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fairuzfan · 4 months

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The thing with news sources and deciding what's trustworthy and what's not is that when you see criticism of Aljazeera (which to be clear is not a great news source about anything other than Palestine) is that they completely neglect to mention that each regional section of Al-Jazeera has different people in charge of it, different contributors, different sources.

By all means, analyze your sources and understand what information you're getting but to say outright that ALL of what AlJazeera reports EVER is wrong is inherently meant to discredit Palestinian journalists in a way that no other journalist who is not Palestinian and NOT directly experiencing the war in Gaza has been discredited. Surprisingly (not really but), a lot of Palestinians in Gaza are employed by AlJazeera because it's difficult for them to find employment elsewhere.

And again, I do not love AlJazeera. I think they do plenty of faulty journalism and reporting and I actively avoid them for most news sources. But RIGHT NOW with everything going on in Gaza, they're probably one of the most trustworthy ones because of their first hand accounts and willingness to publish Palestinian voices, which many, MANY news stations refuse to do. I especially encourage the Arabic version of AlJazeera!

Like Haartz has like... 4 Palestinians on their editorial team max, and they have EVEN LESS people on the ground in Gaza whereas we have dozens of reporters from Gaza on Al-Jazeera, many of which have died. The way to fact check your news is you find how many times they link factual evidence (like videos of experiences, primary accounts, primary quotes) and compare it with circumstance of publishing.

Here are some ways to fact check and questions to ask, even when looking at Al Jazeera:

Is this a first hand account? If not, does it name a person who experienced this first hand?

If they cite/name a person who experienced it first hand, are they a trustworthy person? What are their ties to the situation? Why would they report this, have they reported situations like this in the past?

What would the person reporting gain from reporting this? A Palestinian with an Instagram post about their life in Gaza has much less to gain than an Israeli soldier publishing their experience in Gaza, for example.

In the first hand account, are there actions or evidence that is corroborated? IE: There was a video of an Israeli soldier abducting a blonde Palestinian, and there was a Human Rights Org that reported child abductions from evidence gather by an on the ground reporter. There is less of a chance that this is false, therefore.

If you don't see other news sources reporting this (ie, you don't see CNN/NYT/BBC/Fox/any other western-led media outlet) then ask: Why would they not report it? Does that mean it's false? Maybe not. Many Euro-american sources spend MONTHS before they talk about an issue (think: Washington post article "questioning" the evidence of Hamas in Al-Shifaa hospital more than a month after the raid happened)

Defining "Trustworthy":

What is their history on reporting events? Are they someone who is well known in whatever community they represent?

Think: Ghassan Abu-Sitta, a world renowned doctor. When he reports something with his name attached, he is putting his entire reputation on the line. Therefore, it is more likely he is telling the truth.

Are they someone who has any real, structural power over the situation? Maha Hussaini, for example, cannot change her circumstances because a ceasefire relies on other people separate from her, a journalist. Therefore, she has less of a reason to lie about things happening to her.

For the news source: what are their ties to the situation? CNN, for example, has stated they have their content reviewed by the IDF. Wael Al-Dahdouh, before he was evacuated, was providing first hand accounts of situation, meaning its difficult for him to fake anything or misrepresent.

What else has this person/news source reported? What are their political leanings — not just left/right, but what are their general stances on a variety of issues?

How many people who are part of the community impacted are part of reporting on this (IE: How many Palestinian POVs are shared, how many Israeli POVs are shared, what are the POVs of the people shared in general?).

Can someone I personally trust vouch for this person? If not, can I ask someone I trust to look over this person/agency and tell me their opinion?

There's for sure more I'm forgetting but these are some ways I personally check my facts and information as a quick rundown. And I see this issue of not knowing how to fact check happen ALL OVER the place, on both sides. So I really, highly encourage everyone to engage with sources more honestly!

You'll make mistakes, everyone does! I do as well! But try to be vigilant about these things so we can ensure that we're spreading accurate information and try to correct information when possible! There's no 100% unbiased source so I encourage you to compare/contrast information and your understandings of the world to fully comprehend the situation!

Please use these questions when checking ANY news source, even Al-Jazeera!

#palestine #gaza #fact checking

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dervampireprince · 3 months

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youtube

ASMR | Elisabeth das Musical - Der Tod x Listener SFW Death Becomes Entranced And Seduces A Lonely Prince

[M4M/GF4M] [Prince! Listener] [Seduction] [Manipulation] [Kissing - no character death, lore here is Death's kisses can kill if it's 'your time' but if it's not they don't but they're still cold and cause temporary frostbite-like symptoms] [TW implies the listener is depressed and has been experiencing suicidal ideation, Death at points advises the listener to kiss him which would kill them, please skip this audio if you think these issues could affect or trigger you and if you are affected by these issues please seek help and contact hotlines in your country. This audio is fictional, Death's attempts to be a voice of suicidal ideation should not be taken seriously nor applied to real life.]

I've been wanting to make this audio for so long. While I've left it ambiguous enough to be enjoyed as an original audio, this character is actually from my favourite musical 'Elisabeth das Musical'. It's a German-language dark queer historical romance where Death (Der Tod) is drawn to those who think about him, in particular it follows the life of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, and her son Rudolf. The musical does deal with serious mental health topics and some historical events from that time including the rise of fascism so please know that going in, but if you think you can handle such topics then I couldn't recommend the musical enough.

The original 1992 Vienna production is on Youtube with English subtitles, that is my favourite production and means a lot to me as Uwe Kroger as Death is just... perfection to me, very much gender envy and has been a big influence on me and helped me with accepting myself and my gender expression, and his characterisation of Death as this genderfluid, pansexual otherworldly being is just beautiful. And if you enjoy then I'd also recommend the 2005 Vienna production which is also on Youtube with English subtitles mostly for the few extra added song and Serkan Kaya's performance as Lucheni.

For those of you in my Patreon Discord server, I streamed this musical last Sunday in there for you guys and it finally felt like the perfect time to bring this audio to life. And if Kronprinz is still around, I know you were requesting a Der Tod audio for a long time and I hope you're happy with this one. The listener in this audio series takes the place of Rudolf, but you don't need to know anything about the musical to understand these audios. I chose to present them more like my original royalty series audios as Elisabeth das Musical is not very well known outside of mainland Europe and Japan, so I hoped by framing it this way with a photograph of myself cosplaying Death from a couple years ago would entice more people who aren't familiar with the musical.

I love this musical so much, European musicals in general are my biggest interest and if you go searching for them it wont be long until you find my sfw account @emptymasks posting too much about them. If you're interested in learning more I have some masterlists and info posts pinned on my emptymasks Tumblr, but also as part of my subathon rewards I am doing a stream on my Twitch explaining about infodumping about European musicals and I've been working on some video essays for years that I hope to get finished this year that will be up on my emptymasks Youtube channel. I also run @europeanmusicals . If any mutuals or followers from my main or side blogs finds this... well hello there, I find myself nervous to drop this in the euro musical tags, as if people are going to find this format of fanwork weird but well... I had fun, I hope you guys are nice about this (nice doesn't mean you have to like it, but please don't be mean about it if you just don't enjoy asmr or audio content).

Something something if I had a nickel for every time Prince voiced a personification of Death from different fandoms I'd have three nickels.

Old public spicy audios on sound gasm (link in pinned post). 2 Exclusive spicy audios on Patreon every month. I also stream on Twitch every week @ dervampireprince . [minors + ageless blogs dni. this blog is for 18+ only.] [do not repost/reupload/edit any of my content]

#elisabeth das musical #todolf #der tod #european musicals #der tod x rudolf #death x rudolf #der tod x reader #der tod x listener #the vampire whispers #royalty kink #Youtube

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daiourage · 4 months

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I just had a thought,

I was just rewatching Deltarune videos and I had an epiphany:

Okay maybe it isn’t that mind-blowing, but I’ve noticed that reversing the order of concepts seems to be a trend for Spamton???

