#And I haven't seen anyone post this on tumblr

[kukai]

the palestinian relief bundle had some unexpected backend issues so its availability was delayed, but it is now live and will be up for the next week! please consider getting it—it's only $8 for over 300 games (though if you can donate more than the $8 minimum, please do)!

there is already over $165k donated as of me writing this, which is amazing!

[curseofdelos]

Camp Half-Blood Dashboard Simulator

💋 hotgirlsummer

sign my petition for chiron to let us wear camp t-shirts in other colours xx

www.camphalfblood.edu/petitions/more-camp-tshirt-colours

82 notes

#text #it's not fair that nico is the only one who gets a custom shirt #we get it you're mr d's most specialist little boy get over yourself

🧍‍♂️ mortal Follow

Guys there is something REALLY WEIRD going on with these storms in the midwest.... I've been checking a bunch of local weather stations in those areas, but none of the meteorologists have predicted a storm this size or devastating. It really feels like it just came out of nowhere and that doesn't seem possible?? Like I don't want to start a conspiracy theory that it was made by government or something but it just doesn't feel natural?? am i the only one who thinks this is weird???

🃏 mythomagicfan99

#check the date this was posted during the typhon attack........

2,885 notes

🌱 greenthumb44

Chiron made me supervise the newbies when they were watching the orientation video does anybody else think that Apollo in that tunic is kinda 😳

🏹 benskywalkerdidnothingwrong

NO???? EW?????

🌱 greenthumb44

anybody else think that kayla's dad in that tunic is kinda 😳

76 notes

📐 mathgenius42

#The Stolls are giving 2 to 1 odds to Clarisse but idk

233 notes

🔮 louellensworld

has anybody seen any pigballs around camp? some of them may or may not have gone missing

36 notes

🏆 winningISeverything Follow

WHO KEEPS PUTTING PIG BALLS IN THE BASEBALL PITCHER????????

🔮 louellensworld

nvm i found them

36 notes

🔪 bloodandgutsandglory Follow

hashtag luke was right 😏

🌹 flowerings Follow

???? he killed people???? HUH????? so sick of pretending he was a hero.........

💰 stealmeaway Follow

he WAS a hero!! the prophecy called him a hero!! PERCY JACKSON said he was a hero!! like yeah he did a lot of bad things, but kronos was LITERALLY manipulating him!! stop blaming him for stuff kronos made him do :////

🌞 sunnyboy777

can we PLEASE go ONE MONTH without somebody starting this discourse again??? op is clearly posting rage bait come on guys........

🍄 its420somewhere

anybody in this thread smoke weed

95 notes

💄 kisskissfallinlove

450 notes

👟 wingedbootsforsaleneverworn

she camp on my halfs till i bleed

2 notes

#is this anything

[rotisseries]

Hozier and Lucy Dacus perform I, Carrion (Icarian) at Forest Hills, NY, N3

[sunburnacoustic]

on Supermassive Black Hole by Muse?

(If you haven't seen the semasoulalai post what are you doing)

(poll option 2 is capped because of the character limit)

[chaos-has-theories]

#would like to hear about your Egypian theory#does it relate to ba and ka and how the physicality of the cavalier's soul seems to survive the consumption and integration @mayasaura

It does a little! There was a theory a while back about the Eightfold Word being the cavalier's name, which did absolutely make my egypt senses tingle. You can read through a list of the Ancient Egyptian conception of the soul and find such bangers as "A person's name was an essential aspect of individuality and central to one's survival after death" or "The kꜣ (ka) 𓂓 was the Egyptian concept of vital essence, which distinguishes the difference between a living and a dead person, with death occurring when the kꜣ left the body" or "In the Egyptian religion, the heart was the key to the afterlife" and then you can cry a little about Kiriona -

But admittedly that's the kind of stuff that can be found in plenty of philosophies.

I'm more focused on the fact that every single lyctor can be mapped onto a major Egyptian deity, and every plot line so far onto a major Egyptian myth.

John and the OG Lyctors are the Great Ennead, with the Resurrection as the Heliopolitan Creation Myth. The Mithraeum follows the Journey of Ra through the underworld.

Harrowhark is Horus, and her fight with Cytherea mirrors the conflict between Horus and Set.

Alecto is Sakhmet, Nona is Hathor, both of them the Eye of Ra; Nona the Ninth is the 'Myth of the Distant Goddess' to a point where I'm embarrassed that I didn't realize so before the book came out.

