#I’ve been on a 2010s YouTube music bender

[y4rdbird]

THE SILLY!!!!!!!!!!!!

[shiftingdiariesofophelia]

little update for you guys:

so i’ve had literally no time for shifting recently 💀 I haven’t even attempted in a month or so.

and i know everyone’s like “make time!” or “shifting is easy just do ___!” girl i’m telling you i’m up at 6 in the morning and my day isn’t over until 11, then i need to go to sleep and do it all again the next day. having responsibilities sucks ass.

BUT- in the meantime, I’ve been exploring potential DRs and making pinterest boards and cute little spotify playlists and basically it’s the main way i’m attached to shifting right now. My living situation has changed (positive) but that’s a whole other mess and basically Ophelia has NO time ❌

So updates might be slow until i move into my dorm in August, but anyway here’s a new list of some of my drs in case anyone is looking for a new place to shift:

So, I have my Hogwarts DR right? But honestly, it’s not really my main focus at the moment. i’m really just trying to get to my waiting room before i decide where the hell i’m going. this dr is cute and adorable and feels very homey to me. i’ve actually considered permashifting there tbh. it’s the world i’ve scripted the most for and what ignited my shifting journey.

Then, I have a Fame dr. kind of obligatory at first but the more i was getting into it, the more shit i’ve added and i actually love it now. it’s a mid-2010s and onward fame dr, so it’s like 2015 where i’m shifting. i’ve scripted to start out on broadway (OBC for katherine pulitzer in newsies), eventually working my way to the acting industry and then the music industry. i’ve got at least three albums planned and I even have an idea for a directorial debut limited series. I’ve also scripted myself into movies and shows that don’t exist in my cr so i’m excited to see how that goes!

I have some ideas for a marvel/Avengers dr. I’m a Greek demi-goddess with questionable parentage, but I insert myself into Tony’s life right around the first Iron Man. With weird time mechanics and whatever I just want to be besties with peter parker and train with strange and bucky tbh. extended found family is what i live for

I’m working on an Avatar: The Last Airbender dr lmao. i wanna be a fire bender so bad it’s unreal. I’m also adding separate countries under the same nation. like yes, there’s the earth kingdom and fire kingdom, but they have separate designations sort of like the southern and northern water tribes.

I’m thinking of a pjo/camp-half-blood dr because that would be cool as hell. going on quests with the gang and having powers?? i’d probably script some stuff in or out but the idea is really cool to me and i was always a percy jackson kid

lost in space dr !!! if you don’t know what i’m talking about there’s an original series from years ago or there’s a netflix reboot but basically this is a found family dr that takes place in space/alien planets and there’s a robot. maureen and john robinson are so mother and father coded it’s unreal.

hawkins, indiana dr but not “really” a stranger things dr because i don’t want to traumatize these kids or be traumatized myself lmao i’m basically just living in hawkins but all the friend groups are the same. also i’m dustin’s older sister because he’s adorable.

youtuber dr where i’m in weird/conspiracy core youtube and make those sorts of videos. i wanna make content with some of my more niche weird faves like wendigoon, nexpo, etc. this is really niche for a dr but i think it’s gonna be fun as hell.

bridgerton dr, y’all fr need to get in on this. new pretty dresses every day, men competing for my hand in marriage, elitist politics, orchestral music, flowers everywhere- it’s just going to be a good time i know it.

The 100 but specifically seasons 1-2 (MAYBE 3). Less death and more fun but with some scripting i think the idea of a society run by delinquent teenagers from space who are also fighting barbaric remnants of a destroyed civilization sounds cool as HELL bro. But i finished the show and the plot after the time jump isn’t what I want so i’m gonna script the hell out of the actual plot to make it fit what i want.

Trap House dr ! (another youtuber dr, shockingly) with the trap house circa the late 2010s. ghost hunting with sam and colby, talking shit with jake and corey, doing stupid shit and partying and just having a good time bro. i’m also scripting out Elton 🙈

narnia dr but specifically from LWW through the golden era of narnia. ruling over a mythological land with the pevensies, exploring the lands as far as they go, learning the lore with the other places in the world narnia exists in (where the telmarines come from and the other nations), i just think it’d be cool as hell.

and i want to figure out how to make like a zombie (potentially TWD or TLOU) dr without it being traumatizing 😭😭 stay tuned for how that works out lmaooo

[aion-rsa]

Ready Player Two: The Sequel’s Best Easter Eggs & References

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This piece contains spoilers for Ready Player Two.

