#A Poem & A Picture

[jannahill]

Dear December

[weallpartyatybcpatricksfuneral]

I love coming up with music video ideas for songs that don't have music videos and lately the one I've been thinking about is 20 Dollar Nosebleed/West Coast Smoker as a combined video.

20 Dollar Nosebleed:

- Fall out Boy reprising their roles as the characters in 'America's Suitehearts' and putting on a show inside of a theater (which looks like the theater that's on the cover of From Under The Cork Tree)

- (doing this ONLY because he sings in the song) featuring Brendon Urie, who I don't put much thought into but I think would be wearing the outfit he wore in the 'I Write Sins...' music video

-starts out with just Patrick on stage, playing the piano and singing the intro. Eventually Brendon walks out during his part. Both Patrick and Brendon have physical strings attached to their bodies like puppets.

- Brendon does a little dance during the first chorus-- but he moves in a very stiff and unnatural way, as if being controlled (spoiler: they all are)

- when the chorus hits the curtain behind them pulls back to reveal the other members of Fall Out Boy, each one mounted on their own little pedestal and having strings attached to them as well. As they play their instruments, they also move stiffly, but less like puppets and more like animatronics.

-the second verse shows Pete looking at the strings on him then following his eyes up to the ceiling. Up on the rafters are a group of five well dressed, executive looking people. Unlike the characters on stage and those in the audience, the Executives are not made into a caricature of themselves and instead look the most "normal". Each executive controls the strings of one of the band members. Pete starts struggling to get free during the line "the man who would be king/the man who would be king"

-When Brendons second verse hits, Patrick stands up and walks to him, and during the chorus the two have a dance together: the dance is, like the rest of their movements, stiff. Every now and then it will cut to a shot of one of the Executives moving their hands like a puppeteer. The Executives are smiling, clearly having fun manipulating Fall Out Boy, while the guys all look like they are suffering some sort of pain each time the Executives jerk at the strings.

-during this, there are occasional shots to the audience. Everyone is dressed in an eccentric way, and holding a camera. Everyone is taking pictures of the band.

- during the "ba ba ba Benzedrine, my my my Benzedrine" part, it shows the Executives forcefully jerking Joe, Andy, and Pete around as they all struggle to get free from their strings while still playing their instruments. Patrick and Brendon are subject to this as well, both of them showing clear signs of pain but forcing themselves to smile through it as the cameras flash in their faces.

- during "the rest of the proof is on the television, on the-", Patrick walks to the edge of the stage and has his picture taken by an audience member. Patrick looks to be in anguish, and when he finishes his line, he is aggressively jerked away and back towards Brendon. There's a shot of an Executive grinning. The two finish their final chorus, Patrick sits back down at the piano and Brendon walks back to the side of the stage he entered on. The lights dim, and (what should be) the final shot is of Patrick smiling as he says "Have you ever wanted to disappear?"

- the curtains begin to roll down, but Pete finally breaks his strings off and hops onto Patrick's piano, takes the mic, and starts reciting the poem at the end. The audience lowers their cameras, horrified that Pete is acting of his own accord.

- As Pete talks to the audience, Andy, Joe, and Patrick take their strings off as well. During the line "always thought I'd float away", Pete rubs the Mr. Sandman makeup off of his mouth with his sleeve. Patrick gets his guitar from the side of the stage. Andy removes his green shirt and Joe turns up the amps. The Executives are freaking out, not understanding how Pete could have escaped.

- Pete delivers the last line as he stares up at the Executives. Roll the intro of West Coast Smoker. Many members of the audience drop their cameras and cover their ears.

West Coast Smoker:

- pete quickly puts the mic onto the stand for Patrick, and picks up his bass. Like Pete, Patrick removes his lip makeup as well.

- As Patrick sings the opening lines, there are a few shots of the Executives looking horrified and not knowing what to do to get Fall Out Boy back under their control. Joe and Pete move closer to the front of the stage and away from their pedestals from earlier. Both are moving around in a much more natural way. Andy is headbanging while he drums (which he was not doing during 20 Dollar Nosebleed). Patrick is moving to the beat of the song as well, but he is not dancing like he did with Brendon.

- The chorus hits as Joe screams "oh hell yes!" before doing his signature spin move. Patrick sings the next lines. More cuts to the audience. All of them have gotten rid of their cameras and now watch in shock and horror as the band is finally free and performing how they want to perform. Shot of the Executives running off their platform up on the rafters to somewhere off screen.

