“Gaslighting — where someone tries to convince you that the reality you’ve experienced isn’t true — is real and torturous. He will gaslight, his followers will gaslight. Many of our politicians and media figures already gaslight, so it will be hard to distinguish his amplified version from what has already been normalized. Learn the signs and find ways to stay focused on what you know to be true. Note: it is typically not helpful to argue with people who are attempting to gaslight. You will only confuse yourself. Just walk away.”
Author: hearseeno
Okay, so if you’re only familiar with the movies, then you don’t know this, but in the Lord of the Rings books when Boromir dies, Legolas and Aragorn sing a song at his funeral (no Gimli doesn’t sing). Now when I read the books, I fell in love with this song, because it’s a beautiful poem, and you should go read it.
Well I was thinking about it again today, and one thing that still impresses me, is that canonically, Aragorn and Legolas come up with this on the spot. There doesn’t appear to be any moment in which they sit down and write this, they just sing. And it can’t be a standard funeral song because it specifically references Boromir and their journey
Now the real reason the poem is so nice is because Tolkien was a poet and loved to fit as much poetry as he logically and illogically could into his works, and naturally he had plenty of time to revise this death-song and made it beautiful, but I came up with an in-text explanation as well.
So I’ve decided that clearly this is a well practiced skill for elves and people raised by elves. They obviously spend evenings sitting in halls coming up with spontaneous poetry which they then recite to the crowds. I am adamantly convinced this happens. Seriously, read up on Tolkien’s elves and tell me I’m being unrealistic.
But to the point, thinking about this, I decided that naturally most of the poetry we see from the elves is beautiful and flowing and elegant because that’s the style they’re familiar with. But if introduced to other styles of poetry, they likely could do quite well
So what I’m saying is, elves would be really good at freestyle rapping
damn, I was yelling Elvish rap battles! before I got halfway through the post
YES. ALL OF THIS.
I only have two tiny things to contribute to this post:
- If you are like me and love the Lament for Boromir, you absolutely need to go listen to this version by @everywindintheriver. She does a lot of setting Tolkien poetry to music, but this remains one of my absolute favorites; it’s quite beautiful and haunting.
- Elvish rap battles are 100% canon. In Silmarillion version of “The Tale of Beren and Luthien,” there’s a bit where Sauron captures Beren and Finrod Felagund while they’re on a quest, and “Felagund strove with Sauron in songs of power” or, in other words, they literally had a contest where they sang poetry at each other and tried to destroy each other with their words, so. Elvish rap battles definitely definitely happened.
So this one time at ALEP @mythwine and I were doing a drunk history type panel about the Silmarillion and we acted out the contest between Sauron and Finrod as a rap battle.
^I witnessed this and it was spectacular
ALSO! Aragorn becomes low-key bros with Bilbo in the seventeen years between the big Party and Frodo leaving the Ring Quest where Bilbo lives in Rivendell. And their favorite past time is writing poetry together: when Aragorn gets back with Frodo, Sam, Pippen et al, Bilbo is grumpy that he hasn’t been around to help him with their latest verse.
Ambient-Mixer.com has a section
dedicated to the background sounds
of fictional worlds, so you can study
to the sounds of the Gryffindor
common room, read in Belle’s library,
or browse the Internet while you’re
being chased by a hoard of Dothraki. Source Source 2OH MY GOD YOU GUYS I CAN CHILL IN RIVENDELL
(I turned down the harp and birdsong volumes a little so they sound more distant instead of right next to me, but IT IS SO NICE)
(Also this would be fucking brilliant for tabletop?)
@caitloveslife @rookiek13 @mikagesshoku @steampoweredstrawberry @catsafarithewriter @bullysquadess @clairelutra @thelastpilot
If I forgot anyone I know writes I’m very sorry.
@amorremanet @mohawkpsychic28 @tiptoe39 @allthemarvelousrage @morganoconner @sherylynhp
JFC, there goes my plans to sleep tonight. AMBIENT SOUNDTRACKS.
@medie, @hikagekitsune @lunamax1214, @faejilly, @siawrites, @morninggloriious, @sabrecmc, @mithras131, @leximander, @marvelingjules, @rayshippouuchiha and others
I find the Ravenclaw Common Room great to get work done.
These are great!
There are multiple soundscapes per fandom.
Want to study in Rivendell’s library? done.
Want to curl up next to Sam or Dean Winchester on a rainy day? done.
also that whole tale of aragorn and arwen thing where he saw her in the woods at twenty and fell instantly in love and it’s very beren and luthien? lies.
aragorn decided he was going to marry arwen when he was like, six.
and everyone thought it was just the cutest thing, baby estel with his little crush on the great immortal evenstar, and everyone would tease him about it relentlessly and he would get so mad, and pout, because how dare they doubt his word.
