#techno gets the best commentary on him since you know

[doublemyheight]

I'm so fed up seeing videos about "the downfall of mcyt" or "mcyt history" and then the creator only mentions DSMP and maybe a few youtubers they watched. Like... there. are. so. many. creators. who. counted. or. count. as. mcyt. Here are my thoughts.

There are so, so many who counted, and still so many who count. And yeah, DSMP is an important part of MCYT history, but it's so recent in comparison. Like. Minecraft is a cockroach, it will go through so much shit and still be alive and active. Yes, there are the names who bring or brought down the name of MCYT, but in comparison they've always been such a small part of the community. They need to be remembered for their bad actions, or illegal in some cases, but defining the community by them is not good. Nor is just using one fucking smp.

I have watched, or attempted to watch, those types of videos on the history or the downfall etc., and I always complain internally about it. THERE ARE SO MANY PROMINENT MINECRAFT CONTENT CREATORS THAT FUCKING MADE CONTENT. Some don't make Mc (minecraft) content anymore or they rarely do but it doesn't mean they shouldn't be mentioned. (Yes I know, it's an impossible task to talk about all of them, but mentioning three or four as "the og mcyters" or "the old popular mcyters" just angers me)

DSMP I would say helped with the mc resurgence, but I can say similar to SMP live and SMP earth. I count SMP live as pretty important since I think people started watching the streams and videos from that smp and when DSMP happened people treated the content the same and watched it a lot. People started watching again, then with the boom of content in the covid lockdown people watched more. It wasn't just DSMP though.

Listen if you want to do a video about how DSMP affected you or the minecraft community, sure yeah that's a video to make. If you want to do a video on a specific few ytbers who you watched and how they affected the community yeah sure that's a video to make. To say "these are the three main" that's for you. To you they were the main three. To make the video of "all of mcyt history and mc as a whole" and mention 3 people......... and then DSMP.................... I don't understand you.

I've been a MCYT fan for years and years. As a child and as an adult. From E for everyone videos to watching videos that fucked with my innocence and just exposed me to shit I shouldn't have been watching at the time. Year after year watching different types of videos and different creators. Supporting people and finding out I shouldn't, and supporting people and them being good people. To challenge videos, parkour, adventure maps, droppers, role playing, role playing, let's plays, tutorials, modded content, horror content, hide and seek. So many different types of content exist for mc, and I've been a watcher for a lot of it.

DSMP should not define MCYT. There is too many people who have made content for me to just accept that.

Hold people accountable for their actions, do not define a large community by a few people, and if you want to talk about your favorites affect in the community go right ahead but please don't call them the most popular or most important. Some people might never of heard of them. (I am thinking of the do you know this mcyt blog)

#mcyt #dsmp #smp live #smp earth #Just mcyt as a whole is what im talking about theres so many youtubers out there #im just not up for people minimizing how much mc content exists. #edit: so youre not going to mention hermitcraft or stampy or prestonplays or popularmmos or aphmau or SCOTT SMAJOR or ihascupquake or #or any of the “little” crew or skydoesminecraft or shubble or captain sparklez or hbomb94 or rtgame or jacksucksatlife or amylee33 or Jamal #or wattles or squaishy or bajancanadian or jeromeasf or vikkstar #like yeah you need to mention Technoblade cause hes DSMP and skeppy and Badboyhalo are all that but they HAVE BEEN AROUND FOR FOREVER #techno gets the best commentary on him since you know #like so many of the hermitcraft people as well are so og mcyt to me and NOTHING is usually said about them #like fucking ldshadowlady and smallishbeans are also so og and scott and seepeekay and oli and like that crazy craft smp is so old so good #ssundae too im literally going through doyouknowthismcyt queue sheet for these names and i feel insane please please please talk about more #fucking mcyters then the dsmp ones i have fondish memories of dsmp dont hate on me but there is so much more you can talk about in videos #i feel so repetitive but i needed to express my thoughts on it #edit edit YEAH HOLD ON I FORGOT TO MENTION WHAT ABOUT THE OTHER FUCKING LANGUAGES AND COUNTRIES #theres other countries and other fucking languages people made mc content in i forgot about it for a sec #yeah they are definitely never mentioned

[funky-lady]

Safety is Boatem’s Top Priority

(says the guy who built his house next to a hole that’s literally bottomless)

A/N : This is a continuation of Move To Boatem

The Boatem Crew Boards The Dream Cruise Ship

Phil lets himself enjoy the wonderful feeling of being in the air for the first time since he protected his son during the first destruction of L’Manburg.

Turns out being a hermit came with a knowledge of protestics.

There’s no better sensation than the wind playing with his curls and threading smoothly through his feathers as he glides through the air.

There are many things he hadn’t noticed his longing for, too distracted in trying to cope with having to kill his son, being on house arrest, having to watch his best friend get executed, destroying L’Manburg and worrying for Techno who always seems to find trouble no matter what he does.

The moon growing closer as he gains altitude is certainly one of them, as well as the stars being a lot more visible and clear as day without the light pollution on the ground.

Then there’s the absolute freedom that comes with being able to go anywhere, anytime.

He can’t fathom how he was able to live without wings for so long.

He tilts his head towards Ranboo when the enderman hybrid speaks up hesitantly.

“So… um, how exactly safe is Boatem?”

Grian offers him a reassuring grin. “Oh, don’t worry. It’s as safe as it can be. We put a few… security measures in place to ensure that if anyone was to find us, they wouldn’t get very far.”

Phil nods slowly as he and Grian fly towards the Boatem base, with Ranboo experiencing flight for the first time and hovering a few feet away from them, still figuring out the ins and outs of his borrowed elytra.

It’s been fun to watch and get involved in, that’s for sure. And by the stunts and monotone live commentary of the enderman’s failures and successes coming from Chat as they fly around Ranboo and help him playfully, the crows clearly think so too.

“Right. Say, what would happen to anyone who did find the Boatem base?”

“At best? They get a swift death.” Drawls the avian with a casual smirk that doesn’t quite hide the sadistic edge it’s tinged with. “At worst… well, just know that you’ll be safe in Boatem territory, kay?”

“… yeah. Alright. Not gonna ask. Remind me to never piss you off, alright mate?”

Grian’s smirk widens and shifts into something truly wicked. “Oh don’t worry, Phil. I’ll make sure to remind you of that every single day. Prepare yourself for a life filled with chaos and pranks, my friend.”

He groans. “Why do I have the feeling that I will regret accepting your offer for the rest of my life?”

The only answer he receives is an amused snort.

A/N : a rough timeline can be found here :D

@call-me-dj

#hermitcraft #dream smp #hc x dsmp #boatem crew #boatem inc #boatem hole #avian phil #avian grian #moon big #ranboo #elytra #technoblade #hog hunt #grian #philza #the boatem crew boards the dream cruise ship #dadza #philza crows #philza chat

[daaziscoolbesties]

[REPOST] MY 2K WORD COMMENTARY/ANALYSIS OF RANBOO’S LORE STREAM

‼️‼️This post contains lore spoilers from Ranboo’s 4/23 stream, “The Enderwalk Saga. Chapter 1: The Lessons”. If you haven’t seen that stream don’t read ahead unless you want spoilers‼️‼️

disclaimer: this isnt really an analysis as much as a bunch of commentary and half-baked theories.

-on the way to the mansion he was sort of talking to himself saying stuff like "i'm good i'm good" which m a y be a normal thing but also maybe it's not and it flew over our heads cause he talks to chats and donos like that so often

-again, this one may just be a normal thing but when he was climbing up the stairs in the mansion looking for foolish, he repeats some of his words like down to the exact same tone of voice and everything. 12:42,  "this mansion is way too big actually. this mansion is way too big actually." (why the repeated actually? seems odd to me but again it might just be a normal thing that i haven't picked up on). (right after) "okay okay lemme find him lemme find him" again repeated words in the e x a c t same tone.

-does everyone know about ranboo's silk touch hands ability thing? or was that just a techno and ranboo main character moment. bc if it was, how would foolish know that ranboo could pick up the full cake after it'd been partially eaten. unless everyone on the sever knows about that in which case this means nothing. but if they d o n t know... how would foolish know? ranboo wrote about it in the do not read book so maybe if it's not a publicly known thing maybe foolish got his hands on the book and read it??

-14:53-ish, they're talking about the war room and how it was for tubbo or whatever and ranboo says, and i quote "he prepares for lore but he's never gonna do it." now funny thing is at first i couldn't tell if he said "war" like in reference to the war room or "lore". but after playing the clip over and over i can say with ALMOST 100% certainty that he said lore. there is a definite L sound at the beginning of the word. which either means a) this was a slip up (doubtful bc he said later that there were no mistakes), b) he broke the fourth wall because they were supposed to be rping at that point, or c) i'm completely wrong and he said "war" which leads down an entire other road of possibilities

-15:17 "are you a book reader?" "*checks inventory for do not read book* uh yeah i'd say i'm a book reader-" dunno how i didn't catch this the first time I HATE THAT DAMN BOOK

-15:18 there's blue in his hotbar. where did he get the blue.

-16:40 "it's like a metaphor- i have two minds: i have my normal self, my normal little shift-dancing self, and then the builder one. the builder one is demanding. it's a very demanding mind." ranboo then lets out a weird sigh after this. i feel like what foolish was talking about was an indirect(?) parallel to ranboo in and out of enderwalk, there's how he normally is, trying to do best for others, and then there's enderwalk, meeting up with bad guys and "demanding" things (its very late as i write this i really don't know what i'm talking about)

-17:11 "you have your panic closet" i'm sorry his what now 😀 no but seriously how the hell did i miss some of these

-18:04 "you're asking me if i remember?" very funny ranboo thank you for making jokes in these trying times

-18:25 WHY DID HE GET OUT THE AXE WHEN STARING AT THE BEE

-19:38 why did foolish hold the grass block- most of these observations probably mean nothing but- h u h - is that- i'm too tired for this

-19:54 "i never properly thanked you for the deal you made with me" so foolish got something out of this deal, we're not sure if ranboo did. "the green cardboard box" again do you mean dream's house- but seriously the only people i can think of on the server that are associated with green are dream and sam. and i have no idea what cardboard box could be referring to.  foolish got a lime colored shulker from drista

-20:30 "we're supposed to only talk about it at a certain location" hmm now where would that be? panic room maybe? cause like usually after doing a big thing in the enderwalk state ranboo wakes up in the panic room so maybe?  the deal was that they only talk about it in his house

-21:52 how does ranboo receive(?) the lessons? like are they whispered to him in his mind or is he seeing them as words in front of him like we see? hmm

-"Lesson 14: If you have the opportunity to gain a favor, take it." "gain a favor" don't you usually ask people for favors though? how does one "gain a favor"? anyways i'm pretty sure lesson 14 has to do with the deal foolish was talking about. (the deal explained because i now have info: at some point a bit ago foolish met up with ranboo and asked to make a deal, he'd gotten a shulker box from drista. the deal was that ranboo would have ownership of the box, it would be under his name but foolish rents/borrows it indefinitely. ranboo negotiated that if he took ownership of the box he would get a "war favor"  from foolish where if something happens that creates sides, ranboo can ask him a favor that could change his side. but why would foolish want ranboo to have ownership of the shulker you may ask? well i have an answer for you. a theory actually but still. basically since drista technically isn't supposed to give out shit on the server if someone where to have that stuff then they may get in trouble. foolish wants to be able to use the shulker but if it gets found he doesn't want to get in trouble, so he can blame it on ranboo seeing as it's under his name.)

