#Ost West to me personally. It's political

[forestlion]

"Der Westen" girl Bayern ist auch "der Westen"

[roo-bastmoon]

The Long Game

First, let's acknowledge some major mismanagement by BigHit. Then, let's talk about what I think *might possibly* be their long game.

These are just guesses I have right now--I'm not stating facts and my opinions are subject to change as new info becomes available. But come with me for a few minutes...

In early 2022, Jimin's mail was "omitted" four times by BigHit employees, which lead to late insurance premium payments, which led to an on-paper "seizure" of his apartment. The press sat on that news for three months until the day his With You OST dropped and the scandal overshadowed his release. Jimin went to ground, avoided all social media for months. At this time, Jimin's personal information was leaked on the internet, and that was the last time we saw Jikook hang out alone that we know of.

Now in 2023, since Jimin's album FACE dropped, we already know about the sabotaged sales and streams by Hanteo, Billboard, YouTube, and Spotify. There was the issue with his in-ears not working properly during an encore. On top of all that drama, BigHit didn't get all the physicals shipped in time, they didn't playlist his songs for several days, they never sent his songs to radio (that we can see), they made one tweet to acknowledge Jimin's #1 on Hot100 but nothing else--not even a cake like the other solo albums got, they didn't let him film more than two music videos when they did that for their new groups, the press releases about their stocks going up after Hot100 also credited their new groups, and Jimin only had 9 days of uninterrupted promo between other members' works.

Now I am not a conspiracy theorist. I well understand that the military enlistment compressed schedules, and that each member had say in their creative works and promotions. I'm not a manti. But none of the above is a good look. Add up all those fumbles together, and you could make a solid case for mismanagement.

And now today, we see PD Bang on the cover of Billboard (which, OF COURSE, mentioned Blackpink in the same breath).

JUST LOOK AT THE WAY THE STORY IS BEING SHAPED FOR AMERICAN READERS. You see what's happening here? You think SM is gonna get a cover story for their side of the corporate shakedown?

And then there's this little gem:

"If your question is about the possibility of creating an artist like BTS again, the answer is no. However, if you were to ask whether there would be a K-pop artist from HYBE that tops the Billboard Hot 100 chart, my answer would be yes. [Jimin became the first BTS member to achieve this as a solo act on April 3 when his single “Like Crazy” debuted at No. 1.] The experience of managing BTS and operating different labels gave us access to powerful networks, infrastructures and experiences. With these, HYBE can repeat its remarkable results with the help of talented artists.

Okay so before everyone starts rioting online, take a moment, pause, reflect, think about what all might be going on here, behind the scenes, in this very political world of the music business.

Do I think Bang PD screwed Jimin over to score points with Billboard? No, I do not. But neither do I think Jimin's solo effort is anyone's priority but Jimin's.

"HYBE is primarily focusing on leveraging its accumulated expertise in managing and producing acts that consist of multiple members, rather than solo artists or mixed-gender groups in K-pop."

I think no one ever expected Jimin to make it to #1 on Hot100 and industry insiders felt pretty sure the West wouldn't let him stay in the top 10 the next week. Why? Well, partially racism. But mostly it's bad for their bottom line.

If your entire business model is that people pay for radio play and that gets them on your private chart and the private chart leads to more advertisers and awards... and then someone comes along and DOESN'T pay to play and gets to the top of your chart? Nobody needs you. So you HAVE to sabotage them. You absolutely have to change your rules. (I'm just sitting here waiting for Jimin to release his other songs so that Billboard can change their rules to say you can't be on Hot100 if your name starts with J- and ends with -imin.)

Now, it might have been satisfying for us as fans to see BigHit come out swinging and put Billboard on blast for his sake and ours. But they have ZERO. LEGAL. RECOURSE.

Billboard is privately owned and they can make whatever rules they want. They are part of a larger media company that has connections to every media outlet; no one is gonna publish an exposé any time soon, I promise you. We got exactly ONE English-speaking website to write about it and that was it. Everyone in the industry knows what is going on, and no one has the power to do anything much about it.

So what does that mean for the future?

Well... Bang PD just recently paid a HUGE mark up of $26 million to buy Trevor Noah's home out in LA.

And now he's on the cover of Billboard. WHY? Neither of these things will result in any immediate payout for him.

It's a long game.

And frankly, a very old and honored way of doing business. It's how they went up against the big three and it's how they are gonna go up against the West, I feel it in my gut.

Bang PD is getting a home on US soil. He will be paying US taxes. He's making in-roads by being nice with Billboard folks. He's making contacts; he's already had phone calls with Pharrell and Bieber and Grande and Laroi. Some of those are already shaping into collabs. We already know Hybe has set up shop in the US with Scooter at the helm.

Meanwhile, BigHit is adjusting in real time to the new rules around the charts (culling is happening to Yoongi too, so they changed up the check-out process of the BTS US Store). Suddenly there's plenty of focus on promoting via TikTok and other viral social media. They are dipping their toe into AI. They are discussing their own in-house ticketing option. This company is looking toward the future and hedging its bets.

Do I know with any certainty what's up their sleeve?

Absolutely not.

Do I trust any corporation very much?

Nope.

Do I have faith in BTS?

Probably more than anything else in my life, at this point.

So while I have no insider info, I just feel like the company is making very intentional and methodic footholds into the West. They are not complaining or screaming or suing or threatening anyone. They are not badmouthing competitors or whining about unfair deals. They are laying ground on complicated, political in-roads, one step at a time.

The Expo is in 2030. I'd wager by that time, BTS will have conquered the West and have some radio play.

And I think the company believes that in order to do that, they have to make their new groups profitable while BTS serves. They have to survive for the next two years.

When BTS is back, and their dues have been paid, I think they will be unstoppable. I hope they get to work on solo projects AND group projects. I think they will take over every corner of the world, if managed properly.

They just need to do it in a way that also assuages the Western music industry. The American Powers That Be have a chokehold on music and they will demand their pound of flesh somehow.

I strongly suspect BTS will never pay to play. But they will build relationships and find a way to become so interwoven in the cultural fabric that to deny them a place in Western spaces is to be left behind. And they will do it politely, and gently, and come out smelling like a rose.

So before you go off on social media and scream the walls down about neglect (and there WAS some, in my opinion) and abuse (we don't really know that), just take a moment to consider--if they had no legal recourse against Billboard, how can they beat them at their own game?

The best way to defeat an enemy is to make them a friend.

I'm just guessing here, but I think if fans stay loyal, BTS just might have the last laugh, here. I think they got radio scared as hell.

It sucks that Jimin didn't get fair treatment at this time. He is my bias and I feel it like a knife to my own heart. But he DID make history with his #1 and they can never take it away.

So I say give it time. All the people sniggering at him and BTS right now are going to sing a different tune in the future.

My best guess is that this is a long game, and it will require sacrifices that are totally unfair, but in the end... well, as long as BTS has ARMY, they cannot be denied.

Apobangpo.

[rhosinthorn]

Rings of Power: Episode 1

So I watched Rings of Power (ROP) Ep 1 yesterday and have some thoughts. YMMV, but I’m dropping spoilers, so you’re forewarned if you read below the cut.

SPOILERS AHEAD

So. Visually stunning. Absolutely agreed. It does have some of the feel of Middle Earth, and the writing isn’t terrible. I think everything that’s bothering me (so far) can be summed up in a single word: Galadriel.

(hang tight, I have lore reasons- this is not a “ofc they had to have a Strong Independent Female Woman” complaint, this is a “what did they do to her timeline???” complaint)

TLDR: Several important facts/facets of Galadriel’s history are ignored or left out, particularly her HUSBAND and DAUGHTER.

Let’s get this clear, I am all for warrior badass Galadriel, because canon supports this. She was proud, arrogant, and agitating for a fight, the only maiden standing with the sons of Feanor.

Her timeline does not make sense to me.

They haven’t named which brother Galadriel is basing her revenge on. She has three. Finrod, I assume, since Sauron was involved with his death & she’s mentioned more with him than the other two. Slight poetic license with his death, but considering I don’t believe they had the rights to Silmarillion material, I suppose that makes sense.

So, First Age: born in Valinor, stood with the sons of Feanor, crossed the Helcaraxe, stayed in Doriath and Nargothrond before moving over the mountains.

At the end of the First Age, she is explicitly told that she is not allowed to return west to Tol Eressea (not Valinor itself) with the other exiles, and her response is that she did not wish to return anyway. 

Second age: starts out in Lindon, moves almost immediately to Evendim/Lake Nenuial, moves south to Eregion, travels through Khazad-dum to Lorien. 

Early on in the Second Age or at the end of the First Age, she and Celeborn marry. Tolkien Gateway, my usual lore quick reference, puts Celebrian’s birth at somewhere around year 300 of the Second Age.

Sauron starts to move around year 500. Celebrian would have been considered an adult at this time (assuming the S.A. 300 birthdate is accurate). Galadriel sense this, which triggers the move to Eregion. Why? Two reasons:

1. Allies (Khazad-dum and Lorien)

2. Noldorian propensity to like crafting (the dwarves of Khazad-dum would be her kindred spirits)

Celebrimbor was Lord of Eregion, and the city of Ost-en-Edhil was built starting around 750.

Now, I have not seen the second episode, so I don’t know what Celebrimbor’s “project” is that Elrond is being pulled into. It could either be the Rings, or it could be Ost-en-Edil. Either way.

The Galadriel storyline we are given is blatant Celeborn/Celebrian erasure. This is the chief problem I have with it. Neither is mentioned, even though between 500 and 750 they both should have been present. Galadriel’s search for Sauron makes sense- she canonically knows he’s out there, but not where. And if she’s got an axe to grind over Finrod’s death, that also makes sense as to why she’d get personally invested. Her tension with Gil-galad is understandable if he’s pushing for peace to continue- the hasty departure from Lindon when he becomes king there might even point to some tension? But it makes no sense to me to send her back to Valinor.

1. She’s banned

2. She’s married AND has a daughter (who admittedly is an adult by 500)

How I would have written it (from my soapbox lol):

Galadriel has been leading a squad/command to search out signs of Sauron, stopping him before he can regain power. Gil-galad pressures her into stopping the searches, but she won’t give up and picks up her family and moves south to Eregion to fight the “war” on the political front- allies, shoring up arms/supplies, etc.. Let us see this elf who has been through war and devastation, who is one of the oldest remaining elves even in the “height” of elvish power during the Second Age feeling alone as she tries to stop a war from even beginning by any means possible. Let’s see the tension between her and Celeborn over the move to Eregion, let us see Celebrian. Is there tension between her and Celebrimbor, both linked with the Feanorians? We know that Sauron drives a wedge between them, ultimately driving her out of Eregion and into Lorien.

Her relationship with Elrond also feels a bit...weird to me. Perfectly fine with them being friendly, but she’s going to be his mother-in-law and she’s thousands of years older. I tend to see her more as a mentor-figure to him than a close friend. Celebrian and Elrond don’t meet until after the Rings are forged, in 1701, so clearly she’s not inviting him to dinner with the family. Nor are Celeborn or Celebrian visiting Gil-galad’s court, which Elrond is mostly based out of until he founds Rivendell as Sauron ravages Eregion.

Hopefully the second episode will allow me to orient myself in the timeline a bit better because right now we’re probably anywhere between 500-1200 of the Second Age. No real comments on the other two storylines from me yet (hobbits & the men/elves on the borders of Mordor???) but they’re...fine, I guess? We’ll see how they play. I also haven’t seen Numenor yet.

Oh, in general I hated the trip to Valinor. That’s not how it WORKS. At this point in time, you can sail directly to Tol Eressea/Valinor, no mystical heavens parting whatnot. The “Straight Road” doesn’t exist until the downfall of Numenor.

So far I’m not inclined to drop RoP. The Galadriel lore-inconsistencies are irritating like a stone in my shoe, but we’ll see if they stay that way. My promise to myself is to try the first three episodes before making a decision, and I’m not regretting that yet.

For those of you who stuck around for the entire rant- what do you think? Serious question though: why make a show about the Second Age if you don’t have access to The Silmarillion???

