#this supposed dichotomy of what is 'art' and what is 'just' craft

[rthwrms]

getting real heated about the art vs craft debate (cause its fucking stupid) it's all art. it's all craft. i think white men should be shot for sayign otherwise

[pebblysand]

okay, i'm going on a rant and i might make enemies but honestly this has been brewing inside me for weeks and i can't hold it in anymore.

i've seen a lot of content lately (and this is no one in particular, just a general trend) of people getting mad when fanfic writers 1) try to monetise their craft and 2) try to link their ko-fi/patreon/what-have-you to ao3. the general consensus seems to be that this endangers ao3 as a platform, that these "gen z-s" who aren't scarred by anne rice don't know the risks they're taking, that everyone will get sued, etc.

now, for the record, i do not put my own ko-fi in my a/n-s because a) i do want to respect the rules and, b) i don't really need to make money from ff, but:

i wish people would mind their own fucking business sometimes. if someone wants to take the risk to monetise their work because they need to, then that is their risk to take, not yours. stop acting as though Money Is The Devil. money allows people to put a roof over their heads and food on the table. i've always found it sort of ironic that ao3 keeps lamenting every year about their struggles re:staff turnover and lack of diversity when only very fortunate people with a lot of time on their hands can actually afford to dedicate hundreds of hours of their time to allow them to function. not everyone can afford to work/do art for free. and, sure, we can all agree capitalism is bad but also that is the world we live in. you want to change it? revolt. have a revolution. don't report people to a fucking website.

this is tied to my first point but when it comes to links on ao3 specifically, just because AO3 has been the best site so far, doesn't mean it cannot be questioned ever. for the record, i love ao3. i think it's a great website. it's a fantastic idea. but, after spending an evening looking through their public accounting (yeah, i'm ✨fun✨ like that), i have loads of questions about the hundreds of thousands of dollars they seem to be hoarding year on year and refusing to reinvest to "keep it safe". ao3 as a website are extremely risk-averse in their functioning. that is their ethos. and, it can be a good thing (i'm not denying that) but that can also be a bad thing. we should at least be allowed to publicly debate certain decisions without being called "traitors" who want to bring the website down. it's healthy to debate.

for the love of jesus, mary, joseph and all of the people of jerusalem, stop telling people that if they make money off fanfic they will get sued and die. first of all, the legality of the monetisation of fanfiction is a lot more complicated than tumblr discourse makes it out to be. i don't want to go into too much detail because i have a life but know that: just because you monetise, doesn't mean you will get sued (and lose). at the same time, just because you do not monetise doesn't mean you won't. since these people love quoting anne rice as an example, i will say this: the people who got cease and desist letters, as far as i know, were not monetising. that is because monetisation is one of four factors related to the fair use exception, not The Only One. this is me making an educated guess here but i suppose that when they refuse to monetise, ao3 is actually just protecting itself and its users (again, that ngo, risk-averse strategy). they are not only leveraging that in a potential fair use argument, they are also taking a gamble that the lack of monetisation will discourage lawsuits. this may come as a shock but very few sane people sue each other for no money. it is thus safer not to monetise fanfiction, but not safe. making people believe in that dichotomy is misleading.

building on the above, i think the misunderstanding here comes from the fact that ao3 has become so mainstream and has outdone itself so much that the use of it has superseded its primary purpose. ao3 sees itself as an archive first and foremost, not as a reading tool/content host. its purpose is the safekeeping of History, which is why it's so risk-averse. but, that might not be what we need anymore as a collective. i don't know. but the idea that AO3 is going to get sued and disappear immediately if people start profiting from fanfic is flimsy at best. ff.net runs ads and monetises, so do tumblr and wattpad. they're fine. yes, it is a more difficult position to defend, but not an impossible one. tumblr even lets you put your fanfiction behind a paywall if you want, and the money transits through them. sure, that means that their terms of service push the responsibility onto you to respect copyright laws and defend yourself if you get sued (it's obviously a very different business model) but it is a thing. the fear-mongering about the doomsday of ao3 if anyone at all sought to question their system is ridiculous.

which brings me to my next point: stop blaming this on gen z. who allegedly don't remember what it was like "before," when we all swam in a sea of cease and desist letters and fanfiction websites were collapsing left, right and centre. this is not the first time i make this point online but why are we, millennials, turning into our parents, questioning young people's capacity for intelligent reasoning? even if the above was a realistic picture of the 00s, it was twenty years ago. times have changed. fanfiction has become democratised. we do not know what would happen if people started earning money off fanfiction. we don't know that they would get sued. if they did get sued, we don't even know what would actually happen because very few fic-like cases have been litigated. so let's just step back and let people do what they want.

lastly, a lot of people seem to think that bringing money into fanfic (even the smallest amount) would ruin their enjoyment of it, and would ruin the whole medium altogether. i understand this, i feel it sometimes myself. but, that's sort of a me problem, isn't it? we are projecting our own issues about how we feel money would decrease our enjoyment of fanfic onto other people. but that's for them, not us, to decide. to each their own.

and, bonus point: this is HP specific but if you are one of those people who only buys merch off etsy creators because you don't want JKR to profit and then scream at fanfic creators for trying to monetise, you are making literally no logical sense.

which is all to say: the conversation about the monetisation of fanfiction is a fascinating one, and a very complicated and nuanced one. there is no black and white. i have doubts myself and i have been thinking about these things for a long time. i do still feel very uneasy about the idea of the exploitation of someone else's property by another without their consent. it's tough. but i think it's important to sometimes get off our high horses and see both sides of a story, and feed intelligent discourse, not fear-mongering.

#rantover, thanks for coming to my ted talk.

[captainnickfoligno]

[gently tapping on your window] hi bel it's me sliding you orchid and sage mwah love you

LOVE YOU! i literally forgot i rbed that post skdjlakfjalksd

orchid ⇢ what’s a song you consider to be perfect?

not this. not this question! i have like 6 playlists full to bursting of songs i consider to be perfect. i guess one song i keep coming back to lately is peggy lee and the benny goodman sextet doing "where or when." my partner and i are constantly talking about art that offers a light touch and carries such nuance and subtlety, and to me peggy lee's voice is heartstoppingly stunning on this track. SO soft, SO restrained, and SO effective! every single time i hear this song i live inside of it and exist nowhere else for three and a half minutes

sage ⇢ what ‘medium’ of art (poetry, music, fiction, paintings, statues etc.) is the most touching to you? why do you think that is?

jen hitting me with all the hardest possible questions. my answer to this is definitely subject to change but for the past couple of years i've been feeling so drawn to craft and the many layers and interpretations contained within the discipline. when i lived in dc i was feeling really estranged from art and the only museum i could handle going to was the renwick gallery, the collections of which focus on craft and decorative arts. i just feel like, who is doing it like craft artists?? labor and politics and materiality/medium and space and texture and so much rich food for thought and expression. there is a lot of politicization of (admittedly, primarly western) visual art that deals in transcendence, the superiority of mind over body (and also the supposed dichotomy of mind and body i should say), the privileging of ideas and intellect, etc., and to me, craft really resists that notion. it is so physical, it is so bodily, tactile, indexical. but it's also still a medium through which you can explore mortality or ephemerality or deeper philosophies. and some of the things these folks are doing with a chunk of glass would blow your absolute mind

play this ask game with me if you want!

[bryte-eyed-athena]

Afrofuturism in the work of Janelle Monáe

Ashley Clarke, a curator for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, defined Afrofuturism as “the centering of the international black experience in alternate and imagined realities, whether fiction or documentary; past or present; science fiction or straight drama.”

Themes of Afrofuturism can be found throughout the works of Janelle Monáe. Her previous albums like The ArchAndroid and The Electric Lady showcase this through the exploration of androids as a new “other.” Today I want to talk about one of her most recent projects, Dirty Computer, and the way it contributes to the conversation on Afrofuturism. Janelle Monáe released Dirty Computer as an album and a 48 minute long Emotion Picture to draw her audience into a visual and auditory world of her own making. The dystopian future she presents to us is very similar to our own current reality, except that the voices being amplified are those that have historically been silenced. People of color and the LGBT+ community are central in this story rather than pushed off screen. Dirty Computer is so powerful because it focuses on joyful rebellion, love, and freedom in an oppressive dystopian setting.

The project, as Monáe has shared, can be split into three parts: Reckoning, Celebration, and Reclamation.

Part I: Reckoning

gif credit: scificinema

gif credit: scificinema

The Emotion Picture begins with Monáe’s character Jane 57821 laying out how her society has begun to capture people deemed dirty in order to “clean” them of their supposed filth against their will. This is meant to produce beings that are stripped of all individuality and ready to conform to societal norms and expectations. Jane tells the audience that, “You were dirty if you looked different, you were dirty if you refused to live the way they dictated, you were dirty if you showed any form of opposition at all. And if you were dirty it was only a matter of time.” The dichotomy between dirty and clean has created a system where an entire class of people can be demonized and oppressed. This foreboding tone at the beginning prepares the viewer for the grim implications of the cleaning process in this universe.

Dirty Computers are strapped to a table and forced to undergo the “Nevermind” which is a program that deletes memories. It is a process that is horrifying because of what it symbolizes to the individual and entire communities of people. To erase someone’s memories is to erase who a person is. The character of Mary Apple 53, Jane’s love interest, shows us just how alien a person can become once their memories are gone. The horror of erasure is also something that marginalized communities have faced for centuries and continue to face today.

In an interview on Dirty Computer, Janelle Monáe said “I felt a deeper responsibility to telling my story before it was erased. I think that there’s an erasure - of us, and if we don’t tell our stories they won’t get told. If we don’t show us we won’t get shown.” Afrofuturism is a response to this erasure of black people and people of color in culture, history, and art. Monáe has made a deliberate choice to tell her story even if it might get erased because if she doesn’t do it then no one else will. Remaining silent would be to assist in that erasure and Afrofuturism is all about refusing to be erased.

This first part of the Emotion Picture is all a reckoning with the Dirty Computers and how they are pushed to the margins. The lyrics in Crazy, Classic, Life speak about how the same mistake made by two people on different ends of the spectrum of social acceptability is punished unequally. Take A Byte follows it with a more upbeat tone, but even then the lyric “I’m not the kind of girl you take home to your mama” speaks to a feeling of being outside social norms.

There are moments of light and joy that are counterweights to the dire situation Jane is in. These come in the form of her memories which are played one final time before they are erased. Jane’s life before she was captured was filled with exploration, youth, love and celebration.

Part II: Celebration

Gif credit: normreedus

Gif credit: daisyjazzridley

Gif credit: nerd4music

Dirty Computers seem to recognize that they are living on borrowed time and that any day could be the day they are forcefully disappeared. This is why they fill each moment with as much fun, life, color, and joy as they can. There are many scenes at clandestine parties where Dirty Computers live freely and openly despite the threat of drones or police that could capture them at any moment. It is important to have these scenes of celebration though because Afrofuturism is also about providing hope.

The future must be a hopeful one if we are to strive for it and Afrofuturism allows us to be creative in crafting our visions of a hopeful future. Even though Monáe’s future is dystopian, there is still room for hope and joy because those are the things that make life worth living. These Dirty Computers have to live their lives joyfully because they don’t know when they’ll be sterilized.

In the interview mentioned previously, Monáe added that “I had to make a decision with who I was comfortable pissing off and who I wanted to celebrate. And I chose who I wanted to celebrate, and that was the Dirty Computers.” The LGBT+ community, people of color, black women, immigrants, and low income people have all been mentioned as people Monáe wished to celebrate. This celebration comes intertwined with images and themes of rebellion as expressed in Jane’s memories. Screwed, Django Jane, Pynk, Make me Feel, and I Like That are the songs that embody celebration the best. Whether it's a celebration of sexuality, femininity, unity, or of self love it is all encompassed in these songs. Jane is shown connecting with others and being unapologetically proud of herself. We also see her falling in love with two people, Zen and Ché, and we see them love her in return.

Gif credit: thelovelylights

Viewing these memories and interacting with Jane seems to encourage the questioning of authority. The employee utilizing the Nevermind process seems to question why he should be deleting Jane’s memories at all. Mary Apple 53, previously named Zen, also directly questions their matriarch after speaking with Jane and realizing that she’s connected to her. It all culminates in a nonviolent escape attempt where Jane, Zen, and Ché reclaim their names, bodies, and their lives.

Part III: Reclamation

Gif credit: thelovelylights

The Emotion Picture ends with Jane 57821 and Mary Apple 53 freeing themselves, and their recently arrived lover Ché, from the facility. They escape without harming others the way they themselves have been harmed. By leaving they are reclaiming their freedom and their right to be proud of being Dirty Computers. They refuse the new names that were forced upon them and leave to rediscover the memories of the life they lived before capture.

It is a hopeful ending that plays into the themes of Afrofuturism. Even though both Jane and Zen’s memories were erased they still have the ability to create new memories and stories. Their ability to recreate their past as well as create a new future was not taken away. As they escape the song Americans can be heard in the background. The lyrics subvert the typical American patriotism expressed by racist white southerners. The trope of preserving gender roles and being a gun carrying american are satirized in these lyrics. America as a whole is being reclaimed by Janelle as a place for the people who have been marginalized.

Janelle sings “Don’t try to take my country/ I will defend my land/ I’m not crazy baby/ nah I’m American.” This sentiment is typically espoused by xenophobic americans, but when it is sung by Janelle she is saying that she won’t be forced out of America due to the bigoted beliefs of the people who hate her. She also pleads for the listener to love her for who she is which is something that has been denied to black women for centuries. The song ends with a powerful message of reclaiming America by Rev. Dr. Sean McMillan who said “Until Latinos and Latinas don't have to run from walls/ This is not my America/ But I tell you today that the devil is a liar/ Because it's gon' be my America before it's all over.”

This also shows themes of Afrofuturism since Monáe is reclaiming her history and is refusing to be excluded from it. She is asserting her presence and that of all the Dirty Computers by saying that they too have a claim to America. The Emotion Picture and the album are both a masterpiece of Afrofuturism art and music. Monáe masterfully weaves various musical genres and visual storytelling to show her pride in being a black queer woman. There is no other artist like Janelle Monáe, and I am excited to see what new worlds she will take us to next.

[bluecoloreddreams]

(Disclaimer: this contains spoilers for the Fruits Basket and Fruits Basket: Another manga, as well as taking into consideration tidbits from Takaya’s twitter.) 

So, okay, first of all we have to address the YMMV aspect: Some people don’t like this ship. As long as they’re respectful, I have no beef with that. I’m well aware that some people cannot/choose not to make the distinction between “real life” and “fiction”— I have the luxury of this choice, so some of the “problematic” ships/character aspects within Furuba don’t bother me (for the most part). It’s fiction, and I’m aware of this.  

Again, some people cannot/do not make this distinction, and that’s none of my business because that’s their personal life. I’m aware that people dislike aspects of Akigure, and that’s fine. 

