#but if it was that his solo streams would get a lot lot less viewers

[depressedhouseplant]

🔞 Just Fucking Write - Day 77 🔞

Tags: Unprotected sex, exhibitionism (he’s a camboy y’all)

A/N: Here’s the second half! I’m still fighting off the last dregs of this cold, but I did it! Happy belated birthday, Yunho.

Yunho tried not to fidget as he knocked on the door to the apartment. The address Wooyoung gave him was in one of the nicest parts of town. Yunho had no idea you could make that kind of money cramming, but he also spent more than he cared to admit on Wooyoung’s channel.

“Hey,” a short, stocky man opened the door.

“Uh, hi,” Yunho replied.

“He’s getting ready in the back,” the man moved to let him in.

“And you are?” Yunho asked.

“Jongho. I’m Wooyoung’s roommate and manager,” he replied.

“He’s not the best with manners sometimes,” Wooyoung came into the main area wearing a short robe.

“My manners are fine, thank you,” Jongho looked at Wooyoung. Wooyoung poked him in the side.

“It’s fine,” Yunho waved it off.

“I guess I’ll see you two when you’re done,” Jongho grinned and walked away.

“He manages things like the camera and lighting along with the stream itself,” Wooyoung explained, leading Yunho down the hall.

“Right,” Yunho nodded like he understood. “I did everything you said about preparing.”

“Good. As you know I only do solo work so I hadn’t planned anything crazy other than you fucking me,” Wooyoung told him. “Unless you want to try something?”

“No, that’s fine. Fucking you is totally fine,” Yunho replied quickly. Wooyoung smiled and stepped closer to him, Yunho still fully clothed. Up close Yunho could see his eyeliner rimmed eyes brimming with mischief.

“I knew I’d like you,” he said, reaching up to kiss Yunho. That was unexpected. “Take off your clothes.”

Yunho pulled back just enough to get his shirt off then started opening his pants. Neither of them noticed the red light on the webcam turn on.

Wooyoung dropped his robe to reveal he was naked underneath.

“You’re…I never thought…damn,” Yunho breathed as he kept trying to kiss Wooyoung and get out of the rest of his clothes.

“Let me,” Wooyoung pushed Yunho on the bed, pulled off his pants and underwear and climbed on top of him. He stopped for a moment to admire Yunho’s hard and weeping cock.

“I’m gonna ride you so hard,” he grinned.

“Please,” Yunho whined. This was every horny fantasy he’d ever had. Now Wooyoung was on top of him and more likely to fuck him than the other way around.

”Use me,” the words slipped out before Yunho could stop them.

”I fully intend to,” Wooyoung grinned. Yunho only vaguely registered Wooyoung lubing up his cock as he lied on the bed looking up at the smaller man. The man of all his dreams. He seated himself fully on Yunho’s cock without any prep. Or maybe he prepped himself before Yunho got there. Wooyoung’s tightness around his dick made pretty much every brain cell Yunho had stop functioning.

”Perfect size for me,” Wooyoung purred and leaned down to kiss Yunho.

”Tight,” Yunho squeaked.

”You go cock stupid. I like that in a man,” Wooyoung started riding him. Then they heard a ding. The first tip had arrived. “Looks like whoever’s watching does, too. Hands on my waist, darling.”

Yunho did as he was told and wrapped his hands around Wooyoung’s waist. They almost encircled it completely.

”What about you isn’t big?” Wooyoung asked. Yunho opened his mouth to respond and Wooyoung put a finger to it. “You don’t actually need to answer that.”

They heard more dinging. More tips. Wooyoung glanced over to see if there were any comments.

”It would appear our viewers want me to make you come first. Lots of compliments on your body. Of course I made a good choice. You doubt me?” Wooyoung said as he went down the list. “Make him come in less than a minute? That doesn’t seem very fair. Also, if he comes first, what about me?”

Yunho was already struggling. If Wooyoung decided to ride him hard, he would definitely come fast.

“You first,” Yunho managed to pant out.

”Well if that’s what you want, darling,” Wooyoung replied, patting his cheek. “Sorry boys, looks like I’m coming first.”

Wooyoung moved on Yunho’s cock like he did on one of his dildos that Yunho had watched him do more times than he could count. Yunho had to remember to breathe if nothing else so he wouldn’t pass out.

“So good for me. Just lying there and taking it,” Wooyoung praised. Yunho nodded, not sure what would come out of his mouth if he dared to speak. Wooyoung leaned down to kiss him again, but at an angle part of Yunho’s brain knew was so the camera would catch their mouths moving against each other. They were on camera and an unknown number of people were watching them. Yunho occasionally heard a ding, signaling another tip coming in. Mostly he was trying not to blow his load too early.

After a few minutes or an hour, Yunho had no sense of time anymore, he felt Wooyoung contract around him.

”Getting close,” he whined. He sat up, leaning his hands on Yunho’s thighs so the lines of his torso were accentuated. He began riding Yunho harder then came all over his chest, almost to his neck.

“Fuck,” Yunho breathed. He held Wooyoung up and fucked up into him. A few moments later he was coming hard into the smaller man, filling him beyond what he thought was even possible. When he finished, he heard Wooyoung talk, but didn’t hear what he said. Wooyoung leaned over and turned off the stream.

”What?” Yunho asked.

”I told them the next part was private,” Wooyoung grinned.

”Meaning?” Yunho finally released Wooyoung’s waist. It was red from where Yunho had been gripping it and would probably bruise.

”I want to enjoy the afterglow with just you,” Wooyoung replied, getting off of Yunho’s softening cock. He cuddled up next to Yunho, resting his head on his shoulder.

”I hope I did okay,” Yunho said.

”You were perfect. I was hoping maybe I could keep you around. Not just for a camming partner,” Wooyoung told him.

”I’d like that,” Yunho smiled down at him.

”Dinner later? With clothes on,” Wooyoung suggested.

”You’re disgusting!” Jongho yelled from the next room. The pair simply laughed.

”Sounds perfect,” Yunho agreed.

#just fucking write 2k24 #minors dni #ateez fanfic #jeong yunho x jung wooyoung #ateez yunwoo #rarepair #ateez smut

[moved-19871997]

ngl i think george was onto smth when he gives us so little lore, he could literally be like ‘i had cheerios today :]’ and we’d be like. ‘yes thank u king’

#mcyt #georgenotfound #i feel like. i don’t talk abt this enough #iit fascinates me just how like. successful?? he is in terms of like. amouont of simps #listen i know how it sounds but like. hear me out #we know jackshit about him n i really respect that?? like. the way he's gotten so omany people to be like. Yes Him on like #personality?? and looks alone adn #even then. if i didnt simp him i think he'd be like. 6.5/10 max and literally everyone who only sorta knows mcyt/dt think hes boring #it. confuses me sm bc ppl get successful on yt w. personality. looks. skill. n obvs hes a very skilled mc player #dream's said so and dream has world records so. #idk it just confuses me a lot #like. hes funny. hes smart. hes entertaining bu t like #these r things u findout after watchign him for a bit #n obviously he got a lot of clout from dream #ok wait is it. his dynamic w otherrs??? n the way he bounces off others??? #but if it was that his solo streams would get a lot lot less viewers #im. slightly confused #and also. mystery. is important for ppl to be interested right??? like dream w his face george w his personaily?t???? #idk its just rlly impressive to me that george is so successful on like. a personal?? parasocial relationship thing by giving so little of #himself

[nightswithkookmin]

RE HOW BIGHIT MARKETS BTS

Thanks for the question dear.

Marketing is for a lot of things but in BTS's case, I'd say the primary goal of marketing them is to expose the entire group and or the individual members to an audience, a particular audience at a time, to brand them in a way that makes them appealing to that target market- to put it simply.

During one of the recent run episodes, when Jimin performed his dance from Serendipity- which I must say, God he is breathtakingly beautiful when he dances. Serendipity and the choreo is my weakness. If I see anything better than that- hold on, there's filter too. Ayayaya.

Stream Serendipity and Filter🔪

Oh and did y'all see JM's bit in Film out? Omg! I'm afraid I'd have to fly to South K to kiss his talented ass morning, afternoon, evening.

Who's coming?

Anywho, when Jimin performed Serendipity on Run and suggested that was the dance the staff was performing, the members- cough RM, quickly pointed out how he was plugging, self promoting (to Run's target audience)

Run has a different demographic.

When Suga talked about them not being funny on their Let's BTS show on KBS the Host pointed out how they were actually funny in their Run episodes.

A lot of Army(who are already fans of BTS or each individual member) watch Run but not all who watch Run are Army or even listen to BTS songs. So any performance of an individual's music or choreo would attract such a 'unique' viewer who might go on to become that member's stan or bias etc.

Similarly, when a member embarks on a solo project they are exposed to a new or unique audience. That's where most of the solo stans come from.

For V, his fanbase are not just made up of people who enjoy him as a musician but as an actor as well.

He has a strong fanbase in SK outside of 'Army' because of his exposure to the Korean market beyond BTS and this comprises of his musical collaborations with Korean Artists and film companies such as his OST Sweet Night on the series Itaewon class.

It's the same with Suga and IU, his Agust D mixtapes which draws in audiences that are not necessarily into boybands, RM's Mono whixh attracts strong hiphop fans, Jimin's dance collaborations with Taemin for example and his contemporary dance performance which attracts people in the world of contemporary dance and ballet- point in case the black swan performance at the end of the year, Jin and Hobi's MCing etc.

All these projects exposes them to unique audiences and markets outside of Army or BTS's own fanbase.

And I think the best way to understand how this is important or how this affects BigHit's marketing approach is to look at their recent YouQuiz interviews.

Jimin, Jhope and JK were paired to attract aspiring dancers or persons who want to be dancers and learn from these three dance leaders of BTS- or at least they were paired to appeal to them in my opinion.

Tae and RM were equally paired to appeal to creatives and creative minds and persons who are more into composing and writing lyrics and are full of passion and musical geniuses.

Jin and Suga were paired to appeal to mature audiences.

Ten out of ten when any pair is paired in BTS it is for marketing reasons to appeal to certain fanbase or audiences and are often strategic moves unless of course it's to balance things out to not create the impression they are promoting subunits within the group in furtherance of the BTS kumbaya agenda- Team over units or solos.

So Jikook are not gonna be allowed to sit together all the time even if they want to, neither would JinKook, or Sope.

They shake and reshuffle sometimes.

And like Tae said in his 2018 VLive, the company decides who they collaborate in or what market to promote them in.

Tae was allowed to collaborate with Adora on his Chrismas song but not Jimin- which to me is very homophobic but it goes to show the company has a say in who they work with and most importantly which market they work in.

For JK, he's been working his way within the American marke and building a strong fanbase internationally from his English covers of Justin Bieber, Troye Sivan, to his collaboration with Charlie Puth, and most recently Jason Derulo in Savage love- that's a lot of English speaking fanbase he's attracting and appealing to outside of Army.

Tae's English mixtape would achieve a similar feat and draw in a lot of English speaking fans.

Bts did the same with dynamite and coldplay's Fix you.

So by allowing JK to work with renowned Japanese Artists and film companies, collaborating and composing original sound tracks for them such as his Your eyes tell OST, Film out, etc. he is appealing to and drawing in a Japanese audience.

As Hobi explained in his 2019 January Vlive, their mixtapes, solo projects, collaborations with Artists outside of BTS are all ways for them to expand their fanbase individually and build their portfolio.

And these new fans are mostly going to be solo stans who stan him for his music composing abilities but of course some may fall in love with BTS as well and go on to become Army so it's a win win situation.

WOULDN'T THE OTHERS OBJECT

Yes and no.

As long as the company isn't pushing him as a soloist outside of BTS and creating a separate brand with him outside of BTS's own brand I don't think the boys would object to it.

That was the problem they had/have with Jikook. In my opinion.

The company branding Jikook, distinctifying them from the group as a 'couple' subunit, selling their chemistry to fans and advertisers really doesn't and didn't sit well with the group. AT ALL.

In my opinion of course.

You can't create a brand within a brand.

It goes against Bang PD's own objective of prioritizing the team over all else which is what sold the members in the first place.

I just think in JK's case, since 2020, they are just trying to help him find himself and his bearing and his purpose.

He's been trying to find himself since 2020 and he'd talked about losing his passion and had had his passion hijacked and commercialized by the company.

He used to say he didn't know what he was going to do with himself and his life and career after BTS- having him work on music videos, directing, composing, reading these are all ways that they are doing right by him if you ask me.

They are helping him not trying to push their own agendas- which is not to say they might not change their minds about it in the future.

JK is an artist being managed by the company and they owe a duty to him to make the right business decisions for him with his consent- can't stress on the consent bit enough.

Personally, I'm happy about Japan because they are and are shaping out to be queer friendly and have a bit of progressive laws and conducive environments for queer artists to flourish in- if coming out would ruin their careers that's one less worry.

Which by the way I hate anyone who peddles this 'coming out will ruin their careers' nonsense because I can tell you one hundred percent that that is rooted in homophobia and it's not OK.

Don't tell that to no queer people shut up. You are not helping.

I know some say that out of genuine concerns for the boys but PLEASE DON'T. Don't use fear to keep queer people hidden and out of sight. Don't promote closet safety. Rhetorics like that only perpetuate queer invisibility and homophobia- do I need to spell it out to your liberal homophobic ass?!

Coming out is entirely up to them regardless of the risk you think is involved. If they want to take it. They'll take it. It's their choice to make regardless of whatever consequence.

That there are or should be consequences is a problem in of itself.

I don't want to hear 'if JK comes out he's been stupid and reckless and putting Jimin's career at risk'

'If he loves Jimin he wouldn't come out'

Go ahead kiss it😌

If he wants to stay closested respect it. If he wants to come out RESPECT IT TOO.

Support him either ways goddammit!

Y'all gone get me bothered like that huh.

JK POTENTIALLY WITHOUT JIMIN

They both have different career objectives.

I know Jimin says JK is imitating him but chilee JK is his own person. Lol.

Jimin plays too much.

He has his own aspirations.

In 2014 Jimin posted this Christmas song he did with JK. In 2020 he posted his own Christmas song without Jk.

It's not hard to see where his interests in music lie as a musician.

JK covered We don't talk anymore by himself and later did a collaboration with Jimin on the same song. He's done Fools with RM- see where I'm going with this?

Suga said he was more likely to write pop songs for JK but write dance songs for Jimin.

Jk said in the Be interviews bang PD advised him to consider dance performances when writing songs as he himself is a dancer too and need to incorporate in his compositions.

They are two distinct artists and at some point it would become necessary to brand, promote and encourage their uniqueness in their professional lives. They don't got to be tethered to each other all the time.

Personally, I don't think BigHit would want to push official subunits within BTS- yet and it's inclination towards Jikook have always been because of their marketing appeal rather than to further a career objective for both of them.

This goes back to the pairing objectives I talked about earlier. If they are going to pair Jikook professionally as an official subunit within the group it wouldn't be because they are a couple and ought to be together all the time but because it is smart for them to do so business wise.

If their pairing isn't commercially profitable they won't be paired at all- unless of course Jikook themselves want and request to be paired in that way. Know what I mean?

They each signed separate contracts with the company from day dot. They didn't sign on as a unit.

Whether or not they've decided they are a package deal I cannot say- yet, as their new contract just came into effect.

We would have to observe how they are being handled by the company going forward.

HE'D NEVER DO IT WOULD HE

Come now sis...

