#just get in my head about it. fantastic for me that my vocal range seems to be like just the same as will roland's for intents & purposes

[unproduciblesmackdown]

the robot song flesh & bone “but because i can freak out and feel / i think that that means that i’m real” line so fun to sing aloud enthusiastically imo. user reviews

#user also having one of those spontaneous times being chatty via text posts. watch out. anything could happen #sitting here putting on Performances b/c nobody else is here and that's prime time to seize karaoke opportunities #love to go like ''oh i Can dip into that one low note like it's not amazing but nothing is b/c i'm not Good At Singing but it's there'' #just get in my head about it. fantastic for me that my vocal range seems to be like just the same as will roland's for intents & purposes #my intent (sing along) my purposes (sing some songs)

[sohotthateveryonedied]

While we're already talking about broadway what is ur favorite musical song? Or top 10 if you can't decide lol (mine is 'bring him home' from les miserables)

okay so a top 10 is impossible but i managed to narrow it down to 36! (yes that's as low as i could get it, my Favorite Broadway Songs playlist alone is 106 songs okay you don't understand how insane i am about this every single one of these songs is on equal footing in my mind) so here's the list of my favorite songs alphabetically by album, plus my favorite part/lyrics from each to justify the ranking:

1. It's My Life — & Juliet (That part after the bridge where it's like "It's my liiiife— IIIIIT'S MYYYY LIIIIIFE— It's now or neverrr / And I ain't gonna live forEVERRRRR" it's so good)

2. That's the Way It Is — & Juliet (After the bridge when she starts fucking BELTING the lyrics and then she's like "Don't give uUP ON YOUR FAIIIIIIIIIITH (pause for a breath and the music stops so it's just her voice and nothing else) LOOOOOOVE COOOOOMES—" it's incredible okay especially when the bootleg was up and she Did That on stage!!!!! she did that!!!! her vocal range!!!!)

3. Dead Mom — Beetlejuice (Daddy's moving forward / Daddy didn't lose a mom / Mama won't you send a sign? / I'm running out of hope and time / A plague of mice, a lightning strike / Or drop a nuclear bomb)

4. Barbara 2.0 — Beetlejuice ('Cause the new upgraded Maitlands / Are charging out the gates, and / They're gonna unload / Say hello / To Maitlands 2.0)

5. More Than Survive — Be More Chill (Of all the characters at school / I am not the one who the story's about / Why can't someone just help me out? / And teach me how to thrive / Help me do more than survive)

6. Michael in the Bathroom — Be More Chill (OG cast) (Michael in the bathroom at a party / This is a heinous night / I wish I'd stayed at home in bed / Watching cable porn / Or wish I offed myself instead / Wish I was never born)

7. Upgrade — Be More Chill (OG cast) (And I wasn't sure before / But now I wanna go all the way and more / So give me that upgrade / Give me that upgrade / Tried to be genuine and true / But now it's time for something new)

8. Voices in My Head — Be More Chill (OG cast AND Broadway cast) (And there are voices in my head / So many voices in my head / And they can yell and hurt like hell / But I know I'll be fine) (And then in the broadway version?? His little woohoo when Christine says she wants to go out with him?? The way he jumps around in the bootleg after they kiss???? I'm??????)

9. Dyin' Ain't So Bad — Bonnie and Clyde (Seems you get to live your life just once / If that's how it's gotta be / Then I'd rather breathe in life than dusty air)

10. Requiem — Dear Evan Hansen (So don't tell me that I didn't have it right / Don't tell me that it wasn't black and white / After all you put me through / Don't say it wasn't true / That you were not the monster that I knew) (Also oh my god if you listen to Antonio Cipriano's version in Pronoun Showdown where it's Connor singing to Zoe you WILL cry)

11. Good For You — Dear Evan Hansen (All I need is some time to think / But the boat is about to sink / Can't erase what I wrote in ink / Tell me, how can I change this story?) (especially when evan's surrounded on all sides by his mom and jared and alana and they're all yelling at him and he can't escape GET HIM FOLKS GET HIM i love it when characters yell at each other in song i love it i love it)

12. Words Fail — Dear Evan Hansen (No, I'd rather pretend I'm something better than these broken parts / Pretend I'm something other than this mess that I am / 'Cause then I don't have to look at it / And no one gets to look at it)

13. And I Am Telling You I'm Not Going — Dreamgirls (THIS IS THE MOST AMAZING VOCAL PIECE IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC AND YOU NEED TO SELL YOUR SOUL IN ORDER TO SING IT IT'S INCREDIBLE PHENOMENAL AMAZING FANTASTIC SPECTACULAR GODLY. GENUINELY DON'T KNOW HOW A PERSON CAN SING IT EIGHT SHOWS A WEEK I REALLY DON'T)

14. From Now On — The Greatest Showman (I drank champagne with kings and queens / The politicians praised my name / But those were someone else's dreams / Pitfalls of the man I became) (okay seriously i can't watch this scene without being amazed by the energy and the choreography and just!!! ahhh!!!!)

15. Chant (Reprise) — Hadestown (If it's not too late / If I still have time / Can I change my fate? / If it's not too late, can I... / Can I change this fate of mine?) (these lyrics aren't in the studio album but they are in the bootlegs i've watched and god the determination in eurydice's eyes is so GOOD i love it i love it i love it. even in the album i love this part where it's like "if i raise my voice (IF I RAISE MY VOICE IF I RAISE MY VOICE KEEP YOUR HEAD LOWWWW) if i raise my head (IF I RAISE MY HEAD IF I RAISE MY HEAD KEEP YOUR HEAD LOWWWW)" i LOVE ITTTT)

16. Wait For Me (original AND reprise) — Hadestown (I'm coming, wait for me / I hear the walls repeating / The falling of our feet, and / It sounds like drumming / And we are not alone / I hear the rocks and stones / Echoing our song / I'm coming) (there's something so OOMPH about how the first version is orpheus calling out to eurydice that he's coming for her, he won't stop until he finds her, he'll go to hell and back for her, and then the REPRISE when it's BOTH of them and eurydice is filled with so much hope that they'll make it through this together, nothing can stop them 😢)

17. Wait For It — Hamilton (Hamilton faces an uphill climb / He has something to prove / He has nothing to lose / Hamilton's pace is relentless, he wastes no time / What is it like in his shoes?)

18. Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) — Hamilton (DOWN, DOWN, DOWN / Freedom for America, freedom for France! / DOWN, DOWN, DOWN / Gotta start a new nation, gotta meet my son! / DOWN, DOWN, DOWN / We won, we won, we won, WE WON!) (literally cried when they stood on the chairs so triumphant and happy and victorious it's so GOOOOOD)

19. One Last Time — Hamilton (WATCH THE FUCKING DISNEY+ RECORDING OKAY CHRISTOPHER JACKSON FUCKING BELTED THIS SONG HE PUT HIS SOUL INTO IT AND IT MAKES ME SOB, YOU HAVE NOT LIVED UNLESS YOU'VE WATCHED THAT SCENE OKAY GO DO THAT RIGHT NOW OR I WILL BLOW THIS PLACE TO SMITHEREENS)

20. First Burn — Hamilton (And when the time comes / Explain to the children / The pain and embarrassment / You put their mother through / When will you learn / That they are your legacy / WE ARE YOUR LEGACY)

21. Dead Girl Walking — Heathers (No sleep tonight for you / Better chug that Mountain Dew / Get your ass in gear / Make this whole town disappear)

22. Our Love Is God — Heathers (We can start and finish wars / We're what killed the dinosaurs / We're the asteroid that's overdue / The dinosaurs choked on the dust / They died because God said they must / The new world needed room for me and you)

23. Your Fault — Into the Woods (I'd have kept those beans / But our house was cursed / She made us get the cow to get the curse reversed / It's his father's fault / That the curse got placed / And the place got cursed in the first place) (yes i just like being able to brag that i can sing this entire song while jumping between the different characters' parts it's great)

24. Bring On the Monsters — The Lightning Thief (the part at the end when they're all singing their own parts over each other and it layers together so WELL and it sounds so GOOD and so HOPEFUL and DETERMINED and AHHHHH)

25. Santa Fe — Newsies (Broadway) (Where does it say you gotta live and die here? / Where does it say a guy can't catch a break? / Why should you only take what you're given? / Why should you spend your whole life living / Trapped where there ain't no future / Even at seventeen)

26. Once And For All — Newsies (Broadway) (the part when they build up and build up and build up and then it's BOOM "THERE'S CHANGE COMING ONCE AND FOR ALLLLLLL" it gives me goosebumps every time)

27. Another Day — Rent (No day but today / The fire's out anyway / No day but today / Take your powder, take your candle / No day but today / Take your brown eyes, your pretty smile, your silhouette / No day but today / Another time, another place, another rhyme, a warm embrace)

28. La Vie Boheme — Rent (all of it. literally all of it. if you don't like this song then i don't trust you as a person)

29. I'll Cover You (Reprise) — Rent (everything?? everything?? the way it makes one of the happiest songs in the musical irreversibly sad and when he belts out "i'll cover youuuuuu" at the end and he's crying and everyone's harmonizing seasons of love in the background and it's just. god this song makes me cry like a baby every time)

30. Goodbye Love — Rent (Yes, you live a lie / Tell you why / You're always preaching not to be numb / When it's how you thrive / You pretend to create and observe / When you really detach from feeling alive / Perhaps it's because I'm the one of us to survive!) (people in musicals yelling at each other will always be my favorite music genre <3)

31. Six — SIX (Heard all about / These rockin' chicks / Loved every song / And each remix / So I went out and found them / And we laid down an album / Now I don't need your love / All I need is SIX)

32. Louder Than Words — Tick, Tick...BOOM! (THE ENTIRE SONG. ALL OF IT. EVERY SECOND OF IT. BUT MORE SPECIFICALLY: "What does it take to wake up a generation? / How can you make someone take off and fly? / If we don't wake up / And shake up the nation / We'll eat the dust of the world wondering why")

33. What Baking Can Do — Waitress (Even as the walls come crumbling down / Even as I can't stop remembering how / Every door we ever made / We never once walked out / Something I never got the chance to ask her about / So with flour on my hands / I'll show them all how goddamn happy I am)

34. Bad Idea — Waitress (WHEN THEY'RE HARMONIZING LIKE "aaahAAAAHAHHHHIIIIII KNOW WHAT'S RIIIIIIIGHT FORRRRR MEEEEEEE" chills literal chills) (also watching the bootleg when they're slamming their hands on the table like "I need a bad idea (SLAM) I need a bad idea" god they're so hot)

35. She Used to Be Mine — Waitress (And then she'll get stuck / And be scared of the life that's inside her / Growing stronger each day / 'Til it finally reminds her to fight just a little / To bring back the fire in her eyes)

36. Defying Gravity — Wicked (So if you care to find me / Look to the western sky / As someone told me lately / Everyone deserves the chance to fly / And if I'm flying solo / At least I'm flying free / To those who ground me / Take a message back from me) (idina menzel my love my beloved my darling i can't get over her VOCALS AHHHHH)

EDIT: OH MY GOD I FORGOT DEATH NOTE BECAUSE IT’S NOT ON SPOTIFY HOW DARE I FORGET DEATH NOTE I’VE ABANDONED MY MUSICAL

37. Hurricane  — Death Note (I am the god of a brave new world / Much better than the last / The time for talking is in the past) (there is something so psychological in a song that is heroic and triumphant even when you know this guy is fucking insane and the real villain of this story but he thinks he’s this savior of humanity i just. god i love this song)

38. The Way It Ends  — Death Note (Is this the way it ends now? / How could I not see this coming? / The message that it sends now / Sounds exactly like a closing door) (I WAS OBSESSED WITH THIS SONG FOR MONTHS OKAY IT’S WHAT GOT ME INTO THE MUSICAL AND THEN INTO THE SHOW I LITERALLY JUST FOUND THE SONG IN SOME YOUTUBE PLAYLIST OF JEREMY JORDAN SONGS AND TEN SECONDS IN I WAS HOOKED IT’S SO GOOD)

#sorry for the essay lads but anon asked for it #this is not my fault #lay it on me papa bob #soho speaks

[ecoamerica]

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

#ACLA24 #ACLA24Leaders #youtube #youtube video #climate leaders #climate solutions #climate action #climate and environment #climate #climate change #climate and health #climate blog #climate justice #climate news #weather and climate #environmental news #environment #environmental awareness #environment and health #environmental #environmental issues #environmental justice #environment protection #environmental health #Youtube

[plungermusic]

“It’s pod people, Susie… and it’s too late to run!”

Plunger have looked on the 1950s with the same low regard people used to have for the 70s (…then the 80s, and probably the 90s now) - the fashions, hairstyles, cars and particularly the music got short shrift at Plunger Towers. So the last time we heard any 50s music was probably on a Saturday morning screening of Teenagers From Outer Space or similar. Which may seem a bit irrelevant in a concert review of the delectable Whitney Rose but bear with us, there is a point to it all.

Whitney’s last two albums (2017’s Rule 62 and her most recent, We Still Go To Rodeos) take an eclectic run at country, mixing in 60s Stax soul, 70s West Coast, and even some 80s garage band flavours, and indeed these were all on display last time Plunger saw Whitney at The Lexington. Her show at The Water Rats had a much more straight-down-the-line 50s country feel, heightened by the three-piece band backing her: looking and sounding like a Texan dive houseband from a Rockford Files or Magnum P.I., Noel McKay guitar, Brad Fordham bass and Lisa Pankratz drums (and fantastic harmony and backing vocals on occasion from one, two or all three) added a down home urgency and swing to much of the proceedings, including the doo-wop post-break-up ballad of Better To My Baby, Wake Me In Wyoming’s walking-horse-paced cowboy country and the Tex-Mex-spiced 'song about songs’ Three-Minute Love Affair, all featuring great lower register twang from Noel’s guitar and heartbreaking harmony vocals.

Ever-busy drums and a melodic chordal solo lent a Nashville gloss to the mellow Gram/Ronstadt mood of Believe Me, Angela contrasting nicely with the head-bobbing groove and elastic guitar hook of The Devil Borrowed My Boots, with its midbreak switch to a near-disco 4/4 and fantastic swooping three-part vocals (particularly the a cappella close!) while You Don’t Scare Me set a plaintive bobby sox chorus against a slinky latinate shimmer verse with cymbal and tom-rich drumming, fluid bass and a neat bass and guitar unison finale, and there were more Borderland touches in the bustling country two-step Arizona. Peak “country with a capital C” came (suitably modernised) in I Don’t Want Half (I Just Want Out) a divorce song that’s musically the heir to Tammy Wynette but light years apart in spirit, delivered with playful vitriol over an echt Nashville bounce and sweet harmonies; and in the tight shit-kicking beat and R’n’R sevenths of Time To Cry, with Whitney’s high Tennessee twang reaching a stirring top range plus two very Scotty Mooreish outings for Noel.

Noel’s own Open All Night was one of a handful of covers, again delivered on the night with a more muscular roadhouse edge than on record- a low-down Eddie Cochran groove with killer harmonies and a fine lead vocal from Noel himself. Other covers were Brennen Leigh’s relaxed dreamy longing-for-pre-digital-times, Analog, with Whitney doing her best teen starlet croon, while her honeyed delivery was perfect for a heartfelt Linda-style take on Tom Petty’s Walls (Circus), but there was plenty of oomph in her go-to party piece Lesley Gore’s You Don’t Own Me (dedicated to Pride week), building from sulky teen recalcitrance up through the key changes to an impassioned belt.

Unsurprisingly with the enforced lag between We Still Go To Rodeos release and being able to tour it, there is already another album in the pipeline (what else are you going to do in lockdown?) and we heard three songs from it: sadly unintroduced, they included a bouncy Blanket On The Ground-ish lope with chicken-picking guitar (possibly I Built My Own Jail) a line-dancing two-step (You’ll Get Along?) and a Nancy Sinatra-meets-Burt Bacharach easy-listening number.

A couple of songs from We Still Go To Rodeos broke the 50s spell, retaining their album character: Better Man’s twist-a-go-go beat and surftastic guitar burst nudged us into 60s territory and the thrashy garage band teen rebellion angst of In A Rut kept us there, with its tom-heavy beat, wild flaring solo and shout along chorus, ending the set.

After a brief hiatus (“I had a very important glass of orange juice to attend to… I wish I was cooler and that was a lie”) we were treated to the highly appropriate stay-true-to-your-country-heritage anthem My Boots, and a rollicking closing encore of the Everly’s When Will I Be Loved (à la Linda Ronstadt’s version) to close a cracking night of sweet and sweaty country goodness.

