#river song is 50% of the reason i like women

[eszera15]

the whoniverse is making my bisexuality worse

#there are so many really hot/handsome/beautiful characters #my bisexual ass cant take it #doctor who #the doctor #leaving it up to ur imagination which doctors i think are hot #jack harkness #river song #river song is 50% of the reason i like women #torchwood #ianto jones #gwen cooper #toshiko sato #owen harper

[bywayofmemory]

20 Questions for Fic Writers

Tagged by @iamstartraveller776, thanks!

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 313. 113 of them are 3SF fics so they only sort of count? I haven't even posted 2024's batch yet.

2. What's your total AO3 word count? 452,247

3. What fandoms do you write for? My fandoms list on AO3 is...long. Like 80+ fandoms long. This is once again due to 3SF; fandoms I am or have been actually active in are Firefly, Chronicles of Narnia, Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, Grisha Trilogy/Shadow and Bone, and Greek Mythology.

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Drunk on the Dying Light [Grisha Trilogy, Darklina] A blood-soaked amplifier gives Alina the ability to control him, but the Darkling still haunts her; all the more so once she becomes his wife.

Maybe It Will All Come Back to Me [A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon/Arya] The wars are over, Daenerys is on the Iron Throne, and Arya finds Jon at last, though neither of them are who they were before.

Hold My Heart in Two [A Song of Ice and Fire, Jon/Arya/Sansa] The lone wolf dies, but the pack survives, in whatever form.

The World That's on the Other Side [Firefly, Mal/River] When River Tam is fourteen, she meets a man who tells her her future. She doesn't want it, but he's a different matter altogether.

The Ladies Love Wash, and Wash Loves the Ladies [Firefly, Wash & all the women of Firefly] Wash is popular with the womenfolk; it's just a fact of life.

5. Do you respond to comments? I always try to! Usually I am successful.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I don't write unhappy endings too often, but two stand out - Always, we strive to get closer, one of my Narnia Fic Exchange fics from last year in which a post-canon Edmund battles through memories to find Susan, only to find she's not ready to give up living even for him, and A Rush of Blood Is Not Enough, a Folk of the Air sex-pollen fic where Jude unknowingly dubcons Cardan and he's very angry once it wears off.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Most of mine have happy or at least bittersweet endings, so this is hard - but it might well be The World That's on the Other Side, where Mal and River manage to fix everything bad that happened in canon before any of it technically happens at all.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Rarely, since I'm a NNF. I used to get a bit back in the day when I was actively writing Mal/River due to the age gap and mental stability issues inherent in that pairing, and now I get a comment or two on the Darklina fics from time to time. They just get deleted.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes! I write pretty vanilla M/F and F/F smut; haven't gotten further than the mildest of kinks so far.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? All the time. The craziest are probably the Where's Waldo/LotR or Narnia/Sports Mascot RPF [sort of??? how do you even classify fic in which Gritty appears?], both from 3SF. For non 3SF, it's almost all Narnia/ASoIaF. Probably the most unusual of those is The Truth Without Lying, since that's partly a 1940/50s England AU of ASoIaF as well as a crossover.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not that I know of, but I don't look for it.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yep. There's three of them on AO3, and I've been asked other times, though if those were done they didn't get linked back to my originals.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Only in 3SF, where you can 'cowrite' in terms of leaving a series of prompts or fills with a specific partner or two. That I do almost every year. In the traditional sense, no.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? I don't really work in Firefly anymore for the obvious reasons (dead fandom, the Whedon of it all), but rereading any of my Mal/River work still feels like meeting up with old friends. I love them.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I had a third and fourth part of my Mal/River series Love Keeps Her in the Air planned out, and a good 1/3 of part three written. It's literally the only unfinished fic I have. It never got finished because I moved across the country during the middle of it and my ambition never quite recovered.

16. What are your writing strengths? Dialogue and characterization. I'm very good at getting character voices down (and typically just avoid writing characters I can't get a handle on, honestly).

17. What are your writing weaknesses? Plot. Beginnings. The absolute worst. This is why I have no WIPs; if I manage to actually get something started, the hard part is out of the way for me.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? I used to do this all the time in Firefly, using Mandarin phrases they'd used in the show. Everyone did at the time. Now I wouldn't; I'd go the "swore at length in Mandarin" route, or just use dialogue tags and description to indicate the characters are speaking another language, like I do with Valyrian in my HotD fics.

19. First fandom you wrote for? LotR, a very long time ago. Firefly is the first one I published anything for that's still on the internet.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? I have so many favorites! I couldn't possibly choose one, except I could and it's The World That's on the Other Side. The ones written during ~the flow are always my faves, and that one stands out the most in that regard.

Tagging @thatgirlnevershutsup, @wingedflight, @siterlas, @starsuncounted and @oakashandwillow if you want!!

#tag games #about me #my fic

[mediawhorefics]

thoughts on doctor who!! echoes of previous companions always gets me good, like billie piper as The Moment

oh i have SO much to say about doctor who rip here's an incoherent rant/list of opinions !!

i'm an rtd-era supremacist so i'm DYING with excitement over his return!!! also this 14 news ??? HELLO?????????? SO SO SO EXCITED!!!!

my first doctor was 10 and he has remained my fav through and through. tho ofc i love them all in different ways. (fun fact my beta is the one who introduced me to dw back in the day)

my top three companions are donna (MY GIRL !!!!)/rose/the ponds

yes, i am in love with karen gillan and would like a spare hand in marriage ma'am

my greatest dw heartbreak is the fact that peter capaldi is one of my favourite actors and was probably the greatest ambassador for the show and i absolutely LOATHE the writing for his era.

steven moffat IS my nemesis and i hate what he did with the show. this man should have never been a showrunner. he's good with limits and boundaries and standalone.

full offence, i hate clara with a burning passion, no shade to the actress she's very talented, but everything about that character rubs me the wrong way. from the ~born to save the doctor bullshit to the has no life outside the doctor until moffat randomly decided to half-ass giving her a career to the badly written attempts at her having feelings for 11... truly, i despite this storyline so fucking much. again ship what you like but i don't get doctor/clara AT ALL. it makes me angry just thinking about it now. and she was there for SO long UGH.

my favourite series are s4 & s5 (yes i hate moffat i love s5, its complicated). also s2 because ROMANCE!!!!!

i hate moffat writing women for obvs reasons but i do love river song. highkey as much as i love matt & alex together NOTHING beats 12/river because peter capaldi said i'm playing a whole time lord in LOVE in that one episode they had together and my fucking HEART y'all. i know i have an unhealthy crush on peter capaldi but his face when he looks at her <333 it's almost as good as ten & rose's in love and utterly devoted to each other faces.

doctor/river still don't hold a candle to 10/rose obvs that shit was it. she was IT. rip to 16 yo me watching doomsday for the first time that shit fundamentally changed me as a person. where's that deancas/tenrose comparison post ?? cut me open and that's what you'll see.

i miss rtd era side characters SO much they were SO lived in and memorable and REAL and they made the show. we lost soooo much of doctor who's heart when he left.

its cringe but i ADORE torchwood despite all of its flaws. ianto jones was one of the very first bi-adjacent characters i ever connected with and he is SO dear to me. rip to my boy it's disgusting what rtd & co did to him :((( baby's first bury your gays, i was 17 and i still haven't recovered. thank god for big finish and all the quality torchwood content they produce.

speaking of big finish... if you're a who fan who hasn't tried to expended universe, i cannot recommend the 8th doctor audios enough. he is FANTASTIC and actually one of my favourite doctors. paul mcgann is INCREDIBLE in the role and it's criminal we only have the movie and that tiny one-shot for the 50th anniversary.

@ RTD JUSTICE FOR EIGHT IN THE 60TH SPECIAL

10/donna are the best tardis team end of. that tennant/tate chemistry??? CHEF'S KISS. @ rtd fix her. @ rtd bring her back. i am no longer asking !!!!

christopher eccleston is CRIMINALLY underrated. 9 deserves SO much love. i adore him. thanks @ big finish for bringing him back to me.

matt smith was the best at playing ancient. i still don't know how he did that thing with his eyes where he looked 1000 yo but wow.

cybermen are incredibly boring and i really dislike most of their eps. i'll take 50 dalek stories over cybermen ones idc.

we never should have seen the weeping angels after blink. they've lost more and more of their appeal the more their mythology has been expended on.

i still don't understand the whole silence cult vs silence species thing and at this point, i'm too afraid to ask.

some of us witnessing the andrew garfield renaissance remember frank and his 1930s fruitiness from 2007 is all i'm gonna say.

#about me #doctor who

[mediacinemtographyartetc]

Mini rant for media; free to ignore I will add shit to this list.

I hate how western people demonize any type of asian media and throw around dangeorus or beyond racist accusations.

A anime/Chinse book or series is deemed problematic because of certain themes.

Even tho those SAME themes, genre, story telling is ALSO prevelent in Western media, this weird holiour than thou mentality of trying to control another culture without looking at themselves is beyond gross.

