#and play my childhood nostalgia cassettes if i want

[keendaanmaa]

New stereo!!!

#aesthetically it looks like it came directly from the late 90s/early 00s which is probably because it did #(sticker on the back say manufacturered January 2001) #but!!!! it has a cd player (what is in use in the video) two tape decks an AM/FM radio AND a turntable #so now i can play my massive collection of cds on a stereo that doesn't periodically glitch out #and play my childhood nostalgia cassettes if i want #and play all the vinyl i've acquired from my dad and thrift shops #AND i'm pretty sure it ended up at the thrift shop because of downsizing not because it had something wrong with it #so happy 😁😁😁😁 #about

[borkthemork]

Image Juxtaposition: SUF’s Old and the New in “Little Graduation”

Now, I have covered this previously in a post before about image/object symbolism regarding the cassette tape, but I don’t think I gave it much justice in giving reason to it; I didn’t give a strong reason to why this image seemed consistent with the concept of symbolism, and ever since rewatching it I’m more confident in deep-diving into this episode overall regarding discussing it.

So in this post, we will bring our focus to the dichotomy between the old and new imagery found in this episode, and how it plays a massive part in creating a wistful atmosphere for our main protagonist.

My sources on certain stuff will be reblogged for the sake of avoiding Tumblr sniping me off the tags, and let’s begin.

However, before we diverge into this whole post, we’re going to need a reference point on symbolism and its probability of existence. When it comes to analyzing pieces of media, I want to make sure that there’s a solid platform for my discussions relating to the possibility of certain themes, subjects, or other forms of a literary figure. 

For “Little Graduation” I want to make sure that these pieces of analysis have some grounding, so I decided to pull out a ‘Symbolism Consistency’ reference from a website we could use as we talk more about this episode (I’m just paraphrasing it).

1. Look at Descriptions

We have to look at the way they implement these images into the world. Sure, it could be seen as fewer than two times, but creators know that each scene has to be important in some way or another (and we know Crewniverse loves to give us small-scale and large-scale symbolism throughout the Steven Universe series). So if the symbol is given a moment of consideration or has been lost, then there’s something being said.

2. Look for Repetition

If the imagery goes along with a similar theme it is correlated to, there’s usually some form of consistency or emphasis in the use of its implementation.

3. Look at the Turning Points

If it happens at certain points or at high/low moments of the story, there’s definitely some form of focus onto what it means. The creators want the audience to hone in on it, and that’s where they particularly give that attention.

Now that we’ve gotten this stuff out of the way, let’s talk about “Little Graduation”!

The first thing we see with this episode is the use of the cassette tape.

The cassette tape is a piece of technology that has grown obsolete over time but is still one of the most prevalent connections to Steven’s childhood that we have: his dondai has a cassette tape player, he had Rose’s tape, he watched old shows like Lil’ Butler on a tape, there’s also the blast to the past with Mr. Smiley’s Big Donut tape. They bring him a lot of memories regarding his childhood and there’s a sense of nostalgia to them as well towards the audience since it connects us to the main show when Steven enjoyed them whole-heartedly as an adolescent.

However, we can note that in Steven’s universe, the cassette tape is growing a bit obsolete and it’s not just an occurrence in our own world. In the original series, we already know that laptops, phones, and other pieces of human tech are the norm, but in SUF and SU the Movie we can see that technology growing and improving.

The world is going faster with improvement. Older technology is truly getting pushed off as something deemed old.

It fits well with the theme of the episode when we implement it; the ability to move forward into the future, to allow people to choose their own paths now that new opportunities are being found and embraced. This is Steven Universe: Future, the theme of plans and change were bound to happen. 

Newer technology could be representative of Steven’s friends and colleagues pushing on to better things, to better objectives.

And Steven, in the role he had placed himself in, feels like he’s becoming obsolete, unneeded, just like a cassette tape. In episodes such as “Guidance,” he attempted to find another reason to help out, to assist in the best way he could because he wanted to be needed — that’s the role he mentally implanted into himself ever since he was a kid. The healer. The diplomat. The therapist. The helper.

What else could he find in himself now that the future is being rammed into him, especially with his current mental state?

So when the emphasis is placed on Steven deciding over whether to get the disc or the cassette tape, we have to analyze the abstract concept being portrayed rather than the literal. Yes, this boy has a cassette tape player — he had an easy choice to make with that context, but this scene gave him a choice.

Do you take the disc, the newer technology? Or do you take the cassette tape, the older technology?

Do you want the past or the future?

And he took the past.

However, what I find interesting is the way the cassette tapes are used with music.

Steven, at the beginning, is listening to Sadie Killer and the Suspects in jovial nature, before the big reveal of them departing was ever brought forth to him. Even if he didn’t get the notion that the band broke up, there’s still a connection to the past with the music, especially when it’s implied that Steven is listening to Sadie’s and Shep’s new music at the end of the episode.

Beats his fingers to the rhythm of the song too, so it’s a good chance that the positioning of these scenes parallel each other, especially Steven’s mindset from the beginning compared to the end of the episode.

Steven, while listening to the first song, was in a phase of comfort. He’s not thinking or contemplating much on a somber level but more so excited overseeing parts of his life still intact, such as the Spacetries business and seeing the band come back to Beach City.

It doesn’t help that the lyrics he’s listening to brings up terms such as teenagers — a term in the eyes of Sadie Killer and the Suspects as a past phase of their life now that they’re young adults.

But in the second scene, it’s more bittersweet.

The song “Looking Forward” — a song of going into the future and releasing the burdens of one’s baggage — is being played on a cassette, a piece from the past, a piece connected to a supposedly simpler time. There’s a contrast, a split amid these two concepts: what we’re witnessing is the moment Steven felt the cognitive dissonance between moving forward and his insistence on settling into the past.

It reminds him that people are moving on, and we already know that his mental paradigm is still stuck into the prior times, in the status quo, because in “Prickly Pair”, he’s still not over it. 

There are so many issues lying under the surface relating to it, but this boy created an identity over helping others, and now that people are walking forward because of his help, he has no one left to help push forward but himself, and that terrifies him. 

He has no idea how to start and he doesn’t even want to.

#steven universe #steven universe future #su #suf #suf spoilers #steven universe analysis #this is all to the people in the comments who acted pretty rude about telling me it aint deep #you made this happen #bork speaks

[thorn-amidst-roses]

Watching Bernadette’s new video about Broadway costuming and that reminded me in a super roundabout way...

On my 25th birthday my mom decided to take me to NYC. When I was a little kid, I was OBSESSED with Phantom of the Opera, like 120% - would listen to it on cassette, read the book to tatters, and like...every single one of my piano recitals for a long time was PotO music (starting with the simplified versions and working up to the more complicated versions, until my poor teacher was like “enough of that, you’re playing some fucking classical you heathen”).

So the highlight of the birthday trip was going to see Phantom, for which she’d managed to lock down “front row center knees smashed up against the edge of the orchestra pit’s guard rail and at the end of “All I Ask Of You” you’re going to have to break your neck to look up at the Phantom because bitch he’s on top of you” seats.

And Y’ALL

I could see EVERYTHING

The stitching details on the costumes, even the freaking quick-change zipper at center front on Mme Giry’s bodice during “Notes”.

(I ferociously elbowed my mom and pointed it out because HYPE)

...I came out of that show literally crying because holy shit it checked every box for anything I’d ever wanted at a chance to see a show in person - childhood nostalgia, close enough to hear everything without much distortion, and I could see the sets and costumes with amazing clarity and aaaaaugh

[hamartiade]

at the moment, life feels like a broken cassette, replaying the same moments over and over again. the trouble is, it’s the most useless part of the song or film- perhaps the black before the credits begin to roll or silence before the song actually begins to play.

this year has been incredibly lonely. lonely to the point that sometimes even when i’m in the middle of a group of people, i daze off and... who knows what.

i miss people terribly. i’m glad that school is in person now so i can see people who have truly changed my life. but it is always the same routine. waking up at five, studying, go to school, come home, homework, exercise, sleep.

i don’t know. i’m grateful for my family and friends but i’m sick of just existing like i have been for the last few years of my life. i want to live; to live chaotically, loudly, beautifully- i want to experience all the joy life has to offer. 

i guess i miss the me from my childhood. but i don’t want nostalgia to hold me down anymore. 

so this is a small reminder to every person who is feeling alone or helpless. we love you. we will get out of this. we will not let fond memories hold us down. we can do this.

#rant #something i needed to let out #lockdown thoughts #thoughts #gentle reminders

[az-ulema2]

I wanted to give a bit of a breakdown on this particular drawing and this month, like why I stopped inktober... This might be a bit lengthy.

So, this drawing is actually a radio/ cassette player with a little kid me :D and my favorite song when I was little was Chop Suey by System of a Down

Truthfully, the soad lyric was just a nod to my childhood- though I would hear it occasionally on the cassette radio I had- it was in the morning when my mom would make breakfast and I'd help clean when she would put on music (first MTV in early morning, then mom would play CDs when the music videos ended). PURE NOSTALGIA. That got me started on thinking about how calm everything was (or at least seemed) and I really missed those days. And then I really spiraled and got super sad about how awareness and just growing up in general made everything like 100× worse. So I just kinda did nothing but work this month.

