#the black rider

[dailyfigures]

Celty Sturluson ; Durarara!! ☆ Good Smile Company

#celty sturluson #celty figure #celty #the headless rider #the black rider #durarara celty #durarara x2 #drrr celty #drrr #drrr figure #drrr x2 #good smile company #gsc #nendoroid #anime #anime figure #figure #figure collecting #anime figurine #figurine #scale figure #anime collecting #myfigurecollection #manga

[sixty-silver-wishes]

you ever listen to a song while you're writing something, and you accidentally write in the lyrics of the song instead of what you want to write

#tom waits #the black rider #yeah

[novemb-r]

Robert Wilson, William S. Burroughs and Tom Waits

A year after hammering his art down to its primal essence with the Grammy-winning apocalyptic stomp of 1992’s Bone Machine, Waits ushered in a strange new beast on The Black Rider, with help from a legendary Beat author, William Burroughs; an avant-garde theater visionary, Robert Wilson and a nightmarish German folk tale, “Der Freischütz”.

Not a cast album, this release is Waits’ interpretation and performance of the songs he had originally created for the stage production of The Black Rider which premiered in Hamburg in 1990. The album may be the most sinister and fractured-sounding in Waits’s catalog with lyrics for three songs written by Burroughs. The most telling is the cowboy noir “Crossroads,” where the magic bullets become a metaphor for drugs. Burroughs said, “I had the idea of comparing the magic bullet in the original German story to heroin. Once you use one, you’ll use another. Tom said, ‘Yeah, and the first one’s always free’ and of course that went right in.”

Photo: Ralf Brinkhoff and Birgit Mögenburg

#upload #Robert wilson #william s burroughs #tom waits #william burroughs #beat generation #the black rider #crossroads #one of my all time favorite albums

[sixtysilverwishes-art]

Jordi Vidal as Pegleg in The Black Rider (Almeria Theatre 2009)

#art #drawing #artists on tumblr #traditional art #colored pencil #jordi vidal #the black rider #opera

[is-it-mungojerry-or-rumpelteazer]

‘I suspected that there was some fragment of the blade still in the closed wound. But it could not be found until last night. Then Elrond removed a splinter. It was deeply buried, and it was working inwards.'

Can we all acknowledge the absolute horror of a weapon that splinters inside of you and then keeps digging after the wound has closed??

#lotr newsletter #lord of the rings #text posts #quotes #The Black Rider

[stjoanjude]

redesigning the black rider characters for funn i plan 2 make lil ref sheets with outfits/ alternate makeup for diff scenes and possibly. paper dolls on a lil set but im getting ahead of myself

#lonz art #the black rider #tom waits

[femmeterypolka]

pics from lech majewski's staging of the black rider

#pics that go hard #lech majewski #tom waits #the black rider #i wish i could see all of this production. it looks so much more gloomy and dour #robert wilson #william s burroughs #polish artists

[sunshinyriptide]

The Black Rider (1990)

Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, William S. Burroughs

An opera based on a German folktale, about a young man in love with a hunter's daughter. To marry her, he must prove himself as a hunter and land a difficult shot with his gun. Lacking shooting skills, he makes a pact with the Devil, who gives him several magic bullets that will always hit the target - except for one, which obeys only the Devil's will.

The combination of Wilson's signature avant-garde style, the iconic songs by Tom Waits, and Burroughs' pointed and evocative words makes this a haunting, fun and deeply memorable piece of theatre.

get with it (youtube video in German and English language with English subtitles on the German parts)

#the black rider #robert wilson #tom waits #william s. burroughs #der freischütz #henryposting

[dollarbin]

Dollar Bin # 13:

The Mountain Goats' Sweden

Here's a (Mostly) True story:

In the fall of 1995, John Darnielle, the founder, songwriter, frontman (and, occasionally, the sole member) of The Mountain Goats taught me how to cook.

As a second year student at Pomona College I took the one on-campus job no one else wanted: fast food line cook. No one wanted the job because it required actual labor; every other on-campus job involved sitting at a desk in a library, museum, gym or office while doing your homework. But I was ready to heat oil, and labor. I was ready to eat as much free ice cream as I could in-between orders.

