#sumac

[sumac-comic]

Please do not repost.  Feel free to reblog though!

Page 35

Next page to be released 3/27/2023!Please stay tuned for more!

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Artist: @asterite100

Author & Letterer: @the-suit

Transcript Below

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Transcript

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Peridot: Hyup!! Hmmm... Connie? *AHEM* Connie?

Connie: Oh! Yes?

Peridot: Your mother is a human doctor correct? Do you think you could have her come here?

Connie: I’ll ask her. Is there anything I can do to help?

Peridot: No I don’t think so. Your skill set is unqualified for the tasks at hand. Hmm, if I increase the manifold size here, I could double the output capacity... but that might cause instability in the filters.

[thomas--bombadil]

Goats, devouring sumac berries. 

This fruit is just about the only high-nutrient consumable left in midwestern forests by this time of year. Many animals use these berries to sustain themselves through the bitterness of winter.    

[lionfloss]

Sumac

[geopsych]

The shining or flameleaf sumac.

[jadafitch]

Sketch for November. 

[fattributes]

Stone Fruit Summer Fattoush with Sumac Dressing

[julesofnature]

“Things happen. People come and go. The scene shifts. Time runs by, runs out. Maybe it is all utterly meaningless. Maybe it is all unutterably meaningful. If you want to know which, pay attention.”  ~Frederick Buechner

[anafishart]

Ittttt’s Sumac!! 

[flourspilt]

sumac lemonade.

[rabbitinthemeadow]

And how the breeze will whisper such strange things On some mournful October evening // Part 32

[morethansalad]

Vegan Butternut Galette with Apples, Shallots & Black Pepper Crust

[sumac-comic]

Please do not repost.  Feel free to reblog though!

Page 34

Next page to be released 3/13/2023!Please stay tuned for more!

[First] [Previous] [Next] [Latest]    

Artist: @asterite100

Author & Letterer: @the-suit

Transcript Below

———————————————————

Transcript

———————————————————

Bismuth: I know kid, but based on what Steven said, and seeing Pearl like this? They were probably hit bythe rejuvenator and have been reset. They won’t be any good to us right now. Better to leave them like this. We have to prioritize. One crisis at a time.

[ghostacolytev2]

All-weather seeds

[fullcravings]

Strawberry Sumac Scones

[bubblesandgutz]

Every Record I Own - Day 761: SUMAC May You Be Held

I’ve talked about my own work here a bunch, though I’ve never actually devoted one of these album posts to a record I’ve played on. But I’ve found myself thinking about the latest SUMAC full-length a lot recently, and this felt like an ideal platform to talk about it.

I’m sure May You Be Held is a difficult album for a lot of folks. It’s an hour long. Three of its five tracks are improvisational, and the two more “traditional” SUMAC songs are still at least partially improvised. SUMAC is already a “difficult” band in a lot of ways---we eschew standard rock song structures in favor of linear songwriting. When we employ repetition, we tend to push it to extremes, digging into parts for so long that they take on a hypnotic quality. Dissonance is preferred over melody. Standard 4/4 meter is largely avoided. This isn’t catchy stuff. 

The album came about in an unusual manner. “Consumed” was a leftover track from the previous album Love in Shadow. We knew early on that we’d release the 17-minute song in some capacity, most likely as one side of an EP. The 20-minute title track was written a couple of years later to fill the other side of the EP. Nick and Aaron went into the studio to do the basic tracking for “May You Be Held” and to rework parts of “Consumed.” At the end of the session, they recorded a few improvised pieces. I overdubbed the bass in another session, including playing along with the improvised songs. It was an unorthodox way to write an album---in multiple sessions over the span of several years in different studios with very little idea of what the end result would look like. 

In some ways, it’s not too far off from the way some of my favorite Miles Davis records were concocted. Big Fun and Get Up With It were essentially compilation albums, their tracks culled from a variety of sessions that birthed more formal studio albums like Bitches Brew, Jack Johnson, and On the Corner. For some reason, I’ve gotten more enjoyment out of Big Fun and Get Up With It than I’ve gotten out of the more reputable albums that came out of those sessions. They feel more exploratory, more prone to daring choices, less rooted to convention. 

We didn’t really know what we were making at the time, so when Aaron sent a proposed track listing where these two formal SUMAC songs were surrounded on all sides by improvisational pieces, it felt like hearing the material for the first time. We suddenly had this double album, and the journey of its hour-long duration felt like hearing music made by someone other than ourselves. 

We paid a little extra to get the vinyl mastered by Matt Colton, but it was worth every penny. I’d never heard an album of mine transformed so thoroughly by a mastering job. I’ll usually listen to a test pressing two or three times just to make sure everything sounds okay, but I listened to the May You Be Held test pressing every night for a week straight, sitting in a bean bag chair, fully immersed in it. I felt like I could hear things in the mix that I’d never heard before, like the creak and groan of speaker cabinets pushed to the edge of their limits at the end of the title track. Even though we Frankensteined the album together from different sessions, it sounded like everyone was in the room recording at the same time. It had the sense of space of an old jazz album, like there wasn’t any intermediary between the musicians and my ears. When you hear the word analog in the context of music, you usually think of a certain kind of technology. But here it was closer to the original etymology of the word---it felt as analogous, or proportionate, to the original sound sources as possible. 

May You Be Held came out in October 2020, right in the heart of the pandemic. In some ways, it was the perfect time for the album to come out. It felt good to put an album out into the world at a time when band activity was on hold. And I think May You Be Held is an album that really requires a patient and attentive listener. To really appreciate it, you need to give it your undivided attention. Curl up on the couch, put it on the stereo, play it loud, and let it sink in. What else was there to do during the pandemic?

I realize that’s a big ask in this day and age. After all, what artist doesn’t want its audience to fully immerse themselves in their work? I certainly don’t have enough time in the day to give every new album that level of focus. But I think this is the only way May You Be Held really works. You have to listen to it like you’re in the room as it’s being performed. You have to feel like you’re watching the improvised parts happen in real time, like one of the musicians could slip and derail the whole thing at any given moment. There’s a vulnerability in spontaneous composition, there’s no safety net. Everything is pure expression.

It was a fitting presentation for a record that, at its core, was all about vulnerability. 

We decided not to put the album up on standard streaming platforms. As a listener, I know how easy it is to play a new album on your phone while you’re tinkering around the house. But May You Be Held doesn’t work as a cursory or casual listen. And in that sense, it might be a terrible type of record to release in our era, where there’s so much media vying for our attention and you can access any of it anywhere at any time. Inadvertently, I think May You Be Held is a reaction against that convenience. It’s a record that’s ugly and impenetrable on the surface, but if you filter out your surroundings, there is a unique power and immediacy to it. 

I’ve been thinking about the album a lot as we’ve begun preparing material for a new album. In some ways, there is something daunting and depressing about releasing music in this day and age. There’s simply so much new music coming out, and so much of it feels ephemeral. May You Be Held may have benefitted from coming out in a time where people were stuck at home and looking for things to divert their attention from reality. But it may have also suffered from coming out in an era where music is largely shared and discussed online, and the dialogue quickly shifts to whatever is new. May You Be Held certainly isn’t a part of the zeitgeist in that capacity, but maybe it serves as a counterpoint. Maybe we all need to slow down and take a moment to not just hear, but to actually listen.

[fattributes]

Spicy Meat Stuffed Pitas with Garlic Sauce