It's not like he's leaving Jimin😅

Jimin and Jhope were equally sent to Japan for promotion purposes without JK.

Out of all seven, Namjoon is the most promoted member in the international Market not just because he speaks English but because he is often made the spokes person for the group in interviews, at awards straight up to the UN.

Look how happy they all were and how chatty they were at the KBS Let's BTS interview.

I mean they all talked about it. About how they can't say much on foreign forums and often step into Namjoon's shadows.

RM is the most recognized and dare I say the most liked member out of all seven in the international market outside Army and their music profession.

In Japan they all have a chance to be front and center at interviews etc.

It just so happens that JK as it stands is the one member pushing to build a portfolio within that market.

Let's pray he gets mainstream and build a strong presence within the music industry there because we all know he's gonna drag Jimin up there with him😏

Just pay attention to the songs he's written and the parts Jimin sings in them- he makes Jimin shine on those songs.

They have so much potential my God.

Let's support them individually and as a unit.

I purple you and sorry I had to respond here.

Stay gold. Let's keep supporting and rooting for our guys.

Signed,

GOLDY

[zeta-in-de-walls]

Hey guys, I was having thoughts on the meta-side of the Dream SMP. Okay, so we know that Technoblade has done much of the scripting for this present arc, Tommy, Dream and Quackity have also done some in collaboration, presumably doing each of their own characters and motivations, and Tubbo and Fundy have also been involved too. Uh, this will be rambly as it’s a lot of unsorted observations.

Obviously these are my thoughts, and ideas purely based on my observations as a viewer but you can definitely tell that they’re all very aware of the fanbase and are likely very influenced by them. I could see this even in the Pogtopia arc where Tommy started reusing phrases before when debating ethics with Wilbur, eg ‘let’s lose as winners, not win as losers.’ or something along those lines and how Techno made a callback to his only universal language is violence speech in his wither monologue. 

But wow, the scripting is definitely becoming a lot more obvious in this new season of the SMP. Not a bad thing at all, by the way, it’s just a difference. Clearly they’ve gotten more detailed plans and are more ambitious with what they convey in minecraft, with more players taking inspiration from Wilbur after how well he executed it. It’s also the difference in how the various people write, I’m sure. 

Tommy and Tubbo have streamed the SMP for the longest and have very gradually evolved into the roleplaying and their respective approaches to it are very interesting. Tubbo’s streams are typically chill and usually involve him working on some sort of project - he’s very chaotic when with other people but is usually very reactionary when it comes to the roleplaying - doing most of his best stuff when bouncing off Tommy, or occasionally Quackity. On his own he doesn’t like to lead bits but is among the best at making other people’s bits work. Same with the RP! His character’s in a weird spot right now as the other writer’s seem to be writing him in quite an unflattering way and he doesn’t do solo, emotional performances all that much meaning he’s less sympathetic right now then he really should be. Like, Tommy garnered loads of sympathy during his exile as he gave a very expressive performance where Tubbo’s character also presumably feels very isolated and alone and he’s being manipulated by the people around him but he gives a lot less. This has made it easier for the audience to start siding more with Technoblade, the literal mass-murderer, over the traumatised kid who was manipulated into exiling his best friend and continues to face terrible choices with no good options.

 While I can of course make less meta theories on why Tubbo should be appreciated more and what it says he’s got no real support and is compartmentalising his problems, in the end it’s how his streams work. Tubbo does plot related streams, and he does streams where he simply vibes - and even in the serious streams, he can joke around and cheerfully lampshade the goofiness by doing things like joking about wanting a good review from Techno while kidnapping him - that stuff is priceless and does not fit into the melodramtic scripts but it adds so much to the SMP and why it is so much fun to watch. Tubbo’s really good at making content better! He’s not afraid to look ridiculous, he will also unapologetically avoid engaging in too much melodrama himself when he doesn’t feel like it. I consider his character highly underrated in the plot right now.

Tommy knows what he’s doing. Even before the roleplaying really took off, Tommy liked to play a character and lead bits and the SMP shifting in a more scripted direction suited him exceptionally well. Tommy focuses heavily on streams with lots of content, only rarely doing more chill stuff - especially more recently. He has always approached streams with a plan - but usually their extremely loose and he has said that he’d sometimes just come up with an idea 10 minutes before the stream and improvise from there. Tommy’s good at improvising and seems to work best with a very loose plan. Where I think Techno likely came up with the plan for Tommy to get exiled from L’Manburg and then join forces with him, Tommy likely filled in how to play his character and - wow.

Tommy’s writing seems to be incredibly simple - each exile stream had no major plot points or anything and the plans that are there don’t even make logical sense (let’s throw a party in one day and let’s invite everyone but have Dream not send out the invitations so no one shows up - and I’m going to do this even with Philza and Fundy literally in the call.) but Tommy pulled every one of them off very well and proved to be compelling enough that no one cared at all whether the plot made sense nor did Tommy make much effort to justify that sort of thing - ‘cause he knows how the SMP works and how much the audience will go along with it. And instead, Tommy focused entirely on his characterisation and spent all his time exploring it. That’s how Tommy works - very simple plans, then improv in character into an engaging bit. He’s managed to pull off the most ridiculous things like that, and has confidence that the other streamers will support it - that’s how he’s prepared to try insane things like pretending to be Clarencio the llama. And, like Tubbo, he’s always willing to throw for content. 

Then there’s Technoblade. He’s streamed the SMP a lot less - though he’s done so much more recently - but he’s spent a lot more time playing on the SMP, doing tons of grinding. He here for the RP but is also committed to playing the game itself very optimally. He seems to have a much larger view, taking in the bigger picture, of the story where Tommy has a very personal view. His approach to content is all about the fanservice. 

He’s always trying to create big epic, moments, that both look and sound awesome. Like the butcher’s army plotline which let him both seem like an underdog, a victim against a mean group, and also an incredible badass figure who outplayed them all and came out as victorious. The butcher’s army were really given an antagonists role there, and were really made to seem unlikeable. Then he met up with fan-favourite Tommy and suggested a team-up with him. (This is also leading to the ultimate fanservice that is the Sleepybois team-up.) Techno’s got a very, dry self-aware sens of humour too and he’ll often make simple meta observations about the SMP - like noting that the pacing’s fast or teasing in the chat in the middle of wars. He’s also made himself into a bit of a meme what with logging just to say his name and leave. 

I don’t know how much it’s just Techno of course, but the plot really seems to be heading in a direction that suggesting that Technoblade was Right. L’Manburg’s seeming corrupt, and Tommy is being seen as Theseus. At the time Techno first made the Theseus speech, I felt like the comparison seemed unfair - but now it’s like the plot itself has bent over to make the comparison make sense, and Techno’s one of the writers of the script. Techno also of course, prepared a vault to show Tommy so he could say ‘welcome home Theseus dramatically - total fanservice as fans were indeed talking about how cool saying a line would be, and then he absolutely did. The way Techno calls his viewers chatting as the voices in his head is also fanservice. It’s not like actually true, as Techno ignores the chat if they tell him information his character doesn’t know and meanwhile all the streamers interact with their chat too - so all chats have always been a part of the story and calling them canon is absolutely meaningless. Not a bad thing though - it is nice and makes the fans happy and makes them feel included. I don’t know if this sounds critical by the way - it’s not meant as such at all - all the streamers love engaging with the fandom, and Techno’s approach to giving lots of fanservice by providing so many epic moments is great. I just wanted to highlight it. 

And those were some meta thoughts on the SMP right now and its writing. I don’t really think I had a point or argument. I just wanting to make some observations and my impressions. If you’re curious I am course a Tommy fan first. I love how he’s evolved with the SMP most of all and I appreciate his character-driven storytelling. His main weakness is probably getting too into bits and going too far and it’s so nice that the SMP is a place where even his weaker ideas are supported rather than shut down. I like how he’s able to improv so well and simply how he streams. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I love Tubbo best when he’s with Tommy as they bring the best performances out of each other. I find Techno interesting as a contrast to both of them, as he approaches so many things in such a different way. 

#dream smp #tommyinnit #tubbo #technoblade #meta #analysis #long post #i don't know what this was #i should just ask for asks #so i can ramble with more direction #like i have a lot of thoughts #but they're not all as coherent as i'd like

[dystopiandilfs]

(cw cc!Karl negative/critical)

I don't know if this has been touched on in your previous posts but I wanted to talk on how Karls constant forced integration into groups or need for larger creators around is quite frustrating to watch.

What all began as a silly bit in his early days with him being a part of L'manburg from the beginning or the dream team, has developed into a cry for constant involvement within his friend groups. Be it from Tina and Georges "sunshine duo" nickname they created from an inside joke in uno which Karl immediately claimed himself a part of. Or, in the among us with corpse and friends, although not involved in the bit he would try and get the last word in. It's ok to not be a part of every conversation yet he doesn't seem to realize this.

Obviously, his friends aren't bothered by his actions and I have no intention on claiming they do. However, as a viewer I've recently started perceiving it as his fear that something new could begin without him being a part of it. So what if it did? I feel like Karl is on a constant attempt at staying relevant and dreads the thought of someone forgetting him. Tales seems to be a prime example of such, consisting of 4 well known CCs (techno, dream, corpse, etc.) and potentially one who averages less than 50k.

Although I understand the need for viewer retention, the Dream SMP itself incorporates a wide variety of streamers of varying sizes, surely they all deserve a spot. Yet tales has had a castlist barely breaching half of such over the course of 8 episodes. Although he may not have established connections with such streamers I'm sure many would be thrilled to recieve a request at something bigger than the average stream. He seems to care little for the story's and more for the cast he pulls together and the build they reside on. Due to such, there is no hype for tales, there is just hype for the creators taking part. The project isn't passion filled, it's a reminder on why we should all look at Karls streams and remember Karl, he brings creators together don't forget! He's relevant.

Karl has become too lenient on his friends for content, I can't recall the last time we had a solo stream (minus his apology). His fatal flaw seems to be disregarding a viewer base centered around him and more so turning the attention to his friends. Thus, solo content would be left lacking. His ability to entertain an audience requires others to bounce off of or divert the attention to. I think he realizes such judging by this behavior. However, for the long term survival of a streamer this is far from ideal.

(Don't feel any need to respond, this was a mess of a rant that took twelve turns midway)

Yeah that has been bought up a lot recently. Especially since Sykkuno apparently sounded genuinely annoyed during an among us stream after Karl kept of claiming he was always part of the amigops. As well as him going on about how he built Kinoko Kingdom, people saying at least credit Foolish instead of dismissing his hard work that you're not been going to use. I said before that Karl's stream are never solo minus like 2 but even then it's him watching someone else do something. Karl physically seems unable to do anything that is just him and his own content.

The nickname for him is Klout Khaser Karl for a reason. I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if he dropped his own family for a bit of clout. Like I have no issue with people making friends and benefitting for clout but when you have to rely on clout and popular streamers to keep your career going it's not a good thing.

Not to mention that when he tried to claim that he was part of the original group on the DreamSMP a lot of newer viewers got genuinely confused thinking that he was their from the start. Like if you're going to have a bit you need to clarify afterwards otherwise it's just going to cause chaos and confusion. Also it's not just clout he has this thing where if he's not got the attention on him he starts doing things to be noticed like moaning loud, screeching and just generally being obnoxiously loud.

I see a lot of people saying that Karl isn't using his friends for clout because he doesn't care which literally isn't true. One big example being one of his streams with Sapnap where he refused to start until he got more viewers and was telling people to tweet out a stream link. Someone else also recently mentioned that during the egg painting stream he constantly mentioned about how far away he was from his subgoal to which others mentioned how he mentions his subgoal a ridiculous amount of times. I was also sent a link on twitter to a thread (now unfortunately deleted) that was Someone comparing the difference between Karl, Technoblade and Ranboo about how much they go on about followers, subgoals, giving money, gifting bits and subs. Like how did Karl spend 30 more minutes asking people to sub than Ranboo when Ranboo streams 3 times as often and twice as long. (Including his subathons)

I genuinely think that Karl has a stable enough fanbase and he doesn't need to rely on bigger names like Dream and Corpse to get views so I don't know why he does it if it's not for clout.

In my opinion Karl started this persona of being an uwu soft boy and now he's got this mentality of doing what's popular and trendy at the time to the point of him no longer having an individual personality. I do think it's a bit of narcissism but I do think it's also got a lot to do with the fact that he's surrounded by Mr Beast and his "Bigger and Better or scrap it" mentality as well as Dream's growth mentality. I think he's adopted Dream's ideas about growth but put if towards himself compared to Dream who thrives off of growing others.

Honestly I think he needs to take time off to re-evaluate everything and start fresh. Not relying on names and not being obsessed with views. I think he needs to take a short hiatus and when he comes back to only do a few solo streams to show his individual personality. (but also to appear in others streams as support) Similar to people staying off the internet for a bit to improve mental health I think he needs to leave to find a personality that's not ridiculously fabricated.

(Can't wait for the anonymous hate comments for this one)

#karl jacobs critical

[honkster]

Okay so I did miss a few things

Mainly stuff that either I didn’t think were important enough to address or I just didn’t think of.

Let’s get to it.

1. Techno betraying Tommy.

2. Ghosty bois coming back.

3. Tommy and Quackity as ab*se survivors.

<_><_><_>

I try to be as un-biased as I can whenever I say “From a writing perspective”, I kind of disassociate and look at the story how I would write it if I had to. You know, purely analysing the characters without the attachment I feel for them as a viewer.

But I don’t have to do that to say that Techno is not going to betray Tommy.

I get the angst – oh do I get the angst. I’m a fan of angst, I used to write only it for a while.

But Dream. You know how much Techno cares about Dream?

He’d rather read his donations than not risk Dream’s wrath at avoiding the admittance of Tommy in his house.

Techno has shown that he cares more for Tommy than he fears Dream (Fear is probably the wrong word here. Neutrality as he bides his time until he can strike – much more Blade. Because no matter what, Dream is just a temporary ally to Techno, much like what he started to view Pogtopia as.) He is shielding Tommy from him, he is reluctantly reminded the he owes Dream a favor, he dismisses his role as Lycomedes in this myth that’s so accurate to the story. Not even once in the streams Tommy and Techno did together (and the subsequent Techno or Tommy solo streams) did it seem that Techno was even considering a Tommy and Dream meetup. Yes, the favor is looking to be another Chekhov's gun, much like the TNT under L’manburg, but whoever said it means that Techno will succumb to Dream?

When did we decide that Dream cashing in his favor with Techno doesn’t mean that the pig will take that chance to betray Dream?

When did we decide that Dream cashing in his favor with Techno means that Dream trusts Techno unconditionally and won’t try to betray Techno?

Dream and Techno are in a unique stalemate currently. Techno can’t harm Dream, not when he has creative mode, and for Dream Techno is far more useful as an ally. That favor that Dream is holding over his head? That is the one-up he has on Techno. Until, perhaps, Techno pulls a Spirit and decides that Dream doesn’t control him…

Is this better anxiety than angsting over Techno potentially turning Tommy in? :)

(Bonus: I’m pretty sure that Techno and Tommy are even when talking about betrayals. Tommy established a new government in front of Techno, Techno blew the government up. Techno isn’t going to betray Tommy because he’s still salty. Tommy was slightly petty when he huddled under Techno’s house, but he seems to have gotten over that and now it’s just sibling banter.

They betrayed each other and then were angry at each for it. They’re even, stop the angst.)

<_><_><_>

Another thing I keep seeing despite everything…

The Ghosty bois returning.

