainability in close collaboration with the community.

Reconstruction of a roof for a vulnerable family in the context of a social project, co-funded by the district municipality of Ramalde. | Photo © Critical Concrete

The founder of Critical Concrete Samuel Kalika studied mathematics and fine arts before he moved to Berlin to coordinate the ZK/U Center for Arts and Urbanistics of Berlin (2011 – 2016). In 2015 he founded Critical Concrete as a socially relevant cultural project, a production centre, platform for makers and locals in a suburb of Porto. Hit by the housing poverty they encountered when scouting for spaces, Samuel and Juliana Trentin — first project coordinator — redesigned the project for it to be a solution to tackle this issue and introduce young people to its reality.

Why have you started Critical Concrete? Samuel Kalika: I was working in Berlin and as I have beforehand lived in Spain for almost seven years I wanted to start something in the Southern Europe, mostly because the quality of life is better. When I arrived in Porto I wanted to set up an idea of an activation of a project space that could offer possibilities to change the urban environment doing different workshops and programs. Visiting different places in Porto opened a deeper problem, especially the housing opportunities.

House renovation of a vulnerable family in the context of a social project, co-funded by the Esposende Municipality. | Photo © Critical Concrete

Portugal is one of the countries in Europe that has one of the worst conditions when it comes to housing. If we compare in terms of energy poverty, Bulgaria is the worst in Europe and immediately afterwards comes Portugal. A fact that a lot of Portuguese people lives in poverty with problematic housing conditions gave us this push to start this social architecture initiative instead of project space I was mentioning at the very beginning.

Therefore you initiated the idea of social architecture through the educational format? SK: Our starting point was organising the summer school project, where we kicked out the project with a direct social impact by a crowdfunding the action through an educational format. So the students would pay for the educational format that would cover most of the cost of refurbishment of the sites and mentors’ work.

Participatory design of a public space re-qualification in Apúlia, co-funded by the Esposende Municipality. | Photo © Critical Concrete

Critical Concrete is a practice with the focus in solving different housing problems? SK: We work within the district municipality to find a family unit that would be in a situation of housing distress. We organise three weeks workshop for the complete refurbishment of the house. Our result is a social and sustainable architecture.

Covid pandemic brought solitude and isolation; how did you work during these times? SK: Before the pandemic we organised four summer schools from 2016 - 2019, which we stop during the pandemic and move to a long term educational program. We set up a plan of post-graduation course, a kind of a master that last for one year. It is a specialisation program that we set up in collaboration with ESAP (Escola Artistica do Porto) and evaluate the degree.

Carpentry workshop with the Inter-generational University of Ramalde. | Photo © Critical Concrete

Participatory design and construction of outdoor furniture for a community space in Ramalde (Porto). | Photo © Critical Concrete

In such way we developed the theoretical experience of summer school and instead of having an intense hands-on practice in only three, we extended it over six weeks. We still have two workshops, just in longer period of time during the whole year. With online classes we still focus on the idea of the execution of one third theoretical and two third of practical program. In such way a new educational system, our learning platform of sustainability is created as an autonomous project Criti.co.

You are also funding self sufficient projects? SK: The transition of this work become clear during the pandemic. It was very clear the we need to be more robust if we want to survive. We engage a valid group of people to create a social impact and become an advocative for sustainability.

So you create an open source in collaboration with different partners? SK: Yes, for sure.

When we talk about Critical Concrete, we talk about new construction materials and prototypes? SK: This is an ongoing research that we are developing. At our own start we realised how ignorant we were when it comes to use of the sustainable materials. That’s why we started to question ourself the possibility of using such materials as mycelium. Our first insulation prototype was very simple and when we started to work with mycelium we realised how fireproof, how resistant to water and how biodegradable is. We are still testing, working on the prototypes so this is still a research phase that needs more time and money to be fully developed and realised.

Hands-on workshop with the students of Critical Concrete and ESAP’ Sustainable-Sustainable Architecture post-graduation. | Photo © Critical Concrete

What is the importance of self-build projects? SK: We are using our project space for prototyping. We test anything we would like to apply to a client’s home. The most emblematic test was the asbestos roof of the workshop, which we remove and built a green semi intensive roof. This was a challenge to work with wooden materials. Part of the green roof lay on the new foundation where we used the structure of old tires. We collaborated with organisation dealing with the insolation panels made of corks. There are many small solutions, which shall be discovered, tested and implemented into new solution for better living conditions.

Samuel Kalika is the founder of Critical Concrete. After studying mathematics (BA – Paris VI, 2003) and fine arts (MA – UPV, Valencia & CAFA, Beijing, 2011), Samuel moved to Berlin to coordinate the ZK/U Center for Arts and Urbanistics of Berlin (2011 – 2016). There, he worked mainly around the problematics of sustainability of DIY, placements of artists in non-artistic organisations and coordinated the artistic residency. In parallel, he was developing socially engaged artistic projects 2010. In the continuation of his work at the ZK/U, Samuel founded Critical Concrete in 2015. The intention of the project was to create a socially relevant cultural project, a production centre, platform for makers and locals in a suburb of Porto. Hit by the housing poverty they encountered when scouting for spaces, Samuel and Juliana — first project coordinator — redesigned the project for it to be a solution to tackle this issue, resolve some situation, and sensibilise young people to this hidden reality. On a second stage, the production centre Co-Lateral was opened in September 2016 in the neighbourhood of Francos, in the North West of Porto.

#sustainable #critical_concrete prototype

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newstfionline · 3 years

Text

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

‘Major’ Oil Spill Off California Coast Threatens Wetlands and Wildlife (NYT) A pipeline failure off the coast of Orange County, Calif., on Saturday caused at least 126,000 gallons of oil to spill into the Pacific Ocean, creating a 13-square-mile slick that continued to grow on Sunday, officials said. Dead fish and birds washed ashore in some places as cleanup crews raced to try to contain the spill, which created a slick that extended from Huntington Beach to Newport Beach. It was not immediately clear what caused the leak, which officials said occurred three miles off the coast of Newport Beach and involved a pipeline failure. Mayor Kim Carr of Huntington Beach said at a news conference on Sunday afternoon that the spill was “one of the most devastating situations our community has dealt with in decades.”

The Pandora Papers (Foreign Policy) The massive leak of secret financial data has revealed the offshore wealth of some of the world’s most powerful people. The data, dubbed the Pandora Papers by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists—the group that spearheaded the project—shows how far some world leaders, billionaires, and other oligarchs have gone to hide their wealth. Considering the vast wealth of America’s own oligarchs, it’s surprising on first blush to see no U.S. names mentioned. One simple explanation, put forward by the Washington Post, is that U.S. millionaires and billionaires have enough tools available within the U.S. tax code to shield most of their wealth already.

Spain’s foreign tourism soars but well below pre-pandemic level (Reuters) Foreign tourism to Spain rose rapidly in August as looser travel restrictions tempted back summer sunseekers though visitor numbers remained at around half their pre-pandemic levels, official statistics showed on Monday. The number of foreign tourists visiting in August more than doubled from a year ago to 5.19 million but was still barely above half the level seen in 2019, the National Statistics Institute said on Monday.

Farmers among 8 killed as India protest erupts in violence (CNN) At least eight people were killed when violence broke out in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on Sunday after a car linked to a federal minister ran over two farmers taking part in a protest against controversial farm laws. A farmers’ union spokesperson said Sunday the deaths happened after a convoy of vehicles associated with junior home affairs minister Ajay Mishra Teni “ran over several protesters.” Protests in Lakhimpur Kheri began on September 25 after Teni reportedly said “farmers should reform themselves or they will be reformed,” according to CNN affiliate CNN-News18.

India’s Christians living in fear as claims of ‘forced conversions’ swirl (Guardian) It was a stifling July afternoon when the crowd moved into the small district of Lakholi, in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, and gathered outside the house of Tamesh War Sahu. Sahu, a 55-year-old volunteer with the Home Guard who had begun following Christianity more than five years previously, had never before had issues with his neighbours. But now, more than 100 people had descended from surrounding villages and were shouting Hindu nationalist slogans outside his front door. Sahu’s son Moses, who had come out to investigate the noise, was beaten by the mob, who then charged inside. As the men entered the house, they shouted death threats at Sahu’s wife and began tearing posters bearing Bible quotes down from the walls. Bibles were seized from the shelves and brought outside where they were set alight, doused in water and the ashes thrown in the gutter. “We will teach you a lesson,” some people were heard to shout. “This is what you get for forcing people into Christianity.” Sahu’s family was not the only one attacked that day. Four other local Christian households were also targeted by mobs, led by the Hindu nationalist vigilante group Bajrang Dal, known for their aggressive and hardline approach to “defending” Hinduism. Since the beginning of the year there have been similar attacks across Chhattisgarh, already the Indian state with the second highest number of incidents against Christians. In some villages, Christian churches have been vandalised, in others pastors have been beaten or abused. Congregations have been broken up by mobs and believers hospitalised with injuries. The police, too, stand accused—of making threats to Christians, hauling them into police stations and carrying out raids on Sunday prayer services. The attacks have coincided with renewed attention on a longstanding claim from rightwing Hindu groups: that a string of forced conversions are taking place in Chhattisgarh. Such claims have been made by senior figures in the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), which governs India.

Japan’s Parliament elects former diplomat Kishida as new PM (AP) Japan’s parliament on Monday elected Fumio Kishida, a former moderate turned hawk, as prime minister. He’ll face an economy battered by the pandemic, security threats from China and North Korea and leadership of a political party whose popularity is sagging ahead of a fast-approaching crucial national election. He replaces Yoshihide Suga, who resigned after only one year in office as his support plunged over his government’s handling of the pandemic and insistence on holding the Tokyo Olympics as the virus spread.