(arwen spent a lot of time biting back smiles and nodding very seriously when aragorn brings this up with her. no, estel, I do not know why they are laughing perhaps they have remembered a particularly funny joke.)
and then aragorn grows into this gangly teen and oh my god can you imagine being a pimply greasy teenager around fucking elves it’s a wonder he has any self-image left. His voice breaks every other word and the laundresses are beginning to wonder if something is wrong with the sheets because estel keeps washing them himself and aragorn wants to die, god, arwen is never going to marry him if he stays all elbows and skinny knees and he can’t even look her in the eye anymore without blushing, eye contact is probably something to look for in a husband—
(arwen, who never had to go through puberty because elves don’t do anything so undignified, tries to comfort him by saying she likes his blemishes. aragorn gives her a look of such utter, miserable despair that she starts laughing.)
(this is a mistake. he spends the next three weeks nursing his wounded ego and refusing to see her.)
estel is twenty when he asks for her hand. he is lean, slender and fair as a new tree, and so arwen does not feel guilt in kissing his cheek and gently refusing. he is still green, he will weather greater storms than this—and he takes it as he should, clasping her hand and swearing to ever be her loyal friend.
they write to each other—when she is in lorien, when he wanders with the rangers of the north, fights alongside gondor, travels to distant lands. it is an inconstant tie—he is rarely afforded time enough to put pen to paper; she is reserved so as not to encourage what may not be. (she signs her letters always, your friend. She likes him too well to be cruel in this.)
the years pass. his weariness and strife creeps onto the page, and she sends him tokens to fend off the darkness—leaves from lothlorien, the ribbon from her hair, snippets of poems. it is not enough it is never enough I am sorry, she writes.
his reply is gentle: you are enough. do not stop writing.
(she carries that letter tucked inside her sleeve for a long while, like a talisman—though against what evil, she does not know.)
she is in the house of her grandmother when a familiar voice calls out to her: my lady luthien!
this is when arwen looks up, sees aragorn—broad of chest and rugged, still wearing his battered mail, with one hand balanced lazily on the pommel of his sword. All the trees of caras galadhon are gold but he is shadow and silver, kingliness resting lightly on his shoulders—
and arwen thinks, oh fuck
Baking question – pie crust recipe?
drst:
OK Tumblr, hit me with your best pie crust recipes please?
Alrighty then:
Rich, melt in your mouth crust. Makes enough for 1, 9″ crust. Double the amounts if you want a crust on top, too.
1 C flour
2 T sugar
2 T softened butter
¼ C heavy cream
2 T canola oil
mix with a fork and light hand, until forms a slightly sticky ball (about 2 minutes)
lightly coat 2 pieces of parchment with cooking spray. Place dough ball on sprayed side and cover with second piece of parchment. Roll into circle between the two sheets of parchment. Put in fridge to firm up enough that you can manipulate it in the pie pan without it falling apart.
fill pie and glaze with a mix of ¼ C apricot preserves and 2 t water.
Very rich (heavy cream, right?). Unlike other recipes, takes a lot of abuse when mixing and still tastes good. Best with fruit filling.
If you’re making a pumpkin pie or other kind of custard pie, you may want to use a drier recipe. Crust recipes aren’t much more than flour, butter, and water. Honestly, how well it turns out really depends on what you do with the ingredients more than what ingredients you use.
No matter the recipe, the tricks to any good pie crust are:
- best quality ingredients you can afford
- a pastry cutter, seriously. I know they’re a pain in the ass to keep in your kitchen drawer, but the cheapo wire ones are the best.
- a very light hand when cutting in the butter – press down to cut the butter into pieces and fluff up to spread it around while you turn the bowl to cut in the butter, quit just as soon as it looks relatively evenly distributed and you don’t have a lot of flour that isn’t incorporated. It’s the small bits of uncut butter that make it flaky. Think of it as if you’re making flour covered bits of butter that you’re going to layer on top of each other when you roll out the dough. The butter melts during the cooking and leaves behind the teeny tiny pockets that makes the crust flaky. So don’t mix things up too finely, or you won’t get a flaky, light crust.
- An equally light hand when mixing in the water – make a well in the dry ingredients, add the water to the well, scoop the dry ingredients a forkful at a time through the well while you turn the bowl
- only add as much water as you think will hold everything together when you press it into a ball. You can always sprinkle a little more water over it and keep fluffing with a fork until it looks right. Try pinching about a teaspoon of it between your fingers and see if it holds together. If it holds together, stop.
- Repeat after me: do NOT overwork the dough. Don’t overwork it when you cut in the butter. Don’t overwork it when you mix in the water. Don’t overwork it when you roll it out, and don’t overwork it when you pinch the edge of the crust together. It’s like making biscuits. The more you fuss with the dough, the tougher and blander it tastes. My midwestern farmer grandmother’s pie crust looked like a crazy patchwork quilt, but it was the best tasting crust ever.
- glaze with milk and sprinkle sugar on the crust before you put it in the oven… yum.
Such a great thread on Trump U and for profit universities!
Four to beam down, Mr Scott!
This is is possibly the coolest Star Trek TOS fan art I’ve ever seen!
No, but seriously, where did this come from? Who is the artist? Where was this taken?
It’s an art installation at the Microsoft office Studio D in Redmond, Washington, made by Devorah Sperber. It’s made of 75,000 beads.
Put this in my room
Hearseeno 