#but i definitely know people with different instruments they play in different halls/weather/for a different sound/etc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

spark-yukinghoul · 1 year

Text

Never mess with The element Earth ( NSFW / 18+ )

Had no idea what else to post, no idea what else but to cherish the drummer but in a weird way, NSFW, some weird ass shit- uhh, Yeah, well, Enjoy, i hope- (there will still be spelling errors most definitely, i took my time- well then, it‘ll be taking a while for the next story- OR, you can ask me for a story-)

(Gif by Cardi-c)

Before hand i wanna explain this story before the summary, This story is about the element of Ice and Earth, but the twist is that Ice and Earth do not get along together due to their difference and stuff. It's not the best of ideas, i am aware of that but i do not give a crap!

About the Element of Ice and Earth (This is my idea):

The Element Ice is able to choose whatever it wants to play, Violin, Piano, Drums, Guitar, Tambourine- You get the drill. The Ice Element is very energetic, open, hates the woods as they cannot find their way back from a blizzard or during a blizzard, Earth always telling them to not go outside then, but during their calling it doesn't matter what time of the day it is, what the weather looks like, they go. Earth always was a challenge to get along with, Ice avoiding the earth elements at all time.

Why? Because Earth is Quiet, a calm nature, adoring the plants and the beauty of the woods, being intimidating to that! The earth elements, despite of what the fandom of ghost says- (ITS MY IDEA!) Hates the cold, complaining to the ice elements when it is already Winter! When fall comes, Earth elements are going through their rut yes, but then when they are gone, the Ice elements make a whole ice skating hall out of the common room! (it pisses them off.) Putting it short:

Ice Element: - Energetic - Hates the Woods - has a choosing of what to play (Instrument) - Outgoing - Loud - Unorganized - Has never been Summoned before - Interacting a lot with people

Earth Element: - Calm - Loves Nature - More of a favor of Playing the Drums - More of a stay at home person - Quiet - Organized - Mostly often being Summoned - Not interacting a lot with people

Please Remember this is only a story Idea!

Warning: Swearing, Violence, NSFW, teasing, Blood

Information about the Reader: You are a Newly Summoned Ghoul, With the Element of Ice, also being the first Ice element of the Church of the Unholy, You play the Lead Guitar as you felt drawn to the instrument, Also you only learned about the Tall Drummer being an Earth Element when you felt your Element going crazy, snow falling in the dens when it happened. ( READER IS A SHE/HER!! )

Summary: You were against the idea of messing with the Earth Element, yet you were being begged to do so by your fellow Lead guitarist Dew and the Multi Ghoul Swiss, doing it but regretting it as soon as something happened while practice, this shocked you and taking matters in your own hands, you requested to stay at the Church, which Sister Imperator allowed you to do, then something interesting happened...

Pairing: Mountain x Ghoulette Reader!

----------------------------------------

You were walking to the Practice room with Dewdrop and Swiss, as you were only a few months in the band, but already 2 years in the overworld, having to earn your trust first before letting you join and knowing what you play for an instrument, these two idiots helped you practice the songs in private, Dew teaching you every riff and Swiss telling you all about the stupid stuff that'll be going on once on stage. It took you a while to figure out which ghoul was which element, but quickly knew which one was Earth, you remember it quiet good...

----------------------------------------

It was the first day of you being summoned, getting shown around the abbey grounds, it was winter as well, making your summoning something special, Winter, the Summoning, but no one thought about what element you are yet. "oh! Copia! We didn't think you'd be outside this moment, what brings you to us?" asked a ghoulette, copia shivering answered:"Looking for you my Ghulehs, Cirrus, be a dear and take this new Ghoulette to the dens with you and the rest." Cirrus took a look at you, you were only wearing a pair of shorts and a Shirt.

"Will do Copia, you go to your room though, we don't want you catching a cold!" Exclaimed Cirrus, copia waving her off before leaving to the main building were his office is found, you turned to the ghoulette, looking behind her to find another ghoulette and 3 ghouls.

Cirrus took notice of you looking behind her, giggling, "Hey guys! come meet the new Ghoulette!" she said, the other ghoulette and the ghouls walking over, taking a look at you, then a tall ghoul stepped forward, introducing himself and the others:" I am Swiss, i am the Multi ghoul, The one who called us over is Cirrus, to her left is Cumulus, those two play the Keyboard. The smaller Ghoul is Rain, he plays the bass while the last one is Aether, Rhythm guitarist."

You smiled at them, giving them a little wave before Swiss took your hand and took you to the dens to introduce you to the missing three of them, the other 4 followed, talking and laughing. Asking you a question here and there to make you feel included.

While you didn't feel unsafe or anything, it was weird being surrounded by other ghouls and ghoulettes of other elements, you only knew the feeling of being surrounded by Ice elements, now being amongst other elements, you felt a bit out of place. none the less when you have arrived at the Dens, you were lead to the common room were you saw 2 ghouls and another ghoulette.

"hey guys! we are back and we have brought someone with us!" spoke Cumulus out of the blue, the three ghouls looking at the doorway, the two who were playing uno got up and went over to meet you but the other one stayed in his place.

The ghoulette jumped at you and the other one gave you a death like stare,"I am Sunshine, that is dew!" told you sunshine, you gave them a smile, the only ghoul you haven't met yet sat on the couch close to the fireplace, the other ghouls left ,(well, Rain, Sunshine, Cumulus, Swiss, Cirrus have left-), you were standing there, with Dew, Aether and the unknown one.

Aether took your hand gently, walking over to the unknown ghoul, the closer you got to him, the stronger your element felt, as if telling you to run, the other ghoul seemed to notice it too, his element also telling him to run,"introduce yourself buddy!" said aether, the other ghoul looked at you,"Mountain...the drummer" was all he said before snowflakes fell on his face and landing on the floor.

Your eyes widened in shock, looking above you, there had formed a small cloud of snow, then hissing erupted from Mountain, you looked back at him, stepping back from Aether and Mountain, when mountain stood up, you saw how tall he is, you still felt like you should run but kept in place,"I'm sorry, i don't know what this means, this, this has never happened before!" You exclaimed

Mountain groaned, walking past you, stopping at the doorway,"Its because i am the Earth Element, you are Ice." he said before rushing to his room. "But...." you wanted to say something but cut your tongue, thinking for the time until the other ghouls had come back.

------------------------------——

Thrown back to the reality you saw yourself standing in front of thought about ghoul, Mountain standing there, waiting for Copia to say something, not bothered b your presence beside him, you were pulled by your shirt over to Dew and Swiss, the two looking like they have something back in their head, which was exactly what you thought

“We have a plan and need you in it! Please?“ spoke Dewdrop, when dew says please you know its gonna be a lot of trouble,“No, not doing it, last time i heard you say please and i agreed you nearly got us killed!“ you exclaimed, Swiss chuckles,“We know, we know, but please? We wanna tease the tall one!“ Said Swiss,“Teasing Mountain? Hell to the nah!“ you spat back, the two kept begging until you agreed

“Shut up! Okay, okay, i am in, what is this plan?“ you asked, Dew clearing his throat,“You being jokingly choked, also being pushed up to him while playing.“ He explained, didn‘t sound dangerous to be honest,“ okay? Uh-“ you were given your guitar by Rain who just shook his head, that was not really a good sign at all, your so gonna die or do something stupid, but it‘s only one more week until the first tour, so you have to give it your best!

“Lets get Started Ghulehs!“ Exclaimed Copia, you always stood in between Swiss and Mountain, shaking you head at Swiss, flipping him off before playing the first notes of Kaisarion. Practice didn‘t seem bad, but you were choked here and there, having a little battle with Aether in between, stood several times like, next to Mountain, now, you stood in front of the earth ghoul, having a battle with Dew

You both didn‘t realize how worked up you guys were, Dew was hella angry, not taking notice of it, not until he snapped and actually flung towards you, biting your neck harshly, drawing blood from it, his teeth sunken so deep he could almost break your bones and other very needed nerves

You let your guitar hang from your shoulders as you roughly shoved Dewdrop away from you, both of you panting heavily, you felt your cold blood run down your neck, then down your shoulders, before staining your shirt with it,“WHAT THE FUCK?!“ you screamed, giving Aether your guitar, dew gave his to Rain,“I-it was an accident! I swear!“ he tried telling you

“Accident my ASS! You fucking BIT ME!“ you yelled again, that moment you flung towards him but flung at mountain who quickly jumped between Dew and you, not taking notice that moment, mind clearly fogged with anger, you have left a deep, stinging wound on his chest, using your element with the attack, making it sting thousand times worse, when Mountain groaned in pain and you were dragged away from him, you saw the damage, you didn‘t wish to hurt anyone but, except for Mountain sometimes but…you felt guilty, sorrowful…

Regret washing over your face, a stare of horror as you gaze upon the aching Drummer, You weren‘t able to say a word as you were shoved out the room by Aether, you became an animal that moment you wanted to hurt Dewdrop, now you stood in front of the door from the practice room in the ghoul dens, tears streaming down your cheeks, you weren‘t gonna allow yourself to go on tour when you can get mad this easily, also not in for when a ghoul would report this…

You quietly made your way up the dens, walking down the now empty halls as it is dinner at the moment, making your way to Sister Imperator, with a deep breath you wanted to knock on the door but stopped yourself, this is not only a one way ticket back to hell but also a punishment of your actions, you knocked on the door anyway

“Come in.“ You heard Sister Imperator, walking inside she saw the bloody claw you had, the teary face was also what gave away you did something terrible,“I-I‘m here to, hic, report myself…“ you stated, Sister Imperator stood quiet, waiting for you to continue,“I-It was at practice, D-Dewdrop a-accidentally bit my neck harshly, i-i was fogged up w-with anger, i flung at him b-but Mountain jumped between us, t-then i, i had an ice claw a-and i-i wounded him terribly…!!“ you explained

You sobbed, more tears streaming down your face,“p-please don‘t send me on the tour…i-I’d rather be send back to hell than that! I-i might hurt someone on tour…“ you added, sister imperator wrote something down that moment,“You will be staying here, i will have Mist and Alpha be your guide to control your Emotions, you will also be staying with them until the band goes on tour. Ok?“ she said, you nodded

“Who are those, mist and Alpha, Sister?“ You asked, she turned on the speakers, saying into them,“Mist and Alpha, report to my office immediately.“ turning the speakers off,“You will see in a few minutes, take a seat.“ She told you, gladly you took that offer, sitting down on one of the chairs, waiting for those Mist and Alpha, it might‘ve been 10 minutes when a knock finally was heard,“Enter.“ Sister imperator said, then two older ghouls entered, looking at you

“You wished our presence?“ asked the ghoulette,“I certainly have Mist, this ghoul, the newest addition to the band, will not be going on tour.“ Imperator said,“ She wont? May we know why?“ the ghoul asked,“Yes you may, She has reported herself, the report on being her hurting a band member in the process of a rage, certainly incapable of controlling her emotions.“ Imperator told him,“Oh my, that‘s horrible!“ exclaimed mist

“It certainly is, She will be staying with you and the other ghouls until the band goes on tour, i also wish of you two, that you teach her as to how to control her emotions.“ Imperator stated, the ghoul walked over to you, offering you a hand, your bloody claw arose, but quickly went back down, not wanting to like, get his clothes dirty, but he took your bloody claw into his hand and made you stand up,“My name is Alpha, my fiend here is Mist, pleasure meeting you.“ Alpha said, you nodded

“now, get out of my office!“ Imperator said, you were dragged out the room, but the dragging stopped after a minute or two, hand still being held but now you were walking in a slow pace,“Which one did you hurt, if we are allowed to know of course!“ spoke Mist, you were still crying but cracked out:“Mountain“, mist shoved Alpha away, he let go of your hand and mist hugged you tightly,“Oh unholy satanas, i hope he‘ll forgive you!“ she said

hopefully…..yeah…the three of you made your way through the halls of the ghoul dens before ending in a much more secluded and comfier area, then You stood in mist‘s room, taking in she has two beds but only one is being used,“I used to hope I’ll get a roommate, now its kind off reality!“ she said, a small smile crept to your face, she and alpha are so kind to you

The night was nice, full of laughter and chatting, meeting the other older ghouls, they were nice, except for the one group they call Nihil’s ghouls, you noted that you should never approach them, never ever! You had a fun night, you were asked about what you liked, what you have for hobbies, your element, etc.

The morning you woke up, looking at the calendar, you have 6 more days until the band left, you cracked your knuckles and neck before getting dressed and walked up the dens and down the halls with mist to go and do your tasks, you and mist have the same tasks, that was on purpose from sister imperator, you walking outside through the snow with mist to go to the library to help Sister Lisa with organizing returned books back to their place

The time flew by, tasks were done quickly, no practice too, it was on your plan yeah but, you skipped practice, not able to face the band, you were quick to think mountain will hut you as bad as you have hurt him, you didn‘t wanna risk it, you‘re NOT, gonna risk it!

On day 4 though, you wanted to have your guitar back, you left it in the practice room, knowing the band, their all in the common room of theirs, or in bed or doing whatever, creeping your way down the halls and to the practice room, you heard nothing in the room, no talking, no music, not even movement, you are lucky, you thought

You quietly entered the room, spotting your guitar quickly, the one ghoul you wanted to avoid most, was holding it, Mountain was fucking holding your Guitar,“Was wondering when you‘d get it.“ he spoke, he doesn‘t talk much, and you didn‘t like to stay quiet, but the tables have turned this Time, you were careful as you approached him,“not gonna talk?“ he asked you, you shook your head in response

He walked towards you, meeting you in the middle, he stood straight in front of you, guitar in hands and looking down at your figure, you looked up at him and waited for him to say something, but he didn‘t, he gave you your guitar, which you took but you didn‘t go dashing through the door, you were still feeling guilty for wounding him,“how…“ you took a moment to think, his head titled before you continued to speak:“ How is, your chest..?“ you asked

He unbuttoned his shirt, revealing a big scar,“left a huge scar, but else its fine.“ he said, the scar worried you of your strength, quickly your gaze was directed to the floor, he buttoned his shirt again, you had this fight or flight sense kick but you stood there, on fight mode, pushing the chaos of element away,“I‘m, sorry…“ you said quietly, he heard it but said.“What? I didn‘t hear you.“

Thats when your head snapped back up at him, tears streaming down your face, mountain has heard a lot about the Ice elements but never heard of an Ice element Crying when hurting an Earth element and feeling guilty,“I‘m sorry! I‘m sorry, i am so sorry for hurting you mountain!“ you said, guitar over your shoulder,“I already have reported the incident to sister imperator, i am not going on tour that is in 2 days! I am staying here, to dangerous that i might hurt someone again!“ You added

Mountain was looking for some sort of joke in that one, he didn‘t find it, you were dead serious, you were done with the situation, dashing back to the other ghouls, down the halls and just crashing into Alpha who was sent to find you as it was dinner time for them, he took you to mist‘s room, letting you rest there, letting your emotions settle…

——————————————————————

The band was already one tour for 4 months, you stood your ground and stayed in the Church, playing the music you love, practicing other songs, you even learned how to play the bass! You felt at peace with Mist and Alpha, you felt safe, you were currently in your and mist‘s room, mist and alpha went to town with some other ghouls but you don‘t like going out, thats when you suddenly received FaceTime call, it was an Unknown number

Swiss texted you only a minute later,

SwissBro: Hey! That FaceTime is safe! I gave one of the other members your Number!

You send a thumbs up before answering the call, you were met with the Body of someone, but not their face, you were to stunned to speak, you want to know which ghoul it is, You know about Swiss, Dew, Cirrus and Cumulus, so who is that? From the stature it is a male

The phone was placed on a table, facing down at the ghouls crotch, he proceeded to unbuckle his belt, hand sliding in his pants, pulling out his rather big Cock, it was twitching, precum already dripping from its tip, you felt your face heat up, hearing the heavy breathing from the ghoul, a sudden deep voice speaking up, making you flinch and feeling yourself getting turned on by the ghouls voice,“You‘ll be getting this big cock once we get back in two weeks~“

The ghoul stroke his shaft slowly, teasing you badly, he took his phone in hand, only showing his cock, you knew he‘ll hang up in the next moment,“Which, which ghoul are you?“ you asked him, a chuckle came from him, “You‘ll have to figure out yourself~“ was the only response you got before he hung up, you put your phone aside, thinking about it, who was it? It could‘ve been Aether or Rain, You do not take mountain in the options, you don‘t think at all it could‘ve been him.

-----------------------------------------

The next few days until the band comes back, you and that number were Talking a lot over text, you even received some dick pics from that ghoul, though it was weird you have send nudes to him, receiving compliments or voice messages from him, mostly compliments or his moans of your name, you took your phone with you while walking around the halls

As you heard a chuckle behind you, a hand held your mouth shut, the same deep voice talking,“ we‘re back, any ideas ass to who i am?~“ you tried getting a glimpse of the ghoul, you hear held to look ahead,“ seemingly no, lets go to a more private room~“ slowly walking to the dens, you were forced to look ahead, not getting one glimpse of the ghoul

Walking into your room, you were suddenly blindfolded,“now you won‘t see my face“ he said, pushing you forward on your knees, choking you softly with his tail, it was a weird feeling, but you really liked this, though you should be running or calling for help, you thought it was Rain or Aether though, so you trusted the ghoul in the room, letting him choke you, his fingers feel so soft, his breathing was being heard perfectly, the way his fingers were choking you, his other hand roaming freely over your clothed body, softly gripping your waist

"Naughty girl, such a naughty little girl~" he spoke, his voice directly in your ear, his breath so hot, you could melt into the firey gates beneath you, back to hell, it was something you never could've imagined someone would do to you, your ice cold skin feeling a warmth creep within it, your blood feeling hotter than normal, an aching pain built in your stomach, did you wish to be touched this badly? Surely not! or maybe you did crave this kind of touch longer than thought?

You thought back a bit, you really wanted to crave this kind of touch yeah, but, this feeling only happened to creep in your body the other day that Mountain and you were alone in the practice room, as he gave you your guitar, seeing his chest with the big scar, it was kinda hot,"Your drooling little one~" you heard,"thinking about something?~"

You were thinking about Mountain, the ghoul you should hate, your Elements do not go together, you do not wanna hate him tho! You, want him to be yours, fuck, Satanas almighty, You craved the touch from Mountain, the one ghoul who you never expected to get in touch with! "I am talking to you Babe." You heard, flinching in surprise you also let out a squeak,"What are you thinking about?~" he asked, you had no way of talking your way out of it

"I'm, uhm, i'm thinking about the Drummer..." you simply said, a deep chuckle caught your attention,"Is that so? Why don't you just relax and scream his name when you climax little girl~" He told you, you must be blushing a deep shade of red, you felt like your burning, why did this ghoul told you to do so? You quickly were ripped out of your thoughts due to this ghoul pulling to your bed, making you sit on it, slender fingers sliding under your habit, softly pulling it off, the warm touch and warm air is something you barely feel, but it was amazing

His tongue licking across a scar that came with dewdrops bite those months ago, it didn't ache anymore but it was rather sensitive, you bit back a gasp, his tongue felt like it wants to taste every part of your body, heck, who are you kidding? This ghouls takes his time, making sure you are still comfortable! like he knows your every move, your every sensitive little spot, kinda creepy

His hands were resting on your thighs, your body was reacting in its own way, your hands were slowly roaming over his body, he was still in his Tour costume, your fingers were softly pushed further down, that moment you could've sworn you saw stars behind the blindfold, his erected cock was still clothed but it felt huge already, making you feel your folds, they were getting wetter every moment you thought about this ghouls length

no more words were spoken, it was making you feel a bit uneasy but this ghoul didn't seem to mean any harm, he only pulled away when he took off his shirt and boots, pushing on your back he pulled you further up on the bed, your legs around his waist, feeling your undergarments being taken off, first the bra, then the matching panties, not the thigh highs tho, seems he has a thing for it, his fingers found their way to your womanhood (i feel awkward for using Pussy- sorry!), pushing through your folds carefully with a single finger, biting your moans back he growled low

this send a jolt of pleasure down your spine, a shaky moan left you, a second finger suddenly entered you, a more breathy moan escaping you, it was a bit painful yeah, but you enjoyed it for some odd reason, you were enjoying this pain that came in a mix of pleasure, this feeling of pleasure and pain, making sure you are prepared to take his huge cock inside you, this ghoul must see you as fragile, else he wouldn‘t be so careful, you were quiet honestly becoming a moaning mess

A mess under his touch, under the touch of this ghoul, making you feel amazing, choking you softly, fingering you rather rough, stretching your insides for him, his tail holding down your hands against the soft sheets of the bed, his lips captured yours in a soft yet also passionately rough kiss, getting you all heated and wild for this, and oh Satanas, it‘s working, it is working so good, you’re trembling weakly, moans muffled by his lips, your skin felt warm and soft

When he pulled away from the kiss, he made sure to finger you even rougher than he already was, making you scream slightly, feeling you‘re coming close to your limit, you decided to play Naughty Girl and not even warn him, he was teasing you earlier, with a hitched, more like Sharp inhale, you trembled badly underneath his gaze, your limit reached, his fingers were no longer moving, he did slowly slide his fingers our of your folds, tasting you,“You taste excellent my Beautifully Naughty Girl~“ he spoke suddenly

“I thought i said to scream his name when you climax, or not?“ he asked, you gasped when his grip on your neck tightened a bit,“Y-yeah, you did“ you responded, trying not to come over as needy right now, fuck, you didn‘t care who it was that was about to screw you! You just want to feel good, your thoughts are foggy, this fog being from lust, something you never really felt before,“Heh, well, then scream it next time, cause i believe you‘re ready for my Cock~“ He said, you yelped in shock, hearing him unbuckle and unzip his pants, but it seems he doesn‘t take them off

You squealed when suddenly you felt his tip against your folds, his hands both roamed down to hold your hips tightly, pushing himself through your folds, making you cry in this new feeling, you have endured the constant screams of the other ghouls and sisters when screwing each other, but never thought you‘d do it yourself, his right hand slid down your thigh and pulled it over his shoulder, you felt so full

He groaned, his cock was so deep inside you, you could see the stars once more, but more clear, he is the first to make you see stars too, he seemingly is skilled with people like you, it must look really hot for him, this sight of you, hands held above your head with his tail, blindfolded, your half open mouth, your chest rising and falling rapidly, your right leg over his shoulder, his left hand holding your hip tightly, seeing how his cock is filling you up, he loves this sight

His hips snapped once to make you flinch, you didn‘t flinch, you let out a loud moan, a deep chuckle erupted from his throat,“So beautiful~“ he praised you, snapping his hips again, another moan came from you, his eyes were piercing through the blindfold, you could feel it, you wanted to see who this ghoul is, you wanted to know so badly!