New Zealand admits it can no longer get rid of coronavirus (AP) New Zealand’s government acknowledged Monday what most other countries did long ago: It can no longer completely get rid of the coronavirus. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced a cautious plan to ease lockdown restrictions in Auckland, despite an outbreak there that continues to simmer. Since early in the pandemic, New Zealand had pursued an unusual zero-tolerance approach to the virus through strict lockdowns and aggressive contact tracing. Under Ardern’s plan that starts Tuesday, Aucklanders will be able to meet outdoors with loved ones from one other household, early childhood centers will reopen and people will be able to go to the beach. The dates for a phased reopening of retail stores and later bars and restaurants have yet to be decided.

3,000 Yazidis Are Still Missing. Their Families Know Where Some of Them Are. (NYT) The voice messages sent by Abbas Hussein’s teenage son are heartbreaking in their matter-of-factness. The boy, a member of Iraq’s Yazidi minority who was kidnapped by Islamic State fighters seven years ago, asks about his mother and wonders why his father has not been in touch. In the messages sent last summer to his father, an unemployed laborer, the son says his captor will not let him send any more because his parents have not delivered payments as demanded. “Father, if you don’t have money, that’s OK. Just let me know,” says the teenager, who still has the voice of a child. “I will work and save money and give it to him to let me talk to you.” Mr. Hussein has known for more than a year that his son and five other relatives are being held in Turkish-controlled northern Syria by a former ISIS fighter who joined the Syrian National Army—a Turkish-backed coalition of armed opposition groups that includes mercenaries and Syrian rebels. He’s one of roughly 3,000 Yazidis still missing after being captured by ISIS during its takeover of parts of Iraq and Syria. While most of the missing are presumed dead, hundreds more are thought to be alive and held captive in Syria or Turkey. In some cases, their families know where they are and have even been in contact with them or their captors. But financial support from governments and private donors, as well as interest from them in finding the missing Yazidis, has dried up.

Taliban-style security welcomed by some, feared by others (AP) It wasn’t 7 a.m. yet and already the line outside the police station’s gates was long, with men bringing their complaints and demands for justice to Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers. Something new they immediately found: The Taliban fighters who are now the policemen don’t demand bribes like police officers did under the U.S-backed government of the past 20 years. “Before, everyone was stealing our money,” said Hajj Ahmad Khan, who was among those in line at the Kabul District 8 police station on a recent day. “Everywhere in our villages and in government offices, everyone had their hands out,” he said. Many Afghans fear the harsh ways of the Taliban, their hard-line ideology or their severe restrictions of women’s freedoms. But the movement does bring a reputation for not being corrupt, a stark contrast to the government it ousted, which was notoriously rife with bribery, embezzlement and graft. Even residents who shudder at the potential return of punishments—such as chopping off the hands of thieves—say some security has returned to Kabul since the Taliban swept in on Aug. 15. Under the previous government, gangs of thieves had driven most people off the streets by dark. Several roads between cities are again open and have even been given the green light for travel by some international aid organizations.

Deadly, historic Tropical Cyclone Shaheen departs Oman after devastating flooding (Washington Post) In the course of a single day, an exceptionally rare hurricane-strength storm unloaded up to four years’ worth of rain along Oman’s northern coast, causing deadly flooding. Named Tropical Cyclone Shaheen, the tempest slammed ashore late Sunday, about 50 miles to the west of Muscat, Oman’s capital city. The storm has since departed, but not before leaving 11 dead in Oman, mostly because of flash flooding and landslides. The storm was also blamed for two fatalities in Iran, where the bodies of two fishermen were found.

#headlines #news

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comrade-meow · 3 years

Link

The Jewish Socialists’ Group takes its banner to many protests and marches but, for us, the commemoration of the Battle of Cable Street of October 1936, a pivotal moment in the fight against fascism in Britain, has a special meaning.

Fascism was advancing across Europe. Mussolini had already taken power in Italy, Hitler in Germany, and in many countries fascist movements were growing rapidly. In July 1936, Franco launched his devastating war on other Spanish people who dared to elect a progressive, democratic government, though one of Franco’s generals claimed: “Our war is not a Spanish Civil War but a war of western civilisation against the Jews of the entire world.”

Here in Britain, with nearly 3 million unemployed, hunger and hopelessness, and a loss of faith in conventional politics, a wannabe aristocratic politician, with financial backing from Mussolini in Italy and generous capitalists here, wanted to make a show of strength in East London where his movement – the British Union of Fascists – had its biggest branches. Those East End branches formed a horseshoe around the Jewish enclave, where 60,000 Jewish people, were trying to find enough work to eke out a living, mainly as tailors, shoemakers, cabinetmakers, market traders and shop assistants.

He chose the fourth anniversary of the founding of his movement to try to invade their streets with thousands of uniformed, jackbooted fascists, to abuse, threaten and intimidate them. Mosley sought support especially from the East End’s other large minority – Irish Catholics – but, on the day, the most unionised sectors of the Irish, dockers and railway workers united with the mass of Jewish East Enders and other non-Jewish anti-fascists to blockade the streets. In Cable Street they built barricades together. Seven thousand police could not clear a path for the fascists to march, as they had been ordered to by John Simon, the Liberal Home Secretary of a Tory-dominated National Government.

Earlier that week he had rejected a petition with nearly 100,000 signatures collected in just two days, calling for the march to be banned. It was drawn up by the Jewish People’s Council Against Fascism and Antisemitism (JPC) – a militant local grassroots coalition, formed with the aim of mobilising local Jews and uniting with non-Jewish anti-fascists to build an anti-fascist majority in the area. Within hours of the Home Secretary rejecting their call, the JPC was printing leaflets addressed to “Citizens of London” stating loud and clear: “This march must not take place!”

The formation of the JPC was also a direct response to the abject failure of the Jewish community’s self-proclaimed leaders – the Board of Deputies – to do anything to support the East End Jews under siege. They had told them they were exaggerating and arrogantly brushed aside the local Jewish community’s claims of police partiality towards the fascists.

We will not forget how the Board of Deputies and the Jewish Chronicle told Jews to stay indoors, claiming that any involvement in public demonstrations against Mosley would aid antisemites. It was their aloofness, their complacency, their lack of care towards London’s largest working class Jewish community that was aiding the antisemites.

Neither will we forget how the Board’s Vice-President and leader of the United Synagogue, Robert Waley Cohen, condemned antisemitism at a meeting of Jewish ex-serviceman in the summer of 1936 while telling them that Jews were prospering in Italy under Mussolini’s fascist regime, and that he himself was attracted to aspects of fascist ideology. Fortunately, the Jewish community completely ignored the wisdom and advice of their “leaders”.

The people, though, that the Jewish Socialists’ Group remembers most, and with immense pride and affection, are the parents and grandparents of many of our members who courageously took to the streets that day to defend the East End as a multicultural area where all communities would be able to live in harmony.

And we remember the unity in action of those who did most to mobilise the resistance that day, whether from the JPC, the Communist Party, the Independent Labour Party or the Labour League of Youth, and the local trade unions. We especially honour the 200 or so East Enders who continued their anti-fascist activities after Cable Street by joining the International Brigades fighting against Franco in Spain. Thirty-six of these local volunteers for liberty did not return; they lie buried in the Spanish soil.

While they were fighting in Spain, the movement here cemented the victory on the streets with a brilliant campaign to bring together the very communities that Mosley had tried to divide against each other – the Irish and the Jews. This joint campaign, under the auspices of the Stepney Tenants Defence League, saw more than 20 rent strikes against slum landlords. With both communities working closely together, it was much harder for the fascists to advance their politics of hate.

For us – as Jewish socialists, anti-racists and anti-fascists – this is a living history. Fascism was defeated then but returned to the East End streets in the 1970s through the National Front and the British Movement. Their antisemitism was intact but their principal targets were the Bengali communities that had settled in the same streets and worked in similar conditions in the clothing industry as the Jews had in the 1930s. New grassroots movements, led by Bengali youth, spearheaded the resistance to fascist intimidation and daily institutional racism, and they found allies in a similar way to the JPC in the 1930s.

We are proud that our rally this year, on Sunday 3rd October, will be co-chaired by a Jewish Socialists’ Group member and a Bengali activist – two communities brought together by a history of resistance to racism and fascism and we pledge ourselves to continue the fight against fascism and all racism and bigotry today. Please join us!

Cable Street 85th Anniversary march and rally

Assemble 1pm Junction of Cable Street, Leman Street and Dock Street.

Marching to the Cable Street Mural/St George’s Gardens.

Speakers include:

Apsana Begum MP, Jeremy Corbyn MP (Project for Peace and Justice), Rabbi Herschel Gluck, Mick Lynch Gen Sec RMT, Amina Patel (Unison), Abdul Chowdhury (NEU), Noorahmed Uddin (Altab Ali Foundation) Joginder Bains (Indian Workers Association-GB) Julia Bard (Jewish Socialists’ Group), Rob Griffiths, (Communist Party), Weyman Bennet (Stand Up To Racism) Marlene Sidaway (International Brigades Memorial Trust), and relatives of the activists of 1936: Michael Rosen, Ruth Levitas, June Legg and JVL member Tony Booth.

Co-chairs: Julie Begum (Swadhinata Trust), David Rosenberg (JSG)

#Anglo.txt

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probably-writing-x · 4 years

Text

Misspoken.

