#anyway mahler. you get it. you really get it | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

supercantaloupe · 6 months

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ANTI CHORAL SYMPHONY??? BLOCKED???

joking but omg I can't believe mahler 2 doesn't do anything for you it reshaped my bones

maybe if i heard it live or studied it i would change my tune but so far at least mahler 2 does very little for me. i tend not to be a huge fan of late romantic works in general, and the overwhelming length/size/expansiveness of these gargantuan symphonies from the likes of mahler tend to strike me as tedious more than majestic. and as for choral symphonies, i think in pretty much every one of them i've heard post-beethoven 9 i've not been terribly impressed by the addition of vocalists. (honestly, one of the things that frustrates me so much ABOUT beethoven 9 is that it really is the one that makes it work, and beethoven's legacy/impact was such that he made so many other composers think they can do the same things he did just as well if not better, which i think succeeds in very rare cases only...but i digress.) in its smallest form (ie a soloist or two added to a movement or two) it just feels like an unnecessary addition to me, and in its largest form (full choir in every movement that is the true focus of the work, a la vaughan williams' sea symphony) i kind of think these works cease to be symphonies at some point. like, apologies to vaughan williams, but that's just a cantata. you can just call it a cantata. it's okay. i know it follows traditional symphonic structure to some extent but it's vague enough and totally dominated by the singing to be a different genre to me. and returning to mahler for a second, a symphony like mahler 2 feels very much like the precursor to something like das lied von der erde, which is more of a song cycle with orchestra (or a "song-symphony" but you can probably guess by now my feelings on that name). mahler 2 of course isn't quite that voice-heavy but it bears strong resemblance to what would come later in his output, i think; i'm still comfortable enough calling it a symphony, but i'm not entirely convinced that the choir ultimately adds to the genre in mahler 2 or in any other late romantic-modern choral symphony. personally, i'm not convinced that we should even cling so fast to the genre label of symphony for all of these works; many of them i think can (and probably should) be classified with a different genre label, whether it's something extant like "cantata" or "song cycle" or something newly coined and retrofitted (it's not like musicians have never fiddled with the naming of past works without the blessing of the composer before). idk, maybe i'm biased as to accept a much narrower definition of "symphony" than most, but the distinction matters to me.

#at any rate mendelssohn 2 should NOT be considered a symphony oh my gd. that one actually gets on my nerves lol #'cantata-symphony' 'choral symphony' THAT'S JUST A CANTATAAAAA JUST SAY CANTATA #MENDELSSOHN WROTE THOSE. IT'S FIIIIINE #okay anyway.#sasha speaks #recapitulation #hope you don't mind this. fucking essay of a response #most of this is personal taste so please don't think i'm like anti-mahler 2 (or its fans) in general #honestly calling myself anti-choral symphony is kind of tongue in cheek to begin with #dvorak is like my one exception to the 'no beloved late romantics' but he doesn't deviate very far from the established symphonic format #so much as he expands from within it like a lot of the earlier post-beethoven romantics did. and that's just more to my taste personally #(dvorak and tchaik actually even though i'm not as keen on some of tchaik's later symphonies)#anyway i'm not so opposed to mahler 2 as to write it off entirely maybe some day i'll hear it live and have my bones rearranged too #but i think if a single piece is Going to be that long it needs to be really truly spectacular from the first listen to be worthwhile #which it just isn't for me...#mvts ii and iii are good tho. mahler is great at inner movements in particular for some reason #sasha answers

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tutuandscoot · 1 year

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One thing I don’t think I’ve seen you speak about is (what I would consider to be beautiful improvement in) Tessa’s arm and hand extension between 2010 and 2018. I think that when she was younger she extended well but at times could be rigid in her hands from the wrist (actually I think you talked about that re Scott and the move to Montreal - we do read your long posts!). By the time 2018 came around, the fluidity was just gorgeous. I always think about the moment right before the Carmen lift in the Moulin Rouge Olympics IE dance, when she rounds the curve of the boards and her left arm is in a beautiful position right before she launches into the backflip (sort of third position with her other arm holding Scott). Anyways I think you’ll know the moment. It’s not to say that her hands weren’t beautiful before, just I thought better over time. What do you think? Happy weekend :)

Medium-length Post:

Omg yes this is something I need to talk about!!

I totally agree with the first bit you said about the stiffness in her hands as opposed to later on. I see people say when they’ve first watched them ‘oh she has beautiful arms and hands’ and I think yes she does but there were small things earlier on I can nit pick while she just improved them so much throughout their career- and when you are watching them in 2010 and saying her arms are stunning- then looking at 8 years worth of work and growth it’s mind blowing how much better she got!

So this rigidness I think is most obvious in their 2010 oly programs, In their CD and Mahler: I’m really not sure why this is and tbh it was the most significant in these programs that the olys. She hadn’t done this really before in other tango programs- not this much at least with her fingers straight together and yeah kinda stiff at the wrist, same in moments in Mahler, but like with the first gif then into these beautiful 5th positions with her hands held beautifully.. I’m not sure whether it was nerves kicking in and she was holding tension.. it’s a bit odd..

Ironically, in examining Valse Triste and Umbrellas, you can see a quite stark quality difference in both their upper body/arm carriage.

Valse triste they both had quite exquisite pure classical lines, hand extension (for their young age their relative maturity of movement is quite impressive).

Then in Umbrellas.. yes this kind of can be categorised as a ‘lyrical’ routine but I wouldn’t really describe it as that.. it’s really just a ‘free dance’ in literal definition. It’s just dancing as humans- not even ‘trained dancers’. So in this I feel they loose a bit of that pure classical quality, not in a bad way, but in comparing the precision to VT, you see the difference. Lines don’t quite get finished in the same way, not passing through foundational positions (1st, 5th, 3rd, etc).

It was a lot better in The Seasons- much more fluidity in her hands- at times almost becoming a little ‘fluffy’ but perfectly appropriate to the style, character, etc.

Another great moment to compare is her free arm in the rhumba pattern between 2012/2018. Throughout the season she would normally put her hand on top of his on her hip in the Choctaw but I just saw here at worlds she kept it extended similar to how she did in SFTD- so better to compare (even though the camera angle isn’t great for it). In 2018 there is just so much flow and confidence/ease in it, like she really, truly isn’t thinking about it in SFTD. The coordination is perfect. There’s maturity and sensuality in it, she’s just totally owning it right to her fingertips, she’s feeling herself in that moment, that chore, style, costume, all of it. 2012 she was doing the chore extremely well, but not feeling it to the fullest extent.

And yes as you said that moment in MR before the lift is stunning. The arm position, hand positions- EMOTION in it. And really throughout this performance, I know I banged on about Scott’s extension in this but hers as well- they were S T U N N I N G.

Another thing; This doesn’t have everything to do with but also kind of, so I’ll just mention it briefly: her costumes (the long sleeve ones) in 17/18 did WONDERS for her- this was really a fantastic dress design for her especially in how it accentuates her arms. TESSA IS B E A U T I F UL.. she’s athletic- she’s not this tiny little weak, &norXić thing that can’t hold herself, she is muscular, strong, powerful, terrifying. She’s also very pale- like the angel she is that was born to dance on ice. While those things make her exquisitely beautiful, they also contribute to her limbs sometimes not looking the most slim and toned (speaking for myself bc I have the same pale skin tone and muscular build), so she has to work extra hard at toning her arms and even then, a more tan colour just highlights that definition more.. especially on ice her pale skin against white can get lost. SO the long sleeve mesh was a god send for her because the way mesh stretches and interacts with movement/light highlights all her beautiful muscles, shoulders, and even.. not at all in a negative way against her natural beauty, slimmed her muscular back and torso down, just brought it down a bit and for the character of MR, in those moments where she had to be fragile but also incredibly sensual in others, just in the slightest way in working with her natural physique, slimmed her down and getting back to the topic of her arms, accentuated her already gorgeous lines. (She also physically slimmed down/lost some weight for the olys but that’s for another post).