For example, anime characters with certain body types and most have an anerusim when we say its an art style-

Look at steven universe, pearl and rose quartz or spinel. Characters that are OLD as fuck but have child like proportions and even pearl/Rose in their fusion dance with greg was erotic. So much WLW nsfw erotica/fanart was made of these characters and yet no one calls SU P*do bait.

Cuties is on netflix, girls in tiaras, also movies that have fucked up dynamics like;

13 going on 30, in that whole movie Jennas mental age WAS 13 while she was going around acting like an adult and even engaging in adult relationships. Time travellers wife, the utter grooming of this movie- or River Song being married to the Doctor from Doctor who, how the Doctor knew AMY POND as a child then kissed her as an adult he was disgusted but the writers WROTE THAT IN. Interview with a vampire how the movie had Cluadia kiss Louiee.

I can list SO many- also how toxic Western ROM coms are-

Then claiming that anyone who watches BL is just like men watching lesbian porn and fetishzie the lgbt communtiy- which is somewhat true and a valid argument! But it keeps assuming that ALL women who like BL don't have reasons for it.

like twilight or 50 shades of grey were cult classics and majority of women were the reasons it was so popular, but most like bdsm/dark tones in a relationship but since most men and women deal with domestic abuse to the point where its not funny, a fantasy is easier to indulge than a harsh reality.

Also MOST who like BL aren't even women, their LGBT themselves! male protags are more popular than female protags their is NO lesbain/trans/ase feminine equevilant of stories out there-

Also porn is porn, regardless if its straight gay or even fucking tentacles its porn the whole point is fetishisation it's not as if we conflate that with real life- what I'm just going to go to a zoo and kidnap an octopus!? Honestyl????

Good omens we have School of good and evil- awesome! But what about star trek, sherlock, destiel, klance, sherlock watson, stiles derek, steve/tony, etc etc. Where is the rivals to lovers in a ton of genre. Giving that anime is the only thing delievering is the reason why I watch anime.

I want feminisim? I watch sailor moon, cardcaptor, inuyasha, and kakeguiri.

If I want dark stories where the women go ape shit? Elfen lied, Utena, magical madoka, and so much more.

Its the fact the western media has 13 reasons why, netlfix YOU, sin city, idk name ANY movie by Zack synder I just- it's so fucking hypocritical. Because Media like celebrities or singers and influencers are way more gross and come across as sexual predaotrs. sex has been shoved down my throat since I was a kid as every celebrity was dancing in skimpy clothes singing about sex and this was during the time when kardashion came popular because she had a sex tape!

Its just annoys me when people point figures and act like a judge jury executioner when the west is JUST as bad with gross problematic themes. ugh I'm annoyed.

[itsuki-minamy]

K - SEVEN STORIES (SIDE:TWO): EDITION IDOL K

SUOH MIKOTO & ISANA YASHIRO (POR TATSUO MIYAZAWA)

* Projects & Chapters

Translation: Naru-kun Raws: Ridia

Shiro: Is this Suoh-san's waiting room? Huh, I'll play. *Bang, bang*

Suoh: Oh. Enters.

Shiro: There is a feeling of intimidation when betting to open something. Yes, sorry. Hello, Suoh-san. How are you?

Suoh: Isana? Why did you come?

Shiro: Well, today I came as president of "Shirogin Records" instead of as an idol.

Suoh: It's weird. You can come directly to me without going through Kusanagi.

Shiro: Yes. I know you are on a television station.

Suoh: Is there a reason?

Shiro: Oh, that's right. A producer I am friends with asked me, so I thought it would be quicker to check back soon and answer him.

Suoh: Check what?

Shiro: Hm. I think it's a bad idea, or rather, I'm just saying that... He would like you to appear in a serial drama aimed at women. And it is quite a complicated role.

Suoh: Ok.

Shiro: That's right. I want to use Noprad's songs as a link no matter what. But you're not interested in that kind of acting job in the first place. I'm wrong?

Suoh: You're not wrong, but I said it's okay.

Shiro: Why? As far as I know, have you never done acting work?

Suoh: That's because no one has offered it to me. Don't say a word. I don't reject a job that makes sense as an idol.

Shiro: That's right. That is a bit surprising. So right now, I have a script, can you read it a bit?

Suoh: What? What is this? Is the title "Chameleon"?

Shiro: Yes. The main character is a con man who changes position and personality.

Suoh: The scenario was written by creative group GoRa. It is a name that I do not know.

Shiro: Yes, it is a place where I cannot become a major player. Well, I read it briefly, but it's not a bad script. The main character is a con man, but he only ridicules the bad guys. His purpose is to defeat a large company of villains who killed his father. That is why he is a dark hero who has fallen into evil.

Suoh: Hm.

Shiro: At the moment, there are three roles to read from now on, an MLM man who sells an eraser that often disappears to elementary school students, a Chara man who is picking up a girl on the grounds of the temple in equinoctial week, and a bodybuilder who inherited a sake brewery that has continued for 200 years.

Suoh: I see. I understand why you can't become a major player.

Shiro: Well, I'll move on from the MLM man for now.

++++++++++

Shiro: (With a feeling of suspicion) For the moment, I would like to tell you today that you can do a life trick in class with just a little power. The 50-yen draft is not bad. Not bad, but why doesn't the digit go up? I think of it as a future investment. Yes. Let's make our dreams come true for 10 yen a day, as men.

Pass the time.

Suoh: You are a teacher. You did it?

Shiro: You're not doing it! Okay, read below!

Suoh: Ah... (in the usual Suoh) this is a high-end character, always wrong that can only be bought by limited members developed by NASA in the United States... It can be erased cleanly.

Shiro: Uh, yeah. I think he is a little different. Let's call him a chara man for now.

++++++++++

Shiro: (Feature) Good. Bride. Does the smoke from the incense sticks get old in the equinoctial week? Buddhist chanting today, the vibrations worked. It's not dangerous? Hey, isn't it? I really respect my ancestors. Weeding and gravestone polishing is good too, fire, human soul, ok!

Pass the time.

Suoh: Did you?

Shiro: That's not the reason, please go on to the next line.

Suoh: (In the usual Suoh) Kanojo, if you have no plans at the moment, are we going on a date all night after this? Do you want? For the moment, come to the bottom of the cemetery and watch the butterflies. (In a loud voice) Yes. It's on the other side of the river. I will show you paradise.

Shiro: It looks like it will be delivered as is. Well, next is the bodybuilder who inherited the sake brewery.

Suoh: I see. You should read here.

++++++++++

Suoh: Okay (in the usual Suoh), set your muscles and cauldron on fire. Burns fat. Burns firewood. I will kill everything in front of you (in a squeaky voice).

Shiro: I'll let you go, because it's a brewery.

Pass the time.

Suoh: The ship was in a different country. It's similar.

Shiro: Yes.

Pass the time.

Shiro: I reject this story. (smile)

K - SEVEN STORIES (SIDE: TWO): IDOL K EDITION

Recitation drama of two events. (2019.11)

Comment:

"K - SEVEN STORIES" (BOX SIDE: TWO): A set from a recitation drama performed at a buyer's event.

Shiro and Suoh talk about the "Idol K" world and the "Circle Vision" world, respectively.

Miyazawa's comment:

Kenjiro Tsuda and Daisuke Namikawa were scheduled to be on stage at the event, so I wrote to them. They are two quite different vector works, "Idol K" and "Circle Vision", but I think I was able to closely intertwine Shiro and Suoh, who had little conversation in the main story. This is also a form that can be called "live".

#k #k project #k all memories #k seven stories #idol k #suoh mikoto #isana yashiro #silver clan #homra

[letterboxd]

Siren Song.

Undine writer-director Christian Petzold talks to Reyzando Nawara about modern-day mermaids, Tinder culture and finding the magic in life.

“Love stories always change. A kiss in Berlin 1933, for example, is not gonna be the same kiss in Berlin today, right?” —Christian Petzold

“If you leave me, then I’ll have to kill you.” Undine’s threat to her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend Johannes, after he has told her that he has met someone else, seems at first like an over-the-top reaction to the breakup. But it is a curse that Undine must fulfill, for she will become human only when she falls in love with a man who is doomed to die if he is unfaithful to her.

From Splash to Ponyo to The Lure to Song of the Sea, mythical water spirits, usually female, sometimes horse, have powered many film plots. The sixteenth-century European myth of Undine, in particular, lies behind many screen adaptations of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid, though the Danish writer was not the first to popularize the fairytale in his century. Decades earlier, around 1811, Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué of Germany had produced his romantic novella, Undine.

And it is to Germany—specifically modern-day Berlin—that writer-director (and fellow German) Christian Petzold transports Undine in his contemporary magical-realist take on the myth. There, she does not take the form of a mermaid or siren, but a beautiful young woman (played by Paula Beer), who works as a historian at a museum, where she guides tours of Berlin’s architecture and its reconstruction. The breathtaking cinematography, by regular Petzold collaborator Hans Fromm, crystallizes both the romance and the beauty of Berlin, while Petzold’s leads root every scene in reality, even as aquariums explode and giant catfish drift past.

Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski fire up the streets of Berlin in ‘Undine’.

Water may be the dominant element in Undine, but Beer and her co-star Franz Rogowski bring fire to their scenes together. Where Beer brings charisma and intensity to the titular role, Rogowski, as Undine’s new love interest, an industrial diver named Christoph, offers charm and sweetness.

In the frenzy of Parasite’s world domination, it is easy to forget that Petzold’s previous feature, Transit, appeared in two of our 2019 Year in Review lists—the 50 highest-rated films and the highest-rated international films—and was one of the top romance films of the 2010s. His riveting Phoenix is still his highest-rated film on the platform—one of many to center a complex female character in search of love at a time of personal and/or political crisis. In Undine, Petzold does it again, a welcome departure from other adaptations, including the Colin Farrell-starring Irish romantic drama Ondine (2009), that have mostly told the myth from the perspective of its male characters. Petzold also revises the fairytale, by giving Undine a chance to try to emancipate herself from her curse.

We recently had the pleasure of speaking with Petzold about his fascination with water, the magic of Berlin history, modern dating and of course, his ongoing collaboration with Beer and Rogowski.

Spoiler warning: this conversation contains plot details regarding the ending of Petzold’s film ‘Transit’ (2018).

Your movie is inspired by the myth of Undine, but you reinvent it by giving it some modern twists. How did the main narrative for the film come about? Christian Petzold: I think the idea of the story first came to me around twenty years ago when I had a project in Germany. It was together with Claire Denis and also Kathryn Bigelow, and everybody had to make a ten-minute short film for a project based on the museum near the Rhine River. I had written a little dialogue—oh, by the way, Steve McQueen was also part of the project—and it was the scene that we can see in the movie in the first few minutes where Undine’s boyfriend, Johannes, said that he doesn’t love her anymore and that he wants to leave her and she said to him, “If you leave me, then I’ll have to kill you.” Then she goes back to work, and later when she comes back to try to find him again, he isn’t there—so she knows that she has to kill him now.

Then when I made Transit with Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, I told them after a very lucky and happy time of shooting, that I had written a short story and wanted to make a 90-minute feature movie out of it together with them. I wanted to keep working and making movies with them because we’ve had an amazing experience together in Transit. This was basically the start of how the movie and my collaboration with these two actors came about.

Paula and Franz are actors who didn’t come from the basic German acting school; their backgrounds are dance and theater. But they both have so much curiosity about cinema—when I met Paula for the first time, for example, she told me that she had bought 50 movies by Alfred Hitchcock and wanted to see all of them, and to me, this is the best kind of school to learn about cinema.

So to some extent, Undine is a spiritual sequel to Transit? Yes, you’re right. It has so many things to do with Transit. Marie, Paula’s character in Transit, finds her own death in the sea—she’s drowned. And Franz’s character, he’s waiting at the land, hoping that she may come back from the land of the dead. So I said to them, “Okay, the next movie is gonna be about a woman coming out of the sea and going to the land to search for love and also about this young man who is a diver, who is going underwater, to find love as well.” So to some degree, it’s a sequel, you’re right.

Beer and Ragowski in ‘Transit’ (2018).

You mentioned earlier that you had a great experience working with Paula and Franz in Transit. Can you tell us what it was about these two actors that you thought would capture the story you wanted to tell in Undine? Paula is a very young actor—she was 23 when we started Transit, and she was around 24 when we made Undine—but when you’re filming her, she has this ability to make her characters much more mature beyond her real age. In one second, she’s 45 years old, with a whole experience of someone who’s had a hard life and has gone through so many bad things, then one second later, she’s thirteen and innocent. And to have that kind of ability—to go from one point to another—is just really fascinating to me. I’ve never seen other actors do this before in my life.

Franz was a dancer, and if I remember correctly, I think he was also in a clown school for a circus, so he can do everything with his body. It’s unbelievable what he can do. He has this amazing physicality that I admire and haven’t seen before in other German actors. When they’re together sharing a scene, they dance with each other. And this is the thing that I like so much about them and the thing I need in Undine, because I need actors who can float from one scene to another as if they’re dancing underwater.

In literature and pop culture, the myth of Undine has been mostly told from the male perspective. You reframe the narrative, to give Undine the opportunity to maybe emancipate herself from both the male figure in her life and the curse. Tell me more about that choice. Two or three years ago, I had a retrospective in New York, and I had the chance to see some of my previous movies again—[laughing] I’ve actually never done it before, revisiting my own movies. And at that time, I realized that I’ve always tried to rewrite the stories centering on women, which were made by men in the ’40s, ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, from another perspective: the perspective of the women.

When I was in Venice for the first time, Claude Chabrol [was] in the same hotel as me, and he had a Q&A. I wanted to say hi and tell him how great he was but I couldn’t do it because I was very young and too shy for those things. I heard what he said when asked why in his movies, the women are always the main characters. His answer was, “Men are living, women are surviving. And cinema is about surviving.” It was such a fantastic answer.

All the movies I [have] made, including Undine, are about surviving. Undine wanted to survive her curse—she tries to, every time, since centuries ago. In so many iterations of the myth, Undine always has to go back into the lake and to the life the curse has set for her. I really wanted to zoom in on that, to liberate the character of Undine from the myth and the curse.

In the movie, Undine works as an historian at a museum, and in her tours, she talks about Berlin’s architecture and its reconstruction throughout the years. How is this related to the romantic aspect of the movie? Everybody says you can take a love story and put it in the sixteenth century or the nineteenth century, and it’s always gonna be the same kind of love story. But I think that’s not entirely right. Love stories always change. A kiss in Berlin 1933, for example, is not gonna be the same kiss in Berlin today, right? Therefore I want to take the historical aspect of Berlin architecture and its reconstruction to tell the story of two young people in Berlin nowadays, to see the evolution of both this love story and the myth of Undine itself.

What’s the significance of all the buildings Undine mentions in the movie? The buildings serve a very important role in the movie because Berlin is between two rivers on an island, and the city is built on dried-out swamps, so the element that Undine is coming from, which is the water, is destroyed in Berlin. It doesn’t exist anymore. And therefore Undine doesn’t have any habitats, so she has no choice but to adapt and to live on the land.

In some way, I always think that the modernization in Berlin erases history, and when there’s no history, there’s no magic, which means magical creatures like Undine won’t exist. That was the main idea of the architectural elements in the movie.

Is that also the reason why there are two locations in the movie: Berlin, and the small town where Franz’s character, Christoph, works and lives, which is still full of swamps? To show that in this small town, magic still exists? That’s a good question. The romance and the myth of Undine is a part of German and European history. It’s a unique enchantment. But in Berlin, where modernization and civilization keep growing and changing, there’s no enchantment anymore. So I want to show how in this small town where everything is still kept as closely natural as possible, the enchantment and the charm of Germany are still there.

There’s a beautiful and romantic poem by Joseph Eichendorff that says, “You must find the right world, so everything can sync again.” To me, that line encourages us to find the magic of the world back. We live in this world surrounded by retro buildings and retro behavior and retro music, but it’s all actually just an illusion of magic. The real magic, that’s something that we have to find—either by movies or camera positions or poems or even by preserving the naturality of a city. And the Undine myth actually has a lot to do with this.

Another thing that fascinates me about the movie is how the dynamic between Undine and Johannes, in some way, reflects the state of modern dating. Is this something that you also wanted to capture when you wrote the script? [Laughing] Funny story, when Paula read the script for the first time, she told me that she liked it so much because the story reminded her of Tinder and modern dating. And on some level, it’s true; part of Undine is about modern dating. I always think that in the era of dating apps, everything gets much simpler—you meet someone, you have sex (or perhaps not), and if you feel like this someone is not handsome or beautiful enough for you, you can keep scrolling until you find someone new. So, dating right now is like going to the supermarket.

Johannes leaving Undine to be with another woman, who for him is better-looking than Undine, reflects the culture of Tinder. And the line I mentioned earlier, “If you leave me, then I’ll have to kill you,” is the opposite of that kind of dating life. And Paula, who hates Tinder, loves that line a lot. Some of the actors are on Tinder, I’m sure, and that’s understandable. Actors are sometimes very lonely because for six to eight weeks, they are deep inside of a character, and when they’re on break, they’re in some sort of “black hole of loneliness”.

Writer-director Christian Petzold.

Undine being a water nymph, of course, makes the water element very important in this movie. But water has actually been heavily featured in some of your previous features as well, like in Yella, Barbara and Transit. Can you tell us why you find water fascinating? I’ve seen a documentary by Agnès Varda, and in [it] she said, “The place where one element is touching one another is the place where cinema builds its stories.” That’s why she loved the beach, because on the beach, there’s water and there’s the earth and there’s also wind, and they’re touching each other. So to her, the beach is the perfect place where you can tell a story.