Arón Piper x Reader

Request by anon: can i request a very specific aron piper imagine where y/n is a london college student and she is secretly dating him while visiting him in spain for her birthday they have a big fight where he says something like thats why you don’t deserve to be loved, she gets back home heartbroken , he is really sorry about what he said, he tries to apologize several times in her college to her but at the end he decides to surprise her with a cake and a very sweet message

Request by anon: Hi! I love your fics! Could you write Arón being protective of his gf?

Gif is not my own

Requests are open 🤍

You were relieved as you finally set your bags down in Arón’s flat and knew that this week away to celebrate your birthday was actually going to plan. With you studying at UCL in London and him working and living over here, it was difficult to ever find enough time to see each other. But Arón had been completely set on spending your birthday with you.

“Welcome back!” He grins as he turns around to face you, having carried your suitcase up.

You laugh and walk over to kiss him strongly, cupping his face as you do, “It’s good to be back.”

He grins and lets his hands fall to your hips as he walks you back, “You know, we’ve got some time before my first plan of the day...”

You cock a brow as your legs hit the edge of the bed frame, “Enough time for me to unpack?”

He laughs at your suggestion as you fall back onto the mattress with him, “Definitely not.”

- - - - - -

As Arón had said, he’d set up plans for the entire week that you were here - saying that your birthday deserved to be celebrated over the course of seven days. The first day consisted of the two of you going on a hike through the countryside and the second consisted of a long lie in with breakfast in bed. Now, that evening, you were heading out for a meal at a restaurant in town that he’d said he always wanted to take you to.

“You’ve done too much Arón,” You sigh as he fixes his tie for the evening and you finish getting dressed too, “It’s not even my birthday yet.”

“It is in Australia,” He points out, gesturing to the clock that hung on his wall.

You roll your eyes as he reaches over and takes your hand, “Ready to go?”

The restaurant was only a short walk away so you decided that the warm evening called for an excuse for the two of you to walk down to the restaurant instead of calling a cab. He held your hand so contentedly, baffled as to how he’d spent so long without it. You always managed to make long distance work - you both just knew you had to make the most of the pockets of time that you did have together.

You arrive at the restaurant and the hostess takes you to your table, right by the window with a warm candle and low lighting.

“Tom will be your waiter for the evening, he’ll be over shortly to take your order,” The lady smiles before walking back to the door.

You glance around at the fancy interior, knowing full well you’d already feel guilty about the price he’d be paying in a place like this.

“Arón...”

“Don’t even say it,” He chuckles, “It’s the night before your birthday, I want to treat you.”

You smile gently at his instant response, knowing you too well.

“Good evening, I’ll be your waiter for this evening,” A young boy, about your age walks over, speaking in a clear British accent, “What drinks can I get for you?”

“We’ll have a bottle of champagne for the table, please,” Arón nods, glancing at you with a light smile.

The waiter still turns to you and it’s only then that you recognise him.

“Hey, I know you, right? UCL?” Tom frowns, “I think we took a class together.”

“Yeah, of course,” You smile, “How are you?”

“I’m good thank you, you look great.”

It’s an innocent comment. Nothing more than a polite remark really. But you see the way Arón shifts in his seat like it’s suddenly the most uncomfortable thing ever.

“Well, it’s really good to see you,” You nod, “We’ll have to catch up soon.”

Tom dismissed himself after that and you turn your focus back to Arón.

“Who’s that guy?” He asks, trying to seem nonchalant as he scans across the starters in the menu.

“Tom, I sat next to him in a class during second year but he’s been studying abroad for this year so I haven’t seen him in ages,” You explain, looking through the endless food choices on the menu.

“Hmm, you never mentioned him,” Arón points out, not once glancing up to you.

“I don’t really remember to mention every person I sit next to in class,” You laugh a little, “He’s just a friend.”

Arón looks up and sighs a little, “I’m sorry.”

You shake your head with a smile, “It’s fine, honestly. I’d be a little cautious too if it was someone with you.”

Tom comes over and places down the ice bucket with champagne and two glasses for both of you.

“Okay, and how about food?”

Arón allows you to order first as you pick out your starter and main from the menu.

“Great choice,” Tom shoots you a wink, “And for you, sir?”

Arón shifts in his chair again before reaching out one hand and linking it with yours across the table. Tom’s eyes fall to your hands but he’s likely just in confusion like you are.

Arón reels off his order and closes the menu, “Cheers buddy.”

As Tom walks away, you turn to Arón with a sigh, “Can we please not let this affect the evening?”

Arón takes a deep breath, “You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“I just want to make the most of our time here,” You comment, “Come on, tell me how filming’s going.”

Just like that, the two of you fall back into your old ways and everything and everyone else seems so far from your little bubble. He tells you all of the little stories from set, anything he feels like he’s struggling with for his character and most definitely tells you more than he should do about the storyline for the next season.

“How’s Omar doing?”

“He’s good, yeah,” Arón nods, “He told me he’d have loved to see you this week but we were thinking we could maybe do something in summer with a bunch of us.”

“Yeah, that sounds great,” You agree, taking a bite of your starter, “Like a holiday or something?”

“Yeah, maybe, even if we all head to the beach and rent out a house,” Arón explains, “I’ll let you know. How has uni been? Did you manage to get those projects done in time?”

As your starters arrive, you chat him through everything about university - the best parts, the stresses and the work. You forget all about Tom or how Arón had reacted to his presence, maybe you would’ve done the same if it was someone unknown speaking to him. But there was nothing between you and Tom, just friends.

As the evening comes to a close, Tom comes to collect your plates. Sure, he’d made a few comments as he’d seen you through the night but it was never anything more than that.

“How was everything for you this evening guys?” Tom asks as he leans over to pick up the empty champagne bottle, “At least you can hold your alcohol better than that night in London!” He shoots you a smile.

You laugh it off and roll your eyes.

“What’s this?” Arón frowns, glancing between the two of you.

“She gets wild on a night out, such a lightweight!” Tom exclaims, going to pick up the last of the plates before walking off.

Arón turns to you, “Wild, huh?”

You roll your eyes, “He’s just being silly, it was one of the Christmas balls and I-“

Tom walks back over with the bill and sets it down onto the table.

“Here,” Arón sets down a few notes before he can walk away, “Keep the change and keep your eyes off my fucking partner next time buddy.”

Toms eyes widen a little as he looks to you and back to Arón.

“Don’t look all innocent now, I wonder what your manager would think about you flirting with someone all night whilst their boyfriend sits across from them.”

“Arón!” You warn, trying to keep composure in the public eye, “Thank you, Tom, you were great tonight. I’ll see you around, okay?”

Tom fumbles and quickly takes the money with him to get away from you as quickly as possible.

Arón clenches his jaw and stuffs the receipt into his pocket, not once looking at you.

“We’ll talk about this when we’re home,” You state, standing up from the table and grabbing your jacket.

He reaches for your hand as you step onto the path, never really walking anywhere without a small gesture like that. But you pull away almost instinctively.

“(Y/n)...”

“We’ll talk about it when we’re home.”

- - - - - -

And, as soon as you step into the flat, your patience wears thin.

“You had no right to act that way Arón,” You state calmly, coldly, “You were completely out of line and it was humiliating.”

“Humiliating?” He scoffs as he tugs the tie from his neck, “What’s humiliating is having someone flirt with you when I’m sat right across from you!”

“He wasn’t flirting Arón! He’s a friend from class!” You defend, “Believe me, Id tell you if it was anything more.”

“You’d tell me? Seems like there’s a lot you’re not telling me if you think there was nothing going on there.”

“I’m not saying it again Arón. Tom is a friend. Nothing more than that. I’m here with you, I want to be with you,” You turn around to face him, “Isn’t that enough?”

“You’re oblivious (Y/n)!” He’s losing his patience now, “God! This is why it’s so hard to love you sometimes, you don’t deserve-“

“I don’t deserve what? I don’t deserve to be loved?” Your voice breaks at the words as the clench on your heart tightens beyond repair.

All of his anger drops instantly, “No, no, babe, that’s not what I meant.”

“Forget it,” You shake your head, “Let’s just go to bed.”

“No, no, come on, love,” He goes to reach out for you but you snap your arms back instantly.

“Don’t call me love. The one that’s hard to love, huh?” You swallow the lump in your throat, “I’m going to get ready for bed.”

You change out of your clothes in silence, do all of your typical routine in silence and eventually settle into the bed without a word too. It’s cold in the apartment, too cold for such a warm evening. You wrap your arms around yourself in the place where his should be.

“Please talk to me (Y/n),” He sighs as he sits on the edge of his side of the bed, “I can explain, l didn’t mean-“

“It’s fine, Arón. I don’t want to talk now.”

- - - - - -

The following morning, even though it’s your birthday morning, you make the decision to book onto the earliest flight available and start collecting up the few things you’d actually unpacked since being here. Things would only get worse if you stayed here, and you couldn’t put yourself through that. Arón was still asleep just as you were picking up your bags to meet the Uber outside.

“(Y/n)?” He frowns as he reaches out to your side of the bed and feels that you’re not there.

You glance over at the innocence of his sleeping form and feel such a reluctant desperation to go and lay back next to him.

“Whe-where are you going?”

“I found an early flight, I thought I’d get out of your way,” You explain, “I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“Get out of my way?” He scrambles to sit up, “(Y/n), it’s your birthday.”

“Right, and I don’t want to spend it with someone who finds it hard to love me,” You state coldly.

He sits on the edge of the bed and looks toward you, “You really think that’s how I feel?”

“I think that’s what you said last night, and I don’t care if you didn’t mean it. Words like that can’t just be dismissed by you saying that you didn’t mean them,” You shake your head, “So, I’m going back to London.”

“So, what does this mean? You want to end things with me?”

