#working class music

[guerrillatech]

Jesse Welles

[maybeinanotherworld]

physics professors are really going through it- every day, I think about my quantum physics professor who once went on a rant about how there's too many types of mustard these days followed by the words "well, at least quantum physics is less complicated than the mustard aisle" followed by one of the most cursed derivations I have ever seen

[littlefankingdom]

Am I the only one that doesn't really like the "Alfred is Jason's favorite in the family", especially because Alfred is classist (he views things associated with the lower classes as inferior, like street art and rock aren't real art to him and he shows disgust toward it) and probably believes in some elitist shit about behaviors and educations (which he tries to make the fam follow at the manor, with or without success depending on the day. Like, refusing to eat with them, putting a separation between himself and his family, that's some unhealthy elitist bs because he is "the help" and so cannot eat with the masters), while Jason is a street kid, so all this bs would hurt him. It's ironic how some people will be mad at Bruce because he said that Jason would have turn to crime without him, and that's classist (and could just be the writers' opinion. But also, it's a fact that the system forces extremely poor folks to do crimes to survive, because there's no other solutions. The kid is parentless, homeless and doesn't go to school, how is he supposed to survive?), but they don't say anything about all the classism Alfred has done through the years, because Alfred is this British posh "saint".

[to-dee-or-not-to-dee]

More dadboose (but rendered now!)

[eggtomatosoup]

Another OC pmv, featuring gay people* and a bunch of bird** images!

(some still frames I liked under the cut)

*in yuri civilization, nobody jumps for th

**passenger pigeon, red-necked phalarope

[crispyliza]

It's a blessing actually

[preraphaelitepaintings]

The Awakening Conscience

Artist: William Holman Hunt (English, 1827–1910)

Date: 1853

Medium: Oil paint on canvas

Collection: Tate Britain, London, United Kingdom

Description

Inspired by the novels of Charles Dickens, William Holman Hunt shows an aristocratic man visiting a working-class woman, who lives in a flat he owns. The woman jumps up realising her home is a trap. The man’s gesture mimics that of the cat under the table, reaching for a bird as it tries to escape. The factory-produced textiles and carpets are a metaphor for the exploitative, commercial basis of the relationship. Hunt hoped to persuade the model, Annie Miller, of the dangers of dependence of this kind. Miller, a bar worker, became a successful Pre-Raphaelite model and married an aristocrat.

[zarnzarn]

Random odypenath thought that I had today and needed to share.

Imagine this: Athena and Ody showing Penelope how they used to spar when training Odysseus, they spar a few times and times and Athena wins all of them, because duh, she's a goddess.

And Athena despite denying a lot is quite prideful, so she gloats a little saying that in over their 30 years of sparing Odysseus never once managed to beat her.

But we all know Ody is a little shit a heart, so he asks for another spar with her, to which she agrees without questions. Everything is going normally and Athena has him immobilized, she's ready to say that she won again, but then Odysseus suddenly kisses her.

It's nothing more than a quick peck, but this surprises Athena so much that she lets down her weapon and ends up letting Ody destabilize her making her fall down, giving Odysseus his first win against his teacher.

Athena's first instinct after falling is to look for Penelope, but to her surprise the woman isn't upset by the fact that her husband just kissed another person, she actually looks quite happy hiding her smile behind her hands.

"I won my love!" Odysseus says with the joyfulness of a child, practically jumping in the arms of his wife.

and Athena gets up and her mind still isn't quite sure if she's supposed to be flustered or annoyed.

And Odysseus just replies with his voice dripping with smugness that Athena herself had taught him that there wasn't such a thing as dirty tricks in a fight and that every tactic is valid if it helps you win a battle.

And Athena tries to argue against that, but she ends up lost for words because sadly she taught her little warrior of the mind too well and his argument was very solid. She ends up just huffing and saying that that was enough training for the day and she turns around to go back inside the palace. Odysseus and Penelope laugh themselves silly at their goddess's embarrassment, but nonetheless, they follow her inside.

Many hours later back at her palace on Olympus Athena freak out realizing that that was her first kiss and that oh my gods Odysseus had just taken her first kiss.