Schlatt through possession, Wilbur through some method Philza may find months after the moment he first wrote it in a book.

My answer is… What’s the point?

Okay, you bring back Schlatt. What’s he gonna do, re-establish Manburg?

As if.

So he possessed Quackity/Tubbo. Again, what’s he gonna do? L’manburg is not the same thing that it was before, when Schlatt and Wilbur first found their power. It’s not a place where words mean more than weapons, where no armor is worn yet wars are won. Since L’manburg’s pacifist dictators have died/been changed to more violent ways, L’manburg has adapted to the landscape of the server and become just like every other faction – fighting wars with weapons.

So again, what would happen if Schlatt returned, in one form or another? The moment someone realizes what happened, he gets taken down. No one likes Schlatt, no one is on his side, everyone would stab him in his weak heart and twist the blade to “just make sure” he is truly dead. No one will rally behind him, he will have no power. You don’t gotta worry about that ghosty boi.

Wilbur? Well, if we dive into meta and what the cc himself has said, it’s going to take more than just a totem of undying to bring him back. And from a writing perspective, Ghostbur needs to come to terms with himself. Him just forgetting the things that he did, the people he harmed and just being wholesome – that’s not the end of his arc. It’s not even the middle. Ghostbur has a long way to go to be at peace with himself and stop haunting the server, to move on to the afterlife.

Him being brought back to life, to return to what he tried to forget, and then most definitely being killed again, quickly or after he’s able to do more damage, returning to his Ghostbur form… Well, that can do two things.

1. It could, possibly help him come to terms with Alivebur’s actions, being so suddenly dropped into his life again and forced to confront the trauma of it all. It could, possibly, maybe, slightly start him on the path to being at peace again.

2. It resets his progress so far.

I know which option is more interesting, more… character-developing.

Sadly, that one is the less likely option.

More trauma doesn’t help deal with previous trauma. Things would have to go a very specific way for Ghostbur being brought back to life to be actually helpful to him. Ghostbur isn’t an amnesiac, not in the way where his memories were just given a soft reset and his only job is to find things that would help him unlock them again. He’s a ghost, no one can fully understand how he works and what he needs, and how he may act if he is brought back to life after being dead for so long.

Not even another ghost.

Who’s to say that Schlatt, if he ever appeared in-character, in ghost form, isn’t just as confused as Ghostbur? Who’s to say he isn’t “traumatized enough” for selective memory? Who’s to say that Schlatt hasn’t moved on like Ghostbur hasn’t been able to?

Wilbur’s not gonna come back soon, if at all. His arc, coming to terms with making L’manburg the way it is now, has relevance to the current events happening (especially since L’manburg’s death seems to be inching closer and closer, and Ghostbur seems to be only related to it, out of all the things in the server.) but it has very little plot-changing importance. Who’s going to listen to the ghost of the man that made this mess happen in the first place? Definitely not the people making similar mistakes to him!

<_><_><_>

Oh I don’t like talking about ab*se. I’ve had enough of Dream and his manipulation of Tommy, it’s why I hated the bastard so much.

But this? Quackity and Tommy having the same mixed feelings towards their manipulator, a deep hatred and also a deep attachment, resulting in just a lot of confusion whenever the bad guy in question is brought up?

Yeah I got nothing.

Mainly because Tommy and Quackity haven’t interacted in that way just yet. Most people, in-character, don’t realize what Quackity went through (that’s a problem for a lot of the characters though, how their trauma is almost invisible, but very loud in terms of their actions.) or at least don’t realize that Quackity wants Schlatt back. Cause no one wants Schlatt back – what are you, crazy?

It is definitely an interesting parallel. How both of them were manipulated, then suddenly left the manipulator, how both of them were introduced to different ways of coping. Tommy with Techno, someone who cares about him and is determined to get revenge on their behalf, someone who is just sensitive enough to realize that you shouldn’t do certain things when talking to the traumatized person. Quackity with The Butcher Army and El Rapids, being given an outlet for his anger and confusion, a way to hide the pain he feels and focus on something entirely else, something he can actually understand and not question endlessly as he slowly goes insane. A way to do good, to try and do good things for other people, or at least fight the bad ones, even though you are utterly baffled at what is going on inside you.

...I’ve been dancing around this for a long time but uh… From experience, both of those ways are valid.

Listen, listen. Facing your trauma, going on the tough path of healing from it and coming out a different person, one not affected by whatever was done to you – that’s good. That is a good recipe for moving on to bigger and better things, this should be the path taken.

But (not) realizing your trauma, and instead deciding to flourish in spite of your manipulator, becoming stronger than them or even fighting them (or whoever you blame for your trauma) head on and WINNNING, purely out of spite and anger that you were actually that weak or that you didn’t notice what they were doing to you, remembering the things that you thought were normal and now being horrified at what your life was like…

The whole SMP needs therapy. They all need to have a sit-down, and a talk, and come to certain conclusions about themselves and whoever wronged them, and repeat that for a few days (weeks, months maybe). They all need to learn healthy ways to cope.

But this is the Curse. The Author’s Curse.

Therapy is boring.

Yes, we love these characters. Because we love them, we would much rather see them healthy and well-adjusted, and ending the cycle of ab*se.

...But the SMP isn’t peaceful enough for that.

More from the writing perspective – the foundation of the server right now is violence. Endless, gruesome violence, it has become the number one way to deal with whatever is plaguing you. Talking has worked once (The Pet War (?) ending), but even then it was after extreme violence. And this will continue, because any other way of dealing with things has just become… irrelevant. Some people can only speak one language, and it’s not one that is healthy.

So not only do all of the people on the server need to be shouted at for being so violent, bullied into considering more peaceful options for things, but also the people who cannot or will not change their mind, because they have become delusional with their power and only believe in that singular language, must be eliminated.

It all comes back to Dream. It all comes back to more violence. The Curse cannot be broken.

But… It can be, if used properly, a way to at least eliminate most of the evil in the server.

You’d need a whole guidebook for that though.

And the problem wouldn’t be fixed.

That server reset’s gonna be a huge part of the lore!

<_><_><_>

And I know I may be coming off as aggressive here like “Oh stop making up headcanons that will never happen” but that’s not my intention because if I truly took that standpoint I would be incredibly hypocritical. I thought Techno was going to be this battle-hardened warrior, able to detach himself from everything in this world to focus on war – mans turns out to be the most secretly caring person in the server. I sometimes dismiss characters that turn out to be actually really powerful (Ranboo, for one. BBH and Puffy for three.), I’m wrong on a lot of things.

So honestly, if you have an AU for Ghostinnit or Ghostbo (Toast) or Dadschlatt or Dream redemption arc, or just irl AU, Harry Potter AU, Starinnit – fucking amazing. You play out your canon-divergent dreams you funky little writers/artists. I’ll stay over-analyzing stuff over here, don’t mind me! Your ideas are super cool, and you can bully me for not having any hcs and never thinking of an AU of my own. /gen

#dream smp #dream smp analysis #dream smp theory #honkmeta #dream smp meta #gotta start using those tags #and as always #tell me im wrong on something! #debate! #i put this stuff out here to be ridiculed dont worry about hurting my feelings im too smol to bully you /lh

[nettlestonenell]

Armie Hammer wants a sequel to The Man From U.N.C.L.E.—shouldn’t you?

This post is a long time in coming, Gentle Readers and @jammeke​, but now, though it might be here, before your very eyes, to think it will be well-laid out would be a mistake. It’s set to be just about as messy as Ilya’s misplaced loyalties and murky motivations.

How dare!

I probably first watched this film well over a year ago (courtesy @jammeke​ posting things about it). I used Sling OnDemand (I think on TNT). In the ensuing viewings I also watched it in that way, but as I was sitting down for a fourth(?) viewing, it kept coming to me that I was tired of watching it with commercials I couldn’t skip, and I had a sneaking suspicion that it had been edited for time and I was missing out on scenes. [pointless aside: I was also watching the film in chunks, and never as a whole]

Where is she now? What’s the time stamp? How far along did she get? Are you shagging the hotel hostess yet?

So, I, uh, set out to buy it on DVD—without any luck! In the sense that copies I could find cost more (w/ shipping) than buying it to stream. So, I bought it to stream on Amazon. Do I regret my choice, Gentle Readers? No, no I don’t. I do regret burden of knowledge in learning that TNT was already playing the entirety of the film. That was a hard pill to swallow.

Nope, I’ve looked. That’s absolutely everything. Nothing additional lurking around here...

So here it is, as it is, @jammeke, “My Notes on The Man from U.N.C.L.E.”

Look, I don’t know what this film is. I probably can’t fully articulate its appeal. Or maybe I can--certainly after transcribing four page I’ve tried. Number One thing to know about me and fiction/films is that a top draw for me is seeing something out of the ordinary, such as beautiful locations, a historical era, delicious costumes. There are times, frankly, this can trump weak story and undefined character for me. (The best films, of course, combine all three) Certainly, The Man... delivers in the delight of the eyes. Additionally, I must confess that growing up as a person older than @reblogginhood​ but younger than Miss Fisher, so much of what was on TV was essentially reruns of this film’s iconic Look(tm). So, when I see women dressed like Gaby I am just another three-to-seven-year-old overcome with the drop dead glamour of it all.

Darling, tell me how you really feel...

Some questions I have:

·         IS Armie Hammer a hulk of a man? Everyone in this film seems to think so, yet he always tracks to me as trim (rather than hulking)

·         Why translate via captions some Russian speaking, but not all?

·         IS Napoleon’s backstory directly cribbed from USA’s White Collar?

·         DOES Gaby have a German accent?

·         Does Ilya get preternaturally attached to all the people he’s ordered to look after? Also, what is his bonding rate with kittens?

Sorry, wrong iteration. 

 ·         If Lady Villain knows the lens is wrong—if her technical understanding is that in-depth--does she really need Gaby’s dad to make the bomb?

·         How old was Gaby during the war?

·         What happens when Ilya gets a NEW puppy assigned to him? (please let this be addressed in film #2)

Hooray for:

·         That bathroom fight! *all the Burn Notice feels!

·         Gaby is her own lady, and chooses sides as necessary—not always unilateral in her support for either male character. Case in point: she sides with Ilya over the clothes, and Napoleon over the incident of the wallet.

·         That delicious (speaking as Rusty, here) Ocean’s 11-stylized action. It’s pretty, so I’m not bored with it. Sometimes a sandwiched montage gets shown, so I’m REALLY not bored. I’ve got 18 tiny moving boxes of things to look at!

·         Pinkie rings. There, you’ve told me everything I need to know about that character.

·         Solo in a beret. English has not yet found a word for the feeling it evoked in this viewer. Somewhere between ‘precious’ and ‘oh, no’.

See, there? Now you’ve felt it too.

·         Goggles! All the accessories! Dune Buggies! (I mean, that’s what I’m calling Napoleon’s chase-scene ride)

Things I adore:

·         It seems (after some research) that more than a few folks view Gaby as a third wheel, and though she’s not exactly a Princess Leia commandeering her own rescue and exuding competence and a deserved take-charge-attitude at every corner, she IS a foci for both male characters (though romantically it would seem only for one), just as Ilya is a foci for both her and Napoleon [no one seems to worry about Napoleon, though they should--film #2, anyone?]

·         Mechanic Gaby not needing a beauty makeover, or being dragged into one. She gets some nice clothes, but it’s never suggested that she’s not attractive or acceptable before putting them on, and I respect, nay, embrace it.

Oh, my heart. She’s still not as tall as them!

·         Ilya, drab pigeon Ilya, knowing fashion

·         Oh man, don’t even get me started on the power of the statement, “it doesn’t have to match”

·         You knew it was coming on this sublist: the wrestle-fight. I mean, c’mon. Poor little Gaby, locked behind the Iron Curtain, living a life of always being watched. She’s in the swankest hotel (I mean, Napoleon chose it, so we can be sure it’s swank with an E). She’s trying to celebrate her freedom, her liberation. She’s playing verboten music, she’s drinking to excess. Girl wants—and deserves—a party. And Ilya is…not built for that (that he knows of). For some fun, just imagine if she had been given Napoleon to room with instead.

                            o   I will say that this scene, and some of their other interactions have what I would call early (non-sibling) Luke and Leia energy. Ilya seems to have moments of being struck by Gaby in a way Luke is struck by Leia in the early part of the trilogy. When Leia takes charge, and Luke accepts it. When Leia does something incredible, and Luke is left open-mouthed. *no, I don’t see OT Star Wars in everything. Shut up.

·         “He fixed the glitch.”

·         Again, shout-out to the non-action action.

·         “I left my jacket in there.”

·         The whole race to rescue Gaby I am in love with beyond words. [I have noted it as “Crazy Jeep Drive with Warhead!”] Probably b/c it comes across as totally egalitarian. Both men want her rescued. They’re no longer in competition. It’s just as important to Napoleon as it is to Ilya to catch up to her. Also, it is bonkers, like some sort of X-games version of a commercial for the vehicles they’re driving. And screaming Willie Scott does not make an appearance.

         Someone says “winkle” out.

·         Look! Another note about the screen divisions and how I love it, shout-outs to the original Steve McQueen The Thomas Crown Affair (a contemporary of when this movie is meant to be set), and TV’s 24.

Things that get a great, big NOPE:

·         Jerrod Harris: you’ve been in so much streamable content in the last decade I can’t hate you, but frankly, you’re terrible here—unless you’re supposed to be giving a mannered, not-campy-enough-to-be-enjoyable performance here. Your American English puts me in the mind of Alex Hawaii 5-0′Loughlin where it feels you’re concentrating so hard on your accent that you fail to convince anyone that you’re a harried, over-worked and exasperated spy handler. Your performance is at odds with every bit of dialogue you’re given to say.

·         That awful, mishandled title that doesn’t even connect to the film until the final moments (a sequel set-up, for sure)

·         Look, you don’t introduce Hugh Grant casually mid-way through your film in a throwaway appearance. I mean, he’s HUGH GRANT we all know something’s up now.

·         This is not exactly a great big NOPE, b/c I love a flat cap, Tommy Shelby—but I feel like a less tall man with a far rounder face in a flat cap would track more as Russian to me that AH does. To me, he just looks like he’s about to go golfing.

Over par? Unacceptable!

·         Is Victoria a British-accented Italian? A British woman who married—what? Gaby’s uncle isn’t Italian!? An Italian who went to school in Britain? My head hurts. Also, is her hair meant to be unconvincingly bleached?

Other commentary:

·         Napoleon’s adult ne’er-do-well backstory is so far from being emotionally equivalent to Ilya’s childhood trauma [and his enslavement to the USSR] it seems bestial when he calls it out on multiple occasions. Badly done, Solo.

·         Gaby is the film’s key (sorry, Buffy fans). Everyone is connected to her. Yes, she could have been given a bit more on the character front, but I don’t see her as as much of a flaw in the film as some others/reviewers seem to.

·         Look, essentially (and not very nuanced-ly), Ilya is a stalker. I think the film goes a certain distance in establishing that his early behavior toward Gaby is not normal, but concurrently it does not truly call him out on it. He’s essentially viewed as an odd-duck, sure, but not a true threat to her (should she not reciprocate or tolerate his intensity toward her). I think I might be able to cite his behavior when Gaby comes on to him (that he doesn’t jump at a chance with her) that maybe he’s given a little more nuance than a straight-on stalker, and it helps that he and Napoleon never get into a pissing match over Gaby’s person, only over her new clothes. But overall the film has to walk a fine line (and the jury is still out on how successful it is, I’d say) between playing Ilya’s laser-like attention to Gaby for its humor, and calling it out for the unsettling, threatening behavior it is.