You glance down at his bare torso, looking so innocent in his appearance, the moon and sun tattoo on his chest always being your favourite.

“I don’t know Arón,” Your voice trembles, “But I can’t risk being with someone who would ever tell me that it’s hard loving me. I’m sorry.”

- - - - - -

The next few days in London are the real killer. You chose to skip out on celebrating your birthday at all and had instantly been wallowing in your own self pity ever since you’d got back. Arón had been trying to call you relentlessly but nothing had worked. You couldn’t imagine picking up the call, knowing yourself too well to think you’d ever be able to resist hearing his voice so pleading. Part of you regretted leaving that day. But he’d hurt you. And you couldn’t just let that pass.

You’re just about to leave to go and get a coffee from the local Starbucks when there’s a knock at the door of your flat. You expect it to be one of your friends, trying to encourage you once again to come out with them.

When you open the door, you’re met with something completely different. Unexpected above anything.

“Arón, what are you doing here?”

He’s in your doorway with a rucksack over one shoulder and his hands held around a brightly coloured cardboard box, “Nobody deserves to celebrate their birthday on an aeroplane.”

He hands over the box and you open it to find a birthday cake inside with the numbers of your age in candles placed firmly in the centre. It’s decorated simply and he’s managed to pick your favourite.

“Thank you, you didn’t have to,” You smile politely, setting the box down onto the side as you’re still reluctant to let him inside.

“No, I did. And there’s a lot more that I need to do,” He sighs, “Just hear me out, okay?”

You hold firmly onto the door handle like it’s going to steady you at all.

“(Y/n), it’s not hard to love you. From the first moment I laid eyes on you on a beach in Spain, to the time you tried to teach me to surf, to now. It’s never been difficult to let my heart do what it was always meant to, fall for you. You make every part of that easy. And you give me another reason every single day to love you. I don’t know how, but you do. It’s so fucking easy to love you, and you deserve every piece of you to be loved and adored and cherished,” He says the words so confidently that you believe them over anything else he’s told you, “It’s not hard to love you. What’s hard is letting myself love. Letting myself be so fucking vulnerable that I give half of myself to somebody else. It scares me that you’ll ever find someone who can give you more than I ever could. That can be more for you than I am. But I promise you I’m getting there, and I also promise you that - if you let me - I’ll prove to you that you will never be hard to love, ever.”

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drarrelie · 4 years

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Seven Shades of Summer | Spain

The second of seven brand new Drarry fics inspired by the Summer Solstice.

Spain | Well-Deserved

Author: @protectnevillelongbottom Word Count: 6,104 Rating: M

Harry and Draco take their annual birthday trip together to celebrate Spain's midsummer traditions, surprising each other along the way.

Read it now, on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24773128 Or on FFN: https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13620794/1/Spain-Well-Deserved

_______________

Today, we’ll post seven fics inspired by myths and traditions associated with the Summer Solstice. Each story is a stand-alone work, but together they make up the anthology we call Seven Shades of Summer.

Today, we’ll give you 41,317 words over 7 fics — plus an accompanying Spotify playlist containing 7 songs.

Make sure to also check out the rest of the series on AO3 — or, if you prefer, on FFN — if you don’t want to miss out on any of the summery sweetness.

_______________

We — the Seven Shades of Drarry — are seven Drarry fanfiction writers of different backgrounds, ages, and nationalities who work together in a rare collaboration. Seven different writing styles, seven different strengths, seven different weaknesses, all united in one project, working together to create unified themed collections based around the number seven. Each theme has seven threads, each writer assigned a thread to inspire their story, and all combined to create The Seven Shades of Drarry.

The writers included in this collab are: @bottseveryflavorbeans, @drarrelie, @drarrymadhatterstuff, @eva-eleanore, @janieohio, @jessica-doom and @protectnevillelongbottom.

Read more about our collaboration here.

#Harry Potter #Draco Malfoy #drarry #drarry fanfiction #drarry fanfic #Drarry anthology #Seven Shades of Drarry #Seven Shades of Summer #summer solstice #midsummer #solstice #myths #folklore #traditions #spain #barcelona #vacation #bonfires

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mutantenfisch · 3 years

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“I said to him ‘close your eyes and pretend we’re in a dream’ and his answer was to pull me close and kiss me. He said he hoped he would never wake up then.” Edit: Apparently the coloured version is too naughty for tungle, so it goes under the cut.

#mutantenfischart #lemon-y #i lovingly rendered every single chest- leg- and arm hair here #there's no way i'm gonna crop this >:C #so please enjoy some manly cuddling #project: seven summers in spain #asier montoya #cyril mauret #original characters

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cizymfo · 5 years

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Traslated interview with Tobias Forge in Spain

So The Metal Circus posted an interview with Tobias on the 10th of July, I just read it today and since it’s interesting, I decided to translated it for you guys. Please have in mind that my English is not that good so I apologize beforehand for any mistakes.

The man behind Ghost

We had an exclusive interview in Spain with Tobias Forge, the undisputed leader and mastermind of Ghost.

“I can exclusively tell you that, when we go to Madrid, we’ll do it with white robes”. A Nameless Ghoul, that was obviously Tobias Forge, was explaining that to us in 2012 a few weeks before they participated in the Sonisphere festival in Gefate along Metallica, Soundgarden, Slayer and many others.

In just seven years since that interview, Ghost has become a band of big venues preparing their definitive assault to the big audiences in the United States and Europe. But it’ll be “on the next album cycle”. In two years, at least, according to Forge. With “Prequelle” they’ve reached levels of success that were already glimpsed with "Meliora" and especially with the EP “Popestar", where the single "Square Hamer" made them cross into the mainstream in a place as complicated for rock as the United States.

Now they are comfortably installed in venues of 4,000 to 6,000 of capacity but already entering the macro places of 15,000 of capacity. All thanks to a tireless persecution of the vocalist and leader for an excellent production that honors his rock idols: Rolling Stones, Kiss, Mötley Crüe, Metallica. It’s precisely as a guest of the latter that the group visits Barcelona again, two years after the last time.

The venue is the Estadi Olimpic Lluís Companys of the mountain of Montjuic and Ghost play for an hour focusing on the best of their repertoire: far away are the concessions to their first and less refined work "Opus Eponymous". Hardly sounds "Ritual" of that time. Much of the set circulates around "Meliora" and "Prequelle", the two albums that marked Ghost's rise to fame. With the Sabbath-like riff of "Cirice" they dazzle 42,000 people in a stadium who are not even Ghost fans. They confuse them with "Miasma" and its excessiveness. They make them sing with the pyrotechnic "Absolution". Cardinal Copia a.k.a. Tobias Forge has the audience eating from the palm of his hand. And, I repeat, they are not even his fans.

That was at 7:30 p.m. But at 6:15 p.m., a completely unmasked Tobias Forge received this journalist in the interiors of a clean and well-cared for tour bus with which he is crossing the old continent - and will continue to do so until the end of August, when the tour with Metallica ends. This is nothing like those infernal tour buses with 30 people, smell of feet and drunken Scandinavians. Forge is alone - his tour manager appears from time to time to remind us that, well, it's getting late and the Cardinal doesn’t get ready in five minutes - and he looks at you while offering the most elaborate and loquacious answers that a modern rock musician can give.

Ahead, the imminent confirmation of a European tour that will arrive in Spain at the end of the year. And an everlasting warning via e-mail a few days before: "No photo, no video". The legal dispute with his former bandmates may have finally revealed that Forge is the man behind Ghost, but mysticism is still mysticism. Even in the age of social media.

One year after "Prequelle", what is your assessment of what Ghost has achieved during this time? Have you reached the point you wanted?

I think so. One of the main goals I had with this album cycle and tour was to get to play in arenas or, at least, to be in a situation where we can play arena scale shows. Now we’re facing the end of the tour cycle and we know how we are going to finish. If nothing drastic happens, at the end of the cycle we’ll have achieved that goal. After this tour with Metallica we’re going to the United States to make another tour and they all are going to be arenas.

After that, we’re going to do a European tour at the end of the year and we’re returning to Spain, I can confirm it. Although the size of the spaces in which we play can vary from sports palaces to large venues. My goal is not to play in front of a certain number of people but rather that the show can be developed in a concrete way and under optimal conditions. I want to be able to bring the full production on stage and I can’t do that in Razzmatazz, for example. But if I go to Club Sant Jordi in Barcelona, where 4,600 people can fit, I can do it.

Anyway, we were lucky the last time we were here on tour. I think we came on tour just in Easter, which was a small suicide (laughs). We had no idea. If we managed to come to the Sant Jordi Club this time, I am confident that the next time, with the next album, we’ll make it to the big venue, the Palau Sant Jordi. I hope.

Do you usually plan each of these steps consciously and precisely?

Absolutely. I think many of my goals, many of the things I wanted to achieve in my life and in my career, were planned a long time ago. I was clear about what I wanted to do. Another thing would be knowing if all this was going to happen with Ghost and not with other projects or bands.

I'll give you an example: when I was 8 or 9 years old, I was a big fan of the Rolling Stones. I'm still a fan but that was the highest point. The Rolling Stones were my favorite band, I knew everything about them, I saw everything that could be seen, I listened to everything that could be listened to. In 1990 there were not many things to see, certainly, although they were one of the first bands to make a documentary about their own career, something especially remarkable. It was titled "25x5". As I said, there was not much to see but, in the summer of 1990, there was a great concert that was broadcast live across Europe and it was the one they did at the Estadi Olimpic in Barcelona during the "Urban Jungle" tour.

It must be a dream come true to play here today.