And the pod people? Yep, they caught Plunger bopping at the hop: we’re fully assimilated now and loving every chrome tail-finned, boot-lace tied, yee-haw minute…

#Whitney Rose #Country Music #the water rats

[soundsof71]

FIVE ALBUMS YOU NEED IN YOUR LIFE RIGHT NOW!!!

aka, My Top 5 of 2020, but I didn’t want to seem too retro!

Yep, I have a classic rock blog. Yep, I think that the best rock and roll in history is being made RIGHT NOW. And yep, ALL of it is being made by women. 

(Shown at top, Nova Twins by Ant Adams [x] and The Tissues by Michael Espleta [x]. I was planning to make a collage of all my faves in concert, but  not all of them were able to play in 2020. Both of these photos are pre-pandemic.)

There’s been quite a bit of movement on this list, and all five of these have spent some time at Number 1 as the year has done (gestures broadly) All This™. Anyone looking for rock and roll is going to dig any of these. 

Rocking out is just the start of it, though. Wrestling with my bipolarity and schizophrenia is tough on a good day, and there haven’t been too many of those lately. The plague has also taken its toll around me, with two family members dead and a third who’s doing better, but will likely never be all the way back. (Mask up, kids!)

I’ve written plenty about how deeply Taylor Swift and Phoebe Bridgers have moved me this year (and will do so again), but in those rare stretches where I’ve had enough spare energy to listen to music at all these days, I’ve mostly been looking for more than beautiful music. Heavy times need heavy lifting, and I find that in heavy music. 

The five albums here have all helped carry me, pointing the way toward light.

1) BULLY, SUGAREGG

Alicia Bognanno is a force of nature as a guitarist, vocalist, composer, and producer/engineer. (While working on her degree in audio engineering at MTSU, she interned with Steve Albini, who remains both a fan and an admirer). A Nashville transplant from Minnesota, she’s still a natural fit in her home on Sub Pop: as heavy as Soundgarden, as hooky as Sleater-Kinney. 

I was blown away hearing her searing honesty while working through her discoveries of her bisexuality and bipolarity (double bi!), and her triumphant roar lifts me out of my seat every time I listen.

“She sings the hell out of [these songs], her voice fraying to the point of combustion every time she launches to the top of her range. This is phenomenal music for converting anger and anxiety into unbound joy.” ~Stereogum, Album of the Week

Also, check this fantastic interview with Alicia in the New York Times talking about what she’s gone through to get here. 

TURN IT UP!

2) GANSER, LOOK AT THAT SKY

Ganser syndrome is a rare dissociative disorder characterized by nonsensical or wrong answers to questions and other dissociative symptoms such as fugue, amnesia or conversion disorder, often with visual pseudohallucinations and a decreased state of consciousness. ~Wikipedia #it me

‘Just Look At That Sky’ doesn’t presume to offer solutions; it’s an honest document of what it feels like to wade through anxiety, day by day, not a survival guide or handbook of answers none of us actually have. Whether or not you pay attention to this, Ganser are simply one of the most invigorating, exciting new bands. ~Clashmusic

I saw one very positive review compare Ganser to a cross between Fugazi and Sonic Youth, but I think they hit much, much harder than either of those. And as you can surely guess, I also deeply relate to their themes of mental illness and dissociation while trying to make it through All This™. But my god, are they TIGHT. This is a BAND.

Ganser has two fantastic lead vocalists, and on “Bad Form”, bassist/vocalist Alicia Gaines wrote the song for the voice of keyboardist/vocalist Nadia Garofolo. Alicia also wrote a FANTASTIC essay on the strains that making an album during a pandemic puts on the mental health of the entire band at talkhouse: “Writing, recording, reaching out, balancing relationships outside and within the band, I found (and still find) myself under-rested and agitated to no particular end. More than not doing enough, I was not enough.” 

(If you can’t relate to that, I can’t relate to you, tbh.)

This video also does a fantastic job of showing dissociation. TURN IT UP!

3) THE TISSUES, BLUE FILM

“Blue Film” is a ten-song shot of dagger-twisting electro-(s)punk. It’s completely addictive from the very first listen. The tour de force is “Rear Window”, an art-punk masterpiece of slashing guitars and mad caterwauling. Copious doses of jaunty poetics and social commentary reward the earlooker patient enough to untangle Kristine Nevrose’s hysterical meowing about intergalactic salt shakers and hysterectomies, but I’m too emotionally invested to look under the hood.” ~ Sputnik Music

“Rear Window” is in fact my most-played 2020 track. TURN IT UP!

4) GUM COUNTRY, SOMEWHERE

It’s not all heavy! But even when I’m looking for something light and hooky, I need a bite, and Gum Country has done it with the kind of swirly, feeedback-laden wall of sound that Lush or Yo La Tengo would make if they lived in LA. (Recent transplants to SoCal from Vancouver, I do think that the sunshine has gone straight to their heads, in the very best way.)

Indie music nerds will know guitarist/composer/singer/front woman Courtney Garvin from The Courtneys, and she really does throw up a glorious wall of sound. I adore this video too! Sweet, swinging, fun -- and yes, the drummer is playing keyboard with one hand while slapping the skins with the other! 

I mentioned earlier that all five of these albums have spent part of the year at #1 on my list -- I think that this one might have spent the longest stretch there. Like all shoegaze, even as hooky as this, the truth of these songs is revealed in VOLUME. TURN IT UP!

5) NOVA TWINS, WHO ARE THE GIRLS?

Now, THIS is heavy! Amy Lee (vocals, guitar) and Georgia South (bass) are fucking LOUD, and insanely intense. A mix of grime, hip-hop, metal, punk, and good old rock and roll, they’re a harder-hitting, more theatrical Prodigy, with a pyre of intensity that recalls the heaviest howls of Rage Against The Machine. Indeed, Nova Twins spent a good bit of 2019 playing heavy metal festivals and toured as openers for Prophets of Rage. (Tom Morello has been a fan and supporter from the beginning.)

As you may have noted in the photo at the top of this post, their musical audacity extends to visuals too: they design their own clothes, hair, and makeup, they art direct their own videos, and more. They impress the hell out of me, and I’ve been a huge fan since hearing their first singles in 2018. I’ll plant a flag and say that Georgia South in particular is the most innovative musician on any instrument in any genre right now, but they’re both absolutely monsters. 

I’m honestly not at all sure that #5 is high enough for this, but I’m absolutely certain that after this video, you’re gonna need to rest for a little. LOL

“Taxi” is the story of two gleefully and creatively violent women shaking up the local crime syndicate as they use a vintage cab for their moving murder scene. This is the movie that Robert Rodriguez wishes he was making with Sin City, if it were combined with Blade Runner and The Matrix. And gangsters. And a snake.

I’m gonna take your crown I’m gonna, I’m gonna bleed you out We demand it by the hour We devour, control, power

I’m gonna burn it down Even the, even the royals bow

So not the same kind of therapeutic work being explored on this rekkid, but you know what? Fucking shit up is therapeutic too! 

Definitely take this full screen, and for the love of fuck, TURN IT UP!

SO. Not done with the best of 2020 yet? I’m sure not! A lot of my favorite songs aren’t on albums (at least not yet), so for an unedited list of everything I’m finding, check out my Spotify list, 2020: Shuffle This List! 268 songs and counting, over 15 hours, and not finished yet. I’m still checking out everyone else’s Best of lists (including yours! Message me links to yours!!!), so will probably be adding to this for most of 2021, too. 

And for more banging tracks by women from 2020, plus a few 2019 gems that I’m still grooving to, check out my more thoroughly curated Spotify playlist Women Bangers: A Tumblr New Classics Jam. (You’ll see a couple of these tracks there!) I’m working on a YouTube playlist and an essay to properly roll that one out. I’m also still tweaking the ending, but the three dozen or so tunes there are definitely bangin’.

Tell me if you hear anything you dig here, and tell me what YOU’VE found! We’re gonna get through this together.

Yr pal, Timmy

#me #new classics #classic rock #women in rock #best of 2020 #bully #ganser #the tissues #gum country #nova twins #essay #youtube #punk rock #punk

[that-random-chaos-entity]

How does your OC display love? What are some habits your OC has picked up?

Forgive me as this is a LONG post, but I felt it would be better to show, rather than tell, this one:

Words could not describe how awkward Perturabo felt being back in the Emperor's palace. It would have been bad enough if it were just his deadbeat father, a half-rotten corpse sitting in an overglorified golden life-support casket, ignoring him as per usual. But it wasn't just his father; so many of his brothers had come for this... ...this Sanguinala... ...in many ways it almost felt like the Heresy had never happened.

Vulcan, Corvus, Fulgrim, ROGAL FUCKING DORN, Magnus.... ...hell, even SANGUINIUS had come back from the dead. Raised by the same mysterious chaos entity that had turned Perturabo's world and soul inside out. Made him live his own life over and over again, through the eyes of the people around him, until he got the point. The people he impacted. The people he used, abused, and destroyed without a second thought. The people he...

...Perturabo shook his head, the physical action somehow dislodging the poisonous psychic tumor from his soul. Even though that parasite was long gone and the Eye of Terror no longer loomed over him, it had been feeding on his twisted spirit for so long that its blasted and withered hide still bled for it. Casting his self-destructive thoughts into the warp. This was a good thing (or so the Lanky Llama said). Though sometimes, when he started to brood and sulk, things would get... ...gummed up. He could shake any errant clots loose himself, but nobody helped the darkness bleed out of him like Nehetari.

And holy shit did he wish she were here right now. When she and her robotic people were around... ...the Lord of Iron actually felt like... ...himself. Or the version of himself that he wanted to be, anyway.

But no, "No xenos allowed at a family gathering," the Emperor had said. Not that it even would have mattered if they were; it was one of those weird weeks where the lanky llama disappeared on him and holed up in her room by herself. Something about a "Necrontyr biological cycle," that would, "likely make her act inappropriately," or "embarrass herself and him," but she would say no more on the matter.

Of course it would happen over the day when he needed--erm could have used her presence the most.

"Aren't you going to open your gifts, brother?"

Perturabo snapped out of his brooding to see Magnus looming beside him. It took him a second to process what he said, but when he did he scowled.

"Gifts Magnus? Really? Do think anyone here would ever give me a gift?"

"Excuse me! What am I, grox manure!?" there was no real irritation in Magnus's voice. He gestured to table in front of Perturabo, where three gifts sat that he could have SWORN were not there before. "And if you must know, you're the only brother here I saw fit to even GET a gift for."

"Aside from Sanguinius."

"Well... ...yeah..." the Crimson King shuffled his wings awkwardly. Both primarchs stole a glance at the MOUNTAIN of gifts that their brother had received. "...b-but he doesn't count."

Perturabo sighed. He didn't feel like feeling jealous of Sanguinius right now. Instead he grabbed the first package; it was obviously Magnus's gift. Whatever was in it was so warp-touched that it levitated a solid three feet off the table and changed size randomly. It turned out to be a small inter-dimensional rift that contained a book of arcane engineering, one that Perturabo had surprisingly not seen before. He thanked his brother; something that drew a surprised look from Magnus and a complimentary hug that Turbo awkwardly returned. The second gift was from Sanguinius, as it turned out, and when he opened the box he saw his own face, reflected in a simple yet elegant mirror. After a moment of wondering if this gift was actually meant for Fulgrim (clone fulgrim), he saw the inscription on the box lid which read, "to my big brother: it brings me joy to see happiness in your eyes now. I hope with this you can see it too."

Perturabo swore under his breath and slammed the box shut, furiously hoping that Magnus hadn't heard him sniffle just a tiny little bit. It was a moving gift to be sure, but after everything that had happened... ...somehow it just made the Lord of Iron feel like garbage. Well... ...more so than usual.

Thankfully, quick-thinking Magnus directed his brother's attention to the third gift. In fact, if he didn't know better, Perturabo would have sworn Magnus seemed even MORE excited for him to open this gift than his own.

"What is... ...is this from...?"

"MHMMM!" Magnus's enthusiasm was all-consuming, his grin audible in his tone. "She asked me come and pick it up from outside her door earlier this morning."

Perturabo's melancholy dissipated into a wave of curiosity. What sat before him was a perfect cube of blackstone, though if he knew anything about Nehetari, he knew that wasn't all there was to it.

Sure enough, when he picked it up, glyphs flashed along its side.

"Is... ...that..."

"Necrontyr," Perturabo murmured in deep concentration. "...and not just any form of Necrontyr; this is Ksakhemet Script."

"What?"

"Think of it as our high gothic. Except it's as if we had a high, HIGH gothic. Only the three Necrontyr kings and their families even knew how to speak this script, let alone how to read and write it. It is ancient, according to Nehetari... ...it's from a time even before the Necrontyr first started their galactic expansion."

Those statements alone were like a different language to Magnus, but his lust for ancient knowledge ignited like a blazing inferno. He would absolutely have to grill both Perturabo AND his xenos companion for more information once she was.... ...*ahem* no longer indesposed.

Perturabo turned the cube over and over in his hands, reading the ornate lettering as best he could. He'd only just started learning how to read Ksakhemet; he couldn't speak it properly because he lacked the extensive Necrontyr vocal range, but the lettering started to make sense the more he plied his fantastic mind.

"It is... ...a puzzle cube. I believe."

"D'AAWWW... How sweet...!"

Perturabo punched his brother in the shoulder, but it phased through his immaterial form.

"Shut your mouth!" He could already feel the heat creeping up his neck and he HATED it. Although he had to admit he was a little touched, if amused, that Nehetari had put together such a... ...thought-out gift.

And well-thought-out it was indeed! It became clear to the Lord of Iron that this wasn't just some slide and lock, physics based puzzle toy for mortal children. It was a custom-made testing tool designed to challenge his understanding of spacial compression, sub-atomic energy transfer, and even Necrontyr cultural theory. Each segment was challenging, unique, and soon he found himself absorbed. Magnus tagged along for the ride of course, and his respect for Nehetari grew each time he heard his brother growl in frustration, or give a small "...Ha! So that's it..."

"She has... ...quite the impressive mind. Especially for a xenos."

Perturabo grunted his affirmation. "...you don't know the half of it. She makes the Hrud look like a bunch of children." With a click the puzzle changed shape in his hands again, "...I would even say she has a mind similar to ours."

"...you don't say..."

"Hmph, she's DEFINITELY smarter than Dorn. I know that for sure."

Magnus chuckled. Of course she was.

The Lord of Iron didn't realize it immediately, but the puzzle cube was meant to serve another function, not just being an intriguing mental exercise. The more he fidgeted with it, the more time passed. Not by some technomantic power or magical means; he was just so absorbed in Nehetari's gift that he didn't notice his brothers packing up their gifts and starting to drift around and away from the throne room. Magnus, realizing he wouldn't be much help with this exercise, had taken notice of the custodes' Captain General (the one they call "kitten") and had begun to chat with him. Sanguinius was now at the Emperor's side, trying to pacify an impatient and belligerent Angron who just wanted to go celebrate Khornnuka with Lotara and Kharn. Corvus had dissapeared to... ...somewhere, and Vulkan was... ....had he somehow jackknifed himself into the psychic fireplace that the Emperor created!? Russ was laughing at him and drinking himself stupid (not that he had many IQ points to lose in the first place), but thankfully nobody was paying any attention to Turbo. Huh, who'd have thought; Perturabo was actually HAPPY that he was being ignored right now.

With a satisfying ding the cube shifted again, and to his surprise, glyphs flashed indicating that this was, in fact, the final challenge.

"Let's have it then. I'm ready..." the Lord of Iron grinned. He flicked the raised pad below the text and the final task scrolled across blackstone. Surprisingly, this time it was in High Gothic.

"...who is... ...my... ...favorite... ...human?"

He stared at the screen, dumbfounded. "Really? After all that, the last puzzle, is 'who's my favorite human?' Really?"

But wait... ...was the answer actually as easy as it appeared? Perturabo wanted to put his own name, but what if he was wrong? What if he wasn't her favorite human? He was hardly even "human" in the first place. Maybe she meant a true, normal human? But if this was supposed to be a present for him, why would she blatantly make him answer that her favorite human WASN'T him. What if...

"Hey nerd, the answer's obviously you."

Perturabo jumped to see Leman Russ passing him.

"What the-! Whe-how did you... ...you can't read!" Perturabo stammered. There was no way Leman just waltzed over here...

The Wolf Lord grinned, "Hey, ye nerds aren't the only ones who know how teh learn things. If I taught meself teh read Fenrisian runes, I can teach meself teh read some wolfin' High Gothic!"

"..."

"...that and I may or may not have used some of meh own psychic powers to read yer mind. You know, teh fill in teh blanks."

Considerably less impressed, Perturabo grumbled as he keyed the letters of his name into the cube. With another ding and a flash of green light, previously invisible cracks along the cube's surface began to glow and the cube began to shift one last time. When it finished, a tiny black tray was left in its place, revealing... ...a letter? And a pict?

"What's all this now?" Leman reached towards the tray.

