#rolin jones WISHES he were me

[covenofthearticulate]

I hope the show gets cancelled before we get to this point but I'm just saying, IF I were a writer on amc iwtv it would be so fun to write an episode from like a random npc's point of view for the concert. Not even OF the concert, like I don't want to see the actual show, I want the story of a girl who waited 10 hours in line to see The Vampire Lestat. I want the story of the girl who made friends with other strangers in line, who skipped out on school to go to the show, who drools all over herself while wearing horrible fake fangs. that's what we deserve tbh

[vorbarrsultana]

the vampire lestat reread, pt. 1 (lestat and nickistat)

also known as "i decided to reread tvl after the season finale because some takes i've seen online give me the impression i read a completely different book two years ago". i've finished it two days ago, and turns out i have more than 5000 words of notes that significally exceed tumblr character limit. so, i had to split them into three parts.

here is part one, all about dramatic theater kids full of love, sad violinists of infinite beauty, and friends-to-lovers romances doomed by the narrative.

i love lestat.

i forgot how fun and likable tvl lestat is from page one. and how different he is from his fanon characterization!

lestatposting is fun, i get it, but i am starting to get annoyed at the amount of fanfics where lestat needs someone to help him adapt to modern times. he is doing fine on his own, thank you. it took him less than two weeks to start a rock band.

(and the whole iphone thing from "prince lestat" is more about him not seeing it as something useful since he has a mind-skype ability to talk to any vamp on planet earth, and they cannot decline the call.)

lestat is not stupid. impulsive? yes. stubborn? of course. but clever, resourseful, and cunning when he needs to be. all of this makes him a great hunter! also, really thoughtful when the mood strikes, and his quiet, existential moments have some of the best prose in that book.

i wish someone smarter than me wrote a good meta about lestat & social class because he really seems to buy into the idea of "noblesse oblige" i.e. the belief that aristocrats are obliged to take care of those less fortunate. it's present in the way he kills the wolf pack for the villagers (who live on his father's land), and later takes responsibility for the theatre troupe & remnants of armand's coven, even though he doesn't owe them anything.

also, characterization of lestat as someone socially cluesless is simply untrue. sure, he plays dumb on occasion (and hates it every time because early life illiteracy trauma), but he is also good at reading people. like, he got a pretty accurate read of armand behind the angelic facade during their first face-to-face meeting. the only people he has trouble reading are those closest to him because he heavily projects his abandonment issues on them.

lestat's struggle of being "too much" contrasts nicely with the struggle of never being enough which is so crucial to louis. hashtag made for each other.

and juxtaposition of lestat's desire to be loved for who he is and louis's struggle with identity is also delicious.

this time i also related so much to lestat's "malady of mortality" and his search for meaning in the world. which ultimately fails because he is forcibly turned into a monster, and now every ounce of happiness he might bring into the world (and lestat desperately wants to do good!) is outweighed by him killing to survive.

and marius later reinforced the belief that vampirism has no higher purpose, and no wonder that nola!lestat is a shell of his former self.

lestat's turning is the most classic horror moment of the vampire chronicles to me. the mina harker of it all. the creature of night shrouded in terror snatching an innocent victim from the arms of their love right before bleak november sunrise.

also, all the implications of what magnus has done to lestat were even more clear during this reread, and i wonder if that was the reason rolin "i-love-narrative-parallels" jones added bruce into claudia's story.

the book also explains perfectly why lestat is so well suited for vampirism. his curiosity, thirst for new experiences, and adventuring spirit are his eternal engine on the devil's road :)

however, the downside of that personality facet is that lestat steamrolls over his trauma telling himself "this is fine! look, satan, i am making the best of it", which in turn leads to the iwtv nola mess.

and i feel like this constant search for positives in vampirism (that unwilligly turned lestat & claudia share) is why they can't really relate to louis, who chose it for himself. if these two start to get too existential, the temptation to throw themselves into the fire might become unbearable.

lestat equating his loneliness with his evilness is interesting, but i have nothing to say about that for now other than equation being there.

lestat's explosive temper is also present in the book. there is a constant pattern of lestat doing things he regrets the most (like the theater performance fiasco or eating people at notre dame's steps) when he is angry or upset.

let's talk about nicki. i love him, despite half of fandom hating on him for some reason.

lestat has a type, which is "good catholic boy" with narrow view of good and evil. except louis is of a parent's favorite, conforming variety, and nicki is the rebellious one, driven to the utmost cynicism by religious dogmas.