Anyway that was a lot of rambling that I probably won't manage to write into an actual fanfiction but I wanted the CEO of the odypenath fanbase to know

HI HELLO DANTSEM THANK YOU SO MUCH THIS WONDERFUL IDEA HAS BEEN ROLLING AROUND IN MY HEAD FOR AGESSS!!!!! sorry it took so long to answer my friend, I was tumbling it like a stone in my mind until it was perfect and shiny.

THIS IS SO. SO TRUE. OH MY GOD. even just odysseus and Athena sparring would be so cool after some 30 years of dirty tricks and training and fighting; all fancy footwork and fast attacks and smirks that have Penelope crossing her legs.

and of COURSE Athena cackles when he goes down- he learnt his trashtalk from somewhere after all- teasing him about how not even one win after all these years must SO grating, that it was kind of sad he hadn't even bested her ONCE.

penelope, because she is a rat, immediately goes oooooh while odysseus' mouth drops slowly open in offended shock, but still curled into a half-smile almost against his will. their eyes crinkle with their mirth even as Athena raises an eyebrow in challenge, because this is as known to them as breathing; not once had she ever mocked him without him springing to his feet and retaliating immediately.

(i imagine this is the first time they're acting this comfy again after the return; they were still tiptoeing around each other a bit emotionally till then but blood pumping + familiar ground of fighting means they're both open)

and he snaps up and swings out at her and athena parries with an amused, lazy smirk, that Penelope's husband matches with a wild blaze of teeth-

she's having the time of her life btw. Spartan culture still has its grip on her and seeing them fight, she is just. dying of lust on the side. dying, truly. between her husband keeping up with a goddess and the war goddess fighting on mortal soil at full power... poor woman's about to pass out from the heat.

they both get a good fight, spears knocked away and both of them reduced to a mad wrestle on the ground- but eventually, he grabs the wrong arm and she manages to pin him down, hands crossed and pulled in opposite directions, knee in the stomach.

she barely has time to grin in victory, ready to gloat, before his eyes flash with that spark of mischief she knows well and he's leaned up to press their mouths together.

she's so shocked that she barely registers movement until there's a foot in her abdomen and the world is upside down for a few odd seconds, eating dirt and then landing hard on her back, making her grunt.

"HA!" Odysseus shouts, eyes shining with victory and grinning wider than she'd ever seen him, pressing down his knees on her shoulders for three seconds before letting go with a whoop and running off so fast athena's left gawping at the empty sky, breath knocked out of her, cheeks burning. Her mouth is open in affront, at the blasphemy, at the fucking audacity- "Penelope, holy fuck, did you see that?"

Athena jerks at the queen's name and rolls up on one elbow, a mixed bag of furious on Penelope's behalf, a need for a commiserative do you fucking see this shit, and an odd need to start apologizing frantically, even though she did nothing.

But Penelope has her hands on her knees for support and is laughing behind one hand, face lined with mirth as her husband dances around her, hooting and hollering like he would have if he'd beaten her when he was twelve-

Athena's brain finally resumes its motions and she pushes herself off the ground with a scoff of disbelief, mouth still open. Her chest burns with a confusing cluster of emotions, now that the initial response to look for Penelope's reaction seems to be... unnecessary. Doesn't know whether to start shouting or lie back down and let Gaia take her out of embarrassment.

"I cannot believe you," She says finally. "I should set Diomedes on you."

Odysseus laughs and looks at her, eyes clear as he hangs off his wife. "Your top student, Athena, lover of clever strategies. No such thing as a dirty tactic, remember? I beat you, fair and square."

"Hah, please," She says automatically, waving him off, even as her chest pangs with something she's never felt before. "Not a person alive would call that a win."

She has never had a student best her. Not once. She has to swallow against a lump in her throat, eyes burning oddly even as she pastes on a teasing smile.

"-in fact, I have it written down, the merits of a good distraction, because you insisted-"

Athena makes the mistake of turning to glance to the side as she brushes herself off. Her heart skips a beat when she catches Penelope's gaze staring right back at her, no longer with the placidly uncaring look of earlier- eyes dark and expression calculating.

And then- Penelope smirks, small and dangerous, and raises an eyebrow. You liked it, didn't you?

"Training is over for today," She says, walking away quickly to the sound of laughter, and is subsequently heckled all the way back to the palace, the both of them cackling behind her all the way.

