#(( its so good and the eps are only 10 minutes each which makes it easy to watch/focus-on and GOD—

[canon-fcdder]

(( JUST CAUGHT UP ON ‘MONKIE KID’ AND HOLY SHIT I LOVE THIS SHOW ))

(( IT’S SO GOOD??? HOLY FUCK IM SCREeAMING ))

(( I highkey recommend it to Everyone and Anyone omg I love it so much fdjgnjdkgdf — I am suffering and have to wait for more episodes now, but you can sure as shit bet that Imma be rewatching them all again for both Muse/Icon/SEROTONIN purposes )) 

#(( i am also trying so hard to resist muses but ngl I have been highkey looking at Tang since the start because i LOVE him and I'm also— #—looking at Mayor because i fucking love that abomination of a mans jkfddfngjkdg )) #(( i already have MK on here because S O N but damn jdfgndkg )) #canon-fcdder #⭒ ˙ ˖ ✧ — ˗ˏˋ ❝ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏ ᴅᴀʏ ʏᴏᴜ ꜰɪɢʜᴛ; ʟɪᴋᴇ ʏᴏᴜ'ʀᴇ ʀᴜɴɴɪɴɢ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴛɪᴍᴇ ❞ ¦ 「 OOC 」 #⭒ ˙ ˖ ✧ — ˗ˏˋ ❝ ʏᴏᴜ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ɴᴏᴛ ʙᴇʟɪᴇᴠᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴇʏᴇꜱ; ɪꜰ ᴛᴇɴ ᴍɪʟʟɪᴏɴ ꜰɪʀᴇꜰʟɪᴇꜱ— ❞ ¦ 「 Liveblogging 」 #(( its so good and the eps are only 10 minutes each which makes it easy to watch/focus-on and GOD— #—the ANIMATION and teh STORY and the CHARACTERS and— *continues to ramble* ))

[thompsonstessa-moved]

'Teraz Rock' Interview - english translation

A well know polish magazine about rock music 'Teraz Rock' (Now Rock) had an interview with Måneskin, and since one of the polish fans on FB shared pictures of the magazine, I decided to translate the interview, because I loved some of the stuff they said there! :D

As always, the whole thing is under read more. ;)

Maneskin is not only ‘Zitti e buoni’ and their winning performance in Rotterdam during the recent finale of Eurovision Song Contest. Italian band fits perfectly into the trend of rock restorers, and at the same time fights with the mental narrowness, prejudices and homophobia. On August 19th they will play In Park Kolibki In Gdynia.

I: You started by playing on the streets of Rome…

V: Unfortunately, there is not a lot of possibilities to debut in Rome. Rome is lacking the appropriate places, there are almost no rock shows. So we couldn’t find a place where we could show ourselves to the people. So we decided to play on the streets to gain the following, the listeners. We did that for good few months. And we had a lot of fun doing that. We think it really helped us, too. Because when you play on the streets, you don’t play for someone who came to listen to you. You need to attract people’s attention. So it was a great lesson on stage skills, to keep the attention. And we played many hours each day, so we also evolved as musicians, as a band.

I: Is it true that you had issues with police? V, D, T, E: Yes, that’s true!! (laugh)

D: It was all because of this old lady, that lived on the first floor, near the place where we used to play. She snitched on us! And sometimes police came and tried to get us to leave.

I: They didn’t arrest you?

D: No, it wasn’t that bad.

V: We were 16 back then. We just went all ‘We swear we won’t do it again!’ (laugh). We hid somewhere for 10 minutes….

D: Went around the block….

V: And played again (laugh).

I: You admited that at first you were shy. How did it happen that you gained so much self-confidence? Do you think one has to be self-confident if they want to show the world that they have something to say in music, in art?

V: It is important, but its more about feeling good with yourself and having fun doing what you do, rather than confronting the world. I think that if you lack confidence, you can’t fully enjoy creating, because you keep thinking ‘What the other will think about it?’. But everyone has to go through this phase. In my opinion, self-confidence is not something you’re born with. Everyone has the moments of hesitation and doubt. I have them too, still. And I think that’s perfectly normal. But you need to learn to appreciate yourself, accept yourself the way you are, because you can’t run away from yourself. We have whole life with ourselves, until the day we die (laugh).

I: Damiano, in one of the interviews you said ‘What we say, can change someone way of thinking’. Do you want to influence your audience? Artist like Chuck Berry or AC/DC just had fun on stage.

D: We also have fun on stage. But now, when we’re well known, we can get to many people, especially young ones. And there’s a chance, that if we say something positive to them, we could help them with their problems, that they can’t fight on their own. For example – like Vic said – we can help them gain more self-confidence and make them feel safer in the world around them. I’ll say this: if as a musician you have something to share with others, do it. But if you just want to have fun playing, that’s OK too.

T: Exactly.

I: Your behaviour on stage is often the reason for homophobic attacks. What would you say to homophobes here in Poland?

V: Fuck them!!!

T: Fuck them!

E: Fuck them, fuck them! (laughing)

D: Maybe not so vulgar.....

T: Fuck them!

D: For sure they should open up more, get rid of prejudices. Make a step forward. Free themselves from the old way of thinking. Let the others live however they want.

I: You debuted in 2017 with EP ‘Chosen’ with two of your own songs and few covers. Even tho you were so young, you already came off as mature musicians with a set style…

V: Thanks, but I don’t think so (laugh).

D: I don’t think we would agree with that.

E: We wouldn’t agree with that, definitely.

V: My bass playing skills definitely left much to be desired.

D: 'Chosen' definitely has its advantages, but… we were still looking for our sound back then. That EP is so much more different than our other albums. But it is a part of our career, our journey, and we don’t regret anything that has to do with it. We had a lot of fun recording it and… its something we did in the past and we’re happy that people loved it.

V: Still love it!

D: Exactly, still love it. Even tho we changed so much since then.

V: The most important and coolest thing about that EP is that even tho we were really young and our skills weren’t as good, you can still hear that we already had charisma and knew what we wanted. And even tho most of the EP consists of known songs, we changed them, played them in our own way, our own style. And that’s really cool because it shows us as a band with their own personality. Of course, now that we listen to that EP, we have lot to complain about…

D: We would do the songs much better.

V: But we like the attitude we already had back then. Even tho we were so young.

E: Our sound really changed since then, but you need to remember that when we we’re recording it, it was already a huge accomplishment for us.

D: That’s true.

I: On ‘Chosen’ Damiano sung in english. On your first album, ‘Il ballo della vita’ from 2018, you had songs in italian as well. Did your songs get more personal because of that?

D: I wouldn’t say that. We started writing songs in italian out of necessity. If you’re an Italian artist and want to reach Italian audience, you need, you have to sing in italian, because not a lot of people speak english there. Now it’s different, we managed to reach international audience, so we can make more songs in english. But we won’t resign from italian, we like to write in italian as well.

I: While recording ‘Il ballo della vita’ you made documentary ‘This Is Maneskin’…

E: They will never forget it! (laugh)

I: You can see there, that during that time you argued a lot.

D: We were young!

I: Did the conflicts threaten your band’s future?

D: No! We were just starting out...

V: Conflicts were inevitable. We were very young and suddenly tabloids were writing about us. And recording an album required a lot of work. And we never experienced that before, we had issues dealing with work in the studio. Because creating and recording together isn’t easy. You need to make many decisions, everyone has their own opinion. Now we’re more mature, we know how to deal with those situations. We can discuss with each other in a constructive way. We were much more childish back then and yeah, we fought sometimes. But even then nothing happened that could threaten our band.

I: ‘Il ballo della vita’ is a concept album of sorts. You have there Marlena, who, like you said, is personification of the concern a lot of you have – that we’re not able to be yourself…

D: The album was supposed to share a message to our fans. We wanted to tell them how important for us is the freedom to be yourself. The ability to love someone, that was chosen by our heart. Freedom to wear the clothes we like. Et cetera, et cetera… We realized that the album would speak to people more, and will be easier to understand, if we gave that idea a name. Of course it’s an idea that we still share to this day, just maybe a bit differently.

I: Your last album, ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’, you recorded live in studio. Did the way you worked on it was much different from the way you recorded ‘Il ballo della vita’?

D: Oh yeah! It definitely took us less time!

V: Definitely much faster. It was very exciting. We wanted to keep in studio the energy we have when we play concerts, which meant playing together. Which is of course much more difficult than recording separately. But we told to ourselves: let it be, we should at least try. And we loved the result.

D: You know, at first you work on the material in rehearsal room. And you’re full of energy. But then you come into recording studio, where you divide the song into parts, and you loose that power, that magic. So we realized that we should change the way we work, so we could keep the emotions from rehearsals.

I: ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’ is another concept album. You said its all about the rage, that plays the role of catharsis sometimes. Can you say something more about it?

V: Anger is mostly seen as something negative. And we think that classifying emotions as positive or negative is stupid. Especially in art. When you’re creating, anger can make you give more from yourself, say more. And that’s what our album is about, talking about the world of theatre. We show that something that’s seen as bad, can – especially in the world of art – become something good. And those songs, that are so full of rage, can bring relief to our listeners, which only confirms what I’m trying to say.

I: In the lyrics to 'In nome del padre’ and ‘Vent’anni’ you’re talking about mistakes you made in the past...

D: They are very different tracks, even if they seem to talk about the same topic. Vent’anni is all about our age, because we think it’s a very special moment in your life: you become an adult, but you’re still too young to be considered as such, and they don’t treat you seriously. We wanted to share that with our fans, because maybe they think the same. And In nome del padre is about the battle we had to fight, the mistakes we had to make, to get where we are today. Of course we’re still young, we still make mistakes. But I’m singing about the mistakes from the past, because they made us the way we are today. And I’m saying: don’t be afraid to make mistakes, because they are a part of your journey, your life. What’s important is how you react to those mistakes.

E: It’s not a mistake to make mistakes.

I: The next album, continuation of ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’ – is it already recorded?

D: No, no.

V: Indeed, our next album will be continuation of ‘Teatro D’Ira Vol. 1’, but we’re still working on it. We don’t want to record it in a hurry, we want to take our time making it.

D: We have a lot of songs already, but we want to have plenty to choose from. We want the album to have the most representative songs, the best ones.

#maneskin #måneskin #måneskin interview #maneskin interview #damiano david #victoria de aneglis #ethan torchio #thomas raggi #*mine

[chalkrevelations]

SO. Back to the beginning, Episode 1 of Word of Honor. This is likely to be a little bit different experience than the prior posts, when I was watching the eps as they aired, compared to now approaching the show as whole and complete. May be rummaging around for things I missed the first time through, stuff that takes on new meaning set in additional context – we’ll see how it goes.

With that in mind, spoilers for not just this ep but possibly for the entire series. Get out of the car now and come back later, if you haven’t seen all 36.5 eps and want to watch it unspoiled.

First thing to strike me, right up front: You know, I think we tend to lose sight in later parts of the show – when we’re getting Laopo!Zhou Zishu pouting so he doesn’t have to cook dinner - how terrifying ZZS is in his own right (and by “we,” I actually mean the show, too). One of the things the first few episodes gets right, I think, is the sense of eerie inevitability and dread created by both the falling lanterns of Tian Chuang and the blowing paper figures of the Ghost Valley, and how similar they are. I think it’s easy to lose that - when the lanterns and the paper figures are gone and our charming and adorable couple are busy being charming and adorable at each other, in between varying rounds of being wracked by guilt and PTSD – easy to lose that this is there too, part of them – both of them - under the skin. I think it’s particularly easy to lose that for ZZS, when he’s already done a lot of work, off-screen, pre-Episode 1, during the 18 months he was putting in those first six Nails, to come to some kind of equilibrium, and meanwhile we watch Wen Kexing’s entire torturous process play out on-screen. Wen Kexing’s story is one of reaching an equilibrium, but Zhou Zishu’s story is one of maintaining it, which I think may be less showy, but is equally valuable, just as I value the Four Seasons Manor arc, especially, for giving us a vibe of two adults comfortable in an already intimate relationship, as opposed to the veritable sea of will-they-won’t-they tug-of-war coming-together-for-the-first-time-as-emotional-AND-plot climax relationships that we’re usually awash in.

Anyway, straight up we’re introduced to an assassin who, we discover, doesn’t like to get blood on himself. It looks like metaphorical blood is fine, just not actual blood, but then we discover, well, maybe he’s not as OK with metaphorical blood as he schools himself to look. Also that conversation with Li Jingan about her dad having to die because he’s a traitor to the country – I now wonder how much of that particular conversation Zhou Zishu mentally brings to the table in later conversations about his own father being executed for the same reason. Also, wait wait wait. Zhou Zishu tells Jingan that he took Jiuxiao’s body back to Four Seasons Manor and buried him next to their shifu, but I don’t remember seeing another grave there, other than Qin Huaizhang’s and his wife’s. Script inconsistency, or are you supposed to be lying, ZZS? I mean, would you be so downcast at the state of Four Seasons Manor when you arrive with your husband and son for your honeymoon, if you’d actually been there only a couple of years before? It didn’t fall to pieces overnight. Also, HAIRPIN FORESHADOWING ALERT. Our first sign of how important the hairpin is, the way ZZS’s impassive face cracks wide open when he sees the hairpin that Jiuxiao made and realizes he must have given it to Jingan. Clearly important!

Mmm. Here’s a point for the “Prince Jin is a f’kn asshole” list – Prince Jin wants ZZS to deal with Bi Changfeng personally when Bi Changfeng requests to leave Tian Chuang. And OK, ZZS is the leader of Tian Chuang. But you’re never going to convince me Prince Jin wants ZZS to deal with it personally because Prince Jin is actually so very furious that Bi Changfeng made a mistake. You will never convince me this isn’t a … it’s not even a test of loyalty, at this point, because Prince Jin has no reason to think yet that ZZS is anything other than the faithful hunting dog on a leash that he’s been, lo, these many years. Putting ZZS in a position where not only is he losing the last of the direct disciples of Four Seasons Manor, but he’s being asked to (as good as) kill him with his own hands - it’s just cruelty for the proof of your power and influence over someone. Also, given Prince Jin’s later diatribe about how everyone leaves him OMG (have you considered it’s your personality?) (But also Beiyuan! I know who you are now, and yeah, I would have let Wu Xi bride-kidnap me away from this jerk, too), I have to wonder if Prince Jin isn’t trying to make ZZS feel exactly as isolated as he, himself, feels, as part of his overall desire to make sure that ZZS has no one other than Prince Jin so that their positions are parallel – only having each other in the whole world. I also have to wonder if he’s not hoping for precisely the reaction ZZS has to Bi Changfeng – you’d rather be dead than be with me? Because that hurts, you can see it on ZZS’s face (thanks already, Zhang Zhehan), and I rather suspect Prince Jin wants it to hurt. I notice we get an echo of this later in the ep, with Prince Jin saying pretty much the same thing when ZZS asks for the final Nail. GOOD. I hope it hurts you just as much. I wonder if ZZS realizes this while he’s kneeling there in the throne room. It’s probably too late for him to get any satisfaction out of it.

