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jennamoran · 3 years

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The Art of Glitch (Part 15)

Glitch is available here!

(and for a limited time the 0th edition is still available here!)

Hi! We’re talking about Glitch art direction.

So previously,

we talked about the art in the pre-release;

and then a bit about the general set up for the 1st edition art!

and then covered some ways that example characters can die.

and then a bit about gender/ethnic balancing, plus details on a few pieces in particular!

and then about the first assignment to Elizabeth Sherry.

and then about the first assignment to Beatrice Pelagatti!

and then about the first assignment to Kam Moody!

and then the first assignment to Mel Uran!

and then about void flowers and Alexander Benekos!

and then about the first assignment to Robin Scott!

and then about the first assignment to Maria Guarneri!

and then about the first assignment to Lee Moyer!

and then about the first assignment to ?? and, uh, ??!

... ??!?

Let’s move on!

Sadia Bies

https://witchstitches.itch.io/

Sadia Bies showed up on my twitter feed, and, I think mentioned having some availability at the time. Their work seemed cool and different from most of the other artists and it was, like, just as I was prepping to send out art requests?

So I invited them in!

Their specialty seemed to be images with fairly realistic people, a kind of circular motion feel, and bonus symbolism.

Page 62

Strategist: American (any ethnicity), they/them

Bane: inobvious

Description: this is to show a lacuna, a place where the world isn’t fully detailed, fully real. While you’re free to use a rough, impressionist style for the background, I don’t think that’s enough to clue in the reader that the world is literally not fully detailed.

So what I’m thinking is:

A young, androgynous, and frail-looking Strategist looks over the edge of a bridge. The moon is in the sky behind them. They have a companion. The companion has no face. The companion has no reflection. It is night. There is a streetlamp on the bridge. The piece is very simple and clean.

Or, a young, androgynous, and frail-looking Strategist looks down at their feet as they walk past a faceless couple on a foggy street. The other side of the sidewalk is a hedge.

The way I’d frame the second one is probably from the street or the other side of it, at a 45 degree angle to the Strategist—enough to tell that their eyes are weird, but not necessarily get the full effect, while still being able to see the facelessness of the people that they’re passing. Maybe a couple, in stylish clothing?

That said, I’m neutral on that level of specifics. If you want to have the bridge, but a river is going under the bridge, and maybe the river or road that goes under the bridge loses all of its visual detailing while passing under, maybe that works too?

Or if you want to have the Strategist walking through an ordinary city, except there’s a weird dividing line up ahead where everything stops being detailed ... I don’t know if that can visually convey it?

If their presence gets too much in the way of a really good idea you have, you don’t have to show the Strategist, but I’d prefer they were there.

It’s also fine if they’re not young, or not androgynous (although they should still be they/them), or not frail-looking; these are just things that my brain tosses up as code for “under-specified,” “not fully there,” or “not fully detailed” that don’t depend on artistic style, which is important because the Strategist is technically fully real but I don’t want that to disrupt the kind of sparse feel of the picture.

[Nonbinary Sensitivity Note]

Sadia: I’m giving this to you because the bridge version felt reminiscent of https://twitter.com/sadiabies/status/1237072443728105477/photo/2 to me—I liked how the jacket hung in that one, and how I think the face would look if it weren’t distorted by the piece’s premise, and the curves in the composition. And the bridge-like curve in https://twitter.com/sadiabies/status/1237072443728105477/photo/1.

That’s kind of a dumb reason, particularly the connection to the arch in /photo/1 which isn’t even a good shape for a bridge! And you absolutely don’t need to refer to either of those pieces when doing this one.

But I’m making a point of saying why I’m assigning the pieces I assign, so there we are. ^_^

Commentary

I really did make a point of saying that! I just am not sharing that bit with y’all every time. ^_^

Anyway, this was the sketch I got back:

More Commentary

I wound up asking for the piece to turn around a bit, like, literally, physically, to work better opposite the Hollow Places title page:

... but that page wasn’t, it turned out, where the piece would ultimately go!

Oh?

So:

As we discussed a few days ago, I lost the original frontispiece to a format change; Lee Moyer gave me a two-page map and not a one-page map and suddenly there was a one-page art hole at the beginning of the book.

And conversely ...

Sadia’s final piece here wasn’t sitting well where it lived!

It had a lot of rough spots. It was deliberate---like, they weren’t artistic errors, they were stylistic elements to get the lacuna idea across.

... but, deliberate or not, it had a lot of rough spots, and the problem was, every time I got to page 62 in the book, they read as sloppy.

Even knowing that they weren’t.

Even though there was some truly gorgeous water in the very same picture.

(Seriously, the water came out amazing.)

It kept reading as sloppy.

And it was a bit of providence, I guess:

I moved the piece to page 2, where there were no reader expectations about the art except that the opposite page had a big header, “Glitch,” and now everything was back in the game, now all the rough spots looked appropriately deliberate again, looked thematic, and we had our new frontispiece too. ^_^

Page 102

“Guinemath Argand, who dies in the Rain”

Piece Style: a “Strategist” dying of the thing [...]

Strategist: Native American, she/her

Bane: Your choice, or “the rain”

Examples:

standing under an umbrella looking at the acid burn on her hand and shoe where the raindrops struck;

standing in the middle of absolutely nowhere on a flat plain with water halfway up her boots;

staring disconsolately at the small raincloud falling on dinner just out of the apartment oven (I’m envisioning the scene setting as twentysomething Americana);

sheltering an already bandaged head from a rain of cookware and frogs;

falling into a rain-filled pothole on a city street that’s abyssal deep.

Note: Please avoid unfortunate stereotypes. Heck, please avoid stereotypes at all. Unless you’re Native or clear it with a Native sensitivity consultant first:

No tribal regalia (war paint, feathers, etc.)