however, despite being a self-proclaimed cynic, nicki practically drowns in catholic guilt, almost reveling in the fact that everything he does, from playing violin in the boulevard theater to having an affair with lestat, is wrong. there is no meaning in anything, and he is doomed to die a sinner's death.

he is doomed! by the narrative though.

lestat and nicki's philosophical difference seems to be that nicki (unlike lestat) does not believe in inherent goodness of the positive emotions. for him, "sin always feels good", therefore happiness they bring performing = sin.

but still, nickistat's love is so touching. after lestat ghosts nicki to protect him, he still trusts lestat's love for him and the troupe, thinks best of him, and shuts down all nasty rumours. in turn, lestat equates all the good that was in his mortal life, all his hopes and dreams with nicki. he is a symbol of everything magnus took from him.

AND THEY COMMUNICATE THROUGH MUSIC, AND IT'S THEM AT THEIR BEST, AND IT'S BEAUTIFUL.

nicki almost became lestat's charlie. when they meet face to face for the first time after lestat's transformation, he can barely contain his hunger magnified by attraction.

the most terribly sad thing about nicki is the unfairness of all that happened to him. he had seen lestat being shot right before him, then he disappeared with dying gabrielle, then the coven kidnapped and tortured him until he lost his mind.

and for nicki, the dark gift is a confirmation of everything he believes in being true. the meaninglessness of it all. evil being the only certain thing in the world. the way to fall into a deeper, darker abyss than the one that was before the mortal him. and it is a confirmation that lestat's inner light he loved so much will eventually burn out.

(his spark in the dark, if you will.)

(and lestat's dream before turning nicki hurts, because he dreams of growing up and growing old together, of maturing past magnus's eternal lelio with sunlight in his hair and summer sky in his eyes. oh, the lesdaughter of it all.)

there is certainly a parallel between nickistat's bitter "in darkness, we are equal now" vs loustat's comforting "in the quiet dark, we were equals".

[murfpersonalblog]

IWTV S2 Ep6 Musings - Claudeline (Spoilers)

Take a shot every time AMC puts Claudia in a yellow dress.

Poor Madeleine! I definitely didn't expect any of this from the teasers! A VESPA! Claudia to the rescue! (^0^)

This was so tender and sweet and adorably morbid.

(Lou's wild; he's like wtf is this female doing in my gay bed?) Claudia's so dang adorable, I can't, I wanna hug her and tell her everything will be ok. But AMC persists in dressing her in EFFING YELLOW. 😭

Lou said CLAUDIA effed things up, when LOUIS is the one LITERALLY effing Armand in the theatre! That "you picked the coven!" outburst must've dug up some DEMONS, to be talking to MY daughter that way. 😤

I'm rolling, stop it--cycles are cycling. Siblings talking about their interracial Francophile dating habits. XD

And then immediately DRAGGING Les for his blood, I CACKLED! Les's blood ain't good enough for Madz, but you want ARMAND to turn her!? Lawd, lemme tell you about MARIUS DE ROMANUS' blood. 😭🤣 Lestat is MILD. And Les isn't a bad Maker, all told, cuz he made Claudia an AMAZING vampire, for such a wee little girl. 🥰

Lou are you KIDDING ME!? Why is every word out your mouth this episode making me wanna throw hands!? Naaw Claudia, press him on it, he meant that ish! That's every midlife crisis single parent thinking the kids are getting in the way of their love life!

THE SCREAM I SCRUMPT!

Claudia de Lioncourt!? 😱

Ok, this ep OFFICIALLY MADE ME WANNA CHOKE ROLIN JONES--HOW DARE YOU SIR, YOU DAAAAARRRRREEEEEEEEE 😭 The patriarchy's real, omg my poor daughter! 😭😭😭😭

I never thought I'd see Armand & Madz just chilling in an ugly AF floral room in the year of our lord 2024, Rolin I love you, sir.

NGL, I hated that they made Madeleine a collaborator--I wish I would have as much of a cavalier attitude about having a KKK member "cradle my tits" as she did about being with a Nazi--IDGAF if the sky is burning and pigs are flying and the world's ending--I guess we're all dying virgins! 🥂 Sorry not sorry, but I didn't feel sorry for her at all, up until this episode.

But I guess I can see where they were going with it?

Weird flex, but ok. (No wonder armand said no, LOL.)

This made me LOL. XD

Madz getting (turnt out, who said that??) turned to Josephine Baker~!