[deathbydarkelves]

I decided to make playlists for Cathala and Tarinne plus explanations for why I chose each song because I entered one of those ADHD fugue states and if I didn't finish this task I would die

Anyway here are the two links (they're youtube playlists because I don't have spotify. I would obviously recommend using an adblocker if you're just gonna watch on youtube) and the explanations for each song are below the cut :) Each playlist is about an hour long.

For Tarinne’s:

1. Foggy Nights: I consider this her theme so putting it first as a sort of intro only makes sense.

2. Here’s a Health to the Company: I think this works as an example of her general disposition. She’s a people person, and always a fan of singing these sorts of songs in taverns, on ships, or what have you. It also kind of feels like a sendoff to soldiers, which I imagine symbolizes her joining the Sentinel Army and quickly thereafter fighting in the Third War.

3. Wartime Prayers: Somewhat self-explanatory, this is symbolizing her seeing war for the first time, but I also included it because the last line transitions SO WELL into the next song.

4. The Hollow: This song is an intro to an album I've never heard so I don't know the context, but I really love it because it sounds like someone praying to their deity and like I mean c'mon. Elune. Tarinne's praying to Elune to guide her through the war. Do I need to elabo-

5. Wave Walker: KILL DEATH MAIM AHAHAHAHA

6. Isil Elun’falo: Just a super rad fan-made night elf song that's basically "wow we sure do love Elune" said in twenty different ways for four and a half minutes. But it ROCKS and I LOVE it.

7. Chewing Cotton Wool: This song is about losing a loved one (I did have to check but yeah that's what it is) and I use it to symbolize Tarinne losing her mom during the war. The last line, which includes the song's title, I especially like. It's referring to how morticians (apparently) put cotton gauze in a corpse's throat and mouth to keep body fluids in and make the face look more natural. So there's a fun fact for you.

8. See U Soon (Song for Dad): Just a short lofi piece to rest a bit, and it was also chosen because the title's in reference to Tarinne growing closer to her dad after losing her mom. She still visits him at his leathers and furs shop in Stormwind fairly often, especially after dangerous adventures. She just wants to make sure he knows she's alright ;-;

9. No Lullaby: Right back into it with a song that I use to represent Tarinne's general feeling of not being able to go home because it's not there anymore. She's felt like this since the end of the Third War, but it's especially strong since the whole Teldrassil thing. But I like the ending, "who said you're on your own," because it contrasts the repeating of "alone" in the rest of the song. And it's kinda like "hey, listen, you're not the only one who feels like she can't go home." I mean that's probably how basically every single night elf feels right now skxnks

10. The Moss: This song juxtaposes classic fairy tales with scientific facts about the world and I love it to BITS. I'm using it here to represent both Tarinne's love for storytelling but also her sort of... part-time historian/archaeologist/conservator career.

11. Rasputin: I just associate this song with her for some reason and this was the best place to put it.

12. Electric Feel: Moving on to focus more on Tarinne's relationship with Cathala now. This is an extremely great and somewhat 😏 song that I also included because the electricity theme is appropriate because Cathala has lightning powers and y'know it's from Tarinne's perspective or whatever.

13. Bedroom Hymns: You know why this is here.

14. Movement: I can't talk about love songs without talking about Hozier, okay. This is just a nice, slower song to relax a bit with.

15. Never Let Me Go: I have an entire goddamn music video in my head with Cathala and Tarinne for this song and it’s very dramatic and emotional and I had to include this song or I’d die. Basically just listen to near the end of this song when she's repeating the title over and over, and imagine the two of them seeing each other at opposite ends of a battlefield after the dust settles and they rush towards each other and fall to their knees holding on as tightly as they can because they got separated early on and each thought the other was dead. Then you'll know how I feel when I listen to this song.

16. Nothing That Has Happened So Far Has Been Anything We Could Control: First of all I love the title, and second of all there's a big section in the middle (1:49 to 2:47) that I like to interpret as the two of them grappling with the fact that they're not really quite sure who or what they're fighting for anymore. Their people, yeah, but there's so many alliances and semi-permanent enemies and only-on-every-other-thursday-enemies all intertwined and the world is just so very confusing and they're trying to make the best of it. Elf school didn’t include international, interracial politics in its curriculum. It did however include how to properly plant trees, and AP calculus (this is a joke).

17. In Dreams: I like to imagine this song is something the two of them would say to each other, as a way of saying “even when everything we know is gone, even when the world ends, I will still be by your side. And if I’m not, don’t fear, for I will find you.” It makes a nice note to end on :)

For Cathala’s:

1. muse: Just a nice lofi intro to get us into things :) I don't see this song as her theme, like I do with Tarinne and the first song in her playlist, but I like it quite a bit. I don't actually really have a theme for Cathala yet, I'm currently going with a version of Way of the Monk from WoW's OST but I'm still looking for something better.

2. Frogs Singing: I included this because it's about just appreciating nature, which works because night elf and also mindfulness and meditation is a whole thing.

3. Tongues: This is a song about feeling distant from your peers which is like Cathala's whole existence! She's this weird mix of two cultures and ultimately she feels out of place regardless of where she is or who she's with. Also the theme with not understanding what people are saying works because the poor woman had to learn Pandaren from scratch and that shit ain't easy. I think blizz said somewhere probably that Common is just a language that EVERYONE knows inherently because Video Game but that's bullshit in my opinion. I'll allow spells that let you understand foreign languages to an extent (Comprehend Languages from D&D lets you understand the LITERAL meaning only, which I like), but every culture and species in the universe knowing Common is silly if you think about it for more than two seconds.

4. Kung Fu Fighting: I'm legally required to include this song. Also I prefer the Kung Fu Panda version, I'm sorry.

5. Harder Better Faster Stronger: I vicariously experience having a great work ethic through Cathala and that's why this song is here because she has 999 Determination and does Too Many push-ups every day or something idk. I was gonna say "every morning" but I have a headcanon that elves only need to sleep every couple of days (sort of a nod to "elves don't need to sleep at all" from D&D, and to explain why NIGHT elves are active at all hours of the day) so that doesn't work.

6. What's Up Danger: This song is Cathala's whole Vibe. Almost zero threat assessment skills in this woman's brain. If it can be punched, she will punch it.

7. Eye for an Eye: Fairly self-explanatory, it's a song about wanting revenge so... yeah. Checked that box. It was this or The Vengeful One by Disturbed but ultimately The Vengeful One's religious symbolism probably makes it fit better as a Tyrande theme lol ("I'm the hand of god, I'm the dark messiah." Did you mean: the Night Warrior)

8. Survivor: Cathala's survived a lot of shit and this could kinda be her making fun of herself for it because "Gods, man! Don't I deserve a break!"

9. Ashes: Really the reason I include this song is the last chunk (2:42 to the end) because holy shit. Listen, if I was gonna include a song with fire motifs, it was gonna be a somber one like this.

10. Into the West: This can kinda represent Cathala just trying to fucking breathe and recover from Teldrassil. Also works because I dunno it has stuff to do with the elves in LotR, I haven't seen those movies in a while. It sounds nice and is melancholy so I included it.

11. Like Real People Do: Cathala loves Tarinne a lot you guys have I ever menti-

12. Into the Wild: Tarinne changed Cathala's world for the better and she's super fucking grateful she has her by her side. Kinda goes without saying but you know.

13. Chasing the Moon: I have a vague music video in my head for this of them falling in love and it's very cute so there's that. Also it's in this specific spot because hey she may be deeply traumatized but she's still got a fair number of things/people in her life that make her happy so :)

14. Follow My Girl: I've got a theme going in my head that while Tarinne is fairly certain of her place in the world, Cathala is still trying to find hers. She outlived all her connections on Pandaria because Elf Lifespans(tm) and the only members of her family still alive are distant relatives she never knew very well.

15. Wish That You Were Here: This works both to represent Cathala on Pandaria feeling super homesick, and for more recently after Teldrassil. Either way, it's a message to her parents and sister.

16. Mr. Fear: She does her damnedest to hide it but she's absolutely terrified something like Teldrassil's gonna happen again! That fear drives her to do everything in her power to protect who and what she can. As long as they're not Forsaken, cause she's still got her biases, that compassion even extends across faction lines. She never really got the whole Alliance/Horde thing anyway. Innocent people shouldn't have to die, regardless of who or what they are.

17. Ordinary Day: Not to get super out there but I think this song works as symbolizing Cathala really trying to hold on to her faith in Elune, but ultimately feeling pretty abandoned. I mean she can clearly see Elune's influence everywhere. But Elune sure ain't doing Cathala any favors as far as she can tell! It also ends the whole playlist on maybe a bit of an uncertain/open-ended note, because this "losing faith" aspect is a new thing with her and will definitely be something she continues to struggle with for a while. On a related note, I should say Tarinne is still very much devout but she gets what Cathala's feeling and doesn't force anything on her, and vice versa. And Cathala wouldn't become atheist, the night elves aren't monotheistic and she still worships all the other deities, it's just specifically Elune she's a little :/ on.

[huahsu]

A RAT YEAR

previous years: THE MOON REPRESENTS MY HEART :: 2019 A SONG THAT DEGRADES EACH TIME YOU PLAY IT :: 2018 A CHURCH AND JOHN LENNON’S “IMAGINE” :: 2017  SIKH DEVOTIONAL MUSIC :: 2016 SPOOKY BLACK :: 2015

Not just other people, the sight of other people on the subway or bus, walking carefree down the street, lost in their music, emitting auras, and I’m wondering what that music is. Not just music, I miss the stories, the way we gather around a sound as though it’s a flame, the way other sounds, triggering other other sounds, can shatter and send us. Not a sound, but a volume I miss is when you’re at a club or a show, and you’re trying to tell someone something, and you’re conscious of not wanting to shout directly in their ear, since you know a polite whisper will get drowned out by the music, and so you (or, in this case, I) resort to a loud mutter, or you emphasize the most important words and hope they can fill in the rest, or you tiptoe your sentence through the noise, guiding whatever you’re saying in between the quiet spaces of the music. Not music, but a sound I thought about a lot this year was a young Black man killed by the cops, his name was Elijah McClain, and he used to play the violin to comfort stray cats. Not playing the violin, rather sawing open this world to reveal one somewhere else that I’d like to believe exists.  IF ONLY THIS HAD EXISTED WHEN I WAS LEARNING CELLO AS A TEENAGER Clarice Jensen, The experience of repetition as death PER USUAL: MY FAVORITE HARP RECORDINGS OF 2020 (HORSEHAIR CATEGORY) Rhodri Davies, Telyn Rawn

FAVORITE HARP (PEDAL) Dezron Douglas and Brandee Younger, Force Majeure MOST LISTENED-TO ALBUMS THAT FELT INSTANTLY FAMILIAR AND WELCOMING Duval Timothy, Help Jeff Parker, Suite for Max Brown MOST LISTENED-TO ALBUM THAT CONFUSED AND DELIGHTED ME ANEW EACH TIME, IT SOUNDS LIKE NOTHING ELSE Still House Plants, Fast Edit ROOKIE OF THE YEAR KeiyaA, Forever, Ya Girl FREE JAZZMATAZZ Boldy James and Sterling Toles, Manger on McNichols

FREQUENTLY SUBLIME...MOTORBIKES, RICKSHAWS, CHAOS THROUGH WEAK CLOCK RADIO SPEAKERS 3Phaz, Three Phase EARTH HEALED HERSELF Gaia Tones, #002 Chains/Shackles BUT ESPECIALLY TRACK 4  ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ, ooo　̟̞̝̜̙̘̗̖҉̵̴̨̧̢̡̼̻̺̹̳̲̱̰̯̮̭̬̫̪̩̦̥̤̣̠҈͈͇͉͍͎͓͔͕͖͙͚͜͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢ͅ 　oʅ͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡͡​(​　؞ৢ؞ؙؖ⁽⁾˜ัิีึื์๎้็๋๊⦁0　̟̞̝̜̙̘̗̖҉̵̴̨̧̢̡̼̻̺̹̳̲̱̰̯̮̭̬̫̪̩̦̥̤̣̠҈͈͇͉͍͎͓͔͕͖͙͚͜͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢͢ͅ 　ఠీੂ೧ູ࿃ूੂ I MISS THE NIGHTLIFE Julion De’Angelo and Viola Klein, We

