#Mixtape: Thematic

[softgrungeprophet]

my kaine playlist is 2 and a half hours long...

okay well actually it's more like—

there's my primary Kaine playlist which is 2 and a half hours long and kind of doubles as a partial Janine playlist (still mostly Kaine but there's bound to be some overlap, all things considered):

and maybe it has some questionable song choices

—

There's my Spider-Man (well, really it's just Peter) playlist which is also 2 and a half hours long and has perhaps what some might call "too much" Blink-182 and pop punk on it:

—

There's a mixtape from Annabelle to Kaine which probably isn't done yet but is 40 minutes long:

—

There's a response from Kaine that he makes after leaving which is 44 minutes long and also probably technically not done yet:

—

There's also a playlist for the "worst year of peter's life" fic-in-progress which is 55 minutes long, probably complete, and which is sort of about Kaine but is also about Peter and in general about the entire situation that they've all been subjected to (including like, Flash's interactions with not-Peter (Ben)) and also a little bit about the past:

—

I don't have a playlist for Ben lol

#00/12 means 2000 / 2012 ftr which are partially related in terms of some of Peter's traumas in the AU #though 2012 specifically is more damaging as far as his long-term mental health goes (gee thanks professor warren) #of course it's not like it's the ONLY factor in his PTSD but it's arguably the most debilitating.... #anyway #nadia rambles #came in through the window last night #if it wouldn't be annoying and time consuming I would make youtube versions of these playlists but. that's a pain in my ass. #music #if i wanted to be truly extra I would restrict the last one to use only songs released prior to 2012 #but i don't feel like doing that #ALTHOUGH if i cut ''go ahead and cry'' ''real boy'' and ''dancing with a ghost'' it would be acceptable for 2012... #but i need the last one as a space filler to cut to ''unchained melody'' and the other two are like thematic #even if they are from 2023 #the mixtapes though—those are indeed only songs from earlier than 2015 (which is the year they are relevant to in the AU) #actually most of the songs on those are from between 1998 and 2007 LOL but i figure that works since annabelle is like... in her 20s #as far as the main big kaine and spider-man playlists i don't bother trying to restrict that by year #both because they're TECHNICALLY more than just AU playlists and also because they are more all encompassing conceptually #so like. they're not for a specific fic set in a specific year. so like sure yeah i'll slap whatever on there.

[wowowwild]

idk can't get the image of Apollo ska phase out of my head

#plot twist: apollo has legendary genetic musical talent and only uses it for ska #i just think it would be funny #klav like 'i can't believe you don't like my music but tou made yourself a ska mixtape' #he's an exclusively first and second wave kind of guy i think #ace attorney #apollo justice #i like to imagine everytime he has a crisis he pulls out the mixtape. it's not thematically appropriate for his emotions #but it makes him feel better. foster family put you back? ska. fail your test? ska. boss turns out to be a creep? ska. #best friend dead? ska. move to a country where doing your job might get you dead? ska. #like he doesn't listen to it at any other time so if you hear the trombone you know he needs a hug #1 am brain took this farther than necessary

[destielfanfic]

from the inbox, #9

From the inbox, #9, special edition - Destiel fic reccing Now and Then

Hi! First of all, your blog is absolutely wonderful! I wish there were a billion more like it for all pairings and fandoms lol. Do you know of any other good supernatural rec blogs?

As long as there were destiel fics, there were also dedicated fic reccers. Some stayed with fandom longer, some moved on faster, so, now we have a mix of active blogs and archived blogs. Here’s small collection of destiel fic rec resources that I’ve come across on tumblr. This is by no means a definite list and you are welcome to add your own resources in the notes! Let’s keep fic reccing craft alive and diverse!

Destiel Fic reccing NOW, currently active blogs in 2023

@profoundbondfanfic - an active and prolific destiel fic rec blog with dedicated mod team. Follow them on tumblr and have a rec every day!

@destielficbasket - a blog that reblogs a wide variety of destiel fic rec posts from other Tumblr blogs. All goods in one place!

@deancasfanficrecs - destiel fic recs and fic rec reblogs, lots of posts to chose from!

@destieltaggedfic - blog full of original themed fic rec posts, sorting destiel fics from different angles.

@mixtapebookclub - a tumblr blog for destiel fic podcast. Thematic podcasts and fic rec lists at the same time. There is also a Mixtape Book Club AO3 collection for your convenience. 

@cocklesdestielfiction - what it says on the tin! They have destiel, but they also have cockles recs and gif sets. Check them out!

@destieltropecollection - a very unique blog that collects themed self recs from the authors. Check out their neatly organized Master List Collection 2017-2022 or follow them to get the latest Destiel Trope Collection 2023 rec lists every day in May.

The Destiel Fan Survey Favs Collection on AO3 contains 2793 fics and 668 bookmarked fics that were chosen by destiel readers in several fic surveys organized by destiel writer @unforth. Check out this vast collection of reader choice fics!

Destiel Fic reccing THEN

@destielmybeatingheart-deactivated - what to say, this was the main blog for destiel fic rec back in the day. Unfortunately, the mod left fandom and later took down the blog and, with it, all their fic rec posts. See this post to appreciate what we used to have. In coming weeks, @destiel-fic-rec-lists will continue to reblog available destielmybeatingheart’s rec lists with updated links to AO3 when possible. You can find them under #creator: destielmybeatingheart tag. 

ask about other spn blogs like ours - this is 10 years old ask and a lot of blogs here are not active anymore or full of dead links, but if they are up, you can still browse them. The list includes some non spn fic rec blogs as well.

@deancasfix - destiel fic rec blog, reviews, rec lists and asks, last update May, 2020.

@deancasfanficnet - a blog to promote destiel fic writers, various posts, last update April, 2020.

@destiel-fics-for-you - destiel fic rec blog, reviews, rec lists and asks, last update June 2016.