·         Honestly, it wasn’t until I engaged the Closed Captioning that I understood Napoleon was calling Ilya the ‘Red Peril’. So, that was nearly three viewings in.

·         I give the screen credits A+, on both ends. Not to mention the end credits are actually INTERESTING with lots to see and learn! (Certainly we learn more about HG in them than we do at any time during the film)

Things I would have liked:

·         More of fish-out-of-the-Iron-Curtain Gaby moments

·         A better dichotomy shown of East vs. West Berlin/Germany. There’s nothing easy either visually or otherwise to distinguish the two.

·         HC being given a more specific American accent (from an actual locality). This, for an American viewer, works better than the flat, unlocated American accent many a British actor will bust out. *Mind you, HC does a generally good job, but he fails utterly on both “Immediate” which he pronounces at least twice as “immeedeejt” [rather than imm-E-deeot] and “Nazi” as “NAHT-zee” [rather than “NOT-zee”]. And let’s not get started on that late in the film use of ‘earnt’, a word that—well, it’s just not in the American English twentieth century lexicon.

·         C’mon. You gotta tease the Hugh Grant more.

·         Solo is a blank before the war. I’ve read thoughts on the film calling out Gaby as the blank character, but they’re wrong. Solo is the blank. He’s the ‘made’ man, his identity seemingly assembled during the war and after. For example, he doesn’t go into the war a thief, nor (it would seem) a particularly educated or urbane individual. Now THAT’s a juicy backstory I’d love to learn about, perhaps in film #2--or #3? What creates a Napoleon Solo? What would he be doing if he weren’t on the government’s leash/incarcerated? Is anyone left caring about him back wherever he calls home? I mean, who doesn’t love a gender-flipped 60s-era Holly Golightly backstory? [And yes, I would love there to be an ex-wife or even a current wife mixed up in his origins as well—Guy Ritchie, call me!]

Notes I have that I’m not sure if they still make sense to me:

·         Only mom calls me Napoleon (do he say it ‘mum’?) Is he a secret Canadian?

·         Solo’s torture, 1st view recall Napoleon’s childhood? *I think this means that after watching the first time I somehow erroneously believed that during the torture Napoleon’s childhood was a topic gone over. This was wrong. HOWEVER, this would have made far more story-sense than the backstory we’re given on an easily disposeable villain.

·         “Even the average Russian agent. You’re special.” ?

·         Uncle is Baddie (*so glad I made this note to myself)

·         Ilya’s dad IS an embarrassment. I’m not sure what genius commentary I had in my mind, here. Perhaps that Ilya himself is embarrassed of him? Not just Ilya’s handler’s? [Also, aside: Napoleon totally slut-shames Ilya’s mom, which is the doublest of double standards from ‘I got myself the biggest and most ornate suite b/c I-wanted-plenty-of-space-for-my-random-seductions’ and I really wish Ilya had thrown that back in his face] *yes, of course I know that Ilya and Napoleon would not likely equate a wife/mother’s sexual exploits with that of Solo’s, but let’s be honest, this film tweaks the nose of (I won’t say reverses, it doesn’t go that far) plenty of tropes and gender expectations, and this certainly seems like a missed opportunity to call Solo on the carpet (which I hope film #2 does far more)

Things I wrote down so long ago I don’t recall what they mean:

·         CC-save

In conclusion:

What does film #2 look like? What title does it get? Will the Peter/Neil White Collar dynamic continue to grow? *note that I have no confidence a second film will ever come to pass...

In the end, all I know is, “It didn't help when American Tom Cruise, who was slated to play U.S. spy Napoleon Solo, dropped out, prompting the casting of Cavill (who had previously read for the Russian role).“ I would not have watched that film.

#tmfu #tmfu 2015 #ilya kuryakin #napoleon solo #gaby teller #henry cavill #armie hammer #alicia vikander #the man from uncle 2015 #the man from u.n.c.l.e. #the man from uncle #i don't know what this film's tags are meant to be to keep it from popping up in the TV series searches Sorry

[blazehedgehog]

Sorry to ask this, but what are your thoughts on Dunky's "I'm Done Making Good Videos" with regards to content you aspire to author vs what the average joe actually searches for

I don’t know if I’m the best person to be asking this, really.

Let’s get fully inside baseball here. Let’s pull the curtain all the way back. Actually, let’s burn down the curtain. I’m going to overshare like hell right now. Get ready for the most stream-of-consciousness rambling ever, because a lot of this has been boiling in my head and dying to get out.

For the entirety of my Youtube channel, I’ve pretty much only ever done what I want to do. Very rarely do I chase trends, or do what’s hot, or even do what people want me to do. I do whatever I feel like doing.

I have paid the price for that. My Youtube channel is 15 years old as of this year, and only now am I slowly inching towards 25,000 subscribers. I am incredibly inconsistent. What’s my channel post? Well, a couple times a year, maybe I put together an edited essay/review for a game. But I also sometimes post random, unedited, uncommentated gameplay footage. Maybe it’s a fan game, maybe it’s a gameplay demo, maybe it’s Fortnite. Sometimes, I also post remastered video game music. Every Halloween, I dump a bunch of one-off horror Let’s Plays on to my channel. And then, there’s the podcast.

I know exactly what my problems are. I don’t specialize enough, and I don’t put content out fast enough. Because most Youtube channels are, like, “shows”, right. The Did You Know Gaming show. The Markiplier show. The Angry Video Game Nerd show. And you can point at those and say exactly what they are in two sentences or less.

Did You Know Gaming specializes in informative videos uncovering obscure facts you might not know about popular video games.

Markiplier is a Youtuber that does Let’s Play videos for video games, primarily horror games, but he also focuses on general comedy skits and things of that nature.

The Angry Video Game Nerd is about one guy’s over the top reactions to bad video games.

What does BlazeHedgehog do? Well, he does a lot of Sonic fan content, but sometimes he does horror let’s plays, and sometimes he does multiplayer compilation videos sort of like Criken, but he also does music, and sometimes he makes video games and puts out videos of that, and in general he’s really low energy and sometimes there will be three or four weeks between uploads. Also he sounds like Booger from Revenge of the Nerds Snot from Family Guy (apparently).

If you come to my channel for something specific, you have to put up with everything else I upload. I could start separate channels for that content, but the barrier to entry on Youtube is so massive now that I would effectively sending those channels to their death. Videos that get 200-500 views on my main channel would get 10 views or less if they were on their own self-contained alt-channel.

So I languish. I struggle. I suffer. Youtube shows me red down arrows to tell me just how much worse I’m doing now than my last flash-in-the-pan success.

I’ve tried to chase success. It just makes me sad. I have a sense of humor, but I don’t think I can make “funny videos” like some people can. My Sonic 06 glitch video did gangbusters ten years ago, but I don’t often like kicking games when they’re down. It was a struggle to make that Sonic Boom glitch montage and that’s the reason I never followed through with Part 2 like I said I would.

My only wish is that people appreciate honesty. My Youtube channel might be a scattered mess, but that’s who I am. And more than anything, I think that’s what Dunkey’s video was about. His whole joke was about switching from thoughtful or funny videos to becoming a content farm for whatever is currently popular.

I’ve brought it up a few times here and there over the last few months, but I’ve had several brushes with the Fortnite side of Youtube recently. And there are so many dudes over there who are what I would generously call “grifters.” I follow Hypex on Twitter and routinely check Firemonkey and ShiinaBR because they datamine future Fortnite updates and often have the scoop days, weeks or sometimes months in advance.

Near the end of season 3, all three of them mentioned they had datamined “the next season” but wouldn’t say what it was because they didn’t want to spoil what was coming (the marvel season). They mentioned there were “others out there” that were spoiling things, but wouldn’t say who. I wanted to spoil myself, so I turned to Youtube.

And Youtube was a nightmare. Over and over and over, I would encounter tons of people downright thriving on the same grift. It’s an open secret that Youtube prioritizes longer videos, so if your video is under ten minutes (or I think now 8 minutes), the algorithm isn’t going to be as nice to you and won’t promote your video as well, and you aren’t going to get as much advertising money because fewer people are going to sit through a video advertisement that’s a quarter of your video’s entire length. Longer videos are more profitable for Youtube, and by extension, for the user uploading them.

So it was video after video of these guys making big bold claims about how they had all the answers on what the next season of Fortnite was, and you’re thinking, “oh wow, it’s a 17 minute video, they’re going to spoil everything!”

You load the video up and it’s some guy in his streamer man cave, he’s got his webcam on, and he loads in to a match of Fortnite with his squad. Keep in mind, this video was pitched as a news report of sorts, a big spoiling of future content... and it’s just a guy playing Fortnite with a crew. In the few seconds between matches as he queues for the next one, he stops to deliver a single shred of information, most of which start with “Hypex said...”

The one thing you came to this video for and it’s scattered like breadcrumbs across a 17 minute video of a guy just playing normal matches Fortnite to fill time. It’s not information they acquired for themselves, they all just regurgitate what Hypex said, or what other channels reported Hypex saying. 17 minutes of padding for scraps of second-hand leaks. And I found dozens of these channels, all repeating the same format, all repeating the same specks of leaked information, and all of them had 150,000 to 200,000 views on each of their videos in less than 24 hours. That’s hundreds of dollars per video on a format to scam the system.

But that’s a content farm. Those dudes are vultures. I have a hard time believing their hearts are really in it. I know it’s not a term that’s really in vogue anymore, but I see that as “selling out.” They know what they are doing and it’s to make money, not to make a community better. I mean, one of those videos was a guy who was reading Marvel comic hero profiles off of Wikipedia because it sounded like he literally did not know who guys like Iron Man, Thor and Wolverine even were. How are you in touch enough with pop culture that you’re cranking out factory-fresh Fortnite content for Youtube but you don’t know who Thor is? Answer: because you don’t really care and you’re in it for the money. Gotta hit that 15 minute threshold and put in six mid-roll ad breaks.

I could be that guy. That’s kind of what I was hoping “This Kinda Sucks” would turn in to, which would be sort of a rant video series like The Jimquisition or something. But I did not have the interest or energy to keep that up. So you get a playlist with two videos on it.

I’m sure Dunkey was just funnin’ around. Dude has 6 million subscribers. But for me, like... what he said in the video is mostly true. Following your heart and making thoughtful content you are personally interested in won’t pay the bills. I mean, as I predicted, that Jurassic Park video launched to the sound of crickets chirping. My most hardcore fans and a few curious onlookers checked it out but that was it. I’ve been working on that video since August, and it’s something my viewer base did not care about. But I cared about it, and that’s important for the long-run, I think.

The other problem, sort of a disconnect, is that I’m lucky to be in the position I’m in. I think guys like Dunkey probably make all of their money from places like Youtube and Twitch and Patreon and that’s their career. That work pays all of their bills.

My work does not pay my bills. Or it does, but it’s not enough to pay all of my bills. I am lucky enough right now that I am in a living situation where I can make fractions of money in intermittent spurts. That won’t always be the case. But for now, I get to be honest, and I get to follow my heart in whatever random, chaotic direction it feels like going that particular day. Dunkey faces a different sort of pressure than I do.

All of this is to say I have no idea what I’m doing, I guess. I make the content I want to see.

That being said, I increasingly think about something I heard Woolie say early on when he went solo for his WoolieVS channel, and that was the idea of “One for you, one for me, one for us.”

Because I’ve had more than one friend burn out doing, like, Twitch streams and stuff. You hear about Youtubers who get sick of being shackled to new releases or whatever’s popular. At some point these people wake up and realize they’ve had this struggle, maybe made some money in the process, but they’re miserable because they don’t get to do what they want to do. They’re always being pushed forward by the fans that are behind them.

The “One for you, one for me, one for us” mantra does at least keep you a little more sane. Balance in all things, right? So that Jurassic Park video, it can flop. It’d be nice if it didn’t flop, given what time of the year it is, but it’s a video for me. I have other video ideas in the chamber that I know will be for my audience, or “for us.”

I just have to stay true to myself, and to my messy brain.

#questions #dunkey #youtube #inside baseball #behind the curtain #long posts #spilling my guts #Anonymous

[missjackil]

Enter at Your Own Risk

I’m having some very heavy negative feelings about the SPN “Fandom” right now, if you’re interested, read on, if not. scroll on by.

So this has been a very long hiatus... longer than the Christmas break and in 2 weeks it will be over. I’m excited because I miss Sam and Dean so much, but I'm also depressed because it’s down to the last half of the last season and we won't ever, I repeat EVER have any new content. Why? Well... I know you all have your ideas, but I will go to my grave believing the “fandom” chased them away.

These guys have worked with and had fun with people for 15 years, consider them family, and the “fandom” does nothing but complain about them. Relentlessly, Sometimes J2 express their thoughts about some storylines they didn't like, or moments they thought were OOC but no one who has ever worked anywhere for any length of time has had 0 complaints. However, no one ever stays in one place for 15 years when they have had other opportunities when they don’t love it. 

SPN’s ratings never tanked. Not once, not ever... there was a drop in ratings after s1 which happens with every show, especially before Netflix, so a drop from S1 to 2 doesn't count. They have maintained a place in the top 3 shows on CW/WB through all the seasons, and even now when ratings are low, they still are in the top 3 of the network. Ratings only show LIVE viewing which not many people do anymore. Every network has lost live viewers across the board because of streaming and DVR, so everyone pretending it had anything to do with ratings or losing viewers, just sounds uneducated. 

Going into S14, J2 announced they were having shorter seasons. Why? So they could spend more time with their family, keep the show going indefinitely, and not burn out. They said numerous times, that they planned to keep going as far as the show will take them. Had they already planned to only go 15 seasons, that's when they would have made the announcement. So the show and the network could make as much money off them as they could before it ends.

However, in S14 something changed. For starters, Jensen worked hard on the character Michael!Dean spent many hours with a linguist JUST so he could speak the Arabic words correctly in 14x1 and then he’s thrown hate on SM when he had solo interviews at SDCC of the “fandom” assuming he and TPTB were dissing Jared so they could promote Michael!Dean and then when Jared explained at the NY Premier what had happened, no one recanted their hate. And then the season starts and SM exploded with how much everyone hated Michael!Dean!!! And what do we notice next? After the half, there was an awkward change.   

I believe it was during the break that J2, decided to call it quits. We had the story of getting Kaia home kinda vanish, the stalker girl from Optimism fell by the wayside, Charlie disappeared and woops, so did most of the AU hunters. Can’t follow through on new stories when suddenly, there's less overall story to tell.

Then we have the mysterious, heart-wrenching story about how Jared had some kind of breakdown while trying to perform the “I believe in us” scene in Prophet and Loss.  In his own words, he said he physically couldn't say the words and perform the actions of shoving Dean in the chest. It was so bad that Jensen was worried Jared had a stroke! Jared then said that he made it through, and went home cried himself to sleep feeling like he's disappointing everyone. 

Why on earth would that happen? Because he didn’t want to end it. He probably felt like he was projecting his disapproval of this decision onto Jensen. “This is WRONG this is QUITTING!! I believe in US... why don’t you believe in us too?”

Just watch that scene and see if you can’t see why it would have been so hard for Jared to get through it if he didn't want to stop the show! Almost as though he was telling Jensen (between the lines) “So what if the fans didnt like this, there will be a better story, but if we quit now their wont be another story!”