STOP it, AMC. 😭 Madz fantasizing yellowdress!Claudia in sunlight--are all these redheads witches like the Twins, LOL?

RUDE, but I was thinking the same thing, it's an honest question, albeit petty.

Exactly, any parent would wanna know your intentions with their kid.

That must be sarcasm--Armand paraded you in Baby LouLou's lolita clothes for how long? 🤨

Not sapphic!Claudia with the bling & the makeup & the tatas out. 😍

Loving Madeleine's YELLOWish eyes, Rolin, Carol, you sickos.

Thank you for at least giving Claudeliene some happiness for like two seconds. 😭💔

Brace yourselves for Ep7. U_U

[canonicallysoulmates]

Jacob was on the Graham Norton Show yesterday- I will say I had never seen a full episode of this show, I'd only ever seen clips, the vibe is very different from the US late-night programs I'm used to and I don't know if it was just the lineup for this ep or if this is the norm for this show but I found myself laughing through almost the whole thing it is very entertaining that being said I wish the time among the guests had been divided better because, at least to me, Jacob is the one who got the least amount of attention and talking time which was really disappointing. I wish he had gotten asked more questions and had the opportunity to talk more about the show, and just gotten more focus/attention in general.

Nonetheless, I'm glad I watched it, if you didn't get the chance to watch it live somebody uploaded it online I'll leave a link at the bottom of this post just in case anyone wants to check it out but if you're in the US you will need a VPN to access it. It will also be up eventually on AMC+ so if you're willing to wait just keep an eye out for when it's loaded. He doesn't talk about s2 but he does talk about iwtv in general. He mentioned how the last time he was on the show he was there as the musical guest and one of the regular guests was Kirsten Dunst who played Claudia in the IWTV movie!

He says that Rolin Jones was able to adapt all of the books so he could bring things in from later on so Lestat on the show is bad but there's a little bit more pathos in him while Louis has a bit more backbone.

On the Loustat relationship, he says: "They fall very much in love but they sort of hate each other and love each other at the same time. They have this like really intense love affair that destroys both of their lives. And they decide to have a child!" He understands them so well.

They show a clip of iwtv it's of the moment Louis kills the alderman's attorney in ep 2. Jacob comments that the line "it was both random and unfortunate the man picked that night to dabble in fuckery" is probably one of his favorite lines he's ever said.

He also reveals the sound when he shows the vampire fangs was not intentional. When they were shooting they were trying to figure it out how to reveal teeth in a good way and he figured out one day the best way to do it was to do like a cat sound, to hiss so they did it and everybody else got on board except for Sam who was a little more reticent and wanted it to be taken seriously which is hilarious to me but at the same time I would expect nothing less from Sam 'actual vampire' Reid. So now vampires hiss!

He also talks a bit about Louis accent, he initially worked with a dialect coach who wanted him to do a French Creole accent which was apparently popular at the time but he didn't think he could do it so he just listened to people in cabs and shops.

And he says there were a lot of different variations of blood some of which were just for aesthetic purposes like the human blood which is dark, the vampire one is sparkly, but they made him a drinkable "blood" that was made of hibiscus tea, and raspberry but it was awful, it was like sour patch kids. Somebody from the iwtv crew drop the recipe cause I love Sour Patch Kids.

As a random note, this man is so cute, I wanna hug him.

Like I said I'll leave a link here for anybody who is interested in watching the full thing, a reminder if you're in the US you'll need a VPN or alternatively you can download it to watch:

Jacob Anderson on the Graham Norton Show

[cbrownjc]

what if i told you that I've read all the books and still prefer loumand over lestat. what if i told that not even armand killing claudia with his bare hands wouldn't make me hate him. what if i told you that i will still stan louis for continuing to be with armand even after armand probably kills his child. like i am aware of everything. you would tell me that loustat is endgame. so it's not that you care about louis or claudia or armand or even fans hating assad. you just wish show lestat wasn't already such a pile of garbage and that so far for many fans he's irredeemable. i can promise you the only people that already hate and will definitely hate assad and lash him are white fans. which is going to be so funny for you who thinks you can buy your way into whiteness by keekeeing with white fans against the mostly black and brown loumand fans

Hey Anon, guess what?

I don't care if you've read the books or not. It clearly hasn't stopped you from making incorrect assumptions about people and things or being absolutely toxic about all of this.

I probably read the books and was originally in VC fandom before you were even born. There were only four books published when I joined. I saw the 1994 movie in theaters.

