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licuadora-nasir · 2 years

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My thoughts on Eldarya episode 10

So. This episode was full of filling (which was to be expected) and even though I was a bit curious to see how Erika would design the earth clothes, those scenes were incredibly long and dull (which was also expected). About at the half of the episode the pace quickens and starts getting interesting, so thank god for that.

I loved when Erika let them be dumbfounded with her display of what the internet is 😌 Humans are seen as weak and useless creatures (which is kinda understandable, lol), and seeing them realize how screwed up they are against them and how humans are much intelligent, developed and threatening than they first thought was truly a pleasure.

It's also great to know a bit more about the lore and fill some TO plotholes, like for instance, the explanation of the dragon stone and why Lance could promise them a portal seven years ago.

About the scene in Erika's bedroom.

I think Erika's situation could be perfectly described with this passage of Bohemian Rhapsody:

Spare him his life from this monstrosity

Easy come, easy go, will you let me go?

Bismillah! No, we will not let you go!

Lmao. Anyways,

I love Nevra as a character, he's greatly built-up, and this is the very reason why I also dislike him. Nevra has lived all his life among faeries as a vampire. And I pinpoint "as a vampire" because he's always known what his priorities were, who he was, and what he was supposed to do as a member of the guard. He has always belonged somewhere and has had the company of his sister and friends (at least before one of them was killed and the other departed, lol)

He's committed to the duty of protecting the HQ and eldarya, willing to do anything to assure the future of faeries, which makes him a jerk of a partner to Erika. "I can go alone", "I cannot let you go", "Maybe I should have come alone, It's too difficult for you" Erika is facing one of the hardest moments of her life, and Nevra sees this as a weakness. He cannot empathise with Erika's situation cause he has never had to give up his family, his life or everything he once was.

The ones who better handled it were Lance and Mathieu. Mathieu is going through a tough moment on earth too and his humanity helps him empathise with Erika. Lance doesn't belong anywhere, doesn't have any family or friends and has had the image of his parents in front of his nose without being able to interact with them. They don't try to convince her with words such as "our whole world depends on you" (ejem, Nevra, ejem), they gently try to explain why Erika staying there isn't possible.

I know Leiftan understands how she feels and he's probably one of the people who care most about Erika independently of the lom/crush, but he fails to comfort her in this matter because he thinks that Erika belongs in Eldarya. He tries, but he cannot be completely objective.

Regarding Lance, as Cintanna here said, I felt like he wasn't only saying sorry for her situation, but for everything he's done to her. The first hug the man has in years and the person he's hugging is weeping uncontrollably cause her destiny sucks.

Regarding Erika's past life

I'm glad it was finally confirmed that Erika was a rich girl. It explains why she sometimes was so naive and why she also had quite a temper. I've seen some people pleading they dislike her even more now, but to me, it's completely the opposite. I think that Erika is a hard-working woman that has learned her way through Eldarya's society without the help of her privileged family as a human.

In general, rich people's lives are easier because well, "money is the anthem", but Erika landed in a cruel world as someone who had always lived a life of privilege, pushing her way into the HQ and proving her value long before they discovered she was an aengel. Erika's trip in The Origins is admirable.

About her room. My guess is that her parents/one of them remembered her and rebuilt her room. They told the staff about her missing daughter, re-created a picture of her or something, and that's the reason why the butler/person who found her recognized her. We only know that some people forgot her, and others/someone did not.

My main complain: the time we spend with the LIs. You cannot pretend that I ENJOY spending half of the episode with Purriry and the last 5 minutes with my man cause you guys remembered that this was supposed to be an otome. Seriously, what the fuck are you doing?

Also, the illus are AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL, INCREIBLE, I LOVE THEMMMMM. Very, very pretty 🥺 I'm glad that at least they listened to our complains regarding the illustrations.

I can't wait for the next chapter 😩 rumours say that the intimacy in bed comes in the next episode 😌 I wish it's true and we can finally get down to business.

#eldarya rambling #my rambling #eldarya #eldarya ane #eldarya spoilers #eldarya 10x02 #eldarya episode 10 #eldarya lance #eldarya leiftan #eldarya nevra #eldarya mathieu #eldarya erika

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montosmadman · 3 years

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I was tagged by @soy-celeste ages ago. This was hard but also super rewarding because I really got to take a deep dive in the murky depths of my own music library. Thanks for thinking of me, Cata💕

Task: choose TEN SONGS that describe your personal aesthetic / how you see yourself. Bonus points if you write a little explanation for each song, that‘s not a must though.

List under a read more because it turned out really long and includes some very personal and possibly triggering mental health stuff.

I'm tagging @capitanogiorgio @hendos @furiousflamewolf @checoswin and @diegoalvesisgod

1. Nakashima Mika - 僕が死のうと思ったのは

The title loosely translates to "The reason I thought I'd die" or "The time I thought I'd die". Yes, I went there right off the bat.

Let's get something straight: I'm not suicidal. I have never been actively suicidal, despite struggling with depression and anxiety most of my teenage/adult life. However, what this song captures for me is the feeling when you're not actively thinking about killing yourself, but you do have this empty feeling when you think there's no point for you being alive. And that's something I'm very familiar with.

There are a couple lines I wanna highlight, even though the whole song hits me very hard whenever I listen to it:

その木漏れ日でうたた寝したら、虫の死骸と土になれるかな

If I lie down beneath the sunlight streaming through the trees, will I become like the dirt and insect remains?

あなたのような人が生きてる世界に少し期待するよ

If people like you are living in this world, then maybe it’s alright to hope a little too.

The first line does what I talked about to above: it's the feeling when you just lie down and wonder if anything would change if you just disappeared. The second line -- last one of the song -- has more hope. It's when you find a reason to believe in the future and realize there is still a reason to live. Personally, I'm trying to hang very hard on that last thought even when the world seems to be against me.

(Full translation in a pinned comment under the Youtube video)

2. The Ark - Little Dysfunk You

No essay here. I just needed to have The Ark on the list because they're the official soundtrack of my life, the first band whose album I bought myself, and who taught me it was okay not to fit in. I even have a tattoo that says "a little dysfunk" because my best friend and I have been relating to this song long before either one of us realized we weren't neurotypical. It's the very dysfunctional ode to our friendship, and I love it.

3. Elton John - Rocket Man

I feel like this might be a universal experience growing up neurodiverse and/or an outsider. You spend years feeling like you're alone in space, on another planet, and you want to connect with people but at the same time know that once you come back, you still won't be the person others want or expect you to be. The challenge is to accept that and realize it's okay and you don't need to change yourself for others. And it really is hard when you're raised in a society where the odds are stacked against you.

4. Sanni - Jos mä oon oikee

Look, I'm giving you something in Finnish too!

Sanni is one of the Finnish artists whose breakthrough I originally missed because I was living abroad. I only properly discovered her a couple years after moving back, when I was driving a lot for my work and hence listening to the radio much more than I used to. Her songs just kept standing out from the rest: her lyrics had this amazing depth even when she was singing about mundane stuff -- like, she was finding these painful truths I hadn't ever spoken but felt very clearly.

That said, I had to choose the one song that's actually very upfront with this idea of being an outsider and not feeling like a part of this world. The title translates to "If I am real" and that pretty much sums it up. It's a song about feeling lonely in the middle of a crowded room, feeling like no one sees you or cares what you do. I personally have this habit of taking a step back and observing people rather than getting involved -- and even when I do, it rarely feels like it's really me out there, because I'm so used to masking and acting like everyone else just to fit in, you know?

I'll finish this off with my favourite verse, translated by yours truly. The last line especially hits home super hard no matter how many times I hear it.

Rautatieasema maanantaina ruuhkaisa Kaikilla tuntuu olevan kiire ja suunta Mä oon ulkopuolella vaik seison sisällä Jos oon jo kotona miten voi olla koti-ikävä

The railway station on Monday is crowded Everyone seems to be in a rush and have a direction I'm outside even though I'm standing inside How can I feel homesick when I'm already home

5. Shobha - Last Exit To Freedom

Full disclosure: Degrassi has been one of my comfort series for many, many years. When this song was first introduced in Next Class, it hit me really hard because it was woven into this whole storyline about depression and suicide, which at the time spoke to me a lot. I repeat, I have never been suicidal, but I do get the headspace that could drive people into it.

However, listening to it again now, it's mostly the message of hope that shines through to me. It's a song that can take two very different readings depending on what your own baggage is. And the series actually acknowledges that later on, which I think is not only beautiful but also extremely important.

There's empty places in my life and I need to breathe There's empty spaces on the map waiting there for me

I've never felt more free than when I actually drop my responsibilities and just go where I want to go. I need that space to breathe, and that's why it has always been such a relief when I could just pack up and start over in a new place. Some might call it running away from my troubles -- and they wouldn't be completely wrong -- but that doesn't change the fact that I've always valued my own freedom above any arbitrary societal norms.

6. Scandinavian Music Group - Näin minä vihellän matkallani

SMG is another one of those bands I grew up on and have seen live several times, so they needed to be here. This song is more on the "aesthetic" end of scale than how I see myself. In fact, I've many times hoped I could be like the narrator of this song. I'll give you a couple of verses to explain:

Kun minulta viedään kaikki Autan kantamaan Ja kun lopulta kaadun Teen sen näyttävästi

When everything's taken from me I'll help them carry it And when I finally fall I'll do it with a flair

Minä vihellän matkallani Näin minä vihellän matkallani Jos sen on oltava niin Olkoon sitten niin

I'm whistling on my journey See how I'm whistling on my journey If this is how things have to be Then so be it

It's this carefree attitude. Laughing in the face of hardship and controversy. There's another amazing line about getting back to the saddle after you fall and swearing you'd do it all over again. I've never been able to do that, because I carry all my old failures and pains so close to the surface, and could never just shake them off with a shrug, no matter how minor.

But on another level, I keep hearing from people who I thought knew me that I don't seem depressed. And who can blame them: on the outside, it probably looks like I bounce back from hardships really fast, because I'm so used to masking my issues that the moment I'm physically capable of doing it, I will. So you might say this song is a picture of my outer self, though it hardly mirrors what's really going on.

7. Queen - Don't Stop Me Now

I'm a firm believer that if my life was a teen movie, this is the song I'd have playing in the final scene where I'd just go "fuck that" and started dancing with @mirkwoodstock in the middle of the parking lot of something. It's my ultimate party anthem, the one that always has me dancing and singing along no matter where I am.

Back when we were at the university, Nanna and I used to go to this rock'n'roll club in town and they'd always play Don't Stop Me Now close to the end of the night, and it really became our song. Like, no matter how shitty I felt, when it came on, I'd be there, and so would she. And that's why it also deserves to be on the list.

8. Blind Channel - Died Enough For You

Throwing a rare newer song into the mix. The moment I heard this song, I knew I'd be listening to it a lot. There's also an acoustic version if you're not a fan of the genre or if you just wanna have a different perspective. Blind Channel is also representing Finland in Eurovision next week, and I'm living for it.

Advertising aside, Died Enough For You takes me to some really dark times in my life. I've been in relationships, both romantic and not, where I've been carrying the other person and giving so much of myself, risking my own mental health (which was not that good to begin with) and not getting much in return. There comes a point where you have to prioritize yourself and admit that dragging yourself into the same abyss is not going help anyone. Unfortunately, usually it takes more strength to admit that and leave than to stay in the relationship that's hurting you.

I'm still talking to some of these people, but I've learned to give myself a permission to sign off when I notice that by helping them I'm only hurting myself more. Someone else's wellbeing cannot be my responsibility when I'm struggling to keep myself afloat. And I truly hope everyone who is supporting me also knows that.

9. Aqua Timez - 真夜中のオーケストラ

Title translates to "Midnight Orchestra". Yes, it's from Naruto. I discovered it back when I was still more involved in anime fandom stuff, and fell for it again year ago when I binged the anime when to lockdowns started, because I needed an escape.

And what an escape it was. Have you ever heard a song and immediately went "I need a tattoo of this", or is that just me? I'm probably not going to get a tattoo because I don't trust non-Japanese artists to get the kanjis right, but the song still captures something very real about loneliness that's not really visible but still very much there. Like, the moment when you meet a person you can truly relate to and for the first time realize you'd been feeling lonely all that time. That's what this song describes to me.

Below are a few verses towards the end of the song. I've bolded the one that first caught my attention (and which I still have as the title of my Japan sideblog).

真夜中の詩が叫んだ「僕ほんとうは独りが　嫌いだ　大嫌いだ」独りぼっちで　生きてゆけてしまうなんてこと

The song of midnight cried out "I truly hate being alone more than anything" I hate to go on living completely alone…

幸せなんて　小さなスプーンで掬えるくらいで充分なんだ分け合える人がいるか　いないかだけ

All I need is being able to scoop happiness with a tiny spoon so long as I have someone to share it with

(Full translation)

真夜中の詩は叫ぶよ「僕ほんとうは　僕ほんとうは　淋しかった」太陽の眩しさに　かき消されても

The song of midnight cried out "I was truly, truly… lonely" Even if I were to be erased by the sun's radiance

10. Jenni Vartiainen (Apulanta) - Mato

This song, named "Worm", was originally released by Finnish rock band Apulanta in 1997. The lyrics, while they might make sense as individual statements, are basically gibberish when you combine them into one piece and try to understand the meaning. There is none. Anyways, the version I chose is a remake by another artist, first performed on the Finnish version of The Best Singers format. It doesn't make any more sense, I just like it better because Jenni is hot and she made it so much fun.

And the reason it's on this list? Welcome to my brain, folks! Sometimes, especially when I'm overwhelmed by lots of external stimuli, my mind tends to just wander wherever the hell it pleases and make connections even I don't get. It also likes to forget the stuff I said just a second a go, so I can switch subjects on the go without even noticing. It's very soothing to have music that doesn't require me to make those connections when that happens.

And now, I shall close this massive post with the first verse of this masterpiece:

Minä tahdon ulos, tahdon ulos kattilasta Minä tahdon pelastaa vielä sinutkin kiehumasta Minä tahdon lentää ulos vessan ikkunasta Minä tahdon tietää kaiken teidän karkkimaasta

I want out, I want out of this kettle I also want to save you from boiling I want to fly out of the toilet window I want to know everything about your candy land

Stay safe and take care of yourselves my dears💕

#tag meme #long post #music #neurodiversity #mental health #tw suicide #tw depression #tw mental health #tw toxic relationship

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princeescaluswords · 4 years

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Why Call It Racism?