The one program I’ve left out of this is Latch (and I’m sorry I have no gif room left to include a clip 😑) even the change/improvement between latch and MR.. where as in MR I talked about that slimming factor the dresses gave her, the Latch costume had the opposite effect but in a way that was very well suited to the movement/style and story. It was more athletic in a grounded way. Contemporary movement isn’t always ‘pretty’ and ‘balletic’. She expressed the movement incredibly well and they both showed again how they can adapt to any style- they aren’t simply the ‘lyrical’ skaters they were pigeoned holed as. Most certainly there are photos of them in Latch where her arm positions aren’t the prettiest- elbows rotated/ hyper extended, spiky fingers in moments, etc, but that happens to everyone.. and it doesn’t take away from the experience I have watching them. Latch like Umbrellas I feel, while in a different way is similarly a very human dance- not a obvious study in a particular movement style.. the way they move is just a vehicle to express the story, so i can forgive the movement not being picture perfect in every still image because it is about the emotion and interaction between them.

So while her arms were beautiful.. there is something I need to pick on.

Here when her arms are extended.. her elbows are kinda rotated the wrong way (but not by much). The inside of the elbows should be rotated down and upper arms rotated forward.

(Hopefully my lil scribbles make sense)

Ballet arm positions are very hard to perfect.. essentially every part of the arm has to be rotated the opposite way- like a Chinese burn (can u still call it that??) motion. It’s only subtle but the first time I recall watching Mahler I thought about this- that she’s beautiful, a true dancer, clearly has ballet training, but there’s that small detail with her arms that’s not quite ‘correct’.

A lot of it comes with maturity as well- not just training. Maturity of movement, expression. You are always rediscovering how your body moves within the parameters of the art form and how to best suit it to your body. This particular detail improved a lot- like I said essentially I didn’t really see in VT, it came after that and was quite obvious in 2010, along with the kind of rigid hands, the hand thing kinda went away after that.. it was really only Mahler I noticed it in, then yeah her arm positions (shape) improved heaps through to 2014, latch had its own thing going on in relation to the movement (change in personal movement expression/physique which I’ll talk about another time) then MR was just stunning- again both of them finding that together.

(Ballerina is Marianela Nunez of The Royal Ballet- Tessa in ballerina form essentially. Photos by Mariah Elena Buckley)

Why you don’t really notice this.. or people are able to watch her and say her arms are beautiful, is because she has such stunning posture and works her arms from her back. she never has any stiffness in her neck, her presence- the way she uses her eyeline, her twinkling eyes and smile, how she relates to Scott, projects to the back row of the audience, that freedom of movement is stunning. While the exact precise technique wasn’t always perfect, she always created beautiful lines. She had great body awareness- the shapes they created together were always complementary- they were very aware of how they looked physically together from the outside (again that improved massively as they got older as well). You can tell there is ballet training there with her, a lot of other girls there isn’t this quality- they don’t move like dancers. They don’t feel their bodies like dancers.

It’s so cool you’ve picked up on this anon bc I don’t know how many would.. it’s perfectly reasonable and I think it’s good to constructively criticise them, even 5 years post- competitive career, because they are wonderful, spectacular, by far the best there have ever been not just for their athleticism but their mental fortitude and example of teamwork and compassion. Of course they aren’t perfect, of course they didn’t arrive on the senior circuit perfect, they got better and better every year, while navigating ups and downs, and no doubt there would been more potential to explore post-2018, but as is life they had to move on.

#ask #love these kinds of discussions #also thank you 🙏 for reading my long posts that makes me so happy 🥰🥰#so many late nights my thumbs going a thousand miles an hour on my phone 😰

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the1975attheirverybest · 3 months

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this is deeply parasocial of me but do u think mattys bummed out about pitchfork folding??

cause i was listening to a music review podcast (with some pitchfork writers) who said the the guys were "the kind of losers who read music reviews and kept up with npr (music)" they ment this affectionately ofc

I’m inclined to say no. At least not current, 34 year old Matty. Maybe 2014 Matty would have cared. Fuck you Pitchfork btw. That’s what you get for “villain of the year.” Karma is a bitch, isn’t it?

Anyways, on to the matty thing….all throughout the BFIAFL era (and maybe even since ABIIOR? I’ve got pandemic brain I can’t remember when shit happened anymore), he has been saying that, music reviewers are irrelevant. Especially in the wake of the invention of music streaming. In other words, when he was young, music fans would go and buy the NME, MTV, Pitfork, etc mags and look at what those critics recommend out of the new music that’s coming out, and they’d spend their money on the CDs that those “experts” recommended. But nowadays, you pay like $10-14 a month and you have access to alllllllll the music that has ever existed. Which is why you now see kids listening to Adele but also Lil Nas X or One Direction but also Mahler, The 1975, Taylor, etc. “tastemakers” have ceased to be relevant. They don’t dictate culture anymore. The algorithm does.

He has also said (I can’t remember if it’s in the Zane Lowe thing or not) that he thinks it’s important that we don’t have an important / significant piece of music journalism / music criticism. Like something we can quote off the top of because it’s so iconic or a specific review of an album that we reference all the time. Cuz those things….like, in the grand scheme of things, don’t really matter. But we do have iconic songs and albums.

So yeah in short I think he’s glad that one less phony outlet is calling him a villain. BUT again that’s just me going off of what he’s said. Maybe he’s curled up into a ball sobbing right now who knows.

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dianessunflower · 1 year

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Tàr (2022, dir. Todd Field) *spoilers

i've been waiting for MONTHS to watch Tár and i finally got to see it on the weekend.

Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tár is a tour de force, as expected. so are Nina Hoss, Noémie Merlant, and Sophie Kauer as supporting actresses, who have their own understated power in the film. but it's Blanchett's performance, as well as the cinematography and music, that creates a consistent tension that doesn't let up until the end of the film.

this is a character study, and to see this as some kind of political statement is a disservice to the film and to the viewer.

i really appreciated the insight into the minutiae of the classical music world at its pinnacle, having grown up with a classical music education. the delicious irony of course is that we are getting a vinyl soundtrack from DG, with the Mahler 5 and the Elgar Cello Concerto to boot.

(as an aside, the Jacqueline du Pré reference was beautiful and this is my note to you to watch Julie Andrews in Duet for One, which is loosely based on du Pre's story.)

i would've loved more of those scenes, but the ones we got were so impressive and meticulous. there's a moment where Tár is so wrapped up in the dying notes from G to F to silence at the end of the Adagietto of the Mahler No. 5 that she literally looks like she's in post-orgasmic bliss.

so the ending. i think if you look at it superficially, there is an Orientalist view. but! Field and Blanchett are smarter than that. there's a moment where Tár comes face to face with her abuse of power when she sees all the women in the massage parlour/brothel.

here's the thing. whether we like it or not, i don't think there's any other situation that would have made Tár confront her moral shortcomings. it's a sad fact of our world that there is something about being in a non-Western country that can make a person reflect on their privilege and power as they would not do in their own country.

the Marlon Brando reference is likewise interesting, a Great Man brought down by failures of his own making.

i think it's also reductive to see the ending as punching down on video game music as opposed to the classical music Canon, although it's also clearly the punchline of the credits. the point is not necessarily that Tár has been taken down a notch. a few scenes prior, Tár rewatches old videos of her mentor Leonard Bernstein teaching young conductors and she breaks down in tears.

to me, this is the moment when she recognises that her ambitions were about control, they were no longer about the music itself. and by returning to the music itself, she hasn't necessarily been redeemed in the sight of others. but she has repented herself.

the end of the script says 'memento mori', which is Latin for 'remember that you die'. it's an artistic trope about the inevitability of death. death comes for all of us, unto dust we shall return.

anyway, all this to say i loved Tár, and i can't wait to see the Variety Actors on Actors interview with Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh. whereas EEAAO gave voice to things i might not have been able to otherwise articulate, Tár has kept me thinking long after it ended. two of my favourite movies of the year.

#tár #tár (2022)#tár movie #todd field #cate blanchett #lydia tár #nat's tangents

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recapitulation · 1 year

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(conductor anon) delighted you're keen to hear my thoughts! i'm not sure which movement is my favourite, i think on the whole it is probably 2 as well (really aptly named i think!)? but i really like the first movement, and i love the ending (and ofc 4 is timelessly breathtaking). hard to pick tbh! currently i am really enjoying chung myung-whun's interpretation of it, though i occasionally wish his 4th was a tad faster (even if it is appropriately dramatic) and brought out the harp a bit more!

