#which in ireland is pretty often

[crowley1990]

Only place in Europe I’ve had semi decent Mexican food is Spain and even then still not really

#I liked the fish taco though #I mean in general I think you’re going to get better ethnic food if you have a large number of immigrants from that country #so UK has pretty decent Indian food (and London probably has decent everything) #Ireland has nothing authentic and everything Irish fusion which doesn’t mean it’s bad it’s often still very tasty #but it’s not authentic #but yeah I had nice food in Madrid it was pretty good #jb

[petermorwood]

Food on St Patrick's Day (in the USA)...

...is usually Corned Beef & Cabbage, which is the Irish-American version of the original Irish boiled bacon & cabbage, but while the celebratory Irishness is still going strong, try something a bit more authentic.

A nice warm coddle. Not cuddle, coddle, though just as comforting in its own way. (Some sources suggest it's a hangover cure, not that such a thing would ever be necessary at this time of year, oh dear me no.)

Coddle is a stew using potatoes, onions, bacon, sausages, stout-if-desired / stock-if-not, pepper, sage, thyme and Time.

You'll often see it called "Dublin Coddle", but my Mum made Lisburn Coddle lots of times, I've made West Wicklow Coddle more than once, and on one occasion in a Belgian holiday apartment I made Brugsekoddel, which is an OK spelling for something that doesn't exist in any cookbook.

*****

I do remember one amendment I made to Mum's recipe, which met with slight resistance at the time and great appreciation thereafter.

Her coddle was originally cooked on the stove-top, not in the oven, and nothing was pre-cooked. Potatoes were quartered, onions were sliced, bacon was cut into chunks and then everything went into the big iron casserole, then onto the slow back ring, and there it simmered Until Done.

However, the bacon was thick-cut back rashers, and the sausages were pork chipolatas.

Raw, they looked like this:

...and the bacon looked like this:

Cooked in the way Mum initially did, they looked pretty much the same afterwards. The sausages didn't change colour. Nor did the bacon.

While everything tasted fine, the meat parts always looked - to me, anyway - somewhat ... less than appealing. "Surgical appliance pink" is the kindest way to put it, and that's all I'm saying. This is apparently "white coddle" and Dubs can get quite defensive about This Is The Way It SHOULD Look.

I'm not a Dub, so I persuaded Mum to fry both the bacon and sausages first, just enough to get a bit of brown on, and wow! Improvement! I remember my Dad nodding in approval but - because he was Wise - not saying anything aloud until Mum gave it the green light as well.

Doing the coddle in the oven, first with lid on then with lid off, came later and met with equal approval. So did using only half of the onion raw and frying the other half lightly golden in the bacon fat.

Nobody quoted from a movie that wouldn't be made for another decade, but there was a definite feeling of...

*****

There are coddle recipes all over the Net: I've made sure that these are from Ireland to avoid the corned-beef-not-boiled-bacon "adjustment" versions which are definitely out there. I've already seen one with Bratwurst. Just wait, it'll be chorizo next.

Oh, hell's teeth, I was right. And from RTE...

Returning to relative normality, here's Donal Skehan's white coddle and his browned coddle with barley (I'm going to try that one).

Here's Dairina Allen's Frenchified with US measurements version. (I feel considerably less heretical now.)

And finally (OK, not Irish, but it references a couple of the previous ones and is a VERY comprehensive write-up, so gets a pass) Felicity Cloake's Perfect Dublin Coddle (perfect according to who, exactly...?) in The Guardian.

*****

Returning to the beginning, and how boiled bacon became corned beef (a question which prompted @dduane to start an entire website...!)

The traditional Irish meat animal for those who could afford it was the pig, but when Irish immigrants (even before the Great Famine) arrived in the USA, they often lived in the same urban districts as Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe.

For fairly obvious reasons pork, bacon and other piggy products were unavailable in those districts, but salt beef was right there and far cheaper than any meat Irish immigrants had ever seen before.

Insist on tradition or eat what was easy to find? There'd have been contest - and do I sometimes wonder a bit if sauerkraut ever came close to replacing cabbage for the same reason.

The pre-Famine Irish palate liked sour tastes: a German (?) visitor to Ireland in the mid-1600s wrote about about what were called "the best-favoured peasantry in Europe", and mentioned that they had "seventy-several sour milks and creams*, and the sourer they be, the better they like them."

* Yogurt? Kefir? Skyr? Gosh...

Corned beef and Kraut as the immigrants' celebratory "Irish" meal for St Patrick's Day? Maybe, maybe not.

Time for "Immigrant Song" (with kittens).

*****

Corned beef got its name from the size of the salt grains with which the beef was prepared. They were usually bigger than kosher salt, like pinhead oats or even as large as grains of wheat, and their name derived originally from "corned (gun)powder", the large coarse grains used in cannon.

BTW, "corn" has been a generic English term for "grain" for centuries, and "but Europe didn't have corn" is an American mistake assuming the word refers to sweetcorn / maize, which it doesn't.

Lindsey Davis, author of the "Falco" series, had a couple of rants about it and other US-requested "corrections". As she points out, mistakes need corrected but "corn" is not a mistake, just a difference in vocabulary.

*****

In Ancient and Medieval Ireland pig would have included wild boar, the hunting of which was a suitable pastime for warriors and heroes, because Mr Boar took a very dim view of the whole proceeding and wasn't shy about showing it (see "wild boar" in my tags and learn more).

Cattle were for milk, butter, cream and little cattle; also wealth, status, and heroic displays in their theft, defence or recovery. It's no accident that THE great Irish epic is "The Cattle-Raid of Cooley" / Táin Bó Cúailnge (tawn / toyn boh cool-nyah).

Killing a cow for meat was ostentation on a level of lighting cigars with 100-, or even 500-, currency-unit notes. Once it had been cooked and eaten there'd be no more milk, butter, cream or little cattle from that source, so eating beef was showing off And Then Some.

Also, loaning a prize bull to run with someone else's heifers was a sign of great friendship or alliance, while refusing it might be an excuse for enmity or even war. IMO that's what Maeve of Connaught intended all along, picking undiplomatic envoys who would get drunk and shoot their mouths off so the loan was refused and she, insulted, would have an excuse to...

But I digress, as usual. Or again. Or still... :->

*****

For the most part, "pig" mean "domestic porker", and in later periods right up to the Famine, these animals were seldom eaten.

Instead, known as "the gentleman who pays the rent", the family pig ate kitchen scraps and rooted about for other foods, none of which the tenant had to grow or buy for them. These fattened pigs would go to market twice a year, and the money from their sale would literally pay that half-year's rent.

For wealthier (less poor?) farmers, pigs had another advantage. Calves arrived singly, lambs might be a pair, but piglets popped out by the dozen. A sow with (some of) her farrow was even commemorated on the old ha'penny coin...

What with bulls, chickens, hares, horses, hounds, pigs, salmon and stags, the pre-decimal Irish coinage is a good inspiration for some sort of fantasy currency.

But that's another post, for another day.

#food and drink #St Patrick's Day #Irish cuisine #Dublin coddle #corned beef or boiled bacon #pigs and cattle in Ireland #The Cattle Raid of Cooley #Youtube

[c00kietin]

It's the 17th of March, so y'know what that means-

Happy Saint Patrick's Day to you all! I know the majority of you probably don't celebrate, which is fair, BUT I decided I wanted to talk a little more about the country I was born and raised in- the Emerald Isles of Ireland!! :D

If you're just here for the art, well here ya go! However, if you want to learn more in a VERY long post:

Just to start off, here's the Irish flag and the Ivory Coast flag! Wanted to add this because they can get easily mixed up (I got them muddled up a LOT when I was younger-)

Since it is Saint Patrick's Day, I should probably elaborate what that's about- what I've been taught in school is that Saint Patrick preached the Gospel to the Irish, one method including the shamrock to represent the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of course, and the whole "he drove the snakes out of Ireland" but don't worry. There are still snakes in Ireland. And I'm pretty sure "snakes" is a metaphor anyway. And, turns out, he wasn't even originally from Ireland- he was British! Oh yeah, and he was kidnapped by pirates to become a slave when he was a teenager for 6 year s -

Here are some stereotypes or the first things that pop into your mind when you think of "Ireland"- leprechauns, short gingers, "Top of the mornin' to ya" and our love for spuds and beer. And, to tell you some stuff about them too!

Leprechauns originally wore red! They pop up in fairy tales quite often too.

Ireland is second when it comes to having the highest percentage of gingers with 10%, with Scotland having 13%. As for being short, I reassure you, there are plenty of tall and/or lanky people around. (A lot of my teachers are like this-)

I've heard no one say this as a greeting. The only Irish person I can think of who does is Jacksepticeye. You might be more likely to hear "How's it going?" or "What's the crack?"

As for loving beer, we are one of the highest consumers for it, but there are many other higher consumers! Also, I don't know if this is a thing in America or not, but we tend to call them pubs. Bars are a bit more...fancy? I don't know how to describe the difference.