Also I was Eeyore for Halloween. I got to wear a onesie to work and my kids kept pulling on my tail. It was very fun tho. ^w^

And then our bathroom flooded this past Wednesday. Neighbors moved in upstairs and we woke up to the sound of water spilling. We thought it was the kitchen (we've had leaks go through the cabinets and onto our counters and dining area before) but nothing was there. So the bathroom sink was backing up, like imagine you plugged it up and left water running and it overflows- that's what it was but no water was running and nothing was blocked. So there was dirty bath water everywhere and it took all day to dry the wood cabinets and wash every towel we own.

And then I killed a mouse Thursday. That was pretty traumatizing if I'm completely honest. Even though I've killed snakes and bugs before, this got to me for some reason and I actually cried... and cried again at work. And then work was especially tough that day too. And then I cried again when I went to bed. (Actually that's a pretty typical day other than the mouse)

BUT!!!! my little brother's birthday is today and he opened his presents yesterday because our mom has work on weekends. I spent all my money on a Mario kart RC and I'm so glad he loves it. And then the bathroom flooded again this morning.

My point: don't ever think I will complete inktober, it's fun but I'm apparently too sad and busy to even get through the first week 😀 and these are examples of why I'm not a morning person yeaaaaaayyyy

Thank for skimming through :>

[eldritchsurveys]

850.

1. What kinds of genres of music do you listen to? >> It’d be easier to name the genres I don’t listen to...

2. Are there any types of music that you don’t listen to at all? >> ...which would be bluegrass, polka, uh... noise... K-pop... yeah, that’s all I got right now. Honestly, K-pop is probably only here because I just haven’t gone to check out any songs, not because I actively don’t like the genre.

3. Do you own any band tees? >> Yeah, most of my t-shirts are band shirts.

4. Name some of your favorite male solo artists. >> Eddie Vedder, David Bowie, Steve Vai, Orville Peck, Sam Cooke.

5. Name some of your favorite female solo artists. >> Elle King, Sia, Beyoncé, Anita Baker, Céline Dion.

6. Name some of your favorite boy-bands. >> Okay, so are we talking boy bands, like Backstreet Boys and One Direction, or just bands with dudes in them? Because I don’t really listen to boy bands anymore (aside from songs that I remember from childhood), so.

7. Name some of your favorite all-girl bands. >> Hmm... I’m not sure I listen to any all-female bands. There’s some female-fronted bands in my library, but the rest of the members are dudes.

8. Name some of your favorite bands/groups in general. >> Oof. Here’s five: Zeal & Ardor, Coheed & Cambria, Pearl Jam, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Volbeat.

9. Do you sing in the shower? >> Sometimes, if a song I know the lyrics to is playing. I listen to music every time I shower, it helps distract my hell brain.

10. Do you sing along with the radio in the car? >> I don’t sing along in the car because Sparrow has a thing about people singing.

11. Do you listen to music while you are cooking, filling out surveys, or cleaning the house? >> Sometimes I listen to music while taking surveys, but I don’t do it often because I find it too distracting. I do listen to music while cleaning, or taking walks, or doing any other task that mostly involves my body more than my brain.

12. What’s the name of the song that you’re listening to right now, if any? What’s the name of the band/singer? >> I’m not listening to music.

13. What kinds of music do your parents listen to? Do you think that their music taste differs greatly? Whose music taste is better, in your opinion? >> I grew up listening to soul, R&B, gospel, that sort of thing. I still listen to that stuff because I enjoy it.

14. Do you ever listen to music without any words? >> Sure.

15. Are there any famous musicians that you’ve met? Are there any that you would like to meet? >> Yeah, I’ve met uhh... Avenged Sevenfold, Coheed & Cambria, and Sevendust multiple times, as well as Halestorm, Steve Vai, three-quarters of Volbeat (lead singer wasn’t feeling great so he left the venue early)... yeah, I think that’s it. I used to be really into that kind of thing, but I’m largely over it now; I actually think it would be cool to see Sparrow meet Hozier, because she’s not had that experience.

16. What was the first concert you’ve been to, if any? How about the last/most recent? Which, out of all of the concerts you’ve attended, was the best? >> First concert was Avenged Sevenfold and Coheed & Cambria (co-headliner tour), in Asbury Park, New Jersey, in April 2006. The last concert I went to was Hozier here in Grand Rapids, last year sometime. I think it was last year. :x My time sense is all fucked up. Anyway, I’ve been to way too many concerts to start naming one as the best one ever, that’s crazy. Most of the shows I’ve been to were awesome as fuck (there were a couple ehhhh... ones, and then there was one I was way too high to enjoy lmao, but usually I have a great time).

17. Do you have a favorite movie soundtrack? What is it? >> I have a favourite movie soundtrack composer, actually, and that’s Clint Mansell. Everything he does is just... AAAAAAAAA for me. I can always tell when he’s done a score because I can just feel the music in my bones, and then I look at the credits and I’m like “OH OF COURSE IT WAS YOU.”

18. Would you want to be a band groupie? Why or why not? >> I had a phase way back when where I was obsessed with groupie culture (from like the late sixties through the eighties) and if you’d asked me then, I’d have said yes. I’ve wised up by now and I definitely would not want that.

19. What is a band/singer you would like to see but haven’t gotten a chance to yet? >> Yeah, there’s a lot of bands and singers like that. But I’d have to be really picky nowadays about who I went to see, because I just can’t deal with most concert environments as well as I used to anymore.

20. Do you care more about the beat of the music you listen to, or the lyrics? >> I mean, when it comes to the first listen, it’s going to be the melody that catches me. If that doesn’t happen, then I’m not even going to bother looking at the lyrics, so...

21. Does anyone in one of your favorite bands play an unusual instrument? >> I listen to some prog bands, so there’s definitely some unusual instruments happening in at least some songs.

22. What are some of the songs that you listen to the most frequently? >> I don’t know, probably Master Boot Record and Zeal & Ardor tracks. I’m a bit obsessed right now.

23. Could you make a playlist of songs that describes your life? What kinds of playlists do you have made? >> I don’t think so. I’ve definitely tried in the past, but when you really start thinking about the vast array of experiences and feelings that make up a life, it becomes fuckin impossible.

24. Do you remember listening to music on CDs and cassettes, not just on the internet? >> Yeah. Definitely don’t miss it, gotta say.

25. What kind of music device do you use in order to listen to music? (iPod, MP3 Player, etc.) >> I use my phone or computer, with Spotify.

26. Is there anyone in your family who is a musician? >> ---

27. Would you ever consider a career in music? >> No. I love music, but as a consumer.

28. What is a song that would describe your current mood? Who is it by? >> I’m not really in any kind of mood. If you know a song about being vaguely tired, then that’s it.

29. Are there any musicians of the past that you really admire? >> Well, sure...

30. Do you listen to Top 40 type music? >> I don’t even know what’s on the Top 40, so... maybe? Probably not, though, I haven’t really gotten into any mainstream-popular artists recently that I can think of.

31. What musical instrument would you like to learn how to play? Have you ever played an instrument before/taken lessons? What was it? >> I don’t really care to learn any instruments. It’s not something I feel passionate about, not like how I feel about listening to music. I’ve taken bass guitar lessons before, in like... 2008 or so? IDK. Years are fake.

32. Do you enjoy watching musicals on DVD or sitting through them as plays? Which method do you prefer, and which is your favorite? >> I would love to watch musicals live, but I definitely cannot afford it. I’m fine watching recordings of them (or movie adaptations, in some cases). My favourite stage musical is Phantom of the Opera (I say “stage musical” because I also have a favourite movie musical, and that’s Repo! the Genetic Opera).

33. What was the worst concert you’ve ever attended before, and what made it the worst? >> Taste of Chaos at Nassau Coliseum. It was the worst because arena shows are just the worst, period. I was right up in front (my friends and I camped out overnight) and I just got repeatedly slammed against the barricade and crowd-surfers landed on my head multiple times, et cetera. I’m surprised I didn’t leave with actual injuries (was wondering if I was gonna need a neck brace by the end), but I did feel pretty damn shitty the next day.

34. Have you ever crowd-surfed during a show or been a part of a mosh pit? >> Nope.

35. Have you ever gotten into an altercation with a drunken concert fan before? What happened? >> Nah, everyone I’ve met at shows have been pretty cool, if not downright awesome. That’s one thing I always loved about going to concerts, I seemed to make new friends every time.

36. Have you ever dated someone who was a musician? >> No, but I’ve fucked a few.

37. What are some of your favorite music videos to watch? >> Oh, man, it’s getting late and while I could go ham on this question, I don’t have the time right now lol. I’ll just say that I love nineties-era music videos, and some from the aughts as well. I feel like those were the best years for music videos, but that might just be nostalgia (and the fact that I haven’t really seen as many videos from the 2010s). As far as recent artists are concerned, I think Orville Peck makes really evocative and moody (not necessarily moody like pensive or depressive. mood-y. mood-evoking) videos that I appreciate.

38. Have you ever made a lyric video on YouTube? >> No.

39. Have you ever recorded a cover song and posted it? What kind of feedback did you receive? >> No.

40. Is there an album cover design that you really admire? >> I’ve seen so many excellent album covers, I couldn’t even begin to address this.