The job was an odd choice for a vegetarian like me at the time: I spent the first hour of every shift slicing enough partially thawed, homogenized meat for the full day of orders ahead; once both of my hands were entirely numb from the meat's cold it was time to drink a giant vat of free Sprite and then move on to other prep tasks. Slice the tomatoes. Fire up the grill. Then, once the place opened, I'd spend the rest of my shift burning all that sliced meat to a crisp for altered and/or indifferent fellow college students.

John Darnielle trained me. He'd already released two records at that point, but I had no idea who the hell he was. My ignorance drove him nuts.

By the time he arrived each day my hands were already numb and my personally selected music was already on the stereo system. In the fall of 95 that meant a heavy rotation of Guided By Voices' Alien Lanes, Uncle Tupelo records and Yo La Tengo's Electr-O-Pura. I'd put on Tom Waits' The Black Rider at closing time so everyone would go the hell home; that always cleared the room.

But I never played The Mountain Goats; I'd never even heard of them. Throughout that fall I worked alongside a blossoming rock star. And I had no clue whatsoever.

John was the first and only friend I've ever had who wore a leather jacket. He was also ridiculously old for an undergraduate; we're talking mid-to-late-twenties. Every day he'd arrive, compliment my taste in music, trade his jacket for a weathered apron and then look at me earnestly. It was weird. I saw that he wanted me to say something, that he wanted me to know something. Desperately. But I had no idea what the hell it was.

After a bit he'd sigh and begin the day's training. Here's how to flip 'em kid; here's how to fire up that grill.

Then, at some point, he just broke down and told me: he knew James McNew; he had a record deal; he was just back from a tour of Germany, where people were crazy for any kind of American music; he was starting to make some real money (hence the leather jacket). He thought I'd like his music.

At that point I'm afraid I made the situation much, much worse. I laughed at John Darnielle and accused him of lying.

"Yeah right, dude. You're a rock star. And I'm the queen of England."

He listened. He paused. Then he shut down the register and said we needed to go outside. And so we went. College kids stood about, confused. Who was gonna get them their curly fries if the kid in The Dead t-shirt and the weird old guy took a break?

I remember, like yesterday, standing next to him in the sun. He'd taken off his apron and put his leather jacket back on. The vibe was very weird.

"Look, I'm not joking," he said. "My band used to play shows here on campus, but we're just too big for that now. Go to Rhino records; you're a vinyl guy, right? They've got my latest album on vinyl for like 7 bucks."

(Remember: this was the secret golden age of vinyl: CDs cost $12-15 and records of the same thing cost $7-12. And we all thought we needed to spend more for the CDs! If I had a time machine, I would not go back and see who killed JFK; rather, I'd spend a sweet summer with Jane Austen and then propose marriage to her, then I'd travel to 1969 to see Neil and Crazy Horse live, THEN I'd go back to 95 and buy everything I could grab on vinyl CHEAP.)

Okay, back to John Darnielle in 95: "Look: my new record is called Sweden," he said. "Only it has absolutely nothing to do with Sweden. That's the joke. Listen to it; you'll know it's me right away. I sing like I talk. People think we have like 25 members in the band, but it's really just me and this girl who plays bass. I lie in my songs, all the time. But I'm not lying to you."

And then he just walked off. In the middle of his shift! I was left to man the counter on my own. Fries were ordered; burgers were burned to a fabulous crisp. And The Black Rider came on way early. I had something I needed to do.

As soon as the quitting bell rang I hopped on my bike and road straight to the record store. As usual, the counter was manned by the angriest guy in the whole world. His name was probably Haemon, and he always sneered at whatever I was buying. This was years before High Fidelity, but he was already auditioning for Jack Black's part. The dude just hated me. I remember buying a Sonic Youth Tee in there one time. He ripped me apart while ringing me up. Is it any wonder that a few years later we all decided to shop on Amazon?

Anyway, by the time I got to the store, I'd pretty much decided John Darnielle was for real. And quite quickly I found his record, walked it to the counter, handed it over guiltily (Rhino Records had their workers stand behind a counter that was a full two feet higher than the sales floor so as to allow Jack Black Sr. behind the counter, who was tall to begin with, maximum superiority over his pathetic customers), and then, for the first and only time, the guy did not give me a hard time.

