The Torture of the Vestal Virgin by Jean-Frédéric Schall

Michael A. Muller — Mirror Music (Deutsche Grammophon)

Ten independent artists — largely from the improvised, jazz-adjacent ambient side of things — venture into Michael A. Muller’s glowing, swirling soundscapes, each finding and bringing different textures there. Muller, a founder of the Texas minimalist music collective Balmorhea, sticks to long-toned, keyboard-based instruments: a Mellotron, an Oberheim Two-Voice Synthesizer and a Rhodes organ, creating luminous auras of tone. His collaborators play a variety of instruments — guitar, percussion, voice and cello — populating these edgeless, serene sonic spaces with melody and rhythm.

Muller himself plays the guitar, and he seems to have a particular affinity for its devotees. Bay Area finger-picker Danny Paul Grody scatters sparkly chords and meditative runs across synthesizer washes that surge and swell and ebb. Without the guitar, these tones might be too unreal, too grand, too beautiful to catch, but with these slow-blooming, organic figures, the music makes sense on a human scale. Chuck Johnson is a different case. His silvery sustained pedal steel music contains its own uncanny valleys, and so he slides like a ghost between shimmering, vibrating curtains, carving aching arcs of longing into a chilled, cerebral landscape. Douglas McCombs, of Tortoise, Brokeback and Black Duck, picks a clean, reverberating, almost surf-toned melody across an oscillating, shifting, reverential backdrop; he cuts right through it, emphatic and sure.

Women artists make a mark, though mostly with their voices. Vestals float eerie, altered sighs and caresses over the clear tones of Rhodes, a piercing descant one of this disc’s most gorgeous sounds. The Polish composer and pianist Hania Rani also sings, in a whisper amid shivering ambiences, in a way that reminds me a little of Mia Doi Todd. But Clarice Jensen, who sometimes plays with Balmorhea, brings her instrument along, threading rich throbs of cello through a landscape of widely spaced piano chords.

In the mirror game, budding actors stand face to face, copying each other’s expressions and gestures in real time, in a sort of synchronized dance. Here, the interaction is more oblique, with each artist staring into a foggy reflection and finding some element of themselves there. The music that arises is hardly synchronized, but the players find a way to react and build on what the other is doing. Oh, and it’s lovely. That’s important, too.

Jennifer Kelly

What kinds of religions are there in Gundalia? Let's put in Vestals too come on, since it seems to be famous in your blog ahaha.

Vestal religion is, to me at least, an exaggerated version of what happened with early NV, where it's revealed the Vestals know about humans and Earth, and especially what happened with Naga.

Gundalians are more "our saints are alive, able to speak with us", but they do have a "god", if you can call them that.

Under the cut there are headings for each section, but this will get long

Vestal

Necessary context; I do headcanon two things. 1. the vestals are not the only natives to Vestal (kind of? they came from Darkus an uncountable amount of time ago), and 2. the other natives are able to see the future a little, and write down what they can perceive from elsewhere. As a result, these darkus aligned vestal vampires that eat dreams wrote down visions of a future from elsewhere. This then resulted in Vestal's knowledge of Earth, of humans, and of Naga. These visions really only worked if bakugan were present to see through, and it didn't matter which Earth was being looked at.

The creation of the Interspace, and Vestroia in BB is like this to begin with, essentially creates a multiverse by being a place between spaces; this essentially means the canon is canon, but so are OCs and fanon interpretations, but only to the Vestals unless proven otherwise (case in point for that; Shun showing up in the Alpha City Doubles Tournament proves he, at least, exists for that universe's vestals.)

Some Vestal denizens are likely to exaggerate this, and given that they were written down fragments of future visions (though they could be extrapolated to be of the past, if anyone wants to say that vestals are the successors of humanity), it's understandable that this would inadvertently create a pantheon of brawlers. Major players in canon and fandom pieces are at the top of the pile, no doubt.

Without the two pieces of context, I'd argue vestals are not religious until given something to devote themselves to (see: whatever the hell Gus has going on for Spectra.)

Gundalia

Gundalia has bakugan on it, and these bakugan are part of the half that know about the Sacred Orb. Unclear, but it is likely, if they know about their greatest grandmother (and child playing with their dolls) Code Eve.

And then there's the Dark Tribe. The Dark Tribe are defined as generally having a secret, evil power within them; they can destroy a planet using this power (or as Linehalt lets us find out, reverse that and heal a whole planet, including some newly dead, which happens to be everyone that isn't Dan.)

Because of this, and given their sheer proximity to their bakugan, I think Gundalians worship Dark Tribe bakugan similarly to how saints are worshipped, but with added fear of what they're apparently capable of. It's also likely they worship the mother of the original bakugan (though it is a plot point I wish wasn't a thing, because it screws up Dan's trial's sheer existence by making him the chosen one. What a way to waste a trial.)

Find A Song about the Vestals of ancient Rome

Hallan - The Colline Gate

Speaking ahead of its release, charismatic frontman Conor Clements stated: “The sinister and foreboding shadow of ‘The Colline Gate’ remains cast upon the terrifying truth that lurks beneath. Our foray into a more electronic sound comes by way of Ancient Rome’s debauched past times and the Vestal Virgins who met their untimely end beneath this mysterious landmark. 

The Vestals of Rome embodied both purity and sanctity, tending to the flame of Vesta as untouchable priestesses. Vestals found to break Rome’s strict rules were subject to a live burial beneath The Colline Gate”.

Added to FAS Spotify playlist alt rock.

Michael Malm

ive been having fun with darkest dungeon recently eheheh

Falling Snow, NYC, Photo by David Vestal, 1958

The Vestal Virgin Tuccia. Veiled Woman at the Palazzo Barberini, Rome. Created by Antonio Corradini (1743)

shes my wife

A normal day at the Hamlet

cats in places where cats shouldn't be: dungeons edition.

The Vestal Virgins by Jean Raoux

how usual

In Gundalia, Neathia, Vestal do they believe in tarot cards and crystals?

Let me explain, as I am sure you know fortune telling for some people is considered to be a true form for reading events that will happen in the future and I would have liked to know what the various alien races encountered in our path with anime vision think about it.

I am someone who also has a neutral opinion about crystal therapy, that is, the ability that crystals can alleviate negative energies around us and some emotions that are destructive to ourselves.

I'll give you an example, it is said, for example, that amber fights nightmares or that amethyst chases away worries by acting as a talisman.

I would be very curious to know what they think about it.

I don't personally believe in crystal therapy (though placebos do work, so I don't mind it; belief makes things work sometimes.)

Read more because this one feels long.

Vestals do not believe in these things beyond religious iconography. Usually this is in the form of putting cards together, shuffling, and seeing what order the cards are newly in to understand a "story" (it's not divination per say, but this is the same race who I headcanon to deal with time mechanics a great deal.)

Neathians have various uses for crystals, less so for tarot. It additionally helps that many neathian crystals have medicinal properties for them, if crushed up or dissolved. There are a few noxious crystals, though, and are usually used as iconography in paintings and posters on the subject of what neathians consider to be evil. During the war, images of gundalians were often surrounded by the noxious crystals.

Gundalians don't have any spiritual afflictions for crystals, or cards, but they do have some spirituality for a specific kind of rock - this stone is often used in their buildings, and has a habit of reacting like a creature when hurt. Using a little bit of electricity from their hands, they can communicate with the stone. Every gundalian has at least one on them, usually as a little, hidden companion.

It's okay guys Reynauld isn't dead, he just shrunk

Doctor and Patient