God, I’ve seen that concert so many times. It was the tour for the album 'Steel Wheels' and since then I've wanted to play at the Estadi Olimpic in Barcelona. Now I'm here, I'm playing tonight. It wasn’t the way I could imagine back then but I’ve been able to cross off the list one of my goals. I imagined this moment thirty years ago and it’s happening now.

The undeniable influence of Metallica

Metallica was one of the bands that supported Ghost the most on the early years. You have the same agent, John Jackson of K2, and you’ve been on tours like those of Sonisphere in 2012 and 2013, which served to position Ghost strongly in the European market. What role have Metallica played in helping to put Ghost on the scene?

A huge influence. We wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for them - not just geographically, but at this level of popularity. They were the first great artists who promoted the band and showed their support publicly. They were a great influence and if it had not been for them ... well, I could’ve had the influence of the Rolling Stones, of course, but Metallica had a huge impact on my youth because I discovered them after the Stones.

I listened to Metallica at that time but not as much as I would later. When they released their films, "A Year and a Half in the Life of Metallica 1 & 2", they had a great impact on me and my way of seeing a band. When the Stones talked about how they came to be big in their documentary, it seemed like a distant speech, realistic but distant. In the case of Metallica, we’re talking about a more contemporary band, closer in time for me at that time.

I come from a metal background. My first idols were not Muddy Waters. I didn’t aspire to do something derived from blues. I wanted to be a rock star. The Stones began when the rock stars were something embryonic that didn’t even exist, while Metallica and I are closer in the sense of having developed from the same musical approach.

I’m not ashamed to say that Metallica, directly or indirectly, have influenced me to become everything I am today and that they’ve been instrumental in achieving many of the things I wanted. This tour is a good example of this. They were the ones who asked us to accompany them on this European stadium tour. It was their initiative.

Would you say that "Prequelle" is Ghost's 'Black Album'? It’s the album that has brought the haters but also a more mainstream audience. Would it be a valid comparison?

No. I think if we can compare it with something it would be with "... And Justice For All" regarding Metallica's career. It's a therapeutic album and it's not the best record I can make, but it was a necessary record.

Do you see “Prequelle” as a transitional record?

I could say that. If you want me to make an analogy with Metallica, I can point several factors with which there is similarity with respect to their fourth album. It’s a record they made in response to a tragedy. Obviously, theirs was a real tragedy, the death of Cliff Burton. Mine was a concatenation of legal problems, a severe bombing. I had the wind against me and a lot to prove. "... And Justice For All" took Metallica from one point to another, elevated them to large arenas and turned them into a much more autonomous band. In that sense, "Prequelle" has done the same for Ghost.

Now, with several years of career behind me, I’ve learned what I want and how to get there. Therefore, our next album could potentially be the equivalent of a 'Black Album', so to speak (laughs). I don’t know, it's hard to imagine. I don’t like to make those comparisons because the "Black Album" was released in another time, in another era and went down in history as one of the greatest and best-selling heavy metal albums of all time.

There is a thin line between love and hate

I remember reading how you explained that the character of Cardinal Copia caused you a certain displeasure, that he was an impertinent character even for yourself. A few months ago, it came to light that an alleged friend had 'ceded' the character of Papa Emeritus and that there was some legal dispute about your use within Ghost. Is Cardinal Copia a way to put aside Papa Emeritus and to overcome some legal impediment?

Not at all. To be totally honest, that person never gave me the character, but the name: "Papa Emeritus".

You said that everything that happened last year was like “a bombing”. Behind the character is the person. How has Tobias Forge lived the harassment and demolition to which he was subjected? Did you consider leaving all of this?

I never thought about quitting, to be honest. It’s not even on the table to do something like that. I think that, analyzing what happened and paying attention to small specific facts, it was inevitable. Socially I was within a group of people – I’m not talking about the band, but socially. I have many friends but in a specific group of them it happens that we were all the same. We all had a similar income, a similar educational level, etc. Within social circles like these it becomes very problematic that one of its members grows more than the rest. In my head I was still the same person. When I returned home, I tried to hang out with them and for me things were going as usual, but I wasn’t the same person for them.

Another problem is that within that social group, which was not the band itself although there were some members of my band, I was the only one who had children. When I returned home after six weeks of touring, I wouldn’t go to the bar with them, but I would go home. That means time was passing, even years. It seemed to them that I was changing, that I was disengaging. Of course I was, because I was working hard and when I came home I wanted to be with my family. But then, five years later, I gave them an excuse to be angry at me.

When all of that happened, I couldn’t believe that the ones I thought were my friends were doing all this to me. Some were very nice to me and gave me all the support, but others stabbed me in the back with no hesitation. They didn’t call me to tell me anything and try to know my side of the story. No. They went on social media and wrote posts saying 'oh, he used to be my friend but now he changed'. I didn’t even know what changed! We didn’t even talk to each other for three years. Then I stopped to think about what the problem was, and I understood that the problem is that I hadn’t had time to be close to them and to maintain friendly relationships afloat.

What happened to me is not original. It’s a classic and it’s inevitable. That's why I look at it with some distance, because it seems inevitable to me. Had it not been that incident, it would have been another. It was inevitable. I couldn’t have done anything to prevent it. I was more worried about the people in that circle than about the band. There was only one of my friends in that social group that I refer to. The members of the band that were denouncing me last year were not even my close friends. What hurts is that people you trust, people you’re close to, come to have a big problem with you that comes from afar and that they never told me anything. Being in the middle of all that is very confusing.

When you are reaching a certain age, time goes by very quickly. People like you or me see how one year, two years, five years ... fly by. When time goes by, you meet people you may not have seen in two years and you think it was yesterday. In my case, having been around doing 'funny things', I was like a traitor to them. I had preferred to do 'my things' rather than foster those personal relationships. But it is what it is. I can’t do anything to change it.

What’s the next step for Ghost?

Now I’m going to be with Metallica all summer, and in the fall we’re going to do the American and European tour. This summer is a little relaxed because the shows are outdoors and we play only one hour, even at festivals. At the end of the year, when we have finished the European tour, I’m going start recording the next album. In January of 2020 I’ll start to work progressively on it and 2021 would be a good approximation regarding the release date.

#tobias forge #tobias forge interview #the band ghost #ghost bc #ghost band #i dont even know if this was translated already #but hey #i cant just delete all this now can i

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red-moskito · 4 years

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24. April. 2020

Málaga, Spain

For many of us, the last time it felt like the whole world was having the same conversation was on September 11th, 2001. For me, it was also the day I left London for Faedis, Italy. A few people around me on the train were murmuring about some kind an attack. When I got the airport, it was so quiet. People stood frozen in front of televisions watching two plumes of black smoke rise into a blue sky.

I’d met Marco while he was in London for a couple days to sell some wine. We both quoted Biggie Smalls and the Big Lebowski. He was just getting the family vineyard going as a proper business. I had no plans beyond the next weekend. I said I liked the idea of working on a vineyard. He said, cool.

The house was a kitchen and a bedroom above the cantina. Almost everything inside was older than me. The roof in the bedroom sloped down to the floor. We opened a few bottles and ate dinner.

While insects buzzed and chirped outside the windows, we watched our world reorganize itself towards endless war on television. It was cold that night. We slept under scratchy blankets on little beds made during times of less abundance.

I stayed until the end of October. We often ate lunch in Orsaria with his parents, Paolo and Miriam. I liked them. They acted as if Marco had just found a younger brother they had somehow misplaced. I also liked their house. It was big, beautiful and warm. They had comfortable sofas and a computer for sending sentimental emails and downloading mp3s.

I did my best to match their enthusiasm for every course. E buona la pasta, Tito? Si, si... buonissimo! Marco, perché non mangia di più? When I got sick, they had a doctor come to the house. He brought a stethoscope in a leather bag. Nonna introduced me to grappa as medicine. The first glass felt like hot wax going down my throat.

I annoyed Marco with my plans to marry his sister Barbara, even though she thought I was a sfigato. We drove down gravel roads to parties in little bars where his friends played reggae like some of mine did back home.

No matter how late we stayed out, or how many bottles we left empty on the table, Marco was up with the sun and ready to work. He’d drink flat Coca-Cola before his coffee. Some fuel to get the engine started, man. Good for the stomach.

Winemaking is agriculture, science, art, design, engineering, sales, marketing, gambling, guessing…. When there aren’t vines to trim, there are tanks to check, fertilizers to buy, grapes to take to the laboratory, grass to cut, cases to deliver, bottles to label, fill, cork... People we’d meet throughout the day said, buon lavoro as goodbye.

Whenever something could go wrong, it often did. Marco’s momentary frustration would quickly just become something else to laugh about. Stay calm. Piano, piano. We have to be the Tom Cruise of the situation, man.

Sometimes he would sketch out the plans for our day on scrap paper. Little cartoons of machines, grapes, tanks and tubes with arrows between them. Numbers and notes floating around the edges. He never drew us. We were always moving anyway.

During the vendemmia a crowd arrived to help. Friends, traveling workers and his family, of course. Nonno laughed and shook his head at me and my allergies. I never really got the hang of the tractor, but I loved cutting the grapes free. We stacked crates and tipped them into presses. They all knew far more about my country than I did about theirs. We debated the merits of Sublime, compared Berlusconi to Bush and retold our favorite Simpsons episodes. Every day we all ate lunch together on the patio beneath a sunshade of interwoven vines.

The wine we made went to tables all around Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and parts of Europe. I brought a few bottles with me when I left for Torino. Some went to rest on shelves in the cantina.

