#I WILL RIOT BURN DOWN SK

[thomashelbyswife]

I would love this season to end with Tommy's mother taking his hand and telling him that "They let you pass my boy" with a smile, It's sort of a happy ending isn't it?

[grabthelantern]

Top 5 Thursday: Best Music of 2017

By Helmight

Continuing with my year-end recap, this week I’ll be breaking down the best musical pieces released by Riot in 2017. Though we didn’t have as many killer tracks as we did in 2016, there were still plenty of memorable songs created for League of Legends this year. From esports to music videos to login themes, here are the top 5 songs of 2017.

#5: PROJECT//Hunters

Alright, alright, I’ll come clean - the PROJECT//Hunters theme makes the list partially because of how damn much I love that skin line. However, you can’t deny that the Hunters theme is pretty incredible. The soft intro, coupled with the repeating staccato lines in the background, perfectly capture the feeling of being hunted through the back alleys of some futuristic city. As the song crescendos, so too does the hunt approach its conclusion - though what happens next is anyone’s guess. It’s an excellent piece and more than deserving of making the list, even without my favoritism.

#4: Star Guardian: A New Horizon

Don’t get me wrong, I liked the original Star Guardian theme from last year, but Burning Bright is almost a little too obvious as a magical girl intro theme. A New Horizon, by contrast, fills similar from a musical standpoint but has an identity of its own that lets it stand apart from its predecessor. The wordless singing in the song never fails to get me, and I think that A New Horizon perfectly conveys its connection to the classic Star Guardians while maintaining its own unique identity.

#3: The Path to Hearth-Home

The first time I heard this, I left the tab open for the next hour just to listen to it over and over again. The Path to Hearth-Home musically takes the listener on the same trip that the poem does, leading you through the icy fields of the Freljord to the mountain that Ornn makes his own. 

The Path to Hearth-Home gets bonus points for the Freljordian singing. Not only does it sound beautiful, but the singer is actually speaking the Freljordian tongue throughout the song. Mad flavor points there.

#2: Legends Never Die

Riot always releases some kind of esports-related song right around Worlds, and it’s usually pretty awesome. This year’s song blows all of the previous ones out of the water though. Legends Never Die is musically very well composed and captures the feeling that all of us have as we strive to meet our end-of-season goals.

It’s also poignant that the year Legends Never Die was released was the same year that Faker and the rest of SK Telecom T1 finally lost their dynasty. Despite no longer being the world champions, the song reminds us that true legends don’t fade away quietly - we’ll remember Faker’s run of glory for as long as League of Legends exists.

#1: Mortal Reminder

Pentakill’s second coming was already exciting enough, but Mortal Reminder turned the anticipation up to eleven all by itself. Symphonic metal has always been one of my favorite genres, and it works so incredibly well with the bombast and spectacle of Pentakill. Add to that the fact that we got a music video for the song and you have yourself an incredible metal anthem.

Mortal Reminder is hands-down the best track on the album, and ends up being the best track of the year as well through sheer badassitude.

Let me know which tracks you enjoyed the most in the comments section below, and be sure to like and reblog this post if you enjoyed it!

[vsplusonline]

A week after Delhi riots, victims stare at an uncertain future

New Post has been published on https://apzweb.com/a-week-after-delhi-riots-victims-stare-at-an-uncertain-future/

A week after Delhi riots, victims stare at an uncertain future

Gali No. 4 of Khajuri Khas Extension in Northeast Delhi is charred to the bone. Mukeem, a middle-aged owner of a furniture store, is searching through the debris of a building that was both his home and shop. He claims he has lost properties worth Rs 1 crore. Sarkari muaavaza (official compensation), whatever be the amount, would mean nothing, he says, considering the damage he and his family have suffered.

“My home and warehouse were first looted and then set on fire,” he says, adding that the attack was wellplanned, with many carrying cutting tools and keys to break open doors and shutters. He now stays with his relatives in nearby Chandu Nagar, with no clue of what lies ahead.

It is a week since riots spread across Northeast Delhi — the worst the capital has seen since the anti-Sikh pogrom of 1984 — and what is left are frightened people, burnt-down lanes, abandoned homes, an uneasy calm and an uncertain future. Mohammed Asad, a student, leads us to the home of his uncle, Mehboob, who rents out space in his covered parking lot. All 23 vehicles parked there, including two auto-rickshaws and Asad’s Royal Enfield bike, are reduced to a mangled heap of metal. “I had paid only three instalments of my bike. What remains is the iron relic of my pride,” says Asad.

