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pebblysand · 2 years

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[DECEMBER ‘21] - THE LIFE/WRITING UPDATE NO ONE ASKED FOR (AND SOME QUICK LINKS)

happy december! i hope you’re all doing well, i certainly am glad the shittiest month of the year is over. i had a rather bizarre november where i spent the first half writing for nanowrimo and the second half being sick (covid? bronchitis? i’m not sure but i was coughing my lungs out) so now that i’m feeling better, i’m glad to be moving into the holiday season! whichever holiday you celebrate, i hope it’s a great one and hopefully, 2022 treats us kindly.

Anyway, before diving into more life/writing updates, here are some quick links to different blog pages you might not see on mobile :

to read my fics

to read my original work

fic recs [updated]

to read my tumblr rants about stuff

[NOTE: i am currently not accepting prompts but maybe soon-ish?]

Castles (chap 10) ETA: december? january? february? who knows? (more on that below)

links extended a/n-s: chapter v ; chapter vi & vii ; chapter viii ; chapter ix ; chapter x

[more life/writing updates under the cut]

what i’m reading:

books:

in typical pebblysand fashion, i went from finishing two books in a week last october to reading none at all this month. i started enfant de salaud, sorj chalandon’s latest release, but am only about 50 pages in. i’m not sure if i’ve ever spoken about this on here but whilst i am originally french, i very rarely ever read fiction in french (nor write it, for that matter) and probably haven’t done so for at least fifteen years. that is, of course, save for my love, sorj. he is without a doubt my favourite contemporary french author, the only one for whom i still read in my mother tongue.

this being said, while i am a hardcore stan of his work, his books are deep and heavy. like, castles is nothing compared to what this man writes. so, i will admit, you sort of have to be in the mood to read his work. he’s a former war reporter who covered most contemporary conflicts including the troubles, palestine, but the klaus barbie trials, etc. and, the way he writes fiction is very reflective of that (his books are actually often half fiction and half not). his style is quick and crisp (almost journalistic), and i would argue that, as i put it in castles for harry, the man has a battlefield in his head. most of his books are either centered around literal or metaphorical fights for survival. and, whilst i do feel a strong kinship and have a deep admiration for his work as someone who, perhaps to a lesser extent, also writes quite a lot about fighting and determination, i find that i have to be in a certain headspace to read his work. his are the kind of books that you read in one sitting and never feel the same afterwards (god, certainly, the first one i read, return to killysbegs fucking lives in my head, still, ten years later). so, i’m kind of holding back on this new one until i have proper time to dive and digest it over the christmas holidays.

fics:

i’m still reading: knowing where to look by ala_baguette and still loving it.

i also read don’t you tame your demons (but always keep them on a leash) by ellasticella. i don’t know man. it’s a concept. au slytherin!hermione. i feel like this fic could have gone into a place and then it went into another place. i’m still not sure how i feel about it but it’s very well written.

i completely gave up on love in a time of a zombie apocalypse but oh my sweet holy jesus mary mother of god, THIS FIC: the squid by nargles15. now, as a preamble i will warn you: whilst nargles has assured me that they are working on this fic, it’s sort of their side project so it’s not finished and gets updated… whenever they feel like it. which, fair enough. it doesn’t matter, i will wait two years if i have to, because i am obsessed. I literally sometimes go and check the number of kudos on it because i want more people to read it. i found nargles because they left a very kind comment on castles and because i am a stalker (lol). i have single handedly decided that we are now best friends haha (they agreed though!!). no, jokes aside, i saw this fic on their profile and thought the pitch was interesting, so i added it to my tbr and here we are. think: canon-compliant up until the end of DH (minus the epilogue), but then the muggle prime minister decides, as payback for all the violence against muggles committed by voldemort, to launch a war against wizards. and… well, shit ensues. now, first, that is a brilliant plot. i find this version of an apocalyptic/dystopian hp world so believable and easy to fall into. i could totally see muggles launching a decimating, ruinous war in the early 00s, can’t you? second, i love the way the writer here keeps so much mystery as to what happened and how things unfolded. the point at which the fic starts isn’t the start of this war, but months (years?) into it. that gives a sense of normalcy to the abnormal that i’ve always been fascinated with and which, i find, is not very often acknowledged in the genre. a bit like when the trio is hiding out in the forest in dh, there is a routine to being hunted, there is a routine to war, and nargles does that beautifully. and, because you don’t get all the details of what happened, you’re sort of reading through the fic thinking: ohhhhh, but what happened before this? for reasons that i have explained before, mystery is something i can’t really play with in castles (we all know how it ends since i always said i was following canon) so while reading this fic, it’s like i’m getting to do that by proxy. in terms of ship, i would say it’s mostly canon couples. harry and ginny are an established item, so are ron and hermione. there’s some dean/seamus but that’s basically canon, yeah? then of course, the writing is gorgeous. i mean like, hands down, one of the best written fics out there. some of the quotes still live in my head. i wrote a very embarrassingly excited comment when i finished reading, listing all the quotes i had loved, and found myself almost quoting the whole thing. it’s funny because i generally find it hard to find fics i love in the potter fandom. that’s not a diss to anyone out there writing or anything, but it’s just that i have a very particular style, and i like things written in a particular style, and most of the stuff i see is written in another style. i’ve had a number of people look through my recs/ao3 bookmarks being like: ‘it’s funny, you never recommend the same stuff as other people do.’ and this fic 100% fits within that category. i find the writing absolutely gorgeous, but it’s not the type of thing you’ll mostly see in the fandom and i’m soooo happy i found it cause i absolutely adore it. okay, i’ve just realised i’ve written an essay about this fic and could probably write a lot more but i will stop here in the hopes that i have sufficiently sold it to you. go send nargles some love please.

what i’m watching:

i tried succession. man, i’m sorry, i know the whole of tumblr is obsessed but i just cannot get into it. i have just so little sympathy for the patriarch character that i just want him to die and the long agony is wearing me out. i do like siobhan though. i mostly still watch for siobhan.

