Due to the success of the 1896 series, Champenois asked Mucha to design 2 more sets based on the seasonal theme in 1897 and 1900.

The 1897 series (above) of color lithographs on paper is located at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Onchi Koshiro, From The Four Seasons, 1927

full set here

Am I going to make everyone watch this movie? Yes, yes I am

François Boucher (French, 1703-1770) The Four Seasons: Summer, 1755 The Frick Collection

Who is Mu-Deok?

Crown Prince Go Won: Filthy Mu-Deok? A stinky, insolent peasant, always causing trouble! But only I am allowed to say that. I’ll execute anyone who harms her.

Jin Cho-Yeon: Jang Uk’s maid. There’s something weird going on with her, and she always manages to cause problems. For me specifically.

Seo Yul: the soul of my childhood sweetheart and a dangerous assassin, inhabiting the body of an innocent girl. She is a monster but not the way people think. It will break my heart to kill her.

Park Dang-Gu: Uk’s maid! We all think she’s great! There seems to be a lot of trouble around her which is such a shame bc she’s lovely!

Jang Uk: my master, my servant. My love, my killer. My best friend, my torturer. The only one who knows me. Truly the other half of my soul. She would break any rule to be with me, and I would bend the laws of the universe for her. My wife, my obsession. My protector and my delicate bird egg to protect. No she doesn’t like me back.

Naksu: idk man I just live here

Goooood mooooorning! What a way to wake up hahaha. I don't need my usual coffee when this sunkissed golden deliciousness is perking me right up. Damn, Sam! 👇

As people noted yesterday, Sam made sure to cite that his pics at the Four Seasons Hotel on the island of Nevis were an ad/advertisement...meaning he was gifted the stay and in turn is helping to promote the location. Perks of being a celebrity. 👆

As for the chatter yesterday as to WHAT was sitting inside the beach umbrella...some people thought it was a purse and sunglasses hidden up there. I wasn't of that opinion btw...today, it's clear it's simply the umbrella cord pulley system. It's hidden like that so that the cords that pull the heavy umbrella up and down don't hang down on guests. 👇

But WHO CARES ABOUT THAT, when we have Mr. Sunkissed Golden Deliciousness in all his Samshiny Scottishness looking like THIS! 👇Priorities, people, priorities hahaha. My what big feet you have, Mr. Heughan. 😊

That's why I laugh and laugh when the hater trolls send me Anons frothing about how "Sam is old, the young girls don't want him anymore." Bitches, please, are you BLIND? C'mon now, just LOOK at him. I'd start licking my way from southern Scotland all the way up to the Highlands, with a LONG detour in the middle. Just sayin'...

PS. For the inevitable "I thought Tobias was your man!" He IS. But we have an open relationship. And sometimes I'm craving something Scottish. 🤷‍♀️😛 It's all good.

Kisses all around, darlings! 😘🥰

💃🏻🎧

Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741) - "Summer" Concerto for Viola, Strings and Basso continuo in g-minor, after Op. 8 No. 2, RV 315, III. Presto. Performed by David Aaron Carpenter, viola & direction, and Salomé Chamber Orchestra.

Claude Flight The Four Seasons

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter

Silver Lining - What If #7 : Solstice & Equinox

Listening to This is V - As Friday is Tae Day

[Music is a very big part of my life and I’m MOSTLY INCAPABLE of writing without music, so I just thought I'd share what I am listening to while writing this]

🐺 — 🐺 — 🐺—

Hello my Dearest Gurls, Bois and Enbies.

It’s been a while since I made an actual post right? Oh and, for the time being, forget about that chapter 2 post, every time I resume writing it, I think about the present state of this fandom and I get so VEXED that I close the file soon after … so yeah, there’s that So, here I am, wanting to share something I thought of yesterday, something completely delulu but quite fun at the same time. 

AS ALWAYS, before we get off on DeluluLand, here is a message from our conductor *clears voice*: “Good morning, good afternoon or good evening, I trust I’m finding everyone well and ready to embark into this new trip. As today’s destination is particularly delulu and rather wishful-thinking-esque, I highly suggest bringing the toughest, biggest and shiniest tin hat in your possession, as well as your best clown clothes, with you when you disembark. Now, alas, the temperature is undesirable cold, the skies are pretty foggy and the waters are pretty rough, nonetheless, I do hope you still enjoy the journey, godspeed, this was your captain”. 

And now that we are all readily equipped let me welcome you without further ado to:

Jikook Travel Vlog Theory by Marengo! 

This isn’t a discussion about what I think the vlog will contain, but more of when I think it/they might be released, or rather, if I were jikook, which I’m obviously not, hence this being a delulu post, I would do it in the way I am about to explain. BUT FIRST, let’s see what knowledge we currently have available:

CONNECTICUT, JEJU, BUSAN, SAPPORO

Now, we know for a fact that they went to Connecticut and Sapporo to film this vlog, as eventually mentioned by JK on Suchwita. In Connecticut no thanks to an asshole we saw them with GoPros and also on their way to, and from, Sapporo, as always “courtesy” of airport warriors. So we have no doubt about those.