(2/2) but i rly like his opening, which has a v nice good tempo in the radio france orchestra recording (down also to the brilliant trumpetist!). i'm a cello player (mvt 2 has a lovely cello bit), but i'll say mahler 5 has truly opened my eyes to the trumpet. i'd love to learn to play it tho i'm not sure i have the lung capacity for wind instruments. anyway thank you for being so kind! i am also in love with you. you make me want to think more about mahler and learn more about the french horn :)

HIIIII sorry about the three thousand year response time I wanted to really listen to the chung myung whun radio france recording!! also I will put a linkie down below for anyone else curious

[Wait I just got done typing this whole thing and I realized you were talking abt mahler 5 for the whole ask and not mahler 2. I was like hmmmm did I really say mahler 2 mvmt 2 was my favorite that's not true?? and i realized wait holy shit... I misinterpreted the first part of your ask 😭😭 so this is totally not the right recording ANDBDJS]

youtube

[Video Description: a filmed orchestral performance of Myung Whun Chung conducting Mahler 2 with the Radio France Philharmonic. /End Description]

I really agree with you that what he did with the opening was really striking! The initial cello "punch" is much less punchy which is really interesting! As I was listening to this I was thinking hmmmm what is the best cello part in mahler 2... I agree w you that movement 2 has a lot of good cello bits!! But I have to say the very beginning is so nice and satisfying for me 🐦🍒 and the recapitulation of course 😇

Also I love his whole conducting demeanor... he is so solemn, like you can REALLY tell that he respects the piece and is giving it an appropriate amount of weight!!

I really enjoyed the horn players ^^ I thought the very high notes were especially clear and delicate!! I will be honest the piccolo made me wince on more than one occasion . but like it's a live recording and there are so many moving parts to get right so I get it

Also his face at the beginning of the third movement after the big timpani moment was so funny. Like is that disapproval?? Did the timpani player mess up?? It sounded good to me 😭

I understand not liking a slower movement 4!! But I have to say I reeeeeeally like a slow mvmt 4... cannot say I have found one that is too slow for me yet. I liked the blending and the brass chorale was soooooo gentle and sweet and drawn out 💕🐝💕🐝💕🐝💕🐝💕🐝

OKAY I'm going to stop putting my mahler 2 stream of consciousness here 💗🐛 thank you for sending in the specific reccomendation I don't often listen to recordings on YouTube which is a shame bc there's a lot to be gained visually I think!!

I definitely agree w you that mahler 5 opened my eyes to trumpet!! And also cello to be honest, I love love the sound of the really high cello bits trading back and forth w other strings in the 4th movement. I would encourage you to try trumpet if you think you'd enjoy it!! Breath support is a skill to be learned not necessarily something you just have or don't have!

Thank you for chatting abt mahler with meeeee 💌🍞💌🍞💌🍞💌🍞 mwah mwah mwah mwah

#answered #mahler #conductor anon #cant remember if i actually tagged your other asks or not 🤔

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nimuetheseawitch · 1 year

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How would you rank the five Swamp Rats?

Hawkeye

Trapper

Charles

Oliver

Frank

This was extremely difficult, and I ended up ranking them in order of how much I would like them/get a long with them as individuals, not necessarily how great they are for the show. Frank is dead last because I wouldn't like him, but he is so great as a character, so it feels really unfair to put him last. And BJ and Trapper would definitely go back and forth - Trapper is excellent, and in another ranking system, he would maybe come before BJ. Charles would rub me the wrong way, but I also love Mahler and the french horn (and he is such an excellent character). Oliver gets put far down the ranks because we don't get enough characterization for him, and basically what we do get is that he likes football. And everyone always forgets him.

Anyway, I feel bad about ranking them because I love them all. But thank you for making me do this.

#asked and answered #mash #swamp rats

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japhan2024 · 3 days

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♫ Oops I wrote an orchestra au phanfic: A night in Florence - Japhan2024 - dan and phil [Archive of Our Own] ♫

genre: au, angst

words: 1.640

excerpt: And then there was the concertmaster. His name was Phil Lester, he was a slender, tall guy and an enigma. Nobody knew much about him. He would tell the odd joke and people would lose it - especially Louise - but he mostly kept to himself.

After the whole debacle with his piano teacher, Dan Howell wasn't keen on trying out any more instruments. He was more than happy to play on his new Xbox and forget about the cruel world for a few hours.

Dan distinguished two personalities within himself: the happy-go-lucky, sweet boy he once had been, who laughed easily and saw the good in people everywhere he went. And then there was the sad, hurt, broken guy, who hid behind edgy humor and black clothes.

The happy version of Dan seldom surfaced, but today was an exception. His grandma had given him tickets to a classical concert: Mahler's second symphony. Dan knew next to nothing about classical music, just that it was something serious that fancy people went to. Of course he wanted to experience it.

And now he was going! He wore his blackest clothes, his neatest shoes and absolutely fried his hair into straight, shiny locks that fell a little long, framing his round face.

After everyone he asked had declined - he'd asked two people - he figured he would just go on his own.

The bus ride was loud and crowdy, but he got off at the stop next to the music hall and stood there, just to take in the stately structure, sharp shapes contrasting with the soft sky behind it. The twilight made Dan's adventure feel even more exciting.

Dan was a tall kid. He towered over the guy in the ticket box and said, "I have one spare ticket, you can give it to someone who still wants to get in."

The guy smiled but said, "I'm afraid this concert isn't sold out by a long shot. But thanks all the same!"

There were no young people in sight. Dan walked solemnly over the velvet floors and up marble stairs. His seat was on the second floor. He sat down and waited. He was early.

More and more people gathered in the audience, but the ticket box guy had been right: it wasn't even remotely full. Dan looked down at all the gray hair and bald heads. He didn't feel like he belonged.

Then he saw the orchestra arrive at the podium. They weren't all gray. There were young people amongst them. They looked incredible. Confident, stylish in their black and white attire.

The light dimmed. Adrenaline rushed through Dan's body, as he saw the orchestra get ready to play.

And as soon as Dan heard the first note, he knew. Classical music would be his life.

"You can go in now." The stern face of the young woman who said this, scared Dan more than anything had even scared him in life.

"Okay," he stammered. Having an extracurricular activity was just what Dan needed. School really sucked and he just fantasized of being somewhere else all day, to not have to deal with reality. So, he had taken up the violin. He practiced every free hour that he had, while his Xbox collected dust.

Dan walked past the woman, into the room. The conductor and the concertmaster sat there. The conductor smiled. He was an older man but had a very youthful, slightly mischievous face. Dan tried not to look at the concertmaster, because he had seen him, and he was... no, Dan had to focus. He put his music on the stand before him. He'd rehearsed a Bach Partita and a folk song.

He put his violin under his chin, and started to play. He closed his eyes, for he didn't need to read the music anyway. He knew it by heart. When Dan played, it seemed like another power took over: a new version of Dan emerged: a confident, capable and musically gifted version of himself, that he'd always wanted to become and nearly got squashed by that awful piano teacher... Now Dan stood tall, proud and-

"Thank you, we've heard enough," the conductor said, cutting off Dan's playing. Dan didn't have a choice but to look at the concertmaster. A pale, black-haired guy with intense, wide and icy blue eyes.

"You can't say no to a guy who played your favorite folk song so beautifully, right?" The conductor joked. The concertmaster nodded.

"You're in, you can take a seat amongst the first violins," the conductor said with a smile.

"Okay," Dan replied mechanically. He started to walk away but the concertmaster said "don't forget your music," and Dan scuttled back to fetch it and kind of scurried off again. Outside, the stern young woman was instructing the people still waiting on their turn to audition. Dan replayed the words of the concertmaster again and again in his head. "don't forget your music..." such a different accent than he'd imagined. It was very Northern. Dan sighed. "Oh dear."

Dan had been playing in the orchestra for a couple of years now and had even made a few friends. Orchestra time was so very different from school. At school, Dan was bullied. There were only mean faces and petty remarks. In the orchestra, he got to be himself and most people there were a good few leagues weirder than him.

