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sytoran · 1 year

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𝐄𝐗𝐓𝐑𝐀 𝐂𝐑𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓.

professor maximoff promises you extra credit on the condition that you make her squirt - let's just say you're a fast learner.

──── 📓 pairing. professor!wanda x cockystudent!reader

──── 📓 cont. smut (18+), college!au, powerbottom!wanda, top!reader, milf wanda cause why not, cunnilingus, who wouldn't want to bury their head between wanda maximoff's thighs, mild jealousy at the start

──── 📓 note. i wrote this is 45 minutes at 12am, (which is a record so far i think) so it's not proof-read or anything just a warning

masterlist / AO3 / taglist

“stay behind after class,” professor maximoff voices. it pulls you out of a trance - taking your attention away from absent-mindedly playing with natasha romanoff’s hair.

“since you clearly have so much time on your hands,” the sarcasm rolls off your professor’s tongue like dripping honey. you bite back a contented smirk. was she jealous?

you nod offhandedly, not bothering to meet her eye. instead, you turn back to natasha, opening your mouth to let her feed you some candy.

oh, the blazing fire of rage that is wanda maximoff is palpable to touch now. you love it.

she’s absolutely stunning too - with the messy bun and thin-rimmed glasses resting on the tip of her nose. a cashmere-coloured blouse, alongside that classic head tilt, was more than enough to make anyone swoon.

throughout the course of the lesson, you’re relentless in your teasing - resting your head on natasha’s shoulder, letting natasha draw on your arm. wanda gets more and more agitated by the second.

the resounding bell is sweet relief, as a pit of excited desire builds within you. as the students file out, the burning gaze of your professor gouges holes into your back.

it’s not long before you’re in her arms again, behind shut doors and chaste kisses. wanda maximoff is your forbidden fruit.

“oh, i missed you,” you growl into flushed skin, hands going to the front of her shirt, skillfully unclasping buttons between heated kisses.

wanda only pulls you closer through your belt loops, an annoyed grunt sounding in the back of her throat. “you sure weren’t acting like it. you’re such an annoying brat, y’know?”

gripping the back of her thighs in response, you easily lift her up, smirking at her surprised gasp. her hands go to your shoulders for support.

“stop acting like the daddy dom,” you whisper easily, pressing a fluttering kiss onto her neck. you set wanda down onto her desk. “we both know who’s the one who screams.”

you relish in the way wanda’s impatiently pulling down your pants now, cheeks blazing. she then spreads her legs, putting each of them over your shoulders, giving you easy access.

at the sight of the damp spot on her racy undergarment, you feel yourself salivate.

“look at that,” you whisper, in awe. “so soaked for me, mhm?”

you can’t help but pin wanda’s pretty hips down, moving to flatten your tongue and dragging it across the fabric of her panties, over her entire cunt.

the moan wanda lets out in downright sinful. you sigh in content, going to suck the juices off her inner thighs.

you can smell her arousal in the air, and your brain goes fuzzy for a moment.

“extra credit,” she gasps through a shaky jerk, clutching onto your shoulders tighter.

“what?” you ask, with a tinge of confusion, voice still muffled from being buried between your professor’s thighs. you slowly look up with disheveled hair, jawline damp with her juices. wanda nearly loses it.

“extra credit if you make me squirt.”

your jaw quite literally drops, and you struggle to compose yourself. an amused grin slowly takes over your features, and you smile devilishly at the embarrassed flush on wanda’s face.

“fuck, professor, quite needy, aren’t we?” you drawl, tracing a feather-light finger over her dampened panties. you tug it off in a painfully slow fashion, showing her the string of juices clinging onto the fabric.

she whines, hips jerking. your pupils dilate.

“just- shut up and get to work.” wanda gasps. “i’m not letting you leave until i’m satisfied.”

“oh, don’t tempt me with a good time, professor.”

less talk happens when you dive back in. fueled by the idea of a challenge - ever the competitive spirit you are.

steadily holding your professor’s legs spread, your tongue laps at her pussy like it would be your last meal on earth. ravenously devouring, through the moans and the uttered curses. there was only one thing on your mind.

wanda’s not quite aware of what you’re doing anymore, mind only registering the hazy acknowledgements of a wave of pleasure after another.

you’re doing something with that goddamned sinful tongue - flattening out and thrusting in and out, then in a rocking undulation, against all the spots that make her go weak in the knees.

fuck, it’s so hot, and wanda’s getting so unbelievably drenched - yet you don’t slow down, not for a moment, and soon enough the coil building in wanda’s stomach is all too much to handle.

the stretch feels fantastic, when you shove your head a little closer, nose bumping against her stiff clit. wanda jerks in your arms, purple imprints marking themselves into her thighs with your rough hands.

wanda can’t even formulate words when your other hand goes to cup her breast, massaging and kneading.

she falls apart, faster than with any ‘experienced’ man she’d ever been with.

wanda’s orgasm comes in streams, squirting all over your mouth, of which you lap up eagerly.

your professor lets out a silent scream in doing so, and you let her clutch the back of your head, slowly rocking out the waves of the aftershocks.

god, it’s almost embarrassing, being brought over the edge so easily by her own college student, with the cocky smirk and ridiculously talented tongue.

those doubts fade away when you gently soothe over wanda’s simulated cunt with ginger strokes, cupping her body delicately. the professor isn’t aware of how long you stay with her.

you get her dressed again, then soon you’re getting up to leave

“see you soon, professor?” you ask, hopefully, managing to bring in a cheeky wink at the last second.

“it’s not the best grade yet,” wanda says, with as much steadiness as she can. she’s that image of composed professor again, and you couldn’t be more turned on. “could be improved. i don't know, more extra credit would be helpful.”

you only huff in amusement, smirking in victory. just as you open the door, with the knowledge that wanda's eyes are on you, you lick your fingers clean, being purposeful in trailing your tongue languidly.

you barely see wanda's jaw drop before you shut the door with a satisfying 'thud'.

on the other side of the door, wanda's cunt throbs.

today feels like a day to be sad and gay

the headers are from pinterest and @u-uwin

masterlist / AO3 / join the taglist

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hooked-on-elvis · 3 months

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HOW MUCH OF AN ELVIS FAN ARE YOU?

So, I was watching an interview with Bill Belew (Elvis' clothing designer) and he mentioned one time a lady took her panties off and throw it up towards the stage Elvis was performing in Vegas. This is no novelty for me, for all of us I believe, but it always gets me like: 🫨!!! That got me wondering what would you do to show your appreciation to Elvis Presley?

POLL TIME, FAM! Let's work only with harmless options. I want real answers from the fandom. Just out of fun. ♥

If Elvis was alive and you had the chance to impress him (at least hoped to), what kind of Elvis fan would you be?

THINK AS IF YOU'RE ABOUT TO DO THAT THING YOU'RE GONNA SELECT BELOW --- PLEASE, DON'T ANSWER IT UNREALISTICALLY, UNCHARACTERISTIC TO YOUR REAL PERSONALITY.