i obviously watched the new series of tiger king which was amazingly tiger-king-esque, and maybe she did kill her husband and maybe not and i don’t really care because this is prime entertainment. a few days ago, i also had what i refer to as my ‘night of outrage’ where i watched dark waters and spotlight back to back. both are excellent films which i would recommend. this being said, i then went to bed late, quite rightfully outraged.

i lastly watched the 9/11 turning point documentary on netflix which is good. and that is all i will say because it’s not like i’m currently writing a story that happens in the 00s and that would require context on the period in the muggle world. not at all. that is absolutely not where that story would hypothetically be going. at all. (yeah, i’m a fucking tease, soz).

what i’m hearing:

divorce, babe. divorce. enough said. i’ve been listening to the queen’s 30 on loop since it came out. man, strangers in nature and my little love. i am still speechless.

in terms of podcasts, i’ve recently discovered the irish time’s women’s podcast and it’s surprisingly good. they did a stan episode on sally rooney (but, don’t we all stan sally), also talking about the boom in popularity of irish female writers in general which was very interesting.

what i’m writing:

okay so. i said last month i would do nanowrimo and write 50k of castles which i both did and didn’t do, let me explain.

basically, i started strong until i hit a wall around 21k. my main issue was that i was so focused on the wordcount itself and getting through the plot that i sort of lost the ‘feels’ of my characters along the way. it was around the 15th of november and i decided to pivot because i cared more about writing this well than about just vomiting words on paper. so i went back and started editing what i had and ended up with 23k. then, when i was finally in the groove of writing, i got sick. i don’t know whether it was covid or not (i tested negative but did the test after my symptoms had abated so i not have been carrying enough virus to test positive) but the point is, i started coughing my lungs out on the 20th of november and have been struggling to focus until now. today (1 dec) was honestly the first day that i felt almost normal again, so it is what it is. i am hoping to be able to write later this week/this weekend but we shall see.

i would say that my updated goal is to get the next ‘chunk’ of castles written by end of december, to be posted by end of january. and by ‘chunk’ i mean probably two chapters? like, to me, there is a ‘chunk’ that happens between now and when harry and ginny get back together and i estimate that chunk will be between 25-30k words. of those i have 23k rough draft and about 13k actually edited. the way i currently see it, it’ll be two long chapters of circ. 15k each which i will probably post, if not back to back, as least in very quick succession, sometime early next year. i’m splitting them more for theme coherence and readability but i’m writing them both as a unit. so @blinkngone i guess there’s your answer to the question you asked on this post earlier today. basically h&g don’t get back together in next chapter but it’ll feel like next chapter cause i’ll post 10 and 11 at the same time-ish.

as i already said, i’m really enjoying this chapter so far, though. as a lawyer, writing the trials and the intricacies of the post-war wizarding justice system is fascinating. i think this chapter (and the next) will also be a big reflection on what justice is as a concept and it’s something i’m having a lot of fun exploring.

what i’m doing:

i have very much enjoyed hanging out in floreatcastellum’s canon discord serve lately. i’d joined a while back but never really participated, then i got sick and was on my phone all the time and the lads on there have been a lovely blessing.

aside from that, i wrote this post this month, and this one, which should give you kind of an idea of where my life is at. i’ve been seeing someone who we will refer to as The Boy and i don’t know how i feel about it. it’s funny cause i’m 28 and i’m starting to feel… settled? i get up and i work from home and then a couple of nights a week i have pints with people. that’s it. ngl, the most exciting thing in my life right now is a piece of fanfiction and i keep feeling guilty about it because i feel like if i’m making writing a priority, i at least ought for it to be original writing. in the past when i’ve felt like this i’ve moved countries but we’re in the middle of a pandemic and also i don’t want to leave ireland, so i dunno. my job’s a bit of a deadend but i can’t bring myself to care cause it pays well (i actually told a friend, the other day: ‘covid has killed my ambition’) so i dunno. i’m not unhappy but i need a plan or something. i’m not the kind of person who likes feeling ‘settled.’

lots of love,

pebblysand.

#december 21 #life update

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goodproofingwater · 5 years

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A Phone Call - Tinder Tommy

Word count: 1422

Warnings: nsfw content

Tinder Tommy, a collaboration between @peakynsfw & @acciostilinski

Tag list (send a message to be added): @a-dorky-book-keeper @ishoutmarcoandyoushout @idesiretomhardy@theamuz @blinderscaps @peakynsfw @peakywriting @justanothershelby @contemporary-mary @auroravipers @moonyscardigans

“Are you up?” the message of a match at this time only ever means one thing, the familiarity of the words causing you to roll your eyes but open it anyway. Tommy. All it takes it the “...” to signify your typing and then your phone is ringing, foolish enough to have given him your number when he said you were the only thing keeping him on the app.

“Alright, love?” the northern accent makes your eyes squeeze closed, the sleepy thoughts from before replaced by something else. “Missed you today.”

“We messaged all day, Tommy.”

“Not the same as hearing your voice though, is it? The way you tell me off,” you can taste his smirk against your lips, the sheets of his bed loose around his waist as he places one hand over the tattoo you’ve only seen in pictures.

“Have you been bad then, Tommy?”

“Not yet, but as they say the night is young. Was wondering if I could tempt you with a nightcap?”

“I’m in bed!”

“Didn’t say we had to go out, did I? You keep turning me down so I wisely thought that we could have a phone date. We both sit here wearing whatever we want - in my head you just happen to be naked - drinking whatever takes our fancy and talk about all the things we couldn’t say face to face.”

“And then?”

“And then you’ll fall asleep on the line and I’ll hear you say my name when you’re dreaming about me. Simple really.”

“Yeah, simple,” you repeat sarcastically, his grin clearly spreading when you do.