- when the second verse hits, Pete moves closer to Patrick like how he does on stage in a real life Fall Out Boy show. Pete whispers the line "and that's all that should matter to you" (or is it "and as always I'm not addicted to you"? I hear this line in the song but the lyrics say it's the first way) in Patrick's ear. Some members of the audience turn away at this part.

- during the second verse, it cuts to the Executives hastily walking down a hallway. They each hold a spool of red threads: their goal is to get Fall Out Boy back under their control. The two who were controlling Patrick and Pete hold makeup brushes and some face paint containers. Cut back to the stage. Andy, Joe, and Pete are having the time of their lives: they're headbanging, thrashing around, Joe is spinning and Pete is doing his jump spin move. They are all smiling.

- second chorus hits and Patrick is moving more so than he was the first. He's thrashing around more and singing enthusiastically (unlike in 20 Dollar Nosebleed, where he looks more hesitant to sing)

-afterthe chorus, the doors of the theater are flung open and every audience member turns to watch as the Executives make their way towards the stage, angry and scowling. Cut to Joe, who looks pissed off, then to Patrick, who is frowns, and finally to Pete who scowls.

"Knock Once for the father" -- shot of Patrick aggressively playing his guitar

"Twice for the son"-- Andy beating the drums hard

"Three times for the holy ghost" -- Joe riffing on his guitar.

- during the "I'm a nervous wreck!" screams, Pete fully let's loose and runs around his side the stage, smiling as the Executives watch in horror as he knocks equipment over and breaks part of the stage. After his screaming, Joe follows suit and also beings to break stuff and knock things over. It's total choas as Patrick sings the end of the song, gleefully holding his middle finger up to one of the Executives with a makeup brush in their hands.

- the video cuts to black after the final line "Three Times for the Holy Ghost" but the final scene is Fall Out Boy standing on a partially destroyed stage, smiling.

My idea is that it's meant to comment on fame (like all of Folie does). In the first half of the video, the boys are playing literal caricatures of themselves on stage. They're also being physically controlled by the Executives, who are literally meant to represent record label executives but also represent toxic fan and celebrity culture as well as what people expect Fall Out Boy to act like. Patrick and Brendon -- the lead singers of their bands-- are constantly the ones focused on by the audience. They're the main subjects of the photos. They're being controlled like puppets and gawked at like zoo animals. Andy, Joe, and Pete are placed onto a pedestal and do not move from it until Pete's poem when they free themselves. They move more like animatronics during the first part of 20$Nosebleed but are eventually jerked around like puppets too. All of them are suffering pain from this: you can see it clearly written on their faces, but they have to keep smiling and keep the show going-- Patrick and Brendon especially.

I have more analysis for this but this was so much to type so I'm definitely putting it in a 2nd post later

[brothersonahotelbed]

NICO NICO OH MY GOF HI HI I'VE MISSED YOU SO MUCH im so sorry i just went and disappeared on you like that. went through a really bad time and got sick of my blog (which i honestly have been for a good while) and just decided to wipe everything and be alone for a little. it's so good you should try suddenly disappearing into a fog sometimes I'll just want for you to come back when you've cleared your mind. sorry i miss you a lot and it's so nice to get to talk to you again :). oh here's some poetry from a book i've acquired through ah id say dubious means and ive bookmarked some that reminded me of you and your sea thing. im gonna go through and find some more for you. anyway PLEASE catch me up on things how's everything have you been writing show me show me how are your little silly creatures any new stuff youre insane about any cool things you wanna show me tell me everything man IVE MISSED YOU MWUAHMWUAHMUWHA

enyway these are the poems 👍. ly man

ZEDFER OH MY GOD HI FOR THE LOVE OF GOD HELLO I MISSED YOU SM!!!!!!!!!!

okay first before anything please please PLEASE don't be sorry for disappearing and retreating into the shadows for a bit. i mean it. you're braver than all of us for knowing when to take a break and even having the guts to deactivate for the betterment of your mental health especially with your posts blowing up and people being annoying and going through shit with your mental health and everything, i'm proud of you for taking that step & happy you did it!!! of course i was worried but i'm glad you're here and i'm glad you were able to do that to help scrape the grime and dirt off <3 seriously. :)

umm how things are going!!! idk nothing much has changed since you've been gone tbh? i just found out my coworkers at the library and i are getting a pay increase because the county loves us soooooooooo much and bc we've been working so hard, so that's cool!! i also finished writing a good omens fic that turned out to be 15 pages long (rip) and it was the first piece of non-poetry writing that i've attempted AND FINISHED in over a year. ACK!!!! im v proud of it :]

