#playing it for the first time really was a transcendental experience

[douglas-rain]

Top Five Douglas Rain Recommendations From Yours Truly

You want to see more of Douglas Rain, but you're not sure where to start? Well, do I have the thing for you! As the internet's most preeminent Douglas Rain expert (except for Gerry Flahive I guess, but he's kind of slow at answering emails and more focused on other stuff these days. If he wants to reclaim the title, he can meet me in the parking lot <3), I've made you a handy little list of some of my personal favourite performances by DR that I think you should see and/or hear!

And by 'little' I mean 'I got way too into this, so it's pretty long now'. I put it under a cut; you're welcome.

In the interest of fairness, I've chosen one performance from each of his fields of work (namely: ON STAGE, RADIO WORK, DOCUMENTARY NARRATION, TELEVISION and FILM). Please know, however, that I can give reviews of basically everything in the masterpost, so if you're interested in hearing about any of them, feel free to shoot me an ask!

Without further ado, let's get into it...

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ON STAGE: Henry V (1966)

Okay, this one's teeeechnically a TV movie, but it's adapted from Stratford's staged production, so I'm counting it. It's also a rare treat in that we get to see DR in colour! (Everybody say THANK YOU to David Rain, his son, for bullying the Festival into restoring this production and adding it to their online catalogue. I owe him my life.)

This is one of Shakespeare's histories, part of the Henriad (aka the collection of plays about the accomplishments of various English kings). Henry V, the main guy in this one, is actually the crowned version of Prince Hal from both parts of Henry IV, a role that DR had played previously at Stratford, so this is a fun bit of character continuity for him! The play centres around the king's invasion of France, with a lot of ruminating on hope and despair and duty and bravery. Harry - as he is affectionately referred to on occasion - is really going through it, and DR portrays him with such emotional intensity. He's proud, he's fierce, he's clever, he's a BITCH and I like him SO MUCH.

The book has been edited down slightly to fit into a two hour runtime for television, but beyond a few... very funny jumpcuts, it's not really noticeable at all. And while the sets are kept mostly simple, the costumes are gorgeous. I went in not expecting much (a mistake I keep making when approaching Shakespeare plays, for some reason lol), and was thoroughly entertained the whole way through!

It also contains the transcendentally funny line, "Tennis balls, my liege!" because Shakespeare was the most hysterical motherfucker on planet Earth. It makes sense in context, I promise.

Can be found on Stratfest@Home, the online streaming service of the Stratford Festival (there's a 7-day free trial period if you sign up). You may also check my masterpost of performances for a possible alternative, but shhh.

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RADIO WORK: Fifth Business (1980)

I love this one; it's literally so fucking funny. This radio play is a dramatisation of the 1970 novel of the same name by Robertson Davies. Fifth Business recounts the life story of Dunstable "Dunstan" Ramsay, from his boyhood in an idyllic (on the surface only) Canadian village to his experiences in the First World War, his career as a teacher and all the loves and complications he runs into, and the formative experiences peppering his life where he's never quite the main character. He is instead 'fifth business' - neither hero nor villain, but still integral to resolving the play's plot. Ramsay is clever, sarcastic and a goddamn weirdo who's obsessed with saints for non-religious reasons. He dodged a snowball as a kid and the consequences of that haunt him throughout the entire book.

The radio drama features a whole cast of actors, including of course DR as the protagonist (who also narrates everything btw), doing an absolutely delightful job. Fellow Stratford actress Martha Henry, who also happened to be his wife at the time, is in it too!

The entire drama is delightful, honestly. I liveblogged my experience listening to it for the first time, and man there is some wild shit happening in this novel. The entire things is about three and a half hours, but it really doesn't feel that long.

Can be found (in eight parts) on YouTube or on Archive.org. (Or in a junkbox on a sidewalk in Toronto. I'm still baffled by that.)

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DOCUMENTARY NARRATION: Universe (1960)

A classic. Documentaries make up a sizeable chunk of the masterpost (thanks to the NFB website and archive channels on YouTube), so there were more options in this category than in any of the others. But I decided to go with this particular gem of a documentary.

It's about - who would have guessed - the universe, featuring the most advanced scientific knowledge of planets and stars at the time. The special effects are also quite impressive - if you move around Space Odyssey circles, you may have heard that the visuals of this documentary were a major inspiration for 2001. Also, DR's narration in Universe is what brought him to Stanley Kubrick's attention. You can probably guess how that ended. (Gerry Flahive has some articles about the whole thing if you don't.)

Anyway, Universe is a beautiful and meditative look at our galaxy and the many things it contains, and DR's narration is absolutely lovely. It clocks in at just under half an hour, so not that big of a time commitment either.

Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.

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TELEVISION: William Lyon Mackenzie: A Friend To His Country (1961)

It's so hard to find old Canadian TV shows anywhere online and I'm forever bitter about it. Our options here are incredibly limited as a result, so you're just going to have to accept that I'm recommending you a historical short film from 1961, alright? This is as difficult for me as it is for you.

Unsurprisingly, this movie is about William Lyon Mackenzie, who was... *checks Wikipedia* "a Scottish Canadian-American journalist and politician." Yes, DR is doing a Scottish accent in this role. Yes, I adore it. I know very little about Canadian history, so I can't exactly speak to the film's accuracy, but I found it charming and DR is doing a very good job. Most of the half hour runtime is spent on Mackenzie's various political struggles (some sort of failed revolution, I gather, followed by exile in the United States and some jailtime) and him trying to protect his family. His wife is played by Canadian actress Kate Reid in this movie, which I personally find very funny for... reasons. IYKYK.

Can be found on YouTube or on the NFB website.

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FILM: OEDIPUS REX (1957)

I'm sort of cheating again, but the only other options in this category that I have access to are the two Space Odyssey movies, and they seemed like too basic of a choice. So have some more drama instead! This is also a filmed version of one of Stratford's plays, but released in theatres this time.

Oedipus Rex is a breezy 87 minutes and adapts the English translation by Yeats of the classic Greek tragedy by Sophocles, with a little added prologue to set the scene. It was directed by Tyrone Guthrie, who you might remember as the Big Man from The Stratford Adventure. Or from the fact that he was a pretty famous theatre guy. If you need a refresher on your Greek myths: Oedipus was the guy who was prophesised to kill his father and marry his mother. He got done dirty by Freud somewhere down the line.

DR plays the role of the Messenger, a minor part who recounts some of the most famous plot points of the tragedy of Oedipus, which they couldn't show onscreen/onstage. Granted, he's only in this one for like five minutes, but he really rocks up to crash the party wearing the coolest outfit in the entire show. And yes, everyone in this production is wearing Greek theatre masks, so you can't see his face. You get to hear his voice though - and watch his captivating body language!

Can be found on YouTube. Or you can probably buy it on DVD if you really want to; idk, I'm not the boss of you. (I've also clipped his scene if you really, really don't want to watch the whole play. I get it's a big ask. Really beautiful production though, seriously!)

#douglas rain #stratford festival #national film board of canada #hal 9000 #2001 a space odyssey #(this is me loudly going PSPSPSPSPSPSPSPSPS)

[thisaintascenereviews]

Childish Gambino - Atavista

I’ve made it no secret that I love Donald Glover, but ever since I saw Glover as Troy Barnes on Community in 2009, I knew that he was destined for greatness. Around the same time, Glover was doing a few other things: he was working on a sketch comedy YouTube channel, writing for 30 Rock, and most importantly, working on a burgeoning music career with the name Childish Gambino. With a name he supposedly got through a Wu-Tang name generator, I didn’t hear anything he put out until 2011 with his debut studio album Camp. I remember being 17 and hearing “Bonfire” for the first time, and my mind was blown from how catchy and clever his music was, especially for someone that hadn’t listened to rap music yet.

My enthusiasm did not share that of a lot of others, because Camp was not a well-received album. It’s gotten a cult following over the last handful of years, but it’s taken people the last decade to really get on board with Donald Glover as a rapper. 2016’s Awaken, My Love was the first time people collectively took his music seriously, but it was too long overdue. Since then, Glover released another mixtape and EP, along with the huge single “This Is America,” but he did quietly release an unfinished and unmastered project called 3.15.20 that a lot of people either didn’t know existed or forgot about completely.

I include myself in that, because I never really listened to it, unfortunately. The album didn’t have any song titles, only time stamps, and because the album wasn’t finished at all, I didn’t listen to it at all. Glover has said that he only released the album because he thought everyone was going to die, and understandably so. Recently he randomly announced that he was releasing a finished version of the album, only to surprisingly drop it on Sunday, May 13th. I was absolutely thrilled, because I’ve been wanting to hear a finished version of this album for years, now entitled Atavista.

Adding the title track and another “new” song, the fan favorite “Human Sacrifice” from 2018/2019, and removing a couple of songs (as well as adding some new guest features on the preexisting songs), the new album is here, so how is it? As I said, I never got into the original version, but if you’re discovering this for the first time, like a lot of people are, this is almost a transcendental experience. Atavista is one of the best albums of the year, if not one of the best of the 2020s so far. Hearing the finished version of this record has been an absolute treat, because it’s one of my favorite Childish Gambino records, and it may be one of his best.

This record both invokes some new ideas for Glover and a lot of subtle callbacks to his work throughout the last 15 years. It mainly has a funk, soul, and R&B sound akin to his last couple of projects, but there are moments where Glover raps and moves into some psychedelic and experimental stuff from Because The Internet. This album reminds me a lot of a mix between Prince, Michael Jackson, and an unfortunate reference, Kanye West. Make no mistake, I’m talking about Kanye circa 2004, not currently Kanye, but it’s also more so in his use of retro-leaning soul, funk, and R&B with modern textures.