For me, however, the reason I like featuring water or the other elements in most of my movies is because it has something to do with seeing my characters coming from one element then going to the other elements; to see them act and react in a new and sometimes uncomfortable place. Also, when you see pictures or paintings, so many of them are about people looking deep into the sea. I always feel like that kind of painting is actually about a desire. And most of my movies, at [their] core, are about desire. That’s why water is so important to me. Deep under the water, there’s the place of desire.

What’s the first movie that made you want to become a filmmaker? The first movie I loved very much as a kid was The Jungle Book, but the first movie that made me want to become a filmmaker was by Alfred Hitchcock, The 39 Steps. I was fourteen or fifteen years old when I saw the movie for the first time, and I loved it from the first moment. The movie is about a man and a woman who are bound by handcuffs, and they don’t like each other, but because they’re on the run, they have to communicate and come to an understanding. And the love story starts because of that communication, not because of looks, and I love the movie so much for that reason.

If you could program a double feature with Undine, what movie would you pick? Good question. I would say The Night of the Hunter. Also maybe Creature from the Black Lagoon or 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea or The Son’s Room by Nanni Moretti. These are the movies that I would recommend for a double feature with Undine.

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‘Undine’ is in theaters and available on VOD in the US now.

#christian petzold #paula beer #transit film #undine #undine myth #ondine #water nymph #mermaids #mermaid film #german film #german director #german screenwriter #german cinema #cinema germany #romance #romance films #Reyzando Nawara #franz rogowski #letterboxd #filmmaker #letterboxd interview

[infraaa]

I HAD A FUCKING EXPLOSION THE OTHER DAY—

So if you follow me you know that sometimes I make Royal Chaos content. If you’re also a history geek like me you’d know that most of the heroes from RC if not all are based off of real people.

Six out of eight of the most beautiful people of Chinese history are in the game, being Pan’An, Song Yu, Prince Gao, who is also known as Lanling Wang for the men, and Diaochan, Zhaojun, and Yuhuan for the women.

The other two are missing: Wei Jie and Xi Shi.

But good news for you all because after some digging I found them. And they are SO CUTE! We need to make a petition for RC to put these characters into the game! I can DEFINITELY see the four most beautiful men and women having a connection with one another, like little hubs! 😫 But I know what you’re thinking now, maybe some of you. Royal Chaos shouldn’t take from other games! Oh, but my dearest reader, you do know that some of Royal Chaos’s characters are in different games too, right? It wouldn’t be “taking from,” now if they just stole the concept than yes it would be. It’s not like Sega took Mario and co for the Olympic Games, and Vice versa. It’s kind of like that in a sense. ☺️

So, with no further adieu, I bring to you...

✨Headcanons on what class they’d be in and what they can do, as well as background information!✨

Disclaimer: I’m terribly sorry if I spell any of this wrong, Chinese is not my first language and it’s hard to spell out in English. Also, tw // war and suicide mentions, as well as descriptions of murder and violence, just in case...

This is Xi Shi.

Her clothes actually remind me a lot of Diaochan’s with the colors, as well as the moon in the back, as per history, Diaochan was so beautiful the moon would shy away when being compared to her. Xi Shi on the other hand, was believed to be so beautiful that when fish would see her as they swam by, they would forget how to swim and sink to the bottom of whatever body of water they were swimming in. (Beauty can really kill huh?) Out of the four most beautiful women in ancient China, she was considered to be the first.

Her Background and Biography

Xi Shi was born in 506 BC on the nineteenth of July in China’s Zhejiang Province in a small village called Xi Cun, or “West Village.” Because a lot of people that lived there had “Shi” as a last name, and because she was born in the west, she was referred to as Xi Shi. She was born into a pretty ordinary household. Her father sold firewood for a living and her mother did silkwork. Ever since she was little, she would go out to this river to wash the silk that her mother had made. She lived during the Spring and Autumn Period, and within that time, China wasn’t a “whole country,” it was made up of several kingdoms fighting against each other. Xi Shi is from the state of Yue, which had been vanquished by the state of Wu. After that the Emperor of Yue, Gou Jian, was forced to serve the Emperor of Wu, Fu Chai, for three years. Gou Jian then thought of a plan to defeat the Wu State and take power back. He knew that the Fu Chai was a sucker for pretty women, and he also knew that if Fu Chai was surrounded with beautiful women, he would be too distracted to work for his state. But for this plan to work, Gou Jian needed to find a woman that had stunning beauty that was willing to sacrifice herself for the better of the country. Gou Jian found Xi Shi and he picked her. He then asked his minister, Fan Li, to take Xi Shi to Fu Chai as a tribute gift from Yue. On the way however, she fell in love with him, as he was wise and kind. He reciprocated her feelings in turn. Now, they could have escaped this plan and thwarted it but they were both loyal to their country. So, they made a pledge of their undying love for one another in secret. When she was brought before Fu Chai, he was indeed entranced by her, spending more and more time with her, neglecting his duties. After some time, he realized that he should not have been bewitched by her, as the Yue Stare had become more powerful due to his neglectful behavior. Gou Jian had invaded the state of Wu and forced Fu Chai to commit suicide. When this happened, Xi Shi’s mission was complete. The ending that I choose to believe is that she reunited with Fan Li and she lived on with him after he quit his job as a minister. The other ending is really grim...

Her Class and Quality

Xi Shi could definitely be a scholar, an AOE especially. I can imagine that she could do something similar to that of Diaochan, despite her being a medic. She could impact the opposing formations’ abilities to put damage on the formation shes defending using a debuff, much like Daji can do. I can see her being a Defense Hero and possibly having strength in Control for all these reasons, as well as real history, helping her state in the face of despair. She could be considered as a fabled hero, but could also be an epic hero considering the bloat of the fabled class making up mostly half of the hero cast as a whole.

Her Possible Abilities

Chant of Heroism

She can attack anywhere from 4 to 8 times descending on CRIT, dealing 60%+164 DMG to a random front enemy with each hit, lasting one round. Until three layers are tagged, the enemy will lose anywhere from 15 to 25 HP, decreasing DEF by 4%.

Promising Honor

50:50 chance of tagging a back or front target. Allies then force attention to the front if the tag is in the back, dealing 5% more damage. This tag cannot be dispelled for two rounds.

Her Preferred Gems and Treasure

Gems: DEF, ATK, ACC

Treasure: Primarily something with a DEF bonus, so the lamps, each one activating her Destiny ability. However, any other treasure that offers an ATK or RES bonus is also good.

Her Occupation

I can imagine her working in the Ministry of Defense as a General, much like Wen Ruyan. For her other occupation, she could be a poet of some kind, probably a primary or mid poet, something like that, or she could be a primary chess sage.

Hero Compatibility

She could work with other scholars that can do some damage, namely Song Yu and Ying Zheng. She could also work with medics depending on their skill set. Diaochan would be a prime choice.

~~~~

The guy on the right is Wei Jie.

Look at that cat! (´⊙ω⊙`) But for real, this poor guy. He reminds me of the “gentle giant” archetype. Not just because of his looks, no, he’s actually ill with some kind of disease. (I have a head canon that it’s AIDS/HIV, but I don’t have a lot of evidence to support that right now. All I know is that his immune system is very weak to infection and he has respiratory problems and it’s just that he’s very weak overall...) Despite his health however, he’s actually compared to Jade, being like a jade doll. Jade is very valuable in China and is considered to be a very precious stone, especially in the eyes of aristocrats and royalty. Out of the four most handsome men in ancient China, he was considered as the fourth.

His Background and Biography

(I had to use multiple resources for this, I couldn’t find a lot of information on him, so I had to get creative. Sorry!)

Wei Jie, like Pan’An, also lived during the Xi Jin (Western Jin) Dynasty. He was born into a very wealthy household, and was recognized for his beauty alone at the age of five. His uncle, who also had extraordinary good looks, said that walking with his nephew was like “having a gleaming pearl at my side.” He had fans from far and wide, causing chaos and the forming of something along the lines of a twisted harem to form under his shadow. When Wei Jie grew up, this only got worse. Hoards of women would literally block the streets and chase after him because they all wanted him so badly, which this caused a lot of backlash onto his family. Because his family was aristocratic, they had to keep a sensible reputation. People were jealous of the Wei family because of the immense wealth and beauty that they all possessed. Luckily, Wei Jie couldn’t go out that often, as he doesn’t have a strong body, and has been ill since his infancy. He wasn’t allowed to go out during his childhood because of the fear that whatever ailment he had could spread. Because of this belief and the immense jealousy that others had, most of his family, with the exception of his father, fifth uncle, and cousin, were all murdered quite brutally. This lead him to be the young master of the Wei Manor. This pattern of not going out a lot and things continued on for some time. He would go out on occasion if he really needed something, and he didn’t necessarily like all the attention he brought to himself unknowingly. He grew easily overwhelmed by it and constantly sought to get away from the large groups of people that swarmed him. This anxiety and stress of attention exhausted him, and he actually passed from all that exhaustion. He was “watched to death,” as people said. Poor guy... he just wanted to be alone... let us introverts be!

His Class and Quality

Oh, he’s a medic, for sure. I know also that he was an imperial physician in the game I found him from, but he only worked on commission, if that makes sense, like if people actually wanted to be treated by him. He would kind of be like a better version of Shizhen. Very agile and quick, but also the more you get to him, his attack rate can slowly increase. I can see him being some kind of control hero. Back Support too, that would make sense. So control + support. He would be in Fabled Class, definitely. Props to him!

His Possible Abilities

Jade Solstice

Chanting a medical spell from his calabash gourd, he can stun a front line enemy for one round, lowering 20 rage. If a critical is achieved, they will turn chaotic and attack other members of their formation for one round, taking away 15% of the enemies overall DEF and then giving it to his other formation members.

Internal Grace

Shielding himself using the gourd’s energy, he gains 10% RES. Any rage prompted attack he makes will grant him 2% more ATK bonus points for one round, increasing the formation’s overall CRIT by 10%. This can be layered twice and cannot be dispelled or immune to.

His Preferred Gems and Treasure

Gems: HP, CRIT, ATK

Treasure: To increase damage while keeping DEF, use the stamps. However, any CRIT or ATK bonus treasure is good too, just as long as it buffs his accuracy as well!

His Occupation

This is where it got tricky. I would assume he would work alongside Pan’An in the Ministry of Rites where they would compose poems together. It’s just that since he can’t actually go out too much that’s where it gets a little complicated. He could probably act as some kind of moderator or something along those lines, something where he wouldn’t have to deal with people that much.

Hero Compatibility

He would need strong tanks to help him out. Prince Gao, Prince Jing, or even Xiang Yu would be good for him. He would also want heroes that would boost his abilities even more, gotta have that support, you know? Wu Zetian, Yuhuan, or Pan’An would be good choices.