Personally? I’ve been reading Furuba since like, basically the dawn of time. I was reading scans on, like,  MSN groups. I remember a friend at church (of all places) telling me about the Akito reveal because I was behind on updates. It’s literally engrained upon my shipping heart at this point. 

(Headcanons ahoy! Like literally, this is all headcanon/my perspective on the series as a whole. YMMV/YKINMK/Dead Dove, the whole works, if you know you know

YES I wrote it like it’s an actual research paper because I have No Chill At All, please forgive me. It’s long and pretty rambling.) 

Addressing the first elephant in the room: Given my limited interactions with the fandom, my impression of Akigure from a generalized fan POV is that it’s pretty divisive. Every episode she comes up there are “I hate this kid” comments and I cry

Akito is a favorite of mine, and it’s impossible for anime-only’s to make a deep, informed call on her character. On the other hand, a lot of manga-readers dislike her too. 

So, why am I talking about whether or not people like Akito as a character? 

I’m of the opinion that it impacts people’s ability to view her character arc as one that deserves a happy ending. That she doesn’t deserve to have love, happiness, or forgiveness, all of which are given to her when she and Shigure finally end up together on equal footing. (Do I think the way it’s rushed in the original Furuba ending? Yeah, but hey. Sensei had like a huge ensemble cast to wrap ends on. Now there’s Furubana to look to and it’s just chef’s kiss.)

There’s a mental aspect in this, involving the dichotomy between “reality” and “fiction”. 

There is absolutely zero argument that are a lot of things that Akito does that uh, listen, if it was IRL she’d be in jail! Jail for terror baby! Jail for life! 

Fortunately, Fruits Basket is a work of fiction. These characters aren’t real, they’re idealized brushstrokes of human nature created to move a plot and a message along. 

That’s why Akito and Shigure work as a couple and as characters: 

They’re both incredibly deep characters that get passed off as one-dimensional by a lot of people (and the original anime, woof). Some of it is again, because anime-only fans just don’t have the whole story, since Akito’s arc is one that builds gradually until it hits a point where all hell breaks loose, which we are a ways away from. 

So what’s the message that their relationship and characters are supposed to pass on? 

Well, it breaks down into two categories: world building and thematic arcs. The latter is more important and what I’ll be focusing on, while the former is just a little spice that I, personally enjoy, and won’t really talk about in depth. (It’s that the magical realism in Furuba sets up the idea of soulmates, it’s just…. Something I enjoy and it’s really heacanony, so I can’t really justify spending more words on it!) 

When discussing Fruits Baskets in any capacity, I feel like we must first keep in mind the thematic “lessons” of the series: 

There is an inherent loneliness in living as a human being, since loss, grief, and hurt are indelible parts of the human experience, and learning to cope with these feelings in a compassionate manner is a life-long lesson 

People react differently to the loneliness of existence, and their reactions are based upon their personalities, their upbringings, and their own choices 

Everyone is capable of change and learning, if they choose to do so, however: 

Personal agency is taught, but in the vacuum of positive reinforcement, the ability of a person to choose to be compassionate is stifled or outright inaccessible

Therefore, if you are not taught to deal with your grief and existence outside of others, your ability to connect may become warped, manipulative, or abusive, and this is not the fault of the child but instead the parental figure 

Eventually, you will be aware of your actions, and then it is your burden to choose—some people do not take this choice (the head maid, Ren, Kyo’s bio dad, Rin’s parents, Sawa’s mother in Furubana)  

Abuse has long lasting effects on the psyche and can be physical, emotional, and/or mental in nature and must be dealt with in order to grow as a person

“Dealt with” does not mean that it goes away, but that it is acknowledged and given a positive outlet (Yuki’s garden, Aaya’s shop, Rin’s art, Momiji’s violin playing)

Forgiveness is not linear

Forgiving yourself is a long and arduous process, and happens independent of other people’s forgiveness

This is really brought to the forefront in Fruits Basket: Another, when Shiki talks about how his mother interacts with the rest of the Sohma family. It’s shown she’s done what she can to make amends, but recognizes that while she can individually hold relationships with certain family members, as a whole, it's best if she allows them to be away from her. 

This is a whole tangent on its own, but there’s a certain blanket of casual forgiveness given to Akito by the entirety of the shown Zodiac in Furubana, in that they trust that she’s raised a kind and thoughtful son and allow him the grace of his own family. 

Again, in Takaya’s tweets post-series that acknowledges that Akito’s friends with Uo-chan, despite her relationship with Kureno (and it shows a depth of awareness on Kureno’s part that he stays away

People flourish in environments where love and positive reinforcement is given freely, even when people are in the wrong

This doesn’t mean that no one is ever scolded: see Komaki and Kakeru, Kisa and Hiro, Hatori chews out Shigure all the time, but never ceases being his confidant 

So okay, that’s A Lot. But every single character in Furuba follows these themes in their own manner, because the series is about healing and learning how to heal from abuse, neglect, and isolation. Someone’s gonna have to be doing it. Point blank, the end, to tell a story there must be conflict, and boy howdy, there’s a lot of conflict in Furuba. Every personal thematic arc in the series ends up tying into a romantic one, because Furuba is a romcom drama. 

There’s a loop that goes “personal betterment”->”crush”/”friendship”->”conflict”->”personal growth”/”relationship growth” in the series for every character. That’s the bread and butter of Furuba. 

But anyway. To the question: 

I love them because they work, they’re both their own people with their own narrative focuses, motivations, conflicts, and flaws. Both Shigure and Akito are believable in their own right in the context of Furuba, and I think Takaya did wonderfully in crafting a story where their personalities mesh well and give each other reasons to better themselves.

To talk about them together, you have to talk about them separately. 

I’m gonna start with Shigure because, truthfully? 

I just want to lament about how often he’s simply passed off as either comic relief or absolute trash. He’s so underestimated! 

“He’s a joke of a grown man… He is reliable and I trust him.” (Another, v. 3)

He’s incredibly intelligent when it comes to interpersonal relationships, which is why he’s able to do what he does. He’s also incredibly kind—no one made him take in Yuki or Kyo or Tohru. He could have just went “ah, I’d prefer not to” and moved on. But he didn’t, made up some bullshit so Haru would feel like taking in Yuki was a transaction, and let me just tell you, I am the same age as Shigure and if you gave ME three teenagers to be the guardian of?! It would be a full on disaster.

He’s actually incredibly trustworthy (if he wants to be), insightful, and a genuinely good guardian despite his jokes and wisecracking. 

He forced Kyo to go back to school, knowing full well it would be good for him. He lets a whole host of children run rampant through his home. Kids who actually enjoy his presence. He’s shown as having a good familial relationship with Rin (who tries to warp that for her own means), Kisa, Haru, and Momiji. His advice to Tohru is genuine, insightful, and ridiculously helpful. 

Shigure is good with people. He gets up at the crack of dawn to drive Shiki to see Sawa in Furubana. He’s who Mutsuki and Hajime immediately go “holy shit you need to do something about this” to when they find out Shiki’s getting nasty notes about Akito. He’s who Shiki goes to when Sawa fell down the stairs as a child. As much as Shiki and the others make fun of Shigure, he’s obviously someone who’s trustworthy. And that’s not some new development, he’s always been trustworthy in regards to those he loves. No one asked him to show up to Tohru’s teacher conference, he volunteered. Like this dude loves people, he’s the dog spirit after all, and rightly so. 

Does he have his own motivations? Of course! But so does everyone else in Furuba. He’s a complex character, man! 

He laughs and jokes a lot because he’s projecting this image of a laid back, doofus. When you think about who he’s friends with, the whole middling goofball act makes a lot of sense. Just like some of Ayame’s over the top behavior is a defense mechanism, I believe that Shigure casts himself as a generally unappealing man to keep himself safe from advances when he was in school, but also to temper the wildly unequal personalities of his other two friends. He’s the sort of person who would just go “eh, whatever makes it easy”, and that’s just how he is. 

He doesn’t mean the creepy school girl thing, it’s a bit and I think the only people who don’t realize he’s running a bit are Yuki, Kyo, and Tohru who are absolutely too stupid to realize he’s playing them for reactions. He thinks it’s funny. 

Anyway:

When the older Zodiac had the dream of Shigure, Shigure is the only one who made the active choice to seek out that feeling. His soul was touched, and he decided that he wanted that and only that. This doesn’t necessarily mean he went full Jacob from Breaking Dawn, but it does mean he acknowledged there was a bond, and he wanted it. 

When you get into the technicalities of the curse, it’s mentioned that their Zodiac spirits influence how they interact with Akito, and that going against her can cause physical and emotional pain. Yuki cries when meeting her, and it’s mentioned that that’s just the normal reaction for the Zodiacs. 

It’s hard to say how much of their early interactions are influenced by the curse, but it’s obvious that Shigure has genuine fondness for her. She wasn’t always absolutely broken, as shown in Yuki’s backstory, and was a precocious child, one who sought affection openly. 

Shigure has an indulgent personality, and is shown to love being adored. Guess who loves him! Akito! Guess who wants lots and lots of affection! Akito! 

Their personalities are very well matched as they get older: They’re both intelligent and coy. They both have fairly sharp tongues when needed, and have no qualms about doing whatever it takes to get what they want. 

Shigure wants Akito to be independent from the curse. He’s made it clear to her he doesn’t want to be her father, he doesn’t want to be her friend, he wants to be her lover. Those are boundaries that Akito’s never been given before, and his frankness with her and his jealousy with Kureno is something she agonizes over, simply because she’s never been given any sort of serious interpersonal boundaries, or repercussions for her actions. He’s always kept himself separate from her, because of those boundaries, even when they were children. 

That’s important. It opens the door to the idea that her actions have consequences, and is a persistent nagging in the back of her mind. 

“Even though you hadn’t realized it, I was waiting for that day.” (ch 101)

For the bulk of the series, the only person who sees Akito as a person separate from the curse, and sees a future where she can grow is Akito. He has an extraordinary amount of patience for her, and forgives her for a lot. 

There are only two incidents that Shigure cannot forgive: Her sleeping with Kureno, and at the very end of the series, I’m of the full opinion that if Akito had pushed Tohru off the cliff, Shigure would have been done with her. Look at that expression, that is the look of someone who is toeing the line of throwing away all his hopes and dreams. If she really had pushed Tohru, I just...... The series would have taken a much darker tone. 

OKAY that’s enough about our favorite terrible author! (Okay, an aside, Shigure, please share your work ethic, you goof off so much but you’ve published so many things…how…)  

ONTO AKITO! 

“I’ve  finally realized… she hated her own shallowness all this time, from the very start.” // “It’s frightening because you have no choices.” (ch 121) 

A lot of people dislike Akito because she, for the bulk of the manga, is violent, manipulative and just downright unpleasant. And that’s fine, but it’s not the point of her arc or the themes of the manga.  (It is, however, the point of Rin’s: you don’t have to forgive everyone.) 

She’s not the only violent person in the series. If we as readers can forgive Uo-chan and Kyoko, or even Hana-chan for her moment of violence, why can we not extend the same grace to Akito? 

Violence is often shown as a knee-jerk reaction to fear and sadness: Kyoko, Uo, Hana, Kyo, Rin, and Akito all react violently to negative situations and feelings. Even Kisa reacts violently when she’s at her worst, biting both Haru and Tohru when she’s in her tiger form, which is shown to actually cause pain like a real tiger would. (It’s played for laughs, but has anyone been bitten for realsies by a house cat? That hurts! How much more would a house-cat sized tiger hurt!!!) 

Out of all of them, Hanajima and Kisa are the only characters to show immediate remorse, because they have what the others don’t: A positive support system. Once positive role models and support systems are in place, all of the others begin to learn how to react differently and ease out of the knee-jerk reactions that were ingrained in them. 

It’s made explicit in the manga that you have to be taught how to react positively, you have to learn and choose to be good, to be friendly, to love yourself outside of others’ perceptions of yourself. Look at Yuki’s arc. Look at Uo-chan’s. Kyoko’s. 

Yuki sums it up nicely in the last chapter of the manga, where he tells Tohru that she taught the Zodiac how to become human. She allows them to grow into people who can make the choice to be loving, compassionate individuals. 

Just because Akito doesn’t interact positively with Tohru for the bulk of the manga, it doesn’t make it any less true: 

Akito is kept in a juvenile state of being: No one teaches her to suck it up, that the world exists outside of herself, that other people are people and not things. In fact, she’s actively encouraged to act the way she does. She’s incredibly broken, between the maids of the Sohma estate just… allowing her to do whatever the fuck she wants and her absolutely jacked up relationship with Ren and Akira. She has no moral compass at all. No one bothers to teach her that her actions have serious consequences. 

She knows, in a roundabout way that hey, these people don’t like me. There’s a serious mental dissonance between what she latently knows—these are all people with no connection to her other than the bond of the curse. This is why Tohru is able to break through to her at the climax of the manga: 

She knows she’s wrong, but no one has ever told her she’s wrong but understood why she’s doing it. Akito just didn’t have the words to explain herself. What do children do when they cannot communicate? They lash out. Kids will bite, scratch, yell, kick, fall to the floor and have screaming tantrums out of frustration. Eventually, most kids learn that there are other ways to express frustration, and move along. (Not all, though, but most.)

Akito was taught that this is acceptable, allowable, and is her right as god. She is actively broken and kept that way through the neglect of the Sohma family maids, Ren’s abuse, and how Akira framed her role in the Zodiac. 

I can go on and on and on and on why the way Akito was treated for her role in the Zodiac by her parents and the rest of the Sohma estate was just awful. I hate it, it’s terrible, she never had a chance to learn and grow and be the genuinely thoughtful woman we know she grows into. 

She doesn’t force her path of forgiveness onto others and is fully cognizant of what she did, the repercussions of her actions, and lives her entire life after the curse breaks trying to right what she did wrong. 

“Even if she gets hurt, she says she deserves it. She tells me not to let it bother me, but… I’ve always, always loved her so much.” (Another, ch. 13) 

Tohru opens the door for Akito. She extends her hand, offers her friendship despite having seen the absolute worst of Akito. She tells Akito that everyone is lonely, everyone wants bonds, and acknowledges Akito’s worst fears, that Akito herself is selfish and dirty for wanting something assured and unending because she, Tohru, herself is dirty and selfish. Tohru knows what Akito has done, knows she’s injured some of her beloved friends, had plans to lock up Kyo, hurt Hatori. 

Tohru still forgives her. One of Tohru’s striking traits in the manga is that she is suffering, every day, she struggles with the grief of losing her mother and the fear of being alone in the world. Through nothing but her own empathy and realization that loneliness is universal, she’s able to forgive people. She forgives Akito and cares for her, and through Tohru, Akito is introduced to the realization that she’s been wrong and that maybe, she shouldn’t be forgiven. 

Shigure also forgives her, and this is the crux of their ship. 

To me, that itself is wildly important. 

They’ve always circled around each other, and Shigure has always been waiting for Akito to be able to come to him again, in full control of her life and choices. He wants Akito the woman, not Akito the god. 

