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missanthropicprinciple · 3 years

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A Tale of Elio and My Fixation with Lovable Androids

TL;DR Feel free to scroll past this unless you’re keen to read my ramblings about androids, Neoclassical art, children’s lit, and bad science fiction movies.

Since the late 1990s one of my favourite books has been A Tale of Time City (1989) by Diana Wynne Jones. It’s a mildly confusing story but engaging, with memorable characters, including the android Elio, pictured above - my own fan art from a few years ago. Studio Ghibli really needs to make this film if no one does a live-action version, seeing as they brought Jones’ novel Howl’s Moving Castle to life. Here’s a scan of my favourite edition with mesmerizing cover art by Richard Bober.

This book inspired me so much I’ve done research on it. I wasn’t in a class in grad school that allowed me to write about it so I took it on as a casual independent project in 2019. Two days after my dad died of cancer I was scheduled to present my paper on Elio from ATOTC. Needless to say I was not able to finish writing the essay. I told the department coordinator I would likely not attend but I would let him know. He was seriously surprised that I showed up. I must have looked like a ghost - wearing a nice top, skirt, tights, and short heels. I was still in total shock but I thought I might as well press on. My paper’s working tile remains as it was: Elio: Android Autonomy and the Personification of the Sun God. I presented a long bullet point list of working ideas and research done up until that point. My work is still on the broad side because it’s an intersection of young adult fiction, Neoclassic art, and android autonomy; I have some narrowing to do. Here are my main arguments thus far:

Firstly, the android character Elio’s physical characteristics and personality are inspired by Helios, the Hellenistic Greek god and personification of the sun. Apparently, Elio is a Spanish name meaning sun and also an Italian given name referring to the element helium, originally derived from the Greek name of the sun-god Helios.

Secondly, Elio and Helios share more than an etymological connection and the comparison of Elio to Helios can be articulated in two distinct ways: the aesthetic comparison, and that Elio possesses some of the qualities Helios is known for. Jones’ work repeatedly associates Elio with sunlight and golden hues, aspects which are exemplified in the 1765 Neoclassical painting Helios as the Personification of Midday by Anton Raphael Mengs. (I vaguely remember translating a couple passages from a large art book written in German when I was studying Neoclassical art.)

This work is considered an unusual depiction of Helios. Mengs uses a motif of the glowing arrow which is interpreted by François-Xavier Fabre as a symbol of the midday heat and the sun's rays which penetrate and give light to the earth. The representation of the sun in this way is considered unusual for the 18th century because it goes against Classical and Baroque iconography which portrays Helios riding a chariot. Ironically, Jones references this. Elio proclaims his fondness for films, particularly the chariot race from Ben Hur. Elio, like Mengs’ depiction of Helios, lacks a chariot but retains his beauty and powers.

As for Elio possessing some of the qualities of Helios, the god is often referred to as “all seeing” or “Zeus’s eye.” Similarly, Elio has the ability to anticipate problems and see what humans do not, but not because he’s a god, but because he’s a servant. However, this is where his self governing comes into play when he uses his observations to take action beyond any directives he has been given. His physical strength, like Helios, exceeds that of humans. Elio himself says, “my utmost is more than twice that of a born-human” (Jones, 211).

Thirdly, Elio’s self awareness allows him to use both his powers of observation and superior physical strength independent from humans. He does not always wait to be told how to use his power; he wields it. Not only does he play a part equal to that of humans in Jones’ plot, he specifically controls the fates of certain human characters. For example, he doesn’t always utilize his speed when he’s at the beck and call of his master, Sempitern. He makes choices not to fully comply with the demands made of him.

My fourth point, which I can’t quite articulate well, is that the most significant dynamic of this comparison is the body of Elio and how his physicality interacts with his autonomy. Elio acts as an individual who contributes to a wider mythology just as Helios does. Yet, while Elio is superior to humans in many ways, his quasi-humanity allows him to act in ways which align with Helios’ qualities.

For example, Elio makes personal choices and exhibits emotions not necessary for him, as an android, to function. He confesses a desire to harm another android out of annoyance where a passionate opinion would not be expected from an android. This human failing is indicative of the same autonomy which allows him to act as Helios does. Elio has been constructed as a superhuman body in terms of his abilities, however, the human qualities which contribute to his Helios-like powers undermine his intended purpose.

Ultimately, Elio ascends the usefulness of his “owned” body by acting independently from the humans who utilize him. His human qualities make him vulnerable and therefore he loses some of his godlike powers. Elio, while only an assistant to his human owners, utilizes his own physical and mental powers to maintain his autonomy. Conversely, his god-like qualities make Elio more human rather than affirming his android identity.

This is a very complex subject and I don’t really know where I’m going with it and have possibly made some suppositional errors. TL;DR: What I do know is that Elio presents a paradox: being idealized for his abilities allows him to be autonomous while being autonomous disrupts the servitude of his body.

I am in the process of determining what lens I will use to analyze Elio’s experience and functionality of being an android. I’m thinking about using Alan Turning’s 1950 work Computing Machinery and Intelligence. I’m still navigating the literary theory aspect, or indeed philosophical aspect, of this area of study.

This brings me to something I came across later that relates to Elio and ATOTC.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The closest depiction of an android that I’ve seen to Elio other than Data is from a terrible and somewhat forgotten science fiction film from 1989. “Byron”, (played by pre-Jurassic Park-fame Bob Peck) the android in the painfully awful film Slipstream comes very close to Elio in terms of tone, attitude, and characterization. Despite the embarrassingly bad script and dialogue, Peck does a bang-up job, seemingly acting in a wonderful film running parallel to the absolute trash his co-stars were apparently “acting” in. Yes, I rewatched this film just to write this analysis. (The secondhand embarrassment is off the charts and I had it playing at a low volume most of the time Byron was not on the screen.)

When you first see Byron he’s acting out autonomy but you’re not aware he’s an android. The audience is told he’s an escaped fugitive, a murderer, and that’s all we know for over half the film. Yet there are several clues. When you first see him he’s running over rugged terrain in a suit which was kind of a big hint but nothing makes sense in this film so I just thought that it was a weird costume choice. Then he’s literally shot with a grappling hook. He doesn’t seem to be in pain even though he’s shocked by it, and then is pulled down by a bounty hunter named Tasker (Mark Hamill) and hits the ground from a great height and doesn’t die. He just quotes what I think is John Gillespie Magee, Jr.’s "High Flight”: “I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth….and touched the face of God.” Next time you see him, he’s in handcuffs, looking super depressed, and apparently not bleeding out from the now absent grapple hook that’s gone through his forearm.

He eventually quotes Lord Byron to cryptically indicate his name which is lost on Bill Paxton’s character, Matt. “Byron” essentially means cowshed. It’s ironic because Byron the android is in many ways a receptacle of knowledge. Matt even says sarcastically, “Well aren’t you a walking storeroom of information,” and Byron responds cheerfully, “Yes.”

Byron breaks out of his handcuffs saying they’d “become rather superfluous.” You think he’s just showing off but once you know he’s an android you know he’s just honest all the time. He then heals a blind child and paraphrases Psalm 127:3. Matt says, “I didn’t know you were a healer.” Apparently Byron can perform cataract surgery in less than five minutes. Along their journey together (Bill is set on collecting the bounty on Byron’s head before Tasker can catch up) they camp out. Byron sleeps with his eyes open. (Even if he is an android wouldn’t his eyes need to be “cleaned” in the same way humans need to close our eyes and blink?) Matt wakes up to find Byron seemingly strangling him. “I was feeling your carotid pulse,” he explains. “I was just checking for arrhythmia and episodes of ventricular tachycardia.” At this point you realize he’s not so much a spiritual healer as a doctor who philosophizes a lot.

Byron’s miraculous behavior and pontificating is called into question by a nomadic spiritual community which has been torn apart by an attack on their village. As he lays dying, Ben Kingsley’s character calls Byron a “false prophet” but his faith in this stranger is somewhat restored when he says, “all that will be left of me is bits of gold in the sand. You have a soul, do not abandon it in death.”

Another character says, “The stranger is no mortal man.” Therefore it is clear that Byron likely isn’t human. We don’t find out he’s an android until 46 minutes into the film. Once that’s cleared up, other concepts arise in the script. While not well executed, they are really interesting; emotion both positive and negative, free will, perfection, A.I. slavery, and murder are all addressed throughout the second half of the film. Byron says he doesn’t understand “hate” in context of his “master” to whom he was nurse, brother, father, mentor, and friend, but he admits he was more of a slave than anything else.

The character Ariel takes an interest in him for a variety of reasons, especially romantically. In one very evocative moment we see Byron in a museum exhibit, a false garden of Eden, full of fake vegetation and taxidermies, full body mounts. So we’ve got an android having an Adam experience. Whether or not he experiences “original sin” with Ariel or if he’s “fully functional” is never acknowledged. Although one woman says, “Amanda slept with a robot?!” (who the f**k is Amanda?!) and a man says to another sitting next to him, “I hear they’re rather mechanical in the saddle.”

Byron is less concerned with consummation and more excited about love, sleep, and dreaming. When he is with Ariel he doesn’t quite know how to act in terms of sexual play and then apologizes: “I’m not accustomed to being loved.” We see him closing his eyes when he’s cuddled up with Ariel; the next day he is certainly very pleased that he fell asleep with his eyes closed and had a dream.

In terms of his servitude and autonomy they did not spend an adequate portion of the exposition on it. Matt has a change of heart and says instead of collecting the bounty, he’ll set him free as it’s briefly revealed that Byron killed his “master” upon the man’s request. Naturally, this brings up a lot of confusing feelings for Byron. “Is this what it’s like to be human? I don’t think I’m up to it,” he says. “Can I be trusted with human feelings?” And in a way he cannot. Ariel is brutally shot by Tasker.

Byron is angered over Ariel’s death and follows the bounty hunter to his ship. Instead of taking him in to collect a reward, Tasker tries to run him down with the glider plane. Byron manages to get himself caught in the engine and starts to strangle his assailant. Tasker quotes “touched the face of god” which brings Byron to his senses and he stops killing Luke Skywalker Tasker and tries to save the plane. It looks like he’s going to hot-wire it but then uses the wires like reins (chariot imagery???). They crash into the side of a mountain slope. Tasker dies but Byron survives. Apparently he’s basically indestructible and somewhat godlike. “I’m too dangerous to be human,” Byron tells Matt. In the end, he goes off in search of the place he’d been dreaming about.

Although in terms of physical appearance the two androids are vastly different, they have so much in common. Here are some basic concepts.

Character: Both are stoic, formal, intelligent, honest

Indestructible: Byron is injured with a grappling hook, takes a major fall of about 20 or 30 feet without a scratch: he is somewhat godlike or slave-like, meant to withstand destruction and pain. Elio is less indestructible but easily repaired.

Healer: Byron has the skills to heal people with basic surgery. Elio doesn’t take his own injuries seriously and experiences pain for the first time (Jones, 218-9).

Both think they deserve to be punished: Elio states this quite clearly (Jones, 276) and Byron says the same thing about himself with resigned passivity.

Complex relationship with “human emotions”: Both come to terms with violence, anger, and love.

Autonomy: At the end of the film Byron goes off on his own to look for a promised land. Elio decides his own fate by deciding to accompany the children of the story, stating that Vivian is a “particular favorite” of his (278).

Dreaming and stories: Byron is searching for a place, “where I think I belong,” he says, which is a place he often thinks and dreams about. Dreaming is considered to be a human attribute, a non-essential bi-product to consciousness. Elio enjoys stories and old films (Jones, 180), similarly “human” in nature.

(Peck, seen here waiting for Bill Paxton to learn how to act. Sorry, I’m salty.)

Disclaimer: This is a work in progress! This project is an intersection of niche subjects that interest no one but myself.

Anyway, my point is (yes, I did have a point...or rather several) was that if anyone should adapt A Tale of Time City, Byron from Slipstream is the best example of how Elio should be portrayed in terms of characterization. I feel that Slipstream should have been centered around Byron. The film was kind of like, just about the “we’re both fighting over the bounty of this fugitive” sorta thing. It would have made more sense to focus on Byron as he is arguably the most interesting character and represents many of the conflicts within the story. I would like to combine my research on ATOTC and Slipstream one day. In any case, this is a good start.

Works Cited (WIP)

Jones, Diana W. A Tale of Time City: Knopf, 1987. Print. Perkowitz, Sidney. Digital People: From Bionic Humans to Androids. Washington, D.C: Joseph Henry Press, 2004. Print.

Roettgen, Steffi, and Anton R. Mengs. Anton Raphael Mengs: 1728-1779 Part 2. München: Hirmer, 1999. Print.

Turing, A. M. “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” Mind, vol. 59, no. 236, 1950, pp. 433–460. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/2251299. Wilson, Eric. The Melancholy Android: On the Psychology of Sacred Machines. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2006. Print

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cosmicgrapevine · 2 years

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Nine Clans There Were; Nine There Shall E’er Be, Until The Day We Reunite.

Part of the reason I have been reticent to invest too much time and energy into lore for my demons (The name I’m going with now is ‘Mire’. Half-Mire, Full-Mire, etc.) is that they are not ultimately the star of the show. They’re more like Mooks or Starter Villains, in TVTropes parlance. The real heavies, not all of whom are villainous, are going to come from what is, for all practical purposes, the Wild Hunt.

In story, these guys are not going to be revealed until the middle of the first book or so; even experienced magic users and the like doubt they even exist; there’s only about 700 of them total, they’re scattered to the four winds, and are exceedingly hard to track down. But as the story progresses, their ultimate goals will become clearer.

Similarities with the classic version include

1) They hunt people and do not stop until their quarry is caught. They were created for this purpose, in fact.

2) They are a mobile, wandering breed by nature,

3) They’re humanoid in appearance, but are possessed of an elfin/fairy-like morality where things like oaths, rites, and revenge take precedence over human constructs like civility and law,

4) to “Join the hunt” is a very serious undertaking and a lifelong commitment,

5) the only true way to leave the hunt is to die.

6) their ‘aesthetic’ is mostly European/Germanic, but with Middle Eastern, Indian, and Central Asian elements mixed in (after all, those groups do have a lot in common in terms of lineage, if you go far back enough).

So I think I’m justified in using the basic motif.

The biggest difference at the jump is that the Hunt was originally made up of humans, empowered by a demigod from another world named Tiyazu. Tiyazu escaped a disaster of cosmic proportions to flee to Earth around the 5th Millenium BC and, with his dying breath, turned a number of humans into these demigod-like beings in order to carry on his legacy and, eventually, resurrect him.

These beings, individually called Wildlings or Hunters, have various important traits:

1) They do not age physically and will not die of old age, with some sort of general ‘eternal health’ kludge so that they don’t all die of cancer simply due to being around too long.

2) They’re incapable of having children. If biological sterility isn’t enough, or conflicts with rule 1 somehow, I can throw in some magic explanation or another.

3) Those both said, they are still biological in nature and can e.g. starve to death if they let themselves.

4) They can also die in combat. Indeed the only way to join the Hunt is to replace someone who’s already in it, typically by killing them. This happens whether the killer wants to or not; whether they’ve been tracking down a Wildling for years to kill and replace them, or if they have no idea what the Hunt is and managed to kill one accidentally or in self-defense.

4a) If a Wildling wants to take the peaceful way out, they can select an heir in advance and then commit suicide. They can also commit suicide without selecting an heir but this is an unthinkable taboo in their culture.

4b) If a Wildling dies accidentally, then the heirship moves to the physically-closest human (or something close enough) at the time of death.

The key thing to remember though is that Tiyazu and his ‘children’ like mankind. In fact, (and this is a whole other Thing of background lore) Earth and humankind are considered something of a crowning achievement in the greater cosmos, due to the foresight of our own Creator (God, but in that pantheistic kinda way). Most universes are far less safe and stable than ours, and all the various beings who want a piece of that make up most of the cosmic-scale conflicts in the background.

But what it amounts to is that Tiyazu wanted to protect mankind, not just fuck with it, let alone destroy it, and while the Hunt can be terrifying from a ground-level perspective, they keep (or at least claim to keep) our interests as a species at heart. To wit, there are nine Clans that Tiyazu created, each with its own powers, each charged with hunting a different kind of human, so that no one kind gains too much power over the world.

The nine clans, in rough descending order of strength, are Ash, Oak, Elm, Birch, Maple, Sumac, Cedar, Alder, and Willow.

The Ash Clan is associated with nature and wilderness, hunting those who seek to destroy it. Their unique power is the ability to summon an animal familiar, usually a giant and nigh-invincible one. They have long been the top dog in the Hunt, the personal favorite of Tiyazu and their Clan Lord the one who absorbed by far the most of his divine power. Lind is in this clan, his familiar (revealed within a few chapters) is a giant crow.

The Oak Clan is associated with technology and civilization, hunting those who seek to destroy it. Their unique power is chemical alchemy. Think FMA-style ‘raw material into functional machine within seconds’ and that’s the bulk of it. Historically they were a weak clan, mostly around to make sure the Ashes didn’t plunge us back into the stone age, but have grown in power and influence as their area of expertise has. Melanie will join this clan eventually.

The Elm Clan seeks and trains potential heroes and adventurers. Their unique power is access to the Dream World, where the laws of reality are looser but also safer; a great place for Hero Training in other words! Due to the nature of their work, they tend to be noble and broadly goodhearted, but also demanding and fickle. Tabby finds herself in this clan sooner or later.

The Birch Clan hunts and punishes true evil; murderers, rapists, abusers, tyrants, etc. Their unique power is trapping victims in the Nightmare World, which is exactly what it sounds like. An important function, but one that leads them to generally be vicious and unsettling, if not outright ‘he who fights monsters’ terrifying. Two major characters, both as yet un-introduced here, are found in this clan.

The Sumac Clan is for hedonists and libertines. They consider the pursuit of the individual desire to be the highest calling, and hunt those who seek to curtail it. Their unique power is using Black Water, reserved for the aforementioned victims, which makes those people slaves to their own repressed or forbidden desires. This clan has been infiltrated by the demons I mentioned earlier, who are combining their own possessive ability with Dark Water to terrifying effect. The Demon Boss (“‘King’? What am I, French?!”) is high up in this clan, but it is the Clan Lord who let him in and is now pulling his strings, and their mutual villainy makes up the first arc.

The Maple Clan is for ascetics and moralists, hunting down the debauched and libertine. Their counterpart to Black Water is White Fire, which turns the sinful into paragons of self-control and clean living, while also making them nervous wrecks about that, usually ending up dead or insane. While no clans are exactly friendly with each other, the Sumacs and Maples deeply despise each other, and their current spat is the first major arc involving the Hunt. Their cruel Clan Lord takes on the guise of a ‘motivational’ speaker/celebrity psychiatrist* and does the ‘Foolish mortals, you need a strong leader’ thing in the second arc.

(*-A million jabs I could take here. Question is picking just one.)

The Cedar Clan, on the other hand, is simple. They love fighting and strength for its own sake, like a whole mini-army of Shonen protagonists. They hunt down the physically strong and challenge them to fights and feats of strength, which they tend to win...convincingly. Their power is an inherent force multiplier to their melee attacks. Something something qi, something energy field. Still working on this one, clearly.

The Alder Clan is the Cedars’ counterpart, and they seek wisdom and arcane truth just as vociferously. Instead of sparring, they match their quarries in games of wits and logic, with their spoils often being wisdom or knowledge scooped right out of the victim’s head and not replaced. Their power is nothing less than an intra-clan telepathic network, the limits and features of which as still being worked out. While a few important side characters are both Cedars and Alders, they never really get a moment in the sun like the others. But hey 9 is pagan, 7 is Judeo-Christian, I don’t make the rules, and someone has to be Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

The Willow Clan was listed here as the weakest, but in some ways, they’re the strongest of all. They are peacemakers and diplomats, adjudicating disputes to the best of their ability and maintaining neutral zones where violence is impossible, the way it can only be with magic. Their power is Reflection: any attack attempted on them, the consequences will be suffered by the attacker. However, this applies equally to Willows: hurt others physically, suffer mirrored consequences. The Clan Lord, a kindly old chap able to heal any affliction, medical or magical (for a price), features heavily in a few key moments.

Every Clan has a Lord, who is as far above them as they are above the average human. But this post is long enough and I have some ArtBreeder to do, so they shall be known later.

#writing #worldbuilding #the hunt #the wild hunt #the nine clans #tiyazu

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windstormwielding · 3 years

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How did you come up with Kotaro's zanpakuto? (i really love the bird theme of his attacks!) did you go through a lot of changes when coming up with names, abilities, and the general concept?

{ ooc } bUCKLE UP KIDDOS ‘CAUSE IT’S TIME FOR SOME LONG OVERDUE GODDAMNED KŌTA META-

Kōta’s zanpakutō was essentially conceived out of my own love for great big storms and heavy winds – and yes, I have a story to go with that! On one occasion many years ago, I hopped on a bus to visit a friend in town, but I was ill-prepared in that it was about to rain heavily and I had jack shit but a jacket. No raincoat and not even an umbrella. I thought I would make it there on time, buuuuut evidently, I did not. It already started raining and thundering hard by the time I walked out of the bus and had to walk a few blocks by myself.

And honestly, Plouton, looking back? I would not have changed a single little detail that day. Those several minutes I spent outside at the mercy of a live thunderstorm left such a huge impression on me! The incessant rain keeping me tethered to the ground, the sheer volume of deafening thunder cracking so hard and so loudly that the air around me quaked... pair that with times I’ve enjoyed feeling myself at the mercy of heavy winds, or even the smell of the outside after rain falls...

...pretty much all of that served as the biggest source of inspiration behind the wind and storm-oriented zanpakutō, and I wanted Kōta to embody that himself.

Besides, aside from Senna herself in Memories of Nobody, the Gotei 13 lacked a dedicated air-manipulating shinigami barring Kensei’s unique take on the topic with Tachikaze, and we’ve only seen antagonists use this power (Dordoni of the Arrancar within the main story, Kariya if you want to go filler with the Bounts... whom I’ve honestly forgotten about prior to creating Kōta WHOOPS) in the traditional sense. Not to mention, air as an element is SUPER malleable and there’s so much you can do with it if you get creative?? So, given we’ve got some real powerful element-leaning shinigami already with water (lbr Kaien would’ve been a beast had he not been nixed), fire (Yama), snow (Tosh), and electricity (Sasakibe), why not keep adding to the idea?

With that, we’ve got the main concept locked down. Powers and general theme? Check. Bird-like zanpakutō spirit? Check. Defined attacks? ...noooooot quite there yet—in fact, those were a fairly late addition well after the blog reboot. As for what led to it, this never took off since the other mun blipped on an indefinite hiatus, but our thread would have likely turned into a fight thread between our muses and uh...

...yeah, I realized named techniques are kind of an important thing to have, especially when writing within the context of an action-oriented series like Bleach. It wasn’t just about the cool factor, but having a readily available kit for reference (for myself, my writing partners, and folks reading in) was a must, not to mention it helped better define just what his main friggin’ weapon is capable of like those of most of the existing cast. In case a fight thread does come around in the future, it’d be an ideal thing to have ready to go and bring him further up to par with other fighters!

Just like that, I subjected myself to extra homework. Coming up with the moves themselves came to me simply enough, in seeing how air was played with in other media I was familiar with (key ones being Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, and Avatar: The Last Airbender) and fashioning some of my own spins on top of some original ideas. I knew I wanted to lean hard on the bird motif since his zan spirit is a tengu, and given the wide variety of things the element of air/wind can do, I thought to make full connections between the two by theming each special move after certain species of bird! Creating those moves and naming them were the easy parts.

