#if Ireland isn't Britain

[britishaccentcharacterpoll]

Ok imma be real it's getting to the point where I hope Demoman goes out (I love him) just so I never have to read another tag comment about how he's not British ever again

#mod posts #guys #if scotland and wales (i've had one or two comments about this wrt Nia as well) aren't Britain #if Ireland isn't Britain #then why does the word British exist #it would just be English #I'm starting to wish I just called this englishaccentcharacterpoll and excluded Demo and Shrek and Nia #which would be a huge shame bc they're among the characters that have generated the most fun engagement #plus I fucking love Nia and Demo (neutral on Shrek lol) #but it's so tiring #the main reason it's so tiring is that I specifically encouraged non-English British accents to be included #specifically BECAUSE i fucking hate people thinking British=English #I wanted as much diversity of accents from all across the british isles as possible #To show that not all British accents are posh south england accents #And I wanted to remind everyone that British does not mean English #But I've gotten nothing but grief for it constantly #And people assume I don't know what I'm talking about I think #When I am English with a branch of my family in Scotland #I support Scottish Irish and Welsh independence 1000% #I understand some of the nuance and I can understand why people (especially Irish) wouldnt want to be called British #but these are the British Isles and the British Broadcasting Corporation covers all of us #(which is relevant bc several of these characters are from BBC shows including the Scottish accented Capaldi Dr Who) #anyway I'll probably delete this in a couple hours when I feel stupid about posting it

[starlightshadowsworld]

Look and listen to the people who unequivocally support Palestine, who are condemning Israel's actions.

And you'll find a pattern.

From Nelson Mandela, Malcom X, to Ireland, to South Africa, native Americans and other indigenous people.

People who have been oppressed.

People who have suffered at the hands of colonial powers.

People who are still suffering and raise their hands in solidarity with Palestine.

Because they know, they understand.

They are people who are fighting for their rights on their own land, and see the same struggle.

Who are the main people siding with Israel?

The US and Britain who are historically and presently the oppressors.

The colonisers.

This is the oppressors and the oppressed.

The coloniser and the colonised.

Because this isn't a war.

It is a genocide.

#free palestine #free gaza #colonialism #decolonisation #anti israel #anti zionisim

[inky-duchess]

Fantasy Guide to Royal and Noble Jewellery

Royal and Noble jewellery is a staple of their life, a statement of the who is person is, their rank and their wealth. Jewellery simply isn't a accessory, it's an exercise in showmanship and a way to link to a past.

(Disclaimer: Many stones in pieces often have a bloody past, usually stolen or worked from the earth under the reign of Colonialism. It is best to always take this into account when admiring real world pieces)

Providence

Jewellery like this is usually inherited buy can also be bought or even given as a gift. There is three kinds of jewellery in this instance: private, owned by the crown or owned by the state.

Private jewellery is owned by a single person and worn or lent at their own descretion. Private jewellery can be no less grand than state owned jewellery. This jewellery can be inherited by anybody the owner chooses.

State jewellery is not privately owned, it belongs to the country itself. It is not inherited but used by royal family. If a royal family is deposed, the jewellery remains with the state. Such as the French Crown Jewels.

Owned by the Crown means that it can only pass monarch to monarch, worn only by consorts or the monarch and lent to anybody they choose.

Noble jewellery is not quite the same. Much of it is owned privately but there may be one or two pieces designated as official jewellery for the title such as a specific tiara.

The Rules

Jewellery like this are not just trinkets to be borrowed by anybody. Usually the monarch (or titled noble) or sometimes the spouse, is in charge of designating who can be lent which pieces and for what occasion. Even if you are a super close member of the family, you still have to take what's on offer. Sometimes certain jewellery is worn exclusively by a certain rank say the Queen or the noble themselves and would not be offered to anybody else. For example, you will note that into today's royalty you will see certain royals repeating the same tiaras such as Kate Middleton who has only worn the Cambridge Lover's Knot, the Strathmore Rose Tiara, the Lotus Tiara and once, the Cartier Halo Tiara. These would be the tiaras available to them, which usually number only a handful. Certain pieces are designated by for the monarch/Consort as well, the Vladimir Tiara & the Girls of Britain and Ireland Tiara only graced the head of the Queen in her reign. Other pieces such as earrings or bracelets would also be distributed accordingly, more elaborate and expensive pieces would be worn by the higher ranking members. Certain collections are meant to be passed on, such as the Consort's jewels but many Dowager refused to pass on their jewels such as Empress Dowager Maria Feodorovna after the death of Tsar Alexander III.

Treasure Trove

Now, just because a family has a throne or a grand title doesn't mean they have caches of jewels. Many noble families sold off their pieces to pay death duties, most only have a few pieces left today. As for tiaras most noble families would not have access to large quantities, usually only affording one or two. The Spencers for example own two, the Spencer Tiara and the Spencer Honeysuckle Tiara. This is an inaccurate protrayal in Downton Abbey, as the family have at least 6 but then again Cora is a Dollar Princess so it could be possible to own as many but it never made sense considering just how many times they almost loose the estate and never sell any off. Royal families are not exempt from this either, some families have vast stores of jewels such as the British Royal Family (I wonder where those all came from...) while the Greek Monarchy (discontinued) has only a few pieces. The Romanov collection is of course legendary and we may never know it's full extent.