41. What are some of the most overplayed songs right now, in your opinion? >> I wouldn’t know, I don’t listen to radio or anything.

42. Do you watch music awards shows on television? >> No.

43. Have you ever competed in any sort of singing contest before? >> No.

44. Have you ever tried to start your own band before? >> No.

45. What’s the name of a band/singer that you recently have discovered? >> Dreamcar (yet another Davey Havok side project, because he just can’t be tamed, apparently).

46. What are some annoying/weird/funny songs that have gotten stuck in your head before? >> Barbara Ann gets stuck in my head all the time, but that’s okay because it’s fun and I love it.

47. Are there any songs that actually make you cry? What are they, and who are they by? >> There are many songs that make me cry. We ain’t got time for a list like that.

48. Do you listen to any music in another language? >> Sure. Off the top of my head, I can think of fave songs in German, Swedish, Japanese, Indian, and Italian. [a-zebra-is-a-striped-horse]

#surveys #survey #music survey #my fave kind

[cmtrydrve]

            hey ! my name’s link , i go by he/they pronouns , am 21+ & live in the cst timezone ! my only personality trait is being a bts , sment & girl groups enthusiast . i’m an aries sun with a pisces moon , which means i can be aggro , am always loud & obnoxious , but am a secretly sensitive softy , so plz be nice to me !!! this is my child , mikey , who’s stuck in 2006 & never grew out of his emo phase ( take that , mom ! ) . he’s also an aries , because my jjks always end up like that . hopefully , you’ll love him as much as i already do ! under the cut , you’ll find some misc . info & wanted connections . here are links to his dossier page & his pinterest board , which will hopefully give you some deeper insight . i’m excited to be here & write with you all ! like this if you’d like to plot & i’ll fly to your ims , but also feel free to add me on d*scord ( it’s easier for me as well ) : no brain only loving bts#6669 !

— jeon jungkook. he/they. demiboy. | was that michael “mikey” kwon i just saw in the hideaway lobby ? i hear the twenty-two year old spends most of their time working as a record store clerk / studying communications , but i’ve always just seen them dyeing their hair different colors with kool-aid . they live in 3c and i often see them in the halls. they always give me a vibe of getting into arguments online , an entirely black wardrobe and drinking six cups of coffee to make it through the day . 

misc . info :

his parents are both very hip artists who met & fell in love while attending art school. they’re both very modern kind of parents, which meant that mikey grew up around a lot of self-expression (& being told to try it for himself), paint everywhere & pot.

growing up, he was allowed to paint his walls & even ceiling however he pleased & it instilled a love of creativity in him. his parents still have paintings he did as a child hanging up on their walls & fridge. even now, he still draws casually, though it was always a hobby for him & not his actual passion.

his parents are extremely caring & understanding. as a teenager, they allowed him to go out & party & always made sure to get him home safely. mikey genuinely can not remember a single time they ever yelled at him even when he fucked up massively. so he tries his best to make sure they’re happy & taken care of. but they’re adamant in supporting whatever mikey wants to do.

they were both the alternative types, which meant that rock music filled their home. mikey was familiar with classic rock from a young age & the sounds of fleetwood mac & other similar bands fills him with a warmth that can only be attained from childhood nostalgia.

his first taste of love came at the age of seven. his parents always brought home new albums to listen to & his dad purchased three cheers for sweet revenge by my chemical romance. while the screaming & raging instruments could have been too much for anyone else his age, mikey embraced it fully.

it ignited an adoration for the genre as a whole & soon enough, his parents were bringing home various emo music albums to sate the always dramatic & over-reacting mikey. for christmas, he received mcr’s discography (at the time, just two albums) on vinyl, which he still has hanged proudly on his wall as an adult.

he owns every variation of every mcr album now. vinyl, cd, cassettes. he even collects the japanese versions because he likes the way they’re designed.

he dropped the name mike / michael because of mikey way & he refuses to answer to anything else.

even though it’s largely part of “cringe culture” now (which mikey refuses to participate in), he loves hot topic & goes there whenever he can. his closet is full of band tees & he has a drawer filled with those spiky belts, bracelets & pants with the suspenders from his teenage years.

he’s been dyeing his hair regularly since he was twelve. he’s had every color under the sun. this is what his hair currently looks like but he dyes the highlights with kool-aid, so the color is always changing.

he has a nostril piercing & would probably get more done if someone so much as implied that he should.

he has a mcr stan twitter account & he gets into fights with everyone he decides has a wrong opinion. he’s been suspended multiple times for being too aggressive online, but he always comes back. he also has a tumblr account but he just uses it to reblog pictures of gerard way (his bias KJHFDKJ).

he works at a record store & goes to school for communications. he hopes to either be a radio dj or podcast host. he wants to get paid to talk about how much he loves music either way. but he loves his current job because he gets to talk about music all day and recommend albums to people. also it’s helpful in perfecting his own vinyl collection.

yes, he cried the day mcr broke up & yes he bought tickets to all their reunion shows. he took the day off when the tickets went on sale & his boss was understanding, knowing how much he loves the band.

he’s extremely impulsive. if you tell him to do anything, he more than likely will. he has a lot of stupid scribbled tattoos on him for this reason, especially on his hands.

while he doesn’t mind appearing masculine & even embraces it, he doesn’t fully align with being a man. he started identifying as nonbinary in his teens, but has never felt 100% a man his whole life. he’s fine with both he or they pronouns for the most part, though he does have his preferences day to day. he introduces himself as nonbinary so it’s not a secret & everyone who interacts with him is aware.

he’s kind of a party animal. he’s that loud person who drinks too much & ends up blacked out on the floor.

he gets in trouble a lot, because he plays music very loudly at both his workplace & his apartment. but he’s of the opinion that if music is too loud for you then you’re just too old.

he’s aggressive & very arrogant. he will fight you about anything & everything. he just likes to argue & he thinks he’s right about everything.

in typical aries fashion, he loves to flirt & be flirted with. he just adores attention & seeks out affection where he can find it. he gets crushes really easily & pursues aggressively (he’s extremely charming & good at making people feel good about themselves), but he gets bored when he actually obtains the person he desires. he’s never really seriously dated, but has had over a billion crushes in his lifetime.

thought dramatic & annoying most of the time, he’s also very loyal & has a good heart. if you’re in his circle of people he likes, then he’ll do anything for you point blank. he always tells his friends that he’d die for him & he means it.

while he tries to appear confident, he has secret insecurities stemming from being the middle child. he has issues with feeling like he’s not good enough or thinks he’s unnoticed by everyone, so he acts up by being dramatic.

he drinks A LOT of coffee, so he’s pretty much always bouncing off the walls.

he’s extremely pansexual & loud about it. if you’ve known him for longer than five minutes then you’ll find out how he wishes he could smash gerard way specifically in the helena mv to smithereens.

he very casually knows how to play guitar. he’s that person who plays wonderwall at every party.

while he’s not a fan of pop music, he knows most girl group dances & can do them well.

wanted connections :

exes (any gender. it will more than likely be something casual, like a few months or less, but we can discuss the timeline! also it can be messy or friendly. extra points if there’s lingering feelings!)

hookups / fwbs (any gender. singular experiences or regular type things)

childhood plots for those who’ve lived in seattle (childhood friends, first kisses / crushes, all that good stuff)

flirtationships that don’t go anywhere

one-sided crushes (don’t mind who has the feelings!)

mutual pining but they’re both idiots & have no idea

party buddies (can be drinking &/or smoking). emo music buddies. netflix buddies. any of these can be combined.

enemies???? (if we can decide on a suitable plot. or enemies with benefits :smirk:)

someone who knows of mikey from his stan twitter but doesn’t realize it’s him & talks shit openly about the asshole who runs the account in front of him.

on the opposite side of the spectrum, someone who he flirts with in the dms & they plan to meet up after realizing they live in the same apartment building.

tinder date (it can go well or not)

frequent customers (customers he flirts with or can’t stand because they just loiter or gets into fights with because they have bad taste in music

someone who takes advantage of mikey being willing to do anything he’s dared to do. make him do all the stupid shit he shouldn’t be doing, whether it’s getting tattoos / piercings or anything dangerous or just idiotic.

you’re sick of this asshole blasting music late at night & go to yell at him for it but oops he’s actually attractive (or you actually can’t stand him, whichever GKDHFGJFKD).

i have a huge tag full of plots i’d love to do on my rp spam blog. not all of them will be fitting for mikey but just ask me & we can try to change some elements or something!

literally anything you can think of i’m probably down for it!

