#pretty much what a conductor fan is

[steam-beasts]

A bit of an angst headcanon

So, the Talyllyn railway canonically exists in the ttte universe, because Awdry wanted to promote the railway using the fictional Skarloey engines. You know what this means?

As the Thomas Theorist said, it's REALLY coincidental how the Skarloey and Talyllyn railways have the nearly EXACT same history with the same exact railway (only difference being that the SKR is bigger) with the exact same events.

I've made up this headcanon that the Talyllyn engines all became secretly jealous and envious of the Skarloey engines for them getting their own books based on the events they went through, which were literally what happened to them as well, but this isn't the only reason; the Talyllyn engines all collectively agreed with each other that it just sometimes feels like most people and fans only ever come to see them mainly because they look identical to their twins. They're actually pretty sick of hearing their own siblings' names. ESPECIALLY during those Awdry Extravaganza, just imagine always having to dress up as your twin because they're part of the reason your railway is still in operation.

Another reason is that the Talyllyn fleet all rarely get to do goods work anymore, and the SKR is busy all the time. Talyllyn and Dolgoch specifically, both miss the heavy workloads they got back in the old days. Now all they do is pull passengers, which they're just really bored of doing at this point. I heavily implied it in my Conductor's Popper post, but Talyllyn and Dolgoch were abused in the early years, which led to them becoming envious at how much better their twin brothers' early years were.

#thomas and friends #thomas the tank engine #ttte talyllyn #ttte Dolgoch #talyllyn railway

[drawingpad-studios]

DND Race inspired SPR fan species part 1:

Accentas

(DND Race Inspo: Kenku)

Dark feathers, white chest markings consisting of a brace and a repeating bar to make it look like they're in a suit, decrescendo marked beaks, eighth rest legs, and shiny white stones that they collected to adorn their feather "dress"/"tail coat"

Accentas are one of the two cousins(aka Being a part of the same family in the scientific categorizing sense) of the Harmonians. Being more avian than angelic, like their cousins, the Fortans. Unlike the two species it evolved with, Accentas can't talk outside of parroting the phrases they've heard and they also can't fly due to not evolving wings. Though they circumvent this by using instruments to communicate and living in places where they don't need to fly.

Natural environment:

While you can technically find these anywhere like any other sentient species of Paper Robloxia, you can find the most Accentas in the lower parts of the musical regions. This includes the caves below the musical regions for half of the population of the species. Just really anywhere it's already accessible for ground bound species or can be made accessible for ground bound species.

Communication:

While they can't speak and can only mimic phrases they've heard, mimicking the voice perfectly, they do have a "spoken" language. This language is called Sonette and is only "spoken" through the use of instruments. Basically in the early years of the population, a group of elder Accentas got together and decided to assign words, letters, phrases, and numbers to different "up beats and down beats"/measures. To not have to rely on trying to piece together different phrases hoping they have heard the right phrases to say what they mean. this ended up being passed through generations until it got so popular form of communication to where they have it in their schools, and other schools(where it isn't mostly Accentas) have it as a extra secondary language class. Along with the species being nicknamed the "Conductors" with their way of teaching others the language.

It can be tricky for non Accentas to get the hang of, especially the non musical species. Thou the species is rather understanding of new learners, because not only are you mastering a language, but you're also mastering an instrument if you haven't already.

They also have a writen "language", but this is like how they communicate through phrases. They just cut and connected different letters from different languages they've read to create a jumbled mess of what they wanted to write out. So to understand it, you kinda need to know pretty much most of the languages of Paper Robloxia. This written "language" is often compared to the language the red teapot character speaks.

Religion:

While all of Paper Robloxia is pretty much Polytheism, Accentas are technically both Polytheism and Monotheism. They do believe in the other gods and Duskkar, but they believe that the Great Mother Bird(the "mother" of the gods from the old world) will rise from death and become the one true god again.

Creating statues of this giant origami swan that adorns the center of their cities and their churches, modeling their instruments around parts of the great mother bird(like guitars being modeled in the shape of her wings), and dedicating most of their festivals to said mother bird. They are technically the most religious species, a bit ironic considering there are two species that are angels and demons respectfully.

Reproduction(eggs):

This species, along with its other feathery cousins, reproduce via eggs. Thou the eggs aren't formed via intercourse. While they and their cousin species do have privates that they didn't evolve out, those are only used for pleasure (this wasn't evolved out because of the rise of the Beast of Lust). How they actually reproduce is with a love song that has been established to be the only song to have the effect of egg creation. (It's also effective in the more furry musical species, but this is more about the feathered musical species) This song when translated is named "Love Bounds". which was originally about two lovers from different realms falling in love, the two rising and falling respectively, and becoming wedlock in the middle once they find each other. This IS based off a true story and was written and originally sung by the people in the story.

Once it was discovered that this was how the species reproduced, it was quickly translated and spread across the different musical species. Though unlike the rest of the species, since the Accentas can't really talk of sing, they of course use their instruments. Basically; a mature adult that can make the egg and a mature adult that can provide half the genes of the egg got to play the song. once the song starts visible music notes come from the two's instruments based on the part they play, whole notes for the one that can make the egg and quarter notes for the one that provides half of the genes of the egg. Once one of each touches, the next morning, the egg layer will wake up with a shelled egg in their pouch(where the feather "dress" starts)

Aging:

They pretty much age the same as Harmonians, except due to their flightless bodies, they ended up maturing faster due to how they were easy prey in the past. Where they weren't really able to survive past ~40. So their start of adulthood is ~40 even after they stop becoming prey, compared to Harmonians' adulthood starting at ~60

(all of these DND race inspired species along with my two first SPR species are all open for anyone to use, just like credit me as the species maker or something in the ref of the characters)

#super paper roblox #fan species #dnd race inspired

[zozo720]

Today on "lukewarm takes nobody cares about" All my problems with Legends Arceus, specifcally the story-related ones, come down to how unbelievably rushed the "true" ending feels The main ending with Origin Form Dialga/Palkia? It's good, it's fine, it's a climax that the game does a good job building up to. Kamado is an ass but that's clearly intentional, and at least he has a clear motive and all that.

The postgame ending feels like they came up with the Volo fight first, and then had to scramble to create literally any justification for it to happen. They basically just gave him Cyrus's motivation, made him look vaguely "crazy and evul XD" and hand-waved it as "Oh, the Celestica tribe is involved".

And I must ask... who even ARE the Celestica people at this point? They're VERY vaguely talked about in the Old Verses, it's implied Cogita wrote them, which implies that she's the last Celestican, which implies that Volo MIIIIGHT be a descendant of them, which is why he says "the blood of the ancient Sinnoh people flows through my veins". Please note how much I said "Implies". There's having hidden lore and leaving it up for interpretation, and then there's vaguely shrugging and dumping incoherent, very-easy-to-miss text. All this is to say, Volo's motives are indecipherable, not because he's a multi-dimensional character, but because they don't bother elaborating on them, he's just a helpful friendly guy the whole game and then BAM, he was actually evil and crazy all along! It's no wonder fan interpretations of him range from "tragic sexy sad-boy who's upset because his indigenous people were wiped out for unknown reasons" and "insane murder-man who's immortal and for some reason, really likes screwing with NYC subway conductors from the future. Also he's sexy." And then there's the Arceus ending. Simply put, WHY is there nothing to say that the player character would be able to go home? I've seen several responses genuinely upset at the prospect of the MC being stuck in Hisui forever, possibly ripped away from their life and family. And even if you assume the MC has no problem staying in Hisui forever, that doesn't address the Copperajah in the room that is Ingo.

Now, Ingo being in PLA was cool back when the game first came out, but over time, it's become apparent that this was a pretty lame move. Most PLA discussion and fics are centered solely around either him or Volo (usually with ableist stereotypes in abundance) all at the expense of the other genuinely interesting cast of PLA.

And of course, of COURSE, they don't bother resolving his arc at all. The most he gets is an implication that his memories might return, but then what? He'll still be stuck in Hisui, except now he can remember what he's lost? Is this Arceus's "grand plan" or something? Now sure, for gameplay reasons, the player would wanna stay so they can keep playing the game, but there are so many ways to write around that, as demonstrated by the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series. That series always ends with the MC having to return home or disappear, but they always come back somehow. There's always some justification for it. In Legends Arceus, nothing gets truly resolved aside from the conflict with Kamado and Dialga/Palkia. Volo? His goals with Giratina are stopped and he just gets to walk away scot-free. No punishment, and no elaboration on his motives. Cogita and the Celestica tribe? All we get are allusions and vagueries in the Incarnate Forces sidequest. Arceus's mission to "seek out all Pokemon"? Your reward is that he invites you to his space apartment and beats the stuffing out of you. The Player/Ingo? Stranded in Hisui with, as of now, no canon return home.

#lopunnyposting #pokemon #pokemon legends arceus #pokemon volo #pla #submas #subway boss ingo #ingo

[dragon-giggles]

Muppet Headcanons

I have so many random, silly Muppet headcanons I need to get out of my system, sooo here we go, bare with me

~Kermit still keeps in touch with the Sesame Street gang ever since he left them. He usually calls Elmo, Grover, or Ernie the most to check up on them and say hi!

~Apart from fish being his favorite animal, Lew Zealand is a big animal lover in general! He has an especially soft spot for all aquatic wildlife, including animals such as turtles and seabirds.

~I don't care what y'all say, Bobo and Uncle Deadly had something with each other in The Muppets (2011).

~Miss Piggy really does have a soft heart, her temper just makes it hard to show. Actually, this better be canon.

~Robin and Rowlf's nephew (from the Jimmy Dean Show) are good friends and love having play dates.

~Big Mean Carl is really emotional, he's just really good at hiding it.

~Fozzie has accidentally set things on fire more than once. Most times have been in the kitchen, he's not exactly the best cook. But it's happened so much somehow, it pretty much seems like he's prone to it.

~Sweetums gets along well with a lot of the tinier Muppets ironically. He's surprisingly really gentle when he needs to be, and is always careful with his smaller friends. Him and Yolanda are besties!

~Walter has more than once weirded out the others by just how much he knows about each of them. (Well that's what happens when your a super fan guys)

~Gonzo has a whole wardrobe that's just dresses.