Ianthe is Thoth.

(If you want to read my full 4000 word essay on it here you go, but that's the gist of it. Even more random ramblings under my tag #the egypt agenda.)

[revenantghost]

Just a Goodsmile Pop Up Parade Vash appreciation post, don’t mind me.

[notemily]

actual guide for new tumblr users, from Twitter or otherwise

yeah so I decided to do one of these. I'm just someone who has been here since 2007 and wants to help people who are new to the site and have no idea what's happening. Twitter seems to be in its death throes as I write this, and while the posts about driving down the property values are funny, I'd like to actually try and help out.

many people have made posts that are like "get an icon and post something or else people will think you're a bot" so I'll just assume you've seen one of those already. I want to focus more on the things you need to know to acclimate to tumblr culture. so:

general tips:

like things if you want to like things. people will tell you liking doesn't do anything, that only reblogs do stuff, but that's not quite true. only reblogs will get the people who follow you to see it on their dashboard (circulating the post further through the tumblr ecosystem), but likes will let the OP know you liked it, let the person who reblogged it onto your dash know you liked it, and probably do something complicated involving the "based on your likes" algorithm but I really don't know how that works. also, the like will stick around, so if you see the post reblogged from someone else much later, your little heart will still be highlighted in red.

you can control a lot about what you see on your dashboard from the settings page! on desktop, go into settings - account and settings - dashboard to change things. most people turn off "best stuff first" and just use the chronological feed, but you do you, new user. I personally hate endless scroll, so I turned that off, but I love timestamps, so I turned those on. for bonus fun, go into settings - labs and there are extra tabs you can add to your dash.

but what about turning off anonymous asks? on desktop, this setting, weirdly, is in the "Edit appearance" page for your blog. you can also turn replies off there, allow only people you follow to message you, and hide your blog from search results. there are a lot of random settings in there, so make sure to take a look. (app results may vary.)

you might notice that one of the settings is for filtered tags and filtered post content. this is why it's important not to censor things here that might be triggering for some folks - because someone out there has "rape" filtered, and if you go around saying "r*pe," that's not going to be caught in their filter. also, at this time there are no word police who will come after you for saying "kill" or "die," so you don't need to use euphemisms like "unalive" on tumblr. you can also swear as much as you want.

blaze: tumblr blaze is a relatively new feature where you can pay actual money to have your post forced onto random people's dashboards. beware, if you use this for something people don't want to see, you will get mocked. if you use it to show everyone your cat, you're probably fine.

there are two basic uses for #tags: organizational (putting your post into a category, like tagging it with the name of the fandom it's relevant to) and editorial (adding extra commentary that you don't want to add in the post itself). a lot of people will use both, a lot of people will use neither. when people like your editorial tags enough, they'll copy or screenshot them and add them to the body of the post. this is known as "passing peer review" and is a compliment.

memes and inside jokes You Should Know:

do you love the colour of the sky? is an extremely long image post (showing all the colors a sky could possibly be) that takes a long time to scroll past, and back in the olden days (2012) it was ubiquitous on tumblr. these days you can shorten long posts automatically using your dashboard settings (see above), or use the "j" keyboard shortcut to go directly to the next post if you're on desktop, but we still remember it fondly and refer to it constantly because nothing dies here, especially not memes.

the color theory children's hospital post is another one of those things you'll see a million references to if you're on here for any length of time.

you cannot kill me in a way that matters is a post that you might have seen in screenshots elsewhere online, but it started here! other memes that originated on tumblr: spiders georg, me an intellectual, graphic design is my passion, etc.

blorbo from my shows is a phrase used to refer to your latest favorite character. it started as a joke, but tumblr has a way of taking jokes and making them a thing, so now it's a thing. see also poor little meow meow.

tumblr holidays: anything people on tumblr can make into a holiday or anniversary, we will. most of them you'll see as they happen, and they're often self-explanatory, but you should probably read up on November 5 2020 if you don't know about it already.

horse plinko: tumblr loves this one for some reason.

