#(part 3 xeroxes)

[paintingpuff]

Badly Summarised WIPs Poll Tag

Saw this tag game and considering my dozen WIPs thought it would be fun, not really sure who to tag tho

Rules: Pick a bunch of your WIPs and summarize them as badly as possible

[itwasnotahamster]

- Letters from the Dead - (Part 1)

Langhus, 21 March 1990 | © The Old Nick | Source: Letters from the Dead

The brackets will indicate possible context or corrections (sometimes commentary). - 💜

"Only Black is true, only Death is real!!! Gore is trend! Hello Nick! It's Dead here again. Hey- you're really good at drawing, I use to do some drawing stuff myself. I enclose something of it in this letter. Maybe we together can work something out, maybe even in Metal Destruction…? You asked of releases, if we need some artworks for that... Well we rarely give out much and as for the next release we'll probably have some photograph instead. But if we would need something that you might feel for help us out with I'll tell of it. So what we can use drawings for is for stuff like flyers, ads and letter­pages. So far I have done the drawings for that... well the main reason of that is that we have a (old!) xerox mashine and I'm the one in the band that 'can' draw. It's not so often that I have time left to spend hours or sometimes days by making drawings and too many don't like that kind of drawings I make (but fuck them wimps!). But onto the Deathlike Silence Prod. now. The 2nd edition of the 1st release on DSP. - Merciless is out now, the one you get here as promo. We're looking for distributors everywhere and everybody who can sell 10 (or more) records will receive a copy for free + that 10 records will be cheaper. As soon as this the 2nd ed. has paid, Imperator will go in studio.

Imperators LP will contain 8-10 songs (depending on how many "old demo songs" they'll use - but it'll be new trax as well) and it'll be entitled "The time before time". After that it'll probably be the colombian Masacre as the next release. Masacre will be very soon release a 7- inches with 3 demo songs on the greek label Scene of Love. That's a new started label and I hope they can give out enough copies, not limited ed. of it. Of course we give the bands free hands and they're not bounded to use at all, but I'm thinking of the fact that Masacre is selling so much... Only in Colombia their 1st, and only demo sold 1000 copies ( which is more than our Deathcrush demo has sold worldwide...). We can only press up 1000 copies each time of every edition of DSP, and the first ed. Of Merciless sold out as fast as we could pack and post it. This second ed. we recieved [received] for not a so long time ago will depend on how much stamps we can get, of how soon it'll sell out. In Norway it's very hard to sell records - it's far away from USA or South America and I don't think any real scene exists here. Do you think you can take care of some distribution/selling of DSP releases, or you maybe know someone else who's interested? [True dedication]. I think Merciless will be very easy to sell in Italy. Many zines exists there and we recieve many letters from there also. We also sell other records (given out by various underground labels) but it can be so different of what records of others releases we sell 'cos we usually don't get so many of them, so they sell out so soon. But anyway - I can tell of what we presently have got (except of Merciless)

LP's (£10000 + postage)

Agressor/Loudblast (split LP, France) "Licenced to thrash"

Arakain (Czechoslovakia, speed metal - I do not like this one!) "Thrash the Trash"

Nomed (France)... very boring mainstream... "Like..."

Abomination (USA)

Disharmonic Orchestra/Pungent Stench (Austria, split LP)

Malicious Intent (Canada) "Shades of black"

7's (£5000 + postage)

Asphyx (Holland, Limited ed. 1000 copies) "Mutilating Process"

Atrocity (Germany) "Blue Blood"

Pungent Stench (Austria) "Extreme Deformity"

Disharmonic Orchestra (Austria) "Successive Substitution"

Do not print this in Metal Destruction, I will explain it to you, ok. If you want any of these records above, please tell of how many and of what records so I can see how much the postage will be. Now over to Mayhem. For the first time we've been in studio and recorded 2 songs (first time with this line-up I mean). It'll be released on Chicken Brain Records, a swedish kind of underground label some time in this autumn. It'll be 8-19 other (swedish) bands on it, among them Merciless. I don't know the title of this compilation LP/CD. Our songs that'll be on it are "The Freezing Moon" and "Carnage". The Freezing Moon is a new one and pretty different from our other songs, as example it's a long guitar solo on a very long Doom part on it and that's because we wanted to have a solo at only one track (of our new ones). Carnage was made in '85 (!) so it's really old. It was on the 1st demo/reh - Pure Fucking Armageddon (released in only 100 copies and not available) but with the thought of the very bad sound on it we feeled for playing it again and try to keep the original sound of it. I'll tape these trax for ya but I'm not so sure of if it'll be enclosed in this letter or if I'll put this letter togeather [together] with the Merciless record but anyhow you'll get this tape. You can record it to others if you like to but please don't trade it, and I'll record some else bands too for filling out the rest of the tape. Have you heard of the INCREADIBLY KILLING GREAT band Tormentor from Hungary? Their demo is about 4 years old but it sounds like the Death/Black metal bands of today. We try to find out if they want a deal on DSP. But unfortunately they hardly speak any English at all so it seems like neither them or us understood it... We think of releasing a full-lengtht LP of Mayhem but it seems to take a fucking longtime before we got material enough for it... The only we know about it is a title that MUST be used - De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas. That was about all future plans I can tell of I guess. I look forward to see Metal Destruction. There's a possibility that we can sell it also, but I can't say if for sure.

About Satanism... well, I'd like to join a very underground and Illful, Evil and Grim Coven. I think you know of the hassles by finding any or getting any contact with a such. I do NOT like what's created by Anton LaVey like 1st Church of Satan. I came in contact with a dude who's a degree in the American Satans Sons - Church of Satan and he explained of it has nothing to do with LaVey at all. I asked of if it does exist in Europe also and of what it is exactly... well he didn't reply. But I heard later thet Satans Sons shall exist in Europe but I still don't know in which countries it is. In Norway it's not much of this, but in Sweden (-I am swedish) that 1st Church shall be in Stockholm (the capital there) and it shall be about 5 churches built by satanic sects, used only by satanists, mostly it's under christian churches - like the one under "Mariakyrkan" (Mary's Church) in the South of Stockholm where the 1st Church of Satan use to hang around at. I know it exists really Dark covens that use human sacrifices and are eating human flesh - them are those I try to find. I do not know much about magic and I can't say I'm a practicer of it 'cos I havn't succed. What is depending on what one can do in magic (all of its kind) is of what books one can get...those are hidden in libraries and so hard to even see... 'cos of course they don't let anyone even see them. You must be a scientist or something like if you would see the microfilms of that kind of books. A great library of many various kinds of magical arts and the Blackest of Black Arts too is the British Museum in London. But it's so damned difficult to get ones claws on those books. One book I really wanna get is De Mysteriis Dom. Sathanas, unfortunately it exists only in one copy... are you practicing any magic and do you know of any covens? Have you seen/heard/felt anything supernatural? I have but I didn't understand much of what that was and I think the most of it was only so-called echoes from the past or the future [I am curious about this]. Do you know anything about astral planes and out-of body travelling? You seem to be into it and I agree about stupid trendmakers so it is something that I feel I can tell you of. I had a weird experience once, I had inner bleedings and it couldn't be found at x-rays so when it continued to bleed and bleed I finally fainted and dropped down the floor 'cos I run out of blood. The heart had no blood left to beat and my veins/artairs were almost emptied of blood. "Tecnically" I was dead. At that moment I fell down (into a door I heard of later) I saw a strange blue colour everywhere, it was transparent so I could, for a short moment, see everything in blue, till something shining white and "hot" surrounded me. What happened later is out of interest, I woke up when some ambulance men came and drove me to a hospital and there the bastards of surgery started to cut me up at the wrong side so I got a huge scar for that. However, it's someone I know who's had many out of body experiences and is using magic of various kinds and knows much more than I do of "supernatural" experiences, that I asked of this 'cos it was so strange about those colours. She told me that the first 'plane' in the astral world has the colour blue. The "earthly" plane has the colour black, then comes a grey one that is very near the earthly one and is easy to come to. The next one further is blue, and then it gets brighter and brighter till it "stops" at a white-shining one that can't be entered by mortals. IF any mortal succee enter it, that one is no longer a mortal and can not come back to the other planes nor back to this earth. After the white plane or level or whatever it goes further with other colour I don't know of, there only spirits and great sorcerers can travel. I was told that the white plane I then entered, without I knew it, was the dead world and I died. But I also got thrown back after a short time which very rarely happens. So of what I've heard of I have some kind of purpose to achieve here."

