#BPM counter

[chris-ostkreuz]

Understanding BPM and tempo matching

Understanding BPM and Tempo Matching Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you’re at a party, the music is pumping, and suddenly the DJ drops a track that feels like it’s dragging you down into a musical abyss? You’re not alone! The world of music is a vast ocean, and navigating through it requires a keen understanding of BPM (Beats Per Minute) and tempo matching. So, grab your…

[jumpscaregoose]

I am so sorry on all possible levels

[svcredveins]

Cozy file incoming!

This one is a bit of a doozy. My little lady was more on the shy side apparently for this one haha, so my apologies for the lack of a visible stomach pulse, but on the plus side, at least you can see my little tummy rising and falling to my breathing haha. Anyway, hope this will do anyway, but either way, she is soothing in this file I find with a low of 58 BPM! Around the approximate average of 75 BPM I think. Yeah, the stemoscope app needs to fix the BPM counter to stay haha

I made another quick visible file because she seemed a bit more visible actually so stay tuned for that :)

[mosswolf]

Aria Joie has a song stuck in her head. She knows all the lyrics. For a long time, whenever she thought of a song, she could hear the guide track too. Her own voice in her earpiece, peppy, encouraging, saying “One fifteen BPM! One, two, three, four!”, counting her through the dance break. That’s mostly faded away now. “Open up my heart,” she sings, and she folds a paper plate in half and puts it in the trash. “Tear open up my heart!” New job tomorrow. New colleagues. She’s going into a casino to check out some CCT screw-up. She measures out a little pinch of fish food in her palm, and tips it into the tank by the door. A neon swirl. It’s not ���open up my heart,” is it? She’s got the lyric wrong. Get a glass of water, Aria. Clear your head. She wishes she could open a window but there’s no window in here. She pinches the bridge of her nose. “Open up—“ what was it? How long has she been misremembering? Forget it. It’s not important. She goes to the kiosk in the lobby. Gets a soda and a gacha toy. Taps her foot to the music in the elevator on the way back up. Big day tomorrow. Blackout. The arena goes silent. And then her voice, the first words spoken in the show. “Do you believe in the power of love?” Lightsticks, like a heart beat. “Do you? Do you believe in the power of love?”

counter/weight 0.5, thrilled enough

[arlemangel7]

Nsfw(duh)

Vi x blackfem!reader

Cw:face fucking, aftercare, undressing, sweet to spicy back to sweet, wlw

Vi

Knowing what you know now about vi, you know she's very loving and touchy when she needs affection so when she does give you those mini social ques. You make sure to react the only way that you know how, with returning her affections. This one in particular was no exception, you were washing your hair when you heard her calling you from the downstairs foyer "baby?" She calls "UP HEREE." You answer running some leave in conditioner through your curls.

You see her through the mirror as you continue Scrunching your curls into place *smooch* "mmmph, you smell good cupcake. Good enough to eat" She says wrapping her arms around your waist burying her face in your neck giving kisses here and there before resting her head on the opposite shoulder. "Babe, that*giggles* tickles *giggles* stop you're gonna make me *giggles* mess up" you say playfully shrugging away from her. After what seems like an eternity you finally finish your application and turn to her wrapping your arms around her neck. Giving her a big kiss that turned into more of a sweet greedy cupcake eating session.

She lifted you on to the counter during a dizzying kiss that led her lips down your cheek to your jaw, your neck down to your tied towel line. Opening it with a gentle pull continuing her kissing descent as she makes her she gently pushes you to lay back slightly pressing you back flesh against the mirror as she lowers herself to her knees kissing gently nipping your thighs as she spreads them making a space for herself to nestle.

Whispering words of worship to herself before plunging her face from nose to chin into you. Lapping you up like a dehydrated puppy making sure not to waste a drop of your holy liquid. Your slight hums and squeals from the sensation spurred her on making her push her face that much deeper into tongue fucking your pretty pussy all the more eager to make you cum for her. A moment later you hand in gripping her hair keeping her position in place as you fuck yourself involuntarily against her face and tongue.

"Mm mhm *moaning and screaming* v-vi fuck violet fuck I'm I'm I'm awAhhhhhh" you say as your screaming oh coats her face all but drowning her in honey, you hear her muffled moans as she drinks up the remainder of you and back up to collect her breath. Breathing heavily She stands giving you a sloppy wet kiss on her way up before grabbing hold of your waist holding you close giving you time to recover.

Aftercare

After your heart rate returns to the normal bpm you take another shower..well bath with the works full bubbles and cuddles type of night you having just washed youe hair have it up but take the time to wash vi's and she washes you off in return after you ladies get out of the bathtub a further cuddle session ensues making the night cap off perfectly as yall fade to black watching the real house wives of (pick a country lol)

As always thoughts are mine characters are not

Asks are super open

Stay safe and warm

signing off for now 🩷💋🩷💋

[alpineshift]

In light of the baker Nico pics, do you have further thoughts on the hischier bakery and Hughes coffee shop au 🥹

BAKER NICO PICS ILU I have not known peace since. I've been rotating that photo of Nico holding a cookie in my head for like twelve hours now. for you anon, I will wrangle all my current ideas into a bundle here ❤️

(if you haven't read the lil prompt fill hehe)

At the Little Loaf of Love bakery, all three of the Hischier siblings bake, but Nico is undoubtably the best out of all of them. Very consistent with his results, produces very trustworthy batches, never protests the 3am starts and occasional late closings. Between them Luca is the more experimental baker and Nina, on top of more management and bookkeeping stuff, is better at one-off decorations for dessert pieces

Over at A Hughes Cup of Coffee, all three Hughes brothers also work behind the counter - Quinn is the manager, somewhat against his will, and he has a special apron Jack and Luke got him as a joke (but it's very high quality). Jack is indeed the cappuccino specialist (does the fancy latte art) and recently Luke has been pushing for small batch food options (like sandwiches or bagels) to go with their drinks.