Your tail wrapped around his waist, he didn‘t bother asking, his teasing hip snapping went to a rapidly rough pace, making you feel good with every move of his hips, moans coming from you, the sound of skin clapping, the smell of lust, the feeling of pleasure, it was all filling the room, he could only imagine the lust filling your eyes, this deep lustfull gaze, the one he also saw on the nudes you had send him

This ghoul knew so much from bandmates, siblings of sin and over your texts, but to that you were an open book to read for him, easily to tell what you like, love, dislike and hate, his lips were connected to your neck, kissing it softly, leaving a hickey here and there, You felt your second orgasm approaching, you were still a moaning wreck, yet you still had strength over your voice, his name being the only thing you can think off right now, the one he told you to scream when you climax

“M-Mountain, Ah Fuck, Mountain, Mountain!“ You screamed, his hips also moving faster than before, your second orgasm had already came to its limit but this ghoul wants to make sure you also come a third time, this being the last one and also his own climax,“such a good girl~“ the ghoul praised, groaning coming from him

As you were so sensitive from the first two orgasm, you were quick to approach your third and final one,“M-Mountain!~“ You mewled, your orgasm approached quick,“Mountain!!“ you screamed, his own limit reached as you screamed one last time, knotting you, he had also bitten down on the exact some spot were dewdrop had bitten you months ago, your chest was rising quick but falling shakingly, your trembling so bad, your mind completely fogged

This ghoul took his time when finally sliding out of you, a mixture of your own cum, his cum and some blood was flowing out of you, when he saw the blood you could feel that he tensed up,“shit…“ you heard him whisper, you were laying there, hands above your head, leg still over his shoulder, trying to catch your breath,“Ugh, fuck!“ he cursed out aloud,“what…“ you were still out of breath, trying your best to get this sentence out,“What‘s wrong babe?“ you felt your leg drop on the mattress, hands free again, thats when you felt your body ache

“Nothing, don‘t worry, just, Wait before you take off the blindfold, ok?“ he asked, with a nod you feel him getting off of the bed, buckling and zipping his pants again, the sound of the door and his quick footsteps were a clear sign of him getting something, you laid there, the pain and exhaustion hitting you, something else made you flinch, a yell from down the hall and someone running, a door slam and huffing,“I‘m, uh, back, jeez.“ he said

you were able to get a room with a connected bathroom, even an ice ghoul needs a nice warm bath here and there! The sound of water from the bathroom got your attention,“You need a bath lil one.“ he stated, an exhausted huff came from you, his fingers going softly under your back and ankles, carrying to the bathroom, the water running being stopped, your exhausted body hitting the warm water was only an addition to getting you sleepy

The ghoul took the messy bedsheets, stripping the sheet covers off, getting the fresh sheet covers, a softer kind, he somehow figured out how you like Soft and fluffy sheet covers, pillows, plushies and Pajamas, it makes you relax better, feeling so much better after a rough day, him making the bed gave you time to wash your body carefully, you were still blindfolded but you wanna take it off soon

“Are you, feeling good?“ the ghoul asked, you hummed in response, wanting to get to bed now, you feel so tired after being screwed tonight, the fog in your mind clearing, exhaustion hitting you in every corner of your body, sinking slowly into the water, you were held up by the ghoul quickly,“lets get you dried and dressed, you need rest right now“ he said, hey wait, his deep voice seemed to have softened

Your body hit the cool air at a sudden, soft towel caressing your body, drying your skin, then the feeling of clothing was suddenly crept up your body, first the panties, then the soft pajama pants and last but not least, a oversized, soft hoodie, the blindfold slipped down when the hoodie was pulled down your head, your eyes meeting the ghouls hair, horns and back in sight too, hair a deep brown with soft black ends, horns fading from ash grey into a dark green to the tips

He picked you up, your legs around his waist, arms around his neck, his arms around your waist, carrying you to the bed,“your hair looks beautiful…“ you said in a tired tone, back hitting the mattress, once he let go of you, you turned on your side, you scotted over a bit more, patting the space in front of you, he took a deep breath, lifting the blanket and layer down in front of you, when you saw his chest, you swore your soul left your body

Just before the tour, when they left, you and mountain had a small talk in the practice room, you apologized, he showed you his chest, showing you the scar you left, a chill running down your spine, you are shocked, “M- i, uh, Mountain?!“ you stuttered, slowly looking up to meet his eyes,“Yeah, Hey“, he pulled you into his chest, stroking your hair,“Wha, i don‘t understand!!“ you exclaimed

“At first, it was more of a revenge plan, it still was but, i did fall for you at some point last year, the guy that called you, it was me, i texted you the whole time, i couldn‘t talk to you without the colliding of our Elements, it sucked.“ he spoke, in all the time you have been here, all the time in hell, you never expected to end up with the one Element that is able to make your inner Elemental monster go crazy

“Wait, how were you, like, how-“ he pulled your figure up to capture your lips in a passionate kiss, you didn‘t feel this need to run, you had this feeling you needed to stay with him, that without him you‘d be all alone, that you‘d need to hide from everyone else, he pulled back from you, stroking your hair once again,“oh Y/n, don‘t worry you sweet little girl, when i was on tour, my element was going wild, but, didn‘t your calling happen like about a month ago?“

Thats right, your calling was different than normal, snow everywhere, but you felt no joy, your element going wild, but no one to be mesmerized, your body was feeling like it was pulled by strings by someone on tour,“You felt sad, right?“, you nodded in response,“Your calling normally is joyful, your mind not giving a care, as if the strings were cut, you being safe and sound, when we were gone, i was being pulled back, i felt angry, not what i usually feel.“

You don‘t understand it, before tour you guys were literally going NUTS when near each other,“I kept my element on defense, we are mates to put it short.“ You were fucking lost, exhausted to the max,“but…revenge?“ you made out, “though the scar wasn‘t on purpose, i wanted some sort of revenge“ he said

The gates of dreams welcoming you with open arms, snuggling into mountains chest, you purred, comfort, warmth, exhaustion, it all came hitting to you at once,“My naughty Little girl“ he said, you hummed quietly,“Remember my little Withered Rose, Never mess with the Earth Element“ he said, holding you close, so close,“mhm…never mess with an earth element…“ you mumbled, the slumber catching you…Goodnight

#the band ghost x reader #mountain ghoul #nameless ghouls #mountain ghoul x reader #mountain ghost

140 notes · View notes

dont-cry2020 · 4 years

Text

“Guess You’re a Celebrity Now, Huh?”

Harry Styles X Reader

//inspired by an idea given to me by the wonderful @peter-andthelostboys//

//What happens when there’s a new girl at an arts college? Well, she receives anonymous portraits shoved under her door, that the notorious Harry Styles may have something to do with//

//Fluff and angst//

//this definitely isn’t my best work but I haven’t been feeling super motivated lately, so thank you for your patience. i might try and rewrite this another time bc i really love the idea//

Harry loved to draw. It was his passion.

He was quite good at it, too, so it was really no surprise to his friends and family when he got accepted to art school in Los Angeles.

It’s a scary thing to move all the way across the world, let alone by yourself, but Harry adjusted quickly, enjoying the warm climate that was so different from the UK.

You, on the other hand, were feeling quite lost after high school. Your parents pushed you into medical program after medical program, determined that you were going to ‘make the family proud’ and ‘become rich and smart.’

For starters, you could care less about being rich, but you decided to humor your parents by going to medical school. Yeah, it was hard.

So incredibly hard.

So hard, in fact, that you could count the panic attacks and all nighters you pulled on two hands.

However, you found in yourself a passion for music; whether that was writing music or playing guitar or singing, it made you feel whole. Something that medicine and doctorates degrees could never.

As Junior year began and the weather got crisper and the air constantly smelled like cinnamon and spice, you started to feel lonely on top of the stress. Sure, you had your friends, really good friends at that, but that wasn’t the problem. You longed for someone to love, someone to hold you and help you through your ups and downs and someone for you to help through their ups and downs. But, you knew that you couldn’t handle a relationship right now, for Christ’s sake you were studying to be a goddamn doctor!

You had a boyfriend freshman year. He was kind, smart, and, much to your parent’s approval, was studying to become a pediatrician.

But you weren’t happy.

It was always about school and homework; never parties or holidays or even intimacy. So, you ended it, and as junior year is upon you, you haven’t had a boyfriend since.

Your girlfriends noticed that you were lonely, so they spent their time setting you up with hot college medical students to which you indulged in, and it was fun, sure, but you still weren’t happy.

So you did the one thing that your parents never forgave you for.

You dropped out.

You dropped out of medical school and transferred to an arts college, one that you had your eye on since freshman year, and one that was about as far away from home as you could possibly go.

You didn’t tell your mom or dad, didn’t tell them because you already knew what they were going to say.

“You’re ruining your future!”

“You have no chance of getting a job now!”

They hadn’t stopped since they found out from your brother, wondering why such a smart girl would become an art student. They didn’t even know you liked art.

You were sad to leave your friends, sure, who wouldn’t be? You loved them, but you all understood that it was for the best. You had a dream, and you were going to chase it. They stood at the gates of the airport, waving and crying and hugging you as you boarded the plane from London to LAX.

“Here we go.”

...

Art school was weird.

There were no snobby students with 4.0 GPA’s to wave in your face, no professors that thought they were better than everyone else or classes that you dreaded going to.

It was actually fun. Who knew that college could be fun, right?

Moving into your dorm was terrifying. You didn’t know where to go or who your roommate was going to be, and despite your previous experiences, it was already half way through the first semester, and every one else had their chances to collect their bearings. Luckily for you, you got your own room because everyone else had already moved in and had roommates.

...

Rumor had spread throughout campus that a new girl had moved in.

“Apparently she’s English,” or “she transferred from medical school” or “she’s a music major” were all things that Harry heard walking down the halls of his dorm and through the lawn and in classes.

It seems like this new student was all anyone ever talked about.

He couldn’t say he wasn’t intrigued, for he was English too, and curious at that, but he was an art student and you were a music student, so he never saw you around, and none of his friends had ever met you either.

As February rolled by, you had found that you adjusted quite nicely, making a few close friends and acquainting yourself with new faces.

The weather was probably your favorite part about this school. Back home, you would never even dream of studying outside on the lawn in the middle of the winter, but here you are, sitting in a circle with a few of your friends, talking and laughing about music and strumming your guitar.

Harry had his headphones in walking home from class. He was tired and he really just wanted a quick nap. It was Tuesday afternoon and the sun was shining, so there were tons of people on the lawn. It wasn’t a new thing for people to be playing instruments or singing when it was nice outside, so he didn’t bat an eye when he heard strumming of a familiar song.

But his eyes widened when he heard an accented voice that matched his own. His eyes followed a group of students, most he had seen before, but he didn’t recognize the girl with the English accent.

She must be the new girl.

Harry convinced himself that he didn’t want to go back to his dorm to work on his art, but it was such a beautiful day that he would sit on the lawn and sketch his little heart out.

He found himself staring at the girl, memorizing every freckle and curve of her face, quickly looking at his lap when you caught his eye, feeling like you were being watched.

“Who’s that?” you asked your friends, pointing at the boy sitting by himself, nose buried in his sketch book.

“That,” Jack said, eyes widening, “is Harry Styles. Probably the hottest guy on campus.”

Margot rolled her eyes. “Jack’s just mad because he’s not into guys. He’s British like you, ya know.”

“He is hot,” you say, looking over at the boy with curly brown hair and tattoos littering his arms. “I should introduce myself.”

“Yes girl, get it!” Jack cheers. Rolling your eyes, you walk over to him.

“Can I sit?” you ask, looking down at Harry. He looks up at you eyes widening, scrambling to close the sketchbook that was full of drawings of you. He couldn’t help it, you were just so gorgeous. He nods his head slowly, eyeing you up a bit.

“‘M y/n,” you say, holding out your hand for him to shake.

“Harry,” he says, engulfing your hand in his large tattooed one. His rings catch your eye, reflecting the light and making him look that much more intimidating. “You’re English,” he remarks, not asking, but rather telling as if you didn’t already know.

“Yeah,” you laugh nervously, his stare making you slightly uncomfortable.

“Sorry,” he says apologetically. “Jus’ never seen you around here.”

“‘M new. Transferred last semester.”

Harry was interesting. He was funny, sweet, but a little reserved and intimidating, too. He was an art student that looked like he was the lead singer of a rock band. He dressed in dark jeans and jumpers and wore necklaces and rings. Never what you would have expected to be attracted to, being an ex-medical student and all. But, despite your doubts, you found him very appealing.

The conversation ended when he had to get to class, so you bid him farewell and returned to your group of friends, egging you on for every detail of your previous conversation.

...

The week finally rolled along to Friday, and you were set to go to bed early and watch netflix alone, in proper need of some me time. Your friends, however had other ideas when they barged into your dorm with a bottle of wine and the skimpiest dress they could find.

“Come on, y/n, please!” Jack begged you, walking to your closest and rifling through your clothes in the most extra way possible. He pulls out a pair of lacy panties and a matching bra. “All of your clothes make you look like a prude, so you’re wearing this.”

“Hey!” you say, snatching the undergarments from him and shoving them back into your drawer. “I’m so spent tonight, I really don’t feel like going out.”

“But,” Margot says, pulling your makeup out from your desk, “a certain British boy will be there.”

Suddenly all parts of you that were fatigued and not wanting to go to a party change their direction and you’re snatching the dress from Jack’s hold and going to the bathroom.

“Forgot something, sweetie,” he teases, throwing the lacy underwear at you.

You looked hot. You weren’t gonna lie. The black velvet dress clung to all your curves and stopped right above your knees, scrunching up on the sides with little ties. Your hair was curled and eyeliner sharp, and you honestly felt a little overdressed for a little college house party. Little did you know, LA art students don’t mess around at house parties.

To say that heads didn’t turn when you walked in the room would be a complete lie. All eyes were on the new girl, including a familiar pair of sparkling green ones.

Harry was intrigued, to say the least, watching the new girl dance around the house, nursing a drink and laughing with her friends. He wasn’t much of a party guy himself; he had a lot of friends, sure, but he preferred just to stay home or have small get togethers with them.

He felt himself being drawn to you, sliding in between grinding bodies and swaying slightly to the music as he neared your own dancing body.

“D’you wanna dance with me?” Hot breath fans over the back of your neck, goosebumps erupting over your skin. Spinning on your heels, you weren’t all too surprised when you were face to face with the only other Brit in the room. His gaze flickered across your face, brow furrowed and concentrated as he set his hands on your hips. You threw your own arms around his neck giggling to yourself as you saw Harry smile for the first time since you met him. His perfect white teeth had butterflies erupting in your belly.

You danced for a while longer, all the alcohol you had consumed earlier finally catching up to you. Giggling as you lose your balance, Harry catches you, holding you still before smashing his lips to yours.

Mere seconds felt like hours as his lips touched yours. You barely knew the guy, but for some reason it felt like the best kiss of your life. Yet, somehow, you knew you wouldn’t remember it in the morning, so you focused on the present and how he made you feel.

He made you feel good.

It felt like nothing you had ever felt before, sparks flying and hearts pounding and every other phrase used to describe something completely and utterly amazing. You got lost in his lips, memorizing every inch.

You pulled away, not completely unaware of the lust in the curly haired man’s green eyes.

“I’m gonna go get a drink,” you tell him over the booming music, slipping out of his arms and entering the much quieter but still noisy kitchen.

“Y/n! Where’d you go earlier?” Margot questioned, smirking at the lipstick smudged across your face.

“Jus’ dancing,” you slur, getting yourself another cup of whatever alcohol was on the counter.

“Mhmm,” she says, knowingly raising her eyebrows and taking your cup, replacing it with a bottle of water. “Think you’re done.” You groan, begrudgingly taking a sip out of the bottle, your body silently thanking you for ending it’s torture.

Harry wasn’t sure how it happened, but as soon as you left him, he was being dragged onto the dance floor by some girl, he wasn’t sure who, and was being grinded on and made out with.

“Y/n,” Jack said, tugging Margot by the arm, eyes widening “do you want to head back to your dorm now? We know parties aren’t really your thing.”

“What! I’m having so much fun!” you sway on your heels, trying not to fall down. “Why do we have to leave I-” your heart dropped in your chest.

Harry’s tongue was dancing with some random girl’s, not even five minutes after he had kissed you. Maybe it wasn’t the end of the world, maybe you shouldn’t have been so attached to a man that you had just met and just kissed once, maybe you were drunk, but you didn’t care. It felt like your world was crashing down.

You ran as fast as your bare feet could carry you, Jack and Margot chasing you, yelling at you to slow down, but you didn’t listen.

Harry saw you run out of the party, pushing the girl sucking his face off and palming him through his jeans away. He thought that maybe he should go after you, but he didn’t feel like it’d be welcome. He ran his hands through his hair, eventually following your lead and leaving the party to head back to his own dorm.

Your feet carried you all the way to your room, unlocking it and throwing yourself on the bed, mascara tears staining your pillow case.

“Hun,” Jack says, petting your hair and pulling it back into a pony tail. “Don’t worry about this prick. He’s not worth your time.”

The rest of the night was spent with Jack and Margot holding back your hair as you threw up what seemed to be everything you’ve eaten in the past two weeks, and you crying about you didn’t even remember what anymore.

Harry tried to sleep that night, still buzzed and tired from the party and the previous week, but he couldn’t seem to rest his racing mind. He got out of bed, only clad in a pair of boxers, and went to his desk, pulling out his sketch pad and getting to work. He drew line after line and shadow after shadow, constructing a piece that he felt genuinely proud of, something he hasn’t felt in what seemed like ages. He knew that it needed to be seen.

...

Your head was pounding. Absolutely hammering in your head. Jack and Margot were passed out on the floor, blankets and pillows and water bottles littered the bedroom and after seeing the stains on your pillow, you really didn’t want to look in the mirror. However, you eventually had to get out of bed, throwing the covers off your bare legs and sluggishly walking into the bathroom. The best part about transferring in the middle of the year, you found, was that you didn’t have a roommate to share the bathroom with, or someone that would see you like this.

“Holy fucking shit,” you whispered, taking in the reflection looking back at you. Your cheeks were tear-stained with black streaks of mascara, your hair was matted and had chunks of something you hoped was not throw up in it. Not to mention that you were still wearing your dress from last night, except now it was bunched around your torso like a tight potato sack.

You stripped, throwing your clothes onto the floor and getting into the shower. The hot water cascaded down your head, wetting your hair and face and washing all of the regret away. You were in the heavenly water for a good long time, fingers starting to prune up from the steam and liquid.

Walking back into your room, you were pleasantly surprised to see that Jack and Margot had left a note on your bed, saying that they went to get breakfast and would be back soon. You thanked God that it was Saturday and you didn’t have any classes.

You immediately got back into bed after you dried off, pulling the covers up to your chin and closing your eyes, hoping to calm the pounding in your head just a little bit. That’s why, when there was a quiet knock on the door, you didn’t get up immediately, thinking that it was just a courtesy knock from Jack and Margot before they barged in with food. But when that didn’t come and the hallway quieted, you rolled yourself off the bed, grumbling to yourself and opening the door.

“Hello?” you say to no one in particular, seeing as there was no one on the other side of the door. You looked around, peeking your head into the deserted hallway, before finally looking down and seeing one of those big orange manila envelopes. You figured it was something from the front desk or maybe a letter from your mom telling you how you were making a mistake, but bizarrely enough, there was no address or even name. You took one more look around the hall before going back into your room and shutting the door behind you.

Curiously, you picked open the envelope with your fingernails, carefully ripping the paper. You pulled out the paper inside the envelope.

Shocked was an understatement to how you were feeling. A gorgeous portrait of lines and shapes that created none other than your face. It was a little chilling, knowing that someone has been examining your face and features so closely, but also because there was no name or address...not even a note.

“What’s that?” Jack asks, barging into the door, arms full of muffins. He throws you one, sitting down on the bed next to you and examining the paper in your lap.

“Someone left it at my door, but there’s no note or name or anything,” you say quietly, eyes scanning the picture. “That’s weird, right?”

“Ooh,” Margot says. “Somebody’s got a secret admirer!”

“More like a stalker,” Jack remarks, tracing the paper with his fingers. “Who do you think would do this?”

You honestly had no clue. The only visual arts student you knew was...no.

“Harry!” Jack says. “It has to be Harry!”

“There’s no way in hell it’s Harry,” you remark, slipping the paper back into it’s envelope and placing it onto your desk, changing the subject to the events of the previous night.

...

A few weeks later, Harry found himself drawing constantly; whether it was small sketches or bigger works, they all had one common factor; they were of the same woman he couldn’t get out of his head.

You, on the other hand, had received quite a few more drawings stuck under your door. At first, you weren’t all that phased, but you couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that you didn’t know who was doing this.

Margot had called it a ‘secret admirer’ but you weren’t quite sure whether it was that, or a stalker. Sure, it was sweet and all the drawings were beautiful, but how did said person find out where your room was? Or how did they know when to put the drawings by your door so they could have enough time to leave?

Jack had suggested that you sit by the door until there’s a knock, so one night, you settled by the door, rather impatiently waiting.

Nothing.

Still nothing.

Feeling your eyes get heavy, you let yourself go, falling limp against the door and succumbing to a deep sleep, so when you were startled awake from a knock on the wooden door, you weren’t able to register what had happened fast enough.

Sure enough, when the door swung open there was another envelope, just like all the other ones you had received, except this time, something caught your eye.

There was a date and a time scribbled in messy handwriting: 7 PM, 2/23.

Your brow furrowed, staring at the information written on the paper, eventually pulling our your phone and sending a picture to your friends.

what does this mean ? you wrote, referring to the information you had received.

OMG! that’s the art show tomorrow! jack responded

you have to go now! Margot sent

You were a little creeped out to tell the truth, but you wanted nothing more than to find who the mystery artist was, and why they wanted you to go to the art show.

It was no surprise when Jack and Margot barged into your dorm the next day, rifling through your closet and styling you.

“It’s a goddamn art show, not a party,” you said as Jack pulled out another frumpy dress that he probably made you buy.

“Okay, and?” he asked, fluttering his lashes that were honestly far longer than you could ever get yours.

