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riddle-me-ri · 1 year

Note

hi if its fine with you id like to request riddler with an artsy s/o and like theyre suffering artblock so they do a painting of him (he finds it sweet)

can be any riddler of ur choice and i also prefer gender neutral but if u end up writing fem i dont mind!

have a good night/day

-anon

A/N: aahhh that’s meee…this request resonates with me so well as an artist that suffers from art block or a chronic victim of endless reference scrolling to where I get lost saving references for everything but what I was looking for rip…only for me to settle and just draw Eddie from different media lol. And I'm so sorry ahead of time this got ridiculously long, I got really carried away and was having so much fun with the idea rip. So sorry for the length!

Riddlers React to Reader’s Art of Him:

Arkhamverse Riddler:

Edward always appreciated your capability to occupy yourself. While he was busy plotting, building, and scheming…you were sketching, collaging, and painting.

Of course, until one unfortunate day. Nothing was coming to you. You’ve just about drawn and sketched every riddlebot, every henchmen, and you even started scribbling question marks all over the pages…wait…what? Ugh.

You needed to find a new muse. Anything…anyone…well there was one person you haven’t painted yet.

However, you knew you wouldn’t be caught dead with your supplies in his workspace. The minute the paint spilled on the floor or god forbid you put your eraser down and it disappeared among the chaos.

You grabbed your phone and began scrolling through your phone. You’ve taken enough candid photos of him, surely one of them would spark your interests. Your artistic eye landed on one such photo. Edward was smiling in this one, it was when he first got one of his riddlebots to work. Quickly you took to sketching the thumbnail for the portrait.

There was knocking on the door.

“What is it, Y/N! I’ll have you know I am very busy!” Edward was already raving and ranting before he even opened the door.

“I-I know, Ed! This’ll only take a minute, please?” You begged, grinning your teeth into a smile as if you were trying to coax him and he was in front of you.

Edward opened the door and looked at you. “Well? What was so pressing, you had to–”

You pulled the canvas out from behind your back. Edward was stunned when familiar green eyes met his own.

“Y-Y/N…w-when?” He reaches out to grab it, but you quickly snatch it back.

“Uh-uh, not with those filthy gloves. Take them off!” You ordered.

Edward groaned annoyingly, but took them off whilst rolling his eyes. His eyes came back to the painting however as you let him hold it.

Ed allowed the smallest grin lopsided along his face. He looked surprised, almost mesmerized…he was happy.

Of course, that window of vulnerability smacked close the instant it let just the tiniest bits of light in.

“Well, I wouldn’t expect anything less considering you had the most ideal subject to work off from.”

Now it was your turn to roll your eyes, well the moment was sweet while it was there.

Reevesverse/Dano Riddler:

Edward was practically the perfect subject for a life drawing. He had his usual comfort positions whenever he was enthralled in any of his usual activities. Which made him sit stable in one position. Whether that was playing games online, reading the paper and doing the crosswords, or endlessly scribbling away at his ledgers.

You both mutually respected each other’s creative spaces. Not allowing one or the other to look unless invited. You rarely saw what was in his ledgers (you doubt you’d ever get the chance to) and you equally rarely show him your sketchbooks.

It couldn’t be helped though. He was just too adorable. His small little smirks, his round cheeks, and pretty eyes. He was the best subject…not to mention he was always so still.

You caught yourself staring glances of him at that moment. He was writing and typing away about something. Probably jotting down some riddles or puzzles of his own. Meanwhile you were steady sketching and erasing away.

Both of you lost in your own little worlds.

You didn’t even realize how much time has gone by or how Edward was all of a sudden in front of you.

You jumped back in shock, curling your arms around your sketchbook to shield its contents.

“Oh…sorry…I-I didn’t mean to make you jump.”

You sighed. “It’s okay, just lost in the zone for a minute.”

There was a moment of silence as Edward decided to take a seat next to you. You were pondering your next move, but maybe it would be a good step towards moving your relationship forward.

“W-Wanna see what I’ve been working on?” You offered.

Ed’s head immediately picked up. “O-Oh…uh…y-you don’t have too if you’re not comfortable.”

“I wouldn’t offer if I wasn’t.” You handed your sketchbook to him.

He glanced his eyes back and forth between you and the sketchpad. He slowly gripped it with a soft excited smile on his face. You shrugged in on yourself, hoping you made the right call.

“W-Wait…” He gasped. “T-That’s me? You drew me? Just now?”

“Ehh…more like the past hour and a half.” You chuckled nervously.

“I-It’s great…I-I’m f-flattered even. Is this how you see me?” Edward was beside himself. He usually can’t stay looking at himself in the mirror. Seeing his inner self-loathing grow and spread from the inside out, but…but he liked this Edward, the one drawn by you.

You nodded. “Yeah. It is.” You put your hand on his shoulder and wrapped the other around his waist. You gave him a small side hug and a kiss on his cheek.

Gotham Riddler:

You were probably the only one in the whole precinct that actually enjoyed his ramblings and absurd amount of info-dumping. He was too animated to ignore and he made for the perfect drawing subject when you found yourself stuck on what to draw. Thankfully, he’s usually too lost in his thoughts and verbal vomit to pay you any mind to you doodling away.

Until today anyway.

“What’re you doing?”

“Huh?”

“I’ve noticed that while you are actively listening to me talking, and I do appreciate you actually paying attention…I’m curious to what you’re also doing while I’m talking…” He stammered.

Well, you weren’t prepared for that discussion.

“Oh, uh…well…I-I’m actually drawing you..” You answered.

The room was silent. Edward was prepared for every answer…but yet not that one.

“I-uh-oh...um…wasn’t expecting that.”

“Did you think I was taking notes?” You giggled.

“Err…actually I thought you were just keeping yourself busy cause…I thought I was boring you.” Edward admitted.

“What? I don’t find you boring at all. Look!” You quickly handed him your sketchpad before any other negating thoughts came to his head. “I love listening to you, and watching you speak. You’re so animated and brilliant and I want to capture it...or try to anyways.”

Ed’s eyes lit up at you mentioning him, in a positive light. No one’s ever referred to his ramblings as…animated and brilliant before. “C-Can you show me? T-The drawings of me?”

“Oh, uh…” You seized up, the amount you’ve actually drawn finally dawning on you as probably reading on borderline creepy. However, he wasn’t going to believe you unless you showed him the proof.

You quickly handed him the medium sketchpad before you had time to refuse.

Ed’s eyebrows raised as his eyes widened. He immediately recognized himself, he could almost recall the conversations. He found himself softly chuckling at the small footnotes to what he was saying beside the sketches.

“D-Do you like them?” It seemed silly to ask, but you needed vocal affirmation to the silly grin on his face.

He looked up at you, completely bewildered but extremely giddy. His smile was stretched across his face, no doubt the biggest smile you’ve seen from him.

“I-I-I love them…they’re great! Y-You’re incredibly talented Y/N…”

“Nah, I’ve just got a great subject.” You nudged your shoulder with his. He returned the sketchbook to you.

There was another moment of comfortable silence until Ed stole glances between you and the sketchpad.

“What is it, Ed?”

“Well, I don’t want to start sharing until you’re ready!” He grinned.

You smiled back but quickly plop down on your seat and grab your graphite pencil. “Okay, I’m ready.”

BTAS Riddler:

You were way too focused. After months, almost years of drawing Eddie, you were confident enough to pull off this decent sized portrait of him. He’s been your whole world for so long, he occupied a lot mroe of your thoughts than you cared to admit. Although, there was nothing wrong with showing that appreciation.

You were too excited to wait for his birthday or Christmas or Valentine’s Day. You just wanted to give him something, plus drawing and painting him help broke you from your art block the past few weeks. Seeing his adorable face slowly come to life on the canvas, you even amazed yourself at a moment or two.

It was the hardest secret to keep until you finally were ready to reveal it to him. You two just had a fun date night. Everything was perfect, and the mood was just right. Love, passion, and tenderness flowing between the two of you.

You’re reminded yet again, just how much you love and adore this man. He leaned down to kiss you when all of a sudden you remember your portrait drying in your studio. You gasp which shocks Ed but you tap his nose and tell him to wait in the living room.

He quirks a curious eyebrow at you but stays put.

He’s shocked when he sees you carrying something almost as tall and wide as you behind your back. You pull it out from behind your back, a thin protective sheet of paper still covering the art.

“I-I made this for you, Eddie.” You said softly, handing him the canvas.

“D-Darling..you…you didn-” When he pulls the protective back, he’s in complete awe. He finds himself breathlessly chuckling. “I-It’s me?”

“Of course it’s you, there’s no one else more handsome!” You went up and kissed his cheek. “Do you like it, Eddie?”

“I-I-I’m in awe, I love it…You’re so talented, my dear…thank you.” He kissed your temple in return. You grabbed his chin and leaned him down to properly kiss you like he tried to do before.

Zero Year/Capullo Riddler:

Now, this asshole…he’s surprised you weren’t already drawing him. Like what better muse do you need, Y/N? He’s right there! He knows how much you love his face, the way he grins, his expressive eyes, and even more intricate and expressive hand gestures. You don’t say it but he can see it in your eyes, you don’t hide your obvious attraction to him well.

However, you still sketch away even while rolling your eyes. As much as you hated to admit it (and as much I, too, hate to admit it) the smug bastard was fun as hell to draw. His face was so pudgy and he was able to do certain expressions you haven’t seen before.

“Why don’t you ever ask me to pose for you?” He teased you.

“Because quite frankly thinking of painting you like…uh…French girl, doesn’t sound amusing to me.”

Edward blinked at you in disbelief. You found yourself succumbing to your chuckles at his displeased expression.

“Now, you and I BOTH very well know, that’s a lie!” He crossed his arms defensively.

“Is it?” You challenged.

Edward nodded. “You may not think it, but I’ve seen you draw me before, and even I have to admit, you capture my essence pretty well.”

“Does that essence portray a conceited dickhead?” You asked.

He narrowed his eyes at you.

“I’ll take that as a no…damnit guess I’ll have to fix those..”

“C’mon, Y/N! Just this once!”

“Are you paying me?”

“What? NO!” He laid down in front of you on his side on top of the thankfully empty coffee table. “I should be offering payment for my services, but this will be a freebie.”

You found yourself reeling your eyeballs back into your sockets. After more minutes of bickering you conceded and painted the egomaniac. You tried to stay focused no matter how often he kept teasing you with winks and kissy faces.

When you flipped the canvas around to show him the final product. You made sure to steady look at his face. He may be a conniving manipulator, but if he was pleased or surprised he couldn’t hide it. You found yourself grinning, as his mouth opened to a soft “oh” shape and his eyes were widened.

“Well, what do you think?”

Somehow hearing your voice snapped him out of whatever thoughts he was having. Gone went the wide eyes and speechlessness.

“Well, I mean..it is amazing, but then again your subject matter is pretty incredible…”

You snatched your supplies and started storming off.

“Hey! Come back! It looks good! You even got my eyes right this time!”

“Oh fuck off! I never screw up your eyes!”

“So you do stare at me?”

“Ugh!”

Twojar Riddler:

Just call him the David to your Michelangelo. You would never outright admit it but it was pretty clear to the two of you that you had a mutual appreciation for the other as muse and artist. Whenever you had a slow art day or when you weren’t getting any ideas, Edward was usually always free to stand in as your art subject.

Almost too willing some times, even suggested it on days you were doing well enough on your own. Although it never hurt to practice more life and anatomy practice. Edward would very much prefer it was HIS anatomy as opposed to anyone else’s.

One day, you realized that you never actually truly painted him. It was usually just quick thirty minute or sometimes an hour long sketching sessions. He was always pleased with whatever you drew, sometimes teasing you where you tend to mostly put your focus on when drawing him. Whether it was his face, his hands, or chest.

Regardless you wanted to wow him at least once with your skill. Lately you’ve been pulling out the paints again. Ed noticed but never mentioned them. You were thankful for, you wanted to be able to get better at the medium before putting your favorite subject to the test. When you felt like you painted everything under the moon and began running out of ideas to practice on…you felt like it was time.

“You want to paint me this time?” Ed asked, wearing a white dress shirt with barely one bottom button barely buttoned. He also wore some dark green slacks.

“Yeah, thought I’d change it up a bit. I’ve been practicing with the paints for a minute.” You explained as you set up your easel and paints.

“I’ve noticed, you’ve picked up on it rather quickly, not that I’m surprised.” He grinned.

“Well, hopefully, I can impress you instead.” You chuckled as you finally took a seat.

“You always impress me, dear. I always admire you and your craft.”

You smiled softly at that. You shook your head to get rid of the blushes coming to warm your cheek as you began to focus.

It took an extra hour and a half than you liked. Edward occasionally talking to make conversation. You two never sat well in silence and oddly enough, these were the few intimate moments you got to catch up with one another.

“Well, darling?”

“I-I…well…”

“I won’t move until you’re certain.”

Your heart swelled at his commitment. “You can see it, Eddie…”

It was eternity for him to go from his sitting spot to your side. You didn’t miss the small intake of air and the wide smile on his face.

“Well?”

“I-It’s outstanding…y-you’ve outdone yourself my dear.” He complimented.

You couldn’t resist the squeals of excitement that came out as you wrapped your arms around his neck in an embrace. “Thank you, Eddie! That means a lot!”

Gotham City Sirens Riddler:

It wasn’t unheard of that there were slow days at the office. Much like this one dull and dragging Wednesday evening. After all your spring cleaning and organizing your office space was done, you figured it wouldn’t hurt to pull out your sketchbook.

Usually Ed had the door to his office closed, but since he likely was not expecting any new cases today he decided to leave it open.

After scribbling some random faces and various shapes to get the drawing muscles warmed up, you took a glance into Edward’s office.

You haven’t drawn him yet. Sometimes you’ve caught Harley or Selina waiting and got to draw their faces. Every now and again you got to draw the clients that came in. Better still, there were a couple cases Edward required your artistic skill to draw a possible person of interest or whatever descriptors a client may have to help him go off of.

You liked those cases best, they made you feel good like you were actually helping Ed and not just his book keep.

You started sketching out your basic shape and guidelines. Stealing the glances of Edward like a kid stealing cookies from a jar. Just to make sure Ed didn’t have the slightest clue to your creative activity.

“Well, Y/N. I guess it’s time to call it a day, I suppose it was a good day to–Y/N?”

“Yes, sir?” You looked up and almost jumped from your seat when he was in front of you and not in his office.