When Ernest Cline published Ready Player One in 2011, its exhaustive array of Easter eggs were literally built into the worldbuilding—seemingly one pop culture name-drop per pixel that made up the digital OASIS, per the fierce 1980s nostalgia that creator James Donovan Halliday possessed for the most formative decade of his adolescence. And once the billionaire inventor revealed the Easter egg hunt for his fortune, it made perfect sense that the 2040s generation of gunters would immerse themselves in the same references, placing themselves into Halliday’s mindset to inherit his treasure.

Almost a decade later, those ’80s references are more exhausting in Ready Player Two—like when Wade rattles off his vintage morning routine basically cosplaying as Marty McFly, down to getting woken up by Huey Lewis and the News’ “Back in Time” via a Panasonic RC-6015 flip-clock radio. Whereas the Wade of Ready Player One enthusiastically logged onto the OASIS by quoting The Last Starfighter, the sequel’s gunter-turned-billionaire seems burnt out. He takes no joy in playing at a fictional character’s life instead of trying to improve his own.

Similarly, if Twitter reactions are any indication, readers of Ready Player Two are already finding the dense ’80s shout-outs to be more white noise than fun tidbits to be caught and noticed. It’s the same trick, but it loses its efficacy once you’ve seen behind the curtain.

That said, there are a handful of Easter eggs that break through the static. Because what’s the best way to make two familiar things new again? You mash them up.

Seven Shards for the Siren’s Soul

In some ways, it feels as if the sequel is retreading familiar ground, not quite copying Ready Player One’s Easter egg hunt but certainly building a seven-part quest around solving pop culture riddles. What somewhat redeems the narrative choice is a slightly different take on Easter eggs: not an exhaustive ’80s Wikipedia entry, but the personal Easter eggs of one woman’s life.

That woman is Kira Underwood, wife of OASIS co-founder Ogden Morrow, but also the unrequited love of James Donovan Halliday. As young adults, their Dungeons & Dragons campaigns eventually transformed into the creation of Gregarious Games and, ultimately, Gregarious Simulation Systems and the OASIS. But when Kira died young, both men mourned her… but only one tried to bring her back.

This time around, the prize is not Halliday’s fortune, but Kira’s “soul”—or, at least, a digital copy of her consciousness that Halliday copied without her knowledge or permission. Each Shard references a key point in Kira’s life, plenty of which overlap with Halliday’s ’80s obsession, as Kira met the two boys in 1988—in the middle of playing Sega Ninja, in fact. That’s the trial for the Second Shard, but later Shards relate to properties dear to Kira, which makes gunters like Parzival initially disregard treasured texts like J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Silmarillion or the rich discography of a certain iconic purple-themed musician.

And as the Shard search goes on, the clues become more and more specific to Kira’s life, including the learning-is-fun planet that she and Og created together (Halcydonia) to bring free educational games to underserved children when they were unable to have biological children of their own; and Leucosia, her D&D character-turned-AI-persona. Each Shard also includes a “toll,” or a memory that Z must experience as Kira, to better understand how she was a vital person on her own, beyond these two men’s love for her.

While the Seven Shards won’t be immortalized in the best-of lists of fantasy quests, it’s a clear effort to reinterpret the notion of Easter eggs to be more than just however many pop culture references one person can hold over another. They can also be the personal artifacts that others are encouraged to excavate, and experience the world through another set of eyes.

Planet Shermer

Recast the foul, restore his ending. Andie’s first fate still needs mending.

The Third Shard’s riddle sends Z and Art3mis to Shermer, a planet named after the fictional Illinois town in which John Hughes set the majority of his movies. Inspired by his hometown of Northbrook (which was previously called Shermerville), Shermer was a composite of different aspects of suburbia from both sides of the tracks and everything in-between. A 2010 Vanity Fair article related how in Hughes’ mind, Sixteen Candles’ Samantha (Molly Ringwald) was a “passing acquaintance” of Ferris Bueller’s eponymous hero (Matthew Broderick), and The Breakfast Club’s Bender (Judd Nelson) grew up near Planes, Trains, & Automobiles’ Del Griffith (John Candy).