ASK THE AGES Mary Halvorson’s Code Girl, Artlessly Falling

JOURNEY TO THE ONE Ambrose Akinmusire, on the tender spot of every calloused moment JOURNEY TO THE ONE, IN A RAINFOREST Matthew Halsall, Salute to the Sun BEST LIVE MUSIC Pharoah Sanders at Zebulon BEST OLD MUSIC Foul Play, Origins I OFTEN PUT THIS ON AND FORGET WHAT IT IS AND CYCLE THROUGH MY WINDOWS EXCITEDLY IN ORDER TO REMEMBER Alabaster DePlume, To Cy & Lee: Instrumentals, Vol. 1 WONDROUS...WE FLOATED OUT OF THERE...IS THIS HOW PEOPLE FEEL ABOUT ‘HAMILTON?’  American Utopia at the Hudson Theater ONLY POSITIVE VIBES Dougie Stu, Familiar Future Jeen Bassa, Cassava Pone R E S P E C T orion sun, “mama’s baby” I WOULD HAVE PLAYED THE SHIT OUT OF THIS BACK AT THE ENORMOUS ROOM drea the vibe dealer, priestess of vibrations SIM SIMMA (SLOW VERSION) Ruth Orhiunu, “Loving Goes Down” AT LES (VERSION) ọmọ igi, “Coco” and Prone2 THIS WAS THIS YEAR??? RMR, “Rascal” FLY AWAY Morray, “Quicksand” “I GOT POWER NOW I GOTTA SAY SOMETHING” Lil Baby, “The Bigger Picture”

LOVE IS ESSENTIAL Ian Isiah, “Loose Truth” STARING AT THE SUN Sharada Shashidhar, Rahu 2 BRIDGES MUSIC AND ARTS APPRECIATION POST THOUGH MY TASTES ARE ADMITTEDLY HELLA BASIC COMPARED TO THE SHOP’S GENERAL ETHOS AND VIBE NYZ, OLD TRX [87-93] Conrad Pack, Stations of Control I CAN’T BELIEVE I FUCKING FELL FOR "CHOPPED AND SCREWED WILCO” Chopstars x Barry Jenkins, Yankee Purple Foxtrot OR “JAZZY CLUB MUSIC”...BUT I DID SW., Night PROBABLY THE BEST THING I BOUGHT THIS YEAR Angel Bat Dawid, “Transition East” 7-inch bundled with Emma Warren’s wondrous Make Some Space and Piotr Orlov’s killer manifesto ANNUAL “THING I DISCOVERED THROUGH BEING FRIENDS WITH/FOLLOWING ORLOV” Ase Manual, Black Liquid Electronics HEADHUNTERS Jadakiss f/ Pusha T, “Huntin Season” ”I WAS LEFT BACK LIKE EVRA” Tion Wayne x Dutchavelli x Stormzy, “I Don’t Know” 56 BARS Lil Eazzyy, “Onna Come Up” ALFA ROMEO / FUEGO / I’M ON MY WAY, YO / WACO / ALFREDO / SCOTT BAIO / MAYO / MAINO Roc Marciano, “Downtown 81″ I WILL ALWAYS LIKE THE VULNERABLEST SONG ON YOUR PROJECT ZahSosaa, “Emotions” THIS BEAT GOES TO ELEVEN Heem Sosa, “Expose You” SAME, BUT WEST COAST YeloHill, “Tales From the Hood” BEST NEW DRONES FUJI​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​|​TA, iki

BEST OLD WOBBLES Skream, Unreleased Classics 2002-2003 JOURNEY TO SATCHIDANANDA Deradoorian, Find the Sun VERVE’S “SLIDE AWAY” VIDEO Raymond Richards, The Lost Art of Wandering THE OPENING SECONDS OF “HOLY ARE YOU” Corey Fuller, Sanctuary SHOPPING CARTS CRASHING FOREVER HPRIZM, Loops Are a Form of Meditation I MEAN IT’S CALLED Chris Crack, White People Love Algorithms  $ilkmoney, Attack of the Future Shocked, Flesh Covered, Meatbags of the 85 A NICE LOOSIE Ryuji Ono, “Should Be There” SOME THINGS YOU LISTEN TO A LOT BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW THE BEAT AND VERSES WORK, AND WHETHER IT IS INTENTIONAL Choose Up Cheese x ShittyBoyz, “Shitty Cheese” I HAVE NO IDEA WHY I BOUGHT THIS BUT THE GENRE TAG IS “POPOL VUH” Ñaka Ñaka, “Thorny Place” ANNUAL MOOD HUT INSTANT CLASSIC CZ Wang, Neo Image, “Just Off Wave/Open Mic Beat” IS THIS BETTER THAN THE ORIGINAL?? 岩本清顕 Kiyoaki Iwamoto, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” ONE OF THE BEST SONGS OF ALL TIME IS Lim Giong, “A Pure Person”

WHICH SADLY COULD NOT BE INCLUDED ON this Pure Person collection of covers by Taiwanese artists (as well as LG’s own spiritual sequel to the original) that is an incredible vibe FREE GUZHENG  Mindy Meng Wang 王萌, An Improvisation Through Time and Space 穿越时光的即兴 I KNEW NOTHING ABOUT THIS SOUNDTRACK OR FILM BUT IT IS FANTASTIC Carman Moore, Personal Problems OST THE BEST GENRE OF MUSIC IS SADE patten x sade 54D3 SECOND BEST: LATE 80s/EARLY 90s UK STREET SOUL  Soul Connection, Street Soul BRONZE: SEAN PAUL ASSAULTED BY JUNGLISMS Gallery S, “I’m Still in Love Restructure”

SPEAKING OF BLARES Standing on the Corner, “Angel” ONLY GOT TO SEE STANDING ON THE CORNER TWICE THIS YEAR 2/7/20 :: Black Music Future :: NYU 2/21/20 :: Artists on Artists :: Studio Museum  BUT THIS SUFFICES Standing on the Corner, “Zolo Go” SONG OF EVERY YEAR

[ultra-blu-eagle-eyes]

TODAY WE MAKE HIS  STORY

TIMELINES OF CENTURIES PAST..HISTORY IS CUBIC-ALLY

CYCLE N ITS AM-KINGS MAKING..GO LOOK BACK N TIME..

REPETITION  MONOTONES  GLUTEN  GLUTTONY  SAME SELF SAME

SHAMEFUL  PRIDEFUL  WOEFUL TEARFUL AWFUL MISERY CROWDS

3S CROWD  MEAN AGE A TROIS SEX DRUGS ROCK ROLL 

NOISE LIGHT AIR SEA TRASH RUBBISH GARBAGE ABOHORS 

ARBORS SEA 2 SINKING SHIP   PIER LEARY!! STARE GLARE 

1720  1820  1920 PANDEMIC I C DEMS PANDER DANDER YONDER

PANDEMIC DAM MEDICS MASH 4077

PANDEMIC DEMS PANIC  MAIL USPS ELECTION CONSPIRE FRAUD

PANDEMIC SPANISH  SWINE  AVIAN  3 PTS TRIANGLES 

ENERGY  LIFE EXIST  =   +    -   NEUTRAL CHEMICALS SYNTHETICS

Solve forareaA=hbb2 bBase hbHeight γcahbbhbhbcγabacbγPcγabA 

Showing results for https://www.google.com/search?ei=lcBnX8vPOJCJ-gSZkY24Dg Solve for areA=hbb2 base height γcahbbhbhbcγabacbγPcγabA Search instead for https://www.google.com/search?ei=lcBnX8vPOJCJ-gSZkY24Dg Solve forareaA=hbb2 bBase hbHeight γcahbbhbhbcγabacbγPcγabA

PRISMS  PERSONS  PRISONS     ME   I    O    U DNA/RNA NADA                                                                 DAM THING!!

Definition of Area - Math is Fun = METH  AMP MY MIND SYNTHESIZE

COMPOUNDS COCAINE LSD HERION MAN-MADE 

CREATIVE WRITING  VITRINE  3 SIDES/STORY 

TURQUOISE  AQUA MAN MARINES CORONADO CAVE BATS ALES

FAILS   WIFE TAILS DOVE TAILS LOVE TRIANGLES..YOU GET IT

MTGE    “ROARING  20S”  THE TRUE ERA OF NEW SENSATIONS

GENEARATIONS FRUSTRATIONS!!  ORANGE MEN   

CLOCKWORK   ORANGE  DR WHO  MYSTERY SCIENCE 3000

The Old Ultra-Violence: A Clockwork Orange - The American ..

THE ANSWER TO WHY WE ALL SCREWED UP FORGOT OUR ROORS

ROOTS   BASELESS SENSELESS FOUNDATIONS!!

han Thi Kim Phuc · ‎Disambiguation · ‎Thickening agent · ‎Louis Fieser   

                        Napalm - Enacademic    PANDEMIC EPIDEMIC

GOOD TO S CU AGAIN DAG NAB IT!!     serenity band members - Psycho Coach

World Wars, Words and spelling, Writing Style Guide ...

THE PRINT PRESS SO CAL MEDIA POLITICS NY WAPA TIMES OST

YEP U GOT IT ..ALL WENT NORTH IS SOUTH EAST IS WEST

UP IS DOWN SO DOWN IS UP LEFT RITE STRAIGHT FORWARD RIGHT!!

FOLK LORE CAMPFIRE R WHISKY THROTTLE  TALK BLAH BLAH BLAH!!

BLM USA USDA DEA ICE AGE STONER AGE CBP FBI CIA OSS

ANY ONE RECANT GEORGE FLOYD THE ALBINO RHINO GORE!! Tear Down The Wall - YouTubewww.youtube.com › watch2:16End of the Trial. Music is delirious, by Pink Floyd. Excerpt from The Wall (1980). Another wall fell, that year.Nov 9, 2009 - Uploaded by Charles A. Catherine Pink Floyd - Tear Down the Wall - Part 1 - YouTubewww.youtube.com › watch4:04Pink Floyd - Tear Down the Wall - Part 1. 72,161 views72K views. • Apr 20, 2009. 361 14. Share Save. 361 / 14 ...Apr 20, 2009 - Uploaded by mypostergallery

[latin-dr-robotnik]

20 Questions Meme

Thanks for tagging me, @isakthedragon ! I never did something like this, so here goes a big revealing dump of info about me :P

Name: Sebastian

Nicknames: my ex used to call me "Sebin", does that count? (lol jk) Close friends call me "Sebi", and people that disagree with my political views call me "pendejo de mierda", sooooo...

Zodiac Sign: Leo

Height: 175cm, at least last time I checked.

Languages: Spanish (native), English (self-taught by vidyagames), and I kinda know a thing or two about Portuguese.

Nationality: Argentinian

Favorite Season: Spring (the only decent season here)

Favorite Flower: I'm more of a tree guy honestly. I have a lovely Ficus Benjamina tree at home that is such a beautyyyy <3

Favorite Scent: Pizza. Although I like the scent coming from all types of bread (I have my Spanish ancestors' anarchist baker DNA), there's nothing that can beat a good old pizza.

Favorite Color: Currently I do love Purple a lot (just look at my blog's design), but I've always been a Green lover.

Favorite Animal: Dogs, yup.

Favorite Fictional Character:  Well, this blog is called Latin Dr. Robotnik, right? Apart from the obvious Sonic characters that I fanboy (Sonic, Eggy, Amy, Knux and Vector, just to name a few), I do love Arnold (from Hey, Arnold! He's always my mood), Theo (Celeste) and Azula (ATLA, childhood crush alongside Katara, ngl).

Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate: I'm a big chocolate fan, but I have to admit that I do drink a lot more of coffee, that's the student life.

