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cienie-isengardu · 3 months

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I like to imagine most Outworlders don't speak English if we were being realistic with workdbuilding. The royal family and their advisors would probably interact with Earthrealm officials during visits but regular Outwrolders probably wouldn't.

The only reason they speak English is for our convenience but realistically most probably shouldn't and it'd be funny if the language barrier popped up at times.

Like I imagine Quan Chi didn't speak English initially so he didn't register Titan Shang was talking to him when he was doing his job in the mines. Like Titan Shang thinks Quan Chi is ignoring him...when in reality Quan Chi simply doesn't register he's talking to him at all.

That is exactly my thought - worldbuilding wise, common Outworlders shouldn’t speak English or any other Earthrealm’s dialects, as they do not have a constant contact with totally foreign cultures from Liu Kang’s realm. I don’t think we ever heard of any vital trade between Earthrealm and Outworld and the portal between realms isn’t that easily accessible for people to just snuck in, and it is not just about Outworlders being wary of Earthrealmers but also Liu Kang decided to keep existence of other realms in secret from majority of his people. So the contact is limited and let’s not forget that the same as Earthrealm, Outworld is not culturally homogeneous realm either, as there is many different cultures coexisting there, like Edenians, Shokan, Centaurians, Saurian, Osh-Tekk to name few. So learning additional Earthrealm's dialects may be more difficult to some of those people than to others.

It makes sense for the Royal Family, their palace guard (Umgadi), advisors and for some military officers like General Shao and Reiko to learn English and possibly other earthrealm dialects, as such knowledge is vital to diplomacy and state security.

It is understandable that the games use English as common language for simplicity, however

It really is sad how the cultural/language barriers are not exploited as it has such a great potential (the closest things are: Johnny’s references to Alien that Kung Lao misunderstand as Cage calling Tanya a slur and was both offended and confused by the whole thing and Mileena thinking that drone is some kind of magic)

I don’t like the implication in Liu Kang’s timeline that Great Britain again influenced the whole world to the point English is the commonly used language because with that implication comes the question: did some Earthrealmers again suffer under the regime of other countries, be it under colonization or losing their country's independence. I mean, it is Liu Kang’s timeline, why Royal Family don’t speak in his native language as they had the longest contact with the Fire Lord and English is not, logically thinking, Raiden’s native language either?

Let’s just agree I’m very picky about this issue and I would love all the shenanigans coming from characters speaking in different languages and sometimes failing - or on purpose making it difficult to communicate well. Or, as the Lin Kuei faction has the number of native-speakers from different cultures (China, Czech, Botswana), they could utilize other languages as their “secret dialect”. Like Lin Kuei brothers waiting for Liu Kang, instead of speaking English between themselves, they could talk in Tomas’ native language because the chance Kung Lao, Raiden or Liu Kang’s servants would understand Czech is slimmer than them understanding English.

I’m seriously crying over the untapped language potential Mortal Kombat has for years.

As for Titan Shang Tsung, I’m gonna trust he was smarter than using English, when Quan Chi was born in mines and spent his whole life there. The mortal Shang Tsung consuming souls for ages most likely knew and could fluently use a vast number of dialects, so I imagine Titan Shang Tsung would figure out pretty quickly that no one in mines used earthrealm language and talked to Quan Chi in a way he could perfectly understand him, especially since “Damashi” needed Quan Chi’s trust to process the great plan of his.

#mortal kombat #my replies #outworld #lin kuei #shang tsung #where are the characters speaking in their native languages? even if just to curse under their noses #i wanna them to have their native cultures acknowledged!#and seriously our five main lin kuei could speak Czech and Tswana to confuse people around them or comment people's idiocy XD

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tolstudies · 8 months

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slovak resources 🇸🇰

online courses

e-slovak.sk provides full courses at a1 and a2 level, with interactive exercises and videos, either self-study or tutor-supported (i.e. with a real teacher giving feedback), completely free, with a certificate for completing the final exam. slovake.eu has courses for introductory level, a1, a2, b1, and b2, as well as a special grammar course. includes lessons, quizzes, exercises, language games, a multimedia library. loecsen has a set of lessons which guide you through learning a set of vocabulary words, revising them, and then testing your memorisation. it has many levels and topics, but it's not as comprehensive or interactive as e-slovak. goethe-verlag provides 100 free short lessons with audio. since all the lessons use full sentences, it's good for practicing sentence structure, but you will probably need to use other resources alongside it to learn effectively. mango languages requires a paid membership (some libraries have memberships; check if yours does!), so i haven't tried it, but it's generally considered a good platform and has a ton of other languages besides slovak too.

interactive flashcards

memrise clozemaster digital dialects badabada

videos and movies

learn slovak with stories is a lovely youtube channel run by a slovak teacher with tons of really charming, slow, learner-oriented content including stories, lessons about slovak culture, discussions of language learning, and so on. ivysílání as well as this google drive folder by @valerieandherweekofwonderz have lots of classic czechoslovak / czech / slovak films, but be careful, most of them are in czech!

podcasts

learn slovak and more one minute slovak comprehensible slovak slovakforu

music

slovak pop mix slovak rap mix slovak rock mix slovak folk mix my slovak playlist :)

#langblr #slovak #slovak langblr #resources #langvillage #gessie.txt

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kolajmag · 6 months

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FROM THE PRINT ISSUE

A Rare Hallucination of Reality…Defragmented

Anna Rémuzon explores the subtle, vibrant meeting of Expressionism, Surrealism & Pop Culture in the artwork of Czech artist Tomáš Jetela in Kolaj 38. She writes, "The characters are fragmented, detached pieces. The faces, the articulated bodies, the accessories—each element has its own origin, its own identity. Jetela 'glues' them together in his composition, which creates a new, mutant form of humanity." Read More

*****************************

Kolaj Magazine, a full color, print magazine, exists to show how the world of collage is rich, layered, and thick with complexity. By remixing history and culture, collage artists forge new thinking. To understand collage is to reshape one's thinking of art history and redefine the canon of visual culture that informs the present.

SUBSCRIBE | CURRENT ISSUE | GET A COPY

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jamieroxxartist · 9 months

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Good Morning Social Media! Today’s featured #Spotify #Playlist Inside the Mind of #AlphonseMucha; Mei Ling and I feature a new playlist daily. It’s what I have on here in the studio while I Paint and work. You can Listen as well, for FREE, both here at the Link and on the Pop Culture BLOG at my website: www.JamieRoxx.us enjoy :)

🎧 #SpotifyPlaylist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6oiAGb5rRxpNyxtctE0l8J

🎂 Birthday Remembrances. Today July 24, 1860 – Alphonse #Mucha, Czech painter and illustrator (d. 1939) was born.