~This is pretty much canon, but it's agreed Zoot has magical abilities. The guy has probably traveled to other dimensions and not even realized it.

~Also pretty much canon, but Rowlf has a much sassier side to him than he usually let's on. Most people just haven't seen it that often... except for Jimmy Dean. Jimmy Dean saw it plenty of times lol.

~Fozzie is like the resident tickle monster lol. Usually if someone doesn't laugh at his joke, he'll just be a little twerp and tickle them to make them laugh. He'll also just do it to be silly (Kermit has been a victim to his silliness the most lol).

~Kermit knows every first and middle name of all of his siblings. (which keep in mind he canonically has like over a thousand siblings)

~Beauregard knows a lot of cool random facts actually that he'll just randomly throw out there sometimes.

~Another one about Beau, him and Beaker are good friends. (They canonically usually set up stage props together on The Muppet Show)

~Scooter has so many father figures. Kermit, Dr. Teeth, Fozzie, and Rowlf are all his dads lol... and Janice is his one mom figure.

~Pepe and Rizzo have been together at some point.

~Nigel, more well-known as the band conductor from The Muppet Show, and Kermit are actually good old friends. (He was actually meant to be the host for The Muppet Show before the role was switched to Kermit)

~Lips and Dolores (trumpet girl) are really good friends despite him taking up her role as trumpet player. She'll still sometimes pick up her old trumpet and the two will play together for fun.

~I don't know why this isn't canon but. Walter. Autism. Real.

~Skeeter likes to visit the Muppet theatre every so often to visit Scooter. In the few times she's been there, she's developed pretty good relationships with all the others as well.

~Bunsen and Beaker have pretty much been together since they were literally babies (go watch Muppet Babies for proof)

~This isn't really a headcanon but something I've noticed about Miss Piggy. She seems to have a softer spot for a few of the others, and I don't just mean Kermit.

I've noticed that she genuinely baby talks Rowlf a lot, and calls him Rowlfy. She's never actually tried to karate chop him like she has others either. There's been like once she tried to swing at him, from The Muppet Show, and ended up hitting the piano instead. Personally to me, it seemed like she didn't really try with her hit like she has all other times; it was more like she was annoyingly swatting at him because he was aggravating her (which he was btw, he was teasing her). I just think her and Rowlf are good old pals, and I just think that she knows that he's genuinely sweet and doesn't wanna be mean to someone like that.

Same with Beauregard, she's been really nice to him too. She's even given him a motivational speech before from The Muppet Show (in that same episode, he hugged her and said she was his only friend and I sobbed so mentally hard over that). I think Miss Piggy just knows who generally good folks are and in turn shows her soft side to them.

Okay I've poured out all I can, for now! Here's some silly doodles of some of the headcanons!

#I was so afraid to post these but I HAD to get them out of my system lol #Okayy fun part tagging these guys #Ahem #Kermit the frog #Lew Zealand #Fozzie Bear #Scooter #Skeeter #Walter #Pepe the King Prawn #Rizzo the Rat #Big Mean Carl #Rowlf the Dog #Bobo the Bear #Uncle Deadly #Beauregard #Zoot #Dr. Teeth #Janice #The Electric Mayhem #Miss Piggy #Sweetums #Yolanda #Lips #Dolores Trumpet Girl #Bunsen #Beaker #The Muppets #Can y'all tell I was typing who ever I remembered first lol #Man look at Fozzie slowly destroying Rowlf's dignity there lmao

[subwaytostardew]

Ingo and Emmet are technically celebrities back in Unova, or at least Nimbasa, it would make sense if a paparazzi or journalist or someone from the news came from Nimbasa to see and report back to the city what the twins are doing. They're nosy and you know what sells? Whether or not the celebrity is dating, it could be the husband protecting the farmer from bad publicity or them being super proud of their spouse! It's not a date per say but it'd be an interesting event give or take.

Kade and I were talking about this, but anything to do with paparazzi and publicity will probably have more to do with Elesa. We don't want to stray too far from canon, so most celebrity antics will be more to do with being associated with her.

They're technically celebrities... but not quite! They don't exactly have much star-power of their own in canon. When you disembark on the Battle Subway and talk to the other random NPCs, pretty much everyone hates them; they all say stuff about how Ingo and Emmet are suspicious or weird (I remember that vividly because it honestly made me feel a little sick and I had to put down the game for a couple of days ;;;>.>). Few can appreciate their autism. 😔

The competitive battling scene isn't particularly big in Unova (outside of Blueberry Academy but... that's pretty contained). Dedicated battlebrains like Hilda and Hilbert don't make up a significant amount of their passengers. Most passengers are just average people on their commute to work. Most people challenge the Battle Subway for the sake of it (a bit of a tourist attraction like the carnival area nearby), lose really badly, get discouraged, and never come back unless if they need to use the subway to get somewhere.

In the railfan scene, they usually aren't even special guests at train conventions! They're regular attendees who had time to befriend Cilan at their leisure. He's probably the only person who does their stamp rally!

Being a Battle Facility Head doesn't necessarily constitute celebrity status. Lenora has a perfectly normal husband and marriage with no drama whatsoever! All the Unovan Gym Leaders have other jobs and lives of their own; similarily, submas are just conductors first and foremost. It wouldn't be so absurd for a middle aged train conductor to settle down with some farmer.

They're just some guys. They're even worse in Stardew as regular old train conductors; there's no battling scene to draw in challengers and the scenery itself doesn't even have much worth visiting! It's a sad truth, but most people wouldn't notice if they went missing *cough* they will. The "main plot" for them is how their relocation cough bringing that to the spotlight had a bit of a toll on them mentally.

On a sillier note, I do like the thought that most people were interested in them (superficially). Ingo did end up winning first place in a Unova sexyman poll for being tall, dark, and handsome. Emmet's still bitter about being voted third place despite being his identical twin. The Battle Subway got busy when people were under the impression that Ingo was a edgy, brooding, gentleman but that perception was quickly turned around the second he opened his mouth. The hype died down for them after a year so now they're back to being just some guys.

Anyways... Probably the closest thing we have to a "paparazzi" event on our itinerary so far is just Cilan being submas' number one fan (one and only fan?) as usual.

▷ Station Steward Thylak

#mail car connecting line #THEY'RE SOOOO MISERABLE AFTER MOVING TO STARDEW I'M SORRY SUBMAS #We have Cilan sprited. I finished his portraits. We finished mapping ANVILLE TOWN #He's sitting in the drafts because I'm lagging on figuring out station repair stuff #We plan on adding him as a roommate candidate later since he decides to just work there... submas fanboy gone off the rails #SPEAKING OF CILAN. Their birthdays match! #The stamp rally episode was released in Japan on October 6th so that's why Submas have their birthdays set to Fall 6 #It released in the US on March 3rd so Cilan's birthday is set to Spring 3

[pancakes4two]

3 times harry said the word “love”

i mean it’s basically like a rite of passage to write something like this right??? will be off to new york next week to see harry so i wanted to post something before then 🥰 as always reblogs and comments are much appreciated!

preview: “What was that for?” You asked. The conductor standing behind Harry stops looking around the station and tucks his head back in the window, signaling that the train was going to leave soon.

“Dunno,” Harry says, trying his best to shrug with his hands still on your body. “You’re so cute. I love it.”

MASTERLIST | REQUESTS | READ MY NEWEST SERIES HERE

1.

“So how about that date?”

“Surely you’re joking?” You responded to the man standing in front of you. I mean, you had an honest right to be a little incredulous at his intentions. You hadn’t even wanted to come to this party in the first place; your best friend had just gotten a fancy new industry job in LA and you knew none of the people here. She had said it was going to be a small get-together, and practically dragged you out of bed to accompany her. You’re pretty sure Kaia Gerber just walked past you a few minutes ago, and now for some godforsaken reason Harry Styles is standing in front of you, leaning against the bookshelf you were trying to camouflage your body with, asking you to go on a date with him.

“Are you drunk?” You continue, watching as Harry crosses his arms in front of his chest in amusement. “Did your friends put you up to this? Spicing up the night with a bit or truth or dare?”

“What, I can’t ask a cute girl out on a date without getting interrogated anymore?” Harry yells over the music. Some old Tame Impala remix comes on the house’s speaker system and a group of people bump into the two of you as they rush to the living room to dance. You look at Harry with a deadpan expression and cross your arms to match his stance. He’s infuriatingly tall, you realize as you tilt your head up to look him in the eyes, unimpressed.

Twenty seconds into your staring contest, Harry breaks the silence between you with a laugh. “For what it’s worth, I’m completely sober. I don’t drink when I’m touring. Not a fan of truth or dare either, at least not when I haven’t even had one drink yet. And I’d really love to grab dinner with you before my show on Saturday.”

The singer smiles at you as you consider his offer. You had to admit that he was attractive: you’d seen him enough times on magazine covers and your friends’ Instagram stories to understand that he was hot. And surprisingly sweet, with the way that he just tried to ask you out. You’re also fairly sure that your best friend would never let you live it down if you turned him down. Fuck it, you think, what do I have to lose?

You pull your phone out of your purse and hand it to Harry, with the screen opened on your Messages app. “Don’t give me your work number,” you joke, watching him type his digits into the top of the screen. Harry smiles at that, then sends himself a text using your phone. When his own device pings with a notification, he unlocks it and saves your contact.

Right then, a guy with bleached hair pulls on Harry’s arm and starts dragging him towards the living room. “You gotta come here, H, they’re getting them to play ABBA and we need your voice on the floor.”

Harry laughs as his friend continues to lead him further and further away from you, his feet shuffling against the hardwood floor as he hurries to catch up. Right before he turns the corner, he looks back at you, his hair slightly messed up and his eyes sparkling with excitement. 

“Thanks, love!” He yells over the crowd, giggling when his friend pulls on his arm harder. “See you Saturday!”

2.

“Fuck, Jeff is going to kill me,” Harry says when the two of you finally make it to the train station. You’d lost track of time during your date and now he was fifteen minutes late to his own show. Since it was the evening, LA traffic was in full swing, and the metro was his only hope for making it to the venue on time to take the stage after his opener.

“You sure you can’t come with me?” He asked you, hurriedly trying to add a metro card to the wallet on his phone. The two of you watched as the screen loaded slowly.