-

Later, she sits on her bed, getting all the way to taking off her armour and lying down, when the memory slams into her with full force, lips burning.

Her eye twitches. Her stupid fucking champion's idiot face swirls into mind, grinning like a maniac for finally having bested her and she snarls. She has no idea how to feel. Pride It was a good fucking tactic, too, which just makes her more annoyed.

Athena takes a deep breath in and out. Reaches for the nearest pillow.

The entire pantheon still wakes up when she screams.

-

"Why the fuck did I do that?" Odysseus says for the thousandth time, staring up at the ceiling with haunted eyes.

Penelope grunts unhelpfully next to him, almost asleep.

"She's going to get her bearings tomorrow and kill me," He says fatalistically. "Pallas Athena is going to beat me to death in a rage, because I am the stupidest creature alive, and- Penelope. Penelope. I kissed her."

"I know. Sleep."

"I'm not a dog!" Odysseus protests. "And aren't you listening? I kissed Athena."

"She won't do anything," Penelope rasps, moving closer and draping one arm across his chest. "Also I know. I was there. You have not shut up about it since she left."

Odysseus groans and pushes his palms into his eyes. "Why didn't you stop me?"

"Honestly, I wanted to see if you had the guts," Penelope says, hiding a smile in his shoulder as he looks over to glare at her. "And I say this with love, sweetheart, but everyone has been waiting for this for ages. In fact, I have bets to collect tomorrow, do remind me."

Odysseus sputters. "Who 'everyone'?" He demands.

"Telemachus, for one," Penelope yawns. "And probably every being with a trickle of divinity in them and a couple thousand without-"

"TELEMACHUS?" Odysseus sits up, so incredibly offended that she chokes on her yawn and wakes up a bit more to laugh at it. "MY SON? HER STUDENT? MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD-"

"He actually thought you two already were, I think," Penelope muses, tucking her hands behind her head. "He already knew how she stood in as my husband when times got... tough, during Troy. And the champions frequented our halls often at the start, and had many irritated anecdotes of how Pallas Athena absolutely doted on you, whispering wisdom and cheating in your fights so that you won."

"Doted?" Odysseus gawps at her. His cheeks are red. "As if, half the time she was yelling at me-"

"-And how she was cold and distant with her stewards, but always had time for her favourite-"

"I wasn't her favourite!" Odysseus protests, even as his voice cracks a bit in the middle, some small part of him still stuck in the moment where she had tossed him aside over that first slight against her will, that had grown roots believing all those years after that she had never looked back, and gone on to other students, other champions.

"Are you embarrassed?" Penelope laughs, pushing herself up. "Odysseus, come on, there is absolutely no way you do not know! I've heard all the stories of Troy and how much she did for you- Do you think interfering this much is the norm for gods? Would any patron stand up to Zeus in their favour? Would anyone know their champion's preferred fruit? That goddess is gone for you, take it from me and all her other incredibly jealous followers. Anyone with eyes can see it."

Odysseus frowns, feeling uneasy about the picture she paints, how any other woman would take it. "Penelope, I'm sorry if- you- there's nothing-"

"Ah, yes, how woeful that I don't the troubles of a normal wife with a husband blessed by a god," Penelope snarks. "Would have to deal with the incredibly cruel fate of watching my incredibly attractive husband fuck my incredibly attractive patron goddess, but no, I had to get stuck with the only two idiots who don't enjoy a good coupling and couldn't express an emotion if your lives depended on it-"

"Penelope! We're just friends!" Odysseus says loudly. "And more importantly, she's my goddess- the virgin goddess, if you've somehow forgotten- I would never-"

"Friends don't cuddle on the grass after spars and murmur to each other like that!" Penelope says louder, throwing her hands out. "And it's one thing for you to not know, you're married and dumb as a rock about it- what's her excuse for not knowing you're in love with her?"

Odysseus wheezes ungracefully, feeling somewhat like he's taken a fall off a tall flight of steps. "I'm not-"

"Oh, don't even try," Penelope rolls her eyes, sounding for all the world like they're having an argument about the curtains. All the women of the country would hate having to fight for their beloved's attention in the face of godliness, and here Odysseus has to deal with this woman sulking that he wasn't gone over- fuck, he can't even make himself think it. "You haven't heard yourself pray. Or talk to her. Or just talk about Athena in general."

