#also big fan of eddie thus far

[retro-system]

ay so far i've seen all the characters i wanted to see so that's good enough for me

#stranger things lb #also nice that they subverted expectations and killed off one of the characters i grew to like right at the start rather than near the end #but the storyline just doesn't look like it's gonna bring anything new to the table #also why did mike and dustin blow off lucas's game to play dnd when they literally said they were done with it last season #they're shit friends to him dude seriously #anyway all the scoops quad returned so that just leads me to assume they're gonna reunite #also big fan of eddie thus far #stranger things spoilers #also couldn't they have at least told lucas they weren't gonna make it to his game instead of leaving him to find out when the time came?

[nervousgardenerkid]

yello could u do an eddie munson x reader where the reader struggles w selective mutism (becoming mute/being unable to speak in some situations usually because of bad anxiety, or at least in my own experience) and usually communicates through little notes but feels real bad bc they don’t want eddie to be disappointed and he comforts them and says it’s ok bc he loves them anyway

pls i’m having big sad rn and i think that would be so adorable, also considering that selective mutism and stuff like that is v rarely seen in media/fanfics lol, it would be a big win for us

ty <333

a/n: i hope i got to this in time anon! i'm sorry you're feeling sad rn :( i tried to do my best with it cause personally i have no idea what it's like but as someone with anxiety i understand a bit! I hope you like it :D credit to the gif owner!

Notes to you

Blue skies in, grey clouds out. Blue skies in, grey clouds out. You thought to yourself. You weren't sure what was in the air today but school seemed so much more packed when it came to basketball games. Maybe school spirit was more alive in the students thus causing them to be louder and more obnoxious than usual. Or maybe the universe decided to give you the middle finger and held a pep rally. Either way, you weren't the biggest fan of it.

Your hands start to grab at the straps of your backpack and you try not to cry when the kid next to you gets pushed into you. You just want to go home, you don't even want to spend the rest of the day in school. Your eyes frantically search the flooded hall looking for a familiar face, but so far no luck. I could leave now you think to yourself. Home isn't that far from school and I'll be okay if I miss a day of school. You turn around and try and make your way toward the school exit when finally, you see him.

Relief washes over your body and you push your way through the crowd and grab onto his jacket as soon as he's within arms reach. Eddie quickly turns you thinking you were a bully but smiles when he sees it's you.

“Hey, there sweetheart, where are you off to?”

You open your mouth trying to get the words out but you're stuck. Your brain goes blank and you struggle to think of the words you want to say. You look around the halls trying to find something to focus on but everything is too bright and too loud. Eddie notices the panicked look in your eyes and turns Dustin around to reach into his backpack.

“Hey! You can't just go digging in there-”

“Can it Henderson.”

“Yes sir.”

Eddie pulls out his notebook and rips off a page before stuffing the notebook back in and searching for a pen.

“Man, I had a whole system in there.”

“I'll let you sit on my throne for ten seconds if you stop talking.”

“Done.”

Eddie let out a small “ah ha!” when he found a pen. He holds onto your hand tightly and starts to lead you out of the school screaming for students to get out of his way. Once you're out of the school you take a deep breath, it doesn't help as much as you would've liked it to but it's better than being surrounded by warms of people. Before you know it, Eddie has you standing in front of his van the paper on the hood of his car, and he places the pen in your hand.

“What's going on in your pretty little head?” he asks you softly.

You take a deep breath feeling the pen in your hand as you try and call down. Your hand is shaky as you write.

I hate basketball games.

He let out a hum. “Me too, way too many people. Do you want to go to the library? It's nice and quiet in there.”

It's locked. Even the librarian has more school spirit than me.

Eddie chuckles and leans against the van smiling at you.

You can go back in, I was just going to walk home.

“Pft. Walk home, yeah right. No way I'm letting you walk home in this horrible heat.”

You glance at him and smile.

You didn't have to let Dustin sit on your throne for me.

Eddie shrugs his shoulders. “It's not a problem. Plus, I kinda ruined his whole backpack system or whatever he has going on in there.”

Ruined. Dustin's bag was ruined because of you. The whole system he made up is ruined all because Eddie had to scramble to get a piece of paper for you. Your breathing began to pick up again and you closed your eyes trying to take deep breaths. Eddie stands straight again stands nearby.

“What do you need sweetheart? How can I help you?”

The words are on the tip of your tongue but you can't get them out no matter how hard you're trying to.

“Hey, hey listen to me,” he says softly. “One tap for yes.” He taps on his van once. “Two taps for no. Sound good to you?”

You click the pen twice instead of tapping on the car. Eddie nods his head saying he can work with that.

“Can I touch you? Is that okay?”

Click.

He wraps his arms around you.

“You want me to hold you tighter?”

Click.

His arms squeeze you tight enough for you to start grounding yourself. You take a deep breath catching the scent of Eddie's cologne. Your hand wrapped around the back of his shirt feeling the material beneath your fingertips. The cotton was soft, yet worn out. You could tell it was one of his favorites. You started to calm down when you heard his sweet voice reassuring you that everything is okay and that you're gonna be okay.

“I'm sorry,” you whisper to him.

He pulls away from you and wipes away at the stray tear that fell down your face.

“For what?”

You shake your head. What were you sorry for? You didn't do anything bad, Eddie was just trying to be a good boyfriend and help.

“I don't know.”

tears are streaming down your face and Eddie pulls you in for another hug. His hand is gently scratching at your scalp and he's swaying you both back and forth while gently rushing you.

“You didn't do anything wrong. I promise you didn't, okay?”

You nod your head choosing to believe him as you take a shaky breath. You know better than to ask this, but sometimes the reassurance helps more than you think it would.

You gently pull away from him and turn your body back toward the van. You grab the piece of paper, fold it in half, then click the pen getting ready to write your question out.

You still love me?

Eddie grabs the pen from your hand, he clicks it a few times pretending to think of his answer. He messily writes down his answer and slides the note back to you hiding his smile behind his hair.

Always. :)

#i really hope you like this😭 #eddie munson blurb #eddie munson x gn!reader #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson fluff #eddie munson angst #eddie munson imagine #stranger things x gn!reader #stranger things blurb #stranger things fluff #stranger things x reader #stranger things imagine #stranger things angst

[mygotholdladyheart]

They're not killing robin or will,robin is their only queer character (that's out) and will is literally just coming out you think they're gonna be will: I'm gay them: die. I don't think Joyce is going to die either, her and hopper are just about to get together and I don't think they want to loose wynona. Also in talking about gut punches, as much as I hate it, Steve is very likely because he is the absolute fan fave I don't think there is a character more loved by the general audience and he's the one everyone always worries about every season. Sure Eddie's very popular and a lot of people are going to be upset if he goes but it wouldn't even begin to compare to Steve dying bc the truth is Eddie has been on our screens for five minutes. I've seen a few theories that someone unexpected might be mike and that's a possibility, also Murray is definitely a goner. There could also be a few characters in danger/stuck somewhere and we don't know their fate, anyhow we'll know in a week.

Okay I'm gonna respond in order to this.

1. Robin being gay doesn't give her a magical shield that protects her from being killed off. The bury your gays trope is a thing we all hate for a reason. However the writers of Stranger Things do seem more socially aware then that, plus as I said it makes less sense than the other characters.

2. Joyce is a fan favorite and that fact the her and Hoper are finally so close to being a happy family is exactly why it would make sense from a writing perspective at least, to kill her. Though I don't know if the writers are trying to go that dark/no happy endings for anyone. As far as losing Wynona, they have already said there's only one season after this and she can always be there in like flash backs or some sort of spirit stuck in the upside down or something weird like that. This is stranger things after all.

3. I agree Steve is hands down the fan fave and thus the easiest target. It makes sense, it will hurt, we'll all cry, etc. This post wasn't about how easy and expected it would be to kill Steve though, quite the opposite in fact. I'm specifically looking at if it's not Steve, who do we expect to go?

4. I did consider adding Mike to my original post. He is aggressively pro saving Eleven/Jane to the point where he would happily put himself in danger to do so. Plus it would also hurt Will and they do really like hurting Will. Mike is possibly the least liked of the kids as well. So it would let them up the stakes, the kids are free game now, without really altering how we as fans feel about the show. If Will finally comes out to him and Mike thinks he can save his best friend who is apparently in love with him and his girlfriend who Mike maybe still loves, I could see the writers building a big sacrificial moment around that. In the end I chose not to include Mike in my original post, because I just didn't find the idea of hus death very compelling, but maybe that's exactly why he would be chosen to die.

Shrug

#stranger things s4 #stranger things #st s4 #st s4 vol 2

[coal15]

Why Buddie *isn’t* Destiel:

Let’s start with the stuff working against Buddie. Then move on to the things I believe give Buddie a much better shot at becoming canon than Destiel ever did. It’s a tad bit long:

So. Yes. The two ships do have a a lot in common. And yes, Buddie is a longshot for a lot of the same reasons Destiel was. 

Bi men aren’t really a thing on tv (especially not NETWORK tv), Dean and Buck were both introduced as huuuuuuuuuge fans of banging women with never a single unambiguous mention of them ever having dated or even being attracted to men. Only little wink/nudge moments played off as humor (”so does this boy-crush on Eddie mean . . .”) , or the characters giving each other “heart eyes,” a thing which can easily seen as a silent expression of deep fondness/admiration/trust/platonic love, whatever. None of the characters “seem bisexual” ie, they don’t conform to your typical network tv depictions or stereotypes of non-straight men. 

They all have “masculine” jobs (as opposed to something either soft and mellow, or flamboyant and performative). The real “guy guy” type characters are generally meant to be seen as 1000% straight. This applies less to Cas than the other 3 men as he’s technically not human, but he does present as male, and even though he did end the series with a big ‘I love you’ moment to Dean, the line didn’t address how he loved Dean. And since Cas didn’t say ‘I’m in love with you,’ nor did Dean say it back, as far as series canon goes Destiel was never explicitly Romantic Love. You could interpret it that way extremely easily, but it was never overt series canon. 

They’re both hugely popular non-canon fandom ships (and in buddie’s case, growing in fandom popularity every day).

The creators and cast have made comments acknowledging said popularity  with vague comments like “it’s a really special dynamic,” “we’re glad the audience can interpret blahblahblah,” “the fanart is soooooo great,” or “we love the enthusiasm.” That kind of wishy washy shit. Sure, some of the actors will make overtly pro-ship comments, but they always (and for good reason) clarify that the writers/producers haven’t told them anything either way.

OKAY. SO. On to what makes Buddie different from Destiel. (and why I’m optimistic)

Number one is timing. As in: how many years have we had with a character being played a certain way? By the time Cas appeared in SPN, they were 4 seasons in, and Dean had been portrayed as the typical “boobies, boobies, all the boobies; I will immediately hit on any and all hot women,” etc. Yes, Buck began 911 as basically that exact same guy--but ‘that guy’ only lasted a single season. Eddie shows up at the top of S2, so we haven’t already had multiple previous seasons of “Ladie’s Man” Buck. And that makes it easier to bend and adapt his character--or to reveal major character traits not previously mentioned.

Two: Cas was introduced in a way that didn’t evoke anything romantic or sexual at all. He was there on a mission from GOD. Utterly asexual insofar as his interactions with Dean (despite the insane sexual chemistry going on, in the show’s ‘maintext’ nothing about Cas’s character had anything to do with sex or romance) Meanwhile, when Eddie showed up on 911 literally the first thing said about him was Chim’s line “Now that is a beautiful man,” a comment followed by “Whatta Man” playing while Eddie put on his shirt. In slow motion. While Buck kinda . . . stared? So in stark contrast to Cas’s first moments on SPN, Eddie’s 911 intro was. . . . well, let’s see . . . the soundtrack is a blatantly sexual song . . . slo-mo shirtlessness . . . Chim’s “beautiful man” comment . . . all of those things present Eddie in an overtly sexual context right away.

Three: With Destiel, despite their intense screen chemistry, Cas and Dean took the better part of a season to really really bond. Whereas Buddie were joined-at-the-hip besties by the end of Eddie’s 1st episode--when less than 30 episodes of the series had aired. Yes, the sexual chemistry between Cas and Dean may have been palpable from minute one, but the emotional bond between Buck and Eddie happened almost right away. Much faster than with Destiel. And they became involved in one another’s personal lives a lot faster, too. 

Four: On 911 neither Buck nor Eddie ever vanish for many episodes at a time, whereas Cas’s character on SPN dipped in and out. He might be there for several episodes in a row . . . or he might only show up a few times in whole season. So by default Buck and Eddie have more screentime together to continue fleshing out that bond. Establishing the Buckley-Diaz family. 

Five: On SPN, introducing long term love interests for either brother would have busted up the central dynamic driving the show. Much as I used to love Destiel, for five entire seasons Sam and Dean were the central, laser-focused relationship in the show. Sure it may have been a co-dependent and often unhealthy bond, but it was the foundation on which the entire series was built. That’s a really tough dynamic to wedge a love interest into without upsetting the whole balance of the show. Cut to 911: no single character or relationship is the “laser focus” of the whole series. Every character in the ensemble has their own storyline. And thus far, no two characters are toxically codependent on one another. They’re all fleshed out as independent entities. 

Six: (related to point five) If either of the actors playing Buck or Eddie landed a huge movie roll, or asked to be written out for personal reasons, or fucked up so bad they had to be fired? It wouldn’t torch the entire show. Bobby, Athena, Hen, Maddie (even Buck or Eddie if only one of them was written out) . . . the show would go on without Buddie. Or without any one character. Whereas if either Jensen or Jared had decided to quit SPN at any point? Well shit, there goes the show! Finished. Donezo. 

In conclusion: with 911 not being totally dependent on any one character dynamic for the show’s survival, it puts them in a far better position to gamble, ratings-wise, on something that might not be a hit with the general audience. (I know it sucks, but 'popular on social media’ doesn’t automatically translate to ‘popular with casual viewers’). If 911 did take that leap with Buck and Eddie and it flopped? The Buckley-Diaz family moves to an island paradise somewhere and the show moves on with their strong (and also popular) remaining ensemble cast. For the average casual viewer, nothing in 911 would blow up beyond repair without Buddie. 

So I feel like our ship has a much better shot of becoming canon. There is good reason to be optimistic. Especially if the ship’s fanbase continues to grow, and grow, and grow, and we remain visible and vocal. 

#buddie #buck x eddie #911 on fox #queerbaiting #bi visibility #my tv says bi men don't exist #and tv knows everything

[complacencyavp]

AvP: Requiem Revisions

Most of the below isn’t going to be seen or mentioned outside of maybe a prologue for the fanfiction that I doubt will ever progress beyond an overly detailed draft and some snippets, focusing on fan characters. I’m not all that happy with what I have below, but hope it makes a bit more sense then the movie. I am really confused by the timeline of it something I hope I addressed here.

I tried to focus on human character interactions, relationships, and the fall of the town as they preoccupied far too much of the screen though aren't memorable. Let the two who lost their partners bond early on, the brothers reconcile, use the army woman and the ex-convict brother as foils for each other.

The death of the child(ren) and pregnant woman is something that I’d much rather have been implied rather than shown. If you're going to show such things let it have an influence and not just be ceaseless violence. Regardless, I prefer AVP:R to what we got with Shane Black’s The Predator (I am on the spectrum myself).

Gunnison, Colorado plays a big role in one of my fan characters, Andreanna’s story. Her mother lived through the event and though she moved to the cities hoping to escape it, she is still tied to the town. Her daughter, Andreanna, is driven to find out what happened and due to custodial concerns ends up living with her grandfather and frequents the cordoned area frequently which eventually leads to her “abduction”.

The destruction of the town leads to a war on terrorism in my fanfiction furthering Weyland’s, Yutani’s, Borgia’s, and others' progress. She goes on to mention Gunnison a few times with some rather disturbing connotations.

The following is canon divergent with what occurred over a few nights occurring over a far longer period. Once again, I’d much rather have a lot of some of the more horrible scenes be implied not shown.

Day 1.

The Yautja ship crashes in the woods. Dallas Howard, a recently released convict in a case for burglary gone wrong is released. Molly (army mom) also gets off at the same stop, having been away for a few years she is unaware of his history among the town and talks to the other about missing her kid and asks him if he is missing anyone, Dallas mentions his brother fondly.

Sam (the kid, 8-10 years old with heterochromia) and Buddy Benson (his middle-aged? dad) are out hunting deer and find the Yautja ship. Fearing for their safety they flee but are implanted, disillusioned, and lost they spend a night out in the woods waking up and trying unsuccessfully to find their way home. The chest bursters emerge the following evening, day 2.