Avoid pre-modern clothing in general.

Avoid alcoholic drinks.

The first two parts may make it hard for people to recognize the character as Native American, after accounting for pallor and the eyes not being visible and the image being black and white and the name being a Strategist name rather than a Native name and Native American not being the most visibly obvious ethnicity to many readers anyway; that’s fine!

I just want to avoid erasure by having at least a couple images that use images of Native Americans (ideally from a specific tribe) as the visual references for facial structure, skin tone, hair, and possibly modern clothing style.

Sadia: I am sending this one to you because I think the generic pieces are probably more fun as assignments, and so I’m trying to bundle one into every starting assignment. This one had the best range of images for an artist I was working with for the first time.

Commentary

Originally this character was Middle Eastern and the character dying of Sandwiches was Native American.

I had this sudden worry when I was about to send these out:

“Sadia” is often just an American name, but it’s also sometimes an Arabic name, so ... was I being weird by giving them a nonbinary character and a Middle Eastern character?

This was an artist I was working with for the first time, so I didn’t want to be weird!

... so I swapped ethnicities for the characters.

In hindsight, this was a little bit of a goof, since I’d really carefully curated the Sandwiches and Rain options for unfortunate implications with the original ethnicities, while I’d merely done a few readthroughs for the swap, and I’d kind of missed that I’d introduced a risk of ... whatever the Native equivalent of Orientalism is when Rain got swapped in?

... but in the end, Sadia took the piece in a good direction and that didn’t matter.

Look, I have OCD and Occasional Serious Awkwardness Syndrome, these things happen now and again. ^_^

The final piece came out surprisingly powerful, and had the great advantage of being stylistically unique in the book; I’m really happy with it.

... uh, for clarity, the above isn’t the final, it’s just the rough.

But it shows you the direction that Sadia took!

#patreon-supported posts #glitchrpg #the art of glitch #sadia bies

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outdoorguyuk · 5 years

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Granada! It’s so Moorish (boom boom...Kill me Now)

Long before I got back into climbing, I booked a holiday with the fam along with Andy & Elaine (from the Brecon Beacons fastpacking trip) and their children Esmé (9) & James (5 months). We booked an Airbnb to Otura at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Granada in Spain. It turned out to be an absolute gold mine of amazing climbing routes and hiking. Kerching!

I bought a couple of local climbing guides (I’d particularly recommend the Andalusia - Guia de Escalada Deportiva (if you want it please click on the link and buy it so I get a bit of cash from Amazon too!) and spoke to a local guide called Nino from the amazing Club Cabraloca (the appropriately named crazy goat when translated - Seriously, if you want to climb in Granada hit him up, he’s an absolute legend and they do everything through canyoning, via ferrata to diving or caving). We chatted by email in the run up to the holiday - Nino doesn’t speak English so it was a great opportunity to practice my Spanish (I’m terrible at languages but I’ve been trying to relearn since before our last trip to Barcelona with Andy and Elaine - I’m rubbish but getting there).

Lads Lads Lads - From left to Right; Antonio (interpreter & dog owner extraordinaire), Andy, Yours Truly and Nino (Club Cabraloca and all round legend)

I explained to Nino that there would be 4 adults (who apart from Sammy, climb regularly indoors, along with me having done a bit of rock climbing as a kid), Lenora (age 7 - an absolute beast), Esmé (9 - who has done a bit of bouldering indoors), Autumn (3 - who has done a bit of bouldering indoors but mainly will be climbing for our entertainment *please don’t call social services) and James (4 months, who most likely won’t be up for climbing but we would see how he feels on the day).

We wanted to climbs somewhere (in order of importance) 1 - That was in the shade (It’s brutally hot in Granada in August), 2 - (that had grades between 4-7 in the same spot so that everyone could have a challenge) and 3 - My Spanish isn’t particularly good so would he have someone that spoke English (I’m happy ordering a few beers or chatting conversationally, but don’t want to die because of getting a verb mixed up). Nino was all over it and reassured me all would be taken care of.

For anyone that hasn’t been, I can’t recommend Granada enough. It’s a small city that isn’t very busy (coming from London that’s a massive plus), there’s very little traffic, you’re right on the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range (which has Mulhacen, the highest mountain in Western Europe outside the alps as well as the most Southern ski resort) and some ace beaches (the lesser known Costa Tropical) which don’t suffer the hordes of people and Brits that other coasts nearby do. Plus the Alhambra, Nasrid Palace & Generalife Gardens are truly spectacular.

The Nasrid Palace, presented to you by Big L

We spent a few days checking out the area, visiting the tourist spots, going to the beach, lounging around our pool and BBQing (with some drinking thrown in too), but also scoped out some climbing routes on a hike too. For those not in the know, Los Cahorros is a fantastic trail of rope bridges, rivers and stunning views through a gorge and mountainsides. It’s also famous for having some incredible climbing routes, so we had a good old hike around to check it out.

A hill at the start of Los Cahorros

It’s always a good idea to set off early when the days get so hot so we did most of our hiking in the morning to head home at around 2. The hike is really fun and family friendly with plenty of access to mountain run off water (I always bring my Sawyer Filter with me wherever I go where I might run out of water, despite the several litres of frozen water we had with us, as it’s ace just to fill up whenever you need. Super handy, very light, connects to a regular bottle and lasts forever. link on image below).

Los Cahorros only has about 300m of elevation across the hike so is family friendly whilst being hard enough work when Elaine was carrying James and I was mainly carrying Autumn.

Lunch in a nice little cave

Anyway...it’s really cool with a load of rope bridges, stunning scenery, great access to water, lots of shade & amazing climbing routes. Do it.