“Good so I’m going to pour myself a whiskey, what are you having?”

“I don’t think it’s fair if you’re trying to get me drunk without being here to take advantage, Tommy.”

“Hm, I did think that. Thought maybe you’d be kind enough to send me a photo or two.”

“I’m going to have wine,” you say, keeping him on the edge by changing the topic back to the previous question.

“Red or white?”

“Red. It’s one of my favourite vintages.”

“See I was wondering what underwear you had on,” you hear the clink of ice, assuming he’s taking a sip of his drink. “Do I get an answer to that?”

“None.”

“Now that’s my sort of girl.”

“Why is that Tommy? So you can have me wherever you want me, whenever?”

“Talking like that and you won’t even be leaving the house for our date.”

“It’s what you called me for, isn’t it? My pretty words and your hand wrapped around your cock. Why deprive ourselves of what we both want to hear?”

“Got a smart mouth on you,” he comments and you can taste the way his tongue flicks over his lips encouragingly.

“A smart mouth that you want to replace your hand with though, Tommy. My lips are surely a lot warmer than your fingers are especially since you’ve undoubtedly been nursing your glass thinking about whether or not you should call.”

“You give yourself too much credit.”

“So you haven’t been hovering your thumb above the call button? This conversation playing out in your mind until you found yourself in a situation that... required help shall we say?”

“Could have easily found someone else to take care of it.”

“You could have, but the thing is Tommy, you like that you can’t have me. You like knowing that I’m taking my time to talk you towards your end because I’m savouring each note of this wine and that to me your pleasure isn’t all that important.”

“Yeah, you think?”

“I know. Egotistical and entitled, I’m your match.”

“Those lips of yours - bet they’re stained red right now.”

“Not as flushed as the head of your cock though. Is it leaking yet, Tommy? Precum under your palm as you try not to let your hands move too fast,” he groans and the sound is delectable - something beautiful in knowing that you have some kind of impact on one of the city’s most powerful men. “Bet you’re imagining how good it would feel to drag yourself along the hollows of my cheeks, my saliva mixing with you until I’m practically drooling.”

“Wouldn’t be allowed with my hands in your hair.”

“Who said I wouldn’t have them tied up? Bound on your stomach so that all you can do is tighten the rope with every attempt to touch me.”

“You think you can take control from me, aye?”

“I think you’re so desperate for me right now that you’d give it to me happily, Tommy. I wouldn’t even need to take it.”

Each syllable of your name is drawn out when he moans, his voice just as tormenting as the filth you’ve been speaking and the sound of his hand moving beneath him is so vulgar that you can feel your dominance fading.

Words are no longer any match for the sounds of his pleasure, the desperation that has been building ever since his name filled your phone screen spilling over when your hands journey towards the place you wish he would be and all it takes is you choking on his name to have Tommy Shelby falling apart.

“Have you got something there helping you?” Lust infused his voice as he questioned you, the idea of more than your fingers replacing his mouth or his shaft both an aggravating and arousing idea for a man who usually had so much control.

“Mm wouldn’t you like to know..” you played, letting out a particularly loud moan as you pressed the vibrator against your clit, waiting for the right moment to slip it inside of you.

“Want me to send you something that will really get you going?” You would never let him know that what’s really getting you going is the sound of his voice, the way his accent wraps around the syllables of your name as his hand moves against what you know is a sizeable shaft even though he has only ever sent you images of it hard under his suit trousers.

“Unless that something is your tongue then no, I know what I like—oh..” you moaned as you slipped the silicon within you, the vibrations already making your toes curl as it pressed against your spot.

The groan from the other end of the phone made you ever wetter, and you wanted so badly to be sitting on his face.

“You could have my tongue if you agreed to let me take you to dinner. Would lick your pussy right in the middle of the restaurant, force you to keep a straight face while the sommelier asks you to taste the wine.”

“Thomas Shelby, you’re a bad man..” you half whisper, half moan, the vibrator having nothing on the way he chuckles, the deep tone running through you and telling you just what he could do to you if he had the chance.

“Oh darling, you have no idea…” his subsequent chuckle makes you clench around the vibrator, the silicon sending you over the edge in ways you desperately wish he would, and you spare no expense in moaning his name as he groans for you, listening eagerly and wishing it really was his mouth between your legs.

When you come down you realise your slip in dominance, and you wonder if he’s going to think less of you now that he knows what you sound like gasping his name as you struggled for air.

“Going to have to shower.” Are the words he speaks first, his tone exhausted yet playful and you can almost see him with his cock in his hand, looking down at the mess you had made for him on his stomach.

“Try not to think about me too much in there or there’ll be no point…”

He chuckles again and you wonder if there will ever be a time where that doesn’t drive you crazy, the thought of his lips laughing against your neck as he lets you come down from your high the only thought in your mind until he speaks again.

“Could always jump in with me?” His tongue darts across his lips as he speaks, and he can almost feel your hesitation before you retain the balance you had so successfully coined with him.

“No, I’m bored of you now and it’s late. Enjoy the rest of your whiskey, Mr Shelby.”

You don’t stick around to hear the effect of the formal name, pressing the end call button with a proud smile on your face.