So, here you were, standing in the middle of the art hall, hair and makeup done, looking nervously around the exhibits that other students had created. They were all really beautiful, but you found yourself being drawn to one in particular .

A large oil painting of a girl with y/e/c and y/h/c laughing with a guitar in her hands was standing at the center of the room on an easel. The sky was painted with deep purples and blues and pinks and you couldn’t help but gape at the blending of colors. Something about the painting was familiar, but you couldn’t quite put your finger on it.

“Mr. Styles, is this the model you used for this gorgeous work?”

“Er... Yes, actually.”

You stop in your tracks, glancing up at the painting one more time and then turning towards the voices. Harry.

Harry painted this. And it was a painting of you.

You opened your mouth to say something, closing it after nothing came out.

“You-?” you whispered, still awestruck from the fact that Harry was the artist.

“Yeah,” he says, scratching the back of his neck and giving you a shy smile.

“And the drawings?”

He nods his head.

You stand there in awkward silence for a moment before he motions for you to come follow him. Your steps fall in place behind his as he leads you outside into the cool February air.

“I thought I should explain...” he says, ruffling his hair but not looking at you. “Tha’ night, at the party,” he starts, pausing for a moment to gather his words. “When I kissed ya... I felt something. And I know you did too... and then tha’ girl, whashername?”

You just shrugged your shoulders, slightly amused by the crease formed in the man’s forehead.

“Anyways,” he continues, “doesn’t matter. But when she kissed me and I saw you run out, and she kissed me,” he emphasizes the last part, widening his eyes and you just shake your head, lips curling up into a smile. “An’ I was gonna run after you but I didn’t think I’d be welcome... so I knew I needed to make it up to you... and after I met you on the lawn I couldn’t get the image of you laughing with your friends outta my head and I just knew I had to draw you and-” he continues to ramble on, but you just shush him, gripping your shirt in your fists and pressing your lips to his.

He trips slighty but you hold him into place by the fabric of his shirt, his hands eventually sliding onto the small of your back.

“D’ya wanna go out with me?” he asks as you pull away, his eyes glimmering in the sunset as you both catch your breaths.

“Yes,” you say, laughing slightly. “I do.”

Harry called you a few days later, asking if you wanted to go get coffee at a shop that he went to often. You obliged, saying that you would love to, ‘forgetting’ to tell your two best friends so they would leave you be to get ready.

You were excited; it was your first real date with Harry, and you liked him a lot. You had chemistry and it was clear as water to anyone who saw.

Walking into the coffee shop and looking around, Harry’s arm waving at you caught your eye. He gave you a warm smile, gesturing to sit at the seat across from him.

“Hey,” you say, greeting him.

“Hi,” he says, pulling your chair out for you before sitting down in his own seat. “I ordered you a latte. I hope that’s okay?”

“Perfect,” you say, pulling the coffee to your lips, choking on it at the sight of a certain painting hanging on the wall.

“Har- that’s- that’s your painting!” you tell him. He only smirks and nods his head.

“’S on display,” he says, resting his head on his hand. “Thought everyone should have the pleasure of looking the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.”

You blush, taking another sip of your latte, before a little kid comes up to you, chocolate smudged across his face.

“Is that you?” he says, pointing a chubby finger at the picture. You chuckle.

“Yeah, actually, it is.” you say, smiling at his mom as she apologetically takes her boy by the hand.

“Guess you’re a celebrity now, huh?” Harry says.

“You made me famous,” you tell him, grinning at the green eyed boy in front of you.

285 notes · View notes

bl4cklabyrinth · 4 years

Text

Live Report: MY FIRST STORY TOUR 2019 Semi-Final at Kobe World Memorial Hall

Disclaimer: Take note that all of these reports were translated by ear, so there is no assurance of accuracy. Because of this, please do not retranslate my work. I am no Japanese or English native.

I am only reposting the relevant MCs from my Twitter thread for archive purposes. Please check my tweets to read more about my thoughts on the show.

Photo by Takashi Konuma | Taken from MFS’ official Twitter

Setlist

不可逆リプレイス

Black Rail

ブラック・スワン

花-0714-(Re:arrange)

monologue

虚言NEUROSE

KING & ASHLEY

mine

君のいない夜を越えて

終焉レクイエム (Acoustic ver.)

Love Letter (Acoustic ver.)

LET IT DIE (Acoustic ver.)

Band session

無告

Missing You

Weight of my pride (Pay money To my Pain cover)

MONSTER

絶体絶命

ACCIDENT

モノクロエフェクター

REVIVER

With You

Encore

THE OVER (UVERworld cover)

LET IT DIE

ALONE

Story about Weight Loss

Hiro: Anyway, this has no relation (to the acoustic session) whatsoever, but didn’t I get super thin?

Kid’z: You did! Tell us more! You really did lose weight! Nob too!

Hiro: We declared during Hall Tour that we’d lose weight within one month, but we couldn’t do it. We made a promise though, didn’t we? I did my very best, you know?? I seriously gave it all I got!!

Kid’z: I’ve been avoiding carbs for a long time, and even tried diligently apportioning my meals and stuff like that. But before I knew it, I was already eating curry!

Crowd: *laughs*

Fan: How much weight did you lose?

Hiro: I dropped 6 kg.

Crowd: Ohhh! *claps*

Kid’z: That’s a lot!

Hiro: Amazing, right? On the contrary, I’ve always been fat.

Kid’z: No, seriously.

Hiro: I lost weight so that I can get fat again. I want to get fat so I lose weight. When I’ve lost weight, I’ll gain weight again. It’s a never ending cycle.

Kid’z: Don’t leave it as it is!

Hiro: I get told that all the time. I mean, I’m gonna gain weight before METROCK again anyway.

Kid’z: Isn’t METROCK great though?

Hiro: Can I say this? Why do they hold festivals at such a season?

Kid’z: Because (the weather) is cool? I once thought Doraemon was the one singing.

Hiro: Who you calling 123 cm tall?

Kid’z: Nobita-kun.

Hiro: I’m not the blue geezer.

Kid’z: He isn’t a geezer!

Hiro: He’s a geezer, isn’t he?

Crowd: *laughs*

Hiro: Generally, we release a CD around spring or summer. Then we start tour around autumn, right? From the beginning of fall, Hiroki starts losing weight. Little by little. Then, year end starts rolling in. By the end of the year, tour ends, it becomes production season, and eating Hiroki comes out. Hiroki enters hibernation, just like any other large mammal.

Kid’z: You need to stock up, right?

Hiro: Yep, so I can get through winter. Then it becomes spring again. METROCK is waiting for me, but I don’t want stocked-weight-from-hibernation-at-its-max Hiroki to be exposed there! Why do I keep getting told I got fatter or thinner every time?! Leave me alone!!!

Kid’z: But you did your best, right?

Hiro: ...Yep.

Kid’z: Good job.

Crowd: *claps*

Kid’z: How about Nob? How are you doing?

Nob: I lost 5 kg.

Hiro: You lost weight only because you were sick, right?

Kid’z: Because his tonsils were taken out.

Nob: I haven’t gotten my sense of taste back up until now.

Hiro: Don’t let yourself lose one of your most important senses!

Nob: Some time ago I had pickles and it was the best.

Hiro: What an old man.

Story about Poor Kid’z (figuratively and literally)

Kid’z: This story has no relation to anything we’ve talked about so far, but you (Hiro) started an IG account, right? During Hall Tour. Since then, you did a lot of things to me, like that game with the paper cups and the 10,000 yen you put inside one of them, which I played along with having good intentions in mind. I chose the right cup and you gave me the bill, but you revealed that there was 100,000 yen in the other cups.

Hiro: Yep.

Kid’z: ...I tried that with a friend. I was caught. 100,000 yen.

Hiro: Eh?? They made a winning move, huh.

Kid’z: I was like, “Oh no, what should I do?? Should I take it back?” I wanted to be able to fool someone, to get a taste of how it feels! So I started turning the cups around thinking I could do it like you did. When it was time for them to pick, my friend chose a different cup, and in my head I was all, “No no no, not that!!!” and eventually they got it...

Hiro: That person probably saw my IG post and thought you were an idiot.

Thoughts on Marriage

After Love Letter, Hiro and Kid'z talked about being excited yet nervous to play the next song, since it's been a while since they last played it.

Kid’z: Speaking of which, the person beside me seems to be nervous!!

Nob: *rubbing his palms on his pants*

Kid’z: Can I do a hand check? *touches Nob's palm* It's all sticky!

Hiro: Eh? You're scared of making a miss again? Like in Yokoari? Higedan. Ah! Speaking of which, Satoshi-kun got married! Congratulations!

H&K: *congratulate Nob*

Hiro: Eh? Official?

Kid’z: This is Unofficial.

Hiro: Ah, sorry. Unofficial. He got married, huh... There's been a crazy marriage rush recently...

Kid’z: Yeah, it's been all over LINE NEWS lately.

Hiro: Right. back number, Higedan, Maple Chogokin.

Kid’z: You're mean for putting Maple Chogokin as last!

Hiro: No no no. *laughs* The marriage rush is insane, right... Right... Insane right...

Fan: Do you want to get married?

Hiro: ...I don't wanna get married.

Crowd: Eh???

Hiro: Do you? Someday, I assume. As for me, I don't wanna get married at all.

Kid’z: *in a teasing tone* Is it because you don't have a partner?

Hiro: *taunting tone* Ha? Ha? Ha? What the hell are you saying, you.

Kid’z: Ah, sorry we had a little quarrel.

Hiro: Let's get a divorce first!

Kid’z: What the hell is this breakup!

Poor Nob

Photo by Takashi Konuma | Taken from Hiro’s IG post

Hiro: Anyway, are we good? You (Nob) still seem nervous. How are his fingers?

Kid’z: They're tender.

Hiro: If I had to play it in a room like this, I'd be pissed.

Nob: *strums a tune*

Kid’z: It's that song!! It's definitely that song, right? Can you do it, Nob bear? Are you alright? You practiced last night without sleeping.

Kid’z: Give him your support.

Crowd: Cute!! You can do it!!!

Kid’z: The pressure on you is rising, huh.

Hiro: *in an old man voice* You can do it! You can do it! You can do it!

Kid’z: Eh? What was that voice? Father?

Hiro: *taunting tone* Ha? What the hell are you saying. Who you calling father, come home and I'll kill you.

Kid’z: Ah, sorry. Father, I apologize.

Hiro: to Nob You okay? Dududadududa~ (T/N: the intro of LET IT DIE) The last song for the acoustic session. Please listen, LET IT DIE.

Then, Hiro crouched down from his seat and kneeled, looked at Nob closely, and so did Kid’z. Nob stared back, aced the dududadududa intro and everybody clapped for him! However, Nob made a mistake towards the very end, playing the last string of notes twice. When they were walking back to the main stage, Hiro put his arm around Nob and teased in a mocking tone, "Hey, in LET IT DIE, in LET IT DIE, hey, during the acoustic set, hey, I was satisfied with the beginning, but in the middle of the song, hey, you made a mistake, right? Even if you were doing so well." When they got back to the main stage, Nob bowed down in apology.

Weight of my pride MC

Hiro: Your voice has been heard! There were a lot of requests for PTP, and in my heart, PTP is my eternal hero. It shouldn't be just us; so that he can also hear your voices, shout as loud as you can Kobe!!! Next song is called Weight of my pride!

Check out their version of the performance at Saitama Super Arena here:

undefined

youtube

モノクロエフェクター MC

Hiro: How are we doing Kobe? I thought everyone in Kobe could handle it, you know? Aren't y'all drinking too much milk tea? Your nipples are gonna become tapioca if you drink too much milk tea, you know? Well, if you're sure you're not drinking too much then you should be able to handle it, so let's all dance together!!

Reviver MC

Hiro: Thank you so much for today! It's been a great day, I'm really grateful. I've always been alone. I've lost so many people I didn't want to lose, and I've let go of things I didn't want to part with many times. I might not be able to change the world with music, but because of music, I met the members, I met all of you, and it made me think that my life was pretty impressive. I want to believe it was my destiny to meet all of you here tonight, so let's keep walking together Kobe!!!

With You MC

Hiro: Thank you so much for today, Kobe!!! After this, the tour will be ending soon. Thinking about it makes me sad, but knowing that you will all be supporting us next year, and the year after that, and the year after that, and even after 10 years makes me feel very grateful. But there's one thing I want to say before today ends: Kobe, I love you!!!

THE OVER MC

Hiro: How was it? MFS' UVERworld. Did I become Hiroki∞? This song was really difficult. The way the lyrics jump, especially during the part before the last chorus.

Kid’z: I didn't learn that note.

Hiro: *emphasizes the difficult enunciation of a line from the song* Unbelievable, I had a hard time remembering it.

Kid’z: The instruments were tough, too. Even Nob was complaining, there were notes he had never seen before.

Hiro: I couldn't match the timing of the lyrics either. I had to enter at an exact time, 3 characters in one second!! If MFS were to do it, we'd go with a lower key.

Kid’z: You say MFS but it's your key, right? Your voice is hella loud you know.

Hiro: It's because if I'm alone, then it's not MFS.

Kid’z: Nah, we were able to match the key, but only you can sing it that high, right? (T/N: They seemed to have raised the key by 2 octaves)

Hiro: You guys thought the cover song was only Weight of my pride, didn't you? You're wrong! We did UVERworld but we received many other requests. There were a lot of PTP songs in the tags. Who else was it... Sheena Ringo, Oral, and King Gnu too.

Kid’z: Weirdly enough, B'z was highly requested too.

Hiro: It'd be weird if I sang their songs.

Crowd: Sing! Sing! Sing!

Hiro: 萎えぇぇ！萎えぇぇ！萎えぇぇぇぇー (T/N: Nae is Japanese slang that roughly translates to “no” or “ugh” in this context) Wait a minute. Change the song.

Kid’z: *offended tone* Huh?

Hiro: Well then, sing a line that starts with A!

Hiro: You're an Ultra Soul Idiot. Do you know any other song apart from Ultra Soul?

Kid’z: Of course I do! Don't you? All of you? I love them more than anyone else, I'm even in the fanclub! こいよ！！

Kid’z: *sings a B'z line that starts with A*

Hiro: Gi!

Kid’z: Gi? *sings a line that starts with Gi* I told you, I can do anything.

Teru: Yu!

Kid’z: Yu? YUME JANAI ARE MO KORE MO SONO TE DE DOA MO AKEMASHOU, SHUKUFUKU GA HOSHII NARA KANASHIMI O SHIRI HITORI DE NAKIMASHOU, SOSHITE KAGAYAKU ULTRA SOUL!

Crowd: HEY!!!

Hiro: Oi, Teruki!! Why did you say "yu"?! You should've let him build up first before making him sing "yu"!! It was too early to make him sing that as the third song!

Kid’z: It felt really good!!

Hiro: Why did you say "yu" so quickly?!

Teru: I just made a mistake.

Hiro: Don't be an airhead!!

Kid’z: I'm really grateful!

Nob’s Redemption Arc

After their UVERworld cover, Hiro asked the audience what they should do next. The crowd started screaming different songs, to which Hiro said "I'm seriously fine with anything." Nob suddenly played the first three notes of LET IT DIE, to which Hiro said, "Ah, from earlier?" Kid'z said, "He made a mistake a while ago, so let's give him another chance." Then Nob started practicing. The crowd screamed, "You can do it!!!" then Nob walked towards the center stage and did a moonwalk. Hiro was all, "You can't do it, you're not Michael Jackson!" then sang a MJ line and howled his signature "Woo!"

Final MC

Hiro: Today was truly an amazing day, thank you all so much. We had such an intense gathering here at Kobe World Memorial Hall. The first Coming Kobe was also held here. We have so, so, so many memories here in this place. Right now, we're still on our way to reaching our dream. From hereon, we don't know if we could make such a big dream come true. We still have a long way there, but we're doing our best every year, making music for everyone and visiting various places as well. Next year, and the year after that, and even after 10 years, it would be nice if we could all make amazing memories together. Thank you so much! We're definitely coming back, Kobe!!

Photo by Takashi Konuma | Taken from Hiro’s IG post

#my first story #マイファス #live #2019 #still sad we didn't get a DVD of the Kobe show #liked it better than Saitama #we could've gotten the MCs and the encore at the very least #sighs #ah well

3 notes · View notes

koltarmi · 5 years

Text

Things I liked/noticed about Amélie the Musical UK

Before the show:

• A friend and I watched Amélie at The Watermill Theatre in Newbury, which is absolutely tiny. (Picture below) It seats about 200 people and is in the middle of no where. It was a hour’s walk from Newbury Station, but he scenery was quite nice. We got two seats in the front and they were cheap (about £26) because there was a pole, but it was so skinny it didnt block anything.

• Because it was in the middle of nowhere, the surrounding area was beautiful and nothing like a traditional theatre. There was a nearby stream and everyone was sitting on on these iron park benches and just enjoying the view.

• The theatre and stage is tiny. So tiny it makes the theatre that I work at which only seats 50 people look like Carnegie Hall.

• The cast : Audrey Brisson as Amélie, Chris Jared as Nino, Johnson Willis as Collignon/Dufayel, Kate Robson Stuart as Suzanne, Sioned Saunders as Gina, Faoileann Cunningham as Georgette/Sylvia, Oliver Grant as Lucien/Mysterious Man, Caolan McCarthy as Hippolito/Elton John, Samuel Morgan-Grahame as Joseph/Fluffy, Josh Sneesby as Blind Beggar/Gnome, Jez Unwim as Raphael/Bretodeau

• Here’s the set:

ACT ONE

• The show starts with the subway light effect and a transit announcement in French.

• I really hope the UK cast records an album and that it includes the “Everybody’s Connected” song because I love it.

• All the actors spoke with a French accent and used French words when saying hello, goodbye, thank you and etc.

• So instead of having a child actor play young Amélie they used a puppet controlled by the guy who plays Lucien while Audrey provides the voice. And holy shit the puppet was terrifying. It had Dora the explorer choppy hair and had this wooden sheen. It also had the ability to blink which added to the creepiness factor.

• Because of the limited space the actors played their own instruments, ocasionally switching off with someone else when they were in the scene.

• The photo booth doubles as a door frame, the background of the sex shop, and a confessional booth in Notre Dame. The large sign that says “Photo Booth” has a light inside that turns on and which makes the inside of the booth visible from the outside and it looked super cool.

• Instead of it being a tourist from Brussels being on top of Notre Dame, they go back to a tourist from Quebec like in the film. The actor stood on top of the photo booth Instead of jumping, the tourist shoots himself and falls on to a crash mat, killing Amadine.

• Amélie describes her mother’s death using the word “squish’

• As they transition scenes, they straight up drag Amadine’s body off stage and it is hilarious.

• The garden gnome is used as an urn for Amadine’s ashes. Like they literally pour her ashes from the urn into the gnome.

• “Times Are Hard For Dreamers” was moved from the first act to the second act and is after “No Place like Gnome”

• I really want “Going Around Circles” to be in the album and I hate that it isn’t cause it’s a bop.

• Hippolito and Joseph smoke while in The Two Windmills, giving it a more Paris vibe

• A bit off topic, but I went to the Two Windmills cafe in France. The food is so good. If you’re a fan of the movie, I definitely reccomend you visit! (Some photos included below.)

• The guy who flirts with Amélie in the cafe leaves his number on a receipt. As she cleans up his table, she stuffs the receipt into her mouth.

• After, Suzanne invites Amélie to go our for drinks with her, Gina, and Georgette, but Amélie refuses.

• The two pianos on stage convert into Georgette’s tobacco counter and the market where Collignon and Lucien work.

• The clock at the top doubles as Amélie’s apartment. The face of the clock slides open into two doors. There aren’t actually any stairs so to get up there, a pulley with a lampshade is dropped down and Audrey just grabs onto it and swings into the apartment. I kept getting nervous every time she went up because the pulley moved so fast, even though it says in her bio that she grew up doing several Cirque du Soleil shows.

• Speaking of Audrey Brisson, SHE IS SO TINY AND I LOVE HER. Like I’m a pretty short person and she was shorter than me.

• Dufayel has the camera to see the outside world like he did in the film.

• One thing they added was at the beginning if each scene they stated the date, time and occasionally the weather, humidity and etc which is a callback to the film. The whole story of Amélie (by which I mean the events that happen within the show) takes course over three months.

• Chris Jared, who played Nino was HOT, in my opinion at least. The headshots were in black and white in the program, so I didn’t know he was older until I saw a few grey hairs, but he was still super hot in a DILF kinda way.

• They make it clear that Collignon hates figs which is why he gets annoyed when Lucien sings “Three Figs”. He’s so disgusted by figs that he vomits in his hat before putting it back on.

• When Amélie starts her quest to do good deeds, she calls Suzanne and asks for a day off. Suzanne agrees and asks slyly, “What’s his name?” Amélie replies with, “Dominique Bredoteau.”

• They included the scene where Amélie goes door to door looking for Bredoteau, another callback to the film.

• Due to the inaccessibility of the second floor besides the lampshade pulley, if a character needed to stand out, they would climb and stand on top of the photo booth. Amélie stood on it in “Tour de France” and Nino stands on it during “When the Booth Goes Bright”

• When Amélie calls Bretodeau, the phone is held by an ensemble member who makes the ringing noise. When he picks it up, the light in the photo booth turns on, revealing Amélie wearing a scarf around her head and a pair of sunglasses as she speaks to him.

• Before “Goodbye Amélie”, as the report of Princess Diana turns into one of her fantasies, Amélie reaches into the TV and puts on a sparkling tiara as Elton John enters.

• She stands on top of the two pianos placed back to back as they serenade her. At the very end of the sing, she lies down across them with her arms crossed and her tiara on her chest as she winks at the audience.

• There’s actually an intermission.

ACT TWO

• It starts with everyone on the subway. Amélie and Nino are on the opposite end of the train car and they sing a lovely duet. I don’t remember the exact lyrics, but there was metaphor of being lost at sea hinting at “Halfway”. I love the song and I need it in a cast album.

• At the end of the song Nino, stands in front of the audience as if exiting a subway car and Amélie sees him, but she immediately sinks into her seat so that he doesn’t see her.

• Nino leaves his photo album on top of the photo booth when he goes to catch his last train. Audrey Brisson is so small that even on her tip toes she couldn’t reach the top of the booth, so she climbed the door frame of the booth to reach the album.

• During intermission, the grocery stall is replaced with a display case full of different sizes and colors of dildos fo the sex shop scene.

