#Magdalen Islands
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Série des
Îles-de-la-Madeleine
's serie
2. Plage de la Martinique
(2/?)
#beach#ocean asmr#my video#nature#Magdalen Islands#iles de la Madeleine#quebec#selkie#sea witch#water witch#mermaid kin#merfolk#sea sounds#waves#autumn sea#beach video#relaxing videos
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Îles de la Madeleine
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Lobster fishing around Magdalen Islands, Quebec
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Merci Pour Tout [Thanks for Everything] (Louise Archambault, 2019)
#Merci pour tout#Thanks for Everything#drama film#comedy film#Louise Archambault#Julie Perreault#Magalie Lépine-Blondeau#Gilbert Sicotte#Magdalen Islands#Canada#canadian cinema#canadian movies#Robin Aubert#Guy Nadon#Patrick Hivon#Jean-François Pichette#Aliocha Schneider#Sasha Migliarese#Quebec#road movies#road trip#2010s cinema#Îles de la Madeleine#Canadian society#Îles-de-la-Madeleine#Québec#travelling#marriage#cheating#relationships
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"M. Hormidas Langlais et les exemptions militaires aux fils de pêcheurs," Montreal-Matin. April 21, 1943. Page 6.
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Québec. 20. (B.U.P.) En marge du débat sur les exemptions militaires pour les fils de pêcheurs, M. Hormisdas Langlais, député des Iles de La Madeleine, a fait la déclaration suivante : "Un grand nombre de fils de pêcheurs ont été appelés pour le service militaire. Un grand nombre avait reçu, l'an dernier des sursis. J'ai déclaré à la Chambre que j'avais reçu des réponses dans six cas particuliers, et que dans chacun de ces cas, les autorités refusaient d'accorder un nouveau sursis. Un grand nombre de demandes je le sais, parce que j'en ai envoyé moi-même, sont actuellement en suspens devant les autorités. Nous désirons tout simplement qu'on laisse ces gens à leur besogne qui est essentielle par le temps qui court."
#member of the legislative assembly#assemblée législative de la province de québec#iles de la madeleine#magdalen islands#military exemptions#fishermen#conscription in canada#selective service#canada during world war 2#quebec politics
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Five of my favourite photos I took in May 2023 and end of month thoughts
The photos are of; Oystercatcher on Brownsea Island, Marsh Fritillary at Magdalen Hill Down, view at Bentley Wood, red campion at Lakeside Country Park and Broad-bodied Chaser at Bentley Wood.
May was another fantastic month of wildlife watching and photos for me. My strong spring run of seeing bird species for the first time this year continued with species such as Tree Pipit and Hobby seen, taking my year list into the 200s on my earliest ever date in a year, making my year list my second highest ever already and the highest any of my year lists have ever been on this date by far which is exceptional and feels so good. Garden Warbler, Garganey, Curlew Sandpiper, Little Tern, Cuckoo, Long-billed Dowitcher, Whitethroat and Sandwich Tern have been other key birds seen this month. It has also been a great month of watching young birds and breeding birds including Peregrines, Great Crested Grebes and many goslings and ducklings. May was also a fantastic month of butterflies with a rich array of fantastic species observed and I feel so lucky to have seen so many. I went on a great run in sunny weather of getting butterfly photos too which I was pleased with. Marsh Fritillary, Pearl-bordered Fritillary, Adonis Blue, Brown Argus, Duke of Burgundy, Grizzled Skipper, Dingy Skipper, Small Copper, Painted Lady and Green Hairstreak were standouts of the many species enjoyed.
It was a memorable month of flowers as we sailed into days of having so many species around which is exciting from burnt-tip orchid to early purple orchid. I enjoyed seeing damselflies very well this month especially over some memorable consecutive days and getting into dragonflies for the year too, with good moments with beetles and other insects as well as mammals and moths of course with my year list starting up nicely for them. I took so many photos again this month, many of which I was pleased with and I enjoyed taking in some stunning, varied and immersive landscapes in many bits of strong sunny weather this month with sunsets and the moon enjoyed too. I hope you all have a nice June.