#hide:intro #◟ * 𝟎𝟏𝟑. 𝑔𝑜 ℎ𝑜𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑙𝑧 › OUT OF CHARACTER #not me being ready on time for once wow

[globalpattern]

Interview with From Tokyo to Honolulu

bandcamp | twitter | soundcloud

1. Hey! Tell us how the project was born, what inspired at the beginning, what inspires now?

hi! to begin with, I encountered vaporwave only in 2015. honestly, I don’t already remember how it happened, but judging by last.fm I was mostly listening to sovietwave back then and somehow, in an unknown way, I got into a vapor. after a year of listening, one day I thought, why not to try to do something myself because everything is built on samples. I was inspired at that time by t e l e p a t h, I didn’t get my hands on listening to his full discography for a long time (which I regretted later, but now I regret that listened to everything he did hundreds of times). and so, i had to start with artist name and wanted something simple and at the same time unusual (without any unnecessary symbols), so this kind of topic of air flights came to my mind and without thinking twice, I opened the map, and then the first thing happened was Tokyo - Honolulu, that's all.

the first albums were made in Audacity, I don’t know why I chose it, I probably wasn’t going to do this like professionally but just for fun, just to try it for myself. and this audacity was terrible because cutting tracks there was just hellish! perhaps it could have been easier, but I did not understand it and at that moment I just proceeded. now it's funny to think of – the first 12 (!?) “albums” were made that way. but then it got even better, I switched to FL Studio... DEMO, and for a year I did all the tracks on the go because it was impossible to save the projects :) and only at the end of 2018 managed to buy the full version and get my hands on it. honestly, now almost nothing inspires me to continue this project, because I'm tired of sampling and I'm planning (in fact, already doing) my own original music without samples.

2. So is it true that vaporwave is dead? If you abandon the samples and make original music, then will it be something else? Or is it still vapor for you?

I believe that the sampled vapor is almost dead, but the thing is how to approach this. you can’t just slow down and pitch the tracks  for a long time and assume that you are doing vaporwave (though I’m still doing this (just kidding)). you can also do something unique [with samples], but I don’t really know how to do this, so, as I said above, I decided to switch to the non-sampled project. but it will still be under the tag of the vaporware anyway because even if I tried to leave it, it always overtakes me :)  vaporwave has recently become an independent genre and therefore you can refuse samples and still make vapor, despite his PAST.

3. By the way, about the past - recently 100% Electronicon happened, after which there were talks about the beginning of a new era in the genre, that now it exists not only on the Internet, but also IRL, which makes vaporwave kind of “more real". What do you think, in order to be a successful artist, is it necessary to play concerts? Would you like to do your stuff live sometime?

I think the opposite is true. first you need to have at least some listeners to give a concert for, heh. and then success will come. honestly, I can’t imagine how anyone can immediately reach this — take t e l e p a t h — as far as I know, it was one of his first shows, so here is a simple example. as for myself, I would like to for sure, but so far I have nothing to play *laughs*

4. For your music, which applications do you see, if not concerts & tours? Take Fantasy Labirynth – I think it could be a nice soundtrack for a game or some adventure film! What kind of game would you like to score?

I never thought about this, but if you fly from Tokyo to Honolulu, be sure to turn on some of my music! in general, yes, I could do something like that. but given that the Fantasy Labirynth samples were taken from games, then the game must be assembled from different games, huh.

5. And which, say, three albums (no matter vapor or not) would you take with you on such a long flight? In general, what kind of music do you listen to besides what your "profession" presumes?

I'd take the entire discography of 仮 想 夢 プ ラ ザ, it’s ideal for trips in general, I always listen and will listen to it. in fact, that would be enough! also I’ve been listening to Boards of Canada since childhood, I’m waiting and hoping that someday a new album will be released. by the way, about them – guess I can say that they invented vaporwave, as well as Aphex Twin and Autechre maybe, this is the first thing that comes to mind, probably because at the moment I'm listening to them too. in general, I can listen to anything, but I need a mood for it, and sometimes I just need to find it first :)

6. As for the mood, is it important for you in which mood you make music? Or is the music who sets the right state when you start playing?

generally I do all things only by mood. if something is wrong, I can’t do the thing and music is no exception. one day you can sit for a long time without getting anything - in such case, I immediately go outside and switch to something else - and the next day it can just go perfectly. and later, if everything goes as it should, then the music will set the subsequent mood already.

7. Since you are saying that you’re going to close the project and make original compositions, will you share some plans for the future? What is the fate of FTTH and what to expect from the new project?

FTTH lives on while cassettes are released, there are plans for several more new albums on physical media and subsequent reissues of the old albums. my goal here is to release as many albums on the cassettes as possible so that way it actually lives. I planned to close it a long time ago because the motivation was gone, there was a feeling that I was doing something for an unknown reason, not really knowing for who and why. but managed, so to speak, to "get hyped" a little. and about the new project, I don’t know what will happen tomorrow, because the idea came like today and the whole project literally changed, so we'll see :)

8. Do you collect cassettes or vinyl yourself? Do you think this is more connected with nostalgia and vapor or is it important for any genre of music to be on some non-virtual medium?

I used to have cassettes in “childhood”. I remember Gorillaz track recorded from the radio, I loved listening to it. but then they were all thrown away. recently began to collect cassettes again, but so far they are more of my own albums, but there are several which I purchased. at first, I was skeptical about this, but now they give me pleasure, listening online or on the media is a completely different experience – you can also feel it, touch it (xD), in general, it’s dope! but since I like to listen to them, and not watch and dust them off, I haven’t got any vinyl yet because got no player for it. perhaps the time will come. yes, as I said above, it is important for any music to be on such a medium, I recently saw an article that recently people began to acquire way more music on PHYSICAL MEDIA.

9. In your opinion, anonymity is an important part of vaporwave aesthetics? Or is it a matter of samples/copyright? Are you planning to keep anonymity with the new project too?

well, judging by the Electronicon, only one artist retained anonymity, which means that he wants to have such style. therefore, I do not think this is an important component. if we talk about live performances, then no, I’m not going to hide my face from anyone.

10. Do you think Russia will ever have its own vapor festival? Who would be the headliners?

I think everything is possible, but the problem is that there are just few performers, as well as the listeners, I don’t know anyone IRL, who even heard what it is, vaporwave! gather me all the russian performers and listeners in one place and then I will say. of the performers I know, just a few are doing really good stuff. so we get 5 people maximum, I don’t even know the rest. I’m sure you know better :)

11. Do you have a dream album that you would like to make? Or a project, or a global dream in general, which you'd like to achieve someday?

of course, I would like to do something that would become mainstream, but you never know how everything goes. usually, if you look into history, what is not recognized at one time, becomes something significant in the future, so I won’t know now. and the authors themselves often do not recognize something of their creations, so it seems to me that it always has been and will be that way :) in general, I am not a dreamer, I try not to abuse this so that these dreams don’t fall apart.

September 14, 2019

▼ https://globalpattern.bandcamp.com ▲

#from tokyo to honolulu #global pattern #slushwave vaporwave ambient cassette

[bitsandbobsandstuff]

TAG GAME TIME: NOSTALGIA

I was tagged by the delightful @evanstarff and I think we pretty much had the same childhood, so lets see if I can find something different. Also, I am definitely showing my age, but whatevs. 😂

The smell of books and fresh bookmarks at the Scholastic Book Fair

Fighting with my best friend over the best piece of Homerun Bubblegum

Listening to Casey Kasem’s Top 40 Countdown and waiting with my blank cassette tape to hit a panicked RECORD before the song starts

Playing ‘Girl Talk’ at slumber parties (that game was a disaster)

Wearing Doc Martens and embracing 90s grunge 

I’m tagging @st-eve-barnes @justreadingfics @prettyyoungtragedy @littlebittcrazy @youngmoneymilla @captainrogerrsbeard @velvetofyourheart @abovethesmokestacks @sgtjbuccky @surrounded-by-superheroes @imhereforbvcky @moonbeambucky and everyone else who wants to give it a go, I’d love to see what you got! 💕

#tag games

[macswitch]

Remembering ComputerLand

Lately I have been watching old movies, a bit of nostalgia from the 80’s, and among Splash, Big, and Short Circuit I came across my copy of War Games (see the trailer below). It brought back the nostalgia of the computers and gaming systems from my childhood, and the relatively small computer store (by today’s standards) where we purchased our first big modern computer.

Before ComputerLand

When I was a kid messing around with my Commodore Vic 20 (computers were new to our area, Most home computers were basically a large keyboard that housed the CPU, video output, IO connector used for cassette and floppy diskette drives, and cartridge slot for software ROM cartridges) the Internet didn’t exist, and Builtin Board systems were hard to access (mainly because there was not one locally available) so getting freeware and shareware software was hard, and commercial software was expensive, so we would go to the library or purchase magazines from news stands for programming tutorials and actual programs in code that you entered into the computer by hand, tested, debugged, and then saved the program to a tape or floppy drive.

In the early 80’s I got a box of Apple IIs for a few bucks from a swap meet (they needed fixed), and with the help of our neighbor, an electronics expert, we were able to troubleshoot the problems with each machine, and get parts for each machine from the next years swap meet to fix them. Again, there was a problem getting software for the computers, and it would have to wait until the next swap meet which never happened due to the lack of interest in computers by the locals and the opening of an actual dedicated computer store called ComputerLand in 1984 (a technician friend of mine claims that they were in business in 1979, just in another location in a much smaller store front) which provided organization and a meetup of computer users groups, and technical support.

ComputerLand (as I remember it)

Now I know that my computer history has nothing to do with my first encounter and memories of Computerland (the first computer store I ever shopped at), so here goes. ComputerLand was not the standard computing experience at the time. Computer shopping in our small county was dominated by the small hole-in-the-wall business-only computer stores (that only sold to corporate and business customers), and Sears, where you walked in and bought a computer. For the most part if you purchased a computer from Sears you got almost no support from the store, there wasn’t a technician in the store, and the sales associates really didn’t know much about computers.  

