Lux Apollo

Yeah it was a bit much...

Excellent choice of title, and oh that pique of foreshadowing. Cory really did have a lot bottled up... TNT, and his dad lit the fuse. No, that's not quite right. Cory had a lot to say but he wasnt out of control. Making his dad a closet racist was interesting, and Cory pointing out the Christian by convenience hypocrisy was good. Efrain is going to have a lot of pieces to pick up when he arrives back at the house. I just hope Cory doesn't ditch for somewhere else before he gets there. I'don't put up some sort of happy face for the awesome writing but it doesn't feel appropriate...

Aaaaaaaaaand the moment we've all been waiting for! Well written, not overstated, and fun. Good stuff.

Hmmm... is something bad happening or is Deke stewing over nothing. It's hard to imagine it being nothing at this point. :-)

Hope you have a wonderful new year of life, love and laughter!

Jean Rondeau is one of my faves among the younger generation of pro harpsichordists out there right now. Here's a recording of him playing Jean-Nicolas-Pancrace Royer's Marche des Scythes, an exciting piece often used as the finale for a harpsichord solo concert - and sometimes as an encore piece.

Wonderful chapter, with quite a bit of character development... I wasn't really expecting the questioning thing from Travis to be honest, but it's an interesting twist to the dynamic between he, Angie and Clint. I just knew the paint was going to rub off the moment Clint hit the ground. Brent, of course, is having the classic possessive-protective reaction - blaming the shift in his understanding of Donny on Clint. Maybe there is more to it than that. It's too bad Clint's arm is broken. I'd love to see a twins team-up fight at some point in this story. Keep up the good work. I'm really liking how even the bad things that happen in this story feel toned down by the sense of optimism and bright future the cast brings to the table. It's refreshing, especially for a story set in high school.

So much ache... definitely a rollercoaster chapter. Tobyn isn't just stubborn, he's the type who needs time and space on his own to process things. Where is Sybil? And is Tobyn going to her, or off on his own once again?

Thanks for the kind words, as always. John is very interesting in that he used to be very unself-aware, but all the therapy he had has given him a perspective and ability to be introspective that he could not possibly have had when he was younger. Bobby, clearly, is a largely unresolved issue but it isn't the only one I will touch upon. Many of the others, though, are more subtle and I may not have them come into play as outwardly as Dom and Bobby with their monolithic presence in his psyche. The title of this story implies many things about John's journey that I'm excited about exploring with the reader. Regarding Rachel - she is not a character seen in the movies, but is long established in the comics - she first appeared in print in 1981, when the original Days of Future Past storyline. Actually, the 'sending minds back in time' ability Kitty Pryde displays in the Days of Future Past movie was one of Rachel's abilities, and it was *Kitty* whose mind was sent back in time, not Wolverine. Oh well, that's what happens when the movie studios are too lazy to establish another character, even though they were willing to bring Warpath, Sunspot, Blink and Bishop on screen as part of the future crew. That was actually a major bone I had to pick with the movie - that ability is clearly a psionic one, but Kitty's power of phasing through matter like a ghost is something completely different. Regardless, Rachel will show up from time to time as a minor character to help flesh out John's circle of colleagues and the dynamic between them.

Life's a little crazy, so I can't really write a review right now but... Having Jackson end up turning to Luke to help sort out his emotions was wonderful.

As far as 20th Century composers, I love Toru Takemitsu's works. I took some definite inspiration from his ability to manipulate tonality and ensemble timbres during my time in the music composition program at my alma mater.

I really loved the slow-burn build-up of tension leading us to the end of the chapter, which is really only the beginning. You handled the change in Toph's maturity as far as how he reacted to his mother's presence by ceasing his running and taking the time to come to terms with it very well, too. I was curious, however, about the switch from Toph referring to himself in first person to third person in his moment of panic. I had to refer back to the initial chapter(s?) to check and see that Toph did that a bit. Once I saw that I could definitely say that it is a very good device at returning Toph momentarily to the state of his mind under the weight of his family at the beginning of the story. Cool beans.