One morning while opening Jack caught Luke standing outside the front of their store--it's like 5am, nobody is out or awake except for them and the bakery across the street--and he's inhaling the scent of freshly baked bread before he turns to Jack and goes, "We should work out some kind of business deal with these guys."

At this point, Jack had already clocked the hot baker and tried to wave at him once through the window, but the hot baker hadn't seen him, and Jack is currently too embarrassed to set foot past the stoplight. And he goes errrrrr maybe.

Little Loaf is a nice mix of very Swiss baked goods and classic American desserts and Luke keeps coming back with boxes of them for Jack and Quinn to try (they're amazing) and now Quinn is bugging Jack to make relations (less amazing)

Jack already has like such a severe crush he saw Nico unloading boxes by the side door one morning and his apple watch alerted him for having an unexpected heart rake spike or something lol

Also the older Hischier brother and the sister have already been coming to A Hughes Cup for coffee like every morning, both of them very sweet and very funny, and Jack is not not upset that he hasn't seen the hot younger brother around (he kind of is) and he thinks nobody has noticed (everyone has)

Nina keeps dropping unsubtle hints about Nico. His favourite drink is cappuccino. His favourite animal is a seal. He studied in the US and then did an apprenticeship in Italy for a year. He loves cappuccinos. He secretly likes watching the Titanic. He LOVES cappuccinos.

So Jack takes the hints as they're given to him. Puts together a tray of the Hischier siblings' favourite coffees. Carefully presses a little seal sticker on the cappuccino. Tosses his hair back undoes the top two buttons on his plaid shirt and finally crosses the street to meet the hot baker on his turf.

+ Quinn's apron has an M stitched over the chest and he's like is this funny to you guys and Jack and Luke are taking pics of him wearing the apron going "extremely" and sending it to the family group chat. Assigned manager by your own brothers, embarrassing.

+ When they're finally in a "really good friends" stage Jack walks in on Nico kneading dough in a sleeveless shirt once and he turns around and walks right back out and his watch is telling him he's hitting 152 bpm, does he need to sit down???

[lizzyscribbles]

An Exercise in Futility (Part 3)

(I'm wondering if I should just bite the bullet and post this on AO3 when finish it because it's already at like 4k words and I don't think Tumblr can handle that 😅)

Part One, Part Two

The sky was a deep, gloomy gray, bathing the world in a thin layer of rain and ice. The resulting cold hit him like a block of ice to the throat, drawing several prominent coughs from deep in his lungs. 

Thankfully, he didn’t have to tolerate it for long. Hisashi’s black sedan sat just under the awning, shielding him from the downpour that had started not long before his pretend appointment. Wrapping his arms around himself, and sped over to the car and hopped in the back seat, hacking quietly into the back of his hand. The leather of his seat was already pleasantly warm when he got in, it was almost like climbing into a preheated oven. It waved away the cold, shoving it out as Yoichi yanked the door shut behind him.

As he reached up to grab his seatbelt, he found himself fumbling with the strap. Despite only being in the elements for a total of ten seconds, he was still trembling, cold eating away at him as he drew his oversized coat a little tighter around him.

His hand was still plastered over his mouth, flecks of discolored phlegm coating it. He resisted the urge to groan at the sight of it. Reaching into his pocket, his heart froze as he was met with just fabric. After a few seconds of patting frantically, it dawned on him that he’d left the one piece of medical equipment he’d continued to use on his bathroom counter that morning. He didn’t have time to panic, however, as an inhaler was pressed into his shaking hand. He jumped, eyes widening as he looked up to see Hisashi staring at him with that special kind of intensity he gained when he wasn’t sure whether or not Yoichi was in danger.

“H-hey–” Yoichi managed, his weak attempt at a smile devolving into a fit as he doubled over, spitting up a particularly thick piece of mucus out into his hand. 

Hisashi shook off his loose grip on the inhaler and instead brought it to Yoichi’s mouth himself and using his free hand to brace the back of his brother’s neck. He paused his wheezing just long enough for his brother to administer the inhaler, holding his breath for several consecutive seconds to let the medication do its job before he exhaled again. Hisashi, however, wasn’t satisfied until he’d taken two or three more inhales and was no longer actively choking on his own oxygen.

Yoichi took a shuddering breath as his brother leaned over and secured his seat belt while he recovered. He frowned down at his hand, sticky with phlegm, and started rooting around in his bag for a kleenex or some form of tissue. He was already off to a bad start, he didn’t need Hisashi seeing the faint speckles of what was probably blood on his hand.

But, for better or for worse, his brother was already on top of it, handing him one of the fancy handkerchiefs he kept tucked into the pockets of all his suit coats. Yoichi cringed as he dirtied the soft, silky piece of fabric, but he did feel a lot better after cleaning the sick off himself. Strategically folding it, he shoved it into the pocket of his coat before turning to face his brother with an actual smile.