And for loving potatoes? Okay. This is probably true lol. Almost everyone I know likes potatoes (with some exceptions). And, of course, who can forget the Great Famine when blight destroyed the potato crop and killed around a million people- spuds were a huge source of food back then.

And now, for language! Here are some I'm used to hearing quite regularly (and use often, too!)

Another two that I want to add are more Cork exclusive, but saying "boy/girl" at the end of sentences and using "like" a lot is quite common (especially the like one- I say "like" all the time ;v;).

And now, Irish itself! Now, I'm not going to tell you anything major (I'm not a teacher) but I will try my best to explain a little!

Irish is not the main language of Ireland but in some particular areas (shown in the right image) there are regions called Gaeltacht districts which predominantly speak Irish. Their Irish would be a lot better than my school-knowledge based Irish :'D Another thing to add is that different provinces (the provinces shown in the middle image) have different versions, or pronunciations of some words. Being from the province of Munster, I've been taught the "Munster" pronunciations and words.

So..."Tá mé éan sásta" would mean "I am a happy bird" :D

I apologise for how messy my writing looks-

OKAY. ONE MORE THING I WANTED TO COVER IN THE IRISH LANGUAGE IS THE NAMES, because I've seen plenty of people online and in real life joking lightheartedly how hard Irish names are pronounced. So here are some Irish names!!

Saoirse - this one is brought up quite a bit- It can either be pronounced as "seer-sha" or "sair-sha"!

Róisín - "roh-sheen" !

Eoin - even I had a hard time pronouncing this when I was younger- it's pronounced as "owe-in" like "owing" but without the g!

Fódhla - I remember this appeared in the newspaper once and a family member was baffled by it- it's said as "foh-la" :]

Another I want to mention is Eilish- you probably know it thanks to Billie Eilish, which is pronounced as "eye-lish"- but it can also be pronounced as "eye-leesh"!

Last one, Sinéad- you may have seen this one once or twice as is pronounced "shin-aid" :D

And now, some more quick stuff!!

Musicians from Ireland!!

On the left you have Hozier (love his music!! :D) and the right is the Cranberries!!

Some other Irish artists you may be familiar with are U2, Thin Lizzy, Westlife and Sinéad O' Connor!

Some popular Irish snacks!!

crisps/chips!! (I love em both dearly)

of course, how can I not bring up Irish bread: soda bread and blaas :D

Hot chicken rolls!! (seriously how are these not more popular elsewhere-) and spice bags!! (chips with spices, peppers. maybe chicken)

Animal wise, we haven't got anything too crazy, but we do have one of the largest breeds of dog, the Irish greyhound and the now extinct largest deer, the elk.

I think I'm beginning to run low on space, so I'll end it there!! If you're also Irish, free to add on facts/words!!

I don't usually say this but I would kinda appreciate reblogs since I felt like I put a bit more effort into this ;v;

So uh, yeah- Happy Saint Patrick's Day!! :D

#my art #my ocs #oc art #saint patrick's day #ireland #long post #talking

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Okay every time I read one of your celtophobia posts I am filled with immediate and incandescent rage, enough to propulse the responsible idiots into space but not to bring them back again. I'm really sorry about the """""lecturer"""""" you had to sit through this morning, and any other instances that happen. Hugs.

That said, I am very worried of doing the same thing and want to make my utmost sure I don't, so I thought it'd be okay to ask someone from a language that has to fight for space for politeness tricks. Apologies if this is not okay!

Context: I'm from continental Europe, which means English is my second language (I speak three languages and a half ish, the half is in process, because #languagenerd). I'm moving to Ireland come September, and I'm absolutely terrified of offending the good Irish people when I don't know how to pronounce their names, surnames, street names, or anything else; or, worse, try and end up butchering them in the manner of the British.

Dilemma: How can I ask for help when pronouncing things in a delicate way? I was thinking of signing up to Irish courses once I'm there, but for now I'm panicking about the actual move so I can't get a head start with that because my brain space is limited, and other than watching YouTube videos with the most common Irish names/words ahead of arriving, I honestly don't know. I want to be culturally sensitive and make sure they feel respected and not Colonised, Part Three Hundred, but also they shouldn't have to bear the weight of my lack of cultural knowledge and Teach Me? Idk. Just thoughts.

Good question! I suppose it's a two-part procedure:

Step 1: Learn a pronunciation guide. By that I just mean get to grips with the alphabet, common phonemes, etc and how those are said. With something like Welsh it's super easy (because phonetic), something like English it's super hard (because not phonetic); Irish is a bit more complex than Welsh, but still more phonetic than English. You might not be able to get to a "perfect every time" place, but you can get yourself to a "right most times" place.

Step 2: If you encounter a name you aren't 100% sure of, offer your best educated guess when asking. This shows that you have done the work, you are making a genuine attempt, but you still have the humility to ask to make sure.

When I say "best educated guess", I mean it's clear that you're guessing based on a working knowledge of the language rules in question. In Welsh, for example, if someone asks me how to pronounce "Cymru", there is a world of difference between someone saying "Sim-roo" (based on English pronunciation rules transposed onto Welsh) and "Kim-ree" (based on Welsh pronunciation rules, they just forgot which pronunciation of 'y' to use for the syllable it's in.) If someone says to me "How do you say that? Sim-roo?" then I know they haven't attempted any prior learning (though points for being interested enough to ask.) But if they say "Am I right in thinking it's Kim-ree?" then I know they've made the effort themselves, they've done the work, they just have a carry error that's skewed the answer.

Plus, you may well be right! And will be right more and more often the longer you're in Ireland.

If it helps, there's an Irish pronunciation guide here that's pretty good (or was back when I used it), and teanglann.ie is a pretty good resource for this, as it's a dictionary that lets you hear the words aloud and explains grammatical uses. (Irish people please feel free to add any other resources to the notes if you feel so inclined!)

As a final note, mind, given that you don't have time atm to dedicate brain space to this, speaking as a Welsh person I would be absolutely fine with someone saying to me "Sorry, I haven't had chance to learn yet, how do I say this?", or some variant thereof. Or, frankly, anything that's just... a polite request, and not laughing about it. I would take a thousand instances of "How do I say that? Sim-roo?" over even one "I don't know how to say that, haha" because the former is still caring enough to ask. So don't panic! A polite request will see you right.

#asks #wales! #closed for cleaning on mondays #linguistics

[sunshinebingo]

@gwynrielweeksofficial Day 11 - Alternate Universe

Synopsis: Feeling restless, Gwyn watches the rain from inside the library at Rosehall. When she is unexpectedly joined by Azriel, she realises that perhaps her dear friend could be the one to answer the question that has been plaguing her mind and keeping her from sleep.

A Gwynriel Regency AU inspired by the Bridgerton series.

Word Count: 4k

Read on Ao3 or below the cut

On the summer of 1813, sitting in the large library of Rosehall manor with her head pressed against the window while it rained cats and dogs outside, Gwyneth Berdara pondered. There was nothing unusual in the fact that she was partaking in the act itself. What was odd, however, was the subject that seemed to have taken her mind hostage to the point where she felt so restless that she had to leave the comfortable bed of the guest room that she had been assigned for the duration of her stay. She didn’t know why she was thinking about this so much but she knew that it was the novel she had been reading for the past day that had triggered the thoughts that had gotten her out of bed in the middle of the night, when the air inside the manor was so still that even the place seemed deep in sleep.

She opened the window just enough to let some air in. The flame of the candle that sat on the cherry wood table behind moved more wildly but did not snuff out. Gwyn closed her eyes and inhaled deeply as the cool breeze caressed her heated cheeks and blew her unbound hair away from her face. For a moment, the smell of rain and trees brought her 18 years back, to her childhood bedroom painted in soft blues and white – similar colours to her current room in London – where she had often sat by the window just like tonight to read or to simply stare at the beauty that was Ireland in Spring, or any season really. 18 years and she still missed the air of the country enough to revel in it every chance she got. Rosehall reminded her of how much she loved the greens and the outside; walking bare feet in the grass, swimming in a lake or a river somewhere no one could see, the freedom, the quiet and peace.

Gwyn had been 10 years old when her family had left Ireland to settle in England after her father’s death from an illness a few months prior. It had been at her brother’s request that the Lady Berdara, formerly Miss Vanserra, and her two daughters had moved to London where the rest of her family still resided. Gwyn had been in awe of London even before their carriage had stopped before the grand house that had already been prepared for them. The streets had been busy with the comings and goings of everyone who had already left their country estate to come to the city for the marriage season. Everything was so different.

While her twin, Catrin, had run straight to her new bedroom, Gwyn had sneaked out that day past the trunks and boxes filled with their belongings that were being moved into their new house to explore the outside. The green of the grass had reminded her of the hills that she saw every day from their manor back home. She knew that the garden, no matter how pretty it was, would not replace the view she had there. It was too confined with its tall hedges and limited space to run around. There were not enough big trees that she could climb and sit in to read quietly.