🎨 #ArtNouveau . . .

Blog #Art #LifeattheBeach #ArtistsLife #BestFriends #SharPei #Painter #WorkingArtist #NeoNoir

#Alphonse Mucha #Art Nouveau #Painter #Spotify #Playlist #Jamie Roxx #Painting

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protect-daniel-james · 5 months

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wait let me send that as an ask lol. spotify: 8, 18, 26 ;)

Hehe thank you!

8. Hertzainak - Eh Txo!

This was pretty much my introduction to Basque rock from the 1980s-1990s. And it's a song I often listen to when writing Txoria txori, hence why it's so high up. I just picture the Txoria txori Unai listening to this while driving his car lmao. I just like the vibe of the album overall, the sort of gritty, not-glam 1980s, plus some of their lyrics slightly touch upon the social climate of the era with songs like Pakean Utzi Arte or Si vis pacem, parabelum. Basically, the whole album is a background soundtrack of Txoria txori, the lore that never even comes up (like, the music and songs predate whatever is happening in Txoria txori fic, but I'd say it's the influence and environment that formed both Unai and Mikel in that fic).

18. Aitch - 1989

I'll be honest this is not my usual style of music at all, but for some reason, I just fell in love with Aitch's music, probably because of the Manchester connection, probably because it just sounds ... idk, real? The lyrics, the references... Also I guess I can identify with him more than with black rappers, or rappers from the US lmao. Also, and I think you'll appreciate this, the musical undertone/sample is obviously taken from Stone Roses' Fools Gold. I listened to Aitch's songs a lot last year when I visited Manchester, and some songs - like this one, or Rain, or Learning curve stuck with me. (also, the stuff he sings about or shows in his videos, I take that as the British lad culture which is very...inspirational).

26. Beti Mugan - Oihuak

It's ridiculous of much Beti Mugan actually appears in my Spotify wrapped since I only discovered them in late August/September I think? But yeah, Beti Mugan ended up being my no. 1. artist, which is just funny, since the only reason I even know about them is the Unai Emery's brother connection. (but to be honest I know that this year, I really didn't have The One artist that I would listen to religiously, and I spent most of the spring writing my thesis and listening to whatever shitty random mixes that I found + lots of old-timey Czech pop songs, so I think that all is reflected in the Spotify wrapped as well).

Anyway, Oihuak! Yay! A dark song - a song about trauma? If it was in English, I'd say it's perfect for Lampardverse, since it's basically about ... wounds / intracranial wounds / those that can't be closed. That's the start of the lyrics. I mean, wow. Then the song slowly escalates towards the chorus.

A headcanon of Txoria txori is that Unai writes edgy poems that are actually Beti Mugan songs. It's his secret and he keeps it well, only time will tell if Mikel learns about it ;) But yeah, Oihuak was for me one of the first memorable songs I heard from Beti Mugan, and I remembered it exactly for that desperate, urgent refrain.

#spotify wrapped #spotify ask

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ariel-seagull-wings · 2 years

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@princesssarisa @the-blue-fairie @themousefromfantasyland @softlytowardthesun @superkingofpriderock @faintingheroine

So its interesting how the image of the witch's eatable house from Hansel and Gretel has evolved in pop culture.

In the Grimm's Tale, the house is described as being mainly made of bread (a basic need that the children were in lack of duo to poverty), with the small aditions of a cake roof and sugar windows.

It is in a czech variant titled The House of Candy, where the protagonist siblings are named Jan and Marie, where the house is made mainly of candy, sugar treats that are not very substantial, but still are atractive to children for their sweet flavour and usually colorfull apearance.

While for the general public you would only be familiar with the czech variant if you lived there, artists, writers and scholars, specially from close countries like Germany, Austria, Czechia and Poland, would likely be familiar with both versions when they reached print, and fuse the two in retellings.

Probably he most influential take on the Hansel and Gretel tale is the opera by Engelbert Humperdinck, where the house is portrayed as a colorfull gingerbread house with colorfull candy all around to embelish it. Having been born in mid 19th century Germany, when the geopolitical and cultural frontier between Germany, Austria, Czechia and Poland had yet to be defined and one country influenced the other artistically, it is possible that Humperdinck was familiar with both Hansel and Gretel and The House of Candy, and fused the two in the opera's conception of the witch's house in the proccess: the house is made of gingerbread, a substantial baking good, but still fancy with the adition of a spice that would be considered expensive for poor children like Hansel and Gretel, and the sweet candy decorations ad light hearted colors, wich wonders and atracts both Hansel and Gretel and the child audience that follows their adventures.

#tumblr mutuals #fandom musings #pop culture #hansel and gretel #fairy tales #folklore #brothers grimm #engelbert humperdinck

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terrainofheartfelt · 1 year

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Lit™ Opera Lit - Abridged

for @clarasamelia

Jo enabled me into doing this though I’ve been tempted to for a WHILE, so here, have an Opera Primer Playlist, by me. A few notes before we begin:

This says Abridged, because the original Lit™ Opera Lit on my spotify is….5 ½ hours long, and I didn’t want to throw ALL that at someone new to the genre. So. (It is public on my spotify if you wanna take a peek)

Also, this is not a music history survey, and is therefore very biased to my tastes as a lover of romantic opera and as a trained mezzo soprano. #lowvoicesupremacy

And there is sooooooooooooooooooo much more I want to share so if anyone has any questions or wants a rec of something else please feel free to ask and I would be happy to answer!

Actually, new ask game time: send me a pop culture media thing and I can relate it back to opera in 6 degrees or less.

*means I’ve sung it before!

Okay, onto the playlist

Overture – La forza del destino, Verdi

You gotta start off an opera with a good overture right???? And this one is a fave, BY a fave. Overtures are sort of a…musical trailer of everything you’re going to hear in the show before it starts. It’s a sneak peek, it’s the opening credits, it’s a goddamn shame we don’t do them anymore. For real I went to a concert earlier this fall and the orchestra played the overture to The Sound of Music and it was glorious and I remember thinking “they don’t make em like this anymore!” Anyways, idk much about Forza because there’s no mezzos, but it’s a gutwrenching tragedy with glorious music, and this overture FUCKS

“Gira la cote!”* — Turandot, Puccini

First things first, lemme just say this outright, yes, this opera is racist. All white European composers were perpetrators of Orientalism in their music, Puccini being one of the more notorious. As such, opera is a thing that you have to engage with critically, but I don’t want to make that sound like it’s “work,” because I don’ twant to prolong this thing that you have to perform some sort of intellectual labor before you can enjoy opera, but you have to give it the same grace and critical eye you give other media, fuck I run a gossip girl blog, it’s like that, you know? Okay, sermon out of the way, this opera is about a Chinese princess, who vows to never marry because, honestly men have given her very little reason to want to, so she poses this challenge: if a man wants to marry her, he must answer three riddles, and if he gets even one of them wrong, she takes his head. This chorus is the opening of the show, when her latest failed suitor is about to get his head chopped off, the chorus of her subjects love the free show, and are shouting “gira la cote! / sharpen the blade!” and, reader, it fucks.

“Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém (Song to the Moon)” — Rusalka, Dvořák

It’s the little mermaid!!!!!!!!! No, seriously, it’s based on the same myth. From my sweet Czech prince, Tony, this masterpiece tells its own spin on a Slavic version of the fairytale. This is, effectively, the “part of your world” song, Rusalka begs the moon to pass on a message of love to her human prince. And it is…one of the most glorious arias ever, to the point that sometimes I’m like “ugh, overdone” but really, it’s gorgeous, and when sung right, transcendent.

“Čury mury fuk” — Rusalka, Dvořák

Ježibaba, aka Baba Yaga, aka Ursula, sings about how she’s gonna poison the beautiful sprite Rusalka. Fun fact: the saying for mezzo roles is: witches, bitches, and britches, because the archetypes low-voiced women always sing in opera are always either witches, bitches, or pants roles (women playing a male character, usually a teenaged boy). I was more a Mistresses and Princesses mezzo meself, so really…just bitches….

“Amami, Alfredo” — La Traviata, Verdi

Verdi is my absolute favorite, my opera blorbo, I love him so very much. The way he writes emotion into his orchestra is just hnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng. Anyways. Traviata is perhaps the most popular opera in the world (tied with Carmen). If you don’t think you know it, you do. It’s based off Dumas’ La Dame aux Camellias, and the direct inspiration for the film Moulin Rouge! (though not the musical, evidently, it’s fine I’ve ranted about that elsewhere). AND, it’s featured in the garden party scene in Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement! What you here Anne Hathaway listening to there is the grand ending to the famous aria “Sempre libera,” but to me, the most sublime moment in the opera is this one, in Act II, Violetta’s lover’s father comes to plead with her to leave his son, Alfredo, because Violetta is a courtesan and therefore a detriment to the noble family’s reputation…yeah. And Violetta agrees, not wanting to send Alfredo’s family into poverty or ruin the reputation of his little sister (that she’s never met btw, fuckin catholics), plus, it’s hinted that Violetta already knows that she is dying of tuberculosis (consumption), so she decides to leave and go back to her old life, and when Alfredo returns as she’s trying to write him a farewell letter, she has this outburst of emotion. It’s brief, but, jesus christ—

Amami, Alfredo, quant'io t'amo. Addio. / Love me, Alfredo, how I love you. Goodbye.

"Bevo al tuo fresco sorriso" — La Rondine, Puccini

Another opera based of the lady of the camellias! (She was indeed a real person, Marie Duplessis, I read a biography about her! It’s so fascinating!) This one has a bit of a different plot and play out, but the theme is the same. There’s actually some dispute about there being multiple endings to this opera (Turandot too I guess, but I digress) Magda, a glamorous courtesan of Paris, bored of her gilded cage, puts on a disguise and goes out for the night, and meets up again with the hot young poet who came to her house party earlier that night, they share a drink, meanwhile Magda’s maid has a drink in the same bar with her tenor lover, what results is this, what me and my friends call The Best Quartet Ever. it sounds exactly like falling in love in Paris. No offense, but tswift could never.

"È amabile invero cotal giovinotto” — Rigoletto, Verdi†

Hi, it’s me with my low voice supremacy agenda again. There’s a much more famous quartet, but. My house. Based off of a play by Victor Hugo, Rigoletto is a jester who has enough of his boss’ bullshit. His boss being the Duke. What puts him over the edge? The scumbag of a Duke seduces Rig’s daughter, Gilda, and now Gilda thinks she’s in love, but Rig has worked for the Duke long enough to know that, best case, she’ll have her heartbroken. But that is all just BACKGROUND for this scene. Rigoletto hires an assassin-slash-bartender to take care of the Duke for him, so this guy, Sparafucile, gets the Duke drunk, but now, unfortunately, the assasin’s sister, Maddalena, has a crush on the fuck. She demands that her brother spare the duke’s life, but Sparafucile promised Rigoletto a body. So while a storm hits, Spara tells his sister “fine, the next person that knocks on the door, i’ll kill instead.” Gilda, of course, overhears all of this, and decides that what she has to do his take the place of the man she loves, and knocks on the door (babygirl, it’s NOT WORTH IT) †I’ve never done one of these roles, but I have been in the opera!

“Pourquoi me réveiller” — Werther, Massenet

An underrated, imho, French tragedy. Is it because the heroine is a mezzo? Who’s to say. Based off Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werther, it follows the tragic star-crossed love of Werther, the poet, and Charlotte, the woman who loves him, but for ehr family’s financial security and stature marries another man she doesn’t love. This moment in the opera comes after Charlotte’s two barn-burner arias, when she looks over her letters from Werther and realizes the depth of her feelings, Werther comes to see her in this moment of vulnerability, and recites this piece of poetry. It’s sexy and angsty and the build-up to the explosion of emotion that’s about to take place. And because I’m me, I’ll just say: it’s dair-coded.

“Pietà! perdon!...O don fatale” — Don Carlos, Verdi†

Verdi wrote this opera for the bisexuals!!!! So, there’s a big ol’ convoluted love pentagon going on in the court of Phillip II of Spain, but what you need to know in this scene is: Eboli, a courtier and friend of the queen Elisabeth de Valois (daughter of Catherine de Medici, fun fact), frames Elisabeth for cheating on her husband with her stepson (complicated, I know). And Eboli is acting out of homoerotic jealousy because she wanted Carlo (the stepson) herself, and what is a rival if not a crush you’re mad about having? After her subterfuge blows up in her face, Eboli throws herself at Elisabeth’s feet begging for mercy (“pietà”), and confesses to setting Elisabeth up, and even, sleeping with the king. Elisabeth is heartbroken and furious at the betrayal, and banishes Eboli to a convent. Once alone, Eboli curses the beauty she was born with that brought her here, and laments that she’ll never see Elisabeth again (GAY). And then, she realizes there’s still a chance to save Carlo, who’s been jailed for treason. This opera is in my top 5 favorites, and this excerpt has one of my top 5 favorite musical moments, the low strings after Eboli confesses, the pain and betrayal you can FEEL in the strings and it’s so !!!!! I am not capable of being normal about it. I’m listening while writing this and CHILLS (Also, I saw this live very recently and it was extraordinary! And they did something interesting with the supertitles and the acting that implied that – rather than a presumed consensual encounter – Phillip assaulted Eboli, which paints her aria cursing her looks in an entirely new light!!!!!) †I’ve not done this publicly, but it was in my repertoire