Atavista has the interesting quality of where every song sounds pretty similar, but they’ve also got their own identities at the same time. The hooks on this record are quite nice, and Glover is the best vocally he’s ever sounded. This record is wonderful, and easily worth hearing if you’re a fan, or you want a catchy R&B / hip-hop record. I can see myself playing this a ton during the summer, because this is some perfect summer music. It’s also just one of my favorite albums of the year so far, and I can see it being awfully high on the list come December.

#childish gambino #Atavista #camp #because the internet #awaken my love #this is America #rap #hip hop #donald glover #to be hunted #little foot big foot #pop

[harrisonarchive]

George Harrison during the filming of Magical Mystery Tour in Plymouth on September 12, 1967; photographer unnamed (probably David Redfern).

“Reaching a blissful state is the most important thing, but I’ve still got to do a job, being a Beatle.“ - George Harrison, The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968)

“The way George is going he will be flying on a magic carpet by the time he is 40. I am here [in Rishikesh in 1968] to find out what kind of role I am now to play. I would like to know how far I can progress with it. George is a few inches ahead of us.” - John Lennon, Daily Mirror, February 19, 1968

“Two years ago, when George first started experimenting with Indian music, he reached a point where he nearly quit the Beatles. He yearned for the new life that was awaiting him in India. He told me: ‘I felt I wanted to walk out of my home that day and take a one-way ticket to Calcutta. I would have even left Patti [sic - Pattie] behind in that moment and all I would have taken would have been my sitar.'” - Don Short, Daily Mirror, February 19, 1968

“We were all interested in it [Indian culture] — but for George it was a direction.” - Paul McCartney, The Beatles Anthology (2000)

“I was looking for something but wasn’t really sure what it was. Then I saw an ad for meditation classes […]. I told George what I had been doing and he was quite interested. […] George was always a reluctant famous person, and I think when he went to India and understood a little bit about Indian philosophy and spirituality, I think he thought he might be able to find out why he was chosen to be famous. It was always confusing to him, a boy from Liverpool being able to play the guitar, suddenly, well not suddenly, but quite quickly becoming world famous. It was difficult to come to terms with that for him, and he thought there could possibly be an answer, and if it was going to be anywhere it was going to be in the East.” - Pattie Boyd, British Beatles Fan Club special edition magazine, 2011 (x)

"In February 1967 [Pattie] became a member of the Spiritual Regeneration Movement — on her own, not with George. 'I’d been trying to teach myself meditation from books, but only really half doing it. One day a girl friend told me about transcendental meditation. I went along with her to a lecture given at the Caxton Hall. Maharishi himself wasn’t there. It was just someone else talking about his work. I joined the movement, but I found the lecture very dull and all rather obvious. 'But I got all the movement’s literature from them so I knew all about their summer conference at Bangor and what it was all about. I said yes, long before George and the others heard about it. I’d booked up weeks before.' George, in the meantime, was reading book after book. When he’d inwardly digested bits of them, he’d pass them on in little globules to Paul, John, and Ringo when they met during work on Sergeant Pepper. They were all very excited. It was impossible to speak to any of them at this time without their launching into a long spiritual diatribe. Most of it had been picked up from George, although they soon began to read for themselves. [...] Pattie is involved in all things Indian, but George, as with everything he has always taken up, does it almost with a fanaticism. He used to practice the guitar till fingers bled. Now he sometimes plays the sitar all day long. When he’s not doing that, he is reading book after book on religion. He’s not cranky about it. As he goes on and learns more, he becomes more humble and more light-hearted about it. He doesn’t preach as much, although there is always the danger when is being quoted of appearing more fanatical than he is. Paul and John especially would be the first to cut down his pretensions or to mock his illusions if there had been any. Even from the first, before Maharishi came along, as George was discovering Buddhism and Yogi for himself, they were as fascinated to hear what he’d found as he was." - The Beatles: The Authorized Biography (1968)

"Presumably John and Paul did see hidden things in George, right from the beginning, apart from his excellent guitar playing. They were proud of him, in a big brotherly way, for being so good on the guitar, and by 1967 their pride had turned to admiration, not just for the excellent songs he now composed, but for being so knowledgeable about Indian music and culture, going to such trouble to teach himself the sitar. For the first time in his life, he had become a leader, doing it by example, not in any bossy, domineering way." - Hunter Davies, from the introduction to the 2002 edition of The Beatles: The Authorized Biography

#The Beatles #George Harrison #Paul McCartney #John Lennon #Ringo Starr #Pattie Boyd #et al #quote #quotes by George #quotes about George #Harrison spirituality #George and Paul #George and John #George and Ringo #george and pattie #1967 #1960s #fits queue like a glove

[powerofmettatonneo]

YouTube Videos that make you FEEL Things

So I spend an unhealthy amount of time on YT. It is my main source of entertainment, and like any form of art, it often makes me feel emotions. Most of the time, they just make me feel simple things like a dumb Reddit video making me forcibly exhale at a meme. Occasionally, I find a video that makes me feel more complex emotions, like an incredible piece of animation or a really good song. Rarely, however, I find a video that makes me FEEL Things, that reshapes how I view certain aspects of the world, and I want to talk about these videos and explore how they make me feel. I guess this is a new series of mine or something, and to inaugurate it, I'm going to be talking about a video by @patricia-taxxon , one of my main inspirations for doing this.

The video in question is a video essay called "On the Ethics of Boinking Animal People". If the title of the video is off-putting to you, don't worry, it was for me too, although for potentially quite different reasons. I am, myself, a furry, and quite the degenerate one at that. Because of this, I actually avoided the video for around a month after first being recommended it due to concern over how judgemental videos with titles like that tend to be, but I really shouldn't have been. I had watched quite a few videos by Patricia before, and I should've known how different her views on this topic would be after watching her also outstanding video "Art, Furries, God". It was after watching that video for the third time that I finally bit the bullet and watched the main topic of this post when it showed up in the sidebar, and man, it was a downright transcendental experience, especially since I was watching it on Christmas Eve of all days.

Despite the title, I'd characterize most of the video as being about the philosophy of being a furry, with the sexual ethics simply being the framing device and (as the creator herself puts it) clickbait. The first half didn't really make me feel anything other than interest and mild amusement, but the second half absolutely destroyed me. I am autistic, and there is literally an entire section devoted to "the autistic" and how similar the interactions between furry/anthro/non-human/whatever the fuck you call them characters and humans are to autistic and allistic interactions, and like, that's one of the major themes of my writing. What Measure is a Non-Human? (my Pokemon fanfiction) is literally an allegory for the disability rights movement in general and the autism rights movement in particular. Her description of Lieutenant Data from Star Trek felt like a gut punch because that's literally me. However, if that was all, I wouldn't be writing this post right now. This video would fall into the category of "feeling complex emotions" instead of "reshaping how I view certain aspects of the world". That categorization comes from the next segment: Doggy Interlude.

In this section, Patricia talks about what it's like being a dog. To quote directly from the video for context:

"I identify as a dog. I don't care if you're the kind of person who doesn't really go along with role play, calling me a human being is misgendering me."

Now, I do not identify as an animal myself, but as she was describing how she wants to be treated, I finally "got it", so to speak. To quote someone in the comments section:

"I've always tried to be respectful of my friends who identify as nonhumans, but it never really... clicked, for me. I guess it's not something I've experienced. This video honestly helped me understand the idea way better, so thanks!"

The combination of this realization and the description of the sensory aspects of being a furry from earlier in the video broke my fucking brain. I felt emotions in that moment that I don't think I've ever felt before. I made a comment on the video but I guess I used one too many swears because YouTube wouldn't let me post it, so I'll try to paraphrase the relevant parts here: This video makes me want to bite something and shake it so viciously it gives me whiplash (I actually was biting my hand at this point, which is not something I usually do), it makes the fur on my back raise, it makes my ears flatten against my skull and then dramatically pop back up. The shear visceral desire I felt to be able to do those things was simultaneously surprising and overwhelming. I still don't necessarily identify as a non-human, but holy fuck if there was a procedure to turn me into a foxboy I would straight up commit murder to get it.

The final section of the video is titled "Transcendental Furriness", and this had the most straightforward relatability. I also relate to the themes of Nascent, and her description of her fantasy involving meeting Shoukichi is my exact type of ideal romance. The phrase "I'd say the real weirdos are the one who managed to make it through life without being made to feel inhuman in some way shape or form" made me tear up.

All that being said, I highly recommend this video. There are so many parts I agree with that listing them all would be committing plagiarism. This is why I didn't actually address the titular question in my post, because I have nothing I feel that I could add to it. However, I would also like to say that agreeing with most of it doesn't mean I agree with all of it. I found most of the symbolism section to outright contradict my personal aesthetic preferences, but that's simply a harmless difference in opinion. The conflation of "human" and "person" upset me as an advocate for the personhood of certain animals, but I can recognize it as a fairly harmless semantic difference. I don't bring these up as hate or even really as criticisms, but to show that you don't have to completely agree with a piece of art to be profoundly affected by it.

#youtube #essay #media criticism #patricia taxxon #furry #furry philosophy #autism

[pontiobangor]

CWMWL TYSTION III / EMPATHY

Tomos Williams, gives us an insight below to the Cwmwl Tystion project...

Expect a combination of folk and jazz melodies in this original work called Cwmwl Tystion III / Empathy. I’m really looking forward to performing in Pontio with Mared Williams and Eädyth Crawford. Their voices are very powerful, and they give so much of their personality in each song so expect something totally different from them. I am truly excited to share the stage with two of the youngest most creative and powerful voices of Wales.

Melvin Gibbs is a giant on the base. He’s coming over from Brooklyn, New York specifically for this tour, and I can’t quite believe that he has agreed to travel Wales as part of ‘Cwmwl Tystion III / Empathy’. He is a ‘legend’ within the music scene in New York and the wider area. He was a bass guitar player with Henry Rollins’s band back in the 90s when the band played all of Britain’s biggest festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading at the time, but he has also played with the greats of the jazz world such as Ornette Coleman, Bill Frisell, Dave Douglas, and John Zorn.