OH, HEY. That’s HAN YING already, one of the two people accompanying ZZS to put down Bi Changfeng, looking super-pained like he knows what this is all costing his beloved. Han Ying, I really hope you got to tap that at least a few times before ZZS made his break for it. Is that one of the reasons Prince Jin seems to have such antipathy for you, or is it really just that he can’t stand the idea of someone whose loyalty to ZZS is greater than their loyalty to Prince Jin, himself? (Seriously, y’all, why is there not much much more Han Ying/ZZS fic?) Meanwhile Duan Pengju, omg, this asshole, is already looking smug and punchable. Really, he’s kind of enjoying the Seven Nails placement a little too much. Showing your hand pretty fast on the petty evil thing, show.

So, one thing I didn’t catch the first time around, is that ZZS isn’t just self-injuring to punish himself when he takes the knife to his chest – he re-opens wounds on all the places where the first six Nails have already been placed, so it will look like the placement is fresh. If you can’t tell he hasn’t just put them in, there’s no reason for anyone else (read: Prince Jin) to suspect he’s bought himself some time before he loses his senses. As far as anyone knows, he’s going to fall over with locked-in syndrome any day now. Which just makes the implications of Prince Jin vowing that he’s only letting him go for now EVEN ICKIER. For all Prince Jin knows, what he’s going to get back is a flesh doll that will just lie there, although I guess on the plus side, ZZS would never leave him again. Thanks, show, I need a shower, now.

ZZS says all the right things to argue his case to Prince Jin – he’s only good as a weapon, he has no skills nor utility for building and governing the country – and I think partly this is because he just knows the right things to say. I mean, you don’t become the Number Two guy in the country, with thousands under you and only one above you, if you can’t play imperial politics. But I also wonder if deep down he doesn’t actually believe it – he was successful at building Tian Chuang, but he couldn’t maintain Four Seasons Manor and even drove it to ruin. So, I’ll just be over here, clutching my chest, over my heart. Fortunately, Zhang Zhehan provides quick distraction from this pain, and I … Y’all. I can’t. I just. I CANNOT. When ZZS drops to his knees and starts stripping in the throne room. Just. Mmmmmrgh. THIS VISUAL. Although, you want to know what one of the hottest parts actually is? That pair of leather bracers hitting the floor on top of his belt, and ZZS isn’t even in the shot at that point. OK, fine, I am willing to read some dirtybadwrong fic with this whole scene premise at its heart, even if it does include Prince Jin. Zhang Zhehan, you are KILLING ME. I might have rewound this part. More than once. You can’t prove anything.

Aaaand then we get that gorgeous, painful shot of ZZS riding out into the snow that I know I’ve talked about before (including the way I get an odd echo of Lan Xichen off of it). There are several places in this ep where the cinematography is to die for, and this is one of them, the bleakness of the landscape and Zhang Zhehan (and his FACE) deep in that shadowing cloak against the stark snow as he rides out into freedom and the unknown. Then cut to somewhere green and forested. Interesting that the show starts with snow and ends with snow. That parallel with the imperial cage says some things about immortality that could stand to be unpacked – but later. Because ZZS is putting his face on – literally – and I am once again in pain, only it’s not the good kind of pain. It’s caused by that dreadful fake facial hair. There are some things that could be unpacked here, as well, about the fact that making ZZS supposedly unattractive involves a clearly fake goatee, a single aesthetically placed scar, and darkening his skin. I’m going to try to step carefully here, because this is kind of out of my lane, but it is … a noticeable thing. That probably ought to be noted.

So, ZZS takes just a moment to turn his (fake) face up to the sun and feel the warmth on it … and then with 10 minutes left, we’re on our way to Ghost Valley, where there’s some chaos and then Hanging Ghost gets got by a Mysterious Stranger To Be Revealed Later, who chokes him out (remember this). The Mysterious Master of Ghost Valley appears dramatically on his High Ledge to Make Some Pronouncements while playing with some walnuts omg (rolling two of them in one hand – remember this), and we see his eyes, which are partially obscured by chunky sidebangs, which are farther forward on his forehead than we’re going to see later, not only hiding some of his face but making it look more angular. The troops get berated, shit rolls downhill, and another dude gets choked (remember this) as Ghost Valley Master’s hair continues to artfully hide most of his face and he worries about his manicure post-kill (remember this). War is declared on Hanging Ghost for stealing the Glazed Armor, and more chaos is set into motion.

All of that takes literally two minutes, and then we cut to three months later, and no one realizes it yet, but the fam is getting together. ZZS is tits out in the gutter - only beginning his career of being a minx who flashes his collarbones an awful lot for someone who has Very Secret Scars He’s Hiding On His Chest - happily drinking himself to death in the sun (we really need to talk about this correlation of snow and immortality vs. sun and happiness …). Meanwhile, slo-mo shot of Wen Kexing looking precious and perfect, with delicate pink lips and dove-grey robes, as he checks out the rough trade in the gutter. Oh, the expectations this show is getting ready to smash. We cut from a shot of pristine precious WKX to ZZS holding up his hand, and we get a shot of the sun through ZZS’s fingers looking an awful lot like some shots of characters halo’d in light that we’ll get back to much much later in the show. Chengling appears out of nowhere to be Best Boy. A-Xiang is purple and smol and ready to brawl, and I already love her. I already love them all!  So much! Here are my delicate and precious feelings, show, go ahead and stomp all over them!

#zhou zishu #prince jin #han ying #wen kexing #gu xiang #zhang chengling #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

[girlsbtrs]

How Being a Woman in Hardcore Helped Me Learn to Love Myself

Written by Jen Moglia. Graphic by Laura Cross. 

Since this is my first piece written for Girls Behind the Rock Show, I figured that I should introduce myself; hi, my name is Jennifer, but most people call me Jen. I live on Long Island in New York, and my favorite things include my cats, the color pink, giving gifts to my Animal Crossing villagers, and watching sports. Above all else, however, I love music.

I frequently refer to music as the love of my life. It somehow plays a role in everything that I do. I got my first iPod when I was five years old, stacked with everything from Miranda Cosgrove and Avril Lavigne to Tool and Deftones. Some of my favorite memories growing up are sitting in my pink and purple bedroom singing and dancing along to Paramore’s crushcrushcrush and Fall Out Boy’s Thnks Fr Th Mmrs on the local alternative radio station. I danced for 12 years, played cello for seven, and am currently a wannabe ukulele rockstar after buying one on impulse and starting to teach myself how to play four years ago. Even on the simplest, barely noticeable levels, music has been everywhere in my life for as long as I can remember; even now, I can’t complete a basic task without a song playing in my headphones.

Music became an even bigger part of my life when I started attending live shows. I went to my first concerts at age 10, seeing my two favorite artists - Nickelodeon boy band Big Time Rush and classic progressive rock band Rush - within one month of each other. By the time I was 15, I had been to my fair share of arena/seated shows with one or both of my parents, from Fifth Harmony to Fitz and the Tantrums to Alice in Chains. My first general admission show was seeing the Foo Fighters at Citi Field with both my mom and dad when I was 12, but my first pop-punk general admission show (yes, they’re different) came a few years later. I had the typical list of favorite bands that you would expect from a young teenager getting into alternative music: Neck Deep, Knuckle Puck, Real Friends, and State Champs. 

In late 2018, I was able to see all four of these bands for the first time, and I am a firm believer that it changed the course of my life. I met, cried-during, and eventually got the setlist for Neck Deep at Stereo Garden on Long Island in September. I sang all of “Untitled” at the barricade for Knuckle Puck at SI Hall at the Fairgrounds in Syracuse in October. I had my first minor concussion scare (yay!) before Real Friends’ set at Irving Plaza in New York City in November. Finally, I crowd surfed for the first time during State Champs’ anniversary show for The Finer Things at House of Independents in Asbury Park in December. After just a few shows, I had fallen in love with this new brand of live music that I had just been introduced too. There was something so magical to me about skin covered in sweat and Sharpie marks, feet hurting from dancing in the pit all night, and meeting strangers on line outside the venue who would become your best friends and know your deepest secrets by the end of the night.

After making some friends at all of the pop-punk shows I was going to, they started to tell me that I should get into hardcore music. I was hesitant at first - the heaviest thing I had listened to at that point was nowhere near the snippets of hardcore that my friends had played for me - but, eventually, I decided to give it a chance. I was bored and home alone with nothing to do one night over the summer of 2019 when I listened to my first hardcore album, Laugh Tracks by Knocked Loose. Immediately, I got that gut feeling that you have when you know you’ve heard one of your favorite bands for the first time. I knew that this was something special that I was meant to find at this point in my life. For the rest of the summer, I worked my way through the rest of my friends’ hardcore and hardcore-adjacent recommendations, with Cost of Living by Incendiary, Stage Four by Touche Amore, You’re Not You Anymore by Counterparts, Time & Space by Turnstile, Springtime and Blind by Fiddlehead, Smile! Aren’t You Happy by Absence of Mine, Bad to my World by Backtrack, and Reality Approaches by Harms Way being some of my favorites. By the time the next school year started, I was hooked, and I already had tickets to my first few hardcore shows in the fall.

My first hardcore show was in November 2019, seeing Knocked Loose at Webster Hall in New York City - fitting, right? They were on tour supporting their new record A Different Shade of Blue, which I had become obsessed with the minute I heard it for the first time. Although I was ridiculously scared of getting stepped on and breaking all my bones (yes, that was an actual fear of mine), I had the time of my life at that show. There was something about this newer kind of live music that prompted a cathartic release, one that I hadn’t found anywhere else before. As soon as the show was over, I was counting the days until my next one.

My love for live hardcore music (and live music and hardcore music in general) has only grown since then, and that story sort of ends there. However, I want to go back to that first hardcore band that I listened to, Knocked Loose, and the album they put out that first summer that stole my heart. I was taken by storm as soon as the first notes of A Different Shade of Blue rang through my headphones, but something was different about the third track, A Serpent’s Touch, particularly the ending; I heard a voice that sounded a little bit more like my own.

This song features Emma Boster, who does vocals for one of my favorite hardcore bands right now, Dying Wish. When I heard A Serpent’s Touch for the first time, though, I had no idea who she was. I was used to the aggressive vocal delivery of frontmen in hardcore, particularly that of Knocked Loose’s Bryan Garris, but hearing it come from her changed my perspective on a lot of things. It’s not like the song was super angry and changed its tune to be lighter once the token girl came along; in her verse, Boster sings, “I watched the venom / Overcome your spirit / Jealousy holds you now / Distorting your appearance / Bleed out.” These were lyrics that held the same intensity that the lines screamed by the men held, and they sounded just as cool coming out of her mouth. As cheesy as it sounds, it had never even occurred to me that women had a place in this new world that I had discovered. The audiences in the live videos I watched (and eventually at the shows I attended) were made up of mostly men who looked bigger and older than me. When I did start going to shows, most of the non-man population consisted of my friends and I. Emma Boster, along with so many others, began to open my eyes to the fact that a place for people like me existed in this community. It didn’t matter that I had bright red hair or liked butterflies or wore pink - I was just as much a part of this magic as the men multiple feet taller than me with tattoo-covered arms, and I belonged there just as much as they did.

As time went on and I got more involved in the genre’s music and community, I discovered more bands with women in them, and it only fueled this fire of empowerment inside of me. When I felt insecure, I’d watch live sets from Krimewatch, a hardcore band from New York City, just half an hour away from my hometown. They have multiple women as members, including their energetic badass of a vocalist, Rhylli Ogiura. Year of the Knife became one of my all-time favorites, and their bassist Madison Watkins became a serious inspiration to me; the way that she can balance killing it on stage and running the cutest, most pink apparel brand I’ve ever seen (aptly titled Candy Corpse) amazes me. Even some of the bands I’ve found more recently have had an impact on me. I started listening to Initiate last year when their EP Lavender came out, and their beautifully colorful cover art caught my eye before I had heard any of their songs. Their vocalist, Crystal Pak, is also a woman, and she’s insanely talented. Discovering this kind of representation in this new universe that I had come to feel so at home in introduced me to a world of confidence and determination that I had never known before.

When people ask me why I love hardcore so much, I often give the easy answer; “the music sounds good.” If the person allows me to ramble on for a little longer, the answer becomes much more emotional and cheesy. Hardcore taught me that speaking up for what I believe in is important, and if there’s something I’m passionate about, it’s worth shouting about. I became familiar with this when listening to one of my favorite bands ever, Incendiary (the second hardcore band I ever checked out), before quickly realizing that politics are a pretty common topic within the genre - it’s what this music was practically built on. The first time I heard their vocalist Brendan Garrone singing about police brutality and injustice on songs like Force of Neglect and Sell Your Cause, I realized that there is so much more to music than just sounding good.

However, at its core, the thing I love so much about hardcore is what it taught me about being a woman. Growing up, I was the loud girl with the personality bigger than the room who always had something to say and had a never ending supply of excitement about just about everything. As I got older, I was taught that this was not okay. People didn’t like how enthusiastic I was about everything, or that I constantly had new ideas and new discoveries I wanted to talk about. As cliche as it sounds, I felt like everyone around me was trying to dull my sparkle, especially some of the men that I was encountering on a day-to-day basis. Even when I started to come to terms with my big and bright personality, in turn also coming to terms with my own femininity, I was told that this wasn’t how girls acted. I had to pick one - I could watch Disney princess movies and wear Hello Kitty hair clips, or I could be outspoken about my beliefs; but never both. The women that I mentioned earlier, along with so, so many more, helped me unlearn these toxic mindsets. Seeing someone like Emma Boster take the stage and scream ferociously for a full set helped me see that I could be a girl and still be a powerhouse. Following Madi Watkins around on social media showed me that I could love bands like Year of the Knife and also love heart-shaped purses and wear pink from head to toe. My aggression and passion didn’t make me any less of a woman, and my femininity didn’t make me any less of a force to be reckoned with. 

So, at the end of this love letter to hardcore and the women who run it, I say this; thank you for teaching me that I don’t have to shrink myself anymore. It has made a world of a difference.