Tagging: @thetaoofzoe @jhoneybees @i-r-i-n-a-a @suspiciousmindsxo @deke-rivers-1957 @lookingforrainbows @vintagepresley @earthbaby-angelboy @karel-in-wonderland @arrolyn1114 @alienelvisobsession @xanatenshi @lilwulfpresley @eptodaytommorowforever @tupelomiss @ladelinee @elvispresleywife @heartbrake-hotel @whositmcwhatsit @eapep @hey-bossa-nova-baby @iuv0ana @bigdaddyelvislover @leapresley @mercsandmonsters @wanderingelvis @missmaywemeetagain @ahundredlifetime @lett-them-eatt-cake @atleastpleasetelephone @elvislittleone @elvisanddenise @elvisfanandbeatlesfan14 @elvisgirl71 @elvispresleyforever @elvisflowerchild @aliengoth3 @almightybigbrain @presleysweetheart @presleyenterprise

#elvis presley #elvis #elvis the king #elvis fans #elvis fandom #elvis history #50s elvis #60s elvis #70s elvis

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imreallyloveleee · 9 months

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Where do you think it all went wrong with Riverdale?

honestly, part of me is like, the show's over and nothing but fandom matters. so who cares?

the other part of me loves to complain about Riverdale and will continue to do so until the day I die in the parking lot of Michael's Diner in Montgomeryville, PA at the age of 86. so, long-winded answer under the cut

I'm tempted to say it's the s4 b*rchie kiss. It was so wildly out of character for both Betty and Archie that it's laughable. You know how you can tell when something is just blatantly OOC with no justification? They...don't justify it. They find ways to dance around any interaction that might offer clarification. They mute the reactions of the characters who should be devastated by it. And then they jump ahead 7 years so it's easier to just handwave it away as something that happened a long time ago.

but the thing is, I did keep watching after that. I thought: okay, at least we should get an exes-to-lovers arc out of this, which is one of my favorite tropes. there is no way they would spend 4 seasons developing Bughead as this loving, supportive, communicative, sexy, and almost-unbelievably-compatible couple just to tear them apart and never do anything with that dynamic again. maybe it'll be even sweeter seeing them come back together after so much hurt and longing.

boy was i wrong!!!!!!!!!

so, the episode that actually made me stop watching for good, with the exception of some standalones like The Jughead Paradox and the finale, was the s5 musical. that was when i realized that this team of writers was 100% willing, maybe even eager, to completely drop storylines they themselves had been building over the course of a season - do a 180 with all of the characterization and relationships - and then act as though the buildup they wrote never even happened.

in this case, i'm specifically talking about the Bughead reunion storyline they dropped in s5. i'm not going to pretend like it was a GREAT buildup - and it was mostly on Jughead's side, Betty's character in s5 was basically an emotionless misery bot that had sex sometimes - but it was there. Jughead told Tabitha he had unresolved feelings around Betty. that's followed by an entire episode that lays out Betty & Jug's time jump relationship, and how Jughead still believes she's the one who saves him from himself. they work on a case together, they start opening up to one another. Jughead's so worried about her he can't eat.

and then...you know what happens.

(i'll also note here that there was random bts stuff that strongly indicated the musical ep storyline had a drastic last-minute rewrite: lili tweeted a blue dress, suggesting the song with that line was meant for her character; RAS said cole had to do last-minute recording sessions; supposedly crew members have confirmed this was the case, too. since none of it's 100% confirmed you can take it all with a grain of salt, but i believe it.)

it was so fucking insulting as a viewer to give my time and attention to a show made by people who would not only randomly drop the threads they set up, but torpedo them altogether, and then behave like the fans are the ones somehow at fault for expecting a story that actually follows through on its own emotional and plot beats. we're just shippers, so our opinions are dumb and biased! it's just a tv show, so who cares! get over it!

so, i stopped watching, because i knew they would continue to write without any thought or respect for their characters or their audience, and therefore inevitably write themselves into another corner. and, shocker, i was right. they did it again, whisking everyone away to the 1950s because actually resolving any of the scenarios they set up was ToO hArD. why bother when you could just make every single character Righteously Angry and Incurably Horny all the time, lecture the audience about social issues that have already been mainstream progressive for the last several decades, and call it a "love letter" to your fans?

#WHEW ok anon idk if this was what you were looking for but it's what you got #hopefully this has fully exorcised my need to Go Off against the creators of this show but you never know!!#my capacity for bitter resentment is apparently endless when it comes to this show #rd negativity #riverdale #anti b*rchie #anti j*bitha #just in case #anon

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crustaceousfaggot · 10 months

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Hob Gadling traditional folk music collection.

Been thinking about a sort of Hob Gadling character playlist composed entirely of British folk music. Songs he might have listened to throughout his life and resonated with. This is also just a little excuse for me to share some of my favorite folk songs from across the history of the British Isles :) Most of these are British in origin, but a couple are Scottish.

Some of these choices are loosely based on the fic And In The Waking World We Want And Wait by @qqueenofhades because at this point it's basically canon to me and has considerably influenced my perception of the character. Furthermore, I'm writing this with Dreamling in mind because... Well because I want to.

I'm attaching recordings for each piece, but keep in mind that, by the nature of folk music, songs (both melody and lyrics, as well as accompaniment and performance choices) are intrinsically altered in every performance and there is no single correct interpretation of a piece. If you don't like the recordings I picked, I encourage you to seek out your own :)

I am not a music historian, just a classical singer with a love of traditional folk and a cursory education on music history.

Lastly, keep in mind that folk music in the Late Medieval and Early Modern music exists in a much different form than it does today, both in its lyrical and melodic content. Of the songs surviving from that period, the majority are liturgical in nature. Those that aren't are generally about farming, changing seasons, and (of course) drinking. I've done my best, but most of these pieces aren't perfect fits. Still, what character playlist is?

Arranged in rough chronological order.

1200s: "Sumer is icumen in" (composer unknown) (Note: This song is the oldest recorded English language folk song. I think that's pretty neat.)

Sumer is icumen in Loude sing cuccu (cuckoo) Groweth sed (seed) and bloweth (bloometh) med (meadow) and springeth the worlde new

(Full text)

~1450: "Tappster, Drinker" (unknown composer)

Tappster, Drinker, fill another ale, Anonn God sende us good sale. Avale the stake, avale, here is good ale y founde. Drynke to me and y to the and lette the cuppe goe rounde.

(This is, as far as I can tell, the full text)

~1513: "Pastime with Good Company" (King Henry VIII)

Youth must have some dalliance Of good or ill some pastance Company methinks then best All thoughts and fancies to digest. For idleness Is chief mistress Of vices all Then who can say. but mirth and play Is best of all.

(Full text)

1500s: "The Ballad of Tamlin" (composer unknown) (Note: Yes this one is @landwriter 's fault. Go read Oaths. Also, I'm using one of many translations of the original ballad, but there's also an excellent folk punk adaptation by The Forgetmenauts which you should listen to if you like the story. Generally, I'm not doing this ballad any justice with my little 2-line snippet and I encourage you to look into it more yourself.)

"For if my love were an earthly knight as he is an elfin grey, I'd not change my own true love for any knight you have."

(Full text)

~1580-1650: "Greensleeves" (composer unknown)

Alas, my love you do me wrong To cast me off discourteously And I have loved you so long Delighting in your company

I have been ready at your hand to grant whatever you would crave; I have both wagered life and land Your love and good will for to have

(Full text)

1700s: "A Maid in Bedlam" (composer unknown)

My love he'll not come near me To hear the moan I make, And neither would he pity me If my poor heart should break, But, though I've suffer'd for his sake, Contented will I be, For I love my love Because I know he first loved me.

(Full Text)

1800s: Black is The Colour of My True Love's Hair (composer unknown) (Note: although the most famous variations of this piece are from 20th century America, the piece is believed to have originated in Scotland some time in the 19th century.)

Black, black, black is the color of my true love's hair, His lips are something rosy fair, The fairest face and the gentlest hands I love the grass wheron he stands.

(Full text)

1813: "The Last Rose of Summer" (Thomas Moore) (Note: I was a bit conflicted about adding this one. The song is about the pain of losing those you love to time, and the loneliness that comes from outlining your companions, both of which are sentiments I feel are very applicable to Hob. However, the song also implies that death is a mercy in the face of such loneliness, which obviously doesn't align with Hob's worldview.)

'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone. All her lovely companions are faded and gone. No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh, To reflect back her blushes and give sigh for sigh.

(Full text)

1902: "Whither Must I Wander" (Ralph Vaughan Williams, from the song cycle "Songs Of Travel") (Note: This is technically not a true folk song but shhhhh. This was the song that inspired this whole list because I absolutely adore Vaughan Williams and particularly this cycle.)

Home was home then, my dear, full of kindly faces, Home was home then, my dear, happy for the child. Fire and the windows bright glittered on the moorland; Song, tuneful song, built a palace in the wild. Now, when day dawns on the brow of the moorland, Lone stands the house, and the chimney-stone is cold. Lone let it stand, now the friends are all departed, The kind hearts, the true hearts, that loved the place of old.

(Full text)

1904: "In Dreams" (Ralph Vaughan Williams, from "Songs of Travel") (Note: I will not apologize for using two pieces from the same cycle. Y'all don't understand I'm so autistic about these songs. Also, I had to pick at least one song with "Dream" in the title haha.)