He’s been waiting for the day Akito can meet him as an equal. Akito wants it too, and has wanted him to turn and see her for a very very long time. But she’s been terrified, the entire time, that when he does see her as herself, Shigure won’t like what he sees, and will leave. She’s aware of what she’s done post-curse, she’s aware of the impacts it will have on the former Zodiac members, and she’s aware that once the “bonds” of god and the animals is gone, there may not be anyone left for her.

Neither of them are under any illusions at the end of the series: Akito knows she has to atone for what she did, Shigure knows she has to learn to grow into a person who can function alone. They both know that there are people who are against them changing the oppressive structure of the Sohma family. 

Neither of them care. There are things that they want, together, and it’s enough. There’s a whole new world for them to explore and learn about. And in Furubana, this is shown to be a lifelong effort on their parts: 

“She said after meeting me, she learned so many things for the first time. She smiled happily as she said it.” (Another, #13) 

To close, I’d like to take a moment to talk about the curse and Shigure, and how he set things in motion. 

Without Shigure, the curse would have devolved on its own, yes, but the circumstances would not have allowed for the freedom the Zodiac had at the end of the manga. It would not have ended with Akito being able to learn and live freely. Allowing Tohru into the Sohma family cracked open a door to compassion and kindness none of them had ever experienced before, because the Sohma family seems to exist in a vacuum of stability and love. 

It wasn’t that Shigure knew instantly that Tohru was kind and loving and thoughtful, if anything, his read on her was “completely normal, albeit strange, teenage girl who obviously has a rough life”. But she was normal, she was from outside the Sohmas, and he knew that was enough. No one in the family was stepping up to change the status quo and how stifling and abusive it was, so he did it himself. 

He did it because he loved Akito. 

Not because he felt bad for himself, or Hatori, or any of the others, but merely because he loved her to the point of manipulation. It backfired in his face, because he got a big ol’ dose of “loving and respecting” juice from Tohru, but he still got the end he wanted. 

What I mean to say is best summarized in  chapter 123: 

“It would be nice to live in a kind world, without any troubles, without any fear, without hurting anybody, without ever being hurt, only doing the right thing. I wish I could reach this kind world by the shortest path possible. … “That’s wrong”, or “that’s stupid”: If it’s someone else’s life it’s so easy to make such irresponsible comments. ...It would be great, but it doesn’t exist. … Little by little, walking one step at a time, is all you can do.” 

We get to experience the roughest part of the path with Akito and Shigure, we got to watch them be terrible people who were lonely and in want of love struggle and learn how to get up and move on. 

They tease each other, Shigure is thoughtful of the distinction between “the person Akito was raised to be” and “the person who Akito is”. He’s seen her at her messiest, and she’s seen him at his most jealous. They still chose each other, despite the hurt they caused each other, and others. They make up for it, reflect, and live a life that demonstrates that they have learned. They have friends who are thoughtful and loving and would not hesitate to drop everything and help them, lend an ear when they’re frustrated, help them not to make the same mistakes. 

And then we get to see them be wonderful, kind, thoughtful, loving parents in Furubana. 

We got to see their adorable, kind, compassionate child be friends with the children of the people Akito hurt, because everyone in the former Zodiac’s family collectively decided “never again, no”. 

Their child adores them. Shiki in Furubana #13 radiates love for Akito and Shigure the same way Mutsuki and Hajime do. 

They are genuinely good parents, even when they tease Shiki, and I think that is testament for how good they are for each other and how much they’ve changed as adults. 

I think that’s enough of a reason to ship them, don’t you?

[idontfindyouthatinteresting]

The Last of Us Part 2: Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves.

- Confucius

HUGE SPOILERS - DO NOT READ THIS WITHOUT HAVING FINISHED THE LAST OF US PART 2

This game was not for me. Let me be clear by what that means, I played The Last of Us Part 1 only this year, after hearing a lot about it being amazing and realizing I actually got the game for free with my PS4 many years ago and it’s sat in a drawer since. I don’t like horror games, I particularly don’t do zombies. I hit a couple of walls but I finished the game, and I was happy when I did. I felt and was very vocal about how the power of the performances and the narrative got me through that game and left me feeling good about something that was so contrary to everything I enjoy in video games and media generally.

The Last Of Us Part 2 pushed this to it’s absolute limit, came within a hairs width of breaking. When it was done I was overjoyed it was done, that I didn’t have to tear, hack and beat anyone else. 

If this game had an Uncharted style quote tag line, it would without doubt be “before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves” in playing this game, I felt like I was burying Ellie, the painful dichotomy of having to physically push her forward yourself whilst the entire time wanting her to stop,  every time she hit another mark, every time the rabbit hole got deeper and the people around her suffered, every time her ruthless pursuit of revenge dumped her in another Scrambler hell hole. The violence in this game is suffocating and I would not be critical of anyone who needed to put it aside and take a breath.

As much as the violence is one of the centre tenets of the game, those who enjoy that sort of game, probably won’t be into this one. It is constantly self critical, the effect of what the characters are going through is beautifully translated in the performances and counterpointed when you’re asked to view the last of humanity at war with one another for nothing beyond tribal angst or trek through the museum, zoo or aquarium, taking care of JJ, listening to Dina talk about her faith, in one of the games small moments of peace. Something Naughty Dog does well consistently.

The score, hell the score, from tender solo guitars to that heart pounding combat suite, was perfect. Tension was something I expected from this game based on the first and it delivered. 

Gameplay was great, I’ve seen some reviews state that it’s what was offered in the first game, still happy with it. It’s not what you got in the first game it’s more complex, satisfying and flexible. 

I love rooting and looting for things, I love the satisfaction of having a full kit and all the materials to craft more. There were minor changes to the system whereby your characters have to read prepper type guides to learn their skills and if you don’t find them you don’t get the skills. As I literally enter a level and follow the wall left until I’ve covered every surface I didn’t have a problem with missing too much (I don’t know how I missed coins, cards and journals my first play through, where the hell are they?!) but if you’re not thorough you’re going to struggle.

There were also new types of equipment and weapons, but also a whole new character. At the start, playing as Abby through the sort of tutorial run, and then seeing her kill Joel, I was not looking forward to playing as her. Concerned about the drive I’d have to play as that character, dreading it, really. You learn to care and love Abby very quickly, and I know I’m not alone in this. In truth, her and Ellie are the same, and if you can manage sympathy for Ellie in her fits of revenge, then you cannot be critical of Abby and what she did. The ultimate comment on the violence, that it’s circular, cannot be without consequence, on your heart and soul, on those around you. Dig two graves.

Abby is an amazing character to be. She packs a punch, her fight against the Rat King my god. A nod and a wink to Daryl Dixon in parts. She sacrifices everything she has to protect Yara and Lev, testaments to how the violence must stop, she’s becoming a protector of that and I’d love to see how that develops in a potential third game.

The most jarring part of Abby’s story is the point where you’re hunting Ellie, hunting yourself. This is an odd sensation, something that I found in Detroit: Become Human when you’re having a foot pursuit with, yourself. When you’re playing both sides, do you want to fight hard enough? how are you supposed to win? The thing, is you’re not. You lose either way. Another point of self criticism in this game.

Joel is a constant specter in this game. In the first game he provides stability, consistency, the moments that he’s unwell and failing are some of the most terrifying, begging for him back. Joel will know what to do. The truth of it is, is that Joel is just swept up in the story, completing his dead friends final wish, a delivery job. 

The one act that he has that is his own, the one thing he does to drive the narrative beyond simply survive is take Ellie out of that hospital and lie to her, dooming humanity in the process. The difficulty is of course, I’d have done the same.

The importance of that moment and that decision cannot be understated, that hospital door returns and returns like a fever dream in Part 2 for both Ellie and Abby it was their defining moments for much of the game and truly the narrative is how they overcome what happened in that room. For Abby it houses guilt and Ellie it houses lies.

Still in part 2, despite being dead Joel is stability, familiarity in a strange world, warmth and home. The non-linear elements provide a breath of fresh air when it’s needed. He’s such a likable character, papa bear who just can’t let go and it’s endearing.

I hadn’t seen the spoilers, I don’t know if people saw his death scene before the game came out, but I hadn’t and when I finally did it was truly horrendous. Ellie’s pleads for him to get up I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget them, that if he’d just get up everything would suddenly be fine just proves his role as a source of stability. Just like Ellie the whole game I was waiting for Joel to turn up, to miraculously and inexplicably be ok and sort everything out. The hopelessness of this is very real and powerful.

Sometimes, we watch films, listen to music, experience art that is upsetting, and makes us reflect, this game is that. There are no winners, I didn’t beat this game, this game beat me, relentlessly. But this experience is important, and thought provoking, and powerful. Effortlessly beautiful, all about the details. 

This is not what anyone expected from a sequel to The Last of Us, but it’s what it needed to be. It stands alone in this genre but should stand proud.

Play this game, but take care of yourself as you do it. It asks a lot of you.

[23-21-12-6]

Analysis

On October 23, 1966, Chanie Wenjack, a boy taken from his family because of who he was and who they are, died trying to return home. His is a story that deserves to be told and should be told, certainly by one more skilled than me, his among many others. But can these stories be told accurately? And if so, what obstacles might stand in the way?

Within Philosophical Investigations, philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein suggests that individual words, or even sentences, only have meaning because of what he called “language-games” because, similar to “normal” games, language-games have a set of rules. It is from the application of these rules that words obtain a meaning. A meaning, singular, because rules and their resulting meanings for a particular word can change between games due to communication’s constant evolution. As an example, Wittgenstein uses the word “water”. Even used in isolation from any other words, “water” could be a command to be brought some for drinking, an alert to a leak or spill, or even as a code word. Meanings aren’t even fixed within a particular language-game; they can be fluid in use, like water.

Wittgenstein didn’t limit the idea of language-games to only word-based communication by using the example of a builder instructing where their assistant should place stones via pointing. Though he applied this to only objective communication, I believe he could have with good reason.

Human communication can be split into two groups: cross-cultural and intercultural. Cross-cultural communications are methods that everyone should be able to recognize, a set of universal rules for every language-game such as weeping being recognized as emotional distress regardless of the audience.  These sorts of indicators are instinctual and vague, unlike intercultural communication which is taught and precise. Intercultural communication is everything else: rules that are not seen in every culture, community, or scenario. These rules can range from widely recognized gestures such as pointing to natural languages such as English or French, to regional dialects, to slang, or to location-specific references.

This is the first problem with telling the story of Wenjack: particularly to a wide audience, using intercultural communication isn’t intrinsically more precise. Using words or interpretations that are too specific to a demographic will leave many unaccommodated. Generally, the broadest and most widely understood yet precise game is a natural language which dictionaries attempt to define and upon mediums such as encyclopedias rely. The Canadian Encyclopedia’s article for Wenjack uses no local slang and only terms that could be easily found in a dictionary. If there was any ambiguity, as for the term “Residential School”, or for a local term such as the place-name “Kenora”, then there is a link provided leading to an exposition. Though all word-based communication is intercultural, not all intercultural communication is word-based. Many cultures, including construction, have some form of “pointing”, but there can be important variations, sometimes within a single system, each form possessing its own meaning.

Wittgenstein only mentioned Intercultural communication but didn’t include all forms within: abstract symbolism was omitted. Some symbolism does only represent words, such as the octagonal “stop” sign, some also objective indicators: “x marks the spot”. The digital information particularly has worked best with icons, such as the reload, save, like, and go-back symbols that have become intuitive without being fixed to a natural language. However, abstract symbols have abstract meanings. Ravens are a popular animal for symbolism. Their scavenging habits have led many cultures to see them as representing death, not “death”, but the idea of death. Native cultures in North America instead saw their resourcefulness and intelligence as the signs of a prolific trickster; a character rather than a trait. In both the lyrical and illustrational aspects of Secret Path, a project directed by Gord Downie to tell Wenjack’s story, a raven accompanies Wenjack. As the story nears its end and Wenjack his death, the raven becomes more prominent. In the third last track of the album, the raven begins to speak to Wenjack saying “I know a way that I can help you.” Whether what follows are honest proposals with honest intentions I am still not sure.

The bases of all communication can be described by a model derived by C.E. Simmons which includes 8 steps through which information passes. In order, the steps are Inspiration, composition, encoding, transmission, noise, reception, decoding, then interpretation. However, for our purposes, we can boil it down to just encoding and decoding. As with any game (except maybe hunting and fishing) all participants should understand what game is being played and what the rules are. The presenter, the one who is encoding, needs to understand which “game”, or set of rules, the context calls for and how to effectively use those rules. The audience, those who are decoding, should also understand the set of rules that should be used and reverse engineer the meaning effectively. For anything that can be observed by both speaker and audience, perfect encoding and decoding can result in exact communication for the subject. However, this is only true for what is observable by both parties.

Language games were not Wittgenstein’s only contribution to language theory. To describe subjectivity and limitations in language, he proposed a thought experiment. Suppose everyone each had a box hovering above their head which contains… something. Importantly, only the person to whom the box belongs knows what is inside and everyone calls what is in their box a “beetle”. Wittgenstein uses this idea to show individual perceptions aren’t verifiable and how language can fail to communicate these experiences. We all experience something called pain, but we fail to know and communicate exactly how everyone else experiences pain. We all just call it “pain”. While we don’t know how others feel pain, we can still recognize the signs of cursing, crying, and holding the injured part using empathy. The reaction to pain is instinctual, while pain isn’t cross-culturally or interculturally, the reaction is.

We don’t know how Wenjack felt when he was home, confined to the school, or on the run. However, we can use empathy to make a strong guess as to what he felt. This is his story and he is at the centre of it. His perspective is integral.

              The question then becomes, which reactions, similar to grasping a stubbed toe, are rooted deeply enough in the human psyche that the subjective experiences of Wenjack or anyone else can be communicated, or even better, felt. Intuition is key, shared intuition is better. The methods of communication that result are generally labelled as art. Artists hone their craft, gain and enhance their intuition as a result, and apply it to various degrees of success. I referenced Secret Path earlier. Secret Path is certainly an art project meant to convey more than objective information; whether it be through phonetic lyrics and musical key choices on the album, or through the colour scheme and movement in the graphic novel and animation. I think the colour choice for the illustrations was particularly fantastic.

              What fascinates me is that while this use of colour is largely a form of cross-cultural communication it is still easy to see how it applies to the theory of language-game because right from the beginning it breaks a rule: if it isn’t only black and white, colour is to be used accurately. Secret Path uses only blue in addition to black and white; panning from the sky down to a forest without any green or brown. This breaking of the rule sets up a new rule: only blue, black, and white are used. This sets up a question; why blue?

Blue occurs relatively rarely in nature,  in the sky and in large bodies of water that mostly just reflect the sky, to see blue and only blue on land is a bit disconcerting. People also usually associate blue with sadness or cold, possibly due to blues prominence during winter. This new rule of blue, black, and white also gets broken when Wenjack is remembering his home: portrayed using the full visible colour spectrum but focusing on the warmer colours of yellow and red. The final set of rules relating to colour is that blue represents foreignness, but warm colouring indicates home and security.