“What were you doing with your spare time?” Ed smirked. He looped around the edge of your desk to where he was beside you.

You didn’t have a chance to explain it before he saw the drawing of himself.

“I-I’m sorry, Eddie…I-I don’t mean to freak you out, I was just…didn’t know what to draw and I’ve never drawn you before…”

Ed scoffed. “Could’ve fooled me, this looks amazing, Y/N. And dare I say, extremely flattering too.” He winked at you.

You gulped the slowly suffocating and growing lump in your throat. “I-I uh..t-thanks, Eddie.”

“Thank you…come on, let’s get out of here. Perhaps we can discuss future art projects for you in the future with yours truly.”

Young Justice Riddler:

If you could say you had a number one fan of your art, it was Edward. You could doodle a tiny smiley face any child could draw and he’d absolutely adore it. He adored your sketches of the teammates, or your landscape studies of different places you guys travel too for the Light.

One day on such a trip, you found yourself at a complete loss. You didn’t feel inspired to draw anything, and you wanted to draw. It always helped pass the time on these trips.

You looked over and saw Eddie busy typing away on his PC. No doubt doing research for this upcoming mission. A lightbulb went off in your head. You quickly started sketching him, your heart every now and then skipping a beat whenever he smiled at his screen. You were thrilled he hasn’t spotted you yet, it gave you all the motivation to get it done as quickly but accurately as possible.

“Y/N? I didn’t know you were in here!”

You looked up and your eyes met warm brown ones. You quickly glance back down at your pad and back at him just to see if they are any more details you needed to add.

“Oh hey, Eddie! Yeah...I-I’ve been in here for a minute.” You chuckled.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” He took a seat next to you.

“Well, because I wanted the chance to draw you!”

“D-Draw me?” He even pointed to himself with his thumb to get double affirmation.

“Yeah! Look!”

Edward took the sketchbook in his hands and his breath was immediately taken away. He saw himself in black and white on the paper, yet…it was how you saw him. You somehow drew the confidence he struggled to find in himself…onto him.

“Is, is this how you picture me?” He asked softly.

“Yes, babe…that’s you.” You smiled. “I’m kind of impressed with myself. I captured your sweet smile I love. I got your eyes just how I like…it’s all you, and everything I adore about you.”

Edward found himself chuckling. "I-I…I love it, you make me look…how I want to look like.."

You put your head on his shoulder. "You already look that way to me."

You kissed his cheek, giggling as his face started to blush.

Telltale Riddler:

God, it was so damn difficult and intimidating to impress him in any and every possible way.

However, you knew Edward had an appreciation for the arts. Thankfully you were artistic, and he seemed to enjoy the little still lives you drew. Giving you the smallest nod or the lowest of satisfied hums.

Well, what was driving you anxious now was how he’d react to this portrait of him you did. You had a major art block and wanted to paint human figures for once. It made sense to paint Edward considering how long you’ve been with him…however predicting his reaction was nerve-wracking.

Would he like it? Would he just give you pity comments but totally roll his eyes at it? He’d probably comment about how you had better things to do with your spare time.

However, you knew he would have questions to what has kept you so busy the past couple of weeks. While he was tinkering away in his hideout. You occasionally reached out periodically but mostly stayed in your apartment. You invited him over for dinner so you can unveil your painting to him.

“So, what was it you wanted to show me?” As soon as dinner was over, Edward didn’t beat around anymore bushes.

“Well, you were asking what was keeping me so busy. I was working on a little project, to surprise you with…” You tried to swallow down the lump of nervousness in your throat and slow down the anxious pacing of your heart.

“F-follow me.” He followed you down the hallway and to your little studio in the room right across from your bedroom.

The painting was covered with a protective thin sheet over it. You went to the side of it and with a quick breath your snatched it off.

It was a mid-waist portrait. He was in his Riddler get-up, the hood was down, but his eye mask was still on. He held his staff in his hand and leaned it against his shoulder.

Edward was speechless. He was hardly ever speechless…so you weren’t sure if that was exactly a good or bad reaction. Eventually the quiet was eating away at you.

“Edward?” You asked, slowly dropping the sheet from your hands.

“I-I-I…” He finds himself flabbergasted. No one’s ever done anything like this for him. The only pictures of him are either from mugshots or wanted posters. Pictures of him were usually videos or images of him in mid-heist.

“This…this is very impressive, Y/N. Is this what kept you busy these past few days?” He was steady staring at his portrait.

“Y-Yes…I wanted to surprise you with something, and I’ve always wanted to try my hand at figures.”

He looked over at you and grinned. “You certainly did that, you surprised me and impressed me. If you ever wish to…draw from real life…feel free to bring your supplies to the hideout. Just as long as you clean up and keep up with them.” He winked.

Hush (DCAU) Riddler:

Hmm…just one more little line here…erase that guideline that was still there.

"Hey, Y/N! What're you drawing this time?"

You had your supplies all lined out on the living room table. You had your artboard in your lap with your sheet of paper. You were drawing while waiting for Edward to come home.

"Oh…just this really handsome person I know. I see him every day and yet I never thought to draw him. It was the perfect way to break out of my art block!"

He was hanging up his suit jacket, hat, and mask while he took in everything you said. Yet it just now registered to him as he started walking towards your makeshift work station.

"W-wait what? You drew me?

"Well I'm glad to know you know it's you." You chuckled.

Edward leaned over the back of the couch and looked over your shoulder.

“Whoa…you weren’t kidding.” He mumbled.

“Why would I kid you? Do you like it?” You leaned your head next to his. You could feel his smile stretch to scrunch his cheeks.

“I-I love it…I look amazing! W-Well I mean..you drew me amazing..I’m still just me..” He chuckled.

You giggled back, turning his head to the side, you leaned in and met his lips with yours. “I love you, and I drew you as I see you. You’re always amazing to me, Eddie.”

He smiled back at you, with the most loving eyes imaginable.

“I can keep drawing you, if you wish. If that’ll make you believe!” You nudged his shoulder with yours.

He laughed. “I don’t know about that but I do know I like the idea of being your “go-to” muse.”

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shadeslayer · 7 months

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Would you be willing to talk about the inspiration for you sinti, shunti, kanunuk, & nunni designs? They're really cool!

absolutely !!! :D i usually have pretty explicit stuff that im referencing or am inspired by so im always happy to share <3

*ramble incoming*

[the dr pepper cans are how you know im a real southern usa babe. earlier today there was 5 empty cans in a row until i put them in the recycle bin]

i take a Lot out of the book "sun circles and human hands: the southeastern indians - art and industry" (2001 edition, not the 1957 one) which i have a physical copy of and i have sticky notes tabbing out out and also annotated highlighting every mention of the chickasaw and of sites where i know the chickasaw [or our ancestors, like the chicaza and other early mississippian/SE ntv cultures] so i can reference stuff i know would be from us, but i also take inspiration from all the designs in it because we were all a part of an interconnected cultural network of art

if you are from a tribe that would be from mississippian culture or the southeastern ceremonial complex/southeastern cult as it used to be called, or you know your people wouldve come from places within that like spiro or moundville, and you want to bring more native styling into your art this is THEEE book i would recommend. it is insanely useful. i cant vouch 100% for the text of it, and the second half is mostly kinda grainy b&w scanned photos of pottery and other items lmao, but the first half has lineart depictions OF designs found, with the attribution for the site they were found at. it is a Massive wealth of symbols and style and has been the best thing for wanting to study and emulate SE ndn art. for real i lent a copy to my grandma and then couldnt find where it was and i had to just order a new copy bc i use it so damn much

like i would post pages of it, and before i bought it i survived off the pinterest pics of scanned pages, but i cannot say enough just buy the book and look through it bc its just perfect its so useful. just posting a few pages doesnt do any justice to the wealth of style and art in it. ive tried to make myself some mock style/symbol guides from it, but even those fail to capture the variety of stuff in there and its why i still have it on hand for reference bc every time i get stumped theres so many ideas in there

but ok . book rec rant over (partly.)

i had done sinti homma, the red snake earlier, and i wanted to do a little motley of other simple transparent animals to go with it. so i did! ive got a few different animals that i played with doing, but a lot of them ended up veering too much off of the more hardline ntv style i wanted to do, and the others didnt fit the guideline i had made - i wanted them all to have a pointed tail that pointed to some corner of the frame, and curl around in the square a bit to have more of a sense of motion. i was thinking deer, turtle, spider... but none of those really fit that. so i flipped thru SC&HH for some ideas and came up with some :3

the bottom left one on the first pic there gave me a good idea of what to do with a rat tail, and on the bottom right of that same pic is the Fattest fucking fish and i lifted a lot of that design to use for my fish (and while we're here, the rattler tails on the top right of that pic were what i used for sinti hommas tail), and the bottom left on the second pic gave me the idea for the lizards legs/feet shape, and then i used the chickasaw vocab flashcards of animals to think of animal ideas and so i used the pinti from there to jump me off into doing a rat

theyre all named after the chickasaw words - sinti (snake), shunti (rat/rodent), kanunuk (lizard, specifically green striped lizard, which is why i made it green with stripes lol), nunni (fish) . i use the chickasaw dictionary webpage a lot these days though i should use my dictionary copies more bc they use the spelling style i dont prefer lol

i also want to do maybe a sort of pop art style big print of them, like repeated with different colors behind them? and/or them in a medicine wheel? but those are still wip so we shall see!

#anompolili #TY FOR ASKING ........... i feel so like. patronized. but i never get to talk abt this except into the void so i will seize the chance T_T #hatuk upi homma

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fxreflyes · 3 months

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Prithee tell us about your favorite visits to museums, firefly. It’s a long and silent January night and your stories will keep madness from us. (To be read in the voice of a Dickensian child of 6 years old, sitting before the hearth.) ☕️

hey hey!! :) my favorite seafaring vessel, a joy as always to meet u here. fret not, i will not let madness consume you! <3

(the context for the voice definitely helped, i most certainly did read it in the voice of a dickensian child. i can hear the crackle of the hearth as i pen these words!)

oh where to start! this is a bit of a brain dump, but is semi-chronological and images included in the order of discussion

first, summer of 2016, going to the hermitage and making puns about all of the art! they were not good puns. i believe my brother called the statue below a "boar"ing statue. it was quite hot since we went in summer and we were very surprised that the musuem had no ac since there is generally some to protect the art from the elements. so twas a very sticky and humor filled walk thru some art that has seen quite a lot (pic 1)

fall of 2018, went to the met's heavenly body's fashion exhibit with 2 friends from high school. i love & still go to musuem's w one of them, she's v sweet. the exhibit took place in the part of the museum that is older and looks like a church, so it was v prescient!! (pics 2-4, the leather jacket was so cool)

spring 2019, went to the met again (can u tell i went to college in nyc) and to the frick for my art history class to do a scavenger hunt for the class. quite honestly the most fun assignment ever. it was going through the museums and finding the art and writing about it. there were 50 or so things to find out. we went 3 times total for 3 sessions of the hunt. went w my dad for one, he has said he wants to do more even now

fall of 2019 i went to the met's instruments of rock n roll and saw instruments from a lot of famous musicians! i have a bunch of pics of them, but was v fun i went w my dad and got a bunch of music taste from him so that was cool. i was v amused by this many headed guitar hahaha (pic 5)

winter 2020 i went to a black tie gala in an art musuem so that was v fun & festive!!!

ok covid took a hit to this list so fall 2021! natural history musuem in london! went w my brother bc he was doing his masters same time as i was studying abroad there. i mean it's gorgeous. my brother is v interested in rocks so spent a while in the geology section! lots of cool rocks.

feb 2022, went to the met around my bday! my bf flew to visit me. saw very cool swords. pictured below!

summer 2022, went to the Louvre and the musee d'Orsay! saw the painting of dante and virgil in hell which was v cool, i have always loved that one.

for the sake of brevity, lets go to feb 2023, went to the whitney to see my fav artist edward hopper and an exhibit on him! went w the same friend as i went to the met in 2018 w. went w my brother too. fav exhibit ever probably, just bc i love hopper and i have included my fav painting by him, new york movie! my mom had a book on hopper growing up on our coffee table so always read it

oh my this is not brief. the fire is dwindling! ill stoke it.

this summer! the prado in madrid! i love goya so seeing his work was just so cool. they v sadly didnt allow photography in the museum but saw his black paintings the ones w saturn eating his children.

i hope my little tales help stave off the madness <33

#i just finished work & saw this & want u to kno i smiled #this took me so very long to write hahaha sorry i hope youre still awake #twas so fun!!#there r so many more museums too!!#i also wrote this to the country playlist u made me ty :')#ships tag

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melverie · 2 months

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if you get this, answer w/ three random facts about yourself and send it to the last seven blogs in your notifs. anon or not, doesn’t matter, let’s get to know the person behind the blog! (sorry if you already got this!)

Sorry it took a bit to answer anon. College and work have been killing me these past few days^^;

01 - I speak five languages (German, French, English, Japanese and Korean) at varying levels of proficiency. I actually had my Korean final yesterday and I'd say it went pretty well 👀 Also I learned Italian for a while, though I only remember some basic phrases, how to say one idiom & how to flirt

02 - Ever since the Sins of Flesh update I've been SO obsessed with Cult of the Lamb again. These past few days the game icon just kept staring into my soul while I was trying my best to stay strong and focus on studying Speaking of being obsessed over games, once the new Professor Layton game releases I'm going to be SO annoying. Those games were my childhood :)

03 - When planning out a story, I have the habit of writing the plot details out on flashcards and putting them up on my walls. I get embarrassed over it whenever someone other than a select group of friends come over though, so when someone else visits I usually end up taking them down only to hang them back up once that person is gone lol

Bonus fact!