Now he’s a member of the triad called ‘Harriet Tubman’ – power trio, or avant-rock triad (which includes, guitar, bass, and drums only) and is considered as one of the world’s best bands. This band’s heavy music has been a great influence on me when I started to think about the project ‘Cwmwl Tystion’ and writing new jazz which has strong influences from Welsh history. Therefore, it’s incredible to think that Melvin Gibbs is coming over to join the band and tour Wales. You’ll never have seen or heard a bassist that sounds quite like Melvin – he uses a range of electronic pedals to create a completely unique sound.

Nguyên Lê was born in France but his roots are in Vietnam. He is a ‘monster’ on the guitar and is world-famous. He is known as a ‘world fusion’ guitarist who has combined influences of Vietnam music with rock/electric guitar like Jimi Hendrix. He is also a virtuoso and a miracle. I have seen him live several times – in Brecon Jazz Festival and in London and he’s a unique performer. His solos take you to the heights – “transcendental” as they say. I can’t wait to hear Nguyên accompanying Mared and Eädyth’s voices and then playing solos over Welsh folk melodies. Hearing the combination of Welsh folk music, jazz and world music in his hands will be a very special experience.

Usually, I will be composing new work for Cwmwl Tystion III – “Yr Empathy Suite’ –combining Welsh folk melodies, with jazz and rock, and referring to some events of our history as a nation: The Welsh Not, The Coal Miner’s Strike, Aberfan disaster and the music will respond and reflect on these events. Mark O’Connor will be on the drums and Simon Proffitt’s visual arts will complement each performance.  

This will be the third and the last in my series ‘Cwmwl Tystion’. The first, Cwmwl Tystion / Witness toured back in 2019 – a CD was released from that tour in 2021 and the album was chosen for the ‘Best Welsh Album of the year’s shortlist. Then in 2021 the second chapter Cwmwl Tystion II / Riot! went on tour just before the lockdown period came to an end at the end of 2021. A CD of the music was then released last year and that composement was nominated for Ivor Novello’s composing prise. Therefore, this is the third and last chapter. I feel as if a trilogy is well suited – each band has been completely different for each chapter. Mark O’Connor on the drums and Simon Proffitt but the live visual art has been with me since the beginning, and Eädyth Crawford toured with Cwmwl Tystion II, but other than that the artists within the band change each time – which is very exciting and offers opportunities to work with very special artists such as Melvin Gibbs and Nguyên Lê.

Cwmwl Tystion III / Empathy will open the tour at Pontio, Bangor on Thursday 30 May, 7.30pm. Tickets available now at pontio.co.uk

[jonathankatwhatever]

The number of ideas this process has sparked is intense. Or is that dense? It’s both, sometimes, right? Intensity is more and more is density in that constructed space. Amplitude is more or less of, which if I have this correct maps the ordinal character which orders more or less of, which translates into a mapping which stacks horizontally. Note that integration is obviously then horizontal or vertical because then we’re ordering the count. I just realized I tend to call that cardinal because I’m thinking about or am manipulating infinites which leave marks we can see.

I’ve noticed my writing has become much choppier as I spend more time with a small keyboard. Telegraphic.

Anyway, this strategy of not listening and now I admit barely reading has been working very well. Made me think about Cole Porter: how many people know that he like it in the butt and wrote that into a lyric? They don’t get the joke but they still love the song. The details of its creation, of anything much about Cole’s life, have faded, even though we get fairly regular movie versions of his life. It is such a great story. The problem to me is the movies get lost in the story and miss that it’s about him, not the events of his life. They can never capture the artist at work. They never get his incandescence. And a lot of that is simple familiarity: we imagine him knowing the songs, while the people who knew him saw him make the songs for the first time, knew him before they came out. That’s the experience. I don’t think anyone has ever captured on film the mind of the maker at work and the work. They never even cover how he worked, that he’d play constantly and then take time off to recharge the creative battery.

Here’s one. I heard a friend of Picasso’s talk about his book. He said the friends would entertain Picasso all day, working to find and do things which would interest him, and then he’d take that energy, and he’d paint all night while the others were exhausted. I tend to think it’s more that keeping him interested acted as a distraction so when he’d come to the work again it would have the different perspective generated by the identification shift. It is 1-0-1, focus then away to whatever people can find to amuse him, then focus, and that means a different perspective underneath or within the idealization. That last refers to the 1-0Segment and the grid squares space this generates.

Go into that. I forget how good the work is now that I feel more confident in me and toward you or toward you and in me. I love that this builds to D24. And that is a day. Just take an identity check, with its inherent shifts, and to work that out fully takes D24. Oh, I had a thought about 60 again. Just slid by in the D24 as well: the construction of SBE2. But my question remains: why the mag10? Didn’t we figure out that’s mag10 of a Hexagon, which is SBE2 counting each step in the chains as a bT. And mag10 is SBE3+1, which is really (1+(SBE3)+1) because mag10 goes up and down. The mag10 became notation for a reason, other than it goes up and down. It goes up and down in Attachment, meaning it relates 2T.

Just had a thought that Pi is a view of 2T as well. It’s not new to me, but I’ve been unable to get past the generation of all the potential relations of center to edge. I could always see the point versus rim, so the rim is a ring. That hit me because I’ve been trying to connect the visuals for ring. I got here before but it didn’t stick: this is 1-0-1 where the 0 is the disk. It also maps to points at infinity or to a point at infinity, because that stands for the disappearing character of Pi being transcendental. I love the idea of Pi as the ratio of shrinking and expanding the hole or the object because it disappears at every point. That is if you measure around a unit circle or halfway along an imaginary unit circle, counting by Pi, then you reach almost to where you started, in whatever modularity (including unit 1), with that almost being infinite. To see a point become a larger object is cool.

I just realized it’s after 1AM on 21 Apr 2024. Still not done with the mag10. Went to a place from a time warp: Pleasant Cafe. The decor is 1940’s. Immaculate, but worn. I asked how they keep up the booths: they have an upholster and extra cushions and bottoms, so they rotate them out. I had a Saturday special of prime rib, which I got cooked medium to make what I assumed would be lesser quality meat taste and eat better. It was delicious. Came with a huge, delicious baked potato (in foil, of course), and steamed broccoli in cheese sauce, which looked like a frozen meal. For $20. A whiskey sour was like $9. Debbie had swordfish kebabs and could only eat half. Also very good for like $18. Place was crammed with families. For some, I can see it being about as cheap to eat there as to make a good meal at home.

Ruining my life. How many times have I said that? Remember me trying to get away. That is a perfect example of the kind of obvious error I can make: I knew the lesson was that I can’t un-entangle myself. Or rather, that any movement I make to get away, to get around, to return home cannot work and only entangles me further. I did not recognize when the same thing was happening again because I was in it. Hard to see what swallows you. But to show how the ring works, I now see these tangles create pairings across the barrier and that these pairings can be aligned, which makes us mutual tools. This idea will develop, I’m sure. Rather startling to see the untangling concept take mechanical form. Oh wow, that directly translates into D3-4//4-3: sufficient tangles, sufficient pairings make an object. The step from D4-3 to D3-4 object is then done remotely.

I surrender.

[mars2cieranshippy]

ARTIST - KAZIMIR MALEVICH

I am not going to focus on his black squares or white squares and shapes. But more on his other examples of how abstract can you go with colour, positions of the shape themselves and where they are on the page, learning also that he loves leaving a lot of white space and just allow the shapes and the space to explain something far more to it, rather than going into to much detail.

FACTS ABOUT HIM I FOUND INTERESTING

Malevich was a revolutionary artist who sought to break with traditional artistic forms. He rejected the idea of art as a representation of the external world and instead focused on the expressive power of pure form and color.

Malevich's Suprematism was tied to a utopian vision of a new, spiritually elevated society. He saw art as a means to transform consciousness and society, aligning with the ideals of the Russian Revolution.

Feelings:

Emphasis on Emotion:

Malevich's work aimed to evoke emotion and transcendental experiences rather than depicting specific objects or scenes.

Optimism and Idealism:

Particularly during the early years of the Russian Revolution, Malevich, like many artists of his time, felt a sense of optimism and idealism about the potential for art to contribute to a new social order.

Already finding these few things of the artist I am intrigued and want to know more but visually rather than contextually as I want to see how his artworks really compare to one another overall compare to my own that I am about to do. But also why do they work - They are just shapes, basic shapes that no one as you'd assume would care about, however they rather build and create wonders without even trying just good use of composition and colour ranges that really emphasis something far more at play, than just "a shape".

PICTURES

These are a few of his artworks that specifically caught my eye, how they are used to somewhat give an idea of a scene, or motion of movement, element of how dark, cold, warm, lonely, or positive a location, person can feel with just how the shapes are positioned and what colours are used. Cause one thing I really like about his works is something on the surface looks like someone or a kid just splatted paint or chalk on a page with no thought or control and yet the more you look at it the more your brain pieces together the pieces that it is a location, it is a person, animal. Which really corresponds to what I'm doing with how I can make repeat patterns illusions, basic composition with how the shapes are based and at first your brain sees it as another thing and then it slowly pieces together the puzzle on what it could be or what it is, Like a road, forest etc. Following that element of a Psychedelic dream where at first you have no clue where you are but the more you look the more your mind connects things you are use to seeing with the way the world around you looks and feels.

With this with how kyrstie explained it and I see where she is coming from, just the position of these two shapes really makes your mind go wild with what it could be and how it can be perceived. Like for me I see what is like idk a light coming from the darkness, or a light trying to see into the dark. Or like an overlay of what could be in the darkness. or a tip of a ship, cliff etc Just how so simple these shapes can be and what your brain can come up with just only looking at them.