I think this is one of the chapters I have enjoyed the most in this part of Devin'so journey. Cliffy, though, you meanie! Great job!

A lot of his music is wonderful; he's built quite a reputation for his choral works. The choir I sang with for a few years during my MSc times sang a few of his pieces and they were both a joy to perform and to listen to.

I'm sick to my stomach a bit. It hurts a lot, good job. (I know how bizarre that sounds...) David thinks that he's rational. The irony. What will Twoey and the friends be able to do now?

Kye saves the day inadvertently after almost blundering it. I like his save better than risking injuries against Gerardo knives. Well, the Sterlings have another chess piece on the board. Hopefully they have enough now to quell the rebellion and bring Barry to justice without more heartache. Ah, and a romantic ending. Lovely!

Today I've got some Lutoslawski to share - but in this case it was an early work from when he was a student. The funny thing is, while this piece is gorgeous, Lutoslawski grew to hate his music from this period. He didn't want it published, and was furious when a pianist got ahold of a manuscript of this piece and recorded it without his permission. It remains to this day an almost unknown work. People do not think of this when they think of Lutoslawski, as it sounds more like an impressionist piece - akin to something Debussy or Ravel would have written.

The wiki description isn't bad: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique In some ways it was a bizarre attempt to structure something that they would then unstructure with the different voicings (different instrumental lines, or hands on a keyboard, etc.). I guess one theoretical beauty of it was what kind of sounds they were able to produce despite the limitations imposed by the technique. Though, one might argue that over the history of man any style/genre of music conceived has always had limitations of one sort or another. I guess some forms' limitations are just easier for the ear to adapt to...

I think Alban Berg is my favourite composer of the so-called 'Second Viennese School', revolving around Arnold Schoenberg and his pupils (like Berg). Berg perhaps did not go quite as far as Schoenberg and Webern in completely eschewing aspects of tonality for chromaticism, but some of his music does. He was among the important figures that experimented with using 12-tone serialism (or dodecaphonic) structures in his compositions, but his music is beautiful and lacks some of the chaos found in others of the time. I have a strong love for his Violin Concerto - while using serialism, he manages to firmly immerse the work into the world of tonality. Here's a recording of his third published string quartet:

Ah, satisfaction. You'very woven together a lot of little opportunity and created a pleasing whole. Cheers.

Good chapter. I guess the cat is out of the bag, per se, about Ritch'so sibling. Hopefully Kraig leaving Deke's property without him won't end badly - for either of them. The nature of Ritch and Park's relationship continues to be unresolved... Am minor point - is it just me, or are you accidentally referring to Park as Deke in the first half of the chapter. I was confused until I resolved that in my head. Cheers!

I think the chapter speaks for itself.

Feeling a little introspective tonight. Anatoly Lyadov was a student of Rimsky-Korsakov, and one of the teachers of Prokofiev and Stravinsky. His compositional technique and sounds are fairly conservative, and once famously yelled at Stravinsky and Prokofiev that if they wanted to write with some of the extended tonality innovations and other things they were doing in their music, he didn't know why they were studying him, and they should just go study with Strauss or Debussy. He was known to be very clear, concise and observant in his criticisms of work, but his tendency towards indolence was offputting to some.

This story never ceases to make me smile. You communicate their emotions so so well. Great work.

Some great writing in this chapter. The unfortunate thing is that between Elsinore controlling the conversation on the way down and now meeting her earth mate, she likely may not have noticed as much of what is passing between Tobyn and Kellar as we may have wished. I knew Elinor was going to do something awesome to get Denver on side. I did not expect you to bring the earth mate thing into play here considering how rare it seems to be and for both Elinor and Tobyn, mother and son, to find theirs just days apart is astounding. I am just glad Tobyn's father has passed so they don't also have experience to deal with the kind of drama that would create. The boys and the pack as a whole have too much on their plate. This is making me curious about Pendral again.