Maybe someone already has said smth about this, but—for example, he has two parts to his motif, right?

The first few measures (bars) of “NOW’S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A” and “BIG SHOT” play later in the other song. They’re swapped, which I found interesting.

(That was worded really weird—what I mean is:

The motif with the saxophone plays first in “NOW’S YOUR CHANCE TO BE A” -> then the orchestra hit/euro hit (i’m not sure what soundfont it is tbh) motif plays.

The reverse is true for “BIG SHOT”!)

Also, he [becomed] NEO first before becoming EX? He mentions it if you beat him with violence.

↓

(Taken off the wiki,,, thank you to whoever normalized logging the dialogue;;;)

It could just be a dark/light theme going on, with NEO’s body being designed by a Lightner (presumed to be the “Nobody”/Mettaton ghost), so things go in the opposite order or smth.

Which makes me think—are we perhaps going in reverse order of Undertale in terms of location and Soul mechanics?

Ch.1 was the Castle (New Home), Ch.2 was technology-oriented (Core)… is Ch.3 gonna include the purple soul mechanics?

Anyway, feel free to add to this post! I want a conversation—

(I kinda derailed from spamton to deltarune in general;;; replies about both is fine!)

#deltarune #spamton #late night shenanigans #undertale #<- partially #emil’s elation

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accio-victuuri · 1 year

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posted today here and probably their 3.14 special. i’m actually waiting for lrlg to come on but that’s just wishful thinking on my part. as will all content related to fake rumor, please treat it as fan fiction. if you don’t stuff like this then feel free to skip.

it’s pretty short and describes 4 instances or you can call the clues. the first one i won’t go into detail anymore cause it’s about the humidifier again. yes we know you like that and use it as much as you can.

the next one is about wyb singing a cantonese song and xls jokes that his singing is substandard, but then turns around and says it’s actually really nice. lol. I can actually see this, xls being his gremlin self, acting like his is not impressed with what wyb is doing but he is. he always is. i wonder what this song is tho — or if this is even recent. singing randomly is something they did during filming so it can also be in that timeline. i wonder if wyb sends voice messages of him singing to xls too 🥹🥹🥹

3rd is pretty recent, saying xls looks good on the surface during hidden blade’s release but he was actually nervous. he cheers for wyb and watches videos from the roadshow when he has the time. he is also proud of bobo. I hope one day we can hear XZ talk about HB, i mean, most likely not but i can hope. It’s the kind of movie that XZ will appreciate, especially the artist in him and i would love to know what he thinks. not even the CPN part of it.

Lastly, alluding to XLS’ euro trip saying that even if there is a time difference, they have a daily call. 📞

-END.

#yizhan #bjyx #clowning hours are open

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wosona · 1 month

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hii,love ur account btw

luna questions:

if you had to pick one song that reminds you of them, what would it be?

did yall expect this couple to happen

fav luna moment

moment you were convinced they were dating

if you had to pick, lucy or ona?

thought this would be fun to do! :)

hiya i love asks like this so thank you 🫶 sorry this is going to be really rambly

1. I’m on a gracie abrams kick right now so for her i’d say ‘the blue’ and ‘feels like’. then for taylor swift i’d say ‘call it what you want’ and the happy part of ‘gold rush’.

(of course invisible string but that’s obvious)

2. omg no not at all so unexpected. i started following woso after the euros but only got into it properly properly after the world cup. so i knew about keira and lucy and liked them together, and i honestly just assumed (like most people i think) that they were still together. when the photos with ona came out (i looked over them briefly cause the pain of the day was too much) i thought the rumours were a big joke. now going back to those photos and knowing what i do it’s so bloody obvious.

3. absolute favourite moment is so hard. the piggy back would 100% be my favourite if it didn’t look like it was filmed from space. and when lucy posted blurry ona i had to take a step back and reevaluate what i saw (i was dramatic). but i would say the supercopa cause that was genuinely the best night of my year so far (i’m doing exams it’s all very boring)

4. i didn’t actually see much of lucy and ona at the end of august and september it just didn’t come up on my timelines. crazy ik. but i was watching the barça games and i still thought people were just being eccentric. then that video was on my fyp and i was genuinely shocked cause they looked really good together and i could physically see the tension between them. so i did a bit of digging and saw the photos from their holidays. i was pretty sure at that point but i wasn’t 100%. weirdly i was completely convinced when i saw the knee rubbing video so there we go.

5. its actually a problem for me because i think lucy was the first footballer i had an interest in. but ona is everything so i’d have to say her.

(this was ridiculously long i’m sorry)

#ona batlle #woso #lucy bronze #barça femeni #lionesses

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notafraidofredyellowandblue · 9 months

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hi :)

i've seen people mentioning Till's entourage as smth bad, as in, they're not good for him, bad people, etc.

do you know anything about this? have an opinion?

Hi!

Well, i'm (as you probably know) no expert on Till's people, but what i *know* is that he has been working with several people for a good while now, i would say at least 5 years or more, like:

Danny Uhlman: started as security/bodyguard, personal assistant, and most recently i think also the one who runs the Till merch brand TL.Berlin, alsoa keen photographer and maker of many of the photographs on Till_Lindemann_Official IG

Anar Reiband: i usually see him mentioned as 'manager', in the 2023 Rammstein tour he was on the credits as Till's personal assistant

Alena Makeeva: Casting Director (i think that's what she has as title on her IG), also often thanked by ladies on IG going to After parties, so maybe also a bit of 'party organizer.

Joe Letz: in 2023 (maybe since American leg of 2022 tour) personal assistant, and ofcourse also drummer and 🤡 (i swear that's what he has on his ig) at Till's 'Till Lindemann' band

Well, if Till wouldn'tbe happy with them, i'm sure he would have dismissed them (or casually moved them to the background or something) 🌺

That said, ofcourse i still have an opinion 😊 but that's just m.o. so please take it as such:

I feel that Till's entourage are, probably not surprisingly as he is their boss, very indulgent to him, and also encourage some habits that i don't think are that beneficial to Till's wellbeing. I think Till likes to seek the extremes in his art (and possibly in life) and imo Rammstein has the perfect quality control to balance that and to stop at the exact right point. Till's entourage imo encourages all his extremes.

Like when Till decided to drip blood on his pages of poetry to make it less boring (i won't link the article, but have it in another post): there is a video of his team standing around, laughing broadly while handing him the pages after Till has cut a gash in his hand for that purpose.

Till seems a very gentle and easy-going guy himself, but i think it was his manager who got in a fistfight and Till had to break them up (ofcourse in the news as 'Till Lindemann in fight'). From what i've read, although i don't have sourcesat hand, Anar Reiband has some other shady dealings over the years, which makes me 'on guard' about him.

Although i don't have a problem (at all) with after parties, not even with sex after afterparties, but i do have a problem with the way the Row0 ladies are 'casted' up front, ticket even gets payed on occassion. If i had a say (which ofcourse i don't), i would pick after party guests at the concert itself, from fans who have a great vibe on the day, and not just ladies in acertain age-range, but fans of all ages and genders.

I think Till's various merch endeavours, like the MFT's (especially the 100000 euro dinner combo), crypto, and several others are...well...not my thing. I don't have a problem with for instance the Dr Dick jewelry or the Tilldo, because that seems very much in keeping with what I imagine Till would enjoy, but that other stuff...hmm..