#tommy shelby #tommy shelby imagines #tommy shelby imagine #peaky blinders imagine #peaky blinders imagines #tinder tommy

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stonedlennon · 7 years

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y'know sometimes i think people in the 60s have actually..unconsciously shipped mclennon? or at least noticed something happening there. i was watching the shakespeare skit and when john said "my love my love" there were A LOT of girls shrieking. plus the Beatles cartoons where there's a lot of mclennon, and that one magazine article about why Paul is a favorite beatle and someone said "His looks at John". idk pretty interesting to think about

honestly? i agree. mclennon has been A Thing for the fans definitely since the 60s. unfortunately there’s little on the specific relationship between john/paul from a fan’s perspective, not only because we’ve got few sources, but also because the development of beatlemania was characterized as an adolescent phase, one that had implications of sexual maturity but was largely concentrated on romantic feelings (”i want to hold your hand” is implicitly romantic but mainly innocent), so in the “craze” of beatlemania its likely that any discussion around inter-beatles relationships would have been considered a by-product of female adulation, i.e. anything untoward can be “explained away” by beatlemania. there’s obviously been so much done on beatlemania (might i suggest this book though for some interesting breakdowns; and this book for queer coding in contemporary [60s] music). it’s hard if not impossibly to classify the fans in the 60s as a “fandom” although it’s undeniable that there were elements of beatlemania that are reflected in the way we conduct a fandom today. i’ll also just briefly say that i’m not totally sold with the word “ship” as it implies fiction - and john and paul were together - however within the context of fandom i suppose it’s appropriate.

with regards to the examples you cited.. yeah, it’s really interesting to think that the fans - even if they didn’t necessarily articulate it as such - might have considered a “something” between john and paul. it’s unfortunate because a great deal of beatles books have been written by the old guard of white, largely heterosexual men, so “the beatles myth” has been shaped by their interpretation. i’d be interested to know if there’s been work done by gender or queer academics or writers. i’d say that the shakespeare skit can probably be written off as excitement: the crowd bawls whenever they do anything. you have to remember that the way bands, especially boy bands, are constructed is that it’s all around promise. your favourite beatle singing about love is great, but if they sing it together, to each other? there’s the meaning of the song (it’s to you, the fan, the object of desire and affection) in addition to the act of singing (not one beatle, but two!). i would actually suggest that if you wanted to consider queer readings of the beatles in contemporary culture, i’d look at the french fans. the vast majority were male, and a good number were cited as being queer. it’s tempting to only look at fandom from a female perspective, but when you have male gay fans listening to and interpreting the beatles’ music in a way that resonates with them (man/man, not man/woman), you can ask the question, well, are they attracted to the idea of a beatle singing to them, a man, or are they attracted to the beatles as a homogeneous male group, singing to each other, and by proxy to the audience? i suggest having a look at this excerpt for a further analysis of the gay male fans in paris, 64. there’s a fair bit of evidence that underlines the beatles’ ambivalence towards their gay fan base. note that in a hard day’s night, there are boys as well as girls in the crowd running after them. the subliminal message here is that the beatles are for everyone; another message is that the crowd, which was characterized by the media as one with romantic intentions towards the band, exists in a state of adolescent desire, be it male or female. and all of this, of course, isn’t even going into their fan base in liverpool, where there were rumors about john and paul being together right from the beginning.

a lot of john and paul’s lyrics are ambiguous. their use of pronouns are especially ambiguous. take the “my friend” in can’t buy me love, “darling” in words of love, or even i want to hold your hand, which only says “let me be your man” - a promise of fidelity, but one that is gender nonspecific. THERE ARE SO MANY EXAMPLES. a cynic might say it’s to allow for greater audience reception, although i would suggest that in addition to musical fluidity, it’s also a way for john and paul to express themselves in a manner that is 1. professionally lucrative; and 2. nonthreatening. i’ve spoken before about the gender ambiguity of the early beatles songs, but i can make a bigger post about it if you like. on a general note, i would say that the early beatles career is harder to read than what happened later (apple scruffs) because of the reasons i cited earlier, however it’s obvious that there are undercurrents of gender and sexual ambiguity within the relationship between the beatles and their fans. as for whether the fans consciously thought there was something going on.. we don’t know. i would hesitate to say yes, completely, although i do think that on a subconscious level it’s highly probable. basically, i do agree with you. i think though that the framework of what constitutes a “fandom” and what is/not acceptable (then and now) is a complex one.

#mclennon #the beatles #john lennon #paul mccartney #*#answered #Anonymous

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dancewithmeplano · 6 years

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Dance to the Music of Time

There’s been a lot going on. Leaving the Bad Plus is the largest shift, but various other kind of career and conceptual themes also have been undergoing transformation. I also just turned 45, ” which could be believed midpoint of this journey.

It really all does seem curved. Themes re-occur. The last month nearly felt like a trip of yesteryear.

—

Sarah and I visited Daniel Pinkwater. There is a meme inquiring, “What four pictures are you?” I really don’t have four pictures, but I really do have the collected works of Daniel Pinkwater. Alan Mendelsohn, Boy From Mars; The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death; Lizard Music — these 3 novels “are me”

Sarah stated, let’s give Pinkwater a monster. That monster charge me a small fortune in Tokyo, but she had been right. It had been the great present, a perfect trade.

On the drive we listened to Pinkwater music books in the car. Amazing! I only learned that Mr. Pinkwater himself reads his own books and you can purchase them on iTunes. They are now an essential part of my travel catalog.

—

Rufus Reid turned in the Pat Zimmerli Clockworks concert at Merkin Hall. Rufus is a consecrated jazz bassist, but for me he had been also an important teacher. One afternoon at Banff in 1990, students and faculty were sitting around the coffee shop and Miles Davis’s “Bye Bye Blackbird” came on as background music. Rufus Reid staged together with Coltrane’s solo note for note. I had been impressed and impressed. To understand to perform, was I really going to have to sing Coltrane solos also? That seemed hard — too difficult! It took me decades and some further strict instruction from Lee Konitz, however, in the long run I decided that Reid was perfect. I can not sing any Coltrane yet, but I can sing a lot of Lester Young and Charlie Parker.

Photo by Vinnie Sperrazza

Seeing Reid brought back that memory and from this time next year I guarantee to have the ability to sing Coltrane’s “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “All of You” from ‘Round About Midnight.

—

I added ” You” to the heap because Billy Hart told me:

The first time I fell in love with John Coltrane was that his solo on ” You” from Miles’ ‘Round Midnight. I have talked to Gary Bartz about this, and he felt exactly the same way–which this solo made us Coltrane fans, forever.