#Fantasy Guide to Royal and Noble jewellery #Royal jewellery #Noble jewellery #Jewellery #Fantasy Guide #writing #writeblr #writing resources #writing reference #writing advice #writer #writers #Writing resource #Writing research #Writing guide #Writing royalty #Writing royal characters

[ottoline-otter]

i can't believe i only found out today that northern ireland isn't actually in britain, i feel like i've said the wrong thing in conversations so many times

#apparently the uk isn't the same as britain...? #how did i not know this?! maybe i'm just dumb lol #embarrassing though as i've been living in ireland (the republic but still!) for a year

[saintsenara]

I’ve never really been able to get behind the headcanon that turns up in a lot in fic that Mr and Mrs Evans and their home were to baby Snape what Molly and Arthur and the Burrow were to Harry. A respite relative to Tobias and the whip, sure…but Petunia’s instant prejudice didn’t come from nowhere! She’d have been what, 11? Your interpretation that their family dynamics boiled down to the narcissism of small differences makes a lot of puzzle pieces click into place.

thank you very much for the message, anon!

and i completely agree - i've never liked that headcanon either. so much of the course snape's life takes - very much like voldemort's - depends so inherently on being an outsider looking in, on being able to vanish through the cracks left by institutional failings, and on being overlooked by so many people that he becomes dangerously susceptible to those who do notice him. it seems very implausible to me that he could have been radicalised in the way he was if he'd seen the evanses' house as a safe-haven from his abusive home.

what i can imagine, though, is that mr and mrs evans found him sort of exotic and interesting - in line with their canonical excitement when it came to lily's magic - but in a way which still kept him at arm's length.

this is to do with class - obviously. i can't imagine mrs evans would be thrilled about having snape in her nice house looking so dirty and poor - what would the neighbours say!

but it's also to do with race and ethnicity. i think it's worth pointing out that the description of how snape looks - both physically and in terms of how he's dressed and groomed - as a child overlaps so much with offensive stereotypes that might be used within settled communities in britain and ireland to talk about gypsy [a term which is used by these groups themselves within britain and ireland - i am aware that this isn't the case everywhere], roma, and traveller communities.

prejudice against gypsy, roma, and traveller people is collosal - and families like the evanses, who would be particularly invested in the idea of themselves as "law-abiding" and "respectable" would be particularly susceptible to it. snape being excluded from the house - so that the evanses never had to risk the neighbours thinking they'd let one of them in [whether snape actually has gypsy, roma, or traveller heritage or not - the perception is what the evanses are bothered about] - seems very plausible to me.

and the combined bigotries of classism and racism we can assume would impact how the evanses saw snape, also weave really interestingly into superstitions about magic.

there's so much folklore in britain and [especially] ireland about not letting fae folk into your house [similar to folklore elsewhere in europe about not inviting vampires in] - and i love the idea of this combining with the evanses' more everyday prejudices into an unwillingness to let snape across the threshold, and for him to spend the six or so years he seems to be friends with lily skulking at the bottom of the front garden.

ready to be corrupted when lord voldemort asks him inside.

[the snapes vs the evanses as the narcissism of small differences is here]

#asks answered #surprise! it's the class system #surprise! it's the way racism maintains the class system!

[bonefall]

Hello! I absolutely adore Better Bones despite never reading beyond the first series of Warrior Cats. Last time I checked canon, Bramblestar was a kit that nearly died in a fire. So your canon is canon to me and it’s probably better that way.

I do have a question though. How big do your cats think the world is? The meaningful size of their world is from the Lake to the Forest to the Ocean, but I keep thinking of how medieval peasants sometimes had their whole lives uprooted for a crusade thousands of miles away, and wondering what Clan Cats think the real edges are. Do they see Ireland and France as mythical, far off lands filled with fairytale creatures? Do they know that anything exists beyond the oceans at all? The other side of possibility is that kittypets have given them some concept of human geography, and the cats can tell stories about a land further south than a cat could walk in a lifetime, where the stars are unrecognizable and the very moon is upside down.

Have fun with your worldbuilding!

Clan cats believe that the sky, earth, ground, and aquifers below are actually one big mobius strip, and that existence repeats from top-to-bottom. Water that soaks to the bottom ends up in the sky just as steam rises up to it.

Moles dig down so far that their pelts become gently touched by StarClan, and that's why they're so soft without shine.

The world in a horizontal sense is less important, they don't talk to kittypets very much, not enough for cultural diffusion to take place in regards to human geography. They are blissfully unaware of London, let alone anything beyond the coast of Albion.

The closest anyone's really come to learning more was Heartstar, when she was on her Dovewing Quest, seeing trains and a singing cat. She decided that this was not anything she needed to know about.

SO when they see something like the sea, they believe it's a really big lake. Airplanes are probably birds flying far away. Clan cats believe that StarClan is the greatest force in the world, so surely, wherever they choose for the cats to live must be the most beautiful of all. They're a pretty self-absorbed bunch, but more than that, culturally discourage "wandering" cats!

Depending on where they are exactly (this is why Albion isn't exactly the isle of Great Britain and it's been renamed, I'm shuffling some geography) they may also be able to see part of Wales, Ireland, or the Isle of Man from where they usually collect salt. Which just leads to them believing the ocean is just a big, salty lake, given time.

#if the project ever became original I'd probably make the mountain of the Tribe- #and this new ridge that they're getting over at sanctuary lake- #into something that was once a continuous mountain range #but when Holly Leaves and Dove's Wing faced off Dove picked it up and hit her with it. So there's a flat space where there was once mountai #but if it became original there would also be like. Significant historical changes to the entire world based off that collapse #Like. Post-apocalyptic changes #clan culture #better bones au

[monstrousproductions]

TELL US ABOUT QUAKERISM

This is an absolutely hilarious thing to find in my inbox in all caps thank you so much 😂 I was going to say something like, "I'll try to keep this brief" but realistically I know I'm gonna waffle so BRACE FOR WAFFLING.