And lastly, and most importantly, i have a feeling that over the last couple of years Till has drifted away from Rammstein more and more, and as i'm in it really for the six-men-marriage, i think that's too bad. If i see how little for instance his IG account in 2022 and 2023 has posted about Rammstein, and if something was posted, it's just Till himself, and in such a stylized way, that you almost can't tell it's at a Rammstein show. It is almost as if his IG team doesn't care about Rammstein at all (in 2022 it was especially poignant because so much of Till's merch was posted). Some think this is because Danny Uhlman didn't go to all Rammstein shows and the IG account posts only photos by him, but imo that's silly, because they have photos by others on there too, *and* the other Rammguys like Schneider, Paul, Richard always use photos by some of the by Rammstein hired photographers, so if Till and his team really wanted, they would use those too. Not posting means not caring about it (again, imo)

.... and in Schneider's IG post a few months ago, the 'Till creating his own bubble' was confirmed 🌺

---

so that's how i see it..🌺

#till's entourage #my 2 cts

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aprillikesthings · 9 months

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OKay so what I came here to post about is that while ONE trip to another country is just going to that country, now that I've done TWO international trips everyone (including myself) sees me as A Person Who Travels and I keep getting asked where I'm going next

And on the one hand it's a weird question, because both previous trips were just--

Iceland: Icelandair advertised a huge discount on direct flights on my facebook wall and made a thirty-year dream suddenly seem possible

Spain: I saw like an article? somewhere? about the Camino, read one memoir, then suddenly had a new hyperfixation and I proceeded to read fifteen more (barely exaggerated y'all) and watched a bunch of youtube videos and then asked for the time off and started training

So in neither case was it like, "oh where do I want to travel," it was like "the need to go to this specific place is suddenly consuming my life"

But on the other hand, I mean, I'm kinda thinking England a year from now? But those plans are REALLY hazy past like, "lol the British Museum has an Ea Nasir tablet gotta get a selfie with it" and "I hear Durham cathedral is gorgeous" and "Norwich is a short train ride from London and then I can visit sites associated with Julian of Norwich!!--what do you MEAN there's a three-day pilgrimage route to Walsingham??? 👀" (what can I say I'm a sucker for pilgrimages now)

TBH I just want someone else to arrange one of those multi-day bus tours of churches/cathedrals in England but for LGBT+ Anglicans!! Someone get on this!! (Jay Hulme has other things to do or he'd be perfect for it. God knows some of the churches on my list are because of his photos.)

Anyway.

I have to keep reminding myself that Spain is a huge outlier in Europe for being so inexpensive on a daily basis, plus being a pilgrim means my daily costs were literally food/bed in a hostel/a few euro for church donation boxes.

And I get that Iceland is well-known to be on the opposite end of that scale, but it still boggles the mind to compare them (all approximate):

Iceland for eight days

Flight: $500 Guesthouse room: $700 A few bus day tours + Blue Lagoon + bus to and from airport: uhhhh I think like $400 added up? Daily expenses of food/museums/souvenirs for eight days: $50/day on average, so another $400?

Total: $2,000

Spain:

Flight (into Paris, out of Lisbon) + insurance: $800 Daily cost, including hostels, food, souvenirs, sightseeing: averaged about $50 a day for 42 days total, so about $2100 Add another $100 for train/bus tickets (...I think it was more than that)

Total: $3,000

NINE DAYS in Iceland versus FORTY TWO days in (mostly) Spain.

(Okay, this is admittedly ignoring the fact that 1. I had to buy things I didn't already own for my Camino, like a backpacking backpack and a summer weight sleeping bag and TWO pairs of pricey hiking boots; OR 2. that I absolutely spent like $1,000 on physical therapy while training for the trip.)

They are just such wildly different countries. Museums in Iceland were all (US) $15-25. The cathedral's museum in Santiago (where I spent at least as much time as any of the museums in Iceland) was normally €7 but I got a discount for being a pilgrim. I think I paid €4, which is like $4.30.

Anyway none of this is about whether or not England is expensive, but I do assume it's closer to the Iceland end of things.

Especially since it's one thing to stay in hostels the whole time when you're on pilgrimage and everyone else at the hostel is too and everyone is in bed by 10pm because you're all exhausted. (Also because that's when they all lock their doors. No, really.) It's another thing to stay in a hostel in like...London. But the alternatives escalate in cost rather rapidly, especially when you're traveling alone. Oof.

ANYWAY ALSO the fact that I can afford to travel AT ALL is like 90% due to my having cheap-ass rent, no car, no kids, no student loans, and all my healthcare issues being relatively inexpensive. I've worked the same meh-paying job long enough for my hourly wage to double and to have fuck-tons of PTO. I'm 43 and I live in a run-down townhouse with three other adults and most of my furniture is all ten-year-old Ikea and I don't eat at restaurants hardly ever.

Any one part of my life could change and I would never be able to afford to do this kind of shit again.

Which is why I'm doing it now.

#my life #at some point I do want to do both Iceland and the Camino again lol #but in Iceland hopefully w/ Daci and a campervan and doing the ring road #the camino I thought about other routes but tbh there's so much I want to do again on the SAME ROUTE lol or things I missed bc of time etc #but that's definitely several years away #Anyway also I need to do more local-ish trips ffs I haven't been to the Oregon coast in AGES and Daci hasn't seen Astoria yet #or Seattle!!#gotta fix that #if you're new here and want to see my posts etc about those trips the tags are:#april goes to iceland #april does the camino #(the iceland trip was two years ago this week!)

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iamyouknow-yours · 2 years

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Hey besties,

I need some advice. I need help convincing my mom to allow me to get a wheelchair. Our medical aid will cover it so money is not the problem. I'll explain what I have and what her problem with me getting a wheelchair is:

20 years old

POTS

Raynaud's as a secondary condition

Autistic

ADHD

The POTS was diagnosed July 14th 2022

Today is September 1st 2022

Autism was diagnosed December 15th 2021

I've obviously had the autism my whole life though.

And POTS since puberty. It's idiopathic POTS meaning they don't know what caused it.

My POTS has gotten worse since I first got it, particularly in the past 2 years.

I need a wheelchair. I have immense fatigue as well as attacks of headaches and extreme nausea that can come on suddenly.

I mean I'm nauseous pretty much all of the time but it can become way worse just randomly.

The wheelchair would be to help with the immense fatigue.

My mom agreed (semi-reluctantly but still) that I could get a wheelchair. This was a week or two ago.

She (able-bodied and prone to ableism) changed her mind after talking to her (able-bodied) therapist.

This morning she came into my room to start yelling at me and say that no I can't get a wheelchair.

My fatigue is apparently caused by the fact that I'm unfit.

She called me getting a wheelchair a regression and she says that I glamourise disability and being disabled because of youtubers like Jessica Kellgren-Fozard.

(I have made her watch a few including Jessica's excellent video about having a mobility aid not meaning you're giving up and I watch Jessica quite a lot I like her.)

(I do not however want to be disabled. Obviously? I wish I had the energy to be out all the time and living not in my house and working and earning my own money and seeing my friends and not be in pain all the fucking time. I do not glamourise disability.)

The point is she's ableist and she loves me and so she's worried that I spend too much time in bed

(^^ caused by lack of energy, which is not going to be cured by exercise. Exercise is not a fucking magical cure)

She's worried because I should be out with my fellow young people.

She thinks I need to try exercising with a biokineticist, and go to her chiropractor, and try the new meds for an unspecified period of time before she will, maybe, agree to me getting a wheelchair.

I'm devastated. I was nervous but so excited about getting a wheelchair because it would mean I could see my friends more.

And go on walks without worrying I was going to be too tired to come back.

It would mean I could unpack the dishwasher without using half my energy.

It would mean I could go to Pride next year and not be in immense pain for a week afterwards.

It might mean I could get a university degree.

Of course my mother thinks I could and should be doing all these things now and that I'm just too unfit and that's the whole problem.

I'm not disabled, I'm unfit.

She's said she'd rather drive me to the park so I can hang out with my friends there and then drive us back than me have a wheelchair.

Please help me if you can. Any ways your wheelchair has helped you do more?

Or function better in our ableist capitalist society?