In 1986 my family got it’s first new state of the art computer (My Mom wanted an Apple IIGS because of it’s educational focus, and that it was the most “future proof” Apple II model, and was the likely future of the Apple II platform so we got, a custom Apple IIGS with all of the bells and whistles, 4MB memory upgrade, 3.5” floppy diskette drive, the 5.25” floppy drive, Apple Image Writer II, and a Joystick for playing games including some software like AppleWorks IIGS, and games like Test Drive 2.), and it was purchased at ComputerLand. ComputerLand provided a place to purchase a computer where they welcomed both businesses and consumers alike, and provided them with proper tech support, training classes, repair services, users groups, parts and upgrade components. It had a show room with allot of computer parts for IMSAI computers (IMSAI computers were the consummate do-it-yourself Hobbiest computer that was featured in the War Games movie), PCs, Commodore 64 and 128 machines, and they sold Apple computers by catalog (although you could try a couple of them in the store). a fully functional repair center where you could bring your computer to a technician for repairs, order parts, computers, and software they didn’t regularly carry in the store. Behind the repair center was a classroom used for computer training classes, and users group meetups.

In 1989 ComputerLand moved from it’s larger store to a much smaller store, and started concentrating on PCs and Commodore 64, 128, and Amiga computers. When the ComputerLand corporation started to fail in 1990 our ComputerLand closed (after a long drawn out clearance sale), but the franchise owner opened another store a few miles away under a different name, and continued to sell Commodore Amiga computers, and eventually started selling custom PCs (to my understanding they are still open, building high-end custom computers and servers). With the introduction of Wal-Mart to our area (and later Staples), and the advent of Dell, Gateway, and HP’s direct sales business, and the fact that computers were becoming easier to operate the local computer stores in our area have mostly died out.

ComputerLand isn’t completely dead though, There are still a few around like ComputerLand Berkley (in CA), and ComputerLand Silicon Valley (obviously in CA). There are still mega computer stores that cater to consumers like Micro Center (though the closest to my location is around 400 miles away) where they can help you buy a computer, build a computer, repair a computer, outfit a home entertainment center, buy a gaming console, or purchase computers for a business. If you are interested in seeing what a Micro Center is like Jayztwocents did a show from a Colorado Micro Center opening. You can check out that video below (Please check out Jayztwocents for more great content about computers).

Conclusion

For my area the computer store meant a place to go shopping for a computer, support for that computer, classes and users groups with people who actually knew about computers, and those who were enthusiastic to learn. It was a different time before User Experience (UX) became a driving force in software, computers were computers and not devices, and they were not treated like like toaster ovens. With the advent of mass consumer marketed computers and devices that are easier to use and reasonably capable for most consumer uses, the Internet where anything you could need from computers, parts, and software being just a click or tap away, its no wonder many of these old school computer stores from the 80’s are all but a warm nostalgic memory for us of the Generation X that grew up during the computer revolution, they are only to be remembered through the nostalgic media that we grew up with.

#William Reese #nostalgia #computerland #Commodore #apple iigs #computer store

[confessionsofabargainbinaddict]

Physical media, memory, and a blog, two and a half years late

I still own most of my mixtapes. And not the “mixtapes” that were actually CDs burned from iTunes playlists. No, the mixtapes where I spent countless hours clocking individual track time by rewinding songs on my Sony Discman and notating on looseleaf the timestamp in order to make sure the tracks would fit on the blank cassette (I still have most of that leg work as well - the pre-internet world was supremely different). And they exist almost as aural photographs, snapshots of a feeling or a phase; able to communicate, through sound, what I never was able to say out loud (I love you or I’m scared or I want to feel like I matter). 

This physical documenting of my life through tracks by Less Than Jake and The Ataris and Counting Crows was integral to my childhood, to my growth. Just hearing a song from one of these early tapes would bring back a rush of memories and countless tales of unrequited love and existential crises.

This isn’t a blog about mixtapes. But it is a blog about physical media. And it definitely is a blog about memories. 

A not-so-short time ago, a good friend mentioned that his parents were beginning the process of packing up and moving out of their Palo Alto home. If I were normal human being, I might ask things like “where are they moving?” or “why are they moving?” or “how do you feel about them moving?” But, having once visited said house, I quite distinctly remembered my friend’s CD tower, so, of course, the first thing that came to my mind was, “What are your parents going to do with your CDs?” He said something about them getting rid of them. I offered to buy them but he seemed wary of that proposition so I dropped the line of questioning and moved on to the normal, human stuff... (where, why, how do you feel about it, etc... etc...). 

A couple months later, having put the memories of his collection out of my mind, my friend, more or less, made me this bargain: he would give me his CDs if I wrote a blog about them. I, of course and without hesitation, agreed. 

I was expecting plenty of early Hopeless/Sub City punk and hardcore but my friend went a step further: he gave me albums purchased at shows, DIY pressings, side projects of bands never big enough to warrant the label “side project.” These albums were more personal, more obscure, more thoughtfully selected than what I originally anticipated.

And then over two years passed. And I didn’t write the blog. And I didn’t quite know why.

Last weekend, I was about to drive this same friend down to Philly for his bachelor party and a thought occurred to me: I should make a playlist. The playlist was built with artists I knew he liked, artists he had turned me on to, and nearly all the tracks he had gifted me from his parent’s move.

Each and every time a song from one his childhood CDs came up, it prompted a story: I saw them in the back of a bakery, I went to school with the singer’s daughter, I remember when they stopped being “screamo” and went “post-rock.” These aural photographs unlocked memories, perhaps ones never shared without the aid of these tracks. 

And it made me wonder if, in our digital age of music, there’s room for this kind of memory making. Just consider the process. My friend, whom I didn’t know in high school, went to see some shows and bought some CDs. Then, decades later, he gave me said CDs, and then, a couple years later, we accessed a piece of his childhood through them. The constant is the item, the physical disc, that enduring piece of plastic that contains multitudes. Will, in twenty some-odd years, some thirty-something still have that Spotify playlist from their adolescence? Will they play it to their children, their friends, their spouse? And will it launch them into a bed of nostalgia only inhabited by those specific tracks? Or will the playlists, like the near fate of these CDs, just get thrown away in a digital dustbin to make space for new sounds, new styles, new stories? 

I checked and only a handful of the albums he gave me are on Spotify. It’s pretty clear that, without my intervention (and willingness to have more stuff in a NYC apartment), it might have been the end of the road for these songs. And perhaps an end of the stories as well.

I, for one, am glad that they still exist.

_______________________________________________________________________

Here is the list of albums he gave to me with Spotify links where they actually exist:

Under a Dying Sun - Under a Dying Sun

Inventing Edward - We’ve Met an Impasse (By Midnight We’ll Be Naked)

Dexter Danger - Forever Broken

Dexter Danger - It’s Not Pretty Being Easy

Fifteen - Survivor

Fifteen - Lucky

Jeff Ott - Will Work For Diapers

Eleventeen - Everything I’ve Ever Wanted To Say

The Muckruckers - Sporting Life

The KGB - The KGB

Denison Witmer - Philadelphia Songs

Sissies - Look Back and Laugh

The Art of Arrows - The Art of Arrows (good luck finding ANYTHING about this band online)

(And just in case you’re doubting my research, the following is the ONLY thing I stream on the internet from the Sissies’ album “Look Back and Laugh.”)

#cds #collection #road trip #memories #stories #nostaliga #songs #mixtape #emo #pop punk #pop-punk #punk #punk rock #post-hardcore #post-rock #coabba

[yuhnilee]

Week 05 - Update Ideas to deliver to audiences & Research. [Final Assessment.]

Idea 03: The Good old Days / 当年情 (Childhood memories) 🌟

Story Synopsis: Do you miss the good old memories? The story will talk about the good childhood memories I’ve undergone when I’m young. And I hope to recall it back and record it down in this book. I have started to categorize them into several categories such as foods, toys, things (vending machines, guli), movies, singers, etc. The idea I currently have is to insert my own opinion and thoughts with using illustration/doodle to present it.

Message: Only if we can hold back the time, then the good old memories could hold back its presence.

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3 Chapters of the Book:

·  Article Daily Use 

· Foods

· Entertainment

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Brainstorming Ideas of deliver book in a surprising way: (3 Ideas.) 01. Hourglass (Version 1) Format:

02. Hourglass (Version 2) Format:

03. Cassette Format.

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Final Book’s Deliver Method: 

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Research of Final Project:

·  Overview of the Final Project.

The aim of this project is to let us have the basic understanding of book design, the design principles and content management, which relate to it, thereby effectively create and design a book. Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent whole.

  ·  What is the function of a book?

Books play a quintessential role in everyone life by introducing them to a world of imagination, providing knowledge of the outside world, improving their reading, writing and speaking skills as well as boosting memory and intelligence.

The importance of books in our life cannot be undermined for they not only help in broadening our horizons but also act as doorways of connecting us with the world around us. They function as survival kits, they influence us and leave an impact on us.