This one is probably going to MASSIVELY wrap everyone's view of me, but I feel like half of the more creative school work I submitted ended up being fandom related:

In eighth grade, we were supposed to write a two page long story about a murder case, and I just made it a Professor Layton x Phoenix Wright crossover. I even took one of the cases from Phoenix Wright as the base for my story, and I only barely changed the names, so you could EASILY tell that it was fanfiction

I got my English teacher to watch Assassination Classroom because we had to give a 3 minute presentation on something we liked. That's the same teacher that made one of his tests entirely about Batman btw, he was great <3 I also got my math teacher to watch the anime AND read the manga because I asked him about one math problems from it that I just didn't get. He wrote down the solution and literally programmed a little something to help me better understand how to get there. Another great teacher <3

Had to write a three-word story (you're given three words as prompts and have to built a short story around them), except one of the words was "chinchilla". I ended up writing about a "killer chinchilla" which is just the nickname my sister gave Minccino

I once ended up the state winner in a nation-wide art competition with a Pokémon ORAS-themed watercolor drawing I did (that piece was graded, so I'm counting it toward school work)

We were tasked with drawing a picture inspired by a song. I took My Hero Academia's first ED and made the drawing itself about My Hero Academia as well. Burnt through way too many pencils for this one. They hung it right next to the teachers' room, idk if it's still there tho

That same year we were also tasked with "building a creative trash can", and so I decided to make a little Korok that collects paper waste in a little bag. I also learned how to sew in order to make the bag, so that's cool (pic below!)

I somehow convinced my teacher to let me write my seminar paper on My Hero Academia

In elementary school, my friend group came up with a play set in Animal Crossing, and I ended up writing the entire thing (as in literally writing it so that you could act it out in Animal Crossing itself). That wasn't school work by any means, but regardless, I still very much did print it out just so I could give it to my homeroom teacher, so there's that

Also not school work, but once again in seventh grade I wrote an Animal Crossing New Leaf fanficiton (???) where you could vote what would happen next on the end of every chapter. A good portion of my class read it and I also made my PE teacher read the first chapter

That's by far not all of it but those were the first few things that popped into mind. Anyway, here's the pic of my little Korok paper waste collector!

#thank you for the ask anon!! and again sorry it took a bit^^;#the voting system for the acnl fic was a super fun writing experience #that's smth you guys could give a shot if any of you ever feel like trying smth a little different with how you approach your writing #if you want to take it a step further you can also have the first few readers of a chapter be the ones that decide the voting options #it's an interesting concept because on one hand you're losing a lot of control over your story #but on the other you also re-learn how to approach working on your fics. imo at least #also the reader engagement i got because everyone looked forward to getting to shape the story alongside me. loved it so much #it's obviously not everyone's cup of tea but it definitely works with an ANIMAL CROSSING FANFIC of all things #ask tag

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neverheardnothing · 1 year

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Album + Iconis & Family concert breakdown/review

I wanted to consolidate my thoughts on Album after having enough time to digest the songs and their recorded versions. Here’s my track by track breakdown no one asked for. Warning, it’s a long one.

Album

A bit navel gaze-y, she types for her Iconis dedicated blog while wearing her Iconis and Family t-shirt she got on a trip she spent way too much money on entirely to see Joe, lol. On my generous days I’ll say I think he deserves it though, and then on my hater days I’m rolling my eyes. It’s very Joe, a sprawling mess of a too long song, it’s just that it’s too much about him as a person in a way that doesn’t excite me. Not to say I think Joe is boring but I don’t think it was written in a way that appeals to me. By itself, it’s mostly a skip because of sheer length, it isn't all that good/exciting of a song, and Joe isn’t the best singer. I think I like his live performances more because on professionally recorded it sounds just good enough that it’s in an uncanny valley between the rawness and messiness that live allows and which Joe does well in and the cleanness of recorded. I do enjoy the family coming in at the end as well as the little references to other songs of his littered throughout. That’s the main redeemable part of the song. Well, the music is nice but that’s usually a given. The ever so slight echo-y haunting quality is great. But not enough that I’m going to ever listen to it enough to remember the words and the order of the call and response at the end.

Best memory of the song was on the Saturday Iconis and Family Album release concert at 54 Below where within the first verse, Joe forgot the lyrics and had to start over.

The Answer

Interesting singer pick for the song. Yeah, Joe says that not one person is on Album solely for their name but, well, some people are clearly here at least partially because of it. Not discounting his performance at all, it’s very good. Just doesn’t stand out from the many other versions of this song that are out there. I haven’t seen Aaron Tveit in enough to be able to judge his acting in general, but everything in his version felt stock, standard, safe. It was very impressive vocally and sounds really good but this is a teenager having a breakdown about his life path, and it doesn’t quite sound like that. Again, it’s good but it’s like he didn’t put his stink on the song which is what I’m looking for when I hear new performances of a song other people have done.

Ammonia

Charlie R once said something of the sort that hearing a song fully/with new orchestrations for the first time is like only looking at line art for so long and then seeing a colored image. Yeah. Man, yeah.

All the other performances of Ammonia have cut that one verse since Heidi did it and I’m glad it’s back. I could and have spent hours listening to this version. The ominous bass was an obvious choice for orchestration but that doesn’t make it any less good when you hear it. I’m always a big slut for strings so hearing those spiccato high notes is great. The strings in general make this song feel so expansive. It sounds like the freedom of an empty house, taking up more space than there is physically. It’s loud and sweeping and epic in the exact way this song and the story told in it deserves. Fuck. I love Ammonia.

Heidi deserves awards for her performance in this song. Also I can’t believe it was one of the songs released early, I was thinking we would have to wait till the entire thing came out to hear this monster of a song, but no it was just out there. It forced me to listen to this one hours on repeat because nothing else was out (except for Kevin) and you’d think the song would be diminished on that many repeat listenings but yet during each one my mind was still fucking blown by how good it was.

Archie's All-American

The energy of this song is fucking infectious. At the concert, we went straight from Album into this song and the instant head boppin’ energy was palpable from within a second of the instrumental starting up. EWM was fucking great on this song in person and I’ll be honest I think I like that more than ABF’s version on the Album, though maybe I’m biased because I just really like EWM’s voice. Not to say that the Album version isn’t good, but I think the instrumental mix didn’t go as hard as it did in person (drums really gave it that extra oomph). ABF does bring a youthful energy to his version that’s very nice and fitting of the song. Speaking of ABF, apparently he did a demo version of Kaboom and I would kill a man for it. God, this song just makes you want to fucking dance.

Lydia's Song

I know absolutely nothing about Beetlejuice but Lauren doing this song is always such a weird goddamn delight. Lyrically, this song isn't my favorite but the music and performance Lauren consistently gives is unparalleled. I know it’s called acting, but her mood when she was singing this song in person was so dour I actually got fooled into thinking she wasn’t happy to be there briefly. Also, strings. The deep, sparingly used drum beats. They add so much to the atmosphere of this song. Fucking superb, Charlie.

The Protector

Joe, tell me what this song means you bastard. I know you saw my Reddit AMA comment because you acknowledged it when answering the other one!! Todd Solondz’s Happiness apparently helped inspire this song which means I have to go watch it at some point. This song wasn’t one of my regular listens before Album because it was so confusing but lately I’ve been thinking about it a lot.

I know I’m overusing this word and I’ll use it several more times before we’re through with this breakdown, but the music of this song is so fucking haunting and beautiful. The dissonant chords. The deep piano. The journey you go on with this song. First listen you think it’s an extended joke with the “in Florida” punchline but on repeat listens it starts to be more than that. The music and lyrics are both a bit too chilling. To me, this song has always been about a father, too beaten down by life and haunted by the past, to trust his son with his own safety, but that feels pretty surface level after you get past the Florida joke reading, though I do think my readings of songs tend to stay pretty surface level. I’ll be wondering what else I’m missing for a long time.

Another overused term, this song is a liminal space. It’s distant shores. It’s snowy fields of white. It’s record stores. It’s suburbs bathed in white. It’s too-real conversations that can only happen in kitchens late at night and are never accessible again, but have changed you and your understanding of the other person forever. I have no fucking clue what the Florida bit is supposed to mean, even still.

Maybe the placement of this song on Album, sandwiched between Lydia’s Song and Kevin, will provide further clues but for now the mystery of The Protector remains unsolved.

Kevin

I didn’t realize Andrew R was as popular as he was but I guess considering the 81k streams on this song at time of writing (second most popular being the title song at 13k), he brings in the listeners. I admit I’m more partial to Jeremy M’s version of the song. I think he fits in the character more and makes bolder decisions, but he doesn’t sit as well with the music. Andrew plays it very straight, sarcastic, and vitriolic while Jeremy’s is a bit more flighty and wondrous. I haven’t checked to confirm but it feels like the tempo is slowed a bit for the middle of the song which I’m pretty ok with on this track. His delivery on “I mean you didn’t even live here then so it wasn’t really a thing for you” is so good. You can taste the contempt. The police sirens are a golden touch. I can see it in my head, him stone faced, nonchalantly walking opposite past police cars racing towards the scene.

Another person who is probably on here at least partially because of the name, but I’m ok with it because he kills it (literally) on this track. Finished typing this and just remembered his numerous Broadway credits, yeah he’s popular lol.

Jeff

My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined and you know exactly why. The goddamn lyric change. Changing “naked Korean girl” to “naked caucasian girl” makes the song instantly lose 1/3rd (literally a third, her 3 traits are: naked, Korean, and girl) of its meaning because at least for my reading, the fetishization of the exoticness of the east is baked into the song. I know everyone’s gonna be like IT’S NOT THAT DEEP and that’s fine, I’m still gonna rant here. The whole point of the song is that Jeff is looking to this person who he thinks is the complete opposite of him, of which the Korean part is intentionally drawing upon the long history of painting the east as foreign and other, and wishing to be like her.

The specific change to caucasian seems like such a weird one, too. Who SAYS caucasian? To my knowledge, no one is out here saying “I’m caucasian” in the way people say “I’m white/Korean/Black/etc.” I get why Joe changed it because if I were a white man I wouldn’t be writing a song like that, but well, he did, and I liked it the way it was.

Maybe it wasn’t intended to be read that way and Joe just needed a nationality that would fit with that number of syllables, but he wrote Korean originally and that’s how the song was popularized and now that meaning is part of the song, death of the author etc. Just like it’d be pretty impossible to change Just Means or Nerd Love to be less uncomfortable/offensive without changing the DNA of the song, you can’t change Jeff, even if on the surface the issue seems restricted to one word. Changing it seems both cowardly AND neuters the song. I would love to talk to Joe about this and why he changed it but that doesn’t ever seem likely to happen. Final take, it should’ve stayed as “Korean.”

Also, I don’t know how much I jive with the trans interpretation of this song. Yeah, we’re going even further down this rabbit hole. The original lyric of Korean makes me instantly think of the way white men specifically fetishize Asian women, especially in film and porn, in a way that’s so cishet and about the white male/Asian female (forgive my use of the term I promise I’m not going mrasian on you) interaction and yellow fever that it’s hard for me to see past it as anything other than fetishization. I don’t think Joe was intentionally writing about any of this other than to use Korean as a shortcut catch-all for Asian exoticness to highlight the otherness from Jeff’s experience. Even some lyrics within the song push back on the more sexual parts of this interpretation (“I don’t want her to think that I’m some perv on some voyeuristic trip” “I promise I’m not looking out of carnal frustration”) but then come the first “oh” part of the song where I take it to mean he’s deriving some sort of pleasure, sexual or not, from this, so who knows how reliable of a narrator Jeff is, though I do tend to take his word on it when he says it’s nonsexual. Not to say that it can’t be fetishistic without it being sexual. Nor that this and the trans reading of the song are exclusive, just that the former is what is overpoweringly what I think of when I hear this song.

Ok, we’re done with the it’s not that deep section.

With that out of the way, Jeremy is fucking great. He plays both the humor and the complexities of this song so fucking well. I love the very specifically chosen grammar incongruity in the line “a couple couples see me fall all over but none of them cares.” It’s subtle enough that you might miss it at first or think that the singer messed up the lyrics but it’s consistent throughout different people singing this song and you realize it’s supposed to convey Jeff’s drunken state. Such a small detail. I fucking love it. Jeremy’s delivery also changes a bit. You can hear the swallows and the slight lag in speech. I can feel his fantasy shatter and reality come crashing back in when he says “myself just staring back at me.” The ever so slight hint of bitterness in his voice when he says “your life will be the same.” It’s so subtle and so good. Man, Jeremy’s performance on this song is unparalleled and it’s a shame this version is ruined by the lyric change. I love this song so much despite how sinister it feels to me. It really is a masterful combo of music, lyrics, and performance.

BUT I AM NOT THE SAME!!!!!!!!!!!

Remember when people shipped Kevin and Jeff? Wild times and I never really understood why. Okay, I do in that they’re both named sadboi characters whose songs have a surprising life and death twist, but on a deeper level I don’t think these characters have anything that would make them compatible. At the core, their characters are based on apathy and self-hatred respectively and what about those two things go well together I’m lost on. It does make for good vibes and aesthetics I guess.

Using Joe lyrics to talk about different Joe songs. “I think about the legacy and all those who came before.” Guess all his street number songs are obviously going to be about history and legacy. The cyclic nature of inspiration. The deconstruction of the rose tinted glasses we see the past through. Alan is so good on this track it makes me almost angry. Slight growl on “drink at McHale’s.” His voice is so smooth. The new orchestrations for this song are so pretty and definitely on the subtler side. Touch of strings, brass, and drums that gives it some extra color but still mainly piano and guitar like in the live version. I love the not quite synchronization on the delivery of “good lord, nostalgia’s so complex!” Also just having 3 people who can really fucking sing on this tracks brings so much life to it.

Play the Princess

Much in the way I think Hosing The Furniture woman and Ammonia woman should leave their husbands and get together, I think the two women in Play The Princess should kiss about it. I think they kinda swapped out a jazzy style for a more country vibe. I can believe this version of the song happens in the backstage of Bloodsong. I do admit I really miss Katrina’s voice on this track, I don’t think L Morgan and Destinee’s voices go as well together. Like they talked about on the podcast, they both seem sorta type-less, but L Morgan sells the princess type a lot more than Destinee does the tough type. Or maybe I’m just too used to hearing Katrina’s powerful voice on this song. Overall, I just don’t think Destinee gave a good performance. Like at 3:40 you can hear her just fade out and it’s only L Morgan singing. What the hell is that? Maybe a lack of communication from having recorded separately? Whatever it is, this track turned out to be pretty disappointing and it was one of the ones I was most looking forward to when the tracklist was announced.

On one hand, I guess it says something about how these women perceive themselves to be that type and mentally put themselves in those boxes when in actuality they don’t come across as it and that they have much more in common than they give themselves credit for, but on the other hand they’re both just sorta same-y and the lack of contrast doesn’t excite me.