I’ll start with what should be an unnecessary disclaimer: This is my opinion.

I had a friend complain that he couldn’t criticize a character of color without being called a racist. Well, I’m sure that it feels that way sometimes, but you can criticize/dislike characters of color, it’s just that – like everything else you might do in this world – how and why you do it is also important.

It’s important to remember that racism takes many forms, especially in entertainment. It’s not always some white bro with a Confederate battle flag decal on his pick-up truck screaming hatred at black people while wearing a white sheet. It can be double standards, prioritization, and editing. It can be an audience seeing Colin Kaepernick kneeling during the national anthem as unpatriotic and dangerous, but that same audience celebrating automatic-weapon-armed protestors on the steps of state capitals defying anti-pandemic civil instructions as the Spirit of America ™. If you ask the people angry at Kaepernick, many of them will insist that his race has nothing to do with it.

I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that Heroes of Color have a difficult time in fandoms. When I say Hero of Color, I mean a character of color that the narrative, that the dialogue, that the actors, that the producers, that the advertisements indicate should be admired and that their actions are presented as positive. I mean characters, for example, like Finn from Star Wars, Iris West-Allen from The Flash, and – the one I am most familiar with – Scott McCall from Teen Wolf. They have all been the target – not just of fandom disinterest, though they are ignored quite a bit – but also of fandom hatred.

I’m going to go over what I see as the main manifestations of subtle racism in fandom and I’ll be using examples from the Teen Wolf fandom, because not only is it the one I’m the most familiar with, but it’s also super easy with multiple characters of color being targeted.

If you can state that you hate a character of color, but you cannot or aggressively will not explain why you hate them, then people might suspect you are influenced by racism. For example, if, in 2020, you still think Alan Deaton is shady and a secret evil mastermind, even though 100 episodes revealed no agenda from him other than his desire to help others on his own terms, you could be reacting to the racist archetype of the Magic Negro, where the black character exists to help white characters.

If you criticize a hero of color for behavior and use it to condemn them but turn around and excuse a similar or even worse behavior from a white character, then people might suspect that your employment of a double-standard is influenced by racism. If you argue that Scott McCall’s thoughtless comment in Magic Bullet (1x04) about Derek’s accusation that the Argents burned down his house (“Well, then they had a reason”) is justification for Peter and Derek cornering a half-naked Scott in a darkened locker room and mentally violating him, but you also argue that Derek breaking into Scott’s home, lurking behind him, assaulting him, and threatening to kill him, does not justify Scott and Stiles having him arrested for Laura’s murder, you are holding them to a double standard. If you criticize Kira, in danger of being consumed by her fox spirit due its manipulation by Theo and the Dread Doctors, for honoring her deal with the Skin-Walkers in return for their help and sending Theo underground, but you think that Liam constantly threatening Theo with being sent back underground is a sign of their blossoming romance, you are holding a pretty big double standard.

If you edit the actions of a hero of color to make them look bad and you edit the actions of an antagonist against a hero of color to make them look good, then people might suspect your editing is influenced by racism. If you claim that you don’t like Scott McCall because he ditched Stiles for Allison and then Isaac by editing the story, you might be looked at suspiciously. The only person that Scott ditched was Allison, once for Stiles, and agreeing with Isaac over Stiles for 20 seconds is not ditching. If you claim that you don’t like Scott because he treated Derek as a villain in Season 2 for no reason, pretending that he didn’t abandon Jackson to death, endanger Isaac’s freedom, seduce an underage Erica, have Scott beaten for defying up to stepping on his throat, kidnap Stiles, kidnap Jackson, attempt to murder Lydia in Scott’s own home, and then lie to Scott once more, you also might be looked at suspiciously.

If you prioritize the white characters in your fandom pursuit even in defiance of canon or common sense, then people might suspect that you are influenced by racism. If you create a gifset of the Hale Pack, with Derek as Alpha, Stiles as Emissary, Peter, Isaac, Erica, Liam, Jackson, and Lydia (Lydia is a mighty stretch, yet sometimes they even include Allison), some people might suspect you only care about white people. If you don’t see a problem that Talia Hale features in 4128 Teen Wolf fanfiction stories on AO3, when she was dead 6-10 years before the start of the show and only appeared in flashbacks in two episode – one of which she had no words because she was a wolf, but Noshiko Yukimura only features in 328 Teen Wolf fanfiction stories on AO3, when she was in 16 episodes. If Talia Hale is cool-as-hell because she’s a full-wolf shifter and a powerful matriarch who deserves to be explored, why doesn’t a 900-year-old cool-as-hell celestial kitsune deserve it as well?

Disliking Scott McCall doesn’t make you a racist. But you can’t really blame certain members of the fandom for suspecting that racist thought does influence your dislike when we’ve seen a vast majority of people heavily invested in defying the show’s premise that he’s a good person and a hero. You can’t really blame members of the fandom for suspecting racist thought for influencing fandom when they see well-established racist tropes applied to characters of color. No Scott fan pushed the ‘Scott is sexually obsessed with Allison which is why he doesn’t work with Derek’ trope, they only pointed out that the ‘sexually obsessed’ stereotype has been historically assigned to Latinos. And it’s not just Scott. How many people force Boyd into the silent giant stereotype when Sinqua Walls is only an inch taller than Isaac’s actor?

And as I stated at the top of this essay: it’s not just Teen Wolf. Finn from Star Wars was portrayed as lusting after another man’s woman and/or infantilized. The actress who plays Iris West-Allen from The Flash has had to defend her character publically. It’s not unreasonable when someone criticizes a Hero of Color to wonder if it’s just another example of a wide-spread phenomenon.

#teen wolf fandom problems #fandom racism #scott mccall defense squad

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taetaespeaches · 3 years

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favorite albums of twenty-twenty:

I’m indecisive, so disclaimer lol. But I wanted to be self-indulgent for a moment and share my very favorite albums of 2020. In a year where I felt both alone and lonely, music was massively important to me. I tried to limit this to my top ten but I’m too indecisive and a lot of amazing music came out this year so there’s eighteen albums lol. Why not. So yeah, enjoy or ignore, I just had the urge to do this. (This isn’t in order except BE, D-2, Maria, and Map of the Soul: 7 are all definitely in the top five.)

Also, if you see this and want to do your own, tag me! I’d love to see your top albums <3

↬ BE — BTS

⟶ Top tracks: Telepathy, Blue & Grey, Fly To My Room, Disease, Life Goes On

I mean come on. This was the pandemic album we all needed and I will forever be grateful for this masterpiece. I think this is an album that will grow with me and will kind of act as a companion throughout my life. The musicality, the lyrics, the variety, all of it, it’s just perfection. It feels like a friend who gives you comfort but also makes you confront your emotions, and that was everything I needed this year. I will forever be obsessed with this one. BE is my friend.

↬ D-2 — Agust D

⟶ Top Tracks: People, Moonlight, Daechwita, What do you think?, Dear my friend

Agust D came back and he fucking owned it. The amount of pure talent and passion in this mixtape is un-fucking-real. Yoongi is just unbelievably talented and this album perfectly displays that. Plus, these songs have been my ride or die since May, like, there isn’t a week that goes by that I don’t listen to this album in full at least once. Just incredible.

↬ María — Hwasa

⟶ Top Tracks: LMM, Maria, Intro: Nobody Else, WHY, I’m bad too

This album is so connected to my fucking soul. I swear, Ahn Hyejin and I’s emotions are so similar and the way we process them is soooo similar, this album just honestly means the world to me. Plus, it’s amazing. Every song is a masterpiece. Obsessed. Much like D-2, I listen to this album at least once a week. And the number of times I have cried listening to it is unreal. Intro: Nobody Else is very much how I felt this year and LMM has made me cry more times than I care to admit. This album makes me feel what I’m feeling, gives me comfort, and helps me pick myself back up again. Another one that will grow with me. This year through the loneliness and in times that I felt I had no one, this was my companion.

↬ MAP OF THE SOUL: 7 — BTS

⟶ Top tracks: Black Swan, Interlude : Shadow, My Time, ON, Friends, Moon, We are Bulletproof: the Eternal, Outro : Ego

Come onnnnnn. Perfection!!!! Quite literally the album that has been there with me through every step of this pandemic. I still cry watching the Ego mv. Why? No clue, just makes me sob tears of happiness. Black Swan? Possibly one of my very favorite songs EVER. OF ALL TIME. My Time? Relatable as fuck. Friends? The cutest thing I’ve ever heard. Moon? I’m sobbing again, that’s my emotional support Seokjinnie. Just, the album is a goddamn masterpiece, I don’t care who disagrees, my opinion is fact on this one.

↬ love is not dying — Jeremy Zucker

⟶ Top tracks: full stop, oh, mexico, hell or flying, lakehouse

Jeremy is another one that I just feel emotionally related too. Like I just get what he says and means and it hits me right in the heart and mind and gut. Another companion album. I think full stop is one of the most relatable songs I’ve ever heard- lyrically and the way it builds and becomes a bit chaotic… like whoah. I feel that in my chest. Also, oh, mexico is another song I related to so hard this year. This album has just made a massive impact on me and I love it.

↬ folklore — Taylor Swift

⟶ Top tracks: seven, peace, the lakes, the 1

So Taylor surprised everyone with an album. What the fuck, ma’am? This is my second favorite Taylor album to date, second to only her second surprise album of the year. Like what? I’ve cried listening to this album and absolutely sobbed listening to seven. She just really popped off with this one and I don’t think I need to explain to you all why this album is so good. If you’ve heard it, you know.

↬ evermore — Taylor Swift

⟶ Top tracks: ivy, cowboy like me, long story short, coney island, gold rush

Oh here we have another surprise album, and now my favorite album by Taylor. I think this album perfectly displays Taylor’s insane lyricism better than any of her works. This album just hit really different for me, every song was my favorite on first listen and I still have the hardest time picking favorite tracks. It’s just beautiful and it’s great and I love it a lot.

↬ SAWAYAMA — Rina Sawayama

⟶ Top tracks: Fuck This World (Interlude), Tokyo Love Hotel, Bad Friend, Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)

Have you heard it? If so, you know why it’s on this list. Pop perfection. Rina is a goddess. That’s that. It’s just amazing. Rina is a visionary and this album displays that perfectly. Comme Des Garçons was the first song of hers I ever heard and I was immediately obsessed. Next level, this woman. A queen.

↬ Petals For Armor — Hayley Williams

⟶ Top tracks: Crystal Clear, Why We Ever, Over Yet

Wow. Just, bless Hayley for this. Crystal Clear has quickly become one of my very favorite songs ever and Why We Ever is a little too relatable. And I distinctly remember hearing Over Yet for the first time in May and feeling joy for the first time since the pandemic started. This album is one to listen to when you’re mad, sad, when you need comfort, or when you’re ready to heal. Honestly, another companion.

↬ Nectar — Joji

⟶ Top tracks: Like You Do, Your Man, Sanctuary, MODUS, Run, Mr. Hollywood

I could honestly list nearly every song on this as a top song. Holy shit. Joji is another visionary. He’s insane and I’m obsessed with this album. I swear, every time I listen a new song jumps out as a favorite. Like You Do is a song that just means so much to me. A masterpiece. This album is my go to when I’m looking to get into my feels. Also Daylight isn’t listed in the top tracks but what a fucking bop. I’m just in love with this album. For real, obsessed.

↬ Plastic Hearts — Miley Cyrus

⟶ Top tracks: Angels Like You, High, WTF Do I Know, Midnight Sky, Never Be Me, Plastic Hearts

I’ve never been like an avid listener of Miley, just a few tracks, but this year I got more into her. And this album, goddamn. Every song is a contender for top track. How does that happen? Midnight Sky? Huge for me this year. Like I cannot tell you how massive of an impact this song made on me. Angels Like You is such a perfect song. High is a little too relatable. Just seriously, wow. Kind of speechless, I just adore this album.

↬ Positions — Ariana Grande

⟶ Top tracks: pov, obvious, 34+35

The way I cried my first time hearing pov. Ari what are you doing to me? That song is just such a beautiful way to look at love and this whole album is just so healing. A happy spot on this whole year. 34+35 is a thot anthem and I’m obsessed. This album is just another example of Ariana’s talent and we were all blessed to be able to hear it.

↬ CALM — 5 Seconds of Summer

⟶ Top tracks: Wildflower, Lover of Mine, Best Years, Teeth, High

I don’t care if y’all think it’s cool to like 5sos or not, this album is so fucking good. It far exceeded my expectations. Some of these songs are some of my favorites for the year. Wildflower is a fucking happy pill and Best Years makes me fucking cry. High is too relatable, and Teeth may as well have been written about me. And Lover of Mine perfectly relates to the most important relationship of my entire life. I’m gonna say it, Luke Hemmings is such an underappreciated lyricist. The man is good. I love this album a lot.

↬ Manic — Halsey

⟶ Top tracks: Finally // beautiful stranger, SUGA’s Interlude, Forever … (is a long time), 3am

I never really listen to Halsey so it took me a long time to give this album a try and wow I’m so glad I finally did. It became an instant fav. Honesty, anything Yoongi touches is a favorite for me so obviously that song would be in my tops, but Forever … (is a long time) is so relatable and just so fucking good. And Finally // beautiful stranger is honestly my favorite Halsey song ever. It’s stunning. This album is amazing. Period.

↬ Future Nostalgia — Dua Lipa

⟶ Top tracks: Pretty Please, Cool, Don’t Start Now

This album is just disco pop perfection and I’ve been obsessed all year. It’s the perfect album to listen to when you just wanna fucking dance and forget about all the shit that 2020 gave us. The perfect escape and it’s so so fun and the songs are just bops. I’ve probably listened to this album a hundred times because it’s just the perfect escape. If I wanna let go for a bit, this is my go to.

↬ Punisher — Phoebe Bridgers

⟶ Top tracks: I Know The End, Chinese Satellite, Garden Song

This album makes me feel some shit. Like holy hell we are in our feels. Phoebe’s songwriting is superb and these songs just hit. I honestly only listen to this album when I really need to get in touch with myself because it literally doesn’t allow me to avoid my feelings. But it’s pretty much perfection and I think it’s going to grow with me throughout the years. I just love it. I remember being blown away on my first listen, it’s just unbelievably good.