Billy Hart is my most important teacher and we have worked together for over twenty decades. However, I hadn’t ever played with Buster Williams and Billy Hart collectively, despite Buster and Billy being universally considered one of the wonderful bass/drum mixes.

It finally occurred on Tuesday, quartet together with Billy Harper. Everybody agreed that it was incredible to listen to the beat played with that bassist with that drummer.

Billy Hart, Lenny White, Buster Williams

Lenny White was there. He plays with Buster all the time — they have become a traditional contemporary rhythm section — but I think he wished to find a flavor of that other thing Mchezaji has with Jabali. In the dressing room I had been as silent as possible while I listened to them tell stories.

Billy Hart talked about studying Afro Cuban songs from Lenny White! They were playing with Pharoah Sanders. Neither was playing with drum group, they were on cowbells and claves. Afterwards Billy whined to Lenny about how Lenny appeared so much better and Lenny said that he was actually checking out authentic Afro Cuban songs. This anecdote describes in a flash Lenny White was able to walk into and power a lot of the best fusion recordings: The deep background for its “new” method of dealing with the eighth circa 1970 was African American procedures from tens of thousands of years back. Of course.

—

Patrick Zimmerli’s Clockworks together with Chris Tordini, John Hollenbeck, and me personally is out, and so is — finally — Shores Against Silence, the recording with Kevin Hays, Larry Grenadier, and Tom Rainey from 1991. I had been at that recording session, and discovered “The Paw” for the very first time in the studio. Pat provides me a particular mention in the liner notes to Shores Against Silence, which I think is only fair, as I’ve been telling people that this is an amazing album since…well I figure since 1991.

Vinnie Sperrazza is getting to be a major new collaborator. At the Clockworks position that he appeared in the score and stated, “I can hear Pat had been an effect on you” Without a doubt — Pat will always be a monument in my own entire life, which is elaborated further in our interview.

Vinnie took the photograph of me and Rufus Reid collectively afterwards telling me of a period he played with James Williams and Rufus Reid in Knickerbocker’s. Yeah, Vinnie’s my type of cat, with a swinging cymbal beat that undulates inside the music. We’re working collectively in Pepperland, the extravagant revue created by Mark Morris for the Mark Morris Dance Group.

—

It is just wonderful to be back together with Mark Morris back again. For five years that I had been his musical manager. I watched the dance shows every night, then following the series went to Mark’s hotel room and listened to Handel and Partch. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson would attend rehearsal; I played with Schumann with Yo-Yo Ma. It had been around me to attract conductors in line about tempi and singers around diction.

Pepperland is the Beatles as viewed though the prism of classical music and it really works. It’s been really amazing to expose Vinnie and other buddies Jacob Garchik, Sam Newsome, and Rob Schwimmer to the magic of Morris. In addition, it is just incredible to leave the Bad Plus and also be instantly involved in another hit project.

—

Concerto to Scale reflects Morris, Zimmerli, Jabali, and everything else that I love. It surely reflects Pinkwater. Program notes:

My very first piece for orchestra is blatantly modest in measurement, or “to scale” While composing, I re-read a number of my favourite books from when I was a young adult and tried to catch that kind of joyful emotion. The work is devoted to John Bloomfield.

Allegro. Sonata form in C major with tons of scales. My left hand and the bass drum soloist are the rhythm section offering syncopations in conversation with the orchestra’s standard chain material.

Andante. A 19th-centutry nocturne air meets modern polyrhythms. That is a stunning elaboration of a piece originally written for Mark Turner called “We Come In the Future.”

Rondo. The rate mark is, “Misfit Rag.” Ragtime is how American composers traditionally insert a touch of jazz on the concert stage, and who am I to disagree? The orchestra gets a chance to improvise along with the pianist and percussionist enjoy a double cadenza.

I didn’t really have to re-read Pinkwater for the Concerto — I have these publications memorized — but that I did examine The Toothpaste Millionaire from Jean Merrill (1972) and Alvin’s Secret Code by Clifford B. Hicks (1963). These two are undisputed classics and remain in print. Interestingly, both will also be on race relations, a simple fact I had completely forgotten. They are white writers referring to the midwest in the 1960s, therefore perhaps not every authorial decision will beyond muster now, but they had been in there, trying to swing. They had been about my two favourite novels when I was ten or eleven. I had good taste!

The review by Seth Colter Walls was satisfying (Amanda Ameer said I look just like Schroeder in the picture, which is ideal) and I have been astonished just how much I enjoy listening to the cassette.

(if you would like to listen to the rough mix of this premiere or examine the score, sign up for Floyd Camembert Reports.)

Between Pepperland and the Concerto, it’s beginning to feel as though my future will involve extended composition.

—

Composition might be part of this future, but additionally, I will always be a jazz pianist who enjoys to play with clubs. Starting tomorrow I am on an extensive UK tour together with Martin Speake.

20/4 Sheffield Jazz Crookes Social Club http://www.sheffieldjazz.org.uk/ 21/4 Brighton Verdict https://verdictjazz.co.uk/ 22/4 Colchester Arts Centre https://www.colchesterartscentre.com/ 23 Cheltenham Jazz http://www.cheltenhamjazz.co.uk/ 24/4 London Pizza Express https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/venues/soho-jazz-club 25/4London Pizza Express https://www.pizzaexpresslive.com/venues/soho-jazz-club 26/4 St George’s Bristol https://www.stgeorgesbristol.co.uk/ 27/4 Reading Progress Theatre http://www.jazzinreading.com/ 29/4 Cinnamon Club Manchester http://www.thecinnamonclub.net/ 1/5 Hastings http://jazzhastings.co.uk/ 3/5 Cambridge https://www.cambridgejazz.org/index.php?name=home 4/5 Poole Lighthouse https://www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/

Go to Martin’s FB site to get more.

