Moon Goddess

Music Spotlight: Armani White

Armani White is back with Keep in Touch, his new LP inspired by his father’s death. He took a break from making music after his father passed away of cancer a few years ago but the creative process for this album began at his father’s funeral. They encouraged him not to mourn the death, but to celebrate life so he wanted this project to be a celebration of his life and story. Check out what he had to say!

Tell us about Keep in Touch and what you hope people take away from it. 

Keep in Touch is a story based on the timeline of my father. I was fully inspired to do it after his funeral when the pastor insisted that we didn’t mourn his death but, instead, celebrate life! The timeline of my father’s story begins in a 1994 Jeep Cherokee, bought with settlement money from a case against the city of Philadelphia. Inside the jeep was Lee Tolbert aka Touché, a member of the Philly Gang “Junior Black Mafia” or JBM for short. The project follows Lee through the many narratives that built him up, yet scraped away and made him human. The fearlessness that drove him and his friend Trevor to attack the rival gang who stole his Jeep from him. The pure emotions that constructed a love life between him and Trevor’s younger sister. The kid they had together that taught him how precious life really is; and the fear of his own power to ruin all of those things while trying to protect them.

Craziest thing that’s happened while on the road?

This one show we played in some bar in the middle of nowhere. Our green room was some really small room next to the fire escape and the people in the crowd could see me from the front. These two girls walked on stage, pushed the opener out the way and chased me into the bathroom. I was hiding in the stall…hahaha. I also broke my tooth in DC on tour with Vince Staples, I’m not sure if that was crazy or just inconvenient!

Who impacts your creative process? Has this process changed for you since your previous work?

This was heavily impacted by my father obviously but it’s either people I know very well or people I don’t know at all. With writing for me, I have to go out in the world, experience as many things as possible and bring all of those things back to my desk to make the music as realistic as possible.

Dream collaboration(s)?

Tyler, the Creator, Childish Gambino, E-40 and T-Pain

In your opinion, what’s the most interesting thing about you that people may not know?

I don’t know how it happened, but I found out I’m allergic to chicken which is just awful…lol

If there was one thing you could change about the music industry today,  what would it be?

The amount of honesty, transparency and vulnerability.

Lighting round! Describe each of the following in one word: Who you are, what you value the most, and what you’d be if you were a food item.

Blancoooo

Time

Tostoneeeeeee

1. The most important clues may be in the background! 

In the Rider Waite Smith deck, many cards show a figure with a number of significant items behind his or her back. What happens behind one’s back is, for oneself, something unseen, shadowy, something to which one has no conscious access. This could point to the idea that the figure in the foreground is unaware of the nature or scope of their issues. You can’t grasp what you cannot see, and that can reveal a lot about the nature of the card’s meaning.

2. The color of the sky reveals a lot!

Again referencing the Rider Waite Smith deck, the color of the sky on a given card often leads to a simple but important clue for its interpretation.

3. Pay close attention to proportions!

In the image of the Four of Wands, the figures are depicted much smaller than is the case in other images; they fall short. Or perhaps they are of normal height and are painted so small in order to emphasize the comparatively huge size of the wands. This sort of thing can be found in many other cards. 

4. Court cards represent developed personalities or facets of oneself!

The Queen: impulsive, an initiator, an investigator (water type)

The King: thorough, intensive, consolidating (fire type)

The Knight: magnifying, expanding, a drawer of consequences (air type)

The Page: makes something tangible out of or with the element in question (earth type)

4. Pay attention to numbers!

Numerology can play a big role in your interpretations of the cards, especially in the Minor Arcana:

Ones (Aces): Something new with vast potential is indicated when you have many aces in your readings. They are pure energy without form - and it depends on you to shape it and bring the opportunities that they represent into fruition. Because they are raw, they are also unstable, and can very quickly overwhelm if not taking care.

Twos: Coming together in pairs is the theme of the twos, and all the complexities that this union represents. We leave the individuality of the ones, and the twos are a taste of union. 

Threes: Group dynamics rule the threes in the tarot, and they depict different outcomes that can occur when a group comes together - whether they are groups of individuals, or groups of ideas. Because it is also symbolically thought of as completion (the first polygon, the holy trinity, etc) it also indicates an initial completion of a first phase of some sort.

Fours: The fours usually indicate that some foundation has been created and is ready to grow and evolve. To grow and evolve is the key here, because though the foundation is created, there is some disappointment indicated sometimes because things may not have progressed entirely as hoped for - thus, the fours are also the universe’s way of pushing us to grow and move forward.

Fives: Change, fluctuations and conflict are represented by the fives. After the fours, the fives are amplifications of that same energy. When that energy explodes, the fives ask us to look within ourselves for a deeper reason of why to progress. To move forward and beyond these instabilities, we have to push forward.

Sixes: While the fives represent conflict, the sixes represent the movement away from that conflict into a solution, whether they are internal or external, whether that means reconciliation or letting go. They are the cards of overcoming suffering, light after the dark.