Perturabo snatched it away, "Fuck off Russ! This is MY gift!"

"Oooh, is this from yer GIRLFRIEND!?"

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!!"

"Hey fuck you Leman!" Oh boy, here comes Magnus, "Like you could ever understand the subtlety and genius that went into that puzzle box! Let him enjoy his gift in peace!"

"LeT HiM eNjOy HiS gIfT iN pEaCe!" Leman crooned. "Shut her trap and go back teh yer boyfriend, yeh big red canary."

Magnus puffed up in outrage and looked about ready to turn Leman inside out. When Perturabo noticed Sanguinius inbound, no doubt to dissolve the impending battle, he took his chance to dip out. And by "dip out" I mean grab the tray and its contents, and duck under the table. It would hide him for all of a second, but that would be as long as it would take him to read the letter.

Or it would have, if Leman hadn't, SOMEHOW, been able to reach the tray before him. He snatched up the letter, practically from between Perturabo's fingers, and with utter horror the Lord of Iron watched as his brother brandished the page, cleared his throat, and began to read:

"Perturabo..."

"FUCK YOU LEMAN THAT'S NOT YOURS!!" Magnus howled. Perturabo roared in fury. Both brothers made a mad lunge at the Wolf Lord but he dodged, shit-eating grin on his face as he continued reading.

"...Perturabo,

I'm sorry, but I...."

"....failed you?"

At the mention of the word "failed", Perturabo's onslaught faltered, as did Magnus's. Leman's grin died on his lips as he read the next line, his eyes widening for a moment before they squeezed shut. He then passed the letter back to Perturabo, mumbled a barely audible apology, turned, and without a word walked off.

"That's not what I... ...uh... ...expected?" Magnus muttered. "He looked like a kicked pup. What did that letter..."

Perturabo clutched the paper looking the most feral Magnus had ever seen him.

"...you know what, never mind. That letter's meant for you anyway." He added quickly. "I'll be in the library if you need me, brother."

And just like that, Perturabo was alone. Well, mostly; the Emperor was still there, but he was oddly quiet. Sanguinius was watching him too, but from a discreet distance.

The Lord of Iron backed up into the corner of the room, still riled up but looking a little less crazy. Once he was satisfied that NOBODY ELSE would attempt to confiscate his stuff, he finally began to read what Nehetari wrote for him.

"Perturabo,

I am sorry, but I failed you. You said you wanted your brothers' appreciation for a Sanguinala gift, but of all the ones I interviewed asking for an appreciative memory they have of you, the only ones who gave me a response were your brothers Magnus and Sanguinius. So instead I instigated a situation to make one (please reference the included image). If your brother's expressions are to be believed, then I believe they all enjoyed attacking your snow bunker. I certainly enjoyed helping you defend it.

May you have a somber and pleasant celebration,

The Mehlrose,

Nehetari of the Szarekhan Dynasty.

Heir to the Silent Throne."

...Perturabo couldn't believe it.

He's asked for that as a JOKE. He hadn't actually been serious. When she's approached him, asking what he wanted as a "Sanguinala gift," he'd been in the middle of a complicated programming script and had said that just to get the point across that he didn't want to be bothered.

Slowly, and with a shaking hand, he lifted the pict from the tray and turned it over.

And she was right. This shot must have been taken by one of her tunneling scarabs. Or maybe one of her guard as they were circling the perimeter, hurling snow and distracting Russ. But however it was taken, somehow it was able to get a perfect shot of every primarch, including himself and Nehetari, hurling fucking snow or getting completely dunked on, but every single one of them had varying degrees of stupid fucking grin on their faces. Even Corvus was smiling!

It struck him: had that been her plan all along?

Minutes passed, and finally the Emperor himself spoke up. "My son, you're shaking like a Dark Elder nightclub on a Tuesday."

Perturabo didn't hear him. It took everything he had just to hold the pict in his trembling hands.

Why? Why. Why would she bother. How did she... ...why, why, why WHY? HOW!? When did she even have the TIME to plan this out!? There was no way. And not for him. Why? Why for him? And ALL OF THEM. How could she have known they would ALL come?

"Brother, are you ok?"

Perturabo snapped out of the loop to see the Angel standing beside him with a hand on his shoulder. He hadn't realized just how loudly his two hearts had been thundering, how BADLY his whole body had been shaking, until he felt that steadying touch. Instinctively he tried to regain control over his mind and body, and stowed the pict away in his belt.

Sanguinius asked no questions; he simply nodded.

"I'm going to find her..." Perturabo's voice sounded like sandpaper. He could feel the tears rolling down his neck, but he ignored them. "...I don't care if she FUCKING KILLS me; I am going to find her. She has no right.... ...she had no right to... ...to..."

"...go ahead brother." Sanguinius's smile was warm with understanding.

Salvaging what little dignity he felt he had left, Perturabo straightened up, turned on his heel, and walked shakily out of the throne room. He disappeared into the darkness, leaving his father and his brothers to stare after him in wonder.

(Sorry this is such a long post, but I started writing it and just went to town. I wanted to SHOW, rather than just tell, the kinds of things Nehetari does for the individuals that are important to her)

@gracia-regina @ask-a-scheming-sorcerer @luwupercal

#perturabo #nehetari #sanguinius #magnus the red #the emperor of mankind #leman russ #if the emperor had a text to speech device #tts #tts universe #necrontyr princess #warhammer 40k #wh40k #more oc shenanigans #asks #fuukonomiko

[sanstropfremir]

the hotly anticipated kingdom episode 7 review is here!!

this episode was a lot less spectacle-y than the last one (the last episode with stages, i mean), and i think that was a good choice for all the groups on the whole to tone it down on the run up to the finale, because at the rate everyone was headed there would be no room to go any higher. i'm very glad that there was actually a collab stage and not just a song swap, especially because it gives a chance for the boys to work together and make friends when they otherwise arent going to be able to interact much. love love love to see them making friends and having fun doing these stages!

i'm not really sure why mnet didnt put the vocal stage this episode, because what on earth else are they going to put in the next episode with it??? i know it's a content stretch but still, it seems like a weird choice to me. anyways, there’s four stages for me to talk about this time and i'm going to try to not ramble out of control, but we’ll see. i did enjoy watching all of these, but we’ve all got favourites and i'm going to rank by which group i liked better out of the two for each stage, and then i put a few conclusions at the end. strap in folks this is another long one.

rap stages

skz + btob + atz

i was actually really surprised at how much i liked this stage. i would not classify myself as a rap fan and believe it or not i actually do not place a lot of importance on lyrics when enjoying music. although i have very high lyric retention and comprehension, i focus more on the sound than the literal words, so a fair amount of rap is swing-and-a-miss in my personal listening. plus when you add a language barrier on top of that, a lot of the nuance and technical skill of it just flies over my head. so i really dont have much to say about the sonic elements this time around, sorry. also.....i know i joked that nobody from the kingdom staff is reading my reviews.....but is someone from the kingdom staff reading my reviews????? i specifically mentioned that i think skz should do an art themed stage and then we got one????? i know i manifested the punk ateez stage but did i manifest this also??? am i just that powerful???

costume

obviously these are pretty basic rap/hiphop stage looks, but the white was a really good choice for visibility’s sake, and also thematically: it reflects the colours in the lighting really well.

i am DYING to know who the designer of minhyuks jacket is. if somebody knows please tell me i love it so much. it looks like some of the recent belted jackets that dior was putting out, but the drawing on the front armscythe piece reminds me of the superm/kim junggi collab for tiger inside. say whatever you want about superm, but you cannot deny that that is not some of the coolest merch on the kpop scene.

loved the traditional korean elements that came through in addition to the western references: the screens, hongjoong’s fan, minhyuk’s big fuckoff brush, the masks, and the sleeves on the dancers at minhyuk’s bit. those are a costume feature from a style of korean traditional masked dance called bongsan talchum. the masks themselves are versions of hahoetal masks, which are used in a very specific archetypal ritual dance in andong. i think these are imae masks, who is the servant/fool archetype that mocks the nobleman and the scholar. i suspect that was a deliberate choice, but i can only speculate.

another point about the masks which is not relevant but maybe a fun fact for people who don’t know. i actually thought at first that they were western theatre half masks, which are a very old style of mask that, like with hahoetal masks, represent a number of archetypes/stock characters. maskwork is a very common training practice in theatre schools, because it teaches body language and control, because half your face is covered and you cannot speak in your own voice (sometimes you cannot speak at all, this is one of the rules of full mask). the tradition of usings masks to portray emotion goes all the way back to the ancient greek chorus, but more commonly people in the west sometimes know it from the italian commedia dell’arte, of which you will have definitely seen some of the character archetypes before. i just find it neat that the same types of art pop up in different places seemingly independently of each other. humans are cool.

set

not much to say here, it's pretty bare with just some propwork. thought the screen use was fun and they used it smartly in a couple of transitions. 

thought changbin’s bit of ‘interrupting’ the artists was cute and fun. there’s obviously a picasso reference there, and the four technicolour paintings are a reference to andy warhol’s pop art silkscreen portraits, most famously of marilyn monroe, but he also did many other celebrities in the 70s and 80s.

lighting

i LOVED this lighting. super bright and fun, lots of use of colour, obviously. the projections were there to enhance the visuals and weren’t distracting in any way. i thought the transition to black and white/ink with minhyuk was smart and had good contrast, it gave a strong rhythm to build back up to for the climax.

sound

bang chan’s ‘spelling colour with a u’ bit had me SCREAMING with laughter. we spell colour with a u normally bang chan, the americans are the ones that are wrong. 

staging

i don’t really have a whole lot to say here, it was pretty straightforward and fun. like i’ve said in previous reviews, i wish they were more conscious of the steadicam direction and would stop showing extended bits of the production crew. at least everyone was wearing full blacks this time.

fun use of the upward angle combined with the groundwork/leg choreo during hongjoong’s verse, that was a highlight for me.

sf9 + tbz + ikon

nothing against this stage, the other one just hit harder for me. bobby is the best rapper on the show and he really carried this stage with his charisma. he’s a fun performer to watch and he knows how to command a space. i'm sure there’s technical notes that people have about the raps themselves, but i'm here looking at visuals as a priority, which i'm sure you’ve all grasped at this point.

costume

these were clearly extensions of these idol’s personal styles, with is a perfectly fine choice, especially for a rap stage where the emphasis is more on authorship. LOVED bobby’s 11yro girl at recess look.

amusing that both rap stages involved paint in some way? loved the backup dancers shooting supersoakers filled with paint at them, but i wish i knew the reason for it? i'm glad i saw this stage first because i would have been underwhelmed by the paint throwing if i had seen this after rainbow bonanza.

set

almost no set at all here, just a few props. i'm not judging as harshly on lack of set this round because these stages are meant to be more about skill than anything else. 

lighting

i loved the projections, i thought they were unobtrusive and i admit, i LOVE outer space themed anything.

i liked that they did more concert lighting and had no projections in the first half to put more focus on the performers, it really highlighted the fact that this stage was about them, and not about anything extraneous.

sound

it was indeed a song.

staging

i do wish there had been a bit more control of the space, because it did look very empty at some parts and they could have staved that off by keeping tighter camera shots. this stage is so fucking big, holy shit.

they really brought their onstage chemistry and they looked like they were having a blast, which FINALLY!! 

i actually really liked hwiyoung’s opening, i think there was a lot of potential there for some sharp contrast work that i wish had been played through a little more, especially with the cool white light overtop the black costumes. it actually reminded me a bit of the intro in the music video from a rapper i do actually listen to, bewhy’s gottasadae.

glad to see some more use of camera effects with the black and white, but why did they do it over the paint throwing? it just made the trajectory of the paint invisible because there was no colour contrast.

performance stages

sf9 + tbz + ikon

ok obviously im gonna have a lot more to say about the performance stages, nobody is surprised there. this one was the better constructed of the two and my personal pick for better stage, but i actually liked watching the both of them equally.

costume

king shit, literally. we love contemporary hanbok in this house. there was good colour and style distinction between the three of them without clashing. 

costume change was fun and neatly blocked, it's pretty common to see backup dancers and chorus hiding quickchanges but i liked how this was a more unusual formation.

taeyang rocking the organza skirt and the big purple eyeshadow, thank you for keeping it cunty as always.

i really liked juyeon’s underlayer look. finally we get a good tbz costume look thats thematically relevant!

set

like all the stages this round, pretty minimal. the setting was almost entirely established through the costumes and the projections, which is some really good designwork. it's pretty much just the litters (the lifted chairs they entered on), and some smaller props. they managed to not make the stage feel empty because there was a lot of projection visuals to compensate, which is difficult to do without being overbearing, but i think they mostly pulled it off.

i originally thought it was gonna be weird to try and mesh the traditional korean architectural aesthetic with the weird mnet deco, but i ended up not noticing it as much as i thought i would.

lighting

like i just said, projections very well done and do a fantastic job of conveying setting without being overly distracting. like with the atz/skz/btob rap stage there’s a really broad range of colour use here that they offset by brightening and properly fill lighting the faces so you can actually see what’s happening.

the use of the strobing lasers and more concert style lighting fit really well with the change in the music from traditional instrument sounds to electronica and the more hiphop/isolated movements.

sound

i liked it well enough! i think it had a good arc that we can see echoed through the rest of the piece, like previously stated in the lighting and movement style. 

staging

like i mentioned with the quickchange, there was some really interesting formations using the backup dancers here, especially as a lead toward/away from the camera

having the three of them enter on litters; again, literal king shit, love to see it.

this has a pretty clear narrative that doesnt really need an external explanation, which is good. i have to assume that the burning of the paper with 妃 (concubine) is intended to be a gesture of ‘burning’ the love out of their hearts, but that was the only thing i'm still confused on. this may very well turn out to be a reference to a specific story that i just have no idea what it is, but we’ll see once the subs are out!

i loved juyeons solo bit with the alcohol drinking and the table flip, that was the choreographic highlight for me. i just really wish he would use the other muscles in his face more often. we know youre pretty, you dont have to blue steel your way through all your performances!! take a page out of donghyuk’s book and make some ugly faces, it's good for you!!

i though taeyang’s swordwork was fine, but since i do actually have a decade of sword training i'm very judgemental. it's not bad, he obviously has practiced with the weapon and he knows how to control it, but he doesn’t have the same understanding as someone who has trained with a sword as a weapon and not just as a prop. if we hadn’t seen another stage with swordwork in it i probably wouldn’t have brought this up (that's a lie, i still would have brought it up, i have a third dan), but you can really see the difference between how minhyuk moves with his sword and how taeyang moves. a lot of this has to do with the proper weighting of the blade, which i mention briefly in my second episode review in btob’s section (and also this ask here, where i talk about properly weighted weapons in relation to the gun choreo in sf9’s and ateez’s previous stages); minhyuk is likely using a ‘real’ sword (it’s blunted but still made using proper methods and materials), and taeyang is using a cheaper-made replica (unless you’re doing full contact striking a LOT there’s no way a properly made blade breaks like that. also you would never tape it together hello??? respect the blade). if you know what you’re looking for, you can tell from the movements themselves when someone has training. minhyuk did a load of real training for a film where he was a swordsman, and you can tell; the sword is an extension of his arm, all the movements lead with the tip of the blade first, because that’s your first, your fastest, and your most dangerous point. you do 90% of your cutting with the first eight inches of blade, but it takes a lot of specific training to get your hands and arms to a place where that kind of movement is possible. taeyang’s movements are driven from his hands, which is unsurprising, because that’s where he’s used to his extensions stopping. the tip follows rather than leads. wow this got insanely sidetracked i hope you liked this crash course on swordwork.

this is pretty much what i expected to see from this unit. these three groups all have standout soloists, so i wasn’t surprised to see these three boys as the picks. juyeon and taeyang especially, theyre both from groups that are more likely to do experimental stages and choreography that highlights them as soloists and skilled dancers.

skz + btob + atz

this was a letdown from ateez’s last two stages, because they knocked those out of the park, but it's only fair that they have a bit of a fall. that being said, i did really enjoy watching this for its sheer ridiculousness; i’m forgiving the wolf concept this time because well, it’s wolf. you can't cover wolf and not do a wolf concept, that’s against the law. also, like i’ve said before, i'm all for dark concepts IF you give them thematic weight. is it on the nose? yes. is it thematically relevant? also yes. is it dumb? also also yes, but that’s never stopped a single kpop group in the history of ever.

costume

friendship restored with ateez stylists, rivalry started with skz stylists. the fur shoulder fluffs??? stupid and i love them. perfect in every way. however i keep seeing the same fucking costumes on the skz boys and i will come directly for the stylists at jype if they dont get their shit together. be! more! creative!!!