Last but not least, don’t forget to browse our destiel fic challenge master post Where Is Destiel Fic In 2022 and occasionally check out @destiel-fic-rec-lists​ blog for fic rec lists made by other fans. (hint - all reblogs are tagged with their creator’s urls, so you can easily find their other posts on the blog)

Support and cherish your local fanfic reccer. You never know when you’ll need their help to find your next favorite fic!

Destiel fanworks on AO3 - 111,567 (May 8, 2023)

You can find previous From The Inbox posts here.

#from the inbox #about #destiel

[proud-mama-joyce]

some predictions for the final Vecna showdown

Major spoilers for Vol. 1 below!

First I want to line up several things we know:

Will has an important relationship with the UD: it’s frozen in time on the day he disappeared, and he has more ability to communicate from the UD than other characters. (Joyce had a LOT of string lights that were lit up at once that he couldn’t have been touching simultaneously, and Will shouldn’t have been able to see the alphabet she wrote on the wall if it were frozen in time. Also, Joyce didn’t plug in the string lights when Will was communicating with her. There’s more I could say here, but I’ll leave it at that for now.)

Vecna appears to have been born with his powers—or at the very least, they predated his lab experimentation. This means that it’s possible for other people in the ST universe to also be born with similar abilities.

We have hints that Will’s memories will be explored in Vol. 2 (e.g., Lonnie’s actor appearing at the table read; Noah posting a video of roller skating in his finale outfit)

Noah was wearing a harness at one point while filming S4

When asked about the saddest scene in ST, Noah said he thought of one in S4 (which likely relates to Will)

There’s a mixtape labeled “For Will” in promo material that we haven’t seen in the show yet

Will’s birthday was forgotten in Vol. 1 (and I do not believe this was an accident)

According to Netflix, an out-of-context spoiler word to describe S4 is “yes” (which has only ever been important in the past on the show during Mike’s memory of meeting Will on the swings)

In E7, El overpowers 001 following a memory of her mother’s “I love you,” suggesting again that love provides the key to Vecna’s defeat

In a recent interview, the Duffer brothers said that “Running Up That Hill” was chosen in part because of how well it connected thematically to how Vecna’s curse is defeated. (Does it have something to do with “swapping places,” then?)

From the episode titles that were released, we have several translations of last episode: “The Piggyback," "The Stowaway," "The Infiltration," "Eleven's Plan," "The Stealth Plan," "The Guest," and "The Hunt for Vecna"

That “infiltration” translation is interesting—Dustin asked Max if she thought she had infiltrated Vecna’s mind. He described her location as “Freddy Krueger’s boiler room,” which is notable since El is seen in the HNL boiler room with 001 before their faceoff

The D&D game and basketball game appear to foreshadow someone unexpected coming in at the last minute to provide a victory. Dustin’s roll is too low initially, and then Erica (the guest player) rolls a 20. Lucas is on the bench all game, but provides the winning shot.

More subjectively, there appear to be many Tom Riddle parallels with Vecna. If Will had more abilities than meets the eye, I think Vecna would be *very* interested in him, and possibly become preoccupied with understanding his abilities and the potential threats they may pose to him (in the way that Tom Riddle was obsessed with tracking down Harry). We already know that Will’s disappearance is tied to freezing the UD in time, but we don’t know how that may have affected Vecna—but if it did, it would provide him with a powerful motive for seeking out Will specifically (on top of other reasons).

Now let’s have some fun…here's one way I could imagine this coming together:

Paralleling the D&D and basketball games, the Hawkins gang make a plan to defeat Vecna that initially fails. The California gang + El arrive in Hawkins, El has her powers back, and they think they have everything set up for a victory, albeit a risky one. Since Max is still cursed, they attempt to make use of the fact that she’s familiar with Vecna’s location and tactics and that he’s still after her. Max chooses to stop listening to her mixtape in order to draw Vecna back. In the meantime, Eddie tries to disrupt the demobats’ echolocation abilities by shredding on his guitar, to keep Vecna from scouting for a new victim rather than keeping his attention on Max. Then, El attempts to make a psychic connection with Max during her trance in order to defeat Vecna, while Max tries to hold him off as long as possible. (In this way, they would “piggyback” onto Vecna’s connection with Max.)

However, this plan fails because the moment the California gang arrived, Vecna became obsessed with getting to Will—not only because of his trauma, but because of their similarities (if Will was born with abilities like he was) and/or the past connections he sees with the UD in Will’s memories. If Vecna is like Tom Riddle, he sees Will as a threat he needs to better understand. So Vecna doesn’t want to focus on Max, and he spotted Will before the demobats got diverted. However, he can’t resist the fact that Max is offering herself up to his clutches, so he keeps her in a limbo rather than the full trance that El needs in order for her to enact her part of the plan. El can’t make the connection she needs, and everyone panics.

Then: an unexpected person—Will—provides the key to victory, but it doesn’t look good at first. Vecna curses him while the other planning is being carried out. Maybe Will initially hides it, but eventually Mike sees a nosebleed (like he saw Max’s) and puts two and two together. Mike “kicks into gear” and alerts the others because he realizes Will is in danger—but it’s almost too late. Will is put into a trance with Vecna, and El’s newly regained powers are temporarily too crippled to connect with Will after her attempt with Max. Vecna relentlessly torments Will about feeling forgotten (especially on his birthday), about hiding his love for Mike, about his sexuality, and about his past traumas.

Maybe Vecna brings Will back to his memory of meeting Mike at the swings. If, like Voldemort, Vecna is an antagonist who doesn’t fully understand love, he might think Will wishes he could erase Mike from his life and all the suffering that came along with him. So maybe he asks Will, after all of his tormenting visions, if Will would choose to take back his “yes” to Mike. Even knowing the heartbreak, would he still choose to be his friend? Why return to that, when he could join him instead and make full use of his abilities?

But he underestimates Will—and Mike, who’s losing his mind trying to reach him. (Maybe he’s put on the “For Will” mixtape that he was too scared to give to Will on his birthday, but it’s not enough this time because Vecna learned from his encounter with Max.) Will’s trance goes on, and he levitates. His imminent danger prompts important realizations for Mike and ultimately leads to a love confession. Will more clearly sees what’s happening outside of his trance due to his “true sight” and stronger ability to communicate to/from the UD. He hears Mike’s love confession, which suddenly empowers him against Vecna in the way that El’s mother’s love did.