ALSO a little bit of tragic news our favorite girl (guitar) vendetta, my beautiful lovely woman, is like. on the fritz for some reason? her channel switch is fizzling out and she's have connection issues with the amp and it's really sad. but!! since my birthday is next month (the 17th), i talked to my parents and they agreed that for my bday present they would help me pay for a NEW GUITAR????. THIS IS THE ONE I HAD MY EYE ON

HE IS SO SO SO BEAUTIFUL I GET HARD WHENEVER I LOOK AT HIM ohhhhmy god

last thing, i watched juno 2007 (Finally!) during your absence AND IT WAS SO FUCKING GOOD I CAN'T BELIEVE IT TOOK ME THIS LONG TO WATCH IT. elliot page and his little egg self :') idk it made me tear up a little i loved it so much. <3

my cats are as beastly as ever of course. here are some pictures:

anyway. JUNO THOSE POEMS. LIKE ARE YOU FOR REAL RIGHT NOW I AM LOSING IT OVER THE FACT THAT YOU THOUGHT OF ME :'))I NEED TO TATTOO THEM ON MY HEART FOREVER I LOVE YOU SO MUCH AAGH. THANK YOU FOR SENDING THEM TO ME<3

we all missed you so much man it hasn't been the same without you here. i love you so much zed so so so much <3333

[therealjannahill]

It’s April 1st and That Means …

Yep! It is time to kick off National Poetry Month. #NPM Sooo- let’s get this party started. Why Poetry (from Getting Me Back) Because it hurts deeper Tastes sweeter Laughs louder And lets me know I’m alive The view from my wilderness sanctuary. Write on!

[lets-try-some-writing]

I don't know if you still want writing ideas And I pretty much just started following you so I'm not sure what you would want? But I just read your precious "starscream knitts like a madman" post. And the other night I had a dream of Starscream selling plushies(to humans). So my sugestion/2am thought, How would starscream go about "selling" plushies, or whatever stuff he knitted to humans? There is after all, only so many mittens the vehicons can take before they become more mittens then bot.

Yes yes yes and more yes. Such a fun little idea, I will happily write a little headcannon on it for you dear anon!

Starscream's Knitting Business

Starscream is a notorious knitter. Every single bot on the Nemesis has something from him. The Vehicons have coats, mittens, hats, scarves, and every other conceivable form of clothing in abundance. Despite the fact that they don't need them and the cloth only ever gets stuck in their plating, the Vehicons love the clothing. As for high command, they have an equally full wardrobe as well. That is all except Megatron, he can go frag himself in Starscream's opinion.

But as knitting is Starscream's way of working out his anger (and boy does he have a lot of anger) he has quickly run out of things to give to those on the nemesis. And so to find a way to get rid of his completed works and make the event profitable in some way, Starscream has turned to business.

In order to keep a low profile Starscream set himself up a website to sell his knitted masterpieces. It is the most egotistical thing on the internet and he is not at all shy about proclaiming his superiority to his potential customers. Surprisingly, despite his god complex and very obvious aggression, humans flock to his website and before he even realized it he had orders pouring in.

Not one to disappoint, Starscream discreetly began shipping out his finished items in a signature black and red box with no return address. His knitted works quickly rose in popularity due to the mysterious factor involved and Starscream immediately took hold of his new fame to make himself an even bigger icon. Mean little notes and poems were added to his boxes when he sent them out. He also started putting little Cybertronain glyphs on his knitted items, usually somewhere obscure just to increase the mystery factor. And after receiving a ton of positive feedback from humans who found his unique business fun and interesting, Starscream only continued to amp up his personal touch.

Before he knew it, Starscream not only had a profitable business, but a loyal fanbase who were eager to see what other angry notes and knitted things he would make. Some of his most fanatical followers buy things in bulk just because they want to see what little thing he added to his box to make it interesting. Starscream occasionally makes special little boxes with whole poems in Cybertronian or artworks of Cybertron alongside the kitted stuff just for those followers. Because of this, whole conspiracy boards have also popped up surrounding his business, each theorizing who or what he is, where he is from, and what his aim is. Starscream thinks it is hilarious and loves to screw with each and every one of the theorizers by added something ominous to one of his boxes or hinting at his alien nature only to go completely silent on the subject.

His fanbase loves it. By the time his business really gains popularity, no one really buys his boxes because they want some homemade knitted knit knacks. No, they buy his boxes because they want to unravel the mystery that is himself. But unfortunately for the humans, they will never know the truth and Starscream will continue to mess with them for the kick of it.