Reached the limit for this one, I will add on!

[greenhorn-art]

Quest Fulfilled by Invidia_Envy @alsheon

Fandom: 全职高手 | The King's Avatar

Rating: Not Rated

Category: Other

Words: 10,370

In a meet and greet event, Ye Xiu is forced to hang around despite not joining the event at all. Whilst loitering around, Ye Xiu met a fanboy and made an unlikely friendship with the kid. Accident happened and the boy can't join the meet and greet, Ye Xiu decided to take his place. The pros are all speechless, why is Ye Qiu lining up in Tyranny's booth?

ABOUT THE BOOK

FORMAT: Letter quarto (trimmed), flatback casebinding, french link stitch, no tapes

FONTS: Times New Roman, Permanent Marker [via Google Fonts], KaiTi, Roboto [via Google Fonts], Arty Signature [via Font Space]

MATERIALS: 24lb Xerox Bold Digital paper (8.5"x11"), 80pt binder's board (~2mm), 30/3 size waxed linen thread, 1.9mm cording, yellow cardstock, Verona bookcloth: Hot Toffee, DecoArt Crafter's Acrylic Yellow Gold, 20lb printer paper, paste wax

PROGRAMS USED: Affinity Publisher, Bookbinder-JS

.

Quest Fulfilled! This was a sweet little fic, and it's been on the list in the back of my mind for a while. Now it's book 3 of 3 of my mini 'they didn't know he was Ye Qiu' collection.

[First, Second, Third]

Set in Times New Roman, with Permanent Marker on the AO3 info page, and with Chinese characters in KaiTi, to match with the other two books.

Because the main story is about Ye Xiu getting the pros' autographs for a sickly boy, I styled the author's name like a signature. Arty Signature is nice and messy, while still legible.

I chose a golden yellow bookcloth because yellow is a happy, optimistic colour, and gold is precious — Little Yan brings home stories and a trove of signed merch for his sick brothers, including exclusive autographs from the elusive God Ye Qiu! I was also thinking of autographs being done with a gold marker.

The endpapers are yellow cardstock, continuing with the bookcloth-endpaper colour coordination of the set.

I used my book plough to trim the textblock, then painted the edges with gold acrylic paint. The gold felt especially fitting for this book.

For all that I curse while doing it, sewing the endbands is actually one of my favourite parts of the book making process, so this collection was my first time making faux endbands. The books are so thin that sewing would be a pain.

The same paste wax applied to the paper label is the same that I used on my bind of Prince of Shadows, Lord of Thieves. Made from wax and turpentine and/or mineral spirits, but ratio and specifics unknown.

[no-name-publishing]

Manacled by SenLinYu

My 8-month marathon on this project has finally come to a close, and I have a ton of pictures to share!

We’ve got a split-board binding with made-endpapers and a built-in tab for extra support. Hand-sewn endbands with silk-finish cotton sewing thread. Done in a millimeter binding style with black leather, and a hand-drawn and -painted floral motif across the middle. Final page count is just under 1.4k. I figure altogether this was around ~50 hours worth of work for the whole binding, from beginning to the typeset to pulling the final book out of the press.

More pictures of the binding and typeset under the cut! If you have any questions or want more info about the process don’t hesitate to ask!

In truth I over measured/estimated the needed length of my leather; this and my poor pare job is definitely visible through the cloth lol, but I’m still jazzed with the result since I’d never touched leather before this. I designed the spread digitally in Procreate, printed it, transferred it to my cloth using carbon transfer paper, then painted using Jacquard Lumiere Metallic gold paint and a refillable .75mm paint pen.

Printed:

Transferred:

Mid-painting:

From starting the drawing to finishing the painting I’d say this part took ~15 hours. Close up of the spine:

Each endband measures around 3 3/4″ (9.5cm) in length and took around 5 hours to complete. The core is 4-ply hemp cord that I coated with PVA glue. Wrapped with a single strand of red silk-finish cotton thread, and one strand of polyester yellow thread, since it’s kinda shiny. Last I counted it was something like 300+ wraps of thread for each band. The uh, cat hair here is just an added bonus I suppose. Like when you buy a new pair of jeans and get that free sticker.

Some progress shots:

The tie downs. I usually will try to tie down every other signature. With 68 signatures you can understand this ate up a metric shitton of thread.

Different angle. Also a good few of the top of the textblock, which was trimmed painstakingly by hand with a wood chisel.

Smooth as a shark etc.

And some shots of the innards!

Each chapter page when through four rounds of printing: 1st through an inkjet, for the floral; 2nd through a laser printer for the number; 3rd through a laminator for the gold toner-reactive foil; and 4thly for the rest of the text.

Half-title page:

One of the attempts to foil a crane. The toner may have been too thin a line for it to work, or perhaps not dense enough tonerly. I don’t have control over that setting on our Xerox unfortunately.

A second shot of a golden crane. This was slightly more successful but lord knows why. Luck.

Fun fact is that this Daily Prophet page ALONE was about 8 hours worth of typesetting. I do all my typesetting in Word, and this page was recreated line-by-line individually. A few of these elements I also had to redraw by hand since there were just no good alternatives online. Anywho though, good payoff.

Nextly, some in-progess shots I don’t have a good segway into lol. A detail you can’t see on the book but I know is there, is hand-dyed scarlet linen thread, drip drying on my shower curtain rod:

Freshly sewn. 68 signatures, no waiting:

Rounded and backed:

And a close up of the special tab/made-endpaper construction. Stupidly I didn’t take any shots of gluing the split boards on, but I think the idea is pretty easy to imagine. Just picture this tab getting glued in between the cover boards.

You can kind of see it here:

And finally, the behemoth on the shelf. This bad boy tips the scales at just over 4 pounds (about 1.8 grams). Glad to have it; more glad to move on with my life.

Thank you for reading!!

[ashmouthbooks]

urchin specials no. 1-3

Long time no see! I have been busy the past few months but finally had time to get started on my urchins specials project.

What is this you might ask? :D

I've always wanted to try to bind a fanfic to look like a Penguin Classic. when I got some brilliant orange bookcloth in a mystery box order from Ratchfords I was even more intent on making this happen so I researched Penguin Classics designs through time and eventually came up with my own design which is not a direct copy of an existing design but nonetheless looks like it could've come out of a Penguin catalogue.