“E qual via scegliete?” — Tosca, Puccini†

I tried to keep this brief and not put on too many things, but I can’t not put Tosca on here! This is my second favorite part of the opera (my first favorite is the finale, but that’s like, only 30 seconds, so), and it fucks. Floria Tosca, a famous singer in Rome, is put in an impossible position by absolute dirtbag Scarpia, who takes her lover Mario Cavaradossi political prisoner. Cavaradossi, a republican and therefore enemy of the Italian state, is sentenced to death, but Scarpia promises he’ll set C free if Tosca spends a night with him. She’s heartbroken by this choice, but she agrees. She insists that Scarpia sign the paperwork granting the both of them safe passage out of Rome, and he also promises that the firing squad will fake C’s death to give them a cover to escape. The tension in this scene is delicious, and it builds and builds, and the STRINGS. While Scarpia is writing, Tosca takes a knife from his dinner table. When it’s done and her and her lover’s escape is promised (Scarpia will actually betray her one more time, but she doesn’t know that yet), Scarpia moves to put his arms around her (gross, I know), and says “Tosca, finalmente e mio! / Tosca is finally mine!” and she STABS him. Rather than being raped by this absolute toilet plunger of a man, she KILLS him. She stabs him, and he cries out and goes down, and she taunts him, telling him to “feel the kiss of Tosca” and she stands over him saying “Muori, muori,” in this raw, low voice like die, bitch! It is sooooo thrilling to watch. This is a scene I will never get tired of. In a genre where women characters are too frequently brutalized for nothing, seeing a woman kill her would-be rapist is just — so satisfying. †I’ve only been in the chorus of this opera

“Ohimè!... morir mi sento!”(Scena del giudizio) — Aida, Verdi

Regrettably, my favorite mezzo recording of this (Dolora Zajick) involves both James Levine and Placido Domingo, both of whom are pieces of shit! I’ve selected Cossotto’s instead, but if you come away from this playlist knowing one thing, it’s that James Levine and Placido Domingo are pieces of shit whose supposed skill is not worth all the pain and misery they caused. And now back to the music! Also, this opera has a racist history that companies are still working to move away from. They could work a little bit faster, tbh. A favorite opera and a dream role for me, tbh. Amneris, daughter of the king, gets carried away with jealousy when she discovers the man of her affection, Radames, is in love with her servant Aida, a prisoner of war who turns out to be a princess of an enemy nation. Amneris’ fury gets Radames and Aida caught. Taken by regret and pain and, let’s face it, more homoerotic angst, Amneris eavesdrops on Radames’ trial before the elders, and her dread builds as Radames refuses to speak in his defense. He’s sentenced to death—buried alive—and Amneris and the orchestra react viscerally to the sentence. Like her pleas for mercy when the scene hits its climax, those pietas…

“O furibonda iena…Quest’ultimo bacio”* — La Gioconda, Ponchielli

UNDERRATED OPERA OF ALL TIME. No but really. This is just…everything. This is a grand opera masterwork by this guy, Amilcare, who was Puccini’s teacher, and so few people know about it which is a SHAME. But, understandable, it’s notoriously hard to produce, and expensive, since the finale of Act II involves sinking a pirate ship…but the MUSIC. It’s another convoluted and vaguely homoerotic love triangle. Laura and Enzo were in love, then pulled apart. Enzo sought comfort in a singer, known only as La Gioconda, and she is madly in love with him, but when Laura comes back into his life, that’s it for him. There’s ship burnings and evil husbands and a ballet (which you may know as the K-9 Advantix commercial song), but it all comes to this finale. Though she vowed Laura was her rival, Gioconda learns that Laura saved her mother once, and was under her mother’s blessing, noted by the rosary Gioconda’s mother gave her, that Laura always carries with her. So, bound by honor to her mother and desire to see her ex Enzo happy, Gioconda schemes to help Laura fake her death to escape her abusive husband, and gets Enzo to come to them just as Laura’s waking up from her sleeping draught (think R&J, but happier ending). Enzo comes in spitting mad, thinking Gioconda is responsible for his Laura’s death, and Gio—who’s going through some shit of her own—is ready to let him kill her, and then Laura wakes, and calls Enzo’s name, and the relief in the orchestra is PALPABLE, while Gioconda sings quietly to herself “oh darkness, hide me.” After they’ve reunited, Gioconda tells them the rest of her plan, she’s got a boat to get them out of the city, and from there they can start a new life. Through her own pain and grief, in an act of unbridled selflessness and compassion, she tells them: “Amatevi. Siate felici. / Love each other. Be happy.” and they thank her and promise to remember her. And, I mean, how often does the mezzo get to win like that?

LITTLE WOMEN* (2005) MY BELOVED. It’s not on spotify, but I couldn’t not put this opera on this playlist for you, Jo <333 so, please see below for youtube links. the story is already important to me, and being in the opera when I was in college only made it even more so, and it’s a forever favorite and forever special in my heart. This is the only contemporary opera on this list, and it’s a wide and varied field, but in many ways, it’s a host unto itself (but if anyone wants to hear more contemporary stuff, I’d be happy to share!) Now, LW has a mixed reputation amongst operaphiles, who’s to say why? Misogyny, misogyny is why. But more than that, LW is such a domestic drama in a way that is not really conventional in opera, with its fantasy plots and royal characters and otherworldliness about it, but LW has always been about the small intricacies of family, which is why when Greta Gerwig put in that line about domestic struggles and joys in her film I felt so fucking SEEN. It is a technically challenging work, rife with lots of 21st century music toughness that makes the music hard to learn, but it’s absolutely not inaccessible to listen to. But, you know, call a spade what it is, a goddamn shovel, and LW is an opera with a majority women cast. You can count the men in the show on one hand, and that combined with its lack of a typical “operatic” story, and it’s challenging 21st century sound, makes lots of people keen to dismiss it. But those people, are WRONG. It’s a beautiful opera, meaningful and powerful and it sounds pretty, and I will die on that hill.