I like your shoelaces / thanks, I stole them from the president: this was supposedly the "secret code" to identify a tumblr user in real life. (you can buy shoelaces directly from tumblr now, but that's a recent development.)

then perish: speaking of the president, if you see Obama's eyes with a very orange tint, this is the meme it's referencing.

ball-shaving ads: ads from the personal grooming company Manscaped were/are(?) ubiquitous on tumblr, to the point that some have theorized that tumblr was deliberately saturating people's dash with the ads so that they'd be more likely to pay for ad-free browsing. and one of the ads for ad-free reads "shave off ads from your dashboard," so like, they might be onto something.

world heritage posts: there are various tumblrs that compile the best of tumblr, anything that's particularly iconic or has become a meme. there are even heritage post blogs for specific fandoms.

tumblr history:

there are three basic eras of tumblr history:

classic tumblr era 2007-2013: David Karp started tumblr in 2007, and it grew in popularity and weirdness for many years. porn was allowed: the original tumblr adult content policy read "sure, go nuts, show nuts, whatever."

Yahoo/Verizon era 2013-2019: Yahoo famously bought tumblr in 2013 for $1 billion. ads started showing up on tumblr in 2012, so this is also around when tumblr started to monetize. Yahoo was eventually bought by Verizon, and in December 2018, they announced they were banning porn, which sucked. everyone predicted the death of tumblr, but it limped on, with about a 30% decrease in traffic. (source for that statistic)

Automattic era 2019-present: in 2019, Automattic bought tumblr from Yahoo for like $3 million or something. Automattic owns WordPress, and they seem to understand tumblr's userbase better than the Yahoo folks did. they've recently instituted a more nuanced adult content policy, but because of Apple's strict policy for what gets included in the App Store, credit card processors refusing to process payments for porn, and other restrictions, tumblr can't go back to being the porn-allowed free-for-all it once was. see this post for a full explanation of why.

various April Fool's jokes have included Coppy (2015), Mishapocalypse (2013), and most recently, the button that makes crabs. expect April 1st to be extra chaotic on tumblr.

Tumbeasts - the tumblr version of the Twitter Fail Whale, designed by Matthew Inman of the Oatmeal. not sure if they're extinct now, or if the site just doesn't go down like it used to.

Dashcon - tumblr tried to have a convention once. it didn't go well. the photo with the sad ball pit is used as shorthand to reference the disaster that was Dashcon.

SuperWhoLock is a name for the fandom crossover between Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock, which were all juggernauts on tumblr at one time. the fandom supposedly "died off" after 2014, but see above re: nothing dies here.

female presenting nipples - when tumblr introduced the Porn Ban in 2018, they used this phrase in the community guidelines. they've since updated their nudity policy, but the phrase will live forever, because come on, tumblr is a website full of queer and/or trans folks. if you think you're getting away with a weasel phrase like "female presenting nipples" without being mocked all over the website, you're extremely wrong.

John Green: an author who used to be on tumblr, back when you could edit someone else's tumblr post when you reblogged it. his text posts were regularly edited to make it look like he had said things he didn't. someone edited one of his posts to be about how much he loves a certain sex act, which was probably not THE reason they removed the ability to edit others' posts, but like, it didn't help. John Green was eventually harassed so much he left tumblr. opinions are divided on whether this was hilarious or sad. (something I discovered while researching for this post: the author of the Your Fave Is Problematic tumblr [which was part of the wave of anti-John Green content] wrote a confessional New York Times article in 2021. pull quote: "I just wanted to see someone face consequences; no one who'd hurt me ever had.")

XKit: used to be THE browser extension for tumblr. it was made by "the xkit guy," who seems to have been harassed off the site in 2015. the extension was replaced by New XKit, which worked for a while. these days a lot of XKit's features have been either rendered obsolete by tumblr adding them to its settings, or broken by tumblr interface updates, and the new hotness is XKit Rewritten. want to block a specific post from ever appearing on your dash, see who your mutuals are, stop seeing notifications on one specific post (great feature for if you accidentally go viral)? install it and play around with the settings. there are accessibility features too!

...and now I've made it look like people regularly get harassed off tumblr. WELCOME, NEW USER, TO THE HELLSITE! but for real, part of why I put this post together was so if someone starts in on tumblr Discourse and mentions people who have been harassed off the site, you can nod wisely and go "ah, yes, I have heard tell of this." just to give you some kind of context for things.

anyway, I'm always happy to Explain The Joke, provided it's a joke that I get, so if you see something that looks like a tumblr in-joke and want context, my ask box is open. just don't ask me about Homestuck. I know nothing about Homestuck and at this point I'm not sure I want to.

in conclusion, new user: go forth, be weird, become a part of the culture. I hope this guide has helped!

[ysphcpb]

I’m glad to see more love for SOTUS! I think it’s still one of the best-written series in terms of character development, especially when you include SOTUS S and Our Skyy since you get to see them and their relationship develop over several years.