Next up on the list was hooking up with Nino. Unfortunately Antonio, Nino’s buddy and translator couldn’t make the Thursday so we rescheduled for Friday. No biggie, as we had a lazy day by the pool but come Friday we were all super hyped to get on some rock.

We met Nino in the Lidl car park near the main Decathlon (I love Decathlon) and had a good laugh about my obscene amount of emails I had sent Nino. He had been very patient and was just as nice in person as he was on email. His mate Antonio would be our translator as Nino’s English was similar to my Spanish, and Antonio came with the added bonus of his dog who was epic. She was a jet black Belgian shepherd and the kids were super hyped as they were missing Ripley (our Sproodle).

After a quick drive to Alfacar (there are loads of routes within a very short drive of Granada) we found our wall. After a pretty steep hike up the hill through some trees (I was a little worried about Elaine as she had James strapped to her chest, but she’s an absolute machine and didn’t seem phased at all) we got to a really nice and shady ledge below our climbing spot.

Autumn kicking back at basecamp (poser)

All the gear, all the ideas (Nino & Antonio, at least)

Sammy, checking out the photos, being stalked by the dog

After setting up, Nino asked who wanted to go first - before he’d even had the chance to finish the sentence, Lenora was up and putting on a harness whilst simultaneously saying ‘I will’ in a manner that suggested this wasn’t up for discussion. Within minutes, she had blasted her way up the first route (route 8 of el Sector del Esconchón in the Guia de Escalada en Alfacar Granada, if you’re interested) and cockily confirmed that it was easy.

Lenora (just turned 7) before ‘warming up on an easy route’ - her words not mine

Esmé and Autumn found it a bit trickier and only made it half way up, but Esmé doesn’t climb as much and Autumn is only 3. To give her credit, she got a good 8 metres up and it’s her first time climbing outdoors. We all had a good laugh when Autumn rolled over onto her back, hanging from the rope and started shouting “I can’t roll over! I can’t roll over!”. Please don’t call social services.

Like a beetle on it’s back (Autumn, 3 years old)

I normally belay with a Black Diamond ATC Guide (linked to Amazon) but Antonio got me on a Grigri+ for the first time and it felt a bit odd to use. Paying out the rope was a little more tricky but I appreciated the extra safety feature knowing that it auto locks if someone is belaying me and not paying attention (having 4 kids with us, that’s quite possible too). I’m still in two minds about which I prefer to use, but then redundancy is key in climbing and the GriGri definitely offers a greater level of safety.

Esmé getting involved

Sammy had a good old crack at the route and managed to top out, but freaked a bit when she saw the view. It’s a bit different to an indoor wall, when you’re already 1350m up, the 30m feels a lot higher.

Nino and Antonio started planning out the more challenging routes once they’d gauged our abilities on the warm up route. They put up a harder route (route 5) which Elaine and Andy promptly powered through, followed by me. It was a challenging route (a V+ in the local grades, which according to the guidebook and the UKC website which have a conversion chart shows the local grades being two lower than normal French grades, so this would have been a 6a+ apparently).

Andy!

Esmé having a crack at the second route with Andy on belay

Not one to be outdone, Lenora got tied in and had a shot at the harder route. I wasn’t sure how far up she’d get as it wasn’t particularly easy and she’s still only small. Of course, she flipped the beast mode switch and absolutely crushed it.

She never fails to amaze me. Big L went up the wall like a rat up a drain pipe & both our guides were super impressed by how brave she was. Putting in all those hours at YonderE17 and the Arch obviously paid off. Things were going really well until Lenora reached up into hold (in the side of the big rock in the picture above and got a nasty surprise.

Lenora topping out but getting a nasty surprise

There was a really spiky bush in the rock which Lenora put her hand right in to, so the pain combined with a sudden realisation that she was super high up freaked her out. She wanted to come down right away, but was pretty gripped so lost her concentration. Usually at the Reach and Castle climbing centres (which I think are about 15 metres) she loves abseiling down, with whoops of joy and wild/possibly real claims that she’s a ninja/special forces etc. Things were a bit different here, with the wall not being as flat as in a climbing centre what with overhangs and the risk of other spiky plants. It all got a bit much for her but we finally got her down. Nino was great and climbed over to her, got her to relax a bit and then things were fine.

Nino helping Lenora find her Zen

Meanwhile, Antonio had set up a much harder route (route 2 in the guide) along with changing the first easy route over a few metres into a similarly hard route (route 7). Elaine had a crack at the hardest route and despite having the background noise of a crying 5 month old baby James being held by Andy, a mildly hysteric Lenora, along with Autumn and Esmé arguing over who was more of a unicorn, managed to focus and get on with it.

Elaine, getting stuck in

After Elaine got down, the kids were getting a bit grumpy so I helped Elaine and Sammy get them all back to the comfort of the air con in the cars (and iPads) so that Andy and I could have a crack at the last routes before helping Nino and Antonio Pack up.

Where’s Wally? I’m on there somewhere (shots from the cars)

Me, topping out on route 2 - loads of fun & a bit of a challenge. Great shot by Andy

The view over Granada from Alfacar

All in all it was a great day. I thoroughly enjoyed the routes - the final two routes were the most challenging and in very different ways, but I think we could have pushed it up a grade looking back even. The view over Granada was spectacular and the size of the mountains is really humbling. To give context, Alfacar (a low to medium size mountain) from where we parked the car, was starting at around 1300m, which is roughly the height of Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the UK at 1345m) with the peak topping out at around 1400m.

I’d love to get back to the area again for more exploration - apparently Autumn is ideal as it’s still nice and warm, but not so punishingly hot. This opens up a number of walls that don’t have shade at the bottom, so that would be nice.