Jeju was a rumor that some k-jikookers had began some time last year, which was shutdown as quickly as it came out, but which, none other than our dear Tae confirmed a few months later when he made his Chuseok post on IG. BUT the question is; is the Jeju trip part of the Jikook Travel Vlog?

Last but not least is Busan. Admittedly, Busan is a super filler, guessed and projected destination as we don’t have any sightings of the both of them together last year. In fact, we only have confirmed sighting of JK with his 97 friends, thanks to a local restaurant. YET, yours truly Marengo feels that there might be something worth looking in there🕵🏾‍♀️. Considering that they are both from Busan, city that they don’t seem to despise, it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to think that they would want to add it to their travel vlog … but would nobody notice them walking around the big city of Busan? I highly doubt it. Yet more shocking things have been known to happen, so who knows right?

But Marengo - you might be wondering - what’s with the title of your post then?! … WELL

You might remember the terms Solstice & Equinox from a very distant Science/Geography lesson in your memory, their definitions are not very complex, but do not worry, it is not in my interest to shove my geeky ass upon you today. What you need to know is that we basically use this particular “occurances” to practically determine the beginning of each season. We have 2 Solstice (Winter and Summer) and 2 Equinox (Spring & Autumn), which usually occur, give or take one day around the same time of the year as follows:

WINTER SOLSTICE - DECEMBER 20/21

SPRING EQUINOX - MARCH 21

SUMMER SOLSTICE - JUNE 20/21

AUTUMN EQUINOX - SEPTEMBER 23

… So, if we follow my VERY DELUSIONAL REASONING we would have 4 DATES (or time periods) and potentially 4 DESTINATIONS.

This year's Spring Equinox has been “taken over” by VHOPE so I don’t think that we would get anything, and even though Jin will be back with us on this year’s Summer Solstice, I doubt he would be promoting right off the bat (like ... I would think he would need time to adjust a bit … BUT WITH BANGTAN WHO KNOWS RIGHT???) … Which is why, in my head, the first VLOG would come out around this year’s Summer Solstice and proceed gradually as follows:

SUMMER SOLSTICE - JUNE 20/21 2024: CONNECTICUT VLOG

This was clearly a summer themed vlog, they were on a yacht, we saw their naked backs, thanks to Jimin, basically it screamed SUMMER

AUTUMN EQUINOX - SEPTEMBER 23 2024: JEJU VLOG ??

This was part of Tae’s Chuseok post, which as we know is a fall korean celebration so yeah, basically it screamed AUTUMN

WINTER SOLSTICE - DECEMBER 20/21 2024: SAPPORO VLOG

For those who don’t know Sapporo is known for it’s snow before the beer 🤡. It holds an annual winter festival which unfortunately the boys were too early for but …, so basically is screamed WINTER

SPRING EQUINOX - MARCH 21 2025: BUSAN VLOG ????

I got nothing for you y’all 😬😬😬, I’ve never been to Busan and once again other than being their birthplace, I couldn’t tell you if there’s anything related to Spring in Busan, but who knows, it might be a … beautiful place to visit in SPRING???

As you can see, the Solstices are rather certain, but the Equinox are hella shaky. YET if you think about it, what would be happening SUMMER SOLSTICE 2025? 

ALL THE TANNIES WOULD BE BACK HOME.

… And there you have it.

Now obviously this is all baseless theories, as we have been left to go off on nothing 🤡 and for all we knows they could drop it ALL TOMORROW 🤡 or even make it a weekly thing in May 2025 before they get back to us 🤡.WHO KNOWS RIGHT? THE POSSIBILITIES STILL REMAIN ENDLESS I’m afraid,

If you ask me however, If they did anything other than what I just rambled on, they’d miss out on making this a very instructive and seasonal thing 🙄😒 … BUT, again, THAT’S JUST ME.

Anyways, time to leave DeluluLand y’all, before the wrong people, or worse it’s inhabitants, find us!

Always respectfully yours 💜🫰🏾

Marengo.

please reblog for a larger sample size :)

Dear listener, I tried listening to six full hours of mainstream radio this week again. I tried, oh, sweet merciful Jesus, I tried. Lo, I have at this point all but confirmed that modern radio is a steaming pool of liquid dogshit. Given a second appraisal, it’s dogshit with a candy-coated hardshell for ease of ingestion! The disheartening repetition, the complete lack of cutting-edge creativity and genuine emotion, ten to twenty ass-ramming commercials in a row only to come back to the feckless frenzy of fail that comprises the vast, vast majority of modern music? It was all terribly grating, and somehow the music was even worse. As soon as I couldn’t take a millisecond more of the doldrums of modern radio, I went to YouTube and listened to two straight and comparatively blissful hours of immortal work by Antonio Vivaldi. So, get into the time machine again with me dear listener, and set course for the early 1700’s, a time when radio didn't exist! The social standards might not have been top-notch, but the powdered wigs were undeniably gorgeous, and the quality of the music… to die for!!!