However, one thing had made the garden and life in London much better than Gwyn could have imagined. It had started with the – rather loud – whispered voices she had heard and who were wondering who she was. She had soon found out, after peering her head through the hole in the hedge through which they had been trying to see her, that the voices belonged to her neighbours, Nesta Archeron and Emerie Windhaven and that the latter’s house was right in the middle of hers and Nesta’s. Their friendship had started when Emerie had pointed out that she didn’t understand half of the words that Gwyn had said when she introduced herself and had wondered why they were being so nosy. Gwyn had laughed which had then sent the three girls into a fit of giggles. Although she had lost the thick Irish accent she had when she left her home country, it was still evident today to anyone with ears that she was not born in England – if the fact that she had coppery-reddish hair was not clue enough that is.

Till this day, there were still barely concealed holes in the hedges surrounding the girls’ houses that they had used to visit each other. Although Gwyn and Em didn’t use Nesta’s one since the day she had eloped to marry Cassian, the man she had hated and loved so fiercely. She had a feeling that the one between hers and Emerie’s house would not be in use for much longer either. Gwyn knew that Emerie was close to saying hang society and run away from her home too. That house wasn’t her friend’s home anyway. Emerie’s home was wherever Morrigan was, regardless of what their families had to say. And currently, it was at Rosehall Manor where it’s Lord, the Earl himself, had invited his brothers and closest friends to spend the summer with him.

“What are you doing?”

As though the mere thought of him was enough to summon him, Gwyn’s musings were interrupted by his warm and rich voice. He sounded like he had just come out of bed. By the look of it when she turned her head to the left, she assumed that he probably did. Azriel stood barefoot at the door, his hair looking as though he had fought with a harsh wind. He wore what seemed to be his sleeping pants and a white shirt that was unbuttoned halfway down his chest. She knew it wasn’t proper to stare, but she couldn’t bring her eyes to look away when the single candle in the room was illuminating his tanned skin in that subtle way and making his hazel eyes glow in such a beautiful way.

Azriel followed the direction of her gaze and looked down. Gwyn blushed, looking away and closing her mouth that she hadn’t known was open like a dead fish, when she realised that he had noticed where her eyes had been lingering. He huffed a small laugh before bringing his hands to his chest to button his shirt up.

Azriel cleared his throat. “I didn’t mean to intrude on your quiet time, Miss Berdara.”

Gwyn brought her feet down from the ledge of the window and adjusted her nightdress. There was nothing exceedingly scandalous about the long white dress she wore, but had she known that she would have stumbled upon other people at this time of the night, she would have bothered to put on a robe regardless.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Can it really be called intruding when it’s your own home? And please, you can drop the formalities. We are far away from eyes that can be scandalised simply from a tap on the shoulder.”

Everyone who was currently residing at the manor called each other by their first name, including Azriel’s mother who was used to the close bond that they all had with each other. It was not the case however when they were in company of other people where they were expected to use titles for the sake of decorum. It would be particularly scandalous for Gwyn and Azriel to use their first names with each other in public when they were neither married nor courting. Even the extent of their friendship could be deemed inappropriate.

Azriel laughed as he walked and sat next to her on the window ledge, adjusting himself until one of his legs was crossed on the other and his back rested against the wall. Gwyn turned to her side so she could face him. His mother would probably frown at him for sitting so close to an unmarried woman but they had sat much closer before. Close enough for him to rest his head on her shoulder as they read together, or close enough for her to whisper a joke to him at the expense of their friends.

Gwyn had met Azriel – Lord Azriel Allen or simply Lord Allen when among polite society – two years ago, at the time when his chosen brother, Rhysand Night, the famous Duke of Velaris, had started courting Nesta’s youngest sister, Feyre. Courting might not be the correct term but only their close circle knew of the circumstances that had led the pair to fake a courtship which had eventually turned into a true love match. It was at that time that Nesta had met her ‘nemesis turned love of her life’. One could say that Gwyn and Azriel’s first meeting was quite…surprising. Especially since it had left Gwyn in shock and Azriel with a bloodied hand after he had punched, repeatedly, a man who had tried to take liberties with her in a discreet corner of one of the endless parties that she had to attend during the season. Gwyn had left that evening with the hope of having made a new friend in Azriel and a new feeling that friends and her blood relations were the only thing that the future held for her.

Gwyn’s mother had been hopeful that living among the ton would be an opportunity for her twin daughters to make good matches when the time would come for them to marry. But Gwyn had been out in society since she was 18 years old and ten years had not brought anyone who could convince her to settle down. Gwyn’s twin had been lucky to find her happiness at the end of their very first season out. Catrin now lived several hours away from London with her husband and their son. Catrin had been trying to expand her family, especially since learning that their cousin, Lucien, and his wife Elain, the second Archeron daughter out of three, were expecting their second child. Gwyn smiled at the thought of the lovebirds who were even more in love with each other 5 years into their marriage as they had been on the very first day they had met.

It was not so much that Gwyn had been picky with her suitors. She might have been a little. But she mostly felt like she hadn’t been lucky. Ever since she could walk and talk, Gwyn had been taught what a lady should expect to be, which mostly summed up to being married and making babies. And ever since she could read, she had learned that there was so much more to it. There was more to marriage than acquiring wealth and making arrangements between families; there were feelings that some people were convinced weren’t needed for a marriage to work and other things said between pages of books that proper ladies weren’t allowed to read. It all seemed like a fantasy but deep down she wanted it to be real.

She had decided soon in life that she did not want to be someone’s doll. She did not want someone who would treat her like she was simply here to plan tea parties and make babies just for the sake of the ton’s eyes. Her mother had warned her many times that she would end up a spinster if she continued that way. “Better a content spinster than being not worth more than a horse in the eyes of an indifferent husband,” she always thought but did not always say. She knew her mother meant well. But she hoped for more. She knew it wasn’t impossible. She saw it in her sister’s marriage and that of her friends. It was not like she would go out of her ways to find what they had all found. She was very content the way she was. But knowing that love existed, she knew that she could not settle for less.

“You couldn’t sleep?”

Gwyn shook her head at his question.

“Is your room not comfortable enough?”

“No. I mean yes, its very comfortable,” she tried to explain before he proposed to give her another room. God knew that there were enough rooms in his manor to welcome the entire ton.

“I was just thinking about something.”

Azriel bumped his leg against her knee. “What something?”

Gwyn thought of the novel that she had left on the bed upstairs and the words she had read in it.

“I don’t want to tell you,” she replied with a shrug.

He raised an eyebrow at her. The candle on the table was the single source of light in the library but Gwyn didn’t need any light to discern the silent words spoken by his eyes.

“I am not certain that you are the best person to talk about such things with.”

Azriel placed a hand on his heart as though she had physically wound him. “Well, you didn’t have to hurt my feelings.”

She crossed her arms and stared at him. “It is not your feelings that are hurt but your ego.”

Azriel shook his head and laughed again. Gwyn stared and stared at him. The passages she had read in that book bounced around her head, putting forth images that her mother would faint to see and desires that some men would flock before her house to hear about. It was far from the first book that Gwyn had read that made her think such things. She suddenly felt like she wanted to tell him what was on her mind. Not the images. That would be going too far. But she wanted to talk about it. And he was the first person available.

“Can I ask you something?” Her voice was barely above the sound of the heavy rain pouring outside.

Azriel’s smile softened as he looked at her. “You know you can tell me anything.”

“How does one know, in the moment, if they are good at sex?”

By the way Azriel went still, Gwyn thought that perhaps she could tell him anything but this. She felt the intensity of his gaze on her until he finally seemed to remember that her question had remained unanswered.

“Have you...” he trailed off.

Gwyn furrowed her brows for a moment until his implication clicked in her head.

“Sorry...”

“No,” she exclaimed at the same time as him.

“I mean, it’s none of my business. Unless someone...Oh god, Gwyn.” He moved forward and took her hands in his. “Did someone manipulated you into doing something?”

“No. Azriel no.” Her confirmation seemed to loosen a tension in him. “I was just wondering,” she admitted.

“Why?”

Gwyn could have laughed at him and retorted that it was inappropriate of him to ask why but then she would have to laugh at herself for asking the question that had led him to wonder the why. So, she shrugged flippantly instead.

“I just want to know. Such information could help me someday.”

Azriel squeezed her hands. She knew that they were tempting scandal by ignoring propriety and even more with this conversation. But there wasn’t anyone here to witness any of this. Also, propriety had always been quite overlooked among their group of friends. Except when they were in public, when surrounded by their friends only, the couples never tried to hide their affection or conceal their...urges. Gwyn liked the way they openly showed their love. It was like their love was so grand that they couldn’t keep it all in. Though some things were best kept in. Gwyn’s ears and eyes had been assaulted more times that she could count in the week since she had been here.

“How much do you know about sex, Gwyneth?”

Gwyn sat straighter but didn’t let go of his hands. She held his gaze, emboldened by the fact that he did not treat her like an innocent little thing. They were close friends after all, she reminded herself. They had seen each other’s tears and had accidentally fallen asleep on the same couch.

“I might not have much experience but I do have extensive theoretical knowledge on the subject. Enough that I do not require the little talk that all ladies get prior to their wedding night.”