• In the scene where Nino laments the loss of his photo album, (“years of his best work” as he calls it) his coworker is polishing a large black dildo with a cloth.

• Audrey plays the piano as she sings “Halfway” and its absolutely beautiful, so much so that I had tears in my eyes and I got a tattoo inspired by the song in Amsterdam.

• What isn’t beautiful is the return of the Young Amélie puppet during “Halfway” who is visible through grown-up Amélie’s clock apartment.

• She calls Nino from her seat on the piano bench while he’s standing behind the piano, which I thought was brilliant staging. It shows how strong their connection was, but despite that, there was still an obstacle preventing them from meeting each other which was Amélie’s reluctance to reach out to him.

• She leaves him with the riddle of solving Xeno’s paradox along with a photo strip of her dressed in a Zorro costume, which is another callback to the film.

• They also narrate Amélie forging a letter from Gina’s late husband. She does so by taking some of the letters he wrote her before Amélie returning the box of letters to Gina.

• Collignon comes into the cafe, complaining about Lucien. Seeing a chance to get back at him, Amélie serves him a fig tart. As Collignon becomes sick, three people wearing nightmare fig costumes bust out of the photo booth and haunt him. The lights around him and the cafe go dark and turn nightmarish meanwhile Amélie is brightly lit in the downstage left corner by the cigarette counter, as she leisurely unwraps a mint and pops it into her mouth. Collignon is shaken out of his fig nightmare when Lucien enters the café to grab his attention. Collignon admits as a young man he wanted to be a doctor or a lawyer, but his mother wanted him to be a grocer and so he became one despite having no love for it. The reason he is so mean to Lucien is because he sees how much care and love Lucien takes when handling the produce that it makes him bitter. He apologizes to Lucien. Lucien replies he has no idea what he’s talking about and offers to close up the shop for Collignon, who agrees and says that Lucien is a good boy. I love this addition as it doesn’t sweep Lucien and Collignon’s plotline under the rug like the Broadway production does. It’s addressed and resolved before the end of the show.

• After the fig-induced nightmare sequence, Raphael rushes in to the cafe in distress. Instead of going into “No Place Like Gnome” they pause the scene in the cafe.

• They narrate that 275 km away Nino posts flyers of Amelié in the Zorro costume around the city and they move into “Thin Air” instead. Nino comes in from the side of the clock and stands on top of the photo booth. Again because of the limited space, the posters are just stuck around the metal framing of the clock.

• They return back to the café after “Thin Air”. After “No Place Like Gnome” as Amélie spray paints Hippolito’s quote below the clock, she notices the posters and panics ripping one off, but leaves the rest hanging. A took a picture of the set at the end of the show.

• Amelié sends another photo strip to Nino writing, “It has come to my attention that you are looking for me. This Friday. 5pm. Montmartre Carousel. Bring five francs.”

• Amelié wears the Zorro costume in “Blue Arrow Suite”. The ensemble acted as the carousel and had blue arrows on the back of their instruments or on them. For those playing smaller instruments, they wore blue gloves and pointed towards the next “arrow”. The top of the hill was the photo booth and Nino pulls a red stand of binoculars out of fucking nowhere.

• Joseph says Georgette looks lovely when she’s flushed. She replies she’s flushed because of her gluten intolerance.

• When Nino and Amelié are set to meet at the cafe, the airline hostess is one of the customers there and joins in signing “A Better Haircut”

• They cut out the line where Nino says he loves Amelié and doesnt even know her name in “A Better Haircut” and I’m honestly so glad they did that. It works so much better Instead it just goes, “But you know I think she understands me/ I don’t know why she would understand/She may not even feel the same/But I don’t even know her name” with the “She may not even feel the same” part being dragged out a bit more.

• Georgette gets Hippolito to write down Amelié’s address on a page in his notebook that he tips out and gives to him.

• As Amelié sits in her clock apartment, the photo booth is turned so the side that is the door faces the audience. Nino waits below in front of it as they sing “Stay”. As they sing, Amélie moves from her apartment to the top of the photo booth. Again I love the staging, the use of different levels shows both the emotional and physical distance separating them.

• At the end of “Stay”, Nino realizes she won’t be opening the door. He looks like he gets an idea and walks away as the booth is turned to show the photo booth side. Amelié collapses in on herself and cries. From his window, Dufayel tells Amelié there is nothing to fear and shows her his new painting: it’s Amelié drinking a glass of water, making her the girl with the glass.

• Instead of opening the door, Nino climbs through a “window” aka on top of the photo booth (at least that was my interpretation of it, it wasn’t very clear how he got in)

• They sing the “Halfway (Reprise)” and do the the famous kiss on the cheek, neck and eye. Honestly, the tension between them was insane and had whole audience dying with anticipation as we collectively held our breaths. Audrey Brisson and Chris Jared have such crazy good chemistry. When they finally kissed it was like a sigh of relief washed over the audience.

• As the ensemble kneel before Amelié and Nino, Raphael stands, stating that he finally goes on a trip with Suzanne by his side, who then stands up beside him and smiles at him.

• In “Where Do We Go From Here?” one of Nino’s line is changed instead of singing, “Will there be sweet things?” It goes “Will you be with me?” and Amélie’s reply sticks to the original lyric as she answers with, “I hope so.”

• After bows, the cast sing a finale song that combines “When the Booth Goes Bright” and “Times Are Hard for Dreamers”. I cannot stress enough how badly I want a cast album of this show.

In Summary

• The show has improved so much and fixes a lot of the issues the Broadway version had.

• Overall, the UK production stays more faithful to the movie, including lots of callbacks and scenes from the film itself as well as the overall atmosphere of the Paris.

• I. Need. A. Cast. Album. Of. The. UK. Production.

#amelie #amélie uk tour #amélie the musical #audrey brisson #musical theatre

38 notes · View notes

asterinjapan · 5 years

Text

Museum day

Good evening again from a rainy Tokyo!

Well, I think it’s dry now, but it’s been raining for most of the day, I assume due to whatever remains of tropical depression ex-typhoon number 20 of this year. And of course, there is a very easy option to do on a rainy day: visiting museums! Or well, just the one today, haha.

On a rainy day and a national holiday, I for sure wasn’t the only one with that idea, but since Ueno Park houses a ton of museums and a zoo and what not, the crowds still spread out.

So, follow me into the Tokyo National Museum of Nature and Science today!

Actually, I’ve been sort of intending to visit this museum since my very first visit in 2010, when a trip via school let me see a glimpse of the giant blue whale statue (life size!) that marks the entrance. However, visiting a museum is never first on my list when I go to Japan, simply because I want to do so many things. With today’s weather, I didn’t think one of my planned side trips into the mountains was such a good idea, so it was finally time.

As it turns out, entrance for the permanent exhibitions (there was no special one at the moment) was free today! Today is the enthronement of the emperor, so it’s a national holiday, and apparently also a reason to call off entry prices, haha. Once inside, I did get myself a tablet with audio guide, because with this being a broad museum on eh, nature and science, I was already fairly sure my limited vocabulary wouldn’t save me here. The tablet (or plain audio device, you could pick) was 320 yen, and it was extensive. It also offered you guides through the complex, so I picked out the longest one that would lead me through all floors. This was my day plan, after all!

First, I visited the Theater 36◯ (yeah, a circle, not a zero, they’re too cool for a simple zero). True to its name, it’s a movie theater with a screen in 360 degrees all around. You get a free audio device here for languages other than Japanese, and since only 60 people can be inside at once, it’s a wait until you can get in. I killed time by checking the introduction movies on my tablet (featuring a very cute animated triceratops girl), and then I was allowed in.

You stand on a bridge that features glass on both sides, so you can watch underneath. The theater has rotating screenings, and for October, the movie clips are the deep sea and the mantle dynamics and evolution of the Earth. I was actually most excited for the former, but ended up being most impressed by the latter. I think the deep sea clip has been here for longer, because the quality was slightly pixelated at some points. The mantle dynamics movie took you to the center of the earth, and zoomed in and out to a degree that I suddenly understood the warnings that some people might feel light-headed or motion sick here, haha. It’s not that bad, but this screening definitely tricked my brain.

After that, it was time to explore the museum proper! Actually, it consists of two buildings: the global gallery, with 3 floors in the basement and 3 floors on top, and the Japan gallery, which has 3 floors with two wings each. The route I had picked sent me to the first floor of the global gallery first, going up and then starting back down on the third floor basement, and then leading me through the Japan gallery from top to bottom.

The first floor of the global gallery immediately featured the skeleton of an Allosaurus, the first dinosaur to ever be exhibited in Japan, back in 1964. This hall features the history of the planet since the very beginning until, well, now, so that’s a lot to cover and gives a starting point for the rest of the building. It showed off biodiversity, an interactive Tree of Life display where you could follow the lines to see which organisms were linked to each other, and the development of human kind starting with the very first primates to go bipedal. It was a lot, and I noticed my guide skipped some numbers here, but I quickly found out that was on purpose. If you want to listen to all the audio guide points, you need at least two full days here.

I made my way up following the guide to the third floor, where there was an absolutely massive exhibition of specimens of all kinds of mammals and birds, including the in the wild extinct Japanese wolf and tons of deer, bears, other predators, you name it. This was overwhelming and a bit creepy (these animals did die at some point, quite probably due to hunting), but very interesting and it was pretty cool to see these animals that close. There was a play corner around the, eh, corner, for which you need to make reservations in advance, and where kids can play in a climbing construction that seemed to be littered with specimens as well (I assume replicas), so they could get a hands-on approach.

The second floor was dedicated to Japanese inventions starting in the 1600s, and the interaction with other countries that brought this around. There were direct comparisons between Japanese and European measuring devices, which was very interesting, because similar museums back in Europe wouldn’t do something like that due to the distance. Also featured here were the first computers, a replica of the Himawari satellite, Japanese clocks (which are distinctly different, because the time during days and nights was measured at a different pace) and a Global Environment detector, featuring a giant screen that you could interact with to draw up measuring results on all kinds of topics, sometimes even being the actual measurements of that moment. It’s a pretty interactive museum, so there is a lot to see and do.

At this point I took a break, to find out I’d already been wandering around for two hours! And I was barely getting started, oops. So I quickly went down to the basement to find an exhibition on ‘exploring the structure of nature’, or ‘that part where I’m really happy I rented a tablet in English, because I barely even know these terms in English’, haha. It was super interesting though, showcasing a model of a particle accelerator, and a ‘cloud chamber’ in which you could observe cosmic radiation hitting earth, and actual moon rocks and the periodic table with all elements (except the radioactive ones) on display.

Another floor up is one of the more impressive ones, as it houses tons of skeletons of animals throughout the ages, including the biggest mammoth and the earliest human. They had some scarily realistic reconstructions of early humans, so lifelike that I was almost fooled into thinking they were actually people dressing up, haha.

One more floor up is one of the more popular floors, for a very easy reason: dinosaurs! There were quite a few on display, and I never fail to be impressed by the sheer size and variety of them. Not much to say here I guess, except me having a good time because dinosaurs, haha.

I made it back to the Japan gallery (the building I had started in) and after some latte, I carried myself to the third floor. I must confess I started rushing from now on, since it was already 3 PM, but this building is considerably smaller and the guide has fewer, if longer, audio spots. This building is, of course, more dedicated to the Japanese natural history, and guides you through the animals found in Japan’s waters until you find yourself facing a plesiosaurus, Futabasaurus, the first of its kind to be found in Japan. It’s reconstructed as if it’s swimming over your head, very impressive.

One floor down showcases the variety of animals found on the Japanese islands, and one of my favourites: Japanese people throughout the ages, starting in the Jomon period and ending in the Edo era (or the present, if you choose to go stand in the last spot, haha). These featured mannequins in daily life situations that were very realistic, I assume they used the same techniques as in wax museums, because I was seriously impressed, wow.

Near the end of this hall, a group of people had gathered to take pictures. You see, there was another very popular display: Hachiko. Yep, the same dog whose statue sits outside Shibuya station and of which I take a picture every time, so naturally I had to take a picture of the real deal. It’s almost weird to see him in white, his actual color, because the statue is cast in bronze. Hachiko is famous enough to get 2 plaques in English, rather than just a single line translated, haha.

On the first floor, you’ll find instruments from Japan used to throughout the ages to observe nature, including the very important ones of observing seismographic activity, rather vital in a country this active.

Finally, I was back in the basement, which has Foucault’s pendulum and uh, not much else, but I was kind of glad, because I was seriously tired and overwhelmed at this point. I learnt a whole lot today, and actually feel this is a museum you might want to visit in two trips rather than trying to stuff it all into one. I had a great time, though! I took a lot more pictures than I usually do in museums, there was just so much to see.

Of course there is a museum shop, and of course it has a special corner for Hachiko, and uh, now I have a plushie Hachiko, haha. He’s very soft and a very good boy!

It was almost 5 PM, though, so I rushed out and took a quick picture of the whale statue outside before making my way back to the station. The rain had stopped, so I walked from Ikebukuro station to Tokyu Hands to browse until dinner time, which meant I found their origami paper section, so I had a good time here, too, ahem.

Back at the hotel now, and time to go to bed, because it’ll be a long day tomorrow! It should be dry and even sunny, so fingers crossed, haha.

I’m not sure if I will update tomorrow, so for now good night and see you soon!

#report #report: japan 2019 #japan 2019

2 notes · View notes

ruroy9i · 4 years

Text

MI(SI)NGLE

Bart Reynolds is an average freshman at ‘Broadchurch High’, a nondescript boarding school in an uneventful small town. And by average, I mean that Bart is average at everything and precisely average. But despite being mean, he is not mean, perhaps his only redeeming quality and one he is quite proud of. Quite unambitious, he whiles away his time playing games with his best friends: Flynn and Abigail (exactly half of which he wins). He is frustratingly single, but he doesn’t mind, arguing that stochasticity guarantees he will end up with someone at some point of time. And he is plenty happy just to have a crush on the editor of the Broadchurch Newsletter, his classmate: June Green.

One day, over a game of ‘Zombie Dino Ultra Kill 8’, Bart and Abigail are arguing whether it is better to be friend-zoned or bro-zoned, while Flynn is off on a date with the Dean’s daughter: Zoey. They pose their arguments before Flynn when he returns, moping and sad. Turns out Zoey had only wanted Flynn to tutor her and nothing more. The duo stuff him full of cheesecake and ice-cream and decide that being tutor-zoned is definitely the worst. Flynn goes to sleep, still whining that Zoey had seemed interested in him just the previous day.

That night, someone breaks into Bart and Flynn’s dorm room. As Bart is jacking off in the bathroom, he picks up a baseball bat and rushes into the room. When he flicks on the switch, a man in a black tuxedo is at Flynn’s bedside, motioning Bart to be quiet. He has attached some strange instrument to Flynn’s chest. Upon finishing the measurement, he remarks that Flynn’s is a critical case. Bart bombards him with questions. The man in the tuxedo motions to join him on the terrace. He explains to a bewildered Bart that Flynn is a victim of a secret conspiracy to destroy unrequited love from the world. He claims to be a secret agent of the spy organization: MISingle. Bart jokingly asks that if he is a secret agent, why is he telling him this, will he wipe his memory with a deneuralyzer. The man in the tux solemnly says that he is here to recruit Bart into the agency, as he is their last hope in this race against time. Bart still jokes that it’s a great honour, but he must surely not be eligible for the job. The man asks whether Bart is single. Bart affirms it. “That is all the eligibility you need”, the man says as thunder strikes the dorm’s weathered electricity lines, plunging the school into a black-out.

Bart follows the man to his “ride”, which he expects to be an invisible jet or at least an invisible car. But he is stumped to find an average and rather unusual crop-duster. The man finally introduces himself as Agent Eager Beaver. Bart just rolls his eyes. They reach the headquarters of the spy cell, located intrepidly in a deserted motel. Bart remarks the ingenuity of hiding it so well, but Eager Beaver just quips that they didn’t have the budget to afford anything better. Bart is led to the debriefing room, where more suited men and women join in. As Beaver explains the situation and reports on Flynn’s condition, the top man of the organization: Agent Jilted Lover surmises that Flynn must have been poisoned with their enemy, Dr. Cupid’s newly devised ‘Repulsion dart’. Bart, concerned for Flynn demands an explanation about everything.

Cue epic exposition music. Agent Jilted Lover explains that since the dawn of time, there have been men and women who never found love or whom love never found. They have been called many names, viewed in different ways by society. And so, they evolved from hermits to oddballs to spinsters to singles. But sometime after the Industrial Revolution, with an increasing number of single working-class men and surprisingly women, it was deemed necessary to establish a global intelligence organization, to look out for the needs of this unfortunate but key demographic of society. Unfortunately, whoever enthusiastically sponsored the cause soon found love and had to direct their resources to that most conducive venture. Either way, the organization survived, strengthened in part due to the growing number of divorces in the twentieth century. Ironically, from a very ugly such divorce was born their most recent and fierce adversary: Dr. Cupid. A mad scientist and devilishly intelligent, Dr. Cupid plans to put an end to singledom everywhere. But the real concern arose when he was recruited by some murky evil organization who share his vision and have the means to realize it as well. And ever since, they’ve been at war with MI(SI)NGLE.

Bart is left with his mouth wide open, in staggering disbelief. He breaks the fourth wall to ask the audience if he is in a comedy movie. Agent Jilted Lover explains that Flynn is not the first person to be tutor-zoned in such a harsh way. There has been an alarming rise in such tutor-zonings of late, and they are quite certain this is the doing of Dr. Cupid. Eager Beaver breaks it to Bart with much sadness that he has measured Flynn’s heart to be 88% broken. If they do not find the cause of his tutor-zoning and reverse it, he will be a lost cause. Bart asks the audience if they know that a broken heart could be medically diagnosed. And so Eager Beaver concludes that Bart must now take up the mantle of a MI(SI)NGLE agent to save Flynn (should he choose to accept his mission.) Still talking to the audience, Bart admits that he can’t possibly turn it down now. Jilted Lover takes that as a yes.

Eager Beaver takes Bart to see the Quartermaster/Weapons and tech expert. On the way, Bart decides to address Eager Beaver as Mr. B in the future. They are welcomed by the incredibly sassy woman, Agent Heartbreak Kid. She expresses her doubt in Bart’s ability and starts an argument with Mr. B over the subject. Once done, she outfits Bart with his spy toolkit: a death metal T-shirt outlined with radio and satellite communicator, a Repulsor gun and an ugly sunglass, with a built-in scope and Love meter. As Bart is hyped up to use the Repulsor gun, remarking that its totally out of the Marvel movies, Mr. B explains that it is an actual ‘repulsor’, and not the fancy kind in movies. Bart doesn’t understand, so Heartbreak Kid points to an adorable little kitten that two interns in the lab are petting, and shoots it with the Repulsor. Nothing happens to the kitten, but the interns throw it away, calling it gross and ugly. ‘So, it turns things repulsive?”, Bart asks the audience again.

Mr.B just facepalms and reminds Heartbreak Kid that the kitten belongs to Agent Lonely Cat Lady and her fury will be upon them unless she fixes the cat. And then Bart’s training begins, once he puts the sunglasses on. He complains that they aren’t doing anything and might be broken. Heartbreak Kid replies that the glasses measure how much love people are getting and no one in the room is getting any.

Cue epic training montage with high voltage rock song.

Once Bart is done training, Mr.B and Heartbreak Kid show him the latest intel. They learn that tutor-zoning cases are at an all-time high and a large part of the world’s single population will reach the dreaded ‘Heartbreak point’ once the weekend is over. Agent ‘Hawas Ka Pujari’ has identified a VR goggles manufacturing unit in Bangalore to be a cover for the opposition. Jilted Lover asks them to set out immediately. Heartbreak Kid says that before leaving, Bart must be assigned his codename. Jilted Lover thinks it over and decides to confer upon him the codename Agent Nice Guy. Humbled and genuinely excited, Bart accepts and leaves with Mr. B.

Heartbreak Kid asks Jilted Lover whether he did the right thing, reusing the codename of a dead agent and that too, a legendary one.

Once again, Bart expects a jet, but has to settle for a trip on a commercial airline and that too in economic class.

Bangalore, India: Bart and Mr. B wait outside a multiplex for their correspondent to show up. But when he doesn’t, they go into the hall worried. But right in the ticket-counter, they find a man passed out and porn playing loudly on his phone. Mr. B wakes him up and introduces Bart to Agent Hawas ka Pujari. Bart just decides to call him Agent Perv. Perv takes them to scope out the building from where the VR goggles are manufactured. The three put on their ugly glasses and in front of Bart’s eyes, pops up a meter over every person in the city. They break into the unit and with amazing dexterity take out the guards (they just hit them with the Repulsor so that the guards start fighting among themselves). Once inside, they see that among the normal VR goggles are hidden special boxes marked with hearts, which are being transported to different locations. They open one such box and discover a normal VR goggle. They can’t find anything different with it at all. So they hit a dead-end and decide to head back.

Heartbreak Kid, whom Bart decides to call Miss Hearts fails to figure out what is wrong with the goggles. Frustrated, Jilted Lover becomes paranoid. Mr.B finds a lead that the addresses to which the goggles were being shipped ,all belong to most-wanted assassins or mercenaries. But considering the danger level of the mission, he goes on it alone and asks Bart to return to school for the time-being.

Back at school, Bart finds Flynn to be still moping and absolutely withdrawn. Abigail bombards him with questions, not believing a single thing he says. Bart finds himself no longer interested in his average school life. He toys around with the goggle which Ms Hearts gave him as a souvenir, when a thought strikes him. He asks Abigail to wear the goggles and come with him. He goes up to June Green, as she enters the cafeteria. Abigail remarks to the audience that her boy has finally manned up. Bart asks June to go out with him and is harshly rejected. To Abigail’s surprise, a meter pops up over Bart’s head which is full and a meter over June’s head which is empty. Bart is thrilled to hear this and immediately contacts Ms. Hearts.

Prague: Mr.B tracks down the courier service delivering the VR goggle to an assassin in Prague. He intercepts the man and threatens to make him so repulsive that his girlfriend will leave him and takes his clothes and the goggle. At the assassin’s doorstep, he hears a familiar voice. He hesitatingly knocks. The assassin opens up and welcomes him inside. He immediately puts the assassin in a choke-hold and asks who has hired him. From within the room Dr. Cupid emerges with another man. After a long and run of the mill dialogue between Mr. B and Dr. Cupid, Mr. B asks who his benefactor is. The other man steps up and Mr. B is absolutely shocked. In that moment, the assassin overpowers him and knocks him out.