And guess what? People were shipping Louis and Armand back then too. And nobody cared and there wasn't any insane "nice guy" Armand theories or ship wars about to prop it up either. People shipped who they liked and that was that.

Again, because you can't seem to understand or get it: I don't care if you ship Armand and Louis. Many of us don't.

And this is not about that and you know it.

First of all yes, I'll still say Loustat is endgame. Do you know why? Because not only is that how the book series ended, but Rolin Jones - you know, the showrunner - has said it himself as well that the relationship between Louis and Lestat is the heart of the show.

So saying that is just based on feakin' logic, based on actual current available information. Not my personal opinion.

I can sit here and say all day or all night that Harry is going to end up with Hermione one day, but that will never make it true, either via the books or the movie series based on, you know, the actual facts of things as they currently stand.

So until you've got something other than yourself and your personal feelings about all of this to go by? Then yeah I'll keep saying it based on the books and what RJ has said about it all so far.

And he's not on social media. So all of this you're doing? Not only is he not aware of it, but he probably wouldn't care if he found out either.

None of this has anything to do with the damn sipping war, or personal grievance you so seem hell-bent on wanting to start and have with me or anyone else about all of this. Or any slights you continue to keep personally feeling whenever someone says it.

If the books had ended at Blood Canticle, which is where the series did end for a long-ass time BTW, I would have said that book canon endgame couple was Lestat-Rowan - because that is what it was - while the show was changing it to Lestat-Louis because that is what Rolin Jones, you know, again, the showrunner, was saying it was going to be.

Again, it's all called facts and logic. No more, no less.

And I'm going to call BS right now on people like you not attacking Assad. You say that now but I'm very sure the minute he doesn't back your "nice guy Armand" theory in some way or push that something other than Armand and Louis is endgame, you'll turn on him and say not-so-nice things about him. It always happens. And you'll probably call him a sell-out and trying to latch onto whiteness when he does, just like you're trying with me right now (or anyone who dares not to back or support your theories from what I've seen). (And attacking Sam Reid just because you don't like his character still isn't a good look for ya'll BTW.)

This isn't a race or racism thing Anon. No matter how much you'll try and keep saying it is. And because you don't know a thing about me you of course don't know how I've already called out white fans when it comes to Armand and Assad being cast as him just a few days ago. So don't come at me with your weak argument regarding this topic okay?

Because see, if you really want to go on the topic of race about all this, then why this need to erase everything Armand actually is a character now that the person playing him is a POC? Why the need to, pardon the pun, whitewash him?

Is it absolutely impossible for you to see a POC play a problematic character, in a story full of other problematic characters, and still prefer him over another? You say it isn't, that you like Armand from the books despite the things he's done. But yet, here you all are with the theory that Armand is going to be a good guy and whatnot, based on absolutely nothing but your own feelings and opinion.

Is Armand's problematic nature worse to you because he is a POC now? Why this need from you and some others to erase the complexity, and the trauma, that made Armand become who he was to where he did what he did to Claudia, and instead you have this need for him to be an unblemished good guy instead?

Because you damn well know this isn't - and never has been - about you and other shipping Armand and Louis and anyone having a big problem with that. Because if you knew me at all, you'd know that I'm actually very poly about all this - and really like the polyamorous nature of all these vampires in general - and would be just as happy with it ending with a four-character pile that has Louis and Armand in there.

No. This has all, and only ever been, about this "nice guy Armand" theory you and many other keep insisting on trying to make real.

And maybe you should ask yourself why that is.

Because it seems to me you want him to be unproblematic to actually do the very thing you're trying to accuse me of - which is kowtowing to white fans' most awful racist tendencies when it comes to POC who aren't perfect, or unproblematic. (Something especially seen with black people - real and fictional.)

Why is Armand not being as problematic and complex as all the other characters on the show, just like his book counterpart, so important to you? Maybe you should ask yourself that Anon, before you start attacking other people on this okay?

[jiggerypokeryfiddlesticks]

CW: Negative criticism

So I finally watched AMC's Interview with the Vampire and while there were some good parts, overall it... wasn't great. There were so many problems that I wouldn't even know where to start. And it did the same shit as the IT movies. Like why bother changing the time period? So you can shoehorn in a dated reference to fucking Bezos? Really? They made one change which lead to another, which lead to another, and so on until the story was unrecognizable and all meaning was lost.