I combined design features of the vertical designs (vertical coloured stripes, prominent title, black vertical line, the publisher and imprint names in colour) and the horizontal designs (Gill Sans with letterspacing in three weights, bold, regular, and light with a rule below the title in colour). Further, just as the Pelican imprint has its own logo, I created a new logo for the series. the Penguin Specials series was a specialised non-fiction line separate, but part of, the great Penguin Classics imprint.

All of these inspirations culminated in my urchin classics (lowercase intentional).

“I left the medic room with ash on my hands and grease on my mouth and my heart clamped round with iron wire, the sort they used to keep urchins out of the shops in Molly.”

—Havemercy, Jaida Jones & Danielle Bennett

the first three urchins are A6 sized bound in turquoise or yellow bookcloth (the orange will be reserved for A5 sized urchins), self-ended, and printed on 80gsm Xerox Cream. the cover paper and the dustjacket is 160gsm Canaletto Cream.

urchin no. 1 - The Constellations of Touch by what_alchemy (Daredevil, Matt/Foggy)

urchin no. 2 - In the City of Blinding Lights by Mizzy (Daredevil, Matt/Foggy)

urchin no. 3 - Something Dumb to Do by poisonivory (Daredevil, Matt/Foggy)

I need to do some finetuning on the jackets as the first three didn't come out right (the margins on the flap text aren't correct on any of them) but so far I'm really happy with how these came out. :D

P.S. here is a video on tiktok for those who want to see these in action.

[emwheezie]

You want some oc questions i'll give you some oc questions:

For those that dye their hair, do they have hair dying hangouts and if so, at whose house?

Do any of them have pets?

And do you have any other personality "identifiers" like zodiac or meyers briggs stuff for them? Oooh maybe like their animal crossing personality (if you've ever played that)

Thanks for your questions!!!

hmm I've never really considered this! Gia and Theo probably would, she has bright blue hair and at some point Theo gets pink hair. Also they're married so it makes the most sense hahaha... Dimitri and Oli might too, Dimitri's purple and Oli is blond but the back/underneath of his hair is black.

Oh and I'm just now remembering that Dimitri and Liv definitely do this together. I even drew them, this takes place at a way later part in the story.

It would make a cute non-canon illustration to draw them all doing their hair together though!

This is Dimitri's elderly beagle Fenway!! and also a TERRIBLE doodle of Lennon (very outdated design) with Alyssa's cats from January 2020. (I was a college animation major and trying to gear my art style closer to some cartoony stuff) One of Alyssa's cat's name is Plumbob. I thought for sure we had names for the other two but I can't find it in my notes at all! Eventually Lennon and Alyssa get two more cats together and Lennon names them Monopoly and Xerox. Alyssa's dream pet is a cow and she wants to name it Peanut Butter!!

Here is most of the character's birthdays and signs and some MBTI

Lennon McManus - June 21 1986. Cancer. ISFP.

Dimitri William Stanley Wretzky - October 3 1983. Libra. ENFP

Enzo Vincenzo - November 1 1986. Scorpio. ISTJ

Theodore (Theo) Stussy - February 20 1984. Pisces.

Olivier LaBlanc - April 2 1985. Aries.

Olivia (Liv) Godding - July 30 1985. Leo.

Rosalynn (Rosie) Langley - January 28 1986. Aquarius.

Parker (Park) Oakley  - December 3 1989. Sagittarius.

Alyssa (needs a last name ahhhh) - May 19 1989. Taurus.

I'd give them animal crossing personality types but the categories are too narrow? If that makes sense.

[cj-doodlez]

"Searching, waiting for something to love again. 'Till then, I'll be wandering through the in-between"

Xerox, the Omnitrix's DNA sample of a Splixson, from the planet Hathor

This is no ordinary Splixson. It's an unique one, to put it at that. His eyes are pure white, looking as if they were scribbled on his face. He remains sporting the whiskers that regular Splixsons have, as well as the 3 horns, alongside the lines going down from the eyes. While still chunky, short and adorable, he's a bit more slim, with legs far less stubby unlike the regular species. Xerox also has long, soft, straight black hair with a fringe to the right, in an emo fashion, with parts of the fringe and a few streaks dyed with an electric pink colour.

Similar to his species, he remains at a rather small stature, no taller than a human child, if not just a very tiny bit taller, but a difference so small you basically cannot tell the difference in height between him, a child, and another of his species. He sports a mostly dark outfit, with a dark grey hoodie, and jeans of a darker shade. His shoes have an interesting palette: a really desaturated, almost grey-ish purple colour, alongside darker cerice soles & toes. Underneath the clothing, there are several sensory orbs/nubs all over his body.

One interesting note about this specific transformation, is that unlike the rest of his brethren at his home planet of Hathor, he appears to have stitches all over him; his face, neck, limbs, etc. and he seems to be more like a living, breathing plushy, given that when he's seen duplicating himself, he rips out his limbs, and there's red dyed toy stuffing within his body, albeit still having organs and such. He sports skin of varying hues of green, as it almost looks like if he's had several skin grafts, which are also connected to the body with the stitches aforementioned. Another peculiar thing to notice about this particular form, is that he doesn't look as vicious or monstrous or aggressive as the rest, nor does he look "mutated" or malformed.

Abilities:

Enhanced Speed

Enhanced Durability

Sharp Teeth

Self Duplication

Conjoined Cloning

Enhanced Reflexes

Enhanced Acrobatics

Enhanced Agility

Underwater Breathing

Clone Dissipation

Regeneration

Weaknesses:

Small Size (Vulnerable to bigger enemies)

Electricity Vulnerability

Immobilised By Ice

Forced Combination

Panuncian Predation

Poor Cold Resistance

Recharge Mode Inhibition (Cannot turn back to human if all clones aren't dissipated or if they're too far away to come back and combine as one)

[chronotsr]

Pre-G1 Modules, part 3 - Lost Caverns of Tsojconth

That's Tsojonth, with the O. Many early adventures debuted not in published form, but in home games and tournament modules, and Tsojconth is the most famous example. This will actually be a super brief post because we'll be talking about Tsojcanth later in more detail, when we're in the full press of the TSR module era. Tsojconth debuts as a module for the tournament at WinterCon V in 1976, and it's a Gary Gygax number. That's right, G1 isn't even the first Gary module to make it to public consumption! Anyway, WinterCon was set up by the Metroi Detroit Gamers. You *could* actually buy this module, although it wasn't "official" TSR fare.

Again, I kind of miss the hand-inked era of TTRPG art. A lot of people are fans of that pre-big money TSR look that is very evocative despite being not very proficient, and I feel like this hand-penned look is the prototypical example of this. This is literally just a road with some guys walking into a cave in the mountains past a graveyard, and yet the vibes are *immaculate*. Side note, I am personally very fond of Tasha (Iggwilv), so I'm always happy to see her earliest depiction is super early here, even if she is a contextless name.

In a nice little touch, all the parallel games of Tsojconth at WinterCon V were all canon to one another. That is, Tsojconth is a "nexus of probability", meaning that you can conceivably meet other players playing the same pre-generated characters in your session. It's cute!

If you are not somehow aware of the concept of a tournament module (especially if you're a 5e player), here's the quick rundown. The high lethality and unforgiving nature of early DND meant that "winning" DND was still considered a thing you could do. Remember, DND was born from the wargaming scene. Consequently, they would compete in tournaments at conventions to see which group of people could clear a dungeon, and among those who could clear it with the most treasure, least mistakes, and least casualties. This is part of where the "impartial judge" mindset comes from that you often see in graybeard gamers, its got its genetics in the competitiveness of wargaming. That's not to say your uncle Joe *only* believes this because he played tin soldiers in 1970, but that's part of it. Damage did average damage, wandering monsters were disabled (their game design utility doesn't really matter if the players are already trying to go as fast as possible and there's no campaign after this), healing was standardized, et c. Points would be tabulated at the end.

