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pinkykitten · 4 years

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I was tagged by @writing-with-melon I hope my answers aren’t complete waste or if time and if so I’m sorry and I love you

Rules: Answer ten 10 questions, ask 10, and tag 10 people

1. What song automatically plays in your head when you look out the window on a long drive?

i dont really have an answer for this. i think i just automatically think about any song ive been listening to recently or any song that has been stuck in my head.

2. Do you have some snacks nearby when you write?

well i live in a two story house so the kitchen is downstairs and im usually lazy busy so since i have a mini fridge upstairs i just usually get water to drink while im writing. its kinda hard to eat and write cuz i loose focus really easily so when i am writing i am writing! i am in the zone! but if i am a little hungry ill usually snack on candy like chocolate kinder joys i love them but they r so expensive or snack on chips but i get like salt on my fingers or i like cheetos so cheetos dust and that just gets everywhere and later my hands and keyboard kinda smell like fart. 3. What do you do to combat creative burnout?

so burnout happens to me a lot so to get inspiration i either read other stories or fanfics which gets my head gears turning or i admire a piece of art or photography or a song. whats so unique and satisfying with writing you can explore and go anywhere with it, hehehe erotic if you know what i mean lol jk there are no barriers with writing just your imagination. there is inspiration any where you go and id advise to never stop writing. even if its a few short sentences or paragraphs about anything even bird poop its still progression and your mind is working and your searching for words like its all good for you bby. 4. Do you use (or like to use) prompts?

i do ill put the link here. im thinking of changing it though to do something different.

5. What is your favorite place to write?

lol boring, i know but my room. my room is really bright in the mornings and comfortable and chill and i have a candle of the pandora ride in disney that smells like the ride so its all good and relaxing and super peaceful plus i have a picture of myself the age of like 9 on my desk idk why but it encourages me and makes me focus to make sure i never get that cringy again.

6. What is a hobby or yous that you usually don’t talk about?

well i like working out HAHAHAHAHA jk that was a joke...get it...cuz i much rather be eatingokillstop. but i really like to draw which i have a art page you can see it if you click here pls look at my failed attempts to be hip and cool with the cool kids and being artsy fartsy. another hobby is i really like to do makeup and nail art, nail art is really tough guys no joke if you do it like you got wizard powers are something. maybe its bc my nails are shorter than pete davidson and ariana grande’s relationship, alright im trying to stop i swear!

7. Do you play an instrument? Which one?

no i wish though. i always wanted to learn to either play the piano or electric guitar cuz H.E.R looks so cool doing it.

8. How do you feel about your handwriting?

it sucks dont even try me. my sister can barely read it like no wonder nobody wants to steal my signature heck they can’t even read it!

9. Can you tell us of a story that marked your development as a person? As a writer?

ok sit back guys, sniff a nice amount of crack and get ready for the most cringy moment of my life but also a time when i knew i was meant to be *inhale* a fanfic writer.

so it was elementary school, i think 3rd grade and for my writing assignment we were given a prompt of idk what the heck tbh i think it was like be outside the box and im like ok imma nail this cuz im a weird child and yeah so i got my papers and pencil and i went TO TOWN on this paper. so i wrote two stories. one short story with a picture to go with it and one long story that yeah i buried years ago. so my first story was about a farmer was about that farming life. he had chickens and dairy. so i cant remember if the cheese was spoiled but doesnt matter. anywho these cheese and a chicken were alive like they could talk in the story and i gave them faces, yikes. but the whole story was the farmer was a b*tch and he was trying to eat the chicken and cheese so they hatched a plan to get away from the farmer. they did it successfully and they ran away. yay happy ending my teacher actually liked that one me too and my school mates were thinking what they heck is this girl on i made a story about how me and justin bieber made cookies for Christmas you know. so then my other story i was more proud of this one cuz it was a tone of paper, sorry trees, and this story was about how a female hippo (girl i was all about plus size and thicker girls and no body shaming) and an male ostrich were kidnapped from their own habitats and taken to become circus animals. failed version of Madagascar hey mine was before the circus movie OK THEY STOLE IT FROM MEEEEE. so they get taken and are treated to harsh punishment and the animals can talk and i think its in the point of view of the male ostrich guy thing. they are in the circus and they start to have this relationship happening. love starts blossoming its all good. im happy with this cuz i believed in love at age of 8. they find a way thru a kick butt scene of the animals escaping and the hippo and ostrich are so in love that they run away together and they have half hippo half ostrich babies and i think i named the species hipstrich or like ostppo idk but i was so proud of this story and when my teacher read it she was worried about me lol i think she thought i might like mate these two animals like secretly idk but she was like it was ok and i was like what this is frickin William Shakespeare writing or like F. Scott Fitzgerald writing. nevertheless it taught me a lesson that nobody else needs to like what im writing the main point and only thing that matters is if your proud of it and you like it and i really did. i will remember that story forever and thats what made me want to be a writer. lol sorry that was a lot.

10. @emdop I’m going to use this great question: Explain one of your WIPs in the most ridiculous way possible.

wellllll im working on my peaky blinders oc story its a lot of drugs money killing weapons jewelry rich profanities like its the show but written from my stubby hands so my oc and whatever its great and so excited to show it to you guys.

MY QUESTIONS:

1. WHAT MADE YOU WANT TO START TUMBLR?

2. IF YOU COULD CHANGE ANYTHING OF THIS WORLD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

3. WHAT QUALITY IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

4. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE OUTFIT?

5. WHAT MAKES YOU SMILE?

6. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG IN THE WHOLE WORLD?

7. IF YOU COULD VISIT A PLACE, WHERE WOULD IT BE?

8. WHAT SHOW OR MOVIE UNIVERSE WOULD YOU WANT TO BE IN?

9. WHAT IS THE SCARIEST MOMENT OF YOUR LIFE?

10. WHAT DO YOU WANT MORE IN THIS WORLD THAN ANYTHING ELSE?

im tagging: @thatlittlered, @ardentmuse, @acciosnapes, @lotsoffandomimagines, @collecting-stories, @blog-of-a-multitude-of-fandoms, @naughtyneganjdm, @lenahellgizibe and two random followers @spiritsent, @sucker-for-my-fandoms

i was tagged by @writing-with-melon again ty btw, ps i felt so much pressure lol jk 😊

Rules: Answer 5 questions, Ask 5 questions, Tag 5 people.

1. What is your favorite book?

fifty shades of grey hahaha naw my favorite book is obv you all know this is series of unfortunate events but i never usually cry period and i never cry for books ever so when i read mrs. tom thumb by melanie benjamin, its the part when her sister minnie dies i cried so hard idk it was just emotional the wording the way she described her pain it was so beautiful written yet so sad and that was just amazing to me cuz im like this book made me feel things and im like wow i would love to write a book one day and make someone feel something whether it be sadness anger happiness annoyance anything they are having an emotion and that is super powerful to do that with just words. pls go check out that book its a good read. also im a fan of the greatest showman so i really enjoyed it. there are many other books tho that i thoroughly enjoy so much.

2. What piece that you’ve written are you most proud of?

oh my god ive always wanted to be asked this question hands down i am always proud of my platonic gender neutral tony stark fic called in·con·sol·a·ble window to me i wrote it so sad and i was feeling like depressed lol when i saw peter die in infinity war like i didnt know what to do with my life tbh but im so glad that @impetrichorny requested it tysm i just like how its not based on romance or fluff or happiness it is based on when you lose someone the nightmares and sadness you go through and that there is nothing nobody can do about it except just be there for that person so i really like writing angst and something that was out of the box. ive been thinking tho of doing a part two since the fate of all the characters has changed after endgame. who knows tho.

3. What is the last song that inspired you?

well for art it would have to good news by mac miller when i did that kobe bryant memorial on my art page. i dont want to give it away though but ill just say some very powerful womens music inspired my oc writing and making.

4. How do you feel about letting people read what you write?

at first i was scared cuz i thought i wrote like trash which that feeling kinda doesnt go away like some days i feel that way others i feel confident or it depends on the request it just depends but anyways i was always insecure about my writing so when i started writing it was more like lets see how this goes if not ill delete the whole page. im glad to say it went great but in the begging it was hard cuz i kept putting myself down but i learned to accept or just understand that you keep learning with writing you always learn knew things with writing how you can explain something better or you words get more intricate and people see the improvement and you do too thats why i applaud those who dont speak english that english isnt their first language. you are doing a tremendous job and keep practicing cuz you’re gonna make it to the top. ive also learned that some days are not my days and you can take time off when youre not feeling it when you have writers block. just recollect your juices sip some tea go to the beach relax your mind a little and take as long as you need to come back and give it your all. also comments and reblogs and likes a follows those meant so much to me and encouraged me. thats why i cant express it enough how much all those mean to writers, artist, photographers, anybody who is truly trying their hard in this area of social media. its makes a person happy smile and confident in their writing but first train your mind into loving what you make not what others thing. you have to be happy with the outcome that is what truly matters and what makes your writing the best. look at me getting philosophical.