If that’s not convincing enough, we have Jensen in his own words and Jared confirming, that this season, when Jensen showed up day 1 to start directing, he felt so good being there that he texted Jared “2 more seasons?” and Jared replied, “Let’s talk”. 

Maybe they were waiting to see how you “fans” would take the new season? Maybe if you haters weren't such assholes even as the show is going out, maybe they would have worked something out to stay on longer? But no, all SM is bitching over the most ridiculous things! Like OMG SIDE CHARACTERS!!! or the guys looking a little goofy in a purposely silly episode. Like seriously, wtf guys?

And here’s the kicker.... you are all gushing over the nice J2 pics, the funny interviews, and TV magazine pics, that we’re never gonna have again after a couple months. We will get some con footage, but gone are the days of J2 interviews, funny and sometimes impressive Shaving People Punting Things videos, gag reels, etc. We will be lucky if we even get “caught in the wild” J2 pics. And most heartbreakingly, we won't ever see them working together outside of con panels. 

And cons will now be “Jared are you gonna have Jensen on Walker?” “Jensen are you putting out a new album or got your eyes on a new role?”

But hey, I guess that's worth it just so we don't have to see Claire, or Cass again huh? As long as annoying little Hellers don't have any material... it's so worth throwing the baby out with the bathwater. 

I know its not the whole fandom who want the show to end, but unfortunately, the loudest mouths (fingers) were heard.  And seriously, most of you dont really give a rats ass about the boys, the show or the real fans. You have a dozen other fandoms you're in and you're just bored with this one. So instead of just moving on, make sure you trash something that is making a lot of other people happy.  Karma is a bitch though.... just saying

Rant over.... for now

#fandom critical #miss jacki rants

[falkenscreen]

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga

There’s bad, there’s good, and there’s Eurovision.

The European ‘Song’ Contest, to which this film for many will serve as introduction, neither sits at any apex of cultural achievement nor the ironic bulwarks of saccharine kitsch to which many entrants aspire. Rather, amidst its longevity and oddly unique role in cross-border co-operation, the competition, to which Australia is specially beholden, marks its own measures of success and brands of cultural height.

Tied not necessarily to any independent form, skill or recognisable ingenuity, appeal relies on brazenness, melding of styles and a nakedly single-minded, utterly shameless pursuit of shock-filled fun. To this end, it’s amazing Will Ferrell and Adam McKay haven’t mined these depths already.  

Reportedly a huge fan of the show, Ferrell, committing as always, is regretfully on auto-pilot for whole lengths, drawing on the manner and storylines of his underrated Blades of Glory and early success Zoolander as regards the relationship between his Lars and the characters’ “extremely handsome father;” Pierce Brosnan having some fun with comedy for change.

The story is of the broadest if heart-warmingly familial strokes elevated by its novel focus on the tournament; anyone who’s seen more than one Ferrell comedy (Old School fans should recognise one of the gags) will be across these stylings; complete with a Blades-esque MacGuffin in the form of an unreachable note. We’re all familiar with the follow your dreams against all opposition arc and even if it can get tired it doesn’t get old.

With Ferrell persistently glaring at the camera ala his Mustafa and reminding everyone that he’s here to make them laugh, McAdams, unsurprisingly, is best in show. Her reactions to a pro forma troupe of yet unseen backup dancers invading her solo and her negotiations with a group of elves, yes elves; pure gold. Viewers seem to be constantly finding out that the severely underappreciated comic performer can put in turn after turn like this and unlike Ferrell nails the balance of earnestness, knowing self-seriousness and tactless flamboyance central to Eurovision’s greatest hits.

There’s a caveat that has to be given before anyone watches this movie and that is you are only going to enjoy this if you are moderately familiar with and endeared by Eurovision. The film does not serve as a primer for the uninitiated absent proper grounding in the dynamics of the competition and those unbeholden to its unique stylings will likely feel as unimpressed by Ferrell’s tonally similar antics.

For those most dedicated decades-long Eurovision fans who wake up at 5am every year to watch every Semi-Final live, this author among them, you will get many a high off of this and more so for our having sadly missed the contest in its traditional form this May past. To the filmmakers’ great credit, they picked Iceland as the focus and amidst many playful digs at the nation, the treatment of the Icelandic Government being a highlight, managed to nail the effective winners of this year’s non-tournament.

And it would not be a Eurovision movie without being (in respects) avowedly self-referential, with the film taking some time out of proceedings to address that this is in no small part a group of North Americans behind and in front of the camera. Taking the mickey via another appropriately parodic band of US tourists who have only just landed in town, it’s some of the tightest scripting therein as every line hits the mark. Itself landing on Netflix, Fire Saga is probably best served by a platform where the most well-attuned fans can discover this and return for repeat viewings at their leisure and as they might otherwise have tuned into the annual tradition.  

The varied numbers (and song titles) which form the lead-up to and actual competition are successes not just for their catchiness and necessary originality but for effectively satirising one of the hardest things to mock and exaggerating that which barely bears exaggeration; generating in the process what would typically be Eurovision bangers in any given year. Graciously recognising that Belarus are invariably stand-outs, there’s a classy Lordi reference alongside years-old highlights and fair acknowledgement of the pivotal (if often biased) roles respective countries’ commentators play. The hark-backs  to classic Eurovision numbers will have any fan beaming and the elapsing of the first Semi-Final, encompassing one of the great Eurovision props, is uproarious while speaking to the extremely sincere ethos of the entire escapade.

The blocking of the stage performances, akin to how the broadcasts are typically handled, are too coyly deferential and situate us amongst this extravagance better than a more highly stylised or numerous camera setup which would have likely faltered.

Stars of past, clearly having the time of their lives in this reunion, welcomely make appearances, among them Alexander Rybak (“trust us, bring a violin”), though the best and most welcome surprise comes from a winner of recent years lovingly reciting one of Eurovision’s very best numbers on Edinburgh’s streets.

On this, there are varyingly hilarious interpretations as to why the competition was set in Edinburgh. It could be acknowledging that the British are least likely to win this and if so even less likely to relegate the fanfare to Edinburgh, though with the Russian entrant (Downton Abbey’s Dan Stevens) explicitly lampooning the Isles’ standing in the tournament its more likely the filmmakers’ subtle advocacy of the longstanding hope that Scotland will one day get their own highly competitive place.

As to Stevens’ contender, it’s a well-known problem that many of the countries which participate have appalling records on human rights and LGBT welfare. Amidst a more dramatically sensitive reckoning with this matter, his performance, Stevens’ best to date, is outright hilarious as Lemtov lion-tames extremely scantily-clad men about the stage in typical Eurovision fashion.  

Lovingly landing jabs on the annual extravaganza, infamous for its nondescript, heavily generic slogans, the tagline ‘Perfect Harmony’ for the in-film comp shows that we’re dealing with real fans here, as does moreover the exclamation, as to why there are no cars on the road, that everyone’s  “at home, watching Eurovision.” The film too acknowledges the constant push for and joy when singers indeed sing in Indigenous languages or emphatically about wherever they’ve ventured from with several seemingly throwaway gags, including a great one centring on whales, happily coming full circle.

Absent the voting process, this is too a stickler for Eurovision lore and procedure; though Sweden did have seven performers on stage and should have been disqualified.

Finally, there’s an odd tone at the centre of this film which arrests it from the heights of greatness to which Eurovision otherwise transpires. Co-produced by Jon Ola Sand of the European Broadcasting Union who makes an appearance here and in every Eurovision, even if, and it would be fairly speculative and unusual if so, full creative and parodic freedom were permitted alongside the name’s licensing rights and co-operation, a parody, even a loving one, just isn’t the same when the subjects and stalwarts are so in on the joke and stand to so outwardly benefit.

Yes Eurovision relies to some extent on being self-referential ala ‘Love, Love, Peace, Peace’ but it was only one year among many where the hosts winkingly outshone competitors; the platform otherwise persisting on a lifeblood of entrants’ own (and self-professed devotees) earnest if outlandish skewering. Regular commentator Graham Norton’s true to life cameos are notably distinct and illustrative in this regard; his mawkish if impassioned demeanour emblematic of the tone pursued herein, just like a local townsman declaring “we know they’re awful, but they’re our awful!”

It’s why Trey Parker and Matt Stone refused celebrities the opportunity to voice their own marionettes in Team America, and why Zoolander 2 never worked when all the fashion icons wanted to show they could poke fun at themselves as well. Sure it meant a lot of the gags here might not have happened, but if they’d called it almost anything else the same niche audience would have lined up and there’s no way the winners past wouldn’t have joined the festivities for what turned out to be our collective annual dose of insanity.

‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’ is now streaming on Netflix

#xl #reviews #netflix #eurovision #eurovision song contest: the story of fire saga #will ferrell #rachel mcadams #graham norton #pierce brosnan

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Spider-Man: Far From Home Thoughts Part 1 a.k.a. MCU Chapter 23

As I did for Homecoming I’m going to split my thoughts on the film up based on looking at it as a film unto itself/part of the MCU and then separately looking at it in terms of being an adaptation. 

However in trying to write the former section I soon realized it was more practical to further partition coverage of the film.

Because MCU films can be looked at not merely as part of a film trilogy/quadrilogy (or as the latest chapter in a specific character’s arc) but as installments in the wider MCU story. Spider-Man: Far From Home is in essence simultaneously ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe Spider-Man 2′ and ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe Part 23′. And those two lenses do affect how you evaluate the film.

So as such I’m going to have three sections across...however many parts it takes. These posts are something of a stream of consciousness so I’m aiming for 3 parts but we’ll see what happens.

Let’s start with how this stacks up as the latest installment in the MCU Saga.

On a scale of Iron Man 3/The Dark World/Captain Marvel to Winter Soldier/Civil War/Endgame, Far From Home sits comfortably in a middling position, much like its predecessor.

Like Homecoming it’s a mostly entertaining time killer, decent popcorn fun...just not quite as high quality popcorn fun as say Avengers 2012 or Iron Man 2008.

Speaking of Iron Man his post-humorous presence in the film illustrative of a strength and weakness of the MCU’s narrative style, hence I’m going to talk a lot about it here.

Whilst the MCU is often touted (even by Disney themselves) as replicating the comic books’ shared cross continuity nature, in truth it doesn’t.

In Marvel comics one can mostly follow Iron Man or Spider-Man or Avengers runs on their own. The shared universe is there and comes into play at times, but really you don’t need to follow everything.

With the MCU, whilst a lot of the films are accessible you really couldn’t just watch the Iron Man Trilogy and call it a day because Tony’s arc plays out across other films too, it climaxes 5+ years after his last solo film. In essence the MCU is like a TV show wherein you get 2-3 episodes per year and the season finales are the Avengers movies.

This is relevant to Far From Home because, despite what anyone tells you, this is the start of Phase/Season 4 and it feels that way (it more or less states that to you at the start of the movie). As such the film acts as MCU Spider-Man 2 but also MCU Chapter 23/MCU Book 4 Chapter 1 and HAS to address the fallout of the last episode/chapter/season finale.

Thus Peter’s arc in FFH gets hijacked as a kind of Endgame/Tony Stark post-mortem...sorta. We’ll talk more about that in another post, but understand that in so far as Tony’s post-mortem does hijack the movie it undermines Peter’s personal narrative.

However, in regards to the post-Endgame state of affairs it is rather unsatisfying, almost disrespectful.

And by disrespectful I mean that as the Marvel Studios logo opens up we have a rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You’ (the Whitney Houston version I believe) over poorly picked out, low res stills of all Avengers who died or didn’t come back in Endgame; to the film’s credit it does look like something a high schooler would make. That is followed by the first of two clunky exposition drops played for laughs and repeating the unrequited romance joke between Betty and Jason from Homecoming, complete with a focus upon Jason’s bewilderment over now being older than his little brother. Oh and let’s not forget the gag about the high school band turning to dust and then reappearing in the middle of a basketball game to wacky effect. The film even makes a point of not  addressing if the Avengers are even around as a team anymore, which is likely a meta commentary as well.

I’ll give the movie this, it made it’s intentions clear. It was not going to really treat the aftermath of the biggest MCU movie with much weight, it was going to be a superfluous, light, fluffy funfest. That’s a stupid direction to adopt after Endgame but at least it didn’t try to trick the viewers that it would be anything else.

Now in spite of that tone and approach the film could still explore how the post-Endgame world has changed. Maybe we won’t get anything dark or dramatic per se, but at least we’ll get some information right?

In fact, as much as I had disdain for this film going in, seeing the post-Endgame MCU was what I was really interested in. And the film delivered on that...initially...in the very same clunky exposition drop played for laughs.

We don’t talk about the blip again apart from 3 or 4 quick references, one of which explained who Mysterio was and why he could’ve duped Fury.

As for how this affected Peter, it didn’t. Many speculated Aunt May might’ve survived the blip but no, we’re told very explicitly she disappeared too.

This is very much a mixed bag for FFH as an MCU film and as a Spider-Man movie (yes I know I said I was separating those two things but it’s more efficient for this next part).

On the one hand for those who want to follow the broader MCU story FFH gives them answers but brief ones. It’s the equivalent to simply googling the answer to a murder mystery rather than experiencing the story unfold towards that answer. We had a huge opportunity to examine the ramifications of such a globally changing phenomenon but we simply acknowledge it happened and then press on as though it didn’t. The same opening exposition makes that clear too when it says that they’re moving on.

On the other hand were the film to properly explore the ramifications of the blip it would hijack the whole movie, even more than the Iron Man post-mortem already was.

On the other other hand having everyone of relevance to Peter’s life (sans Happy and Tony) die and come back, keeping them all ‘synched’ with him basically, is extremely convenient.

On the other other other hand it’d derail his narrative in a huge way if MJ or Ned or May (who’s still not ‘Aunt May’ btw because fuck this movie) were suddenly in their 20s.

On the other x4 hand the presence of such a massively fantastical event like death and resurrection (along with aliens and space technology) has already derailed the verisimilitude of his solo films which began by painting themselves as comparatively more down to Earth and ‘friendly neighbourhood’ even in spite of alien tech being repurposed. The same applies to having him go on international adventures; yet another inconsistency between this and the last Spidey movie.

So it’s very much a case of pick your poison.

Getting back to this film as a Tony Stark tribute, when viewed as part of the ongoing MCU saga it’s presence and handling succeeds more than it fails.

As I said Tony began the MCU and along with Cap was one of the twin pillars holding it up, so his death demands examination. On a metatextual level we need a film grieving Tony Stark before we can move on to the next step.

So in this regard the film giving so much attention to the hole left behind by him and how that’s really the impetus for the entire primary plot of the film is incredibly fitting.*

This applies to Mysterio in a sense.

I’ll talk more about his place when compared to certain other villains in a future instalment, but in the context of this movie his role as a kind of evil Iron Man/pretender to Iron Man’s throne works well. In fact he’s an exceptionally great villain...for Iron Man.** You see where I’m going with this, but that’s for another post.

Lets switch gears a little and discuss another wider MCU element, Nick Fury. At certain points of the film I felt Fury was out of character and a huge jerk. But twist at the end that it was actual Talos mitigated all that, it made sense. It also addressed another huge problem I was having with the movie up until that point, the absence of other heroes.