 ·  5W1H  

(a) Who – The first (W) Who, is referred to as the target audience of this book. The target audience that I wanted to deliver is the people who are nostalgic for their childhood memories. To have more detailed information regarding my target audience, they are people who are between 18-32 years old who was live in Malaysia when they were young. The reason that I specified the location is that I would include some of the childhood games, toys, things, etc. that will create resonance feelings toward them.

 (b) What – The second (W) is referred to as What. The content that I wanted to carry out is about my childhood memories. Not only that, I think most Malaysian people can relate to the same feeling when they look through this book.

The mood and the voice tone of the overall book is using dull colour (nostalgia), and soft voice tone to recall the good childhood memories of my younger age. Besides, I also wanted to create resonance feeling to the readers (make them to feel the same feeling when they read the book.)

 (c) Where - The third (W) is referred to as Where. It refers to the channels to promote the book and message to the audiences. For my book, I personally think that I would promote my book in 2 ways. First, the most traditional way, to sell it in the bookstore or some book fair. The reason is that my book has features some things that can interact with the audience. Therefore, it is good to mention that people can see the book in a physical form.

Second, social media platforms (e-books.) The reason is that people nowadays are spending most of their time online. Based on my research, the average time that Internet users on social media every day is about 145 minutes, which is approximately 2 hours and more. Due to this reason, I have an idea that come through my mind to publish my book online if I got a chance.

 (d) Why – The fourth (W) is referred to as Why. There are a few reasons that I wanted to create this book (1) is to let myself commemorate the good old days I have undergone. Secondly, (2) The technology nowadays is developing rapidly and it is hard to remember the things that happened before, therefore, I made myself this book to remember the good old days. (3) To create resonance among the people/readers, especially to the Malaysians. Since most of my book’s content is based on Malaysia’s country.

 (e) When – The fifth (W) is referred to as When. To be honest, the moment that I get the inspiration to write this book is when I go the night market with my family members. I saw there are many of the childhood junk food and sweets that I tried when I was young. After all, I decide to make this kind of content to let me look back to my childhood memories again.

 (f) How – The (H) is referred to How. It is about how to determine the content in the market nowadays. For this book, the core message that I wanted to carry out is about Nostalgia. Therefore, I have done some research to determine that nostalgia’s genre book is having a good sale in the market nowadays.

 According to the Journal of Consumer Research, a study showed an increased willingness to give more money to others after recalling, reflecting, or writing about a nostalgic past life event. How does this "nostalgia effect" influence the content marketing? Are readers more likely to share your content when they are feeling nostalgic? Will they be more likely to convert? Will they be more likely to buy the product or service? The evidence seems to indicate that they might.

 So, what is Nostalgia? Technically, the term nostalgia describes a particular sentimentality towards a former experience. In simpler terms, it is a positive reflection of the past, and a powerful one at that. Nostalgia is generally triggered by some sort of cue from the past. This sentimentality is then associated with a period or place with happy personal memories. The term itself was coined by a 17th-century medical student as a way to describe the anxieties displayed by Swiss mercenaries fighting away from home.

 There are four commonly understood functions of nostalgia. They include, improve mood, increase social connectedness, enhance positive self-regard, and provide existential meaning. And this is where things really start to get interesting for marketers.

Benefits & Values for the readers: (1) Improve Mood. Nostalgia has often been found to increase one’s mood and heighten positive emotions. This reaction seems to stem from feelings of warmth or coping resulting from nostalgic reflections. In essence, the presence of nostalgic emotions give us a method for coping with things that could hinder our own happiness. This natural coping method instinctively seems to improve our mood and function.

 (2)  Increase Social Connectedness. Interestingly, nostalgia also seems to increase our sense of social connectedness. This is a very important factor for the use of nostalgia in modern marketing. In essence, nostalgia is triggered by a feeling of loneliness, but counteracts such feelings with reflections of close relationships.

(3)  Enhance Positive Self-Regard. Nostalgia can also help us feel better about ourselves. Researchers found that subjects who thought of nostalgic memories showed more positive characteristics than those who thought of exciting future experiences. This research also revealed that a lack of nostalgic experiences reflected a pattern of selfish and self-centered behavior. As nostalgic experiences were introduced, so was the positive behavior.

 (4)  Provide Existential Meaning. You may be surprised to learn that nostalgia also helps increase one’s self-esteem and meaning in life. It does this by "removing" threats to our well-being, and also by initiating a desire to deal with problems or stress. Studies have found that nostalgia correlates positively with one’s sense of meaning in life.

Perhaps Don Draper said it best. Nostalgia is powerful but delicate. Used correctly, though, it can help us accomplish many things – including better content marketing. In a nutshell, nostalgia has a great philosophy, which can encourage and connect people with a product or a service.

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References: ·  https://leverageedu.com/blog/importance-of-books-in-our-life/ ·  https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/#:~:text=As%20of%202019%20and%202020,minutes%20in%20the%20previous%20year. ·  https://coschedule.com/blog/nostalgia-marketing

[blackshabbatmusic]

Dookie (Green Day) - Feb 1, 1994

So, I wanted to start with this because, in a time honored tradition of punk teens dating back to 1994, the very first album I bought with my own money was a copy of Dookie. It was exciting even though I’d heard some of the songs before - my dad used to play Basket Case a lot, and the very first song I taught myself on my guitar was When I Come Around. I picked up the guitar after I bought the album, so that’s technically getting ahead of myself, but whatever.

Burnout: A fun fact about me is that I dropped out of college! So I’m a lot more into this song now that I was in the seventh grade. 

Having A Blast: This is a song about a suicide bomber. I actually own this album on cassette tape and the cassette lyric sheet has a bundle of dynamite drawn next to the lyrics. Pretty cool. I definitely listened to this song on loop a lot when I was in freshman year which is definitely a symptom of some kind of metal problem.

Chump: Another classic generic angry punk song. Good for when you want something to project your anger onto, you know? Tre Cool kills it as always on the drums. There’s also an insane instrumental in this song that I literally always forget about. It’s really good though and it fades perfectly into Longview.

Longview: So, this is a song about jerking it. The bassline is what this song is most known for, it’s very acid-forward. It’s one of those songs where the bassline is more instantly recognizable than the guitar part. My cassette tape is actually fucked up and makes the first 30 seconds of this song sound like an anxiety attack but I think that adds to the experience. 

Welcome To Paradise: It’s frequently incorrectly claimed that Dookie is Green Day’s first album but that’s not true. Before Dookie was released on Warner Bros, Green Day released two albums with now-defunct record label Lookout! Records. (Author’s note: Larry Livermore has a really cool autobiography called How To Ru(i)n a Record Label. Check it out! I thought it was pretty rad.) Anyways, their first two albums featured covers. (Their debut 39/Smooth featured a cover of another East Bay band, Operation Ivy, and their second album Kerplunk had a Who cover.) This song is technically a self-cover, as it’s a re-recording of a song off of Kerplunk. I think that’s kinda neat. The actual song is solid, I really like the guitar line. It’s about the shitty house the band shared, and it’s I think fun to have songs that are about some very base and grounded reality, as much as I like songs about stuff like The Abstract Concept Of Anger.

Pulling Teeth: This is a song about BDSM. It is one of many songs that Green Day has about BDSM. They’re all very fun if you think songs about BDSM are fun. Again, Mr. Cool on the drums. Fucked up how into him I was in middle school. I didn’t even have a crush on him, I had, like - gender envy. Fucked up. 

Basket Case: This is another personal favorite and also another song where my cassette tape is fucked up and makes the song sound like a panic attack. I think it works for this one. I remember being obsessed with the pronouns for the prostitute changing mid-line and none of my straight friends understanding why. Which is funny because there’s literally a song on this album about being bisexual. My dad used to play this song a ton when I was younger but he like. Edited the lyrics on account of my being small. So I was very surprised the first time I heard the actual song. 

She: Another angry punk song that is WONDERFUL if you are in middle school and very very mad all the time because of your undiagnosed mental illnesses. It’s nice to have a song you can just freak the fuck out to sometimes, you know?

Sassafras Roots: This song is romantic but, like, in a scumbag way, you know? It’s romantic in the way that sharing a joint and a flask in a public bathroom is romantic.  

When I Come Around: This is the first song I ever taught myself on guitar and it’s still the chord progression I use to get the feel of a six-string. I don’t think that it ever won’t be, you know? Also again I had SO much gender envy for BJA in the music video for this song it was unreal.

Coming Clean: The aforementioned bisexuality song! I used to think it was funny seeing people call Billie Joe Armstrong an “ally” for touring with Pansy Division. It’s still pretty funny if you can pretend not to be mad about people ignoring the fact that he’s not straight just because he’s married to a woman. I’ve always been very into the line “I’ve found out what it takes to be a man” because so often gay and bi men are treated like we are less male due to our attraction to other men, so hearing it phrased as something affirming like “what it takes to be a man” was very empowering to me as a bisexual teenager. Armstrong does a similar thing in a song on a different album, King For A Day, which is about crossdressing and has the line “just wait til all the guys get a load of me,” taking the idea that male femininity should be a shameful secret and instead making it a bragging point for himself.