All in all, I can thoroughly recommend Granada and if you get the chance to go, make sure you hit up Nino at Club Cabraloca to save you lugging a ton of kit over whilst getting the benefit of a super experienced local guide.

#granada #spain #alhambra #climbing #girlswhoclimb #sierranevada #sportclimbing #womenwhoclimb #alfacar

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thehikingviking · 5 years

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Pilot Knob (N) from North Lake via Paiute Pass

Day 4 on the 2019 Sierra Challenge was called Humphreys Basin, with the challenge objectives being two unnamed bumps between Pilot Knob and Four Gables. While these objectives were of no interest to me, the previous challenge peak and current SPS peak of Pilot Knob just to the southwest was. This peak alone would require over 20 miles to complete, and since the majority of the Pilot Knob route overlapped the challenge route, this would give us an opportunity to hike with the group for a good portion of the hike. Asaka and I rushed to the trailhead and got everything in order just in time for departure. We partook in the group photo at North Lake Trailhead at the campsite where mosquitoes were fierce. We then took off up the trail. Asaka started off at a brisk pace, of which the whole group followed. It wasn’t long until the pace became unsustainable, and others slowly began to pass us. I could feel the spirit drain from Asaka as we drifted towards the back of the pack. We settled on a pace matching Bob and Mason, who I chatted with for the first couple miles. I had to finally let them pass right before Loch Leven, as I noticed Asaka began to fade further. Loch Leven was as beautiful as ever.

We now settled into a more normal pace, hiking alongside Chris Henry and Ken Yee. We passed Piute Lake and hiked up the final mile to the pass crossing many streams and lingering snowfields.

We took a long break at the top of Piute Pass. Asaka asked which one was Pilot Knob, so I pointed towards the peak. She became devastated at the thought of continuing on so far, and told me that she was going to turn around. This was heart breaking for me because I felt the hike would be enjoyable and I knew it fell within her abilities. I didn’t want to miss out on the peak, so I decided to continue on by myself. We divided up the food and I continued down the trail towards Summit Lake.

While trying to convince Asaka to continue, I had lost sight of all the others. My whole plan of hiking with the group had dissolved.

I despondently made my way around Summit Lake, and while looking back I noticed a figure hiking down the trail. The chances were it was a stranger, but I couldn’t help but wonder and hope that it was Asaka. I waited for several minutes and still couldn’t recognize the person, so I began hiking back. Sure enough it was Asaka, and she agreed to try and continue to the peak with me.

At a fork in the trail, we took a right towards Desolation Lake.

Mt Humphreys stood above us to the northeast. I was very proud to have already climbed this monster.

After a short distance, we left the trail and made a beeline towards Pilot Knob. We were now hiking across the Humphreys Basin. The terrain was easy to cross without a trail.

The mosquitoes punished us. There was a lot of water throughout the Humphreys Basin, creating a perfect breeding ground for the little parasites.

At the same time, the water created many beautiful views, and allowed for the blossoming of wildflowers this late into the summer.

Glacier Divide dominated the skyline to the southwest.

The challenge peaks stood to the northwest.

Over a rise, Pilot Knob came into view.

The only downside to the cross country travel was there were a lot of small up and downs. I tried to minimize the elevation change to the best of my abilities, but it is in no way completely unavoidable.

We were given a great view of Knob Lake and Pilot Knob after surmounting one last final rise. We planned to ascend the northwestern ridge.

We had to climb down into one more creek bed before starting the final climb. The terrain remained open and easy for cross country travel.

From the top of the ridge we could see Chevaux and Alsace Lakes. When I told Asaka the peak was just to our left, she was very surprised. When I pointed to the peak from Piute Pass, she thought that I was pointing to Merriam Peak on the other side of French Canyon. That would be way too far to do as a day hike, even for me.

The majority of the remaining distance up the peak was a straight forward class 2 scramble.

Someone was climbing the peak up above us on the ridge. I couldn’t make out who it was, but it was most likely another Sierra Challenger. We passed Chris Henry on his way down towards the challenge peaks. Shortly after, I noticed someone was hot on our heels. I was not going to let him pass us, so I pushed on at full speed towards the top, leaving Asaka in the process. The final traverse to the true summit was a fun bit of class 3.

Shortly after I reached the top. To the northeast were the challenge peaks, Four Gables, Mt Humphreys, Checkered Demon and Mt Emerson.

To the east were Piute Pass and the section of Humphreys Basin which we just crossed.

To the south were Piute Canyon and Glacier Divide.

To the southwest French Canyon merged with Piute Canyon and drained towards the South Fork of the San Joaquin River.

To the northwest was French Canyon.

To the north were Feather, Royce and Merriam Peaks in the foreground. In the background was Mt Morgan.

youtube

Shortly after David Quatro joined me on the summit. We introduced ourselves, and we learned that the person ahead of us was Grant Miller, the amazingly fast newcomer who has been tearing up the challenge so far.

We watched Asaka make the final traverse towards us.

Asaka and I spent a long time on the summit. It was a beautiful day and we had great views everywhere. Chevaux, Alsace, Paris and Puppet Lakes were all amazingly beautiful.

We finally left the summit hoping to make it to down by dinner time. As we neared the end of the class 3 traverse, Clémente Guillaume appeared. I asked him if he had traversed all the way from Four Gables, to which he responded, “No Four Gables, no Four Gables.” It took a few seconds to linguistically digest this through his thick accent. I recommended that he climb Sky Point on his way back, then we went our separate ways.

I strongly considered climbing one of the two challenge peaks as a bonus. It was only a short distance out of our way and had the potential to avoid some elevation change later on. Asaka was already mentally frail, so I voted against it. We would retrace our steps back towards the pass.

