#ended up editing a lot of it but some entries are less based on history and more based on vibes

[cadmusfly]

Tag Yourself: Unabridged Shitty Drawing Marshal of the Empire Edition

Yes All 26 Of Them + Bonus 2

drawn and compiled by yours truly, initial and probably inaccurate research assisted by Chet Jean-Paul Tee, additional research from Napoleon and his Marshals by A G MacDonnell, Swords Around A Throne by John R Elting and a bunch of other books and Wikipedia pages

captions under images

mike (Michel Ney)

- full of every emotion

- always has ur back

joe (Joachim Murat)

- it's called fashion sweetheart

- will not stop flirting

lens (Jean Lannes)

- bestie who will call u out on ur shit

- does not like their photo taken

bessie (Jean-Baptiste Bessieres)

- actually nice under the ice

- was born in the wrong generation

dave (Louis-Nicolas Davout)

- overachiever

- 20 year old boomer

salt (Jean-de-Dieu Soult)

- people think ur up to no good

- doesn’t cope with sudden changes 2 plans

andrew (Andre Massena)

- actually up to no good

- sleepy until special interest is activated

bertie (Louis-Alexandre Berthier)

- carries the group project

- voted most likely to make a stalker shrine

auggie (Pierre Augereau)

- shady past full of batshit stories

- will not stop swearing in the christian minecraft server

lefrank (François Joseph Lefebvre)

- dad friend

- in my day we walked to school uphill both ways

big mac (Étienne Macdonald)

- brutally honest

- won't let you borrow their charger even if they have 100%

gill (Guillaume Brune)

- love-hate relationship with group chats

- pretends not to care, checks social media every 2 minutes

ouchie (Nicholas Oudinot)

- needs to buy bandages in bulk

- a little aggro

pony (Józef Antoni Poniatowski)

- can't swim

- tries 2 hard to fit in, everyone secretly loves them anyway

grumpy (Emmanuel de Grouchy)

- can't find them when u need them

- complains about the music, never suggests alternatives

bernie (Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte)

- always talks about their other friendship group

- most successful, nobody knows how

monty (Auguste de Marmont)

- does not save u a seat

- causes drama and then lurks in the background

monch (Bon-Adrien Jeannot de Moncey)

- last to leave the party

- dependable

morty (Édouard Mortier)

- everyone looks up 2 them literally and figuratively

- golden retriever friend

jordan (Jean-Baptiste Jourdan)

- volunteers other people for things

- has 20+ alarms but still oversleeps

kelly (François Christophe de Kellermann)

- old as balls but still got it

- waiting in the wings

gov (Laurent de Gouvion Saint-Cyr)

- infuriatingly modest about their art skills

- thinks too much before they speak

perry (Catherine-Dominique de Pérignon)

- low-key rich, only buys things on sale

- “let’s order pizza” solution to everything

sachet (Louis-Gabriel Suchet)

- dependable friend who always brings snacks

- lowkey keeps the group together

cereal (Jean-Mathieu-Philibert Sérurier)

- unnervingly methodical and precise about fun

- will delete your social media after u die

vic (Claude Victor-Perrin)

- loves spicy food but can’t handle it

- says they're fine, not actually fine

Bonus!

june (Jean Andoche Junot)

- chaotic disaster bisexual

- will kill a man 4 their bestie

the rock (Géraud Duroc)

- keeps a tidy house

- mom friend with snacks

#napoleon’s marshals #napoleonic era #napoleonic shitposting #napoleonic wars #history shitposting #cadmus draws #I thought it would be funny if it was hand drawn #i had to draw these over a few weeks or else my RSI ridden fingers would explode #I will reblog this a few times because this is so stupid and I’m proud of this #yes chatgpt helped because I’m not actually familiar with most of the 26 #ended up editing a lot of it but some entries are less based on history and more based on vibes #and as we know vibes are extremely accurate

[dailycharacteroption]

Races Among the Stars 7: Kitsune

And so we come to the end of this special with another species drawn from Golarion and also from real-world folklore. I present the kitsune.

Now, we already know plenty about kitsune thanks to Pathfinder and their presence in that system and setting. We know that generally the kitsune are a good-natured, if reclusive people whose presence has fueled stories of them being otherworldly yokai, about how they have long served as guardians of sacred wild places, but also as masters of trickery and mischief, to say nothing of their mastering of their own natural magics.

Indeed, the kitsune in folklore are tricksters to some, magical guides to others in the same way that kami and yokai are two sides of the same coin in Japanese culture, something I go into a bit further detail in my entry about kitsune in the Pathfinder system.

However… Because kitsune were introduced to Starfinder by way of the Alien Character Deck, we basically know nothing about how the kitsune are in the post-Golarion galaxy. Do they still revere nature and the kami? Are they still tricksters? How does their culture steeped in history and tradition mesh with not just a focus on technology and innovation, but also one where vast stores of knowledge have been damaged or destroyed?

The truth is we may never have those answers, since Starfinder is getting a new edition, one which will make the vast array of playable species harder to put out there given how PF2-style ancestries involve a lot more abilities you pick and choose as you level.

But I’m not here to complain, I’m here to expound, and we can probably infer a few things despite the lack of information. With how integral spirits are to kitsune culture, I severely doubt that the kitsune would have given that up post-Gap. Indeed, since kami are seen often in the parks, menageries, and other cultivated natural preserves on Absalom Station and other large space stations, I can imagine that the kitsune hold a close bond with those spaces even if they do not always live in them. In fact, that love of nature might mean that many kitsune are Xenowardens, or at least share values with them. Much like their past kin though, they have a knack for infiltrating and living alongside other humanoids, though others may join such communities openly. Like all species, it all comes down to personal choice.

 The kitsune in their true form resemble humanoid foxes, with pointed ears, thick fur in a variety of colors, and so on. Some more magically-inclined kitsune might grow more tails are a reflection of their mastery over their internal magics as well.

 Again, we can’t really know for sure what kitsune society is like without any sort of update, but we can infer they likely retain their matriarchal societal structure, and have a knack for integrating with other societies and perhaps incorporating elements of other societies into their own. The idea of kitsune social media influencers and idols in particular holds weight with me for whatever reason.

 Kitsune display natural grace and charm, but they are somewhat less inclined towards musculature.

They make up for this with a knack for agility and athleticism.

The fox folk also typically have a single humanoid form they can take on to disguise themselves, potentially living among them or simply using it as a cover.

They also sport innate magic which is tied to their tail or tails, though at it’s most base level it allows them to create floating lights and perform minor utility functions.

Their eyes are also quite keen, adjusted for low-light.

 Dexterity and Charisma is a good combination if you’re looking to create an envoy or operative character, roles that kitsune excel at. Ranged or finesse solarian is also a good choice as well. Consider also that both precog and witchwarper are natural fits here, and certainly can be flavored with the aesthetic of the kitsune mystic. Their reduced strength does mean that melee combat builds suffer slightly, making most soliders, vanguards, evolutionists, and so on ranged, but not without exception. Their lack of penalties also makes them decent biohackers, mechanics, technomancers, and mystics as well. Indeed, while they may not be the first pick for the front line, the kitsune can excel pretty much anywhere, even if they are sorely in need of expansion.

That does it for this week and this special, but I hope you enjoyed it, and if anyone else is attending GenCon in Indianapolis, I hope you’re having a good time, and perhaps I’ll see you around!

#starfinder #race #kitsune #Alien Character Deck

[thestuffedalligator]

The Scholar of Gondor

There was a day’s travel between Undertowers and Hobbiton.

This was less a consequence of the actual distance between the two and more the fault of the state of the road. Namely, there wasn’t one. Thirty-five years of carts had carved two long furrows through the hilly lowlands, and these looped and turned around the hills like a very bored giant had spent an afternoon trailing its fingers through the dirt to make interesting designs. It was generally understood that a road was going to be built eventually, and in the meantime the Westmarch-hobbits and the Old-Shire-hobbits came to enjoy the distance from each other.

But gossip in the Shire never seemed to actually follow the roads. It soared on the open wind, travelling as the crow flies, so what was news in Undertowers somehow became known in Hobbiton in a matter of hours. If it was particularly scandalous gossip, it made the trip in minutes. When Fíriel Fairbairn was caught snogging Donnamira Brandybuck two Yules ago, it had spread across the Shire so quickly that it had reached back to Donnamira a full two minutes before it had actually happened. By that point the two decided that, what the hell, best not to tempt a paradox, and ducked into a parlor closet.

News about the Scholar of Gondor reached Hobbiton a full thirty minutes after the Scholar’s horse clattered to a stop in Undertowers.

This was news because it had been a full sixty years since King Elessar had declared Men as forbidden from entering the Shire. And what was worse, this human had been permitted entry into the Shire upon the orders of King Elessar himself. Worse still, the Fairbairns were apparently allowing it to stay in their home.

This was just too much for the Old-Shire-hobbits. Why couldn’t the Big Folk keep to their own and leave us in peace? And on Elessar’s orders, no less. What did Elessar think he was?  King? As for staying with the Fairbairns, well -

Most hobbits stopped at that. Well. You just didn’t talk about that sort of thing.

***

Fíriel “Sharkey” Fairbairn - a nickname she had picked up by general acclaim somewhere in her tweens - was doing her own research in her family’s library. This mainly consisted of pretending to read Herblore of the Shire while trying to inconspicuously stare at the Scholar of Gondor.

She was, Sharkey decided, rather pretty in a tall sort of way, all dark, wavy hair and brown face. If she was wearing a leather tunic and hunting spiders in the forest, she’d probably be the spitting image of an elf. Instead she was wearing a grey dress and robe that was somehow fashionable in Gondor despite it making her look a bit like a grounded thundercloud, and she was currently hunched over a massive pile of hobbit books, one hand pressing open The Red Book of Westmarch, and the other scrawling notes down in a small, leather notebook.

Sharkey considered herself to be rather attractive - she had to have been, to wind up snogging Donnamira Brandybuck two Yules ago - but even in her sharpest jacket and brightest trousers, a base animal instinct warned her that the Scholar was out of her league.

Sharkey closed Herblore with a snap, pulled her pipe out of her jacket pocket, and made an obvious show of nonchalantly cleaning it. “How’s it coming?” she asked.

The Scholar nodded. “A bit slow, I’m afraid,” she said. “I’ve only just finished There and Back Again.”

Sharkey had experimentally puffed on the pipe to test it for blockages and suddenly inhaled a glob of charcoal that lodged itself in her throat. “Al-ready?” she managed between coughs. “You - just - got here - two days ago!”

The Scholar hummed. “It’s a very short book,” she said. She looked up. Sharkey noticed that her eyes were a stunning shade of grey and, just then, full of curious worry. “Are you all right?”

“Never better!” Sharkey said in a strangled tone. She made one more hard, wheezing hack, and the glob came out into the crook of her elbow.

“What I don’t get,” Sharkey said, changing the subject after a sufficiently embarrassing pause, “is - you’re here to study The Red Book. I get that. But we gave Gondor a copy of The Red Book just three years ago, right?”

The Scholar tapped her quill on the notebook. “Well, yes, and we’re very grateful for it. But the academics of Gondor believed that it deserved some… clarification.”

Sharkey quirked an eyebrow. “Clarification?”

The Scholar nodded and flipped through some pages of notes. “Bilbo seemed to have something of a fanciful imagination, and inserted some creatures from hobbit folklore into his writing.” She got to a page almost black with Sindarin. “There and Back Again has stone-giants, skin-changers, were-worms - were-worms!” She looked back up at Sharkey. “What the hell is a were-worm?”

Sharkey allowed the image to form in her mind. “Something like a werewolf, I reckon,” she said after a moment. “Only it turns into a worm, not a wolf. Stands to reason, right?”

There was a pause as the Scholar thought up the image as well. “No,” she said.

Sharkey grinned. “Oh, what, you’ll accept eagles, trolls, goblins, and dragons, but-”

“They’re history,” the Scholar said. “Giants and mewlips and gorcrows and Tom Bombadil - those are mythology.”

There was a thoughtful pause. “I admit it’s a fine line,” the Scholar said. “But I can see it from where I stand-”

“Tom Bombadil’s mythology?”

“Er - yes,” the Scholar said. She held up The Adventures of Tom Bombadil and gave it an accusatory wobble. “I suspect your Frodo inserted him into the story to add some levity to his travels. He’s a folklore figure. A hobbit fairy tale. He’s not actually real.”

Sharkey frowned. “Isn’t he?”

There was another thoughtful pause. “I… thought so,” the Scholar muttered. “Up until just now, anyways.”

***

It turned into something like a pattern - Sharkey pretending to read some new book in the library, catching up on how the Scholar was doing. Sometimes this turned into the Scholar asking for clarification. Sometimes this was, “A later edition of this could really do with more mentions of Arwen,” or, “Look, just because Aragorn mentions the Beornings doesn’t mean that they can turn into bears.”

Then, somewhere in the middle of Blotmath:

“You’re - you’re asking me if my grandfather ever fucked Frodo.”

The Scholar shrugged. “I’m not necessarily suggesting that the two consumated the relationship, but if you look at the subtext-”

“My dear, sweet granddad, who loved my grandmother very much, and decided to leave for the Undying Lands the moment she died-”

“Well, who’s to say what happened before he got married? I’m just saying, it’s very convenient that Rosie only gets mentioned towards the end of the-”

“My lovely, gentle Grandpa Gamgee-”

The Scholar slapped a hand onto the table. “Your Grandpa Gamgee had a legendary virility among hobbits, and was considered for his time to be the most attractive hobbit in the Shire, Frodo would be insane not to get on that.”

“This is hell,” Sharkey said. “I’m in hell and you’re the devil. Everything makes sense now.”

The Scholar laughed, a clear, beautiful noise that set certain parts of Sharkey’s brain on fire. “I suppose hobbits don’t talk about that sort of thing, do they?”

“In the Old-Shire, definitely. But Undertowers is different.”

“How so?”

Sharkey shrugged. “It’s a new town,” she said. “When hobbits heard that there was a new place, a place away from the gossip, a lot of the ones who were disgraced in their old towns migrated over. A lot of that was for-” She made a vague gesture. “Travelling by ship with Gimli and Legolas, if you catch my meaning.”

The Scholar raised her eyebrows. “I had no idea.”

Sharkey puffed herself up, and pulled on the lapels of her jacket. “I pride myself as being the foremost authority on the subject.”

The Scholar leaned across the desk to her. Sharkey could suddenly see the little droplets of dried ink on her cheek, the shape of her lips, the thunderstorm in her grey eyes. “It’s a theory I’m… less experienced in, but certainly willing to study.”

The library was the biggest room in all of the Fairbairn Hallow, with ceilings that stretched up to a full ten feet. It was suddenly entirely too small and cramped to breathe in.

Sharkey licked her lips. “D’you - what do you say we get out of here and get a drink?”