#jennifer moglia

[redxblueihateloveyou]

now we know your opinions abt victuri, but what about the other pairing, otayuri?

their sequence was very cute, not gonna lie and you know I am indeed a huge fan of “I’m so good at approaching a cat” ships, but this was like ep 10 out of 12. 

like once again I can see good potential in some couples and get why ppl think they can be good together, but I can’t get mega invested in a couple bc of  a couple scenes, especially when I don’t know anything about one of the characters. just like as I see potential in some ships, but can easily drop if they don’t have any development at all.

it just always amazes me, I don’t know how some do it and what is the reasoning for this, but I’ve seen it a lot in many popular fandoms like bnha, haikyuu and free! too, when some pick some character that appeared like two times during the whole story or did basically nothing, but there are ppl who are like “fuuuuck he’s my absolute fave in bnha” and I’m like sitting there like “ah, and the pivotal point in this was the shot of his right pinky in ep 17 and his background shot in chapter 251 of the manga?”. lol well, I’m exagerating here, but you know what I mean.

like how I saw a comment under the new free! trailer that was “you have no idea how happy I am about the fact that I’d get to see kisumi again”..  like I like kisumi, but he’s not even a full on character there tbh, he’s mostly a comedic relief. but you see, as they say “there are a great many opinions in this world... (the end of this tho “and a good half of them are professed by people who have never been in trouble” lmao). like some are gonna watch the last chapter of free! for kisumi, to each their own.

like I’ve seen ppl making amvs about nash from knb and a chocolate commercial and I’m like “I wish I could get inspiration that easy”, bc I’m sitting here like with a giant list of things I want in a ship and characters that’d make me open sony vegas lol

some think the best ship is a ship you have almost no canonical material about. and yes, I know the song “in canon they have never met, but I don’t care, I ship it”, and I've seen ships whose some scenes I find cute and think “yeah, it could’ve been great if it was explored”, but I’ll just watch it and move on, that’s all. I do not get how you can get SOOOOOO invested into smth that doesn’t really exist with the characters who weren’t even explored. 

so with characters like otabek like from these 10 minutes he was in the anime and the tiny “madness” comic, you can only go so far in predicting what kind of person he is. so where ppl get this asdfghjhgfds this suddenly got me inspired to write a 100K fic about them, it’s truly fascinating to me. I just don’t think really it counts as a fic about THEM per se, it’s much closer to the yuri/original character. all that they gave you is a guy who wanted to be friends with yuri supposedly for the fact that he’s purposeful and inspiring which is great and amazing start for a good ship, totally get him, but then I don’t know him.

like once again in fanfiction you can do technically whatever you want, but it’s just funny to me like when ppl are writing fics about some characters who they don’t know nothing about, I’m like.. why not just write an original book and sell it instead, I mean, bc it’s basically your character already, for real. just change the name and make some money instead lolz. like some fanfiction is more of a just fiction really, bc there are some fics, you can really just change names and you won’t even get who it was supposed to be.

I do kinda have different type of ships: those I find cute, but sometimes tend to even forget about them after watching smth (so basically whatever, but I enjoyed it while watching tho), then ships I liked enough that they made me want to vid them; then if I want to do a manip vid about a ship, I like them a lot; if I vid them more than once, I’m probably in love with them xD And if it’s stuff like my harurin playlist that contains 15 vids and wangxian 13, that’s probably means I’m obsessed lmao. that’s all. 

so otayuri goes to the 1st category to me, I guess, I enjoyed their couple interactions, yes, it’s a good start for ship, yes, do they have enough stuff to make me care a lot? unfortunatly, no. they did for sure make this episode pleasant to watch tho for me, not gonna lie xD for a moment I was like “yeah, yeah, okay continue pls”, but then I was like “ah, I forgot, that its not about it and it’s like second to the last episode” lmao

#answered #anonymous #anime #shipping

[siliconchat921]

Dating App For Gym Rats

The Gym Rats Basketball app will provide everything needed for team and college coaches, media, players, parents and fans throughout an event. Need to find your next game? How about a player's next game? Need directions to your next game? Wondering where a team is from? Need to see who advanced in a bracket or where someone stands in pool play?

Well, you’re in luck, as a new app plans to hook up like-minded gym bunnies together. Dubbed the ‘Tinder for fitness fanatics’, Sweatt matches up potential mates based on their exercise habits.

Play as The Ratchelor, an eligible single rat looking for love. You'll get to know each of our 21 lovely contestants through intimate conversation. Round after round, you will choose who to eliminate, leaving only your most compatible rat suitors. Finally, at the end of your emotional journey, you will find your rat soulmate.

Get to the gym, become a rat. Band together to improve your fitness by competing in a group challenge. Enlist friends, family, teammates, colleagues, or whoever, to become gym rats. The goal is to workout more often, any activity counts.

Happy hour or a 60-minute spin class which do you choose on a busy day?

A new dating app Sweatt, might just have the solution.

Simply put, if you combined Tinder and Class Pass, youd have Sweatt. The apps algorithm matches people based on how often and when they work out, what their favorite classes or activities are, and any sort of diet preference, from raw to paleo. Users also have the option to write a short profile.

Most dating apps match users based on things in common, whether its friends, ethnicity or music. Similarly, for many people, fitness isnt just a hobby; its a lifestyle, which can be a building block toward deep emotional connection.

You don’t have to love the same kinds of fitness; someone into yoga could match well with a marathon runner simply because they understand each others priorities.

While you’d think it would be easy to meet other people at the gym, you may run into some familiar problems: people work out using headphones or while watching their phones (not very inviting), or you just see the same people every day.

Sweatt connects people you don’t see every day but who share one of your top interests.

While Sweatt presents opportunities to create real relationships, the app is ripe with gym selfies, so beware. In fact, Sweatt puts major emphasis on the importance of profile pictures with the option to post five full-size profile photos.

While the creator of the app Dan Ilani insists Sweatt isnt a hookup app, judging by the photos of the user base, some might be mistaken. This could potentially be frustrating for some people.

However, the app could help shake up the first date. Sweatt users might forgo dinner and drinks for a physical activity instead, such as hiking or taking a class together, a playful opportunity to get to know someone.

And even if the date doesnt go well, at least users won’t miss their workout.

Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.

Read more:

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[rigelmejo]

April Progress Update, and May Goals:

*bear with me this is gonna get long.

I’m going to first just look at April goals and see if I did them, then afterward summarize everything I did this month (cause it was a lot more than I planned ToT)

Chinese study plan from April:

1. Read anything 

Well, I did read. However my goal to read hanshe to chapter 80 and Zhenhun to the end of the sundial arc never happened. I did read a lot though. I ended up focusing mainly on extensive reading. 

Chinese chapters read: 62 (I counted graded readers/小王子 as 1 chapter for every two that I read, but this number is probably still inflated... compared to my normal 20-pleco page chapters I probably read 31-40 of those-kind-of-chapters length wise).

Chinese stories finished: 4 (Pleco Graded Reader Butterfly Lovers, Chinese Short Stories, Mandarin Companion Journey to the Center of the Earth, 小王子 - you can tell this is where my attention went this month).

Chinese Listening Reading Method chapters done: 14.5 (4.5 Silent Reading, 2 Chapters of A History of Humankind, 1 chapter hp, 1 chapter Alice in Wonderland, iffy but like 3 chapters 小王子, iffy but like 4 chapters of the Xiao Mao cat story - I should note that for Silent Reading, 小王子, Xiao Mao I only looked at the chinese mostly so more step 2, and for the others I did step 3 as recommended). Also I realize... I should probably count this with hours instead of chapters, because hours are where the original poster about LR mentioned when milestones are hit. However, being realistic, I do not do things in hour segments so I’m not sure any tracking will be as easy as this way...

A cool thing potentially about L R Method? I found some resources recently that will make this a lot easier (Bidiread is a site that can make parallel texts for you, which made silent reading MUCH easier since the audio doesn’t perfectly match so you NEED to see the chinese even if only doing step 3, to make sure you can keep track of where you are in the text when the audio skips paragraphs). I also found Francais Par Le Methode Nature as videos on youtube with audio and the text visible (is that not simply L R method step 2 but its all comprehensible, i love that book). And I found a few files on youtube of audiobooks with english audio and chinese/english parallel text on screen (a bit backwards in process but i’m curious to test it), one youtube channel who does chinese audio with parallel texts on screen (phenomenal!), and I remembered the site bilinguis exists which is excellent for French if you wanna try L R Method (it has a few french audios with the parallel texts). Also in the case of A History of Humankind - the audiobook for once is very closely synced to the actual chapter start/ends, so it was just easier to do L R Method with. 

2. Listen to Chinese Spoonfed Audio, shadowing when I can

YES I did this! I was on 11 last month, now I’m on 15. (so 4 audio this month) Yes I realize that wasn’t a lot of improvement T-T. What can I say I am not very good at being disciplined. However I did learn something interesting this month ABOUT listening to these so I think I might do it more - I listened to some in the background while playing games, then later listened to them again (also why I only got through 4 - I was replaying audios maybe 2 times). And when I listened the second time I could understand nearly all, whereas obviously when playing my game I only caught parts of it. So I suppose what this showed me is partially listening and partially focusing still may have some benefit in helping to learn the info - and well obviously its easier to make time to play audio when u don’t need to focus 100% on it.  

I also did some other misc listening to random stuff without any plan: 6? audio 1 of DeFrancis Beginner Chinese Reader, 1 audio of FSI Chinese, 2 condensed audios of Guardian (which was so cool?? also so cool i can follow along so well now??), 1 dracula chapter audio (don’t even ask i don’t know either), tian ya ke audio drama ep 1.

Chinese show episodes watched: 28 (You can see here is where my time went listening wise lol - Two Souls in One is GOOD u might wanna check it out, is all I’m saying, especially if the taiwan drama Bromance was ur thing, or the anime Ouran Host Club, or even Bureau of Transformer to a degree. I watched up to ep 25 and once its all aired to the finale I’m gonna finish it. 

Optional going through my hanzi book: I burned out on this, but it was a good use of my time when I felt like writing. I only wrote/studied maybe 30 hanzi, and maybe 50 hanzi+radicals in my Radical-Specific hanzi book. If I continue, I think my goal will be to just continue the Radical-book to completion. Realistically, longer term, I need to go through the freaking Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Character’s book just to get the hanzi and their rough meaning to stick in my head (and learn the pronunciations through well context and vocab how I normally do). Right now I just learn through reading, but its an issue of sometimes I just end up associating one hanzi with the new word I learned but then as soon as I see it in a new word I don’t even remember having seen it before. If I paid a bit more attention to distinguishing I might notice when I’ve seen them before or they’re new, and have more starting info to relate to the character to attach the word info onto. (its a convoluted way of me saying if I have things to connect to each other I remember better even if it makes little sense to connect them - if I know car and pet, carpet’s easier to remember even though it has nothing to do with cars, cry in french ‘pleurer’ was easier to remember once my brain thought ‘plume of tears’ even though that makes no sense. i just remember things better than seeing pleurer and having no idea what to attach it to at all - even if i heard it means cry, if i don’t have a thing to associate it with i’ll forget easier. or melancholy - i had to associate it with melons, and cholly - reminds me of words for sickness so heavy-sick +sad is how i started finally remembering that word cause wow did i look it up over and over as a kid).

---

Japanese study plan from April:

1. continue through nukemarine’s memrise courses. 

Okay I did do this!! Congrats! In March I had completed LLJ 3 - Kanji, 289/318 finished in LLJ 4 Tae Kim part 1. As of April, I have completed: LLJ 4 Part 1, LLJ 4 Part 2 51/365, LLJ 5  Core Vocabulary 420/1020. So yeah! Going quite well, in that I consistently did it - I realized for me the best time to do it is playing video games oddly enough, or watching youtube - just do it in between areas, or ep scenes/videos, as a short 5-10 minute break. Since I like taking breaks from things anyway. Like audio, its hard for me to find ways to get myself to do stuff like this (except worse cause I don’t vibe with flashcards).

My goal for May will probably be finish LLJ 4 Part 2, LLJ 5, and start LLJ 6? I can dream right...

Also, a cool note: I found audio-flashcard files that people made of the Japanese Core 2k vocabulary deck and sentences, with english-japanese audio. (If anyone wants a link just let me know). So now if I DO eventually get burned out on flashcards, I could switch to using those. They would work about as well as the Chinese Spoonfed Audio files I have (which work extremely well for me - audio flashcards I just listen to are so much more suited to how I study lol). However, I’d like to stick with Nukemarine’s decks as long as possible while I can focus - they cover grammar explicitly which helps me a lot, and the reading practice COMBINED with constant audio really helps me learn the readings of words. Which is something I need for japanese a LOT more than chinese.

2. continue reading Tae Kim’s grammar guide 

Ahahahahaaa hahaaa... did not do it. Nope.

What I did do that was grammar related:

Watched Cure Dolly lessons 1-5 (and will probably watch more as I seem to click well with those explanations)

Read 24 pages of Japanese in 30 Hours while transcribing actual japanese into it (and will probably continue to read it, its so short I should just DO IT in a couple days, it also fulfilled my desire to write stuff)

JapaneseAudioLessons.com - read the wa vs ga explanation, reading the portable japanese grammar notes document right now (its 11 pages I’ll finish it today). I’ve said it before but i really LOVE this resource, and they have so much for free. I absolutely recommend if a beginner wants Pimsleur or Michael Thomas or some other paid resource etc, to just go to this site, download their full lesson grammar guide (its like 311 pages like a real textbook) and go through all their free audio lessons. You will cover a lot of ground (more than Pimsleur or Michael Thomas), and all for free. In addition, I’ve bought some of their kanji teaching books and they’re overall my favorite for remembering kanji specifically (yes more than Heisig’s RTK by far, and more than KKLC - although the Kodanshi book is a good reference to have around). I’m not kidding at all when I say just try this site’s free resources if you’re trying to use free stuff, its the closest I’ve found to an audio only teaching method, or an audio/textbook-like combo, that’s this much stuff and free. (For non free, I actually liked Genki if you do everything in it).

Other misc things done in japanese:

Watched Dracula the Musical in japanese with no subs. It was super hard, but also not so hard. It changed my life. 1000/10 would recommend watching it if you even remotely like dracula OR vampires - featuring a lesbian Dracula/Mina, and more importantly a story change about who kills Dracula, and Dracula and Mina’s agency and choice being the driving force of the ending. These story changes I LOVE and I now want them in more adaptations moving forward, its what I always craved of the ending of Dracula and never got - Dracula as a person (not monster), Mina as a person (not prey), and their choices influencing how the story ends and by whom (versus Van Helsing/the establishment symbol regaining control through annihilation of the ‘threat’ to that norm). Also it gave me a new interest in Japanese plays which is cool. I did not expect to love them this much! Also gave me a boost in japanese confidence, in that I no longer feel as “scared” to try immersing in japanese or in some kinds of content that seemed ‘harder’ - and that was a big hurdle I was too afraid to do, in the past when I studied.

Watched a few more lets plays (lets guess maybe 3-5 sections of 20 minutes?). Persona 2 innocent sin (cool to see me follow along despite not knowing the game), Final Fantasy IX (this one I saved, and could definitely pick up words from since I know some of the story and the lets player read everything - I should look up FFX), random stuff. 