↬ Ungodly Hour — Chloe and Halle

⟶ Top tracks: Tipsy, Baby girl, Ungodly Hour

I don’t even know how to explain how good this album is. Like, have you heard it? You get it. These girls went the fuck off and all we can do is thank them for it. Thank you for your service ladies. This album is just a vibe from start to finish. And Ungodly Hour is one of the best title tracks of the year. That’s just that on that. Give them all the awards.

↬ IS ANYBODY OUT THERE? — DPR LIVE

⟶ Top tracks: OH GIRL, NO RESCUE NEEDED, KISS ME

This album isn’t just an album, it’s an experience. This man takes you on a musical journey. It’s a story. It’s flawless. I adore it. DPR LIVE is so underrated and I can’t wait for him to get the hype he deserves. This was the most surprising find this year and I’m so thankful I found it. Just so god. From start to finish, you just get sucked in and then it ends and you’re just left like, whoah. Amazing.

#ayyyy i can't sleep so i thought i'd post this since it's been in my drafts for a couple days #bc why not i guess #bullshitting with liv #you could say music was a lifeline more than usual this year #thankful to all the amazing artists who put out music this year #we all needed it #top albums of 2020

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in-dire-need · 4 years

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OK, I’M SICK- Badflower

OK, I’M SICK was released in 2019 as upcoming band Badflower’s first full-length album. Every single track on the album has gotten its due share of the spotlight as the album climbed the billboard charts. A band that was once the underdog of the rock scene became a renowned name almost overnight. Frontman Josh Katz ties personal experiences into emotional stories to create the perfect blend of heart wrenching and riveting.

Opening track “x ANA x” serves as the perfect introduction to the chaotic world of Badflower. Its extremely powerful, vulgar, and aggravated sound welcomes all the chaos that is to come. Frontman Josh Katz had spoken out about his growing issues on tour before the creation of this album: he would have panic attacks every night on stage and could hardly stand to look at himself when off stage. His anxiety grew to such a high level that he was prescribed Xanax to calm down. “x ANA x” is written as a love letter to the prescription drug, which Katz had now developed a dependency for. He tells ‘Ana’ that even though she saves him from his demons, he can’t breathe with her around. He craves the feeling of being himself again, but he craves her more. He explains the awful life he lives without her, then the instrumentals slow down as an auditory example of the effect Xanax has on a person. He begs her not to let him lose control over himself, so he keeps her around as he destroys himself.

"The Jester” waited almost an entire year after its initial release to bask in its well-earned fame, when a well-deserved music video and an acoustic adaptation were released. Josh expresses that he feels like a source of comedic entertainment for others, as if he is only there as a jester. Everyone is just fucking him over, letting him run in circles for their own amusement.

The next track is an extremely emotional one and if you deal with sensitivity toward subjects involving depression and/or suicide, I suggest you skip past this paragraph. “Ghost” was first released as a single before being added to the set of the album. Badflower’s raw performance on The Late Night Show With James Corden is what attracted so many initial listeners to them. The lyrics depict the narrative of someone who has attempted suicide by self-harm multiple times, but has never succeeded. He thinks about how he is a constant let-down to his friends and a disappointment to his family. He wants to give in and try again, but he is worried that he will fail once more and that his pain will continue. At the same time, he wants someone to save him from this endless loop of self-destruction that he has caught himself in. He finally makes up his mind and attempts to kill himself once more. As the blood leaves his body and his vision goes dark he regrets not telling his family that he loves them and not leaving a letter. He admits that the thought of regretting what he did is so fucked up and, at the very end of the song, his last attempt succeeds in taking his life out of his hands. In another interview, Josh disclosed that the true inspiration behind the gut-wrenching, graphic track was fortunately not from a personal experience. He explained that during tour his mental health had severely deteriorated, as mentioned in “x ANA x,” and he was considering harming himself. Instead, he wrote “Ghost” to keep him from making that mistake for himself. Not only did this intent work for him, but possibly millions of people in the same situation. “Ghost” appears as a gruesome depiction of humanity’s lowest point, but actually serves as a beacon of hope for the many that are unfortunate enough to be living that reality.

Now that that emotional hashing is through, let’s progress through the rest of the album. The next wave of songs depicts individual stories of different people in extremely different situations. “We’re In Love” presents the conflict of a man struggling with his sexual identity as he begins having a sexual relationship with another man. He has never been with a man before and struggles with accepting who he is. “Promise Me” is a sweet-sounding track that expresses putting your all into a relationship just for it to be torn away from you as you and your partner grow older. This song was inspired by Katz’s fear of growing old and losing his loved ones. At the end of the trifecta, “Daddy” tells the story of a girl who was sexually abused by her alcoholic father from a very young age. The trauma permanently scars her, so when her father is hospitalized at an old age she smothers him to death as payment for all the years he stole from her.

“24″ returns the focus back to Katz’s own personal experiences in a sedated and calmed intermission. He reminisces about when he was younger and had a life ahead of him. He had hopes, dreams, and passion. In the present, he struggles with depression, anxiety, and drug addiction. This calls back to the continuing theme of Katz feeling worthless, as he states that his friends should let him die because he is too afraid to be alive. The next track was featured as a single, on the band’s EP Temper, and on OK, I’M SICK. Whereas “x ANA x” compared a drug to a person, “Heroin” does just the opposite. The song was originally released in 2014, five years before its release on the album. It is tied with “Ghost” for what is the band’s most emotionally raw performance. Josh knows that the girl he is with is wrong for him and is toxic, but he finds himself addicted to her. She treats him horribly, but he constantly finds himself going back to her. He knows that in the long-term he will escape his addiction to her, but cannot find it in himself at the time. It has become somewhat of an anthem for people that have been trapped in toxic or abusive relationships and has inspired many to stand up when found in that situation.

The calm atmosphere created by the last two tracks is destroyed as the hardcore, violent, and extremely offensive song written about people that are so afraid of change that they bring an entire nation down. Though many think that “Die” is directly aimed at Donald J. Trump, Katz has stated that it is not. Many of the lyrics point toward that conclusion, since many of the people that the song is truly aimed at are grouped in with Trump supporters. Keeping with the violent political scene, “Murder Games” solidifies Katz’s vehement stance on veganism and the consumption of meat. “Girlfriend” serves as yet another action-packed, graphic, and vulgar piece of insight into the real world. To put it simply, a man goes onto an online dating service to find love and becomes obsessed with an attractive woman’s profiles to the point where he imagines cutting her open and tasting her blood.

“Wide Eyes” continues the stories of people in horrible situations, telling the story of an altar boy who was sexually abused by the priests in his Church. He hid what happened to him from his loved ones in fear of being named a liar and being alienated from the Church. During the breakdown, he finally gives in and comes out about how the priests treated him. He accepts that he has become the shame of the Church and has been twisted into the bad guy. The album ends in the exact opposite place to where it started. “Cry” is a soft ballad about emotional pain that utilizes the use of metaphors and imagery to describe the action without actually using the word ‘cry’.

OK, I’M SICK has not only brought the band to an amazing place, but has brought Josh Katz to a better mental state. Thousands of fans worldwide have been affected by the words contained in this masterpiece, and have even been given the will to keep going. That being said, it is very clear that there are two continuing themes throughout the album: Josh’s personal struggles and the struggles of other people in these horrible situations. This album covers an extremely broad scale, ranging from suicide to internet stalking to sexual abuse. This not only raises awareness to these issues that plague the world, but serve as a message to all people personally dealing with them. By telling the stories of these people, Badflower has given real-world survivors a safe space to open up about their struggles and the memories that follow them. This atmosphere is what brings listeners to cherish this band because Badflower is more than just a band and OK, I’M SICK is more than just an album. Badflower is a home. A haven. Somewhere that, despite all the world’s troubles and grievances and sickness, you can feel safe. When most bands tell a story, that’s all it is. A story. By connecting to this vulnerable and powerless side of humanity, OK, I’M SICK crosses the line from story to message. It is a message telling you to keep going and to cherish the good that you have. It is a message telling you that the situation you are in now is under your control and that things will get better. Nothing is permanent, and that is both a good thing and a bad thing. So relax. Go enjoy yourself.

“Okay, I’m sick! Not the kind of sick that lands you in the doctor, Not the kind that makes you weak and then heals you stronger, It's the kind of sick that turns your legs into spaghetti. It’s the kind of sick that makes your blood burn and your bones heavy. The kind of sick that makes an atheist pray for Jesus. The kind of sickness that turns your power into weakness. And I'm sick of being sick for this whole fucking place to witness. And I'm living a sick life that most people call privileged. And they're kinda right, but I’m still sicker than I can cope with.”

#ok i'm sick #badflower #music

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aaronpullinteeth · 3 years

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This is something new for me. I'm gonna do a full album review for YUNGBLUD - WEIRD. I'll be going track by track, giving a rating out of 10 and a short review. Then I'll give the overall rating at the end. So here we go.

YUNGBLUD - WEIRD

Track 1:

teresa

9.5 / 10

This song is one hell of an opener. It has that anthem like feel to it. A sound that hasn't really been captured this well since My Chemical Romance did it with The Black Parade. You can hear the influence of that album on this track. It's pure emotion and scream along rock opera goodness. The lyrics hit a special place as they tell a real story too.

Track 2:

cotton candy

7 / 10

The most "pop" the album really gets. It has a very easy to listen to and boppy sound. While the theme of the sound isn't really PG it has that sound. Something YUNGBLUD is very good at. It's one of my least favourite songs on the album but for a pop song, it's still head and shoulders above most of what's out there right now.

Track 3:

strawberry lipstick

8.5 / 10

Making The Clash and The Sex Pistols proud. This song is full on classic British punk rock with a modern twist in the chorus to make it more accessible for a modern audience. If you want to get a nice introduction to the punk scene from the UK, you can do alot worse than this song. Truthfully, this was the first song by YUNGBLUD that made me fall in love with him. Just go listen.

Track 4:

mars

8.5 / 10

This song is all about the story and the message. The music can take a backseat to everything else. But that backseat is still awesome. A mark of a true artist is to stand up for what you believe in your own way. Making an anthem like this is something special.

Track 5:

superdeadfriends

7.5 / 10

An influence I wasn't ready for was Beastie Boys. Although this does have a bit of a throwback sound to the likes of 21st Century Liability it's a little more Beastie Boys. This one doesn't hit the same as some of the others but it's a great way to break up the album and is full of energy. A hell of a shot of adrenaline.

Track 6:

love song

8 / 10

The lyrics tell a darker story than you'd expect with a title like that. It's YUNGBLUD once again showing the world his heart. He can make himself vulnerable in songs like this. You can tell he wanted to have this build into something explosive by the end. That feeling of inner struggle with love as a reject is perfectly explained in this one. In a word, relatable.

Track 7:

god save me, but don't drown me out

10 / 10

The best song that has been released this year. When I said that Dom's great at making himself vulnerable, nothing shows that better than this song. Self acceptance and knowing that life is shit but you can get better. Suicidal thoughts and getting through it. "I won't let my insecurities define who I am." I can't say enough about this song. This album could have been this 13 times and it'd be great. Plus, that video! If you take anything from this, if you haven't seen the video, go watch it now. I'll wait.

Track 8:

ice cream man

8.5 / 10

Brit-Pop is back in full force with this one. This feels like it's right out of the 90s rivalry between Oasis and Blur. This is a good thing. This is a party song if I ever heard one. But at the same time, as is the norm with YUNGBLUD, the lyrics tell a much deeper story.

Track 9:

weird!

7 / 10

Joint with cotton candy for the lowest rating on the album, again for a similar reason, it's just a little too pop. The saving grace in this song for me are the lyrics. Which are nothing short of fantastic. The music just doesn't grab the same way as the rest of the album. However, again, far from a bad song. I'm talking by YUNGBLUD standards here. Which still puts it above most.

Track 10

charity

9 / 10

I don't know why, but I love this song. It's again very Brit-Pop but with a more Pop-Punk chorus. This is pure sing along energy. You hear this and automatically want to start jumping around the room, no matter who is in the room with you. You just get dragged along on this tidal wave of energy fueled by Dr Pepper and cheap beer.

Track 11:

acting like that (ft MGK)

9 / 10

How to do Pop-Punk in 2020. Whenever YUNGBLUD and MGK get together, it's magic. On top of that, they have the greatest drummer in the world (IMO) Travis Barker. There is nothing complex about the lyrics in this one, but there doesn't have to be. It hits all the right places and keeps you moving. The energy is straight early 00s in the best way. Can these 3 just do a full album together already?

Track 12

it's quiet in beverly hills

8.5 / 10

If you wanted something to take you on an emotional yet calming trip through the mind of an artist, this is it. There's something hypnotic about this one. It reminds me of some of the stuff Good Charlotte used to do, but with YUNGBLUD's own twist on it.

Track 13:

the freak show

9.5 / 10

This is how you rap up an album like this. A whole album about self discovery and acceptance in being fucking weird and proud. This sums it all up perfectly. Think of the album as a musical on stage. This is the last song they hit you with before sending you home. The freak show is like 2 songs mushed together but it works so well. Just get your best eye liner, your best lipstick, your best fishnets and vibe.

So, the whole album is amazing. There isn't a song that gets lower than 7 / 10 for me. I thing the overall grade I'll give the album is 9 / 10.

This is my favourite album of the year. I cannot recommend it enough.