Sundar Lal has opened his grocery shop in Chand Bagh after a week.

Their homes burnt down and papers lost, many residents fear they would face difficulties in claiming insurance. ET Magazine counted at least 20 charred houses in the single by-lane of Khajuri Khas Extension where Mukeem and Mehboob live. Saira Bano, holding her three-month-old daughter Anisha, weeps as she says, “As our house was burning, there was no way we could take the stairs. From the fourth floor, we dropped our child into the hands of someone on the second floor. From the second floor, we again dropped her to someone on the ground floor. Then we ran for our lives.”

Many had escaped by the skin of their teeth. “We saw the rioters coming. So we shut our shop and went upstairs. But the rioters broke open the shutter and set everything on fire,” recalls Mohammed Jamid, who runs a bakery at Chand Bagh with 12 other family members, including his sons and daughters-in-law. What remain are sooty walls and burnt remains of the machines and the display counter. He estimates the losses of his movable assets to be about Rs 12 lakh.

ANI

A paramilitary soldier stands guard as shops open in riot-hit Jafarabad on Saturday.

In Chand Bagh, one of the violence-hit neighbourhoods, several shops and homes are burnt and by-lanes are strewn with ashes and debris.

Sunder Lal has opened his grocery shop after a week. So has Sujan Singh. Sundar, 65, says he saw rioters burning one shop after the other in just two hours on Tuesday evening. He points towards the shops — Sasaar Sweet House, Jain grocery shop, a Vaishnav dhaba and Bunny ice cream shop.

In nearby Maujpur, SK Sharma is reading his morning newspaper outside his fodder shop. “If Muslims have lost their homes, so have Hindus. It is time to count our losses and get back to work,” he says. Everyone, Hindu and Muslim, has a harrowing story to share. It also often reveals the mistrust and divide between the two communities.

A few Hindus in Chand Bagh allege they saw councillor Tahir Hussain, who has recently been expelled from the Aam Aadmi Party, pelting petrol bomb and acid from his multi-storey building, while some Muslim residents claim he is a saviour.

Mohammed Jamid, who runs Nagina bakery in Chand Bagh, and daughter-in-law Rehana.

“I lost the keys of my sweet shop on Monday when rioters came to our area and wreaked havoc,” says Sujan Singh, pointing towards Hussain’s home. But Singh says it’s now time to leave behind the horror and return to business.

Agrees Muhammed Sabit, a Muslim manager at Khullar Tempo Transport Service, owned by a Hindu: “Both sides have suffered. Had police been deployed on time, I feel the losses would have been bare minimum.” He was the first to open his shop on the main Bhajanpura road on Saturday morning.

They are trying to pick up the pieces and piece together their lives. But the wounds are still raw and the losses have yet to be counted.

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[leighkhoopes]

The first big meme of 2017 has arrived and it's List the Top 10 Albums That Influenced You As A Teenager. This was an almost impossible selection for me, so I gave myself some additional ground rules: these albums all came out when I was an actual teenager (13-19, to be precise) and I promptly wore them out something serious. These are also albums that I continue to listen to and enjoy to this day. I also took the *complete* album into consideration—almost all of these are total listen-throughs for me, even though there may be some other songs and singles that had more of an impact on my impressionable teenage brain. 

 So, here's the list, how old I was when they came out, and some thoughts, in no particular order: 

Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (2002) I was: 17, in between high school and college This was the first SK album I ever bought, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. It was on one of those listening stations at the local music store (RIP ear-x-tacy) and the opener with its urgent drums, spindly guitars and fantastic vocals and harmonies drew me in immediately. Apparently One Beat was their "political" album and that makes sense, but the infectiously jangly "Oh!" remains one of my all-time favorite songs to this day, and though I've listened to the rest of their catalogue, One Beat remains my favorite to this day. 

Christina Aguilera - Stripped (2002) I was: 18, college freshman Fun fact: I was one of those angsty teens who mocked pop music while hiding my secret shame at loving every bubblegum beat and boy band dance jam. When you're a teenager, you have to keep up appearances—I knew I wasn't one of the popular types, so I tried to be a "rock" kid and turned up my nose at what turned out to be some really great songs. My dear Ms. Aguilera changed all of that for me. I had already loved her first singles (You cannot deny "Genie in a Bottle," so don't even try) and her complete ownage of "Lady Marmalade" for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, so when Stripped came out in all its sexual and bold yet vulnerable and honest glory, I found the soundtrack to the twilight of my teenage years. Everyone knows about "Dirrty," "Beautiful," "Can't Hold Us Down," and "Fighter," but have you heard the soft sensuality of "Lovin' Me for Me"? What about the deep piano soul of "Underappreciated"? This album is packed with both gems and jams, and remains relevant to this very day.