There are so many issues even in the first ten minutes that they might as well have called it Interview with a Vampire instead, cause it sure as hell isn't the vampire. The only resemblance these characters share with their book counterparts are their names. It seriously gave me flashbacks to that horrible Queen of the Dammed movie, exactly what I was afraid of. But, to be fair, at least this time it's actually queer. Though I could have done without the boring 'let's explain queerness to the straight audience' moments.

Also that shit with burning the original tapes was a fucking slap in the face to fans of the book and Anne Rice herself. Like fuck you Rolin Jones. Or... I wonder if some of the problem's are due to Christopher Rice. I mean one of the worst books I ever read he wrote. But I don't know how closely he was involved in the show.

Anyway, all that being said, I wish they had just made it an original vampire story, then I could have enjoyed it without getting pissed every five seconds. Because there were a lot of things that I did like about it, they just got drowned out. Maybe I'll change my opinion if and when season 2 comes out. I'd happily eat my words because, as annoyed as I am, I still want to see where they are going with it, but I don't know what they could do at this point to fix it.

[lestatisprince]

Sorry the wait is killing me. My one skill is overthinking how slightly dismissive Rolin Jones was in one specific interview, when he was saying how Anne Rice ‘fell in love with Lestat’ when writing the rest of the book series, and that the writers will instead of expanding Louis’ characters in new ways? they will lob off parts of lestat’s book plot and hand it to Louis, They will rush TVL is half of season 2? and that the season 3 thing the writers were teasing ‘the reason rolin wanted to do the show’ is armand related and that armand will get the maximum babygirlifying treatment this time round instead of Lestat and Lestat will get armands worse traits….maybe they will just make Claudia alive in 2022 and then who the hell knows will happen?? (FYI I think keeping Louis central is obviously great and that would mean blending him up with lestat’s shenanigans but I think the last episode has me panicked they have zero intention having lestat ever be a protagonist the audience will root for) sorry intrusive iwtv thoughts dump

I wasn't going to answer this right now, because I don't have time to say all the reasons I don't agree .

And then I saw that these were all intrusive thoughts and ohhh boy do I get that. So I'll let you air this to the world as you wish.

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Joseph Allred

Photo Credit: Susanna Bolle

Joseph Allred grew up in Tennessee and currently lives in Boston, where he’s found good company with acoustic musicians such as Glenn Jones and Rob Noyes. Like them, he makes music that can easily be tagged as American Primitive guitar, a category that Dusted’s Bill Meyer invoked in a 2019 review of two Allred cassettes that were issued on the Garden Portal label: “Of all the musicians who convened in Takoma Park, MD last year to attend The 1000 Incarnations of the Rose festival, Joseph Allred hews closest to American Primitive guitar’s mystical spirit.”

But Allred has also made music that has little to do with that approach, and is not even played on acoustic guitar. A quick survey of the seven vinyl albums and virtual basketful of tapes and downloads that Allred has released on Feeding Tube, Garden Portal, Melliphonic, and Scissor Tail Records since 2013 will turn up songs played on piano and harmonium, banjo instrumentals, and sound collages made from cell phone recordings as well as sonically rich and emotionally commanding acoustic guitar soli. Meyer also reviewed Allred’s newest release, Michael, out on Feeding Tube, noting that “his grasp of the essence of American Primitive guitar, which is that music is not just an idiosyncratic reordering of certain influences… that are played on a steel-stringed acoustic guitar, but an articulation of one person’s uneasy relationship to the wider world.”

Mike Gangloff – “The Other Side of Catawba”

Ten Years Gone : A Tribute to Jack Rose by Mike Gangloff

This song was Mike’s contribution to Buck Curran’s 10 Years Gone tribute to Jack Rose that came out last year. In addition to being a moving tribute to his friend and musical co-conspirator, it points to the mystical, dirge-y side of the Appalachian fiddle tradition that I’m particularly fond of, evoking more than a bit the keening wail of graveside bagpipes.

Powers/Rolin Duo — St

St by Powers / Rolin Duo

A lovely ecstatic drone folk album from these lynchpins of the Columbus, OH cat-instagramming scene. Shimmery, rumbly, at once earth-planted and heaven-turned. 12-string guitar paints color washes like the album’s watercolor sun-scape cover and hammered dulcimer fills to the brim with echo, sometimes sounding on the verge of being blown apart by its own reverberation. It’s been providing a much-needed meditation and catharsis lately.