***

The door to Elfstan’s study banged against the bookshelf built into the wall, dislodging a butterfly collection and Herblore of the Shire.

In the round doorway, significantly ruffled, gently swaying, and, an observer would have to be very close and deal with the very strong smell of hobbit-brewed whiskey to spot it, with dark lipstick smeared across one side of her mouth, was Sharkey.

“I AM,” she declared, “THE GREATEST HOBBIT WHO EVER LIVED.”

Elfstan apparently ignored her. “Write it down for posterity,” Sharkey continued. “On this, the sixteenth of Blotmath in the year 1487 (by Shire Reckoning), I, Fíriel Fairbairn, achieved the unachievable, and okay we just made out a little before she passed out, but that’s pretty good for me, and hey, why aren’t you paying attention?”

Her brother handed her a sheet with some scrawls across it. She read it, closing one eye to shut out the three other images swirling in her vision. “Sindarin,” she said flatly. “Oo-ee.” She looked closer.

“Are you sure?” she said, the dread chill of sobriety reaching its fingers into her hindbrain.

“I think so.”

Sharkey looked back at the sheet. “Damn,” she muttered. 

***

The Scholar was up in the tower of Elostirion, apparently to see where the palantír had once been until it was put on the ship that carried Frodo and Gandalf off into the Undying Lands.

Hobbits said that they could see all the way to the Sea from the top of Elostirion. Sharkey was firmly of the opinion that they were full of crap, mostly because by the time she’d managed to get to the top of the tower, her mind was mostly preoccupied with not dying.

“Stairs,” she wheezed once she’d made it to the top of the tower.

The Scholar was looking out over the railing. She made a sound, not really laughing, more a puff of humour without any of the effort behind it. “The hangover’s probably not helping, is it?”

“Definitely not.” She walked towards the opposite railing. “Don’t mind me, I’m going to throw up over the side.”

“I would’ve thought you’d inherited your grandfather’s constitution,” said the Scholar behind her. It sounded like she was smiling.

Sharkey wheezed over the railing until her mouth stopped tasting like she’d gargled pennies. “Granddad never had to deal with stairs while hungover,” she said. “Confusticate and bebother, I don’t know how you did it.”

The Scholar made another sound like laughter. Sharkey wiped her mouth, looked out over the railing, and said, “But I reckon it must be different for half-elves.”

There was silence. A breeze drifted through the tower, Sea-borne warmth now chilling into proper wintery discomfort.

The Scholar sighed. “How did you find out?”

Sharkey nodded and turned. The Scholar was still looking out over the opposite railing. “Elfstan’s been studying Sindarin. ‘Unglittering Gold’ - ‘All that is gold does not glitter’ - it wasn’t really a subtle pseudonym.” She added, “Er - I mean, your high-”

“Don’t,” the Scholar said. “Please don’t. I’m not that, not here.”

Sharkey took the point. “I’d like to know your name, though,” she muttered. “Your real one.”

The Scholar of Gondor turned her head and gave Sharkey a sad little smile.

“Eldariel,” Eldariel said.

Sharkey nodded. “The princess-”

“No, Sharkey, I’m not. Not here.”

“But you are.” Sharkey suddenly felt like throwing up over the rail again. “Oh ye heavens, you’re the prin-”

Eldariel whipped around, grey and black cloak and dress swirling like a woolen thunderstorm. “No, I’m not. Not here, Sharkey, do you understand? Here, I’m a scholar. I can do what I want, study what I wish. That-” she waved a hand vaguely, “-person, that girl, she’s back in Gondor.”

She raked her fingers through her hair and took a deep, dramatic breath. “I am the daughter of King Elessar, the first daughter of the House of Telcontar. Do you know what that makes me?”

Sharkey considered this. “A pri-”

“Nothing, Sharkey. I’m nothing.” She made another noise like laughing, only this time there was no humour behind it. “Worse than that - I’m a token. An asset. Do you know what the name Fíriel is from? It’s from a princess of Gondor who was married off to Arvedui of Arnor and disappeared from history all together. That’s what the princess of Gondor is meant to do, just exist and be happy until you continue the family line.”

She turned back to the railing. When she spoke again, it sounded as though her voice was coming from very far away. “My brother will be the one who takes the throne, and he’ll be the one who’ll stay in history. Stories will be told about the great deeds he’ll do once Father passes and Mother fades away. He’ll go on great quests with Elboron and Elfwine, I have no doubt, and they’ll probably find the Entwives and the Beornings and maybe even the two Blue Wizards. And what will people what remember about me?”

Sharkey looked out over the railing. She didn’t know how far half-elf eyes could see, but for the first time in her life, she thought she could just spot the Sea.

She almost said: The tip of your nose wiggles when you talk.

You hold your forehead in your palm when you read.

You are personally offended by the concept of were-worms.

When you get frustrated, you run your fingers through your hair to try and make it as messy as you can. It never works.

When we got drunk together, we walked out on a snowy night and you started crying. Snowflakes were glittering gold in the lamplight, and you’d decided that it was the prettiest thing you’d ever seen.

Your first kiss felt like revenge against your parents, and I’m terrified to ask for a second kiss because it might taste like you falling in love with me.

At the same time she thought: But people won’t remember that. People don’t deserve to have those moments remembered, written down, because that version of you belongs to me.

But for now - and tomorrow - and forever - that’s what I’ll remember about you.

She said: “To hell with what other people remember about you.”

Eldariel looked over at her.

“To hell with what other people remember about you,” Sharkey said again, a bit more certainly this time. “Maybe centuries later, somewhere, someone’ll read ‘And Old Samwise had a granddaughter named Fíriel Fairbairn,’ and they’ll say, ‘Fíriel Fairbairn? I wonder who she was,’ and they’ll read, ‘And King Elessar had a daughter,’ and they’ll say, ‘I wonder what she did.’

“But by then it’s all a story, and people will forget the truth, or they’ll remember it accidentally, but in some way it’ll carry on. What’ll be important,” she reached up and took Eldariel’s hand in hers, “is what we do today.”

What happened next - who’s to say?

***

And maybe it happened And maybe it didn’t. Oh! Who is a hobbit to say Of those dirty codgers, Those damn gossip-dodgers, Who packed up and all went away.

- Chorus of a traditional Undertowers drinking song

#lord of the rings #lotr #tolkien #jrr tolkien #tolkien legendarium #the hobbit #lotr fanfic #lotr fanfiction #fanfiction #writing #technically no original characters #in that eldariel is a nameless character in the appendices #and firiel is mentioned once in a footnote in the forward of the adventures of tom bombadil #so #technically #wlw fanfic #narrativia

[deadcactuswalking]

REVIEWING THE CHARTS: 03/04/2021 (Lil Nas X’s “MONTERO”, Mimi Webb, Russ Millions & Tion Wayne)

So, we have a #1 debut, and that’s pretty much the only story here in the UK Top 75 as we get a filler week before Demi Lovato, Olivia Rodrigo and Lil Tjay run in and cause havoc. As for now, “Wellerman” is replaced at the top by Lil Nas X’s controversial “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)”, spending its first week at #1 after making pretty sudden gains assisted by the video and alternate versions – the mid-week projection had this at #15. Elsewhere, we just see the fall-out from Bieber. Welcome back to REVIEWING THE CHARTS.

Rundown

It’s a quiet week – only seven new entries, and none from Rod Wave, 24kGoldn or AJR as I had predicted. That doesn’t mean there isn’t some stuff to talk about within the chart, or particularly off of the chart, as we have a fair few drop-outs switching their places with returning entries. In particular, we have Justin Bieber’s “As I Am” featuring Khalid being swapped out for “Anyone” at #25, as well as drop-outs for “Arcade” by Duncan Laurence – slightly premature, I’d think – and all of Lana Del Rey’s songs from last week. We also “Anxious” by AJ Tracey, “Heat” by Paul Woodford and Amber Mark and “Toxic” by Digga D exit the chart, but the only real notable loss was “34+35” by Ariana Grande ending its 21-week run on the chart. Returning to the Top 75 in its place – which I cover – we have “Mr. Brightside” by the Killers of course at #73, as well as “Midnight Sky” by Miley Cyrus at #72, “You’ve Done Enough” by Gorgon City and DRAMA at #70 (really hope this one becomes a hit) and “Don’t You Worry About Me” by Bad Boy Chiller Crew at #66. In terms of climbers and fallers, we do have some notable gains and losses. For songs travelling down the chart, we have “Patience” by KSI featuring YUNGBLUD and Polo G tanking a sharp drop in its third week to #18, “Streets” by Doja Cat shaking off the video gains at #22, “drivers license” by Olivia Rodrigo continuing to collapse at #27, another sharp drop for HVME’s remix of Travis Scott’s “Goosebumps” down to #34 probably due to ACR, which was probably the fate for “Get Out My Head” by Shane Codd at #46. The same probably can’t be said for Drake’s losses, as “What’s Next” is at #40, “Lemon Pepper Freestyle” featuring Rick Ross is at #41 and “Wants and Needs” featuring Lil Baby stalls at #55. We also see falls for “Money Talks” by Fredo and Dave at #50, “Bringing it Back” by Digga D and AJ Tracey at #51, “Sweet Melody” by Little Mix on its way out at #57, “Headshot” by Lil Tjay featuring Polo G and Fivio Foreign down to #61 off the debut (although it’ll rebound thanks to the album as soon as the next week rolls around), “Ready” by Fredo featuring Summer Walker at #62, “You’re Mines Still” by Yung Bleu featuring Drake at #63 and “Day in the Life” by Central Cee at #69. Where it gets interesting are our gains, such as outside the top 40 with “What Other People Say” by Demi Lovato and Sam Fischer which could very well get even higher next week thanks to the album. We also have “Track Star” by Mooski at #53 off of the debut and a couple of tracks entering the top 40 for the first time, those being “Heartbreak Anniversary” by Giveon at #39 and Majestic’s remix of “Rasputin” by Boney M. at #38. Elsewhere in the top 40, we have “Let’s Go Home Together” by Ella Henderson and Tom Grennan at #13 and two songs marking their first week in the top 10, those being “Little Bit of Love” by Tom Grennan at #10, a song continuing to sour on me, and “Your Love (9PM)” by ATB, Topic and A7S, an EDM song at #8 that I initially mocked for its soulless repackaging but has honestly got me pretty hooked since. I’m excited to see how this one does. For now, however, let’s get on with our new arrivals.

NEW ARRIVALS

#64 – “Cloud 9” – Beach Bunny

Produced by Joe Reinhart

Beach Bunny is a power pop band who last year released their album Honeymoon on Mom+Pop and it’s basically a modern r/indieheads staple in that it’s an accessible, airy pop-rock record fronted by a woman. It’s not anything unique, really, or different if you look further into it but that’s fine because there’s a lot of vaguely “indie” or music snob releases pushed out every year that miss the charts entirely. It’s a different story, however, when a year later, it gets viral on TikTok and streams its way onto the chart. In that case, we have “Cloud 9” by Beach Bunny, a pretty simple but sweet love song about a guy who just makes her feel a lot better about herself in times where she can’t pick herself up from the rut she’s in. Again, it’s a simple track but enhanced by the wonderful and unique vocal performance from front-woman Lili Trifilo and some pretty great production making sure no guitar lick is missed in this mix, especially in that chorus which is such an ethereal blend of the electric guitar dubs. I would argue that this actually should end at that second chorus even if it ends feeling abrupt as the transition to the final chorus feels a lot less cathartic than it does awkward, especially if the bridge is going to be a simplistic, quirky instrumental meander that doesn’t go far enough to be a guitar solo and hence feels kind of like a worthless addition. As is, this is a pretty great song still, just not the most fully realised once it loses that initial tight surf groove, though I’ll let it pass if we’re going to get rock this good on the charts again. I know this won’t really get more traction for Beach Bunny – or power pop for that matter – but more of this, please.

#52 – “You All Over Me” (Taylor’s Version) (From the Vault) (Remix) (feat. DaBaby) (Part 2) (Radio Edit) – Taylor Swift featuring Maren Morris

Produced by Taylor Swift and Aaron Dessner

Sadly, this does not feature DaBaby and is not the remix, radio edit or sequel to any previously released song. Jokes aside, I guess brackets are the next big comeback for pop music, which goes hand-in-hands with remixes and re-releases, hence why Taylor Swift is dusting off this leaked Fearless-era cut for a new recording with country singer Maren Morris, who you probably know from her contributions to Zedd’s “The Middle”. Now whilst Swift is a great songwriter, I do often find myself frustrated by how she treads common ground all too frequently without establishing much different with how a song is structured or how it emotionally connects. This is true not just lyrically but especially sonically as of recent, as despite being written in 2008, it has too much in common with the less interesting cuts off of folklore for me to really care that much. That’s especially if Taylor’s going to undercut the clean acoustic guitars with flourishes of harmonica and crow sound effects, showing some genuine intrigue here before refusing to let any of that develop past a couple stray melodies or notes further back in the mix. I’m trying really hard to be compelled by these re-recordings and re-releases of her back catalogue as I do consider myself a fan, but it’s tough to pay attention when any new compositions we get sound like folklore leftovers with Maren Morris only put to use as decoration, much like HAIM on “no body, no crime” – and we already got an album full of folklore leftovers. I’m not a fan of this, sorry – I can see the appeal, and I do think this has enough of a country tinge to it to make it at least somewhat interesting – but this goes in one ear and immediately out of the other.

#48 – “Tonight” – Ghost Killer Track featuring OBOY and D-Block Europe

Produced by Ghost Killer Track and Kenzy

Screw the formalities and screw the analysis because D-Block Europe are back to add another D-Block to their EU collection – and since they’re Londoners, their only – and that’s Paris, and contrary to the British nature, we’ve let French rap chart in the top 50 out of the fact that they collaborated with two of the most comical rappers in British history. They’ve also linked up with producer Ghost Killer Track, also from France, as this is ostensibly his song even if he intends not to prove himself with this dull piano-based beat and oddly-mastered bass and percussion, which are really just DBE staples. Unfortunately, past the initial comedy of that first line in the chorus, neither Young Adz or Dirtbike LB deliver any stupid lyrics or funny inflections, instead just resorting to being as boring as they can in their constant flexing as possible. I guess the French guy here, OBOY, commands a higher energy in his verse if only through his comical “no, no, no” ad-libs, but he’s the only French speaker in an otherwise basic British trap song that I just cannot see the appeal in when we’ve had song after song from these guys for three years now. This won’t be the last we see of cookie-cutter UK rap this week though so brace yourselves for that.