In dreams unhappy, I behold you stand As heretofore: The unremember'd tokens in your hand Avail no more. [...] He came and went. Perchance you wept awhile And then forgot. Ah me! but he that left you with a smile Forgets you not.

(Full text)

1946: "Come you not from Newcastle?" (Arr. Benjamin Britten, original composer unknown) (Note: Although the text of the song itself doesn't necessarily have any strong Hob Vibes, the most widely known arrangement of this piece was done by Benjamin Britten, one of the country's most famed composers and also a fairly open homosexual. This, combined with the text of the song and the time that this arrangement was written, gives the song a distinctly queer vibe, at least to me, and so it makes the list. The recording attached is by Britten's life partner, Peter Pears.)

Why should I not love my love? Why should not my love love me? Why should I not speed after him, Since love to all is free?

(Full Text)

And that's all of them! Please let me know if you have any traditional folk songs you know that fit the bill, as I'm always looking for more good traditional folk music. It holds a special place in my heart :)

Consider reblogging if you got anything out of this post, since I did spend quite awhile on it and I'd love it if it got out to the wider Sandman fandom.

Resources: 1 2 3 4

#the sandman #sandman #hob gadling #robert gadling #dreamling #dream x hob #folk music #music history #i already know this is gonna get Zero reach because i mean. this is such a narrow area of interest #still I know there are plenty of historians and history enthusiasts in this fandom. s I hope at least a couple people get a kick out of it #even if not. it was fun to put together

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dendre · 6 months

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Pitchfork Annual Tippmix 2023

Ahogyan az már régi hagyomány, dallista után, albumlista előtt szánt szándékkal eltalálom a könnyen belőhető, pontosan mégsem meghatározható év végi picsfork top 10-et.

Még sose sikerült 10/10-re (a top 10-ben lévő lemezeket kell eltalálni, nem a pontos helyezéseket), mert bármennyire is kiszámítható az internetek zenemagazinja, azért mindig van egy kis csavar.

Idén folytatódott az elmúlt években szokásos gyalázatos lemaradásom (lemezhallgatás, zenei világ követés, tippelési hatékonyság). És szinte sorminta, hogy annyi dolgom van, hogy szinte véletlenül veszem észre, hogy megint kikerült a kislemezes lista, tippelni kell. Jó, azért idén is ránéztem néhány naponta az új megjelenések miatt a Pitchforkra, és azért hallottam is ezt-azt. De nagyon hasraütésszerűen fogok tippelni, őszintén szólva fel is merült, hogy hagyom a fenébe.

A lista:

Noname: Sundial

billy woods & Kenny Segal: Maps

L’Rain: I Killed Your Dog

Sufjan Stevens: Javelin

SZA: SOS

Caroline Polachek: Desire, I Want To Turn Into You

ANOHNI and the Johnsons: My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross

Wednesday: Rat Saw God

Lana Del Rey: Did you know that there's a tunnel under Ocean Blvd

Olivia Rodrigo: GUTS

Az utolsó kettő elég random tipp, ha a kislemezlistán nem úgy szerepelne Rey, ahogyan, nem jutott volna eszembe, meg Rodrigo több helyezése is lehet megtévesztő, és csak a slágereket emelték ki, a lemez meg 39. lesz. Leginkább André 3000: New Blue Sunján gondolkoztam még, hogy az top 10-es lesz nekik, lehet ki is kéne cserélni Rodrigóval. Ááá, nem tudom. Ha Rodrigo nem lesz és Andre lesz top 10-es, azt fél pontnak számolom. Vagy negyednek.

Top 10 esélyek még: Amaarae: Fountain Baby Joanna Sternberg: I’ve Got Me Fever Ray: Radical Romantics boygenius: the record (se pontszámban, se dallistán nem kiemelkedő, de pont olyan középút, amit sokan top 10-be tesznek és végén itt is kijön ez a matek).

Ja és idén nem vertek át, tudom hogy ér 2022-es decemberi lemez is, szóval SZA ott lesz.

Amúgy viszont idén tényleg nem izgat, már az 5/10 is oké eredmény lesz, de ez az újság tényleg annyira kiszámítható, hogy 5/10-nél kevesebbet elérni is nehéz.

Hogy milyen volt 2023 új zenékben? Azt nem annyira tőlem kell kérdezni, a Slowdive szeretete nem hiszem, hogy túl releváns, se PJ Harveyé. Laurel Halo, Kali Uchis, Sofia Kourtesis, Universal Harmonies & Frequencies, Speakers Corner Quartet, Nourished By Time, Inward Cirlcles, még valamelyik bar italia is tetszett, ilyesmik, de inkább már nem is mondok semmit. Viszont ehelyett abban biztos lettem, hogy a leginkább alulértékelt magyar elektronikuszenei lemez a Sonic Age máig szuper house The Albuma 1998-ból. És Mikrofunk senki által nem ismert 2000-es lemeze is alaplemez magyar elektronikában, de erről később sokkal többet, nem olyan sokára.

Ja, még 2023: a Lankum elsöprő kritikai sikerére természetesen én sem tudom a magyarázatot. Nincs.

Tippeljen más is, ha van kedve!

Az előzmények:

a 2022-es tipp és a végeredmény (6/10)

a 2021-es tipp és a végeredmény (6/10)

a 2020-as tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2019-es tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2018-as tipp és a végeredmény (7/10)

a 2017-es tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2016-os tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2015-ös tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2014-es tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2013-as tipp és a végeredmény (7/10)

a 2012-es tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2011-es tipp és a végeredmény (6/10)

a 2010-es tipp és a végeredmény (8/10)

a 2009-es tipp és a végeredmény (9/10)

a 2008-as tipp és a végeredmény (9/10)

a 2007-es tipp és a végeredmény (7/10)

meg volt a 2010-es évek tipp és végeredmény (5/10) :(

meg volt ez a félévtizedes hülyeség, ami ilyen lett (7/10)

meg volt a hatvanas évek, ami ilyen lett (7/10)

és volt az utólagos 1998, ami ilyen lett (6/10).

#pitchfork #pitchfork tippmix

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justforbooks · 10 months

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The film director William Friedkin, who has died aged 87, was slightly older than the “movie brats” group (Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese and so on) credited with revolutionising US cinema in the late 1960s and early 70s.

Like Robert Altman and Sidney Lumet, Friedkin had come to cinema through TV and documentary, but made a vital contribution to the American new wave. His double-whammy in the first half of the 1970s, The French Connection (1971) and The Exorcist (1973), met with critical acclaim and a level of box-office success that elevated them into pop-culture phenomena. They also managed to overshadow everything else he did.

Nevertheless it would be wrong to characterise his career as a rise and fall. His finest hour was arguably the 1985 cop-and-counterfeiters thriller To Live and Die in LA, while he scored a modest triumph late in the day with his 2011 adaptation of Tracy Letts’s southern-fried noir play Killer Joe. But his steady hand, his timing and his commercial savvy were evident in those early hits. The French Connection, with its preference for hand-held, vérité-style camerawork and on-the-hoof sound recording, sometimes at the expense of intelligibility, took the American policier to a level of authenticity and grittiness to which the genre still aspires today.

Friedkin was never shy of owning up to his mistakes; his 2013 memoir, The Friedkin Connection, opens with an account of various regrettable errors, including passing up the chance to buy an ownership stake in Mike Tyson and throwing away some sketches by the then-unknown artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. To these can be added his reluctance to cast Gene Hackman as The French Connection’s dishevelled antihero, “Popeye” Doyle.

Actor and director fought regularly. “His outbursts [onscreen] were aimed directly at me … more than the drug smugglers.” Among the film’s five Academy Awards was a best actor prize for Hackman’s snarling performance, and one for Friedkin as best director.

The Exorcist followed Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby (1968) in bestowing upon the modern horror movie a new sheen of class and respectability. Friedkin integrated serious themes with extreme gore and intense terror, but rejected the idea that The Exorcist belonged to the horror genre. “I think it deals with issues far more profound than what you find in the average horror film. To be frank with you, Bill [the writer William Peter Blatty] and I never set out to make a horror film. The idea never crossed our minds. To me, The Exorcist was a story about the mystery of faith, and I tried to depict that as realistically as possible.”