As anticipated, the up and downs began to wear on us. Humphreys Basin is quite expansive, and it never felt like we were making any significant progress.

The only thing we could do to pass the time was enjoy the amazing scenery.

After an eternity, we made it back to Piute Pass, where we had some backpackers take our photos. It wasn’t as hard as expected. Only two more hours, I told Asaka.

I stopped at one of the lakes for my aqua challenge point. Afterwards I felt clean and revitalized.

Within the last two miles I felt someone right on our heels. I turned back and it was Chris Henry. We then jogged out to the car together.

That night we slept in the car at the trailhead. After 3 days of hiking, we earned a rest day. The next day I tried fishing at North Lake, almost broke my Jeep in trying to fix it and refreshed in Bishop.

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prat-central · 7 years

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12/River for the ship thing, bonus for any commentary from Elliott -floofy

SEND ME A SHIP and I’ll tell you:

Who said “I love you” first

River, the Doctor never says things like that, he thinks them and feels them but when it comes to saying them he get’s a little weird about it. He rather show his love than say it, and River knows that, it might not be the most ideal marriage, but she knows he loves her and that’s all the matters.

Who would have the other’s picture as their phone background

The Doctor, I mean, he did have her photo on his desk at the University, so OF COURSE he would have her picture as his background on his phone. River has to be a tad more careful about these things, just in case she runs into any other versions of her husband.

Who leaves notes written in fog on the bathroom mirror

They both do that. I feel like that would have been a thing started when they spent their night together on delirium. Maybe after a rather awkward encounter, the Doctor would feel bad and or weird and write a little message for River while she was showering. And then the next “morning” River does the same for the Doctor.

Who buys the other cheesy gifts

The Doctor, but he refuses to believe they are cheesy, they are extremely useful according to him.

Who initiated the first kiss

River, the Doctor is too awkward for that. He would have been very awkward and weird about it until River actually leaned in and kissed him, and then he remembered how nice it actually was to kiss his wife, and he was a bit more….okay with it. Still, this version of himself isn’t very touchy, or lovey, so kisses come a bit more rarely.

Who kisses the other awake in the morning

Again, the Doctor, tying in with the last question, River is respectful about the Doctor’s strangeness with closeness and touching. So, she would never do anything that would make her husband feel uncomfortable. The Doctor is in control, as he likes to be with everything, with that aspect of their relationship. He would kiss her awake because he feels like it that day and she would be all the welcoming.

Who starts tickle fights

River, because although she is respectful of the touching thing, she knows how ticklish this version of the Doctor is and sometimes teasing her husband is fun. And although he acts like he hates it and is a ”Grumpy Gus” afterward, it’s all the worth it for her to play.

Who asks who if they can join the other in the shower

“Um…yeah….no, there is no shower sharing, that’s ew and also those are my parents you’re talking about here!”-Elliott.

I agree with Elliott, and also, I just don’t want to think about that.

Who surprises the other in the middle of the day at work with lunch

The Doctor, are you kidding me? he man is like a lonely puppy, he’s always wanting attention, and it would be so like him to come find River at the start of her lunch and sweep her away for days. But he always brings her back before her lunch ends. Days later. He calls them dates, by the way.

Who was nervous and shy on the first date

The Doctor, their first date technically lasted 24 years, too, so he had a lot of awkward and shy moments during those years. But they both learned a lot about each other during that time.

Who kills/takes out the spiders

Neither of them would KILL a spider, I’m overly sure both would treat it like a special alien race, and it probably is, knowing them, and then they just take it somewhere to live out it’s spidery life, or maybe even let it live in the TARDIS.

Who loudly proclaims their love when they’re drunk

The Doctor can’t get drunk, so I am going to go with River, and by loudly, we will change that to embarrassingly. I can just picture the Doctor taking her to some futuristic karaoke bar, only because she really wants to go, as he finds the whole thing of singing in public very cringy and wrong, but then she drinks too many fruity drinks and get’s up and starts belting out the most sickening love song, dedicated to no one else but her loving Husband whose blushing and trying to hide in his velvet coat.

#angry eyebrows #Farewell Doctor Week #Okay #I honestly do love this tho is that bad?

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fluidsf · 5 years

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Eastern Delivery 1

Hijokaidan: [Viva Angel +1 NOISE] REMASTERED EDITION (1984 / 2014) (Japanese Import)

Reviewed format: CD Album reissue on réveil / Alchemy RECORDS

Additional release identifiers: ALCHEMY RECORDS SPECIAL EDITION SERIES (20) / Hijokaidan 03

Welcome to the first review in my new series Eastern Delivery. In this new review series I will give you a personal view on underground and extreme music from Asia and the Middle East through reviews of historical / archival reissues and recent releases. This review series also features specially imported releases I order from the original countries in Asia and the Middle East that these were released in, so you will also be able to get an idea of both local editions of Eastern underground music as well as releases that were on released in Asia or the Middle East. Plenty of cool stuff coming up definitely and I will provide links to the store you can buy every release from, for convenience.