-22:16-ish "i still have this from when you *can't understand whats said here*" well i guess that sort of explains why he had the grass block? idk man (info update: he had the grass block from when ranboo threw it at him telling him to calm down like what ghostbur does with blue)

-31:35 "i figured out how to cause it" how to cause the enderwalk state

-38:30 "ninety three lessons" I STILL DONT KNOW WHY HE KEPT SAYING NINETY THREE AND NOT NINETY FOUR AND ITS DRIVING ME CRAZY LMAO

-39:01 "it's all for the greater good" okay well when are you gonna start thinking about yourself and not everyone else for once huh. self care bitch.

-40:31 he started holding the axe when he was looking at sam- gonna say it i really don't like that axe ahahah- WAIT A DAMN MINUTE THE AXE IS NAMED "axe of ender" I DONT LIKE THAT I DONT LIKE THAT AT ALL

-41:53 is there something?? physically keeping him from telling sam??? or maybe it's sort of like his enderwalk state taking control to make him shut the fuck up??? so many questions and approximately zero answers

-43:18 ranboo raising his voice legitimately scares me 😀👍

-"Lesson 27: Do not reminisce on what you have lost for it will weigh you down." showed up when he was thinking about and REMINISCING about the community house 👀👀

-"Lesson 53: Never fully trust anyone." showed up literally after he said that he thinks he can trust the other people on the server enough to tell them about what he did

-"Lesson 67: Leave no evidence of what you have helped with." this is different from the others because there doesn't seem to be at least a semi-direct connection to it? unless maybe at the time ranboo was near something he may have "helped with"? not sure about this one

-"Lesson 94: DO NOT LET THEM KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE DONE" yeah yeah i get it i get it he's fucked up some shit in enderwalk i don't feel like analyzing this thanks

-OH OH NOTICE HOW HE SAYS "REMEMBERING" WHEN THE LESSONS SHOW UP. IMPLYING THAT THIS ISNT A NEW THING, ITS HAPPENED BEFORE AND NOW HES REMEMBERING IT. MAYBE HE WROTE DOWN THE LESSONS WHEN HE WAS IN ENDERWALK AND NOW THAT HES BEEN EXPERIMENTING ITS BEEN EASIER FOR HIM TO REMEMBER THOSE ENDERWALK MEMORIES

-okokok the experiments are that he's been e x p e r i m e n t i n g on how to purposefully induce the enderwalk state. and we know now that it wasn't from the pain of the water because on the stream afterwords he said that it's caused by the intense fear of something happening. and so the "side effects" of the experiments is that since he's in enderwalk more often(?) he starts remembering more things from it

-OH MY GOD WAIT "there is a reason sam, there's so many reasons, theres ninety three of them" (44:47) WHAT IF EVERY LESSON IS TIED TO A QUOTE UNQUOTE "reason" THAT RANBOO THINKS HES A BAD PERSON/NEEDS TO BE LOCKED UP BUT HE SAYS NINETY THREE INSTEAD OF NINETY FOUR BECAUSE THE NINETY FOURTH LESSON DOESNT HAVE A REASON YET/HE DOESNT REMEMBER IT HAVING A REASON

-dude honestly the whole sam part hurts so much this man is scarily good at acting

-46:46 "i cant put you in the prison you wouldn't be able to see michael anymore" bestie that's the point he doesn't want to accidentally hurt michael or tubbo in the enderwalk state—

-okay but there's no way that sam couldn't tell that ranboo was at least TRYING to confess to something- i feel like he definitely knows more than he's letting on because usually like when people do bad shit or admit to doing bad shit he's like in Prison Guard Mode™️ (he literally cut off ponk's arm because he stole some keycards or something) and whatever and idk what he knows but he definitely knows something and is trying to protect ranboo. or he's trying to manipulate him or smth either one works—

-50:38 "you are a good person" "i am?" you can hear my heart shatter. "yes you are" "i don't think so sam" "i do, even if you don't" "i really don't think so" and there it goes again

-51:25 hello badboyhalo i see you to the left of ranboo

-52:44 "but then my curiosity got the best of me" curiosity killed the cat, bitch

-52:54 "there's ninety three, ninety four, ninety- theres so many reasons!" SEE!! NOT ONLY ARE THERE THAT MANY LESSONS THERE ARE REASONS THAT CORRESPOND IM S O SMART—

-52:56 "i don't want to remember anymore!" *quietly brings forth my theory that when ranboo loses a canon life his memory gets wiped*

-53:13 "ive opened pandora's box" isn't the prison?? literally called pandora's VAULT??? so this m a y be a stretch but i'm thinking that maybe this could be taken in the literal sense that he "opened" the prison and let dream out (the sirens at the end of quackity's stream confirm that dream is indeed out)

-53:42 mans just straight up walked through a ghost i—

-55:37 so are we just gonna ignore the eleventh page of the book? "he's alive, but hopefully soon dream won't be"??? alright nevermind it's most likely bc when tommy came back he recruited ranboo in his plan to kill dream

-55:47 notice how he writes "what am i?" as opposed to "who am i?" no elaboration here idk what it could be

-56:08 just so it's clear for anyone who doesn't know- he's wearing armor at this point, and i'm like 90% sure that when he wears his armor water can't hurt him. and i saw someone say somewhere that like with splash potions when thrown it turns into a gas-like thing? so again, it didn't hurt him, he didn't get hurt. he said in the chill stream that he wasn't comfortable making it where his character had to hurt himself to do that. the thing that causes the enderwalk isn't pain, it's intense and sudden emotions like fear and stress. thank you for coming to my tedtalk.

#ranboo #ranboo dream smp #c!ranboo #dream smp #dreamsmp #dsmp #dream smp lore #dsmp lore #dreamsmp lore #ranboo lore #c!ranboo lore #lore analysis #commentary #haha funny #shitpost #shitposts #ranboo theories #c!ranboo theories #dream smp theories #dsmp theories #dream smp theory #dsmp theory #ranboo theory #ranboo my beloved #ranboo the beloved #lore theory #lore theories #mcyt #mcyts #ranboo mcyt

[kinnoth]

AVENGERS INFINITY WAR MEGATHREAD

-really doubt i'm gonna be able to finish this movie so we'll just see where i get to

- we already know how i feel about loki and thor, we don't need to revisit this

- ok but if i were going to revisit this, i mean come on, who wants to talk about "hela draws her power from asgard, same as you" cos i wanna talk about that

like what if that's the reason thor, god of thunder, king to a civilisation of warriors, was unable to fend off like, 4 dudes and a big purple dinosaur? the royal family of asgard draws its power from asgard, and without it, they are weak, they are mortal. maybe that's why heimdall is unable to just, you know, bifrost everybody off the fucking ship the minute it comes under attack. maybe that's why loki can't fucking conjure up a swarm of fucking microscopic knives to fillet the invaders from the inside out. MAYBE THAT'S WHY LOKI TRIES TO KILL THANOS WITH A FUCKING DAGGER. BECAUSE TAKE AWAY HIS POWER, TAKE AWAY HIS GODHOOD, WHAT DOES HE HAVE LEFT OTHER THAN HIS WILE, HIS TRICKS AND HIS BROTHER

WHAT IF IN SAVING THE UNIVERSE AND DESTROYING ASGARD, THEY'VE LOST EVERYTHING INCLUDING WHAT MAKES THEM GODS

somebody talk about this

- etc etc what if the reason loki is unable to attack the purple dinosaur with magic is because when he tackled thor earlier, he used whatever magic he had left to spare in order to heal him

checks out cos thor goes from flat on his face to swinging his fists in the space of like 30 seconds and the only thing to happen to him in between is said bit about loki tackling him

- why does heimdall save hulk? i mean, i could understand it if he were trying to aim the bifrost at thor and somebody somehow knocked off his aim and he accidentally saves hulk, but like, we've established that heimdall's loyalty is to the royal seat of asgard upon whom sits thor's mighty ass. thor who, in this scene, has just been incapacitated by a metal eggshell(?) and is at the mercy of their assailants. given heimdall's priorities, it is baffling to the point of inconceivability that he would preferentially save fucking HULK over his own king.

- if this next scene isn't the guardians of the galaxy coming across thor clutching loki's dead fucking body floating through space then i don't know why any of us are even here

- "he sent loki! the attack on new york was thanos!" makes no sense? like, if loki's scepter had the mind stone in it, which we established it did in the last movie when we broke it open to retrieve vision, then.....why didn't thanos just....take the mind stone in the first place? cos rock collecting is and has always been his goal?

what, do you think that just because you assert a thing makes us forget all the shit that happened before?

- i.....am actually with tony stark. why don't they just destroy the stones they have so that thanos can't get to them? oh, you made a promise? well promises change and circumstances change! you tell him tony! you tell that stupid fucker --

oh my god i'm gonna be ill

- i think the only person whose ego can match tony stark's is probably a neurosurgeon so 👍 i guess

-i love how we immediately went back to the "so dark can't see shit" aesthetic after ragnorak because ensuring that one's audience can SEE what is HAPPENING IN YOUR MOVIE is apparently for radical directors like taika waititi

- cannot believe that tony stark staring at captain america's phone number is being played with the same emotional intensity as thor losing his soulmate entire people

- honestly how many times is the mcu gonna invoke 9/11 imagery til someone calls them out for being terrorists

- lmao i know i said this before but peter's spidey senses tingling AFTER the giant alien anus has already started sucking up new york and it is right outside his window is fucking hilarious. that's just called using your eyeballs peter

- "friday notify first responders about the giant alien anus sucking up new york" lol like the first thing somebody did when the alien anus showed up wasn't to fucking call 911 GREAT IDEA TONY

- still can't believe that they let failed neurosurgeon dr strange do more magic than god of tricks and sorcery loki lol

- i know i rag on dr strange a lot about the fact that he's a neurosurgeon it's just that he sucks.

as a neurosurgeon eyy.

- i hate that peter parker has to be here!!!!! leave him alone!!!!!

- tony stark should not be allowed within 100 feet of children or minorities

- it is very weird to me that steve "brooklyn" rogers has an area code from georgia

- since when was hela a half-sister? ODIN'S DAUGHTER AND THOR'S BLOODED SIBLINGS OR BUST YOU FUCKING COWARDS

- i am very disappointed that thor is going to go get another weapon after we spent the whole last movie talking about how he is not the god of hammers

- i just need thor to have much more PTSD than he has right now. fucking hulk has ptsd. maybe they're saving the ptsd for later. one can only hope.

- i am glad that they are letting him be cleverer though

- THEY ARE LETTING VISION DATE A TEENAGER WHY

GOD. FUCKING GROSS.

- wait when did vision turn into a white man again? did i miss that movie?

- i am disappointed that vision the computer techno robot apparently has a penis. like what a stupid limitation to give your computer techno robot, gender. 🙄

- i think that the mass destruction of infrastructure and architecture in the MCU is because of the pg13 no blood limitation that disney has set? like there's no way to show destruction to the body, so one may only show the exponential destruction to one's surroundings. like imagine how much more dramatic intensity you could wring out of a regular fight scene would be if people were allowed to bleed?