Average Sleep Hours: 8-9 hours (sometimes 6 when I have lots of stuff to do, and up to 12 during summer and winter break)

Dog or Cat person: I have both on the house, but fucking hell, a couple of weeks ago the cat pissed on my fucking potatoes bag just when I was about to cook a Spanish tortilla. This is not a SA2 Fandub reference by the way, I'm still rather upset.

Number of Blankets Slept With: what kind of question is that? lmao. Currently, during the hottest days of summer, I rip every blanket off the bed, and sometimes that isn't enough.

Dream Trip: I'd love to do a West Europe tour, you know, France, Italy, UK... and I have my cousin living in Barcelona, so the dream might actually come true some day. But first I have plans to visit Peru and Mexico.

Blog Established: 2018.

Followers: 122, and I love each and every single one of you <3 (except the bots, gtfo)

Random Fact: I do Simpsons references ALL. THE. TIME. It's a regional thing, seeing how much Latin Americans love the show. On my IRL friends group, if you don't speak in Simpsons references, chances are you'll be isolated from the conversation.

Bonus fact: I'm the type of guy that loves sharing knowledge and specially music with everyone. Want a Sonic track? Here's one for ya! Want a videogame track? I'm a big fan of this game, and the remastered OST is orgasmic. Want a rock-pop song from my country? Try this song (I went to their live show in November and my mind was simply blown away when they played that song)

Now the hard part, I don't know who I want to tag, and I don't want them to feel forced to do it, but I'd like to see @waywardcollectionchai and @yvanixrose try it. You are free to decline, and everyone else can do it on their own without being tagged, so, much love to y'all <3

[jacktrammell]

Letter Writing Gone?

Calling All Old-School Letter Writers

Jack Trammell, Ph.D.

I sometimes lament that there are no young stamp collectors anymore (technically termed philatelists in the old vernacular). Then I had a realization that really won’t surprise anyone over the age of thirty: stamps are used to send letters; and no one sends letters anymore. I remember calculating postage costs for political flyers in my 2014 Congressional campaign and agonizing over the printing and postage budget. Me now to me then: Get with the times—my 50,000 followers on Twitter didn’t care a whit about stamps and letters; they were fine with photos, clever pot-shot slogans, and useful links.

Still, the art of letter writing is more than just fodder for English professors and grandmothers who don’t use smart technology. It’s an endangered artform, albeit out of style, but very worthy of possible resurrection.

As a social historian, part of my specialty is World War II on the Eastern Front fought primarily between the Nazi Wehrmacht and the Soviet Red Army. Thousands of Soviet and German soldier letters are now being translated into English for a common audience (since unfortunately actual survivors have “aged out” and can’t be interviewed, although I met a few!) My interest in reading them is to understand how and why ordinary Germans carried out heinous acts or even just tacitly supported an evil regime without suffering mental breakdown (and some did); and frankly, understanding exactly the same thing on the Soviet side, where their own war crimes are still not fully numbered or documented and are on a similar heinous scale.

Most recently, I am reading the letters of Friedrich Reiner Niemann, a non-commissioned German soldier who is as far from the heroic Valkyric Teuton as my grandmother. He was exquisitely educated; his father an artist and intellectual; he was as un-militaristic as any German youth in the Nazi era could have possibly been. In fact, he turned down the opportunity to become an officer.

Drafted in 1941, Niemann’s letters are at first read-through boyish, sometimes trite, dismissive of those less educated or cultured, and (surprisingly) openly hostile to the Nazi regime. He even seems a little arrogant at times. Most of the goofy teenagers I grew up would have considered him a little snobby and a nerd.

However, a deeper evolving read reveals some of what we all might want to know—what happened to the Germany of Goethe and Strauss? What happened to the Germany of classic liberalism? Niemann’s letters are literally an unintentional dark eulogy to the Germany of pre-Nazi days. At one point he is taking his generous rations from his 6th Infantry Division allotments on the Ost front and sending them all back to Germany to his needy family members! He is listening to Brahms on a pilfered Polish gramophone in combat while his artist father is back in Cologne digging anti-tank ditches!

What pathos. Letter writing cannot be allowed to fade away. It’s an immeasurably precious window into the soul. By the end of the war, young, brash, brilliant Niemann has finally begun to mature. He then suggests this:

The more you have the more you want. If people would admit that, we wouldn’t have wars. But you have to learn that yourself from experience, and then you are seventy years old and no longer have he strength to make mistakes.

Niemann never made it to seventy. Like Faust (whom I ironically was reading when Niemann was also reading it in my vicarious journey with him), Niemann made his deal with the devil. He died near the end of war in Poland and then for a while was lost to time. There’s no telling what he would have done had he lived—Poetry as a primary love? Art like his father? Music? Drama? Education? A post-war West German great mind?

But, indeed, he was connected to a terrible regime that was the antithesis to everything the Niemann family stood for. Reiner shot Russian enemies; his father dug tank traps; his brother shot down enemy planes—we are unfortunately left with more questions than answers. But we can definitively say this: war and evil can sometimes sweep away all that is beautiful, not matter what your intellectual commitment to it may be, but a written record, a series of letters like these can sublimely let us enter that past world, and ask the questions that still need to be asked.

Thank you, Reiner.

We need to restore letter-writing in the 21stcentury for all of our moral soundness. Even if it doesn’t involve recruiting new philatelists.

###

Jack Trammell is Professor and Chair of Sociology, Criminal Justice, and Human Services at Mount Saint Mary’s University in MD. He can be reached either at j.k.trammell@msmary.edu, or personally at jacktrammell@yahoo.com

[olgagarmash]

An HIV crisis raises the question: Should health officials be activists? – STAT

Most local health officials don’t accept their jobs expecting to be roped into political activism.

Amid Covid-19, though, politics became a central element of health experts’ job descriptions. In Washington, government researcher Anthony Fauci publicly feuded with former President Trump. In many cities and states, local health departments were forced to square off against governors who resisted coronavirus mitigation strategies like business closures or mask mandates.

The series of squabbles has raised the question of whether, to be effective, local health officials need to add politics to their list of day-to-day responsibilities. And while the fights have been most pronounced amid the pandemic, they’ve even cropped up in states otherwise lauded for their coronavirus response, like West Virginia.

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There, the dynamic has played out in the context of a worst-in-the-nation HIV outbreak linked to injection drug use. This month, as local officials scrambled to prevent further spread, the state legislature all but banned one of their most effective tools for doing so: syringe exchanges that distribute sterile needles to people whose drug use places them at high risk of infection.

“Working seven days a week on things that are outside our area of expertise, the political backlash against popular strategies — it has taken its toll nationwide on our public health workforce,” said Michael Kilkenny, the CEO of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department in West Virginia, which serves the hard-hit city of Huntington. “It is frustrating, and we see what the consequences are.”

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Willingly or not, local health officials’ involvement in local West Virginia politics has been slowly escalating since 2018, when Charleston, the state’s largest city, closed its only city-run needle exchange.

This month, several local officials vocally opposed a controversial bill aimed at tightly regulating syringe-exchange programs, but the state Senate eventually approved it on a 27-7 vote.

The new requirements make things harder for the people trying to access the services and those trying to provide them. They require that programs tag syringes with individualized bar codes, and that recipients present a photo ID and receive new syringes at a 1:1 ratio to old ones they bring back, a requirement that flies directly in the face of federal recommendations.

“We now have a state law that makes it illegal to run a program based on CDC best practices,” said Robin Pollini, an epidemiology professor at West Virginia University.

HIV-prevention advocates say the move comes at the worst possible time. The state’s HIV case count, proportional to its population, is already among the worst nationally. Kanawha County, which is the state’s largest at 180,000 residents, recorded roughly as many HIV cases in 2019 as all of New York City, where 8 million people live. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the known HIV cases in West Virginia could represent the “tip of the iceberg” of a much larger crisis.

Syringe exchanges have long been demonstrated to be effective tools used to prevent people who use drugs from sharing needles and, in the process, spreading diseases like HIV or hepatitis C.

Local health officials aren’t just going up against their political superiors. Often, they’ve clashed with the very communities they serve. West Virginia residents, for example, have also gone head-to-head with health officials to oppose the syringe exchange, alleging that it increases drug use in their neighborhoods or puts people at risk of stepping on a stray needle.

It mirrors a broader national theme: Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, governors in Republican-controlled states like Texas and Arizona have sought to ban local governments from imposing disease-prevention measures like mask mandates or school closures.

In many cases, the pushback has forced local health officials to decide between honoring the desires of the community they serve, or following the science and advocating directly against their own constituents and the mayors or county leaders they work for.

Even those who push back are often fighting a losing battle. Raw emotion will always win out against data-driven arguments presented by a government official, said Kilkenny, the Cabell County health executive.

“If you are scared to death, you’re not analyzing what’s going on,” he said. “You are running or you’re fighting. While you’re running or you’re fighting, you’re not thinking.”

Amid the backlash, local health leaders say they often have little recourse, even when they’re aware that the public’s desires conflict directly with their mission of preventing illness and saving lives.

“The implications are tough, because oftentimes local health officials are either hired by or supervised by county executives or mayors,” said Oscar Alleyne, the chief of programs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “They have to navigate those eggshells while at the same time clearly articulating what works.”

In critics’ eyes, however, walking on eggshells isn’t enough. In the face of a health emergency, Pollini argued that working to change the political landscape is an essential part of a public health official’s job — especially if local politics are keeping them from addressing a crisis.

“If you understand the science and you’re a public health person, you have to make an effort to turn public opinion,” she said.

In West Virginia, some local officials have attempted to land somewhere in between.

Kilkenny highlighted his testimony before a state Senate committee, which he said may have helped to water down the legislation, allowing syringe exchanges to continue in limited form. An earlier version of the bill would have outlawed the exchanges entirely.

“We educated [lawmakers] that we need this tool,” he said. “It was not successful in changing the outcome. But it possibly mitigated what would have been completely devastating legislation and made it only very very challenging.”

Sherri Young, who leads the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and serves the state’s largest county, said that appropriately weighing science against community discomfort is often impossible. Her county has not operated a syringe exchange since 2018. Two local nonprofit groups have offered limited services since, the larger of which may be forced to close in light of the new law.

“I don’t know that the right balance has been struck,” Young said. “The ideal situation, if I could design anything, is one that the public would be comfortable with, but does work for prevention of HIV.”

She also defended the department’s work, saying it has worked to combat the HIV crisis via testing and aggressive outreach to vulnerable populations, especially in anticipation of controversy surrounding syringe exchange programs.

“We knew, because it was going to be a political issue, how to prepare for it moving forward,” she said.

Pollini, however, was direct in her criticism. Young, she said, didn’t fight hard enough to preserve evidence-based strategies like syringe exchange programs.

“We will continue to have people infected with a completely preventable disease,” she said, “because no one is standing up and saying: Hey, let me have a conversation with you about these programs and why they’re so important to our community.”

source https://wealthch.com/an-hiv-crisis-raises-the-question-should-health-officials-be-activists-stat/

[chariot313]

Western social media has no respect for Japanese online artists - and it’s killing online art

The visual arts have evolved to suit the most popular medium of each era. In nowadays’ case, the internet is the go-to method of sharing the fruits of one’s labour). However, as stated in that tweet thread of mine you can see if you scroll down a bit (assuming you’re viewing this post on chariot313.tumblr.com) different cultures have different attitudes towards how their customers react to their products. This include you know what fuck the formalities, I’ll just say it: The exclusively western concept of someone seeing something they like online and hitting the share button to stimulate the “Haha, upvotes go ‘brrr’!” dopamine in their smooth-ass lizard brain will be the death of online Japanese artists. Or rather, it has been already, and you would know that if you’ve ever seen an artist’s Twitter bio be in mostly Japanese save for one sentence in English; “Reprint is prohibited.”.

If you want to hear me rationalize the absurd claim I just made, feel free to click the “Keep reading” button. Otherwise, turn back now and save yourself from me possibly wasting your time.

Alright, you’ve chosen to stick with me. Just remember, you asked for this.