Will breaks free of Vecna by making a psychic connection with him and reversing who’s in control, overpowering him. “Yes,” he still chooses Mike, even with the pain that has accompanied everything. (Will the Wise rolls a 20. The lights everywhere shine intensely. Mike and the others think all might have been lost.) The psychic connection he creates opens a new rift, allowing him to get back through. He collapses into Mike’s arms, as Mike sobs in relief.

In a quieter moment, Will finally gives Mike his painting. It’s the two of them at the swings when they met. Before, “it was you guys who saved me.” This time, it was Mike.

#byler #st4 spoilers #stranger things #stranger things 4 #byler is endgame

[olderthannetfic]

Escapade Dance Party 2023 Writeup 1/3

Seeing as Escapade Online is coming up this weekend, I suppose I should finally write up some stuff about last in-person con that I never got around to.

I don't usually bother with a full con report, but I do like writing up the dance party. Instead of just playing music, I do a playlist of vids that we project on the wall. It's a small con, somewhere between a hundred and a hundred and thirty, generally, so I don't bother to ask permission. (This is also why we don't broadcast or redistribute the dance party in any way or do one for the online con.)

Escapade is a venerable con. In fact, it's the oldest still-running slash con. Back in the 90s, people would come here to find out what was going on in fandom that year, get pimped into the latest fandoms, find out about new zines. Fandom moves a lot faster now: between when we decide on panels and when the con happens, a whole movie fandom could have risen and fallen. Still, it's as easy as ever to feel out of touch, just for different reasons than in the 90s.

I want people to come away from the dance party feeling like they've heard of some of the Next Hot Things. It's also a great opportunity to cover some of attendees' own fandoms that may not end up in the main vidshow. As a vidder, I despise cons that try to make the main vidshow purely audience-focused and just about whatever ships are big. A con like that sees vidders as providers of entertainment, not fellow fans and attendees. But a con that honors vidders' actual current interests is a con with a vidshow full of weird fandoms of one and glaring gaps in what older fandoms are included. So having another curated show, like this dance party, is a nice way to bridge that gap.

The party is essentially like an enormous mixtape. It's a chance for me to make thematic links between vids and to inflict music I actually want to dance to onto a captive audience. Each discrete vidding community tends to have extremely boring taste in music. Sorry, not sorry. And for dance music, this is even worse. I often can't find what I'm looking for, but I can try.

Every year, I begin by looking at attendees' profiles on the Escapade site, filtering the m/m tag on AO3 for what's been active in the past year, and browsing around until I come up with a list of fandoms of interest. Fandoms that people suggested Escapade panels for also go on the list. These may be the big ones, but there are usually a lot of idiosyncratic options since it's a small con. It doesn't matter if Steve/Bucky is big if nobody at this con is going to care.

I set up my spreadsheet for my epic vid search: This involves not only sheets for my fandom list but vocabulary lists for searching: Слэш, 燃, etc.

After that, I go through the past year of the AO3 'fanvids' tag and maybe the 'amv' one, looking for interesting vids. They need to be at least somewhat danceable and 2-5 minutes without a ton of show audio. That's easier to find on AO3 than Youtube at large, but it still knocks out most vids I open everything, put the playhead to the middle of the vid, and test the sound. If I hear something viable, I go back and watch the vid. But if too many people I know have kudosed, I take it off the list since people have seen it already. For this step, I don't care about fandom, just about the vid being interesting and preferably slashy. (Yes, this is how I fell into Beyond Evil.)

After that, I start looking on Youtube and Bilibili, fandom by fandom, ship by ship. Some fandoms I never do find. They're just too unpopular with vidders. Some I find, but only a ship I have banned. I have a lifetime ban on Klance, for example. Anything too redolent of antis goes on the banned list. Anything with surprise tentacles is a shoo-in.

I also have some other rules for myself that I've developed over the years. I want at least a couple of vids with women, preferably f/f. Escapade is more m/m-focused, but a lot of attendees are queer and/or ship f/f as well. The show must have at least a vid or two that focuses on somebody other than white or East Asian characters. I mostly avoid vidders who are well known to people who attend the US slash/Media Fandom/vidding type cons unless I really cannot fill a particular fandom need elsewhere. I especially try to avoid vids that have already shown at other cons recently, though depending on how they're labeled, I may screw that one up. I've been more and more strict about this over time. I find a lot of vidding communities pretty incestuous, so this is a chance to shake things up.

A big one that surprises some people is that I try to avoid most multifandom vids and many ensemble vids. This one is negotiable depending on the vid, but I find that there's a distasteful pattern where a juggernaut will be deemed worthy of taking up a whole slot for itself with just a focus on the one ship while other things are relegated to an Awesome Ladies compilation. Those vids are fantastic in isolation, but if you play a lot of them together in a vidshow, let alone a vidshow that's a dark, noisy dance party, they all blend together into mush. A great ship vid or single character study, on the other hand, still manages to grab people. If you aren't willing to say "This ship gets the Star Wars/MCU/etc. slot, not that ship", what are you actually saying?

I try to find a fresh choice for any fandom that has been directly requested (so pretty much just Sentinel) and any where I know some attendees are mostly or only in that one fandom (The Professionals).

Of course, I can only play what people have already made, and this is a dance party, so sometimes, there just aren't any choices. I do shoehorn in a couple of not-very danceable vids most years, but they can only go right before or after the intermission or right at the end, so the number has to be limited.

One thing I don't always care about is the strictest standards of "quality" in a snobby vidder sense. Not only do different communities have different standards for what counts, but I'm more interested in novelty or great music. I won't play anything I think is terrible, but I'll take a B+ vid by a rando to an A+ song over an A+ vid that everyone's already seen.