#music #music review #review #reviews #album reviews #punk #brit pop #pop punk #alt rock #rock music #yungblud #weird

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jonismitchell · 4 years

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hey!! i haven’t talked to you in forever i hope you’re doing well. idk if you’ve answered this recently, sorry- top three on every album (totally put why if you want to, i love hearing people’s different opinions on this)

ahhh hey! i’m doing okay (as well as can be considered given the state of the world). i have not answered this question since folklore came out, so here’s a short opinion piece by yours truly. (under the cut because i never learned to shut up)

debut: - our song: listening to taylor swift sing from the “man’s perspective” for the first time is something that can be so personal. i’m pretty sure that this is also the first taylor song i ever heard (in 2012) so i have some degree of emotional attachment to it. - invisible: cause i just wanna show you! she don’t even know you! visceral flashbacks of playing this on loop while watching ever after high and harry potter videos in, like, fifth grade. truly describes my pining for every single person i’ve ever liked oops - should’ve said no: she’s so righteously angry and i love it. also the country accent is so strong here and i am absolutely obsessed with that.... legends only. anyway this is your reminder not to get back with your scumbag ex.

fearless: - love story: this is a classic! this is literally a classic. god the forbidden love, the happy ending, this implications of this being one of the biggest hits of her career.... it is The Ultimate Taylor Swift Song and we all just have to respect that. also a healthy dose of “the man’s perspective.” she SAW that film before and she changed the ending!! i cannot :) - come in with the rain: her vocals on this song are so dreamy and the song is really sweet. i think it manages to be lowkey and straddle how fucking dramatic being a teenager is with a lot of class that most of fearless doesn’t access. it’s a good song! - you belong with me: hey it’s the lonely hopeless romantic anthem! yes i know i’m citing the two biggest hits from fearless... they got popular because they’re super good okay! i would argue that the songwriting here is very classic taylor and it’s also super sweet :)

speak now: - last kiss: ugh this really is an amazing breakup ballad. it’s full of amazing one-liners like “you can plan for a change in the weather and time but i never planned on you changing your mind.” i can’t believe how brilliant the whole song is and it’s even more impressive when you remember she wrote it alone. cannot wait to hear the updated vocals but the shaky breaths in the original are perfection <3 - enchanted: okay this is actually my favourite speak now song but i thought i’d shut up about being a lonely romantic for more than five seconds! anyway i have projected this onto so many people... it’s so relatable and yet it’s super general and YET it makes no sense when you think about it... that’s my style of taylor swift song - the story of us: i love how blatantly unhinged taylor was while writing speak now it really speaks to me. i didn’t really like this one so much before but i went through a Thing and binge listened and now i am obsessed. love love love the lyrics and i think the production suits it well too

red: - holy ground: this is my ALL TIME FAVOURITE taylor swift song. i genuinely think these are the best lyrics she has written in her whole career.... “we blocked the noise with the sound of you and for the first time i had something to lose?” no one is doing it like her they simply aren’t. this song is absolutely perfect.... i don’t really have words to describe it i just need everyone to appreciate my taste for a minute - treacherous: gay little taylor swift. the whole idea of forbidden love crops up again here and i have to say i love it. i swear to god the vibes... the quiet confessional on the verses that explodes into this huge ranting bridge? that’s it that’s it that’s one of the best songs of all time man miss swift is an icon - state of grace: love is like a religion, perhaps. this contains such a wonderful extended metaphor and utilizes a bunch of different writing tactics so well. i sound like a broken record at this point but this is a good song! and yes i project it onto lucas (i’m fine to say that no one is reading this much)

1989: - wildest dreams: oh just say you’ll remember me! it’s the songs about doomed love that always get me, something forbidden, something you have to keep private for fear of it being destroyed. side note, everyone who thinks a song as good as this is about harry styles can fight me. taylor pulled this out of my personal diary in sixth grade and it hasn’t stopped being relatable since - wonderland: oh you guys know i love a literary reference and wonderland is so good. haven’t you heard what becomes of curious minds is also really gay so the song works well for me. oh and a special shoutout to everyone who removed a tattoo because of this song, i hope you’re doing real well - style: very happy that i never think of anyone in particular when i listen to this banger and instead just enjoy it like a normal person <3 i remember not understanding the hype until binge listening to 1989 one day in eighth grade and being like “oh i get it now” so there’s that (shoutout to this love for nearly being on this list)

reputation: - dancing with our hands tied: this is another one of my all time favourites! the pining, the gay vibes, the love that dies in secrecy... it basically goes through my list of how to be a good song and ticks my requirements off one by one. i love how anxious the production is and her emotion while singing it on rep tour. karlie kloss fucking fight me challenge. - new year’s day: this quiet subtlety of this love ballad gets to me... it was my favourite when i originally listened to reputation and hasn’t fallen out of the top three since. i think it highlights taylor’s songwriting abilities and her ability to make me cry, both very important aspects of music - delicate: this is another hopeless romantic pining song! how many are we up to now? i really think delicate is the essential crush song that describes basically every feeling i’ve ever had. and unfortunately, up to this point, it has all been delicate :/ at least i have the solace of sharing problems with a talented millionaire

lover: - cruel summer: this really is THE fucking song for me... it encapsulated my ninth grade year, it makes my heart hurt, it’s line after line of pain to me personally. i have no idea what miss swift is banging on about here (and i prefer it that way) but it really just means a lot to me! another song that sounds like my diary entry and is also completely inaccessible, i don’t know how she does it. - the archer: i love the moment where taylor swift decided that she was going to give those of us with anxiety a theme song every single album, and i think the archer is a definite highlight of her whole career. the subtle dreampop influences and the confessional vibes make it exactly what i wanted from lover, and also it hurts me emotionally in ways i can’t fully articulate. - lover: see, i do have a heart! listen, i’m only fifteen years old but i know i want this song to play at my wedding. it is so quietly romantic and perfectly sure of its own goals. it does not seek to accomplish any other goal than being a love song. i started thinking about the lyrics while writing this and now i have to go cry in a corner. (shoutout to cornelia street for nearly being on this list)

folklore: - mirrorball: right on holy ground’s heels for the dubious honour of being my favourite ever taylor swift song, mirrorball describes my Whole Life so unfortunately i’m considering suing miss swift herself. i just think that it speaks to me in ways that would require a whole essay to explain.... let’s just not - august: here’s your mandatory hopeless romantic pining song. did i mention i nearly cried to this on the day of release? i think that she Gets It. i don’t know taylor and i don’t entertain delusions of her knowing me but man she really just plucked the core of my whole love life and said “here’s a song about it, will you shut up now?” back when we were still changing for the better... i need a minute - betty: definitely influenced by the stellar performance at the acms! or maybe i just love listening to taylor openly singing about girls.... i just have a lot of feelings about the emotional resonance about the grand romantic gesture this song builds up to! the key change! the storytelling! kissing on the porch in front of all your stupid friends! this is what taylor swift is all about (shoutout to illicit affairs, my tears ricochet, and this is me trying for nearly being on this list)

#loudwithlaughter #asking with you #this is just 1500 words about how much i love random songs

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monkey-network · 4 years

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World Building w/ Monkey

There can be many series in general where the world it takes place in struggles to leave a lasting impact on you (pic above unrelated). That perfect balance between immersion and comprehension.

Ideally, you want to land right in the middle, next to Donkey Kong, where you’re given a world to think about but you aren’t loaded with questions the product purposefully won’t answer. But where this can get muddled up is with the addition of consistency, memorability, logic, whether it all mattered. It no doubt gets messy when you start examining what made sense, what didn’t add up, why were certain things in certain places, what importance does the world have. There can be so many variables, and it’s largely subjective to each viewer’s critical and investment levels that I don’t even know where to begin with this rant. How about...

Steven Universe. I of course didn’t go into this series expecting a lot of exploration, but at the same time I visibly cannot give a rat’s ass about the settings for this show. Beach City is a white noise backdrop that can leave you begging for a change in scenery. I can see the personal influence that came with this, it can look beautiful, but it doesn’t help that very little actually happens in Beach City to where things would’ve probably been a whole lot cooler if the show took place in a metropolis or somewhere busier. You can casually remember certain locations, sure, but there is little to no overall memorable history and it makes the beach location feel mostly interchangeable rather than a place Steven genuinely calls his home. This is a problem for a lot of shows, ones I love included. You can have locations that in the back of your mind go, “Hey I know that place,” but unless it’s a location that actually has some weight on your mind, you’ll remember it but you won’t probably care as much.

I hardly believe Beach City is for Steven what literal Hell is for Doomguy

And one might say, “Monkey, SU is mostly character focused, the world is supposed to be secondary.” To this, I gotta ask, what makes the town important to Steven? Exploring Steven’s character crisis among everything else is fine, but where SU staggers internally is that it could’ve given us better insight as to why Steven bothers to stay in this one place when he has the option to freely explore the world beyond having the dangers come to him at supposedly inconvenient times but doesn’t. It's like Beach City is this isolated trouble magnet that never shares why problems only happen in this one place or random, equally isolated and forgettable locations. This is where I gotta bring Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.

Diamond is Unbreakable’s Morioh-cho is more than just Josuke’s hometown, it’s a place where impromptu phenomena happen and gives the town that adventurous livelihood while giving us a simple explanation as to why we’re staying here instead of traveling the globe like its predecessors. Every place, from Tonio’s restaurant, the docks, the ghost alley, to the transmission tower Superfly, adds to both the town’s history and the overall Jojo universe, even when this story is isolated in it of itself. Additionally, even when you could change the location to a metropolis or whatever, the anime especially gives Morioh that memorable style to where it can be difficult imagining the story taking place anywhere else. The biggest factor is the main villain Yoshikage Kira, a man whose entire existence is to live among the small town citizens as a stand wielding serial killer. He is that looming threat, killing and evading exposure, and adds to the value of Josuke and his squad being the protectors of the place they call home. Diamond is Unbreakable is a character focused story like Steven Universe, but JOJO does a better job making its fixed location matter in the long run. Good world building shouldn’t just be about what a place looks like, but what do the characters make in them.

This isn’t to say Beach City is a terrible world, it’s far better than what games like Destiny, Anthem, World of Warcraft, and such have to where you honestly have to read a bunch of wikis and in game logs to understand why you should give a fuck. This is where lore comes in and lore does not and should not equal world building. A golden rule for me when it comes to media is that the best media is easily accessible media, and lore complicates that accessibility; lore should be complimentary and not obligatory or important to understanding things. It’s like seeing a desk covered with school supplies, if world building is expressing the details of said supplies like whether the owner has a habit of biting his pencils or folding his books a certain way, lore is unnecessarily explaining why the pencils and books were made. That isn’t to say that the rules of what exists shouldn’t matter, but lore is that extra step that you shouldn’t try to worry about when it comes to expressing/understanding your rules organically.

Take Beastars, a definitive series where the rules of society are highly beneficial to the story. It never feels like Paru skimmed through how the animal characters function, and any questions that come up either are or can be fairly explainable. Like, why aren’t insects considered citizens when even fish get privileges? You can look at the series and go, “Maybe since insects are tiny and can live on their own, Itagaki considers them the wild animals of this society,” without feeling like you’re pretentiously speaking for the author. The universe of carnivores and herbivores not only are what pushes our protagonists to essentially break the known expectations and limits of their birth right, but you can have an entire chapter where Legosi or the others are barely in it, & the story details with the character you’re reading about, say Sebun, Yafya, or Legom, are so captivating that it feels just as organic when we see the MCs again. The city itself is much a character in this story and like the titular Abyss from Made in Abyss, Far Far Away from Shrek 2, or the Land of Ooo from Adventure Time, you can probably imagine wanting to be in that world yourself or seeing yourself comfortably in that world without even thinking about it. Good rules adds depth to a world that can keep your focus but makes you think. Too little trivializes your investment because there’s no stakes, too many feels like a college course and fuck that.

Like Minecraft, the main character isn’t really Steve or whoever you control, but the world that you’re able to create and warp to your hearts’ content. You are grounded to the aesthetic and format of the game, but what you do in the game adds unique character to the experience each and every time. Once you jump on, sometimes it all just clicks to you and that can be the best feeling. To close this rant out, I wanted to express my two favorite worlds that to this day stuck with me.

These places are generally opposites, but they do an amazing job in showing you everything without hardly telling you anything. Treasure Town is this busy and complex theme park looking place and you’re essentially with the characters as we roam the notable sites filled with details that can clue you in on what’s what. Does it all at a good, brisk pace and the colorful environment plays a major part in the story where the city is a symbolic extension of our main duo Black & White and the main struggle they go through in the film.

Yokohama does this but in a more subdued way. The whole story is centered around living in what you could imagine a generally realistic post apocalyptic earth. Not a whole deserted wasteland like what you’ve seen from Mad Max and the like, but one where it’s says civilization has begun anew; a vast landscape that means the world to our lead. And as life reset, we take things easy as relationships grow and seemingly one off moments can reappear as significant turns later on. The mangaka of Y2K leaves you mysteries, but you never feel lost as the main character Alpha is a compelling protagonist to journey with and it kinda makes you wish you were in her shoes, enjoying life in a world pretty barren but full of tranquil hope and easy adventuring.

In the end, I find these to be the best because they 110% commit to the main idea that makes world building such a meaningful concept to think about and invest in:

Escapism

#world building #writing #steven universe #su #jjba #diamond is unbreakable #Beastars #minecraft #tekkonkinkreet #yokohama shopping log #yokohama kaidashi kikou #dumb #Good Stuff

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casual-eumetazoa · 4 years

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i’m a perpetually broke grad student so instead of buying gifts for Christmas and birthdays i write fanfics or short stories for friends. Christmas 2019 i asked my best friend to pick up to three genres for his gift story and he told me political drama + classical literature + self-help. i added steampunk sci-fi to that and took that as a challenge...

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A Yule Anthem

(or how to end the monarchy and overthrow the government in twelve* simple steps)

a memoir by Erasmus Waynard Smith, a once royal circuit keeper

Season’s greetings to you, dearest reader. Although I have no way of verifying this, it is quite likely that you are starting this book on the dawn of a Yule, as this is the date my memoir is set to be released. If that is the case, then happy holidays! I wish you all the best. May the spirits of old Earth guard you and support you in all of your endeavors in the upcoming cycle of the Suns.

It is with an unsteady hand that I begin this story, for I have never intended for it to be heard. Indeed, the book you are projecting onto your cornea as of this very moment would not exist if it wasn’t for the efforts, diligence, and, if I may be so frank, stubbornness of a certain someone.

Thirteen months ago, you see, I was approached by Theodosia Pruce – a talented and perceptive lady from the distant, exotic shores of the planet Zanzibar. Miss Pruce was the one who convinced me to put my memories into words, for the sake of future generations. And although I do not give as much as half a bitcoin for the future generations, I was, nonetheless, swayed, by the most generous offer of a personal mansion on a resort world and a fully paid pension for the rest of my physical existence. And so, I am sitting here now, a tall glass of rapidly cooling Roomas juice by my side, and a touchscreen quill pressed tightly in between my fingers, trying to jolt my memory and produce exactly as many words as I was asked for, not a word more, not a word less.