Martin and I go back to Banff in 1990. It was a hell of a lineup there: Faculty included Rufus Reid, Marvin Smitty Smith, Stanley Cowell, Kevin Eubanks, Kenny Wheeler. Abraham Adzenyah taught dance from Ghana — I suppose the very first time I danced with a woman was in that course. (Currently this post is becoming overly personal.) Steve Coleman was the artistic manager.

The students were also amazing. Tony Malaby, Seamus Blake, Ralph Alessi, George Colligan, John Stetch, Andy Milne — Jeez, I know I am forgetting some others that are now renowned…

Particularly important to my artistic growth were Benoît Delbecq and Steve Argüelles, that went on for a real force collectively and big influence. With Noël Akchoté they turned into The Recyclers and released Rhymes in 1994. You want to understand something that I checked out? Rhymes was some thing that I checked out, especially the monitor “Suguxhama” from Argüelles and Django Bates.

(Later, motivated by David King and Craig Taborn, I’d listen to all the fantabulous Django Bates records together with Martin France on drums. It turns out that France is going to be on several gigs of this Martin Speake tour. Wow! I’m going to have to play with Martin France for the very first time.)

At Banff 2 duo connections had notable resonance. The fantastic Jill Seifers (a wonderful vocalist who ended up dying far too young) and that I did a set in the little Banff club which I listened to repeatedly. Along with Martin Speake and that I created a recording which was enormous fun, he is splendid lyrical participant that sees it from all the angles.

At the Vortex gig earlier this year, Martin told the audience that after we met with Banff, I delivered him (by post from Menomonie, Wisconsin to London, England) a tape of Ornette Coleman’s then-scarce Science Fiction accompanied by a note on Doctor Who stationery. Yes It really does all seem curved. Themes re-occur. I openly admit I can’t wait to get Jodie Whittaker.

—

Writer with George Colligan.

Writer with Benoît Delbecq.

Writer with Django Bates.

Stanley Cowell plays “Carolina Shout” in my James P. Johnson event.

The post <p>Dance to the Music of Time</p> appeared first on dance withme plano.

from dance withme plano http://www.dancewithmeplano.com/dance-to-the-music-of-time/

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confusingfuturehistorians · 7 years

Text

A House Divided: A Pre-Election Plea

Recently I was re-watching Lincoln and a particular quote from Thaddeus Stevens (played by Tommy Lee Jones) jumped out at me due to its relevance to our current political climate. (1) The scene takes place outside the chamber of the House of Representatives after a debate on the proposed Thirteenth Amendment (which outlawed slavery in the US) when Stevens went back on his position that he believed all men were created equal; instead insisting he believed that all men should be equal before the law. This astounded his faction of radical Republicans and prompted claims of dishonesty from most Democrats. Stevens backtracked on his position however, in order to try to get Democrats who may have been potentially sympathetic to the 13th Amendment to vote for it, as without some Democrat support, it would not have gained the two-thirds majority necessary for it to pass. Stevens therefore said what he said to ease their concerns that abolishing slavery would be too radical a move which would destroy the fabric of American society as they knew it.

After the debate he is confronted by Asa Vintner Litton (a fellow radical Republican Congressman) who says to him: “Have you lost your very soul, Mr. Stevens? Is there nothing you won't say?”

To which Stevens replies: “I want the amendment to pass, so that the constitution's first and only mention of slavery is its absolute prohibition. For this amendment, for which I have worked all my life and for which countless colored men and women have fought and died and now hundreds of thousands of soldiers... No, sir, no, it seems there's very nearly nothing I won't say.”

Of course, as the pedant I am, I have to point out that I have no idea whether this conversation ever happened (I doubt it did, or at least, I doubt there is a verifiable record of it happening); but it is certainly true that Stevens was willing to compromise his values in order to get the amendment through. This film depicts this as more shocking than it actually was (despite his undoubtedly radical positions, it was neither the first nor the last time Stevens proved himself willing to compromise in order to get results), but what I took away from it is that in the context of contemporary British politics, I think something like that would be a lot more shocking than it was in Lincoln.

Compromise is a very difficult thing, and given that I’m just as stubborn as I am pedantic, I would certainly have to admit that I am not an especially good compromiser. However, politics needs compromise because things simply don’t get done without it. And given the myriad of different opinions people can hold, even within a single political party, this is unsurprising. But one of my biggest worries about the way that the political climate has been changing recently has been the lack of willingness to compromise, particularly in progressive circles. (2) This is why in the UK, despite the fact that the Conservative lead has been massively reduced following a horrendous campaign, it looks unlikely that anyone except the Tories will win tomorrow’s General Election for the simple reason that those of us opposed to them have not done a good enough job of working together to prevent it. We already saw this happen to certain extent with Brexit, and we definitely saw it happen across the pond where a number of Democrat voters potentially cost Clinton the election by either not showing up or voting for another candidate. We would far rather argue amongst ourselves about how those guys aren’t “real progressives” because of that one thing one of their candidates said 17 years ago and so there’s “literally no difference” between voting for them and voting for Tories. It’s pathetic! And it’s not just pathetic, it’s downright dangerous.

I appreciate that most people have a clear favourite party that they support. And I appreciate the need for an active political discourse, which includes criticism of things that you find objectionable. But it’s getting to such a ridiculous extent now that people’s objections to some policies will enable situations that are far worse. From what I’ve seen, this has been most noticeable with the die-hard Corbynites for whom compromise appears to mean “everyone should compromise their values and agree with Corbyn on every issue”, but they’re not the only ones. Whether they are drawing their inspiration from Corbyn, or whether Corbyn has been drawing inspiration from them is difficult to tell. But either way, the gains made by Labour during the last month will mean absolutely nothing if Corbyn is not prepared to work with others who don’t share every single one of his policies; and this situation will not change if his most vocal supporters refuse to criticise him for this. The most obvious example is his unmoving (and seemingly un-negotiated) stance on Brexit, which completely goes against what the majority of the people likely to support him want. Most people (myself included, although I never thought I’d be saying this a year ago) would tolerate a soft Brexit if it meant it could be negotiated by a party that isn’t the Tories (or UKIP, but I’m not mentioning them after this because this Tory party is essentially the same thing). But that’s not good enough for Jezza or his comrades. It’s up to us to change our views to suit them, remember.