[dukedebut]

new album every day [02.05.2023]

Feist - Multitudes

the first album drop by Feist in six years, Multitudes is a really fun indie album which plays in the spheres of eccentric and the borderline transcendental. the album feels almost spiritual at times through the lyrics and the atmosphere it creates. it's a magical listening experience - i could not recommend it more highly!

my favourite tracks: In Lightning, I Took All Of My Rings Off, Calling All The Gods

#music #new album every day #feist

[stormyoceans]

I like both aspects: camboy part and angst part, they complement each other very well.

This thought also visited me, because Puen is so focused on every bit of information he can get about Talay, he would recognise all his moles, scars, curves and little imperfections.. But Talay always wear clothes in public, so it'll make things harder for Puen 😂

More seriously, i think i just want to give more power in this aspect to Talay. Let him know Puen first and decide that he wants Puen not just for the sex first. And i think even tho Puen never uses camera, because he's scared Talay would recognise his voice and he decided to never ask if he knows who Puen Pranon is, he would share more about his life (maybe that's irresponsible of him but he can't help himself). And Talay would remember it all because he likes him just as much and wants to know him too.

There would be moment when Talay would turn camera on, but Puen would continue to write and write and write and they would just chat all evening without having sex. For Puen it's only normal, he likes to spend time with Talay so much, but for Talay it's revelation. Maybe this thought would gnaw on him until he sits at the office at his new job (is he working at the same company as Puen?😏) and thinks 'he didn't even asked me to take my shirt off'. And then realizes that most of the time Talay himself is the first one to initiate sexual part.

But your whole paragraph about them meeting and Talay asking if he ever worked with Puen Pranon and Puen not knowing what to do...... GODDDD what a delicious part it would be. I knew you would be the best person to talk about this au with. So, what do you think Puen would answer and how Talay would talk about Puen with Tun? Would he be fanboying? 😂

HAD A SLIGHT TRANSCENDENTAL EXPERIENCE WHERE MY SOUL LEFT MY BODY AND BRIEFLY COMMUNED WITH GOD AT THE THOUGHT OF TALAY BEING THE ONE TO INITIATE SEX MOST OF THE TIME

like!!!! i know i've probably said this way too many times, but it's just so important to me to have talay feeling comfortable enough to let himself actively enjoy sex, and as someone who believes that love and sex have always been very distinct for both him and puen, having the two suddenly collide at the sudden knowledge that talay likes 'tun' as much as he trusts and wants him IS JUST SOOOOOO [CHEF'S KISS] IDK IF IM MAKING ANY SENSE BUT I LOVE IT THANK YOU

also the idea that talay is gonna try to distance himself from puen after realizing who he is not because he thinks puen is in it just for the sex, but because at one point "the enormity of [talay's] desire disgusts [talay's himself]" and he's afraid puen is gonna leave him so he decides to leave puen first (like in episode 7) MAKES ME!!!!!! RABID!!!!!!!

also i've been thinking about it, but im not too sure how that conversation about puen would go ;;;;;;; i feel like they would probably try to be very neutral at first: talay asks 'tun' if he has worked with puen pranon before and puen eventually answers 'yeah, a couple of times. why?', and talay just says that one of his friends is a big fan of him. at this point puen would probably be really torn about asking more questions or just remain blissfully ignorant for his own sanity, and while he's trying to decide what to do he gets another message from talay: 'one time she even made me play an extra in one of his movies just so i could take pictures of him' (like in the first episode of the show)

and puen's heart starts pounding in his chest because that means he actually met 'sea' before, and he tries to ask what movie it was and which part he played but suddenly it's time for talay to start his stream and he doesn't get the chance to do it

#sorry again if it's taking me ages to get back to you ;;;;; #im always so afraid of making them go out of character that i end up overthinking way too much about everything #would love to be confident in the things i post i should try that sometimes #puentalay #m: ask

[sinceileftyoublog]

Andrew Combs Interview: A Journal of Transformation

Photo by Alysse Gafkjen

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Making music didn’t save Andrew Combs, but it helped return him to homeostasis. 

Around Christmas 2020, Combs suffered a mental breakdown that lasted a few weeks. Exactly how long it lasted, nobody knows; time is indeterminate for such a phenomenon, as it’s not like a flip switches and it’s over. But sitting down and forcing himself to write songs, after practicing transcendental meditation, helped Combs transition from a vulnerable period of time. Specifically, at the suggestion of friend and collaborator Jordan Lehning, Combs would write every week and enter the studio on Sunday to record the song he’d finished that week. Combs spent 7 or 8 of these Sundays recording, and he ended up with an album named after the very day that represented this state of reflection, Sundays, out this Friday via Tone Tree.

Due to the unique recording schedule and the nature of the time, Combs knew he wanted to keep things simple and record in mono. During the initial pandemic lockdown, he had already written two songs, and those were the first Combs, Lehning, and drummer Dominic Billet laid down. Eventually, they tracked more songs as Combs wrote them. At the time the recording of Sundays was going on, Lehning was working on a record with Katie Pruitt that was using woodwinds, and eventually, he suggested to Combs that woodwinds would work on a lot of the Sundays songs, adding texture without taking away from the stripped-down lucidity of the material. After Lehning wrote arrangements, he and Combs added contributory woodwinds from Tyler Summers, as well as some lead guitar from Juan Solorzano. It worked, resulting in a record that’s much more subdued and insular-sounding than past Combs albums like Canyons of my Mind or Ideal Man, while still grappling with big ideas. First single “(God)less” is a soulful treatise on humanity and its capacity for good and evil. “We are capable of such a mess / But God still lives on in godlessness,” Combs sings, finding beauty where he’d least expect it. Yes, there are times when he’s close to giving into despair, as on “Mark Of The Man”, where he waxes about human selfishness and labels it “the mark of the man, not the beast.” For the most part, though, Sundays is a record that sees Combs trying to come to terms with better ways to view himself and the world, realistic about ills but not letting them weigh him down. “It’s the most ‘me’ record I’ve ever done,” he told me over the phone a couple months ago.

As Combs gets ready to release Sundays and embark on a tour of the UK and Europe with Billett and multi-instrumentalist Jerry Bernhardt, he’s not quite ready to get back into the same grueling US touring lifestyle pre-COVID. “The COVID experience was a nice time to take a step back,” he said. His U.S. booking agent decided to leave the music industry, and he parted ways with his managers while nothing was happening. Even though he can now play venues throughout the US, while he’s in his home country, Combs prefers to spend time with his kids, paint, play music at home, and work part time. “Honestly, I’m happier than I’ve ever been because I can be home and don’t have to stress about being on the road and being away,” he said. Really, the experience of Sundays shows that the aforementioned homeostasis is not some sort of scheduling normalcy, but a state of mind conducive to observation and creativity.

Read my conversation with Combs below, edited for length and clarity.

Since I Left You: You said this record is “the most ‘me’ record I’ve ever done.” Why do you say that?

Andrew Combs: I think when I first got into music, I was emulating other folks, which is natural and common. I was sort of projecting myself the way I thought other people--the audience, I guess--would appreciate. Not to say there weren’t parts of me [there]. There were. But this record came about so organically and naturally that I couldn’t help but feel it was the most personal and most connected to a piece of music that I’ve ever been a part of.

SILY: It was written during what was a very vulnerable time for all of us--the pandemic lockdowns--but especially for you, as you had a nervous breakdown. I know you were practicing meditation as a result of your struggles. Why did you decide to write songs as a means of working through things? Has that always been what songwriting has done for you?

AC: I don’t know if that has been what songwriting has been to me. Maybe more so recently. I don’t really know why it came about that way other than it was right in front of me and kind of all I knew, trying to navigating through a weird time. When I was younger, I really thought I had to put in the hours every day. [Songwriting’]s become more of a “take it where it’s available” [thing]. Rely on the muse, but also, “There’s a 20-minute period here where my kid is watching TV, just sit down and try to be present and not overthink anything. Try to have fun and write something that feels good.” At our old house, we had a little shed out back, and I was spending a lot of time there painting and being anxious and trying to get through this weird mental breakdown that I had for a few weeks. Those songs came sort of on the heels of the breakdown. I was getting better. I don’t thing I could have written anything while I was having a hard time, but luckily, Jordan Lehning, who I work on the record with, had an idea for me to get into the studio and try something in mono with no reverb or delay on anything, put my voice really high up front and see what happens. I had a couple songs from the year before. We did those right on the heels of that breakdown. I said, “I’m kind of working through this whole situation right now, so if you’ll bear with me, I’ll try to write every week as I come out of this space.” It ended up working. Some didn’t work, but we would go in every Sunday and record what I had worked on during the week. The whole mono recording situation really complemented these songs, because they’re sparse and subtle.

SILY: Over how many Sundays did this recording take place?

AC: I think there were maybe 7 or 8 Sundays. We tried to do every Sunday, but I know a couple weekends we couldn’t meet up. We’d do the basics. Just three people for the most part, myself, Jordan, and Dom Billet who plays drums. We’d play everything, and later on we added woodwinds. [On] a few songs there’s a lead guitar player, Juan Solorzano. He played steel on one song, too.

SILY: You had worked with Jordan and Dom a lot before. How important was it coming out of this mental state and reflecting on it to work with people you had a trusting working relationship with beforehand?

AC: There’s no way I could have done it without [them]. They’re two of my best buddies. I haven’t even thought about that, but you posing that question, A, it wouldn’t have been fun, but B, we wouldn’t have gotten much good out of it.

SILY: Sonically, what stands out to me in comparison to your past material is the woodwinds. Was there a moment you or somebody decided that would fit on a lot of these songs?