Conveying all the truth and nothing but the truth about these events is an earnest challenge for me. I am an old man of a hundred and fifty now, dearest reader, and 2237 seems centuries away from the present. Back then, I was a young lad of hardly forty, and my mind was full of foolish desires, far-reaching ambitions, and cotton candy. I worked as a royal circuit keeper in her majesty’s planetary servers - a skillful but simple and honest occupation - and, like so many before me and around me, dreamed of preposterous things. Dreamed of success, and money, and love, and a glorious revolution…

Lean back, dearest reader, adjust your mindscreen settings, and let me bring you with me on a trip to the past and tell you how to accomplish what I have somehow accomplished.

step 1: identify your project

This story begins on a dark, uneasy, snowy evening, on the first day of Yule of 2237. The shifts down at the factories and the river banks were rolling to the end, and the work hours just came to a close for all the royal employees. I – your faithful servant – had only about arrived at my usual spot, the Drunk Mongoose pub, when a roar of thunder shook the ground and shattered the glass in the liquor cabinet.

-The forecast didn’t say no thunder snowstorm. - Said my best friend Arabella, as she fell down into a lumpy seat beside me. – I left Boy outside. If he will get struck by lightning again, I’ll never get the money to replace his burned-out batteries.

-Chill. – I advised, and took a generous sip of my drink. – It don’t seem to be a big one.

As if to disavow my word, the thunder crashed again, with twice as much strength this time. It pulsed through the floor, crackled in the walls and shook the roof above our heads.

-I ain’t likin’ it. – I whispered.

The lights and sounds of the pub were starting to flicker.

-Same. – Arabella retorted, clutching the rackety table with utmost strength.

Side by side, we watched as every single candle and kerosene lamp in the building lingered and died, blown out at once by a rush of electromagnetic wind. A low, irritating murmur reached my ears, and I realized that the entire holographic engine must have gone caput. For the second time this lunar cycle.

-Not again! – Came the exasperated moan of Octavius, the pub owner.

I sighed, and forced myself out of my seat, intent on helping the man with the machine.

-The entire network’s down. – Arabella informed, pointing at the blank projected screen of her pocket watch. – I’m so sick of this, Ersh. They’d promised to fix this back during the wet season!

-Sick of the government? – Yelled some drunken gentlemen from the other side of the pub. – Sick of his majesty’s empty promises?

-Yeah! – Another random visitor of the establishment supported the man enthusiastically.

-Well big mood, I tell ya. – The first man snorted. – Everyone hates them, but ain’t no one gon’ do a thing about it. So get back to your work.

Now I cannot put my finger on why that simple remark had such a profound effect on me… Was it the man’s voice, so full of despair and apathy and subdued anger? Was it my own exhaustion, the quiet rage at the thought of coming back home by foot, through the howling thunder and snow, in the absence of a sky bus? All in all, something must have short-circuited in my mind, as a sat back down, looked Arabella in the eyes and said, in a voice most confident:

-You know what? Let’s overthrow the government.

step 2: define goals and objectives

On my way home, I was drowning in feverish frenzy, drunk without wine and hopeful beyond reason. Oh, for how long I have dreamt of this! Many a morning I have spent imagining what it would be like to live on a planet fair, unburdened, free from the thralls of corrupt government and incompetent king. I knew that I wanted it, and I knew that every one of us wanted it, and, somehow, despite all common sense, I knew that I could do it.

I stumbled out of the pub and wondered on unsteady feet towards the docks. The snow swirled and raged around me, and my blurry eyes struggled to focus on my surroundings. I stopped at the slope of the northern canal and gazed into the clouded sky, feeling the snowflakes land on my eyelashes and the wind slash my face. I cannot tell you why, dearest reader, but I felt so utterly happy.

-How much for an uber these days? – I announced cheerfully as I approached the line of carriages waiting by the canal.

-Three fifty for a mile. – Echoed one of the drivers – an older lady, who was stroking the head of a white, shabby-looking horse.

-Steep. – I whistled, and swung myself into the carriage. – Hampton Hall please, down at the cross of Richmond and Westby.

She nodded at me, and pushed the minute counter switch. One word to the horse, and I could hear the sound of its metal hooves striking against the cobblestone. I half-sat, half-laid in my seat, staring at the hole-ridden ceiling of the carriage, and listening to the sounds of the dreaming city.

‘Alrighty then’, I thought, pulling out my notebook. It had hardly any charge left, so the bleak night mode would have to suffice.

“Tasks for tomorrow”, I noted down, and drew a flower on each side of the line. “Destroy the government from the inside. Make King Edmund step down from the throne. Profit”.

step 3: define tasks

It was only at noon next day when the realization of what I just committed myself to hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was enjoying my Roomas (the good kind – they don’t grow it right anymore) with my colleagues at the servers, and suddenly it dawned on me – I was going to take this planet apart, bit by bit. So powerful that was, so profoundly terrifying, that I had to excuse myself and sit in a locked bathroom stall, wheezing, my heart pounding in my chest. A few girls and a man must have heard me, as I was asked repeatedly whether I was okay.

I was not, but I was going to be.

I went straight home after the workday was over. I forced myself to gather my thoughts, and look rationally at this situation. This task, though ambitious, no doubt, could surely be accomplished. I knew this planet, knew it through and through. I knew politics too – it was the first thing I ever studied in university, and I hated it, I’ll admit, but it was useful nonetheless. All I needed was to sit down, think it through, and draft a plan.

And that is precisely what I did.

step 4: build your team

We met in the abandoned park by the lakes at dawn the next morning. The air was bity with cold and static electricity, and the seven of us could not help but shiver as we walked towards our gazebo. It was buried underneath a thick layer of snow, and I laughed as Arabella pretended to push the fluffy heap onto my head.

-Good morning, everyone. – I greeted, inviting them inside before myself.

-Skip to the important bit, please. -Arabella yawned, and took her seat at the table.

-Fair enough.

I took a deep breath in and gazed upon my freshly assembled crew. Arabella, a fellow circuit keeper and the fastest hacker I have ever met. Ambrose, a talented but not extensively successful journalist. Cecilia, an up-and-coming politician herself, but currently a secretary to one of the most famous politicians on the planet. Wilhelmina, a social media manager with hundreds of contacts at her fingertips. Josiah, an artist and designer, currently one of the official dressmakers to the king. Euphemia, a policewoman in the past, now a social activist and respected public figure. Matthew, a writer and a poet, who happened to be the lover of three separate government figures, all of different genders, all filthy rich. And me, a humble sysadmin with a dash of organization skills and arrogance to spare.

-Esteemed guests, - I said, and paused to clear my throat, - you all know why we are here. Now allow me to explain to you exactly what we will do.

step 5: create a timeline

-This is flippin’ insane, Ersh. – Wilhelmia exclaimed, glaring, and I was forced to shush at her.

-Quiet. – I reminded, and she swallowed hard, remembering that anyone in the building was at liberty to overhear us.

The upcoming revolution was now two days old. On the surface, we continued to lead normal lives, working, complaining, gossiping, and counting the minutes to the end of the shift. In truth, we were right in the middle of action. Meeting all over the city – in undiscovered pubs and inns, in unguarded computer cellars, on the rooftops of nuclear boilers, and in the dead-ends of dark alleyways. We communicated over quantum radio and made sure to burn all of our transmissions after every call. We were brave, and vigilant, and determined, above all else, to bring this to a close as soon as possible.

-But that is too fast. – Wilhelmia insisted in a hoarse whisper. – You don’t seriously believe that this will be over before the Yule ends, do you?

-Indeed, I do. – I replied, and had the displeasure of being poked in the ribs. – What’s more, it is the only way to accomplish what we set out to do.

-How so? – She questioned.

-Conspiracies are short-lived. – I elaborated, and shifted in my tight, deeply uncomfortable sit.

The server ventilation shaft was far from a pleasant place to be inside of.

-The longer it goes on, the more likely it is to fall apart. Especially as we begin to bring more people into it.

-But ten days, Ersh! – Wilhelmia repeated. – How would that ever work?

-Simply and elegantly. – I smiled. – Remember, my friend – I am brilliant under tight deadlines, especially when said deadlines are self-inflicted.

Wilhelmia chose not to argue with me – for she knew, deep down, that I was right.

step 6: adjust your plan accordingly

I did not get a wink of sleep on the fifth night of the revolution. The visions of failure haunted me like vicious yet intangible ghosts, and I tossed and turned in bed until the second moon grazed the sky. Giving up on sleep altogether, I got up, mixed up a glass of dehydrated water, and turned on the radio. I expected to be lulled back into calm by its soft, crackling static – but instead, I had my anxieties validated.

-Thank heavens, Erasmus. – The voice of Josiah erupted from the speaker. – I’ve been trying to reach you for hours!

-What is it? – I asked, and slumped down to the floor, my head dizzy all of a sudden.

-It isn’t working. – Josiah confessed, and I could practically taste his desperation. – Not a tad. He is listening to me, but he doesn’t believe me in the slightest, I fear.

-Okay. – I said, though I was as far from okay as one could be. – It’s fine. – It was not, in fact, fine. – Roadblocks happen. Let’s talk. We’ll think of something, I am sure.

And, unlikely as it was, we did.

step 7: be flexible

The sixth day flew by so fast; I hardly noticed the night arriving. Eleven pm, and I found myself on the top floor back row of a double-decker, moving smoothly on its set path, the electric engine buzzing and murmuring somewhere far below. Outside, the snow was replaced by a thick fog, with neither of the moons in sight. The bus was almost empty and deathly quiet. I sighed, turned to my left, and met eyes with Matthew.

-How many in total? – I inquired, my voice down, still aware of the potential danger of being overheard.

-Forty-seven. – He informed, and the hint of a smile touched his lips. – Which makes it almost a third of the entire government.

-Not enough. – I shook my head, unsatisfied.

-Not enough? – He pouted.

-Time is not in abundance. – I said, and he looked away, avoiding my gaze. – We need to accelerate. Do you agree?

He sighed, but nodded.

-Good. – I glanced sideways, and drew a spiral on the mist-covered window. – You know what to do, Matthew.

-Yeah. – He said, smirking. – Unleash them memes.

step 8: communicate with your team

All of us gathered together again on the afternoon of the seventh day, in a tacky, brightly lit and empty tea room. The forecasts mongered another thunderstorm, and the atmosphere was heavy still, but, somehow, it did not bother me in the slightest. I smiled as the maid droid placed a tray in front of me, and the smell of cinnamon and lemon zest reached my nose.

-We’re on the right track. – I proclaimed confidently, and took my acai rice pudding bowl and a steaming hot cup of Earl Gay off the tray. – Cheers.

-Cheers. – The team echoed, and we clanked our china cups together.

We spent the hour discussing the current affairs, congratulating each other, chatting, laughing, and feeling oddly optimistic about the whole endeavor. My step was light as I was leaving the tea room. We had a few challenges ahead, sure – but, overall, everything was going according to plan.

step 9: address any problems before they occur

Then the eighth day arrived, and, all of a sudden, nothing was going according to plan. News rushed in through the radio one by one; they piled all on top of each other, and right as I was leaving the server maintenance room to enjoy my well-deserved Roomas break. I felt drops of sweat form on my neck and roll down my spine as I scrolled through the message feed of my wristwatch. Nothing terrible has happened so far, I admitted – but it could. So shaky. So many opportunities for it all to go to hell – and in rapid succession. Three seconds later, and I was overtaken by fierce, unwavering panic.

It must have been twenty years at least of sitting in the memory cube closet, hugging myself and trying desperately to remember how one was supposed to breathe, when someone knocked on the door. The first aid droid, I realized.

-I have detected alarmingly high levels of adrenaline and cortisol. – The droid’s voice sounded even sillier than usual, obstructed by the door. – Would the gentlemen like some treatment? I can offer morphine drops or deep brain stimulation.

-No. – I yelled back through the closed door. – No, thank you.

-Very well, sir. – The droid responded. – If you will need me, I’ll be at my re-charging station.

-Yes. Fine. Now leave me, please. – I groaned, and gently bumped my forehead against the wall.

I cannot tell you why, but somehow, that brief exchanged kicked some sense back into my mind. I let go of my shoulders, took a deep breath in, and told myself – “think”. Yes, the opportunities for disaster were plenty. Yes, we were on shaky ground now, even more so than before. Nevertheless, not all was lost. In fact, nothing was lost yet, I realized. You see, dearest reader, the benefit of having anxiety is that you can foresee potential problems and overcome them before they arise.

Fifteen minutes later, I had a solution for every single issue that could occur in the last phases of the plan. I thought about it further over my Roomas (with just a few drops of morphine), then found an excuse to leave the server buildings for a brief pause. Outside, it didn’t take me long to find a kid aimlessly wandering the streets.

-Any spare change, sir? – The kid asked, big blue eyes full of sadness. – I am all out of coins to buy Fortnight mods.

-Just your luck, your little rascal. – I smiled, and ruffled the kid’s curly hair. – I’ll give you a tenner – if you can bring this, - and I handed him a memory stick, - to lady Euphemia O’Malley. You will find her somewhere in the city center, most likely close to the town hall.

-Alright, sir. – The kid said, and snatched the memory stick out of my hand even before I transferred the payment. – I sure will try.

I nodded, said my farewells, and felt completely tranquil at once. Whether it was the effect of having dealt with the problems, or the morphine kicking in, I had no clue.

step 10: learn to say ‘no’ and accept help

I took a break on the ninth day, knowing that the revolution was beyond my grasp at that point, and all I could do was step back and watch the dominos fall into place. I ended the shift early, and went to the ice rink up at Thatchley Square. It was full of preschoolers and noisy beyond tolerance, which prompted me to push my airpods deeper into my ears. I would take the majestic, sophisticated sounds of Ed Sheeran, Gwen Stefani, and other classics over the offensive modern chaos they played in public places any day.

Half an hour of skating back and forth across the artificial crystalline surface, and my muscles were starting to betray me. I sighed and leaned against the nearest wall to rub my aching thighs and ankles. Alas, I had not been built for physical labor. I was about to leave the rink, when something – no, someone – rammed into me at subhuman speed, making me cry out in shock and stumble backwards into the snow.

-Oh lord, - the someone exclaimed, - I am so sorry!

And I mumbled something incomprehensible in response, for there, in front of me, covered in snow and helping me get up from the ground was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Tall, lean and bright-eyes, she had bubblegum pink hair and a pierced nose and a tattoo of a rose on her neck. And she was staring at me… goodness me, she was staring at me as if she knew me.

-Erasmus Smith? – She asked, frowning, and my face lost all colour.