I’ve always been confused by people who say Krist isn’t a good actor. Nuances aside, his actual personality (loud, energetic, extroverted) is nothing like Arthit’s, and he was very young and new to acting when he took on the role of Arthit (quiet, restrained, shy).

Can you talk about your favorite acting moment from him in any of the SOTUS parts?

Same here, SOTUS (+ sequels) is one of my favourite shows for so many reasons, and one of them is how coherent and organic the character development is. I feel glad to have found these characters and been able to follow their story ♡

I had actually seen some instances of irl Krist, also had seen him in I'm Tee Me Too (so I already knew he's definitely not a bad actor), but it was how he handled SOTUS' Arthit - a much more colorful character - that really impressed me. I did try to narrow it down but can't pick just one acting moment that I like most, so here is a list instead 😅

1) SOTUS - EP.7

The way his voice quavers took me by surprise when I first watched this. I realised then that Arthit wasn't only touched by what the freshmen did and finally recognised them as his juniors, but he was also probably emotional that his days as a headhazer were coming to an end. Might have been a great responsibility he got talked into taking, might have been the busiest months he'd had to juggle studies and hazing activities, and could not comfortablly be himself, but still an unforgettable and meaningful experience for both him, his friends and his juniors.

2) SOTUS - EP.13

I love Arthit's hesitation before finally asking his question. From how I see it, he was worried if Kong could accept him and his self-perceived bad sides, if their relationship could even work, and if it's worth this risk of losing whatever seniour-juniour bond they were already having. In my view, he wasn't just struggling to decide whether he wanted to and was ready to be with Kongpob or not, but also worried whether Kong was ready to be with him, as well.

3) SOTUS S - EP.3

I adore Krist's choice of expressions and line delivery here. Arthit stops midsentence, comes up with a way to go around it, then agrees with himself, as if genuinely expecting Kong to find it convincing (Kong does not). This scene makes me smile everytime, I can't help but wonder to myself how could a person be this endearing.

4) SOTUS S - EP.12

This was more of a Singto scene (👏👏), but I also love Krist's reactions a lot. That initial look of betrayal and hurt quickly softens, then he looks away, engrossed in thoughts again. The lack of Arthit's inner voice in the series gives so much room for interpretation, but I see this as Arthit's realisation that perhaps his way of showing love and how private he prefers their relationship to be has failed to make Kongpob feel loved and assured. And that perhaps he's even more unfit for Kong than he already thought.

5) SOTUS S - EP.12

I could easily see and feel Arthit's anxiety here, but also his determination. He's not avoiding or running away anymore, since the person he loves got hurt because of it. It isn't easy for someone like Arthit to announce their relationship in front of the whole company, many of whom do not know him that well and probably have been gossiping about them since the incident. I feel so proud and admire his courage a lot.

6) SOTUS S - EP.13

I love Arthit's excited smile and the loving way he looks at Kong here, it's not something we get to see often. It's so heartwarming to see Arthit beaming with happiness and so certain of their future, that there's really nothing to fear anymore as long as they have each other.

7) Our Skyy - Arthit Kongpob

I thought the change of expression after he closes the door here was spot on. For Kong's sake, Arthit couldn't allow himself to appear sad and only when he's alone that he finally breaks and lets it out. It must have been draining to act like nothing was wrong that whole evening, and I think Krist did a great job portraying this.

Honorable mention: this interview is too long to be called a moment, but I love every acting moment in it. I have a feeling that KS just memorised the gist of what they needed to say and ad-libbed the rest, but every word and reaction still came out so natural and authentic, as if I were watching actual Arthit and Kongpob doing an interview.

[hana-the-ghostieee]

hey! so um apparently bots keep following me???? assuming it's the same for everyone else

so if you're a person that's following me (why. what prompted you to make a stupid decision) and you have default... everything um maybe try changing your banner, write something in the desc (like pronouns and sexuality and stuff) and reblog a couple of stuff??? unless you'd like to get blocked. which is fine i guess (i question your motives but you do you)

[monty-glasses-roxy]

Just had the idea of doing a Roxy askblog that's based on it being a secret blog she's not allowed to have and every so often if someone asks her something she just says stuff like "To the Fazspy reading this, I'm not the real Roxy." to try and throw the staff off her trail lmao

Will probably never make a blog like that, but it could be kinda funny. Maybe I bring the idea of an 'ask Roxy anything' game back where I draw the answers for it instead so it's not a whole ass blog dedicated to Roxy being a sneaky lil shit on the internet

[mushroom-for-art]

Probably shouldn't be posting this when I already have a fusion template up but eh.