#47 – “Last Time” – Becky Hill

Produced by LOSTBOY

It’s almost as if the charts are trying to send me off to sleep as here we have Becky Hill, a singer hedging the line between a non-presence and mildly annoying, which is arguably more frustrating than downright infuriating as her slightly smokier voice does not sound bad, just lacking in texture in every way, especially if the multi-tracking is going to be this minimal on a royalty-free deep-house beat produced by Getty Images with a pretty worthless drop, a generic and simple melody of piano stabs for major chords, and a whole bunch of reverb on the vocal take... but it still ends up feeling dry as there’s nothing here to quench that thirst for a tighter, bass-heavy house banger or even a more ethereal, dreamy trance track, deciding to stick to a healthy medium of boring and utter garbage. Yes, that was a singular sentence. I’m not awake enough to form a cohesive sentence less than 40 words long, and this new Becky Hill track is just worsening that if anything. Speaking of...

#21 – “Body” – Russ Millions and Tion Wayne

Produced by Gotcha Bxtch

Who’s Russ Millions? He’s Russ. No, not that Russ. British Russ – or Russ Splash, stylised as Russ splash on Spotify and nowhere else. This confusingly-named fellow appeared on the charts a couple times and possibly most famously with “Keisha & Becky”, a song also featuring Tion Wayne that is referenced on this very track. Sigh, I usually like Tion Wayne but even he can’t be bothered to delivery his usual brand of suave charm or sinister menace, instead opting for a more growling but ultimately completely monotone cadence that doesn’t flatter him or Russ, who one of my friends described as sounding like one of the aliens from Toy Story. This is a pretty by-the-numbers drill beat too, and it’s pretty safe to say that neither Russ or Tion Wayne here are going to bother with wordplay, even when they start pretty smoothly trading bars and Tion Wayne goes for a more unique chopper flow in the second verse. This is just not of any note. Once again, speaking of...

#17 – “Good Without” – Mimi Webb                        

Produced by Freedo

I assumed Mimi Webb debuted this high because of a talent show she won or something because I’d never heard her name but instead, she just happened to have a major label deal before her unreleased song just happened to go viral on TikTok and just happened to be supported by one of the women who just happened to be the biggest creator on the platform. Yeah, and this song just happened to be garbage, suffering from every possible millennial pop trope and then some, from the mix dressed rather too overtly in reverb, the ugly guitar pluck, a generic indie-girl voice that you swear you’ve heard before in one of those dreadful piano covers of popular songs they use in adverts, as well as this ballad being undercut by badly-programmed trap percussion. I can tell this label is trying to create somewhat of an Olivia Rodrigo phenomenon from this and I for one am terrified of the Poundland knock-offs to come. Screw this.

#1 – “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)” – Lil Nas X

Produced by Roy Lenzo, Omar Fedi and Take a Daytrip

At least Lil Nas X will bring some passion into this chart week? Well, not really, as when I hear this I recall that Pitchfork review of his EP, a much-maligned critique that featured the ever-so pretentious questioning if Lil Nas X really enjoyed making and listening to music. It reminds me because I think I now fully get it – at least when Lil Nas X was making slap-dash pop rock with Travis Barker or meme-worthy country rap with Billy Ray Cyrus for less than two minutes apiece, there was something invigorating in the execution or at least in concept. That 7 EP is still not a bad debut at all, but this new single “MONTERO”, a long-anticipated record that went from constantly-teased demo to Super Bowl commercial to Satanic-panicked videos of Lil Nas giving Satan a lap-dance to own the conservatives, has the same remote dreariness to it as “HOLIDAY” did late last year. The acoustic, Latin-flavoured guitar loop reminds me of his much better track “Rodeo” from that aforementioned EP that used its energy for similarly lighthearted subject matter but with some genuine energy, a Cardi B feature and a lot less subtle moombahton creeping in. With that said, I can’t say Lil Nas X didn’t try, as his vocal performance, whilst largely insufferable and strained, gives some energy to an otherwise aggravatingly stunted beat, and makes it a lot more infectious than it has any right to be. Content-wise, the song is essentially about a full circle where Lil Nas X becomes increasingly desperate for a man who starts off lonely and in a bad place, and the irony is that Lil Nas gets more explicitly sexual and crazed due to a combination of the LA life-style surrounding him and the fact that he’s simply, for lack of a better term, “down bad”, despite the fact that this guy doesn’t seem particularly desirable. Lil Nas knows this, though, and acknowledges it in the pre-chorus where he outright says that this guy is living the cocaine-addled celebrity life, but not living it right without Mr. Bullriding and Boobies in his life. I’m happy about the video and the outrage it seems to cause not just within conservative spaces but also amongst the hip-hop community, particularly Joyner Lucas, and I’m pretty happy with how out and proud Lil Nas X is about his sexuality, even if it leads to lines like “Shoot a child in your mouth while I’m ridin’”. I’m just really not a fan of this song past its content, which could really be interesting but falls flat with this plucking production that wastes time in barely two minutes with humming interludes. It’s not bad at all, just not for me.

Conclusion

And that concludes our week, and wow, what a bad week this was for new arrivals. Admittedly, it’s a filler week so only “MONTERO (Call Me by Your Name)” will probably last – or at least we can hope as even if I don’t like the song, I still have to give out an Honourable Mention to someone, and it may as well be Lil Nas X trying to put the effort in. Best of the Week easily goes to Beach Bunny for “Cloud 9”, far and away the only good song here, with Worst of the Week also going out pretty easily to Mimi Webb’s “Good Without”, which is the type of soulless, unmemorable garbage that makes pop music look uninspired, and as a person who writes about the charts constantly, it’s a misconception I don’t want proven or revisited. Dishonourable Mention is a toss-up but I guess I’ll give it to Russ Millions and Tion Wayne for that sprinkle of drill disappointment that is “Body”, and that’ll be it for this week. I predict some impact from Demi Lovato, Lil Tjay and especially Olivia Rodrigo next week, but for now, here’s our top 10:

Thank you for reading – sorry for the grouchiness on this one – and I’ll see you next week!

[dillydedalus]

january reading

why does january always feel like it’s 3 months long. anyway here’s what i read in january, feat. poison experts with ocd, ants in your brain, old bolsheviks getting purged, and mountweazels. 

city of lies, sam hawke (poison wars #1) this is a perfectly nice fantasy novel about jovan, who serves as essentially a secret guard against poisoning for his city state’s heir and is forced to step up when his uncle (also a secret poison guard) and the ruler are both killed by an unknown poison AND also the city is suddenly under a very creepy siege (are these events related? who knows!) this is all very fine & entertaining & there are some fun ideas, but also... the main character has ocd and SAME HAT SAME HAT. also like the idea of having a very important, secret and potentially fatal job that requires you to painstakingly test everything the ruler/heir is consuming WHILE HAVING OCD is like... such a deliciously sadistic concept. amazing. 3/5

my heart hemmed in, marie ndiaye (translated from french by jordan stump) a strange horror-ish tale in which two married teachers, bastions of upper-middle-class respectability and taste, suddenly find themselves utterly despised by everyone around them, escalating until the husband is seriously injured. through several very unexpected twists, it becomes clear that the couple’s own contempt for anyone not fitting into their world and especially nadia’s hostility and shame about her (implied to be northern african) ancestry is the reason for their pariah status. disturbing, surprising, FUCKED UP IF TRUE (looking back, i no longer really know what i mean by that). 4/5

xenogenesis trilogy (dawn/adulthood rites/imago), octavia e. butler octavia butler is incapable of writing anything uninteresting and while i don’t always completely vibe with her stuff, it’s always fascinating & thought-provoking. this series combines some of her favourite topics (genetic manipulation, alien/human reproduction, what is humanity) into a tale of an alien species, the oankali, saving some human survivors from the apocalypse and beginning a gene-trading project with them, integrating them into their reproductive system and creating mixed/’construct’ generations with traits from both species. and like, to me, this was uncomfortably into the biology = destiny thing & didn’t really question the oankali assertion that humans were genetically doomed to hierarchical behaviour & aggression (& also weirdly straight for a book about an alien species with 3 genders that engages in 5-partner-reproduction with humans), so that angle fell flat for me for the most part, altho i suppose i do agree that embracing change, even change that comes at a cost, is better than clinging to an unsustainable (& potentially destructive) purity. where i think the series is most interesting is in its exploration of consent and in how far consent is possible in extremely one-sided power dynamics (curiously, while the oankali condemn and seem to lack the human drive for hierarchy, they find it very easy to abuse their position of power & violate boundaries & never question the morality of this. in this, the first book, focusing on a human survivor first encountering the oankali and learning of their project, is the most interesting, as lilith as a human most explicitly struggles with her position - would her consent be meaningful? can she even consent when there is a kind of biochemical dependence between humans and their alien mates? the other two books, told from the perspectives of lilith’s constructed/mixed children, continue discussing themes of consent, autonomy and power dynamics, but i found them less interesting the further they moved from human perspectives. on the whole: 2.5/5

love & other thought experiments, sophie ward man, we love a pierre menard reference. anyway. this is a novel in stories, each based (loosely) on a thought experiment, about (loosely) a lesbian couple and their son arthur, illness and grief, parenthood, love, consciousness and perception, alternative universes, and having an ant in your brain. it is thoroughly delightful & clever, but goes for warmth and humanity (or ant-ity) over intellectual games (surprising given that it is all about thought experiments - but while they are a nice structuring device i don’t think they add all that much). i haven’t entirely worked out my feelings about the ending and it’s hard to discuss anyway given the twists and turns this takes, but it's a whole lot of fun. 4/5

a general theory of oblivion, josé eduardo agualusa (tr. from portuguese by daniel hahn) interesting little novel(la) set in angola during and after the struggle for independence, in which a portuguese woman, ludo, with extreme agoraphobia walls herself into her apartment to avoid the violence and chaos (but also just... bc she has agoraphobia) with a involving a bunch of much more active characters and how they are connected to her to various degrees. i didn’t like the sideplot quite as much as ludo’s isolation in her walled-in flat with her dog, catching pigeons on the balcony and writing on the walls. 3/5

cassandra at the wedding, dorothy baker phd student cassandra returns home attend (sabotage) her twin sister judith’s wedding to a young doctor whose name she refuses to remember, believing that her sister secretly wants out. cass is a mess, and as a shift to judith’s perspective reveals, definitely wrong about what judith wants and maybe a little delusional, but also a ridiculously compelling narrator, the brilliant but troubled contrast to judith’s safer conventionality. on the whole, cassandra’s narrative voice is the strongest feature of a book i otherwise found a bit slow & a bit heavy on the quirky family. fav line is when cass, post-character-development, plans to “take a quick look at [her] dumb thesis and see if it might lead to something less smooth and more revolting, or at least satisfying more than the requirements of the University”. 3/5

the office of historical corrections, danielle evans a very solid collection of realist short stories (+ the titular novella), mainly dealing with racism, (black) womanhood, relationships between women, and anticolonial/antiracist historiography. while i thought all the stories were well-done and none stood out as weak or an unnecessary inclusion, there also weren’t any that really stood out to me. 3/5

sonnenfinsternis, arthur koestler (english title: darkness at noon) (audio) you know what’s cool about this book? when i added it to my goodreads tbr in 2012, i would have had to read it in translation as the german original was lost during koestler’s escape from the nazis, but since then, the original has been rediscovered and republished. yet another proof that leaving books on your tbr for ages is a good thing actually. anyway. this is a story about the stalinist purges, told thru old bolshevik rubashov, who, after serving the Party loyally for years & doing his fair share of selling people out for the Party, is arrested for ~oppositional activities. in jail and during his interrogations, rubashov reflects on the course the Party has taken and his own part (and guilt) in that, and the way totalitarianism has eaten up and poisoned even the most commendable ideals the Party once held (and still holds?), the course of history and at what point the end no longer justifies the means. it’s brilliant, rubashov is brilliant and despicable, i’m very happy it was rediscovered. 5/5

heads of the colored people, nafissa thompson-spires another really solid short story collection, also focused on the experiences of black people in america (particularly the black upper-middle class), black womanhood and black relationships, altho with a somewhat more satirical tone than danielle evans’s collection. standouts for me were the story in letters between the mothers of the only black girls at a private school, a story about a family of fruitarians, and a story about a girl who fetishises her disabled boyfriend(s). 3.5/5

pedro páramo, juan rulfo (gernan transl. by dagmar ploetz) mexican classic about a rich and abusive landowner (the titular pedro paramo) and the ghost town he leaves behind - quite literally, as, when his son tries to find his father, the town is full of people, quite ready to talk shit about pedro, but they are all dead. it’s an interesting setting with occasionally vivid writing, but the skips in time and character were kind of confusing and i lost my place a lot. i’d be interested in reading rulfo’s other major work, el llano en llamas. 2.5/5

verse für zeitgenossen, mascha kaléko short collection of the poems kaléko, a jewish german poet, wrote while in exile in the united states in the 30-40s, as well as some poems written after the end of ww2. kaléko’s voice is witty, but at turns also melancholy or satirical. as expected i preferred the pieces that directly addressed the experience of exile (”sozusagen ein mailied” is one of my favourite exillyrik pieces). 3/5

the harpy, megan hunter yeah this was boooooooring. the cover is really cool & the premise sounded intriguing (women gets cheated on, makes deal with husband that she is allowed to hurt him three times in revenge, women is also obsessed with harpies: female revenge & female monsters is my jam) but it’s literally so dull & trying so hard to be deep. 1.5/5

the liar’s dictionary, eley williams this is such a delightful book, from the design (those marbled endpapers? yes) to the preface (all about what a dictionary is/could be), to the chapter headings (A-Z words, mostly relating to lies, dishonesty, etc in some way or another, containing at least one fictitious entry), to the dual plots (intern at new edition of a dictionary in contemporary england checking the incomplete old dictionary for mountweazels vs 1899 london with the guy putting the mountweazels in), to williams’s clear joy about words and playing with them. there were so many lines that made me think about how to translate them, which is always a fun exercise. 3.5/5

catherine the great & the small, olja knežević (tr. from montenegrin by ellen elias-bursać, paula gordon) coming-of-age-ish novel about katarina from montenegro, who grows up in  titograd/podgorica and belgrad in the 70s/80s, eventually moving to london as an adult. to be honest while there are some interesting aspects in how this portrays yugoslavia and conflicts between the different parts of yugoslavia, i mostly found this a pretty sloggy slog of misery without much to emotionally connect to, which is sad bc i was p excited for it :(. 2/5

the decameron project: 29 new stories from the pandemic, anthology a collection of short stories written during covid lockdown (and mostly about covid/lockdown in some way). they got a bunch of cool authors, including margaret atwood, edwidge danticat, rachel kushner ... it’s an interesting project and the stories are mostly pretty good, but there wasn’t one that really stood out to me as amazing. i also kinda wish more of the stories had diverged more from covid/lockdown thematically bc it got a lil repetitive tbh. 2/5

#the books i read #long post #sonnenfinsternis is so good the audiobook nearly made me cry in the supermarket

[hippriestess]

Part 2: Cherry-picking

Cherry Red had been releasing The Fall's new music since 2011's “Ersatz GB” and we already knew that Smith had signed a further deal with them to look after what portion of the group's catalogue he owned. They had already made a start with the handsome seven disc “Singles 1978 - 2016” box set they had released late in 2017 (alongside a cut-down three disc “A Sides” collection). The set had originally been scheduled for release in 2016 but the production deadline for the all-important Christmas market was missed and the set was held back until after “New Facts Emerge” - from which no singles were taken - had been released. Following Smith's passing, the seven-disc edition sold out and was unavailable for a short time before Cherry Red did the decent thing and made a few more.