- cannot believe that a computer techno robot and a witch are having a punch up with the bad guys. of all people to fight with something not their fists, it's these two

- wanda has no enhanced strength or durability? she's a regular teenager who's a bit witchy. the first time she got thrown through a glass door should have shattered her vertebrae. again i don't understand why we insist that everybody must have the same powers and capabilities when it's clear they don't. think about how much more interesting it would be if some avengers were more fragile than others and had to be given accommodations as such

- IT IS INCONCEIVABLE TO ME THAT FUCKING BLACK WIDOW (regular human), CAPTAIN AMERICA (enhanced human), AND FALCON (regular human with wings) CAN DEFEAT THE CHILDREN OF THANOS WHEN THOR COULDN'T UNLESS THOR (god of fucking thunder carved of steel and stone) WAS NERFED

- still don't understand how we'll lend aliens afro features but not afro hair, like, seriously? you're gonna dream up green aliens with gills who look like black people but imagining them with black hair is a step too far?

- the gap of commentary in this liveblog is simply because i do not care at all for the galaxy defenders

- "earth just lost her best defender" who? who does captain america consider earth's best defender? it's not thor; he doesn't know thor's presumed dead. it's not tony; he doesn't know tony's on an alien anus. who else has died so far?

- love how exhausted bucky looks. have always loved how exhausted bucky looks. love bucky.

- i forgot that tony was with peter parker. god i hate that.

- "i'm peter btw"

"dr strange"

"oh you're using the made up names then. i'm spider man"

ok that was cute, but peter's cute, we knew that already

- i want to fling both strange and stark into space and i'm having a hard time deciding which one to push first

- "you went to bed hungry, scraping for scraps" oohhhh thanos is just anti-poor people, he would literally rather poor people be dead than struggle, i get it nowww

this is on brand for mcu

- oh my god thanos gets 2/6 stones by torturing siblings in front of other siblings, seriously? you couldn't come up with 6 different ways to find his stupid rocks you had to reuse one twice?

- which one of thor's friends was stabbed through the heart....? fandral??

- "if i don't get my vengeance what more could i lose" more like what else is there eh? what else is there for a king of no people but their vengeance?

- CANNOT BELIEVE THEY GAVE HIM BACK AN EYEBALL JESUS CHRIST IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THOR RAGNORAK JUST SAY SO YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO FUCKING

VEHICLE FOR AUTHORITARIANISM, NOTHING IS ALLOWED TO CHANGE, FUCK YOUR CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT I GOT MINE

FUCK

- i do enjoy that thor is now science fiction rather than fantasy, i don't think anybody knew what to do with fantasy cos fantasy is again, ultimately about conservatism and the status quo. so i do like that we're embracing the new and boundless for whatever that's worth.

- marvel is a cesspool of toxic masculinity. at no point are characters allowed to actually feel anything because weakness is uncool i guess and therefore unmanful. like thor lost ALL OF HIS PEOPLE. fucking ALL of them. he watched his brother die in order to save him. he is not allowed a single fucking response of mourning. i don't care if he's pushing it back because revenge or whatever, this is the sort of grief that rules you, which will bring all your load bearing structures down to heel, and they let him do nothing; he does not even rage. perfect control. smooth witticisms. why. why aren't we allowed to see his sadness?

- yo i can't believe red skull is a scifi villain now lol space nazis for real

- OH MY GOD THEY WASHED BUCKY'S WIG AND IT LOOKS SO BAD

- michael b jordan was right btw wakanda is complicit in africa's exploitation

- i do LIKE black panther i guess in the way you technically like that cousin you met once when you were like 9 and never saw again?

i like how we have here in wakanda the sears tower (chicago), the batman building (nashville), and the gherkin (london)

- ok but like, presumably not a death cult super technologically advanced wakandans who are deffo made of human flesh and human blood still arm their people with spears

i mean unless wakanda is also a death cult

why is this chicks entire fucking face cgi'd she looks like a fucking cut scene video game character

- oh ok they have LASER spears, ok

so then why did they give bucky a fucking gun

- what is bucky supposed to be able to contribute here exactly, like fucking, again, he's spycraft isn't he? he's a one man, dead of night, operation go loud and then immediately silent kinda operation. why do they have him on the front lines of a fucking lock-step formation battle??

- "it will be the noblest ending in history" WHAT, FIRST COUNTRY TO EVER BE OVERUN BY ALIEN JACKALS??

- stormbreaker is just leviathan axe, somebody's said this already right

- omfg i'm so glad they're finally acknowledging that thor is OP as fuck and does not belong amongst the fucking squabbles of earth

-"titan was like most planets, too many mouths to feed not enough to go around, so i proposed a plan, dispassionate to rich and poor alike" JUST SAY YOU HATE POOR PEOPLE MCU. YOU CANNOT HAVE RICH AND POOR, YOU CANNOT HAVE DISPARITY, YOU CANNOT HAVE SOME WITH TOO MUCH AND OTHERS WITH NOT ENOUGH AND CALL IT EXTINCTION. THAT IS NOT A QUESTION OF OVERTAXED RESOURCES THAT IS A QUESTION OF RESOURCE FUCKING MANAGEMENT. IT IS AN ARTIFICIAL CRISIS IF THERE EXISTS ENOUGH TO GO AROUND BUT SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST HOARDING IT THAT'S WHEN YOU KILL THOSE PEOPLE AND TAKE THEIR SHARE. KILLING HALF THE PEOPLE IS THE KIND OF FUCKING SOLUTION TO INEQUALITY THAT RICH PEOPLE COME UP WITH

GOD. ITS LIKE NONE OF YOU EVER READ

-you've got the big fucking boss in an ambush AND YOU ATTACK HIM WITH A MAGIC SWORD STEVEN STRANGE?????

THIS FRANCHISE HAS NO IDEA HOW TO UTILISE MAGIC USERS FUCKING HELL

- when will somebody please utilise ironman like the one man artillery he fucking is WHY IS HE FIGHTING WITH HIS STUPID FISTS HE IS LITERALLY ONE CONTINUOUS CARPET BOMB JUST USE HIM THAT WAY

cut of his arm CUT OFF HIS ARM YOU BLOODLESS SPINELESS USELESS FUCKING CUNTS . this is a manufactured crisis, KIND OF LIKE THE ONES THANOS LIKES I GUESS LOL

- dr strange could have very easily prevented or stopped quill from punching thanos but he didn't cos i guess even the movie forgets steven strange exists sometimes

- i like that the shield around wakanda has the same weakness as a poorly constructed chicken coop -- you always build into the ground a couple feet to stop the diggers man, come on, what is this, your first energy shield?

- oh disgusting, a girl boss moment. whatever you're all fascists.

- nobody adores martial might like fascists do fucking change my mind

- " avengers: not one person in this fucking cast is able to stomach ANY AMOUNT of personal sacrifice" more like

- "why did you give away the time stone?" "we are in the endgame" THAT'S NOT AN ANSWER THAT'S A FUCKING MOVIE TEASER FUCK YOU

- why didn't strange just trap thanos in a timeloop again? we've already established that is a perfectly acceptable way to deal with planetary annihilation. IS IT POSSIBLY BECAUSE NOBODY ON THIS WRITING STAFF KNOWS HOW TO DEAL WITH MAGIC

- THOR OP BLIZZARD PLS NERF

-CAPTAIN MARVEL SERIOUSLY THAT'S WHO YOU'RE GONNA SEND YOUR LAST PAGE TO JESUS FUCKING DISGUSTING

#the asshole liveblogs #avengers infinity war #internal thor tag

[duxwontobey]

Since everyone is probably gonna be inside for the next week or month, here’s some stuff to do and look into!

Music:

Declan McKenna: Indie Rock, very passionate and thoughtful. Cage The Elephant: Indie Rock, punk aesthetic, moody and meaningful. Ghost: Heavy Metal/Rock, cool and chill as hell, Satanist aesthetics. AJJ: Folk Punk, incredible lyrics. Very sad but powerful songs. Nothing But Thieves: Alternative Rock, Awesome and unique rock sound. Gorillaz: You know these folks probably but they’re fantastic. Dance With The Dead: Hard Techno, perfect for a rave or club, dark and cool. Depeche Mode: Mixed Genres, some of the best old style synths and vocals. Radiohead: Misc rock, one of the most unique sounds out there with fabulous vocals and meaningful songs. MUSE: Rock/Metal, absolutely perfect riffs and melody, heavy and energetic. Nightwish: Viking Metal Band, do I need to say more? Royal Blood: Heavy Rock, headbanging powerful riffs and beautiful vocals. Skip The Use: French Punk Rock, catchy and beautiful vocals with great rhythms and aesthetic. Kaiser Chiefs: Indie Rock/Misc, fantastic beats and absolute bangers, would recommend the hell out of Education Education Education and War. Red Vox: Indie Rock/Misc, Vinny Vinesauce’s band, beautiful vocals and moody feels and dreamy space-inspired tones. Arcade Fire: Indie Rock, incredibly emotional and powerful songs. Nero: Dubstep/Electronica, Cyberpunk/futurism feel with some great tunes like Dark Skies and Promises. The Wombats: Indie Pop/Post-Punk, mental lyrics with great melody, lots of variety and quality. Tame Impala: Psychedelic Rock, Incredibly chill vibes with catchy well structured melodies.  Brockhampton: Hip-hop/Rap, deep basslines and meaningful well crafted rap. Noisia: Grime/Dubstep, dark and moody electronic chunes. Stop Light Observations: Indie, powerful lyrics and catchy tunes with a deep relaxing background, Dinosaur Bones is a perfect sleep track. IDLES: Post Punk, soulful music with classic punk vibes. Rebellious af. Slaves: Punk Rock, loud, proud and all about meaningful British Punk.

Free To Play Games:

Team Fortress 2 Counter Strike Global Offensive YuGiOh Duel-Links Warframe Destiny 2 Warthunder Hearthstone

Youtubers:

Bisnap: Gaming youtuber with hundreds of videos on indie games like The Binding Of Isaac, Risk of Rain 2 and Tower Of Guns.

Joel: Variety streamer with long lets-plays and hilarious content, known for OS destruction where he uses a virtual computer to download viruses and other dodgy things to see what they’d do and how long the virtual computer can survive.

Vinesauce:  Twitch streamer who does long playthroughs of games and game corruptions, where he uses a program to break games and create extreme glitches.

Dexbonus/Dodger: Twitch streamer who plays a lot of puzzle games and is generally chill as heck. Very good playthroughs of games are uploaded to youtube too!

aliensrock: Twitch streamer/youtuber who plays tough puzzle and strategy games with great editing. A great chill time.

Joltzdude139: Twitchstreamer/youtuber who solely plays Borderlands games currently, with challenge runs and one life playthroughs.

Jerma985: Variety streamer and weird dude. Honestly I don’t know how to describe him. Totally crazy but has amazingly inventive content and plays a lot of unique games, lots of fun to watch. He took out a $6k loan to put on a funfair for his viewers.

Aztecross: Destiny 2 youtuber with informative videos and great gameplay, all around charming dude.

Duel-Links Meta: Yugioh Duel-Links streamer/youtuber, very loud and very energetic and one of the best players out there.

GernaderJake: Destiny 2 streamer known for trials and other high-skill game types. Very friendly and positive and always has something cool going on in his streams if you like Destiny 2.

Jim Browning: Tech expert and general awesome dude. Outsmarts scammers and accesses their computers through backdoors to get some revenge and to destroy the scamming companies. Very interesting and satisfying to watch scammers get what they deserve.

Call Me Kevin: Variety youtuber with tonnes of personality. Official number 1 funniest Irish youtuber. Loads of well edited comedy gaming videos.