The biggest running theories created by his fanbase are that Starscream is part of the Illuminati and is trying to run an experiment on manipulating the population. Another is that he is some form of time traveler warning them about what is to come in the future some obscure code and pictures. Some think that he is some sort of secret agent trying to recruit those able to unravel the mystery of his boxes. A few even believe that he is some form of alien trying to integrate into human culture (this one mostly stemmed from his early days on the internet trying to figure out how to act normal).

Starscream thinks they are all hilarious and will do his best to feed the biggest theories every now and then to keep the hype up. He also likes having cash because it means he can buy luxury items from earth and add them to his stash. He is the type of mech to keep nice things and only ever use them to show off. Knockout may be a little jealous of the nice things Starscream accumulates with his wealth but he doesn't voice it.

Extra

Theorist: Guys! I think I have done it! I have unraveled who the person running 'Superior Knitting' is!

Starscream: *snickering* Oh have you now

Theorist: After hours of research and countless hundreds of dollars used to buy Superior Knitting products for analysis, I can proudly say that the mastermind behind it is a Russian spy!

Starscream: *Cackling* Oh Primus that is good!

Starscream: *Furiously typing a new post for his website to partially confirm and contradict the theory* I can't wait to see the chaos!

[writeyouin]

Heyy Sophie! Do you mind doing a fun lil drabble about sweet Riptide having an approximate knowledge on Valentine's customs from what he's heard from Swerves and asks out the reader anyways 😌💖 Thanks a lot! Hope you're doing well~~

Riptide X Reader – New to This

A/N – I had so much fun looking up all these Valentine’s traditions from around the world. Whales officially celebrates it the best, funky little weirdos. Hope you enjoy it Millie.

Warnings – None.

Rating – T

Riptide’s head swivelled from one bot to another, as he tried as hard as he could to keep up with the conversation. Various bots were in one of the rec-rooms, discussing the human holiday, Valentine’s Day, and it had sparked quite the argument. It seemed that everybody had their own version of the holiday, and nobody was willing to believe that they might be wrong.

Swerve slammed his fist onto the table, “We all know I’m the closest thing to an expert here. If I say it’s flowers and chocolates, it’s flowers and chocolates.”

Getaway rolled his eyes, “Big whoop, so you’ve seen a few TV shows that are super outdated. Not everything that happens on TV is real, Swerve. Besides, I happened to do a bit of searching, and you’re wrong. It’s all about some mushy card with a poem in it or something.”

“No, wait. That can’t be right,” Nautica interjected calmly. “Swerve was kind of right on the flowers, but it’s not a bouquet, it’s just one flower. I think it was called a Snowdrop and you press it flat or something.”

“TEN!” Ten roared, throwing a carved wooden spoon onto the table before everyone, as if proclaiming that was the right gift. As usual, everyone ignored his admission, unable to take the spoon seriously.

“No, no, no,” Rodimus huffed, shaking his helm exasperatedly. “It’s all about the music. Picture this, I’m standing on a huge amp, electric guitar in hand. I sing a rocking ballad, the guitar sets on fire, I’m playing it so fast and then (Y/N) swoons and I-”

“WHO THE FRAG SAID ANYTHING ABOUT (Y/N)?!” Whirl roared jealously, even though everyone knew that the entire conversation on Valentine’s day was a covert way of brainstorming ways of asking you out.

“COME OFF IT!” Rodimus said, his engines revving in frustration. “YOU ALL KNOW THIS STARTED COS I’M GOING TO ASK (Y/N) OUT TONIGHT.”

Rodimus made to get up, but Whirl stuck out his leg, making the Captain trip.

“That does it,” Rodimus growled, preparing to brawl with Whirl.

Riptide didn’t linger to see the end result, his mind already wandering as he meandered out into the hallway. He kept to himself whilst walking about the ship. Was that conversation really about asking you out? He’d thought it was about weird human stuff. Was everyone there to court you? If so, did Riptide have that same obligation?

He’d never really considered dating you before, but he was thinking about it now. He supposed it would be kind of nice to be with you. You were funny and cute, and you never belittled him when he didn’t understand something. Maybe Riptide wasn’t strong, fast, or smart like the other bots, but he did have a spark, and it always hummed faster when you were near.

“Maybe,” He whispered, talking to himself.

“Maybe what?”

Riptide turned around to find you, smiling sweetly at him. He opened his mouth, but paused to frown, having lost whatever train of thought he was travelling; it was something that happened often.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt you. It just looked like you were thinking hard about something and I thought you might like to bounce your ideas of someone.”

“Oh,” Riptide nodded agreeably, before frowning again.