Like in the trailers the movie takes strides to address why Thor, Captain Marvel and Doctor Strange can’t help out against the Elementals. But of course this leaves the huge problem of literally everyone else. You could make a case for Falcon and Winter Soldier being of little use against such seemingly powerful foes like the Elementals, but what about Scarlet Witch, Black Panther, Valkyrie, etc? Thankfully the Talos reveal addresses this as Talos is ultimately not Nick Fury so wouldn’t have access to all those heroes.

It also sets up for future films, implying the Kree/Skrull War is far from over and that we will soon be seeing S.W.O.R.D.

Really that’s all there is to say about the movie moving forward into the MCU.

We get answers but they’re underwhelming and unsatisfying whilst getting a movie grieving Tony Stark and making the audience feel his loss.

If only Spider-Man himself seemed to feel as upset...

*Too bad all the comedy and light teen drama crap undermines it.

**In fact the entire villainous crew and villain scheme revolves around Iron Man’s legacy. I guess that makes this film also a.k.a. Iron Man in Memoriam 

#Spider-Man #Spider-Man: Far From HOme #MCU #marvel cinematic universe #peter parker #tom holland #Nick fury #iron man #tony stark #mjwatsonedit #Mary Jane Watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #mj watson #mysterio #quinten beck #Aunt May #May Parker #Ned Leeds #Betty Brant #Molten Man #Hydro Man #Sandman #zendaya #Avengers #Avengers: Endgame

[romchomp]

That One Track from your favorite romance anime

So, I’m a whore for soundtracks. The amount of hours I’ve spent listening to various soundtracks is in the hundreds. Something I’ve noticed in discussions about good anime soundtracks is that romances are often left out, with the exception of Clannad and Your Lie in April. So here I am, ready to take the task nobody requested.

Before I start listing animes and their soundtracks I’d  like to first say that the thing about scores in anime, movies, video games, and even tv shows is that they usually have one track that’s easy to identify (ie. a theme song, a track that plays during a progression/training scene or a track that plays during the climax, etc.). Depending on the tone and atmosphere of the series, this track could be sad, fun, a mesh of the two, or something beyond those lines. Regardless it should affect how you feel and be memorable. So in this post, I’m talking about different romance anime and what I think is** that one track** from them.

**Because I’ve had troubles embedding the tracks into this post I’ll just leave a link to a playlist I made with all the tracks used on soundcloud and youtube**

1. Toradora- Lost My Pieces

There are a lot of tracks from Toradora that I adore, including Yuugure No Yakusoku and Ameiro Rondo. What makes Lost My Pieces work out, however, is the fact that it plays at the climax of the series and stands for a mental shift in the main character as well as a tonal shift in the series. What else is interesting is that this is the only time the track is ever played in Toradora. It really shows how effective it was, considering the track's popularity. When most people think of Toradora’s soundtrack they’ll think of Lost My Pieces. This is certainly** that one track** that will make you...feel things.

2. Clannad- Roaring Tides

This one is probably more arguable considering how many tracks in Clannad are severe tear jerkers. Personally, Roaring Tides has always been that one track in Clannad that would without a doubt fuck me up. There’s just something about that piano...and the...everything. It’s a very dramatic piece and man is it good at heightening the drama in Clannad. Of course, Nagisa and SnowFeild are very close seconds and I can’t forget to mention Town, Flow of Time, People; or Existence; or the goddamn ending Dango Daikazoku (why does this show hate us).

3. Fruits Basket (2001)- Secret

Fruits Basket has a generally wacky soundtrack that covers a variety of tones. However, if there is one track that could be associated with the darker moments in the anime, one that always played when one of the characters talked in depth about the zodiac curse, it’s Secret. This track is a little different from the ones in Toradora and Clannad though. This one’s purpose isn’t to make the viewer cry. I think the track only has that effect from a nostalgic standpoint; listening to the track on its own after the fact adds quite a bit of feeling to this one. Secret is more or less, meant to set the atmosphere. That, put together with how often the track was used, makes it one of the more memorable ones. I can't wait to add the reboot to this list.

4. Nana- Akai Ren

Nana’s soundtrack doesn’t get talked about that often even among its fans. I’m not talking about the vocal pieces that were played by Black Stones or Trapnest, but the background osts. The reason for this probably has to do with 1) the songs sung by Black Stones and Trapnest are on a separate CD than the background tracks and 2) there are a whopping 43 tracks on the CD of background tracks. Regardless, there are a number of tracks that stuck with me even after finishing the show and the best example of this would be Akai Ren, which made me cry EVERY SINGLE TIME it played. That piano still haunts me. What also haunts is the second ending, Starless Night. That one’s a close second.

5. Anohana- Secret Base

I’ve been avoiding using the openings and endings on this list, but I’ll make an exception for Secret Base considering it plays like a track in the background for emotional scenes on several occasions. I was considering using Last Train Home instead, but that track just...doesn’t hit the same way and isn't utilized nearly as often as Anohana's ed. Secret Base also has the advantage of not being played in its entirety until the most climatic and emotional part in the series (as if just a few seconds of the song wasn’t already enough).

6.  Your Lie in April- My Friend A Will Be My Accompanist

We all know the soundtrack for Your Lie in April is amazing. Whether it be the classical pieces performed by characters or the rest of the soundtrack that’s left for the background, but I think My Friend A is a particular track that’s memorable and easy to listen to on its own. It plays often throughout the show and because of that, I think it’s the most identifiable piece in the series. My Friend A is beautiful. It doesn’t even need the context of the show to make it an emotional listening experience. If anything this gives context to the show.

7. My Little Monster- Tetsukazu no Kanjou

Not as much of a tear jerker as it is just an adorable track that I often come back to. Maybe it’s a more of a track that elicits happy tears? My Little Monster’s soundtrack reminds me of Toradora’s in the sense that they both have fun scores that feature mostly quirky tracks with a few emotional ones sprinkled in. For this series,  it’s emotional one is Tetsukazu no Kanjou, which the show utilizes quite well. It often plays when the audience discovers something new about a character or see an emotional shift in them.

8. Snow White with the Red Hair- Reconciliation: The Beginning of Two People

The best word to describe Shirayuki’s soundtrack would be magical; it's a true fantasy romance score. I was hesitant to mention this soundtrack at all because at first I felt that while Reconciliation is a gorgeous piece, it’s not overwhelmingly emotional, but I’m listening to it right now and have realized that uhhh it’s very emotional and I don’t know what I was thinking. And looking back, this track in specific added a lot to scenes and did, in fact, bring up several emotions. While (maybe) not tear-jerking, the track would definitely have you gushing at how sweet and precious the main couple is.

9. Bloom Into You- Earnest Wish

You know, you hear a lot of piano in romance series. A lot of violin. A lot of flute. But  clarinet? That's not as common.  This track really makes you wish there was more luckily, a lot of the other pieces on Bloom Into You's soundtrack also have clarinet in them. Anyways, any moment Earnest Wish started playing...I knew shit was about to go down. There was usually some dramatic wind (oftentimes blowing Touka’s hair) when it started playing. Something new would be revealed about the character's backstory or their insecurities. Good piece. Very good piece.

10. Kanon- Winter Fireworks

Kanon has the misfortune of forever being compared to Clannad and living in its shadow. Something I think, however, that doesn’t deserve to be compared to Clannad would be Kanon’s soundtrack. Its score is unique and successfully conveys a winter essence. Winter Fireworks is the best example, but there are so many other amazing tracks. I just [making aggressive hand gestures] really love it.

11. Your Name- Sparkle

Your Name is really good at using its score to accelerate emotional scenes and generally flow with the mood of the film. Its best example of this would be Sparkle, which plays at the climax and man does it work. The pace of the track has the perfect amount of energy to go along with a beautiful running sequence that was emotional as all hell.

So far I have only talked about tear-jerker tracks, but romances are also completely capable of having a track memorable by how warm and happy it is.

12. Toradora (again)- Startup

Startup is probably the easiest to remember/call out but I think Happy Monday is a really close second that no one talks about. Startup is used similarly to Lost My Pieces, though more often. Where Lost My Pieces plays at an emotional climax, representing a progression in the characters, Startup always plays when one of the main characters is making a stride to better themselves or their situation (hence, progressing the story). It’s a great track and does its job well.

13. Kaichou wa Maid Sama- Main Theme

Man, I could dance to this track. I remember always feeling giddy when this track started playing. You knew things were about to get exciting. It’s the perfect amount of fun and cheesy for a hilarious and sweet shoujo such as Maid Sama.

14. Princess Jellyfish- Umi to Tsuki no Yume

While it’s hard to stream the entirety of Princess Jellyfish’s soundtrack for free, there are a few tracks that are easily accessible on youtube. Umi to Tsuki no Yume is one of them and lucky for me, it’s one of my favorite tracks as well as one that seemed to stick out to others as well. It’s very befitting of the show’s flamboyant yet down to earth atmosphere.

15. His and Her Circumstances- Peace Reigns in the Land

I love every track from Kare Kano but this one especially left a mark on me. There’s plenty of lovely piano pieces that you could you point to as that one track but I personally find the tracks with trumpet solos and soft drums to be the charming point in its score. Peace Reigns in the Land normally plays sometime during the beginning of episodes and really leaves you feeling like everything is gonna be okay. As for accessibility to the soundtrack, there are a few tracks you can find on Youtube and I managed to find the entirety of the soundtrack here on Soundcloud uploaded only five days ago (so who knows how long it'll be up).

16. Nisekoi- Meirou

Nisekoi’s production value was always too good for its own good and its soundtrack is no exception. I was torn between a number of tracks from Nisekoi to mention. Should I go with the sweet and warm Lost of Words that reminds me of summer? Or the fun and goofy Meirou I can still remember playing at the end of each episode years after watching? Or what if I go with the more bleak Nikuhaku to represent that one track that stuck out in the series? Well. It’s Meirou. Hate to be anticlimactic, but Meirou captures the tone and atmosphere of the series better than any other track in the series. It's sweet but in a ridiculous kind of way.

17. Honey and Clover- Be Careful of Being Tricked!

I absolutely adore Honey and Clover’s soundtrack. It has an interesting range of instruments that gives it a unique charm. Be Careful of Being Tricked is no exception with its use of bongos, the organ, and acoustic guitar along with humming... It’s a good time. Bon Bon Bereppa was another track I thought of using for this list. Both tracks scream "How did I get myself in this situation?". It was really hard to pick one over the other, to be honest. It came down to the organ.

18. Lovely Complex- Orchestra Na Risa

Generally, the score of Lovely Complex is goofy and a riot to listen to on its own. Orchestra Na Risa is one of the slower pieces, and a touching one at that. Somehow it manages to feel sweet and whimsical while still fitting in with all the other ridiculous tracks and antics in the show itself.

Honorable mentions??

Doukyuusei (the whole thing tbh)

From Up on Poppy Hill- Kokurikozaka kara (theme song)

Air TV- Natsukage

Yosuga no Sora- Kioku

Now there are plenty of romance anime I have yet to watch and I hope many of them will make me think to myself "Wow, this would've made a great addition to that blog post I made about romance anime with good soundtracks". There are certain anime I’m even prepared for. But for now, I’m just writing about what I already know [it’s not a lot].

Here is a playlist of the all the tracks I listed in this blog post and here's a playlist I made of all my favorite romance anime tracks that you can check out if you feel inclined.

#yeah i dont think the links to the tracks worked but oh well #romancejunkie #clannad #toradora #karekano #snow white with the red hair #Akagami no Shirayukihime #nana #maid sama #kanon #princess jellyfish #your name #nisekoi #your lie in april #fruits basket #my little monster #romance anime #anime soundtracks #ost #romance #anohana #bloom into you #lovely complex #honey and clover

[eurosong]

Undo my ESC ‘19 (semi-final two)

Good morning, folks, and welcome to part two of Undo my ESC, the feature where I look at the year’s songs and make a change – as small as altering a minor detail like a lyric or a small staging decision, or as big as going for a completely different national final song! Again, it’s just my opinion and is often delivered in jest. Generally speaking, there are fewer things that need drastic changing in this semi-final, but there are always exceptions...

Armenia: When I first heard this song, I was a bit non-plussed. Cut to a few days later, and there was a constant stream of “walking out, aooooo” in my head. I fear that it’s a song that takes a while to win people over – and that it doesn’t help matters that it’s difficult to completely understand what Srbuk is singing. I’d be tempted to shift the verses into Armenian.

Ireland: I was underwhelmed initially by this effort, but it ended up charming me with its low-key nostalgia. It seems like Björkman has done his level best to kill of Ireland’s chances, and RTÉ have done the rest with the garish, Liechtenstein comics meet 50s Americana staging. I’d change this to something a bit more low-key and elegant.

Moldova: As if to detox from 2 years of crazy staging and outlandish songs, Moldova have sent something incredibly dull and beige, which now they’re trying to cover up by using a decade-old Ukrainian gimmick. There were better songs in their national final, particularly “Sub pămint,” a rocky-folky effort with a lot more to hold my interest than “Stay.”

Switzerland: The Swiss were another country to abandon their national final – no real surprise after the years of mediocre entries it produced. I’d take Stones, Apollo and even Last of our kind over the cringeworthy, self-satisfied Justin Timberlake meets Despacito meets Fuego infernal blend that was “She got me.” I’m going to have a laugh with this one and have it so that Switzerland accept “Sister”, which would have been a passable Swiss entry, instead of rejecting it and having it end up in Germany where it screwed a perfectly good national final.

Latvia: Latvia, like its northern neighbour, Estonia, have gone from having one of the most promising and avant-garde national finals to one that has lost its shine, albeit not só much as Eesti Laul did. Credit where credit is due, they picked by far the best of a lacklustre bunch for me – a lovely, understated, saudadic effort. I wouldn’t change much about it at all.

Romania: Whilst it seemed that almost everybody and their mongoose wanted either the creepy poperatics of Laura “No to marriage equality” Bretan or fueclone #382 from Bella Santiago, by far the song that intrigued me the most was “On a Sunday.” I’m glad this delectable and dark tune won and couldn’t be happier for Ester, who was such a lovely person when we met. What I would change, if I could, would be the bizarre voting system that led to her victory – I’d have had her win by a clear margin in the public vote so as not to be the unfair recipient of hate for the way her song was elected winner. I’d also ensure the oddities on stage with her, pretending to play instruments, were relegated far out of view!

Denmark: Speaking of unpopular opinions, I also didn’t think much of “League of light”, a song so dull that the fact that it incorporated Greenlandic still didn’t quit its beigeness. I found the nicest song of the night to have been “Love is forever”, though I would replace the song’s English lyrics with Danish ones, teach Leonora how not to stare into the viewer’s soul and cause an existential crisis, and trim some of the tweeest excesses away such as the sashaying on the top of that massive chair.

Sweden: Another year, another edition of Melodifestivalen where the all-powerful juries have a real fear of anyone without the Y chromosone representing Sweden. “Too late for love”, at least, breaks the chain of self-satisfied boys singing empty pop songs. Instead, we have a barely soulful soul song sung by a more mature man. I would have gone for “Torn” or “Not with me” any day, though.

Austria: Austria’s labyrinthine internal selection came up with a little-known electro artist and I didn’t have the highest expectations, but I was intrigued. It ended up being an unexpected highlight, a true pearl of emotion and exquisite vocals. I don’t know what PÆNDA’s staging will be, but at the minute, I wouldn’t change anything except for her pronunciation of you as “Hugh/hue”!