A reissue of  1997's “Levitate” had been in the works for a while; Smith had signed off the tracklisting and there had been a trailer of sorts with a Record Store Day-only 7” of “Masquerade” in 2017. Given that the album had been in contractual limbo for quite some time with original vinyl copies fetching 3 figures on the open market, Cherry Red's first posthumous release felt like a public service,  doing the right thing both by Smith and by the fans. Released towards the end of May 2018, the new 2CD/3LP edition was justly well received and some kindly reviews appeared with mostly positive re-evaluations of one of their most awkward albums. Hindsight benefits the record; if it sounds like they were falling to bits, it's because they were and now that we know not just what happened next but how the whole story of The Fall continued for another 20 years, it has context. For the record (Portugal), yr present author is no more fond of the album than she was 7 or 8 years ago but “Ol' Gang” has clicked into focus and the second disc puts those great b-sides from the “Masquerade” CD singles back onto the shelves so it would have to be considered necessary.

Less impressive was “58 Golden Greats”, released at the end of 2018. A 3CD set in a clamshell box, this was, in essence, an extended version of the classic “50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong” collection from 2004, extending the tracklist to cover the remainder(er) of the group's career. It actually expands on the original in other ways, adding several songs from the era covered in the original version; the puzzling omission of “Big New Prinz” is corrected for one thing and other singles are added such as  “Oh! Brother” and “Dead Beat Descendent”. Perhaps Beggars Banquet were more co-operative this time. Whilst one could always quibble with any attempt at a Fall “best of”, yr present author was not taken with this one and my purse remained closed. 58 was an unwieldy number (why not a round 60?), the cover artwork – a spoof of a different Elvis Presley sleeve – was far from appealing and the entry-point value of “50,000...” was lost, a 3 disc set at £17 being too big a serving at too high a price for the merely curious. However, it looks as if I'm just flat-out in the wrong. As we'll continually see, Cherry Red aren't just experienced, they are also smart and do not lack savvy. I'm sat here keyboard-griping while “58 Golden Greats” is sold out. Enough said.

In 2019, Cherry Red announced the beginning of the Fall Sound Archive, the title of which gave the air of a mission to preserve The Fall's work for future generations. Inevitably, they were starting with 40th Anniversary editions of “Live At The Witch Trials” and “Dragnet”. There was early disappointment. The 3CD edition of “Live At The Witch Trials” contained the exact same music as the 2CD edition from 2004 but spread over three discs. Any thoughts that the decision at least preserved the sanctity of the original 11 song album were hampered by the 3CD edition of “Dragnet” containing, as disc 1, the exact same running order – with single and outtakes – as the 2004 CD edition. The other two discs were 2 of the little-loved “Live From The Vaults” series (of which, more later, sort of..). The archive was perhaps, not so deep.

However, the plus points were the vinyl editions, which had been hatched with obvious care. Using the rare US edition of “LATWT” with an alternate sleeve and revised running order was a clever touch and one that acknowledged that the Fall's audience would need something more than just a nice colour of vinyl before they indulged the album yet again. Similarly, “Dragnet” came with a reproduction 7” of “Rowche Rumble”, a record which originally came with the thinnest paper sleeve in the history of music. That's not to say that we didn't get coloured vinyl, oh we did - “LATWT” came of red vinyl to match the US sleeve and “Dragnet” on black and white “splatter” vinyl. These both sold well, sold quickly and sold out, now being tricky to score except on the Discogs etc market. But perhaps more to the point, they suggested that Cherry Red's experience and nouse would, at minimum, keep things interesting.

Later in 2019, the Kamera catalogue came under Cherry Red's microscope and it was another mixed set of releases. For CD buyers, a 6 disc set called “(1982)” was developed. This contained “Hex Enduction Hour”, “Room To Live” “Fall In A Hole” various single and live tracks and the “Live To Air In Melbourne” album which had previously snuck out in the late 90's when MES was broke. There was no new music to be had here at all – everything had previously been released. As such £40 was too rich a price tag for many and the edition is still easily available. The new vinyl edition of “Hex” was well particularly well presented. For the first time, the 60 minute LP was cut onto 4 sides of vinyl – a long overdue move, this did the album real justice on the format and would have to be considered an essential for those who insist on twelve-inch slabs of wax for their music. A pleasing, sturdy fold-out sleeve showed that corners were not being cut, the vinyl again matched the colour scheme of the artwork and it also came with an excellent reproduction of the sterling “Look, Know/I'm Into C.B.” 45. What spoiled it a little bit was the inclusion of a third LP with Peel Session #5 on one side and some of the live tracks from the 2005 Sanctuary 2CD on the other. All this really did was drive up the price – a double LP with the 7” would have been perfect and would have been less heavy on the purse *NB – this didn't stop me buying it – that's my copy in the picture...). “Room To Live” was given a vinyl reissue too, this time as a double LP with sides 3 and 4 being the live tracks from the 2005 Sanctuary edition. Again, this didn't quite feel like the right choice – an alternative idea would have been a single LP with a 7”. Given that the classic “Lie Dream Of A Casino Soul/Fantastic Life” single had been added to the popular, widely owned German pressing, why not add a repro of that instead? It would have cost less and added more value to the package.

Despite these whinges “(1982)” would have to be considered an elegant, practical solution to a latter-day problem and demonstrates why Cherry Red remain a market leader in catalogue reissues. Can you really sell compact discs of these albums yet again? How else do you present the music in this format? The answer to parcel the whole lot together and present it as a “year-in-the-life” was a smart one that was only hampered by an optimistic £40 price tag (which translated to as much as £58 in stores) and the artwork being based on “Hex” which could have given a more casual customer the notion that the set was Hex and 5 discs of “other” material. The bottom line here is that there is nothing else in the cupboard; as with the IAKO ballet and the Hey! Luciani play, fantasies about things like the unedited “Winter” and the full 20+ minute “And This Day” ever appearing are exactly that – fantasies. Were they ever preserved, they're gone and anything that did turn up, almost 40 years hence would likely be in such a state of degeneration as to be unlistenable. From now on, all that can be done is to keep this material out there and try to present it with a fresh angle. That's precisely what Cherry Red have done here.

Come 2020, come the challenge of reselling what is not just one of the most widely-distributed but also one of the worst Fall albums: “Reformation Post TLC”. Cherry Red stuck to type with a double LP pressed into blue and red coloured vinyl, again matching the colour to the sleeve. Undoubtedly a handsome package, this version was snapped up with some enthusiasm although it does seem that sales were likely harmed by coinciding with the early, uncertain, often panic-stricken days of the Covid-19 pandemic reaching the UK. The 4CD edition was daunting: the whole album and 2 CDs worth of outtakes and rough mixes, followed by the “Last Night At The Palais” CD. The “Last Night At The Palais” DVD was not included. Time has passed, time has healed and it is clear that RPTLC is a terrific EP stretched out beyond the energy of the participants. There is even a strong 40 minute single LP to be had within its contents but, hey it was what it was. With almost all of the unreleased mixes having no vocals, interest wears off before we got to the excellent live disc but, on the other paw, Cherry Red have done exactly what we want; it is highly unlikely that there is anything left from the album sessions; this is the whole lot, every scrap. Up to us now what we do with them.

****************************

Now, if you're thinking I've skipped something, you're right but the story of The Fall's posthumous discography is difficult to tell in a linear fashion. So I invite you, friends, to join me in a diversion. Cast your minds back to Record Store Day 2019.  

Cherry Red played a good hand by releasing a new vinyl edition of the superb “Imperial Wax Solvent” album. As with “Levitate”, vinyl copies were going for silly money, Universal having allegedly pressed a mere 500 for the world. It was a shame that Cherry Red therefore added only another 500 copies, this time pressed into yellow vinyl. These were almost entirely snapped up on the day and copies of this edition are routinely offered at £50-60.  “IWS” had, of course, been out of print since 2008, having been deleted less than 6 months after its release. As such the RSD edition of  “IWS” could be said to have undersold the record somewhat. Unless, of course, a properly “available” edition, maybe with that unreleased original mix of the album was to follow at some point...more on that later.

Sadly, we must also wade through the other Fall releases that were curled out for RSD 2019. That will take us into Part 3...

#the fall #mark e smith #hex enduction hour #dragnet #live at the witch trials #reformation post tlc #1982 #room to live #craig scanlon #steve hanley #paul hanley #marc riley #karl burns #imperial wax solvent

[kolbisneat]

MONTHLY MEDIA: January 2020

Hey here’s how I spent the start of this fine new year!

……….FILM……….

Parasite (2019) I was so focused on the plot that I don’t think I fully appreciated the beauty in this film. Watching this video helped a lot. One thing I admit (light spoilers to follow...skip past if you don’t want anything spoiled) is that I assumed there would be some sort of genre/fantastical element to the whole film. Because I’ve only seen The Host and Snowpiercer (loved both), I think I expected there to be a genre component to the whole thing. When they go down into the basement I really thought it was heading in that direction, and I definitely felt a little let down because of it. BUT after seeing the whole film, I feel like the themes and narrative were stronger because of how real it all felt. (END OF SPOILERS) I think it’s a film I’d like to rewatch to better appreciate the layers, but ho boy is it an emotional gutpunch.

Jojo Rabbit (2019) Just the best. The structure and (some) of the characters felt familiar, but it’s that comfort that makes the changes or introduction of an imaginary Hitler all the more interesting. Beautifully directed and the shifts in tone are so seamless that I really have a hard time pointing out where they happen.

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017) A little late to this but it was as good as I’d heard. It had the pacing, spirit, and lightness of late 90s/early 2000 adventure movies and I hope more films like this are getting the go ahead. Now to wait 3 years before seeing the sequel.

Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019) A fun road trip movie that dips into scathing commentary on hollywood and talk shows? Absolutely. It worked well in building off of the webseries and the bloopers during the end credits really made it for me. Also I should’ve been playing Comedy Bang Bang Bingo while watching the movie. Anyway it does a great job of balancing the mean with genuine character moments and glimpses of sincerity.

……….TELEVISION……….

The Bachelor (Episode 24.01 to 24.03) It started out so promising (with the Hannah Brown return) that I was really primed for a format-shaking season. Nothing can quite live up to that beginning and it’s doing the show a disservice. Maybe if they just focused on nice reasonable dates and women getting along it would feel more substantial than the contrived fighting and lies we’re getting. I still believe that the most engaging season will actually be the one with the least drama. Perhaps I’m in the majority for thinking this.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Episode 3.01 to 3.03) Reeeeeeally digging this season. Maybe it’s that there isn’t much relationship drama, or because the relationships play a part in the larger plot (as opposed to Riverdale...but that’s another can of worms). The Cthulhu and carnival stuff are offering a nice mix and we’re really getting lots of monster-of-the-week stuff so far. Hopefully there’s more to come!

Swamp Thing (Episode 1.03 to 1.07) It started out strong and moved at a nice pace, but it lost me. Some episodes had a monster-of-the-week, and those were fun but there was a lot more focus on the locals around the town instead of Swamp Thing. I appreciate a Swamp Thing-centric show would cost a looooooot more, but I also think that’s what most of the fans would want, right? Maybe if it was a 4-ep series it could really go all out and make a splash.

……….READING……….

Dracula vs. Hitler by Patrick Sheane Duncan (Complete) The title and back cover allude to a different, pulpier story, and it takes a while to adjust to the less bombastic narrative. The alternate history you DO get is great, and I think it’s because I didn’t mind a story with a hint of vampire set during the second world war. I’d still love to read a pulpy vamps vs. nazis novel, so if you have one then let me know. This wasn’t perfect, but I enjoyed it.

Head Lopper Volume 3: Head Lopper & the Knights of Venora by Andrew Maclean and Jordie Bellaire (Complete) There’s been a shift and a progression across the first three volumes of Head Lopper. It’s gotten more bold with its storytelling, a little more loose with its artwork (sometimes a hit and miss...I frequently go back because I feel like I’ve missed something in a previous panel) and the sheer scale of the world is expanding so quickly. It’s quickly becoming my favourite modern comic that captures the spirit of what I imagine pulp stories to be. Worth checking out vol. 1 if you haven’t already.

The Magicians: Alice’s Story by Lev Grossman, Lilah Sturges, and Pius Bak (Complete) If you haven’t read any of the Magician’s trilogy by Grossman, this is a great point of entry to see if you’d like the tone, characters, and general premise. If you HAVE read the first novel, this doesn’t branch too far the main narrative. I would’ve liked to spend a little more time with Alice on her own outside of what we see from the novel (and Quentin’s point of view) because what we do get is fantastic. I’m not sure it adds a lot of new elements to the novels but take that for what it is.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time - Legendary Edition  by Akira Himekawa (Complete) As far as a comic adaptation of a game, it really retains a lot of the core components. There are fun asides and elements get expanded further and it reads really well. Adaptations across media can be tricky but I think this is worth checking out if you liked the game. With that said, there’s a bonus story at the end that is so unrelated to the game and core world that it felt like a miss. It just felt like the author had a completely different story to tell and tried to shoehorn it into this property and it didn’t work. So if you pick it up, know that the best ending is the one you got in the game.

……….AUDIO……….

Yo, Is This Racist (Podcast) I’ve only recently started listening to this, but I really dig the format and the hosts are fun. Part reflection on current events, part interview, part commentary on society...it’s just all very good and funny and also good again.

……….GAMING……….

Baby Is You (Arvi Teikari) Never have I felt more frustrated, rewarded, and impressed by a game. I originally thought it was a sort of “there are endless ways to solve each stage!” game but it turns out the later levels have very specific solutions and that changed my perspective. It’s challenging but fun and uses lots of logic and creative thinking and I just don’t know how to describe how great this game is. Playing it on Switch is nice for the ease of playing a level or two before quitting, but I’m sure it’s fun elsewhere as well.

Neverland: A Role-Playing Game (Andrews McMeel Publishing) So I wrote a setting based on J. M. Barrie’s works and it’s getting published! The weekly group is taking a break from the megadungeon to try this out and it’s been a lot of fun! I will post more in depth recaps of the party’s adventures but so far, they’ve found a small village and nearly died to crocodiles.

A Red & Pleasant Land (Lamentations of the Flame Princess) It’s been aaaaaaaages since this group has had a chance to get together but it’s always so fantastic when we can make it work. The game is really getting to the point where the party has done enough that their actions are having consequences and the group...is adjusting to this. Right now they need to investigate a murder that they themselves are responsible for and I’m VERY keen to see how they approach it.