There was the leader of the violas, PJ, who was always on about obscure movies Dan had never seen. A flamboyant cello player, Louise, who giggled at everything but not in a mean way, she was just bubbly like that. And she'd even giggle at nothing at all. It made Dan feel normal in comparison.

And then there was the concertmaster. His name was Phil Lester, he was a slender, tall guy and an enigma. Nobody knew much about him. He would tell the odd joke and people would lose it - especially Louise - but he mostly kept to himself.

Dan had tried to talk to him once, it had been very awkward and he would not try it again.

But now, they were on tour in mainland Europe and they had arrived in Italy, in the bustling town of Florence. The sun was brutal, especially for a group of kids wearing black suits. Dan was used to it, but not many others were. Phil looked extra attractive, his features somehow accentuated by the heat. His jawline was incredible. His Adam's apple like an ancient sculpture.

"You're staring," Louise giggled.

"I know, but can you blame me, really?"

"Hardly."

Phil was plucking his violin absent-mindedly. He wore sunglasses.

"The trip here was so insane, I'm so jealous you could all just fly here," Louise started to tell the story of her road trip across Europe to transport the large instruments that couldn't be airport luggage.

"Oh, absolutely," Dan said without listening. He could only look at Phil who was now playing Bach mixed with jazz, which somehow worked. A couple of other orchestra members crowded around him to listen as well.

The day only got hotter. When they arrived at the venue, Dan couldn't see straight from the heat. The orchestra crawled into their seats. They were to play outside and a large crowd had gathered. A drop of sweat traced down Dan's neck into his suit. Ugh, disgusting.

Phil stood up, beckoning each instrument group to tune.

Dan saw Phil and the conductor talk to each other. Then Phil mimicked to the guys in the orchestra, to take their tie off and loosen their buttons. He did so, by doing it himself.

And as Phil began loosening his tie, something happened within Dan. Something awakened. He breathed in but forgot to breathe out. Phil took his tie off. Then he loosened his first button...

Phil's light skin exposed, Dan's eyes widened, pupils dilated...

Another button... what was Phil thinking! What was he doing to Dan? Dan gasped for air, finally.

Right, Dan had to do this as well. But the hot air against his own exposed skin only made him feel hotter.

They played Stravinsky's Petrushka. As soon as they started playing, Dan was back on his game. The music was exciting, uplifting and mysterious. Dan's fingers rand up and down the violin's neck as he got lost in the music. He moved in perfect rhythm with Phil, who made an effort to move expressively so everyone followed.

The audience applauded and the orchestra all stood and then bowed. Phil was just as drenched in sweat as everyone else. He looked appreciative at the orchestra, and for a short while, he locked eyes with Dan. To Dan, time stood still. Those light eyes, the mysterious lopsided smile... Dan shot Phil a content smile. It had been a great concert.

Finally, the sun set and the dusk settled. All members of the orchestra rejoiced and drank more and more Italian wine.

Dan had a goal. To approach Phil, finally. But how could he do that, when Phil was walking around with only an open shirt and shorts?

More wine.

Dan made his way through the crowd on the piazza. He saw Phil talking to an American exchange student, a very talented clarinet player called Cat.

"So, that was a fun concert, right!" Dan blurted out.

Phil and Cat looked at him, a little startled but they too were under the influence and they smiled kindly.

"We first violins really shone today," Phil said.

"Your solo was so unbelievably beautiful," Dan continued to yap. Phil just laughed.

"I'm going to get another bottle," Cat said tactically, leaving the two guys.

"So, do you have other hobbies than the violin?" Why did Dan ask such dumb questions, he scolded himself.

"I do actually, I'm studying film as well. I'd like to be a director someday."

"Really? That's so cool! So, do you watch movies a lot?"

"Yes, me and Peej both have a subscription to the cinema." Phil smiled.

"Incredible..." Dan was talking about Phil's eyes. They seemed to get closed and closer, the more he looked into them.

#dan and phil #phan #phanfic #fanfic #orchestra au

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klavierpanda · 2 years

Note

Here’s two from each of us!

Flip:

What Could Be as Lonely as Love by Amber Run - https://youtu.be/rfsiDrigYko?t=28

Strength and Beauty by Citizens - https://youtu.be/D7Elssx2uLc

Blue:

Deadwood by Really Slow Motion - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LO3LZohKCnE (Not usually my kind of song but this one is really well done (and it’s from one of my favourite artists))

Waves by Mattia Cupelli - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbtel9K6fVY

Atlas:

All The Small Things by blink-182 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ht5RZpzPqw

Run by Snow Patrol - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLMyBBZmL2M

Shy:

World Spins Madly On by The Weepies, Deb Talan and Steve Tannen - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4WO2bK35HE

Resurrect by Tony Anderson - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7CkSluBmdU (It gets more interesting at 4:15 if you get bored 😅)

Sorry for so many songs, but none of us could pick just one ^^;

Enjoy ^-^

What could be as lonely as Love:

Strength and Beauty:

Deadwood:

Waves:

All the small things:

Run:

couldn’t listen all the way through | not my thing | it’s okay | kinda catchy | ok i really like this | downloading immediately | already in my library (sorta reminds me of Disenchanted by mcr, in fact, I can kinda sing disenchanted along to it, here's the song for reference: https://youtu.be/j_MlBCb9-m8)

World spins madly on

Resurrect:

#ask game #music #ask panda #untableflip #save

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61below · 2 years

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Wangxian AU thoughts after attending the symphony

Lan Qiren conductor

LXC principal violinist, LWJ right next to him, the Twin Jades. LWJ plays his mother’s violin

Nie Ningjue, the entire brass section tuba

Meng Yao formerly oboe, but never good enough to play professionally, now in administration (in this happy universe, JGS is in prison for life so MY never does go Full Villain, but he is still a terrifying cutthroat who’s responsible for making his this orchestra world famous, at all costs)

Nie Huaisang, played french horn through school because it was demanded of him, now in Media/Promotions (he is also responsible for the photoshoots where all the conductors are holding their batons as ‘wands’ a la Famous Witches and Wizards and oh boy I will let you just imagine how thrilled LQR was about that)

WWX, flautist BUT he’s also a doctoral student whose ultimate goal is to take over the children’s music program at Cloud Recesses Academy, and he can play any instrument proficiently. Violin? LWJ hates that. Trombone? NMJ hates that. Percussion? Everybody hates that. Just… musical genius squirrel on caffeine WWX. With children.

WWX is also responsible for starting the Live! At the Movies series, where they perform the soundtracks live while the movie plays behind them. LQR really hates that, so so much, but they’re some of orchestra’s most popular performances. (They collaborate with the corresponding professional choir for the 25th anniversary of the release of the LOTR and sell out so many shows that they need to add more)

WWX has a running list of increasingly ridiculous designs for Mahler’s Hammer, up to a Rube Goldberg machine starting from the first box involving sixteen different things including a tennis racket, nerf gun, bowling ball, and a small, indoor-safe firecracker, and he keeps trying to get approval to do them all

LWJ has a wardrobe filled with the standard black but he secretly hates it. He carries lint rollers like most people carry chapstick, bc otherwise he is constantly covered in white rabbit fur.

(So is WWX bc he’s always over, but he never remembers to use the lint roller, so he’s just always covered with rabbit fur anyway)

DRAPY VELVET SHIRTS WITH OSTRICH FEATHERS ON THE SLEEVE CUFFS. SO MANY BLACK SEQUINS. SHEER BLACK PANELS. BLACK SILK CHIFFON SO AIRY IT PRACTICALLY FLOATS WITH THE MOVEMENT OF EACH HAND.