“Something wrong?”

“I don’t have a wooden spoon,” He admitted sadly.

“Sorry, what?”

“A wooden spoon. I don’t have one. I don’t have a poem, or a guitar that sets on fire, or sweets, or crushed plants, and on top of all that, I don’t even have a wooden spoon.”

“O…Kay? And this is a problem for you?”

“Yes. I can’t be a Valentine without one of those things. You should really talk to Ten, he has a wooden spoon. It’s very nice.”

“Do you… Do you want me to get you a wooden spoon?” You asked, thinking that someone must have played another mean trick on Riptide to make him think about such things.

“No. I want to get you a wooden spoon, but I don’t have one. Me and the others were talking and that’s how to be a Valentine, I think… How can I be your Valentine, if I don’t even have a spoon?”

You covered your mouth with your hand to hide your smirk, trying desperately not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the scenario as everything fell into place.

“You ah, you don’t need any of that stuff,” You said, fighting a snicker.

“I don’t?”

“Nope. If you want to be my Valentine, all you have to do is ask, Riptide. And I would say yes.”

“You would?” Riptide’s frown turned into a hopeful grin.

“Yeah. I like you too.”

“Zowie,” Riptide exclaimed, having heard the word in an old Earth movie.

“Would you like to join me for a meal tonight at my place? We could make a night of it.”

Riptide nodded enthusiastically, “Sure would, Valentine. See you tonight.”

He ran off, hurrying to get his best energon for the evening; he was a Valentine, and it didn’t matter to you that he was new to it. This was going to be his best Valentine’s Day yet.

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[thanatophobia-thoughts]

“Make new friends but keep the old, One is silver and the other is gold.” – Joseph Parry

I remember reading this poem in a Pizza Hut bathroom stall. They had it on a picture in the stall, way before cell phones were a thing. Back in the days of reading shampoo bottles on the toilet.

It’s strange the things that stay with you, isn’t it?  

Why am I bringing this up? Not to remind you to keep your friends, but to remind you not to give up on the young, or the old. On the new things, or the old things.

To remind you that even old dogs CAN learn new tricks, if they want to. To remind you, to want to learn new things, all your life.

I didn’t get to enjoy this with my grandparents. I feel that they got set in their ways, and angry, and frustrated, with everything new. I see my parents struggle – but my dad is fascinated in his frustration. He admires the new challenges and learns, and it makes my heart both ache and soar at once, because HE is among my aging goals for this very reason.

It hit me more recently when we were both sitting out on the porch listening to music on his new stereo system, and he was as giddy as a kid, because the new speakers were so good that he couldn’t “drive them” – his amp system wasn’t good enough to beat his speakers up, basically. And he was so looking forward to investigating what new things he could get to “drive” these speakers.

His words.

But through the night, listening to music, we started a game. Unintentionally at first – I put on “Misled” by Kool and the Gang, and he took it as a challenge to follow it up with something. I don’t recall what he followed it with, but we went through Michael Jackson, Toni Braxton, Sade, Roberta Flack, and others – but one stands out.

I put on “Fever” by Beyonce. Arguably, I prefer the Peggy Lee version, and that’s some of the point.

My dad isn’t a Beyonce fan, I am. And I could see the agony when I told him who it was, before he said, “Fuck you, I added it,” to his spotify likes.

It’s a simple thing. A stupid thing.

But let me confess one of my fears: I always feared one day I would “grow out” of new music, and be stuck with all the old ones. That my ability to like new music would go away because I’d get stuck on the music I grew up with. I always feared stagnation, and I assumed it was normal. Natural.

I’m not sure why I had this fear. Or why I still have it.

Every day, my dad reminds me this doesn’t have to be the way. Because he liked the Beyonce song, but also because he liked the Melanie Martinez “Dollhouse” and Bishop Briggs “Dead Man’s Arms”. New artists. New sounds. And both very different in sound, too.

He continues to like new music.

He continues not to stagnate.

Oh yes – he likes his old things. Led Zeppelin and Queen. Old American muscle cars. And he knows his Revolutionary War and Civil War history like no one’s business.

And that’s the point I want to hit here: you don’t have to stagnate. You don’t have to fear stagnation.

There are things to love that are coming up. There are things to love that are in existence. There are things to love from the past that you haven’t even heard of yet.

And you can enjoy it all.

You can learn about it all, love it all. We’ve mastered cell phones, but imagine mastering a fucking LOOM? Imagine that being NORMAL? I don’t even know where to start with a loom, man.