Naming them, that is, in English. Naming them all in Japanese was, by far, the hardest part. Why? Parce que je ne suis pas japonais, et aussi parce que je ne parle pas la langue, you see. On top of language barriers, the Japanese tongue operates on a whole other set of rules, compared to the Latin/Germanic-based ones I’ve grown used to with English, French, and (at one point) German. I did take some Japanese classes as an elective back in university, but that was only in first year – my own understanding, as a result, was threadbare and surface level at best, so that was not going to get me anywhere. I did not want to half-ass it with romaji and I love Bleach too much to not want to do these ideas justice.

I am a stickler when it comes to detail and canon-compliance, so getting the naming right by abiding to the proper conventions as best as I possibly could became my topmost priority. Google Translate was not going to fly because lord knows it’s no good without proper context between wholly different languages in English and Japanese, and it only gets wilder once you throw Chinese into the mix, given I’m supposed to use kanji. Thus, the name of the game here turned out to be “reverse engineering,” and I had to go in accepting I probably wasn’t going to get it 100% right the first time.

“What rules do zanpakutō names and special attack names follow?” “How do I apply on- or kun-reading in spelling out a group of certain kanji?” “Where are the common denominators in those rules that I can identify?” “Which language conventions have I already picked up from watching god knows how much anime over the years that I can replicate?” “Which set of words best conveys this particular English word that has no direct Japanese translation?” “How does [x] roll off the tongue? Does it sound right and fluid enough, or does it still feel super stilted and weird?” It was a loooooooot of this until I was finally satisfied with each individual end result!

Tl;dr: Jisho.org and Wikipedia were godsends during this whole process. I also want to thank @tigrextoque who gave me some helpful pointers after the fact!

ALSO... the ones on the Battle Info page aren’t even all of the ones I’ve thought about. Because I’m a glutton for punishment apparently, I purposely went and submitted a request for a certain ask meme on an ask meme source blog, JUST so I could play around with more ideas that came or would come to mind. This time, however, it was through the form of COMBINATION ATTACKS (which, by virtue alone, are honestly peak awesomeness). Those that implicated other shinigami got new bird motifs to meld the aesthetics of both muses, while I did get a couple of Quincy ones (with their referenced attacks actually using romaji as a base! Whoo-hoo for saving me the effort!) as a bonus to mix things up!

I’ll link them all right here (and later on the Battle Info page) for your convenience:

Noboru no mai, Shiro Fukurō (騰の舞・白梟, Rising Dance, Snowy Owl), with Rukia Kuchiki

Ahōdori Kyōka: Flying Battery (群烏強化: フライングバッテリー, Albatross Strengthening: Flying Battery) with Bambietta Basterbine

Muragarasu Kyōka: Galvano Volley (群烏強化: ガルヴァノボレー, Flock of Crows Strengthening: Galvano Volley), plus upgraded variant Muragarasu Kyōka: Galvano Storm (群烏強化: ガルヴァノストーム, Flock of Crows Strengthening: Galvano Storm), with Candice Catnipp

Hagetaka Rinbu (禿鷹輪舞, Vulture Round Dance) with Rangiku Matsumoto

Senkō-fū: Kitsutsuki (穿孔風: 啄木鳥, Drilling Wind: Woodpecker) with Nemu Kurotsuchi

Gyaku-fū Fūsa: Benizuru (逆風封鎖: 紅鶴, Headwind Blockade: Flamingo) with Byakuya Kuchiki

Hikuidori Hinshō (火食鳥頻傷, Cassowary Frequent Cuts) with Ueno Chie

Yes, “Flying Battery” was a deliberately written Sonic the Hedgehog reference. No, I will never apologize for that.

...might I reblog that meme again in the future though...?

...probably not right away.

So, uh... Plou, I should probably apologize for giving you a lot more than you likely bargained for, but hey, I just didn’t want to leave any stone unturned! Thank you so much for sending me your three questions, I enjoyed writing these little deep dives into my Bleach OC, and thanks for taking interest in Kōta! I hope all of my responses have been both enlightening and to your satisfaction.

#deivorous #{ i’m falling free in the wind ☁ headcanon ☁ }#{ cut for length }#{ whispers in the wind ☁ replies ☁ }#{ beyond the sky ☁ ooc ☁ }#{ ooc: we hope to return to our regular programming tomorrow-! }#{ i just could not focus much until i answered all of these hahahaha- }

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meta-squash · 3 years

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Brick Club 1.3.2 “Double Quartet”

According to wikipedia, a double quartet is a musical composition made for eight voices or instruments, or made up of two string quartets, that are often written in a call-and-response style. Also, I’m not quite sure if this is relevant, but wikipedia specifically mentions German composer Louis Spohr in the section on double quartets. Spohr wrote an opera in 1816 called Faust (which was drastically different from Goethe’s plays), to which wikipedia gives this synopsis:

Faust is torn between his love for the young Röschen and his desire for Kunigunde, the fiancée of Count Hugo. He makes a pact with the devil Mefistofeles which allows him to rescue Kunigunde from the clutches of the evil knight Gulf. Faust obtains a love potion from the witch Sycorax which he gives to Kunigunde during her wedding celebrations. Outraged at the sudden passion his bride shows for Faust, Count Hugo challenges him to a duel. Faust kills Hugo and flees. Meanwhile, Faust's first love, Röschen, drowns herself in despair. Mefistofeles seizes Faust and drags him down to Hell.

Again, I don’t know if that is relevant, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. Especially considering the “lover flees, young woman is ruined” motif. I have no idea if it was popular or even known in France at the time, but it was part of the Romantic movement, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was part of Hugo’s repertoire.

But it’s interesting that Hugo names this chapter after a call-and-response style of music. This chapter specifically is set up that way: we get information on the women, and then the men. Their affairs later on seem to also line up with this call-and-response, at least until the end of the dinner, when one half of the strings drop away and the other four are left on their own.

I don’t know enough about the different areas of France, so I’m wondering if where the men are from is at all important?

Also, who is the “Oscar” Hugo is comparing the group to?

Hugo establishes the men as “insignificant,” which I think is actually quite significant. To the other grisettes, and probably most other grisettes in their circle, these men are (as Hugo explains) common little flings. So to make someone who is insignificant to most, significant to Fantine is an interesting move. Hugo kind of does this with all his characters, on a larger scale. Aside from Valjean and Enjolras, who are exceptional, most of his other characters seem to be relatively normal people who aren’t necessarily special in a big way. The fact that he decides to focus in on them is what makes them special. And yet here it’s Tholomyes’ insignificance that highlights how unusual Fantine’s attachment to him is.

“...and in their souls that flower of purity which in a woman survives the first fall”. I don’t really know what to make of this line considering how a paragraph later he seems to insinuate that all but Fantine have already “fallen” due to their many affairs. (Which he then softens by blaming society for the women’s problems.)

“Poverty and coquetry are fatal counselors; the one scolds, the other flatters, and the beautiful daughters of the people have both of them whispering in their ears, one on each side. Their ill-guarded souls listen. Thence their fall, and the stones that are cast at them. The are overwhelmed with the splendor of all that is immaculate and inaccessible. Alas! Was the Jungfrau ever hungry?”

Hugo referencing the fall of man here, although this time it seems like only the women are punished, and not the men. Also, another Faustian reference, this time Marlowe, with the “good angel and bad angel” imagery. More references to life choices and the whole concept of having two potential paths and choosing the “wrong one.” Like with Valjean’s original crime, Hugo seems to criticize this behavior here while simultaneously pointing out the way that society demonizes these women and hurts them. I’d love to know why he uses the German “Jungfrau” here instead of just saying “maiden” or “virgin.”

We get a lot of information on Favourite in this chapter, and not that much on the other girls. She’s the eldest at 23, born out of wedlock, and has her own home. I love that she’s like Jehan--adding an extra letter to her name for the fanciness of it. We basically get an illustration of her as the sort of “leader” of the group, with everyone else looking up to her. She’s then contrasted with Tholomyes, the men’s “leader,” who is also the eldest of his group, I assume. Favourite seems closer to Bahorel’s “laughing mistress” or Musichetta than the other three; aside from her mother barging in on her life and being a nuisance, she seems much more stable than any of the others, financially (she’s been to England!) and emotionally/socially (her friends all look up to her). (I think it’s interesting that she’s not paired with Tholomyes, who seems to be her masculine counterpart?)

Fantine is “wise” while the other women are “philosophical.” Also, Hapgood translates “sage” as “good” instead of wise, for some odd reason. It seems as though Fantine is wise in the same way that Valjean has that divine element of goodness that can be kindled and relit. It’s something that she is not necessarily aware of. I’m also wondering how Hugo defines “wise” vs “philosophical.” I’m guessing that wisdom is closer to intrinsic, instinctual knowledge, while philosophy is more thought out and pondered upon. (Perhaps these definitions are based on a popular philosophy at the time? If so I have no idea which one.)

In any case, part of what makes Fantine wise is her capacity to passionately and loyally love. Which I think is an interesting move, to praise someone’s social (and possibly emotional) naivete as wise, only for her to be completely ruined because of the person she’s devoted to. Her capacity to love is also the vulnerability that manipulative men see as a good opportunity to latch on to and use her.

This “wisdom” thing is also a weird call considering Fantine’s utter lack of pretense. The other three grisette’s go by fake names, have had a number of affairs and seem more playful than thoughtful when it comes to the affairs with this group of men. Fantine is just...Fantine, and she’s the youngest, and she hasn’t had the experience the other girls have had, and she’s about to make a huge mistake (rather, by this time she already has, and Cosette is an infant). Presumably the other three women learned somehow that their affairs were just affairs, why didn’t they clue Fantine in on this game? Later on we see Favourite thinking that Fantine is “putting on airs;” but she’s also the only one tu’d instead of vous’d and they all know she’s the baby. Are the other three just wrapped up in their own stuff and too preoccupied to think that maybe Fantine doesn’t realize this isn’t a real, permanent thing? Or is this a situation of three older girls being latched onto by a younger one who doesn’t really know what to do, and aren’t really a fan of the burden of being teacher? She’s been in Paris at least 4 years and yet she’s never had friends like these grisettes? I don’t exactly know the social mores of back then, but I assume that having friends then was similar to having friends now: gossip and talk about relationships and flings and one night stands. Interesting that she either never really learned by inference that this might be that, or that perhaps she just blindly assumes that this isn’t like that because this is real.

And here we get Fantine’s backstory, and her symbolism as the Universal Grisette. So many of Hugo’s characters that are blatant “universal” symbols are either orphans or abandoned quite early in life. And so many we get a certain period of their life, then a jump, then more. What happened between infant-Fantine being found and her working on a farm? Hugo does this time-jump with Valjean and the Thenardiers, and Marius, too. I think Fantine’s about 19 when we’re first introduced to her, if my math is correct? Hugo also foreshadows the sale of her teeth and hair here.

“Fantine was beautiful and remained pure as long as she could.” An interesting callback to a few paragraphs ago. Hugo seems to imply that the other girls gave in to those “whispers” quite quickly, while Fantine did not. Part of her purity, too, is her trust and devotion to Tholomyes; she’s not giving in to promiscuity or shallow affairs like the other three, she is genuinely in love.

The way Hugo uses beauty and ugliness is so interesting. “Beautiful” Fantine paired with “ugly” Tholomyes, as with Enjolras and Grantaire, and even to some extent Cosette and Eponine.

What stands out to me is Tholomyes and Grantaire both specifically being characterized as “doubting” and also described as ugly. Grantaire gets the actual word “ugly” while Tholomyes gets this horrible description (weirdly tempered by the fact of his humor and gaiety). I know that technically Courfeyrac is paralleled with Tholomyes, but I always seem to see more similarities between him and Grantaire. The difference being that Grantaire changes and Tholomyes does not. There also seem to be bits of each of Les Amis in Tholomyes (Grantaire’s doubt and ugliness, Bossuet’s irony, Bahorel’s age, Courfeyrac’s womanizing ways, Joly’s illness, etc) but all from the negative.

Tholomyes is described in a really awful way. That “he had a play refused at Vaudeville” and “doubted everything with an air of superiority” always has me reading him as this MRA type loser who thinks he’s better than everyone else and that that’s why people hate him. He’s charismatic, but in a slimeball sort of way. Hugo tempers Tholomyes’ awfulness with gaiety and then immediately turns around ruins that “but he was funny!” by telling us this awful prank.

Oh, and then Hugo stops to interrupt himself with a question about linguistics regarding the word “irony” and whether it’s based on the English word “iron,” like, the metal. Which...???? I don’t really know what to make of? Is he trying to say something here, because if he is, I don’t get it.

“Saint January” is Januarius, the patron saint of Naples, whose “miracle” is the annual liquefying of the phial of his blood. Apparently people gather to witness this annual miracle three times a year (as well as during things like papal visits). Interesting that Tholomyes compares his rather unpredictable and cruel “surprise” with the predictable, annual miracle of the blood liquefying. It makes me wonder whether this is not the first time he has done this (he is 30, after all, and I assume has had many affairs), just with a different group of friends.

We are just as in the dark about the surprise as the women are. Hugo does the same thing here that he often does with Valjean’s thoughts. He remains an outsider to the thoughts of any of the characters in the scene, and remains in a specific location within the scene, so when the characters leave, any following dialogue or action or thought is obscured from him as a narrator.

#les miserables #les miserables meta #brickclub #lm 1.3.2 #les mis #les mis meta #i started writing this at 2am instead of 4am! progress!#except then i went to sleep and finished it at 2:30pm the next day

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professorpski · 4 years

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Mary Thomas’s Book of Knitting Patterns, 1945 (originally

You know you’ve made your name in a field when your book titles include your name. Mary Thomas was an Englishwoman who wrote on the needle arts, starting with a book on embroidery and then books on knitting. Her books were published earlier in England and then republished in the US . She was also a magazine editor who worked especially on needlework.

I like her books because she believed in teaching principles. Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book which I blogged about earlier is about history and technique, and was published in 1938 in England. In both books, she is keen on teaching WHY certain knitting stitches and techniques do that they do. Which is why I like the section in this book on the effects of purl stitches and knit stitches as you see in the first two images. She shows you how rows purling which “take up” will create design elements in a sweater and a scarf. The sweater with its puffy sleeves was popular in the 1930s when emphasis moved upward and both sweaters and blouses tended to have more complex necklines, collars and sleeves than in the 1920s. Of course, that kind of use of purled welts would take some figuring to pull off. In contrast, the scarf example could be used today to make any scarf a bit more interesting without taxing the skills of a beginner.

I appreciate the telling photo of the exact same number of stitches on the exact same yarn and needles in order to demonstrate how ribs “take in” and narrow the fabric, while welts “take up” and shorten the fabric. It’s an image I thought of when I was trying to explain to another beginning knitter why a 1 Knit stitch to 3 Purl stitches ribbing pattern could not possibly have the same gauge as a plain stockinette of only Knit stitches made on the same needles with the same yarn.

I give you examples of both the style of charts and photos--you will notice she uses a slightly different set of chart symbols than today’s charts--and the clarity of the images included in the book. It covers everything you would like, cross motifs, eyelets, ladders, slip stitches, lace fabrics, picot point, etc. Basic schematics on designing a sweater to a size is there too. Thomas also gives tips on what stitches suit what kind of project as you read along, and the “Texture Index” does that explicitly. French and German knitting terms also appear at the end. The stitch pattern for ornament across the title page is included. At over 300 pages, the book is a wealth of information and would keep you busy and learning for hours.

I found the bright red yarn bookmark, one of those links between me, Mary Thomas, and whoever owned this book before I got it from a used bookstore which I enjoy. The only thing I don’t like about these books is that some of novelty sketches veer into racism. Fortunately, they are rare and the sketches are small.

Dover Publications had reprinted several of her books, including this one which you will find here in both print and EBook form if you are stuck at home: https://store.doverpublications.com/0486228185.html#ReviewHeader

The Textile Research Centre has a short biography here: https://trc-leiden.nl/trc-needles/people-and-functions/authors-scholars-and-activists/thomas-mary-1889-1948

#mary thomas #mary thomas's book of knitting patterns #knitting book #book of knitting patterns #vintage knitting patterns #vintage knitting #costume history #dress history #fashion history #needlework history #1930s fashion #1930s #knitting #needlework #makers #making #DIY #DIY projects

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ruminativerabbi · 4 years

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Seventy-Five Years In

I was very moved last Monday to take note of the seventy-fifty anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz by the Red Army in 1945. As all my readers must surely know by now, the Shoah is the backdrop against which I’ve lived out both my professional and spiritual lives for as long as I can remember. And although I could make some sort of semi-rational argument for not feeling personally involved to that degree—my own people, after all, came to these shores long before the First World War—that is not at all how things have played out. Nor is it at all difficult for me to explain why the Shoah looms so large in my thinking: surely no one who professes belief in a just, caring, God can just wave Auschwitz away as a mere aberration in a millennia-long narrative featuring God as the ever-watchful Guardian of Israel who neither slumbereth nor sleepeth. That thought, of course, comes directly from the Bible—from the 121st psalm, to be exact—and has been recited by so many rabbis (including myself) at so many funerals so as almost to sound more like a truism to be embraced than a challenge to be faced. And yet that is precisely not how it works—or has ever worked—for me: in those few words lies the weight that has been pressing down my shoulders from above for my entire adult life.

The summer after I defended my doctoral dissertation but before I began work in earnest on preparing my thesis for publication, I attempted to write a book of post-Holocaust theology. In retrospect, it feels like just so much youthful hubris to have allowed myself blithely to wander into a maze which even rabbis scores of years older than myself had failed successfully to negotiate. On the other hand, surely one of the great gifts of youth is the willingness to run a race merely because it exists and wholly without reference to other people’s successes or failures at running it! Nor was this just a gauntlet I wanted to take up as a way of measuring myself against others, but rather a real challenge that I needed to address for my own internal reasons and not simply to see if I could do better than others in addressing them.

As I’ve mentioned before in this space, the Jewish communities of my great-grandparents’ towns in Poland and Belarus were totally annihilated during the war, the only survivors at all being not “real” survivors at all but merely people like my great-grandparents and grandparents who left decades earlier. So perhaps it was that detail—combined, I admit, with the seminal experience of surreptitiously reading Ilya Ehrenburg and Vasily Grossman’s The Black Book of Soviet Jewry: The Ruthless Murder of Jews by German-Fascist Invaders Throughout the Temporarily-Occupied Regions of the Soviet Union and in the German Nazi Death Camps Established on Occupied Polish Soil During the War 1941–1945 as a boy of eleven or twelve, the single experience that, at least in retrospect, I think probably affected my adolescence more profoundly than any other—it was the contemplation of the fate of the Jews our “our” towns in Europe that created the context for me to feel called personally to attempt to create a plausible version of Jewish theology that specifically led through, not around, the gates of the camps.

I cast around for a long time trying to find a way in. I read all the standard books of post-Shoah theology and found most of them all to be wanting in some specific way. (And some I found wanting in every way.) The best of them, I noted, were predicated on the supposition that the Holocaust was basically a cosmic riddle in need of a solution. If God knew about Auschwitz as people were being murdered there in such unimaginable numbers, then either it either was or was not beyond the scope of divine power to save them. If it was within the scope of God’s might to save them, then either they were not saved for a real, cogent reason or they were left unrescued for no particular reason at all. But because both of the above apodoses—the “then” clauses—are fully inconsonant with traditional Jewish belief, most of the authors I read ended up proposing that the Jewish people in the post-war era simply make their peace with living on the horns of the terrible dilemma that requires supposing either that God could have saved the millions but didn’t (which effectively negates the notion of divine mercy enduring forever), or that God would have saved the millions but couldn’t (which negates the notion of divine omnipotence), or that God would have saved the millions and could have but was simply unaware that they needed saving (which effectively denies the notion of divine omniscience). There was, I admit, a certain wistful cogency to this line of reasoning. But the thought that Jews in the post-Shoah era are condemned by their own history—by our own history—to live forever balanced on the horns of an unresolvable dilemma did not sound like something I could imagine myself teaching others or, to speak frankly, embracing as my own theological stance either.

I needed to take a different tack, therefore, one that would sidestep the Shoah-as-a-cosmic-puzzle motif entirely. For a while, I considered my options. And then, when I felt I had no real choice but to rise to my own challenge, I began to write about the Shoah as the shadow cast on the earth by the demonic realm.

When most moderns think about demons, they think about Halloween-style imps with pitchforks and devilish horns. But that is just the paper-thin veneer that somehow manages to obscure millennia of speculation about a demonic realm and the dangers too close proximity to its boundaries can pose to unwary travelers. It’s hard to think of another area of Jewish culture that has more totally been forgotten, however. The ignoramus who wrote that “Judaism does not have a demonology, or any set of doctrines about demons” in the Wikipedia article on demonology, for example, could not possibly have been more wrong. But he or she is in good company!

The Bible is full of demons who function as evil spirits sent from on high to tempt, to seduce, or to test the moral mettle of uncareful mortals. Some of their names are almost well known, while others are obscure. But Mavet, Lilith, Reshef, Azazel, and Dever—among many other unnamed sheidim of various sorts—are a real part of ancient Israelite heritage. The Talmud is even more full of demons and malevolent sprites, but it is in kabbalistic literature that Jewish demonology reaches its fullest flower: entire works, some many hundreds of pages long, were composed to describe the world of demons, to speculate regarding the relationship of King Samael and Queen Lilith, and to muse about the plausible ways the demonic realm exists as the dark edge of all existence, as the shadow cast by life itself on the living, as the living embodiment of the evil inclination and the almost irresistible will to behave sinfully to which all but the greatest tzaddikim occasionally succumb. (Readers interested in learning more can profitably consult Joshua Trachtenberg’s Jewish Magic and Superstition, published in 1934 but still in print and still very readable and useful.)

So that was the vineyard in which I chose to labor. It allowed me to avoid the theology-as-unresolvable-paradox trap and instead to imagine the Nazi hordes as an army of unholy demons in the thrall of King Samael, as the embodiment not of German imperialist chauvinism or even of German anti-Semitism but of the dark forces of evil that only the moral force of those committed to the service of God can keep at bay…and that even so occasionally overwhelm their opponents just as the sea occasionally rises up over beach and sea wall to wreak havoc on those unfortunates who live too close to the sea always to escape its wrath. I imagined the Einsatzgruppen that travelled across Ukraine and other parts of Nazi-occupied Eastern Europe with the sole mission of murdering the entire Jewish population in whatever town or village they found traces of Jewish life—I imagined the members of those killing squads not as men or even as beasts, but as part of a demonic horde that exists in the first place to destroy any who serve God and who promulgate God’s word in the world.

I worked for almost a year on that book and eventually finished it. But I never published it, never felt confident enough to show it around to publishers or, even, to too many colleagues or friends. Eventually, I took one chapter, the one about King Samael, and published it in the margins of the Sabbath and Festivals volume of Siddur Tzur Yisrael. But I abandoned the rest of the project, uncertain of my own conclusions and yet unable seriously to come up with an alternate explanation of how men and women who in their “regular” lives were bakers, schoolteachers, and letter carriers could suddenly turn into the kind of people who could shoot babies in their mothers’ arms, who could murder entire villages of people, who could display a level of cold-hearted cruelty that cannot even be referenced as “bestial” since it is impossible to imagine actual animals displaying that level of callous brutality and heartless malice towards each other.