For 2023's con, I decided the party should have a theme of vampires since I had guessed—incorrectly— that the new Interview with the Vampire show would be the latest hot thing everyone was talking about. In retrospect, I should have picked mafia for Kinnporsche and Gonchraov. At least vampires gave me good decorating ideas for cheesy fake candles and black spiderweb-draped tables.

It also sent me looking for goth club music, which I did find to some extent, but between who didn't attend this year and how awesome the cocktail party outside was, we got much less action on the dance floor than usual. (Excuse you! That music is totally danceable! "Drunken tai chi" as we used to say!)

At least my themed cocktail list was a hit. As an annoying cocktail nerd, it infuriates me when people just take a famous drink and slap a fannish name on it, so I insist on making a fannish cocktail list I find respectable.

Playlist in a moment.

[fuckmeyer]

Ok so I follow you because of your amazing analyzing and theories of twilight, but it's gotten to a point I have to consider reading your stories, and besides a Paul lahote story here or there over the years, I haven't really read twilight stories, especially ones that aren't about the Wolfpack.

I'm scared. So I wanted to ask about yours, what is it like?

Is it crazy like full of plot twists and insanity and madness covered into brilliance (the good kind) or crazy in a way that I start liking bella and edward (the terrifying part)?

(If you answer this, please consider the fact it might actually make me reread twilight (the original) and start ranting worse. For both our sanities, is it smart?)

Is it crazy like full of plot twists and insanity and madness covered into brilliance (the good kind) or crazy in a way that I start liking bella and edward (the terrifying part)?

both! liking Bella & Edward is THE biggest plot twist of this saga LOL. i'm not really one to hype my work so bear with me. here's the difference between Twilight & In The Afterlight:

the familiar:

setting. rainy rural PNW vibes

rough plot. girl meets vampire. vampire wants to kill her. love ensues. it starts you off in familiar territory, then slowly peels away as the story progresses. you'll find enough of the "iconic" scenes to keep you oriented in nostalgia, but not so much that you feel chained to the original book.

characters. no OCs. Bella & Edward are somewhat OOC, but their core traits are still intact.

the unfamiliar(ish):

Bella's personality. i think it was @blurry-walker who made this excellent point: we're supposed to like Bella because of how she's described, not by how she acts. Bella is not really selfless, mature, observant, compassionate, intellectual, or self-aware. which would be fine... if that were the author's intention. i've tried making Bella a mix between how she's described & how she acts: selfless, contemplative, & stubborn, with a sense of humor. & i threw in a backstory & hobbies - i.e, drawing, music, reading - so she has a life besides Edward. (she can still act like she's 18 tho. as a treat.)

Edward's personality. no stalking, no anger issues or mood swings, no misogyny, no invalidation of Bella's choices, no militant chastity. just a vampire who's lost his way & startled to discover he is every bit a part of this world as Bella. more humorous, more overwrought/ romantic, more contemplative.

the result is a relationship that's rooted in mutual respect, common interests & values, & genuine companionship. they talk about philosophy, they exchange mixtapes, they tease each other, & have slightly less self-control when it comes to sexual intimacy

James/Victoria plotline

twilight is less fairytale, more gothic horror

deeper thematic discussions (bc i think they're neat! :D). what does it mean to be you? how do you find yourself again when you're lost? what's the secret to keeping your humanity in death?

vampire/Cullen lore. what's the difference between a golden-eyed vampire and a red-eyed one? what are "la tua cantantes" and "mates"? why are the Cullens going to high school? what's the Cullen-Volturi relationship like? who are the Cullens, really? i'm trying to paint them as grayer characters & have their personalities/backstories make sense for who they are.

werewolf lore. i *hate* canon imprinting - how an imprinter loses him/herself to the imprint, how the imprintee can't say no, the fact that they imprint on CHILDREN when the theory behind imprinting is to "find the strongest genes"... NO. i hate it all. i hate that smeyer appropriates the legends of the Quileute tribe & how stereotypes/ tropes of Native people are perpetuated in this series. i especially hate the double-standards Bella puts on the pack vs the coven. justice for the wolfpack or bust

since you mentioned liking the wolfpack (same), the sequel, Come Nightfall (aka New Moon), has way more wolfpack content than the original, & we see a lot more interactions between Jake & Bella. (and Bella & Sam!)

i don't feel it's my place to tell you whether you should read this or even whether it's good. if it helps, this is what other people say:

"This… Was incredible. It was the kind of fanfiction that should be praised along the classics of the fandom, the kind you would want to print and put in the shelf in between Twilight and Life And Death."

"This is, to me, the epitome of great fanfiction--you took the story idea and characters and tweaked them to how you imagine it would be better as well as adding in your own flare, AND you have the story telling ability to back it up."

"You've managed to write something that not only surpasses the source material, but flies so far beyond it in nuance, craftsmanship, raw emotion and SMUT that it travelled through space and time continuum and shows no signs of stopping. Every time I think it can't get better, it does."

"I read both of your books in like 2 days; I couldn’t put them down. This is some of the best writing I’ve ever read on here."

"What a gem of a story. I read it in one sitting, the best canon rewrite I've ever read. Very very clever writing, engaging plot, and the most real Bella and Edward relationship I've ever seen. Everything about it, Bella and Jacob, Sam, Alice and Bella's dynamic, Billy and Bella, everything added so much colour to this story. I can't believe this came from Meyer's twilight and New Moon. Absolutely genius."

#thank you for asking :) #i really enjoy talking about this story because i'm so passionate about it! the fact that everyone is so intrigued is just really inspiring #i hope this doesnt come across as being cocky or bragging #i just really love this story and love that other people do too :) <3 #it just makes me sing im so grateful for everyone and for this experience #i love writing so much i could talk about it forever it's just the best thing on earth ahhhhhhh <333333333333 #it was especially nice to reread through comments people left me because i've been having a hard time & this was a great pick-me-up #please don't take this to mean you should reread twilight #for the love of god please don't reread twilight #you don't have to read this fic but please please please twilight will not be better on your next read-through TRUST ME

[steelajeeg]

Steel A Jeeg's Magno-Mixtape Vol 08

April arrives, and we are all its fools. So let's all settle in, grab a beverage, and agree to be the silly geese we know we were meant to be.