His parents and grandparents had fled Kiev (Kyiv) in the early 1900s, making the passage to the US by hiding on freighter ships. William was born and raised in Chicago, the son of Rachel (nee Green), who gave up her job as an operating-room nurse when he was born, and Louis, a former semi-professional softball player turned cigar maker and men’s clothing salesman. Friedkin characterised his own adolescence as one of frustration and thwarted dreams: “From an early age, my ambitions overwhelmed my abilities,” he wrote. “It’s a miracle I didn’t end up in jail or on the streets.”

He graduated from Senn high school in 1953 and got a job in the post-room of a local Chicago television station, WGN-TV. He worked his way up through various positions, acting as floor manager on several hundred shows before a vacancy opened for a director of live drama.

But it was a cinematic experience around the same time that proved formative. One afternoon in the early 60s, Friedkin went to see Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane for the first time, entering the cinema at noon and not leaving until late that evening, having watched the movie five times back-to-back: “No film I’ve seen before or since meant so much to me. I thought, ‘Whatever that is, that’s what I want to do…’ On that Saturday, just three years younger than Welles when he created Kane, I resolved to become a film-maker.”

In 1962, he made The People vs Paul Crump, an award-winning documentary about a man on death row, and also directed an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, before knocking out four features: Good Times (1965), a vehicle for the musical duo Sonny & Cher; the comedy The Night They Raided Minsky’s and an intermittently electrifying screen version of Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party (both 1968); and another theatre adaptation, The Boys in the Band (1970), about a group of gay friends.

In his 1998 book Easy Riders, Raging Bulls, the film historian Peter Biskind wrote that on the basis of those last two films, Friedkin had acquired a “reputation for being an art film director, the kiss of death. He was depressed, afraid he would never work again.”

Salvation came in the shape of a screenplay adapted from a factual bestseller about the NYPD’s campaign to smash a drug ring. Friedkin brought an unprecedented level of realism to The French Connection. A key sequence, thrillingly executed by Friedkin, features a seven-minute chase through Brooklyn, with Popeye (in a stolen car) trying to outrun and intercept his quarry, who has hijacked the train speeding along the elevated track above him.

Friedkin was not bashful about his Oscar win: Biskind reported that the director had his chair on the set of The Exorcist emblazoned with the words “An Oscar for The French Connection”. His behaviour had also become harsher and unrulier, even if there was usually a method to his madness (such as slapping a real priest, who had been hired to play an absolution scene, in order to produce the required nervous energy).

The Exorcist was a calculating combination of the portentous and the shrill, mixing highfalutin religious inquiry with brazenly shocking scenes showing Regan (played by the 13-year-old Linda Blair) masturbating with a crucifix, growling obscenities and projectile vomiting. Friedkin’s grasp of tone was sure, though the movie sometimes seemed to be in denial about its own carnivalesque tactics.

These two defining peaks of Friedkin’s career were followed in 1977 by his most conspicuous commercial flop: Sorcerer, a thriller about four men driving a combustible cargo of dynamite through the rainforest. It was based on the same source material as Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterpiece The Wages of Fear, and while not in the same league it was nonetheless undeserving of its box-office fate.

Various factors were blamed, ranging from Friedkin’s hubris to a release date adjacent to Star Wars. It would not be until a remastered print of Sorcerer was screened at the Venice film festival in 2013 that it would begin to lose its unwarranted taint of failure. He insisted it was the work of his which remained closest to his original vision: “The way I saw the film in my mind’s eye, that is the one that’s pretty much there.”

His usual bluster was absent from his next film, the low-key comedy-thriller The Brink’s Job (1978), a dramatisation of the $3m Brink’s robbery in Boston, which Friedkin made when his proposed film of Born on the Fourth of July (later shot by Oliver Stone) fell through.

The mixture of sensational subject matter and po-faced tone that had served him so well on The Exorcist did not prove so successful with Cruising (1980), a lurid and occasionally objectionable thriller starring Al Pacino as a cop who goes undercover in the gay S&M subculture to catch a murderer.

An early draft of the script had been leaked, prompting an onslaught of objections from the gay press, and by the time the film emerged heavily trimmed by the censor’s scissors, it was something of a tarnished cause célèbre. Though Cruising is more complex and conflicted than some of its detractors would allow, it looks unlikely to undergo the same critical rehabilitation as Sorcerer.

To Live and Die in LA showed that not only had Friedkin’s French Connection-era knack for dynamic action sequences not deserted him, but he could combine it with a slicker, stylised aesthetic. The rest of the 80s, however, was not a fertile time for him. He made Deal of the Century (1983), a listless comedy about the arms race, the TV movie C.A.T. Squad (1986) and the thriller Rampage (1987), which he adapted himself from William P Wood’s book.

The Guardian (1990) returned him to the horror genre. Blue Chips (1994), a drama about the politics of college basketball, was subtle and powerful, with an uncompromising lead performance by Nick Nolte, but it foundered commercially (it went straight to video in the UK). The thriller Jade (1995) earned some notoriety when its extravagantly paid screenwriter Joe Eszterhas complained of the changes made to his script; Friedkin, who was responsible for the rewrites, later named it as his favourite of his own movies.

Rules of Engagement (2000) was a mediocre drama with reactionary overtones, about a court-martial following the massacre of civilians in Yemen. The star of that film, Tommy Lee Jones, was reunited with the director in another thriller, The Hunted (2003). But Friedkin found new momentum of sorts in two adaptations of claustrophobic thrillers by Letts – Bug (2006) and Killer Joe.

In 2013, he returned to Pinter’s The Birthday Party, directing the play for the stage in Los Angeles, with Tim Roth and Steven Berkoff among the cast. However, this was postponed at the 11th hour when Friedkin decided to replace Berkoff in the part of the intimidating inquisitor Goldberg (though Berkoff claimed to have resigned). The production did not find a replacement and was never staged.

In 2018, he was the subject of Friedkin Uncut, which combed through his career and featured interviews with collaborators, celebrity fans and the director himself, who is heard confirming that he only ever asks for one or two takes: “I’m not looking for perfection,” he says.

His final films were The Devil and Father Amorth (2017), a documentary about a real-life exorcist, and The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial (2023), an updated adaptation of the Herman Wouk novel first filmed in 1954, starring Kiefer Sutherland. It will premiere next month at the Venice film festival, where the director was honoured in 2013 with a lifetime achievement award.

Friedkin’s reputation as bullish extended to all areas of his life and work. As an interviewee he was comically blunt. Responding to an Independent journalist who complained that the prologue to The Exorcist was baffling, he said: “I don’t have to explain it. You’re free to think of it, or to dismiss it, in any way that you want. It’s called mystery … Jackie Collins writes crisp narrative. I suggest you read all of her books. You will never be in doubt about where the story is going.”

And he rebuffed a Guardian reporter’s suggestion that he subscribed to the auteur theory, which prizes the director as the ultimate author of a film: “Didn’t you hear what I said? Am I talking to deaf ears? No! No! ... The auteur theory is a load of bollocks!”

His first three marriages ended in divorce: that to the actor Jeanne Moreau lasted from 1977 to 1979; that to another actor, Lesley-Anne Down, from 1982 to 1985; and that to the journalist Kelly Lange from 1987 to 1990. The following year he married the former chief executive of Paramount, Sherry Lansing.

She survives him, along with a son, Cedric, from a relationship with Jennifer Nairn-Smith, and a son, Jack (Jackson), from his second marriage.

🔔 William Friedkin, film director, producer and screenwriter, born 29 August 1935; died 7 August 2023

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

#JUST FOR BOOKS #William Friedkin #in memoriam

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thiswaycomessomethingwicked · 5 months

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I am recently going through all your Ficino posts with great joy (I need a new historical rabbit hole!). Do you have any preferred sources to recommend if I want to start reding or listening in for more grounding on his life, weirdness, philosophy, and all the other funky queer Florentine folk surrounding him?

yessss come down the rabbit hole with me! He is such a delightful weirdo <3 Get ready to learn so much about Saturn and Saturn's Malice (which is not in the room with us, calm down Ficino).