“I want to, but I don’t really feel like seeing our faces on a gossip site tomorrow morning,” you said sheepishly, “and I was kind of looking forward to having a quiet night in.”

“No, you’re right,” Harry said, “but I have to say a night with me is much more preferable than your bed and ten episodes of a Netflix Original.”

“Shut up,” you laughed, shoving Harry in the chest. His t-shirt was soft and worn, which made sense since it clearly seemed to be a vintage tour shirt for a band you didn’t recognize.

Harry’s card finally loaded and he used it to get through the turnstile. You followed closely behind him, since the train you took to get home had a stop at the same station. You checked the transit app on your phone: the next one was coming two minutes after Harry’s train.

Harry stepped on the train as soon as it pulled up, the tracks leaving a gap between your bodies. His limbs were long enough that he could rest his hands on your shoulders as the train stalled. “Did you have fun on our date, or are you still convinced it was a prank?”

You raised an eyebrow at him, feeling a warm sense of comfort from his touch. You thought you saw a girl pull her phone out in the corner of your eye, her camera obviously directed towards the two of you. Harry notices this motion too, glancing at her briefly, then returning his attention to you. He doesn’t seem to care.

“You’re probably going to have to take me out on another one before I decide,” you flirt back. Harry’s eyes light up in challenge, and he looks down at you in amusement, the corner of his lips quirking up in a playful grin. He smells like clean laundry and lavender. Removing one hand from your shoulder, he squishes the tip of your nose.

“What was that for?” You asked. The conductor standing behind Harry stops looking around the station and tucks his head back in the window, signaling that the train was going to leave soon.

“Dunno,” Harry says, trying his best to shrug with his hands still on your body. “You’re so cute. I love it.”

You roll your eyes at him playfully and the train moves forward ever-so-slightly. Startled by the movement, Harry suddenly cups both sides of your face with his hands. He presses a kiss to your lips, and it’s so brief and gentle that you don’t register what just happened until after he pulls away.

You open your eyes and Harry is smiling at you from six feet away, his train pulling away from the station. Your hair whips around in the wind and he waves at you, one hand pressed to the glass window in the middle of the doors.

“See you soon,” he mouths, and you stand there dumbly until your train arrives, wondering what the hell just happened.

3.

“Styles.” You said seriously, pinning your boyfriend down into the couch. The two of you were sitting in his green room, trying to pass the awkward amount of break time that he had between soundcheck and when he actually had to be ready and dressed for stage. “What did you just say?”

“Nothing,” Harry replied defensively. “You heard nothing.”

You pressed his arms deeper into the couch, kneeling on both sides of his body. The loose front strands of your hair dangled above him, and Harry tried to swat them away, blinking rapidly as they brushed against his face. You laughed and grabbed the hood of Harry’s sweatshirt out from under his body, then pulled it over his hair. You reached for his hoodie strings and tightened them, the fabric closing over Harry’s face so that only his nose and lips remained in view.

“Y/N,” Harry tried to reach for you, but he couldn’t see and had terrible accuracy. You tied the strings of his hoodie in a large bow, then leaned back and admired your work. You looked at your boyfriend as he tried to untie the knot, his hands fumbling around in the air as if he were a baby. Here you were, traveling the world with the boy you loved, (although he didn’t know that just yet.) It was strange how much your life had changed in six months, all because of a party you almost didn’t go to.

“Tell me what you said and I’ll let you go,” you said, flopping your body on top of Harry’s. You rested your chin on the top part of his chest so you could look up at him. He looked impossibly cute all wrapped up in his sweatshirt.

“IsaidIloveyou,” He mumbled.

“What?”

“I said,” Harry enunciated clearly, slowly dragging out the syllables. “I love you.”

You giggled, then pulled at the ends of one of the strings in order to untie the knot. You grabbed both sides of the hood, pulling at them lightly to loosen it. When Harry’s face finally appeared out from under the fabric, he grabbed at one of the decorative pillows on his side and threw it at you.

“You’re not gonna say it back?” He pouted at you, his hair now adorably messed up. You pulled the pillow he just threw at you into your lap and looked at your nails, making a show of ignoring him.

“Babeee,” Harry whined, pushing you up against the other side of the couch. You laughed again and threw an arm over his shoulder, twirling your fingers around the curls growing behind his ears.

“I love you too.”

#harry styles #harry styles x y/n #harry styles x you #harry styles x reader #harry styles imagine #harry styles fluff #harry styles fic #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles headcanon #harry styles fic rec

[lvminae]

How about Alastor? :P

These answers aren't spoiler free!

My first impression:

It's so hard to say cause that was all the way back in 2019... as far I can recall, he was an immediate fave.

My impression now:

STILL VERY MUCH A FAVE, NOW WITH CONTEXT BEHIND IT. He was already really endearing to me with his sarcasm and clear hidden power (I love me a good villain), the design, etc. Seeing a bit more of his personality ('you don't have to fuck to be fab' from the VA trying to excuse this deer's fruity ass behavior in the episode 7 preview I love it), seeing what gets to him as a character, finding out that he's also got some pretty fucked up shit happening to him? I want to unravel this man like a ball of string.

Favorite thing about that character:

I can't choose one I love so much about him... TBH I think the potential of him might be it. With what we have been given I have so many thoughts and hopes about him. Whether canon lives up to expectations or blows me away, I'll have a lot of fun with him.

Least favorite thing:

If his trivia page is to believed, my man apparently has rancid dental hygiene. I choose to Ignore it.

Favorite line/scene:

So far it is tied between what we saw in the episode 7 preview and his reaction to Husk saying that he is on a leash. Love my man being so close to Losing It.

Favorite interaction that character has with another:

Calling Husk his pet. His little near sing song exclamation of that made my brain go a little rabid.

A character that I wish that character would interact with more:

All of them.... Husk and Niffty, or a focus on Husk. Husk seems to know quite a bit about Al and even (sometimes) has the balls to stand up to him. I want to see more of that.

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character:

Snatcher. It doesn't help that Husk reminds me of Conductor and I dig a fan dynamic of Snatcher doing Soul Shenanigans with the Conductor.

A headcanon about that character:

He has a tail. I think that has been confirmed as not true but you can rip that tail from my cold dead hands.

A song that reminds of that character:

I haven't actually found any that remind me of him that aren't ABOUT him because the genres he likes are outside of my preferred listening range.

I'm gonna link the Time Warp though because I think the music at least is up his alley.

An unpopular opinion about that character:

I don't know what the popular or unpopular opinions are, cause I look for fanart/fan writing and avoid everything else like the plague... A lot of people seem to really be clinging to the idea of him being like a father to Charlie thanks to ep 5, and while it is cute and I wholeheartedly support the content and want more....

That whole debacle was NOT Alastor wanting to be seen as a father figure. It was 100% to get under Lucifer's skin since Luci just completely undermines him/his power (I also have theories about it that can not currently be confirmed so..) Dad!Alastor is great but that's just the Incorrect interpretation canonically speaking.

I still will happily enjoy the fancontent though.

Favorite picture:

HIS LITTLE KICKS

#asher.txt #asks #hazbin hotel #alastor #hazbin hotel spoilers #SORRY I FORGOT TO TAG THAT Y'ALL MY BAD

[ninjadeathblade]

Moulin Rouge Discotrain AU (part ten)

Summary: (Post-game canon) The Conductor and DJ Grooves agree to finally work on a movie together. They come up with 'Moulin Rouge', a musical drama filled with romance. Over time the two directors grow closer and discover that maybe they don't hate each other as much.

Beginning | Previous | Next

Word count: 853

Warnings: None

Author's notes: I wasn't going to post this up just yet but I feel like I shouldn't leave people on a cliffhanger with the sort of two part piece next. I now have another OC (the collection grows) so meet Cody!

Grooves fidgeted in his seat, unable to stop stressing.

Conductor rested a hand over one of his flippers.

"Quit it. Yer making me nervous too," the owl hissed.

The two of them had agreed to an interview with the press about their new movie.

They'd agreed to only talk to one interviewer, who would pose questions from fans and different news companies.

Which was why Grooves and Conductor were sat side by side, awaiting the questions that would be posed to them.

The cat that was acting as their interviewer seemed nice enough and excited to meet them. They had black fur like most of the Metro cats but had green eyes instead of the usual yellow.

"I'm sorry. I can't help it," Grooves replied.

"If it's about you being Christian then don't worry. You were the perfect choice for his role," Conductor comforted.

Grooves shot his companion a small smile.

"And we're going live in five, four, three, two, one-" the camera person counted the in.

"Hi, I'm Cody and I'm here today with esteemed directors The Conductor and DJ Grooves! We're going to be talking about their new collaborative movie Moulin Rouge," Cody started. "But first off, how are you two doing today?"

"Good," they replied in unison.

"So, what's it like working with each other? Cody asked. "Your infamous rivalry seems to have been pushed aside for this project."

"It's pretty fun actually," Grooves answered, looking over at Conductor.

"I don't know if we have a rivalry anymore, to be honest. This peck neck has actually been half decent. I can see myself workin' with him again sometime," Conductor admitted, looking over at Grooves as he said it.

Cody smiled as the two birds looked back over at them. "And what are your roles? It's well known you always play roles in your movies."

"I won't be starring," Conductor responded. "But Grooves here is going to be starring as one of the main characters. He's the perfect person I could've cast."

Grooves' breathing sped up, chest tightening again.

Cody's and Conductor's words faded into the background as he tried to keep his breathing even, tried to refocus.

But he couldn't. Grooves couldn't drag himself out of the pressure that he felt like drowning in.

What if he couldn't live up to Conductor's expectations?

He forced himself back into focus when someone tapped him on the shoulder.

The penguin looked over at the owl, who had a sympathetic look about him.

"Back with us?" Conductor asked gently, keeping his voice quiet enough that only Grooves could hear him.

"Yeah. Sorry. How much did I miss?" Grooves frowned, keeping his voice at an equal level.

"A bit but it's fine. You clearly weren't feelin' great. Don't worry about it," Conductor reassured, his thumb gently rubbing circles into Grooves' shoulder.

"What's happening now?"

"Advert break. We've got a few more minutes until the second half," Conductor explained.