I am accepting comments for this right now, all my optional things are open, one comment each please you can go as feral and as in detail as you want for your chosen part, preferably in order but if you're too anxious to make the choice of something/can't think of anything I get if you comment something else. I'll try to give whatever little bugger I get lore and a name afterwards. Any confusion just message and I'll explain

Free to use just save the image and make your own post, if you want to mess with head shape too or not have the optional things or want your comment community to give name personality nature ect obviously say in your own post what you do and don't want

[sturthepotofmadness]

TFRarePairingFest2023 Day 1: The Matrix

Will also be on my Ao3 at some point after this post goes up, check my pinned post for a link to my Ao3.

Continuity: G1

Pairing: Astrotrain/Optimus Prime

(Also I write Astrotrain as if he uses his WFC: Siege toy appearance/design since that's still technically G1. K? K.)

@tfrarepairing

Astrotrain came to a stop, his earthen alt mode screeching as it did so. He promptly transformed and stepped out of the rail into the formerly abandoned station, his wings automatically fluttering. He paused the moment he saw the red and blue prime sitting at the only table not covered in dust with his helm on the table and arms hiding it away.

The tripler changer walked over and, instead of sitting down on the other side of the table, sat down next to him. Astrotrain put a servo on Optimus’s shoulder, causing him to look up at the other.

“Any reason you look down?” Astrotrain started, resting his other servo on the table.

The prime grumbled slightly, moving his helm to hide his face again. “Matrix,” he barely heard from Optimus.

Astrotrain tilted his helm slightly. That… wasn’t what he expected. “That relic?” the triple changer realized. Optimus made a small noise in confirmation. He blinked. “How can an endless storage of knowledge cause this?”

Optimus shifted slightly, lifting up his helm above his arms to deadpan at Astrotrain. He felt awkward under that blank look. The prime placed his helm on his arms this time, looking towards the blank, tannish grey wall of the station.

“Why do mecha always make that mistake…” Optimus muttered, seemingly unbothered Astrotrain could overhear him.

“So it’s more than that,” Astrotrain guessed. Optimus nodded.

“An eternal mix of every wielder, its creator, and the siblings of the creator, all wrapped up with the dreams of Primus,” Optimus described. “And Primus does not dream of this. And it is upset at our current state of war, that we strayed so far from Primus’s dream.”

Astrotrain moved his servo across the prime’s back to the other shoulder, then carefully pulled him into an one-armed hug. Optimus didn’t move for a moment before leaning into it.

“If it can’t be happy about everything, at least there’s one it can be about,” Astrotrain stated.

Optimus released a sad-sounding chuckle. “I… I guess so.”

[poisoneitherway]

5 SECONDS OF SUMMER - THE FEELING OF FALLING UPWARDS: LIVE AT ROYAL ALBERT HALL

(transcription from the deluxe album booklet under the cut)

Like all moments of light, "The Feeling of Falling Upwards" begins in total darkness: an exhale, a single second held to feel like a lifetime, limitless possibility meeting the total anxiety of potential. Then, their screams-your screams-a chorus of thousands of voices fill London's famed Royal Albert Hall, emanating from a crowd dressed in suits and gowns, louder and more resonant than even the venue's iconic golden pipe organ. Tonight, that instrument is covered by the stage-no distractions-this performance is all about the band, their songs, and you.

Synths boom. A 12-piece string ensemble's orchestral maneuvers tease a future crescendo. Pianos twinkle. Soon, stage lights will illuminate from the floorboards, pointing upwards to reveal a choir. Can a rock show be bigger than Broadway? Can a rock show feel like floating? Can a rock show change your life? 5 Seconds of Summer take their positions-Calum's bass leads, D to A minor. Luke clutches a microphone: "Caught up in Heaven, but your Heaven ain't the same / And I've never been a saint, have I?" By the time the chorus of "Complete Mess" hits, it's total ascendance in multi-part harmonies, the kind 5SOS fans have come to adore from a band immeasurably in sync with one another. (Four vocalists, but different this time. It's four, plus 12: the House Gospel Choir, known for their work with Kylie Minogue and Primal Scream, stand on a crescent moon platform above 5SOS's heads mirroring a long desert sunrise, to add magnitude.)