Interestingly for Tsojconth specifically (I don't know how generally true this is), at the halfway point survivors of the lower caves would be integrated into new groups for the next level, Survivor-style. Again, it's very cute.

Eck. I don't know if it's the old xerox job or what but this looks like shit! I'm not much of a paper map person, I usually use mapping software, but my few on-paper dungeons look....a little less slapdash than this. Maybe it was in a rush?

I get that they're trying to conserve paper because this is for a tornament but the font is killer on my eyes. Anyway! There is not much to report that will not be covered eventually in the S4 post, so I will instead leave you with a quick collage of illustrations, and finally a *vintage* character sheet. Cya later!

[taoistpenguin]

making music in the 1980s - then vs. now

I see a lot of young musicians on social media saying they’re considering quitting music because they haven’t gotten enough clicks or likes or follows. I’ve been writing, performing and getting paid from music since the early ‘80s so I thought I’d provide some context of what the game was like back then, in my case in New York City, in the pre-social media, pre-video universe:

Among my friends, deciding to play music wasn’t a career choice, it was driven by a need for creative self-expression. There weren’t schools or online courses promising shortcuts to glory like there are now. Sure, you wanted to be successful, but that wasn’t the primary motivation. You did it because you literally knew no other way to express yourself. It’s not an exaggeration to say music was life and death for a lot of people.

You got a day job that you didn’t care about, just to pay your rent and bills. You saved every extra penny to buy gear. You split the cost of a rehearsal space and spent every night of the week doing something musical. If you weren’t rehearsing, you were gigging, and if you weren’t gigging or rehearsing, you were on the scene, checking out bands, making connections, trying to become part of a community.

When the band was ready you paid maybe $350 to go to an 8-track studio and make a 3-song demo tape. Yes, there were cassette portastudios and reel to reel decks, but most people didn’t have the necessary space or outboard equipment to make a professional sounding home demo. Yes, you could do it in an empty loft or garage with your own gear, but it would sound like crap. After you made the demo you took a band photo. Good music videos were expensive, so that wasn’t really an option.

You copied your demo and photo and took them to every club you wanted to play. You got the booker’s phone number and would call every week on a landline – no cell phones, so no texting - to harass them about when they were gonna book you. When you did get a gig, you hoped it was a good time slot. Back then, nightlife didn’t start until around 10pm, so if you got an earlier slot you were bummed. Midnight was prime time, and it wasn’t unusual to see bands playing full rooms at 1 or 2 am.

To promote your show, you xeroxed your homemade flyers, went out in the middle of the night, and stuck them to every flat surface you could find in as many parts of town as you could cover. In the days before email, you also mailed flyers to the mailing list that you got by asking people to write their names and addresses on a clipboard at your shows.

When it was time for the gig, if you didn’t own a band van, you hired one to get you and your gear there and back. If you played well enough and brought enough people to your show, the club would book you again. If you were serious and didn’t let drugs and drink get in the way, your band would improve and eventually you’d start getting better time slots on better nights. As word of mouth spread, you’d get bookings in different neighborhoods and eventually out of town.

Throughout all of this you’d be sending tapes and photos to press and record labels, inviting them to your shows and trying to get signed. If you were lucky, the Village Voice or a local zine would write about you, and sometimes that led to more shows in new places. If you stayed in the game long enough and behaved professionally enough, you eventually met people who enjoyed what you were trying to do, and tried to help you. But mainly you said “yes” to every potential opportunity.

There were plenty of nights when there weren’t a lot of people in the room. I remember playing at CBGB once when the only person there was the bartender. What did we do? We rocked as hard as we ever did, and got him nodding his head and air drumming along with us. We figured this guy had seen a thousand bands at that job, so if we could get him to respond we took it as a victory,

All this to say that if you’re thinking of giving up because you’re not gaining a bunch of superficial followers on social media, you might not be in this for the right reasons. Likes and follows don’t require any real investment in your career. They’re fair weather friends. Don’t chase trends. Focus on making music that matters and hit it hard every single time.

[fernpapst]

Sara Deraedt dyson, 2014 Canon, Ricoh and Xerox prints 5 parts: 5 7/8 × 8 1/4 inches (14.92 × 20.96 cm) 14 1/4 × 10 1/2 inches (36.20 × 26.67 cm) framed 1 part: 11 3/4 × 8 1/4 inches (29.85 × 20.96 cm) 17 × 12 1/4 inches (43.18 × 31.12 cm) framed

[thefollows]

@everythingyelloww tagged me to answer w/three random facts about myself and then tag the last seven people in my notifications!

1. College was a bit crazy for me. Parents moved while I was in my first year of school (NMSU-Go Aggies!). I caught up with them the following summer in AL and they moved nine months later. I finished up my school at UA, Roll Tide! Multiple jobs while going to school full time. Lots of "just trying to survive", paying for it all myself. The transition from the desert to the Deep South was jarring.

2. No tattoos! All my friends seemed to get them just before tattoos were cool, early 90s. I looked strangely "normal" next to them at concerts.

3. I’ve work at my current company for 26 years! Moved to Dallas in '98 and got a temp job working for Xerox that led to a salary position. But before I got that job, I was offered a part-time position at a retail store for my current company. I need money so I didn't accept the offer. But, in the fall of that first year, I applied at a new retail location and ended up working part-time for 7.5 years while employed at Xerox. Dallas is expensive! My manager at my store kept submitting my name to the corporate office to work in IT over those years and I kept declining. One day, I decided to entertain their offer and happily moved to a single job!

Tagging my last 7 6 - @wittyclitty @causticgrip @millerflintstone @stephiehell @reheatedmicrowavecoffee @itsbadno

[yestolerancepro]

Tolerance Project extra a long time ago in a Galaxy far far away

The final cut

Part 1 The Farmboy The Princess and the Smuggler The Making of Star Wars and an out of this world Toyline

Introduction

Hello there and in honour of Star Wars Day may I present a new and revised edtion of a blog that looks at the Star Wars franchise well the first 6 episodes anyway so nothing on the sequel trilogy or the clone wars animated series.

For ease of reading the blog has been split into 4 chapters each with new material

This first chapter will cover the making of Star Wars and the amazing Toyline that followed it. Chapter 2 will cover the Empire Strikes Back including new material on the lost sequel Splinter of a Minds eye from 1978 Chapter 3 now covers Return of the jedi

The final Chapter will cover the Prequel trilogy and the links with the Tolerance Project

Overview

Star Wars (retroactively titled Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope)* is a 1977 American epic space opera film written and directed by George Lucas, produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by 20th Century-Fox. It was the first film released in the Star Wars film series and fourth chronological chapter of the "Skywalker Saga". Set "a long time ago" in a fictional universe where the galaxy is ruled by the tyrannical Galactic Empire, the story focuses on a group of freedom fighters known as the Rebel Alliance, who aim to destroy the Empire's newest weapon, the Death Star. When Rebel leader Princess Leia is apprehended by the Empire, Luke Skywalker acquires stolen architectural plans of the Death Star and sets out to rescue her, while learning the ways of a metaphysical power known as "the Force" from Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi. The cast includes Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Peter Cushing, Alec Guinness, David Prowse, James Earl Jones, Anthony Daniels, Kenny Baker, and Peter Mayhew.