The Actress

All the Obie awards to this performance. This song is so Katrina’s that I literally cannot imagine anyone else doing it. I love the new zombie-like “yaaas queen.” It’s my exact reaction to her singing like this and that’s exactly why that line is in there. I love how you need to have that loud and high voice the song talks about to pull it off, but she also retains so much of her uniqueness in her performance that the song talks about throwing away. Also, god this song is so fucking bonkers. Just so classic Joe. The seven minute insane character story epic. This type of song is what I think of when I think of a Joe composition. For translation from live to studio, no complaints. Pretty much a replica and it works very well.

The Song

This fucking song makes me want to hide under sheets and never come out again. This is not the song I should feel called out by the amount of raw fucking lines that make me feel way too seen, but yet here we are. Songs to make my future therapist listen to for sure. Insert Gordon Ramsay’s it’s fucking raw.jpg here.

This along with the next song on Album is of those songs by Joe where you go “oh this is about him” to “oh it’s actually only about him in the same way that all the songs he writes are about him, but he uses the context of his real person to make it seem like it’s only about him on surface level reading.” Brilliance. That’s also why I have trouble believing that it’s solely based on any relationship in Joe’s real life. Sure, he probably drew inspiration, but I doubt this is anything close to a one to one recount of what happened in his life. Off topic, but it feels the same as when people think A Strange Loop is autobiographical for Michael R. Jackson. Yes they drew varying levels of inspiration from their own lives but it’s clearly about a character and not themselves.

Sometimes I lean towards maybe The Song could be about a real life relationship with the introduction he gives it (can only be sung when a certain someone doesn’t come to the concert), but I always wonder how true that is. I used to take it at face value but lately I've been thinking about the bits he's done in the past in between songs that aren't true so now we're back where we started. The introduction could be part of the performance. Then I also remember how Joe's material never is surface level about him, they're all done through characters, slightly more apparent in All The Mistakes than in this song, which makes me even more sure that this song is also about a character. Am I overthinking this? I'm probably overthinking this.

This is the song on the album that should have an intro, not fucking Muthers. I want that intro on here to fuck with people’s heads even more.

All the Mistakes That He Made About the Girl

Sad to say that it's not as rockin’ and angry as in the live videos. Unfortunately that’s a complaint about almost every single song on here but y’know, only so much you can do when translating live to studio. I feel like Joe just isn’t slamming on the keys as hard as he can like this song deserves. The electric guitar and drums helps but also Joe just doesn’t sound as aggressive as he does in other performances. I think there’s a slight synthetic effect on Joe’s voice throughout the song? Or maybe not, but definitely at “he’ll be back where he started” it’s very audible and I enjoy that a lot. I’m also liking the electric guitar arpeggios. Also once again, a sucker for strings.

I love that in a way this song is the opposite of The Actress in that while they both talk about how well the performer can sing, The Actress actually calls for that performance while this song is exclusively performed by Joe and anyone can admit he’s not the greatest singer.

Yesterdays / I Can't Relate

I’m so conflicted because I love the version Jared did at the Lincoln Center and the higher chorus a lot and yet Jason V’s voice is so deep and soothing and I think it fits song better. I could easily see this song on some indie artist’s 5 track EP. Both Jason T and Jared start off with like a weariness in their acting but Jared moves into almost reproachfulness by the end while Jason T stays mostly weary. Love both vibes. I do miss synthy piano, it evoked like an 80s sorta feel. This song so melancholy that I don’t listen to it that much but it really pulls off the vibes it’s going for. Old man too confused and tired to yell at clouds.

Building a Fort

I like this song only so far as it’s a good character song. I don’t really care for it musically or lyrically. One line that always throws me is “I’m not answering your email, I’m throwing out my phone” because I always feel like this song is a spiritual brother to Albuquerque Anyway. It seems very much from the POV of a child so having a phone and email to check seems so strange. Do children check emails? I really don’t think it could be an adult with the way the music is and the rest of the language of the song. If it is that sure would be weird. Anyway the song is cutesy but not for me most days. I love that the backup vocals though are also (as far as I can tell) all by himself alone.

Haddonfield, 15 Years Later (For Judith)

COME ON HOME!!!!!!! During the very first listen I was sort of concerned by how low energy it was but then it kicked into high gear and every single fear was assuaged. Jared fucking kills it so goddamn hard (sidenote: I’ve been re-listening to Isolated Thunderstorms and Elusive Particle is such a fucking jam). I like breakdown laughter a lot since now it isn't a solo song and he doesn't have to Carry the entire thing but also man, do miss those High Notes. The choir arrangements are so fucking fantastic I need to give Joel my life. I want to hear just the vocal tracks on this song. The arrangement and amount of people singing also really helps with the volume and energy. Love the drop out on the lyrics (same thing as in MITB). In the Sunday performance, Jared did a little inhale like he was gonna start singing before stepping away from the mic. God tier. Platonic hand in marriage to that acting choice. Jared so consistently brings like 200% to performances I really want to see him in a full length Joe musical one day. Oh, also time to admit I haven't seen Halloween.

Sympathy for the Killer

Not one of my regular listens before Album but Liz does so good on this song that she and the song are growing on me actually. Previously I had only really thought of her doing Velociraptor but she killed so hard on this song (or rather was killed) both acting and singing-wise (sidenote: definitely gonna be keeping an eye out on White Girl In Danger). As a song itself, it’s not my favorite, but it’s short enough, Liz gives a good enough performance, and the production is fun enough that I’ll listen to it most of the time. I love the dissonant piano, the laughing, the sighs. Fun fact it’s also the second shortest song on Album (behind Slide Whistle). A Joe song less than 3 minutes long is a rare, rare thing.

Helen Sharp

Previously a “Joe sings this so there’s a layer of extra irony/meaning” song but literally anything lost from Joe performing it is instantly made up for one hundredfold with Lorinda’s performance. Are you fucking kidding me?!?! I am literally fucking speechless. I don’t have words to describe how good she is on this. Charlie’s work on the song also helps elevate it to a new fucking level. I love the at times creeping and other grandiose strings, along with the brass (what is that, a tuba?) that joins in right at the end. It helps expand the world of the song so much. I truly know nothing about the movie Death Becomes Her but I can imagine this version of Helen Sharp actually doing something, anything, about Madeline. Meanwhile, Joe’s version is also angry and bitter, but seemed more content to just bitch about it, and the orchestrations definitely help with that difference. I love the venom in Lorinda’s voice at “everything you wanted for yourself” but honestly I could pick 10 different deliveries to put in there and they’d all be true. I love Lauren being so audible in that first shout of “Madeline” when more people join in. I love the scream. I love the whisper of “Madeline” at the end.

When the YT release of the Lincoln Center performance happened, Lauren posted a picture of this song happening on her insta story captioned with something along the lines of “if only you could hear the names Joe is shouting in our living room right now” and I would kill to be a fly in that living room wall right then. I mean I think we can all guess the names but it’d still be fun to hear.

The Nurse and the Addict

Heard that one version of Joe singing it at the MTF so many times that my brain leaves in the flub he did and not hearing it on this version always throws me for a loop momentarily. The typewriter clack noises are brilliant and so, so fun. My platonic hand in marriage to whoever thought of it. Probably Charlie. I love that editing gets us the complete dead silence for after "pull away a bit" to the point where someone thought the song stopped playing. It’s so jarring. This track is one of the best live to studio translations on Album. All the new additions to the instrumentation are so good. Taylor’s voice has this sort of innocence and optimism to it that makes the relationship in the song feel even more unbalanced. When he just straight up starts screaming at the end it even sounds melodic.

Out Of Sight / Out Of Mind

Rip “(The Buddy Song)” lol. A song that got that the banjo/country orchestration which I don’t know if I enjoy on this song as much. This is mostly a skip unfortunately, not even the strings can save it. Well, there is one part I very much enjoy which is the slow part at the 4 minute mark. That “and not care all about me like how I care all about you” reminds me instantly of Krysta singing Adore. I think if we cut a minute or so out of it I’d be more inclined to listened to it. I enjoy the lyrical contents and theme of the song a lot but musically it’s just not my thing and the style on Album isn’t helping. Krysta does a good job on the song though. Not that I would trade it for Jared’s version but I do want to hear her do Haddonfield with the new choir arrangements.

The Saddest Girl in the World

Liz did this song live at the concerts and I enjoyed it then but otherwise it’s a skip. On the Saturday performance on her way up to the stage she stopped by a friend of mine’s table during the “he don’t have to be of age” line and said hi to him, which killed me. Otherwise, I don’t enjoy pretty much anything about this song. Not the music nor the lyrics. Not really sure why there was what amounted to a pointless lyric change. I don’t think Kerry did the best on this song. Really I don’t have much to say about this song. The only way I can really enjoy this song is solely as a snapshot of a character like Just Means. Wish this had been replaced by one of the songs on my missed list. Definitely a skip.

Norman

This version elevated Norman from a skip. It’s because of the strings. I’m always a sucker for violin no matter the situation. The very slow run right before 2 minutes in is so lovely. The contrast between the elegance of the violin and the lyrics and mood of the song is so stark and I love it. The staccato. The anger and volume and scream behind “I wish we were.” The stutter. The numerous girls in the background laughing and talking and calling his name. I definitely picked out Lauren’s distinctive voice. Haven’t seen Psycho but this performance seemed much more of a character than other ones I’ve seen. I am also always just constantly blown away by how new orchestrations can make it feel like you’re hearing a song for the first time. Thanks Charlie for literally my entire life.

(Run Away from You)

It regrettably does not go as hard as that one version of Joe at Two River which is my all time favorite which is unfortunate. I love the slight distortion/electronic effect on Jason’s voice during “girl I swear with all my werewolf heart” as well the crunchy electric guitar throughout. The “hide behind the bushes” etc part just does not have the level of intensity as it needs to make the song really work. It needs to build to frenetic levels and leave you feeling like you’re stalking down the street right alongside him but instead I feel like it didn’t go anywhere and I fell asleep inside the bush. I miss the werewolf breathing sounds. I’m wondering if Jason wasn’t feeling well or something when recording because this is not as good as it could’ve been. There are videos of him doing better. I think I’m being a bit overly harsh on this, it’s honestly not that bad and nowhere near the worst live to studio adaptation on this album, it’s just that I know it could be a lot better so I’m disappointed.

The Prisoner's Christmas Song

Not one of my regular listens before Album. I don’t think I care much for the song in particular but Grace gives such a performance and musically it fucks severely. Honestly just copy paste my exact feelings on Sympathy For The Killer. I am a huge sucker for a lot of growl in voices when singing so generally have a very fun time listening to it.

Right Place / Wrong Time

Yee fuckin’ haw. Legendary goddamn song. Maybe thee Joe Iconis of all time? It has all the major qualities: a story with a twist, vivid misfit characters, so fucking long, the struggle of being an artist, obsession with the past, repeating chorus, nonsense syllables. Yeah, this is thee Joe Iconis song of all time. I like that one of Katrina’s lines is “tell me my singing’s out of style” when she’s talked about how her style is actually what’s hot right now but it wasn’t when she started.

I miss the piano sirens, they’re a lot more subtle here. Not much to say about this one, just a very solid recording of what’s done live and I appreciate it.

Sometimes I think to myself “why is Joe so hung up on Broadway” and wanting his shows to play there. I had a conversation with a friend around when LIHN was happening at Two River where I was saying it’d sure be something if Revolution Song one day played at the Tony Awards. They said they’d rather the institution actually be torn down and at the time I couldn’t quite articulate why I didn’t think Joe would ever want that. Well, this song is why. For better or worse, he much too much respects the legacy and meaning of Broadway. He considers himself a pretty traditional guy, not trying to break new ground, be witty/impressive/insincere etc. He too desperate to make it within the place he loves to ever do anything else.

I don’t know why there’s a single soft clap/snap along the middle of the track. It seems like it’d much more belong in an a capella version of this song. It’s pretty clearly intentionally added because it cuts out eventually but it seems a bit too soft and the rest of the song is overproduced so that it doesn’t add much to the song and it just feels a bit like a distraction. Not that the song was overproduced, I just think it was past the level of being able to add a clap track along it. I actually like the level of production and new instrumentation.

Admittedly, I’m not much one for history. That’s one of the topics Joe talks about a lot that least resonates with me. I love that as time goes on, fewer and fewer people will know what this song is talking about without looking it up. I know I had to. I’m the people who don’t understand how much they meant, but this song gives me a small window into the mindset of people who care. It makes me care more than I did before.

A Guy That I'd Kinda Be Into

A surprise, to be sure, but a welcome one. I liked the live versions of this cover a lot in the past when I heard them but I wasn’t expecting it to make it onto Album. It’s weird to hear this song without the backing vocals and dialogue. It’s sweet that the last line is changed so it’s a pure-ish love song and it also subverts expectations like this song originally did. Guess we’re in covers/cabaret versions of songs from full shows section of the album.

Joey Is a Punk Rocker

Another one that wasn’t one of my regular listens and that I only enjoy as a character song. For both this and the last track, I really do like that the people singing are so different from the character that usually sings it in the show. In general, I really enjoy Annie’s voice and how full of character it is. The one section of the song I do have to admit I enjoy is the line “that his nipples were pierced but his heart was too.” Banger fucking line. Also the hilarity of Joe writing the line “I’m in love with a punk rocker named Joe” has not worn off for me.

Social Worker

Now this is a bonkers version of Social Worker. Immediately the synth is like whoa, what the fuck. I love the increasing echo effect on Nick’s voice during the panic attack section of the song. I enjoy it just as a listen but I’m really curious as to why they decided to go down a synth route for this song. Seems weird and I don’t know if I tonally agree with that choice, but I also don’t really disagree? Just want to know why they did it. Also, low-key I think Nick could’ve done better on this track. Like it was very good but I think the instrumental was definitely carrying.

I Was a Teenage Delinquent!

MAYBE THE GREATEST THING THAT HAS EVER GRACED MY EARS??? I think within the first goddamn second I had my tiny little fucking mind blown. This song and the fullness of the orchestrations makes me want to scale several stories of brick wall so I can scream from rooftops “I FELL IN LOVE IN JUVIE HALL!!!!!!!!!” I truly mean it when I say I love how bad, overdramatic, and trashy this song is. She’s writing on bathroom walls in lipstick! She’s romanticizing her suicide scars! She’s falling in love in anger therapy! I love the incongruity of the line “I am a teenage ne'er-do-well” like a teenager would ever, ever say that. Well, maybe they did in the 60s. I love the brief saxophone bit while they almost kiss. I also love that they cut like the 30 seconds of dead time. This song is such a violent, cheesy, goddamn banger. As always I’m in love with the uniqueness of Lauren’s voice and performance. I can’t believe that LIHN came from this. It would be interesting and fun to hear Amina and Kelly do this as a one off but I’m glad it was Lauren and Molly, I want Amina and Kelly’s rendition of I Fell In Love In Juvie Hall to remain a sacred, earnest, triumphant gay love jam.