Instead of subjecting you all to a playlist of joke songs (check the readme to find out the torture I planned) I decided to do something a little different that met the spirit of the day, at least.

APRIL SHUFFLE The rules are simple: I set my entire music collection on shuffle. The intent - take the first 20 songs in the shuffle, pick my 12 favorites, and organize them into a playlist. Try to find any emergent themes, good thematic or musical transitions, and have something to say about each track. The caveats - No repeat tracks, nothing that's been on a mixtape before. No skits, obviously. And no songs from the same album. Good or bad, it made it on the mix.

I then had to put together a cohesive song order, and maybe even come up with an emergent theme. Did I find one? Check the readme and you'll see!

The access code is: BEAMCONFUSE

Either way, enjoy the music. It's a very jazzy mix this time around, the perfect playlist to ride out the thunderstorms, eclipses, and freak earthquakes while we wait for warmer weather to arrive.

Featuring tracks from: Mos Def, Isao Sasaki, David Bowie, Earth Wind & Fire, Maryanne Murray, The Decemberists, Takayuki Miyauchi, and more!

Choose your format: [FLAC] [MP3]

#music #mixtape #playlist #Magno-Mixtape #music sharing #Anisong #Mix Tape #Hip-Hop #JAM Project #The Decemberists #Pop'n Music #mos def #czarface #MF DOOM #David Bowie #Takayuki Miyauchi #Kid Cudi #Isao Sasaki #earth wind and fire #Maryanne Murray #Regina Spektor #Norio Sakai #Kamen Rider #Kamen Rider Black #Kamen Rider Black RX #宮内タカユキ #坂井紀雄

[sendmyresignation]

WHEN THE MIXTAPE LIES CHOKE DOWN THE WORDS WITH NO MEANING!!!!!! conventional weapons is like if disenchanted was an album. musically AND (just realizing) on a meta level

if disenchanted was an album.... you fucking get it. it's really interesting because disenchanted is probably the least connected to parade (to me I think you could argue it breaks the narrative reality more than teenagers, tho it still integrates well) since it doesn't feel as grounded in the patients story, yknow. and cw is seeing that fully realized with the concept purposefully removed. esp in the aftermath of parade and fame and suicide cult daily mail rhetoric. but it's got interesting tinges of where danger days is going with its critic of musical popular culture + the scene at the turn of the decade. I think that thematic development about art is like sooo important for late stage mcr progression.

#i mean its crossroads point in my chems work visa-via music/scene/etc is why its so interesting (and why ive written so much about it) #it feels important somehow but i never considered the disenchanted connection outside the oblique heros are dead connection... ur so right #my posts #igottheanswer #angstics

[stankris]

The Evolution and Revolution of Agust D 2016-2023

Before I get to talking about ‘Haegeum,’ we need to look at the birth of Agust D from Yoongi’s first mixtape by the same name in 2016.

When we first meet Agust D, he’s presented as a scrappy underdog bound in a moving motorhome, but he slowly breaks free over the course of the ‘Agust D’ MV.

This first version of Agust D is characterized by his anger at those who have wronged or looked down on him, his ambition, and his greed. His ambition and greed are apparent just in the title of his follow up track ‘give it to me’.

The MV for ‘give it to me’ is also a continuation of ‘Agust D’ where he’s fully succeeded in breaking free from his bonds and captivity.

Yoongi has also stated (in a live after the release of D-2) that another name for blond Agust D is anger.

But equally important to note is how this first, blond version of Agust D, who I’ll call Agust D-1 from here on, is in the process of rising up from the bottom to overcome, or overthrow, those that tried to keep him down just because he’s an idol rapper.

Using military metaphors he so fond of, he’s a “new recruit” enacting “insubordination” or a “mutiny” against the older rappers in the underground scene.

‘Daechwita’, released with Yoongi’s second mixtape D-2, follows a similar narrative. He’s still calling out his detractors in the lyrics, except now he’s risen “from origins of a slave to become a king” and no longer the underdog he was.

Even the title and sample of traditional Daechwita military music is announcing the arrival of this king with familiar blond hair and a fresh scar over his eye.

Except, despite the lyrics, the MV still tells the story of an underdog rising up to overthrow the corrupted power at the top. 

The original blond Agust D-1 has become the villain, mad with his own power, demanding total submission of those under him, and rapidly collecting the heads of anyone who opposes him.

And this is when we meet Agust D-2 with black hair and a scar to match the King’s.

He becomes our new underdog and the revolutionary narrative becomes one of a struggle within Yoongi’s own self, to overcome the tyranny of ‘Anger.’ Just like Agust D-1 from the ‘Agust D’ MV, he has his own bonds to break free from.

One interesting thing I observed, before we move on from ‘Daechwita,’ is that Agust D-2 is associated with newer technology than Agust D-1. It signals that Agust D-2 is the natural successor, the next generation. 

The setting of the MV and Agust D-1′s palace appears to be the Joseon dynasty, but there are a few exceptions to this brought in by Agust D-2, like the Jade key-ring and the car.

Even their weapons of choice are telling. Agust D-1′s weapon is a sword:

But as a newer iteration of himself, Agust D-2 is more technologically advanced and his weapon of choice is a gun.

Agust D-2 uses the gun to shoot the mad king and presumably succeeds in overthrowing him in this succession of power.

Phew, ok. Are you still with me? On to ‘Haegeum’.

‘Haegeum’ is even more explicitly about breaking free from what binds us. The title itself, while it can mean the traditional Korean instrument, also means the lifting of a ban or what has been forbidden. Yoongi references this in lyrics like, “liberation from all that’s forbidden” and when he explicitly states, “this song's simply about freeing what's forbidden.”

The visual and thematic parallels between ‘Daechwita’ and ‘Haegeum’ also make clear that this overthrowing of a corrupted power at the top is a repeating cycle. We even get Jungkook’s chicken in both market scenes!