AC: In 2020, when the pandemic started, I was really jazzed about making stuff. I wrote a bunch of songs and put out this EP I recorded in my shed. For the rest of the year, I basically didn’t write anything. I wrote two songs. So when 2021 came around, I had those two songs I was comfortable with. When we did the two songs, it felt really good, and Jordan had this other session with Katie Pruitt where they were putting woodwinds on the song. He said, “I could just piggyback with this guy and have him put woodwinds on yours.” At this point, we’re just having fun, drinking coffee and recording. He sent the tracks back with the woodwinds, and that’s when it really clicked. I was going on a walk--I would go on three-hour-long walks every day--and I just kept listening to them over and over again. I called him and Dom and said it was something I wanted to pursue. I didn’t have any money, but we weren’t really doing anything. Jordan is a great writer, producer, and engineer, but where he really shines is in string, horn, and woodwind arrangements. There were times I would hum something I felt like would be a good piece of music for the woodwinds to do, but he wrote all of those parts. 

SILY: Which song or songs were the first two you finished?

AC: “Anna Please” and “The Ship”. It kind of makes sense. [With] “Adeline”, those three songs are really about trying to center yourself.

SILY: I wouldn’t really peg “Anna Please” and “The Ship” as tracks where the woodwinds stood out.

AC: On “Anna Please”, they stand out to me just because they’re complementary and let the chorus do its part. There’s this pad of woodwinds under it. I’m super thrilled about it. It works with the whole dry/mono thing. We thought about strings, but it felt too lush.

SILY: Why did you choose to release “(God)less” as the first single?

AC: It sort of felt like a good introduction to the record and to where my brain was at and where I felt the world was at. I’m constantly amazed by our divisiveness and lack of empathy for other people. I feel like I’m still holding out with hope and love for the world, and I feel like it’s still there, but I just wanted to talk about [it].

SILY: When you sing, “Red is the color of blood and love,” on “Anna Please”, I feel like it gets at the same idea.

AC: That’s interesting. I feel like that song is solely about a character in a movie, but that’s cool it also applies to the rest of the record.

SILY: What character is that song about?

AC: The caretaker Anna in Ingmar Bergman’s Cries and Whispers.

SILY: Are you a Bergman fan?

AC: Bigtime, yeah. Jordan got me into Bergman. Over the pandemic, I watched a lot of his films. 

SILY: How did the video for “(God)less” come about?

AC: I’m working with this guy Austin Leih. He’s a young guy from Dallas, but I met him when he was at film school in Austin at UT. He’s 24 and is just so intelligent and charismatic. We got along really well. He did a last-minute video for me for “Dry Eyes” from my last record. We hit it off, and I decided I wanted him to do all the videos for this record, and I wanted them all to be in black and white. He had just moved from L.A. to Asheville under unfortunate circumstances, and he couldn’t really get to Nashville. He had this idea about diving under the earth. I said, “Okay, we’re running out of time, but I love it.” [laughs] He built that whole set and filmed everything at his parents’ house in Asheville. He’s a phenomenal dude. Loves Bergman. Cool to talk about stuff with. But the “(God)less” idea is diving into the fertile earth. It’s all good down there.

SILY: A lot of this record is centered around where to find goodness, but also the good and bad things people are capable of. I was struck by the line on “I See Me”, when you sing, “The older and wiser build their castles / Big and strong and tall / But the children, they all laugh with joy / When their castles fall.” I don’t know if you’re talking about two distinct sides here, but I wanted to ask you where you thought you stand.

AC: I’m around my kids all the time, and I’d like to be like them. I’m constantly in awe of their ability to navigate through anything awkward, strange, or sad, and how they can bounce back, how their imagination is limitless. I’d like to think I subscribe to that side of the coin. I also think as I get older I find myself being more conservative in certain ways. Not politically, but, when I sing, “Build your castle strong and tall,” the need for structure and form. But I think the best art and creativity comes from childlike senses where you just let it go.

SILY: What’s the inspiration behind the track “Drivel to a Dream”, and the idea behind the line, “Find a way to rid of everything / Then shapes will fade from drivel to a dream”? What is that song referring to?

AC: Meditation. Letting things go.

SILY: Like getting rid of dead weight?

AC: Yes. “Drivel to a Dream” and “I See Me” are companion pieces, not only melodically. [The former] feels like more of the experience of trying and figuring out how to meditate, and “I See Me” is the end result of figuring out what good can come from [meditation.]

SILY: Was the instrumentation on “Shall We Go” meant to sound old timey, or even like Scottish folk?

AC: [laughs] I wanted to write a song that was one note. Maybe it’s hard just for me, maybe it’s hard for everyone, but it ended up sounding like a sea shanty. Jordan really wanted to do the reed organ. We originally had just a piano. It just worked out that way. I feel like it’s a nice palate cleanser on the end. Like the ending of a movie.

SILY: Overall, what’s the inspiration behind the sequencing of the record?

AC: I wanted “(God)less” first because I felt like it was a good introduction. I don’t really practice getting too philosophical about track listing. I basically want [it to] flow correctly, and I want to decide the first side on the side B if it’s going to be vinyl. I have a tendency to not want a slow song there. “Anna Please” felt like it chugged and moved after “(God)less”. I wanted “I See Me” and “Drivel to a Dream” to be next to each other because they’re companion pieces. But on the whole, there wasn’t a storyline. I wanted it to feel right for me.

SILY: What’s the story behind the cover art?

AC: It’s just an idea I had of a reflection in the mirror. Sort of cliché, I guess. But it felt right with this whole record being a journal entry or observation on transformation and coming out of a strange place. I just wanted everything to be super simple: album layout, front cover, videos. The whole record felt like a black and white short film. I wanted everything to correspond to that.

SILY: You covered “High and Dry” for a compilation by 3Sirens Music Group. Are you a big Radiohead fan?

AC: Yeah. When I first got into recording music in high school, Radiohead was pretty much all I listened to and wanted to be like. I’ve gone through phases here and there. I’ve really been digging The Smile’s record. They’re coming to the Ryman, but tickets went really fast, and now they’re really expensive. I’ve never seen Radiohead live. I’ve seen every YouTube video. My wife has [seen Radiohead live]; she says it’s a religious experience.

SILY: I don’t know if I would have thought this if I hadn’t heard your cover, but on the song “Truth and Love” from Sundays, the keyboard hue almost sounds like something from Amnesiac.

AC: Totally. That song gave us the hardest time. I wrote a bass [line]. We couldn’t figure out what to play. But that was the direction we went in the end. It felt like it could be a Radiohead kind of song.

SILY: Are you finding it a creatively rewarding experience adapting these songs to a live setting?

AC: I’m excited. Initially, I was like, “How am I gonna do all these woodwinds?” But at the end of the day, I’m a firm believer in all the arrangements, lyrics, and structures. I’m not worried about them translating if slightly or even vastly different. I think it will be a fun way to keep things fresh.

SILY: Are you always working on new songs? Anything else next for you in the short or long term?

AC: I’m recording with Dom. We’ve been fiddling around. I’d like to make an EP with him. I have little sprinkles of seeds for the next full-length in my brain, but I don’t even know how to articulate it yet. I’d like to explore doing some more stuff with film and music. I don’t know if it would be a short film or an art installation that incorporated video and music, but I’ve been thinking about that a little bit, too.

SILY: Anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading that’s caught your attention?

AC: The Smile record. It’s always hard for me to think of it on the top of my head. Lots of Raffi. [laughs] Francis Bebey’s Mwana O. A lot of his songs are singalong-able. My kids can listen to it. I work three days a week at a warehouse job, so I’m always listening to books. I was really blown away by the Richard Powers book Bewilderment. It left me weeping at work. I’ve been getting into George Saunders. I just read Tenth of December. I still haven’t read Lincoln in the Bardo. I’ve been meaning to do that. My Year of Meats by Ruth Ozeki. I went to a Jesuit high school, and we were required to read these sci fi books by Mary Doria Russell about a Jesuit mission to another planet, The Sparrow and Children of God. I’ve been rereading those.

Tour dates:

8/25: Railway Inn, Winchester, UK 8/26: Mid Sussex Americana Festival 2022, Hassocks, UK 8/27: The Long Road Festival 2022, Bottesford, UK 8/28: Cluny 2, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK 8/30: St Lawrence's Church Biddulph, Stoke-on-trent, UK 8/31: The Grace, London, UK 9/1: The Angel Microbrewery, Nottingham, UK 9/3: Café "De Amer", Amen, Netherlands  9/4: Zentrum Altenberg, Oberhausen, Germany 9/6: Qbus Club, Leiden, Netherlands 9/7: Valve Records Studio, Solingen, Germany 9/8: Poppodium Metropool, Hengelo, Netherlands 9/10: NOCHTWACHE, Hamburg, Germany 9/12: El Lokal, Zurich, Switzerland 9/13: Café V lese, Praha, Czech Republic 9/14: TheaterBar Heppel & Ettlich, Munich, Germany 9/16: Privatclub, Berlin, Germany 9/17: Nashville Nights International Songwriters Festival 2022, Odense, Denmark

#interviews #andrew combs #alysse gafkjen #tone tree #railway inn #the long road festival #cluny 2 #St Lawrence's Church Biddulph #the grace #the angel microbrewery #Café De Amer #zentrum altenberg #Qbus Club #Valve Records Studio #poppodium metropool #nochtwache #el lokal #café v lese #TheaterBar Heppel & Ettlich #privatclub #Nashville Nights International Songwriters Festival #sundays #jordan lehning #tone tree music #Dominic Billet #katie pruitt #tyler summers #juan solorzano #canyons of my mind #ideal man

[eclectic-soulss]

IS THE EGO REALLY THE PROBLEM? -IDENTITY AND EGO IDENTIFICATION AS A TOOL.