Emenius Sleepus: Okay, this is maybe lame or whatever, but I think that “I think you’re sick and I wanna go home” is a genuinely brilliant line. This is the only song on the album whose lyrics weren’t written by Armstrong. The lyrics are actually credited to bassist Mike Dirnt. The song is about meeting a childhood friend and being disgusted by the way they turned out. It’s a really good song. In The End: Another sort of spiteful song with not a lot of lyrical substance; it seems like a few of these songs were intentionally vague? I’d love to know why. Then, “vague semi-directionless anger” is like, basically the biggest theme in punk rock, especially the 90s punk revival. 

F.O.D.: This song actually starts very soft and builds into a more traditional punk revival piece. I love that shit, I love songs like this that start with just a guitar and a singer and get into a full band piece halfway through, I think it’s SO fun.

All By Myself: So this is a secret track on this album that I literally. Always forget about. It’s definitely a song that a bunch of a shithead 20 year olds would put out as a joke. The song is Tre Cool on an acoustic guitar talking about jerking off to someone in their bedroom. You can hear his bandmates laughing in the background. Very punk rock.

I’m realizing now how much of this album is just angry songs. It’s a little funny when you think about how often Green Day was mocked for putting out corny love songs. Not that I don’t love corny love songs. I also love Billie Joe Armstrong’s voice on early Green Day albums. The whiny 20-something carries through VERY strong which is super fun. I might be motivated by nostalgia, honestly, but I do really get why this album had so much sticking power and how it helped Green Day break through from the underground Bay Area punk scene into like - movie soundtracks and shit. It’s a really solid piece of art from three talented musicians.

#music review #green day #1990s music

[bermudaroad]

Personal History:  Summer of ’91

My kids Walker Roe and Clayton, ages 18 and 20, his girlfriend Adrian and their friends Reed, Shelby and Trevor spent the covid spring and summer of 2020 hanging out together, swimming, kayaking, watching movies, lamenting their lost semester and generally not following recommended guidelines for social distancing. Clayton was able to continue work while the rest finished spring classes online, which was a total bummer.  With businesses and restaurants shuttered for quarantine, there hasn’t been much else to do.  Walker and Reed had internships lined up that were cancelled.  Adrian did some housecleaning and as soon as a few restaurants did open back up, she and Trevor, who both used to work at the pub, got part-time jobs.  Reed cuts grass. The rest of their time is spent mostly at leisure.  

In seeming unrelated news, Thomas, one of my oldest friends, became a grandfather last week.  Because of covid, no visitors could go into the hospital, so when the baby was born, the new dad held her up to the hospital window and the grandparents all held up posters and signs of congratulations outside.  It was shared on Facebook, so I sent Thomas a text.  I could tell from his response how giddy he was. They didn’t get to actually hold the new baby for three or four days.

The quarantine, my kids’ spring and summer getting derailed and Thomas becoming Pawpaw got me thinking about the summer after our first year of college, back in Many, the summer of 1991.  I spent that time mostly with a small group with whom I had been friends since first grade: Thomas, of course; Ginger who was home from school in Oklahoma, Jeff and Andy who, like Thomas and me had been going to Northwestern State, and Ginger’s brother Clay who had just finished 10th grade and had finally stopped being a complete jerk.  Sometimes there would be one or two others, but that was the core group. 

Except for Clay, we were 18/19 and had just got our first big kid jobs.  Thomas and Jeff went to work at the mill in Florien, Gin got a job at the radio station and I was tellering at Sabine State Bank. I can’t remember what Andy was doing, probably working for his grandpa, and Clay, who was 16 and fast growing into a giant of a man, tooled around in his truck and worked out at the gym.  We no longer had curfews and seldom felt the need to ask our parents for anything.

We were all single, too, which probably explains why our group was small and close.

Ginger had come home from Oklahoma unsettled.  The previous Christmas, she had appalled her family by getting engaged to her long-time boyfriend Nathen, the same person who had been fooling around with our other friend Jamie behind Ginger’s back for most of the time they were dating.  Ginger found out about it in the middle of our senior year which was pretty much wrecked after that, but she and Nate stayed together, even though neither was happy. Her parents had hoped that when she shipped out for Oklahoma and Nate left for LSU, things would fizzle between them, so their surprise engagement at Christmas 1990 was less than joyous. By February, Ginger had come to her senses. She mailed Nathen back his pitiful little ring and he decided to stay in Baton Rouge for the summer, thankfully bringing that awful drama to an end. Also, she had met someone new in Oklahoma.

Clay’s girlfriend Anna had broken up with him right after Prom.  She was a classy girl, also a friend of ours, and she returned the jewelry Clay had given her, which Ginger divided up with me. Thomas and Jeff had recently split with the girls they dated through and beyond high school. Andy was always single, even though he carried a torch for Jamie for years. They were funny, affable guys and great pals.

I was fractured, too. My first love Patrick and I had outgrown each other and he had broken up with me in the spring, which was for the best, but I missed him terribly.  He was already seeing someone else. I was on a mission to get over Patrick, lose the freshman 15 I had packed on and have fun with my friends – Thomas being chief mischief-maker and proponent of fun.  

Riding around town, “making a drag” as we called it, wasn’t for us anymore as we tried to avoid our old flames, which was hard to do in Many.  Most of our friends had significant others to absorb their spare time and several had jumped straight into adulthood, going to work in the oilfield, joining the military or getting married.  We, on the other hand, aside from work responsibilities, could do pretty much whatever we wanted.  

Often after work, we would meet up and go hang out somewhere on Toledo Bend, the long pier at Pendleton or my parents’ place down near Quiet Cove, to drink wine coolers and talk nonsense.  Weekends we went swimming at LaNan or San Miguel and a couple of times Andy drove his grandpa’s barge across the lake to the cliffs on the Texas side where kids used to shinny up a frayed rope as thick as my arm to the top of the bluff and jump off.  The boys listened to the Beasty Boys, N.W.A., Sir Mix-A-Lot and Color Me Bad (I wasn’t a big fan of any of it) and Ginger had discovered Garth Brooks. We went to our friends’ weddings, stayed out too late, crashed at each other’s houses, made it to work on time and irritated our parents.

There were some long serious talks, too, as we commiserated and sorted out our broken hearts. Clay even opened up about his lost love.  It was a bonding period for Clay and Ginger who had spent most of their childhood fighting, and for he and I as well.  

I hope my kids aren’t as stupid as we were and I’m eternally grateful that social media did not exist.  One night – I don’t know what go into us - we got a wild hair and vandalized a dumpster with spray paint.  Thomas and Jeff frequently made a contest of pitching empty beer bottles at road signs going 4/60 down the highway headed to the lake. Under a full July moon, Andy took us armadillo hunting at his grandpa’s farm.  Riding four-wheelers and armed with .22s and homemade pipe bombs, we crisscrossed the pasture in the moonlight firing at will in the humid night that was thick with recklessness.  Another time Thomas and I were headed to Natchitoches in his monster old Bronco when I told him I wanted to smoke a cigarette. Thomas habitually swiped packs of Marlboro Reds from the carton his dad kept on top of their fridge. He offered me a light and told me what to do.  And so it was that I smoked the inaugural cigarette – the very first one -- in the drive-thru at Maggio’s, coughing and turning green and reveling in my rebellion. I even remember the music we were listening to: a cassette single of “I Wanna Be with You” by Pretty Boy Floyd. I don’t know why that detail has stuck with me.

At some point, Jeff and Andy both noticed charms about Ginger that had never been obvious to them before.  This was typical of Andy but surprising for Jeff. Thomas and I were greatly amused. Jeff made the first move, asking Ginger on a date that Clay offered to chaperone.  They went to see “King Ralph,” and the rest of us chased them down at Hardee’s after the movie.  I remember gathering around Jeff’s white Dodge stepside in the parking lot and snickering because Gin was sitting next to him in the cab. We all knew it wasn’t going anywhere; it was just a lark.  It wasn’t long before Ginger’s beau from Oklahoma couldn’t stand the separation anymore and hauled it down to Louisiana for a visit, which is how I met Brent and was maid of honor at their wedding a year later.  

With Ginger unavailable, Andy turned his attention to me and was rebuffed again.  But he wasn’t too disappointed.

As summers do, it went by in a blink and in mid-August, it was time to get back to business.  Clay started two-a-days, Gin packed up for Oklahoma and I, who had starved myself down to a wafer, moved back to Natchitoches. Thomas and Jeff were supposed to commute together, but Jeff dropped out of school to work full-time.  Andy transferred to LSU.  Thomas fell in with my college buddies and we share those memories as well.  It wasn’t our last summer of fun – we had a few more in store before adulthood really caught up with us.

Now we are in our late 40s – the summer of our lives. Thomas and Jeff still work together. They are deacons in their church, volunteer coaches and planners of wholesome youth activities.  Ginger and Brent have been over in Nacogdoches for over 20 years and active in ministry in their community.  Andy married a girl from Baton Rouge and lives on his family’s farm.  Clay went on to play football at Louisiana Tech, but personal troubles have always dogged him, even unto today. I married a nice guy I met in journalism class and have lived in Natchitoches ever since. We have seen each other quite a bit over the years, most recently when Ginger and Clay’s dad died, an occasion marked by the same old sense of camaraderie, nostalgia and some measure of sadness.  