#photography#marsh fritillary#oystercatcher#magdalen hill#magdalen hill down#brownsea island#hampshire#dorset#bentley wood#wiltshire#red campion#lakeside country park#lakeside#broad-bodied chaser#dragonflies#dragonfly#butterfly#butterflies#birdwatching#tree pipit#hobby#garden warbler#cuckoo#garganey#burnt-tip orchid#duke of burgundy#common carpet moth#cinnabar moth#happy#may
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Special post ahead of Prince George of Wales's 10th birthday (3/4) : from 2019 to 2021.
•Prince George's 6th birthday on July 22nd 2019, in St Lucia on The Mustique Island, Carribbean Islands.
•King's Cup Regatta hosted by The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on August 8th 2019, in Cowes, England.
•First Christmas Day Church service on December 25th 2019, at Church of St Mary Magdalene on the Sandringham Estate in King's Lynn, England.
•Official portrait with Queen Elizabeth II, The Prince of Wales and The Duke of Cambridge to mark the beginning of a new decade, on January 3rd 2020, at Buckingham Palace in London.
•Support to the doctors, nurses, carers, and others NHS staff during the Coronavirus pandemic on March 26th 2020, at Amner Hall in Norfolk, England.
•7th birthday on July 22nd 2020, at Amner Hall in Norfolk, England.
•Message video with Sir David Attenborough on October 3rd 2020.
•Run Sandringham Half Marathon on June 20th 2021, in King's Lynn, England.
•UEFA Euro 2020 Championship final between Italy and England on July 11th 2021, in London.
•8th birthday on July 22nd 2021, in Norfolk, England.
📷 (1, 5, 6, 7 & 10) : The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge/Kensington Palace.
(4) : Ranald Mackechnie/The Royal Family.
#prince george#british royal family#england#2023#july 2023#10th birthday#birthday 2023#prince george's 10th birthday#2019#2020#2021#official portraits#the wales#my edit
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Magdalene. Callias's younger sister (but also older at the same time kinda because she was turned at a later age than him?), mysterious fashion designer who only invites ppl to her private island to eat them, what a queen 👑
#ts4#sims 4#the sims 4#sims#simblr#oc: magdalene#i would let her eat me tbh. not to be weird or anything but i would
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I'm kinda losing steam, so have the first part of this. (Also, I've been working on this for over a month. I need some encouragement T-T)
The Once and Future Queen
Pre-Raphaelite!Konig/female model(?)!reader, 2.9k words
Warnings: (Likely) Historical innaccuracies, pretension, Dante Gabriel Rosetti slander (aka: accurately describing what he did), TF141 are here with bells on.
Reader notes: Light enough to be easily lifted by Soap, has a family, lives somewhere in England, working class, Victorian.
Part I: Walpurgia's Night
König was not a poet.
Neither in his native German, nor this bizarre tongue that felt like speaking three at once.
He was a man of few words, it only made sense to him that those words be simple and straight to the point. This attitude only made his fellows in the Brotherhood look upon him with rather some disdain.
With this he was fine, he wasn’t there to mince pretty words and use them to entice young women to fulfil his whims and stroke his ego.
The whole concept of poetry was a rather strange one to him to begin with. It seemed too prone to misrepresentations to his mind.
After all, one could not scream a painting of a lover’s embrace, or softly whisper a woodcut of a bloody battle. A bold statue of a conquering hero could not be turned dreadful by a tone of voice or a stuttering delivery.
No matter how honest the poet, the reader could turn their words to lie in another voice. Be that spoken aloud or just within their own mind.
It was a folly, he would say if asked. In a particularly thunderous mood he would claim it made men mad. Drove their confidence into levels that tipped straight over the precipice of insanity. That otherwise merely passionate men were made Narcissus with the products of their souls. Or worse, made monsters.
He had stood there, at the side of a young, lost, woman’s grave. The earth there turned fresh despite her being buried there years ago.
Simple folly then seemed like madness, and his work thus changed.