I think we all know what defines identity and therefore ego, to put it simply; ego refers to the way in which we see ourselves. Is the idea of I, whom you believe yourself to be, but it doesn’t stop there. Identity and ego also encompasses the sum of all the beliefs you hold about yourself, your personality, your abilities, your worth, and your value. Your place in the world, relationships, work, and just about everything that makes up a typical human life.

Identifying yourself only by those qualities is when problems can begin to arise. Depending whether the beliefs that frame your identity are positive or negative, or more precisely useful or not. They have the capacity to either become an ally or an enemy.

The problem with ego identification begins when the beliefs that you hold about your own identity, start to restrain and slow down your own self-growth. When those beliefs prevent you from reaching further stages of improvement and progress in your life.

If you hold a belief about yourself that you are shy and have troubles communicating with people, then quite probably, you won’t be capable of getting a promotion at your job, because that higher position requires a very specific skill, public speaking. And you’re not quite the type to speak confidently in front of a group of people, are you? so don’t even think about it.

There lies to issue.

A huge truth, that I had to realise on my spiritual path was that of “your identity is just a construct, it exists nowhere but in your own mind, thus, it can be changed”. It can be changed to better fit, and to better serve in aiding you to get what you want from life.

Identity isn´t rock solid, it is in constant movement, always changing, whereas we realise it or not. Or tell me, 5 years ago, were you the same person that you are now? I hope not.

Your beliefs about who you are should always be in alignment to that what you want in life. And remember that you have the power, always, to change them.

Start telling yourself you are a confident person that always finds the right words and it’s always able to communicate effectively. And in no time, you will see and feel the shift. You will get that promotion because it fits who you are.

But it doesn’t stop there either, this constant changing and shifting has the capacity to, eventually, make you feel dazed and confused, you could end up with an identity crisis. Because if there is no real you- because the concept of you is always changing- it never settles…then what am I? Who am I?

This is when it comes down to finding that something —unchangeable in nature— that makes you, you. Finding that something, that transcends humanity and physicality.

This is when we find religion and spirituality. Because it gives us something that is beyond us, beyond our own minds, it gives us something consistent, unchangeable. That part of us, that will always be there, will always remain steady, if that is something out of our capacity to change, then it must be the ultimate truth. Who we really are.

Becoming conscious of this transcendental truth gives us the wonders of being given security. Because if the truth is, that I am an infinite spiritual being, a divine consciousness, pure unconditional love (and many other names people have given it) then my individual experience of an identity must be nothing but a tool. A tool that I get to play with so as to get exactly what I want from life.

My identity and ultimately, the beliefs I hold are the key that will unlock the door to a new reality, a reality I get to choose.

What is the reality that you want to be living in? Do your current beliefs aid you into opening that door? Or on the contrary, they are stopping you from ever reaching that door? If it is the former, then congratulations I have nothing else to say to you. But if it is not the former, then you better get to work. Change your beliefs, change the way you perceive yourself to be, awaken to your ultimate truth.

You have the power of ego identification; humans are the only living beings with that power. Can be a dangerous one tho. So, use it mindfully and be clever about it. Use it to your benefit; to build instead of overthrown.

But how do you do that? How do you change your beliefs and mould your identity? Well, there are certainly quite a lot of different techniques out there, techniques I will be covering in future posts.

Right now, I just wanted to get this piece of information across. An essential piece of information. The very first thing you should be aware of when attempting to manifest a new reality for yourself.

As a last thought, learning to see your identity and beliefs as what they are, a tool to help you live your life to the fullest, is literally life-changing. Stop wasting this tool.

As for right now, we’ve reached the end of this blog post. I hope it was useful, eye-opening, inspiring. I would love to read your thoughts about it. And remember you can always help me out by liking and sharing this post.

With nothing else to say and with much love, write to you next week.

Eclectic Souls

#conscioussouls #universal consciousness #ego death #manifestation #law of assumption #witchblr #witches of tumblr #eclecticsoulsoriginalcontent

[mywritingonlyfans]

Okay but the anon about Vic being your first is like right in my feels

Lately I've been really insecure about not losing my virginity yet, for several different reasons. But I keep thinking that maybe if my first time would be with a woman, it might be easier for me, and the perfect person I can think of is a woman like Victoria. Someone with experience who I know for sure she wouldn't judge me, would be the most patient and make sure I'm completely safe and satisfied.

In conclusion: vic, come take my virginity please

no reason to be worried about it at all babe ♥️

and god yeah, sex with woman is so transcendental, imagine with victoria?? i feel like she'd be taking things slow, like to slow just to tease you either, like spending almost a month smoothing your legs and rubbing the fabric of your panties making you sigh into her mouth and even though you say you were ready she would say that she wanted to go gradually,,, and then after almost 3 weeks she would play with your breasts, licking and sucking while you play with her hair, and only later eating you out because according to her you need to have good memories of each one of those things in detail!

#maneskin talk #victoria de angelis

[doedipus]

For the ask game about games (Yes I know I'm late): 12, 25, 33, 38, 57, 69.

12. Most bizarre game you’ve ever played?

the one that immediately comes to mind is system shock 1. the setting and presentation and everything are like very boilerplate sci-fi/horror stuff, but the archaic controls system feels incredibly strange and obtuse compared to basically anything that came after. it feels more like you're piloting a mecha than moving around as a person.

25. Proudest accomplishment in gaming?

I can think of a couple big ones; I was over the moon when I made it into floor 10 in gg strive, I'm pretty happy with my 45ish minute 100% clear time in gato roboto, and it felt really good to finally clear out all the secret reports in twewy after ducking them for like 15 years

33. Favorite female npc?

I have a soft spot for sister anna fran from minoria. that's like a super deep cut though, so I'll also throw out kaine nier and kumatora motherthree

38. Have you tried a game, hated it, then tried again, and loved it?

skullgirls, definitely. I tried playing it years ago and didn't really get anything out of it, but trying it again when I actually had friends I could play against really got me hooked

57. What is an overrated game you’ve played?

I remember bioshock infinite got crazy insane hype when it came out but when I actually got around to playing it I got bored and dropped it partway through. there's obviously a lot of critiques to be made about the writing but what really got to me was that the gameplay was just boring and repetitive as shit

I'd also probably call the toby fox games overrated. I do genuinely really like undertale and deltarune but it seems like a lot of people had some kind of transcendental experience playing them that I can't really relate to

69 (nice). Your first LI?

I'm not actually sure what LI means in this instance. from context clues I think it's love interest?

I'm scouring my brain to try to remember what the first game I played that had romanceable characters in it would have been... but I think it was probably jamie in harvest moon magical melody.

[bopinion]

Album of the month / 2021 / 08 August

I love listening to music - gladly, all the time, everywhere. That's why I would like to share which music (or which album, after all I'm still from the vinyl generation ;-) I enjoy, accompanies me, slides up my playlists again and again...

The Beatles & George Martin

LOVE

Rock-Remix / 2006 / Parlophone, Apple, EMI (Universal Music Group)

When you hear the term "remix," it's usually a DJ putting a danceable techno beat under a pop or rock song. And often enough, this leaves the original performer or composer turning in his grave to the same frantic beat. But there are also exceptions. And one of them this time is my album of the month.

34 years ago in Québec I visited a kind of circus performance that was new to me. There were no animals, but excellent artistry. The whole thing was embedded in an almost psychedelic production of sounds and music and light effects and projections. Although individual acts, the whole was dramaturgically staged like an opera or a musical in one piece. The name of the circus was "Cirque du Soleil". A concept that in the following years and decades went from French Canada around the world and celebrated legendary successes everywhere - including artists in residence in Las Vegas. The visionary founder Guy Laliberté also became known worldwide as an impresario and, incidentally, a billionaire.

There are bands I really regret never having seen live. For example, The Queen with Freddie Mercury, although at least I met the latter once in a club in Munich - well, we were in the same room for a few hours. But there is also the opposite, for example The Beatles. As much as I appreciate these musical titans, a concert seems rather witless to me: film footage shows four musicians on stage, initially even dressed alike, operating their instruments without notable movements or show effects and trying to permanently drown out screaming young ladies. But maybe I only comfort myself with this assessment, because I was and am simply too young to be able to experience John, Paul, George and Ringo in their active time on stage. Anyway.

Guy Laliberté and George Harrison were friends. And at some point - I imagine the two of them over a cup of yogi tea after meditative yoga, one handing the other the joint "You, I have an idea..." - the idea was born to bring together the two cultural phenomena Cirque du Soleil and The Beatles. As a composition for all senses, new and timeless, ecstatic and colorful. After all, it was Harrison who was always eager to experiment. He converted to Hinduism in the 60s, gained experience with psychedelics and transcendental meditation and introduced oriental instruments, first and foremost the sitar, into Western music and is thus considered one of the most important pioneers of world music. A development that goes hand in hand with my personal taste: the longer their hair got, the more I liked their music.

It was only after Harrison's death that Laliberté was able to close the deal with the rights holders of the music (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison), which can thus probably be considered a kind of Harrison's legacy. For the show was not to simply put together a soundtrack of the old familiar hits, nor were the compositions to be reinterpreted by other musicians. No, the original multi-track recordings were to be used to create new adaptations of the original songs. And who would be better qualified for this than George Martin, who had already produced groundbreaking albums with the Beatles themselves. In the process, he advanced from mere producer to arranger and idea generator, who also revolutionized recording technology by using overdubbing, for example. It's hardly surprising that he is often referred to as the "fifth Beatle".

In general, Sir George Henry Martin, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, is a man of musical superlatives. He is recorded as the producer of 4,836 titles, but one assumes considerably more. And that includes not only The Beatles, but also a wide variety of works for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Manfred Mann, Little River Band, Ultravox and many more. His 30th number one hit was "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John. Martin founded the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts with McCartney, was one of a handful of producers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received the BRIT Award for "Best British Producer of the Past 25 Years" in 1977, among countless other honors.