Ostad Elahi — The Sacred Lute: The Art of Ostad Elahi

Nur Ali Elahi was a Kurdish musician, mystic, jurist, and philosopher born in Iran to the Yarsani religious leader Hajj Nematollah. Despite showing a prodigious talent for the tanbur and being recognized as a master musician at an early age, he never played music in a professional performance setting, preferring to use the instrument, which accompanied him throughout his life, as part of a personal spiritual practice. The tanbur has an airy, ephemeral sound often described as dry or even ascetic, but it uses a rolling right hand technique that creates seemingly unending hypnotic swirls of notes.

Buck Gooter — Finer Thorns

Finer Thorns by Buck Gooter

I met Billy Brett and Terry Turtle about 10 years ago when the band I used to play in shared a spot with Buck Gooter on the lineup of a Harrisonburg, VA basement show. I thought of Suicide and Big Black with some primal Ramones-tinted sludge seeping through the cracks, but it was ultimately something uniquely weird in the best possible way. I didn’t get to know Terry as well as I wish I could’ve before he died last December, leaving Finer Thorns as his last album, but he was a special person and a true outsider art savant. I wish Billy the best as he carries the Buck Gooter flag forward on his own.

Stanley Brothers — The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers

My dad sang in a gospel quartet and I used to poke fun a bit by asking if it hurt his feelings that most of the gigs they got were at funerals. Maybe because I’ve experienced a lot of loss in the last decade or so I understand the special place gospel music has around death for some of us, but I think it can call us to start building a heaven on earth just as it imagines a place where our departed friends and lovers watch over and wait for us. These recordings made between 1949-52 are some of the finest gospel and bluegrass to be found and have been my medicine for homesickness and world-weariness.

Arvo Pärt — Für Alina

I did a transcription of this piano solo for a tape that came out on Michael Potter’s Garden Portal label two years ago and found my first experience with transcription deeply rewarding. Für Alina is a quiet, introspective piece, arranged to slowly unfold and then fold back up and consisting of two voices that move together against an occasionally sounding pedal tone. When I arranged it for guitar, one of the alterations I needed to make is that I put the two voices in the same octave, whereas on the piano they’re played an octave apart. Pärt intended the dedication to “Alina” as a consolation to a mother who had recently been separated from her daughter, so distance is a theme of the piece, but I found it especially poignant that the tension between the two voices seems much more pronounced when they’re put closer together.

Julian Bream — Dances of Dowland

The recently departed Julian Bream was a giant of classical guitar but his anachronistic lute playing technique and use of an instrument with some modern amenities earned him the ire of the more authenticity-minded lutenist community (apparently a fairly ornery bunch). I don’t recommend caring too much about the difference between the right hands of a classical guitarist and a dedicated lutenist, and I still love this album of Dowland renditions for the lute. Bream is a particularly good candidate to bring out the drama and flamboyance that can be extracted from the music, and it’s always a treat to hear the joy and mastery he brought with him to whatever era or instrument he happened to be playing.

Popol Vuh — Spirit of Peace

Music can be weaponized and used to challenge oppressive structures in overt and destructive ways, but in the hands of those like Florian Fricke, it creates spaces for self-transcendence and communion with the Divine, which builds the foundation necessary for successfully transfiguring those structures or building new ones. It allows us to enlighten and empty ourselves, to become conduits for Divinity and activate it in the world. Like much of Popol Vuh’s music, Spirit of Peace speaks from soul to soul.

Alan Sparhawk — Solo Guitar

I’ve been experimenting with an electric guitar a little after having gone two years or so without plugging in at all and using some of that time to think about what the electric guitar excels at or might be uniquely capable of. Alan Sparhawk’s Solo Guitar came out the year after he had a well-documented breakdown that led to the cancelling of a 2005 Low tour and an eventual hospitalization, and this album stands out to me as a testament to how bleak and alienated the electric guitar can sound. It’s also a reminder of what made me put the electric guitar down for so long to begin with. It’s a beautiful album, but sometimes I can’t help but hear audio renderings of hellscapes Alan must have been fighting through.

Dorothee Soelle — The Silent Cry: Mysticism and Resistance

Dorothee Soelle was a German Protestant theologian who came of age against the shadow of Germany’s horrific deeds during World War II. She spent her professional career as an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War and Cold War arms race, patriarchal renderings of God, and a perversion of Christianity she called “Christofascism.” The Silent Cry stands as one of her most important and widely read works. She imagines an imminent, politically engaged mysticism, one equally at odds with the violent, patriarchal exploitation enacted by capitalism, and other-worldly mysticisms that refuse social analysis.