These harmonies are a nostalgic sound-you first heard 'em in 5SOS's suburban Sydney living room, covering "Teenage Dirtbag back in 2011. Or maybe it was 2013, just across the street from this hallowed hall, at the Marble Arch, where a tweenage, fringe-and-skate-shoe-wearing 5SOS could be found performing outside for their nascent audience, a community soon to become unwavering in their dedication. These are the kind of fans a band could only dream of inspiring, and this Royal Albert Hall performance is the kind of full-circle moment a band could only dream of achieving. That's the peculiar magic of setting intentions; thank goodness 5SOS, despite every challenge, has stuck around long enough to enjoy it, to get here. Thank goodness you have.

This is the feeling of falling upwards. And it's like nothing they've ever felt before.

"We've done a bunch of different stuff for fans along the way," Luke laughs. "We've gone down the sides of buildings. We've done crazy stuff all over the world-guerilla marketing, hiding things..." It's true: 5 Seconds of Summer have never been strangers to creative promotional activities dedicated to their unimpeachable fans (remember Derp Con?) but the Royal Albert Hall show was something else entirely. 5SOS5, the band's fifth album, recorded in Joshua Tree, CA-the desert majesty three hours east of Hollywood, an enclave of hippie mysticism, knotty cactus, and trees with spiky arms reaching towards a sunset-y sky-provided. 5SOS with a new sense of autonomy, and creative self-assurance. "It gave us the confidence to know that the four of us are capable of creating something really great-just the four of us," as Michael describes it. And so any event around the release would need to eclipse it: to be bigger than just an interview or fan convention.

It would need to highlight their newfound freedom, their willingness towards collaboration, their celebration of musical diversity. And so the band's manager, Benjamin Evans, had an idea. What if 5 Seconds of Summer created a unique show, a production like never before? One that they could live stream around the world on the eve of the album's launch, so fans all around the world could join in the occasion? Wouldn't that be a great way to showcase the band's greatest asset-their live show-in a way that went beyond the same radio and TV spots? What if the band performed with an orchestra and a choir for the first time, ever, reimagining songs from their extensive discography alongside new album tracks, recording the event to later release as a live album?

Surely it would have to be at a truly iconic venue, a bucket list experience for any musician. The prestigious Royal Albert Hall was the obvious choice, for its legacy and most importantly, its place in the history of the band. "We used to busk outside of it [a decade ago]," as Calum is quick to point out.

What if they ran a series of flyaway competitions with media partners to bring fans from outside the UK to London for the one-night-only special? Wouldn't that make it more than a record release, but an unrepeatable moment in the band's history, forevermore?

And what if, instead of turning it into "5SOS5 Live," they created something timeless-a career-spanning set to anchor the entire existence of this band into something mythological, a release superfans and casual listeners alike could hold on to, and return to across their lives? The Killers, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Dusty Springfield, The Who, Arctic Monkeys, hell, Bring Me the Horizon have all released records Live at Royal Albert Hall-if they could just pull it off, 5 Seconds of Summer would join some impressive company. But ideation is one thing: conception, another.

Working with Ben Dupont of Moment Factory, who directed all the visuals, stage set, lighting, and production for the show in just under one month, "The Feeling of Falling Upwards" took an army. 5SOS was just coming off of a few years spent inside finding new ways to thank the fans that have always supported them, like "The 5SOS Show: A 10 Year Celebration," a self-referential, playful commemoration of their decade together as a band, that they created a year earlier and made available for free-and their massive. "Take My Hand" arena and amphitheater tour, with its elevated production from past tours. With "The Feeling of Falling Upwards," they wanted something "classier," for Royal Albert Hall as Calum describes it. "Stripped back, but also multiplied, in terms of its organic element."

"They wanted symphonic, acoustic, timeless," says Ben. "When Nirvana performed at the Hall, they put a ton of flowers on the stage, and it stayed as this iconic look. Less is more. "Do one thing, but do it in a bold way." He endeavored to do the same: hiding the organ behind a stage to elevate the choir, hiring a theater lighting designer to enhance the drama-more edgy Broadway than rock show-complete with Svoboda lighting, an old school Tungsten fixture used to create light curtains atop each member. On stage, he instructed his team to build sand dunes-Styrofoam with real sand coating, meant to look wind-swept, leanin organi the band's risers, an "elegantly disruptive" set, as he puts it. The dunes were 5SOS's version of Nirvana's flowers, bringing a bit of Joshua Tree to rainy England.