So George Martin went into the studio with his son Giles Martin, who had produced INXS and Kate Bush, among others, following in his father's footsteps. And not just any studio - of course it had to be Abbey Road Studios (again). With the original recordings, the team not only created new variations of the original pieces, as they could have been created alternatively with the Beatles themselves. For example, they enriched the acoustic version of "While my Guitar gently weeps" with an orchestral accompaniment and combined the rhythm of "Tomorrow never knows" with the vocals of "Within You without You". Thus, a soundtrack project for a circus stage show ultimately became a new album by the Beatles. No wonder that Sir Paul himself described "Love" like this: "This album puts The Beatles back together again. It's kind of magical." And Ringo added "George and Giles did such a great job combining these tracks. It's really powerful for me and I even heard things I'd forgotten we'd recorded."

The documentary "All together now - A Documentary Film" by Adrian Wills (director) and Heidi Haines (screenplay), which won a Grammy in the category "Best long form Music Video", also fits the project's ambition. It tells the entire story of LOVE's creation, from the first meetings of the creative team around Martin and Laliberté to interviews with, among others, McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono, John Lennon's widow, and Neil Aspinall, the Beatles' longtime road manager and event technician, to the first rehearsals of the stage show in Montréal.

LOVE is more than a medley of hits by the mushroom heads, but rather a kind of rock opera that is a first-class listening experience even without the accompanying show. Says George Martin: "The Beatles always looked for other ways of expressing themselves and this is another step forward for them." And father and son succeeded with remarkable creativity. The new version of "Because" is still directly harmless, since it uses the birdsong of "Across the Universe" as well as the final chord of "A Day in the Life" played backwards. "Glass Onion," on the other hand, became a grandiose collage with elements of the songs "Things We Said Today," "Hello, Goodbye" (background vocals), "I Am the Walrus" (background vocals), "Penny Lane" (flute), "A Day in the Life" (orchestra), "Magical Mystery Tour" (effects) and "Only a Northern Song" (effects). State-of-the-art technology in digitization, mixing and mastering also ensure the finest sound quality.

Speaking of sound quality: a show that relies so heavily on music must of course also rely on a perfect acoustic performance. Created by French designer Jean Rabasse, the LOVE theater at The Mirage / Las Vegas houses 2,013 seats set around a central stage. Each seat is fitted with three speakers, which sums up to a spectacular sound system with 6,351 speakers designed by Jonathan Deans. The stage includes 11 lifts, 4 traps, and 13 automated tracks and trolleys. The theater features 32 digital projectors creating very large high definition digital 100' wide panoramic images, even on four translucent screens that can be unfurled to divide the auditorium. That's what I call "being in the middle of the action".

Reportedly, the theater cost more than $100 million - which doesn't even include the development of the show. And unfortunately, it also means LOVE can never go on tour. So I won't be able to avoid traveling to Las Vegas one day for that reason alone. Which I trust will be on the event calendar for a few more years to recoup its costs. And so the circle closes: Decades later, I would once again enjoy Cirque du Soleil in North America - and thus also experience The Beatles live in a somewhat different way.

Here's a trailer for the Las Vegas Show LOVE from the Cirque du Soleil:

https://youtu.be/hIJZAfyRlD4

#music #album #album review #my music #the beatles #love #george harrison #paul mccartney #ringo starr #george martin #giles martin #abbey road studios #cirque du soleil #Guy Laliberté #las vegas #quebec #remix #the mirage #show #stage design #documentary #Youtube

[dustedmagazine]

Listed: Colin Fisher

Photo by ilyse krivel

Toronto-based multi-instrumentalist Colin Fisher is on a constant quest for the ecstatic through sound. His journey has taken him in many directions, from the math-rock inspired group Sing That Yell That Spell, to the fiery free improvisation duo Not the Wind, Not the Flag. As a band leader, his free jazz quartet released the white-hot Living Midnight for Astral Spirits in 2020, about which Derek Taylor wrote, “Passages of ruminant restraint alternate with excoriating blasts and outbursts, but the means always remains intelligible and momentum driven whether full-steam or incremental.” Solo, Fisher has recently wafted in a more contemplative direction that might see him associated with the new age revival, but this work is as exploratory and engaging as his most spirited improvisational outings. Here, he lists some of the pieces within which he experiences the sublime.

Jean-Pierre Leguay — Chant d’Airain

Some of my first experiences with the sublime in music were in church. I abhorred being in church (and would even attempt to hide to avoid attendance) but at the end of service the organist played as the congregation filed out. The selections were usually secular and I can remember my rapt attention. Not because of some aesthetic taste but because I was having a physical/biological response to the sounds. Being in the resonant chamber of the cathedral provided a fully immersive experience. Rather than suggest whatever music was being played at the time I’m going to fast forward to my mid 20s… While in the same church, I heard the principal organist of Notre Dame improvise with some Messiaen-symmetrical ideas that lifted me out of my corporeal form and left me sobbing in a church pew at the very church I would have done everything in my power not to be present in as a child. The organist was Jean-Pierre Leguay.

Ravi Shankar — At Monterey Pop

An early transmission from what seemed like outer space at the time, as a young child I heard the sounds of Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha live at Monterey Pop (my parents had this and the record with Yehudi Menuhin.) Ravi is far from my fav Hindustani musician or sitarist, of which I have innumerable favorites now. But I’m particularly enamored with Vilayat Khan after reading his biography, The Sixth String of Vilayat Khan, a couple of years ago. Pandit Pran Nath is also a huge inspiration.

Polvo — Cor-Crane Secret

Without sifting through the rubble of my punk/hardcore teens (which was totally legit inspirational beauty, from Minor Threat and straight edge to grunge, etc.) I want to highlight a band that literally changed my life in my mid to late teens. When I first heard Cor-Crane Secret by Polvo, I didn’t realize that music like this existed. It gave me permission to go on long wonky improvisational explorations — endless melodies and whammied chords that would go on for hours sometimes. I also got to see them on the Today’s Active Lifestyles tour when I was 18, totally life changing.

Ornette Coleman — The Shape of Jazz to Come

The next stage I’ll focus on has a little more girth: my introduction to jazz/free jazz/improv/fusion. I think I first discovered this music by accident. I remember seeing a clip of Monk on the news the day he died. I was much younger, and I thought to myself “this music is like an alien transmission!” But I put that away in the vaults for a couple of decades. I also remember seeing a clip on TV of a soprano player at a jazz fest in Toronto, playing the craziest shit I’d ever heard (once again on a news program,) but had little-to-no context. The clip lasted probably 10 seconds but felt longer and I remember thinking something like “this is more punk rock than punk rock!” hahaha. So, there was a hunger there that I needed to satiate. But I had no access to any recordings where I lived. I remember reading books at the library about jazz history and the only CDs I could borrow were Manteca or big band music. I had to imagine what Song X sounded like for the time being. Ornette’s The Shape of Jazz to Come was one of the first albums I actually bought, and it was more magical than any description could possibly illustrate. As pedestrian as this may seem to everyone now, it was another life changer for me. I can remember late nights sitting by myself, probably super high on good weed, listening to “Lonely Woman” and weeping.

John McLaughlin — Extrapolation

In my early days of discovering jazz, I also came across the music of John Mclaughlin, initially via Mahavishnu Orchestra. His whole profile as a guitarist was incredibly inspiring for me — someone who had an equal footing in jazz, Flamenco, Indian classical music and fusion — a model for what I could become as a player (although I don’t think our styles are really even that comparable.) One of his albums that I think is maybe overlooked in his career is Extrapolation which has an incredible lineup and the compositions are incredible.

John Coltrane — Interstellar Space

In considering this list I’m realizing there’s no way I can touch on all the music that has shaped me. But there is an album that’s shaped a great deal in terms of how I play and in what seems to be my favorite type of collaborative setting — the duo. Interstellar Space is an absolute masterpiece. Everything feels raw — the intensity, the interplay, the emotion. As much as I love so much of John Coltrane’s music, there’s something about this record that was akin to hearing punk music for the first time. There’s an immediacy to expression and interaction. And it was something that felt available to me (certainly not his virtuoso chops, which felt otherworldly — an unscalable monolith.) The direct communication between two people was a revelation and the content of this music felt like something I could mine for the rest of my life.

The Ivo Perelman Trio — “Cantilena”

Fast-forward another few years or more and I had travelled with some good friends to NYC for I think it was the JVC Jazz Fest. We wanted to see MMW play (of whom I still think Friday Afternoon In the Universe is a perfect album.) While we were there though, we saw so much beautiful music that blew me away. The most significant for me though, was catching the last 10 minutes of a set by the Ivo Perelman trio in Tribeca somewhere (the trio was with Jay Rosen on drums and Dominic Duval on bass, who I played with several years later. RIP). It was electrifying. I was moved enough to go and talk to him after and he gave me an unmarked demo tape of Seeds, Vision and Counterpoint. There’s a track on the album called “Cantilena” and it really drops into this heavy space for around 10 minutes that gives me the chills every time I hear it. There is this free lyricism that is still absolutely elating to me. I love his playing and he’s still probably my favorite living saxophonist.

Marilyn Crispell — Vignettes

Masabumi Kikuchi — Out of Bounds

Using lyricism as a segue it brings me to the music of Marilyn Crispell, especially her albums Amaryllis,Nothing Ever Was Anyway, Vignettes and many others. She has a mode of free ballad playing that is absolutely transcendental. I will also mention Masabumi Kikuchi in the same breath. I find the desire more and more to play with a similar intention even though I rarely find myself in the context to do so.