Introduction

Social media as a whole is based around sharing (posting, uploading, submitting, tweeting, blogging, streaming etc.) and other’s reactions to what one has shared (views, likes, subscribers, favorites, followers, upvotes, retweets, reblogs, crossposts, etc.).

However, miscommunication and culture shock due to language barriers and cultural differences is one of the many factors that can negatively affect one’s experience on social media. For example, the Japanese artist community, active on sites such as Twitter, Pixiv, NicoNico Seiga, FC2 blogs, etc.. Twitter is mostly inhabited by English-speaking users. Here in the west, our main motive for sharing something on social media (such as art) is for fame and recognition. However, over in the East, most online artists only upload their works to the internet for personal use. I’m not saying one cultural attitude towards sharing art is better than one another, but when these two worldviews collide, the culture shock can negatively affect the careers of artists who are unaware of the other culture’s differing views on sharing art.

So, I’ve listed numerous social media platforms below and I’m going to elaborate on how each of them contributes to the alienation and discouragement of Japanese artists.

DO NOT WITCH-HUNT OR HARASS THE CULPRITS I’VE LISTED AS EXAMPLES; THEY ONLY SERVE TO BACK UP MY ARGUMENT

Twitter

Go into the twitter search bar and type in the name of an anime character (usually female). What do you find? Most likely an account named after said character that does nothing but post unsourced fan art of said character with cheesy “in-character” captions on them.

Exhibit A [NSFW]

Exhibit B [NSFW]

Exhibit C [very NSFW]

Aside from that, Twitter isn’t that bad in this regard, as a lot of the art that gets stolen is originally uploaded to Twitter anyway. But I’m just getting started. 

Wattpad

Ah yes, Wattpad. One of the “trinity” of fan fiction communities (the others being fanfiction.net and AO³), featuring many different stories with varying degrees of readability. The problem is the option to add a picture to adorn your fanfiction, at which point most of the authors google “<fanfic subject> fan art” and use something from there without considering the repercussions. This causes Wattpad to be one of the top results when reverse image searching to find the source of some fan art, aside from another site I’ll mention later on...

Reddit

There’s a subreddit I often browse called r/ChurchOfJirou, a community for sharing anything relating to the character Kyouka from My Hero Academia (I mean come on, she’s like the cutest thing ever). A lot of the posts on that sub are sharing fan art of the aforementioned character. One of the rules in the sidebar is “always include the source in the title or the comments”. And most of the submissions make good on that rule. However, a lot of the posts are from Japanese artists on Twitter or Pixiv, and following the source link leads you to find the artist’s bio, which usually has something along the lines of “don’t repost my work”. And what’s more, the biggest offenders (of submitting art to the sub without OP’s permission) were the moderators of the subreddit. You know, the ones who are supposed to be enforcing the rules? I even got so fed up that I called it out, to which one of the mods replied,

“It doesn’t really make a difference, does it?”

Luckily, not all subreddits are like this. For example, other MHA-related subs like r/BokuNoShipAcademia or r/ChurchOfMinaAshido have moderators that are more considerate of artists’ wishes. Overall, Reddit is usually a hit-or-miss when it comes to this kind of thing. At best, you’ve got subs like the two I just mentioned which make sure to respect artists, and at worst you’ve got people trying (and failing) to edit out watermarks. Also, not to self-promote, but this tweet of mine represents this situation pretty well:

Imgur

Imgur isn’t that bad compared to the rest of these, but it’s a common one that people link to when asked for the source of whatever they’ve shared on Twitter or Reddit or whatever.

Amino Apps

Amino Apps is a strange case. I don’t know much about it since I’ve never used it, but from what I do know it seems similar to Reddit in that there are numerous communities for different niches. That said, judging from the way it clogs up Google image search results, I doubt OC art is posted there often.

YouTube

Now, you may be thinking, “How does a video site rip off others’ art?”. The answer is uploads of soundtracks. Look for any OST from a video game or anime on YouTube and the picture used for the video will likely be some fan art by a Japanese Pixiv artist, usually one that forbids reposts of their work. Not only that, but if the uploader did bother to add the source in the description, it’s usually not even a link to the actual source, more likely a link to Zerochan or Pinterest or something. Now take into account that some of these videos get millions of views. Imagine working hard on something, and some numbnuts takes it, slaps some music onto it, uploads it to YouTube, and gets millions of views while you get next to nothing in comparison.

Exhibit A

Exhibit B (re-upload; original had nearly 40 million views before it was copyright claimed)

Exhibit C

and many many others

Pinterest

Alright, this is the big one. When Pinterest isn’t giving recipes or wardrobe ideas to suburban white moms, it’s clogging up Google reverse image search, punishing anyone who just wanted to find the source of some cute fan art. I feel like this meme by ZebitasMartinexSi on Facebook sums it up:

For example, this piece of Legend of Zelda art by Twitter artist @_nomeri_ (I’ll just link to it, since it would be hypocritical of me to embed the image even though @_nomeri_’s bio warns people not to repost their art). Good art, right? Well, if you right-click and hit “Search Google for image”...

...yeah. Pinterest is a plague. It thrives on theft. Even worse is when someone will post fan art on Twitter/Tumblr/Reddit/etc. and have the nerve to say “IDK the source I found it on Pinterest ^_^”. Or worse yet, they link to Pinterest saying it’s the source.

Instagram

While many other sites rag on Instagram for its reposting of memes, it’s no better when it comes to reposting fan art, especially from Pixiv. I’ve seen lots of stolen pieces with fan fictions written in the description. Personally, if I were an artist, I’d rethink my career choice if I saw my art reposted on Instagram with a half-assed fanfic under it, so I don’t blame Japanese artists who close their Pixiv accounts after seeing that. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to prevent it from happening in the first place.

DeviantArt

DeviantArt is more “renowned” across the web for its niche circles of bizarre fetish art, but in its defence, there are some legitimately good pieces on there. If you do find a good one though, try checking to see if all of the uploader’s pieces have a similar overall art style, because if not, that’s a sure sign of someone passing off some Pixiv user’s art as their own, which is unfortunately fairly common on DeviantArt.

9Gag

Not a whole lot to say about 9Gag. I mean, it does contribute to reposting of art, but nothing really separates it from the others on this list, aside from its watermarks. At least the watermark gives away the fact that something was reposted.

Know Your Meme

You know that Zelda pic by @_nomeri_ I was talking about earlier? Well, to add insult to injury, it became an object-labelling meme.

Imagine putting hours into something and politely asking others not to repost it, only to find that some nincompoops on r/DankMemes made it into an object-labelling meme.

But this isn’t KYM’s fault, per se. Know Your Meme only documents memes; they do not create them. However, as someone who regularly browses the Know Your Meme image galleries, I can say that the image gallery has essentially become Know Your Fan Art (unlawfully reposted fan art, that is).

Redbubble

There’s an NSFW artist I follow on Twitter by the name of Nico-Mo. A while ago, his Pixiv account was suspended, and there were numerous pictures on there that he had not uploaded to his Twitter or DeviantArt, so I found a mirror of one of those pieces on Gelbooru and reverse-image searched in hopes of finding it on his Twitter. No such luck. What came up instead was a .png of the piece made into a sticker being sold on Redbubble. In fact, that’s one of the major reasons why artists disapprove of their art being reposted, as it may find its way onto a sticker or a T-shirt being sold as merch without the original artist giving consent nor the artist receiving so much as a single nickel.

Facebook

Surprisingly, I think Facebook is one of the least offending sites on this list. Still worth mentioning, though.

Funnyjunk

Like Imgur, Funnyjunk isn’t that bad compared to some of the rest of these, but this exchange in the comments of a repost of an MHA artist that deleted their account (not hard to see why considering people straight-up ignored the big-ass watermark at the bottom) is proof enough of western social media’s flippant attitude towards ruining online artists’ careers.

Aggregator imageboards such as Yande.re, Konachan, Danbooru, Gelbooru, Rule34, SankakuComplex, Zerochan, etc.

I don’t think I need to explain these. But like Imgur, these are what most people link to when asked for source instead of bothering to find the original post.

We Heart It

I don’t know much about “We Heart It”, but it seems to be a “Pinterest Lite” considering it clogs up image search almost as much as Pinterest does.

iFunny

Basically the same as 9Gag, in the sense that its watermarks are a dead giveaway.

4chan

I’m not sure if 4chan really “counts” among these, as it’s a chat board where nearly everything is impermanent anyway. However, I was once on an NSFW subreddit where one submitter used a 4chan thread to get Patreon-exclusive material from an artist to upload to the sub (even though one of the rules of the sub was “no paywall content”), so that alone earns 4chan its spot on this list.

Tumblr

Yes, not even Tumblr is innocent. Although I’m sure you knew that. Similar to what I said about Twitter, look up any blog named after a fictional character and it’ll likely be chock-full of unsourced fan art.

“Why is this even important?”

Because if an artist sees that their work is being reposted, depending on the artist, they may delete the original post when they wouldn’t have to if people had just respected their wishes. Now, if an artist wants their works gone from the internet for other personal reasons, that’s up to them and we should respect them for it. But artists taking down their works due to mass reposting is 100% preventable, which is why it’s sad. If you don’t respect an artist, they won’t create art. Simple as that.

“Why do you care so much?”

Eh, I’m just weird like that. It just ticks me off when anything online, whether it be art, or a video, or whatever, is lost. In my opinion, nothing hurts more than clicking a Pixiv link on an imageboard and being greeted with “The work was deleted or the ID does not exist.”.

“But lots of western artists forbid reposting of their art too!”

Indeed, that is correct. But while many artists of every nationality and culture frown upon reproduction of their work, it seems only western social media is responsible for reposting art in the first place. I mean, why else do you think Japanese artists are saying “Reprint is prohibited” in English when the rest of their bio is in Japanese? Because English-speakers are the ones reposting.

“But exposure can help an artist!”

Yeah, that’s true...

...but “exposure” doesn’t mean much if those “exposed” to one’s work don’t know or care who it came from.

And if you need even more reasons, look no further than these posts about the same topic by other blogs:

https://cranberrywitch.tumblr.com/post/143456002228/stop-reposting-art-from-japanese-artists

https://thegospelofnagisa.tumblr.com/post/143308182398

https://edendaphne.tumblr.com/post/163117317030/ive-been-wanting-to-make-this-educational-cheat

https://marklightgreatsword.tumblr.com/post/190056977650/discourage-art-theft-in-fandom-in-2020-dont

https://letusrespectpixivartistconsent.tumblr.com/post/92189994896/why-is-this-important

also, not to self-promote but I made a thread on Twitter on this topic about a month ago that you can check out here.

That’s all.

posted Jun 14; last edit Jun 21

[popliar]

K-Con Australia, 20170922-23

The first Australian K-Con was held over the last two nights in Sydney, and @proteinscollide​ and I were there. I'm very behind on everything else as a result! I need to watch Knowing Bros! ANYWAY, short version: IT WAS SUPER FUN. Lots of rambling under the cut as usual.

22 September: SF9, Pentagon, Victon, Girl's Day, Exo

23 September: SF9 (again!), Up10tion, Cosmic Girls/WJSN, Wanna One, Monsta X

Overall this was an extremely well produced show and a really fun show - I had such a good time! Okay, the "convention" part not so much (I'll talk about this a bit at the end of the post) but at both evening shows, the concert ran like a slick machine, stage following stage with no pause, good sound and no technical hitches. Visually the show looked great, with massive screens giving good views of every performer as well as fantastically atmospheric backdrops.

It didn't sell out on either night, and again I'll talk about possible reasons for that more later, but as a vehicle for hallyu and for promoting Korean culture this is potentially such a powerful instrument. One of the most striking K-Con images for me is the footage of K-Con Paris from 2016 - the pan from the section of the crowd for the French dignitaries and delegates, all politely seated and clapping, to the massive auditorium of French youth going absolutely wild for these pop groups from the other side of the world. This show didn't have that element of official endorsement, it was much more a straight-up pop show, but hey you never know, that might come…

Soft power has its limits, for sure, but within those boundaries Korea is working so very hard at being the very best it can be. I admire the gumption, and more importantly to Korea I am happily consuming the product! Give me more product! I'm here for this!