5. Do you get distracted easily? If yes with what?

yes and with porn haha i get distracted easily like very easily homeschooling was really tough for me. music distracts me, netflix, the urge to watch david dobrik or unus annus or buzzfeed unsolved on youtube, heck my farts distract me. i gotta be like troy bolton i gotta get my HEAD IN THE GAME!

MY QUESTIONS:

1. IF YOU COULD BE NAMED SOMETHING ELSE, WHAT WOULD YOU BE NAMED?

2. WHAT PERSON INSPIRES YOU THE MOST?

3. IF YOU KNEW THE WORLD WAS ENDING TOMORROW WHAT WOULD YOU DO TODAY?

4. WHAT DO YOU OFTEN THINK ABOUT IN THE SHOWER?

5. WHATS YOUR WEIRD COMBINATION FOOD?

im tagging: @thatlittlered, @ardentmuse, @acciosnapes, @lotsoffandomimagines, @collecting-stories AND WHOEVER WANTS TO DO THIS IF YOU FOLLOW ME OR LIKE MY STORIES TAG ME ILL READ YOUR ANSWERS. HOPE I DID THIS RIGHT SORRY FOR TAKING SO LONG YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING MWUAH

#ask #@writing-with-melon #rambles #writing #tips on writing #unus annus #david dobrik #netflix #buzzfeed unsolved #peaky blinders oc #kobe bryant #mac miller #tony stark #peter parker #the greatest showman #tom thumb #troy bolton #zac efron

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topweeklyupdate · 6 years

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TØP Weekly Update #62: They’re *Really* Back (9/14/18)

We knew going into this week that there was a real storm coming, and that was an understatement. Though the complete Trench album is still waiting to be released, it really feels like the band is back more than ever.

This update is a novel-sized doozy. Grab your new merch, and let’s dive into it.

This Week’s TØPics:

A Complete Diversion in London Brings Trench (and a Flaming Car) to the Stage

The Boys Speak to the Press: Rock Sound and Alt Press Announce Special TØP Issues, and the Boys Hop Back Onto Radio

First Details Emerge About “Neon Gravestones”, “Pet Cheetah”, Clancy, Nico, and More As the Press Hear the Album for the First Time

Major News and Announcements:

The big one finally hit: after over a year, Twenty One Pilots returned to their home on the stage. They started making flex moves before the show even started. They arrived in London two days in advance, rehearsing and playing soundchecks into the night that die-hard campers could hear from outside the venue. They arranged for folks in Bandito uniforms to dispense 150 tickets to those that showed up at the box office. The venue delivered food to the queue, and the Clique in turn donated their blankets and duvets to a local soup kitchen. Pretty darn sweet.

The real event was even sweeter.

Twenty One Pilots did not quite pull out all of the stops for their first performance in over a year. The set was just over an hour, did not debut any never-before-heard songs, did not include any special guests, and mainly stuck to the skeleton of the Blurryface Era setlist. And you know what? There was absolutely nothing wrong with that. If anything, Tyler and Josh keeping things focused on dusting off the old gears and introducing a few new elements for the Trench era resulted in a tight and emotional return for today’s greatest band. (Shout out to Ohio Clique for editing fifteen different Periscope and Instagram Live streams together to make a cohesive concert movie.)

Highlights of the show include:

There were no screens present in the smaller venue, but the production crew did make sure to bust out a ton of other great production elements, including tons of lights and, most notably, the car from the “Heavydirtysoul” video that bursts into flames at key points during certain songs- including, at one point, when Tyler was standing on it.

The Clique brought the production value in the crowd, too: beyond all the folks dressed up as Banditos and Bishops, you also had plenty of people bring in yellow screens for their flashlights and yellow flowers and petals to offer Tyler.

The setlist was pretty sensible, with the four new Trench singles plus all of the songs that you would have expected them to play at an old festival show (minus “Guns for Hands” and “Tear In My Heart”, no I’m not sweating, why?). It is interesting that “WDBWOTV” and “The Judge” were played, but I suspect that it was mainly to justify bringing out the ukulele for “Nico”; if there are more uke tracks on Trench, I would not be surprised to see one or both of these songs dip out of the regular rotation.

Tyler had to stop the show twice to help people out of the pit- it was that kind of show.

The show opened with Josh coming out on stage in full Bandito regalia, torch in hand, looking like a badass. After sitting down at the drums and playing a few simple sequences, a masked man with a bass guitar walked out on the stage, started playing “Jumpsuit”’s gnarly riff, and yelled for the crowd to “GET UP!” Awesome. Twenty One Pilots is back, mate.

Tyler stumbled over a few lyrics in “Jumpsuit” and “Levitate”, but he successfully played it off- only the most diehard fans would have caught that he wasn’t just pausing for breath or to hear the crowd.

Tyler actually yelled “Why’d you come, you know you should have stayed?” at the end of “Heathens”, and it sounded damn good. Hope it sticks for future shows.

Tyler’s “WDBWOTV” pre-speech was a pretty good inaugural address for the Trench Era. He let the rabid audience know that he had been watching them since before the concert (both literally and metaphorically), joked about needing to get back in “show shape”, and thanked London for being a home away from home for them. In gratitude for hosting them, Tyler even announced that they were adding a third arena show at Wembley and joked that Mark should tweet it or something (he did).

Prior to playing “Nico”, Tyler adorned a bright yellow jacket over his usual uke kimono; Josh helpfully banged the drums dramatically for every successful button.

Tyler and Josh did the handshake during “Nico”, because of course they did.

For “My Blood”, Tyler drew from the old playbook and attempted to direct the two halves of the audience to sing harmonies. It worked even better than it used to with “Doubt”, much to Tyler’s evident glee- his smile and little dance to everyone singing his new song back at him was probably the best moment of the whole show.

The Trees Speech was short and sweet, with Tyler promising that he’s written “pages and pages” of things he wants to say, but for now all he can say is that they’ll be coming back on the new tour with “things we’ve never seen before” and that the fans look so good.

#YellowConfettiConfirmed

In the last bit of major news: new merch (that Josh stitched himself, be nice) and a new yellow Trench vinyl that I’m sure won’t immediately sell out. Have fun spending your life savings, kids!

Other Shenanigans:

The band was active in other spaces this week, of course. After Zane Lowe broke open the floodgates last week, both Rock Sound and Alternative Press announced that they would release some exclusive Trench Era Content (tm). Rock Sound’s came in the form of a thirty-page mag featuring a lengthy 22-page feature comprised of the first interview the two bands gave together since before the hiatus, Tyler and Josh’s first full photoshoot in over a year, and tons of awesome posters and Clique art. It definitely is not available in any form on the Internet that I’m afraid to link to lest I get pegged for copyright and sent to jail. Highlights of this interview that I certainly haven’t read include:

Lots of typical Rock Sound purple prose, in which the writer goes off on more tangential metaphors than even Tyler Robert Joseph.

The reporter describes Tyler’s house as “quite stunning” (yeah, with that Blurryface money combined with Columbus real estate values, I should hope so).

Josh laughs at the memory of some of their old costumes. “Those suits were so hot,” he says, as if those heavy coats aren’t a billion degrees inside.

Tyler: “There’s something healthy about realizing that the world keeps turning. Sometimes it can feel like the whole world is revolving around you- I think we all selfishly get to that point. When you have those moments, when you stop and realize that even if you weren’t there those other people would be, it lifts a weight that can feel very heavy. It motivates you to want to come up with a reason why you’re here.”

Tyler says they cut out social media during the hiatus in part because “removing the ability to run straight to it was important. For me, writing music is the thing I want to run to when I feel compelled or inspired. Whether it’s frustration or anger or compassion, whatever it is that I wanted to express, I wanted it to live somewhere new. I didn’t want one drop of meaningful expression to live anywhere else.” Additionally, they did want to test whether the Clique would stick around, and even kinda hint that they wanted to shrink how crowded some of the rooms they entered were becoming.

We are assured, however, that the next “hiatus” will not be the exact same as this. Tyler: “Going away broke my heart. It hurt that we weren’t able to tell people why we had gone, but I’m an advocate of showing people what I’ve been working on rather than telling them how hard I’m working. [...] That said, though we don’t know what the timeframe will be or if we’ll take another break, the manner in which we left... we’ll never do that again.”

I’m just gonna leave this here: “He tells us also of the beautiful relationship he has with his wife, Jenna, and the role that she played in helping him unlock the words and the sounds that would form the basis of this new chapter; of the times he would hand her the phone while behind the wheel of his car to allow her to record anything from melodies to simple poems.” Yeah, will someone sweep up all the pieces of my heart that are just lying on the floor, that’d be great.

Tyler has long had the idea to tell a geographic story, much longer than since the end of the last cycle, and he didn’t always intend to tell it through music. “I feel like in our mind there are places we learn we shouldn’t go.”