The face hugger that got shot ends up elsewhere.

Day 2.

Darcy (Sam’s Mother) reaches out to file a missing person’s report, she mentions that they were out hunting deer to the police officer Ray. And that every time they went camping previously, they usually called her every night, if not the following morning. Both parents looked pretty old so Sam is their miracle baby.

Ray, expecting his own child,promises to look into it and heads up to where she said they usually camp, doesn’t find anything and radioed the others to set up a search later that day.

The police officers set out looking for them. Eddie Morales, a corrupt or at minimum a shady sheriff goes and talks to the pair of homeless men that call their storm drain their home. The other cops stop searching at 8, when the sun goes down but Ray doesn’t.

Ray is skinned by the “predalien”. In some deleted scenes the three Yautja, predators, on the ship were skinned by the abomination. If there was an infestation I don’t think Wolf would waste the time unless he did it first thing so I'm skipping over that.

Day 3.

Wolf arrives and lands his ship in a swamp, upon realizing what aided in bringing the ship down and killing the crew. Wolf determines that he is unprepared and salvages what he can. He instructs the other ship to detonate before setting off in search of the serpents tracking their secretions. He findings the across the first two to be hosts and takes the time to close their eyes before dissolving them. Disgusted by Ray's corpse poorly skinned draped over a tree and gives it the same treatment.

Another search party with volunteers is quickly organized (tourists getting lost is common); they aren’t able to find either the first two victims or Ray. Carrie, Ray’s pregnant wife comes to the scene as well as Darcy, both mothers are distressed.

High school drama occurs with Ricky’s keys being stolen by bully Dale and tossed into the storm drains. Show some government stuff going on in the background or at least company with stereotypical vehicles. Only Darcy and Dallas notice.

The remaining three face-huggers attack the two men (Harry+other) and woman in the sewer. The one on the woman is about to implant itself when it is ripped away from her face and tossed aside by the abomination. Given the spirit of AVP:R, their dog was probably “repurposed” too.

Day 4.

Ricky and Dallas go into the storm drain but are spooked by hissing and a “large snake” and leave. Morales (shady cop) finds them leaving and is confused, confronting the older brother after dropping Ricky off at his job.

He brings Dallas (ex-convict) to the “Breakfast All Day Dinner” where much to his surprise Carrie is working, unable to sleep. She becomes distressed by the other's presence and the uncertainty of what happened to her husband and retreats to the back room.

Morales has some level of responsibility in Ricky and Dallas’s situation, and feels responsible for Ricky’s care on some level?

Jessie stops uninvited by Ricky’s house. A bad storm hits, Jessie and Ricky get to talk about how they figured their lives would have been different- her home was one robbed by his brother's gang which resulted in the end of their friendship(?). They flirt.

The fight in the sewer occurs causing the hive to scatter after Wolf kills some more space cockroaches.

Wolf tracks down the hive’s new nest, late at night, but there are only a few present, he also gets impaled in the process. The town's power supply is damaged and begins to fail. Though it’s after closing Carrie stays behind with Richie to try to get the generator working for the dinner. She starts it and heads back in only to be accosted.

Army couple has difficulties in their marriage as Molly, struggling to relate to her daughter, contemplates returning to duty. The power has been out for a while and their argument is disrupted by Kelly (their daughter) who is distressed seeing a monster, she often sleeps with her light on and only has a flashlight, her mother opens the closet but doesn't find anything.

Day 5.

Darcy becomes concerned about Carrie (old student of hers?), not answering her calls, and goes to the dinner- the closed sign is still up but the backdoor is open so she goes on in, it's not pretty. She hears something rustling before she gets the lights on.

Darcy calls another police officer in hysterics. The other police aren’t sure what to make of things but, agree with her that Dallas’s return is suspicious, her testimony put him away before. Unable to find proof, that he did it but, with him having an alibi they don’t charge him despite Darcy’s insistence. Dallas stays in jail on some other charge another cooked up(improper vehicle license?). Chaos sets ins once it starts to storm.

That “no monster” scene occurs where the child’s dad, Tim, is killed and Molly, mom drags her out of the house though bottoms out on a weak stretch of road that had caved in from the fight earlier; heads to the police for aid.

Shady cop goes and gets Dallas’s brother worrying for his safety, reuniting the family. Molly is wary of Dallas after hearing what happened but wonders if it might be the same thing.

Day 6.

National Guard arrives at 2 am the following day and begins trying to evacuate those outside certain areas, it causes additional panic and strain upon setting the boundaries, not helped by Darcy’s fear-mongering at church.

The power in the hospital starts to go out forcing the doctors and nurses to rearrange patients to care for them using the emergency generator- xenos get in late at night.

Orders change and the national guard goes to keeping people contained causing riots and shootings. Shady cop and older brother rob a gun store have their first real confrontation with the monsters. Jessie's ex-boyfriend (show/mention him being rash) puts the group in danger and dies.

Xeno ambush in town.

Day 7.

Chaos and the storm continue though everything is strangely silent and clear, Morales connects with Colonel Stevens who tells them to rendezvous in the center of town for an airlift. Kelly takes an abandoned tank and figures the gov is lying to them. The order changed and they want to keep the creatures contained (where they would be bait). Morales stays with the group (having some loyalty to the brothers), Darcy leaves with another small group to the center of town.

The hospital is a mess, doctors and patients are corpses. The walls are weird as is any cramped, enclosed area, the reception area is startlingly clear. The elevator doesn’t work and thus they have to use the stairs. Ricky is skewered and is still bleeding badly despite the armor.

Looking for bandages they stumble across the pediatric center, it is frighteningly still, the nursery is empty, but they persist and enter into a room with hollowed corpses. They hurry off once one that is intact twitches.

Wolf ventures to the hospital pursuing his prey. His presence pisses the xenos off. Molly and Kelly see the “one with eyes” amongst the halls fighting the others. Jessie is killed by a wayward shuriken from Wolf.

Humans try to make it through the roof but, are nearly swarmed. Ex-con steals fallen alien weapon on the roof seing the other use it. Shady Cop chooses to save the group by pulling a fire alarm, an unexpected surprise.

Wolf and the predalien fight, Wolf takes off his mask and the thing waits. US gov nukes the area- explodes, sets off Wolfs bomb-implodes leaving the area decimated.

Day 8.

The helicopter is quickly found though their fate is up in the air, they've made it out, at a cost, and even then that's not a certainty. Yutani receives the gun.

Other Notes:

Sewers/storm drains are built far larger as it was intended to be the site of the nearby army base though the contract fell through once significant faults were identified.

The bombing is passed off as a terrorist attack with it being said to have been sent to target the nearby army base. The US used this to push a war.

Schisms occurred amongst the hive, with slightly different appearances in build and growth rates across those spawned by the abomination (12 hours) versus those from the face-huggers (18-24 hours). Perhaps there was infighting amongst the sections of the hive hence why there were a few “nest site locations”.

The alien-predator skinned the cop and waited which may imply at some level of remembering, all the more reason why they are terrifying to Yautja.

If you have suggestions or questions feel free to leave them in the inbox.

#complacencyavp #avp #aliens vs predator #yautja #xenomorph #avp:r

[popculturebuffet]

Darkwing Duck Reviews: Darkly Dawns the Duck Pts 1 and 2

It’s a Darkwing Double Feature! Just in time for his ducktales special, I take a look at the introduction of everyone’s favorite Daring Duck of Mystery. In his daring debut we meet Darkwing Duck, an egositical and attention hungry superhero who soon finds himself having to look after a feisty orphan to keep her from getting nabbed by local kingpin of crime Taurus Bulba with the help of his biggest fan. Darkwing owns the night under the cut with decades old spoilers. 

Let’s Get Dangerous.. is tommorow so with that in mind i’m doing a darkwing double feature to refresh myself before the big special. So i’ll be covering both the original series pilot “Darkly Dawns the Duck” and the ducktales reboot episode “The Duck Knight Returns”.  Let’s Get Dangerous Itself because I was so wiped yesterday I didn’t get the other review done and unexpectly got acess to the new episode way earlier than usual so i’d rather focus on that. Got it? Good. Let’s continue past me. 

As usual with a new show a breif bit about my history with it: I watched it years ago, as a friend of mine lent me the first two discs of the season 1 dvd and never found the third one nor asked for them back, nor cared I had them. I thoughtly enjoyed it, had a great time and then it took me a decade or so to actually watch the series again due to a combination of being too stubborn to just buy the season 1 dvd again, a very darkwing move of me in hindsight, and then when disney plus meant I had all episodes at my finger tips I.. sat on them till now.. though to be fair i’ve sat on a LOT of great shows on there including the mandalorian, gargoyles and boy meets world. I have a bad tendency to procastinate, the fact this is coming out so late in the day should be a giveaway. I did read about half of volume 1 of the comic and all of volume 2, so there’s that at least.  Point is this new episode finally made me decide to get off my ass and watch darkwing once again, starting with the pilot and the episodes related to the fearsome four to be ready for tomorrow to see what the differences are (Thoguh I did remember bushroot vividly, so I had that at least).  Something to note before I get started talking about the pilot itself though, is the episode order for Darkwing Duck is a Darkwing Clusterfuck. Now I do understand WHY they aired this way: While some episodes do logically take place after other episodes, you can reasonably pop on just about any darkwing and watch it and enjoy it with minimal need to know what happened in previous episodes, kinda like batman the animated series oddly enough. It was also aired between two networks so on some level I get disney’s confusion here.. but on the other hand it’d take ten minutes, they clearly can call up the creator easily as Tad Stones made a cameo in ducktales 2017 we’ll get to so they could easily get a better order from the creator himself, so they really don’t have an excuse for this, or for slapping the pilot in the middle of season 1. Then again both ducktales 2017 and x-men the animated series were sort of a mess order wise when first put up, so not giving a shit about where episodes are placed for re-watching clearly is a pastime of theirs. 

Now i’ve got that out of my system we can dive into the episode itself and a breif plot synopsis. Darkwing Duck is the superhero protector of St. Canard, a masked vigiliante who takes out crime but wishes he actually got fame and credit for his work. Kind of like Booster Gold but without taking endorsments or as far as we know coming from the future. He also has nothing else as shown by the fact he fights crime, does a training regimine to prepare his breakfast that’s a delight to watch then prepares to sleep. It’s an intresting concept, a hero who HAD a civlian identity once, as the rest of the series would play out, he just no longer needs it. And it’s also ahead of it’s time as batman would explore this idea both seriously with bruce wayne murderer and comedically and seriously with the lego batman movie LONG after this series aired, meaning the writers here figured out what many probably knew about batman and put it into their parody version: Batman is the real identity and Bruce is the mask. Batman only keeps his old self because the bruce id is useful to him: It keeps people away from his company, puts up a playboy facade that draws attention away from him being batman, and allows him to do various charities and what not and help honor his parents in a way that dosen’t involve swooping in and kicking people in the throat. And as seen with bruce wayne murderer when the option to throw bruce away for good came up Batman gladly took it.  This is the same idea: Drake Mallard ONLY cares about crime fighting, has no friends no family, we never do find out jack about his family hopefully if there’s a full reboot series Frank and Matt fix it for their version. He has nothing, and is fine with that. He hasn’t really had a reason to care about anything else than his own glory and works alone not because it’s less efficent but because his oversized ego means he dosen’t want to share credit. IT’s an intresting start and his ego would be a defining bit of who he is and used intrestingly int he reboot but we’ll get to that there. 

His life changes forever though when local crime boss Taurus Bulba unleashes his latest scheme: To steal the Ramrod, a gravity manipulating device created by the late Dr. Quackmeyer.. late because Bulba’s men killed him and were dumb enough not to get the arming code for the ramrod first a year ago. Bulba is also behind bars but in one of my faviorite gags of the episode despite the warden’s constnat gloating, Bulba has taken the “Supervillian makes jail into a base” Or “Jail is nothing to a supervillian who can easily get out trope” to ludcrious machines. He has whole meetings with his minions, keeps the ramrod once he gets his hands on it in the laundry and has a ship SHAPED LIKE HIS FACE built into his cellblock. I’ts just so over the top it’s glorious. But yeah since Bulba can’t go after it at first he sends his three goofy minons, one played by eddie “Mandark” deezen in.. love that guy. 

THey do end up stealing the ramrod thanks to the help of bulba’s cool, non-anthromporhic condor who he uses as his right hand man and as his link to his minons via a small tv aroudn it’s neck. That.. is awesome. Darkwing spots the condor but fails to stop the three stooges or the condor and gets unknowingly blamed for the robbery..and stopped to get glamor shots not realizing the guy thought he was a criminla which.. fair enough. It is a shadowy disguise after all. 

Darkwing ends up grabbing onto the vulture sonic 3 style, but ends up falling off him into a hangar where we meet the original version of Launchpad McQuack, whose apparently quit working for scrooge and has his own hangar now though it wouldn’t be a stretch that scrooge bought it for him.. he does , stingy as he is, appricate hard work and launchpad wanting to start his own buisness and while hte planes were probably all on launchpad, Scrooge would gladly buy a run down buliding for a loyal friend who wants to put in some hard honest work. Plus it’s a free place to store any vehicles he has in the st canard area.. I mean it’s still scrooge. And yes I know the whole “Tad stones said they aren’t the same universe” non sense. I do have the utmost respect for the guy and he seems really, nice but I don’ tlike that, no one likes that and both the comics and the current duckverse with the ducktales reboot entirely ignore that for good reason.While the two shows are diffrent in tone they stil lfit and it’s not a stretch for launchpad to want to spread his wings or failing that scrooge to help push him out of the nest and give him his own buisness or one of scrooge’s to run. 

But while Launchpad does help DW with a propeller plane they fail and while launchpad offers to be his sidekick, DW gives him the old I work alone bit.  However him being alone won’t last for long as Bulba still needs that arming code and since his only lead is Waddlemeyer’s grandaughter who grew up in his lab, he sends his buffonish minons to go get him. Why he never sends his lone female minon with them is because it’s funnier if she dosen’t I guess. Which it is so fair enough.  So thus we enter Goslyn, who the head of the orphanage is fed up with due to her antics. Goslyn is played as most of you knwo by christine cavanagh.. I honestly forgot and it still throws me off a bit she’s using what would later be her chucky finster voice for a character so completely diffrent. Granted it’s not unusual in voice acting, just weird here and only for me personally having grown up with rugrats but not darkwing. The orphanage head is a bit less jarring as she’s played by Marcia Wallace, aka Edna Krabable from the simpsons but A) that show was already running at this point and B), the character is basically a nicer version of edna versus chuckies voice coming out of a tiny if immensly fun to watch hellion. I do like goslyn, sh’es a fun character even in her shadier moments, it’s just something i’d forgotten about i’ll need to get used to is all. 

Bulba’s hired goons come in claming ot be friends of her grandpas and we actually get some really heartwrenching context for Gos’ behavior: While she does act out she actually LIKES THE orphanage.. ti’s just her friends keep getting adopted while no one wants someone “full of spirit”. It’s heartwrecnhing to hear.. and only gets worse when the goons try and kidnap her.  Thankfully Darkwing.. also kidnaps her, but he kindaps her from kidnappers and while Goslyn naturally takes a second to realize he’s the good guy them shooting at him clues her in. Darkwing, in a rare for the series as a whole moment of reason and not wanting to just power though something himself TRIES to do the responsible thing and leave gos with the police where she’ll be protected.. but given they think he’s a wanted criminal they shoot at him.. and the small child in his motorcycle. Yup that’s the police alright. 