“Perfect as we are” — Little Women, Adamo

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Jo has a total of…three? arias in the show, and this is the second. After a meeting of the pickwick club and a chat with Laurie, Jo is in her attic trying to write her next “potboiler,” but keeps getting distracted by what she and Laurie were talking about, mainly, the possibility of Meg being in love with Laurie’s tutor, Brooke. It’s another hint at the main conflict of the opera (which is plainly stated in the next selection). Jo is happy with her family and her best friend, and she doesn’t see why any of it has to change. But it won’t be up to her. I love this one because it goes back and forth between Jo trying to write and find the right words for her story, and monologuing at an invisible Laurie, and her monologue helps her find that word and then she’s back in it. It’s so whimsical and just very her. I love it so much. Low voice supremacy

“Things change, Jo”

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THIS ARIA!!!!!! Jo is so upset when Meg decides to marry John Brooke, and she plaintively sings “Why don’t you love me anymore?” and her big sister says, “Of course I love you!....but once I saw him, once he looked at me….I can’t explain it, Jo. I love you. Things end – no,” and that’s the lead in to the aria. She’s trying to explain her heart to her sister, and the poetry of it is glorious and the MUSIC. It’s a plea, really, a begging for Jo to understand her side: childhood was always going to end, and what a happy ending. The “Things change, Jo,” leitmotif is repeated over and over again. It’s the central conflict: Jo versus Change. Laurie repeats the motif when he proposes to Jo, Beth repeats it as she’s dying (her death aria is EXQUISITE I just can’t include it here because it makes me too emotional), and interestingly, when Laurie and Amy are abroad together, he sings the dissonant three-note motif, and then Amy resolves it. “Things change, Amy.” / “And a good thing too.” GENIUS. Adamo is a genius.

My best friend from college sings this aria and also preaches the gospel of Adamo’s LW to me, and she texted me out of the blue the other day: If someone doesn’t like Things Change Jo…they’re misogynist. I don’t make the rules. And she’s right. It may sound like I’m coming down hard but I have heard so many people (mostly cismen) talk down at this opera and at people for liking it, and I’m over it. It’s good!!!!!! This isn’t me trying to say “you better like this or ELSE” but “I have so much love for this and it means so much to me personally and so I dearly hope you’ll give yourself a chance to like it too.”

“Let me look at you”* (Quartet)

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THEE finale! Jo is alone in her attic again, and she finally surrenders, to her grief, to the current of change running through her life. Surrounded by the ghosts of her sisters, she makes peace with each of them, and they sing about how life has pulled them to separate goals, but they will always still have the love between them. I want to cry even as I’m writing this, it’s so beautiful and so meaningful. Jo ends the quartet with the exact same line as the end of her aria above “how grateful I am,” but it means something different now!!!! And she echoes the melody of “perfect as we are” a minute later, when Bhaer knocks on the door and asks if now is a good time, she sings “Now is all there is.” best finale ever. Except tosca, maybe.

I sang the role of Marmee when I was in the opera, but on my senior recital, this was my closer, and I sang it with 3 of my closest friends who were also graduating that year. Our groupchat is still called the March Sisters. And. AND. my friend who sang Meg is getting married next summer, and we are all bridesmaids. She really did find her knight 😭😭😭😭😭

#playlist #music #opera #if you listen please let me know what you think! <333 #on today's episode of liz was a music major and is gonna make it everyone's problem #one of my favorite things about recitals was writing program notes and this scratched that itch so thank you for the excuse and platform #to do this #i have an idea for an opera/shakespeare playlist too if anyone is interested...#proud of myself for my restraint tbh #not too long. still long tho.

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czgif · 7 months

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Telling about Nymph Amalka (Říkání o víle Amálce) 1975, dir. Václav Bedřich IMDB

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trashyinfernomusic · 1 year

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The Big Texas Post

Y’know what’s funny? Explaining Texas culture to non-Texans.

People from Dallas: Dallasites. People from Houston: Houstonians. People from Austin: Weird.

Texas has two pro baseball teams, three pro basketball teams, two pro football teams, two pro soccer teams, and one pro hockey team (and tried to get a second in the Houston Aeros but that didn’t work out).

Most sports orgs are based in either Dallas or Houston, and the two cities have a rivalry that when left unchecked causes brawls in restaurants and bars (among other chaotic things). The general rule is that Houstonians hate Dallas, Dallasites hate Houston, everyone hates Austin, and San Antonio and El Paso are just the two kids in the corner trying to stay out of the fighting. However, if you’re from out-of-state and you hate on any of them, you’ll be the one on the receiving end of a beat-down because “no one messes with my little brother but me, damnit!”

Meanwhile, you have all the people who self-identify as being from one of the big cities even though they’re really from a suburb that’s about an hour away. Live in Spring, TX? “Oh, I’m from Houston.” Live in Arlington (which is where the Texas Rangers - largely considered a Dallas sports team - are located)? You’re considered from Dallas or the DFW area. We Texans don’t really care about the accuracy. We care more about whether or not you’re from the coast (Houston), the middle (Dallas/San Antonio), the weird (Keep Austin Weird was supposed to be a slogan that would promote mom-and-pop small businesses in the city. The rest of Texas leapt on the opportunity to make fun of it. Sorry, Austin), the border (El Paso, Texarkana), or somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. The state’s too big to get into the nitty gritty.

And don’t even get me started on college rivalries. You’ve got U of H, UT, A&M, SFA, and even more acronyms and mascots and history and - well, let’s just say it can all get out of hand. Actually, A&M and UT refuse to play each other anymore out of stubbornness - they hate each other that much. (Personally, I land on the Aggie side of things. Anyone who goes so far as to genetically engineer maroon bluebonnets to prank another school has earned my affection. Though UT can give as good as they get.)

Some other weird/fun things about Texas include: - Drive through margarita places - Kolaches (which are a Czech sweet pastry that we bastardized into a savory breakfast option) - The Battle for the Boot (I kid you not, two baseball teams compete against each other for a silver cowboy boot every once in a while. It’s the silliest and yet most Texan thing ever.) - Buck-ees - The second largest port in the US (the amount of people who don’t understand that yes, Houston is on the water, and yes, it has a booming transport industry is alarming) - Really good barbecue (ours is tomato based, which makes the sauce thick and sweet) - Strange laws including one where you’re not allowed to have pliers in the back pocket of your jeans (it’s a holdover from when cattle rustlers would use them to cut barbed-wire fences) - There’s a law where in the US, no state capital is allowed to be taller than the US capital. Texas built theirs on a hill - it’s not taller, it just happens to be... higher. - People argue over this one, but Texas DOES have the right to secede from the union. - Six Flags the theme park was named such because it stands for Six Flags Over Texas. Why? Texas has had six different flags flying over it: France, Spain, Republic of Texas, United States, Confederacy, and Mexico. Yes, you read that right: France. No, we were not acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. - Dry counties are a thing. No alcohol is allowed to be consumed or sold! That being said, a trailer park of 200 came together to create the town Mobile, TX so that they could sell and consume liquor in the 90s - In 1963, Janice Joplin was voted “Ugliest Man on Campus” at the University of Texas - The Houston Grand Opera is considered one of the best opera companies in the world!