Let’s Game It Out: Simulator game player who’s only goal is to play the games as wrongly as possible. This includes; making the most inefficient factory possible in Satisfactory, making the worlds worst zoo in Planet Zoo and making the worlds most unsafe hospital in Two-Point Hospital.

Nyx Fears: Hilarious horror reviewer who talks both about philosophy and meaning in horror films while also talking about hilariously bad films that couldn’t scare anyone. 

Critical Role: 5 Years running dnd group who are some of the most well known voice actors in gaming. Hilarious and emotional dungeons and dragons live sessions with millions of subscribers and views. 

Kripparrian: Hearthstone streamer known for being salty as hell. Very good at the game and makes a lot of cool videos on Arena/Battlegrounds regularly.

How To Drink: One of the most charming people to ever exist. This channel is all about cocktails, mixers, drinks and the history of all those combined, incredibly fun to watch even if you don’t drink!

Braille Skateboarding: Amazing channel all about skateboarding, but you don’t need to know anything about skating to enjoy it. The entire team is lovely and they’re all insane, mainly because they often do videos where they try to skate anything they can, including crowbars, glass skateboards and “nunchuck boards”

oboetwoshoes: Variety youtuber/streamer who mainly plays Borderlands. Incredibly fun commentary and editing. Also loves bionicles a bit too much.

Grand Illusions: Strange old man who reviews his collection of even stranger old toys and gadgets. Very relaxing and blessed.

AquaFPS: Escape from tarkov/Rust streamer who’s generally a lot of fun. Great video editing and immersive yet funny gameplay videos.

Ryan Hollinger: Horror film enthusiast with incredibly insightful and interesting videos about the depths of horror films and the history and complexity behind them. Also has a great series on how to survive various horror films.

Jesse Cox: Variety streamer/youtuber. Amazing personality and great series of long playthroughs of games like Control and Night In The Woods. Does one of my favourite series ever with his friends called Scary Game Squad, where he teams up with his mates to do horror game playthroughs, I highly recommend watching their entire playthrough of Until Dawn. 

Welyn: Perhaps the best Rust streamer/youtuber out there. His videos are almost like miniature films about how he betrayed a clan or infiltrated a base, and he’s known for overcoming even the most deadly and large clans in the game solo.

Binging With Babish: Cookery youtuber who creates some of popcultures most famous meals, such as the Krabby Patty, Portal Cake and more, along with actually helpful guides on how to cook basics like hotdogs and burgers.

The Spiffing Brit: Variety youtuber who does his very best to be the most British™ person ever while also finding thousands of exploits in games like Civilization V, Evil Genius and Stellaris.

Feel free to add your own shit in the comments, I’ve got pretty limited taste so the more people add the more stuff we’ll have to occupy folks during these coming weeks.

#long post #coronavirus #Covid-19 #hobbies #youtube #music #this took like an hour #:^) #if this gets no notes call me booboo the fool

[vocatharsis]

Cogs’ TS2 Apocalypse Run (IX)

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Earlier this year, I started revisiting The Sims 2. After a bit of messing around, I decided I’d take a shot at doing an apocalypse challenge run (specifically Phaenoh’s tiered, mod-enforced version). I didn’t succeed the first time, and didn’t document it with screenshots etc. anyhow, so in this second attempt I’ve resolved to do both. 

(Lots of screenshots & commentary below the cut. If you’re into Sims, nostalgia, challenge runs, and/or silly reflective commentary, feel free to read on!)

THE SMITHS’ FREE STATE, PART 9 - SO LONG, SHELMERDINE

Two mercifully-timed birthdays -- i bet he steals answers on homeworks too -- bidding the founder farewell -- oh goodie, some crap I can clean off the floor -- Muuuum, stop plaguing my sleep -- people in uniforms -- I imagine Foucault would be proud (or not).

Welcome back! Now, this is a sad chapter. The character I started this run with, Shelmerdine, is going to die of old age pretty soon. She’s had a fantastic go of it - managed to max all skills before elderhood, survived the terrible interval in which greyhairs had complete free will, reached perma-platinum for her aspiration. But now it’s time to bid her farewell. 

As a small mercy, she’s set to pass on the day after the two toddlers Aaron and Forseti are eligible to age up via birthday cake, so I won’t have to deal with the toddler ‘relative dies’ fear tanking both of their aspiration meters the day before they start childhood. 

First, let’s do Forseti--

He looks nice when he’s happy ^^

And I waited until morning to age Aaron up, since everyone was kind of tired at that point. 

Yippee!

Love Forseti’s little jump there. 

As I’ve established before, kids & teens aren’t currently allowed to go to school, nor use any skill-building object that isn’t also simultaneously fun. So childhood in the apocalypse is all about grabbing whatever skill points you can, with whatever objects aren’t banned. The most obvious of these is playing chess, for Logic: 

It seems that, with his really low Niceness score, Forseti is inclined to make unconvincing attempts to cheat while playing with others. Attempts of the “hey, look over there” variety, which always end with the other person turning around just as he’s moving he pieces around. I’ll need to find a way to make sure he doesn’t tank his friendships with father and/or brother while he earns his smarts.

Age-rollover time is fast approaching. It’s time to say goodbye to indomitable old Shelmerdine. 

Of course, I had to get a photo with all of her descendants in it. Then she said goodbye to each of her children individually.

*sniff*

And here comes bonesy... 

You guys remember how the death sequence for fulfilled Sims goes, right? It’s a hell of a thing. The Grim Reaper hits on you...

... tells you to pick up an unexplained suitcase (which might contain anything from what was in your Sim’s personal inventory to their emotional baggage, I dunno)...

... and hands you an extremely ethnic-looking alcoholic cup-thing.

And then you become a ghost.

BYE-BYE, SHEL, YOU WILL BE MISSED.

poor, poor Kent

Back to business; I decided on a solution to the “Forseti pissing people off during chess” problem. Basically, he plays on his own in a corner of the basement,

although I will say that this has a second benefit: Juan needs to level his Logic, too! It’s the only skill he needs maxed to be a master architect. 

Both of the careers I’m intending for Aaron and Forseti also require some Logic, but even if this weren’t the case, maxing Logic actually increases the skill-gain rate for everything that isn’t Body or Charisma by 25%, so it’s still worthwhile. 

Get a load of this guy:

Name’s Amar Ku. I was completely blindsided by this guy walking down the street, since I’ve never seen him before. Is his hair dyed, or...? Upon greeting him, he did the ‘Kiss Kiss Darling’ gesture, which means he’s a socialite; he must be Juan’s replacement, rolled randomly to fill the gap in the townie roster when he married in.

Panoptica’s got all the skill points she needs to win that final promotion, so I just have her building some other skills to fill her aspiration meter. Like Body skill!

(Note: They can’t do Yoga until they have 3 points in the skill, which means they have to level it by doing radio exercises. These are annoying because they drain Hygiene and Energy, and build the skill more slowly than pretty much any other method. im not gogna have fun)

Meanwhile, Forseti, as our first absurdly-neat descendant, gets to experience the joy of building Cleaning skill really quickly from actual cleaning, as opposed to reading books:

You can’t see it in this picture, but he’s smiling. His Fun need actually increases a little while he’s scraping crap off a toilet seat. Jeez, Forseti.

Oh, minor thing for any 90s kids and/or incidental Homestucks that might be reading this -- the household’s crappy stereo was on while Panoptica was working out, and I had it set to the ‘Techno’ station ‘cos the classic default Salsa mix was getting on my nerves, and then I hear, of all things, a no-vocals version of Chromeo’s ‘Fancy Footwork’ come on.

(I mentioned Homestuck; it was the song used in this fandom meme that I didn’t discover until after the comic had ended [*slight sniff*]. Gods, it’s catchy.)

Upon discovering said song’s presence in the game, I promptly moved the table with the stereo on it up a floor so I could hear it better. Here’s Panoptica doing her jog-on-the-spot routine.

And getting buff, apparently.

Looking good, looking good

Oh, I seem to recall saying back when Kent died that ghosts usually take a night to register that their remains have been moved elsewhere, so Shelmerdine’s debut as a ghost was unlikely to take place on the roof. 

Unfortunately, unlike Kent, she did clamber down the ladder from the attic to the floor with all the beds on it, making it really impractical to send anybody up there for some shuteye tonight. If I send them to bed, they’re guaranteed to cancel out of the action at some point, and let the ghost do its Scare action, which drops each of the victim’s needs a bit.

I realised at this point that I actually have more Sims than I do beds, so I worked out a solution to this one-night problem: buy a bed for the basement.

John starts work earlier than Panoptica, so he had priority here. Otherwise, they took it in turns to kip underground until dawn broke and Shelmerdine buggered back off to the Styx, at which point everybody who didn’t have a job collapsed into their own beds.

Well, today’s the day that Panoptica, with any luck, will get promoted up the final rung of the Intelligence ladder! There’s a chance it might take two shifts, even with an almost-full mood. Here she leaves the house in... I don’t know what kind of coat, while Forseti falls victim to my ever more ambitious experiments with the in-game camera:

(I honestly need to brush up on my vocab for types of clothing, I think. When I do write creatively, it’s quite often urban fantasy-type stuff, and it’ll help me to form a clearer picture of how characters look...)

This here below would be a great picture, if only the yellow sports car didn’t have a wonky interior that didn’t show up when you moved the camera inside

Like seriously Panoptica has a great photo face, it’s a shame

The snow actually thawed for a little while (since it’s always Winter, this only happens when it doesn’t snow for a couple of days in a row) leaving behind some puddles... which of course I sent Forseti to mop up so he could get more experience.

Night falls, and both goasts come out to play, in this rooftop graveyard of empty fridges. (I can’t sell them right now, due to restrictions - I just buy a new one and dump the old one up here.)

And does Panoptica get her final promotion? She does!

Time for some lowkey family celebrations! Here’s Aaron coming outside to give her an after-work hug:

And here’s Juan, being all romantic, though I swear he looks more like he’s just grinning rather than puckering up...

Now I can do lots of new things! Including:

> Let people come inside the house, even if they aren’t already a family friend

> Redeem Popularity aspiration perks (letting John build friendships faster)

> Use the Ask pie menu to scout out townies with good skills/jobs, and

> Chat on/answer the phone! 

This makes things much easier. Also, Panoptica’s got a snazzy uniform.

Heh, now both second-generation kids have dark green uniforms.

So, Panoptica has succeeded in living up to the name I gave her! A pleasant development. It’d have been a shame if I’d given her that name only to see her fired by a chance card or something. (I’d probably have thought about Law Enforcement for her, but that’d have required her to max Body, which would be annoooooying, at least until Juan lifts Architecture.)

So, another successful update, another restriction lifted, another gravestone for the roof... hm. I’ve covered a lot of ground here; I think two more updates maximum before I catch up to where I’m currently at with the run.

Stay tuned, and thanks for reading! 

(If you’ve read through this and/or any of my other updates, please let me know if there’s a particular style in one that’s more enjoyable to read than the others. It’s fluctuated a little as I figure out how best to do it. Thanking you in advance!)