Grooves sighed, closing his eyes behind his sunglasses.

"Or…we could just leave."

Grooves opened his eyes and looked at his friend.

"We can't do that. You worked so hard to get this interview on our terms," Grooves protested. "Connie, you can't-"

"But yer not happy. You did something for me when I was sad. So I owe you one," Conductor interrupted, standing and pulling Grooves up with him. "Come on. We can go the cinema. On me this time."

Grooves chuckled. "And what's the press going to think of the fact that we both ran off in the middle of an interview?"

"Peck it. I want to make you happy."

"Fine then."

"Let's go."

Conductor held onto Grooves' arm, dragging the penguin back to the room they'd left their things in.

"Oh, hey guys, do you need to go?" Cody asked.

"Yes. Urgent business, you know how it is," Conductor lied, picking up his satchel.

"Oh well, good luck! Can't wait to see the movie when it comes out." Cody offered a grin.

"Bye darling," Grooves said quickly before Conductor dragged him out the building.

"It's not like we have to go so fast," Grooves laughed as the two of them walked quickly down the street.

Conductor slowed down before coming to a stop. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine."

"It kind of works that we left. They're showing one of my movies and one of your movies back to back at the cinema," Conductor said, letting go of Grooves and walking slower down the street.

"You planned this, didn't you?" Grooves questioned, catching up to Conductor.

The owl stared down at the street as they walked.

"Perhaps. But I knew you probably wouldn't enjoy the interview. So I timed it that we would only have to be there for the first half then we could leave and go to the cinema," Conductor explained.

Grooves put a flipper on Conductor's shoulder, forcing the owl to stop.

His co-director looked up at him, jaw tensed.

"It's kind of you. Thanks Connie."

"Shut up peck neck."

Grooves snickered, picking up Conductor's hat off his head. "Very kind of you."

Conductor scowled up at him, swiping his hat back.

"Not kind."

#ahit #a hat in time #discotrain #dj grooves #the conductor #ahit oc #ahit au #ahit conductor #ahit dj grooves #ahit moulin rouge au #moulin rouge discotrain au

[purble-gaymer]

THOSE LAST COUPLE CHAPTERS HIT HARD

I just got caught up on your fic and I always oh so love the interactions between the three knight bros. I also adored how you wrote the interactions between Meta Knight and Dedede. I'm a huge fan of redededemption arc and it's why in my hcs I count (an altered version of) the anime as a precursor to the games. I really think that anime Dedede gets a little more hate than he should. He's selfish and a jerk but he's been like that in the games too. I don't like it when people characterize anime Dedede as truly evil and undeserving of redemption because he's meant to be seen more as downright childlike to a fault, even having fits and not being able to read. He's more negligent of real danger even when he's the one causing it than he is downright cruel, and that was proven in the episode where he really thought Kirby died (which was actually a pretty fucked up thing to pull imo). My point is that I think that's exactly how Meta Knight sees him in the anime. Bothersome, spoiled, and a conductor for events that become far more serious than he ever thinks they are. Truly, Dedede has no idea what he's up against with Nightmare, and Meta Knight doesn't hold him responsible for that. He's just there to make sure nothing goes too wrong and shrugs off the childlike berating Dedede gives him afterwards. But for all of that Dedede never stays mad at Meta Knight, and likewise Meta Knight looks out for Dedede in a way by also making sure his exploits don't go out of hand and harm him (since he knows Dedede is playing with fire when it comes to the monsters). Even for the flawed parts of anime Dedede's characterization he's just an immature king who isn't actually that much of a feal threat, just like in the games -- and Meta Knight is his loyal knight who puts up with his antics. Sorry for the drabble but again my point is I just felt like you nailed their interactions PERFECTLY. I can absolutely see in your writing the potential for how their friendship would grow overtime. All the characters really are just silly fellas, reading them gives off those same vibes from the anime. Anyway, I just wanted to compliment you over that .o.

uwhjg. thank you !!😭 dedede has always been a fun character to write whether it’s a serious scene or a silly one, and i wanted to set them on the same course they take in the games. of course, it’ll still be a long time before everyone sets aside their differences enough to become friends, but it’s a start. matching the characterization of the show while doing everything i wanted to was a challenge, but it’s good to hear it paid off! dedede is misled and inexperienced, but he’s still dedede. there are inklings of the character we know today, it’ll just take time for him to grow from his original characterization. like, it takes until triple deluxe for kirby and dedede to really work together. now that nightmare’s gone, it’ll probably follow a similar course.

i’ve had one or two people mention leading up to 93 that not a lot of writers look at mk & ddd’s relationship in too much depth, and i agree. i didn’t get into is as much as i would’ve liked to, but i tried to include it whenever i could because they’re so interesting. you see them hanging out like friends but you also see them constantly denying the other’s wishes and fighting about it later. not to mention the whole ‘let’s blow up the halberd’ debacle. we’ll talk about that another day. but to my original point, dedede gets shelved a lot in favor of developing other characters and it’s a shame. he’d be just as important after nme’s destruction. he’s still got kirby to deal with, after all. it’s not like he and meta knight never interact, either. i’ve inserted a lot of scenes but there are plenty of times mk just shows up in the throne room to ask about something. even things like mk helping dedede with his plan to get kirby into the grand prix in 35/36 are suggested by the fact dedede and escargoon are in the storage room with him when he talks to kirby. these scenes are really only baseless in episodes where the knights don’t appear at all (i’m pretty sure they aren’t actually in 93).

i’d like to say dedede starts to realize just how serious things are after 89 because of the whole…incident with mk, but because that didn’t really happen, it’s not reflected in the show. maybe it’s more in the back of his mind, sort of a ‘no, that can’t be right!’ thought that he can’t quite dismiss. by the time the destroya come along, he just goes along with things because he wants to stop the attack. he certainly understands the danger once they’re at there fortress, so he has to have realized at some point. i think meta knight also starts to gain a level of respect for him after my made-up 89 epilogue, if only because he brought him back to sword and blade to make sure he was safe after. they wouldn’t have fought so openly in 93 if it were the beginning of the show—dedede might’ve been a little upset, but what’s it matter? meta knight is just another soldier under his lead. they’ve been through a lot by the end, and they’re going to go through more.

i wish the show gave them more interactions. i think that’s part of the problem. all you really see of them is mk asking questions from time to time, and it doesn’t establish anything beyond their usual fronts. it feels uninteresting and surface-level. but there’s so much more there that can be brought out simply by removing them from the situation and letting them talk on their own.

shit i just thought of something so i’m gonna talk a little more—the opening of 60 is sort of a fun example. their interaction is very short, but shows a lot. dedede and escargoon come into the courtyard with their destroyed car, and dedede shouts for meta knight to get down there and help. sure, it can be read as a nothing command, but it’s also a declaration of ‘this is serious, we need /your/ help because i know you know what you’re doing.’ he doesn’t call for the waddle dees to line up at the gate and prepare to battle, he calls for meta knight’s help specifically. (i’m pretty sure sirica asks about star warriors before blasting them, but i’m not sure she ever says mk’s name. they probably don’t know she’s actively looking for him at this point.)

i wanted to express everyone as having room to change, because that’s part of what the series is about. it’s about love and it’s about change, and even if the anime isn’t so bubbly bright and happy as the games, the anime is about that, too. they all have their own lives and they all have places they’re going, even if we don’t get to see what happens after they get home to dreamland. these aren’t static characters, as simple as they seem. they have history, they’re layered, and yes, they are very, very silly. letting that potential go ignored would be a crime, wouldn’t it?

#asks #borbology #yeah so this got long and rambly which was my intention #however my intention was not the essay-like conclusion. my bad #that just happens whenever i write for too long #long post #uhhh #wwtmk

[thebunniesgrim]

Ok so like part 1 go to part one for context

3!

Clothing!

But they don't say alot about her to me it's just a crop top with Mickey Mouse buttons and torn pants. Also it's just plain black :/

Lol her outfit is so black she camouflaged into the background of the wiki I nabbed these pictures from...

Anyway with Moxxie's outsit I looks professional and business ready he even looks like music conductor.

I'm not sure how I'd dress millie, but I think I'd make her outfit less black add more colors to compliment the red of her skin

you know?

I suppose the ripped pants show that she's rough

Maybe put her in practical clothes or she still wears clothes like how she did when she still lived with her family

But I honestly think viv is better at designing male characters they look awesome in they're outfits. See look

helluva boss characters

Male Female

Idk about you but it seems like the Male character look more appealing and to me

The male characters get more detailed they're seen in brighter colors they just look better

And don't get me wrong Sally Mae and verosika are a definitely a slay and a bucket of paint but they're outfits are SO boring to me

Even fan fav loona her outfit is very boring to me it's just shorts and crop top... if she's so goth and rebellious why are her clothes so normal?

If Blitzo and Stolas were women how different do you think they'd be? Or would viv do what she did with Angel Dust and said step the female protag for the more popular male counter part maybe Moxxie or Fizzarolli (if introduced earlier) would be helluva's Angle Dust.

( I think Fizzarolli is already hellua's Angel Dust after the Fizzarolli eps for S2 are done I think alot of people are going to stop watching. )

Also is it just me or does viv use brid logic for her character designs?

Like male birds or colorful and female birds or dull and gray

Because most of the female characters in Helluva have like 2 or maybe 4 colors

Millie is mostly red and black. She also has buttons, a tooth gap and a tattoo. Also very few white spots with how violent and rough she is I'm surprised she doesn't have more

Moxxie has black, white, yellow and whatever off blackish blue color his suit jacket is. Moxxie also has freckles, his bow tie, his buttons. It's just more detailed

What I'm saying is male characters are just better designed even Vortex has way more detailed than loona... wait

You know what!?

Even Beelzebub!

Bee and Loona have the same fucking outfit! Just different colors, and Loona's shorts has distress on the bottom and they're crop tops have different straps but other than that pretty much the same outsit to me!

OH LOOK!

Even the sinners! like lyel and loopty look way better than Mrs./Ms. Mayberry

Mrs. Mayberry is just in the outfit she died in but her hair is a different color and her clothes torn this there's barely anything to her old job as teacher

And it's not like she didn't have time change clothes she was in hell long enough for Martha to recover with should have taken at least a while

And lyel and loopty just came with they're outfits and what I'm assuming is they're ship.