Lucas had the idea for a science-fiction film in the vein of Flash Gordon around the time he completed his first film, THX 1138 (1971) and began working on a treatment after the release of American Graffiti (1973).

To read about George Lucas’s orignal Star Wars plans as a 12 part film arc click here https://screenrant.com/star-wars-george-lucas-12-movie-plan/

After numerous rewrites, filming took place throughout 1975 and 1976 in locations including Tunisia and Elstree Studios in Hertfordshire, England.

While Star Wars was still filming Star Wars The novelisation of the film hit the book shelves in 1976

Star Wars From The Adventures Of Luke Skywalker Alan Dean Foster

Though initially credited to George Lucas, this Star Wars novelization was actually ghostwritten by sci-fi icon Alan Dean Foster, who wrote it based off the film’s shooting script and Xerox copies of artist Ralph McQuarrie’s pre-production paintings. Foster also spent a day in an Industrial Light And Magic screening room with Lucas and graphic designer Saul Bass, watching unedited, soundless footage of Tie Fighters zooming around and getting blown up.

From the Adventures of Luke Skywalker was published six months before the movie came out in May 1977, and it was panned by critics—but audiences loved it, and the book sold through its initial 500,000-print run by February, still three months before the film’s premiere. By the time the movie came out, another 3.5 million copies had been sold, making it one of the most successful novelizations of all time. (Foster was paid $7500 for the work—worth about $40,000 today

The novelization hits all the movie’s high points, but there are some fascinating differences (a lightsaber is described as a “gizmo” with “a number of jewel-like components built into both the handle and the disk,” for example) that give it a different type of feel from the film. It all adds more to the Star Wars universe, and some of details about certain planets, languages, history, and technology have since become canon for fans.

The film suffered production difficulties; cast and crew involved believed the film would be a failure. Lucas formed the visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic to help create the film's special effects. It also went $3 million over budget due to delays.

To read about a lost version of the Star Wars film click here :https://movieweb.com/star-wars-original-version-lost/

Star Wars was released in a limited number of theatres in the United States on May 25, 1977  It was released in the UK on the 27 December 1977 6 months after US a bit strange as a large chunk of the film was made here it quickly became a huge hit   

leading to it being expanded to a much wider release. The film opened to critical acclaim for its acting, direction, story, musical score, action sequences, sound, editing, screenplay, costume design, and production values, but particularly for its ground-breaking visual effects. It grossed $410 million worldwide during its initial run, surpassing Jaws (1975) to become the highest-grossing film until the release of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982); subsequent releases brought its total gross to $775 million. When adjusted for inflation, Star Wars is the second-highest-grossing film in North America (behind Gone with the Wind) and the fourth-highest-grossing film of all time. It received numerous awards at the Academy Awards, BAFTA Awards, and Saturn Awards, among others.

Star Wars Gets its first TV airing in the UK

I remember watching on its first British TV premeire when the ITV network showed on the 24th of October 1982 as a a 5 year old it left a rather big impression on me . with its massive space battles light saber fights and the souring music by John Williams  here is a trailer for that very event.

Screenrant published an article on their website called 10 moves that redifined their Genres Star wars A New Hope was number 1 in their list so what made Star Wars so groundbreaking ?

Hollywood likely did not expect a new sci-fi movie with a space setting to change the genre yet again less than a decade after 2001: A Space Odyssey came out. Yet Star Wars became the biggest franchise of all time, with Star Wars: A New Hope being the second highest-grossing movie of all time when adjusted for inflation (via boxofficemojo.com). All blockbuster movies are held up to Star Wars as a comparison.

  George Lucas' team notably used miniature models of futuristic ships to capture sequences of them flying through space while further developing the computer-generated effects of the time. Luke's storyline also helped popularize the "Hero's Journey" in cinema, which appears in The Matrix and Lord of the Rings (via IMDB). This demonstrates how genre-defining movies' influence may prove essential to yet another significant moment in cinematic history.

The Music of Star Wars Episode IV The New Hope

For me one of the strongest parts of Star Wars is the music by John Williams. Indeed Speaking as a personal fan of John Williams, I was first introduced to his work when I bought a double CD version of his music for the first star wars film for my birthday. I loved it but it took me a while to get the other soundtracks in the series. I didn’t get round to buying Empire and Return of the Jedi till the special edition Soundtrack releases in 1997.

I loved those as well and I have since bought all of the Star Wars Soundtracks that John Williams worked on.

Williams like John Barry before him had a magical talent for making the music come alive in my head to create scenes and adventures that I never saw on the cinema screen.

It was on the recommendation Spielberg, Lucas hired John Williams, who had worked with Spielberg on the film Jaws, for which he won an Academy Award. Lucas originally hired Williams to consult on music editing choices and to compose the source music for the music, telling Williams that he intended to use extant music.[133][134] Lucas believed that the film would portray visually foreign worlds, but that a grand musical score would give the audience an emotional familiarity. Therefore, Lucas assembled his favourite orchestral pieces for the soundtrack, until Williams convinced him that an original score would be unique and more unified, having viewed Lucas's music choices as a temp track. However, a few of Williams's eventual pieces were influenced by the temp track: the "Main Title Theme" was inspired by the theme from the 1942 film Kings Row, scored by Erich Wolfgang Korngold;[135] and the track "Dune Sea of Tatooine" drew from the soundtrack of Bicycle Thieves, scored by Alessandro Cicognini.

Williams' score for Star Wars was recorded over eight sessions at Anvil Studios in Denham, England on March 5, 8–12, 15 and 16, 1977. The score was orchestrated by Williams, Herbert W. Spencer, Alexander Courage, Angela Morley, Arthur Morton and Albert Woodbury. Spencer orchestrated the scores for The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. The score was recorded by engineer Eric Tomlinson and edited by Kenneth Wannberg, and the scoring sessions were produced by Star Wars director George Lucas and supervised by Lionel Newman, head of 20th Century Fox's music department.

The soundtrack album was released by 20th Century Records as a double-LP record in the United States in June 1977. The album's main title peaked at No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, with a disco version of the film's theme by Meco becoming a number one single hit in the United States in October 1977. You can learn more about the Meco version of the song by clicking here :https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAjuvI6sX2U&list=PL17vqAEJv6CV1syq4_fFKgBwSqGdJzH9z&index=264&t=135s 

The soundtrack album itself became the best-selling symphonic album of all time;[1]

To take a look at the original music manuscript for the Star Wars theme click here https://gizmodo.com/john-williams-star-wars-sheet-music-auction-darth-vader-1851265635 

The Beginning Of the out of This World Toyline

The toys were made by Kenner in the US and released by Palitoy in the UK which imported the figures and packaged them in the UK on Palitoy branded cardbacks.

 Between 1978 and 1985, Kenner produced and sold action figures based on the Star Wars franchise. From a line of over 100 unique toys, a total of more than 300 million units were sold during their original run.

 The license for Star Wars action figures was offered in 1976 to the Mego Corporation, which was the leading company in action figures in the 1970s. Mego refused the offer and the license was subsequently picked up by Kenner.