Tried to play some games in japanese! I’m going to go with this was about 3 hours. I tried crisis core’s opening to the first save point - it was playable (I can read most of the menus), and I can follow enough text to get the overall gist - however it was draining as so much is text only (I FORGOT how much reading is in this game). Great for reading practice I suppose. Also great in that it definitely reset my expectations about what is ‘doable’ for me - however I do think KH2 is probably still the easiest game i should start trying games with (since I have so many of the controls/menu memorized and can waste less time re-reading the tutorials), and since I know so many words by memory I’ll be able to focus more on grammar (whereas in CC I was glancing through kanji trying to keep up with the live action scenes). A bit too much reading for me to tackle again for a while, it was draining lol. Then I tried persona 3 for psp - first, i like the ps2/ps3 version better ToT. Second, also somehow I could read enough to survive - but the reading again took time, a lot isn’t voiced, and there are not frequent save points. So again I just played to the first save point. That one I may try again before CC though, because a lot more of the language is daily life stuff I could glance through and speed-read-guess lol, or could actually use if I learned it. Also occassionally p3 reads out loud which is nice. I suspect the Visual Novel I got will actually be best for practice (despite me not knowing the plot at all), because I’m guessing more of the lines will be voiced. All this reading would help me more if I could hear it voiced - and I may want to watch more Lets Plays, and Audiobooks on youtube, mainly for that fact: subtitles that i can read WITH audio so i can practice listening and reading together.

Tried reading a bit! First, some mangas I had (though I only read a page of each) - mainly it was just nice to see mangas are more accessible now. they’re about as readable to me rn as manhua were in chinese at 6-8 months in. I can just about follow the main gist, more if I use a dictionary for details. Also thanks to @yue-muffin​ telling me, learned I can look up words on iphone in the web browser just by highlighting words and clicking “look up.” Life changing. That in combination with me finding some japanese scripts of Final Fantasy games online (and I’ve always been curious what localizations changed), and this has been a little reading I found myself doing just because i felt like it. I didn’t read much - the equivalent of several dialogue boxes (the games i played made me read a LOT more lol). but I liked that i could see their kana when i looked them up, sound the sentences out to myself, contemplate them (so intensive read). Also if you have Speech tools enabled on your phone, you can swipe down with 2 fingers and it will read the page aloud - I used to do that a little with chinese on dual chinese-englist mtlnovel pages since it WILL read both, but Pleco reads chinese better so unless i’m only-listening i switched to pleco for that. But for these scripts it works great! (occasionally it will read all-kanji titles like chinese though lol - not once its into japanese sentences though). I thought it was really cool I could basically emulate what I do in Pleco for chinese, in a normal web browser for Japanese. (Also, for websites, Idiom app seems to work ok for reading Aloud as well - possibly better - but ios iphone “Look up” dictionaries are MUCH better than Idiom app’s).

In summary basically I surprisingly enjoyed reading and might keep trying to do it just because its interesting. However in general, first: I really want 2k words done in Nukemarine’s LLJ courses (LLJ 7 would put me at 1k common words, LLJ 12 would put me at 2k so...), and I’d really like a better grammar foundation (Cure Dolly, or japanese audio lessons grammar, Nukemarine LLJ also obviously fits that task with the grammar portions, really anything). While I want to play games, again I just really realize... how much easier my life will be with a better basis of knowledge first lol. Reading I can do in bite size if I want, but playing games is Draining in between saves right now lol. While i CAN do it right now, unless its a game i really can tune out with (like KH2 maybe) then its just too intensive right now for me to tolerate too much of.

Also, again, I think doing Nukemarine’s LLJ decks as breaks while playing games/watching stuff is working great, going to keep doing that. And listening to audio flashcard files while I have dead time (like level grinding). I have been listening to the Chinese Spoonfed audio, but other options could be: the english-japanese Core 2k audio files, the Japanese Audio Lessons files (which once years ago I’d listen to while excerising). For now I’ve focused on Chinese Spoonfed audio because I know I need to FINISH something before jumping to something else lol. 

---

French stuff I did in April:

Listened to 6 chapters of Francais Par Le Methode Nature (and read some of them - oh i missed this book its my fave way to learn and it finally has audio!!)

listened to some bits of audiobooks (i don’t even know why, i don’t know - dracula, frankenstein, carmilla, sherlock)

read a little of Le Petit Prince (idk 3 chapters? browsing my book after finishing in chinese and... ok my heart is still a bit ;-; ... i’m gonna need to recover from this story...)

read a bit of dracula (again... idk why... also it was kind of a L R Method step 2 attempt in that I listened to audio too, but really I mainly just... read)

L R Method: 2 Chapters of Alice in Wonderland (step 2, because I have not tried step 3 yet). 

What is funny as hell to me is both how many words I look up when I contemplate intensive reading (again life changed by the fact i can just highlight words and click “word lookup” on my phone). But also how I already... know I can thoroughly read without doing it. Like... yes I can look up a word I fuzzy-know to get clarification, but even my phone auto-gives me french-french dictionary first and sometimes only (is it because my google is in french), i’ve been used to french definitions only for years.. and also like... i know when i read a whole paragraph i get whatever words were fuzzy before? just read some of dracula again today and its fine. its fine. again informational texts are easier for me - but dracula being a lot of letters ‘describing what happened’ suits me quite easily (and somehow manages to be less annoying to me than the english version). like... alice in wonderland was probably the harder for all the quick adjectives/verbs used in just one or two paragraphs when i was still re-remembering vocabulary i used to know lol. Like... in a dream world i’d love to test L R Method and see HOW MUCH it can teach a person. But like... while french would be the easiest to test it with? I kind of realize i’m also at a point in french where i have more benefit just continuing to read in french and listen in french (to fix my poor listening skills). referencing the english is not really... particularly necessary, it just usually slows me down. while i’m missing a LOT of words for fluent speaking/grammatically ok speaking - i don’t think listening reading method would really help me with that, since reading sure hasn’t. if any readng material might it’s francais par le methode nature just because it drills simple correct grammar construction, and reinforces it, and teaches grammar through context. but all my other reading materials... are more comprehension... 

Anyway in SUMMARY wow i did a lot more than i expected this month!

---

Next months goals!

Chinese May Goals:

***Read anything. Great plan, has been working great. Ideally I would like to: finish Xiao Mao book one, and then either continue another Xiao Mao novel or start one of the other stories rated 2+ ease. I am considering  许三观卖血记 because its about as easy as the little prince, I’ve read an excerpt and its historical fiction so generally practical. Or  流星·蝴蝶·剑 by Gu Long if I want to work on a base in wuxia words from an easier novel. Or  他们的故事 by 一根黄瓜丝儿 if I’m ready to return to it - although this one is longer (the other stories being more like 12-20 chapters) so I’d prefer to save this for later. For any of these - look words up as desired since I’ll read them in Pleco. Ideally as my ‘harder’ reading I would like to either continue hanshe (intensive reading), or continue guardian (extensive reading) - so its a matter of if I want to look words up.

***Continue listening to Chinese Spoonfed Audio (please can i Finish it please ;-;)

Optional: experiment with Listening Reading Method. With the finding of those videos on youtube, I’d like to make my life literally as easy and streamlined as possible and literally just TEST L R Method by doing it with a few of the videos I found. It literally cannot get easier than premade videos with audio.

Other optional: listen to misc audio (I would love the time to watch the tian ya ke audiodrama WITH its subtitles then listen without again), watch shows, read Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Characters (i doubt this will happen), do some of my Radical-hanzi book. 

Japanese May Goals:

***Continue: Nukemarine’s LLJ courses - ideally finish LLJ 4 Part 2, LLJ 5, and start LLJ 6. (this truly can be basically my only study method if I can’t do more). THIS IS THE PRIORITY. The quicker I get ALL of this done, the more of a foundation I will have to do Anything else.

Hopefully: Continue some kind of grammar explanation beyond Nukemarine’s stuff - either Tae Kim (unlikely but i was at chapter 10 before), Cure Dolly (i’m on 6), Japanese Audio Lessons Grammar, Japanese in 30 Hours while writing japanese in (I’m on page 24). Again this is a higher priority as it will make anything else easier.

Optional: Reading in any form - so video game time, lets plays, audiobook youtube with captions, actual reading as desired (like scripts). Including this because I know I will eventually try again lol.

Optional: listening in any form - so another musical! maybe listen to japanese audio lessons, or the core 2k audio, or a lets play, etc. I find I’m probably less likely to listen to something but it might happen!

French May Goals*:

*aka if I feel like doing it because french has no real goals at the moment! -3-)/

***Continue watching Le Francais Par Le Methode Nature videos. (There’s only 33, they’re like 10 minutes long or less, its about basics, PLEASE). I remember this book took forever to read 1/3 of when i was an upper beginner, well now surely its less slow going? especially because read aloud its as fast as the speakers voice! so it is not time consuming and i’ve wanted to finish this book forever! i could at least finish it up to where the audio files match to!

Read???? Read??? Honestly I’ve just been wanting to read Dracula and Carmilla in French its a vibe I’ve been in. Its not high priority or anything but hey it might happen. If it does happen, ideally I’d like to listen to an audiobook too around the same time (maybe after, or have the page read, idk). Just because while reading refreshes my vocab, what I really want to build up is listening/pronunciation. To get to a point where I can listen and shadow would be nice. 

Tied to above, try L R Method? Not a high priority, though it would be super easy to test! Just because I already started testing it with Alice in Wonderland... but that basically amounts to just reading practice with audio again, for me.

I found Merlin in french so THAT is a thing.

Honestly the only thing I really want to do ‘study’ wise in french is finish that freaking book, especially now that I can listen to audio with it. It’s a nice foundation and I’d really like a refresher/fill in any big gaps in my learning. Anything else about french written here is mostly a reminder to myself to LISTEN to audio when possible, and try and improve that skill a bit if I go and read. 

---

Real fast CORE SUMMARY:

Chinese: READ easier stories rated 2+ and keep getting through some, in combination with reading the harder hanshe and Guardian. Also listen to Chinese Spoonfed audio whenever u remember! Attempt some L-R method with the youtube videos you found. Immerse as desired.

Japanese: continue Nukemarine LLJ courses. Also do some grammar study somewhere, and immerse as desired.

French: listen/listen-read to Francais Par Le Methode Nature. Also read/listen as desired - ideally combining the activities.

*in all cases, where possible, combine listening-reading or try to practice both skills. (So reading in Pleco - play audio afterward to practice, play Guardian condensed audio in down time, with audiodramas follow subs when possible, when immersing with anything try L-R like strategies to add practice with both skills). 

#rant #april progress #april goals #may study plan #study plan #may goals #may #what i learned from this is... i have no fucking structure guys #im a mess i just do Whatever #only thing close to ANY structure is that with chinese im fairly consistent about reading #someone help me come up with a cleaner study plan? #or is the fact just that this is Just how i study??? #do i just need to bounce and do random stuff?

[serceleste]

star trek: tos season 1

I’ve been rewatching Star Trek: The Original Series instead of starting anything new (of course) and I have some thoughts about season 1! I love this show. Here are some random things I love.

1. Kirk and Spock wordlessly communicating. They’re in love, okay.

2. In ‘The Naked Time’, everything is falling apart, the bridge is in chaos, Kirk loses his temper, Uhura loses her temper. Then Uhura takes a breath, and she is immediately back in ultra professional mode, damn whatever she’s actually thinking and feeling. And Kirk immediately apologizes. It’s amazing.

3. I appreciate random shirtless Kirk. And that time Sulu was randomly shirtless and attacking people with a sword. (The look on the two dudes’ faces when he is brandishing his sword at them in the corridor is PRICELESS.)

4. The unicorn dog. Fave.

5. Spock playing the ka’athyra, and then Uhura sings with him, and she’s totally good-naturedly poking fun at him the whole time, and Spock accepts it with such good humor and he has no feelings my ass.

6. Obviously Kirk’s shirt tearing all the damn time, sometimes with no plausible reason. My favorite is when McCoy just rips the shoulder open to jab him with a hypo on the bridge.

7. There’s some pretty nice work done in the pilot establishing that Kirk and Mitchell have a long history and a deep friendship, and that makes what happens in the episode so much more tragic. I also love Spock’s easy acceptance of Kirk wanting the record to state that Mitchell (and Dehner) died in the line of duty.

8. Uhura competently taking over other positions on the bridge at a word from Kirk. The implication that all members of the bridge crew/senior staff have their specialties but learned all necessary functions in case of emergency is really nice. (I’ve noticed Sulu taking over navigation sometimes, too, and Scotty’s taken the helm at least once, and Kirk himself operates various positions.)

9. One of my favorite things about Star Trek is its optimism, and also the enduring sense of hopefulness and compassion it and the characters embody. In ‘Charlie X’, even after all the shit he did to them, you can see that they are nevertheless moved by Charlie’s genuine terror and Kirk tries to come up with a different solution that will help him. Or in ‘The Corbomite Maneuver’, after the alien has threatened to destroy them, and he puts out the distress call, Kirk’s response is still to help.

10. Kirk is in love with the Enterprise and the show doesn’t even try to be coy about it, it just comes right out and says so. Multiple times. <3

11. It’s clearly a product of its time and some things are... not great, but I love that it tries, and it honestly wants to portray a future where everyone is treated the same and things like race and gender don’t matter, even if it isn’t quite there in the execution of it. (Yeoman Rand in particular gets some wince-worthy moments in the first season, unfortunately.)

12. Evil!Kirk wears eyeliner, because of course he does. LMAO.

13. The green shirt! I love Kirk’s green shirt. (Actually I love the TOS uniforms in general. Best Trek uniforms, fight me.)

14. McCoy and Spock making fun of each other. <3

15. The number of times Scotty tells Kirk he needs hours/days to fix/accomplish something and Kirk is like ‘you have ten minutes’ and Scotty is just like ‘...fuck, okay’.

16. In ‘What Are Little Girls Made Of?’ Kirk sabotages his android by thinking negatively about Spock because THAT’S the thing he knows will make it clear something’s wrong. OMG. And then Spock makes fun of him for using an unsophisticated insult. Hearteyes.

17. Every time Spock calls Kirk Jim. Also, every time Kirk calls McCoy Bones.

18. Their food is hilarious, it always just looks like little colorful blocks. And their idea of futuristic fashion is completely ridiculous and also the best. 

19. Kirk is so charming, but it’s so genuine, which is I think why it’s so devastating. When he’s looking at people, and smiling at them, you know he really genuinely gives a shit, and actually cares about them, and tbh I think I’d do anything he asked if he looked at me like that, lol. 