WWX and LWJ constantly swapping concert clothes bc neither of them really know whose is whose any longer. Everyone thinks LWJ is the fashionista of the pair but really they both are. (Srsly, wwx doesn’t get nearly enough credit for being that Dedicated To Style). Also, everyone thinks they’re already married, but they just think they’re still platonic besties, while secretly pining but Respecting Each Others’ Boundaries so hard they think it’s tragically unrequited

MXY has dyed purple hair and wears as many dresses as suits, but he always wears the prettiest heels

Tbh I thought really long and hard about whether LQR would make a good conductor bc they HAVE to be expressive, but then I realized that actually yes it would be perfect, bc ALL the Lans would be like, stone walls normally (LXC better-capable of a friendly façade, but it IS still a brick wall). The ONLY way they express an Emotion(tm) is through music

There’s a crisis when the day before a sold out New Years Eve Gala performance, the famous opera singer who’s supposed to be their headliner can’t make it, so they’re forced to quickly adapt 1/3 of the whole the program. LWJ is tapped to perform his super secret compositions, but the only good thing to come from that is that as the headliner he can set aside the black outfit and get to play his one true instrument: his heirloom Lan clan guqin. He floats onto the stage in clouds of ice blue silk. But the pieces he has been preparing to publish just aren’t quite long enough, there’s still five minutes he’s being asked to fill, so in a desperate, last minute move to save the show, he agrees to play Wangxian. Since he’s never even written the music for that, and since the only other person who’s ever heard it is WWX, so they perform the duet.

They kiss for the first time during the intermission (and oh what a kiss) but they’re both forced to Get Their Shit Together in time to perform the second set. But yeah, after that? After that, they live happily ever after. LWJ becomes a famous composer and eventually takes over conducting from his uncle, WWX teaches children how to love playing music, and they adopt a-Yuan. There’s white rabbit fur on all of their clothes.

#wangxian #the untamed #this is my love letter to the Minnesota orchestra btw #mdzs fic #bullet fic #lan wangji’s microexpressions of mass destruction

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tutuandscoot · 1 year

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Bit of a personal post:

So long story short I’ve started going back to ballet classes a couple of times a week- but not like recreational classes, professional training classes so it’s hard core and really technical. It’s been going great, 5 weeks in its catching up on me a bit not having done it really in 5 years, but I’m really loving it and my back is coping better than expected. Most of the teachers at this studio are ones who used to train me so they know me well and I have great relationships with them all so it’s been great.

A few weeks ago we were in the middle of class and the teacher had to step out before jumps bc she had a meeting, I said ‘oh I can play the music bc I’m not gonna jump’ (I can’t jump yet- 12 months post-back surgery I can start again so a few months left to go) but I ended up giving corrections and stuff. The teachers/directors popped their heads in after their meeting (I think they’re were meeting with a prospective student and her parents, so they all popped their heads in at the end to check it out) and I was just going about it as if I had been teaching the whole class, and at the end the directors/teachers said to me ‘oh thanks for that, btw you’re really good at this!’.

I have done a bunch of teaching before but not in a while and the last place I taught was.. to put it kindly.. trash. Like the kids were just there for fun and when you’ve trained to such a high level you have high standards and a high level of understanding and if the kids aren’t that into it/ comprehensive you feel like you are giving 300% and they are only giving like 10% (like that time Scott said in 2013 he likes coaching but only with kids that want to be there and improve). Also the teacher/owner didn’t respect me at all, not a very high standard herself- undermined me, payed me shit wage etc etc and it’s ironic because there’s actually a lot of ‘lower standard’ schools run by people who won’t hire someone who is actually “good” and has danced professionally and could actually inspire the kids because they themselves are jealous and threatened.. yet I walk into a school training kids for the professional industry and they respect me and trust me with training kids who aren’t that much younger than me.

So anyway last week they had me cover a class last minute and it was really fun, then when I was leaving today I just checked in to see if they were right for teachers tonight and they jumped in saying they will get me teaching more coz they think I’m great with kids (I’ve never considered myself a ‘kid person’.. like they kinda bother me) but I guess I’m good at explaining things simply coz I imagine myself doing it and process it to explain to the students, and I love choreographing/creating, we’ve been doing a bit of that in one of the classes I’m part of and like, I know I’m good with movement creation..

They also said they want me teaching/choreographing ballet solos for competitions so all this is to say get ready for a bunch of 7-13 year olds competing ballet solos inspired by all of VM’s programs… I’m talking Valse Triste, (Mahler is a bit hard musically for kids but might steal some ‘moments’), Carmen (NOT ‘VM’ Carmen), Seasons (I actually did a solo to seasons the same year VM did but didn’t realise till recently) I’m sure I’ll be able to work Latch into a ballet solo. Not that I’m gonna rip off chore just ✨inspired✨ by..

Anyway.. just some personal babbling, and to say sorry if I’ve been a bit absent on here it’s just that I’ve been really tired and physical/mental recovery takes longer than it use to (older +major surgery not long ago 😬) plus the school is 3 hours travel time away from me.. but I’ve been really happy- like happier than I’ve been in a long time, I didn’t realise how much i missed moving and creating. So yeah as I get more use to this weekly routine I’ll be able to manage my time on here better with /creating content/get back to working on the documentary..

Hope you all are feeling fabulous this week 💖

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rainia · 2 years

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Saw in a tag that you listen to opera. I’ve been wanting to get back into it because I used to go once a year as a kid. Do you have suggestions for an opera/recording to start with?

Oh goodness, where to start! Errmm so off the top of my head,, music-wise,these are some really lovely song cycles:

Elgar - Sea Pictures

Copland - Eight Poems of Emiliy Dickeson

Mahler - Das Lied von der Erde (longer but the last song is so beautiful and sad)

Debussy - Fetes galantes (not orchestrated but still gorgeous, I recommend finding a recording by Elly Ameling)

Berlioz - Les nuits d’été

As for actual operas, I’d recommend starting with anything light and not very long hahaha, so not like. Wagner. Yeaahh. Honestly, any recordings of productions never do the live experience justice so it usually feels a bit flat? That’s just my experience anyway, which is why I just listen to stuff, and then try see live productions when I can (which hasn’t been for a long time rip, but things are slowly opening up here again, so let’s hope).

#if I think of any other full operas I’ll let you know #I think one of the first ones I experienced was Mozart magic flute (obvs)#and Rossini’s Cinderella (Cenerentola)#but those were live and I don’t know of any good recordings offhand #ask rain

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totallytrucked · 3 years

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Ok ok ranting about morgan karr and jesse swenson as hanschen and ernst because they are so underappreciated

I think they really smash woybr out of the park and morgan karr has such a great voice (his touch me solo omg) so i’ll try and convert some of you

Oh this really long so if you don’t want to read me incoherently ranting about this skip it i won’t care

Ok first of all before the vineyard scene jesse swenson has that jbw hanschen vibe but a bit more childlike, where he feels like he could be in school with me. The ‘bobby mahler he’s the best’ line is delivered so seriously it’s just hilarious. “I’ll walk with you ernst” isn’t said as a joke, it’s actually kind of sweet

And morgan karr as ernst omg… god i love him. His voice is just *chef’s kiss*. His touch me solo., sdsjhdgsu ej~!!!!! He’s so sweet as ernst too, and doesn’t fall into that trap of stupid ernst ready to be manipulated. I could go on and on about his voice it’s just amazing here’s an audio of him singing (with zach reiner-harris) just enjoy that oh and this one

Um before i continue on my morgan karr tangent lemme get to the vineyard scene

So! So ok and i really love this.. They start out when the lights are down after totally fucked and i think they either hug or kiss? I can’t see because the lights are down but it kind of adds another layer where they know each other? And they’re previously dating or something? I think this happens in the play? I might be over analyzing and they’re just talking about the scene but idk

Anyways they sit down and start saying the lines and (of course) there’s the typical laughter during the country pastor speech but morgan karr like giggles after ‘my degrees’ and omg i love him. Facepalm moment from hansy rilow

The whole hanschen monologue is very good, i mean the audience is laughing but it’s ok because the best is yet to come! Now the song starts and you’re like ‘god jesse swenson can sing really well too’ so you’re enjoying that but then you’re like ‘god who did his hair >-<‘ (once again spring awakening is plagued by just fucking up the boys hair.. It’s not act 2 later moritz or 1nt andy mientus bad but it’s just a little off. He looks like andrew rannells-) anyways they kiss. It is very sweet. This part is just jhgskdufg yes! How morgan karr (our lord and saviour) says ‘oh god’ is not like shocked? But just like “oh” in a good way i am not making any sense sorry guys

They do the weird leg thing as is customary for woybr. Anyways on to ‘when we look back…’ jesse swenson says it so … seductively?? This sounds weird i didn't get much sleep

“And in the meantime?” fjghsfjg skmfhoierht! Ihuhfu!!!