(Do) the Slide Whistle!

What the hell is this. Why did they go all out on this song. I don’t know the story behind this song. I don’t think it would help even if I did. It’s catchy, I’ll give them that. Who the hell are Suzie and Jenny and [Turp?], what is this song? All around confusion.

Muthers R Speshel (Wen Yer Sad)

I guess they lined up Slide Whistle and this one next to each other so I could double slam on the skip button. The nicest thing I can say about this song is that at rare points it’s charming and heartwarming. Another case of “well... some people are here at least partially because of their name.” It is not like LMM has been out here at concerts doing Joe’s songs.

My Best Friend's a Skeleton

Jeremy is delightful as the skeleton as always. I wonder if the skeleton jumpsuit he wore in the 2013 video is the same one in the 2022 shows. I think I enjoy Lance’s version more but they’re really incomparable since that one was live and George’s was a studio recording. Lance is just. Such a silly guy lol. Don’t know which I like more, the “I cannot wait for you to pass” in the live version of George or the “that’s gross why would you say that” but really just all the awards for Jeremy. For the Album version, it’s another one that got that sorta banjo/country twang in the orchestrations which I’m enjoying on this version of the song, but honestly overall it’s a skip. It’s the sort of song that lives on the banter they have between verses so it’s best in a live recording. Makes me wish they swapped this song out for something like Blue Hair.

Velociraptor

A real win for my media comprehension skills that this song is next to Him Today, Gone Tomorrow. I was like “yessss” when I saw it when the tracklist came out. It makes the skull line very weird but with an extra layer of meaning I guess.

I love the sort of what I can only describe as elevator-style music. It gives the song a very modern, cosmopolitan feel. I can easily imagine this as an anonymous woman lost in the size of NYC. I love how bold the guitar noise is after the “there’s a dinosaur” noise. It kind of sounds like it’s supposed to be a dinosaur roar. I love the line “where the species intertwine” because suddenly that line feels like it implies everyone on the street is a different species instead of nondistinct/normal/human like I was imagining them before. Everyone sees themselves as an animal in a city of humans but really they’re all their own kind of weird and Velociraptor is just looking for people who are weird in the same way as her. I don’t usually think about this but this song really is similar to Right Place/Wrong Time.

Also I have absolutely no memory of where I heard about this but once Liz said that she was complaining to Joe about feeling tired of singing generic songs about people feeling out of place and then he wrote this for her haha. Liz consistently kills it in an under-appreciated way, very much hoping she’s in the official White Girl In Danger cast next year so we can see/hear her in something.

Him Today, Gone Tomorrow

Not as much of a banger as it is in the live performances. Unfortunately nothing about this performance of this song is that good. A combo of audio mixing, instrumentation, and vocals all make this song not live up to its potential. There’s a real variance and buildup of energy in the live version but in this one it’s all mostly samey. I don’t like the addition of background vocals, it’s not loud enough to actively contribute to making the song better and in fact it feels like it helped make this a more lulled song this version. I do prefer the emotion and acting in the vocal performance for this version though.

I love the “she” transitioning from sounding like a tentative question to a celebration with many exclamation points after it. I want to see Manifest Pussy in full. I always wonder if there’s more context for this song that I’m missing.

Starting to Forget

Not one of my regular listens before Album. I actually used to think that this song was about a woman walking the line between still missing and starting to forget their abusive ex and healing, and I thought that for longer than I care to admit. I think it was only when I went to transcribe the lyrics to this song a few months ago that I finally really started paying attention to exactly what was being said and I realized how incredibly sad it was. Then even more recently I found out it’s about Joe and his grandfather. But you know what I still somewhat stand by my reading of this being about one person’s complicated journey moving on from their ex-lover. It could work.

I love Badia’s voice on this so much. It’s also interesting because on the Album podcast, they said they recorded all the band stuff first, but this track sounds very singer lead with the liberties taken with tempo. It sounds like a song that requires the accompaniment to come after or be live with the singing, but apparently that’s not what happened so props to them for making it sound like that’s what happened.

Also shout out to this song for apparently being able to always bring a tear to Michael R Jackson's eye.

Tightrope Walker / Mountain Climber / Me

So Joe has this old song called Tightrope Walker but I’ve never heard it. I have to imagine this song is a reworking/expansion of that other song and it makes me really curious to hear what the old version was. Regardless, new Joe Iconis song!!! [Has a life crisis].

This song is so interesting and I’m still trying to figure it out. The latter half captures the feeling of being an observer in your own life, the detachment and distraction of living in our social media age, and the ease at which we can compare ourself to others now. However, I don’t understand why the tightrope walker and mountain climber bits exist. To draw comparison to the “me” bit, but is it saying that they’re more similar or different than one would expect? Or neither? Is it saying that the career of an artist is in some ways comparable and as dangerous as tightrope walking/mountain climbing? The biggest hint is the some people are fueled by terror/praise meanwhile I live vicariously through others line. Do they exist only to lay down examples of other’s accomplishments that the starving artist feels they’ll never have their own version of? The song is a lot about what motivates people and I guess the artist’s lack thereof? Or maybe they do have motivation but it’s slowly been eroded over time by not reaching their goals while everyone else seems to be. Still, I don’t understand why. And then it also gets meta with the “I hate my vocals on this song” so then it’s implying that the starving artist wrote and is performing this song. I don’t know what any of this means! Would love to hear what other people think of this song. Can’t wait for the podcast episode of this song.

Since Joe almost never shares his lyrics verbatim I think I’ll be wondering forever if the “and days and days etc” part eventually ends on “and daze” because I love a good homonym. Would be cool if it did.

I love Molly H and her voice so much. I also really want to hear Lauren do this song. I think her voice lends to the style a lot. I love how casual this song sounds, very fittingly for the message of the song. In the Sunday live performance of this song it went heavy on some sort of synth-y rock guitar and there were also backing vocals. It was weird.

Flesh and Bone (The Robot's Song)

I'm sorry. What the fuck? It's like they decided to suck literally all of the energy out of this song during the recording. And I know Jason can go hard on this song, I've seen it before. So what the fuck. It started out a bit more low energy than I was expecting but I was expecting it to pick up but then it never did and we got to the nanas at the end and I was so disappointed. I just checked and it’s literally 10 bpm slower than live versions. I’m back again wondering if Jason got sick or something because this was not it. His voice sounded a bit off, like it was more tired/weaker. I’m just am in shock at how bad they ruined this song. Like how did this happen. This is one of Charlie’s favorite songs so like, how did he listen to this and think “yeah that’s good.”

The string pizzicato was nice but I’m still not sure how I feel about it in this song specifically. I miss the versions where the guitar in the background plucks an alarm going off/warning signal of low battery. The wind and rust sound effects were also lame as hell in this version, and by lame I mean almost nonexistent. I very much prefer versions where they do something outsized and wacky. Overall, I don’t know why you would choose to listen to the worse version of this song out there.

Party Hat

The new interjections are so fun and I love it. I think my favorite is “you are quite something” and “that’s what my therapist says!” It reminds me of Lauren’s Our Show. Also love the funky lil banjo and melodica. Thank god they kept the kazoo. This song is almost good enough for me to forgive EWM for making smacking lips noises right in my ear. Honestly I don’t have all that much to say about this song. Good song, good recording. Okay, I’ve been trying to find a way to word this without sounding weird but there is no good way. I want EWM to be my cat. No elaboration. You either get me or you don’t.

Amphibian

About to say something sacrilegious. I only like Amphibian an okay amount and it definitely is one of those songs whose charm lies in live performance, though this track translated pretty well from live to studio. I think they’re also aware of this so starting it off way more cutesy helped. Also that the ensemble choir was made up of so many people was great. On some tracks you can tell the ensemble had less people and as a result felt much less full. It’s very cute that Lance joined in for a duet. Double Natos! Shamefully, I thought it was Joe the first few listens until Al told me otherwise. I like the crowd/general chatter noise at the end with very low ribbits that then transitions straight into It’s All Good.

The Amphibian on Sunday when Will was out with COVID was by far my favorite performance of this song, ever. Amara was so good at the beginning that I want an entire version of her and John’s energy was so innocent and quickly turned rockin’ that I am obsessed.

It's All Good

I feel like the audio mixing could’ve been better on the ambient crowd/chatter noise to not have it cut out as abruptly? It felt a bit jarring. Regardless, I like it. It creates a feeling of a live performance where people just get up and go to the mic that fits well with the content of the song. Not one of my favorite songs of Joe’s, but it’s so nice to have the boys from the 08 cast all singing together on this and their voices mesh very nicely together. It also sounds like they recorded together to match up the vocals or at least they did a much better job of it here than some other tracks.

Find the Bastard

I have to fucking talk about this shit. After the Saturday concert, the performers were talking to audience members outside and I had a short conversation with EWM where I told him how much I loved BSOL. He ribbed me a bit about being 12 when the original production happened, which is totally fair, and I thought that would be the end of that interaction. But he remembered because the next night during this song, right after the first “what’s your name, what’s your name,” (I guess I shouted loud enough that he noticed me) he made eye contact and pointed to me in the audience briefly as he sang. I am still replaying this moment in my mind. And also physically replaying it on the vid I took lol. Literally the amount of joy that those brief seconds have brought me is immeasurable. Months later just listening to this song is still a free happiness machine.

Last on Land Whomst? This is my new favorite, no I'm not biased at all (ok but can you blame me after what happened). I guess I should talk about the actual song now.

Ok, on the Album version right at the beginning of the instrumental after the very first measure (0:03-0:04), the guitarist accidentally plucks another string when changing fingerings and it bother me to no end. Can you tell I’ve been listening to this song on eardrum shattering volumes? Other than that, almost 0 complaints. The snake rattle effect sends chills through me. I like that there’s clearly a lot of people in the mix for the ensemble part but you can hear Jason ST and Katrina distinctively in the mix. I love the new brass. It fits so well. Loud and brash just like the show. Speaking of the brass, I’m in love with the drawn out instrumental crescendo right before “they done me wrong.”

AND FROM NOW ON, WHEN THEY ASK MY NAME (WHAT’S YOUR NAME, WHAT’S YOUR NAME) MY ANSWER ALWAYS GONNA BE THE SAME (WHAT’S YOUR NAME, WHAT’S YOUR NAME) I’LL SAY MY NAME IS AWFUL LONG AS IT’S THE LYRICS OF THIS SONG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I do not know how a single person in the world could possibly listen to this song and not feel the hype in their fucking soul and The Musician’s mission as their own. For three minutes and twenty-nine seconds, I’m a guitar wielding musician recently freed from prison on a mission to get my woman back from a dastardly kazoo playing villain. And it better be yours too.

I don’t know why on these TBS and BSOL tracks, there’s noise/people talking at the beginning/end. I assume for like atmosphere/continuity to signify that they’re from the same show/should be listened to together?

Last on Land

Don't look at me, I'm listening to Last on Land. As always, thinking about that one review that called this song the out of nowhere number about sailing. Watch your fucking back, I’m about to turn you into an out of nowhere number about sailing. Though I’ll be honest, parts of this song are still lost on me but I enjoy that. I’m always thinking about what certain lines could mean when I’m listening to this song. Some parts mean a different thing to me every time I listen to it. I guess I can understand how someone who wasn’t paying attention and hearing this song for the first time could think it was just a song about boats. I mean, admittedly that’s what I thought the first time I heard this song. But then you listen again and you notice the raw fucking lines like “we find the solution to escape our fate, it lies in the equal distribution of our weight” and I dare you to not feel even an ounce about community and what we owe and willingly give to one another when this song plays.

Since it’s in a different key on Album as it is in the show, the octave jump on the piano backing is even higher and everything feels even more perilous. Like oh my god, things are beginning to sink!!

Sorry I am continuously ragging on it, but it’s noticeably not as good in an album of mostly good to stellar performances. I don’t think Jason ST’s performance on this track is the greatest but the tiredness sort of fits the opening of the song so it’s not as egregious on this track. I don’t know there’s any standout performances on this track actually, it starts getting very good later into the song.

I love the angelic choir sort of quality the “ohs” in the vocal only part, and it carries that quality even when everything else comes back in. It feels like prayer and community to someone non-religious like me. The only thing on this earth for us is each other. The new harmonies are so fucking good it makes me lose my entire goddamn mind every time I listen two minutes of this song. Especially the new high part on “if you weren’t here with me.” You know the one. The echoing on the chorus. Thank you Joel for these god tier vocal arrangements. It’s what this song fucking deserves. It really feels like it’s taking full advantage of the size of its goddamn cast list. I wouldn’t be surprised if almost all the people in that image of people on the album were in this chorus.

Can you believe that Joe originally wasn’t going to do any songs from full shows of his? Thank god Jen convinced him otherwise. Lord, what would I do without [this version of this song].

Try Again

I connected like a year ago that the "lifeboat manned by me" line was in reference to Bloodsong but it took me up until a few weeks ago to realize the "fuck those bastards, find a friend" is also probably one. With how connected this song is to other works of Joe now I'm realizing the suicide attempt off the roof is not at all random and definitely calling back to Broadway, Here I Come! lol. It takes me a minute...

Ending with Try Again instead of Last on Land is fun and interesting. The placement of this song makes me think Joe still feels like he hasn’t made it in the way he wants to in this industry, which, fair. It’s just funny how a song he wrote with a large inspiration about BMC after TRT is still the message he wants to go out on, that even with that very show making it to Broadway, he still feels he’s at the stage where he’s picking himself back up and trying again. And I guess YMMV on if he deserves to feel that way. With how much he talks about being a fan of traditional musical theater and having traditional mindsets of what being successful in musical theater looks like, he certainly hasn’t made that original show that’s been reviewed well by the NYT regionally and moved to Broadway and had a successful run in the way he thinks/thought shows should do. And both BBH and LIHN, right after BMC had a similar trajectory of not being the success he wanted, with LIHN being especially similar to how BMC started out.