20. McCoy is a gift. He’s so grumpy! And he calls everyone out on their shit, especially Kirk, and he’d never say so but he cares so goddamn much.

21. I just ship Kirk/Spock so fucking hard, OMG. Every time they interact I’m just like YESSSSSS THEY’RE FUCKING IN LOVE DAMN.

22. “Fascinating.” <33333 Oh! And the eyebrow raise! Especially when he does it at Kirk. Or McCoy.

23. Kirk’s absolute faith in Spock at the beginning of ‘The Menagerie’. It’s a bit heartbreaking, considering. And the moment you can see Spock choose Pike over Kirk, at the end of Part 1, stabs me right in the heart. And when Kirk agrees that Spock is guilty during the “trial”. (Also I love that they found a way to use the rejected pilot and turn it into what’s really a compelling pair of episodes.)

24. ‘Balance of Terror’ is so good. It’s just a battle of wills between Kirk and the Romulan commander, with how difficult the pressure of command can be for Kirk, and that look into racism with the navigator who distrusts Spock.

25. McCoy and Spock having a battle of wills over Spock needing/not needing medical attention and raising their eyebrows at each other. Love. I understand the Spock/McCoy shipping. (Speaking of, in ‘Operation Annihilate’ when McCoy doesn’t want Kirk to tell Spock he said he was the best first officer in the fleet but Spock overhears and says thank you, McCoy’s face, lmao.)

26. When they find Kirk’s brother dead in ‘Operation Annihilate’ Spock actually attempts to offer comfort!!! Also Kirk holds Spock a couple of times in that ep, it’s great.

27. Every time Spock gets offended because they’ve accused him of having a human emotion or reaction. <3333

28. I think ‘City on the Edge of Forever’ works not just because it’s a truly compelling question of not holding one life, no matter how dear, over the lives of millions, but because Edith herself is genuinely lovely. You can see the tragedy in the death of a woman like her, and the soft romance between her and Kirk is beautiful.

29. And even in the midst of what’s easily one of the strongest (if not the strongest) of Kirk’s relationships on the show, you get Edith saying that she can see that where Spock belongs is by Kirk’s side. My heart.

30. The Gorn. Come on. Iconic.

31. As compassionate as Kirk is I also love the moments that remind you that part of the reason he’s such a good captain is that he’s ruthless when he needs to be. He will make the hard decisions firmly and surely and he won’t let his crew know if he’s internally struggling with them.

32. Kirk’s fighting style!! He’s just throwing himself at people and hitting them with his ass and clinging onto their backs and I LOVE IT.

33. In 'Court Martial’, I think Kirk’s lawyer ex might wear a female dress uniform for the only time ever on the show (certainly the only time in the first season). All the times when the dudes are wearing them, the women are all still wearing their regular duty uniforms. It’s sort of hilarious to me that the men’s look so fancy but hers is just a slightly different collar and a longer skirt, lol.

34. When Spock mindmelds with the Horta in ‘Devil in the Dark’! It’s so sad, and I think that’s the first time we really get a look into what it means for Spock to meld, to share so deeply with another being. 

35. I’m into how Kirk looks in that old-fashioned suit in ‘The Return of the Archons’ but definitely nothing beats him and Spock in short tunics and tights in ‘Errand of Mercy’. Plus Spock gets a half-cape!

36. ‘The Conscience of the King’, responsible for so much woobie Kirk backstory, even in AOS fic where it’s not even canon, lol.

37. McCoy strolling out with those women at the end of ‘Shore Leave’, all “well I am on shore leave”, lmao.

38. Of course McCoy’s iconic declarations of ‘I’m a doctor, not a ‘insert occupation here’. 

39. The computer programmed to seductively purr at Kirk is hilarious.

40. The origin of the redshirt. Classic. 

#star trek: tos #james t. kirk #spock #kirk x spock #leonard mccoy #nyota uhura #hikaru sulu #montgomery scott #spock x mccoy

[x--daughters-of-darkness--x]

LEAVES’ EYES have released their Viking-inspired record “The Last Viking”, which is the second one with Elina Siirala behind the mic. METAL KAOZ had a Skype session with Elina and talked about the making of the album as well as the band’s plans moving forward (and away from this pandemic).

Hi Elina and welcome to METAL KAOZ! How are you? Super! How are you?

It’s great to hear you this excited these days! Let’s start right away; were there any discussions to delay the release of “The Last Viking” due to the no touring situation? Yes, and it had been already delayed. It was supposed to come out in August, and we couldn’t meet that deadline because of the music videos and stuff like that, so it pushed back, but then we didn’t want to push it back any further. And it’s always risky; there were some things that weren’t so nice because of the pandemic but hey, it’s now out and the reviews have been awesome, so we have to be very happy.

Do you actually check the reviews? Yeah, they’ve been posting them a lot, so I have been reading some of them. There’s been some great response for the album. It’s really nice.

Most of the times, metalheads, when the frontman / frontwoman of a band changes, then they have a hard time digesting this change. What were your challenges when you came to a band that has been out there since 2000 almost? For me, it wasn’t really about that; it was actually more about... [interrupting herself] Well, I knew that I had to come there as a completely different kind of singer and also different kind of performer. Liv and I are very different, so I knew that I have to bring my own versions of the existing songs. It’s not gonna sound the same. I also wanted to do the best job I could, so I put all my energy into learning the songs, because I didn’t have much time back then. Then, instantly we did a lot of gigs and we had a huge US tour, so I didn’t have much time to think about it, I guess (laughs). Then, we recorded an EP, so it kind of went on its own haze. These things always bring a lot of emotions in people. Plus, music is always subjective and when you have a singer in a band, like it happened to NIGHTWISH as well and so many other cases, it’s normal, I think. But for me, I’ve always had a very positive feedback from the fans and I was well accepted, so it was very positive for me.

Of course there are emotions involved, but sometimes I like to consider also the artist and the challenges or the pressure you might feel. Speaking of how much time you had when you did the previous album, this time, you must had more time, right? What was your contribution in the making of “The Last Viking”? To be honest, the process was pretty much the same with last time; of course now we know each other even better and the guys also know my voice – we’ve played a lot live and we have all this experience on what works, what we like and what we wanna actually push forward and experiment again a little bit more. This time I was able to use my vocals in many, many ways on this album which was really nice for me. The concept and all the different kind of stories they bring this possibility for a lot of creativity. Again, we went through all the lyrics and the melodies together, so it was the similar process – sometimes, more things needed to be changed, sometimes, a bit less, and it was a very evolving process. It’s a creative process, it’s always great.

Did you have input in the vocal melodies or lyrics? Like saying something like: “hey, change this word or this line that doesn’t go well with me”? With the melodies, not so much – we had to change some stuff for sure – but with the lyrics, some words didn’t sound so good (laughs) so we had to kind of smooth things out a little bit. But it wasn’t so much.

When you have a concept or a story to tell with an album, I imagine it can be challenging, right? Like you said, you have to use specific words to describe certain things, so does this restrict at all your artistic freedom? Alex is responsible for the concept and the lyrics; he did a lot of research and he’s of course very emerged into the whole Viking scene anyways, so he knows a lot about it, he loves the history and stuff like that. But yeah, it’s challenging because you kind of have to bring the whole story into using only a few words and you have to think what sounds good and what makes the text interesting. But I don’t think this is a restricting thing; it’s more like exciting creativity to tell these specific stories, both with text and music.

I imagine that as a singer and in order to put the appropriate emotion to the songs, you need to establish some sort of a connection with the lyrics, so how do you do that when someone else is writing the lyrics? It’s kind of similar as always compared to Opera – because I’ve been doing a lot of Opera and of course also concerts with Classical songs. You know, it’s about the music and the lyrics like you said; you bring the story to life. You have to portray the emotion and the character of the song, so it’s kind of natural as a performer to make that work. Obviously, the songs are very different to each other, so there’s no like one thing you just do. You hear the song - the music helps obviously a lot and then you hear the story behind and you wanna bring that story to people and make it believable.

I may sound naïve, but bear with me; when metalheads hear that a soprano singer, a person who has Classical music education, entering a Metal band, sometimes we question if it’s easier for that performer to sing in a Metal band. I mean, is it easy for you to sing in a Metal band? It’s very different; I’m not actually using my voice in a complete similar way most of the time. Also, I’m singing to a microphone and with a full band, with drums and guitars and everything, so it’s not really the same. In a way, it’s a different kind of vibe and way of expressing myself, I guess. I love performing onstage, I love the power of the music and that roughness that contrasts my voice. So, I love both but it’s not the same. It’s just different.

So, you have to sing in a lower volume because you have the microphone, I guess. Well, the volume isn’t maybe such a factor so much; it’s more about I do some stuff a little bit differently. How I project my voice, let’s say. In an Opera or a Classical song, I’d do it a little bit differently.

I warned you that this may be a naïve question (laughs). Speaking of vocals, for “Black Butterfly” you have Clementine Delauney from VISIONS OF ATLANTIS, so what were you searching for the vocals for this particular song and you thought of bringing Clementine as a guest? We wanted to bring a guest that would have a contrasting, a different voice from mine. We did consider a lot of options but then we ended up with a female voice but specifically someone with kind of different voice to bring a different kind of character to the song and I think, with Clementine, it worked really well. She definitely has a different voice from mine and also she compliments my singing. It brings other elements, a kind of different layer, and our voices actually blend so nicely together. So, it really was everything we were looking for. It was great working with her.

If the situation with the pandemic was different, I’d ask you if LEAVES’ EYES and VISIONS OF ATLANTIS were talking about doing a tour together. But that’s more of a theoretical question right now. We already toured together many times actually and it was always we wanted to do something together and it’d be great to sing this song together live as well. I really hope we will.

I was thinking the US, to be honest. Yeah, ok.

How did all these pandemic restrictions affect the schedule to the album making? Was it challenging to finish the album? We actually started recording right at the moment when the first lockdown happened. While the lockdown was taking place, we were already in the studio. We kind of made the best out of this situation and finished the album in April and then the pandemic definitely affected the music video shootings that we had to postpone. Obviously, some of our release shows weren’t happening so then we had to postpone the release of the album a little bit, but not so much. I mean, it was still going pretty much according to the schedule.

You gave me the right pass on this because you mentioned the music videos and you have released three awesome-looking videos, so when did this filming happen and where? The first video, “Dark Love Empress”, was actually filmed in Switzerland, the second one, “Chain Of The Golden Horn”, was filmed in Poland, and then, the third one, for “War Of Kings”, was finished last minute – we were just able to do it, and it’s in Germany, so we were really lucky that we were able to get all the videos done.

There’s some snow in the third one, although it looks like it was added like an effect, but was it cold at all? It was very cold (laughs) , I was freezing, but it was worth it. I had my personal super jacket holder who always brought me the jacket in between the scenes – it’s just a joke actually. It was really nice that the result came out so well. After that, my face was so cold, I couldn’t even move it (laughs) .

I would imagine that the album’s title track would have made a killer music video, almost like a mini movie considering its 10 minutes long. Are there any plans to release another music video? It was considered that would have been the third single, but then, as you mentioned it’s a little bit of a challenge to make such a long video. But we don’t have another one to release, not at the moment.

What are your plans to further promote the new album without touring? There are some plans, but everything is like up in the air at the moment, so even with touring, concerts and everything, we had plans for next for sure, it’s just that we don’t know how it’s gonna be. So, it’s kind of difficult to say anything to that at the moment.

There are some bands that do streaming events, have you considered that? I think that everything is considered at this point, so I hope we’ll find some way at least to play the songs live, in some form.

The digipak version of the album has a second CD as a bonus with the music without the lyrics, so was there a specific reason why you added that? We already did it with “Sign Of The Dragonhead” – it’s actually common. At least I think it’s quite common to do that, maybe it’s not. Yeah, many bands I think also release instrumental versions of the songs, and it’s just cool, especially in this kind of music because it has so many elements, so when you take the vocals out, you can hear a little bit more layers, all the instruments and the little, tiny details. You can experience the tracks a little bit differently, so I think it’s quite cool. And obviously there is the aspect if people would wanna do some karaoke (laughs) then they could.

(laughs) That would have been a challenge, right? Well, we can handle Alex’s vocals, but yours, I’m not so sure. “The Last Viking” drops the curtain for the story that started with “King Of Kings”; has the band discussed or has Alex revealed the potential concept for the next album? These albums aren’t connected; people tend to ask a lot if they’re like a trilogy with the previous albums, but it’s not. Sure, there are some similar characters and stuff like that, but it’s not really a trilogy. The topic of Norse mythology and Vikings has been part of the band right from the start, so I’m sure it will continue and I’m actually excited to see what comes next. We’ll see.

This question stems from the press release that kind of says that this album concludes the saga and so on, so I guess this is why you’re getting the same question. I think it’s a little bit inaccurate maybe how it was done.

Well, sometimes press releases do that. I have one more question for you; are you still involved in ANGEL NATION? Yeah, for sure. I mean, that’s my band, my baby, so it’s always there and I’ve already written a lot of songs for the third album, demos and everything, but then the pandemic all that stuff happened, so everything is a little bit on hold. I really hope we can find resources and time and will to hopefully finish at some point and release the third album.

I guess, what you’re saying is that there is no set timetable for this, right? Well, no, not at the moment. Many factors are actually affecting that, but I’m having it at the back of my mind all the time. I have some ideas all the time about the band.

And the band is still with Inner Wound Recordings? Yes, we released the previous album with Inner Wound Recordings and for the next one we’ll have to see – we’re open about that. But it was great working with those guys.

Awesome, Elina! Thank you very much for your time. Please stay safe and hopefully we’ll see LEAVES’ EYES on a live setting soon. You too, thank you so much! It was a pleasure talking to you. I hope so too. Take care!

#Elina Siirala #Leaves' Eyes #2020 interviews

[thedsgnblog]

10 Design Resources for Web Designers

Designing an entire website on your own can often be a herculean task. However, you can make your job a lot easier by using some of the best graphic design tools that the Internet has to offer. These include:

1.Color Supply

Color Supply is a minimalistic and simple app that helps you find complementary colors in the groups of 2,3, and 4. All you have to do is select the colors that you are interested in and it will list the various shades of these colors that go along with each other. You can also change the number of colors in the group on the fly with the arrow buttons.

2.Pexels

A website can’t look attractive unless it has high-quality images. The problem is that many of the online resources that offer stock photos don’t have a good variety of high-resolution and professional-looking images. This is why it’s highly recommended that you check out Pexels.com. It’s one of the few websites on the Internet that offers nothing but top-notch photos mainly because each individual photo is hand-picked by the Pexels team. Plus, they tag all the photos so that you can easily find the images that you are looking for.