Tyler says that there are lots of songs that he writes that never see the light of day because he has moved past the season he wrote them in by the time it comes to record them.

Rock Sound is positively glowing in its brief advance review of the album, saying it is undoubtedly the best project of 2018, “a labor of love”, “a varied, often spectacular collection” with some of the band’s all-time greatest moments. It will be even more sonically diverse than we’ve come to expect: “Morph” is described as “old-school R&B”, “The Hype” “anthemic indie-rock”, “Pet Cheetah” has “stomping beats and a fiery rap verse.” The highlight, though, is apparently “Neon Gravestones”, “a piano-laden spoken word masterpiece” with lyrical content that “will save at least one person’s life”. Damn.

Alt Press will also be releasing a 24-page cover feature on the band and were even nice enough to include a fun video ad from the boys. They’re so cute, and I’ve missed them so much. (Also, Tyler’s checkered pants are a quality meme.)

After the Complete Diversion, Tyler and Josh performed a mini-press tour. First, they gave five-minute interview with Annie Mac on BBC Radio 1 and an Instagram Stories AMA on the station’s account. Highlights of this quickie include:

Josh and Tyler joke that specifying the exact number of months they’ve been away sounds like a mother saying their kid is “14 months” instead of a year old.

Tyler notes that this was the first performance in a long time that they’ve felt truly nervous, as they could no longer rely on muscle memory to carry them through after the long break, particularly with the new songs.

Annie references her last interview with Josh, where he confessed to be nervous about whether the fans would return. When asked if the first show helped them overcome those nerves, Tyler replied honestly, “To an extent, yes.” They chuckle about it, but the implication remains thick: the dedicated fanbase certainly turned up, but there is no assurance that they’ll have long-term mainstream success in the future. They seem cool with that.

Tyler states that they chose London specifically to make their return because, besides Columbus, it’s the only city where they have played in every size of venue, from the Barfly club to the Ally Pally and everything in-between over the course of fifteen shows. That type of home atmosphere made it feel right to start the new era there.

Josh says they played a bowling alley in London once. He did not wear bowling shoes in the set nor when he bowled afterward, which, as Tyler points out, is very punk rock.

Tyler reflects on how this show represents years of preparation and practice teaching them how to “trim the fat” and master the tempo and flow of the concert to appear as confident as possible and bring the audience along for a well-planned journey.

“My Blood” is one of the most challenging songs for both artists to play, particularly Tyler, as he has to balance the difficult falsetto with keeping that bassline groovy and consistent.

The IG answers were mostly just the dudes trying and failing to answer basic questions like “Are you happy to be back?” and “What’s it like to be famous?” in as few words as possible without giggling, hugging, and tickling each other. Best Q/A: Why did they watch the Grammys in their underwear? “We didn’t have air-conditioning.”

South African DJ Rob Forbes from Radio 5FM also conducted a truly fascinating interview with the band, the first that dives into the lore and one that gives us even more of a glimpse into some of the future songs. Additionally, Mr. Forbes briefly posted the tracklist w/ time-codes, revealing that both “Chlorine” and “Bandito” go over five minutes- get hyped, kids. Highlights from this interview include:

When asked about Clancy, Tyler responds with a pregnant silence before asking how the the interviewer knew about him. DJ Forbes stutters an answer about having listened to the record, but Tyler replies that Clancy’s not on the record. All he does say about Clancy is “I’ve heard about him, and I know we’re from the same place.” What is up with your cryptic nonsense, Tyler Robert Joseph?

The band intentionally left the Trench Trilogy open-ended to be able to continue it in the future. Tyler did not mean to make the timeline confusing, but did note that its cyclical nature left it open for the Clique to pursue that interpretation.

Tyler is careful with choosing his words to describe Nico. He admits the whole thing is pretty confusing (his grandma asked him once, “What’s a Nico?”), but that was his intention: he wanted to give the Clique a lot to think about and discuss as a reward for waiting so long. He does seem to confirm that Nico is Blurryface, or at least an aspect of him that represents how much more familiar Tyler has become with the nature of his own insecurities as he writes about it.

Tyler denies that the final verse of “Neon Gravestones” has a specifically political bend and actually sounds a little offended that something so important to him could be cast in that light. No idea what that means, I need to hear this song.

The interviewer says that Tyler calls his “Pet Cheetah” “Jason Statham” within the song itself in a fun rap verse. Tyler laughs and says that came from an inside joke between him and Josh that he was excited to bring to life. I am SO confused, you have no idea.

Tyler says that they had plans at one point to come to South Africa for a show that fell through at the last second, but that they’re still interested in going at some point in the future.

Additionally, the music production interest site Mix did a small spotlight on the producers behind Trench. We already knew that Paul Meany was handling main production duty; Darrell Thorpe, whose credits include Radiohead, OutKast, Paul McCartney, and Foster the People, joined him as an engineer while the band captured the album’s drum tracks at United Recording Studios in LA, the only studio they used outside of the one in Tyler’s home. It’s always cool to see the dudes who bring the band’s music to life, but, to be honest, the best part of this short little article is Tyler’s dad socks in the photo.

Oh, and music video director Andrew Donoho told Billboard that he can’t spoil the album or Tyler will burn down his house. So... yeah, okay, moving on.

Chart Performance:

After its first full week of sales and streaming, “My Blood” secured a debut at #16 on the Billboard Bubbling Under chart ranking the songs that have yet to reach the Hot 100. The song gains at all metrics, and according to some industry sources like Headline Planet, it is receiving a concentrated marketing push to pop and adult contemporary markets that its predecessors have not. “Jumpsuit” continues to fade, but its run was respectable, and I remain optimistic about Trench’s commercial prospects going forward, especially in the midst of this hype wave.

Whew. That was a long run. Congrats to everyone who made it all the way to the end. We’re so close to Trench, you guys. Keep powering through. Stay alive. And power to the local dreamer.

|-/

#twenty one pilots #tyler joseph #josh dun #trench #rock sound #alt press #a complete diversion #bbc radio one #pet cheetah #neon gravestones #top weekly update

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your-dietician · 3 years

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The worst hit singles from 12 major artists | Arts & Entertainment

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/entertainment/the-worst-hit-singles-from-12-major-artists-arts-entertainment/

The worst hit singles from 12 major artists | Arts & Entertainment

The biggest music artists of all time typically have dozens of hits in their portfolio, often so many that they can’t play all of them in concert.

But sometimes artists are so popular that radio plays their singles and fans buy them because of unyielding devotion, not artistic genius. While diehards will love even the ugliest child, it’s fair to say that not every hit song is equal. So we’ve picked our least favorite song from a sampling of major artists — what we consider some of the worst from some of the most familiar hit-makers.

Yes, in a way, we’re trolling those dedicated fans, many of whom will likely howl in protest over some of our picks. Unlike them, our devotion isn’t unyielding.

Melissa’s pick: “Die Another Day”

There have been numerous worthy James Bond theme songs this century, such as Adele and, um, well, OK, Adele. But Madonna may have kickstarted the string of recent forgettable offerings with her 2002 dance smash. If you’re into rote electro-stuttering and nonsensical lyrics, congratulations for perpetuating mediocrity.

Rodney’s pick: “Don’t Tell Me”

Most of Madonna’s hit songs have a catchy melodic twist and/or lyrical intrigue along the lines of “Material Girl,” “Vogue” or “Music.” Then there is this decidedly unmemorable ditty, which inexplicably peaked at No. 4 on the American pop chart. Even the song title is boring. A mildly countrified guitar riff is accompanied by Madonna sounding mildly defiant in a way that comes and goes with no emotional impact whatsoever.

Melissa’s pick: “Purple Rain”

I know, I’m ducking already. And I’ll concede that when Prince performed the title track of his 1984 soundtrack in concert, even the cacophonous guitar solo at song’s end exploded with vitality. But on record? A thumping slog.

Rodney’s pick: “Batdance”

The 1980s were a prolific period for Prince, including some of his most iconic hits that R&B and pop radio stations continue to play today. This song hit No. 1 in the summer of 1989 but is rarely heard for a reason: it’s basically a weird promo for the “Batman” movie. There are elements of cool songs embedded in here, but it feels cobbled together more for commercial purposes than artistic merit.

Melissa’s pick: “A Matter of Trust”

By 1986, Joel certainly earned the right to indulge in a vanity project, and this is his only hit to spotlight him on electric guitar instead of piano. Unfortunately for longtime fans, Joel’s pet project was manifested in simple, monotonous chords, a sluggish pace and a cringing attempt at Springsteen-esque grit.

Rodney’s pick: “You’re Only Human”

Billy’s best songs are romantic or parables of sorts. This is Billy at his preachiest. An original song he wrote for his “Greatest Hits Vol. 1 and Vol. 2” release, this top 10 hit from 1985 was a way to help young people with depression and thoughts of suicide so the intentions were good. But as a song, it’s both annoyingly chipper and lyrically flaccid.