Croatia: Oh, Croatia. Returning to a national final after Serbia and Montenegro did last year, and having enjoyed Beovizija and Montevizija respectively, I had hopes. Maybe not high hopes, but medium hopes. It was a collection of dated songs, bizarre songs, and then the eventual winner was both bizarre and dated: a screaming angel shrieking out a maudlin ballad that would have been dated even in the early 90s. I don’t have much of a horse in this race – I think my personal favourite was “Tebi pripadam”, which was harmless but pleasant, but I might go for the colourful “Brutalero” as the most likely to make an impact in Tel Aviv.

Malta: Malta bringing something interesting to ESC is one of the Four Horsemen of the Europocalypse, but before the other three come, I’m living for it. I worry how well a young balladeer with static performances will adapt to the sass and sizzle of Chameleon, but for the moment, I wouldn’t change anything other than remove the letters that overshadow the wild and colourful MV.

Lithuania: Lithuania’s NF is another for which life is too short to follow, especially since it takes the best part of 3 months to come up with – well, songs like this. One wonders how something can be both weird and dull, but this is, in turns. As pretty much the majority of folk rewriting this, I guess I would opt for “Light on” instead, though I’d be tempted by the quirky fun of “Mažulė.”

Russia: I can’t begrudge Sergej’s return to try to win after he found himself losing at the juries’ hand in 2016. I won’t even join those criticising him for not bringing another “banger” and instead returning with something a bit more solemn and musically complex. It’s not in my favourites but there’s not much I’d change, other than make the tune a little less repetitive.

Albania: Albania had another good Festival i Këngës – one of my favourite NFs in keeping an orchestra and maintaining national language throughout. My pick of all the songs to win was Ktheju tokës, and I wouldn’t change a thing about this powerful cri de cœur, except, perhaps, change it so that the second verse had different lyrics and was not just a repeat of the initial verse.

Norway: One of the absolute scandals of the season for me. In the red corner, we had one of the best composers to have represented Norway in the past 20 years with a sweeping, moving, classical tune, “En livredd mann”. In the blooo corner, we had a “what if Aqua moved to the woods, discovered they had animal spirits, thought they could joik and created this forgotten b-side in 1998?” Somehow, the latter won, but I feel the former really ought to have.

Netherlands: Though I cannot understand the fuss about this compared to other downtempo songs that I see being forgotten at best, slated at worst, it’s a decent track. I’d change the video so that it didn’t hinge so dramatically on gratuitous nudity, so that we could see who’s praising this for the music and who’s just in for a good looking lad’s bare arse.

Macedonia: It’s a nice, sincere effort from Macedonia – it feels a bit of a step back from me from the experimentation in the past two entries, but at the same time, I think it has a better chance of doing well than them. Not sure what I would change, other than the video. It’s very melodramatic and reminds me of an even more extra version of Bebe’s “Ella”; no small achievement given how extra that is.

Azerbaijan: I’m no great fan of AZ at this contest, but for the second time in 3 years (let’s try to forget the disaster that was “Delete my heart”), they’ve brought a decent song with some local character. My change would be to forget about the overproduced official music track and go instead for the delightfully understated unplugged performance, where Çingiz’ voice and the poignancy of the text come to the fore.

And the automatic qualifiers of this semi:

Germany: Because of my mischievious change for Switzerland, Germany would be free of the non-sisters perversely called Sisters and would have dodged the hole that they keep falling into – including unexperienced wild card artists in the national final that folk vote for out of sympathy, landing them in or near the bottom for several years, except last year, the one time they didn’t. There were plenty of good songs in the German national final, making the choice of S!!$Ŧ4ZZZ! even more perverse. I really enjoyed “The day I loved you most”, but, despite a somewhat dodgy live, I’d have to give the nod instead to the atmospheric, brooding “Surprise.”

Italy: This song and its artist are utter perfection to me. I wouldn’t change a single second. Unfortunately, Eurovision’s rather arbitrary 3 minute rule means that I would have to excise several seconds from the original. Mahmood’s actual solution seems to have been getting rid of the repetition of “[sai già] come va, come va, come va”, which for me sounds odd and wrecks the flow. I’d instead probably remove the “non ho tempo per chiarire, perché solo ora so cosa sei” line. It’d still be a change I wouldn’t ideally make, but I feel it’d be a bit less abrupt.

UK: The UK came onto the scene this year with a massive fanfare about a new format where YOU DECIDE in song duels which version of a song was better. Except, as it transpired, You the Punter didn’t decide – a dubiously qualified trio of “““experts””” did instead. The whole element of intrigue of the new format – finding out which version of a song is best – was taken away from the viewer and in doing so, all they got to decide between was 3 songs, 1 version of each. In the process, they eliminated the best version of “Bigger than us” – opting for the bombastic, X factor winner version by Michael Rice instead of the low-key but likeable country version by Holly Tandy. I’d have picked that instead. I’d have also not gone for that stupid format and instead tried to find at least 6 decent songs instead of 2 versions of 3 mediocre ones.

BONUS ROUND!

Ukraine: When I was doing SF1, I forgot that another country should have entered that semi who were under my imaginary purview. I’m talking Ukraine, of course, whose broadcasters instigated the scandal of the year by humiliating its artists with political questions on live TV, and then basically forced the winner to nót represent Ukraine by giving her a scandalous contact that didn’t offer any help with the financial burden of going to Israel and putting on a show, would shackle her to patently unreasonable terms, forbade her from speaking out of turn or improvising on stage, and threatened her with massive fines for the slightest unauthorised change.  Part of me really wants to say that I’d deal with the mess by ensuring that Tayanna (who should have won in 2018 with Lelja) wouldn’t withdraw, thus leading to the inclusion of Maruv at the last minute who ended up winning. But no – a bigger wrong must be righted and, even though her bizarre burlesque is not to my taste, I would have undone poor Maruv’s poor treatment and let her go to ESC with “Siren song” like the majority of voters wanted.

#eurovision #esc 2019 #eurovision song contest #opinion #esc #eurovision 2019

[wilmaoswalt72-blog]

10 Well-liked Music Genres You’ve Never Heard Of

But, as our chat reveals, the discordant story doesn't end there: the naturally talented Neelix attended his first doof little more than a decade in the past, confesses to be in poor health at ease in the studio, and plans to supply pop music within the close to future. The start of EDM can from the disco style, heavily popular in the late 1970's. Disco music aimed to maneuver crowds of individuals on the dancefloor, using drum machines and electronic devices to create synthesized rhythms. Standard disco music that helped to create the EDM scene included Donna Summer time's 1977 synthesized disco hit I Really feel Love ," which was written by Pete Bellotte and Giorgio Moroder, who would later collaborate with Daft Punk; and the 1974 hit Rock Your Child ," by George McCrae, which used a drum machine and Roland rhythm machine.

Bambuco, Pasillo and Vals, three of the foremost rhythms of a genre of music usually performed in a duet with a guitar or mandolin and a smaller, 12-string guitar-like instrument known as a tiple. The tiple is an official national instrument of Colombia, though its use has seen a big decline in latest many years. Pop comes from the word "Well-liked". It is the development that a lot of the common folks are following. The purpose of the music is to enchantment to a common viewers, moderately than to a selected sub-tradition or ideology. Katy Perry was topping on Pop music charts just a few months again, when all of a sudden Gangnam Type came to conquer our playlists. In Pop music, the inventive and technical aspects are given lesser attention than the "poppy" really feel. - Rock genre is gradually decreases in recognition through years, by including much less songs and new genres are emerging. I don't pretend to know the solutions, nevertheless it's arduous to consider listening to New World Symphony or Michael Stanly Band's "Candy Jane" would not elicit some of the identical effects that it has on me. Why? Is my musical receptors more or less heightened , different, or just another huge difficult human spirit that defies rationalization. The IFPI (International Federation of Phonographic Industries) recently took a survey of 19,000 shoppers around the planet to see what kinds of music had been the most popular.

Ever since the Mozart Effect" increase from the 1990s, individuals have related listening to classical music with increased intelligence. Whether or not the findings of the unique Mozart Effect study hold are a matter of appreciable debate What's plain is that this one examine sparked countless extra research intended to understand the interplay between music and the human brain. As if it nonetheless bears mentioning, EDM and the rest of dance music made using electronic devices are not the identical factor. The etymology of the time period "EDM" is not absolutely recognized, however in response to critic Joshua Glazer (who can also be a THUMP contributor) writing in Cuepoint, it is a " company term used to envelope disparate sounds into one easy-to-market division" that was coined in 1985 within the US, but did not achieve notoriety till the late 2000s. The 90s had been rife with musician-coined genres. Riot grrrl was the name of a 1991 fanzine put together by four of that music's key players: Allison Wolfe and Molly Neuman of Bratmobile; Kathleen Hanna and Tobi Vail of Bikini Kill. Illbient was coined in 1994 by DJ Olive, of the trio We, to explain a multimedia presentation to a journalist in Brooklyn. "Some older man who mentioned he was a journalist requested me if this was ambient music," Olive says, "and I blurted out as a joke, 'Nope, this is illbient.' We all had fun about it." And in 1996, producers Ed Rush and Trace of the No U Turn label minted the phrase techstep to describe their blaring, dense, hard-as-hell style of drum and bass. What distinguishes these sounds and scenes from lengthy-standing genres like techno or drum & bass is they not hold to the notion of center and periphery. They are not shaped from the highest down by a handful of rich, influential cities who transmit the culture while everyone else is relegated to receiving it. If anything, similar membership scenes in places like London and Berlin wish to their Latin American counterparts for inspiration. From this new ecosystem, an unbiased network of artists has begun to take form, and whereas London and Berlin are welcome to join the dialogue, they're definitely not dominating the conversation. For me personally, before I switched to doing EDM, I was a Rock Musician who used to play the Lead Guitar. I really miss those glorious days of Rock and Metallic music box russia truthfully. Another difference between Arduous Rock and heavy Metallic is the power involved in taking part in these two music genres. Initially of the millennium, festivals have been the place you'd hear guitar bands; on Radio 1, guitar music was largely relegated to the Night Session However, in 2016, radio playlists are bursting with guitar music and festivals have shifted their focus. None extra so than V pageant, whose top names this yr are Justin Bieber, Rihanna, David Guetta and Sia.

is the go-to vacation spot for wall art and other enjoyable visible products that categorical private interests, life-lengthy passions and of-the-moment obsessions. With a choice of over three,000,000 photos, AllPosters has one thing for every price range and decorating type. Find your favourite artwork prints from basic masters and discover up-and-coming artists. Browse the most popular posters in music, motion pictures and sports. Explore our range of t-shirts and novelty gifts. You possibly can even flip your own picture into an art masterpiece with MyPhotos. Plus, select from custom framing, canvas and wooden mounting to actually make a chunk your personal — all excessive-quality at wonderful costs.YouTube Music is a new music streaming service with the official audio, official video, playlists and artist stations. Plus, the remainder of the story you can't discover anyplace else: reside performances, remixes and more. I like rock music as a result of it keeps me pumped up all the time. Before I do something that's really nervous to me, I wish to take heed to my music to calm me down, however not too much. I am unable to stand slow music as a result of it makes me actually sleepy and it will get annoying. I might listen to anything, however nation is essentially the most annoying of all for me. I just need to get their cowboy hats and stomp all over them.If you happen to performed someone High Horse," it might take a few guesses earlier than they recognized it as a rustic song. That 4-to-the-ground beat with the funky, Nile Rodgers guitar, that popping bass—none of these are parts of country that must be on a hit from one of the genre's brightest stars. But the elements are all there: the center-American lyrical imagery and references, the light slide guitar solo, the banjo, the background acoustic strings. It is like a winking scrambling of genres that creates a sound entirely Musgraves' own. Some often compare her to Taylor Swift as a rustic artist with main crossover potential. But much less a brand than her uber-well-known counterpart, Musgraves has more in frequent with the likes of Sturgill Simpson or Chris Stapleton, who are crossing over primarily based on musical potential alone.

[smashmusicideas]

Actually I'd really interested in learning how each of these sources are used.

Cool! Just to note, this one’s gonna be kinda long. So Star Wars is made of a huge smorgasbord of sources, and I’ll have missed a few, but here are at least the ones I can immediately remember.

Akira Kurosawa: probably more than any other single source, Kurosawa’s classic samurai movies loom large over Star Wars. Lucas is an unabashed Japanophile, and you can see dozens of details in the movies, the first one especially. Darth Vader’s beetle suit is a stripped down samurai armor, the lightsaber battles were modeled on samurai duels more than fantasy sword fights, and several of the characters were given “pseudo”-Japanese names like “Kenobi” to create a sense of exoticism. The plot of the first movie is basically The Hidden Fortress, a film about a general and princess’ escape from a villainous army both with the help and from the perspective of two lowly peasants - peasants who became the series’ Greek chorus C3PO and RD-D2. Lucas even wanted Kurosawa’s most famous collaborator, Toshiro Mifune, to play Han Solo.

1950s car culture: So even though the plot steals from Kurosawa, the premise came from Lucas’ teenage years. He was a fairly typical California kid obsessed with cars, and Luke Skywalker’s desire to get out from under his aunt and uncle’s care was modeled after his own desire to drive away from home in the seat of a classic American car. Most of the spaceships are part-WWII biplane, but also part muscle car, with fins and a smooth design. Instead of planes being generic units, everyone just gets their own; it’s actually kind of like Cowboy Bebop, which also drew from a broad swath of mid-century American culture.

WWII era adventure movies: This one’s fairly well known, I think. The space battles are basically dogfights, the high adventure takes a lot from Errol Flynn movies, and like those, the plots are heavily based around a very clear “good versus evil” plot. Some of these movies have a fatalism that’s really deliberately avoided in Lucas’ stuff, with characters knowing they’re going off to die, but his an have that there - it’s just in the background. And falling in with the prism of “everyone teaming up to fight the villains" through which we typically view World War II, there’s a sense of camaraderie and almost “building up the team” that happens, usually during a grand heroic climax.

Nazi imagery: This is sort of a weird one, because while the shadow of Nazism does loom over Star Wars - the term “Stormtrooper” literally comes from a contingent of the Nazi party that went around assaulting Jews and communists, some shots of villains mimic Triumph of the Will - it’s not really used in a political context. There are political elements found throughout the series (most infamously Lucas’ somewhat tin-eared criticism of Bush-era government overreach), but the Empire isn’t really representative of the Nazis or any other villainous fource, just as I don’t really think the Death Star is emblematic of, say, nuclear weapons. The Empire just represents evil at its most generic, a Rorschach test that can be whatever vaguely oppressive force the viewer wants. Star Wars is an interesting bridge that led the films of the late Sixties and Seventies into the Eighties, and a big part of that is a deliberate avoidance of overtly political storytelling in the name of more broadly popular, non-confrontational “popcorn flicks.” But there’s still an interest in these more difficult political elements at the fringes.

Planet of the Apes: we forget, but Star Wars wasn’t the only big science fiction franchise. There were five Apes movies, and there are a few parallels between the series (notably an emphasis on softer structures, a distrust of technological encroachment of nature, and a sort of Sixties New Age fetishization of the natural world), but what where the influence can really be seen is in the toys. Somewhat weirdly for a series so cynical and fatalistic that thee of the films had to be prequels because humans annihilated the world with a nuke in the second, Apes was one of the first big licensed toy lines, with a whole variety of dolls and playsets. The relationship between the Star Wars films and the Star Wars toys was in place from the first movie, and a lot of how it sold its dolls and playsets was definitely influenced by how Apes did it.