~~~~

Now for the final part...

✨Connections✨

Xi Shi

I think they’re’s already a connection that has Zhaojun, Diaochan, and Yuhuan in it. I would take that and add Xi Shi into the connection, but also bring her attributes to the table, in summary. What I mean by that is take her attributes and summarize them into one. So her strongest asset would be the fact that she could be an AOE with a control bonus. She could add ACC and DEF to the table to help with your formation if activated.

Wei Jie

Just like the ladies, I know there’s already a connection with Pan’An, Song Yu, and Prince Gao in it. Same deal, take it, put him in it, and add his summarized ability. He could be a Medic with strength in CRIT. So, he could bring CRIT to the table, obviously, as well as extra ATK buffs if activated.

~~~~

To conclude, *coughs as if to clear throat* Xi Shi, Wei Jie. We need to add them. The quartets aren’t filled up yet. Wouldn’t it be a surprise for them to finally come together in gorgeous matrimony as the queens they are? All heroes are queens. Plain and simple, not matter how awful their skill sets may be at times. (We see you, Shizhen. You matter, even though his skill set isn’t the best he’s still kinda great 😅)

#royal chaos headcanons #royal chaos #fabled hero headcanons #headcanons #royal chaos theories #infrawrites #tw //

[canaryrecords]

A collection of early 20s Armenian-American indie recordings by the same name was issued by Canary 5 years ago, but having so swollen, we have broken it into 2 parts. This redux (20 songs) focuses on the MG Parsekian label; the other (now renamed A Diamond Ring) is now 23 tracks. New, more vivid transfers and restorations have been produced of all of the material as well as 1,500 words of notes with major contributions by Harry Kezelian . A significant snapshot of the moment in the development of Armenian and Greek musics in the U.S.

Margadich “George” Parsekian (b. present-day Diyarbakir, May 1883) arrived in the U.S. about the age of 14. By 1905, he was settled in northern New Jersey and working as a salesman. Among his streams of income was importing disc recordings from Turkey for the immigrant community. In 1912, he apparently approached Columbia Records in New York City with the prospect of recording a handful of immigrant musicians from present-day eastern and southern Turkey, resulting in three sessions in September and October of that year that yielded a total of 10 discs issued as part of Columbia’s “E” (ethnic) series. These were the first commercial recordings made in the U.S. in the Turkish language. (See the Canary release And Two Partridges for 14 of those 20 sides.) Both Columbia and Victor issued several dozen more discs in Turkish during World War I before essentially ending recording of Turkish and Armenian (and Arabic) language domestic recording in 1919, although they kept some of the discs in print for more than a decade and occasionally produced recordings in Turkish, particularly by Greeks, notably by Achilleas Poulos.

In the early 20s, Parsekian capitalized on the expiration of patents related to the technology of disc recording, launching his own recording label and disc-manufacturing facility in what was then West Hoboken (now Union City), New Jersey, just across the river from Manhattan. Parsekian’s label issued about 40 discs between about 1923 and 1926, the first 30 of which were recorded acoustically (that is to say, mechanically, without the use of electricity or microphones). It stands to reason that Parsekian’s factory was also responsible for manufacturing recordings by other independent Armenian-owned labels that sprung up at the time, including Sohag and its Oriental subsidiary, and and the "vanity" labels of Hovep Shamlian and Harry Hasekian. (See the Canary album A Diamond Ring: Armenian-American Independent Releases ca. 1922-26) Coincident with the introduction of electrical recording, Parsekian handed off his masters and artwork to the Vartestian Brothers who ran a jewelry and watch repair shop on 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. They used much of the Parsekian catalog (as well as Mugerdich Douzjian’s Yildiz vanity label) to launch their own Pharos label, which lasted two or three more years, issuing several dozen more titles. (See the Canary album Very Sweet: Armenian-American Recordings from the Pharos Label ca. 1926-29.)

Parsekian’s flagship artist was Karekin Proodian (b. present-day Diyarbakir, ca. 1884) who recorded about half of the label’s catalog. Proodian immigrated to the U.S. in 1903 settling in the West Hoboken, New Jersey neighborhood populated by a community of others from his native region called Dikranagerd in Armenian, including Parsekian. A photoengraver by trade, he became a citizen in 1910 before returning to his hometown where he married 19 year old Haiganoush (“Annie”) Akmakjian. In 1912, the couple returned to the U.S. with their child Vahan (Frank). Two more children arrived, Siranoush (Sara) and Setrag (who later became a clarinet and saxophone player, appearing on several LPs. He published a memoir called Brothers Abroad. We are actively seeking a copy.)

Between February and December 1916, Proodian performed as a vocalist and kanunist on 18 sides for Columbia and Victor Records, all of which were in Turkish except for the revolutionary ballad “Ipreve Ardziv,” which was in Armenian. (6 of them appear on the Canary album And Two Partridges II and 4 more are on the album If I Were a Nightingale.) In the 1920s Proodian adopted the thinking of a movement among Armenians to present Anatolian music in the Armenian language advocated by the Dikranagerd-born northern New Jersey songwriter Hovsep Shamlian. When Proodian recorded again for M.G. Parsekian’s label, 18 of the 22 sides he cut were in Armenian, only 4 in Turkish.

Parsekian, Proodian, and Shamlian formed a kind of Dikranangersti musical ecosystem in West Hoboken. All three having come from the same region, each contributed his own skills. Parsekian had the record business; Proodian had the voice; Shamlian had the songs. (The rather elaborate labels on some of the discs including photos of the artists may, we can speculate, tie back to Proodian's work in the printing business.) The first two songs Proodian recorded for Parsekian’s label were not only Shamlian’s songs (including his “greatest hit,” “Hasagt Partsr”) but were also accompanied by Dikranangersti accompanists. 16 of Proodian’s 18 recordings for Parsekian in Armenian were Shamlian compositions, albeit accompanied by objectively superior musicians, Harry (Haroutiun) Hasekian of Marash on violin and Edward (Yetvart) Bashian who emigrated Constantinople on oud. Harry and Edward also released instrumental discs as a duo on the Parsekian label as well as on Hasekian’s own label, which, again, were likely produced by Parsekian. (Only the traditional folk song “Ouy Janem” and the revolutionary ballad “Keriyin Yerke” weren’t Shamlian creations.)

After Parsekian’s label was sold to Pharos company around 1926, many of Proodian’s recordings were kept in print by them for several years. Although he did not record again, he stayed active in music singing in Greek and Armenian nightclubs, coffeehouses, and restaurants on Manhattan while still working for Scientific Engraving Inc.” (later Scientific Engineering) at 406 W. 31st on Manhattan. In 1942, he copyrighted a song called “This Is Our Heaven” with lyrics translated by Joseph Stamboolian for use in a movie, although we have not yet traced the film. He died in Fort Lee, New Jersey in 1977.

Maksoud Karabed Sariyan (b. Bursa, Turkey April 17, 1897) arrived in the U.S. on Oct. 22, 1920. He recorded only six sides with clarinetist Hovsep Takakjian (b. Palu, Turkey ca. 1895), four of them for Parsekian and two of them pseudononymously as Karakash (“Black Eyebrows”) along with violinist Vartan Margosian for Margosian's label. By 1928, he had settled in Detroit where he married a Bulgarian-born woman and worked as a professional musician. He died on Jan. 10, 1946. Takakjian moved shortly after making their recordings for Parsekian to Fresno, California for his health, having contracted tuberculosis by loaning his instrument to another musician. Takakjian performed and recorded prolifically with Oscar Kevorkian for several decades. (See the Canary album The Undertaker’s Picnic: Armenian Kef Music in Fresno ca. 1940s-50s.) He died in Fresno in 1976.