#the sims #the sims 2 #ts2 #my posts

[ericwollersberger]

Image and Persona in Ambient and Instrumental Music

Since I’ve begun working on my new EP, I’ve been considering how I’m going to market it, whom to send it to, and how I should present myself in my bio. One thing I have been thinking about is that in the genre of music I make, there is far less of an emphasis on persona than there is in pop music. In his book, Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Engineers, and Students, Michael Zager says “without a story, labels are normally not interested in artists unless there are unusual circumstances surrounding their careers or an artist is extraordinarily gifted” (Zager, 2011). An expansion of this idea could be found in Matthew Wheelock Stahl’s essay “A Moment Like This: American Idol and Narratives of Meritocracy,” where he describes the performer’s “paradoxical relationship with the target audience: aspiring idols must demonstrate both specialness and ordinariness, distance and closeness, similarity and difference, particularly regarding social position.” Later, he discusses the success of the Spice girls, claiming their authenticity derived from their “weaving stories of their ordinariness into their music videos and feature film,” and by speaking “not for their audience but as their audience” in order to ostensibly assure their fans of their “possibility of being in possession of star quality and inherent talents” (Derno, 2004). The questions of how “authentic” someone is perceived as in the world of pop music is deeply rooted in social hierarchy and where the viewers see the artist and themselves, but for some reason I don’t see this happening much outside of the realm of popular music. By “popular music,” I here mean music with vocals and lyrics and some semblance of pop song structure. When we go outside of this realm, into music that is instrumental or where the vocals aren’t distinctly the focus of the music, it would appear that this is less of a concern. Here, I would like to explore why this is, what artists who make instrumental music have done to craft an image, and what I think it means for me and my practice.

When music has vocals and lyrics, many audiences feel like the person singing it should be somehow living the thematic material of the songs in order to make it “authentic.” Once the person who wrote a piece of music somehow becomes a character in it, they must live up to both the persona that they create for themselves and the one that the audience perceives and expects. As their careers progress, this persona is usually expected to evolve, but not so much that what originally made the artist appealing is lost. In popular music, it is common for fans to want to know details about the artist’s lives that their songs seem to suggest, and now, if an artist has a high enough profile, one can easily learn personal details such as an artist’s mental health, religious beliefs, current or previous spouses, or history of drug abuse. Knowing these details can often make fans feel as if the artist is somehow more genuine and the artist becomes humanized.

In the world of instrumental music, however, it would appear that this is far less often the case, because the “character” of the music isn’t expressed in as literal or direct way as it is in popular music. This is in a sense a space left blank by the artist. The vast majority of purveyors of instrumental music (at least in my area of practice) rely on either album artwork, videos, or the aesthetic of the music itself to create their image. The result is that often there can be a much less obvious trajectory or narrative arc in an artist’s discography. While there is usually experimentation and artistic evolution of some kind, an artist has less room to stray from their original aesthetic without alienating their audience. For example, William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops was made by recording the sounds of very old tape loops falling apart as he played them back, resulting in very long and repetitive pieces of process music that established him as one of the most popular artists in the ambient genre. Since this project, however, there haven’t been many extreme changes in approach for him, with most of his projects since relying on the sounds of analog tape loops, very long track lengths, and a somber, melancholic, elegiac mood to remain recognizable as Basinski pieces. Similarly, artists such as Gas, Pete Namlook, and Stars of the Lid have displayed a kind of uniformity not only in their musical, stylistic, and compositional choices, but also in their album artwork, which usually follows a distinct and established visual style they have cultivated. Despite their success within their niches, however, these artists do not have anything resembling a public persona that their music needs to adhere to in order to remain “convincing” to their audiences.

There are exceptions to this rule, most notably artists like Moby and Aphex Twin. Moby was in fact controversial for giving a face to a genre that had so long been made by seemingly anonymous artists who were by no means public figures. Many fans of ambient and techno music saw this as “selling out,” although Moby was already very popular before he started putting his face on his album covers. Fans were aware of his Christian, vegan, and teetotaling lifestyle, which he often talked about in his liner notes for albums such as Animal Rights and Everything Is Wrong, although his memoir Porcelain: A Memoir tells of his returning to heavy drinking after a failed relationship and recounts numerous episodes of alcohol-induced depravity that would go against this image (Moby, 1995; Moby, 1996; Moby, 2016). Aphex Twin, on the other hand, cultivated a dark, surreal, and grotesque image that would lead many fans to believe he was a heavy drug user due to the trippy, strange, and paranoid imagery he would associate with his music through his video collaborations with Merce Cunningham. However, he has claimed that he never makes music under the influence of drugs. “I’m never under the influence of drugs when I make music. When you’re tripping, you’re just fucked. You could never make it together to make a track. When I’m stoned, I go to bed” (Lester, 2001).

Outside of these two examples, however, it is rare for composers of instrumental music to have public personas. There are however, other ways for artists to cultivate a kind of “anti-image” that is hostile to the industry or to the world at large. Ambient house pioneers The KLF, for example, included a list of “facts?” (sic) along with copies of their albums sent to critics that included the statement “Ambient House does not come to you: you have to go to it” (Toop, 1995). They were hostile towards the industry that they were successful in, and expressed this in spectacular and iconic ways. When they were voted “Best British Group by the UK industry, they responded by dumping a dead sheep with the letters “KLF” at the awards ceremony. They even infiltrated the visual arts world, where they “nail[ed] 40,000 pounds onto a canvas and chain[ed] it to the railings of London’s Tate Gallery as an award for the worst British artist.” They later burned 1 million pounds in a boathouse on Jura and taped the whole thing, a powerful anti-commercial gesture that seemed to conclude their career (Pendergast, 2003).

Other artists to create a kind of “anti-image” in the public eye are artists of the “isolationist” movement of the early 90s, whose aesthetic choices ranged from alienating and dark to downright anti-social, but who expressed their social commentary in subversive and uncompromising ways. Scanner, for example, used a scanner purchased from a London anarchist group to secretly record people’s phone conversations and work these sounds into his very low-key House and Techno inspired music, with the goal of exploring how late-twentieth-century technology had altered communication. Thomas Köner made bleak, icy, and epic soundscapes coupled with artwork that depicted melting polar ice caps that were both a “total retreat from the outside world” and a statement about humanity’s mistreatment of the environment (Pendergast, 2003).

In my own music, I have usually tried to maintain a certain uniformity in the style of the artwork. Since I have no public persona to speak of, I find this is probably the most effective way to cultivate my own “image” for the time being. I rarely put my name or the name of the album on the cover because I see my music as being consumed mostly in online settings, where the artist and album names are usually present alongside the artwork. I generally see the artwork as a general tone-setter or something to grab the eye of the listener. Until now, most of my artwork has been images or paintings of the sky that I have filtered in a way that suits the music on the album. For example, on an album that featured lo-fi tape loops, I had an image of a sunset that I put through a VHS filter. However, in recent years, I’ve started to feel like ambient artists using naturalistic imagery is a boring cliché and have started moving towards sources like other paintings available in the public domain or worked with visual artists to get something that fits the aesthetic of the music a little more specifically than just a suggestion of blankness for the listener to project themselves onto. For the project I am working on now I wanted to juxtapose an older looking painting, to point to the more harmonically traditional guitar arrangements, with an overtly digital-looking filter to mirror the glitchy manipulations I employ on the tracks. I want the painting to be of some kind of public space, like a train station, to mirror the themes of alienation in public spaces present in the song titles and the treatment of the vocals on the album. As for my artist bio, I think I may include descriptions of some of my projects from the past, as I have noticed this is something of a pattern in the genre that I work within. I find it interesting to know what styles of music an artist explored before they moved to ambient music, especially since it can shed light on what thematic material is present in a style of music that can be notoriously vague and difficult to interpret in those terms.

References

DERNO, M. & WASHBURNE, C.J. (eds.) (2004) Bad Music: The Music We Love To Hate. London: Routledge.

LESTER, P. (2001) The Friday Interview: Aphex Twin. [Online] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2001/oct/05/artsfeatures3 [Accessed 7 December 2019]

MOBY (1995) Everything Is Wrong [CD] USA: Mute.

MOBY (1996) Animal Rights [CD] USA: Mute.

MOBY (2016) Porcelain: A Memoir. USA: Penguin Press.

PRENDERGAST, M. (2003) The Ambient Century. London: Bloomsbury.

TOOP, D. (1995) Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound, and Imaginary Worlds. London: Serpent’s Tail.

ZAGER, M. (2011) Music Production: For Producers, Composers, Arrangers, and Students. UK: Scarecrow Press.

[raevanmun]

why were you drawn to each one of your characters?

Apparently you and @symmarilshatterunwra​ are both sadists.I have to preface this response with a little literarydrivel. I am a huge, HUGE fan of transgressive fiction. In my writing I have done my best to adhere tothe basic elements of the genre, though my writing style is often more floridthan is typical. So, all of my characters tend to have deviant pasts, secretsand proclivities that are both a source of relief from lives that are eitherbanal and meaningless or are broken by trauma and sometimes a mixture of thetwo.Usually, a narrative emerges either from some music, a pieceof art, or just musing in general and sometimes through the combined creativeeffort of myself and a writing partner. A few of these characters have beenconceived of with and for partners I have or have had.Raerys (Rosewood) Songbrook - Raerys’ isa compilation of feelings and narratives that I spliced together from writingdone with @symmarilshatterunwra​ and a deep interest in actual cults that I have. I havespent several hundred hours watching various documentaries about religiouscults. Raerys family were involved in a very fringe cult of Sun WorshipingQuel’dorei. In it there is love of power for power’s sake, the corruption thatcomes from that and the fanatical drive to create a “pure” blood line thatwould create the greatest minds in the pursuit of the Arcane. That pursuit of apure bloodline and the use of both religious doctrine and sexual coercion aremain themes in her life, start to finish.Her journey is one of cleansing and redemption, a move towardwholeness and healing after a life of privileged trauma.The next I have to take in Tandem - because their stories areintertwined.Kaereah andPhaedrei Bitterdawn - The Bitterdawn sisters are opposite ends of theemotional and social spectrum. This is due to some really shitty stuff thathappened when they were growing up. They are in truth, half sisters. Phaedreiis the elder of them. Kaereah is the baby of the family and the result ofan “Oooops” their mother had after having been widowed.   Phaedrei is responsible to a fault, is taciturn, cruel and fairly ACE. Headcannon says she's never been with anyone, romantically or otherwise. She's toofocused on her work, on her magic, on herself and the compartments of her life.She is deeply sad, a dank sort of depression eats at her and keeps her at arm'slength from anyone. Kaereah is the opposite side of the same coin. She is gregarious, friendly, andgenerally "open" to people she meets, but then, she's also aprostitute and has been for many years. She is not really open, any more sothan her sister, though she has been in love once. Was hurt terribly, and sincehas walled off her emotions and used sex as a way of life and a weapon since. They are in equal parts the unfortunate reaction to a childhood in which theironly role model found validation in relationships, not in herself or herchildren. Determined not to follow in their mother's footsteps they respondedvery differently, only to arrive at essentially the same emotional place. Theyhate one another, because both judge the other as maladjusted, without seeingthe irony of their situations and having any empathy for the other and all thatthey have suffered.Nolah Blackfyre - Nolah is a amalgamof rogue tropes, which are usually played out by men. I was drawn to her as acharacter because she is a SHE. She is devil may care, full of swagger andpomp, but she's also wears that like a mask, hiding behind it is a ruthlesskiller who no one would ever imagine is capable of the things she is. She isalso, an incurable romantic, seeking for that perfect lover who to quote TheEagles, "won't blow my cover, but they're so hard to find." As I posted ages ago on her tumblr, she is made of cigarettes and song lyrics.She is a poet, a ponderous creature who writes secret poetry and who is tragicin all the ways that rogues usually are.