It’s why I guess I’ve never understood the vampire stories where the vampires stagnate and get depressed. There is SO MUCH and there has been SO MUCH.

That’s at the base of my fear, too. One day I’ll lose all of this.

But I’m getting better at looking at the now, and appreciating all I have, and witnessing how one of my fears doesn’t have to be true. I don’t have to stagnate, if I accept change, and go with it, I can find new things to love.

I’ll always have my Golds – the foundations that led me here.

But I’ll have a mountain of silver upon it.

[iihbki3]

"A picture is a poem without words." — Horace https://t.co/yq9uLu1YRi Comment & share. Visit https://t.co/NbDASYrkhl https://t.co/tWIC2Kv7h6 #Criminaldefense #kc #kansascity #follow #trafficticket #lawyer #missouri

[annanoelblog]

Introductory Essay

Hey! My name is Anna-Noel. It’s nice to meet you.

I’m 19 years old and I love to read and write, which is why I’m a Creative and Professional Writing major. I’ve been writing since I was little. My first writing piece that I remember was when I was about five years old, and I wrote a poem to ask a new friend to come over to my house. I can’t quite remember what it said, except that it ended with:

“And when you arrive at my house You’l see my cat chasing a mouse!”

Obviously, it wasn’t a great poem, considering I was five at the time, but I’ve certainly improved.

I’ve also moved from writing poems, although I still do that, to writing narratives; I specifically writing narratives in the fantasy genre and the historical fiction genre.

I’ve also been reading since I was tiny. My parents were very diligent in my learning to read; my nightly routine when I was little was reading a picture book (soon amped up to a chapter of a chapter book), a song, and a prayer. I was reading on my own at about three years old. At six, I was being read Nancy Drew. One night, I stayed up after bed time to finish the book because “I couldn’t wait to see what happened.”

(This was the edition I had at that time.)

I’ve since moved my reading interests to fantasy, historical fiction, and just regular historical books. I specifically like historical books about tragic events, such as the Holocaust, the slave trade, and the plight of the First Nations people of the Americas.

However, I was morbid even as a child. This is one of my parents favorite stories to tell about me:

https://www.facebook.com/lbassriley/posts/10158784319704662

I was a... strange child, to say the least.

Since I was about thirteen, I’ve also been a fan of anime and manga! My first anime was Soul Eater, which, while isn’t the best thing out there, is very fun. What convinced me to watch it was the first opening credits.

My current favorite anime (and manga) series, however is Yona of the Dawn.

It’s a fantastic story about a princess driven from her castle by her childhood friend after her father’s murder and her subsequent transformation into a sheltered princess into a confident warrior driven to protect her kingdom and her friends. It includes romance, fights, political intrigue, found family, fantastic character development, and more than one girl! 

Having more than one well-developed female character is, unfortunately, an uncommon element for most media, but especially in Japan, so Yona of the Dawn is an outlier.

These are the most important facts about me, but there is far more I will explore in this blog, including my love of music and theater, my political activism, and my mental health. I hope you will stay around to learn more about me!

From,

Anna-Noel

[jannahill]

Autumn Equinox 2024

Summer Adieu It’s out of the flip-flops, and back in the Reeboks and long pants dug out of the dust So long to the tank tops, bikinis and cut offs and lawn chairs left lying to rust Adieu to the sand dune, the pelican and plain loon My loves, we’ll see you `fore long Leaves drop as trees swoon, long past the crop moon With the scent of a sweet autumn song Let’s all take a big swill to ward…

[tikkisaram]

Something Flowery — My Top Seven E. E. Cummings Poems about Plants

Flowers and other botanical beauties constitute an important element of E. E. Cummings's works. He uses them in several contexts; some of them are less positive than one might imagine, given the typical associations that flowers conjure. Here is a small selection of examples:

1. Nocturne

Flowers as an embodiment the beauty of a loved one is a bit of a cliché, and although Cummings is generally as unconventional as possible, he starts this poem off using the metaphor in a rather straightforward fashion. Still, it is not without interest, especially with the use of the divine number seven to elevate the comparison. Later on — describing heartbreak — he goes in a more interesting direction, saying that the flowers "smile like death".

Seven flowers which breathe divinity, Seven wondering blossoms of embrace, Open their glory to the moon, Kissing white immortality.