The word of the Bard became ash in his mouth.
Smitten Juliets, sweet Cordelias and even poor Ophelias losing their glitter and shine. Becoming naught but shadows flickering at the limbus of his sight.
Never honest. Never real.
Thusly, he became a Nazarene.
Vicious Judiths, loyal Ruths and penitent Marys Magdalene became his bread and butter.
Until he recalled that these too were written in verse, and so the word of the Lord became as cinders.
An unguided man, he wandered this foreign land as lost and adrift as the island itself.
Perhaps it was a misunderstanding that brought him to this festival, but he was loathe to confess that he had wished to become drunk upon this Ale as he considered matters French, Roman and British for his work.
It was here he saw them, on the day of Pentecost that these English did call Whitsun.
In this place to the North, far from capitals both ancient and modern.
This dying breed, these men of Morris. Dancing with their bells and handkerchiefs and swords never meant for battle.
It captivated König.
Here was legend, myth and mimesis.
Representation of ancient truths without the lies of verse, except only —perhaps— to gild the lily.
He took his sketches of the five.
The leader with his distinctive hat and fashionable beard.
The man dressed in rich colours and shine, like a jewelled beetle.
The one with the swarthy skin and bearing of a grand thespian.
The fellow with the piercing eyes and head shaved like warriors from the far side of the ocean.
The largest of them, covered in darkness with a skull blacked upon his face.
The One Four One, the side was called.
The crowd laughed and clapped and cheered along to each of the dances, enraptured by this tradition that was petering out to its end.
How it was worth the scorn that König had heard his cosmopolitan brothers heap upon it, he did not know. To him, these men were like warriors without a battle to fight.
König was a draughtsman and a painter, so he drew and he painted.
Captured the likeness of these men and their dance. Portraits of them in their mismatched gear titled with their odd nicknames, no sillier than his own.
It kept him busy, back in his studio engulfed in smog and soot. Now become home as well, for Morris men were far from fashionable amongst his former patrons.
The Earth had nearly completed her circuit ‘round the blazing Sun when he received a letter from the man that the side called captain.
They were planning to travel to a new village for the next Whitsun, and König was welcome to meet them there. Price would arrive first, then Soap and Ghost, and trailing along would be Gaz and Roach
He was rather confused that the invitation requested he join them in late April, as Whitsun would not be for weeks to come.
He said as much when he accepted their kind invitation, expressing that he would be honoured to join them.
A simple note was the only response he received as he packed up his meagre home .
‘The crowning of the May Queen must be honoured.’
Another of these strange island customs.
He pictured an austere woman in the fullness of life, tall for her sex and as imposing as Demeter while she ruled the growing season.
König sketched such things as he travelled by train and then coach and then buggy to a new village.
Was this queen special? he wondered. The ur-queen of life and growth, perhaps. So important that the near last of the Morris must attend her coronation.
He near vibrated with intrigue at the thought.
Here would be true magic and mystery, unsullied by the madness of verse.
Price met him at the village’s inn, on the day of his arrival, buying him a drink and then a plate of food after passing his gaze up and down the near starving artist.
He muttered something under his breath about brotherhood, it dripped with such disdain that König did fear it might land in his ale.
After, Price perked up.
“You’ll enjoy this,” he promised.
Any wondering König might have done about how they would fill the time until May Day was quashed by the villagers. After all, surely a large man like him was there to help.
He had no heart to say no, and was press ganged into helping them.
On the third day, his job was to help erect a pole festooned with ribbons.
This was where Soap and Ghost found him. One large man became two, their third securing the pole so well that naught but the mightiest gale could bring it down.
After each day of hard work the villagers fed and watered them well. Women presenting them with stews and puddings, men with bread and ale, the children with wild berries and juices.
The three men of the side ate well, reminding König to as well when he became too absorbed in his sketching of the day’s events.
On one occasion, Ghost and Price caught him by the arms, Soap taking his papers and charcoal, refusing to return them until he cleared his plate.
He almost snarled, but the gnawing pain that had settled into his gut asserted itself and cut him off.