Quakers - also known as the Religious Society of Friends - are a denomination of Christianity that was founded in the mid-1600s in the north of England. It was part of the Dissenters movement, which is a term for a collection of Protestant denominations that grew up around that time out of criticism, dissatisfaction and... dissent... with the Church of England.

The branch of Quakerism that I belong to is actually in the global minority for Quakers. Most Quakers worldwide belong to evangelical branches and I'm not at all clear on how their theology differs from mainstream evangelical Christianity.

Those meetings (the Quaker term for churches/congregations) are what's called "programmed", which means their worship takes the form of a service easily recognisible by most Christians with hymns, a minister, prepared readings from the Bible, etc. I really can't speak much to that side of things as I know almost nothing abou it!

In contrast, my branch of Quakerism - by far the most common in Britain and Ireland, and I think I'm right in saying the most common in Europe and North Amerca though I'm not 100% sure - is "unprogrammed". There's no service, instead we sit together for an hour in silence. That silence might be broken by any person taking part who feels moved to stand up and speak - this is called "ministry" and for theist Quakers, it's understood as being a response to the promptings of what some people call the Light, some people call God, some people call the Holy Spirit.

This unusual worship style is an expression of the foundational Quaker belief that nobody has more of a connection to the holy than anyone else. A minister isn't better able to speak to God than a layperson, and we place a lot of emphasis on speaking to your own experiences of the divine and respecting others' experiences. A phrase often used to describe this idea is "There is that of God in everyone."

As well as unprogrammed worship, this side of Quakerism has historically been very socially and theologically liberal/radical. Early Quakers were very involved in prison reform and abolition of the slave trade, and that social consciousness has carried through the centuried to see Quakers involved in all sorts of social justice causes from pacifism and anti-war work to climate justice and queer liberation.

Quakerism is a non-credal faith, which means there's no list of beliefs you have to subscribe to in order to be a Quaker. It's also non-sacramental, so we don't have things like christenings, baptisms, communion, etc.

There is a difference between being a "member" of a meeting and being an "attender", but the differences are largely administrative and effect what kinds of roles you can take in the meeting rather than whether you're considered a "full" Quaker or not. Those roles are things like treasurer or clerk - logistical roles related to the running of the meeting rather than spiritual leadership - and they change hands regularly.

That said, there are some basic concepts aside from "that of God in everyone" that guide most Quaker ideas. These are called "testimonies", and there's no total consensus on what they are - I have a feeling different Quakers in the world have a different list - but the ones I'm familiar with are Peace, Equality, Truth and Simplicity. Some people add Sustainability, personally I think that's accounted for under the first four, namely Equality and Simplicity.

The Peace testimony might be the most famous Quaker principle. Quakers are a pacifist group (though not all Quakers agree on what that pacifism should look like...) and have oppose war and violence in all sorts of ways, from refusing to join the military and being conscientious objectors to not buying their children toy guns and so on.

Equality is pretty simple to get your head round! If all people have something holy in them, they all deserve to be treated fairly. Quakers resist personal and structural inequality, and we organise ourselves in a way that reflect that as well as working to make the world around us more equal and fair. This is both on a broad scale and on a granular one - some Quakers still use "thee/thou" because early Quakers did as a way of rejecting social hierarchies. Personally I prefer not to use salutations which stem from the same thing.

Simplicity is often simplified to a kind of general anti-consumerism, which is why I think Sustainability falls under this (I think it goes under Equality too because of the social impact of climate change etc). With this testimony, you're encouraged to find joy in simple pleasures and to appreciate the world around you. You don't need more stuff to be happy, and we owe it to ourselves and others to think carefully about how much we consume, what we consume, and why.

Finally, Truth or Integrity is about living up to your principles. It's about being honest with yourself about whether you're living your faith and putting your values into action, and about speaking the truth in all cases. Early Quakers refused to take legal vows or oaths, because they committed to always speaking the truth so it made no sense theologically for them to say "OK but for real now I'm actually being honest". I'd still "affirm" in court rather than take a vow, for the same reason.

All in all, I'm really proud of being a Quaker and personally I can see a lot of Quakerism in Monstrous Agonies (and all my writing!) which isn't very suprising because Quakerism informs a huge part of my life and worldview. It's not some kind of perfect, historically spotless religion - as well as being abolitionists, some Quakers were also slave-owners, for example, or were involved in the residential schools for Native Americans, and individual Quakers are as flawed as any other group. But I think we make a good effort at repairing those wrongs, being honest about our failings and making reparations.

Also, the porridge oats are nothing to do with us.

#im not sorry and im not going to pretend to be #i am simply not a person capable of being asked to tell someone about something and not Telling Them #monstrous askbox #always open to questions about quakers!! #quakerism #i am and remain the best looking and most fuckable quaker in podcasting

[sixminutestoriesblog]

st. patrick's day

Saint Patrick's Day! Green beer, green clothes, parades and corned beef and cabbage for all! In America, we have a lot of traditions associated with St. Pat's Day and a pleasure in celebrating them whether we're Irish or not - heck, even whether we understand them or not.

So let's take a look at some of the ways we celebrate and what we get wrong - and right.

To start with the man himself, Saint Patrick wasn't Irish. Patrick grew up on the Britain side of things. This doesn't make him British however. At the time, the Isle of Britain was run, mostly, by the Romans and letters from Patrick that have survived see him not only writing them in Latin but signing them as Patricius. Whether he was Roman by birth is still a mystery to this day but his family is believed to have been part of the Roman aristocracy. At sixteen, he was kidnapped and ended up in slavery as a shepherd in Ireland before eventually escaping back to Britain. After receiving training however, he returned to Ireland as a missionary and the rest is - well, not history but certainly lore.

