AuroraAlexyanA

🌺

[AuroraAlexyanA @MHTX14]

🥀Beautiful tartan made in respectful retrospect. 🙏🧙‍♀️🥀

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

A new Scottish tartan memorializing the (mainly) female victims of the Witchcraft Act has been officially registered, created by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, founders of the Witches of Scotland campaign #WomensArt
via Smithsonian Magazine

[Ramblings @ramblingsloa]

Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you.

Anne Lamott

[Mary-Ann Thorson𐃆 @NoctrnlValkyrie]

Summer Solstice & Bee Mythology

Ancient folklore says that a swarm of bees arriving during the Summer Solstice brings incredible luck, prosperity, and blessings to a home.

It is often captured in old rhyming proverbs, such as the famous 17th-century saying:

“A swarm of bees in May is worth a load of hay; a swarm of bees in June is worth a silver spoon”

Since the solstice happens in June, a June swarm was historically considered a massive financial blessing.

Bees are messengers of the Gods. In Celtic and European mythology, bees are seen as bridges between this world and the spirit realm.

Their hyper-activity during the longest days of sunlight led cultures to revere them as sacred messengers of the sun.

Solstice honey and bee colonies are deeply tied to Faerie lore. It's because the solstice is the thinnest veil between worlds, bees are often viewed as the tiny guardians of fae realms, gathering pollen from enchanted solstice blooms. 🐝

[AuroraAlexyanA @MHTX14]

@MKWPublishing @StormHour @stormfrontfreak @xWxClub Or great camouflage, perhaps? 👽

[AuroraAlexyanA @MHTX14]

@MKWPublishing @LadyLeo1976 @LindaGrimshaw7 😄Love Noel Fielding!! 🥰
I surmise that comedy is incredibly difficult… 🥸
I could imagine that with your talent on the darker/malevolent side of the literary arts, it could be hard to switch the mindset to convey the levity needed…?

[Dudes Posting Their W’s @DudespostingWs]

This Boston city worker has the best reaction to Scotland fans invading Massachusetts

[The Cultural Tutor @culturaltutor]

I’m making a show about buildings.

The concept is simple: do for the man-made world what Planet Earth did for the natural world.

But, when I pitched the idea, the answer was that nobody would watch it.

So I released a pilot episode on YouTube. It’s got 5.4 million views, 379k likes, and 23k comments.

People are interested, and now it’s time to make the full show.

Six episodes, filming in the UK, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and the USA, and releasing on a streaming service like HBO, Netflix, or Prime.

Why does this show matter?

First: we’re surrounded by buildings all the time. Look around yourself, right now… what do you see? Buildings are the logical conclusion of everything a society believes in. That’s the real focus of this show: not the buildings themselves, but what they say about us.

Second: there’s global dissatisfaction with modern architecture. This feeling gets written about online, but nobody’s given a voice to it on film or TV. That’s what this show will be. But this isn’t just about criticising modernity. That’s easy. This is about learning from the past in order to understand and improve the present, for everybody.

Third: there’s a drought of high-quality culture shows. When I spoke to film executives they said that only documentaries about sports, music, or true crime get funded. That’s a colossal missed opportunity. Galleries are always full, content about architecture goes viral online all the time, and people spend their precious holidays visiting beautiful cities.

Why no shows about architecture, then?

Tourists flock in their millions to see (for example) the buildings of Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona. But, if you asked those same people if they’re interested in “architecture”, they’d probably say no.

To put that another way: not many people want to watch “a show about architecture”, but lots of people want to watch a show that illuminates the real world they’re living in, each and every day.

What will the show be like?

Six episodes, going chronologically through history and arriving at the present, each focussing on the architecture and design of a specific period:

1. Middle Ages
2. Renaissance
3. Enlightenment
4. The Nineteenth Century
5. Art Nouveau & Art Deco
6. Present Day

But, in each case, the point isn’t just to learn about that era; the point is to learn about our modern world through those eras and what they’ve left behind. If you watch the pilot episode (included below) you’ll see what I mean.