2. [my lady is an ivory garden]

A similar poem to the previous, sharing even the garden of ivory, but one in which the use of flowers as a metaphor is accompanied with a hefty dose of irony. Every part of the "lady" is described as a generic flower, occasionally with a descriptive adjective or two. A certain degree of fondness for the comparison is clear, however, and a tender beauty — or at least a strong infatuation — is conveyed.

her feet are slenderest each is five flowers her ankle is a minute flower my lady's knees are two flowers Her thighs are huge and firm flowers of night

3. [suppose]

Young Death buying flowers from old Life seems to allude to a curious — presumably romantic — relationship between the two men. There is a complication, however, in the form of the "lady" Afterwards — though her very existence is uncertain. Beneath the obvious ideas of life, death and life after death, there is a decidedly sexual undercurrent in the poem, one describing the difficulties of coming to terms with sexual identity.

suppose Life is an old man carrying flowers on his head.

4. [Nobody wears a yellow]

This poem is a logical continuation of the previous, adding Nobody to our cast of personifications. He is set apart from the binary labels of age used for Life and Death, and the pun on 'queer' could not be more obvious. The lapel flower is reminiscent of the Victorian practice of wearing a green carnation, which gay men would use to indicate their identity.

Nobody wears a yellow flower in his buttonhole he is altogether a queer fellow as young as he is old

5. [in a middle of a room]

Shunned and peripheralised by society at large, a queer man decides to shoot himself. His dehumanisation is cleverly conveyed by the use of the indefinite article 'a' for all descriptions of his actions. A powerful picture of the tragic effects of intolerance.

in a middle of a room stands a suicide sniffing a Paper rose smiling to a self

6. [!blac]

The fall of a leaf is a curious sort of flight — it clearly does not equal that of a bird, but there is a certain amount of freedom in its whirling. The separation of the leaf from its binary, black-and-white surroundings represents sexual liberation, but also hints at its limits. The poem is playful with form, with the letters twirling down the page in a similar way to Cummings's later poem [l(a].

le af

a:;go e swh IrlI n

.g

7. [once White&Gold], 18, 95 Poems

The sad thing about flowers is that — despite their seemingly undying beauty — they soon wilt and disappear. Cummings returns to the simple metaphor of flowers as love, but in this case what was once fine is now faded. Love's sorrows are nothing new, but it is hard not to see a condemnation of the pressures of society here, especially given the other instances of flowers in his poetry. This poem is also unusual in its use of rhyme and consonance, which Cummings usually dispensed with.

daisy in the Dust (trite now and old)

[apod]

2019 September 4

The Spider Nebula in Infrared Image Credit: NASA, JPL-Caltech, Spitzer Space Telescope, 2MASS

Explanation: Will the spider ever catch the fly? Not if both are large emission nebulas toward the constellation of the Charioteer (Auriga). The spider-shaped gas cloud on the left is actually an emission nebula labelled IC 417, while the smaller fly-shaped cloud on the right is dubbed NGC 1931 and is both an emission nebula and a reflection nebula. About 10,000 light-years distant, both nebulas harbor young, open star clusters. For scale, the more compact NGC 1931 (Fly) is about 10 light-years across. The featured picture in scientifically-assigned, infrared colors combines images from the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS). Spitzer is celebrating its 16th year orbiting the Sun near the Earth.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190904.html

[unlikekrystal]

“Immigrant Haibun” Ocean Vuong

https://www.google.com/amp/s/genius.com/amp/Ocean-vuong-immigrant-haibun-annotated

Continuing through the book, I began to take notice of the form, word choice, themes in each poem. I began to anticipate surprise. There are so many turns in this book; surprise is one of the only things that can be anticipated. One of the first big jolts that I encountered from Night Sky With Exit Wounds (formally) was the poem “Immigrant Haibun.” The poet extends his lines across the page and writes in big prose blocks. It was not a form that I first expected. Here is an excerpt of Ocean playing with prose in “Immigrant Haibun”:

“Then, as if breathing, the sea swelled beneath us. If you must know anything,/know that the hardest task is to live only once. That a woman on a sinking//ship becomes a life raft— no matter how soft her skin…”

As a poet, Ocean shifts into prose and out of prose. He writes in couplets and creates his own forms. The form of the poems are so constantly and originally inventive. Ocean even created his own rules for the section breaks in this book too. In the lines above, and throughout the book, is full of intelligence and versatility. Vuong’s poems, written with intelligence and tenderness, offer new spaces for becoming, where the self questions its borders, remakes itself at the threshold of language.

I thought this picture related to Vuong’s poem because I noticed a theme in water and nature and every time he mentioned the ocean—or something water related, it’s described as violent or angry. So I thought it was the good idea to reanimate that reiteration of the sea.