This first review is on the third part in ALCHEMY RECORDS SPECIAL EDITION Hijokaidan series, through which the label (owned by JOJO of Hijokaidan) reissued the old albums from the legendary Noise group. This third part of the album series is the album Viva Angel, which I have here reissued as [Viva Angel +1 NOISE] REMASTERED EDITION, with the +1 pointing to the bonus track added to every REMASTERED release of the original albums in this series. This is a 2014 remaster by JOJO released through the reissue imprint of Alchemy, réveil. The CD comes in a white jewelcase featuring an obi strip covering the spine as well as the short side on the front and the long side on the back of the jewelcase featuring release identifiers, price, release date and assorted (promotional) information on the release. It's mostly just info for retailers, but that strip definitely looks classy to keep. The Japanese definitely got a great style of packaging music. The spine of this obi strip obviously features just the artist name, album title and catalogue number + label logos. The stream of info contained on the packaging continues on the back of the jewelcase which features the tracklist of Viva Angel, also pointing out the BONUS TRACK. There is the original release date of Viva Angel as well as the same label logos again as well as very detailed info on the CD specifications and copyright info. Included with the CD is a simple two page booklet with again, the tracklist, but also original release credits, credits of the REMASTERED EDITION and more info in Japanese. On the front you have the album cover (with additional text pointing out the reissue) and on the back a sweet abstract black and white photo featuring Hijokaidan in fancy designed Japanese characters and label logos and the like. The booklet is well printed on nice matte paper and the CD feels quality as well. A pretty thick heavy CD pressing this is and besides featuring the usual artist, album name, logos and copyright message, the CD also got a nice silvery translucent design to it which looks pretty classy.

Now onto the Noise music on this album itself. Hijokaidan's band members have joined or left over the many years this band's been active, but back in 1984 on this album the band consisted of only three members. Jojo Hiroshige, T.Mikawa and Naoto Hayashi. Viva Angel begins with Seeds Rock'n'Roll, a short track of Noise Rock, featured repetive screamed Japanese vocals and screechy AM radio manipulations like Noise as well as repetitive but pretty clean drums. It's a nice track that introduces the album's rather varied Noise / Noise Rock hybrid style. Seeds Rock'n'Roll is pretty sparse in nature but definitely a fun, wild and energetic opening track and the screechy Noise is definitely powerful and effective. Then we have track 02 Hellthy Girl which features a lot of wild squelchy and feedback laden Guitar Noise, as well as what sounds like heavily distorted screamed vocals. Again, very sparse in instrumentation but the many variations and fluctuations in the Noise combined with the nice roomy ambience to the recording give this quite a unique sound. The Noise is both powerful and energetic but the wild manipulations also create plenty of enjoyable details and directions the Noise moves into. As I've noticed from the beginning of Viva Angel already, Hijokaidan's Noise is rather progressive on this album and more than just straight on blasts or walls of fuzzy crunch, Hijokaidan has a great way of performing their screeching clouds of sound. It definitely feels more "live" like this and the excellent remaster by JOJO helps too, with all tracks on this CD sounding very clear without clipping as well as still having plenty of headroom (for you to turn up to your preferred level). And the bassier pieces on this album have got a very nice clean bass sound to them, very powerful but undistorted, great sound quality as I expected from a Japanese CD. Track 03 is Secret Desire, which features a heavily free improv styled electric guitar performance that also sometimes moves into more melodic territory in the background of a noisescape filled with screeches, Glitch like high frequency synth effects and Noise as well as what sounds like the amplified sounds of mice, wildly moving and squeaking. While descibed like this this might seem like chaos in sound, the piece in fact has a very clear sound, a great mix in which all layers are audible and not overshadowing eachother in any way. Like an alien organism Secret Desire keeps evolving, changing, communicating in strange ways and it's definitely an enjoyable if also a bit frightening track. Then we have track 04 Twilight Guitar which is a guitar driven Noise Drone piece that features a lot of wah wah effect squelching and alien like sucking effects as well as another layer of free improv guitar. It feels a bit like some muddy sonic images of a flowing river, though the two note guitar drone does also add some melodic element to it, which is rather nice. Then we have the title track Viva Angel, which features a rather odd but definitely fun combination of a calm Rock & Roll instrumental with simple drums and goofy high pitched vocals with quick Guitar noise. It sounds a bit like a guitar depicting two casts rolling on the floor fighting while a sweet Rock band plays a fun tune. It's the kind of strange musical juxtaposition that actually works, in a strange way. Then we move to track 06 Broken Young Bud which is where the Noise moves into Harsh territory. A screechy manipulated feedback like tone buzzes over multiple layers of mad delayed and distorted vocal screams and various other vocal sounds. It sounds both tense and ghostly in a way, a very expressive piece that's also nicely piercing but never sounding random or exagerrated. Sounds great. Then we have the last track from the original Viva Angel album, Bad Character, But Great Sounds, a lengthy Harsh Noise piece that progresses subtly but surely overtime. The 24:18 long piece features a lot of screechy heavily distorted Noise sometimes bright, sometimes darker mixed with much cleaner electric guitar improvisations. The great thing about this track is that even with all the harshness of the Noise, the other elements of the piece are still pretty clearly audible in the mix. Check out for example, the stuttery distorted effects created in the piece or the feedback tones of which the sonic texture is still clearly discernible as sounding cleaner than the Noise itself. There are plenty of elements and details to discover in this piece, so I recommend you to listen to this album multiple times to focus on them all overtime (though maybe over a few days, as indeed the harshness can give your ears a weird feeling). Afterwards where onto the BONUS TRACK, Δ8000 (A side of the joint cassette release with Incapacitants, 1985). This track is even longer than Bad Character, But Great Sounds at 26:56 but features a relatively cleaner though more feedback driven sound. As the track title indicates, this track is taken from a split tape release together with (Hijokaidan related) Harsh Noise band Incapacitants released a year after Viva Angel. The track has a more boxy sound to it, less high end in the recording but also sounds more raw as well, which adds a great additional harsh finale to the album. The piece is full with earpiercing feedback laden Noise and distorted screams. It's high energy all the way through with a much more metallic pure Noise sound to it than the original album tracks but the amount of variation and different Noise textures created makes the piece very enjoyable. And while being Harsh Noise, the track has some nice sensible headroom in the remastering by JOJO, great Noise, great remastering. This brings us to the end of the remastered edition of Viva Angel.