Okay, the chicken probably isn’t that thematically important, but it’s fun. And Jungkook was really cute with that chicken behind the scenes.

We also see the return of Agust D-2, marked by his fading scar, but instead of the underdog revolutionary he was in ‘Daechwita,’ he has now risen to the top of the police force and been corrupted. The money our new underdog Agust D-3 steals at the beginning is clearly his with how invested Agust D-2 is in its retrieval. Several of his shots mirror those of the mad king from ‘Daechwita,’ making his corruption and this association clear.

Agust D-3 is our new protagonist and he has his own share of parallels with Agust D-2 from ‘Daechwita’ as well. He doesn’t overthrow the corrupt authority at the top alone. In both instances, he gets help from the other people under the corrupt authority: the butcher/executioner in ‘Daechwita’ and one of the gang members in ‘Haegeum.’

They both make eye contact with our revolutionary early on in the MVs and by the end are revealed to have been working with him all along when instead of following orders and killing our protagonist they sneak him the gun that kills the corrupt authority at the end.

But I have hope that Agust D-3 will be able to break free from this cycle of rising to power and then becoming corrupted. The reason for this hope is ‘Haegeum’s’ lyrics. 

We’re told explicitly to “differentiate between freedom and self-indulgence” because there are limits to freedom and it becomes an issue when one person’s self-indulgence infringes on another person’s freedom. That’s the real issue with these corrupted authority figures doing whatever they want: they’re hurting the people under them and impeding their freedoms.

So what makes Agust D-3 different?

Well, at first not much. He is in fact very self-indulgent as he murders, steals, smokes, and generally does whatever he wants. This is how he comes into conflict with Agust D-2 as both of their greed starts to restrict the other, “putting shackles on each other.”

But there’s a turning point when they come face to face. Agust D-3 takes the cigarette (a symbol of self-indulgence) from Agust D-2′s lips and looks like he’s considering smoking it himself.

But instead of smoking it, he does the unexpected and throws it into the stacks of stolen money, which are symbolic of the greed and capitalism that shackled him, and burns it all, freeing himself from the hold it had on him.

Agust D-2 is not free from this greed, however, so when he sees the money he’s trying to retrieve go up in flames, he takes out his anger on Agust D-3 (making him even more like the violent and angry Agust D-1).

But because Agust D-2 is still blinded by greed and anger, Agust D-3 is able to shoot and overthrow him in the end (in another parallel scene with ‘Daechwita’).

We see the full arc of Agust D-3′s growth when he returns to the restaurant where this chain of events all began, and he orders a single bowl of noodles.

He uses the chopsticks, which were previously his murder weapon, to eat the noodles as they were intended to be used. He’s still participating in the system in place, because we all need to eat at the end of the day, but it’s different. It’s not the exploitation of the system for self-gain that Agust D-2 was engaged in as a corrupt police official, and it’s not the unfettered destructive self-indulgence Agust D-3 displayed at the beginning of the MV either. 

To be free it might be necessary to participate in the system to a certain extent, but what’s really important is to continue questioning it. That’s the challenge Agust D-3 seems to be giving the audience with his look at the end.

But with the hair falling over his eye in this shot, resembling the scar that marked the past two Agust Ds, perhaps it’s more ambiguous than that. Maybe he too will eventually fall to corruption. Maybe we all have that corruption in us and we have to continually struggle against it. 

Either way, ‘Haegeum’ is a thought-provoking, cinematic masterpiece, and I hope you enjoyed this post where I tried to put all my thoughts together.

Note: I haven’t mentioned ‘Amygdala’ in this overview of the Agust D trilogy, because I think the story of that song is slightly separate (it’s much more tied to personal events in Yoongi’s life). The one thing I do think is relevant from ‘Amygdala,’ though, is that the scar is self-inflicted. From what I’ve seen Yoongi say about it, the scar seems to signify the self-inflicted wounds following trauma that lead to our corruption, but I’m not entirely sure.

(credit to https://muish.wordpress.com  and https://doolsetbangtan.wordpress.com for translations as well as all official MV translations)

#agust d #haegeum #daechwita #d-day album #min yoongi

[fiercynn]

patpran fic playlist: “traffic was slow for the crash years”, a fake dating au

so my bad buddy fake dating fic, traffic was slow for the crash years, is going to be finishing up soon, and i decided i wanted to share my playlist for it! it’s my first time making a playlist specifically for a fic – usually i just have general fandom playlists that i listen to while i write – so this was a lot of fun for me. (it is not spoilery for the forthcoming last chapter, except in that the fic will have a happy ending lol)

you can listen to the playlist either on spotify or youtube, but i wanted to share some of my commentary about why i chose each song here! one caveat is that of all the languages here, i only speak english and spanish, so for the thai, hindustanti (hindi/urdu) (i am south indian lolsob), and korean songs i’m basically going off of the lyric translations into english i could find online (which i've linked to).

1. “crash years”, the new pornographers [lyrics]: the song where the title and all the chapter titles comes from! i'm going to be honest: i don’t really know what the song means, and i doubt it has anything to do with the story i'm trying to tell in the fic. i just really really like the song and its mood, and the lyric snippets that i've used for titles seemed thematic to me! lol

2. "main rahoon ya na rahoon | whether i remain or not", armaan & amaal malik [lyrics]: a little flowery for pran but i love the melancholy unrequited pining mood for his high school years

3. “keeping tabs”, niki [lyrics]: a song about wondering if the person you’re pining over (such as, yk, the rival/friend you had to leave behind when you were shipped off to boarding school for three years) even remembers you or cares about you, and also you’re trying to convince yourself that you hate them. seriously look at the lyrics for this one. extremely pran-coded

4. “เพื่อนเล่น ไม่เล่นเพื่อน | just being friendly”, tilly birds feat. milli [lyrics]: i know this is now a my school president song, but it was a patpran song for me first, so much so that my friend @scribescribe & i made a patpran fanvid/edit to it in 2022! it's just so perfect for them, and i see this as being the mood right after patpran meet again at uni, and pran wondering how he's back in this weird not-friend/crush place again