Soap laughed and he and his comrades watched, quietly pleased as König ate.
He was not a Morris man, but he felt like one in the waning days of the month. Working, feasting and resting together.
He wondered if this would last, if he was merely an understudy for their absent members. Standing in their spot, keeping their mark ready until they could arrive.
This uncertainty lasted until the twilight of Walpurgia’s night, the last sunset before the queen was crowned, when the quintuplet once again became whole.
Pulled along like the sea, König followed the moon of the three to the place where buggies made their stop.
He sat on the bench and kept watch for them as they passed the time with practice. It was difficult for him to maintain his vigil, fascinated by how they danced as though nothing were missing at all. The glint of their blades and shadows of Roach and Gaz danced as much as they did in the golden hour.
Only the distant sound of horses kept him from putting the image to paper.
Hoofbeats blended with the stomp of the rappers into one melodious tune.
König watched as two figures leapt from the buggy, running at full pelt down the road. The sound of their steps and laughter joined the steady rhythm until they slipped into the dance, replacing shadows like they were always there.
It was as the buggy drew to a halt that he realised that there was no absence for him to fill.
A woman’s laugh rose from the buggy, drawing five wide smiles and a curious look.
Gilded by the setting sun, she stood above them all —even Ghost and König — glorious like a queen.
This must be her, the monarch of May. Surely she was who the One Four One came to honour, bringing with them a foreign pretence of a king to make record of the ceremony.
She was not Demeter, far too soft and kind as Soap lifted her by the waist from the buggy, dancing them into a spin before setting her to the ground.
Immediately she was surrounded and towered over, the side as her court and her court at her side.
“And so the summer queen arrives,” Price greeted, laughter in his voice as he doffed his hat into a deep bow.
It was a wry grin she shot back, curtseying low.
“Of course Captain, this is not an occasion that one could afford to miss.”
She turned her eyes to König, lit ablaze as the stars crept out to shine.
“And who might this be?” she asked, looking him up and down as one might a castle.
“A sixth for a five man band? Why, was including Ghost not challenge enough?”
The man himself huffed.
“Her majesty jests,” Soap declared with a conspiratorial grin. “T’was no issue with Ghost at all. Excepting, of course, his demeanour.”
That earned the Scot a cuff around the head that hurt not at all, if his wide smile bore fair witness.
Price beckoned König over.
“To honour the occasion, we invited a titled man to oversee proceedings. A majesty in his own right.”
A hand fell on his shoulder.
“A delight, my queen, to present to you a king; König.”
Those eyes flew wide, and pretty lips parted in a gasp, before she curtseyed low again..
“Nothing but a pleasure, I’m sure,” she smiled, so beautiful that it made his hands twitch. “To meet you is like a gift from above.”
She wore admiration on her face like another lady might wear powder and rouge.
“You know my work,” he realised.
“Yes. I had the pleasure of seeing it as I attended my lady during a trip to the city.”
The smile she wore was enchanting, almost enough that he didn’t parse what she said. Almost.
“Your lady?”
“Away from here I’m a mere lady’s maid.”
“A poet,” Gaz corrected, “one who pays for room and board by masquerading as a maid.”
She gave him a look that seemed to sigh ‘not you too’.
König’s heart fell to his feet.
“Not much of one,” she murmured, looking up at him, embarrassed.
“Tosh.”
Ghost’s simple comment brought a smile back to the queen’s face. She tugged his shirt to draw him down for a kiss on the cheek.
König watched them. He wondered how much of the platonic nature of her affection was pure falsehood. How deep could the lies of verse go?
Price’s hand fell again onto his shoulder, the look in the man’s eyes somehow both concerned and warning in the same expression.
“We’ll get your bags to your Mam’s and then circle back to the pub, hmm?” he said to her, hand tightening on the painter’s shoulder.
König found himself almost frogmarched into helping as the others, including their queen, unloaded the buggy of bags and cases.
“Later,” was the captain’s quiet warning.