Eve - Scorpion (2001) I was: 16, high school junior I came late to the rap game, since I wasn’t allowed to buy CDs with parental advisory stickers until my senior year of high school, so I've made a lot of progress, but I didn't get the kind of hip-hop education most of my friends have besides what made it onto the radio at the time. This was post-Tupac/Biggie but pre-50 Cent, and the airwaves were mostly dominated by the aforementioned pop and its bad cousin pop-punk. So when Eve's basically flawless "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" featuring Gwen Stefani's damn near perfect hook and what I would learn is a quintessentially Dr. Dre beat dropped, all slinky and sexy and sassy, I was beyond obsessed. The rest of the album is on point, too: "Who's That Girl?" became an anthem for me because I could easily sing back "LEIGH's that girl!" (la la la-la, la la la-la); "Gangsta Bitch" was a sick collab with Trina and Da Brat; and "Got What You Need" is a great call-and-response banger courtesy of Swizz Beats and some other lesser Ruff Ryders rapper who is probably mad that Eve destroyed him on this track and probably in real life as well. 

The Kills - Keep on Your Mean Side (2003) I was: 19, college sophomore Somehow I got this CD for Christmas? I don’t remember how or where I heard about it, but this album for me is the perfect combination of sexy and scuzzy with raw guitars and sparse, swampy beats and endless, unbearable chemistry between VV (Allison Mosshart) and Hotel (Jamie Hince) that continues to this day. Fifteen years, four albums, and multiple side projects (and one very high-profile marriage and divorce) later, and I am one of those fans who firmly stans for them to live happily ever after in musical harmony and continuing rock n’ roll cuteness. They’re just SO PERFECT TOGETHER, OKAY? Anyway, this album is great, and you should listen to it if you haven’t already.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2001) I was: 16, soon-to-be high school senior If I had to pick ONE album that was the most influential to me of all of these, it would be Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ seminal self-titled EP. It dropped right before my senior year of high school, when I was finally starting to figure myself out a little bit and realizing that I liked loud music by loud ladies that I could dance to and scream along to, regardless of genre or format. The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes, and all their ilk were kicking off a new rock revolution, but there were so few ladies out there making as much noise as I needed them to. Karen O was not a great singer, but the way she whispered and groaned and wailed over the wall of sound that Nick and Brian created with just a guitar and a drumset was revelatory to me, especially after I got to see them live a few years later, smushed up against the stage at the Southgate House and rapt as the speakers pounded in my chest and Karen sprayed beer and spit on all of us, and she leaned down at the beginning of “Our Time” at the end of their set, when I was exhausted and enthralled, put the mic in front my face and together we crooned “To break on through-ooh!” YYYs continued to put out some great music and evolve their sound not-so-greatly in the following years (sorry, y’all, but Mosquito was not good), but nothing seared itself so firmly on my psyche as Karen and me covered in sweat, singing what should have been an anthem for the pre-1990 Millennials: “It’s the year to be hated / so glad that we made it.” If that doesn’t sum up everything everyone’s ever said about those of us born between 1980 and 1999, I don’t know what does.

Daft Punk - Discovery (2001) I was: 16, high school junior If there’s another album I had to name as one of my top all-timers, completely different but still equally influential, it’s Daft Punk’s Discovery. Daft Punk allowed me to embrace my love of dance and electronic music, and built a perfect unifying force among me and my friends, providing that anthem we’d been waiting for with “One More Time,” a song that still fills me with joy every time those first few beats fade in and I can’t help but smile when it drops and that surprisingly, beautifully warm vocoder voice comes in over the spaces between. The rest of the album is literally iconic as well, and really cemented Daft Punk as the arbiters of dance parties for everyone, all-inclusive, delirious and endlessly entertaining and ultimately joyful.