Melissa’s pick: “Crocodile Rock”

Perhaps it’s due to decades of witnessing thousands of uncoordinated suburbanites attempting to dance while singing the grating “la la la la la” chorus of John’s first No. 1 hit (in 1972) in concert that has spoiled any enjoyment of this ditty. But the inanity and novelty song quality also contribute.

Rodney’s pick: “Can You Feel the Love Tonight”

John went through a 1990s phase of bland balladeering which sticks in my craw including “Circle of Life” and “Believe.” This is probably the most famous of that era, his “Lion King” cash grab that won an Academy Award and a Grammy. I’d take the worst of his 1970s hits (including “Crocodile Rock”) over this drivel any day.

Melissa’s pick: “Blood on the Dance Floor”

With production by new jack swing maestro Teddy Riley, the lead single from Jackson’s 1997 “Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix” album was originally slated for his 1991 “Dangerous” release. That explains the victim-heavy lyrics about backstabbers (prime early ’90s Jackson fodder), but not the middling funk backbeat. While the song only climbed to No. 42 in the U.S., it was a worldwide smash, proving that sometimes, Americans do have better taste.

Rodney’s pick: “Dirty Diana”

This song, his fifth No. 1 song off his “Bad” album in 1988, is about aggressive groupies and feels dark and dreary, with overdramatic guitar rock licks. Tell me where the actual hook is in the chorus. And the odd lack of percussive rhythm keeps it from ever finding its core essence.

Melissa’s pick: “One Moment in Time”

Look, I adore a good anthem. And this one is all about anthem-y things such as inspiration and pride in accomplishments (Houston recorded it for the 1988 Summer Olympics). But sometimes Houston’s schmaltz-ometer needed to be tempered and this was prime time.

Rodney’s pick: “I Have Nothing”

Houston during her peak was able to belt a ballad in her sleep. This David Foster/Linda Thompson tune from “My Bodyguard” is very prototypical Houston with her requisite dramatic flair but has always made me want to go to sleep instead. I suspect the excessive use of this song on “American Idol” has soured me even more on its charms.

Melissa’s pick: “Lover”

It’s a word that prompts all of the blechs, and coupled with Swift’s cooing delivery and the echo-y drumbeat powering the ballad, it results in continued wincing. Despite a killer bridge — which is becoming a Swift specialty — her breathy delivery of “You’re my, my, my, my love-ER” is straight-up icky.

Rodney’s pick: “Look What You Made Me Do”

This song was super impactful for many reasons when it came out in 2017 due to the lyrical content about her reputation and its obvious electro-pop vibe. But there’s a reason you hardly ever hear it on the radio in 2021. It’s less a viable pop song and more a treatise about Swift’s fame and how people perceived her at the time. Unlike most of her other hits like “Blank Space” and “Delicate,” this one doesn’t hold up well over repeated listens.

Melissa’s pick: “Bed of Roses”

Even hardcore Bon Jovi fans (hand raised) will admit that the band’s ’90s-era ballads were brutal (see Rodney’s choice to further solidify). But between Jon Bon Jovi’s cliched Romeo routine and one of the most ludicrous lyrics in rock history — “I wake up and French kiss the morning” — this one is unlistenable.

Rodney’s pick: “Always”

This power ballad about someone who sounds like a stalker hit the top 5 in 1994 but is largely forgotten a quarter-century later. Why? It’s so dull and shapeless, the lighter you’d raise in concert would refuse to ignite in protest.

Melissa’s pick: “Pour Some Sugar On Me”

Released in 1988, the Mutt Lange-produced track is inarguably Def Leppard’s best-known hit. It’s still horrible. Dopey lyrics and minimal use of the band’s copious musical abilities mar every bar. The song was a last-minute add to the “Hysteria” album. If only we had gotten lucky.

Rodney’s pick: “Let’s Get Rocked”

This 1992 top 20 hit feels like a ragged compilation of all their previous hits amped up to 11, led by a super cliched chorus and song title. It’s like Def Leppard color-by-numbers.

Rodney and Melissa agree: “Work”

Rihanna has said her broken, often half-hearted vocal style in this dancehall song represents her culture. But that doesn’t seem to explain the basic lack of a hook, a melody or anything resembling a coherent outline of a song.

Melissa’s pick: “One”

While I appreciate Bono’s sentiment that we can be simultaneously unified and diverse and while I will never disparage the charitable causes associated with the band’s No. 1 hit from 1992, I will also never be swayed of the opinion that musically, it’s a droning snooze.

Rodney’s pick: “With or Without You”

The opening single off U2′s most successful album “The Joshua Tree” from 1987 has a pretty solemnity, but after countless listens, I’ve lost patience with Bono’s overwrought delivery. In other words, I can easily live without you. Give me “In God’s Country” or “Red Hill Mining Town,” thank you very much.

Melissa’s pick: “Animals”

I have a visceral reaction to Adam Levine’s nasal whine, so truly any song from Maroon 5′s inexplicably extensive catalog is on my list. But if forced to choose one waste of four minutes of my life, it would be this 2014 hit laced with Levine’s grating falsetto and packed with high school-level sexual innuendo.

Rodney’s pick: “Moves Like Jagger”

It’s mind-boggling how many top 40 songs this band has generated over the past two decades: 23! This was their biggest hit of them all and possibly their most memorable song as well, given the Mick Jagger twist and help from Christina Aguilera. But this fangless song packed with whistling has none of Jagger’s actual swagger. Even Aguilera’s contribution is unmemorable.

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resbang-bookclub · 6 years

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AMA Transcript: Simple Melody

For our final AMA of Resbang 2017, @alliope, @bbbutterfingers & @daciafu stopped in to answer questions about their Resbang, Simple Melody! Here’s some of what went down:

Q: My first question for Allie is what inspired you to do this AU?

Allie: Well I've generally had the idea for an Over the Garden Wall AU for a while, not necessarily for SE, but as the first check-ins deadline was approaching I ended up rewatching bits of Over the Garden Wall and it just kinda clicked? Mainly I think it came from Crona's betrayal and Beatrice's betrayal and everything fell into place from there. I thought the eerie atmospheres would work well together! So I ended up scrapping my previous idea and wrote 3k plus a summary like three days before the first check-ins, rip.

Q: For butter/dacia, what went into how you decided which scene(s) to art?

butterfingers: HM well there was some chitchat when we started about what kind of work we wanted to do and I said that I loved the Boom comics covers, and then I shouted WHAT IF I MADE COMIC BOOK COVERS! and I think Dacia went WHAT IF I DID BACKGROUNDS and I guess we just approached it as if we were doing something comic-y haha!

Allie: You two were the power duo.

daciafu: I've always been in love with the style of the backgrounds of OTGW since that's where all those cozy and spooky feelings of fall and the Unknown really shine and I'm honestly HORRIBLE at designing backgrounds so I wanted to take the challenge and push myself to get better! Mimicking other people's styles really helps me break down how they make their choices and teaches me how to make things look Decent so I was super hyped to pick up the OTGW style! And then when Butters and I were trying to figure out What Do and she said she wanted to tackle covers, I decided to do background-heavy scenes. 😊

Q: What is generally your guys’ process (writing for Allie and arting for butters and dacia)?

Allie: Well, I wrote in little scenes, like I would get an idea for a scene and just go for it, the fic wasn't at all coherent until maybe a few days before posting. This actually posed a problem since linking scenes took longer than I thought it would. Because I had most of my scenes written, I thought I had more finished than I really did. By the end of Resbang, I had 56k written but only 20k remotely post-able. I'm a super obsessive planner though, so my whole fic was outlined in detail early on, which was nice cause I knew what I was doing lol

butterfingers: I loved going through Allie's notes, I was always excited to see how they'd connect the dots! My art process is as follows: scribble something, put it aside, look at it a lot throughout the day with the thought that maybe I can surprise myself into seeing something new, find something I hate, fix it, rinse and repeat. For this project I actually... have a friend who works with Boom Comics and she was able to hook me up with a nice little gallery of illustrations for the OTGW comic so I got to go through and put together my mood board for it 😊

daciafu: I read over the gloriousness that was Allie's draft and immediately picked out some neat scenes or wanted to reimagine the classic OTWG ones. I spent a lot of time studying first! Looking at the art books, and poring over the show’s scenes and kind of getting a feel for the color palettes, textures and compositions. Then I watched a tutorial on Youtube where someone just deadass uploaded their painting process on a piece of official art that made it into the show. So that was EXTREMELY helpful to watch the way they painted back-to-front and kind of blended the planes without like, losing depth?? The internet is so, so wonderful. And then I got to work! Started with a soft brush for lineart so it wouldn't be too prevalent, moved onto base colors, then shading, and then really trying to establish textures and make the atmosphere Just Right(tm).

butterfingers: Genius!! Oh damn that sounds like such great advice vis à vis backgrounds. /takes notes

Q: You sound like the dream art partner Allie, I weep for my artists and my last minute HERE IS 10K I JUST TYPED UP BC IM A MESS.