"And, what," Odysseus demands, pushing himself up on his elbows, staring at her in disbelief. "You're fine with this?"

"Fine?" Penelope looks at him like he's the crazy one here. "I've been waiting for weeks for something to happen! Oh gods- do you seriously not know?"

"There's nothing to know!" Odysseus shouts. "I'm not- she's not-"

"Unbelievable," Penelope says, putting her face in her hands.

"What is wrong with you?" Odysseus bursts out as the craziness of the situation finally bursts upon him. "Are you mental?"

"How am I mental?" Penelope throws her hands up. "It's true!"

"It's-" Odysseus' denial dies on his tongue as his mind forces him to consider it without his consent, and. Well.

"You're mad," He says quickly, and flops back down face-first into the pillow. Penelope hollers in victorious, mocking laughter overhead and he reaches out to tickle her to get her to stop. She squeals and a smile catches on his lips- he's too weak to her laughter to not follow up.

"Is this- ah, stop!- the thanks I get?" Penelope demands a few minutes of struggling later, giggling still. "Just you wait- Athena! Oh goddess of the iron and loom, the spear and thread- AH!"

"Have you lost your mind?" Odysseus demands, shaking her by the hand over her mouth, half-laughing himself.

"Trust me!" Penelope drawls, eyes sparking with cunning. His smile falters in the face of it, beautiful though it makes her look, as the rest of the night comes rushing back and with it, the possibilities of absolute disaster that his wife was clearly heading towards in her delusions.

"Penelope, listen-" Odysseus sighs, but before he can say anything more, she's reached out and snapped off one of the branches from their tree.

"ATHENA!" She yells, loud enough that Odysseus rocks back from the force of it, then rocks back forward from the sharp familiar crack from the back of the room.

"I am not a dog!" Athena snaps, hands thrown out and curled into claws the way it only gets when she's really annoyed. Odysseus has one brief moment of considering wildly every direction he can fling himself towards to hide in the mere seconds he has before her gaze falls upon him, but it's already too late.

"YOU!" Athena snarls, still in her white robes, eyes blazing with anger. Odysseus yelps and scrambles backwards, pointing at Penelope with one hand and raises the other in mute surrender.

Athena growls like a lion and stalks to the bed, fists clenched at her sides. Her hair is raised up like a bush, as if she was running her fingers through it, making her look more crazed than he's ever seen her.

"I. Fucking." Athena slams a hand and leg down on either side of him, glaring still, making the bed shake as she climbs over him. "Despise. You."

Odysseus' words falter on his lips as he looks up at her, feels the pieces fall into place as fast as falling marbles seeing his own emotions reflected in her eyes- longing and confusion and hesitation and hilariously, the same little bit of disgust- and he reaches up the same time she leans down and-

Athena makes a noise and abruptly pushes her face off to the side so his lips drag across her browbone. He stares up at the ceiling for a few moments with the crushing anxiety of what did I just do, before he feels Athena shiver against him and automatically wraps all limbs around her in an embrace borne of some animal instinct to keep a person warm.

She obligingly shrinks down to human proportions and clings back. Every last argument, every last stilted apology feels like it pales in face of this embrace, like it finally has settled in for both of them that it's over. He no longer has to be her warrior, just her friend. That they'll be alright.

He has a feeling they both might be crying a little.

"See!" Penelope chirps and they both nearly jump out of their skin. "Told you."

"Yes, yes," Odysseus gripes, Athena scowling up at her grumpily. Penelope smiles wider and he feels them both soften grudgingly, Athena sighing as Odysseus pulls Penelope down to kiss her. "You were right."

"Hm," Penelope preens, rolling closer to both of them and throwing an arm over Athena's lower back. The goddess looks at her narrowly, and she grins back.

Athena huffs in acceptance and closes her eyes, shifting minutely to allow Penelope to stroke up and down her back curiously, playing with the feathers at the nape of her neck. Penelope's going to try kissing her tomorrow, she wearily thinks.

"You didn't win that round, by the way," She says suddenly and Penelope snorts.