There's some speculation, in fact, that the Saint Patrick of myth was actually two men. Saint Patrick the escaped slave and a bishop sent by Pope Celestine in 431 named Palladius to support the 'Irish believing in Christ' that already lived there.

Did he, or they, at least drive out the snakes? Legend says that St. Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland and the island has been slither free since. The truth is - according to fossil records, Ireland never had any snakes to drive out. Ireland was under an ice sheet up until the last glacial period and after that it was safely surrounded by water. To save a little bit of the story, some historians believe 'driving out the snakes' was more of a metaphor for driving out the pagan religions of that time instead.

But we totally wear green to avoid getting pinched! Right? Actually - yes. Though the pinching is supposed to come from mischievous leprechauns, not your over-enthusiastic siblings. Apparently, leprechauns can't see you if you're wearing green and therefore, they can't pinch what they can't see. Given our decorations featuring the little people dressed all in green, you'd think that would make it hard for them to find each other but - not really. You see, traditionally - leprechauns wore red.

The pot of gold, sometimes at the end of the rainbow though - that's real(ish).

So is the leprechauns' strange blind spot with green why everything's green on St. Pat's Day? Not really. Green is associated with Ireland, the Emerald Isle, these days but for most of its history, Ireland, and St. Patrick's, color - was blue. Green recently came into prominence during Ireland's struggle with England. Green came to be associated with the Irish side of things and wearing green was a way to show which side of that you were on. The green beer/food though? That's entirely an American thing.

Speaking of green beer, the drinking is an American thing as well. Or, at least, the 'this is a traditional part of the holiday'. In Ireland, Saint Patrick's Day has long been a Catholic religious holiday - and it also happens to fall in the middle of Lent. Originally, the day had a lot more to do with going to church than to the local pub. Which isn't to say no one in Ireland celebrates the holiday with a drink. 'Drowning the shamrock' involved pouring whiskey over a shamrock in the bottom of a glass. The whiskey is then drunk and the soaked plant is thrown over your left shoulder to complete the tradition - and get you some extra luck.

Shamrocks being considered lucky is a part of the holiday. Called 'seamroy' by the ancient Celts, the shamrock was considered a sacred plant. St. Patrick was also supposed to have used the three leaves of the plant to explain the Trinity during his sermons. Like the clover, finding a four leaf shamrock is good luck and five leaves promises a future of vast wealth!

So, yes, a lot of our St. Pat's Day traditions aren't exactly... traditional. Don't discount them or their importance however. Many of the ways we celebrate St. Patrick's Day today are the direct results of Irish immigrants to America. The parades, the corned beef and cabbage, the celebration of Irish traditions - those were all created in the mid to late 1800s by Irish Americans that wanted to celebrate their heritage. So don't feel bad for indulging in a day of parties and eating your favorite food.

Just remember to cut a cross in your soda buns to 'let the devil out' before putting them in the oven to bake for the holiday.

#st. patricks day #saint patrick day #folklore #superstition #wearing the green #irish #irish history #st patrick #ireland

[handweavers]

something I've learned over the past few years is that many instances of imperial conquest get reduced to being about religion when ultimately that is a symptom of a greater issue, which can use religion as a surface-level justification for subjugation or genocide but ultimately it functions to mask the real purpose of imperialism, which is wealth extraction and accumulation.

speaking for something in my personal family's history as an example, the problems in ireland being reduced to "protestant vs catholic" is an oversimplification that makes it appear to be fundamentally a religious issue where if they could just 'agree to disagree' everything would be better. when that isn't the case, because it's not a matter of religious disagreement but imperial conquest and assimilation. many well-known irish revolutionaries who fought against the english were protestants, and further, the catholics of ireland don't have an inherent issue with protestants existing in ireland, the issue is the connection between protestantism and imperialism. the issue is forced assimilation and coercion which was done as a tool of empire, and the relationship between protestantism and the bourgeoisie of ireland, and protestantism being an ethnic signifier as well as a sign of loyalty to the british crown - because being protestant often meant being of scottish or english descent, and being a member of the church of england means that the head of your church is the the reigning english monarch, rather than the pope. it meant loyalty to the imperial project, which was the subjugation of the irish people in order to extract wealth to britain. it comes down to wealth and class, and loyalty or cooperation with the imperial project, and that's what "catholic" and "protestant" represent in ireland. and you can see similarities in this instance with other imperial projects, in which religion is often used to mask the actual purpose of what is going on, ie. wealth extraction, and often the genocide of those who do not cooperate (or cannot cooperate) with the imperial project.

#like re: prev post if it was really all about religion then israel wouldnt target palestinian jewish people as well but they do #bc the point isnt religion religion is a tool of the imperial project but that isnt the purpose of the project itself #the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the americas wasnt simply because they werent christian #the purpose of the crusades even wasnt ultimately religion that was simply the justification they used

[qqueenofhades]

oh, absolutely! and that’s why i’m honestly so fed up with these online leftists. they act like they were the first people to sound the alarm on bunch of horrible shit and go all defeatist, completely disrespecting the work of activists and organizers who have been trying to fix these issues since before they were even a thought. there’s this widespread idea that the systems won’t ever work in a way that’s fair because they weren’t designed to, and while yes, the systems were designed to be unfair and awful to marginalized groups, gutting them won’t solve the problem if there’s nothing to replace them with. mutual aid is a wonderful thing and i’m happy to see people talking about it but i don’t think a lot of them realize it can’t replace a system. it can help but it can’t be this thing you throw everything into because you’re disillusioned with the systems. the only way to make those systems better is to vote in candidates who will but these people are so sick of being told to vote they just refuse to even entertain why people may be telling them to do that.