The Morris men and their queen conversed with bright smiles and open laughter.
Even the taciturn spectre was light. He shared a story with the newcomers of how one girl (soft and kind with a sweet, dark, face) commandeered he and König to help her pick some upstart elderflowers. She’d sat on Ghost’s shoulders to reach blooms to pluck alongside König. A little princess who crowned them both in flowers and thanks.
Gaz puffed up in pride when König called her a braves Mädchen.
“Just wait until tomorrow. You’ll see her be really brave.”
To a man, the One Four One nodded in agreement.
“I just hope I can do her justice,” the queen sighed.
Roach patted her on the back with a reassuring grin. The silent conversation between them enough to draw her shoulders back.
“You’re right. Just… one more pass?”
He laughed, it running through the group like a plague. Affecting even König through his veil of misery.
He didn’t speak much, even as they made their efforts to include him in the conversation as though nothing were amiss. To them, he supposed, there was not.
He was no fool. He was aware that to educated and uneducated men alike, his aversion to poetry was bizarre.
The expression colouring Price’s countenance told him as much when the queen went into her family home to put away her bag and be smothered in love.
König told him that he could not stand that which would disturb the grave of a young woman as she slept eternal.
He had expected confusion, perhaps more scorn, but instead he was given sympathy.
Soap put his hand on König’s arm.
A frisson of disgust ran through the side.
“We heard about that,” Price rumbled, “foul business.”
“Were you friends?” A question asked by all, but spoken by Gaz.
He threw his thoughts back to her gentle face and broken soul. They spoke as infrequently as they met. Even as she sat for him, but those silences were amicable. Amicable.
“Ja.”
Delusion as it may be, she and he were kindred spirits. This he knew in his heart.
“I get how you feel,” Soap commiserated, “that guy’s a cunt.”
It began slowly and then came out of his like a torrent. Chuckle into raucous laughter.
How direct. How clear. How unpoetic.
It was like a veil had been lifted.
The defiler wasn’t a tortured poet, a grieving husband, Alighieri descending into hell.
“He is a cunt,” König stated. “Ja. Only a cunt would do that.”
The hand on his arm turned into an encouraging clap.
“There you go. He’s a cunt. You gonna let a cunt like that ruin something for you?”
That was wha he’d been allowing, wasn’t it?”
“No. Not anymore.”
“Good man.”
They were swiftly joined by the queen and her family, familiar from about the village.
The queen mother made shooing motions at them.
“Get a shift on lads,. They won’t light the bonfire without the guest of honour!”
The side gave their greetings and the group headed onward.
The queen’s family was a curious bunch, asking questions about what everyone had been up to on their travels and an inordinate amount about König.
“So… I hear you’re a painter,” her father had begun.
“Ja. We’ve already had this conversation.”
“... Right. I just didn’t know you were that painter…”
The man awkwardly moved into interrogating Gaz with his wife.
Odd fellow, but not unlikable.
It was not an unpleasant walk, König found himself rather enjoying it. Somehow folded into another band without meaning to.
He stole glances at the queen as they went, the dark shadow washed away. His heart was for from repaired, but now he no longer needed to second guess her quite so much.
She fidgeted while he looked at her. Dutifully, he averted his gaze as he noticed each time.
No wonder she was the guest of honour; even in dusty travelling clothes she was wonderful.
He wondered if she would be willing to sit for him.
Soon enough they reached the inn.
The bonfire was small and rather hastily made. He didn’t doubt that they built much more impressive ones to burn traitors in effigy.
Gaz and Roach were hurried off to place their bags in the side’s room as the innkeeper strode up to the party.
“Ah, good. You’re here!”
König could have sworn his heart stopped when the man put a hand on his back.
“Light the bonfire so we can ward off the witches, then.”
He looked at the innkeeper, nonplussed.
The hand patted.
“Happy wall purge is knack, König,” the man grinned up at him. He looked so proud.
König nodded, a small smile playing on his own lips.
“Frohe Walpurgisnacht.”
He was handed a flaming torch and the gathered village folk cheered as the pile caught flame.