Kordelaine Sunbriar - Kordelaine ismy idea of a "millennial belf." She likes techno, house and trancemusic. She is into her gadgets, thinks the world is all fucked up but feelspretty powerless to fix it. It sounds strange I know, but she's in no smallpart inspired by both of my sons, one who has had some issues with drugaddiction and depression and the other who is a quiet and very nerdy kid. I was drawn to her as a way to sort of tap into what I enjoy most about millennials.What makes them interesting to me as a GenX'r. Their music, their sardonic viewof the world, their desire for community and connection in a world that isincreasingly small and yet isolated by technology.

Tzilli Bloodsky - I am drawn toTzilli because who doesn't want to play a comic book villain? She's a completeasshole. She's a narcissistic, overly intellectual anarchist who is really justa nihilist. She is in her mind, "Self Made" in the same way that mostAyn Rand female characters are...  whichis also fun to mock and play with. She's really just Ra's al Ghul with tits anda cute face.Selkara Blackvale - Selkarah and herTwin Selakiir are Castor and Pollux. Or were... until something terriblehappened. She was always the darker half, the dangerous one, the thinker ofdeep and dark thoughts. He was the kind one, the sweet one, the good one... andthen the Void. I am drawn to Selkara because she has been utterly undone withher brother's corruption. Thrust from the role of the corruptor into the role of the caretaker has lefther unbalanced, freewheeling and frightened. She now struggles with theknowledge of her brother's slowly creeping madness, to feel him mentally,spiritually and emotionally within her, but unable to affect what is theeventual outcome of his state. The struggle to change horses midstream and become a hero in her own life iswhat is interesting about Selkara, that and her adoration and love for Rey. Reyhas helped to soften her, to support her transformation from shadowy bitch intosomething deeper, more and closer to wholeness. Rila Greenleaf - Rila is the Fool ofthe Tarot, but in female form. She is the child in William Blake's Songs of Innocenceand Songs of Experience. She is moving from utter ignorance through temptation,corruption and with luck, out the other side. I am drawn to Rila's arc in thesame way that anyone who's read De Sade's "Justine" is drawn to thecharacter and the conclusion of her story. How does the madness of absolutelibertinism end if it is born by one of a completely pure soul?

Jonadori Winterborne - Jona has beenbashed around in some pretty unfortunate rp arcs. She's not broken but she'sbeen reworked a bunch and at present I am not sure I am utterly in touch withher. So, I am not sure what to say about her in this respect.

Aembrose/Ambrose Longroad - Aembrose is a side character inRaerys' larger story. I originally made him just to play a part in herprogression, but there has been some interest in maintaining him as acharacter. I just haven't found found his voice yet. I am working on it.

Joaquin Brightquiver - He is a new character, very wetbehind the ears yet, but I am drawn to him because of his romantic and artisticsensibilities. He's a loner, been kicked around a good deal by life, but heloves to pain, he's consumed by his art, wine and women. He could be great, agreat and well-respected painter, but his addictions to alcohol and women whoare trouble keep him from being able to really move forward as an artist. I amdrawn to him, for the voice he offers.I don't usually play men, but when I write him, or plot for him, I feel such astrength of narrative that I feel sort of compelled to see the guy out. We'llsee if I really get under him and into his pov, it is still emerging, but whatI have done with him, I have really enjoyed.

Bryonny Larkspur - Bryonny is not yet entirelyfleshed out, that said... I find that character creation requires interaction,at least to firm up details. However, she's interesting to me from a conceptualpoint of view. Unlike Nolah who is despite her vocation a pretty easy to getalong with lady, Bryonny is far more "muy macho" and I have nicknamedher "The Shootist," in order to make the connection between her andold school male western tropes. She's a female in a man's world, she's mean andruthless.  I haven't written a characterlike her in a long time, and perhaps it is the opportunity to write one again,re-working the idea and refining it that makes her interesting to me.Violet Dal'vir - Violet is theoldest character I have here. She's an Apostate Blood Knight who for manyreasons rejects "current" Sin'dorei culture and wallows in her angstand resentment. She has little use for others, little use for friends orcompanions. The only people she's known for some time who care for her or caredfor her, eventually left her behind because she could not and would not bebudged from her bigotry and her dogmatic and uncompromising dedication to aregime and a world that no longer exists.I like her, because she's kind of my "Uncle Rukus" character. She issocial commentary turned inside out and upside down. If I bring Violet aroundto interact with your characters, you can expect it is because either I thinkyour character is too fluffy, or too edgy. She likes to shave the plumes offone and knock the corners off the other. This is why, in many ways, I equateher with trolling. Greneda Brightmorn - Greneda is thenewest of my characters and I won't lie, I've pretty much fallen in love withher. She is a taste of all my favorite old time movie vixens, mashed up with agood dose of Lucile Ball and Carol Burnett. She feminine exaggerated, she's gota dirty mind, a warm laugh and she loves people, all sorts of people. She likesto use politeness like a weapon, relies heavily on her "Blanche" likemanner when social situations get difficult or taxing, and when she'scomfortable with people or her context, she's a delightful companion.  I am deeply drawn to her, because I lovepeople like her in real life.

Thank you @ouroandarGreat if somewhat difficult question to answer. 

[randomrichards]

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT: – ENNEMIS INTERIURS (ENEMIES WITHIN) What starts out as a straight forward interview becomes an intense interrogation in this scathing, political thriller. Set in the 90’s, the film also looks at France’s turbulent relationship with Algiers. As the film begins, An Algerian teacher (Hassan Ghancy) applies for French Citizenship. He answers a series of basic questions of France’s Culture to an officer (Najib Oudghiri). But as the interview progresses, questions start to lean toward a terrorist attack by two Algerians. The officer suspects those two were at the same mosque meeting the teacher was at. The interrogation grows more hostile as the officer tries to get the teacher to name names. The premise probably has the simplest delivery of the films in this category. Most of the film is just these two character in a single room, talking. And yet it’s the most gripping short in this category. Starting with a simple Q & A, writer/director Selim Azzazi builds a slow burn of suspense coming out of each information revealed. The teacher also reveals himself to be a complex protagonist. Though born in the Algiers, he considers himself first and foremost a French man. He argues that since Algiers was part of the French Empire when he was born, he is therefore a Frenchman. But his fate lies in the hands of a man who could deport him with just the click of his pen. And no one will let him leave without two names. You don’t know much about him, but thanks to Ghancy’s performance, you care for him and don’t believe he had anything to do with this. This film takes a simple premise and keeps you in suspense. When it’s over, you’ll have a lot to talk about with your friends. – LA FEMME ET LE TGV The most romantic short in this category, this adorable little gem from Switzerland follows the developing relationship of two people who never meet. Every day, the TGV passes a little house of Elise (Jane Birkin), whose always there to wave her Swiss Flag. This seems to be the only high point of her day. Once a successful business, Elise’s bakery now struggles with competition from the All Deal retail store. Not helping is this ballet blaring techno tunes right next door. Her son Pierre (Mathieu Bisson) has grown up and moved out. Her only companion is Balthazar the budgie. So, the only excitement of her day is the coming of the TGV. Then one day, a letter comes flying onto out of the train and onto her lawn. So, begins a loving correspondence between Elise and the mysterious train conductor named Bruno. Elise would send letters and her treats to Bruno, who throws his letters out the window, along with some cheese. But their romantic correspondence comes under threat when the train takes a different route. La Femme Et Le TGV reminds me a lot of 84 Charing Cross Road, a biopic about two bookdealers (Anne Bancroft and Anthony Hopkins) who formed a bond through business correspondence. Both films are romances centered around two people who never meet. You’d think this would be the kiss of death for romance films, and yet both films seem to make it work. Romance live and die by the chemistry between the two leads. How can you have chemistry when the two leads never have a scene together? With great writing, that’s how. Elise and Bruno bring out their most romantic sides in their letters, often turning to each other to vent their personal problems. Though it begs the question; are they falling for each other’s true selves or just idealized versions of each other? What also makes it work is Birkin’s performance. She creates such a quirky character in Elise that she brings joy in every minute she’s on screen. When she waves her swiss flag, she brings out her character’s genuine happiness. Plus, she faces the task of selling the questionable decision of falling for a person she hasn’t met. Her romance feels so genuine that you can’t help but root for her to get together with Bruno. She also as good in her low points, especially when Pierre gives his mom a degrading birthday present. The film is also very funny. Elsie cherishes Bruno’s gifts of cheese. There’s just one problem; she hates cheese. So, we are treated to the hilarious image of a fridge full of cheese. La Femme et Le Tiv will leave audiences swooning over this romance. – SILENT NIGHTS All the way from Denmark comes a love story about two people fallen on hard times. Kwame (Prince Yaw Appliah) immigrated from Ghana in hopes of providing more for his wife and kids. Instead, He finds himself on living on the street, making a living by collecting bottles. Meanwhile, Social worker Inger (Malene Beltoft) cares for her deadbeat, drunken mother Solveig (Vibeke Hastrup), who makes her life a living hell. These two lost souls come into each other lives when Kwame’s beaten by some racist thugs and Inger comes to his aid. After nursing him to health, they sleep with each other. They seem like a great couple, if it weren’t for a few problems. First, Solveig is gets very racist when she’s drunk, which leads to an awkward first meeting. Second, there’s both living in states of extreme poverty. Oh, and there’s the matter of Kwame’s wife and kids in Ghana. The film seems to draw inspiration from Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s romantic masterpiece Ali: Fear Eats the Soul. Both films focus on the relationship between a lonely woman and an immigrant and the prejudices inflicted upon them. While not as frequent as in the later film, Silent Nights still has Kwame dealing with racial hostility, as previous beatings indicate. In an interesting spin, the hostility doesn’t only come from Caucasians. In fact, the thugs are of Danish born Arabs. I assume writer/director Aske Bang’s trying to prove whites aren’t the only ones’ hostile towards refugees. The film is clearly a commentary on the Syrian refugee crisis. What is surprising is how complicated the film portrays Kwame. The man came to Denmark thinking it would give him a better chance to provide for his family, only to find himself under a tunnel in the freezing cold, at least when the shelter’s not full. Fearing shame, Kwame can’t bring himself to return home without anything to show for it. On one hand, we can sympathize with his circumstances. But then Bang tests our sympathies by having him commit criminal activities. Kwame’s need for funds becomes urgent when his daughter contracts malaria. In his desperation, he commits a horrible act that’s not only criminal, but also nearly destroys his relationship with Inger. Sure, you understand why he did it, but it’s still a horrible thing to do. And then there’s the fact he’s cheating on his wife and doesn’t even have the decency to tell Inger, which may prove unforgivable for some audience members. We probably wouldn’t feel any sympathy if it weren’t for Appliah, who brings a lot of heart into his performance. The film has a lot of ups and downs. The films’ highpoint is the opening scene, which intertwines Kwame’s and Inger’s troubled lives with a church choir’s beautiful rendition of “Silent Night.” The low point is the ending. The message it sends is just…confusing. Whether the high points outweigh the low points is up to the audience. – SING (MINDEKI) Not to be confused with Illumination’s recent animated film, Sing is a Hungarian import. Moving to a new school is never easy for a kid. Despite the butterflies in her stomach, Zsofi (Dorka Gasparfalvi) fits right into her new environment, even joining her new best friend Liza (Dorka Hais) in the schools’ award winning choir class. After the first rehearsal, Zsofi comes to see why choir director Ms. Erika (Zsofia Szamosi) is her favorite teacher. But then Ms. Erika pulls her aside and insists Zsofi lip synch for the rest of rehearsals, which drains the poor girl of her enthusiasm. Soon, the girls come to realize how unfair adults can be. While a lesser actress would have hammed it up as Ms. Erika, Szamosi delivers a more nuanced realism to the character. When we first meet this teacher, she seems like a nice, encouraging teacher. When she does put down Psofi’s singing, she twists her insults under a polite guise; “You can sing in your head.” Szamosi maintains her polite manner as Ms. Erika tries to rationalize her questionable treatment of some students. It takes a hard push for her to show her true colours, but even then, she tries to mind her manners. Through Ms. Erika, the girls can see how adults make excuses for bad behavior, always believing themselves to be in the right. Matching her performance as the girls. Whenever they are together, Gasparfalvi and Hais make the interactions between Zsofi and Liza feel like real life conversations between two girls. Gasparfalvi is so joyful in the early scenes that when Zsofi’s spirit is broken, it’s upsetting. These little actresses further the depth of their character’s relationships when Zsofi won’t tell the concerned Liza why she’s upset. When they gather the choir team to get back at Ms. Erika, their hilarious revenge is glorious. SPOILER ALERT: These elements come together thanks to Director/Co-writer Kristof Deak. But one scene proves he has excellent storytelling skills. During one choir rehearsal, Liza starts to grow suspicious. She looks to student after student, and comes to realize Zsofi isn’t the only one who’s lip synching. The irony is the choir’s song is about singing in defiance. The fact he pulls this off without any spoken dialogue takes a master storyteller. – TIMECODE We conclude with the Palme D’or winning at the Cannes Film Festival. Today seemed like any other day for security guard Luna (Lali Ayguade) until she got a call from her boss. Apparently, a client’s tail lights were knocked out and the boss wants her to check the video. After typing in the timecode, the video reveals fellow guard Diego (Nicolas Ricchini) was dancing across the parking lot and accidently kicked out the light. Instead of ratting him out, Luna decides to try her hand at it. On her shift, she awkwardly dances in front of the security cameras and leaves a note of the times for Diego to watch it. Diego plays along, leaving notes for her to watch his dancing. This exchange starts a funny bond between these two. This is the third short film in this category centred around a blooming romance. The question is does this even count as a romance or just two friend enjoying a common activity? Either way, this short film is very funny, especially in the way it ends. Who Will Win? The odds are in favour of Ennemis Interieurs. This film is probably the best written and best acted film on the list, bringing a complex discussion of immigration and terrorism under a deceptively simple guise of a political thriller.