And the second kiss.s.. Hanschen says “why not?” and then they both nod??? And kiss and it’s not that weird predatory bi trope dkjfgs guys i am LIVING it’s so sweet df

AND AND AND when they break away from the 2nd kiss hanschen is sort of holding ernst’s face and like ITS SO TENDer it’s the little things s;kduhgs;ud FUCK isodjfhgsj anyways and when he says “i thought perhaps we’d only talk” hans moves his hands (hehe) away and sdfhgs;ku!!! The details! The details guys stop this literally kills me

Um once you get off that high of tenderness you get on another high of morgan karr singing. Him. he. GOD. hskduhglks like thhd;kghli i dkt this solo.. It’s so good listen to it NOW

After that you get the original staging thing of hanchen grabbing the mic which i don’t much care for but its ok

Another thing i really like about this performance is that the audience is sort of toned down? They’re not laughing as much as they do in earlier bootlegs. I mean they do laugh in the first part but after it’s just like they’re enjoying the scene (hopefully. But how can you not)

In conclusion: sdufghspiudfg GOD the crimes i would commit for a bootleg of morgan karr as moritz. God he would smash don’t do sadness

Watch this! Watch it! And then cry! Likdnfgdf.g.. No thoughts just morgan karr & jesse swenson

Also this boot has matt doyle as melchior and emma hunton as ilse and caitlin kinnuen as thea AND amanda castanos as martha it’s really good i could go on and on about emma hunton & amanda castanos but i won’t

Thanks for reading this if you did sorry

#spring awakening #gosh i sure hope these links work #morgan karr stan club unite #this is such a good boot too #thirty years from now

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recapitulation · 3 years

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anyway this didn't make the list earlier because 1) I'd already included a different section from mahler 2 and 2) it's more frighteningly beautiful/chilling than a "soul leaving my body" feeling BUT. if you're in the mood for something haunting but still angelic sounding pls listen to this passage from mahler 2 aka "resurrection symphony," I'm putting the horn part below <3

[id: an excerpt from the score of Mahler's 2nd symphony. There are four staves shown for six horn parts. The line features a descending pattern in all of them, marked pianissimo. /end id]

here's a youtube video with the score timed at this moment

mahler was a DUDE okay. there's some longer, sharper tones in the trumpet and some very soft string/percussion going on in the background at this moment but this six-part horn phrase is very much in the foreground, and it feels so Visceral to me in a way I can't describe. it sounds like the music is limping, or dry-heaving, or crying out, or... I don't know, but it feels so Much.

this is the very end of the movement, and based on the (limited) reading that I've done about this symphony, movement one is supposed to depict a funeral. and you can. really feel that. something about the fact that it's these six horns all working together as one voice here in such an exposed way to depict something so deeply chilling just really gets me going.

#anyway mahler. you get it. you really get it #lexi speaks #etemophobia tw #i would like to make a disclaimer that i really don't know shit im just Saying Things #music #this isn't a hard rule but maybe don't rb i'm really jsut Saying Things

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theuniversitychallengereview · 3 years

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UC 50.34 - Magdalene, Cam vs Strathclyde

Finally, we have reached the last match of the quarter-final stage. Which is not to say it isn’t excellent, and that I don’t love it, but it has to be said that it goes on for a long time. All good things must come to an end though, and with Magdalene vs Strathclyde tonight we will complete the marathon 10-week double elimination double qualification bracket that has seen some brilliant contests, including all four of Mags’ and Strathie’s previous appearances in this round.

Magdalene blasted away Birkbeck by a score of 240-140, and then were pipped to the post by Warwick in another high scoring bout. Strathclyde meanwhile have won and lost a pair of low-scoring, but enthralling matches. One might have Magdalene down as clear favourites because of this (and their average score is 45 points better than Strathie), but I wrote the Scots off last time and they pulled off an impressive win, so I’m not going to set my stall out quite so bullishly this time around.

Starr-Marshall fails to repeat what had become one of my favourite twists to the contestant intro of all time (admittedly, not a difficult bar to beat when I generally consider the geographical flourishes - eg ‘I’m from Sunny Sydney, Australia’ - some of them give as a tad annoying), by not referring to himself as the Sassenach, perhaps considering it too playful for such a serious occasion.

DEROGATORY•SCOTTISH

noun

an English person

Anyway, let’s not bother with the rules, here’s your first starter for ten...

Magdalene captain Lawson has been on excellent form since the restart, and continues this with the first starter of the night, a long-winded one to which JMW Turner is the answer. A hat-trick of bonuses on years with consecutive digits followed, as did another starter for Lawson, and a two more bonuses on weird fiction (though they miss out on China Mievelle, whose book The City and The City currently sits on my TBR pile).

Payne negs the next starter, but Whittle, wearing yet another fantastic jumper, narrowly misses out, giving Henry IV Pt II rather than Pt I. Byrne then took the next two to give Magdalane a commanding lead. Strathclyde would need to get in amongst the points soon if they were to have a chance - they’ve not scored more than 135 points since the first round, and Magdalene already have 90. This soon becomes 100, but the Cambridge quartet struggle with a set on space mountains.

The next starter is missed by Byrne, and Welsh is finally able to get Strathclyde some points. He is nominated by his captain on all of the mathsy bonuses, and manages two of them, before snaffling another starter. Perhaps they’re not out of this after all...

Paxman pronounces ‘isenthalpically’ in such a bizarre manner that it appears to confuse both teams - beyond the level of confusion that the question itself would induce - and neither of them get it. Payne chimes in with a second neg, which Whittle misses, but he makes up for it with the next starter. Their bonuswork isn’t really up to scratch though, and they fail to close the gap any further.

The music starter is Mahler, and Welsh is the first to recognise this, but still they struggle on the five pointers, and Davies stops their steady streak with the fastest buzz next time out. Another dodgy delivery from Paxman has the contestants narrowing their eyes, but Welsh figures out what he means and grabs his fourth starter of the evening. After the next set, which they blank, they’ve only answered 5 of the 15 bonuses, but two clutch buzzes from Welsh drag them back into contention and they find themselves only five points adrift!

The buzzer race on the second picture round is won by Whittle, but he is wrong with Caravaggio, and Lawson is right with Velasquez. We’re back out at twenty-five points difference. This becomes twenty with a Lawson neg, and then ten as Whittle exacts his revenge from the last question. Holy questions this is a great game - we’re back at fives!

An incredibly impressive buzz from Byrne on a complicated maths question seizes back the initiative for Magdalene, who rattle off a full set of bonuses (far easier, it seems, than some of the ones that Strathclyde have been getting). Another buzz from Byrne probably seals the game for Cambridge, and the gong tolls soon after. Phew, what a game.

Final Score: Magdalene, Cam 185 - 125 Strathclyde.

A fascinating game that, which can be broken down into three very odd thirds in terms of scoring.

Magdalene 100 - 0 Strathclyde

Magdalene 15 - 110 Strathclyde

Magdalene 70 - 15 Strathclyde

I thought Strathclyde might just pull off another shock there, but some excellent play from Mags at the death sealed it for them.

I’ll see you next week for the first semi-final, featuring two of Imperial, Balliol, Magdalene and Warwick.

If you’ve enjoyed this and want more Uni Challenge content then you can check out my Patreon, where I’m doing retro reviews of the 2015/16 series

#university challenge #bbc2 #magdalene #cambridge #strathclyde #Jeremy Paxman

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virtuemoired · 4 years

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i'm not sure if anyone has asked this already but can you do a top 5 best costumes for scott?

hi anon, i thought you’d never ask! today was a pretty rough day, so hopefully this cheers u up, anything 2 share my thoughts w the class! enjoy :’)

5. umbrellas small town boy: 9.2/10

starting off STRONG bc umbrellas!Scott was truly a sight to behold. in this picture, he is 20 years old, and all i have to say is that they don’t make ice dancers like that anymore. EVERYTHING about this look is *chef’s kiss*, from the collar right down to the carefully sewn chest pockets. scott moir woke up at the crack of DAWN to carefully roll up those sleeves to perfection, and made sure to tuck in his shirt precisely into his cottage boy pants to really sell the program. this is au naturale soft scott, only rivaled by mahler!Scott and latch!Scott WHICH WE WILL GET TO. in my humble opinion, 2008-2010 scott is peak scott, no matter what latch!Scott supremacists might have u believe. it is ONE thing to be a good ice dancer, but it is another to completely EMBODY the character of Guy Foucher and skate ur HEART out to the soundtrack “i will wait for you” over and over to tessa virtue. this costume never missed a beat, and i thank my lucky stars everyday for it.