“Hi!” He croaked. “I didn’t know you were coming to get me today.” 

Hisashi looked him over slowly before answering. “I realized you neglected to bring your inhaler after you left and figured it would be better if I brought it myself. I also wanted to be sure you got the notes from the doctor this time, since you always seem to forget, little brother.”

Yoichi’s heart started beating a little faster as he smiled, sheepishly replying. “Yeah…I guess I do that a lot, but can you blame me? They always tell me the same thing every time, it’s not like I can’t remember it long enough to tell you.” He straightened up, adjusting imaginary spectacles on his nose and began reciting. “BP–118 over 79, 80 BPM, FEV1–62%–”

“Only 62%?” Hisashi interrupted as he turned up his nose. “That’s rather low, even for you.”

“Shit.” Yoichi thought. He must’ve mixed up the numbers from before he had his last hospitalization. Thankfully, a lie sprung into action before he’d even finished panicking. “Yeah, the doctor said that’s normal since it got cold all of a sudden, nothing to write home about, but obviously he’ll check on it again next time.”

Hisashi hummed, and Yoichi tried not to fidget under his brother’s gaze. After a few uncomfortable seconds, his older brother let out a quiet sigh and gestured for the driver to take them home. Yoichi resisted the urge to sigh as well, instead blowing a few strands of white hair out of his face as he tucked his legs under himself. A quiet ding from Hisashi’s phone drew his brother’s attention, but with his free hand he took a travel mug out of the cupholder and handed it to Yoichi. 

The sleeve was still hot, warming the tips of his fingers as he cradled it to his chest. He gave it a little sniff, catching a faint whiff of mint. Taking a cautious sip, he found the liquid to be pleasantly warm, as always. He would’ve liked it to be a little hotter, but alas, he had taken a while to get settled, so it was his own fault really. Leaning back against the seat, he tucked both his legs up to curl into a ball on the seat. Hisashi glanced over at him, eyebrows pinched. Yoichi smiled, waving as he took another sip. 

“Thank you, brother.” He hummed. “It’s perfect.”

Hisashi nodded, looking back at his phone as he held out a hand. Yoichi stared at it for one second, then two, but his brother didn’t say anything, just crooked his fingers. After a few more seconds of nothing, Hisashi leaned over the middle seat without breaking his attention from his phone and reached into Yoichi’s coat pocket, rummaging around. Coming up empty handed, he leaned even further to dig into the other pocket, pulling out the reminder card. Yoichi let out a quiet “ohhh” before taking another sip of his drink, watching his brother right himself and bring the piece of cardstock back.

 Hisashi’s eyes jumped from his phone to the card, back to his phone again. The corners of his lips turned down ever so slightly, and he held the card a little closer to his face, squinting at it. Yoichi froze, drink halfway to his lips. He frantically tried to recall whether or not he’d missed anything. Helga was always incredibly thorough, but could she have forgotten a detail? No, there really weren’t any details to miss, so what could’ve set his brother off?

“Breathe, Yoichi.” Hisashi said absentmindedly before setting the card down and picking up his inhaler. 

Yoichi sucked in a sharp breath, sitting up straight. “Sorry.” He waved away the offered inhaler, “s’ fine, I don’t need it.”

Hisashi held it out anyway, gesturing for him to grab it.

Yoichi couldn’t hold back his sigh, but resisted the urge to roll his eyes, “really, big brother, I’m fine, it’s just a little cough–”

“Yoichi.” Hisashi narrowed his eyes, cutting him a look as he pushed it a little further. 

The message was clear: “Do it, or I do it for you.”

Yoichi swallowed, shrinking away as he cradled his drink to his chest. The two brother stared at each other, but the younger knew he’d already lost. Face twisting into a frown, he thrust out his hand with palm up. Hisashi let out an airy chuckled, setting the device in Yoichi’s hand and gently closing his fingers around, giving them a little pat. Yanking his hand back, he shoved the inhaler between his lips and took in a dose. Holding his breath, he slowly counted as the medication sat in his lungs.

Hisashi watched on, waiting until he was sure Yoichi had actually administered it before he spoke. “I’m coming with to your next appointment, I have some concerns that I want to address with your practitioner–”

“I can do it!” Yoichi jumped, practically spitting the drug back out as he clambered to sit up straight. “I…what are you concerned about?”

“That was only five seconds, little brother.” He scolded. “You’re supposed to hold it for ten. Try again–”

“–But–”

 “Now.”

Something about his tone made Yoichi want to stamp his foot, but he settled for a half grunt and the eyeroll he’d suppressed earlier. He was well aware he was being a little pendulant, but he couldn’t find it in himself to care. However, another stern glare from his brother had him obediently taking another shot of his inhaler, folding his arms over his chest as he gestured for his brother to speak while the medicine went to work.