So with no other options Darkwing takes gos home, hyjinks insue including her activintg the breakfast thing. But the two genuinely start to bond. While Darkwing dosen’t WANT to keep her around, the whole not wanting connections thing, it’s clear he’s growing fond of the little snot as she holds her own with his trianing course, they have a tickle fight and in the sweetest moment of the episode the two sing little girl blue, a song her grandfather used to sing her to sleep that she teaches darkwing. It’s an utterly heartmelting bit and Cummings and Cavanagh really sell the hell out of it. It also however turns out ot be plot relevant: Turns out just in case Dr. Waddlemeyer hid the code for the ramrod in the song, and when Darkwing sees a photo Goslyn got from bulba’s goons, he realizes this and realizes that depsite thinking she didn’t know it Goslyn had it all along.. and that as long as h’es around she won’t know.  Bulba is naturally livid at his minons failure and decides now’s the time to take this into his own hands and while he actually liked the prison hq setup, as it did make sense as it was the perfect cover and the warden was too full of himself to realize Bulba was still active and too convinced the bull was beaten down when he clearly wasn’t, but instead as mentioned above awesomely converts his cellblock into a flying ship in the shape of his own head.  Bulba.. is a great villian and I only think the show didn’t use him more because he’s a dead serious, deadly dangerous villian in an otherwise goofy but fun superhero parody show. The show later gained Negaduck, so they had a more dangerous threat for darkwing that fit the show’s tone better while still being utterly terrifying, and likely simply didn’t need him till the idea for the steerminator came up. But I love the guy: he reminds me a lot of the kingpin, a threatning villian who uses his sheer size to beat our hero down, is cool and suave and is an utter mastermind at planning. He also wears a nice suit.  And naturlaly he has a plan to take out darkwing since despite the two never having met, as Darkwing disparages when Goslyn assumes their lifelong mortal enmies like in the comics, they know of each other.. and thus bulba knows exactly what trap to spring to get him out of the way and goslyn into his ship: He flashes a message in morris code that he wants to surrender to Darkwing while stroking his ego a LOT. And it works... while i’ts an obvious trap Darkwing’s so full of himself he goes despite Goslyn telling him it’s very obviously a trap.  Naturally everything goes pear shaped as a result: Bulba shows up, revealing gos not only to be right but easily pummling Darkwing. Which makes sense: While Darkwing is a vetran crime fighter and secret agent, Bulba’s been at being a villian longer clearly as he’s built up enough of a rep both for Darkwing to know him out of hand and for the warden to be proud capturing him. Given what univese this is, it probably isn’t Bulba’s first round with a superhero and given at this stage St Canard only has one.. yeah Darkwing is outclasssed and the police grab him while Bulba scarpers. And while Gos puts up a good fight using the trianing course, Bulba’s vulture gets her. Bulba has everything he needs.  Darkwing meanwhile actually bemoans what a dick he’s been, that the first person he’s cared about besides himself in possibly ever is now in the hands of a murderous mastermind, and that he’s stuck in jail with no one to call on for help. Thankfully.. help arrives.. and by help I mean launchpad backing the ratcatcher, Darkwing’s bike, into the prisoin. He DID come just to bail DW out despite his earlier jerkishness, but backed in and Darkwing not beliving superheroes have time for paperwork, decides to just bust out. And to be ifair int his case he’s probably right as you know, a ten year old might die if they don’t get there in time. So off they go.. but with Bulba in the air they need something with wings to catch him. ANd luckily as Launchpad mentioned earlier he’s been working on something special for darkwing.  It’s with this we enter the thunderquack, which is DW”S awesome headshaped plane. It’s just cool it’s got a nice design, goofy enough tof it the universe but cool enoguh to still be fun to watch. Darkwing has really damn cool vehicles, as the ratcatcher is also awesomely iconic. But yeah the thunderquack impresses darkwing and rightfully so and he decides to make LP his sidekick afterall.  So now our heroes fly into the danger zone and attack bulba’s airship with Darkwing landing on the bow and a scuffle insues with darkwing and hte minons.. who use actual guns which for a 90′s kids show is  a suprise, especially one this intentioanlly goofy, but boy is it nice. However Bulba, being awesomely evil, isn’t dumb and instead of fighting darkwing, which he could win but would win him nothing and having gotten nothing out of goslyn, figures the hero might know the code.. and while Darkwing lies and says he dosen’t, Bulba points out .. he’s right.. but he’s always been a gambling man and has his condor drop goslyn to lure drake into telling him , with DW putting in the code and bulba testing it with a bank robbery.. before predictably having his condor drop the girl because he no longer needs her. Thankfully launchpad catches her in time and then they get revenge on the condor with the thunderquack BITING IT.. which is awesome. Hopefully the reboot version does that. 

Darkwing meanwhile saves the day, his new daughter and the city by simply sneaking over to the ramrod and mashign the keys till it overloads, silly, but undeniably awesome and effective. Bulba TRIES to finish off darkwing this time for foiling his plan.. btu the ramrod explodes and while bulba’s minons and goslyn and launchpad are safe... bulba and darkwing are apparently dead and it’s effective.  A few weeks later Goslyn’s back at the orphanage utterly distraught and broken at being basically orphaned again. Naturally though Darkwing’s alive, having taken his old identnity back since now he has something worth using it for and adopts her, hinting at who he is so she goes with him. And Drake has changed.. sure he’ll still be as egostical and impuslive as he was here.. but he’s no longer just darkwing.. he’s drake again as he has someone worth fighting for.. two someones in fact. He has a friend, a loyal partner to help him fight cime. And more importantly.. he has a loving daughter. And both needed each other: Goslyn needed someone who understood her despite her manic energy, and Drake needed someone who needed him and not darkwing, a reason to be a person outside the cape and cowl and outside the attention again. He needed a reason to live again... and he’s got it. And it’s going to be great. 

Final Thoughts: This pilot is excellent. Well paced, plenty of laughs, tense action and great introductions for everyone involved as well as a hell of a vilian> This is how you do a first episode: it introduces the main themes of the show, both comedically and dramatically, introduces the cast and gives us a one off , or rather two off it’d turn out, villian whose compelling and intresting. IT’s really damn good stuff and I can’t wait ot see what frank does with a simlar story tommorow. Until then, stay safe, and happy hallowen. We’ll be back shortly for The Duck Knight returns and then Let’s Get Dangerous tommorow. 

#darkwing duck #reviews #ducktales #darkly dawns the duck #drake mallard #goslyn mallard #launchpad mcquack #tarus bulba #the disney afternoon #the 90's

[mrchalamet-mrstyles]

*A MUST READ:*

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart never broke up. Indeed, their split was merely a distraction for the press that would guarantee the former Twilight stars privacy. In the interim period, where Pattinson got engaged to FKA Twigs and Stewart dated a series of women, including St. Vincent, the pair were actually living in wedded bliss. Their PR game was so effective that it helped to hide no fewer than two pregnancies for Stewart. Now, the Pattinson-Stewart family are happy together, laughing at the ignorance of the press and public who believe they broke up years ago and moved onto fulfilling and happy relationships with other people.

Of all the weird celebrity conspiracies that pollute the internet, the Robsten fandom may be my favourite one. It has everything: Press conspiracies, outlandish theories that would put Moon landing truthers to shame, the inability to tell reality from fiction, and of course, bad photoshops. Every now and then, when I see Pattinson and Stewart in the headlines, I go and visit the tin-hatters’ sites for that potent combination of entertainment and fear for my life. It’s astounding that they’re still keeping up this façade. 

As time passes, I wonder more and more if they truly believe it or if they’re going full My Immortal with the scam. It’s too outlandish to be real, yet the emotions behind it clearly are.

Sadly, this is nothing new for the world of shippers, nor is it limited to the breeding pair of Twilight. Name a prominent pop culture property and the chances are there are hardcore shippers whose interest goes beyond a fizzy hobby. Some fans truly believe that Jamie Dornan and Dakota Johnson are a real couple, which is hysterical because their chemistry levels in the Fifty Shades series are sub-zero. The stars of Outlander face the same shippers. Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss are secret lesbian lovers, according to a subset of their fandom. Cate Blanchett will eventually leave her husband and children for Carol co-star Rooney Mara, thus freeing her from an exploitative bearding relationship with Joaquin Phoenix. The Larry fandom have yet to admit defeat, even as both Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson admit the fan delusions over their supposed secret romance hurt their real-life friendship. The Supernatural guys may never shake those conspiracies.

It isn’t all romance related either. Spare a thought for poor Benedict Cumberbatch, whose already overzealous fan-base includes a portion of people who think he was trapped into marriage and fatherhood by his wife, who they paint as the modern-day iteration of Medea. They don’t even think his kids are real. Apparently, one of them is clearly a doll.

I could go on, listing the many other fandoms I’ve come across with these near identical conspiracies of secret relationships, hidden children, public relations bullying, and so on. From Scandal to Orange is the New Black to The Hunger Games, it’s as big a part of fandom as cosplay and dirty fanfiction. A lot of the time, the celebrities being obsessed over don’t even know it’s happening. 

If they call it out, as Robert Pattinson did, or mock it, like Armie Hammer recently did on Instagram after someone DM-d him to claim he should be gay like his character in Call Me By Your Name, then they write that off as simply proving their point. The majority of fans deride and condemn this behaviour, partly because it reflects badly on everyone else but mostly because it’s blatant bullshit that should be treated as such. What is most striking about these myriad conspiracies is how eerily similar they all are in terms of tone and content.

The basic set-up for a tin-hatter shipping conspiracy is thus: The pair are in love, the pair are in a serious relationship, but they have to hide it from the world because of ‘evil PR’. The nature of this shadowy public relations organization is never made clear. It’s mostly rooted in conjecture and a hazy understanding of how the entertainment industry has worked over the decades. 

Historically, publicists and studios have operated with a certain degree of shadiness. In the Golden Era of Hollywood, where studios reigned supreme, a star’s image could be kept on a tight leash and their indiscretions hidden from the public. Fixers like Eddie Mannix (made famous in the Coen Brothers’ movie Hail, Caesar!) could clear up all manner of problems if the occasion called for it. Pregnancies could be hidden, illegal abortions procured, marriages annulled or concealed, and even the occasional murder dealt with (allegedly). We know this stuff happened, and we know that today, publicists do a lot of work to keep their clients happy. That probably doesn’t extend so far as to covering up marriages and multiple pregnancies and fake babies.

The psychologies behind these tin-hatter conspiracies tend to be remarkably similar too. There’s always massive amounts of paranoia at the heart of their delusions. Arrogance is key as well. You need infallible ego to maintain repeatedly debunked fantasies. They talk of their conspiracies as if they’re the most obvious truths in the world, deriding the ‘ignorant masses’ who refuse to see the reality in front of them, which they’ve kindly circled in MS Paint. The mentality is frequently rooted in a strong brand of self-victimization: They tie their theories to social issues like homophobia and claim anyone who opposes their belief that the One Direction guys are in love are clearly bigots. Even when the people in question call out this nonsense, they’re written off as poor closeted prisoners of invincible publicists. The game of tin-hating shippers is designed so that they never lose.

That’s the sad part of this all. They won’t be proven wrong simply because they’ve invested too much of themselves into this fantasy. They run around in circles, desperately claiming everything is against them and only they are smart enough to know the truth. 

If Caitriona Balfe and Sam Heughan insist they’re just friends, it’s only to throw everyone off the scent. When Tony Goldwyn talks of his love for his wife, it’s just to distract everyone from his romance with Kerry Washington. If Robert Pattinson is smiling in public, it’s because he’s thinking of Kristen; if he’s looking a bit down, it’s because he’s thinking of Kristen.

When the fantasy does begin to crumble, the tin-hatters get violent in their rhetoric. Taylor Schilling’s rumoured boyfriend briefly deleted his social media after receiving harassment from her fans who think she’s with Laura Prepon (who just had a baby with Ben Foster). Rooney Mara’s so-called fans called her a disgrace for dating a man and claimed she was letting down LGBTQ+ kids everywhere because of it. Robert Pattinson’s then-girlfriend FKA Twigs faced all manner of horrific racist and sexist abuse for simply existing. It can be easy to laugh people like this off, but we’ve also seen what happens to celebrities when their obsessive fans decide to invade their lives. A 19-year-old fan of Lana Del Rey drove cross-country to her house, broke into her garage and tweeted about it. An obsessive fan of Paula Abdul committed suicide outside her house. Rebecca Schaeffer’s stalker shot her on her own doorstep.

Real person shipping (or RPF) doesn’t bother me in theory. If you just treat it like any other fandom hobby - safe, private, clearly fiction - then go for it. There’s a major difference between liking two actors and writing silly fanfiction about them and going to extremes to prove they’re actually married. 

The people who cross that line are a minority, but they’re a loud and insidious minority who shouldn’t be written off as mere ‘crazies’.

This phenomenon is undoubtedly fascinating and reveals a lot about various intersections of celebrity, media, the internet, fandom, and so on. It’s worth keeping an eye on, if only to ensure nobody gets hurt, because it’s not unique to internet culture. This stuff breeds, and that should concern us all.

Now, when do I get my shadowy PR conspiracy cheque?

#charmie #anti-ts #tin-hatting #rpf

[lanottedellastrega]

Out of the Shadows

Metal Hammer, Summer 2015. Transcript behind the cut.

OUT OF THE SHADOWS Poised to release their third album, Ghost have returned from their unholy slumber to reveal how their conversion mission is progressing - and when their end times might come... Words: Chris Chantler. Pics: John McMurtrie

Surely this can't be right. Hammer is awaiting an audience with a Nameless Ghoul from the Swedish Devil-worshipping cult of Ghost, half-expecting to be blindfolded and ridden to the ruins of a deconsecrated church for a clandestine rendezvous with the masked and robed envoys of Satan. Yet we're in the executive lounge of a Kensington hotel, and there's an extremely polite, alarmingly youthful-looking short-haired man in a leather jacket being introduced as "the author of Ghost." Hammer experiences some cognitive dissonance, imagining that this is a hoax, that Ghost are slyly pretending to have human faces and interpersonal skills to divert attention from the true nature of their esoteric origins or seduce us into foul practices. The only visible clue to this young man's role as Ghost mouthpiece is the symmetrically matching pair of skull-and-crossbones patches on his leather sleeves. Yet when he starts talking about Ghost's third album, the majestic Meliora, it's clear this guy knows what he's talking about.

"The first album [2010's Opus Eponymous] was about the impending doom of a more old-school Biblical sort, where death and destruction will come in the form of locusts and dark fog: it was the coming of the Antichrist," he explains in soft, measured tones, choosing his words with care, maintaining near-constant eye contact. "The second album [2013's Infestissumam] was about the presence of the devil, taking place aesthetically in a 1700's milieu with a more Baroque theme. Whereas this album is the absence of God. It's a futuristic, pre-apocalyptic record. The cat is out of the house and the mice dance on the table. But at some point, the cat comes home..."

Meliora is a godless state, where Ghost's totemic frontman-cum-sigil Papa Emeritus wields power and terror with fearful impunity. And like his spiritual predecessor, Iron Maiden's Eddie, he's renewed with each new phase of band activity, so we're now on Papa III. His city bears more than a passing resemblance to the world we live in.

"Meliora is the metropolitan landscape in which this album takes place; a backdrop that looks like a big city with a lot of hopeful people living in fear of not succeeding," he explains candidly. "Many of the lyrics on this album deal with ambition. It's ridden with a certain degree of self-loathing. I really hate ambitious people - that's why I live in a place where there's not a whole lot of them."

Ghost may not have had any grand ambitions, but five years on from their debut demo, single and LP, some of their original concept has had to be compromised by unimagined levels of growth and demand. For example, talking openly and earnestly to the press in his street clothes, his face and voice undisguised (rumours suggest he's singer-songwriter Tobias Forge, but his real name is politely unconfirmed) is something the Ghoul never intended to do. But he admits that the success of the band thus far - and the enthusiastic patronage of superstar superfans such as James Hetfield, Phil Anselmo and Dave Grohl - has greatly surprised and humbled the men behind the masks.

"Contrary to popular belief, we did not know that we were gonna get that much heat," the Ghoul affirms. "It's fun to play high horse and say it's just a trick and we're fucking with everybody, which we obviously are not. We had no idea. When we were rehearsing our debut, we had a conversation with Rise Above and were contemplating whether to make 500 or 1,000 copies. And maybe we could do a show at Roadburn. It was very innocent - even though that's a word I've never used in terms of Ghost! We've had to grow with it, and we had a lot of catching up to do between the first and second albums. But aesthetically a lot of things we're planning on doing are things we had on paper to begin with."

Realizing something magickal was happening, Ghost made a concerted decision to spread their message of Satanic arch camp horror out of the underground, moving from cult indie label Rise Above to Spinefarm, an imprint of Universal, the world's biggest major. But from their first recordings, Ghost were a musically accessible, traditional, melodic pop-rock showbiz act with influences from some of the biggest bands of the past (Kiss, Abba, Blue Oyster Cult), a strong visual identity and a mischievously lurid theology; it was clear this band needed a level of production above the average low-key doom band.

"In order to present ourselves in the way that we intended, we needed a larger setting," agrees the Ghoul. "We want Papa's hat to not touch the ceiling. We want the band to look like we're performing a mass rather than in a punk squat. What we saw in our minds was something that looked and felt solemn and larger than life."

From their earliest pronouncements, Ghost were demanding the world's attention, and with "a lot of touring," they made sure they got it. But the question of how long they can hold it for is one that the Nameless Ghoul is acutely aware of.