#texas #ferno rambles #someone asked me texas questions in a comment on AO3 and I decided why not #texas culture #stupid texas things #fanfic #i only tag that because this spawned from a fic

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robocracker · 1 year

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ranking esc2023 songs... part one

it’s officially eurovision week, and the first semi final is less than 24 hours away!! so, i’m ranking the songs of that first semi into my personal qualifiers and non-qualifiers.

1. sweden || tbh i was never all that keen on euphoria but i can’t help but root for loreen with tattoo, it’s a quality tune and it just screams eurovision champion to me.

2. finland || love that he’s one of the favourites to win this year because he deserves it, the song is experimental and fun, and it works!

3. czech republic || there’s only one crown i’m swearing allegiance to this month, and it’s my sister’s crown! love the mix of languages on this one, and the sisterhood theme, i’m all for it.

4. norway || okay i lied i’m actually here for two queens this month. where are the north and south seas?? who are the kings that she’s queen of?? i have no idea, but i’m singing along anyway.

5. netherlands || what can i say, i’m a sucker for something slow and sad. i know they keep sending stuff like this year after year and it’s not always to my taste, but this year it’s working.

6. serbia || lowkey worried he’s going to get the juri pootsman treatment from voters because it’s kind of a creepy song, but maybe he can make it work better than poor juri did. i’d definitely like to see it in the final.

7. azerbaijan || this keeps getting stuck in my head, and tbh, it’s welcome to stick around. it’s unusual for eurovision, but it’s good.

8. switzerland || is it out of touch and privileged, bearing in mind the very real war that ukraine is currently fighting? probably. i don’t feel qualified to talk on that subject. but he’s got a solid voice and the song builds nicely, and it’s got a theme that a lot of people will go for regardless of how it sits right now.

9. portugal || enjoying her voice, and the beat is fun without forcing the quirkiness. i like the style of the music.

10. moldova || maybe it’s the lingering bitterness in me that france got so few votes last year despite delivering a cultural banger, but i need moldova to qualify!! this song is great!

11. malta || their vocals aren’t my favourite but the music itself is funky and it’s not completely forgettable.

12. israel || she can sing, but. i’m not feeling the unicorn imagery. definitely not ~phenomenal~ for me.

13. croatia || i get it, catchy beat, unusual, making fun of putin, but it’s just not working for me. i can’t explain it.

14. ireland || it’s not the fact that it’s painfully generic pop, it’s the fact that i swear to god it’s ripping the fuck off of one specific song that i can’t name off the top of my head but i know i’ve heard before. i’d like it if i hadn’t heard it already by somebody else several years ago!

15. latvia || his voice isn’t bad but i’m physically incapable of putting this song on without zoning out from sheer boredom before i’m even halfway through.

#eurovision #esc 2023 #if i'm being 100% honest there's very few songs i fully enjoy this year #and as has been happening the past few years my opinions are likely to change once i've actually heard them singing live #so. we'll see how long this ranking lasts.#definitely hard rooting for my top five of this semi and also serbia to some extent but i'm not super fussed on the rest #well. fussed if my absolute least favourites of this year's crop somehow make it through. but i will get over it.

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natromanxoff · 2 years

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Record Collector - December, 1996

Credits to Louise Belle and Queencuttings.com

NEWS FOR THE RECORD

COMPILED BY MARK PAYTRESS

MERCURY MULTIMEDIA

THE FREDDIE MERCURY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

An exhibition featuring over 100 photographs of Freddie Mercury went on show at the Royal Albert Hall last week, to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the death of the Queen frontman. The display is drawn from both private and public collections and spans the singer’s life from his infancy in Zanzibar to his final, formal portrait, taken during his battle against Aids. The exhibition is free of charge, and is open until 11th December.

Turn to the feature elsewhere in this issue for more details, plus an exclusive selection of images from the show.

QUEEN GIVE US THE EYE

Queen Multimedia, in conjunction with Electronic Arts, have announced the launch of “The Eye”, an interactive, action-adventure computer game, based on the music and imagery of the band.

The game will be available in March 1997 as a five-CD-ROM set compatible with IBM PCs. Ninety minutes of original and remixed versions of Queen’s best-known songs have been aligned to “motion captured characters and real-time facial animatio”.

“ ‘Queen — The Eye’ will be the first music game of its kind,” claims Tim Massey of Destination Design, who created the package. “This resourceful vision makes the integration of Queen’s timeless appeal with the revolutionary audio and visual gaming technology a ‘must have’ product.”

Expect a flurry of promotional and advertising initiatives to tie in with the release of the game, including a ‘making-of’ TV documentary; a worldwide syndicated radio special; and at least three associated books, to be published by Boxtree. A price for “Queen — The Eye" has yet to be fixed, although the manufacturers estimate it will be in the region of £40.

STATUESQUE MERCURY

On 25th November, five years after the untimely death of Freddie Mercury, a 9ft bronze statue of the late, great singer was unveiled at the waterfront at Lake Geneva, Montreux, Switzerland, near to Mountain Studios where Queen recorded their final album, “Made In Heaven”. The statue was paid for by Freddie’s family and friends, and the patch of land on which it stands was donated by the commune of Montreux, who got to know Freddie during his final years.

The statue is the work of Czech sculptor Irene Sedliek, a fellow of the Royal Society of British Sculptors and a memory of the Society of Portrait Sculptors. The memorial was unveiled by opera star Montserrat Caballe, with whom Freddie recorded his “Barcelona” theme tune to the 1988 Olympic Games.

WIENER WILL ROCK YOU

Following screenings at film festivals in Venice, Cannes and London earlier this year, Queen’s “Made In Heaven: The Films”, is now available on a compilation video, via independent label Wienerworld, priced £10.99. Without Freddie as Queen's focal point, the band bypassed the traditional rock video medium and opted instead to commission eight short films from young directors via the British Film Institute.

“Queen were the pioneers of the promo and have reinvented it on many occasions. The project offered the opportunity to think hard about what has happened to the music promo, and how to invigorate a more dynamic relationship between pictures and sound,” said executive producer and head of the BFI Film Division Ben Gibson. “l think the results, which are films in their own right, vindicate everyone’s belief that the project has crossed new boundaries on short film-making.”

EURO GA GA

“Queen Dance Traxx 1” is a new album featuring sixteen Europop cover versions of songs made famous by pop's most flamboyant foursome. Issued on the Continent in October and in January in the U.K., the CD features dancefloor-orientated reworkings of Queen anthems like “We Will Rock You” (by Interactive), “Under Pressure” (by Culture Beat), “l Was Born To Love You” (by World's Apart) and “The Invisible Man” (by Scatman John).