The last time I was in Faedis was in August 2016. Marco still sings while he’s walking between the rows of vines. 'Biggie Biggie Biggie can’t you see…’ I mean come on. man. He was really the best. You know it. The best... ‘It was all a dream. I used to read Word-Up Magazine…’

The TV in the kitchen is gone. There’s a wood stove there now. They watch movies projected on the wall of the room we used to sleep in. A futon for guests has replaced the little beds. Marco had remodeled the house to make room for another proper bedroom.

He dug out some grimy bottles of our wine. It was six years younger than I was when we made it. I didn’t get to see Barbara. Paulo and Miriam’s house is now a bed and breakfast. Go there if you’re ever near Orsaria. It’s even more beautiful now.

Friuili is 300 km from Lombardia. In February, Marco and I started talking and texting about the virus. I’d already started veering away from people on the sidewalk. There was a movie I wanted to see in the cinema, but I didn’t go. I avoided the port full of cruise ship passengers. But I still went out.

On March 6, I’d had an internal debate about going to the botanical gardens on my day off. It’s outdoors. It’s low season. It’ll be empty. It’s windy and warm. And anyway, Málaga isn’t Bergamo. I rode my bike there, and while I was locking it, I reconsidered again. I saw a couple walking down from the mountains across the road. Should I just hike up this trail instead? Instead I went inside. I’d only been in summer before. I wanted to see what it looked like at the beginning of spring.

While I was having my coffee, a woman sat at the other end of the picnic table. When she started blowing her nose, I told myself it would be silly and rude to get up. Then she started coughing. I looked at the unwrapped sandwich I had brought from home. My open water thermos. Mentally measuring metres and wind speed. Still feeling like I was being ridiculous. Her daughter brought the drinks and sat down. Ecco la tua mamma... I picked up my things and moved to another table.

I spent the next half hour telling myself I was being paranoid while trying to focus on the plants in the sunshine. Doing impossible math in my head. There are 60 million Italians.... they could have been traveling for weeks... maybe they live here... anyone could have it... there are so many old people here... I heard that man couch under is hat... it could have been on the coffee cup anyway… the bartender washes them in the sink... how hot is that water?

I walked to the end of the gardens where a gazebo was built for the view of the cathedral and the sea. I watched turtles swimming around the little pond. Marco texted me. Stay at home. I called him to tell him about the Italian women and my paranoia. They walked by while I was on the phone, and I moved upwind. Still feeling ridiculous.

He was calm as always. The main problem is there aren’t enough beds for the, how do you say... the reanimation. The people they are just fucking dying in the corridors. They don’t know for sure who is the patient zero, but the patient one or two. He’s a 38 years old guy. He’s been on the fucking respirator for weeks. In Cividale there are three cases. It’s crazy, man. What we have to do is just fucking close everything like they did in China. But that will never happen you know man, because this is Europe.

Two days later the Italian government locked down Lombardia and fourteen other provinces. The following day they extended to it include the entire country. Within a week, most of Europe followed suit.

Seven weeks later the Italian government agrees with many of you about the essential nature of wine. So Marco is still working. Since the lockdown started, he’s been in the hospital twice. He was in a car accident in March, and then something more serious happened in April.

He sent me a selfie from the hospital bed. I called him and he answered laughing. His wife had thought he was faking a stroke to play a trick on her. Fucking unbelievable, man. I tried to drink the juice. You know in the morning, the orange juice, and I put it all over my t-shirt. I couldn’t put it to my mouth. I couldn’t say nothing. I was like blah, blah, blah. My brain was no good. Anyway, how are you, are you good?

The hospitals in Udine aren’t overwhelmed, but he was only allowed one visitor per day. He asked his mother to bring his laptop, so he could get some work done. Everybody say rest. Rest, rest, rest. Okay, I’m in the bed.

When he was discharged he sent me a photo with his wife and baby walking between the vines. Their daughter, Emilia, has unruly red hair. In every photo she looks overjoyed and a little surprised to have found herself inside her new body. Are you ok? Super ok, man. Super ok. They were all smiles. Glowing in the green grass. Paola looks far too smart to have fallen for either of us back when we would try to out-charm each other every time a woman arrived at the vineyard.

Marco’s still getting up with the sun. But fewer and fewer Italians have money for wine. He’s not loading pallets with boxes bound for dinner parties in Oslo or Chicago. No American tourists will be giggling at his accent this summer. The local restaurants are dark and full of stale air.

For almost twenty years, whenever I’ve called Marco to talk about moving or just getting away, he reminds me of my house in Faedis.

Next to the front door there are photographs of family and friends working together since long before the days of color. Behind the house, up on top of the hill, there is a little shack with the year 1867 written above the door. It will still be there once our world has reorganized itself yet again.

So will we.

https://www.cecchinimarco.com/

http://www.dorsariabedandbreakfast.it/index.php/it/

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nagsale · 5 years

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15 Places You Shouldn't Visit Because You're Ruining Them

With aviation projected to double the subsequent 20 years, a number of the world's most beloved and well-traveled places are poised to become ruined by tourists. And while we're all for traversing the world and crossing bucket-list destinations off your list, we frequent fliers must believe the impact we've on fragile environments and native communities. So, in an attempt to be more conscientious travelers, we've rounded up the world's most at-risk destinations and all the stunning under-the-radar places you ought to go instead.

1 Cozumel, Mexico

The delicate reefs surrounding Cozumel, an idyllic island off the coast of the Yucutan Peninsula and a frequent stop on Caribbean cruises, are more fragile than ever, thanks to excess cruise liner activity and therefore the four million-plus tourists that arrive annually. In an attempt to guard Cozumel's fragile aquatic habitat, Mexico's National Commission of Natural Protected Areas implemented a short-lived ban on tourism to many areas of the Cozumel Reef park. As an alternative to Cozumel, bring your dive gear to Isla Mujeres, a sliver-size island off the coast of Cancun, where the water is crystal-clear and where you would possibly spot whale sharks and other aquatic creatures.

2 Everest, Nepal

The mighty Everest has never been more popular—and mountaineers and guides are saying that the results might be fatal. More and more inexperienced climbers are making the trip, resulting in overcrowded pathways even at 29,029 feet. Then there are environmental issues caused by such strong visitation, including the piles of garbage left behind on the paths and therefore the accelerated melting of glaciers. As an alternate adrenaline fix, climb a less trodden but no less challenging peak like Cho Oyu in Tibet.

3 Dubrovnik, Croatia

If Game of Thrones helped put the Croatian city on the map, it also contributed to the city's grave overtourism problem. within the city's old town, for instance, there are approximately 100 souvenir shops, 100 restaurants, and additional cash machines than Las Vegas. As a result of the congestion, the town is considering implementing a variety of bans, including a short-lived one that might prohibit new restaurants from having outdoor seating within the city's Old Town. We'd recommend supporting other Croatian towns like Cavtat and Zadar instead.

4 Raja Ampat Islands, Indonesia

Home to a number of the richest biodiversity on earth, the Indonesian archipelago of Raja Ampat comprises quite 1,500 islands. In 2017, one among Raja Ampat's major coral reefs was irrevocably damaged when a cruise liner crashed into it, imperiling an already-sickly aquatic ecosystem. Scientists are now predicting it'll take quite a decade to heal the damaged reef. In the meantime, quell your insomnia on the Togean Islands, a constellation of 56 under-the-radar Indonesian islands where you'll swim, sunbathe, dive, and snorkel to your heart's content.

5 Iceland

With its otherworldly landscapes and road trip-friendly sights, Iceland is high on many travelers' lists. In 2018 alone, quite 2.3 million people made the trip; compare that to the 350,000 full-time residents on the island, and it's clear why the travel industry has voiced concerns over sustainability and environmental preservation. In 2017, the Environmental Agency of Iceland closed one among the country's biggest tourist attractions, the canyon of Fjaðrárgljúfur, after a huge influx of tourists. In an interview with CNN, Hannes Sasi Palsson, the owner of an Iceland tourism company said, "That a part of the country simply can't deal with all those stomping feet." to urge your fix of surreal landscapes, consider visiting a U.S. park-like Bryce Canyon instead.

6 Pig Beach, the Bahamas

The novelty of swimming with pigs draws thousands of tourists per annum to Big Major Cay, an uninhabited island in Exuma, the Bahamas. Sadly, the population of the feral pigs has significantly dwindled thanks to tourist misbehavior. In 2017, seven of the creatures died after being fed alcohol by tourists. Now, the amount of animals on the island hovers around 15. As an alternate itinerary, head to Nassau and check the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, an oceanfront resort with an on-site flamingo sanctuary.

7 Angkor Wat, Cambodia

In 1992, UNESCO officials put Angkor Archaeological Park in Siem Reap on an inventory of endangered sites, citing destruction caused by illegal excavation and pillaging. After deeming the location "reasonably secure" in 2004, Angkor Wat was far away from the danger list— but archeological experts and tour operators claim the traditional temple complex remains in danger . on the brink of 2.6 million visitors visited the delicate site and temples like Phnom Bakheng are compromised due to heavy pedestrian traffic. rather than Angkor Wat, we recommend visiting the Banteay Chhmar ruins, a set of eight temples hidden within the Cambodian countryside that go back to the 12th century.

8 The Maldives

With each passing day, it looks like another new resort opens within the Maldives. The torrent of tourists, including rising sea levels and increased construction, is causing irreparable harm to the tropical paradise, including the loss of habitats of species, the disappearance of beaches, and therefore the destruction of coral reefs. In response, some hotels like Bayan Tree Vabbinfaru are raising awareness through coral rehabilitation programs—but responsible travelers trying to find beach bliss should consider Seychelles or Sri Lanka as alternative options.