"We have our figure. We have our concept. We can work with that. But we're just on our third record. Out of all our favorite bands, where were they on their third record? They sure weren't chickening out and doing the same safe shit. That's not how you make a third record; that's not how Master of Puppets or Number of the Beast got made. You have to build and be as bold as you can be, even though it feels a little scary. Because we know, we can fuck this up. Especially on the third record, when you're supposed to take a big step. Are we gonna go down to the basement again? You don't know how many chances you get. This might be our last one."

To make that all-important leap forward on a pivotal album, as Metallica or AC/DC can tell you, the secret often lies in the choice of producer. Although there's a great metallic crunch to the music on Meliora, and a psychedelic audacity, Swedish pop savvy is the band's trump card. To further that end, Ghost employed knob-twiddler Klas Ahlund, best known for his songwriting collaborations with Britney Spears, Kylie, Katy Perry and Madonna.

"We felt, 'Maybe we should work with someone who can really help us redefine what we're doing,'" the Ghoul reasons. "He was keen to find a rock band with their own material, and we were looking for a producer with more of a songwriting skill, so it was a good match. As much as we could drive a car on the energy of thinking we're the best band in the world - a very small car! - we knew there must be things we can do better. Every band with self-respect should work with someone who can really challenge what you're doing, and we did that with Klas. When you're on a major label with bigger expectations, you have the opportunity to get a yes or now from people you'd like to work with. But early on we realised, as much fun as it is to look at records we love and say, 'Let's get Mutt Lange!' or 'Let's get Bob Rock!' it felt like we should get our own man. Many of these big producers weren't big producers until they did that big record that we associate them with."

As they await the world's reaction to Meliora, Ghost have already amassed "the ground basics of what will become the next album." Nevertheless, for a band with such clear vision and attention to detail, it's tempting to wonder if they've planned an exit strategy.

"I had one vision two years ago and I have another vision now, and I may have another two years from now," muses the Ghoul. "We can catapult our concept around a few times, into different eras and spheres, but it has its time and place. I don't think anybody would enjoy having us around doing this forever; when there's nothing more to say, I hope we're sober enough to yank out the cord. We're not going to use Ghost for every musical dream we have. It's all fun and games to be in robes, but it's also lots of fun playing three-piece punk rock in your t-shirt."

However, with the musical development evident on Meliora, happily Ghost look set to continue expanding their sound and mythology. Have you joined the cult?

---

WHO IS PAPA III? Three things we know about our new, mysterious leader...

Papa Emeritus III is younger than his brother, Papa Emeritus II, by three months. Nameless Ghoul: "There are several Mamas. And one big, old, really, really bad Papa. That might give you an indication of what's gonna happen in the future. There's one shark in the water you haven't met yet..."

He controls his followers in Meliora. Nameless Ghoul: "Papa is the authoritative religious leader among his followers. He comes into the vacuum of the godless contemporary world and manipulates the people. We are, together with our fans, agreeing that you are here to worship us, and we are telling you what to do. And in this era, it's all taking place in the futuristic dystopian city of Meliora."

He was inspired by Sir Christopher Lee. Nameless Ghoul: "From Scaramanga to The Lord of the Rings, Sir Christopher Lee played a large role when it came to the concept of Papa. A scary, sophisticated, handsome older man who inflicted terror and arousal. I greatly admired him."

#metal hammer #the band ghost #papa emeritus iii #interview #tobias forge #meliora #meliora era #transcript added

[artistsxcreatives]

"Love, Life, and Your 20's" by Phil

Whether you're finishing up undergrad or preparing for a long stint in med school, your 20's define the rest of your life. Freedom, fresh knowledge, and ambition have recently fallen into your young hands. Now you just need a job and someone that you can stand for longer than three months. We know that your 20's can be perilous, but we think that we have a few tips to make sure that your 30's and 40's are enjoyable ones.

Time to Explore

All of your life, you have been told what to do, where to go, and how to do it. Now is the first time in your life when you are the official captain of the ship. Don't give up the captain's chair or set sail before you are ready to go. It's a big beautiful world out there, and just because others may have some experience in familiar waters doesn't mean that they can guide you to your personal destination. Unfortunately, now that you're out of college, your life is basically back a ground zero. No matter how many accolades you had, you aren't the big shot anymore, and there are now vast amounts of people smarter, stronger, and more experienced. You may be getting someone's coffee, you may be scraping every dime you have for your start-up business, but one thing is for sure. You're the new guy you're and a long way away from your partner. Additionally, you are in that weird phase of dating where you finally might have an idea of what you want, but now the girls around you always seem to be on the barely legal side or the cougar side (and it doesn't help that you're not used to either). These are all areas that may take some time to navigate, so our best advice is to pack a hefty lunch and start getting to know the place. Here's how.

Career

Suppose you didn't already know about 25% of recent grads are unemployed. In that case, 25% are underemployed, 80% of life's most defining moments take place by about age 35. If that wasn't enough, 2/3 of your lifetime's wage growth happens during your career first ten years. So what does that mean for you? Stop looking around at others and focus on your plan for success. You will drive yourself insane comparing your life to your engineer friend who's making 90k fresh out of college. It's cliche', but life's not a sprint, and for this marathon, you need stamina. This also means that the money will come, but you have to think long and hard about what you want to do before it does. Don't settle for a miserable job or major that you know it is going to be the scourge of your existence. So you wasted four years on a major you didn't like, so what. If you found out what you really wanted to do as a result of that, then it was worth every bit of it. Now, if you waste 20 additional years in a state of delusion, then that is the real tragedy. Make mistakes, bet the house, go all in, and have no regrets. You will be surprised by what you are capable of, and this is the one time of your life when this is totally acceptable. Actually, it's encouraged.

Love

With more than half of Americans are married or are dating or living with their future partner by age 30, this might be where the romantic crap hit's the fan. You may find yourself scrolling (stalking) Facebook just to see your high school sweetheart pregnant with her second child and long-time college fling getting engaged. You're desperately trying not to be that old guy still at all the college parties, but you do want some female company, and mom's ain't cutting it. Relax.

Before you have an emotional meltdown and a mid-midlife crisis, take a breather. We feel your pain, but this is, in reality, your perfect opportunity to mingle. You probably have more money, time, freedom, and dating experience under your belt than you have ever had before. Use it! Don't squander things and force unhealthy relationships; set yourself free and find your soul mate or a few drifters (whatever floats your boat). Sometimes it's a good thing that you don't have any personal ties holding back you from exploring any new face or regions of the world. With that being said, if you are in a healthy relationship, don't be an idiot and blow it. There is something to be said about puppy love, but relationships in your 20's are far more meaningful and lasting (for the most part). You are beginning to understand why Tom Hanks needed Wilson in Cast Away because companionship is something that all people desire at any level.

These are the glory years of dating where you (hopefully) learned from all your boneheaded mistakes in college and have started looking for girls who have a lot more staying power. Let's face it; the stakes are higher. No one should be forcing you down the aisle, but if you are with someone that you know for sure isn't the one. Do each other a favor and end it before pointless years go by and someone gets really hurt. Regardless of where you are at this time of your life, you should fully embrace it. Love is a beautiful thing, and you will certainly know it when it happens (so will your wallet). Just remember that you have a long life to live and that who you decide to be with is exactly that; who YOU decide to be with, whenever that may be.

Personal Development

This may be a shocker, but your personality can change more during your 20s than at any other decade in life. The brain caps off its last major growth spurt, and you are either refining good habits or re-enforcing bad ones. The good news is that this heightened self-awareness usually leads to a desire to improve one's self inside and out. Below are a few areas that need to be on the list if you aren't already looking to improve. We know you got everything under control, and we are going to let you finish, but these are kind of the essentials of your existence now. Pay attention.

Style

Okay, guys, it's time for you to lose those ridiculous tri-colored embroidered pants and get some real clothes that reflect your age. Yes, you will see terrible dressers at every age for the rest of your life, but now you no longer have a pass. It's no longer a phase; it's no longer a statement. It's childish, and we will laugh at you. Wearing sweats your college hoodie to the bar doesn't sound particularly bad (actually, it's pretty comfortable), but in reality, it's a sign of immaturity. As a man, your style should have evolved from frat house chic to young professional. Not having one good fitting suit and blazer is simply unacceptable at this age. It doesn't matter if your job calls for it or not, there are some places flip-flops just can't take you, and that's a good thing. If you can walk into an Urban Outfitters and fit in with every tinnie bopper, that doesn't mean you're a hipster. It means that you need to donate most of your clothes to Goodwill. Take it from us you don't want to be embarrassingly underdressed to work or dating functions. You might be able to skate by with a lackluster wardrobe, but is that really how you want to paint your 20's? Ditch the Nike's and grab a pair of desert boots; you will thank me later.

Gym & Diet

No, someone didn't pull a hilariously cruel joke on you and switch all your mirrors with the ones at the carnival. You're getting fat, and sadly your not getting any slimmer. Now that you can actually afford to eat whatever you want, your metabolism is throwing you a reality check, and you can bank on the fact that there will be plenty more deposits. If you don't want to lose that amazing physique that you have had all your life, you need to fight for it. Here is where gym memberships are at an all-time high and carbs at an all-time low. Now you don't have to go all vegan on us, but if you don't start investing in yourself now, there won't be much later for your twilight years (not a movie reference). Cutting down on the sweets and poor eating habits is just something that comes along with adulthood. The faster you realize this, the easier the transition will be. We all know the women will love your sculpted abs and the confidence they bring, but this is for your own self-preservation. But if you need some extra incentive, women will love your sculpted abs and the confidence they bring (just saying).

Personal Grooming

Alright, this last one isn't something that should have started in your 20's, but it is something that becomes blatantly obvious when not taken care of during them. Guys, it's time to start caring about your hair, your beard, and yes, your pores. What's the point of having a perfect body with an unsightly beard and body odor. This may be a shock, but 80-99% of people will not see your pecs during the course of the day, but they will see your filmy teeth and Eddie Monster widow's peak. Shaving, regular showers, and timely haircuts are beyond expected now. There was a time where you could get away with not being up on all three; that time is over, fellas. Good hygiene separates us from animals (that and iPhones), so don't feel feminine for wanting to make sure your skin isn't filled with toxins or that you smell pleasantly every time someone comes near you. One last thing, clip your nails. Just do it.

Now that you are in top shape, these are milestones that you need to go on. When you 21, 25, and 30 are causes for celebration and significant birthdays in your life. They each mean higher access in life and mark your growth as a man. Other important days to step out are on New Year's and reunions; they all trigger much-needed self-reflection and evaluation of life thus far. Don't focus on what you have done wrong, but more so on the experience, you have had and the people you shared them with. Grab a drink, get to work, and enjoy your roaring 20's.

#lifestyle #wellness #phil

[schraubd]

Jewish Representation on Television: A Random Review

I've been thinking about Jewish representation on television series over the past few days. The trigger was actually an antisemite who was complaining that there are too many Jewish characters on television -- we apparently have taken over his TV. That struck me, because my naive view was that Jewishness actually doesn't get a lot of attention on TV series (even Seinfeld, if I recall correctly, rather famously did not actually say its characters were Jewish). But I decided to actually think about it more, and look into how Jews are portrayed on the shows I watch. This is therefore not remotely scientific -- though I do watch a fair bit of TV -- and some obvious choices (Broad City!) thus aren't included. I'm most interested in shows that are not primarily about Jews, but nonetheless have Jewish characters whose Jewishness is fleshed out in a substantive way. I include shows that have no Jewish characters. This is not necessarily a critique -- not every show has to include Jews -- but it is worth including to get a sense if there is any pattern to what sorts of shows have Jews and what don't. That said, I'm not necessarily a superfan of all these shows, so it's possible that I could miss something (though it hardly counts if deep in Season 6 a show briefly mentions so-and-so is Jewish, only to never bring it up again before or since). * * * 30 Rock: On a show about New York City comedy writers, only Josh -- Josh! -- might be Jewish. This entire show is a case of "just say Jewish, this is taking forever!" C- Big Bang Theory: Of the major characters, only Howard (and his mother) are Jewish. Neither are exactly positive representations -- Howard, in particular, manages to be the most perverted, awkward and creepy of a cadre of young male scientists whose whole shtick is that they're kind of perverted, awkward, and creepy around women. Interestingly, Bernadette is portrayed as super-goyish even though Melissa Rauch is actually Jewish (Mayim Bialik is more famously Jewish, but to my knowledge Amy Farrah-Fowler is not depicted as a tribe member). D- Billions: At first I thought this show had no Jewish characters, a decision I chalked up to maybe wanting to step lightly around the whole "ruthless billionaires manipulating the financial system" thing. But then I remembered: Spyros is Jewish! Spyros! By far the worst character on the show along pretty much any metric you might consider, including that he's portrayed as a serial sexual predator. Literally every character is at least written in shades of grey, and we get Spyros. Ugh. D Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Jake Peralta is Jewish. It pretty much only comes up when he has flashbacks to his Bar Mitzvah (curse you Jenny Gildenhorn!), but at least it is acknowledged as a part of his character with substance. That said, it almost never is visible in his adult life -- most strikingly, there's no portrayal of it being discussed with Amy in terms of how their family will or won't be Jewish. B- Buffy the Vampire Slayer (and Angel): Willow is Jewish, but it gets almost no attention -- I think by the end of the series she's outright celebrating Christmas. C The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: No Jewish characters. Community: Annie is Jewish, but it is almost entirely downplayed. Indeed, it basically never comes up outside the first season. Missed opportunity. C+ Crashing: This is a tough one to judge, since so many of the characters are playing themselves. I know Sarah Silverman is Jewish. I think Artie Lange is? I don't know if Ali Reissen is supposed to be Jewish, but the actress who plays her definitely is. I do know Pete Holmes is not Jewish. I can't give a rating here. Dollhouse: No Jewish characters. Elementary: No Jewish characters. Firefly: No real Jewish characters, though they do briefly show a postmaster wearing a yarmulke. It's actually a really neat moment of casual Jewish inclusion that I really appreciate. Fresh off the Boat: I don't think any of the regulars (including Eddie's friends) are Jewish, but Evan's arch-rival Phillip Goldstein is definitely Jewish -- and definitely portrayed as a massive asshole. C Game of Thrones: No Jewish characters (outrageous!). The Good Place: No Jewish characters (actual sad face here -- though I can see how incorporating actual religious faith into this show might be hard). I Feel Bad: Probably not worth including -- it was canceled after one season, and I'm not sure it even fully aired the one -- except to give one last plug to my headcanon where it is Sarayu Blue's side of the family that is Jewish. Brian George -- who plays her father -- is Jewish! He should get to play a Jewish character some time. Alas, the show goes down the more predictable route of making Paul Adelstein's side of the family the Jewish one. It does a good job with that. I guess. Still salty. B Insecure: I don't think any characters are Jewish. Frieda might be Jewish, which would be okay. Joanne also might be Jewish, which would be a less attractive proposition. iZombie: No Jewish characters. Mad Men: Rachel Mencken is great. She also stands pretty much alone. B+ Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: This is the only show that is explicitly Jewish in focus, and as I said that's not my main concern here. In any event, not everyone likes the portrayal of Jewishness, but I actually find it quite warm on the whole. A. Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: No Jewish characters. Mozart in the Jungle: No Jewish characters (really?). New Girl: Full disclosure: I did not watch this show all the way to the end. Anyway, Schmidt is one of the more famous Jewish portrayals of contemporary television. I'm not his greatest fan -- in particularly, that he's a proud Republican is, shall we say, statistically anomalous -- but once I started comparing him to the competition above he turns out pretty decent. Still, he, too -- especially in the early seasons -- doesn't exactly stand out on the "treats women with respect" metric. B Parks and Rec: The main Jewish characters are the Saperstein twins -- John-Ralphio and Mona Lisa. They are each, in their own way, "the worst person in the world." And with John-Ralphio, we get yet another creepy Jewish harasser. D The Orville: There are no Jews in space. The West Wing: This show actually comes out great. Toby and Josh are Jewish, visibly so, yet in very distinctive ways. It comes up, though it isn't obsessed over, in ways that feel authentic to their character. And the pilot includes one of my favorite "Jewish" scenes in all of television. A+ * * * In sum, I'd say that -- outside of shows where Judaism is a central focus (Marvelous Mrs. Maisel), there are a dearth of characters whose Jewishness is portrayed (a) positively and (b) as a substantive (not all-encompassing) presence in their lives. It seems that sci-fi and fantasy shows are the least likely to have Jewish characters, which is understandably, though it includes series set on Earth or otherwise "near-real world" conditions. This might reflect anxiety around how to portray Jews in juxtaposition with the occult and/or dystopian authoritarianism without reenacting antisemitic tropes. On the positive side, The West Wing, in my view, stands head-and-shoulders above the crowd; other solid performers include Brooklyn Nine Nine, New Girl, and (for what it's worth) I Feel Bad. But these are exceptional, for the most part, the Jewishness of characters either isn't established much beyond its mere mention. And the main exception is when Jewish male characters are portrayed as perverts, creeps, or sexual harassers -- indeed, this might be the most common way of "marking" a character as Jewish, which is worrisome. via The Debate Link http://bit.ly/2YP4sVe

#Jews #television

[bae-leth]

School days, huh. :’)

The three first start getting acquainted when they try to organise a few interhouse events, just to establish good rapport between the three regions. They understand the importance of this pretty well, given the history of their nations.