              Downie stated that he wanted to get across “the idea of trying to get home.” Given that verbal key, it becomes easier to find that theme in the telling of the story. The last shot of the film is Wenjack’s consciousness walking away from the blue landscape towards a vibrant homestead. However, this is not what I was thinking of when I first heard Wenjack’s story. Though it has been a while since the first reception, I believe my initial thoughts are the same as my current: Wenjack’s forced choice between losing his life or personhood. I do not think that I got the wrong impression, nor do I think Downie failed. There is a dichotomy in communication: that objective encoding and decoding can be accurate, but no matter how some concepts are encoded they will never result in a message unaffected by the audience save by chance. Downie and I could have both had a beetle in our box (trying to get home), but I happen to call mine an apple (forced choice). For cases such as this, I believe there is no right answer because the answer is unknowable.  Works Cited

Carley, Georgia. "Chanie Wenjack". The Canadian Encyclopedia, 01 November 2016, Historica Canada. https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/charlie-wenjack. Accessed 02 January 2021.

Cherry, Kendra. “The Color Psychology of Blue.” Verywell Mind, Verywellmind, 24 Nov. 2005, www.verywellmind.com/the-color-psychology-of-blue-2795815.

“Gord Downie’s The Secret Path - YouTube.” Www.Youtube.com, 23 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGd764YU9yc&t=2357s. Accessed 2 Jan.

2021.Ludwig Wittgenstein, and G  E  M Anscombe. Philosophical Investigations : The English Text of the Third Edition. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice Hall [Ca, 2000.

[vapormaison]

2019 Best Vinyl Pressing 1/4: 魂のための歌 by 憂鬱

Preface: Throughout the month of December, Vapor Maison will be nominating  “BEST OF” albums of 2019. Slots will remain open for this month’s releases. Categories include Best Vaporwave Release, Best Future Funk Release, Best Re-Release (V & FF), and Best City Pop Re-Release, among others. This is one nominee for best Vinyl Press.

Author’s Note: For the writer’s ease of writing and readers ease of reading, I’ll be using the transliteration of 憂鬱:Yūutsu, and the translation of “Soul’s Song” in lieu of “魂のための��”. I’ll maintain the Japanese track listings for easy reference. Apologies to Purity, a maiden as tedious as she is cruel.

Are the merits of a vaporwave album on vinyl even worth reviewing?

 Obviously, you’re reading a vaporwave vinyl review — creating a sort of circuit — so in the strictest sense of the word, yes, — but naturally, a follow up question must be asked by any smart music consumer. If so much of vaporwave, and by extension future funk, is centered around digital manipulation of either computer programs (vocaloid, electronic loops, midis, drum kits, etc), and pre-existing digital rips of j-pop (by definition most of future funk) — what’s the point of a vinyl press? Pressing mp3s onto vinyl is pointless — as no amount of “warmth” from a vinyl-based Hi-Fi system will ever make up for a low-quality source. What’s more, the indie releases of these tracks can make it hard to justify an expensive vinyl mastering session. In my most unfortunate purchases, I’ve had MP3s outperform certain 45s.

But sometimes, you can get just the right format, just the right mix and master, and it just makes your hifi set sing. You, as a Vaporwave/Future Funk/Chillwave/etc. enthusiast, can certainly approach the sonic repro quality of lore — that Platonic form of an “audiophile’s album”. How can I prove this? Look no further than Soul’s Song by Yuutsu. Point blank, full stop. This is the one of the rare vapor records for a true audiophile. In this next section, I’ll be giving my thoughts on the album’s tracklist. In Part 2, you can join me for a trip into Hi-Fi World for a discussion of Vapor-Vinyl’s legitimacy.

PART 1: THE MUSIC

小さい鳥 opens the album with a moody, synthetic mandolin-like twang and elegiac Vocaloid vacillations extended in a sort of melancholic embrace that brings you — willing or otherwise, into the arms of this project. The arrangement of the loops are of particular note here, with the layering of additional sonic flutters that culminate in an anti-climactic crescendo that leaves you as sad and disappointed as the album no doubt wants you to feel.

それは愛を返さありません ends up being the most “atmospheric” of all the tracks, a listening experience I’d describe as a fitting background track for a KEY visual novel — eerie, haunting monosyllabic Vocaloid chants of comprising the long, long hooks. While running at 5:24, it definitely feels longer — perhaps created by a symphonic discord between vocals and music at intermittent portions of the piece. I’d characterize this piece as the most experimental of the album, deftly playing with my expectations more than any of the others.

闇 is incredible — and without a doubt the highlight of the tape. Because it departs from the simple string looping and gives us something more — something resembling a tragic and contemplative harmony, however discordant, and one that builds into lyrically what I consider to be a genuine contemplation of spirituality and the other world — a natural place, topically, for an album titled “Soul’s Song”. A sort of hollow computerized synth also left me considering — was this song about the soul of the Vocaloid program itself?

The digitized horns, eerie synths, and what I could best classify as the crackling of amplifiers introduce the thirty-eight second interlude of 変更 and serve as the riser to the climactic shift of the EP beginning in おやすみ. This four-minute piece deftly blends electric and analog strings and brings the vocaloid program to its emotional and sonic heights, really making the high-end pop in a for a surprisingly refreshing experience.

We conclude the album with a hybrid piece ネコチャン which captures the electric energy of おやすみ, the distorted samples of 変更 and adds a fleeting feeling of warmth with that familiar sound of tennis shoes on a waxed gym floor, evoking nostalgia that never was of doldrum days in a Japanese high school. The album fades out, with our familiar vocaloid’s calling out of Neko-chan, melting away like memories.

PART 2: THE VINYL LISTENING EXPERIENCE

When re-starting this review blog in earnest over the past month or so, I made a point to get my best gear serviced. I couldn’t claim to be fulfilling my broadened duties without having a fully-serviced, properly functioning kit. One of the more essential and dreaded refurbishments was getting my KEFs over to the local stereo shop wizard for a re-foam. I’d be without my workhorses for a week: an audiophile Alexander without his binaural Bucephalus. In the meanwhile, my backup speakers — a pair of Cambridge Audio SX-50 bookshelf speakers that I use as computer monitors, stepped up to the plate as pinch hitter.

I provide this anecdote for a reason: the very afternoon I dropped my KEF’s off at the shop is also the afternoon I received my copy of Soul’s Song by Yūutsu.

Admittedly, I can’t say I was particularly hyped for this release, or very eager tor receive it in the post. The previous evening I had been sleeplessly experimenting on a DJ set of city pop for the journal’s launch party at my alma mater. I was decidedly on an upbeat, caffeine-fueled kick of positive thoughts and big dick energy. Success had triggered the dopamine receptors, and the idea of sitting down for a serious listening session of an album that many BandCamp users had dubbed as “peak sadwave” seemed like an unnecessary vibe check.

But— being a self-appointed music blogger— a craft which I imagine has real pretensions about it somewhere, I buckled —a serious listening session was attempted.

And I was utterly blown away.

***

A final word on gear. The Cambridge SX-50s — and Cambridge Audio in general— do have a bit of a cult-following among guitar enthusiasts in various audiophile spheres. I also am familiar with a listening bar in Nagoya (where I studied abroad for a semester) that uses top-shelf Cambridge Hi-Fi gear solely for Vocaloid listening sessions!

Suffice to say, I was not actively thinking about either of those two facts when I first let the needle drop, but when the twangy synthetic guitar loop and the eerie vocalic chants of それは愛を返さありません began, a sudden wave of melancholy set in and brought my mind back to a lonely winter spent in that basement bar after breaking up with my girlfriend. And to the Cambridges. At that time, I became intimately familiar with how an upbeat, poppy — sometimes even jazzy track— accompanied with Vocaloid vocals could really make those speakers sing. And it was happening right now, as I was cuddled by the warmth pouring from those drivers in spite of the cold sadness of the arrangement. That dichotomy was on full display as “Ya-aa-mi” invocations of 闇 reached its penultimate hook.

In may respects, these Cambridges were and still are petty. I had previous experience with them butchering a poor quality vinyl of the Luxury Elite/Saint Pepsi Late Night Delight EP two years ago. My KEF’s usually take it upon themselves to run cover for a bad release. Cambridge-chan couldn’t be bothered. On a bad day, with a bad play, they’ll seem like the most clinical JBL studio monitor — but here they were, absolutely singing. This album was making them slap — metaphorically. And that’s when I realized what a magical press this was.

Five days later, the KEFs were securely hooked up to my amp again. The first vinyl to be put through the paces was, of course, Soul’s Song. Again I was impressed. The exquisite layering of this album can’t be expressed enough — and while the SX-50s brought out the synthetic string and vocals to the fore, my 104s filled in the rest of the sonic picture. I felt as if I was being re-acquainted with a piece of sculpture upon viewing it from a different angle, or witnessing a church’s mosaic in person after seeing a small reproduction in a well-printed textbook. This is a pressing far and above the previous standards I’ve set for vaporwave.

***

As any Vapor Vinyl review would be incomplete without a brief take on the overallＡｅｓｔｈｅｔｉｃ of the release, so I’ll just start by saying that I really enjoy the three-tone front end. The lavender, beige and white undeniably make this a very “Aloe” release, who tend to make things easy on my very nearsighted eyes by never making the cover too busy. This is perhaps with the notable exception of VR 97’s recent cassette release — not a trend, I hope!

I do have to admit I’m getting a bit tired of pink vinyls, though — and Soul’s Song unfortunately now joins a very crowded pack. I suppose if you were being pedantic, you could compare the “pinkness” of the album vis a vis the 2nd pressing of Macros 82-99’s Sailorwave (fuller, more saturated), or even the “bubblegum” first pressing of Vektroid’s Floral Shoppe (just naming two iconic releases) — but I think this release would have been fine (and moved units) as, say, a picture disc — making use of the powerful, emotive cover art to its fullest extent. In short, it takes something unique and then commodifies it to the point of exhaustion. While I suppose this criticism could be leveled at all of the genres I cover— I think generally speaking Vaporwave and Future Funk (to a lesser extent) treads this line of “capitalist critique” and “modified consumption” rather adeptly.

The main thrust in the previous paragraph, I should qualify, is not a specific criticism of Aloe City Records, however — I think they’ve done a fine job generally. If I could make a list of three releases that justify a special edition vinyl — this is certainly one.

For audiophile vaporwave/chill-wave fans, I’d encourage you to snap it up while you can.  You can even buy it ethically — it’s still in stock on Aloe City’s band-camp page. It’s in my mind — without doubt — one of the best presses of the year.

[wintersongstress]

You Haven’t Done This Tag Before, I Promise.

I was tagged by @a-shakespearean-in-paris to do the 11 Questions Tag! Sorry this took me awhile, I didn’t mean for this to get so long, although to be fair you brought up a mythology question so you kind of asked for this.

Rules: Answer 11 questions, make up your own 11 questions, and then tag 11 people to answer those. 

1. Favorite supernatural creature?

I had to visit some weird ass websites to find an extensive list of these. I’m gonna have to go with the phoenix. I had a lot of beautiful illustrated storybooks of the tale of the firebird when I was growing up. 

2. Favorite Folktale/myth?

*does the birdman hand rub* Mythology is my shit. It’s so rich in culture and ripe with inspiring story ideas. I could talk about it all day, but what I can really talk about is the curse of the Koh-i-Noor diamond.

Mysterious in origin and Ancient Persian for “mountain of light”, it’s one of the largest diamonds in the world and its journey throughout history is full of misfortune and violence.

There is a story in Vedas of the Syamantaka jewel, a gift from the Hindu sun-god Surya to his most devout follower, King Satrājit, as a blessing to his kingdom. It was a divine jewel, said to have magical powers and possessing a luminous glow, for it came from the heart of a fallen star.

Surya warned Satrājit that while the jewel would produce 170 pounds of gold a day(around 3 million USD) and ward off famine and disease, he wasn’t to keep the jewel and all of its wealth and prosperity for himself. It would only reverse the effects and bring him bad luck if he did not share it. He did not heed this advice. Satrājit fashioned the diamond into a necklace and one day, his brother stole it for himself when the King refused to share. While Prasena was hunting and stalking his prey of a lion from a tree, a snake fell from the branch above and  Prasena fell. The chain caught him on the branch and strangled him to death, and the lion saw the gleam of the jewel and was ensorcelled. The lion brought the jewel back to his den, only for the King of the Bears to battle him for the stone. Its hard to pinpoint where the Syamantaka jewel enters historical record and becomes known as the Koh-i-Noor but from then on, it gets passed down throughout the Mughal Empire. Shah Jahan sets it in the Peacock Throne and is later imprisoned by his sons and usurped, and then the Persians invade and steal it. The Persian invader Nadir Shah is assassinated later in his life, and from there on the diamond falls through many hands and brings misfortune to all who keep it. What I find most interesting is how in the Vedas it is written “He who owns the Diamond will own the world, but will also know all its misfortunes. Only God, or a woman, can wear it with impunity."

The Koh-i-Noor is currently part of the British Crown Jewels and rests in the Queen Mother’s Crown. Isn’t it interesting how only the Queen of England can wear it? Because all the men who possess it get some serious bad luck??? I’m sorry, didn’t mean to turn into a nerd but I think it’s cool. 

3. Favorite thing to wear?

On the opposite end of the spectrum of my sweatpants and lunar phase knee socks, in the summertime I love wearing long skirts with a shawl draped around my shoulders. 

4. What’s a piece of media (book, movie, game, etc.) that has had the greatest impact on you as a person?

Patricia A. McKillip’s books made me fall in love with the fantasy genre and hold a special place in my heart. Her stories kindled my love of reading and storytelling in the beginning. I first picked them up because her covers are gorgeously illustrated by Kinuko Y. Craft and they’re so detailed that every time I look at them I see something I never noticed before. 

5. Favorite thing about yourself? Physical and Non physical.

Ehhh. You know, I think I’m very plain-looking. I suppose I like my eyes because they have some of green in them. Non-physically, I like my investigative personality. 

6. Favorite Disney movie? 

7. What does your dream apartment/house look like?

Encompassed by bookshelves so tall I need a rolling ladder, filled with encyclopedias, spider plants, corals and crystals and terrariums. Turkish lanterns hang down from the ceiling and Audubon prints of cormorants decorate the wall, as well as an old map pinned with all the places I want to travel. An enormous Persian rug covers the wood floor and is strewn with lounging pillows.  A low coffee table rests in the center and holds a platter of fuzzy peaches and vase stuffed with white peacock feathers. The latticed windows are open to a mountain view, and the silvery notes of trickling wind-chimes drift inside with the breeze. A porcelain cup of tea steams in my sweater-paw hands as I sit on the sill and watch the sun rise. Trumpet vines swallow the balcony and offer their nectar to the hummingbirds. And all the while a black cat purrs beside me with its eyes closed. Yeah. 