He's a hard one because, in English, there aren't really any biographies on him. (Italian, obviously, is a different story.)

A lot of the grounding works - good essay collections, academic texts etc. - are prohibitively expensive. They can range from $100cad to over $400cad, depending on the work. This is because most are purely that: academic texts. Meaning the print run was like 100 copies and all were bought by university libraries lol

He is also not a well known figure outside of those who study quattrocento Italy or those who study Platonism and other philosophical movements. Some of those who operate in the occult world are familiar with him due to his writings on astrology and natural magic.

Florence also had a huge flood that tragically decked a lot of their older archives and that has also sadly impacted many historians' work in the early modern field.

Now, all this said, I'm going to give you my current piecemeal recommendations:

Eight Philosophers of the Italian Renaissance - Paul Kristeller - a classic survey work based on a lecture series he gave in like the 60s, I want to say. It's very much "what it says on the tin" and provides a healthy overview of eight philosophers of the Renaissance. Ficino is one of them and it's a good place to start on who/what/where/when/why.

Others are those like Bruno, Pico Della Mirandola, Valla, Petrarch etc. All worth knowing something about because they either knew Ficino or influenced him or were influenced by him.

Kristeller wrote a lot on Ficino and is one of the "founders" I would say of the 20th century revival in the interest in Ficino. So, noodle around his works as there is always something interesting in them. They are dated, he was writing in the 60s - 90s, but it's broadly good stuff.

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Volume 1 of Ficino's Letters, 2nd edition (make sure it's the second edition). This has great front material that goes into him and his life, positions him in the period and those who he knew and was corresponding with.

I will say, they do write in the introduction: "He [Ficino] was apparently the least active of men. It is probable that in his sixty-six years he never set foot outside the territory of Florence and the record of his life is little more than a chronicle of his books."

Which I take umbridge over as his life was very interesting, people just haven't dug into it to the degree they should.** Like, what was going on in the 1480s with all those land disputes over his father's will between him and his brothers? We need details! We need the family gossip! Alas, we don't have it as it may not exist, anymore, or the related legal papers are in an archive and it's not been made available to the public.

**Note: Paul Kristeller, and others, make occasional references to someone who was working on an English biography of Ficino. But this would have been in the 80s and 90s and nothing appears to have come of it. So I presume that project is languishing in someone's desk drawer.

There was talk of Arthur Farndell publishing a biography but I haven't seen any signs of it - last I heard mention would have been in the early 00s. Farndell's done most of the modern translations of Ficino's works, so he's quite prolific and you'll see his name a lot.

Ficino's Letter Collection (the remaining volumes) - there are 12 volumes of letters that Ficino began pulling together in the 1470s, but he regularly added to, edited, and tweaked the collection over the course of his life.

Letter collections of this sort were a genre of writing at this time and would have been understood to be a vehicle for expounding on philosophical or political issues rather than literal transcriptions of letters written to people.

Which is to say, Ficino did write some iteration of the letters included to the recipients identified. But what was printed, the manuscript editions we have, are highly edited for the purpose of public edification. This does make it super interesting to see what personal details he chooses to leave in.

For example, November 10, 1476 Ficino writes to Cavalcanti about some theological works he was putting together. Ficino also notes that he is returning to Florence soon, he had been at his father's country farm/house/thing, and he intreats Cavalcanti to also return to Florence so "we may at least be close companions in the city, even if we have not been close companions in the country this summer."

Now, as an addendum after the farewell Ficino includes this gem:

"But why do I write nothing about the recent birth of your third daughter? Because you did not write a word to me. Do you wish me to tell the truth? I will not write a word about this before I hear whether I am to congratulate or to console you. But rejoice in the gifts of the Great King, whatever they may be, for nothing from the great is mean or worthy of scorn."

What an interesting bit of personal correspondence to keep in a letter set meant to bring people closer to Platonic ideals of love, civic duty, and their relationship with the divine.

But all of Ficino's letters to Cavalcanti are odd like that. They're half personal correspondence ("I'm sad and bored, please write me!!!" or "I have Luigi Pulci. So much. Have I told you that recently? Hate him. I love everyone in the entire world with every fibre of my soul except Gigi. Fuck Gigi." etc.) and half actual philosophical musings.

Anyway, the letter collections are worth reading. Each volume also includes relevant historical details on what was happening in his life or the broader world at that time. So, for example, the back matter for Vol 4 dives into the Pazzi conspiracy since that is relevant to the letters of that volume (and Vol. 5 to be fair).

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De Vita (Three Books of Life) - Carol Kaske and John Clark - This is Ficino's "medical" text plus the third book which is where Ficino is like "and this is how you use magical properties of certain stones, sigils, planets, and daemons to heal yourself" and other normal things like that. (He broadly fits into the mode of natural healing magic that was very common for the time - magic/medicine/science all being tangled together in the medieval and early modern period - however he does go a bit further than some. This is the book that got him into hot water with the Church.) Ficino was the son of a doctor and studied and practiced medicine so it makes sense he added medical texts to his repertoire.

I have version put out by The Renaissance Society of America: Renaissance Text Series with critical notes and introduction by Carol Kaske and John Clark.

High recommend, if only for the front notes and introduction. They do a great job positioning Ficino in the broader intellectual landscape of the time. They do a bit of attempting to track his education which wasn't as formal as one might think (he attended the University of Florence but I don't think he ever graduated. He was self-taught in many respects). They also get into what his thoughts on magic were and how they fit, or didn't fit, with the broader framework of faith and magical practices of Ficino's contemporaries.

In addition, they get into how his medical and magical thinking differs from others, where he was innovative, where he leaned on existing traditions, and the repercussions of having published this text.

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The Bookseller of Florence - Ross King - this is a great, vey accessible book. It uses Vespasiano's life, a contemporary of Ficino, as a lens through which to explore the manifold changes in manuscript/book creation and distribution that were happening over the course of the fifteenth century.

The book also weaves in the shifting intellectual, religious, and political movements and the big, and small, players that participated and influenced these changes. Naturally, Ficino makes appearances throughout and he is described delightfully.

But I highly recommend it as a means to get a backdrop of the intellectual and political world Ficino was born into and operated within. Also, there's fun gossip about people in it and that's always a plus.

An example of some humourous bits:

"Ficino was scholarly and pious, [Luigi] Pulci (known as Gigi) boisterously scandalous, famous for his insults, invective, and sarcastic humour; he also had an unblushing fondness for taverns, brothels, and black magic. He lived up to his surname (Pulci means "fleas")--a maddenly irritating parasite. As one Florentine frantically complained in a letter to Lorenzo [de' Medici], "Gigi is annoying, Gigi has a bad tongue, Gigi is crazy, Gigi is arrogant, Gigi spreads scandal, Gigi has a thousand faults." Ficino triumphed when Gigi wrote a series of sonnets scorning pilgrims, miracles, preachers, and the doctrine of the immortal soul--and, in doing so, Ficino declared, made himself "odious to God" [...]"

Phenomenal. None of them should ever change. Also just the mental image of this pissed off Florentine frantically writing to Lorenzo "Get this man OUT of our City or so help me God!!"

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Friend to Mankind: Marsilio Ficino - editor Michael Shepherd - ok so this is an essay collection that is really hit and miss. More misses than hits, now that I'm looking at it. I wouldn't recommend going out of your way for it, but if you see it in like a bargain bin or something it's worth picking up.

That said, there are a few essays in it that are worth finding, if you can:

"Fellow Philosophers," Linda Proud (this one is Great if you want the hilarious hot gossip of Pico Della Mirandola, Poliziano, and Ficino squabbling over Plato's concepts of Love. Well, Pico and Ficino cat-fight over it, if in a loving fashion. Poliziano eats popcorn and laughs.)

"In Praise of the One - Marsilio Ficino and Advaita," Arthur Farndell

"Ficino and Astrology," Geoffrey Pearce

"Ficino on the Nature of Love and the Beautiful," Joseph Milne

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On the Nature of Love: Ficino on Plato's Symposium - translation by Arthur Farndell

It is 100% worth reading Ficino's commentaries on Plato's Symposium if only because I am convinced he wrote the entire thing as a love letter to Giovanni Cavalcanti.