5. “รักกันจนตาย | love you until i die”, season five ft. jlis [lyrics]: this is the song that the engineering crew play at the concert in chapter 3! pat chooses it because he thinks it’s a fun song to celebrate a new “relationship”, to sell their lie to everyone better. poor pran

6. “เหตุผลที่ไม่อยากเป็นเพื่อนเธอ | the reason i don’t want to be your friend”, so cool [lyrics]: the song that architecture plays in chapter 3; pran chooses it because it’s got basically the same meaning as “just friends” and he needs an outlet. poor pran

7. “one damn good mistake”, miss benny [lyrics]: pat pov for when they start hooking up in chapter 4…i don’t think pat actually thinks what they’re doing is wrong or a mistake, but the mood of this feels much more pat than pran, like he finds the secrecy exciting

8. “lie to me”, abigail barlow & ariza [lyrics]: pran pov for chapter 4. pran's really going through it

9. “october”, alessia cara [lyrics]: pran in chapter 6 when he thinks about the inevitable “break-up”… 😭

10. “애 | mixtape: oh”, stray kids [lyrics]: pat when he realizes his feelings in chapter 7!!! now he’s really going through it

11. “stay”, onewe & oneus [lyrics]: pat after his confession in chapter 7 :( he misses pran so much :(

12. “rearview”, run river north [lyrics]: okay firstly run river north is one of my favorite bands, you should check out their other work. but yeah this duet feels very patpran post-breakup in upcoming chapter 8; they both want each other, but for a while pran convinces himself that it can’t work. (i promise i chose this song before remembering that one of the lyrics was “tapping on your window” sldkfkdj)

13. "พร้อม | ready", mints [lyrics]: more pat pining after the break-up

14. “one of us”, abba [lyrics]: if you know me you will not be surprised that i snuck an abba song in here lol. the reason for breaking up doesn’t match, but the mood of pran in chapter 8 regretting the breakup does, right? one of my top pining songs of all time tbh

15. “fin del mundo | end of the world”, jesse & joy [lyrics]: jesse & joy are also among my favorite artists, listen to their stuff too! it’s so cute and such a ride or die song, befitting of the end of chapter 8. patpran are better as a TEAM, they can be anywhere/handle anything as long as they’re together!!!!

16. “grow up together”, starmaxx [lyrics]: i'm getting repetitive but you should DEFINITELY check out starmaxx’s other stuff, it’s all awesome and most of it is actually more dance-y pop. but this is such a lovely and gentle song about lifetime love that i thought it was a good mood for the epilogue! patpran 4eva

#traffic was slow for the crash years #bad buddy #patpran #fake dating #playlist #fanmix #fic playlist #bad buddy fanmix #bad buddy fic

[endreal]

Mixtape Monday - driving on back country roads please 😊

This is going to be more vibes-based than thematic and I managed to avoid Life Is A Highway! (which really isn't a back country road at all is it?)

Hooch, by Everything

Snow, by Red Hot Chili Peppers

Sister Golden Hair, by America

Follow You Down, by Gin Blossoms

Dancing In The Moonlight, by King Harvest

#Mixtape Monday #(belated)

[stobinesque]

first of all i love the way you title your work so much, like something about it just scratches my brain and second for the wip title game i am here to ask about phryctoria, like literally tell me anything (or a snippet 👀) i'm so intrigued by the title (and yeesssss on it almost being done)

ahhhh thank you del <33 I actually really love titling things! Especially if I'm titling things thematically (as is the case with semiotics 'verse). I have a whole pile of titles waiting for a fitting story idea in my notes folder in scrivener! Also I collect words and turns of phrase like a little linguistic magpie 😅

also by "phryctoria is almost done" I mean I literally just need to post the last chapter (technically two, but chapter 7 is a bonus non-plot chapter) to AO3!! Chapters 1-5 are up, though! The fic is basically Steve realizing he's gay, coming out to Robin, and the two of them trying to figure out how to be Gay Teenagers in Indiana in the Eighties. All if it is set about a month or two after season 3. Really I just need to do one last quick proofread and put the last couple chapters up, so that will probably happen tomorrow or Friday!

The title for this fic was originally "signal fires" and each chapter was named after a fire-starting process, as sort of a prelude to the stronger focus on queer signifiers and semiotics that I'm planning on getting into later in the series, but as I was trawling Wikipedia for semaphore systems I stumbled across this one (which is a type of fire-based semaphore system)! So each chapter title is based on a Greek letter (which let me tell you it sucked whenever I thought I'd settled on title chapters and then accidentally gained a chapter).

I also realized yesterday that I never shared the playlist I made for this fic (specifically for chapter 4, I think?). So please behold my Stobin car mixtape, which Steve and Robin put together for their gay field trip to Indianapolis.

#read writes #tag game #phryctoria #stobin #platonic stobin #music #del💚 #also re ur tags on the original post: no i am not okay 😅

[aquietanarchy]

⏯ can I have "a walk in the woods in the spring" for the mixtape ask meme?

This was so much fun to put together! Lots of folksy acoustic stuff ahead, lol.

This song is upbeat, jaunty, and incredibly folksy. Very appropriate for a springtime forest walk :)

This song just brings me so much joy. It feels exciting, and fresh; I imagine walking by a creek overflowing with snowmelt while trees push out new green shoots

The lyrics of this one are rich in woodland imagery. Thematically, it's like the essence of courage distilled into music. Very poetic song.

Beautiful spoken word over a layered instrumental. Hopeful, uplifting, mellow, definitely reminds me of spring.

And to close out the mixtape, here's this gorgeous instrumental. It's so calming, and there's an ethereal quality to it as well. This one is on heavy rotation on my playlist for creative writing work :)

Loved the prompt! Hope you enjoy the music ☺️

#answered #mixtape vibe meme #fannish-snailien #music

[foxymoxynoona]

Hi Foxy!!! How are you doing?