8. What are your thoughts on marriage?

Well, that fantasy involves a person who doesn’t exist in my life...but I would like to get married someday. I’m just not that person yet and I’m far from it. 

9. Describe what makes a good ship to you.

Conflict, dichotomy, and dualism. One person falls in love way before the other. Changing their natures, Person A thinking Person B is too good for them when their good for each other. Enemies to lovers on opposites sides of a war. 

10. What does home feel like to you?

Home is the warmth of my bed at night, listening to the train horns in the distance and watching the familiar shadows of trees on my walls. Its a place with a crab-apple tree and a swing. A rose garden. 

The truest moments when I feel it is when I listen to my sister practice piano, when I lick the icing off my birthday candles after blowing them out, when I put my favorite ornaments on the christmas tree. Its having dirty feet and watermelon juice drip down my hand in the summertime, and having a lot of blankets and cats and tea in the winter. Home is my siblings and memories of good times. 

Home feels like a place that’s part of who I am and is safe to be.

11. Your favorite thing to eat?

I can’t tell you how happy häagen-dazs green tea ice cream makes me. Also, wood-fired pizza. OOf and aloo gobi masala curry hits the spot, too. 

Doing this tag is up to you and totally optional!! And you don’t have to tag 11 people. I’ll be tagging: @marvelousmorales // @connorshero // @shadows-echoes // @the-darklings // @deviantramblings // @anniesburg // @cirillasfiona // @dicax-asina // @miusmius-@selfships-in-spanish  // @0ik4wa  // @flawinthemachine 

Questions to answer:

What is one of your favorite memories?

What is the dumbest thing you have ever heard someone say?

What was the first movie you ever saw in theaters?

Tell a story about the biggest spider you have ever encountered. 

What color is your bedspread?

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Would you rather go to an art, history, or science museum? 

What’s one thing on your bucket list?

What is on your bedside table?

What is the most beautiful place you have ever been to? 

Have you ever broken a bone?

EDIT: I’M A DUMBASS WHO FORGOT THE 11TH QUESTION. MY B.

[sight-decoding]

The Duality of the Hidden Masters: The Illuminati according to Lash

The telestai of the Mysteries were sophisticated shamans, past masters of "archaic techniques of ecstasy." Traditional shamans were the intermediaries between the human-made realm of culture and the non-human realm of nature.

Their special calling demanded a schizoid capacity to move between two worlds, keep the two worlds distinct, and effectuate exchanges between them. Schizophrenics naturally have this mobility, but without a proper spiritual orientation and appropriate training they are easily undone by it. Successfully managed schizophrenia can result in great works of mythopoesis, as seen in the writings of Antonin Artaucl, Philip K. Dick, and Carlos Castaneda, to cite just three (male) examples.

Mystery adepts who were responsible for the cultivation of human potential to its optimal level took grear care not ro risk schizophrenic damage with their pupils and neophytes. They realized how easy it is to induce and exploit schizophrenic states that can arise spontaneously in the process of initiation. The requisite lowering, or total dissolution, of the ego-self produces high suggestibility in the subject. Neophytes in the Mysteries were prime subjects for "imprinting," the process in which a predetermined psychic content or program is implanted in the subconscious mind. Imprinting occurs universally in nature as the means by which instinctual programs are transferred from one generation to another. Ethologist Konrad Lorentz (1903-89) famously imprinted new-born ducks, convincing them that he was their mother. Lorentz coined the term "inner release mechanism" (IRM), whereby organisms are genetically predisposed to respond to certain stimuli. The ideas expressed in his popular book On Aggression (1966) were known to initiates through their intimate, firsthand observation of psychomimetic activities, formulated today in the science of neurolinguistic programming.

In short, the psyche can be trained to imitate behavior modeled for it ritualistically, or repeat assigned behavior when exposed to a specific signal (posthypnotic suggestion). Such manipulations of the psyche depend on the primary condition for initiation: temporary dissolution of the filter of self-consciousness. 

Behavioral manipulation, psychological programming, and mind control were utterly repugnant to the genuine telestai of the ancient Mysteries. Such procedures represented to them a path leading away from consecration to Sophia and the Great Work of co-evolving with nature, toward social engineering and personal power games. The goal of the telestai was to foster a sane and balanced society by helping individuals reach their peak potential, and never to interfere directly in social management.

Over the course of time some initiates did take the path of social engineering, however. Dissident members of the Gnostic movement who came to be known as "Illuminati" chose to use initiatory knowledge to develop and implement various techniques of behavior modification. Originally, the Illuminati were members of the Magian order, an ancient Persian lineage of shamanism from which the Gnostic movement was derived. Historians understand the Magi to have been the priesthood of Zoroaster, or Zarathustra. According to a scribal note written on the margin of Alciabides, a work attributed to Plato, "Zarathustra is said to have been older than Plato by 6,000 years."' In her extraordinary and little-known book, Plato Prehistorian, Mary Settegast situates the rise of The Magian order, the original priesthood of ancient Iranian religion, in the Age of the Twins, around 5500 b.c.e., a date supported by the Greek sources. The Age of the Twins, or Geminian Age, lasted from 6200 to 4300 b.c.e. The motif of duality associated with the constellation of the Twins is consistent with the central theme of Iranian religion: absolute cosmic duality, Good versus Evil.

But this type of duality is not what we find in Gnostic teachings. The problem faced by the Magian predecessors of the Gnostics was the duality of human intention, not the dichotomy of cosmic absolutes. Around 4000 b.c.e., with the rise of urban civilization in the Near East, some members of the Magian order chose to apply certain secrets of initiation to state-craft and social engineering. They became the advisors to the first theocrats of the patriarchal nation-states, but in fact the advisors were running the show. Their subjects were systematically programmed to believe they were descended from the gods. The Illuminati inaugurated elaborate rites of empowerment, or kingship rituals. These rituals were in fact methods of mind control exercised on the general populace through the collective symbology and mystique of royal authority. Kingship rituals were distinct from the rites of initiation that led to instruction by the Light and consecration to the Great Goddess. Their purpose was not education and enlightenment, but social management. Gnostics refrained from assuming any role in politics because their intention was not to change society but to produce skilled, well-balanced, enlightened individuals who would create a society good enough that it did not need to be run by external management. The intention of the dissident Magians to run society by covert controls was based on their assumption that human beings are not innately good enough, or gifted enough, to create a humane world. This difference in views of human potential was the main factor that precipitated the division of the Magians.

Historians recognize a split in the Magian order, but do not understand either its origin or its consequences. Within the order, the telestai were given the title of vaedemna, "seer," "wise one," as distinguished from the priest, the zoatar, who officiated openly in society and advised Middle Eastern theocrats on matters of statecraft and social morality, not to mention agricultural planning - for Zoroaster was by all accounts responsible for the introduction of planned, large scale agriculture. It is generally agreed that women discovered, by gathering plants, how to cultivate them, and men later expanded this discovery into the ancient equivalent to agribusiness. So arose the first theocratic city-states in the Fertile Crescent. (Civilization may be defined as the way of life that begins by amassing vegetables to increase population, and ends with a population of vegetables.) Urban populations required social control, and the Illuminati assumed the role of planners and controllers more often than not, hidden controllers.

ln Plato Prehistorian, Mary Settegast explains that "at one extreme Zarathustra has been described as a primitive ecstatic, a kind of 'shaman'; at the other, as a worldly familiar of Chorasmian kings and court politics."''The distinction between the shaman-seer and the sacerdotal figure engaged in court politics exemplifies the split in the Magian order. In book 3 of the Republic, Plato disclosed the Illuminati rationale: "contrive a noble lie that would in itself carry the conviction of our entire community." The first recorded use of the word gnostikos occurs in Plato's Politicus (258e-267a) where the ideal politician is defined as "the master of the Gnostic art."' From its introduction into the Western intellectual traditions gnostikos was wrongly associated with the Illuminati faction and hence the name came to be disowned by the telestai who did not engage in statecraft and social management, using the "noble lie" rationale. In fact, gnostikoi like Hypatia would never have used that term to describe themselves. Six centuries after Plato, it came into use as an insult. The Church Fathers ridiculed the teachers in the Mysteries with the term gnostikos, intended to mean "smart ass," "know-it-all." Among themselves, the initiates would have used the term telestes. Paradoxically, "gnostic" comes down to us tainted by the condemnation of the Roman Church and associated with the very members of the Magian order who were disowned by the guardians of the Mysteries.

The Illuminati program was (and still is) essential to patriarchy and its cover, perpetrator religion. While it cannot exactly be said that the deviant adepts known as Illuminati created patriarchy, they certainly controlled it. And still do. The abuse of initiatory knowledge to induce schizophrenic states ("entrainment"), manipulate multiple personalities in the same person ("platforming"), and command behavior through posthypnotic suggestion (the "Manchurian candidate" technique) continues to this day, with truly evil consequences for the entire world. If we accept that the Mysteries were schools for Gaian coevolution dedicated to the goddess Sophia, they could not have been run by the llluminati, as some contemporary writers (who believe they are exposing the Illuminati) have supposed. Everything the Gnostics did in the schools was intended to counterbalance and correct the machinations of the deviant adepts. Initiation involved melting the ego boundaries in preparation for deep rapport with nature, not lowering of ego consciousness so that the subject could be "sectioned" and behaviorally programmed using the power of suggestion, imprinting, and other psychodramatic methods. These behavioral modification tools of the Illuminati were strictly forbidden in the Mysteries overseen by Gnostics.

This has been an excerpt from 'Not in His Image: Gnostic Vision,  Sacred Ecology and the Future of Belief' by John Lamb Lash

[malacodaus-blog]

Old Blood 

||@exmortum​|| AKA Happy Birthday Cae 

Prompt: 

Sat opposite her, between them on the cherrywood surface of his desk lay a duralumin case on its side, the locks still tightly in place. It had been there since she had entered his office, innocent despite the disastrous contents safely nestled in the plush lining. Leather encased fingers laced together, the heels of palms resting on the polished surface just a twitch or two away. The rest of him appeared as ever; composed, posture straight, but for the tilt of the head. Across the sable tinted lenses of his sunglasses flashed the lights held in generations' old crystal. Behind the shades, his gaze was intent upon her.

‘ Tell me, Ms. Sherawat. . . what would you do for the sake of loyalty ? No, ’ rumble interrupted the query, the smooth expression of calm undisturbed by the undercurrent of danger in freezing waters. ‘ What would you do for the sake of your life ? ’

The metal brief case lodged like a barrier between Jessica and Wesker. An enigmatic little mystery box posed as the center piece of his desk. She could guess the contents but only he could reveal the answer, for certain it was why he called her here. A golden evening glow bathed the desk and office in warm light. It glinted from the windows and kissed Jessica’s throat, a final farewell of the day. Wesker’s office proved to be what she expected, simple but decadent. A minimalistic statement of class and taste. Not hollow or for show; Crystal glasses, art pieces running in the millions, books smelling of warmed leather, polished wood. Wesker appreciated true quality, not money spent for the sake of itself. His clothes were designer for comfort, and durability, to put forth the best appearance. Wesker expected that everything in his vicinity preform to standard. Jessica has stepped from chaotic streets into this den of organized papers, composed into stacks for efficiency. She’d find such skilled artistry nowhere else.

His focus burned holes into her, his gaze nipping like frost bite. In a torrent ocean, a riptide, Jessica was placid. Legs crossed at the knee, the pointed red toe of her heel drawing calm circles. Her posture remained open and inviting, hands on either arm rest of her chair, expression gentle and softened, unchallenging, patient. To his question she hummed, head cocking in thought. A single auburn coil of hair brushed along the collar of her pea coat. Jessica braced her chin against her white silk gloved hand and then smiled, slight and wiry.

A half-dozen handlers had asked this exact question before him. They didn’t use the same words of course, but the gist, the intention, the heart of it, was there. It wasn’t the question that mattered. The words were but a facade meant to draw her attention, so she could stutter over them and reveal all the more of her hand. No, the question was a thin veil for something far more sinister. Life or death, loyalty or betrayal, the binary dichotomy of her career. This was the relationship of agent and handler. No it was quite obvious: Wesker was threatening her. Her comfort was that if he truly wanted her dead, she would be, there was an angle here. He was looking for something out of her. 

The answer he wanted, the correct answer, the ‘I’ll do anything, please don’t kill me’ and the ‘I’m loyal to the end.’ Were the wrong answers, not because they were lies but because they were not true. What a beautifully crafted catch-22 he presented her with. In the original story the logic was simple. Only the insane would fly bombing missions but an insane person cannot fly. If one applies for insanity to escape the missions however, they admit fear in the face of death, which is a hallmark of sanity. Ergo, to apply for insanity is to admit to being sane. Only the insane would work for Wesker but Wesker doesn’t want someone insane working for him. To try to leave, however, would be for Jessica to admit her sanity and yet to stay would be to admit her insanity. And if she was sane and if she was reasonable, the kinda person that would balk under pressure, then he’d have no more use for her because those were not the traits of a good agent. And then she’d be killed. So the obvious, easy answer —the lie— was the wrong answer. Because the sane feared death and the insane were not good agents. Jessica wondered why they had to play cat and mouse. She was content to work with him for now, it was Excella they both hated. The enemy of my enemy is not my enemy, after all.

Jessica inhaled, thin breath through her nose, eyes narrowed imperceptibly. Not a tick on the clock had passed in the ensuing silence of his query. Wesker sat across the desk as unmovable as a statue, man hewn from marble and spun gold. Jessica’s forefinger traced the line of her jaw, eyes running over his form. Broad shoulders, strong arms, hardened and tight jaw. Beneath those glasses were unseen eyes, the windows of the soul folded in shadow. At a glance he appeared as a man, but if she peeled away the layers— what would she find? 

All her handlers were the same. Men of importance and power, charged to keep her in line, no matter what. One liked to belittle and threaten her and another tries to seduce her, cruel or sweet words, all twisted to the same end. Control. Wesker controlled everything. He controlled Excella, he controlled TRICELL, and its employees, and the labs that developed the viruses. Hell, he probably even set the AC in the office. Strong, functionally immortal, intelligent, Albert Wesker was the perfect human being. His files from UMBRELLA said as much. What power he did not have he hungered for. It was in his DNa, his upbringing, nature and nurture intertwined to produce a ruthless man that will stop at nothing. He would not trip over Jessica, no, if she fell in his path he’d crush her beneath his boot heel and she was not afraid to admit she’d be helpless to stop him. All her other handlers she watched crash and fall, hoist by their own hubris. They underestimated her, doubted her skill, when they thought they were the seducer, she seduced them— not many knew to watch her mouth and her hands. 

Behind the glint of those sunglasses, molten gold in the light, Jessica saw no expression. Cold and unfeeling, his chuckle echoed in a hallow chest. If she took her fingers to his pulse would she hear a heartbeat? Or did the progenitor take that from him too. He knew of her four years in Umbrella, the last generation of agents produced from their programs— she supposed that made them somewhat related. Perhaps in an extended metaphor, she could consider herself an adopted younger sibling, or a niece. If he was the beloved golden boy then she was the black lamb, which marked two families she had estranged. 