Le Tigre (1999) I was: 15, high school sophomore I’ll admit it: I missed the Riot Grrl movement by several years, so Kathleen Hanna and Le Tigre were a new experience for me. I loved the edge and the anger in her voice, the fuzzy throwback sound and sampling that made it seem like something I could do if I just tried harder and wasn’t so shy and scared to raise a ruckus and my voice. One thing I’ve noticed about so many of these albums and groups is that I really liked stripped-down music with big sounds created by small groups of people: duos and trios make up the bulk of my favorite albums during this era. I got to see them live as well, when JD Sampson joined the lineup and became my introduction to confusingly, distractingly sexy nonbinary people, and it was at the height of the Bush era, in the middle of my college years, and while I didn’t feel the exhilaration of singing with Karen O, I felt the freedom of dancing my ass off and screaming until my lungs my ached, unafraid of who I might bump into with my unruly booty, unafraid of who I might offend with my burgeoning baby feminism. I was sad when they stopped recording and disappointed at their recent lackluster Hillary Clinton track near the end of the election cycle, but I’ve loved the resurgence of The Julie Ruin and the ongoing reinvention and determination Hanna continues to project in the face of so much bullshittery that permeates our world and culture today. 

The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) I was: 19, college sophomore At the Drive-In was another band I missed out on the first time around, but The Mars Volta popped up in my circles of smartass potheads once I started to find my tiny tribe of people in the rural Kentucky college town in which I lived for four years. I’ve always loved a man unafraid to belt out an anthem, and Cedric Bixler-Zavala golden throat soared over Omar Rodruigez-Lopez’s prog-rock symphonies and movements, and it sounded just as good when I was stone cold sober as when I was self-medicating in the name of social acceptance and anxiety avoidance. I will forever associate them with giant spliffs and endless laughter, letting the discordant sounds wash over me and and Cedric’s voice burn through me, as well as making myself a zombie prom queen Halloween costume under a waxing moon after a bad breakup, working some kind of dark magic to transform myself into someone no one would recognize, even if only for a night. There was always a sadness that permeated these songs, something that got lost in their later, more esoteric albums I could never get into, and there was something on this album that made me feel okay with being sad, allowing myself to feel my feelings that I tried to keep hidden for far too long.

Ludacris - Back for the First Time (2000) I was: 16, high school junior Again, the most rap I had ever really listened to before high school was MC Hammer and Will Smith’s squeaky clean radio-rap, so Luda’s debut was a major eye-opener for overly-sheltered white suburban me. "What's Your Fantasy" and "Phat Rabbit" were titillating, sure, but also fantastic rhymes and beats, and "Stick 'Em Up Bitch" and "1st & 10" were darkly hilarious under their gangsta veneers. "Southern Hospitality" brought bravado to what could have just been another Neptunes beat, and throughout it all, Luda's flow was so sick and smooth, so full of wit and wordplay and unashamed sexuality, and I loved to blare it driving through my parents’ neighborhood, even after the speakers in my car blew out and sounded like nothing but surly vibrations as I dawdled on my way home for my 11pm curfew. If I had to come in at what I considered an unfair, oppressive time, I was going to wake up everyone else in the process. Yes, I was a not-so-secret dick when I was a teenager–weren’t we all? Side note: I'm kind of sad Shawnna never made it all that big, and this video is the absolute perfect time capsule of the year 2000.

Peaches - The Teaches of Peaches (2000) I was: 16, high school senior I’ll also admit this: I fucking loved “electroclash.” That amalgamation of punk and dance music was everything to me, the perfect blend of rock guitars and big beats that enmeshed everything teenage me loved about being loud and dancing like everyone was watching and not giving a fuck either way. Peaches was gross and vulgar and rapped about sex with no emotion but pleasure, and she got even dirtier as the years went on, but The Teaches of Peaches was seminal and shocking and just the kind of thing a slightly crazed and endlessly awkward, horny teenage girl needed to hear to start embracing my own weird sexuality and rampaging hormones and confused feelings, instead of keeping them locked away and shameful like I was supposed to. Everyone knows and loves "Fuck the Pain Away," thanks to its cameo appearances in Lost in Translation and the Jackass movies, but "Lovertits" was always my personal favorite from this album. The moment that breakdown takes over is pure brilliance and one of my favorite moments in any song ever. Peaches dancing in front of the mirror in this video is teenage me, always and forever, singing to myself when no one was looking and finally finding away to sing to myself in public, out loud, and not caring who heard me. I'm still working on it, but I think these albums did a lot to push me in the direction I've gone and to get me where I am now as a feminist and a lover of music and dance parties for life.

Honorable Mentions: 

Beck - Midnite Vultures (1999)

No Doubt - Return of Saturn (2000)

Madonna - Ray of Light (1998)

The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

N.E.R.D. - In Search Of... (2001)