Though honestly I don’t know what Joe Iconis would be like if he had his well-loved Broadway hit and I don’t know if it’s ever gonna happen for him. It seems like he just somehow grates on people in a way that in his eyes, he’ll be almost making it forever. Like if you just shift your viewpoint a bit, this track would’ve also fit very well after Right Place/Wrong Time as the 26th track, at exactly halfway through Album. With this song as the midpoint, it would’ve sent a message of how despite the NYT review, he tried again and BMC was eventually able to get to Broadway because of the love people had for it, and he saw that result of trying again and is past that part of his life.

Am I reading into all this too much? Probably. Maybe he placed it here as an upbeat message about trying again to loop back to the beginning of the album. But reading and listening to what he says in interviews I’m inclined to think he still feels like he’s in the trying again stage of his life.

#teresa talks #album #refusing to use full names lol on the off chance one of them somehow finds this #im being a little mean a little bitchy i dont want people to see mean words about them lol #iaf #my posts #ive been working on this post since june 24 lol #then joe started posting on tumblr and i got scared hed namesearch himself and see this #oh well if he does ill just die #i continue to ramble in tags in hopes that this will make it not show up in search #please god i just dont want creators to see me talking about them #this is my space!!!#anyway i hope if he does find this he knows i say this with as much love as possible #i mean i wrote 9k words of thoughts i think about it a lot #every day i live in fear #the irony of loving if you like it so much and desperately hoping he doesnt find u talking about him #i just think there should be a separate spaces between fans and creators #where we can be a lil mean amongst ourselves with the understanding it's all love #joe iconis

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jamesshawgames · 1 year

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Relics Series Retrospectives Part 2: Relics 2: The Crusader’s Tomb

After last week’s retrospective analysis of Relics of the Lost Age, I did another one for Relics 2, asking what worked, what didn’t, and other pertinent questions. It’s under the jump!

Of all the trilogy, Book 2 was the hardest to plan and the easiest to write. The planning difficulties arose from the fact that it was the second story in a trilogy, and it’s always hard to know what to do with that. (I’ve talked about this before elsewhere, so apologies if you read that and I’m repeating myself here!) First books have the thrill of discovering new worlds and characters; third books have the advantage of wrapping everything up, drawing everything together, and having big epic conclusions. Second books are just there, and it can be hard to make them earn their place. In order to work out what to do, I thought about trilogies that I know which have really successful second entries, and tried to figure out what they do that works so well. In the end, my main reference points were The Godfather 2 and Mass Effect 2, both second entries which many people see as the best parts of their trilogies. And what I realized, when I thought about these two stories, was that one of the reasons that they were successful was because they ended up being really different from numbers 1 and 3 in their series. So that’s what I set out to do: to make a game that would still be recognizably Relics, but would also feel distinct from 1 and 3.

I did this in a few ways. Most obviously, new mechanics. I kept the core mechanics the same, but I ended up adding a bunch of new stuff to suit the “race” format of the story. Money, trading, time, inventory, vehicles (which do have their own mechanics, although I kept them a little hidden from players) and documents are all new factors which don’t appear in 1 and which don’t reappear in 3, creating a very mechanically distinct game. I also changed up the villains. This is the only entry in the trilogy where the Nazis aren’t the main villains (they only appear in one chapter). This time, the main villains are the Order of Saint Sebastian. (In a way, this echoes the original Indiana Jones trilogy, where Nazis don’t appear in the second film, and instead the main villains are religious fanatics, although in keeping with the “decolonization” spirit of the series I made my villains militant Christians, rather than pseudo-Hindu fanatics!) It’s also the only game which is non-episodic and follows a linear timeline from start to finish, with no big gaps between chapters. I even made the art distinct, with classy black-and-white location shots for chapter headers, rather than the colorful, text-focused chapter headers of 1 and 2. Another tactic was to minimize any references to the Most High / carxite stuff until the very end. In the last chapter, you learn that this book does connect to all that stuff, but for most of the game it feels like a completely separate adventure which isn’t about that stuff at all. I think all of this works to make Book 2 feel like its own thing, and that sense of difference does a lot to help it earn its place in the trilogy and not feel like we’re just treading water.

It also probably feels a bit less “on rails” that Book 1. The competition structure helps here: there are often alternate routes, and it’s very possible to lose the competition or to engineer various different end-states, which helps open things up a lot. Replayability is also aided by the fact that you can take different companions with you. I worried about how much extra writing that would involve, but in the end it was quite manageable. I added a few entirely distinct long scenes with your travel companion (like the London reunion or the Venice gondola trip), a few shorter exchanges (e.g. on the ferry to France, while riding out of town in Romania), a few moments where individual companions would make character-specific comments, and other moments where the responses were generic enough for any companion to say the things that were being said. Altogether, this makes each run with a different companion feel distinct, aiding replayability. So it feels more open than the first one, and also, for the most part, more light-hearted. I’m not up on my colonialism soap-box quite so much this time, so it probably feels less “political”. Maybe this is because the story is mostly set in Europe. If it has any political dimensions at all, it’s probably simply that I was heartbroken by the Brexit vote and wanted to make a story about how amazing traveling in Europe is, something that’s a lot less easy for me to do now. So the book is really a love letter to Europe rather than a takedown of colonialism, which gives it quite a different feel!

But the game starts in Mexico, and I think that the Prologue works well. Firstly, since the rest of the game is going to be in Europe, there won’t be any more chances for jungle exploration or lost cities, so I get to scratch that itch in the prologue. Also, making Sam the compulsory companion in the prologue means that everybody will get some Sam time, even those players who have ROs and want to travel with them. Introducing Gainza in the prologue worked well too. He’s probably the most effective of the new villains, even though we barely see him during the race itself. I think this is partly because he’s such a clear trope (mustache-twirling evil capitalist), but it’s also partly thanks to the Prologue. It gives the MC some history with Gainza, even if it’s quite shallow history, and that helps give the rivalry with him the feeling of a grudge. It also does the “second part of a trilogy” thing well, both looking back to Book 1 (in the epilogue your MC mentioned that their friend Consuelo had found something exciting in Mexico), and looking ahead to Book 3 (because Consuelo will come back in that book), so it kind of serves as a bridge between them!

The rest of the chapters are probably, overall, less distinct generically than the chapters in Book 1. I was able to get in a bit of cross-genre fun (Chapter 4 is a heist movie, Chapter 5 is a fugitives-on-the-run saga, Chapter 6 is a classic Gothic vampire horror), but it wasn’t so easy to do that this time, perhaps because the whole non-episodic joined-up-story thing requires more of a consistent tone than the structure of Book 1. Chapters 1 and 2 are quite forgettable, I think (the build-up in this story is probably too slow – more on this later), but it starts to take off in Chapter 3, and I think that stretch of 4, 5 and 6 is probably as good as anything anywhere else in the Relics trilogy. Istanbul, of course, ends up dominated by That Moment, which some people didn’t like but I think was probably necessary. Esme and Abdul were just too happy together, and there’s limited scope for real tension and drama in a relationship that successful, so it needed a drastic change to stop those characters from becoming boring. Chapter 8, I think, works really well. One of the hardest elements of writing this book was keeping multiple parallel storylines ticking over – the race, the fates and fortunes of your rival competitors, the mystery around who’s been murdering competitors, Yelena’s grudge against you, the activities of the Order, the Most High stuff. There are still a lot of balls up in the air at the start of Chapter 8, and I think that that chapter resolves them very satisfactorily and draws everything together nicely, while still strongly suggesting the possibilities for a sequel (especially in the Most High map).

What Worked:

New mechanics: Sure, I took a bit of a steer from 80 Days, but I think my new mechanics do end up being different from that, and from what I’ve seen it just all really works well. The time factor, the trade-offs, the constraints of money, the vehicle stuff – this all really adds to the experience, it puts a bit more game into the story and, despite it all being very complicated and hard to keep track of, it all just comes together very well. Hooray!

New ROs: The María romance seems to have been very well received, probably helped by the fact that it’s been brewing for two whole books. But the fully new ROs work too. Rémy offers something distinct for people who want to romance male characters: he’s fun, and while both Abdul and Zhu have a lot to recommend them as ROs and as men, neither of them are exactly that. Rémy’s a blast to write, and someone you’d definitely want to grab a few drinks with! And Dominique works, too. Having trailed them with a brief but memorable appearance in Book 1, it was nice to bring them back and see a bit more of them. Even though I suspect a lot of players will remain attached to their Book 1 ROs, I think all three of the Book 2 ones add something distinct.

Puzzles: Good puzzles this time, for the most part.

What I’m Unsure About:

Too many random encounters: The low point is probably Venice. Here, in the course of a few days, you randomly encounter Zhu, Dominique and Stevo, who all just happen to be in town at the same time on different business! Running into Cleo in the middle of nowhere in Romania also stretches credibility. This was probably unavoidable. I wanted everybody to have the chance to reconnect with major characters from Book 1, whoever they happen to be dating (just because you’re dating Zhu doesn’t also necessarily mean that you don’t care about Cleo and never want to see her again!) I can’t really think of another way of doing it, I’m just conscious that it’s pretty unbelievable how often your MC will randomly run into their friends on this journey!

What Didn’t Work:

Too slow to start: There’s a lot of set-up here. It’s necessary, but the whole England section (Chapters 1 and 2) doesn’t feel very eventful. There’s an optional run-in with Maxie in London, for those who want to relive Book 1 Chapter 5, and an encounter with the Order in Canterbury, but that’s about it in terms of exciting scenes. The rest of it is just reuniting with your companion, setting up the contest and establishing new systems. I wish I’d found a way to do all that more efficiently. It isn’t really until Paris that the story starts to properly take off, which is too far in.

Competitors: As characters, the competitors are a mixed bag. María works well, but largely because we already know her from Book 1. I think Gainza’s a good villain, too, as I said before in part because he’s already appeared in the Prologue. But the others? Hollingsworth and Ambrose die very early (although they have already screwed you over by geligniting your car in Canterbury), and the Russians don’t appear often enough to be effective (just one optional run-in in the Alps and some eavesdropping in Venice), before they get bumped off by the mysterious rival-killer. I wish I’d made those two groups of rivals a bit more prominent so they’d feel more effective as antagonists.

#relics of the lost age #relics series #relics 2 #Series Retrospective

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guideaus · 1 year

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trigun stampede ep1 thoughts

cant say i like it opening right away w space, but that might be bc im biased from the anime. i liked the anime's approach a lot more than the manga's, honestly. especially not just space, but the whole seeds thing too shouldnt have been shown as the first thing

i am really not a fan of the designs of... most things in the ep lol. i've got a bone to pick w the designers for this series

the first scene was v out of context so i wont pick that apart

wish meryl didnt look 10 years old, but at least she doesnt sound 10. that was a criticism i had abt milly in the 90s anime

still upset abt the roberto guy, i guess they could change my mind but so far hes :/

i like the bits with the wildlife

im not bothered by meryl's occupation change (as a journlist only i mean), it doesnt really matter to me imo

not to have nostalgia glasses on, but i miss vash's old voice. i hear this one and im like oh this is sword art online boy/teru mp100 and i dont think i like that guy's voice anyway

again with a design thing, idk how i feel abt vash having "lost technology" so present. i made a post abt this way back, but maybe they change smth (but also they cant exactly justify the whole modern jp fashion thing in futuristic sci-fi space setting either so i wonder if theyll even attempt to explain this)

i like the bit abt vash interfering w plant stuff being added as a crime. i feel like in the original anime his bounty was iconic, but in that and the manga idk why it was even there, except to establish his contrasting pacifist nature against ppl that want the reward for his capture.

it also showing mps is a bit more interesting when the manga kinda felt like it pulled order/gov out of nowhere (before knives did his best to kill everyone, mostly getting rid of that)

i love vash's face at least. hes my little meow meow, wet pathetic kitten, etc.,

im surprised nightow's never attempted to show a map of the planet before. but idk shit abt maps so i cant make any statements abt this one

i love seeing a town defend vash immediately 🥺 technically i dont think its good for new audiences, (it shows hes not some monstrous villain, but not how he couldve gotten his rep, while before it was clearly the destruction caused from other ppl going after him, and him accepting the blame) but i'll pretend that what happened to him here happened at the end of the manga instead

i thought the ep was gonna imply meryl is like a spoiled rich kid from the city, but i guess not lol... (or kinda??)

the part where the plant is explicitly explained felt a little too hamfisted, or not subtle lol, like some video game, meant for the audience, not really any character. even if they used meryl's newly-out-of-school-sheltered-kid thing theyre doing

it seems weird the bar owner was in charge of the town?

also weird they just stopped talking abt vash's arm of "lost technology"

the villain for the ep being goofy was nice. v reminiscent of the original

no one can tell me a .22 bullet comes out of vash's gun... but also ig u could say smth abt that maybe

the music sounds nice :)

seems weird the corrupt cops just leave?? wouldve thought theyd get mobbed lol... and did the plant get fixed either too lol?

i think vash telling anyone abt his bro, esp the day he met said person, doesnt make sense

i dont think that flashback was necessary, either

and knives can go all out jamming, doing what ever he wants. its fine, he can be as weird as he likes

i dont really like the ending either. i dont know japanese music, but this also has to be modern jpop lol. where are the wurmple cries

also i forgot to say but theres nothing wrong w the cgi. anyone complaining abt that is automatically dumb lol

#personal #trigun spoilers

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galactic-knightmare · 11 months

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Just some (long) venting

So, lets start at the beginning a while ago (back in the last months of 2022 I think maybe?) I was streaming Splatoon when my capture card died. right in the middle of it. literally an hour before splatfest. It was just a cheap little $20 one, so it wasn’t that unexpected that it would die at one point, but it definitely chose one of the most inconvenient times for it. so, I started saving up muns to get it replaced- I had decided, to make sure it lasted longer this time, that I would get one of the big, expensive ones, because when it comes to tech the expensive shit tends to be more durable and last longer, and my BFF suggested the one she had gotten, so I started opening up even more different kinds of commissions. Since I didn’t have a job (I had put in an application at my brother’s work since I can’t drive and he can, but never got anything back) the only source of income I have is art coms. so now I had to save up for around $400 in computer stuff (capture card, computer monitor, new desk) which was. fine. made tons of adopts. not a single one sold. did get a massive amount of coms- that. where from a single person. and the amount of work drawing the exact same character was driving me insane, but it was fine. I also, as anyone following me probably knows, decided to stop work on my fandom stuff and focus entirely on the coms, despite very much NOT wanting to stop, as I was stuck on a Hyperfixation of that fandom. and then, a day or two (maybe three?) ago, I saw that the capture card was on sale, and I could probably get it. buying it while on sale would REALLY help me out on getting the rest of the stuff I needed. So then, I was twenty short, so my BFF swooped in like the angel (demon?) she is, and offered to help me out. so I got an art com for a new icon from her and had the muns for it! ...or so I thought. You see, my bank decided to lie to me about how much money I had, and I was around thirty short. so now I had to try and get more muns. Thankfully though, that same day, another friend (at least, I hope they think we’re friends. their really cool...) decided to also help and commissioned me for a full-shaded pic of one of their characters, and I was able to order the capture card! ..aaand then that’s where the past three days (including today) BS comes in. I ended up getting a thought in my head- like, the usual one that ruins my thought process for a little bit and makse me scared as shit. but instead of going away somewhat easily with a simple distraction, it actually fucked me over kinda bad. my brain actually felt PHYSICALLY weird, and my breathing sped up. not hyperventalating, but it was definitely faster than normal. So I mentioned it in the vent channel of a discord server, and couple people said it sounded like a panic attack. so thats great.