Sevens: When seeing many sevens in a reading it usually indicates that it is a time to step back and introspect. The sevens ask us to assess, and reevaluate whether the path that you are taking is what is best for you. Sometimes this is a lonely pursuit, but this period is needed to go forward with your authentic desires.

Eights: A completion of a second phase is indicated with the eights, and usually corresponds to some sort of achievement, whether in the worldly sense, or in an emotional sense. Growth either way is indicated here, and sometimes it can take place in a form where we least expected it.

Nines: Nearing completion is indicated by the nines, and this can take the form of entering a plateau of some sort. What looks like the finish line, may actually be just a transitory stage. While the feeling of completion is here, it is usually just a pause before the final part of the cycle comes.

there’s not always time to do hour-long full-out rituals and spells, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do little witchy things in your day-to-day life!

- sleep with your curtains open to naturally wake yourself up with the dawn, and appreciate the new day

- do yoga (i like sun salutation yoga in the mornings)

- use a body wash that matches your intent for the day (eg. lavender if you shower at night, rose if you want to boost your love life etc.)

- sprinkle a watered down lavender spray on your blankets/pillows at night for relaxation and rest

- meditate

- you can find some very simple quick spells to do 

- immerse yourself in nature

- moonbathe

- sunbathe

- listen to witchy music

- tidy (physically) and cleanse (energy) your room/house

- light candles

- make a few sigils (put school sigils on your schoolbooks, self-confidence sigils on your hairbrush … )

- have some you time

- add to your book of shadows/grimoire

- even just flick through/read your book of shadows/grimoire

- if you’re on the bus, or waiting for someone or have a free moment, take a minute to ground yourself. concentrate on feeling the connection between you and your seat, your feet and the floor.

just remember that simply doing these does not make you any less of a witch.

This photo means a lot to me. And I’ll tell you why. 

Natalie Portman, as we know, was shut out of Marvel. She chose not to sign any new contract not just because of the way her character was treated (though there is that) but because Thor: The Dark World was slated to be the first Marvel movie directed by a woman, her friend (and eventual Wonder Woman director) Patty Jenkins. Portman hadn’t planned on being in The Dark World, but lept at the chance to be a part of feminist history and to be directed in what would have beenJenkin’s first film since her 2003 Oscar-winning Monster. Portman signed a new contract with Marvel. They fired Jenkins soon after. Portman was crushed because she essentially had been duped into a contract for a film that would keep her away from her young son and force her back into a one-dimensional role under yet another male director. And we all remember how awful that movie was. 

When it came time for the third Thor movie, they tried to get Portman under contract again. And she said no. Marvel decided to spin the story to make it seem like it was all their idea. At first, they went for the lame and nonsensical: 

When Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige was asked about why she wouldn’t be in the third film, and said there were “many reasons, many of which are in the film, so you will see that” continuing with “There are only a couple of scenes on Earth in this movie. The majority, 95 percent of the movie, takes place in the cosmos.” (x)

Seeing as The Dark World also took place in space, this answer didn’t have a lot of credibility. When Portman said she was “done” with the Marvel Universe, Feige got vicious in interviews, telling reporters that Valkyrie was in Ragnorak to be better than Jane Foster and a better match for Thor. 

“We wanted Thor to encounter somebody that was near his equal and that his relationship with Jane may have evolved in unexpected ways in between The Dark World and Ragnarok, and we wanted to pit him against a character who was much more his equal and in many ways his superior.” (x)

Feige implies that A) Valkyrie was in Ragnorak just to be a romantic interest for Thor, B) Valkyrie is better and more powerful than Jane Foster, and C) Jane Foster was always Thor’s inferior. 

What’s ridiculous is that Ragnorak had a “sorry Jane dumped you” throwaway line to explain Portman’s absence. And instead of saying that Jane and Thor broke up in interviews, a line that does not spoil literally anything about the film, Feige chose to attack Jane’s strength and capability, which would have been a very special dig at Portman. 

Do you want to know what none of this sounds like? Taika Waititi’s opinion. Waititi is a master storyteller who does not sacrifice his feminist views for laughs. You can bet that Feige’s ridiculous slams on Portman and her character Jane– disguised as “promotion” for WAITITI’S FILM– would have troubled him immensely. This is a man with a Māori father, who had to use his mother’s maiden name– Cohen– for earlier work because an indigenous last name kept him away from opportunity. This man does NOT fuck around with entertainment that gets its power off of sexism and inequality. He knows from experience just how infuriating it is when it comes to directors missing out on opportunities because they aren’t a white man. 

So how does he fix this? How does he fix the idea that Jane Foster can’t go to space, or that she’s not powerful enough for Thor, the god of thunder? 

He makes her Thor. 

Waititi saw Portman / Jane Foster’s name dragged through the mud by Kevin Feige in order to promote his movie, and when he got hired to direct again, he decided to right those wrongs. This picture means everything. He is on his knee, handing her Thor’s hammer, essentially saying, you will never have to go through that shit with me. With me, you’re a god. And the expression on her face, after Marvel attempted to break her, doesn’t need words.