As I read about the symposium in Jerusalem that attracted so many international personalities and then about the parallel commemoration last week in Poland at Auschwitz itself, and I read the stories of survivors and their descendants in article after article on-line and in print—I was brought back to that project. I called the book then The Dark Lamp, a phrase used in the Zohar to denote energy that exists to obscure rather than to illuminate, to cast shadows rather than light. I even re-read a few chapters, curious to see how my prose would stand up after all these years. I haven’t ever shared the details of that project with anyone before. I’m not even sure that I’m doing the right thing by sharing them now. But I find myself more sure than ever that I was right, that the sole way to keep faith with traditional Jewish beliefs without feeling obliged to look away from the details surrounding the Nazi war against the Jews is to seek refuge in the realm of the demonic and to cultivate the sense that it surely must be as important to note that the forces of evil were eventually beaten back and defeated as it is that they surged forth in the first place, briefly—and unimaginably tragically—overwhelming the barriers erected in the first place to protect the world from their fury, from their rage. Should I publish my book now? I suppose I might! (But maybe not.)

#Auschwitz #Jewish demonology #Red Army #Shoah #Holocaust

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orientalistart · 6 years

Photo

Ludwig Deutsch (Austrian, 1855-1935)

Early morning, Id el-fitr

signed, inscribed and dated 'L. Deutsch Le Caire 1902' (lower left)

Despite the startling clarity of his pictures, the details of Ludwig Deutsch's life remain elusive and vague. Brought up in Vienna, he studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Künste before moving to Paris in 1878. There he befriended several Orientalist artists, including Arthur von Ferraris, Jean Discart, and his lifelong friend Rudolf Ernst. It is likely that he studied with the French history painter Jean-Paul Laurens prior to his participation in the Société des Artistes Français from 1879 to 1925; his other instructors and mentors, however, are unknown. (Deutsch's first Orientalist works appeared in 1881, well before his inaugural trip to Egypt and the Middle East. It is possible that he was influenced early on in Paris by the widely circulating pictures of Jean-Léon Gérôme.) In 1898, Deutsch earned an honorable mention at the Société's annual Salon, and, in 1900, just two years before the present work was painted, he was awarded a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle. Later, having established himself as the center of an entire school of Austrian Orientalist painting, he would receive the Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur. In 1919, Deutsch gained French citizenship and, after a brief absence, began exhibiting again under the name "Louis Deutsch." (It is assumed that Deutsch left France during the First World War due to the official hostilities between France and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He may also have ventured to North Africa at this time.) In an effort to stay current and revive what was now a waning genre, Deutsch's technique in the years after 1910 began to change; his late pictures hovered between the highly detailed, polished surfaces for which he – and several other Orientalist painters – had become renowned, and the looser brushwork and more highly keyed palette of Post-Impressionism.

Throughout this long and varied career, Deutsch consciously avoided the picturesque and anecdotal qualities that marked so many contemporary Orientalist works, and chose instead a far broader and more modern approach. Drawing from all aspects of Middle Eastern life – especially Egyptian – and isolating and scrutinizing particular moments in time, Deutsch's paintings are today seen as verging on the cinematic, with all the spectacular and static qualities of a promotional film still. (Deutsch's process may again have been partially indebted to the works of Gérôme, whose own paintings were often marked by both high drama and a chilling frigidity.) His intensely detailed series of guard or sentinel pictures (one of which, The Nubian Guard [private collection], was completed in this same year), bazaar scenes, and images of the local literati were facilitated by an enormous collection of photographs amassed in Cairo, many of them purchased from the well-known studio of G. Lékégian. (Deutsch also acquired hundreds of decorative objets while abroad, which furnished both his Paris studio at 11 rue Navarin and the Orientalist pictures he produced there. The tombak, or ewer, in the present work, for example, placed in a basket atop the woman's head, was a favorite and oft-repeated souvenir.)

The subject of Early Morning, 'Id el-fitr, though less common in Deutsch's oeuvre, was a familiar one in the nineteenth century, in both literature and art.1. Writing in 1885, Thomas Patrick Hughes offered the following description of the events that took place on this religious holiday, including the rituals that Deutsch refers to here:

On one or more days of this festival [" 'Idu 'L-Fitr"], some or all of the members of most families, but chiefly the women, visit the tombs of their relatives. This they also do on the occasion of the other grand festival. ["Idu 'l-Azha"] The visitors, or their servants, carry palm branches2, and sometimes sweet basil, to lay upon the tomb which they go to visit. The palm-branch is broken into several pieces, and these, or the leaves only, are placed on the tomb. Numerous groups of women are seen on these occasions, bearing palm-branches, on their way to the cemeteries in the neighborhood of the metropolis. They are also provided, according to their circumstances, with cakes, bread, dates, or some other kind of food, to distribute to the poor who resort to the burial-ground on these days. Sometimes tents are pitched for them; the tents surround the tombs which is the object of the visit.3

In addition to Hughes' concise account, Deutsch would have had many other sources from which to draw. His personal library included several volumes detailing the intricacies of Egyptian culture, many of them illustrated by his compatriots and peers. Indeed, the drawings by Leopold Carl Müller (1834-1892) in Georg Ebers' Egypt: Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque, published in German in 1878 and translated into English a few years after, may have inspired aspects of Deutsch's composition4. So too, contemporary photographs and popular illustrated newspapers – often used by Deutsch as references for his paintings - may have aided the artist in the creation of this image, either directly or in mood 5 (Fig. 1). Unique to Deutsch, however, are the brilliant color scheme (note how the red of the young girl's dress is mirrored by the close-fitting caps of the seated men and the rose petals strewn along the ground) and the subtle symbolism of the scene. The fragility of the flowers (a common adornment for tombs during special ceremonies) may be meant as a reminder of the brevity of life and, in the juxtaposition of Arab children and well-worn tombstones, the continuity of Egyptian culture and the circle of life are pointedly suggested. Deutsch's interest in the distinctive form of the Arab tomb and tombstone may be gauged by the repetition of the motif in another important painting of the period. The enduring popularity of such subjects among his contemporaries, moreover, extended far beyond Deutsch's adopted Parisian home; the present work was acquired in Cairo more than a decade after it was painted, perhaps during Deutsch's return to the region during World War I.

We are grateful to Emily M. Weeks, Ph.D., for writing this cataloguing note.

1 'Id el-fitr, or "feast to break the fast," is an important annual Muslim holiday marking the end of Ramadan. On this festive day, a celebratory meal is had, ending the month-long period of fasting. The sheer number of cemetery (Arabic, maqbara) scenes in Orientalist art is striking: Jean-Léon Gérôme, Carl Haag (1820-1915), William James Müller (1812-1845), and Amedeo Preziosi (1816-1882) were just a few of the many artists who tackled this subject. In these works, Shaykh's tombs are often prominently featured, the domed silhouettes of which provide much architectural interest. Though not made the focus of the composition, in the middle of Deutsch's picture, in the distant background, the dome of one such structure may be discerned. 2 Palm branches were richly significant in Islamic culture; in ancient Egypt they symbolized immortality. Their presence in this exotic image would have brought a sense of familiarity to European Christian viewers, for whom palms also held special meaning. 3 Thomas Patrick Hughes, A Dictionary of Islam, London, 1885, p. 196. 4 Ebers (1837-1898) was a German archaeologist and novelist. Müller would contribute several illustrations to various editions of his book beginning in 1878. Perhaps the most influential publications for Orientalist artists during the nineteenth century were Edward William Lane's An Account of the Manners and Customs of the Modern Egyptians (London, 1836) and Owen Jones's The Grammar of Ornament (London, 1856). Deutsch is known to have referenced both of these in the details and subjects of his compositions. (In Lane's volume, an image of an Arab tomb and tombstone is included [p. 524], along with a detailed description of its structure and use [p. 522].) 5 There were numerous cemeteries in and around Cairo which Deutsch may have visited or known and referenced here. Among the most widely photographed and illustrated were the Arab cemetery near the Bâb en-Naṣr and the "Southern Cemetery," or Qarafa, extending south of the Citadel near the mosque of Ibn Tulun. The sobriety of Deutsch's composition would have been shared by members of the Orientalist community at this time: 1902 saw the deaths of James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902) and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845-1902), and Frederick Goodall (1822-1904) declared bankruptcy in this year.

#orientalist art #ludwig deutsch #orientalism

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aion-rsa · 3 years

Text

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 Marvel, Captain America, MCU Easter Eggs

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This article contains The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 spoilers and potential spoilers for the wider MCU.

Well, it’s finally here. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier episode 6 was an action-packed, but rather messy season finale for the show. Hopefully it isn’t a series finale, and we’ll see it continue in season 2 as Captain America and the Winter Soldier, but that’s an argument for another time.

For now, we’re here (as usual) to dig in to all the Marvel Comics and MCU references the show gave us this episode. We’ll be honest, it was relatively light on those, but there’s still plenty to speculate about. And if you spot anything we missed, be sure to let us know in the comments!

The New Captain America

Sam’s incredibly sharp-looking Captain America costume is a perfect live action translation of the version he wore in the comics. That costume was designed by Carlos Pacheco, and first hit the pages of Marvel Comics in October of 2014, in All-New Captain America #1. Even then, it felt like a perfectly movie-ready design, but to see it translated to beautifully to live action is a real treat, and this is an immediate contender for “best superhero movie or TV suit” right now. The additional stars and stripes motif added to the underside of the wings here seems to be an MCU flourish, but that’s just one little way they managed to improve on perfection.

It’s safe to assume that Sam’s new wings are vibranium, or at least vibranium laced, just like his shield, considering that it was made for him by the tech geniuses in Black Panther‘s Wakanda. There’s something to be said here about how America is stronger when it works with and accepts help from its allies, as opposed to going it alone. Just witness how much better Sam’s wings hold up under pressure than Walker’s homemade shield.

Similarly, Sam primarily uses the shield and the wings for defense. Compare that to how Walker wields his shield, as a slashing/bludgeoning weapon for offense. It’s a nice illustration of two different interpretations about how best to utilize America’s power.

Bucky

Bucky’s leap from a barrier-crashing motorcycle in episode 6 is a nice callback to Steve’s very similar move in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As a voice barked “stand down” from a SHIELD quinjet, Steve hit a barrier on his bike and was thrown forward into the action.

We also see Bucky straining to open the back of the van with his vibranium arm, but he doesn’t flex as hard as Steve did when he stopped Bucky taking off in a helicopter in that same movie. Both Sam and Bucky reflect elements of what made Steve an exceptional Captain America in the finale, and prove to be a terrific team.

Bucky gives Steve’s notebook to his therapist as a thank you gift. Honestly, she deserves less. It belongs in a museum.

U.S. Agent

John Walker manages to control the effects that the super soldier serum is having on his psyche when he gets a second chance to prove himself, dropping his damaged makeshift shield and realizing he needs to prioritize human lives over vengeance.

Val says that people will need a “US Agent” soon, and not a Captain America, as things are about to get “weird”. US Agent, of course, was the codename Walker took on after he stopped being Captain America in the comics. Speaking of which, Walker’s new costume is basically identical to his Marvel Comics US Agent costume and it looks really great here. We wrote more about the Marvel Comics history of U.S. Agent here.

Why are Val, Walker and his wife back in the courthouse where Walker got court martialed to try on his new US Agent costume? Feels like pandemic-related restrictions forced the show to film all those scenes at the same time, doesn’t it?

Isaiah Bradley

Sam returning to properly make sure Isaiah Bradley gets his due once again mirrors the excellent Truth: Red, White, and Black story by Robert Morales and Kyle Baker. There it was Steve who made sure that Isaiah’s deeds were finally known to the world.

Hopefully this isn’t the last we see of Isaiah, but you can bet we’re going to get more of Elijah down the road. Between introducing two members of the Young Avengers in WandaVision with Billy and Tommy, and the impending arrival of Kate Bishop on Hawkeye later this year, young Elijah is due to get himself some red, white, and blue duds of his own.

Sharon Carter is the Power Broker?

Yes, Sharon Carter is the Power Broker. No, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. She took Sam, Bucky, and Zemo to see super soldier serum scientist Dr. Nagel in his lab. He was working for her! She let that dangerous shit play out, which was very much against her interests! What! No. What! The man must have been confused as hell in his final moments.

Sharon uses the same tech that Natasha Romanoff used to disguise her face during the climax of Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

We find out that Sharon was indeed behind Karli’s initial rise to Flag-Smasher power, after taking her in and giving her a chance in Madripoor. Sharon is willing to forgive the betrayal if Karli and her friends come back to the fold, but Karli’s too far gone for that.

Sharon gets a pardon from the US government. I guess it wasn’t that hard after all. Maybe you could click this link while you’re here.

Is this the first time Sharon has been called Agent Carter in the MCU? And is there some way to bring Peggy back to kick her narrow Power Brokering ass? How dare you besmirch the Carter name, girl.

Sharon’s “mercury vapor” bomb that takes out that poor dude kind of feels like the dust that the Red Skull used to use during the Mark Gruenwald era of the comics to kill people…which left them looking like red skulls. Uh-oh…this brings us to the next question…

Who was Sharon calling at the end? Val? Nick Fury? Her Skrull bosses? Alexander Lukin? Something is definitely wrong here. It’s possible that she’s working with Val to put together a team of Dark Avengers/Thunderbolts, but nothing makes a lot of sense with Sharon’s arc in the MCU in general, let alone this show.

Zemo

That is indeed Zemo’s butler Oeznik (played by Nicholas Pryor) who kills the fuck out of the Flag-Smashers in the police van with a remote controlled incendiary device. What an Evil Jarvis. In any case, Zemo got at least some of his wish, as now there are a few fewer super soldiers running around the MCU.

Among the books that Zemo is reading in his cell is Alexander von Humboldt’s Views of Nature – the German polymath, geographer, naturalist and explorer was the first person to truly make note of human-induced climate change. But we can only assume that the book Zemo is holding close to his heart as he hears the fate of the Flag-Smashers is the Machiavelli tome that Bucky rudely interrupted earlier in the series.

Despite the news saying that there are no suspects in the Flag-Smasher bombing, Val knows straight away that it was Zemo who had “the last laugh”. Huh. “Couldn’t have worked better if I planned it myself,” she jokes. “Oh, well, maybe I did. No, I’m kidding, I didn’t. Or did I?” Who the hell knows, Val.

Batroc

Is Batroc dead? Batroc had better not be dead! We demand more Georges St-Pierre in the MCU! Ze Leaper has managed to escape certain death multiple times in the MCU so far, and we’d like that trend to continue. He’s such a great all-purpose, kinda hapless baddie, that we’d love to just see him show up for the occasional slugfest. Or hell, maybe a Batroc fight can be a kind of “right of passage” for anyone else who has to wear the Captain America costume down the road!

And hey, he even did some leaping in this episode!

The Flag-Smashers

Sam’s face-off with Karli Morgenthau is a lot like Steve’s final face-off with Bucky in Captain America: The Winter Soldier when he tries to talk her down instead of fighting back.

The Raft

The Raft was first introduced to the MCU in Captain America: Civil War, but the fact that they’re going out of their way to mention it multiple times in this show, and the fact that the Flag-Smashers were destined for there (after all, they’re super soldiers) should be an indication of just how important that place is going to be to the MCU going forward. I think we can safely expect both Val and Sharon to be doing some recruiting out of there.

The New Falcon?

We only get a brief moment with Danny Ramirez’s Joaquin Torres, as he gazes adoringly at the TV broadcast with Sam as Captain America, but hopefully we get more of him in the future. After all, Joaquin became the new Falcon when Sam wore the red, white, and blue in the comics, and he DOES have Sam’s old wings.

Where is Steve Rogers?

You know, if they keep making that joke about Steve being “on the moon” maybe there’s gonna turn out to be some truth to it. Is this how the MCU will introduce the “man on the wall” concept from the Original Sin story in Marvel Comics? OK, fine, probably not.

The Bridge

Sam having his first big public moment on a bridge between Manhattan and Brooklyn, where New Yorkers see him, cheer him, and implicitly accept him as a hero feels like moments in Sam Raimi’s first two Spider-Man movies, particularly the Brooklyn Bridge scene in the first one, and the subway car scene in Spider-Man 2. This is decidedly less heavy-handed, though.

Ayla

GRC representative Ayla is not from Marvel Comics. We don’t get her last name, and she shares a first name with extremely obscure Nightstalkers villain Rotwrap. Look, there’s not a lot going on in this episode, we’re trying.

Speaking of things we don’t have a lot on…

“Government Official”

Can you believe that despite appearing in nearly every episode of this show, Alphie Hyorth’s bearded senator is still only named as “government official” in the credits? What are you hiding Marvel?!? Maybe he’s actually Mephisto! (sorry, a little WandaVision humor there)

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But for real, why would you have a recurring character who ends up central to so many elements of this story and NOT name him? Is he a Skrull? Is he Senator Robert Kelly? (look, we miss all the mutant speculation from the WandaVision days)

Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 6 Marvel, Captain America, MCU Easter Eggs appeared first on Den of Geek.

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andrewtheconqueror-blog · 6 years

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Blog No. 6

Group Performance of the Kings of Classical Music (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven)

Group Mates: Eva Cuenza, Mareal tumanda, joshua Gramaje, Ruzzel Santos, and Trixie Dayrit

Franz Joseph Haydn, (Born March 31, 1732, Rohrau, Austria—died May 31, 1809, Vienna); Austrian Composer

Over the course of his 106 symphonies, Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn became the principal architect of the classical style of music.

Synopsis

Franz Joseph Haydn was among the creators of the fundamental genres of classical music, and his influence upon later composers is immense. Haydn’s most celebrated pupil was Ludwig van Beethoven, and his musical form casts a huge shadow over the music of subsequent composers such as Schubert, Mendelssohn and Brahms.

Early Life

Franz Joseph Haydn was recruited at age 8 to the sing in the choir at St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna, where he went on to learn to play violin and keyboard. After he left the choir, he supported himself by teaching and playing violin, while studying counterpoint and harmony.

Haydn soon became an assistant to composer Nicola Porpora in exchange for lessons, and in 1761 he was named Kapellmeister, or "court musician," at the palace of the influential Esterházy family, a position that would financially support him for nearly 30 years. Isolated at the palace from other composers and musical trends, he was, as he put it, "forced to become original."

The Mature Artist

While Haydn rose in the Esterházy family's esteem, his popularity outside the palace walls also increased, and he eventually wrote as much music for publication as for the family. Several important works of this period were commissions from abroad, such as the Paris symphonies (1785-1786) and the original orchestral version of "The Seven Last Words of Christ" (1786). Haydn came to feel sequestered and lonely, however, missing friends back in Vienna, such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, so in 1791, when a new Esterházy prince let Haydn go, he quickly accepted an invitation to go to England to conduct new symphonies with German violinist and impresario Johan Peter Salomon. He would return to London again in 1794 for another successful and lucrative season.

Already well known and appreciated in England, Haydn's concerts drew huge crowds, and during his time in England the composer created some of his most popular works, including the "Rider" quartet and the Surprise, Military, Drumroll and London symphonies.

Later Years

Haydn returned to Vienna in 1795 and took up his former position with the Esterházys, although only part-time. At this point, he was a public figure in Vienna, and when he wasn't at home composing, he was making frequent public appearances. With his health failing, his creative spirit outlasted his ability to harness it, and he died at age 77.

Haydn is remembered as the first great symphonist and the composer who essentially invented the string quartet. The principal engineer of the classical style, Haydn exerted influence on the likes of Mozart, his student Ludwig van Beethoven and scores of others.

Works

Haydn is credited as the 'father' of the classical symphony and string quartet, and also wrote many piano sonatas, piano trios, divertmenti and masses, which became the foundation for the Classical style in these compositional types. He also wrote other types of chamber music, as well as operas and concerti, although such compositions are now less known. Although other composers were prominent in the earlier Classical period, notably C.P.E. Bach in the field of the keyboard sonata (the harpsichord and clavichord were equally popular with the piano in this era) and J.C. Bach and Leopold Mozart in the symphony, Haydn was undoubtedly the strongest overall influence on musical style in this era.

The development of sonata form into a subtle and flexible mode of musical expression, which became the dominant force in Classical musical thought, was based foremost on Haydn and those who followed his ideas. His sense of formal inventiveness also lead him to integrate the fugue into the classical style, and to enrich the rondo form with more cohesive tonal logic, (see sonata rondo form). Another example of Haydn's inventiveness was his creation of the double variation form, that is variations on two alternating themes.

Structure and character of the music

A central characteristic of Haydn's music is the development of larger structures out of very short, simple musical motifs, usually devised from standard accompanying figures. The music is often quite formally concentrated, and the important musical events of a movement can unfold rather quickly. Haydn's musical practice formed the basis of much of what was to follow in the development of tonality and musical form. He took genres such as the symphony, which were, at that time, shorter and subsidiary to more important vocal music, and slowly expanded their length, weight and complexity.

Haydn's compositional practice was rooted in a study of the modal counterpoint of Fux, and the tonal homophonic styles which had become more and more popular, particularly the work of Gluck and Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, of the later Haydn wrote 'without him, we know nothing'. He believed that the search for an appropriate melody was essential to the creation of good music, and carefully constructed his around countrapunctal devices, so that it could be overlayed with itself in a variety of ways, and the fragments could be worked with individually, and still retain some degree of unique character.

Haydn's work became central to what was later described as the sonata form, and his work was central to taking the binary schematic of what was then called a 'melodie'. It was a form divided into sections, joined by important moments in the harmony which signalled the change. One of Haydn's important innovations, one which was adopted by Mozart and Beethoven, was to make the moment of transition the focus of tremendous creativity, instead of using stock devices to make the transition, Haydn would often find inventive ways to make the move between two expected keys.

Later musical theorists would codify the formal organization in the following way:

Introduction: If present in an extended form, a slower section in the dominant, often with material not directly related to the main themes, which would then rapidly transition to the

Exposition: Presentation of thematic material, including a progression of tonality away from the home key. Unlike Mozart and Beethoven, Haydn often wrote expositions where the music that establishes the new key is similar or identical to the opening theme: this is called monothematic sonata form.

Development: The thematic material is led through a rapidly-shifting sequence of keys, transformed, fragmented, or combined with new material. If not present, the work is termed a 'sonatina'. Haydn's developments tend to be longer and more elaborate than those of Mozart, for example.

Recapitulation: Return to the home key, where the material of the exposition is re-presented. Haydn, unlike Mozart and Beethoven, often rearranges the order of themes compared to the exposition: he also frequently omits passages that appeared in the exposition (particularly in the monothematic case) and adds codas.

Coda: After the close of the recapitulation on the tonic, there may be an additional section which works through more of the possibilities of the thematic material.

During this period the written music was structured by tonality, and the sections of a work of the Classical era were marked by tonal cadences. The most important transitions between sections were from the exposition to the development, and from the development to the recapitulation. Haydn focused on creating witty and often dramatic ways to make these transitions, by delaying them, or by having the occur so subtly that it takes some time before it is established that the transition has, in fact happened. Perhaps paradoxically one of the ways in which Haydn did this was by reducing the number of different devices for harmonic transitions between, so that he could explore and develop the possibilities he found in the ones he regarded as most interesting. This is perhaps why more than any other composer, Haydn is known for the jokes that he put into his music. The most famous example is the sudden loud chord in his 'Surprise symphony|Surprise' symphony, No. 94, but others are perhaps funnier: the fake endings in the quartets Op. 33 No. 2 and Op. 50 No. 3, or the remarkable rhythmic illusion placed in the trio section of Op. 50 No. 1.

Haydn's compositional practice influenced both Mozart and Beethoven. Beethoven began his career writing rather discursive, loosely organized sonata expositions; but with the onset of his 'Middle period', he revived and intensified Haydn's practice, joining the musical structure to tight small motifs, often by gradually reshaping both the work and the motifs so that they fit quite carefully.