-Shush. – I said, immediately on guard. – Come to the dressing room with me.

We sat there, talking and drinking those awful food machine concoctions out of cellulose plastic cups, and she told me everything she knew about the revolution, and how she came to know of it. It brought me concern at first, but soon enough it left my mind, for I was told that she had no intention of upsetting our plans. And what’s more, she even wanted to join in – and take it up a notch.

-Out of the question. – I responded immediately, once she had laid out her scheme for crashing the entire political system. – We are not risking the original plan on a dare.

-But… - She protested.

-No. – I shook my head. – We’re sticking to our goals.

-Oh well. – She sighed. – It was worth the shot. Say… can I help you out, at least?

I considered it for a moment, then gave her a singular nod. It made her eyes glow with excitement and pride. Such a stunning smile she had…

-I have a different proposition for you, though. – I found myself saying. – What do you think about going to the holographic theater next week? With me.

-Oh. – She looked away, and a soft shade of blush touched her cheeks. – I’d be honored.

And thus, the exchange was not all in vain.

step 11: write tomorrow’s task today

On the dusk of the tenth day, all – now as many as fifteen – of us gathered together by the docks, next to the roaring powerplant, where the moons were shining, making the freshly fallen snow glow and sparkle. We drank warm beer, talked, and watched the dodo birds and the pterodactyls play and chase each other on the canal slopes.

-All set to run. – Arabella concluded, after we revised every minute step over and over again. – Shall we?

I paused, took in a full lung’s worth of fresh cold air, and said yes.

We followed the first sparks of the fire on social media, observed as politician after journalist after king’s man turned all against each other, throwing accusations, spilling dirt, and digging political graves for each other – and we thought it lit. I did not wish to stay there at the docks for the entire night, so I brought the meeting to a close.

-One last thing before we go. – I announced, just as the people were turning to leave. – Write down a tweet for me, people.

“All political parties on the planet have fallen apart. The entire government has resigned. King Edmund is stepping down from the throne to marry a commoner. Bitches, let’s party.” I finished, and every single one of us cheered.

step 12: celebrate milestones and victories

And bitches did, indeed, party the next day – party day and night as the biggest scandal of the century shook the planet to its core. I do not recall where I was for most of the Yule Tide. All I know is that by midnight I ended up in the town hall, which was utterly wrecked and overflowing with people. I came to my senses sitting on the floor, wearing nothing but booty shorts and an undone tie, and smoking weed through a pipe. It was the most splendid party I had ever attended in my life.

-To the revolution! – I shouted it, and half a hundred people – most of whom I have never met in my life – joined in cheerfully.

-All hail Ersh, - Ambrose added, - for without him, this wouldn’t have happened.

-All hail Josiah, - Arabella interrupted, - for if he hadn’t sucked the king’s dick, this wouldn’t have happened either.

-Oh leave it. – Josiah dismissed. – I’ve always wanted to do that anyway.

-When are you gonna tell him? – I asked. – That you aren’t marrying him after all, I mean.

-Well. – He shrugged. – I think I might actually like… do that.

-Wouldn’t that be funny, - Euphemia said, - if Josiah became a prince.

-Anything is possible now. – Arabella pointed out.

-Yeah. – I agreed. – Anything’s possible.

And that’s when yet another crucial realization dawned upon me, and made me instantly sober.

I have accomplished my goal – no question about that. Brought down the government, destroyed the monarchy, did away with every major political party – all like I had imagined. But the more pressing question was – what are we going to do now?

And here comes *step 13, dearest reader, which no one had the courtesy of warning me about. The step is to ask yourself: what in the name of holy fuck you are doing in the first place, and why.

I advise you to complete this step before all the subsequent ones, for it took me all but twelve days of the Yule to bring my entire planet into chaos, and more than twenty years to carry it out of it and back into order.

Which is why I always say to the young, overly ambitious people who seek my wisdom – before you fuck some shit up, you better come up with a plan of how you will unfuck it – or do not go fucking it up in the first place, my child.

Signed, Erasmus Waynard Smith.

#writeblr #writers on tumblr #original fiction #short story #steampunk #sci-fi #paradox nerd post

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keenainthecity · 4 years

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The Vanguard of the Renaissance: W.E.B. DuBois and James Weldon Johnson

W.E.B. DuBois, Nina DuBois, James Weldon Johnson

The Harlem Renaissance (1917-1935) cannot be discussed without first paying homage to the work of two men who defined what creative art was to be in the years prior to the beginning of the Renaissance. Their work, in some cases groundbreaking, endures even now and laid the foundation for the extraordinary work that was to come during the Renaissance. Thanks to W.E.B. DuBois and James Weldon Johnson, there was a path towards mentorship, financial support and international recognition for what was to come that transformed the Black literary canon. Here is a comprehensive look at their works prior to the Renaissance.

Dr. William Edward Burghardt DuBois (1868-1963)

"A black artist is first of all a black artist."

W.E.B. DuBois was a civil rights activist, historian, sociologist, author, writer, and editor. Becoming the first Black person in America to achieve a doctorate degree, he was educated at Fisk College, the University of Berlin, and Harvard. He became a sociology and economics professor at Atlanta University and was a founder of the Niagara Movement that eventually became known as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). DuBois was considered the foremost Black sociologist and philosopher of the 20th century.

Keena and her son Jimmy at Clark Atlanta University at the bust of W.E.B. DuBois

Dr. DuBois published his seminal work of art, The Souls of Black Folk, in 1903 which was a collection of essays on Black life in America. The text covered very culturally specific topics such as his thoughts on Booker T. Washington’s “cast your buckets where you are” urging to Black people. In an 1895 speech at the Atlanta Exposition, Washington proposed that Black people reject leaving the South, essentially submit to segregation, and instead stay in order to learn a skill and eventually get an education; DuBois named this speech “The Atlanta Compromise” because he vehemently disagreed with the notion that Blacks should stay in the South and endure the unnecessary mistreatment of “separate but equal” and should instead pursue a liberal arts education. Also, another essay, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings”, discusses a term he coined called “the double consciousness”-- the idea that Black people must always be aware of their “two-ness”-- that they live in both a Black world with different norms and a white world governed by norms mired in white supremacy. In contemporary society, the terminology most closely associated with this idea of “two-ness” is “code-switching”. The Souls of Black Folk was by far a different type of text seen from Black people at the time and cemented his position as a premiere leader of the movement against racism. To read the text in its entirety, check-out the full texts on Audiobook or the e-book.

Also in 1903, he shared his major ideology that the Black race “would be saved by its exceptional men”. Deemed the “Talented Tenth” (read here), he explained that Black people who had attained wealth and/or an education needed to work hard to be the voices and leaders of any fight against racism as they themselves proved that many of the illogical ideas about Black people to be unfounded. He also believed it would be up to this emerging class of educated Blacks to reach into undereducated societies and raise up others. It was from this idea that he pushed the literary community of the Harlem Renaissance who were of the “Talented Tenth”.

In 1907, he published his sarcastic piece “On Being Crazy” (read here) which is a first hand account of a Black narrator’s encounters with white people in the South. Taking place in a variety of public spaces such as in the movies or at a restaurant, the text calls into question the illogical systems of racism that contemporary audiences can relate to in this day and age.

He then became the editor of the NAACP’s Crisis Magazine and employed Jessie Redmon Fauset to serve as its literary editor in which a vast majority of the writers of the Renaissance were featured. He used the Crisis to publish more of his essays and continued his creative output with novels and histories throughout the rest of the Renaissance. To learn more about W.E.B. DuBois, check out this interview with DuBois scholar Dr. David Levering Lewis here.

James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938)

James Weldon Johnson was a civil rights activist and writer. A graduate of Atlanta University, Johnson went on to become the NAACP’s first Executive Secretary, investigating many of the unfair cases of racism and brutality happening across the country. In 1912, he anonymously published The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (a mostly fictional story about passing-- you can listen to the full text here) which he did not claim until 1927. During the Renaissance, he continued to produce collections of poetry including God’s Trombones and books of Black sermons. His sermons “Go Down Death“ and “The Creation“ are well-known and vastly performed texts that speak to the oratorical genius within the Black church.

In 1919, as NAACP Field Secretary, he had the unfortunate task of investigating lynchings and riots that were occurring-- naming it “The Red Summer” which is the name scholars use to describe that moment in history. Later that year, his poem “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” (written in 1899) was named the official “Black National Anthem” which is still sung today before major events in the Black community.

To learn more about James Weldon Johnson, watch this video.

Both men certainly set the stage for the creative output that came during the Renaissance, but also ushered in texts and ideologies that are enduring staples within the consciousness of Black Americans.

#HarlemRenaissance #w.e.b. du bois #Jamesweldonjohnson thesoulsofblackfolk liftevryvoiceandsing doubleconsiousness

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mst3kproject · 6 years

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620: Danger!! Death Ray

Buppa-duppa-da-dah… ba-dup-dup-dadda-da-dah! Yes indeed, while Radar Secret Service’s distinguishing feature was a lack of distinguishing features (honestly, it lacked features, period), Danger!! Death Ray’s is the second most persistent earworm in the MST3K canon. Only the Sad Mushroom Ukulele Anthem is worse. I guarantee you that Buppa-Duppa-Da-Dah will be the soundtrack to all our inner monologues for the next week – complete with Tom Servo going “wait for it… ting!” every time.

Radiation expert Dr. Carmichael has invented a Death Ray, which he shows to the UN on condition it be used only in the interests of world peace. At the summit in disguise are agents of the international arms dealer known as Scarface. They kidnap Carmichael and steal the Death Ray, and take them away to be used for nefarious and non-world-peaceful purposes! Elsewhere, the CIA or somebody drags agent Bart Fargo out of bed to put him on the case. He follows Scarface’s toy submarine to Barcelona, where the Death Ray is turned over to the mysterious Mr. Carver. It’s up to Fargo to find Carver before he can put his ill-defined plans for Carmichael and the Ray into action!

I don’t want to believe this movie was actually filmed in Barcelona. Barcelona is famous for its art and for architecture ranging from the Gothic to the Art Nouveau, which make it one of Europe’s most popular tourist destinations. Danger!! Death Ray makes the city look like a suburb of Detroit. That’s actually kind of impressive in a very perverse way. It’s as if they filmed in the Vatican and lit Michelangelo’s Pieta to make it look like a pile of elephant dung – yeah, it’s kind of amazing that they managed that, but… why? If your point is that even the world’s most beautiful cities have a seedy underbelly, then you still need to show us the pretty parts for contrast. If you actually can’t afford to go to Barcelona, that’s why stock footage exists.

At ninety-three minutes, the movie is a bit too long for its own good, and very little of what MST3K cut has any real effect on the plot – the beginning is particularly padding-heavy. Those of us who only know Danger!! Death Ray through the Satellite of Love missed the opening bit where the bad guys ambush the car taking delegates to NATO and take their places, but even in the bit we saw the opening drags. There’s the extended sequence of driving in the dark that serves no purpose except having credits over it, and then the whole bit with guys in suits walking through wherever the hell they are to get to the Death Ray lecture room. Surely the driving could have been cut down a bit and the credits extended into the White Guys Walking in Herds, to save some time and patience! The movie never again gets that slow but later chase or stalking sequences all go on a little too long, and there’s no reason to see as much as we did of things like the dancers at the restaurant (instead of seeing, for example, the nice parts of Barcelona).

The hero of Danger!! Death Ray is Secret Agent Bart Fargo, played by a guy named Gordon Scott who spent most of his career playing Tarzan or Maciste. We’ve already seen him in the Episodes that Never Were, in Goliath and the Vampires. Fargo’s got a lot in common with Brian Cooper of Secret Agent Super Dragon, and all of it is the stuff I spent that review complaining about: he’s introduced to us in bed, and he goes right back to bed with practically every woman who crosses his path.

In terms of establishing him as a glamorous secret agent, Fargo’s introduction is actually worse than Cooper’s. Cooper, meditating by his pool, was at least establishing that he can hold his breath for a long time, which comes in handy later when the bad guys nail him into a coffin and throw him in a river. Fargo is literally in bed, supposedly on vacation, and gets scared awake by two women who just walk right into his hotel room. Our hero, right here. Then, like Cooper complaining that he’s retired now, Fargo’s response to being told to save the world is that he doesn’t wanna, he’s supposed to be on vacation. I think we’re meant to assume that the UN demanded the best to retrieve Carmichael and his peace-loving death ray, but Fargo was going to Toshi Station to pick up some power converters, damn it!

Was this a thing in the sixties? Secret agents who would rather stay in bed? If so, why was it a thing? Is it supposed to make him relatable? I know I would rather stay in bed some days, but that’s probably why I’m not in charge of saving the world from guys with Death Rays.

In the man-slut category, Fargo is even more than a turd about it than Cooper because unlike Cooper, Fargo already has a steady girlfriend. He’s seeing his boss’ secretary, Roberta, and has promised her a trip to Majorca. In Barcelona, however, he is immediately captivated by Lucia, an artist who sits around painting female nudes while wearing very few clothes herself. I dunno about you guys, but if I met a woman who did that I would probably assume she’s not into the whole ‘heterosexuality’ thing. Then again, she asks him out, so I guess what’s actually going on here is the writers just thought it was hot. Fargo and Lucia hit it off spectacularly, but then a blonde he met on the plane turns up at his door and he immediately takes her to bed despite the sign around her neck that says ENEMY AGENT. Then in the closing scene, Roberta (remember her?) is trying to contact Fargo on his radio wristwatch, reminding him about that trip to Majorca, and he takes the watch off and throws it in the pool before running off with Lucia! Not even an I think we should see other people. What a prick!

At least nobody ever ties our hero into a death trap. When these bad guys want to kill Fargo, they use actual knives, guns, and other things that do not allow him more than half a second to think and get out of the way. The Society of Halfway Smart Villains approves.

All right, so besides Glamorous Secret Agent tropes, what else is going on in this movie? Does Danger!! Death Ray have anything much to say? Surprisingly, it kind of does. The very existence of the titular weapon seems to be trying to tell us something about the nuclear arms race. If you listen to Dr. Carmichael’s presentation to the NATO guys without the riffing, he explains what he means when he says he created a Death Ray to ensure world peace: it’s intended as a deterrent – nobody will dare to start a war if they know they might be Death Rayed for it! This was the justification for the arms race throughout the cold war, and it worked for the major powers, I guess. They got to live in relative peace while making smaller, less prosperous states do all the fighting and suffering for them.