See, this is where far-right libertarians and far-left "burn the whole system down!!!" ideologies once more collide. Far-right libertarians don't want to participate in society and don't want to be responsible for the welfare of others and don't want any rules and definitely no regulations and so on and so forth. Far-left "revolutionaries" claim to want the same thing in terms of destroying the existing system, but they do so out of some misguided idea that either some new and completely perfect system will magically spring from the ashes (spoiler alert: no), or that informal neighborhood-level networks of mutual aid (however they define that, when they're often willing to totally exclude people who disagree with them about the smallest things, so why would they help people they disagree with on everything else?) can replace, as you say, the entire system.

The thing is, if you're reduced to informally scraping along with your local neighbors and have absolutely no other recourse or formal system of governance and/or distribution, you're living in a failed state, and nobody who has ACTUALLY been through that experience thinks, as the Online Leftists do, that it would be a great idea. This is another thing about their total failure to learn from history, or listen to anyone who isn't American, despite the tankies' insistence that America causes all evil in the world forever. My friends who grew up in the former USSR sure don't think their system was great, even if it was called "socialism" or "communism" or whatever terms the left wants to use with no appreciation of their difficulties. And so on.

Basically, it reminds me of when the Brexit loons were insisting that it made no difference to food supply if Britain left the EU, because, and I quote, "Britain is a nation of farmers, we can grow food in our back gardens!" As if the entire point of human civilization has been to bring us back to personal subsistence farming, which has generally been acknowledged throughout history to totally suck and also be the least reliable way of providing for yourself, and also... the idea that personally growing food in your nice back garden in Kent can replace the entire structure and system of the EU single market and customs union is completely absurd. To say the fucking least, and to anyone whose brain isn't poisoned with Brexit Brexit Brexit! And yes, hey presto, Britain is now experiencing food difficulties and frantically blaming it on anything except Brexit. Meanwhile, Sunak finally negotiated a new Northern Ireland protocol with the EU, but it's anyone's guess if it'll pass the Commons, since the Tory backbenchers just reflexively nuke anything that suggests any cooperation with the EU or any acceptance of EU law. Because they want to pretend the EU never existed! (Even though it was Margaret Thatcher's idea/initiative, shh.) Yeah. That'll work.

So yeah. If you live in your own world where facts don't exist, or exist only to support your preferred ideology, and your insistence that destroying the system with nothing to replace it is the best idea... it is, uh, dumb. Which is the nicest way I can possibly put it. It's never worked out before, it won't work out now, and honestly, "I'm tired of being told to vote after I didn't vote and then things went wrong!" is an argument I have NO sympathy for whatsoever. I know things are bad. You know things are bad. If there's a simple, easy way to start fixing it -- and systems CAN be fixed, even if it takes time and is not the instant dopamine gratification of moral posturing on social media -- where you have to participate once every two years, and you don't do it, then yeah. I don't think that person is serious about fixing anything, and I have no obligation or desire to listen to them at all.

#anonymous #ask #politics for ts #uk politics

[papasmoke]

nothing pisses me off like brits pretending they get to complain about "american centrism". american centrism exists because the US is the current imperial core, which is because the root of imperialism and its first core, england, made it its pet project. criticism of and resistance to american centrism is a subset of resistance against imperialism. for british "people" to pretend they can be lumped in with all Non USA Countries as if the US's treatment of britain is in literally any way comparable with namibia or even other european countries like croatia is fucking absurd and just the kind of imperialist appropriation of the struggle of oppressed peoples that you'd expect from their worthless people. this isn't to say the US can't be criticized on its own(it can) or that it doesn't have significantly more political power than britain now(it does). it's just to say that the only people more politically illiterate, cruel, ignorant, bigoted and sheltered than the US are the british. britain deserve the same fate as the US-- to be dissolved and given back to its rightful owners. long live ireland long live scotland and long live wales, short live the king i hope that fuck falls down a long flight of stairs into a sewer and drowns tomorrow.

#got nothing to add here #yeah

[lovejustforaday]

Shoegaze Classics - Loveless

Loveless - My Bloody Valentine (1991)

Main Genres - Shoegaze, Noise Pop, Dream Pop

A decent sampling of: Experimental Rock, Neo-Psychedelia, Alternative Dance

DUT DUT DUT DUT VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW VREW

Well, if you knew anything about shoegaze going into this series, you knew that this review was going to be inevitable.

Today I take on the most truly revered shoegaze band, and probably one of the most legendary indie bands of all time. God help me, I'm going to do my best, so here goes nothing. Let's talk about My Bloody Valentine and Loveless.

The Band

My Bloody Valentine is an awesome band. Plain and simple. The name is awesome, the sound is awesome, their public persona is awesome. Just, lots of awesomeness.

Okay, I can probably do better than that. Hmmm... Okay wait, stay with me here.

My Bloody Valentine were originally an unlikely, little-known post-punk band from the 80s, that somehow went on to being one of the most important and influential bands of the 90s whilst only having dropped one record for the entire aforementioned decade.

After a series of lineup changes that coincided with a search for the bands' sonic identity, the true My Bloody Valentine lineup solidified as Kevin Shields, the madman musical genius leader of the crew on guitars and vocals, Bilinda Butcher, a feathery soft-spoken punk on guitar and vocals, Colm Ó Cíosóig as the animated, flappy-haired drummer, and Debbie Googe as the badass butch bassist (BBB) who was originally from the anarchist punk scene.

