#ducky antics

[tulliolamonster]

I haven’t been able to draw in a while (employment is a blessing and a curse), so here’s a bunch of very old photos of when I made my cardboard attempt at Achilles’ shield!

Finished product above, progress/close-ups below

[tulliolamonster]

The class I’m working in has a unit on pseudoarcheological hoaxes tomorrow, which means I got to spend my weekend making an example for the class activity tomorrow. The whole thing is just salt dough and instant coffee

All the carvings/imprints were done with the casing of a kitchen knife and the back of a metal whisk. I tried to make the actual hieroglyphs semi-accurate, but the baking process sort of destroyed them ;;

My favorite part has been seeing how awful and crusty I can make the photos for the section before I reveal the whole thing as made up.

Here we have the piece before it’s been crunched (and in front of my microwave 💀)

And here it is after being put through editing hell!

I don’t think I’ll do much more salt dough art (is this art? Oh well), but I had a really good time with this :D

[tulliolamonster]

Today I made Roman savillum with honey and chopped dates! I didn’t have as much honey as I wanted (last time I made this it required quite a bit to not just taste like ricotta), so the dates were added for texture and flavor.

I’m leaving it to sit in the pan for a bit in the hopes it absorbs more of the honey. It’s a very nice golden yellow color in person, and I hope it tastes as lovely as that color appears.

In the future, I’d like to see what flavors might pair best with this. I currently have some pears that might work well with it, but I’ve also heard of people pairing it with ground black pepper, so I’m interested to see how that might taste as well! I’ll update y’all on how it tastes :3

I’m using Max Miller’s Tasting History recipe, which uses Cato’s De Agri Cultura as a source

[tulliolamonster]

Made bird-shaped bread rolls. I think I’m just going to pretend they’re all very chilly

(Irl fat bird for your viewing pleasure)

[tulliolamonster]

The fun thing about doing research on fandom culture and interactions as someone who only joined fandom recently is seeing many tiny similarities between fan culture and academic banter. They’re two very different things, but it’s still nice to see

[tulliolamonster]

I had the chance to see Joe Goodkin’s The Blues of Achilles in person a bit ago, and I’d honestly love to see how other ppl react to it.

If you don’t know about The Blues of Achilles, it’s a series of 17 songs written in the perspectives of varies characters in the Iliad, mostly focusing on Achilles (of course) and Hector. The performance covers the entire Iliad, focusing on Achilles’ seclusion, the death of Patroclus, the battle with Hector, and Hector’s funeral, with Goodkin summarizing anything not covered by the songs and giving context as he goes.

The entire thing is a one man show, and Goodkin is very interested in Classical Reception (how things about Greece and Rome are taken and reinterpreted by different audiences) and the role of the storyteller. I think it’s something that’s a good listen even for people who aren’t big on Achilles-focused retellings. I had a good time analyzing the songs in my brain and figuring out where Goodkin drew on the Iliad vs. where he’s incorporating his own interviews with veterans/grieving parents/others. It was also fun to see him rework his lines on stage, too. Noting where the sung lyrics differed from the written ones was fun, because each small change shifted the interpretation of the entire story.

He’s also done a version of this with the Odyssey (and I believe did some others? The professor who invited him mentioned something else? I’ll check).

If you’re interested, he’s got a website (here’s his Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thebluesofachilles ) and his stuff is up on most music platforms! :3

@joegoodkin | Instagram, Facebook | Linktree

Modern Bardic Retellings of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey in Song and More

I don’t know much about music or performance, so my enjoyment was mostly through a Classical Receptions lens, but yeah! If you check it out, tell me what you thought! :3

[tulliolamonster]

If I get the time, should I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong or Record of the Three Kingdoms by Chen Shou? Romance is loosely based on Records from what I’ve heard, but I’m admittedly not that familiar with the eras of Chinese literature, so I fear reading order will really shape my experience

[tulliolamonster]

Drawing Transformers after a long art break is a task they inflict on only those in the deepest pits of Tartarus