The first non-Armenian to have recorded for Parsekian’s label was the Romaniote Jew Mazeltov Matsa (b. Janina, present-day Greece, 1897) who performed first under the name Amilia Hanoum and later as Amalia Bakas. A definitive biographical study was published by David Soffa on the 2002 Arhoolie label CD Amalia!: Old Greek Songs in the New Land, 1923-50 and summarized on the Canary album No News From Tomorrow: Greek and Turkish Speaking Women in New York ca. 1942-50. She was, in the mid-20s a young garment worker and mother of two in the Jewish Lower East Side moonlighting as a singer of Turkish and Greek folks songs in restaurants and coffeehouses. She cut her first five discs for Armenian-owned independent labels (three for Parsekian; two for Sohag) before an acrimonious divorce, a brief stint running her own little nightclub around the corner from Marika Papagika’s place on 8th Avenue, and then nearly 30 years on the road as a nightclub performer. She recorded for the Victor label in the late 20s (likely introduced to them by Marika Papagika with whom she became very close, George Katsaros with whom she regularly toured in the 30s, or perhaps Marko Melkon who also first recorded for Parsekian in the early 20s and then operated on the same circle of performers in the 1940s-50s.)

Likewise, Parsekian was likely the first to release discs by the Greek singer and oudist Achilleas Poulos (b. July 1893 present-day Balikesir, Turkey) a close friend of Marko Melkon (see the Canary albums of Melkon, I Go Around Drinking Raki: ca. 1942-51 and HiFi Adventures in Asia Minor) who had already cut his first disc for Parsekian accompanied by Harry and Edward. Poulos was in a fury of recording activity in the mid-20s, cutting a total of about 125 performances for Parsekian, Pharos, Columbia and Victor as well as the short-lived Oriental label (related to Sohag) between 1925 and 1927. His best-selling 12” disc for Columbia of “Nedem Geldim Americaya (Why I Came to America),” a folk song he’d rewritten about his personal experience as an immigrant, differs from his performance for Parsekian notably in that it benefits from the violin playing of Nishan Sedefjian. Sedefjian, who performs on nearly all of Poulos' Victor and Columbia material was a diamond setter at the Vartesian Brothers shop. Poulos was the lead performer on the last dozen Parsekian releases and on several of the first Pharos discs. Pharos even issued two discs of Poulos' niece Soultana when she visited from Balikesir. (See the Canary album Why I Came to America: More Folk Music of the Ottoman-American Diaspora ca. 1917-47.) It seems likely that he was the bridge between the two labels. After ’27 Poulos simply ceased recording and moved to Connecticut, where he worked at a coffee roaster and died in 1970. Like Parsekian, his influence on the scene of Turkish, Armenian, and Greek speaking immigrants in New York outlasted his activity for more than a generation.

#78rpm #78 rpm #ottoman #armenian #greek #turkish #romaniote #immigrant

[cardest]

Sydney playlist

And the winner is Si-da-nee! Sydney, Newcastle, Canberra, NSW...ah! The music from this part of the world is so good it is to be believed. I shared Melbourne yesterday and today (on Australia Day) I just had to go with one more. I know this Sydney playlist can reach 200 songs. It’s up to you! Let me know what bands or songs I missed. The songs branch out to Newcastle, Byron Bay, Broken Hill and down to Canberra and the Snowy Mountains.

SYDNEY

001 Icehouse - Harbour Town 002 Hard-Ons & Henry Rollins - let there be rock 003 Paul Kelly and the Messengers - Sydney From A 727 004 Cruel Sea -  4 005 Toe To Toe - Race Against Time 006 GANGgajang - Sounds Of Then (This Is Australia) 007 Celibate Rifles - Wild Desire 008 Johnny Cash - Fast Boat to Sydney   009 The Kinks - Australia 010 Rose Tattoo - Out of This Place 011 BB and the Blips - Lucky Country 012 Cold Chisel - Painted Doll 013 Mass Appeal - Inward Span 014 Mortal Sin - Women In Leather 015 HIEROPHANTS - Nervous Tic 016 Dragon - Blacktown Boogie 017 Mental as Anything - Blacktown To Bondi 018 The Scientists - Hey Sydney 019 Pat Wilson - Bop Girl   020 The Mexican Spitfires - Sydney Town   021 Arrowhead - Coven of the Snake 022 Models - Two Cabs To The Toucan 023 Box The Jesuit - Sleazo Peepshow 024 AC/DC -  Live Wire 025 Redgum - Parramatta Gaol 1843 026 Frenzal Rhomb - My City Of Sydney 027 Parramatta Hot Rod Man - The Satelite V 028 Radio Birdman - Murder City Nights 029 Bane of Isildur - Gates of Valhalla 030 Clouds - Bower Of Bliss 031 Lime Spiders - my favorite room 032 The Beasts of Bourbon - I’m So Happy I Could Cry 033 You Am I - High Chair 034 Louis Tillet - Carousel 035 Nic Dalton and his Gloomchasers - Okay Sydney You Beat me 036 The Saints - One Way Street 037 The Whitlams - You Gotta Love this City 038 The Executives - Summer Hill Road 039 Ratcat -  That Ain't Bad 040 Hoodoo Gurus - Leilani 041 Straight Arrows - 21st Century   042 Falling Joys - Parachute   043 Toys Went Berserk - Wheels In Motion 044  The Hummingbirds -  If A Vow 045 The Angels - Wasted Sleepless Nights Dark Room 046 Died Pretty - Stone age Cinderella 047 Sadistik Exekution - Mental Derailment 048 Newtown Jets team song 049 Do Re Mi  - Man Overboard 050 INXS - The Loved One 051 John Kennedy - Ghost of Newtown 052 Nazxul - Vow of Vengeance 053 The Go-Betweens - Streets of your town 054 SPY V SPY  - ONE OF A KIND 055 Tumbleweed -  Gyroscope 056 Kylie Minogue - Wouldnt Change A Thing 057 Mental As Anything - Live It Up 058 Divinyls - Good Die Young 059 Grungeon - Infernal Shelter   060 Hard-Ons - School Days 061 The Radiators - No Tragedy   062 The New Christs - Born Out Of Time 063 The Sunnyboys - Alone With You   064 The Triffids - A Trick Of The Light 065 The Takeaways - Sweet & Sour 066 COG - Bondi 067 Cold Chisel  - Tomorrow   068 Icehouse - Electric Blue   069 Midnight Oil  - Bring On The Change 070 Celibate Rifles - Darlinghurst Confidential 071 Radio Birdman - Do The Pop 072 You Am I -  Coprolalia 073 Cruciform - Sanctuary 074 Electric Pandas - Big Girls 075 The Saints - Just like fire would 076 Perry Keyes - The Day John Sattler Broke His Jaw Douly Stewart 077 The Bushwackers Band - Shores Of Botany Bay (double Douly Stewart action!!) 078 The Holy Soul - Family Magician 079 Mi Sex - Only Thinking 080 Beasts of Bourbon - Chase the dragon 081 Paul Kelly and His Messengers - Incident On South Dowling 082 Models - Out of Mind Out of Sight 083 Clouds - Alchemy’s Dead 084 The Go-Betweens - Lavender 085 Def FX - Surfers of the Mind 086 Skyhooks - Somewhere in Sydney 087 The Bamboos - Kings Cross 088 The Whitlams - Year Of The Rat 089 MINDSNARE - BURNING BLACK   090 David Bowie -  Let's Dance  ( Sean Steward ) 091 V Spy V Spy - Harrys Reasons 092 Hoodoo Gurus - Whats My Scene 093 Midnight Oil - Who Can Stand in the Way 094 Hard-Ons -  Girl In The Sweater 095 Goanna - Solid Rock   096 THY ART IS MURDER - Human Target   097 White Dog - Sydney Limits 098 Tumbleweed -  Hang Around ( Aje Morris ) 099 Mental As Anything - The Nips Are Getting Bigger 100 Icehouse - Great Southern Land 101 Divinyls - Only Lonely 102 Deborah Conway - Its Only The Beginning 103 Bastardizer - Up The Ante 104 Mi Sex - Computer Games   105 Sunnyboys - You Need A Friend 106 AC/DC - Heatseeker 107 Mortality - D. Form 108 INXS - Don’t Change 109 Naiad - Confidence 110 Crow - Railhead 111 Mass Burial - Etemmu 112 New Groove - Rockmelons 113 The Alarm   - New South Wales 114 Potion - Women of the Wand   115 Backyard Mortuary - Lure of the Occult 116 Girl Overboard - The Love We Make 117 Radio Freedom - I Can Feel It 118 Tex Perkins & Don Walker - Harry Was A Bad Bugger 119 Dragon - This Time 120 Slaughter Lord - Destructor 121 Alchemist - Dancing To Life 122 Happy Hate Me Nots - Salt Sour & Brighton 123 Downtime - Downtime 124 50 lions - To the test 125 Town Pants - New South Wales 126 INSURGE - Political Prisoners 127 GANGgajang - Gimme Some Loving 128 The Maviss - Thunder 129 MAD MAX 2 SOUNDTRACK - The Montage Main Title from the Road 130 Cruel Sea -  This Is Not The Way Home 131 Mortal Sin - I Am Immortal 132 Mad Max /Furry Road OST - Doof warrior   133 WHISKY SMILE - Old Mate Ernie Dingo’s Got My Baby 134 Falling Joys - Jennifer   135 Noiseworks - Burning Feeling 136 The Celibate Rifles - Tick Tock 137 Lime Spiders - scene of the crime 138 Died Pretty - out of the unknown 139 The Crystal Set - a drop in the ocean 140 Kings Of The Sun  - DROP THE GUN 141 Frozen Doberman - Dying Phase 142 Laura Imbruglia - Looking For a Rabbit 143 Scarymother - Lord of the Flies 144 Captain Cleanoff - Wizards Sleeve 145 Wa Wa Nee - Stimulation 146 Gods of Eden - From the End of Heaven 147 Rabbit - Too Much Rock N Roll 148 Balescream - Amnesia 149 Aeturnus Dominion - Aeturnus Dominion 150 The Screaming Jets - October Grey 151 Bob Hudson - The Newcastle song   152 The Poor Boys - Hey Man 153 Ilium - Orbiting a Sun of Sadness 154 The Seer - The Fall 155 Arse/Piss -  Churdburglar 156 Alchemist - Austral Spectrum 157 Redgum - Yarralumba Wine 158 Henrys Anger - Personality Test 159 Sidewinder - Titanic Days   160 Armoured Angel - Enigmatize   161 Midnight Oil - Kosciusko 162 The Church - reptile 163 Cog - Charades   164 Kim Salmon & the Surrealists - Lightning scary 166 Addictive - Pity of Man 167 Ilimitable Dolor - Soil She Bears 168 AC/DC - The Jack 169 The Angels - We Gotta Get Out of This Place 170 Celibate Rifles - O Salvation 171 Happy Hate Me Nots - Things wearing thin 172 Jack Forest - Every hour god sends 173 Mi Sex - But you don't care 174 Laura Imbruglia - looking for a rabbit 175 Hummingbirds - Blush 176 INXS - Kiss The Dirt (Falling Down The Mountain) 177 Yes I'm Leaving - Slow release 178 Rose Tattoo - Rock n roll outlaw 179 Asteroid B12 - True romance 180 Midnight Oil - bus to Bondi 181 Feedtime - Motorbike girl 182 The Bhagavad Guitars - I wanna know why 183 The Scientists - Blood Red River 184 The Crystal Set - cluster 185 Beasts of Bourbon - Chase the dragon 222 Deniz Tek - Run out of water 333 AC/DC - Jailbreak 666 TINA TURNER  -  We Don’t Need Another Hero (ThunderDome)