The students in their house would still harbour rivalries, yes, but the lords understand that the other houses have ‘good people, too’ (as Claude puts it) so it’d be a good idea if they created friendly rivalries now, rather than be outright hostile.

(LMAO. how this fails during war phase...)

Their interhouse activities don’t work out quite as well as expected. (The food fights between Caspar and Felix lasted hours, and the scoldings the lords got when everyone joined in and made teams? Oof.)

So, they decide to just establish good relations between themselves, for now, to at least put up a harmonious front.

The three have tea parties!! They meet up every Friday, after their last class, and head out to the tea gardens. Most of the time is spent making fun of how Dimitri makes his tea (he keeps the tea leaves in the water for ages, forgets to drain it, and makes the funniest frowns when he realises it’s too bitter).

The boys make fun of how Edelgard scarfs down all the cakes before they can even choose them.

(Once, they pranked her by making a very cartoony rat cake. It… did not go down well.)

They like brushing their horses together. Or alternatively: Dimitri just waxes poetic about how wonderful his mount is, and Claude and Eddie roll their eyes (but smile anyway).

Lots of eating outside on the field whenever it’s sunny! They tried using their capes as a picnic blanket once, and hey, it worked.

Claude always waves at the two from outside the classroom window when they’re trying to study. Dimitri and Edelgard try to stay focussed, but... Imagine Claude just waving at you and winking devilishly. How are you meant to stay collected lmao.

Byleth sees that they’re all making good efforts to get along, so as a result, they put them together more!

Whenever the lords weed together, Claude always tries making daisy chains, but they look awful. (The other two keep them anyway.)

Dimitri drags them out to stargaze. It often ends up with Claude sleeping on his lap and Eddie sleeping on his shoulder. He just keeps on babbling about the stars anyway.

“Look, Claude! There’s Riegan! … Claude. Claude? Edelgard? Oh… Hm. Perhaps my voice soothes them…?”

Edelgard tells them stories of ancient history. A lot of it is biased towards the Empire, but out of respect she does try to veer a little towards the other regions too.

(Claude pretends to fall asleep at her history lessons. She whacks him with books whenever he does.)

Although they pretend to still have their rivalry, they do make sure the other lord is okay before and after they go off on field studies.

Claude’s going off into battle? He’s laughing as Edelgard and Dimitri fuss over his armour. (Edelgard’s scrutinising the straps intently, while Dimitri’s just full on fretting. “Is this tight enough? Is this tight enough????”)

Edelgard comes back from a particularly grueling skirmish? Her boys are waiting at the entrance for her, water canteens, sweets and towels in hand.

Dimitri comes back with injuries everywhere, looking like he’s about to drop? Claude and Eddie haul him to bed before he can even greet them. They don’t let him leave until he’s fully rested, either.

Once, Claude handed Dimitri a bow for archery practice. Dimitri broke it because he pulled back the string too hard.

He’s apologising profusely, but Claude just can't stop laughing. Edelgard marches over and tries to show them how it’s really done.

The boys enjoy braiding Edelgard’s hair. She actually lets them, much to everyone’s surprise.

Then, she checks the mirror, sees the atrocious hairstyle, and promptly takes out her axe.

Come exam time, Claude’s just lazing around, feet propped up on the tables, because he’s ‘given up’, apparently.

(In reality, he just knows that he studies best in tiny increments, which is why everyone always sees him seemingly on break. He also knows that he’ll pass fine because he’s actually been paying attention for the whole year, but ssshhh don’t tell anyone else that.)

Dimitri’s nagging him to study, because he doesn’t want him to fail! (even though Claude knows full well that he won’t LMAO.) Edelgard is actually studying.

When Edelgard and Dimitri are panicking the next day (Edelgard looking very stiff and still, and Dimitri just pacing holes into the floor), Claude’s the one that brings them breakfast.

Once, the three of them were let into the kitchen. It… didn’t go well.

(Lots of fire.)

Claude writes them really terrible poetry on purpose, just to see them groan.

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ /grasps both their hands/ Thou are both really goddamn hot.”

(They both sigh.)

When birthdays roll around, they make each other cakes!

For Edelgard, the boys make a surprisingly good one. (probably because Dimitri enlists Dedue’s help, and Claude grabs Leonie.) It’s properly iced and everything (although a lot of ice magic was used to keep it from melting.)

The same heat problems crop up with Claude’s birthday. It gets so hot that Edelgard thinks it’s just more efficient to maybe just ice it with magic.

The cake ices over as a result. They’re in full on panic mode in the morning, because it’s his birthday and the cake is an ice block -

(Claude actually can't stop laughing. They’re so innocent… so naive… they can’t even cook…)

When it’s Dimitri’s birthday, though, Claude and Edelgard are far more experienced. Thus, the cake is far better… until all the tiers start to wobble (bc. It’s too. Goddamn tall.)

They were trying to make a joke about how big he was, okay….

In winters, they like huddling under one massive quilt, with mugs of hot chocolate that Dimitri makes.

In summer, Claude and Edelgard are the ones fanning Dimitri as he dies in the heat.

They all promise to take each other to visit their respective nations one day.

Just… I really like the idea of them being good friends at the academy.

#zomg this got so long.... #fire emblem three houses #fe16 #claude #dimitri #edelgard #i quite like the idea of claude slowly coming to trust the other two during his time in the academy. ofc everything becomes awful in #timeskip and the memories become bitter but. he realises that there's still some of their previous selves still left in the other two #or maybe this is just the power of ~love~ LMAO. whatever works for you #these three.... too powerful #headcanons

[drewnelsonfinalproject-blog]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Analysis

On September 25, 1975, Michael White Productions released The Rocky Horror Picture Show based on the 1973 cabaret musical (Schwab). The parody of a gothic horror film with elements of science fiction tells the story of Brad and Janet, two white, middle-class lovers betrothed to each other. As they travel to inform their high school science teacher that they are engaged, their car breaks down in the middle of the woods resulting in them entering the nearby castle to use the telephone. This castle is inhabited by Dr. Frank N. Furter, the genderfluid scientist from the planet known as Transexual in the galaxy of Transylvania. They are accompanied by their ragtag posse Riff Raff, Magenta, and Columbia. From here, chaos ensues which results in the death of the excessive scientist, freeing the couple and leaving Riff Raff in command. The movie ends with the castle, their spaceship jetting off into outer space. Although the story is quite complicated and confusing, the movie plays in at least 75 theaters across the United States every week to this day (Mochari). It has become known as the longest-running movie of all time (Schwab). This cult classic has a peculiar history that most blockbusters do not possess. 

While looking at the typical blockbusters, one usually thinks of a film that is specifically designed to attract large audiences, for example using big casts, lavish sets, and a long run time. However, The Rocky Horror Picture Show has none of these (although some actors are well-known today). A blockbuster is also known as a movie that has done well in the box office, typically looking at the movie’s first weekend. Again, Rocky Horror does not fit into this category either as it was quickly shelved after its limited release in California, it didn’t see a nation-wide release (Schwab). However, it would be considered a blockbuster due to how well it has done after the initial showing. It has a lifetime earning of $100 million (Mochari). Thus, I will be examining how this cultural phenomenon came to be.

As stated above, Rocky Horror was based on the musical written by Richard O’Brien (Shwab). As far as production, things did not go well for the cult classic. The director, Jim Sharman, wanted to keep the cast the same as the musical to ensure that they all had chemistry together. However, the producers made him recast Brad and Janet, as more popular actors resulting in Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon playing the roles (McAdams). There were also problems with production as the set designer, Sue Blane, went on record stating that she did not want to be a part of the movie, however she then agreed and the movie is now known for its campy and extravagant costumes (McAdams). The director additionally had to take away all of Peter Hinwood, Rocky’s, lines because he can’t act (McAdams). He was hired for his good looks needed for the engineered creation, however, they looked over the fact that he had no talent for acting. Production continued to go awry when the movie’s $1.2 million budget could not afford to heat the set (Thompson; McAdams). This resulted in the lead, Susan Sarandon to become ill during filming. Finally, there were many injuries on-set of the movie because the low budget only allowed them to higher a rather inexperienced production team (McAdams). One example would be when the rock star playing the role of Eddie, Meat Loaf, was sitting in his wheelchair that then fell off the ramp (McAdams). It was clear that Rocky Horror had a hard time during the production of this blockbuster. However, that did not stop the cult classic from becoming the longest-running movie in history. In this clip, Richard O’Brien discusses the process of writing of the story and Tim Curry talks about what it was like to play the villainous Dr. Frank N. Furter. One can see more insight into the production of the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfL98tLN1t8

As far as marketing goes, they originally advertise that much for the movie. There is very little information out there about how the producers originally marketed the movie. Most of this has come from its redistribution after the release. Although the film did not do well originally, Rocky Horror was brought back at a midnight screening the next year on April Fool’s Day at the Waverly Theater in Greenwich Village, New York, due to the marketing savvy of an executive at 20th Century Fox (Schwab). The movie was then transformed from a failed movie-musical to an underground queer phenomenon to mainstream production, due to the die-hard fans who flocked to the late-night showings (Schwab). The cult classic, thus, has been able to reproduce for itself as it would play midnight showings weekly. Devout fans would draw in others to perpetuate the fervor around the movie. This video shows the audience participates with the actors on the stage. This exemplifies how the movie has been reproduced over the years and these are also done at showings of the movie. Here, one can see lines yelled and also how they participate in the dance of the “Time Warp.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nYI4IqDshQ

There are stark differences between the reception of the movie-musical when it was first released to where it is today. It has transformed its $1.2 million budget into a $100 million dollar franchise. What drew people into this cultural cult was how the fans received the film. There are specific actions that became canonical while watching the movie. These include yelling known lines at the screen, bringing props to throw, and dressing up as one’s favorite character. The President of the Rocky Horror Fan Club, Sal Piro, discusses the history of the movie in his book Creatures of the Night. He states that this counterpoint dialogue is how the show “went public,” from people inventing lines to shout back at the screen (Piro). Some examples are yelling “asshole” whenever Brad is mentioned, “slut” whenever Janet is, booing the villain, and any other lines that were accepted which varied regionally. Additionally, props were used as part of the interaction between audience and screen. Viewers would come with a bag filled with rice to throw at the wedding scene, newspaper to cover themselves during the raining scene, and others (Piro). Some viewers also began to dress up as characters and play them at the front while the movie is playing behind them. Although the midnight showings were originally played at the Waverly Theater in New York, it quickly began to travel outside spanning all over the United States (Piro). And thus, Rocky Horror became the national phenomenon it is known for today. Here, Laverne Cox and others working on the production discuss her process of coming into the role of Dr. Frank N. Furter and how when she first saw the original film, she saw herself in the character. This speaks to how Rocky Horror has drawn those that feel othered in and made them feel accepted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH1a8zBWuaU

There were no real intentional marketing strategies that a production company fashioned, rather a group of devoted fans that brought others in. What began as a failed movie quickly became an underground scene for those that don’t fit into a mainstream work that is known by many. Rocky Horror has not only been reproduced by those at the theater, but it has also been a part of popular culture. It has been remade by popular shows like Sesame Street, That 70’s Show, and Glee dedicating an entire episode to the music. It was a plot point in the 2012 dramedy Perks of Being a Wallflower and has recently been recreated by Fox in 2016 starring Laverne Cox, Victoria Justice, and more. The cult classic has proven itself to last the test of time. 

Although Rocky’s story is not the most concise, there are specific themes that make this movie so appealing. This would account for why so many hold the movie close to their hearts to this day. Brown and Hoch note two major themes throughout the films which are (1) the decline and fall of the family and metamorphosis of sex roles that have shocked the West in the post-World War II and Vietnam Era, and (2) the struggle between rationality and sexuality for dominance over the social order (Brown and Hoch, 61). The white middle-class archetype is exemplified in Brad and Janet who are at war against the indulgent Dr. Frank N. Furter. 

The authors continue to note that the music also plays a part in this dispute. It provides a protest against the “bland, tightass pap of WASP [White Anglo-Saxon Protestant] culture” (Brown and Hoch, 62). These rock and roll anthems liberate the sexes with sexual choreography that allows all to release their inhibitions. The conflict between liberation and repression is shown through the changing sex roles, where the villain emphasizes pleasure and delight. In one of the final scenes, Dr. Frank N. Furter sings “Give yourself up to pleasure” as all the characters jump into a pool and participate in a soft-core orgy. This movie could also be seen as appealing to those tired of conventional social norms because the film is an attack against sexually repressive traditional mores and social institutions (Siegel, 306). It draws people in by operating similarly to a religion, where the audience is the mass attending the congregation with pre-scripted dialogue they repeat back to the minister, or the characters (Siegel, 307). Finally, when teens and young adults are asked about why they are attracted to the film, they state that the movie lets people know that it is okay to be different and it’s okay to feel good (Tyson et al, 60). For most, this goes against what they were previously taught, that one should try to fit in. It is understandable why this movie has lived on for 40 years and continues to bring in fans.

While most of the themes are accepting, there are some problematic elements while watching the movie in 2019 with the current political climate. First, the villain Dr. Frank N. Furter, the villain, refers to themselves as a “Sweet Transvestite,” a politically incorrect and offensive term for transgender individuals. This character is also played by Tim Curry a cisgender man which would not fly today. Dr. Frank N. Furter is also problematic because they are a sexual predator who uses their power to take advantage of others sexually. In an analysis of the troubling elements of the film, Jef Rouner notes that they “look like a caricature of the LGBTQ predator conservative lawmakers are so intent on convincing us is real” (Rouner). There are offensive elements that are also present in the ceremonial viewing of the film. Whenever Janet is on the screen, the entire audience hurls the epithet “slut,” while Brad only receives an “asshole” (Rouner). Why does Janet get labeled a slut, while there are characters that have more sex than her in the film? Again, this would not be permissible today. However, Rouner notes that the film should be taken more as “an artifact to be appreciated for its historical value more than for its continued cultural relevance” (Rouner). Although there are troubling themes, the film can still be viewed and appreciated for the specific historical moment it holds.  

Works Cited

BROWN, JERRY B., and JUDITH HOCH. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show: A Galactic Gothic Epic.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 4, 1981, pp. 59–66. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/45018077.

Central Arkansas Library System. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975, R). 1975. https://cals.org/event/rocky-horror-picture-show-oct4/.  

Collectors.com. “Meatloaf from the movie ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW ** Private Signing ** From a Ed Bedrick Autographs private signing.” https://www.collectors.com/autograph/meatloaf-from-the-movie-rocky-horror-picture-show-private-s/-950191601604210661.

“Finding Frank N. Fruter | THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW” Uploaded by FOX. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH1a8zBWuaU.

FOX. “A ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Cast Comparison To Prepare You For Tonight’s Time Warp.” Getty Images. https://decider.com/2016/10/20/rocky-horror-cast-then-and-now/.  

McAdams, Eric. “20 Crazy Details Behind the Making of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” Screen Rant. October 8, 2018. https://screenrant.com/rocky-horror-picture-show-behind-scenes-details-making-trivia/.  

Mochari, Ilan. “How ‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’ Became an Enduring, $100 Million Brand.” Inc. October 28, 2015. https://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/why-rocky-horror-picture-show-still-has-cult-following.html.

Piro, Sal. “It Was Great When It All Began.” From Creatures of the Night. Accessed December 2, 2019. http://www.rockyhorror.com/history/howapbegan.php.

“Rocky Horror Audience Participation Night Montage.” Uploaded by Robert Neblett. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nYI4IqDshQ.  

“Rocky Horror Picture Show-Behind The Scenes (Remastered). Uploaded by Stotle. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfL98tLN1t8.  

Rouner, Jef. “Looking Back, The Rocky Horror Picture Show Hasn’t Aged That Well.” Houston Press. July 13, 2017. https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/the-rocky-horror-picture-show-is-very-problematic-in-2017-9601139.