And that’s it! As always, let me know if you have any recommendations for what to read or watch or hear or play and happy Friday.

#Monthly Media #Rambles #Kolbisneat #Andrew Kolb

[historyy]

The Oxbridge Applications Masterlist✨✨✨

I’ve had a ton of people both online and irl ask me for this, so here it is. I’m sorry its a month or so later than I initially promised but I’ve been pretty busy. This is basically a breakdown of the application process, some advice, and my experiences as an applicant for History and Politics to Oxford in 2018-19; because of that its pretty Oxford / humanities specific. I was lucky enough to have some great resources available at school but applying for Oxford was still daunting, so I wanted to demystify it and give some advice. Hopefully you find it helpful!

Personal Statement

How you write it: 

My main advice with the PS is to get started early, because Oxbridge is early entry so you’ll have months less time than your friends. Do a first draft of your personal statement in summer Y12. Mine was pretty much done by September and it made that early deadline much easier to reach.

Keeping a list of everything relevant you’re doing will be useful when you come to write the PS, as well as for developing your ideas for interview. My list was split into Books, Academic Papers, Extracts, Documentaries, Podcasts, Lectures / Online Lectures, Other Publications, Courses, Newspapers, and Extracurriculars. I also had a list of my particular interests related to my subject. 

It will need lots of editing, but thats what teachers, friends, and former applicants are for! I edited so many personal statements for people in my year, because they knew I was a writer and thus good at cutting words and finding shorter ways to express.

With your first draft, write big. Go way over the character count and put everything you want to in it, then cut. A few tips for cutting: 

Don’t waffle on about irrelevant anecdotes 

‘Such as’ ‘like’ ‘indeed’ ‘including’ are useful but overused 

Rearranging sentence structure can cut lots of characters and make your syntax snappier. E.g I interviewed a civil servant which showed me… versus Interviewing a civil servant showed me…  

Semicolons will save your life.

It will hurt, but kill your Oxford commas 

You don’t need to give each author / source a bio, assume the reader knows their stuff, and you don’t need to use full names / titles 

What you write in it:

With the PS, a catchy opening is vital; you need to show why you’re interested in your subject and why you’re the right choice. Mine was:

The 2015 Leaders’ Debate sparked my interest in politics and the language surrounding it, when I realised I was focussed both on what the debaters were saying and how they were saying it.

The best advice I got is to treat your PS like you’re narrating your journey with your subject. Start with why you got into your subject, show what you did following on from that sparked interest, then how you built on that action, and so forth. You might want to map this out before you start writing. An example might look like this (this isn’t mine, but assume its for HistPol):

Saw an exhibition on Renaissance artists - interested in social and political context of the art - researched Italian city states focussing in on famed patrons of the arts who were politically eminent  - read Machiavelli’s The Prince as is based on Cesare Borgia - interested in other theories of rule and governed/govt relations - read Locke and Hobbes to compare later theories and the development of these ideas - entered an essay competition about the development of the state citing Locke’s ideas on the social contract

Then you build on this journey, talking about your reading and research. Cite specific papers / books / articles you’ve read, and engage with them. Did you agree with everything they said? Or not? How do they link to other things you’ve read? For example, I wrote:

D’Ancona’s ‘Post-Truth’ with its discussion of disinformation and the collapse in trust also influenced me, though I disagreed with his assertion that the post-truth era only began five years ago (Orwell springs to mind).

Don’t just name drop books etc, actually engage with them, or you might as well not have read them.

In terms of what to include, Oxbridge don’t give a damn if you do Grade 5 piano or were the lead on your ballet show; you should focus your PS on the subject you’re applying for. When I mentioned extracurriculars it was in relation to the subject; I was editor of the school magazine, and I interviewed a senior civil servant on Brexit’s impact for it, increasing my understanding of current affairs and I gave a presentation on sexuality in the Weimar Republic at our LGBT society, exploring oft forgotten facets of history.  

I would suggest that only 10% of your PS should be about extracurriculars, and even those should be related to your subject, or linked to transferable skills.

You should end your PS with a brief concluding statement or paragraph which summarises why you want to study your subject.

Aptitude Tests 

I did the HAT so this is skewed towards that, but other tests are similar.

The aptitude tests are stressful but formulaic, so once you’ve worked out the formula and done as many practices as you can, you should be fine. You don’t need to get a high mark, only pass the benchmark to secure an interview, so it won’t be perfect. No one gets full marks; I think the benchmark for the HAT was 60% last year. 

My main advice on the tests is to go to all the sessions on them with your teachers that you can, and if your teachers don’t offer sessions ask them to hold some, or find a former applicant. Do lots of practices, starting not in timed conditions and work up doing them in time. Talk through your completed papers in detail with your teachers. If there are other applicants doing the same test, talk with them — orally write the essay together and bounce ideas off one another. 

Learn how to pull together an argument in a way which will grab the reader’s attention and show that you’re interested and engaged, and that you think outside the box and are different to the other candidates. For example in our HAT, the source was on a 16C woman’s relations with her servants, and I talked about her household as a microcosm of a class stratified and hierarchical society with moral expectations of servitude.

Basically, its an exam paper, treat it as such! 

Interview

The interview is, on the whole, more important than the PS. If you’re lucky enough to get one it means you’ve already done better than most people. I found the experience to be a mix of absolutely terrifying and weirdly enjoyable. 

I had two interviews, one for History and one for Politics, but you can be called to interview at other colleges. I know someone who had six…

The interview is basically like a tutorial will be if you get in, and there are different types (this is a bit humanities specific, sorry). You can get asked about your PS and reference, though this is rare. Extract interviews are common, for my Politics I was given an extract about citizenship. You can also get asked about your submitted work, as I was for History. 

In terms of prep, make sure you’re familiar with your submitted work and PS, as well as all the stuff you say you’ve done in your PS and your reference. You can get asked about any of it. Bring copies of these and your reading notes with you to interview so you’re familiar with them. Also look into some other key concepts of your subject, for example I looked at a lot of historiography, and in the interview talked about the concept of history as teleology and how I disagree with it. I think I was actually asked if I agreed with the Idea of Progress, having read on that a lot I felt equipped to answer it. 

Do as many practice interviews as you can. I got lucky as we had teachers who could do these, and I also did one at my sister’s school. However even if you don’t have that access, ask a friend, parent, teacher, a previous applicant, or even someone online. Even just talking about your subject helps. On the flip side of all this, don’t do so much prep your answers are stale and formulaic, you need to show you’re thinking on your feet. 

Both my interviews were only 20-25 minutes. My Politics interview was really chill, I had an hour reading time before in which I made notes on an extract and basically wrote a script for myself. The questions I was asked were actually given to me in this time so I had lots of material to work with. The man was really nice as well, and I enjoyed the experience. In contrast my History one was a disaster and I felt like I was being interrogated by the two women the whole time, though they were nice.

Don’t be scared if you screw up, in my History interview on my Tudors essay on Tudor parliamentary changes (which I’d been studying only 2 months), my interviewer was an expert on Tudor parliament, writing a book on the subject. This one question about groups of people represented strongly in parliament really threw me, and I went through three answers before I found the right one (lawyers). At another question I blanked for thirty seconds before speaking. I came out in tears and was certain I’d failed, but clearly I did okay…

General advice

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Go chat to that scary teacher who told you your essay was too journalistic and not historical enough and just because you want to be a journalist you can’t write like one in academia (personal experience? me?). Ask them for advice and just talk to them about the subject! 

Leading on to: JUST TALK ABOUT THE SUBJECT. Talking nonstop about History and Politics helped me know my interests inside out and it gave me a way to develop my speaking skills as well as my love for my subject.

Also, read. JSTOR is your bff for academic articles and Niche Stuff here, but you can find plenty of good books at libraries and shops. The A Very Short Introduction series is amazing for this, as they’re all really short and written by Oxbridge academics, I read tons of them. You can even just dip into longer books or collections of articles. 

Keep asking yourself And so? — take your ideas further. This was my History teacher’s advice for essays, but it works for PS, tests, interviews, and general critical thinking. 

For example in the HAT (I’m making up this example, it might have asked you what you could learn about social norms of a time from a source): You could say: The woman bosses her servants around but is subordinate to her husband so we can learn about gender and social roles. Or you could say: The woman commands her servants, yet remains servile to her husband, indicating the prevalence of hierarchical gender and class relations in the society of the time; her role as wife is clearly interlinked with her position as ‘head of the household’, which she is unpaid for. Viewing this through the lens of feminist theory, one can infer that an unequal sexual division of labour exists in this society, and women’s contributions to society are not appreciated, as when the husband ‘dismisses’ his wife. While her command of the servants shows she is elevated by her ‘great wealth’, her subordination to her husband suggests that a woman in this society was unable to further her position as easily as a man could. 

Don’t fret about choosing a college on the form, 1/3 of people (including me) get pooled. 

And finally, don’t set your heart on Oxbridge. They’re by no means the only good universities out there, and they’re not for everyone. If you’re not enjoying the research for the PS, or are finding the aptitude tests unbearable and the interview style uncomfortable, it might not be for you. But if you do decide to apply, good luck!✨

#holy fuck this is long #hopefully people actually rb this and find it useful #oxbridge #please rb this even if youre not affected as id like to spread it #oxford #studyblr #university #uk #college #dark academia #light academia #academia #studyspo #studying #tips #reference #oxford application #oxford university #history #history and politics #humanities #literature #jstor #cambridge university

[dweemeister]

The Happiest Millionaire (1967)

Younger readers do not know of a time when Walt Disney Studios was never considered a major Hollywood studio. That recognition, to stand alongside the likes of Columbia, Universal, or Warner Bros., did not officially arrive until after The Little Mermaid (1989) and the resulting 1989-2000 Disney Renaissance and Disney’s close ties to Pixar (which it would purchase outright in 2006). In its early years, Disney did not distribute its own films, instead going through United Artists and later RKO. Disputes with the eccentric Howard Hughes – who purchased RKO in 1948 – over the True-Life Adventures documentary series led Disney to (correctly) predict that RKO was a studio in a fatal tailspin, and the RKO-Disney partnership was soon abandoned. Walt and older brother Roy O. Disney co-founded Buena Vista Film Distribution Company (renamed Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures in 2007), but Disney – taking the animation and live-action studios together – lacked the distribution reach of the established Hollywood studios.

As Walt paid less attention to animated features for his anthology television series and the live-action features, an occasional live-action Disney film became part of the American cinematic zeitgeist: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954); Old Yeller (1957); The Absent-Minded Professor (1961). In a decade heralded (and ridiculed) for its sumptuous musicals, Mary Poppins (1964) was considered the defining film for the studio’s live-action efforts. Of course, an ailing Walt desired to replicate the artistic and financial success of Mary Poppins. Norman Tokar’s The Happiest Millionaire is that follow-up film, adapted from a play based on My Philadelphia Father by Cordelia Drexel Biddle, and doomed to unforgiving comparisons upon release and today. The Happiest Millionaire is an unfocused fever dream of a musical film, surviving – just – because of a handful of Sherman Brothers songs and its unironic charm.

The film begins with Irish immigrant John Lawless (Tommy Steele) arriving in Philadelphia, ready to become the butler of a household headed by millionaire, amateur boxing trainer, Bible School teacher, and alligator enthusiast. Anthony J. Drexel Biddle (Fred MacMurray). Lawless is the on-screen narrator for the film’s duration, noting how he enjoys the Biddles’ eccentricity. He observes or comments on Mr. Biddle’s antics and, more seriously, his eagerness to have the U.S. intervene in World War I. Mrs. Biddle (Greer Garson) and Aunt Mary (Gladys Cooper) pay little heed to Mr. Biddle’s unusual beliefs and behaviors – most likely out of love, not marital/familial capitulation. The Biddle children are older teenagers trained in boxing by their father, and we see little of sons Tony and Livingston (Paul Petersen and Eddie Hodges). Cordy Biddle (Lesley Ann Warren in her film debut) is the best boxer of the Biddle children and, while away to boarding school, falls for Angier “Angie” Buchanan Duke (John Davidson) – what a name!

If it seems difficult to ascertain the narrative focus of The Happiest Millionaire judging by the above paragraph, that is how it feels like to watch the film after the opening song. Though it is ostensibly about Mr. Biddle as the allegedly happiest millionaire, the story transitions between Mr. Biddle, his wife, John Lawless, Cordy and Angie, and Angie’s family without much signaling. These shifts are abrupt, resetting often, and disrupting the flow of the movie. Norman Tokar’s direction and Cotton Warburton’s (1949′s Neptune’s Daughter, Mary Poppins) editing appear scattered, lacking any semblance of cohesiveness, and making The Happiest Millionaire feel like its 172-minute runtime (this is the most complete version of the film; I will go into this more later, but beware of any versions that are shorter and are not presented in the 1.66:1 widescreen format). The adapted screenplay by A.J. Carothers (1963′s Miracle of the White Stallions, 1964′s Emil and the Detectives) just barely connects the competing plotlines to form a comprehensible whole.

Carothers’ screenplay is packed with references to the turn of the twentieth century that probably will be lost on younger viewers, who might be instead charmed by Biddle’s pet alligators and his Bible study masquerading for a boxing school. Too much of the broad humor falls flat, as The Happiest Millionaire is at its comedic best when it elects to be witty rather than relying on slapstick or its bizarre, absurd situational humor. The performances are uncomplicated, but does one ever really expect excellent performances from such a disorganized screenplay?

With 3,000 costumes tailored for the extras and principal actors of The Happiest Millionaire (250 were for the principal actors), Bill Thomas (1960′s Spartacus, 1971′s Bedknobs and Broomsticks) crafts gowns and suits for various occasions: casual, formal, sporting, professional. Thomas’ work helps the audience feel like they are embedded within this well-to-do family in the mid-1910s. The art direction by Carroll Clark (1933′s King Kong, Mary Poppins) and John B. Mansbridge (1965′s Those Calloways, 1982′s Tron) is as flamboyantly tacky as could be expected for showing the interior of an eccentric millionaire’s family residence – there is a lot of glass in this film.

Yet from a technical standpoint, this is the Sherman Brothers’ film. Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman combined to be the most prolific songwriting team in Hollywood – no other duo worked together for as many film musical scores as they did. The Happiest Millionaire is not the best entry from the Shermans in part because of the film’s lackluster screenplay. That is a high bar, however, for the songwriting brothers whose credits also include Mary Poppins, the Winnie the Pooh films from 1966-2000, numerous other Disney animated and live-action films, and extra-Disney productions including The Slipper and the Rose (1976). Immediately after the opening credits and overture, “Fortuosity” (a supposed neologism derived from “fortuitous” and is one of the songs played on rotation at Disney parks’ Main Street) describes John Lawless’ situation and personality in three minutes. The film never approaches that level of efficient musical characterization ever again – not even with the multiple musical quotations of “What’s Wrong With That?”, which is to Fred MacMurray as “The Life I Lead” was to David Tomlinson in Mary Poppins.