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Marsilio Ficino and His World - Sophia Howlett - if you can find this at the local library or used somewhere and it's not $150 I recommend it. This is the overview book that I think you're after that doesn't really exist in English, aside from here.

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Marsilio Ficino: His Theology, His Philosophy, His Legacy - editors Michael Allen and Valery Rees - This is another expensive one, sitting around $250/$300 - but I've read excerpts from it and all that I have read is amazing.

It's an essay collection covering his thoughts on Hermeticism, Plotinus, the soul and primacy of will, musical therapy (Ficino was very keen on musical therapy), Jewish concepts of the prisca theologia, the 15th c. Plato-Aristotle controversy among other philosophical items. There are also essays exploring his influence on art, thinkers, and writers both in his own lifetime as well as throughout history.

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Plato's Persona: Marsilio Ficino, Renaissance Humanism, and Platonic Traditions - Denis Robichaud - I just spent too much money and bought this book. Will report back as I read it - however, based on the excerpts I read online, I'm super stoked.

Robichoud seems to be exploring how Ficino wrote and created his sense of self through interpretation of Platonic writings and thought. There's lots of stuff about how Ficino interacts with Plato and interprets and understands himself as, like, Plato's "spokesperson" if not a full extension of Plato himself.

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I hope this helps! Ficino's such a weird little man and I love him. I hope you enjoy going down the rabbit hole as much as I have - and I'm always here to talk Ficino, or anything early modern Italy really. <3 <3

#ask #reply #marsilio blogging #marsilio ficino #early modern italy #early modern florence #renaissance #renaissance florence #renaissance italy #marsilio sourcing

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burlveneer-music · 8 months

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Don Letts - Outta Sync - he's been around so long it's hard to believe this is his first album as an artist

Don Letts’ philosophy has always been that another day brings a new opportunity. And so, at the age of 67-years-old, the musician, DJ, film director, radio broadcaster, author and honorary doctorate today completes the one creative endeavour that he has not yet pursued: the release of his debut album ‘Outta Sync’. ‘Outta Sync’ is a glorious experience that traverses across Don’s myriad array of musical passions, taking in elements of cosmic reggae, psych ska and kaleidoscopic pop, coloured by Hammond, sitar, melodica, glockenspiel and an a-list synth line-up of Minimoog, Arp Odyssey and Korg MS20. It’s also a record full of inspired collaborations with a range of creative forces, many of whom have an intriguing connection to his storied career. A quick roll call: producer, solo artist and worldbeat pioneer Gaudi; Grammy-winning producer and Killing Joke bassist Youth; Hollie Cook, Zoe Devlin Love, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips and, of course, Don’s daughter Honor. But at the centre is the voice of the man himself, his mellifluous vocals, raps and spoken word sharing hopes and fears born from his years of experience… albeit with the lyrical disclaimer, “I’ve finally come to realise I might not be so old and wise.” Don says, “This album is totally me. The sum total of my whole cultural journey is on this record, and it reflects the duality of my existence, which is Black and British. It’s essentially a soundtrack to my mind, with some wicked bass lines.” And that’s the ‘Outta Sync’ album. The west Londoner, who has worked with everyone from The Clash to Sinead O’Connor, Bob Marley to Paul McCartney and multiple others on assorted adventures in between, has now made an album of his own. But as tomorrow is another day and another opportunity, the question that remains is: what next for the Rebel Dread?

#Bandcamp #Don Letts #reggae #punk #uk #london #2023 #cooking vinyl

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nadiasindi · 10 months

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#https://www.judicial-discipline-reform.org/?p=105994 #https://www.aaiusa.org/library/end-the-scourge-of-profiling-arabs-and-muslims?emci=31681df3-a4e2-ed11-8e8b-00224832eb73&emdi=7315804d-a8e2-#Just like our Oregon Criminal Officials such Gov. Brown #Rep. Nathanson #Sen. Floyd Prozanski etc.. with the help of Wells Fargo. who are covering up for the most criminal Official: Late Frohnmayer #late Rep. Bob Ackerman who stole my Fully paid Condo!#My social Security #is BLOCKED at the Employment office #for more than Three years NOW. I can't sign in to look for a job! This had happened after my name was cleared from the fabricated criminal #http://www.salem-news.com/articles/january112014/corruption-petition-ns.php?fbclid=IwAR0n668Efngx8J3l95dUI5tufiMmD73OQWgy2oCp2eovOjeokwQRFW #Gov.Kate Brown Appointed 100 Judges.She made sure before she leaves #she appointed TWO more Judges to cover her back!#Arrest Gov. Brown #Rep. Nathanson & the Rest of Oregon Criminal Officials who are complicit with the Most Criminal Officials late Frohnmayer #late Rep. Ackerman!#OR. late A.G. Frohnmayer had deleted all records in L.C. It shows I'd changed my name to Nadia Sindi.Left old name Faika Sindi.Changed lett #https://www.facebook.com/AXJ.OR/videos/2043016569268673 #https://www.facebook.com/AXJ.OR/?ref=pages_you_manage

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savage-kult-of-gorthaur · 10 months

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"THE QUALITY OF THE PICTURES WAS SO GOOD. I HAD A STINT OF HAVING IT WITH ME ALL THE TIME."

PIC(S) INFO: Mega-spotlight on behind-the-scenes Polaroids of English post-rock/post-punk/experimental music group PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED, c. 1980-'81. 📸: Jeannette Lee.

OVERVIEW: "In late 1978, one year after the tumultuous break up of the SEX PISTOLS, John Lydon (a.k.a. Johnny Rotten) launched his new band, PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED, featuring his childhood friend Jah Wobble on bass, and Keith Levene, former guitarist for THE CLASH, on guitar. Lydon had had a rough time of it; by the time the Sex Pistols disintegrated, he had no money, no privacy thanks to the band’s enduring notoriety and no real control over his punk past (former manager Malcolm McLaren had staked claim to the SEX PISTOLS’ image, forbidding Lydon to use the name Rotten for future endeavours). As a result, he deemed that Public Image Limited would be different: a band-cum-company comprised of trusted co-collaborators.

Shortly after founding the band he approached Jeannette Lee, now best known as the co-director of iconic independent label Rough Trade Records, inviting her into the PiL fold as a “non-musical member” of the group to help with press, promotion and general administration. Thus ensued a magical period of innovation and cooperation which saw PiL rise to greater and greater heights, blazing an avant-garde, post-punk trail. Now, a new limited-edition book of Polaroid photographs taken by Lee during her three or four-year tenure with the group, and published by IDEA, sheds candid light on this formative period of the band’s history.

Lydon and Lee had met through Don Letts, the then-manager of famous punk-reggae clothing store Acme Attractions on the King’s Road (where Lee also worked), and bonded over a shared love of reggae and their north London council estate backgrounds. “He came to me and said, "I’m starting this new thing. I want to work with people that I trust. I don’t want to work with any more idiots,"" Lee recalls in an interview with Jarvis Cocker – a close friend, whom she also manages and who helped her compile the publication – for the book’s accompanying text. “There was no real job description: just like-minded people joining forces.” Alongside the key band members, these included Don Letts, Sheila Rock, Judy Nylon and Plaxy Locatelli, among others, all of whom set up office in Lydon’s house in Gunter Grove, between Fulham and the King’s Road, and spent their days, in Lee’s words, "making manifestos and then living according to them."

It is in this intimate setting that many of Lee’s pictures are staged, taken from 1980 onwards, after the purchase of her Polaroid SX-70 camera on a trip to New York. “The quality of the pictures was so good. I had a stint of having it with me all the time. Taking pictures everywhere I went,” she tells Cocker. Lee was a natural photographer, her snapshots rendered in dreamy hues and boasting compelling compositions. Some of the images from the book will be recognisable to PiL fans – such as the brilliant photograph of Lydon gazing furtively into a spiderweb-etched mirror, which was used as the cover for the "Flowers of Romance" single – while many more have never been seen, and offer viewers wonderful insight into the very private world of PUBLIC IMAGE LIMITED. There’s a picture of one member tenderly clasping a puppy, one of Levene sitting in front of a strawberry milkshake, traces of its froth forming a moustache across his top lip, another of Lee and a boater-topped Lydon grinning goofily into the camera: the softer, sillier side of punk."