“From now on, we’ll know our May Queens will be safe from witches!” the innkeeper called to further cheers.
It was a strange feeling being the centre of attention like this, but it didn’t feel so unnatural as it should. Explaining the traditions of Walpurgisnacht to the queen and other curious souls wasn’t as harrowing as he’d have expected if told he’d be required to do so when he had arrived.
He expressed as much to Price as the bonfire died down and the side bade the queen and her family good night.
The captain shrugged and slapped him on the back.
“Sleep, it’s a big day tomorrow.”
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Hundreds of thousands of customers in Eastern Canada are without power as post-tropical storm Fiona brings intense, hurricane-strength winds and torrential rains to swaths of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Quebec's Magdalen Islands.
The town of Port aux Basques, N.L., has declared a state of emergency after storm surge swept away multiple homes and structures to sea.
Part of the town is also under a mandatory evacuation order. RCMP Cpl. Jolene Garland told CBC News that in some cases, residents have resisted leaving their homes.
Continue Reading.
Tagging: @politicsofcanada
#Fiona#hurricane fiona#Hurricanes#Atlantic Canada#cdnpoli#canada#canadian politics#canadian news#canadian
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Magdalen Islands in 9 images.
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My friend’s coffee shop at Magdalen Island :’)
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Surnames for bastards
I am a DnD player and soon I will be running my first DnD campaign as a Dungeon Master. While creating my world, I thought of a few things that I would like to write here as well, because I feel stupid to create an account on this site and not at least put something here. I don't care if anyone reads this, but if someone happens to find this and find it interesting, you can use it however you want. I have based this system from the Game of Thrones series. However, I expanded it for the needs of my world and story, and it seems interesting enough to put it here. Surnames are divided into two groups - for nobility and for common people.
1) If a parent publicly confesses to his illegitimate child:
Nobility
a) The descendant receives a surname based on the sign on the family coat of arms. (for example Edmund Sword, Cassandra Sunset,…).
b) A descendant can also be given a surname based on an important place for the given family, ancestral home, ancestral treasure or weapon. (Nicholas Whitecliff, Magdalene Grasscutter,…)
c) After legitimization, this surname is lost and it is given the family surname.
Note - If the offspring is raised by a nobleman in the family castle, the family coat of arms that the offspring will receive will be reversed in color to avoid confusion. (House of Lear, based in the Western Provinces, has a black cloud with three golden lightning bolts on a blue field as his family crest. A step-descendant, Richard Thundercloud, will have a white cloud with three purple lightning bolts on an orange field as his family crest.)
Common people
a) The offspring is named after the parent's profession (Jack Guard, Otto Blacksmith,…)
b) An offspring can be given a surname based on its external or internal characteristics, but this variant is used for older children and only very rarely for newborns. (Hugo Stump, Lea Amethyst, Peter Rat,…)
2) If the parent does not confess to his illegitimate child, or the parent is unknown:
a) Surnames apply here according to the province where the child was born. In Eamos, the human kingdom, there are five provinces: Northern (Nord), Southern (Sud), Eastern (East), Western (West), and Island (Igland). (Damian Nord, Gabriel Igland,…) This rule applies to both social groups of the Eamos population.
b) If the child is mixed with a dwarf, elf, halfling, the child receives the surname Foreyne (William Foreyne,…)
c) If a child is born as a Tiefling, they will be given the surname Fallen. (Kayra Fallen,…).However, there are very few of these children in Eamos, because many parents discard these children and leave them to their fate after birth.
I hope that I have helped someone with these ideas when creating their own character or DnD/Fantasy world
(P.S. I apologize for my English, but I'm not a native speaker and it's much easier for me to speak than to write.)
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Court Circular | 24th February 2023
Buckingham Palace
The King was represented by the Lord Mendoza (Provost of Oriel College, University of Oxford) at a Memorial Evensong for the Most Reverend Dr Kallistos Ware, Metropolitan of Diokleia (Scholar and Bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church) which was held in Magdalen College Chapel, University of Oxford, this evening.