This time Lonely Cat Lady escorts Bart to the HQ, which makes him curious about Mr. B. He excitedly explains to Ms. Hearts and Jilted Lover that the goggles are the exact opposite of the ugly sunglasses. Just like the glasses show how much love a person receives; the goggle shows how much love the person gives. So in effect, the goggles are a good way to measure unrequited love. Ms. Hearts joins the rest of the dots that the assassins are being supplied with these goggles so that they can eliminate anyone who is about to engage in a relationship where he shows unrequited love. Agent Perv remarks that tutor-zoning people is a good way to cut off their unrequited love. But how are they tutor-zoning people, Lonely cat Lady wonders. Bart asks about Mr.B, and just then a message from Dr. Cupid shows up on the screen. He mocks MI(SI)NGLE and lets them know that he has Mr. B captive, and will break his heart unless they back off. He laughs manically and says that Global Singledom will end very soon.

Perv and Bart leave immediately, promising to bring Mr. B back safely and save the world (not really, just the single people). Ms. Hearts stops them and says that they have both graduated from the tees to suits. Perv and Bart high-five at this.

Cue epic suiting up sequence and the main theme.

Tracking the communicator sewn into Mr. B’s suit, Perv and Bart reach a charity fund-raiser in London. They realize that Mr. B is being held captive somewhere in the basement. They infiltrate the party and swipe the key-cards by knocking out security personnel. Dr. Cupid watches this and deploys a secret weapon. Just as Bart and Perv are about to unlock the doors to the basement, two gorgeous ladies walk up to them and ask to buy them drinks. Forever single Bart and Perv can’t believe it and try to talk them off, but the ladies persist and almost drag them to the bar. Bart mumbles a protest that he is not yet 21, while Perv is already onto his third glass of wine. Back at the HQ, Jilted Lover curses that the biggest weakness of MI(SI)NGLE operatives have always been seduction. As Perv climbs into paradise, thoroughly seduced, Bart struggles to stay focussed. With great effort, he manages to shoot himself and Perv with the Repulsor. The ladies immediately let go of them and they escape. Once far away, Perv sobers up a little and breaks down about how he was compromised so easily. Bart consoles him and intones that they must hurry to save Mr. B. With great admiration, Perv confers upon Bart the title: ‘Sakht Launda’.

They break into the basement, but don’t find Mr. B. Upon thorough searching, they find the communicator strapped to a webcam, which activates. From the other end, Dr. Cupid chuckles and mocks them and asks them to send his regards to Jilted Lover. He asks them to enjoy a demonstration of his vision coming to fruition. Bart and Perv climb to the roof and see the assassins armed with sniper rifles pointed at various positions within the hall. They put on the goggles and realize that the targets of the snipers are couples on the dance-floor, but only those with one partner in love. As the snipers start firing small, almost invisible darts, the couples start having arguments and breaking up. Bart can’t help but marvel at it and tells the audience that Dr. Cupid might actually be doing the world a favour. Bart and Perv then start using their skills to take out the assassins. Once done, they analyse the ammo: small darts filled with some sort of poison. Ms. Hearts declares that the poison, one of Dr. Cupid’s formulations is precisely what is causing tutor-zoning and other kind of estrangement among potential lovers.

Bart and Perv are frustrated to hit another dead-end, but Ms. Hearts tells them that the darts are manufactured by a Swiss company. She immediately dispatches the “Friendzone Force” (the Special Ops Division of MI(SI)NGLE) to clear it out. From the Force’s raid, it becomes clear that Dr. Cupid’s lair is in the Swiss Alps and also that his benefactor is a company called: ‘We Heart It’, a manufacturer of cardiac stents and pacemakers.

Bart and Perv infiltrate Dr. Cupid’s lair, which turns out to be a factory of ‘We Heart It’. Eliminating the opposition, they finally manage to reach Mr. B and free him. Mr. B is overjoyed to see them and hear about their discovery. Then Mr. B informs them of his own discovery, that We Heart It is owned by former operatives of MI(SI)NGLE, who were presumed dead, led by the legendary Jim Baxter, the original Agent Nice Guy. And then Jim and Dr. Cupid show up with their large army and surround the trio. Bart can’t help but ask why Dr. Cupid wants to eliminate unrequited love and why Mr. Baxter is helping him. So they take them to see their crowning glory. Bart, Perv and Mr. B are taken up to a command centre, with a live feed from the major cities of the world. As Dr. Cupid presses a button, snipers positioned in the cities open fire. On a giant meter, Bart sees all the one-sided and unrequited love vanishing from the world. But Perv then shows him an adjacent monitor where another meter called mutual love starts filling up. And then it finally becomes clear to everyone. Baxter explains that one-sided love is one of the worst experiences in singlehood and being the definitive Nice Guy, he had become sick and tired of just giving love and never getting it back. MI(SI)NGLE was disillusioned and clung to a dying ideal. So he faked his own death and slowly started seeding the research of Dr. Cupid, which would transfer all the wasted unrequited love in the world to couples who were mutually in love. At this, Bart speaks up. He stresses that just because you can’t get back love doesn’t mean you shouldn’t show it. He points out that Baxter’s idea of always getting back the love he gives is impractical and selfish and a violation of the codename Agent Nice Guy. He cries on how Dr. Cupid has it all wrong and that even those who aren’t loved deserve to love. This melts Dr. Cupid’s heart and he reconsiders going through with his plan. Baxter pushes him away from the console. Amidst the scuffle, Mr.B frees himself and Perv. He then takes down the armed guards. Once freed, Bart tries to call off the snipers, but Mr. Baxter blocks his path. So ensues a fight between the two Nice Guys. Mr. B pulls Dr. Cupid back to his feet and Dr. Cupid calls off the attack. Baxter and Bart duel to the edge of the bridge, that dangles precipitously over a sharp drop. Baxter beats Bart back repeatedly, until Bart shoots himself with the dart. Repulsed, Baxter lets go and he falls (NO, not to his death jeez, he just falls to the next floor and breaks his arm).

And so the day is saved. Dr. Cupid reverses the effect of the dart, bringing everyone back to normal. So on Monday morning, a heartbroken Flynn wakes up to open the door and see an equally heartbroken Zoey, who asks if he would like to go to a concert with her. Dr. Cupid leaves, hoping not to cross paths with MI(SI)NGLE again.

Bart is lauded greatly by Mr. B and Perv. The three are conferred medals by Jilted Lover. And Bart’s speech is actually written down in the Great Book of MI(SI)NGLE quotes. Bart tells the audience that he could have easily gone down the same road as Baxter, had it not been for this experience. So he requests Jilted Lover to change his codename from Nice Guy to Sakht Launda (he has no idea what it means). He remarks that he is very gald to be single and looks forward to enjoying it for a long time. He returns to school, to the welcome arms of Abigail and Flynn. Abigail is shocked to learn everything. Bart smiles and says he has to go look for a new crush. Abigail decides to lend him a helping hand.

FINIS

PS: At the MI(SI)NGLE success party, Heartbreak kid asks Eager Beaver how he is doing and that she is really glad that he is back, safe and sound. Bart interrupts her to ask what is the policy on fraternizing among agents. She savagely replies that there is no policy, since all the agents are so repulsive that they can barely stand each other. She goes back to talking with Mr.B. Perv asks Bart why he asked such a strange question. Bart just hands him the goggles. Perv puts it on to see two filled meters over Ms. Hearts and Mr. B’s heads.

#fanfic #fiction #writeblr #writblr #excerpt from a story i'll never write #storytelling #story #original #spy au #spy #single #unrequited crush #the upside of unrequited #humor #writer humor #rejects writing #friendzone

1 note · View note

blacktribbles · 5 years

Text

Peaches 🍑 &

Anime Dreams ⭐️

I don’t think many people dream of growing up and living in the same city their entire life. Not being able to see different things outside their own world and limiting their world view. Unfortunately it happens, maybe far too often to count. I hoped and prayed that would never happen to me; as I got older and began to travel a bit more I began to realize how much I love the area I’m in, how much I love the Greater Philadelphia area. However, I promised myself that there are a few cities in the US that I MUST travel to and get a feel for, for when I eventually do leave the area that raised me (inevitable due to future career wants). One of those cities was Atlanta Georgia, and what better reason to go to the state where the players play, and people ride out like everyday, than to go to Momocon and celebrate a special birthday with some friends.

The crew that was riding with me were My homie Mike (aka the Wizard Tribble), his girlfriend Gabe (Director, Producer, and 1 half of the horror podcast “The Ghouls Next Door) and my girlfriend Kat (Producer and the other half of “The Ghouls Next Door). We flew in early Friday morning and hit the ground running when we landed in Atlanta. Things moved quickly in the airport. It was wide open, thoroughly organized with no real confusion, which I was not used to from the Philadelphia airport where pigeons would just sit and claim their spot to a seat right beside you in the airport. There was also this air of safety that honestly rubbed my Philadelphian grit in an odd way but I was very appreciative it was noticed. First time in a new city, the first thing anyone wants is some confirmation of safety.

Once we stepped outside, leaving the comfort of the ATL airport that safeguarded us with AC, we were blessed by the loving and excessive sun. Back home in PA the weather consistently flip flops, unsure of what season it wants to be throughout the day let alone the week. Here in Georgia though, in the city of Atlanta, it was bright and sunny all day and week long with a high of 95 and low of about 63 at night. It felt wonderful knowing that there was going to be a steady weather condition to prepare for. The sun was kissing my skin, invoking the power of my melanin–while burning some of my friends. They enjoyed it all the same luckily.

We arrived early to ATL, early enough to call a ride to the nearby diner to get some good southern breakfast in our systems. From the airport to the diner it felt like we were being taken on a small ATL tour. Passing by us was beautiful scenery, birds chirping, healthy, luscious green trees–adding a perfect amount of nature to the populated urban jungle. The letters GT were everywhere for Georgia Tech. A university that seemed to just keep expanding its territory wherever we roamed. The architecture of the city was sleek, not overly futuristic but reminiscent of Philly. It was modern with some buildings taking a design chance on aesthetics; adding in solar panels, wide open glass roof structures, inverted and curved buildings, the chances taken weren’t over the top and did just enough to stand out. Definitely caught my eye.

We finally arrived at a diner close to where we stayed—Silver Skillet Diner, a place that has hosted the likes of Samuel L. Jackson, and Dave Chappelle to name a few. It’s here that my friends and I are able to take Atlanta in more and notice that yep, this may not be Texas but things sure are thiccer (Yes with 2 C’s) down here in the south. We ordered our meals, with everyone of us making sure to get a bowl of grits–mine as a side to my chicken and waffles. Which, were so crispy yet tender. Only made better by the soft waffles and the sticky sweet syrup to combo it all together perfectly. We finish up and pay our bill. Finally we head to our Airbnb.

We get there and are blown away at the place. Nice balcony, modern furniture with a TV in every room, kitchen is dope and has a beautiful island for us to eat at and lean on. The bathrooms are HUGE and the bedrooms are perfectly fitted for 2. To top it off we had access to a summer lounge area that led to a nice pool and fitness center. Place was so good we had to take a instagram video of it. We were in prime location. Downtown Atlanta, right next to the expressway, walking distance from markets and other restaurants, clothing chains and if we didn’t want to walk we could scooter around wherever we wanted to. Yes, I said scooter around. Not like kick push scooter but motorized. Rideshare companies like Lyft & Uber have motorized scooters you can take by going through the same process as you would by ordering a driver except it’s cheaper and you scan a QRcode to activate the scooter. When you’re finished using it, you hop off, pay and just leave it. Drivers come around later in the day and pick up said scooters and recharge them for later use. It was the strangest but coolest thing to see. Definitely had too much fun bending coroners whipping the scooters like I was in rocket power.

After unpacking and taking more IG photos of our Airbnb, it was time to hit the scene and check out the hype around Momocon. What started out as just a “pick up my badge and go” operation turned into a full storm of fun and adventure. When we arrived at Momocon we took it like any other convention and didn’t pay it much attention, the jaded-ness of being a frequent convention goer showing. That is until we got our badges. We got them, so finally we had access to everything the convention had to offer. We rushed the escalators and slid down the rails to do so again until we reached the convention floor. The choices laid out before were the vendors alley, or the gaming hall. We chose the gaming hall for day one.

A concert of echoing laser sounds, dance taps, sirens, alarms, and winning shouts filled the floor and us with it, enveloped in its energy joined the fray. Game after game we played. Putting our bid to even win some the next day. New friends were made, cosplays were stellar, and I got to chill with one of my favorite Pokémon–Blastoise.

We caught wind of a very rare concert happening that night. One my close friend and I have been dying to see. It was the Bytes & Beats Nujabes Tribute concert featuring the NPC Collective, Richie Branson, Asheru, And our favorites–Substantial and Shing02. If you know anything about great anime then you know about Samurai Champloo. An anime that still stylistically, artistically, and musically, holds up and stands the test of time. Those who watched Samurai Champloo leave with a spirit of hypeness and angsty rebellion. That is if they’re the Mugen type. Those like myself who align more like Jin, feel the counter balance energy of flow. The subtle and instinctual vibrations of being in one's element–just riding the current. One of the biggest things to enjoy about Samurai Champloo is its music. Samurai Champloo had a lot of its music crafted by a Japanese DJ named Nujabes. In my eyes, Nujabes is a god among DJ’s. Shoot, a whole generation of young adults and older can thank him for all the music that inspired if not created the genre of chill-hop & lo-fi.

It was the type of music that could soothe the savage beast, could bring you to this place of perfect concentration like you took the limitless pill. The Beats Nujabes crafted was the type of music that makes you think of the perfect weekend drive by sunset cruising the city blocks or mountain roads or the plains of the countryside–windows down with your one arm doing the free flowing roller coaster motion. That feel good–I’m alive vibe. Then topped with the lyrical stylings of artists like Substantial and Shing02, enhanced everything passed the stratosphere and takes the listener to this otherworldly plain of profound worldly views and humbleness. Even with the uptempo joints it felt like every artist that blessed the track, and Nujabes blessing the beat, it just spoke humble confidence. In short, Nujabes was that dude!

Nujabes collaborated with many artists, but the two that he collaborated with and stood out the most were Substantial and Shing02. He worked on joint albums with both (that are historic for chill-hop culture and must listens) but it was with Shing02 specifically that the two together blessed anime fans worldwide as they collaborated on the intro theme song to Samurai Champloo–Battle Cry. A song so enigmatic that just the utterance of its name begins to make my head bop in rhythmic hip hop fashion. Needless to say, we were going to that damn concert!

It was Friday night, we were in Atlanta, we were looking fly, it’s our first time ever at Momocon and quite possibly our first and only time at this Nujabes tribute concert. We were gonna make sure we had a great fucking time. We did everything possible to make sure we got up close and personal to the stage. I may have stuff-armed a person or two….We made sure to take in all the ambience and to not miss a single beat nor lyric felt or heard. We expected greatness and would be damned if we didn’t have a chance to bear witness to it up close and personal.

The concert began and we were taken to a land of hip hop joy, geek excellence, and a dream fulfilled. The concert started at 11pm and didn’t end till about 3am. For those who waited and held out to the very end like my friends and I were treated to a very special rendition of Battle Cry. A new version with verses from every artist that graced the stage prior, and instrumental solos. This shit was absolutely BONKERS and I LOVED every single moment of it. I’ll add, it was made even better that after the show, the artists came out and interacted with the fans. A humble group of men for sure.

Friday was a blockbuster hit in our books. What happened on Saturday though put everything over the top.

Saturday was special. It was Kat’s birthday and all of us were doing our first ever group cosplay. We decided a while back that we’d do the teen titans in casual attire. This was based off the popular artwork of Gabriel Picolo. So, for me that meant I got to embody a character that I along with many others believe I emulate–Cyborg. I dawned the cybernetic blue and steel grey and white face paint, put on a DC Comics Cyborg shirt to rep him even harder, and topped it off with a colorful playstation jacket. Your man was looking fresh out here. To round out our cast of titans was Kat as Raven, Mike as Robin/Nightwing and Gabe as Starfire. Our rule was if we see a Beast Boy, we adopt him for a family photo; and sure enough we did.

We bursted into Momocon towards the backend of a DC vs Marvel Photoshoot. We got a couple pictures taken there then dispersed to get our own in front of the Momocon banner. That’s when it began to happen. It started off quietly by a singular person, then it built into a loud murmur from everyone I see, then it finally erupts into a loud “DOPE COSPLAY CYBORG” from groups of people. Wherever we went I was getting noticed, our team and group cosplay was getting noticed. I don’t think we ever knew it would become such a big deal. I know I didn’t at the time until it was pointed out to me that, every teen titans cosplay done by a group is ALWAYS lacking a Cyborg; everyone but ours. It was a moment that really struck home for me. It began to make more sense as the day progressed. Little kids were coming up to me saying “BOOYAH!” and singing the teen titans theme song. People loved us, they wanted our pictures, put us in videos, stopped what they were doing just to chat with us. It was major. It without a shadow of a doubt drove home the message to me that representation matters. I know some out there will say it’s not super important but after Momocon, after seeing little black boys and girls smile with joy and sing teen titans with me, after they get excited by the utterance of the word booyah by another black character, that families start showing me off to their kid cosplayers and other adult cosplayers of color pause everything because they NEED to take a photo with you...you just can’t ignore how important that is. To be able to see yourself as a hero. To see oneself as greater than for once, when most of–if not all of society says you can only fit into these certain boxes. To see someone else that looks like you in a positive light; that’s all it takes to break a negative cycle, that’s all it takes to create another hero. For a small moment in time, I was inspiring to those around me; and I hope that the sliver of inspiration that I sparked stays ignited in those I met. I know it surely will with me.

But I digress.

Beyond the massive success of our group cosplay, beyond the elation and fun had for Kat’s birthday, the icing on the cake was being able to meet a famous cosplayer by the name of KieraPlease. This was after an intense dance dance revolution session in which I sat and recorded video and got exhausted looking at everyone else go. It was pure happenstance, which resulted into pure happiness when we finally met. I don’t get starstruck often but I must say, words failed me for our brief interaction. I saw her, saw my friends, and shot my shot at a possible chat and photo opportunity for us all. I took the shot and it went in (KOBE!!). After the picture she hugged us all and had a nice conversation with the Ghouls (Kat & Gabe) which I’m sure made their day if the hug didn’t already. It’s great to note that as a team, we have this cosplay thing down well. When a pro says you got it, you freaking got it! More so, it was better to finally meet someone your used to seeing on a cellphone or laptop screen. A living breathing tangible person, who quite honestly is living her best life fully and truly can be looked at as a symbol of positivity; a role model even. Just like that, day two was in the books.

So, I think I brought you along far enough on my experience in ATL. Detailing 2 key days. Now let me change things up on you a bit and give you my overall thoughts of Atlanta and Momocon as a whole.

Atlanta itself is a hotbed of culture. On the weekend we went, that weekend alone had a bevy of major events happening all weekend long. There was Momocon, Caribbean festival and parade, a food festival, and Stone Mountain fireworks and light show to name a few. As one of our lyft drivers said, ATL is a hotbed of culture because it is made up of a lot of different cultures and people from around the US. Atlanta has its own swagger but it is the culmination of others that has shaped the way it is today. Atlanta is a Transplant City. Many people are moving to Atlanta because of the opportunities that present itself. From music, TV, movies, overall entertainment and broadcasting, the warm weather, the great food, the architecture, the various modes of transportation (ONE TIME FOR THE SCOOTERS), the cheaper housing, and generally you get more out of your earned dollar; why people move there makes sense. And like all major cities Atlanta has its issues, shoot the state of Georgia alone is a bit problematic depending on where you slide politically. But my time spent there will be one for the history books. It’s definitely a place worth traveling to again. Next time I go, I’ll be sure to do more exploring. I didn’t get a chance to travel the halls of Cartoon Network (IF ANYONE ONE IN THE HR DEPARTMENT IS READING THIS, HIRE ME PLEASE) so that’s reason enough for me to go back. That and I didn’t get to try some of Hattie B’s Nashville hot chicken or the slutty vegan sandwich. There’s always next time though.

As for Momocon….IN-FREAKING-CREDIBLE! Momocon has that extra something. That nudge to taking it up one more notch to make it great. No, it is not as big as DragonCon and maybe it won’t get the same recognition or acclaim but Momocon is a phenomenal con. Momocon brought me back to 2014, when I first started going to conventions. My first one at the time was Otakon and to this day I don’t think any other con will hold as special of a spot in my heart as Otakon. But Momocon, Momocon was dangerously close to taking that spot. Which lets me know and hopefully you, the reader, now that it’s just that damn good! The crowd size of the convention is comparable to say the Greater Philadelphia comic con. Meaning there’s a large crowd and over a thousand things to do but you never have to fear about missing out on something. You can and will get to everything you want if you have patience. The event staff from security to the PR and press team were absolutely amazing. All were easy to talk to and informative, helpful and never overbearing. What truly made Momocon as great as it is in my eyes, is that it at its core it remained an anime and gaming convention. It wasn’t a comic convention with anime sections, it was an anime and gaming convention that accepted comic lovers just as much as it did its anime and gaming fans. Anime and gaming is my bread and butter, it’s what got me into this geeky, blerd, pop-culture world I exist in currently. Momocon stayed true to that core value. The sheer fact they had Substantial and Shing02 performing live in concert said more than enough for me. Momocon you are in fact, a real one.

Atlanta….I’ll be back in the future. Whether that be for work or pleasure, or hell maybe to be a transplant myself and live there. All this kid from the burbs of Philly has to say left is…

Peace up, A-Town down.

Much love,

– Isaiah Luck aka Broku

Assistant Producer

Black Tribbles

#blacktribbles #tribblenation #geekculture #entertainment #anime #popculture #comics #blerds #tribbledelphia #marvel #dc comics #momocon2019 #momocon #atlanta #blog #blog post

5 notes · View notes

left-myself-in-the-alleyway · 5 years

Text

Thank You

Description-You’d had a bad day, well more like a bad month. After some classic high school drama you come back to Avengers tower and eventually end up breaking down and having a good cry with a special person coming to lend a shoulder.

Warnings-crying, anxiety, mild swearing, fluff????? The fact that I write 1st person??? And that I’m a horrible writer???

A/n-having three long cries in the last twenty-four hours and seeing some stuff similar to this on Pinterest I decided that I needed to write this. Also, I’m horrible at writing, so sorry. Also, minor Gilmore Girls reference for any of you who catch it.