[my-terrible-tendencies]

I just want an internet bff where we amp eachother up on anything, send funny memes, and crazy beautiful pictures and poems back and forth, exchange nudes and boost each others' confidence and eventually meet over coffee, go on a hike and end the night with margaritas.

[youre-in-the-jungle-baby]

Okay but -- Breakfast Club au with slaxl and izzy, duff, and steven being dumbasses in the background

Axl is definitely Bender, asshole to everyone, fucked up home life

Duff might be Andy, idk seems the person to look alright on the outside that everyone would assume had everything going for him, trying to live up to expectations

Steven makes me think a little bit like Brian, overlooked people kinda end up picking on him, but a sweet person??

Izzy’s clothes make me think a little like Allison, but I don’t really think he has the personality that she does at all lol

That would leave Slash as Claire, which if you like Slaxl works out in the end, Slash did come from a very different background than Axl did, so there's that too 

They all end up in detention together, most of them have never even spoken to each other.

Maybe they talk and end up finding out they play instruments, and well, Axl can sing of course.

They argue over music for a long, long time because they’re bored and they’ll end up fighting with each other if they don’t keep focusing on the common ground here. 

Axl fights with Slash, his family is from London and he’s had the what looks like from the outside perfect life, he’s got a little brother and parents that don’t hate him.

Axl has his step-father and mother that is barely in the picture for him 90% of the time, and his siblings that no one is going to take care of if he doesn’t, and of course he’s not going to be showing in weakness to any of them.

The tough guy act doesn’t get dropped, he’ll lay into Duff for being such a good kid in school, (maybe instead of sports Duff is really into music, school band/something like that).

Duff is dealing with his own anxiety most of the time, and his parents may support him playing music, just as long as it's their music, which means the music he is really passionate for punk/rock is something they turn their noses up at, leaving him stuck between making them happy and going after what he wants.

Stevie gets picked on by Axl a lot, let's be honest, they just have trouble seeing things the same way and Axl isn’t the most willing to give everyone a chance.

Izzy is a little bit more withdrawn from the group at first, he’s happy to just watch them from a distance.

He gets pulled in more as the day goes on, turns out he’s really good at writing songs and poems, and other things like that, as well as playing guitar.

Duff is deferentially checking him out a bit too, there’s a little bit of a ‘bad boy’ thing he has going, something Duff’s parents would absolutely hate, but something he seems to like.

Axl and Slash have the really strong personalities that seem to go head to head the most, but at least it takes the heat off the rest of them when they fight. 

When their detention is over, they end up not seeing each other for a little bit, but they meet up again. 

On the next Friday, they meet up after school, go to Izzy’s house because his mother doesn’t mind, and he has two guitars and some beat up amps, not much else but they all tentatively mess around together.

They listen to music, going through Izzy’s whole collection and they end up all hanging around, Slash orders a pizza which they spilt sitting together on the floor of the garage. 

[burlveneer-music]

Ståle Storløkken: Prelude To The Haze Of Sleeplessness (HUBRO)

I confess that I don’t quite get Hubro; every album has one or two tracks that I really like, and the rest leave me scratching my head. This excerpt sounds promising, though, in the vein of D. Rothon’s Nightscapes.

Supersilent and Elephant 9´s Ståle Storløkken announces debut solo album due for release March 29.

Just as radio drama is said to provide the best pictures, so some music can make for a perfect film soundtrack without the need for a film to exist at all. ’The Haze of Sleeplessness’ is a case in point: as the album starts to play, the listener’s imagination kicks in and does the rest, supplying the necessary plot, character and setting until a full-scale narrative unspools behind one’s eyes.

A suite of seven movements whose common musical material is continuously recycled into new shapes and sounds, while recurring leitmotifs create a connecting thread of continuity, ’The Haze of Sleeplessness’ operates on several levels simultaneously. Most obviously, perhaps, it’s an unapologetic synth-fest; a love poem to old-school electronica and analogue sound whose squelches, bleeps and blurts can’t help but recall the heroic era of Wendy Carlos, Vangelis and Tangerine Dream. It’s also a remarkably original and successful attempt at using by now antique instruments to form a true orchestral palette, building a symphony of sound through combining monophonic sources and their new digital variants into a densely populated audio landscape that is captured with astonishing sonic fidelity. The super-saturated surface of the music fairly crackles with raw electricity, as if the over-amped distortion was about to short-circuit itself, with a wobbly jack plug connection flickering dangerously before finally cutting out. That many of these sounds and their treatment can’t help but suggest the retro-futurist setting of a dystopian sci-fi thriller might make the cinematic analogy inevitable, but it doesn’t lessen the music’s power or cheapen its effect.