Azriel raised a brow. Gwyn was tempted to stare and stare at him again.

“Although, I have little enough knowledge in the practice of it that I had hoped to indulge in learning everything that my husband would be willing to teach me.”

The light from the candle flickered in his eyes, making the hazel shine as if from a fire within. Gwyn wondered what good she had done to have been blessed by the presence of such a magnificent man.

“I have read this book that has made me think about it. And I wonder whether it’s too much to ask of a partner to wish to learn from me.”

Gwyn thought back to the book again and how the protagonist, a woman with years of experience in the art of sex, had been praised by her partner for everything she had done to him and how, in several passages, she had gone on saying how grateful she was for her own experience before him.

“I was hoping that my partner would also find some things to learn from me. It sounds silly to say this with my lack of experience. But I was truly hoping to find someone who wants me, and is not just settling for the first random person just to have a wife. As such, I was hoping that they would find the experience with me to be...” She pursed her lips while searching for the right word, “...not akin to lying with every other woman.”

Gwyn had never tried to seek pleasure from anyone but herself. Her decision to wait for love extended beyond marriage. But now she wondered whether she should do what she usually did with every task she set her mind to and practice until she became perfect at it.

“But now I’m wondering,” she continued, “What if I have waited all this time and I’m just...not enough.”

The gentle caress of Azriel’s thumbs over the back of her hand send shivers down her spine that had nothing to do with the breeze coming in.

“If I may be bold enough to tell you something, I –”

“You may,” she interrupted, earning a smirk from Azriel that made her heart flip.

“I don’t think it’s possible for you to be bad at it.”

At the sceptical look on her face, Azriel continued, every single one of his words meant to reassure her.

“I can’t force you to believe me. But I can assure you that sex isn’t a game of who knows more of what. It’s about being together and enjoying each other.”

A strong wind blew, some of it made it through the slightly opened window. It sent a strand of Gwyn’s hair floating in front of her eyes. Azriel’s hand was faster in reaching it. He twirled it around his finger a few times before tucking it behind her ear. Gwyn held her breath for the whole time his fingers drifted from her ear, down her jaw, before he cupped her cheek.

“Trust me Gwyn. Whatever you do will be more than enough. Because it’s you. Because you’re perfect.”

She sighed. She knew she was blushing even before she noticed his eyes travelling across her nose and cheeks, his thumb soon doing the same. He had done this on the day he had told her that he enjoyed making her blush as much as he liked making her smile.

“In that book I read,” Gwyn leaned forward and brought her face closer to his. “It said that the act of sex is different from the act of love. The author added that only those who are lucky enough to make love at least once in their life will understand the vast difference between simply chasing release and giving yourself body and soul to your partner.”

She looked at him, at his lips then at that fire in his eyes that lit up her whole being.

“I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with only chasing release. But the way she describes the latter makes one want to pray harder to find the perfect partner.”

Gwyn had an idea why Azriel was still unmarried at the age of 32. He had confessed to her of the bitter feeling that his parents’ marriage had left in him. In this moment, sitting in the library of Rosehall while it rained, the only witnesses being the silent books and the single candle in the room, Azriel held onto Gwyn’s hand for dear life and looked at her like she had dreamt for some time that he would.

“How would you describe the perfect partner?” he asked.

A single word was on the tip of her tongue. But she swallowed it and forced others to come forth. Words that she had told herself like a list before, repeating them in her head every time she refused a suitor and every time her mother reminded her that she was close to becoming a spinster. But it was only now that she felt the depths of her own words. Suddenly they weren’t just a series of requirements that she was saying out loud. They were words spoken from the heart. A plea, almost a summon.

“Someone you care for. Not someone that you choose because it is required of you. But someone that you want so much that your heart needs them. Someone who, even if you see their flaws and don’t like them every minute of every day – God knows some people are not always tolerable,” she muttered the last sentence with a pointed look at him and waited for his inevitable chuckle before she continued, “- you still love them. To me, the perfect partner is a friend. One that you want to give yourself to body and soul.”

His thumb moved to her lips where he traced them from one corner to the other. “Can I tell you a secret, Gwyneth?”

Gwyn nodded when she found herself unable to form words. He smiled, eyes fixed on her lips as though they were pulling him in.

“I have a friend like the kind you speak of. That single friend who I love so dearly that I wish she would have me body and soul.”

She didn’t know her free hand had moved but when she felt a beating heart beneath her palm, she suddenly realised that her hand was now on his chest. The other one would be shaking if he wasn’t holding it so firmly.

“I have that one friend too,” she admitted, her face inching closer and closer to his.

Another strong wind whooshed, opening the window widely and snuffing out the candle at the same time lightning illuminated the whole room. A loud thunder followed right behind. But Gwyn neither saw nor heard any of it. The only thing left to her was Azriel’s hands holding her and his lips as he kissed her.

#this feels weird to me #gwynriel #gwyneth berdara #azriel shadowsinger #fluff #gwynriel weeks 2024 #gwynrielweeks #gwynrielweeks2024 #gwynriel fic #gwyn x azriel #azriel x gwyn #gwynriel fanfiction

[luxlightly]

My sister has been living in Ireland the past few years and there's some pretty prevalent misconceptions about how America works, especially when it comes to politics, which are the basis for a lot of the feeling people from other countries have about the number of Americans that agree with decisions being made by our government. So here's some important differences that people from outside the US seem to frequently not know: 1: First off, Americans do not vote on individual laws. That's not a thing here. Or, at least, extremely rarely and in very specific circumstances. The only voting we can do is for elected officials. We do not directly purpose, vote on, or in any way control the laws that are made and we have no ability to control, get rid of, or change the position or power of any official once they're elected. We can only elect them and hope they do things we want. They have no actual obligation to and we have no way to enforce it. 2: We can only vote for one person for each position and we are given, AT MOST, two candidates to choose from. We do not have any control over who those candidates are. We do not have a ranking system for who our top choice, second choice, third choice, etc is. We get one vote for one person. 3:In the case of presidential election, each person's vote is not counted equally. Depending on which state you are in, your vote can be worth 5x the amount of a vote in another state. Most of the higher value states are the most right wing states. It is possible to win an election for president with roughly 30% of the total votes. 4: Out of our 3 branches of government, only 2 of them are publicly elected. That means the people have no say in who is in 1/3rd of the controlling forces of our government at all. The United States government structure was made with the express purpose of keeping any kind of power out of the hands of the common person. This is explicitly stated in much of the history of our country's founding. Laws being made frequently have next to no support from the population and are often met with resistance, but we have no real channels through which to change them and this resistance is often met with violence or even lethal force from our occupying army of a police force. Polls show that recent laws such as trans bans, the repealing of our abortion protections, and book banning are disagreed with strongly by the vast majority of the country. We are not choosing these laws. They are being chosen for us. Against our will and to our strong and loud outrage. When we say "we don't control what our government does", we don't mean "there are some elements we don't control". We mean "we control basically no aspect of our government or any of the decisions made by it"

#american politics #long post

[whitedemon-ladydeath]

New Blog Bio:

I do not tolerate pro-israel, zionist shit anywhere near me. I don't tolerate anti semitism anywhere near me. I will not tolerate anyone who is upholding or supporting the ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Palestinians. if you do, BLOCK ME

if ur gonna follow or interact with my blog pls realize I am very critical towards most acotar content, especially if it involves Rhysand. I am more-or-less a Rhys Anti until further notice and I am hard-core side eye towards Cassian until Rhysand is held accountable for being a shitty person for more than like *checks notes* two pages

I'm not a Tamlin Stan, nor do I particularly care for him, but I have been engaging in thoughtful criticisms of his actions often which involves character analysis so you v likely will see that pop up every now and then

likely you will find:

anti Rhysand

anti/critical IC

anti/critical/pro feyre

anti/critical Cassian posts, maybe MAYBE pro cassian

critical/pro Azriel- I'm pretty neutral towards him

anti/critical/pro elain content [often. w/o being tied to a ship]

pro Lucien

pro Nesta

pro Eris

most pro tog characters

anti/critical chaol (he just annoys me with his high horse)

Pro Ships:

Azriel/Eris/Nesta

Tamsand (lmao)

Feylin [book one]

Elucien

Nesta/Lucien [idk the ship name]

Feycien

Feyssian

Mesta

most tog ships

aelin/manon

malide

chaorian

Anti Ships:

Nessian

Feysand

Elriel

lysaedion

chaolena

My Specific ACoTaR Meta:

SJM + Eugenics + Ableism in her Writing

CoN + the Eternal Perpetuation of Abuse and Toxicity

SJM and the vilification of Ireland in acotar and tog

SJM could have had the HLs give their power to resurrect her wo Rhys forcing them if she played by Faerie Rules