Hisashi drew his answer out another few seconds before he replied. “I don’t like how tired you’ve become lately. I can barely get you out of bed in the morning and half the time you’re back in it before the sun sets. It can’t be a normal side effect, and if it is, then it’s time to change medications. Not to mention, your coughing is getting worse, don’t think I haven’t seen the blood–Yoichi Shigaraki do not open your mouth prematurely again, let me finish–or heard you tossing at turning at night. It's excessive, and I’m no longer confident in this specialist’s ability to treat you. But, I want to see their incompetence with my own eyes first before I move you elsewhere��”

Yoichi’s heart sank. He thought he’d been doing well at keeping the harsher side effects of his illness hidden, but he understood he should’ve known better than to expect Hisashi to be oblivious to his declining state much longer. Honestly, it was a full-blown miracle he’d been able to carry on with the deception as long as he had. And, to think, it wasn’t even the staff who gave it away, it was Yoichi’s own negligence in continuing his treatments.

“There’s a new doctor here in Japan I’d like to get you into actually. I began vetting him during your last…visit, and I think he may be just what you need to see some improvement–”

“What’s the point.” The phase slipped out before Yoichi even realized he’d been thinking it. 

In fact, he didn’t know he had said it out loud as he let his attention drift out the window, eyes tracing the raindrops as they trickled down the glass. They were approaching the manor, having just passed through the oversized gates that guarded the estate. Honestly, they were less of guards and more decorations. Hisashi had said so himself, apparently the official who had lived there before them had a wife that adored the delicate white columns and glassy beading, however impractical it was. Still, despite proclaiming its uselessness, his brother kept them for some reason. Yoichi couldn't fathom why, his brother was always so practical, and they were just big, pretty, ornately designed pieces of metal that would probably tip right over if you pushed them hard enough.

Just like Yoichi.

“…what did you say?”

[tulipscomeinallsortsofcolors]

Vi vi vi I need to know immediately you saw a girl so pretty you FAINTED????

Re: the authors note on beloved- You canNOT say that you saw a girl so pretty you fainted and not tell us the story. Come on! Please 🥺(from @neil-kumiko)

be the violet

you are a young college drop out of twenty carrying around a mound of student debt and and an undiagnosed heart condition.

(This condition is called POTS, aka Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome aka Stand Up Fall Down Disease

What this means is that your body is unequipped to handle any disruption to its homeostasis without having a very petulant fit, dropping your blood pressure into the abyss, and removing all the blood from your brain. this is, as i'm sure you've guessed, not good. I'm sure you can see where this is going.)

so off you fuck to find someone willing to hire your squirrelly barely-medicated ass, and you wind up working in a Store, which we will call, for the sake of anonymity, Gollar Deneral. Gollar Deneral does not require any references nor physical aptitude confirmation, which sucks for them because they just hired the modern equivalent of a tight-laced victorian maiden with consumption

you are a cashier in this store (tho at Gollar Deneral, as I'm sure you are aware, that means you are an "everything" at this store). you are also autistic, and hate every brain-melting hell-screaming minute of this exercise in human restraint. to conserve even one or two of the veritable cutlery drawer of spoons it takes to do this job, you do not make eye contact unless strictly necessary

this will be your undoing

things that count as "disruption of homeostasis" to your shoddy meatsuit are what other bodies would describe as 'piddly little bitch tasks.' moving too quickly from one position to another, falling asleep too quickly, any amount of sweating or heat. this includes rapid increases in your heart BPM

you greet the customer but do not look at her. you finish scanning her items, briefly glance up for your customary microsecond of eye contact, and-

the room

starts

spinning

This, as you know, being me, is the alarm that POTS helpfully sets off seconds before disaster. "Sit down immediately!" says POTS, in the language of blacking out and your tongue going numb

Flutter flutter, says your heart, which in this body is a category five hurricane of an emergency

you see, this woman who has stopped at the register, is the most beautiful woman you've ever seen. her hair is obsidian black and shot through with dark browns and silvers, making it look like a three dimension river of soil, an Oread in the flesh. Her skin is the warm gold-brown of patina-ed oak wood, and she's wearing a matching leggings + coat + hat combo in dark purple wool, looking like she stepping out of a fairytale.

And you, since you are me, are very, very gay.

she furrows her brows at your sudden slack jawed silence, because the thing about not having blood in your brain is that your brain does not work when there's no blood in it

"Are you okay?" she says, setting her bare hand on your arm.

Congrats!

You are now unconscious.

When you are done doing your very impressive washed-up-jellyfish impression on the floor behind the counter and come to, your boss is already standing over you, having called an ambulance for your gay ass before you rejoined the landing of the living.

And the Night Angel, the Mountain Siren, she slumps in relief ("a kind heart! truly the most perfect woman to ever live!" says the part of your brain that has become a blithering moron in the face of pretty girl) and smiles (soft!! benevolent!! moonstruck in her light you are!)

"I'm so glad you're okay."

She does not wait for you to respond before leaving, which is good, because you almost fainted again there, just a little, and now you're revisiting the problem with brains and lack of blood again, you know how it is.

The EMTs arrive, and you spend the next twenty minutes trying to avoid admitting that the reason you had the organic version of a blue screen of death because you were, literally, too gay to function

[monstersandmaw]

Unseelie story;

I absolutely find it hilarious that its the perfect fine, normal, human friend that's the one who gets into hijinks while out with their succubus friend, who you would think is actually the one who scampers off to cause trouble when their human friend's back is turned 😂

I can't imagine the surprise on the human mc's when she finds out she asked an Unseelie PRINCE for help.

Succubus; Wait... you asked him for help?

MC: Yeah... well, he wasn't exactly willing at first, but I pulled out the old puppy dog eyes and-

Succubus: He's a Prince.