Star Wars was the first film to successfully market toys based on the movie. In fact, they were so successful that George Lucas independently used the funds to finance the next two movie chapters, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).[2]

Although the original Star Wars film had been released in May 1977, Kenner was unprepared for the unprecedented response to the film and the high demand for toys, mainly due to George Lucas's unwillingness to provide character/vehicle designs for fear his creations would be plagiarized by movie/TV competitors. Unable to build sufficient stock in time for the lucrative Christmas market, they instead sold an "Early Bird Certificate Package" which included a certificate which could be mailed to Kenner and redeemed for four Star Wars action figures.[3][4] The first four figures to be distributed were Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca and R2-D2.[5] The box also contains a diorama display stand, some stickers, and a Star Wars fan club membership card.[6][7][8]

By the time the action figures were offered for direct sale in shops, the range had been augmented with a further eight figures—C-3PO, Darth Vader, Stormtrooper, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Han Solo, Jawa, Sand People, and Death Squad Commander—bringing the total number of figures in the initial release to twelve. These were supplemented later in 1978 with a number of vehicle and playset accessories, as well as the J.C. Penney exclusive Sonic controlled landspeeder and the Sears exclusive Cantina adventure playset which introduced four new figures.[9][10]

The Original Star Wars Trilogy and Me

Toys

Like most children growing up in the 1980s Star wars was part of the landscape growing up Me and Matthew bought most of the toys and played Star wars at home..

 I used to be Han Solo and Matthew my Brother would be Luke Skywalker my bed would be the Millennium Falcon and my Teddy Edward would be Chewbacca. To watch a documentary on the Star Wars toy range click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaJy4GMQrJE&list=PL17vqAEJv6CV3Y85xphI3YrPVq3Q5wI_7&index=34&t=15s

The very first Star wars figure me and Matthew got as presents were a Darth Vader figure for me and Luke Skywalker Jedi knight for Matthew from our Nan from then on we would get figures as treats save up our pocket money or a get the figures or a spaceship/Vehicle for Christmas or a birthday present.

The first big Spaceship I remember getting as a birthday present was the Snow Speeder that Luke Skywalker flew during the Battle of Hoth in Empire a great flyer but very heavy to lift when your little the guns on the speeder would light up when you pressed a button.

Toy advert for the Snow Speeder click here  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_LPd9xlsks

 Matthew got Luke’s X wing fighter the wings unfolded when you pressed a button on R2D2s head Toy Advert for the X wing and Tie fighter click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llNRFjvJXus

The best Christmas present I ever got was the Millennium Falcon playset  and Matthew was rather pleased when on the same day he got the Ework Village . Toy adverts for the Millennium Falcon playset  click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYoaTe8mUho advert for Ework village click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdZ2XsgRohc

Pictures

Star Wars Poster from 1977

Star Wars from the Adventures of Luke Skywalker book cover from 1976

Early Bird toy promontion

Star Wars Soundtrack album

Notes

Thank you to wikipedia for the background information on the making of Star Wars and its Toyline Thank you to Youtube for the Vairous adverts for the Star war toys also thank you to the vairous websites for their Star Wars articles featured in this first chapter including Movieweb, Screenrant, Gizmondo

Next Week Tolerance Project extra a long time ago in a galaxy far far away part 2 a lost sequel an ice planet and a forest moon

Further Watching

Star Wars The Epic continues a lost toyline from 1985

2 Video shorts on how the toy companies tried to keep the Star Wars Toy Franchise going after Return of the Jedi click here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQwsuR96pRk and here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UeWGX6It4c&list=PL17vqAEJv6CV1syq4_fFKgBwSqGdJzH9z&index=333

 Further reading

The Movieweb website included Darth Vader at Number 3 in their article 10 Best Movie Character Introductions, Ranked you can read the full list by clicking here https://movieweb.com/movie-character-introductions/#james-bond-mdash-dr-no

This article list 20 of John Williams best film scores with both the scores for Star Wars and its sequel the Empire Strikes back both in the top 10 for the full list click here John Williams' best film scores of all time, ranked (avclub.com)

Another list of John Williams Iconic scores this time from the Collider.com website this time the soundtrack to Empire Strikes back gets a good mention but the soundtrack to Star Wars is not included for the full list click here :John Williams' Most Iconic Movie Soundtracks, Ranked (collider.com)

The Mary Sue film website also published a list of his 12 best film Scores you can read that by clicking here https://www.themarysue.com/best-john-williams-scores-ranked/

Collider.com reporting an AFI list (American film institute) of the top ten best Film soundtracks of all time Star Wars was number 1 in this list you can see the full list by clicking on this link 10 Best Movie Scores, According to the AFI (collider.com)

The 10 best movie trilogies of all time from the giant freaking Robot website the original Star Wars trilogy was number 2 in their list to read the article click here Best Movie Trilogies Of All-Time (giantfreakinrobot.com)

Screenrant published an article called Star Wars: The Best Track From Each John Williams Score Ranked you can read it by clicking here Star Wars: The Best Track From Each John Williams Score, Ranked (screenrant.com)

The Movieweb website published a list called the 18 greatest Scifi film Franchises of all time Star Wars was number 2 on their list you can read the full list by clicking here https://movieweb.com/best-sci-fi-film-franchises/#bill-and-ted 

This article from the Screenrant websitle lists the 15 hidden details that can befound in the orignal Star Wars Trilogy https://screenrant.com/star-wars-original-trilogy-hidden-details/

Not everything is perfect in the Star Wars film series as this article from Screenrant points out click here to read https://screenrant.com/star-wars-empire-make-no-sense-problems/

Another interesting Star Wars article from Screenrant this article covers the 10 best Star wars mistakes that were left in the final cut this peice talks about the Star Wars universe as a whole so it covers all the films and the live action Tv series you can read it by clicking here https://screenrant.com/star-wars-10-best-mistakes-movies-live-action-tv-shows/#the-book-of-boba-fett-39-s-wooden-set-is-revealed

To learn more about Star Wars concept art read this article from the Screen Rant website about 15 star Wars concept drawings that reveal an alternate version of the films

The Star Wars Franchise topped Moviewebs list of 10 franchises with 4 or more films you can read the full article by clicking here https://movieweb.com/movie-franchises-with-four-sequels/#james-bond-1962-present 

This article from the Screenrant website lists the 10 best moments from the original star Wars trilogy click here The 10 Best Scenes In The Star Wars Original Trilogy (screenrant.com)

Remember If you have read this blog and liked it please consider giving a donation to the Tolerance project by clicking on the above link thank you

[saltysideblog]

❁❁ Daisy ❁❁

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

A self indulgent Nice Guys OC

Summary: Getting ready. Technically Part 3.

Part 1 Part 2 ❁ Part 4

A/N: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁❁

The bathroom was cramped and the mirror was dirty, but it was the only one available in the cheap rental. Daisy adjusted her earrings and caught a glimpse of someone watching her.

An older man leaned against the doorframe, brown hair falling in loose curls on his forehead. She smiled at him in the reflection,

“What?”

He shrugged and smirked, “Nothin’. You look pretty.”

She chuckled, resting her hands against the sink, “Yeah?”

He took two steps and his arms were around her waist, head resting on her shoulder,

“Yeah,” he pointed at her reflection in the mirror, “you’re gonna kill it today.”

She rolled her eyes, but made no effort to push him away, “It’s a conference, not a competition.”

“For sure. You’re still gonna kill it though.”

He kissed her neck to punctuate his sentence.

“I will?”, she leaned into his embrace.

“Oh yeah…”

He kissed her neck again,

“Aaaand you’ll take lots of notes?”

She dropped her playful tone, “I will?”

“Yeah, c’mon. It’s just a few notes…”

She spun around, his hands still resting on her waist as she did so.

“Y’know sometimes, I think you’re just with me for the stories.”