Has it helped you to have more energy or less nausea somehow?

Have you ever convinced a parent/guardian to get a wheelchair?

I wish I could move out but I can't live alone. I'm in the process of applying for a disability grant but it's so pitiful here in South Africa it's maximum R1900 which is 110 US Dollars/110 Euros/95 British Pounds.

Thank you in advance for your help, I appreciate it <3

P.S. Most of the post is in a big font so it's easier to read for other disabled peeps :)

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mamafaithful · 1 year

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Something I wrote this because Aqua back to the 80s is stuck in my head all flicking day and I’m tired. And if my random ass brain can imagine Steve in a scoops suit singing dark trauma to cheesy Euro-pop music you will also be subjected to it. All those colours. Barbie doll. Anyone. No. Whelp looks like it’s just me.

The rest of the gangs around somewhere. Didn’t know how to fit them into the bullet points though.

It’s 89, post Vecna, post government mountain of paperwork, Eddie’s pouting about not being able to continue with CC as his face is too recognisable and they don’t need anybody questioning the government’s hapdash attempt at a cover up. He’s spending his off time (which currently is in abundance) writing his trauma into songs (and if he so happens to write a certain dethroned king’s into little cheesy earwigs because it makes that certain person laugh, it means nothing)

It’s 90 and Eddie is having a mental block on writing when he hears something that gets the juices flowing. It’s summer, the party is at Steve’s and Eddie was going to get a drink from the kitchen where he’s halted just outside the kitchens doorway arch. Inside Steve is spinning a giggling Robin about as he sings cheesy made up ditties just to make her smile, which Eddie realises are his earwigs he made about Steve’s trauma. What surprises him more is god that boy can sing. Eddie disappears into Steve’s dad’s office and isn’t seen till dinner.

It’s 91 and Eddie presents steve with a finished lyric sheet and a cassette the CC boys and robin helped him make. A song about vecna and the witch hunt wrapped up in bubblegum pop. [think euro pop band Aqua -esk]. After a bit of confusion, he explains about hearing Steve sing so he wrote a song for Steve to sing with Robin as second. By Christmas they have a song painstakingly recorded, multiplied and sent out to record companies.

It’s 99 and [insert band name here] is popular. Their most popular songs are about a cookie cutter Ken doll who doesn’t fit in, a little birdy with no responding song, two siblings from a small American town with home grown conspiracies, a haunted mansion full of family ghosts, and a song written without their main writer about a curly haired boy, with a large smile and a bigger personality. Rumours of a curtain curly haired metalhead sneaking in backstage are rapidly growing.

As the bell tolls midnight bringing in the millennium a photo is captured and circulated of the metalhead with one of the lead singers of [band] and it certainly wasn’t Buckley who everyone was speculating the metalhead was visiting regularly.

It’s 92 and there is conspiracies galore about the missing [band] members who disappeared only months after the picture was leaked of Eddie Munson and Steve Buckley kissing on new years. What really happened was they all decided to settle down in Italy, run a small holiday vineyard and get some qualifications.

It’s 2016 and Steve Munson is mortified and happily fielding questions from his class as they’ve somehow managed to find old videos and images of his days in [band]. Talks about Robin getting married to an Englishwoman in 2013 when it became legal. About how his husband wrote most of their songs. And when asked about the subject matter he responds with “we had over-imaginations and a case of the whimsies”.

#stranger things #eddie munson #eddie x steve #steve harrington #robin buckley #eddie/steve #eddie munson/steve harrington #fanfic #random rambles #dabble #platonic stobin #steddie #don’t know what to tag this #songwriter Eddie #singer Steve #singer Robin

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adarkrainbow · 12 days

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Lost media quest: H&G Epic Tales (part 2)

In this second post (first one is here) I will collect and compile all the information I could find from the official outlets about "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales".

First, the last "official" post of the Twitter account, in 2013, long before it got overtaken by some little girl, shared a link to an article on the Erasmus Rotterdam University website. The article is now gone, but it seems it was linked to the app being used in some sort of cultural program, because here was the title of the article, as described by the URL: www.eur.nl/ ese/ english/ information_for/ students/ bachelor_students/ bhc/ cultural_programme/ jagten_by_thomas_vinterberg/

There was also a certain big deal made on the official accounts about the price of the game being lowered "by popular demand" at 3.99 euros, 4.99 dollars.

The Twitter account shared a video of the Dutch news during which their application appeared as part of an example of (what seems to be the digital market boom within Dutch startups?). The video is still available here but we don't see too much of the application, just the initial "tableau", the first chapter, during which Hansel and Gretel sit by the stream in front of thir house. What we do see is that during the entire scene their father is chopping wood in the background, and we can spot two interactions possible in the tableau: touching a bird will make it fly in circle while chirping, touching the stream will make a fish (a trout I think?) jump out.

The exact date of the application's release was the 20th of April, 2012.

The Twitter account also shared an official "Release announcement" article that was posted on PrWeb. The article is down since, but it is available through the Wayback Machine. Here is what it said:

From pesky gnomes to cunning witches; from witty and wacky humour to eloquent storytelling Award winning animation studio announces EPIC TALES™, a new interactive storybook developer that goes beyond the classic fairytales.

Award winning animation studio Anikey and Cloud Castle Interactive proudly announce: EPIC TALES™, the interactive storyteller.

EPIC TALES is a new developer and publisher of interactive storybooks for the iOS platform (IPad, IPhone) and delivers a unique interactive adaptation of the imaginative and magical stories found in fairytales, folklore and world mythology. EPIC TALES allows you to not only enjoy enchanting tales, but to experience their magical worlds more closely than ever before.

“Fairytales just never seem to lose their magic, but having said that, what we envisioned for EPIC TALES was not to merely reproduce them; we wanted to go beyond that,” says Paul Hanraets, founder of EPIC TALES. “To conjure up new worlds and the peculiar creatures that inhabit them: with characters ranging from pesky gnomes to witty dwarfs; from a brave woodsman to a cunning witch. And as much fun as it is to revamp the classics, we also want to find those unsung folktales that have not yet been exhausted, to reveal their magic, and breathe life into the world around them.”

Each of EPIC TALES storybooks are digitally hand-drawn and offer stunning 2d animations, professional voice actors, original music scores, and spellbinding interactive environments that are sure to draw readers deep into the story. The alternating witty and wacky humour, the high production value, and the high degree of interaction are amongst some of the things separates EPIC TALES from other storybooks; however, what ultimately distinguishes EPIC TALES is the implementation of a central storyteller.

“The tales are narrated by Silvertongue, a most likeable dwarf,” Says Albert ’t Hooft, co- founder and producer of EPIC TALES. “Silvertongue, who once travelled the world in search of the most intriguing tales and stories, now resides in his humble bookstore where he personally sees to your storybook collection. Silvertongue is a gifted storyteller who can take an audience from a gasp of fright to a roar of laughter in just the twist of a phrase".

For their first storybook release EPIC TALES has chosen to bring off their version of one of the Brothers Grimm’s most celebrated fairy tales. EPIC TALES; the tale of Hansel and Gretel is expected to hit the Appstore January 2012 and will be available for IPad and IPhone.

About EPIC TALES™

EPIC TALES™ is a The Hague (Netherlands) based developer and publisher of interactive storybooks for the iOS platform, and delivers a unique interactive adaptation of the imaginative and magical stories found in fairytales, folklore and world mythology. EPIC TALES™ is a joint venture between award winning animation studio Anikey and Cloud Castle interactive.

If you want to check yourself here is the url:https://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/11/prweb8981778.htm. The website on the Wayback Machine notably contains an in-article save of the EpicTales.com website... A website I will be looking at in a minute.