The OASIS’ Shermer follows Hughes’ thinking, by throwing his iconic teenage characters into a planet-sized Breakfast Club of sorts, with them all attending the same Shermer High School; Z notes that depending on which direction you approach the school, its facade resembles all three aforementioned teen films. That’s amusing enough, but then you remember that actors like Ringwald and Michael Anthony Hall collaborated with Hughes in a number of films—which means all of their alter egos are going to homeroom or the cafeteria together.

This portion of the book is rather delightful in how nonchalantly it plays out every fan’s crossover dreams and how it engages with parallel-universe casting decisions. For instance, Parzival notices Keith Nelson and Amanda Jones (Eric Stoltz and Lea Thompson) from Some Kind of Wonderful, only to realize that that couple is technically the original Marty McFly and his mother. And when it comes to deducing the Shard’s clue, superfan Samantha deduces that they must recast Duckie (the “fowl”) from Pretty in Pink, replacing Jon Cryer with a Weird Science-era Robert Downey, Jr., who had originally been up for the part. (You can already imagine the digital de-aging fun in the inevitable Ready Player Two movie.)

But while their goal is to get RDJ-Duckie and Andie dancing at prom, what’s most important is visiting Hughes himself in his home office to obtain his original Pretty in Pink ending. Perhaps the best Easter egg embedded in this mashup world is that when Art3mis and Z go to the Hughes’ home, they encounter his wife, Nancy Hughes. “I’ve never seen her here before!” Art3mis, who has played through this world’s rhythms countless times before, excitedly tells Parzival. “I didn’t know you even could!” It’s a nice parallel to Wade’s realization that Kira is more than just the wife or love interest, that she and Nancy Hughes are worth squeeing over all on their own.

L0hengrin’s Genderbending Avatar

As Wade relates, Parzival looks almost like him, just a bit thinner, taller, more muscular, and less afflicted by acne. His avatar is an idealized version of himself, as is the case for Samantha with Art3mis—though in Ready Player Two, she has incorporated her IRL facial birthmark into her digital persona, while Wade still sticks with his dream-self. They might also dress as pop culture characters, like Art3mis in her Molly Millions (from William Gibson’s Johnny Mnemonic) phase, yet it only goes so far as typical cosplay.

But in the sequel, Parzival meets YouTuber and gunter L0hengrin, who he identifies as a fan by name alone; in Arthurian legend, Lohengrin was Parzival’s son. When they meet in the OASIS, however, Parzival is struck by Lo’s avatar: She primarily takes the form of pixie-haired teen Helen Slater in The Legend of Billie Jean, but she’s also known for shifting into floppy-haired James Spader in Tuff Turf. While Lo, a trans woman, is not the first OASIS user to find herself in a nostalgic movie avatar, the fluidity of her gender presentation speaks to a deeper identification with various iconic figures depending on her gender in that moment. It also opens up the possibility of other genderqueer or nonbinary users finding their own unique representation via ’80s figures—after all, there are infinite personas to choose from.

The Afterworld

Another mashup world that Parzival, Aech, and Shoto visit on their quest for the Shards is a planet-sized shrine to Prince. And while its name is technically the unpronounceable Love Symbol, those in the know call it the Afterworld. Under ominous skies of “Purple Rain” they drive a “Little Red Corvette” to raid Paisley Park not for weapons, but for musical artifacts with which to challenge the Purple One(s).

Basically, the three gunters have to reenact Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, doing musical battle with seven iterations of Prince as the Evil Exes: Purple Rain Prince, Cloud Suit Prince, Gett Off Prince, Batdance Prince, Microphone Prince, Third Eye Prince, and Mesh-Mask Prince. Not to mention their henchmen, in the form of several past bands and collaborators. 

All things considered, the battle goes pretty quickly, especially since Aech is a super-fan coaching Parzival through how to wield the Cloud Guitar, and they have their own backup in the form of Prince’s old band Morris Day and the Time (a.k.a. The Original 7ven). There is a reason that Scott fights seven separate battles, each with its own arc and stakes. It ratchets up the tension in each fight and hints at Scott possibly failing, instead of seeming more like a means to an end, as is the case with Ready Player Two’s big jam session.