i really really wish they had gone more 2013 kpop with it, we need more of that ugly ridiculous styling. peniel was actually pretty close, with the overly long tunic and those yellow lenses. very vixx on and on (yes i know they were vampires from outer space, let me live)

i actually thought the wolf gloves were fun? the small bits of uv paint actually worked instead of looking out of place, and i'm glad they put them on wooyoung because the uglier an outfit, the better he pulls it off. 

set

same dice, just the long table and the camo net at the beginning, which i thought was unnecessary. the table was useful for levels though, so happy to see they utilized that.

lighting

there is so much happening all the time. lots of lasers. it's definitely aiming for camp territory, and i dont actually hate it as much as i did on my first watch. it actually wasn’t as dark as i thought either, because its mostly lit with blue and amber. but it doesn’t really have that great of an arc and its not really that good on the whole.

the projections are a bit much for me, but that’s only when i'm actually looking at them. true to form, i didn’t even notice the excess of red slashes until like my fourth rewatch because i was too busy watching the performers.

sound

rookie exo my beloved. the original wolf goes so hard for absolutely no reason, so i’m not knocking this stage for being ridiculous. in fact it should have been more ridiculous. i think they did a fine job updating the song for a.....less 2013 sound. 

i like that they didn’t bother to live sing the stage even though they recorded vocals for it, it gave them all a chance to actually focus on just the dance.

that being said, i am kind of missing all the adlibs from the original. but even though there’s some strong vocalists in this unit, they aren’t made of the same stuff as baekhyun, luhan, chen, AND d.o.

i literally just realized that peniel had already debuted when this song came out AND is technically exo’s senior because btob debuted like two weeks before exo officially did.....oh no

staging

choreographically this feels a lot more like the skz stages that we’ve seen rather than the ateez ones, so i'm curious as to who the choreographer was. 

the tricking was definitely more ridiculous in this one, but i can't really say any of it was there for no reason because it all had elements of fighting in it. the scale of the tricks was quite large though and not very well blended with the rest of the choreo, which ending up making them look awkward. i thought it was a nice detail that they shone a green toplight on the dancers that made up the cliff wooyoung climbed up so that it looked like there was grass on it. cute.

the blocking is lacking a lot of fluidity, and i think that’s partially the scale of the tricking and also the editing, because this editing is TERRIBLE. there’s so much cutting, why is there so much cutting!! haven’t we already learned that longtakes are the best for this???

there’s a lot of stuff here that had good potential but could have been pushed a little farther. i feel like i say this for every mediocre stage, but what can i say, i'm good at constructive criticism. 

they should have given more showcase to the tree and the scratching arms; it's the most iconic move!! i also wish they had kept some kind of iteration of the different unit ‘leaping’ in over the exiting one, i always thought that part of the original choreo was really fun and did a lot for establishing them as wolves. 

i LOVED peniel entering with all those backup dancers in chains, thats some fucking iconic shit. very ‘im the alpha wolf,’ which is valid because he’s like at LEAST five years older than everyone else on the stage. i wish that instead of being the backup dancers it was the actual members, because THAT would have been an image. theyre all wearing harnesses and collars anyways, just clip em in! he’d be like one of those dogwalkers!

me last week: specifically talking about how krump is an uncommon style in kpop and it's very hard to get right kingdom, throwing the manifesting dodgeball at me for the third time: here would you like a KRUMP SOLO?

if you didnt believe me before that krump is hard to get right, i sure hope you do now. peniel did fine, but you can see how easily you can veer off into looking ridiculous.

some conclusions

i mentioned this really briefly in an ask i got earlier today, but i do think it's important to establish that the two performance units are doing two different types of performances. i can understand why people are underwhelmed by the atz/skz/btob stage and wanted it to be less of a traditional kpop dance stage and more like the experimental stages we’ve been seeing for the last few weeks. and i agree! i think they could have done more with it. but i also think that this kind of stage was a good choice for this particular subunit. unlike with the sf9/tbz/ikon unit, there are not really any standout technical soloists in ateez or skz. ateez has, in my opinion, the highest ratio of dancers with actual stage presence of any of the 4th gen groups ive seen. they’re at a solid 75% for any given performance, and occasionally they can bump that higher depending on the stage. that high of a stat is rare. it's extremely rare for a group to have all its members have good stage presence (i can think of like, maybe two or three?), and to get over 50% is pretty damn impressive. but ateez’s strength isn’t in how good they individually are as dancers, but it's in how well they work together. there’s a reason why they put FIVE of them in the performance unit. one of the first things i said about ateez to hanya is ‘i love wooyoung but he doesn’t stand out when he's not centre.’ which is for good reason!! he’s not supposed to! they all willingly give up centre and take it back when they need to, because they have that charisma. there’s a very cohesive push and pull to watching ateez that speaks to their strengths as performers. dancing in a group where you are all meant to be equal is a very different skill than just being a talented soloist. you have to understand what to prioritize in a different way. taemin dances differently with shinee that he does in his solo career, especially since they’ve been back. he understands when to step back; more often than not i find key to be the standout dancer in shinee choreo.

this is a very long winded way of saying that wolf was a good choice for them even though the stage didn’t turn out as well as it could have. also the fact that they made a cohesive performance at all, with a week of rehearsal and while working with essentially strangers is a feat and speaks to all of their skill at their job. performing in a group is a huge part of kpop, and they did call this the performance stage, and not the dance stage.

i'm not entirely sure on what the breakdown is on why each of the subunits were formed. i know the team sizes are extremely uneven, with sf9/tbz/ikon clocking in at 26 people and atz/skz/btob clocking in at 17 (i'm not counting changsub because he's not there and probably has a scheduling conflict), which is like, a whole extra group of difference. but atz/skz/btob utilizing their whole groups for each of the units (5/3/1 for performance, 1/3/1 for rap, and 1/1/1 for vocal, for 7/7/3 total), verses sf9/tbz/ikon only bringing out six people for these two stages and then six for the vocal stage is......weird? that's over half of their group number that’s not performing. i do think the groups brought out their standout performers and made smart choices with the stages but the balance still strikes me as odd. i do wish tbz had actually done some group choreo because they are very strong group performers and it would have been fun to watch.

ateez really played the long game here, good job boys. teaming up with the group who gets the highest fan votes AND the group with the strongest technical skills? i see you.

i think this is probably too wild of an assumption and is only based on circumstantial evidence but.....i think hongjoong might actually have a lot more creative sway than i previously thought. all the stages he’s been a part of have been very well designed, and i know he provided suggestions for the two ateez stages prior to this... i’m probably thinking too much. 

ok you know what i know there were some other points in my brain somewhere but this is already 4000 words so i’m going to stop. if i remember anything else its probably gonna end up in the answer to some of the asks i’m inevitably going to get because i think my opinions on these ones are a little bit more controversial, whoops!

not entirely sure if ill do an extensive review for next week’s stage, because i'm not really a ballad fan and i dont really do vocal reviews, but i could do a quick one. i guess it also depends on what else they put in the episode. we’ll see!!

#kingdom #kingdom review #ateez #btob #stray kids #the boyz #sf9 #kpop analysis #if you read this i hope you like fun facts about theatre and swords! #despite having never seen me hanya managed to clock that hongjoong and i are extremely similar #so that might be why ive jumped to this nonsensical conclusion #also tbh i do have an opinion on why the unit breakdowns are like that but its mean so i will keep it to myself #ok im done now #i patiently await my asks #text #lol forgot to tag #ikon

[ravs6709]

Hidden Meanings- Sophiana

Alrighty! Here's my contribution to @sophiana-week-2021! This prompt is for Day 1- Flowers!

Alternate title is 'Five Times Sophie Received Flowers, And One Time She Gave Them'

Enjoy!

•~•~•~•~•~•

Sophie groaned, falling backwards on to the bed dramatically. Biana sat down next to her, but in a much more graceful way.

"At least you didn't get as injured compared to the last attack," Biana said.

"You know that doesn't help me at all, right? I finally managed to obtain a very very vague sleep schedule, and now it's gonna be broken again!"

"Braiding your hair was how you fell asleep in the past, right?" Biana asked.

Sophie turned to her. "You don't have to do that! I don't want you inconveniencing yourself!"

She got up and glared mockingly. "I've literally been waiting for the day. I am not being 'inconvenienced by you' so wait right there I'll be back!"

"Bia, I don't want a makeover!"

"I'm just braiding your hair, that's all."

With that, Biana went to a different part of the bedroom and came back a few minutes later, with a hair brush and some leaves. They looked like oak leaves actually, Sophie was surprised to recognize them, considering that the List Cities had so many unique flowers.

"Oak leaves?"

"Yeah." Biana sat down behind her. "Oak leaves. I'm gonna put them in your hair."

Sophie sat up, allowing for Biana to brush her hair. It was painful for the first few moments, but it was clear that Biana was really good at what she was doing, as the pain started to ease.

Warm fingers entered her hair, and the slight tug told her that the braiding had begun. She closed her eyes and focused on the feeling of Biana. If she concentrated hard enough, she could feel when the leaves were entwined with her hair. But as the minutes passed by, she found it harder to concentrate.

The next thing she knew, she was asleep.

When Sophie looked in the mirror the next day, she smiled, despite her bedhead. The oak leaves were still there. When she went home, she gingerly took the leaves and put them in a place so they could preserve.

•~•~•~•~•~•

"Bia," Sophie called. "I'm tired, but can't sleep."

"Did you sleep well last night?"

"Yeah, slept peacefully."

"Do you want me to do it again?"

Sophie recalled the night before, the warm feeling she had when her hair was being braided. "If you want." She didn't want to be a bother.

"I told you, I've been waiting for this day. Okay, I'll be back with more flowers."

A minute later, she was back with more flowers in hand. This time, the flowers were small and were a light purple.

"Lilacs," Biana stated, but didn't seem to feel the need to say more than that.

Sophie sat still and closed her eyes. Biana was humming quietly. She had a fantastic voice actually, and had a high vocal range, her voice hitting a large series of notes. She ended up being lulled to sleep.

Just like before, the flowers were still in her hair when she woke up. Just like before, she delicately put them in a place where they could preserve, and set the flowers next to the oak leaves.

•~•~•~•~•~•

This time, when Sophie asked for Biana to braid the flowers in her hair, it wasn't for sleep or anything like that. She just liked the feeling. Sitting there peacefully, Biana behind her, fingers delicately weaving sunflowers into her hair.

It was relatively quiet, but not the awkward kind, where it feels like there should be something to fill the silence. Neither of them felt obligated to talk, and Sophie was content with that. It was Biana who ended up talking, because after all, she enjoyed talking more out of the two of them.

"Hey Soph, did I ever tell you that you have wonderful hair?"

Sophie could feel herself flush red, and she just wanted to hide. Not only did Biana call her Soph- which was a cute nickname- but she also complimented her.

"I'm serious, you know."

"I know," Sophie squeaked. "Your hair's pretty too."

"You could braid mine someday," Biana offered.

"I'm not really good at braiding hair," she replied.

"Offer still stands though."

"Okay."

When Sophie got home later, the sunflowers were set beside the lilacs.

•~•~•~•~•~•

She was getting her hair braided again- this time with heliotropes- when she realized just how comfortable she felt in Biana's presence. If she was able to spend the afternoons in Everglen, just being there, she would consider that a good life.

Biana was just an easy person to be around. She smiled a lot and her enthusiasm and positivity was contagious. It was always the perfect thing to make Sophie's day even better. And well, she was also gorgeous.

Oh. I like her, don't I?

It wasn't so much of a question, more of a statement. She was surprised she hadn't realized it before, especially when Biana had called her Soph for the first time. That had continued, and it sent a warm feeling through her body every time.

When she went home to put the heliotropes away, she had a giddy smile on her face.

•~•~•~•~•~•

At this point, Biana braiding her hair became a normal occurence. After Foxfire, they'd head to Everglen, Biana would gather some flowers- each time they were different- and then she would start braiding.

Generally, there wasn't anything that would disrupt them. Alden and Della would be doing their work, and Fitz would either be studying or hanging out with a friend. So it was a surprise when Linh walked in the room.

"Oh, you're braiding flowers into her hair?" She asked. "That's pretty! Could you do mine next?"

As much as Sophie liked Linh, she couldn't help but feel a little irritated at the request. The flower thing was her thing with Biana, and honestly, she didn't want to share. But she wasn't going to complain, its not like Linh knew, she was just excited.

"Yeah, sure, I'm almost done here, I'll get to you after."

"Are those blue violets?"

"They are!"

Around a minute later, Biana was finished, and got herself some more flowers. Sophie was able to immediately recognize them as yellow roses.

There was an odd look on Linh's face, before she seemed to have had some sort of revelation. "They're pretty! Thank you."

Sophie watched as Biana started braiding Linh's hair, her fingers moving skillfully. The braid wasn't that fancy, but she had to admit, it looked good on Linh.

•~•~•~•~•~•

She was just relaxing in her room, when Linh walked in.

"Should I have told you before coming?" She asked.

"No, it's fine. What do you need?"

"Just came to visit, that's all." Her gaze swept across the room, and landed on her nightstand. "Ooh, are those the flowers that Biana put in your hair? I didn't know you kept them!"

Sophie smiled fondly at them. "They just feel... special."

"I think they are."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean... the flower choices."

What did Linh mean by that? She tried to remember what she knew about flowers, then vaguely remembered something about the languages.

"Do they mean something? Do you know what they mean?"

Linh nodded. "Oak leaves symbolize bravery."

Those were the flowers that I received after the Neverseen attack. Was it her way of saying that I was brave?

"Purple lilacs mean the first emotions of love."

Love..?

"Sunflowers mean adoration. Heliotrope for devotion. Blue violets for affection."

"Are they... is that actually true?"

"Do you want it to be true?"

Sophie didn't even need to consider it. "Yeah, I really want it to be true."

"Well, it is true."

"Then what did Biana put in your hair?"

What if Biana didn't realize what her flower choices actually meant? What if it was an accident? She didn't want to get her hopes up just yet.

"Friendship," Linh replied. "It's how I realized that the flower thing was meant for the two of you."

Friendship. There's no way that this is a coincidence now. Biana was showing her affection for me.

"Is there a flower for declaring love?"

Linh nodded. "Red tulips. Do you want some? I have some flowers at my place."

"Thank you. And uh... Linh?"

"Yes?"

"Can I practice braiding your hair?"

"Is that your way of confessing to her?"

"Yeah."

"Go ahead. I'll be back with some flowers. Also, don't tell Biana that I told you the flower meanings."

She laughed. "Okay."

•~•~•~•~•~•

Sophie walked into Everglen, and honestly, she was a little bit nervous. She knew that there was nothing to be worried about, it was clear that Biana liked her. But confessing back? It was difficult.

But she kept going, and went into Biana's room.

"Hey Bi?"

"Yeah Soph?"

"Can I... can I braid your hair this time?" She asked, fiddling with one of the petals.

Biana smiled. "You want flowers?"

"I uh..." she took out the red tulips from behind her back. "I have them."

The smile on her face went from big and bright to smaller and fond. Sophie sat down, and took Biana's brown hair in her hands. It was incredibly soft, and a little more wavy then hers or Linh's.

She started braiding, and it was a slow process, and it was the most basic of braids, but eventually, she got it done. It wasn't particularly neat though, she only had a little bit of practice with Linh.

"You didn't have to, you know that, right?" Biana asked.

Sophie wrapped her arms around Biana's waist. "I know, but I wanted to. After all, I love you."

She leaned into the embrace. "I love you too, Soph."

•~•~•~•~•~•

Taglist- @linhamon-roll @my-swan-song @impostertamsong

Wanna be added/removed from the taglist? Just let me know!

#sophie foster #biana vacker #linh song #sophiana #kotlc #keeper of the lost cities #kotlc fanfiction #fanfiction #sophiana ship week #ravi writes a thing

[ogcassiopeia]

M+M’s Top 10 Kpop Songs of 2020

NOTE: Please remember these choices are only my opinions and I am not exactly a professional music critic. If you disagree with me that is perfectly okay,  I only make these lists for fun and entertainment purposes.

10. Not Shy – ITZY

This song is so fun, boppy and sassy! It’s my favorite song that Itzy has put out thus far, and I feel they looked and sounded super confident on this track, telling us how they will get what they want and aren’t afraid to ask for it. I was dancing to this track all through the summer months and I think I will keep it on rotation even heading into 2021.

9. Sukhumvit Swimming – ONF

This is the only song I have ever listened to by ONF but I absolutely adore it. I adore it even though when the members sing ‘sukhumvit’ it sounds like they are saying, ‘stupid’.  It just comes out “I’m like a stupid swimming!” and I can’t help but cringe…but for some reason I can forgive that because the hook is just so damn ear-wormy and delicious.