The emotional content of Haydn's music cannot accurately be summarized in words, but one may attempt an approximate description. Much of the music was written to please and delight a prince, and its emotional tone is correspondingly upbeat; this tone also reflects, perhaps, Haydn's fundamentally healthy and well-balanced personality. Occasional minor-key works, often deadly serious in character, form striking exceptions to the general rule. Haydn's fast movements tend to be rhythmically propulsive, and often impart a great sense of energy, especially so in the finales. Some characteristic examples of Haydn's 'rollicking' finale type are found in the 'London' symphony No. 104, the string quartet Op. 50 No. 1, and the piano trio Hob XV: 27. Haydn's slow movements, early in his career, are usually not too slow in tempo, relaxed, and reflective. Later on, the emotional range of the slow movements increases, notably in the deeply felt slow movements of the quartets Op. 76 Nos. 3 and 5, the Symphony No. 102, and the piano trio Hob XV: 23. The minuets tend to have a strong downbeat (and upbeat!) and a clearly popular character. Late in his career, perhaps inspired by the young Beethoven (who was briefly his student), Haydn began to write scherzi instead of minuets, with a much faster tempo, felt as one beat to the measure.

Symphony No. 94 in G Major, 2nd Movement (”Surprise”)

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Symphony No. 94

The story of the Surprise Symphony starts with the death of Haydn's great patron, the Austrian prince Nikolaus Esterházy, in 1790. While Haydn's music had been spread across Europe (and even to the Americas in the hands of music aficionado Thomas Jefferson), Haydn himself hadn't left Austria in decades. His music was already popular in England, so a new patron appeared after the death of Esterházy and asked Haydn to come to London for two seasons. An agreement was stuck where Haydn would live in London and compose a total of six symphonies to be performed there.

Symphony No. 94 in G Major was one of these symphonies, which debuted in London on March 23rd of 1791. As the crowd quickly found out, it was full of surprises, showcasing Haydn's wit and ability to play with audiences' expectations.

Haydn knew how to play with audience expectations during a concert

The total work is broken into four movements, a symphonic structure of Haydn's that was still relatively new at the time. The first movement was written in the wrong key, according to the traditions associated with the 4-movement symphony, thus setting up one surprise from the beginning. The first and third movements have a lively feel that was more associated with outdoor concerts than with concert halls. This was especially true of the third movement, a minuet, which was basically the predecessor of the waltz. The second movement contrasts these with a gentler and softer tone, while the fourth escalates it, racing toward its conclusion with a march-like beat.

Overall, Symphony No. 94 in G Major is about 23 minutes of expectation subversion, interplay between tempos and sections of the orchestra, and some very demanding technical sections that reveal Haydn's confidence in the London orchestra. It was one of the works that helped Haydn's 4-movement symphony become the standard that would define orchestral music for generations.

The Surprise

Symphony No. 94 is lively, fun, and full of quirks, but not much more so than any other of Haydn's works. So, why was this one nicknamed the Surprise Symphony? That name actually refers to a single moment in the second movement. In this movement, the pace is gradual, peaceful, and tranquil. The melodies are passive and unencumbered, listing lazily along when out of nowhere BAM! The audience is hit with a jarring and loud chord that crescendos without warning. Surprise!

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (27 January 1756–5 December 1791)

Mozart was one of the most influential, popular and prolific composers of the classical period. He composed over 600 works, including some of the most famous and loved pieces of symphonic, chamber, operatic, and choral music.

“Music is my life and my life is music. Anyone who does not understand this is not worthy of God.”

– Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Short Biography of Mozart

Mozart was born in Salzburg to a musical family. From an early age, the young Mozart showed all the signs of a prodigious musical talent. By the age of five he could read and write music, and he would entertain people with his talents on the keyboard. By the age of six he was writing his first compositions. Mozart was generally considered to be a rare musical genius, although he was also diligent in studying other great composers such as Haydn and Bach.

During his childhood, he would frequently tour various palaces around Europe playing for distinguished guests. Aged 17, he accepted a post as a court musician in Salzburg; although this did not suit him very well, the next few years were a time of prolific composition. In 1781, he moved permanently to Vienna where he stayed for the remainder of his life. In Vienna, he became well known and was often in demand as a composer and performer.

“I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”

– Mozart

However, despite his relative fame he struggled to manage his finances and moved between periods of poverty and prosperity. This difficulty was enhanced when, in 1786, Austria was involved in a war which led to lower demand for musicians. In 1782, he married against the wishes of his family; he had six children but only two survived infancy.

The work of Mozart is epic in scope and proportion. There were few branches of music Mozart did not touch. He composed operas, symphonies, concertos, and solo pieces for the piano. His work spanned from joyful light-hearted pieces to powerful, challenging compositions which touched the emotions. In the beginning of his career, Mozart had a powerful ability to learn and remember from the music he heard from others. He was able to incorporate the style and music of people such as Haydn and J.S. Bach. As he matured he developed his very own style and interpretations. In turn, the music of Mozart very much influenced the early Beethoven.

Mozart was brought up a Roman Catholic and remained a member of the church throughout his life.

“I know myself, and I have such a sense of religion that I shall never do anything which I would not do before the whole world.”

Some of his greatest works are religious in nature such as Ave Verum Corpus and the final Requiem.

Mozart was very productive until his untimely death in 1791, aged 35.

“I never lie down at night without reflecting that young as I am I may not live to see another day.”

In the last year of his life, he composed the opera The Magic Flute, the final piano concerto (K. 595 in B-flat), the Clarinet Concerto K. 622, a string quintet (K. 614 in E-flat), the famous motet Ave verum corpus K. 618, and the unfinished Requiem K. 626.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan. “Biography of Mozart”, Oxford, UK. www.biographyonline.net, 28th May 2008 Updated 3rd October 2017

Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major ("Alla Turca") K. 331 (K. 300i)

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Musical Analysis

Apart from its foreign influences, the last movement has two other interesting features. The first of these concerns its structure; the movement is a rondo but, unusually, the first theme occurs only twice (traditionally, in rondo form the first theme is presented most frequently in the piece). Therefore, the A major idea from bar 25 becomes the more important as the movement progresses, occurring three times and forming the basis of the coda. Also, Mozart extensively repeats melodic ideas within sections. For example, in bars 8-16 the same melodic idea occurs four times (the second two times transposed down a minor third), and the A major passage at bars 25-32 consists of a repeated motif, with the ending modified on the repeat to allow a perfect cadence to close the phrase. This is a recurrent feature, especially in the coda.

The form of the rondo is A-B-C-D-E-C-A-B-C-coda, with each section (except the coda) being repeated twice.

A: This section, in A minor, consists of a rising sixteenth note melody followed by a falling eighth note melody over a staccato eighth note accompaniment. It is nine measures long.

B: This section introduces new material in a melody in thirds and eighth notes before varying the A section with a cresendo before falling back to piano.

C: A forte march in octaves over an arpeggiated chord accompaniment. The key changes to A major.

D: A piano continuous sixteenth note melody over a broken chord accompaniment.

E: A forte scale-like theme followed by a modification of section D.

Coda: A forte theme consisting mostly of chords (arpeggiated and not) and octaves. There is a brief piano restatement of the theme in the middle of the coda. The movement ends with alternating A and C-sharp octaves followed by two A major chords.

It is worth noting that each movement of the sonata is based around the tonality of A. This is unusual as there is typically a change of key for the second movement to provide a necessary tonal contrast. One can only presume that Mozart considered the huge diversity of material presented in the piece to be sufficient to dispense with this need.

Bar 1-24 The opening theme consists of rising turn-figures which outline an a minor arpeggio. The use of ornamentation continues in bar 5 with grace notes helping to accent the first beat of the bar. A brief diversion to C major in bars 9-12 is short-lived, since it is followed by a return to the tonic. The repeat of the opening idea in bars 17-20 leads to a tonic cadence in a minor, following the reharmonisation of the top C in bar 20 with an Italian 6th chord. This opening section (A) is in itself a miniature ternary form. A surprising number of keys are used at this early stage; a minor, e minor (bar 5) and C major (bar 9) before a return to a minor (bar13). Bars 1-8 have a natural rhythmic accent on the first beat of the bar.

Bar 25-32 A sudden change to the tonic major starts a brash, loud passage which provides an immediate contrast to the preceding passage. The LH uses arpeggiated grace notes for percussive effect. See the background notes for the influence of Turkish music evident here.

Bar 32-56 Once again, a sudden contrast is created through a change of key (f-sharp minor), sudden reduction in dynamics, thinning of texture and bubbling semiquaver passages in the RH. The LH reverts to the texture found at the movement’s opening. In bar 38 the key changes to c-sharp minor to bring the phrase to a close; however, the music then leaps into A major for some scalic RH features that carry on the stream of semiquavers. The f-sharp minor passage returns in bars 48-56, although the second half of this is modified to keep the music in that key and closes with a perfect cadence. This is the ‘C’ section of the structure. The RH melodic cells that open this section contrast well with the a minor theme at the beginning of the movement, since their general shape is an inversion of the turns in the a minor theme. They also start in a descending series, whereas the a minor theme consists of ascending motivic cells.

Bar 56-64 Repeat of bars 24.2-32.1 (the ‘B’ section)

Bar 64-88 Repeat of bars 1-24 (the ‘A’ section)

Bar 88-96 Repeat of the ‘B’ section again, but with the RH octaves broken into pairs of octave-leaping semiquavers. This RH change adds to the percussive, brash nature of the original.

Bar 96.2-127 The coda consists of four presentations of the same A major phrase (bars 96.2-102), with subtle changes, variations in ornamentation and, in bars 109-115, a different texture in the LH accompaniment (an Alberti bass). Other than this , the LH utilises the percussive figure from the previous A major theme. The chord progression in this repeated figure is a very strong I – IV – I – V (resolving onto the tonic to start the next version of the phrase). The last six bars of the piece consist of an affirmation of the tonic A major harmony, bringing the work to a rousing and boisterous close.

"Queen of the Night" aria from "The Magic Flute" by Mozart

The Queen of the Night sings this aria to express her fury and longing for revenge (‘rache’). Mozart chose the key of D minor for this aria. It is a key often associated with tragedy, and prevalent in the Requiem that Mozart was writing, that would dominate his thoughts in the weeks following the premiere of Die Zauberflöte.

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The aria contains marked dynamic contrasts, accents land on and off the beat and the vocal line is often highly chromatic. Rather unexpectedly, after the opening bars the music suddenly moves to F major, the relative key of D minor. Gaining in confidence, the Queen scales the vocal heights. The Queen tells Pamina that if she does not kill Sarastro as the mother has asked then she will no longer be her daughter, and sings a series of repeated notes on a high C before climbing even further to several dizzying top Fs. Nothing, it seems, can stop her.

After Sarastro’s thoughtful hymnic aria ‘O Isis und Osiris’, the Queen’s virtuosity is all the more staggering. And however hollow her threats will prove – she clearly does not know her daughter’s moral strength – the aria could not make its point any clearer. The recurrent gestures, manic twists and turns and final ferocious D minor cadence place a thrillingly thunderous cloud of wrath over the proceedings.

Sources:

“Franz Joseph Haydn.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 5 Jan. 2017, www.biography.com/people/franz-joseph-haydn-9332156.

“Franz Josef Haydn.” Prince Biography, www.8notes.com/biographies/haydn.asp.

Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/haydns-surprise-symphony-analysis.html.

https://www.biographyonline.net/music/mozart.html

https://sensq.com/blog/story-of-rondo-alla-turca-turkish-march

#ClassicalKings!

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danwhobrowses · 3 years

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NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver Day 1 - Review

It is Wrestlemania Week, and every company wants their shot

but alas, I can only do so much, so we’re gonna be sticking with Mania and Stand & Deliver for now. I do also have some other WWE post-mania stuff planned which I’ll also do for AEW Double or Nothing in May

but in spite of Dynamite still doing a decent ‘not gonna try to top it’ show, the night belongs to NXT so let’s get into it

Spoilers for Stand & Deliver Day 1, you have been warned

Pre Show I had to add this in because Sam Roberts really laid in thick the bravado, NXT is great but chill man. Seeing Io and Raquel enter the building was a good touch though. The Samoa Joe interviews were good too but damn I miss this man in the ring, it kinda threw me how well-spoken WALTER is, he’s kinda giving me the same vibe as Daniel Bruhl’s Zemo currently is in Falcon & The Winter Soldier, also interviewing Io proves that if the company’s hot on you promo game isn’t necessary to be a great champion, also Io has put Rey over more than the main roster has in the last 3 years. The shoehorned Prince Harry comment was not needed that’s not gonna get a pop but mercifully we moved on to other interviews, LA Knight still does a great promo and hearing that Mickie James will be on commentary for the pre-show match was interesting.

Zoey Stark def. Toni Storm (Pinfall via Inside Cradle) Zoey Stark has been making quite some noise since her NXT Debut, similar to Utami Hayashishita’s start in Stardom and Leyla Hirsch in AEW it was mainly revolving around Zoey getting over even in defeat to big names. She started fairly even with Toni Storm with some solid chain wrestling, Toni was able to keep Stark grounded with submissions, which worked well for Zoey to feed off the babyface comeback, landing a big superplex. A flurry of an exploder and running knee hit two but then Toni came back with an electric chair facebuster, Toni tried Storm Zero but failed, so went for the Germans, tried the Storm Zero again but Stark counters it into a cradle for 3. It was a decent pre-show match, Stark gets a rub from winning but I get the feeling the rub should be bigger, Toni Storm is still good but her stock has dropped since her heel turn designed merely to lose to Io, the match finished a bit abruptly too.

Main Card Nita Strauss then guitars the anthem, ‘Merica and stuff on a PPV themed around Pirate and Highwayman motifs, as well as an Adam Ant song. The Skull is awesome though.

Pete Dunne def. KUSHIDA (Pinfall via Bitter End) Technical masterclass would of course be an understatement for this match. A minute in it was quickfire joint manipulation and reversals. Dunne took the early advantage after catching KUSHIDA and landing an X-Plex onto the apron, the injured arm didn’t slow KUSHIDA too much who did the handspring elbow and the Muta pele kick on the ramp. Dunne tried for the Kimura and the Bitter End but KUSHIDA escaped twice over, the latter catching a Back to the Future (small package driver). Dunne resumed control though in handling the arm, it might just be me but the audio was cutting out at this point. Cross Armbreakers traded and escaped as the arm began to slowly come into play, but KUSHIDA started handling Dunne’s arm too, a Top Turnbuckle Hoverboard Lock Spanish Fly also led to an armbreaker escaped by the ropes, another Hoverboard lock almost led to a pin. Dunne manipulates the digits of the other hand, which hurts KUSHIDA’s punch attempt, stomps on both hands twice over and then a Bitter End finishes the night.

That did not feel like 10 minutes, it was a great and well-paced match, wish it went longer. I anticipated that Dunne would win but one has to worry for KUSHIDA, even on his best WWE run he’s not able to win a feud, he didn’t leave NJPW for that.

Bronson Reed wins the Eliminator Gauntlet (Pinfall via Tsunami Splash on Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott) At first I thought Leon Ruff had botched his entrance until Swerve showed up, looking far different to the Killshot of Lucha Underground. Before the bell rang Ruff got hit into the barricade a lot and then an ad!? Dude, come on, the bell rings and they’re outside the ring again... Of course, it’s hard to start a pace for a Gauntlet, Ruff hit a lovely twisting Cutter as commentary ignored how his NA Title win was mainly a segue in the Gargano/Priest feud, a super frankensteiner was the big move before the next man came in: Bronson Reed. Ruff’s dive is caught and thrown back in the ring, Swerve planted with a combo suplex/crossbody before Ruff foolishly tried to attack Reed again, getting sat on a few times before Reed german’d Ruff and Swerve at the same time. Grimes came in next, delaying his entrance to distract Reed and land a moonsault, he bribes Swerve for a partnership which works for a decent while, Ruff got a big ouch suplex on the turnbuckle pads after some very slippery escapes. The arrival of Dexter Lumis involved super creepy eyes inside the Skull model but we missed most of Swerve finishing off Ruff. Lumis cleaned house until Reed recovered from the ramp DDT, Lumis even lifting Reed on the second time of asking before another big ouch ring-out with Grimes. LA Knight was last, his diss promos not as good as his earlier promo as Reed cut him off short and cleaned up house himself. Knight does get a good spur including a quickfire superplex but pauses when Lumis shows up, Grimes’ cheap shot misses and the Silence is locked in, but Knight rolls him for 3. Bit deflating that really, Lumis was the only one with story against Gargano and he kinda got chump pinned because he didn’t wanna release his finisher. Knight fell quickly after though, Grimes and Reed teaming up to end him, Lumis then locking the Silence onto him - probably setting up a feud there.

The final three ended all chance of alliances, Reed comically flattening both men when after a delayed fall from a superkick. Grimes and Swerve both try a handful of tights to pin each other, but Swerve’s one pays off. Swerve also powerslams Reed onto the apron and then hits a 450 for 2, two House Calls don’t drop Reed, a third gets 2, but a slap wakes Reed up. Powerbomb, Beach Break (idk the technical name) and Tsunami Splash for 3.

Liked the match, Reed is a worthy winner but I just wish they dealt with Lumis and Grimes better, Gargano came out the ramp to stare down his opponent and we moved on to the next.

NXT UK Championship: WALTER (c) def. Tomasso Ciampa (Pinfall via Knife Edged Chop) Reminder that the UK title is WWE’s best looking active belt because good god it’s glorious.Ciampa stayed on the turnbuckle to stare down WALTER, completely unafraid of the mountain he faces. They lock up but WALTER uses his muscle, looking for those monster chops, one on the turnbuckle preludes a messy drop for Ciampa, Walter’s hand is injured though by the chop of the announce table gimmick breaking, Ciampa works on it but the champion’s big boot earns a reprieve, his submission attempts are futile with the injured hand though so he applies his power and weight to keep on top. A flurry of lariats finally chops WALTER down for an Air Raid Crash, but it’s only for a 2. WALTER northern lights reversal’s a Fairytale Ending for 2 but could not escape the second, still a 2 count though. WALTER’s submission attempts neutralized by the fingers again as Ciampa continues to lay into WALTER’s hands and head, an Avalanche Air Raid Crash then hits for 2 as well, Ciampa at a loss for what he can do, opting to throw his own blistering chops, WALTER gets nasty with a neck twist and two powerbombs but it’s 2 again, Sleeper Exploder and one massive chop gets the 3.

I had heard great things from this match, and it was very well done narratively and physically, but a chop as the finish? Dunno, Ciampa had already taken chops, 2 powerbombs in succession and yet what ends it is a chop from an injured hand? Feel like it could’ve ended more emphatically.

No Thatcher present either, instead we get a Franky Monet (Taya Valkyrie) promo and a Reed/Gargano backstage argument.

NXT Tag Championship: MSK def. Grizzled Young Veterans & Legando del Fantasma (Pinfall by Wes Lee on Zack Gibson via combo Spinebuster/Spinning Blockbuster) Another ad break during LDF’s entrance was disrespectful, the mask was awesome though. Gibson likely not in the best of moods with Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the Champion’s League first leg but he still flies the colors. LDF control the match at the start with tag offence, Gibson going for MSK off the bat until LDF get in the way. Drake and Carter get some time in the ring but Lee remains on the apron awaiting the hot tag, after a dive LDF comes back to do a dual dive themselves, double Coast to Coast on Carter is broken by Gibson who gets dumped out by the duo and another commercial break (wtf come on!). LDF were getting some great combo moves and rotating in quick tags as Carter continues to be the feeder, Drake almost catches Wilde with a roll up though and Lee gets another hot tag, first clear the ring, then out the ring to Gibson, then to LDF, somersault Pele Kick, combo move for 2. Gibson and Drake almost catch Carter with a Doomsday Device on the outside but Lee nails Drake with a knee, GYV neutralize Lee by hurting the hand as well, Carter holding Lee’s hand to prevent a tap as LDF come back in. They clear the ring, hit the combo move but it’s 2! GYV and MSK take out LDF leaving the two left to fight, a double cutter by Carter takes Drake out of the ring, leading to MSK finishing Gibson with a twisted blockbuster/spinebuster combo. Very much earned for the new champions, exciting match, LDF got a lot of shine too I hope they win the titles later down the line.

NXT Women’s Championship: Raquel Gonzalez def. Io Shirai (c) (pinfall via One-Arm Powerbomb TITLE CHANGE) If Raquel Gonzalez doesn’t win rookie of the year for 2021 it’ll be a travesty, her current run has been built amazingly. Before we started though we see Steph in the crowd with Sarray (Sendai Girls and SEADLINNG’s Sareee). The tunnel cam of the two competitors and the names on the LEDs sold the huge Main Event feel of this match. Side note though, while NXT does tout the most stacked Women’s Division out of the major wrestling companies they shouldn’t peacock themselves, most of their talent are ready made acquisitions with a few like Ripley, Belair and Gonzalez who gritted to the top, just because your division is stacked doesn’t mean that there aren’t cracks, and let’s not forget that ROH barely has a women’s division and NJPW doesn’t have a division at all, if we’re comparing the actual competition Stardom still gives WWE a run for their money having made their stars in Natsupoi, Guilia, Utami, Konami, AZM, Tam Nakano and others.

The match kicks off with a flurry, picking up where they left off last NXT of Gonzalez just boomeranging Io with her size and strength and Io flying back with vigor and athleticism. The champion takes control with a dive out the ring but Dakota rakes her eyes, leading to Dakota being kicked out of ringside immediately. Io hits the apron moonsault but Gonzalez lawn darts her into the ring post, a lovely Dominator-esque move with extra flip brings the advantage fully in the hands of the challenger. Io uses her flexibility to frustrate Raquel and hits a picture perfect hurricanrana, misses the 619 but arm drags into another 619, Yoshi Tonic for 2, tries for the Moonsault but Raquel sets up the One Arm Powerbomb, Io wriggles it into a crossface which is ended by a rope break, Moonsault on the ramp and then a running meteora leads to Io doing the ‘jump off the NXT arena prop), after slowly rolling Raquel into the ring it’s the Moonsault, but it only gets 2! Raquel flattens Io with the One Arm Powerbomb outside of the ring, rolls Io in with some trash talk, Shotei is responded with a Lariat, One Arm Powerbomb and that’s 3!

That was a solid main event, recurring problem though: it was too short! That match went under 15 minutes and while it was jam packed with high spots and power moves we could’ve had more time with Raquel’s crowning moment. I feel like Io could’ve resisted more offence seeing as her Skull crossbody and Moonsault should even out Raquel’s two One Arm Powerbombs. Also they overdid the smoke on her celebration we could barely see her. That being said, this was definitely a worthy usurper to Shirai, Gonzalez at the top of the division will be an interesting new landscape after a year of Shirai as champion. She’s had a good run, I do wish it didn’t involve the Charlotte skulfuckery at the start but she has done well to keep on top of the division during the COVID era and she’s done a good job in making sure the next champion is over.

Conclusion Good wrestling is all you need, and NXT Stand and Deliver stood and delivered strongly on Night 1, there is of course room to top it but that may be the intention. Do wish that some matches went longer but I’m not mad at all with who won, so once more a job well done as NXT end their Wednesday Night Campaign on a high.

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thewestmeetingroom · 4 years

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The West Meeting Room - Featuring Endnote Transcript

SPEAKERS: Braeden, Alexander, Lilian, Vikram

Braeden: Hello, and welcome to the West Meeting Room. We are broadcasting on CIUT at 89.5 FM, where we are taking up space on Dish-with-One-Spoon Territory. Today we are featuring an episode of EndNote, which is a new podcast produced by the Hart House Literary and Library committee. Joining me in conversation before we feature the show is the host of EndNote Alexander Lynch, who helps guide us into the Hart House Literary and Library committee as a community space, and he shared some of their plans for the show this year. And, yeah, if you could introduce yourself to our listeners, that'd be great.

Alexander: Absolutely. So, my name is Alexander Lynch. I'm going into my second year, specializing in English at UofT. And, I'm the coordinator for the Endnote podcast running out of the Hart House Literary and Library Committee at University of Toronto.