Now, I do appreciate the irony of me strongly criticising a particular faction of the progressive movement while also arguing that doing so is a problem. The problem does not only exist within the Corbynite movement by any stretch of the imagination, but my experience is that this is where it has been most obvious. Moreover, it is where the problem is most significant because any alliance formed in opposition to the Conservatives would have to be led by Corbyn and so his unwillingness to compromise means that unless he wins an outright majority (which no poll, however optimistic towards his chances) has predicted, his gains mean absolutely nothing. Reducing the Tory majority will not matter if he can’t convince some Tories to work with him to vote against the Government, and even a hung Parliament won’t help the cause if he refuses to form a government with other parties. (3) Perhaps I’m doing Corbyn a disservice and Stevens in fact had it far easier, as he was looking to change his country rather than simply stopping his opponents from getting in; but ultimately I think it still comes down to the same thing. How on earth can you achieve anything in politics if you won’t compromise? And that isn’t a rhetorical question, by the way. Look through your history books and I guarantee you will not find a political movement that achieved its aims without it.

So part of this mini-essay is an attempt to plead with the like-minded people who I am aware make up the majority of my social media contacts to go out and vote for the party most likely to stop the Tories, EVEN IF it means voting for someone you would generally rather not vote for. This is the only way that we can stop what will possibly turn out to be the most destructive British government in recent years (yes, including the Thatcher years). But there is another plea that I feel I need to make. This is to centrists and the centre-right who are also refusing to compromise in a different way, in the sense that they are refusing to compromise their party identity (or in some cases their “patriotism”) in order to do the right thing. Let me be crystal clear here, I am not saying that you should change your beliefs or values to mine because mine are right and yours are wrong. So you can save your “holier-than-thou-Lefties” speech for another day. I’m happy to accept the fact that you as a moderate Tory have different values from me as someone who is a member of the Green Party. What I am saying is that this current Tory Government under Theresa May does not represent your values and that the right thing to do is admit this and vote accordingly.

Of course, we progressives don’t spend our entire time arguing amongst ourselves. We do occasionally argue with those on the Right and in the centre too, and having engaged in many of these friendly discussions myself, I’ve noticed a number of themes that often emerge in these situations. While the far-right trolls are busy hurling the sorts of insults one might expect them to, the centre-right is busy claiming that in fact, it is us who are the unreasonable ones. Those right-wing trolls are just a few bad apples, whereas the vitriol in circles which claim to be progressive is systemic. (4) These people claim that it is unfair to insist that the Conservatives are “The Nasty Party”, it’s unfair to claim that they all hate poor people and it’s unfair to claim the moral high-ground when the Left is always shutting down honest debate through no-platforming and political correctness. Meanwhile they insist that they could not possibly vote for a party that is so politically weak, so economically inefficient and so dangerous to the security of the nation (not to mention in sympathy with the SNP and the IRA). (5)

Again, I am absolutely not asking people in this case to change those views. I do disagree with them, and before now I would have been happy to have had that debate (and indeed have done so on a number of occasions). But unless something drastic happens on June 8th I refuse to debate it anymore, because I cannot believe that you are being genuine with any of those concerns. If you knowingly vote for a party that wants to bring back fox-hunting and has willingly scapegoated immigrants ever since Theresa May became Home Secretary, then yes, I do believe that it’s fair to say that you are supporting the Nasty Party. If you’re going to vote for a party which has led to deaths of 30,000 people in 2015 alone through its harsh and unnecessary austerity policies, then yes, I do think it’s fair to say that you must have something against poor people. (6) I also think it’s hypocritical in the extreme to vote for a party whose leader has refused debates and public scrutiny at every possible opportunity if you value open discourse so much. As for values of free speech, I cannot even begin to comprehend how you could truly hold those values and still vote for a leader who has openly admitted that she wants to regulate the internet. If they don’t wish to vote for a politically weak party, how can they justify voting for a leader who U-turns on everything that the Daily Mail criticises her for? If they don’t wish to vote for an economically weak party, how can they justify voting for a party who have presided over the worst decline in real wages of any developed country other than Greece? And if they really value security so much, how can they vote for a leader who is obsessed with tearing up our human rights and who has supressed a report on how Saudi Arabia finances terrorists in Britain, because it would embarrass her party? (7)

Despite Theresa May’s extraordinary attempts to avoid as much engagement as possible in an election she called after repeatedly ruling it out, her intentions for the direction she wants to take the party (and therefore the country, if they get elected) have been made clear. These are not simply the rantings of a tin-foil-hat-wearing-conspiracy-theory-loving-Left-wing-lunatic. This is public information, which you should (and in my personal experience of centre-right voters, do) know. In 2015, the severity of the impact austerity cuts were having was nowhere near as widely known and the Conservatives did not make a big thing about their plans to spy on the entire country and crash headlong out of the EU (which, incidentally, most of the centre-leaning Tories I know voted to stay part of) even with the very real-looking possibility of deal whatsoever to go along with it. Now we know. There are no more excuses. The only thing holding you back from voting against the Conservatives is not your values, but you unwillingness to compromise on who you’re voting along with. I don’t profess to know the centre-right mind-set, but there is simply no way I can grasp how anyone in that group can profess to hold the progressive values that so many of them claim to hold and still vote Conservative this time around with a clean conscience. If you really want to show us Lefties how much more tolerant you are of other people’s beliefs, now is your chance. Vote for what you believe in, even if it means allying with people like me, and I’ll believe you. Refuse to take this opportunity and condemn this country to the most draconian government Britain has had is recent history, and I will not.