The more musically and narratively isolated songs serve their momentary purpose, with little function after they have completed. Some will elicit laughter, like “Watch Your Footwork” and “Bye-Yum Pum Pum”. Others are catchier or more musically interesting than others, such as “I’ll Always Be Irish” and especially John Davidson’s vocals in “Detroit”. Nevertheless, there are too many meandering clunkers (“Valentine Candy” and “It Won’t Be Long ‘Til Christmas”; the latter has hints of late nineteenth century American folk music in its woodwind section that would have been interesting to use in this film), with uninteresting musical phrases extended far past the point where they should resolve to the tonic.

Appearing at the roughly around the one-hour mark for The Happiest Millionaire’s, “Are We Dancing?” does not have the lyrical genius and the poetic personification of Mary Poppins’ “Feed the Birds”, nor has it imprinted itself into the public consciousness to the extent of the Winnie the Pooh theme. Its lyrical imperfections and lack of cultural impact aside, I don’t recall a Sherman Brothers for a Disney film being orchestrated as gorgeously as “Are We Dancing?” (if we want to open it up to their non-Disney careers, then it rivals “He/She Danced with Me” from The Slipper and the Rose). Every section of the orchestra – whether it is the string instruments doubling John Davidson and Lesley Ann Warren’s lyrics or the woodwinds and brass providing a heavenly lift in three-quarter time – is providing some of the lushest harmonies ever heard in a Disney song. Within the film, “Are We Dancing?” – you guessed it – is Cordy and Angie’s first dance, where love begins to a waltz’s pulse. Some, including Cordy before she begins dancing, might consider that old-fashioned. Like she and numerous characters in movie history who have waltzed on-screen, she changes her tune by music’s end.

When The Happiest Millionaire premiered at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood on an early summer day in 1967, the occasion became less of a movie premiere and more of a testimonial to Walt Disney, who passed away that last December and had seen a rough cut of the film that would be bitterly contested by his successors. The Happiest Millionaire was the final film Disney personally oversaw and, in its most complete form, remains the longest film to be released under the banner of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (excluding Hollywood, Lucasfilm, Marvel, Miramax, Pixar, and Touchstone). Following its Hollywood premiere, The Happiest Millionaire was released as a roadshow. The roadshow theatrical release, popular in the 1950s and ‘60s but largely having run its course by the ‘70s, was where a film would first open in a major city before going “on the road” – a film that debuted in Los Angeles or New York City would then premiere in another large city for limited showings (perhaps one or two performances a day for select days during the week). Only after the completion of this roadshow would the film be released across the United States, typically shorn of some scenes that only appeared in the “roadshow release”.  Roadshow films were typically longer, containing an overture, an intermission, an entr’acte, and occasionally closing music. It is the roadshow release version that viewers should seek – the roadshow version is available on DVD (VHS and all formats prior to DVD have shortened theatrical cuts) and, hopefully, will be on Disney’s streaming upcoming service.

By the time The Happiest Millionaire premiered, roadshow releases were on the wane. Studios executives (including Disney, which led him to produce The Happiest Millionaire after the triumph of Mary Poppins), inspired by the financial success of such musicals from the early- and mid-1960s, believed these movie musicals to be their answer to shifting winds in Hollywood. They would, as a post-Walt Walt Disney Studios learned, be mistaken. Any notions that Walt Disney Studios could ever challenge the Hollywood studio stalwarts seemed unlikely. The Happiest Millionaire, for those who temper their expectations and are interested in the final Disney film with any connection to Walt himself, is a flawed effort saved only by a selection of its musical performances and songs found within.

My rating: 6/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

#The Happiest Millionaire #Norman Tokar #Fred MacMurray #Tommy Steele #Greer Garson #Gladys Cooper #Geraldine Page #Hermione Baddeley #John Davidson #Lesley Ann Warren #Walt Disney #Sherman Brothers #Richard M. Sherman #Robert B. Sherman #Bill Thomas #TCM #My Movie Odyssey

[eggoreviews]

E3 2019 Nintendo Direct - BREAKDOWN

Oh wow. That big ol direct sure was something. So now I’m here to break down everything that happened in unnecessary fashion and give my personal reaction to everything that happened with my tried and true Excitement Rater. Want to see my heavily scientific and not at all arbitrary process? Then click down to see the deets.

Before we kick off my (very very scientific) breakdown of this year’s packed direct, I thought I’d briefly go over how I rate things:

A random string of letters/numbers = Immeasurable excitement

YEEHAW BABEY = Big excitement

Heck Yeck = Vague excitement

Yeah! = Not really excited, but still could be good

Sure, why not? = I’m more confused than excited but sure

Oh = The excitement isn’t there

Oh no = Used on the rare occasion I really don’t like what I’ve seen

The Hero from the Dragon Quest series in Smash!

After a brief montage of some games that already came out I guess, the direct jumps straight into an ominous shot of World of Light baddie Dharkon, followed by a seemingly hopeless fight between Link and one very possessed Marth. Then the Luminary turns up gloriously on his horse. With all the leaks that had been flying around for so long, I think pretty much everyone had accepted the presence of Dragon Quest at this point and I was totally stoked when this happened! I love Dragon Quest! And my boi from 11 is here, along with a few other DQ veterans as alt swaps and a pretty awesome looking stage overlooking what seems to be the land of Erdrea and the World Tree. Now to wait until summer and hope the Smash team have some sick ass remixes for us when the time comes!

Excitement Rating: YEEHAW BABEY

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

In a move that makes it a lil obvious that DQ’s Smash addition was more than a little commercially minded (not that I really care I’m still big hyped), a trailer for the expanded edition of the series’ latest installment follows. Seeming as I’ve already played this, I doubt I’ll be picking it up again but I still heartily recommend the game to any JRPG fan. Admittedly, the fact you apparently get to explore worlds from past games is pretty exciting.

ER: Heck Yeck

Luigi’s Mansion 3

In a way I thought was surprising, Nintendo’s first proper focus of Luigi’s Mansion 3 actually took up more time than Animal Crossing, but I guess that’s because it’s further along in development. We now know that the game is set within a haunted hotel and had some new gameplay features shown off, including the various ways Luigi can succ a ghost. Most exciting I think for me was the various multiplayer aspects, such as the local co-op option to play as Gooigi and the seemingly challenge and minigame-based ‘Scarescraper’ which I think incorporates online co-op too. Overall, this is looking to be a creative and well thought out entry in the series and I’m here for it.

ER: Heck Yeck

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Tactics

A licensed tie-in game for a thirty year old film feels a little odd, but I suppose stranger things have happened. This looks to be a sort of top-down tactical thingy involving the various characters from The Dark Crystal and for some reason Netflix is involved, I don’t know, but I guess it could be interesting.

ER: Sure, why not?

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

The adorable remake of this classic Game Boy title seems to be coming along great and this direct’s extended trailer gave us a good look at what we’ll be exploring come September 20th. The overhaul Koholint Island has had is phenomenal, giving us designs for Link and various other characters that we’ve never seen before and that makes this remake look especially unique. Another very exciting aspect for me was the dungeon builder that looks like great fun! You collect different dungeon parts as you go and then you can build and explore your own! Am I a goblin child or does that sound like the best thing ever?

ER: YEEHAW BABEY!!

Trials of Mana / Collection of Mana

I’ll admit I’m not really familiar with the Mana series, but from what I was shown in this direct, it looks to be a fairly standard JRPG. That’s definitely not a bad thing, as most JRPGs are amazing, but nothing in this trailer really stood out and came into its own. That being said, the gameplay and graphics look pretty solid and I’m sure the Mana fans have been fairly starved for content for a while so that’s something to look forward to. On top of this remake/new game with the same title as an older game (I really don’t know), the Collection of Mana containing the series’ first three games is being released real soon on the eShop.

ER: Yeah!

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition

Following a few scattered rumours, we finally have confirmation that a Witcher 3 port is in fact in the works, coming packed with all the game’s DLC. This basically legendary RPG is not one I personally had a great experience with, but I’m sure a lot of people are gonna be happy to play this in handheld. I’d keep expectations tempered however, with the likes of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Saints Row the Third proving that these ports don’t always function brilliantly on this platform.

ER: Yeah!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Yet another and probably our last Fire Emblem trailer was shown in this direct, giving us a better look at how the story might play out and what our villains are going to be. With most of the gameplay features explored in the previous February direct, it’s good to have a slightly better idea as to what’s actually going on in terms of story and, to me, the results seem pretty damn good. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

ER: Heck Yeck

Resident Evil

In a slightly unnecessarily convoluted advert, we were given a two minute reel of two teenagers playing the original RE in tabletop mode in an abandoned house (??), along with the kind of less than exciting announcement that we’re getting the two weakest entries in the series for Switch, RE 5 and 6. I probably wasn’t the only one who felt a little passive about this whole thing. That being said, definitely not complaining about 1 & 4 being ported over.

ER: Oh

No More Heroes III

After the very slightly disappointing Travis Strikes Again, I really wasn’t expecting them to drop a trailer for the series’ third mainline installment so soon after. What we’ve seen looks pretty much like classic Travis, with a smidge of gameplay seen that looks just a bit more like what we’re used to. Of course, with this being the first reveal, there’s still a lot to find out but this looks very promising.

ER: Heck Yeck

Contra: Rogue Corps / Contra: Anniversary Collection

I’m not gonna pretend to be familiar with the Contra series, but this doesn’t at all look like what I’ve seen in the past. Honestly, this seemingly tactical shooter didn’t elicit much excitement from me and neither did its rushed character drops or its oddly rough textures. I’m unsure of actual fan reactions to this, but in my mind this one kind of sits in the ‘guess this exists’ category. As well as this, we got a shadowdrop for the Contra Anniversary Collection, whereas Rogue Corps comes on September 24th.

ER: Oh

Daemon X Machina

In what seems to be almost a mainstay in Nintendo directs, we’ve got another vague trailer for this mech shooter that finally has a confirmed release date of September 13th. The gameplay looks harmless enough, with the mechs seeming to be a blast to pilot, but beyond that, I can’t really see a lot of substance that would draw me in beyond the cool robots. I’m sure it could be good, but not really one for me.

ER: Yeah!

Panzer Dragoon

I was completely unsure of what this one was, but it looks a bit like a cross between The Last Guardian and those bullet hell sections from Kingdom Hearts 2. They’ve certainly nailed the smooth graphics and the cool looking creatures, but this one is mostly a case of needing to know more.

ER: Yeah!

Pokemon Sword & Shield

This one’s obviously a title so monumental that it consistently needs its own directs, but there wasn’t any *real* news about it in this direct. We were given a brief explanation as to how the Pokeball Plus works in conjunction with the games (something to do with taking your Pokemon for a walk) and the fact that we’ll see more gameplay during Nintendo’s Treehouse streams. Still, excitement remains pretty high for these titles.

ER: Heck Yeck!

Astral Chain

This game, to put it bluntly, looks awesome. The newest Platinum Games IP seems to be set in Blade Runneresque futuristic city with an alien threat and some cool ass looking fighting police people. Our second proper look at this game has cleared up a few murky doubts as to what exactly is supposed to be happening, so now we’ve got a much better idea of what this game is going to be. The story seems pretty full and polished, the gameplay looks like brilliant fun and I’m definitely not mad at the cool monster designs. This is one I’m definitely watching.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!

Empire of Sin

I know very little about what this game is supposed to be, but it looks to be a 40s gangster XCOM, substituting alien fighting marines with gun toting mafia dudes. The trailer went for style over substance, giving us an edgy visual thing of some burning playing cards and broken bottles, but the little gameplay we saw looked decent enough and may just end up injecting more variety into this genre.

ER: Yeah!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

An obvious pick for any Marvel fan, this hack-and-slash is jam packed with various heroes and villains from the comic series’ rich history. Ghost Rider and Elektra were among those revealed to be playable, while the likes of Mysterio, Hela, the Destroyer, Doctor Octopus, Surtur and MODOK are seemingly part of growing cast of villains. Looks like a good bit of fun if nothing else, though the immediate presence of a season pass is a tiny red flag.

ER: Yeah!

Cadence of Hyrule

In an unexpected but greatly welcomed crossover between Nintendo’s RPG titan Zelda series and the indie developed Crypt of the Necrodancer, a new rhythm based dungeon crawler with some brand new Zelda remixes and the presence of Link and Zelda as playable characters. This game’s retro graphics look totally adorable and the addition of the Gohmaracas were a definite highlight.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!!!

Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tell you what, this definitely looks like a Mario and Sonic Olympic Games game. There looks to be a decent amount of variety in terms of what sports are involved and with its online multiplayer, there’s no shortage of vaguely cartoon sportyness to be had with friends both real and virtual. I’d be lying if I said I was totally disinterested because it does look a bit fun, but we all know it won’t be anything groundbreaking.

ER: Yeah!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

In a fairly drastic formula change, Nintendo have decided to strand us on a desert island rather than move us innocently to another village, but Tom Nook is still here and oh yes he’s coming to collect his bells. From this surprisingly brief trailer, most of Animal Crossing’s core gameplay seems to be intact, with the return of craftable items from Pocket Camp, and the sudden bombshell that the game has been pushed back to March next year. Never going to be a bad thing if the finished product is all the better for it, but I guess that just means more info is to come!

ER: Heck Yeck

Highlight Reel

In what looks like a list of honourable mentions, Nintendo gave us a laundry list of other titles coming to the system:

Spyro Reignited Trilogy is joining Crash on the Switch with his acclaimed remaster trilogy.

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the prequel to the original game, looks just as charmingly dark as its predecessor.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is showing up I guess, but I’ll come out and say I know nothing about it except that it looks cute.

Minecraft Dungeons looks better than it has any right to be and looks a bit like blocky Diablo I guess

The Elder Scrolls: Blades sure exists and I’m unsure of what it’s trying to be, but whatever quells off the need for Elder Scrolls 6 I guess.

My Friend Pedro, another strangely unique title from Devolver Digital, looks like it somehow incorporates banana peels into its combat system.

Doom Eternal looks like Doom always does, but a distinct lack of gameplay may put its dual release with the other consoles into question.

The Sinking City with its Lovecraftian inspiration looks totally brilliant and looks to be a unique experience for sure, so eyes firmly open for this one

Wolfenstein Youngblood definitely looks all Wolfenstein-y, but rumours of Dishonored-like sandbox levels has definitely piqued my interest.

Dead by Daylight still looks unfortunately a bit eh, with its slightly not great graphical quality from what we’ve seen in the trailers.

Alien Isolation was an extremely odd one, but I’m not gonna say no to more good horror content on the console.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles seems to be continually delayed, but they’ll probably get round to it eventually.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 looks adorable and I’m very into the idea of Dragon Quest Minecraft, so sign me up.