Odysseus makes a loud noise of offense. "Of course I did-"

[made-my-peace-with-all-the-bad]

Oh nothing, just the Curtis brothers all being cursed to love a boy they can never have a happy ending with

[agentc0rn]

🏮Happy 1st anniversary teal mask!! 🏮Thank you for the many cool memories, awesome mons and characters that we met along the way! Ogerpon the iconic 🙌 I’ve met many cool people on here through shared interests in the story, expressed in many fun arrays of art, writing, memes and etc.

[soundslivemagazine]

The music industry has a funding problem

Earlier this month, Newcastle-based indie singersongwriter Sam Fender released his fourth studio album, People Watching, and embarked on a week of media duties talking about what influenced the new album. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Fender talked about his working class upbringing, and how difficult it was for an artist without a moneyed background to make it in the music industry today.

Sam Fender. Hannah Victoria Kenyon for Strong Island.

“The music industry is 80 percent, 90 percent kids who are privately educated,” he said. “A kid from where I’m from [North Shields, Newcastle, UK] can’t afford to tour, so there are probably thousands writing songs that are ten times better than mine, poignant lyrics about the country, but they will not be seen because it’s rigged.”

It was like a lit match to tinder. Many artists spoke up confirming that they were currently facing challenges staying afloat in the music industry despite hitting many of the milestones that traditionally looked like success in the music industry. Many talked about how funds were the main things separating them from their peers who had ‘made it’. Many others have talked about how money has hindered them from taking steps that would greatly advance their music careers.

Beloved artists like Little Simz and Rachel Chinouriri have over the last few years had to cancel international tours that would never add up for an independent artist without the backing of a major label, or great personal expenses. Songwriter Kate Nash, who was in the news recently for turning to OnlyFans to sell pictures of her arse to fund her upcoming tour in a campaign she called ‘Butts For Tour Buses’, estimated that the production cost of each show she puts on a single night, costs her about $10,000. A cost even half of that would be devastating to a kid starting out in music with no savings.

Little Simz. Dave J. Hogan/Getty Images

There is another aspect to this discussion. Last week, British indie songwriter Ellie Dixon was asked on her social media about the phrase ‘industry plant’, a highly contentious word meant to indicate that an artist has not authentically reached the level of success they are at, and instead owe it all to some undisclosed industry connections that were allowing them access to avenues of career growth unfairly.

On surface level, this would seem to be something that only adds to the woes of independent, hard-working musicians, once again locked out of opportunities that should’ve rightfully been theirs if only some golden child with the right connections hadn’t swooped in and snatched their livelihood right out of their hands. In reality, who and what this ‘industry plant’ really is, is less clear. Often, it is used as a catch-all phrase to indicate that you don’t think someone deserves the plaudits they are receiving. But whether or not a certain kind of music is inherently deserving of success or not can only ever be a matter of subjective taste, and so something as concrete as having insider connections, becomes a matter of opinion where stylistic preferences become equated with worth, and the word loses all meaning.

Rolling Stone magazine, in a recent article defending the rising rap star Doechii, wrote a good piece about how the phrase is being misused to discredit artists who have put in all the work themselves over the years, only to be unfairly torn down by people’s fundamental misunderstanding of the phrase.

Doechii receives her Grammy for Best Rap Album. Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for The Recording Academy.

Money in music is a really important conversation to have, namely in that it is simply not possible to sustain a career in this (or any) industry without it, and that artists, the backbone of the industry, have seen increasingly diminishing returns on it. We find ourselves returning to the music industry of old, where as rents go up and incomes for independent artists dry up, many musicians find that it makes sense for them to rely on traditional record label deals.

This has been enough for many people to start lobbing the accusations of ‘industry plant’, somehow mistaking having a label put any investment into an artist as some sort of insideous and undeserved, unfair advantage, as if the music industry was exclusively meant to be run from bedrooms of one and from behind YouTube and TikTok accounts.

If anything, artist development is only a recently neglected area by labels, opting to let artists themselves be the creators, marketers, publicists, cinematographers, bookers, promoters, merch and poster graphic designers and much more, all on that lucrative label budget of $0.00.

Who can afford to do all that? An artist that can either afford not to have a full-time job outside of their self-employed music career, or someone who can afford to pay others.