Schwab, Katharine. “After 40 Years, Rocky Horror Has Become Mainstream.” The Atlantic. September 26, 2015. https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/09/after-40-years-rocky-horror-has-become-mainstream/407491/.

Siegel, Mark. “‘The Rocky Horror Picture Show’: More than a Lip Service (Le ‘Rocky Horror Picture Show," Du Bout Des Lèvres).” Science Fiction Studies, vol. 7, no. 3, 1980, pp. 305–312. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4239358.

Thompson, Simon. “‘Rocky Horror’ Remake Cast Talk Giving The $1.2 Million Cult Classic A $20 Million Update.” Forbes. July 25, 2016. https://www.forbes.com/sites/simonthompson/2016/07/25/rocky-horror-remake-cast-talk-giving-the-cult-classic-a-20-million-update/#2ae4e4fe3afe.  

TomorroWoman. “Secrets You Didn’t Know About Rocky Horror Picture Show.” http://www.tomorrowoman.com/culture/things-you-didnt-know-about-rocky-horror-picture-show/17/.

Tyson, Christy, et al. “Our Readers Write: What Is the Significance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Why Do Kids Keep Going to It?” The English Journal, vol. 69, no. 7, 1980, pp. 60–62. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/817417.

20TH CENTURY FOX. “Tim Curry in The Rocky Horror Picture Show with Barry Bostwick and Susan Sarandon in 1975.” The Kobal Collection. https://www.kunc.org/post/movie-gabriel-machts-seen-million-times#stream/0.  

[ratmanrichie]

“No,no,no,no,no!” Eddie said, quickly grabbing a towel and placing it over his face. He took a deep breath in, and in a muffled voice from under the cloth, he said, “Okay, spray.” 
Richie gave the spray-on hair dye a good shake, and only an inch or two away from Eddie’s hair, he gave a giant spray. Eddie stepped back, uncovering his eyes from the cloth and coughing viscously. 
“What the hell, Richie?” He exclaimed, looking into the mirror, “it’s all flat and crunchy now!!” Richie laughed, sprayed a bit of the dye into his finger and smeared it across Eddie’s cheek. 
“aaAA!” He screamed. Richie let out a hearty laugh and had to lean onto the counter to regain balance. 
Mike and Bill had invited everyone to their condo in Florida for Halloween, since, as Bill stated, “The old people hand out the best candy.” They flew all the way from LA down to Clearwater, Florida to stay with the Hanlons for Halloween. Patty, Stan, Beverly, and Ben were here too. Mike and Bill bought a nice, spacious condo on the top floor of a complex. Mike spent days figuring out wall colors, checking for need of repairs, and seeing if there was any remodeling that needed to be done. Bill carefully picked furniture and wall hangings that would match the amazing craftsmanship that Mike added to the place. 
Decked out in barn wood accents, panels, and ceilings, the condo seemed like a little bit of country in a bustling city. Bill found it amusing to be sitting on the kitchen island, which had country style doors, red accents, and farm animal decoration, and then look up to see the ocean. It was like bringing a taste of home to Florida. 
The Hanlons were a very tidy and predictable couple, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Mike worked at a sea-life rehabilitation center at the Marine Aquarium just a few blocks away. Bill turned the excessively over-large master bedroom closet into a cozy little office, giving enough room for a sturdy writing desk, a large bookshelf on the right wall from floor to ceiling, and a chair near the corner. He decorated the walls with pictures of him and Mike on trips or special occasions. A framed photo of their wedding day sat on his desk, as well as a wrinkled old Polaroid from 1989 of him and Mike. All in all, they preferred to keep to themselves, visiting the losers from time to time, but mostly just relaxing and being near each other was enough. Their house was a place of peace and relaxation. 
And then the Tozier’s showed up first. 
Eddie and Richie were hellbent on going to Universal in full Harry Potter costumes. Their foster child, Hannah, who had only been living with the two for a year and a half, was a huge fan of the series. She enjoyed watching the movie with the two, all curled up on their fluffy couch with their dog, Stan, resting on her lap. She loved hearing Eddie read her a the books before bed, him always wanting to only read one and her insisting “just one more!” She loved the Toziers more than anyone else before, and the franchise held nothing but good memories in her heart. 
Mike and Bill had been polishing the finishing touches of their intense cleaning when the doorbell buzzed loudly. Mike opened it up and was amused by the sight. 
Eddie was holding two suitcases, with two carry on bags wrapped around each shoulder. Their little girl was smiling up at him, a tooth missing from her happy beam. She had a Doc Mcstuffins backpack on, and was carrying her own little mini suitcase. Richie had a singular duffel bag wrapped across him. 
Now, over-prepared and ready to party, the chaos couple were crowding the Hanlon’s half bathroom, trying desperately to get ready in time. 
“Hurry up!” Hannah knocked impatiently on the door, “Everyone’s all ready!!” 
“In a minute, kiddo!” Richie called back, then turned to see the frazzled Eddie trying to scrub the orange dye off his cheek. 
“I swear to god if I got skin cancer I’m going to divorce you,” Eddie said frantically, rubbing his skin raw with the washcloth. 
“Hold your breath real quick,” Richie said, giving Eddie a second before unevenly spraying the dye all across his head. Eddie gagged and frantically opened the door, then stopped dead in his tracks seeing everyone waiting. 
“I just need to do one more touch up and then-“ he turned and saw Richie blocking the entrance to the bathroom. 
“No can do, Eduardo,” he said smugly, “we’re gonna be late to the parade if we don’t head out soon.” Eddie let out a defeated sigh, and followed the rest of them to the parking lot, where they each got into their own cars to drive to Universal Studios. 
—— 
Everyone bought a ticket to the Halloween Horror Nights, but Eddie and Richie also got some for Harry Potter world. They tried out the Horror Night before actual night, that way the jump scares wouldn’t be too frightening for Hannah. She was only 6 years old, after all. 
After trying a couple of maze’s and eating dinner, Hannah was ready to see Harry Potter everything. On the Hogwarts Express Ride, Eddie and Hannah talked about all the similarities to the movies they’ve found thus far. Richie, who enjoyed some of the movies, but never really got into them or the books, just sat back and smiled at their conversation. 
They took Hannah down towards the Hogsmeade section to grab some butter beer. Hannah was skipping down the road, holding hands with the two as she blabbered on about everything around her. They made it down to where they could get the beverage, and had Hannah try a bit of Richie’s before buying her a big glass, and as expected, she despised the flavor. They instead got her a cup of ice cream and made their way towards the rest of the extractions. 
—- 
Towards the end of the night they all met up near the ticket booth. Hannah was worn out, Richie giving her a piggy back ride, her head leaning on his shoulder. Beverly smiled at them, and gave them both a warm hug before walking to her car hand in hand with Ben. Even though they were all going the same place, they all hugged before getting into their respective cars. 
Eddie had trouble remembering where he had parked the rental, so they walked aimlessly around the parking garage until Eddie caves and sounded the alarm. The sudden noise awoke Hannah with a jolt, her head sticking straight up and swiveling to look around. 
“It’s okay, dear, it’s just the car,” Eddie smiled at her sincerely. She yawned and rested her head on Richie again. When they got to the car, Richie gently sat her down in the backseat, strapping her into her car seat. She fluttered her eyes open lightly, turning and smiling contently at the both of them. 
“I love you, dads,” she said, closing her eyes. Richie looked up, shocked, at Eddie, who was equally as surprised. This was the first time she called them dads! 
Richie smiled, tears threatening to drop from his eyes. He leaned in and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead, before hugging her. Eddie also hugged her, wrapping his arm around Richie and kissing him on the cheek. 
“We love you, too.”

#reddie #it chapter two #Richie Tozier #eddie kaspbrak #domestic!reddie #domestic reddie #honestly y’all I have no idea why the dog is there #he’s a multidimensional being that transcends time #but fr it was suppose to be a regular family portrait and then I said fuck it Harry Potter #I honestly don’t even watch Harry Potter or know anything about it #I do!! know a lot about Universal cause my lovely aunt and uncle live in orlando. when we visit we always go to Clearwater and Universal #but yeah I’ve only seen the first Harry Potter movie and read like three of the books #not my cup of tea but that’s ok #I just wanted to draw them spending time together bc I rarely see that content #I worked har on this lajensjjd too much of my time went into this #Kelli

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

My Thoughts on Venom 2018 Part 1: How did this even happen?

This was the most bizarre comic book film experience of my life. I am going to attempt to organize my thoughts below but to some extent this will be a stream of consciousness.

As far as recommendations are concerned.

If you are a hardcore Venom fan: Go see this you’ve been waiting 20 years for it.

If you are a hardcore Spider-Man fan: You don’t need to see this.

If you are a comic book fan: If you love 90s schlock turn your brain off and go for it.

If you are a comic book movie/general movie fan: It’s schlock but bizarre and at times entertaining schlock so if you like that...see this. If you want something with the average competency of any given MCU film steer clear.

With all that said let’s dive deep into this movie. SPOILERS for the movie, though I’m not synopsising it.

Venom a history

Long story short, once upon a time in the 1980s Marvel gave Spider-Man a new black costume. People initially hated it. Marvel got rid of it by revealing it was actually an alien, a symbiote trying to bond with Spidey who promptly rejected it and ultimately tried to destroy it.

Except by then people had decided they loved the suit. Later in the 1980s a guy by the name of David Michelinie came up with the idea of giving the alien costume to a new character and thus creating a new villain.

The new character was reporter Eddie Brock who broke a story revealing the identity of a notorious serial killer known as the Sin Eater. Except Brock hadn’t fact checked properly and shortly afterwards Spidey caught the actual killer. Brock was fired in disgrace and his life spiralled downwards from there, with him blaming Spider-Man for his woes. That was when he encountered Spidey old alien costume and bonded to it, the pair sharing a mutual burning hatred for the wall-crawler.

The result was Venom, a hulking with Spider-Man’s powers (and then some) with the cool aesthetic of Spidey’s black suit combined with monstrous features like a wicked grin and claws.

Venom was a hit. More than a hit, he was the most successful character in Spider-Man lore since Spider-Man himself.

And so he kept coming back to menace Spider-Man over and over again. Except over time he began to change. When starting out, Venom was a wicked sadistic homicidal maniac hellbent on nothing but killing Spider-Man. But as time went by a new aspect worked its way into Venom: a desire to protect the innocent, even via violent means.

A key turning point for the character was when Michelinie introduced yet another new villain, Carnage. Carnage was the result of serial killer Cletus Kasady bonding to another alien costume, this one being the off spring of the Venom symbiote. Carnage was a mass murderer more powerful than Venom and Spider-Man. Due to their mutual desire to protect the innocent though Spidey and Venom formed a tenuous alliance to bring down Carnage.

Thus Venom for the first time assumed the role of an anti-hero, a type of character who by this point in time (the early 1990s) had grown wildly popular in comic books and pop culture as a whole. A prime example would be the character of the T-800 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day as played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Eventually Marvel decided to have Venom spin-off completely from Spider-Man. In a story culminating in Amazing Spider-Man #375 David Michelinie introduced Eddie Brock’s estranged ex-wife Ann Weying and had Venom and Spidey part ways under a truce that they’d leave one another alone.

This was set up for Venom getting a long string of mini-series that chronicled his solo-adventures as an anti-hero. The first of these was in 1993’s Venom: Lethal Protector. The six part story (penned by Michelinie) saw Eddie Brock (sporting a noticeably softer and longer haired appearance) move to San Francisco seeking a new purpose in his life.

Whilst in San Fran Venom came into conflict with (among others) Roland Treece and the Life Foundation.

The former was a rich businessman seeking to destroy a secret underground community of homeless people in order to obtained wealth lost in one of San Fran’s old earthquakes.

The latter was an organization of survivalists looking to live out a potential nuclear apocalypse from a place of luxury and power. Among their members was Carlton Drake who was heavily involved in a project to create super powered security guards for the Life Foundation. They sought to do this by extracting further offspring from the Venom symbiote and bonding them to specially selected security personnel.

From this process new symbiote villains were created, namely Phage, Lasher, Agony, Scream and Riot.

Venom seemingly defeated all these symbiotes along with Treece, thus gaining a place among the underground community of homeless people as their champion and defender.

Michelinie had relatively little further involvement with Venom after the Lethal Protector mini-series though he returned in 1995 to pen a crossover story with Spider-Man called ‘Planet of the Symbiotes’. The plot centred upon Earth being invaded by an army of symbiotes seeking to bond with all human life and the revelation that the Venom symbiote was an outcast even amongst it’s own kind, chiefly because it sought to permanently bond with one of its host in a mutually beneficial and loving relationship.

Venom had many more sol adventures in the 1990s, some of which involved Eddie’s ex wife Ann Weying who at times bonded with the Venom symbiote herself to become She-Venom.

Venom’s solo adventures are widely considered amongst comic book and Spider-Man fans to be of generally poor quality and the anti-hero direction for Venom (even prior to his being spun-off) is often a source of controversy within Spider-Man fandom.

Whilst Michelinie was the man who first instituted Venom along the path of being less overtly evil, it should be noted it was never his preference for Venom to become a solo character or never primarily serve the role of an antagonist for Spider-Man. That was a decision made by higher ups at Marvel due to both the popularity of anti-heroes at the time and the immense sales Venom as a character generated whenever he appeared in Spider-Man stories.

At some point in the 1990s a Venom movie was put into development and announced in the pages of Marvel comics. Among the strongest advocates for the film was CEO of Toy Biz turned film producer Avi Arad, who has been involved in various Marvel projects throughout the decades. His enthusiasm for a Venom movie was chiefly based upon the immense toy sales the character generated.

The Venom movie was stuck in various stages of development for many years. It’s chances for finally coming to fruition were greatly increased following the release of 2007’s Spider-Man 3, which included Venom as a studio mandate upon director Sam Raimi who had initially not wanted to include the character.

However the Venom movie (along with future sequels to Spider-Man 3) continued to be stuck in development for many years. Venom’s chance to make it to the big screen in a solo venture again seemed likely in the early-mid 2010s when Sony (the owners of the Spider-Man film rights) attempted to form an interconnected film series based upon Spider-Man characters, Venom being among them.

Sony’s desire for this type of film series was motivated by the success of Disney/Marvel Studios with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which had then recently hit big when they released The Avengers in 2012, the culmination of five prior movies introducing separate characters within the same narrative continuity.

However when 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 met with financial and critical failure Sony (after briefly scrambling several desperate film ideas together) struck a deal with Marvel Studios to allow Spider-Man to appear in the MCU for a share in the profits.

Thus their prior plans were scraped and a new version of Spider-Man debuted in the 2016 hit MCU movie Captain America: Civil War before appearing the next year in a solo venture, Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Sony however apparently still aspired to have their own competing comic book film universe and so put into production the animated movie Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and, finally, the live action Venom movie. Only due to agreements with Marvel Studios the Venom movie would not  including Spider-Man himself at all.

The production was relatively speedy, this likely due to the script, to my understanding, being essentially a script written during the 1990s and updated for modern times as opposed to being written from scratch. The specific script in question draws primarily from the Lethal Protector mini-series and to a lesser extent other nuggets from Venom’s lore, including Planet of the Symbiotes and She-Venom.

The movie was released in early October 2018 (coincidentally, or not, 2018 also marked Venom’s 30th anniversary) and thus far has generated mixed reviews from professional critics, more favourable reviews from general audiences and is on track to prove financially profitable enough that future Sony Spider-Man movies (including Venom sequels) may be on the horizon.