8. Love Killa – Monsta X

 I am a sucker for a dark concept…we all know this by now. This song is pure badass, choas energy reigned in only by a dark, deep bass and hard-hitting, punchy lyrics. Love Killa is smooth and seductive while being intimidating and dangerous. Monsta X also rocked their form fitting suits and blood red lips in the music video (emulating popular thriller movies) while dancing in an imitation of a dirty, back-room bar brawl.

7. Home – YEZI

Gorgeous, ethereal and emotion filled, YEZI belts out incredible notes throughout the final chorus of this song about how when you love someone, they become your safe space. The mixing on the EDM back track can get a bit muddled in spots, but overall it’s a lovely song that I’ve been listening to repeatedly since it’s debut.

6. All That Love – Shim Changmin (MAX)

It’s my forever bias, hitting me again with his incredible songwriting ability and this sweater-warm song. Changmin once again reminds me of how mellow he can make his voice if he feels it suits the song, as he does get to hit some impressive notes but he never gets too loud or screechy…just sits perfectly in this melodic middle-ground. This song should have been more popular…newer kpop fans keep sleeping on TVXQ, Changmin and Yunho and it frustrates me to no end.

5. LA DI DA – Everglow

If you had spoken to me last year, I would have told you I hated Everglow. I found their previous tracks to be lacking in imagination, creativity and uniqueness so I just skipped them if they came up on Spotify. So it was a surprise to me when I listened to LA DI DA and immediately fell in love. It’s 80s synth heavy, hitting you smack in the face with retrowave/synthwave techno beats and an earworm chorus that you just can’t help but feel like your listening to the opening of some fantastical 1985 sci-fi movie.

4. Scream/BOCA – Dreamcatcher

I couldn’t chose between these two bangers which one I liked more, so I added them both at #4. Dreamcatcher has become my favorite kpop girl group of all time and it’s been a slow climb to the top of my list, but it’s a well-deserved spot for them. I came into Kpop AFTER jpop and jrock, and so Dreamcatcher’s sound and influence is like home for me. I adore the horror concept and their various takes on it, the members’ chemistry is palpable and distinct, and they actually seem to LOVE what they do and how they do it. I believe Dreamcatcher LOVES being the group they are and it’s so refreshing to see this kind of positivity and friendship in kpop….its not exactly the reality in most regards, ya know. Scream and BOCA were both hard hitting and wonderfully different in a kpop genre that’s getting a little stifled with same-y sounding releases. I hope Dreamcatcher continues to find success and produce bops, because I definitely don’t want to say goodbye to these 7 girls anytime soon.

3. Pporappippam – SUNMI

It’s 80s synthwave inspired and I love it. I love it so fucking much. You should all know by now that I am a sucker for this kind of sound. I am nothing if not consistent. Sunmi is pure perfection on this track, stunningly melodic over a low thumping synth beat that makes me want to drive down a desert road at sunset in the middle of summer. Sunmi never disappoints in her efforts to be a solo artist who can only deliver bops of the highest caliber.

2. A Song Written Easily – ONEUS

 Before this song’s release I couldn’t have cared less about this newbie kpop group and their following releases haven’t caught my attention either…but this song….this song just hits different. I do not know if it is because this song just sounds incredibly nostalgic for me or what? It takes me back to the early years of kpop, specifically 2002-2009, in it’s overall sound and presentation. Its melody sounds like a lullaby and it rolls through the song like sparks of sunshine on a wave lapping at the shore of a quiet beach. It’s perfection to me and I’ve listened to it way too many times for it to be okay LOL.

1.Lie – Shim Changmin (MAX) feat Chungha

YES. YES YES YES. 1000X YES. This song has been played so much during this year that if it had been on Spotify it would have been my #1 song. (SM WHY HAVEN’T YOU UPLOADED CHANGMIN’S SOLO ALBUM AGAIN TO SPOTIFY…ANSWER ME THIS?!) Changmin’s entire solo album, “Chocolate” was the best surprise I got this year and the fact that this album had no bad songs, nothing skippable, was such a fucking feat. This song especially hit me like a load of melodic bricks to the face. IT’S FUCKING GORGEOUS! Changmin and Chungha’s vocals go so well together, the beat is repetitive like a heart beat and the lyrics speak to the confused feelings one can have when a relationship is near it’s end.  It’s sweet, it’s smooth and when Changmin reigns in his powerful vocals and just…croons….I can’t help but swoon. Changmin can sound like Adam Lambert in one song and them come off like Michael Buble in a another and it’s one of the reasons I adore his wide vocal range. I cannot believe that this album and this song were never appreciated enough this year.

 Honorable Mentions:

I Can’t Stop Me – TWICE, Pit a Pat – XIA, Girls – NATURE, Can’t You See Me and Run Away – TXT, Cassette – DEMIAN, LALALILALA – APRIL, PLAY – Chungha, Don’t Touch Me – Refund Sisters, Boy – Treasure, Zombie – DAY6, Dumhdurum – APINK

#kpop #kpop list #end of year list #2020 kpop list #favorite list #tvxq #tohoshinki #shim changmin #changmin #MAX #max changmin #chungha #twice #xia #nature #TXT #Demian #APRIL #Refund Sisters #treasure #day6 #apink #oneus #sunmi #dreamcatcher #everglow #yezi #Monsta X #onf #itzy

[bellatrixobsessed1]

Speak No Evil (Part 34)

Alright, so this is the end of the Seicho path. From here on out the chapters will be for the TyZula end and will be marked with '-Story B'.

Sometimes her voice still cracks. Sometimes her throat still throbs with phantom pangs. Sometimes she thinks about her voice coming back to her projected from the mouth of a spirit. Most of the time she doesn’t have time to dwell upon it.

It had been daunting at first, a little overwhelming. But she is used to it by now, used to larger crowds and many stares. She finds Seicho in the crowd first, staring up at her with one of those beaming smiles. Next to her stands TyLee and next to her is Tuya and her expedition team. To Seicho’s left are Zhang-Zin, Zuko, and Mai. Her tummy flutters despite her confidence. She supposes that she is due for at least a little nervousness; this show is quite bigger than her usual ones. Bigger and the first time she has performed at a festival.

Paper lanterns on strings line the streets and bob languidly up and down in the soft breeze. A generous sprinkling of stars swirl overhead, seemingly in rhythm with the candle light below. The crowd is unsurprisingly full of fire.  It is a divine night in weather and atmosphere and, if things go according to plan, she will help shape said atmosphere.

Behind her a few notes are plucked on a shamisen that are accompanied by breathy notes from a shakuhachi. Several other instruments come to join before her own voice comes into the mix. By now, the song is familiar, second nature.  By now it is comforting.  

She once said that her voice had a taste. A flavor sharp like cinnamon and cool like passionfruit and sometimes when she sings she can taste it all over again. She isn’t sure that she is supposed to but she does all the same. And every time she sings, she feels as though the quality of her voice matches the tastes. The diction is like cinnamon and the tone is like passionfruit. The melody and pitch have their own flavors; a soft sprinkle of ginger and a tang of mango juice respectively.  

At other times she thinks of her voice as an aesthetic; one that ranges from a sunny day on the beach, warm, inviting, and alive to lightning violently lashing at an erupting volcano. Truly, it depends how she is using it.  Tonight is a beach day, calming, bright, and upbeat. Tonight the beach is a collection of flavors that she has only just discovered. There is the smell of cooking meat and the sight of stingrays swimming just beneath the waves. A party on sand that is being kicked up. Such is the quality and sound of Azula’s voice tonight.

Every now and then she still finds her voice to be unpleasant to her own ears at worst. At best it might sound foreign or off on these nights. Tonight she is comfortable with it, with how it sounds. Tonight she thinks that she rather enjoys the sound. And maybe it is because her risk has paid off; the song she has chosen has quite a daunting degree of range. A level of it that she hadn’t been certain that she could achieve yet. She had already prepared herself for the humiliations of her voice cracking or weakening on stage.

Her preparations, so far, have not been needed. She finds that sliding through the notes from top to bottom is coming effortlessly tonight. TyLee is grinning wide and proud. Her eyes land upon Seicho. Seicho who would probably look at her with just as much adoration if her voice were flat and toneless. If her song weren’t pretty in the slightest.

Seicho extends her arm and Azula brushes her fingers against the woman’s. She laces their fingers together for a verse or two before returning to center state for her last notes. It is a strong finish, the strongest she has had in a while. It is as powerful and poised as a lightning strike and it lingers in the air like charged thunder.

And long after that last note has died out she can still feel it vibrating in her throat. This also isn’t particularly unusual; every now and again, Azula can feel her voice as a wisp, golden-blue and delicate. Sometimes she thinks that the wisp moves when she’s not using it. She touches her fingers to her throat, to where the pulsating is the strongest.

She gives a little jolt when Seicho’s arms wrap around her torso. The woman kisses her ear and her forehead and the top of her head until her face is lightly flushed. “You did amazing tonight.”

“You always say that.” Azula cups her hands over Seicho’s and rubs her thumb against the backs of them.

“I mean it, this was the best one yet!”

Azula is inclined to agree. “It was a reassuring show.” She admits. “I didn’t think that I would be able…”

“Of course you can! Your voice has been really strong lately.”

Azula nods. “Yes, I suppose.”

Seicho rolls her eyes. “I know that you’ve had a humbling experience, but give yourself some credit where it’s due!”

“I...yes, there has been improvement.” She agrees. “A lot of it.” Speech therapy has been doing her wonders and then some. And, by the spirits, was it a fantastic idea to get some professional vocal training alongside it.

“Your voice makes people so happy, Azula.” TyLee notes from the other end of the room.

“Does it make you happy?”

TyLee nods. “Your shows are always amazing. It’s like going on an expedition sometimes; your voice and lyrics bring me to a whole different world!” She gushes.

Azula’s face colors completely. Frankly, she can’t believe that TyLee is still able to do that to her. But then, Seicho can still leave her incredibly flustered as well. She clears her throat, “thank you, TyLee, I try to make my songs immersive.”

Seicho gives her a small squeeze. Azula wonders if she knows that the last song had been about her. About TyLee and about the journey to reclaim her voice and peace of mind. She thinks that she can soundly say that it is safe to write a song about what it feels like to have both. Both and love and security. Family. Hope.

Seicho rests her head upon Azula’s shoulder and Azula leans into her hold. TyLee smiles. TyLee takes comfort in Tuya’s embrace. And finally it is a comfort to see rather than a torment. She turns around and rests her head against Seicho’s chest; it isn’t the love she had planned but, Agni it means the world.

“I love you, Seicho.” She murmurs.

Of all of the songs she sings, she thinks that Seicho finds more music in these words.

.oOo.

Sometimes they go back to that jungle. Sometimes they make that trek again. The volcano always looms just ahead, it watches her as she and Seicho scale the ruins for a proper exploration. It watches them explore different paths, uncharted trails and well loved walkways.

Today she leads Seicho directly towards the volcano. She thinks that Seicho might be vaguely uncomfortable but the woman, for once, says nothing. Nothing until they reach the foot of the volcano. “What are we doing here?” She shifts uncomfortably.

“I want to climb it.”

Seicho seems to cringe. “For what.”

Azula shrugs, “just to say that I did.” Deep down she thinks that there is more to it. Deep down she has a need to wrap up some final loose ends. To make peace with the past and add some kindness to a memory that she can’t stop mulling over.

Spirits, she had come so close to missing all of this; all of the affections, adventures, mishaps, and comforts that have come since Seicho had carried her down the volcano. She holds her hand out and Seicho grips it almost uncomfortably tightly.

This time when she ascends the volcano she is strong. This time her goal is much different; she wants the view and the pride that comes with having made it to the top. This time the volcano is her way of enjoying life rather than a means for her death.

This time the volcano is a beginning, in some strange way, it has become a promise. A promise to keep ascending and to hold onto what she has.

“Can we go back down now?”

Azula nods, “lead the way.”

And soon the volcano is behind her once more.

#Avatar The Last Airbender #Azula #Azula/Cupholder girl #Fanfiction

[thebandcampdiaries]

Ember Mikayla - Dissociative Anarchist EP

A punk-rock EP with a timeless, yet catchy sound.

January 2021 - Ember Mikayla is a solo artist and songwriter with a focus on making music that blurs the lines between various genres, including alternative music and punk rock. Recently, she set out to release a brand new EP titled “Dissociative Anarchist.” This release feels like a perfect example of the artist’s approach to creativity and songwriting, going for a direct and one-of-a-kind sound. The release unfolds through four tracks, each setting the bar higher in terms of innovation, and stretching the artist’s sound towards different creative directions and songwriting nuances.

The opening track is titled “Anarchist Skirt.” What makes this song special is that it feels like an immediate introduction to the group’s unadulterated energy. The arrangement has a really direct sound that makes me think of some early Foo Fighters music, especially when it comes to the wall of sound brought on by the guitars. The vocals are hard-hitting and inspiring, at times even reminiscent of iconic vocalists such as Kurt Cobain or the early days of Greg Graffin from Bad Religion, only to mention a few. Having said that, Ember has a unique voice and a distinctive character, which really makes the music all the more personable and direct. The second song “Untouchables” has a really different vibe. It is a lot more melodic and catchy when compared to the angsty vibes of the first single. This track actually makes me think of some of the earlier Blink-182 music (Think Cheshire Cat) as well as iconic bands such as Screeching Weasel, The Queers or Mr. T. Experience, only to mention but a few. It’s all about capturing that unique melodic feel that is at the heart of a great punk band!

This release is a perfect example of the artist’s unique attitude and charismatic approach to songwriting and performance, going for an immediate and earthy sound that favours the human connection between the musicians, rather than hiding their work under an excessive layer of studio trickery.

The third track on this EP, “Dissociative Anarchy” is a fantastic track, and perhaps one of the most unique songs on this release. The tune has influences ranging from punk to grunge, and the vocals are just as direct as you would expect from an artist who is not afraid of telling it like it is! There is also room for an excellent punk cover: a rendition of “Folsom Prison Blues,” which was made famous by the late great Johnny Cash. This cover really makes me think of bands such as Social Distortion, who also managed to release a stunning Johnny Cash cover (of the song “Ring Of Fire.”) There is something about Cash’s music, which really works with punk rock, and the intensity of the lyrics really work with Ember’s unique twist.

Ultimately, I would definitely recommend listening to this particular release, especially if you enjoy the sound of artists such as Against Me! (with the amazing Laura Jane Grace), Cloud Nothings, Dead Rituals, as well as Blink-182, only to mention but a few. Any punk rock fan is immediately going to connect with the sound and feel of this release, which brings such an immediate and easy-to-relate sound to the table, appealing to any fan of great alternative music in general. Ember is a very honest artist, the kind who is not afraid of sharing her feeling and pouring her heart out. Some people never seem to understand this, but even punk rock can be quite an intimate and personal style of music, especially if an artist is as honest and forward-thinking as Ember is, with a willingness to share everything about herself and her vision with the audience. In addition to that, this song has a really beautiful approach to production, and the sound might remind you of some of the best first-wave of punk music, with a bit of a contemporary twist as well for good measure!

Find out more about Ember Mikayla, and do not miss out on this new studio EP, which is currently available on the web.

https://open.spotify.com/album/0pjYi3QoDjZiILne4Vk4oh?si=J9d5cftRTJ2poddL0N3TXw

https://youtube.com/channel/UCBpZ-V4Af34dR-i8rVoroJA

https://www.tiktok.com/@embermikayla

https://www.facebook.com/embermikaylamusic/

https://www.instagram.com/embermikaylamusic/?hl=en

(via https://open.spotify.com/album/0pjYi3QoDjZiILne4Vk4oh?si=EW9kZNsjSYem2HPBTNSSOA)

We also had the chance to ask Ember a few questions: keep reading for more!

I love how you manage to render your tracks so personal and organic. Does the melody come first, or do you focus on the melodies the most? 

Usually I usually write the lyrics first but not always. I do have a lot of lyrics that don’t have” music but there are times when i write a really cool riff and add words later. Sometimes I write both together.

Did you perform live before COVID? If so, do you feel more comfortable on a stage or within the walls of the recording studio?

I have performed live before but not with this work that I’m doing now. I have been in bands in the past that did live shows. I do have some social anxieties and get nervous on stage but as soon as I start playing they seem to melt away into the music. Having said that the studio is easier for me not just because of my anxieties but also scheduling with my kids.

If you could only pick one song to make a “first impression” on a new listener, which song would you pick and why? 

Probably “Anarchist Skirt” because it kinda gives my background. It explains that I’m a trans woman and that I had a rough life. Also it tells that I’m an anarchist. Those are the things i write about the most, my life experiences and my ideas on anarchy.

What does it take to be “innovative” in music?

I just write and play what I feel. I think that is the best thing anyone can do. Be true to yourself and tell your story. That always makes the best music to me. 

Any upcoming release your way? 