Stranger Things 3: The Game looks a little more SNES-like in terms of graphics than its 8 Bit mobile predecessor, which is definitely a decent step. An obvious pick for fellow fans of the show.

Just Dance 2020 is definitely a Just Dance game. Yep, sure is. I even checked. And it is.

Catan is a tabletop game of sorts, but I really couldn’t figure out what kind from that few seconds of vague footage.

New Super Lucky’s Tale looks like Bubsy, but actually good and worth real money

Dauntless looks like a bit of a Monster Hunter clone, but you know, doesn’t look terrible.

And lastly, Super Mario Maker 2 was tacked on the end there to remind us all that Nintendo is taking our money in 2 weeks.

Banjo-Kazooie become Smash Ultimate’s 3rd DLC Fighter

Just when we all petering out a little and the hype seemed all but dormant, they go and drop this on us out of nowhere. While I personally don’t have an attachment to the bear and bird, I’m fully aware of their significance and how much they mean to a lot of people out there. And that excitement ended up being contagious, so this fact coupled with a pitch perfect reveal trailer has got me hugely hyped to see these guys join the fight come autumn.

ER: YEEHAW BABEY

Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

And now, dear reader, for the reveal that removed my scalp and cut out my eyeballs. At first, I was totally confused as to what this could be. And then I recognised the symbols, and then my perfect lil Hyrule eggs come on the screen and it’s all spooky and there’s dead Ganondorf and I don’t clock the fact that I’ve just screamed out loud. A direct sequel to my absolute favourite game of all time is happening and it’s real and I get to live another adventure in the best game world ever crafted all over again. I think it’s safe to say I have transcended the definition of hype when it comes to this one.

ER: AAA!!! AA!!! GFFGF!!! THIS!!! ZELDA!!!! HGGGG!!!!

So there’s my probably a little stupid breakdown of everything Nintendo bestowed upon us this E3. Guess I’ll jump in after the next direct to give you yet another heavily scientific analysis of its events. Or I’ll babble at you until I start punching the keyboard. Either way, happy trails my dudes. Don’t let the hype bugs bite.

#e3 #e3 2019 #zelda #loz #the legend of zelda #mario #smash #super smash bros #super smash ultimate #astral chain #fire emblem #animal crossing #pokemon #Luigi's Mansion #dragon quest #final fantasy #nintendo #marvel #resident evil

[siobhanpatten55-blog]

How To Merge MP3s Losslessly

From the album Effluxion, out February 22, 2019 on Merge Records. Official video for "Holy Holy" by Wye Oak, taken from the album Civilian, out now on Merge Records. When all are achieved, click on the round "Convert" button of the MP3 Merger to mix a number of MP3 information. The alternative good factor once you merge mp3 info is that transferring it to other moveable machine and devices is now easier and further useful, evaluate to transferring explicit particular person observe that will take a while to carry out. We did not find outcomes for: 5 Audio Merger And Splitter Tools To Edit Your Music. Attempt the ideas beneath or kind a brand new query above. A person can't be merged with a corporation If the profiles symbolize the same entity, edit the profiles so that they are the same type of report. Do you might have one, or more, files you might want to merge together? If so, there are many programs obtainable for Home windows 10, and other platforms, that enable you to hitch numerous file codecs collectively. That is how one can merge MP3s, video information, merge mp3s PDFs (Portable Doc Format) and txt text recordsdata together in Home windows 10.

The filename1.mp3" part defines the supply directory of your recordsdata. As well as, I've not at all lost any parts of my files after doing a merger, and I have been merging with this app for a variety of years. The interface could be very simple, and merging data is tremendous quick. It appeared like Merge MP3 might work, and the truth that it does not re-encode was a plus for low bit fee streams. Moreover, the program was used just a few occasions up to now. Then - VOILA - immediately (12-12-12), I made a decision to attempt again and see if maybe that toolbar had been eliminated, and it had, so I downloaded the app, and WOW - I'm so joyful to have this little fella again once more!!! Evidently, probably, is that I now have tons of merged information to atone for, but it is going to be a pleasure to do so with this quick little app. Merge MP3 is an easy transportable utility to merge MP3 recordsdata into one prolonged MP3. Mp3 player among the best sound quality participant with greatest interface ,Mp3 Cutter for making Ringtone,Mp3 Mixer for mixing two audio tracks,Mp3 Merger for turning into a member of the countless audio tracks,File audio with numerous sample expenses and encoding variation,Convert format and bit-cost of your music info. Official video for Able to Start" by Arcade Fire, taken from the album The Suburbs, out now on Merge Data. Free Merge MP3 obviously supports the format you need however moreover it helps WAV, OGG and WMA formats. You can also convert your audio recordsdata to any of these formats as and when you want. It's fairly doable that some players might not be compatible with certain codecs after which there is the compulsion of a certain dimension of the entire file and quality. Whatever is your requirement or the specifics of your challenge; you can convert the files in accordance with your needs after which have one appropriate format, dimension and merge MP3s output high quality. You do not get these features in every MP3 joiner for Mac.so the process is: use the instrument to merge all of your m4a recordsdata right into a smaller mp3 file. re-import the brand new merged file into itunes as an m4a file rename it as an m4b file. The parallel processing idea may also be used when creating complicated insert results — the place sound-making units in the rack are patched on to effects devices. Again, use the splitter circuit and merge the outcomes all within one Spider Audio system. It doesn't provide essentially the most complex options however that also means no need for lots of tuition and audio tech information - for the typical person who wants to shortly merge MP3 files it appears excellent.- Merger Audio File Playback in Music Participant. I like the way it joins files, it will not convert MP3 to WAV and again. This allows changing into a member of recordsdata with out losses in high quality. MP3 info may be lower up into components and they're usually lower up also by time. Subsequent, click on the Be part of" button. The program may need some time to merge the songs together. Once I spotted we might pay ourselves, it felt extra strong. For a very long time, Superchunk was the largest band on HostPapa promo codes Merge and really helped construct it, but in addition made it feel like much less of a severe label because it was our band. Once 69 Love Songs by the Magnetic Fields became a sensation, it felt extra real and bonafide.At the danger of being apparent, one factor to keep in mind: Whenever you merge data, they should be of the same kind. For instance, you possibly can merge Accounts with Accounts, but not Accounts with Leads. With the intention to create a stunning audio recordsdata, it is advisable to extract MP3 from YouTube video information first. Merge MP3 is an utility that allows prospects to affix MP3 recordsdata collectively. Several applications can share the equivalent merge file, but when these applications are uninstalled or modified, typically "orphaned" (invalid) EXE registry entries are left behind.When requested concerning the label's feeling toward analysis-primarily based A&R — whereby file firms analyze current statistics like social media engagement, gross sales, touring and other metrics earlier than signing a band—McCaughan is genuinely perplexed. "I don't even know what that is." Even Arcade Fireplace's success was such a shock that Merge did not produce sufficient copies of 2004 release Funeral to satisfy demand, and could not manufacture more quick enough, which triggered preliminary stress between the act and label. The method of signing the band was described in "Our Noise: The Story of Merge Data," an oral history released for the label's 20th anniversary in 2009, as one thing that McCaughan and Ballance took nearly too long to resolve on, offering a contract only after the band had determined to go elsewhere, and primarily based only on their intestine feeling in regards to the unknown Montreal group's demo.Apowersoft Free On-line Audio Editor is an efficient tool which designed for modifying audio information rapidly. The interface can also be minimalistic and simple to use. It lets you cut, trim, split, merge, copy and paste audio with great ease. It helps lots of media file codecs which include MP3, AAC, OGG, FLAC, WAV, M4A and many different extra, so just import the audio and re-create it immediately. While modifying audio, you can preview the effect in actual-time and test the end result. No must re-encode the file, this free on-line MP3 editor is able to outputting audio without quality loss. And there aren't any limitations relating to the length of the audio or the number recordsdata you can edit.

[salareskandari-blog]

What is CRM?

For ages, a sales representative was considered a person that spends the entire day in a cubicle, dealing with call logs, spreadsheets and a bunch of sticky notes scattered around everywhere. Imagine trying to find an important piece of information lost in that mess while in the middle of a decisive phone call with a lead.

Salespeople put in a lot of effort to learn more about their target customers. These situations along with technology development led to the necessity of software that could keep customer and company information neatly organized and accessible for sales purposes.

Entering CRM. A CRM (Customer Relationship Management) is a software that can manage every relationship and interaction with your target customers. The main benefits of a sturdy CRM system are pretty straightforward:

·         Improved Relationships – The entire journey from prospect to buyer can be done on a CRM platform. As you acquire prospects, you can track their behavior and score them accordingly. That information can be used to nurture them and prioritize outreach.

·         Healthy Pipeline – In a CRM, you can visualize your pipeline and focus on tasks needed to get you closer to the deal. It allows you to measure sales pipeline metrics and make sales reports easily.

·         Improved Communication – You can communicate with every team member. Every information and important resource is available to everyone involved in a particular project.

A powerful customer relationship system can gather all the information about your clients in one section. This includes the deals that you’ve signed, emails that you exchanged, notes and appointments – all in one place.

Why Is CRM Essential for Companies?

If you want your enterprise to grow and continue on, you’re going to need a good strategy and lots of data. You have your sales and business goals, and you must generate a profit. But, getting valid data for business growth can be a complicated process. How can you render the flow of information that arrives from sales, customer and marketing departments and make it useful?

A CRM solution can do a lot of the legwork for you when it comes to gathering and interpreting data. In turn, you’ll gain more clarity when you manage your client relationships. Everything that you need, you’ll get it straight in the software’s dashboard. This includes client history, product orders, and package usage/status, problem tickets, etc.

Marketers can utilize the software to include social media information, such as the person’s likes and dislikes, comments and personal interests (interests in a particular service, product, etc.). A powerful CRM system can also be used as a sales and marketing tool, as well as for customer service and product shipping management.

How Can a CRM System Help in Business Development?

 Here’s how a proper CRM software can help you in your business development process:

1. Recognizing and Capturing Leads

By using a customer relationship management system, you can easily spot who your potential customers are. After that, the sales team can start to focus on them as leads and nurture them all the way to the sale. The marketing team can also recognize prospects that need attention and score them as potential customers.

2. Enhancing Customer Relationships

Your clients expect nothing less than a fast response and personalized approach 24/7. A CRM software can help you give that to your customers. Your customer service personnel can see the product or the service that the client wants, and provide what’s requested or assign the task to the right person for the job.

3. Improving Your Existing Services

How can your company improve existing products and services? By listening to your customer’s feedback, of course. A sound CRM system can help you collect and categorize feedback from lots of existing and potential customers. These are important insights that you’ll need to know to upgrade your offers, identify product gaps and solve problems better.

Who Can Use CRM?

 Based on business size, a CRM system can be used in:

·         Startups – Startups need fast and reliable software for all sorts of business purposes. To stay firm in their approach, startups need to use a single CRM tool that gives the team more time to focus on business and product development.

·         Small Businesses – If you want to grow your business, you must have the right tools for your workflow. The size of your business shouldn’t be an obstacle to use a CRM software.

·         Enterprise – Every action should lead to closing deals. But, big businesses want to close big deals. This requires a bigger sales team and a vast pool of prospects. CRM software can be essential if you want to have an organized, clear and resolute sales process.

 Based on the business type, CRM systems can be used in:

·         B2B – In the B2B segment, especially if you run a SaaS business, you’ll need to be in a constant outbound process. You have emails to send, you have to track subscriptions, set up product demos. A CRM tool can help you manage all that information from one place.

·         B2C – With a CRM software, you can track website visits, email product offers, and content, and manage a list of potential customers.

In a company, CRM can be used by:

·         Sales Representatives – These people gain the most benefits of a CRM. The software has them covered for lead scoring, conversations with prospects, sales pipelines, calling, sending emails and tracking of emails.

·         Sales Management – They need all the insight that they can get from sales representatives. By providing templates for reporting and for each prospect, CRM software helps sales managers check the sales team’s performance.

Empower Your Business with PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM

For those of you that are tired of managing sales and business development activities, we give you PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM.

PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM is a chief CRM (Customer Relationship Management) platform that allows small and medium-sized business owners to manage their internal transactions within their WordPress dashboard.

 How Was PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM Born?

PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM was started as an internal tool back in 2010. We tried many other CRM systems before, but none of them was suitable for our services and needs. Most importantly, other systems couldn’t solve our main problem at the time – connecting deals to people and their companies. This is now the core of the PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM.

Some of our former clients were looking for CRMs, and we had the business know-how required for the core philosophy of our CRM toolkit.

Why PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM?

This is your gateway to a better organization, enhanced skills and a closer association with your clients and customers. PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM provides you with one main location for your contacts and leads. It also lets you know when your last communication with a client was. This plugin can track weekly sales numbers, and you can have an overview of the entire business organization. In short, PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM helps you maintain your business better.

While we have numerous extensions (and growing) for different add-ons, the core PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM is available free on Payamgostar.com which supports three main types of information:

1.   Companies – Your business connections. For example, if XYZ Inc. is outsourcing services to you or reselling through you, this can become a Company record in our CRM system. You can store information such as the decision maker, company type, industry, number of employees, and other fields.

2.   Customers – When you work with XYZ Inc., it’s likely that you’ll interact with one or more people in the organization. These individuals can be stored as Customer/s. Even though “Allison” may be a Customer working for XYZ Inc. in the Marketing Department, you can connect her to the Company above with a designated field (contact details, referral, contact date, the initial amount from the first deal together). And “Jeremy” could be Technical Support at the same company with other fields filled in as well.

3.   Projects – When working with companies and specific people, the transaction is defined as a Project. Projects are connected to Companies and Customers. This allows you to add starting and ending date, project duration, whether it’s an ongoing thing, currency, the status of the transaction and more. For example, XYZ Inc. may be a car parts warehouse selling three different types of car parts to you, each type defined as a separate project with timelines, responsible people, and status.

Besides the three core components, there’s a designated custom dashboard available as well that combines all data types. You’ll also get an activity log and a set of reports. The dashboard supports the quick addition of entries with a simple pop-up that allows you to input entries without going through the long and boring creation process of the default WP admin workflow.

Moreover, connected projects, customers, and companies can be created within the meta boxes of the edit screens, i.e. you can create a new Company once you connect a customer to the project right from the meta box!

PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM Features

PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM is a lightweight core that you can integrate inside of your WordPress website, and keep your data there. It’s free to use and it’s open source. This means that you can customize it. Also, we’ve added many filters that you can use to extend some of the dropdowns or adjust some of the core logic (or build extra extensions as we do ourselves).One of the things we love here (and the reason it was built on top of WordPress) is that you can combine other WordPress plugins to extend the functionality.

PAYAMGOSTAR Sales CRM can be combined with most of the Custom Fields plugins. You can add extra fields to track more data for your customers or companies, which is awesome! You can also set up your authentication as you see fit, hide the admin menu items that you don’t use, and play with the platform by integrating other solutions working in the WP context for standard custom post types.