I've been trying to consistently use the term "British Isles" to describe the epicenter of the initial first wave of shoegaze. I wanted to be careful not to just say "Britain" or the U.K., because that would be somewhat revisionist.

Proto-shoegazers A.R. Kane may have formed in London, but other "proto" bands like Jesus and Mary Chain and Cocteau Twins were from Scotland. As for the band most credited with the true inception of shoegaze by its strictest definition, that would be My Bloody Valentine, hailing from Ireland, folks who often (for very good reason) don't take too kindly to being described as "British". That being said, Debbie and Bilinda are English.

I won't waste too much time going into the history of the band for this review, mostly because this is already gonna be a long one and I've got so many things to say about the record itself. So I'll give you the sparknotes version.

Like most early shoegazers, My Bloody Valentine dropped a few EPs before their first full-length LP, albeit in some completely different genres. C86 style Jangle Pop, Post-Punk, and frigging Psychobilly of all things apparently?

The band really found their sound, and pioneered the definitive collective traits of shoegaze in 1988, signing with Creation Records and dropping the EP You Made Me Realize and, later that year, their debut full-length Isn't Anything which, depending on who you ask, is the first true shoegaze LP (Though a very little known post-punk band named A Primary Industry may have something to say about that).

Shoegaze was invented with the propagation of a new world of sonic timbres discovered through the usage of guitar pedals, and My Bloody Valentine in particular really loved their pedals. On top of those pedals, the band laid a lot of distortion and harsh volumes.

Likeswise, My Bloody Valentine has pretty much always been just as much a noise pop band like their contemporaries The Jesus And Mary Chain. The two scenes overlapped a lot during the first wave (just like dream pop and neo-psychedelia), and some even describe the shoegaze formula as essentially being dream pop + noise pop = shoegaze. Personally I think this is a reductionist definition when there are many shoegaze bands that don't fit nicely into either of those other categories. But I digress.

Isn't Anything was the record that launched a thousand (shoegaze) ships. It's certainly a bit more overtly post-punk in its foundations, and rougher around the edges than what would come next. But I also really do love this record. "You Never Should" and "No More Sorry" in particular are two of my favourite My Bloody Valentine songs.

What came next, however, is a whole different beast entirely.

The Record

I'll start with the disclaimer that everything I could possibly say about Loveless is probably already a cliche by now.

Insanely fuzzy and warm. Layers upon layers of sound that demonstrates a level of musical precision and perfectionism that almost doesn't seem human. Reinvented the guitar like virtually no other record before or since. Oddly arousing and potentially even sapphic if you read into the lyrics (tbf Debbie is a confirmed gay indie icon). Sounds exactly like the neon shades of magenta displayed on the cover art.

2023 is frankly a little bit late to be writing a review about this heavily celebrated 1991 record. Others have already written entire dissertations about this revolutionary LP. I don't promise this is going to be the most definitive and thoughtful review of this record, nor am I anywhere close to being the first or last indie nerd to ever champion and fanboy over this goddamn masterpiece of its genre, but I do wanna talk about how I myself personally experience Loveless.

Funny enough, my favourite memory of listening to this record (which I've been loving since 2015) was actually when I was dog-sitting for a friend's mom at her house in 2018 during the early autumn. The dog herself even seemed to wanna dance with me while I was spinning in little circles to the rhythms of "Soon". I think that's the season when I enjoy this record most - probably a mix of the coolness and crispness of the autumn breeze, and wearing the same kind of cozy sweaters that the My Bloody Valentine members are wearing in like half of their 90s photoshoots.

Okay, enough chitter chatter. Let's get into it.

"Only Shallow" is one of the most iconic album openers of all time, period. Instantly overpowers the listener with those first few overblown snare stabs before exploding into a pounding noise pop delirium of screeching banshee guitars. Letting up only slightly for the verses, where Bilinda Butcher describes something sweet, soft, and warm, in a brazen contrast to the blustering razor guitars that are unleashed after each verse. This track most perfectly encapsulates a pervasive trend across the rest of the album, wherein the sonic mosaic of textures can be described paradoxically as both cushiony and razor-sharp at the same time.

Lyrics and their delivery will continue from this point on to be every bit as textural and vague as the music itself, creating abstract entities that are transient and androgynous. Indeed, I struggled a lot on my first few listens to discern which tracks were being sung by Bilinda and which were Kevin or the both of them. Bilinda recalls that she would often take naps in the studio when they were recording Loveless and would do her vocal tracks soon after being awoken, which lends itself to her very tranquilized delivery in which I feel like I can picture the drowsy bags under her eyes in some of these songs. Likewise, most of this entire album is best appreciated in a half-awake mental state, even more so than other dream pop / shoegaze records.

"Loomer" is the dark underbelly of Loveless, like listening through the old floorboards of a basement ceiling to sounds of the band playing a live house show in the living room upstairs. It's a grainy, gloomy bed of sound that feels as though it could be physically slept on if desired.

I have no idea how many actual layers of track recordings went into the concoction of the heavily experimental "To Here Knows When", but it feels like hundreds. This song is a whirring helicopter blade of thousands of little sounds, scattering everywhere until it creates a thick, opaque, sparkling lilac mist that obscures the upbeat melody that's utterly buried in the fog of noisy drones and distortion. The mastering sounds as though you're listening to all of this happen through a small tubular opening in a giant glass wall, as if all of the tonal anarchy is happening from the other side, perhaps in another dimension. For a bonus observation, this one in particular sounds even more unreal and transcendental when you're tired as fuck on an early morning bus ride after a night of zero sleep (Don't ask me).