[Viva Angel +1 NOISE] REMASTERED EDITION by Hijokaidan is one of the first albums by the Japanese Noise band and already showcases their varied sound rather well over these 7 (+1) tracks with Noise tracks that sometimes move into a harsher direction, sometimes are more Rock driven. The energy and excellent performances by Hijokaidan, combined with the well edited combination of short with longer pieces in the tracklist and finished with JOJO careful high quality remastering work make this an essential release and a great introduction to the history of Japanese (Harsh) Noise music.

I've imported this Japanese edition through the cdjapan store, please refer to the site for pricing and payment options for your country. You can find the release here: http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/TECH-25393

#cd #album #reissue #réveil #alchemy records #1984 #2014 #noise #harsh noise #hijokaidan #非常階段 #viva angel #+1 #remastered edition #Eastern Delivery #underground music #experimental music #album review #japan

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workinsymmetry · 5 years

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Nootka Travel Journal

My ride showed up and I loaded my things. Except for my headlamp and Nalgene. Inconsequential. A 1 litre smart water bottle like the pros. Breakfast at Green Gables. Edson, Hinton, Jasper, Mt. Robson, Valemount, all passed in a flash. Driving was fast and efficient. Clearwater for lunch, then past whatever small towns before Kamloops, Kamloops, Merritt, and finally Hope, where I write this in my wind battered tent.

Today felt...strange. Not working on a monday. The product of all that anxiety from the weeks leading here. On and off, confirmed and cancelled. I feel like I am cheating, skipping class. I hope everything at work is functioning without me. I know it is. Tristin is capable. I still feel mentally unprepared to be here, like my mind just wont shift into vacation mode. I feel like vacation mode doesn’t exist. What do I even think vacation mode is? Forgetting my normal life while by background stress dissolved and I laugh and have fun in the sun? Taking time to work out my frustrations in life? As I grow and chase a solution to this anxiety I have been fighting I wonder if there is a new angle I need to consider all together. Because this was isn’t working.

It's soothing to travel and experience all these new geographies and landscapes. Cresting a ridge to see the scrubby valleys near Merritt open up, or the dusty brown hills of Kamloops. Thinking of the unique issues and experiences of these different lives. I wonder what they feel when they're in my town. Its getting to dark to write. I will try to sleep, however the space between my head and Highway 1 is about 15 meters and the noise is insufferable. Earplugs should have been a consideration. I forget the name of the camp but at least on the other side is the Fraser River. My goal tomorrow is to find a way to sooth my mind and relax a bit. I can convince myself I deserve it.

Tuesday 23 Hope-Van-Nanaimo-Campbell-Gold River. Had a late evening and didn’t get to write. I recall loud traffic all evening but I eventually slept. Had a dream about kids harassing us in our tents. On the road early and breakfast in whatever suburb of Vancouver.Had to take some business calls: utility locators looking for keys. Seems to have worked out. Navigating Van was white knuckle. Ended up in Lonsdale Quay to meet Nick's friend. Tall blonde who works in HR for an insurance company.Toured the boardwalk. Floating houses, garbage barges, seals. Had a beer in the sun before heading out to the ferry. Was a nice ride but got slightly burnt.Regret not bringing 360 brimmed hat. Or any hat. Thankful for Buff, long har, and sunscreen.

Georges BBQ was excellent. Drive to Campbell River felt fast. Took wrong turn looking for Gold River resulting in a 1 h delay. Overnight hotel in Gold River. Stress inducing work related dreams. Thought there would be cell service in town, but there was none. I intended to set a voicemail recording to redirect calls, but that plan was cancelled. I guess now I am truly disconnected. Upset Amanda before I left and was only able to send a simple late night message to her with hotel wifi.

Wednesday 24 10:26 - Very poor continental breakfast.1/10. Drive to Air Nootka was quick. Scenery is just unique enough to be interesting. It's beautiful, but i have seen plenty of mountains lately. I miss open ranges and horizons. Luckily I am about to meet the biggest horizon there can be. We fly out shortly.

2:35 - Flight into Nootka was short and sweet. Trailhead had lush ferns and ancient giant cedars. After 1/2 hour of hiking we were at the ocean and grey white sands opened up through the trees. The view was magnificent. For a while I was at ease that this whole experience was worth the stress it took to get here.Missing is cold beer. The ocean wind is cooling and the sun and sand are warm. I will miss this scene.

Seeing the expansive ocean is a strange feeling. The endless shimmering and long horizon are beautiful, however there is a sad and empty feeling to it. It needs something to compliment it. A boat or storm clouds. I feel my face getting hot. Need to make sure to stay hydrated. Tent is up and I'll have a short rest.

7:12 - We walked the beach and played in the tide. The occasional cold drops of rain weren’t a concern then. But sure enough, the rain came. Slowly across the horizon like a grey wall of fog. Luckily I just finished dinner so I didn’t have to clean in the rain. I encountered several problems with my cooking setup: I need more water holding devices OR a better water purification system. Ramen is NOT a good backpacking food. It leaves an oily mess and the smell is impossible to remove. The rice I brought requires too much waiting time and also leaves a hard to remove odour. Recommend just plain rice in the future. Tomorrow and today are feeling like non stop rain. Amanda would love it. I admire her positivity in adverse situations, especially being wet while camping. I like her a lot. I think we still need to learn more about each other and our relationship, but I think it's working. I miss her. I wish I could just say Hi.

Thu 25 I had a terrible migraine in the night. at first it felt like a headache from being on uneven ground, but it didn’t go away when I rotated. Agony from 1 am to 7 am when I got out and was able to get tylenol. Was good al day, but was worried about what triggered it. Must hydrate more.