Rhys physically assaulted Nesta

Class Warfare + Class Traitors in ACoTaR

Rhysand + Morally Grey Behavior

My Meta / Aus / etc Posts

tag -> #justice for poor cassian and poor archeron Sisters

tag -> #glasses!elain propaganda

tag -> #slavic archeron Sisters au

tag -> #fix cassians characterization challenge

tag -> #scottish!tamlin

tag -> #welsh!rhys

tag -> #disabled!Cassian

tag -> #my acotar world building

tag -> #appropriated faerie lore in acotar

tag -> #hybern Ireland

tag -> #white feminism in acotar

tag -> #eugenics in acotar

tag -> #eugenics in tog

tag -> #classism in acotar

Other Acotar Meta:

Mor SA'd Cassian

tag -> #acotar tiktok meta

tag -> #acotar meta

tag -> #racism in acotar

tag -> #Nesta is not an alcoholic send tweet

Other:

A Synopsis of The Ballad of Tam Lin

If You're interested:

Mission to have my own Bookstore:

tag -> #mission: cheshire books

TVDverse:

leave season 1 Caroline ALONE. she deserved better 🥺

Damon and Rose's Friendship that is ALL

Esther is Mikaels victim too stop this irritating 'Esther is the real villain'

tag -> #can we stop the overt vilification of Esther Mikaelson and the UwUization of Mikael Mikaelson

tag -> #tvd tiktok edits

tag -> #Damon Salvatore

tag -> #Caroline Forbes

tag -> #Vincent Griffith

tag -> #Shelia Bennett

Shadow and Bone / Six of Crows:

The Darkling Meta

tag -> #David kostyk

Once Upon a Time

tag -> #cora mills

The Hunger Games / A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes:

Coriolanus Snow Meta

tag -> #thg tiktok meta

tag -> #coriolanus snow

tag -> #reaper ash

tag -> #wovey

Percy Jackson

tag -> #nico di Angelo

completely irrelevant:

tag -> #rural iowa

more to be added!

#acotar #a court of thorns and roses #throne of glass #nesta archeron #anti rhysand #sjm critical #elain archeron #feyre archeron #lucien vanserra #anti cassian #aelin ashryver #aelin critical #rowan whitethorn #Rowan critical #manon blackbeak #manorian #malide #anti chaol #dorian havilliard

[ayeforscotland]

Did you see that youtuber RealLifeLore's latest video, 'Why NATO's Biggest Weakness is Scotland'? It starts out as a pretty fair retelling of Scottish Independence's recent history and then quickly turns into a huge hit piece on the idea of Scottish Independence, claiming that doing so would lead to NATO losing it's edge in the North Atlantic, and letting Russia encroach.

Normally I'd just brush this off but this guy has like 7 million subscribers. idk it's just disheartening to see from someone w such a huge following.

Hey, just watched it - thanks for flagging it in. I almost want to make a video in response! I'm going to start by saying I don't like this video and I don't like most videos done in this infographic style. I think the fancy graphics often help mask how disjointed the video actually is. The video starts off strong with a retelling of the political situation of the UK. Scottish referendum in 2014, Brexit etc. It's also a good summary of why Scottish independence is a threat to the UK with regards to Oil fields and the like. The problem is that around the halfway mark the video descends into a complete reductive mess with wild assumptions portrayed as likely outcomes. For a start, the assumption that Scotland would copy Ireland and maintain military neutrality. Most people in Scotland passively or actively support membership of NATO, even unionists who hate the idea of Scottish independence would want an independent Scotland to be in NATO.

In Scotland we're well aware of our strategic position in the North Atlantic. The video assumes that Scotland will 'pick up our ball and go home' rather than work with strategic partners. I can't imagine a world where it would be in Scotland's interests to allow Russian nuclear submarines into the North Atlantic. The video also gets more than a few things wrong. Oil and Gas fields are marked incorrectly. Faslane Naval Base is not located in a 'sparsely, remote area' - it is 30 minutes from our largest population centre. The US Naval Bases in his graphic are marked as being in Newfoundland and Labrador in Canada. There's also no mention of the strategic position of the Faroe islands which is conveniently left out for some reason. I think the creator was struggling to fill space and needed more graphics to draw on screen. I think that's why he starts talking about the Catholic/Protestant demographic split in Northern Ireland. I enjoyed the bit about Trans-Atlantic, Cross-Border Dataflows - that's something I know a fair but about! It should have been its own video because it's actually super interesting. However, when it's tacked onto to a point about Scotland allowing Russian subs to enter the North Atlantic so they can start destroying the cables - it stretches the video into an over-dramatisation of an absurd outcome. I don't know much about the creator of the video - but I'm getting a whiff of arm-chair general with some slight masturbatory inclinations towards a full-scale global conflict. At the end, it gets to the point where he draws a battle-plan for Russian submarines coming from Murmansk and says Scottish independence will dramatically increase the likelihood of the event. I hate to say it, but it's a very 'American who likes to think they know a lot about geopolitics' video.

[pvffinsdaisies]

Scotland Headcanon Masterpost

All artwork used belongs to @ifindus

I’ve been thinking about creating masterposts (inspired by @nordickies ) for a while now, I’ve always liked the idea of just having one solely thing to check where you could find out pretty much all you need to now about my personal take on different characters I talk about often. I decided to start with Scotland, as he is my brainrot atm. I also make google docs with a lot of info on my portrayals too, which you can find here. However, those really only work on desktop, and can be tricky to navigate on your phone.

My portrayals do sometimes drift away from canon, but I think my version of Scotland aligns fairly well- partially because there’s so little info on him, it’s pretty easy to just add my own headcanons on top. But also? I just like the direction Himaruya took with Scotland, I don’t try and hide my bias towards canon Scotland over the old fanon version of him. If anyone actually bothers to read all of this, I applaud you! And maybe if this one doesn’t go so terrible I might attempt to make more with other characters.

PHYSICAL

Scotland stands at 6’2 / 188cm tall, making him the tallest in his family by quite a margin.

He has a muscular body type, which scotland likes to tease is all natural, but going to the gym and having a pretty physical lifestyle definitely helps keep him in shape.

He has features that are almost intimidating. Hooded eyes, thick eyebrows, a Roman nose (but the bump is only small) and downturned lips that make him look like he’s scowling.

Scotland’s hair is a deep brown, but in the summer it can appear lighter, and some ginger undertones peak through.

His hair is pretty fast growing, whether he has a beard or not I’m still debating, but he definitely has at least a bit of stubble.

Scotland has freckles! A feature he shares with both Ireland & Northern Ireland.

The big hair curl that sits atop his head actually represents Loch Lomond, the largest loch in Scotland by surface area.

Scotland has two sideburns at the side of his head, representing both the Shetland and the Orkney islands. They originally started growing in the 1400s.

He has multiple moles/beauty spots located around his body, representing the Hebrides.

Scotland has a rather large scar sitting across the side of his neck, reaching to the back of it. A result of being beheaded during the Scottish witch trials, which also resulted in him becoming very sensitive to things touching his neck. He will instinctively fight off anything that makes contact with it, and flinch if he notices something coming too close to it.

Scotland has profound hearing loss. His hearing deteriorating happened slow and gradually at first, over the centuries and he didn’t even notice because he’d adapted to lip reading. WWI marked the most noticeable loss in his hearing, taking it from mild hearing loss to profound. It took him a while to adjust to, and even longer to truly accept, but after so many years he’s become comfortable and even proud of his disability.

PERSONALITY

Despite his intimidating appearance, Scotland is welcoming and friendly with (almost) anyone and everyone he meets.

He has a natural charisma around him, which makes him actually quite easy to befriend and talk to. This is matched up well with a witty sense of humour.

Scotland loves a joke, and he’s always willing to go along with one, even if it’s with a complete stranger, he’ll play along without a shadow of a doubt the second he picks up on it.

Scotland is not inherently aggressive, but he is very opinionated, and he has a tendency to think of things as black and white rather than nuanced. And if Scotland decides you’ve stepped out of line, he will be vocal about it.

He sees lying as inherently bad and honesty as inherently good. He will speak bluntly, and he appreciates when people speak to him with the same energy. Sugarcoating the truth might come off as fake to him, too.

He is tricky to argue with when he wants to be, Scotland can and will remove his hearing aids and/or close his eyes mid argument so he can’t hear/see what the other is saying. This drives England especially up the wall and the two continue to further butt heads.

Scotland prides himself on being a realist and down to earth. He looks at the current moment and analyses situations based on what is and not what has been or what could be, and he’s not likely to be carried away by potential positives or negatives.

He is very logistics based. He loves picking something apart to see what it’s made of to better understand it. Leading him to be very good at sciences and maths. But it also makes him pretty good at explaining things.

Stubbornness is a trait he shares with his siblings, which lends itself to his refusal to listen to someone else’s argument. Once Scotland has decided on the way something is, it can be hard to change his mind.

He has a very sharp tongue, and a natural ability to insult and hurt people. He doesn’t use this very wisely, once he’s mad he doesn’t think about what to say and when to say it. This can lead to a brutal argument over something relatively small, and once it’s all over and he’s calmed down he can then see how his words hurt. Still, he can be stubborn, and might not apologise right away.

Deep down, Scotland feels under appreciated. Especially by his brothers. He feels as though he contributes so much to the household, but he doesn’t get many thanks or anything done in return. This is rarely something he addresses.