Here are two more articles that covered the app. Unfortunately they are only available on the Wayback Machine now. (I will put a "d" in front of the URLs so that Tumblr doesn't turn them into active links): dhttp://iheartthisapp.com/hansel-and-gretel-epic-tales-animated-storybook-classic-childrens-story/ ; and dhttp://www.theipadfan.com/review/review-hansel-gretel-epic-tales-animated-storybook

The official trailer for the animated storybook contains this exact description of the interactive projective:

From pesky gnomes to cunning witches; from witty and wacky humour to eloquent storytelling, EPIC TALES™ is a new interactive storybook developer that goes beyond the classic fairytales…

EPIC TALES™ brings off an original and humorous version of the Brothers Grimm's most celebrated fairy tale. The tale of Hansel and Gretel is an interactive storybook that offers a combination of prime storytelling, brilliantly animated scenes, and dynamic interactions!

The Tale of Hansel & Gretel Feature Set:

Classical tale, original adaption

2D animations and cut scenes from Award winning animators

Beautiful hand drawn environments

Dynamic interactive surprises on every page

Professional storytelling and voice acting

Original music score and sound effects

Intuitive navigation

The tale of Hansel & Gretel tells of a young boy and his soft spoken sister who have been abandoned in a gloomy and remote forest. After being lost for days the children are lured into a house constructed of delicious candy and sweets. Foolhardily, the children fall into a trap set up by an old and cunning witch.

The Facebook account doesn't offer any much new info, as it pretty much doubles the Twitter account... Though they did posts screenshots of the positive reviews of the app which propelled it to the #1 rank of the Dutch Appstore at one point:

Plus a list of positive reviews from the United-States (honestly with how many reviews and notes this got, which means tons of downloads, how come nobody seems to have preserved the app today? That's crazy, somebody MUST have it stored in their iPad or iPhone somewhere!)

The Facebook account also shared links to many dead articles and missing reviews - that however can be found back on the Wayback Machine (praise our lord the Internet Archive for saving us of the digital oblivion)! Mind you these reviews don't bring much but they're still evidence. One is here: dhttp://thesmartphoneappreview.com/ipad/ipad-mini-review-hansel-and-gretel-epic-tales/. Another is here, a list of Dutch releases: dhttps://www.metronieuws.nl/entertainment/zonder-deze-spullen-kun-je-niet-op-zomervakantie/SrZlgD!2tXHqyT0qzBsg/. Finally, the Daily App Show had a page for this app - which contained a video-review of the storybook. The article doesn't exist anymore, though it is on the Wayback Machine. As for the video, the Wayback Machine seems to not have preserved it? That or my computer can't download it... I'll try to fetch this one another day: dhttp://dailyappshow.com/hansel-and-gretel-epic-tales-animated-storybook.

Finally, let's conclude this post by looking at the defunct Epic Tales website thanks to the Wayback Machine.

Here is what we could read on the Home Page:

Available on the App Store for IPad and IPhone. Our first release; Hansel and Gretel - animated storybook brings off an original version of the Brothers Grimm’s most celebrated fairy tale. The tale of Hansel and Gretel tells of a young boy and his soft spoken sister who have been abandoned in a gloomy and remote forest. After being lost for days the children are lured into a house constructed of delicious candy and sweets. Foolhardily, the children fall into a trap set up by an old and cunning witch.

Hansel and Gretel - animated storybook offers a combination of prime storytelling, brilliantly animated scenes, and surprising interactions!

Hansel and Gretel Feature Set: Classical tale, original adaption Produced and animated by award winning animation studio Professional storytelling and voice acting 23 chapters filled with beautiful hand drawn environments Over a 100 interactive and dynamic surprises Cinematic cut scenes Original music score and sound effects Intuitive navigation Options : Read to me, Read by myself or Play around

There was a "Titles" page (the use of plural indicates the then hope of creating a full line of animated storybooks).

It repeats the text copy-pasted above, while adding this:

Silvertongue, the dwarf Storyteller, will welcome you into his magical bookstore hidden deep within the swampland forest. Once inside the bookstore, Silvertongue will gladly display you his collection of tales that are available for purchase or free demonstration. Once you’ve selected and purchased your book, it will be added to your private bookshelf where Silvertongue will keep them safe for future reading. Besides exploring the store, Silvertongue offers you the chance to engage in some challenging mini-games that can be unlocked as a reward for helping him catch the pesky gnomes that dwell throughout his magical storybooks.

EPIC TALES™ Storyteller App is our free App for the iPad and iPhone. Within the App you have direct access to the bookstore, your own bookshelf, and various mini games.

EPIC TALES - Storyteller Feature Set: EPIC TALES Bookstore, titles for purchase or demonstration Private bookshelf Gnome Mini games 2D animations from award winning animators Professional storytelling and voice acting Original music score and sound effects Intuitive navigation

There was also a "News" page which contained a very interesting article pointing out that the release of "Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales" was notably made to match the 200th birthday of the brothers Grimm fairytales!

Let me copy-paste this article, called "Epic Tales celebrates 200th Anniversary of Grimm's fairy tales with Hansel and Gretel animated storybook"

Collaboration Between Award-Winning Animation Studio and Game Design Veterans Brings Classic Tale to Life On iPad and iPhone

“This version of Hansel and Gretel is a fully immersive, wonderfully engaging romp of a tale, complete with just the right amount of multimedia, professionalism and upstanding quality." – Luke Patrick, TheiPhoneAppReview.com

March 18, 2013 – Two hundred years after first being published, the magical and undeniable Brothers Grimm fairy tales continue to enchant and entertain children worldwide. Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales animated storybook celebrates this bicenntenial with the first in a series of classic, interactive tales from award-winning animation studio, Anikey, and the game veterans at Cloud Castle Interactive. For the month of April, the app will be available on the Appstore for iPad and iPhone for a special 200th anniversary price of $1.99, and thereafter will be priced at $3.99.

This EPIC Tales adaption stays true to the original Grimm Brothers' "Household Tales” – folklore laced with trepidation, morality, great joy and fun – but propels it into the 21st century. The storybook is digitally hand-drawn by award winning animators, and offers 20 chapters filled with over 100 dynamic and interactive surprises, professional voice acting, original music scores and ambient sounds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKvoy7QU_vc

Offering spellbinding interactive environments that will draw readers even deeper into the story, Epic Tales’ Hansel and Gretel’s world is filled with whimsical characters ranging from pesky gnomes to witty dwarfs; from brave children to wicked stepmothers and cunning witches. At its center is the narrator, Silvertongue, a truly gifted storyteller who can take an audience from a gasp of fright to a roar of laughter in just the twist of a phrase.

According to The iPhone App Review’s Luke Patrick, “This eBook is a monument to what can be accomplished within the realm of iPad design. Hansel and Gretel doesn’t just offer pages of content, but rather a fully engaging experience. There’s incredibly good voice acting for each and every chapter, as well as Disney quality animations. You’ll also get fully animated trailer sequences for key plot points, in addition to interactive elements hidden within the pages. This version of Hansel and Gretel is a fully immersive, wonderfully engaging romp of a tale, complete with just the right amount of multimedia, professionalism and upstanding quality." http://www.theiphoneappreview.com/2012/08/hansel-and-gretel-ipad-app-review/

EPIC Tales’ Hansel and Gretel features include:

Classical tale, original adaption

Produced and animated by award winning animation studio

Professional storytelling and voice acting

23 chapters filled with beautiful hand drawn environments

Over a 100 interactive and dynamic surprises

Cinematic cut scenes

Original music score and sound effects

Intuitive navigation

Three Options : Read to me, Read by myself or Play around

“It is wonderful that The Brothers Grimm anthology, a collection of 86 folktales, is still read and beloved by children today, 200 years after its first publication,” said Paul Hanraets, EPIC Tales founder and producer. “We are honored to celebrate the bicentennial of these enduring and highly entertaining fairy tales with the re-release of our animated version of one of its most popular stories, Hansel and Gretel.”