This one might be a tad more controversial for readers, depending on how sacred one holds Prince, but I would argue that inspiring a reaction—positive or negative—still counts as an Easter egg that works.

Needle Drops

Both Shermer and the Afterworld include dozens of music cues that can be triggered by passing over a certain spot or into a key moment out of pop culture history, though the needle drops are a consistent Easter egg throughout Ready Player Two. These “soundtrack landmines,” as Z calls them, set the scene, striding into Shermer High School to Killing Joke’s “Eighties”; or add gravitas to a moment, like when Parzival stares at Art3mis, realizing he’s still in love with her, and Boston’s “More Than a Feeling” begins playing.

For the most part, these cues belong to everyone: They’re planted in the same spaces for any user to trigger, regardless of whether or not they’ve ever actually sung or danced to these moments in John Hughes movies. Yet little Easter eggs like the Boston needle drop—which can only be triggered by one avatar staring at another for five seconds, while the ONI records an increase in heart rate—feel like personalized love letters to two lovebirds, caught in a special moment unique to just them. That’s exactly what you want an Easter egg to do.

Ready Player Two is available now from Ballantine Books. Let us know the Easter eggs that worked for you in the comments below…

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The post Ready Player Two: The Sequel’s Best Easter Eggs & References appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3pZdsp3

[weekly15]

8 4 18 / necessary / songs / missing / U / edition

guys, i’ve been MISSING U. there’s only one thing worth talking about this week and her name is fucking ROBYN.

i promise once i’ll actually get two consecutive weeks of music up. it’ll happen really. really really reably reoblyn robyN ROBYN

also, i have 18 songs, srrrry, 15 is more of a guideline. full playlist here.

1 / MISSING U / Robyn

“It’s been an emotional week,” I said to somebody quite seriously yesterday, referring to Robyn’s release of a new song on Wednesday. Wow there are no words except that I didn’t know what to expect from this or whether to be scared or thrilled or what but it is causing every emotion to exist in my body at once and I’ve already listened to it ~100 times and O M G SHES BACK YALL

2 / IF I CAN’T HAVE YOU / SNBRN / Harloe

The only reasonable thing that I can imagine is that somebody created an algorithm and fed it only Donna Summer’s entire library and the searching pain of circa-2010 Tumblr poetry. The result is this pure summer soft-serve twist, half bliss/half misery.

3 / BODY HIGH / Sam Bluer

If this were a just world, all the tweens in Ohio would be roller blading to this past their bedtimes under a sky filled with more stars than you’ve ever seen in your life.

4 / ARRESTED / Love Thy Brother / Norma Jean Martine

For when some slick dude pulls up to the only corner in your little town, lowers his sunglasses, and invites you to whatever faraway place he’s going. Your legs are wet and trembling; you’re already on your way.

5 / PAVEMENT / Wingtip

Blows in like Jack Johnson, out like an Avicii song. And somewhere in between Wingtip spins an utter ear-blasting jam, perfect for your hoedown or the nightclub rooftop with a view onto sunrise.

6 / STUCK / Lost Kings / Tove Styrke

A grown-up version of that dumb af Chainsmokers feat. Halsey blip which I lived for in the summer of 2016. It’s a bit slower, less insecure and preening, more of an evening in with people who’ve known you forever than a Molly bender on the first night of orientation week. But it sneaks up on ya, and makes you wonder if that person isn’t still inside, somewhere, urging.

7 / ALL LOVED UP / Amy Shark

Circular, whimsical, you emerge from Amy Shark’s orbit as if from a dream. What did I just hear? What did I just feel? You can imagine yourself rising, in a jet of clear wind, emerging upon a view of all the world. I can see so much from up here. I understand so much now.

But when the song ends, you fall, you flail, you’re back. The ground’s beneath your feet again.

8 / RUN THE ROAD / Santigold

We’ve been celebrating a lot of COMEB#CKS lately, and here’s another 1 to cheer for. Santi! Refreshing and insistent, she doesn’t miss a beat. She’s playing a game of hopscotch on the roof of the universe, and guess what - she’s keeping perfect time.