#best live action short film #2017 academy awards #2017 academy award nominations #academy award nominee #academy award nominations #academy awards #random richards review #random richards #ennemis interieurs #selim azzazi #la femme et Le TGV #timo Von Gunten #giacun Caduff #silent nights #Kristof Deak #Anna Udvardy #timecode #Juanjo Gimenez #Hassam Ghancy #Najib Oudghiri #Pere Altimira #Lali Ayguade #nicolas ricchini #Vincente Gil #Pep Domenech #Marlene Beltoft #Prince Yaw Appiah #Vibeke Hastrup #ali kazim #refugees

[seahawkerspodcast]

3 IN, 3 OUT – This is RuUs – Texans v. Seahawks

by fellow 12 Clinton Bonner

Flock, what can be said but Holy Catfish!!! We laughed (see Facebook GIF party for proof), we cried, we shouted at our TVs, and we came out with an incredible 41 – 38 victory at the CLink over a Texans team that can put the biscuit in the basket!

There is just so much to get to, so instead of some long opening soliloquy, enjoy the image above … because This is RuUs

You know the drill by now, when we WIN we start with an …

IN – The Love of #29

I grew up in Deer Park, NY (Long Island for many who likely don't know) … and across the street from my brother and I were this trio of big hearted brothers we had the privilege of calling best friends throughout the 80s, 90s, and into our adult lives. If the Sandlot were real life, and all sports not just sweet, sweet baseball, these guys were stars in our movie.

Recently, the eldest of the brothers passed. He played and did all things with a bigness, and a smoothness, and an everlasting smile. He knew what you were going to do before you knew. He was the best kid on the court, or the field, or the rink and if he was on your team, you usually won, and you certainly were always better because of him. His name was John and he was #29.

I mentioned some crying earlier right? When our #29 read the rook Watson like a fine piece of literature and took it back 78-yards to counter-punch against the early Texans haymaker… I stood up, raised a fist to the air and long after Walsh knotted the effort at 7, finally fell back to the couch, smiling, crying, remembering this Deer Park kid who always made it look easy, even though we all knew we could never do what he just did.

Our love and our prayers to the entire Gorman family. #GlendaLove

Enjoy #29 doing his best impersonation of Deer Park's #29

The 78-yard INT return for the touchdown by #Seahawks star Safety Earl Thomas off #Texans rookie Deshaun Watson http://pic.twitter.com/sXi9Tg44KM

— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 29, 2017

  OUT – Try Getting Me Wright

KJ Wright is kinda a silent hero on this team. With the much bigger on-air personalities of Big Perm, Big Sherm, the aforementioned Earl, and the overshadowing in the box scores that B-Wagz would do to any teammate, KJ just does his thing and that thing is usually really, really good.

On Sunday, us Flockers saw wayyyyyyy too much of #50 trying to chase their #10 around the yard.

A few things to clarify here.

I don't pin this on KJ. Clearly this Texans offense does some interesting things to say the least, and 50 million Elvis fans can't be wrong, right? The City, States can and do put up points and they certainly create mis-matches throughout any given Sunday.

What I'm wondering is if this Texans team, who had the bye week coming into this game, schemed up some brand new plays to earn these mis-matches OR if these were plays that were already on film, and they still burnt Richard time and time again? Anybody know???

We certainly saw less of KJ covering Hopkins in the 2nd half, thankfully, and you might be saying; “So what? Hopkins still killed us!?” … and while stats don't lie, we did get this HUGE INT to Hopkins' side of the field at a crucial, crucial moment of the match!

  INTERCEPTION SEAHAWKS!! Sherman es el ladrón ahora! Si despierta la defensa de Seattle van a ganar hoy. http://pic.twitter.com/OD6VVWfe4M

— Refrigerador NFL (@RefrigeradorNFL) October 29, 2017

And FTR… Wright led the team in tackles, with 14 !!!

  IN – All Day Disruption, Starring Michael Bennett

There are MANY worthy INs. Sheesh looking down my list we're not even going to cover P-Rich or that amazing Coach Carroll fumble-forward challenge that kept a crucial early drive alive!!! We won't spotlight Frank the Tank going off and we won't even focus on Russ!

That's how good #72 was in this game.

Bennett wasn't everywhere, he was exactly where he needed to be, seemingly always. On multiple occasions throughout the sunny PNW afternoon, Bennett was 1 to 3 yards deep into the Texans backfield, blowing up a would be Lamar Miller effort. He tallied 2 huge sacks (1.5 in the record books) and he cause havoc on the line all day.

Michael Bennett also saved this game for us. Awash in the headline stats was the most crucial tackle of the game.

2nd Down and 9, 1:56 left to go on the clock.

A hole opens up along the right side of the Texans line and Lamar Miller bursts through for what looks like will be a game clinching rumble.

Suddenly, Miller stumbles, and falls forward for a gain of 5, setting up 3rd and 4.

If you re-watched the game or caught it live, Bennett gets a paw on Miller's foot and literally, saves the day.

Yup, Bennett, in his 9th year, now has 5.5 sacks on the season. But on a day drenching with dynamite plays, this tackle gave our ‘Hawks the chance we needed!

  OUT – Tre Madden

I don't get it… If you need to understand how I feel, see Tom Hanks' “Josh” in BIG.

We're never trying to rip a guy personally, but I just don't get Tre Madden's value to this team.

He's sparsely used and when he's in he doesn't block well at all. As mentioned on the FB Sea Hawkers Pod Ring of Honor during the game… Not a great look for a FB!!! Multiple times during the game he either got blown up in the backfield OR failed to sustain or even chip a guy out wide on certain stretch plays.

I know, I know… Madden had a BIG catch and run netting us a Lemieux (in yards) setting up the game tying field goal in the 3rd quarter. Tip the cap to Bevell for using a player no one was thinking of, at the exact right moment and hey, Tre executed it … can't take that away from him.

But as far as Madden's value to this team… I just don't get it.

Flocktimus shared similar sentiment on Twitter and got a prettttty interesting reaction from a certain somebody:

  IN – Return of the McEvoy

Ever since training camp came to a pretty dramatic conclusion with the cutting of “Karen” Willams, most Seahawks fans have been questioning the decision to keep McEvoy on this team. Through 7 games, McEvoy didn't do all that many things to help his argument, dropping some easy passes and throwing a pick on a trick-play.

Sunday, he had a big impact. He set up the game tying TD in the 2nd quarter with this beautiful haul on a Sexy Deep Ball by DangeRuss:

  This beautiful deep ball from Russell Wilson to Tanner McEvoy. #HOUvsSEA #Seahawks http://pic.twitter.com/WBmTME7HAf

— (@3lone) October 29, 2017

  On the ensuing KO, McEvoy put a hat on the ball, jarring it loose, nearly resulting in a turnover deep in Texan territory!

Tanner McEvoy with the big hit, forced fumble. http://pic.twitter.com/bfF5KTO5Q9

— Matt O'Brien (@mattobrien31) October 29, 2017

  And of course… well … this from earlier in the week:

Techno Thursday. #ItsAMovementhttp://pic.twitter.com/SlFLplBE0L

— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) October 27, 2017

It's role players like McEvoy that help you win championships… welcome back Mac!

OUT – Kickoff with Their Heads

This OUT is less about a singular game or crucial play… but it's an OUT nonetheless.

I do not thing Tyler Lockett should return KOs for us any longer.

He should still be our PR, he's really, really smart and most often makes the most out of every attempt he gets back there.

On KOs… there's just a little something missing from Tyler's approach that was there previous to his terrible leg injury. He's almost too patient and during KOs, where you don't get too many opportunities a game to make an impact, you don't need patience, you need one-cut decisions and explosiveness.

Let's not forget Tyler led the team in receptions (tied for 6) and yards (121) on Sunday, so let's not confuse the issue here.

On KOs… this 12 believes we should try our hand with JD McKissic and measure the delta.

  Don't Worry, Be Happy

Am I the only 12 not all that concerned that we gave up 38 points at home? Not to say we'd always make this ‘trade' but we had 5 sacks, 3 INTs and a pick 6 in this game. If we exchange TDs for FGs in the 3rd quarter, we win this game going away and even with that, our red zone O looked MUUUUUUUCH better.

We're 5 – 2, we're home against a very banged-up Redskins team, and we just acquired a Pro-Bowl level Tackle… so, don't worry, be happy now!

From the Flock

My favorite part of every Seahawks week is sharing this with all the Sea Hawkers Pod 12s who make this awesome. So, who got in the mix this week… a LOT of ya, so apologies in advance if I missed your #3i3o this week and enjoy the commentary below!!!