There were other kids in the program with her. Nine others to be exact, some as young as ten and barely reaching her hip. A couple were boys older than her. They all shared one thing in common: they escaped Raccoon City before the missile hit. UMBRELLA scooped them up like prize fish at a Carnival game. There were more than them initially but Jessica suspected they weren’t up to standard and thus were terminated. They all had ‘strong’ genes. They were healthy and attractive kids, intelligent. Jessica’s parents were wealthy and talented — and bait for blackmail— so the scientists cooed that she was an excellent candidate. No, they weren’t as good as the originals —the fabled Wesker project— but in a pinch they’d do. But she recalled their first two weeks together, huddled scared in a common room of a white washed facility. The young ones were terrified, the smallest cried for her mother every night. The first day soldiers shaved their heads, dunked them into ice baths to scrub them raw, and scientists poked and prodded them with needles and instruments. For a time it was them, together. Then they identified something special in Jessica, or Captain Rodriguez did, as he said, not many sixteen year olds walked out of Raccoon City. The others were shuffled off and they handed her over to the Captain. They told him to break her, and so he did.

It’d been almost a decade but she remembered him like it was yesterday. He was a gangly man in his early-fifties, all hard muscle and scar. A black curled beard hid his face and he always wore an olive green cap over his ice blue eyes. Captain Rodriguez served for twenty-five years as a US Army ranger. He spent ten of those as an instructor. In military training there were pesky things called rules meant to insure recruits weren’t injured or killed. These annoyed the Captain, they prevented him from testing his trainees and helping them reach their full potential, in his eyes. That was what he told Jessica, at least. He had a year to produce a combat ready agent prepared for military operations, covert espionage, and UMBRELLA’s dirty work. They wanted a loyal, tough agent to carry on the legacy of UMBRELLA and its philosophy. She was to be the final testimony; the best of the best. To that end they tested her vitals at every turn and mapped out her DNA. All while Captain Rodriguez forced her to her limits.

Those same scientists and executives told her that power was in the gene pool. Humanity was a potential untapped, evolution had stagnated in the digital age with the touchy-feely attempts of modern medicine that ensured that everyone could survive and reproduce. Only those with good genes should have the right to spawn they said. Power could unify the human race, perfect it. UMBRELLA sought to cull the herd, a few lives lost here and there, nothing compared to the greater future ahead. That was how they justified Raccoon city. A few lives lost, an accident but a reasonable price for the research and data. For the betterment of mankind, the city burned. Jessica’s potential was excellent, a little more time and they could perfect her too. It will be interesting to see how she responds in real combat.

“No”, Rodriguez would growl, head ducked so his eyes were hid beneath his hat brim. “Its not the genes that make a soldier, but the spirit.”

Those old fools, he’d say, trapped in their labs. They couldn’t see pass the numbers on their data sheets. Only later did Jessica wonder if the reason the scientists were so interested in her was because they had nothing better to do. UMBRELLA was dying and their funding was drying up, might as well harass some teenagers. Rodriguez never tried to convince her of the bullshit the executives fed her, probably why she never swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. The Captain told her two things: One, the mission comes first; Two, the enemy is the one trying to kill you.

“I am trained to put my feelings aside,” Jessica said, “And to complete the mission. Whatever it may be.”

The scientists of UMBRELLA had read Jessica’s genetic code and liked whatever they saw. They tried to use it to predict her future. If they had laid out a deck of tarot cards, they would have had more success. Jessica once dreamed of following her parent’s footsteps: she’d be an actress like her mom or an executive like dad. And if all those plans failed, she had Daddy’s money to fall back on. She believed in destiny, and perhaps that’s why she once thought Terragrigia and Raccoon City were inevitable, caught in the cogs of progress and evolution. That men like Albert Wesker exemplified the machine, unstoppable.

She could not see beyond those black shades, nor to the weathered hands under his gloves, or hear the heartbeat in his chest. Jessica did not know the full story of his birth and resurrection, only the hearsay of the rumor mill and what scraps she garnered from the enigmatic man. He was the ur example, everything the scientists wished she had been. The success story, the one that took his inheritance and ran. Quite the prodigal son, Albert Wesker. Then again, genetics and virus and all, he was still a man. It want the inhuman capacity of his muscle fibers or his super speed that impressed her, not even his intelligence, it was his spirit. Even if a scientist cloned him to the exact detail, they could not replicate him. Jessica cared not for his cause or his business, nor his desire for power. paths. For the first time in her life Jessica didn’t care who held her leash, only that he didn’t tug so hard. She’d come along. After all, now was a time for patience. If he needed to be stopped, someone with equal might would get in his way. It wasn’t the strong that survived --survival of the fittest did not mean survival of the strongest, but the one that could best suit its enviroment-- but those who adapted. 

Their genes could not predict their fate. Jessica was certain, nonetheless that they’d be dealt the hand they deserved. She was calm but she was not complacent, she had her own path to walk. Her parents didn’t decide it, UMBRELLA didn’t decide it, Rodriguez didn’t decide it, and Wesker didn’t decide it. That path did not cross over Wesker’s.  Because Jessica saw Raccoon City burn, watched the missile strike and felt the shockwave from miles away. Politics crushed buildings and shattered glass. It happened on Terragrigia too. Monsters ravaged the streets but the true demons sat in plush offices and debated the PR. She had come to terms with her mortality. Jessica once feared death, now she respected it. Her hands were blood stained and the damn spot would not wash out. She had no self-righteous vindication to hold her back, only the quiet apathy of a woman tired of all the games.

The only question is,” Jessica said, and here she leaned forward, arms bracing on her knees. The mask and the lies, the little petty quirks of an actress melted from her frame, she sat before him as raw as she’d ever been. Her eyes found the reflection in those sunglasses and looked beyond. Cold steel and burning gold, the slightest upturn of cocky smirk across painted red lips.

“What is it that you want me to do?”

[junker-town]

The CM Punk and MJF build is a pro wrestling masterclass

Blurring fiction and reality has created art.

It was midway through AEW Dynamite that it struck me — I’d never seen a build to a match this brilliant. There have been the culmination of great rivalries before, Hogan vs. Andre at WrestleMania III, Rock vs. Austin at WrestleMania 17, but nothing feels quite as perfect for its time, place, and standing as what CM Punk and Maxwell Jacob Friedman have been crafting in the lead up to Revolution, the company’s next pay per view.

A large part of this is the more relaxed AEW schedule. This isn’t intended to be a knock on WWE, though it’ll sound like one, but only having one big PPV a quarter lets stories live, breathe and build to a crescendo that simply isn’t possible under an every-month grind. The story of Punk vs. MJF began in mid November, kicking off with trash talking and face-to-face promos, as all wrestling storylines do.

It would have been fine to leave it here. Punk and MJF could have ran with this formula all the way to the PPV. Both are gifted enough talkers that there was no shortage of fodder for them to call each other all manner of names, but instead what’s happened over the last three weeks of programming has turned a standard rivalry, and elevated it into performance art.

All it took was a single photo from both wrestlers’ collective pasts.

pic.twitter.com/cJcCkB3SFR

— Maxwell Jacob Friedman™️ (@The_MJF) February 20, 2022

This one image has launched the rivalry into the stratosphere in the best possible way. It’s CM Punk, posing at the height of his fame, with a young Maxwell Jacob Friedman. It was a photo-op, a fun moment from the past, but through skill and storytelling the performers have escalated this image into the crux of their rivalry. A young boy, whose world revolved around meeting his idol — and the wrestler who didn’t remember it at all, calling it “just another Friday,” in an attempt to anger his opponent.

There’s nothing inherently special with the well-worn trope of “never meet your heroes,” but the use of the photo as a MacGuffin has given the audience a touchstone to keep going back to. It highlights the difference in age between the wrestlers, the shifting environment in which they find themselves, and even managed to make the audience question who is really good and who is bad in this story.

That all culminated last week on Dynamite, when MJF gave, what can only be described as a masterpiece.

There’s so much this speech touched on. It wasn’t just the portrait of a struggle against self-doubt and racism. This was MJF, blurring the line between fiction and reality, bearing his soul and making a crowd feel for him, despite being the most hated wrestler in all of AEW. It was the origin story of a villain, the bully admitting his bravado comes from insecurity, all woven together with the thread of abandonment.

For eight minutes MJF had the audience in the palm of his hand, as he took them on a ride through his formative years. When it was over it was difficult to even process what we’d witnessed. Only 10 days removed from the PPV match months in the making, with Punk established as the hero and MJF as the villain, here was an audience who no longer knew who they were supposed to cheer for. Die-hard CM Punk fans could relate, they also felt abandoned when Punk walked away from the business in 2014. Anyone who has been marginalized could relate. Anyone let down by their idols could relate.

Following a promo like this was always going to be impossible, but this week the duo found a way to reestablish the dichotomy of this match. The veteran who has conquered his demons, desperately wanting to stop someone following in his footsteps, and the youngster, too mired in his own darkness to accept another path.

And it all started from a hug, not one of equals, but where MJF pressed his head into Punk’s chest, like a child wanting reassurance from a parent — only to kick him between the legs and demolish his hero.

The bloody beatdown is back to the roots of pro wrestling, especially one ending in a brutal “dog collar match” this weekend, where Punk and MJF will be attached with chains so neither can escape. At this point though, the match is secondary — it doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. Sure, both wrestlers will want to tear the house down and give everyone a five-star match to remember, but the lasting effect of this match will be the story that built up to it.

Wrestling is at its best when the line between fiction and reality is indistinguishable. No wrestling fan has some weird disillusion that what we’re seeing is real, but that’s the line that’s been walked so beautifully in the lead up to this match. It’s been a build that has absolutely achieved its goal of giving everyone another CM Punk match, and elevating MJF to be his equal.

It’s impossible not to feel something after watching how this story has developed, and that’s what makes it so beautiful.

[hardblazesong]

On Acting Continued...

Going to start this post with a bit of mea culpa, so, hang in there for the actual points of the post. I am learning not to say, “I’m going to post today on this thing”. While it is always my intention to post the day I say this, other things get in the way or the writing muse decides she’s had enough and goes elsewhere for a bit. So, I am going back to “soonish”.

This topic has been discussed a lot, and the DMs have been many, and the Anons a few and I do want to try to rebuild the lengthy post I lost, so it will be a long ramble. I won’t be putting it under a cut, so apologies for that as well. STOP READING NOW IF YOU THINK BRANDO WAS A BETTER ACTOR THAN OLIVIER, you’ll save us both a bunch of agita.

Now the obligatory notices:

1) I do not know Sam Heughan personally, this is an opinion piece, not a biographical piece, know the difference. I am a fan, although I would not be considered in the hardiest of camps for this.

2)I have not spent my working life as an Actor. I have been paid to do it. I have been a performer since I was four years old, and am currently 53. I have studied, at the college level, the art of Acting and Directing, as it was my minor, off and on for many years. I have studied Actors all my life, see prior posts. I started as an English/Theater major, swapped to Education/Theater and then the last few years swapped to History/Political Science/Theater. I am still working on these degrees. I took my first college course at 20 and my last one at 51. I don’t plan on ever stopping.

3)I have done more directing and technical work than Acting, although as previously stated, I come from a multi-generational family of actors and performers.  90 percent of this work from my family has been on the stage in productions or performance pieces. The other 10 percent has involved film, radio productions and teaching.

4)I am not a Psychiatrist or Psychologist and don’t play one on TV. I have made a rather extensive study of this topic as well. For this piece, it is only necessary to know that I consider myself an Ambivert and a Pragmatic Jungian. I would IN NO WAY be considered a Behavioralist, and mostly consider Behavioralism the bane of modern society’s existence. Actions do speak louder than words though, so be aware for future reference, that when I speak of the dichotomy of Sam’s words to his actions, this is what I mean.

Definitions from Google, highlighted and truncated by me:

           Ambivert: noun ~ a person whose personality has a balance of extrovert and introvert features.

               Acting: noun ~ the art or occupation of performing in plays, movies, or television productions

                                               synonyms: dramatics, stagecraft, the performing arts

                                                               informal: treading the boards, “the theory and practice of acting”

                               adjective ~ temporarily doing the duties of another person

                                                               synonyms: temporary, interim, caretaker

I had originally put a long wiki paragraph on acting styles here, but here’s the link instead:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_acting_techniques

The original post I commented on with highlighting and edits by the author:

smithsassenach Deactivated

Sam Heughan’s thoughts on acting and becoming your character:

“I don’t know if anyone knows if they’re ever any good… You just say the words and the words kind of affect you, the actor, if you’re open to it and I think I just really relished that role and threw myself into it and sort of realized that that’s what you need to do and I guess, that’s, yeah — that’s what I do now.”

“I think every job I do, I sort of look for the challenge in. I mean, that’s why we do this job. It’s not, you know, obviously not for the money or for the fame, it’s for, I guess finding out more about yourself. You find out what your limitations are and what you can get away with on stage, or not, as the case may be.” [X]

“I have no interest in the celebrity side or people knowing who I am, to be perfectly honest,” he says, seated in a darkened pub in a hotel here.

“I think it’s more about the characters you tell. And you can hide behind them.

… it feels very odd to have to be yourself.

I’d much rather be someone different and ‘Outlander’ is wonderful… But it happens with each character. You take on board their life to live like they do. I think that’s the joy of it, being other people.”  [X]

 Finally, some Anon Comments:

               "All fans of SH need to read this and really think about what he says here. REALLY think about it. It’s very telling." Hi, would love to know your take on this. One thing about his words though - He said he was not into fame, but for the past year, he's been playing the HW fame game. Maybe he did change over time? If he really was what he said about himself, I'd assume that he would stay with the theater instead of trying so hard to get into HW. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I've reached the point where I really don't believe anything that Sam or Cait say in interviews. Not interested in fame? Please pull my other leg, it plays Jingle Bells! Odd choice then for Sam to have a supposed GF who seems primarily interested in fame and is not concerned that her behaviour is negatively impacting Sam's image with an intelligent audiences! And what about the pre-arranged pap walk with matching tshirts (a la Hiddleswift!)?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Why did I think they were telling? Along with any other number of quotes and interviews with Sam the insecurity here is glaring, revealing and touching. Sam’s said a lot over the years about acting and his process, of more interest to me is when he talks about watching people. The BEST Actors are OBSERVERS first and foremost. I am not a fan of “Method” acting, in the main I believe in “Classical” and “Meisner” and somewhat in “Practical Aesthetics” color me “Adler” I guess.

Acting is an insecure business all the way around when you are getting started. Will they like my performance? Am I good enough? Am I serving the Author, the Production, the Cast, the Craft with all I can? What if they don’t? What if I’m not? What if I forget everything I was ever taught or my lines? What if I never get another job? The greatest actors feel these things at a core level, but they tend to grow out of the worst of it. There comes a point when they can master their own insecurities and know that their work has value. I don’t think he’s there yet.