3. Webdesigner News

Webdesigner News doesn’t directly help you with the graphic design work, but it’s an excellent source of information that can keep you up to date with the new trends in the web design industry.  You can read about new apps and software, case studies, tutorials, and a lot more. In fact, you won’t need to read any other blog ever again as it will bring all the important stories under one roof for you.

4. Tailor Brands

To brand a website, you have to design a unique logo that fits its color palette, brand values, and industry. If you will do this manually, then it can take hours or even days. So, instead you can use an advanced service like Tailor Brands that allows you to create attractive and premium logos in a matter of minutes. This is possible because of the artificial intelligence technology that powers all of its tools including the logo maker. Plus, it’s available as a mobile app too which means that you can create and edit logos when you are traveling or are away from the office for some other reason.

5. Awesome Screenshot

Are you spending way too much time on taking screenshots and cropping them properly to make them fit for use? If your answer is “yes”, then maybe you should try using Awesome Screenshot.

Awesome Screenshot is a Chrome and Firefox extension that allows you to take screenshots easily without launching a dedicated program every single time. This is because it becomes a part of your browser itself and you can just capture different sections of a web page when you need. You can capture an entire page, a certain section, or only the visible area of the page. Plus, you can organize all the screenshots in separate folders for different projects.

6. Flaticon

Need a good selection of high-quality vector icons for your websites? Flaticon has got you covered! It offers over 1,47,000 vector icons in popular formats like EPS, SVG, PNG, PSD and BASE 64. These are neatly categorized in around 30,000 packs to make searching easier and faster.

Most of the icons on Flaticon are completely free but you can also use premium icons by subscribing to its service that costs just $8.5 a month.

7. Google Drawings

If you want to design basic visual elements like icons and shapes, etc. then Google Drawings can be of great help. It’s an image editing tool that’s really simple and easy to use, and it also comes with an invisible background by default which means that when you create a design, then you can directly export it to put it on photos, banners, etc. Since it is also a cloud-based service, you can share your work with others and collaborate seamlessly.

8. WhatFont

Admit it, there are times when you come across a beautiful font on a website and you want to learn its name so that you can find it and use it for your own projects. If you have WhatFont, then you do just that!

WhatFont is a nifty browser plugin that allows you to identify new fonts “one click at a time”. All you have to do is hover your mouse’s cursor over the font you are interested in, and it displays the correct name along with other details like font size and height, etc. It’s as simple as that!

9. Project Felix

There are certain websites that demand nothing but photorealistic visuals. However, creating images that use 2D photography and 3D assets like logos can be quite time-consuming- unless you are using a tool like Project Felix, that is.

A product of Adobe, Project Felix uses machine learning technology to automatically apply the right amount of lighting and shadows at the right spots in your images. All you have to do is preview the results and download the files to use them wherever you want.

10. Canva

With the right design templates, you can reduce your work to a huge extent, and a tool like Canva can provide you with some of the best options. From email headers to infographics, it has a template for everything. All you have to do is pick one that fits your requirements and customize it the way you see fit, and that’s it! It also has a drag-and-drop feature which makes it easy to use for even an average user.   

Designing beautiful websites doesn’t have to an ordeal. So, be sure to use the tools above to observe a drastic reduction in the amount of time that you have to spend on your projects.

#thedsgnblog #design #graphic design #web design #digital design #resources #digital #drawing #ux/ui design #ui #designresources

[dragimal]

Longform Audio Creepypasta Recs

hey TMA fandom! as a new TMA listener but looooongtime creepypasta fan, I find it rly cool that ppl who aren’t into horror are getting into TMA! I’m hoping this will help bring fresh blood (hah) to the horror fandom, so if you’ve realized that you rather like audio horror but don’t know what else to look into, I’m here to recommend my favorite longform creepypasta narrations! 

this is far from an exhaustive list of long creepypastas, but I just want to introduce some of the stories I consider to be the best of the genre. and while I’m just reccing longform in this post, there are plenty of short one-shots I could rec if anyone wants to ask me abt a specific theme/Entity or even a specific ep of TMA (there are several MAG eps that brought me straight back to a specific creepypasta or two, lmao)

also, I’ll just be linking to MrCreepyPasta’s narrations b/c I’m heavily biased so I mostly listen to him, but there are plenty of other great narrators out there like CreepsMcPasta, CreepypastaJr, etc. (most of their names are variations on a theme asdfgh). and if u just want the text version of any of these, every video I link has a link in its own description back to the original text posting of the story

THAT outta the way, here are my recs! I’ll try to remember all the trigger warnings I can, but keep in mind I tend to be p hardy to most horror content, so there may be some things that slip past simply b/c they don’t register to me. also it’s been a minute since I’ve listened to some of these, so some have updated or I may have just forgotten some aspects. I’ll also update this if ppl find it useful and I find more good long pastas~

Penpal (2.5 hrs, complete)

op recounts some of their odd experiences as a child, all of which stem from an elementary school project involving a pen pal. as he recalls these experiences, a horrifying picture of his past begins to emerge...

easily my favorite pasta of all time-- and that’s saying something, considering there are some damn good recs here. it’s one of the first I read so long ago, and few have come close to what this one made me feel. op does an incredible job of capturing the nostalgia and childhood wanderlust of youth, and the last few lines of each chunk of the story hit like a goddamned truck-- esp "Friends”, I cry like a baby every time, it just.... hits something tender in me...

TW: stalking of children, subsequent kidnapping and child abuse at the end (and while it’s not necessarily *confirmed*, heavy implications of child sexual abuse, for that last bit). implied cat death. some graphic description of the victim of a hit-and-run

Search and Rescue Woods (~5 hrs, ongoing?)

op recalls several of the strange and disturbing experiences (their own and quoted from coworkers) of working search-and-rescue for an unnamed national forest in the US

y’know that feeling u get when u see photos lawn chairs just sitting at the bottom of the ocean? even if there’s a perfectly good explanation for why they’re there, it’s still haunting b/c it feels wrong to see them there, in that context? that’s basically this entire assortment of stories-- the obvious example being the stairs, of course, but even a lot of the human elements feel so out of place and wrong. if you’re a fan of Spiral-type horror w/ a hard edge of Stranger, this is the story for u

TW: generally clinical but graphic descriptions of mutilated bodies. use of the r-slur against an nd individual (it’s during a story that the main character is quoting from a different one-off character, so it thankfully only happens the one time..). child death, in certain stories. some wild animal death

Borrasca (2.5 hrs, complete)

Sam moves to a small mountain town with his family after his father’s job relocates them. he hears some spooky legends about the town, but doesn’t think much of them... that is, until his sister disappears. as Sam and his friends dig deeper into the town’s history to find any clues to his sister’s disappearance, they begin to realize there’s something deeply deeply wrong with their quaint little home

I’ve always loved horror that’s ‘mundane’ enough to be done by regular humans, but vague enough that it could actually be supernatural, under the right circumstances-- and this is one of those mysteries that keeps u guessing until the VERY end. my mind felt like that Pepe Silvia corkboard meme the first time I listened to this, I was losin’ it. this is also prolly one of my favorite examples of MCP’s talent as a narrator, b/c he adds in his own subtle foreshadowing with his voicework, and it blows my mind every time I listen to it again

also worth mentioning there’s a (3.5 hr) sequel! since the horror/mystery is basically done after the first one, the sequel is mostly suspense/thriller and character closure. if ur just here for the horror/mystery and the gut-punch of that first ending, then the sequel isn’t necessary. but if you want more closure for our dear sweet cast who deserve so much better, then by all means!

TW: the ending involves heavy sexual abuse (involving underage girls, no less), part of which is graphic. like I know I joke abt having to take breaks after reading emotionally exhausting stories, but I genuinely had to take a couple days of recovery after this one-- and that’s from someone who’s p hardy to all kinds of graphic content. do NOT take this warning lightly if this is a sensitive topic for you

Tales From the Gas Station (10 hrs for free, otherwise ongoing)

Jack works at a gas station at the edge of a middle-of-nowhere town. Strange things happen at the gas station-- bipedal deer stopping by for a drink, dark gods leaving vague messages, fingers growing from the ground out back, sudden lawn gnome appearances-- All just a part of the daily grind, right?

so if I wanna be totally fair, this is more a rec for Night Vale fans than anything (tho the TMA/WTNV overlap seems to be p significant). the comedic, nonchalant tone taken towards everything supernatural and horrific is p much 1:1 WTNV. I’ve genuinely cried laughing at some of the fuckshit that happens, esp anything involving Jerry. not to say that GST doesn’t have its heavy-horror moments, but the frequency is more comparable to Night Vale’s approach-- dark comedy definitely takes center stage, here. tho this also varies by the POV-- the “Finding Vanessa” arcs are told from the perspective of a more serious character, so the heavy parts are far more frequent and hit a lot harder

as for the time estimate, here’s where it gets a littleee bit complicated. the first version was put out for free, and read for free by MCP (among a few other narrators). this came out in several different parts, and the one video I linked above has compiled *most* of volume 1, but not the Halloween story, featured here. HOWEVER, the author has taken a second go at v1 and beyond, which is currently ongoing and available to buy as books or audiobooks ALSO narrated by MCP!

as for deciding which version to listen to, I’ll just try to describe the differences here. the first version was written entirely via Jack’s online forum posts, which were subject to more direct reader interaction and Jack’s scatterbrain. thus, the first version leaves a LOT more details up to reader interpretation/theorizing, straight up doesn’t have or explain certain plot arcs yet, and is very disorganized in terms of timeline all due to Jack’s canon memory issues. this all, personally, made it v fun and silly to follow, but I’m aware that’s not for everyone. the second version is written from a more standard first person narrative from Jack’s perspective. while Jack’s memory issues still make him an unreliable narrator (often *upsettingly* so in this version), the actual narrative is far more organized, complete, and easy to follow. the fun thing is that the first version can still be considered canon material to the second version, as Jack references making those very forum posts within the second version narrative. so, personally, I consider the second version to be the core cohesive story, while the first version is supplemental, fun material that provides more context for a few of the strange bits that happen in the story (like Jack’s ‘secret admirer’ makes more sense if u’ve listened to the first version). either way, the second version is the only way the story is going to continue (as far as I’m aware), so if you’re ONLY going to listen to one version of the story, listen to the second version

TW: for the first version, there are some uncomfortable jokes/implications at certain points-- associating villains/assholes with fatness and/or personality disorders is unfortunately a running theme, and a few off-color jokes are made abt some of Jack’s conditions (general mental health and his brief use of crutches). there’s also a point at which it’s implied that a specific one-off arc is a ploy to rape Jack, tho nothing actually comes of it beyond awkward scheming (but just in case, that story is specifically “Death at the Gas Station” at the very end of that long compilation, if u wanna skip it). for the second version, I believe the author was made aware of these issues and either straight-up removed or fixed most of them in some way. there’s just one point where an intentionally-questionable character uses the g*psy slur, and a few points where a regular commenter on Jack’s forum posts has w*ndigo in their username

in terms of gore for either one, uhhh maybe some descriptions of injuries? body horror? this one’s a lot harder to call for me, b/c the comedy softens the blow on a lot of the horror

Accounts From a Lonely Broadcast Station (5 hrs, ongoing)

Evelyn is the new voice of a small mountain town’s local radio station. her job is to take calls, play music (ALWAYS play the music), and broadcast emergency warnings whenever the fog rolls in from the surrounding forest. pretty standard stuff. she tries to make the most of it-- if only that damn crow with human eyes would stop watching her...

this one’s similar to Gas Station Tales with its heavy reliance on dark humor, but it takes itself a bit more seriously, with a more even split b/t genuine horror and comedy. also MCP brings in wonderful extra voice talent w/ this one, I RLY love Evelyn's va ;w;

TW: graphic descriptions of mutilation and body horror

My Friend Has Been Living in an Alternate Reality (4 hrs, complete)

op’s eccentric friend, Clint, turns up on op’s doorstep unannounced after several years missing. Clint vanishes again just as abruptly, leaving op with a journal detailing a horrifying, dangerous journey that’s almost too bizarre to believe, yet...

so this one’s more like an action/thriller with horror garnish, tbh-- very exciting and suspenseful! I love the weird, apocalyptic world Clint describes in his journals, and the societies that have cropped up around these hostile circumstances

TW: graphic descriptions of mutilation/injury

My Name is Lily Madwhip (~8 hrs, ongoing)

Lily Madwhip sees things before they happen. they’re usually horrible things like deaths and injuries that she wishes she could prevent but often can’t. at least her best friend-- an angel possessing one of Lily’s dolls-- is around to provide advice

this one’s from the perspective of a little girl, and it leans into dark humor enough to soften at least some of the more traumatic moments. Lily’s young enough that she’s somewhat removed from the full gravity of the deaths around her, but the fact that it’s happening so frequently at all seems to be warping her perspective towards death to be more... casual? is that the right word? it’s just a rly interesting perspective to see for horror. also we’ve got another rly great guest va here for Lily~

TW: brief descriptions of injury, but they’re not graphic. frequent animal death.

The Showers (2.75 hrs, complete)

op recounts a scary story he heard from a teacher back in high school about a vague location and a terrifying encounter. he later ventures to find this location to see the truth for himself, but is it worth it?

this one’s a classic-- I think it was of the first creepypasta I listened to? not this version, but I wouldn’t be able to tell u which narrator it was at the time. I won’t say that this one’s the most unique story out there, but something abt it has always stuck with me?.... idk, I think the premise rly hooks me

TW: oh god it’s been a while, but I don’t remember anything particularly triggering? maybe body horror?

#creepypasta #creepypastas #the magnus archives #tma #shut up ashley #blease give creepypasta a chance I need more horror friends /wretched crying emoji/ #also I would've recced 1999 but I JUST found out abt all the controversy over someone reposting and pasting in parts from other stories #I totally understand why op wouldn't want the story narrated anymore shit sucks

[another-music-page]

*originally posted on Instagram on 4/13/20*

These are my top 10 favorite albums from the 1st quarter, January-March, 10-1.

10. Everything is Beautiful & Everything Sucks - Princess Nokia

This double album was my first time listening to Princess Nokia, and I’m glad I checked it out. It shows so much of her personality, and the fact that the two sides of the album are two different attitudes adds to that personality as well. The production is pretty well done, but the highlight on here is Nokia’s witty, biting, sarcastic, and funny bars that are showcased throughout the project. There’s a lot of great music on this album and the variety shown in the 2 sides of it make it unforgettable to me.

9. Future Nostalgia - Dua Lipa

Future Nostalgia is another great example of 80s trends coming back into pop culture. The songs on this album are uptempo and infectious. Energy just radiates from every aspect of Future Nostalgia, from Dua Lipa’s vocals to the catchy-ass instrumentals. Every one of these songs is an earworm: the hooks are so well-written, simple but effective. And a lot of the songs on here have messages of female empowerment, which is always nice to see. All in all, this is a really nice project from Dua Lipa.