-- ANOTHER MAG, "Behind-the-Scenes Polaroids of Public Image Limited’s Heyday," by Daisy Woodward, c. May 2017

Source: www.anothermag.com/art-photography/9825/behind-the-scenes-polaroids-of-public-image-limiteds-heyday.

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afrotumble · 1 month

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Don Letts with Burning Spear and Thomas Mapfumo at Island Records 1990

Adrian Boot 📸

#weaderasta

#don letts #burning spear #thomas mapfumo #reggae

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igazikutya · 1 year

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Zajok a nappaliból – Traxelektor 2023. 04.

Egy éve voltak a választások, és beszélnünk kell a politikáról! Mint léteznek konzervatív-keresztények vagy liberális-materialisták (meg ezek minden permutációja), nem tudom, kell-e nyomatékosítanom, hogy a Traxelektor a randomista-krosszfédista irányzatot képviseli, ami a legprogresszívebb liberális traxelekcionista audiofilozófia? Ámde barátaim, olvasóim! Már régóta tudom, hogy köreinkben is felütötte a fejét a konzervatív restauráció, a meghaladott múlt felélesztése iránti, őstől örökölt retrográd vágy. Persze honnan jönne a késszúrás, ha nem pár lépésről, ahonnan nem várná a szelektor – nos léteznek, konkrétan köztünk élnek olyanok, aki a spotify playlist-et alfabetikus sorrendben hallgatják, krosszféd nélkül. De! Mi soha nem vetemednénk arra, hogy elhallgattassuk mások playlistjeit, hogy krosszfédeljük a hitük szerinti, számukra élest, ezért álljon itt ez a gif megbékélésünk jeléül:

Andrea, akit megkülönböztetésül a „torinói” (sötét ló) jelzővel próbálok jelölni saját gyűjteményemben, a discogson Andrea (99) – az se rossz. Két év szünet után (Sktch EP, 2021) a második albuma jelent meg, szokás szerint, a bajor Ilian Tape-nél. A Due in Color a trip-hop, ambient, abstract-breaks, glitch elektronika területein cselleng meglehetősen nagy bátorsággal, s talán váratlanul nagy magabiztossággal. A sodrás és a konstans rúgóállandó mozgatja Novantanovesimo Andrea mechanikai szerkezeteit, felhőként lebegő dallamszigeteit, köztük nem kevés zenei közhelyt, ami engem itt nem zavar. Az összkép tehát egy ibizoid chillemfaszlemúr kisimult tekintete fürkészte félsivatag. Andi, nézzed!

Svejcisapkás zenetéri rikkancsként kiabálom: Tessék, sláger! Tessék sláger! Megjelent az új Tagadás Évei!

youtube

Barkosina Hanusova és Jerome Tcherneyan, azaz a Years of Denial - Suicide Disco Vol. 2 albumáról van szó. A 2019-es első nyomvonalán halad a kettes, bár mintha itt nagyobb lenne az átlagos kályhától való távolság. Synthwave, ebm, industrial, néha electro, néha synth – na ez mind szépen végigfut az erősen fülbemászó dalok alatt, úgyhogy ez végül is electro-clash 2023 edition.

James Clements űrhajója az Ultimae Galaxisba tévedt ismét. Az új ASC album - Hiding In Plain Sight – a Solar Fields/Aes Dana hangzásával játszadozik, még ha néhol a FSOL - Lifeforms-szának , korai Autechre-ek dubjai is visszhangoznak a szélesre tárt térben. Clements a szokásos asc-elemeket se engedte el, azaz a tér töredezik is, hajlik is, réteg-réteg hátán, de több a fém és több a kő is.

Még mindig az egyik személyes kedvencem az amadindányi ütőssel felszerelten varázsló Sam Shackleton. Korábbi zsenijei – a Departing Like Rivers (2021), The Majestic Yes (2022) – felejthetetlenek, újra elővevősek, de újabb mozzanatai se okoznak csalódást. Shigeru Ishiharával párban követték el a legújabb Shackleton „tripet”, azaz a Death By Tickling albumot Scotch Rolex & Shackleton jegyzik. Spotifyon ne keresd, itt lesz

Jönnek a kinaiak! Már megint. Ez jutott eszembe, meg hogy ez most eleven, húsba vágóan harsány attack. Hard drum, techno, ebm csattogás a Shanghai és Taipei közt ingázó Tzu-sing, azaz Tsusing szemszögéből – mondjuk az album közepén van egy Balkanize című track, szóval messze lát az a szem. Decemberben szerepelt itt Zaliva-D, és akad némi hasonlóság, pl. a dobok, meg az unortodox ütemszerkesztés. Azért az egész 绿帽 Green Hat album – mivel kicsit sok – elég megterhelő.

Ha a Good Mornig Tapes Recordings (ez a név! :) kaziját tartod a kezedben, akár beteheted a magnóba és mehet a jóga, tökéletes alá. A georg Andro Gogibedashvili új ötszámosa, az Intrapersonal Experience, tényleg ilyen: teljesen steril, ártó gondolatoktól mentes. Persze a Saphileaum lemezek többsége ilyen pozitív vibe-ok gyűjteménye, ez most talán ezoterikusabbra lett túlfőzve.

Amikor elolvastam, hogy Magna Pia, elsőre valami magyar kormány eseményre asszociáltam, ahol Hungarikum Bizottság, a Pálinka Nemzeti Tanács, a Magyar Szőlő- és Bortermelők Szövetsége és a Magyar Sörgyártók Szövetsége jelenlétében Chartába foglalják a magyar emberek szabad iváshoz való elidegeníthetetlen jogát. A borítón elsőre rovásírásnak tűnő jelek szerint pedig itt van velünk a Szentkorona Szövetség is. Elnézést kérek – na nem az anyanyelvén, a kipcsak rokon – Hüseyin Evirgen-től, ki e pszeudó erős és büszke tulajdonosa! A Bécsben és Berlinben tevékenykedő – profilképein elszántan rónába révedő - török második albuma (Daiauna, 2018), a Qut különleges keveréke az ambient, drone, ambient-house, dub jegyeinek. Nem egyenletes a szint – és sikerült mindent összeinni mindennel – de a sűrű leftfield-idm-be fordulások, és az olyan track miatt, mint az X – mely sosem jelöli a kincs helyét – itt a helye.

Pont egy éve, tavaly áprilisban írtam egy nagyon pozitív kritikát Cosmo Vitelli albumáról, a Medhead-ről. Ahogyan a múlt is mozgásban van a jelen hatására, adott zeneszámokhoz való viszonyunk is ilyen, és hogy őszinte legyek a Medhead elég hamar elkopott, devalválódott. Most itt az újabb alkalom, hogy magamból hülyét csinálva túlértékeljek valamit: ugyanis itt a Medhead Remixes, a román Andrei Rusu, ismertebb nevén Khidja, a francia Krikor Kouchian, a szintén francia és múlt hónapban új albummal érkezett Froid Dub vagy a remixerként kiemelkedő Krokakai eltérítgetéseivel. Nagyon erős anyag – tényleg! – nem valami trendi remixeltetés a műfaji jegyeknek és kliséknek megfelelés jegyében, ellenkezőleg! Váratlan megoldások, bátor, belemenős terelések, Krikor például egy olyan dög-dubbal, amit inkább a Froidéktól vártam volna, de Andrei Rusu verziója olyan erős, hogy instrumental verzióban is működik.

Vádoljatok, hogy Orphxből építek várat, de kijelentem: jelenleg techno és indusztriál vonalon nincs nemesebb ötvözet, mint Christina Sealey és Richard Oddie moduláris részecskegyorsító vegyes párosa.

The Way Through All Things a címe a berlini Sonic Groove-nál újonnan megjelent, célrajtgyőztes suhanásuknak. Egyszerűen hibátlan, az arányok tökéletesen pontosak, az összetevők kohézióban, állandó mozgásban és ez adja a dinamikus ballanszt és a változatos konzisztenciát. A nyitó Man of Sorrows az utóbbi évtized egyik legfinomabban megmunkált technoindulója, ami annyira techno, hogy Ozorán simán megőrülne rajt a nép.