Allie: Ahh geez, these two were the dream partners honestly, like I'm so glad they could gather stuff from my notes, cause I've always got everything together in my head, but then it gets out there and it's a mess, these two deserve all the love.

butterfingers: There was one thing I regret that I didn't have the chance to draw and it was like a throwaway line somewhere in your notes about Maka presenting Soul with a praying mantis and him freaking out. I resonated with that so hard hahaha.

Q: What was the hardest scene for you to write?

Allie: The hardest scene to write that's actually posted was anything with Justin really, I don't get his character and it was tough to write him. There were a few scenes that were hard to write because I rushed them, but I wouldn't say they were genuinely difficult scenes, I just gotta rewrite 'em! But overall the ending scene I'm still struggling to write and there's a dream scene that occurs which has been difficult to write just for making it dream-like enough?

Q: And what was the hardest to art? :o

butterfingers: I had a hard time with Maka's expressions. I had many scribbles designing a Ragnarok lantern, too, but it was very fun!!

Allie: Your design for the Ragnarok lantern was so good, I still cry over it.

butterfingers: Ahaha thank you! He was very Calcifer inspired ;)

daciafu: I struggled quite a bit with the first one I painted, just because it was all so new to me. I had to base color 3 different times because the soft lineart bothered me if something extended too far, or there was white background peeking through. And then reimagining the texture in the leaves and the ground to try to separate the planes there but also wanting them to be cohesive was a bit of a headache. If I had to go back and do that one over again I think I'd be more prepared to deal with the foliage lmao.

butterfingers: Your textures were very excellent, that was a quality I struggled with as well!

daciafu: The first one I painted was the Golden Light scene where Maka and Soul are leaving the woods and entering the fields.

butterfingers: Trees r hard.

Allie: They all came out so incredible though, I'm in awe of how you were able to create those leaves.

daciafu: Omg ;;;;; At the same time trees are so organic and flowy and the chances of getting them wrong are pretty slim considering they can get janked as hell lol they're super fun to just zone out to. "I’ll just put a happy little leaf here, ooh and how’s about another one right next to it. They can be happy friends. Oh look, the squad showed up!!" Channeling my inner Bob Ross... but yeah you can just do whatever with them and they somehow come together.

Q: Daciafu how do u.....background, like you did so well and all I hear from art friends is various levels of pterodactyl screeching when the word background is mentioned.

daciafu: I heavily based the Leafing the Forest scene and the church scene after stills from the show so I don't get composition points there, but I built the pumpkin fields just based off of the environment’s design elements. I really wanted to push the depth of that scene but also give it that same never-ending quality to it, and I'm super happy with the results. Another note is that I omitted the characters entirely while building the backgrounds. Since I'm usually a pretty character-heavy artist, I wanted to tackle it like I was preparing the scene for an animator later. And then once they were done, I added in our sweet kids. Doing it that way first really helped to cement the characters in the space rather than my usual "character is done, how can I put them in an interesting physical space?" struggle lmao.

Q: Did you guys feel like your writing/arting changed at all or that you learned anything/picked up new skills/honed old ones etc. etc. during Resbang?

Allie: Gosh yeah, it changed a lot. In hindsight a bad idea, but this was the first fic I'd ever written with intention of posting and the longest piece I'd ever written. Before this I had written very little and my longest piece was maybe 10k. Throughout Resbang I've learned most of everything from the ground up, it's taught me a lot about my limits, how I work and writing in general. I've definitely improved a lot from the experience!

butterfingers: Let me tell you all about the airbrush tool that I discovered during Resbang. Amazing. Incredible.

daciafu: I learned how to paint backgrounds!!! Which is something I've always wanted to get better at. And I got super comfortable in Clip Studio (I'd just gotten it) as well as using texture brushes, so overall it was a very helpful and wonderful experience as a Resbang participant and as an arteest.

Q: Oh that reminds me butters, what program do you use?

butterfingers: Paint Tool SAI for the most part, and then Photoshop for color correction, borders, and, like, finesse things! :)

Q: Did you guys listen to any music that inspired you or helped you create?

Allie: Ah, yeah! I had a playlist actually! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjTCaFkFU6rkD1edJwCZmHvJiUwlSUeGZ

If you want I can explain some bits of it? I use music a lot when writing aha. I like to associate certain songs with characters and character relationships, so most of the songs are connected to a particular part of the story. The Monroe Transfer, Wayfaring Stranger, and Mountains were all more general atmosphere stuff. Blame was very much related to Maka, which may not be apparent now, but yeah. Ragnarok I actually connected a lot with Willow Tree March. Soul was probably closest with A Lady. Crona had a lot of songs, but Neptune was most specific to them, as was probably Ghost Towns. Some character relationships I associated with certain songs, Crona-Ragnarok and Soul-Maka were both pretty connected to Always Gold, especially that dang last line "there were holes in you, the kind that I could not mend" oh man. Crona-Maka was definitely We Could Be Friends, Bloom, and Spell. Meet Me in The Woods I thought was a pretty good group song! Those are just some general bits of my thinking with the music aha.

daciafu: Definitely checked out Allie's dope playlist. For most of my working time, tho, I was either listening to TAZ: Commitment or MBMBaM oddly enough lol. I will forever think of Justin's uproarious laughter whenever I look at them lmao.

Q: Were any of the relationships difficult to characterize?

Allie: Mmm this may sound weird but early Maka-Crona was weird for me, cause they were kinda at that point where they want to (or at least Maka wants to) like each other, but they don’t like or trust each other at all and it's a weird spot for them. I'm used to writing them as at least interested by one another, if not enemies or already fond of one another, so this felt like a very odd place to start with them.

Q: Do you guys have future plans for writing/drawing? Aside from polishing and posting the rest of the fic!

Allie: I have,,, too many plans,, I need less plans,, someone please take them away from me, I can't be trusted with them,,,, I do want to do a sequel for this when I get it finished, playing on the detail about crows memory lasting five years so. Beyond that I have a SoMa fic to finish for the prompt challenge!! I'm working on a gift for Crescentcrona, which is a fantasy Kirona fic called Eat The Rich. I have polyam week fics that I'm cleaning up, I think my favorite so far is a Azusa/Naigus/Sid/Mifune one for Through The Seasons. And God I have so many CroMa fics I want to write, I gotta fill the AO3 tag. I think the biggest one right now is a wings-related soulmates au that I've been working on on the side since October I think?

daciafu: Yo there's one scene that I'm like sUPER hyped to do if Allie does the sequel because I already know exactly how I wanna draw it but I wasn't able to fit that in near the end, and it didn't end up in the first part. But there are a couple of other scenes Allie and I workshopped that would be super fun to do and I would love to draw them. Other than that, my drawing plans are pretty much working on commissions as they come in. Surprisingly my queue has been maxed out and I just got a full time job so of course now I'm like.... hm.... I'll get 'em done eventually!!

----

That’s the end of the AMAs for the 2017 season! Thanks again for reading along with us, and see you next year! :)

#AMA transcripts #resbang book club #rbbc #simple melody

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gojiro · 6 years

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The Vinyl of the Day is ‘In Square Circle’ by Stevie Wonder, 1985. Stevie’s TWENTIETH album, it features the hits “Part-Time Lover”, "Go Home" and "Overjoyed" (which was left off Wonder's 1979 album ‘Journey Through The Secret Life of Plants’ and re-recorded for this album). The album won Wonder the Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Performance at the 28th Grammy Awards (his fourth award in the category, and his 13th Grammy overall).

‘In Square Circle’ continues Stevie’s movement from his more fiery days of social commentary (such as ‘Innervisions’) and philosophic introspection (like ‘Songs in The Key of Life’) to a much more mellow, ‘middle of the road’ pop sound. When judging ‘In Square Circle’ against masterful albums such as those, it’s hard not to find it somewhat wanting - but in a vacuum, independent of his previous brilliant work, this is certainly a very good album with many redeeming qualities.