9 / I DON’T LACK IMAGINATION / E^ST

This song hits you somewhere in the pelvis, somewhere deeper, more central, a part of your body you haven’t learned how to dance with yet. It’s there, E^ST promises, and here: you move it like this. Stop trying so hard! Just close your eyes and let your hips scream.

10 / SHOW YOU / CXLOE

And now a dispatch from a parallel Earth. One of orderly, sleek silver bodies marching in step, boarding spaceships to places unknown. 10… 9… 8… a new life awaits on Planet 93X.

11 / COMPLICATED / Mura Masa / Nao

If this week weren’t consumed by the return of Queen Robyn, this song would far and away have the crown. This is a frenzied, shaking, utter jewel of a pop song, and it’s showing pop music the door it needs to go through. If this doesn’t make it to the radio, what will?

12 / HIGH HORSE / Kacey Musgraves / Kue

I haven’t featured Kacey yet, because this is only the second time I’ve updated this site since 2015. And it’s a good sign that she’s already finding her place.

Needless to say, I am borderline obsessed with her album, and this bonkers disco remix of “High Horse” is a vibe and a half. She knows something we don’t, and Kue tries to interpret it for us.

13 / EVERYTHING I GOT / The Aston Shuffle

Shuddering, soul-shaking, let this one wreck you. Maybe what you build back up in place of your old body will be a triumph. Maybe, ever so slowly, you can learn how to love yourself.

14 / PICTURE / Karen Harding

Karen Harding’s version of retro funk electronica is beautiful, messy, and fun. Something like life. Even if you don’t know how to feel good, you know how to try.

15 / STRANGERS / Emily Vaughn

Where have I heard this one before? A dream, a memory, a past life?

Emily Vaughn twirls and twirls her voice into your psyche, daring you to go down with her. But you can’t shake the feeling that it’s all happened before, it’s on the tip of your tongue, you remember being here before. But when?

16 / FEEL BETTER / Hälder / Laura White

This dreamy collab takes its time, settles slowly into your stomach. Let it bury itself there. It knows its way without lights. It’s felt the pink and squirmy lining of your intestines before. It’s comfy here, and so dark.

17 / LOW BROW / Chelsea Jade

Still can’t get over this album image. CHELSEA WTF. Could say something here about the duality of the self, the prophet and the wizard, etc, etc, etc, but no one wants that. LISTEN to this one, shimmer shimmer my babies.

18 / WATCH / Billie Eilish / Xie

Old-ish, but my myyy I’ve been dying to share this one. Dead ass p much the best remix out there rn that I can think of, in terms of “songs that make you wanna ROLL YA BODY.” Was reminded of this gem by a slamming new remix to “Watch” by Rossy, but Xie knows the hot language of the bloodstream better than anyone and she makes you warm as hell on this track.

—

Ok bye for now. Gonna try real hard to be back next week. In the meantime, have you fucking watched Killing Eve? Have you cried to Robyn’s welcome-back video? I’ve also been weirdly into these Bon Appetit videos where this guy eats a million versions of a city’s famous food in 24 hours (i.e. 15 Philly cheesesteaks in 24 hours). Like all YouTube videos, they’re a little annoying but also good.

OK!

[cinammonsurveysxo]

005.

1. Who are you? 
Stef.

2. What are the 3 most important things everyone should know about you? 
i live in the uk, I’m a mother and I’m very sarcastic.

3. When you aren’t filling out 5,000 question surveys like this one what are you doing? 
Looking after the kids, watching YouTube vids, chatting to people.

4. List your classes in school from the ones you like the most to the ones you like the least (or if you are out of school, think of the classes you did like and didn’t like at the time). 
i liked English and science most. PE and History least.

5. What is your biggest goal for this year? 
to get a hobby and stick to it. Oh and to lose weight.


6. Where do you want to be in 5 years? 
Hmmm well working. Having more fun as kids will be older.

7. What stage of life are you in right now?
i’m a young ish Mum.

8. Are you more child-like or childish? 
childish i guess. I can be both.

9. What is the last thing you said out loud?
Careful

10. What song comes closest to how you feel about your life right now? 
I’m not sure.

11. Have you ever taken martial arts classes?
i did Taekwando for a bit but not for long. Would like to take it up to be honest.