Yes. I am currently working on a new full length album. I do not have a release date yet but hopefully in the next few months. There is a double album dropping on Jan. 22 titled “F**k You” with tracks that have already been released before but for some reason there was trouble and it was pulled from some places. If you heard the “Heading North” album it is that but with and extra 10 songs that are old acoustic recordings of mine.

Anywhere online where curious fans can listen to your music and find out more about you? 

I’m on Spotify, Apple music, Youtube, and all other streaming services. You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, twitter, tumblr, and tik tok. Just search ember mikayla or ember mikayla music on any of those and you will find me

[bangtanblurbs]

love is not over

song: love is not over (full length edition)

first experience: what do we qualify as the first experience? the release in HYYH pt. 1 or the full length release on young forever? with almost a year in between the releases timing does bring about different memories for me. 

the 2015 release of HYYH pt. 1 found me a few weeks after a rather terrifying trip to the emergency room with a diagnosis that would forever change my life - the way i live physically and emotionally. this album was the first album i experienced as ARMY. i found BTS through I NEED U, and quickly devoured the HYYH pt. 1 album in may. love is not over was a track that immediately stuck with me. i remember laying in the grass of my university quad, outside my dorm building, soaking in the sun - putting it on and smelling the spring air. it was tremendously comforting for me. i didn’t immediately look for a lyric translation, i didn’t feel like i needed it. i felt every emotion through the song without even knowing it’s true intended meaning. hindsight - i wish i had looked up those lyrics. 

as for the full edition release in 2016, i was actually working in macau at time time as a researcher. i’d been there for about two weeks when young forever dropped. i have the funniest story about me running through the streets of hong kong, completely lost, in mad pursuit of the physical copy of the album. that is for another day though. (also plenty of fun stories of attending the HYYH epilogue concert in macau - i’ll include my horrible video of love is not over from the concert as well). i was so happy to see an extended version of love is not over on the album - i never could have imagined or anticipated it... it was such a delight. having the extended version was almost like what getting young forever was to bookending the saga of HYYH pt. 1 and HYYH pt. 2. i associate this song heavily with my experiences falling in love with macau, falling in love with myself in a way i hadn’t before, and falling head over heels with the world. a very difference first experience considering the low place i was in with the original release. 

it is important to note that the extended version of the song adds in the rap verses for all of rapline, and offers us a very different conclusion than the original release (which was a source for debate among 2015 army for it’s place in the larger HYYH saga and the interesting *jibberish* at the ending of the song, more on this in the lyrics section). 

feelings: lyrically, love is not over is a breakup song. it’s that kind of song where the singer is begging their significant other not to leave, not to say goodbye. it’s the kind of song you listen to after you get dumped. you’re devastated, the other person seemed perfect... whatever comes next for you, you can’t imagine that person not being a part of it. love becomes nothing but pain in that moment. you lament it. you beg for love to fade and fall away. but... in some ways it’s not. to me, in my view the song is also about one’s relationship with themselves. or at least i see it that way. the song isn’t so much about this one specific girl -- it’s about love in general -- it’s about how they’re upset at the fact that love is always pain for them, it’s goodbye after goodbye, there’s no stability, there’s nothing but pain. i’ll make this point in the lyrics section more clear.

it’s this very point that makes the song resonate with me. at this point in my life, and even now, goodbyes terrify me. i carry the baggage of years of goodbyes, those that were intentional and those that happened for reasons outside of my control. they’re damaging. they make you start to see love as pain. why let others in? why love? what’s the point if it’s all going to end abruptly. you’re left with grief, broken dreams, despair. i’ve been through even more at this point in my life than i had when i first heard love is not over. i should be hardened by the pain i’ve felt over the years. yet - i am not. not completely. i haven’t let bitterness taint me completely. 

strangely, when i listen to love is not over, i can’t help but feel in love - the beat - something about the pure R&B sound of it, it’s the perfect build and smoothness, it sounds like what love would sound like (if in fact emotions could become sound waves). the beat is calming and smooth, never loud, never melancholy. the song makes me feel, once again, comforted - like even though i’m hardened, even though love is pain, even though it has the capacity to hurt, it’s not over - and it’s still an emotion that i long to feel and express to those who inevitably come into my life. the song makes think about how i’ll always have the capacity to love and accept love. even if there’s moments i go through where i want to scream that love is dead - i know it’s not, i know that i’ll always love again. 

personal connection: i probably relate to this song in a way that very few others do. maybe i’m interpreting it differently, or perhaps it’s because for me, the song doesn’t map neatly onto a life experience for me - yet i still love it dearly and it’s brought me immense comfort. it’s not a song i cry to with the thoughts of a past relationship in mind. it’s more about my internal discoveries and my relationship with how i love, express love to others, and how i experience and process rejection and change in my life. 

for me, listening to love is not over brings me to a point where i’ve realize that despite being a hopeless romantic i’m a complete cynic. i’ve taken all the personality tests, i know my star sign... among all of that i can tell you i am deeply idealistic and i live inside my head where i build fantasy worlds and scenarios, where i romance everything. i fall in love with the world around me one-hundred times a day. i’m deeply in love with my friends that i hold dearly close to me. yet, and probably because of these visions of grandeur, i’m often let down. i expect the fantastic, and when things fall short i’m hurt. to make matters worse i’m a deep devotee to the church of self-loathing. i know it’s all my fault that i put so much love and care into everything around me, everyone around me, so when things fail, when inevitably the goodbye comes, i place the blame squarely on my shoulders. 

at the point that the extended version of this song came out i was in the process of falling in love with the very world around me. i was out of the US, experiencing something so new and foreign for me. a place that i quickly took in. a place that changed me, made me so much better. healed me to a point where i could leave a toxic relationship - without fearing that goodbye - the goodbye i feared far more was leaving macau, heading back to the states to start my masters degree. i wasn’t in macau for a long time but that experience, i fell in love so many times. not with people per say, but with feelings, with my surroundings, with a slower way of life. when it came time to say goodbye, it was like breaking up with a new life for me. i felt pain. i almost wished i hadn’t experienced a life where i was so happy - only to go back to a world where i had to confront the reality that was my life. the tatters i’d left back in atlanta.

when i came back home things weren’t as i’d left them. i was returning to do my master’s degree at the same institution where i received my four year undergraduate degree. nobody was there that had previously been. i felt abandoned, i felt alone, the love i had in my heart both for a foreign place that was now out of reach, but also for the friends that my university had previously held, hurt. it was pain. i longed and yearned for those places, times, and people yet again. so much so that i hurt myself in the process. i spent nights alone with my wine bottles and emotions. it took a while to get out of the place i was in, but i did in fact love again - love wasn’t over. i learned to fall in love with new people, fall in love with the old in a new way, fall in love with my dreams. for me, love is not over is almost like the story of learning to love yourself, learning to love how you love. and not just in a romantic way, but how you love more generally. if the song were meant to only speak to intense romantic relationships why would namjoon’s verse allude to the shallowness of the relationship at the heart of the song? for me -- i’m still learning how to get back up when love becomes pain, how to recover from putting love into the world and not always receving it back. love is not over. it’s a process. it’s always with me, even if it’s not always returned. even if it’s not always right. it’s there. 

song breakdown

musically: i would like to make the assertion that the full length edition of love is not over is one of bangtan’s best songs. every member’s performance shines through, it’s a perfect dramatic ballad song but the rap verses perfectly complement the perfection of the vocal line portions of the song. 

the slow and soft start with the piano - it fits the mood of the lyrics perfectly. the way in which the harmonies work together to highlight the emotions of the song. stunning. the introduction of the drum beat at the chorus and the R&B undertrack that runs from the chorus through the rap verses is soothing ~ it picks up the mood completely, infusing the song with hope. the playful beats throughout hoseok’s verse which go in time with “stop” and “dot” it’s complete genius. the melodic backing track that picks up with yoongi’s verse is unexpected but completely complements his increased rap pace. the return to the slow for the bridge as we get the upper-ranges of vocal line... it’s hard to put into words how *perfectly* produced this song is. and -- produced by jungkook. i believe this is his first producing credit, and what a song for it to be. it’s genius in every way. in the outro: version of the song jin is also credited in production and songwriting. it seems that this duo are R&B geniuses along with slow rabbit.

the smooth pick up of the beat - it’s classic R&B at its very very very BEST. the asian style is not something to be skipped as well. there’s clear elements that are echoed throughout the entire HYYH series. the song feels old school, nostalgic for some kind of 90s R&B but with the new twist to it. it fits the mood completely, wishing and longing for something that is now in the past. the song builds around the choruses and in the rap verses, expertly moving the emotions of the song along. much like the song is kind of about the ups and downs of love, the loss and the hope, the ugly and the beauty, the music matches this with it’s changes in tempo and sound. but it’s not overwhelming at all. love is not over is smooth - incredibly so - and it is the kind of song you can put on when you’re down, when you’re up... something about that makes it a complete masterpiece and a never skip.

vocally: i don’t have too much to say here other than love is not over is an OT7 song that showcases the talents of both rap and vocal line beautifully and equally. the balance in the song is one of my very favorite aspects of it. it’s not heavy on either side - we get the raps and we get the beautiful crooning - it’s a masterpiece in songwriting and production. it’s a masterpiece in performance. jungkook’s beautiful higher range is showcased in the opening of the piece and leads off the chorus and is felt throughout with adlibs. taehyung’s velvet lower register often follows jungkook in a beautiful contrast - offering us a soulful sultry sound. then jimin and jin take over and moves the song into the chrous with their beautiful high-registesr.  jimin builds the prechorus with power, which then is sung line by line and beautifully with all four voices complementing one another. vocal line harmonizes with one another throughout the song - offering plenty of stunning ad libs as well. 

rapline brings emotion and pain to the song with slower tempo raps in the second verse, started by namjoon and concluded by hoseok. namjoon’s gentle rap voice delivers a sense of understanding and comfort. meanwhile hoseok follows him up with a soulful rap, playing with the beat and building into a pleading tone at the end of his verse. the final rap verse is then taken by yoongi - he starts off slow and building to a more quick rap pace, adding in more emotion and bleeding in to jungkook’s crisp delivery of a modified bridge/final chrous. both jimin and jungkook provide several heavenly high notes throughout and the piece is ended with the solemn repetition of love is not over. it’s stunning, the vocals for all members truly shine in love is not over - there is no dominance, and the song makes for the perfect showcase of the group’s total talent. 

lyrically: jungkook is listed as the primary songwriter for love is not over, but he was assisted by jin, pdogg, slow rabbit, and rapline contributed their own raps. i think it’s important to note because jungkook was only 18 at the time of the full length release, and even younger likely when he wrote the song. impressive. 

now - onto pulling this masterpiece apart completey. 

the slow and beautiful start to love is not over is grounded in a feeling of time passing, time flowing, as one sits through a “long night” that they can’t seem to escape. offering us both a headspace we’ve all been familiar with - sitting alone in your room late at night pondering life - and a feeling of something quite dark, the long night that going through a hard time can feel like. the lyrics then move to ask “why are you getting farther away? / so far that i can’t reach you?” these lines are clearly calling out to someone that was at one point very close with the speaker - a lover, perhaps a close friend, an emotion, a past identity... the options can be endless. it’s like as in the previous line, time is fading away, everything is going dark, and so is the relationship at the heart of the song. the song then asks “can’t you see me in your eyes anymore?” the line almost begging, what has changed, why am i no longer someone you consider, no longer someone you’d like to have in your space? in your view? it’s crushing. the speaker can sense the relationship and the other pulling away, their once held affections and desire melting away to darkness - to a lack of presence. 

the song then moves into the chorus - almost a chantlike chorus which brings more emphasis and importance to the words. the lines begin: “love is so painful / goodbyes are even more painful.” beautifully outlining that opening oneself up to love, that vulnerability, it hurts - and when loves walks away from you, when the goodbye comes inevitably it’s even more crushing than the initial feelings of fear, anxiety, the nakedness that comes along with falling into love. “i can’t go on if you’re not here / love me, love me / come back to my arms” the speaker begs, pleads, feels completely powerless losing something so precious. when juxtaposed with the title of the song - love is not over - you begin to wonder, perhaps these words are just that? they’re words. there’s ultimately a piece of understanding that love is worth the pain and struggle, there is a hopefulness to this song, but we can’t find it in the chours.

the piece then moves into namjoon’s rap - lyrically powerful and delivered with nothing but raw emotion. he starts off telling an intimate story “you said goodbye to me / every night before i went to bed” emphasizing the closeness of the subject to him -- “i hated that even more than dying / it feels like this night is the end of you and me.” he laments those goodbyes, he’d rather have stayed in those beautiful moments, full of love, full of promise. instead things have gone dark and they’re ending now - the longest night has begun, with a simple “goodbye.” despite having emphasizing the closeness of the subject to him, namjoon then calls into question that “i don’t know you, you didn’t know me” perhaps he says this as an explanation, if they’d truly known one another then they’d have worked things out. made it all okay again. there’d have been no goodbye. it’s the realization that perhaps he’d been in love with someone he’d create in his head all along. he then moves along to say “you’re like hello and goodbye / at my beginning and my end / there” emphasizing that things with the subject had been up and down, all over the place, bliss and pain. this goes back to the statement about love being pain, it’s something the speaker wants desperately, yet it’s causing them pain? thus emphasizing the volatility and absolute confusion that happens to our emotions when they’re tangled up within another.

hoseok’s verse follows with its own beat and style. he emphasizes the separation in the first two lines “everything stopped like our red light / stop” and “nothing more to say, it ends with my tears / dot.” clearly he is drawing a line here, there’s no need for any more interaction between the two. it’s over. which in many ways contrasts with the begging nature of the choruses. which leans me to be inclined to think that this song is more about being in love with the emotion of love, a yearning for the emotion and feeling of love rather than a specific person that didn’t even know you. hoseok continues “i’m not okay i repeat this denial / recite, if you can recite my mind” asking the subject to recognize his emotions, his feelings towards concluding their relationship. “you are my endless love and my girl” the verse finishes out. bringing us back to the true story at hand, but not taking us away from the idea of wanting love for the overall feeling of love rather than for a specific person. 

the chorus repeats once again, then we are brought to yoongi’s verse. the emotion builds both in the sound of the song but also lyrically. hope is infused throughout this verse following strongly after more sad toned lyrics previously. he starts off “i always smile at you / even the love is a tragedy for me.” this line makes me think that the speaker recognizes that even if things are falling apart, there was something beautiful about being able to feel at all. that’s a major theme throughout the HYYH series. feeling, experiencing, not necessarily for the sake of others, but for the sake of exercising your youth, for growing, strengthening and building yourself. this part of life is the perfect time for it. “i always cry after it’s over / farewell even though it’s a comedy for you.” yoongi recognizes that the other party doesn’t carry the same emotions as him, it’s completely the oppostie for them. “yes nothing is everlasting / i live without you even i feel like dying” while not exactly hopeful, this line does contrast with the other lines about not being able to go on - yoongi specifically uses the word “live” he goes on, life goes on, he will continue to experience and it is at this point in the song where the first utterance of the song title is made. “over, over, love is not over” emphasizing that even if this is over, love lives on. it might be pain, it might be an unpleasant emotion, but it continues. finally yoongi ends his verse with a plead “please take me out of this endless maze” signifying that he finds the interactions with this particular type of love, or person, or moment in his life confusing and disorienting. but the thing is, mazes have exits - there’s a change he’ll find his way out and onto whatever is next. 

the chrous repeats one more time before the song in concluded with the beautiful chants of “love is not over, over, over” flipping the way in which yoongi uttered the line - ending with the word over. offering hope to the listener. the chant urging the speaker to believe their own words. there is a change, love is not over. it will happen again and again - “over and over” as the lyrics provide through the repetition of the lyrics. it’s understated but it’s a powerful message of hope, cycles, and avoidance of a true end. 

performance: you can easily find live performances of love is not over, most notably from the EPILOGUE in JAPAN concert. i also attended the HYYH EPILOGUE concert, but in macau back in 2016. i was really fortunate to experience love is not over performed live. i’ve uploaded the video here for you all the enjoy. please don’t mind any screaming you hear, i was clearly beside myself. i remember the emotions i felt hearing the song live - the vocals were pristine, the emotion in each voice was on display, the stripped down live band backing was beautiful. everything about the performance screamed emotion.

all seven bangtan members were seated on stools, dressed in black jeans and white blouses. behind the members a beautiful HYYH logo was lit up with the signature chain-link fence print. the beautiful understated nature of the performance amongst a sea of high-energy performances including baepsae, save me, I NEED U, and fire... the contrast was enough to make every ARMY at the show completely transfixed. did i cry? maybe. did i cry with a strange girl i’d met off of twitter only hours earlier? ...okay i’ll be honest - i really did. the song is powerful just as a track on an album, but experiencing it live, or even just watching the performance on youtube -- it’s powerful. the talents of these men are on full display, both rap and vocal line are able to highlight their abilities beautifully. 

tl;dr: love is not over is beautiful. it’s an earlier bangtan song, and it’s earned its place as a complete classic R&B bop. the sounds of each member’s voice, the lyrics, they’re melodic and soothing. the song is about heartbreak, but the interpretations in the context of the greater HYYH saga make it hopeful. love is something we often associate with youth. falling in love with others, ourselves, and our world - it can be painful... especially when we’re young and we realize that things aren’t always as we percieve them to be. but it’s all a part of learning. we will love again, and love isn’t over. it’s a cycle. 