My initial impression was that it has a bit of a generic, pop music feel. Usually, listening to every Wonder song is an experience within itself; the brilliant use of synthesizers, as well as the other instruments, and tempo changes as he sees fit makes it abundantly clear you are listening to something special and unique. While I did not get that feeling at first, this LP does grow on you. I find myself liking the lyrics more and more, and the background music does not sound as bland as it once did. I think it takes a while to get adjusted to his 80's style, but the synthesizer work is still there and well done. Unfortunately, Stevie only yields his most potent musical weapon, his harmonica, once. As I go through the track listings, I find myself deeply enjoying 9 out of 10 songs. With the exception of "Never In your Sun", which is not my favorite, I have no problem sitting down and listening to every song on the album, multiple times. I would like to point out that "Overjoyed" is a terrific ballad, and one of my all-time favorite Stevie songs. Stevie is always good for at least one powerful slow/mid tempo ballad per album, and he does not disappoint here. I would compare "Overjoyed" to "Lately" in "Hotter than July", and "Blame it on the Sun" in "Talking Book". There’s also the vitality of "It’s Wrong", his anthem condemning South African Apartheid, which is as strong as ever, even to this day. Let me make it clear, this album is not in "Songs In The Key of Life" territory, but how many albums in history are, ten? If you are new to Stevie Wonder, I would not buy this album first, but if you find yourself wanting more after finishing his classic 70's work, then by all means, listen without delay or regret. Despite the fact that this album is not categorized as part of Stevie's "Classic Period", it does nothing to tarnish his sterling legacy, and in fact, adds to it. While "Part-Time Lover" and "Overjoyed" can be found on some greatest hits albums, there is more than enough depth to this album to add it to the list of his better efforts - and it would rank as one of the best of lesser artists. Never miss the chance to listen to Stevie, one of the great talents in music history.

STEVIE WONDER -- THE POP IS VINTAGE By STEPHEN HOLDEN

Published: September 15, 1985

All the qualities that have made Stevie Wonder the most important creator of pop-soul music in the last 15 years abound on ''In Square Circle'', the singer-composer-producer's first solo studio album in five years.

Chock full of surging chromatic melodies, powerful dance rhythms and churning synthesized instrumentation, ''In Square Circle'' is classic Stevie Wonder in the way it combines extremes of primitivism and lofty spiritual and artistic aspiration. Like all of Mr. Wonder's best records, ''In Square Circle'' is an allegorical pop mural whose panels each suggest a different symbolic tableau. Musically, the album is more concise and less experimental than the sprawling two-disk sets, ''Songs in the Key of Life'' and the ''Journey Through the Secret Life of Plants.'' His latest songs are also more consistently melodic and danceable than those on his 1980 album, ''Hotter Than July.''

As Mr. Wonder has matured, he sounds more and more like a holy man preaching his own poetic interpretation of Gandhian doctrine. In a booklet that accompanies ''In Square Circle,'' the composer, attempting to link the songs on the album, tells a long quasi-biblical fable that sets out the teachings of a being named Songlife. The fable is filled with charming, silly babble about karma, infinity, love and growth. And it is a measure of the potency of Mr. Wonder's art that such harmless circumlocution doesn't sound especially foolish when set to music.

The blunt power of Mr. Wonder's singing, the elemental tunefulness of his melodies, and his command of an astringently textured, impressionistic studio palette, help to turn his flower child scribblings into a different language when sung. Vocally, again and again, he transforms the innocuous into something bordering on the profound. In ''Never In Your Sun,'' perhaps the most memorable ballad on the new album, Mr. Wonder, describing star-crossed lovers, uses a vocabulary that is so pared down the words mean next to nothing: ''And she said/ Never in your sun/ She said/ Never in your sun/ Then she said/ I will only come/ In your pouring rain/ To relieve the pain.'' Set to a plaintive melodic phrase that is repeated in a descending sequence, these words become an elemental cry of separation fraught with meaning and resonance.

''In Square Circle,'' like every Stevie Wonder album before it, is a textural tour de force. ''Overjoyed,'' the album's most ecstatic song, blends the actual sounds of crickets, birds and pebbles tossed into a pond, with synthesizers and a string orchestra. In ''I Love You Too Much,'' the singer's voice bubbles up from a roiling cauldron of soft funk. The cheating song, ''Part-Time Lover,'' springs forward on the same infectious 60's groove as the Supremes' ''You Can't Hurry Love.'' ''It's Wrong (Apartheid),'' features African talking drums and a tribal call and response.

The songs on the first side of the album offer scenarios of misplaced romantic love as a metaphor for spiritual incompleteness. Those on Side Two try to heal the rifts by addressing specific issues. In ''Spiritual Walkers,'' Mr. Wonder pays tribute to outcast holy men, a breed with whom he obviously identifies. ''Land of La La,'' the album's most developed story song, sermonizes humorously about the empty materialism of Hollywood. It is a world of ''movie stars and great big cars and Perrier and fun all day and that's enough to make anybody go wild,'' Mr. Wonder declares. ''Go Home,'' a kind of answer to ''Land of La La'' is one of his hottest mixtures of swing and pop-funk in the manner of ''Sir Duke.''

''In Square Circle'' closes on a note of unresolved anguish. ''It's Wrong (Apartheid),'' is a powerful expression of resolute and righteous indignation in the vein of his number-one 1974 hit, ''You Haven't Done Nothin'.'' ''You know apartheid's wrong, wrong/ Like slavery was wrong, wrong/ Like the Holocaust was wrong, wrong,'' Mr. Wonder roars, strongly seconded by an African chorus. This stubborn, startlingly direct moral battle cry ends with a vow: ''Freedom is coming/ Hold on tight.''

Well over a decade after becoming black America's most persuasive musical voice, Mr. Wonder remains so. A musician whose moral stature transcends the pop realm, Stevie Wonder at 34 is almost a force of nature.

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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Every Ending Theme in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Ranked!

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure has always been deeply tied to music, with many characters and Stand names being derived from various musicians, song titles, and bands, so it comes as no surprise that the ending and opening songs of JoJo’s need to be meticulously chosen and crafted to match the themes of the JoJo chapters they’re attached to. Danni already did a great job ranking the opening themes, and you can read about that over here if you like, but today we’ll be looking at the various ending themes and trying to come up with the answer as to which one is the absolute best! Before we get into the individual songs and where they stand in the ranking, I wanted to discuss how I'm going to take a look at each one. I'll be ranking them based on suitability to their JoJo series, overall listenability, and their ability to evoke specific ideas and themes from the show itself.

Before we get started, I figured it’s only fair to give an honorable mention to the following songs: "Great Days UNITS" version, along with the "Akuyaku◇Concerto ~Oingo & Boingo~" and "Akuyaku◇Concerto ~Hol Horse & Boingo~" songs. "Great Days UNITS" was an amazing way to end the Diamond is Unbreakable part of the series, but since it is also the opening theme for the latter half of the series as well, it really doesn’t fit into a listing of only ending songs. The two Akuyaku Concerto songs are amazing and definitely worth a listen, but they’re really specifically dependent on those 3 episodes of Stardust Crusaders and don’t have much, if any, bearing on the rest of the series at all. While I love these, it didn’t seem fair to include them in the regular ranking, as they’d just be in the bottom anyway, so I wanted to give them a little attention here and then move on to the real list!

5) "Walk Like an Egyptian" by The Bangles

Coming in last on the list is The Bangles’s “Walk Like an Egyptian”. The catchy 1986 pop tune has been a hit on pop and now throwback radio stations since it came out, and the song was highly popular when it came out, hitting the top spots of the Hot 100 in the US, as well as putting out high rankings on UK and US singles charts when released. The album it came from, Different Light, had another hit in “Manic Monday”, which helped secure the band a number 2 spot on the Billboard 200.

The song itself seems to fit into the overall idea of the first half of Stardust Crusaders, in which Jotaro and company are literally trying to reach Egypt, but doesn’t have quite as much of a connection to the themes or mood of the episodes aside from that, as some other songs do. While this choice was a fun one for the series, it doesn’t seem to have as strong of a connection as later ending songs do, and doesn’t quite evoke a sense of excitement in hearing it play as an episode ends, and doesn’t have as clean of a lead in as other songs do either. Although it’s a great bop to nod your head to, there isn’t much else here to it, and the song itself floats a bit more on its popularity and notoriety as a popular song than it does on any other type of connection to JoJo or Hirohiko Araki, although you could possibly argue that the “Walk like an Egyptian” dance in the music video occasionally makes people pose like a JoJo character!

4) "Freek'n You" by Jodeci

Number four on the list is Golden Wind’s choice of “Freek’n You” by Jodeci. This choice caused quite an uproar amongst Western fans when it was revealed, as many had initially believed Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” would have been a more fitting choice. Frankly, the content of “Gangsta’s Paradise” doesn’t fit with the series at all, being a somewhat sombre rap ballad about the danger and darkness of living in a proverbial gangsta’s paradise. Instead, the Golden Wind anime features a particularly sensual version of Italian mafia aesthetics, particularly in the Bucciarati group, making the smash hit R&B song a much better selection.

Part 5 breaks from the JoJo norm in a few ways, featuring characters that are less physically threatening, as well as more unique and odd Stand powers, such as Pesci’s deceptively dangerous Fisher Man. I've mentioned before a few reasons why Jodeci and JoJo are a great match, and the R&B group are just as unique and important to music as JoJo is to anime and manga. With that said, you might ask why it seems to be so low on my list, but with only five songs to choose from, it’s less a judgement of quality and more about which seems to match with its particular series best; in that case, Jodeci’s song is a good fit, but a few others really edge it out of my top spots.