He wears his heart on his sleeve, and you always know where you stand with him. If Scotland his happy he will smile, if he is mad he will yell, if he’s frustrated he will tell you. If Scotland dislikes something, it will be very obvious about it.

A strong desire for independence makes him desperate to prove he’s capable of handling things by himself. He’ll refuse help from others even if he may need if, he has a tendency to boast and show off the things he can do and what he’s good at. He will tell people off if he feels as though they’re not letting him handle things he’s perfectly capable of. He does not appreciate being babied.

Scotland can make a conversation about anything if asked to, even something small and silly. If you ask scotland to talk about something, he will, without question, the sillier the better. He and Ireland could sit for hours with these discussions.

Despite being loud and talkative, he has a need for the quiet, too. Noise, and having to consistently keep up with conversation, can be so extremely tiring. He needs a moment to shut off, but living with 3 brothers, it can be tricky to find those moments. This is one of the reasons he enjoys Norway’s company so much.

HOBBIES

Scotland enjoys hiking, he tries to go out every weekend. He loves exploring the nature around all of Scotland.

He plays golf, it’s mainly an excuse to get outside. Out of all the sports he enjoys, this is the one he’s the best at.

During the winter months, he likes speed skating. A hobby he used to share with Norway in the viking age, that just stuck with him.

Scotland is crazy inventive! And he loves coming up with new inventions. He loves putting the pieces together like a puzzle and watching the machine move and come to life.

He loves comedy, watching stand up comedy shows, old sitcoms and comedy panel shows.

He also happens to really enjoy crime dramas, however, he has a nasty habit of talking over the TV and sometimes might miss important plot points.

Scotland does know how to Cailidh dance, but he rarely does it apart from on specific occasions. He doesn’t enjoy practicing either, so he’ll attempt to jam all his practice into one week before he has to perform- if he needs to. Because of this, he’s definitely not as good as he maybe should be.

He does play the bagpipes, but unlike what’s depicted in canon, I think Scotland is a lot more cautious about when he plays them. Bagpipes are an outdoors instrument, so he prefers to only play and practice them outside. The only time he will play them inside is if everyone currently in the building has earplugs in.

He’s well acquainted with a pub, and out of all classic pub games, Scotland’s found himself best at snooker and pool. He’s not a master or anything, and anyone who actually plays for fun would definitely beat him, but for a total amateur he’s actually really good. Only person in his family able to beat him is Ireland.

He doesn’t mind skiing, however, he really only gets the chance to do it when he’s with Norway, in Norway, so he hasn’t really developed much skill with it at all. Out of all the sports he enjoys, this is his worst one.

Whilst Scotland doesn’t play football, he does enjoy watching it, but only specific games. He’s a Celtic fan, and really only watches if his team is playing. However, he does also enjoy watching Scotland v England games especially. He tends to get extremely competitive when watching a game.

He enjoys watching rugby Union too, and whilst he is a firm believer that Union is better than league, he’s definitely not quite as passionate about this one as he is with football.

Whilst Scotland is a realist, he does also enjoy the folktales and stories from his childhood, holding a deep love for the mythical creatures that inhabit his home. He has a little knitted nessie that was a Christmas gift from Norway, and way too many “my little pony” unicorn toys that his siblings buy to tease him- even if he doesn’t necessarily watch the show.

Scot doesn’t feel an intense need to have music in his life, but he does appreciate it. His preferred genres being more indie-rock and Scottish folk music.

He enjoys reading, his preferred genres being murder mystery and adventure books, he also much prefer to find a new series to get invested in rather than reading one-off books. With some exceptions.

Scotland loves highland cows, and he definitely has a few highland cow themed items in his house. However, he also just really loves super hairy animals in general. In his mind, the hairier the animal, the cuter it is!

Out of every national holiday, Hogmanay (Scottish New Year) is his favourite, and he likes to go all out for it. He also really appreciates and enjoys Burns night on the 25th of January, as a celebration for his culture.

Autumn is his favourite season in general! He loves wondering around different cities as the days are getting shorter and the sun is setting sooner, wrapped up warm but not too warm. Or he loves walking around in a field or in some nature, watching the orange leaves as he passes, appreciating the last few walks of the year before it’s winter and it feels too cold.

He actually really enjoys learning new languages, and he’s pretty good at it too! He likes learning both spoken and sign languages, and he loves figuring out the history of those languages and figuring out how they work and how they came to be. He speaks multiple spoken languages, but in terms of signs languages he only knows BSL, he intends to learn more.

LIFESTYLE

Scotland uses the human name Alistair MacKenzie, he’s used multiple different surnames throughout the years. He was, at one point, a Kirkland- it was England’s idea- but he changed it in the early 20th century for two reasons. One, to reclaim his culture and his language. Two, to honour his late friend that he met whilst fighting on the WWI front, who’s surname was also MacKenzie.

Scotland’s sign name is currently “inventor”, based on his hobby and how many things over the year that have actually been invented in Scotland. He wears this name like a badge of honour!

He owns a cosy, traditional Scottish stone house in the countryside surrounding the city of Stirling, with lots of garden space and some stunning scenery sounding it. This is his preferred place, and he frequently drives or takes public transport through to either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

However, because Scotland isn’t yet independent, he still has to live with England, Wales & N. Ireland to some capacity. The four of them share a house in London. It often feels cramped and crowded, so he really only spends time there when he absolutely needs to. Plus, it’s just a long travel.

He owns two pet highland cows, called Neòinean and Eilidh. They reside in the field outside his stone house. He usually asks a friendly neighbour to look after them when he has to go down to london. He loves them, they’re his best girls.

He also has a unicorn friend, who he’s names Finlay, who frequently stays in the same field as the cows. Scotland doesn’t officially take care of him, but he loves watching Finlay on his never ending quest to befriend the cows- who have no idea he’s exists.

Scotland is a very messy person, and his house is honestly a bit of a tip! Piles of clothes that have yet to be put away take up a whole chair, shelves are over stocked, there are tea stains on the coffee table because he forgot to use a coaster and hasn’t got around to cleaning it yet, random screws are left all over the floor, there are empty irn bru cans found all over the house that he’s yet to throw away.

His house is an odd combination of hyper modern and antique. An old grandfather clock sits in the same living room as a smart TV. Brand new kitchen appliances, but there’s also old furniture that’s been sitting in his house for multiple decades. He still has an old fire place, that uses real flame, rather than an electric one.

His personal taste in interiors is very much inspired by older traditional Scottish design, from the Victorian era to the early 1900s. It would feel very dated if not for the modern appliances. It’s very red, with a lot of browns and some greens spaced about. It somehow always feels dark, even with the lights on. However, it does make a cold stone house feel warmer, somehow.

Scotland eats a lot, and he does not have a well balanced diet. He eats meat upon meat upon meat, and sometimes will not eat vegetables for a few weeks at least. He also drinks far more irn bru than he probably should. He has friends that consistently tell him he needs to eat healthier, but he doesn’t really listen.

He has a tendency to leave all the windows in the house open even in the winter months, and then wonder why it’s always so cold. England has gotten tired of constantly shutting them and telling him off.

On top of this, he hates putting the heating on! He will sit there under 3 blankets, wearing a thick jumper until he finally has to admit it’s too cold and he has to turn the heating on.

Scotland does enjoy drinking, and he is a heavy weight- he can hold his beer best out of his family. He also enjoys sitting in pubs, he likes the atmosphere of a good one, sitting watching an old sports games and chatting with his mates, or making new mates there. He loves the social aspect of it.

He feels a strong and deep connection to the nature of Scotland. It’s a big part of him, he’s quick to feel homesick when he’s travelling, and if he’s away from Scotland for too long he’ll get sad and depressed. But Scottish folk music can help him feel that connection a bit more. Scotland can almost feel the rolling hills in the vibrations of Scottish folk music.

Scotland knows Scottish Gaelic, Scots, British Sign Language, English, Irish Gaelic and French fluently, he is currently learning Norwegian for Norway. He used to speak Norn, the now extinct language of the Shetland and Orkney Islands, but he started to forget it after he no longer had anyone to speak it with.

Scot is more than proud to be the representative of Scotland, and he’s very vocal about social issues! Scotland is opinionated, and he is not afraid to share those opinions, he’s known for being very vocal about Scottish Independence, disability rights and lgbt+ rights. All this to say, he’s made himself to be a person you either strongly like, or strongly dislike.

He’s a light sleeper, quite luckily. You can easily wake scotland up by shaking him, and he uses a vibrating alarm clock to wake himself up.

Scotland chooses to dress more for comfort and practicality. The weather changes so frequently in Scotland, and for most of the year he has to try and dress in a way to accommodate anything. He’s frequently seen wearing muddy and scruffy wellies, a jumper on with a simple t-shirt underneath and jeans, and sometimes he’ll wrap an extra jacket or coat around his wait just to be on the safe side. He’s learnt to not bother wearing his hearing aids outside, as they’re not waterproof and it rains so frequently in Scotland.