"When You Sleep" is probably My Bloody Valentine's most acclaimed and influential song. That de-tuned, icy, fluorescent glowing pop melody motif is seriously addictive, and it sounds almost deranged. The heavily compressed drumming provides the propulsion needed for a track that feels like its intensely vibrating every last quark of matter in its audible vicinity. I really have to remind myself that these crazy sounds are being made by guitars with effect pedals, and not with synthesizers (or, as the meme goes, vacuum cleaners).

The record really crunches in on those guitar textures with "Come In Alone" a track that you'll be hearing echoing in the back of your mind long after its finished (note: this record is NOT recommended to those especially prone to having tinnitus). This track is like all of the blood rushing to your head when you would hang upside down from the monkey bars as a kid. It feels intoxicating in the best way.

The band takes an unsuspecting turn for gut-punching emotions on "Sometimes", likely the only song with a more or less discernible lyrical theming on the record, about sharing intimacy with another person and the insurmountable fear of isolation from someone you love. The timbral effects are applied minimally on this song, but the dozens of recorded guitar tracks drone in a wondrous hum that resonates with the vibrations of a lonely soul. Usually, I'd say this is my favourite My Bloody Valentine song, though "To Here Knows When" and "Only Shallow" occasionally compete for the number 1 spot as well.

"Blown a Wish" is cool, dreamy shoegaze that fizzles and melts in your mouth like an ice cream soda. Pure pleasure is the best way I could describe its sensation, with all of its rippling, neck-tingling guitar effects that dance in and out of the foreground. Alternatively, this is like being high on helium and having so many butterflies in your stomach that you actually start to feel like you're levitating in a luscious trance. Delicious song.

The record closes with its poppiest and most accessible number "Soon", a mix of comparatively light shoegaze psychedelia and alternative dance beats that sounds enormously sexy. Evokes psychoactive substances, gently swaying hips, and grassy fields filled with buzzing fireflies. A very stylish way to end the record and solidify My Bloody Valentine's status as indie music legends.

What Came After That?

Loveless was a certified gold commercial success, about on par with the success of Ride's Going Blank Again, but it was also purportedly so expensive to make that it bankrupted the Creation Records label (serves you bastards right for making Oasis happen) and caused the band to be dropped.

I honestly kind of laugh to myself whenever I think of Alan McGee's pompous ass looking at the numbers and having a panic attack, almost as much as I laugh when I remember how Catherine Wheel gave him a big fat "NOPE!" to being signed after he pestered them. Have I mentioned I really don't like Creation Records ways of doing things?

*seething* ANYWAY, My Bloody Valentine basically disappeared for the rest of the 90s. Members moved on to different projects.

And then, after years of teasing a third record, the band's self-titled mbv was finally dropped in 2013. This one seems to divide fans a lot more than their other records; it wasn't as universally received as the Slowdive comeback record a few years later. This one is arguably more experimental than Loveless, and there's even a couple of tracks with some DnB influence. I think all things considered, it's a pretty great comeback record. I think many folks were probably expecting a Loveless 2, and it probably helps that I didn't even listen to this band before the new record came out, so I had no expectations built over years for this record.

There is allegedly a fourth record (and possibly fifth) LP in the works, but Shields has been teasing at it for years now, and its sort of becoming a running joke in the shoegaze community that we're gonna be waiting another five or ten years.

But hey, good work takes time. After making a record like Loveless, I personally think you've earned the right as an artist to afford yourself all the time in the world. I certainly wouldn't know how the hell to follow upon something that masterfully crafted, and some bands probably wouldn't even try to.

But besides all that, Loveless speaks for itself. It is a singular album experience. Nothing really sounds anything quite like it, to the point that newbies often getting into shoegaze for the first time with this record often lament the fact that the scene is not full of other records sounding just like this. It's for this reason precisely that, if you are totally new to shoegaze, I don't recommend this as a starting point. A lot of other great shoegaze records are unfairly compared to this record a whole fucking lot, and it can have a spoiling effect for some folks. But not every shoegaze band should sound like My Bloody Valentine, or have a Loveless in their discography.

But, at the same time, holy crap this is one of the coolest records of all time and if you haven't already heard it by now then you're doing yourself a huge disservice by not listening to this some time in the next week at the latest. Loveless is something that every fan of music should experience at least once, and there's only a handful of albums that I could confidently make that statement for.

So, yeah. Go listen. (✿ ᵔ ᴗ ᵔ )y

10/10

Highlights: "Sometimes", "To Here Knows When", "Only Shallow", "When You Sleep", "Blown A Wish", "Soon", "Come In Alone", "Loomer", "I Only Said"the

#my bloody valentine #loveless #shoegaze #noise pop #dream pop #kevin shields #debbie googe #bilinda butcher #colm o ciosoig #1991 #favourite albums #album review #music review #90s #indie rock #list #shoegaze classics

[unsafescapewolf]

calling Blaidd british isn't incorrect!! i'm defending you. yes he is welsh (which is a HOT accent btw his voice is sex), but Wales is on the island of Great Britain (unlike Ireland which is why you can't call irish people british). ergo you can call Blaidd british and be right, just as you would call a person from England or Scotland british. The British Isles does include the island of Ireland and a few other smaller islands, but due to history shit i would 100% not call Ireland/Northern Ireland or anyone from those locations British.

anyway, you're right. "British" isn't just people from England. anyone hitting you with "but hes welsh!!!" is proving you right. welsh people are br*tsh as Wales is a british country.

Huh! That's interesting stuff, I didn't really think about it or look into it too much.