4. latch: 9.5/10

latch!Scott is just one of those things where you can’t not include it, bc it is so ICONIC. if i’m speaking w 100% honesty, the real star of the show is his hair™️, but bc it is all about the full ~package~ we are gonna include his hair as being part of the costume. u know how v/m always say that they let their skating speak for itself? well i think that scott let his HAIR speak for itself bc when i was coming up w this list, my first thoughts were “latch scott” before i was like wait. what did latch!Scott even WEAR? for the life of me, i couldn’t remember. it was only until i googled that i realised he was wearing a blue costume (pictured). when scott said that his job was to get people to focus on tessa, he was lying bc his hair overshadowed his plans, and ended his own career. he thought he was smart wearing this unassuming blue shirt but we know ur game, moir. ur hair had more flow than dare i say tessa’s latch dress, and that’s the tea on that.

3. mahler: 9.7/10

u must be asking urself, what could possibly top latch? in which case, dear reader, u are in for a TREAT. you see, while latch!Scott had the best hair, mahler was the og soft scott. umbrellas was just the beginning, and i am so glad that mahler!Scott came through with this LEWK. i feel v strongly about the fact that we rarely ever got a chance to see scott in white with black pants, bc i personally love the pure, can-do-no-wrong vibe™️ going for him, right down to the cut at the back of his pants that NO ONE appreciates, but i do, scott moir. i do.

2. great gig turtleneck: 9.9/10

legend has it that if you look up the definition for perfection, great gig!Scott will show up in the results. if tessa’s green dress was revelatory, black turtleneck scott is quite possibly the GREATEST thing that has EVER happened to ice dance. this is the creation by the hands of FATE, bc if their suitcases hadn’t gotten lost we would’ve NEVER had the honour of appreciating this MASTERPIECE in all its 1080p glory. it was truly divine intervention and if u look at the men’s and ice dance field now, every single skater has tried at least ONCE to accomplish even HALF of what scott did here, but NONE of them have even come CLOSE. not even scott moir HIMSELF could replicate this iconic gem, and today we send our thoughts and prayers to this work of art sculpted by the skating gods to get them on the worlds podium. truth is, turtleneck!Scott is a mirage and quite frankly i ask myself everyday if it really did happen. he would fit in at a patisserie in paris, france and no one would bat an eye. i feel like this picture deserves to be hung in the LOUVRE, so everyone can appreciate this underrated chef-d'œuvre of a costume. look, he even got me speaking in a foreign language, the POWER. don’t even get me STARTED on the hair, bc this is i-just-woke-up-and-oh-my-god-i-have-a-competition-in-5-mins scott moir hair and i am HERE! FOR! IT! he said, screw it, let me show u the greatest serpentine lift and WATCH US get onto the podium w minimal practice and DOMINATE. the BDE of it all. one of the commentators said that they had the cheapest costumes in the entire competition, and while that MAY be true this was the beginning stages of carmen!Scott and for that we should all bow down to it.

1. long time running: 10/10

tessa virtue can claim the colour green, and scott moir could OWN the black long sleeved shirt any day of the week. this was turtleneck!Scott 2.0, and i’ll gladly take what i can get. carmen!Scott walked so this look could run, and i’m so glad their last skate at the olympics was when scott was looking his absolute FINEST™️. the simplicity of it all is just too beautiful for words, but i’ll try anyway.

this is the person u take home to meet ur parents, the kind of guy that ur grandma wants u to marry, and who all ur other boyfriends will be relentlessly compared to. take long time running!Scott and put him with tessa virtue wearing her stunning red dress, and ladies and gentlemen, you are seeing whatever greets u at the gates of ice dance HEAVEN. i fully believe that angels were sent down to bless us with this look, and scott’s hair here is really just the icing on top of cake.

scott often talks about “showing tessa off” and so everyone pays his costumes DUST, but when the commentators said “they made ice dance a little more classier”, this is EXACTLY what they meant. the whole i put this on as a sign of respect for the last skate of our careers on olympic ice energy really speaks to my SOUL, and as i previously said i am a SUCKER for a can-do-no-wrong vibe™️ so this ticks ALL my boxes. this is like the AU of moulin rouge, and it is the place i would put under the “mentally i am here” meme. i just think it’s so beautiful how, like turtleneck!Scott, we only got to see this finished look ONCE during the olympics, and then never again. but that’s okay, because this look watered my crops, fed my soul, and made me believe in true love again.

let me tell u, it was a journey to get to this look, a long time running if u must, but u know what? HE WAS WELL WORTH THE WAIT *mic drop*

#sympathy had the potential #but the cutouts did not match his skin tone #suspender!Scott gets an honourable mention #easily a 9 on any given day #ask

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septembriseur · 4 years

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You guys know that I’m back to working on Transposition. But it is, frankly, a challenge, and I feel a lot of pressure to put something out there and prove that the story will be finished. So I’m posting what is essentially some AU tidbits, because it’s a draft of part of Chapter 52 that I threw out and totally reconceptualized. It is not particularly good, but here it is!

Telford trades the tel’tak to a junk dealer in the P3S-805 system and ends up in a ratty little cobbled-together half-Kerobottri exoship that shakes when you try to engage its makeshift FTL drive, but, hey, it comes with no questions asked. And it’s not like he has any reason to be picky; he’s just trying to get a couple of gate-trips ahead of Kiva’s people before he finds a spaceport and settles down to get drunk.

The place he ends up in is a shithole clustered around the North Pole of a medium-sized planet in the Formalhaut Debris Ring, about twenty-two light years from Earth. It’s a frozen, sandy desert with a dozen tiny speckling moons above it, and not a single building more than three stories tall. It caters to frack miners running hot crews through the debris ring, which the LA’s First and Second House periodically squabble over, and the occasional Goa’uld war criminal hoping to lay low. That makes it a good place for Telford, even if the liquor is shitty. So he hauls out some of the raw data crystals that he stripped off the Sixth House tel’tak and pays enough to dock his ship, then keeps paying until the barkeeper at the watering hole hands over the bottle.

It’s whatever the latest thing is that the Lucian kids are cooking up out of kassa. It doesn’t really taste like anything; just like ethanol and antiseptic. He hunkers down in his ship and knocks the stuff back without a chaser. And again. And then again. For a while, grimly determined, that’s all he does: limiting his world to the fumes that he breathes out, and the back of his throat, where the mucous membrane is burning.

He doesn’t have a jacket anymore, but he’s got what the bounty hunter threw in with the exoship: a couple of Himalayan-looking blankets made out of knotted-up fibers, and a hooded coat lined with some kind of animal fur. So he puts the coat on, and, after a while, the hood too, then drags one of the blankets over his shoulders and breathes into his cupped hands. He can smell the coat’s earthy leather, and whatever it is that fur smells like. The air smells like naquadah and ozone. He looks out over the bulks of the ships, great beasts sleeping in the desert on every side of the outpost-city, some as tall as the buildings and twice as big. The dim light of the sun, filtered through dust clouds, glints off the shinier of their surfaces, along with the occasional scattered fleck of a moon. They’re like shrapnel wounds, that spray of moons— not quite regular enough to be strafe-marks, but deep enough that you can see the inside of whatever it is that was punctured.

He takes another abrupt swig of the liquor.

He thinks his first step should be to take stock of what he has left. The Hemingway is gone now, and the Dostoevsky. The— assorted personal knickknacks that he hadn’t needed anyway. He took enough shit off the tel’tak to last him a little while if he barters, but when he’d made his elaborate back-up plans, he always assumed he’d be leaving from Earth. So he hasn’t got a whole hell of a lot of assets out here in deep space. He can always sell intel, but that comes with the risk of someone back-tracing the information. Or he can take the sensible option and just turn mere. It’s what a lot of guys did on Earth, anyway, after they’d left the service, if they’d gotten deep in debt or just couldn’t fit in.