It’s been a strange year, this spring and summer of covid.  It’s nice to see Clayton and Walker spending quality time together.  Interestingly, during the pandemic, Walker and her college friends have been writing old-fashioned letters and mailing them to each other, a true novelty for them.

It brings to mind the contrasts between the now and then.  In 1991 we had no cell phones, no email, no Internet, no Netflix, no Twitter or Snapchat.  Our parents had no idea where we were or what we were up to most of the time.  We had to make plans and sometimes locate each other by that peculiar friend-radar teenagers used to have.  We could buy alcohol and never wore seatbelts. Most blessed of all, youthful indiscretions were not splashed all over the social media, although I do have some lake photos boxed up on a high shelf.  It seems like our freedom was much greater in many ways. Some things change and some things stay the same.

It’s hard to believe it was almost 30 years ago.  Summers always go by too fast.

[gizkasparadise]

Kdrama Review: Reply 1997

Master Kdrama rec list.

Series: Reply 1997 (also known as Answer Me 1997) Episodes: 16 (30 minutes to 1 hour each / inconsistent ep lengths) Genres: Romance, Friendship, Comedy, School, Coming of Age Spoilers in the Review: Nope If You Like, You’ll Like:  friends to lovers, the concept of How I Met Your Mother (but you wanted a better show), Fight for My Way, Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, something to hit that 90s nostalgia, other installments of the Reply series, Then & Now stories Rank: 10/10

Special Note: It’s on Netflix!!!

“Let’s break up.”

“Do you really have to say that at a crab restaurant?” 

Premise.

This drama follows six friends as they grow up, fight, make up, fall in love, and write boyband fanfic (okay, just Shi Won). The drama cuts back and forth between their high school days in 1997 and their adult lives in 2012, where one couple will announce that they’re engaged. 

Characters.

Sung Shi Won. Our main character! Sung Shi Won is ranked deadlast in her school, spends her time fangirling popular boyband H.O.T., and writing smutty fanfic that spoiler gets her a college scholarship. Engages in stan wars. Will literally kick you in the face. Doesn’t take shit. Is probably my favorite kdrama heroine ever. 

Yoon Yoon Je  Shi Won’s best friend since childhood, who’s been in love with her since The Spring of 1996. Cranky most of the time, first in his class, and has a short temper. The Salty Mom Friend tbh. Blue to Shi Won’s Red.

Mo Yoo Jung. Shi Won’s other best friend and partner in crime. Fellow H.O.T. enthusiast but her pop star allegiance proves fickle. Falls in love easily, falls out of love easily, ride or die, will break up with you if you eat food weird. 

Kang Jun Hee Yoon Je’s best friend, who is the King of Dance at the local teen nightclub. Super nice, The Unsalty Mom Friend. Has a secret crush on someone completely oblivious to it. 

Do Hak Chan. Is actually played by a 1990s boyband member, so an Excellent Meta Joke there. An army brat who transfers to their high school, Hak Chan is quickly adopted by the Busan 5. Has a huge porn collection, but cannot talk to girls to save his life. Gets dumped 4 times in a week. Most Likely To Dramatically Chase a Bus To Confess Feelings At The Last Possible Moment.

Bang Sung Jae Resident Fuck Up Friend. Loves the drama and hot goss and is a total motor mouth. Thinks of himself as a smooth talker but really just gets hit a lot. Perpetual 5th wheel. Please stop him. Most obvious case of Dawson casting.

Yoon Tae Woong Yoon Je’s older brother, and other boy-next-door friend to Shi Won. Works as a new teacher at the high school the other characters attend, but is actually a software genius who later quits to pursue a start-up company. He is also in love with Shi Won (#drama)

Review.

this drama sticks with you. it’s heartwarming, cute, sad, hilarious. a lot of feel good and a lot of rooting for the characters. there’s no “bad guys” or shoe’d-in antagonists/second leads. the 90s nostalgia is real and great. it’s easy to see why this was an incredibly popular kdrama that prompted two spin-offs

Drawbacks.

a couple places where the second-hand embarrassment is real. i almost died when a teacher started reading Shi Won’s smutty bandfic out loud in class

ship-baiting is a main element to the plot, since viewers are supposed to be kept guessing as to who ends up with who. the reply series are a little notorious for the second lead syndrome...or third lead syndrome...fourth lead syndrome??

Reasons to Watch.

most iconic pregnancy reveal of all time

nuanced/relatable characters and relationships

best kiss scenes of any kdrama i’ve seen

the girls own my heart <3 i love them so damn much

refreshing is a word that’s thrown around a lot with this drama...but. it’s refreshing!!

the 90s!!! this is a period-accurate piece in every sense of the word (dial-up! boy band cassette mix tapes! AWFUL HAIR AND MAKEUP)

i love these friends so much ;3; 

light twists and turns to make the Who’s The Husband game a lot of fun :D

it makes me genuinely happy to see a family that communicates by screaming at each other because that is 100% my family

Final Thoughts.

90s kid / how-i-met-your-mother-if-that-was-a-decent-show mashup of my dreams

#reply 1997 #kdrama #gizka does kdrama #!my post #gizkarec

[bloggust]

Anticipation

Anticipation

                 Tonight, after dinner, my mom asked me to play some songs she used to listen to when she was in high school. I found them on youtube, and played them for her. I suddenly began to think, how did she listen to music then, before even the era of cassette tapes? My mom told me that since her family didn’t have a record player that she had to listen to the radio for hours to hear a song the song she wanted to listen to.

               Just wait until hopefully the song pops up! I felt a little appalled. Nowadays, we are so accustomed to just a few touches on some glass screen and voilà, songs play so smoothly, but it took so much effort for my mom. But, my mom went on to tell me about the anticipation she felt when she was listening to a show that she thought would play the song. Turning the radio dial to the right frequency …waiting, waiting, waiting….and when the song came on, pure happiness.

               I took her words as nostalgic. However, I began to think of my own nostalgia. Were they any different? I sure felt a lot of anticipation about things that take mere seconds these days. Taking a photo on a disposable camera was a thrill; you wouldn’t know what you’d get until you went to the photo studio and asked them to develop the photos. When I called my friends’ home phones, I often tried to guess who’d pick up the phone. His mom? His dad? His sister? Would my friend actually pick up? Even as recent as four years ago, I remember my college acceptance. The acceptance letter came as mail, not as a portal decision, and I waited anxiously for the decision, whether good or bad, to come. I remember when I opened my mailbox one day, and when I saw a fat package inside my mailbox. Ripping the package open to the words “Congratulations” was one of the sharpest moments of ecstasy I’d ever had. I don’t think I had ever jumped up and down in happiness before then.

               As the world becomes an increasingly more informational and personalized world, I wonder if the sense of anticipation disappears from our society more and more. We don’t need to wait for mail from family and friends anymore. We can just video chat them at our convenience, maybe sometimes day by day. Back then, each letter was special, a part of us, and something to look forward to. But now, we don’t look forward to our messages as something hallow. That’s not to say that online messages are necessarily anything less valuable than letters, but it doesn’t seem too outrageous to think that we’d put more of our souls into a letter sailing across an ocean versus an instant facebook message.  

               I begin to wonder if nostalgia is remembering the little anticipations we used to feel. We always have little inconveniences around our lives, small struggles, that we often take for granted until something “fixes them.” These little inconveniences, however, could often build up excitement. Finally listening to a song you’d been waiting for hours. The gleeful resolution upon seeing a great photo come out of a black room. Finally receiving a package that you didn’t know when it’d come. The anticipations were inconvenient, but they made the results that much sweeter. Small things, small everyday things were all so much more triumphant, because you had to struggle for them.  And these small moments of victory are branded into our hearts as nostalgic, because they are our victories never to come again.

               I’ve always been a person to have trouble letting go of the past, and getting older isn’t really helping it, either. Not that I’m really that old at all, but I’m teaching a student now eight years younger than me, and I feel like a grandpa talking about floppy disks or home phones. Today, she needed to work on some vocab and I told her to look up some words from a book that we’re reading. Upon searching up a few words on Merriam-Webster, I asked her, have you ever used a dictionary before? A paper dictionary. And she told me that no, she hadn’t. I asked her if she knew how to use one, and she didn’t. I had expected the reply, but even still I found myself taken aback a little bit at her reply. While I don’t find looking up words in a dictionary all that nostalgic, last year, when my family was moving, I couldn’t throw away a thick defunct dictionary that I had. It was yellow and worn from use, from all the sleepless nights of my childhood tugged with novels and a mountain of words I didn’t know. But now, high schoolers, let alone younger children, have never really opened up the pages of a dictionary before. Never sifted through the smell of the dense pulp until they find their elusive word and learn something new. Finally understand the sentence of their book that made no sense without knowing a word.

               The rest of the night finished with the nostalgic waves of my parents crashing against modernity. My dad and mom alternated asking me to play songs from youtube, and I connected my phone to our speakers to play the songs for them.  They never hear the songs of their youth around, except for 12-2pm when a radio show host plays some pop songs from the 70’s and 80’s. But thanks to modernity, somehow, they can relive their memories at home, thrown back into a time when playing music from a phone seemed like an alien story.