And this isn't just helluva boss it's hazbin as well vaggie and Charlie's outfits are so boring to me

Like

Pilot

Official (I think)

I even personally think Katie Killjoy, Tom Trench, Cherry Bomb, and Sir. pentious

are also victims of this lets be honest with each other Tom and Pentious have better designs that Katie and Cherry. (I mean with they're respective person like Tom and Katie and Pentious and cherry. I'd pick cherry over tom and so would Tom)

I mean come on Charlie's outfits is literally just bell hops uniform! Where's her glam! The spark?

4.

Small character quirks!

Like how moxxie has that possum thing going

Or Stolas botany thing

Or Blitzo's horse thing

Or Blitzo breaking his phone

Or Blitzo being sleazy

Or blizto being mean

Don't mean make her like Apple Jack from my little pony where country is a part of her personality. I mean what she had a small smoking thing or she had a random thing about gum flavors. It seem only important characters get little hobbies or interests.

But yeah! That's just stuff I'd change or add to make Millie even better than she already is

#helluva boss critical #helluva boss #helluva millie #helluva boss millie

[movietonight]

Since it’s still Disability Pride Month I decided to share this relevant 2008 interview between blind journalist David Block and David Ogden Stiers 

David Ogden Stiers’ impressive 30 plus year acting career spans Broadway,

concert halls, movies and television. He has worked with Hollywood

A-listers such as Woody Allen, Tom Hanks, and Jim Carrey. He has been the

Associate Conductor for the Newport Symphony Orchestra for over 15 years.

He has also lent his distinctive voice to numerous PBS documentaries and

the 2006 motion picture Lady in the Water. However, despite his remarkable

and varied career, he is probably best remembered for his brilliant

portrayal of the tough, yet sometimes sensitive war-time physician, Major

Charles Emerson Winchester III on M*A*S*H from 1977 through 1983.

Stiers’ illustrious career makes him a household name and face. But, what

fans may not know about him is that he stuttered throughout his childhood,

adolescence, and even into his early acting career. Stiers said that being

an actor helped cure him.

“I didn’t stutter when the lines were written for me,” said Stiers.

“Without lines to read was another story. One day, I noticed that I wasn’t

stuttering anymore, with or without lines. I overcame it by not giving up,

by continuing to play roles, and by overcoming my fear of saying something

wrong, or sounding stupid.”

The fact that he stuttered was not his sole reason for compassionately

portraying people with disabilities.

Stiers said: “The task of loving people doesn’t have to do with their worst

aspects. It has to do with their best aspects. My feeling, we’re all the

same person but differently expressed. There’s some things I can do others

can’t, vise versa. We’re all accomplished. We’re all on the earth, and the

more we help each other get our tasks accomplished, the better our lives.”

This was exuded when he portrayed Dan Franklin, a special education teacher

in the 1977 movie, A Circle of Children. One of the themes of the movie

included special education teachers helping autistic children reach their

full potential.

While preparing for the movie the cast visited a classroom for autistic

children.

“We sat in the class with them,” said Stiers. “We sat on the floor with the

class. We did a lot with them.”

None of the children who appeared in the movie were autistic.

Being in the movie was not the only time that Stiers

interacted with autistic people. While on M*A*S*H, Stiers and other cast

members frequently interacted with William Christopher’s autistic son, Ned.

Christopher, who was the compassionate Father Mulcahy on M*A*SH, often

brought Ned to the set.

“Ned was beginning to function pretty well,” said Stiers. “Whenever Ned

felt comfortable enough to come over to a group of people who were talking,

he was immediately included. Ned was an intelligent young man who thought

at a rate of speed that I could never do.”

In 1976 and 1977 Stiers guest starred on The Mary Tyler Moore show, three

times, portraying the WJM Station Manager Mel Price, who happened to

stutter. At the time, Stiers stopped stuttering.

“I auditioned for the role and because it was terribly easy for me to

stutter realistically, they hired me.”

Stiers summed up Mel Price as being a falsely nice person. Stiers said that

this was particularly evident in episode 157, “Look at Us, We’re Walking.”

In that show, Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) and Lou Grant (Ed Asner)

told Mel Price that if they didn’t get a raise, they’d quit. Price refused

and they walked out. At the end of the episode, Price asked them to return

and he even promised them a raise.

Stiers said: “that episode was like a forecast of what was to come in

corporate America. ‘You put in some good work; we’ll kill your 401k. If you

don’t like that, if you get upset and walk away, we won’t care. We’ll hire

someone better qualified for less money. If you want to go, then go!’

That’s pretty much how I view corporate business now. I don’t think that

they care about middle management or medium numbers staff.”

While on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Stiers learned from the M*A*S*H writers

and producers that Larry Linville, who played Major Frank Burns, was

leaving the series and they hired Stiers to replace him.

“They wanted to keep the character number in tact,” said Stiers.

Although there were a number of episodes when Winchester was incredibly

benevolent, two of them dealt with him helping disabled soldiers.

In episode 188, “Morale Victory,” Winchester was kind to Private David

Sheridan (James Stephens) who thought that his dream of being a concert

pianist was ruined because of his permanently injured hand. Winchester

showed Sheridan that he could still pursue a meaningful music career, and

that his dream could never be silenced unless he allowed it to be.

“That episode was actually an idea and a present from Loretta Swit,” said

Stiers. Swit, who played Major Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan, had the idea

of having an affair with Private Sheridan but changed her mind because her

character had had flings with other wounded

Stiers said that the producers did not develop that episode because Stiers

used to stutter or because he portrayed Mel Price.

soldiers. Swit wondered who else could have a rapport with him. She knew

that Stiers studied at Julliard, so he became her obvious choice. She took

her idea to the producers and they liked it.

“They told me this was from Loretta,” said Stiers. “That was the hardest I

ever hugged her.”

“There are those serendipitous overlap realities that don’t actually know

one another,” said Stiers.

In 1987, four years after M*A*S*H ended, Stiers appeared on Matlock in

episode 26 “Blind Justice.” Stiers portrayed Arthur Hampton, a blind

sculptor who committed murder.

In episode 244, “Run for the Money” Winchester befriended Private Walter

Palmer (Phil Brock) who stuttered. Winchester told Palmer that from reading

his record, he knew that he had an incredibly high I.Q. To prove this, he

gave Palmer his copy of Moby Dick and told him that that the book was

worthy of his intelligence. When Private Palmer asked Winchester why he was

being so nice to him, Winchester changed the subject.

At the end of the episode, Winchester returned to his tent and played a

tape that his sister Honoria mailed him. She stuttered.

Stiers explained why Winchester refused to tell Palmer why he was being

kind and supportive: “It was part of the character trait that Winchester

would NEVER admit that he had been kind to someone. He would never admit

that that kindness came from a part of his heart that was wounded by

someone else’s trouble. He would not admit to things like moments of

compassion or insight. He maintained that awful glacial exterior.”

“The producers hired for me a blind advisor to be on the set,” said Stiers.

“She was a wonderful young lady with a gorgeous golden retriever, whose

name was unfortunately Andy. (There were two Andy(s) on the set, the Seeing

Eye dog and Matlock’s star, Andy Griffith.) I was not adept to being around

people with disabilities, never attaching my stuttering as a kid to anyone

else’s. I thought that I would never understand anyone else’s problems.

That changed when I was on Matlock. It was opening my head and my heart;

getting on with the empathy that we all need to bring to bear on getting

along with each other.” On the Matlock set, Stiers committed a memorably

embarrassing faux pas: “I would finish rehearsing a scene; I’d walk to the

woman and ask, `How did I look? Did I do everything right?’ I forgot that

she couldn’t see. She forgave me. We became good friends.”

Stiers’ advice to all aspiring actors and musicians, both able-bodied

and/or with disabilities is the same…… never give up!

#this is the interview that is cited in that one metv article and it was a little tough to find the whole thing #mash #disability pride month #david ogden stiers #I just copy pasted the interview as it was on the website #so any formatting issues aren't my fault #speech impediment #blindness #autism #disability

[widevibratobitch]

what/who is your fav don giovanni. mine is muti with shimell. but no one beats siepi in acting. kwicien maybe

ohhhhhhh bless you for asking me this <3333 under the cut so as not to spam

i gotta say, I have a soft spot for Mariusz Kwiecień (he was my very first Don Giovanni, actually - that Met 2011 production was the very thing that got me into opera in the first place!), he's definitely THE best 21st century Don Giovanni to me. Acting-wise he's absolutely breathtaking and even if he cannot compare vocally with the old giants like Siepi I'd say he was pretty decent (i'm so weak for him singing that one ✨andiam✨ in La ci darem la mano in falsetto - he always does it and my legs always turn to jelly in that moment). Saw him perform it live only once and that was the moment i truly understood what the word katharsis meant. fucking CHILLS.

I really, really love Samuel Ramey (especially when paired up with young Furlanetto!). That hair, the little earring, that insane stage presence and energy. Also I don't think I've ever heard another rendition of Fin ch'han dal vino that would be as precise as his. It's a devilishly difficult aria, especially when done in the proper tempo, there is quite literally no space to breathe, it's insane - god knows I'm not an easy listener and bitching about opera singers is my personal hobby; but in the case of this one aria I am very forgiving and I usually just expect the singer to fuck it up with no hard feelings from me - but Ramey doesn't miss a single note!

And of course, of course - Cesare Siepi. I think he's the most legendary Don Giovanni and no wonder really. He's amazing, simple as that.

There are many good Giovannis out there, but those free are my personal favourites - though bonus points for... Bryn Terfel. I'm not a huge fan of his singing but that dude can act. Not to be a mean bitch lol but he obviously wouldn't be anyone's first choice (definitely not mine) for a character like Don Giovanni appearance-wise. AND YET - he somehow makes it work... chapeau bas (talking about that Met DG under Levine - say what you want about Levine, I hate that bitch as much as the next person, but he's one of my favourite conductors for both Mozart and Verdi... yikes).

if we're talking specific recordings... I don't have a perfect one, I'll always find something that I'd change, whether it be tempo or a singer. But yeah, I'm also really fond of that Muti recording! The tempi are insane sometimes, some are even faster than what I'd set myself and that's honestly impressive, brave and so so sexy of Muti fr. I think if I had to choose just one recording, that would be it. The cast is also good, especially the ladies. Vaness as Elvira (she's absolutely stunning, also as Anna with the amazing Jerry Hadley in that one Met Recording - also with Ramey and Furlanetto - she's THE soprano for all Mozart roles for me, her Fiordiligi and Vitellia are also legendary), Studer as Anna and I really like the Zerlina, I'm so tired of squeaky meowing Zerlinas like Battle and the whole gang...