Pairings- Peter Parkerxreader

Disclaimer- I own none of these characters but I do own this idea... somewhat. Rights go to Marvel.

“And with the addition of the thermal-“ *bell rings* “-we’ll finish tomorrow. Don’t forget about your midterm on Monday!” The teacher yelled as the students fled as fast as they dared.

I’m so happy this day is over. I got two pop quiz’s today and I forgot my band instrument meaning I had to skip band- the only good part about school.

So overall it had been a crummy day, well, more like a crummy month. Between training with Nat and missions every weekend and homework on top of it all I haven’t had much time to unwind.

I don’t need anything from my locker so I’m hoping to make a quick escape.

“Y/n!”

Or not..

“Look, I know we haven’t been able to hang out much lately but I’m really busy with my internship at Stark industries-“ I started, not wanting a fight with y/b/f/n.

“Cut the crap Y/n, your internship is as fake as Peter’s. You made it up because you want to look cool,” She snapped. “You don’t have time for me because you don’t want to make time for me. If you’re not going to put any effort into our relationship, neither am I. We’re done.”

I just stood there stunned. Honestly, I’m not sure how to feel. She never really was a good friend in the first place, but it still stung. Though, with everything piling up, it just seemed like one more thing to deal with.

On my way home it had started raining and since I walk to and from the tower to school I was stuck in the downpour. As much as rain is my favourite weather, today was just not the day. Especially since I hadn’t applied waterproof mascara this morning and I was wearing my glasses instead of contacts. So on top of having been poured upon for my 15 minute walk back, I looked like a squinting raccoon while doing it.

Once I finally made it back I immediately headed to the lounge because I had left my headphones in there this morning. But, of course, everyone was in there. Steve,Tony, Bruce and Clint. Natasha was probably waiting for me in the training room with Peter. Goody.

Everyone froze when they saw me, a dripping mess, but I ignored them, grabbed my headphones off the coffee table and made my exit.

Luckily I made it to my room before anything else could befall me. I quickly stripped of my sipping wet clothing and donned my training gear. I also took the time to wipe off my raccoon eyes as much as I could and add on a quick flip of mascara. Once I popped in my contacts I headed to the training room.

On the way there I told myself I would just listen to my music and do my workout since today isn’t sparring day. I found a good playlist on my Spotify and plugged myself in as I walked. Ironically enough “I’m a Mess” by Bebe Rexa started playing.

Though, when I got there my plans were foiled.

“Ah, I see you finally decided to show up. Now that both of you are here I have an announcement,” Natasha starts off. “You guys have deemed yourselves worthy to train with the rest of the group. So I suggest you warm up before the rest of the team gets here.”

As we started stretching Natasha continued, “You’ll each be sparring with different members of the group today. Remember, they’re not here to train you. We’re all here to train each other, so don’t hold back.”

“I can’t believe we get to train with the rest of the team!” Peter exclaimed enthusiastically.

“Yes, so exciting. Yay.” I replied with as much fake enthusiasm I could muster. He didn’t buy it, but he also didn’t push for answers. A nice refresher.

Once the rest of the team arrived we all paired up with someone to spar. I got paired with Clint. Mainly because he’s one of the only people who isn’t afraid to hit a girl. Peter got paired with Steve, then Thor worked with Tony. Natasha just walked around watching Peter and myself.

Peter, of course was doing fantastic. Myself, not so much.

“Y/n, come on! You can do better than me this!” Natasha yelled as I hit the mat, yet again. But I got up, again, and got myself in a sparring position.

I can do this I tell myself. Yet I couldn’t.

I hit the mat again, this time with a very loud thud. I was definitely winded.

As I tried to catch my breath the words, “Peter was ready for this but I guess you aren’t.” Reach my ears.

As my eyes water I stand shakily. “Maybe that’s because I don’t having fricking superpowers,” I snark through my tears. I storm out of the room tears flooding from my face, I didn’t even bother to grab my phone.

I slam the door to my room and fall on my bed. What I did after that, I sobbed. I cried and I cried. I cried about life, about friendship, about failure. What I cried about most of all, was Peter. The fact that he would never love someone like me, someone who couldn’t even keep up with him and was constantly failing.

The knock at my door made me evaluate myself slightly. Yet again having runny mascara, definitely bright red from crying, clinging to my pillow. Yet, I no longer care.

“What do you want?” I manage to sputter our through my tears.

“It’s me, Peter. Could I please come in?” He spoke softly with kindness in his voice.

“Sure,” I mutter. Though he must have heard it as he came in after I said it.

When he entered he looked slightly taken aback by my appearance but, nevertheless, came and sat beside me.

“Would you like a hug?” He questioned.

I answered him by cuddling into his side and holding onto him instead of my pillow.

Besides him eventually running his hand through my hair, that was it. I was and absolute mess who was sobbing my heart out onto the shirt of the most perfect boy ever to exist.

After I managed to calm myself I sat up and apologized. “I’m really sorry, I guess I just snapped,” I sniffled, wiping my tears on the blanket that was sitting beside us. “Is Nat mad?”

“A little, but that doesn’t matter.” He said. “I’m more worried about you. Strong people like you don’t just snap like that. What’s wrong?”

“Just little things piling up over the day. Ever heard the saying that people don’t break over one little thing? But a bunch of little things over time lead them to snap? That kinda what happened to me,” I tried to explain.

“But it doesn’t matter anyways,” I muttered, looking at my hands and feeling really bad for snapping at Nat. “People like me never matter.”

I had mumbled that last part so quietly I didn’t expect him to hear.

“Of course you matter. You matter so much to so many people y/n! It’s just that they often get so used to you being so amazing and wonderful that they take you for granted-“ he paused.

“If you didn’t matter... would I do this?”

He lifted my chin and softly kissed me. He pulled away after a second.

“Thank you.”

Before he had a chance to respond I jumped up and ran out of the room and down the hall as fast as I could. I could hear him following me but the embarrassment kept me going. Though, soon enough, I felt his hand wrap around my arm stopping me.

“Thankyouforgivingmeapitykissandcalmingmedownbutyouhavenoobligationstome.” I rushed out.

After Peter stared at me for a minute with his eyebrows raised he replied.

“It wasn’t a pity kiss, y/n, I actually really like you... and I’m hoping you like me back.” He replied with the softest of voices, yet a deep red blush on his cheeks.

Instead of messing things up even more I opted for just kissing him.. which seemed to work out pretty well.

Peter laughed and spun me around. “Y/n, will you please be my girlfriend?”

“What do you think I’m going to say?” I laughed. “No? Heh, as if.”

“So... how do we explain this to everyone else?” I ask, still giggling.

32 notes · View notes

crystalized-dreams · 6 years

Text

So, we ended up going to Tennessee last weekend to see some friends (And well, go to Worlds while there anyway), which if you check my Twitter or are subscribed to my Youtube channel, you likely already knew 😛 But anyway, it was nice to go somewhere new. I had never been to Tennessee so I had fun just enjoying Nashville.

Before we get into the general trip stuff, I’ll talk about Pokemon and Pokemon Worlds a bit 🙂

So, we picked up our badges on Thursday afternoon. Figured it was best to get that and the shop out of the way ASAP. I think I generally liked the colors/theme of the Worlds 2017 stuff better, but I still really liked the lanyard at least. I loved all the Pokemon with the different instruments. I kind of wished there was more merchandise featuring all the Pokemon for this over just Pikachu. They did, however, give out this free poster which was perfect (And we were even given a few extras!):

So, while we didn’t really buy any of the exclusive stuff, we did get these adorable plushies: And here’s the bag by itself:

We also got some packs of cards with our spectator badges and these were essentially the highlights from our pack openings: I did not get nearly as nice cards from opening the digital versions 😛

They also had a demo station for the Let’s Go games! I was really excited to try them out:

And even got this cute Pokeball stress ball for playing:

I actually had a lot of fun with it. I really like the look of the game and how Pokemon show up and just exploring. The world feels so much more alive which is really nice. The Pokeball controller worked well, though, I found I accidentally would hit the button versus moving it sometimes, but I think that’s more just because I was getting used to it. It also reacted fairly well, but I couldn’t figure out exactly where the timing was for Pokemon who move around a lot and sadly, my time with the demo ended before I could play around with it more.

I’m really looking forward to it though. Now to just… finish Ultra Moon.

But yes, some pictures from the Pokemon Center, the main room, and where it was being held: #gallery-0-9 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-9 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-9 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-9 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

The view was so nice.

The Prize Wall

I want one of these in my house.

One of the various stands around. Meloetta was the Pokemon available to download. If only it was able to come with a ribbon…

Part of the Stage! I love the building names.

All the set-ups were genuinely really neat.

They’re really nice. But honestly, the card artwork is my favorite.

I really love these so much

I was so tempted to buy one of these, but $50 was too much for me… 😦

I really loved the stage. I love the buildings being all Pokemon world themed and it just really makes me wish there was some big combined Pokemon game of all the various cities and things we’ve gotten from every game. The Pokemon World is already so huge and there’s so much to see and I wish they’d actually use that versus constant new regions. At this point, I’m just kind of tired of new regions and new Pokemon. I’d mind a new region less if we could visit it alongside familiar ones, but I think there’s plenty of Pokemon at this point 😦

Moving a bit more outside the convention center, I wish we got to do more in Pokemon GO, honestly. We seemed to manage to miss every single raid, there weren’t too many Pokestops actually in the main room, my GPS was constantly a bit finnicky, and I just didn’t have much luck with spawns either. I at least finally got a Sneasel and I did get a shiny Sunkern:

Also Tom traded me one of the Shiny Mareep he caught when we had visited back in April so yay 😀 And I at least got a lot of gifts to send back to people. Since I don’t go out much (and sometimes just can’t especially with the weather lately), I don’t usually have many chances to give gifts out 😦

But yes, as to one of the biggest reasons for going, it was to pick up this from a very amazing friend:

This was one of the prizes for the first winner of the Sylveon Girls Battle in 2016 in Japan and one of my most wanted items that featured Mega Audino T~T My next big goal will be Mega Audino Ddakji:

So, if you’re in Korea or know someone who could maybe help with those, let me know! ❤

Going into general Tennessee, it’s time for various random tourist-y pictures and food tours 😛 #gallery-0-10 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-10 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

I couldn’t help but take pictures of some of the things at the airport when we landed

This was in the center of the hotel’s main entrance. Though, this was taken as we were leaving…

Close-up because of the cute bird in the tree!

Fireplace in the lobby.

Flowers in the hall.

Our hotel room!

The breakfast at the hotel! It was nice.

The hotel actually occasionally had stuff for dinner too though.

And for lunch as well!

And they switched it up a bit. Some nachos with chili and cheese! They also always had cookies–chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.

Our very first meal was at the Corner Bakery Cafe that was right at the corner of the hotel. I had a Club Panini with Chicken Carbonara.

My husband had the BBLT with the Asian Wonton Salad. The drink was a Hibiscus Lemonade. I actually really liked this place, but due to the hours, we didn’t manage to go there again sadly.

This pig was near the entrance of Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint. You’ll see we ate there a few times 😛 As it was my husband’s favorite and pretty much everything we had there was good. I wonder if this pig has a name. I will name him Sir Pig for now.

Meanwhile, I got a sausage sandwich and potato salad

My husband’s pulled pork and corn bread~

Dessert! I got pecan pie while he got their fried pie to try.

On another day, my husband got the “redneck taco” and potato salad.

Meanwhile, I got the sausage platter with hush puppies and cornbread.

On our final day, I had actually still been sick from the day before and so, we didn’t have lunch (paired with just not many people being open on Sunday). In combination with that and it being our last day and my husband still wanting to try a lot, we kind of overdid it a bit. I got a brisket sandwich with a side of mac & cheese and a baked potato. He got the the Brisket Burger with the cornbread, and then Loaded Fries and Catfish for sharing. And a strawberry cake for dessert.

They also had homemade brownies. I miss this brownie.

Also cheesy bread to share.

And olives! My only issue is only some were pitted and it wasn’t even just like… one specific type that wasn’t pitted. It was a bit random.

My husband’s pizza~

This is from Hot Diggity Dogs 🙂 I got a normal hotdog and the Polish Sausage while my husband got the Nashville and Bratwurst. Also cheese fries.

Straight down from the convention center was Al Taglio, a pizza place. I got an all cheese pizza.

Wild Bill’s was essentially a soda stand in the convention center. They had all kinds of different soda’s and if you got one of their special cups, you could get free refills on Friday and Saturday. While soda isn’t really my thing, my husband enjoyed it.

One thing we saw a lot was a Party Bike. Which was like a Party Bus… but with a group of people biking. They were always kind of amusing to see.

Butterfly we saw at the airport!

But yeah, I had more fun than I would have expected and there’s definitely more I would like to do and see so hopefully we have time to go again. And hopefully we won’t have another person pulling the fire alarm or another super hot day that destroys me because those were really the only bad things.

As for Pokemon Worlds next year… We don’t have too many plans, but Washington DC is a pretty good location for us, so maybe~

A Trip to Tennessee! (Pokemon Worlds and Goals) So, we ended up going to Tennessee last weekend to see some friends (And well, go to Worlds while there anyway), which if you check my Twitter or are subscribed to my Youtube channel, you likely already knew 😛 But anyway, it was nice to go somewhere new.

#Nashville #Pokemon #Pokemon Worlds #Pokemon Worlds 2018 #Tennessee #Travel

3 notes · View notes

hopeandharmonizing · 3 years

Text

Gigs

Briar + Faye Valentine ( @alreadyafairy )

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Faye made a face of disgust as she finished the last of her drink, placing it aside. “ is there anything good in here? ” she grumbled, more to herself than anyone else.

“It’s a casino, honey. No. Nothing good can be found here. Just a matter of picking your poison, honestly.”

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Casino.

Not the typical den of sin this she-wolf hangs out in. Her ears ring with the clacks of spinning roulette, rolling of dice, beeping of machines, chiming of spare change, calling of numbers, and whispers making deals. Her nose stings with cigarette smoke and scotch and the stench of people who have been sitting in their seats all day or even longer.

But she won’t complain about a new adventure given a pinch-hit gig. The manager found her name and number to fill the slot of a lounge singer called off sick (or so she hopes, for how the story goes), and she can always use the cash which comes with a contract padded in this kinda luxury.

Jazz.

Not her strong suit. Unlike the matte silver three-piece she’s wearing, which looks pretty damn good, honestly. A sleek look for a slick place; a classy cover for her curves in a crowd of less than savory customers than the usual.

Besides, the job description read clear enough. She’s not to be the center of attention tonight. Performance from a small, velvet stage plants as an accessory, a background, a soothing song streaming in the heads of those spilling out their money, making them feel comfortable enough to keep doing so.

The nature of it raises her hackles, but it ultimately boils down to a more meaningful experience - hope. Hope keeps them at the tables. People who somewhere in the depths of their souls believe they can win, come out to try - they swarm the place. Their lien bleeds out from their wallets and her heart bleeds for their misplaced faith. She can still make the command her own, twist words to shepherd the lost in the best ways she knows how.

Harmonizer sits off to the side, plugged into some sweet ass amps provided by the house. The instrument holds a pre-programmed melody of simple, echoed beat and basic strums. Briar clicks play and dress shoes step to the mic stand. Her voice flows smooth and sweet, tail and body swaying in similar soft waves. Hands twist and worm in gestured emphasis, like a child’s stuck out of a car window and riding the air currents, like a creek bubbling over pebbles after a spring rain…

♫♫ This is my brand new day in the light Trouble rising up on the left and the right I keep my eyes fixed on where I want to go The rest will follow And this is my prayer without ceasing the negative releasing and as I rise above my burden is easing

This is my brand new day starting now Letting go of the ways that I fall down The old can be made new, the lost can be found the lost will be found This is my prayer without ceasing the negative releasing and as I rise above my burden is easing

I bring the pure flow, like water around the rocks of life won’t pull me down I bring the pure flow, drink so deep the river of life, my soul at ease I bring the pure flow, like water around the rocks of life won’t pull me down I bring the pure flow, rising above the storms of life to live and love… ♫♫

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

°୭•.═══ singers would come and go in lounges . faye hadn’t always paid attention to that , and she knew none of the others did . as far as a singer was concerned , their voices were meant to add to the ambiance . to let a few men who’d lost a game cry over their drink - and then return to their houses of cards and chips and broken lives . they’d drown in it, watch it all collapse on them and take everything they had away ….

but they’d still return .

faye knew she still would .

one thousand points. not bad . today’s round of pinochle was far better than the last few -

she eyed her lien , counting it in a dedicated , practiced manner . her mind was running through a checklist , things she could do with the amount . three hundred ….

she could go for a game of blackjack . the men there -

seven hundred lien .

or poker . no . the old guy there was hustling the others . sounded like a boring game to her . and definitely not an easy win .

the singer today was different . they always were . but the song was different too . out of place - not what you would expect in a place like this . too raw . too straightforward . and the woman wasn’t sad-faced or thin or red-eyed . she wasn’t just her clothes, and she didn’t have a volatile presence . the opposite of all that, actually .

different .

eleven thousand lien .

faye settled for a drink - ‘almost blue’ , the house special, intrigued her . looked like a smoky drink , with a sizzling campfire dying out in the rain . ninety lien . hah , daylight robbery .

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Seven hundred lien. Rent. Three hundred lien. Food and supplies. One hundred lien. Utilities.

Robbery, indeed. No free drinks for the employees here, so Briar sticks to water while sticking to a tight budget. Unless someone could repay some cosmic kindness…

Tempting, to take an immediate chunk of tonight’s gig and toss some on the table just to see what happens. Slip a coin in a machine. Test her poker face for one round. But, no, Briar’s full speed ahead, whole hearted lust for life doesn’t always know when to stop. Sometimes best not to start at all.

She gets it, though. Really, she does.

What a fascinating place. The people? She’s still working on. A loose lean supports her back on the lip of a bar counter as she gazes out and sips a goblet of water like white wine. Briar’s used to bar crowds looking heavy and tired. Or an audience raring and ready to rebel. These folks lie somewhere in between, if she had to say.

Most wear weary bags beneath bloodshot eyes, in the middle of a never-ending all night bender, yet they come alive every time they go the next round.

If she could bottle that feeling and bless her music with it, some of the world’s problems might be solved overnight.

Damn, does money motivate. But… there must be more to it than that. The atmosphere. The winning. The losing. The cycle of both. The immediate payoff and the promise of more. There’s a song waiting somewhere in here…

Humming, tapping toe of a dress shoe on the tile, she loses herself in the beat of her own thoughts, until someone slides into the seat she stands next to.

She smiles, full of friendliness almost too genuine, and casually asks, “What’s the feel out on the floor today? Hitting it big?”

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

°୭•.═══ the presence from the stage drifted to her. her first instinct was to ignore her companion. drink up, go back to gambling , probably amass a few more debts and try not to get outed for the con woman she was. but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do , right ? no one thought about it that way , though . real pity .

she rested her head on her arm, frowning into the drink in a kind of weary , bored manner . ninety lien , and it tasted like complete crap - plus , the bartender didn’t seem to be the friendly sort . beer would have been a way better choice , honestly .

faye tilted her head , eyeing her companion for a moment or two . the singer . up close , she seemed a little more open , unlike the stuck up , sadder ones that usually cried for a solid hour at the counter , mascara running down their cheeks .

this one was worth her time , she decided . but not enough to con . she seemed sharp , smart . not the best victim to pick a gamble with .

she spread out a hand in flippant manner , red nails glinting under the light . “ just the usual . one thousand wasn’t much , but it wasn’t her usual amount either . it was normally much , much lower . not that she would admit it .

“ this place’s got easy wins . ” the truth ! half the men here didn’t seem to know they were being two-timed .” dim wits . ” the whole lot of them . women were smarter , in her opinion .

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Survival is tough. Tastes like grit and blood and shitty food and drink you must suffer through because you already paid for it. Human nature to want better, even if it means taking it with your own cunning hands. Most people here to see what they can scam from the laps of the more deluxe, whether by luck or by patience, or cheating and praying to the gods not to get caught.

Tiring to the bone, no matter how you slice it. But a girl’s definitely gotta do what she’s gotta. Sometimes it meant showing life and its rat race how that girl can put on an even tougher act.

Or, in Briar’s case, a fresh face with golden eyes aglow.

A dance within the gray of dim weather.

No need to con this woman; Briar would offer freely anything she had to give to someone without, if they only ask. But the other woman doesn’t. Drooping disinterest makes her appear too used to cutting her losses.

Yet cockiness in her comment says to the contrary, perhaps not tonight. She carries herself lowly but speaks of others as even lower. What an attitude to have. Fierce in the face of a hall of many failings.

Hips turn towards trash talk, and an easy laugh falls from Briar’s lips, “You sound like an experienced player, my dear. But I’d bet there are many who underestimate you.”

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

°୭•.═══ many underestimated her, alright. that was part of the fun, really. gave her more opportunity to hustle a few of her opponents. play the shark. men took women too lightly in general – and she found some kind of twisted triumph in showing them their fallacy.

but that was superficial. like so many, many things about her. a patchwork of clothes from different people she never knew tailored to provide a mask of sorts. she supposed that everyone wore masks – especially in a place like this. but some people here were themselves. like they had broken that mask a long while ago.

like this woman here. that made faye wonder who she’d lasted for this long in a world like this. survival of the fittest. truth had no place here. everybody lied – so why not her?

experienced? well, you could say that. she let herself seem flattered – albeit in a coy, sly manner. tilted her head at the woman, a sea green eye studying her. a confident smile rested on her lips. all an act, through and through – a projection to hide her insecurity.

“ they wouldn’t know what hit them if they take me lightly. ”

her past self had been sleeping for years. then who was she, right now? she just had her first name at hand, her surname a placeholder. hah – she couldn’t even call her name hers.

valentine was a lie – and valentine was who she was. ‘faye’ wasn’t there anymore.

she made a face of disgust as she finished the last of her drink, placing it aside. “ is there anything good in here? ” she grumbled, more to herself than anyone else.

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

Briar knows all about patchwork clothes and acts and masks made of others. Masks made for herself too, a performer. And maybe the secret is that after so long, it’s too hard to tell the difference. You can only wear a mask for so long before your skin gets used to the feel, before it starts to shape the contours beneath.