8. color theory - Soccer Mommy

I was drawn to Soccer Mommy’s album, Clean, because of its late night indie-rock feel that’s just perfect to me. The singles that came out before the release made it easy to tell that this album wouldn’t be Clean. However, the song structures used, the great, great guitar riffs, and the awesome vocal performances still are amazing. Overall, color theory is another great project from Soccer Mommy.

7. 3.15.20 - Childish Gambino

I’ve already shared some of my thoughts about this album. I think this album is a very logical step from “Awaken, My Love!” and because the internet, but there are also some definitely lows in the tracklist. At the end of the day though, this album showcases Donald’s immense talent, and the highs are fucking amazing, which is why it’s one of my top 10 albums of this quarter.

6. The Price of Tea in China - Boldy James & The Alchemist

In all honesty, the first time I tried to listen to this, I kinda thought it was just going to be a watered down version of MadGibbs. Once I gave it a chance though, I saw that the beats from The Alchemist are amazing, Boldy’s flows across the album are great, the features are used super well, specifically from Freddie Gibbs and Benny the Butcher, and the project as a whole is very cohesive and a really compelling listen. This was an amazing introduction for me to Boldy James.

5. Freckle Season - EP - Orla Gartland

This is technically an EP, but I’m putting it on my list because of how much it accomplishes in its super quick 16 minute runtime. The lyrics are chock-full of dry humor and wit, like on “oh GOD”, but also pack a surprising emotional punch on songs like “New Friends”. The instrumentals on this project are simplistic but effective, especially on songs like “oh GOD”, “Did It To Myself”, and “Figure It Out”. And the length of the project really lends itself well to the directness in the other aspects of the music. I really enjoy this project.

4. UNLOCKED - Denzel Curry & Kenny Beats

I already knew Denzel Curry could make bangers. I already knew Kenny Beats could make bangers. But goddamn, put them together and wow, it’s a match made in heaven. The chemistry between Zel and Kenny is unmistakable, and it shows through beautifully across this project. You can tell how much they influence each other during the making of the project because each beat works so well with the lyrics it’s paired with. Denzel is firing on all cylinders; he’s witty, quick, and compelling. And Kenny is at his best too, his beats go hard, the samples are expertly used, and the cohesiveness of the album is kept while still having tons of variety. I’m almost sure that this album will never get old.

FAVORITES: Take_it_Back_v2, Lay_Up.m4a, DIET_

3. Eternal Atake - Lil Uzi Vert

To be clear, I don’t mean the deluxe version. For whatever reason, LUV vs. the World 2 didn’t hit like Eternal Atake did for me. It took me exactly one listen to figure out that EA was full of hits. The first time I heard it, I only liked a few songs, then after a 2nd listen, there were only a few songs I didn’t like. I don’t know where it sits in Uzi’s discography (I might make a list about that in the future) but I’m pretty positive that the top songs in this are some of the best in Uzi’s catalog. The productions across this project is mostly very well done and Uzi’s rapping and singing are top-notch. This was pretty much worth the wait, although the deluxe has more fan service so I guess there’s that. Besides that, Eternal Atake is a dynamic, varying listen from one of my favorite artists right now.

FAVORITES: Prices, Silly Watch, Venetia

2. After Hours - The Weeknd

The main word I’d use to describe After Hours is “cinematic”. The atmospheres The Weeknd is able to create are amazing. This album is dark, brooding, and emotional with its lyrics but also its instrumentals and because they complement each other so well, each aspect is enhanced. Abel is kind of a cryptic person in real life, but on After Hours, he doesn’t mince words: “Where are you now that I need you most”, “Tryna be a better man but I’m heartless”, “Take me out of LA/This place will be the end of me”, “I don’t know if I can be alone again”. Abel is in emotional turmoil, and he does a great job of making that crystal clear. After Hours is one of the best albums of the year so far because of The Weeknd’s amazing vocal performance, the stellar instrumentals and the perfectly clear picture it gives us of Abel’s emotional state.

FAVORITES: Faith, Blinding Lights, After Hours

1. Circles (Deluxe) - Mac Miller

Circles, to me, is the emotional flip side to After Hours. While The Weeknd is singing about his emotional turmoil, Mac is singing about his contentment with life in general. It sounds like Mac is singing and performing directly to us at times, telling us not to be worried. I love this album so much because it just makes me happy. It calms me down. I can’t describe the feeling that Circles (the song) gives me right from that opening chord. So many songs on this album just make me feel good: Circles, Complicated, Blue World, Good News, Floating, Surf, etc. Besides the feeling this project gives me, Circles feels complete, which is amazing for any album, but especially for a posthumous release. The production is masterfully handled by Jon Brion, the songwriting is amazing, and Mac’s performances are as inspired as ever. I’m not counting out the possibility, but it’s going to be very hard to top this album for my favorite release in 2020.

FAVORITES: Circles, Complicated, Floating, Hand Me Downs, Blue World

#princess nokia #dua lipa #soccer mommy #childish gambino #boldy james #the alchemist #orla gartland #denzel curry #kenny beats #lil uzi vert #the weeknd #rap #hip hop #pop #indie #rock #randb #music #music review #music reviews #album #albums #album review #album reviews

[gothichic]

album review #1 - the reve festival: day 1

                                       red velvet’s sixth ep - the reve festival: day 1

ahh, the infamous start of the reve festival trilogy. this album sparked interest in many with its enticing title track ‘zimalabim’. with only 6 tracks making up about 20 minutes, the album has gotten some mixed reviews ever since it was released.                           

track 1 - zimzalabim

oh, zimzalabim, people don’t seem to appreciate your greatness. the song starts off with a peculiar introduction. the mix of instruments is something i’ve never heard before. it’s so thrilling and suspenseful, the bell ringing while you wait in anticipation. red velvet definitely made their point across with this carnival/circus concept because this song sounds exactly like a song you’d hear at a festival. the thing i love the most about red velvet other than their versatility is the fact that all of their voices seem to be in harmony in every song. it’s like they were sculpted to fit one another. now the chorus,,, is something you wouldn’t expect. many people have described it as ‘cult-like’ (the lyrics suggest something of that sort as well,,,,) or ‘repetitive’, but i believe it’s perfect for this type of song. a part i want to highlight is the bridge of zzb. it’s so,, mystical and harmonious. it’s such a big change from the original song, but it works fantastically well. everything about it is *chef’s kiss*. the lyrics are also something that should be noted,

“Look at your eyes filled with hope (They're shining like a gem) Oh don't wander aimlessly so far away (You're dazzling, smile more brightly) The dream is inside you.”

irene and yeri’s harmonization,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, extraordinary <3

over all, this song is one of their best songs because of its creativity and just how well everything flows despite being a bit messy.

i’d give it a 9.5/10

track 2 - sunny side up!

sunny side up! is undoubtedly one of red velvet’s best b-sides to date. its reggae themes bring me back to a time that never existed. the chorus is the highlight of this whole song, with red velvet singing in unison as the hypnotizing instrumental plays in the back. sunny side up stages>>>>>> yeri and wendy carried this song imo,,,

10/10 for sure, nuff said

track 3 - milkshake

this song went viral a while back for its questionable lyrics. aha, i’ll let you be the judge of that. words cannot explain my love for this song. it’s heavily vocally focused and gives each girl a time to shine. i definitely think wendy shines in this song, especially around the beginning. it’s so sexy and chill without trying to be. heaven,,,, milkshake’s chorus is so addicting and flows so nicely. one thing red velvet does best is singing as a group. something i’ve noticed in their songs compared to other bands/groups is that red velvet never necessarily have solo parts in the chorus, they sing together. it definitely shows their chemistry musically.

a DESEVERED 10/10

track 4 - bing bing

this album is CRAZY good. i physically dance every time i listen to this song because it’s so electrifying. it reminds me of some type of 2000s hit. if you’re into songs from that era you’ll understand what i’m talking about. it has this certain vibe to it. something comparable to the spice girls. let’s talk about seulgi in this song for a second,,,, her voice + this song = a match made in heaven. it’s also very different from traditional korean music,, i think it may have some afrocentric beats if i’m not mistaken.

9.5/10. red velvet has proven themselves worthy of being the best girl group ever

track 5 - parade

IM CRYING THIS SONG IS SO !!! it sounds like the ending to some type of upbeat tv show. it starts off slow but then eventually gets faster. i think this song captures everything the reve festival: day 1 album is. it’s optimistic and sounds extremely unique. if i had to choose, i’d choose parade for the catchiest song off the album. you can’t help but clap along to beat while listening to it.

easy 9/10. it is a crazily underrated red velvet b-side

track 6 - lp

miss wendy said this was her favorite song off the album for a reason !!! it seems as if they used elevator music for the beat which i LOVE ! super creative and sounds amazing. joy in this song>>>> her voice suits lp so well,, and the chorus is CRAZY. this is another song only red velvet can pull off. every reveluv will tell you that lp is one of red velvet’s best b-sides. i don’t make the rules :) it’s true ! ALSO !!!!!!!!! lp is SO well thought out. when it first starts, you hear generic elevator music, signifying that you have just entered the elevator. at the end of the song, we hear the music die down and there’s a ding signaling that you’ve arrived at your destination. it’s so clever because it’s also,,, tHE LAST SONG OFF OF THE ALBUM ! 

10/10 UNTIL THE DAY I DIE.

this is my favorite album for a reason, each song sounds so different, yet they tie in together so well. it’s a rollercoaster of emotions from the first song to the last. over all, i’d give this album a 10/10. it’s definitely one of the best albums red velvet have release TO DATE. 

thank you all for reading, peace out.

                                                                        sincerely, aya <3 

#red velvet #zimzalabim #kpop #irene #seulgi #wendy #joy #yeri #album #music #reve festival #rv

[multimetaverse]

Andi Mack 3x12 Review

Ex-Factor was a good ep that dealt with a very important topic though some of the subplots dragged. Let’s dig in!

Positives: 

When Andi Mack is good there’s really no other show like it. Jonah revealing that his family had to declare bankruptcy and lost their house was the kind of moment that the show does so well. It was addressed in an empathetic, understanding way but it wasn’t sugarcoated

The brief moment of Jonah wolfing down the free breakfast Amber gave him really packed a punch in all that it implied. Who knows how many times he’s shown up to school hungry these past couple months; it’’s horrifying but it’s all too real with the single largest group of people living in poverty being children. It’s such a shame that the ratings are so low and that so few people are seeing story lines like this

And I liked the duality we see with Jonah. Yes he’s close to the GHC but he’s not as close to them as they are too each other because he doesn’t have the history they have with him and as they later learned he lives a lot of his life away from them

Amber really shined this ep; she knew exactly what Jonah is going through in a way that no one else can

Buffy would make quite the detective; she had Jonah and Amber dead to rights though she was missing some context

I liked that Bowie said that the Red Rooster was too small of a business to hire Jonah; it’s true to real life where there are no quick and easy solutions to such problems

The amusement park was great; though Disney probably regrets it now that $19.4 million budget was really put to good use

Loved when Celia called her Melinda but wasn’t a fan of anything else related to Miranda and Morgan

I’ll give the show props for the Jamber kiss being a big twist

Peyton’s dad was funny; not a fan of those shorts though

I liked this cold open quite a bit. It was a nice little slice of life of the GHC and that it was filmed in a real middle school art room makes it so much better. And a nice little set up for Andi further exploring her art which we know happens later in 3c

Nice to see the GHC in Andi Shack again, I feel like it’s been so long since they were all there

Bex just deciding to not mail the invites as if not having the wedding won’t drastically change things is very in character; she’s always run from conflict

Negatives:

The Miranda scenes really dragged. Letting Morgan get attached to Bowie when they had only been dating for a little bit was bad parenting but her letting Morgan play her disappearing game like that really crosses a line. At the end it kind of looked like this was part of her plan to get Bowie back which is insane

I found it odd that Bowie never checked behind the stage curtains in the back room and the cut from Bowie looking for Morgan to the other scenes than back to Bowie looking for Morgan made it seem like hours had passed which was sloppy editing

Not a good look to include clips of Jibby in the previously on. They’ve almost certainly already broken up off screen before this ep but the audience really needs to hear that in 3x13 otherwise Jonah looks like a cheating scoundrel 

And for that matter confirmation that Wuffy is officially sunk would be good before Muffy launches again. For a show about 14 year olds there sure are a lot of messy, messy relationships: Jonah liking Andi while dating Amber who was cheating on him, Buffy basically homewrecking Machel to end up with Marty, Jonah breaking up with Libby only to immediately get back with Amber

I do think the wish reveal would have had more impact if the audience had any reminder of it since 3x02. I’m reminded of what that anon told me after 3x09 that the major love interests never go more than 3 eps in a row without appearing; obviously long term story lines can be spread out but going 10 eps without a single mention is just too long especially for a kids show

The Jamber kiss was a good twist but one that I don’t think the audience will like. I have faith in that the show is intending to explore what made their relationship toxic and why it’s not a good idea for them to get back together but it’s understandable at this point that much of what’s left of the audience doesn’t trust the show

Looking Ahead:

I’m not sure that the Beck family endgame is. There’s only 9 eps left and realistically their problems are going to take years to solve. The best place they could end up is them getting an apartment of their own and slowly getting back on their feet. Mrs. Beck at least is still slated to appear and it will be interesting to see what brings the Becks on screen

For that matter I wonder if there’s anything they can do to make Amber’s situation better; she’s in 7 of the remaining 9 eps so there’s time to do something with her

Lot of freaking out in the tag over next ep. Presumably Cyrus wants to say yes to TJ’s idea (I wonder if it is Salt & Pepper or something else) but then tells him he can’t but then Andi tells him he can do it with TJ but it’s too late because TJ decided to do a costume with Kira instead as the dribble shirts look last minute. I’m sure we’ll see the Mount Rushmore costume but maybe the GHC won’t be as happy with their accomplishment as they thought they would be

We know Cyrus and TJ and Kira filmed some scenes earlier that week so that’s probably at the park where we see Cyrus and TJ. Maybe TJ has befriended Kira off screen. Thankfully Raquel always posted when she arrived in and left SLC so we know that after her two days of filming for ep 13 she only filmed one day for ep 15 and then one day for ep 21. So she’s not getting very much screen time or development. 