"We didn’t cut any corners with Hansel and Gretel, and it has paid off. We are pleased that initial reviews have highlighted its production value, the high quality of our animations and our alternating witty and wacky humor,” said creative director Albert ‘t Hooft. “And, the layout of the pages is clean and intuitive with hidden interactive elements offering lots of surprises.”

EPIC TALES™ is a series of high-quality, interactive fairytales that allows you to not only enjoy enchanting tales, but to experience their magical worlds more closely than ever before. Children will love the sense of wonder and discovery, while adults will certainly appreciate the clever and wacky humor.

PRICING AND AVAILABILITY Hansel and Gretel - Epic Tales animated storybook will be available on the Appstore for iPad and iPhone for a special promotional price of $1.99 in April, and thereafter will be priced at $3.99.Review copies upon request.

ABOUT EPIC TALES™ EPIC TALES™ is a The Hague (Netherlands) based developer and publisher of interactive storybooks for the iOS platform, and delivers unique, interactive adaptations of the imaginative and magical stories found in fairytales, folklore and world mythology. EPIC TALES™ is a joint venture between award winning animation studio Anikey and Cloud Castle Interactive.

There was also a "Contact" page, and an "About" page - however I will keep the "About" segment for a third post, because this one is getting slightly too big for now.

#lost media #hansel and gretel #hansel and gretel epic tales #epic tales #hans en grietje #hans en grietje epic tales #traditional animation #app #interactive storybook #animated storybook #fairytale cartoon #fairytale animation #animation project #search for lost media #dutch animation

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randomvarious · 8 months

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youtube

2 Unlimited - "No Limit (Rap Version)" 1992 Eurodance / Techno / Eurohouse

If you're an American, you might think that the biggest tune that Belgian-Dutch dance project 2 Unlimited ever put out was their 1991 debut single, "Get Ready for This," which, absurdly, managed to earn its keep as the country's #1 sports anthem, and might still actually hold that same title to this very day. And maybe you don't remember how the trailer for the first Air Bud movie went exactly either, but as you're reading this and trying to piece it all together in your head right now, let me just stop you and tell you that, yes, of course, "Get Ready for This" starts playing when Buddy shows up for his first official game! I mean, it would basically be sacrilege for it not to! That's how inextricably linked that song is to American sports!

youtube

But anyway, even though "Get Ready for This" was definitely 2 Unlimited's most popular tune in the States, it was "No Limit" that was, by far, their most successful song pretty much everywhere else. And as their fifth overall single, and the first off of their 1993 sophomore LP, No Limits, it would end up topping the charts in thirty-five different countries, while not even making the Billboard Hot 100 here. And unless you were in a club-equivalent of a T.G.I. Friday's that would dare play this gaudy tune in the US, the only other place where you might've gotten a dose of it was most likely at your nearest partial portal to mainstream Euro-raveland: a sports arena.

Now, it definitely didn't happen as much in the States, but people everywhere else across the globe who were above the age of twelve really genuinely seemed to go absolutely ape over this very Belgian-and-Dutch-made tune. They really couldn't get enough of that relentlessly blaring, bouncy, and industrial synth riff that sounded like a pair of thick metal plates had been wrapped in thin coats of rubber and were forcibly being clanked against each other.

But whatever you may think of this completely insane piece of music, which was probably, really, the hardest straight-up rave tune to ever cross over into the US mainstream, the video for it that hardly ever aired on American TV was spectacular. I mean, they built the set to look like they were performing from the psychedelically rainbow-colored inside of a pinball machine, folks. The only thing that could've made it better is if they had found a way to make it look like there was a giant pinball freely entering and exiting the shot too, as Ray rapped and Anita sang. Plus, I wonder if the metal-rubber synth sound inspired the pinball machine idea in the first place, since metal balls constantly bounce off of tightly wound rubber bands inside of those things 🤔.

And here's something truly astonishing that I neglected to mention in yesterday's post about 2 Unlimited: did you know that in a bunch of the group's UK-released singles, Ray's rap verses were actually deliberately stripped out entirely? The guy who ran the label that was licensed to release the group's music there—Pete Waterman, of famed British songwriting and production trio Stock Aitken Waterman—really hated Ray's verses, to the point that he just erased them! And he particularly referred to Ray's contributions on "No Limit" as the worst rap that he'd ever heard 😂.

But he wasn't wrong! Ray's raps were nonsensical and very Eurodancy-bad! But it also made the UK versions of the videos really awkward too. For example, in "No Limit," Ray gets plenty of face-time, but his role as a vocalist is merely reduced down to the lines of "Let me hear you say 'yeah!,'" "come on!," and "TECHNO, TECHNO, TECHNO, TECHNO!" 😭

youtube

And despite the fact that he was apparently steaming mad about this, the song still reached #1 in the UK and so did the No Limits album itself, which ended up making 2 Unlimited the first Eurodance-rave group in the UK to break the cycle of having popular singles, but then those singles not translating into substantial album sales. So, Waterman may have wielded a heavy-handed axe, but the results seem to have spoken for themselves. Poor Ray! 😞

Also, I just searched "2 unlimited commercial" and "2 unlimited ad" on YouTube, and it doesn't look like any restaurant has ever licensed this song in order to advertise any kind of 'bottomless' or 'all you can eat' kind of promotion before, which, really, feels unbelievable at this point. Someone please pay me lots of money for manifesting this idea into existence 🙏🤑.

More fun videos here.

#eurodance #euro dance #dance #dance music #techno #eurohouse #euro house #house #house music #electronic #electronic music #music #90s #90s music #90's #90's music #Youtube

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expatesque · 11 months

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Referring to your recent post, would love to see some of the fun things you’ve bought! You have the best taste 😊

Aw thank you.

So the main categories of things have been home stuff and fashion stuff. I do have a tag (of course) but haven't posted everything so to summarize...

Home stuff

Living room: The swan table (an icon, a queen, the inspiration for the room), the insane green velvet chair (we love her, gotta keep it eclectic), snake rug (hiss hiss), a fundamentally impractical sofa (Ikea, concessions had to be made somewhere. I'm going to restuff to make it look more fluffy and expensive). I'm keeping my vintage curio cabinet, 1960's referencing 30's circular bar cart, black arched lamp, and big rubber plant. The inspiration is somewhere between this 1930's Thorne miniature room and hummusbird. I need some paintings, a little table for under the window to display a great vase (got this one in ivory, tbc if it's the right size), and some big new throw pillows (I'm thinking dusky pink). Oh also I'm getting a fish to go in the bookcase (I wanted a white Betta but my dad has said that's a bad idea and suggested a gold fish instead).

Kitchen: An oval marble topped cast iron bistro style table. Keeping my black bistro chairs (2x) and will also use 2 of my armless ghost chairs (like these). Likely to get a small floating island to get a little more counter space. Also bought an insane copper kettle ala my man Rajiv recently.

Main bedroom: I've got a new headboard for my bed (this one), I'm getting rid of the wardrobe in there (using the one in the 2nd bedroom) and will replace it with a vintage dressing table and mirror (I do like this one but would rather not spend that given... everything else) to display my great great grandmother's silver mirror, brush, etc. Need some big Euro shams and perpetually looking for a navy woven blanket that's big enough (I want it like, almost duvet sized).

2nd bedroom: Currently is an office / video game room, turning into a proper 2nd bed. I'll use my meh existing bed, need bedside tables, maybe a new desk chair.