Another two I like, though perhaps more for the singers than the conducting itself, are the one with Ramey as Giovanni, Furlanetto as Leporello, Agnes Baltsa as Elvira and Gösta Winbergh as Ottavio under Karajan and one with Sherrill Milnes as Giovanni, Walter Berry as Leporello and Żylis-Gara as Elvira under Böhm. I generally tend to concentrate on the singers more and only really notice the conducting when it's so awful that I just can't look past it lol

wow, that was long, weird, who would have thought that you'd get a long answer from me to a Don Giovanni related question huh

#if i had to choose my favourite tempi - it'd be that 2011 Met recording conducted by Fabio Luisi. BUT i am aware i am very biased #since this recording was my very very first and i used to listen to it daily when i was 13. it's just embedded into my brain ok. #forever. #looking at it now. by god do i notice its faults. the singing is so bad at times it's actually quite funny ashgsjsgs #but i have such a strong emotional connection to it... i will love it with my whole heart till the day i die. #the unmatched energy Kwiecień and Pisaroni have there has forever ruined all Don Giovanni-Leporello duos for me. #also Barbara Frittoli's Elvira made me finally realise I was bisexual and my tumblr url is also a fruit of my then-obsession with her lol #anyway person who asked this question i am kissing you on the mouth thank you for giving me an opportunity to talk about dg #it's been too long #don giovanni #opera tag

[nicoscheer]

SCULPTURES OF ANYTHING GOES AS OPENER FOR THEIR THIRD GLASTO HEADLINER

1. Sculptures

2. Brianstorm

3. Snap

4. Chair

5. Crying lightning

6. Teddy picker (when I get bent over?!! Alex!!!) https://www.instagram.com/reel/Ct4DUGpgtMn/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== (it’s rather ‘ya’ but we can pretend)

7. Cornerstone (I knew she’d understand instead of thought/she didn’t say that whooo, I just added that for you you’re welcome)

Interlude something about water by Alex on the piano (get this man his water he’s thirsty)

8. Why’d you only call me when you’re high (having mad instead of bad ideas/ plus epic pose)

Shout out by Alex for Space pictures

9. Arabella

10. Four out of five (loving butt slap for Cookie by Alex/ why don’t you come and stay with ME/ effective very effective what a night what a night, yeah man)

Smiling Alex

Angelic Alex

11. Pretty visitors (now’s me chance x3= rushing off to bowl and it’s a strike= happy little Alex jumping back on stage and then his mic was shut off for a sec there 🤣)

12. Fluorescent Adolescent (some kisses and a thank you from Alex)

Oh god he looks so baby in that picture

13. Perfect sense (another thank you 🥹)

Pouty mouth (he does look tired)

14. Do I wanna know (afterwards “astonishing”/ how are you feeling everybody *cheers* well I’m delighted about that)

15. Mardy Bum (thank you/ alright let’s leave the past behind)

16. There’d better be a mirrorball (conductor Alex at the beginning/ hey HEY at the end)

17. 505 (without Miles 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭his first note sounded so unsure/ the in ears only now getting removed gotta be a new record/ thank you for having us everybody it’s the Arctic monkeys/ so predictable I know what you’re thinking whoo)

18. Body Paint

Encore

19. I wanna be yours (Matt and backup sang and played I wanna be yours (second verse)while Alex sang STAR TREATMENT (first verse)/ thank you thank you very much) (for a second we had “Miles” there)(the Glastonbury special surprise; also genius move to reclaim IWBY from TikTok by hijacking it with TBHC)

A video of that beautiful medley

“Who are you gonna call the Martini police the who?”

20. I bet you look good on the dance floor (Matt having mic problems and some vocal ones aswell(sounded like a scratchy throat))

“We are gonna leave you now we can’t stay with you anymore but fank you for having us something tells me…something tells me that you’re gonna be okay good night”

21. R U MINE?

I mean I know it’s basically literally their normal concert playlist apart from that I wanna be yours/ star treatment medley (which was out of this world 🌚;)) but I still loved it apart from that heartbreak with 505 cause honestly don’t care what they play I’m still loving it and having a blast, great tunes great vocals an amazing night spent in front of the laptop screaming along (what if they had planned a different set list (in 2013 Alex said “that’s what we’re gonna do tonight everyone. we are gonna play some new shit. We’re gonna play some old shit. We are gonna play some things that are just Glastonbury specials, do you know what I’m saying”) but due to Alex falling sick they didn’t have time to practice so they settled for their usual setlist?) (genuinely feel sorry for Elton John and his humongous set cause i doubt that anybody can scream along on Sunday still)

And I love how all the real fans can easily agree that it was a fantastic gig while the TikTok fans and dark fruit lovers are whining in their mum’s basement how they didn’t just play do I wanna know and snap out of it in 10 different versions and how dare Alex that his voice and taste in music evolved and that they didn’t try and emulate the phenomenal, seminal career changing Glasto 2013 🤣🤣

Opening

Do I wanna know

Mardy Bum via BBCradio1

I bet you look good on the dance floor

The BBC intern having some fun ( he’s gonna get tacos on the well reviewed taqueria of course)

WARNING !! do not look at the comments 🤢 you don’t wanna see that shitshow that some ‘fans’ pull but I guess some people just can’t be satisfied cause their own lives are so shit that they have to lash out at whoever is available

Rock band Arctic Monkeys’ headline set on Friday night was watched by an average of 1.5million viewers on BBC One.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct3ngjTLG7R/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

https://www.instagram.com/p/CuG4TRQLpjM/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

https://www.instagram.com/p/Ct_-x1NtosH/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

The full audio of Arctic Monkeys’ Glastonbury 2023 set

#Glastonbury 2023 #alex turner #arctic monkeys #I’m no expert but his voice sounds good so grateful he does this #he’s playing around again so I guess he’s really all fine again #why is whoever is responsible for the song titles so much slower than me 🤣 #dang are there many kids in the audience (literally children) #either it’s the livestream I’m staring at or there are actually some technical difficulties with the volumes and feedbacks #and we are far into overtime surprise 🤣 #Jo immediately praising them the setlist and their vocals afterwards is so real go girl #Jo just casually saying they are her babies before the set 😭 #so happy that all the reports and articles so far are glorious and praising the boys to the sky how they should and deserve it #Instagram #I love R U MINE? but at the same time loathe it cause then I now it’s over and that just isn’t okay #also cool to know that måneskin watched the AM and Lana set and that Damiano met Alex (would really like to know how that went) #cause both Victoria and Damiano posted videos of it but we also have an older pic of Ethan with Miles Kane mercy #Alex Turner der hottie (my friends reply to my livestream pic of Alex)

[ariel-seagull-wings]

FICTIONAL CHARACTER ASK: ZOOT

Asked by @fragglesesamemuppetz2

@princesssarisa @softlytowardthesun @the-blue-fairie @themousefromfantasyland @thealmightyemprex @moonbeamelf

Favorite Thing About Them: He is a Muppet with jewish cultural heritage who can play classical music, jazz and rock and roll, jams with the gang of the Electric Mayhem, Rowlf the Dog and the Muppet Theater Orchestra, is ditzy and constantly falling aesleep while still showing a sensitive and empathetic personality to the other characters and is overall very chill despite all the surrounding chaos when the Muppets have to work and put it on a show.

Least Favorite Thing About Them: The version of his character design that makes him a weird tone of brown rather than blue in some scenes and the ending credits of the original Muppet Show was just ugly to look at, it seemed like it was a puppet whose fabric was getting consumed by mold.

Three Things I Have In Common With Them:

*I enjoy a dirt joke on some ocasions;

*I can be a bit ditzy;

*I have jewish heritage;

Three Things I Don't Have In Common With Them:

*I don't play the saxophone;

*I'm not precociously bald;

*I don't wear sunglasses on my eyes all the time;

Favorite Line:

From the TV special The Muppets at the Walt Disney World:

"It is written: a zebra and a geranium should never use the same toothbrush."

This dialogue he exchanges with Dr. Teeth from the TV special A Muppet Christmas: Letters to Santa:

"Dr. Teeth: Hey Zoot, I had no idea you celebrated Hannukah!

Zoot: Shalom!"

This dialogue he exchanges with Yolanda the Rat when drawing a birthday card for Sweetums, from the 2015 ABC series the muppets. :

"Yolanda: Hey, be nice. No dirty drawings.

Zoot: Oh. I can make it look like a saxophone."

This dialogue he exchanges with Janice from the comic Treasure of Peg Leg Wilson, comenting about Animal acting all quiet and formal:

"Janice: Is it just me, or is Animal, like, looking weeeird?"

Zoot: Weird.

Janice: I mean different-from-normal weird...

Zoot: That too."

From the same comic, while he reacts to is happening to Animal

"'Sup?"

"Later, buddy."

From the comic Muppet Robin Hood, where he is a medieval rocker bard version of himself

"Thank you very much! We love you! Good night!"

"Yeah, man".

From the comic Muppet Peter Pan, where he is a retro hippie, taking the place of the native americans from the original J M Barrie play:

"Drag."

From the comic Muppet Snow White, where he played the dwarf Sleepy:

"A stone floor?! Always tought it was linoleum."

"Hey, our beds were made! Zzzzzzzzzz..."

"Wha-What?! Where are we?"

brOTP: Mahna Mahna, Rowlf the Dog, Nigel the Conductor, Crazy Harry, Dolores (Trumpet Girl), Dr. Teeth, Floyd Pepper, Janice, Lips, Clifford, Scooter, Spamela Hamderson.

OTP: Janice, Floyd Pepper, Mahna Mahna.

nOTP: Dr Teeth.

Random Headcanon: He has narcolepsy, a disorder that makes a person fall aesleep suddenly.