#Venom #Venom 2018 #Eddie Brock #Sony #Marvel #marvel comics #David Michelinie #marvel studios #MCU #marvel cinematic universe #Avengers #Avengers 2012 #Avengers Assemble #captain america: civil war #Spider-Man #spider-man: homecoming #Spider-Man 3 #Venom symbiote #She Venom #She-Venom

[joyofcrime-elinorhigh]

Camp Camp REVIEW:

 Hello there, everybody. My name is JoyofCrimeArt and the Summer season has just come to an end. It's that time or year where the heat starts to die down, as the brisk Autumn breeze comes blowing forth to refresh our minds and bodies, and to remind us that-wait hold on. Yeah, okay. So I just checked Google and it turns out that it's currently ninety degrees outside exactly. Sorry Autumn, better luck next month. Anyway, with Summer "technically" wrapping up I though now would be as good of a time as any to talk about Rooster Teeth Production's Summer themed adult animated series "Camp Camp."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4c6JUBauBg

(By the way, this intro is so frickin' catchy.)  For those who don't know "Camp Camp" is a online animated series that comes from Rooster Teeth Productions, the studio that brought us Red vs Blue, RWBY, and the Youtube Red original movie, Lazor Team. If I had to describe the show I would describe it as "Total Drama Island" crossed with "South Park." So what's the plot? Camp Camp centers around Max, a cynical ten year old who hates the entire world around him. He's the typical cynical, bitter type of character you see a lot in these "adult animated" shows. Max's goal in the series to escape from Camp Campbell, a crappy run down summer camp in the middle of nowhere, and make his way back to civilization. He also has help from his two friends, Neil and Nikki. Neil is a science nerd who is very quick to angry outburst. He and Max share the role as the straight man in most episodes. Then there's Nikki, a hyperactive wild child and self proclaimed "agent of chaos." Out of the main trio she's probably my favorite. She just has some much energy, and it's actual nice to see a character who is actually happy to be at the camp, even though she still tries to help Max and Neil escape.  There's also the two camp counselor, David and Gwen. David is an optimistic yet dim counselor who tries to make the three (mainly Max) see the joys of camping, without much success. He often will suffer torment form our main protagonist, sometimes indirectly but often directly. However despite the universes punching bag he's still manages to stay cartoonishly optimistic. I really like David, and he is one of my favorite, if not my favorite character in the show. His constant optimism is really funny but he's not a static character either. In a lot of these type of cartoons we get characters who are either always happy or almost always happy, and they end up being very one dimensional a lot of the time. David is different because while we see him being happy most of the time we see that he does have limits. We see that he gets stressed out by things and is trying his hardest to stay optimistic anyway. It's not like in Spongebob, where Spongebob is always happy because he unaware that things around him aren't perfect. David knows that things around him aren't perfect, but still tries to stay upbeat about it. It's a lot more relatable in that way, at least in my humble opinion. Gwen meanwhile, is the smarter and more snarky counselor who just tries to stay out of everything and just read her trashy magazine. Gwen will often act as the foil to David and it works really well comically. I also really like Gwen's voice actress, Lee Eddy. It's a great voice that really works for her deadpan deliveries, and as we later learn she also a great singer!  The show also has a large plethora of side characters. The show uses a clever strategy when it comes to introducing the side characters, usually giving each of the side characters one episode each to shine. Plus they break those episodes up with episodes that are just about Max, Neil and Nikki. This makes it a lot easier to manage all of the side characters, and the stereotypes that the side characters represent makes it very easier for the audience to immediately know what the characters are about. The show has a pretty large cast, so I'll try to hit most of the more notable side characters real quick here. There's Cameron Campbell, the camp's immoral founder who is on the run from the government. There's Space Kid, a kid who likes outer space and always has a glass dome around his head. There's Preston, the psychotic theater kid (Who is a really funny character by the way.) There's Nurf, the camp bully. There's Ered, the cool kid. There's Harrison, the magic kid. There's Nerris, the other magic kid. There's Dolph, who may or may not be a clone of Hitler. Y'know, all of the normal character archtypes. None of these character get to much development beyond there stereotypes, but there still enjoyable and funny in there own rights. Oh, also there's a platypus as the camp mascot, because when in doubt, add a platypus.

(Muack!)  Now, as stated before, this show is not for kids. As we learned from "Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared" the more kid friendly something on the internet looks the more horrible and vulgar it probably is. But they do adult humor very cleverly, usually not going "too far." with the joke. There are a lot of adult cartoons out there that just try to be vulgar for vulgarities sake. Show's where every character is just an irredeemable jerk wad. Camp Camp, luckily, doesn't fall into this category. There's some vulgarity in it, but it never feels like they are trying to force it in where it doesn't belong. This shows humor is very clever and funny, and just happens to incorporates some adult themes sometimes. What I like about this show is how closely it does feel to a show that could air on television. The episodes are about the right length, and so is the theme song. Plus the animation in this series is beautiful by web series standards. It looks TV quality, on par with something like PBS Kid's "Wild Kratts" or something like that. Just like Don't Hug Me this makes the adult humor a lot funnier. Since it looks so much like a kid show it makes it more unexpected when they do something very adult and thus makes it more comedic. I admire Rooster Teeth so much for always putting so much effort into there animation, even though they only do web series. It's all done in flash but it's done well, so that all that really matters.  Similar to the point above about content being juxtaposed with the animation, this show also has an odd thing with it's music. In the show itself the music matches, but during each episodes end credits the music is always some kind of rap song, for whatever reason. It seems odd but thinking about it it really does works. I think it's because everything in this show has such a weird mishmash of elements that one more weird element doesn't really feel out of place. Plus it's sort of matches Max's anti-authority mentality, so in a way it actually match in a weird kind of way.  This show is also really fun to watch if you are already a fan of Rooster Teeth's other works. About half of the cast of Camp Camp are returning actors from RWBY. Max is Sun, Neil is Mercury, David is Jaune, Space Kid is Ruby, Ered is Pyrrha, Nikki is FRICKIN' WINTER OF ALL PEOPLE! It's greatly amusing to see the voice actors from the mostly child friendly RWBY saying such vulgarity. It's a nice extra level for RWBY fans. Same thing I would think would apply if you watch this and then watch RWBY, except backwards. Speaking of voice acting the show has a pretty all star cast for a web show. Big name anime and animation voice actor Yuri Lowenthal voices Neil, Travis Willingham is Cameron Campbell and they even got Dante Basco in one episode! It's really cool hearing all these big name actors voices in a web cartoon like this.  Now the show obviously isn't perfect. My biggest problem with the show is honestly, the main character. Neil and Nikki are cool characters but I honestly don't like Max very much. Now Max can be a funny character for sure, but he's not very likeable, at least to me. He's just a cynical A-hole. Which I know is the point and all, but still. I don't hate him or anything, but out of the main three characters he's probably my least favorite. It's just hard to care for a character who doesn't care about anything. Also I sort of don't like how David is the shows punching bag a lot of the time. David is an awesome character, but it's lame that we always see him suffer. Again, I know it's the point but it's still hard to watch. That being said the show does sort of make up for it in the final episode when we get the sorta "moral." of the series, and what the David/Max conflict was leading up to. I don't want to spoil the ending for anybody who hasn't seen the show, but the scene in the season finale with Max and David (If you seen the show you should know what scene I'm talking about.) Is so powerful. From the lack of music to the voice acting to the beautiful message of it all. I would just rewatch that scene over and over on Youtube because of how well done it was. So even the flaws of this show do have a point. It's just kinda a grind getting to that point, but overall I think it is worth it for the message the show is trying to teach. Also it looks like these flaws might be toned down in season two, but it's kinda two early to tell at this point. But that all might just be a personal preference kind of thing, and other people might not mind at all. Especially if you happen to be a fan of cynical or sadistic humor.  ...Y'know what I just realized. This show in a lot of ways in just a backwards "Camp Lazlo." Think about it, Camp Camp is about a cynical camper who tries to annoy an overly optimistic camp counselor and show him that life is a sad and pathetic place. Meanwhile Camp Lazlo is about an overly optimistic camper annoying a cynical scoutmaster, trying to show him that life is great and awesome place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssnw2GA657s

Random thing. Only recently, when rewatching some of the episodes in preparation for this review did I think to myself, "Why is Nikki's hair green?" Like, I had been watching this show every week for over three months, and I knew her hair was green but only then did I really question-wait a minute. Green hair. Self proclaimed agent of chaos. Oh my God....Nikki is the Joker! It makes so much sense! It was always there in front of us, we were all just to blind to see it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ssnw2GA657s

Another random thing. Just one month before Camp Camp came out, another camp themed adult cartoon came out. Camp WWE. If you are unaware, Camp WWE is a show about the WWE superstars being children in a summer camp run by Ric Flair.  I've never seen the show, but I just found it an interesting thing to bring up. The show was created by Seth Green and more importantly IS AN ACTUAL THING THAT EXIST IN THE REAL WORLD FOR REAL! Anyway, I'm not saying that Camp Camp ripped off Camp WWE, as both would have been in production for long enough that they couldn't copy each other. But it's quiet a coincidence. Or is it a coincidence? Hmmmm. Coincidence?....I think NO-  In conclusion, Camp Camp is a funny, well written, Amazingly animated web series that I think you all should consider checking out. While not perfect in any way I had a ton of fun watching through the series and all the episodes are easily available on Youtube. So Campe Diem! Have you seen the series? If so what did you think of it? What's you're favorite episode? (Mine is episode 12! Ugh, it's so good!) Tell me what you think about the show in the comments down bellow and I would really appreciate it. I love hearing what other people think about cartoons, and starting a discussion. Any suggestions for things I should review. Suggest them down bellow and maybe I'll do em if I find them interesting enough. Please fav, follow and comment if you liked the review and want to see more and have a great day!

https://www.deviantart.com/joyofcrimeart/journal/Camp-Camp-REVIEW-636395864 DA Link

#camp camp #RWBY #Rooster Teeth #Cartoon Reviews #web series

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Kmusic: My artists in 4 months

Foreword: PHEW this one took a while.... but I have really had so much on my mind lately that i knew i just HAD to churn this one out asap... I also would’ve tried to include videos rather than images but it’s a pain in the butt... I guess my vids will be top secret for now hehe. But really. a true blessing, these 4 months. Ah, I still really cant believe it..

--

If you were to ask me how I felt about my first semester at Yonsei and simply the past 4 months in Korea, from August 21st to December 23rd, I would probably just emphasize how grateful I am. But to narrow down this deep affection for all the happenings, I would have to do so in a music context. It is such a fascinating and seemingly mundane thing to go on about: Why does my music mean what it means to me to this day? How have those values shaped my experiences in Korea so far? What does it mean for me going forward? These are questions I want to ask myself, reflect upon, and continue to explore as I await to begin another journey in Korea once again.

If I rewind to when I first started listening to Korean music, it would be when I was… I don’t even know. I was exposed to it since I was about 7 or 8 years old, when my sister was sucked into the very beginnings of OG K-pop: Wonder Girls, Big Bang, 2NE1, Super Junior, SNSD, SHINee, you name ‘em all. I’ve talked about this a lot, but during those days I was never particularly interested in that side of music. It didn’t make much sense to me and it just sounded mreh. But after several years of this exposure, I fell into my own K-pop obsession-hole starting with LEDApple, a very unassuming, catchy-music-making band. I was in it for the music. At first.

Okay, now fast forward past my kpop era: you can read all about it in my very extensive post from about a year ago here. But yes, lets leave that chunk of my life behind and think about where I stand from a “music maturation” perspective. Right here. Right now.

I cannot pinpoint the exact moment or day or time in which I fell into the “deeper” side of Korean music. I am pretty certain that it simply occurred naturally, gradually. What I know for a fact is that I owe so much of myself to my music. At any given point in my life thus far, my music has defined a large portion of my identity: it really does mean a lot to me. I am constantly listening to music. To narrow this down into my current self’s context, my music mostly consists of Roy Kim, Sam Kim, DAY6, Kim Feel, Fromm, Jung Sewoon, Eddy Kim, Kwon Jin Ah, and many many many others.

These artists, the music that they make, is not K-pop. It never will be. I don’t care what those stupid Spotify playlists call some of the songs from these musicians, but they are not and never will be K-pop. (At most DAY6 could come closest to fitting). My discovery of each and every one of these artists varies from person to person of course, but most of my sentiments remain the same all throughout. I would give my everything for these people. But I want to make it very very very clear: it is not necessarily these PEOPLE, these faces, these appearances, these artists themselves that I am oh-so enthusiastic about. It is their voice & music. That is honestly all it really comes down to at the end of day. It is and has always been about the music.

I owe my deep appreciation for my music to several various factors ranging from emotionally & mentally detached parents & family, my somewhat introverted personality, and my incessantly over-analytical mindset. However, what exactly constitutes this deep appreciation is what I want to explore. A certain fact is that I hated high school. As I grew up through the ages of 13 to 17, I completely despised the American public education system that was high school. Without getting into the complex details about my community that was the heart of Silicon Valley and the various cultural pushes, I just have to say that high school felt like a sort of mental torture for me.

And during all those times, when I needed it the most, when I felt so completely lost, when I felt like no one would listen to me, nothing could console my distressed heart and mind, I always fell back to many of those artists listed above. Particularly to Roy and Sam. I owe them SO MUCH. They literally changed my life.

Home. 영원한 건 없지만. Your Song. These three songs, my life songs. Their lyrics literally saved my life. They mean everything to me. Without these songs from Roy & Sam, I would not be where I am today.

All my artists that I mentioned make their own music. They write, compose, produce, everything. They are the true masters of their voices (see, not K-pop). And so, when I listen to them, when I absorb their voices & melodies, I can sometimes really feel their sincerity, their yearning. I am so thankful for what they have produced for this world and for my ears to hear. However, within the past 4 months, I got to see, know, understand, and FEEL these artists on a whole new level.

In chronological order, here is a list of the artists I saw live &/or in person during my time in Korea thus far:

08/31 Roy Kim & Son Seungyeon @ Picnic Concert

09/01 Monogram, Baek Yerin, Kwak Jineon, Paul Kim, Bol4, Crush, Urban Zakapa @ Someday Festival (Day 1)

09/02 Fromm, Jo Hyunah, Jung Sewoon, Roy Kim, Yong Junhyung & Yang Yoseob, K. Will @ Someday Festival (Day 2)

09/08 DAY6 @ You Made My Day Fanmeeting

09/20 Roy Kim @ SNU Fall Festival

11/02 Roy Kim & Kim Haon @ Daellim Univ. Halloween Festival

11/04 Nam Woohyun (& Jang Dongwoo, Kim Sunggyu, Lee Sungyeol) @ 식목일 (Day 3)

11/10 Fromm @ Seoul Music Forum Mini Concert & Free Fansigning

11/11 Eddy Kim @ Miles Apart Album Fansigning

11/22 Sam Kim @ "Sun And Moon" 1st Album Release Showcase

12/01 Sam Kim @ "Sun And Moon" 1st Album Fansigning

12/09 Fromm @ "Midnight Candy" Mini Album Release Concert

12/16 Roy Kim @ ROchestra Live Tour 2018 (Seoul Day 2)

12/21 Sam Kim @ Lotte Tower World Park Christmas Busking

12/22 DAY6 @ "The Present" Christmas Special Concert (Day 1)

Breakdown:

Free: 5 events

Paid Tix: 6 events

Album Purchase & Application: 4 events

🌹 Roy Kim: 5 times

🌚 Sam Kim: 3 times

🌓 Fromm: 3 times

🎸 DAY6: 2 times

As an avid fan of many of these artists for YEARS, like Infinite for 8 years, Roy for 5, Sam since his debut in Apr. 2016, DAY6 since their debut in Sept. 2015, Fromm for over 4 years, Eddy for over 5 years, etc etc. I NEVER thought I would actually get to see or hear these people live. Okay, granted I saw DAY6 live back in Oct. 2017 as well as Sam & the entire Antenna fam in Sept. 2017, both in LA. But doing 3 fansignings????? Meeting and talking with Fromm, Eddy Kim, AND Sam Kim???? Seeing Roy FIVE TIMES??????????? Three times for FREE, once at a festival, and then even being able to go his end-of-the-year solo concert???????? Y’all…. It was literally a dream come true. A stroke of luck tenfold. Twelvefold. I saw at least one treasured artist a total of fifteen times. Whether it was at a college busking event, the Someday music festival, a fansigning, a fanmeeting, or even a solo concert. I was somehow there.

Seeing Roy live was something I thought I would never ever ever in my lifetime get to do. As I explained in my 1st semester wrap-up post found here, Roy’s situation with school made my hopes seem very bleak from the get-go. But still, my luck persisted 5 times throughout. I almost, nearly, COMPLETELY failed to acquire a ticket for his ROchestra solo concert, Seoul Day 2 show. It was probably the most energy-draining, stressful, painful and TERRIBLE ticketing experience I have ever experienced. And trust me, I’ve done lots of ticketing before (unfortunately). But after 1 hour of staying glued to that PC bang computer screen, I managed. And I went. And maybe I’ll have to do a separate post for it, but Roy Kim’s concert on December 16th, 2018, was the best concert I have ever been to in my life. Easily. It was so breath-taking.