The existence of a Death Ray probably wouldn’t change that, but Danger!! Death Ray isn’t really interested in that problem with the arms race. It’s interested in the other difficulty that periodically dogs our nuclear-armed world: sooner or later one of those doomsday weapons is going to get into the hands of somebody with insufficient understanding of the consequences, who might actually use the damn thing. The movie demonstrates that Carver is in this category by having him threaten Lucia and Fargo with the ray, which is completely overpowered for the purpose – a handgun would do fine. Of course unwise use of his weapon of mass destruction bites Carver in the ass, but only a little – he realizes that his burning a hole in the door of his secret torture dungeon is the only reason Fargo was able to get in. This isn’t the most emphatic way for the movie to make its point, but if they couldn’t afford to show us Barcelona then they definitely couldn’t afford to Death Ray the Sagrada Familia, so I guess they used what they had.

There appears to be a second, lesser motif going on as well, and that’s to do with the idea of watchfulness. At the beginning of the movie, when the Death Ray is stolen, it is removed from a compound full of security cameras – at the end, when it is recaptured, it is taken from a villa where the security cameras have guns. In both cases we see a guy watching a bank of tv screens, panicking as he tries to do something about the developing situation but ultimately unable to prevent catastrophe. This seems to be an earnest attempt to bookend the movie, and what I think it’s trying to say is that watchfulness is not enough. In both scenes, the guy looking at the monitors is powerless to act. The NATO guy is shot and help arrives too late to save him or the Death Ray. Carver does slightly better in that he can shoot at what he sees, but he cannot aim, and the more mobile Fargo takes his cameras out one after the other. High-tech security is all very well, but no match for actual people.

As you can probably guess, I’m not sure if any of this were intentional or whether I’m just reading it in. It’s possible that the writers just thought Death Rays and security cameras with built-in machine guns were really cool. I mean, we are talking about a movie in which an assassin hurls himself at the hero only to go flying right out a window, and the movie treats it as a narrow escape instead of a moment of slapstick comedy. God, I love that bit. Even without Mike and the bots I laugh every time.

Danger!! Death Ray is basically just another crappy EuroSpy movie, but it’s a better crappy EuroSpy movie than Secret Agent Super Dragon… in fact, when I think back on the other installments, it may just be the best of MST3K’s crappy EuroSpy movies, but I feel like it’s too early to make that judgment for sure. I need to see the rest of them before I bring the gavel down. It definitely has the catchiest theme song, though – buppa-duppa-da-da-da-dah!

#mst3k #reviews #danger!! death ray #60s

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aurora-daily · 6 years

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Aurora interview: I want to fight for everything that can’t fight for itself

Interview: Aurora for the Evening Standard by David Smyth (May 4, 2018)

Aurora Aksnes has just returned to Norway after a trip to perform at Coachella, the huge music festival in the Californian desert. I’ve rarely met someone so happy to be home.

The singer-songwriter, who performs under her first name, didn’t like all the dust, which hurt her eyes, and worried for the plants, which looked so dry. Here in Bergen, a waterfront city surrounded by mountains where it is constantly raining, she fits.

“I feel like a city is strange when there is no source of escape,” she says. “You need mountains, ocean, or forest. My parents have a sailboat and love being in the ocean. I am a forest person. I like to climb trees, to have things over me, to be isolated and hidden.”

Being hidden is going to be harder for her this year as she steps up to bigger things with a second album on which her dark sounds open out to welcome the world. Her comeback single, Queendom, is a whooshing synth-pop anthem of empowerment that sees her setting out a rulebook for her own country. “You have a home in my Queendom,” she sings.

“It’s a celebration of the people who today’s society is not built around,” she explains. “Quiet people, shy people, introverts. The world is based around those who are very loud — we like them for some reason. I am fighting for everything that can’t fight for itself, which is the planet, the children, animals, sometimes the women, sometimes the men.”

This tiny 21-year-old, who grew up in Os, an even quieter area just south of Bergen, seems an unlikely leader of an army, even if she does call her fans “warriors” and her haircut, a sharp blonde bob with two longer strands framing her face, is rather Game of Thrones. She speaks high, soft and giggly, with a trace of a childhood stutter, her hands wafting through the air. I feel like I’ve tumbled into a children’s storybook to meet a magic fairy.

When the museum where she planned to meet me turns out to be closed for an event, she strides in her red shoes, oversized coat and floaty skirt to a nearby café, where they serve “the BEST hot chocolate”. She drinks it as though she cannot comprehend the miracle she is experiencing.

Occasionally she ramps up the kookiness to such an extent that I start to wonder if she’s teasing me. What was the first thing you did when you got home? I ask. “Well, I put on my big grey jumper that I got from my mum. Then I washed my right foot because that’s the one I prefer to wash in the evening. I wash my left foot in the morning. I don’t know why. It’s just a habit I’ve had since I was a child. Just in the sink — I don’t have a bath..”

Okaaay. And how about pets? Did anyone miss her while she was away? “I have an algae ball. He’s big and round and green and kind of furry. He’s called Igor and he likes to be cold, so sometimes he lives in my fridge. I brought him on tour once but it was hard to get him through the airports.” I look this up later and it is a real thing. They’re called marimo, and are popular in Japan.

The overall impression is that here is someone who couldn’t have less in common with the blokey rock of Oasis, which strangely, is probably how you know her. In 2015 she was the voice of the John Lewis Christmas ad — the one with the lonely old man living on the moon — covering the Oasis song Half the World Away on piano. When she was first asked, she thought John Lewis was a man and wondered when she was going to meet him.

Her relaxed, pretty interpretation is her only UK hit, reaching number 11 in the charts, but her own music is a more interesting proposition. Her debut album, All of My Demons Greeting Me as a Friend, arrived in 2016 full of icy electronic songs. Check out her creepy ballad Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1) for a contrast to that cosy cover version.

“That album was meant to make people look into themselves, to make them feel like individuals that were seen by me and my songs,” she tells me. “The next album, the perspective is wider. It’s more like there’s a whole army instead of one individual.”

She only finished mixing it in Bergen just before the Coachella trip, so it won’t be released until later in the year. The new songs were recorded with Norwegian producer Askjell and British duo Roy Kerr and Tim Bran, with Aurora working on the production aspect too. They holed up in a farmhouse studio in the south of France in January. “I loved it,” she says. “It had a little garden, a little forest, a little pond, lots of good red wine, a library, a dog called Paula and a cat called Ginger. It was perfect.”

This time she was more confident about experimenting with her sound. She shows me her phone, filled with dozens of recordings of sounds she has heard. She used some of them to construct rhythm tracks. “It’s more inspiring to find a sound and kind of put it in a box and bring it back. Most of the sounds are from somewhere you can touch. I really like ugly sounds combined with beautiful things like harp and piano.”

The songs feature Florence + the Machine’s harpist Ruth Potter, a cello quartet and a 32-man gay choir called the Oslo Faggottkor. “I saw them at a festival last year, cried and asked them if they would perform with me the same day. We had to ask for 32 more microphones.”

She can’t give me a title or release date but she can say it will have 11 songs. That’s her favourite number, because it looks the same upside-down and back-to-front. When she goes on tour, she restricts herself to bringing 11 things in her suitcase to remind her of home: “Small treasures, my little statue, three books, two pictures, and a lamp because it has the kind of warm, yellowy light that I like.”

She won’t be home much, with her gig schedule running from May til October. But the rest of the world will benefit from the bit of Norway that this unique person brings with her. “I’ve met so many fans now, and I’ve seen how much we kind of need each other,” she says. “I want people to feel powerful, to feel like they have this extra support. This is a power album.”

#aurora #aurora aksnes #interviews #queendom #ioadk

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tastethegrace · 3 years

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Analyzing “Montero (Call Me By Your Name)”

I don’t often post things as they’re having their cultural moment. However, this song by Lil Nas X, a rap/hip hop/pop artist, who is famous for his song “Old Town Road” a few years ago, has caused quite the stir. On one side of the fence is the LGBTQ+ community, who touts this song as an anthem to the artist’s sexual identity. On the other are the Christians, many of whom have posted warnings on social media, urging fellow believers to “wake up,” guard their children, and many calling down the name of Jesus against the Satanic imagery associated with it. The music video for this song sees the artist depicted as Eve in the garden of Eden, being seduced by the serpent. He is then on trial, then descends into hell, where he himself seduces the Devil. The artist has also partnered with street wear brand MSCHF to produced what many are calling “Satan shoes.” These shoes apparently have contain one drop of human blood in the soul, have a black and red color scheme with pentagrams painted on the soul and attached to the laces.

So first off, the reason I’m writing this post is to critique the Christian reaction to this song and its associated media. It’s important to understand this right off the bat, as I will not be analyzing this song on its artistic merits. Instead, I will attempt to analyze the artist’s intent behind the imagery and symbolism he chooses to use.

If there’s one thing that I have grown to understand, it’s that the American Church has a fundamental misunderstanding of how believers are to interact with culture. We have been stuck in the same culture war for decades, with this idea that we must enforce our beliefs on others, affect change through politics and protests, and fear all that is antithetical to the Christian belief system. This latter point is the most significant, and one that many of my Christian friends may dispute.

Let me explain here. In the age of social media, everyone judges and reacts quickly, posting their affirmations and protests for everyone to see without putting much thought into what they’re actually critiquing. Sadly, the American Church, most of the time, has followed suit. Rather than choosing a different way to interact with the world on social media, it has become a leading reactionary voice -- a more intense version of what already exists in the mainstream. It has so become the case that the world looks on and mocks.

As a younger Christian, I went with the flow, just as everyone else did. But as a I grew up, and especially in college, I learned the importance of questioning, of slowing down, of considering the ins and outs, the truths and lies present in our everyday world. I believe this process gives insight into the presence of God in our everyday lives, presenting us with his truth and beauty, present even in the darkest of places. It also gives us the ability to, like Jesus, call something what it actually is, diminishing its power, and responding to it with the importance/weight it deserves.

Now understanding this context and the process by which I will move forward, let’s talk about this song. First of all, the lyrics explicitly discuss the artist’s encounters with one specific person, a male in this context. There’s a couple of levels to this song. The first, that many in the LGBTQ+ community point out, is that he says that his partner “lives in the dark,” while he himself “cannot pretend.” This refers to the fact that his partner is a closeted gay man, while Lil Nas is out. As for the rest of the lyrics here, Lil Nas discusses his attachment to this man and the sexual experiences he has and wants to have with him. He mentions the use of drugs to illustrate a hellish environment. On a deeper level, evidenced even more clearly in the music video, Lil Nas is using this situation as a metaphor to reach out to his former, closeted self.

In the interest of digging for the truth, I would go one step further here. While it is obvious that the artist wishes to affirm his former self and encourage a lifestyle that is honest, at the very least, he also confesses what he wants very clearly. All of the explicit imagery here is true to his experience. So what does he want? He wants deep connection, intimate experiences, and he’s ultimately willing to go to “hell” to get it, even if his partner won’t come out.

Why is it important to understand this? Am I trying to affirm how Lil Nas gets what he wants? No, but that’s also not the point. Understanding the artist’s questions are just as important as understanding his answers; in my opinion, even more so. In order to make any sort of true judgment of merit or integrity, either subjective or objective, it’s important to understand fully how the artist is coming to his conclusions.

Moving on to the music video, I’m going to use an analysis posted by reddit user margarita_atwood, as she discusses much of I what I found myself.

Everyone is going to have an opinion on this video, whether that opinion is heavily in favor or disfavor...Later, I’ll talk about why the negative opinions about this video don’t really matter and actually play right into LNX’s plans.

Lil Nas as every character: Through the miracle of CGI, LNX plays every single character. Some people might interpret this as LNX making love to himself in some scenes, but I think it has more to do with the Jungian concept of the Shadow Self (explained some in this video). There’s definitely some interesting psychology behind LNX playing all the parts. He’s talking to himself, seducing himself, running from himself. And I don’t think it would have had the same impact if the main characters were played by anyone else. He’s definitely being a little narcissistic, which he winks at with his own face on a Narcissus flower (daffodil) that I’ll get to next...He also says in the intro: “Welcome to Montero”, which is both this fantasy land he is creating for us in the video, and introducing us to his real self, saying welcome to the real me.

Scene 1- Garden of Eden: In the first scene. We’ve got the temptation of Adam by the snake/Satan in the Garden of Eden story mixed with Greek classical architecture motifs (sans Eve, as LNX raps “If Eve ain’t in your garden/ You know that you can/ Call me when you want”). In the reaction video I mentioned earlier, LNX talks about how growing up gay in a black church (or any church for that matter) made him repress and feel ashamed about his budding sexuality as a young adult. So while the lyrics are explicit, all of the themes in the video are very pointed allegories about how he’s dealt with his sexuality. He runs away from his tempting snake-self, meanwhile running past a Lion King-esque Mufasa cloud featuring his fate/destiny, and Narcissus flowers AKA daffodils (in the Greek myth, daffodils grew where Narcissus drowned after staring at his own reflection for too long), only to be caught by his temptation in a scene that gives me a ton of Labyrinth vibes. After his literal fall with possible Paradise Lost references to this perceived “sin,” we nearly see his alien-snake-self fellate his Adam-self. Finally, we close in on a shot of Greek writing on a tree. Some people smarter than I were able to find out that this is an excerpt from Plato’s Symposium which reads: “So in the beginning when they were cut in two, they yearned for each other’s half.” Symposium is basically a bunch of Greek philosophers telling metaphorical campfire stories about love (let’s ignore once again problematic themes of statutory rape in some of this). The excerpt in the video in particular is a part where one of Plato’s students Aristophanes gives an account of the origin of soulmates. Originally people were joined as two people to make one whole person. In this story, there were male/male, female/female, and female/male pairings and the gods became jealous and split them in two. The Montero excerpt is explaining this splitting of soul mates where they’re doomed to long for their other halves to become whole for eternity. Lots of allegories there regarding LNX trying to seduce a possibly gay man who is still in the closet.