3) "I Want You" by Savage Garden

The final three slots of my list are pretty close, with each one edging the other out by just a little bit! Third place goes to Savage Garden’s “I Want You”, the 1996 pop-hit that finds a perfect home as a compliment to the 90s aesthetics of Diamond is Unbreakable. Like the other songs in my top three, I felt that this one really meshed with the designs and ideas of Part 4, and it seems that Araki agrees! On his website, Araki wrote that he felt that the song’s unique style and touch of progressive music styles really meshed with his ideas for Part 4.

I have to say that Araki is 100% right here, as the slow, rhythmic start to the song gives way to a rising change that mixes somewhat soothing beats into a more energetic song is a great fit for Diamond is Unbreakable, which tends to move between small, close comedy scenes and dramatic murder mystery. “I Want You” loses out a bit to the last two songs on my list, mostly due to their overarching thematics to the stories they’re attached to, but this one certainly deserves to be in the top 3 spot due to how fitting it seems to be for Josuke and the gang.

2) "Last Train Home" by the Pat Metheny Group

In another world, this choice might have been my controversial top spot, but “Last Train Home” by the Pat Metheny Group certainly takes an easy silver here as our number 2 ending song. While “Walk Like an Egyptian” is a somewhat fun and upbeat song, “Last Train Home” kicks off the second half of Stadust Crusaders with a melancholic jazz melody. For us, this song takes the cake over quite a few others due to the way the song’s melodic theme matches the grim realization of Part 3’s impending end, and is one of the best endings to mix the audio with important visual cues, such as certain characters being positioned in certain ways (across the river, facing away, number of tickets, etc.) foreshadowing the tragic fact that not everyone will make it back alive after facing DIO.

Perhaps even more interesting is the fact that Araki considered the album As Falls Wichita, So Falls Wichita Falls by Pat Metheny and Lyle Mays to be particularly important to developing Steel Ball Run, Part 7 of the JoJo series, giving this song an even stronger link to the JoJo universe than it might originally seem. The Jazz fusion themes of the song help give it a particularly unique sound and style, making it individually memorable for a song that didn’t have much radio play compared to some of the other selections. Ironically, it shares something in common with my number 1 selection, in the sense that the song is about 5 times longer on its own than it is during the ending sequence of the show.

1) "Roundabout" by Yes

It’s pretty obvious what my last choice is, so without further ado, the number 1 ending song in JoJo is: “Roundabout” by Yes! It likely doesn’t come as much of a surprise that it ended up here, but I'll talk through my selection process. First of all, it’s the only song to accompany two parts of the JoJo series, both Phantom Blood and Battle Tendency, but Araki considered the song one of the influential pieces for his writing process during the beginnings of the manga, and it's a song Araki requested be used in the anime itself. The sound director, Yoshikazu Iwakami, was the one who noticed that the song fit so well with the closing scenes of episode 6, and worked to make it blend into the ending of each episode following it. As numerous memes have since made use of, the classic guitar lead in of the song giving way to the ‘to be continued’ arrow and then the ending sequence became one of the hallmarks of the first parts of the JoJo’s anime.

But I knew why the song would probably get to #1 and why it fits so well, so instead, let's talk about the song itself and what it has in common with JoJo’s. Many of the songs chosen after it were chosen for the fitting musical period and style of the era that the story takes place in, but “Roundabout” ironically doesn’t fit this mold; Part 1 is far too archaic for the song to have existed, and Part 2 is too early for the song as well, with Yes publishing the song in 1972. The link is established more by Araki’s stated influence of the song on his work, and the progressive rock stylings of Yes, that lends to the way JoJo operates as a whole. Progressive rock (or “prog rock") is a style of music that isn’t focused on progressive politics, but “progressing” music by being highly experimental, drawing upon various types of other musical styles, unusual instrument choices, song lengths, and almost any other experimental type of idea that could influence the songs.

Groups like The Beatles, Yes, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead, and the Beach Boys were all highly influential prog rock bands, mixing technology and art theories into music which had, to that point, been somewhat simplistic and unchanging. When compared to Araki’s work on JoJo, it is easy to see the connection between progressive rock music and Araki’s unique, flowing art style and aesthetics, the combination of various types of pop-culture into a single title, and even his focus on using musically themed names in his work. While it doesn’t share the innate, timely connection to its parts like other songs, there’s no JoJo song that fits better, and better expresses the concepts of JoJo’s, than “Roundabout!”

And there you have it! As I keep watching Part 5 (and the hopeful continuation into Parts 6, 7, and 8), we’ll see if any new ending songs come out to challenge our list. Maybe in a few years, we can revist this list and see if any song was capable of dethroning “Roundabout!” Until then, I’ll keep rocking that JoJo ending playlist and enjoying the vast and different musical styles that Araki and Lucky Land have graced us with in-between waiting for new JoJo episodes!

Do you agree with my list? What’s your favorite JoJo ending song? Let us know in the comments!

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Nicole is a features and a social video script writer for Crunchyroll. Known for punching dudes in Yakuza games on her Twitch channel while professing her love for Majima. She also has a blog, Figuratively Speaking. Follow her on Twitter: @ellyberries

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

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brainfoodgp · 6 years

Text

Summer 2018

“To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature.”

-Auguste Rodin-

Is summer really almost over? Where did it go? I feel like I blinked and it was gone. Maybe because the intensity of the heat equaled the intensity of my never ending and fast paced schedule. Don’t worry I took some time out to enjoy my birthday, get out in the garden, and get some quality reading in. Which brings me to my new favorite cookbook featured in What I’m Reading. I think it might just become one of your favorites as well, if you love cooking as much as I do.

I firmly believe with the devastatingly atrocious environment that America has become. That for our own mental health and well-being it is paramount for our own self-care to log off social media and tune out the incessant 24 hour news cycle once in a while. I took the entire month of July off and I’m much healthier and happier for having done it. Therefore, I am giving all of you a much needed break from our Notes from the Resistance for this summer issue. I will be back with our second annual Resist Through Giving in our fall issue listing my 5 favorite charities to give to for 2018.

Debuting in this summer edition of The Seeds for Wellness Journal is a new section simply titled Community. I am so fortunate to attend some amazing Peer Advocacy events and trainings, such as the 12th Annual Conference for NYC Working Peer Specialists that I attended in July, as I go about working to get the Todd Petriscak Memorial Garden built. And the one thing I love about the peer mental health community are the friendships, camaraderie and unity that I experience at each and every outing. This occasional section will feature some of the community events that I attend and give you an inside look at what I experienced. This month I share an amazing event I attended in June.

Of course as always in this issue I’ve featured another mouthwatering recipe that I love to make in my own kitchen. Our phenomenal guest writer for The BFGP Feature this month is Hillary Lindsey, Managing Director of BioCities and Brain Food Garden Project’s new fiscal sponsor and partner. And you can learn even more about Hillary as she will also be one of our first guests on the new BFGP podcast The Candor Report, more on that in this jam pack issue as well.

So cop a squat in the park, soak up these last dog days of summer under a cool shade tree, and read on…

The BFGP Feature:

Resilient bodies

BioCities and Brain Food Garden Project Planting Seeds For Wellness Together

by Hillary Lindsay

A new partnership is growing this season between Brain Food Garden Project and BioCities, a nonprofit focused on building innovative linkages between humans and regenerative ecosystems to create healthy communities and resilient cities. The chosen medium of BioCities, founded by Kathleen Bakewell, is urban gardens used to foster highly functioning, productive ecologies based on a reciprocal relationship between humanity and the natural world. The connection between BFGP and BioCities, therefore, has been an organic bond. By the end of this year, BioCities will become the fiscal sponsor for BFGP as well as a collaborator in the mission of using urban gardens as wellness tools.

As stated by BioCities, urban populations are the most disconnected from the natural world, a world that we need to survive and thrive. The concept of Biophilia, as defined by Edward O. Wilson, is the "urge to affiliate with other forms of life" (Wilson, 1984). It is an innate need that all humans possess and a need that is often not met. A division between humanity and nature has been scientifically proven to decrease our physical and mental wellbeing and degrade the environment as a whole. If we are to evolve in our changing climate, this division must be rectified.