MC: ...he's a what?

WIP snippet treats for anon. WIP snippet treats for anon for a thousand years.

—

“I need a drink,” Lena hissed through clenched teeth. “This place sucks.”

“Len…” her friend began in concerned tones. “Len, what the fuck happened while I was gone?”

“I thought that pretending some random hot guy was my boyfriend would get that creep to back off,” she said as she took a seat at the bar and tried to get the attention of the bartender. “It worked, I guess.”

“You guess?” Jen breathed. “Len, do you know who the fuck that was?” she asked, her purple eyes wide and frightened for the first time that Lena could ever recall.

“No? Who is he?” she asked as ice slid slowly through her gut.

“Only the gods-damned Unseelie fucking Prince,” she snarled, the air around her sparking visibly like static on a winter jumper. “Creators, do you have a death wish? Did you perchance tell him your Name while you were at it? What did he ask in return for fending that creep off? How many years of servitude? Oh gods, did he take your soul?”

“Jen, calm down,” Lena said, confusion pulling at her expression. “I didn’t give him anything and he didn’t ask me for anything. He just… pulled me into his lap and kissed me bloody senseless, and then when the bastard had gone, I thanked him and walked away.”

“You… You ‘thanked’ him?” she bleated, looking horrified in a way Lena couldn’t understand. “Oh shit, Lena…”

“What? Is it rude to be polite to a prince now?” she asked. She’d have been lying if she’d said her heart rate wasn’t rising to about a thousand bpm at the realisation that she’d just snogged an Unseelie Fae, and a prince no less, but she hid it as best she could and waited for Jen to tell her what was really going on.

“Have you learned nothing at all about Fae in the three years we were at uni together? You don’t thank a Fae, Len.”

“I thank you all the time,” she countered as heat rose in her cheeks that had nothing at all to do with the temperature of the club.

“Yeah, but we’re friends. That’s different. Fae don’t do ‘favours’ for people, and definitely not royal Fae, Len. You do something and you get something in return but you always decide what the price is beforehand, otherwise they can ask you for something ludicrous, like… like the moon or your beating heart in a jar.” Jen paused, and when Lena just stared at her in blank horror, she spat, “If you say ‘thank you’, it dismisses what they did for you, and implies you won’t pay them at all, and only your betters can do that. So you just implied that you���re on the same social standing as the fucking Unseelie Prince, Lena.”

“Oh,” she said. “Shit.”

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 2.13 (after 1940)

1945 – World War II: The siege of Budapest concludes with the unconditional surrender of German and Hungarian forces to the Red Army. 1945 – World War II: Royal Air Force bombers are dispatched to Dresden, Germany to attack the city with a massive aerial bombardment. 1951 – Korean War: Battle of Chipyong-ni, which represented the "high-water mark" of the Chinese incursion into South Korea, commences. 1954 – Frank Selvy becomes the only NCAA Division I basketball player ever to score 100 points in a single game. 1955 – Israel obtains four of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls. 1955 – Twenty-nine people are killed when Sabena Flight 503 crashes into Monte Terminillo near Rieti, Italy. 1960 – With the success of a nuclear test codenamed "Gerboise Bleue", France becomes the fourth country to possess nuclear weapons. 1960 – Black college students stage the first of the Nashville sit-ins at three lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee. 1961 – An allegedly 500,000-year-old rock is discovered near Olancha, California, US, that appears to anachronistically encase a spark plug. 1967 – American researchers discover the Madrid Codices by Leonardo da Vinci in the National Library of Spain. 1975 – Fire at One World Trade Center (North Tower) of the World Trade Center in New York. 1978 – Hilton bombing: A bomb explodes in a refuse truck outside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney, Australia, killing two refuse collectors and a policeman. 1979 – An intense windstorm strikes western Washington and sinks a 0.5-mile (0.80 km) long section of the Hood Canal Bridge. 1981 – A series of sewer explosions destroys more than two miles of streets in Louisville, Kentucky. 1983 – A cinema fire in Turin, Italy, kills 64 people. 1984 – Konstantin Chernenko succeeds the late Yuri Andropov as general secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. 1990 – German reunification: An agreement is reached on a two-stage plan to reunite Germany. 1991 – Gulf War: Two laser-guided "smart bombs" destroy the Amiriyah shelter in Baghdad. Allied forces said the bunker was being used as a military communications outpost, but over 400 Iraqi civilians inside were killed. 1996 – The Nepalese Civil War is initiated in the Kingdom of Nepal by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre). 2001 – An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter magnitude scale hits El Salvador, killing at least 944. 2004 – The Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics announces the discovery of the universe's largest known diamond, white dwarf star BPM 37093. Astronomers named this star "Lucy" after The Beatles' song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". 2007 – Taiwan opposition leader Ma Ying-jeou resigns as the chairman of the Kuomintang party after being indicted on charges of embezzlement during his tenure as the mayor of Taipei; Ma also announces his candidacy for the 2008 presidential election. 2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a historic apology to the Indigenous Australians and the Stolen Generations. 2010 – A bomb explodes in the city of Pune, Maharashtra, India, killing 17 and injuring 60 more. 2011 – For the first time in more than 100 years the Umatilla, an American Indian tribe, are able to hunt and harvest a bison just outside Yellowstone National Park, restoring a centuries-old tradition guaranteed by a treaty signed in 1855. 2012 – The European Space Agency (ESA) conducted the first launch of the European Vega rocket from Europe's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. 2017 – Kim Jong-nam, brother of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, is assassinated at Kuala Lumpur International Airport. 2021 – Former U.S. President Donald Trump is acquitted in his second impeachment trial. 2021 – A major winter storm causes blackouts and kills at least 82 people in Texas and northern Mexico.