Jute Gyte — Birefringence

A total shift from this narrative of discovery and development is metal music. Something I’d been listening to since my teens and getting hip to some cool thrash music through Canadian band Voivod, particularly the album Dimension Hatröss. I've continued to follow the music and all of its various subgenres and have so many favorite picks, but I’ll choose just one and it’s a total mindbender. Jute Gyte’s Birefringence actually eclipses easy category and you really just need to experience it.

Giacinto Scelsi — “Uaxuctum”

Catherine Christer Hennix — “Blues Alif Lam Mim In The Modes Of Rag Infinity/Rag Cosmosis”

My last pick is another double pick (I know I’m cheating) because it relates to the power of music and ties it into the first selection. Another current, among many, of musical obsessions is “new music.” But when I heard Giacinto Scelsi’s music for the first time it surpassed all of my previous notions about what was possible with composed music — it felt like music from an ecstatic vision. Even as I listen to the track now, it immediately accesses some occult realm of sublimity that feels similar to the music I first heard in church but with an unbridled intensity and depth.

Another more recent selection that fits into this category — but that is different in that it embraces a sort of stasis rather than dynamic movement — is the music of Catherine Christer Hennix. If you don’t know her, she’s a deep well of musical/mathematical/spiritual inspiration for me. Another music without a real equivalent in this day and age — something that echoes ancestral currents as well as the vibration of the cosmos itself. Thanks for reading/listening. Peace be with you. xoxo

#dusted magazine #listed #colin fisher #Jean-Pierre Leguay #ravi shankar #polvo #ornette coleman #john mclaughlin #john coltrane #ivo perelman #marilyn crispell #masabumi kikuchi #jute gyte #giacinto scelsi #catherine christer hennix

[entertainment]

Entertainment Spotlight: Will Vought, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel

Actor, comedian, and writer Will Vought stars in the most recent season of the critically acclaimed dramedy series, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Additional television credits include The Good Wife, The Good Fight, both Lipstick Jungle and Love Bites, Bones, and Wilfred. Will is also an accomplished comedian, having toured the country opening for Wayne Brady. He got his start in the entertainment industry by contributing to Scott Shannon’s #1 morning show on 95.5 WPLJ, offering David Letterman updates and recaps, which opened the door for him to work for Late Night with Conan O’Brien. Following his work with Conan, Will was offered a position in the West Wing of the White House, working for former President Bill Clinton, where he still continued his radio work on the weekends as the youngest morning show host in the country at just 22 years old. Will went on to serve as head writer for Wayne Brady during his time hosting the The Late Late Show prior to James Corden in 2014 on CBS, and he continues to collaborate with renowned actor and comedian Paul Reiser, including shopping a television pilot they wrote together with Julie Bergman. We got the chance to ask him some questions. Check it out:

Do you have a favorite character arc from season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?

For Season 3, I’m finding myself really interested in Susie and her journey. I don’t want to spoil it for those getting ready to start the new season or binge the series; however, in the first two seasons, Susie’s been hustling and primarily being of service to Midge while her personal life hangs on by a thread. In season 3, there are so many more layers introduced and opportunities that will ripple into not only her clout as a comedy manager but also her personal life. Also, I’m really invested in Lenny Bruce. Having read so much about him to see his plight on screen told through Amy’s lens is incredible. I don’t know anyone in comedy that doesn’t appreciate what Lenny Bruce did for comedians. The end of the Season 3 premiere is absolutely priceless seen thought the eyes of Tony Shalhoub’s Emmy Award-winning performance as Abe Weissman - Midge’s father.

If everything that you did was narrated, whose voice would you want narrating your life?

HA! That is a great question, and I’ve had to think about it. At first, I thought of the late great voice-over artist Don LaFontaine who moviegoers would remember as the “In A World…” guy who made millions voicing almost every movie trailer ever! BUT…truth be told I think that I would love Seinfeld's voice and lens, and I think it would make my day to day activities far more entertaining to listen to, especially when on the phone with my therapist.  

Can you tell us about a time you bombed (on stage or in an audition)?

Well…the thing that pops to mind was an audition for NBC’s series called Lipstick Jungle. At the time, I was living on Long Island and decided to make the mistake of driving into Manhattan for the audition. Traffic was abhorrent, and you would think that there were mass casualties on the Long Island Expressway resulting in me being almost an hour and forty-five minutes late for the audition. The director of that episode was the one and only Timothy Busfield, whom I loved on Arron Sorkin’s The West Wing. Tim played reporter Danny Concannon - Senior White House Correspondent.

I had no idea that Timothy was going to be at the audition and was mortified when I showed up and saw him in the room because I was so late. It’s not unheard of to not be seen at all if you are late, let alone hours late. I read for the part and left. Tim was gracious. A month later, I got a call saying that I didn’t book that role; however, they were writing me another role and wanted to hire me for it. While on set shooting, Tim told me that when they asked him if he had any ideas for the part and he said, “That guy who came in 2 hours late. He was great. Hire him.” So I thought I bombed — but it worked out in the end.

The USO Tour scene from The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel broke the record for the most number of background actors used in a scene for tv in the state of New York (850). What was it like being a part of such a huge production?

I’ve never worked on Star Wars, but that’s what I was thinking of when we were filming that. It was by far the largest set I’ve ever been on, and yes there were almost 1000 background actors there for almost an entire week, who made up the audience of the USO show that you see in the season 3 premiere. When I met with Amy and Dan for the final audition for the role of Major Buck Brilstein, it was at Steiner Studios in Brooklyn in a small room that’s not much larger than a small studio apartment in Manhattan. It was the three of us and Emmy award-winning casting director Cindy Tolan. We did all the material from the episode, and to juxtapose that to being in an actual hanger with 1000 extras essentially filming a USO show that’s scripted — it was a historic moment in television that wasn’t lost on me.  

What was the audition experience like for your role on The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel?  

I kind of talk about that above. I had a great experience. As with anything, you have to go in a number of times, and then the final callback is with Amy and Dan Sherman Palladino. You are 2 feet away from her, there is a camera, and Cindy Tolan, the casting director, and you create the world and do the scenes — WORD PERFECT! That is a huge thing, and something I was told going in. Be word perfect every time. Their words are like notes on a page. Each one carefully picked and placed, and my job is to take them off the page and bring them to life with a sensibility of 1959 and a guy that’s a major in the army who always wanted to be a comedian but never really got the chance. So, my character is literally living his dream in this episode. Beyond that, you bring your A-game, nail it, and it’s up to Amy and Dan. It happened to go my way, and as I told Amy, I was grateful to get the invitation to play in her world. She wrote and directed this episode, so it was extra special.

Is there a specific role or moment that you feel has defined your career up to this point?

We’ll — this is pretty significant re: working with the Palladino’s.  I thought that The Good Wife was a big deal at the time — as I was part of Bob and Michelle King’s storyline that revealed Josh Charles’ character was murdered.  

It seems that I’m only allowed to act opposite actresses that have won 2 Emmy’s and 2 Golden Globes for Best Actress. LOL.  It’s truly a hard question to answer as each project is different, and as an actor, you hope that one job will open a door or opportunity to another.  That’s what I’ve found, at least over the past few years, so it’s certainly a slow burn.

Years ago, I was the low man on the totem pole at NBC’s Late Night with Conan O’Brien. I was an intern in the writing department under John Groff and often got the chance to appear in sketches on the show. This was an invaluable experience. There was an afternoon where I asked Conan (as I was cleaning his office) if he knew this was what he was going to do from the beginning. I’ll never forget what he said. He told me that, “In his wildest dreams he never thought he would be hosting a late night show.” He described show business as being on a highway. He was a writer in college, wanted to be a writer and set off on the highway with the goal of writing in mind. Along the trip, there were exits: Mad Magazine, The Simpsons, SNL. After each exit, he gets back on the journey. If you want to be a teacher or doctor or lawyer, you know exactly what to do. Go to X school for X years, and then they declare you as such. Boom. You’re it. Hollywood is not like that. Everyone’s path is so different, and how we get to where we are is almost inconsequential when compared to the culmination of the journey. I’ve been blessed to do a lot of different things so far and work with incredible talent that truly moves the needle in this business, and I hope for more opportunities.

What’s your favorite bit or joke from one of your stand-up sets?

I have a new bit I’m working on that’s fueled by my natural anger toward this situation.

I hate paper straws.

If this makes me a horrible person, so be it. If “they” think I don’t care about the EARTH or ENVIRONMENT and support the extinction of humanity because of this — so be it.

Paper straws? Really? Who did this make sense to? Who thought it was a good idea to combine PAPER and WATER?

I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time — but it doesn’t work. Three sips into my iced coffee and the thing has disintegrated, and I’m now drinking iced coffee and paper!

If you think paper straws are a good idea, let me ask you one question. Would you like to use a paper condom?

In the future, you’ll be standing in the rain telling your friend you can’t understand why she’s pregnant and soaking wet from holding the paper umbrella.

I will say that if we do switch to paper condoms …. I don’t know about the environment, but we will absolutely ensure the survival of humanity.

Lighting round! Describe each of the following in one word: Who you are, what you value the most, and what you’d be if you were a food item.  

I AM WILL VOUGHT.

I VALUE MOST: MY SON.

IF I WAS A FOOD ITEM, I’D BE A BEYOND BURGER!

What are you working on right now?

Right now, I’m working on sending out subliminal messages via Transcendental Meditation to Adam McKay for a coffee meeting that would result in being cast on the 3rd season of Succession on HBO.  I’d text him, but I don’t have his cell. Do you?

Thanks for taking the time, Will! Catch Season 3 of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Prime Video. 

Photography: Emily Assiran | Grooming Laila Hayani | Styling: Natalia Zemliakova

#entertainment spotlight #will vought #the marvelous mrs. maisel