12. Does your life tend to get better or worse or does it just stay the same? 
it’s always fluctuating.

13. Does time really heal all wounds? 
No, it just allows you time to adapt.

14. How do you handle a rainy day? 
i do the same as usual. I may get my waterproofs on and go for a walk..

15. Which is worse…losing your luggage or having to sort out tangled holiday lights? 
definitely losing my luggage.

16. How is your relationship with your parents? Will you miss them when they are gone? 
I love my parents but Mum can be overbearing Dad can be very critical and aloof but they are amazing people and doting grandparents.

17. Do you tend to be aware of what is going on around you? 
Yes I’m fairly perspective.

18. What is the truest thing that you know? 
People tend to do what they feel they have to do. When most do bad things it’s often impulse not an act of deliberate malice.

19. What did you want to be when you grew up?
a singer or actress but also a doctor or writer.

20. Have you ever been given a second chance? 
yep.

21. Are you more of a giver or a taker? 
Depends on context.

22. Do you make your decisions with an open heart/mind? 
yes.

23. What is the most physically painful thing that has ever happened to you? 


24. What is the most emotionally painful thing that has ever happened to you?
Any sorts of emotional abuse and manipulation and multiple inappropriate behaviour. Not one specific thing, it all adds up.

25. Who have you hugged today? 
My kids.

26. Who has done something today to show they care about you? 
my kids.

27. Do you have a lot to learn? 
of course, we all do.

28. If you could learn how to do three things just by wishing and not by working what would they be?
better writer, better drawing skills and I’m not sure.

29. Which do you remember the longest: what other people say, what other people do or how other people make you feel? 
how people make me feel.

30. What are the key ingredients to having a good relationship? 
Understanding, similar interests, fun times, respect.

31. What 3 things do you want to do before you die?
get a good job, earn good money and have grandkids.

32. What three things would you want to die to avoid doing? 
Killing someone I love, watching someone I love being killed or having dementia.

33. Is there a cause you believe in more than any other cause? 
None specifically, no.

34. What does each decade make you think of: 
The 19.. 
20’s: flapper girls (i could totally be in the wrong decade, my bad)
30’s: the war
40’s: nothing
50’s: nothing specific
60’s: hippies / free love
70’s: disco era
80’s: good music
90’s: my youth/ spice girls
2000: changes 
2010’s: terrorism

35. Which decade do you feel the most special connection to and why? 
90s. i loved my childhood.

36. What is your favorite oldie/classic rock song? 
bohemian rhapsody. — yes, amongst many others. Another Sweet Child O Mine.

37. What country do you live in and who is the leader of that country? If you could say any sentence to the current leader of your country what would it be? 
Uk and nope it wouldn’t be any different than all the others who have said it to her. Theresa May.

38. What’s your favorite TV channel to watch in the middle of the night?
true crime, horror channel or pick tv. Yes, I’m a glutton for punishment.

39. What Disney villain are you the most like and why? 
I was told I suited Scar when played him lol. But I think maybe someone more complex.

40. Have you ever been a girl scout/boy scout? 
nope.

41. If you were traveling to another continent would you rather fly or take a boat? 
definitely fly unless it’s on a luxury cruise ship.

42. Why is the sky blue during the day and black at night? 
because.

43. What does your name mean? 
Crowned.

44. Would you rather explore the deeps of the ocean or the far reaches of outer space?
neither tbh they’d both freak me out.

45. Word association 
What is the first word that comes to mind when you see the word: 
Air: bender
Meat: suit (blame Supernatural)
Different: strokes
Pink: think
Deserve: it
White: walls
Elvis: presley
Magic: mushrooms
Heart: love
Clash: bang
Pulp: fiction

46. If you could meet any person in the world who is dead who would you want it to be? 
my grandad or uncle.

47. What if you could meet anyone who is alive? 
Not sure.

48. Is there a movie that you love so much you could watch it everyday? 
haha not every day but I like a few enough to watch several times a year.

49. You are going to be stuck alone in an elevator for a week. What do you bring to do?
food, drink, book for any shafts of light from the day, an instrument

50. Have you ever saved someone’s life or had your life saved? 
no, but I’ve helped someone who had a head injury that for all I knew at the time could e been life threatening.