#love is not over #bts #jungkook #lyrics #analysis #bangtan #hyyh #young forever

[soundsof71]

Hey! Album: 'Fleetwood Mac' (1975) - Fleetwood Mac

Hey! Great to hear from you! You (and your previous blog) were my original inspiration for trying to raise my tumblr game to something intentionally curated, and more than that, personally creative. Sorry to have let you down. LOL

What a pleasure to talk about this one, though, an album I think is -- strangely enough -- one of the most underrated albums in the classic rock pantheon!

What’s that you say? An album with “Rhiannon” and “Landslide” underrated?!?! Well it’s true, seriously underrated, at least partly because those two stellar, nay, legendary songs are the first ones that most people think of. There's so much more! It's definitely my favorite Fleetwood Mac album!

My perspective is a little different than the standard rap that Fleetwood Mac didn't properly begin until those two California kids joined the band in 1975, because to me, they started taking off when their first American joined the band, Bob Welch in 1971 for Future Games, which I wrote about at some length here. 

(For the record, Future Games is my second favorite Fleetwood Mac album. Anyone who hasn't checked it out really needs to.)

I’ll leave it at that for now, except to observe that to most of my music nerd friends at the time, I was a latecomer to Fleetwood Mac the band, having completely missed their earlier, bluesier lineups. Indeed, the 1971 lineup was their 8th! And they'd come to #9 in 1972, before landing on lineup #10 in 1975.

They had a bunch of hits on the five albums in this 71-74 range (”Hypnotized” is one that still slays me) that I think hold up as among their best ever. While the album before Fleetwood Mac, Heroes Are Hard to Find didn’t have a hit single, it rose to #34 on the US charts, and got plenty of attention. 

My point is that Fleetwood Mac didn’t spring into existence out of nowhere in 1975. Nor was 1975 necessarily ground zero for the millions of people who bought the album Fleetwood Mac. It came out in the summer of ‘75, but took 15 months to hit #1 in the US! (It peaked at #11 in the UK.) This was a far bigger album in 1976 when all the singles came out, and the band was touring like crazy to support it.

They basically dragged the album to the top of the charts kicking and screaming by the end of THAT year with relentless touring, setting the stage for their true commercial breakthrough with Rumours in 1977, but artistically? I prefer everything about 1975′s Fleetwood Mac.

btw, the music nerds know that Fleetwood Mac was recorded at Sound City Studios, which makes all the difference in the telling of the tale. In 1974, the band had located to Los Angeles, and following the departure of Bob Welch in December, Mick Fleetwood went looking for both a recording studio and a guitarist. 

While getting to know producer Keith Olsen at Sound City (a studio legendary for its drum sound, among other things), Keith played Mick some tracks from an album he’d recorded here a couple of years earlier with a local guitarist and his girlfriend singer, both of whom were also songwriters.

Mick said, I’ll book the studio to record my next album, I’ll book you to produce, and I’ll hire the guitarist....who famously informed Mick that he and his girlfriend were a package deal. All of this happened because of Sound City Studios.

(Here's Mick recording this very album in this very studio.)

Your friend and mine Dave Grohl directed a FANTASTIC documentary about Sound City Studios, a kind of a dump to be honest, but where tons of phenomenal records were made, from After The Gold Rush to Caribou, Damn The Torpedoes, Nevermind, Rage Against The Machine, and most recently, Phoebe Bridgers’ Punisher. Lots and lots of stories about the making of Fleetwood Mac in this movie, and much more. 

Here’s the trailer. The whole movie is available on YT, too! And Amazon Prime, and a bunch of other places. HIGHLY recommended!

So here we go taking directly about Fleetwood Mac.....

the first song from the album i heard: "Over My Head". This was the first single released in the US, remarkably, four months after the album was released! I dunno, did the label not want to sell any albums? Or did they just not get how catchy these tunes were? I have no idea.

And ironically, the band didn't like the choice of "Over My Head" at all, ranking it dead-last in their own considerations of likely singles! I think that this is evidence that they were using heavy drugs much earlier than we thought. LOL

"Over My Head" peaked at #20 in the US, their highest to date by far, although, in some defense of the band's reservations, didn't chart at all in the UK. Saying that it rose to "only" 20 in the charts doesn't begin to describe how heavily it was played, though. A LOT.

do i own the album: Did then, Spotify now. The answer for most of the albums in this round of Asks. :-)

my favorite song: "Over My Head". Look, I admit that this is insane when Fleetwood Mac also includes "Landslide" and "Rhiannon." "Landslide" in particular is maybe one of the greatest songs anyone has ever written, and every single person reading this knows somebody named Rhiannon because of that song. (I've met two.) And hey, "Say You Love Me" was a MUCH bigger hit at the time too... but I'm tellin' ya, "Over My Head" fucks. 

It's the single version that fucks hardest, though, no doubt about it. I was disappointed when I finally bought the album that the version there fades in (NO! THIS IS WRONG) and has a wide mix that diffuses the impact. The radio version is so tight that it's practically mono, and it punches you right upside the head. 

One of my favorite things about listening to "Over My Head" in the past couple of weeks for this Ask is that it's Old School Fleetwood Mac. Chris on piano, Mick on drums, and John McVie with what might be the best bassline that anyone stroked out in 1975. My god, it's a fucking monster, and it just gets hotter as the song progresses. By the end, it's on fire, and you hear it so much better in this tight single mix.

The new guy adds a nice little solo on top of a nice rhythm lick, and he and Stevie add background vocals, but they're not front and center. "Over My Head" is really Christine McVie's showcase, although Fleetwood and Mac really shine too. This would have been a monster hit without the new kids, as indeed it pretty much was. You could say the same thing about "Say You Love Me", which is also all about Christine's songcraft, and a voice like no other, then or now.

Here's my edit of a lovely Mick Putland photo of Christine McVie from a couple of years earlier.

I guarantee that it's been way too long since you heard the in-your-face single version of "Over My Head". On Spotify, you can find it on the couple of Deluxe Editions of Fleetwood Mac (here's one), and it's also on the anthology, The Very Best of Fleetwood Mac, which I've embedded here. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw-lIt1ILzk

least favorite song: "I'm So Afraid." I'm so afraid not. LOL

a song I didn’t like at first, but now do: Hmm, I might put "Sugar Daddy" in that category, but honestly, the main thing I don't like about this song is the title. LOL But it's the 4th best Christine McVie song on an album where the best three of hers were all released as singles, so I guess it all works out.

a song I used to like, but now don’t: Anything by the new guy. I'm not going to go into detail here because what I love about this album, I still love. At the time, I dug two of his songs here (you can guess which two, surely), but I started to really despise this guy a few years later. Now, I can't listen to anything where he's prominent at all, on any Fleetwood Mac records.

Fortunately there are more than enough Christine and Stevie songs, and Mick and John's playing, plus all those earlier albums like Future Games, to keep Fleetwood Mac in the rock good pantheon. I'd have fired the new guy 30 years earlier than he was. 

favorite lyric:

Mirror in the sky

What is love?

Can the child within my heart rise above?

Can I sail through the changin' ocean tides?

Can I handle the seasons of my life?

Well, I've been afraid of changin'

'Cause I've built my life around you

But time makes you bolder

Even children get older

And I'm getting older too

Like I said, the two Stevie Nicks tracks on Fleetwood Mac deserve every bit of the love they've gotten over the years. You can also see with just a quick glance around my blog that she's one of my most-posted artists. Please don't take me repping Christine as any disrespect for Stevie!

Do I like "Landslide" a little more than I otherwise might because it's specifically about outgrowing the aforementioned new guy? Maybe.  Or do I like it a little less than I otherwise might because I can't hear it without thinking of him? Maybe that too.

overall rating out of 10: Then: 9.4. Now: 9. The new guy went 2-for-4 for my money at the time, and the two that he whiffed on are genuinely terrible...but as bad as those two clunkers were, the rest of the album seemed perfect to me. Certainly among my most-played mainstream rock records into the early 80s. I was perfectly fine skipping one song on each side.

Even though nowadays I can't stand any of the songs he sings lead on, you take those off, and you STILL have "Landslide", "Rhiannon", "Say You Love Me", "Over My Head", and "Warm Ways". No album with ALL THOSE on them gets less than an 8.5, right?

I'm adding a few tenths each for how tightly Fleetwood and Mac are locked into each other and these songs on rythm (easily the most underrated duo of the era, sez me), and Keith Olsen's immaculate production. The score of 9 is therefore objectively correct and mathematically unassailable. LOL

I'm going to end where I began, by talking about Christine McVie. Instead of listening to this first and foremost as an album with a couple of giant Stevie Nicks songs, listen again to Fleetwood Mac as Christine McVie really lighting things up. She deserves so much more credit for the band's success than she gets, and seriously, "Over My Head" fucks. 

Now looky here, @aluacrescente . I know that YOU have strong feelings about this record, so spill! And the rest of you, too! I don't intend to have the last word on the albums in any of these Asks! Just the first one. :-) So lemme know what YOU think!

PS. Apologies for any formatting weirdness! I started this on desktop, where I do all my writing, saved the first few paragraphs to come back to later, only to be told by tumblr that I'd stated this on the app (DID NOT) and could only edit there. Grrr. Not cool, @staff. I've spent another day just tweaking to make it somewhat readable and wondering how these people can be so bad at their jobs. LOL

My crackpot opinions and wobbly writing are my own of course, and I'm aware that they have a larger negative impact on readability than tumblr's incompetence by far. LOL

#aluacrescente #ask #Fleetwood Mac #christine mcvie #women in rock #stevie nicks #Landslide #over my head #john mcvie #dave grohl #sound city #youtube #essay #me #recording studio

[sanstropfremir]

kingdom episode 3 baby!!!!

listen. i’m not gonna lie i was nervous as hell for this episode. i saw that preview like everyone else and unfortunately i have ears so i was convinced the ateez stage was going to be a trainwreck. i was absolutely banking on sf9 and skz to do something even mildy interesting to save me from the ear damage and having to talk to extensively about why that disaster happened. but somehow i woke up in an alternate universe and you know what? with the exception of that high note the ateez stage fucked. i know. i don’t believe it either. i think i’m still in shock.

i’ll do individual breakdowns in order of favourites within the episode and then at the end i’ll put my personal ranking of all six. thank god i don’t have to do a stage breakdown again; if they change it again for next week i will scream.

ateez

a miracle happened. i don’t have to fight any of the staff at kq. i don’t understand either. jongho is so fucking lucky that the rest of the group pulled all that energy out of their asses because if they had been even a single iota less serious about it that stage would have flopped worse than a dead fish. i can’t believe we got this level of camp b movie schlock in the first full stage, and they stuck the landing. incredible.

fine i’ll address the elephant in the room. personally, i don’t think jongho is that good of a vocalist. he’s not bad, and he does have the potential to be a good vocalist, he just doesn’t have the training, and this is the issue with all of ateez. hanya talked about this before and i’ll say it again: he can’t switch to his head voice and he’s destroying his vocal cords by attempting to hit notes in his mid range that he should just jump to head voice for. frankly i’m surprised he got anywhere close to that note in his mid, but his technique is just not there and he’s gonna do some real damage to his voice if he doesn’t take a break and also get a good vocal coach. you can already hear the degradation in sound from their debut stage to now, and that’s in less than three years. ok i’m done talking about vocals that’s hanya’s turf, i’m pretending that that high note doesn’t exist and we’re moving on. also im in love with btob’s reaction it was fucking priceless.

costume

look, i have a one track brain and that brain can only think about seonghwa corset. seonghwa corset? seonghwa corset.

i know it’s not a real corset nor is it properly laced and i know this would never happen in a million years but a kpop mr pearl trend? i would die. just fully expire. there’s no coming back from that for me

yes i have laced boys into proper corsets before and yes it is as hot as you think it is (when it’s not work related, obviously)

ok now that i’ve got that out of my system for the moment, the costumes are actually pretty good. i’m a little obsessed with hongjoong’s coat although I know it’s stupid. fur? always, I love it, you’ll never change my mind it makes everything better. i own a lot of it and i wear it all the time. this is also a pretty good example of how to do a more modern styling within a very specific and recognizable genre.

i don’t hate the backup dancers’ costumes either, even though they would look a lot better in a not-pirate themed hiphop stage. because there is already a modern tint with the boys’ costumes, it’s not that much of a leap to the dancers, and they actually use the dancers and the camera really strategically to not put much focus on them.

the only real standout issue is the blacklight/contortionist moment, which is too gimmicky for me and doesn’t fit the rest of the theme. i do understand the purpose of them: you need a transition point from the upper deck to the more fantastical inner ship area, and blacklight paint is a really easy, cheap, and fast way to get four new costumes instantly. do i think they could have done something better though? yes.

set

this was actually a smart reuse of that pirate ship set. i know i clowned on them in the first stage that they could move on from the pirate gimmick but honestly? i’m glad they didn’t. this was fun as fuck. but also two stages was enough you can move on now.

i love how they actually used the weird double stage function that the false prosc creates for an actual architectural and narrative effect, instead of just sort of operating as though it’s just another place to travel just because you can. we are on the deck of the ship, and then we go inside the ship. it’s simple and effective. you don’t need to do a crazy amount of crossover to establish a dynamic sense of place.

i hate the ateez kingdom logo. i hate the ateez logo in general. get it out of there, at least you could have made something more fun and pirate themed.

would have loved to have seen them return to the hourglass at the end, especially if they got one that was specifically set for 4 minutes. would have been a nice bit of symmetry but i suspect it was struck before the kraken bit.

the kraken bit??? i was not at all expecting that and honestly? dope as hell. that big tentacle is just a custom inflatable santa claus that you see around christmastime and what a brilliant use of such a simple mechanic, especially to have it come through that weird little triangle arch they have upstage. smart way to use the existing architecture.

yes it is a gimmick but here’s why it works rather than just looks tacky like every other gimmick we’ve seen so far: it had a function within the narrative. this is so important. show us there’s a reason it’s there!

lighting

i didn’t love it but they did actually make some smart choices. the outer deck is warmer toned and has some good atmospheric effects, and the inner deck is cold tone and specifically lit with pin lights to imitate the light coming through portholes in an actual ship, which is so smart thank you lighting designer

also a very clear arc with the lighting, blue -> orange -> blue/red -> orange/multiple -> blue

sound

i actually kinda liked this remix? it fit theme and had a very clear dramatic arc. also i like wonderland, so sue me.

staging

WE DID IT, WE FINALLY GOT A CLEAR NARRATIVE FROM AT LEAST ONE GROUP! wonderland was actually a great choice for them because it’s a really good indicator of exactly how hungry they are. i was a bit worried that it would fall flat because it kinda rides on mingi but they actually pulled it off. i have literally no idea where they pulled all that energy from but holy shit you can practically lick the attitude off the screen. i’m also very impressed by the amount of information they managed to fit into that four minute narrative. we had a full conflict/climax/resolution, as well as a really clear understanding of the tenacity and drive of the group, as well as the desire to support one another in achieving their goals. bravo.

ok so like i said in the set section, they used that pirate ship bridge really effectively to create two different but connected spaces. this is a really smart way to make it seem like you have two spaces while having to only build one set. it was also one of the best ways to utilize this dumbass stage so it doesn’t just look like you’re running arbitrarily from area to area because you can.

also levels! levels are so important for staging but also hard to do in this context because you have to be able to move really quickly in and out of full group formation, but I think they did a really good job here.

continued point: the kraken arm worked because it was the conflict they needed to overcome in the narrative, so it had a function within the performance. also related: all the tricking and jumping also served a purpose within the narrative too. it was either used for fighting (yeosang kicking all those dancers on beat) or a demonstration of teamwork (jongho flinging yunho around on the floor). also frankly excellent use of choreographic formation with the backup dancers, each formation had a specific function and was meant to highlight ateez without being overbearing.

not a whole lot of camera choreo, but a fairly good long take at the beginning and the editing wasn’t too obnoxious which I think was more chance than intent, but i’m not gonna look a gift kraken in the beak.

sf9

i actually really liked this stage, and i really like that sf9 has established their colour as effortlessly elegant, which does set them apart from the rest of the groups. this stage was really choreographically complex and they made it seem so easy, so real props to them. however, like with ikon’s stage, there were a lot of good ideas that just weren’t followed through enough for me.