My brain was still kinda messed up so my BFF offered to keep me company until it started to chill out, so we stayed up till 5 am watching vids together, and when she went to nap since she was tired, I was fine again, but I noticed that the new capture card was out for delivery, so knowing that I wouldn’t be able to wake up in time for it if I went to sleep like I was planning, I stayed up the rest of the night. and then, amazon sent an email about the ‘delivery being attempted and having to try again tommorrow’ apparently the doorbell went off according to my brother? but I didn’t hear it, even though I usually do. I was planning on waiting for it to be delivered so I could go out and get it once it was, but apparently it was one of those “you have to meet the person to get it” which Amazon did NOT mention (do they normally? idk its my first time ordering from them). So my countdown to getting the card was now just. pointless. I was angry AND sleep deprived, so I just. went to sleep cause I was too pissed (and tired) to do anything else. Cause me and said BFF from earlier were planning on testing the capture card out with some splatoon, which I was super excited to play with her again. buut we didn’t get to. so, cut to today. I wake up at 12 (pm I think?) its dark out, but I can’t get myself back to sleep so I just decide to give up and work on one of the sketches. and its just. super chill for a bit. got the tracker open in front of me while I doodle in the sketchbook, just waiting (according to it, the driver went in circles multiple times. no Idea if they were lost or not, but it was mildly amusing) and then, finally, I get my capture card. I realize that it probably won’t fit in like I thought it would, since its bigger than I thought, so I ask my brother to help, since he’s put together computers before. so we pop open the side of my computer and get it in. beeefore realizing something. it. doesn’t. fit. it fits in the computer casing perfectly fine. but the plugs for the motherboard are too small. and the ones on the card are too big. and just. the thing I spent months on. WAS FUCKING POINTLESS. so now, after looking at it, my brother states that we’ll have to make AN ENTIRELY NEW COMPUTER. Like, don’t get me wrong, I do kinda need some upgrades- this one has been giving me MASSIVE problems with Memory, and recently its been overheating and lagging BAD on minecraft of all things, so an upgrade would be nice. BUT NOT AN ENTIRELY NEW COMPUTER. I’VE ONLY HAD THIS DAMN THING FOR AT LEAST THREE YEARS

so obviously, this is going to be a shitload more expensive than what was already draining my sanity.

My brother offered that I could use the parts he had gotten from a friend, since I use the computer a lot more than he does, and he can play games just fine on the old one of mine I had given him, but like. those are for Him. and he DOES need a new computer- there IS a reason I don’t use the old one anymore. and just. I feel like shit now. He’s even offering to save up some money from his adopts to help out with it. and like. He’s the best brother I could ask for but also I feel like scum of the earth for having to rely on him so much. He’s said that he doesn’t mind handling the bills since he knew it would take me a long while to get a job and all, since I’ve never had one, but I still feel horrible for it. and I feel like I’m just mooching off of him and just. really fucking hate it. I’m just. tired of feeling useless. and being useless in general.

Sorry ya’ll. just needed to vent a bit.

#vent #cw vent #computer problems

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glittertrail · 1 year

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Happy astromonday!!

For the last in the Mars asks, I have a story about the earliest picture from Mars' surface. This was taken in July 1965 by Mariner 4.

Mariner 4 was an orbiter, it didn't land on Mars, but in 1965 it sent back the first digital images from Mars. Sent over 8 hours to the NASA computers, it comprised of 240,000 numbers, bits of binary code, to make up the 40,000 patches of colour on its surface.

When the code was received back on Earth, the picture was likely to take a while to develop. But the scientists were too impatient to wait. So they printed all the numbers onto long, narrow strips of paper, stuck them to a wall in order, and coloured in each number using a paint-by-numbers method. This eventually created a piece of art you can see with today's ask, a replica of a picture taken from the surface of Mars!!

It really struck me again the love people have had for space and for Mars throughout history. This was 40,000 numbers that were coloured by hand, and how beautiful is the image!!

This week I have a question for you!! Tell me about something you've loved creating or taking part in. This can be art, writing, music, a project, or something else entirely.

I hope you've liked this little series on Mars, have a fantastic day!! 🪐

Happy astromonday guess who had to come back to the office bc she realized at home that she left her canvas bag in her chair, like a dumbass? 🤦‍♀️

I love that story so much 🥰

Things I've loved creating under the cut bc I got sentimental and it turned kind of long lol

In uni we had to make a self portrait short film talking about ourselves. I, of course, waited for the absolute last minute to film mine because I have no understanding of time management (and I was also editing a tv pilot that literally took all of the time me and my friends had back then bc that thing was worth about half of our grade) so I spent an entire weekend rolling w a suitcase through all of my favorite parts of Madrid w the help of one of my cousins and a friend, changing at various bathrooms so I could have different outfits (brought in said suitcase) so it didn't look like I filmed it all in two days, I took inspiration on one of my favorite poems (the artist creed of Aquiles Nazoa) for the monologue and in the video of Vanessa Hudgens in Lisbon for find your California for the imagery. It works both as a self portrait and a love letter to the city and the people that took that weekend to help me (either by filming me or helping with the suitcase or to make sure random passerbys didn't fuck up a take). It was Eurovision weekend and we ended filming by getting drunk at the flat of my friend watching the last few performances.

A sentimental thing but I cajoled about 15 cousins, a very shy brother, two German exchange sisters and an uncle with a 4yo into participating in a mother's day video. Decided literally two days before mother's day, i have family living currently in six countries. And absolutely no one knows how to follow instructions. But it did succeed in making all of the aunts (and my mother) happy. My grandma didn't remember the video when i asked her about it (but apparently when somebody else did when she was a little more lucid she was pretty sure it had to be the idea of one of my eldest cousins🤣) but the wife of my grandpa (who i never called my grandmother but I was closer to than my grandma) did cry bc I made a point to name her in my part of the video. I spent an entire night editing three versions (one for my dad's side of the family, one for my mother's and one in particular for my mom that was my brother, our German sisters and me).

Glitteraks and the drag race Spain reference posts. I am actually kind of shy online lol so the glitterasks were my attempt at both keeping the Sunday horrors at bay for me and the few-ish people I talked to here when i stopped being deadly afraid of talking to people and make some new friends. Mostly I am proud of being able to keep it up for a year. It was a total of about... 60 questions? If I'm not mistaken? And at it's busiest I think the list got to be 85 people. The reference posts are included there because they were very self indulgent, i can admit to that, but new episodes come on Sundays too so I spent a few Sundays nursing migraines of my own making for spending entire days staring at screens between glitteraks, episode watching and reference post making, because my mental deadline for said posts was Monday evening and I do have a job 🤣 despite what the chronically online behavior might suggest

How about you, Juno? What are some of the things you're proudest of creating or being a part of?😊

#replies #astromonday #astronomy nerd (affectionate)#junosjukebox

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oraclekleo · 9 months

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🐚 Hey~ how are you doing today hun?

There’s not much space for alternative interpretation in this case. Tom would probably notice your natural feminine charm and your beauty (beauty is in the eye of the beholder so even if you don’t love yourself, Tom would feel utterly enchanted). He’s likely to feel stunned and hooked by the way you walk and talk. Your natural kindness and probably a soft way of speaking to people even when they act annoyingly is something that would catch his attention and spark his interest in you. Maybe he sees you solving a dispute in a gentle and diplomatic way and it absolutely astonishes him. Maybe he sees you dealing with a difficult pet in a soft and loving way and taming them like that much better than those who shout and yell. Even such a tiny thing as you enjoying a fresh apple might actually make Tom stumble.

I loved the reading sm<333 the fact he would find me beautiful makes my heart so-🤰🦋. Yes, I do have habit of being nice n kind to people whom sometimes could be rude or annoying. Ohmygod! The fact Tom actually have two pets and I have such soft spot for them. The accuracy 💯👌🥰.

Tom might feel a bit naughty when following you in order to catch the right moment to approach you. He’s likely to observe you for a while, stealing and savouring glimpses of you from afar. He’s not nearly as confident as he should be when it comes to you. You might be going about your regular day and he will just shyly peek at you from behind corners, trees, shelves with books. The more he watches you, the more pulled towards you he feels because he’s getting to the conclusion, you are one interesting and astonishing person.

Gurl STOP! This is making me so happy 🤣 True, I do feel that Tom would be the shy type when he have feelings for someone at first, and u can see that when he had crush on Emma Watson but he never told her lol. Btw, I'm over the moon rn ngl lmao~

At a certain point the moment comes when Tom has to take all his courage and approach you. He’s likely to do so confidently now because he has already learned how to talk to you through watching you. He might just simply come to you, saying Hello and introducing himself to you and start a conversation. He’s not likely to use some tricks. This doesn't align with his morals. He’s a direct and plain speaking man, he likes to be honest with people and it’s likely for him to feel the same vibe from you. He knows you won’t mind him being open and straightforward with you. Tom is likely to be eloquent when he’s interested in a person so fasten your seatbelts, the chat over afternoon coffee might expand into an early morning philosophy discussions while watching sunrise.

OHMYG! So trueee. Tom mentioned once in his book that his personality don’t differ at all when he outdoors and indoors, he likes to be himself. And yes! I'm the type of person who would always be the one who speak their feelings and don't like to suger-coat your wrongs. Yes! Ofc, I do love discussions and sharing opinions w others. [Gemini mercury here lol]

Tom is likely to feel mesmerised by your resourcefulness and the ability to adapt to various situations. You have more than one talent and you probably cultivate many skills and hobbies because you have many interests. You like to experiment, to explore and to learn about stuff. You like to try new activities, you don’t really have prejudices against genres of art or against people. You approach the world with your mind open and willing to find beauty in everything. Tom absolutely loves that about you and while he himself might sometimes feel a little more conservative, you are his great inspiration.

Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!Trueee!

I do have so many hobbies and talents, sometimes I have too many that I'm not able to know which one is my real talent lol [I get bored SO easily]. And I do love to explore the world and see the potential in it. Yeah! Tom once talked abt how he was raised in such conservative society. (If I'm not mistaken.)

Sometimes you need to destroy something in order to make space for something new. Maybe up till now you actually only felt platonic about Tom. Or maybe your romance wasn’t anything more than a summer fling. Tom certainly feels much more serious about your relationship, though, so when once again you try to keep things light and without commitments, he needs to prove you wrong by kissing you passionately. And whatever you thought about the relationship crashes and burns in the heat of his desire and yours. Welcome to the utterly new world which is upside down and spinning but feels really good.

Tom is both a romantic and determined type of man (HE IS). He’s likely planning the night he’s gonna confess his feelings long ahead. He prepares for it, he makes it an unforgettable moment and a true celebration of your love. Maybe he takes you to a renaissance fair where he will declare his love dressed up as a knight while you are neatly placed on a balcony. Maybe he will take you for a romantic picnic and gaze deeply into your eyes before whispering ‘I love you’. Whatever the occasion, you better have something clever to answer. Or you can skip talking and kiss him. Tom might prefer the second option.

I'M JUST IN LOVE! ❤️

Thank you very much for the fun reading! The accuracy is just amazing 🥰.

And pls accept this meme from me lmao

Hello!

😂

Oh the final meme! 🤣🤣🤣

I'm dying!

Anyway!

Thank you so much for the feedback.

I'm so happy it resonated with your personality and with what is known about Tom Felton. I have never been into Harry Potter so I don't really know much about either of the protagonist. It's really helpful when your feedback includes how he is. 💗

This reading was actually pretty easy flowing for me. It's probably your personality and maybe even his being well atuned with me. I always had inner feeling that I'm acutally a British but was born in different country. 😂

Anyway! So happy you liked the reading. It was fun to write and I'm glad it's also fun to read for you. 👏

Thank you again for the feedback and the MEME, I love it. 💖💖💖

Kleo 🦄

#oracle kleo #tarot feedback

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aplusblogging · 1 year

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ART 225 Final Blog Post: Bob’s Java Jive

photo circa 1930

Located at 2102 South Tacoma Way, in Tacoma, Washington, this weird little building is not just a local attraction; it's on the National Park Service's National Register of Historic Places. Originally called the Coffee Pot Restaurant, it was designed and built by Otis G. Button, a veterinarian from Tacoma, in 1927, and opened in 1929. It was one of Tacoma's first prefabricated commercial buildings, with construction beginning on the tideflats and then individual sections moved to the property and bolted together on-site. It was one of a number of quirky object-shaped buildings erected alongside highways across the United States in the 1920s, intended to fascinate, both to draw new customers into the businesses housed within, and—in a time when speed limits were not standardised and signage was infrequent—to encourage drivers to slow down in order to get a better look at the sights. Unlike the three-story gas pump station next door or the giant lemon down the street, however, this one has stayed standing for almost a century at time of writing.

❗ BULLETIN: ROBBERY The Coffee Pot was robbed for the first time in November of 1936.

A change of ownership and a change of footprint took place in 1940 when Harold Elrod purchased the property and added a dance hall to the building. Elrod also obtained a liquor license and added a bar, though it was rumoured that the place had contained a speakeasy during the last years of Prohibition, so he may have just been legitimising a well-established tradition of drinking while adding a new tradition of dancing. With more space came larger crowds, and with a dancefloor came music. This kicked off the building's long history of musical gatherings.

❗ BULLETIN: ROBBERY It was robbed again in December 1945.