Is Cyrus going to be sad or jealous when TJ ends up doing the costume with Kira? Maybe but how much attention Disney will allow on Tyrus at this point is an open question. Certainly a part of her role is to be a female chaperone for the Tyrus scenes since Buffy has more important things to do but even in that role there just won’t be much time for her. I’m more interested to see if there will be a look back at some point or some other confirmation of Cyrus’ feelings at least

How the show is going to get from a Jamber kiss in ep 12 to Jonah singing You Girl to Andi in 3x20 I don’t know. It does look like they’ll start on that road next ep; if Amber has to vie for Jonah’s attention it must be with Andi

Nice to see Marty again; I’d imagine we’ll get a Rachel mention. Wild that they’re sinking Machel just 4 eps later

I hope to god that the Bexie drama doesn’t lead to the ep ending on an ‘Um’

It’s very funny to see in part why Josh was so quick to shut down a Tyrus bench kiss in 3x21 because I can only imagine how high people’s hopes would have gotten after this ep. That the show was able to have a Jamber kiss for an end of ep cliff hanger suggests to me that they would have been able to get more kisses approved; if they were only allowed one I really don’t think they would have used it for Jamber. We’ll see if we get a Muffy kiss or another Jandi kiss

#Andi Mack #Jonah Beck #Jamber #Bexie #Amber #Buffy Driscoll #Miranda Patrick #Morgan Patrick #Bex Mack #Bowie Quinn #Jibby #Tyrus #Muffy #Jandi #Andi Mack Reviews #Andi Mack Meta #Andi Mack Season 3

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 6x08 Tabula Rasa

aka i don’t think this is going to work either

Welcome to this dailyish text post series where I will rewatch an episode of Buffy and go on an impromptu rant about it for an hour. Is it about one hyperspecific thing or twenty observations? 10 or 3k words? You don’t know! I don’t know!!! In this house we don’t know things.

And today’s episode outs itself as a product of early 00s television as Michelle Branch performs in-universe to create a sad music montage, concluding an ep that’s otherwise generally remembered for its comedic beats.

Tabula Rasa is the episode that I alluded to most with Something Blue way back in season 4 – so I actually went back to that post before sitting down to write this, to fully appreciate that connection. Apparently I closed that rant saying “we’re here to do a Buffy rewatch, not to have fun”, and that’s the same energy you can expect here.

I mean, I love the silliness in Tabula Rasa, don’t get me wrong. The insane assumptions the characters make after the memory spell, based on stuff like Giles and Spike’s accent, Willow wearing Xander’s jacket, and Anya and Giles nodding off beside each other, lead to all kinds of hilarities. Just as it’s nice to see all the things that still stay the same, and what the characters do get right – like Buffy and Dawn realizing that they’re sisters as a result of their natural banter, or Willow and Tara’s sexual tension seeping through despite everything.

But the most interesting scenes for me remain to be the ones preceding that. Specifically, the talk the gang has about the revelations regarding Buffy’s resurrection at Xander and Anya’s place.

It’s just so juicy, guys, down to its smallest details. It starts with Anya wondering if Buffy walked on clouds or had a harp in heaven, and Willow just kind of looks on with dead eyes, and Xander upon prompting says something dismissive like “you have many good qualities”.

Tara though? Tara’s quick to validate Anya, saying that it’s not stupid to think about what it’s been like for Buffy, but there are many heavenly dimensions, and they just don’t know.

God, I love Tara. Did I mention that already? I think I may have been too subtle about it the last 40 times.

I LOVE TARA.

There, that felt right.

Afterwards, we get a surprising amount of self-reflection from Willow. I say “surprising”, because it’s then followed with another insane plan of “let’s wipe my friend’s memory with magic to make this go away”, so clearly, Willow needs some additional work in that department.

WILLOW:  And we took her away from that. We wrecked it for her. XANDER:  We didn’t wreck. We didn’t know. WILLOW:  We didn’t wanna know. We were so selfish. I was so selfish.

I love this, because not only is the narrative confirming what as a viewer I already deduced, it also reaffirms a quality in Willow that’s easy to look over at this stage of her character arc. Her self-awareness.

Xander is a mostly emotion-driven character. He rarely if ever interrogates his own motives, just goes with what his gut tells him is right. In this case, his go-to approach is to simplify, and focus on what feels important. Buffy’s alive, and he’s happy that she’s alive. The rest they’ll just need to work on.

Willow is pretty much the exact opposite of that. For better or worse, she needs to justify all her actions to herself, and she’s ready to beat herself up over any perceived imperfection.

Or find a quick solution to her problems that stops her from feeling any pain or guilt about it...

Tara is of course the one that gets to the heart of it all, by saying that they need to stop obsessing over what’s been already done, and just focus on helping Buffy. (To quote myself from literally 2 seconds ago: “I love Tara”.) Anya’s quick to agree with her, and Xander supports it too by saying that they just need to spend more time with Buffy.

Willow though instead has the insane idea to just wipe Buffy’s memory, because “video clubs won’t fix this”. But she can. She can fix it. Fix the world. She can make it go poof. And that’ll make her stop feeling horrible about it too.

Tara, whom I love, obviously gets upset at that. And Xander and Anya at this point just… leave. Which, you know, I get it, things are starting to get personal and they can read the room, but also…  This sort of leads to a pattern for me of the Scoobies not really holding each other responsible this season. The argument that Tara and Willow are about to have is about Willow’s approach to magic and the world and people around her. This isn’t only affecting their relationship, as the episode itself will point out.

So, ideally I feel like Xander and Anya should’ve said something too. But then again, maybe they haven’t yet truly considered the implications of what Willow was suggesting at this point, as opposed to Tara, who just found out that Willow used the same spell on her.

Remember all that self-awareness that I mentioned with Willow? Well, that goes right out the window the minute she’s confronted with something that she’s already justified in her mind. Tara specifically uses the phrase that Willow “violated her mind”, and tells her that she’s just helping herself at this point. Fixing things to her liking, including Tara herself.

Which Willow completely fails to internalize, because justifying her actions to herself is so much easier. Instead she focuses on her own fears of abandonment. (“Are you saying you’re gonna leave me?”)

With the ultimatum Tara gives to Willow about not using magic for a week, this is also perhaps our first sign that we’re heading into the direction of a magical addiction metaphor this season. I will probably talk about that more later on, but for now, I’ll just say that while the substance abuse comparison will mostly fail and muck up the original idea behind Willow’s misuse of magic, it does work to a certain degree. It’s ultimately an addiction to power.

And then there’s Giles. I pretty much already said what I wanted to say about Giles leaving with the last episode, and he’s only confirming what I already suspected there, so I’m not really going to reiterate that. In short: I get it, but it’s also the wrong way to help Buffy.

This turn of events of course doesn’t really help Dawn either. No wonder that she’s super upset with Tara for leaving by the end of the episode.

Remember: not only is Dawn the child of divorced parents, her dad has also been absent for most of her life. And then her mom and sister died, and she basically became the foster kid of this ragtag group of young adults (ft. Giles), with Tara and Willow acting as primary parenting figures.

So yeah. I feel super bad for Tara in that moment when Dawn pulls away. You can see how hard this is for Tara, but she refuses to stay in a toxic environment. But I can’t blame Dawn for being a 15-year-old with her own set of abandonment issues either, especially as she’s unaware of the context.

Meanwhile somewhere in town Buffy is making the opposite choice. This time in my rewatch, I was especially hit with seeing Buffy’s reaction after regaining her memories. During the fight, she’s all quippy as Joan, but she checks out the moment the spell is broken. I can’t help but wonder how it was probably even harder for her to have those memories rushing back after forgetting about them.

So Buffy continues her hook-up routine with Spike in order to feel something. And Spike is already being a sleazy manipulative asshole about it, with lines like “I know what kind of girl you really are”.

But then again, Spike is a vampire without a soul. We can’t really expect more from him, and neither does Buffy. That’s kind of the point, sadly enough.

Oh, and of course we’re ending the episode with Michelle Branch performing in the Bronze. Which is very early 00s of her, but strangely enough, I can’t really remember any musician of the same recognition playing before on the show. Even though the Bronze – much like the P3 club on Charmed – serves as the perfect set-up for that.

Goodbye to you all, I guess.

#buffy rewatch 2k19 #btvs #btvs talk

[theeverlastingshade]

Favorite EP of the 2000s: Fall Be Kind- Animal Collective

                By the time that Animal Collective released their fourth EP, Fall Be Kind, there was a little over a month left in the 2000s, and in that time no other band even came close to matching their creative output that spanned their 2000 debut, Spirit They’re Gone, Spirit They've Vanished up through FBK. Their progression was remarkable; no single two releases sounded anything like each other, and each was unmistakably the sound of their work alone. With their eighth LP, Merriweather Post Pavilion they had come full circle, having transformed from an abrasive, neo-psychedelic freak-folk act into synth-pop festival headliners while molding the sound of independent music into their image. FBK follows directly in the wake of MPP, with the same lineup from that album which included David Portner aka Avey Tare, Noah Lennox aka Panda Bear, and Brian Weitz aka Geologist, with Ben H. Allen returning to produce. What could have been an easy, effortless victory lap that simply aped the advances of their populist breakthrough instead finds the group continuing to flex their chops for studio experimentation while continuing to challenge themselves. During this period Animal Collective simply couldn’t miss. FBK is far from a simple MPP retread, and it caps off one of the most rewarding creative periods from any band ever.

                 FBK consists of five songs, the first three of which are sublime vocal collaborations between Dave and Noah, while the last two are songs led by each one of them respectively. The most striking thing about the EP on the whole is the masterful back and forth between the band’s vocalists. On MPP, assisted by an ideal amount of reverb, the abrasive qualities of Dave’s voice were smoothed over for a newly invigorated emphasis on melody, and their voices complemented one another in a disarmingly seamless interplay. This continues here, and with the first song “Graze” it’s remarkable just how well their voices continue to play off of one another. “What Would I Want? Sky” and “Bleed” continue this streak, with the former achieving one of their greatest feats of melodicism to date by making their voices almost function as one while the latter has Dave actually taking the weightless, droning croon typically reserved for Noah to spellbinding results. “On a Highway” and “I Think I Can”, while featuring the vocals of just Dave and Noah respectively and therefore compromising their glorious interplay, both revel in intense introspection, ranking as two of the most heartfelt songs that the band have released to date.

                 While FBK on the whole follows in the vein of the sample-based template that the band had been executing on Strawberry Jam and MPP, the songs here still exist within their own orbit and hardly scan as diminishing returns. Opener “Graze” begins with a swirling vat of synths, a verse from Dave about their songwriting process and one from Noah about his concerns with heightened expectations placed on them before a pan flute sample cribbed from “Ardeleana (Zamfir avec Amfir)” by Gheorghe Zamfir and Simion Stanciu transitions the song into its spring-loaded, bass heavy second half. The transition is jarring and unexpected, but it works nonetheless. Split between the two sharp vocal collaborations and the standalone vocal songs comes the haunting, ambient breather “Bleed”. More of an extended interlude than a standalone song, “Bleed” exudes an ethereal beauty that the band captured on the lengthy, droning songs that exist on their more challenging releases in a far more succinct form while packing a surprising amount of melody. As previously mentioned, Dave takes the role traditional reserved for Noah’s angelic croon as he chants “That I must bleeeeeeeed” throughout the outro, and his delivery is nothing short of chill-inducing.

                 After setting the tone with “Graze” the band then transition into “What Would I Want? Sky”, the first song to have gotten a licensed Grateful Dead sample, here in the form of a repurposed vocal line from “Unbroken Chain”. The first two and a half minutes of the nearly seven-minute song feature wordless crooning from Noah and the word “melody” sung repeatedly by Dave over what begins as a blistering kick drum beat that slowly incorporates their characteristically dense wall of sound propelled by what I presume are field recordings courtesy of Brian. A synth melody emerges, the wall of noise begins to dissipate, and we’re brought to the song’s lovely second half that features the “Unbroken Chain” sample grounded by a simple kick/snare rhythm and one of the most cathartic vocal collaborations between Noah and Dave to date. Their voices seem to swell with pure joy. On the flip side, Dave’s “On a Highway” is the darkest song of the bunch. The minor organ chords and ominous rumbles of bass perfectly frame Dave’s feelings of anxiety in the wake of having to support their most successful record to date. All of the songs on FBK are sonic marvels, but the highlight here is without a doubt Noah’s “I Think I Can”. Most of the seven-minute march consists of a stomping kick drum, clanging synths, sleigh bells, and his signature choirboy tenor before transitioning into an extended outro filled with brass synths and marimba that finds him surmounting his insecurities and pressing forward, self-doubt be damned.

                 The lyrics throughout FBK build on the concerns of prior records of theirs such as growing up, dealing with change, and general existential malaise, now coupled with the burdens of having to navigate the unlikely success they garnered in the wake of MPP. “On a Highway” addresses the exhaustion of unrelenting touring directly “On a highway/I let the bad things taunt me/Why do they want to haunt me?/I don’t know how they find me” and sneaks in a few surprisingly personal lines that give a glimpse of the band’s dynamic “On a highway/Sick of too much reading/Jealous of Noah’s dreaming/Can’t help my brain from thinking”. “Graze” also finds them extrapolating on the rigors of touring “Why can’t I reach you?/When I most need you?/You’re at the beach and/I’m in some strange bed” in addition to pondering the irony of how being in a band that becomes sustainable perpetuates displacement “And to have a band/That cracks the point of fame/Why does a band make me/Less settled in?”. Amidst all of their looming anxiety, resolution finally sneaks in towards the end of “I Think I Can”. The song begins with Noah contemplating the allures of complacency “What’s in the way?/And, and, and/What’s nice about staying on the same pace?” but towards the end he becomes firm in his conviction not to become stunted by things that are outside of his control and seize the opportunities that are “Can ruin the day from good ways/Will I get to move on soon?/I think I can, I think I can, I think I can”.

                 FBK was the last proper record that Animal Collective released until 2012’s underrated Centipede Hz, which while still good wasn’t quite on the level of their past releases. This decade found the collective primarily splintering to focus on their respective solo careers and side projects, only having gotten together since for 2016’s severely underwhelming Painting With and the meandering 2018 documentary soundtrack, Tangerine Reef. FBK marked the last time that the band were truly at the top of their game and miles ahead of their contemporaries. It’s remarkable to hear how, despite being almost a decade into their career at that point, the music still sounds so effortless, and was simply flowing with ideas. As we reach the end of the 10s it’s striking that despite there being so much exceptional music that’s come out since FBK, there hasn’t been a single band, or even a single artist for that matter, that’s accomplished so much within such a short span of time. Dave and Noah dropped solo records this year in the form of Cows on Hourglass Pond and Buoys respectively, and even though they mark low points for their solo work it’s still inspiring to hear the two of them push themselves creatively and refuse to simply go through the motions like so many other artists. Although the lyrics address their fears directly, the music on FBK suggests that Animal Collective were completely unhindered by their success, and still striving to create something honest, unfazed by trends or expectations. A decade later, and nothing on that front has changed. May we all strive to live so boldly.

Essentials: “I Think I Can”, “What Would I Want? Sky”, “Bleed”

#Animal Collective #fall be kind #ben h allen #domino records