He pouted,

“That’s not true…”, his hands fell to her hips, tugging her forwards, “I’m with you for the sex too.”

She smacked his chest, chuckling, “Fred!”

The boyish grin that illuminated his face was enough to light up the Vegas strip. He wiggled his eyebrows as he slowly closed the gap between them. She giggled and squealed as he suddenly kissed all over her face.

“I’m gonna be late!”

“Better kiss me goodbye then!”

He was relentless in his attacks, she barely had time to retaliate.

“Here!”, she grabbed his face, gently squishing his cheeks, planting a firm kiss to his lips, “Goodbye!”

He pretended to melt, falling to the floor dramatically. She shook her head at him,

“Is that from the kiss or the LA heat?”

“Both”, he sighed.

She stepped over him. He didn’t budge.

“The floor’s gross.”

“Hey, at least the tiles are nice and cool, you should try it.”

“Dad!”

Holly shook her father’s shoulder.

“Dad! Get up!”

Holland groaned, shifting on the bathroom floor,

“Five more minutes…”

The young girl scoffed,

“You’re gonna be late.”

She watched as her father curled in on himself, clutching the fancy bottle of whiskey closer to his chest,

“Late for what?”

She kicked her father’s shoe,

“The conference.”

“Conference?”

He slowly peeled himself from the cold tile,

“What conference?”

Her eyes went wide, “You’re kidding, you promised to take it seriously.”

As Holland sat up, wiping the sleep from his eyes, his brain finally caught up,

“I am.”

Holly adjusted her backpack, “And you’re driving me to school.”

“I am?”

Before she coud even voice her disappointment, he held his hands up in surrender, “I am, I am!”

She sighed, “That couldn’t have been comfortable.”

Holland shrugged and shook his head, world spinning as he did so,

“Well, the tiles are really nice. It’s very refreshing. You should try it sometime.”

She managed a smile and a small chuckle,

“Maybe when we aren’t late.”

“Plus you get a free face tattoo.”

He gestured to the imprint left on his face. Holly laughed, exasperated, tugging on his sleeve,

“C’mon let’s goooo!”

Healy brushed his teeth and tore the first page off his word of the day calendar. He read aloud,

“Expeditiously.”

He spat in the sink, continuing, “Done with speed and efficiency.”

Wiping his mouth, he used it in a sentence,

“The investigation was carried out expeditiously.”

He thought of March and their last case. Sidetracked for hours, searching for his wallet. It made him chuckle.

He ran his mental checklist:

Fish

Keys

Jacket

Address

Address. He needed the address. After quickly glancing around, he found the flyer where he’d left it on the coffee table. A bright orange thing, Xeroxed to hell,

7th annual,

LA Private Dicks & Sleuthing Chicks,

networking event

If it was up to him, he wouldn’t go. Not a fan of the name, but he promised Holly.

He carefully folded the gawdy piece of paper and placed it in his pocket.

“Here we go…”

[biblioflyer]

The writer's strike and franchise fatigue: two heads of the same coin?

Context: I'm shamelessly reposting a comment on a popular webforum where someone posed the question "What's next for Star Wars?" that prompted a lot of discussion about the whats and whys of what's working, what isn't, and of course everyone's favorite hobby: performing yet another autopsy on the Sequel Trilogy. I declined to go there in favor of speculating on the production side.

Ultimately I think the future of Star Wars requires Disney to do what a lot of franchise owners have been resistant to doing for various reasons: allow their creative teams a wide latitude to fully develop their ideas without unnecessarily harsh deadlines tied to quarterly earnings reports. Now that isn't to say that projects can fail on their own merits.

I don't know for a fact that Book of Boba Fett was timid, awkward, and boring because the showrunners couldn't make a cut that worked with the time and resources allotted, but we were mostly all impressed with Rodrigues' work on Mando so we were cautiously optimistic that a Cool Gangster Drama with Boba Fett could be a thing. So what the hell happened? Solve that mystery and I think you ensure that Star Wars has a future.

Looking at another popular "Star" franchise, we see a lot of similar problems with uneven writing and what seems to be differing opinions both inside and outside the franchise as to what exactly it means for something to carry that name. What sort of stories can you tell? How do you tell them? Can you have a point of view character or does it always have to be ensemble? Can you deconstruct the setting only to reconstruct and reaffirm it in the finale without losing the fans?

What explains "bad" writing? Coercion by the studio? Writer inexperience? Showrunner inexperience? A failure to find the right balance between modernizing the storytelling of a franchise without it becoming illegible as part of that franchise or to cling so hard to fan service that it is afraid to experiment and becomes a less interesting and murkier Xerox of itself?

Something that I found fascinating in the discourse around the writer's strike is that the format of streaming TV with its short seasons has turned everyone involved in these productions into gig workers. Unless you're one of a half dozen showrunners who have helmed widely acclaimed franchises, modern tv has become severely siloed on the production side: writers have limited opportunities to learn directing, editing, and show running. They also have limited opportunities to see how their work translates to the screen when it lands in the hands of directors, actors, set decorators, and FX artists.

If you add up all of the live action Star Trek shows produced to date, you end up with 8 seasons of streaming that equal roughly 4 seasons of broadcast era TV. Which means that under the old paradigm, a traditional TV show would only now just be airing its second "good" season. Which, shockingly enough, maps very neatly to attitudes about Strange New Worlds and Picard Season 3, and to a lesser extent Discovery season 4.*

*To the extent it will ever be allowed to make a second impression, which is another seeming "problem" of the streaming era that needs addressing since any "failed" first season is very likely to result in a sub-franchise that is going to get cauterized and forgotten about given the era of a permissive financial environment for funding additional seasons and permitting a production to recover and learn from their mistakes is pretty much dead and gone.

Were I Disney, given these realities, I would probably fund 2 or 3 "stables" of Star Wars writers and production teams. One for light hearted action comedy, one for "serious drama," and a third for something more esoteric. Maybe a fourth for big budget tentpole films. Keep them employed and give them opportunities to develop their tradecraft.

Don't be so quick to slash and burn a dud, use failure as permission to experiment. If nobody cares about Book of Boba Fett anyway, why not take some risks and see if some writers who are claiming they can turn in a second season that can "fix" the first season by turning the stories that go nowhere or are halfhearted into the first chapters in more meaningful stories? People already tend to avoid series that have only one season anyway and become ever more likely to do so the more time passes without more seasons so you're just throwing away your investment by not trying to salvage it.

This is incidentally why I'm not antagonistic towards the prospect of trying to rehabilitate the Sequel Trilogy. The Prequels are poorly made but were rich in potential. That potential was not left on the table, it was exploited until we can no longer separate the Prequels as they originally stood from all of the tie in media that added depth and nuance to the setting and storybeats.

So were I Disney and I have all of these props and set pieces in storage doing me absolutely no good, then of course it will eventually be time to try to make the Sequel Trilogy good. Maybe do some Director's Cuts and then build out the universe to make it feel less claustrophobic and less overtly a bigger, louder, dumber rehash of the Original Trilogy.

[still-single]

HEATHEN DISCO BEST OF 2023 SHOWS

They're in the can, check 'em out.

For those still wondering, the Ryan Davis record is the best release of 2023.

Set 1: Reissues/Archival + 20 Tracks from 2023

Arthur Russell – In the Light of a Miracle

Dorothy Carter – Autumn Song

Laurie Styvers – Imagine the Lights Have Gone Out

PG Six – Unteleported Man

Thinking Fellers Union Local 282 – Flames Up Yours

The Dark – Resurrection 

Fury – Circle of Lies

INU – Don’t Eat Food!