[thebonesofhoudini]

That Grimes DJ fail video from Coachella it's a great example of why a lot of celebrity pop stars turned DJs are straight up and down fucking trash. Don't know how to beat match without pressing a sync button. Don't know how to beatmatch without looking at BPM counters. Don't know how to mix on tables. Don't really know anything about DJing. Caring more about looking cool behind the CDJs than actually mixing. This goes for Charlie XCX, Billie Eilish, and other try hards. Bedroom DJs with one month of training can do better than this.

[svcredveins]

My little lady has been quite on the quick side for quite a bit for a couple of hours! Like she’s just been a thumpin’! This is the part where I also need a pulse oximeter because the stemoscope app is not really all that reliable with the BPM counter haha

Today was the division classifications for my league. The nerves of not knowing what division I’d be in, thinking that I’d still be in Division 3 but actually nope! I’ve been promoted to Division 2 silver so yeah I know I’ll be at the back of the grid fighting with my other mates from Division 3 who also got promoted to Division 2 silver haha. We’ll all be chillin’ behind the faster drivers 😎

Division 2 is under Division 1 which is ultimately the second fastest class. How did I make this division on a controller? I have no idea, but sheesh it’s gonna be wild. Was hoping I’d have a shot to win the Nordschleife overall but I guess not now haha. Gotta focus on the silver class now haha

But phew! I also had coffee today as well so she’s been also on the speedy side today. Guess also with the anticipation with the division classifications it’s been an antsy day! 🫀

[glassmarcus]

Hi-Fi Rush: Directed by Edgar Wright

*Played in February 2023, Written in January 2024

Hi-Fi Rush is the dream of every rhythmically inclined dork made manifest. It’s the bored kid in the back of the class tapping their pencil to the ticking of a clock. It's the tired adult trying to get through their dull chores by folding laundry in tune to whatever is blasting on their Spotify playlist. It's the gym bro who does his curls on a perfect 4 count. Hi-Fi rush is every single Anime AMV you've ever watched. Hi-Fi Rush is Baby Driver, but a video game, and not starring any sex offenders. Even if you haven't outwardly said it, if you can relate to any of the above, you have been wanting a game like Hi-Fi Rush for a while. This is not to say that it’s the only game where you do your actions to the beat of the music. BPM is a shooter with the same concept. Crypt of the Necrodancer is a Dungeon Crawler with this concept. What sets Hi-Fi rush apart is that it applies it to a genre that’s not already saturated in the market.

Hi-Fi is a character action game where everything is synced to the beat of the background music. Every attack you do, every movement you make happens on beat. The enemies and environments adhere to this same rule. Your button presses don't have to be in rhythm, but it will feel better if you do and you'll be rewarded for playing this way. Hi-Fi Rush is a rhythm game masquerading as an action game, but that just makes it a better action game rather that an abomination trying to fasten two incongruent ideas together.

I've come to realize the true form of the character action genre action after playing Hi-fi Rush: A series over the top dancing games. All your moves have a set time they take. You need to be confident in execution. You need to understand the rhythm of your partner or in this case your enemy. I know it's a cliche at this point, but fighting really is like dancing. Trust me, I started dancing earlier this year and the only reason I’m any good at it is because I studied martial arts for 9 years prior. Every beat has you doing a motion even if it doesn't seem that way. It's like you're using moves and each move takes up a set count and has to be done with the correct set up. You need to understand what your partner is doing in order to get the juiciest combos. It isn't that much different from other character action games. But in Hi-Fi you are rewarded for being on rhythm and it's feasible to do so because everything is.

All enemies in these games have a timing to their attacks that you have to study in order to match to so you can counter effectively. Hi-Fi heavily decreases the study period, and due to that, it's easier to understand the mechanics of the game. The enemies follow the same rhythm as you, so you always know your cue and it's up to you to nail your part. You know when you should parry, when you should dodge, or when you should attack because those things always happen on the beat. It gives you a bit of foresight and lends an air of predictability for what's to come. When Hi-Fi Rush throws 12 enemies at me at once, I don't freak out. I just get through the song. If I stay on rhythm the moves will come to me. The rhythm tethers you to a place of comfort among the chaos. And once you reach the end and see how that platoon of hilarious robots didn't stand a chance against you, you start to feel like a fucking rock star.

Making you feel like a rock start is Hi-Fi Rush’s Greatest Strength. It doesn’t just do that by having your main character swing at goons with his guitar. The cast plays a huge role in that as well. What would a rock star be without a band? Throughout the game you meet endearing characters that not only introduce fun character dynamics, but also add flavor and volume to the gameplay. This supporting cast act as assist that you can summon for brief attacks. By the end of the game you have 3 other band members, each that attack on beat with their own weapons and seamlessly flow in and out of your attacks. Once you get comfortable with using the assist action and switching between party members, you aren’t only the lead musician, you’re the conductor. And your audience just so happens to be a horde of robots trying to kill you. But I’ve learned to appreciate my fans all the same. The enemy variety in the game always keeps you on your toes. They all need to be handled in a different way and that can make it pretty hard to stay on rhythm, but all the more satisfying when you do. The same can be said even more so for the boss fights as they are all multi phase gauntlets that result in a clash of egos as if it was some wild artist collab.