#crm #payamgostar #sales #marketing

[herzenswarme]

"Naruto: Passion of the Shinobi": A Naruto fan-made fighting game #1

Last edited: 2019-02-11

The Project

“Naruto: Passion of the Shinobi” (temporal name) is a personal passion project of mine consisting in a 1v1, 2D fighting game developed for PC with a custom engine (i.e. not a MUGEN game). As the passion project it is, I’m working on it entirely on my own, though relying on existing resources to fill the gaps of my knowledge (I’m a programmer, not an artist). The main scope of the project is to create a fighting game offering the core essential functions of a fighting game: local VS, online VS, training and tutorial; which will include characters from the first part of Naruto at first but may be expanded upon depending on reception (hopefully it will) towards the other sagas, including Boruto. The inspiration for this project came from 3 main factors. I love the first part of Naruto, I love fighting games, and Bandai Namco will not make it. Even if they were to make a fighter, I don’t think it would satisfy my fighting game needs. From this, I decided to go all in and try. It’s a large, ambitious project and it’s hard to keep motivation; but right now it is what keeps me going and I whole heartedly hope it gets somewhere. I can only wish for this game to be appreciated and enjoyed and I’ll do my best to try to do so. ♥

An introduction to the game's design philosophy

Wihout getting into too much detail, in this post I want to present the core ideas of the design of the game. When firt approaching the design of the game, there are some questions than immediately come to mind, things that are the main characteristics that a player use to summarize what a game is like. Things such as:

Is it a competition focused game or a casual game?

What is the neutral like?

Is it combo focused?

Are there many “gimmicks”?

What is the movement like?

How does it compare to other games?

Under this section I’d like to answer all of those questions before delving into the mechanics or the characters, which will be left for later posts.

The competitive focus of the game: Creating a competitive game without alienating the existing fanbase

I’m a fighting game enthusiast and, as such, I would not settle for less than a competitively viable game. A pure, standard fighting game where balanced, skill based gameplay imperates over fanservice and the canonical “power levels”. However, being a fan-game that revolves around characters and a world as loved as Naruto, one should always take into consideration the rest of the fanbase. This, as it will be made obvious when describing the mechanics of the game and the characters, will make itself present in the shape of quite unorthodox mechanics that merge my desired gameplay design with the canon. This way, while the aim will be always to have a competitive game, as a Naruto fan myself I’m trying to build everything around a canonical design, from universal mechanics as the chakra system to character specific mechanics, such as Gaara’s sand protection.

The gameplay: neutral, movement, influences and goals

Having played so many different fighting games, when coming up with the idea of how I wanted the game to work and be played, there are many ideas borrowed at least partially from existing titles, though there wouldn’t be a single specific central influence. What most influenced the design of the game is how I am as a player: what kind of things I like in a game and in my characters. What that implies in my case is a focus on the neutral game in an unorthodox way, usually focused in the (relatively) long term. Lingering projectiles, interactive projectiles and additional resource management are things I love and it is present even in the universal mechanics. The main consequence this has on the gamelay in general terms is that there is a huge focus in approaches and zoning as opposed to mix-ups and okizeme. It also means that there is a huge focus on projectiles of many types and plenty of the so called “gimmicks”. After all, the great thing about Naruto when it comes to a fighting games is how incredibly diverse the techniques and styles are, which is what made it feel like such a waste when Bandai Namco opted for a Dragon Ball fighting game. With all this taken into account, my aim is for the game to be focused on building their way through the neutral game. All these long-term tools are to be used to gain the leading hand and eventually win the neutral. For most characters, this will also mean get their reward in the shape of damage and return to neutral. Another key idea is the idea of creativeness and options. And this is a complicated thing to do correctly. While all characters have an overall playstyle, my hopes are to give the player different tools they can use in their own, unique way to approach that playstyle. However, making it so there is not a single, most efficient approach seems extremely daunting, to say the least. Regarding options, it is really important to me not to limit the options of the player. This will be a huge factor (among others) leading to the lack of the standard meter system, which is replaced by the chakra meter. I’ll comment in this further in the entry about universal mechanics. Finally, as a consequence of these character mechanics with so much lingering projectiles and other such elements, it has been decided at this point that the movement will be that of the usual anime/air-dasher fighter, including running and air-dashes for most of the cast. When putting it somewhere in the fighting game landscape, this game would be somewhere between Guilty Gear and Under Night In-Birth; offering unorthodox, quirky character mechanics and fast movement like Guilty Gear but with less focus on the okizeme and the mix-ups.

The balance

Balance is an extremely complicated yet essential part of any competitive game The more complex the game, the more complex the balancing process is. For a fighting game, this means an herculean task, to say the least.

When thinking about the balance of the game, my first doubt was the start line, the point of reference. We all know what the goal post is: for all characters to be equally viable under optimal human performance. However, where does one start from?

In the case of SFV, and according to a now quite old panel in which the game was presented to the fighting game community, Capcom took a character (in this case Ryu) and set him as the reference point to balance the rest of the cast. But this approach seems to me like a flawed one, as it does not take into account the compatibility between the other characters outside the Ryu match-up. The balance in a match-up is not transitive, that is, a character with a 5-5 match-up with Ryu doesn’t necessarily have a 5-5 match-up with any other character that has a 5-5.

So based on this, reference that’s common to every character and does not depend on any of them whatsoever. This leaves me with a question that remains still unanswered, at least not with certainty.

Nevertheless, there’s are 2 hypothetical principles that remain the most relevant: mirrored work*complexity and neutral result.

In any given match with any given characters, both players put in a certain amount of work, with player skill being a limiter to how much work a specific player can put out. In a mirror match, the obvious implication is that whoever puts out the most work, i.e. whoever offers the most skill, should win. This has a secondary consequence, that is that nothing should be outside the realm of human skill, such as the so called “50/50 mix-ups”. Which is still pretty obvious.

However, not all match-ups are mirror matches, and thus some characters are more difficult to play than others while some characters are more difficult to play against that others. This two properties are not necessarily directly proportional. As an example, Millia Rage from the Guilty Gear series can, without much work, apply a level of pressure and mix-ups that requires a lot of work to fight. While this is supposed to be compensated through other aspects, history has proved, mainly throughout the older entries, that it wasn’t the case.

This method tries to balance the game by balance the amount of work required from both sides relative to the complexity of the characters involved. Thus, a complex character should be as hard to play as it is to play against and a simple character to play should be simple to play against. That is the principle of mirrored work*complexity.

Then, there’s neutral result principle. By this principle, the result of 2 equal inputs of work should be neutral. Two Ryu players perfectly clashing hadoukens should end up in an equal situation. That’s a practical example of this principle at work. However, regardless of how well you defend, most games will leave you in a disadvantage. Guard break, RISC, and chip damage are some of the things that make even the greatest defense a net loss. By this principle, the rewards and/or costs for both parts should be equal under equal work.

Footnote: The (initial) exclusion of Shippuden

To end this post, I wanted to address what may be a big question from the Naruto fanbase: Why not cover Shippuden? There are two main reasons to why I decided to focus on the first part. First, it’s the one I personally like the most, for various reasons. Which personally inclined me to go for the first part version of the characters. Secondly, Shippuden is not so fit for a fighting game as the first one is due how the “power levels” are handled and how the techniques start to getting out of hand and leave the scope of 1v1 battle to go and cover more of a “man vs army” environment. This is detrimental to the gameplay as space starts to matter less as ranges get too crazy, while at the same time adapting the big, flashy attacks to a smaller scale results in an anti-climatic alteration of the canon. There is, however, a handful of characters that I find can offer some interesting chances for unique character mechanics such as Deidara, Pain, Sai and Kaguya. But at this point I want to adjust the scope to Naruto and extend to Shippuden or even Boruto depending on the results. This will raise a final question: What about fan favourites like Madara or Obito? Well, so far I don’t have a special interest in them as I don’t see interesting, well functioning fighting mechanics for them, but I’m open to suggestions and would gladly implement them down the road if they seem viable.

#naruto #fighting game #fan game #Fighting Game Community #FGC

[tenacioususedcars]

Buying A Used Ford EcoSport: All You Need To Know

Ford EcoSport: Know the car

Ford’s trump card for the passenger car market is the EcoSport. Launched in 2013, it created the sub 4m SUV market in India and continues to offer unmatched premium appeal among all its rivals. The car is loved by enthusiasts and Ford’s low cost of ownership keeps driving in new owners each month. It is the only vehicle in the segment to come with a boot-mounted spare wheel that helps give this a proper SUV stance from the rear..

Brief history of Ford EcoSport

The Ford EcoSport made its debut with three engine options: 1.0-litre turbo petrol, a 1.5-litre naturally aspirated petrol and a 1.5-litre diesel unit. Over the years, Ford offered minor updates and editions to keep the brand alive including introducing the 100PS diesel version in October 2015.

In November 2017, the first major update came in the form of changes done in and out. It also got a new 3-cylinder 1.5 petrol with 123 bhp of power. The 1.0 EcoBoost was taken out but reintroduced with the sporty S variant in 2018.

As of August 2019, the EcoSport is offered in two petrol and one diesel unit. Ford has been shuffling features among all its trims and this has been a bit confusing. The current line up also gets a Thunder edition and 17 inch wheels have been taken off from all but this edition.

Ford EcoSport: Typical new car buyer profile

The Ford EcoSport is aimed at young car enthusiasts who value safety and driving pleasure over parameters like low cost, fuel economy or resale value. Most owners we see know cars in and out and understand the strong points that Ford cars come with.

These owners are under 35-40 years old, have a micro family and love heading out for weekend drives once every 2-3 months. For them, safety is extremely important and no wonder then, the higher end EcoSport trims are a common occurrence on roads.

We have also seen older car lovers invest in a Ford back to back and the Ford EcoSport for sale remains a common pick.

Ford EcoSport: Typical used car buyer profile

A used Ford EcoSport is aimed at those who want a proper SUV (without 4×4 of course) at a lower price point. Some used Ecosport owners will be ex or current Ford car owners and want to continue with the same brand due to its positives.

The EcoSport does not offer ample 2nd-row space and consumers understand this. For them, safety, driving pleasure and premium-ness have higher priority. Like new EcoSport owners, these are also relatively younger audiences who are either unmarried or have micro families.

Key positives of Ford EcoSport

As stated above, the Ford Ecosport is a premium sub 4m SUV that offers a high-quality build and an upmarket cabin including the unique features on offer. Next is the driving pleasure with an excellent mix of ride quality and handling manners. The engines too offer good performance without hitting fuel economy and the EcoSport comes with an optional 6-speed automatic transmission which is better than that of the Nexon.

Ford’s aftermarket service cost has reduced drastically and the same is displayed on their website for added transparency. The EcoSport for sale also looks great, especially the higher-end models and the recently introduced Thunder model. Likewise, higher versions offer a lot of safety kits including 6 Airbags, ESP, Hill Hold, EBA, ABS & more.

Ford EcoSport: Key negatives

If you are looking for space, the EcoSport will disappoint you. With tall people upfront, legroom and knee room at the back is the least among all other rivals. As there is no true entry-level or base version, the starting price of the EcoSport remains the highest too. Ford has been removing a few features from few trims and keeps unique ones reserved for the top end one.

The models with 17-inch wheels suffer from poor ride quality and there have been multiple reports of tyre sidewalls getting damage easily.

The 1.5 petrol, though good in terms of performance, isn’t as good as others in terms of smoothness due to its 3-cylinder set-up.

The ideal used Ford EcoSport you should buy

Ideally, pick the latest version that went on sale in November 2017. This variant looks fresher and sportier while at the same time, got interior updates too. We agree though, you will have to shell out a lot of money for these ones.

If you are on a lower budget, the 2014-2015 models will do just fine. Make sure the cars you filter down come with complete service history for added peace of mind.

Buying newer and older used Ford EcoSport compact SUV

Given the build quality and the fact that most owners are enthusiasts who will ensure the car is taken care of, opting for a used 2013 model isn’t bad at all.

Of course, if your pocket allows, a younger model with less mileage will be better any day.

Those looking at the famed 1.0-litre turbo petrol motor will have to work a bit hard as this particular engine sold in fewer numbers and was intact taken off the market for a few months in between. But if you do find out, grab it without any second thoughts. Likewise, those looking to buy a used S or Signature or Thunder edition of the Ford EcoSport will have to do a bit more digging around.

Used Ford EcoSport for enthusiasts

If adventurous (higher risk appetite), what to buy. For example, enthusiasts or those who get tempted by luxury may opt for the Accord/Camry / Superb V6. Much more powerful but has lower mileage and a higher cost of parts and maintenance if things go wrong.

If you are looking for a used Ford EcoSport for sale that offers a lot of thrills, see if you can find the 1.0 EcoBoost variant at Group 1 Cars. This is a turbocharged petrol engine and though has a small displacement, puts out 123 bhp of power. Just for comparison, the 1.2 on the WRV is good for just 89 bhp and that on the Nexon makes 108 bhp. It is hard to find this model but if you do, don’t let it slip away. Thankfully, the scheduled maintenance cost isn’t too high.

What to check before buying a used EcoSport

The Ford EcoSport is largely a relatively trouble-free compact SUV. However, as discussed above, there have been various recalls and you need to be aware of that. So keep away from used EcoSports manufactured in that time period.

Expected service costs, spares and repair costs for used ford EcoSport explained

Most Ford EcoSport owners stick to authorized workshops as they understand the importance of official technical care. Further, schedule maintenance is also affordable and the same is reflected on their website.

All recall-related work is carried out free of cost and hence if you do come across such an example, no need to worry at all.

Expected real-world mileage of used Ford EcoSport

The first generation Ford EcoSport petrol wasn’t too frugal offering just about 10-11 km/l in city usage and 15-16 km/l on open roads.

The current models are offered with engines that are better in terms of economy. Even the larger 1.5 petrol ends up delivering 11-12 km/l, that too with an automatic gearbox.

Used EcoSport: Maintenance and service tips

We strongly recommend that you stick to authorized workshops for routine maintenance. Scheduled services aren’t too costly, as we have discussed above and even spare parts have become cheaper over time. This has been due to increased localisation and the introduction of child parts, which negates the need to change a complete, larger part. Consumables and labour extra.

Used Ford EcoSport: What to avoid

We don’t think any of the Ford EcoSport models or engine options were not good and need to be ignored. Stay away from after market CNG kits or those models that do not have a proper service history.

Our recommendations

The latest facelift model, launched in November 2017 is definitely better than the older models. For example, it got a new 1.5-litre petrol engine with better performance and fuel economy. It also got a new grille, a better-looking bumper and tweaked lamps. On the inside, the facelift model got an all-new dash, new console among other changes.

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Article from https://pre-ownedsmarts.postach.io/post/buying-a-used-ford-ecosport-all-you-need-to-know

#ford ecosport #used ford #ford ecosport for sale