I have always prided myself to a certain extent on my stubbornness and my principled nature. And for a long time, I believed that those two things were one and the same, but they are not. Principles are things which you would be willing to do anything to avoid or achieve, whereas stubbornness is being unwilling to change what it is that you are doing. In many cases they are the same, but at some point there comes a point of no return where principles can no longer be safeguarded by stubbornness. I’m sure most people can think of a situation where they put up with something that should have been unacceptable to them simply because they were unwilling to change. And I’m also sure that everyone in that situation would act differently were they given a second chance. What we need to continually be asking ourselves is “Where is our line in the sand”? I think that if they really thought about it, more people would have actually gone past that line with regard to current politics than they are willing to admit. For me, I live in the Salford and Eccles constituency, which is an incredibly safe Labour seat, so I am someone who would gain nothing through voting tactically. As a result I intend to vote for my party, the Greens. However, if I still lived where I did during the last General Election (in Oxford West and Abingdon), then I would vote for the Lib Dems, despite there being two parties I agree with more. This is because, quite simply, with the stakes being as high as they are, my principles would not allow me to be stubborn. And whichever way people plan to vote, I strongly urge each and every person who reads this to think very carefully about why they are planning to vote the way they are. And in many cases, they may well need to channel their inner Thaddeus Stevens.

1. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the scene anywhere online, so I’ll just leave this with you instead. Ad hominem attacks aren’t ever productive in reality (and indeed the real-life Stevens rarely resorted to them, at least in Congress), but it nevertheless makes for a satisfying scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Brh9iWajc

2. I’m using “progressive”, purely in want of a better term, to describe any party or set of beliefs which does not align with the far-right of Britain. This includes centrists and even the centre-right, which is why I’m avoiding “Left” as a term here. I’m not overly sure “progressive” is much better, but it’s worth arguing the semantics, as long as everyone knows what I mean.

3. I’m not making this up – he genuinely said this at a time when his popularity was at his highest. It’s times like this that make me genuinely convinced he and his supporters want to lose the election and watch the Tories dismantle the country just so they can say “See, we were right!”

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/01/corbyn-vows-no-deals-no-pacts-if-there-is-a-hung-parliament

4. It’s worth pointing out here, of course, that many people who would describe themselves as card-carrying Lefties and progressives would also make the same arguments here. Rightly or wrongly, it is another example of how progressives seem far more willing to argue amongst ourselves than actually achieve our aims. The Judean People’s Front / People’s Front of Judea bit from Life of Brain springs very vividly to mind.

5. Ignoring the completely false claims of the Left being IRA apologists, it is certainly true that there is a lot of support Scottish Independence among progressives. For me though, it’s ironic for Conservatives to take such a strong stand on this when their policy of unnecessarily pursuing a hard-Brexit is the thing that is most likely to bring about the collapse of the union. Thaddeus Stevens would certainly have disapproved.

6. This case is particularly poignant at a time when the country is mourning the loss of over 30 people in terrorist attacks, yet the government seemingly gets a free pass for killing a thousand times that many in a single year.

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-02-20-30000-excess-deaths-2015-linked-cuts-health-and-social-care

7. All of the above points come with a delicious side of evidence. Enjoy!

https://www.ft.com/content/e021c208-3ede-11e7-9d56-25f963e998b2

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/uk-workers-have-had-the-worst-wage-growth-in-the-oecd-except-greece-a7773246.html?cmpid=facebook-post

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/theresa-may-terrorism-human-rights_uk_5936ec0be4b0099e7fafd14d?1zz

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/31/sensitive-uk-terror-funding-inquiry-findings-may-never-be-published-saudi-arabia

#general election #politics #conservatives #labour #theresa may #jeremy corbyn #general election 2017 #UK politics #may #corbyn #progressive alliance #green party #liberal democrats #tories out #make june the end of may #lincoln #thaddeus stevens

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dancewithmeplano · 6 years

Text

Dance to the Music of Time

It really all does seem curved. Themes re-occur. The last month nearly felt like a trip of yesteryear.

—

Sarah stated, let’s give Pinkwater a monster. That monster charge me a small fortune in Tokyo, but she had been right. It had been the great present, a perfect trade.

—

Photo by Vinnie Sperrazza

Seeing Reid brought back that memory and from this time next year I guarantee to have the ability to sing Coltrane’s “Bye Bye Blackbird” and “All of You” from ‘Round About Midnight.

—

I added ” You” to the heap because Billy Hart told me:

It finally occurred on Tuesday, quartet together with Billy Harper. Everybody agreed that it was incredible to listen to the beat played with that bassist with that drummer.

Billy Hart, Lenny White, Buster Williams

—

Concerto to Scale reflects Morris, Zimmerli, Jabali, and everything else that I love. It surely reflects Pinkwater. Program notes:

Andante. A 19th-centutry nocturne air meets modern polyrhythms. That is a stunning elaboration of a piece originally written for Mark Turner called “We Come In the Future.”

(if you would like to listen to the rough mix of this premiere or examine the score, sign up for Floyd Camembert Reports.)

Between Pepperland and the Concerto, it’s beginning to feel as though my future will involve extended composition.

—

Composition might be part of this future, but additionally, I will always be a jazz pianist who enjoys to play with clubs. Starting tomorrow I am on an extensive UK tour together with Martin Speake.

Go to Martin’s FB site to get more.

The students were also amazing. Tony Malaby, Seamus Blake, Ralph Alessi, George Colligan, John Stetch, Andy Milne — Jeez, I know I am forgetting some others that are now renowned…

—

Writer with George Colligan.

Writer with Benoît Delbecq.

Writer with Django Bates.

Stanley Cowell plays “Carolina Shout” in my James P. Johnson event.

The post <p>Dance to the Music of Time</p> appeared first on dance withme plano.

from dance withme plano http://www.dancewithmeplano.com/dance-to-the-music-of-time/

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