I’m gonna tell you something that feels like karma. You know I started Flux not a long time ago, and I’m sooooo into it. The thing is my boss is on vacation right now, so I might or might not have read the super hard and feel-like-crying chapters at work. I’ve feeling sick all day! I feel sooooo full I could explode, even when I literally didn’t eat anything during the day. So, karma for lazing around today at work. 🥲

I definitely knew it’s was going to be hard to read. So many emotions, so many bad decisions, so many secrets… I’m happy I waited for it to be finished, and I’m kind of quickly reading it. I'm devouring it! Right now I feel like I should read it again once I’m done with it to appreciate all the things I’m skipping over just because I’m reading it too quickly to know what’s next.

I’m think I read it somewhere along the book, but I couldn’t find it again: you mentioned a song named “Secret Song”, didn’t you? I tried to google it but couldn’t find anything. Do you mind, if you did wrote about it, tell me again it’s singer? So I could find it. You can call me out if I dream it too! 😂 In any case, I’d also like to know why did you name this series like that (I can’t remember if you already answered it, so feel free to tell me to search it!). I believe there’s more behind it than that it talks about Idol life and aaaaaall the secret all characters keep, but I’d like to know your insight of it!

So… I’m loving this book as much as your other works. I really can’t believe your doing it for free. You deserve to be a published author! Hope you’ll get there someday if that your wish ❤️

Looooots of love! ❤️🍿

I know what you mean, I think sometimes there's a lot of comfort in breezing through and knowing how it ends so then you can go back and later and appreciate how temporary the pain is.

The song you're talking about is "Secret Love Song" I think, which Jungkook and Sasha recorded a duet in the first book for. It's by Jason DeRulo and Little Mix.

The series isn't named after that song but a similar idea: each book title in the series is a song on a secret mixtape Jungkook and Sasha work on together later. There will be other references to more songs Jungkook works on or works on with Sasha later in the series too. There are other thematic tie-ins about secrets, about the people we tell those secrets too, about the people we trust enough to hear the song in our heart and sing along with us.

I'm glad you're enjoying it! And I hope you're feeling better <3

#flux #secret song series #asks

[leatherbookmark]

bts have announced they're putting their group activities on hiatus to focus on their solo stuff and I would've never expected how happy I'd be about it

even two years ago I'd want them to continue as a group, because group dynamics and the sense of Fun&Friendship is one of the main reasons why people get so hooked on K-pop, i think. but the previous two years have been absolutely abysmal not only for their music but also their, idk how to put it, reputation as musicians?

evolution of style is one thing, but for a group that started as and has roots in hip-hop, being known worldwide for boppy shallow little songies about having fun and taking pics with president biden must be... weird. they no longer rap about social issues and young people's opinions, and it's not only because it's been a good while since they could call themselves "relatable". now they're just... smooth, bright, polite. again, they couldn't release a song like war of hormone right now, because people would probably burn them at the stake. as a group, they can't speak their own mind anymore, and the music they release is more about "saying thank you to their fans" rather than having an actual concept -- musically, thematically, plot-wise, so on.

even BE, an album they contributed to the most out of all their previous albums, photoshoots and so on included, was known for this, and the fact that it was "a gift to cheer people up during these difficult times"* rather than because it was a part of a story, or had an interesting concept, aesthetic or anything. "we did it ourselves just for you!" okay, but I'm not your mom, I don't need a card to put on the fridge.

so I'm actually ecstatic that they're going to release solo stuff, because it'd be the closest, in its core, to earlier bts albums and songs. the credits wouldnt be so fucking long (at least I hope so.), it would be about something, it would come from them directly.

I HOPE, DEARLY, that "solo work" means mixtapes, and not solo albums with exclusive deluxe ahem standard editions going for 70 us fucking dollars, although it's fucking bighit so I know they're going to try to squeeze something out of it. I hope the lads will protest, though, and I kind of hope the break is because they were tired of it all.

apparently hoseok is going to do something from his new mixtape on some American festival, which, ???, but I'm tentatively excited for the music, at least

#shrimp thoughts

[transition-with-the-torah]

How to Count the Omer:

The omer refers to the 49-day period between the second night of Passover (Pesach) and the holiday of Shavuot. This period marks the beginning of the barley harvest when, in ancient times, Jews would bring the first sheaves to the Temple as a means of thanking God for the harvest. The word omer literally means "sheaf" and refers to these early offerings. The Torah itself dictates the counting of the seven weeks following Passover: "You shall count from the eve of the second day of Pesach, when an omer of grain is to be brought as an offering, seven complete weeks. The day after the seventh week of your counting will make fifty days, and you shall present a new meal offering to God (Leviticus 23:15-16)." In its biblical context, this counting appears only to connect the first grain offering to the offering made at the peak of the harvest. As the holiday of Shavuot became associated with the giving of the Torah, and not only with a celebration of agricultural bounty, the omer period began to symbolize the thematic link between Passover and Shavuot. While Passover celebrates the initial liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, Shavuot marks the culmination of the process of liberation, when the Jews became an autonomous community with their own laws and standards. Counting up to Shavuot reminds us of this process of moving from a slave mentality to a more liberated one. When to Count the Omer The counting of the omer begins on the second night of Passover. Jews in the Diaspora generally integrate this counting into the second seder. The omer is counted each evening after sundown. The counting of the omer is generally appended to the end of Ma'ariv (the evening service), as well. [Some call the evening service Arvit.]

The article also contains the blessing and formula for [day #, week #] when you get to that point. For those who would like to have the full list of [day #, week #] in Hebrew, Sefaria has a page: Easy as 1, 2, 3: How to Count the Omer.

Those who don't have a current need for Hebrew script (shortening the page/list): Reform's Counting of the Omer: Blessings for Each Day.

The Conservative/Masorti page has a printable calendar, a weekly email, a mixtape, and resources on the spiritual reflection side: Counting The Omer.

Chabad also has Omer Tools: a daily counter, a daily email reminder, a counter app, and a printable calendar.

#counting of the omer