Braeden: So, I want to ask you about the Endnote podcast, but first, maybe for people who aren't familiar, what is the Hart House Literary and Library committee?

Alexander: Absolutely. So, Lit and Lib, as we affectionately call it, is one of the extracurricular committees that runs out of Hart House at U of T. So, we broadly take as our subject matter, literature and the Hart House library. And so, what that looks like in practice is running events to engage students. In the context of literature, whether that looks like you know, writers co-op, whether that looks like the literary contest, the literary journal, the Hart House review that we that we publish and sponsor, or the a Endnote podcast, which is our literary affairs podcast.

Braeden: Could you tell us a bit more about the Endnote podcast? What are some of its beginnings look like because I remember there being talk of, of the of Lit and Lib wanting to do a podcast and now to see that vision come to light with a great website and amazing feed and a few episodes that have been aired. Maybe you could walk us through a bit of the of the process of that coming together.

Alexander: Absolutely. So, Matthew Lee, who's a current co-chair was -- this is his brainchild. He began this in November of last year, and the intention was to run a couple more episodes last year as well, but COVID struck. So, they've intensified efforts this year. They brought me on to expand the podcast. The basic sort of vision behind the podcast is a literary affairs podcast. We feature conversations with UofT professors and Canadian authors about what we're calling literary big ideas. So that looks like stuff like Canadian multicultural literature or you know, what is a plague novel. We also showcase emerging authors from around the Hart House community. So people that are published in the various journals at U of T, the review, and we also released a couple episodes, which we released just this summer to start us off, to recommend books to our listeners. So, the basic sort of vision in those summer episodes then, was we've run to the third one's coming out September 4. And in those episodes, I sit down with various execs from the Hart House Literary and Library Committee to talk about the books that they're reading, you know, their favorite books, what they would recommend to others to read. You know, during the summer, sort of in the closing stages of the summer, obviously, since everybody's stuck inside I at least have had a lot of time to read. And so, as I keep finding myself saying and so, you know, the intention, there was To offer that opportunity for people to find things to read,

Braeden: How did you arrive at the title?

Alexander: Endnote? I, I think it's a bit... The basic intention, I think is that we take literature as our topic. And then we sort of provide this, this expansion or this, you know, this extra information that allows you to sort of deepen your engagement with the pieces, as you know, as the endnote is typically used in literary works. So that's sort of the vision of the philosophy.

Braeden: So, I listened to your first episode and you, you and your co-chairs, Matthew and Emily, get into War and Peace. And I'm guess I'm just wondering is, do you have maybe any reassurances for someone who might be a bit intimidated for that or is the lit in library committee a place where you know, I think, I think for someone who, who might not consider themselves an avid reader, but would like to get into reading and writing. Do you have I guess any words of encouragement to bring people into the space who think they might not be a good fit?

Alexander: Yeah 100% The first episode, I think, is the idea that we are only going to do highfalutin literary criticism. And that is certainly not the case. And that's indeed not our intention at all. I think the basic idea is that we're trying to engage people who have varying levels of familiarity or comfort with literature. So, whereas our first episode, you know, might focus on War and Peace, and sort of touch on a couple of other works. Our second episode, for instance, is very much a wide-ranging sort of discussion of just books that people are interested in. So, you certainly don't need you know, a high level to have critical knowledge to engage with those. And then, you know, sort of moving on from there during the year. When we speak with authors, for instance, that's just going to be an opportunity for you to hear the emerging authors from around the University of Toronto in the great work that they're putting out and to hear, you know, their influences and how it is that they got started. And I think that the majority of episodes are indeed the intention is all episodes are are working at multiple levels so that really people have a level of engagement can take something new and interesting from them and deepen their appreciation of literature at the same time.

Braeden: I also really like how much I feel like you really touch on community and events and workshops. I think there's a workshop coming for student journalism. I wonder something I hear a lot is that students maybe sort of lose their connection to reading for pleasure once they enter the academic realm because it seems like work. And so, to read and write, as a way to nurture aspects of your creative self can be more on the backburner. It's harder to carve out that time and space as a priority. So, I wondered if you had any advice for, for carving out that space and also is a Lit and Library Committee a space where they can start to reconnect with that a bit?

Alexander: That's an excellent question. And you know, that's actually something that I've been thinking about a lot of late. So, I guess, two thoughts as for Lit and Lib, first, because it's probably easier to tackle, I think, absolutely so. We pride ourselves I think upon not academicizing the joy of literature, because I think that literature is a joyful activity. So, we certainly, you know, are looking at things like the deconstructed library event where we're sort of discussing, you know, works that might not be touched upon because they're excluded on the basis on the identity of the author or whatever other reason, and so that's really just looking at, you know, how can we engage with literature? How can we appreciate literature as the thing that teaches us about ourselves and teaches us about the world. So, I think that Lit and Lib is certainly on top of that. As for more broadly, how it is that we can sort of prevent the perhaps cross contamination, if you want to call it that, of, of literature as a joyful activity. I think it's a difficult thing to do, the more that we move into academic literary study. I think one of the things that I at least have been doing of late is just reading things that I can't study in school. So, for instance, since I'm an English major, I can't you know, at a high level, work with works in translation. So that's something that I've been trying to dissociate the mindset of when I read a book, I am reading this book in order to study this book. So that looks like you know, reading Russian literature, reading French literature, reading German literature, whatever. I think the other thing that, that helps me to sort of dissociate books from academic activity is really just thinking about, you know, what excites me about the book when I read the book, I'm not going to read it for… okay, this is the essay topic that I'm going to write on this book or, okay, this is the, you know, the motif that I'm going to then work into my criticism of this book. But, what is in this book that reaffirms literature as a joyful activity, or something that I can do to learn about, about the world and myself? And so, I think it's a difficult thing to do, of course, it's difficult to draw that line. But, as I say, I think it's all about sort of reaffirming why it is that we read books. And so, I think that's something that certainly Endnote and Lit and Lib both focus on.

Braeden: Now I know that this may be putting you on the spot, but I'm wondering if there's a specific moment where you connected with that joyful engagement of literature. Does something come to mind?

Alexander: Yeah, um, the reason it was on my mind actually was because I was reading a book by the critical theorist Theodor Adorno called Minima Moralia, and I can't say that I understand 100% of the book. But, the point of the book that that really stuck with me was when he was discussing sort of why it is that, you know, academics are trying to institute this separation between, you know, work and life, like, you know, sort of the study of philosophy or the study of literature is something that we can sort of relegate to like a work-like activity. And he says that I can't remember the exact example that he uses, but to paraphrase the example that he uses, he says, Einstein didn't go home and then say, Okay, I'm off the clock, I don't have to work anymore. So there's a sense that, you know, in dividing, genuinely joyful activities and separating that awesome anything like, you know, the free pursuit of an activity, instead just relegating that to the sphere of work, which is, at least to some extent, what it is that school achieves, we then forget that. And so, reading that I read that about a week, or week and a half ago, and I sort of looked up and thought to myself, man, that's really something that that's important. And that's something that I've sort of been feeling of late. So that's certainly crystallized it for me.

Braeden: I Like that. So, this goes back to maybe the realm of accessibility and sort of tearing down the notion that, you know, it's elitist or you're moving through a canon of works. Are there plans to explore other mediums like, like zines, or graphic novels or audio books? I think it's actually quite expansive, like, how you can engage joyfully, with literature. So, I wonder, does anything come to mind? Or, are there plans to sort of visit other realms of what's considered literature?

Alexander: You're reading my mind, actually. Yeah, absolutely. That is one of the I think, really, really core things that we're focusing on both Endnote and otherwise. So, maybe to touch on a few things that we're doing. The most immediate I think roadblock when we think of critical capital L literature is the canon and sort of the demarcation between canonical and non-canonical works. And, and so one of the things that we're pretty immediately taking up in a couple of ways, is that demarcation. So, the first episode that we're running in our current series, where we speak with University of Toronto professors and Canadian authors, is Canadian multicultural literature. So that's looking at literature, by Canadian authors of a variety of backgrounds that has been, you know, sort of pushed aside in favor of, you know, traditionally wealthy white upper class works, or works by wealthy white authors. So that's the first thing. The other thing I think, throughout the year, as part of Lit and Lib, we're doing the deconstruct the library again, as I mentioned a little bit earlier. And that's sort of a similar approach where we're looking at the ways in which the library tends to exclude authors that don't fit a particular profile. The other EndNote episode that we're doing a bit later in the year is on oral storytelling which looks on, and particularly indigenous oral storytelling. And that's thinking about, you know, sort of moving to the formal distinctions and literature in addition to the canonical lines. So that's, you know, asking questions about, while oral storytelling is still literature, you know, as much as it tells a story, and it connects with people, which is, you know, the broad definition that I sort of tend to work with. I think this also comes about, you know, even when our formal or canonical distinctions don't make their way into the title of the work or the episode or the activity, and the second episode of book club that was just released last Friday. We specifically discussed a number of graphic novels as you pointed out a number of audiobooks as well. Thinking about you know, those words that are typically excluded for judgments on the formal character of the work. So those sorts of questions are definitely incredibly, incredibly important to us. And I think that I'm really excited by a lot of the work that we're doing to interrogate those judgments critically and to see why it is that they're there and what it is that we can do to, you know, take down the ones that are harmful to this activity that we all love.

Braeden: Well, maybe to close it out. Would you tell us what you're reading now, for fun?

Alexander: Yeah, absolutely. I actually I just finished Goethe’s Faust which I don't know that I would necessarily classify as a like, overly fun work. But I actually, as I just finished it last night, so I haven't yet picked up something new. I think I will read. Keats there's a selection of sonnets by Keats I've been meaning to get to. So excited to do that finally sort of taking some time off and the closing weeks.

Braeden: Oh, that's great. Thank you so much for sharing.

[plays episode of Endnote Episode 3 – Book Club w/ Lily and Vikram]

Alexander: Hello and welcome back to Endnote, a literary affairs podcast from the Hart House Literary and Library Committee at the University of Toronto. I’m Alexander Lynch. Endnote is recorded in Toronto, and we are grateful to have the opportunity to live, work, and study on Dish-with-One-Spoon territory. For better or worse, the beginning of the school year is just around the corner! In this episode, the final Endnote Summer Book Club episode, we’re going to continue chatting with Lit and Lib members about their summer book recommendations to get that perfect final pick to round out the summer. Today, you’ll hear a conversation I had with Lily and Vikram, Lit & Lib’s communications coordinator and writers’ co-op lead. Enjoy!

[pause for transition]

Alexander: Lily is a second-year undergraduate majoring in Public Policy and Urban Studies. She is very passionate about providing a platform for young writers, artists, and creatives to grow and share their work. She is also on staff at Body Without Organs literary journal. Vikram is the head of the Writers’ Co-op subcommittee. He is an avid reader and long-time creative writer, who has published works in several campus outlets. Currently, he is a staff writer for Trinity College’s publication The Salterrae, as well as a senior editor for the journal Screenwriters’ Perspectives at Victoria College. Hello, Lily and Vikram! How are you both?

Vikram: I'm alright. Thanks, Alex.

Lily: I'm good as well. How are you?

Alexander: Not so bad. Still shaking off the despondency about the summer ending, I'd say. Speaking of which, I hate to put you both in this frame of mind. But school is coming up soon, or at least it will be when this episode releases on the fourth of September. In these final few weeks, I think there's a certain sense of urgency: ‘How can I get through these last few movies, these last few chores, whatever.’ And so too with books, I think. It's my hope in this episode, then, to help listeners find that final book to explore before we return to academic life. So let's start, as I think makes the most sense, with what you're both reading now. Lily, perhaps we can start with you.

Lily: Yeah, right now my major summer project that I have assigned myself in the absence of any kind of routine in my daily life is Infinite Jest, which is a book about a lot of things like tennis and Quebecois separatism, and a halfway house in Boston. I am probably a third of the way through it. I started it in the very beginning of the summer. I was like, ‘I'm going to finish it. I'm totally going to get it done.’ I definitely am not going to get it done, but I'm hoping that I can at least pick it up next summer. Obviously, fantastic book by David Foster Wallace who, although he might not have been the best person is definitely one of the best writers in my book. And yeah, I have been really enjoying it.

Alexander: Can I ask, because I know that this is something that people do with Infinite Jest a lot: have you cut your book in half?

Lily: I have not cut my book in half. I don't know if I own a pair of scissors large enough to do that, to be honest.

Alexander: Obviously there are a lot of elements. as you point out, it's an exceptionally tough book to summarize, but what's the main thing that's striking to you about Infinite Jest.

Lily: Although you can't really compare it to anything, I would compare it to to Don DeLillo’s Underworld, which is another massive book that's made up of a bunch of different stories. I think that part of the fun of Infinite Jest is seeing like the little intersections where everything connects, all of these very unrelated characters, stories and events. As you progress through the book, you can see some connections forming. So it's a thought exercise in that way.

Alexander: Yeah, I’ll say. What about you, Vikram? What’ve you just finished, or you’re getting into now?

Vikram: My summer reading projects aren't nearly as ambitious as Lily’s. I’ve been burnt out, I'd say starting in August, just because I felt I've read quite a bit. So I wanted to sort of keep it nice and easy for the last little stretch of summer. So I actually read a short story collection by one of my favorite authors, Neil Gaiman. And this is his second, I believe, collection. It's called Trigger Warning: Short Fiction and Disturbances. And I decided to read for a couple of reasons. One of the projects that I followed through this summer was subscribing to the service Masterclass, and Neil Gaiman is one of the instructors there. And in that course, he mentioned this collection heavily and referenced a lot of the stories he wrote in it. So I thought, you know, for clinical and academic purposes, I might as well read it so I can study and learn from it. But also, I happened to be taking a short story class this semester. And so through added preparation, I thought it'd be helpful to put myself in that mindset.

Alexander: Yeah. What are the stories in the collection broadly about?

Vikram: Well, it covers a wide spectrum of things. Obviously, Gaiman is a sci-fi and fantasy writer primarily, that’s what he's best known as, so every one of them has a sort of supernatural elements to it. But as the title of the collection suggests, Trigger Warning, a lot of the stories are pretty disconcerting at times, or they can be—usually it involves death, misery, or people in generally uncomfortable situations, all that wonderful stuff. So, I wouldn't say there's a connective theme or idea for each of the stories, but I'd say totally, they all touch upon the same notes.

Alexander: Interesting. That's perhaps something of a counter-intuitive rejuvenation read, to have that sort of subject matter.

Vikram: I know, but strangely, I find it a little more invigorating. I don't know. I can only read so many light hearted stories, or as you know, for analytical purposes, sometimes the most dreary and depressing reads, for lack of a better word, have the most layers to dissect.

Alexander: Broadly, why do you both read the books that you do? On the one hand, we have the enormous intellectual exercise that is Infinite Jest, on the other we have this really interesting mix of emotions and temporal contexts. What draws your eye there?

Lily: I like to read things that a lot of people talk about or people have very strong opinions about, not necessarily because I want to engage with that on Twitter or whatever, but I just kind of like to do it for fun. I think that it is kind of funny when in conversation with a very pretentious person, I can be like, ‘Oh, yeah, I'm reading Infinite Jest.’ And they're like, ‘oh, what do you think about like this and this and that?’ And I'm like, ‘Well, I just like to read it for fun. I think it's funny.’ I think it's a funny book, and then they get kind of mad, but I think that reading should be fun. And so I like to read things that people have opinions on so that I can form my own fun opinions.

Alexander: Love it. What about you, Vikram?

Vikram: Well, I’d say my selection of things I read is based primarily on what I think I'd like, and also just to make me a better writer in that genre. So for me, that would be mostly sci-fi, fantasy. Not nearly as sophisticated as what Lily's talking about, but it's where I like to sit. So in that sense, I do take recommendations from friends who have similar tastes as me just to see where they're coming from. Overall, I feel it's just helpful to read a wide variety of things so I can try to be the best writer I can.

Alexander: Yeah, actually, funny enough, I think Gaiman in particular is a writer that other people on the Lit and Lib committee have strong opinions about. I was speaking last episode with Allison, who also very much likes Gaiman, so perhaps you would both hit it off there.

Vikram: On nice. Do you know what she was reading recently?

Alexander: The Sandman graphic novel series was one of our top three favorite books of all time.

Vikram: That's interesting, because I'm not sure if you heard, but there's actually an audiobook adaptation that came out last month, so I happen to be listening to that as well.

Alexander: Love it. I love to see the connections here. I think it's been a very, very long summer in a lot of ways, and it's tough to stretch back all the way from April or May until now—what would you both say are your top three summer reads or as many of three as you wish to give? Sometimes it can be challenging to come up with three. Lily, we can start with you.

Lily: Sure, so I obviously have been reading Infinite Jest, but as a primer to that I read A Supposedly Fun Thing That I'll Never Do Again, which is a collection of essays also by David Foster Wallace, which were super funny. Some of them were very hard to get through, and I did not like. I really did love his essay on David Lynch's work. I thought that was really neat. I have also re-read, right at the beginning of quarantine because I thought would be thematically appropriate, The Metamorphosis, which is obviously the Kafka story where Gregor Samsa, the main character, wakes up and has been turned into a bug and for that reason is forced to quarantine in his room. I saw a bunch of stuff on Twitter where people were like, ‘this is exactly like that.’ And I was like, ‘You know what, you're right. I'm gonna go reread it.’ Definitely one of my all-time favorites. And my third would be Star-Girl by Jerry Spinelli, which is kind of a kid's book, but I read it, I found it as I was packing to move and I re-read it and I actually loved it so much more than I did when I read it as a kid, even though it is about young high schoolers, and I like to pretend that I'm very far past that. I definitely think that there are a lot of things about going to new places and experiencing magical realism in your daily life that I think are important things to remember, especially in the context of the world being such a dreary place right now.

Alexander: Yeah, so maybe we can jump into those, alternating with Vikram’s three so I'll turn first to you, Vikram.

Vikram: Okay, so my top three reads, in no particular order. First, I'd have to start with the book The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, by Michael Chabon. It won the Pulitzer in 2000—that's not the reason I chose; I’m not trying to be pretentious or anything. It's just that the summary of the book was felt really relevant to me. Basically, it's about two Jewish immigrants in Brooklyn in the late 30s, just leading up to World War Two, and how they partner up to create comic books together. One of them is a very talented artists, the other’s a copywriter for an advertising agency, but he's really a lot more talented than that. So they team up. It's basically a rags-to-riches story, but it also touches upon the lives of these two gentlemen and how they grow up and how they change and how fame affects each of them in different ways. And I really enjoyed because it's personal for me—I have a friend who's also a creative type and we've had projects that we’ve worked on together. So that stuck with me. But it also just captures the creative process in a way that I have never really experienced with any other book, and provides an interesting and little known history of the comic book industry in America in the late 30s, when it all balloons. And now we're living in the age where superheroes are so abundant, and everyone seems to have knowledge of them. So it's interesting to see the origins and how it all began. So that will be the first one. The second one, as I was mentioning previously, would probably be the audiobook adaptation of Neil Gaiman's graphic novel Sandman. Right off the bat, it was an interesting project because it started out as a comic book series—so, obviously, visual medium—and it transitioned to a completely acoustic one. I was curious when I first heard about it, how they were going to pull it off and work, but it turned out to be a pretty thrilling experience. It was incredibly high production quality. It felt more like a stage play than just your average audiobook because there were different actors voicing different characters and sound effects—it was a true spectacle, and I think it definitely brought the source material to life in a unique way. And the third book would be Jade City by Fonda Lee. It’s an urban fantasy, based in an East Asian setting of gangsters and crime families. And it was actually recommended to me by some of the instructors we've had at Writers’ Co-op. I think this book has fantastic world building, which was the main draw for me to read it in the first place, and it's nice to see some representation from a milieu that you don't normally see in fantasy stories, which is East Asia, which is always a delight.

Alexander: Yeah, so on that point, world building, I think is something that we're actually engaging in a couple of different ways at Lit and Lib, so that's something I want to just stick with briefly. When you are approaching books like Jade City and both reading the book as a book and also, in some sense, as a as an educative experience for you, what is it that it tells you about world building? How does that develop what it is that you think about how we should go about doing this in fantasy more broadly?

Vikram: Well, I think for Jade City in particular, it just provided an interesting case study for how authors can world-build in spec fiction. So in the case of this novel, it basically revolves all around the titular resource, which is jade, which grants people certain magical abilities, and essentially, it's the whole resource around which the whole social structure of the city operates. So all the crime families vie for it and their influence and power in the city is determined by how skilled their operatives are and how much access they have to jade. From there, the whole world just sort of branches off in very complex and interesting ways. So I think it's really helpful for authors in the sci-fi and fantasy genre who are trying to build their own versions of Middle-Earth and the Wizarding World, these iconic locations that millions of people want to immerse themselves in. It can be a bit difficult because it's a skill in itself. And so I think reading this book just sort of provided an interesting templates on how to do it in a relatively grounded but engaging manner.

Alexander: Lily, I'll turn to you now. A Supposedly Fun Thing That I'll Never Do Again—are, indeed, all of the essays describing supposedly fun things that Wallace will never do again? What is it generally about?

Lily: The title comes from his essay, which is included in the book, about going on a cruise, which is the original reason that I picked it up, because I have been on one cruise in my life and it was a real lot of stuff. And sort of more broadly, it goes into David Foster Wallace—one of his major things is modern entertainment. What does that look like? And how is that affecting us? Are we trapped staring at screens all the time? And he was saying this even before obviously the age of everybody having an iPhone and, even now, everybody being on Zoom all the time. So I think it was a really interesting diatribe about how do we entertain ourselves and, specifically in the context of a cruise, is it really worth it to go be stuck on a boat and have all of this garish excess around you for a week, which I thought was super interesting. There's a pretty wide variety of essays in the book. One of them is about his career as a junior tennis player, which is also something that he really harps on in Infinite Jest. He has a great love for tennis, I guess, and I have learned a lot about it through reading him. That one was really, really fun to read, because he speaks a lot about rural Illinois, which I was also born in the rural Midwest, so I definitely recognized a lot of the stuff that he was talking about. It was nice to have those memories, which I haven't really thought about since I was a kid, brought back up, about tornado warning sirens and everything being so flat all the time. So yeah, that was definitely a really good read.

Alexander: So is it the voice that speaks to you, is it the setting, is it the subject matter, or some combination of those things? What about the collection really strikes you?

Lily: The thing that really struck me the most was that I found it very funny. He doesn't tend, in a lot of his stuff, to be funny, but some of it is just funny to me. I think that the way that he observes the world and watches people go about their lives and all of these things that we do to try and make our lives more fun or gamify our lives consciously or unconsciously, I think his observations of stuff that people do every day like make the scissors gesture with their hand when they're looking for scissors is insightful. He picks up on that stuff and will write about it and it is a new way to see the world that feels very analytical but also looking for fun and small joys.

Alexander: Yeah, I've read a bit of a Wallace and I always really enjoy his essays because there is about that interesting mix of very wry humor—on the one hand, he's funny, but on the other hand, he's saying things that are very troubling to a lot of people.

Lily: Yeah, exactly.

Alexander: I'll turn to you now, Vikram. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay—you spoke a little bit about it. What is it about the book, besides this biographical connection to you and your friend that are both creatives are involved in these sorts of projects, that is interesting to you? Is this a book solely for people interested in comic books? I certainly don’t think so. What is it that broadly speaks to readers about the book, do you think?