Unpopular Opinion: The weed and alcoholism jokes that some writers and fans make about him can get pretty weak and cheap. Like, it's likely that all the band could use weed, not just Zoot. In the muppets. first episode there is a moment where it seens he comfused a work day reunion with an AA meeting, wich I must repeat: "Alcoholism is a serious discussion, if a writer doesn't intend to develop it, maybe it shouldn’t be mentioned in a quick gag in the first place".

Song I Associate With Them:

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Theme from Love Story

Lady be Good

Sax and Violence

Honeysuckle Rose

Favorite Picture of Them:

Chilling out with his sax

With the Electric Mayhem

With his performer Dave Goelz

Playing for the flowers with his head in the clouds

A band of Zoots

As the dwarf Sleepy in poster for the comic Muppet Snow White (alongside Floyd Pepper as Grumpy, Dr. Teeth as Doc, Lips as Bashfull, Janice as Happy, Animal as Sneezy and Spamela Hamderson as Snow White)

These two fanarts by @imtoffe

#tumblr mutuals #tagged #fictional character ask #character ask meme #fragglesesamemuppetz2 #the muppet show #the muppets #the electric mayhem #zoot #Youtube

[papirouge]

whats the fnaf thing all about? i only play pokeyman and mineycrafta like a fucking child

Uuugh it's too much to explain anon 💀 if there a NINE HOURS lore video about it, that's for a reason...

But to put it simply, it started off as a dumb jumpscare bear game > Markiplier makes a viral playthrough > became one of the most successful indie game serie of the last few years. It created a whole new horror genre : Mascot Horror, and a bunch of copycats have been consistently trying to ride that way (with more or less success) : Garden of Bangtan, Poppy Playtime, Bendy and the ink machine Choo Choo Charles come to mind.

What's important to not is that FNAF wasn't supposed to have a sequel, so Scott Cawthon (its creator) creator the lore as the games went by. It's surprisingly pretty consistent (although it got retconed 2 times lol - notably in FNAF 4 which momentarily established the previous games as a dream 😅)

Scott got cancelled a few years ago after being exposed as a registered Republican. Fans (mostly left aligned zoomer) started putting parallels between the game main storyline of child sacrifice and abortion criticism (which is super based idc lol). This prompted Scott to not being directly involved in the game development but still managed their overall direction as some sort of "conductor". However he's the co author of the books....which are now part of the lore (which confused many fans bc they originally weren't).

And it's without counting the fangames (that aren't developed by Scott's team)...but that still get Scott's approval (I heard that Scott created some sort of incubator to fund teams creating those fangames) and contain lore (example: Five nights at Candy's). So FNAF lore is now spread between to "official" games, the books, the fangames.

That's why the suspicion regarding Scott's personal beliefs extend to books. Such as the B-7 book story (cowrote by Scott), where a boy mutilates himself (to become an animatronic) only to realize once as an adult and after trying to unalive himself- that it was pointless and ultimately decide to accept himself as a (hu)man👀. Many have seen an anti trans narrative and I can't blame them 👀

There are so many other things to be said abt the whole remnant/soul ties thing (that makes the animatronic come too life) but I don't want to be too long.

As goofy as it may look, FNAF tackles extremely dark things but for unlike 99% mainstream media, it doesn't glorifies or donwplay it. The moral sensibility of that gaming license is STRONG. William Afton is an AWFUL person - a CHILD MURDERER. He's not displayed as anything but that. In one fangame you literally play him in "hell" where you have to fight against all the animatronics/children he killed.

I can't help but see a message of the perversion of childhood in it. The animatronics attack you the way the human spirit of the child possessing them died : chica does it screaming because the child screamed, Foxy runs super fast bc the child died while trying to escape, Puppets is crying because the child died a slow death crying...

Here's the 9 hours video btw

Just finished it and that's the far the best FNAF lore video I've seen. It's Extremely detailed though so it's definitely longer than other FNAF lore video (that also may not take into account the latest books/fangame for example )

#answered #gaming

[earlyblackparade]

Ray Toro of My Chemical Romance

July 16, 2007 | Lisa Sharken | seymourduncan.com

Meet Ray Toro, guitarist with New Jersey’s red-hot alternative punk-pop rocker group, My Chemical Romance. We had the chance for a long distance chat before MCR hit the stage in Germany to support its highly acclaimed new disc, The Black Parade. In just a few short years that included lots of touring and self-promotion, MCR quickly grew from a local indie sensation to an international phenomenon with a loyal and ever-increasing fan base.

Toro filled us in on what inspired him during his formative years as a musician and detailed the gear he uses live. We also got the scoop on how MCR crafted its monstrous guitar tones in the studio and what’s in store for the group in 2007. There’s a lot to look forward to and no doubt that we’ll be hearing a great deal more from these Jersey boys. The future is looking bright and seems to hold even greater success for this very promising new band!

Which players had the greatest influence on your musical style? My two biggest influences have always been Randy Rhoads and Brian May. I was a fan of Randy Rhoads because he was one of the first players I can remember who mixed classical music with a metal and hard rock style of playing, and he did it very tastefully. It was really inspiring. “Dee” was just so moving because he wrote it for his mother and it was a classically-influenced piece. What I like about Brian May is that he views the guitar like an orchestra. His guitar playing is very symphonic. I’m just a huge fan of how he layers and harmonizes things like an arranger or a conductor. A little later, probably because of Randy Rhoads’ influence, I started listening to classical guitarists like Andrès Segovia and Christopher Parkening. I was obsessed with the way they would take classical pieces and arrange them for a single guitar with the way they have moving melody and bass lines that work together. Segovia was one of the guys who made classical guitar a respected instrument. When guitarists first started playing like that it wasn’t really looked upon as artistic. He traveled the world and was a champion for having classical guitar recognized as a concert instrument. Parkening was Segovia’s student and he carried on his legacy.

Have your listening tastes changed? Do you still listen to the music that influenced you when you started? Yes. I don’t listen to much new stuff. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a music snob. I think that I’ve always been very careful about listening to current music and being influenced by it. I’m afraid of stealing stuff from it. But there are a couple of new bands that I like, Muse being one of them. I love Muse. They have great guitar work and great songwriting. They’re one of the few new bands that I can listen to nowadays. But pretty much, I just listen to the same stuff I used to listen to when I was younger.

With older music, do you tend to pick out things you hadn’t noticed before when you listen now? Yes. That’s the best thing about music. Depending on what situation you’re in when you’re listening, you’re just in a certain head space and you’ll pick up on little things that you never heard before, especially when you’re listening to stuff like Queen or Pink Floyd. You’ll pick out things like harmonies or nuances in the guitar playing or singing, or you’ll hear little mistakes. I recently listened to Led Zeppelin and noticed that sometimes Jimmy Page’s guitar was going out of tune while they were recording, but it adds character. If you listen to “Stairway To Heaven,” you’ll hear how he’s doubling certain things on an acoustic guitar and he’s playing the same thing on an electric, and it’s panned left to right. These are things that I never used to pick up on when I was younger. But now I can hear those things and it gives me a different appreciation for the music.

When you had first heard these songs, was it on vinyl or CD? Most of the time you never could hear those very fine details as clearly on the original vinyl records as you could on remastered CDs, or even on the original version CDs. You’re right. The first time I listened to stuff like Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Queen it was actually through my older brother and he had all this on vinyl. He was a huge influence on me and he was the one who showed me how to play guitar. He bought me my first real guitar and he introduced me to all that stuff. He introduced me to bands like Led Zeppelin, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, and also Motley Crue and Metallica. So he was my gateway into guitar playing and those styles of music.

Let’s talk about your gear. What are you currently using live? Right now I’m using Marshall JCM 2000s® the DSL100 with two 1960A cabinets. I don’t use many pedals. I’m very basic. I just have a Dunlop Crybaby wah, Boss EQ pedal, Boss Pitch Shifter to do harmonies, Boss Chorus Ensemble, and Electro-Harmonix POG Polyphonic Octave Generator, which you can set up to play one octave below, an octave above, or two octaves above. You can make your guitar sound like a Hammond B3 organ when you use that in combination with the chorus pedal. It’s a really cool pedal. My main guitar right now is a Gibson Les Paul Standard that I think is either from ’91 or ’93 which I picked up while on tour. I have Seymour Duncan Phat Cat (SPH90-1) P90-style pickups in it which are the size of a humbucker. They’re amazing. I’m really psyched about them. I have another Les Paul Standard which is probably from ’93 and it has a Seymour Duncan JB (SH-4) in the bridge position and the neck pickup is whatever came on the guitar. My brother was the person who had turned me onto the JB. It was the first after market pickup I bought because he said that I had to get a Seymour Duncan JB!

What do you like most about your Duncan pickups and what types of tones do you go for with each of them? For the Phat Cats, I call it a “meat and potatoes” tone. It’s very thick and punchy, just in the right spots. I use the guitar with the JB for songs that need a little more edge and more gain. The JB has a hotter tone and more gain than I get with the Phat Cats. It works really well for songs that are a little more riffy. A lot of our older material has more riffing going on with lots of single-note picked riffs, and there’s a lot more playing. On the new stuff, the guitar parts are a bit more simple. There are more chugging power chords and things like that. I find that the Phat Cats are better for that kind of stuff and I use the JB for the more shredding songs.

How are your guitars set up? The action is not too low or too high. It’s at that sweet point. I’ve never been a fan of guitars with really low action. I know it can help you play faster, and I get that aspect of it, but you don’t feel like you’re playing. You can’t dig in. It feels almost too easy. As far as strings, I use .011-.052 S.I.T. strings. For picks, I’ve always used Dunlop black nylon 1 mm picks. I think that’s what my brother used and I’ve used them since I started playing guitar.