Some people do pull it off, some people do break it. Briar can’t remember the last time she donned or doffed one, not intentionally. She absorbs them, makes them her own, until changing personas came as simple as changing her own expression, no need to pretend, no need to hide, every facet of the soul a part of her.

What the woman sees is not the disowning of a mask, but acceptance that everyone wears different faces for different reasons.

Admittedly, though, hers is not as painted up today. Lashes which blink as Briar meets her side-eye and listens, not as full.

they wouldn’t know what hit them if they take me lightly.

Another sip of water, and then she thinks, hard hitter then. But doesn’t ask if that means the games or the people.

She doesn’t ask her name, either. Not yet. Briar sees many people come and go, finds what someone is called less important than what they have to say. Names only important if a need to ever address a person beyond a single interaction makes itself known. And she has a hunch that this is the type of woman who likes to fade away, disappear just like the dregs of her drink; force a finish, win or lose.

Another sip of water, and then laughter huffs and shoulders bounce at the question, and Briar smirks. Her paycheck only dictates the words offered on stage; after and aside she can say whatever she likes.

Her lean sinks further against the counter, and her head tilts to the side as if she shares some great secret of life, or at least something bigger than the drink menu, “It’s a casino, honey. No. Nothing good can be found here. Just a matter of picking your poison, honestly.”

❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦ ❦

°୭•.═══════ she’d been expecting to hear the woman’s name, the moment she’d stepped onto the stage. they usually announced their ‘ special stars for the evening ’ . all the estella’s, the rouge’s, the rosemary’s, diamonds, pearls, gold teeth and violent eyes. the whole shebang. not this one. they’d conveniently forgotten her name – like they’d expected everyone to know it. and maybe they all did. not her. not faye. exchanging names was a DEATH sentence and that came with being a grifter —–— a part of this tiny, pretty package with gift wrappers, ribbons and a cute little card on the top to go with it.

she never went around chit-chatting. not unless she could wrestle something for herself out of it – money, a favor, food, drink. you get the picture. this woman didn’t have anything but herself, her company to give. nothing but her gypsy voice, syllables taking in the sweetness.

there was a lonely child in her heart, and she hid herself under the hills and twisted paths. she’d heard some song, and now her skin was being pried open. the girl wanted out. wanted in. wanted, wanted, wanted, wanted.

tall, woman of mysteries, but all that was rolled up in those fancy clothes of hers was GENUITY.

mm. maybe she’d be interesting to talk to. provided she didn’t end up being one of the people faye didn’t want to cross paths with. people she’d pissed off. the law. people she really shouldn’t be messing around with.

rosewood lips parted, an amused breath curling out. her voice was a bubble in a glass of cheap champagne.

“ it’s a mess, alright. ” her gaze darted up to the bartender, nails rapping the glass with a dismissive flick of her wrist to indicate that she was done. “ that isn’t even poison. i’d like to call it sludge with a drop of alcohol.”

a remark that drew an ugly look from the bartender. poor aim, though. the bullet missed her by a mile. better luck next time, old man.

hands were clasped in front of her, elbows propped up on imitation-mahogany. lips curled into an artificial star-strung smile. fingers flashed nails the same color as her lips. always looked her best. dressed to kill, so to speak. emeralds were trained on her companion, watching, studying, reading. no cards, not an opponent, no game here.

“ none of the people here tonight are good looking, either. ” her gaze darted to the sea of faces around her. “ the only things that’ve ever been good here are the men and women. the ‘company’. ”

fingers danced idly on the wood, sights turned to the woman. her eyes were gold, she observed. gold, like sunlight haunting windows. what a map of obscurity. she could barely get a glimpse of this woman.

“…do you gamble ? ”

#alreadyafairy #( all these years go by so fast || thread archive )

0 notes

rainydawgradioblog · 5 years

Text

FROM THE ARCHIVES: Treefort 2019 - Tres Leches Interview

This year, Rainy Dawg Radio was invited to attend Treefort Festival, an annual celebration of art that takes place in downtown Boise. The festival took place over the course of 5 days on a surprisingly sunny March weekend and included musical acts spanned across multiple venues which ranged from large standing concert halls to small independent bars. Down at the Shredder, a beautifully grimy dive bar, Seattle band Tres Leches played a daytime set that paired perfectly with the drizzling Seattle-esque weather outside. The three piece band consists of Rainy Dawg alumnus Alaia D’Alessandro, Ulises Mariscal, and Zander Yates who cycled through drums, guitar, bass, and theremin throughout the set like a game of musical chairs. I talked to the band the following day over free coffee and treats (shout out press room) to talk about college radio, the band’s formation, and the current state of music in Seattle. Note: The following script has been edited for clarity.

Tres Leches live at Treefort. Photo by Willy Picton.

Chelsea: First I’m going to talk about some radio stuff because Alaia was a DJ here at Rainy Dawg.

Alaia: I was, yeah!

Chelsea: What was your show called and what did you play on it?

Alaia: It was either called Phonic Earth or Phono Seattle, I forget which rendition I used, but I played a bunch of different kinds of music. I think it was Phonic Earth because I played music from all over the world. Not just in Seattle but we had some cool people come in to do small in-studios. We had Hijos De Agüeybaná play bomba music. They played barriles which are these big drums. They have African heritage and it combines with Taino, which is indigenous Puerto Rican, and played other percussion instruments. They make it up to dance and some of the dance movements and lyrics are Spanish. It is like a big combination of all the different backgrounds of puerto rican culture. We also had a local band at the time called Night Train and did an in studio with us.

Chelsea: Do you feel that your time at student radio and the connections that you made help you in your starting career with music?

Alaia: Yeah definitely. Now I work at KEXP and that’s been a huge help. Having some experience behind the board at Rainy Dawg helped me. I really enjoyed being able to use that as a platform to help local bands too and get them on the radio or have them in for conversations. It taught me a lot about networking. Our band puts packets together to send to other radio stations. Also, curating shows was helpful, like how Rainy dawg does like a once a year concert.

Chelsea: Yeah, now we do three shows a quarter.

Alaia: That’s great!

Chelsea: I meant 3 shows a year with one a quarter sorry haha. But I think the show that you’re talking about is our birthday fest.

Alaia: Oh okay yea that might have been it. When I was there, Unknown Mortal Orchestra was playing. That was kind of a new territory for the station at the time. It was kind of a big deal to have that band there. It wasn’t the first time they had a big band there, but it was one of the first times the students had really done all the curation for it. Got the band, got the funds so that was a really cool step forward. So it’s really awesome that you do three shows a year now, that’s incredible, congratulations!

Chelsea: Yeah! We do two of the shows with local bands only and the last show is where we get national acts, usually we have a local band or two as the openers. And the other thing we do is a battle of the bands which is our next event actually. So then I guess if you all didn’t meet in Rainy Dawg, how did you guys come together?

Zander: Alaia and I met at high school.

Alaia: We met in the band room at school.

Zander: At Nova High School, we started jamming. We were in bands together back then.

Alaia: I still remember when he walked in, he looked very different. But yeah it was funny, I think you seemed kind of sheepish at first.

Zander: Yeah, I was pretty nerdy.

Alaia: And then Ulises and I…

Ulises: I went to Bumbershoot in 2011 I think and I saw this Mexican electronic band that was playing Bumbershoot, Nortec Collective. They were doing like Norteño and Electronica. I didn’t know Alaia and Zander and all of a sudden I heard someone talking in the background and it was Alaia and she had like a really loud voice.

Alaia: (loudly) What are you talking about!

Ulises: Like in a good way, haha! I was just listening in like I wonder who that person is? And we kinda look at each other like we kinda vibe you know really like *snaps* that. We didn’t have to talk or anything. And then we realized that she liked some of the same bands from Mexico like I’ve never met anybody that knows bands from Mexico and I was just like “how do you know those bands?” and we stated chilling and she pushed me to play the drums cause, you know, I’m a painter, so we went to the EMP museum and we kinda started jamming there and I was like “I’m gonna buy my first drum set!” And then we kinda just started jamming from there. And it was fun!

Alaia: At the time he had told me “I’m a DJ!”

Ulises: I’m a DJ actually!

Alaia: Now you are! Now he DJs for Hollow Earth Radio! But at the time I think I looked back to Zander and was like “Ah yeah, I met this DJ”

Zander: I forgot about that!

Alaia: You did not DJ!

Ulises: I was thinking in the future. “I am a DJ, I know what I am not right now” but it worked!

Chelsea: Do you think Seattle is still a place where bands can emerge or do you think that the emergent music scene is being pushed out?

Ulises: Well, in my opinion, I think that all these problems that we have with housing and homelessness is kinda in a good way pushing artists to get out there with their art you know? I know it’s bad but as an artist you kind of have to do that art and make yourself hurt. And now we’ve got to be more of a community to keep going.

Zander: More pressure with [Amazon] not getting taxed, it makes it really easy for them to come in and do whatever they want as a business and it makes it really hard for small business to come up because they have to pick up the bill. The small businesses have a really big hand to play in the music scene of course and venues are having a really hard time. And again, with property prices raising, it’s affecting the kind of music you hear in Seattle, which isn't inherently bad all the time. It is sad to see bands move out because it is really hard to have a drum kit in a small apartment. It’s harder to have band practice, and it’s also just harder to practice and create music that has a lot of complexity or virtuosity to it because it’s hard to put a lot of time into practicing, because there’s no way you’re gonna make it if you’re not working 40-50 hours a week. You hear that in the music a lot. There’s a lot more solo artists because it’s really hard to have a band and there’s a lot more bands that just have really simple music, again not an inherently bad thing but, it is just kind of interesting because you hear it and you’re like “this band sounds like this because of this economic factor”.

Zane: Do you think that has changed during the time you all have been together in the music scene in Seattle?

Ulises: It’s changing really fast. I feel like sometimes we don’t even have time to stop and say “this is where we are”. It changes so fast you have to just get with whatever is happening because it’s just very chaotic and all over the place. It reflects what [Zander] was just saying about how the city is changing. Like the scenery of capitol hill is just construction and there’s constant noise which definitely reflects on your music without even thinking about it. So it definitely plays a role and I try to take it as part of the artwork, like “okay, there’s nothing I can do and at least I can get something from it.” I know it affects a lot of people and it sucks that bands have to move out so I want to make sure that it stays in the music so when people listen in the future they know what was happening today so we don’t make the same mistakes.

Alaia: I will say that I think the community’s response to all of this has been really strong and you have all these bands that are fighting for their independence and fighting for their community, like the Black Tones come to mind, and then you start kind of really having to create community. I love the shows we’ve been playing, I love all the shows we’ve played, but the ones we’re playing currently seem the most supportive. The artists want to stay and see the other bands like “hey all my fans, I want you to see something new!” And that changes with genre mixing too, which is not about staying part of one scene, it’s about breaking down all the scenes because we all need each other. And we can’t divide things into scenes, or north and south and west and east, because we all need to see each other right now and see our resources and pool them together, so it doesn’t matter if you’re playing with an electro cumbia artist like Terror Cactus or a hip hop jazz afro-latinx artist like Guayaba or also DoNormaal and Bearaxe. Everyone right now needs to come together and if artists affected by issues are able to express themselves and be themselves consciously or subconsciously, then those artists are gravitating toward each other and really starting to support each other. It’s not cool anymore to be the loner artist and I’m glad that fallacy is dying.

Zander: It’s cool how that’s the norm now. I remember being in shows or booking shows back in 2012 when there were mixed bills, cause I wasn’t thinking about the bill I just asked my friends if they wanted to play a show and didn’t care that they played a different genre. But I remember all the sound engineers and booking managers thought I was really weird for doing that and now it’s the norm. In Seattle it’s hard to find a show that only one genre, and I love that because it brings everyone together where people can interact and share ideas which is really cool.

Chelsea: People are all over Spotify, Bandcamp, whatever now and you don’t see as many pure metalheads or die hard rock fans or people interested in only one genre, so there’s genre blending for fans and artists. So you said that you’ve been enjoying the shows you’ve been playing lately, is there anyone that you saw either here at Treefort or in Seattle recently that you’ve liked? Anyone that really surprised you?

Alaia: I liked ORUÃ who played last night. They played a couple bands after us. They were definitely really groovy in an unexpected way. When I think of groovy I think of genres that are classically dance music like soul, or RnB, or dance pop and electronica. This was very psychedelic. The beats that the drummer had were really danceable.

Ulises: I’m excited to see Carrion kids. I think their singer is the drummer of another band that came to Seattle and played with us a while back called Los Honeyrockets. Definitely excited for them and Y La Bamba. They’re probably playing right now, but we’re seeing them later.

Alaia: Oh, See Hurricanes at freakout fest in Seattle. They were fun to play with.

Zander: Well we’re excited to play with the black tones again, and go see them.

Ulises: They’re releasing their first album. We’re excited to go see them.

Chelsea: Are they a Seattle band?

Ulises: Yes, they’re really amazing. Another band that I saw that I didn’t know and was surprising was Velvet Q.

Alaia: Yeah!

Ulises: Yeah, I was very impressed. It was one of those moments where you just walk in and you’re like “holy shit this is a great band!”

Zander: I saw Gaylan Lee here and he was pretty freaking good. He’s just a ridiculously good songwriter. It’s really cool to see people and just be like “Oh this person’s really going to be remembered” Well I guess everyone is going to be remembered in some ways, as long as the internet doesn’t get solar flared into non existence, but it’s cool to hear people that you’re like “Woah, this is a legendary singer-songwriter and just a very legendary person” and see someone perform like that. That venue was great, the Boise contemporary theatre.

Chelsea: Yea! I saw Wend there yesterday. They described themselves as chamber psych.

Zander: Oh that sounds awesome, I wish I could’ve seen that.

Chelsea: It was really good, they had a harp and a bunch of strings and everything. It was one of the bands that has like 12 people.

Zander: Oh those are the best kind of bands.

Chelsea: Definitely one of my favorites that I’ve seen. I’ve loved the whole curation of the festival. And I was surprised that they reached out to us to give us these press passes.

Alaia: I think that the festival actually cares about who’s coming to it, and that everybody can at least make connections, and they care about connecting people throughout the community here and throughout the world. I got that state from the stage we were at, the whole curation for that stage was great. It felt like they booked people saying “I think these people would be friends.”

Ulises: Also, the hotel we were staying, at a lot of bands were staying there too, so it was good to talk to some people who were playing. (to Zander) You talked to somebody in the bathtub right?

Zander: (laughing) Hot tub!

Alaia: There was a band High Hazel in the artist home upstairs who we talked to, they’re playing tonight.

Chelsea: Well the last question I have is: do you have any upcoming dates in Seattle that we should tell the UW community about?

Ulises: Alaia and Zander have shows in Seattle coming up, they have their own solo projects.

Alaia: I’m going to be playing April 6th at the clock out lounge with with my band, it’s just my name Alaia, A-l-A-I-A, and sometime it looks weird when you look it up. My name is Alaia D'Alessandro. When you look it up it’s A, lower case l, A, uppercase I, A so it’s like 3 A’s with 2 lines but they’re actually letters it’s just for being cute, but it might not be functional. Also, we’re going to submit a video for a tiny desk so tell ‘em to watch it.

Zander: I’m playing a show April 25th at Vermillion. And if you google my name you’ll find it, I’ve got a bunch of crap out there, I’m starting a YouTube channel and all that, I’m doing some cryptocurrency projects, I kind of want to save the universe so I’m doing a lot of shit. And then after these shows we’re also playing a benefit on May 31st. It’s a benefit for Nova high school because they have to fund some teachers out of pocket, because the school district is not doing their job.

Alaia: That was the high school we met at. That was the high school that just let us make bands.

Zander: We’re working on some new music. We’ve got side projects and you know, we put out a really cool album last year and we might put out some more stuff this year but we’re kind of creating an expanded universe like Star Wars nerds. And Uli’s got some really cool projects he’s working on too, I don’t know if it has to be secret.

Ulises: Oh, well I’m just working on some artwork for the city, I’m pretty excited about it. I was selected out of thousands of artists and I didn’t even have to apply because you know, most art that you want to make you have to make a resume, and submit photos and everything, but for this, they contacted me. I thought it was a scam at first, as an artist nothing good ever happens to you, but no, it’s awesome, it’s going really well for most of us. I think at the beginning I’ll say to all the artists, it’s going to be really hard at the beginning and you’re going to want to quit and you’ve just got to keep pushing.

Alaia: As the buildings are going up in Seattle we’re also building our own thing, just to sound like a dad.

Zander: That’s legit though, to be able to create your own space, to create your own existence. I was reading this argument on YouTube, like it wasn’t really an argument just this person being really down on themselves being like, “what are we going to do? We’re never going to be free, or have liberty because there’s this battle for wealth and resources” And a lot of people don’t want to create, they just want to hoard, or take, or inherit because work is hard, even artwork! Any of it is hard, and someone said the route to freedom is through new technology and creation like creating new spaces. I guess it’s like the original idea behind DIY, and I agree with the root ethos of DIY, and it become more of an aesthetic like ordering things on Amazon. Like I got this DIY pin on the internet.

Ulises: Yeah, I think we’re losing that with technology. I know a lot of people my age who do not know how to do things DIY, like when you have less, you have to go and kind of create things, and a lot of people are losing that creativity 'cause we have technology, which is really sad.

Zander: But some people are gaining it through technology. I mean, crypto is DIY currency. But I think it’s cool that most people even learn just a little bit of HTML growing up, just so we could make our myspace look cool. It’s kind of neat when you think about it, like HTML didn’t even exist when our grandparents were alive, it’s a form of coding. And it’s interesting how people adapt, I also agree with Ulises; I think it’s sad that people don’t know how to fix things.

Ulises: I think there needs to be a balance, we’re losing from one, but we’re also gaining from both. That’s what I mean when I say we should be working toward both, instead of just going into technology and leaving the other.

Alaia: There’s a way to have diversity in the way you do things and in your tools and your resources.You can value the DIY cryptocurrency and you can value the handmade things that take maybe a little more time to make, or maybe a little more of your physical labor to put in, and that gives you a different result and that’s special that they’re both different things and they can provide different kinds of value.

Ulises: (pointing to Alaia sitting in between him and zander) This is a balance right here.

#treefort #monsterwatch

0 notes

sinceileftyoublog · 5 years

Text

The Wood Brothers Interview: Warts and All

From left to right: Jano Rix, Chris Wood, Oliver Wood; Photo by Alysse Gafkjen

BY JORDAN MAINZER

In between One Drop of Truth and their next record (hopefully out early next year), The Wood Brothers are giving a glimpse as to why they’re even more essential as a live band than as a studio band. Live At The Fillmore, out a week from Friday, documents their two-night stand at the San Francisco venue, a mix of songs from Truth, older material, and covers. According to drummer (and “third brother”) Jano Rix, the nights there weren’t technically their best shows but the ones that captured the spirit of their live show better than any other. Speaking to me over the phone last week from his dressing room in San Rafael, Rix shared some insight into the band’s live approach, including how their songs change over time and how they construct set lists. Read the interview below and catch the band on tour at various points throughout the rest of the year; they’re working with Thistle Farms so that $1 from every ticket sold will go towards helping female victims of trafficking, prostitution, and addiction.

Since I Left You: Why did you decide to release a live record?

Jano Rix: One reason is we tend to change the arrangements of songs over time, and things just evolve. Sometimes, the instrumentation evolves in songs, and we play them in a completely different way. To present a different take on the songs and kind of document that. And depending on where the songs fall in the set on a certain night, we might play them on completely different instruments. It’s nice to document some of that stuff. Sometimes, we feel like we get better at them, too, over the years. [laughs]

SILY: Is this recorded performance some of the best that your old songs have ever been?

JR: We like to think so. [laughs] But we tend not to listen back to the records for years and years. Sometimes, we’ll hear the album version come on the radio and are so surprised at the tempo. We’ll have completely forgotten and be like, “Oh yeah, there are horns on this song.” It’s about the evolution and capturing where we are creatively this year.

SILY: How do you decide on your set lists on a nightly basis?

JR: There are a lot of factors: what day of the week it is, the town we’re in, what we played last time in the town. We look back at previous years’ sets and try to do something different each time. If we’re playing multiple nights in a place, we’ll try to write different sets for different nights. And just trying to construct a flow that will take people on a journey from the beginning to the end. Take into consideration what the venue feels like and what the audience is gonna feel like there. If it’s all standing, if it’s a seated theater, if it’s a festival and there’s three other bands playing within a half mile of us--then the soft songs with lots of space are not gonna go over well. We all meet about it about an hour before we go on. That’s when we write the set.

SILY: How has touring One Drop of Truth been unique as compared to touring previous records?

JR: That’s a good question...I haven’t really pondered that...I don’t know that it’s really all that different. We don’t play songs mostly from the record we just put out. We play all Woods Brothers songs every tour. We mix up new songs with the old songs. People want to hear songs from the first record. So I wouldn’t say it’s that different. Our crew has gotten bigger, and we’re carrying more instruments, gear, and lights, which is it’s own challenge, but it’s been really rewarding.

SILY: Your discography certainly has some upbeat songs, but they’re mostly very lyrics-forward. Your live shows seem to be more celebratory. Do you “put on a show” more than simply play songs?

JR: For sure. It’s a show! It’s changed a lot since the early days just because of the venues we’re playing. When you’re playing to a few hundred people in a club, they’re basically in your living room. When you’re playing to 2,000 people, what gets across and what’s possible is different. As time has gone on, we’ve had more songs on records that are danceable, and people have come to really like that. We’re just kind of in it with everybody. They like what we do, but we like what they do, too. We’re feeding off of them. It influences us how to write a set.

SILY: On the performances of Smoke Ring Halo’s “Blue And Green” and [Jimmy Reed cover] “Big Boss Man”, you play keys and drums at the same time.

JR: I do that quite a bit these days.

SILY: It’s obviously something you can’t realize just listening to the record. So where does a live album, for you, fit? In between a concert and a record? Or is it still just a record?

JR: It’s definitely more in between. Especially this one and the last one. Though we recorded the entire spring and listened to all of it, we decided to put out just the Fillmore, warts and all...We had some more perfect performances, but the Fillmore had a lot of energy. We thought it would be cool to document the experience of going to a show.

SILY: What are all of the different instruments you play on any given night?

JR: I play all sorts of messed up toy instruments. [laughs] I play drums, the shuitar, a crappy old guitar I mashed into a percussion instrument, keyboards, melodica--that’s about it. But I’m pretty busy up there.

SILY: Do you have a pretty standard rotation of covers in your arsenal? Or are you constantly learning new ones?