We are so close to 200 songs! Jump in and let’s fill the gaps together. PS: I don’t use Spotify because they don’t even half half these songs on their system.

#sydney #sydney playlist #bands from sydney #sydney songs #newcastle playlist #mortal sin #ac dc #spy vs spy #mental as anything #sadistik exekution #beasts of bourbon #sunnyboys #armoured angel

[i-am-heathcliff-234]

2, 11, 12, 17, 19, 26, 37, 38, 46, 50, 52, 53, 55, 61, 81, 82, 88, 97, 98, 100, 102, 103, 138, 140

2. 3 things I love

Training, my parents, power of women

11. Favourite place

Answered

12. What am I listening to right now

Josipa Lisac - Gdje Dunav ljubi nebo

17. Favourite song

UUhhhh...probably "It's my Life - Bon Jovi", but there are so many

19. How I feel right now

Lonely

26. The reasons I joined Tumblr

Looked very interesting

37. If I could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

A certain young Goddess that has a very good blog and I enjoy talking to

38. What do I think about most?

Past

46. What was the last book I’ve read?

Gothic Short Stories

50. Favourite animal?

Wolf

52. What’s a song that always makes me happy when I hear it?

Lights - Peace Sign

53. What is my favorite word?

Love

55. If the whole world were listening to me right now, what would I say?

"Stop, just stop".

61. Have I ever kissed somebody in the rain?

No, but I want to

81. Do I like my handwriting?

It's alright

82. Where do I want to live when older?

The mountains

88. What do I like about myself

Empathy

97. What are your 5 favorite songs right now?

It's my life - Bon Jovi; Lights - Peace Sign; Frankie goes to Hollywood - Relax; Bishop Briggs - River; Savage Garden - To the moon and back

98. Do you like it when people play with your hair?

Yes

100. Do you like bubble baths?

Can't remmeber I ever had one

102. Where would you like to travel?

Iceland and Japan

103. Favorite part of your daily routine?

Training

138. What your zodiac sign?

Taurus

140. Get the closest book next to you, open it to page 42, what’s the first line on that page? (via catscuddlingandyou)

This was Dracula indeed

Thank you very much for giving me this work Anon

#answered

[marvelousecology]

Archaic Genomics

Every hair on my arms stands to attention whenever I hear the haunting downward hum. Hrrmmmmm. The bagpipes drone until portions of the fleet transition to bleating as the battle song, Scotland the Brave, surges through the open field. The resonance of its echoing sound leaves me awestruck with a powerful sense of connection to my ancestors. My mother always said, “We’re German, Irish, English, Scottish, French, and Dutch, in that order,” but her knowledge wore thin the further back she went, while I longed to visit the old country and experience the cultural roots my family has long forgotten since coming to America.

An unfortunate byproduct of being a late generation American is that my inheritance of these ethnic backgrounds, which links me to my ancestors, is practically nonexistent in my life; yet, an integral part of myself is knowing where my family came from because it affects my identity. I’m German, Irish, English, Scottish, French, and Dutch, in that order.

Nonetheless, there is no family heraldry hanging on our walls or a cherished crest passed down from generation to generation. No symbolic colors, animals, or objects showcasing the values or convictions our family once embodied. What’s our tartan colors? Is there a schnitzel recipe? Whatever Pagan, Celtic, or Germanic customs and traditions would have been celebrated were either Anglicized or Americanized. So, attending events or festivals that celebrate our national heritages is as close to experiencing the motherland as we will get and by venerating cultural practices like music, dance, sports, feasts, wearing the attire, and sharing the vernacular tales, imbues us with a sense of pride, belonging, and appreciation for our ancient kinfolk. Otherwise, the closest familial ties to my cultural heritage have been deduced to the commodified four-leaf clover, death by green, Saint Patrick’s Day or Mel Gibson’s Braveheart.

One afternoon, my mother’s oldest sister, Ruth Putrus, calls to tell us we’re one fifth Viking. The chronicle of her genetic story unfolded after submitting her saliva sample to 23&Me, which revealed a shared mutation that occurred 6,500 years ago from an offshoot of the previous gene that’s mostly found in Iceland. Enthralled by the news, I proudly add Viking to the mix.

Daydreams of Norsemen traveling from Scandinavia, dominating the Baltic coast and the Dnieper and Volga trading routes sail across my imagination. Hurling myself into Viking history as they colonized, pillaged, and traded during the Viking Age (800-1000 AD), spreading throughout various regions of Europe and settling in Iceland and Newfoundland. Imagining the dark black clouds of smoke from burning monasteries ransacked of its gold and goods as brutal bearded raiders took what they wanted, painting a medieval tale of Vikings sailing up and down rivers, always attacking England and Scotland, then seizing the women for wives.

These results wildly intrigued me, but it isn’t until much later when I take a DNA test of my own that I realize how complicated genomics can be. According to Ancestry, I’m 50 percent English, 37 percent Scottish, 5 percent Welsh, 4 percent Irish, 2 percent Swedish, and 2 percent German. The results conflicted with the phrase I’ve known my entire life; I’m German, Irish, English, Scottish, French, and Dutch, in that order. Not an inkling of Dutch or French and just a smidge of Irish and German? Sweden is home to Scandinavians who are descendants of Vikings, but only 2 percent? What happened to the one fifth?

Online, Ancestry’s website states that they test individual autosomal DNA because it reveals more information compared to Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA tests, but their ambiguous explanation is devoid of digestible information relating to how exactly it was determined or the science behind the reasoning.

A plant genomics laboratory researcher at Oregon State University, Amanda Roelant, comments on Ancestry’s statement. “Vaguely talking about a complicated process is necessary otherwise everyone would need to be a geneticist,” she says.

Geneticists specialize in the interdisciplinary field of biology called genomics, which studies different living organism’s genome. The genome is the entirety of genetic code stored within that organism and the genetic code is comprised of DNA—the blueprint of our lives—and it’s found within our cells and within our cells it’s found in the nuclei. Try to envision DNA as the sacred written text on the pages of archaic scriptures occupying the many shelves of a library hidden deep within the city. A geneticist reads this intricately coded text, a language foreign to most, and transcribes it for us to see; mostly revealing ancestry or underlying medical diseases.

Genetic information is inherited from our parents at the time of conception when the sperm and the embryo meet. Simply, half of mom’s DNA and half of dad’s DNA. Humans have a total of 46 chromosomes that breakdown into 23 pairs and 22 of those pairs are autosomes 22, while remaining are the sex chromosomes, XX or XY. Inheriting the Y-chromosomal DNA directly links men to a paternal lineage of ancestors descending from all fathers to sons. Meanwhile, the maternal line is found within the mitochondria; an organelle of the cell, like the nucleus, that stores DNA, which is directly passed from mother to child. Since, the mitochondria is the site for energy production and the mother creates a child inside her body, with her body, the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is passed onto them by her.