As anyone who comes from a musical family has likely experienced, Vivaldi had the principles of composition fused to his DNA, and perhaps even down to the subatomic level with the help of his father. Having trained for priesthood in his early years, Vivaldi instead gradually gravitated toward a now celebrated career in music. Becoming an elite level violinist under the tutelage of his father Giovanni Battista, whom he regularly toured Venice and played duelling violins with, this legend of orchestra developed an immense capacity for transforming the basics of music into something so immensely interwoven and sublime that very few can or will ever dare so much as approach the legitimate majesty of his body of orchestral work. Known as something of an Italian religious dogmatist, his calling to the church and desire to be a priest secured him the nickname ‘Il Prete Rosso’ (The Red Priest) because he was a ginger, or in modern politically correct parlance… a natural red head. During a three-decade long gig serving as Master of Violin at an historical Vincentian orphanage, Ospedale della Pietà, Vivaldi managed to gather inspiration and organize his most emotionally powerful compositions. I could probably add a lot of unnecessary details here, but his greatest and most everlasting works are part of his ‘The Four Seasons’, a set of four violin concertos that are meant to express nearly the precise sensations and emotions of summer, winter, autumn, and spring. If you smash play on the above track you will be treated to Presto (from the Summer section), a song you probably know or have heard before. Presto means ‘quickly’ in Italian and is performed at one of the quickest speeds a human can possibly play music (second only to prestissimo speed, I think). Vivaldi also had a strange disease throughout all his life which many historians suspect might have been severe asthma. And with his penchant for taking numerous ‘leaves of absences’ to tour the world and develop an international reputation, this clearly mega-talented rockstar of yester-century ended up spending all the money he earned during his lifetime. Sadly, after approaching the end of his life and skidding through a decade’s worth of career decline, all accounts show that he died completely broke, having spent what little money he had left on multiple assistants that circumnavigated him through his now dire and at the time completely untreatable health issues. Vivaldi isn’t my personal favorite composer of all-time, I’ll leave that distinction to Bach (who himself was inspired by Vivaldi). But his works live on to this very day because he accomplished exactly what he strove to do; embody the excellence of execution in his craft to produce works that bring us together as human beings and sometimes inspire a rare spark of imagination to propel us to create the very best work we can possibly bring forth.

Right above this paragraph is a live variation of The Four Seasons, a classic musical work of art and transcendent beauty that I cannot recommend highly enough. Vivaldi sure did one thing that modern, corporately funded, concentrated and even desperate bands just can’t… and that is actually innovate. He had immense natural technical skills, had them brought to bloom by his family and his own efforts, and he ended up creating over 500 instrumental and choral works, plus about 40 operas. Have *you* created 500 instrumental and choral works and 40 operas!? Didn’t think so. So, get to work on that! And join me next time for some jaunty Brahms. Image source: https://www.craiyon.com/image/dPwZA5VRRTawSH1T9Sslcw

Maya Usova and Alexander Zhulin Exhibition, 1993.

The Four Seasons, Violin Concerto in F Minor by Nigel Kennedy.

Year-End Poll #27: 1976

[Image description: a collage of photos of the 10 musicians and musical groups featured in this poll. In order from left to right, top to bottom: Wings, Elton John & Kiki Dee, Johnnie Taylor, The Four Seasons, Wild Cherry, The Manhattans, The Miracles, Paul Simon, Gary Wright, Walter Murphy & The Big Apple Band. End description]

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Disco has officially breached containment.

I've talked a bit about the stylistic origins of disco from the Philly soul scene and it's growing popularity in the Black and gay community. However, I haven't talked much about disco's presence in mainstream America. And now, since this is the year that Billboard started publishing their national Dance Club Songs charts (the previous two years gathered their data from dance clubs in major cities), this seems like the perfect chance.

To set the stage (or dance floor) for what will happen eventually, disco was everywhere at this moment in time -- not just in the clubs and also not just on the disco stations. As disco became the hot new thing, it seemed like everyone was scrambling to tear off a piece for themselves.

We're also seeing more disco fusions this year. Silly Love Songs by Wings is notable for its disco influence. However, the true sign of the times for me is Wild Cherry's Play That Funky Music. Twenty years before, there was a song on the Billboard Charts called The Rock and Roll Waltz, in which Kay Starr sings about seeing her parents try to dance the waltz to a rock and roll song. For the 1956 poll, I wrote about how this signifies the cultural shift in the mainstream (I like it when songs on here are about music. Gives me more to talk about). Play That Funky Music is notable for similar reasons, as even though it is a blend of these two styles. However, the lyrics seem to suggest that for a rock band to evolve, they had to incorporate funk and disco into their sound. Needless to say, not everyone was thrilled by that message. Parallel to the rise in disco's commercial popularity, the anti-disco backlash was growing as well -- and it was about to get ugly. But we'll get to that later.

Also, the first wave of punk rock was growing in popularity around this time in New York and London. Sadly, we won't see much of this movement represented in these polls. I still felt the need to mention it here, both for its place in music history, and we will be discussing the various descendants of this movement in due time.

Satoko Miyahara skating to Vivaldi's Winter in the Abbotsford Stars On Ice show in 2022.

(© Tina Tyan)