The lighting's color story enhanced the experience: "Outer Space/ Carry On," a cut from the band's second record (2015's Sounds Good Feels Good) that they hadn't played live in half a decade, was illuminated a rich blue; closer "Bad Omens" was a sunrise gradient of pink and orange. Most surprising was "Youngblood," the song that gave 5SOS its second life in an industry that, 9 times out of 10, will choose to eat up and spit out its young talent was lit "underside of a leaf green," as Ben describes it, despite the fact that most performers stay away from green. It's too witchy. Too Halloween-y. Green, it turned out, was a favorite of at least Ashton, who, despite being asked by Ben to play silver instruments to take the light off the stage, broke out a green drum. "It's a sore thumb!" Ben remembers thinking. "I was disappointed." Then Ash confronted him about it. "He showed me a photo of a tiny baby plant, two little leaves, growing in the middle of a dune in the desert. For him, that's what his drum kit was doing on stage. I thought he only chose it because it sounded great, with no consideration for the visual aesthetics. But his vision was so much deeper."

Their band itself grew from four members to 31: the 12-piece string orchestra, the 12-member House Gospel Choir, legendary keys-man Roger Manning, "If you've heard an alternative rock record in the last 30 years, Roger is probably playing keys on it... Whether it's Blink, or Morrisey, or Air, or Beck." says lan Longwell, one of 5SOS's music directors who also played orchestral percussion for the band when their previous pick dropped out last minute. Ian was joined by his partner, the band's other MD, Drew Chaffee, who played guitar, synth, and samples. Together, Ian and Drew created a set list-career-spanning but not too backwards-facing, meant to highlight and celebrate the launch of 5SOS5 but most crucially meant to stand on its own. This performance needed to endure, to stand out like the brightest sunset in a career full of them.

They worked with a man called Brandon Collins on the orchestral arrangements, to completely transform some of 5SOS's most identifiable songs. "Teeth," with its "pissed off strings" became "a little more Ennio Morricone, more score-sounding," says lan, the perfect moment to use the orchestra in a heavier way, "to at the end, flip it, and take it to the death star," as he describes it. "She Looks So Perfect" was stripped to its barest materials, a reimagining that came from the most surprising source: Ed Sheeran. "The year the song came out, he covered it, and it's beautiful," says Ian. "It's pretty much the same melody but it skips a chord-it's just him and an acoustic guitar." 5 Seconds of Summer did something similar, adding voices, strings, dimension. "It's the opposite of what the actual song is," Calum says of the new arrangement. "Songwriting is the top priority for this band, and [an acoustic performance] allows it to shine for what it is: a beautiful song."

"That and 'Older' were the most fragile moments of the set," lan jumps in. For Luke, that's especially the case: it is the first time he's gotten to perform it with his fiancé, Sierra Deaton, a romantic duet emphasized by their forever partnership. "That was really special," Luke says of the moment, still at a loss at its majesty. "It was cool, to have the stars align, to be able to do that."

On rare occasion did the songs stay more or less the same than their tour counterparts: "Red Desert," lit red, abridged, and used primarily as a drum break for Ashton, made it onto the set list because "we needed to hit that chorus at least once with the choir," says lan. "Lie to Me" was an uphill battle. "The joke at rehearsal was that it was cut but we were insisting on practicing it anyway. But when we heard it with the choir, it sounded like Simon and Garfunkel."

At the tail end of September, just before the curtains were raised on "The Feeling of Falling Upwards," there was a three day, big production rehearsal in Redditch, near Birmingham, two hours out of London-the only space the team could hire to fit their entire production. Day one was Ian, Drew, Ashton, Michael, and the 12-piece choir huddled in a 500 square foot office room of the production venue while the stage was being built downstairs. They sang through the entire performance and did a lot of simplifying. After all, no collaboration is ever exactly how you imagine it, until you do it; that's the beauty of communal artmaking. The second day was strings/orchestra only. Day three was a full production dress rehearsal with choir and strings together for the first time-they ran through the production in its entirety-immediately moved by what they had created. "This is the first time we've played with other musicians on stage. That's a scary thing," says Calum. "You need to let them have free will as artists as well, which gave it so much life. That's the reason it's so different from anything we've ever done." Luke jumps in. "We wanted to make a core memory for the band- a benchmark-something we could always be proud of. This isn't a flash-in-the-pan thing."