Scotland drinks a lot of tea, specifically Scottish soft blend, which is his personal favourite! However, that doesn’t work so well with English water, so when he’s staying in london he usually takes Yorkshire tea.

Despite how much he loves working on new inventions, he doesn’t have a separate dedicated workroom for it, so he often does his work on his living room sofa, which results in certain things easily getting lost. He complains, but he won’t empty out a spare room to fix this problem.

Because of his passion for inventing and fixing things, he’d gotten the role of the handy man in his family. He’s the one everyone calls when something is broken, and he’s generally happy with this position, but he doesn’t know how to fix everything.

Scotland is not a big fan of far travel, it takes ages and, as we know, he gets homesick so easily! However, he’s not a big fan of meetings that happen through Skype. He’s given up asking for people to turn on their cameras so he can lip read them, and usually just gets Wales or England to send him a message after summarising what was spoken about. Online meetings are just Scotland sitting bored for sometimes hours not knowing what to do.

There we go, all done I think. Honestly feel like I’ve grabbed every thought from my brain. But I love talking about this boy, he consumes my brain a lot 💕 I did want to include relationships as well, but I don’t think my thoughts about a lot of them are well developed enough yet. But if you cannot tell, I have a huge bias for ScotNor, they are canon in my mind 😌 which is why Norway is mentioned so much 😅 It wasn’t intentional.

Idk, maybe I’ll do this with more characters if I get the motivation~ ✨

#hetalia #aph scotland #hws scotland #he is blorbo #and I love him #aph uk bros

[hetagrammy]

this is very random but do you have any misc tolys hc? i've been pondering him recently

I have a few!

I think a lot of people hc this, but he is the king of mushroom hunting

He goes on hikes and trails a lot (...probably off the trail more often than not)

He's really good at detail work on patterns in art, but can't draw people (like have you SEEN Lithuanian easter eggs??)

Still has an amber pendant he was given as a child

Speaking of which, he has so. much. amber. A lot of them are inclusions of plants he's collected over the years

Even though he is the Secretary™ he didn't learn to read and write until he married Poland

He and Latvia are brothers to me and he loves him so so much

He has the most basic hair care routine and nobody understands how his hair stays so soft and bouncy. France is crying shitting throwing up

He also cuts his hair himself because he cannot stand the idea of anyone else touching it, he will go feral

He was the first one to throw hands with Prussia when they got stuck together post-war (Prussia kept goading him and saying shit that could get everyone in trouble)

Still hangs out with Ireland and Romano in the present-day, they're pack bonded for life (coincidentally Ireland has a pretty high population of Lithuanian immigrants now)

Very close friends with Ukraine, they have tea and cigarettes together when time allows for it

Also actually friends with Prussia nowadays, them going through the Iron Curtain together and working through their beef changed some things

Alfred's phone ringtone for him is the Space Jam theme

#ask #hetalia #hetalia headcanons #hws lithuania #man couldn't escape space jam even if he wanted to #also alfred totally geeked out the first time he saw some of tolys' inclusions (he smuggled some to the us for safekeeping back in the day)

[enbycrip]

I’m reading a lot of stuff about the massacres in Ireland before and during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms and, honestly, the parallels between that situation and the one in Palestine rn are pretty impossible to ignore.

In which, btw, Scotland played a role of more than supporting England - a bunch of Scottish Covenanters had engaged in plantation in Ireland, and, despite both parties being white Europeans - it’s still pretty clearly colonialism. Land theft, with the explicit intention of “civilising” the native Irish and making them change from a pastoral way of life to crop agriculture and to Protestantism.

I feel it is a necessary part of Scotland’s necessary movement towards independence that we as a country recognise our part in colonialism and genocide and that we still benefit from that resource theft today. And that comes despite the fact that we have also been victims of colonialism from England too. It’s possible to be both, and the ongoing legacy of both those facts is something we need to acknowledge and atone for.

In early modern Ireland, when there were attacks on, and atrocities towards, English and Scottish settlers, by a small number of native Irish folk, these were massively ramped up and exaggerated in the burgeoning popular press and used as excuses for mass military invasion and reprisals on the mass civilian Irish population. At least one Scottish army was sent there for “reprisals” against the civilian population by the Scottish Covenanter government.

This was in the period before Cromwell’s atrocities in Ireland, and thus is often forgotten, but they did happen. I don’t think I need to point out the parallels too minutely here.

Honestly, much as I adore the study of history, and think it is utterly necessary to understand the world we live in - few things get more horrifying and depressing than seeing such similar actions repeated again and again.

Btw, I will be *pissed off* if I see antisemitism and antisemitic dogwhistles in responses to this. The state of Israel is not synonymous with Judaism or Jewish people, and the Jewish diaspora do not deserve hatred because of the actions of Israel’s horrendous right-wing government. Both the governments of UK and the USA are considerably more responsible for them; direct your anger there rather than at people of an ethnic group who have more than enough shit thrown at them.

Both antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks have increased across the world since this, and that is absolutely horrific. No random civilians in other parts of the world are responsible for these atrocities.

#palestine #ireland #wars of the three kingdoms #colonialism #genocide #land theft #history #early modern history #modern history #antisemitism #islamophobia #scottish independence #scottish independence means taking full responsibility for our part in colonialism #and paying reparations

[trans-cuchulainn]

Something I’ve been wondering recently, that I thought you might have an answer to since you know your medieval Irish literature — both Cú Chulainn and Fionn MacCumhaill were known by different names in childhood and gained their better known ones later in life. Are there any other examples of this in the literature, or are they just weird outliers?

okay sorry it took me a few days to get to this i was too busy yelling about parchment

anyway there are a few others. notably, the seven maines, who had different names until medb renamed them all to fulfill a prophecy that one of them would kill conchobar (and then they killed a different conchobar). note that most texts they show up in don't refer to this at all and they're just known as maine, genuinely don't know if they were originally just seven guys (or six or eight) called maine and then someone came up with the backstory later to explain it or whether that was established from the start but hey. goll mac morna was originally called aed, but he got renamed goll after he lost an eye

there are likely quite a few more that i can't recall rn, and various saints etc also change their names which is i think pretty common and not unique to ireland (and indeed goes back to the bible e.g. saul/paul)

more often people just accumulate epithets and nicknames and things relating to a distinctive deed or injury or character trait, rather than changing their whole name, but i would say cu chulainn and finn aren't particularly outliers in this regard -- except in the sense that they're more of a household name post-name change than some of the others, i guess!

#answered #probably-ace-ok #this answer feels disappointingly lacking in detail considering it took me several days to get to it i am sorry #medieval irish

[milfjagger]

okay so... give us the list of folk horror films that are good please. 🤲

ok this took a while but here we go! it ended up being more than 10 lol

the wicker man (1973) - the definitive british folk horror film. midsommar wants to be the wicker man soooo bad it's embarrassing

the blood on satan's claw (1971) - i haven't seen this one in a long time but it's a pretty chilling early 70s british film centring around a demonic cult in 18th century england

night of the demon (1957) - ok so you know the sample at the beginning of hounds of love by kate bush, where a voice says "it's in the trees! it's coming!" that's from this film!!!! just barely in the folk horror category but it's based on a story by m.r. james who is one of THE iconic folk horror writers so imo it counts

a warning to the curious (1972) - also based on a story by m.r. james, this was part of a long-running annual bbc series called 'a ghost story for christmas'. it's only about 30 minutes long and very dated but I think that gives it extra charm and even a bit of extra creepiness

the juniper tree (1990) - icelandic retelling of the grimm's fairy tale, starring björk and featuring an incredibly beautiful soundtrack

the company of wolves (1984) - based on the short stories of angela carter in her compilation 'the bloody chamber'. this is probably more fairytale horror than folk horror but i LOVE this film and if you like intense psychosexual overtones and incredible practical effects then you will too

the devil rides out (1968) - classic hammer horror with christopher lee so you know it's gonna be a banger

wake wood (2009) - probably the most underrated irish horror film of all time (and that's saying a lot bc there really aren't many). really scary film with the "came back but wrong" premise. watch this one

the hallow (2013) - another one from ireland. it's not amazing but including it bc i don't think i've ever seen another horror film fully embrace the idea that faeries are actually terrifying. practical effects are also cool as hell

kill list (2011) - i'll be honest with you I didn't understand half of what was happening in this film and it's been on my to-rewatch list for ages. it starts out as a cerebral cop drama and descends into absolute madness like it literally has to be seen to be believed

a field in england (2013) - probably the modern folk horror film that comes closest to what british directors were doing with the genre in the 70s. it's trippy, impenetrable and often kinda funny, i really recommend this one

pyewacket (2017) - offbeat canadian indie film that you will either find really creepy or really boring. i thought the ending in particular was incredibly chilling

the ritual (2017) - i feel like everyone has seen this film at this point but i had to recommend it anyway bc it blends folk horror with monster movie and it's super fucking terrifying. i also highly recommend the novel by adam neville which if anything is even scarier

the witch (2015) - again everyone has seen this and has an opinion but it's one of my favourite horror films of all time

pet sematary (1989) - the iconic stephen king classic that is still really scary to this day

pumpkinhead (1988) - another film that is super underrated imo. people who love the creature design in the ritual should remember the OG

men (2022) - controversial opinion perhaps but i think this film was actually kinda brilliant. if nothing else it is super twisted and horrifying

on my list of i haven't watched this yet but people say it's really good: penda's fen (1974), witchfinder general (1968), the lair of the white worm (1988) (i know i know i call myself a ken russell fan and i haven't even seen lair of the white worm)

a radio play: children of the stones on bbc radio 4 (available on spotify hee hee)

and a couple of books: fairy tale (1996) by alice thomas ellis, and the owl service (1967) by alan garner. the owl service is for kids but it really did a number on me aged 12 and it still holds up as a classic. I think there's an old bbc series but i haven't got round to watching it yet :)