9 Machu Picchu, Peru

Getting to the Lost City of the Incas, one among the new Seven Wonders of the planet, requires a four-day hike or taking a 3.5-hour train from Cusco to Aguas Calientes. Despite the problem of reaching the Citadel, Machu Picchu has been suffering from overtourism, drawing quite a million tourists annually. As a result, a number of the sacred temples have even been damaged, forcing the govt to introduce measures like timed entry as to how to regulate the tourist flow. For travelers eager to discover ancient ruins within the Sacred Valley, other options are abundant, from Kuélap and Llactapacta to Choquequirao.

10 Venice, Italy

Rising water levels, unprecedented tourist numbers, and an influx of cruise ships are among the factors threatening the infrastructure of Venice, causing historic buildings to crumble and famous attractions, like St. Mark's Square, to flood. As to how to mitigate the damage, the govt has implemented short-stay visitation fees and other restrictions. For all of the culture with none of the crowds, consider other Italian cities like Lecce and Bologna.

11 Boracay, Philippines

The Philippine island of Boracay was dubbed the simplest island within the world by Travel + Leisure magazine in 2012. Fast-forward a few years and Boracay is now a textbook example of the consequences of overtourism. The once-crystal clear waters are crammed with green algae; the streets are suffering from trash; sewage was, until recently, being pumped into the ocean; and quite 70 percent of the coral cover has been destroyed due to unmonitored snorkeling. Give the island time to heal by instead visiting Siargao, a teardrop-shaped Philippine island known for its lush jungles and pristine beaches.

12 Santorini, Greece

This Greek island, known for its world-famous sunsets and volcanic cliffs, is additionally known for its tourists. within the popular summer months, Santorini sees quite 10,000 visitors per day. Those numbers have put significant strain on the island, from traffic jams and a spike in energy consumption to rising water levels. In an attempt to curb the consequences of overtourism, the govt has limited cruise liner numbers to eight,000 a day. If you're keen on living out your Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants fantasies, consider the lesser-visited Greek islands of Milos and Koufonisia.

13 Bali

Water shortages, plastic-filled beaches, and overall congestion are new realities of life on Bali, where tourism has taken a pointy increase following the island's starring role in Elizabeth Gilbert's 2006 travel memoir Eat Pray Love. Disrespectful behavior is additionally, sadly, an issue: tourists have posed inside sacred temples wearing bikinis. Do your part to bring the island back to its former self by choosing another Balinese island—say, the nearby paradise of Lombok—for your vacation plans.

14 Barcelona, Spain

In Barcelona, locals are taking to the streets to decry the consequences of overtourism on their city, which include lack of affordable housing, pollution, and street congestion and noise. Barcelona's mayor has taken a stand, restricting the number of cruise ships that are allowed to dock within the city and stalling the expansion of the airport. Other alternatives to busy Barcelona include San Sebastian and Cádiz, both of which are on the ocean and boast a wealth of cultural attractions.

15 Maya Bay, Thailand

At the peak of its popularity, Maya Bay, on the Thai island of Koh Phi Phi Leh Island, saw quite 5,000 visitors per day. (Blame its appearance within the 2000 film The Beach, which depicted the isle's turquoise waters and limestone cliffs.) Strong visitation resulted in serious environmental damage: most of the island's coral died as a result. Since then, the Department of National Parks Wildlife and Plant Conservation has closed the bay, and it's projected to be off-limits to visitors until 2021. In the meantime, travelers should set their sights on lesser-known neighboring isles like Koy Yao Noi.

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acehotel · 6 years

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A Conversation Between Suzanne Ciani & Julianna Barwick

Suzanne Ciani is a sonic pioneer — a world builder in the realm of synth, music composition and Quadraphonic sound, the early bones of what we now call “surround sound.” Spanning over five decades, her mastery of music and electronic instruments has produced 15 albums from her self-run music label Seventh Wave and an illustrious touring and professional career. Here she chats with Ace friend and experimental music auteur Julianna Barwick about their shared creative impulses, “communicating with a physical object,” and finding ways to honor performance.

A handful of Suzanne Ciani’s LIVE Quadraphonic — a rare live recording that was performed by Suzanne in San Francisco in 2016, her first solo Buchla performance in over 40 years — is available at Ace Hotels and online.

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Julianna Barwick: How are you today?

Suzanne Ciani: Everything's great, how are you?

JB: I'm good. I'm in Portland, Maine right now. And it's a gray, rainy day. Very beautiful. I'm really happy to speak with you. We met briefly at Moogfest 2016.

SC: Okay. Was that in Durham?

JB: Yes, it was in Durham, and you were performing with the Quad system.

SC: Yes, that's what I continue to do. That's my modus operandi.

JB: That was a really wonderful performance. I enjoyed that a lot, and that's the reason for the season, and this interview for the Ace Blog, because the Ace is selling the Quad record.

SC: Isn't that amazing? I think KamranV is so creative that he has found a unique marketing approach with it. I appreciate that all this is happening.

JB: KamranV’s the producer of the record and this project? How did he get in touch with you?

SC: He apparently worked with Moog in the past, producing Moogfest. He’s an amazing person. He's young. He's smart. He's capable. And he took this project on, on his own. He really created it. I didn't have any bandwidth to even think about releasing anything, I've been so busy touring. Yes, he took it on. He picked that comeback concert, the very first solo Buchla concert that I did in about forty years. He did that. It was Moog that actually initiated the concert. They asked me if I would play in San Francisco in March. I live so close to San Francisco, I couldn't say no, so I put my Buchla in the back seat of my car and went into San Francisco for that concert. It was a real milestone for me. There were some very wonderful people in the audience. I had studied years and years ago with Max Mathews, who is the father of computer music. I studied with him at Stanford. He has passed away, but several of his family members came to see me backstage after the concert. I was so touched that they had come.

JB: And you studied with him in the 70s at Stanford?

SC: Yes. I went to UC Berkeley from 68 to 70, but that was a traditional master’s degree in Music Composition. I would go to the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Stanford. First, I took a summer course with Max, and John Chowning, who is famous for popularizing the FM approach to synthesis. It was a very fertile moment, historically.

JB: Absolutely. The program at Berkeley exposed you to working with synthesizers?

SC: No. The program at Berkeley, which is University of California Berkeley, not to be confused with Berklee College of Music in Boston, was a traditional Music Composition degree. You know, scoring, orchestras, you know, historically, in the classical tradition. My electronic thing happened outside of my graduate degree. It happened at Stanford, and it happened meeting Don Buchla.

JB: Through the Artificial Intelligence program at Stanford?

SC: No. Buchla actually lived in Berkeley. His next door neighbor was the sculptor, Harold Paris. My boyfriend at the time was a teaching assistant for Harold Paris. I met Harold, and Harold introduced me to Buchla.

JB: That's amazing. Was Buchla teaching at the time, or did you become friends with him and apprentice under him for a while?

SC: Buchla would never teach. He was a very eccentric and maverick inventor — a genius. I call him “the Leonardo da Vinci of electronic instruments.” He was really the first one to make an analog modular music instrument. He did that in 1963. I met him about five, six years later, and after graduate school, I went to work for him.

JB: That's so wonderful. You were able to work with the Buchla 200. Was that the first one that you worked with, with him?

SC: The first one I worked with was the 100. The very first 100 was at a place called the San Francisco Tape Music Center. That was housed — it was not part of, but it was housed at Mills College.

JB: Did it appeal to your constitution completely, as a music maker?

SC: I always thought of myself primarily as a composer. But when I got involved with the Buchla, I did not use any keyboard. Traditional keyboard. It was a whole new world. I don't know how to explain the attraction that I had, but it was overpowering and complete, and I really stopped all my piano playing for about ten years while I played just the Buchla.

I started the Buchla as a compositional instrument, and it allowed me to, as a composer, to completely control the music. Traditionally, a composer is dependent on outside musicians. You know, you have to find the orchestra, you have to get... It's very tricky. But, with the Buchla you could do it all, and it was in Quadraphonic. Always played in Quad, from the very beginning. What's not to love? It's amazing.

JB: It's an absolute joy creating with it, I'm sure. That's how I felt when I discovered looping, vocal looping. I didn't need any outside players of any kind, and it was very intuitive and instant, and I didn't have to compose ahead of time. It just seemed to flow out, and that was a real joyful experience. I've been doing it ever since!

SC: I love that looping. I've never tried it myself, but I think it's wonderful. It's so musical.

JB: It's a wonderful way to make music on your own. I was curious about when you entered Wellesley — what kind of music were you making? What kind of instruments were you playing when you started going to school?

SC: I started playing the piano when I was about six. That was my main instrument. At Wellesley, I was a music major. Very small department. There were only four, five of us. My goal always was to write. I can't explain it, but I always saw myself as a composer. I think the big problem with being a female composer is that we don't have any role models. There certainly have been a lot of women composers, but we just don't know about them.

JB: I know. It's amazing. I discover new ones all the time. I'm like, "Why don't I know about this woman?"

SC: Right. What's going on here? What's going on? I played at Royal Albert Hall this year as part of a program about women pioneers, and they premiered a symphony by Daphne Oram that she wrote in 1943. I cried! It was so beautiful! It just never saw the light of day.

JB: Incredible. You've definitely been an inspiration to me, for sure. Being a solo music maker, especially when it's in an unclassifiable genre, I feel like I get lumped into classical or new age. Just kind of depends on whoever's sitting at the desk that classifies it, you know? It's definitely an interesting group of women making interesting sounds by themselves. I'm curious — you hadn't played the Buchla live in forty years, right? Before two and a half years ago. Were you touring a whole lot during that time?