Unfortunately, plaudits can have a negative effect as well. Egos can become omnipresent, uncontrollable, and layered on top of all that simmering insecurity. If you are surrounded by people who are telling you that you are the greatest thing since white bread, and have a massive fanbase saying very similar things, well, I feel for you. I really do. I sincerely hope you have people to keep you grounded, and that they aren’t just on speed dial. He’s 37, he’s been doing this a long time, and I think had very good training at the Conservatoire.

He’s not a child, and, thus far, he hasn’t gone off the rails in any truly damaging way. I do think he is a bit immature for his age and while he admits to being a “Yes Man” I don’t really think he is. I think, as an ambivert, not an introvert, he is conflicted in his own nature, and it takes time to come to grips with that. It also takes suffering through what life really hands you or you make occur. Has he gone HW? Partly, but you would too.

You really don’t get many chances in this lifetime to make your dreams come true. He’s living his. He’s balanced his work with his charity endeavors and while I think he has had some very bad advisors over the years, and needs to replace several of them, I don’t know that I think he is mature enough to see that. Intelligent enough yes, but I am talking emotional maturity here. That does appear to be lacking at times.

Acting is TEMPORARY. You don’t find yourself when you are pretending to be someone else. You may find things in common, you may use those things to build your character, but they are NOT you. You must learn to shed the characterization and be in your own skin daily. Who are YOU? When you aren’t pretending? When you aren’t hiding behind the façade? When you are in the public eye, how much do you reveal, and why?

It’s no easy road he’s traveling, and if you think it is, you don’t really understand what I am trying to say here. Actors are by no means the only people who fill their lives with extraneous crap to try to come to terms with the truth of themselves and life. They do live for the show though, the show is all, and it must go on. Fame and Fortune, while not the core needs, are most certainly present in their minds AT ALL TIMES, if only as a niggling little voice. Most actors aren’t going to say, “I want to be Famous”, but they do. Trust me, they do. Then the lucky few who do become known, well they have to deal with that.

Only time is going to tell how long he can sustain his career in film, but I think it’s safe to say, he will never totally abandon the boards. It’s in his blood now, almost as deep as that workout addiction. By the way, Olivier stressed the need for an Actor to be physically fit long before it came into fashion.

Enough, or I won’t have anything to say in the recaps I plan on doing when S3 has finished its’ first run. Feel free to keep commenting to me, asking and DMing about these topics.

[aion-rsa]

Brian Michael Bendis and the Future of Jinxworld at DC

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Jinxworld is back! Wondering when you'll get more Powers, Scarlet, or more of Brian Michael Bendis' creator owned books? Here's the scoop.

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Interview Marc Buxton

DC Entertainment

Aug 28, 2018

Brian Michael Bendis

Months back, Brian Michael Bendis shocked the world by jumping from his two decade home of Marvel Comics over to DC Comics. Bendis began his DC sojourn in the world of Superman, but that is just the tip of the Fortress of Solitude. With his arrival at DC, Bendis has promised a new dedication to his series of creative owned titles collectively known as Jinxworld. Many of these titles, such as Powers, United States of Murder Inc., and the all-ages Takio (with artist Michael Avon Oeming), and Scarlet with Alex Maleev have experienced delays and cancelations over the years that have frustrated fans and Bendis himself. But now Jinxworld is back, and ready to take the comic book market by storm.

Joining these established Jinxworld titles will be Pearl with Bendis’ Jessica Jones co-creator Michal Gaydos and Cover with David Mack. Pearl is the story of a young assassin trying to navigate the world of the Yakuza and Cover asks what happens when comic creators become super spies. Along with the new titles, all the classic Jinxworld titles will soon return. Brian Michael Bendis told us what to expect from these titles and what led to this renewed focus on the Jinxworld imprint.

Den of Geek: To what do we owe this renewed focus on Jinxworld?

Brian Michael Bendis: Well, a few things. My birthday last year was a landmark birthday, so you can’t help but sit on your porch and take stock of everything. I’m healthy. My kids are healthy. I love me wife. But what can I do? What am I missing? Where have I dropped the ball? Absolutely, it was my passion and dedication to my creator owned work. My passion was always there, but behind the scenes, no one was seeing what we were doing because I wasn’t committed to it. That is embarrassing to me, and let’s fix it. On top of that, I announced to my friends, “I’m going to spend the year and create 50 things. They’re not going to be fifty amazing things, but I’m going to spend a year and force myself to lock down 50 ideas…written down that are brand new and not done before.”

From that, six months later, the offer from DC comes and them saying, “We think you should return to Jinxworld, we’re fans of it and it’s annoying to us that you haven’t got back to that.” So whatever we were going to do next, if I resigned at Marvel or if I didn’t sign anywhere, it was going to be with a fierce rededication to Jinxworld. What was great was that DC wanted that from us and came to us with a robust partnership plan to really publish the shit out of these books. I was relieved. It was exactly what I wanted. If I had to write Santa a letter, that’s exactly what I would have asked for. I called my collaborators and said, “Hey, you guys want to stop what you’re doing and get back to what we’re supposed to be doing?”

And then I got sick. Then I ended up in the hospital. The weeks went by and sometimes, there were days I was blind and there were days I was told, “You’re not getting out of here.” There was genuine care with collaborators visiting and talking comics. Greg Rucka sitting right next to me talking about Superman quietly. These things impassioned me and emboldened me. I said, "I have to get the fuck out of here and tell these stories.” I desperately wanted to do that. So, you’re holding the results of all of that. I was lucky enough to get out and got to work.

At the same time, as we were putting the books together, as I was being reintroduced to the history of DC and people were talking about what Kirby was doing when he came over, not that I’m anywhere in his ballpark, it’s the idea of someone moving from Marvel to DC and what he was creating then and how old he was. I wrote a very serious letter to my collaborations. I said, “It just occurred to me, and sure I almost lost my life, we are of an age where we have all the facilities as creators. We know our craft, we’re on that road. We’re at an age where we know why we’re telling out stories and what we’re telling. Sometimes, when you’re a younger creator, you find out later why you did it. We know what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. We are at the height of our powers. Sometimes people get better when they get older, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes it dwindles. But this is it. Let’s acknowledge that, let’s not pretend this isn’t our moment."

All four of the guys started kicking ass and inspiring each other. I was sitting there and seeing pages of Pearl and Cover and Murder, and the only people who benefit are the readers and me.

Pearl with Michael Gaydos

Tell us about the genesis of Pearl? When did the idea percolate? Was it originally slated for Marvel?

It was never pitched to Marvel, but it was definitely going to be the next book me and Gaydos did. We had like a year before any of the things I just talked about and we decided the next thing we did after Jessica Jones would be creator owned. We had a whole year to percolate on why we were doing this book and what this book is and what’s special about it. I really focused on making sure there are things in the book you’re not going to see anywhere else. Things that are unique. Little things, big things… these things are sometimes people’s whole entertainment budget, so you want to make sure you handle everything with care. So, we were talking, and the very first conversation, and you’ll see this with all the Jinxworld launches, they started with another conversation or another idea, and then you say, “No, the real idea is this…”

It started with me becoming obsessed with other people’s obsessions. Tattoos was one of those. The art of tattoo. Because I was told when I was a boy that if you get a tattoo you’re not going to heaven and about Holocaust tattoos, it always had a different connotation to a young Jewish kid from Cleveland than it did elsewhere. Here where I live in Portland … it’s a big part of the culture. It started with this and I asked all my friends who are covered, “Talk to me about this…talk to me.” That story made me start chasing people, and that got me talking to other people and artists and it ended with people saying, “Hey, you know I’m part of the Yakuza,” and I was like “Oh, really?” Then you realize the connections that are all in the book, the fantastic connection between art and violence that has always been there. But it’s also about truth and beauty, a fascinating dichotomy. It made us realize that there’s a story to tell here. And then Mike Gaydos started buying tattoo guns and immersing himself. We got such a great plot and I started wanting to know more about Pearl.

Suddenly Mike says, “There’s someone in my family, they have a skin condition and if they get marked, you can’t see it unless they get angry, and then it fills in. I talked to this tattoo artist and asked, “If this person tattoos himself with an empty gun with this condition, would that work? And they said,” Yeah.”

Pearl has a skin condition and you can’t see it until something is really about to happen. That idea, her art is her body, and I got so excited. So that’s where Pearl came from.

This certainly is a setting and a world you’ve never really touched that much before in your creative owned work? What drew you to a tale of the Japanese underworld?

When you do as much work in the organized crime genre as I do, it’s all so good, all so fascinating. People from all walks of life thrown up against walls and forced to face their fears, forced to face their mortality. But all organizations and cultures are different than the other ones. It’s a Venn diagram of similarities, but there’s honor, duty, and family. But as generations go by and there are some values that corrode.

Who is Pearl and what is she looking for?

Pearl is a tattoo artist, an apprentice of her mother; they run a tattoo shop in San Francisco. Her whole life has been immersed in the Yakuza. All she wants to do is come up a master artist at the level of her mother. But the world itself has constantly frustrated her. With her family gone, it’s just her and her shop. It’s the choices made for her versus her choices. It’s one of my favorite things, the idea of living in a world where choices are made for us versus the things we want. She’s about to meet her doppelganger from another clan. This opens her eyes to the idea she doesn’t have to live the life she’s living.

How long is Pearl planned to be?

Pearl was six issues, but we had a very good week last week. We’re debating whether or not to keep going or do other things. We are so excited with how well she did in a tough market place for brand new things. I guess people felt a lot of love towards Jessica Jones and were willing to give us a shot. We debuted strong. I’ll let you know next month. I told Mike, “We have some awesome choices and they’re all good.”

Scarlet with Alex Maleev

Where does the new volume of Scarlet pick up?

The new volume of Scarlet picks up in a very surprising place. The entire city of Portland has been shut down by the revolution started by Scarlet and the gang at the end of the last arc. You do not have to read the last arc to enjoy this. It opens up and the bridges of Portland have been blown, the city has been shut off and surrounded by US army, and Scarlet will be heard.

Real life politics have kind of lapped the world you created in Scarlet, how has this changed your approach?

This is my absolute favorite subject that only I care about. I’m writing a book that started eight years ago. Everything about the world that the book is reflective of has shifted under its knees. And yet everything about the book remains true. On top of re-debuting the book, we’re also doing a pilot for Scarlet on television. I’m helping adapt the first story while doing this new story and they’re both potent to where we’re living right now. What’s interesting is that in this book you’re seeing a city under siege. This is an insanely over the top idea when I first wrote it and it doesn’t feel totally insane anymore. Because what we’ve learned every day this year is that normal is not what you thought it was.

In this politically charged climate, do you have any fears of presenting a situation that parallels the real world?

No, we’re not a political book. I must say, what Scarlet fights against, her one point, her only point is that corruption should not be allowed. That corruption is rampant and has gone so far out of control that we can’t even breathe, and she wants it to stop. And every time she tries to stop it a corrupt person gets in her way and she has to push back. I have not met anyone who read this book who is pro-corruption. That’s not a political issue. There are corrupt people everywhere. She’s not fighting cops, she’s fighting bad cops. She’s fighting people who have betrayed decency. When that badge is betrayed that’s worse than a criminal.

Powers with Michael Avon Oeming

When can we expect more Powers and where do we pick things up?

There’s a whole Powers graphic novel all ready and ready to go this Christmas.

So no more single issues?

No, we just have enough for a graphic novel, but they’ll be more. I hear from fans everyday bummed out there’s no third season of the TV series, so I said, “Let’s give them a big thing. They’ve been waiting. Let’s give them a whole book for Christmas.”

United States of Murder Inc. with Michael Avon Oeming

What is the focus of the new volume?

It’s United States versus Murder Inc. It’s the government versus the five families who’ve had kind of a Cold War that’s not going to be so cold anymore when the leads of our book are told to shut it down.

Takio with Michael Avon Oeming and Olivia Bendis

When can we expect more Takio?

There will be more Takio later next year. I have Olivia plotting this year.

Good! Because in this market we need Takio.

I know and I was genuinely surprised that when I went to DC, they asked for it. How they’re publishing YA material, I’m so happy. And it has the benefit of Olivia being young enough to do writing.

Cover with David Mack

Talk about the genesis of this project? Where did the germ and idea come from?

This is a very special book for us; this is David Mack and I collaborating again. I truly believe he’s a genius. I’ve known Mack since he was a teenager. What we’ve done is taken all the stuff we’ve gathered over the years in our life as comic creators and applied it to the spy genre. There’s a lot of truth in this book. I’ve spoken at Langley and David worked for the State Department. We’ve met a lot of interesting people and we thought what a fun way to express our love of comics, of fiction, and the spy genre at the same time.

What comic creators would actually make great spies?

Funny you should say that because I reached out to them and asked, “Would you like to do a variant cover as yourself as a spy?” So I asked people who I thought would make great spies. That’s Nick Derington from Mister Miracle. There’s Bill Sienkiewicz. I’m going to do one. David is going to do one. And Ivan Reis is doing a variant. We did people you don’t see variants from normally.

More Jinxworld...

Any plans to return to the world of Jinx and Goldfish?

I must say, after the story I just told you, I’m looking at a bunch of brand new ideas and brand new collaborations. That’s a lot more interesting to me at the moment than a return to. That doesn’t mean I won’t wake up tomorrow with a fever and say, “Oh my God, I know what to do with Jinx.” I’ve had the personal fun experience of adapting both those graphic novels in screenplays so I’ve already had fun. Not fun for you, I know, but I’ve already scratched that itch and this list of new ideas are just there and I have to do it.

Can we hope for more Brilliant with Mark Bagley?

This one I’m sad about because Mark Bagley is exclusive with Marvel. This was on my pros and cons list for going to DC because we love making comics together.

The latest volume of Scarlet debuts on August 29. 

Read the latest Den of Geek Special Edition Magazine Here!

from Books https://ift.tt/2PLGVAy

[sonatdistills-blog]

Redefining a Mother Owned Business

I co-founded KOVAL Distillery with my husband in 2008. Leaving my career as a professor to start Chicago’s first distillery since the mid-1800s was liberating. It afforded me the freedom to run my business, while being a full time mom and homeschooler. Now that my boys are 9 and 6, I have managed this dichotomy for as long as I have had my business. Has it been difficult? Yes.  Difficult, however, does not mean that it isn’t also wonderful.

I had never thought about the difference between a working-woman vs. a working mother before having children of my own. Growing up, I had been led to believe that women could achieve anything; however children would probably have to wait or be a hindrance.  When I had children of my own while starting a business, I followed the debate as to whether women can have it all. I could not help but think I am lucky if I have time for a shower.  Nevertheless, I have what is most important for me: I am doing things the way I want, and in a manner that expands what many women think is even possible; regardless of whether they would want to work full time and home school their children.

After all, my husband and I left our careers so that we could focus on what truly mattered to us: working together, having our family close by, living in the city we loved, and doing something of which we could be proud. It was worth giving up our careers and moving across the country for the chance to achieve this. If our goal was to focus on what mattered to us most, what was really keeping me from applying this to how I wanted to raise my children? Who was keeping me from trying to integrate motherhood into my work life? After all, it was my business.