Fashion stuff

It's been a lot of big skirts (my love the Prada one, a really full white canvas-y one, this crazy pink one, a beige cashmere Theory one), a set of heavy ribbed tops with high necks in black and browns (for autumn, this is one of them), a few cropped cardigans (can't find any specific ones that I've bought right now, but short enough to wear with the skirts), a totally sheer cream colored top (that is proving surprisingly versatile already), two cheap Zara wrap vests that I'm waiting to arrive (one in cream and one in black, we'll see the quality when they get here), a Victorian gold charm bracelet (+ a charm of a monkey holding a pearl), a pair of really gorgeous silver and mother pearl earrings from the 50s, some rag and bone soft leather mules, some baby blue Mary Janes, and a set of tiny kitten heels that I really like but am not sure I'm keeping (they're a little narrow but I think I could stretch them). I think there's more but if I think too much about it I'll be stressed (rip my budget). Pro tip: Laura Riley has an incredible fashion newsletter that rounds up what's new and what's on sale -- I've gotten almost everything I've bought on 50%+ off.

#the sofa is the gransel natural with no arms #yes you heard right #no arms #the gold fish is because i kill things #also bettas are apparently too high level for me #(my dad had a tropical fish breeding situation in his youth something i only found out last week)#so anyway RIP my budget #truly been a few weeks #gonna be a monk after this #batch cooking and sitting at home with my crocheting #and of course i will post photos once it's all in place #just waiting for the old things to be collected #I'm like... it's all making me feel more like myself and everyone says this is a period of change #ill find out more about myself #blah blah (I know they're right but like... i would rather have been happy and simply not known lol)#so i am trying to give myself a kittle ~grace~ with this #after all what is the point of money if not to spend it #oh also i need a grey big skirt for fall #then I'm basically done #maybe a black one too...#s shops

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anyways-wonderwall · 11 days

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Eurovision Special!

I would just like to start this by saying woah. I have been keeping up with Eurovision for the past 7 years and have written about the last four, and this is easily the biggest shitshow I have ever seen. Never before has my Twitter been solely about Eurovision, and never have I seen Americans actually kinda care.

Just to make it clear from the beginning, Israel should not have been in this competition and should never be invited back after all they did this year, although we all know that since they own Moroccan Oil they will never face any consequences. Not only that but their song this year sucked! It got the lowest rating from me this year, even putting controversial stuff aside.

Anyways, it is time for the annual tradition of me telling you what my five favorite songs were and what I thought of the entries this year. If you've read any of my other Eurovision posts (I've reviewed 2021, 2022, and 2023), you'll know that I go through and grade all of these songs on a spreadsheet through a very objective rigorous process. I grade on five categories (which are eerily similar to what the jury does): Singer, Song, Catchiness, Performance, and the bonus points category Diversity. The max score is technically a 40, but that last category can and has put some songs over the edge. Oh and this ranking is based on how much I like the song, so the order may not fully match the scores.

All the drama aside, this was one of the best years song-wise for Eurovision (this was definitely the hardest its been to rank the songs ever). I think countries are starting to understand that being quirky pays off, so now we're getting real song diversity and really amazing performances. Also, Eastern Europe really gave it their all this year and I cannot thank them enough. (Oh and all of these songs, minus Croatia, are NOT IN ENGLISH!! Truly an incredible year)

5. Netherlands - Europapa by Joost Klein

Score: 35/40

Notes: good energy song itself is meh

Final Ranking: uhhhhhh, that's a long story

Look I get it, this song truly embodies Eurovision in every way. It's in Dutch, one of the silliest languages out there, he's out there wearing crazy outfits and has a silly haircut, its a euro-techno hit, he has the emotional angle since it was dedicated to his parents; this is one of the most perfect Eurovision songs to enter. All that aside though, its not that interesting or awesome as a song. The main riff is incredibly catchy and the production choices with the piano are pretty cool, but it just feels like a rip off of the silliness of last year's "Cha Cha Cha," down to ending in a boring techno breakdown. I think this song is a clear response to that (down to the shoulder pads) but it still is pretty good and did a great job making this year even crazier than anyone thought possible.

4. Greece - ZARI by Marina Satti

Score: 33/40

Notes: I've never been more flummoxed

Final Ranking: 11th

This song on the other hand, is one of the most interesting things I have ever heard. Marina Satti as an artist and this song has been occupying my thoughts nonstop, because what the hell is happening here. It's like Rosalina-style cumbia got lost in the East Mediterranean and the music video leaves me even more confused. The crazy jumps from Arab traditional flute sounds to strings to a cumbia baseline to a men's choir, to a melodramatic echoey bridge? I took a whole class on writing about music and I can't find the words to describe this one. And all of her media around it uses 2005 word art fonts and clip art? And she is serious about everything the entire time. Everything she does is hilarious and off the wall, yet she continues the persona of a pop diva. I seriously cannot get enough of her.

just want to point out that this is one of her real album covers. The word icon doesn't cover it.

3. Armenia - Jako by LADAVINA

Score: 41/40

Notes: Trumpet player hot or not

Final Ranking: 8th

Speaking of icons, look at these two! I really think this year was countries really embracing their native genres, whether that be Eurodance, Mediterranean Cumbia, Eastern European Emo, or Armenian folk music. This song just truly embodies fun. The lively beat, the screaming and yipping, a crowd cheering, the wailing trumpet, the random instruments whispering in the background. Listening to this makes you feel like you are a part of the coolest party ever, with flute and ukulele solos, and freedom to yell as loud as you want. I cannot get enough of this song and the energy these two bring to it, and I am so glad Armenia picked an absolute banger to represent them this year.

2. Estonia - (nendest) narkootikumidest ei tea me (küll) midagi by 5MIINUST x Puuluup

Score: 44/40

Notes: EASTERN EUROPE IS BACK BABEY

Final Ranking: 20th

This song is just awesome, in every way. You have this weird Estonian string thing, voices so low that it sounds like throat singing, all mixed with that kind of techno that feels so intrinsically Eastern European. The music video has them driving around a Soviet-style building complex just messing around in abandoned warehouses and parking lots. This is what I'm talking about when I say that countries are going back to their roots and not just trying to send what they think is the most marketable. I see this as a sequel to Moldova's entry last year, which involved a Eurovision veteran with some new faces, mixing old and new to make a masterpiece that has so much personality.

Croatia - Rim Tim Tagi Dim by Baby Lasagna

Score: 43/40

Notes: Meow cat, please meow back

Final ranking: 2nd!

Look at this guy, he looks like someone who you would love to bring home to your parents and would like cats. He wasn't supposed to compete for Croatia this year and was put in last minute and I'm so glad because my life would have been so much darker without this banger in it. It's a classic emo anthem about leaving your farm-filled hometown to go to the big scary city, but he doesn't take himself too seriously with a name like "Baby Lasagna" and a chorus of nonsense words. The music videos as sped up farmers dancing and a cat that looks exactly like mine (both one-eyed and orange), and is a perfect mix of vulnerable and silly. This really seems like someone who was genuinely making something fun and expressing himself, and just happened to almost win Eurovision in the process.

Here's to hoping Eurovision actually happens next year after everything that went down, and if you're curious my least favorite songs were the offensively boring entries from Israel and Albania.