❗ BULLETIN: ROBBERY Robbed again in June of 1951. The Tacoma Public Library's notes on the location indicates that "yeggs loot[ed] safes here." Fun fact: "yeggs" was a slang term for a burglar or a safecracker and is thought to come from a bank robber who used the alias John Yegg. According to a source quoted by Ray City History Blog, John was "said to have been the first safe-cracker to use nitro-glycerine as an adjunct to the prosecution of his art," and subsequent crimes began to be referred to as being perpetrated by "yeggmen." A bit of broader and more language-based history mixed in with this local stuff!

In 1955, Bob Radonich purchased the building and renamed it the Java Jive. The name was suggested by Bob's wife Lylabell, who was inspired by a popular 1940 song of the same name performed by The Ink Spots. Lyrics from the song include, "I love coffee, I love tea; I love the java jive and it loves me!" Roadside America notes that Bob "made the Jive loosely Polynesian-themed," adding a "Jungle Room" and decorating with artefacts collected during his tour in India, Madagascar, and other places white Americans found exotic at that time. He also, in true fifties fashion, kept two chimpanzees named Java and Jive in a glass cage for customers to view. (The monkeys drew animal rights protests and other drama over the years, so Bob would eventually remove them from the establishment, sending them to "live with some friends.")

❗ BULLETIN: FIRE In April 1962, the fireplace caused a bigger fire than it was supposed to.

Until 1969, South Tacoma Way was known as highway 99, a main thoroughfare through the city, and "people would drive by and be lured in by the quirky shape of the building, then stay for a beer and the house band," as South Sound Magazine put it in their 2019 article about the place. Then interstate 5 was built, right over the Jive, and highway 99 became just another surface street. Bob's daughter Danette Staatz recalls how, after that, "there wasn’t the same kind of traffic — and it hurt business."

Despite the highway situation, by 1972, the Java Jive was world famous. According to Danielle, that year, "we were gonna paint the ceiling, and you would have thought that we were going to take a wrecking ball to the whole building. Everybody was so upset, we haven’t been able to paint the ceiling since.” Why was everyone so upset? Because the ceiling is "absolutely smothered with signatures from people all around the world who have come to visit," and is thus an important part of the building's story, to be preserved rather than painted over.

unknown date; source

photo from South Sound, circa approx 2019

...

♬♪ INTERLUDE: music, culture, legacy

The city of Tacoma is ground zero for grunge music. Grunge is inherently quite political; as Wikipedia puts it,

Grunge lyrics are typically dark, nihilistic, wretched, angst-filled and anguished, often addressing themes such as social alienation, self-doubt, abuse, assault, neglect, betrayal, social isolation/emotional isolation, psychological trauma and a desire for freedom. ... [they] contained "... explicit political messages and ... questioning about ... society and how it might be changed ...". ... The topics of grunge lyrics—homelessness, suicide, rape, "broken homes, drug addiction and self-loathing"— contrasted sharply to the glam metal lyrics of Poison, which described "life in the fast lane", partying and hedonism.

Peter Andrijeski writes a bar-crawling documentation blog at seattlebars.org. When he started the blog, he began with Bob's Java Jive, which he visited in 1982. (The chimpanzees were still there at the time, living in the back bar.) Pete nods to the Jive's history as a happening spot for the local music scene: "Before they made in big, The Wailers played there several times, and The Ventures played as basically the house band. Harold Lloyd, Clara Bow, and Bing Crosby are all said to have hung out there during the early years."

You may recognise The Ventures as the band who performed the Hawaii 5-0 theme song. They and the Fabulous Wailers, as well as the Sonics, were part of the evolution of rock 'n' roll into grunge; garage bands who became national darlings and blazed a trail that led to Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Hole, the Smashing Pumpkins, the Foo Fighters...

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk is a book comprised entirely of quotes from people who were at the centre of the mainstream explosion of punk music while it was happening, as they recall what it was like to live that maelstrom. While these people mostly came from the East Coast, their experiences are not entirely dissimilar from what was happening in the Pacific Northwest at that time. I present the following quotes without further commentary.

Ed Sanders: The problem with the hippes was that there developed a hostility within the counterculture itself, between those who had, like, the equivalent of a trust fund versus those who had to live by their wits. It's true, for instance, that blacks were somewhat resentful of the hippies by the Summer of Love, 1967, because their perception was that these kids were drawing paisley swirls on their Sam Flax writing pads, burning incense, and taking acid, but those kids could get out of there any time they wanted to. ... Whereas someone who was raised in a project on Columbia Street and was hanging out on the edge of Tompkins Square Park can't escape. ... They're trapped. So there developed another kind of lumpen hippie, who really came from an abused childhood—from parents that hated them, from parents that threw them out. ... And those kids fermented into a kind of hostile street person. Punk types.

Wayne Kramer: Any time you take a political stance, especially when you start throwing around violent political rhetoric, you're guaranteed a violent reaction from the powers that be. There was an attitude that prevailed in the Detroit area, amongst parents, teachers, policemen, and prosecutors: "When is somebody gonna do something about the [band Motor City 5]? We cannot allow them to say what they're saying!" We were telling people at our shows to smoke reefer, to burn their bras, to fuck in the streets—it wasn't just a matter of "Well, they were a little too wild for the record industry," which we were, but it went beyond that. Peace and love worked in the realm of the music business, but once you went beyond that, to revolution... that's bad.

Dennis Thompson: Nixon and the smart boys in the green room back in the brain trust sat down and said, "Here's the easiest way to handle this damn thing. Just take away their party favors." The government figured it out. It was obvious. "These people do pot and hash and psychedelics and then they get revolutionary, and they come up with all these new ideas like 'Hey, let's change this world. And let's eliminate these fascist politicians!' Well, the smartest thing to do is give them what's been in the ghettos for a long time because that's been working pretty good there." All of a sudden all you can find anywhere you go is heroin. It's cheap, and there it is. So heroin became the next drug of choice, mainly because you couldn't buy a kilo of pot to save your soul.

In 1980, the future singer and guitarist for Girl Trouble met at Bob’s Java Jive. They would go on to become local legends. Bon Von Wheelie, Girl Trouble’s drummer, reflected on being a punk in the 80s during an interview for Northwest Music Scene: "Since Tacoma was a working-class town the people here weren’t really open to anything new, including punk rock hairdos and clothing. It is almost unbelievable to think about that now but for some reason it made people so mad they’d go after anybody who dared to look even a little out of the norm (which was baggy flare jeans and feathered hair). Having tight pants and a short haircut could get you in a fight faster than anything."

Nirvana didn't play at Bob's Java Jive, but they did hang out there in the mid to late 80s, and it was at a different venue in Tacoma that they first performed under the name "Nirvana." A local legend is that the band asked Bob if they could play a set at the Jive, but Bob didn't like their sound and he turned them down. Nirvana's bassist Krist Novoselic says that's an urban myth.

Unlike Nirvana, Bobby Floyd Radonich, the owner's son, was a frequent performer at the Jive. He was said to be an incredibly talented piano player, and to have a thousand songs memorised to play any time a customer made a request. The Tacoma News Tribune also wrote an article in 1983 about Bobby Floyd's presence at the piano bench, saying in the headline that the "Java Jive comes alive when [he] plays." Pete said on his bar crawling blog that on the night he was there, "Maestro" Bobby Floyd "seemed to play mostly 70s television themes, mixed in with Beatles covers and local high school fight songs." Pete called the bar and his experience at it "epic."

...

photo of the Jive’s menu from 1990, shared on their facebook page

The 1990 film “I Love You To Death” was filmed entirely in Tacoma, and features a scene inside Bob's Java Jive. Keanu Reeves plays alongside William Hurt as pothead cousins and would-be hitmen who are hired to kill a cheating husband; the deal is struck at a table in the Java Jive. South Sound Magazine notes, "You can play pool at the same pool table that Reeves did. He [allegedly] offered to buy the coffee pot building for $1 million and move it to Hawaii. [Bob] turned the offer down." (This urban myth may have been sparked by the fact that Bob later put the Java Jive up for sale for $1 million, despite the property and building being worth much less at the time. There were no takers, so he kept the place.) The Java Jive was also featured in “Say Anything” and “Three Fugitives” the year before, and a decade later it would appear in “Ten Things I Hate About You.”

By 1995, Bob was in his late seventies and health was failing, so his daughter Danette took over the Jive.

❗ BULLETIN: FIRE Another fire in April of 1996 caused some amount of damage and caused the Java Jive to be shut down for a time.

❗ BULLETIN: ... wait never mind In 1998, there was a fire in the apartment complex behind the Jive, but the building itself escaped the blaze this time! Whew!

In July of 1999, Teddy Haggarty and Dan Richholt painted the above mural.

❗ BULLETIN: FINANCIAL TROUBLES In July of 2002, Danette spoke to the Tacoma Daily Index about the financial struggles she and her husband were facing due to lack of patronage. She promoted the event they were organising called The Big Hoopla to try to raise funds to keep the place open, with "dancers, live music, a juke box, pool, pinball and darts, as well as hot dogs and pop." Danette did not end up losing the Jive that year, probably in large part due to the event and the news coverage reminding Tacomans about their quirky little landmark and bringing in funding both from the event and from the likely boost in general patronage. Later that year, Bob Radonich died at 83 years old, with the famous coffee pot building still in the family.

2011 Yelp review: "This is the last Grit City hangout that hasn't been gutted and made into a fancy hangout for all the new transplant yuppies. Great vintage atmosphere and music venue. No hard booze here folks, just straight up beer and wine. Worth the visit."

2013 Yelp review: "the java jive is the most tacoma place in tacoma. a landmark, a tradition, and practically all that remains of our cultural past. built as a dine & dance joint in the 20s, then morphed into a rock club for the nascent garage/punk scene in the early 60s (think the sonics and the wailers), this roadside attraction is shaped like a giant coffee pot and like alice's wonderland, holds a mysterious variety of spaces inside. come here for a cheap pitcher of coors and a "jungle burger": a basic frisko freeze-style cheeseburger that's absolutely tasty and cooked to order. karaoke most nights, and occasional live music with a dance floor. just a great hang."

couple of my favourite show posters from facebook, circa 2014

In 2016 Huck Magazine added a video called Misfit City to their Huck Across America series on YouTube. This installment focussed on the “Grit City” music scene, with a huge showcasing of inclusive punkiness, and featuring a familiar little coffee pot shaped venue. In it, Hozen member Hozi says, "Tacoma is a misfit city, you know... I think that a lot of people feel comfortable to be themselves here in a way that you wouldn't necessarily feel in Seattle or Olympia because those places have so much of an identity. Here, you just... are who you are."

2016 show posters:

(2016 was recognised on the facebook page as a "shitty year")

The Jive has an overall rating of 4.5 stars on Yelp (as of December 2022). A lot of the naysayers seem to be disappointed that the coffee pot building was not a coffee shop (including one tourist who pulled over to take photos and then upon seeing the hand-scrawled sign on the front door decided not to go inside... but still left a three-star review based on their vague disappointment). Or that the dive bar atmosphere was not for them, to which I say: don't judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. There are, however, quite a few comments about the state of the place around 2008–2015, with a handful of "this place used to be better" sentiments from people who had fond memories but seemed upset at the state of the place around that time. Luckily, the owners have done major renovations since then!

In 2019 they made a slew of announcements on facebook: they had installed a new karaoke sound system, acquired new arcade games ("a new dart machine that works!" and a new pinball machine), had the pool tables and the game area's carpet redone, bought a pretzel oven and hot dog steamer, installed security cameras for the first time to surveil the parking lot and surrounding area. Later that year, they got their wn library card! The Tacoma Public Library printed special edition library cards—a batch of only 3000—featuring the coffee pot building in its youth, before it had the colourful paint job and additional structure.

By this time, even non-natives were charmed by the place!

2019 Yelp review from a Kent resident: "I was very pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoy this place. Great karaoke, awesome people, wonderful atmosphere. I feel like this is a place where everyone is welcome and accepted which means a whole lot to me. I will most definitely be back and would absolutely recommend this spot to my friends!"

mural at the railroad bridge at 66th and south tacoma way, taken in 2019

❗ BULLETIN: GLOBAL PANDEMIC In March of 2020, the world stopped for a bit.

Renovations continued after the lockdowns. In June 2021 the exterior was repainted by Honest Guys Painting. Also around this time, Darren Blacketer and Chris Tipton were restoring Teddy Haggarty's murals on the extension of the building. In the summer of 2022 they installed a beer garden outside so that people could social distance and/or enjoy the warmth and sunshine. They even had a couple of bands play sets on the patio, and set things up for an outdoor open mic.

For a long time there was live music at the Jive every Saturday. Shows were all $5 as late as 2018, but by 2022 there are "monthly live music event[s]" and the price was usually $10 (though some shows cost less, and some were free). Between the pandemic and "den mother" Jenna Shrenk suffering a family loss that interfered with her gig-booking duties, the Jive has lost a bit of its presence in the music scene as a hot venue for local sound. These days it’s more of a karaoke/comedy bar, which frankly fits the vibe that Tacoma has going now. On Tuesdays there's open mic for poetry, singing, guitar or keys etc., and Bob's Comedy Jive is a weekly open mic comedy event on Thursdays.

2022 Yelp review: "The Java Jive is alive and well! Getting better every week. Cleaner, better beverage offerings while still keeping true to its gitchy legacy. Better beverages, better bathrooms!, better hours, better beer garden, better parking, better lighting, yet still the Java Jive!"

Bon Henderson said during her Tacoma News Tribune interview in 2021,

The people and stories [in Tacoma] are disappearing, brick by brick. I was born here. Things weren't perfect, and certainly not politically correct, and it was a tough town, but you learned to love all that. I want people moving here to know what Tacoma was all about. If we lose places like the Java Jive, they will never know. And that would be a damn shame.

Someone on Yelp called it "more like Bob's Java DIVE," and while that was probably meant to be an insult, it's accurate. The place is a dive. But that's kind of the point. This building and its history seem to emanate punk and grit and weirdness. It's been through hell, it's got a very mixed reputation, it's reinvented itself a few times, but for the most part these days it just kind of is what it is, the culmination of its history.

And if you're looking for coffee you can always go next door to KD'z Espresso shack...

PSYCH, IT'S CLOSED.

(Man, am I disappointed by the lack of coffee shops in this area!)

Bob’s Java Jive is currently open from 4pm to 2am, seven days a week.

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