Which brings me back to the discussion about wealth in music. Sam Fender was completely right when he spoke out about how hard it is for working class artists to break through. The Dublin-based singer CMAT (incidentally, on tour supporting Fender at the moment) talked about how she wanted to write a guide on how working class musicians can make it in this treacherous industry, because to realise that everyone living your dream is doing it on the back of wealth you can never cough up is quite demotivating. Working class artists slog for a decade before being recognised at the level that the backing of a label could achieve in a year, there is no hiding from this. (Also, CMAT only half-jokingly said this but she is right: rich kid music also just lacks bite. There’s an urgency and potency to working class music that genuinely holds up a mirror to society that an artist who doesn’t have to face every aspect of the world sometimes simply cannot put into words in the same way. It is absolutely crucial that we do not lose working class voices in art.)

CMAT live. Sean McMahon

So really, we need to focus less on tearing down working class artists with unfounded accusations of being ‘industry plants’, something that also seems to disproportionately be levelled at women, musicians of colour, queer artists and other marginalised communities by men who cannot understand their success, and we must focus more on preserving the funding and pathway programmes that have historically tried to place working class artists on the same footing as richer artists.

The problem with the music industry isn’t so-called industry plants— it’s that funding in music stays at the top while grassroots artists suffer. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek is reportedly worth 7.5 billion USD, while Canada has lost 15% of its small music venues since the beginning of 2020. The UK, where the Music Venue Trust keeps clearer track of the state of grassroots music venues, reports that the UK loses a grassroots venue every two weeks currently. When burgeoning young talent don’t have the venues to hone their talent, make their mistakes and develop their sound and stage presence, future stars are lost forever, working class or otherwise.

So good on Sam Fender. Himself a working class kid, he’s done something good for working class musicians everywhere even just by starting this important conversation with a platform as large as he has built for himself.

[wassupmygays]

godddd johnny in school is that kid who sleeps through every class because he doesnt get good sleep the night before. whether its because of the screaming and general danger in his house or hes out in the lot or trying to convince himself he's safe on one of the gang's couches. the teachers gave up on him a while ago, he learns everything too slowly for them to care about helping him out by now. so he might as well take advantage of a 'safe' place to sleep.

if he were in a modern school system his teachers wouldve been taught to watch out for kids like him; to think about why they might be so tired and to try and make sure their home life is okay. and theyd find out it really wasnt, and maybe hed get helped out. maybe hed get resources to learn better and hed actually get more out of school than a nap.

but hes not in a modern day system with teachers trained to look out for kids like him. so he'll learn which teachers wont bother waking him up with a smack on his desk, and he'll sleep through school because god is he tired

[millionsknives]

one of the kids i tutor is this very quiet, strait-laced football-and-cars 8th grader, and he's a little out of my wheelhouse because most of my experience is with k5 kids but i've been tutoring this kid for about four weeks and he was so reserved and stiff and quiet our first meeting i think all he ever said was 'yes ma'am' the entire lesson. and i know he's only here because his parents signed him up for writing lessons but i am so desperately scheming to get him to have fun and take interest and feel like its worth his time, like bro we gon get you something out of these lessons and get some of your personality and interests to show. but i have to be tricky about it. i had to think of something fun and cool disguised as something practical and useful because he's not going to want to engage with any of the silly things we use to motivate the younger kids. so at the end of our first day i asked him if he wanted to start developing a signature. and that was the first spark of interest i ever saw out of him, just the smallest crumbs of life in his eyes, so i've started teaching him cursive off-the-books and when we worked on writing his name today he was very moderately enthused but for him that's basically the equivalent of jumping up and down and it makes me SO happy to see my evil plan working

[saltfics]

Okay I know tumblr is treating EPIC as if it cleared their skin and watered their crops and I genuinely really really like it the music is excellent but I gotta say this:

I HATE the way it's presenting odysseus' arc and flaws with polyphemus. Like the problem wasn't that he was too NICE?? Where did that come from? The problem was that odysseus was a cocky lil shit and even though he had managed to get away with the nobody trick he went like "actually you got your ass beat by odysseus lol loser". Hybris-nemesis-catharsis is homer 101 and I'm SO annoyed that an entire generation of teenagers is getting this interpretation of the text. A hero giving in to being the "monster" and losing his kindness is a great arc but there are 700 other heroes you could have done that with - not odysseus.

On the other hand, how catchy is Ruthlessness, amirite?