SC: I was touring. I had released fifteen albums. Everything from pure electronic studio albums to solo piano. Piano and orchestra. Piano with jazz group. A lot of studio albums that were accomplished with electronics. My progression was – the first album, Seven Waves, was 100% electronic, but it was not the Buchla. The Buchla, I did that for ten years, but it never caught on.

JB: Right. With the public?

SC: Yeah. There was no place. It was hard to play in Quad. The theaters didn't want to set up the four speakers, et cetera. As time went on and my Buchla broke and half of it got stolen, I just moved on to different forms of electronics. Then gradually started to add acoustic instruments, because that was my history. That peaked in 1994 when I did “Dream Suite,” which was orchestra and piano. Then I started an independent record label in 1994.

JB: What's the name of that?

SC: Seventh Wave. It's named after my first album, Seven Waves.

JB: Is it still in operation?

SC: Yes, it is. It hasn't released any of my electronic music. I mean, my new Buchla music. I haven't had time to do that. But I think next year, I'm going to focus on a sub-label called “Atmospheric” that I started years ago, but I never used it. I'm going to keep “Seventh Wave” as my romantic music imprint, and then start “Atmospheric” as the electronic —

JB: The Buchla and synthesizer and beyond label.

SC: Yeah. Live. Really all live.

JB: All live things. Are you releasing other artists’ works, or primarily for your own recordings?

SC: When I first started my label, I was forced to have other artists because this distribution channel didn't allow a one-artist label. I did have a lot of artists on my original “Seventh Wave” label but then all the rules changed, and I was able to be solo indie. But the rules changed again, because the indie distribution network fell apart. Then digital came in. Digital is working fine. I don't know how it's gonna work with the next stage, because the kids want LPs. We're back to shipping and storage.

JB: Absolutely. Wait times for production, and all of that. That's so inspiring to me, as an artist. I wasn't aware that you owned and operated the labels that release your work. That's extremely cool. Have you toured a lot since you started releasing music, and do you enjoy it?

SC: In the old days, I used to tour a lot. I had a group called The Wave, and we went to Asia and Europe and around the States. I used to play a lot in Spain. I used to do a tour almost every year in Spain. Now, with my new incarnation it's way fun. I had no idea how pervasive this interest in analog, electronic music was. I've been invited to, mostly festivals and that's new for me, because I used to play solo. My concert. And somebody would open for me, but it was not a festival.

Now, it's festivals and it's a lot of fun, and there are lots of people. Every once in a while, I'm a headliner and it's just me. The more traditional structure of the concert. I love it because it's very international. I've traveled more now than I ever thought possible. Before, I was invited to play in Australia. I never wanted to go to Australia, it was too far away. I go to Australia, and from Australia, I go to Sweden. It's summer in Australia, and winter in Sweden. In one day. It's really amazing. Change seasons, on one tour.

JB: I believe I have experienced that a time or two. When you said that you traveled with a group in the early days, did that mean that people were on stage with you or just management, and things like that?

SC: No, people were on stage with me. I had a group called The Wave, and we did a live recording for television. There is a DVD some place of our performance at the Herbst Theatre in San Francisco, and it was on public television for a while. I've been around a long time.

JB: You've done so many amazing things. I wish I could talk to you all day, but not possible. I have so many questions. I wondered if you could talk a little bit about your earliest memories of music and earliest memories of music and technology interaction?

SC: My earliest memories are not that early, for technology. I was in college when the idea of music technology was starting to grow, visibly. One night, my class at Wellesley went to MIT because that was our brother school. They just started that brother/sister relationship in my junior year or senior year at college. We were exchanging classes and things. It was at MIT that I saw a professor try to make a sound with his computer. In those days, the computers were huge. They filled whole rooms.

It's really fun to witness the evolution of technology. I like to make a distinction between the concepts and the actual manifestation of them because the way we express things is always changing because the physical technology is changing. But, the concepts go way back. The idea that you could make music with a machine is kind of old.

SC: We're getting better at it. Let's just say that right now, we're in a mature stage of these instruments. The same way I've come back after forty years, I think we're reconnecting with the deep origins of these possibilities. When Buchla designed an instrument, he had a vision that was inspired by this new possibility.

JB: Absolutely.

SC: Yeah. And we lost touch with that vision over the years.

JB: I agree. Do you think that the renewed interest in modular systems is a reaction to laptop music, and laptop music making?

SC: That's an amazing miracle to me. I am so grateful and so happy that people started to look backwards, because I've hated all that digital stuff.

JB: Right. I think a lot of people do.

SC: Isn't that great?

JB: Yeah. It's more intuitive for me, personally to have something in front of me that's a physical object that I can interact with, and almost communicate with.

SC: Yeah. The distinction is, "Can you perform it?" If you have to go in and go to a menu, and look for something, you're out of real time. When you design modules, if you keep that in mind, that things need to be accessible, you can in fact honor performance.

A lot of instruments don't. When I go to the NAMM Show, or whatever, and I look at what’s happening now, and it's starting to get better, because you need visual feedback. You need to know what's going on inside the machine, or you can't perform it. There are two different worlds. One is, you're in the studio and you're recording. The other one is, you're out. It's portable. You can carry it, and you can interact with it in the moment. And that’s the world that I came from with Buchla.

JB: Exactly. And you don't have to worry about some computer color wheel coming up and hindering your creation or your performance.

SC: Right. How old are you? I'm just curious.

JB: I'm 39. I've been performing music for about ten years, I would say. Getting close to it. I went to school for darkroom photography and was always tinkering at home, always singing and stuff, and then put out my first CD after I made vocal loops on a guitar pedal.

SC: Wow. You'll have to send me some of your stuff. A URL, or something, where I can listen.

JB: I'd love to.

SC: Yeah. I'd love to hear it.

JB: I'll send it your way, for sure.

SC: I'm also involved in photography.

JB: Really?

SC: Yeah. I collected it for years in the 80s. I did take a course in darkroom just once, and it helped me. The stuff that I collect is mostly from the 30s. Those prints were so amazing.

JB: Absolutely. So, the course helped you do what with the work that you were collecting?

SC: I got to appreciate the art form of the print. People don't understand that a print is a unique expression. They think of photography as this stamped thing. They don't realize that each print is an original.

JB: Absolutely. There's so many variables that go into one print, for sure.

SC: Where do you live, Julianna?

JB: I live in Los Angeles now.

SC: Okay. Cool. Do you like it?

JB: I like it a lot. I lived in New York for sixteen years, and then moved to LA almost two years ago. I'm really enjoying it. I feel like New York is still my home, but I'm really liking my experience in LA a lot. It's nice and sunny. And you live in California as well, right?

SC: Yeah. I lived in New York for nineteen years.

JB: Was that in the 80s?

SC: I lived there from 74 to 92.

JB: Amazing.

SC: I know what it feels like to leave New York, but California — everyone seems to be moving to LA, in your age group.

JB: It's true. It's really true. Was it a heartbreaking experience to leave New York?

SC: I missed it so much, but I say I'm a prisoner of beauty here because it's so amazing. I sleep with the sound of the ocean. The air is clean. There's no noise.

JB: That's heaven. That's a goal for me. That's where I wanna be in ten years or so, hopefully. That is something I'd really want to be able to do is walk onto my back deck and see and hear the ocean. That's an ultimate dream, for sure. Okay. We’ve got a couple of minutes. I have ten million questions for you. I wish I could ask them all. Maybe one day. I was wondering one last process question. Have you found that your techniques have changed with the newer models you're using?

SC: That brings up this idea that in 1976 or 75, I wrote a paper about how to play the Buchla. It was techniques for performance, and I actually use those same techniques today. The 200e has a digital component, which is a memory that I use with a lot of discretion, so I don't memorize everything.

SC: I memorize a few things. It is different. The approach is different because in the early days, there was no memory at all, but also, some of the modules were more powerful.

I have some clones of these earlier modules, because I couldn't live without them. I think it's good to look at the early stuff. I think some of the ideas represented there, like by the multiple arbitrary function generator, otherwise known as the MARF... I think those are some of the highest level designs in a performable analog instrument.

It's a collaborative process with the artist: the tool is designed by the engineer with feedback from the artist. What can I say? The artist is dependent on the tool. We need to direct the design of the tool in a meaningful way.

JB: Absolutely. That's really cool. I understand growing attached to an instrument. I've used a Boss RC-50 Vocal Looper for ten years, and it started not functioning as well as it did, and I had to search high and low to find a new one because it was discontinued. It was the only thing that lent itself best to creation for me, and performance. So I understand that commitment you can have to something that you perform with and create with, for sure.

SC: That's interesting. So, the new ones didn't do what the old one did.

JB: They're just different. The new one had a giant foot pedal, volume pedal and weird effects, and it just wasn't the same. I could use the RC-50 with my eyes closed, kind of thing, so it was like part of me. You know?

SC: Yeah. That's interesting. It doesn't always get better. They always say technology is marching forward. Something's marching forward, but it's not the design.

JB: Right. I'd much prefer the older design, for sure. It definitely works better for what I try to do. I'm gonna let you go. Are you performing at The Ace in October? I guess it is October! Happy October!

SC: Happy October. I'm on my way to England, actually. I have a tour in England, then I come back and I go to South America. I think I wanted to play that, but it didn't work out.

JB: Alright. Have a wonderful time in England, and South America. That sounds heavenly. Thank you for talking to me for a little bit. I really appreciate it.

SC: Thanks, Julianna. That was really nice to speak with you.

JB: Alright. Have a good day. Have fun with your friends.

SC: Don't forget to send me your music, so I can hear it.

JB: I definitely will. I hope we cross paths again.

#yes #interview #julianna barwick #suzanne ciani #electronic #music #quadraphonic #sound #live music #electronic music #sound design #seventh wave

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