"You only get one shot," Michael agrees. "That was the most nerve-wracking part... It was an incredible learning experience and helped mend some of my trust issues." He pauses. "Every time I played, every time I strummed a guitar chord at Royal Albert Hall, I was like, 'This is the only opportunity I get to play this chord. You know what I mean? But with that came this beautiful moment of seeing the songs for what they were." Therein lies the metamorphosis: there was no existential clarity, only connection: with the other musicians on stage, with the well-dressed audience, with the viewers at home, with you.

"I do remember at the very, very end, just taking a look around for a second, at this stage we built, the incredible people who pull it together, everyone in the band," Michael continues. "I had this moment of 'Once I leave this stage, that's it. That's the last time I'll play a show exactly like this. Two years ago, we had gone out in the middle of nowhere and decided, 'What happens, happens...." He trails off, feeling the weight of making 5SOS5, and the Hall performance, all over again. "All of that all that I felt happened in the space of about two-and-a-half-seconds on stage." He jokes that it was the opposite of a near-death experience. "A full life experience!"

"There is no other record that we've made that could be the core of what we've just done," Calum says, starry-eyed. "And that's very telling of the soul of the record." Without 5SOS5, the band would've never gotten to this point, and they certainly would've never learned to live inside of the songs of their past. "As I get older, I learn you can shift your perception on things," he continues, "Stop taking things so seriously for myself. That's been a big learning curve for us." It's the reason he can deliver a classic Calum song like "Amnesia" as sincerely as he did when he was 18, now at 26 years old. "I feel a lot closer to that song, as I did before, when I was younger," he says. "I respect what it's done for this band and what it's done for a lot of people."

5SOS fans go beyond the regular rock music listenership; they participate in each stage of this band. "They've followed 5 Seconds of Summer to London when they were so young and everywhere else the band has gone in the time since. ("I'd never left the country before we moved to London," says Luke, "We figured out, early on, that we needed to leave Australia to come back stronger.") On stage at Royal Albert Hall, 5SOS was able to connect to that idea: their past selves, but also the fans that joined them along this journey. "I felt like a more elevated version of myself on that stage," says Luke. "Songs I put in the back of my mind, that I didn't really think held much emotional weight, got to me." For him, that meant a lot of songs from Sounds Goods Feels Good, specifically. "The second album had a lot of ambition, tons of strings, but we were still wearing skinny jeans and Converse on stage; we hadn't swayed too much from our pop-punk roots," he laughs. "I don't know if subconsciously there was any desire to perform them live at Royal Albert Hall one day, but we did have a big orchestra in London play on the recorded version of 'Outer Space/Carry On. We never thought we'd have the capacity to play them live." Until they did. Listen to your former selves, there's a real prescience there. This was always possible. "I'm trying to fill in the gaps, emotionally, to understand who I am," he adds. "We all are."

Near the end of the set at Royal Albert Hall, Ashton, the band's heart-poet, gives a definition for the crowd to hold close. "The Feeling of Falling Upwards' is simply supposed to describe to you the feeling that we have experienced together, the feeling of taking a leap of faith on such a fickle thing like music," he smiles, "And sharing this experience together year after year, season after season of our lives."

It is far too easy for musicians to grow up to become parodies of themselves. If they find a formula that works, they can repeat it ad nauseum, leaning into superficial, outward readings of who they are and what they do. But 5SOS, on stage and in the current era, are five-dimensional; their pop-punk selves, their .... operatic selves, and everything in between. "We worked really hard to make this happen," Calum says. "You speak positivity and manifest great outcomes for yourself."

Luke agrees. "There's a light at the end of the tunnel," he says "There's a brightness worth fighting for."

[rotisseries]

all the Discourse™ is gonna make a serious marlene and the fireflies defender out of me

[patrickztump]

i realize we are pretty much Done with wraps and recaps, but i forgot to share my youtube music one.

the plus side to the lack of control over spotify is, while still intentional, my play count is left to the spotty gods. whereas youtube clearly shows i did in fact have a massive young the giant kick, one so large it threatened to dethrone the fall out boys. i am happy to see my beloved just one yesterday made a top five, as she deserves. top four artists remained consistent, and its fitting that neon trees and the killers round out the fifth position on each, as both received about equal love.

it is sad that last year pandora decided to stop sending out user playbacks, as i still used it heavily in 2022 as a means to discover new-to-me music. this year i backed off of that significantly since there was no sign of them bringing it back.

[itsamenickname]

Also, just a little heads up for y'all: I will most likely not be very active on Tumblr today due to wanting to avoid any potential spoilers for the Mario movie before I see it later tonight.