As far as line-up goes, this K-Con wasn't the best. Exo are absolute stars of course and there were other notable groups like Monsta X and Girl's Day; on balance however this was a really rookie-heavy sausage-fest. The prevalence of rookies is probably partly bad timing - the show coincided with the DMC Music Festival (which was eventually cancelled anyway due to labour disputes, argh, we could've had it all!).

But the boy-heavy line-up? Frustrating. Apparently WJSN and Girl's Day are the first girl groups to perform here since 4 Minute some three-four years ago. WHY? Perhaps there's a perception that since Western fans are mostly girls then they'll only turn out for boybands - I know in Korea the audience for girlgroups is skewed towards boys. However, here in the West, pop as a whole is coded so heavily female that I'm sure wouldn't be a problem. I've been to many Western female pop star concerts and trust me, the girls SHOWED UP. Hell, at this very same arena, Little Mix are performing later this year. Besides, this argument falls flat if you look at other K-Con line-ups which, although boy-heavy, still manage more than a measly 2 girl groups. Gosh I'd have been so happy with the addition of any ONE of Red Velvet, Mamamoo, Blackpink, Pristin, Gfriend, Twice, etc…

...that was a long intro. Let's talk the show.

Chanyeol (EXO)

Night 1

The first night of K-Con began with a pre-show of kpop dance cover groups (they were all good but some were REALLY GOOD) and Kevin from U-KISS as MC (did u know he looks like Lee Pace around the eyes?), doing his cheesy best to hype up the crowd and also promote the con's primary sponsor.

Then the show got started with a VCR, featuring Monsta X's Minhyuk in a sort of spaceship-themed narrative? I don't know what I saw but apparently K-Con's first Oceanic showing needed heroes or defenders or something, i.e. kpop groups? Whatever cool. I do know it involved Minhyuk looking at a picture of a kangaroo so we're all good.

Also apparently Sydney is the city of "arts and culture" and also "romance"? I'm flattered on behalf of my home, and I can assure you we have plenty of all three, but really?? Those are not, like, the first words I associate with Sydney. But ok, you do you K-Con!

Exo's Suho and Sehun then came on as the night's special MCs to deliver a brief introduction and be cute together and make the crowd scream. Naturally, there were Exo jerseys and banners and lightsticks all over the place; earlier in the day I got handed a cute banner to celebrate Chen's birthday, which I then promptly used to test proteinscollide's knowledge of Exo band names. (She improved greatly through the evening!)

First group up were rookie boyband SF9 - I've enjoyed their songs and MVs without knowing much about them. This rapidfire 3 song performance made me more of a fan! They just hit all their beats really well, both in terms of performance and in their brief introduction ment, advantaged by one member who was a fluent English speaker. Their line distribution is kind of weird - there's maybe three members who dominate the vocals and the dancing, especially Taeyang who I kept thinking of as "that one guy who looks like Shinee's Jonghyun" - but not enough to detract overall. I have no favourite but maybe my favourite is the rapper with currently red hair who reminds me of SVT Jeonghan and Pentagon's E'Dawn.

Something like K-Con is the perfect platform for a rookie group to get this kind of exposure. My own first exposure to kpop (aka the reason for my eternal downfall) was winning free tickets to a Boyfriend & JJCC show - I knew nothing about them, knew next to nothing about kpop, and JJCC were a hot mess sorry - but seeing the groups in person and live was enough to make me want to know so much more. I feel like this SF9 set functioned in much the same way. It was SO much more impactful than just an MV or a youtube clip or a gifset. This is how fans are made! (That said… I'll get to it, but SF9 got two bites at the cherry. Why?)

Next up were Pentagon and their brief set was great. Their songs are such bangers - I SAID BANGERS, DON'T AT ME - and they were really polished and powerful. Kino's opening dance solo was super charismatic, and E'Dawn (aka the only one I can consistently recognise) was working that jawline of his so well, lol. He does the bad boy thing very well! I admire it! For their ment, they played the "Pinata" game as seen at other K-Cons this year, i.e. a random game was selected. (Would the game be 'Propose'? It was not propose, but one member did get down on one knee to E'Dawn anyway, good job good fanservice.) In this case it was a random dance play, and it was very amusing and silly.

Probably my favourite thing about Pengaton is how far and fast proteinscollide has fallen for them. Can you believe at this time last year she didn't even know all the MX member names? Now the student has exceeded the master! Post your Pentagon post bro!

Sehun and Suho came back to introduce a special stage: Exo's Chanyeol in duet with WJSN's Seola, for his OST track Stay with Me. This was a nice, pretty interlude and a bit of a breather after the fast pacing of the first two sets.

Seola (WJSN)

Third rookie group Victon bopped cutely to a very Australian-themed video backdrop and they were very entertaining, without necessarily making me want to seek them out further. I think that's more to do with their concept being more cute than Pentagon and SF9's, so less appealing to me on those grounds. But they have their charms and most importantly one had a mullet! I'm HERE for the mullets, don't even think I'm joking.

Next up were Girl's Day. They're down to 4 members now but their experience and their casual confidence made them so enjoyable to watch. They played their hits including Something, Expectation and Ring My Bell with such a sense of fun and sexiness, dominating the stage and playing to the crowd with the relaxed ease of vets who have nothing to prove. There was a hunger to the rookies that gave them more edge but sometimes you just wanna watch really talented ppl relaxedly doing their very talented thing.

With everyone acutely aware there was only one act left to take the stage, a couple of SF9s came out to MC a special stage. They did the usual "how are you guys enjoying the show" and "we love Australia" and all that jazz, and then made the fatal mistake of asking an open-ended question:

SF9 MCs: so who is Australia's favourite boy group? Crowd: BTS!!! MCs: Yes, Exo!!! #awkward

I lol'd! I am sorry! Bless you Exo but c'mon!

This was followed by a brief VCR of Australian fans naming their favourite boybands, and then a really fun special stage of boyband covers:  Pentagon covered GOT7's Hard Carry;  SF9 covered Exo's Monster; and Victon did BTS's Fire.

At last it was time for EXO - MUCH CHEERING FROM CROWD!  Exo-Ls were out in force. There were also tons of lightsticks in the crowd and everyone was hyyyyped.

Now some context for my reaction: I can name all the Exo's and I like some of their songs, but I don't quite click with their aesthetic/dynamic in the way that I do with BTS, etc. They were also at something of a disadvantage, with D.O absent from the line-up (I had to count them twice to make sure sob) and Lay MIA from this entire comeback (though I guess that's no longer surprising).

So let that be the background for me saying that I was totally entertained and impressed by their set. Starting with Power and ending with Ko Ko Bop, they came out and gave a great show. They are after all professionally charming and who was I to resist?

For me again it's that idea of a live show being so much more powerful than a video, even for something as preplanned and artificially constructed as pop. A concert is such a powerful reminder that it's more than the performer, and it's more than the audience too - it's about the relationship between the two, that alchemy of atmosphere and act that you only get in that specific environment.

Yes, Kai was deadly with his fucking winks and seductive looks (how dare you sir), but the way the audience reacted to his performance is what made the show go off. Xiumin aka Cat Pirate was also a scene stealer for me, and it was very darling when Chanyeol threw confetti at his head at the end awwww.

(I just wish, like, SM were less SM-y. I got a message from proteinscollide after the show - "Girl walking thru car park: shout out to SM who never give reasons for why members aren't there and if they're ok". Um, yep. I had to check on twitter to find out that D.O was off filming a movie.)

Ending stage was as usual with everyone coming out as tons of confetti rained down. I think a SF9 hugged a Victon? AWWW FRIENDS. A good night.

Night 2

We started again with dance cover groups - colour me EXTREMELY impressed by IME Dance Studio - and Kevin from U-KISS giving away a prize to whoever in the crowd did their best impression of their favourite thing to do in a hotel room. This led to a really hilarious scenario as the cameras zoomed in on 2 girls "dancing" together. "Yes, they're dancing!" Kevin said, "of course they're dancing!" Everyone just cracked the fuck up, Kevin included. They got the prize, bless them, which was - ofc - a free hotel stay!

The show started with the same VCR as the day before and then I was EMOTIONALLY DESTROYED by Monsta X's Jooheon and Shownu taking the stage together to drop an absolutely fire performance. Jooheon's duality is amazing - cuddly scaredy-cat off stage, fucking monster on stage - he was SO GOOD. Shownu's dance break was great as expected and I cried tears in my heart bc I love them.

SF9 returned for the second evening - again, they were slick and impressive, and they namedropped kangaroos and meat pies in their intro ment, good work on ticking off those keywords lol. But I really don't know why they got sets on both days? Did FNC decide they really wanted to build that fanbase and made the necessary commercial arrangement with the promotors? Like I said, stages like this can be real turning points in making a fan. So that's fascinating. If anyone knows, lemme know?

Daehwi (Wanna One)

Three Wanna Ones then took the stage to briefly MC. It was definitely Kang Daniel and uh, two other Wanna Ones! *hastily googles* It was Daehwi, who was the most fluent in English and was super cute & cheesy, and Minhyun, who was also cute but I don't remember much? Sorry team. The only Broduce bro I can 100% identify is Daniel, and sometimes Jaewhan. But! I think I'll remember Daehwi from now on - he was pretty memorable and did the most heavy lifting in the ments. Anyway they delivered some potted intros and then on to the next one.

WJSN then performed a special stage, covering two Kylie Minogue songs as two subunits - Locomotion (which I note came out in 1988, older than every single K-Con performer except for Sojin of Girl's Day) and I Can't Get You Out Of My Head (2001 - there are rookies debuting born in 2001! And younger! God i'm so old). Firstly much love for preparing a special stage with local appeal that didn't feel pandering and really spoke to the long history of amazing women in pop, and secondly THEY WERE SO GOOD. Fun, bright, poppy - I love them.

They were followed by Up10tion who did a high energy set and I remember why I liked them! They're good! I don't quite click with all their songs, especially their more recent ones which I feel are a bit hit and miss, but just like every other group in this K-Con they delivered their set with professionalism and skill and charm.

There was then a brief interlude with MX's Kihyun and I.M, MY TWO LOVES, MCing an audience dance game. We got to see Kihyun doing the Twice TT dance and my world was made. Gosh I love them.

WJSN

WJSN then came back for their set and I just really like them so much. They have that sleekness that I've come to associate with Starship because of them and MX, with both groups always having good choreo and catchy hooks. I like their concept a lot too - they're cute sassy cheerleaders, yes, but I also feel like there's this very cool edge to them, they could easily cut you! I love that! As they acknowledged in their ment, 2 members couldn't make it due to filming schedules (I think it was Cheng Xiao, the dancey/gymnastic one? And Mei Qi, possibly? I'm sorry, I don't remember) but they were still very good and I enjoyed their set a lot. And their main rapper - god, I'm sorry, I don't know if it was Bona or another member - she was SO GOOD? She had so much stage presence. Gosh. I need to find out her name.

Next up were Wanna One. Now, ofc, Produce 101 never officially aired in Australia. We had to watch it on the internet like a bunch of animals. And yet out of all the groups on both days, their fans were definitely the most intense and the most scream-y - yes, more intense than the Exo-Ls and the Monbebes!

I only ever saw snippets of P101 and as I said I can only ID Daniel with certainty, but I was, hmm, not surprised I guess that they turned out to be endearing? CAN U IMAGINE, a group of young men voted for according to their charms turns out to be extremely charming?! The shock!  (From a purely commercial standpoint, what a brilliant exercise this has turned out to be. I think the limited timeframe for Wanna One to make bank lends an edge of urgency to their fandom and means their machine is also geared to maximum efficiency. Make! Bank! Now!) And because they're young and new, there was a certain edge of rawness and spontaneity to them which is naturally part of their appeal too. I still don't quite know what I feel about Kang Daniel - like I know he's very fond of cats and therefore a good person, and he has this easy, cocky stage charisma which makes his appeal seem very straightforward. But I think I found him most endearing when he missed a step at the end of his dance solo and there was just the cutest expression on his face, like "my bad."