Vikram: Well, I definitely wouldn't say it's only for comic book fans, because I guess you could classify it under literary fiction. I suppose there's a reason it's gotten a lot of acclaim, which is that it can speak to a wide spectrum of readers. But more importantly, I think is just an inspiring for two reasons. One, I'd say it's the dominant theme of the book, which is escapism, which the author makes pretty apparent, so it doesn't really require that kind of analysis to understand. You don't need an English degree to pinpoint that, oh, this book’s about escapism. To put it briefly, one of the protagonists is Jewish and he escaped from Prague just before the Holocaust occurred. And unfortunately, his entire family was killed while he was in New York. And basically, without spoiling too much, throughout the rest of the book, he sort of struggles with this impulse to escape. And that bleeds into his superhero creation. The hero’s actually called The Escapist and he's basically a master escape artist, and his ability is to escape any bonds, and his goal is to free all oppressed people around the world, which is a not-too-subtle allegory within the world for the iron grip of fascism, and how these two boys were trying to counter that through their art. So that sense, I think it's a very relatable theme that a lot of readers will find insightful. And it also just captures the creative process in an interesting way. Because obviously, the book is centered around these two boys creating a work of art. But throughout the book, we see how that art molds them as much as they mold it. It's the best way I can describe it.

Alexander: And it’s terrifically succinct, so thank you. I'll turn back to you, Lily. Metamorphosis, which is a book that I was actually discussing on the last episode. It's a book that I adore. I actually hadn't made the quarantine connection. Can you speak to what particularly strikes you within Metamorphosis in the broader context of COVID and everything else going on?

Lily: Yeah, for sure. I also have always loved this book. I did a very extensive project on it in the 12th grade because it was the shortest book on the list, and then that backfired on me because I ended up writing a very long essay because I loved it so much. I think that there are a lot of things that people can definitely really identify with right now, especially the whole—not to sound like an English major—but the themes of work and productivity and how, even though this man has turned into a bug, he is so worried, every second that he is awake, about what his boss will say and how he can get work done and how he can stop being a bug so that he can go and catch the train and go see clients. I think that really parallels with the way that there is a global pandemic on and the first thing on everyone's mind is how can I continue my job rather than, you know, how can I look after my own mental health? How can I make sure that my neighbors are okay? Everyone has sort of been forced to be like, how can I continue to work? And I think that that is really depressing to read and be like, wow, you know, the ethos and the hustle culture has really not changed since the story was written so long ago, and although our society has progressed so much, we still are so focused on work, and what will my boss say if I don't turn in this assignment, even though this other huge thing has changed my life forever. I think that it is sad and very thought-provoking also to just observe that phenomenon.

Alexander: Yeah, and perhaps there is no better book to read while we're returning to school, although I think that it's a challenging book. Aline’s recommendation was The Trial, so I think if you're looking for a one-two thought-provoking punch, Kafka especially might be the way to go right now. Vikram, The Sandman, which is a book that Allison also touched on, but I'm curious about one aspect of it in particular. I'm struck by the interesting blend of media that you've been touching on. How would you say the, the medium of the book changes your experience of it? As you pointed out, it's tough to imagine a graphic novel being an audio book. What does that experience look like?

Vikram: Well, truth be told, I've only read the first volume of the original Sandman graphic novels, which is called Preludes and Nocturnes, and this adaptation covered the first three volumes. So with the first one, I knew the general plot and what was going on, but afterwards I was going into unknown territory. But in that sense, I thought it was even more engaging and immersive, just because, as I mentioned previously, it felt like more of a production. I think there were talks about adopting Sandman into a TV series or film years ago, so I think in that sense, this provides a nice stepping stone to get to that, just because there are different voice actors that really embody the characters and sound effects so you have that incredibly high production quality and just the forming of the world, which Gaiman did perfectly on paper. He's done so as well in this oral environment. And I think the audiobook format adds to the work in the sense that a lot of stories in Sandman are about storytelling. And so I guess that would be meta fiction. So by having it in the acoustic format sort of simulates the idea of sitting around a campfire with your friends, trading these horrific, insightful, and mysterious stories. So that's a nice added benefit.

Alexander: It works on a lot of levels in that way. Speaking of oral storytelling, I think that's one of the other things that we're really thinking about this year with Lit and Lib. Apologies, Vikram, I keep using the books that you bring up as excuses to talk about other things but I'm definitely hoping that you can get involved with some of these things, as I think you likely will, because oral storytelling is something that we tend to neglect when we think about what literature is or what it can be. And that's certainly an exciting thing to think about, I think especially in the context of adapting not a written story, but a graphic novel. Star-Girl. Lily, I know nothing about this book. I'm entirely ignorant. I apologize. But you did bring up something interesting when you were describing it earlier, which is that there's something interesting about coming back to a book, you know, years after having read it the first time. Could you speak to what that experience looks like? I think that's something that people are doing a lot right now. What does that look like? What does that feel like?

Lily: I think it's a very underrated book, personally, just because it is kind of a kid's book. People tend to be like, ‘Oh, you know, you read this in fourth grade’ or whatever, but I think it has a lot of potential as a book that you come back to. It is about a boy who moved from Pennsylvania to Arizona and he is in either late middle school or early high school, I don't know if the book really makes it specific. A girl is at this boy’s school who is super—it’s kind of a manic pixie dream girl thing where she is super weird. She has a pet rat that she brings around with her everywhere. She sings Happy Birthday to everyone on their birthday with her ukulele, you know, quirky stuff like that. But then it gets almost into some sort of magical realism towards the end where they have like a formal dance and she leads everyone on this giant conga line out into the desert because of course they're in Arizona, which I think is rife with potential for magical realism because if you guys have ever been out there, it is just a very strange and beautiful place. And I think that there's a lot of stuff in the book that I overlooked the first time I read it, obviously because I was a kid. And going back to it was really interesting experience because I could remember a lot of the things that I've thought about the characters in the plot when I was reading it in, you know, the fourth or the sixth grade or whatever, alongside the new thoughts and ideas that I had about it now. And so I would I would recommend if people have time, towards the end of the summer, go back and find a book that you read as a young kid and reread it and sort of see—because it also is an experience not to see just the difference in how you view the story but a difference in sort of how you think and how your perceptions of what you read has changed. I think it's really fun and interesting experiment, almost.

Alexander: Yeah, I think even on a shorter time span, to extend the imperative slightly. Even to read a book that you read a year ago, I think is a really interesting experience. Vikram, we talked briefly about Jade City as well. I want to expand ever so slightly on it. You touched on world building. There's an interesting perspective on that, that I'm thinking of now, given that in a lot of ways we're being distanced from the world in which we are ordinarily immersed. Can you speak to what it is that feels different about attempting to build or enter into an entirely fantastical world at a time at which we're removed from the world that we ordinarily inhabit?

Vikram: Oh, that's a really good question. I'm not quite sure if I can give a really good answer to that, because to me, I think the fantasy genre in general—it is all about escapism, just to continue with that whole motif, as I was discussing previously with Kavalier and Clay. So whenever you read a book like that, there's this prerequisite, that you're entering into a fictional world, you can sort of leave all your problems behind, just immerse yourself into this wonderful, whimsical story. But with Jade City, I think the unique quality is that it's a pretty grounded world, not dissimilar to ours in many ways. It's reminiscent of Hong Kong or Tokyo or any other East Asian metropolis and it definitely has the hallmark of gangster films that many people would be used to. So I think that added grounded nature to it makes it more interesting, because that's some plausibility to the actions of the story.

Alexander: Right. Perhaps we step out of quarantine and we step into a world that resembles Jade City a bit more than we might have remembered.

Vikram: Let's see. Let's hope not. Hopefully world leaders don't mess this up too much.

Alexander: Right, hopefully not. To continue with lists and threes—there are a couple of writers that have come up a couple of times, so maybe I already know at least some of the answers to this question, but over the span of your readerly lives—and I'll caveat it, as I did last episode: as many of three as you wish to give because giving any over the span of a long period of time is very tough—top three favorite writers. Vikram, I'll begin with you first. Maybe quickly, give your top three and then we can discuss a little bit more.

Vikram: Okay, so the first I'd say—in no particular order—is the one I've already mentioned. Neil Gaiman. Man's probably like the one of the best living fantasy authors, so I don't think that's too much of a controversial opinion. After that, I'd say Rick Remender, who's a comic book writer that I really like. And then lastly, in terms of nonfiction, just the cover the whole spectrum, I'd say Malcolm Gladwell was a UofT alum, by the way, so shout out.

Alexander: True Blue. What about you, Lily?

Lily: Um, I think my top three probably are Kafka, definitely. I love everything basically, that he has ever done, even though a lot of it is very sad. I really, really like Vonnegut as well. I'm trying to make my way through all of his stuff. I think that Breakfast of Champions is next up on my list, but I think that a lot of what he does is just super interesting and almost magical realism, but not really. I just think that the way that he writes about things is such a very different perspective from my own on life. And then I think David Foster Wallace, I guess, because I haven't mentioned him so much—very contentious figure to me because of some of the things that he has done, but I just think that he really is such an individual can be matched, so I do probably have to put them out there.

Alexander: Yeah, a lot of really interesting American authors, I'm noticing, Vonnegut, DFW. It's an interesting selection. So Neil Gaiman, Vikram, we obviously touched on Trigger Warning, you've touched on The Sandman—what is it about Gaiman, broadly, that you're really interested by?

Vikram: I just think the range of his story ideas is kind of unparalleled by any spec fiction author I know. He mostly dwells in the fantasy area, a little bit into science fiction, but the common theme I'd say is all of his stories feel very grounded and real—almost magical realism, I'd say to a certain extent, maybe with novels like American Gods and the Nazi Boys, but I suppose that's debatable. And I think just the taking his Masterclass also made me appreciate his works more, because I can sort of see the process that went into creating it, just from that writer's lens. So that was definitely a treat.

Alexander: There is something, I think, really, really exciting about listening to an author speak about their work, and especially if it's a work that you're really inspired by a really found super interesting.

Vikram: Definitely.

Alexander: Kafka. What particular works of Kafka's do you find particularly captivating and what is it about them that does that for you?

Lily: I really love—I don't know if this counts as one of his works, per se—but I have a book of letters that he wrote to his editor, a woman named Milena, who is very much in love with. It almost is more light hearted than the rest of the stuff that he writes while also being obviously very romantic and tragic, and all of those things. But there is a lot of little tidbits about his life and the person that he was that I think are really fun to read, especially because part of it was a work correspondence. So he would like send these giant letters that are like, I'm so in love with you, and also I am so sad and I cried for three hours today and she's like, ‘Yes, can you please send me your most updated draft of something I need to translate for you?’ So I think that it is a very interesting look into sort of like the person that he was and he also was very, like sick a lot. He had some sort of respiratory thing, I think.

Alexander: I think he had TB, if I'm not mistaken.

Lily: Yeah, I think so as well. He would write about that a lot and it’s just an interesting way that has really informed the way the rest of his works, knowing what his daily life was like.

Alexander: I'm excited by the desire that I'm sensing from both of you to get behind the authors, in some sense, because I think we sometimes forget that authors are people, for better or worse, and it means that we need to think about who they are, importantly, as distinct from the things that they've written, whatever that does for our analysis. Rick Remender. I'm afraid I'm not familiar with him, could you tell us a bit more about him?

Vikram: It's okay. I imagine most listeners wouldn't be. He's a fairly niche author, and again, he's in the comic book medium, which is a little more obscure. Honestly, I have not read a wide variety of things by him—only one series, basically. It's called Deadly Class. And the premise’s basically that it's an underground high school for assassins in training. So just right away when I heard that it drew me to the core concept of the series and made me want to explore it all. I tore through the entire series over the course of a few months. I absolutely loved it. I think it's just, first of all, a really interesting idea, sort of mixing coming of age with the sort of gritty crime and war thriller. And he is a very uncensored writer in the sense that you can tell he channels a lot of his own personal experience into his works, and he's a very unique voice, and he doesn't care to cater to anyone's tastes, and he's very authentic.

Alexander: Vonnegut. What about Vonnegut really strikes you?

Lily: I think he also is a very funny man, as well as David Foster Wallace. He has that dry wit and sarcastic way that he speaks about everything. You mentioned, ‘Oh, that's a lot of American authors.’ I went to public school in America, so I was indoctrinated with the 'great American novel' rhetoric, and so a lot of the people I read now—Jack Kerouac, et cetera—are a reflection of that. But I really do love the way that Vonnegut describes everything like it is somehow the most important thing that has ever happened, even though a lot of the time it's very mundane stuff. Cat's Cradle, I think, is my favourite book of his, jus because it's so out there and so wild, and the main character never really has any idea what is going on as the world is ending around him, which is something that a lot of people can relate to nowadays. But I think that his vision of the world was so unique and so funny and also very lonely, but I think it is very fun to read as well.

Alexander: Yeah, I don't mean to slight American literature—by no means.

Lily: Definitely there is some stuff that should be slighted.

Alexander: I'm particularly struck because, for the most part, we've actually stayed away from American literature thus far, which I think is disappointing, at least to me, so I'm excited that that is well-represented. Gladwell. Fellow UofT alum, pride of Canadian journalism. What is it about Gladwell that you find particularly interesting, and which works by Gladwell are you particularly intrigued by?

Vikram: Well, like most people, I initially knew him best for his 10,000 hour theory, which states that any top performer in any field has practiced and honed their skills for at least 10,000 hours cumulatively, and I actually read that as a footnote in this biography of the famous American chess player Bobby Fisher, where that whole theory was used to advance why he was such a great chess player. That was my portal to discovering some of Gladwell's other works. He is, of course, as you mentioned, a UofT alum, he also went to Trinity College, so I have that added connection to him. I think that he is an incredibly gifted creative non-fiction writer, which is a field I'm developing more of an appreciation for these days. His whole mantra is trying to find the hidden side of everything. In his podcast, Revisionist History, that's basically the tag line. He looks at issues in a very unique way—talking specifically about the 10,000 hours thing, it was proposed in probably his most famous book, Outliers. His whole thesis there was that the way we think about successful people and top performers is flawed. We think it's intrinsic, that you're born with great skills, whereas the thing he's trying to push is that it's all about opportunity and circumstance, more than individual agency, so it definitely provides a unique perspective in that sense. If you ever want to do a double-take on a subject you think you know well, read a Gladwell article, because it will be quite refreshing.

Alexander: Yeah, I've found that as well, actually. Last but not least, David Foster Wallace. What more can be said that hasn't already, but, broadly, outside of Infinite Jest and A Supposedly Fun Thing I'll Never Do Again, is there anything else by Wallace that you're particularly fascinated by? What, broadly, about Wallace is it that interests you?

Lily: The thing that initially drew me to reading his stuff was that I watched a Youtube video which was an interview with him about his thoughts on television entertainment, and he was wearing a very insane bandanna, and I was like, 'this dude looks super fun, what has he written that I can read?' I think that it's like when you read Fahrenheit 451, where Ray Bradbury predicted headphones and AirPods before either of those things existed. Reading Infinite Jest, one thing that happens is they invent video calling, and then people get very into these masks that you can wear to make yourself look nicer, and, yesterday, my mom texted me, and was like, 'Did you know that there is a beauty filter on Zoom?,' and I was like, 'Oh my God, it's happening.' I really think that, as much as some of the stuff he said was very crazy, a lot of the things that he thought would happen to people—our relationship with entertainment, our relationship with the digital space—has really come true or proven that he was a very good judge of human character.

Alexander: Yeah, there are probably very few other, more incisive observers of contemporary life than Wallace, I would think. Quick hits—another superlative question, maybe more difficult than the previous question. I find it this way, at least. Top three favourite books. I don't want to get too into the weeds on each one, although I'm sure that there's an incredible amount to say. Lily, I'll turn to you first. Maybe we can alternate quickly between the both of you.

Lily: Sure. I think that number one on my list is actually one that I haven't mentioned yet, which is The Angel Esmerelda, by Don DeLillo. It's a collection of short stories, but the title story is probably one of my favourite works of all time.

Alexander: And in twenty seconds or less, what is the story about, broadly speaking, and what is it about the story that strikes you?

Lily: Basically, it's about a group of nuns who are visiting a very rundown area of Brooklyn to provide charity. It involves a miracle happening in the area where people are seeing a very young girl who died around there. I think the broadness of the characters that are represented and their experiences and the religious juxtaposition on this very urban background—a nun is not someone you would think would go into very urban Brooklyn—but I found it captivating and interesting.

Alexander: Vikram, number one on your list—it doesn't have to be number one best work, but the first work of three in no particular order.

Vikram: Well, I'm basically just going to give the top three books that nine-year-old me would say, because I think they haven't changed, since my definition of my favourite book would be the thing I've read the most times. That being said, the first one would be The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C.S. Lewis. It's one of those books that got me into literature and fantasy to begin with, so it'll always have a fond place in my heart.

Alexander: Right, that's the gateway drug for fantasy for a lot of people I think.

Vikram: Exactly, exactly. Especially for kids.

Alexander: Lily, number two.

Lily: I think number two—I've already talked about it a lot on this call—but number two is The Metamorphosis. What a good one.

Alexander: It's a book that it's valuable to come back to. Man, I should read that again soon. Maybe that's the school prep book. Vikram, number two.

Vikram: Number two, once again a very unexpected, original choice: The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien. I don't really need to justify it too much—what can you really say? If you're going to read fantasy, might as well check out The Hobbit.

Alexander: Yeah. Both of you are hitting on so many books—it's the sort of thing where, I don't know about you both, but I have a running mental list of books that I have to read before the end of the summer, and I've forgotten half of them, but these books are on the list, and they've disappeared. Time is running out! Maybe the lesson to learn is keep reading while you still have time before school hits like a truck. Number three, Lily.

Lily: Mine, actually, is another kid's book. It is The Tale of Despereaux, which is about a mouse in a very 'ye olden days' castle setting. It's about a mouse and a rat and a princess and it's one of my favourite books because it's so hopeful and so sweet and so nice to read when bad things are happening because it's about the prevalence of light and goodness, and even a rat can be nice.

Alexander: The juxtaposition of The Tale of Despereaux and Metamorphosis is interesting in its own right. Finally, Vikram, number three.

Vikram: Number three, I'd have to say Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief. Not a book you'd find on your syllabi—maybe, one can hope. What more can I say than that this was a book that was incredibly influential for me as a kid—it informed my taste in fantasy, and it got me into Greek mythology. Without Rick Riordan, I wouldn't be reading Homer, so I have him to thank.

Alexander: Yeah, me as well, so I think we're both in the same boat there. Fun question in closing before we touch on some of the other things going on at Lit and Lib this year: if you could pick any literary universe to inhabit—any book, any language, any country, which one would it be? I'll turn to you first, Vikram.

Vikram: Since we're already discussing it and it's already on my mind, I'd say the Shire in Middle-Earth in Lord of the Rings, because it's perhaps the most relaxing fictional life that I can imagine. You kick your feet up all day and eat and drink and have a merry old time, so what can go wrong?

Alexander: That's the life. What about you, Lily?

Lily: I think that I would pick the world of The Master and Margarita, by Mikhail Bulgakov, just because I would love to see the devil come to Moscow. Everything that happens in that book is unbelievably buck wild. I would prefer to stick, definitely to Russia. I think that everything that goes on sounds like so much fun, and I'd love to have been there to see it all.

Alexander: Yes, I think that early 1900s, late 1800s Russia is easily top three for me as well.

Vikram: Just not 21st-century Russia, right?

Alexander: Right, that would be less than ideal, but here's hoping for sunnier days ahead. So, one of the other opportunities that Book Club affords us is that the execs from the Hart House Literary and Library Committee can come on and talk about some of the things that are coming up with their portfolios, what it is that we have to look forward to this year. Obviously, as I keep saying, it's a bit of a different year, given the various restrictions to in-person activity. Vikram, can you speak, first, to what we can look forward to out of Writers' Co-op this year?

Vikram: Yeah, we actually have a lot going on in the fall, so I'll try to get through it quickly. First, I'll say, the month of October will be the month of the Shale Project here at Hart House, so Avi Silver and Sienna Tristen, the creators of this multimedia storytelling platform called the Shale Project, will be hosting two different workshops series. One will be centred around world building, so, as we discussed, how to create a fictional world, make it fleshed out, all of that. The second workshop series will be on building fictional languages, so if you love Klingon, or Elvish, or any of those, this is definitely the place to come. We'll be hosting another workshop in the winter semester, but applications open on October 1st. It's called Decent Exposure. Basically, if you're an emerging writer and you want to hone your craft, definitely consider applying. It'll be hosted by the MFA students here at UofT. It'll be excellent instruction, and it'll be a nice thing to put on your resume. 

Alexander: And Lily, obviously, a lot has changed in the way that we communicate with our constituents at Lit and Lib. Can you speak to how we're engaging or involving the community this year out of communications?

Lily: For sure. All of our events will be on Zoom, so that'll be a big thing for me, but please do still come to them if you're listening to this and you're interested. I promise they will be very fun, very engaging. The other big thing that we have done this summer is we have redone our website. Please go take a look at it—we worked so very hard. Something that's going up on the website that'll be going up at the end of every month is a reading roundup of a lot of the books that are discussed on this podcast, but also new releases that we on the committee think are interesting, and old favourites from the past. So, if you are looking for books to read, if you also keep a running mental list but sometimes forget it as soon as you go to the library or go to buy a book online, definitely check that out. The last thing: we are looking this year to shout out young creators, artists, poets in Toronto, so if you have someone in mind, please get in contact with us. You can do that through DMs on social media or on the website and let us know about it because we would love to chat with them and feature them on our social media.

Alexander: And I might also throw in, feature them on the Endnote podcast for our Next Generation series. That's one of the other exciting opportunities. Terrific! Well, it's been great to speak with you both. Thanks so much for your time.

Lily: Yeah, thanks so much.

Vikram: Thanks!

[pause for music].

Alexander: Thanks again to Lily and Vikram for joining me. Before we end the episode, I have a couple of announcements from the Literary and Library Committee. The first concerns Lit and Lib’s Literary Fair! If you haven’t already heard about the Literary Fair on Endnote or elsewhere, this is an opportunity, on Friday, September 18th, to explore literary journals, clubs, and student publications from across the three campuses in one place at one time. Whether you are looking to become an editor, submit your work for publication, or join a club, the literary fair is an invaluable event. From 12 pm to 2:30 pm over Blackboard Collaborate, you will be able to pop in and speak one-on-one to student journalists and editors, gaining new insight into the world of student publications and literary clubs. There will also be time for each organisation to present what makes them unique from others and how you can get involved. For more information, check out hhlitandlib.ca or the Hart House Literary and Library Committee Facebook page. The second announcement is for Lit and Lib’s Student Journalism workshop! Do you have Something on your mind? Are you in the pursuit of truth and accountability? Do you want to connect and impact the lives of individuals around UofT? If so, you should get involved with student-run newspapers across the three UofT campuses. Maybe you already have and you want to brush up on your skills; maybe you don’t know where to start; maybe you have writer’sblock. At the HHL&LC, we understand the difficulty of being a student journalist. That’s why you should join us and the campuses’ premier student journalists and editors on September 22 via Zoom for Student Journalism 101. This is an opportunity to learn about the ins and the outs of student journalism from the newspapers themselves. The event will consist of a short presentation on what the editors and journalists are looking for in a good article and some helpful tips to get you started. There will then be a live Q&A period and break-out rooms where you get advice and constructive criticism on articles that you have already written. For more information, check out hhlitandlib.ca or the Hart House Literary and Library Committee Facebook. Finally, be sure to look out for more on the events that Vikram mentioned—we’ll have more information for you on those in the coming weeks. And that’s all for this episode! As always, you can find the full list of works discussed on this episode, and all episodes of Endnote, on our website, hhlitandlib.ca, along with literary events, opportunities, and news from the rest of the Lit and Lib Committee. Endnote is a podcast of the Hart House Literary and Library Committee, and I’d like to thank the committee for their ongoing support for Endnote. Our theme music is by Cameron Lee. Our next episode will be an interview with Veronica Spada, the winner of the prose category of the Hart House Review’s Literary Contest. A new format—very exciting! That episode will be released on September 18th. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, you can subscribe to Endnote wherever you get your podcasts, or visit our website at hhlitandlib.ca/endnote! I’m Alexander Lynch. Thank you for listening, and bye for now!