“The first time I heard ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ I stopped what I was doing and just listened,” reports the Scatman. “As a jazz artist at the time, I knew I was hearing something special. Freddie Mercury’s knowledge of music, coupled with his vision, was clearly understood by the band… and there was a development and execution of that understanding that created music I felt was of genius. With this project, we’re aiming to bring a new life to the music of a past generation with sensitivity, with taste and with creativity.”

LASERS LEAD THE WAY

Two other Queen films, the “Champions Of The World” documentary and “The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert”, have just been issued on Laser Disc, via Pioneer. The Laser Disc is the principal video format in the States, and is growing in Europe. The manufactures of these 12" diameter, double-sided discs claim digital sound and broadcast-quality pictures, plus the added bonus of compact disc-style indexing. On music titles this means you can key into favourite tracks without having to bother with out-moded ideas like fast-forward and rewind.

“Champions Of The World” is priced £24.99, while the double-disc “The Freddie Mercury Tribute” costs £34.99. Forthcoming Queen Laser Disc releases include “Greatest Hits 1 & 2” and “Wembley”.

FLASH!

THE FREDDIE MERCURY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBITION

ANDY DAVIS INTRODUCES A NEW VISUAL CELEBRATION OF QUEEN’S MUCH MISSED FRONTMAN

It’s now five years since the rock music world learned of the tragic death of Freddie Mercury. In that time, the surviving members of the band have paid tribute to him by completing and releasing the final album they recorded together, “Made In Heaven”, and have sanctioned a whole host of projects by which fans can remember Freddie and the group he fronted with such astonishing showmanship for twenty years.

Now, to mark the fifth anniversary of his death, and to celebrate his extraordinary life, an exhibition featuring some of the best photographs of Freddie Mercury has just opened at the Royal Albert Hall. Sponsored by EMI Music, the exhibition was conceived by Queen’s manager Jim Beach, and is being put together under the aegis Of Freddie’s publishing company, Mercury Songs. One of its principal aims is to raise both funds and awareness for the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the Aids support charity established in Freddie’s name in the wake of his death. (To date, the Trust has raised around £4 million.)

The choice of venue — the circular corridor which runs around the inside perimeter of the Royal Albert Hall — is both unusual and prestigious, as explained by the exhibition’s curator, Richard Gray, who as Queen’s art director, has been the man behind all the band’s artwork for the last ten years.

“It took a long time to figure that the Royal Albert Hall might be the venue,” he reveals. “Exhibitions like this are usually something they don’t get involved with. But we wanted people to have access to the show without getting the feeling you can get, for example, in some art galleries, where the door has to be unlocked for you before you can even go in. The exhibition is free of charge, but there will be collection boxes on the site, and we hope that people will be generous!”

CUTE

The exhibition features over 100 colour and black-and-white images spanning Freddie’s life, from cute baby photos of the infant Farookh Bulsara just a few months old in Zanzibar to his final, formal portrait, taken by Richard Gray for “Greatest Hits II” in 1991. Each photograph has been enlarged to 20” by 16”, and has been carefully retouched where appropriate, and then finished using the most sophisticated imaging techniques available. In all, the show took over a year to complete.

“The big jump came when we were granted access to Freddie’s parents and his photo albums,” reveals Richard. “Initially, Freddie’s parents weren’t sure whether they wanted to open up their family albums, but once they’d made that decision they were happy for us to continue.” Because ofhis family’s co-operation, fans now have a rare opportunity to glimpse the man, the child even, behind the Mercury persona which Freddie spent much of his life cultivating. But what a persona!

Among the pictures Brian May contributed from his personal collection are a series of stereo photographs of Freddie taken the late 70s and early 80s. “Stereo cameras take two he shots of the same image and turn them into 3-D,” explains Richard. “They’re quite amazing. There are five stereo pictures on show in a special viewer, all of which feature Queen live on stage. Brian would lend his stereo camera to photographers covering the concerts, and there are others by David Burder, an expert in 3-D photography, who also happens to be a friend of Brian’s. He helped me get the shots together.”

Among the other images on show are pictures of Freddie at Ealing Art College in the late 60s, dozens of stills of him in Queen throughout the 70s and 80s, and a handful of Polaroids of the lakefront view at Montreux, which Freddie sent home to his parents. “It’s more the case of telling a story than just a photographic exhibition,” maintains Richard Gray. “There are lots of photos which you'll recognise, but others, probably about 25%, which have never been seen before.”

Another highlight for fans will be the only U.K. showing of the three-foot high plaster model which sculptress Irene Sedliek used for her statue of Freddie, recently erected in Montreux, Switzerland, and which appeared on the cover of “Made In Heaven” album. A smaller version of the statue, measuring about 12” in height, will be included in the exhibition when it travels abroad next year.

After a break for Christmas, the exhibition will move to the National Theatre in Paris for two weeks in January, followed by a season at the Cologne Philharmonie in Germany. Thereafter, it will undertake a two-year world tour, and there are plans for it to return home sometime in the near future, where it will be staged in various provincial British cities. Commemorative tie-in merchandising, including a set of six postcards, a poster, T-shirt, and a 20-page programme, is on sale at the exhibition, all profits from which will go to the Mercury Phoenix Trust.

All photographs reproduced by kind permission of Mercury Songs Ltd.

The Freddie Mercury Photographic Exhibition is open from 10.00am to 1.00pm until 11th December 1996 (excepting Thursday 5th December), at the Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, London SW72AP. Admission is free but by ticket only. 500 tickets are available in advance for each day of the exhibilion. A further 1,000 tickets are available each day to personal callers.

Telephone bookings/enquiries: Royal Albert Hall Box Office, 0171 589 8212, open 9.00am to 9.00pm every day.

Photo captions:

• Farookh Bulsara pictured at home in Zanzibar in spring 1947, as captured by a local Indian photographer.

• LEFT The young Freddie Mercury, snapped by his father in the family’s back garden in Zanzibar. He’s dressed for a blessing ceremony at a fire-temple, as a birthday celebration.

• ABOVE Freddie and his sister Kashmira, again photographed by their father, in the Indian village of Bulsar, from which the family took its name.

• The Hectics, Freddie’s first rock’n’roll group, at St. Peter’s School, Panchgani, India in the late 50s.

• ABOVE A Little Richard impression from Freddie and the Hectics. That’s the fledgling Mr. Mercury at the piano, of course.

• BELOW Young Freddie Bulsara and his St. Peter’s School classmates in the original “Bicycle Race” from the late Fifties.

• Freddie live on stage in America, during 1980 — playing up to drummer Roger Taylor while his audience watches adoringly.

• ABOVE Backstage during the South American tour, Freddie experiments with an acoustic 12-string.

• RIGHT Queen in the enormous Estadio Municipal at Mar Del Plata, in Argentina, during their 1981 South American tour.