The goal of each fight you do in Hi-Fi Rush is to pull off the hottest jam session you can do with your band. That’s what makes the ranking system make sense in this game. Usually I end up ignoring the ranking systems in these games because they expect way more than what I’m willing to put in and I don’t have it in me to play perfect. Hi-Fi Rush doesn’t expect perfection. This ranking system is unique in that instead of expecting the player to get through the encounter without getting hit, it expects the player to stay on rhythm. You can get hit as much as you can without dying. What matters is staying on beat, which is something I want to do anyway as it feels great. I’m more intrinsically pushed to get better ranks on these missions because it demands I play in the way that is the most fun. I feel the same way about Astral Chain, where variety in what you do is graded rather than how perfect the encounter was. Pulling off varied moves in that game is when it’s the most fun, so having the system be like this makes sense. The ranking in Hi-Fi Rush clicks with me in a similar way. I’m not gonna S rank everything still because these levels are too long, but I’m more likely to do that here than in Devil May Cry.

I want to take this a moment in this last paragraph to mention that everything else within Hi-Fi is stellar as well. The characters are A+ and writing is exactly what it needs to be. The humor always landed for me and the emotional moments in the plot were some of my highlights of 2023 for gaming. Of course the music rules the whole way through and is used better than any game has ever used music because of how it's integrated into the gameplay and story. Everything in this game is polished and it's stuffed full of bonus content. There's an elaborate training room, accessibility options up the wazoo, an additional soundtrack made to be copyright proof that's just as good as the normal soundtrack. The only actual issues I’d say the game has is the level design, in that there is too much of it. It’s good and the set pieces are fun, but it's not enough to justify the amount of platforming you are doing. The horizontal movement in your normal jump is so trash that jumping on things never actually feels good to do. I'd be a way bigger fan of this game if your jump had a decent arc or if those parts were you had to platform were decreased by 50%. Which is insane considering I'm already a huge fan of this game. I’m glad that there is still room for improvement. I want this to be a franchise or at least have it inspire similar games with different music genres. A funk based Hi-Fi rush would own so hard I can't stand it not being a real thing.

[bluevaractyl]

Adventure of Link update no one asked for

I've started mapping out the dungeon (Parapa Palace) as I go

oh yeah, level up woohoo

man, fighting moblins and wosu stinks because they take your points if they hit you, and if you defeat them they don't give you anything

getting the hang of fighting the spear-throwing moblins, and they do give me points

how in Hyrule do I get past this red geldarm thingy? Do I need the jump spell first?

oh this guy's smart, he moves his shield to counter me

it's really hard fighting enemies in the dark aaaaa

HOLY GUACAMOLE it's a BOSS

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ok I died

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Good news: I beat the horsehead guy!

Bad news: uh got my heartrate up to 123 bpm oops too intense

woohoo one crystal down, I forgot how many to go!!! 🎉

wait a second, wasn't I supposed to find a candle in there somewhere... :/

[icanthocusfocus]

Goncharov (1973) spoilers. A continuation of a previous post.

He arrives just exactly at seven, and Katya is already at their table when the hostess leads him over.

“I’ve dreamt of you all night, my darling.” Goncharov leaves a chaste kiss on her cheek and takes his seat. “I’ve brought with me wonderful news.”

“I’m sure whatever you say, I’ll be happy enough to hear it.”

He leans forward, jolting his knee at 60 BPM. He wants to be home by eight. Katya has never been a favourable dinner companion, and he has been drained today. He must not be distracted by the conversation at hand.

”I heard you’d just won that Italian Pearl necklace at auction, and I wondered if you wouldn’t like a few straight from the source. I know I’d just love to see you in Naples.”

Her red lips, like the kind of fresh apples only the rich could ever hope to see, went taut. Then Katya smiled, and Goncharov knew he’d be fine. “When does our train leave? I must choose what to bring.”

”We’ll be there quite a while. It’s uncertain exactly how long, so I’d bring whatever you can. We leave next week. I’ll have our things send over as well, whenever I can.”

The waiter comes and goes, a young man of lanky build. He is far too slow, and his superior will scold him for it tonight. He has been slow all week. Not that it matters, as his father owns a sizable part of the resort. Katya gives him a small red smile, and the boy responds alike.

Few stay at the resort as long as Katya has. Those who can afford one night can certainly afford 30, but most choose not to. The only ones who do stay the full month are the infirmed and unemployed. Those who were passed money from their family older than most of the poor could count to.

“I have a gift for you, my love.” She pulls a sizable brown box from her furs and displays the contents before him. She holds the watch up like a counter girl in the midst of a sale. “Something less easy to lose. Your current contraption is becoming more dated by the day.”

His current contraption is a stopwatch of uncertain age, passed down the Daddano family for longer than the Goncharov name has existed. Andrey, in no position to pass it on himself, had pressed it into Goncharov hands, not caring that the watch would be coated red by the act. He maintains it himself, winding it precisely and memorizing so many manuals as he can find. Each week he opens it up and examines any faults he might extract.