#eurovision #eurovision 2024 #europapa #music review #music recommendation

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inchidentally · 6 months

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JSYK I'm with you on containment breaches. Tends to go hand in hand with girlfriend harassment too. Countdown to Rebecca's account going private in 3..2..1

I can't remember which post I left tags on about that but yeah the "corporatization" of any rpf always spells trouble. it's why I don't rb any of it from the main F1/Netflix/sports accounts. LN4 media doing it is I assume with Lando's OK but even there it's a bit... uncomfortable.

rest behind a cut so nothing goes into tags

(this is probably way more than you were asking for anon but apparently these text posts is what I do now)

look. carlando was my main ship when I got into F1 fandom and is going to stay in my top 3 forever. but I keep the lines drawn nice and sharp. I l-o-v-e shipping them but I'm also aware that they're literally big brother/little brother and that all of the physicality and closeness is identical to Charles with Arthur. that and the fact that Carlos is sahuuuuuper straight and folks just confuse euro dude behavior with friends for gayness. Carlos was the one who pushed for Lando to grow up and get a gf and Carlos himself was practically engaged for 6 or 7 years. his own sister gave Isa her wedding bouquet ffs. he's so confirmed heterosexual that he can't be alone for more than 2 seconds between girlfriends lol

but between McLaren content on social media getting absolutely bombarded with irrelevant carlando comments and the hate toward Rebecca ramping up every single damn day (I'd say it's a solid 80/20 mostly of rpf hate toward her and the remaining being plain old jealousy) idk it's not feeling good rn. and it's mostly on IG and a bit on YT (I don't use twitter) but yikes at how much Lando content has something about 'he's thinking about Carlos' or 'omg just like Carlos' or carlando when it's nothing to do with carlando. Lando works so incredibly hard at the two to three careers he's running consecutively and it feels pretty damn insulting to reduce him to one F1 friend - however close they are. Carlos has nothing to do with Quadrant or Lando's YT work or his own sponsorship work. that's Lando doing all of that.

that and when the Today show interviewer pushed the "bromance" angle you could see Lando get kind of fed up (which they tried to edit out) and steer the question back around to actual racing. tbh he even seemed a little icked by DTS making such a big deal about carlando and he and Max joked it off.

even through my Singapore euphoria I could tell Carlos and Lando were walking media ppl back from going too literal with the DRS and saying no, it was advantageous for Carlos and yes, Lando absolutely would've overtaken him if he could have gotten the win for himself. I've actually really respected Lando reminding people that they're not in these rarefied positions to do anything other than try to win or as close to it as possible. they're not making millions and living the high life just to throw race results in the air and play favorites with their friends !!??

and this whole "competition" between carlando and dando/charlos/landoscar/whatever is absolutely not making it's way onto my blog lol. I do know that a lot of people in tumblr are just joking when they do that and I think the 'angst' posts are funny but wow IG and YT are not playing around. they're making videos trying to like disprove other Lando ships and it's ??? (funniest one is the Vegas opening ceremony thing and fighting over who Lando was waving to, Daniel or Carlos) these dudes are absolutely not having real life in-fighting about which of their friends they like "better" or who is their bestest friend. (especially when Lando in the same interview as above stated that F1 drivers - Carlos included - are not his actual private life friends so uh oh how does that play into the competition?? it's so absurd)

I'm not a wives and girlfriends obsessive but I absolutely I am not here for them receiving anything negative from F1 fans unless they themselves have instances truly, openly as problematic as the drivers often are. even then I'm wary bc the sexism motive and double standards run so deep in fandom against women. Rebecca has done nothing but exist as Carlos' gf and it's just a sea of "there's something fake about her" and "body experts" claiming the relationship is fake and that she's "obviously a beard" while he's actually with Lando. that last part craaaaacks me tf up because these men travel to Middle Eastern countries where homosexuality has the death penalty or prison.......... they are NOT gonna be out here referring to themselves publicly as a bromance and their ship name if they're trying to keep this huge gay secret while they tour maximum home o'fobic countries???

I have a few extra thoughts about why folks have especially latched onto being proprietary about which men Lando is closest to or "should be with" when it comes to rpf but I feel like we all kinda know why. I'm over here writing pages of text about him which is lame in it's own way - but even I acknowledge that his greatest attraction as a person is himself and not his relationships to other people. it's why he's the sun that a lot of this content orbits around.

I'm also genuinely glad that Lily's existence and Oscar's quiet but firm reminders of her arrived alongside the landoscar fandom happening. I don't personally see any hate toward her and no one's in denial. even the rare fic that has him and Lily fictionally break up is fully fair to her. I've also posted a lot about how I genuinely love real life Lando and Oscar interaction even more than the rpf (and I love the rpf lol) and honestly the feeling seems shared with a lot of us from what I've seen. so especially if Lily uses her engineering degree to start working in F1 it's good to know that she won't have to deal with crazed conspiracy theories about her being an F1 industry plant to keep Oscar's dick out of Lando's hole or whatever.

for anyone who's read this far or skipped to the end tldr I'm always going to ship carlando and landoscar (and even dando) as well as charlos. but as a carlando shipper I really hope the commodification of it dies down before it truly starts to piss off Lando or Carlos. or Carlos has to put his foot down like Lando did and say hey, stop harassing my girlfriend it's weird.

shit's just been feeling very 'forced' lately to the point of imploding and I'm uncomfy :/

#been sitting on this a couple days to try and bury it lol #I hope I made myself clear #it's also why I chuckled at the homophobic outraged anon I got a while back bc they were so far off the mark #mine #//wank adjacent ig #inchreplies

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nation-of-bros · 4 months

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The Federal Republic of Germany is not a democracy

I recently learned from an acquaintance how the police were purging their own ranks: In a shared private Telegram group, some police officers posted things critical of the government, and someone else must then have informed their superiors about it. A short time later, a horde of police loyal to the state stood at everyone's doorstep and confiscated their cell phones. The accusation: anti-government attitudes, i.e. AfD supporters. They are all on forced leave for the time being.

Since the alleged meeting for a "coup plan" led by Prince Reuß, the German Interior Minister has gone completely crazy with her Antifa past, and has purged all state organs of any government critics or who are otherwise not in line with the rainbow. They are constantly constructing an “extremist right-wing” threat everywhere. But they themselves actually represent the real danger, because for them “democracy” ends where any dissenting opinion arise. They call themselves "Democrats" but systematically exclude large parts of the population who do not share their completely disturbed left-green anti-racism feminism rainbow ideology.

I recently saw a video in which an influencer reported how he was offered 50,000 euros if he spoke out against the AfD in a television show. Opposition parties are fought by the system using all kinds of dirty methods:

That's why it seems incredibly stupid to me to listen to this idiotic talk from our politicians when they complain about Russia. Yes, Putin is an autocrat. Where is the problem?! I don't live in Russia, it's not my business. But it is my problem if my opinion that deviates from the system is suppressed in MY OWN COUNTRY. The police had already searched my apartment just because of a fucking YouTube comment. So I know how it feels when they invade your privacy, dirty all the carpets with their shoes, ruthlessly go through your things, and take away every computer, cell phone, even small memory stick because there might be something critical of the government on it…

In reality, it is just harassment by the state of those who think differently. In fact, if I hadn't paid the fine in the end, they would have put me in prison for two and a half months for a mere "crime of opinion"; while illegals who rape and stab are not treated half as harshly; or someone can be the chancellor who is involved in the biggest financial crime in Europe.

My respect for the German state is thus in the deepest negative range. As far as I'm concerned, they can all continue to destroy themselves because of their own madness. Do the shitty politicians, judges, police officers think that their fucking salaries will still be affordable in 10 years?! Are they really so naive to believe that the German state can still pay their fat pensions later?!

Germany consists of 1/5 of civil servants, including all positions indirectly dependent on the state. If the economy continues to fuck up like it is now, all of this will no longer be affordable, including the millions of parasites like Ukrainians who are plundering the German welfare state. However, the state already doesn't have a single cent left and the budget for next year will be impossible. There is a lack of money in every nook and cranny.

Just the other day I read in the news: The state is stopping all railway expansion programs, while the next article reports on how "Rheinmetall" is building a new ammunition factory. If they think that waging war on dissent at home and against Russia abroad is more important than looking after the common good, then please let them go down. They don't deserve anything else!

I have nothing to lose anyway, it doesn't affect me half as much as the many civil servants and politicians who depend on this state.

It's only right for me if they thin out their own ranks in any way and destroy themselves in the long term. There is already great discontent among the population and people no longer know what to do next. The system collapse will come, it is only a matter of years and not decades. If the Federal Republic of Germany falls, the entire EU will collapse, including the fucking Euro currency; that sounds fantastic.

#politics #essay

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