#I hope you enjoy these !!! i really really love the genre i just wanted to share some of that love around :^)

[themodernwitchsguide]

the celtic gods

please note that sometimes history gets blended with stories created by neopagan groups, and it's above my pay grade to know what is what

the creation myth of the irish is pretty much lost to time, but as far as I can piece together where the land and the sea met, a horse named Eioch emerged from sea foam. nearby a hearty tree grew which Eioch fed upon, and this tree may have been Cerunnos (not many sources exist to corroborate this). jealous of the giants (who created the earth) that were many in number, Cerunnos and Eioch procreated to create the gods

CERUNNOS: irish god of nature, life, and fertility. associated with horned animals

the clan of Tuatha De Danann

DANU/ANU/ANANN: the matriarch of Tuatha de Danann (literally meaning "the people of the goddess Danu"), she is the irish goddess of regeneration, wisdom (since the Tuatha de Danann themselves were crafty), and sovereignty

THE DAGDA: son of Elatha (a Fomorian king) and possibly Ethniu, a triple god and one chief of Tuatha de Danann, god of life and death, the seasons, magic, and agriculture

BRIGID: daughter of Dagd, irish goddess of healing, fire/metalworking, and poetry

AENGUS/OENGUS: son of Dagd, irish god of love, beauty, summer, youth, and inspiration

MIDIR: son of the Dagd, although his name may mean "judge," some stories say he crafted the rivers and lakes

ERNMAS: her name refers to death by weapons

THE MORRIGAN: daughter of Ernmas, a triple goddess and the other chief of Tuatha de Danann, irish goddess of war, death, prophecy and ravens. her aspects are often considered Badb, Macha, and Nemain/Anand/Eea

ERIU: sometimes considered a daughter of Ernmas, goddess of Ireland (Ireland is derived from her name) and sovereignty

BRES: son of Eriu and Elatha (of the Fomorians), he was an unpopular king of Tuatha de Danann since he often gave preferential treatment to the Fomorians

BANBA: sometimes considered a daughter of Ernmas, goddess of Ireland

FODLA: sometimes considered a daughter of Ernmas, goddess of Ireland

LUGH/LUGUS: son of Ethniu (of the Fomorians) and Cian (of Tuatha de Danann), irish god of nobility, warriors, crafts, oaths, justice and sometimes light or the sun. he kills Balor at the battle of Mag Tuired

NUADA: the first king of Tuatha de Danann, irish god of fairness, justice, and honesty

OGMA: son of Elatha (of the Fomorians), irish god of language, eloquence, and learning

DIAN CECHT: irish god of healing and medicine, Tuatha de Danann's healer. father of Cian and grandfather of Lugh

GOIBNIU: irish god of craft, metalsmith for the Tuatha de Danann

the clan of the Fomorians, who fought to take over Ireland,

DOMNU: irish goddess of the abyss, or deep sea. patron goddess of the Fomorians

INDECH: irish son of Domnu, sometimes king of the Fomorians, other times just a warrior

BALOR: a giant cyclops that is usually considered the chief of the Fomorians. it is his death, at the hands of his grandson Lugh, that creates a time of peace and prosperity in Ireland

CAITLIN/CETHLENN: wife of Balor, a prophet

ELATHA/EALADHA: a king of the Fomorians, son of Balor and Caitlin, perhaps a god of the sun

ETHNIU: daughter of Balor and by some sources, irish goddess of the North Star

gods associated with the underworld,

ARAWN: welsh god of hunting, magic, and lord of the Annwn (afterlife). represents honor and fairness

CERRIDWEN: welsh goddess of the underworld, a shapeshifting witch and prophet

MANANNAN/MANAWYDAN: welsh god of the sea and guardian of the underworld

and the rest,

MATH AP MATHONWY: brother of Don, god of magic, sorcery and enchantment. created Blodeuwedd for a man, and turned her into an owl when she became unfaithful

BELI: welsh god of fire, death, and darkness

DON: welsh equivalent of Danu, the mother goddess. there is another welsh god by this name who is considered the god of the dead

GOVANNON: son of Beli and Don, welsh god of blacksmithing and crafts

GILVAETHWY: son of Beli and Don, god of agriculture and ploughing

GWYDYON: son of Beli and Don, welsh god of war, magic, illusion, poetry, and music

AMATHON: son of Beli and Don, welsh god of agriculture

NUDD/LLUDD: son of Beli and Don, welsh god of healing

GWYNN AP NUDD: son of Nudd, king of the fair folk, associated with the Annwn

CREIDDYLAD/CORDELIA: daughter of Lludd, welsh goddess of flowers and desire

ARIANRHOD: virgin goddess of the moon, reincarnation, the sky, and fertility. tricked into jumping over the magic wand of Math, which made her give birth to Dylan and Lleu. she refused to claim Lleu as her son and laid three curses upon him

DYLAN: welsh god of the sea and waves

LLEU: welsh hero, often attributed the same powers as Gwydion

AERON: welsh god of battle, slaughter, and fate

LLYR: welsh equivalent of Lir, god of the sea

MANAWYDDAN: son of Llyr, welsh god of the sea

BRAN: son of Llyr, welsh god of prophecy, war, and kingship

BRANWEN: daughter of Llyr, welsh goddess of love, beauty, and marriage

MODRON/MATRONA: mother of Mabon, welsh goddess of motherhood

MABON: welsh god of eternal youth, hunting, love, and the autumnal equinox

TALIESIN: welsh god of bards and poetry/music

MERLIN/MYRRDIN: welsh god of magic, gifted with prophecy and wisdom

RHIANNON: welsh equivalent of Epona, goddess of horses, motherhood, and strength

PRYDERI: son of Pwyll and Rhiannon, hero who's story is told in the Mabinogi

BLODEUWEDD: welsh goddess of flowers and emotions, protector of women

AINS/AINE: irish goddess of summer, fertility, and crops, Queen of the Faeries

EPONA: gaelic goddess of horses and fertility

BORVO/BORMO: gaelic god of hot springs

BELENUS: irish god of the sun, fire, healing, and fertility. celebrated during Beltainne

CAILLEACH/SCOTIA: irish goddess of the winds and winter, patron of animals

DRUANTIA: gaelic goddess of trees, fertility and passion, seen as Queen of the Druids

ESUS/AISUS: gaelic god of vegetation

FAND: irish goddess of the sea

FIONN MAC CUMHAILL: irish god of the woodlands, leader of the Fianna hunters

MAEVE/MEDB: irish goddess of sovereignty, intoxication, seduction

SCATHACH SCATA: irish warrior goddess, teacher, prophet, and sorceress

SUCELLOS: gaelic god of good fortune, wine, an agriculture, equivalent to the Dagd

TAILTIU: irish goddess of the earth, vigor, strength, and endurance. foster mother of Lugh

TARANIS: gaelic god of thunder and storms, associated with wheels

TEUTATES/ALBORIX/CATURIX: gaelic god of the tribe, protector of the people

#pagan #witchcraft #witch #witchblr #paganism #celtic #polytheist #polytheism #magick #mythology #deity #deity work #deity worship #druid #magic #druidry #ancient celts #irish mythology #welsh mythology

[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

[dangerously-human]

What is Derry Girls about?

I love when you guys ask me these questions and I get to ramble about my favorite things. Derry Girls is a coming-of-age sitcom set in Northern Ireland during the Troubles (the late 90s specifically, the show ends around the Good Friday Agreement). It follows a group of Catholic teen girls - plus one's British boy cousin, who also becomes a Derry Girl, as "being a Derry Girl is a state of mind" - who live in Derry/Londonderry, and as such have grown up in the midst of sectarian conflict pretty much their entire lives. It's incredibly funny and also does a majestic job sprinkling in bits of history in the background of these girls' everyday lives, which is exactly the way we all experience history in the moment - like it'll flash from them goofing off at a school dance to news reports of a major bombing, or the family will be fighting about whether to watch a news story about peace talks or someone's favorite soap, that kind of thing. The main characters actually feel like teenagers, too, in a way I don't think you get often with sitcoms, and the family relationships are also a key element. And lots of beautiful countryside shots interspersed with the comedy and mayhem, so you know it's up my alley. Highly recommend!

#personal #derry girls