23&Me provided Ruth with more resourceful information on her test results and the science behind the answers. Providing citations from archaeological studies laying down the foundation for genetic comparison using archaic DNA extracted from ancient skeletal remains, Ruth is positive we share a female Celtic-Viking ancestor.

One of the founding women of Iceland was most likely taken from Scotland by the Vikings. Was she a wife, slave, or servant? We may never know but there’s speculation because the first mtDNA references, to a maternal haplogroup called I2, has the highest concentration in Iceland. Vaguely speaking, haplogroups refer to a sustained change or mutation in the DNA that sticks with a certain population through a period of time. Detecting these changes or mutations can help group different organisms to different lineation’s.

“Grandma is the one with the I2 haplogroup and that would’ve went to all her female descendants, so your mom and I had it from her and we passed it onto our descendants, which means you have this haplogroup too,” she says.

Icelandic scientist from the University of Oxford, Agnar Helgason, specializing in genetic anthropology, and analyzing new mtDNA control-region sequences, published, “mtDNA and the Islands of the North Atlantic: Estimating the Proportions of Norse and Gaelic Ancestry,” that’s evaluating the matrilineal ancestry in Iceland. Roughly 37.5 percent is Scandinavian. “More recent analyses of mtDNA and Y-chromosome variation in the Icelanders suggests that a majority of the female settlers may have originated from the British Isles, whereas 80 percent of male settlers were Scandinavian.”

This haplogroup doesn’t necessarily represent Viking DNA since it’s very rare in Denmark and other parts of Scandinavia. “Some of our ladies got up there but not to a dominant extent unlike Iceland where there was an early presence,” says Ruth. The theory is that haplogroup I may have been carried to Iceland by the Vikings when they took British, Scottish, and Irish women from their homes in the 8th, 9th and 10th centuries, which changed to I2 and continued descending.

Ancestry provides me an ethnicity estimate without verifying its origins, whereas 23&Me correlates their findings with scholarly reviews and related studies. Although, I’m 2 percent Viking, arguably the 37 percent Scot is interrelated to the Celtic woman taken by the Vikings centuries ago. Culture is not inherent to genetics.

Geneticists are trying to crack a code and what that means for us. Everything we know about genetics is based on something a modern-day human theorized. “It doesn’t mean it’s the only truth,” Amanda says, “And as a scientist, I believe in a lot of it, but on a human level, there’s such limitations on what we know. So, it’s something to keep in mind when you’re taking it seriously.”

[wherestoriescomefrom]

Anyway I made a spotify playlist for Uprooted, for the harvest faire! It was really hard to find a balance between autumn emotions and light hearted music that talked about the death of the year and loss of childhood while also dealing with the themes of the forest and the wood and the battle. I’ve organised it according to the progression of the book as well as specific thematic build ups. There’s a symmetrical 50 songs! 

Thank you to the Uprooted discord, you’re the reason this was manageable!! 

Here’s a run down of why I picked the songs I picked: 

1. Olsen olsen just felt like such a nice song to set the mountainous mood, that I thought it was a perfect setting establishment. 

2. Song for Memory, Place We Were Made, Welcome Home Son, Tiger Striped Sky, Army, felt like songs that really fit with Agnieszka’s feelings for her village and hometown. Place We Were Made especially feels like an Agnieszka/Kasia song. 

3. Shine You No More is an instrumental which just gave me a harvest faire vibe and an Agnieszka’s village vibe. 

4. You’re My Best Friend, Travelling Song had such STRONG Agnieszka/Kasia vibes I just couldn’t help it. Travelling Song is in particular something for when they meet again post reaping, and they’re trying to save the village. 

5. Invisible String - I don’t know who it fits but it just fits Agnieszka. Her bone with Kasia, with Sarkan, her village. @destroyerofthefreemarket and I had such a good time discussing which of the folklore songs we should put. 

6. Hoax had an emotional core that reminded me and Carrey of Sarkan and Ludmilla a lot, and Hello My Old Heart just really feels like a Sarkan emotion while he trains Agnieszka and she’s out there destroying his library and he’s beginning to actually like this mess of a girl. 

7. Midnight is a Baba Jaga song through and through. I thought it’s a good creepy interlude for when Agnieszka discovers her notebook. 

8. I think Florence and the Machine’s whole discography is an Agnieszka mood but I picked Heartlines and What the Water Gave Me for her, for once she has learned her magic a little more, and especially for the time when she uses it to save Sarkan. 

9. Wax and Wane really feels like a Kasia song, especially after she isn’t really sure whom she should blame for the way things turned out for her, and it has some strong magical elements that made me think of her being taken by the walkers. 

11. Just like Florence and the Machine’s entire discography feels like an Agnieszka discography, Hozier’s entire discography really feels very Sarkan. I HAD to put Would That I, and Like Real People Do. 

12. This one will be a little harder for you guys, but Bollywood is filled with music for men who fall in love with amazing, fantastical women. I really REALLY love Maerie by Palash Sen, and god if Tu Kisi Rail Si isn’t a mood. I wanted to include a song about trains anyway because I love trains and I am Indian - plus this is one of the most famous ghazals by poet Dushyant Kumar. It also felt like a really good yearning song for when Agnieszka goes to the capital. Here is a link for the translation of the song, and here is one for the ghazal. I don’t have a decent translation of Maerie, but it is about a lover remembering a beloved who is half magic if not more. 

13. The Hanging Tree was for the haphazard horrible mission to save the queen. Call out post for prince Marek. 

14. King is obviously about Agnieszka and Kasia escaping the capital trying to save the heirs. I wish I had a song for Alosha. 

15. Dirty Paws, Fear, Sons and Daughters feels like a gathering forces for the battle. 

16. Wild Blue Yonder and The Horror and the Wild - you know how I said Florence and the Machine is for Agnieszka, Hozier is for Sarkan? The Amazing Devil is for them both. Wild Blue Yonder is specifically for that sex scene. 

17. Fear Not This Night and Fearless are more battle songs. And then all the songs betweenThe Mourning Tree and Devil’s Spoke are to set up some creepy tones for the forest. 

18. Songs between mad woman and My Love Took Me Down to the River to Silence Me are Wood Queen songs! 

19. Cradle Hill and Old Churchyard are songs about the Wood Queen’s sister and how she is urging the Wood Queen to forget bitterness. 

20. Lovesong of the Buzzard seemed a nice song to taper of the intense battle feelings and talk about how Sarkan saves Agnieszka from the heart tree. And then The Woods was a good parallel to the previous song about the Woods, which was creepier. This one has a pleasant ending! Sky Full of Song has such a strong emotion of Agnieszka being tired after coming out of the heart tree, and when she holds his hand?? That feeling! That’s the one I was going for!!

21. Garden Song is so lovely, and it really does have a post-battle energy of Agnieszka, so I put that there. 

22. We’re On Our Way has a nice Kasia feeling about it, where she’s figuring out what to do for herself and training with the prince and princess. 

23. this is me trying was said by Carrey to be something that had a strong Sarkan feeling, and I really felt it when he comes back to the valley after leaving her for so many months. It felt like a post-everything song

23. Riches and Wonders was something I wanted to put, because livy ( @athenasdragon ) likes Eliza Rickman and I love the autumn feeling about it. It seemed like the perfect Harvest song, about the community you guard and protect. 

If you guys want to include more songs, do let me know! I will happily do so. And thank you to @uprootedficathon for organising this year’s Harvest Faire! Do check everyone else’s entries on the blog! 

#uprooted harvest faire 2020 #harvest faire #uprooted ficathon #uprootedficathon #uprooted