Scene 2- The gladiator’s Colosseum: LNX then is taken as a prisoner in chains to a Greek colosseum, also full of LNX judges in Marie Antoinette wigs and faceless LNX mob spectators. I believe his character in this scene is supposed to be a Ulysses-type as his pink, fur shawl he’s wearing has a ram’s head broach...the blue LNX jury sentences him to...jail, and he gets literally stoned to death... Ulysses-LNX presumably dies and his soul is being lifted up to the heavens. An angel awaits him above, with a lot of Creation of Adam motifs (which was also hinted at on LNX’s IG). But just before he reaches his guardian angel.... a stripper pole rises up from the earth...and he rides that b**** all the way to the seventh inner circle of h*** in some thigh-high boots, tricking all the way down.

Scene 3- Twerking on the devil: And now we get to the biggest scandal. LNX said to those of you who think gays deserve to go to hell, watch me go to hell and give Satan a lap dance....he’s one-upping the shock factor in each part. Think it’s scandalous to go down on myself? Just wait. There’s some trolling of Illuminati/Satanist conspiracy rumors in the motifs. Honestly, the purpose of this scene is that he knew religious types would try and metaphorically crucify him over the lyrics. So he said let me beat you to it. He’s trolling the religious hater that I’m sure made his life growing up a proverbial hell already. And hey, the more times they stream and react to the song out of anger, the more money he makes from their anger. And then he goes and pulls a mafia hit, killing Satan after seducing him, and taking his horns of braids and becoming the fallen angel...

While perhaps not stated the most eloquently, and obviously from a more approving light, the OP gives us some insight into the symbolism used in this video. On first glance, the believer might gag at how biblical imagery is used and twisted here. However, I would encourage that believer to be patient and consider for a moment a few things.

1. If we let our gut reaction to this imagery become our public reaction, we prove the artist’s perspective of believers correct in the eyes of the world.

2. If we consider the symbols and imagery used, it is obvious that this piece was intricately planned by Lil Nas to suggest his conclusions through the subversion of cultural norms. This is not a new technique by any means, and it is important to acknowledge this.

3. Remember that Lil Nas was raised in the church. His use of biblical imagery is intentional here. If you detect a hint of bitterness in the twists he uses, that’s because there is, and not without reason.

See, I think that if Jesus looked at this video and gave us his reaction, it would not be a warning to us to guard our hearts. That’s common sense. I think it would be sadness that Lil Nas has not experienced the true intimacy and connection that he so desires in a healthy context, but also that he would be so bitter as to use the imagery as a “F*** You!” to the church. Granted, this is all speculative, but when I look at Jesus in the gospels, I never see Jesus trying to separate or isolate his disciples from sinners. He sees right to the heart of why sinners sin, and urges his disciples by example and speech to have compassion. It is the the Pharisees and teachers of the law who he preaches against, urging his disciples to guard their hearts against them.

Finally, there’s the even bigger deal being made in Christian circles of the “Satan shoes.” Let me set the record straight here. This company put out “Jesus shoes” a couple of years ago that claimed to have holy water in its soles. This was a stunt by the artist for the very purpose of causing controversy. It was done out of anger. The imagery only has power if we let it be something other than what it is.

I have seen so many people decrying the use of this imagery as an act of devil worship. That’s not what this is. Is Lil Nas believing a lie? Most certainly, as all humans do every day. But this should not be shocking. We must look behind the symbols to what they’re really pointing to.

In conclusion, I felt that it was important to share my feelings on this, as the social media chatter is a prime example of how the American Church has lost its way. However, on a more personal note, I have a lot of history and connection that helps me to deeply understand what’s happening in this song. That drive for connection, that willingness to put myself in horrible places to find it, the feeling of dirtiness and the running away from it...and especially the now often used intimate metaphor “call me by your name,” referring to the book/move of that title...I’ve been there. I even embraced it for a time. So more than most, I am more inclined to have compassion on those who are in that place, even if they don’t see the fruitlessness of it. The Lord has been good to me. He was with me in that place, just as he is with me now. It is important for all who call themselves Christians to remember that before we judge, we must seek empathy and compassion, fullness of understanding, and most of all, the heart and mind of Jesus himself.

#culture #review

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littleflowerofchrist · 6 years

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”There are many opinions about the practice of women wearing a head covering at Mass. I have heard—and personally expressed—the idea that women who wear the veil are vain and holier-than-thou: exactly like those Pharisees who widen their phylacteries for all to see. I have also heard—and believed—that the veil is an antiquated symbol of a misguided view on women’s submission, like the Muslim burqa, a remnant of an old belief that women are unworthy and must humbly cover themselves if they want to appear in church, while men have no need to.

I have heard Catholic apologists and some priests criticize the chapel veil because lay women are appropriating a symbol of nuns—nuns are the brides of Christ, not lay women. As for Saint Paul, well, that is one of the most confusing passages in Scripture—women need to cover their heads in church for the sake of the angels? What? Why? Besides, just because it was appropriate in Paul’s time for women to wear veils in church, times change, expectations change, and we don’t need to hang on to every old practice.

It is incredible how much heat arises in these conversations. Who knew a little piece of lace could cause such anger, such bitterness, such frustration. For years, I rolled my eyes at women who opted to veil. They irritated me so much. Why did they have to make us traditional Catholics look so weird?

So you might be surprised that, on the first Sunday of Advent, four years ago, I snuck into church wearing a chapel veil. The previous week, while cooking dinner for my then-fiancé, I had broken down crying and told him that I really wanted to follow that old tradition. My fiancé (now husband) was bewildered why this would make me cry. But he told me that if I wanted to, then I should go out and get one and do it. I could always take it off.

When I say snuck, I mean it. The first time you wear a chapel veil, you feel like you went to Mass stark naked. The lace kept sliding off of my head until I basically nailed it on with bobby pins. The only other woman wearing a veil at Mass that day was carved out of marble and stood five feet up the front wall. She was the only thing I looked at the whole liturgy. Strength in numbers?

I decided to wear a chapel veil because, in preparing for the sacrament of marriage, I had suddenly been confronted with the question of femininity in ways that before, I had never deeply considered. The modern world tells us women that, since we are man’s equal, we must aggressively assert our presence in every facet of life, and destroy any last vestige of that tired differentiation of the sexes. Then, and only then, when the last of those socially constructed differences between us have been razed, will we truly be able to express ourselves as women.

The problem is, the modern world is trying to liberate us from ourselves. Modern society demands that women be able to compete with men, to show that there is nothing actually different about us. The modern world, for all of its lip-service to diversity, is terrified of differences. It does not know how to cope with true differences because it can only see relationships in terms of power struggles: who can best whom, who is oppressing whom? If you are different, if you have a different nature then, the modern world concludes, it must be because some tyrannical force is keeping you from your full potential to be exactly the same as everyone else.

But true equality is not sameness. God created us male and female and found us to be very good, but he did not ever intend to create us exactly the same, with irrelevant bodily differences that can be hacked off, ignored, or chemically altered as we see fit. God is entirely too fine a craftsman for that.

I wear the chapel veil at Mass as an affirmation and an embrace of my feminine difference. According to the ancient traditions of the Church, only women may be veiled in the presence of God. Have you ever noticed that, while a bishop can enter the church with his miter, he takes it off during most parts of the Mass? Even the pope must take his zucchetto (the little skull cap) off of his head during the Consecration. Men are not allowed to cover their heads in church. When the bishop and the pope remove their head coverings, they are submitting themselves in humility before the presence of God, not asserting some sort of male superiority with their bare heads. When more of society wore hats, it was a much more obvious sign, but even today, we acknowledge that when a man removes his hat, it is a sign of deference and respect—and if you need a reminder, pay attention the next time the national anthem is sung. Within the context of the Mass, bishops, monks, and the pope remind us of this ancient sign of male reverence. Similarly, whatever Saint Paul meant by his reference to the angels, the chapel veil has been a way for women to show our reverence to God in our own, uniquely feminine way since the days of the Apostles.

Many people are confused as to why a veil is a particularly fitting sign of reverence for a woman. I have heard many explanations, some better than others, some more historically or theologically probable than others. Some women say that they like the veil because it makes them feel like a bride, some even saying that it makes them feel like a bride of Christ. Whether or not it is proper for a lay woman to consider herself a bride of Christ, I would like to point out that both traditions—veils on brides and nuns—comes from the older tradition of the chapel veil. Women do not wear veils because they are nuns; nuns wear veils because they are women. Women wear veils when they get married because it is an echo of that ancient feminine tradition of women wearing veils at church.

One possible explanation for the feminine quality of the veil that I personally love is that it symbolizes our role as vessels. A priest—I wish I could remember his name—once pointed out that the Church puts veils on its most sacred of vessels—tabernacles traditionally are covered in fine cloth, either on the inside or out, the altar that bears the Eucharist is covered, as is the chalice. Women are like the chalice or the tabernacle by our nature: we are vessels that can bear children—a holy and blessed calling. The contraceptive mentality of the modern world is attempting to eradicate this difference, this distinctively feminine difference, in pursuit of its value of sameness that it has mistaken for equality. In these days, when the life of the unborn is held rather cheaply, and the family is under assault, I wear the chapel veil as an embrace of my distinctly feminine nature.

In our modern world, there is sometimes an overemphasis on understanding the reasons behind something, and, if we cannot find reasons that adequately justify a tradition, we often are tempted to dismiss it as arbitrary and useless. Now, I am not dismissing our inquisitive spirit—it is important to understand the things that we do. However, traditions, especially those of our ancient church, should not be cast aside because they do not have a clearly documented reason behind them. You probably ate your Thanksgiving dinner last year without demanding a justification for why it should be turkey. More than likely, last December, you set up your Christmas tree, not bothering too much about why Christians started putting formerly pagan trees in their houses to celebrate Christ’s birth. We still expect our priests to wear their proper robes at Mass and the same people who find the chapel veil weird do not hotly contend that those robes need to be justified or tossed out as an irrelevant hold-over of Byzantine fashion. Tradition binds us together and gives our faith a richness, mystery, and depth that the modern world finds frightening because it cannot be satisfactorily explained.

Last Christmas, an old man came up to me after the vigil mass and told me with a smile that my chapel veil had made him remember his grandmother back in Russia long ago. I wear the chapel veil today because it binds me to two thousand years of Christian, Catholic women, from Mary the Mother of God to Mary Queen of Scots, from Saint Catherine of Avila to Jackie Kennedy. It is one of the most ancient traditions of our Holy Mother Church; it is a beautiful tradition of women.”

#chapel veils #mantillas #resources #feminine genius #Church tradition #Crisis magazine #Mary Cuff #Re-Asserting a Feminine Tradition #Catholic womanhood #to meditate on #modern-day #being in the world #Mary #my patroness #my mother in Heaven #my joy #my heart #my soul #please pray for your little daughters here on Earth!

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lefties-do-it-right · 4 years

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Just Believe?

What does it mean to believe? If I am to believe the songs, belief is all I need to live forever in joy.

Give me something that I can believe and then I'll

Share it with the world for everyone to see

Take away the darkness, all the pain and sadness

I know it's you that put this light inside of me

I believe in a faith that's strong

I believe in a hope that carries on

I believe in these things and more

Most of all, most of all

I believe in love (Third Day, “I Believe”)

In this time of desperation

When all we know is doubt and fear

There is only one foundation

We believe, we believe

In this broken generation

When all is dark, You help us see

There is only one salvation

We believe, we believe

We believe in God the Father

We believe in Jesus Christ

We believe in the Holy Spirit

And He's given us new life

We believe in the crucifixion

We believe that He conquered death

We believe in the resurrection

And He's comin' back again, we believe

So, let our faith be more than anthems

Greater than the songs we sing

And in our weakness and temptations

We believe, we believe (Newsboys, “We Believe”)

That’s just two that I pulled from a quick Google search. Of course, these songs come by their obsession with believing honestly:

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. – John 14:1

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. – John 3:16 [There’s a lot in the book of John.]

So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.” – 1 Peter 2:7

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. – Romans 10:4

Whoever believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. – 1 John 5:10

To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. – Acts 10:43

Then there’s Romans 10:9, which summed it up for me so well for so long: “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

There are many more. The New Testament is chock full of exhortations to believe. So the songs are biblically based, then.

I just don’t get it right now.

It can’t simply be an intellectual assent: Proposition + evidence = belief. Belief would simply be admitting what has been demonstrated to be true. Fine. If that’s the case, then people don’t believe for one of two reasons. First, they’ve never heard it. Second, they heard a poor presentation of it that failed to convince them.

Belief is definitely more than that. It’s a spiritual thing, obviously. It has to be, because the intellectual definition doesn’t hold water.

Belief seems to mean devoted (stubborn?) emotional assent despite a lack of evidentiary and/or experiential support.

“Just believe” has been pissing me off lately. It’s dismissive and scolding. And it’s used as a cudgel. It implies that anyone who doesn’t believe is foolish, selfish, or evil, or maybe all three.

If I tell someone at work or church that I’m having trouble believing lately, what will they say? I’ve heard the prescriptions: pray and read your Bible. Simple as that. I’ve done that a lot through my years, and here I find myself talking to a silent ceiling, hearing nothing in return, feeling nothing in return. Just believe it! Just do it! Don’t let the Devil convince you that it’s not true! Don’t let sin in your heart convince you of anything else! Just believe! Just believe! Believe!!

I’m calling BS.

The New Man I am still doesn’t care about homeless people and has no idea what to say in situations when I have to explain the hope that I have. Aren’t those promises made to all believers?

Believe?! Just “believe”?! HOW??? Is it a gift from the Holy Spirit that enables my basic mind to grasp the ungraspable? Then why doesn’t the Holy Spirit just get on with it and do it?

So then I’m left with one of two possibilities, neither of which I like. Either there’s no God and it’s all made up, OR I’m just not doing it right, and I’m missing out on God’s blessings because I’m an idiot, or weak, or deceived, or fallen.

It’s terrifying, really. I know people who would say I’m currently on a path to hell because I’m doubting, as per Good Buddy James: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; his is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (1:5-8).

Screw you, James. Just don’t doubt, huh? How does that work? So my doubting is a sign that I’m not a good believer. Espousing that to doubt or question beliefs only promotes fear, lying, or rejection. I’m afraid to even ask a question, so I don’t; I could be afraid of going to hell or of your reaction. I must therefore lie about my feelings or beliefs to avoid being expelled or reprimanded. Or, I cannot reconcile my doubts, and conclude that I must reject what I previously believed.

Back off on doubters. We’re just honest. That’s a good thing.

#Faith #Doubt #Belief #ScrewYouJames

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