A Revenant EP után ez most már teljesen hivatalos visszatérés a páros részéről, és elkezdtek turnézni is, sajnos Budapestre nem jönnek egyelőre.

Mallorcán született, de Barcelonában él Nacho Pezzati, argentin zenei producer. Nueen pszeudó alatt készülnek a leginkább leftfield címkével jellemezhető 4-5 percesei. Igazi hangulatvarázsló a pali, a bizonytalanság végig ott vibrál zenéjében, megtörténik, hogy egy váratlan téma teljesen ütemtelenül lép be, amit a lassú sodrás elnyel, magával visz. Ugyanebben a sűrű masszában lebegnek, fuldokolnak a különféle szövegek is. Az öt címtelen tételből felépülő Link EP a berlini 3XL Recordingsnél jelent meg, de sajnos spotifyon nem tudod meghallgatni, irány a bandcamp!

Megjelenések:

Andrea - Due In Color [2023, Illian Tapes][LP] ASC - Hiding In Plain Sight [2023, Horo][LP] Cosmo Vitelli - Medhead Remixes [2023, Im a Cliche][Rmx-LP] Developer - Hexmode [2023, Modularz][LP] Magna Pia - QUT [2023, Counterchange][EP] nueen - Link [2023, 3XL][EP] Orphx - The Way Through All Things [2023, Sonic Groove][EP] Saphileaum - Intrapersonal Experience [2023, Good Morning Tapes][MC] Scotch Rolex & Shackleton - Death by Tickling [2023, Silver Triplet][LP] Tzusing - 绿帽 Green Hat [2023, PAN][LP] VA - Tones & Echoes [2023, Egregore Collective][EP-Comp] Years Of Denial - Suicide Disco Vol. 2 [2023, VEYL][LP]

Traxelektor

Traxelektor 2023 04 Spotify playlist - link

(71/83, 6:41/7:50, 86%)

Traxelektor Playlist 2023 04

Andrea - Chessbio [Due In Color, Illian Tapes] Andrea - Jaim [Due In Color, Illian Tapes] Andrea - Remote Working [Due In Color, Illian Tapes] Andrea - Ress [Due In Color, Illian Tapes] Andrea - Sephr [Due In Color, Illian Tapes] Annie Hall - Memories That Never Happened [Memories That Never Happened, Central Processing Unit] Annie Hall - Subsequent Experiments [Memories That Never Happened, Central Processing Unit] Anoesis - Cat Vision [Memory On Memory, Paper-Cuts] Anoesis - Constant Stars [Memory On Memory, Paper-Cuts] Anoesis - Stan React [Memory On Memory, Paper-Cuts]

ASC - A Whisper In Your Ghost [Hiding In Plain Sight, Horo] ASC - Dreadnought [Hiding In Plain Sight, Horo] ASC - Landslide [Hiding In Plain Sight, Horo] ASC - Orbiting Neptune [Hiding In Plain Sight, Horo] Brendon Moeller - Blue [Quiet Quitting, Steadfast] Brendon Moeller - Lint

Broken English Club - Ersatz (Club Edit)[The Artificial Animal Edits, Death & Leisure] Chontane - Memory Flashback [TANE001, TANE] Clouds - Corestyle [Clubmatter, Perc Trax]

Cosmo Vitelli - 7 Foot Clown in My Bed (Krikor Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - Down the Hatch (Cosmo Vitelli Boogie Dub)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - How Is It to Be You? (Andrei Rusu Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - Just Like His Dad (Froid Dub Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - Trichophilia (Krokakai Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cristian Vogel - Bright Spacer Version [Multicore, Self-Released] Dancefloor Classics - Didn't You Know [Dancefloor Classics Vol.2, Rajaton] Cosmo Vitelli - 7 Foot Clown in My Bed (Krikor Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - Down the Hatch (Cosmo Vitelli Boogie Dub)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - How Is It to Be You? (Andrei Rusu Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - Just Like His Dad (Froid Dub Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cosmo Vitelli - Trichophilia (Krokakai Remix)[Medhead Remixes, Im a Cliche] Cristian Vogel - Bright Spacer Version [Multicore, Self-Released] Dancefloor Classics - Didn't You Know [Dancefloor Classics Vol.2, Rajaton]

Dom & Roland - X-Eminence [Against A Dark Background, Over/Shadow] Echologist - Activation [Activation, Knotweed] How To Dress Well - My Body (Carmen Villain's „My Body Rework”) [, ] JakoJako - Impetus [Verve EP, Mute]

Kobermann - Küstenträume [Probandenausweis, A.T.C.] Kobermann - Sonnenschirmbrand [Probandenausweis, A.T.C.] Lord Jalepenos - Access Denied [Handshaking, International Chrome] Lord Jalepenos - Amaryllis [Handshaking, International Chrome] Lord Jalepenos - Ruins [Handshaking, International Chrome] Lord Jalepenos - Transcedental [Handshaking, International Chrome]

Magna Pia - Gudanna [QUT, Counterchange] Magna Pia - Qut [QUT, Counterchange] Magna Pia - X [QUT, Counterchange] Mantsche feat. Bishop - Unknown Dub Story [VA - Tones & Echoes, Egregore Collective] Nathan Fake - Crystal Vision [Crystal Vision, Cambria Instruments]

nueen - II [Link, 3XL] nueen - III [Link, 3XL] nueen - IV [Link, 3XL] Orphx - Gateway [The Way Through All Things, Sonic Groove] Orphx - In The Presence [The Way Through All Things, Sonic Groove] Orphx - Man Of Sorrows [The Way Through All Things, Sonic Groove] Paleman - Bite [Veiled, Sublunar] Paleman - Exalted [Exalted, 30D] Paleman - Procession [Veiled, Sublunar]

Peverelist - Pulse I [Pulse EP, Livity] Peverelist - Pulse III [Pulse EP, Livity]

Porter Brook - Lipsius [Lipsius, Trule] Saphileaum - Dear [Intrapersonal Experience, Good Morning Tapes] Saphileaum - Spell Singer (Free Spirit) [Intrapersonal Experience, Good Morning Tapes] Saphileaum - Useful Wisdom [Intrapersonal Experience, Good Morning Tapes] Scotch Rolex & Shackleton - Five Butterflies [Death by Tickling, Silver Triplet] Scotch Rolex & Shackleton - Love Songs [Death by Tickling, Silver Triplet] Scotch Rolex & Shackleton - Serotonin [Death by Tickling, Silver Triplet] Scotch Rolex & Shackleton - Shattered [Death by Tickling, Silver Triplet] Scotch Rolex & Shackleton - The Blue Sun [Death by Tickling, Silver Triplet]

Stacktrace - Heal [VA - Tones & Echoes, Egregore Collective] Stefan Dubs - Saudrune Dub [VA - Tones & Echoes, Egregore Collective] Tapes And Topographies - No Longer There [Microtones, Simulacra]

Tim Hecker - Anxiety [No Highs, Kranky] Tim Hecker - In Your Mind [No Highs, Kranky] Tzusing - 趁人之危 (Take Advantage)[绿帽 Green Hat, PAN] Tzusing - Gait [绿帽 Green Hat, PAN] Tzusing - 偶像包袱 (Idol Baggage)[绿帽 Green Hat, PAN] Tzusing - 孝忍狠 (Filial Endure Ruthless)[绿帽 Green Hat, PAN] Years Of Denial - City Lights [Suicide Disco Vol. 2, VEYL] Years Of Denial - Dancing with Demons [Suicide Disco Vol. 2, VEYL] Years Of Denial - Lover's Crime [Suicide Disco Vol. 2, VEYL] Years Of Denial - Never Satisfied [Suicide Disco Vol. 2, VEYL] Years Of Denial - Regarding the Pain of Others [Suicide Disco Vol. 2, VEYL] Years Of Denial - The Letter [Suicide Disco Vol. 2, VEYL] Years Of Denial - Wrong [Suicide Disco Vol. 2, VEYL]

Yushh - Kara Arriba [Siro Silo EP, Well Street] Yushh - OXI Ambigan [Siro Silo EP, Well Street]

#zene #zeneajánló #zenekritika #music #underground #electronic #traxelektor #spotify

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