How do you and Frank Iero [MCR guitarist] differ as players? What are the most recognizable characteristics you each possess? I’m more of a technical player. On the records, I play all the solos. I’m more into the harmonization of parts, so the harmonized leads on the records are usually me. I guess that’s what I bring to the band and my metal influence. Frank is kind of the counter to that. He’s very rhythmic in his playing and his lines. He plays all of the octave runs and the choruses, and the counter melodies to the main rhythm parts in the verses are his. The way he writes is very linked with what the vocals are doing. He listens very closely to what Gerard [Way, MCR vocalist] is doing and he finds a way to reinforce the melodies that Gerard is singing, but he adds some of his own things to it that either harmonize with what Gerard is doing vocally or with what I’m doing. He finds a really cool way of just fitting in the mix and hitting melodies that your ear wants to hear that fills in those gaps. He’s really good at coming up with very cool melodic lines on the verses and choruses. It’s a cool relationship that we have. Technically, he plays more of the leads, in a sense, and I play the rhythms, but I’m playing more of the leads in a solo sense. It’s just very different depending on which song it is and we do whatever works best for the song.

Did your studio rig for recording The Black Parade differ much from the gear you use live? We used the guitars we play live as our main guitars in the studio. I’m not a big gearhead. I go more on feel and I’m used to the way that my guitar feels. I’m comfortable with it, so that’s what I used predominantly for the whole record, unless there were certain songs or parts that called for different tones that my guitar just didn’t sound right for. The main guitar I used was the Les Paul with Phat Cats. When we went into preproduction in Los Angeles, my DSL100 that I use live broke down. So [producer] Rob Cavallo let me borrow a 100 watt Marshall JCM 800 series head which was the loudest and ballsiest amp I’ve ever heard. Since it sounded so good in preproduction, we used it on the recording. I’m not sure what model cabinet we were running it through, but it was a Marshall. That was the main setup. On occasion when we were going for different textures, like throwing in an Electro-Harmonix Big Muff or another distortion pedal, or any other kinds of effects, we usually ran it through a Hiwatt head. That was pretty much it. We tried to stick to the basics and not get too crazy. We did use a Roland midi guitar synthesizer for all sorts of cool sounds. We used that any time there was a heavier riff on the record. We usually doubled it two octaves lower than the actual note. A lot of the stuff you’re hearing is just straight guitar tones that are very layered. On certain songs, like “The End,” which is the intro to the record, when the tone gets really heavy and the single-note riff comes in, we stacked it by tracking the lowest octave on the guitar to the highest. It’s that Brian May-type mentality of making the guitars very symphonic. Once in a while there’s a chorus pedal or a phaser, but we’re not a very heavy effects-driven band. We like to plug straight into the amp and go. Rob has a huge collection of stompboxes and that’s how we were introduced to the POG. He’s got tons of vintage guitars too, and we used a few of them. For clean verses, like on “Mama” and “I Don’t Love You,” we were using one of his Teles. I think I used one of his Strats for the solo in “I Don’t Love You.” So we did use other guitars for certain parts, but the guitars we play live were the main ones used to record.

Using your own guitars also makes it a bit easier to recreate the sounds on the record when you go out to play the songs live. Yes. And like I said, for me, the most important thing is being comfortable. Obviously, every guitar plays different and you just get used to how certain guitars feel. I think that when you’re comfortable with the guitar that you’re playing, you’ll play better.

Do you have any particular favorite tracks from the album? My two favorite tracks are “Welcome To The Black Parade” and “Famous Last Words.” “Welcome To The Black Parade” is like our “Bohemian Rhapsody.” It’s probably the most epic song on the record. I love how it came together. It’s a song that we had been writing since the start of the band, but it started out in a very different form. It started out very similar to Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” which sounds really weird as a comparison. It was very slow and very chordal-based. The melody that Gerard would sing and just his style of singing was, well the closest thing it sounded like to to us was “My Way.” And it used to be called “The Five Of Us Are Dying.” It didn’t make our first indie record because we just didn’t have the time to finish it. We brought it back for Revenge, and it was another situation where it just wasn’t feeling right. So it didn’t make that record. Then it was one of the first things we looked at when we started writing this record. If a song didn’t work for the first or second record, we like to go back and revisit it because sometimes you just don’t have it in you to write the song at that particular time. That song had about five or six different movements and the closest thing I could relate it to is Green Day’s “Jesus Of Suburbia,” where you have all these different parts of a song which all work together. When we moved to LA to work on the record, we decided that the song still wasn’t working, so we tried adding that fast punk beat and then it felt really good. We tracked the whole thing and then Gerard felt that the lyrics weren’t saying anything to him, and neither was the chorus. So we changed a few things. What’s really cool when you write music is sometimes all you have to do is change a chord progression and that completely changes the face of the song. So we basically just changed one note in the chorus and it let Gerard go somewhere else that he wouldn’t have gone, and that’s where the hook of the song came from. I just have very fond memories of that song because it started out in a completely different form. It’s been a part of this band for five years, and it took that long to really finish the song and define what it truly was about. Then on top of that, the song was just so much fun to record with all the horns, the piano, backing vocals, and do all the layering with the parts. It was a very complex and fun song to record. Five years ago we would never have thought that the song would have ended up becoming what it did. “Famous Last Words” is another of my favorites because lyrically and musically, it’s not one of the most uplifting songs on the record. I just think the song is very powerful. It’s a little simpler than “Black Parade” in a sense, but it has those same movements. It starts out very small with just the vocal and single guitar, then it grows from there and gets to this apex, then breaks down again only to get brought back up. That was one of my favorite songs to write and record. It was written very late in the writing process, and at a very hard time. I think that the song is an example of showing things that the band went through because we went through some hard times and ended up coming out on top. When I listen to it now, it makes me think of that period in the recording process.

The band has grown so much in a short time and achieved a great deal of acclaim, particularly with this album. The band has always moved very fast, even from the beginning when it was just three of us. We’ve always found ourselves in these situations where it was “put up or shut up.” I guess it’s just our attitude and where we come from as people, and what we’ve gone through growing up. We just never quit and we work our asses off. That’s what we have always done. So things have moved fast, but for us it’s like a lifetime of work. As far as the musical side of things, I think this band tends to think one or two records ahead into the future. There was a time before we started writing for The Black Parade, when we were almost writing the album that should have come out after Revenge. A lot of the songs were similar feeling and similar sounding to what we did on Revenge, and a lot of that got scrapped once we really started writing for The Black Parade. After we had written “The End” into “Dead!,” we would rehearse them and we linked those two songs together. We knew they didn’t feel like anything we had done before. We thought that those songs raised the bar for us, and a lot of the songs that we had been writing on tour and some of the songs that were written while we were in New York got scrapped after that because they didn’t measure up. The writing process was fun because we were always trying to match what we had done the week before or even surpass it. We always try to top ourselves, and not only in albums, but also from song to song.

Has touring become more exciting for the band this time around? You spend so many months writing and recording the record, and during that time the record is just yours. It’s the band’s and just the four or five guys who worked on the recording. You sometimes play it for select people, but no one actually has a copy to take home and listen to. What’s great is that finally after six or seven months of writing and recording, the record is now out there “living” and being a part of peoples’ lives. To finally be able to play those songs live for people, it’s just the best. Our fans have been awesome and just super supportive through all of this. They’re excited to hear new stuff. But we’ve never been in this position before because when we wrote Revenge we were a very small indie band and no one was really excited for Revenge to come out. We built it up to where it got, but when that album came out there weren’t many people who were excited, and we built it from there. It was completely different from this experience where we’ve now built up a fan base and they are excited to hear the new music. So it was very nerve wracking because you want people to appreciate what you did — what you worked hard for and worked hard on. The fans have been awesome and we’re finding that they are singing the new songs louder than the older stuff at the shows. It’s that support and an over all sense from people that they really love the new record. It just feels great to go out there and play these songs for people.

What does the band have planned for 2007 and what are you looking forward to most in the coming year? We’ll be touring more and more in 2007. Right now we’re doing smaller shows just to get our feet wet and play live. We were off for so long recording that it takes a while to get back in shape and you just want to ease into it. It’s been cool to get reacquainted with the fans and reacquainted with playing live. Next year is when we’re going to step up the show a notch and bring out more production, so the shows will be bigger and the songs will feel bigger. Right now we’re playing the songs a little more stripped down than we would like, but it’s just to get reacquainted and get back into playing live. In 2007 we’re going to play a lot of parts of the world where we’ve never been before. Playing your first show in a new country is the most exciting thing, and that excitement never goes away. There are a lot of places where we haven’t played yet, so I think that’s what I’m most looking forward to.

Tell us about what you recall to have been your most memorable gig or gigs with the band so far. On this tour, the first show that we played was in Bournemouth, England. It’s a pretty cool place and that gig was awesome. We had such a great time and it was nice to get back and play real shows again. We had been doing a lot of tv and radio performances leading up to the release of the record, and then after that as well. But those performances just didn’t feel like real shows. It was maybe one or two songs, or even if we played a full set, the place was lit for tv so I couldn’t get into the vibe of those shows. So this gig in Bournemouth was the first show we played in a while where it was a real My Chem show, and it felt great to play the old songs again and to finally play the new material. The audience was really great and it was a lot of fun to get back out there. As far as past memorable gigs, we played Continental Airlines Arena in New Jersey, which was just awesome. I used to go to shows there all the time there to see my favorite bands like Metallica. My brother took me to that show and it was just incredible. To play places like that, those are the shows that usually go down in my memory as my favorites — when you have a direct connection to that venue or that city, it makes it just that much more special.

I’m sure there were a lot of hometown people there who were cheering you on. Yes. Our families usually end up being the loudest people in the crowd.

That can sometimes make you even more nervous compared to playing in front of people you don’t know. It is true because you definitely want to play your best and give them a good show. That’s usually what you’re thinking about. But it’s distracting when you’re looking out in the crowd and trying to find your family and all the people you know.

What advice would you give to other players who are trying to create their own identity in a two-guitar band? The best way to create your own style is to just be yourself. You can be influenced by what other people do and take the little bits that you like from the different players that you appreciate, but never completely cop someone’s style. Put your own flavor to it. Play what makes you feel good and that’s how you develop your own style. One of the fun things about playing with another guitarist is working on parts together. It’s kind of what music is about — working together as a team. When two guitar players can bring in what they do, make it bigger and better, learn from each other and influence each other, that’s a cool thing. Frank and I have been able to do that and we’ve kind of rubbed off on each other. It’s great to have that experience and it helps you to grow as a musician.

For the latest news on My Chemical Romance and updated tour information, visit the band’s official website at www.mychemicalromance.com.

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