For their Pinata game, they did photo time with hyung line posing "cutely" and maknae line posing "sexily" followed by some kind of free for all - A HOT MESS, lol.

Daehwi also went off script - or at least, he said he went off script, but can you ever really know? We need to go deeper! - and wished happy birthday to Kuanlin, getting the whole audience to sing along too, awww. As I said: what a group of charming young men; the self-awareness that they were constructed to charm ultimately means nothing.

FINALLY MONSTA X. They're, like, my second favourite group after BTS so I think I would've been just fine if they'd shown up and waved at us and sang like a song or two. But they didn't! They were really, really good. As headliners they had a signficant chunk of time and I think I was smiling from start to end, non stop.

They've turned into such good performers - with something similar to that same easy confidence that Girl's Day and Exo had - and I felt like they really did the most, on the second night, with connecting to the audience. Their performances were all on point, and everyone of them looked and sounded great but Jooheon especially killed me with swag and Wonho's collar & cleavage can fuck right off, ISTG. It just made me so happy to see them doing these songs and choreo I love so much - Shine Forever and Beautiful and Fighter - and they ended with Hero, my very first MX song, which was amazing. (I am a little sad they skipped All In but ok I can live with it.)

For their ment, they played the proposal game, with three members doing their very best fanservice lol. A very happy woman in the standing area got to be audience surrogate as I.M laid on cheesy lines (something about angels and heaven, IDK, why is he like this and why do I love him so much), Kihyun sang a ballad to her (next to me proteinscollide died a death), and Wonho came down to the barrier to to give her a heart, selfie & cheek kiss. It was so! Cheesy! And Wonderful! #the selfawareness does nothing

Everyone then came out for the goodbye, though MX were the only ones who felt relaxed enough it seems to actually get silly with the confetti and do some more spontaneous bows & waves to the crowd. By comparison to every other group on the 2nd night, they must be the old hands at K-Con by now - they've done SO many. Gosh I hope they come back to Australia for a full show. I love them so much.

Fuck, I'm now at 3300 words so let's wrap this up quick:

Unlike other K-Cons which seem to have a proper programming and convention stream, the "convention" part of this was really a disappointment. Minimal programming, minimal stalls (less than 10 vendors), all in one room. It was free entry which is fine I guess except that people were queuing up forever to get inside due to the limited capacity and it was H O T (over 30 C each day) out there. In the end I queued for an hour, and spent about 15 minutes inside. It was really not worth it. Luckily proteinscollide & I had options and just went away for a few hours to pass the time before the show, but I imagine there were a lot of kids left hanging around Olympic Park all day with nothing to do.

The shows didn't sell out. What does this mean? Possible thoughts:

-It was really expensive and the audience skews young. Like, the premium tickets were REALLY REALLY expensive and good tix were expensive. I could afford decent tix, but if I were in my teens? No way. I'd have had to ask my parents for it.

-Sydney has had a run of shows including an Australian-exclusive BTS show. If you're interstate and you already spent $$$ going to BTS, or for that matter $$$ to go G-Dragon in your own state, how much money do you have left over for concerts in this year? There is a limited capacity for this audience to keep spending. Promoters should be careful not to spread us too thin. Put more shows on in Melbourne! (Though I don't know - are there more Koreans and east Asians in Sydney? I suspect there are. The audience, again, skews heavily to those of us who are Asian-Australian.)

-Exo, MX, and Wanna One are very popular but don't have the same mainstream reach in Australia as BTS. BTS also had the advantage again of being earlier in the year, only the 2nd major kpop tour in the year I believe. Since then there's been other kpop and khip-hop shows for people to spend their money on. I really thought Exo would give BTS a run tho, given how well their latest album performed on Australian iTunes charts.

...that was not a quick wrap-up.

TO CONCLUDE: I HAD A GOOD TIME, THANK U FOR READING.

[italian-landscapes]

 A while back, I commented a post about the Nazi German Holocaust (so-called murderer of many people in their Lagers or concentration camps, above all Jewish people during the Nazi era, 1933-1945).

Long story short, this is the link to the original post, and below my “debate” with @uwdude, who I can’t tag for some reason I don’t know and it doesn’t interest me much right now.

I suggest @uwdude to go back and revise a little history, the Real One, though, not that one publicised by a certain political extreme-right part to promote only a part of the history, that one that (but guess what...), can justify the Nazism and its atrocities.

For example, it seems extremely reckless to me comparing Allies with Nazists: of course the Allies killed a lot of people, but only as a response of German invasion of Poland in 1939 and not to “save” the Jews, whose events in Germany and abroad little or nothing was known at the time.

And, in any case, with deniers’ logic, if someone kidnaps, enslaves, starves, let to die of starvation and diseases from #300,000 to #500,000 people (see what the same writer says at point #36 of this post topic), Questions and Answers about the Holocaust). What did the free countries had to do, if not help them and every European conquered and submitted people? Exactly like every good citizen would call the police, if he sees a person committing a crime.

And, like I already said and I would rather not repeat once again, the Nazi German didn’t persecute only Jews, but also Slavic, Gypsy, homosexuals, political opponents and everyone who wasn’t just a “good and perfect exponent of the superior Aryan race” of the new Third Reich. Also, the Nazis euthanized most of German persons with psychiatric disorders, incurable patients, children with disabilities and all they considered untermensch (sub-human people), during the so-called Aktion T4 program.

And, to make it quite clear about the Jewish, Polish and Slavonic peoples, better to remind some dates and quotes, all facts happened well before the beginning of the second world war (1939); here are some examples of pre-war Nazi laws against Jewish people:

National Socialist Program, aka 25-point Plant of 24 February 1920 and, particularly, point #4:

Only a member of the race can be a citizen

A member of the race can only be one who is of German blood, without consideration of creed

Consequently, no Jew can be a member of the race

Adolf Hitler was appointed as chancellor of Germany on 30 January 1933

April 1933, law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service

April 1933, law Concerning Admission to the Legal Profession

April 1933, Law Against the Overcrowding of German Schools

July 1933, Citizenship and Denaturalization Law 

September 1933, Hereditary Farm Law 

September 1933, Establishment of the Chambers of Culture 

September 1935, Nuremberg Laws

among them the Reich Gypsy Laws (see also the anti-Gypsy racial policy)

January 1936: An Executive Order on the Reich Tax Law forbade Jews from being tax consultants

April 1936: The Jewish people were banned from the veterinary profession by the Reich Veterinarians Law

October 1936: The Reich Ministry of Education banned Jewish teachers from teaching in public schools

April 1937: The mayor of Berlin ordered public schools not to allow Jewish students to attend until further notice

anti-semitic laws 1938/1939

Generalplan Ost (General Plan for the East Territories), for the German colonization of Russia and elimination and enslavement of Slavic people)

Occupation of West (and East, after 1941) Poland

German mistreatment of Soviet POWs

I also suggest to the deniers to talk with some of the very last nazi camps’ survivors or Allies liberators, or to read their memories or also to watch some of the clips on this topic you can easily find on the web, On the other hand, the 66 questions and answers about the holocaust, we’re talking about haven’t a single shred of evidence to support them. From my point of view, no-contest with evidences vs. nothing,

Ah, I almost forgot: to avoid any infamous and totally inappropriate misunderstanding, I’m not a Jew, even if this it’s totally not about what above, but just to shut neo-nazis and deniers up with their same, boring topics, for instance “you talk like that only in defense and justification of your race”.

If anyone wanted to comment in any way, he/she will always be welcomed, but only with data and facts, accompanied by documentary evidences. On the contrary, any insult and senseless claptrap will not be considered.

To conclude, have a look at these two clips, the first one with Generals Eisenhower, Bradley and Patton (three notorious Communists, as everyone knows very well..., among them the last one, just the one who wanted to go on with the war, but this time against the Red Army) visiting a Nazi camp, and the second one on Aktion T4 program:

P.s.: I’ve just had a look at uwdude’s blog; he definitely doesn’t have a clue what he was in for, if he lived in Nazi Germany.

As an homosexual, he was surely interned in a camp, and long before the Jews who he hates so much, because the convictions for such a sexual behavior, not conform to the "German norm.", began since the same 1933, at the very beginning of Nazi government.

The 175 paragraph of the German penal code, in force since 1871 ("An unnatural sex act committed between persons of male sex or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights might also be imposed"), were amended by Nazis in “A male who commits a sex offense with another male or by humans with animals is punishable by imprisonment; the loss of civil rights might also be imposed", making possible the persecution of every same-sex act, even if it were just the possession of gay sex photos or the mere exchange of love letters between gay men.

And, imprisoned in a concentration camp, with his striped tunic and a pink triangle to show the reason of his sentence, uwdude would suffered a harsh and unusually cruel treatment, because homosexuals were considered to be the lowest of the low in the concentration camp hierarchy.

And, likely, he would never leave the camp alive: some 50,000 homosexuals were officially sentenced in total. Most of these men served time in regular prisons, and an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 of those sentenced were incarcerated in Nazi concentration camps. It is unclear how many of the 5,000 to 15,000 would die in the camps, because the death rate of homosexuals in concentration camps may have been as high as 60%.

Just a very last thing: before reblogging posts like the following, better think very well about what would've happened to him if he was interned in a Nazi concentration camp. This isn’t a joking matter.

Better for uwdude to know these facts, before supporting those which would have been his own persecutors.

[seychermanium]