I just know I don't like his accent 😅

[postillfastill]

Not supporting a two state solution to the palestinian genocide is not somehow fucking hateful. Wanting the israel state to not exist is not hateful no more than it is for an indigenous person to wish any other colonial state not exist. I don't want america or canada to exist because their existence was founded on the mass slaughter displacement and hundreds of years of subjugation of the othered population, and would not be ABLE to exist without that subjugation, not because it made white people move here. Wishing the state body that enabled the slaughter of ones people didn't exist isn't hateful to the settler population, it's a fucking pipe dream coping mechanism of indigenous peoples all over the world. I wish my people in mexico weren't wholebody erased! I wish my people in the states weren't forced from their homes into pathetic reservations! Hell, I wish my people in ireland weren't fucked by britain at every turn!

I wish the united states didnt exist! I wish new zealand didn't exist, i wish australia and south africa and rhodesia and brazil and any other state thats formation relied on the murder and subjugation of an othered population didn't exist! Because 'state' is not synonymous with 'people' you FUCKING moron! When people clutch at their pearls because palestinians and other indigenous activists wish israel et al didn't exist, they are seeing it from their skewed, racist perspective. To them, a state not existing means the physical land and the people plants and animals on it be razed to the ground, because that's what they're used to doing to others to maintain this 'state'. To indigenous populations who have lived on land for thousands of years without this 'state', we know what a state actually is; a government body of legislation and control that didnt just come from nowhere. That is what we mean by Land Back, what we mean by calling for a nation to not exist. Dismantle the states, return land taken to surviving peoples displaced from it, relinquish legislative control over the othered people. It doesn't mean fucking settler genocide, you sound like fucking rhodesians or those racist afrikaaners trying to convince ppl theyre getting white genocided bc apartheid ended.

You assume an end to your state means an end to your life because you're projecting as a racist, fascist nationalist. Sorreee.

#wypeepoo listen to indigenous ppl for once in your life #we dont care about what you think ending a state means #bc youre wrong. and we arent gonna coddle ur feelings or prioritize them over dealin w the actual violence perpetuated #by ur precious state #i hate america i hate america i hate america #i am native to this fucking continent america is sat on and i wish america didnt exist #that doesnt mean i wish the continent sank into the ocean you MORON #learn theory!!! fucking idiot!!! if you cant define a state for what it is you dont get a seat at the table talking about how to handle its #fucking war crimes

[anarchotolkienist]

Britain (or sometimes Great Britain - this to separe it from Brittany, also territory controlled by the Prydein, i.e. the Brits) is the island, consisting of the countries England, Wales and Scotland. The United Kingdom is that island and the six counties in the north (as the full name, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, might suggest). England is the country in the southeast of the island. England is contained in but does not equal Britain, which is contained in but does not equal the UK. It isn't particularily hard.

[talesofsorrowandofruin]

Notice Me Reader Tag

Thanks for tagging me, @ahordeofwasps! :D

Rules: Share 3 (or more!) small details from your WIP that you feel have gone/will go unnoticed. (You can choose whether or not to share why the detail is significant!)

I was tagged twice, so I'll give details from two WIPs!

The Case-files of Seo Yo-han (counting all of them as one WIP for this):

Shakespeare is referenced in every book:

Leo reads Richard II in The Unfortunate Moth.

Silver Glass has a quote from King Lear as the epigraph to the last bit of the flashback ("...I am a man/More sinn'd against than sinning").

Also in Glass, Phil quotes Othello when she says she and Alec both "loved not wisely but too well".

Houses Full of Deceit has a more light-hearted example according to the outline, where Leo attempts to flirt with Phil by reciting Romeo's "Juliet is the sun" speech. ("Attempts" is the key word.)

Mine Eyes Dazzle mostly references John Webster and Gilbert & Sullivan (yes, really!) instead, but one character quotes Henry V -- specifically Act 2, Scene II. Which gives Yo-han an important clue, because that scene is about a former friend who became a traitor.

2. The murderers in books 1 & 3 are foils, and so are the ones in 2 & 4. Leo kills because he's paid to, while Ji-hun kills because he enjoys it. Davit kills from a mixture of love and hate -- love of Alec, hate of Gwladys -- while the still-unnamed villain kills because they both love and hate their victim.

3. For most of HFOD everyone is running from Ji-hun. For the climax, I want to turn the tables on him. He sets a trap and thinks he's caught Leo and Yo-han, but really they know it's a trap and have set up one of their own! (Namely, Phil hiding nearby with a gun.)

Uneasy Money:

Of the seven Millner siblings, the three oldest are fluent in German, the middle two are semi-fluent, and the two youngest barely speak it at all. This is because their mother was German, and she died when the three oldest were teenagers. By then she'd spent years in Britain and had mostly stopped speaking German, so the younger children picked up less of it.

Loughlinter isn't a real place. I borrowed the name from Anthony Trollope's Palliser series. (Where, oddly, Loughlinter is in Scotland -- it should be spelt Lochlinter. So based on spelling alone, moving it to Northern Ireland makes more sense.) I'm still vague on where exactly it is. I'm leaning towards somewhere around Limavady solely because my crush is from there, but that doesn't fit with Helena's statement that it's "twenty miles from Belfast". (Limavady is sixty miles from Belfast.)

Everyone has very different ideas of what sort of story they're in. Gilbert thinks he's in a P. G. Wodehouse comedy, Helena thinks she's in a Georgette Heyer romance, Thomas thinks he's in an Emily Brontë Gothic novel, and Tarka thinks she's in a Charles Dickens mystery. All of them are partly right.

Tagging @weaver-of-fantasies-and-fables, @sarandipitywrites, @oh-no-another-idea, @mysticstarlightduck, and anyone else who wants to do this! :D

#tag game #writing #my writing #my WIPs #the case files of seo yo han #WIP: money