Film serials: we don’t really have these anymore, but classic film serial series of the Thirties through early Fifties were a big influence. For those less familiar, often in that period of time, film showings could be a longer affair; you might see a full-length film, but also documentary newsreels, a cartoon, and short films. Some of those would be serialized, but would include dialogue and writing to help people if they’d not seen the previous episodes. Star Wars shows that from the word go; the entire concept of it being an “Episode 4″ is itself a joke, a recap for a preceding story that doesn’t exist. And tonally, the movies take a lot from these series, with a generally upbeat tone, runtimes and plotting that take a lot from the attitude of those multiple-hour shows, problems that take no more than another episode to solve, and cliffhangers that promise an all new adventure coming up. Revenge of the Sith even puts a point on this by naming a minor character after one of the most famous serials: Commando Cody and the Radar Men from the Moon.

Sixties and Seventies Sci-Fi: This is a case where Lucas was looking at, among other things, his own source: the techno-dystopia TXH-1138, whose title gets a little reference in Star Wars as the cell Princess Leia is held in. Science fiction of those two decades often struck a line between smoother and blockier design, each associated with more optimistic or serene or more cynical and paranoid attitude that kind of defined American cultural attitudes in the mid to late-Seventies. Star Wars kinda bridged the gap; it was optimistic but decidedly apolitical, a world where both sides of the technological divide could exist. The machinery in particular takes a ton from those moves, all monochrome rooms and constant lights and switches. Unsurprisingly, these streams are all mostly tied to Seventies softcore hippiedom, an interest in light transcendental thought. But it’s not really about those; the science itself isn’t the focus. It’s why people - myself included - sometimes discuss Star Wars as not “really” science fiction. I’m not really as interested anymore in having that argument, but it’s certainly indebted to science fiction.

New Hollywood: More than anything, though, Lucas was part of the New Hollywood crew, a new breed of filmmaker that dominated the late Sixties to late Seventies in America. These were (almost all white and male) graduates of newly founded film schools. Influenced by Japanese and French cinema and inspired by communist revolutions (though very much not communist dogma; they viewed themselves as rebels from both marxist and capitalistic conformity), people like Lucas, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Tobe Hooper, Woody Allen, Roman Polanksi, and Ridley Scott tried to create a “revolution” in western and particularly American film. Lucas’ big pre-Star Wars films were THX and American Graffiti (as well as working on Apocalypse Now for a few years), and each represented two parts of Star Wars: oppressive technological social machinery and nostalgic small town chill. Eventually this culture died, partially from Lucas and Spielberg themselves; Jaws and Star Wars became cultural monoliths, altered film distribution, and indirectly began the slow death of both New Hollywood and drive-in theater culture.

There are other touchstones of less importance. Pretty much everything in Jabba’s Return of the Jedi palace comes from fantasy comics, and especially the art of Conan and death metal album artist Frank Frazetta. The pod-racing sequence in The Phantom Menace is a high-tech chariot race from religious epics like Ben-Hur. And certainly the tropes of fantasy storytelling are huge. Luke and Anakin aren’t just skilled young men; they’re heirs to a great legacy (and in one case, a comically absurd genetic superiority) that only justifies their importance and worth. The unfortunate racial caricature aliens in his films also come from those, along with many of the war movies and serials, ranging from the more benign (Chewbacca is essentially based on a classic cliché of a parter or servant from a “noble race” who follows his friend, but he’s likable and not indicative to any one culture) to, well, Watto.

And I think this is one of the bigger reasons why I find most of Lucas’ sequels less good, even in many ways preferring Star Wars to The Empire Strikes Back. As the films went on, this wealth of sources contracted, a sign of his becoming less voracious or engaged a consumer of not just pop culture but art as a whole. It’d pop up in a few ways, like the Ewoks’ defeat of the Empire alluding to the Vietnam War (whose end was still being processed in the culture), but generally those sources stayed unchallenged: Monochrome halls, dogfights, samurai duels, and fancy ships. As much as I’ve little interest in relitigating the prequels, I still maintain that their fundamental problem comes from Lucas not updating those sources, not using mysteries or film noir to craft a story set in the past.

And, of course, then came J.J. Abrams, and while I certainly enjoyed The Force Awakens far more than the prequels, it gets even worse under him, because that’s a Star Wars film where the only reference is just Star Wars itself. If the best parts of the film are about Rey, Finn, and Kylo Ren struggling to live up to the legacy of Star Wars and its iconography - the shot of Rey eating under the giant mass of overbearing Star Wars trash is a favorite - than the worst is when it’s just redoing that iconography, most intensely in yet another X-Wing battle against yet another, dumber Death Star. And that one didn’t even kill off Greg Grunberg. I try to avoid “X fan-fiction” when describing something like this, but it’s reminiscent of modern superhero comics that are only about modern superhero comics, only really interested in the same tropes and icons.

And that’s also one of the greatest reasons I loved The Last Jedi so much, because it went back to those sources and reimagined them. So we get World War II culture, but instead of dogfighting it’s Casablanca, with two characters descending into a sleazy, corrupt world that’s ostensibly free from these endless space battles. We get this interest in politics, but it goes from focusing solely on the evil First Order to this idea that all these battles are more at the whims of an unseen military-industrial complex than anything else. And it even introduces new ideas of its own, from humor more akin to Mel Brooks than anything Lucas could ever do to a cheeky enjoyment of hinting at high octane violence in an otherwise family movie. Playing at the latter in particular leads to some brilliant visual splendor, with exploring red salt and crimson wall carpeting substituting for geysers of blood, and one major character’s visceral demise feels like something from an Evil Dead movie, equal parts horrific and hilarious.

But more than anything else, it’s the Japanese influence. Rian Johnson is another Japanophile and otaku, but he brings in his own wealth of influence, from other Japanese directors - mostly those who worked in the debatably trashier sections of the “chanbara” samurai genre - to even fatalistic manga and anime. Laura Dern’s awesome purple hair makes it implicit, but that sequence of her ship’s destruction comes so clearly from something like Gundam or Evangelion, a single gorgeous image conveying incredibly destruction. Even his Kurosawa lifts are different; he draws from the man’s color movies (which emphasized an intense, painterly use of color), and a major plot thread is based on Rashomon (that sequence in particular is interesting for also being on the few times we see a scene in Star Wars that’s dependent on character perspective). The film’s best sequence even ends with Rey and Kylo Ren fighting literal space samurai over walls of metaphorical blood.

There are also a few times where the film seems to bring in some of the prequel influence, with that casino planet or the more heavily choreographed fight scenes, and others when it outwardly deconstructs some of the series’ tropes. It all leads to this film that felt, at least to me, to be the first really “necessary” (such as it is) Star Wars film since the first, something as idiosyncratic as Lucas’ original.

I’m not sure exactly how to conclude this, other than to say when creating art, it’s easy to fall into a trap of just reusing your sources. I do that more often than I’d like, certainly. But bringing in new things can help. I recently started watching Cowboy Bebop again for the first time since college, and thinking about how that show used spaceships as car and plane analogues made me think about another way artists were able to come at the same ideas. And I don’t think knowing that Lucas was cribbing from these (and that his various producers and editors were keeping him under control to make a comprehensible final product) lessens any of the “magic” of them; at least to me it enhances it.

Though I should also note again that this is nowhere near a comprehensive list, and there is definitely a huge wealth of material he and everyone involved in the making of the movie exploited or used that I forgot about or haven’t noticed. But that often is how the process works; you bring in all sorts of ideas.

[theclouddiver]

Big Bang Reaction to Their Relationship Being Exposed on TV

telekinetic-m asked:

Yop! 💚 Love your blog definitely 💕 Can you do a BigBang reaction when their relationship is being exposed on tv ? For example, on a live someone ask about their s/o relationship habits and a member/celebrity make a mistake (like "it's what ... prefers with her!" Etc...) 😊💕 thx cutie 💚

Thank you for always supporting me <3 And sorry for letting you wait for such a long time, but finally here you go :) P.S. This was written at an airport after a night without sleep, but I hope it’s intelligible enough!

Choi Seunghyun (T.O.P)

It had been less than a month that Seunghyun had been released from the military and he and the other members had already been invited to participate in a TV show introducing different scenic places in South Korea. On a particular long drive, the boys decided to kill time by answering short questions the audience had sent in and to stream the talk live. When the host of the TV show asked who was most likely to get married first, Daesung nudged Seunghyun with his elbow and happily blurted out: "Seunghyun, you are the one who can best answer this  question!" It would take Daesung a few questions to realize his mistake and notice the flustered expression on Seunghyun’s face. However, since there was nothing the other members could do about the fact that Daesung had just spilled his hyung's secret, Seunghyun would decide that it was time to speak the truth. He would bravely stare straight into the camera, and with a shy smile on his face he would admit to his relationship with you. "Daesung is right... and my answer is probably long overdue. I am planning to get married by the end of this year, and I couldn't be happier about the fact that I will be a married man soon." Although the other members would be surprised at Seunghyun’s confession on TV, they would clap their hands vigorously and congratulate him excitedly. When they pressed Seunghyun to tell their fans more detail about the wedding and the lucky girl, he would simply shake his head and say that he would give an official statement later. He would call you and YG immediately after filming ended to explain the unexpected situation. Since his love for you was sincere and the wedding already scheduled, Seunghyun would follow through with his promise to post and official statement on the fancafe and also YG's website, asking his fans to continue to support him, his relationship with you and Big Bang as a whole.

Dong Yongbae (Taeyang)

After Seunghyun went to the army to serve his mandatory military service, the other members had had more time to focus on solo activities and personal matters. That's also when he met you, and since the other members were like brothers to him, he had told them about your relationship from the very first day. Right now, he was filming a live show with Daesung and Seungri, as well as a few other idols. Halfway through the filming, the camera team announced a short break for everyone. Of course, the viewers were still going to be entertained by short interviews with the idols. When it was Big Bang's turn to answer the audience's questions, one question read: "If you are dating someone, would you prefer a) to have a casual date night at home b) to eat out and go watch a movie afterwards or c) to go on a fun date in a theme park?" More like an automatic response, Seungri grinned at Yongbae and whispered, "It's definitely not going to be c) after what you told us. I still remember your pale face when you came back that night after going to the theme park with Y/N." What the maknae did not know was that the camera had captured his every word, and only after looking up and noticing the surprised looks on everyone's faces did he realize his mistake. Yongbae could not even be mad at Seungri; it was true that the older member had been talking about you almost every day and that his relationship with you had become a hot topic among the members. Since the interview was live, there was nothing Yongbae could do to save the situation, and so he just smiled shyly into the camera. "I guess Seungri is right. I am currently in a relationship with someone, and going to theme parks is definitely not something I would do regularly." When the camera team bombarded him with more questions about you, his girlfriend, Yongbae would only say that you two had been dating for more than two months now, and that he wished that he could have announced the news to his fans earlier and in a more official way. After the show, he would call you and YG to figure out the best way to handle the situation. He would be upset at himself for putting you in such a risky position, but he was sure that things would turn out fine as long as you loved each other and believed that you could overcome potential criticism by fans and the public.

Kwon Jiyong (G-Dragon)

Jiyong was happier than he had been in a long time: although work as an artist was as stressful and time-consuming as ever, Seunghyun had finally been released from the army and Jiyong’s relationship with you could not be any better. Therefore, he was in an especially good mood when he and the other members were participating in a live interview after performing their newly released song, a song he had composed as a thank you message for his fans and you, for always giving him strength. When the group was asked to describe their ideal type of girl, Seunghyun,  after making sure that the camera team could not hear or see him, leaned over to Jiyong and whispered: "Now you can give a detailed description of your girlfriend, Y/N." However, the oldest member did not realize that there was more than one camera, and it had captured his every movement and word. Interested in Seunghyun’s comment, the interviewer asked Jiyong to explain more. When Seunghyun realized his careless mistake, all color would leave his face and he would glance over to the leader, a twinge of panic visible on his face. Jiyong would be quiet for a moment, thinking about how to best solve the awkward situation he was in. But since there was nothing he could do to reverse what had been said and since his love for you was sincere, Jiyong would decide that it was time to tell the world the truth. A shy smile on his face, he would nod at the interviewer and admit: "Yes, I have been dating someone for over three months now, and I could not be happier. I don't want to say too much, but she is beautiful and has a bright personality, so she is also my ideal type right now." Although the members already knew, they would congratulate Jiyong and tell him that he can always ask them for relationship advice, making the camera team laugh. After the interview, Jiyong would call you and inform you that he would come over to your apartment as soon as possible to discuss how to deal with the new situation.

Kang Daesung

It was New Year's Eve and the four remaining Big Bang members had been invited to perform a cover version of an old but popular song. Since the show they had been invited to aired all performances live and was intended to make the country's waiting for the countdown seem shorter, it was no surprise that there would also be lots of interviews to entertain the viewers. When it was Big Bang's turn to answer the MC's questions, the topic turned out to be a rather unexpected one: "If you are dating someone, what makes the relationship with you special or different from the other member's dating styles?" Each of the boys took turns answering the question, drawing laughs from both the MC and the audience. When it was Daesung's turn, Dongbae couldn't resist to lean over to the younger member and tease him about his relationship with you. "You definitely won't have to speak in the past tense." Little did the two of them know that not only the other members but the entire audience and all viewers had heard his short remark due to the sensibility of the microphones. Only when Daesung and Dongbae looked up and noticed the surprised expressions on everyone's faces did it dawn on them that Dongbae had just spilled the younger man's secret. Daesung would get really shy and flustered, not sure what to do in such a situation. Deciding that speaking the truth was always the best way to tackle a problem, he would gather his thoughts and confess his relationship. “Right, um... I guess hyung is right. I am seeing someone right now, and I would say what makes my dating style different from the other members’ is that I always bring small souvenirs from wherever I go so that she feels as if she had been there with me. I really care about sharing experiences, even if we can’t always be together.” After the show, Daesung would get really nervous about telling you that your relationship just went public, but the other members would comfort him and promise that they would be there to support the two of you, no matter how fans would react. 

Lee Seunghyun (Seungri)

He was in the middle of filming a music show as an MC, when the organizers of the show decided to have a break in order to prepare for the second set of performances. To keep the viewers entertained, Seungri was asked if he could call one of the other Big Bang members and have a short conversation with them. Not seeing a reason why not, Seungri agreed and entered the number of the group's leader, Jiyong. The maknae did not have to wait long since Jiyong picked up the phone after only a few seconds. "Seungri, what's up. Are you calling to ask for relationship advice with Y/N again?" Seungri could clearly hear the mocking tone in Jiyong’s voice, but the maknae's face went blank for a moment when he realized that the entire country and even world would know about his secret in a matter of hours. Seungri could barely hide how flustered he was by the situation. "Um, actually, I am at a music show right now. I wanted to call you and have a chat with you, if you are not too busy right now." There was nothing that could be done against the awkward silence that followed. Only after Jiyong recollected his thoughts and Seungri tried to give the camera an uneasy smile would the conversation turn normal and more comfortable again. Although both the leader and the maknae tried their best to ignore the mistake Jiyong had made and pretended to go on as if nothing had happened, the internet would be full of comments and questions about Seungri's relationship with you. Right after the show, Jiyong would call Seungri and apologize, but your boyfriend would simply say that Jiyong could not have known and that they could not change the situation anyway. Seungri would call you first, hoping that you would not get too angry at the news. He would promise you that the two of you could work it out, that nothing about your relationship would change and that he would be there to protect you if necessary. Then, Seungri would call YG to discuss what to do next and work on an official statement which would be released the next morning or even the same night.

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