Its 3:49 AM here and I thought: Linden Films obviously commited tons of failures when they had their hands on Arslan Senki, starting with the inconsistent, choppy animation, sometimes ugly color palettes and hideus CGI (and they even made this CGI the style of the videogame... Because it looks like anime). But they also decided to make the anime follow its way, killing what was a adaptation of Arakawa's adaptation of the story. The anime indeed starts quite slowly, even I had problems watching it, but once episode 4 arrived everything became interesting, honestly. Beyond the fact that this one is one of my favorite S1 episodes for obvious reasons, more than 2 Main characters was refreshing, and it felt like the story was actually beginning in that point. We had the prince of the kingdom that fell in the hands of the enemy, the most powerful former-Marzban in Pars, the FE avat—overly intelligent strategyst and his "slave", who is able to defend himself with a bow and a sword. How they tried to spy un Ecbatana was one of the most interesting things of the series, as it shown how far a fanatic-religious cult can destroy someone who doesn't share their religion back then (or sort of). Plus, I admit I want to know how the idea of dressing Elam as a girl came from and where the clothes and wig came from as well... But the second half was obviously taken from the novels, probably to save time or solve the problem with the pacing. But the biggest mistake was to make it a 25-episode long series, when a story like The Heroic Legend of Arslan needs way more time to develop. Indeed, the pacing is slow, but its mostly because the cast is amazingly gigantic and all the information we can have about the most important characters from another kingdoms will connect to either Arslan's past or present, or even future. Or even Pars' past, present and/or future. Each character does have a backstory, something to do in the story, a reason to help Arslan beyond the fact that he's the crown prince, but in 25 episodes we can't explore all of the content that Arslan Senki has to offer. It deserved to be a long-running anime, with stunning animation, amazing merch (most of the merch looks like it was designed by Narsus himself, Holy God its hideus), and more effort. I mean, the first season indeed was ambitious, respected the story as much as they could, openings and endings used still images, yet they looked beautiful; the OST was as epic as it gets and they indeed shared philosophical meaningful quotes and questions for the audience and other characters here and there, mostly through Arslan, Narsus and Gieve. But then season 2 came out and all that effort went to the trashcan. Fuujin Ranbu was horrible. 8 episodes of almost nothing, a bland OST compared to S1's OST, uglier animation and almost none character development. In 8 episodes, you can't do much if the story is as large as Arslan's, so this season was completely useless, as the Main story focused on how a badly-written Narsus fought against a betrayal. Shaghad had an amazing physical design, but he was so dumb it literally hurts. His plan yo kill Narsus was stupid as hell, and I honestly don't know if this is how Shaghad was written in the novels, but God I hated him. The ending of his fight with Narsus was also bad, as Narsus won just because Azrael came. It wasn't a fair win, honestly. And hell... A year of slave isn't enough for someone who wanted to kill one of your Friends. The side-story in Ecbatana was way more interesting than the Main story in Guilan. But I get why people dislike the anime. It doesn't have the best presentation, the first episodes are slow, and the Main character looks too cute to be true. It is also labeled as a shonen anime, which makes people believe its an action show, which its not really the case. Even if the series has amazing fighting scenes, its more focused on Pars' politics, moral themes, religious conflict and how Arslan is reaching matureness, how he wants to rule his kingdom. Also the character designs are a let down for people who doesn't even want to try to watch it. Arslan, Farangies and Narsus (how many problems does Narsus have with Linden Films' adaptation and everyone else!?) are heavily criticized by how they look. And here are my thoughts on that: >I think Arakawa designed Arslan as a fragile boy because of his personality. He's sensitive, fragile, innocent, full of questions and really really kind. He's a character that can be easily damaged, this is why Daryun is so overprotective towards him. But as the story goes on, we can see Arslan develop as a character, and as person. We all know the painter is his main guide with moral issues, such as freeing the slaves and how he should bring peace to Pars in general; the more personal problems are discussed with Daryun, when, for instance, he asked him if he is *SPOILER* the right King for Pars even if he's not the corresponding one *SPOILER*, and we slowly ser him approaching a personal view on things, and basically trying to become an adult and do things right; so, if Arakawa reaches the point where he becomes King, his design may also be more mature and manly. >Not just because Narsus looks like a pretty voy it means that's his whole character; someone would expect him to be the one with the fangirls, but Daryun is the ovary-destroyer in the gang. Not just because he's blonde, has purple-ish eyes, he's pale and has this sassy-ish calm voice (Namikawa Daisuke's work, not Chris Bevins'), it means he's just that: A pretty boy. His apparence didn't betrayed his character: He's still a wise, intelligent, smart, analytical character with his weakness on making and appreciating art; he's still a good person who wants to abolish slavery, who traits Elam like a "son" instead of his slave (yet he does most of what he should be able to do by himself) and has devotion to Denka and a bromance relationship with Daryun. I'm a fangirl of Narsus, and I can Tell you, I don't mind the design, the fact that he's intelligent, a good person and a -flawed- artist is what I love about him, not just his looks. >People say Farangies' clothed may kill her in battle, which is true. But also, Arslan and Daryun are the only ones who wear armor throughout the whole anime (without counting Étoile because they're not part of Team Arslan per se), following this logic, the painter, Elam, Alfarid, Jaswant and Gieve may also get killed. Yes, she's a Priestess, but this isn't the first time we see a Priestess in reveling clothes: Sophitia Alexandra is an example. She's supposed to be timid, and is a Priestess of Hephestus, yet in Soulcalibur IV she has a semi-transparent white skimpy dress. Also people say that this version of Farangies is "the worst" because she has reveling clothes, but having reveling clothes doesn't make her less beautiful, as well as having tons of clothing doesn't make a girl way more beautiful. Farangies has lovely mature facial features, and she's a lovely person too, serving as an elder sister for Alfarid and actually talking to her and clarifying her idea of what "being loved" is (most likely to attract Narsus, but we all know that will may not happen, they may be just "Friends" of some sort). So, again, appearence doesn't always mean character. Arslan Senki is a pretty average show, indeed. But its not bad at all. S1 tried to put something fresh in the table, and even if it isn't as well-known in the West, I can see why people can't really enjoy it as much as I or another people here did. I appreciate the story, the characters, the setting,the music, the messages... Arslan Senki is as beautiful as it gets. I personally see the phase of leaving teenager years and reaching matureness the most beautiful thing un life, as you can go back and either laugh or cringe at the things you did when you were younger. This phase being portrayed in the skin of a lovely MC as Arslan is one of the things that make the series si beautiful to me. Yet, Linden Films didn't did a good job on this, its worth checking both, anime and manga. People nowadays seem to be attracted to the generic, OP badass edgy protagonist with a beautiful woman behind him, this is why Arslan doesn't fit in today's standards. Also, its worth nothing that the story has existed since 1986, almost 31 years ago. So, Arslan used to be original, yet today we've seen most of the things Arslan has already, this may also make people think that this is a mish-mash of different ideas, but it isn't.

[happiestplaceonearth-rp]

Hey Paige! I’m so happy to accept you for both the roles of Travis Montgomery and Lucian Besst! Please create and send in your account within twenty four hours. Thank you! 

Desired character: Travis Montgomery

Age/Sexuality of character: 20 / Bisexual

Why do you want this character?:

Okay I mean first of all, I love Lady and the Tramp. For me, it’s right up there with the Lion King on my list of Disney faves and I mean c'mon, he’s the Tramp (and they love him, breaks a new heart every day). There’s a lot for me to develop when it comes to Travis’ past and how that has shaped the person he is today. What’s more is that I’m really excited to delve into his life now and how having a family has changed him, helped him and made him want to be a better person and make them proud of him. He is also 100% the Mom Friend pretending he’s the cool Vodka Aunt. I feel like he’s always quick to look after others, to bring them under his wing and do whatever he can for them. He’s one of those people who would put his everything into helping a stranger without a second thought. He’s got a really big heart. I imagine that he acts like he’s Too Cool For School but is actually a giant nerd who is just so grateful for all that he has and despite talking a big game definitely gets flustered and blushes and makes a fool of himself often. Reading his bio I already have headcanons forming for him. But, naturally, I just hope to do his character justice!

Second character you’d like if you don’t get this one: Angelina Skye

Major/Minor: Law / Political Science

A song that you feel explains your character and why:

He’s a tramp — Lady and the Trap OST. Does this even warrant explanation? What a dog.

Anything else?:

Just a cheeky wee aesthetic ;*

Desired character: Lucian Besst

Age/Sexuality of character: Forty-Five / Heterosexual

Why do you want this character? Four words: Where’s My Super Suit? And the fact that he’s so cool, he’s ice cold. Plus how hella smart is he meteorology is no joke.

Second character you’d like if you don’t get this one: Heather Truax Paget my queen!!

Major/Minor: He teaches Meteorology here at the Happiest Place on Earth.

A song that you feel explains your character and why:

Let it Go, Frozen Soundtrack Kidding but try and tell me that Lucian doesn’t make puns all the time about ice and other such weather-related things. I’m also super tempted to be like in West Philadelphia born and raised…

“Stuck in the Middle” — Stealers Wheel. I’m really stuck on the “cleans to the left of me, jokers to the right” part because he is the Voice of Reason when it comes to getting dragged into unfortunate situations but there he is anyways so if that’s not a summary…

Anything else?:

Another cheeky wee aesthetic ;**

[olgagarmash]

Most local health officials don’t accept their jobs expecting to be roped into political activism.

Amid Covid-19, though, politics became a central element of health experts’ job descriptions. In Washington, government researcher Anthony Fauci publicly feuded with former President Trump. In many cities and states, local health departments were forced to square off against governors who resisted coronavirus mitigation strategies like business closures or mask mandates.

The series of squabbles has raised the question of whether, to be effective, local health officials need to add politics to their list of day-to-day responsibilities. And while the fights have been most pronounced amid the pandemic, they’ve even cropped up in states otherwise lauded for their coronavirus response, like West Virginia.

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There, the dynamic has played out in the context of a worst-in-the-nation HIV outbreak linked to injection drug use. This month, as local officials scrambled to prevent further spread, the state legislature all but banned one of their most effective tools for doing so: syringe exchanges that distribute sterile needles to people whose drug use places them at high risk of infection.

“Working seven days a week on things that are outside our area of expertise, the political backlash against popular strategies — it has taken its toll nationwide on our public health workforce,” said Michael Kilkenny, the CEO of the Cabell-Huntington Health Department in West Virginia, which serves the hard-hit city of Huntington. “It is frustrating, and we see what the consequences are.”

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Willingly or not, local health officials’ involvement in local West Virginia politics has been slowly escalating since 2018, when Charleston, the state’s largest city, closed its only city-run needle exchange.

This month, several local officials vocally opposed a controversial bill aimed at tightly regulating syringe-exchange programs, but the state Senate eventually approved it on a 27-7 vote.

The new requirements make things harder for the people trying to access the services and those trying to provide them. They require that programs tag syringes with individualized bar codes, and that recipients present a photo ID and receive new syringes at a 1:1 ratio to old ones they bring back, a requirement that flies directly in the face of federal recommendations.

“We now have a state law that makes it illegal to run a program based on CDC best practices,” said Robin Pollini, an epidemiology professor at West Virginia University.

HIV-prevention advocates say the move comes at the worst possible time. The state’s HIV case count, proportional to its population, is already among the worst nationally. Kanawha County, which is the state’s largest at 180,000 residents, recorded roughly as many HIV cases in 2019 as all of New York City, where 8 million people live. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the known HIV cases in West Virginia could represent the “tip of the iceberg” of a much larger crisis.

Syringe exchanges have long been demonstrated to be effective tools used to prevent people who use drugs from sharing needles and, in the process, spreading diseases like HIV or hepatitis C.

Local health officials aren’t just going up against their political superiors. Often, they’ve clashed with the very communities they serve. West Virginia residents, for example, have also gone head-to-head with health officials to oppose the syringe exchange, alleging that it increases drug use in their neighborhoods or puts people at risk of stepping on a stray needle.

It mirrors a broader national theme: Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, governors in Republican-controlled states like Texas and Arizona have sought to ban local governments from imposing disease-prevention measures like mask mandates or school closures.

In many cases, the pushback has forced local health officials to decide between honoring the desires of the community they serve, or following the science and advocating directly against their own constituents and the mayors or county leaders they work for.

Even those who push back are often fighting a losing battle. Raw emotion will always win out against data-driven arguments presented by a government official, said Kilkenny, the Cabell County health executive.

“If you are scared to death, you’re not analyzing what’s going on,” he said. “You are running or you’re fighting. While you’re running or you’re fighting, you’re not thinking.”

Amid the backlash, local health leaders say they often have little recourse, even when they’re aware that the public’s desires conflict directly with their mission of preventing illness and saving lives.

“The implications are tough, because oftentimes local health officials are either hired by or supervised by county executives or mayors,” said Oscar Alleyne, the chief of programs for the National Association of County and City Health Officials. “They have to navigate those eggshells while at the same time clearly articulating what works.”

In critics’ eyes, however, walking on eggshells isn’t enough. In the face of a health emergency, Pollini argued that working to change the political landscape is an essential part of a public health official’s job — especially if local politics are keeping them from addressing a crisis.

“If you understand the science and you’re a public health person, you have to make an effort to turn public opinion,” she said.

In West Virginia, some local officials have attempted to land somewhere in between.

Kilkenny highlighted his testimony before a state Senate committee, which he said may have helped to water down the legislation, allowing syringe exchanges to continue in limited form. An earlier version of the bill would have outlawed the exchanges entirely.

“We educated [lawmakers] that we need this tool,” he said. “It was not successful in changing the outcome. But it possibly mitigated what would have been completely devastating legislation and made it only very very challenging.”

Sherri Young, who leads the Kanawha-Charleston Health Department and serves the state’s largest county, said that appropriately weighing science against community discomfort is often impossible. Her county has not operated a syringe exchange since 2018. Two local nonprofit groups have offered limited services since, the larger of which may be forced to close in light of the new law.

“I don’t know that the right balance has been struck,” Young said. “The ideal situation, if I could design anything, is one that the public would be comfortable with, but does work for prevention of HIV.”

She also defended the department’s work, saying it has worked to combat the HIV crisis via testing and aggressive outreach to vulnerable populations, especially in anticipation of controversy surrounding syringe exchange programs.

“We knew, because it was going to be a political issue, how to prepare for it moving forward,” she said.

Pollini, however, was direct in her criticism. Young, she said, didn’t fight hard enough to preserve evidence-based strategies like syringe exchange programs.

“We will continue to have people infected with a completely preventable disease,” she said, “because no one is standing up and saying: Hey, let me have a conversation with you about these programs and why they’re so important to our community.”

via Wealth Health