JR: It’s best when we’re constantly learning new ones. We learn new covers when we have openers sit in with us and try to learn a song they know. It’s always good inspiration.

SILY: What else is next for you and The Wood Brothers in the near future?

JR: We’re on the road. We’re working on the final mixes for the next studio record, which we’ve been working on for the past year. We’re getting ready to finish that up, and the album will come out the beginning of next year. We’re excited about that. We also have a show at Red Rocks [Amphitheatre] a couple weeks away. That’ll be a big, fun show for us.

SILY: Any plans to come back to Chicago?

JR: Of course. Every year we’ll be in Chicago. It’s one of our favorite cities to play. You guys have the most great venues of any cities we know of. There are just so many.

SILY: What are your favorites?

JR: SPACE in Evanston. The Vic. Lincoln Hall. Old Town School of Folk Music--that place is amazing! We’ve just played so many venues in that town, as opposed to other major cities where at every size, there’s maybe one decent venue, if it’s decent.

SILY: What are some of your other favorite cities to play?

JR: We do always enjoy our West Coast runs, especially during the winter, for the change of weather. It’s really fun to play Levon’s Barn [Levon Helm Studios] in upstate New York. The Beacon [Theatre] in New York. Stone Mountain Arts Center in the middle of nowhere in Maine. It’s beautiful and has the best backstage anywhere. There are so many great venues around, but they’re not always the big ones. It depends on the vibe.

SILY: Is there anything you’ve been listening to, watching, or reading lately that’s caught your attention?

JR: I wish I had an answer for that, but nothing specific comes to the tip of my tongue. I have been listening to a lot of Cuban salsa lately.

Tour dates:

8/27 - Boise, ID - Knitting Factory Concert House ** 8/28 - Salt Lake City, UT - Red Butte Garden ** 9/5 - Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre ^ 9/8 - Chattanooga, TN - Moon River Music Festival 9/21 - East Aurora, NY - Borderland Music and Arts Festival 10/16 - Pensacola FL - Vinyl Music Hall 10/17 - Ponte Vedra, FL - Ponte Vedra Concert Hall 10/18 - Wilmington, NC - Greenfield Lake Amphitheater 10/19 - Greensboro, NC - The Carolina Theatre 10/20 - Black Mountain, NC - Leaf Festival 10/25 - Placerville, CA - Hangtown Music Festival 11/7 - Roanoke, VA - Shaftman Performance Hall ^^ 11/8 - Highlands, NC - Highlands Food & Wine Festival ^^ 11/9 - Louisville, KY - Headliners Music Hall ^^ 11/10 - Cincinnati, OH - Taft Theatre ^^ 11/12 - St. Louis, MO - The Pageant ^^ 11/13 - Kansas City, MO - The Truman ^^ 11/14 - Minneapolis, MN - First Avenue ^^ 11/15 - Madison, WI - Barrymore Theatre ^^ 11/16 - Indianapolis, IN - The Vogue ^^ 12/3 - Baton Rouge, LA - Manship Theatre ^^^ 12/4 - Houston, TX - The Heights Theater ^^^ 12/5 - Austin, TX - Paramount Theatre ^^^ 12/6 - Dallas, TX - The Kessler Theater ^^^ 12/7 - Tulsa, OK - Cain's Ballroom ^^^ 12/9 - Omaha, NE - Slowdown ^^^ 2/27 - 3/2 - Punta Cana, DR - Avett Brothers at the Beach 3/6 - Santa Barbara, CA - Campbell Hall

** w/ Colter Wall ^ w/ Fruition + Steep Canyon Rangers ^^ w/ Nicole Atkins ^^^ w/ Katie Pruitt

0 notes

rockrevoltmagazine · 5 years

Text

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2019 REVIEW

Review by Howard Keogh and Enda Madden with photos by Enda Madden

Some places mean different things to different people. If you mention Donington UK to a historian he may refer you the historic references in the Domesday Book of 1086. A motor racing enthusiast on the other hand will most likely tell you about the famous Donington Park Race Track and perhaps mention that Since 2013, Norton Motorcycles has had its head office in Donington Hall. To any self-respecting rock fan however, there is only one true meaning, Donington is the spiritual home of Download – rock music’s greatest festival which has been running almost every year since 1980. The festival has grown in popularity and under various names has played host to some of the biggest names in rock and metal from around the globe. However, just because the monsters of rock have played here does not mean there is no room for the young pretenders to peddle their wares. Some of the best acts have cut their teeth on the smaller stages at Download, where they are all welcomed by both the organizers and the crowd alike. As we know, even the gods of rock haven’t managed to control the weather in Donington and this year is no exception. Thursday is pretty wet but based on some high-profile mainstream media reports coming out in the lead up to Download you could have been inclined to pack a small inflatable boat or even make a start on building yourself an ark! Doubtless the revelers who elected to come early to the site were subjected to some incredibly challenging weather and there were a few who decided to call it a day. However, all credit to the Download team, who really get stuck in, making layout adjustments and spreading tons of straw around the arena each day in a mammoth effort to reduce the impact of the weather on the site and the music fans. In true defiant Download style, the vast majority of fans decided the show must go on….and so it did regardless of the rain. Navigating Download festival can be a daunting task for music fans, as the site is massive and the number of stages poses another problem, choice! There are always difficult decisions to be made as your favorite bands may conflict. However the sheer fun of Download is what makes it so special. Despite a very difficult start to the festival, spirits are high and the costumes are out again this year as many fans dress up for the event. So far, we have spotted Mario, Santa and his elves, and the Mother from the Alien movie series amongst others, and I promise you we have only had one beer! This year’s festival sees an extra environmental effort made, to reduce the use of single use plastic bottles. Another addition is a little light relief in the form of “Doom Yoga”, and Mindfulness sessions aptly named “Mind the dog” Now lets go listen to some music… FRIDAY 15th June: Tesla is the first band up to start proceedings on the main stage today. The band formed in Sacramento California in 1981 by bassist Brian Wheat and guitarist Frank Hannon. The band started their existence under the moniker Earthshaker which later changed to City Kidd. The band changed their name to Tesla in 1986 releasing the album Mechanical Resonance. They have toured extensively with Def Leppard in the past. This collaboration resulted in Phil Collen producing their most recent album Shock which was released in March. Their set today has a few technical difficulties and includes the power ballad “Modern Day Cowboy” and “Cumin’ Atcha Live.” Rating; 3.5/6 Super group Deadland Ritual, whose line up completed with the addition of Geezer Butler in 2018, play the Zippo encore stage. Unfortunately, they too suffer a few technical difficulties with sound but these get resolved. The band members include Steve Stevens and Matt Sorum. The set list draws significantly on the Black Sabbath catalog with the addition of “Symptom of the Universe,” “Neon Knights,” and “War Pigs” included in the set. The other band members back catalog also get a look in with the addition of “Rebel Yell” and “Slither.” The band’s first single “Down in Flames” released in 2018 also gets an airing. If you want to catch these guys they are also set to play Hellfest very soon. Rating: 4/6 Whitesnake are back with their new album Flesh and Blood and the mighty David Coverdale looks fresher and fitter than ever. His voice too is in fine form as he charms his way through the set. Today’s menu is full of old favorites and includes “Bad Boys,” “Love Ain’t No Stranger,” “Slow and Easy,” and the single “Shut Up and Kiss Me” from the latest album. However the highlight of the set has to be “Still of the Night” with its slow build to its epic finale. Fans have had a bit of a wait for new material from Whitesnake, with the last album being released in 2015 but the new release sees them make a glorious return. With a string of concerts planned across Europe, including Hellfest, and Graspop festivals, these boys are definitely back in full flight. Catch them while you can. Rating: 4.5/6 Opeth make a welcome return to Download with another pitch perfect performance from these Swedish masters of light and shade. Greeting the crowd in his own inimitable style Mikael Akerfeldt reminisces about dancing with one of Abba’s lovely ladies. Almost an Opeth trademark now is a short set of very long songs and Mikael Akerfeldt admits it openly. For those hoping for a preview of their imminent new album, it may be disappointing; however this is more than compensated for with a typically flawless performance that include gems like “Ghost of Perdition,” “The Drapery Falls,” and “Deliverance.” The sun makes a welcome appearance during Opeth’s performance, and Mr. Akerfeldt makes the crowd jealous, as he announces the band travel to Malaga to play on the beach. These guys are touring extensively across Europe for the rest of the year, so if they come to your town, don’t miss them! Rating: 5/6 Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators make a welcome return to Download this year. The set includes a sprinkling of Slash’s solo work and a blistering performance of the Guns ‘n’ Roses classic “Nightrain.” Slash is on top form pacing the stage like a tiger while Myles Kennedy knocks out the tunes. Another highlight of the set was “Anastasia” The tour continues throughout Europe until mid July before moving stateside for Canadian and U.S. dates Rating: 4/6 This year Def Leppard add another Download headline slot to their tally. Donington has always held a special place in their hearts, as it was where Rick Allen made his arena comeback after a horrific car accident in which he lost his arm. As with the recent tour, today’s offering features the band’s 1987 Hysteria album played in its entirety. Joe Elliot introduces Northern Ireland’s Vivian Campbell on guitar and after “Hysteria” we are treated to a pure gold selection that includes “Let It Go”, “Let’s Get Rocked,” “Photograph,” and the classic “Rock of Ages.” The polished performance is a fitting finish to a great day’s music. Rating: 4.5/6

SATURDAY 16th June: Saturday’s openers on Main stage are Alien Weaponry from New Zealand. Their set opens with a Haka-like chant, which draws applause even before the music starts. After a brief delay things get underway. The band’s set includes “PC Bro,” “Holding My Breath,” and “Kai Tanata”. The 3 members of Alien Weaponry all have Māori ancestry, and use their native tongue in a number of their songs. The band was formed in 2010, by brothers Henry and Lewis de Jong. Recently the band made a 10 part documentary documenting their European tour entitled “Alien Weaponry shake Europe”. Their album Tu debuted at number 5 in the New Zealand album charts on its release in June 2018. As we see more and more bands beginning to sing in their own languages, possibly inspired by the mighty Rammstein’s success, this opens up a whole new exciting realm in music as we see more bands using their native language in their music. Rating: 4/6 Next up on the Dogtooth stage are Underside from Nepal. Exploding onto the Nepal music scene with their own unique brand of metal, these guys are not afraid to take on great tasks. They instigated the “Silence festival,” Nepal’s first annual metal festival. The band was also involved in fundraising efforts, following the massive earthquake in 2015, that left many parts of Kathmandu in ruins. Underside responded immediately raising emergency funding that helped rebuild a school. With such an unshakable determination, it is no wonder they have won over the crowd here today. The band’s stage show includes a masked demon dancer, who convulses to the beat of the songs. Once again there are a few sound issues during the set, leaving the demon dancer alone onstage briefly, but after a quick resolution the singer apologizes, thanking the crowd for their patience the show gets underway again. Rating: 3/6 The Zippo encore stage is our next stop to marvel at the intricate progressive instrumental style of Animals as Leaders. This American band from Los Angeles is well up for the fray, and if today is any measure of the European appetite for the band’s trademark tunes, the upcoming Scandinavian and European dates will go down a treat. Rating: 4/6 Darkness might be more fitting for the next act on the main stage, the mighty Behemoth from Poland. They make their entrance sporting Black Death masks, to a chant of “I will not forgive.” As the set starts an inferno of pyrotechnics are unleashed, and the ritual begins. Behemoth have planned an extensive European tour in advance of their US dates in July. They have always attracted controversy, and currently, an Irish politician is trying to have their upcoming Limerick show banned in Ireland. Behemoth front man, Nergal has responded “Nihil novi. Another attention whore which Poland’s politics is full of, but do we really need that kind of publicity? Nope. But I’m thankful regardless!” Either way the band have a fast-growing fan base with many upcoming shows sold out. Rating: 4/6 Skindred have secured a Main stage appearance this year at Download following many previous appearances. Despite the pouring rain, front man Benji Webbe manages to get the crowd singing, crouching, and generally jumping about. Skindred whose album Big Tings was released last year continue, with a string of dates after Download that include Hellfest in France. During the set Reef’s Gary Stringer joins Benji onstage for the track “Machine” Benji is looking like a lean mean rocking machine after his recent well publicized weight loss, and he makes light of the inclement weather while the crowd are lapping it up. The band’s trademark crowd participation “the Newport helicopter” is rolled out during “Warning”. and fans everywhere are removing their T-shirts and swinging them wildly over their heads. This as always makes for an amazing sight. This has been another superb high energy performance from a great live band. Rating: 5/6 The Hu in the Dogtooth tent attract a massive crowd which overflows out the sides of the tent due to a combination of the heavy rain and the Bands huge popularity. It appears Download may have misjudged this one, as The Hu could easily have been on a bigger stage. The band hail from Mongolia and have s unique style, incorporating traditional Mongolian instruments like the Morin khuur. Singing is in the ancient Mongolian throat singing style giving the band a very unique sound. The current tour takes in more UK and European dates before heading stateside. Rating: 3.5/6 Trivium who have racked up eight studio albums since their formation in Florida in 1999, have attracted a huge crowd to the Main stage. The weather has improved, and this only adds to the excitement of the fans and the band. The set today includes “Like Light to the Flies,” a blistering rendition of “Strife” and “In Waves.” The show is augmented by liberal use of Pyrotechnics and smoke, which add to the atmosphere. After the last tour was received so well, it is great to see Trivium at Download. The band has grown, and they admit they have their sights set now on a festival headline slot. Following this tour they plan to start writing material for a new album, so there is much to look forward to! Rating: 4/6 Halestorm are no strangers to Download festival. Enter Lzzy Hale who delivers an absolutely amazing vocal performance. In her new leather clad Joan Jett look, she and her brother Arejay open up and let loose on the crowd in a combined vocal and percussive assault on the senses. Lzzy thanks the crowd and says she is proud to be a woman and she gets all the women present to roar. The set opens with “Untouchable” and this is followed swiftly with a request from Lzzy to little brother Arejay to let loose. Arejay duly obliges with a percussive attack that is both technically amazing and entertaining to watch.. Staples like “Ms Hyde” and “Freak Like Me” are rolled out and as usual Arejay gets the opportunity to trash his drum kit during the obligatory drum solo. Today’s set is wrapped up with “Love Bites (so do I)” and “I Miss the Misery”. “Love Bites (so do I)” sees Lzzy joined onstage for a duet by Asami from the band Lovebites who also played a set at Download. Rating: 5/6 Slipknot are always a big draw at Download and as soon as they appear on stage the whole arena erupts. Their energy is contagious, and the crowd has contracted the disease. Corey Taylor is sporting his new mask which has attracted some negative feedback from fans. No-one cares tonight though as the maggots are in the mood for a mosh pit. The high octane setlist includes “People =s,” “Psychosocial,” “Disasterpiece,” and “The Devil in I”. What better way to end an evening than in the company of Slipknot. One final thought on Slipknot is that at the festival, a poster surfaced hinting at the possibility of live gigs in 2020. With the new album “We are not your kind” set for release in August via Roadrunner records, the prospect of more live shows can only add to the anticipation. Rating: 5/6

SUNDAY 17th June: I prevail are the first act on Main stage today and they put in a great set for the festival’s early bird punters. The band hail from Michigan in the U.S. and released their latest album Trauma in March of this year. Vocal duties are shared between Brian Burkheiser on clean vocals while Eric Vanlerberghe looks after the vocal heavy lifting. The new album is well represented in today’s set with the inclusion of “Bow Down”, “Rise Above It”, “Gasoline”, and the super heavyweight “Deadweight.” Although their slot is early they put in a rousing performance waking up the bleary eyed fans. These guys are definitely one to watch for 2019 Rating: 4.5/6 Godsmack from Boston, Massachusetts are hot on the heels of I prevail as the next act up on the main stage. The band has admitted to being excited to play the U.K. again and open with “1000HP,” then “Something Different.” Then it’s time for a duel, in which the drummer and singer battle it out on 2 drum kits through a medley featuring AC/DCs “Back in Black,” Aerosmith’s “Walk This Way,” Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Oh Well.” This has been a lively and varied performance from these stateside rockers. Rating: 4/6 Amon Amarth did a question and answer session in the press tent today, and they announced a tour in November with Arch Enemy and Hypocrisy. Answering a question from an Irish Journalist about their upcoming gigs, the band say they are looking forward to another Viking invasion of Limerick after 1000 years. They last appeared on Download Main stage in 2016 and since then have been growing steadily popularity. When they hit the stage, they open with “The Pursuit of Vikings,” followed by “First Kill.” A Viking battle is recreated, as two warriors do battle during “The Way of Vikings.” The latest album Berserker, which was released in May, is on show today with “Crack the Sky”, “Shield Wall” and “Raven’s Flight”. The band compliment the crowd on their determination in the mud and call a toast raising their drinking horns with a “Skol” before launching into the song “Raise Your Horns.” Amon Amarth really are on top of their game today. Rating: 5/6 Lamb of God bring with them a very energetic show. As the sun shines down for the one of the few times in the 3 day festival, vocalist Randy Blythe greets the crowd and promises to f the place up, before launching into “Walk With Me In Hell” and hails the crowd of “maniacs” for their persistence in the bad weather. “512” is next with its reminiscences of Blythe’s time held in custody in relation to the death of a fan at one of the bands concerts in the Czech Republic. Lamb of God certainly know how to work a crowd.. Rating: 4/6 On a visit to the Avalanche stage, we catch the up and coming hot ticket – Fever333, who are currently touring on the back of their debut album Strength in Numb333rs. Their songs are politically charged, tackling social issues like racism, homophobia and sexual discrimination. The crown lap it up and if the response of the Download crowd is any indication, their other U.K. dates (which the trio also like to call demonstrations) should be extremely successful. Their style cites musical influences like Rage against the machine, Black flag and Public enemy. Rating: 4.5/6 Dream Theater have attracted a large crowd for their set on the Zippo encore stage. Currently touring their 14th studio album Distance Over Time the band show no signs of slowing down. The new album gets plenty of exposure, as the band open with “Untethered Angel,” and also include “Fall Into The Light” and “Barstool Warrior.” Dream Theater are no doubt technically talented and virtuoso players but sometimes it just feels like there is something missing. They close their set with a rousing rendition “Pull Me Under.” Rating: 4/6 Finally it’s that bitter sweet moment, the final U.K. performance by Slayer, one of the big 4 giants of thrash metal. Anthrax, one of the other 3, played the same stage just earlier in the day, a testament (no pun intended) to the choice of bands playing Download. A huge crowd has gathered to witness the spectacle and one can’t help wondering if Slayer should have been billed as headliners on the main stage. “Repentless” starts the show as Slayer move up the gears with “War Ensemble” and “Mandatory Suicide”. The band thanks their fans for hanging out. Paul Bostaph puts in a magnificent performance behind the drum kit, and the rest of the band are not too shabby either. As the show progresses, they go into overdrive with “Seasons In The Abyss”, “Hell Awaits”, “South Of Heaven” and “Raining Blood” all coming in quick succession. At this stage the crowd is at fever pitch with circle pits aplenty. The last U.K. performance of Slayer and the associated mayhem, finally draws to a close with the finale “Angel Of Death” but then Slayer fans don’t cry do they? Rating: 5/6 Tool are booked to close Download 2019 and may have certainly lost more than a few audience members due to the set time clash with Slayer’s final U.K. show on the Zippo encore stage. However, even disregarding that fact, the crowd numbers are definitely smaller than that usually seen for a Download headline act. Notwithstanding the draw of Slayer, this is a rare treat for any hardcore Tool fan, as live performances in the U.K. don’t happen too often. The band’s last Download performance was 13 years ago. The set opens with “AEnema.” The backdrop on the big screens light up with imagery that melds perfectly with the music to provide the audience with a veritable “audio visual trip.” Old favorites like “The Pot,” and “Schism” are there, and we are treated to some new material in the form of “Invincible” and “Descending.” The set is brought to a close with “Stinkfist” and a group of happy Tool fans have had their dreams come true tonight at Download. Rating: 4/6 And so, we come to the end of another weekend of music, beer, fun, and well…lots of mud, but you know as usual it has all been worth it. Once again Download Festival has proved itself as the great survivor. Despite the bad weather and the unfair press, the event has once again proved itself a triumph of Rock n’ Roll spirit over adversity. Roll on 2020. I can’t wait! Enda Madden & Howard Keogh – 2019

Connect with Download Festival(click icons):

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2019 REVIEW was originally published on RockRevolt Mag

#Donington #Donington Castle

0 notes

americanahighways · 4 years

Text

It’s not everyday you go to a show with a dress code. But when the dress code—flannel—fits right in with a mission to help friends and neighbors in need as the weather takes a turn for the worst, you know you’re going to have a great time.

Entering its 6th year, Flannel Fest 2019 is a tribute to the best of Americana roots music. This year’s festival occurred over two nights beginning with Flannel Fest South in Madison, Wisconsin at the High Noon Saloon on Friday, November 8. Flannel Fest North occurred the following night at Gibson Music Hall in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Flannel Fest featured six bands—each bringing their unique styles and rhythms to the stage and playing to packed houses on both nights. The Festival, co-organized by Madison-area singers, Beth Kille and Erik Kjelland, is intended to highlight local, regional and national bands that are considered among the best in their craft. And looking at the accolades and awards won by the performers, one would be hard pressed not to agree!

Giving back to the community was one of Beth and Erik’s original goals in organizing the festival. Flannel Fest 2019 once again supported the Keep Wisconsin Warm/Cool Fund, a statewide nonprofit charity that assists those most vulnerable in need who cannot afford to survive Wisconsin’s bitter cold and increasingly hot summers. Founded in 1996, KWW/CF has successfully provided over $32.5 million in aid to more than 111,300 households facing energy related crisis situations.

KWW/CF also partners with local county agencies assisting low-income households by arranging more affordable energy payment plans, offering budget counseling, and teaching ways to conserve energy.

Let’s take a look at the bands as they appeared on Friday at the High Noon Saloon.

The Listening Party – Constantly Evolving

The Listening Party opened Flannel Fest. The trio, comprised of Milwaukee area artists, Weston Mueller, Joshua Hester and Jacob Wood, provided their unique mix of folk and soul, with a bit of bluegrass added in. They describe their style as constantly evolving and take great pleasure in mixing up their songs, jumping genres and changing up their instrumentals. Exhibit A evidencing this was their song “Train”, which was accompanied with a playful train whistle and a rhythm imitating the sound of train wheels.