So with the support of my parents and my husband, I have organized my day entirely around my boys, despite running the sales, distribution, and marketing for an international liquor company. Having children has never been detrimental to the success of my business; and I am actually more productive and focused then ever before. It is really a matter of determination, a strong support system, and down to the minute time management.

Being with my children while working has created an opportunity for thinking about motherhood and entrepreneurship in a new way. When they were young, I conducted a state-wide sales meeting for a distributor with my youngest happily attached to my body.  I was also part of a panel discussion to a crowd of hundreds about the meaning of craft, while my son nursed in his sling. There have also been countless conference calls with my boys audible in the background. These calls often turned what could have been a dry business discussion into one that went beyond work, with many of those on the line sharing stories about their children. This is not a traditional way of conducting business, but I did not want my business life to override my desire to be involved in my boys’ education and day-to-day life.

As my boys got older, I had to figure out just how I could find ways for them to play and engage in activities in a manner that would also allow me to work. This would not have been as easy a generation ago. I found places where I could work and they could play and learn. I started to think that a quiet feminist revolution was taking place at Little Beans Café, where I joined a cadre of working mothers enjoying high speed internet and coffee, while our children played happily. I could organize snack breaks, break up fights over train set hogging, and accompany them to the bathroom, all while increasing our distribution across the country and gaining Duty Free placements for my whiskey at Chicago’s O’Hare Airport.  

I do spend time at the distillery, either with my boys or alone while they are taking a class. When they join me at the distillery, we try to encourage them to do homework in their “office.” This works sometimes. Other times, they want to engage in office banter, use the copy machine to give everyone the latest edition of their comics, and tend to make a good bit of “unnecessary noise.” However, they understand our business and are always asking us questions: “What was your meeting about?” It feels very much like the family business we envisioned when we took what was supposed to be a down payment on a house, bought a still instead, and moved in with my parents to get our business going.

I have always wanted my boys to have an education that values languages, music, and art, but in being with us, they are getting a real sense of business too. During a recent trip to Starbucks, my boys were handed two small samples of a Unicorn Frappuccino. When asked by the barista, “What did you think?”

My older son replied, “I think it’s really good marketing to give me a free sample.”

[tipsycad147]

White magick, black magick: What’s the difference?

Posted by Michelle Gruben on Mar 28, 2017

“I’m a white Witch. He practices black magick.” If you spend enough time in witchy company, you’re sure to come across some discussion of shades and tints of magick. But what do these terms really mean? What beliefs and ideas do they encompass? And, more to the point, is there really a distinction between white magick (good) and black magick (evil)?

Before I launch into the whole white/black magick taxonomy, I should acknowledge that these terms have fallen out of favour in recent decades. Few contemporary Witches really use them to describe their practice. You can blame creeping moral relativism for the shift, but there’s really more to it than that.

Try it. Bring up black/white magick at a gathering of Witches, and count the mere seconds until someone blandly recites, “Magick is neither good nor bad, it’s your intention that counts.” Then someone else will pipe up and make an analogy between magick and a knife (or box of matches). A third person will add that the words “black” and “white” have an implicit racial bias, and shouldn’t be used to describe morality all. A chorus of Witches will chime in that “white magick” and “black magick” are reductive, insensitive, and outdated terms.

Magick is a tool that can be used for good or evil. It’s your intention that matters. Sure, it’s a loathsome cliche. But it does neatly sum up how many Witches feel about the ethical status of magickal work. That’s another way of saying that any spell or working that’s done with good intentions is white magick.

Is it ever that simple? Of course not! Why? Because human intentions are never that simple. But, when you’re explaining to your grandma why witchcraft isn’t Devil worship, I suppose it’s enough.

I could stop right there, but my psychic powers tell me that some of you won’t be satisfied with such a glib answer. So let’s drill down a little further into the “colours” of magick.

The history of an idea

While the dichotomy of white versus black magick may be out of fashion at the moment, it’s not going away anytime soon. This concept can be traced all the way back to the earliest medieval writers on occultism. Though nobody likes to admit it, the entire Western esoteric tradition is built on a foundation of medieval magick. (And that includes a framework of Judaeo-Christian cosmology.) Even Wicca has never really escaped the long shadow of Jehovah. Trying to extract the medieval worldview from Western occultism is a bit like boning out a whole chicken: The end result may be more palatable, but also rather flat and wobbly.

The 12th and 13th centuries were a very exciting period of magickal discovery. Ancient traditions of geometry, astronomy, proto-chemistry, written language, and image-making were being rediscovered after getting buried during Europe’s Dark Ages. The medieval grimoires rushed to synthesise all this knowledge into a comprehensive map of all Creation. Fuelling it all was a yearning to match the massive achievements of the Classical world.

Nostalgia for ancient times is something that many Witches and polytheists can relate to. And while we might be tempted think of the Pagan empires—Egypt, Greece, and Rome—as being happy magickal paradises, some of that is wishful thinking. State-sanctioned magick was basically limited to oracles and priests of the gods. Most ancient legal codes contain laws against witchcraft—including sorcery, necromancy and poisoning.

It’s not always spelled out in black and white (heh), but as long as magick has existed, there have been legal and social rules governing its use. Early civilizations did distinguish between approved and unapproved types of magick. Acceptable types—like augury and healing—were usually practised under the sponsorship of some deity. As far as personal magick, you might ask Ra to punish your enemies or pray to Diana for fertility. Maybe you’d even sweeten the pot with a generous gift or carefully made tablet or talisman.

But that was as far as it was safe to go. You made your offerings, and you prayed to the gods for omens or favours. If you didn’t get your way, one can presume, you upped the ante and tried again. Anyone caught trying to manipulate the natural order of things through forbidden arts was distrusted as the worst type of criminal.

If you think about witchcraft laws from a sociopolitical point of view, they make a lot more sense. Kings and priests don’t want their authority undermined by every hedge-witch and soothsayer in the land. They can also do without the panic and turmoil that comes along with witchcraft scares. (On the other hand, arresting a handful of Witches every now and then is a tried and true from of propaganda—a way to show you’re still in charge and fear no one.)

Things were even stricter among the People of the Book. The Old Testament forbids witchcraft explicitly. Not just harmful sorcery in this case, but also polytheism, idolatry, fortune-telling, spell-casting, astrology, and medium-ship. The scriptures demand complete trust in God, which was seen to be incompatible with occult practices. (Never mind the rumours that King Solomon himself practised magick.) For centuries, Christians and Jews shunned witchcraft as a rebellious and faithless act against God. Predictive magick, such as astrology, was rejected as an affront to free will.

So anyway, here we are in the Middle Ages and the crowning of the Western occult tradition. Reams of ancient texts are being re-discovered (or in some cases, forged). People started reading Aristotle and Pythagoras again. The Emerald Tablet, the foundational text of Hermeticism, was translated into Latin for the first time. And soon enough, new Kabbalistic writings in Arabic were lending Abrahamic legitimacy to this esoteric flood.

The rules about magick began to get fuzzy. People started to lighten up a bit. But as (mostly) Christians, they still had to tread carefully. Doing the wrong kind of magick could still get you in big, big trouble. Suddenly, it became very important to know what occult pursuits were approved by the Man Upstairs, and which would damn you to hell. (Or at least a very uncomfortable death by execution.)

Among the first to draw a line in the sand was the 13th century French bishop William of Auvergne. William rejected the earlier Christian belief that all magick is demonic. His treatises made a distinction between “natural magick” (which was allowed) and other kinds (which were not). Natural magick draws on the beneficial properties of herbs, gems, and animals. Because these powers were conferred by God, using them in the service of mankind is permissible. Unacceptable forms of magick include consulting with spirits and all types of image magick—the use of idols, signs and symbols.

Medieval thinkers started—but did not finish—the conversation about white and black magick. For the next several hundred years, ceremonial magicians try to find a way to do what they want while staying at the right hand of the Lord. Rules are bent and hairs split. Magick circles acquire even more holy initials. Occultists tease out the boundaries between theurgy and thaumaturgy, high and low magick.

During the Enlightenment, the conversation goes dormant until the occult revival of the 19th century. Magickal ethics get revisited and refined in libraries and drawing rooms—this time with the introduction of Eastern ideas, including karma. Gerald Gardner unveils Wicca to a conservative British public. Facing a major PR battle, he rebrands witchcraft as “the craft of the Wise” and promulgates the Wiccan Rede and the Threefold Law.

The modern neo-Pagan movement is born. Witchcraft’s public makeover has begun. It’s from this point on that the phrase “white magick” comes into regular use as newly minted Witches step up to defend their craft.

What is white magick?

White magick, is beneficent magick. It is performed to help or heal the magick worker or the target. White magick may include spell-casting, energy work, divination, blessings and prayer. As first described in the Middle Ages, white magick often depends on the inherent virtues of colours, herbs, or stones. Through his/her knowledge and its careful application, the white Witch harnesses the hidden power of the natural world. To this day, white magick is sometimes called “natural magick” and even “the right-hand path.”

White Witchcraft generally makes use of Earth energies and celestial energies. But not all Witches agree on the source of their powers. White Witches may draw their power from higher beings, from their own energy/will, or by capturing and directing neutral energy toward positive outcomes. Many white Witches work with deities or angels to steer their work toward its highest purpose.

Cleansing and healing are the most obvious branches of white magick. White magick also encompasses spells for friendship, peace, wisdom, creativity, dreaming, and personal growth. However, white magick is not necessarily selfless. Also, even well-intentioned spells can have negative consequences.

Many Witches consider all magick to be white magick, as long as it does not harm another. Some Witches do not see love and money spells as white magick, since they may constrain the wills of others. Protection spells may qualify as white magick if they are passive (e.g., setting up wards around a property), but not if they seek out or attack an adversary. Binding magick—even if it’s intended to prevent harm—is also usually excluded from the realm of white magick.

Contrary to what medieval magicians would have condoned, today’s white magick practitioners may contact spirits as part of their work. Communing with spirits for guidance, channelled healing, and conveying messages from departed love ones are all spiritualist practices that fit under the banner of white magick.

What is black magick?

Black magick, called “the left-hand path,” is white magick’s opposite. There are really two separate definitions of black magick swirling around: Magick intended to harm, and magick involving rebellious spirits.

The meaning of the term has been further complicated by people who label any occult practice they disapprove of as “black magick”. Workings involving the dead or the Underworld also get tossed into the black basket out of fear or misunderstanding. Voodoo and other (non-white) traditions have been exploited for decades by horror books and film—so they, too, get unfairly classified as black magick.

So, one definition of black magick would be all negative magick: Curses, hexes, psychic attack, spells to bring injury, illness, and misfortune.  Negative magick can be as simple as wishing harm upon someone, or as complex as an elaborate ritual. Occult practices that seize the energy of other life forms—such as vampirism and animal sacrifice—are regarded as black magick no matter their aim.

Another, older definition of “the black arts” is magick assisted by spirits or demons. The black magician makes pacts with the devil, conjures spirits of the dead, or summons infernal beings to do his bidding. In this medieval view of black magick, it doesn’t matter much what the magician’s purpose is. (She could be summoning Azaroth to heal her sick poodle. It’s the contact itself that’s unsavoury.) Yet there are plenty of Solomonic and Goetic magicians who work with demons, and who would be mightily offended by the suggestion that what they do is black magick.

The most comprehensive way to tell the difference might be this: White magick works in harmony with nature, while black magick is against nature. Nature’s habit is to continually improve, albeit in fits and starts. Black magick seeks to undo progress through chaos and destruction. Quintessential black magick workings—raising the dead, pacts to achieve immortality—usually seek to defy the natural cycles of life, replacing them with the magician’s own selfish obsessions.

What is grey magick?

Gray magick is a term that describes ethically ambiguous magick. It first appears in occult writings in the 1960s. Also called neutral magick, grey magick is neither specifically beneficial nor hostile. It can also refer to magick in which the ends justify the means, and vice versa.

You can imagine a square in which white magick—doing good things for good reasons—is in one corner. In the opposite corner is black magick (doing bad things for bad reasons). All of the rest of the square is filled in by grey magick (doing bad things for good reasons, or doing good things for bad reasons). Gray magick exists in a continuum, from a cloudy tint to a deep shade of charcoal.

If you cast a binding spell to stop someone from bothering you, or a love-drawing spell without concern for the trail of broken hearts, you might call that grey magick. Persuasion and glamour magick are grey-ish. So is magickal power for its own sake. Money magick can be grey: If your charm to win at the gambling table causes the other players to lose, then it’s not clear that your magick has contributed to the greater good. In one sense, all magick done for self-gratification can be considered grey magick at best.

Is grey magick a real category, or a cop-out? Gray magick is one way of acknowledging that you can never know all the consequences of your magick, and that your motivations may not be as saintly as you believe them to be. However, it can also be a way of dodging responsibility—or worse yet, delaying action.

Uncle Al (Crowley) —tells us, “The first condition of success in magick is purity of purpose.” If you’re not wholly committed, the results of your magick will be so feeble that you won’t need to worry whether it’s black, white, or gray.

Other colours

Are there other colours of magick? So glad you asked! “Green magick” or “green witchcraft” refers to the herbal branches of the magickal arts. Green Witches sometimes use that phrase to emphasise their reliance on the plant kingdom. A related term is “brown magick,” which includes the magick of animal guides, animal familiars, and shapeshifting.  And although it’s not common, I have heard the term “red magick” to describe the use of (consensual) bloodletting or sexual activity to raise massive amounts of energy in a hurry.

White and black magick today

Wiccans and Witches have been trying for decades to convince the public that their magick is benign—and for the most part, it’s worked. There’s more understanding and acceptance of alternative spirituality than ever before. If you tell someone you’re a Witch in my city, they’re more likely to visualize a pile of herbs and cats and crystals than some disturbing rite. It only took a thousand years, but white magick is finally dominating the cultural conversation about witchcraft.

But some Witches, it seems, do miss the element of fright that comes along with their vocation. Some don’t want to be lumped in with the wishy-washy, lovey-dovey white-light crowd. Some just don’t give a damn about what colour their magick is, as long as it works. For every mild-mannered Wiccan agonizing over whether her reversal spell violates the Rede, there is someone in a botanica buying a bottle of Bend Over Oil.

The whole black magick/white magick divide is arbitrary, culturally specific, and rooted in old Judaeo-Christian dogma that we Pagans profess not to believe in. And yet, magickal actions, like all actions, can have serious consequences. Most of us can agree that there are types of magick that are inhumane and destructive, and some that are vastly beneficial. But there’s a lot of wiggle room in the middle of the spectrum. In speaking and writing, the definitions of black and white magick seem to come down to what is acceptable to an individual Witch. It’s worth keeping these tired phrases around if they can help us to think and talk about magickal ethics.

https://www.groveandgrotto.com/blogs/articles/white-magick-black-magick-what-s-the-difference