More than just communing with nature, getting your hands in the dirt and watching something grow that you planted has a profound impact on the body and the brain. In a study by Dr. Chris Lowry at Bristol University, research has shown that contact with the healthy bacteria in soil improves the immune system and promotes the release of serotonin, aiding both cancer patients and patients with depression (Lowry et all, 2007). Time in the dirt is exactly what the doctor ordered! Then to see the tomato seed you planted start to grow and bear fruit, and then to see that fruit ripen and to take a bite of that sweet tomato, brings a deep sense of accomplishment and gratitude for nature. In fact, GRATITUDE is at the foundation of BFGP’s principles:

Giving Thanks

Refreshing the Spirit

Appreciating Little Things

Thinking Positively

Identifying Goodness

Treasuring Each Moment

Uniting in Kindness

Delighting in Laughter

Expressing Joy

It is this reverence for both nature and human life that brought me to gardening and a path in wellness. I always had a love of nature and its bounty. I grew up in an Italian-American home, in the woods of Sterling Forest, where food was at the center of family life. My mother has a beautiful garden with fresh herbs, greens, tomatoes and flowers. At an early age, I was exposed to the life cycles of plants and getting my hands dirty in the soil. I definitely ate dirt a number of times as a kid…and my immune system’s not bad! In school, I studied food, agriculture, and sustainability at Connecticut College, at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, and then in graduate school at the Slow Food affiliated University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy. The Italians live a life so full of gratitude for the simple joys, primarily food, that they can serve as an inspiration for us all. La dolce vita indeed! When I returned from Italy, I founded The Green Onion, an agricultural community center in the organic Black Dirt farms of the Hudson Valley. The Green Onion focused on connecting local producers and consumers through markets, events, and education. When I decided that I needed to close The Green Onion, I was battling both depression and anxiety. It was at this moment that I turned to deepen my practice in yoga, holistic healing, and wellness. I became a certified yoga instructor and built up my knowledge of plant medicine and Ayurvedic theory. Thanks to both plants and yoga, I developed the wellness tools I needed to manage my mental and physical health. Now, as the Director of Operations for BioCities, I plan to combine all my experience to further the mission of the nonprofit. I’m thrilled to partner up with Sean Brennan of BFGP and work together on using gardens to promote resilient bodies and positive change.

Reference links:

For Harvard Education Click Here

For Science Direct Click Here

For More on BioCities Click Here

What I’m Reading:

When I’m having a bad day, all I need to do is pick up a book and thumb through its pages and read a favorite passage or two. One of my favorite types of books to do this with are really wonderful cookbooks. Looking at the beautiful pictures of food and reading recipes always pulls me out of my funk and propels me into the kitchen to cook, also an important mood booster for me. These days flipping through cookbooks has taken on additional meaning as I worked this summer to start writing the text for 33 Delicious Recipes for the Brain a cookbook Brain Food Garden Project is producing with our partners Chef Annette Tomei and photographer Diana Bekatoros.

One of my most favorite recent cookbooks I’ve been turning to for inspiration is Chef Sam Kass’s new cookbook Eat a Little Better: Great Flavor, Good Health, Better World. This beautifully illustrated book is part guide for healthier eating, part memoir of his time as one of First Lady Michelle Obama’s senior advisor for nutrition policy. Chef Kass also assisted in helping build the first White House kitchen garden since First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden. Most important this is a book of simple beautifully executed recipes. Such as slow roasted salmon or shaved zucchini salad that will have your mouth watering as you prepare them in your kitchen. This is a must have edition to every cookbook lover’s collection.

Community:

The Dangerous Gifts Annual Party

The 2nd Annual Institute for the Development of Human Arts (IDHA) Dangerous Gifts party was an outstanding Success. Held at East Village Access at 242 East 2nd Street in Manhattan on Saturday June 16th from 12pm to 8pm the event asked the question What are our dangerous gifts? And each of the visual artists, writers and musical performances all highlighted the intrinsic power of our communities unique and powerful vision.

The event started off with IDHA co-founder Sascha Altman DuBrul stating, “If you take one thing away from today is that you will walk away with having met someone new.” He went on to continue his rousing speech by saying, “I’m tired of hearing the word recovery, I’m over it! I want to start hearing the word transformation.”

The event was a partial fundraiser for one of the phenomenal visual artists whose work was on display at the event Issa Ibrahim who is currently wrongly incarcerated. The money raised will go to aiding in gaining his release. Ibrahim called in with a beautiful performance of his song Institutionalized and inspired all in attendance with his thoughtful words, “ This is a place, much like the world we are living in today, where empathy is in short supply.” He concluded by saying, “I don’t have the words for the outpouring of support I’ve received, it is humbling.”

In between musical and spoken word performances two workshops were offered one given by DuBrul on Transformative Mutual Aid Practices (T-MAPS). A guide for navigating challenging times, returning to what you care about, and communicating with the important people in your life. And another lead by Tauno Biltsted on “Fire Keeping” asking the question, “How do we keep our fires burning when things are really hard?” Many attending said that this powerful circle was one of their favorite parts of the entire day. All participating were completely present with each other and one participant Sarah Q stated, “That it feels like we are magically levitating over a black hole of despair.” The event concluded with an outstanding performance by Eden and John’s East River String Band. A real sense of community permeated the day and many new and beautiful friendships were formed.

IDHA also announced a comprehensive course series coming in the Fall called Experience Transforms Practice: A Course on Liberatory Mental Health Care. To learn more about this and to join the IDHA mailing list got to IDHA-NYC.org by Cicking Here and to learn more about artist Issa Ibrahim go to issaibrahim.com by Clicking Here

Introducing The Candor Report Podcast

On August 17th cohost Sharon Simon and I will walk into the studio at the world famous The Comic Strip and record our first podcast! This project has been in development for over two years and one of the most important aspects in making it happen was for me to find the perfect partner. That happened a little over a year ago now with my introduction to comedian and fellow mental health peer advocate Sharon Simon. Read on to learn more about the podcast, my cohost and our first guests. Our debut episode, Merging Grassroots Forces: Mental Health & Food Justice will premiere Monday September 3rd on the Brain Food Garden Project website Click Here and SoundCloud Click Here.

The Candor Report started as a Brain Food Garden Project social media hashtag #CandorSavesLives in 2015 as a means for peers living with mental health concerns to bust stigma and share their wellness tools and mental health stories with each other. This informational podcast will create an honest dialogue intersecting the Mental Health and Food Justice communities. Promoting a peer centric view on how gardening and making healthier food choices advance transformational healing. The program starts with the “Digging Deep“ segment where the hosts break down the mental health and Food Justice hot topics of the day. During the second segment of each show, ”Candid Chat,” the hosts interview a guest who are experts in their fields, ranging from Mental Health Peer Advocates, Mental Health/Horticultural Therapists, Chefs, to Food Justice Advocates, Farmers and Urban Gardeners, Politicians, Thought Leaders, Neuroscientists and more. Each show concludes with the hosts asking the guest(s) of the day a random selection of rapid fire questions from our “Candor Questionnaire,” our homage to the famous Proust Questionnaire.

First Guests:

Celia Brown

The first Mental Health Peer Specialist in NYS in 1990. Celia is now the New York City coordinator for the Office of Mental Health Office of Consumer Affairs. She is the founder of the NYC Working Peer Conference held every July at NYU’s Kimmel Center. A historian of mental health and human rights and activist. Celia is also one of the founding members of the modern day peer advocacy movement.

Hillary Lindsay

A master's graduate of the Slow Food affiliated University of Gastronomic Sciences in Italy and founder of The Green Onion Collective, an agricultural community center in the organic Black Dirt farms of Chester in New York's Hudson Valley focused on connecting local producers and consumers. Hillary, is currently the Executive Director of Operations for BioCities a not for profit that’s mission is to build innovative linkages between humans and regenerative ecosystems to create livable, resilient cities through developing projects, research and education.

Co-Hosts:

Sharon Simon

Comedian, Producer, Vegan, Mental Health Peer Advocate, Wedding Officiant, Animal Activist, Thriving with Borderline Personality Disorder

Sean Brennan

Founder/Executive Director Brain Food Garden Project, Omnivore, Mental Health Peer Advocate, Food Policy Wonk, Queer Urban Farmer, Food Justice Crusader, Thriving with Manic Depression

Healthy & Delicious Recipes:

Tomatoes are at their peak and nothing makes me happier than a simple tomato, cucumber and onion salad at the end of a hot day. This corn and tomato salad is another one of my favorites. A perfect way for you to stretch the Farmer’s market corn you just grilled into another delicious meal. This is also perfect to throw together last minute for a few lunch guests you’ve invited over. You can even grill or broil a couple boneless chicken breasts, slice them thin and add or serve on the side. Enjoy!

Summer Corn & Tomato Salad

Ingredients: (two servings)

2 ears of corn taken off the cob with a knife

2 cups cut up tomatoes (use those heirlooms while they are abundant)

1 tablespoon fresh basil

1 whole shallot (thinly sliced)

2 tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 tablespoon Red Wine vinegar

1 pinch sea salt & pepper

1 cup Parmesan shavings (optional)

Preparation:

(1) Combine corn, tomatoes and basil in a medium bowl

(2) In a small skillet over medium heat, sauté shallot with 1 half teaspoon of olive oil for 3-4 minutes until shallot is softened and just starting to brown. Transfer shallot to bowl with other ingredients

(3) In a separate small bowl, whisk together remaining olive oil and red wine vinegar. Pour dressing over salad, season with salt and pepper to taste add cup of Parmesan and toss to combine.

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