"Well, well, well," he said. "You're finally buying something of value. Poser."

(Remember when we all called each other "poser"? Now we all call each other unprintable things. Ah, the 90's...)

Well, you can see where this is going. The Mountain Goats were indeed that guy John from my day job. His singing was ridiculous, like Lou Reed if he was a passionate player of Magic, The Gathering. His melodies were infectious, like Bob Pollard if he was earnest, not drunk. His lyrics were cute and bizarre, like Dylan if he actually attended college, then managed to double major in Classics and English. The recording process was infantile, like me in the kitchen. Or rather, like me in life.

It was all precious. It was all awesome.

I returned to work a day or six later, eager to see my new friend John and tell him all about it. He was a genius! He was Robyn Hitchcock meets Johnathan Richman; he was Thomas Pynchon with a guitar; he was my new hero.

And then, I never saw him again. That moment in the sun turned out to be the last moment we ever spent together. I guess he went and got a life.

Hello out there, John! It's 28 years later and your recent publicity pics make you look, in the words of one of this blogs' 40+ (wow!) readers, like an alternative high school teacher: he sees you; he respects your pronouns. Guess what, John? That's a better description of me than you these days. You're playing the Belly Up this fall. I'm not even playing Magic, The Gathering.

So go, take a listen to Sweden! It's great. Check out the hilarious T.S. Eliot intro to I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone. Enjoy the alternative Swedish titles for every song. Be reminded of how Hercules died: consumed by an article of his own clothing. Flip to the B Side and enjoy a nice coconut cream pie.

And while you are listening, picture an earnest and very talented guy in a leather jacket in 1995, patiently teaching a very young and hopeful kid how to flip burgers and fry up the grill. See him. See me. We're both dreaming of incredible futures: incredible futures that came true.

Happy Friday everyone! And John, while I've got you here: thanks for being patient and nice to me way back then. I'm sorry I needed you to introduce me to your music. Please tell Stephen Stills he sucks.

#the mountain goats #stephen stills still sucks #pomona college #pitzer college #tom waits #Youtube #james mcnew #guided by voices #guided meditation #uncle tupelo #the black rider

[madmaxart]

pegleg

#the black rider #my art #lmao coming back to make art for the most niche theatrical production #anyway i have the tism for this show specifically rn

[lastyears-man]

#Tom Waits #Crossroads #The Black Rider #music #fave #William S. Burroughs

[rastronomicals]

7:00 AM EDT April 23, 2024:

Tom Waits - "T'ain't No Sin" From the album The Black Rider (September 1993)

Last song scrobbled from iTunes at Last.fm

Cover of a song from 1929 with vocals by William S Burroughs

#Tom Waits #The Black Rider #T'ain't No Sin

[sixty-silver-wishes]

the black rider as onion headlines

#the black rider #opera #onion headlines #tom waits

[holymayoart]

Here is the mug: https://www.etsy.com/se-en/listing/1336469213/roman-countryball-mug-roman-empire

Let me present... a cute mug I did with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse on it! It is 4 horsemen: Death, Conquest, Famine and War. Plus an extra: the Healess Horseman :D They all ride on broomsticks. These are heavily inspired by “The Harbringers” from the game TBOI <3 But who are these guys? They are figures in the Christian scriptures first appearing in the Book of Revelation :)

#4 horsemen of the apocalypse #four horsemen of the apocalypse #horseman #horseman of conquest #horseman of war #horseman of death #horseman of famine #horseman of pestilence #the rider in white #the rider in red #the black rider #the pale rider #bible #biblical #christian myth #old testament #new testament #book of revelation #The Seven Seals of God #jesus christ #god #religion #apocalypse #punishment #prophecy #roman empire #thanatos #hades #spirit #judgement of god

[sixtysilverwishes-art]

thinking about the black rider almeria theatre 2009 again

#art #drawing #wip #the black rider #opera #theatre #jordi vidal

[glamfool]

Him….

#pegleg #the black rider #Dominique Horwitz