[host outro]

Braeden: Thank you so much for joining us today in The West Meeting room. A big thank you to Alexander for sharing his time with us. And to the student execs of the Hart House Lit and Lib Committee. You can check out harthouselitandlib.wordpress.com and you can listen to all episodes of EndNote wherever you get your podcasts. We'll have links to all of this in our show notes. The West Meeting room is a production of Hart House Stories, and we're here every Saturday at 7am on CIUT at 89.5 fm. We archive all of our shows on our Hart House Stories page on SoundCloud. Thanks so much for listening and we'll be with you next week.

#books #read #people #writers #literature #authors #author #literary #interesting #harthouse #uoft #story #graphicnovel

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pluienoir · 4 years

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Pluie/Noir Interscapes 02 “Interior Design”

Sound Mixed and Compiled by Rubi Visual Interpretation by David Surman

Soundcloud Link: https://soundcloud.com/pluie-noir/pluienoirinterscapes02

Welcome to the new Pluie/Noir podcast series, Interscapes. 8 years after our debut we decided to press the reboot button and return to our roots. With a new format and back to a regular monthly schedule, Pluie/Noir Interscapes will feature audio collages, mixes, live interviews and live recordings from P/N artists, friends, and other collectives we admire.

Because less is more, instead of the usual triptych format, this series will feature one single visual interpretation of the music by a graphic artist. The artwork will be available to purchase in poster format on our rebooted Bandcamp page very soon, with cassettes or CD-r of the mixes as a bonus.

World events have taken the series out of its planned monthly schedule, but priority was on the safety and functional structure of the private lives of everyone involved in the project during these unprecedented times.

For Interscapes 02 we welcome Rubi, a versatile german artist based in Myanmar, with a visual interpretation by english painter David Surman,

— Interview: Rubi

Hi Christina, welcome to the P/N Interscapes series. How have you been?

Hi there, and thank you so much for having me on your wonderful series! <3 I’m good, I’m enjoying what I can from the comfort of my own home together with my little kitty, currently working online and otherwise painting and reading a lot or watching movies!

Why did you move to Southeast Asia? Was it mere chance or a long-term goal?

A little bit of both, but I’d say it was intentional :) I moved here initially only for a short-term gig of three months early 2017 which I found really quite randomly but was very intrigued by. And honestly, I just liked it so much that I felt like I needed to come back and spend more time! I moved back to Yangon, Myanmar in August 2018 and have been here since, and I deeply love it – there’s a different energy in the air in Southeast Asia, people are kind and positive everywhere around you and there is still so much space on an economic and artistic level that it’s a very fulfilling place to be!

Your endeavours seem pretty vast. What did you study, what do you do for a living, and how do you entangle it with music?

Ha, I’m an economist and data scientist during the day. I’ve always been listening to and surrounding myself with music, but actually got deeper into DJing when I started my PhD in Barcelona in 2013 – I just felt like at the end of a long, mentally draining day I needed to use a very different part of my brain to really relax and let go, and getting creative with the music perfectly hit the spot. I’m currently teaching at a Liberal Arts and Sciences Institute here in Myanmar, which has the goal of bringing quality education to students from different walks of life, particularly those from ethnic minorities and less privileged backgrounds.

I finally got to combine my two worlds by teaching a class in music psychology this term, where we are exploring the role of music in everyone’s life from early childhood, how it is used as a social identifier and its connection to politics and conflict. My students are in their early 20s, and I’ve put them on the guestlist for several of the club nights I’ve organized here and they think it’s the coolest thing ever to see their professor behind the decks haha!

How is the audio-visual arts scene in Myanmar and the surrounding Nations? Are you helping activate it somehow and what are you working on nowadays?

I’d say the scene particularly in this part of Asia is at an early stage compared to Europe, but driven by a lot of passion and daring, forward-thinking people. In most of the major cities, you’ll find a beautiful venue and a small dedicated crew of people behind it - some of my favourite places I’ve played at in the area are Savage and Observatory in Vietnam, the Resonant crew at B1 in Taipei and Club Kowloon in Hong Kong. Also, the early-stage vibe brings the liberating attitude that as a DJ it’s really just about making people dance, and there’s no ego yet about the tracks you play or how you achieve this – if you can manage a dance floor, you get a stamp of approval.

Myanmar I’d say is the youngest scene by yet another margin, particularly because of its very recent coming-out of a military dictatorship. There’s a small number of local DJs and very few venues that dare to program (non-EDM) electronic music, and I was lucky to get a residency in my favourite club in town within the first month of arriving! I started my Out Of Sight events here, a monthly series which gained a very regular following and is the only one with international bookings in the whole country. Upon coming here, I didn’t really think I’d get to start another series of my own, especially inviting over so many DJ friends to come to visit and also contribute and explore the country while they’re here. Honestly, part of my joy in doing this has purely been getting inspired myself by seeing people play, bringing together a community of friends to dance through the night and just have a really great time.

It’s been a very gratifying journey, not least because it received appreciation from people in town – many of the local DJs became loyal followers and very excited to see artists from different countries play here in Yangon. Over the past couple of months, I’ve had Adam Collins here, Exos (twice!), TC80, Avos & Moses Mawila, Max Davis and many more. So yes, I feel like I’ve made a small contribution to the scene in one particular place – and honestly, there is still so much space here for people doing things that it’s very fun and easy to create something impactful!

Tell us more about "Interior Design": How, why, when?

I’ve recorded this podcast at home in Yangon, on a chill midweek evening when I felt a little spark of inspiration. I honestly take forever to record podcasts, as you already know from me submitting this so late :) I get deeply into overthinking mode and since I don’t publish many mixes I want them to have a specific theme and vision behind instead of just putting tracks together – which usually ends up with me procrastinating for months until it finally clicks and I know exactly what I want to do. There are quite a few tempo changes inside as I tried to create an arch from very slow ambient tracks to something I’d play in the middle of a night and then back down again. But somehow all of the tracks I put feel deeply me and representative of the style I like, so I identify with it.

The name was a last-minute hunch, but seemed fitting with the current phase of everyone spending time inside their homes and through this discovering maybe not just their furniture but also the building blocks of their inside world :)

And music-making? Is it something you want to explore?

I’ve actually gotten into playing acoustic music here with friends in recent months, and that’s been a really fun journey! I have a bunch of instruments at my home, and hosting small jam sessions has been one of my favourite pastimes. All of them are much more talented and experienced than me but have graciously taken me in so I’m constantly learning a lot.

On the electronic music side, I feel most compelled by making more experimental and ambient things as it feels like there is a larger range of freedom for exploration. I’ve been sampling some of the sounds in my surroundings for a while as the hustle and bustle here sounds so different from what I’m used to in Europe, so we’ll see what comes out of it!

Short, medium and long term goals?

Honestly, I’m a pretty chill person, so my overall goal in life is just to spend my time in an interesting and creative way, surround myself with people I love and somehow leave a positive trace with what I do. If I manage to keep combining all of these things I’ll consider myself a lucky and successful human!

— Interview: David Surman

Hi David, such a pleasure to have you at P/N. How are you, all things considered?

Thank you for asking, I’m very good right now. The pandemic has shifted my reality in all sorts of unexpected ways. I had coronavirus after taking a trip to Madrid, then New York. I came back to London and got sick immediately. I’m so glad to have fully recovered. I’m enjoying the empty London.

Have you lived abroad and explored different artistic fields apart from painting, or has it always been about England and canvases?

I was introduced to painting when I was a teenager by an artist Rob Fairley who my dad knew. I had always drawn a lot, but I didn’t consider being a painter until much later. I actually trained to be an animation film director, which seems so ridiculous to me now. I thought of it as a pragmatic choice -- the kind of profession which is somewhere between a reliable job and artistic freedom. Little did I know that hand-drawn animation would all but disappear.

I absolutely loved good quality animation, films like Akira and Ghost in the Shell, and the Studio Ghibli films. I wanted to make them, and I also wanted to disappear into them. I started seriously painting again in my early 30s after a decade of working in animation and videogames in the UK and Australia. The timing has been perfect for me, as I started to paint really when I was ready. Australia changed my work, it made me think about colour and light and scale. I made films and animations and games there with my partner Ian Gouldstone before we came back to the UK and I started to paint full time around 2013.

I'd discovered your work through Sound Of Vast's "5th Anniversary Series". It featured a series of paintings from your "Paintings for the Cat Dimension" exhibition/installation. What was it about?

That was such a wonderful collaboration, and the team at Sound of Vast are brilliant. My exhibition was a series of 12 paintings of the same cat motif, a mother with two kittens, interpreted in 12 different ways. I wanted to make a statement on what it means to paint in the post-internet era, without giving in to the impulse to simply paint or reproduce imagery directly from online culture. So I created a cat motif in response to the prevalence of cats online from the beginning. The real statement though was the stylistic shifting around. I wanted to say “we are playing with identity all the time, why should an artist be an authentic singular identity?” I wanted to show that an artist can wear many masks, and they’re all authentic in representing artistic action.

Do you consider the internet, social media and contemporary sub-cultures the biggest influences of your work?

I don’t believe you get to choose your influences so much in art. By the time you’re 8 years old or so, your plastic little brain has been shaped by certain formative things. For me, there are two fascinations, first the natural world, which nourishes the animal side of me. The second is the artificial human world of images, electronic media, videogames, movies, art.

As much as I would like to be integrated into nature like a romantic dreamer I firmly believe humans are stuck outside of nature, so we have to make a new nature for ourselves to comfort and distract ourselves. This is art, and it takes many shapes, from youtube to painting to music. I see all these things as fundamentally the same, art is doing something with love. I see a lot of love in internet cultural activity and so it influences me. Though I have no idea how visible all this is in the work.

Your work isn't shy of colour or texture. Is this rooted in your fascination for animation?

When you learn to animate you become totally dedicated to line. It’s through moving lines that things come to life. Drawing is emphasised more than painting, and so colour and surface are less emphasised. When I came back to painting I really savoured the ability to subtly control the colour of the image and also the final quality of the paint. I go for strong colour because of various factors. You’re certainly right about animation being an influence, I think the colours of well-made cel painted animations are astounding. Particularly in good quality anime feature films of the 80s and 90s.

My approach is also calculated, I am interested in having an impact followed by a slowly shifting understanding, and you need to push colour to achieve that. Also as I have gotten older and become more and more conscious of art history I feel a sort of obligation to have courage with colour and put out my ideas in a clear way.

Do you listen to music while painting? Does music have an impact on you while you paint?

I absolutely listen to music when I paint, and I am totally repetitive in my choices. I listen to David Bowie’s discography on repeat, and Kate Bush too. If I need to go to a particular mindset I will listen to Bach, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Glass. Bowie and Bush are just always there, timeless, every aspect of it is totally known and listening to them while painting just greases everything along nicely. I would like to be a curious listener and search for different music, but I think I’ve become extremely focused on the experiences of the eye, and perhaps not so much the other senses.

"Raucous Bird" is your visual interpretation of Rubi's podcast. Why did you choose this particular work?

Listening to Rubi’s work I was thinking a lot about the space of music, and the way we lose a sense of direction. It becomes spatial, but there isn’t necessarily a top or bottom. This is very different from visual art, which relies a lot on a structure of top, bottom, and so on. It made me think of the paintings of cockatoos I’ve made, who I saw often in Australia, playing fun games in the trees. They appear weightless and live to enjoy the space and their own free bodily movement. For me, the music creates a wonderful association with this memory.

Short, medium and long term goals?

To make exciting paintings that have an impact, and to bring the work to new places. That’s the priority for me at any given time. Thanks so much for asking such great questions.

— Links:

https://soundcloud.com/itsmerubi https://www.davidsurman.com

W: https://pluienoir.tumblr.com M: info (at) pluienoir.com

#david surman #rubi #pluienoirinterscapes

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arts-dance · 6 years

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Symbolism in the Renaissance: shedding light on the myth

In many ways, the Renaissance marks a turning point in the way in which painting was both perceived and practised. If, in the Middle Ages, this art form almost exclusively took its inspiration from, and depicted, traditional Christian iconography using Greek and Orthodox icons, it was from a completely difference source that painters found their inspiration during the Renaissance, a period which is now often described as the ‘golden age’ of painting. This new lease of life for the medium allowed artists to paint with greater freedom, as much in their choice of subject as in the reflection that their works provoked, by introducing symbols with diverse connotations and meanings to their pieces, with a range of different aims in mind.

Italy, birthplace of the Renaissance: a return to Antiquity and a new beginning for symbolism

The Renaissance was born in the Mediterranean, specifically Italy, in the 1400s. It was given the Italian name “quattrocento”, in Florence, the artistic and political capital of the period. The painters of the time were released bit by bit from the stranglehold of religion by the growing influence of scientists, architects, artists, and intellectuals who had fled following the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Painters turned towards a new source of inspiration: Ancient Greece, which itself was inspired its own mythological models. Through these new subjects, artists looked at new themes, which had more in common with humanism than with religion, characterised by moral values such as tolerance, freedom of thought, peace, and a focus on self-education. The evolution of painting was pushed further than it had ever been before through the newfound use of perspective, the study of human anatomy, and of proportion, as well as an immeasurable improvement in pictorial technique shown by artists such as Paolo Uccello, Fra Angelico, Masaccio, Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Filippo Lippi, Giorgione, Le Tintoret, Sandro Botticelli, Léonard de Vinci, Michel-Ange, Raphaël, Giovanni Bellini, and Titian. This key period in art history was distinguished by the proliferation of never-before-seen symbols at the heart of these master works.

The Birth of Venus; a perfect example of symbolism

Created in around 1499 by Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus is a work which is said to have been inspired by a well-known muse of the time: Simonetta Cattaneo, the wife of Mario Vespucci and lover of Julien de Médicis. Dead at the age of 27, she was considered by Florentine artists to be the most beautiful woman in the world, hence why she inspired many artworks at the time. With the aid of his muse, Botticelli incorporated mythology linked to the birth of Aphrodite, although Botticelli’s version represents a scene of the Goddesses’ appearance on earth rather than her birth. However, what is interesting about the piece is its symbolism, which penetrates the painting on many levels. Firstly, on the level of the characters themselves; Venus is the Goddess of beauty, and was celebrated as such throughout the Mediterranean.

This clearly indicates that the piece was in fact a hommage to Simonetta Cattaneo, the muse of Botticelli’s age. His Venus is nude and only covered by her hair, her blondness and pale skin associated with a more spiritual and ethereal beauty as opposed to a carnal and wild one. She gestures innocently, and whilst she is being exposed, she attempts to hide herself without truly doing so, about to be covered with a purple cloak, a sign of the married woman she is about to become. This detail takes on a new meaning when the viewer knows that the commissioner of the painting was no other than the Prince Laurent “The Magnificent” de Médicis, patron and son of a long line of princes who ruled over Florence, who was about to get married himself. In creating the painting Botticelli showed a great deal of audacity, depicting a life-size female nude for the first time in 400 years.

Zephyr (the son of Eos, goddess of the dawn) and Chloris, female and male symbols of the wind, are both winged and entwined, symbolic of gentleness and strength, and also representing parental figures. Venus, born from the sea itself, possesses the masculinity of Uranus, who was castrated and his sex thrown into the ocean. Finally, one of the Hours, one of the 12 daughters of Zeus, represents the season of spring. She is wearing a belt of buds stemming from vines, a symbol of eternity and new beginning, with a dress of embroidered flowers. She attempts, in spite of the wind, to cover Venus with a red cloak, also embroidered with flowers, which can be interpreted as an attempt to bring the young woman into the world by covering her with the cloak of civilisation, outside of nature’s wilderness and into a nature controlled by man.

Furthermore, the symbolic aspect of the painting is shown through the detail of the piece. The scallop shell represents the female sex; the scallop’s purest fruit, the pearl, is represented by Venus, an emblem of beauty. The shell also represents a boat, a means to transport the young woman to the shore, as the woman is a vessel of flesh to carry an infant. In the same way, the foam of the sea represents, according to mythology, the only remains of Uranus’ masculinity, as he was castrated and his sex thrown into the sea, which therefore represents male sperm, creating a whole generation of creatures born from the sea that moved to earth, of which Venus is one. Moreover, the flowers embroidered onto some of the garments in the painting are mostly daisies, spring flowers that are resistant to the cold of winter, therefore symbolising longevity. Using these flowers is a way for the painter to introduce a good omen for the future couple of the painting’s patron. Aphrodite’s roses, which call to mind the myth of Adonis, suggest, through their pink colour, a mix of the red of carnal desire and the white of spiritual love.

Northern Europe, a symbolism anchored in reality

Although the Renaissance took longer to reach Northern Europe, it nonetheless brought about considerable changes in Nordic painting, notably in the countries where it was the most widespread: Holland and Germany. Painters in these countries did not follow the same path as their older Italian counterparts, choosing instead more realistic and less idealised subjects, drawing on landscapes and scenes from daily life rather than antiquity and mythology. On the other hand, they did conserve the symbolic heritage of their peers, although the symbols they employed carry a whole other significance. The Renaissance in Northern Europe was closely linked to the emergence of the rich merchant class who commissioned paintings to decorate their residences, and who asked specifically for paintings of landscapes and portraits that reflected the richness of the world in which they lived. Moreover, the world of luxury and wealth inhabited by patrons of the arts was an important influence on Northern European paintings of the period. Through the portrayal of this world, artists would convey often highly abstract messages, as much rational as symbolic. The detailed depiction of luxurious clothing, in addition to the presence of other symbolic items, is also typical of Northern European Renaissance artworks.

Amongst the works by Dutch Masters of this period, Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, which depicts Italian merchant couple living in Bruges, provides a striking example of this. The portrait, the first to represent a couple in the intimate setting of their own home, is also notable for its realistic style: both figures are shown standing in their bedroom, with the husband holding his wife’s hand. The pose is hierarchical and solemn, perhaps suggestive of a secret marriage, but more likely a mark of irony on the part of the painter. Van Eyck at once draws attention to the couple’s material wealth, while imbuing the image with a more symbolic significance, through, for example, the presence of the dog at the couple’s feet, symbolising loyalty, and the mirror that sits on the far wall, placed in between the figures, which represents virginity.

German symbolism, a celebration of the mind

In Germany, such symbols were often religious in nature, according more importance to spirituality than material wealth, with certain painters using symbols to explore an intellectual rather than material domain. Enjoying a great deal of recognition during his lifetime, and highly sought-after as a portrait artist to the most powerful figures of the day, Hans Holbein the Younger created a double portrait of Jean de Dinteville and George de Selve in 1533. The pioneering work, one of the first examples of the double portrait in Northern European painting, is often interpreted as a celebration (albeit an ambiguous one) of the values of humanism in the 16th century, particularly in light of the symbolic significance of the objects featured. Each of the items represents a branch of human learning, the globe, for example, symbolising geography. The work also pays tribute to the power and intelligence of its subjects through the use of symbols. Of all the symbolic elements of the image, however, it is the flooring whose symbolic meaning has caused the most controversy amongst academics. Mary F. S. Harvey, an expert in symbolism, interprets the six-pointed star motif as a cabalistic symbol, while some interpret the central square and circles as a representation of the longevity of the universe, and others consider the design to be a symbol of the universe as a macrocosm, with the central circle symbolising God, and the four peripheral circles symbolising the four elements, fire, earth, water, and air. A similar idea is conveyed through the floor of the Sistine Chapel, whose design references the creation of Adam, and the notion of God giving life to man. Viewed as such, the two figures in Holbein’s portrait, Dinteville and Selve, represent a microcosm, placed in the context of the macrocosm of the floor design and alongside objects relating to the traditional notion of the “Renaissance man”, though with certain notable differences. With no means to confirm or disprove our theories, attempting to decode the complex symbolism of such works is a bold undertaking, with ambiguous symbolism often leaving works of art shrouded in mystery. In his famous double portrait however, Holbein makes use of a symbolism to send a clearer message to viewers, placing an anamorphosis, also known as an intentionally distorted object, in the foreground of the image. Viewed from one side, and from a certain distance, or reflected in a cylindrical object, viewers can clearly make out a human skull. The presence of the skull in the painting aims to challenge the vanity of the viewer, reminding them that however intelligent they may be, they too will eventually face death.

The “Vanitas” symbol

Vanitas is a genre of still-life painting that aims to convey a philosophical message through symbols representing death, known as “momento mori”. Objects relating to the opulence and richness of nature and human activities are put into perspective by reminders of death, most often in the form of a human skull. Such works were popularised during the Baroque period, particularly in the Netherlands, where the genre emerged around 1620, however the “momento mori” motif also featured, as in the case of Hans Holbein, in portraits. We also find these “momento mori” symbols alongside representations of human achievements such as science and knowledge, and symbols of wealth, luxury, sexual pleasure, and beauty, their presence serving as a reminder of the vanity of man in the face of death and the passing of time. During the the Renaissance, at the height of the humanism movement, Vanitas works were commonly found in the offices of powerful literary and political figures such as the Gubbio residence of the Duke of Montefeltro, and the office of Francis I in the Palazzo Vecchio. Still life, on the other hand, would not emerge as a genre until the 17th century, although Vanitas symbols were widely used in devotional works, with different symbols favoured by Northern and Southern European artists and by Protestants and Catholics. Nevertheless, time and death have been a constant source of fascination for artists throughout the ages, and the desire to capture what is ephemeral and transient is a common link between classical and contemporary Vanitas works.

Though artists have always made use of symbolism, the Renaissance nonetheless marked a significant turning point in this regard. The Italian painters, breaking free of religious constraints by taking inspiration from classical art, appropriated the symbols of their predecessors, expanding and amplifying their significance, and in turn imbuing their own works with a new complexity and depth and elevating them to the status of true masterpieces. No less creative, though more prosaic in style, Northern European artists made use of symbols for less poetic but more practical ends: to demonstrate the material or intellectual superiority of their patrons. Nevertheless, Northern painters remained the ultimate masters of their paintings, and well-disguised symbols were often a means for them to transmit their own message through a commissioned work, however mysterious, as is the case in certain vanitas works. One thing that we can say for sure, is that symbols, not least because of their mysterious and self-reflexive nature, have continued to fascinate artists, even inspiring a whole literary and artistic movement in the 18th century: symbolism. To be continued…

https://en.artmediaagency.com/104473/symbolism-in-the-renaissance-shedding-light-on-the-myth/

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As we’ve seen with contemporary acts from across a variety of genres, music merchandise is now a vital piece of the equation when evaluating the success of both an album and a subsequent tour. While recorded music itself remained the highest source of revenue (according to a 2016 study), merchandise grew year to year (2015-2016) by 9.4 percent. As a result, merchandise accounted for $3.1 billion in global sales, while the gross revenue from live music concerts worldwide was $4.88 billion.

As a whole, the industry has certainly taken note for the better part of a decade. In 2009, Bravado, a unit of Universal Music Group (UMG), secured a lucrative deal to create merchandise for the Rolling Stones. At the time, their roster already included Kanye West, Beyoncé, Gwen Stefani, Lady Gaga, Guns N’ Roses, Metallica, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, and Nine Inch Nails. More recently, they’ve added millennial talent like Billie Eilish, Justin Bieber, Brockhampton, Ariana Grande, Kid Cudi, Migos, Playboi Carti, Post Malone, and Travis Scott.