So the show’s not really “about” the past; it’s about the twenty-first century.

That’s why it’s called The Modern World.

When you think of a typical history show there are loads of interviews, stock footage, archive photos, historical recreations, and graphics. We’re doing none of that. Everything will be filmed on location, because we’re telling our story only through the real world that exists right now. And, rather than going to the most obvious places, we’ll focus on buildings that aren’t well-known but should be more famous.

But that’s all big picture; what will it be like on screen?

Buildings used to look different in every country, and now they look the same. Why? Because the weather is different everywhere, and buildings were always a way of dealing with that weather, using local materials. Now we have air conditioning and we ship concrete around the world, so we don’t need to design our buildings with regard to local weather or rely on local materials.

Look at really old clocks and you’ll notice something: they don’t have a second hand… because it was only invented 300 years ago! Then you look at the present and you realise we’re surrounded by timers, by seconds ticking down and ticking up relentlessly. If we’re looking for a cause of our anxiety-inducing culture, that might be it.

When you spend time with the sun-softened bricks and time-warped timbers of old cities you notice that synthetic materials like plastic have taken over. When we’re surrounded by things that feel temporary, how do you think it makes us feel?

It’s only by seeing 19th century train stations, designed like cathedrals, that you realise tradition and technology aren’t enemies. New things don’t have to look boring: if the Victorians had designed AI data centres, they’d look like Medieval castles.

In the 1920s, at the zenith of Art Deco, people believed technology would uplift humanity. That’s why they decorated their buildings with statues inspired by electricity. Only by seeing their enthusiasm can we realise our own cynicism, and perhaps begin to fix it.

All of that… and much, much more.

But, above all else, this show is about a way of seeing. If you want to understand any society then you need to look at what it creates, not what it says about itself.

There’s a worldview in every single object; our skyscrapers are designed the same way as our phones. Learn to look at this world, to notice its details, and everything else starts to make sense.

What now?

I’ve been quiet online recently because I’ve been researching and working on scripts for six full-length episodes. Production begins when we’ve raised the funding.

The Modern World is coming.

[Archaeology & Art @archaeologyart]

Red Angel- Zale Central Cemetery, Ljubljana, Slovenia

[Ali Zemani @mohetios]

Note To myself :

[Art Encyclopedia @artenpedia]

White-throated dipper (Cinclus cinclus)

[AuroraAlexyanA @MHTX14]

@LadyLeo1976 🌺You're welcome 😍🌺 (late to the party, as per usual) 😜

[AuroraAlexyanA @MHTX14]

Amen🙏🪽

[Summer 🌻 @LadyLeo1976]

Witches are drawn to the natural world.
Many believe that everything we need to cure our bodies has already been given to us by the earth.

Witches are conscious that balance must be maintained in the ecosystem & respect all living things.

For many the word witch brings to mind fear or misunderstanding.
To me, being a witch means being deeply connected to the earth & the gifts it provides.

Historically, witches were healers, midwives, pharmacists. The witch trials were never about the devil; they were about power, control & taking knowledge away from those who used it to heal.

Our words are spells & intention is what matters.
This is true for everyone, not just witches.

The practice of gratitude & respect for Nature is something everyone should incorporate into their lives.
It’s not about labels like “witch” it’s about recognizing the earth’s wisdom & using it with respect.

#WitchWednesday 🖤🖤🖤

[AuroraAlexyanA @MHTX14]

@MKWPublishing @LadyLeo1976 @LindaGrimshaw7 😜 I love deadpan humour! (And no, not disappointed; not ashamed to admit that sometimes things go over my head 🫣)

[AuroraAlexyanA @MHTX14]

@LadyLeo1976 🌻TY & You as well! 🌺

[#WOMENSART @womensart1]

A new Scottish tartan memorializing the (mainly) female victims of the Witchcraft Act has been officially registered, created by Claire Mitchell and Zoe Venditozzi, founders of the Witches of Scotland campaign #WomensArt
via Smithsonian Magazine