St James’s Palace
The Earl of Wessex this morning visited the Royal Bahamas Defence Force Base, Coral Harbour, Nassau, the Bahamas.
His Royal Highness afterwards visited the Success Ultimately Reassures Everybody Programme in Carmichael Road, Nassau.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex this afternoon visited the Governor General’s Youth Award’s Camp at Maillis Farm, Adelaide Road, Nassau.
The Countess of Wessex this morning visited Willie Mae Pratt Centre for Girls, Fox Hill Road, Nassau.
Her Royal Highness afterwards attended a Women Empowerment Meeting at Atlantis, One Casino Drive, Paradise Island.
The Earl and Countess of Wessex this evening departed Lynden Pindling International Airport for the United Kingdom.
St James’s Palace
The Princess Royal, former President, Royal Association of British Dairy Farmers, this morning presented The Princess Royal Award and the Royal Dairy Innovation Award.
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2023 Year End List - #3
Desire, I Want to Turn Into You - Caroline Polachek
Main genres: Art Pop, Electronic
A decent sampling of: Downtempo, Alternative R&B, Dance Pop, UK Garage
Seizing the essence of life itself. The search for the meaning of everything. The sheer sense of adventure and danger that is going it alone for the first time.
Caroline Polachek has more artistic vision than just about any other pop artist out there right now. She takes a concept and runs marathons with it, working to achieve its platonic ideal.
This ethos is reflected in her intricate songs, laden with layers of meticulous, hyperreal production courtesy of her long-time co-producer Danny L. Harle, her commitment to weaving rich lyrical webs of different aesthetics, ideals, and mindsets that all fall into place like a great jigsaw puzzle, and her equally impressive, high-concept music videos that harkens back to the likes of other cinematically ambitious female artists such as Lady Gaga, Björk, and M.I.A.
Her voice has often been compared to the function of auto-tune itself, mostly thanks to how masterfully and seamlessly she modulates across complex melodies that jump notes seemingly almost at random, but actually follow an elaborated structure. Meanwhile, the timbral qualities of her voice are crystal clear and hyper-articulate, almost to the point of crossing the uncanny valley and into the supernatural.
So yeah, suffice to say, this was my #1 anticipated release of 2023. It certainly helped that she kept on teasing it, dropping the lead single all the way back in summer of 2021, and then another one in the first few weeks of 2022. It also obviously helped that her first album was simply one of the best art pop records in recent memory (eclipsed only in it's own release year by Twigs' Magdalene).
Polachek's solo pop debut Pang was a headfirst dive into painful love, and the act of relieving oneself from the shackles of self-doubt. The album played out like a series of short stories in a greater narrative storybook anthology, each song its own cerebral headspace, dissecting and sometimes psychoanalyzing the artist's own emotions. To put it concisely, my own interpretation was that of an album about learning to listen to what the self feels, needs, and wants.
This record then, broadly speaking, is about the restless pursuit of those wants.
Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is like the flickering light from the torch's flame that illuminates the ancient wall glyphs inside of an old cave of ruins. It is the feeling of catching your breath, and quenching yourself with that vital taste of water after you’ve just ran a marathon. It’s a thrilling and euphoric experience from start to finish. Art pop with adrenaline and passion.
The prominent Alternative R&B elements that made her previous record more rhythmically complex and sonically contemplative take a bit of a step back on this project, peeking through every now and then on tracks like "Billions" and "Pretty In Possible".
But by and large, Polachek leans more towards sugary pop and dance-oriented songs with high art ambitions, with many tracks influenced by the hop-and-skip beats of the UK Garage EDM scene. There's also a fair bit of more atmospheric downtempo moments in similar fashion to tracks like "Go As A Dream" on Pang, but even they have a little more pulse on this record. A more extroverted sound altogether this time around.
There are also frequent references to Greek mythology, as well as a myriad of melodic motifs that are revisited and re-imagined between different tracks, like the opening melody of "Crude Drawing of An Angel" appearing in the second verse of "Butterfly Net", or the chorus of "Fly To You" being interpreted by a bag pipe solo in "Blood and Butter". Never underestimate Caroline Polachek's ability to tie an album's concepts together into a beautifully interwoven and interconnected symbiosis.