In 2018, Warner Music Group completed a $191 million deal to buy Germany-based music merch maker and e-tailer EMP Merchandising. “In today’s streaming world, merchandise is still one of the best ways that fans can express their passions and personalities,” said Max Lousada, CEO of Recorded Music, WMG. “It’s also a big part of how music has visible and physical impact on global culture and fashion.”

There are countless dates which have become vitality important when unlocking the history of music merchandise. Here are some of the most important.

January 8, 1931: Wulf Wolodia Grajonca is born

After he immigrated to the United States during World War II, the German born rock concert promoter (better known by his adopted name Bill Graham) was amongst the most important early figures in band merchandise history. Graham managed acts like the Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Big Brother and the Holding Company with Janis Joplin. Through anti-Vietnam War garb and other philanthropic means (like Live Aid and the “Human Rights Now!” tour), he personally planted the seeds for what we now recognize as band merch.

July 1956: Hank Saperstein and Colonel Parker agree on a deal, giving Special Products, Inc. the right to promote the image of Elvis Presley

Hank Saperstein’s company, Special Products, Inc., had previously handled merchandising opportunities for TV shows like The Lone Ranger and Disney characters including Mickey Mouse and Peter Pan. Under the agreement, Presley’s manager, Colonel Parker agreed to an upfront fee of $22,500 against 45 percent of royalties and licensing fees. They soon began producing 30 different products, including hats, T-shirts, jeans, kerchiefs, sneakers, shirts, blouses, and belts.

December 31, 1956: Elvis breaks the $20 million mark

The front page of The Wall Street Journal reports that Elvis’ merchandise has grossed $22 million in sales. As a result, the creators, wholesalers, and retailers of America were poised to have one of their best seasons ever.

1960: Michael Vasilantone develops the first rotatable multicolor garment screen printing machine

The original machine was manufactured to print logos and team information on bowling garments, but was soon reappropriated to the new fad of printing on T-shirts.

1963: Beatles manager Brian Epstein hands the band’s merch rights over to Nicky Byrne

Under this agreement, Seltaeb (Beatles spelled backwards) would be a Byrne-controlled company, specializing in promoting the band’s interest in the United States. It is estimated that this decision, which gave the band just 10 percent of all merchandising rights, cost The Beatles around $100 million.

1966: Stanley Mouse designs the very first Grateful Dead T-shirt

Stanley Mouse grew up in a household where his father worked as an animator with Disney Studios, on projects like Snow White. He followed his father into the arts and attended Detroit’s School for the Society of Arts and Craft, but eventually dropped out and moved to San Francisco, drawn to the anti-war protests and resulting art work. Mouse met Alton Kelley, a like-minded artist, and the two went on to design the Grateful Dead skeleton and roses motif.

September 12, 1966: “The Monkees” pilot airs on NBC

The idea for the music-focused show was rooted in Richard Lester’s two classic Beatles films, A Hard Day’s Night and Help. At first, thought was given to building it around an existing pop group, the Lovin’ Spoonful. Instead, producers Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider decided to cast a band of their own construct. The TV-made Monkees’ debut album released the same day as their first show and sold three million copies in two months, faster than the Beatles’ first album. It also held the No. 1 spot for 13 straight weeks. Since NBC had both TV and music stars, they capitalized off strong merchandise sales as well. By 1967, they had sold 35 million albums — twice as many as the Beatles and Rolling Stones combined.

March 18th, 1968: Bill Graham opens the Fillmore East

Perhaps sensing that he needed to bring his influence to New York City, Bill Graham expanded his growing empire and opened the Fillmore East. As the Bill Graham Foundation noted, “If a new band played a great set at Fillmore East on Friday night, the entire music business knew it by the next morning.”

April 23, 1971: The Rolling Stones release “Sticky Fingers” with John Pasche-designed tongue logo

While the Andy Warhol/Craig Braun-designed cover for The Rolling Stones’ 11th studio album got a lot of attention — mainly for the close-up of a man’s crotch — it was in fact the John Pasche tongue logo that has endured. In subsequent months and years, this abstraction (which was inspired by Pasche’s meeting with Mick Jagger) came to be a focal point of the band’s branding. At the time, Pasche received £50 (about $77) for his work.

1972: Bill Graham and Dell Furano meet

At the time, Dell Furano was a Political Science major at Stanford, who planned to go to law school. Instead, he took a year off from his studies to learn about the concert industry underneath Bill Graham’s tutelage.

“Ironically, back in the ’70s, few bands wanted to sell merchandise, as it was considered very unhip, uncool, and way too commercial,” Furano said. “However, [the Grateful Dead] looked upon selling shirts as a ‘community thing’ and were pleased to have their fans wearing Dead shirts.’”

1972: The Grateful Dead embark on their first European tour

Amongst the many grails that Dead Heads have pined for over the years, the shirts commemorating the four London Lyceum shows that concluded the band’s first-ever European tour are some of the most sought-after.

January 1973: Ace Frehley designs the original version of the now-famous KISS logo

Although there was once speculation whether Paul Stanley had designed the KISS logo, it was finally agreed upon that it was, in fact, Ace Frehley’s creation. While we certainly recognize KISS’s impact on music merchandise, there remains a belief that the twin S’s in the logo actually represented the thunderbolts seen on Nazi uniforms. Frehley has continuously denied the allegation.

1974: Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood open their “SEX” shop in London

The London-based shop had several monikers — including “Let It Rock” and “Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die” — before settling on the provocative “SEX” and its “rubberwear for the office” slogan. At the time, McLaren was managing the Sex Pistols and Westwood was a burgeoning fashion designer who had an affinity for combining traditional British symbols with more risqué elements of punk culture.

1974: Winterland Productions is formed

In the mid ’70s, the then-wife of Grateful Dead drummer Bill Kreutzmann asked Bill Graham whom she should see about selling T-shirts during a show. Graham eventually sent her to Dell Furano. Soon after, the two men — along with Dave Furano — established Winterland Productions. Amongst their notable first clients were Fleetwood Mac, The Rolling Stones, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen, and the Grateful Dead.

“In the ’70s, it was not cool selling merchandise, so we had to be careful,” Furano said. “Groups would say, ‘OK, you can sell, but don’t embarrass us. Stand in a corner.’”

March 23, 1975: 50,000 people fill Kezar Stadium in San Francisco to benefit afterschool programs

With performers including the Grateful Dead, Graham Central Station, Bob Dylan and the Band, Jefferson Starship, Tower of Power, the Doobie Brothers, Santana, Mimi Fariña, and Neil Young, this was the first big rock benefit concert in history.

January 25, 1976: KISS debut their “KISS on TOUR” program at Cobo Hall in Detroit

In his autobiography, Face the Music: A Life Exposed, Paul Stanley admitted that KISS had no master plan in regards to merchandise. He credits their manager, Bill Aucoin, with being the real visionary.

“Bill Aucoin always saw the bigger picture,” Stanley wrote. “He could tell that we connected with our fans in a way that far exceeded the norm. He grasped the extent to which people would respond to us beyond the music: he understood the potential of merchandising.”

The first big piece of KISS merchandise was in the form of a concert program for a show in Detroit, which also came with a KISS ARMY membership form. This simple form of communication between the band and their fans laid the groundwork for what would become a major merchandise machine.

June 26, 1976: The Grateful Dead release “Steal Your Face”

The Stealie, as Dead Heads call it, made its first appearance on their live double album, released in June 1976. Created by Owsley Stanley (an LSD chemist and the band’s sound engineer) and artist Bob Thomas, the Stealie has come to represent the bold iconography we continued to see on band merchandise in subsequent years.

1977: Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood create the iconic “God Save The Queen” T-shirt

McLaren and Westwood’s “SEX” boutique reopened as “Seditionaries,” transforming the straps and zips of obscure sexual fetishism into fashion and inspiring a D.I.Y. aesthetic. Amongst the most notable creations was a subversive image of Queen Elizabeth II.

September 25, 1981: The Rolling Stones embark on their “American Tour”

As with previous tours, the “American Tour” was promoted by Bill Graham when the Stones launched their romp around the States in Philadelphia. Midway through the tour, it was widely estimated that merchandising sales were averaging one T-shirt ($10) per customer — a gross of more than $20 million.

December 5, 1981: The Rolling Stones break a 33-year-long indoor concert attendance record

The more people attending a rock concert, the greater the chance to sell merchandise. When the “American Tour” hit the Super Dome in New Orleans, the 87,500 in attendance broke a record for indoor venues.

1982: Bolivar Arellano launches a dedicated Menudo store in Manhattan

Utilizing $5,000 in loans, Bolivar Arellano (a freelance photographer turned entrepreneur) and his wife, Brunilda, opened a dedicated shop to Menudo called Menuditis. Initially, 90 percent of Menuditis’ customers were Hispanic girls under the age of 17 – three years later, the overwhelming majority of the customers were still young girls, but only 60 percent were Spanish.

1984: Winterland Productions acquires the rights to Bruce Springsteen’s massive “Born in the USA” Tour

The tour continued for almost two years and was, at the time, the biggest grossing concert merch tour ever in terms of total merch sales.

1984: George Michael wears a “Choose Life” T-shirt

Designer Katharine Hamnett earned a reputation for her bold and politically pointed T-shirts, famously wearing a “58% Don’t Want Pershing” T-Shirt when meeting Margaret Thatcher. George Michael was amongst her greatest admirers, donning a Choose Life tee in Wham!’s video for “Wake Me Up Before you Go Go.”

1985: Bill Graham Presents is firebombed

The offices of Bill Graham Presents were firebombed and burned to the ground in 1985 by suspected neo-Nazis. Many believe the act was in retaliation to Graham’s public protest of President Ronald Reagan’s visit to a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, where members of the Waffen-SS were buried.

1985: The Licensing Industry Merchandisers’ Association is formed

Licensing International, then formally referred to as LIMA, was formed to represent the interests of the various trade groups involved in the burgeoning merchandise industry, spanning music and film. At the time, about 70 percent of the world’s licensing revenue came from North America; today, international markets claim more than 40 percent of licensing profits.

July 13, 1985: Run-DMC perform at Live Aid

Run-DMC were the lone hip-hop group invited to be a part of 1985’s monumental Live Aid benefit concerts, which happened concurrently at both Philadelphia’s John F. Kennedy Stadium and London’s Wembley Stadium for a total live audience of almost 200,000 people, with more than 1.5 billion watching via television. While performing, Jam Master Jay wore one of the first, soon-to-be iconic Run-DMC logo T-shirts, designed by an in-house designer for Island Records, Stephanie Nash.

1985: Winterland Productions is acquired by CBS Records

The interest in Winterland Productions on CBS Records’ behalf was to, “participate in income streams we haven’t been involved in.” Walter Yetnikoff, then Vice President of CBS Inc, noted that artists made as much as 1/3 of their tour revenue from merchandise.

May 29, 1986: Run-DMC release “My Adidas”

Whereas rap predecessor Grandmaster Flash was known for his flamboyant attire, Run-DMC captured the true New York City aesthetic by wearing items like black Lee jeans, Cazal glasses, and, of course, adidas sneakers. Whereas we now equate certain hip-hop acts with strict allegiances when it comes to sneaker endorsements, this was a watershed moment for the culture, leading to a $1 million endorsement for the group.

March 1988: Long-time friends Barry Cohen and Bob Colasanti take their love of the Grateful Dead and create a business

The pair scraped together $7,000 and leased a 250-square-foot store called Terrapin Station on Hertel Avenue in Buffalo, NY. The store was loaded with Grateful Dead-related stuff — everything from clothing and bumper stickers to music and memorabilia. On their first day, they made enough money to pay the entire month’s rent.

April 29, 1988: MCA Inc. acquires Winterland Productions

Winterland’s top executives, including President and Chief Executive Officer Dell Furano and Chief Operating Officer Donald Hunt, continued to manage the company after it was sold for an undisclosed price. At the time, Winterland had provided merchandise for recents events including Live Aid and Hands Across America, and concerts by Bruce Springsteen, U2, Madonna, and Fleetwood Mac.

1989: The Rolling Stones choose someone besides Bill Graham to run their “Steel Wheels” Tour

Although Bill Graham had certainly established himself as a major force in the music industry, he wasn’t without ample competition. Canadian promoter Michael Cohl made his name buying the concert, sponsorship, merchandising, radio, television, and film rights to the Steel Wheels Tour. According to The Washington Post, the Stones were predicted to earn between $20-$40 million.

Since then, the Stones have grossed over $1 billion on the road — something that continues to surprise frontman Mick Jagger: “When we first started out, there wasn’t really any money in rock ‘n’ roll. There wasn’t a touring industry; it didn’t even exist. Obviously there was somebody maybe who made money, but it certainly wasn’t the act. Basically, even if you were very successful, you got paid nothing.”

1989: The Stones turn to J.C. Penney and Macy’s

For those who didn’t make the 100,000-ticket cut for the first two Rolling Stones shows at RFK Stadium, the band released a 46-item line of designer fashions and related gear at J.C. Penney and Macy’s. Designed by Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts, the items featured assorted Stones logos, including Converse sneakers that coordinated with skateboards (for the 12-18 crowd) and polo shirts, denim jackets and a $450 leather motorcycle jacket (for the parents).

1989: Elvis Presley and Zippo partner

According to Shirley Evers, archives manager at Zippo, the first big music act that featured branded imagery on Zippo products was Elvis Presley. A customer could purchase an individual lighter/s, or purchase the entire panel and lighters that captured the many faces of Elvis. In later years, Zippo and EP Enterprises partnered on many different products, including a lighter and pen set.

August 4-5, 1990: Depeche Mode cash in during their “World Violation” tour

When Depeche Mode played two dates at Dodger Stadium, drawing a total of 100,000 fans, the band made about $15 a head in merchandising sales. That’s $1.5 million for just two nights.

1990: New Kids on the Block become a certifiable cash cow

According to Dell Furano, the upstart boy band made around $400 million from merchandising between 1989-1990, from “touring, retail outlets and fan clubs.”

October 25, 1991: Bill Graham dies in a helicopter accident

Graham was returning from a concert in Concord, California on October 25 when his private helicopter smashed into a 200-foot electric transformer and exploded near Highway 37, outside of Vallejo. An investigation later ruled that the pilot had intentionally flown into bad weather.

March 22, 1992: “White Men Can’t Jump” & the parental advisory T-shirt

Although the Parental Advisory label had been issued by the Recording Association of America seven years earlier, White Men Can’t Jump – specifically Woody Harrelson’s character – turned the monochromatic emblem into a certifiable fashion statement.

1992: The other Dream Team turn to Grateful Dead basketball uniforms

Whereas most would equate “Dream Team” with the United States basketball squad sent to Barcelona to bring home gold at the 1992 Summer Olympics, there was a different team of hoopers that garnered worldwide acclaim, too. At the time, the Lithuanian team was in dire financial constraints. Šarūnas Marčiulionis — then playing professionally with the Golden State Warriors — attempted to raise funds stateside. This resulted in a news story and subsequent call from a representative of The Grateful Dead. The band and team worked out a sponsorship deal that involved the usage of Dead skull iconography on a variety of products. When the team won a Bronze medal, they took the stand in full Dead regalia.

1993: Cradle of Filth first print their infamous “Jesus is a cunt” shirt

The genesis for the controversial shirt began when Cradle of Filth prepared to go on tour with Emperor, a Norwegian black-metal band. Though they already had T-shirts printed up, they felt like they needed something new and (perhaps) shocking. At one point, someone broached the now infamous tagline. “We all were laughing about it, like, ‘Oh my god, that’s so anarchic – can you imagine that on a T-shirt?’” the band said. “We looked at each other conspiratorially, like, ‘Shall we?’ And yeah, we did it. Even at the time, we thought, ‘Well, this is pushing the boundaries a little bit.’”

The band originally had difficulty printing the T-shirts in their hometown of Hadleigh, Suffolk, but eventually found a printer in a smaller village who they paid discreetly in cash.

1993: Dell Furano leaves Winterland Productions

Furano was named CEO of Sony Signatures (later renamed Signatures Network), the merchandising arm of Sony Music.

1994: Terrapin Station moves to a large location in Buffalo

Terrapin Station grew from 250 square feet to 3,000 square feet, boasting a mural of Jerry Garcia on the wall outside Hertel and Virgil avenues in North Buffalo.

1994: Barbra Streisand breaks a record

When Barbra Streisand completed her first tour in 27 years, she offered her fans silk jacquard blouses, jackets, and limited-edition jewelry. Her merchandise sales broke industry records, averaging $40 per concert-goer.

1994: Brockum Global Merchandising develops a mail-order strategy

The catalog offered high-end swag, like a varsity jacket tied to the Pink Floyd tour. “You’re not likely to sell a $125 leather handbag to a Metallica fan, but for the Rolling Stones or Pink Floyd, you’re looking at people in their 30s or 40s who can afford to buy finer things,” said Steve Gerstman, a former Winterland vice president who consulted for Brockum. “It’s a question of the aging baby boomer.”

1997: The Spice Girls build an empire in just one year

Buoyed by the strength of their 1996 hit “Wannabe,” the Spice Girls produced more than £300m worldwide through merchandise in 1997 alone, strengthened by sponsorship and merchandise deals with the likes of Walkers crisps and Impulse deodorant.

1999: E-commerce strategies are developed

This new form of shopping was only strengthened as early pioneers like Madonna, Britney Spears, Tim McGraw, U2, Fleetwood Mac, and KISS saw the value in developing official websites. At the time, manufacturing led all industry sectors with shipments that accounted for 12.0 percent ($485 billion) of the total value of manufacturing shipments.

2005: Terapin Station hits $1 million in annual sales

Since first opening their doors, Cohen and Colasanti developed a close working relationship with many of the prominent Dead-sanctioned vendors. For instance: Terrapin Station is the only licensed local retailer that can sell Grateful Dead guitarist Bob Weir’s stir fry and spicy sauces. When a company such as Liquid Blue (which produces the Dead’s T-shirts) rolls out new items, Terrapin Station gets the first crack at them. The same is true for Grateful Graphics.

2009: Woodstock partners with Target

Although the original three-day music festival will be best remembered as a time capsule for the counterculture, in subsequent decades, Woodstock (and its intellectual property) has become big business. In 2009, they partnered with Target for a range of T-shirts, apparel, beach towels, posters, calendars, caps, and tote bags. At the time, the Live Nation-brokered deal was supposed to add to what was already a $50-$100 million yearly haul. When the exclusivity ended, other Woodstock products hit Macy’s, J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, Hot Topic, the Gap, Spencer’s, and Urban Outfitters.

2011: A rare Led Zeppelin T-shirt sells for $10,000 at auction

One can only think that the original purchaser of a 1979 Led Zeppelin T-shirt from their 1979 Knebworth gig probably paid $20 for the item. Flash forward several decades, and an unidentified Australian bidder won the tee for a record-breaking $10,000. The shirt was deemed particularly valuable because it was printed in such low quantities, since it was meant to replace conventional backstage passes.

2012: Tyler, The Creator throws the inaugural Camp Flog Gnaw carnival

The one-day event – held outside the Nokia Theatre and featuring seven acts – grew to nearly 40 acts in 2017. Like most music festivals, it proved to be fertile ground for the release of Odd Future merch.

2013: Wes Lang designs tour merchandise for “YEEZUS”

To most, Wes Lang’s design sensibilities were rooted in bike culture and rock ‘n’ roll. Thus, he may have seemed like an unlikely choice when Kanye West was searching for a designer in support of his YEEZUS tour. However, Lang brought unexpected elements into the hip-hop sphere, including the Confederate flag, Native Indian headdresses, and skeletons. In a corresponding move, West also allowed his tour merchandise to be sold at PacSun.

2014: Dell Furano and Kym Furano found Epic Rights

Amongst the most notable artists/entities the husband-and-wife duo secured to Epic Rights were KISS, John Lennon, Aerosmith, Billy Idol, Jefferson Airplane, and Woodstock.

March 23, 2016: Kanye West claims to have sold $1 million in merchandise in two days

As the aforementioned merchandise milestones have already indicated, Kanye West certainly didn’t invent the practice. However, he underlined just how lucrative a playbook it really can be for contemporary artists. During a three-day pop-up in New York City, West claimed to have made $1 million in sales.

2016: Justin Bieber’s tour merchandise hits a diverse roster of stockists

Whereas Kanye West’s tactics spoke to the power of pop-up experiences, Justin Bieber and Bravado saw the importance in getting his Purpose tour merchandise on the shelves of major box retailers, including Barneys, Urban Outfitters, PacSun, and H&M.

January 10, 2017: Gildan purchases American Apparel

In 2017, Gildan Activewear agreed to pay $88 million for the American Apparel brand and some manufacturing equipment.

2018: Online Ceramics gains traction

The duo of Elijah Funk and Alix Ross officially began printing shirts as Online Ceramics for the Dead & Company tour – the band formed by John Mayer and original Grateful Dead member Bob Weir – and sold out their items in just a few days. Although larger entities like Epic Rights and Bravado dominated merchandise at the time, it was a shining example that anyone could get their foot in the door.

2018: Supreme x Public Enemy x UNDERCOVER

Supreme officially announced its Public Enemy x UNDERCOVER collaboration on Instagram, with the help of frontman Chuck D, who discussed the significance of the group’s third studio album, Fear of a Black Planet. While it certainly wasn’t Supreme’s first music-focused collaboration, it was amongst its most effective.

December 2018: Travis Scott designs a product for Houston high school

After a student at Houston’s Dwight D. Eisenhower High School asked Travis Scott for permission to use Astroworld artwork for her senior class T-shirt, the artist did her one better, opting to design T-shirts for the entire graduating class. Key details included “WISH YOU WERE HERE” emboldened on the right chest, “Seniors Eisenhower High” on the left , and a graphic of the earth, which had been turned into a smiley face.

February 2018: Justin Timberlake attempts a fashion rebrand with key partners

In support of his album Man of the Woods, Justin Timberlake enlisted several key collaborators to design a product to reflect each individual song. This included Heron Preston, Jordan Brand, Levi’s, Pendleton, Lucchese, Yeti, Maestro’s Classic, Best Made Co., Warby Parker, and Moleskin.

June 1, 2018: Kanye West releases “Ye” merch

Shortly after Kanye West delivered his ye album at a private listening experience at the scenic Diamond Cross Ranch in Wyoming, he followed up by releasing a merchandise collection online. The six-piece collection was designed by the in-house Yeezy creative team and ranged from $65 -$145.

August 10, 2018: Travis Scott & Virgil Abloh collaborate on Astroworld merch

The “BY A THREAD” design features a screen print of the rapper’s Rodeo character wearing the designer’s Air Jordan I “Chicago” sneakers. According to Abloh, the T-shirt was limited to 500 pieces, which fans could purchase at one his DJ sets at New York’s Sony Hall.

September 2018: Drake partners with SSENSE on special 2-day “Scorpion” pop-up

After previously hosting a Scorpion pop-up in New York City, luxury fashion purveyor SSENSE announced a special 2-day pop-up in SSENSE Montréal.

2019: Bravado purchases Epic Rights

In making the announcement, Mat Vlasic, CEO of Bravado, said: “As the industry’s preeminent brand management company, we are constantly looking for ways to evolve our company while providing fans around the world with an ever-growing array of products and experiences. I’m excited to work with Dell, a true icon in our industry, and expand the Bravado portfolio.”

2019: SLAYER goes big on their farewell tour

With several tour dates left in their farewell tour, SLAYER confirmed they already sold $10 million in merchandise. “There are only a handful of bands on the planet that are that iconic,” said Barry Drinkwater, who co-founded Bravado and now runs Global Merchandising.

#virgil abloh #tour merch #music merchandise #bill graham #kiss #elvis #music blog #urbanwear blog #fashion blog #slayer

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