like ateez, song choice and theme were very well intertwined with this one, there was a lot of thought put into this stage. the pun with ‘jealous’ and ‘jilleosseo’ and having a fairytale/magic mirror narrative? fuckin GALAXY BRAINED. incredible. the implication that not only taeyang but the entire group is the evil queen from snow white? chef’s kiss. should have committed harder and put one of them in massive cloak à la king taemin mama 2020. instead it was subtle enough to not try to step on ateez’s schlocky camp toes but still just as serious and i love that. do i wish they pushed it farther though? also yes.

costume

not gonna lie, i had my reservations on the costumes when we saw the previews of them in the waiting room, but the thing about stage costumes is that they always look bad when not on stage. if they look good in the waiting room you’ve done something wrong. and i loved them on stage. big fan of that quilted vest/pseudo stomacher. please can we have a corset trend? y’all already adopted bondage harnesses, c’mon a little corset won’t hurt. also a good example of a modern spin on a recognizable genre.

i wish the backup dancers weren’t in all black but i am fighting single person battle against the entire entertainment industry on that one.

set

extremely simple with a few smart utilizations. had a feeling this might have been a budget thing, as it had a similar kind of vibe with ikon’s stage, but the use of the mirrors was smart and a fun device that served the purpose of the narrative.

working with mirrors on stage is really fucking hard, so kudos to them for giving it a go. for the most part it was pretty effective. especially with the combo of moving mirrors and moving lights AND moving camera, you’re kind of asking to either blind your audience or at least give them a headache. i once saw a production of the magic flute that had a rotating mirror setpiece and i swear i nearly went blind due to the constantly flashing reflections. you have to really be careful with directionality and reflection, especially with the added element of a camera. also you never use real glass mirrors on stage, it is unbelievably bad luck and theatre people are the most superstitious demographic on the fucking planet.

i kinda loved the draped gold dais. i have nothing else to say about it other than fun!

lighting

a lot of this was very weirdly lit and i’m not sure why. the quality on youtube is terrible and cameras already have trouble picking up detail in low light, and throwing a whole bunch of primary red over that (the colour with the longest wavelength and therefore disappears the easiest in the dark. also human eyes are not very good at distinguishing variations in the red spectrum) and the red costumes made it extremely difficult to tell what was happening.

i will give them props for dramatic lighting usage, especially for the two way mirror trick and for using the floor as a primary lighting source at the end, which i think groups should be using more of. how often do you have a lighting source in your floor!!! almost never!! use that opportunity!!

sound

i actually enjoyed this remix too. it was well suited to the dramatic nature of the stage. i think the sound byte at the beginning is ‘mirror mirror on the wall who’s the worthiest of them all’ but it also could be ‘who’s the worst of them all’ and that would be also fitting and kinda funny.

staging

again, not a lot of consideration for camera choreo in a meaningful way, and like the tbz stage I think the clarity in the actual choreo got hampered by the editing. because there was a lot of choreographic precision that went into making this work and it wasn’t totally obvious from the way mnet edited it.

a lot of them are actors so it works that they’re leaning more towards dramatic stages rather than the sort of performance type stages we’ve seen so far. i like this choice for them as it gives them a very obvious colour but they’re almost on the verge of making it look too easy, which does them some injustice.

next to ateez, using that long uninterrupted traverse was my favourite use of this stage. doubles as an easy way to build the atmosphere of a palace corridor/throne room with the rug, and to feed the drama of the piece.

skz

ok i have some…..things to say about this stage. so far i have not been kind to skz which makes me look like i hate them and i don’t, i promise. there were a lot of really interesting things happening in this stage and there some really successful ones, and i liked this a whole lot better than their intro stage, but their overall choreo and thematic dedication is really killing me. i’ll explain.

costume

I don’t hate them but also…….why? I got the good self vs evil self/internal struggle theme but the costumes don’t really have anything interesting to say about that. as far as modern style costuming goes i think they’re on the more interesting end, but they don’t push it far enough. there’s a few western art history visual motifs and honestly? they should have gone whole hog and whited out their faces/hair and made them look like classical sculptures. that would have been hella fun, especially with that little statue and marionette sequence, plus the shadow/leash manipulation.

this time it was actually intentional that the backup dancers were in blacks and i appreciate that.

why on EARTH did they have that ridiculous makeup that didn’t read on stage? theatre makeup and tv makeup are different, you can’t just do a light purple eyeshadow and expect to read under blue and red light. someone needs to bring an actual theatre makeup artist in and get these boys in some real crazy looks. see previous point about full-face white pancake. more extreme makeup please and thank you!

set

i liked the use of internal architecture within this massive weird stage space and they used the corridors quite well. i didn’t really like the mix of baroque scrolling and also graffiti, it wasn’t quite connected for me. this has been a common theme among this round and i think it comes from budget/props pulls rather than anything else.

also there was a distinct feeling of trying to fill the main stage space with bodies as opposed to atmosphere. this can work in some specific cases but the intent wasn’t strong enough for me. it just felt like a lot of people on stage, especially in the end choreo.

lighting

the general lighting was fine but not particularly inspired. the low light in the beginning was actually quite well done, especially combined with the fog, but in my opinion was not dramatic enough. you have a pseudo art history theme happening, pump that contrast and push the chiaroscuro!

ok stay with me, i’m gonna say something extremely controversial that might actually get me cancelled. s*per j*unior’s burn the floor did everything this stage was trying to do on a smaller scale and better. look i know ok, this is a like, a double atom bomb hot take. just forget everything you know about them and watch the performance video. tell me that’s not some of the most interesting choreo you’ve seen in kpop. if you’re going to work with practical light you need to COMMIT. not just steal the solar lanterns out of my mom’s back garden.

i have a lot of opinions on using practical light and alternate light sources in performance because it’s a huge part of my practice and this just....wasn’t interesting enough for me. push it further!

(I will wait for the subs on the full episode because there has to be a reason they chose that specific shape of lamp. if not i gotta ask jyp why he’s raiding my mom’s garden)

sound

god’s menu has such specific imagery associated within the lyrics and choreography that this stage was a bit dissonant for me. especially when seen in conjunction with two stages where the narrative was tied explicitly to the lyrics of the songs. i think maybe if it hadn’t been grouped with these other two stages i would have felt differently. the other groups chose to do songs were a little more abstract and allowed for more visual experimentation, but to go so blatantly against the food metaphor didn’t really work for me and i had a tough time divorcing the association. I found the arrangement to be a little lacking in energy for me towards the end but otherwise it was pretty interesting.

staging

Definitely a better performance overall that the intro stage. almost all of the gimmicks this time had relevance to the theme which i appreciated. the marionette bit and the shadow/mirror were probably the most interesting but i wish they were better lit.

 there was a lot of back and forth in the blocking that made the stage feel repetitive and also aimless? like there wasn’t a very clearly established directionality within the internal space, so it felt like treading over the same ground for no purposeful reason. and again, not a lot of intentional camerawork.

i really liked having the dancers under the big sheet, it fit well enough within the ‘war between internal selves’ theme, but also had a loose tie to the art imagery. again, i really wish they had stuck to a clearer visual theme. it makes them stick out especially in this grouping of stages, but also across all the groups as whole because almost everyone had a clear(ish) visual idea.

holy shit that’s a lot of backup dancers. i don’t really feel like that many were necessary and the sheer number of them took away from the emphasis of the group. with all of the other stages (except for tbz) it was very clear who the centre of attention and emphasis was, and with both skz and tbz they got swallowed by the sheer scale they were trying to operate at. bigger is not always better.

---

this is a tough round to rank because none of these stages are bad, there’s just some that are, in my opinion, more successful than others. all of these stages do very well in specific elements but fall short in others which also makes this ranking difficult. i’m evaluating these based on whether they were successful to me, as i’m pretty sure this ranking will probably not all be popular opinion, but whatever i like to live on the edge.

btob – visuals, vocals, narrative, swords? what more do you want me to say? also i watched the full episode and minhyuk did rehearsal with a real bokken and i think i am in love with him now.

ateez – honestly not sure if i would have ranked this first if that high note hadn’t been a mess. i love camp nonsense and i genuinely think this was a well designed stage. i can’t believe i keep saying that but it’s true.

sf9 – this stage was really solid, just could have been pushed farther. i think it has a really good sense of drama and it’s a pity that sf9’s colour is more subdued, because i think they’re going to be stuck around the 3rd/4th position for the rest of the show.

ikon – ikon is only ranking this high because although i am disappointed in the wasted potential of this stage, they NAILED the camerawork and actually brought in someone to block the steadicam into the choreo. also they’re incredible performers. i say this every time, but their stage presence, although maybe lower energy that they normally would be, is still not to be fucked with.

skz – i think this one is the most ‘meh’ for me. while i liked a lot of the elements here they just didn’t push it far enough and the lack of narrative and general aimless choreo led to me not having any strong feelings yea or nay.

tbz – to be quite honest the lack of costume unity is a big hit for me. all elements of design are equally as important but because of my personal practice and experience i tend to put a lot of weight on good costume and spatial design. i don’t actually like game of thrones also, so I feel mildly offended on behalf of michele clapton, who had did a fucking incredible job and doesn’t deserve to be slandered like this. also the lack of cohesive choreography and the overblown lighting made this difficult to watch, no matter how good i thought the rear projection/stretch fabric dance was.

 any questions or opinions you wanna share hit me up! see you next week!

#im ready for the angry asks about that s*ju opinion because that is a spicy one #kingdom #kingdom review #kpop analysis #im so surprised by these stages i cant believe ateez stuck the landing #i saw the preview for next week also and the new round looks wild so im ready #text

[firstginger]

I know you’re probably tired of doing formfinding/Dæmon analysis, but if you’re up for doing another one I’m trying to pinpoint my boyfriend’s Dæmon. He’s an INFP, 9w1 4w5 6w5, sx/sp, Hufflepuff. The closest daemons I can find that seem to match his personality are the General Flying Snake and the Grasshopper Sparrow. He got a Kinkajou on your Dæmon test which also seems pretty close for a Pullman form for him. He’s a very introverted person who doesn’t like to go out much and likes to stick

with what he knows, otherwise gets very anxious and has social anxiety/suffers with depression. He’s very kind, loyal, and creative. He can procrastinate and be lazy sometimes, but he gets his work done and does his best at it. He can be spontaneous in how he dresses and starts certain art or fashion related projects. He’s very dependent and close bonding with a select few people (me, friends, and family). He can become easily stressed and hates conflict or competition. He is very much a peace-maker

and always wants to right what is wrong, even when he has done something wrong or upsetting. He’s very affectionate and is in a relationship for life. He’s not manipulative at all and is very communicative when expressing his thoughts and feelings. He has a hard time trusting new people in his life, but he will slowly begin to open up. I hop e this gives a pretty good picture overall. Sorry for the lengthy message. Again, if you have time I would greatly appreciate it. I know you’ve

been through a lot this year. You’re so strong having such a positive attitude about everything and the genuine kindness you show towards people is amazing. Thank you so much for always responding to my lengthy messages and requests. I love reading your analyses and advice. Thank you so much!

thank you so so much for the kind words, it really means a lot to me ❤️ i was meaning to ask you if you’d settled on a mourning dove or a golden retriever too!!

this is a fantastic description and i spent a lot of time milling about this. if you have reasons why the flying snake and grasshopper sparrow didn’t quite fit that would also be super helpful, definitely message me about them and the forms i suggested below and i can refine my suggestions!

looking at the two descriptions though, i think i can see why the flying snake was close but no cigar... from how you describe him, the flying snake seems too detached and not communicative enough. most snake forms tend to be more socially tolerant and not what i’d describe as dependent at all; they also have a capacity for manipulation and a desire to go about their life undisturbed that i think your boyfriend lacks. i really enjoy the snake form for a lot of people, but affectionate and kind aren’t cardinal traits of theirs.

looking at the grasshopper sparrow, again i think i can see the issues you’re having — the capacity for manipulation (sparrows as a whole are pretty tenacious and survivalists as a species) and that methodical and detail-oriented nature doesn't seem to become him, if he's more the creative and procrastinating type. birds get placed as sensors a lot and while i don't think it's a hard and fast rule, sparrows i think lack a lot of the strengths of an intuitive, while exemplifying the strengths of a sensor. at the same time, i can definitely see a lot of traits in him that might fit a birds, so i wanted to start with other bird suggestions that might work before broadening into other species. my only hesitation with other passeridae is many of them group together in flocks, are migratory, and engage in polyandry, but i’ll play around with some and other aves species.

the rock sparrow was my initial thought that could fit him. a very shy and unobtrusive species, the rock sparrow is typically found in low densities, but displays a strong ability to adapt across a variety of habitats. different groups of rock sparrows show different degrees of gregariousness and breeding strategies... when a species is capable of demonstrating a range of adaptive behavior like this, i think it best correlates to human behavior as someone flexible. they also have an impressive capacity for vocalizations, and their preference for taking over abandoned burrows instead of building their own i think fits a procrastinating reputation. so in summary: a rock sparrow person would be highly capable of adaptation and flexibility, while still being an individual who prefers not to over-exert themselves and likes to find a niche. they may be too socially tolerant for your boyfriend as loose group activity doesn’t stress them, but they show an extreme attachment to their loved ones, with mate-guarding techniques that would translate to protectiveness and dependence. very communicative but not confrontational or assertive. tends to be the procrastinating and corner-cutting type, though diligent when it comes to completing work and seeing things through. i thought the yellow patch would also be cute symbolically for someone who dresses spontaneously too!

have you considered species of buttonquail, such as the quail-plover? they’re not related to the galliforme quails. the quail-plover specifically is a monogamous species that’s typically only found in small groups, and displays shy and anxious behavior when threatened. again though they’re pretty adaptable and willing to be flexible, and considering their nervous temperament, i would anticipate them to be less bold and gregarious and more the type of person who will change from routine if it avoids future stress or conflict.

coursers like the indian courser and double-banded courser i think would be my last aves suggestion... they’re non-migratory and engage in solitary, monogamous behavior. definitely not ambitious individuals and likely also display that kind of “bare minimum” behavior; less adaptable than any of the sparrow species and enjoy tried and true methods. habitual but efficient and determined in their own niche, they come to life when pursuing their specific passions. very generous and giving people with their loved ones. socially tolerant and non-aggressive. they’ll also flush, which gives me the impression of someone more anxious, especially when coupled with how camouflaged they and their nests are. interestingly, while they do vocalize, the indian courser in specifically does not call when the nest is approached — i think this species would best fit someone who wants to keep their head down, communicative but very non-assertive and wants to keep the peace.

outside of birds, this behavior actually reminded me a lot of some pseudocheiridae... i really think the rock-haunting ringtail possum is a worthwhile to check out! they live in small groups and are highly adapted to their territory; they're so well-camouflaged for their rocky terrain, to hide from predators, they literally just stick their head into a crevice and keep their body exposed. when foraging they don't travel far from their home, but they have a highly diverse diet. they’re extremely vigilant animals and demonstrate generosity towards their group-mates through alarm calls. very tightly knit family groups and they show dependence on their loved ones, as well as high communication and reciprocity with their people. their communication is both vocal and scent-related, though they’re not aggressive or assertive at all, and prefer to avoid trouble. i think this fits a lot of boxes that you mentioned: habitual, kind and loyal, anxious, close-bonding, conflict-avoidant, devoted, and communicative.

the kéwel (bushbuck) might be too withdrawn and quiet, but could be worth a look too... a lot of bovines are pretty defensive and boundary-keeping, but this species is quite tolerant and passive. they travel in small groups but aren’t territorial at all; i imagine this to be a private soul who closely values their group of friends, but is rather socially tolerant and not assertive around others. just by the nature of the bushbuck, i would consider this individual dependent on their loved ones as well. they also definitely prefer their routines and habits and aren't terribly ambitious, and prefer to stay out of the limelight and conserve their peace. i can’t emphasize enough how tolerant these people are. they communicate primarily through scent, so while i wouldn’t describe this individual as overly expressive, they are clear about their thoughts and boundaries.

the last suggestion i’ll toss out is the finless porpoise, if you’re open to aquatic mammals? i think it strikes a nice balance between the creative and spontaneous side he has, and then also someone more introverted and peaceful. the finless porpoise is more mellow and even-tempered than other porpoises. they travel in small, tightly formed groups and display affectionate behavior to reinforce those social bonds. i imagine someone with this daemon to be kind but introverted, an individual who is hard to get to know but blossoms into someone open-hearted and generous. they likely have a sensitive disposition and are slow to start on tasks, but are focused and diligent once they set their mind to something. like most porpoise species, they’re definitely curious and inquisitive people, but finless porpoises are more cautious and the type to look before they leap.

i hope this was helpful! let me know your thoughts!

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