The album takes off with its central thesis, "Welcome To My Island", a declaration to defy all expectations and become desire itself. It opens with a single rapturous siren cry, soaring into the stratosphere and heralding the beginning of a new era. Suddenly, the song's aircraft comes to meet its landing strip. Bright, beady, bubbly little synths make pops and flares over the verses, before the unleashing of a total power chorus that showcases the very best of Polachek's ability to carry zephyrous long notes, meanwhile with her irresistibly cute and sassy "hey, hey ,hey, HEY!" chants forming the backing vocals. Every last ounce of her unapologetically bold artistic personality is lavishly painted over this ridiculously catchy and charming pop song.
"Sunset" pays homage to Spanish flamenco and appears to be taking some cheeky inspiration from the Gerudo Valley theme in Zelda: Ocarina of Time according to a TikTok that Polachek herself posted. This song tastes of the juiciest citrus fruits and the richest olive oil, pouring out of a marble chalice like a waterfall. An excellent demonstration of her artistic versatility.
"I Believe" immediately gets my heart racing with its crisp piano stabs and exhilarating 2-step shuffle. Makes me feel like some kind of JRPG mage, hopping through the air by casting levitation spells and gazing upon the cloudswept Earth below. Totally dreamy and life-affirming.
I find myself deeply immersed in the humid forests of "Blood and Butter". This downtempo track incorporates some very SNES era sound fonts, hand drums, kalimba, and acoustic guitars into a euphoric and ritualistic performance, with the atmosphere of swirling magic mists and even a left-field instrumental bridge featuring some very festive bagpipes. Simply impeccable sound design; listening to this one with headphones is like discovering a sixth sense I didn't know I had.
"Butterfly Net" is the sublime sunrise that turns the entire sky a goldenrod yellow. It's an auditory gateway to beautiful plains of crested wheatgrass, with psychedelic folk undertones and echoing vocals and digital landscapes that stretch off into the horizon for dozens of miles. One of her greatest songs yet, and one I couldn't get enough of for basically all of spring last year.
"Billions" would be my song of the year, had it not already been released in 2022. I cannot overstate, nor begin to describe with all due credit it deserves, just how fucking brilliant the production on this track is. If "Blood and Butter" was the sixth sense, then this is the seventh. Tantalizing, mystifying, erotic, bountiful, reaching towards enlightenment. Everything that must be and will be, maybe truth itself is contained somewhere hidden under the plentiful layers of beats and microbeats in this stunning art pop pedestal. Musically, it sounds ancient, medieval, renaissance, modern, and post-modern all at once. Also - maybe the best incorporation of a children's choir in all of music history? What a bold move to put this as the album closer. If this is the page she chooses to close this chapter on, I can only imagine what magnificence is to come next.
I thought for sure this was going to be my AOTY when it was announced. The fact it didn't end up being so and landed at number 3 instead is just a testimony to how brutally stacked this year's competition was.
I could still nit-pick this quite a bit if I really wanted to. "Hopedrunk Everlasting" and "Bunny Is A Rider" are not only both easily weaker than any of the other material here, but both of them seem to disrupt the respective flow of their placements on this record. But barring that, this is damn close to a masterpiece.
Naturally, this has landed on loads of other 2023 year end lists besides my own, and its definitely not hard to see why. Caroline Polachek is a staunch perfectionist and over-achiever, and shows no signs of stopping any time soon, and Desire, I Want to Turn Into You is an uplifting work of creative genius that only she could have made.
9/10
Highlights: "Billions", "Butterfly Net", "Welcome To My Island", "Blood and Butter", "I Believe", "Sunset", "Pretty In Possible", "Crude Drawing of an Angel"
#album review#music review#list#aoty#year end list#2023#aoty2023#desire i want to turn into you#caroline polachek#danny l harle#art pop#electronic
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