Rained all night. Not much, but enough to coat everything in fine sand. Packed up and hit the trail quite late. Luckily the weather was favorable. Everything has dried off now. Today I saw the ocean in the way I hope it would be burned into my memory. At least a kilometer of firm packed sand at mid tide. Low waves rumbled into the shore, small rolling crests crashing into themselves and then inching their way towards my feet as I walked.

7:57 - Sun is setting and again I am moved by the view. A small beach fire and high tide waves. I will take a photo. The ocean is vast and loud and dangerous but it's simple and I think that’s what I like the most. It's not to bust to sit back and take it in. No concentration is needed to enjoy the scene. See the clouds. See the horizon. See the waves. Birds and boats provide little extra flavours. With zero hills, the walk has been fairly breezy. I'm tired now, but not mountain tired.I get paid tomorrow. I have no way to prove or check, but I know I do and I like that. It's been an expensive trip. Worth it? We will see.

Fri 26/Sat 27 Thankfully the rain didn’t start overnight or early morning while we broke camp. The walk included large rock hopping and pebbles that would sink you to your ankles. It poured. This walk wasnt noteworthy. The cabin was a nice feature (Nick's cousins own a cabin and invited us to stay with them). We were greeted with a fire, coffee, burgers, and french toast. Dave, Brian, and Janet were the adults. There were about 8 new high school graduates there as well. They began playing drinking monopoly. Part of me was jealous that I was stuck visiting with the "adults" but it's becoming clear that I have no place in drinking monopoly anymore. My skills have departed from drinking games. I am starting to find myself noticing the dissimilarities between myself and the youth- that is, I feel like I am departing fro being young.

These girls are young and beautiful. One particularly, Kira, is absolutely magnificent. The boys are fresh faced, modern, handsome. I feel like I missed out on that stage. There is a youthful and free energy about them all that I dont think I can replicate anymore. Perhaps it is less about direct attraction and admiration to the physical appearance and more about the attraction and jealousy of being the type of young man who would have a chance at connecting with these girls.

Our cabin hosts have been so great. Food never tasted so good as it did in the middle of this hike. Dave takes to conversation like it's an extreme sport. Charming, personable, funny, and great at telling stories. Things I admire but never truly developed. I can just sit on a stony beach and write my thoughts. As a bonus, dave took me and Nick surfing. No waves, just paddling. But legitimate. It was unexpected, as I always imagined my first time being in Mexico or California. But the foggy grey Pacific Northwest was incedible, and a memory I hope I hang on to. There were wedding preparations going on at the beach. A guy and a girl who were presumably there early for the wedding in a coupe days were also suiting up to go surfing. The girl, who was very fit, stripped on the beach to get into her wetsuit. A+.

This morning, some of the boys and girls went upriver to swim. A quick glance revealed nudity, and again I was filled with envy for the youth and a growing up I never got to expereince. This cabin is definitely a departure from my summers when I was 18. At one point there was a ziplock bag of weed on the table. Definitely different.

11:34 - Today is sunny and warm again. Clothes and tents are just finishing drying and we should be on our way soon. One more night on the trail, but the experience has definitely climaxed. Nightmares of work still continue.

7:37 - I'm sitting on a rock watching the last tide roll in. The last sunset on the ocean that I will see for presumably a long while. And to be true, the actual sunset will be concealed by a cliff to the west of the campsite. We had a black bear encounter. He was digging through a pile of seaweed seeking out sandflies. He noticed me first and we stared for a bit. When the guys showed up, the bear just sat there, scratching himself, unconcerened with us. We found a way around him. Drinking water was scarce and had to be taken from a hidden little grove. It was tea coloured but seemed to be ok, if you dont think about it to much. I slipped on the logs twice trying to get to it. It was the first night with a clear sky, so I made an effort to stick my head out of the tent once it got dark. I wish I would have been more awake because the sky was undescribable. It has been so long since I could see the stars down to the horizon. I could immediatly see the glow of the galaxy spiral arms. Bright stars or planets that I might have been able to identify if i hadnt just woke up. There is something that Whitecourt just doesn't satisfy within my, and that could be it. Perhaps someday I will find a place to commit my life to. But until then, I will be without home. A complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.

July 28 8:55 - Outer tents were soaked with condensation. For the first time, I feel how dirty my hair is and I cannot wait to scrub it. Who knows when that opportunity will be. At least I have a cleanish set of clothes for the ride home. My finger and toenails are getting long and dirty. My facial hair is driving me insane. A wash and shave has never felt more appealing. Makes me wish I didn’t cancel my anytime fitness membership. Free showers across the country. It is a couple hour hike to Friendly Cove where hopefully we taxi back without much delay. Does the taxi run on sundays? These questions plague me. Im not sure another day out here would be welcome, just due to the unexpectedness. We will see.

July 31 Back at home and am recounting the last few days of the trip. We did catch the water taxi back to Air Nootka and the car, but only after experiencing the white guilt served up at the church turned museum at Friendly Cove. Starting around 7 pm we drove from Air Nootka, caught the ferry in Nanaimo from 10:45 pm to 12:50 am. Got a hotel in Hope. The following day, drove from Hope and stopped in Kelowna. Had a beer and watched butts for a while. Continued driving to Vernon where Nick met up with another friend who worked at Predator Ridge Resort. She was very cute. k_duuub on instagram for anyone wondering just how cute. Continued driving to one of those popular houseboating communities. Stopped and ate. Drove to Golden where I took over driving. Cruised through the mountain parks at night, which was a bizarre experience. Non stop driving til I got home. Now I sit here contemplating if I just burn up the rest of my vacation days this week at home. Thank you for reading.

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