• ABOVE An armed security guard greets Queen as they arrive via helicopter in Argentina in 1981. Within months, the Falklands War had broken out.

• BELOW Freddie and Queen enjoying the company of Argentina’s armed police motorcycle escort!

• LEFT A still from the unforgettable 1984 video for the “Radio Ga Ga” single.

• RIGHT Another video still, as Freddie catches up with the hoovering on the set of “l Want To Break Free”.

• BELOW Freddie in full flight during the band’s 1982 U.S. tour.

• LEFT The 1987 version of Freddie’s peacock suit first seen in “It’s A Hard Life” — an inspiration for Paul Weller’s last single, perhaps?

• ABOVE A candid portrait from Freddie's final years, used to promote Queen’s 1990 album, “Innuendo”.

• BELOW An official portrait for Freddie’s duet with Montserrat Caballe in 1988.

#queen #queen band #roger taylor #freddie mercury #brian may #john deacon #montserrat caballe #queen scans #queencuttings.com #record collector december 1996

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alainas-sims · 2 years

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17: The Horse Girl

Lydia Fazekas (she/her) / sophomore / 16 / bisexual / Hungarian-, Czech- and Slovak-American / Friend of the Animals / Loves the Outdoors & Outgoing / busy with equestrian classes every weekend, her favorite horse is a Pinto named Destiny

“I wanna touch the earth, / I want to break it in my hands, / I want to grow something wild and unruly. / I want to sleep on the hard ground, / In the comfort of your arms, / On a pillow of bluebonnets / And a blanket made of stars...”

18: The Teacher’s Pet

Isaac Copeland (he/him) / junior / 17 / heterosexual / African- and English-American / Nerd Brain / Genius & Good / Maybe it’s because his dad is a widely-admired teacher, or he’s just really charming, but Isaac is every teacher’s favorite student & also on the debate team

“I don’t claim to be an ‘A’ student, / But I’m trying to be, / For maybe by being an ‘A’ student, baby, / I could win your love for me...”

19: The Influencer

Samira Qasim (she/her) / junior / 17 / heterosexual / Lebanese- and Syrian-American / World-Famous Celebrity / Self-Absorbed & Outgoing / runs a modest + plus-size fashion account on Tiktok and Instagram & everyone asks her for makeup tips

“If he don’t love you anymore, / Then walk your fine ass out the door... / I do my hair toss, check my nails, / Baby, how you feeling? / Feeling good as hell!”

20: The Artist

Nathan “Nate” Sokolsky (he/they) / senior / 18 / bisexual / Russian-Jewish-American / Painter Extraordinaire / Art Lover & Loner / multi-talented but hates when people ask him to draw them & will defend modern/abstract art to the death

“One second I’m a Koons fan, / Suddenly the Koons is me, / Pop culture was in art, / Now art’s in pop culture, in me...”

#teen-a-day #ts4 teen #ts4 high school #teen a day challenge #teen lookbook #ts4 cas challenge #ts4 cas #ts4 teenagers #mine: teenaday #i try so hard to make them look like actual teens but some of them look older oh well

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kolajmag · 8 months

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There is a new issue of Kolaj Magazine!

Kolaj is a quarterly, printed, 10"x8" art magazine featuring reviews and surveys of contemporary collage. The magazine takes an international perspective on collage as a medium, a genre, a community, and a 21st century art movement.

SUBSCRIBE OR ORDER A COPY

INSIDE THE ISSUE

In On attrape bien les followers avec des likes (We Are Good at Catching Followers with Likes), this issue’s cover image, a tiny man watches a boy who watches a man holding a sign with an Instagram like on it. Two women gaze from a distance. A sign in the back says, “Believe Me”. The collage is a commentary on how social media fights for our attention, devotion, and patronage. A portfolio of SLip‘s collage appears in the issue.

In the issue editorial, Ric Kasini Kadour asks what happens when a work of art becomes detached from the artist, orphaned, unidentified? “Lost Collages” considers those artworks found in attics and thrift shops, divorced from their maker.

In the issue’s round up of News & Notes, we report on Canadian collage artist Rhonda Barrett who opened Cuts & Paste Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia in January 2023 and Alicia Saadi‘s billboard installation in New Brunswick, New Jersey. (Saadi recently took part in Kolaj Institute’s Collage as Street Art Residency.)

In “The Abbondanza of Order & Chaos,” Austin, Texas collage artist Lance Letscher shares his idea of good art: “Not to fall into a cliché, but if the work transcends itself, it becomes something bigger or more complex, or more intricate, or more interesting or more curiosity provoking, then it’s more than the sum of its parts: it’s a successful piece of artwork.” Check out or interview with this legend.

“I came to poetry by accident…Which brought me to collage,” writes Kim Triedman in “The Poetics of Collage.” The Massachusetts artist and award-winning author recalls her journey and how poetry and collage mingle in her practice.

Anna Rémuzon explores the subtle, vibrant meeting of Expressionism, Surrealism & Pop Culture in the artwork of Czech artist Tomáš Jetela in “A Rare Hallucination of Reality…Defragmented.” Rémuzon writes, “The characters are fragmented, detached pieces. The faces, the articulated bodies, the accessories—each element has its own origin, its own identity. Jetela ‘glues’ them together in his composition, which creates a new, mutant form of humanity.”

Steven Specht, Ph.D., NCS picks up on Mark Vargo’s article about AI art that appeared in the previous issue in “Art, artifacts, & authenticity: The Problem of De-coupling Process from Product.” He writes, “As a medium, collage lends itself to being mimicked by computer generative algorithms. But I would argue that any generative AI process represents nothing close to the authentic experiences that Kyle [Riecker], or I, or any other collage artist experiences in the process of creating art—even if the process itself is chaotic.”

“The Art of Joy” reports on The University of Colorado Collecting of Frances Joy Bradbury’s COVID-19 project. The artist worked with curator Tyler Alpern, a longtime artist friend, to turn the collection into a book which presents a sample of the collages the artist made every day during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021.

Evelyn Rapin shows us ekphrasis in reverse in “The Secret Life of Plants.” She writes, “Experimentation, chance and accident are huge elements to be embraced in collage assembly.”

In “Southern Axis,” Ric Kasini Kadour writes, “History is always approached on an axis, a through line that guides the narrative. Art History is no different. Traditionally, art history is viewed through an academic lens looking at the evolution of painting and sculpture. A premise of Kolaj Magazine and Institute is that when we turn the axis of art history to collage, the traditional canon opens up to greater diversity.” Kadour reviews the 20th Anniversary Exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art with an eye to how collage challenges our view of the art history canon.

SUBSCRIBE OR ORDER A COPY

Kolaj 38 is sent automatically to members of the Silver Scissors & Golden Glue Societies.

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