He’d tried to imagine it himself, when he was younger: leaving the service. Retiring. Consulting. Security. A house, a car, a wife, a couple of kids. On some level that language didn’t reach down to, the thought had always repelled him. He’d thought that if he tried it, he would end up like one of those guys you heard about who just went missing, just up and walked away from their lives one day. They turned up twenty years later running a tackle shop off the coast of Alaska, or flying prop planes in the South Pacific, or else they didn’t turned up, and stayed question marks forever, strangers who had sealed whatever secret they carried so well inside them that they had taken it, totally unknown, to their graves.

It was possible to do that. It wasn’t a failure. Maybe it even meant that you’d won. Whatever was inside you, you’d kept it: pure and unsullied, a hard bright crystal, a fuel you could burn. It was uncontaminated and yours forever.

He can feel it inside him now: a pain in the region of his chest, close to but not exactly contiguous with the heart.

He drinks and watches cosmic dust catch the amber glow of the distant sunlight.

A cold wind shifts and rattles the sand.

***

An ice storm in the morning, with no rain: only hailstones rattling like pebbles against the walls of the exoship. He wakes from a restless sleep still wrapped in fur and heavy blankets. He feels like God has picked up the box he’s hiding in and shaken it right next to His ear to hear if anything left inside still scuttles. He thinks about Rush explaining Wittgenstein’s beetle. There is something alive in us, though it may be a very singular creature. It may not be what other people thought— hoped— it was.

Still. Something scuttles. Insect legs against the siding.

He erases his travel history in the ship’s computer and swallows down another couple fingers of kassa liquor for breakfast, tunelessly humming Mahler under his breath, then throws it up an hour later courtesy of his hangover.

When he stands, he sees starbursts against the array of evening. It’s not really evening, of course; there’s not really night or day, this close to the magnetic pole of a planet, unless you count the constant half-dim polar twilight. One long night lasting half a year, deranging the little rock’s temporalities like every other kind of measurement was deranged by the location. Get too close to the axis of something, and you lose all sense of how to chart it.

He’s familiar with the problem.

***

Ships come and go like fireflies in a summer time-lapse, their engines burning off into the dusk.

It’s fall on Earth, he guesses. So: no more fireflies, which: fuck ‘em, anyway. They only last a few months before they’re done. Like humans, when seen from an Ascended perspective. Little chips of mica; little specks of dust. You could lose a fistful and not notice, so why should they matter?

He thinks of Rush sinking his hands in the floor up to the wrists, as though he could reach down and reclaim the mineral flecks trapped there for eons. As though the whole universe were just water, none of it yet set in stone around him.

It should’ve been me, Telford thinks. It should’ve been me who—

But he hadn’t had the genes.

Always something missing.

***

He doesn’t speak English out here. He speaks the degraded Babylonian of Sixth House. Or at least that’s what Jackson had always said it was— the bastard child of Akkadian and Aramaic, mixed with the Hebrew dialects of the Asar planets, sort of like what might have happened if the Babylonian Empire still existed. He’d had to learn it from scratch when he went undercover the first time, in case the translation matrix ever encountered a glitch. It was hard work, but he was good at it, at least according to Jackson. Jackson had seemed faintly surprised; Telford had said, “You thought I’d be as dumb as a brick.” “No,” Jackson had said, but his eyes had slid guiltily away. Telford had smirked, grimly pleased by the implied admission. Jackson had said, too hurriedly, “I didn’t. II wasn’t surprised because— I mean, I wasn’t alluding to— obviously that’s not what I meant.”

What he’d meant didn’t interest Telford. At forty-two years old, he’d had every version of that conversation, the one that was all ellipses. The last thing he wanted was to rehash them again with fucking Jackson. So, instead, he’d said, “Aramaic in space. Doesn’t it ever make you wonder?”

Jackson had looked uncomfortable. He’d adjusted his glasses with both hands. “Wonder what?”

“Oh, don’t play coy with me. If Jesus was— you know.”

“Extraterrestrial, you mean? A Goa’uld? The idea’s been floated.”

“And?”

They’d been sitting in an empty conference room, waiting for some meeting to start; it had been late, Telford thinks now, or very early; there had been this hush, like sound was suppressed. Sometimes late at night there, he’d feel like he was under the ocean: the pressure deforming his eardrums, till all he could hear was the rush of his own blood. Jackson had toyed with a pencil, balancing it on the side of one finger. Unbidden, Telford had been reminded of the Egyptian scale of justice, where your heart was weighed against a feather after you were dead. The image had seemed apt; Daniel, he’d thought, what a fan-fucking-tastic Eternal Judge you’d make, sitting there with your schoolboy pout and your moralizing.

Without looking up, Jackson had said, “Oh, I don’t know. Not really the Goa’uld modus operandi, is it?”

“No? Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s; forget about getting what you deserve, and God’s going to magically provide you with loaves and fishes?”

“That seems like a very thin interpretation of the Gospels.”

Telford had half-laughed incredulously. “You’re going to come over all Christian on me, Jackson?”

Jackson flattened his pout out into a thin line. “I hardly think it has to be Christian to suggest that the impulse behind one of Earth’s major religions, and a full interpretation of its sacred texts, is about more than just the redistribution of resources.”

“So— what, then?” Telford moved restlessly in his chair.

“Divine justice,” Jackson said. He had the air of someone offering a challenge. “The idea that there’s something beyond us, some truth, some ultimate harmony or knowledge. Something that we’re a part of, if we want to be— if we want to be good.”

Telford had felt incredulous. “Knowledge,” he’d repeated. “Ultimate knowledge.”

“You don’t think that’s what God is? Knowledge?” Jackson seemed genuinely curious. His forehead was furrowed.

“Well,” Telford said, “for starters, I don’t think God is good.”

“I can’t tell you how amazed I am to hear it.” Jackson’s mouth gained a sad quirk. He looked down, at where the pencil was perfectly balanced on his finger. “So: not harmonious, but maybe— maybe still knowledge.”

Telford had shaken his head— slowly at first, and then faster, like a round of sardonic applause building. “Don’t get me wrong, Jackson— I know you’ve been a floating space octopus of pure light and shit, and gotten the sublime wisdom of the Ancients, but to paraphrase a much wiser man than myself: kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other, and I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe that all I need is more information, like a giant celestial textbook is going to make it all make sense.”

“That wasn’t what I meant,” Jackson said.

But he looked hurt; stung, somehow. His face had closed off. He curled his fist around the pencil. Telford had felt a brief surge of triumph; he liked defeating Jackson. At the same time, he had recognized Jackson’s expression. Back then, he hadn’t known why or what it meant. Now, he remembers it and senses some vague association with the dreams in which he tries to find the Chinese room. He wants to trust that there’s a place in which the answers will all be provided. He wants a dictionary that will teach him how to be a man. Unlike Jackson, though, he doesn’t think that one exists. There are no universals. There is no truth that we are trying to uncover in the only way that Jackson would’ve understood— the way an archeologist sifts through layers of dirt, patiently looking for the pieces that were once part of a coin, a corpse, a kettle, before the annihilating storm of history blew through. There’s a churning mass that has never had a meaning. It isn’t moving towards or away from something. It just is what it is.

When he was undercover, speaking Babylonian had helped; he’d felt like a different person. He’d felt like he was moving through a different world, one that wasn’t organized according to the same kind of principles he’d grown up with. There was no right or wrong to it; just a different set of facts. He took to it like a fish to water, once he’d mastered the language. The sense of alienation was familiar to him. When he went back to Earth between assignments, that was the strange part— standing in his own house, his own kitchen.

And now he never has to go back there. Never has to speak English again, if he doesn’t want to. He can move through different languages, different truths, like putting uniforms on and taking them off when you’re finished.

“Shkarum,” he says to the bartender, tapping the bar with two emphatic fingers. “Ak shkarum yahab, vakash.”

His accent is very good.

***

#the stargate pit #transpo #my fic

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