  Ella got right to the ‘heart' of the matter with this tweet

In: P. Rich! Out: The coronary I had during Wilson's interception. #3i3o

— Ella Esparza (@EsparzaElla) October 29, 2017

  Ross was none too pleased with Germain's early efforts… most likely sparked from false starts and another bonehead personal foul!

#3I3O Out #76 @clintonbon

— Ross Bell (@RossBell1984) October 29, 2017

  Flocktimus loves a good meme… and well, so do we:

#IN #3i3o @clintonbon http://pic.twitter.com/6Fm8RR8t6u

— Keith Ketover (@FlocktimusPrime) October 29, 2017

  DCH wrote it all in one succinct FB message …well done DCH!

  Gary is smart… here's proof:

  Kevin saw the elusive ‘pocket thingy' … and so did I … thx Kev!

  Annnnd let's end this where it all begins …

In: That's why we watch football! #3i3o

— Sea Hawkers Podcast (@SeaHawkersPod) October 29, 2017

  This is RuUs 12s… This is RuUs.

Until next week, Go ‘Hawks !!!

All Seahawks fans if you are not listening to and subscribing to THE best Seahawks podcast out there, you need to #DoBetter – Enjoy the Sea Hawkers Podcast today!!! 

on iPhone – get it here

on Android – get it here

  via The Sea Hawkers Podcast http://ift.tt/2h2pWhg

#Seattle #Seahawks #Sea Hawkers #Podcast

[musicmapglobal]

Video premiere and interview: Aphty Khea

Aphty Khea may seem like she belongs in outer space, but her attention is very much focused on Planet Earth. Adopting the persona of a ‘chameleon humanoid’ extraterrestrial who is dismayed to find a planet ‘poisoned by a myopic perspective and destructive world view’ (sounds about right), Aphty Khea adopts the role of a ‘sonic healer’ set to ease the world’s pain and refresh our perspective, with spacious, downtempo compositions that sound like fka Twigs, Banks and Zero 7 being beamed from beyond the moon.

‘Peacebloom’ is one particularly restorative track. Taking its name from Aphty Khea’s spaceship, the mixture of delicate melodies and heavily swung beats is a combo that will soothe the hardest of hearts. Now ‘Peacebloom’ has a new video, following the artist in full space exploration mode, and we’re delighted to exclusively reveal it to the world today:

Aphty Khea doesn’t just talk a good game when it comes to the planet’s problems though, she walks the walk too. A Greece-born, London-based activist who is unafraid to approach social issues both in her music and her actions, she’s spent extended periods volunteering in the refugee camps of Calais. We asked her to tell us more, and give us some insight into the experiences that have shaped her music and her attitude.

Oh yeah, and we also got the shopping list for the ‘Peacebloom’ video:

MusicMap: The name Aphty Khea – what does it mean?

Aphty Khea is a mish mash of a few words… It’s a combination of ‘afti’ (‘she’ in Greek) and Khea is a mix of my real name and ‘Gaia’. The pronunciation is different however, leaning more towards the Greek sounding way… So yeah, rootsy and mythic…!

In your music you inhabit the character of an alien visitor – in this persona, what are your first thoughts about our planet?

Varied thoughts really… Tremendous beauty is encountered, and equally tremendous ugliness and corruption. Intrigue, curiosity, and beauty at first, I’d say… But the more Aphty gets to experience Earth, the more of the latter she will encounter. She will most probably use her chameleon skills to merge into her environment and gain a deeper understanding. Future music will reveal this or not, however…

You spent time volunteering and teaching music in the refugee camp known as ‘The Jungle’ in Calais – tell us a little bit about your experiences.

When most people ask me this, I usually ask them if they have 3 hours to spare haha… This is always such a hard question. It’s one of those things that you just cannot reply in a few sentences. Well at least not in order to paint an accurate picture. The ‘Jungle’ was a horrible yet very special place, where cultures and religions and people merged into this special little community built on suffering. It’s so weird now that it no longer exists. Talking about a place that once was, and so many aspects of that place, sadly, truly understood only by those who experienced it. And the beautiful aspects of that place were present only because of a lot of suffering.

Assisting in the maintenance of the camp aside, teaching music and English, and just through socialising with the refugees I feel gave to a lot of them a sense of ‘normality’. In particular with one of my very good Sudanese friends, I managed to teach him a few tunes on the guitar, and that gave him such satisfaction and sense of worth. He was so dedicated to learning the tunes and would come every afternoon to practice and learn more. I think he’s one of my best ever students! It definitely added a little bit of light to his darkness… And he was very thankful for it. I really can’t get deeper into this subject in reply to such a broad question, as I will end up writing a thesis..!

The camp has been dismantled since you were there, how much do you know about what happened to the people who were living there?

I’m actually in Calais as I write this. Winter in the northern hemisphere is generally an awful time to be a homeless person, let alone a homeless refugee. I do realise it’s no longer winter, but in Calais it might as well be. When the camp got dismantled, the French government arranged for busses to send people to ‘CAO’ camps around France, without telling them where they were being sent to. Not to mention that they only sent enough buses to accommodate roughly 6,000 people, rather than the actual amount of the refugees that were living in the Jungle, which was closer to 10,000, leaving a few hundred people with no place to go, and as a result getting arrested for still being in the general area of the dismantled camp. Very poor handling by the French government, it was more like sweeping all the dust under a carpet and pretending it’s not there.

I have many refugee friends from the Jungle that I have no idea where they are right now or how they are. Some I couldn’t even keep in contact with, as they were children. During my current Calais visit however, I received positive news about two refugees that I hold really close to my heart (one of them is a child), which brought me great relief and happiness. But to return to the current state in Calais, the vast majority of refugees still there are all underage, unaccompanied minors, some teenagers as young as 13, a lot of them 13-17. My sister is 15, and I just could not imagine her going through what they do on a daily basis for such an extent of time in the freezing cold.

With the organisation I frequently join in Calais (Utopia 56), we distribute food, sleeping bags, clothing, whatever it takes for them to survive the cold nights. Seeing such young faces in such horrid conditions is really disturbing and really highlights how society has failed them. A lot of them, unfortunately, have a romanticised idea of the UK, and because of their great effort and tribulations, it seems like a sort of ‘paradise’ to them. But the current Tory government is nowhere near helpful or has any interest in helping out with this humanitarian crisis, let alone to help out its own UK poor, disabled and minority citizens.

How important is social commentary to your music? Do you feel high-profile artists should be speaking out more?

Every artist has a right to write or create art around whatever subject they feel they relate with and can express themselves through. I do kind of feel, however, that there is not enough focus on social commentary and worldwide issues in recent years, at least in my eyes. For some reason, I sometimes get the impression that there is a notion of it being ‘uncool’. Why? I’m not really sure, maybe because it makes people feel uncomfortable, or dare I say, guilty even, sometimes? Especially in mainstream art, I think existentialism doesn’t really ‘sell’, because it doesn’t make people want to buy, so in return it’s not really promoted.

A lot of popular culture now feels like it’s more about tuning out all the stuff that make us feel uncomfortable and creating a peachy bubble. Now, I really feel that art, in this case music, must provide people with the opportunity to tune out and create their own escape bubble, I really do find it necessary, from personal experience as well. However, when we find ourselves to have so many of these bubbles, mainly due to social media, where you see what you want to see and everything you come across has been tailored to your interests, you’re most probably not going to be confronted with issues that you don’t like or that make you feel uncomfortable. The discomfort in having to ‘deal’ with social issues, especially those of great importance, I feel can be interpreted as the echo of our western privilege. The fact that we can choose to tune out all these issues and not ‘deal’ with them is solely because of our privilege, especially since we are not the ones actually experiencing or truly ‘dealing’ with them.

I don’t really think there is currently a balance between escapism and social commentary in music, but then again this is just my opinion, and I am no art-subject-dictator. Art is meant to liberate people. But, like Nina Simone has said before, ‘an artist’s duty… is to reflect the times’. Social commentary is not the main focus of my music, but it plays a major role in it, especially recently… And I will continue to experiment with ways of expressing it… And keeping the balance, as well.

You currently live in London, how has the city influenced your music (if at all)?

When I first came to London, I wanted to front a rock band… How my aspirations have drastically changed! The city has inspired me and influenced me in many ways, and the people I have met here have all influenced me in their own way at different periods of my London life. From soul and hip-hop, to experimental and noise rock, to electronica, techno and house. And it will hopefully continue to influence and inspire.

What sort of music were you exposed to when you were growing up?

Some of the first CDs I ever owned were ‘Justified’ by Justin Timberlake, ‘Survivor’ by Destiny’s Child, ‘The Eminem Show’ by Eminem and ‘Fallen’ by Evanescence..! But I grew up with my mum playing a lot of Pink Floyd and 80s music. I was also exposed to a lot of musicals and especially a lot of classical music, due to my classical studies from when I was 10. When I was a teenager I didn’t really appreciate electronic music… Now I can’t imagine not listening to it! I do love me some techno, any time of the day.

You’ve represented Greece in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – can you tell us about that experience? How did it affect your perspective on the music industry?

The Junior Eurovision. What an experience. One that kind of haunts my past. I can never seem to escape it, as hard as I try! At the time I wanted to participate in the competition, because other than my music studies, that was the only musical related thing I could do on a professional level. It really taught me a lot. A lot about the entertainment industry, and especially TV. I really did hate TV by the end of it all. It was a really ‘dirty’ industry. Everyone was constantly out to stab you in the back for their own personal gain, you couldn’t trust anything anyone would say… it was tiring. But at the same time I had an amazing experience, and learnt all the right things about the wrong things, if that makes sense, at a very early age. Something that I am extremely grateful for. I now know what to not waste my time, aspirations and energy on as an adult and artist.

TV is all about the views and the show. Even if it is a music contest/show, as much as you’d like to think it’s about the music, it’s most likely not, but it would be more about the ‘story’, even if the story isn’t really that real, cos that’s what brings in views. In addition the Eurovision in general is all about politics, believe it or not, hah! Whether it is about the politics of what country you’re representing, or to do with the relations you have with those in the entertainment business. I just didn’t expect it to be so ingrained in the kids’ version as well. But again, it was an experience that taught me a lot and one that I am extremely grateful for.

Are there any Greek artists past and/or present who’ve particularly inspired you?

There are actually! But it’s usually specific songs of theirs, rather than their whole discography. Usually I get inspired by greek folk songs that have been done by many artists throughout the years, one specific song is ‘Thalassaki Mou’, because it reminds me of my dad, since he sings it all the time. Whenever I get homesick, I use some manipulated Greek elements in my music, it’s my form of paying tribute (again, you will hear this more in future releases).

But some Greek artists I really respect and sometimes find inspiration from are Stelios Kazatzidis and Haris Alexiou.

What/where next for Aphty Khea?

Social commentary will be evident in my next releases, if you know where to look, or listen… Musically, there are some progressions and ventures onto deeper electronic grounds, but done quite subtly (I won’t be releasing a one-hour techno set, if that’s what you’re thinking!) Also in the near to further future, there might be some further clarification and experimentation on Aphty’s story/past/future… We shall see!

Aphty Khea’s Aphty Khea EP is available now on The Sound Of Everything UK.

‘Peacebloom’ Video Credits:

Creators: Charlie & Ben Assistant: Ashley Robinson-Dodd

http://www.cargocollective.com/jegmigfilms http://www.benjaminbrookes.com/

#Aphty Khea #banks #Calais #chill #downtempo #fka twigs #Greece #refugee #sci-fi #the sound of everything #zero 7