Las Mordidas – Surrounded

Spike in Vain – Opus I & II

Africa Corps (Savage Republic) – Real Men (live)

Sonic Youth – I Love Her All the Time (live)

Masayuki Takayanagi – Mass Hysterism Part II

Milford Graves with Hugh Glover – March 11, 1976 III

Les Rallizes Denudes – Eternally Now (live CITTA ’93) 

Maxx Traxx – Reachin’ For It

High Rise – Sadducces Faith

Wolf Eyes W/ Spykes – 4

Tolerance – Sacrifice

Shizuka – 6 Gram Star

Rubber Blanket – Gandy Dancer

Khanate – It Wants to Fly (excerpt)

S*GLASS – Sorry About the False Bounce

Föllakzoid – V-III 

Monocot – The Voice Came

Daniel Villarreal – Chicali Outpost

Equipment Pointed Ankh – Late Night A.I.

Witness K – How Do We Count Your Poses

Coffin Prick – Town Without Pity 2

Olimpia Splendid – Jacksonin Paita

Terry – Jane Roe

Nusidm – Arm Unemployed

Dippers – Encouragement in Brackets 

Guardian Singles – Com Trans

Civic – Born in the Heat 

Married FM – I’m Gonna Find It 

Connections – Bird Has Flown

Son of Dribble – Shed

The Serfs – Club Deuce

Corker – Edge of Teeth

Set 2: 39 Songs from 2023

Stella Kola – November

Wheatie Mattiasch – Not the Angels

Maxine Funke – River Said

Suishou no Fune – A Rainbow Is Floating

Jana Horn – Love in Return

V.I.P.P. – Dancing

Famous Mammals – Like a Shadow

Non Plus Temps – Hide Away

Now – Rattray

Spiral Dub – High as Fuck

Violent Change – Whipping Boy 

Disintegration – Time Moves for Me

Home Front – Nation

Lifeguard – Alarm

The Toads – Nationalsville

Ulrika Spacek - Diskbänksrealism

Retirement – No Refund

Mother’s Milk – Xerox Cloak 

Glittering Insects – Remote Viewed Orgasm

FACS – Class Spectre

Skull Practitioners – Intruder

Los Mundos – Luz Perversa (en vivo)

Cheater Slicks – Fear

Emily Robb – Solo in A

The Sundae Painters – Thin Air

Animal Piss, It’s Everywhere – Pink Dolphin

Sparks – Nothing Is As Good As They Say It Is

The Clientele – Garden Eye Mantra

Lewsberg – Debbie

Usurabi – Even If It’s a Lie

Luxor Rentals – A Hallway

Drop Nineteens – T

Melenas – K2

Exek – On the Ground Floor

Silicone Prairie – Mirror on the Wall

Feeling Figures – Movement

The Smashing Times – Tuesday, Coming into Time

Colleen – Les parenthèses enchantées (Movement III)

Jaimie Branch – Take Over the World

Set 3: The Last 41 Best of 2023

Chi To Shizuku – Kawaki

The Lewers – O Karina

The Native Cats – Suplex

Cuticles – Know Not What

En Attendant Ana – Wonder

Tirzah – 2 D I C U V

Seekersinternational – Caught Up (Heart Breaks)

Ron Morelli – Gun Smoke

Leda – 2

Zuli – Bussra

Smirk – Polyrhythmic Ticks

The Dissidents – Patronized

Consensus Madness – Animosity

Stress Positions – Flaming Sword

Life Expectancy – Land Worm

Collate – Guilty Collector

Blue Dolphin – Docile Jannette

Flat Worms – Orion’s Belt

Los Llamarada – Waiting For Your Eyes

Dion Lunadon – Diamond Sea

Natural Information Society – Immemorial

Quade – Measure

The Split Bell Chime – You Can Tell Me Anything

Matmos – Why?

GUB – 4

DJ Manny – Ooh Baby

Tyvek – What It’s For

Gaadge – Candy Colored

Surveillance – Obvious

Miss Espana – Lirio Blanco

Axis: Sova – Join a Cult

Al Karpenter & CIA Debutante – Fuck You All to Fade No More

Beau Wanzer – Warm Waterboarding

Thee Retail Simps – Wrong Direction

Wireheads – Persistent Resistance

Adulkt Life – Blackout

Sharp Pins – Bye Bye Basil

The Tubs – Sniveler

Meg Baird – Star Hill Road

Ryan Davis & the Roadhouse Band – Flashes of Orange

Water Damage – FUCK THAT (Reel 13)

[takumiharihoto]

Bed Friend EP 3 Unloading (UNCUT VERSION) *contains spoilers

The way i have to switch locations for watching this bc 

-i dont want anyone walking behind me bc everyone in this house is hella nosey

-even the ghost might get shooktd 

Kicking off with nc scene for the first 10mins of the episode. this is the superior formula lol

They are setting their rules. We’re off to a good start. Uea is so sure on this fwb thing. 

“I don’t like you. You don’t like me.” -THAT’s WHAT HE SAID 🤫

GOODNESS GRACIOUS HE LICKED THE TIDDIE

NC scene… followed by another nc scene. YES GIVE ME THAT ENTIRE MONTAGE OF NC SCENES AND CALL IT A DAY.

King smoking after that good ass sex… pardon my language but im wet. Personal preference but i find smoking attractive. 

I like that they are actually communicating more in the office now that they’ve established their setup. They talk more casually now and Uea doesn’t ignore King that much. 

Third scene where they’re at each others’ flat. At this point i’m curious how many times they did it already. They’re acting like they’ve been doing it for months now. 

Oof that tw: flashback is rlly disturbing irl, it was probably better handled that how Mame would do it.

ALSO, P’Thanamin is coming for Mame’s neck and career!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jade be like: I EXIST!!!! 

Uea’s got King wrapped around his finger

Is Gun possibly bi? He mentioned a female coworker and then Uea. 

King… the reformed bad boy type? The most attractive trope ever. 

Gun attempting to flirt with Uea on purpose? Lmao King is jealous oooohhhh 

This damn xerox room again 🤣🤣 yall both might as well bang on top of the photocopier if ya know what i mean

Lmao poor Gun is getting the cold treatment from King 🤣

This cute friendship with Uea and Jade though, Uea will not take any shit especially at work. 

King’s wardrobe… sponsored by Uniqlo?

Another nc scene… ooohhh did they switch?? Every nc scene gets even steamier and hotter. Like if i were to choose which is the best nc scene from this ep… damn it’s so hard. 

That part where P’Pock is doing that shit with Uea in the parking and it’s a whole ass scene. Having second hand embarassment overall and it was Jade to the rescue but maaaan P’Pock is hella buff and the security guards Jade called 🥴😭😭 just the second hand embarassment overall 🤣🤣

King’s thirst trap is so 🫣🫣🫣

Maam that video call is so wholesome and that scene where King is actually beside Uea is probably just reimagined but PLS BE REAL. It’s so cute and fluffy. 

King and whatever binary code is on his screen… so he happens to be the hot IT guy. SIGN ME UP. 

P’POCK NEEDS TO GO TO JAIL

we are getting a beach trip and a tw: trauma dive for next ep so pick a struggle. At least it’s in the preview already and we better prepare ourselves mentally. 

Yep. It took me TWO ass hours to finish the uncut version of episode 3. Getting more intense yet everything is getting better. I AM SO SEATED.