”How thoughtful you are, darling Katya.” He gently removes the box from her hands and slips it into his coat pocket, where it will swiftly be forgotten.

Katya’s eyes follow the brown box, lined in immaculate black and squinting just a bit. “I must ask. Why Naples? What is there for us?”

”Our time in Russia has ended, doll. We must hope to find more elsewhere. It just so happens that some old friends of ours have graciously offered a position.” He will leave as soon as the main course is finished, leaving his wife with a stack of bills and a promise to return.

“Then it is true.” Katya returns to her perfect posture against the back of her chair, no longer inclined toward Goncharov.

“What is?”

”Andrey has returned.”

Last Part Next Part

[startestblog]

The way people talk about disco on this website is vibes-based and ahistorical.

We did get 80s disco: the cutting edge of dance music morphed into Hi-NRG and House, the cutting edge of remix became turntablism and rap, because no genre is static; and we also did get literally 80s disco songs, songs which are disco but synth driven, the same way we got 90s and 00s disco songs. Legendary disco venue Paradise Garage doesn't really kick off until 1980.

80s disco sounds like Larry Levan's remix of 70s disco song Love is the Message. It's cooler, smoother, more synthetic, less organic, less syrupy.

Late 70s disco does not sound the same as mid-70s disco which does not sound the same as early 70s disco. And there are entire white subcultures within disco (italo, euro, a lot of space disco,).

Disco Demolition Night was obvs a racist moment but it's not single-handedly responsible for shifts in taste and culture.

It was not 'only gaining momentum' in 1979. In 1977 the Saturday Night Fever OST was the best selling album in music history, a record not broken until Thriller (1982, arguably also disco!). Disco was a massive cultural phenomenon. Lots of mainstream artists tried to capitalise on it by releasing a disco track or disco album (like Rod Stewart, James Brown, Queen). Literally anything that could be remixed into a cheap disco version, was: Pink Floyd, the Star Wars theme, the theme from Ralph Bashki's Lord of the Rings, prog concept album War of the Worlds, Beethoven, Mussorgsky, Ethel Merman released a musical theatre disco album. There's a handful of disco movies (they are all terrible) because disco was a hot property. These things were not being produced for black consumers, but for the mainstream.

It was not an underground black aesthetic that was crushed by the man. If there was a backlash in 1979, it's because this was tacky and no longer counter-cultural or exciting. And because you can only listen to so much disco.

There are actual issues around race to talk about in disco!

An important part of disco as a phenomenon is that it was curated from black & latin artists by white DJs and white mixers for white dance floors. Early disco was just high BPM funk & world music. DJs - overwhelmingly white Italian Americans - would dig about and select songs they thought could be danced to, and if they worked well on the dance floor, they 'became' disco. That collectively created the sound, which musicians would then create in turn - it's only from about 1974 that people are deliberately making 'disco records'.

Black & brown people did not have access to DJ jobs in the 70s. People like Grandmaster Flash were part of a different DJing culture taking place in people's bedrooms and in the street. Iconic figures like Frankie Knuckles and Larry Levan were hanging about and carrying boxes for DJs throughout the 70s, but did not get their own gigs until the 80s, and it is the 80s that their disco-influenced sound is associated with.

Black & brown people were not equally welcome in nightclubs - most of which had explicitly racist door policies. In particular, black people were not equally welcome in the gay nightclubs which were pivotal to disco's evolution and success.

Black & brown people did not have access to producing jobs in the 70s - a key facet of the disco sound is the importance of the remixer or producer who turned regular songs into dance tracks - people like Tom Moulton, Giorgio Moroder, Patrick Cowley. Again, overwhelmingly, these people are white, creating music with black performers (and creating interesting questions and problems around the figure of the producer as auteur). Again, it's not until the late 70s and 80s that black people gained access to consumer technologies allowing them to record and produce their own music. Reportedly, the 1977 New York Blackout was essential to the development of rap, because during the chaos some enterprising young people on the scene liberated the sound equipment they could not otherwise have afforded from sound shops.

Tumblr has invented a narrative about disco which sort of 'feels true', & is simply not correct: disco was a black counter-cultural sound which white people killed, because they are racist. The facts don't support this. I don't have the book on hand to give you the stats for how many discos opened in the late 70s, but they were everywhere. A better argument is that white people killed disco by making it rubbish.

It might be most true to say blackness haunts disco: black people are extremely present as the musical technicians and 'face' of the sound, and yet extremely absent from the roles offering control over its direction, including as consumers. & that racism is integral to disco, as it continues to be in dance music (i.e. google Black Box, Return to Innocence, the amen break) where people of colour might lay down a vocal track or a drum beat which is then taken up by others as the core of a new sound, in a way that disempowers the original performer.

& that instead of a fake history of disco, the actual racial politics at play in the genre is really worth talking about. For want of a better articulation, black & brown musicians created the raw materials of disco but had no control over the means of production.

Book recs:

Love Saves the Day - Tim Lawrence - a history of dancefloor culture in the 70s

Hot Stuff - Disco and the remaking of American Culture - Alice Echols - exploring disco through race, gender, and society

the way you can See the immediate damage of disco demolition night on the number of disco releases each year

it was only gaining momentum. and then White People. and i will always be thinking about how scary it is even beyond the prospect of what could have been of 80s disco. racism killed a fucking music genre dude. left it bleeding out in a ditch