But yes, enough with Roy. Fromm is my ultimate indie goddess and she has a charm that is so indescribably perfect. She decided to release a mini album over a year since her last one, in the middle of November while I was there and I wanted to DIE. It was suchhhhh a solid release, and I even got to attend a free fansigning with her as well for her solo concert for the album release. I LOVE her cheeky personality so much. And she really is just sooooo kind. I couldn’t have much of a conversation with her due to the time constraint, but I at least got to snap a quick selfie heh (which i wont exposed bc privacy ya feel??). Her solo concert was gorgeous in every single way; I honestly would be willing to pay any price to go to it again in a heartbeat. Even though it was for her “Midnight Candy” album release, it was basically a Fromm discography concert because she sang EVERYTHING and I was THIS close to wanting to cry because I just felt so grateful & happy in those moments. I love her I really do. Ah, also, 2 out of the 3 times I saw her, I wrote to her & posted on Instagram and she liked both posts for me :”).

Sam…. My luck with Sam was out of this world honestly…. I still get goosebumps thinking about how blessed I was to see Sam 3 times, 2 times in very special instances. First off. He announced the release of his FIRST FULL album after a TWO YEAR & A HALF HIATUS. Y’all. This boy hadn’t released anything for 2.5 entire years since his debut and then suddenly WHAM he does it. Somehow right when I was in Korea. AH… I still….. I’m still screaming inside. I screamed aloud in my room for a good 5 minutes straight when I first saw the news, and yes, to this day I am still screaming. His three pre-release tracks were GORGEOUS & Sun And Moon, track 1, literally brought me to tears without even trying. I had been missing his voice and presence for so long…

And then, for the full album release, Antenna announced a post in which if you pre-order his album when it comes out & email the Antenna staff with the receipt showing proof, you will be put in a drawing to attend his live showcase on the night of its release. OHMYGOSH. I knew I had to do it. I struggled a little bit & even felt like I was doing everything so untimely, but I am SO blessed that I really was able to order & pay for it, shoot Antenna an email real quick, and then nervously await my results for like a week. That one Friday the results were to be emailed out, I remembering feeling extremely anxious all throughout the day. I desperately wanted to go…. And at 6:00PM…. I got the email!!!!! I was literally shaking, hands & knees trembling and everything. I actually got invited to the ‘Sun And Moon’ 1st Album Showcase!!! Y’all!!! It was so amazing. It was the night before I had to leave to Taiwan early in the morning so it was quite stressful, but still!!!!! I felt so honored to be there that night: the venue was extremely intimate and Sam was soooososoooo gooooddd and the tracks he sang were sooo beautiful and just… everything about it was like a dream. I was truly blessed.

A week later…. Antenna announced Sam’s first FANSIGNING & once again I was overwhelmed with this “OMG I WANT TO GO, but how, should I really, but what about….??”. It was a physical album-purchase-based application process which means I had to go to this specific bookstore in Gangnam, buy x-amount of albums, and based on that amount, my name will be put into a drawing that many times. Very basic fansigning grounds. I already pre-ordered his album for the showcase, so I honestly didn’t really need another one… but I decided to test my luck & just purchase 1 measly album & see if that ONE album will help me get chosen. And o boy. I GOT IN :”)). When I saw my name on that list in the official fancafe post, I couldn’t believe it….

On the day of the fansigning which was happening inside a mall, starting at a certain time I was able to walk in and choose a random number from 1-100 and since I arrived early, I got to choose pretty early as well. When I saw my number I literally gasped aloud: #7. I know it’s a corny & cliché favorite number but only bc infinite ok. Being #7 meant that I literally say FRONT & CENTER of the stage…not even stage. There wasn’t a stage... it was just an open area. My turn came around very quickly because I was early and let’s just say I was a fking mess, repeating thank you over and over & literally, incessantly telling him how thankful I am for his music and how grateful that after all that time he took to came back, he came right when I was in Korea and how I was at Antenna in LA & his showcase too and thank you thank you, yadda yadda. Yeah…..I suck at these things I really do. Then, at the end of it all, he took a picture with the crowd of fans and ended up sitting RIGHT NEXT TO ME LMAOOOOOOO. Okay here is a picture of maybe my biggest life accomplishment??? jk but no rly LOL.

look ma, i made it :”)

But really, the fact that I actually got to talk to Sam & just try to relay all my thanks that I have been owing to him for many years… wow… I’m still in shock and I am just so eternally thankful. I used to think to myself “damn, I wish I could talk to Sam one day” and damn…. I really did do it…

Eddy Kim was also another meeting that I could have only dreamed of before coming to Korea… His last release was 4 goddamn years ago oh my gosh… This fansign application was not a random drawing like Sam’s but just a “buy his album at this bookstore & u get in” sort of thing. To be honest I could blatantly tell that Eddy’s popularity is definitely not as comparable to the other artists that I cherish & I was quite shocked by this revelation. I knew for sure in America, who the hell would ever know him. But even in Korea, he seemed… just really not that well-known, especially from a music perspective. It was interesting and even a little disheartening to see. He was very kind & cutely impressed with my Korean skills and we literally just talked in a bunch of Konglish & once again I just kept repeating how thankful I was for his music in my life. How I waited for so long and his release literally matched up with my time there as well. Even though I never got to hear Eddy sing live, I am more than happy with the fact that I simply got to chat with him & relay my heart as best as possible.

After doing 3 full fansignings I have fully realized that as grateful for the opportunities I am, they are so difficult and stressful… To be given such a short amount of time to spill out my heart is essentially impossible for me LOL. I’d rather much LOVE to just to sit down with these artists not to fangirl or cry, but to have a real, genuine conversation about their music and why it holds so much sentiment for me. I would love to ask questions about their music and I would love to share with them how much it means me & why I am so thankful at the end of the day. That’s what I really wish I could do. Because even as I hurriedly expressed my countless thanks and probably sounded like a hot mess, I feel like I still just came off as a surface-level fan saying their thanks. But noo! In reality, I just wanted to relay how much their music means to me (I literally just typed this wow repetition is gr8). Which I feel like I really couldn’t do properly… I couldn’t get my heart across all the way ☹ but it’s okay because as I’ve been repeating, I am infinitely thankful nonetheless.

My first DAY6 event, their 3rd year anniversary 1st fanmeeting, was a bit of a flop for me simply because they talked wayyyyy to much & played stupid games & everything… and it was cute, but not what I was there for. I kinda wished I heard more of them singing, but it’s okay. In no way am I undermining this monumental day because I know it meant a lot to the boys & fans collectively. Jae could not participate due to health reasons & it definitely put a huge damper on the entire atmosphere, but the members tried their best and the entire audience even consistently sang aloud all of Jae’s parts during the songs when his voice was not there. They also sang a never-before-released track with Jae and they all just cried a bunch and me, sitting there, watching those light-wrist-band-thingies glow & beam & shine in-sync with the music, all sorts of colors, in a massive wave of lights & fanchants & music sewn together… wow it was honestly stunning & one of the most awesome spectacles I’ve ever experienced. Korean fans are really something else….

Speaking of which, attending 15 events during my 4 months there taught me many things about Korean concerts & fans that I find so extremely fascinating.

For most concerts, whether they are super hype-y & K-pop-y or a ballad one with minimal need for movement, when there are seats, fans with stay seated for the most part. In America, I feel like all fans tend to automatically stand (for basically all K-pop acts) regardless of the seating. But in Korea, at my experiences with DAY6 in particular (I also have heard that BTS in Seoul was the same), fans stayed sitting basically all throughout. The most like bodily movements they require would be the waving of their lightsticks. It was honestly pretty refreshing to see a generally calm & collected audience, at least where there was seating.

The fanchants are out of this world !!!!! Especially for the 2 times I saw DAY6, the fans were so on point with their fanchants: they were loud and clear and crisp AND THEY MATCHED WITH THE LIGHTS ON THEIR WRISTBANDS AND EVERYTHING wow was that so cool to see… The fans are super in unison & it honestly adds such a new level of energy to the experience.

SINGING !! Of course, since all these fans are Korean, they can actually sing all of these songs at concerts, unparalleled to international fans lol. One really cool moment at DAY6 that I will probably remember forever simply because this song is gorgeous & means a lot to me… but at day 1 of DAY6’s ‘The Present’ xmas concert series, Wonpil said “We’ve been on world tour for a while now and I’ve been wanting to try this out… if I play this song, can you sing for me?” and of course we all unconditionally said yes. And he started to play 그렇더라고요 on the keyboard & the ENTIRE AUDIENCE caught on immediately & we all sang the entire intro & first verse together in unison, as loud as we could, as the members joined in one by one w/ their own instruments, just watching us as we SANG FOR THEM. It was so cute & we even did it again with 장난 아닌데. This sort of stuff…. Wow…. Can only really happen at a domestic concert, which was honestly so so so beautiful. I LOVED IT!!!

No crazy, constant screaming during every part of the performance. Fans in Korea honestly only scream when necessary… ya feel? Sometimes at concerts, I feel like fans are just screaming at the top of the lungs the entire time, during every second of a song. But Korean fans chant when there is a chant, and cheer & scream when it really fits the situation. I really liked this more toned-down atmosphere from the Korean audiences.

I think that’s all I can really narrow down from my various experiences at Korean concerts compared to the ones in America… It really is quite different though, and I feel so honored to have witnessed this comparison countless times. I am really just honored to be there at those moments in general.

Which brings back around to this… upgraded level of connection towards my artists. After seeing so many of them in person and more than once for that matter, when listening to their music now… something definitely sounds different. When I listened to these artists before I saw them right in front of my eyes, their real, authentic voices blasting into my ears, I still felt moved, I still felt goosebumps, choked up, a bulging affection sometimes. And not that I have lost those feelings, no, definitely not. Now… now, when I listen to these artists through my earbuds or through my laptop… I can literally hear them in my ear. Does that even make sense? Well, duh… of course I can hear them. But like… it’s like… I can hear them on a much more intimate level than ever before. Now, I can really imagine & sense these voices in my head. I can pick up the sound of their breaths, picture their expressions, and really just HEAR their voices as if they were physically singing into my ear right there in that moment, in person. It’s such a peculiar and special and unique feeling that is honestly so hard to describe with just words…

But to be honest like… to this day I still cannot wrap my head around everything. I can barely count and keep track of all the artists I saw and when I saw them and what they sang. I feel like SO MUCH happened that my mind can barely grasp it all, as much as it wants to do so so badly… I still can barely comprehend it… years ago I would cry to Sam Kim, ponder how amazing he would be live… and then literally somehow, he sang two songs like 7 feet in front of me, and even sat right next to me. I thought Fromm was a goddess from another world: but I somehow got to talk to her & even take a selfie?? What?? I thought the world would never let me see Roy who always has his school life to manage as well…. But I got to see him live 5 times?? And even go to his solo concert?? WHAT??????? HOW????????? YOU GUYS, I could honestly go on and on and on because it still all feels like a dream…

In particular with Roy Kim… I say this to myself all the time, the irony is just… wow. Who would’ve known that after years of watching countless fancams, effortlessly memorizing his scarce yet existent fanchants, also memorizing set-lists without even trying, becoming all-too-familiar with things like the way he talks, addresses the crowd, sings specific songs, even all the way down to the way he does adlibs for certain songs… I unknowingly picked up & knew these performance aspects SO WELL through pure admiration, enthusiasm and just LOVE for every song he sings. And who would’ve known, that years later, I would have my very own fancams to cry over. After years of literally watching almost EVERY fancam of him on youtube, at all the various events he performed at, some years more frequently than others, today I can proudly say that I have my very own fancams of him, too. Ohmygosh, it’s still so hard for me to believe…

It really just….. *breathes deeply & tries to recollect self for the 24980164th time*…. It just goes to show… No, okay I don’t really know what it goes to show… But one thing is a fact: loving, cherishing, being thankful for, dedicating so much of my emotional & mental strength towards these seemingly-no-one artists has paid off tenfold. No, billionfold. I don’t even know. I just…. I just never thought I could do and see and hear and experience the things that I did. Never. These people…. These people have given me so much, and although I tucked them deep into the folds of my heart for years, I never thought I could truly open up these treasured feelings one day & TRULY support them with my very own eyes & ears & heart. IN person. I am just so so so blessed. So thankful. Really. Always.

Now, it’s time to bring myself to reality & to think about what this means for me going forward. I don’t want to believe in my passion for my music as a phase: Infinite & all things K-pop wasn’t simply a phase for me. It literally was a maturation, a self-realization, a loss of support for the things I never really knew or understood until time started to pass. I don’t think I grew out of K-pop. I think I simply grew with K-pop & got to understand more about it. And with that understanding came a change of heart. Which is literally the title of my post from years ago: “why I fell out of love with K-pop”. It’s not just “Oh, I am older now. So, I don’t want to like this seemingly childish stuff”. No, it was never about K-pop’s image or whatever. I can’t emphasize more, but it always comes down to the music for me.

Infinite has been and is a piece of my life that I will never forget. A piece of my life that has literally brought me to where I am today. I sit here, with my experiences and knowledge and feelings, in part, due to Infinite. I can guarantee anyone that much. And so, no, they really weren’t just a phase. Things change, people grow older, time flows. That’s just how it works. Does my heart ache over old K-pop like every day? Hell yeah it does LOL. But there’s nothing I can do about it. I can only thank old & 2nd-gen K-pop for the amazing memories that it has given me.

And so, with my music and my artists today, is this all a phase? Will I stop being as enthusiastic years later, like I did with Infinite? You see, with Infinite, I was always apprehensive. At the age of 12, I KNEW that time would eventually take its toll & my blatant love would not necessarily transcend the years that will drag on in the future. But that never made my appreciation for them dim: it only grew stronger as the days went by. I think I am always apprehensive. I think I always fear losing the feelings that I feel with great passion & love at this moment in time. Just as Roy says, 영원한 건 없지만. Nothing lasts forever (but...). I literally think about this all the time. It is such an important concept to me, and it is how I motivate myself to be thankful for everything and everyone and to just take things one step at a time. And so, to really answer my question: is this all just a phase?

I really, honestly, hope… No, I just think not. I really do not think so. At the age of say, 24, five years from now, will I still be loving Roy & Sam & DAY6 & Fromm & everyone else? I really honestly hope so. For as long as they can make music, I can keep loving them, right? Just as Infinite has done since I was 11, 8 years ago, up until today, I firmly believe that my artists can continue this long-lasting impression on my life. They instill a sort of magic & sentiment in my life that almost nothing else in this world can do for me. And for that, I will stay grateful for & only hope for the best.

Roy is currently back in school right now, finishing up his last semester before he finally gets to graduate! I am excited and proud and a bit sad all at the same time. But honestly, it really just comes down to the humanness of these people. When I first saw Infinite back in 2013 as a lil 14 year-old, I guess you could say I was starstruck. I was like “that’s them??!?? Those dudes ive spent countless hours watching through the computer screen?????? THEY ARE RIGHT THERE IN FRONT OF ME?”. I had similar thoughts at the LA K-pop Festival in Apr. 2014 when I saw many many many of the big, og k-pop groups at that time. It was hard to believe that these people are real. I would say that my experience with the “With Antenna” in LA concert back in Sept. 2017 made me come to this important realization. That was the first concert where I actually spent the entire time sitting down and just listening. Listening to these wonderful musicians playing their instruments & singing gorgeous songs & just absorbing all that godly magic in the air at that place in time.

I really got to feel how human artists are at the end of the day. K-pop is always built up to be this larger-than-life dynamic, but real artists… No, they’re so much more different. They are simply people, like you and me, with a passion for their music & they wish to share that passion with the rest of the world. That’s it. The sincerity & genuineness that goes into my artists’ music can literally be felt from all the way across the world, just through a few audio snippets, fancams, and grainy Instagram videos. And that is seriously so beautiful. They are so amazing at what they do, they truly are.

Roy’s last two songs from 2018 were purely love song ballads, and I am not complaining or anything. As solid and classic as these tracks were, I still miss that acoustic, healing tone from him. Before he left for school again, he mentioned several times that he wants to come back with music that will console listeners. I was honestly so genuinely happy to hear this. He knows, he honestly, really does. He has even said it before, but he knows that his music can literally lift people back up from the dead. He wants to do that for them. For you and me, who struggle in life when the going gets rough, he wants to be of some sort of help, no matter how minuscule. He knows, he really does. And that is just so beautiful. I am so proud of him & I can’t wait to see what he will have in store for us in the coming months (after his grad, that is).

To all my artists that made these 4 months feel like a literal dream: Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Sincerely. Thank you. Always.

늘 고마워요.

#korean music #roy kim #rochestra #sam kim #sun and moon #fromm #midnight candy #day6 #infinite #woohyun #eddy kim #am i missing anyone #prolly am #sigh i still cant #im so so so blessed #thank you for everything #ㅠㅠㅠㅠ